Since receiving the reply from Fleur Dis Lee that day, and after Aurora explained everything to The foals, they let go of their obsession with finding the creator of the Sonic Rainboom, and life went on as usual.
Aurora's life in Ponyville was gradually getting on track; she was now like a mad scientist living in seclusion in a small country town, pondering mysterious magic that had not yet been recognized by the world.
Actually, it wasn't quite that exaggerated. Aurora's mental state was fine, but since she had been digging for treasure in the Princess sisters' Old Castle every day lately, she would accidentally get her cloak all dirty.
Aurora had found quite a few interesting things there recently.
After all, it was a castle abandoned a thousand years ago, and everything inside was an antique from a millennium ago. If it weren't located in the Everfree Forest, it would likely have been emptied by thieves long ago.
Now, it was all for Aurora's benefit.
Following her memories, Aurora found the secret room located in the Library and discovered the diaries of the two Princess sisters inside. With no reservations at all, Aurora opened them and began to read.
From the narrative style of the diaries and the content recorded, it wasn't hard to see that Celestia and Princess Luna were two pure, mischievous princesses.
Relying on her own preferences, Princess Luna had remodeled the entire Princess castle into a large-scale mechanical trap. All the mechanisms inside were Princess Luna's ideas. Although Celestia didn't understand her sister's taste, she still tacitly allowed her to put her wild ideas into practice.
It was hard to say if she was indulging her sister or if her own taste was just as questionable.
Using those mechanisms, Princess Luna pranked several big names who had left their marks on the history of Equestria, including but not limited to Princess Platinum, the Four-Leaf Sage, Private Pansy, Smart Cookie...
The only time she suffered a setback was when she encountered Chancellor Puddinghead. Should one say that's what one expects from an Earth Pony leader who could be portrayed by Pinkie Pie? She also had some divine steed attributes, actually managing to turn the tables and use those mechanisms to prank Princess Luna.
Although Celestia could hardly tolerate Princess Luna's such mischievous style of doing things, when Princess Luna pranked Princess Platinum, she secretly exclaimed in her diary how satisfying it was, fully revealing the essence of a mischievous princess.
It couldn't be ruled out that Princess Platinum's arrogance also made Celestia angry; after all, when pranking other ponies, Celestia had clearly expressed her dissatisfaction to Princess Luna.
When Aurora read the part in the diary where Princess Luna, after pranking the Four-Leaf Sage and the other two, immediately snuck back to her bed to pretend to be asleep like a child who had done something wrong, in order to deal with Celestia who would come to catch her in the act the next second, she couldn't help but smile knowingly.
"I rushed back to my room and dove under the covers. Sure enough, the next second, Celestia came to check on me. She snorted angrily and turned to leave. It was perfect!"
Princess Luna was so cute like that.
As for her later transformation into Nightmare Moon, it must have been because the child had suffered some grievances.
Aurora recorded the layout of these mechanisms in her notebook. If she were to convert the Old Castle into a strategic fortress in the future, these mechanisms would be very important strategic resources.
The personality of Princess Celestia in her youth was not quite the same as the one Aurora knew now, but just like her criteria for selecting students, the young Celestia was completely a bookworm.
Furthermore, it was evident that Twilight Sparkle's tendency to be anxious and her habit of planning everything out beforehand were exactly the same as the young Celestia.
No wonder Celestia took the three of them as students; it turned out they were all stand-ins with the same attributes. Bookworms really do attract each other. (Not really)
Unlike the enthusiastic, outgoing, and adventure-loving Princess Luna, she preferred to stay in the Library to read and study. This secret room located in the Library was designed for her by Princess Luna, allowing Celestia to hide there and read quietly without being disturbed by other ponies.
Back then, neither of them expected that after a thousand years, Celestia would become the one who loved excitement and adventure, while Princess Luna would only want to enjoy some leisure time in peace.
Time really knows how to play jokes.
Reading the diary, Aurora couldn't help but sigh, but she immediately thought that her snooping into her teacher's dark history from her youth had a subtle overlap with the suicidal behavior of a certain astrologer.
'Oh no! I won't be able to return to Canterlot, will I?'
That astrologer who offended his master finally planned to stay put and outlive his elderly master before returning. That was truly filial.
But Aurora didn't have that ability. Her teacher was the ancestral princess of Equestria; although elderly, when it came to comparing lifespans, it currently looked like Aurora would be the one to be outlived.
"...Whatever, it's good to read, I like reading it, I'll read more."
Celestia wouldn't resort to killing just because her "dark history" had been thoroughly seen by her student; the previous association was just Aurora joking with everyone.
Besides, what was written in the diary couldn't really be considered "dark" history; it was more like historical data with great reference value.
Aurora stopped reading after going through a small part. This "Diary of the Two Princess Sisters" was not the main purpose of her trip; it could only be considered an interesting and valuable pastime. She could pack the rest and take it back to savor slowly.
For the next period, Aurora spent some time looking through the old books here.
Because so much time had passed, many books had been eaten by bugs until only the covers remained. Fortunately, Aurora eventually found some books that were helpful to her, and she could even find some notes made by Celestia inside.
And doodles drawn by Princess Luna when she was distracted in class.
Among them was a book recording some strange plants in the Everfree Forest. It recorded a tree that could absorb magic to provide itself with nutrients, which caught Aurora's attention. The characteristics of this plant had overlapping parts with the material properties of that magic book.
Aurora marked this plant guide and took it with her, and shared this information with Zecora.
Because the transfer station for Aurora's exploration of the Everfree Forest was Zecora's forest cottage, taking this opportunity, her interaction with Zecora became increasingly close.
When she wasn't exploring the forest, Aurora would study Supernatural Magic and the mysterious magic book pages with Zecora.
Zecora suggested that Aurora could test the extent to which her left eye could observe things. Aurora had started trying this not long after she obtained it.
Especially when she looked at the few spells she had pieced together before. Previously, it was purely relying on models and calculations, so it wasn't particularly clear. Now that she could "see" the connection forms of these spells, she felt that what she had written before was like crap.
She felt that she was becoming less and less able to empathize with her past self in terms of magic studies.
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