Lesson 28

by SaltyVampireHorse

Chapter 2: Pandora's Box

The train ride to Canterlot felt longer than usual. Starlight barely spoke to Twilight or her friends who had decided to join them on the trip. The majority of the ride she sat across from Spike who was absorbed into his Power Ponies comic book.

She silently pondered to herself what the voice had said to her. These long sessions of silent contemplation became more common to her, as the nightmare reoccurred night after night since she had undertaken her apprenticeship with Twilight.

Seek the Endless Archives. She could not unravel the voice’s cryptic instructions.

Endless Archives? What does he mean by that? She thought to herself. She was pulled out of her trance at the sound of Spike calling her name.

“Starlight?...uh Starlight? Hello! Equestria to Starlight! Come in!”

Starlight shook her head. “Oh Spike, sorry about that… everything alright?”

“I'm the one who should be asking you that,” replied the young drake

Starlight sighed. “No Spike, I don't think everything is alright, I've been having these nightmares ever since the whole time travel fiasco with Twilight”.

“Yeah, those were some crazy times, am I right?” Spike said smugly and chuckled over his pun of the situation.

Starlight gave him a disinterested glare as his chuckling trailed off.

“Look Starlight: I know that this is scary for you, but just try to relax and not worry about it so much. We're all gonna help you through this” he said with a compassionate smile.

“Of course we're gonna help you Silly! And when we do we gotta throw you a happy being-able-to-sleep-soundly-again party” shouted Pinkie Pie as she burst through the seat cushions behind Starlight with a pop of confetti and the sound of birthday blowers following her.

Spike and Starlight jumped from the surprise and giggled in response as their train pulled into the Canterlot station.

The group was escorted through the halls of Canterlot Castle by two Solar guards. Though they had seen the castle numerous times, the beauty of its ornate ivory walls, the rainbow stained-glass windows and the plush Saddle Arabian carpets never ceased to amaze them. They soon arrived at the Princess’ courtroom. Twilight moved ahead of the group towards the door.

“Alright everypony, it will be a while but I’m sure you can help Starlight with her research” Twilight addressed her friends.

“It would be most delightful,” replied Rarity “Furthermore, I might be able to get some inspiration for my new summer lineup from the Castle’s decor”.

“I honestly can’t decide what’s more boring: princess stuff or egghead stuff” Rainbow Dash said with a nasally snicker.

“Just let us know when y’all are finished in there” said AppleJack.

“Hey you think Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have a super secret book of baking recipes? I heard Celestia makes an out-of-this-world banana cream pie!” Pinkie said with a piggish laugh.

“Thanks for helping my you guys. It’s a huge relief to know that you guys are here” Starlight said.

“Think nothin’ of it sugarcube, we’re here to help you with any cadavers you got” replied AppleJack.

“AAAAnd get a new banana cream pie a la Celestia recipe while we’re at it” Pinkie said butting in.

They walked as a group to the magic archives, a library replete with numerous magical secrets of Equine sorcery. The room was a large dome-like chamber held up by ivory pillars. The shelves were made of ebony and lined top-to-bottom with ancient tomes, ornate scrolls, and numerous magical artifacts retrieved by the great Star-Swirl the Bearded during his travels.

“This will take hours to search! “It figures: just when we don't have Twilight with us, we come across a mountain of books!” Rarity complained.

“Um...Starlight. What was it exactly that you needed to look for” Fluttershy asked softly.

“Im looking for something on Oneirology” Starlight replied.

“Uhh, say what?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Oneirology, it's the study of dreams” Spike answered.

“Exactly. Hopefully the archives can shed some light on the nightmares I’ve been having.” Starlight continued as she began skimming through the various books and scrolls with her magic

The group scoured the library, searching for something that could be of use. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flew up to search the top shelves, while Pinkie seemed to wriggle her way through the crevices of the shelves. AppleJack, Rarity and Spike gathered the texts at a large circular table and assisted Starlight in her search. For hours they searched the vast plethora of texts within the library. Everything from; Understanding Dreams: Oneirology for Novices, to the somewhat controversial, Take Charge with Assertive Dreaming: Iron Will’s Guide to Lucid Dreaming, but none proved useful in helping Starlight find a solution to her problem. Not even Star-Swirl’s almanac on the subject proved useful.

Spike turned to Starlight. “Any luck?”

“No nothing yet” she said with some dismay. “But did you know that one of the most common dreams is being naked in public?”

“Yeah, so? Most of us aren’t wearing clothes to being with,” Spike said before leaping off his stool, “I’ll check in the East wing.”

He briskly walked through the eastern wing of the archives where most of the magical artifacts are kept. Enchanted candles, ancient talismans, staves, and old chimes lined the shelves and cases surrounding him. That’s when a glow caught the young drake’s eye. There, on an ivory pedestal, sat a golden cube etched with glowing blue runes upon its faces. The cube’s faces were also embedded with a circular carving resembling a bulls-eye. By his nature as a gem-coveting dragon, Spike approached the strange box as if hypnotized by its eerie glow. He picked it up and the glow of its runes grew stronger. He felt utterly compelled to show this queer object to Starlight.

“Hey Starlight! Check this out!” Spike Shouted, the librarian suddenly hissed at him angrily in an attempt to keep him quiet.

Starlight approached Spike’s location in the East Wing. “Not so loud Spike” she scolded. “Now, what is it that you - what is that?” she questioned.

"Dunno, just found it at the far end of the library" Spike replied.

The strange object began to glow a light blue from the etched runes on its surface, a searing heat began to emanate from the cube. Spike gave out a cry of pain and dropped the cube and it hit the floor with a metallic crack.

The old librarian approached them furiously, “If you all are not going to be quiet then I shall-” but before she could finish her threat, the glow from the cube became a blinding light that saturated the entire room. The cube’s glow then changed from blue to purple and the device began to surge and spark with bizarre energy.

Starlight looked on, paralyzed in fear as the others rushed over to the spectacle. The strange magical energy continued bursting out of the cube like a vicious lightning storm. All of a sudden, several orbs of purple energy swirled around Starlight and began striking her with jolts of energy. She let out a terrified scream as the orbs began spinning around her, faster and faster until in a flash of purple light, Starlight vanished and the cube lay still on the tiled floor.

“What in tarnation?” yelled AppleJack

“Starlight! Where’d you go?” exclaimed Rainbow Dash

Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rarity all let out screams of fear and panic. Spike picked up the cube and ran out the door.

“Twilight! Twilight! Heeeeelp” he screamed, his voice echoing through the halls.

Comments

[Composer99]

A promising start, if perilous for poor Starlight.

Apropos of:

“Think nothin’ of it sugarcube, we’re here to help you with any cadavers you got” replied AppleJack.

Am I correct in assuming you meant to write something like "endeavours"? (Although that might be a bit of a high-falutin' word for Applejack to use.)

I suspect what she hasn't just offered to do is to help Starlight with, say, a medical or scientific dissection, which is what "cadavers" would imply.

[SaltyVampireHorse]

7562809 that is true, I tried saying the line in her voice several times and I felt that it sounded like a term she would use (even if she didn't really know the meaning XP) I appreciate your interest ^w^