//------------------------------// // Ch. 4 Research at Twilight's (edited slightly) // Story: The Forgotten Princess // by Shaddeluim //------------------------------// Three Weeks Later Aurora lay in her bed within her newly built home. It was a simple two story building; it had a bedroom, living room, kitchen, and of course a bathroom both up and down stairs. The bedroom took up most of the space on the second floor, at the far end of the room was the closet, it was nothing special but it served it’s purpose. Between the closet and staircase was an oak dresser with mirror above it, across from the dresser was the bed that the sleeping Alicorn currently occupied. Aurora tossed and turned from the dream she was currently having, or was it a memory? Aurora awoke with a fright, she quickly looked around the room as if she woke up in an unfamiliar location. Her eyes fell on the mirror across from her bed, she stared at herself intently as the memories of the past three weeks came back to her. Once her mind settled down from the nightmare she just experienced, she got out of her bed and made her way to her upstairs bathroom. Once in the bathroom she looked at herself closely in the mirror, that’s when she noticed her mane. “Dang it....the red streaks in my mane are fading, I’ll have to get them dyed again.” Aurora said to herself while brushing her mane down. Then realization hit her, “Wait, my red streaks are dyed! Should I get them dyed again, or do I let them fade a little more?” Aurora asked herself. Stood there awhile pondering on the question she just asked herself, she was brought out of her thoughts when she heard a knock coming from her front door. Aurora trotted over to her bedroom window, and popped her head out to see who was there. “Pinkie Pie?” Aurora asked surprised to see the pink mare at her front door. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have work to do a Sugarcube Corner?” “No, it’s my day off, and for what I’m doing here. I’m here to invite you to your very own ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party!” Pinkie Pie said in her usual hyper way. “A welcome party? Pinkie I've already been here for three weeks now, I’m pretty sure I don’t need a party.” Aurora said trying to get Pinkie to change her mind. “Sure you do, everyone needs a party once and awhile.” Pinkie Pie said “There's no convincing you is there?” Aurora asked lowering her head a bit in annoyance. “Nope!” “Fine.....I’m assuming it’s at Sugarcube Corner later today.” “You guessed right, I’ll come get you when it’s time.” Pinkie Pie said bouncing off towards some other pony’s house. Aurora brought her head back through the window, she let out a quick sigh before heading down stairs. Once down the stairs, she made her way to her kitchen and silently began to make herself some breakfast. Aurora stopped what she was doing and looked around the room, something was off, she may not know what it is, but she knows something is going on. Aurora levitated a nearby apple to her, deciding that staying in her house wasn’t the best idea at the moment. She began to walk towards her front door, but stopped halfway through her living room. There wasn't much in the room, just a table and few pillows to sit on around it. Aurora stared at the room in front of her, she took a quick bite of her red delicious apple. “Rarity is right....‘gulp’....I need to decorate in here.” Aurora said swallowing mid sentence "Maybe a vase would help." She said as she turned back towards the door, in an instant Aurora dropped her apple and fell on her but. There standing in front of her was a young filly. Aurora studied the filly from where she was sitting, the looked no older than a year, and was completely covered with a shadowy smoke. The only things Aurora could visibly see were black wings and horn, and glowing blood red eyes that seemed like they were staring right into her soul. “Um....Hello.” Aurora said as pleasantly as possible. The filly made no response at all, it just stood there staring showing no emotion. “Alright then.....how did you get you get in here?” Aurora asked receiving no answer from the filly. Aurora slowly levitated her apple back towards her, she watched the filly to see if it would react to this at all. The filly turned it’s head towards the door and hissed before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Before Aurora could react to what just happened, a knock could be heard on the door. Aurora got up and walked to the door to greet her guest. “Twilight! Just the mare I wanted to see.” Aurora said with great excitement, after seeing who was behind the door. “Really?” Twilight asked surprised. “Yes, something strange is going on in my house.” Aurora answered. “What’s going on?” Twilight asked. “I saw this thing earlier.” Aurora said glancing behind her in case it reappeared. “What did it look like?” “It was like this smoky ember thing with red eyes that was in the shape of a filly, and now that I think about it it’s not the first time I've seen it either.” “Come on, we need to go do some research.” Twilight said heading back to her tree library with Aurora close behind. It was a short distance from Aurora’s to Twilight's, and they got there with little to no distractions. That is if you don’t count Pinkie as a distraction. “Pinkie for the last time I don’t want a party especially at my house!” Aurora said getting a little irritated with the pink mare. “Oh come on, you already said you were fine with it, and I have the time I just need the place.” Pinkie said popping out of a pile of books, for no apparent reason. “Why not your place, Pinkie?” Twilight asked looking through her books. “I got it, we’ll have it at Applejack’s.” Pinkie said extremely excited completely ignoring Twilight's question. “Fine by me.” Aurora said under her breath. “Hey Twilight.” “What?” Twilight asked taking a second away from her book search. “Why were you coming to my house?” Aurora asked quickly skimming through a random book. “Oh I almost forgot, thanks for reminding me.” Twilight answered levitating a scroll over to Aurora. Aurora took the scroll with her own levitation spell, she looked at the seal puzzled. The seal was that of the royal pony sisters, but it was different from the seal Celestia would normally use. “Who's it from?” Aurora asked after determining that it was letter meant for her. “It’s from Princess Luna.” Twilight answered picking up another book and skimming through it. Aurora slowly opened the scroll, being sure that it wasn't a prank from Rainbow Dash. She looked upon the letter, and silently began to read. Dear Flaming Aurora, It has come to my attention that you are experiencing some memory problems, as well as a few nightmares. A Princess of the night and the safeguard of dreams of all our subjects. We would like to help you through your nightmares and hope to find the cause of said dreams. If you wish the discus this matter further, meet us at the Canterlot Library tomorrow at noon. Sincerely, Princess Luna Aurora put the scroll down on a nearby table before turning to see what Twilight was doing. “What did Princess Luna want?” Twilight asked going through a stack of nearby books. “She wanted to see me about some nightmares I've been having lately....Twilight?” Aurora asked. “Yeah.” “When did you receive this letter?” “This morning, why?” “Just checking.” Aurora said scanning a nearby book self. “Hey what book are you looking for any way?” Aurora asked picking up a book that caught her attention. “I’m looking for three actually, two of them I've found but I’m still looking one of them.” “Is it ‘Ghost, Goblins, and Ghoulish figures’?”Aurora asked showing the cover to Twilight. “No.” “Really? Because I found what I saw in house in this book.” Aurora said opening the book to the page she found it on. “Let me see.” Twilight said as she began to read the page. “It says here that it’s a Shadow Demon of some sort.” “Some sort? It sounds like it doesn't know what it is.” Aurora said plainly. “Well it says it could be one four Shadow Demons, now the book doesn't go into great detail about said demons.” Twilight said. “Does it at least list the four Shadow Demons?” Aurora asked. “Sadly no, but it does list a few books that goes more in detail about the Shadow Demons. None of which I have currently.” Twilight said admittedly. “Currently?” “Well out of all these books I only have one, which is currently under loan to a friend of mine.” “Do you know when your friend will bring back the book?” “Sorry but I don’t” Twilight said apologetically. Before their conversation could further a knock could be heard at the door, Aurora slightly jumped at the sudden sound while Twilight slowly walked towards the said door. Twilight door revealing the pink party pony herself, “What’s going on Pinkie?” Twilight asked pretty sure she already knew the answer. “The party is already starting and you two aren't there!” Pinkie said practically yelling. “How could we if we didn't know the time, or the place for that matter.” Aurora said a little annoyed by the pink pony’s presence. “Oh, OK then. Follow me to Sweet Apple Acres.” Pinkie said bouncing towards the party location. “Great. Let’s get this over with.” Aurora said following the party pony with Twilight by her side. In the far corner of the room the two Alicorns were once in, a small smoke cloud with evil red eyes observed the now empty room. It slowly slithered it's way out of it's dark hiding spot, as it moved across the floor it slowly began to take the form a young alicorn filly. The smokey figure of the filly began to look around the room as if it was searching for something. It's search was complete as it's evil red eyes fell upon the book Twilight and Aurora were once reading. "So they want to know more about me and my sisters, I can't have that now can I?" The smoky figure said. The figure's voice was that of pure evil, it was filled with hate and deceit. But at the same time it sounded innocent like young filly would. "Not when I'm so close to completing my evil plan......I really need to gain more power, this form's voice is going to drive me crazy." The figure said dissipating in to the air.