Michi watched from her window as the other fillies and colts frolicked in chilly air on the beautiful Nightmare Night.
She heard hoof beats outside her door and a voice, "umm, Miss Michi? May I come in?" A small voice asked.
Michi turned to the door, "yes?"
A small filly walked in, wearing a robe and holding a small bag.
"Umm, well, Miss Michi?" She said, then completed her thought is a rush, "my mom asked if I should share some of my candy with you since you don't go out on Nightmare Night so here and I hope you feel better soon!" The little filly gave Michi a small bag of candy and bowed, tripping backwards out of the room.
Michi just wondered why the other ponies thought about why she didn't celebrate this night. Her brother was down there with a guard going around the city collecting candy now.
The night went by. More of the guards' foals came by some with candy, some just to try and talk with her and make her feel better. One small foal even tried to tell the story of nightmare moon.
At the end of the night, Harry came in looking tried, sad, and happy at the same time. "Here, Michi, I brought you, your favorite candies. I know you don't like this night, but I want you to be happy."
"I am happy, but this night owns a memory that I wish to forget," Michi answers.
Harry walked over to her and nuzzled his sister, "I'm sorry, Michi, I didn't mean to make you sad. I wish you would tell me what happened those years ago, but I know that I'm still to young; please tell me soon."
"I will, I promise," Michi replied. Changing the topic, Michi smiled cheerfully, "I think I made progress on cleaning my room!"
"I see that! The floor looks great, now how about that moving corner, huh?" Harry jokes to her.
"How much candy did you have tonight? That corner isn't moving," Michi asked, giving her brother a look.
"Not that much. Duster snatched most of it again. I swear, she steals more every year," Harry pouted.
"Doesn't matter much to me, since this is a celebration for the banished Princess." Michi replied as she went about collecting her papers, and putting them into a somewhat neat pile.
Harry drops his head and apologizes for being rude, then asks if he can stay the night in her room.
"Have at it, I'm not sleeping tonight." Michi states as she puts the books back in their respective places.
"You're going to the archives again, aren't you? Please don't spend all night there; I don't want to have to send a search party for you," Harry says, his voice rising in worry.
"No, I'm not!" Michi calls as she canters out of her room.
"Fine, Michi, just don't stay out all night; you still need sleep," are Harry's last words that Michi catches as she saunters out of the room.
Michi goes out of the nearest door and leaps into the air. She looks up as the face in the moon seems to stare right back at her.
As Michi flies off, she sees one of the night guards flying by as well, "Michi, what are you doing out this late? You're not a bat-pony and need sleep, Young Filly," the bat-pony said.
"I do not sleep on Nightmare Night," Michi retorts, "You know this already."
"I know, but you can't blame an old mare for trying. So, want to join me on patrol, or just fly around?" The bat-mare hovers by her.
"I have plans already," Michi replies. "I just want to be left alone."
"Ok, Dear, but if you need somepony to talk to, you know where to find me." The Night Guard says as she flies off into the darkness.
Michi hovers, watching the night guard fly away. For a few seconds, she studies the receding figure of the Guard, then veers in an unintended direction: The Everfree Forest.
Michi lands just outside of the wood and looks around to be certain that no one followed herself. She heads into the forest, the wood glowing with mystery, more so than usual.
Michi continues to walk through the forest, careful of where she sets hoof because of the plants. Michi had read a book on the plants that grew in the Forest, and she didn't want to be caught red-hoofed breaking the rules. Celestia had told her to never go into the Everfree Forest, and if Auntie caught her, Michi would be in a world of trouble.
She finally made it to the old palace, where the legend told that the Elements of Harmony were located. But she wasn't after them. The room she wanted was hidden further in the old palace.
She had read her mother's journals, and found that Lily never had lived in the Canterlot palace until later in her life, right before she had gotten pregnant with Michi.
As Michi moved through the old castle, she felt the sadness of the grand rooms, now old and crumbling, and how it seemed to be both a part of the Everfree and yet still separate from it.
"Celestia will have my hide if she found out that I was here," Michi mutters as she continues her search.
Michi's ears perk as she listens to the haunting echo of Lily's voice throughout the halls, and her imagination goes wild as Michi sees her mother cantering joyously through the halls.
Michi skids to a halt at a door delicately engraved with a flower: a cream-colored lily.
Michi felt her heart beating faster as she used her magic to slowly open the door. She felt happy and worried about what exactly she was going to find in this room, and, unsure why, Michi knew she has to go in.
There, in the middle of the room on a stone dais, was a piece of parchment, seemingly floating by itself.
Out of the her memory from years ago, she felt the familiar presence of the same magic she used to bring both herself and Harry to Equestria, but it also felt clearer and sharper than when she attempted the same spell. The magic energy hung in the room like a cloud of auras, mixed from several different dimensions.
Michi walked up to it, and used her own magic to levitate the parchment to her, studying the spell. It was the charm that her mother had been teaching her before that fateful night.
"Stars! There are directions!" Michi gasps.
She reads them with the interest. Finally! The theories and revisions all finally made sense to her!
If she did the spell now, would it let Michi go to almost any place somepony's been, like the directions promised?
Letting out a deep breath, she focused on the palace in Canterlot, just as the step-by-step directions had instructed. She recited the spell inside her mind three times, opened up her eyes, and squealed with excitement! There, in the middle of the ruined room, was a portal.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a glowing from her flank, "Oh!" she began to prance in place. "Oh my Celestia, I got my cutie mark!" Michi squealed to herself.
She bit her lower lip. She didn't want to fly back to the palace, so should she step through the portal?
She shrugged, gently edging her way through the portal and came out her secret room.
She heard a soft snoring coming from her room. Tip-toeing into her bed, Harry rolled off of the bed and promptly woke up with a small snort of surprise.
"Guess what I got?!" Michi asks, her vibrant green eyes alive with joyous excitement.
"Ugh, Dust-er! How many time I have to tell ya? Stay out my rooooom." Harry mumbled to the floor.
"Yuck! I don't want to be the filly you're crushing on." Michi giggles, grinning at her little brother's audacity.
"Huh, what? Michi! When did you get here? And I'm not crushing on Duster, she's my best friend! Yuck."
"Feather-brain, you're in my room. And yes, you are so crushing on Duster; why else would you agree to do stupid stunts that she comes up with?" Michi retorts, "But anyway, you still have to guess what I got."
"Hmm... A new piece of blackmail on 'ole Bluebutt? Or maybe you got that lost bit from that that "magic box" from last week," Harry guesses, but then got a good look at Michi's flank, as she had moved to stand for him to view it fully. "Or maybe you got that cutie mark that I see right now."
"Yep; I got my Cutie Mark! And I did find out that one of the servant ponies in 'Mr. I'm-better-every-pony-else's' estate that his shampoo was switched to a new brand and he had a fit just last week." Michi answers.
"What a drama king! You sure he's not a colt cuddler?" Harry giggled. "Any way, what were you doing? Why now, and where did you fly off to? Old Mystic couldn't find you in any of you're regular hiding spots."
"I would tell you, but you'll go galloping off to Celestia first thing in the morning," Michi states as she walks to her window alcove, laying down on the cushion. She still wasn't going to sleep, but Michi wants to stare at the moon.
Harry huffs, "No, I won't! Not with all the black mail you have on me."
"True, but with half the stuff that both of us have done, we would be grounded for life... And we're immortal alicorns! But... I went to the Everfree Forest." Michi answers, not looking at her brother.
"What are you, bucking mad?!" Harry yelps; fully awake now, "Not even me and Duster would go there; no matter how much we want to research old pony tales."
"Your 'research' is listening to a bunch of myths, mine is completely real." Michi points out, "and in the three years since I learned to read, I have read every spell in Canterlot, never finding the transportation spell that I used-out of instinct!- the Nightmare Night we came here."
"So... What's it like in there? I mean, I'm gonna find out when I'm older, maybe, but a little of warning might help us - me - out!" Harry says excitedly.
"Creepy and dark, and a lot of plants that are not good for pony kind," Michi answers, "I tried not to go into the places where I heard snoring."
"Oh, wow! I was afraid you might say that I really need to get Duster to stop planning that trip! We are so ready for this." Harry stated, rubbing his fore hooves together.
"Harry, you're not going in there with Duster or without. Also, I think that the Elements of Harmony are hidden there." Michi states.
"Really? You think so?" Harry's eyes light up at the thought of being one of the first ponies to find them since their disappearance all that time ago.
"I doubt you're going to be the one to find or use them. Actually, I think it's going to be Twilight that will be able to harness their power." Michi speculates, accidentally bursting her brother's bubble.
"Aww, but think about it! Just finding them would be soooooo cool even if I could never use them" Harry began to plan again, "We could be famous even more so then the Wonderbolts! They would even be asking for our autographs."
"Harry, forget it." Michi states, "You wouldn't be able to even carry them back here, because they should be stone by now." Michi used her magic to close her brother's muzzle. "Silence."
Harry tried to use his magic to make Michi let go but as always the spell just backfired and zapped him in the flank.
"You weren't listening to anything I said. So I thought I stop you from talking," Michi explained.
"I heard you, but a colt can dream, can't he?" Harry asked after Michi released him from the spell.
"Not when the colt is my brother. You seem to think you're going to famous for doing stupid stunts. If you think about it, you're already famous." Michi answers.
"So? I want to be famous for something I did, not for a thing that happened to me," Harry argued back. "Plus, not all our plans are stupid. Some even work the first time around."
"Huh? I was talking about being the only male alicorn." Michi states.
"So was I. It happened to me. I want to do something big, like Twilight did, or maybe just not be thought of as Michi's little brother," he mumbled to the floor.
"You mean you want to have a magical outburst and end up being Celestia's personal student? Ugh, too much pressure to be perfect if you ask me. Just because I was a straight 'A' student doesn't mean a thing, I just like to study, and there isn't shame in that. It took me a good semester to make my first friend since Twilight."
Harry looked at his sister, "I'm sorry, Michi. That was wrong of me. I know you both work hard, but I just want to leave my own mark on the world."
"You will, someday. If you don't, it doesn't matter, what matters is your friends who care about you. Books are great but doesn't compare to hanging out with living ponies," Michi states.
"You're right, but for now, I just want to have fun with you and our friends. So get your flank into bed so that we can enjoy ourselves in the morning! Besides, I know for a fact Aunt Tia will have a celebration for your cutie mark." Harry giggles.
Michi shook her head, "I might I have my Cutie Mark now, but I don't want to sleep. I'm too excited!"
"So... Want to see if we can sneak up on old Mystic or Shadow this time?"
"No, I'm going to take a long bubble bath after I check the shampoo to see if Blueblood didn't try to pull a fast one," Michi says contentedly.
"Ahh, but my plan needs two ponies to work! Especially if I want to sneak past shadow shimmer," Harry whines.
Last week, Michi might have agreed, but now that she had her Cutie Mark, she was thinking more like an adult pony than a filly, "Sorry, bro., but they have their own jobs to do at night."
"Aww, okay. Maybe next time. Enjoy your bubble bath; I'm going back to bed. Duster said something about a lost hall in the palace, and I think for once we might not have to go to the infirmary," Harry jokes.
Michi started to head for her private bathroom when she thought about what Harry had said. "Don't even go there. That isn't a lost hallway, that is a Forbidden place. Even I don't go down that hallway." Michi grimly fixes her little brother with a stony stare, "Don't even think about it. If it's not for me, it's certainly not for you to see."
(I wrote that on Halloween, sorry it took so long! My beta was a bit slow. Merry Christmas!)