//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Monster of the Monastery // by JesterOfDestiny //------------------------------// We waited ’till the whole monastery went totally silent. By the time the sunlight reached the top of the church, all bat ponies were asleep. Well, all but one. We met up with Zao in front of her room, just like we planned, then she took us to the ossuary’s gate. It was in a far off corner of the graveyard, towering above the tombstones. It had a very unassuming look, except for the entrance, which had a metal barred door and several skulls adorning the gateway. Zao had the necessary keys. Apparently she has permission to use them. The inside was very dark, due to the stained glass windows, not allowing much light in. What light we had was full of funky colours. We then went down into the depths of the ossuary and even that little light was gone. In fact it was pitch black. When we stepped into the darkness, that’s when I lighted up my horn. And the light revealed that the walls were lined with hundreds and thousands of skulls. “Well?” Bon Bon hurried me. “Aren’t you gonna move?” I stood there, not wanting to move. I mean, it is a corridor lined with skulls, who’d want to go further? But I had the light, so I had to. Bon Bon was walking confidently and without fear, kind of pushing me forward. Meanwhile, Zao was saying the directions, in-between rapid clicking noises and frantically moving her ears around, which I guess was her doing her echolocation. The dark tunnels were full of rats, which did give us a good scare from time to time. Their rustling among the bones and sudden movements really added to the atmosphere of the place. Tiny rays of light seeped through tiny windows, with the ancient dust floating across them. Eventually, Zao lead us into a small chamber, with three piles of skulls behind barred metal doors, located on each wall. “In there.” Zao pointed at one of the piles with a trembling hoof. “Alright, how do we get in there?” Bon Bon asked. “I don’t know. I’ve never been this far into the ossuary.” Bon Bon looked at my scared face, then rolled her eyes. “Come on Lyra, give me light.” Bon Bon approached the skull pile and I followed. Zao stood in the dark entrance for a few seconds, then she ran up to us, because she didn’t want to stand in the dark all alone. Bon Bon seemed to have found something, because she pulled my head really close to the bars, essentially sticking my horn through it. I had to stare down this one skull, while she reached through and the door opened with a high-pitched squeal. “Now what?” Bon Bon turned to Zao. “There should be a door on the ceiling.” Bon Bon took a very hard look into the darkness. “Lyra, come closer a little bit.” I went as close as I dared. But that wasn’t enough; Bon Bon called me even closer, while she climbed the pile of skulls. To her, close enough to her meant stepping into the pile along with her. “I think I’ve found it.” She said and pushed at the ceiling, to no avail. “Something’s been put on top of the door. Come here help me push.” Both Zao and I just stood there. “Come on guys, do you want to get into the library or not?” She had a point, so we climbed after her and onto the pile of skulls, to help her push open the door. We managed to push the door open slightly, but whatever was put on top of it was very heavy. Suddenly Bon Bon slipped through the gap and we fell down, because we couldn’t hold the door any longer, leaving us among the skulls. The few seconds spent in the darkness, on top of a pile of skulls, listening to Bon Bon moving furniture, felt like an hour long nightmare. Zao started clicking frantically and I wasn’t even sure if she was actually echolocating or just clicking for the heck of it, but that sound in combination with the face she made really freaked me out. I felt like she did see something in the dark, even though I knew she didn’t. Eventually Bon Bon opened up the door and we tried to jump through it at the same time, which got the both of us stuck for a second, before plunging through, right into the library. The door was apparently stuck under a heavily packed table. “Wow, you really are scared, it’s almost like you thought we were in danger or something.” Bon Bon snarked at us. “Alright, Ms Badflank, we don’t fight monsters for a living.” I said, while Bon Bon helped me up. “Imagine when I tried to do this alone.” Zao said. “You know what the best part is?” Bon Bon grinned. “We gotta go through all that all over again!” “Let’s just get this library over with.” I glared at her cheeky smile. “Lyra, could you do your light spell again, I can’t read in the dark.” Zao interjected. I didn’t even realize my light spell turned off. I tried to fire it up, but I couldn’t. Something was preventing me from casting any spells. “Hmm, there might be some sort of anti-magic field around the library.” Zao pondered. “You could have warned me about that.” I said, nervously raising my voice. “I didn’t know about it!” Zao excused. “Hmm, how inconvenient.” Bon Bon grinned and handed me a candle, which I took from her with an annoyed swat. The library itself was well-lit by the sunlight coming through the large windows. But we still needed candles to see. Because of the way the rooms were arranged, there were a lot of dark corners. It was very clear, that it was indeed built as a labyrinth first and the windows came as an afterthought. We entered the library in the fourth spellbook section, conveniently close to our destination. The corridors were unnecessarily long and winding, making the way from spellbook section four to section six an entire journey. “Guys, do you hear that?” Zao stopped and we stood there for a couple seconds. What we heard was clearly just the wind, but it was at the right pitch to make it sound like spooky ghosts wailing. I admit, even with that knowledge it was still pretty scary. We went forward a little bit, but we had to stop again. “Guys, I think something brushed past me!” Zao stood there, her trembling legs barely keeping her weight up. Bon Bon walked up to the window and put her hoof onto the bricks. “Relax, it’s just the ventilation. The windows cannot be opened, so air has to come through the bricks. The spooky noises and the strange brushes are nothing but wind. So much for horrible monsters.” “You gotta admit, Bon Bon,” I said, “even with that explanation it’s still quite scary.” “Well, it’s a good atmosphere, I give you that.” She joked. We finally arrived at the sixth spellbook section. What was it again? Bay sixteen, row six, fourth book in the pony of shadows series. Right, there was only one problem. There was no fourth book in the series. At least, the place where it should be was only a gaping hole between the third and fifth book. “Now what do we do?” Zao asked us. “Nothing.” I said dryly. “We’ve got our answer.” “Did we?” Bon Bon raised an eyebrow at me. “I mean, we don’t know whether the book contains the spell we’re looking for or not.” “That is true, but this could be a clue.” “Uh, guys...” Zao interrupted us. “I’d love to discuss it further, but this place is really giving me the heebie-jeebies, can we go back now?” So we followed the spellbook sections back where we came from. Meanwhile, Bon Bon and I discussed the importance of the book further. “Since that section of the library is forbidden,” Bon Bon explained, “it is very likely, that Itah did manage to crack the message in the letter.” “But why would he just discard the letter like that?” I questioned. “I admit, that is strange.” She nodded. “It could have been found by somepony else, before Zao did.” “So it was discarded twice?” “Whoever took it after Itah threw it away, might have just left it where they found it in the first place.” “Or maybe,” she added, “the taker of the missing spellbook knew the library already.” Zao stopped in her tracks. “I wish that pony was here.” “What do you mean?” I asked. “You’ve got the map, don’t you?” She pointed at the sign, which signifies the different sections of the library. “Geography section eight.” “How did we get here?” Bon Bon inquired. “This place is supposed to be a labyrinth.” Zao explained. “Good thing I have brought a map.” She looked at her map and with a smile looked back at us. “I’ve got this, I can already see where we went wrong.” We then turned around and carried on discussing. “See just how confusing this place is?” Bon Bon said. “There’s no way Itah could navigate here.” “That is true,” I argued, “but he is supposed to be the next librarian and he is being taught by Zeuhl himself.” “Come on, he couldn’t navigate the list by the door.” “True and Zeuhl did say he wouldn’t dare to leave him alone in the library.” “See? It must have been taken by somepony who knows their way around the library.” “But that only leaves Zeuhl... Oh wait, no, Magma as well. He was the previous librarian.” “Itah could always be lying as well.” “Right. But anypony could be lying here.” Suddenly we stopped in front of a wall. “Uh, why did we stop?” Bon Bon asked. Zao had a very worried expression. “There is supposed to be a doorway here.” We all looked at the map. She was right. According to the map, there was supposed to be a way leading back to spellbook section five, but in the place of the doorway, was only a big solid wall. We decided we should go back to the previous section and see where we might have taken the wrong turn. Zao was sure we didn’t. But when we got back, the sign had an entirely different section on it. We were supposed to be back at spellbook section six, but this was myths and legends section one. Zao started panicking, but we figured, we should just find myths and legends section one on the map and simply follow the way back to spellbook section four. That is what we did. We went through many twists and turns and pointlessly long corridors. That is what the map said as well, we were on the right track. But somehow, we ended up at the entrance door, even though we were going in the opposite direction. We tried to open the door, but it was locked of course. “Guys, I think we’re lost!” Zao was now in full-on panic mode. “Okay, calm down,” Bon Bon tried to be reassuring, “we’ll figure something out.” I stepped out of the entrance room and stared down one of the needlessly long corridors. “Lyra, where are you going?” Bon Bon called after me. “I’m just trying to figure something out.” “Let’s not get separated. We have to stay together.” “I can see spellbook section one!” I pointed at the other end of the corridor. “Wait, don’t go there! Lyra!” She shouted fruitlessly after me. I could still hear Bon Bon calling my name from that section, but I already ran into spellbook section one. I called back at them, but the only thing I could hear, is Bon Bon’s voice echoing my name. I went back and there was nopony in the room where I just came from. In fact, not even the entrance door was there. It was geography section eight again. But I could still hear Bon Bon’s voice echoing my name from the distance. I called out to Bon Bon, but then I could no longer hear her voice. I tried turning back to spellbook section one, but all I could find is geography section nine. My mind was racing and my heart beat heavier. I was completely separated from the others, without a map. Although, I’m not sure the map would have helped me at all. The wind’s sound seemed to have gotten louder now that I was alone. I knew it was just the wind, but the way it howled sounded really scary. Especially now that I was alone. In an attempt to navigate back to the right place, I followed the geography sections. Section eight, section seven, section six. In the meantime, I tried calling out to Bon Bon and Zao, at random intervals. At some point I’ve finally heard a response. It was Bon Bon calling back at me. I ran towards the sound, through short winding corridors. Bon Bon’s voice was clearer and clearer, until I could hear it perfectly. I happily bounced into the room where it came from, but nopony was there and the voice suddenly stopped as well. It was the entrance room again, but completely empty. Then after like a second, I heard Bon Bon’s voice faintly calling out at me, echoing from the distance again. I turned towards it and the turn that I came from just a second ago, was now another needlessly long corridor. At this point, I felt like I was losing my mind. I took a step towards the voice, but a sudden strong gust of wind made it feel just like something running past me. It also blew out my candle, so my main source of light was now gone. It became just dark enough for my mind to start playing tricks on me. Random shapes in the dark started merging into shapes of strange ponies. My entire body shook with every heartbeat, my breathing became uncontrollably heavy. The howling wind suddenly felt deafeningly loud and my frightened ears translated them into horrible ghostly wailing. Bon Bon’s voice got more and more distorted the more it echoed across the corridor. The logical part of my brain just shut down and I was reduced to a superstitious old mare, covering in fear at what she doesn’t understand. Bon Bon’s voice was now distorted beyond comprehension. It barely sounded like a pony’s voice at all. But it got louder and louder, and my name emerged again, which certainly didn’t help my state of mind. Suddenly a very clear “LYRA” could be heard from right behind me and a hoof touched my back. I screamed harder than I ever did and fell on my back in my pathetic attempt to run away. Instead, I tried to scurry away on my back, whimpering loudly. But soon, my blurry vision pieced together the strange pony and I realized that it was Zao who scared me. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you!” She apologized profusely. Once my mind cleared up, I ran up to her and I embraced her like a scared child and burst into tears. Poor Zao didn’t know what to do so suddenly. She tried to calm me down, but that was not happening. But then Bon Bon appeared suddenly and made the both of us scream and fall on our backs. But as soon as I hit the ground, I got up and hugged her as well. “It’s okay, Lyra.” She tried to calm me down. “We found you, you’re safe now.” “I was so scared!” I clung onto her with both hooves. “I know, it’s okay.” She hugged me and caressed the back of my head. She waved Zao over as well and she hugged me too. “I want to get out of here.” I squealed like a scared child. “We will, don’t worry.” She whispered. “Well good news,” said Zao, “I think I’ve figured out how to navigate the library.” “How?” Bon Bon asked. “I-it’s complicated. Just follow me.” We went through more corridors and winding tunnels again. The section titles went past at seemingly random. Bon Bon questioned Zao on where she was going, but Zao kept her confidence. And sure enough, we were back at spellbook section four again, right in front of the moved table with the door the used to be below it. We went back into the ossuary, this time Bon Bon was in front and I followed very closely next to her. She didn’t want to stress me any further. We were out in no time. Zao escorted us to a guest room, then she went back to her own dorm. Finally we were safe, though I could still feel my body shaking with fear.