My Little Balladeer

by Ardashir

Chapter 8

A gong rang, filling the air with clear silvery sound. The chatter within the room died down as the ponies began to settle, expectantly watching the curtain. Rainbow Dash hovered over the crowd, angling for the best view, half-a-dozen other pegasi doing the same. Beneath Dash stood Applejack, her hat making her obvious. Twilight hurried to her side, Rarity and Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie behind her. A glance showed her Spike trying to stand between her and Rarity. Bon Bon was nowhere to be seen. Twilight figured she must have gone off to try and find Lyra.

“Twi, y’all are here too?” Applejack hissed the words. “Ah was hoping t’get a chance t’ ask you ‘bout all this. Dash ‘n Ah spent near all day putting up posters all over town after we got them from the printer.”

“Yeah, Lyra said Thorn asked for our help in particular,” that came from Rainbow Dash, who eyed the curtain with an increasingly bored look. “She said he wanted the most dependable pony and the fastest Pegasus in Ponyville,” and her voice rose a bit to say that, “To do the work because then he’d know it was done, and how it couldn’t be done without our help.”

“She actually said ‘our participation’, Dash,” Applejack corrected her. Dash stuck her tongue out at her. The brown earth pony ignored her. “Ah’d kindly like to know just what-all I’m participatin’ in, Twi.”

“You’re not the only one, Applejack,” Twilight answered.

“Wait just a moment now,” I asked Applejack, and I felt right cold to be saying the words, “You say she said ‘participation’? She say that specifically?”

I saw Applejack rub at her jaw with one hoof, like airy human man or woman a-trying hard to remember something. She nodded.

“Those were her words, as near to exactly as I kin remember,” Applejack looked at me to say it. I saw a new worry in her eyes, and I felt low to be a-bringing all this to them, even if the damage’d been done afore and by another. ”Why, what’s wrong?”

“It’s an old belief, found one-two places yet back home where I come from and Thorne comes from,” I said as I ran my fingers along the silver strings of my guitar, “That if you sit and watch bad magic doings or the worship of wicked spirits and make no complaint, even if it’s just to yourself, you’re a-joining in and making yourself a part of it. It gives the bad thing power over you.” I might could have said more, but right then Twilight laughed.

“Oh, please, John! That’s not how magic works.” She pointed her hoof at a nearby wall of books. “I have centuries of magical theory and practice here. I’ve read those books through. I can quote chapters from memory. And there is no kind of magic in Equestria that works that way!”

Before I could say any more, Applejack spoke up again.

“That’s not how Equestrian magic works, yah mean. Remember what all Thorne showed us, Twi?”

“I, yes, I remember,” Twilight said back to her and me, sounding unsettled. “I saw everything everypony else did. Lyra walked out on the stage and it all started to happen.”

Twilight’s ears perked up as she saw Lyra walk out on the stage from the side. She stood upright and held her lyre in her forehooves, plucking the strings with her unicorn magic. She bore a smug look of victory, and as she walked she strummed a tune that Twilight couldn’t recall hearing before. It sounded dreamlike. She stopped playing as she reached center stage and turned to face the audience.

“Fillies and Gentlecolts!” she said in a voice filled with glee. “Tonight, we are honored to have among us a guest from worlds and spheres beyond our ken…”

Twilight winced. “’Beyond our ken’? Who talks like that?” She meant it for a whisper, but it still carried enough to bring a few whickering laughs in the crowd.

If Lyra heard it, she ignored it. “…bearing knowledge and secrets to be shared with us and us alone! All here tonight are called upon to witness and join in this new beginning…”

“When is it beginning?” Rainbow Dash called out, hooves cupped to her mouth. Several of the ponies laughed out loud. Twilight saw Lyra blush. But when she looked back up, she grinned in triumph as she said, “Greet our new friend and advisor, Rowley Thorn!”

The curtains swung back to either side, revealing a dais with a chair like a throne set atop it. An empty chair, at that. Two tall candelabras rose up on either side, their fetlock-thick candles shedding a dim light. Low whickers of laughter began to run through the crowd.

And Thorn appeared, seated atop the dais. He wore the robe Rarity made for him, and the jewels set at his throat flashed dark in the candlelight, giving his heavy face a sinister look. Twilight heard a low gasp of shock go through the crowd. She felt some admiration for Thorn’s showponyship in spite of herself. He’d just used an invisibility spell to mask his presence until the proper moment, but even so, judging from most everypony’s reaction, his use and timing were perfect.

Twilight thought Thorn looked somehow more massive than that morning, as though he’d grown in the hours since then. And then he stood up, and she realized that he’d grown and was still growing. He rose and swelled up like a balloon being inflated with air. Half again as tall as before, twice as tall, taller still, until she thought his head would be scraping the ceiling. His hands splayed out like pitchforks, his chest looked as broad as a barn door. He rose up on legs as thick as tree trunks. He glared down at the ponies as though the mere sight of them enraged him. A sudden gasp went through the crowd. Twilight saw some rise on their hooves as though getting ready to stampede. Even Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked a little daunted.

“Girls!” she hissed. They turned frightened eyes on her. “It’s nothing to be scared of, just another illusion spell! It’s all tricks.” She looked back at Thorn and got the idea that he looked at her in particular with those wrathful eyes. Twilight swallowed and said in a voice that sounded shakier than she cared for, “Just very well-done tricks.”

Thorn lashed out with his hands, left, right. He snuffed out the light of the candles and darkness fell, veiling him from sight. Somepony made a whimpering sound. Twilight heard Rarity comforting Fluttershy. The candles flared back into life and Thorn stood atop the dais, staggering and blowing like Big Mac after hauling a wagonload of stone.

“There,” he said, his voice deep and a little strained. “I did not do that to terrify anyone, but to make it obvious that I have power, such as some of your own folk possess, but even greater.” He indicated Twilight with a wave of his hand. Twilight flushed when she saw heads turning towards her from all over the room. She thought Thorn smiled at her embarrassment before saying, “It is a power that I am willing to use to your benefit and profit.” He sat back down in the chair. “Perhaps another demonstration will be helpful. The night showed clear outside when you came in, yes? No clouds, no rain or hail?”

“Not a bit,” Dash said proudly to her friends. “The Ponyville Weather Patrol scheduled a fair night and we delivered.” She added with a laugh, “There aren’t even any clouds over the Everfree tonight.”

“Really, now?” Thorn smiled at her boasting, showed his teeth. “No chance of rain at all, then?”

“Didn’t I just say there wouldn’t be any rain, buddy?” Dash shot back.

Thorn said nothing. He just closed his eyes and furrowed his brow in obvious concentration. A minute went by, then another. Twilight heard murmurs from some of the ponies in the crowd. Thorn showed no response. Lyra just watched him with a broad and trusting smile. Dash smirked at him until the first heavy crack of thunder overhead stole it from her face.

“Impossible,” she said. “No way is it raining. No way!”

“And I say it is,” Thorn responded. His eyes shot open, showing the whites all the way around. More ponies than just Dash flinched back. He near roared over the increasing sound of thunder and wind and hail tearing at the roof, “You think I’m faking? That it’s all just an illusion? Go and see for yourselves.”

A blond-maned gray blur flew to the doors. Derpy opened them and looked out, only to jerk her head back in with a yelp. Twilight could see past her from where she sat. Rain fell in sheets outside and she could hear the hail hammering the ground. Thunder growled and rumbled.

“It’s pouring out there!” Derpy turned and yelled to everypony. “Pouring bucketsful!” Water dripped from her mane. Other ponies hurried to the open door behind her to see for themselves.

“Ah horseapples, mah trees!” Applejack turned to the door, worry plain on her face. “The sky might as well be throwin’ rocks at ‘em!” She wasn’t the only one. Here and there in the crowd Twilight saw other farmponies looking worried at the thought of what that hail could do to their fields and crops.

“As I said, it’s raining.” Thorn waved his hand in regal dismissal. “However, I don’t want to make the Ponyville Weather Patrol look bad, so why don’t we return to the weather they promised?” He sat back in his throne and clapped his hands twice. As Twilight watched, the rain slacked and slowed. In moments a cold wind came up and scattered the clouds. Most of them went drifting back over the Everfree, thinning out until they vanished.

“Huh, that explains it,” Dash muttered beside her. Twilight nodded in agreement.

“Freak weather from the Everfree,” she said. “Nopony could have foreseen it. But it doesn’t usually come up that fast, does it?” The only answer she got was a worried look from Rainbow Dash. Okay, Twilight thought, he’s using weather control magics. They’re rare for non-pegasi to use with any skill, but still, skill and power aside he’s not doing anything new. But where is he getting the power from? The Everfree?

“Let any who have questions unanswerable by other means come forward and ask them, and they will be enlightened.” Thorn spoke again to his very attentive audience. A broad and not in the least friendly smile showed on his face as he indicated the floor before the dais. Twilight frowned as the thought struck her. We all have to look up at him and beg for help like supplicants, and he can look down on all of us.

“Who’re you, where did you come from, how did you get here, and what do you want?” Everypony looked at Rainbow Dash where she hovered forward. She flew up to be on a level with Thorn’s eyes and put her forehooves on her hips, looking quite defiant. Thorn merely smiled at her.

“You already know my name. I am Rowley Thorne. You should know it. You and Applejack took my money and did my bidding once already today.” There were a few laughs at that. Dash furrowed her brow in annoyance. Beside Twilight, Applejack snorted and scraped at the floor with one forehoof at his words. Thorn went on with, “As for where I came from, suffice to say that it was a place far less pleasant then this lovely little town, and as to how I arrived, well…” He waved one hand vaguely. “It is courtesy of someone you ponies all know of and have served with the utmost faith and loyalty in the past. And as for what I want, why, I merely want what everyone desires,” he looked over the crowd, seeming to lock eyes with everypony there. “I wish to find new associates and companions willing to learn what I have to teach and to grant me what I need to live and thrive. I hope this new friendship of ours leads to greater and more glorious things for us all, a new age of enlightenment. I mean to do so by bringing you a wisdom and knowledge none other can bring.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. What’s next, she thought, the story of how he defeated the Ursa Major?

Dash didn’t look fully satisfied, but she sank back down by her friends.

Thorn looked from her around to the other ponies. “Ask anything, and it shall be answered.” When nopony moved, Thorn said with a trace of contempt in his voice, “What? Are you all afraid of me? Are you mares and stallions, or just overgrown foals?”

Somepony stepped forward – Lily, one of three sisters who ran the flower-and-herb shop in town. Lyra stepped alongside the orchid-colored earth pony with a flower in her mane and guided her to the base of the dais. Thorn smiled down at her. Lily looked up, glanced away, looked back and finally began to speak.

“A few months ago, when Disc – when things were bad,” she flinched at nearly saying Discord’s name. Twilight felt a pang as she looked through the crowd. Many ponies there looked dismayed at hearing even that much of his name. Lily took a breath and said, “My cousin was visiting, but he ran off in the middle of everything. We haven’t been able to find him since. Nopony can remember seeing him and we haven’t heard from him since. Please, where is he? Is he alright?”

Thorn merely closed his eyes, as though turning his gaze inward. After a moment he said, “Write care of the mayor of Hoofington. Describe his cutie mark, those crossed branches of dogwood. You’ll find out how he died.”

“DIED? The horror, the horror!” Lily sank back with a sob in her voice. Rose and Daisy, the other two flower ponies, hurried forward to support her, standing on either side. They walked her back into the crowd as she sagged between them. All three were crying.

“Next question,” Thorn said as though she’d been told where to find a lost pair of scissors. The crowd shifted uneasily.

It parted as another earth pony with a three-moneybag cutie mark came forward, half-hesitating – Filthy Rich, whose family had co-founded Ponyville along with the Apples, who lived up to his name as richest businesspony in town. He stopped at the almost predatory smile Thorn gave him, then drew himself up and spoke.

“My wife is ill and has been for years. She’s in, in a hospital in Canterlot.” He breathed out and looked Thorn steadily in the face. When he asked, it was in a softer voice than Twilight thought she’d ever heard from him before. “Will she ever come back to me and our daughter?”

“Never,” came Thorn’s response, staccato but leering. “Why should Golden Tiara, poor Screwball as all of you call her,” he indicated the crowd with a wave of one heavy hand, “Come back to you from where she is, from the Bedlam where you put her when you finally got ashamed of her? She was happier when Discord ruled Equestria for one day. Everything made sense to her then. Just ask her if you have the nerve. She’ll tell you.”

Filthy flinched back. Twilight saw the look of shame and grief on his face. He wheeled and near-galloped out the door, head down. Other ponies looked after him. Some showed grief, others shock at what they’d learned. Twilight saw a few looks of triumph on the faces of other ponies in the crowd, especially pegasi and unicorns. Filthy’s feelings of contempt for “narwhals and featherdusters” were well known. Fluttershy stepped after him, as though she wanted to try and help. She stopped at more words from Thorn.

“Any more questions? Any of you? How about you, Mister Cake?” When the lanky yellow stallion flinched back and down, huddling protectively by Mrs. Cake, Thorn chuckled again, and this time he didn’t bother to hide the sneer in it. “Would you like to know if that unicorn and Pegasus your wife foaled are really yours?” Mister Cake said nothing, his jaw working. He turned to his wife, a blue-coated mare as chunky as he was lean. Something must have passed between them. She turned away, her head hanging. He began whispering assurances to her. Thorn asked in a tone of mock innocence, “Would anyone else like to know?”

A mutter ran through the crowd. Some ponies pressed forward, eager to hear something juicy. Others snorted, giving Thorn determinedly unfriendly glares. As they did, Twilight did some quick spellcasting herself – basic Detect and Analyze Magics, then more advanced ones. The confusion she felt must have shown on her face.

“Twi, what is it? Is it somethin’ about this Thorn polecat?”

“Yes, Applejack,” she said, “but I don’t know what. He’s casting spells, and I think I know which ones, but I just can’t get any more information on them. It’s like his magic is just passing right by mine like it’s not even there.” She frowned. “It reminds me of, of something, but for the life of me I can’t think of what.”

Thorn’s voice rang out where he sat enthroned. “How about some of the rest of you? There’s a young miss named Scootaloo in this town; perhaps someone wants to know just why she’s been lying about her parents?” He chuckled and added in a darker tone, “Or maybe you’d all like to know how your protectors, the Elements of Harmony, were defeated by Discord with tricks that shouldn’t have worked on a foal? Or why your oh-so-wise Princess Celestia picked for her champions six ponies who couldn’t even manage to –“

“But they beat Discord!” somepony yelled out.

“Yeah, tell ‘em!” Dash responded, pumping one hoof in the air. “He can’t lie to us!”

“I never lie when I reveal what is hidden,” Thorn said, and his voice cut through the crowd’s noise like a roll of thunder. “I have said that I see what is true, and I do. It’s not my fault that the truth hurts. It’s been said that truth is beauty and beauty truth, but anyone with true wisdom knows that truth is too painful for most to bear.”

At those words Applejack wheeled on Twilight. Her eyes blazed and her ears were down as she said, “Twi, that’s what Discord told me. In the maze. When he broke me!” She stomped out of the press and to a point directly before Thorn.

“Alright, now ever’pony settle yerselves and listen up!” The attention of the crowd turned to her. “Ah got a question for you, Thorn! How are we supposed to know all that you’re sayin’ is true? You come off mighty brave with everypony else. Tell me what truths Ah got hidden away!”

“Applejack!” Twilight hissed at her, and heard similar warnings come from Rarity and Fluttershy behind her. Pinkie and Rainbow Dash said something altogether different:

“Yeah, tell that jerk, AJ!”

“You show that big meanypants, Jacky!”

“Your hidden truths, Applejack?” Thorn leaned forward on his throne, that cold hard smile staying on his face. He spoke with a warmth that mocked more than open scorn as he stabbed one massive finger at her. “Very well then. Shall I reveal how easily Discord defeated you in the maze of the Royal Gardens? Or how, when your poor grandfather lay on his deathbed, you became so disgusted by the care he needed that you looked up at the full moon and prayed to Nightmare Moon to make him die?”

“Hah!” That came from Pinkie Pie. “Shows how much YOU know, Mister Jerky-Turkey! Our Applejack would never do that to her family, she LOVES them!” She turned to Applejack. “Right? Tell him!”

Applejack stood there motionless. Twilight saw that she flinched at the first words, but at the second revelation she paled. Her pupils went to pinpoints and her mouth dropped open, working uselessly. After a few long moments she finally spoke, and when she did, ponies all over the room strained to hear her words.

“Ah, ah was jest a little filly, younger’n Apple Bloom… He hurt so much, an’ all he could do was cry and ask us to make it stop… I jest got so durned mad at everythin’ I went out late one night when everypony else was sleeping and I looked up at the moon and remembered the stories about the Mare in the Moon… an’ I asked her t-to make him just stop hurtin’…”

“You made your wish,” Thorne said into the sudden deathly silence. “And your wish was granted. Be not ashamed of yourself, Applejack. Who knows what Apple Bloom might ask when it’s your grandmother’s turn?”

For the barest instant it looked like Applejack wanted to charge Thorn and trample him bloody. Then she drooped. She turned and slowly walked to the doors, her head hanging. Ponies silently moved aside as she did.

“Jacky,” Rainbow Dash said after her, her own voice bereft. Applejack paid her no heed. She just left the Town Hall, her tail hanging limp and dragging behind her. Fluttershy flew after her. Twilight was ready to leave the hall and follow them when Thorn again spoke from atop the dais in a voice that dripped false sympathy.

“As I said, the truth is more painful than some can bear.”

“You!” Dash spun, her rose red eyes blazing. She flew up to Thorn and shook one hoof in his face. Lyra began to hurry forward, but stopped at a gesture from Thorn. Dash snarled at him, “That’s it! Party’s over! What is your bucking problem, you big jerk? Who do you think you are? Discord’s little brother? A bucking Nightmare? I want you to apologize to my friends and everypony else, right now!”

“I’m flattered to be thought like Discord in any way,” Thorn said, chuckling in her face. “I wouldn’t set myself quite that high, however. But a Nightmare, er, Nightstallion?” He drew himself up and stepped forward off the throne’s dais into space. Dash flew back a few feet to avoid his falling on her. And then she hurled herself back with a startled yell. A cry echoed by dozens of ponies behind her. Twilight felt one almost tear from her own throat.

For where Thorn sat, now a massive pony the size of Princess Celestia stood on four powerful legs. At first glance it looked like an earth pony stallion, twice normal size. But a second and longer look showed the differences. Many ponies shared in a coat as black as night, or possessed Pegasus wings, or a unicorn’s horn, but only one in all Equestria’s history ever bore all three. And two years ago at what should have been dawn on Summer Sun she had stood on that same dais, in the same Town Hall.

It’s an illusion, Twilight frantically told herself, just a really tasteless illusion, but even so the shock of what she saw froze the words in her throat. Two years ago, on her first night in Ponyville, she’d stood in the same spot and witnessed the prophecy of the Mare in the Moon come true, as Nightmare Moon appeared in place of Princess Celestia to end the world in Eternal Night.

Atop the dais, the ebon Nightmare – or Nightstallion, if one wanted to fuss – spread its wings. It gave a heavy chuckle like rocks grinding together. Lamplight flashed from a black unicorn horn long as the Princess’s and sharp as a spear, played over a massive and heavy body that could have shamed Big Mac for strength, picked out silvery royal barding decorated with onyx and rubies.

“See me and know me!” the great beast said. “Me! Thorne, who has fulfilled every promise I made to you and can and will fulfill many more. I can perform wonders beyond what I have shown here. I can raise and command the dead. I can heal those none other can heal. Crops can grow or wither at my command. I can bring magick to any pony, not just unicorns, provided they swear loyalty to me.” He bent down and thrust his head out on that long, powerful neck at his audience. They flinched back from him. But when next he spoke, Twilight got the idea that his words were addressed to her. “The Princesses can affect this single world. I can create worlds. So tell me, my little ponies, if they are your gods and rulers, what does that make me?” It sat back, folding those wings around itself, and suddenly the human Thorn sat there again in his royal black robe. He breathed in deeply and exhaled heavily.

“As I said before,” he told them all, “This has been only a demonstration of what I can do for you all, if you accept my aid and wisdom. I will be here tomorrow night and all the day in between as well for anyone who wants to seek my advice, or any other help I can furnish. Until then, I won’t say ‘fare well’. My little friends, let us fare better together.” The curtain slid shut with a whisper. Lyra shot everypony one last grin and walked back through them.

“I reckon,” I said into the silence that fell after Twilight a-finished saying all that, “that he did something more than a little wrong when he made himself look like a, what did you say? An alicorn?”

“No bucking kidding,” Rainbow Dash said where she sat.

“It was practically open treason,” Twilight said to me, and she sounded shaky to say it. “The Princesses, Celestia and Luna, are the only true alicorns left in Equestria. Occasionally you see another be born, like my old foalsitter Cadence, but they’re only as powerful as a pegasus or unicorn. They’ve been our rulers ever since they defeated Discord, thousands of years ago. And more than that, when he sat up there on a throne, and, and hurt ponies I know, and he bragged about it to our faces…” She looked at me and sounded right confused when she said, “Why would he do that? With the power he showed, even if half of it was tricks, he could have asked for almost anything he wanted and gotten it. Instead, he tormented innocent ponies and left most of us wanting to buck him in the teeth.”

I wondered myself how to respond her. Then Applejack spoke up behind me.

“Well, Twi, why did Nightmare Moon want ta terrorize everpony? Why did Trixie go so far outta the way ta humiliate us when we called her out on her braggin’? Why did Discord do,” I heard her swallow, “Do what he did to us all an’ everypony else? For some skunks, it’s just plain fun ta get what they want by hurtin’ somepony else.”

I didn’t see how airy word I might could say could add to that, so I said nothing. Twilight just shook her head, her pink and purple mane flopping back and forth.

“Anyway, immediately afterwards, we all left and started talking outside. Dash and Fluttershy found Applejack and helped settle her down…”

“Ah weren’t that shook up, Twi,” Applejack snorted behind me. “It just kinda caught me off guard.”

“Yeah, she wanted to run back in there and kick the horseapples out of that guy Thorne!” Dash added in what sounded like the happiest voice I’d yet heard from her. “I wish we coulda watched her do it, too.”

“Rainbow Dash!”

The blue Pegasus just grinned all the wider. Twilight put her hoof to her face and groaned. “Ahem! As I was saying, we left the hall, and I decided to write Princess Celestia immediately…”

“Spike, take a letter,” Twilight said to the little dragon. They moved off to the side to get out of the press of ponies leaving the hall, many of them looking shocked at what they’d seen. Others looked impressed. Twilight wondered how many of them would return to get whatever help they could from Thorn, and what sort of a price they’d pay for it. “And Spike? Use the emergency ribbon.”

“Got it, Twilight,” he said. He produced a piece of paper and set his quill over it, ready to start writing. Twilight nodded and began to speak.

“Dear Princess Celestia, Thorn just spoke to Ponyville in the town hall. Things have gone very badly…” She quickly summarized everything he’d said and done, adding in her own suspicions about his trickery and spellcasting. She finished with, “Thorn says he’s staying here in Ponyville for at least one more day, and I can’t see this as being any good for the town or the ponies who live in it. He’s cruel, arrogant, and uses his power and vague promises of vast rewards to try and win ponies over to his side. Please, if you have any advice, I wish to hear it. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.” Spike nodded at her and breathed his fire. She caught the familiar whiff of sulfur and the paper vanished in flame.

“Now what happens, Twi?” Twilight turned and saw Applejack standing there. Dash and Fluttershy were with her, standing close in support. Behind them Rarity and Pinkie Pie watched and listened.

“Applejack, are you okay?” Twilight said, not bothering to hide her concern. “That was pretty brutal in there.”

“Ah’ll, well,” she chuckled and shook her head. When she looked back up, she looked like her usual self. “Well, Ah’d be lyin’ if I said I felt fine. But right now Ah’m more angry at Thorn for what he did ta me an’ ever’pony else than anything else. Got any ideas along those lines, sugarcube?” She kept her voice light, but Twilight could see the anger in her eyes and in the way she stomped one back hoof against the dirt of the street. Right now Applejack wanted to buck somepony in the jaw good and hard.

“We wait until Princess Celestia responds,” Twilight said, and almost as soon as she did Spike belched and a letter formed out of his fire. Twilight unrolled it and read it out loud.

To my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle:

I will be arriving shortly with some of the Royal Guard. Even if this creature is just the blowhard you say he is, I want to have a talk with him about how he has abused all of you and his usurpation of royal privileges. Until I arrive, under no circumstances are you to go near him for any reason –”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash groaned then, as Twilight continued.

“—but keep an eye on him. And if he tries anything suspicious, then do whatever you must to stop him from hurting any more of my little ponies. And above all, keep yourselves safe.”

Twilight hesitated at the signature. Normally the Princess signed her letters to Twilight with a simple “Your teacher, Princess Celestia.” Not this time.

“Her Immortal Highness,

Celestia Solaria Invicta.”

Twilight rolled the letter up and stowed it away. “Well, there we have it,” she said to her friends. “I guess we just stay here and keep an eye on the town hall until the Princess arrives, and then – wait.” Twilight looked off towards the library. “I’m going to examine that spellbook Thorn left.”

“But, Twilight, are you sure that’s wise?” Fluttershy said. “You said yourself, Thorn’s magic isn’t like any kind of magic you ever even read about before.”

“I know,” Twilight answered her. “That’s why I want to get a look at it. I know what spells he used, I just want to know how he cast them.” Her friends said nothing, but she saw the worry on their faces. “Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be careful,” she assured them. “Hey, I am the big expert, right? Celestia’s apprentice? The Element of Magic? And besides, it’s just another spellbook.” She turned and began heading for the library, only to stop a comment from Spike.

“You want me to help, Twilight?”

“I think you’ll help best by staying here,” She looked back at him. “Besides, if Thorn tries anything else and we need to get a message out fast, you’re best for that.” When he still looked worried, she went back and nuzzled him. “It’ll be fine, I promise.” He looked worried but shot her a salute and strode off for the rear of the town hall, accompanied by Rainbow Dash. Twilight waited until he went around the building before saying to Rarity and the others, “You’ll watch out for him, right?”

“He’ll be safe, dear, just you be careful.”

Twilight nodded at Rarity’s words. Then she turned and cantered back towards the library. Whatever the mystery to Thorn’s magic was, she intended to find it out. He wasn’t going to hurt anyone in her home again with his tricks and bullying.

And back in the library, a faint shimmer of silvery light that slowly grew more intense played over the Letters of Cold Fire where they sat on the reading table.