Boisterous knocking sounded upon the door’s of Princess Twilight’s lavish chamber. The lavender pony stirred under the bed’s purple sheets, head hiding under them as she tried to subconsciously block the noise.
“Twilight?! Twilight?” Applejack shouted from the other side of the door. “Are ya in there?”
Twilight groan was muffled underneath the bed sheets, the purple pony slipping her head out from under them, looking over at the double doors to her room with a mixture of annoyance and confusion. She glanced over at the glass balcony doors, moonlight beaming into her room through them.
A sparkle ignited, the blankets lighting with her aura as they were tossed aside, the mare climbing out of the comfy bed and clopping over to the doors. With a deep sigh, she twisted the door knob with a hoof and opened the doors to be greeted by her saddlebag-equipped, farm living friend.
“Good mornin’, Twilight.” Applejack greeted, an aura of urgency surrounding her.
Twilight gave a disgruntled look, glancing outside the opaque balcony doors once more before back at her. “It’s four in the morning, Applejack!” she whisper-shouted.
She nodded. “Yep, in the mornin’.”
Twilight’s agitated look grew. “Please tell me it’s something important.”
“It is, I promise.” Applejack swore, digging a hoof into her saddlebag.
The book-worm blinked sleepiness away as she watched her friend bring out a vial of burning red liquid, glowing in the dark brightly. “A… Glow stick?” she mistook in her sleep-deprived condition.
The stetson adorning mare shook her head. “No, Twi. It’s a vial! Of red… Whatever it is.”
The allure of mystery drug the alicorn out of her stupored condition. “And, what makes this… Important?” she took the vial out of the hoof of Applejack, giving it a studious look.
Applejack sighed. “That’s the thing, I’m not all too sure actually.” she replied, giving a similar look to the vial.
A yellow strike of electricity struck through the glowing substance, sizzling as it dissipated into the dark crimson of the liquid.
“It looks like some type of… magma?” Twilight commented, holding it up to herself with a hoof before engulfing it in aura to be levitated with her. “What’s wrong with it?”
Applejack began explaining. “Yesterday was Apple Buckin’ Day, right? Things we’re goin’ good but, Applebloom came home with this weird stuff she called apple-lava.” she began. Her friend started deeper into her bedroom as she began inspecting it further, floating it around with a thoughtful look.
“I haven’t seen something like this before… but I’m not sure that it would hurt anypony.” she stated.
“That’s not it though.” Applejack began. “Like, the rest of the Apple Family loved it. Like, they literally can’t get enough of the stuff! But to me it smells like… death!” she came up with the comparison.
Twilight popped the cork off with her magic, lowering it below her muzzle to give the substance a whiff. She immediately retched from the scent. “How in Celestia’s name could anyone drink that?” the mare gave it a disgusted look.
“That’s what I’ve been sayin’!” she adjusted her hat slightly.
The lavender pony nodded, turning back to her friend. “I’ll have it checked out today. Just give me some rest.” she said. It didn’t seem too important, however tomorrow the Princess of Friendship had approximately nothing on her to-do-list. Busying herself with simple research couldn’t be too stressful. Plus, she was helping a friend!
Applejack nodded. “Alrighty! Thanks, Twi.”
With a yawn, the Princess nodded. “Anytime.” Twilight turned, starting back into her bedroom, closing the vial and the double doors behind her.
Applejack felt a momentary release of stress as Twilight returned to bed, her friend turning and starting off for home. She had a long day of apple cider making tomorrow.
~
Twilight clopped her way down the flight of stairs, vial in aura. She made her way through the castle’s halls, making her way to the library slowly. She had finally woken up since Applejack interrupted her rest.
The mare dug through her memory for the location of the library, trying to decipher which double door led into it. She held the vial distant from herself, the scent growing past the bottle now that it had been opened recently.
She made her way to one, placing a hoof on it and pushing it open. Inside was the kitchen, Twilight giving an annoyed look. “I really need to make signs for these rooms.” she let the door swing closed as she continued searching, finally stopping at a familiar pair of double doors. A sense of muscle memory came back, her turning to see her path.
“Yup, library.” she opened one of the doors with a hoof as she made her way into the highly equipped book collection. Her intent was to search through her shelves for any talk about a warm, drinkable, lava-ey substance. Perhaps she could correlate the two liquids and chalk it up to acquired taste.
She levitated the vial onto one of the standard, wooden tables. The bottle landed softly, Twilight looking across the shelves thoughtfully. “Where to start?.. where to start?..” The princess moved a hoof to her chin.
Guide to Basic Magic? No. Raising a Young Dragon and Other Tips? Nope. Beginner’s Guide to the Chemicals of Equestria? Maybe? Her purple eyes stopped upon a segment of the shelves, spotting a book that could actually work. Exotic Magical Substances and other Objects of Equestria. Yes, please!
Twilight engulfed the book in her magical aura, floating it down to the table the vial was on. She placed it beside the substance, going over and sitting in front of the table as she opened the large book.
The unicorn gazed through the book’s catalog, searching for ‘Liquids.’ Page 177. she began flipping through the pages, continuing the hunt once she found the page. Disappointment filled her with every page of useless information that she skimmed and flipped past.
The doors of the library swung open, a tired Spike yawning as he walked in. He lifted his tiny arms into a stretch, stopping his stroll to do so before continuing on. “Good morning Twilight.” he greeted with a small wave of his hand.
“Oh, hey Spike.” she spoke, turning a page thoughtfully.
“Whatcha reading?” the young dragon questioned.
Twilight Sparkle sighed. “This morning Applejack told me to check out whatever this stuff is.” she kept her eyes on the book. “Apparently everypony thinks it’s super good, but when I smelled it it smelled like-”
“So that’s what smells so good in here!” Spike happily stood onto the table, picking up the vial. He gave it a sharp sniff, reveling in it’s scent. “This is literally the best thing I’ve ever smelled!”
The mare gave her dragon pal a confused look. “It... doesn’t smell bad?” Twilight recalled Spike not having too mature of a palette.
Spike shook his head, smiling down at Twilight. “It’s fantastic!”
Twilight engulfed the glass in her magic, bringing it over to herself once more and removing the cork. She moved it under her muzzle, immediately moving her head away and coughing in disgust. “W-What does it smell like to you?” Her eyes watered from the scent of death.
The dragon formed a thoughtful look. “Hm… If I had to compare it to anything, it’d have to smell like Rarity’s perfume! Oh… How wonderful she smells.” he gave a lovestruck look.
Twilight gave an annoyed grimace to the dragon, popping the cork back into the vial and placing it on the table. The pony flipped a page over, continuing her search.
"Can I try it?" Spike asked as he picked the bottle back up again, removing the cork and putting the substance in front of him. As it crackled in front of the dragon, something about it just made him… stare at it. The kind of look he'd give when Rarity gave him a small peck on the cheek for thanks, or when he’d spot a large bucket of gems.
The pleasantly surprised look remained on his face for a while as Twilight leaned deeper towards the book. She stopped, seeing that her little brother figure was completely enamored by the liquid.
“Err, Spike?” she tilted her head at him.
The dragon continued staring, slowly moving the vial closer to himself.
“Spike!”
Spike jumped out of his stupor, looking about wildly before spotting Twilight once more. “Oh! Sorry, Twi. This stuff just smells so delicious.”
She gave him a suspicious look, slowly nodding. “All…right, just don’t try to drink it. We can’t be sure if it’s safe or not.” the princess warned.
The dragon rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on Twilight! How could something that smells this good be dangerous?”
“Didn’t I tell you not to drink mysterious glowing fluids? For all you know it could melt you from the inside out or something.” she rolled her lavender colored eyes.
He let out a disappointed sigh, putting the cork back into the vial and placing it on the table disappointingly. “Whatever you say, Twilight. Can I at least help you find out what it is though?”
She shrugged. “Sure.”
The dragon walked off, going to one of the bookshelves and searching through the collection for a book that could contain what the substance is about.
The two would search book after book of chemicals and other similar materials to the mysterious stuff. They read on and on throughout the noon, scrounging up just about nothing beside a pile of useless, totally unhelpful books on a nearby table. It was most definitely taking forever.
Twilight Sparkle slammed their most recent book shut, groaning loudly in annoyance. “Oh, Celestia!” she rubbed her temples. “What is this stuff?!” the princess questioned as she held up the vial. Spike was also growing impatient, the temptations of the ‘apple-lava’ growing on him.
“Maybe nopony’s discovered it before.” Spike suggested with a shrug.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “That would be impossible, Spike. If a filly like Applebloom could stumble across it, then I’m sure at least somepony else would have documented it by now.” she sighed, letting her head rest on the table. “What to do…”
Spike thought for a moment, before snapping his scaly fingers. “What about Zecora? She’s the one that would know about this kinda stuff.”
The pony nodded. “Perhaps.” she stood up, wrapping the vial in her magic, starting out of the room.
“Can I come?” Spike asked, following her sisterly figure. Although, the main reason he really wanted to follow was the substance.
Twilight shrugged. “Why not?” she looked down at her dragon friend. “Just, try not to drink any of the apple-lava.” the mare said as she moved her head forward, continuing down the halls of the castle.
Spike groaned. “Oh, come on Twi! I’ve been holding myself back from drinking that stuff for ages!” he reached a pair of baby hands towards the vial. “Can’t I get a sip?”
The princess lifted the glass higher. “No, Spike. Like I said, we can’t be sure if this is harmful or not.”
“Well, Applejack said that her family drank it. If they were hurt by it then she would’ve told us about it by now!” he explained his point, still reaching for the still too high vial.
Twilight glanced down at the dragon with an annoyed look, accidentally lowering the vial thanks to her averting of focus. “And? We need to be sure of what this stuff i-”
Spike jumped up just high enough, smacking the vial straight out of Twilight’s magical grasp, however failing to actually grip it. The vial flew through the air, crashing straight into one of the blank dark purple and gold lined banners, splattering it with red crackling juices.
Twilight Sparkle groaned. “Spike!” He looked down at the dragon in a scolding manner.
“What?”
“You broke the vial!” The alicorn scolded, her strawy tail lashing in annoyance.
“Oh.” Spike looked up at the stained banner. “That’s not my fault!” he argued.
“You literally knocked it out of my aura.” Twilight argued back, the sibling feud beginning.
“You were the one holding it up! If you let me have it then I would’ve just had a tiny sip.” Spike came back.
Twilight huffed. “You would have drunk all of the apple-lava!”
“We could get more.” Spike pointed out.
Twilight began “That's not the poi-”
Ssssssss
The banner that Spike had broken the vial on was sissling loudly throughout the hall, catching the two’s attention. Red glowed from it, a messy, wide horizontal line forming near the top, a long scar of another column cut through, reaching down the banner like a blade slicing through bone. The hilt of said line sizzled in at the bottom, both sides of the crossguard curving high up.
It was loosely comparable to that imagery, evoking that of a sword piercing bone. Four unfamiliar characters soon sizzled in around the center logo in a square formation, glowing just as brightly and angrily red.
It glared back at them forebodingly, the glowing maroon color of it giving a scary and aggressive feeling to the two. She had seen magic like this, but something about it was much more off-putting, similar to the apple-lava that now covered the banner.
“That's… ominous.” Spike commented on the symbol.
Twilight nodded in agreement, focusing on the characters surrounding it. It reminded her of old ponish, specifically in the shapes of the characters. Although, she couldn’t find any meaning in them. Perhaps she needed to brush up on the language. Alternatively it could also be a much older term, more anonymous to the current studies of it.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a deep rumble from the blank wall beside it. The purple walls began parting, opening to a dark unlit room. Twilight gave the new opening a confused look, stepping over to it. “What in Celestia's name?” Spike joined beside her.
“It looks like a hidden room.” the dragon stated the obvious.
Twilight nodded in response, eyes squinting to get a better look in the room. “That seems about right.” just after the sentence, empty wall-mounted torches on the sides of the room fwooshed alive, blue flames igniting within.
It was a long room, the walls made of a gray combination of stone bricks and metal. The pony looked on as the blue fires illuminated a large opened gate at the end of the hall, two metal statues of wolves guarding it valiantly.
“Woah! This place looks so cool!” He exclaimed, rushing in on his little legs.
Twilight followed with an uncertain look. “This room's architecture is… strange, it's like Canterlot but way less colorful.”
“Look at these! They look like aliens.” Spike commented, pointing at a statue on the side of the hall. It was a strange creature, supposedly bipedal with a ball floating between its hands, outstretched to the heavens. It was skinny yet towering, the beings face only containing a mouth with a smooth surface where it’s eyes should be.
“Eh, that is certainly cool, Spike.” Twilight stated, glancing back to the other side of the hall to see a similar statue of the being. Looking back, she could see more of those strange old ponish characters. Most were ineligible to her, but a couple stood out. ‘Energy’, ‘Peace’, ‘Spear’, ‘Holy’, ‘Light’ and finally ‘The world.’ The words around the being all read, not particularly in that order.
“Huh...” Twilight commented, keeping that off look as she followed Spike to the wolf-guarded gate.
Spike ran past the wolves standing guard, entering a circular room with more of the wolf statues at the walls, all staring at a pedestal with a bowl filled in ash. There was an unlit torch within.
“Strange.” Twilight commented, looking at the torch in the fireplace.
“Pretty awesome too!” Spike ran to the surrounding wolves, inspecting the statues curiously, booping one of their metallic snouts.
The alicorn gripped the torch in her magic, the handle lighting in her aura. She tilted her head to the side, drawing the torch closer. Wood and metal, a traditional ceremonial torch.
While she inspected it, she felt a certain energy be drawn into the object. A portion of her aura turned a glowing light blue, the energy advancing through hers into the torch head. A blue flame ignited in the flameholder. It was similar to the fires in the surrounding lights.
Twilight jumped a bit at the withdrawal of magic. She hadn't had willed her aura to do so. A faint, hushed voice echoed in her mind. "...deliver us…" the light, feminine sounding voice pleaded.
Her ears perked, looking over at Spike. "Spike? Did you say something?" the princess checked.
Spike was still inspecting the neat statues surrounding the pedestal, a calm smile on his face. "Nope!" he answered.
Twilight nodded unsuredly, looking back at the fire holder. She took a shaky breath. Fortune favors the bold? Right? the mare asked herself, lowering the flame slowly.
The fireplace was immediately brought to life, blue fire crackling in front of her. It burst to flame very swiftly, The fires slowly forming a hole in the middle, the fireplace metal sliding open slowly.
"Woah! What did you do?" Spike came over, gawking at the cool flame.
"I lit it." she answered simply as they felt the ground below them rumble. Slowly, an alien-like cube began floating from the hole in the middle of the fire, rising above it magically with an ominous droning noise.
The hushed voice returned as it hovered above the flames. "We are many." it was much more audible, the voice layered with a multitude of others all speaking in synchronized crypticness. "We are one." it continued, beginning to float gently in front of Twilight, the three glowing lights on the front flickering slightly. "We are the-" it echoed inside the princess' head, before cutting off and collapsing to the hard stone ground with a loud Dink!
Twilight quickly withdrew her head, keeping that estranged and curious look on the powerless magical object. Spike joined her, giving the cube a weird look as well. "Did you hear that?" Twilight asked her dragon friend.
"Hear what?" Spike queried.