Myth Chaser and the Secret of Starswirl

by Myth Chaser

Chapter Four

Myth Chaser and Snapshot slowly wandered in the darkness of the underground cave. The two ponies each had flashlights shining as they looked around the large area, causing the faint sound of splashing as they walked along the damp cave floor. The blue pegasus shook her hoof dry.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” she asked, looking around at the rocky walls and ceiling, getting the uneasy feeling that it might collapse at any moment if they were to talk too loud or even bump into the wall.

“Yeah, this has to be it,” Myth answered, glancing around the cavern. “I checked and double checked the map. This cave is exactly where dad said it would be.”

“Well I don't see anything other than rock,” Snapshot replied. “This doesn't look like the kind of place that would hold some amazing relic.”

“If dad says it's here, I believe him. He hasn't been wrong about anything so far.”

Snapshot sighed a little. “Right.” She paused a moment, taking a few steps, and then looked over to her brother, shining the light on his face to see him in the darkness. “Any idea what we're looking for, exactly?”

Myth just gave a shake of his head and shrugged. “I guess anything other than rock?” he suggested, giving a pebble on the ground a little kick, having no idea what to do from here. He looked over to his sister. “Look around. Maybe there's a small passage or something that we're not seeing yet that leads to more of the cave.”

His sister just gave a shrug and went in a different direction then him. Splitting up seemed like a decent idea, as long as they didn't get too far apart and lose each other. The mare gave a bored sigh as she looked around, gazing over the walls for any kind of cracks that might be hiding a path deeper into the tunnel.

Myth Chaser seemed a bit more patient as he glanced around, scanning the walls and even the damp ground, hoping for any sign to make itself known to him. Any clue at all. His flashlight flickered a little. He gave it a shake, adjusting the battery within, and stopping the flickering.

“Don't suppose you've found anything yet?” Snapshot asked after a short while, shining her light toward him to let him know where she was.

“Not yet,” he called back.

“I hope we find something soon... I don't want to be in here any longer than we need to.”

“Scared of the dark or something all of a sudden?” Myth teased with a grin, not taking his eyes off the rock wall in front of him.

“No,” she shot back. “I'm scared of a structurally unsound cave that's already covering my back in dirt and could possibly collapse in on us at any moment.”

“Don't worry about that, Snaps. Look, we can still see the entrance of the cave over there,” he gestured over to the dot of white light in the distance. “If we see or hear anything that might be warning us of a collapse, we can make a break for it and get out before anything happens.”

“I guess so...” she muttered. Suddenly her flashlight flickered. She gave it a little shake. Then shook it again. The light dimmed, and finally died out. The pegasus groaned. “Great, my flashlight's dead.”

“Oh, well come over here” Myth said, turning to look back at her. “I've got another battery you can-”

He stopped mid-sentence and did a double take, turning back. Did he just see something...? Myth slowly scanned his light back and forth across the area, looking back to where he thought he saw something other than rock.

“Hey, Myth?” Snapshot called to him, her voice now right beside him, the pegasus wanting to stay close to light. “Battery?”

Myth suddenly saw it again. He kept his light on it. It appeared to be something bright yellow, possibly golden, peeking through a tiny space in between some rocks. He approached the pile of rocks against the wall and started pulling them aside, letting them roll to the ground beside him. A smile grew on his face.

“Think I just found it,” Myth told her. He then reached to the object and lifted it up. He got a quick glance at it, noticing the thing he had found was golden and round in shape, before his own flashlight flickered and the light died out.

It made sense both flashlights would go out around the same time. They'd gotten them both new and used them both at the same times.

Sight of the artifact disappeared, but he kept it in his hooves. “Won't be able to see where the batteries are in this darkness...” Myth muttered. He then sighed. “Let's head back outside.”

“Don't have to tell me twice,” Snapshot said excitedly, quickly making her way toward the light coming in the cave from outside. Myth followed after her, using the sound of her hoofsteps to tell where she was walking and avoid any slippery spots.

It was only a few minutes before they were back at the mouth of the cave, coming back out to the forest. Snapshot shielded her eyes from the sunlight as she got back out. She froze in place. Myth bumped into his sister, distracted by trying to get a better look at the artifact he'd just picked up. He looked up when he bumped into her, about to ask why she'd suddenly stop in front of him, only to see what she saw.

Standing in front of Myth and Snapshot was a zebra mare. To the zebra's left was a male gryphon, body mostly dark gray feathers but the same golden beak and talons they'd seen on every other gryphon they had come across in their lifetime. On the other side of the zebra was a unicorn stallion with a blue coat and dark blue mane.

They all looked at Snapshot and Myth as if they hadn't expected to run into them, especially here directly at the mouth of the cave. The zebra's violet colored eyes looked directly into Myth's brown gaze before shifting down to what he held in his grasp. The artifact. The zebra then smiled and looked up to the tan colored stallion.

“Well now. Seems you just made my job all the more easy,” the zebra stated, and grinned. She gave a little nod and the gryphon reached forward to grab the object that Myth held.

Myth pulled it away protectively. “What are you talking about?” he asked. “What do you want?”

“That artifact, of course,” she answered. “Just hand it over and we'll be done here.”

“And if I don't?” Myth asked in return.

“Myth,” Snapshot urged, not wanting to cause any trouble. When he looked to his sister, she gave a little nod towards the gryphon, showing Myth what she saw. The unicorn now held a spear up in his magic, the sharp, metallic point aimed directly at them.

The zebra grinned, noticing the surprise on Myth's face when he saw the spear. She then held out her own hoof for the artifact, silently grinning as she waited for the stallion to give it to her.

“Just give it to her,” Snapshot said with fear in her voice, her eyes locked on the pointed spear the unicorn held in his magic. She wanted nothing to do with this crew.

Myth looked down at the artifact for a moment as he thought about the situation. He had a gun holstered to his hoof that he'd brought to fight off any wild animals they'd find in this forest. He could pull it out and fight. His father had taught him some basic fighting moves as a sort of hobby back home. Snapshot was never interested though. She didn't know how to fight. It would just leave him outnumbered one to three...

He then looked back to the zebra. With a defeated sigh, he reluctantly held the artifact out. She took it from him with a sort of smile Myth only ever imagined on villains that got their way in books that he read. The zebra packed the golden disc object into the bag she had dangling at her side. “Good...”

Myth Chaser and Snapshot noticed the gryphon give a nod to the side, gesturing for them to leave. The two turned and began to walk away, before...

“One more thing,” the zebra stopped them. They looked back to her. She looked to the unicorn. “I want the gun,” she said. before looking back to the siblings, as if just to be a bully to the two kids she bumped into.

Myth wasn't fast enough to do anything before the pistol was pulled out of its holster by the unicorn's magic, and levitated over toward the zebra. Myth turned as if about to shout, but was stopped by Snapshot, giving him a shake of her head, asking him not to cause any trouble.

He sighed angrily and continued to walk away with his sister, hearing the mixed laughter of the zebra, gryphon, and unicorn.

Once they were out of sight, the two stopped and Snapshot looked to her brother. “Thanks for not trying to fight. I could tell you wanted to.”

“They don't have any right to do that to us,” Myth said angrily.

“It's alright, Myth. We'll just get back home and explain this to mom and dad. They'll understand.”

He looked back in the direction that they came from, the gears in his mind turning as he thought about what had just happened, and what he wanted to do. Then he looked to his sister. “You know what? No.”

“Huh?”

“We're adults now, Snap. We don't need to be running back home to mom and dad anymore just because something was taken from us.”

“Myth-”

“I'm not letting those guys get away with stealing that stuff from us just because they threatened us. They're just a bunch of bullies.” Snapshot looked to her brother, seeing the anger in his eyes. He wasn't done with that zebra and her crew. She could see that he wasn't about to walk away, no matter what she said to him. “

We found that artifact on our own,” Myth continued. “They can't just take it from us. And they can't just take my gun like that. I don't care who they are.” Snapshot stared at her brother, hoping she could think of something to say to make him change his mind.

Before she could say anything, he turned and began making his way back in the direction they'd just left.

“Myth, please don't-” Snapshot started, jumping in front of her brother and stopping him in please. “Just... If you really have to do something, at least think it through first. Those guys have weapons, and they outnumber us. Plus, who knows how many others are with them? They could have someone guarding their camp or something.”

Myth stopped, looking up at her as she talked to him. She looked at her brother with pleading eyes, hoping he wouldn't do something stupid just cause he's angry.

With a sigh, he sat himself down and tried his best to calm down at least a little.

There was a long moment of silence as Snapshot stared at him, wondering what was going through his mind as Myth stared blankly down at the ground. He then looked up with a little smile. “I've got a plan.”

---

Jewel was on the edge of her seat. She was sitting across from the two siblings and staring at them, intrigued by what they were telling her. The three were currently on the train making their way for Manehattan. The unicorn had grown curious as to how the two had gotten the artifact in their possession in the first place, and had ended up asking once they boarded the train. “Wow...” she said in awe. “What happened next? I mean, obviously, you got the lock back, but... how?”

Snapshot gave a little giggle at the question, taking a quick glance out the window and seeing Manehattan not too far off in the distance. They'd be arriving in a few minutes. She then looked back to Jewel. “Well, Myth came up with a plan. We followed them back to their camp.”

“We overheard them talking and the zebra said something about getting the artifact ready to take to her 'boss'. No idea who she meant,” Snapshot stepped in. “Anyways. Myth had me circle around the camp to the other side. I'd be a distraction.”

“Right. I just asked her to make some kind of distraction to keep them busy. Next thing I know, Snaps just randomly screams at the top of her lungs like she saw something from her worst nightmare. I was worried something happened to her, but then I saw her flying up in the sky not too long after, giving me the signal that she got them all away and they hadn't seen her. They'd be looking for a pony in trouble when there wasn't one.”

Jewel gave a little laugh at the thought. “That probably spooked them.”

Myth grinned and nodded. “I hope so. Anyways, I took that chance and ran into one of the tents. The one that I saw them take the artifact into. Snapshot took off to go back into hiding, and I grabbed the artifact. Then as I'm exiting the tent, I hear someone shout to the others that I was there. I would've tried to look for my gun too, but I guess the zebra still had it. Next thing I know I'm sprinting at full speed through the forest with the artifact tugged away in my bag and they chase me all the way to a cliff beside a waterfall.”

“Oh crap,” Jewel gasped, her ears perking up at the realization of where this was heading. “You jumped?”

He nodded. “Not before I tricked the zebra into giving me my gun back.”

“Jeez, you two are awesome,” she said in awe. “I don't think I could ever do something like that.”

That was when they felt the train lurch forward a bit, hitting the brakes and slowing to a stop a moment later. A look out the window showed that they had arrived in Manehattan.

---

The trio arrived at the Manehattan Museum a while later. Jewel was leading the way with Myth and Snapshot following close behind. Myth looked around at the tall buildings curiously, though made sure to pay attention where he was walking, so as not to bump into anypony or cross in front of the taxi carriages. Snapshot mainly glanced around street level, taking quick looks in the windows of shops they passed by.

“Oh, look!” Snapshot exclaimed, pointing up at the sign over the local theater. “Curtain's in town!” Myth looked up where she was pointing. Above the doorway to the local theater was the marquee, showing the title of some stage play, followed by the director’s name. Beneath the title, it was shown that the play was starring Curtain Call.

“She's really making a name for herself,” Myth said with a chuckle.

“Someone you know?” Jewel asked, coming back to stand by them as she looked up at the name.

Snapshot nodded. “Yeah, she was my roommate during college. Great friend.”

“Looks like the play is premiering next week,” Myth pointed out, looking to the poster on display next to the entrance.

From what he could tell, it looked like Curtain Call was going to be the main role in a fantasy/adventure play. The mare on the poster was dressed in a dark brown cloak most likely made of leather, with the hood pulled up over her head, and a face mask covering her muzzle. This kept most of her head covered, though left her eyes and forehead exposed, showing she was a white-coated unicorn with an orange mane and matching orange eyes, along with her horn giving a faint yellow glow, lighting her way in the darkness of the night. The background showed the start of a castle looming in the distance. At the bottom of the poster was the title of the play. Fall of the Empire.

“Oh, we should definitely check it out!” Snapshot exclaimed excitedly. “It would be cool to see her again.”

“Sounds good. Looks like it'd be an interesting play anyways,” Myth admitted. “I'd probably see it whether she was in it or not. But for now, we have other business to take care of.” He stood back up and gestured for Jewel to continue leading the way.

“Right,” Snapshot got back up and began to follow.

It had been another few blocks of walking. The large city was bustling with lots of busy ponies making their way through the crowded streets. It was a wonder that the three ponies didn't get separated in all the chaos.

Myth Chaser, Snapshot, and Jewel made their way to the museum, walking in the front doors, and approached the front counter. Jewel asked if her friend was working today. Someone by the name of Astrid, if Myth and Snapshot had heard it right. When it was confirmed that this Astrid person was indeed currently working at the moment, the three ponies paid their admittance fees and entered the museum.

“So, who's Astrid?” Myth asked curiously.

“Friend of mine,” Jewel answered simply. “She's a tour guide. Knows a lot about pretty much every exhibit in the museum. If anyone can help us find where the book is, it's her. And with luck, maybe she can get us some private access to it so we can find out what we need to know.”

Myth smiled at the thought. What would they have done without this pony? They might still be stuck back in Canterlot researching Starswirl, and if they had made progress and found out about this book, they might not be able to get access to it, or find out where it went. They were lucky to have met Jewel!

Myth and Snapshot continued following after her as she led them through the museum. The siblings looked at the exhibits curiously. It was pretty much what one would expect to find in a museum. Old objects that had big historical significance in some way. The items were kept safely in some protective glass cases. Something that Myth and Snapshot found odd though, was the guards. There were lots of guards. Way more than they would have expected.

“Are there usually this many guards?” Snapshot asked a bit quietly.

Jewel hadn't seemed to notice this, but once Snapshot asked, she took a look around, noticing what they saw. She shook her head. “No. I usually only ever see three, maybe four, guards whenever I come. But... now that you mention it, there does seem to be a lot.”

There were so many security guards around, the ponies could see several just from one spot, and when they rounded the corner, they'd find several other guards. Each area of the museum seemed to have multiple security guards on watch.

After making a few turns, they came to another area, noticing that it also had guards, but an extra two more than other exhibits. This was probably due to the fact that this area was a bit crowded by the tour group. He couldn't see the guide, hidden from the view of the crowd she was leading, but he could still hear.

“Is she still around?” someone in the group asked.

“No pony knows for sure,” the guide's feminine voice called from in front of the group. “In creating her eighth enchanted artifact, Meadowbrook seems to have disappeared.” Myth's ears perked up at that. He'd heard the name before. Meadowbrook was a great unicorn from the East, who magically enchanted artifacts that she created for special uses before she was never heard from again. Everyone assumes that the unicorn had died while on one of her expeditions around Equestria, but no body has ever been recovered, and no trace of where she might have gone.

“Historians and investigators have been searching for years in hopes of figuring out what might have happened to her,” the guide's voice continued. “But as of now, it's like she's just vanished into thin air. Fascinating, isn't it?”

The group all muttered words of agreement with each other, apparently entertained by what they'd learned.

“This concludes the tour!” the guide said cheerily. “Feel free to wander at your leisure as long as you'd like, and if anyone has any questions about something, please feel free to come find me.”

The group separated at that point, splitting up in different directions. Most ponies seemed to stay in the Meadowbrook exhibit, looking at the items on display, appearing to be copies of the mage's journals, pictures of objects that could only be assumed were the eight enchanted artifacts, and various others. Meanwhile other ponies left the area to look around at other things.

When the tour group split up, Myth and Snapshot finally got to see who it was. To their surprise, they saw a gryphon. She had a furry body of blue, her wings being a darker shade of blue. The feathers on her chest and all over her head were a creamy white, just like the hair on the end of her tail. Her beak and talons were the same golden color they'd seen on any other gryphon they had ever spotted. She was dressed in a sort of light gray suit, the uniform she was supposed to wear while working.

She looked over to the trio who remained where they were, her blue eyes landing on the golden-colored unicorn, Jewel. She smiled wide and approached with her arms out for a hug. “Hey, Jewel! How've you been? I haven't seen you around in a while. Who's your new friends?”

Jewel smiled widely and accepted the friendly hug. “I've been doing well, Astrid.” She then stepped aside and gestured to Myth and Snapshot, introducing them. “This is Myth Chaser, and his sister, Snapshot.”

Astrid held her clawed hand out toward the ponies for a shake. “Nice to meet you two. My name's Astrid.”

The siblings each accepted the shake, the sensation of being grabbed by talons feeling strange to them. “Nice to meet you, too,” they each said.

“So how do you two know Jewel?” the gryphon asked.

“We just met yesterday,” Myth answered. “Met in the Starswirl the Bearded section of the Canterlot library.”

“Ooh, what kind of research were you doing, if I may ask?”

“That's sort of why we're here,” Jewel stepped in, lowering her voice so the guards wouldn't hear them. “You remember that stuff I told you about Starswirl the Bearded? And his big secret with Princess Luna?”

“Sure do,” Astrid confirmed. “Make some kind of break through on it or something?”

“Getting there,” Myth answered. “Snaps and I found an artifact that our dad says is the beginning of a trail to finding the truth behind the secret.”

“Right, it seems to be some kind of magical lock,” Jewel added. “The problem is, we have no idea what to do next because it's got these strange symbols all over it.”

“That's where you come in,” Snapshot jumped in. “Jewel said that she recognized these markings from one of the pages she saw in a book that was on display here.”

“Oh, Starswirl's journal?” Astrid asked, looking to her unicorn friend.

Myth and Snapshot looked to Jewel quickly in surprise. She hadn't mentioned that the book they were talking about was Starswirl's actual journal. She'd just said it was a book! The fact that it was his own journal, and it had the symbols was even better!

Jewel smiled and nodded. “Exactly. We were hoping that you could get us a bit of privacy with the journal.”

Astrid frowned a bit and shook her head. “Sorry guys. Can't do that even if I wanted to. You might have noticed the extra security?” she pointed out, gesturing to the guards around the room. “They're here cause there was a break in last night. The glass case was shattered to pieces all over the floor and the journal was taken.”

Myth sighed at this news. He'd been relying on the hope that he would get to see the journal and now it was gone! “Any idea who took it, or where it might be?” he asked.

The gryphon just shook her head. “Nope. No clues left as to who could have been here. Police investigators didn't find anything.”

“I think I have a guess,” Jewel said, looking back to Myth and Snapshot. “You were just telling me about that one zebra and her crew you guys met. If they were after that artifact, surely they'd be after the book too, right? If they had someone with them that knew about it?”

“Makes sense,” Snapshot said. “But we never got their names and have no idea where they'd be. They could be anywhere in Equestria by now.”

“Ma'am?” a pony asked, approaching the gryphon. “I've got a question about something in the Comet Tail section...”

Astrid gave a little nod to the pony, then looked to Myth and Snapshot. “Sorry guys. Hope you can figure something out.” She then turned and followed after the pony that had asked for her, being led to the other area.

Jewel gave her gryphon friend a wave, then sighed as she turned back to the siblings, walking with them as they began to make their way out of the museum. “Well, now what?”

“Back to the Canterlot library?” Snapshot suggested.

Myth stood in silence for a bit, feeling a bit of pressure as the two mares waited on him for an answer, like he was in charge of this whole situation. “I... guess we could stick around a while. See if the police end up getting the journal back?” he suggested. “I doubt Starswirl would've written about the symbols in anything other than his journal, so unless we can get that back, I think we're at a dead end.”

“Good point...” Jewel agreed. “If this secret of his is really so big, he'd probably only write it in his personal journal, if anything.”

“So, next stop is the hotel then?” Snapshot suggested as the trio exited the front doors of the museum, coming to a stop.

Before Myth could agree with his sister, Jewel jumped in. “You could stay at my place if you'd like. I've got a couple guestrooms.”

“That's okay,” Myth said. “You don't have to do that, we can get a room at a hotel.”

“You could, but you have no idea how long you'll be sticking around,” Jewel added. “Don't want to end up paying for a whole week all for nothing, do you?”

Snapshot looked over to her brother. “She's got a point there.”

Myth paused for a moment. She was right. They might be in Manehattan for a week, or longer, waiting for a journal that might not even be coming back, or doing more searching at the Manehattan library. They would be here a while... “I guess you're right. You really don't mind us staying with you?”

“I don't mind at all,” Jewel said with a smile. “Care to head there now?”

“Sounds good to me. Not like we really have anything else to do right now.”

“Speak for yourself,” Snapshot said with a bit of a laugh. She had her saddlebag open, reaching in and quickly pulling out her camera. “I hear the central park here is gorgeous. I want to go get some pictures.”

“In that case,” Jewel reached her magic to her bag, opening the flap and digging through the contents, pulling out a notepad and a pencil. She quickly wrote down her address and tore the page off, handing it over to Snapshot. “Here's my address. You can meet us there when you're done.”

Snapshot took the paper, taking a quick glance before slipping it in a pocket in her bag. “Alright, thanks. See you there soon. Shouldn't be more than an hour or so.” She then strapped the camera around her neck and took off in the air with a strong flap of her wings.

---

“I have to admit, I was expecting a house when you invited us to stay at your place,” Myth said, breathing a bit heavily as the two of them approached the top of the stairs. “You know, because you sell jewelry. Wouldn't that get you quite a bit of money?” He noticed that they had climbed all the way up to the top floor of the apartment building, and realized she was leading him to a penthouse apartment. The biggest and best of any kind of apartment he'd seen.

“I considered a house, but this apartment building is much closer to my store than anything I'd looked at,” Jewel explained as she led him down the hallway and began to unlock the first door on the left. “Plus I like the exercise I get with the stairs.”

“Yeah, I can see you getting some good exercise out of that,” Myth said, panting lightly. He was usually in good shape, but climbing up flights of stairs to the tenth floor was tiring to someone not used to it.

Jewel pushed the door open and made her way inside. “Make yourself at home,” she told him, then headed up a set of stairs to the side of the door. Myth took a look around, already in awe of what he was seeing. He'd never been in a penthouse apartment before, so he didn't know what to expect.

One wall was pretty much all glass, a window with a great view out at the city. Myth noticed a door at the side leading out onto a balcony just outside the glass wall, with a few small tables and chairs outside. Inside, white couches surrounded a glass coffee table on the dark wood floor. Behind the furniture of the living room was a kitchen area set up like a bar with a few stools lined up along the counter and the oven, stove, and sink against the wall behind it. The kitchen area was between two sets of stairs, both leading up above the kitchen area to a sort of balcony.

Curiously, Myth made his way up one side of the stairs, the ones that Jewel had just gone up. He stood at the balcony, looking out at the living room and at the nice view out the window to the city of Manehattan. He noticed it was aimed out in the direction of central park. Turning away from the balcony, he was met with a wall that made it seem like a sort of one-walled hallway. There was a door on the far left wall, one on right, far right, and two on the wall directly in front of him. They were all open and showing that, from left to right, was bedroom, bedroom, bathroom, and then the fourth bedroom at the far right, where Myth could see Jewel unpacking a few things from her bag. He could only assume that far right bedroom was hers.

“Nice place,” Myth called over to her.

She looked up and smiled to him, giving a little laugh. “Thanks.” She pulled a few scrolls out of her bag, setting them aside, presumably on a desk she had in her room. Jewel then came out of her room and returned to Myth. “I guess since Snapshot's not here, you get first dibs on which guest room you want,” she told him, gesturing over to the two doors at the left of the bathroom.

“They any different?” Myth asked, making his way over to the rooms.

Jewel couldn't help but giggle softly. “Not really. Aside from the window out to the city in the left room, they're pretty much the exact same.”

“She can have the room with the window,” Myth decided without even checking. “She'd appreciate the view better than I would.”

He then made his way to the right guest room and set his bag on the bed, taking a look around the room. The walls were painted a light beige, with the same dark wooden floor the living room had. The bed had the same beige-colored blankets over the white sheets, and white pillows rested against the black headboard. Next to the bed was a nightstand the same black as the headboard, matching the dresser against the wall.

Myth set his bag down beside the bed and came back out of the room. “Thanks for letting us stay a while. You really didn't have to.”

“It's no trouble,” Jewel assured him. “I don't use those rooms anyways, and it could be nice to have some friendly company for a while.”

He smiled in return. Myth went back to the balcony looking over the living area and gave a little sigh. “Well, what now?”

“Hmm...” Jewel tapped a hoof on her chin in thought at the question. She didn't exactly have any board games they could play, or any cards... Wow, she needed to get some things for when she has company over or they were going to get bored quick. “You hungry?”

---

A freshly made pot of spaghetti sat on the stove behind the counter. Jewel had explained that she didn't usually cook too often. She was a jeweler, after all, not a chef, but spaghetti was one of the easiest things for her to make. In front of them were empty, messy plates, both of them having finished their food a moment ago.

“So anyways, we used to jump out from behind corners, or out of the closet and scare each other whenever we could. Nothing seriously scary or anything, just a sudden surprise, for fun” Myth continued, telling her a story about him and his sister when they were younger. “And one day, she was in the backyard, waiting for me to pass by the sliding glass door that leads outside. She was hiding next to the door, and when I passed by...” Myth laughed a bit at the memory.

“Yeah?” Jewel asked, urging him to continue, a smile on her face as she eagerly waited to find out what he thought was funny.

“The glass door happened to be closed. So when I passed by the door, instead of jumping inside to scare me, I heard her start to let out a roaring sound at me, and I looked in time to hear a sudden thud on the glass and see her smack face first into the glass door and bounce backward,” he explained, making Jewel laugh as well. “I fell to the floor in a fit of laughter and she came in, rubbing at her head with a dumb grin, and told me she meant to do that.”

This sent him and Jewel into a laughing fit for a moment.

As they were coming down from their laughter, Myth noticed something behind Jewel, seeing a slip of paper slide in through the mail slot of Jewel's door. He pointed it out to her. “Looks like you got mail.”

“Huh?” Jewel turned, spotting the paper as well. “Weird time to deliver mail,” she said, looking up at the clock hanging on her wall. The mare got up from her seat at the bar and went over, picking the paper up. She took a look, flipping it over. She froze for a moment.

Myth noticed her eyes widen and a look of fear spread over her face. “Jewel?” he called to her. “Something wrong?”

Jewel rushed to her door, quickly opening it wide and stepping out in the hall. Myth jumped from his seat, ready to follow her, but she stopped just outside the door and looked back and forth in both directions of the hall, as if looking for whoever just slipped her mail through the door. Whoever it had been was already long gone. “What's up, Jewel?” Myth asked, standing in the doorway.

She turned back inside, closing the door behind her. “You're not going to like this,” Jewel told him, holding the 'mail' toward him.

Myth got a glimpse of something red on the back, and looked at her strangely as he took the slip of paper. He found that it was actually photo paper, used for printing a camera roll's pictures. When he looked down, he saw the photograph, and what it showed made his heart sink immediately.

Snapshot was looking at the camera with tears welling up in her terrified eyes, about ready to cry if she hadn't been already. It was a full body picture of her, tied up securely with rope binding her hooves behind her back, her legs held tight together, and rope around her midsection, keeping her wings tight against her sides. Along with all of this was a white cloth tied tightly over her muzzle.

Myth flipped the photo over, his heart pounding as he was filled with conflicting emotions of fear for his sister and anger at whoever was holding her hostage. On the back of the picture was some writing in red ink. It showed an address, followed by a message.

If you want her back alive, come alone.
Bring the artifact.