Everypony in the room felt their gut drop; the deep voice from the door stopped everyone in their tracks. Everyone was dead still when the voice answered another time, "Is there anypony here?"
Twilight's heart started back up, she breathed in and walked painfully slow towards the door. She was slow to answer the mysterious stallion. "Yes there is someone here, how can I help?"
As she closed on the door, everyone inside the library began to react. Pinkie gestured for Rainbow to follow her upstairs. Rainbow carefully lifted herself from the wooden floor and followed Pinkie upstairs.
"A pony in town directed me here, is Rainbow Dash around?" the voice said from beyond the door.
Twilight opened the door slowly, opening only a crack to see the figure. He was tall and majestic; the brown cloak still covered his head covering his face. He looked to have some sort of strange device on his back, long, wooden and metallic. She stuck her head out, "No, I haven't seen her around for a while, last time I saw she was in the market." she said with a nervous smile.
It was hard to see the facial expression of the pony, but the way he stood and the way the dark void of the hood stared into her said that he didn't seem convinced. The nervous sweat wasn't helping with her situation either, many droplets rolled down her face. "Well you won’t mind if I have a look around your library then?"
She gulped, followed up with another unnaturally large smile. She looked around the room to find Dash and Pinkie had fled upstairs and Spike was assuming a cleaning position. She turned back, "Y-yes, come on in."
Twilight was never good at lying; she always covered her anxious state with a smile. Letting the guest into her humble library she prayed that Dash was hidden safely. The next few minutes were of quiet observations around the first story of the library, Spike looked to be sweeping the ground as Twilight pretended to sort shelves. The stallion looked cautiously around the room, studying little details around the room. As they did so, Rainbow and Pinkie looked from the top floor, keeping to the ground to stay out of site. As Twilight sorted the books, she was trying to make sense of the situation, 'Who is this pony, why does he want Rainbow?'
She pondered on the questions. 'Does he know about Dash being-’ Her heart skipped a beat. The book on the table was lying obviously on the pedestal. Twilight bit her lip as her anxiety grew. She turned her head when her horn began to glow; she lifted the book from the pedestal and levitated it over to her. She carried the book around the stranger, but something made her stop. The stranger stood still as he questioned, "Is that magic I hear behind me?"
The sparkling noise of the magic gave her plan away; she had to make an excuse quick to avoid suspicion. "I saw this lying book around, I'm categorising it back on the shelf."
Convinced that the excuse was proof enough, she continued with carrying the book around. Her magic suddenly was dispelled; the book fell to the ground. 'What happened?' Twilight thought to herself.
There was a grey glow from under the stranger’s hood; he must have used his magic to dispel Twilights. The stallion approached the book lying on the floor, Twilight tried to smile. "Creatures of Equestria: Volume 3, a book I'm quite familiar with." The grey pony stood looming over the book.
The purple unicorn nervously laughed, "Well, I got to put it back on the shelf where it belongs."
When she used her magic once again, the stallion stepped on it, stopping it from moving. "But what I find strange is that you are categorising this book under R."
Twilight looked at the shelf behind her, he was right. The shelf was clearly labelled R. The nervous feeling crept up again and she began to worry. She couldn't hold her smile anymore, she sighed with despair. She walked towards the middle of the room where the stranger stood. "You tried to hide this book, why?"
She had to think of something, anything to get out of this. She smiled once again and said "I really like the book and I'm still reading it, I don't want anyone to borrow it right now."
'What sort of an excuse was that?' She thought to herself. She kept her terrible nervous smile on her face, 'maybe he will fall for it.' The stranger picked up the book with his magic and levitates it towards the shelf. As he slides it into a gap in the books, he mentions "Its and interesting book."
A sense of relief ran through her as she picked up some scattered books around the place. The stranger seemed satisfied with his finds; he walked out the door without making another word. Spike looked out the window. When the stallion was gone from sight, everyone jumped from their position. Rainbow and Pinkie ran down from upstairs to meet with Twilight. She joked a little, "That was scary, wasn't it."
Rainbow cautiously looked outside for the stallion. "Who was that, why did he want me?"
Spike suddenly perked up, he ran upstairs once again. "What is it now?" Twilight questioned.
"Well, now that he is gone." Pinkie grabbed the bowl and walked towards Dash. She placed it on the ground in front of her. Dash looked at it with her sunburst eyes. Reaching her hoof down into the bowl, when she made contact, her hoof seemed to burn. She lifted her hoof swiftly, and yelped in pain. "What in Equestria?" she exclaimed.
That was all the evidence Twilight needed to prove Spikes theory, Dash was indeed a marewolf. The only question left was how long she had before she became a monster. Twilight once again removed the book from the shelf and to the pedestal. Page 16, Marewolves, affliction. She read "Anypony suffering from this affliction only has 1 night before turning into this monstrosity. But there has been one thing to prevent this horrific transformation, a mysterious plant known as Aconitum or 'wolfsbane'."
Twilight eyes widened. "Zecora would have some of this herb I bet." she spurted out. "She has to." Everypony could hear the desperation in her voice.
"So we need this herb and it will stop me transforming?" Dash asked.
"Well, it will only slow it, buying more time." she replied.
"YES!" Spike yelled from upstairs. He ran down the stairs holding another book. "Here Twilight."
Grabbing the book with her magic, she levitated onto a table. She read, "Equestrian Heroes: Issue 2."
She saw it was a comic, ones that Spike loves to read. "This one is titled 'Van Helsing' a marewolf hunter."
Yet another crazy theory from Spike, his first maybe true but how this one could be. "So this stranger is a marewolf hunter you say?"
Spike was reassuring nod made something stir in Twilights stomach. Spike continued "Well, the stranger is mysterious, he wears a cloak and he has a crossbow."
"A crossbow, what's that?" Pinkie questioned with a clueless face.
Twilight intervened, "I've read something about these fearsome weapons, it’s a device which fires metal tipped bolts at incredible speeds which can potentially harm, even kill ponies and such."
Rainbow's had an incredulous look plastered over her face. "So that stallion is trying to kill me?"
The room fell into a silence again; this was a lot to take in for everyone. Twilight looked out the window; she saw the sun was beginning to recede behind the mountains. They only had an hour before nightfall, only an hour before Dash became a ravaging beast.