"This place is unbelievable," said Rainbow Dash, looking to the huge chamber they had entered. "I thought Twilight liked books, but Hermaeus Mora takes the cake."
The group had found themselves in a large circular chamber after entering the building, expansive, and with walls made entirely of books circling up to the distant roof. There were no doors in the chamber, but there was a ramp-like platform to their right, trailing the wall as it spiraled upward and out of sight. The most distinctive feature was to the left of them.
Other than the strip of land they stood on, the ramp was the only standable ground. The rest of the room was dominated by a lake of the same black liquid they had seen outside, great spires of black books lifting up from its depths and extending out of sight. A great vortex of paper spun rapidly in the dead middle of the room, twirling over the liquid without interruption.
"How creepy," said Rarity, approaching the arch of the door to the room and running a hoof across the books that composed the wall. "How could anything be comfortable living in such a dreary place?"
"Hermaeus told us that Daedric Princes are not easy to understand," said Princess Luna, turning around to take in all the room. "Something like this is probably normal to him."
"Then I would hate to see what he would consider abnormal," said Applejack, shaking slightly at her surroundings.
"Hey, look at this," said Spike, clenching one of the books open in his claws. "I've never seen anything like it!"
"Come on, Fluttershy," said Rarity, holding the timid pegasus in her hooves. "Pull yourself together, for Twilight."
Fluttershy had relapsed back into her terrified state upon seeing the inside of this room, and how much closer the foreboding black liquid was in here. She could feel her heartbeat getting faster with every second she had gone through after experiencing the sight of Apocrypha for the first time. She really wanted a bed to hide under right now.
Rarity's words punctured her fear like a hot knife through butter.
It made her remember what Twilight had done to protect all of them from the changeling queen, and how close she was to being the first of her victims, until Twilight came in when all hope seemed lost and saved them just in time. She remembered that in order to attain the powers Twilight had used to defend them all, she made a deal with something as foreboding as Hermaeus Mora, something she admitted, scared her worse than a dragon. She had spent what would be fifteen years to her, before returning to Equestria to save them all.
Mustering up all of her will, and with the memory of Twilight in her mind, Fluttershy forced her face into a glare and joined the group in looking at the book Spike had found.
The book lay open and both of the visible pages were both incomprehensible to the ponies.
The left page was covered in what appeared to be writing in a language none of them had seen before.
The page on the right showed some sort of bipedal creature as well as a hammer, a knife, and a heart.
"What kind of chicken scratch is that?" asked Rainbow, arching an eye ridge at the bizarre etching.
"And that creature, I've never seen anything like it," said Rarity, looking to the strange drawing.
"Is it some kind of diagram for a bizarre greeting card?" asked Pinkie, looking over Spike's shoulder. "If so, I can't tell it's for a birthday or Hearts and Hooves day."
"It is strange," said Princess Luna, looking to her older sister, "I have never seen letters like these."
"Neither have I," admitted Celestia, looking to the book warily. "I would say it further proves that what Hermaeus Mora said is correct."
"What is that?" asked Applejack, trying to remember everything that was said when Hermaeus Mora appeared.
"He must indeed hail from a world alien to our own," said Celestia, everyone looking at her in confusion.
"Did you not believe him when he told us?" asked Fluttershy, giving a confused look.
"Not fully until now," replied Celestia, "Throughout my life I have seen strange things, but all of them were native to our reality."
"Even Discord?" inquired Rarity, slightly surprised.
"Yes," answered Celestia. "Despite his odd mannerisms and appearance, Â Discord is no alien."
She cast a wary glance at the book Spike held, "I have lived a long time and have had many years to study the strange corners of my realm. This language has nothing in common with any tongue, Equestrian or otherwise."
"But what does it mean?" asked Rainbow Dash, just as confused as the rest. "It sounds important, but how does that affect us?"
"It means we are truly in uncharted territory now," said Shining Armour, a serious look on his face. "It means we must proceed with extreme caution."
"Shining is right," said Cadence, next to her fiance. "We have to be careful."
"This means that you all had the right idea," said Luna, give Twilight’s friends a look of gratitude. "Defying Hermaeus Mora would have been a mistake."
"Well, what did you expect, your majesty?" said Rainbow Dash, a little of her ego resurfacing for the first time since Twilight had disappeared. "We're awesome."
"We can't afford to wait around for too long in this place," said Shining, looking to the ramp platform that led up. "We need to find Twilight."
They all voiced their agreement and began to make their way up the ramp, the black lake below becoming smaller and smaller as they climbed. After a while the light that had illuminated the room before faded to darkness, but all those who had horns lit them to guide the way, the different colored auras combining to make it look like they were surrounded by an aurora borealis. Eventually, they exited into another room.
"Whoa," Applejack said, as they were all taking in the room around them.
It was large and intricate, multiple floating lights illuminated the room. Books flapped around like large birds, coming to rest on a random shelf, or section of wall, only to take off again. At the far end of the room was an ornate book stand atop a small platform, small circular pools of black liquid sat on both sides.
"What do we do now?" asked Fluttershy, looking around the room. "There doesn't seem to be anywhere to go from here."
"That book up ahead looks like the one we used to get here," said Cadance, a thoughtful look on her face. "It is bigger, though."
"Oh! oh! I know," said Pinkie excitedly, bouncing up the platform to the book.
"Pinkie!" gasped Rarity, her and the others watching as their bubbly companion disappeared in a flash of white light.
"We have got to try harder to stop her from doing that," said Luna exasperated, Celestia glaring and nodding her approval. "She is going to get us into trouble."
Pinkie reappeared the same way she disappeared.
"Just as I thought," said Pinkie excitedly. "The book zapped me to some other part of the castle, were another staircases led up and up and up and..."
"PINKIE!" Snapped Fluttershy, speaking before anypony else could and pressing her muzzle to her friends. "We are here for Twilight, if you keep taking chances like that, you could get us all killed."
The others all agreed.
"Please, just be more careful," said Celestia.
"Okie dokie lokie."
With the path clear to them, they started towards the large book. Rainbow stopped to examine one of the pools of black liquid as they progressed.
"What even is that stuff?" She asked, pointing to the pool with a hoof.
Celestia, who was closest to it, dipped her head down a little to examine it.
She inhaled deeply through her nostrils, "I think its ink... AAHHH!"
'SPLASH'
Everyone turned to the source of the splash to see Princess Celestia submerged halfway into the pool of liquid. She had sunk in up to her hips, her hind legs flailing up and down as if struggling to break the hold of something. And to say, the situation got quite the reaction from the rest of the group.
"PRINCESS!"
"SISTER!"
Luna was the first to reach the flailing back end of her sibling, taking to the air and grabbing her prismatic tail in her mouth and pulling hard. But whatever was pulling her in was very strong, Luna unable to gain any ground as she flapped her wings harder. But at this rate, she would be pulled in too.
Pinkie Pie and Applejack, being earth ponies and therefore the strongest of the group, each took hold of one of the Princesses flailing hind legs, pulling with all the strength that they could muster. Slowly, the Princess backed out of the pool, albeit slowly. The rest of the group each grabbed the back of the other, forming two living chains, and pulled with all their might.
Princess Celestia came free with a mighty splash, taking a great gasp of air as she and the rest of the group fell backwards in a pony pile up, poor Spike being squashed at the bottom. They all gasped in terror as a shiny black tendril unwrapped from Celestia's neck, extending a good nine feet in the air. It whipped in a few random directions before plunging back into the pool with a splash.
"Sister!" gasped Luna, crawling out of the pony pile and helping Celestia up. "Are you alright?"
"I think so," said Celestia, ink running down her neck as she tried to catch her breath. "Thank you, all of you."
"What was that thing?" asked a terrified Fluttershy, the last to climb off of Spike.
"Whatever it was," said Applejack, casting a look at the other pool. "I think it's safe to assume it's not alone.
Casting a wary glance to the pools of ink, they all scrambled to the book, vanishing one after the other as they touched it. Cadance hoisted Spike onto her back and touched the book, both vanishing. The book Spike had shown them before lying on the floor were the pony pile had been, the young drake never even noticing he had not ever dropped it.
"Now what?" said Pinkie, the stairs the book had lead them to a three way split.
"Maybe we should split up?" suggested Applejack.
"Not a good idea," said Celestia, her coat still dark in places. "It took all of you to get me out of the grasp of that thing, if someone encounters another one and we aren't all present, they would be done for."
They all agreed that the last thing any of them wanted was to be dragged into a pool of ink to who knows where.
"But whatever shall we do?" said Rarity, a slight flash of drama in her voice. "It'll take forever to find Twilight at this rate."
"If that is what it takes then so be it," said Shining Armour with conviction.
"We heard her here," said Cadance, her resolve unaffected. "So we will search here, and together we can..."
'DUR NEH VIIR'
The loud noise reverberated to the left, drawing all their attention, a flash of slightky purple light being seen at the dstant top of the left staircase.
"Way to go Twilight," said Spike, punching the air as the group headed up the left staircase.
Rainbow Dash fluttered above the ascending group, a determined smile on her face, "If I didn't know better, I would say she was deliberately leading us..."
A ferocious roar ripped through the air, making all of them gasp. It sounded big, it sounded close to were the shouts they were flowing originated from. It did not sound friendly.
"TWILIGHT!" They all shouted, galloping up the stairs, Spike still bouncing on Cadence's back.
As they climbed Apocrypha's yellow sky became visible through an arch up ahead, as well as several towers in the distance.