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// 3AM Study Session. 
// Story: The Journey To Solus 
// by Onocarcass 
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	“Spike!” Twilight called at the top of her lungs, tapping a hoof impatiently when she was met with nothing but silence. “Spike I know you’re up there!” she called again slight agitation showing in her voice. “Where is that little?” she mumbled to herself “Spike, get down here right this instant!”
“Twilight” Spike finally replied drowsily from somewhere upstairs “can’t you just use your magic to get whatever you need so I can get some sleep?”
“He wants magic does he?” Twilight growled, her face turning from its natural purple to an alarming shade of red “Oh I’ll give him magic.” With those words the room filled with a blinding violet light emanating from the tip of Twilight’s horn which faded away as quickly as it appeared leaving a confused little dragon in its place.
“Twilight, this isn’t what I meant” Spike protested, yawning.
“Spike, do you have any idea what time it is?” Twilight asked starting once again with her habitual hoof tapping as she was met by nothing but silence “Spike!”
“No Twilight I don’t know what time it is” the baby dragon yawned once again while making strange popping noises as he stretched out his back and arms “but I assume you’re going to tell me.”
“Spike, there’s no time to fool around” Twilight fretted whilst unknowingly beginning to pace around the room “it’s three in the morning!”
“So you brought me down here to tell me that we should still be asleep” Spike asked cocking his head slightly to the side “because, last I checked, everypony else is asleep this early in the morning”
Twilight stopped directly in front of her assistant and stared at him with a look of complete disbelief “It means I’ve missed a whole three hours of today that could’ve been dedicated to study, you understand? Three hours!”
“Study for what?” Spike asked as he yawned once again stretching out his tiny arms behind his back “nothing can be important enough for us to need to wake up this early.”
“Princess Celestia sent me a letter asking me to brush up on my Equestrian history” Twilight explained beckoning him to follow as she trotted over to a stack of books lying on her work desk. “I’ve got three books right here” she went on as soon as Spike was caught up to her “I need you to find the one I couldn’t find.”
“Well, what book do you need” Spike asked folding his arms into a crossed position, now fully awake.
“Let’s see” Twilight stated quickly reading the book titles “I’ve got The Era of Foundation, Era of Disharmony, and The Era of The Sun.” Twilight placed a hoof upon her chin and reached deep into her memories attempting to locate the name of the era she needed. “I’ve got it!” she shouted before remembering Spike was directly beside her “Oops, sorry, but I remember the title.”
“Good” Spike replied “so are you going to tell me what it is?”
“The book I need is titled The Era of Desolation” Twilight stated turning her gaze back toward Spike “I couldn’t find it anywhere down here, so it must be upstairs.”
“Don’t worry Twilight” Spike declared “you can count on me.” He gave a quick little salute before flying upstairs to the bookshelf in Twilights room across from her bed. “Let’s see” Spike mumbled to himself “I remember seeing a book with that title somewhere around here.”
“Spike!” Twilight called from downstairs “have you found it yet?”
“Not yet!” he called back shoving a huge pile of books aside before realizing that it was nowhere to be found on any of the lower shelves. “Dear Celestia” he begged “please don’t let it be on the top shelf.” The tiny dragon turned his gaze upward to find, there, sitting just out of his reach, the book Twilight needed. “Of course” Spike sighed frustrated by this unfortunate turn of fate.
“Spike!” came another impatient cry from below “what’s taking so long?”
“Just a minute” Spike replied sliding a chair into position in front of him so he could get at the book he needed. “Why does she always nag me like this?” he muttered to himself as he reached toward the book Twilight had requested. “Come on” he groaned stretching as far as he possibly could but still coming short by a few inches. “Just a little more” Spike groaned feeling one of his claws brush across the cover he swiped his hand knocking the book loose. “Got it!” he shouted suddenly feeling his chair begin to shift “whooooooa!” he yelped beginning to flail his arms in vain as he tumbled to the floor followed by an avalanche of books and dusty old spell tomes.
“Spike!” Twilight called once again clearly even more annoyed than she’d been before “get that book and bring it to me right this instant!”
“I’m coming” Spike groggily replied as he brushed the mess of books off and got shakily to his feet. “How in Equestria am I gonna find that book now?” Spike sighed as he started to sift through the heap, brushing off tome after tome. He had a stack of books beside him that almost reached the ceiling when he finally found it.
“Spike, are you coming or do I need to teleport you again?”
“I’ve got the book!” Spike shouted back “I’m coming!” Spike wrapped his arms around the enormous book as best he could, but even then he still found that his hands only just barely touched each other. Despite this fact, he couldn’t stay upstairs any longer without risking another teleportation session. So Spike began the arduous task of keeping his footing as he traveled the long decline of the staircase, while also minding his hold on the book. Finally after what seemed like an hour he reached the ground floor and began to walk over to Twilight. But before he could take a single step something flashed above his head. He looked up to see the flash had materialized into a tome of identical size to the one he was carrying, which unfortunately for Spike slammed down with a thump, sandwiching him between the two massive books.
“Spike what was that?” Twilight gasped in astonishment as she saw before her, a book that she had never seen before. Her eyes instinctively searched out the title, which she couldn’t see from her angle. So she effortlessly levitated the book over to her leaving the crushed Spike behind. “The Age of Displacement?” she pondered the name only to find that even after searching all across her vast knowledge, not a single fact about anything by that name. She flipped open the book only getting through the first page before finding something that seemed off. “Spike!” she called forgetting that he had just taken this same book to the head just moments prior “Spike, stop fooling around and get over here.”
Spike rose to his feet and still groggy from being crushed beneath the book, stumbled over to Twilight. “It’s too early for this” he sighed “what do you need?”
“I need you to bring me a map” Twilight replied in an almost urgent tone of voice.
“O-ok” Spike said walking over to the table with a big map of the world on it. He rolled it up and brought it over to Twilight.
Twilight, with almost machine like accuracy placed her hoof exactly where the book told her to. “Well this doesn’t make any sense”
Spike scratched his head in confusion “Umm, Twilight, you do realize you’re pointing to the middle of the ocean, right?”
“Exactly!” she practically shouted in response “according to the book there should be an island by the name of Solus, right here”
“But there isn’t” Spike pointed out “so the strange book fell on me for nothing, perfect”
“No, Spike” Twilight explained “don’t you see, it means that for some reason this place was removed from the map”
“Or that it never existed in the first place” Spike protested “it’s possible that somepony just made the whole thing up”
“Why, are you fighting the possibility that it exists?” Twilight asked, her gaze remaining fixated on the empty ocean expanse on the map before her.
“Because whenever you feel the need to go on some adventure, I always get stuck with all the boring house work!”
Twilight turned her gaze toward her assistant “so you’re saying that you go about your everyday duties?” She didn’t wait for a response, as she once again began scanning through the book. “The Island of Solus has been found recorded in many texts from before the imprisonment of Princess Luna” Twilight shifted her focus toward the other books she had gathered. “Hmmm” she thought “that would mean before the Era of The Sun “
“Twilight” Spike sighed “why is this so important to you?”
“Because it’s a whole era in Equestrian history that I’ve never even heard of before, isn’t that even the slightest bit interesting to you?”
“Not really”
“Well it does to me” Twilight replied curtly before returning her focus to the book. “Why are you being so fussy?”
“Because it’s 3:27 in the morning” Spike retorted his tiny little fists shaking.
“Well then, go to bed” Twilight responded pointing a hoof toward the staircase.
Spike instinctively made for the staircase at top speeds, knowing that Twilight was highly likely to change her mind.
“I swear, sometimes” Twilight muttered to herself before returning to the book “The Island is also referenced in many ancient texts as the homeland of the griffons.”  At that moment Twilight got an idea, it was as if that one sentence had thrown a switch causing the gears within her mind to begin turning. “Gilda” she whispered to herself “Gilda’s a griffon, so if I can find her.” Twilight began once again, to pace without even realizing she was doing it. “Who would know where Gilda is?” she asked herself “Rainbow Dash, maybe” she thought “well, that’s all I got, time to go see Dash.” With those words she had made up her mind and walked over to the door, thrusting it open to find herself cast into the pitch darkness of the night. “Oh, I forgot how early it is” she sighed “I guess I'll just have to wait around here for a bit"