Toiling in the gardens brought no joy the past couple of days, most of her time was spent just staring off absentmindedly into the distance. No matter how many times she tried to convince herself he had lied or not told the WHOLE truth it just never worked out, after all she read so much of Equestrian history suddenly made sense. The good, bad and ugly had been laid out for her to see and no matter how she tried to push it aside the thoughts kept creeping back to haunt her. In fact it was so bad she had gotten very little done the past few days, today she just sat and stared out over the pond.

Strangely no servants bothered her, they avoided her, only collecting her or bringing food. Valkardian must have left her here to think it all over, was he toying with her now? No, if that were true he would have put her right back to work, not given her all the time she needed. Sighing, Shadow stood up and went back to tending the mushrooms and mosses near the waters edge. If she ever wanted to get back into the library she would have to finish her tasks and quickly, though disturbing she was intent on learning the rest of the story about the rise of Equestria.

Preparations were complete, now Valkardian just had to wait for Shadow to finish her tasks. They were few compared to the first time she had been sent out, that was very much on purpose, until his slave calmed down she would not be able to focus on what he had prepared for her. It had been a very LONG time since he had done anything like this but the thought of it brought him a degree of happiness and joy. The real test was if Shadow recovered from her shock and was still willing to listen to him, if she recovered and wanted to know more...

All the tasks had been completed and Shadow had to admit that she felt calmer now, tending the garden had helped, she had to admit Valkardian knew what he was doing. Today however, instead of being ushered outside or to his study the servants had left her stumped. Gone were the usually work or serving clothes, instead there was a simple pair of blue tunic, trousers and red robe. After dressing and looking herself over in a mirror Shadow left the room and a servant waited patiently holding a book bag, handing it over and beckoning she followed. Going through the contents a bit it dawned on her what was going on, the contents were blank journals, charcoal pencils, ink wells, quills, parchment and... So THAT is what he was up to.

Stepping into the library she was led off to a different side and into another wing of the library, this one seemed to serve as part museum and library. A table was prepared on one side along with everything needed to hold a class for one. Tomes were stuffed and stacked high on library trollies, scrolls were heaped all over the place. Whatever he was planning she was going to be here for some time.

Grabbing the last tome that might prove useful and heading back to the "classroom" he had set up Valkardian was well aware of Shadows presence, the servant had informed him of her arrival. Walking up one of the long hallways created by the immense bookshelves he quickly strode up beside her. "Have a seat and lay your materials out, you have been to school before yes?" A small nod from her he continued "Good, sit, I will find out what you know FIRST then we will begin." Gesturing to the chair Shadow quickly sat and began to lay her journals and other materials out, without glancing back he caught the end of a question: why?

"Simple, when I first brought you here I figured you would make a useful slave and eventually get rid of you either by release or killing you. However, you became so amusing it intrigued me, not only that you showed intellect, curiosity, desire to know the truth, courage, daring and even bravery; all things considered that is no small feat. I decided to test you by allowing you into my library to see what you would DO when confronted with endless possibilities. That you would go straight for Equestrian history after I planted that seed of doubt in your mind, not only did you not scoff at what was written, you desired to know more. Your fighting tooth and nail with my servants proved your desire to KNOW outweighed fear of repercussions and also... Well more importantly than anything it showed you were willing to rethink everything you know about the world and its rulers. A willingness to "rock the boat" and see it for what it is rather than what you have been TOLD it is."

Taking a long breath he continued "This endeared you to me greatly little Shadow, I happen to believe... Unlike those ABOVE... That a mind is a terrible thing to waste, especially one that shows your degree of curiosity and willingness to learn. Never if given the chance will I allow a travesty like that to pass, therefor you will be my student from now until I say otherwise. Your mind is sharp along with your tongue at times, I will not allow that to go to waste. Bear in mind that does NOT mean you will be getting out of here (gesturing around him) and going home, it means you will learn and hopefully develop into something greater than..." Valkardian stopped to grit his teeth while looking up as if he was seeing the world above "Than some simple minded, inferior, though amusing and jolly... Brainwashed pony that thinks the world is all sunshine and cakes." His head snapped back to her and a glow was apparent in his blue eyes. "Does that answer your question and do you understand what I have said?"

Shadow let his speech sink in a moment before nodding slowly "Yes Master." How odd, he had never before called her by NAME, it was always BAT or SLAVE, maybe a combination. Never, EVER had he simply called her SHADOW. What wise the price of failure in his "class?" Best not to find out, who knows, this might be incredibly interesting if this room was anything to go by.

Week after week passed, each lesson was simple at first, mostly her listening, asking a question now and then, being shown around the various museum pieces. What had excited her was when he went into depth one day on the flora and fauna. Apparently when he first came the caves were mostly devoid of life, through magical tinkering and genetic manipulation (which usually ended in failure) he had managed to create a vast host of new plant and animal life. There were even a kind of "cave bee" that pollinated the crops and "flowers" throughout the cave system.

What struck her though was just how MUCH wildlife there was, apparently his garden was quite limited, it was made for his personal use and as such he would not permit the other creatures of life into it less problems occur. When pressed as to what kind he simply explained it as a "cycle of life and death" as one plant or animal gets out of control till it causes problems, dies off, replaced by another and on it goes. He preferred to keep his garden just the way it was and only occasionally (apparently every century or so) add a new plant here or there.

Journal after journal was filled, scrolls packed with scribbles and it was not enough. Shadow was enjoying every moment of her classes, including the ones on the servants themselves. When asked why he was allowing her to know something that might bite him in the flank he only smiled and said: "Betraying me is the least of your problems" and kept going with the lesson. That worried her, so he had figured she MIGHT use this information against him, then again... What was out there in those tunnels?

A question answered a few months later, he bounced her back and forth on history, alchemy, biology and even astronomy of all things. Creatures existed in those tunnels from before his time that made her shiver, true nightmares. Some would drain her blood, others dissolve her slowly from the inside out like the giant spiders. the worst though were the ones that put a parasite on the spine and attached to the brain feeding on it, laying eggs in the stomach and as he described it: "Infest the host from the inside, hatch, consume the organs leaving the vital ones intact so the host lives. The final stage the maggots consume the muscle and other tissues while a neuro-toxin keeps the host alive. After two days they cacoon in the body and..." To make matters worse he had a living "hologram" as he called it showing the process stage by stage. Not that it mattered, he never got to finish, Shadow was retching on the floor. All he did was smirk at this before magic cleaned the floor and herself as well.

Many horrors lurked down here, waylaying her fears though saying that they rarely left the deeper caves, preferring the deep, dark, hot and humid atmosphere to the dryer, cooler habitat above where they were. Also, it was easy to kill them and stop the infestation, even after infection one could break free, the parasite needed a few days to take effect. A simple cave moss killed them immediately, eggs included. Simply ingesting it was enough to stop it. Shadow had begun to memorize every single healing moss, plant and fungi in the caves. Oh how vast these caves were...

Riveted to her seat one class covered the vastness of the cave network, layer upon layer, some mere tunnels others grand caves like the one they were in, his home sat in a corner gallery. Cities could be swallowed up by the caves and despite their age some magic kept them stable, explaining it simply as the magic that bound all creation of this "pocket dimension" together.

A field trip! She was being taken on a field trip! She had written a few more letters home, even getting letters BACK somehow... Apparently he had set up a fake post office box somewhere out there on the world above just for her that kept moving so it seemed that she was always moving around as well, still exploring the world. He was thorough. Today though she was going to see a part of history, a "living museum" as he put it to "ancient history." Valkardian explained that they would be transported most of the way, the last two days hike would be on foot. He even asked if she intended to try and escape since she would be close to the surface.

Truthfully she had said no, there was so much more she wanted to learn and after the lesson on the caves... However evil he might be, it was still safer to be with him than on her own, not to mention she had no idea what part they would be in not that it would help to have known that either. The "portal" as he called it was housed securely in a side chamber, completely inert till special crystals were placed in a specific order, no one would be able to use it from EITHER end until this was done he explained. Kept anyone from sneaking in. Somewhere far away a group of servants were placing matching crystals in place, thus the system would turn on and a functioning portal would lead off to somewhere.

Placing the last crystal in place and gesturing the runes glowed and the portal opened, she could see servants on the other side waiting. She went first of course, twitching with each step before Valkardian finally told her to just push the fear aside and get on with it. Hopping through one side and appearing somewhere else made her feel funny for a second but it passed, he was right behind her and off they went. A large force of guards waited, these were... Different, to say the least. They looked more like true soldiers than simple guards. VERY heavily armed, covered in plate armor, helmets, burning red or blue eyes. Counting quickly there must be around two hundred of them, were they for her safety, imprisonment or... HIS safety? She did not want to find out.

Why not just "teleport" she had asked... That can be detected he said... The hike was rough and hard, once upon a time long, long ago a road had run through the caves to where they were going, but that was not near the "new" portal system the old one having been shut down because of whatever happened. A single large tent was magically produced each night, she had a cot to herself while he usually left and stayed outside doing... Something, she asked he brushed her question off.

The past few months she felt less and less like a slave and more a student, she WAS a student but still, he had kind of? Treated her like a slave at first though more like a maid, now however he called her by name regularly. What would happen when this ended? Was this field trip the beginning of the end? There is no way he would spend this much time teaching her to simply turn around and kill her, she knew that but it made her worry all the same. Was she to be a "protege" of his? Not possible, she had no magic and he was burning up with it, she was fairly certain he could give Celestia one heck of a run for her money, quietly admitting to herself she never found out one way or the other if that were true. Tomorrow they would arrive and her field trip would begin in earnest, staring at the canopy above with its strange blue glowing crystal she slipped off to sleep at its glow diminished.