It was somewhat between morning and afternoon. Twilight had asked Fluttershy, who was conveniently at the library this morning, to take Spike to the clinic. Though Spike protested, saying that he was fine, Twilight didn't want to take any chances and forced Spike to go to the clinic with Fluttershy anyway. She didn't see it, but Twilight believed that Fluttershy might have used The Stare on Spike, since it worked quite well with dragons, as well with animals or ponies. Twilight was alone in the library, finishing up the chores that Spike was suppose to do. While cleaning her bedroom, she noticed something that wasn’t suppose to be there.
Something written on her bedside drawer.
“Huh? What’s this?” Twilight looked closer to the text that seemed to have burnt into the wooden surface. It was right next to the compass she found last night in the box, and the piece of paper had mysteriously disappeared. Though, according to Twilight, it must’ve flown off somewhere. The question still remains; what is that text?
Book Of Time
Like anyone would know, Twilight’s curiousity would always get the best of her. She walked down from her bedroom into the library and searched for anything that has to do with those three specific words. She searched A Pocket Guide To Equestria, History On Forgotten History 101, she even searched the Mystic And Mysteries book, yet she found nothing. She kept on reading, learning, finding any piece of information that may be helpful, but nothing seems to come up. Then she heard the hoofsteps of certain pink mare that skips.
“Pinkie, is there a reason you came?” Twilight didn’t even have to glance to know it was Pinkie. She had enough experience.
“Oh, can’t your bestest friend Pinkie Pie even visit? It’s not like I come here everyday to tell you something super surpising and important!”
“Actually, you do. Most of the time, not that important. Surprisingly, not yesterday. Where were you yesterday?”
“Oh me? I was at the edge of the Everfree Forest, fighting ghost pirates! One was like ‘Arr!’ and the other was like ‘Garr!’. There was even one that went ‘Aeiii!’. Probably due to me cutting his head off. The Cake Twins were there. In fact, they’re the reason we were there in the first place! They were kidnapped by those darn ghost pirates! So, it’s up to Auntie Pinkie to save the day! Or yesterday! Since it happened not today, but instead happened yesterday, which was the day before today, or two days before tomorrow, or seven days before a week. Oh wait, that would be today! Silly me, silly Pinkie! Anyway, those pirates nearly won, but I managed to beat them in the game of checkers and got out! But then, we were assaulted by ninja zombies! The ghost pirates helped us! Since everyone knows that pirates hate ninjas. Then, the battle commenced and it wa – ”
“Great story, Pinkie.” Twilight placed her hoof at Pinkie’s mouth. “But seriously, why are you even here? Is there some kind of important meeting or something?”
Twilight let go of her hoof from Pinkie’s mouth, enabling the pink party pony to speak again. “Oh yeah! I almost forgot! Here you go!”
Pinkie gave out her hoof, which had a very small folded card, probably an invitation. It was so small, it looked like an book for a hummingbird. The card itself was silver coloured, with a small sticker of a birthday cake on it. Once opened, it had small simple words, saying ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY!’. Under it had the name of the birthday pony, but it was too small to read. Twilight could only scratch her head, before asking whose birthday it was.
“Pinkie, care to tell me whose birthday it is?”
Pinkie let out a shocking gasp, “Don’t you know whose birthday is today?!”
Twilight rolled her eyes, “Umm, yours?”
“Pffft, of course not! My birthday isn’t till one hundred and thirty four days. Or was it one hundred and thirty two days?... Meh, I lost count.” Pinkie walked towards Twilight side, placing her hoof above Twilight’s shoulder. She then looked up and gave out a dramatic pose. “It’s Applejack’s birthday, silly!”
Twilight’s eyes shot wide. She completely forgot about Applejack’s birthday! How could she have done that?! She zipped across the library and to her bedroom, looking at the calender placed nicely near the window. It was marked ‘AJ = CAKE’, which was kinda awkward considering it was Twilight herself who marked it. Twilight was suppose to bring the cake this year, and she completely forgot about it. In a state of panic, Twilight screamed.
Insert screaming sounds of Twilight here.
“Wow Twilight, I haven’t seen you scream like that before. It’s like you’ve seen a ghost! But like my Granny Pie always says, ‘Just giggle at the ghosties’! I wonder if you really did see a ghost! Wouldn’t that be great?! I once bought a ticket to see a pony who can see ghosts, but it was just a lie. I DEMAND A REFUND! Anyway, ghosts can’t hurt you! How can they? They walk through walls and stuff. How can they even touch you? Wouldn’t it be exciting to touch one?! I wish I could meet my Granny Pie again. I bet she’s in chocolate heaven! Or pony heaven. Or both! Or better yet, with a river of - ”
“PINKIE! I NEED TO FOCUS!”
“Opps, sorry Twilight. I was just thinking of milk rivers and a banana split boat. With ghost pirates.”
“Ok... Since I have no idea what you were talking about, but that’s normal anyway... Pinkie, could you do me a favour?” Twilight gave out a begging grin, like she was trying to hard.
Pinkie nodded, “Ok! Do you need me to kill ghost pirates, or make a vanilla cream river?”
“Wait, weren’t you talking about milk rivers?” Twilight shook her head, “Ok, back to the matter at hoof... Pinkie, I need you to go to Sugercube Corner and buy a giant chocolate cake. Can you do that?”
Pinkie let out a gasp, “But Twilight, you promised Applejack a cake from Canterlot Bakeries! Even though Sugarcube Corner makes the best cakes in the whole wide Universe, you still promised her!”
“I know, I know.” Twilight gave out a somewhat ashamed sigh, “But I forgot, Ok? And now I feel terrible about it. Can’t you do it just this once, Pinkie? Pleeeeeeeaaaaaase...?”
Twilight looked at Pinkie with large, puppy eyes. Pinkie didn’t know what to do. If she helped Twilight, she would also break the promise Twilight made with Applejack. But if she didn’t, then Applejack won’t have any cake. It’s so confusing, especially for the pink party pony. She looked left and right, her entire body shaking and sweating, trying desperately to get out of this situation. But she can’t just run away. Then what kind of friend would she be? In the end, she took a deep breath and said;
“Fine, I’ll do it...” She said in the most depressing way.
“Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’ll pay you back, Ok?”
Pinkie, still shaking and sweating, walked backwards towards the door with the most awkward smile, “Ok... I guess?” She then slammed the door before running willy-nilly across town, screaming.
“Well, that was unexpected. I never knew that would give her so much pressure.” Twilight said as she looked at her panicking friend.
Suddenly, Twilight felt something familiar. A certain chill down her spine. She felt this before... She felt this yesterday. The lights got dimmed and the entirely library was left dark. Twilight went and tried to open the door, but it didn’t budge. She tried using her magic, but she can’t seem to make her horn glow. In fact, she couldn’t use magic at all. She saw a dark crimson glow coming from outside and went to the window to see it. Twilight could not believe what she just saw.
The sky was red as blood and the clouds didn’t move. The Sun didn’t move as well and worst, were the ponies. All were frozen in place, their faces changed entirely. Their faces looked twisted and stretched in the most grotesque way possible. Their eyes were blacker than night and from the looks of it, had some kind of liquid dripping out of it. They all remained motionless, and that itself was able to make Twilight walk backwards and crashed into one of the bookcases. She looked at the door and saw the unknown liquid entering the library through the gap underneath.
The liquid entered the library and covered the entire floor, except it didn’t go near Twilight. Figures started emerging from the liquid and all had horrified faces. Their bodies were made entirely out of shadows and some of them had their body parts twisted and placed in the wrong sections. Twilight hyperventilate and heard the shadow figures screaming and wailing about a certain book as they get near to her.
“Stay back! STAY BACK!” Twilight screamed as she closed her eyes in fear. That didn’t stop them.
In an act of desperation, Twilight tried to cast an illumination spell. With all her might, she managed to cast a supersized illumination spell and the entire library was consumed in light. The shadow figures crept backwards before diminishing in the light, but some were still moving towards Twilight, despite slowly dying. She strengthened her illumination spell and made an explosion of pure, white light. The light was so powerful, it looked like it could have been a second Sun to Equestria.
Her horn fizzed and the light dimmed slowly. She had run out of magic energy but at least those... things... are gone. The liquid on the floor had disappeared entirely and the lights in the library all came back up in unison. She saw Spike entering the door, just before she her mind blackened into darkness.
Twilight woke up and found herself on something soft. She felt a light headache and her vision blurred. She rubbed her temples and she could hear some mumbling sounds. When she regained her vision and hearing, she was able to focus on her surroundings. She was in her bedroom or more specifically, in her bed. Around her were her five friends, Pinkie’s hair was straight and Spike, who was holding a napkin and crying slightly. “Huh... Wha...?”
“Don’t get up, Twilight. The doctor said that ya’ll need some rest.” Applejack said as she pushed Twilight back onto the bed.
“Yes, Applejack is right. The doctor said that you suffered some extreme magic dehydration. You sure brought us some shock when Spike went around calling for help.” Rarity said, standing next to Pinkie.
“Mmmh hhh! I was so scared and Spike was crying a lot and I cried as well! Like a whole lot! My hair was straight and everything! I should throw you a party! A wake up party! I should start making invitations!” Pinkie exclaimed as her hair poofed back into its cotton candy self.
Rainbow Dash placed her hoof on Pinkie’s mouth, stopping her from talking too much. “Yeah, yeah. We get it, Pinkie. I’m just glad that you’re awake, Twi. I went for days searching for the guy that did this to you!”
“Wait, days?! How long was I out?!” Twilight snapped of her bed. “How much time have I wasted?! Oh, the princess might never forgive me for sleeping this long!” Twilight tried to stand up but lost her balance and fell.
Applejack held on Twilight just before she fell, “Woah there, Twilight! Sit down. There’s no need to rush out or anythin’. Fluttershy and Spike sent a letter to the princess and she said she wanted a letter of your, ehh, condition every six hours or so.”
Twilight looked and Fluttershy, “Fluttershy, is this true?”
“Well, I, umm... yes, it’s true. I’m so happy that you’re awake, Twilight. We we’re so worried, especially Spike.” Fluttershy pointed at Spike, who was crying with a napkin.
“Spike...” Before Twilight could finish her words, Spike leaped onto her and hugged her tight while crying loudly. Twilight was surprised at first, but then hugged Spike as well.
“I t-thought y-you were never g-going to w-wake up!” Spike said, his words hard to pronouce since he was crying too much.
Twilight hugged Spike stronger while rubbing his scaly forehead. “Oh Spike, I would never leave you like that. Never.”
Suddenly, the door to Twilight’s bedroom opened and came in Princess Celestia, regal as always. Everyone, especially Twilight, was surprised to see the princess here. In unison, they all shouted “Princess?!” in surprise and bowed down to her afterwards, except Twilight who was still in bed and Spike who didn’t want to let go. Princess Celestia nodded and everyone in the room raised their heads.
Princess Celestia looked at Twilight and smiled, “Twilight, I am so glad that you are awake. I had been so worried when I received the letter from Spike and Fluttershy. I didn’t tell your parents, or your brother, so you won’t have to worry about them being worried.”
“Thank you, princess.” Twilight said just before the two had a wing hug, in which Rainbow Dash did the puking expression with her hoof. “I’m just glad that nightmare is over. They keep chanting ‘find the book’, whatever that is...”
That took Celestia by surprise. “Twilight, did you say something about a ‘book’?”
Twilight nodded with a curious expression. She then asked, “What’s wrong? Is there something surprising about a book?”
“Well, I... Umm... Nevermind. I’m just happy you’re fine.”
Celestia then walked towards the balcony, ready to take off. Before she did, Twilight ran, well tried to run, to the balcony. “Princess! Where are you going?”
“Oh, well, I am still a princess. And there is so much work for me to do. I will send you a letter when I reach Canterlot.” She said just before she flew, “Goodbye, my faithful student.”
Twilight waved goodbye at Celestia as she flew back to Canterlot at twice of supersonic speed, making Rainbow Dash to drop her jaw to the floor, not literally. Twilight smiled, but that smiled faded when she remembered something.
Applejack.
Applejack was heard walking and sat next to Twilight. She lifted her right hoof and wrapped around Twilight shoulder. With a smile, Applejack talked, “Aaa, it’s OK Twilight. Ah know you missed mah birthday. Checking up on ya is more importan’ than some birthday. Besides, I even kept a slice of cake just for ya! Pinkie said it was from that famous Canterlot Bakeries, but it kinda taste like it was from Sugarcube Corner. Who knew, huh?”
“Hehe, who knew...” Sorry Pinkie.
Applejack stood back up and walked towards the balcony door, “Ya coming? I kept the slice in your refrigerator, if you don’t mind.”
Twilight turned her head towards Applejack, giving a faint smile. She stood back up and walked to the kitchen next to Applejack, “Yeah, some cake would be nice...”
Unbeknownst to her, the shadows crept of a mysterious figure. The same figure that gave her those two gifts. The unnamed unicorn, watching her from below in the shadows. “Stage one, fifteen percent completion...”
Celestia was flying straight towards the castle. Instead of the usual entrance she used, which was the main entrance into the castle, she decided to land on the balcony Luna’s tower bedroom, at the west side of the castle. When Luna was cured from the Nightmare, she still needed sometime to adapt to the new and strange world. Luna was given the tower to isolate herself as she adapts, but later grows fond over it and decided to make it her official bedroom. She stayed there ever since, while Celestia decided to take the tower at the east side of the castle, to make it fair.
Celestia landed gracefully on the balcony. It was the evening, meaning that Luna should have already woken up. With a slight tap of her gold shoes on the glass balcony door, she called out, “Luna? Are you in there?”
It was silent for a few seconds, followed by some sounds and a crash, only for the door to open and reveal Princess Luna, or just Luna in this case. She had bags under her eyes, some dried saliva near her mouth, and veins showing from her eyeballs. Her hair was a complete mess, not the flowing and starry kind, that is. It was light blue, like when she first turned back to Luna from Nightmare Moon, but longer. From the looks of it, she was exhausted.
“Luna?! What happened?!”
“Tia... You woke me up too early...”
“But it’s six in the evening! I thought you were awake and getting ready for the Night Court!”
“You know thy was awake yesterday to accompany you to that bland party of the nobles. Fancy Pants was the only one that was entertaining...”
“Oh right, I forgot about that...”
Luna yawned with her hoof close to her mouth, “What is thou doing here anyway?”
“Well, I... Umm... Best we talk inside.”
“Why, of course then. Come in.”
Celestia entered Luna’s bedroom with a somewhat worried face. She knew Luna was a bit anti-social, but never thought she’d express it in her room. It was slightly dark including the walls, and there were some rocks at one corner with a flag consisting of a field of 14 alternating red and white stripes along the fly. There was also a blue canton bearing a crescent and a 14-point star at the top left side of the flag. Her bed was more of a little filly’s bed design, except darker. There was a TV placed on a shelf with a PonyStation connected to it. In the shelf were a bunch of video games, including the famous ‘The Ponies 3’. There was a mini library right next to the pile of rocks and flag but from the looks of it, most of those books weren’t touched in ages.
The only thing that seemed bright and healthy would be Luna’s pet bat, sleeping in its cage upside-down. Everything else would either being depressing or dark.
With a glow of Luna’s horn, the candles of Luna’s bedroom lit and made her room much brighter. “So now, what were you going to tell me?”
“Ahh, yes. I nearly forgot about that as well.” Celestia cleared her throat, “Luna, do you remember about the ‘book’?”
“What book?”
“You know, that ‘book’...”
“You mean this book?” Luna showed her a copy of ‘50 Shades of Earl Grey’.
“No! Not that book! The other ‘book’! The book with an unspeakable name!”
Luna tapped her chin, thinking of the book Celestia meant. Then she remembered, “Oh! That book! The Book Of Ti-”
“NO!” Celestia said as she shoved her golden shoes in Luna’s mouth. “NO SAYING ITS NAME!”
Luna spat out the shoes and wiped her spit off her face, “Fine, fine... and gross...”
Both Celestia and Luna walked out of the room and strolled down the stairs of the tower. The night guards only stand guard at the tower’s entrance, not in front of Luna’s bedroom. With one flash of magic, Luna’s mane was flowing and starry again. Her entire body was cleaned to smalled speck, as if she never looked like ‘that’. Luna then turned over to Celestia, “Now what is it about the ‘book’?”
“Well... It just occured to me that...”
“Tia, as much as I know you want to help, we made a vow to now help anyone with connections to the book.”
“I know Luna! But that was 2274 years ago! Times change and this time, it’s different!”
“Tia! We’ve lost enough because of that cursed book. I will not let that book, especially that unicorn, take anything from us again!”
“B-b-but...”
“No buts, Tia! I won’t sacrifice my life to save one pony who just so happens to be connected to tha-”
“IT’S TWILIGHT!”
Luna stopped walking. Her next step were inches from the ground floor of the tower, but she pulled it back. Again she looked at Celestia, her face worried while the latter was scared with teary eyes. “Did you say Twilight?”
Celestia sniffed and tried to hide her tears, “Y-yes, I said Twilight.”
Luna’s expression unchanged, “Is this a different Twilight, or is this your student?”
“Its... my student...”
Luna eyes went wide in shock. She couldn’t have expected that. She knew how much Twilight meant to Celestia, and she was also Luna’s first friend in a thousand years. If something were to happen to Twilight, both Luna and her sister would be devastated. And now, there is a hundred percent chance that something bad will happen to her. Worst of all, nothing her sister or her could do can stop it.
“I’m... I’m sorry, Celestia. I should’ve have listened to you.”
“No, it’s not your fault. Maybe I can do something to save her...”
“Tia! We’ve tried that already! Countless times! And it all ended in failure! Nothing we do can help her!”
“I. WILL. NOT. LET. HER. DIE!”
Suddenly, the door bursts open and revealed both the night guards and the royal guards, ready for action. One of the royal guards spoke up, “Princesses! Is everything alright?!”
Both Celestia and Luna looked at the royal guard, snapping out of their arguement. Luna, with her angry expression, while Celestia, with a teary and furious face, calmed down a bit. Celestia replied to the guard, “Yes... we’re fine...”
Celestia walked towards the tower door, as the guards stepped aside to let her through. One of the guards held the door open, while all the others just stayed in line. The evening sun shined on Celestia, brightening the rainbow colours of her mane. Just before she left the tower entirely, she turned her head a bit, not revealing her expression.
“I will not let her gone like that. Not like the others.”
Celestia then left the courtyard of which where the tower was located at. The door was left open, with Luna and the night guards inside. The royal guards followed Celestia, doing their duties as usual. Luna looked down on the stone floor, looking at her reflection from the tears of both hers and Celestia’s. A night guard went by her side and snapped her out her depression, “Princess, are you going to be alright?...”
“Yes, I’ll be fine. I’ll be at the Night Court in a moment... You may leave.”
The night guard nodded and gave a signal, ordering the others to leave as well. The door was left open once more, the evening sun just barely from setting entirely. Luna sat on the floor, and looked at the sun. She opened her mouth and tried to speak, but was too saddened to speak. She took a deep breath, and gained the courage to speak.
“Celestia, please don’t do anything stupid...”
And then the sun sets entirely, marking the beginning of the night.