Twilight woke up and began thinking about her dream. 'Should I trust her? She almost killed me. She also made my cutiemark … go away. But she did seem sincere… What about the part with my old friends? They would never hurt me, much less kill me, right?'
She shook her head, and was about to ask Sapphire about it when she heard somepony singing. She looked over and saw that Sapphire was quietly singing to herself. She was singing the strangest song as well, one that Twilight couldn't understand.
Sapphire finished her current song with a sigh. She then took a deep breath and began a new song:
"Wir traben, wir traben ins rote Turnei,
Wir fliegen an Gräben und Hecken vorbei.
Die Sonne verloht, das Käuzlein ruft hell,
Und der Tod, der Tod ist unser Gesell',
Und der Tod, der Tod ist unser Gesell'.
Heut sind wir geladen ins flammende Zelt,
Von Kaisers gnaden; wir reiten ins Feld.
Die Klinge sie droht von hufe uns hell'
Und der Tod, der Tod ist unser Gesell',
Und der Tod, der Tod ist unser Gesell'.
Die daheim mir geblieben, du Mägdelein schlank,
Deine Augen, die Lieben, wie schaun sie so bang?
Die Blümlein rot verwehn im Wald,
Und der Tod, der Tod küßt den Ritterstute bald,
Und der Tod, der Tod küßt den Ritterstute bald."
Twilight, once Sapphire was finished, smiled at her. "I didn't know you sang, Sapphire."
Sapphire looked over at Twilight. "You're awake?"
Twilight smiled. "How do you think I'm talking to you?"
"Oh ya, I guess you're right," Sapphire said, shaking her head with a small embarrassed smile.
"What was that song?" Twilight began. "And was it in the ancient necromancer language?"
Sapphire nodded. "Yes, it is in our ancient language. Even though we know the lyrics to the song, we don't know what the words mean," she looked at Twilight sadly. "It's actually quite sad, really. We hold onto them because they are some of the few things we have left from our ancient past, from our culture. As for the name, most people just call it 'The Ritterstute Song.'"
"Oh, that answer was a lot more depressing than I was expecting." Twilight sighed. "There is something else I need to tell you."
"And what is that?" Sapphire asked.
"Luna visited my dreams last night."
It took a few seconds for Sapphire to comprehend what Twilight said. When she did though, her smile was flipped upside down into a worried frown, her eyes went wide, and she got visibly tense. "You're joking, right?"
Twilight shook her head. "No, I'm not. It's not as bad as you think though. She doesn't know where we are or what we are doing. She did say some interesting things though." Sapphire had a sigh of relief. "She said that she doesn't think I should die," at this Sapphire looked at Twilight with intrigue. "And she is trying to make Celestia stop hunting me."
At this Sapphire looked genuinely happy and somewhat excited "Are you serious?" Twilight nodded. Sapphire grinned "That is great news! If we have Luna on our side, that means we might actually have a chance! It might not be all gloom and death and sadness after all. We might be able to win!" She chuckled. "And here I was, thinking you were going to say something along the lines of 'Luna knows where we are and is coming to kill us all!'"
Twilight looked at Sapphire, surprised. "I didn't think you would be so happy to hear that news or that you would be so quick to believe Luna."
Sapphire stopped her little one pony party and looked at Twilight with disappointment. "You don't think she's telling the truth?"
Twilight sighed. "I honestly couldn't tell. She seemed sincere and like she was telling the truth. But why would she help me? She almost killed me just under a week ago, and she doesn't like necromancers just as much as Celestia; or at least that's what I am led to believe. And how would she think I'm a good guy after what I did in Whinnyapolis? I really screwed up there with the whole attack the city plan."
Sapphire sighed. "Ya, maybe you're right. It's best though to be optimistic though, right?"
Twilight sighed. "You're right, I should be optimistic. It's just so hard after all that's happened…" she shook her head. "Well anyways she said she would come back tomorrow in my dreams and tell me the outcome of her confrontation with Celestia. Who knows, maybe we will get Celestia to stop trying to kill me."
Smiling, Sapphire responded, "That would be good. Very good, actually."
After about a minute of silence Sapphire asked, raising an eyebrow. "Um, should we get going?"
Twilight nodded. "Ya, let's." Twilight tried to stand up but as she did so pain erupted in her chest. Screaming in pain she fell back to the ground, laying on her back. Twilight breathed heavily, every breath brought the pain right back. "Fuuck!" Twilight yelled, bringing a hoof to her chest as she laid there on the ground.
"Are you okay? What happened!" Sapphire asked with a worried gaze.
"Please, painkillers, now,"
Sapphire nodded. "Okay, sure thing," she levitated over the bottle and took out a tablet. "Here you go," she said as she gave it to Twilight. Twilight eagerly swallowed it and took a drink of water to wash it down.
Twilight grinned at Sapphire. "Thanks!" She then stood up, wincing a bit as she did so. She took a few weak and painful steps, walking in a small circle in front of the door. Twilight grinned. "Those things right there," she pointed at the bottle in Sapphire's magical grasp. "Are literal life savers!" She looked at the door and said. "So, how do you think we can open the door?
"I don't know, I still can't open the door," Sapphire emphasised this fact by grabbing the handles with her magic, trying opening the door. It didn't budge.
Twilight sighed and reached out with her own magic and tried to open the door. "How are we going to open yo-" she stopped as she felt the door give. She applied more force and the doors swung wide open, revealing the library beyond. "What the... why does it work for me, and not you?"
"l, I don't know…" Sapphire said trailing off. She took a quick glance at Twilight's sword before she continued. "But it might have something to do with," she gestured down the hall at the still smoldering suits of armor behind them. "Well, that! Well anyways now that it's open should we go in and take a look around?"
Twilight walked into the room. "Yes, let's." As she walked in she gasped as she looked around. The library was massive. The bookshelves went up and up for at least three stories. The room itself was much larger that the Canterlot library, almost twice the size! Twilight squealed in excitement as she ran in.
"Just think of all that we could learn here Sapphire!" Twilight yelled as she ran to the nearest bookshelf. Neither of the present ponies noticed that the door closed behind them. "All the magic! The history! The Culture! Everything!" She pulled a random book off the shelf and excitedly opened it up to the first page. "Just look at this! This book is about-" she looked down and read the Title of the book "... Detche Geshichtee? Dutche Gesichte?" She turned the page and deflated. She turned another page and another but it was all the same throughout the whole book, it was in the necromancer language.
Sapphire looked at Twilight with worry. "What is it Twilight?"
She sighed, "The book is in the necromancer language, and I can't read it. Hopefully the other ones are in Ponish and I just got unlucky with this one."
Twilight pulled another one off the shelves and opened it up. Once again it wasn't in Ponish. "It's like it's taunting me Sapphire. All this knowledge, locked away by a simple language barrier."
Twilight shook her head and pulled another book out off the shelf. She looked at the title and it said "Deutsch zu ponench." She opened it up, and after a few seconds of observation she gasped.
"What is it?" Sapphire asked, walking up and looking over Twilight's shoulder.
"I recognized some of these words," Twilight responded "I just don't know where from…" Then it hit her, "Wait a second … that's Old Ponish!"
"It is?" Sapphire asked. She raised an eyebrow. "Why though is it in this book when all the other books use the old necromancer language?"
"I'm not certain but the only thing I can think of would be some sort of translation book. If that's the case though and we could get a book that Translates Ponish to Old Ponish…" Twilight trailed off.
Sapphire thought for a few seconds. "That means we could translate it and relearn our old language!"
Twilight nodded. "Exactly."
Sapphire stood there speechless for a good ten seconds until she finally got out. "This is big, Twilight. I mean really big. Ponies in the Letztereich have been trying to find stuff like this for almost three hundred years! Once we get out of here ponies will treat you like a national hero just for finding this!"
"Really?" Twilight asked. "Ponies really care about it that much?"
"You, I don't think, can even begin to understand how badly the ponies of the Letztereich want to learn their old language. It's like this, imagine being an Equestrian but not knowing Ponish and you don't have a way to learn it, or being a Romau Zebra but doesn't knowing Zatin, or a Heartland Griffin who doesn't know Griffish. If you were any of those beings you would want to know their respective languages so very bad. And we aren't any different."
"That … that makes a lot of sense." She smiled at Sapphire. "And I'm glad to help you all learn your old language!"
Sapphire smiled. "I'm really glad to hear that. Maybe that can be your next project! Also, as a plus, you could learn what all of our songs mean!"
"Sounds like a plan!" Twilight said actually somewhat excited by the concept.
Twilight put the book into her saddlebags right next to her book on necromancy. She looked back at the library and sighed. "I guess I'll have to wait to read all of these as well."
"Well if you can learn to read the language you can just, well, read them!" Sapphire said with with a reassuring smile.
Twilight perked up at this remark. "Ya, I just have to learn the language. Shouldn't be too hard with enough time and effort. I think I'm going to have a lot of free time on my hooves once we get out of here and that will be a perfect way to spend it."
"It does sound like a good use of time." Sapphire said. "Well, what now?"
"I guess we should try and find an exit to this place. It doesn't seem like it's to any use to us right now because of, well obvious reasons." They looked around the room for a good ten minutes for an exit but they couldn't find one.
"You can't be serious, this is it?" Sapphire sighed. " I want there to be more! And just when things were getting interesting."
"I guess we just have to go back and take a left," Twilight said. She gave Sapphire a goofy grin. "We get to walk all the way back, and I know you're gonna love that!"
"Ugh, shut up. Let's go." Twilight chuckled and headed for the door. She opened it up and looked around. “What the…" The whole hallway was different, almost like it was replaced with a new one. It was larger and was made of bare rock stone instead of the wood and stone brick of the hallway before. It was pitch black. Not a single light source for as far as she could see.
Sapphire looked over Twilight's shoulder and smiled. "Maybe we don't have to go left after all!"