Octavia thought about walking. Not something she often thought about, but right now, putting one hoof in front of the other seemed to require most of her ability. Step. Step. Step. Step.

Can you do one step at a time when you have four hooves? She tried to find out but she couldn't really feel her hooves enough to make sure. Are my hooves still there? She looked down. Yep. Two hooves in front, four in back...wait a moment...nope, she had counted the front ones again. Silly thing to do.

Comforted that she had the right number of hooves, she went back to stepping and stepping and stepping and stepping and suddenly her chin hurt. Oh, she'd fallen over, that's why. She tried to get back up but her horribly confused hooves couldn't decide how. The others seem to be getting really far away now. She tried to call to them but her throat was too packed with sandpaper, all she could manage was a feeble squeak.

That's funny... now everything's going dark. She was pretty sure that everything was white a moment ago, because of all the snow falling. Ah, snow. Snow sure was comfortable. She felt like she could sleep and sleep and sleep. It'd be easier if she didn't feel so hot and if weird voices didn't keep shouting her name at her.

Stupid voices, couldn't they see she needed to sleep? She'd feel better if she slept.

"Octavia! Octavia!" Twilight yelled as she cradled Octavia, Fleur and Trixie standing next to her wearing equally worried faces. "Octavia!"

"Twilight!," Fleur yelled. "We need to get her to shelter!"

"Where? Where is there any shelter near here?"

Fleur rifled through Twilight's saddlebags until she pulled out a hoof drawn map of Mareitania that Twilight had made from the big map back in Canterlot. Studying it for a minute she floated it in front of Twilight, using her magic to highlight a spot. "There, Hoof-Ridge. It’s a small village if I remember, but we should be able to find shelter there."

Trixie took the map and traced a hoof over it, looking around for landmarks with which to compare. "This map… is rubbish. If we are where I think we are, we might not get there for two or three hours. I really don't think we should keep her out in this."

"We have no other choice." Fleur stamped a hoof. "I don't know about you but my wilderness survival skills aren't that great." Trixie huffed but said nothing.

Twilight stood up and took off her cloak, placing it over Octavia, before hoisting the pony up onto her back, using her still invisible wings to balance her. She then started walking.

"Twilight?" Trixie asked, "Where are you going? And won't you freeze?"

Twilight shook her head. "I'm part pegasus and pegasi are good with cold. Besides she'll keep me warm. As for where I'm going, I figured we could stay here and argue, or move and argue. I'm going for Hoof-Ridge. It's my fault she's here so I'm not going to stop until I get her help."

"Your fault?" Fleur asked with a frown, "How is this your fault? She insisted on coming."

"And I should have insisted she stay in Stalliongrad until she was better!" Twilight shouted.

"That was a terrible idea though. I wouldn't want to be left behind and neither would you!" Fleur shouted back.

"I don't care! I should hav-!"

"Girls!" Trixie shouted over both of them. "Walk and argue, remember! We'll go for Hoof-Ridge, but the first cottage, hovel or whatever we see, we're begging for help, okay?" Neither said anything, but started to walk in silence.

Twilight concentrated on walking, not least because Octavia might fall off if she wasn't careful, and mostly because it stopped her from thinking about her overwhelming sense of guilt and that she was pretty sure she could feel Octavia slipping away with every passing minute.

They must have been walking for at least an hour by her reckoning, and the sky was starting to darken. At least the snow stopped, she thought bitterly to herself. Twilight was seriously beginning to regret coming on this mission, within three days of being on it Trixie had almost gotten herself dehorned and Octavia was dying before her eyes.

She had never felt so helpless. She couldn't fly because she wasn't confident enough to fly in this kind of weather, especially with a passenger, and the wind chill might make Octavia worse. Add to that the fact that getting caught flying by a local would be the worst thing that could happen right now and flying became a complete non option. She couldn't use magic that freely either and her attempts at warming Octavia up with spells had resulted in Octavia trying to wriggle off her, moaning about being too hot.

So Twilight walked, and hoped it might take her to where she needed to go. They had left the open plains that surrounded Stalliongrad and the surroundings started to become hillier and forested, not particularly helpful but at least the trees cut the wind down. It was also because of the trees that within twenty minutes or so of entering the forest, Trixie cocked an ear and asked "Can you hear that?"

Both Twilight and Fleur looked around, trying to discern just what Trixie had heard. Eventually she heard it, a rhythmic thudding sound coming from up ahead, and said so. They trotted on, hoping they had found signs of civilization and after a couple of minutes Fleur pointed out into the forest to where she spotted a small yellow glow, as would come from a lantern or something similar.

Dashing off the path, the three ponies struggled through the chest deep snow drifts towards the glow. Having almost dropped Octavia twice because of hidden depths in the snow they eventually came to a small clearing where there were two earth ponies, a stallion that was chopping wood and a colt that was loading it into the cart they had with them.

Suddenly feeling inexplicably nervous, Twilight swallowed and approached the wood cutter. "Excuse me sir? Our friend is sick and we desperately need to get her help."

"Pfeh, unicorns," said the stallion in a deep, accented rumble, before taking his axe up in his forehooves and rearing back to take swing at a block of wood.

Twilight pulled back Octavia's hood so the stallion might get a better look at her. "She's not a unicorn! Please, I'm begging you!"

The stallion took another swing before resting on his axe and studying her coolly for a moment before groaning and looking over his shoulder to the colt. "Sprig, take the purple one and her friend to Grammaw."

The young brown and pine green colt bounded forward and waved to Twilight. "Ok pa. This way miss." Twilight started to follow him when the stallion shouted at them to stop.

"I said the purple one could go. You two stay here."

"What? Why?" Trixie asked indignantly.

"If the boy is going I'll need you two to stay here and load the cart."

"But-"

"No buts! I'm behind as it is."

"But-"

"Trixie," Twilight said as kindly as she could, "he's helping us, so I think it's only fair that we help him."

"Well it’s okay for you to say that, you're not the one loading the cart..." Trixie grumbled.

"Oh stop whining," Fleur said giving Trixie a nudge. "You'll take us to this 'Grammaw's' house after, right sir?" she asked the stallion, getting a single nod in reply. "See, no worries. You go on Twilight, we'll be fine."

Twilight gave Fleur a grateful smile and continued on after the colt, who seemed to take great pleasure in running on as far as he could then stopping and waiting for her to catch up. Once he got bored of that he started to run circles around her, making her feel very unbalanced. As a precaution she started to hold Octavia on with her wings and hoped the colt didn't notice the way the cloaks moved around the invisible appendages.

After a long while, lights came into view above the tree line, which was because Hoof-Ridge was built on a hoof shaped ridge that rose above the forest. It might have seemed an impractical design, but to someone from Canterlot, this was nothing. Twilight followed the colt up the path to the village and found that the ridge had a plateau on the top, allowing room for a row of wood and stone cabins to be built both sides of the road.

The colt led her through the village and stopped at what appeared to be an apothecary, judging by all the bundles of herbs and collections of vials she could see through the window. The colt banged on the door and yelled, "Grammaw! Got somepony needs yer 'elp!"

There was a moment or two of nothing, except some kind of low key grumbling coming from inside, before the door opened to a rotund and wizened grey mare. "Well come on then, get in 'ere and lets me 'ave a look."

Twilight entered and set Octavia gently on the floor where the old mare set about poking and prodding her, tutting all the while. "Looks like somepony's been out playing with the windigos when theys shoulda been in bed. Sprig, there's wood out the back if you could get a fire going in the spare room."

"Yes Grammaw!"

"And you girl, you picks yer friend up and gets her up stairs, firs' door on the left. Gets those cloaks off'f 'er and wrap her in some blankets from under the bed."

Twilight watched for a moment as the old mare bustled about, checking the various vials she had spread about, muttering a chorus of nopes, maybes and expletives. "What did you mean she's been 'out playing with the windigos?'"

The mare continued to bustle about looking for stuff as she answered. "It's an expression girl, means she's been out in the cold too long. Now di'nt I tell you to get her upstairs! Oh, and put her by the fireplace when you get there!"

Twilight picked up Octavia and took her to the room indicated to her, entering and placing her on a rug alongside the fireplace before taking the cloaks off her and wrapping her in the blankets she found under the bed. She was joined a minute later by Sprig, who was carrying a bundle of wood on his back. Twilight watched as he tried to get a fire going, and had to mentally slap herself when she almost cast a spell to light it. The colt was clearly struggling to get the fire going, so Twilight tapped him on the shoulder.

"Why don't you go and get some more firewood while I get the fire going." She took the flint off him with her magic and made a show of using it.

"Oh, uh... okay miss." the colt muttered before leaving. Twilight could hear him mumbling as he trotted down the stairs. "I'll light the fire she says. Bloody unicorn doesn't even know how to use a flint."

Rolling her eyes and listening out to make sure nopony was coming, she focused on the wood in the fireplace and cast a fire spell. Within minutes she had a decent fire roaring away, and couldn't help but smirk at Sprig's expression when he came back. As an afterthought she rummaged through her saddlebags and withdrew a couple of marcs, passing them to the colt.

"Thanks for your help Sprig. I don't know what we would have done if we hadn't found you or your father. I know it’s not much but, still, thank you."

Sprig took the coins and slipped them into a pocket in the jacket he was wearing. "Uh, thanks miss, 'appy to 'elp." Just then Grammaw entered the room, balancing on her rear a bowl of something that steamed and smelled vaguely herby.

"Nice work getting the fire going Sprig. Now how 'bout you get on home to your mother before she starts a-worrying about ya."

"Aww, okay Grammaw. Bye miss!" He gave Twilight a cheerful wave then left.

Grammaw chuckled. "Nice lad, but a bit of a soft spot for pretty faces. Might have to keep an eye on him when he gets older." She frowned, "Might have to have a word with his pa too, about that hatin' unicorns rubbish he tries to fill that boy's head with. Now you go wait downstairs while I see to your friend here."

"Is she going to be ok?"

"Dunno, but she ain't gonna be any better for you hanging around here twitterpating me when I'm trying ta work. Go on, git!"
Twilight was going to protest, but one look at Grammaw’s face was enough to let her know that hanging around might be bad for her health. Dragging her hooves the entire way she went downstairs and pulled herself onto the sofa, and waited.

Thud thud thud!

Twilight jolted awake at the sound of a heavy hoof banging on door.

"Get the door would ya deary?"

"Yeek!" Twilight squealed and leapt off the sofa at the voice that came from right next to her. She looked round to Grammaw who was sat in a scruffy looking armchair, smoking a pipe and was giving her a very pointed look.

"The door?"

"Right, sorry." Rubbing sleep out of eyes she went to the door and opened it, permitting her a close up view of the woodcutter’s face, a face that swiftly morphed into a frown. Behind him were a chilly looking Fleur and a very grim faced Trixie, who narrowed her eyes on seeing Twilight.

"Making yourself at home I see..." he muttered before clearing his throat and saying in a louder voice, "I've brought your friends as I said I would, now, where is Sprig?"

Twilight was about to answer when Grammaw's voices floated over from where she sat. "Sprig's gone home already Stump. Now quit dirtying my doorway and get yerself going too. And by going, I mean home, not the pub!"

Stump sighed heavily and moved off, quickly disappearing from Twilight's sight in the falling snow. Waving Fleur and Trixie in, Twilight shut the door and turned around to find Trixie's face shoved up against her own.

"Next time, you get to do the hard labour with the unicorn hating tribalist!" she hissed between her teeth.

Fleur on the other hoof, trotted over to Grammaw and curtsied. "I hope it’s okay that we've come here."

Grammaw waved a hoof at her languidly. "Naw, its fine. Sprig told me I should be expecting some more guests," she said before giving Twilight another look.

Twilight rubbed the back of her head with a hoof, feeling abashed. "Uh...right, sorry. This is Fleur,"

"Charmed." Fleur said as she curtsied again.

"And the angry blue one is Trixie."

Trixie paused in the middle of wrestling her cloak off to stick her tongue out at Twilight and to mutter a curt greeting to Grammaw.

"Fleur, Trixie, this is...um, I don't think you've actually told me your name."

"Just call me Grammaw, everypony else does, dunno why though, it’s not like I even has kids, let alone grandkids. If yer hungry there's a pot of soup on the stove in the kitchen, and bread rolls in the warmer, just help yerself."

"Yes yes yes yes yes yes!" Trixie shouted in glee, running for a few steps before turning back and asking "Where's the kitchen?" Grammaw nodded to a door across the room. "Thank you!" Trixie trotted off singing "Food food, food food food, warm warm yum yum food!" Fleur followed her, but quietly and at a more sedate pace.

"Bit of an odd one that one."

"Yeeaaaahhhh...you could say that," Twilight replied before joining Fleur and Trixie in the kitchen. "Are you guys ok? He didn't try anything... y'know... funny?"

"Oooohhhhh noooo, we're fiiine." Trixie replied sarcastically. "It was like the most fun Trixie has ever had, being forced to chop wood and load it onto a cart in the freezing snow while a petty little tribalist stands there criticising everything about us and calling us every name under the sun. Next time, to make it fair, I'll fall asleep in front of a fire, and you can have all the fun."

“I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I didn’t even know I had until somepony knocked on the door. It wasn’t that bad was it?”

Fleur nudged Twilight with her hip. "We were fine, really. He'd have had to chop our horns off before he was interested so we were probably pretty safe with him. I mean, I know he had an axe and all, but then the blood and the screaming might have put him off."

Trixie rubbed her horn with a hoof. "Too soon Fleur, waaayy too soon."

"Huh? Oh... right, the whole dehorning thing. Sorry. Anyway, how many miles did you carry Octavia? I think Twilight deserved a little break."

Trixie pouted in response but said nothing more, apparently dropping the issue. Taking a bite of the roll she was holding, she swallowed and said "Speaking of, how is Octavia? She didn't look so good last time I saw her, y'know."

"I uh... I don't know. Grammaw sent me downstairs and I must have fallen asleep soon after that." She poured herself a bowl of soup and grabbed a bread roll. "Come on back out the living room and we can ask Grammaw." Trixie did so, topping up her bowl and grabbing another roll before she went, all the while grumbling about various things. Twilight was pretty sure she heard her name mentioned a few times.

They reconvened in the living room where Trixie proceeded to eat her soup as noisily as possible, Fleur ate hers as daintily as possible, and Twilight asked the question that would be on their lips if they weren't busy eating. "How's Octa-"

"Ah ah!" Grammaw said, waving a hoof as if to shoo them off. She then pressed her hooves to her temples, "I predict you're gonna ask how yer friend upstairs is doing."

"Wow." Trixie deadpanned, "However did you know we were going to ask such a thing? I am genuinely shocked and surprised."

Grammaw tapped her head with a hoof. "With my amazingly mystical cosmic powers, that's how. That and I heard you talking in the kitchen, which incidentally also happens to be the way I found out the name of yer friend upstairs." She gave Twilight yet another pointed look.

"Sorry."

"Anyway, yer friend's gonna be just fine, soon as she rides out that fever of hers. Until then all we can do is keep her warm an' hydrated. I've given her something to boost her strength with a lil somethin' extra to help her sleep. All's that's left now is to wait an' hope. Oh, an' just so you know, I'd ignore anything she says 'til she's better, as feverish ponies tend to say the darndest things."

"Not that I want to sound ungrateful or anything," Trixie said as she crossed her hooves and gave Grammaw a sceptical look, "but how do you know anything about medicine?"

"Because I'm a little old lady, and it's the job of little old ladies to be smarter than the rest of ya, that's why. Besides I've been doing this since I was a lil one, and I've seen plenty of ponies with fevers worse than yer friend's."

"Well," Fleur said as she gave Trixie a dirty look, "I for one, am grateful you're helping us. I don't know what we'd do if you hadn't." Fleur frowned for a moment, "Speaking of, why are you helping us and giving us food and shelter? Unicorns aren't really all that popular around these parts."

"I could tell ya to go sleep in the basement if it makes ya feel better?"

"Well... uh, no it wouldn't. I just thought that Stump's attitude towards unicorns was the trend around here."

"Pfooey, Stump's just an ass. Pay him no mind, although I hav'ta admit his hatin' on unicorns ain't 'xactly uncommon in these parts."

"But not you?"

"Nope. I'm old an' crotchety and far too busy hatin' everypony to spend extra effort hatin' those with horns an' wings." She chuckled cheerfully, "Besides, who knows when a unicorn owin' you a favour might come in handy."

After that the conversation had changed into whatever they felt like talking about, and Twilight couldn't help but feel a lot better about things than she had in days. Even Trixie was pleasant enough company once she let her intellect do the talking, rather than her ego. They had talked for hours, with the only interruption being one of them occasionally disappearing upstairs to check on Octavia and throw more wood on the fire. Eventually though, the time of day and their exertions caught up with them, made obvious when Trixie had yawned so hard she almost fell over.

Rubbing an eye she asked, "Where are we sleeping tonight? If you don't mind me asking."

"You an' Fleur can sleep in the bed in Octavia's room. Might be a bit cozy," she said, giving Trixie a saucy wink, "but it’s a whole lot better than sleeping on the floor. Unless o' course, you actually want to sleep in the basement? Might be a mite chilly."

"Nope, bed is good. Dibs on the right hoof side."

Fleur sighed and rolled her eyes. "Trixie, I cannot express how much I don't care. I just want sleep."

"While yer in there, keep an eye on Octavia an' keep the fire going. Or jus' heat the room some other way, I'm sure Octavia won't mind." She chuckled at Trixie's horrified expression. "Relax, I'm just teasing." She sniffed, "Mostly."

Rather than expose themselves to more comments, the two ponies muttered a 'goodnight' and trotted upstairs, with Trixie pushing Fleur aside to make sure she went first. This left Twilight in the company of Grammaw, who was giving Twilight a long, cool stare.

"So... uh, what was with the... uh, bedroom talk?"

Grammaw grinned dirtily, "Oh nothing much, I just reckon some fun in the bedroom would do wonders for the ego-stick Trixie has shoved up her plot."

"I see." Twilight fidgeted and nervously tapped the edges of her hooves together. "And where might I be sleeping?" She was answered by Grammaw nodding at the sofa. "Oh! Okay," Twilight said, sounding a lot more relieved than she intended.

"You could share with me, if ya want to, but I ain't exactly good company in the bedroom anymore since I tend to fart a lot an' snore really loud."

"Nope! Sofa's fine. Absolutely fine. No problems with the sofa at all." Twilight fidgeted some more. "Sooo... goodnight?"

"Not just yet. There's somethin' I want to talk to you about, and I didn't want to talk about it with others around in case it's a secret."

"Oh... uh, sure. What's up?"

"You're one of them ain't ya? One o' them winged unicorns?"

Twilight spluttered in surprise. "I-I don't- I... uh, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have wings." She subconsciously wiggled her wings in some effort to disprove their existence.

"Heh, you're an awful liar Twilight, an' just 'cause you made them invisible don't mean they ain't there. In fact, them being invisible just makes them more obvious to me since I ain't exactly lookin' with me eyes."

"What? How?"

Grammaw looked Twilight in the eye. "What I'm about to tell you is a secret, so don't you go blabbing your mouth off none." Grammaw raised a hoof to her forehead and brushed her hair aside, revealing a small vertical scar right where a unicorns horn would be. "That's right," she said as she took in Twilight's slack jawed expression, "I'm technically a unicorn."

"B-but... but how?"

"For that to make sense I'm gonna have to tell you the whole story, so sit down an' listen up. My ma an' pa were high-born ponies, nobles, an' in the court of Mareitania one of the biggest scandals possible was to have a unicorn as a child, which does tend to happen from time to time. So when I was born my folks were horrified, almost broke them apart since my pa accused my ma of cheating. Anyway they arranged to have my horn removed when I was just a few weeks old, root and all, so it never grew back. Naturally this kinda upset me when I found out years later, so I ran away and eventually ended up here."

"Don't you miss it? Your horn that is."

"Can't miss what I don't remember having, although I swear I can sometimes feel it, like ghost leg thingy or whatever it’s called."

"Phantom limb syndrome?"

"Yeah, that's the one. Anyway, the point is that a unicorns magic has to manifest somehow. If you has a horn then it manifests through that in the normal way. But if you don't, it can do some strange things. Apparently there was one pony I heard of that could levitate themself, an' another that could manifest magic through shoutin'. Me, well I can sense magic, and see it in others. I could see the spell that was hidin' yer wings, and see the magic inside you, which I can tell you is a sight to behold. Most unicorns have a bit of an aura around them, focused mostly on their horns, but you, you're the center of a swirling maelstrom of magic energy, both beautiful and terrifying. Yet there's somethin' about it... some kind of... harmony, I guess you'd call it. Absolutely amazing."

Twilight closed her eyes, debating whether she should trust this pony with her secret. She supposed that Grammaw could have done something about her having wings, but so far all she had done is help. Maybe Twilight owed her this. "I guess that explains why you don't hate unicorns."

"Nope, it'd be pretty silly to hate what I am. I mean ponies hating ponies is pretty silly anyway, but that'd be extra silly."

"I'm going to trust you with this since you could have told the guards and got me arrested at any time-"

"Actually we don't got any guards here. Instead I'd have rounded up a posse and had you lynched. Besides I trusted you with my secret."

"Right... so since you didn't... do that, I'm going to trust you." She focused and cancelled the invisibility spell on her wings before spreading them, eliciting a low whistle from Grammaw.

Grammaw sat back and puffed on her pipe a few times. "I'll be, a genuine pegacorn."

"Actually we're called alicorns."

"Alicorns huh? Y'know, it’s been almost four hundred years since one o' your kind has been seen in Mareitania."

"What, really? How is that possible?"

"It aint exactly like your kind is common y'know."

"What? No, I mean how has anypony seen one in Mareitania at all?"

"Oh, I get ya. Now ya have to understand that this is all word of mouth stuff so it may be subject to flavour. Now then, 'bout four hundred years ago there was this big rebellion or civil war or whatever you wanna call it. Equalists against the Duchy. The Equalists started out as a unicorn thing, which got bigger when they busted the pegasi outta their prisons. Lot of earth ponies joined 'em too, or at least the poor ones anyway. Word is that they were led by an alicorn. Now this is where things get a lil tricky since nopony seems to agree on what she looked like or what her name was, all they can agree on is that she was kinda tall an' probably white. Me myself, I reckon it was the goddess Celestia-"

"But that's impossible! It couldn't have been her!"

"Don't see why not. The Goddess Celestia ain't ever been seen in Mareitania before the rebellion, an' hasn't been seen since."

"What happened to Celes- to the alicorn?"

"Ah, well. The Duke an' Duchess at the time weren't no thickies, but they were cruel. They started rounding up ponies from everywhere and started killing them, saying that the killing wouldn't stop until she surrendered. I don't know why this didn't just give more ponies a reason to fight even harder, but the stories say that she surrendered herself within the hour, unwilling to let so many die. They took her to High Rock keep and she ain't been seen ever since."

"High Rock keep? Where's that?"

Grammaw raised an eyebrow. "Y'know, asking questions like that might give a pony reason to think you're not from round here. High Rock keep is where the Duke and Duchess rule from. Used to be the unicorns capital of Unicornia, back in the old days 'til they gave it up."

Twilight fell into silence, her eyes twitching back and forth as she thought. Celestia couldn't have possibly been the pony leading that rebellion, otherwise she probably would have told her. Probably being the operative word. Celestia did have an over fondness for secrets. One thing was for certain though. She needed to talk to her, and soon.

"Is there somewhere I could find out more about this? Like a library or something?"

"A library? Hah! No such thing. The Duke an' Duchess don't like the common pony knowing too much in case it gives them ideas like 'why do we let these inbred bastards treat us like crap?' An' even if there were libraries in Mareitania, you wouldn't find anything about the rebellion in it. All talk and writings on the rebellion was banned, in case it incited more rebellion. It only survives as stories, passed down from generation to generation. If there was anything written down about it, it'd be in the keep, where nopony can get it."

"But surely there must be records of it somewhere besides High Rock keep?"

Grammaw hummed and hawed for a bit before speaking again. "There might be one place, but it’s as much a story as what you're trying to find out about. There's a legend that in the caverns there's some kind of dog like people. Now these dog people have something there called the long story, or somethin' like that, an' it's meant to be like the history of time or somewhat. Apparently these dogs are a studious bunch and take great pains to record everything that happens around them, which I find odd since they live underground and probably don't see much of what goes on aboveground. Anyway, if that place is real, what you want would probably be written down there."

Twilight sighed, chasing down a story with another story doesn't sound like a good method of research. But if push came to shove it might be all she had. "What caverns might those be if I happen be near them?"

"'What caverns?' she says. The caverns! Famously explored by some feller with a beard."

That got Twilight's attention, "Starswirl the Bearded! They must be the Caverns of Mareitania!"

"Or as we in Mareitania call them, the caverns. You know, if you're gonna travel around this country all incognito like, then you really had better learn some place names and stuff. Might make you a lot less obvious."

Twilight lowered her head in defeat. "I know, I know. All this sneaking and lying and- and... stuff, doesn't come naturally to me. Please don't tell anyone, I'm begging you."

"Ah don't worry about me, your ole Grammaw's as tight lipped as they get, which made me popular with the stallions back in the day I can tell you." she said, chuckling as Twilight shuddered. "Tell me, where do all you prudes come from and why you all here?"

"We've come from Equestria an-"

"Equestria!? Its real!?"

"What's that supposed to mean? Of course it’s real. You do trade with us, a little bit anyway."

"Well blow me down. An alicorn from Equestria... No pony would believe me even if I told 'em! So why you here? You here to cast the evil duchy down? To bring freedom and justice to all?"

"I don't know about that. We're just doing a little fact finding."

Grammaw slumped, making Twilight feel a little guilty about lying. "Well that's a crying shame. ’Bout time somepony came and set this place right."

"Someday maybe."

"Yeah..." Grammaw suddenly yawned and finished looking like she was a week past her bedtime. "You've certainly given a mare a lot to think about, that's for sure. I can assure you your secret's safe with me. Anyway I'm off to bed. G'night."

"Goodnight Grammaw." Twilight waited as Grammaw headed upstairs and didn't move until she heard her bedroom door shut. Soon as it did she deflated and rested her head on the arm of the sofa. "I am so stupid. I can fight armies of changelings and deal with chaos spirits but can't lie to an old lady. At least I didn't tell her I'm a princess too. Who knows what she might have thought of that." She looked over to where her saddlebags were stashed, thinking that she ought to talk to Celestia. Floating the speaker stone out of her bag, she held it between her hooves and was about to activate it when she remembered what time of day it was.

"Celestia's probably in bed and I bet Luna knows even less about it than I do. Figures." Sighing irritably she put the stone back in her bag, recast her wings' invisibility spell, and rolled over, trying to get comfy. "A country without libraries... I think I now officially hate this place."

Author's Notes:

Don't know if I'm developing memory problems or something but I'm having the hardest time remembering what I'm doing and what I've already done in this story and its only the fifth chapter. Get the horrible feeling I'm going to miss something really obvious and its going to be really embarrassing.