//------------------------------// // Inquiries // Story: Philosophy, Deceit, and the Regrets of a Monster // by MenialLabor //------------------------------// Blacklight is, by his very nature, an analytical being. A thinker; and a very fast one at that. Being a predator whose primary means of hunting is either brute force or disguise, he can usually tell when those around him are about to lose control. “I theorize that my sister and I are from another world altogether.” It was upon uttering that statement did Blacklight realize he made a mistake. “You’re an alien!?” A rather stupid one at that, though it seemed like a good idea at the time. Despite all of his skills, Blacklight was never good at dealing with people in a subtle manner, especially when he doesn’t have a consumed personality feeding him info on what to do in any situation. In many ways, Blacklight was even less charming than his creator. Blacklight’s logic behind being so blunt seemed simple. Clearly, this Twilight Sparkle had never heard of his kind before, and the short exchange about species and culture enlightened the virus to a very important factor to his and his sister’s presence in the town of equines. There were more than one sapient species in this world. It would explain the reactions up to that point only being nervous. Before he was some exotic person from the other side of the world. The only one who seemed aware of his origins was the pink one, who had at one point dropped the world ‘alien’ in his presence. Blacklight’s main goal beyond his sister’s survival is to get back to a familiar location. Clearly since whatever anomaly had sent he and his sister to this place most likely originated from the unicorns’ anomalous properties, his best chance of getting back to the Earth he knew was to rip off the Band-Aid, and tell them right away he was not of their world so they could be snappy about sending he and his sister back. It had to be possible; too much of the world was too similar to his own to have had no contact before. Countless conspiracy theorists babbled in his head about the origin of myths and magic in history, Greek tales of miracles actually being extranormal events caused by contact between a world of ‘myths’ and a world of man. So he was blunt when the question came up. They would have eventually figured out his origins anyway, so being able to deny that he lied about it would help in the long run. It was with these thoughts in mind did Blacklight tense up at the sight of every single living thing in the building staring at him in silence. Eyes wide, pupils dilated; their fight or flight instincts were kicking in at the very thought of him being from another world. Really, it was frustrating that the weapon of mass destruction with intellect beyond any human genius didn’t think a situation through. They were wary of him and his sister being different before they were aware of their extraterrestrial origins; how the hell did he think they would react!? But there was no time to berate himself about his uncharacteristic stupidity (though in hindsight it isn’t the first time he failed to think something entirely through; the climax of his first fight with Specialist Cross came to mind), as there was a building full of scared superponies in the presence of his ever-so-fragile sister. Blacklight had to think fast. One wrong word could trigger an attack. He could slaughter anyone daring to attack him even while in his ‘advanced’ disguise mode, but his worries were on his sister. He couldn’t just lash out anymore, not with her nearby. He had to diffuse the situation. He had to reach in and use his inner diplomat. “If I’m correct... that is an appropriate description.” It should be noted that Blacklight had never consumed a diplomat. He made a mental note to do that sometime. It was too late then. The words were out, and the ponies’ reaction was immediate. They surged forward, abandoning their treats and groups to get closer to him. Battle cries filled the building as a tidal wave of pastel colored hell came towards him. He was a split second from forming a blade to cleave through the incoming crowd when he realized the words the little equines were shouting were not necessarily... hostile. “Wow, you’re an alien!?” “Do you have a space ship?” “Why aren’t you green?” “Do you abduct ponies?” “Where are your antennae?” “Let me see your lasers!” Blacklight’s eyes flicked back and forth erratically, seeing the wave of ponies crawl straight into his personal space, hooves beating the wooden planks that made of the floor mercilessly. At a complete loss for words, he looked to Dana for help on the matter of being swarmed by a decidedly non-hostile force; an experience he had never been involved in before. He then scowled with annoyance when he saw his sister was, in fact, laughing. Hysterically. She didn’t even understand a word of what they were saying or what he said to put them in this strange mob of childish equines, but apparently she understood that he was then effectively the life of the party. She must have found it hilarious. Blacklight, feeling vaguely betrayed, attempted to ward off the crowd of curious equines with a menacing glare; it worked before after all. He found that his gaze no longer had the same effect. They didn’t even seem to notice through their haze of sudden curiosity over his origins. He looked up to Dana again with a pleading look for any kind of help, but once again was only graced with the sight of her laughter. The living weapon of mass destruction stewed in silence as a crowd of little pastel colored talking ponies pelted him with stupid questions all at once. Blacklight mused that if Hell existed, it couldn’t possibly be more agonizing than the situation he found himself in during that moment. Feet pounded the dirt as he sprinted through the abandoned park. Wind forced him to narrow his piercing green eyes, a blue and white striped scarf fluttered in the wind frantically behind him. No heed was paid to obstacles such as fences and rocks, as they were quickly passed. His teeth glinted as he clenched them, surging forward with all his might. Behind him, there were pursuers. Covered head to toe in black cloth, the ponies’ identity was concealed. Only their eyes revealed their nature; red and gleaming with malice. Try as he might, his legs simply weren’t a match for the incoming ponies. They quickly caught up to their quarry. In response, a foot met the face of the enemy with a crack, the black-clad pony flying back in a squeal of surprise as it was knocked unconscious. Heedless of its fallen comrade, a second pony came in for the strike, only to be ruthlessly backhanded by a muscled hand into a nearby thorny rosebush. He stopped, realizing the futility of running, and gazed at his attackers. There were four ponies surrounding him, each tense and ready to strike. It was obvious that he was going to have to fight his way out. Clutching the scarf close to his body, he was prepared to protect the precious cargo with his life. The first pony came running, before jumping to perform a flying kick. Without a hint of hesitation, he grappled the pony’s incoming ankle and used it as a club to bat away the second pony who had been charging. The first pony, after being used as an improvised weapon, was discarded. A third pony approached, rearing back for a punch and wholly unprepared for the quickness of the target’s reflexes. He dodged, counter-attacking the pony by grabbing it by the fetlock and flipping it. The pony came down on the soil with a heavy thud, before simply curling up and moaning for its mother. The fourth and final pony was shaking, silently debating with itself whether or not the Scarf of Beauty Personified was worth its continued health. He only had one thing to say. “Run.” The black-clad pony wisely turned tail and fled. Spike grinned victoriously, sharp teeth pearly white. His purple and green scales glinted beatifically in the glorious sunlight, his tail swinging back and forth behind him restlessly. Clawed, four fingered hands delicately checked his precious cargo; the Scarf of Beauty Personified. It remained untarnished, it’s perfect stitching holding together in even the most viscous of battles. The finest silk in the land made it seemingly sparkle in the light of the sun; surely, the perfect scarf for the most beautiful creature to ever grace the world... Rarity. ...Of course, none of that actually happened. But Spike was certain that if pony ninjas actually did attack him, it would probably go down like that. Spike frowned when he realized that he stopped in his tread for the sole purpose of daydreaming about beating up ninjas. He blushed and looked around, and sighed with relief when he found that nopony was in the area; everypony was at the party. Speaking of the party. Spike took off in a sprint, his two stubby legs going as fast as they could. Which, compared to ponies, was not very fast. The blue and white striped scarf fluttered behind him but never touched the ground; Spike was very careful after all. Before the surprise party inviting the new (strangely named) guests to the town began, Rarity had offhoofedly mentioned forgetting her favorite scarf. Spike, having overheard, decided to retrieve it for her as a surprise. This was because he’s just such a nice drake. It most certainly was not to gain additional brownie points from the most beautiful unicorn in existence and perhaps a peck on the cheek as well. Though admittedly, those things would be fine bonuses to follow his deed of chivalry. Spike found himself coming closer to the library (not that he was complaining, but who throws a party in a library?), he quickly gathered from the noise he heard that the party was already in full swing. Heck, the ponies sounded pretty darn excited from where Spike was standing, so those mystery guests must be an exciting pair! When Spike had thrown open the doors, he was graced with a very odd sight. A huge crowd of ponies amassed around what had to be the least amused creature in existence. The tall biped wore a scowl and glared at the ponies scrambling and shouting for his (at least, Spike assumes it’s a he) attention. Spike, at the sound of explosive laughter, turned right to see another similar female creature (mammaries clearly marked gender; Twilight was almost painfully thorough on Spike’s biology lessons) which, quite unlike the first, was very amused with the situation at hoof. Speaking of Twilight... “QUIET!” The library immediately quieted at the sound of the angry librarian’s voice. They all turned away from the guest to face Twilight, who was heaving slightly from the shout. She then cleared her throat and regained composure. The being took that moment of distraction to suddenly shift his gaze to Spike, which made the latter flinch. There was no look of surprise or bewilderment he was used to from strangers unaware of a baby dragon’s presence, but rather a blank yet intense stare. Spike couldn’t help but feel like he was being dissected under the gaze. “Now,” Twilight began, a soft smile on her face. “I’m sure we all have many questions to ask Mr. Mercer, but he can only answer if we ask one. At. A. Time.” Immediately, as if they were in a schoolhouse, everypony raised their hooves. “Mercer” broke his gaze -Spike gasped, unaware he had even been holding his breath- and stared at the ponies looking expectantly at him. An interesting cocktail of emotion sparked on Mercer’s face; hesitance, annoyance, bewilderment, and finally resignation. He half-heartedly pointed a hand at a blue pony with a blue and white striped mane (Minuette, Spike remembered). The pony smiled wide and put her hoof down. “Can you read minds?” she asked. Spike felt as if he was missing something important, while Mercer’s frown was so deep it could have pierced Tartarus. “...No,” he stated flatly. Spike shrugged and was about to go find Rarity to deliver her scarf, when he was interrupted by a wall of purple wearing a smile. “Spike! There you are!” Twilight said, her horn aglow with power and a quill scribbling rapidly on a scroll. She quickly finished whatever she was writing, rolled up the scroll, and sealed it with a royal seal. Spike’s eyes widened; you knew it was important when Twilight didn't ask him to write the letter. “Send this to Princess Celestia immediately please! Oh, this is so exciting!” Twilight said, doing a little dance on her hooves as she magicked the scroll into Spike’s claw. “Uh, okay Twi. But what’s this all about?” he asked, gesturing a claw to the scroll. “Spike,” Twilight began, her grin growing. “we are in the presence of... extraterrestrials!” “Aliens?” Spike asked, skeptical. He turned to look at the female, who still stood with some unknown snack food in hand watching Mercer, who was answering yet another question with a flat ‘no’. They sure didn’t look alien. He would’ve expected more eyes. Or no eyes, for that matter. He ultimately shrugged, held up the scroll, sucked in a breath, and blew a stream of bright green fire onto the scroll which quickly disintegrated the letter. He noticed the female alien flinch and shout an alarm from the corner of his eye at the action. The scroll’s ashes were then sent flying out the window, towards Canterlot. “Done,” Spike smiled. Twilight nodded in satisfaction. “Thank you Spike!” She then ran back to the crowd and rose her hoof like most of the other ponies. Spike stood there for a moment, before shrugging and searching for Rarity in the crowd... “Gah, holy fuck!” Dana exclaimed as she flinched back from the little green fireball that suddenly consumed the scroll the little lizard was holding. She idly noticed her brother’s gaze snap very suddenly to her position, before he seemed to see there was nothing wrong and went back to answering questions in horse-Greek. She watched the little lizard creature practically waddle with its stubby little legs as it seemed to search for someone, while the little purple unicorn with mind powers wandered back into the crowd and eagerly raised her hoof among the other ponies, like it was a massive classroom. Dana had no idea what was said that made all the little ponies react like fucking schoolchildren, but that hardly mattered to her. What mattered was that it was cute as fuck. Honestly, Dana hadn’t known the definition of cute until she saw a shitton of tiny multicolored horses with huge eyes gazing at her scowly brother with such awe and curiosity plain on their cute little (proportionately massive) faces. She saw Alex point towards the purple unicorn she saw a bit earlier, and her grin doubled in size. She immediately used her freaky purple mind powers to conjure a fucking notepad out of nowhere with a quill to match, and asked her question. “Poia eínai i̱ analogía andró̱n-gynaikó̱n ti̱s fylí̱s sas?” She gibbered in her frankly unpronounceable language. Alex stared at the unicorn for a second, the other ponies looking back at her with odd looks. Eventually, Alex answered. “Misó.” That seemed to satisfy the purple one, as she quickly started writing something definitely longer than what Alex had actually said on her notepad. Holy shit that’s adorable, Dana thought to herself. That must be the village nerd. Dana gazed around the room she was in for a bit, noting the woeful lack of chairs, before deciding that she was bored and she needed something to do. Listening to the indecipherable Q&A going on would only serve to frustrate her, as she could only guess what was being said. She tried such when Alex picked another pony from the crowd to talk. “Is your sister Dana Mercer truly the greatest mind of her generation?” The pony asked, grinning with excitement. “Hell fucking yes.” Alex affirmed. At least, Dana was pretty sure that ‘óchi’ meant some variation of yes. Dana sighed, before noting that she was in a library. A thought bubbled up questioning who in the right mind would throw a party such as the one she was in within a library. She quickly pushed that thought away, as logic and sense clearly were optional factors within the cartoonish little girl’s land she found herself in. Shrugging and standing up straight from the shelf she had been leaning on, she picked a book at random and looked at the cover. ‘Διαειδική Σχέσεις και Μπορείτε’ it said in elegant engraving. Dana’s gaze quickly went half-lidded. She didn’t know why she expected the books to be written in English, or even use the fucking English alphabet for that matter. She rolled her eyes and put the book back where it came from, before scanning the books on the shelf for one that probably had pictures in it. After finding a book with a particularly thick binding, she pulled it out and quickly skimmed the pages, satisfied to see quite a few illustrations in the book. She briefly looked at the cover for the title. ‘Μια Σύντομη Ιστορία της Ιππασία’ ...She couldn’t even begin to understand how that was supposed to be pronounced, so she simply assumed it was some kind of encyclopedia. Dana leaned against the shelf as she flipped the first few pages out of the way to be met with a medieval-looking drawing of... something. Strange, was what is was. It was some kind of serpent-like creature with the head of a horse, some kind of ice horn and an antler on its head, and all other kinds of mismatched parts. The creature was laughing and eating... cotton candy? as it dangled a pony from a string above a pit of fire. Dana took a wild guess and figured that the goat-snake thing was the asshole of the story. She continued to flip through the elegantly illustrated images, seeing fantastical creatures and situations everywhere in the book. It dawned on her that she had no way of knowing if the book she held was a history book or a book of mythology. She noted a few reoccurring characters, most notably the white pegacorn with the sun on its ass and the blue pegacorn with the moon on its ass. It didn’t take her very long to figure that these were deity-type beings and were responsible for the governing of celestial bodies. After flipping back a few pages, Dana discovered that, lo and behold, she was right. Stylized imagery of the two equine figures with glowing horns and moving suns and moons were shown quite often in the beginning chapters of whatever book she had gotten. She supposed that the little ponies having gods isn’t very surprising. Really, what was she expecting when entering the population of pastel colored magical ponies, militant atheists? Dana looked up from her book when she heard a commotion coming from outside the library door. She heard a ‘thump’ followed by quite a lot of clopping. Curious, Dana wandered over towards that side of the building, politely sidestepping a few ponies in her way, to peer out the window. The first thing the sight in front of her did is make her chuckle. It was a very ornate chariot, dragged by a great many serious-looking armored ponies, with a very large white unicorn in the chariot itself. Horses dragging chariots carrying more horses. Then she paid attention to the one in the chariot. Big, was the first word to come to her mind. Almost the size of an actual horse horse. She (at least, it looked like a she) had a massive mane and tail, which featured washed versions of all the colors of the rainbow, and to top it all off, they fucking waved in the breeze. Majestically. It was upon seeing more details of the approaching pony did Dana’s alarm begin to grow a bit. The pony had both a horn and wings, was much bigger than other ponies, and had a sun on her ass. After doing a quick doubletake from the book to the approaching pony, did Dana draw up two possible conclusions. One; approaching was one of two tyrannical dictators that brainwashed an entire population into believing her to be a goddess. Two; approaching was a literal fucking goddess in physical form. Unsure of which possibility was worse, she quickly decided that being close to Alex was a good idea either way. Quickly placing her book on a nearby shelf, she started towards her brother. “Do you eat ponies?” “No,” Blacklight answered honestly. Oh, how he wished he wasn’t honest in that instance. To say the virus was wound up would be like saying it’s a little nippy in Antarctica. Surrounded by so many soft bodies with so many mysteries in their little heads filled Blacklight with a bloodlust. Really, the only situation he could think of that would make him even tenser would be to put him in an elevator with several high ranking Blackwatch officers and telling him to play nice. Catching something tall moving towards him from the corner of his eye, Blacklight turned to see Dana approaching him with a worried expression. Worried. Blacklight, unknown to everyone there but him, had suddenly gone into kill mode. His carefully constructed internal disguise that took the form of fully functioning human anatomy immediately dropped, the fake organs dissolving themselves into the mass of writhing matter they usually are. His body temperature began to pick up rapidly, his biomass began to swirl at the surface of his ‘skin’ anxiously. Something had his sister worried. If it bled, he would kill it. Walking through the crowd of ponies which parted in her path, Dana came up to her brother and leaned in. “Heads up; royalty’s on the way,” she said in a hushed tone. Blacklight opened his mouth to ask what she meant, when the library door suddenly slammed open. Six white, armored pegasi swiftly entered, spears somehow grasped in their hooves. Three lined up on one side of the door, three lined up on the other. The virus mused that it was good that Dana came to him. Had Dana been where she was when the soldiers came in, he would have likely gone berserk at the very sight of the weapons and eliminated the perceived threat. Blacklight briefly wondered how any official, let alone royalty, would be able to get word of their existence so quickly with such technology. He quickly dismissed the thought, however, and immediately attributed it to another of the ponies’ strange abilities. He thought back to the tiny purple lizard burning the scroll, and how the ashes flew in a very... intelligent way. Out the window and in a specific direction if he recalled correctly, despite the lack of wind. The last pony soldier on Blacklight’s right cleared his throat. “Presenting her Royal Highness Princess Celestia!” Blacklight scowled. Perhaps it was the title, perhaps it was the entrance, perhaps it was simply because he never got along with any form of authority, but Blacklight immediately decided he didn’t like this Celestia. As all the ponies in the room turned towards the door and bowed reverently, Blacklight gripped Dana’s right upper arm with his left hand. Partially for assurance, but mostly to prevent her from kneeling or bowing just because everyone else is doing so. My sister bows to no one, he internally growled. Then, in came royalty. Ducking slightly to avoid bumping the massive spear of a horn against the top of the door frame, a large white pony walked in, closer to the size of a horse than any other Blacklight had seen. Massive magenta eyes met his cold blue ones, and he had to remind himself not to glare. The mane and tail of the newcomer were rather fascinating, consisting of many colors like Rainbow Dash’s, but floating off in an intangible breeze. A golden tiara holding purple jewels sat upon the newcomer’s head, with matching shoes and a yoke around her neck. Everything about this pony seemed to radiate with power. Authority. Her presence demanded respect, whilst her demeanor radiated kindness and understanding. It was then that Blacklight decided without a doubt that he did not like this “Princess Celestia” at all. Anyone who tried that hard to be disarming in appearance was hiding something. Despite the fact that Celestia had a soft smile on her lips, Blacklight knew she was sizing him up. Blacklight looked her in the eye, and she met his gaze without blinking. However, he noticed the ever-so-slight tremor in one of her legs and the subtle tensing of her neck muscles. He repressed the urge to smirk. She knows a predator when she sees one. He knew he shouldn’t have been so antagonistic towards her, even if it was very subtle, but it was almost an instinctive response. She strutted in, arrogant with her head held high as if she was the biggest fish in the pond. It was only natural that a predator like Blacklight would look to correct this assumption. Beyond the eye contact and silent challenge, however, Blacklight would be perfectly civil. After all, Dana wouldn’t approve if he pulled Celestia’s spine out unless she started it. “Greetings and welcome to Equestria, visitors,” she said, her small smile widening and her eyes alighting with what appeared to be genuine happiness. “I am, as was announced, Princess Celestia, Diarch of Equestria. It is a pleasure to meet you.” Her voice was tinged with this aggravating motherly tone that seemed to be engineered specifically to gain the trust of all those who listened. Worst of all; she seemed to actually believe Blacklight was a pleasure to meet. It was then that Blacklight finally realized why he didn’t like Celestia, despite only having said a single sentence to him and never having heard of her beforehand. She felt as if she were the very avatar of the land; whimsical, sweet, kind, and far too good to be true. He was suddenly overcome with the urge to peel back the princess’s skull and investigate what dreams of chronic she really had whist hiding behind such a convincing façade. Instead, he smiled politely. He noted from the corner of his eye that Dana was giving him a weird look, and he didn’t blame her; he had never smiled politely before. “It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Princess Celestia,” he clasped his hands behind his back. He hoped he was doing it right, as he had never consumed a politician. “My name is Alex Mercer,” he introduced. “and this is my sister, Dana Mercer,” he gestured towards Dana, who gave a little wave of her hand in greeting. Blacklight thought back to how she introduced herself. The term “diarch” would imply that not only was she in charge rather than a king or a queen, but there is a second ruler that was not present. He desperately wished the party would be over soon so he could make proper use of the library’s knowledge that would hopefully clear up a great many questions in his mind. Not only was the party showing no signs of wearing down, but now he also had to entertain royalty. It was surprising how slowly time could pass when simultaneously stressed and bored. As the night progressed, the addition of royalty in the equation made for surprisingly little difference in what had already been transpiring. That is, he continued to answer surprisingly stupid questions. The few intelligent questions came from the Twilight Sparkle and from the visiting royalty Celestia, who had taken to politely raising her hoof like everyone else. In the end, it was less of a party and more of a Q&A session that happened to serve punch. This infuriated Blacklight to no end, as he was only used to being in the spotlight while in the process of killing something. Eventually, ponies began to leave the library after apparently running out of stupid questions to ask, the princess had excused herself momentarily and then suddenly it was dark outside. At the end of the day, the ponies learned a few basic facts about human biology and society, whilst also confirming at least seven times that humans could not, in fact, read minds or fire lasers from their eyes. The experience left Blacklight wondering if this specific group of ponies was an outlier to the average, or if all ponies were as adept at wasting tremendous amounts of time. Soon enough however, the majority of the ponies left, leaving only Twilight Sparkle, a small lizard creature that had apparently retired for the night, two of the six armored pegasi that had come with Celestia, himself, and Dana in the building. Blacklight turned his gaze to Dana, who was currently sitting on the ground leaning against the wall. She looked fatigued and rather miffed from the lack of chairs, but also relieved that the day was winding down to an end. He didn’t blame her; all she did was sit back and observe him answer stupid questions in a language she did not understand. His attention was brought to the front door of the library, when Princess Celestia came through the door, ducking her head to avoid hitting her considerably long horn. Blacklight found it rather strange that such a supposedly important figure would spend so much time... mingling, in such a place. Then again, it may have been some effort to secure a diplomatic relationship between her people and, from her perspective, alien ambassadors. “It would appear that the festivities have come to a close,” the princess pointed out. Not having anything meaningful to say in response, Blacklight nodded. “I have very luxurious quarters prepared to accommodate yourself and your sister in Canterlot, if you’d be willing to return with me.” Blacklight blinked as he ran the name of the mentioned city back in his mind. ‘Tripodízo̱ló̱t’, she had said. Literally ‘canter’ and ‘a lot’ squished together in a way that only could be intentionally making an equine-based pun in reference to Camelot. This was the second time he had heard something like this, the first one being mention of Manehattan, or rather, mane-hat-on as the direct translation would state. He quickly took that line of thought and chucked into the rapidly growing pile of answerless questions he had built up in his mind. “How would we be travelling?” Blacklight asked. If it had anything to do with the unicorn-based anomalies he had been seeing, he would refuse immediately. He was not willing to allow his sister to come into contact with such a potentially dangerous unknown. The princess smiled, and gestured her head towards the door. “Via flight in my personal chariot. Would that be adequate?” Most certainly not; Blacklight was simply too heavy for that. While he could work magic with his density and manage to not crack every floorboard he stepped on, he was one hundred percent certain that merely six ponies would be enough to carry him through the air in a vehicle with any amount of success. Even the military helicopters he hijacked strained to carry him when he was at critical mass, which was a state he was just under in that moment. “Dana has a fear of heights,” Blacklight lied with ease, though Dana might actually take quite a bit of exception to being carried in a flying carriage. “It’s significant, so I’m afraid any form of flight simply isn’t an option.” Celestia frowned. “I suppose you two could take the train tomorrow morning, but where will you stay in the mean time?” Before Blacklight could answer, Twilight, who had been quietly cleaning up, interrupted. “They could stay in the library! I have two spare beds!” The princess glanced down at the little unicorn, before gazing back at Blacklight as a silent request for confirmation. Seeing no reason to object (he sincerely doubted Dana would go back into the forest for anything), he nodded. Celestia smiled, and turned to the unicorn. “Very well, my most faithful student. I must return to Canterlot, so I bid you and your sister farewell until tomorrow, Mr. Mercer.” The pegasus guards filed out, and Celestia soon followed. Twilight smiled. “I’ll get the beds ready.” With that, she turned and walked up some stairs and out of sight, presumably to the ‘living’ section of the library. When she had left, Dana stood up from the wall and approached Blacklight. “So what’s going on?” she asked. “We’re staying here for the night, and tomorrow we’re taking a train to a place called Tripodízo̱ló̱t,” he informed. “Okay, that’s good,” Dana nodded, before yawning. “Fuck, I’m tired.” Blacklight nodded, before ascending the stairs Twilight had taken. At the top was an excessively flowery room with an upper floor containing a single bed. Shelves containing additional books, vials with unknown liquids in them, and other such items were around the room but much fewer in number than downstairs. Two beds were on the lower floor, and the positioning of them suggested that they were not always there. They must be the spares. “Well, here they are!” Twilight said from where she was standing next to her bed on the upper floor. “I, uh, hope they’re big enough to hold you two,” she smiled sheepishly. “This should be perfectly adequate. Thank you for your hospitality,” he said, which prompted a series of mumbled variations of ‘it was no problem’ from the unicorn. Dana collapsed into one of the beds without another word, and despite the light of the room, already looked half asleep. Blacklight followed her lead, sitting and eventually lying down on the bed carefully, fully aware of the creaks of protest the wood was giving. “Goodnight Alex, Dana!” Twilight called from her bed, before the room’s light suddenly went dark. Blacklight waited, listening carefully. He held still, waiting for the breathing and heart rates of the room’s three other occupants (apparently the lizard was on the upper floor in a place he couldn’t see) to reflect that of deep sleep. After almost a half hour of waiting, Blacklight felt it was safe to move. Getting out of the bed he hadn’t bothered to crawl under the covers of, he swiftly descended the stairs into the main floor of the library. He looked around himself, wishing he could stay and properly research the land he was in. It was not to be, however. He had unfinished business. Blacklight stepped out the front door of the library, the hood of his gray hoodie rising over his head by itself. A black leather jacket with a familiar red tribal symbol on the back swirled into existence on his body. His almost-luminescent blue eyes pierced the darkness with ease, quickly locating the forest he and his sister came from. He had massive, bloodstained remains of an apartment to dispose of, as well as quite a lot of infected material. While the chances of something bad happening as a result of the virus’s presence was low due to the lack of humans, he was not about to take chances. He would make sure that the only sample of Blacklight in this world would be himself. With his mission clear, he sprinted towards the forest, his footsteps silent. Princess Luna, as the Princess of the Night, held dominion over the dreams of all that sleep within her country. It was her responsibility to sooth the dreams of her people, nay, all who lie within her land. No nightmare would be allowed to exist within her presence. The nightmares of ponies were often not very extreme and easily solved. Ponies are, at large, very innocent and naive creatures after all. They did not have much to truly fear beyond monsters made purely of their imagination. It was for this reason, that Princess Luna was alarmed when a very large, very sinister nightmare suddenly appeared within the Realm of Dreams. The very aura of the dream screamed dread, helplessness, and absolutely heart-crushing fear. The nightmare was so awful, that the residual magic from such an awful dream was beginning to effect nearby dreams negatively. Steeling herself for what was without a doubt the nightmare of the century, Princess Luna dived into the darkness, prepared for the worst. Nothing could have prepared her for what she was to witness in that nightmare.