Twilight hummed to herself as she scanned over her shelves. Each one was filled with various objects both old and new. She was taking the time that morning to catalog all the new and interesting objects that she had to study.
Stopping as she reached the kitsune skull, the princess lifted it with her magic and stared at it intently. She had the odd feeling that it was still looking back at her.
“If only you could tell me your history,” Twilight hummed and went to replace the skull but found a book lying in its place. Lifting the book she replaced the skull and quirked an eyebrow. She was certain the book hadn’t been there before. Walking over to her desk she set it down and sat in her chair.
The book was the size and shape of a loose cover journal, covered with what she assumed was leather. She knew some creatures used the skins and hides of animals they killed as book covers. A shiver went through her body but ran her hoof over it anyway. The leather was cracked yet smooth and had a pleasant odor coming from it. On the cover was the silhouette of a Kitsune and some kind of serpentine creature above it. A shape she quickly recognized as an Eastern Dragon.
After untying the book she flipped it open and found the first page littered with nothing but lines pressed close together. Flipping through the rest of the forty pages she found the same thing. “Now why would anyone just place lines down each page with no writing?” Looking closer her eyes sparkled a bit and quickly brought out a magnifying glass.
Looking closer, Twilight found that these were not lines, but very tiny script symbols. Leaning back, the princess closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge between them. She knew she had seen that style of script before.
“Kanji!” She shouted out and breathed a little heavier, her excitement growing. “The lost written language of the Kitsune. This book belongs too…” A sudden knocking at the door brought her to her senses.
“I’m sorry, princess.” Flash Sentry smiled as he entered the throne room. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”
Smiling, Twilight shook her head. “Of course not Flash, please come in. And I told you, you're welcome to call me Twilight.”
“Maybe when I'm off duty.” Flash chuckled as he walked up to her desk. “I brought you something. I thought you looked a little down lately,” and swung a wing around and brought out a bouquet of amber-colored orchids. He watched Twilight smirk and giggle, shaking her head which made him almost trip backwards.
“Flash, they're beautiful. You didn’t have to. You know I’m not upset about us parting ways,” Twilight said, taking the bouquet and inhaling. Each flower was filled with the heavy scent of petrichor. “They smell beautiful. Thank you.” Leaning in Twilight kissed Flash’s cheek. “And I have been a little down. My old student just broke up with her longtime girlfriend. So I’m a little worried for her.”
“Maybe she might like a flower or two herself,” Flash grinned.
“Maybe. Where did you get these? I’ve never seen orchids like this before.” Twilight stared at the flowers and could have sworn she saw the flowers shimmer in the light.
“Just on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest.” Backing up Flash heard coughing from behind. Looking over his shoulders he saw the other guards. “I’ll show you sometime, I have to get back to my duties. Take care Prin… Twilight.” Bowing, Flash showed himself out.
Twilight just shook her head. Flash was still just as silly as he was the day she met him.
“He seems nice,” an unseen voice said beside Twilight, who only nodded.
“He is, and very romantic,” Twilight replied as she turned and moved back to her desk and placing the flowers in a vase. “But he and I have different responsibilities. Different Ideas.”
“Is that why you two aren’t together anymore?” Twilight heard the voice move closer up from behind and move up onto her desk.
“Partly, but mostly we just drifted apart. That happens sometimes.” Moving to her seat Twilight turned her attention to the journal again. “But he’s not what’s on my mind. I’m trying to figure out this journal.”
“Well, you’ll figure it out. You always do. You're the smartest princess there ever was.”
“Thanks,” Twilight muttered as she flipped through each page carefully.
Lifting her head up Twilight blinked. She felt as if a cold stream of water was running down her spine. Looking around she found the room was completely empty. The door was closed, since Flash had left and she hadn’t heard anypony enter or leave. So who had she been talking to?
Shaking her head she brushed it off as a figment of her imagination when she felt something warm against her leg. Turning to the side, what she found made her feathers stand on end. Curled up in a small ball was a young fox, barely out of his teenage years. Nine tails slowly curled about him like a blanket. But what shocked her the most was that the markings on his body were the same as the skull on the shelves.
Opening her mouth to scream, she felt the kitsune roll over onto his back. And lightly kicked one of his hind legs playfully. Reaching down she lightly touched his warm body.
“What was I so scared of? So silly to be frightened of my precious little apprentice,” Twilight muttered. An amber light flickered in her eyes as well as those in the skull. “Rest well little one. We’ll continue your lesson’s tomorrow,” Twilight purred out caressing his soft fur with a hoof.
Flash Sentry waved at the castle guards as he flew away to get home. As he reached the cloud level, he dropped all pretense and regained his original form.
Discord laid out on a pink cotton candy cloud and stretched. “Well. it’s all up to you now kid.”
That kid could be convincing when he wanted to be. And no matter how much she hated him, Discord did want this to work for Twilight. It wouldn’t put him back in her good graces if she found out how much he helped. But it was the least he could do.
Pearl groaned as she awoke. “I really need to lay off the sweets before bed,” she grumbled. “I’m dreaming weird stuff.”
It was true. A haunted graveyard on Nightmare Night, a fight with something that came straight from a nightmare in a living hellscape, and the persistent itch that someone was there that she couldn’t see in all of them.
Shaking her head, Pearl tossed aside the covers. “If this is Luna’s idea of an early Nightmare Night joke, I’m not laughing,” she grumbled as she turned to get out of bed.
And stopped dead in her tracks at what she saw around her room. “What?!”
Scattered around her room were her Gunpla collection. Someone had taken them out of their display cabinets without her hearing any of it. Looking closely at them, she could also see that someone had repositioned them into different action poses, none of which she had left them in.
But what really boiled her blood, was that the soon-to-be-dead twerp had managed to lose the Mace for her Master Grade Barbatos. It wasn’t even stored on the backpack alongside the Katana and the 300mm Smoothbore Gun.
Pearl growled. “Oh, that tears it now. Nobody touches these but me or Twilight. They’re not even meant to be taken out of their cabinets unless she does it! How did I not hear this?!”
“Awwww but they’re such fun,” a soft voice came from the corner of her room.
Pearl spun around and blinked in the direction of a potted plant. Looking about she could have sworn something was there. After all, voices don’t just come from nowhere. Looking down at the base of the plant she found her Strike Freedom Gundam was poised in an attack position along with her Infinite Justice.
“Who's there? You must have a death wish to touch my stuff like this.” Slipping from her bed, Pearl kept her sharp eyes for any sign of movement. “These aren't toys, they are model kits.”
“You sure? They seem like toys to me,” the voice said, once again behind her. Spinning around on her hooves she glanced at an empty wall.
“Fast one, aren’t ya?” She grumbled looking at all four corners, her eyes also scanning the ceiling. “Well, you can’t hide forever, whoever you are. And once I find you I'm going to tear you apart. Piece by piece.”
“Who’s hiding? I’m right here.” A cold shiver ran down her spine as the voice was right up next to her. Turning around, Pearl looked at the window at her reflection.
There in the mirror was the same feeling as she had from her nightmare. Reflected in the glass was a set of bright, glittering, amber eyes. Eyes that were next to her head with no visible body. Out of reflex she swung her front leg hard to the side and let out an ear-piercing scream.
Slipping on the missing hammer from her model, Pearl looked about as she fell flat on her back. For a brief moment, she felt what might have been a set of tails cushioning her fall. Along with preventing her from falling atop her Gunpla.
This was too much too fast for the young mare. Getting up, Pearl threw open her window and shot off into the night sky toward Twilight’s castle.
Twilight looked up in surprise as someone pounded like crazy on the doors to her Personal Chambers. Who could be up this late?
“Couldn’t this have waited till morning?” She grumbled as she sat aside her latest read and opened the doors with her magic.
Only to be bowled over as something fast came rushing in a blur of white and red. One that the princess recognized.
“Pearl? What is it? You know I’m always happy to see you. But couldn’t you have waited till morning?” Twilight groaned as she got up from the floor.
Pearl shook her head. “Can I stay here tonight? I don’t want to go back home. I think it’s haunted.”
Twilight rolled her eyes a little. “You know there’s no such thing as ghosts, right? Maybe you had a bad dream?”
The Pegasus nodded. “I did have a nightmare. But that’s not all.”
Twilight shook her head. “Pearl. You know I cannot help you in the Dream Realm. Luna can’t pass that power to anypony else.”
Pearl nodded. “I know. And if it was just that, I’d just ask her. But that wasn’t the only thing. Someone broke in and was playing with my Gunpla. They were scattered all over my room. I tripped on Barbatos’ Mace because someone was playing with it, and moved every model into a different pose.”
Twilight frowned. She knew how much Pearl hated anyone touching her models. It was a pain when you didn’t have fingers or magic, which was why no one but her was allowed to mess with them. And Twilight only took them out of their display cabinets when she needed to renew the magic that allowed them to exist on clouds without fear of them falling through.
Pearl tried to calm down. “Someone else was in my room with me. They talked to me. But there was no one there. When it was right in my ear, I looked out my window. And there was a pair of amber eyes standing right next to me. With no body attached.”
Twilight thought about that for a moment. It sounded like something that Discord might do. But he would usually make it clear that it was him, not hide like that. Lifting a hoof to her temple she rubbed it slowly while letting out a deep sigh.
“Okay Pearl, you can stay here tonight. Tomorrow we’ll head to your house and sort out your ghost problem. Does that sound okay?” Twilight smiled at her student. Pearl always had a sound head on her shoulders but even a nightmare can shake up the sturdiest of ponies. Best to just give in at the moment.
“Yes thank you Twilight.” Pearl breathed out a sigh of relief. She watched as Twilight moved back to the doors.
“Forestsong! Will you come here please!” Twilight yelled down the hallway, knowing her apprentice would have been awakened by the noise.
Pearl blinked and tilted her head at Twilight who moved aside as if welcoming somepony into the room. But there was nothing there.
“Thank you, I’m sorry if we woke you up. But will you please show Pearl to the guest room? She’ll be staying the night.” Turning back to Pearl, Twilight smiled. “If you need anything, just ring for Forestsong here, he’ll help you out.”
Pearl looked between Twilight and the empty space before the two of them. “Um, Twilight? There’s nobody there. Who are you talking to?”
Twilight seemed hurt at that. “What do you mean? Forestsong has been here the whole time. He’s been my apprentice for years.”
Pearl’s nose scrunched. “Um. No. There was Starlight, then me, and now Luster. Neither of them has said anything about anyone else, and there’s no way one of us wouldn’t know if you had another.”
Now Twilight was mad. “Pearl Rose. I am very disappointed in you. Apologize to Forestsong right now, young lady.”
Pearl threw up her hooves in annoyance. “For what?! And apologize to who? There’s nobody there! We're the only ones here.”
“I’m always here Pearl. You know that,” the bodiless voice whispered in her ear.
Twilight took a step toward Pearl only to feel the soft touch of a paw on her front leg. Pearl watched Twilight turn and look down.
“You're right,” Looking up, Twilight faced her student. “I’m sorry Pearl. You’ve had a rough night and you're probably just not seeing things clearly. Just follow him to the guest room. We’ll talk more in the morning.”
Pearl could have been mistaken, but she saw a flicker of amber in Twilight’s eyes for a split second. But she was too annoyed to ask about it. “Fine. Lead on then, invisible whatever.”
Pearl walked out of Twilight’s room as the door closed behind her. Taking a few steps forward she heard the soft steps of something with paws. Stopping dead she watched as a door slowly opened by itself.
“I’ll see you again in the morning,” was the last thing she heard before the hallway became as quiet as a graveyard.
Deciding enough was enough for the night, Pearl threw herself under the covers as quickly as she could, not really caring if anyone saw her.