The walk back to the library was short and uneventful, nopony waved at me and kept a minimal distance of six feet away. The rest of the day looked to be improving. As I came up to the door, I noticed the window had been covered from inside, the note from the last librarian had explicitly said the drapes and window covers were all left open.
I formed a ball with my magic, a nifty little spell known as a 'flash popper' that my sister taught me forming quickly. With the spell finished, I opened the door, lobbed it in and shut the door in quick succession.
BANG!
With the detonation, I heard screams of surprise and pain, ponies ran about inside and a few things broke. the ensuing chaos was almost worth the cleanup cost and the replacements.
"You think you might have over done that there?" Barb lightly taped the back of my head. I looked back, lifting an eyebrow. "Well? lets go see what the're here for. Heyah!" She kicked my sides with her pointy little toes.
"Ow, you know I don't like it when you do that!" I levitated her off and to the side of the door. With her out of the way, I opened the door and made my way inside. The room was a mess. Streamers were flying, ponies were screaming their heads off, a banner was falling down, and in the center of it all... a pink pony was crying her eyes out. 'Good, now I just need to figure out what this is all about.' i trotted further in, taking note of the wording on the banner, 'arty' was all that was visible. I lifted it up enough to read the whole thing, 'Welcome to Ponyvile, Dusk and (totaly your daughter) Barb Party!'
"Why would you do something like thahahaaat? It was sooo meheheean!" the pink pony whined at me and flailed her hooves about, flopping onto the floor like a sack of flower.
"I find parties to be a waste of time, they are only meant for either entertainment or political bulls#!t. I never have time for either, so clear out and leave me alone." with a quick spell, I incinerated the banner and levitated everypony else out. I turned to barb, looking around for any stragglers. "Are we done with the list?"
She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, the only thing left on here was Solaris' personal order for you to get some friends, which you failed. Miserably." she rolled the scroll up and rapped me on the snout, making me go cross eyed and 'bwuoah' and stand there like an idiot for a solid thirty seconds.
After I resurfaced from the bop, I looked around trying to find Barb. The little snake had a tendency to hit me like that when she was going off to do something to try and 'fix' a 'problem' that I had made. This usually meant she was talking to a pony that I had made cry or mad. I walked outside thinking she was going after the pink pony. The little traitor was out there somewhere, trying to paint me in another light. I trotted off towards the center of town, following the trace of dragon magic that had been seeping out of her. After a few minutes, I found Barb, she was walking back to towards me.
"What did you do this time?" I picked her up and placed her back on my withers, "You shouldn't go off like that, you know how much I don't like it." I tried to fix her with a harsh glare over my back.
Barb flicked my ear, "You need to try and be a nicer pony, you just might end up alone one of these days. She only wanted to welcome you here with a party." She gave me a sad look, ruining my attempt to scold her. "I worry about you sometimes, When you do things like this. I know you don't have a full grip on your emotions, but you need to work on trying to be more empathetic. You hurt her real bad, dad."
"Sigh... fine, but we still need to prepare for the return of Nightmare Moon. who knows what she would do to us." I turned around and made my way back towards the library.
"I told you, I DON"T KNOW HER!" I shouted to Blitz, who was trying to fly around me and interrogate me.
"Then tell us how she knew your name!" Pinkie popped out from behind me and accusingly poked my chest. "And why she was all 'lost puppy' around you! That dirty no good Dusk stealing sk-"
"Pinkie! we need to focus on how we can take her down! Barb, where is the book on the Elements of Harmony, I thought i told you to get it before we left?" I turned to her as she lifted the book and let go as soon as I grabbed it with my telekinesis. "OK, we need to go to the last known location of the Elements of Harmony, the Castle of the Two Siblings. In the middle of the Everfree Forest. Well... Sh-"
"Shut up Dusk, we need to get your honor back and beat the ever-living Tartarus out of her!" Pinkie was now somehow wearing an entire set of armor and wielding an overly large sword that glowed with an ominous color. Applejack reared up and slapped the sword down and somehow made it disappear.
"Whoa there pardner' you need to slow yer' roll. First of all, we need a plan, and a good one at that if we wan't to get through the Everfree and live to talk about it. Dusk?"
Blitz zoomed back in, "What are you asking him for? For all we know, he could be working for her as a spy!" he stomped and flared his wings a bit.
"Sigh, you do know that I am the apprentice to Solaris, right? So that means that what ever is going on right now, it is my job to make sure that it does not happen." I dead-panned, "does anypony know anypony who's been to the Everfree? Or a map of the area?"
"Here is a map, it was right on the shelf over here." Rarity levitated over a scroll.
"Alright. Blitz, Butterscotch, you two will come with me. The rest of you are staying here, I don't care if it sounds sexist, I don't wan't a bunch of emotional mares running around in a dangerous situation. Alright, this is how it's going down..."
thirty minutes earlier...
The sun was due up in five minutes and Barb and I were slowly making our way (she was on my back just sitting there taking advantage of the guilt card about how she won't be able to do this forever), when a we finally arrived in front of the town hall. The lights were on and ponies were milling about, totally unaware of the danger that was Nightmare Moon.
"Barb, I want you to be ready to run home at the first singe of trouble. I don't care if it's something as simple as somepony lifting a purse, I want you to run." I levitated her in front of me so I could talk directly to her, "Anything could be a prelude to her appearance, were talking about an ancient being surpassing Solaris in power. Be ready, and remember, I will always be with you." I rubbed the top of her head.
She folded her arms and pouted, "Dad, why do you sound like you're going to do something stupid again?"
"I also need you to get the book on the Elements of Harmony ready for when I return, we might seriously need that one." I put her on the ground. "I just think I'm going to be held up for a little bit, she just might consider me a threat..."