Celestia and Luna were surprised to see Severus already waiting for them on the balcony overlooking Canterlot. The sun was to be lowered completely and the moon risen up before Snape was to arrive, but he looked as though he had been waiting for the royal sisters for at least a few minutes. He sat quietly but still sternly on the balcony's barrier, looking down thoughtfully at the little ponies that scurried off from one place to another...like tiny ants far below him. He hardly seemed to take notice of the sisters until Celestia openly cleared her throat.
He shifted his eyes over and stood to bow and let the sisters do what they had to. They seemed perfectly in balance as Celestia took hold of the massive yellow orb and brought it gracefully and slowly down as Luna hoisted the giant, spotted pearl in the sky for all to see. The act seemed to take no effort, and they were very prompt about getting down to business.
"We did not expect you so soon Severus, but we thank you for understanding the importance of this situation," Luna greeted.
"I am as interested in resolving this as you," Snape replied, still motionless.
"We sent out an investigation but found little evidence," Celestia informed him. "Hopefully you can help us resolve this mystery."
"I do not remember much of the event, but I was ambushed upon arriving at the old castle...the one which used to belong to the two of you, if I'm not mistaken," Snape stated.
"It was a long time ago," Celestia replied, a nostalgic tint lining her voice.
"I do not know how the creature came to be, and I don't believe that you do either. All I can say with certainty is that was more than a little...unfriendly."
"So you did not see until it lashed out at you then, and you don't know when it arrived at the old castle?" Luna questioned.
"I'm afraid so," Snape told them and turned to walk out, but was stopped by The Princess of the Sun.
"Severus!"
Snape paused for a slight moment and turned back towards the elder sister with a stoic expression.
"I've talked with Princess Twilight recently and she tells me that a figure with your abilities is needed down in Ponyville, and she would be very appreciative if you could find your way down to her tomorrow morning."
"...Very well, I shall see to it," Snape announced and promptly stepped out and past Luna, jumping into an odd kind of flight that drew stares of wonder and curiosity from the regal siblings. His black figure dissolved into a smoke like substance and plummeted down before spiraling up and through the skies, drifting towards the school.
The facility was abandoned aside from the night janitor and his assistant, though neither were in the vicinity of Snape's landing. The halls were dark, but Snape brought a lantern with him from the staff shed out behind the school, near the dumpster area. He also picked up a golden key that would get him into places his normal keys would not.
The door sounded out with an unnatural shriek that was covered by the sound of student voices and laughter in the school session. It offset him, but it seemed as though the shadows themselves were agitated by the creaking disturbance. When the door had shut, the shadows returned to silence and stillness and he moved on down the long corridor, traveling in an equal silence.
The stairs appeared to be less stable than they were in the day, and each step Severus took made a deeper and deeper impact, like invisible meteors striking the land outside. The lantern light flickered as a cool wind breeze somehow penetrated the sanctuary of the school. No windows were open, no door had been left ajar, but the silent and chilling airstream running down the stairs with him was unmistakeable.
When he reached the bottom, two paths awaited him. One of the hallways went right and led to a majority of classrooms on this level. The left passage way led to the cafeteria and some of the staff offices, as well as the teacher's lounge. Snape's destination was to the right and up another flight of stairs, towards the attic and storage areas where his private office was, and yet something urged him left.
By now, Luna's moon had been erected high and was just beginning to be blotched out by dark clouds. It was the prophecy of a storm the pegasi had been planning for a few days. The icy breeze had not subsided.
He passed by many offices and then noticed the cafeteria doors were unlocked. Inside the moonlit room many tables sat in shadow; the janitor or his assistant had been through this way, it seemed, and had since left, as a mop cart had been left discarded in the main aisle, the mop itself was laying in a pool of bubbly soap. Snape's eyes glowered and he bent down to closer examine the cleaning supplies.
Complete absence of sound followed.
Snape left the cafeteria and turned back into the hall where a new light was shining down on the right hall, flashing shallowly as the mysterious being that carried it descended the stairs to reach the basement levels. Snape followed stealthily, but left the lantern behind.
Upon reaching the bottom of the staircase, it was clear that a pony had gone down, but said pony was shrouded in a cloak as black as Snape's garb. It had once more descended the staircase and passed by the janitor's secondary supply room, the boiler room, and the room where powerful magical tools and items were kept from the grasp of students. In other words, it was headed to the lowest and deepest room of the school, the room where Snape taught Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
The pony in the cloak stopped at the entrance of the large, flat room and began to mutter some kind of incantation. It did not seem like normal unicorn magic, and it was clear that some kind of magical barrier had been set around the room. The difference was almost unnoticeable, but Snape could tell when the shield dropped, allowing the pony to enter the room.
Snape followed closely behind and used his own magical prowess to crack the shield open and enter. By now, the pony was gone. It had completely disappeared, but there were no indications that it had used magic to escape. Snape began to poke around the walls and the floor, checking for anything useful.
The room had been left fairly bare and the notice on the board Snape had written for his students mere hours before was still lingering on the wall, standing out as a written notice of his authority. The chilling breeze was present here too, and Snape closed his eyes and stood still while he focused on it. When the next big gust of chilling air came he had locked onto it and scurried off to the source; the solution to the vanishing figure riddle had presented itself.
When he had gotten to the spot on the wall where the cold air was emanating, he placed the golden key inside the small hole, which had been magically altered to appear as though it was solid, and turned it. With a click, that segment of the wall opened up and a gaping wound in the structure was present to Snape.
The air was mustier, but cooler and the only direction he could go was down. The small, dark hall was lit only with a few torches which flickered in the breeze and seemed as though they may have been lit far longer than could be expected of them. The passageway was slanted down and Snape could not see the ending as he treaded downwards.
When he arrived at the bottom he found himself in a room that was about as empty and wide and long as the room above where he taught, but the walls here were lined with engravings; no inch of space was wasted and the markings were colored red. Snape wondered if even Princess Celestia knew of the secret of this old room. On the far end of the chamber were three hooded figures, each one facing two other ponies without cloaks, one on the ground and the other, who was either unconscious or worse, was in shackles on the wall.
Snape approached silently, but he felt that his extra caution was unnecessary, and the two parties looked as though they were in a total battle with each other.
The hooded figure standing in between the two others spoke up to the pony on the ground in a cold, male voice, "Your faith in your Princesses is solid but foolishly placed. We will make you a force used for a far greater purpose and when your Princesses are dead, you will come to the light of our ways."
The pony on the ground was panting heavily and could not respond, but shook his head in denial of the claim to the best of his ability.
"We shall forge you into a new tool, one worthy of service to the true savior of our world," The same cloaked figure announced, "and you will do our bidding or die for our cause in another way."
The middle figure used his magic to raise the pony on the ground and the dim torch lights on the chamber walls revealed the face of the raised pony to be Fire Rune. The student struggled against the three and let out a scream as they came towards him and huddled together in preparation for some dark act.
Without warning, strong but almost invisible wires shot out from behind the three and grasped Fire Rune. The student was pulled back and landed roughly behind Snape, who stood, wand raised, ready for a battle. The three figures looked at one another in confusion for a small moment, then turned to face Snape. Each one of them hid their faces beneath the cloaks, but their eyes glowed with white magical prowess.
Several blasts of white magic were shot off in rapid succession at Snape, but with superb timing and efficiency, he deflected each and every one. Fire Rune had collapsed and it was clear to Snape that the student had been pushed beyond his limits already.
Using Legilimency to read their thoughts and gain a tactical advantage proved tough, as the three seemed to share a link between their thoughts, as though they had a hive mind. It was not impossible, but it would be tough to crack down the multilayered defense and read clearly what each individual was planning while in the middle of combat.
One of the figures turned to the shackled pony and began to drain it of all power and life force, and the shackles began to loosen as firm flesh and strong bone became a squishy and frail pair. The other two continued to use their magic blasts to keep Snape busy.
The two attackers ceased firing their blasts and one charged him with a daring run while the other teleported to the side and formed a white construct of chains to entangle him in. Snape broke the chain construct before it could ensnare him and fired a blast of his own that propelled the figure to his side into the wall.
The running figure formed a dagger construct and leaped up to bring the blade down through Snape's chest, but the figure was too slow and Snape evaded with relative ease.
"Levicorpus!" Snape shouted and flipped the figure upside down. The cloak fell down and revealed a body completely encased in white flames, but if anything, the white fire protected the pony. The figure under it hissed loudly at the maneuver and did its best to free itself, to no avail. The second attacker was regaining his composure, and Snape flung the hoisted figure into him, knocking both back down.
Snape ran forward to them and produced similar wires from his wand to tangle the to together and bind them up, but the wires were not as effective as intended and the figures were able to break free. They attacked in sync and drove Snape backwards until the third rejoined his allies.
When the trio had been reunited, they linked their magic and teleported away as a group.
The pony shackled to the wall was no longer there. He might not even be missed, depending on who exactly he was, but Snape would have keep a close eye on that. The room was left abandoned, and the cold chill that had so openly afflicted the school had gone with them. What they were and what their objective was were unknown to him, but reviving Fire Rune would give him the answers he needed.
"Professor Snape? ...Thank you..." Fire Rune managed as Snape tended to the gashes and injuries.
"Don't thank me," Snape muttered as he worked, his words coinciding with the waves of his wand, "you've gone and gotten yourself into trouble...I'm here to pick up the pieces...and make you wish..you hadn't."
With that and a confused look from the student, Snape put his wand to the colt's forehead and searched it openly for what had happened. His digging and prodding were to no avail, though, as it happened that the trio of hooded figures had erased any memories of their work cleanly and clearly. If Snape hadn't fought them before trying to search for the memories, he wouldn't have known of their existence at all.
"Professor...what...what's going-" Fire Rune was cut off as Snape began to cut and paste real and fake memories, creating a scene where a trouble making Fire Rune had stayed after hours at school to cause trouble and Snape had caught him. It was dishonest and cruel, and it worked perfectly.
With Fire Rune unable to recall the true events and knocked out and taken up to the main level of the school, Snape was free to do as he pleased with the remaining clean up.
To leave the secret chamber open would be foolish indeed, as the trio of attackers may have been students themselves...he couldn't be sure, no matter how unlikely it seemed. Even if they were just a small group of grotesque cultists, it would be far wiser to deal with the room. Similarly, to tell any Princess could be disastrous as well, for any of them could already be plotting the death of a fellow, and mentioning this room could alert them to Snape's activity and paint him suspiciously in their eyes.
In the end, he decided that the best course of action would be to destroy the entrance to the hidden room and place a spell on it to alert him if anyone or anything somehow made it inside. He was done with the deed in a matter of minutes.
With the distraction of the secret chamber over, Snape returned to the task he had originally set out to do: set up things for his excursion the following day. What Princess Twilight had in store for him was a mystery, but it wouldn't look very well if he refused the wishes of one of the rulers less than a few weeks upon arriving. Besides, this could be the chance to solve the mystery early. He merely needed to play his cards right and manipulate the situation to his advantage.
He wrote down a quick note for whatever squib was to take his place and set up a lab he was sure none of the students would not find all that enjoyable. He checked through the chemical supplies once more just so that the activity would not be interrupted by insufficient materials, then prepared to head out.
It was then that a knock on the door stopped him in his tracks.
"Enter," He commanded with subtle strength.
In walked the Princess of the Crystal Empire, a look of uncertainty on her face. Snape's eyes analyzed every emotion, every weakness on display as quickly and efficiently as he could, but she seemed to be too preoccupied with whatever caused her to venture to him.
"I'd love it if we could talk," She opened uneasily.
"That..can be..arranged," Snape replied in a drawl.
"Great," She commented with the enthusiasm of putting on socks in the morning.
It was far later than he intended when Cadence left. To top things off, she cornered him with an endless session of questions. The subject was quite interesting, though, and hard as it was at times for him to keep focused on the matter when he wanted to be elsewhere, it made him pay attention to the mystery of his mission much more.
She seemed much more reserved and cautious when they had just met, but somehow her caution was overridden with enthusiasm. How that came about was really anyone's guess, but Snape knew he'd be seeing a lot more of the Princess of Love now.
Somepony else, however, was not as enthusiastic about their meeting. To Snape's ever immense luck, Shining Armor had followed her to the school and confronted them just before Snape managed to leave for the night.
"I expected something like this from you..." he snarled at Snape, "but how could you do this to me Cadence?"
The pink Princess wore an expression of mild annoyance rather than apology. She shook her head and walked by, indicating to Snape that this kind of thing had happened before. Shining Armor pleaded as quietly and proudly as he could, and Snape quickly flew away while the Prince was distracted with his wife. The jealous husband scenario could wait, and Snape was glad to have it so. Another hindrance to his task was exactly the kind of thing he did his best to avoid whenever possible, yet through some sheer twist in fate, he rarely if ever could.
Shining Armor noticed Snape's exit and began to cry out against the man, demanding him to return, but Snape happily ignored the Prince of the Crystal Empire.
As bad as the night was, a bad feeling in his gut told him tomorrow might well be worse.