My studying was slow following last night. I got through a couple more letters in the alphabet. I kept getting distracted.

Why did she tell me?

The question had been lingering in my head all day. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with the information I’d been given. I left the main library and went back to my room. I should have gotten some lunch, but food was the last thing on my mind.
I sat down at my desk and started shuffling through my notes. I had made note of every mention of Celestia’s and Luna’s coronation. I had found everything I could about Starswirl in the early years. I guess I could have tried to contact him myself, but doubted he would betray the princesses’ trust like that. No. I’d have to figure out as much as I could before trying to ask Celestia anything else. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable.
I looked down at my notes, shuffling the pages as I looked at the passages I’d written.

Celestia reigned over the sun. It was this power that made her cutie mark appear. The same occurred with Luna and her power over the moon. Their cutie marks revealed their destiny to take over the duties of day and night.

I pulled another page forward.

Starswirl the Bearded was the foremost of the Unicorns. When he greatest unicorns could no longer raise the sun, it was to him the responsibility of the sun and moon came to.

The magic he must have held to control both of the heavenly spheres! But he had passed those duties to Celestia and Luna. It made sense. But there was still something I was missing. I pulled another page.

The three kingdoms were coming to an end of a peaceful time. Tensions began to return. But in this beginning turmoil, Starswirl the Bearded made the most important discovery in the history of Equestria; the alicorns.

Misleading, but not entirely inaccurate. So...Starswirl had created the ascension spell. But the text read as if he had found the species.. Could he have cast the ascension before and then revealed the sisters?
I flipped through a few more pages. That was it. Starswirl commands the skies, discovers the alicorns, and the alicorns become the rulers of Equestria and guardians of the sky. There was nothing in between. Or before. Plenty after their coronation, but the rest of the history was..missing. Had Starswirl or the princesses removed this information? No. That couldn’t be it. These authors all had the same information so...they weren’t told the true history! Of course! The events must have been retold to everypony, omitting certain details, and had been universally accepted. But why?
The ascension spell made sense. That sort of magic was created for a select few and couldn’t be public knowledge. But to hide Celestia’s and Luna’s original identities?

“Shade?”

I was pulled back to reality and turned to my door. It was Celestia

“Good morning. I’m surprised to see you so early. No meetings?”

“I don’t have anything until 9. I thought I’d come and see you.”

She approached my desk. Her eyes briefly glanced over the papers before settling on me.

“I told you there wouldn’t be much.”

“Starswirl covered his tracks well.”

“How do you know it wasn’t me?”

“As far as I can tell, there’s been secrets since the very beginning. You and Luna were too young to come up with something like this on your own. But you were old enough to see the wisdom in his plan.”

“Impressive deductions.”

“I don’t expect you to tell me anything else. If anything it’s Starswirl I should be badgering. But from everything I’ve read about him, he’s probably a tough walnut to crack.”

“You don’t even know the half of it.”

“How old is he? If I had to guess, Starswirl must be at least 200 years old.”

“He would be appalled at your answer. He’s a youthful 154.”

“So he adapted the ascension spells?”

“One of the spells is specifically for immortality.”

Incredible.

“Can I ask you something?”

“You may.”

“Why are you telling me so much? I thought you were against sharing secrets so soon.”

She sighed and paced towards one of the windows overlooking the gardens.

“I would have been better about it if you hadn’t caught me off guard last night. And now..there’s no point in hiding so much. I can already see that it will be impossible to hide everything from you. But that doesn’t mean I’ll answer every question.”

That was fair. There were things that could never be known. And I had no right to them. Celestia turned back to me and smiled.

“You have a marvelous intellect that is rivaled by few Shade. I knew I’d made a good choice in bringing you here.”

“To discover your secrets?”

She laughed.

“No. To expand your potential. And to make amends for..everything.”

“I already accepted your apology Celestia. There must be something else.”

“Perhaps it’s nice to have somepony around the castle that understands what it is we deal with daily.”

“I’ve got a few more letters to cover before I’m caught up on current events.”

“But when you’re ready, Luna and I will rely on you to tell us the truth.”

“The truth?”

“Nopony is immune to lying. I just wish that less of them did it to my face. I need somepony who I can trust without question. As of now, that’s Luna, Cadance, and Twilight. But they have their own duties.”

I couldn’t believe this!

“That’s why I did it.”

“Did what?”

She came closer and leaned down to my ear.

“Told you my name Shade. It’s your first duty as my closest advisor to safeguard that secret for the rest of your life. And if I should ever hear it uttered except in the presence of myself or my sister-”

I pulled my head away and looked at her. Was she threatening me?! But as I looked at her, tears were forming in the corners of her eyes. As the first one began to fall, I reached up and wiped it away.

“I promise to be worthy of your trust. You need never fear that I will betray you. This duty you’ve given me is the greatest gift I’ve ever received, besides one.”

“And what is that? What could be greater?”

“The friendship that comes with sharing that secret. A friendship that I’m hoping will last a lifetime.”

The tears rolled down her cheeks and she embraced me. I returned the hug gladly. We stayed like that for several seconds. As she pulled away, my eyes connected with the clock on the wall.

“I don’t mean to ruin the moment, but your first meeting starts in ten minutes.”

Her head spun to the clock.

“Oh my! I didn’t realize!”

She ran to the door, pausing before she disappeared.

“Thank you Shade. For everything.”

With that she was gone.

________________________

I no longer dwelt on my unanswerable questions. They would come with time. I decided to resume my reading and found I had a new energy about me. I flew through the rest of the alphabet, consumed every newspaper article that had ever been published, and dove into every textbook imaginable until my thoughts were made of pages.
I felt a slight headache come on as I finished Pegasi: The Art of Preening. I needed food. And a nap.
I left the library and made my way to the kitchen. Butter Whisk smiled at my entrance.

“And how is the bookworm doing today?”

“Very well actually! I’m almost through the library.”

“Didn’t you just start on it the other day?”

“My talent has gone into overdrive trying to get all the information in the world. It’s been an intense few days.”

“I can only imagine. I can barely make it through one book in a month.”

He slid a sandwich in front of me and I attacked it. As I was chewing, Butter brought some fries and water. I inhaled those as well. He couldn’t help but laugh at me.

“You haven’t eaten today, have you?”

A sheepish grin crossed my face.

“I might have been hitting the books too hard.”

He slid a second sandwich my way.

_________________________

I fell into bed after having drawn the curtains. Darkness enveloped the room and I sighed contently. I’d eaten far too much, but I didn’t care. Seven sandwiches and three sides of fries rested in my belly now. I closed my eyes and felt sleep overtake me. It felt amazing..

And then the feeling was gone.

I found myself in the throne room. Something wasn’t right. The lighting was all wrong. It was...green. I looked up at the stained glass windows, but found changeling pods covering them. Occupied pods! Ponies were trapped inside, sleeping in that horrid comatose state brought on by changeling magic.
I turned to the other windows and found the same thing. Pods everywhere up until the thrones themselves.

And there she was..

“Well, well, well! I was wondering when you would show up!”

Chrysalis jumped down from one of the thrones and began walking towards me.

“You’re just in time Shade. I’ve caught all of the castle staff. Now all I need are the princesses. And you’re going to bring them to me.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because they trust you. And once they’re out of the way, we can rule Equestria. Together.”

I stepped back from her.

“Why would I ever help you? You’re not even a threat anymore! Maybe you caught a few ponies, but do you really think you’re any match for the rest of Equestria?”

“I will be with you at my side.”

“At your side. Ha! You have no power over me any longer Chrysalis. You haven’t for six years! You stand alone against the greatest kingdom in the world and expect to prevail? Even with me, you’d fail. But I would never do that to Celestia and Luna. I have made a life for myself away from you. I have friends now! I made it back from the brink of death. I survived without my magic. I have grown stronger because of everything I’ve been through these past years. And I did it all..WITHOUT..YOU!! SO WHY IN TARTARUS WOULD I EVER HELP YOU, YOU PATHETIC INSECT?!?!”

The walls shook as those last words bellowed forth. Chrysalis looked around the throne room in shock. But as her gaze fell back on me, shock had turned to rage.
She flew at me without warning. I was tackled to the ground and the breath flew out of my body.

“If you won’t help me, then you are of no use to me.”

I felt her fangs connect with my neck. I waited to feel the drain.

‘RIP’

I screamed in agony. The pain was too real!! Chrysalis want trying to drain my being, she was killing me! I felt her fangs again, this time in my chest. And then my leg. My stomach. Oh Celestia it hurt! I felt every tear in my flesh. I was going to die here. And I was honestly afraid that somehow my nightmare was going to kill my actual body from the shock.

“ENOUGH!!!”

The words echoed through the walls and everything cracked. Chrysalis vanished in a flash of light and the throne room crumbled away into oblivion. I was left in my room. I looked down at my body and found it had fully healed. What in Equestria had just happened?

“Shade.”

I looked up to find Luna standing at the edge of my bed.

“Luna!”

“Your dream was going to kill you. I could sense that all the way from my side of the castle.”

“I know. I’ve never had a nightmare that intense.”

She approached me and put a hoof to my head.

“A fever. I doubt that was what caused this, but it can’t be ruled out.”

“It was Chrysalis.”

“I know. You haven’t dreamed of her in quite some time. In fact, you’ve been without a nightmare for at least six weeks. A personal best for you.”

“How-“

I cut myself off. Of course she knew. Dreamwalking was one of her gifts.

“Thank you for saving me.”

“You’re welcome.”

She began walking towards the door.

“Luna?”

She paused.

“Why do you think I still dream about her?”

Her head turned slightly, but she did not face me.

“Our past tends to stay with us, no matter how much we separate ourselves from it.”

I could hear the sadness in her voice.

“So you still dream about Nightmare Moon?”

A slow nod.

“That is my burden. Just as yours is your old connection to Chrysalis. We cannot forget them, because they are a part of us. A part that has helped us grow beyond what we once were.”

She opened the door.

“Luna?”

This time she looked at me. A slight smile crossed her lips.

“I can sense this conversation isn’t over. I need to rest before nightfall. If you want to continue, think of me as you drift off to sleep tonight. I’ll handle the rest.”

She closed the door behind her. I crawled out of bed and pulled open the curtains. The light burst into my room and I had to squint for a second. Once my eyes adjusted, I figured there were still three hours until sunset. And two more until when I usually fell asleep.
I felt a spark of excitement in anticipation of talking to Luna. The princess had always peaked my curiosity. More than Celestia even. She was always so quiet around others. And yet, she’d agreed to talk tonight.
I didn’t know what to expect, but I looked forward to going back to sleep...despite the near-death experience.

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