I fixed my coat and stepped into the historical documents. I walked amongst the ponies working on their restoration and dusting. I tightened my grip against the leather bound journal in my hand and looked around the calm walnut colored room. A pony in glasses looked up at me as I passed. I took a deep breath and stepped up onto a table.

    I stomped my foot, my boot’s flat heel caused an ear shattering clap through the otherwise quiet library room. “She’s alive!” I held the book up and pointed at it. “I found her! She’s alive and she’s fighting!”

    A pony stormed over with her tail raised and started blustering. “Excuse me! You can’t just come in here and start shouting and jumping up on things like a lunatic!” She stomped her hoof. “You’ll have to--”

    I cleared my throat and pulled my sketch from the book. “As recent as two years ago there are reports of unexplained lights coming from the sky west of Fetlock! The stories say she was banished there! Celestia’s journals say she was banished there! But she’s still alive! Thousands of years and she’s still alive!”

    The mare shook her head. “You can’t keep--”

    “The Torchbearer lives!” I raised my book and looked around the room. “She lives! And I’m going to find her!” I stomped my foot again. “Eureka lives in the western lands! She’s alive and she’s keeping you all safe!”

    The ponies in the room kept their heads low save one. A mare with a half shaved head shook her head and walked over. She raised her hoof. “She’s alive?”

    I looked down at the mare with a wide grin. “I have proof! So many sightings of ponies that went out to survey the old land! The absence of monsters from the old land swimming over! Celestia’s testimonies! Are you kidding me, there’s no way she’s not!”

    The mare nodded with a determined look in her eye. She hopped up onto the table and stomped her hoof twice. “Eureka lives!”

    The mare in glasses shook her head. “You two need to le--”

    A stallion with a hat stormed in from another room. “She’s alive! He’s right! I’ve been telling you all for so long that she’s alive!” He stormed around the tables and shouted in ponies’ faces. “You called me crazy! The mare lives and she’s the reason you sleep safe at night!”

    I held my arms out. “She keeps us safe! Without her the winds of the west would be frozen and bitter! It’s because of her we all live here now!” I pressed my hand against my book. “I’m going to find her! I’m going to find her and anyone brave enough to save the mare you owe your lives to, follow me!” I hopped off the table and walked through the bustling room towards the door into the main room.

    I threw the door open to my followers. Ponies and humans in white hoods and coats waited with banners of the Torchbearer held high. The red accents on their clothes stood out bright amongst the sea of white hooded ponies filling up the large main hall of the library.

    Dusty tomes and leather journals hung from each of their sides. The group swelled as fifty more of my followers walked into the hall. “My brothers, my sisters! Eureka lives, and the academics have joined us!” I held my arms out and started laughing. “We are brave, we are strong, and for the Torchbearer we will fight back The Frost and save her!” I stopped my laughing and cleared my throat. “To the castle...we need the right of leave. We need the blessing of the law for our cause.”

    My followers stomped their hooves and feet, the grand hall echoed as they started cheering. Happy faces covered by hoods surrounded me as I took a Torchbearer banner and walked straight down the main hall of Canterlot Library.

    They chanted and cheered as my flock, now three-hundred strong I lead my followers out of the archives. I watched as two of my followers pulled the doors open and showed me the crowd of white hooded ponies waiting for my word.

    I stepped onto a small divide on the stairs down to the main road and raised my arms. “My brothers and sisters, we head to the isle of light!” I let out a sharp yell, my follower met me in kind and the roars of my friends eager to fight for the Torchbearer echoed through the marble steps of Canterlot Library. “For the homeland! For Eureka! For The Torch!”

    I hopped down from my platform and started walking down to the street. I gave my banner to one of the ponies and held my book up high before us all. The teachings I’d pulled from Eureka’s stories were in each of our hands and hooves. Each one of us had a copy, and mine simply had the honor of being the first.

    I walked briskly down the main path through the castle grounds. Groups of guards and castle workers parted for me as my massive following marched along behind me. The great spire of Canterlot Keep stood out high in the bright blue sky. The guards around us grew anxious as I walked down the wide path to the main doors of the keep.

    I watched as a few of my followers ran over to the main doors, usurping spots from retreating guards. They held banners high and opened the doors to the keep’s entry. I smiled wide and charged forward towards the clean white marble floors. I held my arms out as I stepped inside.

    “Uh...what the hell?” A man in a white coat walked before me, and rested his hand against the rifle slung across his chest. “What is this?” A pair of pony guards landed next to him, one with a rifle strapped to his side and the other levitating a pistol at his side. “You can’t be going on--”

    I dropped down to one knee and pressed one hand against my chest. I offered up my book to the guardsmen. “I seek the blessing of Celestia for my journey!”

    The guards shifted around to keep my followers contained in the opening of the entry. “Uh...yeah, this isn’t going to work.” The human guard shook his head and looked to his fellow guards. “Keep these nutjobs here, I’ll go see...something.” He scratched his head and looked up the stairs to the main hall. “Celestia! Did you start a religion?”

    He wandered off, leaving me with my arm outstretched to the pair of ponies barring me from walking towards Celestia’s throne. I pulled my arm back and stood up. The pony guards slowly eased as I waved my following back a step. “Apologies, my brothers and sisters are simply excited for our journey.”

    The guard with the pistol grunted. “What journey?”

    I smiled wide and turned to one of the bannerponies. “Sister Spark! An apostate!”

    A pony smiled wide from under her hood and peeled it back. Her dyed red mane showed bright against dark grey coat. “Most excellent! Another pony willing to hear the words of the Torchbearer!” She trotted daintily up to the guard and levitated her book forward. “Have you heard of the ban of pyromancy!? A truly vile law meant to punish unicorns for an ability deemed evil for arbitrary reasons, meant to limit the power of our kind!”

    The guard and my preacher talked on their own while the human guard slowly walked down. “Hey, one of you can come, but the rest of you need to go home. You’re freaking everyone out.”

    I looked back to my followers. The stream of ponies in white and the few uncovered heads of new followers or hangers on stretched down towards the main gate out of the castle grounds. “Hmm...perhaps. But I--”

    The guard shook his head. “No, seriously, you need to disperse.”

    I nodded sternly. “Of course. But I need my bannerponies and a--”

    “Look, just keep it small.” The human guard put his hands on his hips and pointed to the guard with the rifle. “Just get these idiots home before you start a riot.”

    I shrugged. “Conrad, Dismay!” A pony and a man with banners raised them high and turned to the crowds. They rolled the banners up and slowly went through the crowd waving ponies away. I looked back and watched as the herd of hundreds dwindled and dipped into more reasonable numbers. “Better?”

    The guards disarmed and the man nodded. “Yeah, fine.” He pointed up to the doors up. “Two or three...the rest of you need to either go home or spread out. This is a fire hazard at this point. Someone’s gonna get trampled to death.”

    I smiled wide. “Why fire is never a hazard, simply a gift that has a tendency to bite back when misused.”

    The guard’s eyes opened wide. “Uh...just go before I change my mind.” He rubbed his head and stepped out of my way. “Crazy asses.”

    I smiled and pointed to Spark and a bannerpony. “Come now, we have a meeting.”

    The preacher mare nodded and tore herself away from the unicorn guard. “He took my book.” She smiled wide. “I think he’s going to read it!”

    I smiled and nodded at her. “Maybe another pony to follow us to the new shore. One can hope.” I walked calmly up the stairs and to the main doors into the grand hall. My ponies opened it for me and I saw Celestia sitting on her throne down the hall.

    Me and my followers walked briskly towards our glorious leader and upon meeting the five meter mark, I dropped to one knee and held my arm out to her. “Princess! I require your blessing!” I looked up to her and watched the white mare shift in her seat. “I wish to lead my followers to the land in the west! I wish to settle and raise a nation in your honor, and the honor of the Torchbearer Eureka!”

    Celestia stared down at me. “Hmm, for what purpose?”

    I stood up. “To help fight back the monsters and frost that infest the land, and to continue the work of Eureka!”

    Celestia nodded slowly. “You’re the one who was asking me about her earlier, weren’t you?” She looked me up and down. “You had longer hair then.”

    I ran my fingers through my short hair. “It was a different time--”

    “Four months? It seems like a bit of a drastic change.”

    I grumbled to myself and rubbed my face. “At any rate, I would require land rights, travel rights, and arms for the fight against the frost!”

    Celestia frowned hard. “You want to head back to an inhospitable land to try and establish and Equestrian colony?”

    “More or less.” I straightened out my coat. “You seem rather down to--”

    “That’s stupid.” Celestia frowned hard. “Normally I’d be kinder...but you’re effectively asking me to arm you to go and commit suicide.”

    I frowned hard. “I have no intention of killing--”

    Celestia stretched her neck. “What exactly do you plan--”

    Spark stepped forward. “We’ve been drawing plans and establishing possible sponsors from Fetlock and Los Pegasus for some time, along with supply routes cleared by a group working in the western sea!” She smiled wide and tapped her hooves on the floor. “The arms are ready and waiting, but Mr. Hawthorne wouldn’t dare act without your consent!”

    Celestia scrunched up her muzzle. “You do realize you’re asking me to arm a group of--”

    Spark bounced up and down. “We have a list. Sixty swords, thirty eight pikes, forty spears, twenty griffon manufactured rifles and several boxes of munitions and medical supplies!” She smiled even wider. “I have the list with me if you want!”

    Celestia’s frown faded. “...I suppose. I don’t really think you’ll find much back there, but I suppose trying to get a hoofhold would be useful enough.” She scratched her chin with her hoof. “I’ll alert local guard groups to escort you out, and worst comes to worst I can banish you all.”

    I rubbed my throat. “I do hope it won’t come to that--”

    “You’re asking for weapons.” Celestia shot back.

    I held my arms out. “Every study and modern attempt to reach the shores has been met with disaster or death. I may be a bit fervent about what I believe, but I’m not stupid.”

    Celestia hummed to herself. “...Do you have everything ready?”

    I nodded. “As has been said, everything is in order, we’ve been preparing since the last time we spoke.”

    Celestia sighed. “Fine...what’s your name?”

    “David Hawthorne of The Order of The Torchbearer!”

    Celestia nodded. “Alright...I’ll send you papers for limited colony rights. You will be under the legal status of an Equestrian colony. You will have limited autonomy but you will report to my governance. Okay?”

    I smiled wide as I could. “That is more than I could have asked for.”

    Celestia huffed. “Well...good….” She took a deep breath. “You’re looking for Eureka....if she is alive, what are you going to do when you find her?”

    I pressed my hand against my book. “Relieve her, take our duties and give her the rest she deserves! If these words I speak are true, if what you told me is true, and she still lives, I owe it to her to help, as do all of us.”

    Celestia sighed. “Well, if you do find her tell her I’m sorry.”

    I nodded. “Of course. Goodbye Princesses--”

    Celestia cleared her throat. “You’ve been having relations with this little mare, haven’t you?” She pointed down at Spark.

    I held my breath as Spark and the bannerpony walked away. “Um…. Goodbye.”