Year 11, 224th day-

Things have been quieter than I had expected. There has been no mob of ponies coming forth from the shadows, ready to drag me away. No threats towards my person, by angry equines who want me gone. Perhaps Ditzy's reassurances of tolerance are more accurate than I gave them credit for. Perhaps... I have just been overly paranoid since my return? I cannot say for certain at this point... only time will tell.

Dinky has been regarding me less and less of some kind of terrible invading monster, and more and more as merely an annoying nuisance. My daughter has finished up magic kindergarten in Canterlot, and Ditzy and I decided to have her come back to ponyville to study at Cheerilee's school for her elementary years. She talks to me now, telling me about how her day was whenever I ask her, and letting me help with her homework. She still maintains an aloof distance from me, no doubt a result of Sparkler's continued influence of her opinion of me.

I rarely go into town, instead choosing to stick to the outskirts and the everfree forest when I go out on walks. I still use my invisibility spell when traveling through Ponyville, despite the fact my presence is now known. Big Macintosh and Breezy are the only ponies I talk to anyway, as they are still my friends, even after all that has transpired. The two of them continually tell me to relax and rejoin pony society, but still I remain wary.

From Mac and Breezy, I have also have heard a great deal about the events that occurred, during the years I was gone. It seems this town had gone through a great deal- everything from a parasprite infestation, to a Zebra potion maker moving into the Everfree forest. But of the most interest to me was the fact that a boastful, arrogant Unicorn mage came through town, and stirred up quite a bit of trouble with an Ursa Minor attack on Ponyville. A certain white-haired Unicorn named Trixie Lulamoon.

"The great and powerful Trixie" Yes, dear Journal, that is a name I remember well... and a name I never thought I would hear again. In the years before I first came to ponyville, long before I met Ditzy, I was young and foolish. Even though I had just graduated from the academy, I saw fit to take an apprentice... a bright young mare just out of fillyhood, who had excelled at her classes far beyond her peers. I trained her as best I could, and she took all of my lessons to heart.

But I heaped far too much praise on Trixie, and told her there was nothing she couldn't accomplish... that she would be greatest mage Ponykind had ever seen. I did not realize I was filling my unicorn student's mind with arrogance, and her heart with foolish pride. But I also did not see the look in her eyes, whenever she gaze at me... oh what a idiot I was in those days. When one day Trixie approached me about being more than just teacher and apprentice, I rejected her, telling the young mare that such a thing was outside the bounds of propriety. She quit as my apprentice that day, swearing through her tear-stained face that she would become an even greater mage than I.

I never saw Trixie again, though I have heard of her boastful ways during my travels over the years. This repentant unicorn hopes he runs into her once again, so he can tell her how sorry he is for his mistakes. I blame myself for what she has become... for her arrogance was born of mine. It is only one of the sins I have committed in my life that I must atone for.

year 11, 264th day-

Now, dear Journal, it all becomes clear.

My sister's attitude towards me, Dinky's regarding me as some kind of monster... it all becomes clear before my eyes (well, eye and gemstone). I have been a victim of another pony's false boasting while I was away. Scandalous lies and rumors that had spread all over whilst I was trapped at that infernal research laboratory all those years. Breezy informed me of the story, when he heard it during Trixie's latest stop off in ponyville.

It seems my dear former apprentice has been bragging that she and I had been together during my years of absence from Ponyville, hoping to use my academic reputation to boost her own image. My sister heard these rumors of my taking a lover, and told them to Ditzy several years ago. When I confronted Ditzy about this, she tearfully admitted that she had even believed the rumors for a few months, telling horror stories to Dinky about the 'evil witch that took daddy away', and let Amethyst fill my daughter's head with lies about me. It only took a good talking to, from her friends Bon Bon and Heartstrings, to clear her mind of the rumors and lies. But by then the damage had been done.

Now, I still wish to run into Trixie once again, but no longer do I wish to apologize. I now intend to give that vain braggart a taste of the pain her boasting has given to my family. She will regret lying about me to build up her reputation, a folly for which she shall pay dearly. I wonder if the Ponyville fountain could use a matching statue to go beside Goldie? A petrification spell can work wonders in vengence, as that foolish unicorn shall soon learn.

I must thank Trixie, however, for she once again reminded me of how treacherous and deceitful ponykind can be. The time has now come for me to resume my quest to bring perfection to Equestria. I shall return to my work with the rainbow of darkness in my private study and laboratory, even though that work must now be carried out in secret. I begin work on a new project, one that will ether save ponykind from itself...or wipe our entire accursed race from the face of this world. The ancient Penna had a word for the divine judgment of the guilty, and this shall be the name of what I shall unleash upon all of ponykind.

Now... project Tirek begins.