Twilight’s head felt all fuzzy as she woke up. She winced in pain as she held a hoof up to her head hoping that it would soothe the pain, but it didn’t really help. She was back in the library; was it possible that she had only been dreaming again? She stared at the ceiling thinking about what happened. It could’ve been a dream, but it seemed far too real.
“What happened last night?” she said aloud.
“Well,” a voice answered back, “It’s kind of a long story.”
Twilight’s head shot up. She wasn’t expecting somepony to be in here with her. It was, of course, the Corporal. She rubbed her head and felt a lump on the back of her head; that must have been the cause of the soreness.
“You scared me,” she chuckled, “I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”
“Sorry. Are you feeling okay?” Archie asked.
“I suppose,” Twilight said. She looked down at her leg and noticed that there were bandages wrapped all the way around it. She also had patches on the left side of her torso. They were all stained a dark red. “So it wasn’t a dream; all of that actually happened.”
Archie stood up from the chair he was sitting on and walked over to the bedridden Twilight. “I think you’re going to have to explain.”
Twilight glanced back at her wounds. Archie reassured her, “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. I don’t know much about restoration spells, but I did my best with what I was supplied with. Your left hind leg was fractured and the flesh was ripped down to the bone as well as your abdomen, in which you suffered a couple rib fractures. Once you’ve gained a bit of your stamina back, I’m sure you’ll be able to completely heal yourself.” He leaned in closer to Twilight and asked, “Now, what were you doing in the palace labyrinth all beat up?”
Twilight shook her head and replied, “I don’t know. All I remember is that I woke up in an underground tunnel.”
“Well, what happened when you were down there?” Archie asked.
Twilight’s mind went wild. She remembered the darkness, the terror, the running, and the thing that had tried to kill her. She laid her head back down and tried not to think about it.
“Well?” Archie asked.
Twilight had forgotten that he had asked her a question. “There was something down there.” She shook her head and tried to recall what it looked like. “It looked like some kind of giant wolf or something.” She noticed her heartbeat and breath were quickening, so she closed her eyes and tried to calm down.
Archie put his hoof on her shoulder, being careful not to touch any bruises. “Well, you’re fine for right now,” he assured her.
Twilight looked up at him and thanked him for the comfort. “I just don’t understand how I got down there.”
“What were you doing before you woke up in the tunnel?” Archie asked.
Twilight rubbed her head as she tried to think back at what she was doing before she passed out. “I was at a restaurant,” she said slowly. “I hadn’t eaten in a while and my stomach was begging for food.” Her stomach growled at the thought of eating.
“Then I remembered something about the crime scene that we may have overlooked before,” she told Archie. “Then as I was on my way there, I threw up and became very dizzy.”
Archie levitated a cup of tea he had made and asked, “Then you woke up and you were in this...underground labyrinth?”
Twilight thought about telling him about the voice she heard. There was no point in hiding anything from him anywhere, he would be too curious from now on and would always be asking questions.
She closed her eyes and told him, “Well, before that, I heard a voice talking to me, but there was nopony there with me.”
The white stallion put his cup down and gave her a confused look.
“I tried responding, but it hurt to talk and before I knew it, I woke up in that tunnel.” Twilight shifted her weight to relieve some pressure off of her hind leg.
“So...” Archie began, “You passed out and heard somepony talking to you?” He shook his head and asked, “Seems a bit outlandish.”
Twilight looked up at him, about to tell him that it was the truth, but before she could say anything, Archie said, “I do believe you though. It seems crazy, but seeing how you disappeared for a whole night and ended up in the castle labyrinth with all those wounds, I don’t see any other logical explanation.”
Twilight smiled a bit. “Thanks.”
Archie nodded to accept the thank you. “Now,” he levitated a second cup of tea towards Twilight, “Would you like some tea? I made it myself.”
Twilight managed to conjure up enough of her magic to be able to lift the cup, but that seemed to be testing her limits.
“I’m no tea making expert, so don’t expect it to be the best you’ve ever tasted.”
Twilight took a sip and coughed a little bit. It wasn’t like Fluttershy’s tea, but it would have to do for now. She took another sip and continued her story. “I started looking for a way out of the underground tunnel, and shortly afterwards was when I started getting chased by whatever that...thing...was.” She had to reposition herself again due to a pain in her back.
“I caused a small section of the tunnel to collapse and crush whatever that thing was.” She looked down at herself, “But it had already done all of this to me. I found a water drain and managed to break it open and climb out.” She drank the rest of her tea and gave the cup to Archie.
“Well then,” the Corporal grasped Twilight’s tea cup and set it down. “I suppose that the rest of what happened is me just finding you?”
Twilight nodded and finished her story by saying, “Then I woke up here.” Then the thing she feared the most ran through her mind. The Princess! What would she think of all this? She had to ask Archie.
“Does Princess Celestia know about all of this?”
Archie looked down at the floor and and took a deep breath. “Yeah, about that.” A serious came across his face and he said, “Celestia doesn’t know about any of this.”
Twilight closed her eyes and groaned, “Oh no. This is bad, this is really, really bad.”
She started to sit up, but was quickly stopped by Archie who told her, “No, no, no, lay back down. It’s not that simple.” Archie started to tell her what Luna had ordered him to do. “Princess Luna is the only one besides us who knows that you went missing. I’m supposed to talk to her today about anything that happened last night. I’m going to have to bring you with me and have you explain everything you just told me here.”
“Why only Luna?” Twilight asked. “What does she have to do with this?”
“I was ordered by Celestia herself to watch out for you. As you can sort of see, I failed on the first day.”
The Corporal began to pour himself some more tea and asked, “Would you like some more?”
Twilight shook her head, “No thanks, I’ve had enough. Please, continue?”
“Alright, sorry,” he apologized for briefly straying from the main topic. “I tried looking for you, but I couldn’t find any traces of you anywhere. I began to panic and thought that you may have gone to Luna so you could talk to her, but you weren’t there and Luna demanded to know what was going on, so I sort of had to tell her you went missing.”
He drank more of his tea, sipping at the cup little by little. “We should start heading there in a few hours once you’re able to stand and walk.”
Twilight shook her head in disagreement, “No, not yet. There’s something we have to check first.”
“What would that be? There can’t be anything more important...”
“Yes, there is,” Twilight cut him off. She used some of her magic to summon the healing spell she had used before, hoping that it would speed up her healing. “We need to go back to the alley. I have to check something that we didn’t check before.”
Archie sighed, “I suppose there’s no talking you out of this?” He got a head shake in reply. “Okay then, you can lead the way.”
Twilight sat up and got out of the bed. She took off some of the bandages and wrappings that Archie must have patched her up with.
“Can you help me get an extra bandage wrapped around my hind leg?” Twilight asked. “It’ll help the healing spell work faster if there’s nothing else touching the wound.”
Archie nodded, “Okay.” He picked up the medkit he had sitting on the table and took out the roll of bandage wrap. Twilight took off the old wrappings and and held her leg up so the new ones could be applied.
Archie looked at her now unwrapped leg, specifically at the huge gash down to the leg bone. Even though it looked nasty, it was looking much better than it had a couple hours ago. Her magic was certainly strong if she was able to heal herself at this rate.
Twilight watched as he examined her leg. She felt sort of awkward for some reason, but she didn’t exactly know why.
Archie let her wounded leg rest in one of his hooves. He then began to gently wrap the medical tape around the wound. He was careful not to cause her discomfort in any way. For some reason, he felt a little weird.
He looked up at her to ask her a question, but their eyes met and he stopped what he was doing. He felt his face turning red and quickly looked away, while Twilight did the same thing.
“I guess I should thank you for saving me,” Twilight said. She closed her eyes, “How did you even know I was in the palace labyrinth?”
Archie kept wrapping her leg with the tape, “I saw a purple laser blast shoot up into the sky that came from somewhere inside the maze. I ran towards it and eventually found you at the source.”
Twilight nodded her head as she remembered shooting the grate out of the ground, so that she could escape the labyrinth, “Yeah, that was me,” she told him. “So thanks for taking care of me tonight, I appreciate it.”
“No problem,” the white stallion replied as he finished wrapping her leg up and tightening it, so that it wouldn’t come loose while she trotted around. He walked back over to the table that had all his belongings on it. Putting away the medical wrap and levitating his helmet back onto his head.
“You need to keep the tea bag in longer, by the way,” Twilight told him.
Archie looked at her with a confused look, “What?”
“The tea you made,” the purple mare reminded him, “You have to keep the tea bag in the hot water longer otherwise the flavor isn’t as strong and it doesn’t taste very good.”
Archie smiled and said, “Thanks for the advice, I’ll try that next time.”
“No problem,” she couldn’t help but smile as she went off topic.
“So what do you expect to find back at the alley Twilight?” Archie asked. He had thought he had found everything before. Guess not.
“Well,” Twilight began to explain while she walked around the library, making sure she would be able to walk on her leg for an extended period of time, “While I was eating yesterday, I remembered something that we both overlooked.”
Archie was listening intently.
“We completely forgot about the pouring rain,” Twilight said while looking for her satchel bag. “We never took into account the rain washing anything away. If there are any other clues that were near the body, then they would’ve followed a current and piled up somewhere else, like a drain,” Twilight explained.
Archie nodded his head in agreement, “Right, right, I didn’t think of that at all. What do you think we could find?”
Twilight was still looking for her bag, “I don’t know, but it could very well help in telling us who killed that poor homeless pony.”
She continued searching for her satchel, but couldn’t find it, “Um...Where’s my bag?”
“You didn’t have one on when I found you,” he told her.
Twilight looked around again and mumbled, “Well pony feathers. Everything important that we need was in my bag.”
She began to think where she could’ve lost it. “Alright, here’s the plan. First, we’re going to search for my bag close to where I passed out, it’s important that we find it. Second, we’ll go to the alley and see if my assumption was correct, then after all of that is said and done, we’ll go to Luna and tell her what I encountered,” the purple mare had to take a deep breath.
“Well,” Archie said, “Let’s go.”
Twilight made sure she wasn’t forgetting anything and trotted out the front door along with the Corporal.
- - -
It looked as if it was going to rain again anytime now. The dark clouds were rolling in and the faint sound of thunder could be heard from miles away. The wind began to pick up speed and made the trees sway back and forth.
“This spot has got to be it,” the purple mare explained. “This has to be the place I passed out at, because that over there is the restaurant that I ate at,” she pointed her hoof at the building she had ate at yesterday.
Archie looked around and asked, “You said you thought you passed out in an alley right?”
“I’m most certain,” Twilight said with a little hint of annoyance.
They had checked almost all the alleys except for one so far. “This is the farthest you could’ve gone out while you were drugged, or poisoned, or whatever happened to you,” he wasn’t quite certain what could cause a pony to lose their mind on such a level.
“Well this is the last one in our estimated area,” the Corporal told Twilight as he walked slowly through the alley, examining a dumpster as he walked by.
“We’ll never find it,” complained Twilight. “All the clues that we collected were in my notebook. Those were really important.” She wasn’t sure if she wanted to mention the book and note to him that she found in the secret floor in the library, but she’d burn that bridge when she got there.
“I know this is going to be nasty,” started Archie, but was interrupted by Twilight shaking her head.
“No, no, no, no. Please don’t tell me that you’re going to climb into the dumpster.”
The stallion shrugged his shoulders and gave her a look that said “might as well check anyway”. He dived in and began rummaging through the trash, while Twilight held her breath and kept walking.
“Boys will be boys I suppose,” Twilight whispered to herself. She was sure that her satchel wasn’t in the dumpster, so she kept walking down the alley in hopes of finding something. For some reason she felt like something else was in the alley with them, watching.
“Hey,” she heard a voice come from the trash bin. Twilight stopped and looked behind her. Had he actually found her bag?
Archie poked his head out of the garbage bin holding a music record. “Cool, a Foal Fighters album. Who would want to throw this out?”
Twilight eyed him and he quickly threw the record behind him. “Right,” he grinned and disappeared once again in the pool of garbage.
Something was definitely watching her now. Twilight swung her head back just in time to see movement at the other end of the alley. She caught a glimpse of a pony wearing a dark colored cloak disappearing around the corner.
“What the...” she said quietly. She glanced over at Archie who was still digging through the trash. She headed to the other end of the alley quickly, but at the same time being quiet so Archie wouldn’t see her heading off.
“Whoah. Look at this,” Archie said excitedly, as he lifted his head and hooves out of the dumpster holding some sort of toy. “The things people throw out, you know?”
He looked up to see Twilight at the other end of the alley. He hopped out and started to follow her.
Twilight peeked around the corner and saw nothing, except for a lone bag with a six-pointed purple star laying on the ground.
She stared at it with a look of confusion, “Is that what I think it is?” she asked herself quietly. Slowly walking over to it, her nose was filled with an unpleasant smell that almost activated her gag reflex, but she forced the nasty fluid back down to her gut and quickly covered her snout with a hoof to protect her nostrils from the horrid stench.
She grabbed a hold of her bag with telekinesis and began examining it. It still possessed everything that was stored in the bag previously, except for one missing item. Her journal.
She let out a long sigh and closed her eyes. She had only recorded her notes in one thing and now they were gone. Luckily, her mind still remembered everything, and she would write them all back down on the way to the palace.
“What you got there?”
“Aaaahhh!” Twilight dropped her bag and spun around to the voice.
It was just a filth-covered Archie.
“You don’t just sneak up on other ponies,” Twilight glared at him. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Since you got over here,” he replied.
Guess that explains the smell, the frightened purple mare thought.
“Is that your bag?” the dirtied royal guard asked.
Twilight grabbed it with telekinesis and fit it over her back. “Yep.”
Archie nodded, “Figured. It has your cutie mark printed on the side.”
“Only,” Twilight began, but was interrupted by an echoing crack.
Both ponies flinched and looked up at the sky. A dark ominous cloud was moving toward Canterlot. Frequent bright flashes could be seen from the heart of the oncoming storm.
Archie gave Twilight a glance and said with a worried tone, “We’d best hurry and get to shelter. This storm looks stronger than all of the others that have hit us.”
Twilight nodded, “I think that would be best. We can continue this after the storm passes, or at least lets up.”
“To the library then.”
- - -
The Corporal took a look at the pocketwatch he had stored in his chest plate. Letting out a long sigh he put it away and said, “It’s only three in the afternoon, but this storm is making it seem like it’s midnight.”
A short flash lit up the parts of the room that weren’t already lit by candlelight. The rumbling that followed lasted around half a minute and shook some books off of some shelves.
With a gasp and a quick flailing of limbs, Twilight was putting the books back where they were supposed to go. Archie just watched as the overly compulsive mare put everything away nicely.
When everything was normal and put away, Twilight trotted over to her satchel and slowly pulled a coverless book out with her telekinesis and hoofed it to Archie.
He looked it over without opening it and asked, “What is this?”
“A book.”
“Indeed,” he said as he scanned the first page with text. “I can’t read this,” he remarked. “It’s Ancient Equine.”
Twilight’s face scrunched up into a confused look. “What?”
She swiped it away and looked at the text. “But I can read it perfectly fine.”
“Didn’t know you could speak Ancient Equine. I didn’t even think this library had any books written in it; thought all that stuff was kept in the Royal Archives. Why didn’t you say something?” The Corporal said while resting his helmet on a table.
“As far as I’m concerned, I can’t,” Twilight responded while scanning more of the pages. “I’m seeing it as English Equine.”
It was Archie’s turn to look confused. “What do you mean? Are you casting some spell to be able to read it?”
“No,” shaking her head. “Ancient Equine is something that I’ve never been able to completely wrap my mind around. I never learned it completely and I don’t know any spell that could help me with that task.”
“Okay,” Archie mumbled while scratching the back of his head. “Still doesn’t explain why you can read it and I can’t.”
The fact that one pony could read something that another couldn’t made sense, but what baffled both of their minds was that their eyes were seeing something that the other saw completely differently. It seemed like something out of a Daring Doo book.
“I don’t know,” she mumbled. “I’ll think about it later, but for now,” she set it down on the closest table and sat down to read, “it’s important I tell you the stuff that I found this book.”
Archie nodded and sat down beside her. “Okay then.”
Twilight read as clear as possible so Archie could understand. To him everything was new, but Twilight had read these parts the day before and still the passages word for word. About the term Lycanthropy and how a cult of ponies that called themselves The Night Templars tried to overthrow the Princess, but were eventually banished to the moon alongside Nightmare Moon. The bloody fight that had ravaged Canterlot for more than three hours before Celestia had stopped them.
The Wolfequines.
They were abominations that shouldn’t have existed. Corrupted minds caused by Nightmare Moon that experimented with an unknown magic more evil than the darkest magic in history. One should not be able to alter their body’s with magic and summon beasts from the flaming pits of Tartarus, it’s just wrong. At least, that’s what Twilight thought. Others may not be so hesitant when offered extreme amounts of power.
Twilight now knew first hand what it’s like to face one of these beasts. She could hardly even phase it with magic, her hooves weren’t exactly strong, she didn’t have combat experience whatsoever and she didn’t have the guts to kill anything.
But she did. She had killed the Wolfequine. It was crushed underneath all the rubble; surely nothing could survive something like that. Hopefully. Twilight didn’t want to think that she had killed it though, did she? The rubble is what did it, not her.
A psychological battle was the last thing she wanted right now. She made a mental note to consult the Royal Sisters the next time they met and ask about this, along with all the other things she wanted to ask.
Archie was absorbing everything he had been told. When he was done processing his thoughts he asked, “So are you implying that something that technically hasn’t existed existed for a thousand years has just decided to show up out of nowhere?”
“Yes, I know it sounds crazy,” Twilight stated. “But it’s what I saw last night.”
“Alright,” the Corporal agreed while holding up his hooves. “I believe you. Considering the state you were in last night, there’s no reason I shouldn’t,” he looked at her still bandaged leg, “And I can’t think of anything that could’ve done something to you as violent as this other than what you just explained.”
He started rubbing his head and a confused look found its way onto his face. “I only have one question.”
“Shoot.”
“Where did you even find this book? Was it just lying on a random shelf?”
“Oh,” Twilight smiled, “There’s an entrance in this library that leads to a giant secret room that runs underneath Canterlot full of ancient books,” she finished with a smile across her face. Her purple eyes wide and unblinking, staring at Archie, waiting for his response.
He blinked. She grinned. “Yeah,” he finally said, “I can buy that. I’m just going to go put my head down and rest for a bit.”
Twilight giggled, “I know, I know. It’s a lot to take in all at once. Trust me though, something led me to this book.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was invisible ink, I cast a special light spell to reveal it, and it acted like some sort of fluorescent or phosphorescent trail. It led me to this book and...” she rummaged through her bag and pulled out a small piece of paper, “This was in it.”
Archie took the piece of paper with his telekinesis and read it aloud, “This book should prove to be an asset for you.” He gave the paper back to Twilight and closed his eyes. “So, somepony, or something,is helping you out and giving hints while not revealing themselves?”
He received a nod in reply. “I don’t really care who it is and what their intentions are, but I would like for them to continue doing things like this; it would help quite a bit.”
Suddenly, every object in the library seemed to have the color sucked out of it as darkness overwhelmed everything. All the candle lights were blown out by a gust of wind that seemed to come from nowhere. The lightning flashes were the only source of light until both Twilight and Archie used their own light spells.
“What in Equestria is going on?” Archie shakely said, “Why did all the lights go out?”
Twilight caught sight of a figure outside one of the windows during one of the flashes. She became terrified and wanted to hide, but suddenly found herself consumed by a freezing cold that left her lips chapped and skin numb.
Archie was running around the library trying to relight the candles, but instead was bumping into tables and knocking things over. “Why did it get so cold all of a sudden?”
Twilight could hardly hear him. Her eyes were fixed on the front door of the library. Something was on the other side, about to enter. It was dark, cold, and she was scared out of her mind. Had the monster she met in the labyrinth come to finish the job?
The door swung open, followed by a new chilling breeze that seemed to freeze her very soul. She shivered and opened her mouth to say something, but couldn’t bring herself to make a noise. Archie paused what he was doing, looked at the now opened door, shivered and froze.
A giant cloaked figure strode in, lightning flashes reflecting off the eyes underneath the hood. The door glowed with a light blue aura and was shut. Just then, all the candles were lit and the light revealed the being. It was the Royal Alicorn of the Night Sky and Moon, Princess Luna.
Twilight felt her legs return under her control and suddenly felt warmer. “Princess Luna.”
“Greetings Twilight Sparkle,” Luna’s booming voice echoed through the building and shook a few books off of their shelves. “We have some questions for thou.”
“So do we Princess,” Twilight and Archie said in unison. “So do we.”
Author's note: Hope you enjoy the chapter. Many thanks to my pre-reader Talix