This is a journal the party found in the Loremaster's private apartment in PRPG1.
This is a large book with a polished everwood covers, trimmed in silvery metal. The cover is inlaid with the same metal, forming an abstract design.
The journal has been enchanted with scrambling magic, but over the centuries it has partially failed, allowing parts of the journal to be read. The language is Old Equestrian, but it has been written in the Gryphon abjad. The hornwriting is very neat.
...
14 Rye-Planting 704 AE
Tempting Truffles, the Younger Runes may have been as unworthy a Loremaster as his father, but even I cannot dispute his choice of Grand High Pastry Chef! I swear by the Baleful Powers of <Unknown Runes>, your Hearts and Hooves Day chocolates are the best I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem as enthusiastic as I’d hoped about the new barding I made for him. Perhaps the style I chose just isn’t for everypony...
The commissioning of the Spire is nearly complete. I was present for the final shakedown of the panopticon today, and am very pleased with its performance. I’ve ordered the Everwood Cathedra of Star Scroll restored and moved from the museum to the panopticon room. I look forward to adding to its historical value with the terms of surrender I will dictate from it.
...
11 Snow 704 AE
- At last, Crystal Ball’s comprehensive treatise on retrodivination is mine. I have rescued this book from the unjust obscurity forced on it by Princesses and their little cronies in the Crystal Empire, but more importantly, I will soon have the power I need to save Equestria from the darkness I have seen in them.
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23 Snow 704 AE
I have foreseen an attack on the Helix by the royalist rabble. A former Fellow of the library, Dusty Tomes, will be with them. Traitor! I’ll feed his soul to <Unknown Rune 2> for this treachery. I have never approved of Fellows attaching themselves to the royal court and this is why. At least there is time to prepare, and I have all but mastered the intricacies of directed divination.
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25 Snow 704 AE
- I have turned this situation to my advantage, exactly as I had hoped would be possible once the Treatise of Crystal Ball was mine. Using retrocrystallomancy and the Orb of Scrying from the special artifact repository, I have fated Dusty Tomes to bring with him the Signet Ring of the Archmagi. The procedure was difficult, but this simple test was well within the scope of my abilities. I will return to the panopticon room this afternoon to envision some natural disasters to befall the Traitor and his mob.
Sweet <Unknown rune 1>, why are my all of my distant descendents some kind of fish-pony hybrids? Did I do this accidentally? I don’t think so, given that the idea of being mother to such a race of creatures was hardly my desire. At least they are numerous and sentient. I have seen that they will have great cities, and that they will remember me as their revered ancestor. Using the Orb of Scrying for investigating such trivial questions was not, of course, my intent, but my mind drifted even as I smote the royalists with stone and ice. I suppose my relationship with Tempting has been on my mind lately. I have scrupulously avoided deliberately investigating the outcome of my romance with Tempting Truffles using the Orb or any other magic. I have determined that I could not be objective.
I have made up my mind to tell him the big news tomorrow at dinner... once I know of his reaction, it will be easier to keep my mind from wandering inopportunely during my work.
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29 Snow 704 AE
Things have gone badly wrong! I knew this was a possibility, and yet I persisted. I was retroscrying a particularly unpleasant and gruesome fate for the Traitor and I slipped. I envisioned myself casting the Itching Death on him, in person, IN MY THRONE ROOM! By the spiked scrotum of <unknown rune 2>, this is not what was supposed to happen! I knew in my heart I wanted it that way, and I should have been more careful. I am forced to admit that what Golden Path wrote about divination has some truth to it after all. So I’m going to slay the Royal Archmage in the panopticon room; that much is now irrevocably foreordained thanks to my carelessness. I am almost afraid to return to the Orb, but I know I must. Only with the most careful and expert retrodivination, and with practical measures in the present, can I ensure that his presence in the panopticon room is a fluke, and not indicative of a military defeat in the coming battle. Perhaps he can be made to arrive alone or with a small force at most. I’ll have the maintenance ponies remove the intruder screens from the Spire ventilation system immediately.
I know Celestia has already spoken to one of her generals, Full Plate, about me. I tried to retrodivine an accident for him in the Canterlot fruit market, but was unsuccessful. Fruit carts have a fearsome power about them. The phenomenon warrants further study. It is no great matter; I suspected I would fail anyway. Ever since I accidentally glimpsed the stars and the moon in the sky above the Helix during the battle with the royalists, it seems that the date and time of the attack have been fixed, and nothing I do to delay it, by retrodivination or mundane means, succeeds.
30 Snow 704 AE
- Tempting made an absolutely decadent strawberry pastry of some kind tonight. It’s a good thing I’ve been working so hard on preparations for the battle, or else I’d get fat again. I hope he will take to magical longevity as well as I have. I should probably bring up the subject soon.
...
4 Rains 704 AE
- This is it. The royalists have gotten past the avalanche I foresaw for them, though they have taken significant casualties. They know it was done by my power, and though they cower in the fate-shadow of their false goddesses, they are demoralized because they now know it cannot protect all of them. Poor fools. Would that Celestia had the fortitude to save Equestria from the corruption I have sensed growing in her sister. Sufficient sources of Slimes have been located to replace the deserters who have abandoned the Helix in its hour of greatest need. Fleeing like roaches with the townies. I swear I will select an appropriate doom for each of the damned traitors once the royalists are destroyed and the polished skeleton of Dusty Tomes hangs from the Spire’s pinnacle. In the meantime, there are far more pressing demands on my scrying-time than petty revenge...
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6 Rains 704 AE
- I have sent Tempting away with the last of the pegasus Janitors. I do not know what will become of him. It is horrifying.
In fifty-three minutes, thirty-six seconds, I will get up from my desk and ride the elevator to the panopticon room. I will walk past the shattered ruin of the Orb where I beheld the Dread Lord En-Netsusep for the first and last time in a blistering instant of complete comprehension. I will sit down in the everwood cathedra, and I will begin to rain down fire and lightning on the attackers.
I will cast the mortal spell on Dusty Tomes himself. I will bind his wretched soul, and he will know the same impotent fury that I feel now, facing my destiny as puppet rather than puppeteer.
This is the end for me, and for the Arcane Helix. I brought this on myself when I stole that book. All that remains is to ensure that it will not be inherited by a being of lesser skill or less noble intentions. If I could not bridle this power, then nopony can. ...