The Devil in Me

by Sleep Sonata

There be Monsters

One month. Thirty days of covering my tracks, deceiving the guard, lying to my sister, and working my own thestrals in spite of their own reservations. Seven hundred and twenty hours spent falsifying schedules, and ordering away servants with no clear reason. In no other way can I think of a less royal way to carry out my duties.

But at least I hadn’t seen the Nightmare in that time.

But it appears that all of that time was wasted, for everyone involved. The Royal and Thestral Guards had swept the entirety of the northern frontier all the way to the Frozen North. And yet, all of the search teams came back with nothing more than reports of injuries and broken equipment. No crystal, no ponies, no empire.
Celestia had lost hope over a week before the searches were called off by General Firefly. She spent most of her time away from Canterlot, at meetings with ambassadors or tending to matters with her academy. I hadn’t given up as early as she had. Counterfeit schedules still made their way to Firefly’s desk. But I knew that when the search plots were less than 2 miles from the border of the North, there was nothing left to find.

The guards knew it as well. Reports no longer overflowed with sightings of a vague shape in the distance, or the faint sound of crystal music. Most came back with ‘Nothing found’ or no writing at all.

The citizenry had adapted to a lack of crystal products. Southern orchards had grown considerably to fill the vacuum in the market for crystal fruits. Textile manufacturers and fashion designers had learned to make the most with cotton and silk. Some even used magic to enhance their qualities, though their quality was still lacking compared to the old crystal variety, which now sold for hundreds of thousands of bits per yard.

I wasn’t disappointed in the Guard, or even with myself. I knew that they had searched to the utmost of their abilities, and if they covered all that areas and found nothing, then the Empire simply wasn’t there to be found. It was saddening, but I couldn’t allow myself to dwell on such a failure. Equestria needed us.

Another night complete. Uneventful, as par for the course. The most I can say that happened was a lucid dream I ran into. An earth pony was running around giving herself and everyone she knew wings and a horn, singing ‘Long Live the Princess’ as she went. It was quite humorous to see, although I do hope she didn’t really long for such a fantasy.

That the most interesting out of a week of dreams. Most were either power fantasies, romances, or just empty space; no dream at all. It had gotten to the point where I just decided to turn in myself, since nopony seemed to need an intervention of any kind. It was relaxing, if dull.

Waking from the dream space is always jarring. It feels as I would imagine one would wake from death; moving from one existence to the next, with a sudden gasp for air. Although based on my observations, this is how most ponies awaken from their own dreams. Maybe the comparison is more apt than it would first seem.
It is more shocking when one awakens to utter darkness when they expect piercing sunlight, and the darkness seems strangely soft and welcoming, at least for the eyes. The resistance to awakening is almost nonexistent, as moving from the darkness of the dreamscape to the darkness of reality isn’t noticeable in the slightest. I am a new mare, and yet I am different from who I was mere minutes ago, occupying a completely different reality. Even as Mistress of the Night, what I describe is not a phenomena I understand fully. Perhaps there is something to be said for the phrase, ‘ignorance is bliss’.

With this anomalous energy now in me, I decided to embark on an expedition around the castle, and see what activities transpire while Celestia and I perform our own duties. We don’t usually bear witness to the events that prepare the castle for a day, but with little else to do until sunrise, I could afford to explore, maybe even learn.
At least, that is what I would have done, had I not forgotten the fact that the rest of Equestria was not as eager to explore the pre-dawn as I was. The only hoofsteps to be heard in the halls were mine and the echoes they made. I mistook them at first for companionship, but I eventually grew accustomed to the noise after the fifth time I made that assumption.

I was considering venturing back to my chambers, having failed to find anything of interest, when I noticed a single open door. It wasn’t one of the usual ornate decorative doors that led to an official space, which required a guard and ten minutes to open. This one resembled something one might find leading to the kitchen, it’s only decorative piece being the door knob.

I approached the ingress to read the plaque next to it. Library: Free Access. “How quaint.” I thought aloud. This was the library Celestia had set aside for the castle staff and visitors to go through in order to enrich themselves. Perhaps I would learn something after all.
Inside, my mind took me back to my younger days, studying under Starswirl. Back then, I was but an inattentive filly. Books, books everywhere, and nothing good to read. It’s astonishing that even after having several generations of experience in this world, I still stumbled across intriguing facts hitherto unknown to me. Clover the Clever, bless her, had an encyclopedia of all of Equestria’s known fauna. Manticores, timberwolves, and parasprites were all detailed from their appearance to their diet. How she compiled all this information without coming to harm herself still baffles me. If I were in her position I wouldn’t be able to look at one of these beasts for a second before scrambling for the nearest hole to cower in.

Moving a hoof along the bookshelf, I noticed a volume authored by Starswirl himself. The texted inside was even scribed by him, making it very special indeed that such a volume would be in the Free Access library. Normally these stay amongst Tia’s private volumes. Curious.

This alone interested me enough to look inside. Whatever information was here, Tia must want people to be able to see it.

I folded the book open, not caring which page my eye fell on. I was curious to see what was of interest to the pony who last saw this volume.
It fell with not a crack into a map, sprawling both pages. It was instantly recognizable as a map of Equestria, Canterlot perfectly in the center. I saw other familiar names as well, although several cities, including Manehatten, were conspicuously absent. This map must be very old indeed.

Very elegant as well. Modern cartography is much too concerned with accurate projections to be bothered with making them pleasing to the eye. This one was filled with characters representing their respective locales; a farmer for the south, a fisherpony from the east, and even Celestia herself, poised over Canterlot.
Except for one area, one so obviously left blank. There was nary a figure nor a symbol representing the frozen north. Just text on the plain paper; ‘There be Monsters’.
I guffawed at the text. Even to an immortal such as myself, this was comically archaic. ‘There be Monsters’! I felt as if I were looking at a prop for a play! Perhaps I would find Canterbury Tails on the next page!

I couldn’t keep going, I would make a fool of myself should anypony wander by, and hear my unrestrained laughter. I slid the book back into it’s place, and made my way out of the library, snickering all the while. ‘There be Monsters’. I couldn’t get over it! I would still be chuckling over dinner tonight. Perhaps I could get Tia in a good mood for once.