Twilight’s horn dimmed as she finished writing a letter to the Princess. The brown quill slowly fell down on top of the desk while she wrapped the report with a red ribbon. The unicorn then conjured a golden seal that tied the ribbon’s ends together, sealing them with magic.

“Spike?” she asked, looking around the library, trying to find a trace of her assistant. “He must still be asleep. Again . . .”

Her horn glowed a bright purple and she shut her eyes. A blinding light emanated from the tip and in an instant, she was gone, leaving a blaze of purple sparks behind.

Meanwhile, in his room, Spike was napping on top of a large, round, red cushion. Having outgrown the basket a while ago, Twilight decided it was time he got his own room, so a redecorated storage place served that purpose quite well for the time being. Spike hated beds, even if it was now easier for him to climb on them. He felt uncomfortable with their square shape, which didn’t match his recently developed dragon-like sleeping position.

That red cushion was the best birthday present he received from Twilight, as the mare came to realize that books were not very good gifts for a young dragon. A small desk was placed in a corner, parchments, reports and checklists scattered all over it. Near his bed, a small nightstand held a framed picture of him and Twilight from when they were still in Canterlot, both of them smiling on a bench in the Royal Gardens. Near it, a common blue sapphire stood bare, glimmering in the light coming through the room’s small window. It was the one Rarity gave him after helping her find the diamonds she needed to finish an important commission and to that very day, Spike had kept it close to him.

A point of light suddenly appeared in the middle of the room; the spark then formed into a purple sphere of magic which quickly dissipated, revealing a somewhat impatient Twilight.

“Here you are!” she shouted.

Spike jumped out of his cushion, his spines and fins standing up. He quickly turned his head around, trying to figure out where the voice came from. The sight of Twilight levitating a letter made him frown in disappointment.

“Come on, Twilight . . . this was supposed to be my day off, what is so important that couldn’t wait till later?”

He made himself comfortable in the bed, hoping she would leave him alone.

“Spike, I need this sent to the Princess. It’s very important that she gets it as soon as possible!”

The dragon rolled on the bed, not quite ready to part from the comforting cushion. “Okay, okay, I’ll do it,” he huffed as soon as he heard Twilight’s impatient hoof taps.

He stood up slightly, the letter levitating towards him. He took a breath and then shot out green flames that engulfed the parchment, making it disappear.

“So, what did you write about Blink this time?” he asked, a smirk on his groggy, morning face.

Twilight rolled her eyes, bright light engulfing her again as she teleported out of his room. Spike simply shrugged, then curled up and immediately fell back asleep, like nothing had happened.

A small ball of green flames startled Celestia slightly, as a letter materialized in front of her. It was quite a strange timing for a report from her student; she floated the teacup back on the table, grabbing the letter with her magic. Luna snuck a glare from across the table, as she continued to chew on a crème-filled croissant. The sun was gingerly taking its rightful place on the sky as the two rulers of Equestria enjoyed breakfast on a large balcony.

The Princess of the sun finished reading the letter and put it aside, resuming sipping from her tea. Luna was now staring at her sister, having noticed her trying to hide a concern.

“So . . .” Luna calmly spoke, “what news does your prize student bring?”

Celestia’s head jolted slightly, her train of thoughts fading away.

“Twilight? Well, she knows,” the Princess said matter-of-factly. “She feels that something is not right, at least.”

Luna let out a small sigh. “So what actions are we to take?”

“I do not know, sister. When we saw him the first time, he definitely recognized us, although he did seem a bit lost. I am sure however that for the time being, he is completely harmless.”

“But you very well know the potential of his magic . . . and that symbol,” Luna pressed on.

“I know about the symbol and its meaning. I managed last night to put away the last written record of it, in case Twilight gets too curious, which I know she will eventually. We are the only ones in Equestria that know about it and I think it is in the best of interests that it stays like this for now.”

“Still, isn’t it dangerous to leave him with thine student like so?” Luna asked, puzzled by her sister’s calm.

“Twilight is one of the most gifted unicorns I’ve ever seen. I’ve taught her to control her magic and master its art, and I fully trust her doing the same with Blink.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to intervene in this matter thyself?” her sister insisted. All of a sudden, her face brightened up. “Or, better yet, let me take care of it? If thou can have a student, I can have one as well,” she stated, breaking into a soft giggle.

Celestia truly smiled for the first time that day, the built up tension gradually fading away.

“No, dear sister, I’m afraid that wouldn’t be the right choice,” the white alicorn said, still baring a smile. “Besides, Twilight can handle this even better than I could, given the circumstances . . .”

Her sister slowly nodded in agreement, knowing very well that her Celestia’s decisions were always taken with the best intentions in mind. Even the one she took over a thousand years ago.

Celestia’s horn glowed again, a scroll and a quill appearing in front of her. The quill started moving on the surface of the paper, writing out a response for her student. After finishing, the message was wrapped up in the specific red ribbon and royal seal and with another glow of her horn, the letter disappeared.

Celestia turned her gaze towards the far away Ponyville, thinking about how the Elements’ lives would probably change in the near future.

“I trust in thine decisions, sister, and I hope everything will turn out all right. I found out firsthoof about Twilight’s talent and the power of the Elements. I must say, you taught her well,” the younger alicorn added.

Celestia returned a friendly smile, feeling somewhat reassured. “Thank you, Luna. I’m glad we are in this together.” After a pause she added: “Oh, and I must say, thank you for not harming him that night. I know it must have been hard not to do so, considering he’s not from this world and as such, not protected by our promise.”

Luna’s lips turned into a nervous smile, feeling a little embarrassed about her hostile reaction when seeing the blue unicorn for the first time.

I yawned loudly, slowly waking up from what seemed to be the best sleep I had in days. It was probably because that time I wasn’t woken up by any loud noises, banging, or pain for that matter.

The sunlight was invading the entire room inch my inch, and was slowly engulfing my bed as well. I jumped out of it before the light could hit my eyes. It was one of the most unpleasant feelings in the world and I didn’t want to ruin that seemingly perfect morning. In a way, the sun in Equestria seemed somewhat stronger than the one back home.

Little time was spent pondering on that strange fact, as my nostrils suddenly picked up a strange scent. It wasn’t quite the most pleasant of scents and as I moved my head around to figure out its origin, I had a realization.

“Damn it, that’s me.”

The smell was very different from my usual bad body odor but it made sense since I had a totally different body. One thing was certain: I had to get a bath. Or a shower, or whatever ponies did to get cleaned.

I trotted out of the room, remembering there was a tub in the bathroom downstairs. Coincidentally, Spike was dragging his feet out of his room, half asleep.

“Morning, Spike!”

“Woow . . . keep it down, big guy, it’s still too early to be that loud,” the dragon replied, letting out a big yawn, exposing a row of very sharp teeth. “Why does everyone wake up this early when I’m having a day off?” he added, trailing off towards the kitchen.

“Sorry, Spike; anyway, can I ugh . . . take a bath?”

The dragon turned to me, raising an eyebrow and taking a sniff of the air. “Whoa . . . yeah, you can use the bathroom near the stairs. And hurry up, it smells like you’ve been working the fields all day.”

“Is it that bad?” I asked, surprised Spike had picked up the not so pleasant scent from quite a distance.

“Well, no, but us dragons have a good sense of smell, and mine has just started to develop. Now go and get yourself cleaned, you wouldn’t like Twilight to-”

“OK, thanks!” I cut him off, heading towards the bathroom, with sudden warmth in my face.

Spike headed back to the kitchen, a grin on his face. He seemed to enjoy teasing everyone when he had the opportunity, a habit Twilight blamed on him growing up and getting mood swings like all young dragons did.

I entered the bathroom and locked the door behind me, impatient in trying out what was otherwise a mundane task for the normal folk. After several painful minutes of calibrating the water’s temperature using only my mouth to turn the taps, I slipped into the bath, muscles twitching all around from the flooding sensation. The amazing feeling of lightness and warmth engulfed my entire body, while my mind was battling to decide whether that was more pleasant than being magically carried around in a purple mist. Strangely enough, the purple mist won, but all those thoughts faded away as I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, relaxing like I never did before.

Twilight stood near a desk inside her room, having just finished reading Celestia’s response to her letter of concern. Her mentor had given her the task to continue training the stallion, as she was perfectly able to handle his unusual magic surges. She was also asked to encourage Blink in finding a way to fend for himself In the near future, as it would be inappropriate for the unicorn to overextend her hospitality. Lastly, Twilight was pointed out that starting from that point, he was in a way her student, and a strictly professional teacher-pupil relationship was desired between the two of them.

Right before her cheeks were about to turn red because of a wandering thought, a loud knock was heard coming from downstairs. She quickly rushed to see who it was that came to her library during a closed day.

Twilight opened the door to reveal four mares, all with different looks on their faces. Rarity seemed rather serious, which was an uncanny expression for her, Pinkie Pie was all smile as usual, Rainbow Dash was hovering around uninterested and Fluttershy was hiding behind them, an apologetic look on her face.

“Hey girls, come on in!”

“Twilight, I guess somepony is hiding something from her friends,” Rarity started, as they entered the library.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m so happy and excited, we’re going to throw a big welcoming party and we’ll have everypony invited and it will be so, so awesome!” Pinkie shouted in excitement.

Twilight soon realized they found out about the new guest from Fluttershy.

“I’m sorry Twilight, I thought they knew about it,” the yellow pegasus whimpered an apology.

“Don’t worry, Fluttershy, I was about to tell the rest of you about it but I’ve just been caught up in all these things since I found him.”

“It’s all right Twilight, but you could have told us about it earlier, we could have helped. How’s the poor thing feeling now, by the way?” Rarity asked, concern replacing her frown.

“He’s perfectly fine, except for the part that he can’t remember a thing before he was found by Kazooie near his fields, and that we don’t know what his cutie mark is, or if he has any friends or family anywhere in Equestria.”

“See, he’s fine, can we go now? I have stuff to do,” the blue pegasus spoke for the first time, obviously loathing the fact that she’s been dragged there in the first place.

“Rainbow Dash, you were taking a nap on a cloud when we found you, where’s your loyalty to your friends when they need you?” Rarity asked, slightly bothered by her attitude.

“Girls, I’m fine, really, I don’t need any help. He is just staying here until he finds himself a place of his own and a job. I’ll just help him find out what his talent is and train him to remember how to use his magic.”

After getting all cleaned up, I got out of the tub and looked around the bathroom, in search for a towel that was nowhere to be found. Water was dripping from my coat and mane, as they acted like a sponge, absorbing what seemed to be an impressive quantity of water.

“This is going to take some getting used to . . . now where can I find a damn towel around here?”

I felt so strange being soaking wet and without any clothes but I took the challenge of leaving the bathroom to find Spike, who could probably give me something to dry myself with.

I got out of the bathroom, unaware that Twilight and her unexpected guests were right in the main room, near the entrance. As my eyes fell on the multicolored group of ponies in front of me, my heart stopped. I recognized all of them but the shock of actually meeting them left me without words; or motor functions for that matter.

The mares turned their heads to me in unison, their gazes feeling like knives piercing my skin.

“I’m naked,” was the only thought that went through my head.

Water was dripping on the wooden floor from both my mane and body and I couldn’t move a muscle, paralyzed by their looks and the shame bared down upon me.

Rarity had raised a hoof to her mouth in surprise, Fluttershy squeaked, covering her eyes, Rainbow Dash landed on the floor, raising an eyebrow at me and a smirk creeping on her face, and Twilight just stood there blushing, trying to look everywhere around but not directly at me.

Spike suddenly walked into the room from the kitchen, curious about the voices he’d been hearing.

“Hey gang!”

He then saw me and noticed the water dripping off of me. “Sorry dude, forgot to tell you, there are towels in the small drawer inside the bathroom.”

I shot him an angry glare, but before I could go back and grab some, a pink blur rushed to me, grabbing my foreleg and shaking it madly, making water splatter all over the place.

“Hey, I’m Pinkie! I heard you’re new here and that Twilight found you and took care of you and you are all better now but you can’t remember your friends and family so I thought I could be your friend and also throw you a huge ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party and have everyone invited and then you will have lots and lots of friends!”

My jaw dropped at her ability of not taking a single breath during that whole little welcoming speech.

“Hey there . . . Pinkie, I’m uhh, Blink,” was all I could manage to say.

“Name’s Rainbow Dash, best flier around these woods,” the blue pegasus alleged, a wildly confident look on her face.

“And I’m Rarity,” the white mare presented herself, cutting off Rainbow’s attempt to add anything else. “I own Carousel Boutique down by the market. I’m a fashion designer, the only one in Ponyville, if I might add.”

Her somewhat seductive blinking made me involuntarily take a couple of steps back.

“Well, it’s certainly nice to meet you uhh- ladies. If you excuse me I have to . . . ahhh, yes, towel,” I mumbled, backing up into the bathroom and quickly closing the door behind me.

I leaned my back against the door, cringing hard as my heart continued to pound from the recent events. I wasn’t quite the social type and I only behaved normally near friends and people I knew. That however was one the most awkward situations I’d been through since I arrived there and my rapid pulse was a testimony to that.

“Stupid, damn stupid towels; I need to cover myself. I feel so, so very naked . . .”

I searched through the small drawer near the door and grabbed two large white towels. Slowly and very clumsily, I managed to wrap myself in them and then I just sat there, near the door, too scared to get out before everyone else left.

“Fluttershy, you never told us the colt Twilight is housing is such an . . . interesting stallion,” Rarity glared at the quiet pegasus.

“Now wait there just a minute-”

“Where’s Applejack?” Twilight suddenly interrupted Rainbow Dash before an uncomfortable conversation might start.

“I went to Sweet Apple acres to tell her about our welcoming party and also asked her to come with me and welcome our new friend but she was too busy and can only attend the party,” Pinkie said with a frown.

“You’ve already set a date for the party?” Twilight asked, forever intrigued by her friend’s speed when it came to organizing such events.

“Of course silly, it’s today!”

“Today?”

“Yeap, today, right here!”

“HERE?” Twilight asked, surprised. “Well- I- all right, why not,” the unicorn said, admitting defeat. There was absolutely no way she could say no to Pinkie.

“Don’t worry, Twilight, I’ll take care of it all! You and Blink just have to show up, which will be easy since you are already here.” The pink earth pony was all a smile, happy at the prospect of another 'Welcome to Ponyville' party.

“Well then, see you all at the party!” Twilight said, rushing her friends out.

“Be sure to bring that charming-”

Purple magic slammed the door closed, cutting off Rarity’s surprisingly forward request. Twilight rolled her eyes and let out a sigh, looking around the library and imagining all the chaos the party would leave behind.

“Is it safe to come out?” I asked from behind the slightly opened bathroom door.

“Oh sorry, I forgot about you. Yea, you can come out, they’re gone now.”

I stepped into the main room, covered in towels from head to hoof. That drew a chuckle from Twilight as she amused herself on my behalf.

“I never thought of you as a shy one,” she said.

“Well, I’m not that comfortable around new peo- ponies,” I explained, nervously scratching the floor with my front hoof. “Especially when they’re all mares, and I am not wearing anything.”

“It’s all right Blink, they are my best friends, and very kind and friendly ponies. Also, they all represent an Element of Harmony.”

“The Elements . . .” I whispered, realizing who the ponies I met earlier actually were.

“Yeah, you’ve heard of them?” Twilight asked me, curious.

“I’ve- read about them in one of the books you gave me and Spike told me who they belonged to now. Also, about that . . . I wanted to ask you something: when was it that the six of you defeated that Discord guy?”

“Hmm . . . that would be around three years ago.”

“Three years,” I said to myself, my mind trying to fill out all the blanks.

That information was the missing piece in a puzzle that explained a lot of things that were not quite as I expected them to be. That was why Spike was much larger, and that was also why Twilight and all the familiar ponies seemed a bit . . . bigger than I knew them. It wasn’t just because they were real, living and breathing ponies, actual non-imaginary creatures in a world that seemed to be real to me for the last few days. They had grown up, but I knew for certain that all of them were still young, most likely in their twenties.

“If you want, I can tell you the story of how the Elements defeated Nightmare Moon and Discord; some other time, of course, seems that today is going to be quite eventful,” Twilight’s voice faded in, bringing my focus back to the real world.

“Umm, yes, that would be wonderful,” I stuttered out.

“Are you all right? You seemed a little bit . . . away, right there.”

“I’m fine, I was just thinking. I’m going to get dry now, okay?”

Twilight smiled again, amused by the grown up pony wrapped up in towels in front of her. “Okay, just let me know if you need anything.”

I returned to my room and finished drying myself up. It was weird having my coat and mane so puffy after drying it with the towels.

“Need to talk to Twilight about-”

The thought made me feel like an idiot. Asking her how to perform basic hygiene tasks like combing your mane, taking care of your coat or hoof maintenance seemed quite personal. “Maybe there’s a book about it,” I thought, hopefully. That, in turn, reminded me of the ones she gave me to read. They seemed to be general-knowledge books, the kind of lecture you expect to find in school ponies’ curriculum. Most of them were about magic however, their difficulty ranging from initiate levels to medium.

My eyes then fell on a huge, black covered book. It was right at the bottom of the saddlebag Spike gave me. The golden inscriptions on the cover read “Mastering the inner magic”, apparently written by someone called Starswirl the Bearded. The name seemed oddly familiar, but my mind refused to find its origin at that time.

Opening the book at a random page revealed it was certainly not entry-level magic. There were complex diagrams and symbols, incantations, formulas and checklists of steps that needed to be followed before casting certain spells. Notes were scribbled down on the edge of most pages, and bookmarks were placed every now and then between pages, marking more complex things.

It was without doubt Twilight’s personal book, probably the one she used at that time to learn new spells; she either misplaced it or deliberately put it in the saddlebag.

“Wow, this stuff is so complicated,” I thought, my eyes peering over the lengthy instruction of how to cast what seemed to be an illusion spell.

Back home, when it came to learning new stuff, I usually picked an example of that new thing I wanted to learn, an above-the-average exercise, and then I would try to replicate it exactly, breaking the process into smaller, more comprehensible parts. I never liked wasting time with basic concepts and even though most of the time the results were quite good, not learning the simple things first often came back and bit me.

As I read more about that illusion spell, I realized that I’d found my first above-the-average sample of magic to replicate. The incantation seemed complex at a glance, but it allowed a great deal of customization, the caster being able to choose the fidelity of the illusion.

As I flipped the pages, I found out about a somewhat different version of it, perfected by a pony called Bellona the Wise. Her improved spell allowed the cast of multiple illusions that could act in a very realistic way, beyond mimicking the unicorn that created them. Sadly, the details about it were scarce and there were no instructions on how to actually cast the spell.

“Bellona . . . Bellona . . . Why does it sound familiar?”

I searched throughout the book for more references about that pony but failed to find any other. I then started probing my mind for the source of familiarness that name brought.

“I know!” I shouted out loud, “It’s Latin! A name that derives from a goddess of some sort.”

I smiled foolishly, giving myself a mental pat on the back for actually remembering something useful for a change, which was quite a rare occurrence.

“Hmm, she seems interesting, especially her spells. But why are there no other references of her in here?”

The question lingered in my mind for the following minutes but then I realized: “Twilight! She has to know more about her, she knows everything!”

It had been a while since I was that excited about solving a mystery, as I disregarded things that had no major impact on my life. As such, it felt good to actually have something to pursue, an apparently meaningless goal that made me wonder about things that I didn’t know at all.

I got out of bed and grabbed the book with my mouth, rushing out of the room to find the unicorn that might know more about that mysterious pony.

“Tiligh!” I managed to say in front of her room.

The door slowly opened, Twilight standing behind it. She burst into laughter at the sight of me carrying the book in my maw.

“You silly thing, we need to work more on getting you to use your magic properly. Come in!”

I slowly walked into what seemed to be a large study that turned out to be her bedroom. It came as no surprise that books reigned everywhere, large shelves filled to the brim covering the walls. Near the big, wide window that opened up to a balcony facing the fields and forest behind the library, there was a huge desk filled with scrolls and opened books. Quills were scattered around everywhere, even on the floor.

“Well, yousertainly… bleah” I placed the book on a small table nearby, trying my best to not look like a fool. Twilight was still giggling at the sight of my clumsiness, as I then tried to strike a pose of confidence and . . . stallionnes, in an awkwardly funny way.

“Well, as I was trying to say, you certainly like studying, by the looks of it,” I mentioned, looking around her room again, just realizing how many books were actually in there.

“Why thank you, Bli- wait, what’s up with your mane?” she asked, taking a closer look at me.

I immediately noticed my mane was indeed ravaged and had an unkempt appearance, being dried off by towel.

“Didn’t you use a brush?” she asked. “Ohhh, right. I’m sorry, I forgot about your magic; allow me.” Her horn glowed, and a brush flew at her side.

“Whoa there, I think I’m all right, no need for any of that,” I protested, a little bit panicked. Having my long hair brushed by a ‘girl’ was another example of a social situation I was clearly not comfortable with for the moment.

“Blink, I won’t have you look like that here, especially at your welcoming party today.” Her magic suddenly caught me, holding me into place as I tried to back away from the floating brush. “I admit I’m not even half as demanding as Rarity is when it comes to looking . . . presentable, but if my friends see you like this, they’ll think I rescued a savage pony; a ruffian as she would put it.”

The brush was carefully going through my mane, setting it straight and nice. In the meantime, she started sorting some books from her desk, not even looking at the brush going through my mane. I was amazed by her ability to multitask so easily and eventually gave up struggling and just let her do her thing.

“Anyway, I found this in the saddlebag I keep the books you gave me,” I pointed out towards the black book I placed on the table.

“Ohhh, it’s my personal copy of ‘Mastering the Inner Magic’, I was actually looking for that. Thank you, Blink,” she said with a grateful smile.

“But, but . . . I kind of wanted to ask you about something I found in it.”

“You read it?” she asked, suddenly curious.

“No! Well, I kinda skimmed it, and found an interesting spell.”

I used my muzzle to flip the book open at the right page where I placed the bookmark. Twilight came closer to it and looked at the spell I was talking about.

“This is advanced magic, Blink. Even I can’t cast this spell.”

“You can’t do it?” I asked, somewhat taken aback.

“It’s not that it’s too hard or anything like that,” the mare quickly added, a little embarrassed, “there are some spells that every unicorn will not be able to do. This is an example of a spell I can’t cast that easily. Maybe you will be able to do it, but I doubt that.”

“How can some unicorns cast certain spells easier than others?” I asked, intrigued.

“Well, it depends on each unicorn and their personality, so to say. As you can remember from yesterday, when you use your magic, you channel it from within your inner self, using your thoughts. Some spells require special, emotion driven magic, which varies from pony to pony. For example, calm and loving unicorns are better at healing spells, while more violent ones can deal great damage with destructive ones.”

“I didn’t know that. That’s quite interesting . . .”

“You didn’t know that because you haven’t read all the books I told you to read,” Twilight said in a scolding manner. “And besides, even if your magic would improve that much, I’m still not sure if you’ll be able to master that spell. It requires the caster to be quite a deceiver, given the nature of the spell, a master of lies, if I may.”

Lies… having the edge on everyone around me…

“Anyway,” I said, throwing that thought back into the depths of my mind, “it’s not actually about the spell, but more about a mage that perfected it: Bellona the Wise. Her first name sounds a little bit familiar.”

“Hmm,” Twilight pondered, scratching her chin with a hoof. “Bellona the Wise was an interesting mare. Some sources say she was the Captain of the Royal Guard back when Nightmare Moon tried to take over Equestria. There are not a lot of records on her other than that, and all I know is that she perfected certain spells, most of them invented by Starswirl the Bearded himself. Some ponies even say she was his rather personal . . . muse.”

“Anyway,” the purple unicorn continued, “she specialized in deceiving spells, like the one you saw and also other, darker spells, like inducing false visions in other ponies’ minds. The spell she is most known for is on the list of forbidden ones: a spell that grants temporary but complete mind control over others.”

I stood there amazed, not knowing the field of magic was so wide and rich, not to mention dark. “Do you have a book that tells more about her?” I asked with hope.

Twilight looked strangely at me, pondering if she should actually give me more information about a mage that used potentially destructive magic. Even though there were no records of Bellona actually using those spells against ponies in an offensive way, they were still very dangerous in the wrong hooves.

“Well, there’s a book that has more information about her, including some of her personal notes, if you’re that interested. Just . . . don’t try and do anything you read from there. Stick with the basic stuff for the moment, all right?”

“Sure, Twilight, it’s not like I’m a capable magic user or anything. I can barely lift pebbles off the ground,” I said, grinning innocently.

Twilight was somewhat concerned, knowing the actual powers of my untapped magic, the rest being shrouded in mystery and darkness. Having accepted Celestia’s request, she had no other choice but to work with me to find out my talent and bring the best out of it.

“Wait here a moment, I need to find it.”

Twilight’s horn started glowing and after several seconds of concentration, a small book from a top shelf flew towards us.

“This contains information about her spells and everything we know about her life, which is not much, to be honest.”

“Thanks a lot! I just want to know more about her, for some reason. I’m not that interested in her spells . . .”

“Okay then, Blink, I’ll have to go back to my work now, gotta finish everything by the time Pinkie comes by to start the party preparations. We’ll resume training tomorrow, just make sure you read those books I gave you,” she recapped with that serious teacher face of hers.

“All right; thanks again and see you later!”

I went straight back to my room and began reading from the book she gave me. It contained indeed, information about other spells Bellona had been studying or perfecting and near the end of the book I managed to find some more details about her.

Apparently, there was no information about her family or the way she became acquainted with Starswirl the Bearded. Most of her personal notes were about her research and I couldn’t understand most of them anyway, because of the terms used. The last few pages were bearing a different type of notes. There were no diagrams or lists at all, and it seemed even more impossible to read. It wasn’t because of the terms, I realized the page was written in another language.

“Damn it, this must be so old . . .” I thought, frustrated.

I looked to the end of the page and there was absolutely no translation. I then searched right before the notes started and found written with a different font, right before them: “These personal notes belonging to Bellona the Wise were found after her untimely death. They are written in an unknown language and nopony has yet managed to translate them.”

I started reading the actual text with more attention and soon recognized the language, to my amazement, as Latin, and quite an early version by the looks of it. I began cursing the hours I hadn’t pay attention in Latin class, back in school. I understood basic words and meanings but not everything, not by far.

I carefully analyzed the first sentence, feeling my heartbeat getting faster and faster. Why were the notes written in Latin? Why were there only two or three pages of them, and most importantly, why Latin?

As my mind desperately tried to remember the meaning of certain words, the pieces of the first sentence started to fall in order, one by one. It helped a lot that my first language was Latin-based, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to decipher any of it.

And then, my eyes fell on the last word in the sentence, the mystery behind it finally being resolved as I struggled to understand the implications of what I had in front of me.

“Equestria sideras sunt ita lucidum et pulchra, sed ego deesset quos a domum, a roma . . .”

“The stars in Equestria are so bright and beautiful, but I still miss the ones from back home, from Rome . . .”