//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: The Twilight After Dark 
// Story: My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - The Soul Complex 
// by Nasic the Amazon 
//------------------------------//

“Ok, so from what I saw Sunset was happy because Snips and Snails recorded videos of Twilight in the library. She said that Twilight would fail, which confirms she has already arrived here through the portal. This also means I have a two-day time limit without counting this one… crap… she might think I'm crazy if I told her everything… but then again she is a magical pony from another dimension” Austin thinks while passing in front of the portal statue which leads towards Equestria. 

He holds his chin for a little bit, curious to what effect his hand might have if he passed through it. 

“Must be Jake’s scientific mind kicking in” he thought while slowly walking towards it. He lifted his hand and slowly pushed it towards what seemed to be stone. But before actually touching it, a light reached for him from his back. 

“Hey! What are you doing?!” a security guard asked while walking down the front steps towards him. 

“Oh, sorry sir. I was just captivated by this wonderful statue. Didn't mean to scare” Austin said while turning to look at the tall bearded man. 

“Oh, sorry, I thought you were someone else. You shouldn't be out so late, I heard there have been sightings of a dangerous man who is scaring the town folk” the man responded in a more calm manner.

“Yeah, a police officer told me this some time ago. Did it start recently?” he asks while looking at the open main glass door the guard came from. 

“Yeah, only started happening about a week ago. So you better get home soon kid, don't wanna see anyone be kidnapped on my watch” the man says with a smile that could be seen through his mustache. 

“Oh, of course. I'll get going now” he said just before looking towards the side of the school “Wait! DID YOU SEE THAT?” 

The security guard got alarmed by Austin’s sudden reaction. 

“No, what happened?” he asked while turning towards the way he was pointing.

“I saw something move that way! I think it was a man!” Austin said. 

The guard picked up his radio and spoke softly towards it. 

“Code nine, side east of the school grounds, head towards the cafeteria and back entrance, copy,” he said.

After that, he started moving towards where Austin was pointing.

“Go home kid, run before it gets ugly,” the man said in a surprisingly manly voice. 

“Got it!” he responded while slowly walking towards the front entrance and entering CHS through the open glass door.

It was really dark inside, nothing but the light coming through the barely visible windows of the hallways and the classrooms.

The entrance lobby was just as the movies depicted, square-like in shape, trophies behind glass to the right, and even the stairs which lead to the second floor were accurate.

“I can't believe it,” Austin thinks while swiftly turning around and around trying to look at every single detail “This really is… REAL…” 

He moves to the trophies to his right. 

“These were the same ones Twilight saw when she first entered the school,” he thinks while making a smile and seeing a donut-shaped trophy “Yeah, these are definitely from Equestria”

While he was looking something caught him by surprise. In the center of all the trophies, there was a small shard of a black diamond. For some instances it shined, but stopped afterward. He doesn't remember that black shard being there in the movies. He looks at it for a few seconds trying to analyze it until a loud sound is heard behind some glass doors which lead closer to the center of the school. 

As fast and quietly as he could, Austin walked to the stairs and went to the second floor of the building. Just as he managed to get out of sight a few security guards opened the doors and looked around. 

“No one in the entrance, main doors are closed,” one of them said.

“You really gotta get that memory looked into old man, one day someone might actually get in…” the other one joined in as the radio started to receive a message.

“It's better if we keep this level of security tight. Let's do one more search before we move out. I'll do one outside, you search every room inside, copy?” 

“Copy” both guards said with a yawn.

Austin moves a little bit back as the two men start to search the first-floor room by room. 

“Crap! If they really search every room that includes the library! And that means…” he thinks just as he starts to move in a tiptoe fashion through the halls. 

As he moved from left to right trying to find a way that led to the library, the darkness in the halls made it look like a horror movie. Sounds of wind could be heard through the classroom doors and the footsteps of the guards started to creep up behind his ear.

“I know where it is, I just don't know where to go…” he whispers in frustration just as his head hits a wall in front.

It took a while but Austin finally managed to reach the main entrance of the school library. 
He looks back and forth through the hallway to see if anyone was watching. As he sees the coast clear, he takes a look through the windows. It's dark, but not enough to blind a person. The moonlight shine reflected on the floor makes visibility far easier than on the hallways. 

“Thank god the Library has a windowed ceiling,” he says while slowly opening the door and shifting inside.

Inside the room, he looks at it for a little bit. Everything seems to be normal. It seemed the teachers left the school premises at this time in the afternoon. 
He looks at the stairs which lead to the second floor of the library. In his mind he knew Twilight would be there sleeping in a pile of books with Spike, he just didn't know what to do.

“Should I tell her the truth? No… she already has enough on her plate and in the movie she barely was able to get back to her world with the Sunset situation… But what if what I told her changed that? Maybe she will change early and that will give her time to figure this out…” he thinks while still looking at the second-floor stairs. 

Austin changes his view to the moon which could be viewed by the windows in the ceiling. 

“That's a valid consideration, but what if she hasn't? I gotta be extra careful, especially with the stunt I did before…” he tells himself while also swiftly punching his own face “You really put me in a hard place didn't you Austin…”

With a determined look, he switched his gaze towards his hands. 

“I gotta make this right… with what I did, maybe I changed the timeline enough to put them in danger… And they don't deserve that… but maybe I can change it so that things go right!”

He puts one foot forward, then another, and so on. He slowly goes up the stairs and hides behind some bookshelves. 

He looks around for a bit until he spots something, a little light.

“A reflected light…” he thinks while standing in front of the gap between two large bookshelves “She’s here”. 

Twilight Sparkle was a pony princess from another dimension but she, just as everyone else, needed time to rest, to sleep. But instead of dreaming, she was remembering her friends and her old world. Since coming to this one she felt alone as if no one could understand what she was going through… and it piled up enough to stress her out. Maybe Spike was there, but other than that the weight of the world was on her.
She remembered everything from that day. The way she had to leave her world behind, when she first met Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinky, when she confronted Sunset for the first time, but most importantly the information she gained from a yearbook. Her friends were not the same and that's what freaked her out the most. For one instance she thought that things would not turn out alright… but why was this? She was supposed to be the princess of friendship and for her to not find the answer to her problem was just annoying. 

She needed to gain the trust of everyone in the school so that they vote for her in the Fall Formal even to gain her crown back, but doing it alone would be really difficult. She needs the help of her friends...

“So let's start from the start,” She thought “Why would my friends be annoyed with each other? And how can I fix it?”

In the middle of her sleeping thoughts, she hears a sound. It wasn't just any normal one, it was one of a book falling. She didn't mind, but then it sounded again… and again… and again.

Twilight slowly opened her eyes as a yawn was made. She looked beside her to find Spike sleeping, but something was wrong.
She immediately hears a small noise coming from the front of the book bed. A shadow could be seen, a person, no, a boy was sitting in a small chair and he was… reading a book?

The boy slowly moved his gaze towards hers and they met eye to eye. He smiled softly and prepared to say something.

“Well, hello there-” he tried to say before being cut off by Twilight’s panicked face.

“AHHH!” she screamed just as Spike woke up from his sleeping dream.

“Wha- what happened Twilight?” he asked with his eyes full of sleepiness. 

The boy got up from the chair with surprise as he saw Twilight jump out of her bed and hug Spike. Her face showed a little bit of shock.

“Wait a second!” the boy said “I'm not going to hurt you!” 

Twilight stayed back. She didn't know who he was or why he was watching them sleep, but it creeped her out. 

“I wasn't doing anything bad, I was just looking for a book and found you two here!”

The boy made a relaxed gesture to Twilight as he tried to calm her down. Slowly Twilight began to calm down, but her guard was still up. 

“W-who are you?” she asked with a scared voice.

It was noticeable that she was scared, and the boy caught up with it. 

“My name is Austin, I'm here to read a book” he responded with a smile.

He knew Twilight was new to this world and its culture, which means that this little lie might actually pay off. 

“Oh. A book… at this time of day? You do know that not sleeping makes your brain capacity less productive right?” she says with a calmer voice.

“Oh yeah, I am familiarized with that concept. But… I never let it stop me” he says with a smile.

He needs to gain her trust, so using this type of language and terminologies might make it so that they have an easier time connecting. If Austin knows anything about Twilight is that she loves her science. 

“But… why did you sit right in front of our-” she was saying before looking at the “bed” she and Spike were occupying.

“-Bed?” she finished with a large forced smile.

“Oh, Ahm… well, you were sleeping in the social study and school-related section, and well... Science books were right around the corner. But when I went to get them I saw you and I asked myself “Why would a girl sleep in a school library at night?” I told myself that maybe it was a fetish or something” 

“A fetish?!” she asked with a worried face “What is that?”

Austin raised an eyebrow at that question. It seemed like her terminology was a little limited in this type of conversation.

“It's something you do that you like to do. But I wouldn't worry about that, I'm more worried about the fact that the dog in your arms talked, dog vocal cords aren't supposed to allow this type of thing” he said while hiding the dog anatomy book behind his leg.

He wanted to deflect the conversation so that she did not question the situation even more. Lucky he knew how to press her buttons. Pressuring her just a tiny bit will make her not ask so many questions.

“Oh!... that… hmmm…” she tried saying while looking from left to right.

Spike looked at her with a face of worry just as Austin noticed.

“I know he didn't speak, don't be so alarmed,” he said with a smile “As you said before, my brain is not functioning at its 100%, so I know I just imagined things” 

With a face of relief, both she and Spike exhaled the air that was stuck in their longs in that brief moment. 

“But why are YOU here tonight?” he asked while sitting in the small chair again. 

“Oh! Me? well…. I was, hmmm…” she tried to answer the question but couldn't come up with an answer.

“I get it, sometimes you just need time to breathe and relax in a dark library,” Austin said with a chuckle. 

“To be honest, I came here to do some research, I had to find an answer to one of my problems” she finally responded “You see, I wanna be the Princess of the Fall Formal and I need to find a way to connect with students from the school. I think that with the help of my friends I could do it...”

“Did you find the answer?” he asked while leaning back and bringing a book to his face, trying to make it seem as if he was reading.

“I- I think so, but I'm not sure how to approach the solution and well… I…” she couldn't finish that sentence. 

Both Austin and Spike looked at her.

“I- I'm just a little confused” 

Austin analyzed her face just as she tried to avoid eye contact with him. He understood that she was scared. The way she was acting and moving, she was putting a front, maybe so that Spike didn't panic. 

He knew that it was because of chance or plot armor that made her find her friends which in turn helped her gain the trust of everyone in the school. But she doesn't know that here, she doesn't know that luck was on her side.

“It's alright to be confused” he finally said while looking at the book he was supposedly reading “When scientists do experiments they are also confused. They question everything to find an answer, in your case being a solution...” 

He took a little glimpse over towards her and saw that she was putting full attention to his words.

“It's okay to be afraid of the unknown, but last time I checked things were always easier to do with the help of others” 

Twilight thought about this for a few moments and realized the truth of his words.

“You're right,” she said while sitting in the book bed again “The magic of friendship shines no matter the cost, we just gotta make them realize that…”

After saying this she turned to look at Austin with a face of embarrassment. She didn't wanna involve a stranger with her problems.

“Did you have a fight with a friend or something?” he asked while still looking at the book.

“Mhmm, something like that. The thing is… “my friends” got into a fight and I don't know how to fix it…” she says while looking and petting Spike.

“Did you try to see what originated the problem?” 

“I did, and I think it was because of one person…”

“Sunset Shimmer?”

Twilight turned towards him with surprise as Austin returned the stare for a few seconds.

“She is known to be a troublemaker. I wouldn't be surprised if it were her”

“R-right… but knowing that I still don't know how to fix this… they could help me with my problem, but...”

Austin turned to look at her and noticed she was still worried.

“Lucky for you I'm an expert in these situations. I know EXACTLY what to do” he said with a wink.

Twilight stayed silent for a few seconds. 

“I would really appreciate that,” she says with a smile.

“No worries, what are FRIENDS for” he responds while looking back at the book.

Knowing that she might have someone who could help her really made Twilight relax a little more. She was feeling so alone and for someone to come help her save the world really made it a little less worrisome.

Spike slowly moved towards her and tapped her legs trying to get her attention. Twilight looked at him with confusion. He signaled her to follow him but before anything could be done a sound emanated from the first floor of the library. 

The sound of a door opening. Flashlight lights could be seen by the three of them on the first floor. 

“I'm in the library, it appears nothing is out of the ordinary. Yes, yes.. I'll also check the second floor, you don't have to tell me twice...” 

Austin looked at the stairs in a panic. 

“Crap! I completely forgot about them…” he tells himself as he turns to look towards Twilight.

She was grabbing Spike and it was evident that she didn't know what was happening. If they are found by the guards the timeline could be completely ruined. 

He moves towards them and covers the book bed with the diet bedsheets. 

“Ok, I need you to follow my lead. Don't make any sound and do as I do” Austin says while grabbing the small chair he was sitting on.

“What is going on?” she asks with a worried face.

“We aren't really supposed to be sleeping in the school library,” he says while gently grabbing her arm and pushing her towards him.

“Oh…” she says with an expression of disbelief.

They both go to the end of the bookshelf hallway and hide behind the bookshelves themselves. 

The guard finishes going up the stairs and starts to look around. 

“Great… first they increase the amount of taxes to be paid when buying chips and now I gotta search for a person that might actually be my boss’s imaginary criminal…” the guard exclaims in whispers with frustration. 

Slowly the guard makes his way between the bookshelf corridors, getting closer and closer to Austin and Twilight. The tension was rising and the air became thicker and thicker as the steps were heard closer to them.

Austin began to think of a solution to the current problem as his eyes glow with a brilliant plan. He remembers something, something from long ago that they taught him in the early years of high school.

Twilight was looking around to see if everything was okay until suddenly Austin turns towards her and begins to tell her his plan.

“Ok, here’s what we’re gonna do: We’re gonna use an old ninja technique made in 1843 Japan, it consists of simulating a person’s movement so that if followed at the same pace between an object it will make it so that the enemy never sees us” he whispers as fast as possible.

“The what of the where?” she asks with a confused face.

“Don't worry, just follow me” he responds with a confident smile.

It wasn't much but it did make her calm down.

Just as the guard was in the bookshelf corridor beside them, they started their move. Austin was leading while Twilight and Spike were following.

The guard was turning a corner which would make him see them, but in a swift and calculated move, the three of them walked at the same speed as the guard which in turn made them switch corridors. The Guard was now in the corridor where Austin, Twilight, and Spike were just a moment ago while the three of them were now in the corridor the guard just left. 

“That's weird… was there always a mass of books ordered on the ground like this?” the guard asked while looking at the made-up bed.

Austin turns to look at Twilight while she responds with another forced smile.

“Hmmm, maybe those 3 kids were filming another shortly before the school closed… oh well, not my problem,” the man said before continuing with his search. 

A few minutes pass as he returns to the first floor of the library. 

“The library is completely secure. Gonna lock the doors” the guard said as he closed the main doors behind him and locked them. 

“Copy that, continue with the search” his radio responded as he walked through the hallways towards the next classroom.

Twilight and Spike couldn't help but exhale with relief. But Austin didn't… this was something that bothered him.

“When I first knew I was in another body I was able to show much more emotion than my normal self… but now… I can feel it… I feel as if I'm turning back to my old self…” he thinks while quickly looking at his reflection on his phone “At least mentally wise… but why is this happening?”

After asking himself this, he turns towards Twilight and Spike. 

“That was a close one… Thank you very much” Twilight says with a smile.

That smile was so sincere that he couldn't stop being jealous of it. But that didn't matter. What mattered to him is that he was able to fix the timeline just a tiny bit. This made him feel better and more secure about the decision hes making. 

“It's no problem. Now let's go help your friends” he says with a manly tone but soon realizes it's still the middle of the night.

“Or… maybe tomorrow” he corrects himself with a chuckle as both Twilight and Spike shake their heads with a smile.