Twilight had set herself up in the Star Swirl the Bearded wing of the Royal Archives. Her quills, and her parchment were sitting atop of one of the conveniently placed desks. She gave joyous thanks to Celestia that the Star Swirl wing wasn't closed shelf. She'd once been to a closed shelf library in Manehatten, and it had completely freaked her out. It was hard knowing that she had all those books, so near, and yet available only via an annoying black Unicorn with glasses. At first, she'd filled out the little paper forms for half the library. Then once that failed, she sighed, and made her requests two items at a time like all of the other ponies. That had taken forever, with the half hour it took to get anything. Twilight hated closed shelves.
Twilight quickly became a purple tornado, moving from shelf to shelf. She grabbed books in her magic, scanning them for anything potentially relevant before either throwing them on either the desk, or on the ever growing train of carts for reshelving. Once she'd amassed enough of a pile to start, she returned to her desk to start reading.
There were few if any mentions of spiders. She figured as much. Star Swirl had focused his magic mostly on the deepest elements of arcane magic. There was little or no mention of the natural world, even in his private journal. That meant that she was going to have to look everywhere.
She started looking in the obvious places. The Complete Compendium of Corrupt Creatures from the Outer Dimensions had plenty of giant spiders in it, but most of those were barely magical. Star Swirl's journals were equally useless. She was reading through the finding guide to Star Swirl's personal papers, hoping to find a fast way to search his private correspondence. Unfortunately, the correspondence had been sorted by the pony that it had been with, and there was no subject based index. She felt a tap on her shoulder.
"Twilight!" Luna said. "We have need of you."
Manuscripts went flying off the table, and Twilight jumped out of her chair, sending it flying. She slowly turned around to face the other pony.
"I have news of a most disturbing nature!" The princess said.
"What is it?" Twilight asked. "Did the spiders come back?"
"What spiders?" Luna said, dropping the voice.
With the voice gone, the library was starting to settle back to normal. Twilight's desk was surrounded by an even larger pile of manuscripts then it had been before Luna's arrival, and several pages of Twilight's notes had been mixed in with Star Swirl's correspondence. Twilight made a mental note to sort her notes out of the pile before she left. Anything by Twilight would eventually have to be filed in the archives under her personal papers. What if somepony in a thousand years needed to find the information on the spiders, and they didn't know that Twilight had gotten her information from Star Swirl? They'd be lost!
"I have discovered that castor beans do not cause the symptoms that afflicted the filly from Manehatten, when they are eaten. In order to cause the fatal effects that afflicted that feckless filly, they must be inhaled." Luna said, a frown growing on her face. "It's not Zecora's fault. The books available to most ponies do not go into the required level of detail. Had the filly eaten the beans, she would have vomited herself to death."
"What are you saying?" Twilight asked. "She was poisoned?"
"Most definitely, my little pony." Luna replied, as she blinked rapidly. "Did I just call you My Little Pony? That is like totally silly. Why would I call you my little pony? You aren't that much smaller then me!"
Luna paced for a few minutes, while Twilight struggled to gather her thoughts.
Ponies didn't end each other's lives. That was beyond anything that she'd ever heard of. It was too terrible to imagine. Everypony loved everypony else, and they always had. It was way too horrible to imagine. This didn't happen in Equestria. It was a peaceful and happy place. Everypony loved each other! Friendship was magic! Cupcakes! Then, there was nothing but black.
Twilight slowly opened her eyes. She was sitting in bed, in her room in the castle. Luna was standing over her, along with her mother. She made a pitiful mewling noise, before her brain rebooted enough that she was able to think properly. What had happened. Oh yeah, Luna had told her how she was now certain that Babs had been murdered.
Wait, what did murder mean? She'd never heard it before, and yet she knew it was the right word. It sounded right, it felt right, and she knew in her heart that it had the meaning that she needed. But, it was a cold and dark word. It wasn't a word for a world where friendship was the most powerful force in existence.
She just wanted to be hugged now, to be told that Luna had just been playing a prank on her. She wanted to know that no pony could end another's life. She didn't want to live in that kind of world. A world with murder wasn't the kind of world for Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight Velvet sat down on her daughter's bed. Twili had fallen back into a catatonic state. The young Unicorn was staring at the ceiling, her mouth forming silent words. She sat uncomfortably on the edge of the bed, and moved Twilight's head into her lap. She stroked her mane gently. Luna's words had been quite a shock for the filly, and some part of her wished that the princess had kept such things to herself. If there was such unpleasantness, she didn't have to involve Twili.
Twilight Velvet watched Luna pace. The princess had covered the short distance across the room hundreds of times in the three hours that they'd been here. She didn't blame the princess, mentally she was around the age same as Twilight Sparkle. Luna was undeniably immature, and from what Twilight had said in her letters home, Luna needed a mother as much as Twilight did. Still, it wasn't her place to consul the princess. They were nobility, but that was little more than a dusty old title, and a patch of land the size of a postage stamp off beyond the Everfree. Like most of the nobility, the income from rent on their land was nowhere enough to live on. That's why she worked as one of the army of ghostwriters that wrote the Daring Do series.
Luna was pacing faster now, and she was also mumbling to herself.
"Your highness, you can go now, if you wish." Twilight Velvet said, as the princess started to mumble to herself.
"No! We shall not abandon our friend. That is what Nightmare Moon would do!" Luna said.
The voice caused Twilight Sparkle to tremble. Twilight Velvet stroked the little Unicorn gently, and gradually, the trembling stopped, and her breathing slowed.
"You scared her. Why don't you go and talk to Celestia. I'm sure she wants to here of your exciting discovery." Twilight Velvet said, still stroking her daughter.
"I didn't mean to scare her. It was an accident. I just want to be her friend!" Luna said.
"It's okay. Look, you're scared. You don't have to hide it from me. Why don't you go and talk to Celestia. She can talk to you, and comfort you." Twilight Velvet replied.
"Celestia wouldn't have time for me. Even if she did, all she'd do is just spout platitudes! It's all she ever does!" Luna said, as tears welled up in her eyes.
Twilight Velvet was torn. From what she knew of Celestia, the princess was prone to platitudes. Half of the inspiring speeches that Twili wrote her about sounded like something that she'd write for one of the greeting cards that she also wrote. The princess was hurting, and despite the demands of decorum, her motherly instincts were telling her to comfort the princess.
"Your highness, would you like it if we sat and talked things out?" She asked.
Luna blinked a few times, and she was certain the princess was going to reject her offer. That was the proper thing. But, the princess lay down on the floor near where she was sitting, within easy hoof reach. She moved her hoof towards the princess experimentally, and the princess nodded. She stroked the Alicorn gently. She wasn't sure what to say. Despite Luna's current vulnerability, she was still the princess of all of Equestria.
"It's so horrible. How could some pony just... kill... another?" Luna said, breaking the silence.
Great. She'd hoped that the Princess was going to be content with just talking about silly things. Sure, she'd written stories about creatures that had meant each other harm, but that was fiction, and never ponies. Ponies didn't hurt each other. It was the way things were. It seemed silly, considering how horrible ponies could be to each other at times, but it's just how it was. Twilight Velvet sat there in the ever darkening afternoon light, wondering where the world had gone wrong.