-Important-
The following chapter is a compilation of messages and exerts from the journal of Prince moon. any italicized lettering you see is breaking from the exerts of the journal and is used to display the main characters speaking or any observations made about the journal.
if you dont know what italicized means... it looks like THIS!
You could only imagine the surprise on our faces, well... Me and twilight were surprised, and I'm going to assume that snowbelle was surprised too. We needed some place to go to read through this, and I sure as hell didn't want to go back to that inn. We were walking around town thinking of a place to stay when snowbelle suggested we could stay at the castle as guests. She said we could stay in the room that they offered for the prince. We decided that was the best solution and we headed right over to the palace.
The room we were staying in was a large ornate room with bookcases lining the walls and a large king sized bed which was covered with ornate and neatly folded sheets and blankets. The room was huge, definitely a room fit for a prince. We didn't waste any time cracking open the journal and reading the whole thing. So the three of us sat down around the room and I started reading from the journal. And it was a very eye opening experience.
This is the journal of prince moon: dated November 23 2015...
November 23, 2015: Day one- after a rough week of staying abroad an airship I've finally arrived at neverspring... It's a lot colder than I anticipated. I've decided to keep a journal and acquired this one at a general store not far from the docks. Already I can see that the rumors about the third horn of the four horns gate being gone, which is strange indeed. I didn't notice anything suspicion as we flew over the gate, and nothing happened as we passed by, but that could be because we were on an airship.
It's later in the day now and I've already met with the wizard, the knight commander and the king. The ponies here are very friendly but I can see that this country is suffering economically. They have offered me a room and treated me like a guest here at the castle. They have given me proper attire to walk around free of the cold, just a cloak made of tundra silk which lives up to its name. This first day is unproductive, but I intend to get straight to work after I have a meal and go to sleep. I'll be updating the journal often, it'll be my guide to help anypony else who should find their selves here.
December 1, 2015: The cold- it's been a week since I've been here, I've been prolonging my studies and have spent quite some time with rune star, the Mage in the spire. He is very eccentric, and others would say he's barking mad. But like any other kind of Mage, there's always a method to their madness. We spend our days together in his spire. I use his telescope often to look up at the sky at night. Or to gaze over the horned gate and see if there's anything wrong, but I never see anything there.
The winter has officially begun here in neverspring, not like it ever stops... But this is the time of the year that it goes into full throttle. It has been snowing for three days now, and the streets are surprisingly clean. This is the day I learned that this country owes its survival to a shield around the city and an elaborate system of magical conduits which warm the ground and cause snow to melt on impact, so the ground is soaking wet, but everypony's hooves are warm. And the shield protects the city from the extreme colds outside. Even though it is very cold here outside rune star says that even with seven layers of tundra silk, a pony would freeze to death if he or she left the barrier this time of year.
I believe that I've gotten a cold, I was very I'll prepared for this journey and was walking outside without much protection... This is what I get I suppose. I've been sneezing for the last two days now and have already gone through an entire box of tissues. Though I have this cold I still continue my research, but I take it easy. I've been spending my whole day today in rune stars control room reading from the books on his shelves and trying to see if I can find anything relatable to this incident in any of his books. So far I've found nothing.
December 17 2015: homesick - since the last time I've written an entry i was very Ill prepared, but now I've got the right tools and equipment to survive outside of the castle in the bare elements. My cold has also subsided and I'm back to my old healthy self. The ponies here are very friendly and I've been going around town often asking any pony I can about what they know, which seems to be nothing. They all have their own ideas, or have heard rumors... But I can't believe in rumors, as non of the, seem to lead to any real eye witnesses.
I've started to grow rather homesick, which I am sure will pass. I do miss my brother however, it's almost time for hearthswarming eve, I'm sure that there's going to be a wonderful play at the castle again... I'd like to see it, but I have to stay strong. I'm certain that solar is missing me too, I figure that he must be worried about me, but I am unable to send him letters due to the situation... So he'll have to have faith.
January 3, 2016: The giant- I was abruptly woken up today by rune star who was very persistent on me coming up to his tower. I followed him to his tower and he threw me over to the telescope and told me to look through it. When I looked through I saw the great ice shards. Suddenly a beast emerged from behind the great mountains. It was a large creature made of ice... It was a giant. I was shocked at what I was seeing and writing it down only makes it less believable, but I know what I saw. Most giants measure to be up to twenty to thirty feet, this giant was comparable to the great ice shards themselves. He placed his large hand on the side of the mountain and simply stepped over the smaller out laying mountains.
The beast was made purely of ice, with each step I could feel from here a small tremor, and I watched. I watched as he tricked through the landscape covering miles at a time with a single step. He was a very tall and broad giant, almost ancient looking. And I watched in awe as he sulked his way through thousands of miles of land In only a few minutes. He walked on and was then gone in the mist and fog of the outside world. It was most definitely the strangest and most amazing thing I've ever seen. The giant was most likely larger than the spire we stood in currently and seemed like it could lift the entire city.
It wasn't until after the great giant was gone that rune star began to tell me what I had just seen. The giant was A'Grule, the great mystic ice giant of the great shards. He said that he was a legend that would stay at the ice shards until the world needed him. He said that he was once one of the great four protectors of the ancient times. The great Titans of earth, wind, fire, and water. He said that A'Grule was the great Titan of water who was sent here to one of the four corners of the world so that when the time came they could resurrect the four titans. He was sent here and over the many years has frozen into a giant of ice.
It was then that rune star explained that we had just not only seen an urban legend but had witness the resurrection of one of the great four elemental titans that were sent to this world by the gods to protect it. He said that his existence was only proof of so ,any things. At this point rune star was loosing it and I could not get him to calm down. He went on about that since he was moving then it must be related to the incident. That ever since the third horn disappeared and there had been a recent rise in avalanches it must mean that they were all connected, I didn't believe him... But it was definitely amazing, and mysterious.
January 20, 2016: The first Clue- I've now established my first clue as to what might be going on here. It had been over 17 days since the sighting of A'Grule. Only rune star and myself know about it, we dare not tell anypony else,even the king. I established the lead to my next clue today when I was at the fish market. A lot of the fisher ponies kept telling me that they're surprised with the large drop in sea monsters in the bay. Usually giant fish lurk in thos waters, mostly peaceful...but large and threatening nonetheless. It is strange since everypony including myself would figure that the larger gap would allow for more to flow in...cut that isn't the case.
I pondered on that for a while when I went down to the dock to ask some questions. That's when I came upon something very curious. One of the fishers was gathering a crowd and telling ponies that he had saw a pack of tetradons washed up on the beach earlier. I was interested and walked over to the pony. I asked him what a tetradon was and he told me it was large ten tentacles squid larger than the mightiest of warships. I then asked him to bring me to these tetradons and he did, he showed me and anypony else who followed him that what he was saying was indeed true.
So we went, and we found them... All six of them. The beasts were huge, there was already a crowd there, how could there not be. They were only barely hidden behind the coasts jetty. Ships and boats from all over the waters gathered around the marvelous sight. When I saw them I thought that maybe at first they were just attacked by something. But I shutter to think about what monstrous beast could attack these giants. I got closer to the tetradons to see what was wrong and I was confused at the wounds all six of these had. They seemed like they had been chopped up by swords or cut with blades.
Some were missing tentacles, but it looked like they had been cut clean off instead of torn or bitten off. And some were missing chunks of the, which were carved out in perfect circles. It was strange, it was like pieces of them just went missing. The corpses were rotted and decaying a bit, they also smelled horrible, I'll never forget the smell. The state of decay on the bodies suggests they must have been dead for a while before washing up on the shore. The bodies were definitely strange as to how they were wounded. What was stranger still is that I could sense magical residue emanating from the corpses, more specifically, the wounds of the corpses. Whatever was going on in that water... It isn't natural.
January 29, 2016: The first event- Today I saw something remarkably disturbing. I was out today at the dock looking for anything else strange when suddenly of of the fishing ships got too close to the gate. I watched the, drop the anchor and suddenly something pulled the whole ship into the sea. The crowds of ponies at the docks panicked and went crazy. The ship was pulled under completely whole and was simply gone. It was like some sort of giant pulled the ship under from the anchor like a toy.
Not a minute later the ground started to rumble and the ponies all shot their heads towards the mountains across the wall. White plumes of smoke shot out from the top of the largest mountain and started traveling down from there. All the ponies started saying things about an avalanche, that would explain the rumbling and the smoke on the mountain, but not the ship. It wasn't much longer after that the whole event stopped, the rumbling subsided and everypony started to settle down. They ran through the town telling others about what just happened. It would only take an hour for the whole town to hear about this. And only five minutes after that would ponies start speculating.
I spent the rest of the day in rune stars study. He knew what had happened, he saw the whole thing and we talked about it. I used his telescope and kept my gaze at the mountains for the rest of the day. I think I was started to come to terms with what had happened. And after some serious thinking I was starting to put the first pieces together. I knew that the ship sinking like that and the avalanche were linked together. I also know that the way the ship sunk is not natural, which is why those tetradons from before had magical residue on them. I think I'm starting to get somewhere, but I don't know enough yet to really say anything.
February 12, 2016: Letters from home- today I got a letter from home... You could only imagine my surprise. It was from my brother, he sent it on an air ship. I found it strange how the airship was able to get through to here. I went to the ship to speak with the captain and he said that it was of vital importance otherwise Equestria wouldn't have sent a heavily armored airship. Normally we only use these for military purposes. I asked him about his flight and if he noticed anything strange as he flew over the gate and if his crew noticed anything in the water. He said that there was nothing strange at all, it was an easy flight all the way through given the unbearable cold. I sent him off and he left in the airship, still nothing strange happening. I got back to my room and read the letter. Enclosed in the journal was prince Solaris letter to his brother, I decided to read it as well.
"Dear Brother," the note read. "I do hope that neverspring is treating you well and hope and pray that you are safe. I understand that this mission is very important, but its also dangerous, which is why I was hesitant to send my own brother. If you feel like you have found something please try and contact me in any way, you don't have to fight this alone. I send my regards and best wishes from Equestria. Please extend these regards to king frost as well, he must be very troubled with the current state of the country and I sincerely hope that whatever problem is occurring, it is resolved with ease. Love, prince Solar." I folded the letter back up and turned to the next page of the journal.
February 25 2016: the page isn't titled but instead it goes on from here with dates and pictures randomly printed though out the text and pages. I've decided that it was time to act now. So I waited, waited until the dead of night for the whole city to sleep. Once it was night out I dawned my clothes and rushed out into the beautiful night. Being the prince of the night I was now operating at full power, and could easily find what I need.
I spread my wings and flew to the sea teeth. I skimmed along them and soon came to the gap in the gate, right above where the third horn used to be. I slowly descended down and- the text cuts off, like he forgot to write in what happened next. Instead of words there was just a blank page filled with nothing. I thought that it might be the last page until I turned one last page and there was more.
The next page wasn't any better really. There used to be text on the page, but it was all scribbled on, and blacked out. Almost none of it was readable accept for a few words that I could discern from all the mess. the sea...scribbles...consumes...scribbles...out...land...more scribbles...Apprentice...scribbles...Mara. Mara was the last word on the scribbled out page, the rest was unreadable.
"What does 'Mara,' mean?" Asked twilight.
"It sounds like a name..."added snowbelle.
"You're right... It does. What's more interesting is that it says 'apprentice not far behind her name." I added as well.
"So This Mara pony must be somepony's apprentice... But who's?" Asked twilight.
" it's not easy to say... Maybe if we keep reading we can find out." I suggested.
"That's a good idea."agreed snowbelle. So without any further distractions I turned to the next page and kept reading.
April 23 2016: it's been a while since I wrote in this book, I've been very busy. I... Can't say much about it, I've had to black out the last two pages because I gave away too much information. Nopony can know the truth... Especially not any pony in this city...There's a large section of the page that is unwritten in.
I fear that if I don't act quickly then neverspring could very well perish. With no trade and almost no contact from the outside world the economy will collapse, and the city will be rendered defenseless. And they'll be unprepared for the attack. I know what must be done. I had turned the page to see that the rest is also scribbled out again just like before, but I noticed the same name from the last two pages..."Mara". The text skips a page but there is one last entry towards the back of the journal.
The date is unspecified on this entry... It's just a blank passage
I'm leaving tonight... I know what must be done, and it can't be helped. My brother prayed for my safety but I fear those hopes must now be thrown in vain. I went to leave during the night when I was surprisingly stopped by rune star. He knows about it... And he wishes me luck. I made his swear on his life that I've would not tell a word of this to anypony... He agreed.
So I write this now, this last letter to whomever may read this secret journal. I have given this over to rune star, and told him that if the problem is not solved within two months time that he pass this journal on to whomever he dreams worthy of carrying on my quest. If you are reading this, then I have most likely perished in the wastes and have failed. It is now up to you, whomever you are now... Go to the gate...and you will understand.
To those who I love and adore... My brothers, my family, my friends... And all of Equestria... I will miss you all, as you will miss me. And to the good ponies of neverspring city, and to king frost... I have failed you. If I have died by now then may my last words bear luck to the city and whomever takes upon the burden of my quest. That's the end of the journal.
"I don't know what to say." I said.
"The prince is dead!" Twilight said in surprise.
"We can't be too sure... Maybe something else happened to him." Added snowbelle.
"Snowbelle is right... We can't jump to conclusions." I said. "I don't know much about what we just read... But I do know that tomorrow we are going to find rune star and we are going to get answers... The next day is when the others arrive...we won't have time to relax one more day. Once they get here were going straight to the gate"
"Are you sure about this?" Asked twilight.
"I'm very sure." I said. "Whatever this is, it obviously goes much deeper than anything we could predict..."
-Authors Note: hey guys me again just making sure that you enjoyed this chapter if you did then great and if you didn't let me know why and i can see about fixing it. you guys know the drill, write a review and send me a PM with ideas 'n stuff i read every PM and i check the inbox often. so i hope you guys enjoyed this, and if you dont know what kind of writing style this was, or if you still haven't guessed i know i mentioned it in the last chapter. i used it in dream machine... Derek's Log, i think that's what the chapter name was... it was before the introduction of crimsons friend Derek A.K.A. thunder rush. so say, hope you guys enjoyed and like always i'll see you next time.
- Stay Shady~