//------------------------------// // The archives await // Story: Teen Titans Trapped in Equestria // by Blood_rose_doll //------------------------------// The Titans followed their pony guides through the castle until they reached a door that looked like any other in the hallway. Twilight opened it and walked in. Raven, who was really curious about these archives, started to float off the ground. She watched as the other ponies filed into the room and she was a little too quick to follow. Just inside the door Raven saw bookshelves placed in a circle, in the center of the circle was what looked like a giant hourglass on a podium, and above the hourglass was a domed skylight letting in natural light. The bookshelves held not only books but scrolls as well. In fact, it looked like half the items on the shelves were scrolls. Raven floated over to the nearest bookshelf and ran her fingers over the top of the books. She was surprised when she found no dust on them. She looked to the side to see everyone else had made it to the hourglass. Floating over, she joined her friends. Robin watched Raven and waited till she joined everyone to speak up. "So where would the books be?" Robin looked to Twilight who started to rub the back of her head in embarrassment. "Actually... I have no idea." Beast Boy and Cyborg groaned. Robin's eyes narrowed as he glared slightly at the princess. Raven, on the other hand, floated up to the top of the nearest bookshelf. This drew the attention of everyone and everypony in the room. She took a book and scroll off the shelf. She tossed the book down to Shining below who easily caught it with his magic. "I guess we start looking then." Twilight nodded and picked a bookshelf at random to search. The rest of the ponies and Titans split up to tackle the shelves in pairs. Starfire went with Applejack so she could get the high books for her. Cyborg paired with Fluttershy. Beast Boy turned into a squid to get more done at once and paired with Rarity. Robin went with Twilight. Rainbow Dash was like lightning and picked a bookshelf all by herself. Shining paired with Cadance, of course, which left Raven alone with Pinkie Pie. Raven sighed when she saw the huge smile on Pinkie's face. Pinkie did not falter though and gave a military salute. Raven took one last glance around and then closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and focused her magic. When she opened her eyes, they were glowing black. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" None of the Titans flinched but all of the ponies turned to look at Raven. The books and scrolls on the top half of the shelf glowed black. They started to shake slightly before they all flew off the shelf at once. They started to circle Raven and then a beam of what looked like words shot out of each of them. The word beams all melded into Raven and she shut her eyes as she absorbed the knowledge. After watching this display for a few seconds the ponies went back to what they were doing. Pinkie stared for another few seconds before shrugging and getting to work. Everyone and everypony was hard at work with only the sounds of paper being heard. Then the silence was finally broken. "Oh!" Princess Cadance held a book in front of her face with a strange symbol on the cover. She read over whatever was in the book a couple more times and then started flipping through the pages. She frowned at the random page she had stopped on and then showed it to Shining. He also frowned at the book. Twilight was watching all this happen and became too curious to continue to look through the books around her. She placed them all back on the shelf and flew over to her brother. She took one look at the book and snatched it from her brother. She started flipping through the book until she reached the end then she opened the front cover. "This is it!" Twilight exclaimed. Robin walked over and Twilight held the book up to him. She flipped the page and looked at Robin. "Is this a language from your dimension?" Robin shook his head sadly and then looked to Raven. Raven had just finished going through the books and scrolls. She looked around and when she saw Robin looking at her she became curious. She floated down to him and Twilight shifted the book to her. Raven looked down at the book and quick as a flash snatched it out of Twilight's magic. Robin and Twilight waited expecting her to clear everything up then she frowned. Raven looked up from the book to Robin still bearing that frown. "I don't recognize this language. It's definitely not from Earth or Azarath." Twilight sighed and shook her head. "Then all we know is that this is a diary." Robin and Raven looked to Twilight. Robin's eyebrows scrunched down in confusion. "How do you know it's a diary?" Robin asked. Twilight gingerly grabbed the front pages of the book with her magic. Raven moved her hand and watched as Twilight flipped the pages to the very beginning of the book. There written in plain english were these words: This is the diary of my dear friend of his day to day life here in Equestria. Until I devise a way to get him home he will use this to keep track of everything that happens to him. - Starswirl Raven read over it a couple of times and then looked up to Twilight. Without having to say anything, Twilight nodded. "It seems you were right. That spell you found was a return spell for another dimensional traveler that Starswirl encountered." By now all the Titans and ponies had come over. They could no longer keep looking as their curiosity had gotten the better of them. Then being able to hold it no longer Twilight squealed and started to bounce on her hooves like a little filly. "This is amazing! You aren't the first dimensional travelers to end up here. Imagine the places we could go if we cracked dimensional travel." The Titans looked at each other with worried expressions. Shining saw this and he recognized that look. "Do you not think that is a good idea?" Shining asked concern clear in his voice. All the Titans looked to him and then turned to their leader. Robin sighed deeply and turned to the ponies. "I may not be an expert in other dimensions..." He glanced at Raven, who looked away. "Though I do know how our dimension is. In truth, we are crime fighters in our dimension. We fight guys who try to kill us or destroy the very Earth." Again there was a quick glance at Raven to see she was plagued by memories of her father. Twilight and Shining saw this one though and the expression on Raven's face confused them. "It can be very dangerous at times... I don't know how well you all would fare there." Twilight and Shining had not taken their eyes off Raven. When Raven glanced over and saw this she quickly turned around and floated away. Shining started to go after her but Robin stopped him with a shake of his head. Raven left the archives and stood outside the door by herself. Starfire was torn for another moment before looking to Robin. "I will check on friend Raven." Robin nodded to Star and she flew out of the archives after Raven. Shining looked to Robin with a questioning look. "Something we should know about? Is something the matter with her?" Shining showed only concern but Robin still felt like he threatened Raven's feelings. "It's fine." Shining looked taken aback by the sneer in Robin's voice. Trying to brush it off, Twilight stepped up next to her brother and nudged his side with hers. When she spoke it was in a softer voice than normal. "I'm sure she has her reasons. On the topic of you all though, is it really that dangerous in your world all the time?" Robin seemed to relax and sent a quick glance to the door. He crossed his arms as he looked back at Twilight. "It can be, unfortunately, especially for people like us." Twilight looked to her brother and then back to Robin. She had a determined look on her face now. "We aren't exactly defenseless you know." Shining looked down at his little sister with shock. Cadance walked up to him and placed a hoof around his neck. The rest of the ponies stood behind Twilight as if to support her. Applejack raised her hoof and pointed at Robin. "We deal with all kinds of nasty critters." Applejack's hoof now moved to point at Fluttershy. "Fluttershy took on a full grown dragon." Fluttershy shifted on her hooves before looking up at Robin. "He just needed to be reminded that other ponies were affected by his decisions," Fluttershy said, hiding behind her mane. Rainbow Dash was the next to show her support by speaking up. "You should have seen how Twilight stood up to Tirek. It was the most awesome battle ever!" Rarity fluffed her hair and made a small 'humph' sound. "That was impressive darling, but don't forget about how we stopped Discord from spreading his chaos everywhere." Pinkie giggled at that. "That was actually pretty fun what with the pink cotton candy clouds that rained chocolate. Then there was the manticore or maybe Nightmare Moon. Oh! How about when we saved the crystal kingdom from Sombra? Oh! How about...." "That's enough, Pinkie. I think they get the point," Twilight interrupted her friend. She looked Robin in the eye with that determined look on her face again. "We can handle ourselves." Robin wasn't so sure but he said nothing. After all they could say whatever they wanted but he had never actually seen any of their skills in battle in person. Twilight went to speak again when the door to the archives opened again and Raven walked in followed closely by Starfire. She walked over to Robin and he placed a hand on her head. She looked up at him and he smiled at her. He watched as she gave a small smile before they both looked to Twilight. Twilight sighed instead of speaking again. She looked to her brother who frowned at her. "I thought you only wanted to help them get home." Concern for his sister was all over his face. He also knew if she left he could not follow her. He had duties to see to back at the crystal kingdom along with Cadance. Twilight looked up at her big brother and frowned. "Aren't you interested in what we could learn from other dimensions?" Cadance dropped her hoof from around her husband's neck. She looked at her sister in-law. "I think your brother is just worried that it might be more dangerous than you think it will be. Besides, you have duties now as a princess." Twilight huffed but nodded slowly. "I guess it would be wise to think about it a bit more at least." Cadance smiled at her sister in-law. Twilight trotted over and nuzzled under her neck. Shining watched Twilight for a second more before turning to Robin. "We might want to ask Princess Celestia about this traveller. She may know something." He glanced at the skylight to see that the sun was still up. "Good, she hasn't lowered the sun yet. She will still be up." This caused Beast Boy to perk up and then he laughed. "Dude, the sun goes down on its own." All the ponies gave him weird looks and Cyborg clapped his buddy on the shoulder. "I don't think that is so here, BB." Beast Boy looked at the ponies with a confused look of his own. "Really?" Twilight nodded and pointed to the skylight with a hoof. "The sun is controlled by Celestia, and her sister Luna controls the moon and stars." All the Titans looked up through the skylight with interest. Then Raven looked down to the ponies. She saw that Shining and Twilight were still watching her. She looked away to try and forget that they were staring at her. They only looked on in concern but Raven knew that would change if they knew the truth about her. Though, as she looked at her friends she wondered briefly if they would be as accepting of her as her friends had been. Then she thought of the way they had been treated and how happy this dimension seemed to be. Surely a demon would be someone they would not consider a friend here. As long as she kept her emotions under control nothing would happen, she told herself. Robin and the rest of the Titans looked back down to the ponies then Robin spoke up. "Then I guess we should go talk to the princess." Twilight nodded and started for the door. Everybody and everypony were quick to follow. They all followed close behind Twilight and occasionally passed a guard who saluted the princesses. Finally they arrived at a set of double doors that went almost to the very high ceiling with two guards posted out front. Twilight walked up and smiled. "We request an audience with Princess Celestia." One of the guards saluted and entered the room. A minute later he emerged and opened one of the huge doors then the other. Taking this as her cue Twilight entered the room. The rest of the ponies entered behind her followed by the Titans. Starfire was the last in and then the doors were shut behind her. When Star looked around at the room, she gasped. The inside was not as big as she had expected but it was gorgeous. Everything in the room seemed to represent light and the sun. There was even a fireplace to the right of the door. Sitting in the middle of the room on a large pillow was Celestia herself. She was looking over a scroll but as Twilight walked up to her she set it down. With a gentle smile she watched as Twilight sat down in front of her. "What may I do for all of you?" Twilight passed her the book she was still holding and Celestia frowned slightly at the cover. She flipped it open and read the first page and then flipped through the book. After a minute she shut the book and gave it back to Twilight. "It seems you have found something quite interesting." "Do you know what it says then?" Twilight leaned forward in anticipation but Celestia shook her head. "I'm afraid the only one who will know what that says is the one who wrote it. I dare say not even Starswirl knew what was written in this book." Twilight sighed as she looked at her mentor. "So I guess we hit another dead end." Celestia gave Twilight another gentle smile and stood from her pillow. "Not necessarily." Celestia walked over to a small bookcase and pulled one of the books off. "There is a spell that allows the pony to understand a foreign language for a short time, though it only works if the pony it is cast on understands multiple languages already." Celestia flipped through the book and then showed the page she stopped on to Twilight. Twilight looked over the spell and then up to Celestia with a somewhat sad expression. "But I don't speak multiple languages." Celestia gave a small nod and then looked to Raven. Raven, who knew where this was headed, had started to edge toward the doors. Now as Celestia's gaze landed on her she froze. Twilight followed Celestia's eyes and then smiled. She stood and trotted over to Raven. "I can probably adjust this spell to work on you, if you would be willing to give it a try." Raven looked down at Twilight and then finally with a small sigh she nodded. Twilight beamed up at her and then turned back to Celestia. Celestia chuckled lightly at her student's eagerness to learn a new spell. "Perhaps this should be saved for tomorrow. Luna and I are just about to lower the sun and raise the moon. You all are more than welcome to come watch." Twilight deflated ever so slightly but nodded. They all followed Celestia as she stepped out on her balcony. From here they could also see the other tower of the castle where Luna stood ready. "Art thou ready to begin dear sister?" Celestia nodded to her little sister and then looked to the sun. The Titans watched in wonder as her horn was set alight and the sun started to descend into the horizon. Just as it was descending it painted the sky in the most beautiful sunset colors. Then from the other horizon the moon started to rise and they looked to Luna to see her horn lit up. Finally the sun vanished and the moon rose into place in the sky. Finally the stars twinkled in the sky one by one until the sky was covered in them. Then Luna looked back to her older sister. "'Tis done now we may go and feast on dinner before thou retire to thy bed." Beast Boy scratched his head. "What did she say?" Celestia chuckled lightly but Luna gave Beast Boy a disapproving look. "She said it's time for dinner and then bed," Twilight helpfully whispered to Beast Boy. He nodded his thanks and she smiled in return.. Then they all went back to the dining room where they ate again before they were each led to a room by a guard pony. Raven looked around her room with a sigh before laying down on top of the covers and quickly falling asleep.