I awoke to the sound of a low humming. It wasn't very loud or anything, but it was still strange. I lit my horn so I could see what was going on. Spike was laying in his bed just like normal, his blanket a tangled mess from all his tossing and turning.
The low hum seemed to be coming from down stairs. Lifting my blanket up with a little telekinetic magic, I got out of bed. My legs shook a little under my weight simply because I wasn't awake yet.
When I got to the railing just before the stairs the humming seemed to get louder. I continued down the stairs to find the source of the sound, only to also find a simple glow emitting from one of the rooms to left.
The crystal floor and walls echoed my hoof steps as I walked to the room. In the dead of night the castle sometimes seemed scarier then it actually was. The light of my horn helped to calm what little nerves I had while lighting my way to the glowing room.
With each step the light emanating from the room seemed to get brighter and brighter. Finally I stopped just out side of the doorway, slightly anxious to find out what was going on.
“Hello?” I say poking my head ever so slightly to the side to see who, or what was making that light. The light itself illuminated the room, allowing me to see that this was Spike and my closet for storing our packs and clothes, mostly my clothes but still. The light seemed to be coming from one of the packs on a near by table.
“What the hay?”
throwing caution out the window, I walked into the room and marched right over to the pack. I had to squint my eyes in order to make sure that the light coming from the pack wouldn't blind me. Using my magic I grabbed the clasp and opened the pack.
One with one blinding flash of light the room suddenly became dark. It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust, but as soon as I was able to I lit my horn for only a little bit of a glow as I found only one item in the pack, the blank card I found just the other day.
But something about it seemed different, but I just couldn't seem to place my hoof on what it was.
“Twilight?”
My name being called out so suddenly made me jump. Turning around I saw that spike was in the door way his eyes slightly drooping from exhaustion. He stood there staring at me, his gaze partially empty because of his sleepless state.
“Oh hello Spike.” I say trying to calm my nerves. “What are you doing up this late?”
Spike stood there scrunching his face as he thought. “I'm not sure, I just suddenly woke up and had the feeling I needed to come down here.” While that was odd, I didn't really pay any mind to what Spike had said. My mind was still more concerned what was going on with that strange card.
“Why are you down here Twilight?” He asked.
I froze for a moment, simply because I didn't know what to say. Trying for a smile, I simply told him that I had forgotten something down here.
Spike frowned and shook his head at me. “Twilight your worse at lying then Applejack.”
“Hey!” I felt completely offended by that.
“Whatever I'm going back to bed now.” Spike walked away without another look back.
I turned back around to look at the card. Levitating the card closer to my eye looked as closely to it as I could, but I still couldn't tell what was off about it.
“I may have to write about this to Celestia.” I had never seen anything react like that that didn't have some massive amount of magic contained in it.
Placing the card back into the pack, I made a mental note to study it.
Morning seemed to come earlier than usual as I looked out the window and noticed the beams of light coming from the glass panes.
Throughout the rest of the night I had spent a good portion of it looking through the archives of my knew library section to try and find anything that had to do about cards. Only several books were were salvaged from the old library, but thankfully most of those had been the ones I had keep in a special storage chest protected by a spell.
Of course none of those book had anything on cards, stuff about old magical artifacts. Those had been the first books I looked through but came up with no results.
Hours of searching turned up no results for what I was looking for. Dozens, if not hundreds, of books littered the floor of the large room. Several shelves had empty spaces where many of the books were supposed to be.
My frustration was growing by the second, there was nothing on this type of card in any of the books I had.
One of the beams of light partly blinded me as the suns light hit my face. Finally getting me to put down the books.
“Morning already?!” Getting to my hooves I started using my magic to put all the books back in there proper places.
As soon as I finished putting the books away, then I gathered the card and the pack carrying it. I race down the hall and out the door. Spike was probably to tired to send a message to the princess, but thankfully I knew a very secret way to contact her, one that I myself had come up with years ago.
I ran towards the outskirts of town and towards one of the many little lakes that ponies used to keep cool in summer. Nopony was around simply because of the fact it was fall and starting to get cold. The water was shining and shimmering in the beautiful sun light.
Walking up to the waters edge calmly, I scanned the area just to make sure that there really was nopony around. Thoroughly satisfied that I was alone, I quickly went to work on the spell. The water slowly began to swirl around right in front of me. A small whorl pool began to form and take shape, slowly settling into an almost perfect image of Celestia.
“Celestia!” I shout. The image shakes and shrinks a little before it turns to face me.
“Twilight?” I could hear Celestia's voice come from the image in the water. Confirming that the spell had been successful. As a child Celestia would often drink tea early in the morning just after she would raise the sun. I had come up with this spell while studying under her in my early years. Her guards were often to strict to let me go see her in the mornings. This spell was my solution.
“Yes, Prin-er . . . yes, Celestia it's me.”
The image looked straight at me. “Well this brings back memories of when you first started appearing in my tea, as you are now. May I ask why you have chose this means to contact me?”
With a slight blush I looked the image of Celestia in the eye. “Spike is most likely still asleep and I did not want to wake him. Besides I thought it would be better to talk to you in a more . . . direct way.”
Celestia raised an eye brow at me and motioned for me to continue.
Taking a deep breath I used a little more magic to pull the card out of my pack. “Spike and I found this card the other day on our walk back from Applejack's house.”
Celestia did her best to try and look at the card, “forgive me if I fail to see how that is relevant.”
I move the card closer to the image in the water. “Last night I heard a rather odd humming sound that woke me up. When I went to investigate the source of the sound I found this card glowing crazy bright in my pack.”
Celestia placed a hoof to her chin trying to examine the card, most likely through her cup of tea. “I do not recognize this card Twilight, but I would suggest you keep it under watch if you feel as though something is strange about this particular card.”
“Okay Celestia.”
“But,” she says with a hint of skepticism. “Be careful. If I can not tell you what this item is. It may contain magics far more dangerous then that of even the 'alicorn amulet', and that is if this card is a magic item.”
Biting my lip I nod to let Celestia know that I understood what that may mean. “Alright Celestia. I'll keep a watchful eye out.”
“One more thing.” Taking a deep breath as I waited for Celestia to continue. “You may want to also consult Discord, for he may know somethings that even I do not know.”
“Alright Princess, thank you for the advice.”
With one final farewell I ended the spell. Leaving myself alone by the waters edge.
Taking out the card one more time I looked at the blank side once again. Only this time the blank side seemed to have the faintest of images on it.