Twilight ran through the Hedge with the other changelings, looking like a queen of battle and moving as silent as a ghost, the tooth floating ahead of her as a guide. She was wearing a coronet of black iron that clasped around her horn like winding vines. Her barding was steel chainmail meshed with silk, with a breastplate of solid iron to protect her chest. Her hooves were encased in shoes of steel with spurs of iron attached. It weighed a ton, but Twilight looked like a Coltic warrior princess. Her mane and tail flared out behind her like the trail of a comet, hymns of battle and sagas of war running through and trailing off the violet flames. The shadows shimmered around her hooves, excited and whispering eagerly to her for the battle that was to come.
Blackboard's lacquered armor moved with him effortlessly, the Neighponese protection easily brushing aside the thorns of the Hedge. His iron helmet had a similarly iron mask styled like a fox-demon of old, while his breastplate was intricately inlaid with images of foxes playing. The rest of his body was protected by layers of lacquered wood and metal, held together with bands of silk, giving him an elegantly foreign look. An enormous, slightly curved blade was strapped to his back, the handle in mouth's reach, though Twilight doubted his ability to wield such a thing in close quarters, he seemed incredibly familiar with it. He ran with a careless abandon, following Twilight with the unconscious grace of a predator, neither sword nor armor impeding his progress at all.
Vinyl and Octavia wore matching outfits of simple chain and plate, through which magic coursed like an invisible pulse. They wore helmets of steel, with neck barding that would probably deflect even a direct strike. Their breastplates and pauldrons were intricately etched, the etchings along the sides seemed to sing as they brushed past the thorns, and even the jangling of the chainmail seemed to chime a distant tune. Scratch bobbed her head as she walked, looking around alertly, her glass hair chiming against her helmet like crystal bells. Octavia moved with an unearthly serenity, a blade strapped to her side in mouth's reach. She seemed mildly amused by the whole venture, her expression calm and collected while she followed, her eyes flicking to any sudden sounds, while the rest of her body seemed relaxed.
Trixie, by comparison, looked almost naked, scared and alone at the back of the line. She wore only a chainmail vest and two bulging saddlebags that clanked discordantly as she trotted with the rest. She had, according to Blackboard, used her own outfit to make Twilight's as a form of apology, which seemed a little foolish to Twilight, but she welcomed the gift anyway. Trixie was obviously none too happy to be back in the Hedge, her ears flicking around nervously as the group clattered on. The small blue mare flinched whenever Twilight looked at her, but she seemed to have prepared at least as well as Twilight would have, had she been expecting this venture.
… Which raised questions in Twilight's mind, but as they were already charging through the Hedge, it didn't really matter as much. Walls of bookshelves and twisted papery vines suddenly gave way to what looked like the door to a castle that belonged in a storybook. The old kind of story, she reflected, where the villains bathed in blood and the heroes put the heads of said villains on a spike. It was tall, made of blackened oak and had no knocker, but the tooth pulled steadily towards it. Twilight took a deep breath and turned to the others, “Alright ponies, friends and companions, this is going to be dangerous, incredibly dangerous. So before we go in, let's make a plan.” Twilight used her magic to draw in the dirt on the path. “Blackboard and I will go in first, followed by Trixie, with Vinyl and Octavia bringing up the rear.” Trixie frowned at the diagram and held up a hoof like a filly in school, “Yes, Trixie?”
The blue unicorn flinched a little as Twilight's intimidating gaze fell on her, but she seemed to be growing accustomed, “Um, Lady Sparkle, I just wanted to say that I brought a few things along to help.” She pulled out several white, softly glowing spheres. Seeing the blank looks on the faces of the other ponies she added helpfully, “Auto-chalk, if everyone takes one then we have a way of finding each other. It... Uh... Well I enchanted them to seek each other, so if we get separated, just set the balls on the ground and they'll roll towards each other, leaving a little glowing line.”
Twilight blinked, then smiled at the azure mare, “That's handy, alright, everypony take one, but hopefully we won't need them. Now once we're inside,” Twilight described the various magical traps she was familiar with, and gave Vinyl and Trixie the necessary knowledge to bypass them while Blackboard and Octavia simply cleaned their armor and weapons. Blackboard hummed a tune softly while he oiled his ungainly large sword by hoof. Octavia nodded to the beat while she oiled her more traditionally shaped mouth-sword's leaf-shaped blade.
The plan was set, Trixie distributed a few more trinkets, including several glass spheres filled with compressed air and finely ground iron filings. The three unicorns stepped up to the massive door, Twilight in the middle, Trixie on her right and Vinyl on her left, and they all three blew down the portal to face the demon inside.
The Hedge-side of the warehouse was a hellish maze of twisting corridors and terrifyingly huge open spaces, filled with utter darkness. At first it was deadly quiet and empty, with the only sounds that of running, armored ponies. It lulled them into complacency after a few minutes, until Octavia tripped the first of the magical traps in one of the wide-open cavernous spaces. The earth pony whirled as her hoof broke a tripwire, then dove to the side, narrowly avoiding a falling spear that seemed to reach the very ceiling. The whole party ran as more silvery spears fell down from above, then Trixie screamed, pointing up.
Twilight looked up and saw that all the spears they'd been dodging had in fact been the sharpened limbs of some massive mechanical monstrosity. A body of bronze and gold supported the silver limbs, in the center of which a gaping, whirling food processor of a maw whined, surrounded by glowing eyes. It lunged for the screaming blue unicorn, who was saved at the last minute by a blast from Twilight's magic that threw her out of harm's way before the huge metal body impacted the floor with a thump that shook them all to the ground, except for Blackboard.
The red unicorn had the ridiculously large sword in his mouth as he leapt right when the body of the mechanical spider hit the ground. He spun, bringing the full force of the spin down towards the body of the monster, which moved at the last second, spoiling the blow, but costing it five of its twenty spear-like limbs. The ponies had to scramble to avoid the falling silver limbs, and the intact, thrashing ones still attached to the body, which screamed like an angry teakettle full of weasels. It lunged for Blackboard, who nearly sidestepped it entirely, but one of the limbs sneakily waited for him to move before batting him harshly across the floor.
It would have been curtains for Blackboard then, had Vinyl not hit it with a sonic blast. The unicorn was surrounded with a rippling aura of raw sound that hurt the eyes to look at. She let one of the spears lunge for her, then sent the whole aura up the length at the last second, shattering the metal limb with harmonic vibrations. The creature screamed in metallic agony and fell backwards towards Twilight, reckoning her to be an easier target.
It reckoned wrong. Twilight disintegrated three limbs that came at her from different directions, then caught a fourth with telekinesis and wrenched it, pulling the leg free with brute force and a shower of fine silver parts. Twilight used the captured limb as a club, deflecting further attacks and denting the main body with a vicious efficiency, her mane flaring like a solar corona. As she was focusing though, another pointed limb shot out from the darkness, aimed straight for the purple unicorn's body. A shriek pierced the darkness laced with eldritch power.
The whole metal creature fell dead as if the shriek had been its death-knell. Twilight, Vinyl and Blackboard stared at the thing, blinking. Out of the darkness, Octavia emerged, supporting a shaking Trixie, that was... Giggling? “I did it, I did it! I saved her, did you see?” Trixie burbled hysterically, while Octavia smiled.
“Yes Trixie, that was very well done.” Octavia said soothingly, giving Twilight a look. The perplexed purple unicorn trotted over, and Octavia nudged Trixie, “Go on Trixie, tell her what you did.”
Trixie faltered a bit when she saw Twilight so close, but then straightened, “I, well... I forgot, until Octavia reminded me that is, that the creature was a machine. And I know machines.” At Twilight's utterly lost look she added, “I killed it, by asking it to die. It had to listen you see, you know what I mean?” Twilight nodded in sudden comprehension, then leaned in and nuzzled Trixie affectionately, to the blue unicorn's shock.
“Thank you Trixie, that was very well-done. I owe you my life. Now come on ponies, this isn't over yet.” Twilight moved a little ways off and started preparing the locator spell again while Trixie blushed and stared. Her mind had gone rather blissfully blank and kept playing the feeling of Twilight's face against her neck over and over. She smelled of berries, Trixie thought dimly, while the rest of the party set about gathering any dropped belongings.
Blackboard walked over with his sword once more strapped across his back, looking annoyed. “Trixie,” he said, snapping the unicorn changeling out of her reverie, “If you're going to ruin a good fight, do it before it becomes a life-threatening situation.” He stalked away, grumbling, and stood next to Twilight, looking around for more dangers. Trixie glared at the red unicorn for a while before her brain pointedly reminded her that the sword across his back had chopped through metal with apparently no resistance whatsoever. She decided to forgive Blackboard on that basis, and followed when Twilight found the way again.
“Is this the Hedge still, Twilight?” Octavia asked softly as the party crept along the wall of a shadowy room full of bones. Twilight thought for a moment, she was walking on the wall to avoid crunching any of the bones, while the others tried their best. She was about to reply when Trixie stepped heavily on a bone, the sudden cracking noise making them all jump briefly. Twilight sighed quietly while Blackboard shot Trixie an irritated look, causing the blue unicorn to shrink, blushing.
They continued after a tense moment of listening for some response to the sudden noise, Twilight whispering softly back to Octavia, “I'm not sure, it doesn't look like the Hedge as much as I'm used to, but it feels like it...” Twilight looked around, frowning, “But it's like he took the Hedge and tamed it, somehow... If only I had time to-”
“Twilight!” Trixie called from the back, the sudden shout shattering the silence, “The bones are moving!” Sure enough, the pile of bones was collecting together into a giant mass in the center of the room, filling the space with the grim cacophony of bone against bone. The group gathered into a defensive ring with Trixie, who was carrying the supplies, in the middle. “Uh... Girls,” Trixie said shakily, “Maybe we should just...”
“Run!” Shouted Twilight, who felt the spell gathering moments before the giant pile of bones sprang to life. Two glowing orbs for eyes opened in the pile, then the creature hauled itself upright like a building-sized pony of bones that filled the room to the arched ceiling. The group bolted along the wall, looking for a door or passageway. The bone-creature lunged for them with limbs made of grisly spears that clattered when they missed. “An animation spell? He's insane! Utterly bucking insane!” Twilight shouted to herself as she ran with the others, looking urgently for an escape route, “Animation spells were banned because there's no way to control them besides... One second! Everypony stop!”
The group stumbled to a halt while Twilight dashed towards the huge creature. Blackboard lunged to grab her, but she was just beyond his reach and he fell flat. Twilight ignored his swearing and the pleas of the others to stand before the monster, which pulled up short in front of her. Twilight whispered softly to the darkness, her fey power visibly warping the air a little as she confronted the bony construct. Her expression softened after a moment, “Girls... It's afraid. This is the killer's loneliness. It just... Is afraid of being alone anymore.”
“What?!” The group called back.
Twilight carefully responded, not breaking eye contact, “Animation spells are difficult because you need a little bit of yourself to power the creature. I'd imagine this is powered by the killer's loneliness. The last one was entirely of faerie make but this...” She indicated the bone-construct, which brought its 'head' down to fix Twilight with its glowing gaze, “Is pure unicorn magic. The last pony to know how to do this kind of spell was Starswirl the Bearded, and... His apprentice, who disappeared not long after the death of his master, leaving behind his family who swore to find their lost patriarch.” She hesitantly reached up with a hoof and stroked the 'nose' of the construct, causing it to croon with pleasure, which was probably one of the more disturbing sounds Twilight had ever heard.
She spoke to the creature soothingly, and gradually it turned back into a pile of bones, spreading out once more across the floor of the room like a gentle tide. Twilight backed carefully away from the edge of the flow, gesturing for the others to do the same. They came to a large metal door and opened it as quietly as possible, closed it gently behind them and only once they were a long ways down the corridor did they sigh with relief. Vinyl gave Twilight a look, “So how do you know about animation spells, if they're so hush-hush Twilight?”
Twilight blushed a little, “Well, when I got permission to look up the spell to find the killer, I took the opportunity to look up the spells I was never allowed to see. Animation spells weren't even in the war library, they've been completely stricken from the books, but they were described in detail if you looked through the accounts and cross-referenced them.”
“Cross-referenced them.” Vinyl said flatly, “In a day.”
“Well... Yeah...” Twilight said defensively while Octavia gave her mate an amused look, “It's not that hard, I'm a fast reader. Anyway, I know his name now. The killer's that is.” She frowned, “Or his family name anyway. He's a member of the Starshine family, an old line dedicated to the advancement of unicorn magic, though most of them have forgotten why. Their family crest-”
“Is probably not important right now,” Blackboard cut her off gently, “I'm sorry Twilight, but we're in a weird psychotic pony's mansion in a parallel dimension. Now is not the time for family histories.” Twilight glared at the red unicorn for a moment, then sighed and nodded. She brought out the tooth again and moved off a little ways to start prepping for the locator spell. As she muttered over the little ivory fragment, Blackboard noticed something strange about the section of corridor they were in: it was very clear of debris. Not to say that the rest of the corridors had been filled with junk, but there was usually a little dust in the corners. He stood up, about to ask the others when the floor dropped out from under the group, except for Twilight, who was a little ways off. She spun around in time to see the trapdoor behind her close, leaving empty space where her companions should have been.
Twilight ran full-tilt through the nightmarish hallways, the little chip of tooth pulling her steadily upwards. She blasted a closed door open and found herself in a gallery of horror. The walls were decorated with a ghastly series paintings done in blood. The crest of the Starshine family, a shield with four stars and a crescent moon in the center, adorned all four walls, while a crude eye symbol glared from the ceiling and floor. In the middle of the room a pedestal sat, a little off-kilter, with a book resting on its polished marble surface, embossed with the Starshine family crest. The tooth pulled Twilight straight to the book, then hovered over it, spinning. Twilight tucked the tooth away and flipped open the book.
The whole book was written in neat, precise mouthwriting, in a style consistent with about a hundred years before. It was the account of Starswirl's apprentice, Nebula the Lost, Twilight realized to her rising excitement, and his experiments with faeries quickly explained his disappearance. One passage in particular caught Twilight's eye,
Thus I do believe that any door may be a door to the faeries, and that the strong of will may conjure a door in their realm to ours through the act of will alone. I shall this next night begin my experiments to that effect, making use of the permanent gateway I discovered at the back of this journal. It's just as well I found it before some ignorant foal stumbled across the portal and alerted the Beast.
Curious, Twilight flipped to the back of the book and found the last page seemed to be an extremely detailed ink drawing of the inside of a warehouse. It seemed to be drawn from the ceiling, so the whole room was laid out before her. She saw something move: a figure tied to a table sobbed mutely, while a new pony walked in, a unicorn. Twilight blinked as she realized she was seeing the events unfolding without her in the real world. The pony strapped to the table looked like... It was Trixie! The ink-drawn unicorn levitated a blade closer to the figure, which screamed silently, shaking her head in denial. A speech bubble emerged from her mouth as if pulled from her throat,
I don't know what you mean! Please! I didn't do anything to you!
The unicorn seemed unimpressed, and his own speech bubble appeared as he dragged the blade down Trixie's left front leg slowly.
Liar! If you're not her, what happened to her? Where is the Great and Powerful one?! You're her, you set all this in motion, sent the great Twilight the Liberator to the Beast for torment and death! Did it hurt when she defied you?! When she rose above us all?!
Trixie shuddered and sobbed, Twilight could almost hear her broken gasps through the page, and found her eyes tearing up in empathy.
I don't know! You're insane!
The unicorn seemed to pause, then he drove the blade cruelly into Trixie's gut, causing her eyes to widen in sudden agony. Twilight almost looked away, but Trixie's next speech bubble made her freeze.
You... You bastard... Fine. If I'm going to die, I killed her.
The grim defiance on Trixie's face was that of a pony with nothing left to lose. Twilight wanted to break away, stop reading and look for some way in, but the text kept rolling.
I burned that arrogant bitch in a pit of oil. You want The Great and Powerful Flambé, go to the forest and dig, maybe you'll find a some ashes, add it to your bucking collection you sick, bucking...
The drawing of Trixie screamed as the knife was wrenched cruelly from her gut and she passed out. The unicorn, the murderer, started swearing and stabbing the unconscious Trixie.
No! You idiot! You completely ignorant foal! Now we cannot know what her plan was! You selfish, idiotic...
Blackboard glowered from inside a heavily warded cage. Whoever this pony was knew full well who and what Blackboard was, and the charm papers wrapped around the bars were flawless. If he tried to escape, they would sear him painfully, and the pattern of their coverage was such that he would have to be in very small pieces indeed to fit through. It didn't stop him from almost lunging at the bars as the sick changeling stabbed Trixie's unconscious form repeatedly. The others were chained up along the walls in full-body restraints crafted of some kind of magical alloy that tightened painfully if they even thought about escape.
As a consequence, only the level-headed Octavia was still conscious, staring at the violence with single-minded intensity. Blackboard admired her courage and stamina, but she was probably nearing the end of her endurance. They'd been here for hours, with the murdering bastard of a unicorn questioning all of them as to their part in “The Great and Powerful One's Scheme.”
The only other occupants in the room were huddled together in a less secure cage nearby, sobbing quietly whenever they woke or the mad pony bled them to refresh the wards. They were foals, skinny and malnourished and covered with scars, but still pony children, only one of which had his cutie mark. The sick bastard was bleeding them to refresh the wards every so often, which would make them pass out. They had food and water, but most of the foals were painfully bony.
Blackboard eyed the mad pony again as he threw the knife away with a clatter, disgusted. He had an over-wide mouth of sharpened silver teeth, and his grey eyes matched his matted, grey coat. He was terribly thin, which only made his wide mouth more skeletal, and he had a mane of greasy dark hair that dripped blackness on the floor when he moved. Blackboard imagined all the horrible fates he would enact on the wretched creature when he was freed, to pass the time, when he noticed the acrid scent of burning paper on the air. He looked around, sniffing, then the foxy pony smiled as he noticed a doorway drawing itself on the wall nearby, shaped like an open book.
The door slammed open once it was drawn fully, and Twilight Sparkle strode in, her flaming mane damping slightly as she stepped through into the warehouse, while the whispering shadows around her hooves quieted a little. “Nebula Starshine!” She cried, causing the murderer to spin in shock, “Stop this madness!”
The murderer looked confused, “But, Lady Sparkle, these ponies will harm you, use you as a tool! They don't even realize their part in the Great and Powerful Trixie's plan, but she's set it in motion, and I must-”
“Stop, Nebula!” Twilight roared, her voice rising with a little magical enhancement to room-filling levels, “You're confused, you must not do this or-”
“No!” Nebula shouted back, “I will do this! It is you who is confused, Lady! The Beast watches, he knows, he showed me how the Great and Powerful one manipulated events, how she brought about your downfall! She must have done something to make you forget, for you not to see!” He was twitching as he shouted, every fiber of his being vibrating with the intensity of his speech, a little froth dripping from the corner of his mouth, “And I cannot allow you to harm yourself with compassion for these tools of her insanity. She would use you! You!” With that he flung the bloody knife he'd been stabbing Trixie with at the cage full of children and leapt towards Twilight.
Without hesitation, Twilight deflected the blade and took the impact. She screamed when the crazed unicorn bit her neck, his sharp teeth penetrating deeply. She shook him off after several tries, losing a good bit of skin in the process. He leapt again, snarling like a maddened cat, but at that point a flash of purple fire blasted the grisly unicorn off his hooves. The blade Twilight had deflected had nicked one of the charm-papers holding Blackboard in place and he had focused a little foxfire through the flaw in the pattern. The charm-papers slowly burned, allowing him to focus on freeing the others, while Twilight attempted to subdue Nebula, who proved to be an incredible spellcaster, for all his insanity.
Twilight countered Nebula's darts of acid with a baking soda spell, and lunged out with an arcane lariat. Nebula side-stepped the loop and sent it snapping back with a rebounding spell before firing a beam of flame for Twilight's hooves. She leapt up, which Nebula had expected, sending a telekinetic push into her exposed belly, knocking the wind out of the purple unicorn and sending her flying back. Before he could press his advantage, a shock of purple foxfire lashed across Nebula's vision, blinding the skeletal pony and causing him to back a step.
Twilight recovered by using a rejuvenation spell, and started flinging bright flashes of light and fire at Nebula's face, causing the unicorn to flinch and back up. He blindly flung a ray of acid out that burned the leg of one of the foals, causing them to scream. Twilight's attention was diverted out of concern for a moment, and she took a slash of fire across the side, which her armor absorbed mostly. Twilight dodged a chunk of ice, which skipped across where she'd been standing moments before, only to be hit by another, square in the chest. If it hadn't been for Trixie's armor, Twilight probably would have had broken ribs, but she was able to stagger upright in time for Nebula to blink the last of the dazzlement from his eyes.
“Nebula, stop this!” Twilight called to him again, “You don't have to do this, you're hurting ponies!”
“Every great work,” Nebula said softly, “Requires sacrifice, and I will save you from that abomination's machinations. You saved me from captivity, whether I wanted to go or not, so I shall do the same for you.” With that he lunged for Twilight, only to be intercepted by Octavia's hooves crashing down on top of him, breaking the unicorn's neck with a horrible crack.
She had leapt over Twilight once Blackboard had freed her, intending to interpose herself between the two unicorns, but had misjudged the distance. She stepped back, looking down at the corpse of the murderer with apparently mild surprise, “Oops.” She looked at Twilight, who was staring, horrified. Octavia shrugged, then walked over to Trixie to give what aid she could to the unicorn. Twilight sank to her knees before the body of Nebula, tears starting to leak from her eyes.
Blackboard methodically demolished the cage holding him once the charm-papers had burned away, then set about freeing the children, who shrank from him as he sliced the top off the cage with one deft cut of his over-sized sword. He then went about carefully cutting Vinyl free of her enchanted restraints, privately admiring the spellwork in them before he cut them to pieces. He checked her vitals, and found her merely unconscious, so he walked over to Trixie, where Octavia was frowning over the blue unicorn's wounds.
Trixie was barely breathing, her body a mess of cuts and deep stab wounds. Blood matted her coat and mane, and her pulse was steadily weakening. Blackboard looked at Octavia, who pulled out her sword carefully, sighing. Blackboard grimaced, expecting the earth pony to deliver the gift of mercy, only to blink when she nicked her own leg and let the blood drop onto Trixie. Octavia's eyes rolled up into her head as the blood seemed to spread out, wiping away Trixie's wounds like the tidal destruction of sand drawings at the beach. Blackboard caught the marbled earth pony before she fell, “Holy... Did you just...”
Octavia nodded, still a little pale, “Yeah. Bucks me up for weeks, but it's worth it.” she shrugged off Blackboard and walked shakily over to her unconscious but otherwise unharmed wife. Blackboard walked over to Twilight, who was still staring at the body of Nebula.
“One hundred years,” Twilight said softly when the big fox-turned-unicorn approached, “He came from over a hundred years ago. The things he saw...”
“Twilight,” Blackboard said gently, “He was insane. Utterly insane, his mind was so far gone-”
“You don't know that!” Twilight snapped, her mane flaring briefly, “He-”
“Dammit Twilight, the pony was torturing Trixie for hours, trying to figure out some imaginary plan. He killed ponies because he believed that would make the mastermind of said plan appear, and that Celestia was secretly behind it all, because she was afraid of you. Does that sound like a sane plan to you?!”
“But-”
“Twilight, who was the first victim?”
Twilight winced and looked away, “D-Diamond Ring, newly married to Karat Ring. But-”
“Who was the second?” Blackboard interrupted relentlessly.
“Sparkling... Vision. I know he did... He did terrible things but...” Twilight protested feebly.
“But nothing, Twilight. Nebula Starshine, the lost apprentice of Starswirl the Bearded, died in Faerie, this was just a monster that wore his form. Give his memory dignity, but don't kill yourself over it.” Blackboard snorted, then sighed and walked off, shaking his head. He found a blanket in the corner and draped it over the body. Twilight froze as she recognized the blanket, and the gears in her head finally clicked together.
She stood up slowly and faced the wall with the door, behind which the Princess and the guards waited, “Blackboard, I'm going to lower the wards on this wall now, there might be some backlash. Guard the children please.” Blackboard nodded, watching Twilight carefully and positioned himself between the wall and the children, acting like a living wall. Twilight closed her eyes and gently broke the ward, which unraveled quickly. There was a blast of wind as the magic released from the ward, then the door burst open, followed by a squad of royal guards. Octavia, Vinyl and Trixie were all carried off on stretchers, but Blackboard and Twilight stayed with Nebula's body until the Princess arrived.
Princess Celestia frowned at the sight of the body, but her expression softened when she saw Twilight standing beside it, staring emptily into the middle distance. She gently nuzzled her student, who clung to the Princess tightly, tears running down her cheeks. Blackboard politely looked away, and noticed a suspicious shape in the corner. He walked over to investigate discreetly, while the Royal Magicians tore down the grisly wardings and the other guards arranged for transport for the fillies and colts. Blackboard kicked the lump inquisitively, then dragged it into the light. It was a book: thick, hardbound and full of dense, elegant script, open to the last page, which was curiously burnt.
I believe the key to surviving with one's sanity intact in Faerie is proper mental discipline. If one could survive long enough in that realm which connects so intimately to our collective unconsciousness, immense knowledge could be gleaned, and uncountable enigmas decoded. I have arranged a meeting with the Beast to discuss the matter further, and he has been most forthcoming.
Blackboard sighed, shook his head and closed the book before following Twilight and Celestia out of the building.