It was just another day in school for our adventure group, studying a bit during their lunch hour.
"I. Hate. Studying." Cherry groaned as she banged her head on the table.
"Who doesn't?" Mo asked.
"Atticus." Cherry smirked.
Atticus glanced over and Cherry chuckled to him.
"She's not wrong." Patch shrugged.
"Fair enough." Atticus shrugged back.
"I don't mind school and all, really I don't, but studying is killing me..." Cherry groaned. "Studying regular classes and magic classes is just murder on me."
"I'd really like to go to Equestria right now." Atticus said.
"I'd rather go anywhere but here..." Cherry groaned as her head hit the table again.
Mo let out a small yawn as she took out her book to keep studying a bit. They soon saw their Equestrian Medallions and Patch's dog tag disguised necklace glow, telling them one thing.
"Free at last! Free at last! Thank Celestia almighty, we are free-" Cherry soon beamed and stood on top of the table.
The other students soon stared at her like she was crazy.
"At last...?" Cherry said sheepishly.
"No standing on school property, Miss Butler." Mr. Kraft told Cherry as he passed by.
"Yes, Mr. Kraft." Cherry smiled sheepishly.
Some of the others laughed at Cherry as she got down from the table.
"Loser." Cassandra smirked as she stood with Tiffany and Margo.
"Come on, Cherry, let's get some fresh air." Atticus suggested.
"Alright." Cherry said.
But before they could leave...
"Cherry Butler, Atticus Fudo, Monique Brown, and, uh, Patch Fudo to the principal's office." A familiar voice announced.
Cherry had slightly wide eyes before gulping to that.
"Now, now, it can't be that bad." Atticus smiled, showing his usual optimism.
"Heh... You're right... Maybe Mom misses me at work." Cherry said nervously.
They soon went to the principal's office and saw Drell.
"My worst nightmares are REAL!" Cherry panicked to the others.
"You four are dismissed from school." Drell said as he mind controlled the real principal.
"You four are dismissed from school." The principal repeated in a robotic tone.
The four looked to each other before looking back.
After they left the school with Drell...
"Did you really have to control the principal?" Patch asked. "We were gonna get to Equestria anyway. We always do this, it's like when the Powerpuff Girls get a call on the hotline. It goes off, we dash, end of story."
"And how would you explain how long you were gone?" Drell asked.
"Simple! We would-Uh... Um... We..." Cherry replied stopping and looking puzzled before mumbling so he wouldn't hear. "Never mind."
"And which why I did this." Drell said as everyone ran out before the school exploded.
Atticus, Cherry, Mo, and Patch looked jaw-dropped over what just happened.
"DRELL?! WHAT THE F-" Cherry yelped.
"This way, you guys don't get expelled for any missed school days." Drell said.
"Did you have to destroy the school?!" Cherry asked.
"Oh... And what would you do?" Drell replied before smirking, crossing his arms. "Call in sick pretending to be your mother?"
"Dang it." Cherry groaned as that was what she would have done.
"This seems important, Drell, are you coming with us?" Atticus asked him as they left the school grounds.
"Yes, I am," Drell nodded. "Along with your father."
"Patrick's coming?" Cherry asked. "This should be interesting."
"Come along now, I'll explain later." Drell told them urgently.
"Boy, this Equestrian adventure sounds intense already." Mo commented.
"And you'll understand why when we arrive at Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's throne room." Drell told her.
The others looked to him before looking to each other as they soon went into the park where no one would see them.
Once there, the portal to Equestria opened up, and they soon jumped through it to begin a brand new Equestrian adventure, and where the portal made them appear in the Princesses' throne room in their pony forms. The Princesses looked over.
"Your Majesties~" Cherry said in a royal accent before bowing.
"Are we early?" Drell asked the royal pony sisters.
"Maybe just a little bit," Princess Celestia replied. "Why don't you all relax?"
Atticus, Cherry, Mo, and Patch fell to the floor, falling asleep.
"Looks like they're way ahead of you, Celestia." Patrick chuckled.
"They act like I haven't let them get a full night's sleep in a while." Drell said.
"I don't think ya have." Patrick smirked.
Drell then shot him a look in response to that.
"When was the last time they got any sleep?" Patrick smirked.
"...Shuddap." Drell muttered.
"My point exactly." Patrick smirked.
Sunburst soon came in.
"Hey, Sunburst!" Patrick smiled. "Long time, no see."
"Hey, Patrick." Sunburst smiled back.
"Where's Emily?" Sunburst wondered.
"A bit busy," Patrick replied. "She sends her love. I didn't want her to worry, but luckily, our daughter Jessica won passes to a spa so they could decompress and relax."
"That's great." Sunburst smiled.
"She got a little emotional when I told her I had to come here alone." Patrick replied.
"I imagine so," Drell said. "Emily's always been an emotional woman."
Sometime later, the Mane Six, Starlight, and Spike soon arrived. Luckily, the others woke up by then.
Cherry yawned, putting her hoof to her mouth a bit before smiling in a daze. "That was the best sleep I've had in a long time."
Drell rolled his eyes slightly before seeing the group coming into the throne room. "All right... Now that we're all here." he then said.
"I've made a discovery," Sunburst told the others. "It's from Star Swirl the Bearded's journal."
"Cool." Atticus smiled.
"Please, let me see." Princess Celestia said.
"Of course, Princess." Sunburst replied as he allowed her to.
"This should be interesting." Patch said.
Everyone came closer together as Princess Celestia took a look at the journal page.
"'The best elements within us can spread light and virtue, and I know ponies who represent them all – strength, bravery, healing, beauty, hope, and sorcery," Princess Celestia read aloud for a bit which told the adventure group a bit more since they weren't native to Equestria. "Myself and these Pillars of Equestria were gathered together by another to maintain and share the light of these powerful ideals. But we soon came to believe the pony who brought us together only wanted that power for himself. Cast out and alone, this power-mad pony turned to darkness to satisfy his thirst. Transformed into a Pony of Shadows, he returned for revenge – to extinguish the Pillars' light and rob the world of hope. To stop him, the Pillars and I must make a grave sacrifice. But we shall leave behind a seed in hopes that one day it will grow into a force to stand against the darkness for all time. We must now face the fiend with the only plan we have, I only hope it will be enough'," she then concluded before smiling. "I've always wondered what happened to Star Swirl. This is quite a discovery, Sunburst."
"Yeah, where'd you find it?" Atticus asked Sunburst.
"It was lost until I found it in my study, and I decided to look it over." Sunburst replied.
"So it's genuine?" Twilight asked as she looked very excited. "You can verify that this journal really belonged to Star Swirl the Bearded?!"
"Indeed. From the looks of it, the last thing he wrote before facing the Pony of Shadows." Princess Luna confirmed.
"What do you think happened to him and The Pilars of Light?" Mo asked.
"DOOOOOM!" Cherry said dramatically.
The others glanced at her and she grinned sheepishly.
"If that were true, Patrick and I would have remembered this world doomed to be in darkness." Drell told her.
"Lighten up, I was just kidding." Cherry smiled sheepishly.
"Princess Luna, Celestia, do you guys know what happened with the Pillars of Light?" Patch asked.
"We never met the other Pillars, and we were too young to understand the danger they faced." Princess Luna said.
"But Patrick and I did." Drell said.
"Hold on a second now!" Applejack spoke up. "All those legendary ponies were real, too? And they went off with Star Swirl to face the Pony of Shadows, and then none of them were ever heard from again?"
Sunburst nodded to her.
"Uh, yeah," Pinkie Pie smiled. "Weren't you listening?"
"But what happened to them all?" Fluttershy asked, referring to Star Swirl the Bearded and the Pillars of Light.
"They must have defeated the villain, since Equestria is still full of light and hope." Rarity suggested with a smile.
"But how? And where did they go?" Starlight replied.
"My Olde Ponish is a bit rusty, but I wonder if the answers can be found somewhere within the pages of this book." Princess Celestia told the others.
"Twilight, do you think you could translate the Olde Ponish?" Patrick asked Twilight.
Twilight's eyes widened before she smiled innocently. "Well, I just happen to be an expert in Olde Ponish," she then said, trying not to brag, but she did sound proud of herself. "I mean, I've practically memorized every ancient text about Star Swirl there is!"
"Seriously. All of them." Spike groaned slightly.
"Wow, guess we found our translator then." Drell said.
"We have fond memories of our old teacher," Princess Luna said as she gave the book to Twilight who happily took it. "If you could discover what happened to him, we would be most grateful."
Twilight held the book in her hooves, feeling very excited.
"Solving a thousands-year-old mystery could take forever!" Sunburst gasped before he sounded excited. "Think of the research! The re-reading! The re-re-reading!"
"Yeah, sounds like fun." Drell rolled his eyes.
Sunburst held out his hoof. Drell scoffed and hoof-bumped him back.
"You might find you need help." Princess Celestia advised.
"Luckily she's got plenty of help right here." Atticus said.
"Totally!" Rainbow Dash added. "Uh... How long will all this research take, exactly?"
"Probably not too long." Mo assured.
"Let's get this back to my library," Twilight smiled to her friends. "I'm sure we'll figure out what happened in no time."
"Yeah." Patch nodded.
Everyone else grew excited as they left the throne room.
"Looks like we got our hooves full." Drell said to Patrick.
"Looks like it." Patrick said.
"We better help the kids out a bit," Drell suggested. "This might be intense for them for Star Swirled with Celestia and Luna, I mean, it's like Zelda with Merlin."
"Right." Patrick nodded.
The others soon came to Twilight's library, and Cherry looked weary as she felt like she was back in school now.
Spike yawned as he replaced the old candle with a new one since this took quite a while. "Figure it out yet, Twilight?" He asked with a yawn.
Twilight shook her head with a pencil in her mouth. Atticus began to look like he was about to lose it.
Sunburst asked as he suddenly woke up. "What did you figure out?"
Pinkie Pie gasped with a smile. "You figured something out?" She then licked a cupcake off of her eye and ate it.
"Please tell us that you figured something out." Mo begged. Twilight.
"Nothing," Twilight sighed. "I mean, Star Swirl was a genius, obviously. But forget Olde Ponish. There's parts where his hornwriting is like another language!" she then groaned, feeling troubled in her current situation.
"Twilight, we've been studyin' and referencin' and cross-referencin' for three days straight now." Applejack said, tiredly.
"We've been here for three days?!" Cherry gasped as she sat up in alarm.
"Don't worry, I left your families notes telling them where you'd be." Drell told the others.
"Mom's at the Spa by the way with your sister." Patrick smiled to Atticus.
"I guess that was your idea?" Atticus hid a small knowing smirk.
"Yep." Patrick smirked back.
"Ugh. I haven't spent this much time reading since the last Daring Do book came out." Rainbow Dash groaned and stretched, popping her bones a bit.
"Perhaps it is time to take a break," Rarity suggested. "This mystery is over a thousand years old, after all. Another day or two won't make a difference."
"Rarity's right." Mo said.
Starlight soon came in with some refreshments.
"Two days?! I don't want to waste two seconds!" Twilight replied. "I'm close to an answer. I can feel it."
"Twilight would be amazing with The S.A.T's." Cherry commented.
"She sure would." Atticus said.
They soon followed the others as Twilight came to her chalkboard.
"'Hearg sylfum se Ponhenge'," Starlight read aloud. "What's that?"
Twilight rushed to Starlight's side with wide eyes. "The Temple of Ponhenge?! You can read that?!"
"The hornwriting's pretty sloppy, but it's nowhere near as bad as mine," Starlight smiled bashfully before she went back to reading aloud. "'Toward dol grimlic of Fola Firgenbeorg'?"
Twilight and the others soon turned to Sunburst for translation.
"'At the base of Foal Mountain'..." Sunburst pushed his glasses back within shock.
"'User endemest scield'." Starlight continued to read.
Twilight gasped as she knew what that meant. "'Our last stand'."
"Well, that sure sounds like a clue to me." Spike yawned as he blew out the candle before falling asleep on his pillow.
Sunburst soon brought out another book, flipping it to the page with a picture in it that seemed to coordinate with the journal entry.
"Oh, boy... Field trip!" Cherry cheered before yawning.
"Let's get going." Drell said.
They soon left the library and moved to their next location as it was a bit dark.