//------------------------------// // 04 Home, Sweet Home // Story: My Little Exalt // by Lithl //------------------------------// My Little Exalt HOME, SWEET HOME by: Lithl special thanks: Rhanite Saekwaka Between two remotely located Bois d'Arc trees, the air shimmered for just a moment. From one side, nothing had changed. From the opposite side, the natural archway led into a hall guarded by celestial lions. Multicolored ponies began filing out of the hall and gathering outside, their ordeals in Yu-Shan completed. Twilight and Rarity stopped immediately outside the arch to oversee the ponies' exodus from Yu-Shan. Applejack and Rainbow Dash led the ponies outside and encouraged them to keep moving, helping make room for the ponies in the rear. In the hall, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy brought up the rear, ensuring nopony would be left behind in Yu-Shan. Once everypony had returned to Creation, the air between the trees shimmered again, and the hall disappeared. "C'mon, everypony! Let's go find us a spot to settle fer a while." Applejack put on a strong face for the rest of the ponies. If they were stuck in Creation, they might as well make the best of it. Applejack set to work assigning ponies to jobs building a (hopefully) temporary home. Twilight sat off to the side, distant and quiet. She had been introspective ever since Pinkie had driven off Hiparkes, mechanically doing her part to get the other ponies out of Yu-Shan safely, but her heart hadn't been in the job. Her friends gave her some space, and Pinkie assured them she was just coming to terms with her newfound power. Twilight's gaze searched around the area surrounding the hidden gateway. Just over the hill to the north, she could hear the rushing waters of a river, identified by Pinkie as the Meander River. The rolling hills surrounding the gate reminded her of the outskirts of Ponyville – of home. A confusing wash of memories flooded Twilight's mind. Her memories of Equestria and her studies in friendship twisted around the images of a dozen other lifetimes. Twilight turned back to stare at the gateway just so she could focus on something. It seemed to work, as the alien memories in her mind slowly merged into the image of the gate in front of her. Her concentration only held for a moment before wandering off again. However, this time instead of a dozen memories from a dozen lifetimes, she saw a single image. Twilight stood and began walking south. Spike noticed Twilight's behavior immediately. Rather than ASSIGNING him a job to help build shelters, Applejack just asked him to watch over Twilight and make sure she was all right. When and if her disposition changed (to use words from Twilight's vocabulary), he was expected to fetch the others. Walking off on her own definitely counted as something new and worth gathering the other Bearers, so Spike floated off to do just that. Within minutes, each of the other five Bearers had been notified that Twilight's behavior had changed, and thanks to the help of Spike's bird's-eye-view, caught up to Twilight. "Twilight, dear, is there anything wrong?" Twilight shook her head groggily, as if she were waking from a dream. She did not stop walking. "I think... I think I know this place." "What the hay are you talking about, egghead?" Rainbow asked. "None of us have been here before." She paused a moment before adding, "Except maybe Pinkie." Twilight shook her head again, more forcefully this time. "No. I can see a sort of path away from that gateway. I need to follow it and figure this whole thing out." Rarity trotted to the front and tried to block Twilight's path. "Look, Twilight. We're stuck here. We need to work together on this!" Twilight walked around her without saying a word. "But... Twilight! Wait!" Just as Rarity began to reach out to stop Twilight again, Pinkie held her back. "Don't worry, Rarity!" Pinkie gave her friend the biggest grin she could muster. "I think I know what's happening. When she exalted, Twilight got some of the memories of all the previous hosts to her exaltation. It looks like this area was familiar; at least to some of them." Pinkie turned to Fluttershy. "Why don't you take Spike and go back to help everpony else? The four of us will stick with Twilight and make sure she's OK!" Fluttershy cast a single glance towards Twilight before nodding and cantering back to the rest of the displaced ponies while Spike floated effortlessly behind. After three hours of walking, Rarity and Rainbow Dash were beginning to show signs of fatigue. The group had reached the bank of another river (the Yellow River, according to Pinkie, which met with the Meander River west of the ponies' camp) and changed course to the southeast to follow the river's bank upstream. "Are we there yet, Twi?" "No, Rainbow. Please stop asking." Pinkie bounced up in the air and shouted, "Look! There's a bridge!" She began galloping towards the new landmark, and her enthusiasm (plus the break in the monotony) seemed to energize Rainbow and Rarity who quickly followed in Pinkie's wake. Applejack turned to Twilight and asked, "That bridge ain't our destination, is it?" Twilight shook her head. "No. We do need to cross it, though. Wherever we're going is still further south." Applejack sighed inwardly at the news. Applejack was accustomed to long days of arduous work, so she hadn't tired as quickly as the other two ponies. Already, though, the working pony could tell her muscles would give her 'proper' thanks with a raw, sore pain in her legs the next morning. The sun hung low in the sky and the clouds began to turn pink. After the bridge, Twilight had directed the group due south, and they had all lost track of exactly how long they'd been walking. Ahead, a small copse of trees stood in their path. Before reaching the tree line, Twilight stopped for the first time since she had begun walking. Taking Twilight's halted movement as a cue, Rarity finally collapsed, unconscious. Rainbow Dash lay down, exhausted, but (unsuccessfully) tried to hide her exhaustion from the others. Applejack dropped to the ground heaving, and didn't bother trying to hide it. Pinkie and Twilight were barely winded; they could have just as easily walked from the center of Ponyville to Fluttershy's cottage. "Thank... huff huff... Celestia... wheeze... we're here!" Rainbow managed to say between heavy breathing. Pinkie looked to Twilight for confirmation, but the unicorn seemed more confused than triumphant or relieved or excited... or any other emotion that might indicate she'd found where she was going. "I'm not so sure, Dashie..." "It's supposed to be here!" cried Twilight. Applejack drew a deep breath and asked, "What exactly have we been lookin' fer, sugarcube?" "I don't know! That's the problem!" Twilight dropped to her haunches in defeat. "I swear, this is the spot I was supposed to go to, but whatever I'm supposed to find isn't here." Pinkie drew closer to Twilight, intending to comfort a friend in need. Just as she reached out, the sun dipped below the horizon and the trees masking the location of Twilight's objective vanished. "What in tarnation?" "What the hay?" "Ooh! That's suspiciously appropriate!" Twilight looked up from her stupor to discover a fence and gate wrought in orichalcum, starmetal, and moonsilver. Written at the top of the gate's archway was a series of symbols, but Twilight couldn't read them. Pinkie grabbed Twilight around the shoulders and gave her a cheery, enthusiastic smile. "Do you think you've found it now, Miss Twilight the Twilight at twilight?" Rainbow and Applejack struggled to their hooves, and Pinkie scooped up Rarity. The four ponies (and the fifth on for the ride) walked into the compound revealed by the light of the setting sun. The compound was massive. Rarity awoke before they even reached the primary building. The yard held water features large enough to be small lakes, sculptures with detail fine enough to be petrified monsters and humans ("Those are just normal sculptures, right?" "I hope so."). Marble pathways led to every corner and smaller buildings were scattered throughout, each with exquisite craftsponyship (or perhaps 'craftsmanship', as the case may be). The pièce de résistance, of course, was the building located at the end of the main walkway, a straight shot from the entrance gate. The only building Twilight could compare it to was Castle Canterlot. This building was not as tall as Castle Canterlot, but it also didn't have the restriction of being built into a mountainside, and there was obviously no need for a city to be built around it. Instead of building up, the architect had built out. Where the Castle had stained glass windows depicting major events in the history of Equestria, this building had reliefs showing the exploits of several groups of humans. Once the ponies stepped inside, though, the building proved to be bigger than it seemed. The artistic style matched the exterior and the other buildings, but it seemed the inside favored utility over style: form on the outside, function on the inside. Even if the interior was more subdued, the décor was still fancier than anypony had seen outside of the upper districts of Canterlot. Whites and golds were heavily favored in the color scheme, mostly stemming from gold and marble. The hallways branched at right angles, and a pattern of color-coded lines on the floor directed anyone walking the corridor to whatever their destination might be. Applejack was the first to break the silence. "What is this place?" "Totally awesome, that's what!" Twilight turned to Pinkie for an answer. "Well, Pinkie? Do you know anything about this?" "It's yours, silly filly!" Pinkie booped Twilight on the nose. "I mean, we followed your memories to get here, right?" "Well sure, but... What is it?" Asked Applejack. "Oh!" Pinkie grinned and said, "This is pretty obviously a manse. The building and the land around it work together to focus magical power!" She put her hoof to her chin and thought for a moment before adding, "I'm actually kind of surprised we haven't found any traps or guardians or anything. I guess the architect was relying on the limited point of access instead of some more forceful means to keep out intruders." The mention of magic sparked Twilight's interest. "So a manse is a focusing lens for magical energy here? Where is the power directed? Is the magic pulled from an ambient reservoir, or is it from an upwelling caused by the intersection of multiple leylines? How does it account for natural overflow and possible feedback loops?" While Twilight continued rambling about magical theory and the possibilities such a large magical focusing lens implied, Applejack sidled over to Pinkie Pie and asked, "D'you understand what she's talking about?" Pinkie grinned like a maniac and said, "I have no idea!" Pinkie nudged Twilight and snapped her out of her monologue. "Hey Twilight, I bet this place is big enough for everypony. It might be a little more cramped than Ponyville, but it'll be safer than building a camp out in the middle of nowhere. You girls have a look around, I'm gonna go fetch everypony else!" With that, Pinkie hopped outside and off towards the entrance. Rarity spoke up. "Well, if this place belongs to you as Pinkie says, Twilight, why don't you lead the way?" "Um..." Twilight scanned around the entrance hall, trying to get an idea of where to start. She finally decided to pick one of the colored lines on the floor and follow it. The purple line was as good a choice as any. "This way!" It. Was. Glorious. The line Twilight had chosen to follow ended in front of a library large enough to rival the Royal Archives. Shelves covered each wall and more shelves filled the room in neat rows. Every shelf was completely filled with books. A dozen chandeliers filled with some sort of crystal were currently glowing, creating plenty of light to read by in the wan light of the early evening. Just inside the entrance stood two circular columns which also served as shelving, and they were also leaden top to bottom with books. Rainbow Dash approached one of the columns and scrutinized the spines of the books. "What's with these things? There's no writing on them, just weird squiggles." Twilight approached from behind Rainbow and studied the subject of Rainbow's confusion. "No, Rainbow, they're just in some other language," she said. Twilight glanced at some of the other books on the shelf. "By the looks of things, there are a number of languages represented here. Look at that one, the writing is similar to Neighponese or Canternese. This one over here has symbols that look like the ones above the gate we came in." "Now that you mention it," said Rainbow, "I remember seeing some squiggles like these when I signed up for the tournament before." Twilight sighed inwardly but didn't bother to correct her friend about the difference between 'squiggles' and 'foreign alphabets'. It wasn't like Equestria had a single alphabet; equiish and old symbolic were both fairly common (although old symbolic was being phased out, it was still taught in schools), and both extended equiish and cervvian were widely used elsewhere in the world. Rainbow reached to grab the book that had originally caught her attention. As soon as her hoof touched the spine, every single book shelved on the two columns launched outwards from its resting place. The force of the book flying from the shelf knocked Rainbow's hoof to the side and spun her in place. Twilight managed to duck under the flying books before crawling back to Applejack and Rarity, who were gawping at the scene unfolding in the air between the columns. The books from the two columns spiraled together in the air, their covers opening and twisting as they slid together. The books began interlocking and a shape began to form. When the storm of literature ended, a beast made of paper stood above the four ponies. The thing had two clawed arms, two legs with talons as long as a pony was wide, a long and tapering tail, and a head that consisted mostly of a mouth (not that it had a throat or other organs to eat with, but the conical teeth could probably do some damage). The guardian beast spread its arms, opened its mouth, and leaned forward. The ponies braced themselves for a mighty roar... they got the sound of a few pages turning simultaneously instead. "Well, horseapples." "Didn't Pinks say something about 'traps' and 'guardians' and 'being safe for everypony' before leaving?" asked Rainbow. Her question went unanswered as the beast advanced. Applejack set her Stetson securely on her head and took a combat stance. "Ah reckon we got no choice, girls. C'mon, it'll be just like the other day with that 'god of ponies' fella." "Applejack, there were nearly four hundred of us in that fight," Rarity deadpanned. "There are four of us today." "Don't use your fancy mathematics to muddle the issue!" "It's not fancy mathematics... it isn't even arithmetic!" The two mares were practically at each other's throats, the threat of the paper monstrosity all but forgotten. "AJ? Rarity?" Rainbow asked, "Do you think you could settle this after we're done fighting for our lives?" Twilight noticed something rather odd. The four of them were seemingly at the monster's mercy, yet they had been standing still arguing for several seconds. "Now that you mention it, why hasn't this thing attacked us yet? We've certainly given it enough openings." Indeed, the guardian remained between the two columns. Although it appeared ready to strike, it had not yet advanced past the invisible line between the columns. Rainbow approached again and said, "Hah! I guess this thing is just for scaring ponies." Twilight tried to stop Rainbow, but before the words could escape her lips, Rainbow kicked out at the beast. Before the hoof could connect, the beast grabbed Rainbow's leg and threw her against the nearby wall. It let out another silent roar, and began to advance again. This time, it did pass the columns. "Everypony scatter!" cried Twilight. Although they were physically exhausted, the adrenaline and the reassuring presence of their leader pushed Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity to continue. The four ponies split up, each running down a different corridor of books and forcing the guardian beast to pick a single target to follow. Twilight proved to be the unlucky one, though her unflagging stamina meant it was the best possible outcome. Twilight turned on a bit around the corner to try and put some distance between herself and the lumbering beast. Its longer legs gave it greater speed, but the ponies had superior agility. Twilight was relying on that advantage. Agility might be the only advantage they had. She turned back to see how much she'd gained on her pursuer, only to gape in horror as her defensive strategy crumbled before her eyes. Rather than slow down and follow her around the corner, the guardian opted to travel straight through the bookshelf. The beast ran straight into the wall of books and merged with them, reforming its body out of the books shelved on the opposite side. The books that it had previously been composed of were left neatly shelved behind it. On top of the fear for her life, Twilight's librarian compulsions rose to the front of her brain. Those need to be shelved in the right place! No! Concentrate, Twilight. Survive the magical construct of living tomes that's trying to murder you first; you can have a re-shelving slumber party later. Regardless of its blatant disregard for organization, the beast's ability to walk through shelves meant that it would catch her sooner rather than later. Twilight needed a different strategy. "Rainbow! Get behind it and try to rip out the tail!" The tail itself was unimportant; this was a test to see if the beast could understand the ponies coordinating verbally. It didn't have any visible ears, but it didn't exactly have eyes, either. (Perhaps it had 'I's?) Rainbow dashed around the corner behind the beast at Twilight's instruction, and chomped down near the base of the tail. The beast seemed to notice the attack, so it obviously had a sense of touch, but from Twilight's point of view it seemed Rainbow had caught the beast completely unaware. If it did have a sense of hearing, it was practically deaf. Rainbow was attempting to worry the beast's tail, but the size of the beast combined with the thickness of the tail at the point she had attacked ensured her attempt bore little fruit. The beast cracked its tail like a whip, launching Rainbow up, but her grip was tight enough to hold on. As she fell back towards the floor, the beast's tail rose up to meet her, cracking once again and bruising Rainbow's chest. Rainbow's grip stayed firm, but the force was apparently too much for the tome between her teeth. The book audibly ripped from the guardian's tail as Rainbow once again launched into the air before she spit out the book and glided back down into another pathway between the shelves. Rarity had managed to climb to a second-story catwalk with an excellent view of the current confrontation. The book Rainbow removed had torn a few other books out with it, which now lay scattered at the beast's feet. The tail itself was currently hanging by a thread – or rather, hanging by a few pages. The beast resumed its pursuit of Twilight who had stayed in sight to make sure it followed her instead of any of her friends, but the time Rainbow had given to her let her put on some safe distance. When Twilight saw the beast lumbering after her, she continued leading it onward. Rarity, however, saw something immensely troubling. "Twilight! The books... it's using the books on the shelves to repair itself!" The books ripped out during Rainbow's attack lay inert, but there was no way the four of them could damage every single book in the gigantic library just to stop this thing. Rarity doubted if Twilight would allow for such an approach to the problem, anyway. Twilight was already halfway through her next plan when Rarity called to her, and incorporated the new information into her strategy. We've got to get this thing away from the books. Will it follow us out of the library? It didn't advance past the entrance when we 'woke' it up, but then Rainbow attacked and it suddenly became much more violent. Perhaps now that it's engaged it will follow us anywhere. "Applejack! Rainbow! Get to each side of this thing and take down its left leg together. I'm coming up on an intersection between the shelves, meet me there!" Twilight's caste mark began to glow and her heart raced faster, her breathing heavier. Twilight raced past her two friends who were waiting to ambush the guardian beast. When it charged into the reach of the two mares, Rainbow took the most dangerous approach from the right, and leaped across in front of the beast to slam into its left leg. At the exact same moment Applejack charged, spun, and bucked with all of the strength she could put into a single attack directly on the opposite side of the left leg from Rainbow. The force of the pincer impact on each side of the leg caused books to explode from the front and back. As Rainbow and Applejack took a step away from the monster, the leg began to crumble under a weight it could no longer support. The beast was not without recourse as it fell. The right leg swung forward, talons catching Rainbow in the side and throwing her into the nearby shelves. Four puncture wounds began leaking crimson onto the thin carpet floor. The kick had destabilized the beast's balance further, but the beast was falling towards another target anyway. It turned towards Applejack and opened its wide maw as it fell. The cowpony managed to overcome her fear and run, but she wasn't quite fast enough. The beast trapped Applejack's right hind leg in its jaws, and she cried out in pain. "Oh, no you don't! Ah'm too pretty to be eaten by a dictionary!" With that, Applejack lashed out with her free hoof, ripping out several of the beast's teeth and knocking its mouth open. She took the opportunity to run to a safe distance, only wincing slightly whenever she trod on her wounded leg. "Rarity! Help me with this bookcase!" Rarity looked down to see that Twilight had emptied the bookcase looming over the guardian beast, and was now straining with her telekinesis to move the case itself. Rarity focused her mind and reached out to the bookcase below her, and began to push with all the force she could summon. Slowly, the case began to tip over towards the beast, until finally gravity began to assist and the case came crashing down. "That won't hold it for long. It shouldn't be able to stroll through a bookcase without any books, but it's already repairing itself from Rainbow and Applejack's attack. Come on girls, back to the entrance!" As the ponies reached the entrance to the library, they heard the crashing sound of heavy wooden objects colliding – likely the empty bookcase being thrown against full ones. The guardian beast was back on its feet and would probably be hot on their tails any minute. "We need to draw it out of the library so that it won't have anything to repair itself with. I'll keep getting it to follow me around. Applejack, Rarity: you two split up and try to find something we can use to fight this thing with. Our record hasn't been very good so far," Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash, who had needed help to limp out of the library. She was showing signs of blood loss, and she had already been exhausted when she entered the manse. "Rainbow, I want you to go find somewhere safe, and hide. Keep pressure on that wound with your wing, and we'll find you as soon as we can, OK? I don't want you getting hurt any more than you already have." Rainbow shook her head, but stopped as it seemed to make her dizzy. "Hay no, Twilight! I'm gonna stick by you to the very end!" Rainbow tried to take a step forward, but stumbled a bit. "Or... Maybe I'll just wait this one out." "Okay, Rainbow, you're in no shape to go anywhere on your own. Rarity, help Rainbow get out of sight and make sure she doesn't leave a blood trail that the beast can follow to find her." Rarity seemed a bit nauseated by the blood, but nodded her consent as she let the injured pegasus lean her unharmed side onto her own, unmarred coat. She began to collect any drips of blood falling from Rainbow's coat in her telekinesis to prevent it from trailing on the floor and walked off with her patient as fast as she could. Applejack had already galloped down the hall, leaving Twilight to wait and act as bait. Rarity tore down one of the smaller tapestries as she helped Rainbow hobble away from the library. With her telekinesis, she wrapped the cloth tight around the wound to stem the blood flow. "Keep pressure on that, Rainbow." "Yeah, sure," she replied, a bit woozily. Rarity took a gamble and followed a hallway that wasn't marked with one of the colored lines on the floor. The gamble paid off, as it led to a smaller area of the manse with lower ceilings which would give the guardian beast trouble if the fighting ever came this way. She opened a door to find a modest (compared to the rest of the palatial building) bedroom. Either the original owner didn't spend much time in bedrooms and designed them accordingly, or this is for the servants. Even modest compared to the rest of the manse she'd seen so far, this bedroom was spacious and just short of extravagant by Ponyville standards. A four-poster bed with a small mountain of pillows dominated the viewer's attention. Two folding screens stood in the room: a larger one partitioned the room, while a smaller one stood near the wall by an ornately lacquered dresser to serve as a dressing screen. The smaller folding screen was decorated with a beautiful calligraphy in one of those languages from the library that nopony could read. Even without reading the words, though, Rarity could appreciate the elegance of the script. The larger screen depicted a city built into the side of a mountain. Wha—is that Canterlot...? No, it couldn't be. The towers are all wrong. Still... Rarity helped Rainbow into the bed. "Stay here and try to stay awake. We'll be back to help you soon. If you hear fighting, try to go hide behind that dressing screen, just in case." Rarity finally released her hold on the blood she'd been collecting from Rainbow during their walk to prevent any trail the beast might be able to follow. "Ugh. We'll clean that up later, too." Rarity's pale coat turned a bit green, but a lady does not vomit. Still, she walked out the door quicker than strictly necessary. Rarity closed the door behind her and set off to search for anything that might help against the beast. Applejack charged through the halls of the manse more or less at random. She stopped at closed doors to shoulder through them and quickly check their contents, but nothing useful had presented itself. Consarn it! Ah can't find anythin' in this place! Through her twists and turns, Applejack found herself back at the main causeway near the entrance where all of the colored lines in the floor met to form a veritable rainbow pattern. Okay, Applejack, just think back an' remember what lines you saw earlier. The pink an' blue stripey one stopped at some kinda church. Or workshop. Or somethin'. The black one stopped at an empty kitchen-like place attached to a greenhouse. The brown one stopped at a gym or somethin'. Now Ah just gotta pick a color Ah ain't seen the end of yet, and Ah'll find someplace new. Applejack scanned the colors beneath her feet. Aw, there's so many left! This place is too darn big. Ah guess Ah'll start with the orange one. Orange always did me proper b'fore. She galloped off once again, this time with a definite direction instead of taking random turns. The other colored lines began to branch off, leading to other important rooms throughout the manse. After some time, only the orange and brown lines were left. Applejack sighed. Ah guess orange was close to the gym. Ah came this far so Ah'm gonna finish, but Ah think Ah'll have to turn back and pick another color. Applejack finally arrived at the point where orange and brown diverged, and she turned into a side corridor. Within moments, a pair of heavy steel doors barred her way. The doors were unadorned and unpolished, clashing with every other part of the manse Applejack had seen so far. When she tried to open them, they proved to be locked. Ah didn't come to the end of the orange line to be turned back by a pair of stubborn ol' doors! Exhaustion had returned to Applejack once again, but she pivoted and threw out both Bucky McGillicutty and Kicks McGee as hard as she could. Her hooves connected with a satisfying and resounding clang, followed by a metallic crack. The doors slowly swung open on their hinges to reveal a utilitarian room stocked floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall with all manner of bladed weapons. The only area in the room that wasn't used to store bladed weapons contained devices meant for maintaining bladed weapons. ... That'll do, pony. Applejack grabbed a nearby sword in her mouth and turned around to find Twilight and the guardian beast. After dropping off Rainbow Dash, Rarity began her search to find something useful within the manse that might help against the guardian beast. She retraced her steps out of the residential wing, and heard the distinct sound of hooves on metal echoing through the halls. I dearly hope that's Applejack, and that she hasn't found some metal guardian somewhere... After trotting down a few more hallways, Rarity found herself back on the main concourse, considerably further down than the group had explored previously. In fact, all of the lines traced into the floor had already branched off, but the concourse continued to Rarity's right side. I wonder... The ceiling lowered as she traveled further, and the hallway narrowed. Eventually, the entire hallway was no larger than the door to the room Rarity had left Rainbow Dash in. The walls and floor transitioned from gleaming marble and polished wood to rough-hewn granite. The chandeliers which kept the entire rest of the manse so well-lit in the night had been replaced by dull red crystal sconces. The light was bright enough to read a book under, but not much else. The hallway abruptly ended in a downward spiraling staircase, extremely narrow and extremely dark. Rarity pried one of the glowing sconces off the wall and was surprised to discover that it was made of a single large crystal embedded in the stone. She held the light source in her telekinesis and began to descend the stairs. Even in the dim light, navigating the stairwell was difficult. The spiral was tight and the stairs were narrow; along the inner edge Rarity couldn't even fit her hoof on the stair. During her decent she did stumble a few times, but she managed to catch herself before the stumble became a back-breaking fall. At the base of the stairs, a short hallway ended with a dark gray curtain that blocked her path. Sewn into the fibers of the curtain was more of the foreign script nopony could read. I hope that doesn't say anything like "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here!" Rarity considered the script for a moment, but finally concluded she wouldn't get anywhere staring at it and willing it to spontaneously morph into equiish. Rarity pushed aside the curtain to reveal a circular stone room with a vaulted ceiling. In the center, a pedestal rose from the floor. No... the pedestal was part of the floor, rising up to form a natural surface. Hugging the pedestal halfway to the top was a deep magenta, rope-like object, though it was far too thick to actually be a rope. On top of the pedestal lay seven gems arranged in a heptagram, with grooves in the stone connecting the resting places of each gem. The gems were not uniformly shaped. Although each was clear as glass and the top half of each was a semicircle angled towards the center of the pedestal, the uniformity ended there. The two gems nearest to the entrance were the smallest, and difficult to analyze from Rarity's position. Both had a pair of squared off corners opposite the semicircle. The near right gem was marred by a dark circular imperfection, while the one of the left had a similar imperfection forming a ring. The lower half of the four gems in the center formed half of an octagon. These contained imperfections, too, though the imperfections were light rather than dark. The gem on the near right was another circle, while the far right was another ring. The near left imperfection was a ring surrounding a smaller circle. The far left gem contained several lines which all crossed each other at roughly the same point. The gem furthest from Rarity was shaped almost like a dewdrop, and contained no imperfections that she could see. Rarity began to approach the pedestal to investigate the gems further, but the 'rope' began to move as she approached. It detached from the sides of the pedestal and floated into the air, revealing that it was in fact a creature shaped similarly to Spike's new body: long and sinuous, with a draconic head and a spined tail. Now that the creature was awake and in the air, two small legs dangled from its belly near the head. The dragon (for lack of a better name) began to glow, bathing the room in a comfortable, white light which made Rarity's crystal sconce obsolete. She placed the crystal on the floor, to save her dwindling energy. Rarity froze. The last time something in this place had apparently changed from an inanimate object into a creature, the ponies had been forced to fight for their lives and Rainbow had been seriously injured. This time, Rarity was alone and the only escape route was a flight of stairs that was nearly as lethal as the guardian beast in the library. The dragon cocked its head to the side. "There is a pony in my chamber." The flat voice somehow managed to echo in the small confines of the stone room. "Um, hello?" At least this creature could talk, and it seemed more curious than frightening, even if the voice was odd. The dragon cocked its head to the other side. "There is a talking pony in my chamber. Hello, pony." The day had been long, Rarity was tired, and she was just about ready to snap. All the same, she bit back the snark she desperately wanted to reply with. "Well, mister dragon, you seem awfully busy, and there's nothing in here for me," Rarity said as she stole a wistful glance as the gems underneath the glowing dragon. "I suppose I'll just be going now and I'll leave you to your hoard." She tried to laugh, but it fell flat in her throat. "Pony, you seem sentient. Tell me, pony, do you know if the master is here?" Rarity huffed. "My name is Rarity, thank you." Whatever or whoever this dragon was, it wasn't hostile like the guardian. "If by 'master' you mean the owner of this manse, then I think your master is Twilight. She's upstairs, being chased by some horrendous monster made of books." "One moment, pony Rarity. Scanning... Error: The Librarian has left the library. Automatic control systems for The Librarian temporarily nonfunctional. Please return The Librarian to the library so that control systems can be restored." Rarity could almost hear the dragon speak in capital letters whenever it said "The Librarian". She stared at the dragon, dumbfounded. "Do you mean to say all we had to do was talk to you and the librarian wouldn't be trying to kill my friends and me right now?" "The library has no acting librarian at this time. Did you mean The Librarian?" "Yes, the librarian that's chasing Twilight around upstairs as we speak!" "The library has no acting librarian at this time. Did you mean The Librarian?" "Yes! That monster of a librarian!" "The library has no acting librarian at this time. Did you mean The Librarian?" "For Celestia's sake, yes!" "The Librarian is a defense mechanism designed to protect the library in the event that the master reincarnates and no allies occupy The Spark at the time. As an additional countermeasure, The Spark will slip into Elsewhere and its locations will be masked by illusions. So long as The Spark remains unoccupied by the master's allies and the master remains in a reincarnation cycle, The Spark will negate one illusion for the hour preceding sunset and appear in Creation at one of its alternate locations." Rarity, bolder now, stalked up towards the dragon hovering over the pedestal. "Sir, you have still not answered my question. If the librarian is back in the library, could you or could you not stop its rampage?" "The library has no acting-" "UGH! I get it!" "-librarian at this time. Did you mean The Librarian?" Rarity took a deep breath to calm her frustrations. "Yes, that. If... it... were back in the library, could you stop it?" "I have full control over most of The Spark's systems. While The Librarian is within the confines of the library, I am able to commandeer The Librarian and control The Librarian's actions, or shut The Librarian down." "That's all I needed to know, dear." Rarity began to trot back to the stairs. "I'll go get the librarian back in the library, and then you can shut it down for us, ok?" "The library has no acting librarian-" Rarity didn't hear the rest of what the dragon had to say, as she had already grabbed the glowing red crystal and begun climbing the stairs again. The guardian beast had recovered far too quickly for Twilight's taste. Barely a minute after her friends were out of sight, it lumbered into view from within the library. Ever since then, Twilight had been leading the monster on a merry chase through the manse's halls. She had taken a few potshots at the thing, both throwing objects at it with her telekinesis and doubling back to ambush it from behind, but she didn't have the strength of Applejack or Rainbow Dash and she failed to inflict any noticeable damage. At least it can't cut corners any more. "Oowyiite!" Applejack had returned, carrying a rather large and unwieldy sword in her mouth. Twilight was loath to have her friend slice through potentially valuable books, but no other options had presented themselves. Twilight had managed to stay ahead of the beast so far, but even the extra endurance she seemed to have since her exaltation would not last forever. Applejack matched pace with Twilight ahead of the beast and looked to the unicorn for suggestions. "Applejack, can you get up on that balcony? I'll draw it around for another pass through this hallway, and you can leap down on top of it. The extra force from gravity should help." "Ot ouit!" Applejack nodded and broke away from the chase in progress. Her aimless wandering earlier helped, as she managed to recognize the area and quickly find a stairway up to the second level. Applejack reached the balcony and rested her forelegs on the rail, waiting for Twilight to lead the guardian beast past again. It wasn't long before she heard the clatter of Twilight's hooves on the marble floor. Applejack pulled herself up to balance on the wooden rail and craned her neck to spot her target. Twilight charged around the corner, the guardian hot on her tail. It always gained on her in the straightaways and lost ground around corners, but it wasn't enough to continue running indefinitely. Twilight could feel the displaced air as it swung a claw at her. The beast was getting too close. Hopefully Applejack's attack from above would slow the beast down enough so that Twilight could take a moment to catch her breath. "Ake iss!" Applejack cried as she leapt from the balcony. Her primal shout drowned out all other noise in her ears. Time seemed to slow down; from Applejack's point of view, the distance between herself and the beast seemed to close in an example of Orlov's Paradox – impossible, since Orlov's Paradox in the natural world had been disproven by Clover the Clever over a millennium ago (though certain hexes could mimic the effects of the paradox). These facts slipped by Applejack both because she had never heard of Orlov's Paradox and because only two things ratted through her mind at that moment: One: her own battle cry as she fell through the air (with style!) towards the construct that had hurt Rainbow Dash and would probably hurt more ponies if it wasn't dealt with. Everypony was tired after a full day's travel and a full night's fighting and running, and if Applejack couldn't do something now they would all be in trouble. Two: a voice echoing in her mind. "-but this world is broken. Fix it." "I'm not pulling your stupid cart!" "If you don't take your turn pulling, then you don't get to sleep in it, either!" "I'm not some pony!" "You will take your turn and you. Will. Like. It!" As Gilda and Trixie struggled to force one another into the harness used for pulling Trixie's trailer-cart, neither noticed the flash of light in the sky over the northern horizon. It was not until after Trixie had managed to use her magic to force Gilda into the harness that either of the two even looked up. "What in Tartarus is that?" Gilda cried as she pointed up to the fountain of light to the north. Without looking up, Trixie put on her showmare voice to reply, "Hah! It seems you are not as knowledgeable as you thought! The Great and Powerful Trixie knows all and sees all. That," Trixie turned to follow Gilda's pointing claw and deflated, "Trixie has no bucking clue what that is." "I think we should run." "Trixie agrees." Gilda slashed the straps attaching her to the trailer-cart and shook herself free. The pair began to run south at top speed with Trixie's trailer-cart all but forgotten. Gilda opened her wings and began pumping as hard as she could to escape the approaching cataclysm. As she began to pull ahead of her land-bound companion, Trixie called out, "Don't leave Trixie behind! You still owe Trixie!" With a sigh, Gilda banked into a tight spiral and grabbed Trixie between her claws. Gilda strained to lift herself and her passenger into the air and resumed her flight. "Why are you so heavy?!" "Are you calling Trixie fat?!" "I'm not calling you a trout!" "Trixie doesn't even know what that's supposed to mean!" "Rainbow Dash was never this heavy!" "Rainbow Dash is a pegasus!" Trixie turned back to gauge their progress. They had far outpaced whatever was happening on the ground, but there were strands of light falling towards them from higher in the sky. Gilda was losing ground. (Losing air?) "It's gaining on us! Trixie is too pretty to die!" "And what am I, chopped salmon?" "Fly faster!" "Lose some weight!" "Trixie is already skinny and beautiful!" "Buck this noise!" Gilda released her passenger in an attempt to gain speed and outpace the light. Her selfishness was short lived, as the light surrounded both of them immediately after she dropped Trixie. The mare's screams were masked by the sustained sound of an explosion. Gilda couldn't properly move her wings, and felt the familiar sensation of falling. Rather than a fall through the air, though, the sensation was closer to sinking in water – slow and not immediately lethal. When Gilda opened her eyes, she was laying on what felt like a soft (and extremely lumpy) pillow. Oh, dreamland, how you taunt me so. Now c'mere and give me a second round! At that moment, Gilda was violently launched into the air by a swirling maelstrom surrounding a powder-blue unicorn who could – apparently – be extremely soft (and lumpy). Gilda reoriented herself in the air with pure muscle memory to see Trixie floating a span above the ground for a few moments surrounded by a miniature tornado of winds. "Oh, yes. The Great and Powerful Trixie has become EVEN GREATER!"