//------------------------------//
// The Search 
// Story: The Rings of Dusk 
// by Scribblestick 
//------------------------------//

The cold, he could handle. The loneliness could be soothed. But the doubt, the fear, it could not be ignored. Not until she was safely home.

Spike had never considered himself the studious type. Though he enjoyed helping Twilight in her research, he never gave much thought to doing any of his own. Then Twilight left on a one-day trip that had now entered its third day, and despite the meticulous itinerary she had left him, Twilight could not be found.

It was then Spike began to worry. He could accept Twilight being tardy, but straying from her plan? Something had to be wrong.

His footsteps echoed in the crystal castle's halls. His heart thudded in his chest as he pushed open the library door. The notes and charts from Twilight's latest projects were still strewn about where she'd left them. Spike felt a little guilty for not tidying them up, but he brushed the feeling aside. Somewhere in this chaos, there could be a hint, a clue that would lead him to her. And if it was here, he was going to find it.

"OK," he said to himself, rubbing his hands together. "Let's start from the beginning."

Spike wasn't familiar with the details, but he knew she was studying ancient pony history, with an emphasis on early spellcasting. Sorting the shipment from Canterlot gave him a few ideas on where to start, but even with the many hours he'd spent helping Twilight, the task ahead still daunted him.

Spike sighed. Twilight was missing now, and he knew it would not help her to dwell on his doubts. He began at what he believed was more or less the beginning of her research and began to read, leafing between her tidy notes and copious references to a dozen recently dusted books. Aside from his footfalls and shuffling of papers, the castle was silent, almost unnervingly so. He blocked it out as best he could.

The first stack of notes detailed a time period between the founding of Equestria and the beginning of Celestia's rule, including prominent leaders from each of the pony tribes, settlement records, and weather patterns, which were much more random in those days. Her scribbling indicated this was because Cloudsdale's weather factories had not yet been built, and the pegasi had to rely on clouds that formed naturally. 

After a while, Spike concluded that this information wasn't particularly helpful, and he moved on to the next stack, which placed greater emphasis on the unicorn tribe during the same period. Twilight's notes indicated the harmony between the three tribes led to greater prosperity for all, thus allowing the unicorn magicians to develop newer, more efficient means of using magic. A footnote in one of the books indicated the first magical relics were created during this time. The lead was a little more promising; he remembered Twilight mentioning relics on several occasions, and she had probably gone looking for more information to add to this pile.

The third stack was all but impossible to decipher. It delved deep into technical aspects of magic, and while Spike had picked up quite a bit about magic from Twilight, his head hurt trying to make heads or tails of it. 

As the sun began to set, his stomach rumbled. Spike abandoned his search for a moment and walked to the kitchen, quickly locating his stack of gemstones. As he munched on an emerald, Rainbow Dash entered the library, mane wind-swept and goggles in place.

"Hey, Spike," she said. "How's the research going?"

Spike tried not to sound as disappointed as he felt. "Nothing new yet. I'll let you know if I find anything."

Rainbow Dash nodded. "We're grabbing a bite to eat, and then we'll head back out."

"OK."

Dash paused, then turned back. "You doing OK?"

Spike sighed and set his gems aside. "Just worried."

Dash tapped a hoof and frowned. "Yeah... we all are." Then she put on a smile. "We'll find her."

"Yeah." Spike's gaze remained on the floor until Rainbow Dash left. Then he returned to his search.





The skies were gentle that night, but Rainbow Dash wasn't interested in smooth flying. Fluttershy glided a hundred trots to her left, moonlight glinting off her body and wings. "See anything?" she called. Fluttershy shook her head. Rainbow Dash sighed. "Check in with Applejack. I'll check that field over there."

"Okay." Fluttershy shifted her wings and descended toward the treetops. Dash redoubled her speed and landed in the meadow. A summer breeze rustled the grass around her, and she strained her eyes against the moonlight for any sign of her missing friend.

Nothing.

Dash kicked a stone in irritation. There had to be a better way.

As if responding to her thought, the wind shifted, and an indistinct cry caught her attention. She pivoted her ears toward the source of the noise. There it was again. Dash's heart began to race, but she breathed deeply and kept her cool. It could be anything, she told herself, and we've already had enough false alarms.

She followed the noise to a cave and peered inside. Her heart stopped. Her breath caught in her throat.

It was Twilight.

Dash bolted back into the sky and kicked the nearest cloud with all the strength she could muster. A lightning bolt burst out with an accompanying peal of thunder, the signal for the others that Twilight was found at last. She returned to the cave and looked inside again. What she could see of Twilight's coat was matted with sweat and dirt. Sticks and leaves tangled in her mane. She was curled tightly, sobs gasping from her throat. A gold ring wrapped around her torso, pinning her wings to her side. A similar ring encircled her horn.

Dash gulped and stepped inside. Twilight's head jerked around and stared at her with wide eyes. Another lightning bolt sounded in the distance, the sign that Dash's message had been received. Thought it was dark, Dash could see her friend's pupils dilate and hear her breathing quicken. "Twilight?"

Twilight leapt to her hooves and scrambled back against the stone. "G-Get away," she said, somewhere between a shrill warning and panicked shout. "Leave me alone!"

Dash cocked her head to the side and flared her wings. "Excuse me?"

Twilight moaned and fell to the ground, covering her head with her hooves. Dash hesitated. Before, she'd thought finding her friend would mean the end of the night's troubles. Now, she wasn't so sure.

"Dash? You in here?" Applejack's voice echoed in the cave, as well as her and Fluttershy's hoofbeats.

"Yeah, and so is Twilight."

"Really?" Fluttershy rushed forward, but stopped when Twilight came into view. "Um, is she OK?"

"What do you think?" Dash snapped, though she instantly regretted it when Fluttershy ducked behind her mane. "Come on, let's help her up."

The three approached. Twilight began to kick and scream, demanding they leave her alone. The three kept their distance and exchanged glances. "And I thought findin' her would be the hard part," Applejack said.

Dash gritted her teeth. "Maybe those gold bands are squeezing her too tight," she suggested. "If we get them off, it might calm her down." It was a weak suggestion, and she could tell her friends knew it, but looking at the state of her friend, it was the best plan she could think of.

Twilight's struggling intensified as the three descended on her, struggling to remove the gold ring from around her body and horn. Her shrieks resembled those of an animal in pain, and more than once Dash almost lost the courage to keep going, for fear she might actually be causing Twilight harm. Minutes of struggle passed until, finally, both rings popped free, and Twilight suddenly slumped, her body limp.

The three friends stood in stunned silence for a moment. Applejack was the first to approach the now-limp pony before them, a bruise forming on her snout where Twilight had landed a particularly solid blow. "She's alive," she said at last. "Asleep, but alive."

Rainbow Dash flexed a wing, working out the kinks Twilight's flailing had put in it. "What was all that about?" she asked no one in particular.

Applejack shrugged. "Beats me."

Now that she was unconscious, Twilight almost looked her old self. Only a slight twitch in her eyelids and the hint of a grimace suggested a glimpse into the nature of her dreams. "Come on, everypony," Fluttershy said at last. "Let's get her home."





Spike adjusted his candle and stretched. Only a few more papers to go.

The fourth stack dealt with pegasi, in particular theories as to how their weather-controlling abilities work. There were a lot of diagrams of wings and feathers, but nothing Spike could see that would help find Twilight. He arranged them neatly and turned his attention to the fifth and final stack. This was by far the smallest, yet somehow the most incomprehensible. Most of it was made up of drawings and illustrations, some of which contained what looked like alicorns and magical spells.

Spike sighed and lit a fresh candle. There had to be something here.

Just then, a distant door slammed open, and Spike could hear worried voices talking quietly. He leapt to his feet, grabbed his candle and bolted for the entryway. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were carrying a crude stretcher between them, on which lay the form of the pony he had been looking for.

"Twilight!" he cried, rushing forward, but Applejack put up a hoof, warning him to stay back. He noticed for the first time her labored breathing and battered appearance. "What happened?"

"We found her in a cave in the forest," Applejack said as the group made their way toward Twilight's bedroom. "Fluttershy's gone to get a doctor."

"What's wrong with her?" Spike asked, panic rising anew. "Is she sick? Is she hurt?"

"We're not sure," Rainbow Dash answered. "We found her in a cave, and she freaked out when we tried to help her."

"F-Freaked out?" Spike's worry soared as the group entered Twilight's room. Applejack and Rainbow Dash carefully placed Twilight on the bed.

"We think it was 'cause of these ring doohickeys," Applejack said, reaching into her saddle bag and withdrawing two gold rings. "This little one was around her horn, and the big one was around her body, pinnin' her wings down."

Spike stared at the rings, processing what Applejack had just said. Then he bolted back toward the library, ignoring the confused calls that followed him. As he began rummaging through the last pile of papers, he heard Applejack and Rainbow Dash skid into the room behind him. "What the hay are you looking for?" Dash asked.

Spike straightened and held out a single piece of aged paper. It depicted an alicorn wearing rings, exactly as Applejack described.

"This," he said. "She found this."

The two ponies stepped closer and peered at the drawing. "What is it?" Dash asked.

Spike looked around at the piles of notes. "I don't know," he said, "but the answer is in here somewhere."