Despite the terribly small number of books in the shelf, going through all of them actually took the four fillies an unexpectedly long time. While the books themselves weren't much in number, their page count made up for it with ease. Most of them were huge tomes, counting three-hundred to five-hundred pages each. They were also old, very old, and their condition much worse than those of the books on the other shelves. Already the first book Dinky had started looking through had its first page crumbling to dust the moment she touched it. A circumstance that made it necessary to go through each book individually, as Sweetie Belle was the only one who could turn the pages safely and without destroying them, by the use of her magic.
It was long after sunset, the library now completely abandoned save for them, that they carefully closed the last book on the table in front of them. Tired, all four of them sighed.
Unfortunately, barely any of the books had turned out as useful for them. There was a book about general cutie mark history, listing notable and unique cutie marks that had been acquired by several ponies, who apparently used their special talents for countless heroic deeds, if the book was to be believed. Judging by the fact none of them recognized any of the ponies named in that book from their own history lessons at school, they figured it probably had been written more than a thousand years ago.
Another book was a more recent one; a short guide about getting cutie marks, apparently aimed at young foals who became impatient with getting their marks. It contained nothing that they didn't already know.
There were books about cutie mark philosophy, trying to answer questions like “Where does the magic of a cutie mark go after a pony has departured into the afterlife?” and books that made connections between cutie marks and alchemy, with descriptions of rites and practiques about which none of them wanted to spend too much time thinking.
Only one of the books they found in the shelf was about cutie mark diseases, the rest of the books were merely fictional stories, most of them fairy tales, that involved cutie marks in one way or another.
Having now closed and hovered back the last of these books to its place in the shelf, Sweetie Belle returned her attention to the book about the diseases, which was still lying on the table they sat at. With care, she opened it again, and went back to a page they had looked at earlier. On it, a particular cutie mark disease was described that caused a pony's cutie mark to disappear. It was not a temporary condition; once gone, the cutie mark stayed gone, unless the disease became cured by a specific potion, whose ingredients were listed on the same page, as well. Sweetie Belle looked at her friends, sceptically.
“I'm not sure if that is what we're looking for..... It says nothing about multiple cutie marks or that the cutie mark returns after a while.” She put down the book, so that her fellow Crusaders could take a look at the page again.
“But that's all we have, right?” Scootaloo's question sounded more like a confirmation.
“Mhm.” Dinky stared absentmindedly down on the table, her eyes dangerously shaking in their holes.
Igniting her horn, Sweetie Belle turned the page with the ingredients, then sighed. The next page, supposed to contain the rest of the ingredients needed, had been ripped out. A deed probably committed long before the disappearance of the Crystal Empire. The rest of the confidence in Sweetie Belle's face faltered. The same happened with her two friends.
“Ah guess that's it then, huh?”
Scootaloo poked Apple Bloom into the side, then pointed to the opposite end of the table. Looking ahead, Apple Bloom saw that tears started to appear in Dinky's eyes, that were still fixated on the table's surface.
“Ah mean..... For now! We just looked through all t' books here, I'm sure we're goin' ta find some answers at other places!”
It was a well-meant intervention, but it came too late. Broken in her hope, Dinky retreated from the table, a thin stream of tears now trickling down her cheeks. Without saying a word, she turned away from her counselors and dragged herself back the way they had come from this afternoon, not really looking where she was going.
“Hey, wait!” Apple Bloom shouted after Dinky and left the table to follow her. Sweetie Belle wrapped the book with the incomplete recipe in her magic, then she and Scootaloo dashed after Apple Bloom.
The four fillies left the library and made their way back to their rooms. Several attempts were made by the Crusaders to talk with Dinky and to cheer her up, but she did not respond to anything they said. Silently crying, it was like she did not even notice their presence. As they had finally reached the guest wing again, she rejected them a last time, as they offered to get together in Apple Bloom's room and to discuss what to do now. Dinky trotted past them silently, opened the door of her own room and entered it. A second later, a click indicated that she had locked the door from inside. Looking after her with sad expressions, the three remaining fillies retreated into Apple Bloom's room together.
Sweetie Belle placed the book carefully on the nightstand on the right side of Apple Bloom's bed, then they climbed into the bed and made themselves comfortable.
“Our next step?” Scootaloo asked, frowning, as all of them were lying on top of the blanket.
“Ah don't know.....” Apple Bloom admitted. “The library here was probably our best chance.....”
The three fillies fell into contemplation for a moment. Before anyone of them could continue the conversation or come up with a new plan, their stomachs grumbled, and they got painfully reminded how hungry they were and that they hadn't eaten anything since they had left Ponyville in the morning.
“We can talk about it later, let's eat something first,” Sweetie Belle suggested. She was met with approval by her friends.
“Yeah, dinner's already over but Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor can sure–”
As if Scootaloo's words were a cue, a knock came from the door, suddenly. As it opened, Cadance trotted into the room, carrying a tray with four plates and four glasses in her magic's aura. On each of the plates was a generous portion of pasta bake. Water began to form in each of the Crusader's mouths as their eyes fell on the delicious crust of cheese on top of the noodles and as the scent from the hot, and still steaming, dish entered their noses. They swallowed, while their stomachs grumbled even louder at the sight and the smell.
Cadance chuckled. “I figured you four would be hungry after skipping lunch. So I made you some late dinner.” As she had closed the door behind her and trotted towards them, she noticed that they were alone in the room.
“Where is your friend?” she asked. “Has she already gone to sleep?” Cadance placed the tray on the nightstand right beside the book, then hovered one of the plates in front of each of them.
“We don't know,” Scootaloo answered, without taking her eyes from the plate that hovered towards her. “Dinky went into her room and locked it from inside.” The tone of her voice indicated that she was currently more thinking with her stomach than with her brain, though, one surprising realization still fought its way to the top.
“Wait, did you say you made dinner?” Scootaloo's mouth was opened wide, not just because of the food in front of her, but also from surprise.
“Yes,” Cadance answered. “Why not?” There was a tone in her voice that indicated that Scootaloo treated slightly dangerous terrain with this question.
“Well, you're a princess and..... Uh, nevermind.” She avoided Cadance's gaze and grabbed the fork, then started digging into the food, pulling out a huge chunk of pasta that swiftly disappeared in her mouth. At her side, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle did the same thing.
“I see,” Cadance commented on the indiscriminate answer, but turned her focus on the other information she had gotten. “Shining Armor mentioned that she appeared nervous to him, she really should not go to sleep without eating something.” A slight frown was on Cadance's forehead. Barely noticed by the hungry trio of fillies, she took the tray with the remaining plate and glass into her magic again and trotted back to the door.
“I bring Dinky her dinner. Please don't stay awake for too long anymore after you have finished eating.”
Faint mumbling from full mouths came as responses, the hunger making them ignore any etiquette. Smiling, Cadance opened the door and trotted out into the corridor. She turned left and headed towards Dinky's room.
As she got told by Scootaloo, the door had been locked from the inside. She could hear some sobbing coming from behind the door. Gently, Cadance knocked.
“Dinky? I brought you some dinner. Please open the door.”
For a moment, the sobbing stopped and something rustled inside the room. It then continued in a quieter volume. Some more attempts to get Dinky to open the door for her later, Cadance gave up. Taking a step back, she put the tray in front of the door, then knocked a last time.
“I leave it here in front of the door. Make sure to eat soon, it's getting cold fast.”
Then she turned around to leave the guest wing. Her instinct told her to say more, but with barely knowing the filly and with having no idea what put her under such stress, she simply did not know what to say. And the last thing she wanted was making whatever troubled her worse, because of not knowing what caused those troubles.
In the room, Dinky sat on her bed, attentively listening to the receding hoofsteps. As she didn't hear them anymore, she got down from her bed slowly. Dinky rubbed over her nose, sniffing, then unlocked the door and carried the tray inside. She placed it in her bed after locking the door again and sat down in front of it.
New tears streamed down her face and got mixed with the pasta she was shoveling into her mouth, giving it a salty taste. The dish was only slightly warm anymore, but Dinky did not recognize it much and neither did it matter to her. Calming her aching stomach, she just kept eating, until everything was gone. She took the glass into her hooves and gulped it down in one go, then put it down on the tray again. After staring at the empty tray for a second, she shoved it off the bed in a sudden fit of anger.
Dinky barely heard how it hit the crystal floor, as her sobbing had already become loud enough again to drown out the sound of anything else. Feeling overwhelmed by her desperation, she buried her face into the pillow and drenched it with her tears. The crying slowly wore her mind out, until it gave in and, unnoticed by her, let her drift off into sleep.....
As Dinky awoke again, after what could have been only a few hours, she immediately realized one particular oddity around her:
She was in her own bed and in her own room. Not the guest room in the Crystal Empire Castle, her actual bedroom!
The thought entered her mind that their short trip into the empire was already over, that they had returned to Ponyville and that she had just slept through most of the way back and therefore, forgotten everything. But she shook that thought off quickly, it was impossible! She remembered too well how she had just been eating pasta bake, before she broke down crying again. She definitely had fallen asleep in the Crystal Empire. But how did she get here then?
All of a sudden, a familiar feeling was coming over Dinky. It was akin to a déjà-vu, yet not the same. To Dinky, it felt like an old, distant memory buried its way to the surface of her mind. Suddenly, she noticed that she couldn't move. Her body felt like it got pressed down by something very heavy, though, there was nothing covering it, except for her blanket.
As Dinky saw a shadow approaching her bed with careful steps from the corner of her eyes, she moved her head to see who it was. She could not recognize the shadowy pony, all she saw was the horn on the pony's head. Dinky wanted to ask who the pony was, yet, as she opened her mouth, completely different words than the ones she had intended left it.
“Does it really need to happen again? You won't let it disappear again, right?”
What did she mean with this? And why did her voice sound so young? Dinky could not make any sense of it. She was clearly there, yet, at the same time, it seemed like she was only watching what happened in the room.
As the shadowy pony had finally reached her bed, it began to speak. Dinky could not place it, but it was the voice of a mare and it spoke to her in a calming way that sounded slightly creepy to her.
“Ssssssh. Just close your eyes and go to sleep again. Everything will be over tomorrow and then you will feel better. I promise.”
The mare's horn was suddenly glowing. Dinky could not explain why, but this sight caused sheer terror in her. Before the mare could do whatever she wanted to do, Dinky sat up in her bed, suddenly freed from her paralyzed state, and let a loud scream leave her throat. Sitting in the darkness, she kept screaming and screaming, the fear holding her heart in a tight grip.....
One room further, Apple Bloom suddenly found herself getting woken up by something. At first she did not know by what. Sleepily, she sat up in her bed, rubbing her eyes. As a faint scream entered her ears from the wall behind her, she suddenly was fully awake.
“Dinky?” Alarmed, she jumped out of the bed and galloped to the door. Throwing it open, she galloped outside and took a sharp turn to the left. Arrived at Dinky's door, she could hear the screams much louder. Apple Bloom began banging against the door.
“Dinky? What's wrong? It's me, Apple Bloom, open the door!”
The screaming from behind the door continued and no answer came from Dinky. To Apple Bloom's left, two doors opened and out trotted Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, both looking at her tiredly.
“Apple Bloom? Why are you banging against the door?” Scootaloo asked drowsily. She and Sweetie Belle shuffled closer, joining her in front of Dinky's room.
“It's Dinky! She's screamin' in her room, but she doesn't open the door when ahm knockin' on it!”
The explanation let Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle become more awake, but also caused confusion to appear in their faces.
“Screaming?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I don't hear Dinky screaming.”
And she was right. Suddenly, Apple Bloom noticed that the screams had stopped. And before she could face the door again, she suddenly heard it getting unlocked, then it was opened swiftly and a visibly distraught Dinky clasped her hooves around her, shivering and crying in fear. Her mane was pointing into all directions and her coat was sweaty.
“Dinky? What is wrong, did anything happen to you in there?” Scootaloo's sense for danger activated itself suddenly, letting her jump to full attention.
“The mare..... The mare.....” Dinky whimpered. Continuously, she kept speaking the same words.
“What mare, Dinky?” Apple Bloom asked, putting a hoof on her trembling back.
Using her magic, Sweetie Belle switched on the lamp in Dinky's room. As the light flooded it in front of them, the three of them saw that it was empty.
“There's nopony here.....” Sweetie Belle said. “Must have been a bad dream.”
“The dream..... The dream.....” Dinky suddenly whimpered something new, like to confirm Sweetie Belle's words, but without an actual intent to do so. “My cutie mark.....”
In a calming fashion, Apple Bloom moved her hoof up and stroke over Dinky's mane. It eased the distraught unicorn filly a little and she looked up and into Apple Bloom's face. Apple Bloom gave her a reassuring smile. “Did ya hear what Sweetie said? It was all just a bad dream. There's nopony in ya room but yourself, Dinky.”
Biting her lip, Dinky nodded. But then, a thought entered her mind and her heart began racing again.
“But the light!” she burst out. “I know I left it on when I fell asleep, why was it turned off?!”
“I'm sure you did it yourself, Dinky. You probably turned it off while you woke up for a moment and you can't remember because you were half asleep.” Scootaloo did a step closer and put a hoof on her shoulder.
“Scoots is right, Dinky. Ya didn't unlock your room, did ya?”
Dinky shook her head slowly. A small feeling of ease came over her as her rational mind began to work, thanks to Scootaloo's explanation.
“See? Ya were alone in there, no creepy mare came into ya room!” Apple Bloom continued her attempts to calm Dinky down.
Dinky nodded. The fear did not leave her, though. She tightened the grip around the other filly she was still clinging to. “I-I don't want to be alone..... C-Can I stay in your room?”
“Sure!” Apple Bloom said, purposely cheerful. Then she looked at her two friends. “Action's over. Lets get back ta sleep, girls.”
Feeling their tiredness suddenly returning, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle just nodded. They yawned, then turned around and crept back into their respective rooms.
As they had disappeared inside of them, Apple Bloom guided Dinky into her own room. She locked the door behind them, at Dinky's demand, then both fillies slipped under the covers. As they were lying on their backs in the bed, blanket pulled over their chests, Dinky rolled to the side and draped a hoof over Apple Bloom. Letting out another whimper, she instinctively snuggled against the face of the earth pony filly.
“Everything's fine.” Apple Bloom put her left hoof over Dinky's back. “There's nopony here but ya and me, Dinky.”
The words did not reach Dinky anymore, though, as she had already fallen asleep, exhausted by the terrifying nightmare. Apple Bloom closed her eyes and just a few seconds later, she was sleeping again as well.