Mom had left for work some time ago, so for the moment I was only one home. I was using the kitchen table to do some writing. I had some small grants to do the research on the Everfree, but I could use more money. It had been very difficult to get what little I got, as the work I was going to do was so dangerous, few were willing to spend coin on a project that was unlikely to produce anything. At least my marefriend was willing to come along and help.

“Welcome home, Ruby are you…” I greeted my sister, but my question ended on a downturn, as she seemed to be so deep in thought that she didn’t notice nor hear me as she walked to her room. “...feeling better?”

I know that she went out to cool off from what happened earlier, but she was not acting depressed, like I would expect, but lost. Okay, what happened? I put down the grant letter I was writing to follow her. I knocked on the door frame of Ruby’s bedroom door before I entered the already-opened door. Hopefully, this time, she might be inclined to talk. “Ruby... are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine… Um, Dowsy…” She ignored the scowl that I gave her over the use of the nickname, “could you take a look at this compass, and tell me what you see?”

“It looks like a simple pocket watch style compass to me.” I noted with boredom after being handed the compass.

“With your horn, dumbass.” Ruby growled in irritation over my dumb act.

I knew that she knew it looked like a simple compass, but she clearly wanted to know if it really was enchanted, why else would she ask me to look at it? I smirked, acting dumb was payback for the Dowsy nickname, though I would have helped her, anyway. I lit my horn and began to examine the compass.

I could see that it was enchanted, but not with a simple want it, need it, find it enchantment, assuming that it was pony magic. Furthermore, I could feel a massive amount of raw magic buried deep under the enchantment. That made no sense. If this compass was supposed to help one find what they need, or where they need to go, then it would not need this much mana, unless it was designed to have a range the size of the world. Even then, there was no need for this much. A quick mental calculation told me that it had at least thirty times the necessary mana for that.

I nearly dropped the compass from that. That was an unheard-of level of magic. I remember the record for the largest well of mana in a pony at just under a third of the mana in the compass. Why would anyone put that much mana into a compass?

I concentrated harder, trying to get down the thread of the enchantment. I need to find out why. But every time I thought I got it, the thread would change. Several times, I could see that the threads of magic became orderly, only to find that it was merely a mirage. Once, I was even sure that I saw that the threads forming into a familiar prank spell that changed one’s fur color.

I was very familiar with prank spells, thanks to some less than mature ponies at the University. Those ponies figured out real quick that it was hard to prank me, as I could deconstruct a prank spell extremely quickly and efficiently. It got so bad for them that they stopped trying to prank me. Sadly, because of this, the University designated me as the go-to pony when the staff needed assistance dealing with pranks or out of control spells. It annoyed me to no end, even though it did pay for my tuition and books.

After a while, I began to become frustrated. Whatever spell or enchantment was on the compass, it was either extremely well done or an idiotic mess. The more I looked at it, however, the more I suspected that it was both. It was like the enchantment was playing a joke with me, simply because I was trying to understand it. Playing a joke?! My eyes widened as I suddenly remembered something. Could this be one of those?

“Where’d you get this?” I looked at Ruby.

“From that crazy pony that lives in the crystal tree castle.” Ruby shrugged like it was nothing. “He had a whole chest of sextants… who needs that many!?”

“Um… okay…” I blinked. I could not believe that not only had Ruby seen the ‘crazy’ old stallion, but been inside the castle! No one had ever seen him properly. Some had tried on dares (myself included) to get a picture of him, but all either ended up chickening out, or losing the camera. I have no idea how she managed to do what no one else had in twenty years, and get the pony to give something to her, on top of that. Maybe he felt sorry for her. Ruby does have a really bad reputation, in a way, worse then the crazy pony had… One that she most definitely didn’t deserve...

“He said that it would help me, by pointing me to where I need to go…to get answers about myself…who I am... or something like that.”

“Then what are we waiting for?”

“What?” Ruby looked a bit confused and taken back. She had clearly not even decided what to do about the compass, much less how to follow the pony’s directions. Given that mom would not tell her where the her egg came from, outside the obvious lie of ‘family heirloom.’ I think I knew at one time but I may have forgotten. The accident during Ruby's third birthday had messed up my memory, and everything before that is a bit vague. The last time Ruby tried to inquire from mom and push for the truth was met with less than stellar results. Never in my life did I see mother so angry like that. After that, she kept quiet about it.

“Pack for a hiking trip, we leave in the morning.”

“But, don’t you have to do that research of yours?”

“Yes, but I have lots of time to do that,” I shrugged. “Besides, the compass is pointing towards the Everfree. Plus, what kind of big brother would I be if I let my little sister go gallivanting about in the wild without help?”

“Thanks!” Ruby hugged me lightly. “You're the best.”

I spent the rest of the afternoon digging gems from the gem fields about an hour’s walk east of Castle Town. I usually only get a small amount of gems to eat, but, given I had no idea how long the trip could get, I gathered enough to fill my backpack halfway. I managed to get back as the sun was beginning to set.

It was quite an awkward dinner that night. Mom tried several times to make conversation, but it fell flat every time. I was really too lost in thought, and Dowsy was not going to say anything more about his research. He had made it clear after the third attempt by Mom to get him to see ‘reason.’

I wrote an entry into my journal, and then packed it, along with the canteens of water and trail mix that I had packed up earlier. We had agreed not to tell our mother, and to leave very early in the morning, after leaving a note on the kitchen table. Neither of us wanted to leave with a fight, and somehow, I don’t think I could face mom and tell her I was going to wherever the compass led. I might have ended up relenting…

I awoke from something lightly shaking me. I grumbled and turned over to try and get more sleep. After two bad nights, all I wanted was more sleep.

“Ruby.” Dowsy whispered from somewhere nearby. “It’s time to go.”

I groaned and reluctantly got up. The sun had only just started to rise, and, as much as I wanted to get more sleep, if we were going to slip out and make decent progress, we needed to leave now. I rolled my eyes at Dowsy, seeing him smirking at me. I stuck my tongue out as I grabbed my backpack, and then I followed him quietly out of the house.

As we approached the Everfree forest, I could see a unicorn mare waiting for us. She was a light green, with a long flowy blond mane and tail. I noted that her emblem was a leaf above a pestle and mortar.

“Name’s Minty Leaf,” she shook my paw in greeting, which was a bit of a surprise for me, “but everypony calls me Minty.”

“You’re more than assistant, aren’t you...” I smirked as I recognized her smell, even though I had never met her before today. Dowsy’s panicking expression only confirmed it for me. “You’re my brother’s marefriend, aren't you.”

“How…” Minty began, before she giggled. “Oh, that’s right! Dowser told me that you had a very keen sense of smell…”

Telling secrets about me, eh? I eyed Dowsy with an upraised brow. He tried to hide his building nervousness, but was failing, as I could start to smell it. Oh, this is going to be sweet.

“Tell me everything.” I begged, eliciting a giggle from Minty.

“Come on,” Dowsy interrupted us, a little louder then was probably necessary. “Let’s go before…”

“WAIT!!” A scream now interrupted him. It was from the one pony we had gotten up early to try and avoid, Mom. We turned to see my mom galloping faster then I think I’ve ever seen her run, even faster than when I accidently burned Dowsy...

“...Mom wakes up and finds our note…” Dowsy facehooved as he finished his no longer needed plea.

Mom came to a screeching halt in front of me. “Ruby! Please don’t go!” She started to sob uncontrollably. “If you go looking for your past… and find it... I can’t lose you…”

I was momentarily stunned by Mom. Most of all, I had no idea what she meant by the whole ‘If you find your past, I’ll lose you’ part, but Elegant Prose was my mother, and will remain my mother, no matter what I find out. She raised me, after all. Sure, my mom has made mistakes, but she did her best as a single mother. I would never stop loving her.

“I love you mom, but I need to know where I came from. Why I was left in your care...” I leaned down and wiped the tears from my mom’s face. “I need to do this…”

For a brief moment, while I pleaded with my eyes, I thought that maybe she would try to further convince me to stay. But then, she sagged and looked to the ground, defeated. “Okay honey.” She whispered dejectedly.

I honestly wasn’t expecting this. I was expecting a fight of words, where I would have to wear her down, or leave on a sour note. For a moment, I was lost as to what to say or do, before I too teared up.

“Thanks mom.” I hugged my mom, then kissed her on the cheek. I turned back to join Dowsy and Minty.

“Keep her safe, Magic Dowser.” I could hear my mom call out as we entered the forest.

Everfree was everything that the tales said, dark and foreboding, with one exception: the part about the forest being alive and evil seemed to be an exaggeration. We had no issues on our march through the forest. Dowsy did, however, keep an eye on the ley lines, just in case, while, every so often, I would check the compass to see where we needed to go.

After a while, I got tired of the overly tense feelings radiating from the two, especially my brother. Yes, the forest was dark and foreboding, thanks to the thick canopy and overgrown underbrush. And yes, we needed to be on the lookout for predators, but all that fear and tenseness would most assuredly attract them. I knew just the way to lighten the mood: tell embarrassing things about Dowsy to Minty.

“Hey, Minty,” I loudly ‘whispered’ to Minty. “Did my brother tell you his ‘cutey wootey’ nickname?”

“Ruby…” Dowsy warned. He really didn’t like that name, as it was embarrassing. And I knew the last thing he wanted was his marefriend knowing.

“OOoo what is it?” Minty grinned, clearly over a chance to see her stallion turn red.

“Dowsy.” I grinned before I had to suppress a giggle along with Minty over Dowsy’s reaction.

I couldn't tell if Dowsy was being red from anger, or from embarrassment. I'm sure he was angry at me, as he didn’t like that nickname, and probably also embarrassed, over the fact that his marefriend now knew that name. I bet he wishes I had been a boy... Then, maybe, he would have gotten a cooler nickname or, barring that, I would have not told his marefriend such an embarrassing name.

“I’d have been fucked either way…” He grumbled to himself, just loud enough for me to hear. He must have realized it could have actually been worse…

“I’ll tell you the story later… when we are alone...” I whispered to Minty, eliciting another suppressed giggle from the mare, and another groan from Dowsy.

Author's Notes:

For those in the know shush and spoiler tags, please.

For those not in the know spoilers in the comments

I made a slight formatting change due to a review but I would love to see what others think. Anytime there is a change to 1st person narration this will appear beforehand:

ബഐബഐബഐ (insert character) ബഐബഐബഐ

And when it ends:

ബഐബഐബഐബഐബഐബഐ