Throughout the evening the events of the last few days were discussed, explained, and questioned, however the majority of the time was spent playing board games, mindless fun, and a wide assortment of treats, Needless to say, everypony was in a rather spirited mood. Remarkable considering it all.

Rainbow Dash  had now joined them. Rainbow had only intended to quickly check out a book. However, the lure of some relaxed, wholesome fun was too much for her after a very stressful day.

Following the incident with Spike, courtesy also of some much needed explanation and an untold precession of hugs and tissue, Applebloom's altercation with her sister seemed pathetic, still, nopony was willing to leave Applebloom alone or out of sight, the filly had had enough trouble and didn't need anymore. The crusaders were happily playing on the balcony of the tree-house, various books and toys scattered about Twilight's bedroom. The older mares were downstairs in the main room. Rainbow Dash took this as an opportunity to probe Twilight on a promise that everypony but Rainbow Dash had forgotten:

“So...” The Rainbow-maned pegasus began, “Remember that promise you made about those papers I got for ya?”

Twilight glanced over at her bedroom door. It was closed and she could hear all three fillies babbling on about something.

“Alright, Rainbow. Same condition as last time: nopony but me can hear about this, understand?”

The mare nodded and followed her to her desk. Twilight made one last glance to the door to make sure the fillies were occupied and away.

“Now,” she began, shuffling the papers in order, “none of what I am about to share with you has been verified or confirmed so, take it with a grain of salt.”

Seeing that her friend was still interested, she cleared her throat and began:

“You remember the history of Equestria, how there was discord and disharmony among Earth Ponies, Pegasus, and Unicorns? And how following an age of discord, the extermination of the Alicorn civilization,  the war between Order and Chaos, the three remaining three predominant races became more integrated following the return of Luna and Celestia, thus leading to modern history?

“Yeah....Sorta. So, after Discord and the Fae took over, Luna and Celestia survived and kicked their flanks and....yeah I think so.” Rainbow didn't quite know the meat of the story but that synopsis was enough to bring forth what she did.

“Well, if these stories I have here are true, then all of that is completely false.” Twilight had a very affirmative look on her face, twitching some. There was no going back now.

“So....the princess is a liar?”--What do you mean it's all wrong?” Much to Twilight's relief, Rainbow was surprisingly accepting of at least considering the idea. Though there was more to be explained.

“Well—yes. I'm finding it hard to believe myself! I mean, I was practically raised by Princess Celestia! I regard her as my best friend, mentor—it's hard for me to believe too.”

“So if it is all a bunch of fluff then....what really happened?”

“Well, according to this, or at least what I've obtained thus far, the Age Of Discord was more prosperous and peaceful than we've been lead to believe. According to this, all the races, from Allicorns to Earth Ponies lived in harmony in a massive megalopolis, where Manehatten sits today. They had advanced technology beyond our imagination, they somehow harnessed the power of electricity for lighting, electric powered trains and carriages that didn't need stallions or magic; their homes were made of granite and something called 'steel', with all sorts of strange amenities. Their food was grown without the need of Earth Ponies, it was all produced and shipped to massive markets where machines would sell it to them.”

“This is....kinda crazy Twi. Not gonna lie here.”

“I know but just bear with me here: the weather in those times was like the Everfree forest, it was unpredictable and uncontrolled. It says pegasus didn't even have the means to alter the weather in any way. Cutie marks didn't exist either.”

“Okay okay, get to the good stuff.” Rainbow was growing bored. “What about the war of Chaos and Order?”

“Alright, well I'm not sure of all of it but based on what I have it states that all the magic of the world was located on a large floating city ruled by alicorns, which were a genetic mutation of sorts, brought on by—inbreeding.” The unicorn stuck our her tongue in disgust.  “The alicorns never traveled to the surface and the surface ponies never traveled there either. A massive force-field protected the alicorns. Until one day when the unicorns below, coupled with Earth Pony and Pegasus scientists learned how to possibly break the force-field. They knew of the magic above through folk lore and urban legends and wanted to capture and use it for themselves. They constructed this machine--”

Rainbow let out a loud yawn, a look of absolute boredom now apparent.

“I'm getting there!” Twilight was annoyed.

“Anyway, the had this machine, called a--” she shuffled through some notes until she found the one she was looking for, “An Ariel, a ship capable of carrying many ponies at once with a tool capable of destroying the alicorns force-field. Just as they were preparing to finish this machine, the alicorns, anticipating their arrival, took control of the weather over the city and created a massive rainstorm which induced flooding. They produced horrific other disasters which lead to the ponies unable to grow food and most of their machines destroyed; there was massive hunger and homelessness. The Ariel was sent to the alicorn island with a team of soldiers and diplomats from below to negotiate a truce.”

Twilight paused for a second, sorting some things out, noticing that the door was still closed, she assumed the fillies were still inside. Rainbow was sitting now, eyes wide with anticipation.

“They managed to break the force-field and enter the alicorns kingdom....” Twilight paused. This is the part of the story that still opened a black hole of denial and disbelief in her mind.

“Then?” Rainbow was bouncing much as a filly would. Excited no less.

“The alicorns responded with force. They destroyed the ship, killing all who were inside, they sent it crashing into the ground, causing massive damage to the already weakened city. Many ponies fled into the wilderness where they perished of starvation most likely.  The remaining ponies used whatever they could to attack the alicorns who now descended into the city and were destroying it and killing whoever stood in their way.  The leader of the alicorns, whose name isn't mentioned here, ordered that a filly from each race be abducted and taken to a new, uninhabited location of Equestria to be raised by alicorns and bred into subordinate citizens. The remainder of the city was eviscerated and sunk into the ocean. The alicorns lowered their city slightly above where it sat and founded the initial capital of Equestria--”

“So wait....where is Discord in all of this?”

“Well, apparently Discord was a dragon. The dragons were summoned all throughout Equestria to finish off the remainder of the ponies from the Old Equestria. They initially showed some of the more valiant and acclaimed dragons how to use magic. However, the dragons learned of what the alicorns had done and feared for their own future. They put up a rather short-lived and fruitless revolt, lead by Discord. They encased him in stone for all the dragons to see prior to their demise. They released a small portion of baby dragons into remote wilderness where they continue to live to this day.”

“Oh....this is really, really intense. All that in those few pages?”

“Well...no. I managed to find an old book in the basement that was allegedly penned as fiction, it's really old. However, there are references and other things relating to it in these pages, which is how most of this began to make sense anyway.”

Rainbow nodded. She sat silent again, awaiting further details.

“We now reach the modern age and starts to correlate with some of what we've been taught: the three races, still in a remote end of Equestria, headed east in search of food and fresh water, they had drained their supply and corrupted the soil of the old land. What they found is where Canterlot sits today. Their Cornwallis leader established the city, according to this that leader is Princess Celestia. Luna lived on the eastern shore, where the Old Pony Megalopolis was, the two leaders declared themselves Eternal Princesses and overthrew the parliamentary monarchy that had ruled the alicorns for years, using the magic they acquired to make themselves immortal. The remaining alicorns perished as well though the specificities of this I have yet to find...one of the many things missing. Regardless,  the unicorns were given Cloudsdale as sort of a 'gag order', and after a century following these events, we have the founding of Ponyville, and...that's pretty much it. “

Rainbow was silent. Mouth agape, she wasn't to the point of accepting it as fact, after all even Twilight was skeptical of it all. It seemed so sensational and so....contrasted to what they had been told their whole lives. It was a lot to take in, that realization was clear on both of their faces.

“I wanna hear the part about the war again!” Both mares were startled. They had no idea the crusaders had been there. Listening almost the entire time. Scootaloo however, was more than pleased by the looks on their faces.

“G-Girls!” Twilight was mortified, nopony was supposed to know about this...especially them.

“So...the princess is evil then?” Applebloom asked, genuinely curious.

“W-well...” Twilight was in panic mode. There was no way these fillies were going to forget it, and no way they were going to let her lie to them too.

“Maybe—But we don't know if this is true or not. For all we know this could be just silly fiction.”

“Then why can't we tell anypony?” Sweetie Belle was somewhat confused by Twilight's repeated insistence that this be kept secret.

“Yeah!” Scootaloo stood up now, a determined look on her face. “If Celestia really did do that then we should—uh....we should....do something!”

“Take back the magic and bring peace to all of Ponykind!” Sweetie Belle knew where her friend was headed, and liked the sounds of it. Twilight stood there, unsure of what to do or say.

“Yeah! We could have Sweet Apple Cider for everypony with one of them fancy machines ah reckon!” Applebloom mused.

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS FREEDOM FIGHTERS—YAY!”

“Girls, Girls!” Twilight was worried now. “N-No! We will be doing no such thing!--a—and nopony is going to hear about this!”

“They kinda have a point Twilight...” Rainbow Dash was silent until now, the declarations of the crusaders helped simplify the sum of this story for her. “I mean this is all pretty messed up, and honestly, the idea that my hometown, everything I know and love is just some—some appeasement?”

“Again, girls, and Rainbow too, we have to approach this as literature, fictional ponytales--” Twilight backed into her desk, she felt threatened by the foursome who seemed now dead set on overthrowing the monarchy, and in her mind, ushering in an era of chaos and turmoil.

“I just have one question.” Rainbow asked, Twilight looked eager to get them out of her mane. “Why did Luna become Nightmare Moon and try to bring eternal night? By the sounds of it she should be pretty happy.”

Twilight sighed. There was no use now, they all knew it and heard everything.  “Well,  whenever this was written it was clearly before Nightmare Moon's banishment. It ends shortly before she is banished to the moon, it states at the end that there was a feud between the Eternal Princesses, the least liked, I would presume Luna as they refer to her as: 'Bringer of the Night', had plunged Equestria into perpetual darkness. The writer writes this in such a manner one would gather her or she didn't think they had much time to spare...That is it. I promise. And please--”

“Don't tell anypony else.” The crusader groaned in unison. “We know.”

“Good.” Twilight wasn't too happy about any of this but she figured given all that has happened lately they wouldn't be in much of a trouble making mood....or at least she hoped, for her own sake more than anything. After what happened with Spike, she did not need rumors swirling about that she was an 'extremist' or some other damming accusation.

“Now if you'll excuse me, I actually have to get some sleep. The princess wishes to see me in Canterlot tomorrow to—deal with some personal things. Rainbow would you care to take them home? Applebloom can stay with Rarity.”

“But!--” Applebloom wasn't too sure about leaving her safe place.

“Applebloom you will be fine. Rarity is a very feisty unicorn when she wants to be.” She obviously thought otherwise, AJ and Big Mac would most certainly decimate her without a second thought, but the idea of being subjected to more inquiry from a stubborn filly was something she didn't want on the eve of such a stressful trip.

“You can say that again.” Sweetie Belle groaned. “But, we get to have a sleep-over!”

“YAY!” The crusaders happily bounced along behind Rainbow Dash as they left the library. Applebloom sticking by Rainbow's side.

Once they were gone. Twilight let out a massive sigh. Tonight was inconvenient.  Tomorrow? She was worried to find out. Next Chapter: The Equestrian Inquisition Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 49 Minutes