I don’t know who you are.
You probably will never know who I am, that’s how they work.
If you are reading this, then I have failed to check in with my contact at the designated time which means one of three things:
Even as you read this, special teams of unicorns are likely being dispatched across Equestria to wipe any knowledge of my existence from the records and memories of the ponies. But who I am is not important. The important thing now is that you are reading this. In your hooves lies the truth. We serve a false god.
Since we were yearlings, the details of our pantheon have been drilled into our heads, the older sister that raised the sun and the younger sister that controlled the moon. Everypony knows the tale of Nightmare Moon and her rebellion and imprisonment all those years ago, but through my studies I came to an inevitable conclusion. These stories are lies.
I worked as a scholar within the high court of Canterlot and it was there that I stumbled across a strange list of titles and copyright dates that I had never seen before. Indeed, according to the other records no such works existed. The curiosity of it astounded me and I began to dig deeper. Eventually, I brought the list to the head scholar who was able to identify it as a list of books that had been banned over the last millennia, although he too claimed to have no idea that such books existed. He advised me that it was probably best to pursue the matter no further.
The list had piqued my curiosity, however, and my peers always considered me stubborn in my research. The list was diverse, containing texts of science, magic, history, even a few biographies and works of poetry. Under the pretense of studying abroad, I left Canterlot determined to discover if any copies had escaped the censors.
This proved much harder than I expected. No matter where I searched, no other libraries had records of the books on the list. After finishing inquiring within the respectable Fillydelphia Academy, I began to suspect that records and possibly even memories were being tampered with (a suspicion latter confirmed within one of the texts on the list). It wasn’t until I came to the small town of Paddocksburgh that I discovered what I was after.
When I arrived, an expedition team was headed into the old fort that was built there back in the frontier days shortly after the “fall” of Nightmare Moon. I volunteered to join them in hopes of discovering some older texts and was overjoyed when I discovered two of the titles on my list within its library. The first text was a book detailing the celestial bodies and how they functioned, the other a book of magic detailing different spells concerning the ability to hide and restore knowledge.
The book on magic was interesting, but I didn’t understand why it would be on the list. Then I read the astronomy text. At first I regarded it as blasphemy. The world revolves around the sun? Preposterous! Weren’t we taught that Celestia is the one that causes the sun to rise and set? And yet here was this book, explaining in detail the movements of the stars and showing the math that backed it up. The facts were indisputable. Celestia lied to us.
Armed with this knowledge, I looked at the book of magic in a new light. One of the basic principles of the book was that knowledge once known could never be truly lost, only hidden. As such you can not erase every record of an event or fact, only obscure it and hide it away. In accordance with this, the book contained four basic spells in two pairs. One pair was for the hiding and revealing of written works, the other pair for the repressing and unlocking of memories. I quickly rented a room at the inn and sequestered myself away, preparing to summon several of the lost texts. I will do my best to sum up what I have learned.
Celestia never controlled the sun, nopony ever has. She is not the older sister of Luna either, rather they are twins. According to pre-imprisonment texts I discovered with the Revealing spell, Luna was indeed set to govern the moon and serve as a guardian over the world at night. Celestia, rather than controlling the sun as we were lead to believe, was appointed to govern the Constellations, powerful creatures imprisoned in the night sky. The text was not clear on who appointed them, but it is clear that they were appointed by a higher power and it was the same higher power that imprisoned the Constellations.
A memoir penned by a general who served during the Imprisonment War revealed another shocking truth: Luna did not instigate the conflict. Current doctrine proclaims Luna grew jealous of her sister Celestia, but the texts I have discovered reveal that it was quite the opposite. Celestia had grown lonely and weary of guarding the stars and had asked Luna to trade positions with her. Luna refused the offer for reasons unknown and Celestia grew angry. According to the book, Celestia promised the Constellations freedom to roam the world if they assisted in overthrowing her sister. This appears to be the true origin of the war. Celestia’s goal was not to protect the world from a jealous sister, but to imprison the one meant to protect. The reversal of positions between the story we have been fed for the last thousand years and the truth is notable as it is pointed out in the aforementioned book of knowledge that the closer the fabricated memories line up with the factual memories the more effective and convincing the substitution is.
From then on the two accounts begin lining up. Celestia was victorious and imprisoned her sister within the moon. It is probably safe to assume that the Constellations were loosed upon the world and that they or their decedents still inhabit it (most notably, the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor).
The most troubling things about these revelations are the implications. Considering the fact that the book detailing the magic of concealing knowledge and memories was upon the list of banned books alongside the other volumes detailing the truth of these events, this may be beyond a simple cover up.
At this point I am merely speculating, but isn’t it possible that if this magic was used to cover up the true events of the Imprisonment War, then the same magic could have been applied to cover up other things? What happened to the Everfree tribes of ponies during the expansion of Equestria? Why is it that the weather operates autonomously outside our borders or rather why must we alter the weather ourselves? How is it that in the last thousand years, if Celestia is truly without the power she claims, we have suffered no war, famine or natural disaster?
I have included with this letter detailed instructions regarding the spell to unlock repressed memories and knowledge as well as the list of banned texts. Use them if you wish. At the time of this writing, I seek to gain audience with Luna to ask her of these events. It may be that she herself has been affected by the spell, in which case I will do my best to restore her memories. It is very likely the Princess is being watched and I may not return.
In any event, the fact that you are reading this means I have been found out. You are one of fifty ponies to receive this letter, seek out the others. Knowledge once known cannot be erased. If you are reading this, you know the truth. If you are reading this, you are the resistance.
Good luck and godspeed.