//------------------------------// // Lycanthropy? // Story: Lycanthropy // by Schaechterle25 //------------------------------// Twilight hadn’t slept all night. She didn’t want to have another nightmare, or worse, have another experience like last night. As the sun started to rise, Twilight stood up from trying to sleep on the chair in the reading area. She packed her saddle bag and went to the restroom to clean herself up a little bit. Her mane was messy like it always was when she got up. She turned the sink on and splashed some cold water on her face, it felt refreshing. Then she started to drink from it. She stayed up the whole night trying to fall asleep in one position and got dehydrated. The water had a nasty metallic taste to it and she had a hard time swallowing some of it. She looked in the mirror at herself again to make sure she at least looked presentable. She seen some blood still on her face, just below her nostrils. She quickly washed it off and walked out of the restroom. She was going to make sure she had everything and put some of the books she had taken out back on the shelves. She was keeping the Canterlot history book, one of the animal guides, and the book about dreams and the sleeping pony. She also packed her notepad, the quill and the inkwell. She didn’t think she was missing anything. When she picked up the inkwell though, something seemed off about it. Twilight weighed it with her hooves, it felt lighter. She opened it up to see that it was completely empty. “What,” she said in surprise, “but that doesn’t make any sense. I hardly used any of it yesterday.” She looked around and noticed that there was only one inkwell, when she had packed two. Twilight started to think if she accidentally brought some with her when she woke up in the middle of the night on the street. If she left some there, she could get caught when they revisit the scene later today. She was about to panic, but then she looked down and saw ink on the floor before her. She looked at the puddle puzzled as she began to relax. She looked to her right and seen more spilled in a streak type of pattern. A trail of ink, she thought. Wonder if it leads to the other inkwell. She started to follow it, out of the reading area and up the spiral staircase. From the top of the stairs, it led into another room to her left. She looked at the door puzzled, and said, “I don’t remember that door ever being there.” She trotted over to it and began to slowly open it. There were stairs that led down to another door. She went down the stairs and pressed her ear up against the door. She listened carefully to hear if anything was on the other side. She didn’t think she heard anything, so she opened the door a little bit and peeked through the crack. All she seen was darkness. She opened the door completely and let the light behind her shine the way forward. She couldn’t see much, but it seemed to be an extension to the library. An extension she never knew about. She looked over to her side and saw a lantern lying on the ground. She levitated it up into the air and lit it with her magic. The room lit up to reveal a giant room, shelves that were stockpiled with books, books that she had never seen before. She started walking around looking at the books, completely marveling at the fact that this was hidden and being held a secret. Why did the ink lead in here? She went back to the door to find the ink trail again, but when she got to the door, she couldn’t find it anywhere, it had disappeared. Twilight was confused and looked closer, still not being able to see anything. She made the flame in the lantern brighter and, but still couldn’t see anything. Maybe it was like that invisible ink, she thought. After Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash pulled that prank on her, she started researching the mysterious ink, determined to find a way to make it able to be seen. After a couple of days, she had found out a way to counteract the so called “invisible ink”. She focused her magic into the flame that was in the lantern and turned its color into a dark purple. The room darkened again, but the ink showed up as a bright blue on the ground. Twilight giggled at how it worked so well. She began to follow the bright blue trail that appeared before her. The purple light reflected off of everything around her, which made all the books look purple and everything else around her as well. The trail was leading her back farther in the room. She was surprised at how big the room actually was. It was much larger than the base of the library, it probably went underneath some of the other houses. When she got to the end of the trail, there were books that were knocked off the shelves and scattered all over the floor. Twilight walked over to the bookshelf and started to pick the books up and reorganizing them and putting them back where they belonged. That’s when she noticed the inkwell sitting on the bookshelf at her eye level, on top of another book. She levitated the inkwell up with her magic and lightly shook it. It sounded like it had something else in it rather than ink. She popped the cap off and turned it upside down. A small crumpled up piece of parchment fell out and landed by her hoof. She put the inkwell back down and picked up the piece of paper, unraveled it, and then began to read what was written on it. She read it aloud to herself, “This book should prove to be an asset for you.” She lowered the paper down and looked at the only book that was on the shelf in that region. She hadn’t even noticed that it was covered in the “invisible” ink and showed to be bright blue. She looked back down at the paper, read what was written on it again, then folded it back up. She was going to keep this with her. She picked the book up looked at the cover. There was nothing written on the cover. She turned it over and saw that there was nothing written on the back either. She looked at the spine, no words there either. She opened it up and saw the title on the first page. “Lycanthropy”. She didn’t know what the word meant. It probably has something to do with fiction, she thought. She was about to turn the page when she heard a faint noise somewhere off in the distance. It sounded like a door being closed. Twilight quickly levitated all the things she needed into the air: lantern, mysterious paper, and the book. She followed the trail back to the door and threw the lantern aside, which broke it and sent oil spilling all over the ground. She went up the stairs and out into the library, while closing the door behind her. She put the piece of paper and the book underneath one of the desks. She ran over to the railing and looked over it. She saw Archie standing by the desk with all of Twilights belongings on it. Archie was instantly alerted to her presence and looked up at her. “How was your night Miss Sparkle?” Twilight lied, “Good. I slept like a filly.” She started to try to calm herself down so she wouldn’t look guilty of something. She went down the spiral staircase and started to pack her things. Twilight asked, “So what are we going to do today?” “Don’t you remember? We’re going back down to the crime scene so I can show you what the guards and I found.” Twilight was afraid he was going to say that. She chuckled a little bit and said, “Are you sure we have to go there now,” Archie looked at her seriously. “I mean, can’t we wait a little bit?” “The Princesses have asked us to pick up the pace,” replied the corporal while walking toward the door. “We must not disappoint them.” If the Celestia and Luna wanted them to be quicker, than she was just going to have to pick it up. She was just going to have to prepare herself for the worst. “Alright, well you start heading down there. I’m going to finish packing and then I’ll catch up with you.” Twilight told him. Archie just saluted and continued to walk out the door. Twilight packed her stuff and went back up the stairs. She picked up the book she found and the piece of paper, packing them in her saddle bag. She looked back over to where the mysterious door should’ve been, and was discouraged at seeing it not being there. She walked over to the wall and inspected it. There was no sign at all that it was ever there. Twilight simply scratched her head. “I’m going insane, aren’t I?” Twilight asked herself, and strangely answered back. “Yep. I must be.” She walked down the stairs and out of the front door. She was just hoping that everything that was about to happen, would go as well as she hoped it would. Twilight was starting to sweat, if she got caught killing royal guards, then her life would be ruined. She was just going to have to act calm when they arrived at Pony Joe’s. If she did get caught, she was was just going to run as fast as she could away from Canterlot. She’d probably have to live in the Everfree Forest for the rest of her life. She couldn’t stop sweating though. Then she thought about the secret room in the library she had stumbled upon. The note that she found must have been written by somepony that knows who has caused this mess. The one that had written the note can’t be the murder, otherwise they wouldn’t be helping her. This pony would also have to know that she would be able to see the invisible ink in the darkness. There were only two ponies that she could think of; Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. She didn’t want to doubt them, but they had to be suspects now, unless the pony didn’t know and she just got lucky. Twilight shifted her saddle bag as they were walking to make sure that the book she had found was still there. Whatever pony was “helping” her had lead her to that book, in hoping that she would take it and read it. Of course she had never seen any of those books before, so she wanted to get back in there to read some of them. “Lycanthropy” was the name of the book she had been lead to. She had never heard that word before, at least she thought she hadn’t. She was going to get the trouble that was about to happen in a couple of minutes over with so she could look into this book. “What the,” Archie sounded confused. “Where are all the guards? They were supposed to stay stationed here all night.” Twilight put her head down and tried to hide behind the corporal. Archie marched forward, mumbling something about the Princesses kicking the soldier’s flanks. Twilight followed him slowly and was surprised to not hear him start panicking. Twilight looked up and was taken aback by the streets being completely empty. Not a dead guard anywhere. Only the original dead pony. Twilight’s headache started to increase, but luckily she stopped sweating. Where were all the dead guards from last night? She thought to herself. Was it just another messed up nightmare? It couldn’t have been though, otherwise she would’ve woken up from it during the night, but she remembered staying up all night. She wanted to know what had happened, but at the same time she didn’t want to know. She could use this opportunity to play it safe and hopefully not seem suspicious. Twilight continued walking with Archie, while observing her surroundings, waiting for Archie to see a dead guard that was just hidden from their view. Nothing happened though. The corporal only rambled on about how the other guards were being lazy and weren’t doing their job. Twilight didn’t care, she only wanted to know more about the book and note that had been left for her to find, and if the guards getting killed was only a dream and she had slept walked to the alley. “Well,” Archie interrupted, “Enough about that matter. They will get what’s coming to them eventually.” He turned and looked at Twilight. “I’m sure you want to know what I found, right?” Twilight levitated her notepad and a quill dipped in ink out of her saddlebag and replied, “Yep. Tell me everything you found.” He trotted over to the body, which surprisingly looked like it did before. “The unicorn guards cast a spell on the body to keep it from decomposing. Without them here, the spell will become progressively weaker.” He pointed his hoof down the alley and said, “He was running around in circles. He left a trail that was hard to pick up, but it didn’t escape my sight.” “What do you mean he was running in circles?” Twilight asked. Archie shook his head and told her, “It confused me at first as well.” He pointed toward the trail and started following it. “He was trying to escape from his attacker, but he only ran through the same spots over and over again.” “What’s the trail composed of?” Twilight asked. It would be an important piece of evidence. “Traces of sweat and garbage odor, some blood, tufts of his coat and mane, and slight nicks in the cobblestone from him running too hard. The rain must have washed away most of the evidence that night. That’s why it took me so long to figure this out.” “If most of the trail was washed away during the night, then how do you know that he seemed to be running in circles? Twilight questioned. Archie looked back at her and said, “I don’t exactly know. I’ve been sorta...guessing on things.” Twilight just put her hoof over her face and sighed. “So you’re saying that you could possibly be wrong?” Archie nodded his head yes. “If we can find any more clues that could sufficiently change my theory, then I’ll tell you.” Twilight wrote everything down and asked him, “Do you think you can find anything else important?” Archie shrugged his shoulders and said, “I’ll try ma’am. Is that what you want me to do for the rest of the day?” Twilight shook her head and replied, “For now, yes. After you spend a little bit more time on it, then head over to the castle. I’m going to tell the Princesses what we discovered so far.” She looked at the corporal as he saluted her. “Could you please not salute me. It makes me feel like I’m more important than I really am.” Archie apologized and went off down the alley to find more clues. Twilight had to go back to the hospital and return the medications that they had given her, otherwise she was going to encounter another problem. She was just going to ask for a weaker drug that won’t keep her from obviously hallucinating. She didn’t even remember what her dream was about. All she knew was that it wasn’t about running through an endless dark labyrinth, and eventually dying at the end. She wondered where all the guards were at when they arrived. It was way too coincidental, the fact that she woke up in the middle of the night in the middle of an alley with a bunch of slaughtered royal guards beside her, then going there in the morning and seeing absolutely nopony there what-so-ever. It creeped her out and made her head hurt. She took her notepad out and looked through her evidence to see if she could come up with a different theory than Archie’s. Having more ideas can extend the variety of thoughts and possible outcomes of the pony’s death. She had written down some good evidence and things that she would tell the Princesses. She was also going to ask Celestia if she could ask Luna some questions. It had been a day and that would have hopefully given her some time to calm down and want to talk to other ponies. She had been controlling the moon for a while now, so how could she just lose control of it? Twilight’s head hurt from just thinking about it. She put her notepad back in her saddlebag. She made sure that the book she had found was still there. She was thinking about asking the Princess if she knew that that library was there and, if so, why it was hidden. She remembered not being able to read most of the texts on the covers of some of them, if they had a title at all. She was going to see later tonight if she could find a way to get back in that secret room and “check out” some of the books and scrolls she had seen. Some of them had looked interesting. For now she had to worry about the hospital and what she was going to tell the doctor about the pills. She was just going to tell him that they hadn’t worked and that she still hadn’t gotten any sleep. She starting picking up the pace to the hospital, it looked like it was going to rain again. If Princess Luna lost control of the moon, then the pegasi must’ve lost control of the clouds. She didn’t want to get soaked by a downpour, so she started galloping to the hospital. She was right about the rain, it was raining so hard that it appeared to be raining sideways. She was sitting in the lobby of the hospital, reading the current newspaper, waiting for the doctor to call her back so she could return the pills he had given her. She just sat on one of the chairs and watched out the window at the rain. She couldn’t even see the street outside that was only five hooves from where she was sitting. She wondered if Rainbow Dash was throwing a fit over the rain not doing what it’s supposed to do. She hadn’t even seen her at the loading station when she left, so where had she been? She would wonder about that later, for now...she took the book she had found out of her saddlebag. She had to read some of it and figure out why somepony had left it for her. She opened to the first page where it said “Lycanthropy” and nothing else. No author, no side notes, no addendums, nothing else. The following page was aligned with texts on both pages. She marveled at the writing, she had never seen anypony write quite like this before. The parchment was old and yellow as well, so she was careful while flipping through the pages. There was no table of contents, she took a quick look in the back of the book and didn’t see an index either. She went back to the first page with text on it and started reading, it was time to find out what lycanthropy was. Have a question or a comment? 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