Greetings, everybody. As a friend and editor of Azure Drache, it is my pleasant duty to report that a new chapter of his story, The Phantom of Canterlot, has been published!

The story itself starts rather slowly, but soon, you'll be thrown into a wild adventure spanning hundreds of years, featuring wild guard chases, underground exploration, running through burning houses and more! All the while, a mysterious game of half-truths and fables unfurls in the background, threatening to even turn Princess Twilight against her mentor. The whole image is finished by many plot-twists, nobility lore and world-building, as well as a bunch of lovely and unexpected original characters.

If that seems like your cup of tea, here is a little sneak peek:
A Whiff of the Past: Chapter 17

A groan of pain escaped Twilight’s lips. She lay on the ground, her body sprawled on the cold stone floor. She moved a hoof to her head and tried to recover from the impact a little more before she tried to stand up. Unsteady, she placed her hooves on the ground and misstepped to the side a bit before finding her hoofing again.

She wasn’t able to see them, but she had felt every single stone stair on her way down the spiral staircase.

“Where am I?”she thought. She groped for the pole of the staircase and placed her hoof on it. The last thing she remembered, before falling down the stairs, was the baron talking about Pencake and then, when she placed her hoof on the wall once more, it turned. Before she had been able to overcome her surprise and say something, she was hit by the former top of the wall and kicked down the stairs.

She looked up to where the entrance must be, somewhere in the darkness above. “Baron? Baron can you hear me?” She peeked up her ears but no answer came. “Baron?” she shouted louder but the answer was the same, nothing.

She was going to climb up the stairs when she finally received a reaction, even if it was not what she had expected. From behind her, in the opposite direction of the stairs, came a noise.“Wasn’t that?”She heard it again.“Yes, that's the Cockatrice. What is it doing here?”

When she focused in the direction the noise came from, she was able to notice a very weak shimmer of light.

She trotted towards it. “Hello, is somepony there?”

She didn’t get an answer, but the light got brighter with her every step. When she was close enough, she saw a room connected to the passage she was in.With a loud, “Hello?” she tried to make herself noticed once more, before peeking around the corner. When she did, she gasped. She didn’t expect this at all.

Tags: Teen, Adventure, Mystery, Drama, Twilight, Other