Knight of Equestria - On Distant Shores

by SupraMacPringles

Chapter 29: The Spectacled Specter

As the next day came, a sense of normality had finally returned to the library. When Spike awoke, he ventured downstairs to spot Matt and Twilight sitting side by side as they scanned through books and wrote things down together.

"See, Twilight, I told you he'd come back." Spike said matter-of-factly.

Twilight Sparkle broke from her concentration to acknowledge him. "Yes, Spike. You were right." she said.

"It says here that communication is vital..." Matt said, seemingly randomly. He then quickly scribbled something down before he too noticed Spike. "Ah, Spike. Good morning."

Spike didn't bother mentioning to them that it was already the afternoon and that he had overslept. They hadn't seemed to notice, being absorbed in whatever it was they were doing.

"I'm gonna have some breakfast, er, lunch. Did you guys want anything?" Spike asked.

"Ooh, some tea, please." Twilight replied.

"Tea sounds lovely." Matt agreed.

As Spike began preparing everything, Matt began to display a troubled expression. Twilight Sparkle took notice.

"Is something wrong?" she asked him.

Matt's expression didn't soften as he turned to face her. "We aren't rushing this, are we?" he asked.

Twilight was taken aback. "W-well it's hard to tell, it's been less than a day..."

Matt replied quickly. "The book suggests having a deep understanding of your partner is essential. Since my journal came through with me, you know a lot about me. But I still don't know too much about you. Like I said last night, I want to know all about you, so i guess I should ask some things?"

"What sort of things?"

"Well, things like... where you're from, or about your family."

"Oh, well that's simple. I was born and raised in Canterlot, and my parents still live there."

"Any siblings?" he added.

"Just a brother, his name is Shining Armor. Oh, and a sister-in-law named Cadence."

"Ah, so your brother got married. Do they live nearby?" Matt inquired.

"Unfortunately, no. They live in a place called the Crystal Empire." Twilight said somewhat sadly.

"Hmm. I'll have to make it a point to visit and introduce myself at some point. Your parents live closer, though. We should probably start there."

"I'm sure they'd like you, my brother especially." she responded confidently.

Spike had just finished making the food and tea and quickly got the hot beverages to Matt and Twilight, before beginning to demolish his lunch. As the pair sipped from their cups, a thought struck Twilight.

"I just remembered something! I have a scrapbook from Cadence and Shining Armor's wedding I could show you!" she declared excitedly.

"Sounds delightful. Where is it?" Matt replied, placing his tea on the nearby end table.

Spike chimed in after a large belch. "I think we moved it to the basement when you re-organized, Twilight." he said.

The three of them descended the stairs into the library's rather unclean basement as Twilight flicked on the light. "It must be down here somewhere..." she said. The trio began digging through boxes and drawers in search of the scrapbook. Matt noticed the machine she had him hooked up to a while ago was still there, as well as the paper with some sort of graph coming out of it.

Meanwhile, Spike was moving some boxes from a sizable pile and accidentally knocked the whole thing over, Spike buried inside.

"Are you okay, Spike?!" Twilight called out.

Spike's purple hand emerged from the now collapsed pile holding the scrapbook they were looking for.

"Excellent work, Spike." Matt complemented.

"I know." Spike said as he stood and dusted himself off.

Just then, the lights in the basement flickered and died, startling the group. Twilight Sparkle felt something grab onto her. Channeling magic through her horn, she illuminated the room and found Matt Nabal and Spike clinging to her in the darkness. Both of them let go and tried to brush it off.

"You were totally scared." Spike said, trying to be cool.

"I don't know what you're talking about; I was making sure the two of you were alright." Matt replied.

Twilight giggled. "Don't worry boys, the bulbs down here are old, they probably just need changed."

Suddenly, a strange giggling was heard somewhere in the basement.

"Uh... Twilight, it wasn't that funny." Spike said.

"T-that wasn't me..." she responded as the giggling grew louder.

Creaking of wood could be heard as the giggling became louder, seeming to come from an unused shelf across the room. Twilight Sparkle took a few steps forward to investigate as the shelf began to move. It opened like a door, as if on a hinge, and the giggling stopped when it opened wide. Twilight stopped in her tracks and glanced behind her to Spike and Matt, both of whom hadn't moved an inch. She faced the inky blackness of the hidden door and silently gulped.

"H-hello?" she said, almost a whisper.

A moment of silence passes before what sounded like hoofsteps came from the dark passage. They started slow but increased in speed before sounding like a full-on sprint. Twilight, Spike and Matt were frozen in place from terror.

A blur emerged and tackled Twilight Sparkle with enough force to knock her back into Matt and Spike. Twilight's magic flickered before refocusing, and instead of something horrible, she discovered she was being embraced by a familiar pink earth pony.

"Pinkie Pie?" she asked, confused.

Pinkie was still giggling. "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist!" Pinkie replied, being overcome with more laughter. She stopped hugging Twilight and rolled around the floor, still laughing.

"I should've known it was a Pinkie prank..." Spike said, relieved.

"Does this happen often?" Matt asked, also relieved.

"She never dug a hole into the basement before." Spike replied.

Pinkie Pie stopped rolling and laughing, quickly springing up onto her hooves. "Oh I didn't dig this hole, but a hole I dug lead into it!" she explained.

"So... this passage behind the shelf was already there?" Twilight wondered aloud.

"That's odd you didn't notice it before." said Matt. "Any idea what could be back there?"

"All I saw were more books, that's how I knew it was part of the library!" Pinkie responded.

"W-we aren't going in there, are we?" Spike said sheepishly.

The allure of new knowledge intrigued Twilight greatly, but the pitch-black hall ahead made her just slightly nervous.

"I-It wouldn't hurt to take a quick peek, right?" Twilight said.

"Sounds like a good time to me!" said Pinkie, happily bouncing forward into the tunnel.

"Hey, if we're doing this, wait up!" Spike said as he followed after her.

Twilight Sparkle brightened her magical light and began to follow after them, Matt Nabal walking by her side.

"So, Twilight... Do you always chew on your hair when you're nervous?" Matt said.

Twilight looked down and noticed a loose strand of her mane in her mouth, something she must've done subconsciously. She quickly spit it out and blushed, embarrassed Matt noticed before she did. "Not always..." she said shyly.

"Relax." Matt said. "It's… cute." he said.

This only made Twilight's blush redden even more.

"It's a bit worrying, though. That both of us are willing to walk into a place like this just out of curiosity." he continued. "You'd think one of us would have better judgment."

"I guess both of us just can't control ourselves when it comes to books." Twilight replied.

Matt chuckled. "I suppose that's true. Doesn't help that we live in a library."

Now it was Twilight's turn to chuckle as the group entered a large chamber. There was a large centerpiece shelf as tall as the ceiling, about the height of Golden Oak's main chamber. Just before entering the chamber, they passed the hole Pinkie Pie assuredly dug in through. There were even small sitting areas on opposite sides of the central shelf. The group of four looked on in awe at the sheer size of the room and how it had gone hidden for this long.

"Whoa... aside from the seriously creepy vibe, this place is pretty cool." Spike said.

"I think so too! It's like a Nightmare Night version of the library down here." said Pinkie Pie.

Twilight Sparkle had already started examining books. "Just how old is this place?" she wondered aloud. "Some of these are in a... very strange language."

At the edge of Twilight's magical light source, Matt Nabal noticed another passage leading out of the room. "There would appear to be more, over there."

Twilight hadn't noticed the other passage herself nor Matt's mentioning of it. She had gathered a pile of books and floated them over to one of the sitting areas. She then levitated one of the nearby torches and guided it towards Spike.

"Spike? Can you light this please?" she asked.

With a small puff of green fire the dragon did as he was asked, the room now filling with a green light.

"Reading down here won't be good for your eyes, Twilight. You may even need glasses at this rate." Matt conjectured, even though the thought of Twilight wearing glasses somewhat appealed to him.

"I know, I know, but I'm just too curious to wait!" she replied, talking a seat and placing the lit torch into a metal sconce on the wall behind her.

Upon placing the torch, there was a strange clicking noise before the floor Twilight sat upon and the wall next to the sconce rotated and just like that, she was gone.

Matt, Pinkie and Spike all shouted her name is surprise and rushed over to the wall.

Twilight, though disorientated, quickly got back to her hooves and tried pushing on the wall that had rotated.

"I-I can't get it to move!" she said.

"Neither can we!" responded Spike as he, Pinkie and Matt also tried pushing.

"Step back, I'm going to blast it with magic!" said Twilight, desperate to return to her friends and the light.

"Wait!" Matt said. "This place doesn't seem like it could take the blast. We don't want the place caving in on us." Matt grabbed the torch out of the sconce to see if he could get the mechanism to reactivate, which it did not. "There must be some kind of device in place to rotate it again…"

"I-I'll check my side, too…" Twilight said, lighting her horn again. When she did, she noticed that she was in a dark room not unlike the tunnel they entered through.

Before long, neither side could find a trigger to make the wall rotate. Matt once again looked to the hallway opposite the entrance.

"Twilight." he called, leaning against the wall. He heard her place her forelegs against the opposite side. "There must be a way around through the other passage. We're going to find a way to reach you."

"We are?" Pinkie asked, seeming to finally notice the passage he had mentioned.

"We are. I promise." He said, trying to sound confident.

"Alright." Twilight replied. "I'll try to meet you halfway."

"Keep a lookout for any more traps!" Spike shouted.

After that, both parties went their separate ways hoping to find each other at the end. Twilight grimaced as she walked alone into the darkness.

…...

Twilight followed the corridor for what seemed like ages, before finally finding herself in what looked like a mirror image of the large chamber she had already been in. However, this second large room was well lit and maintained. The walls were lined with colorful banners suggesting a celebration of some kind had occurred. Instead of books lining the shelves, there were numerous objects of varying shapes and sizes almost as if categorized. The rooms lighting reflected off something on one of the shelves and Twilight moved to investigate.

The shining object was in fact a pair of reading glasses. Despite how immaculate they seemed in condition, they were certainly antique in design.

She reached a hoof out to touch them before being startled by a sudden gasp behind her. She turned to see a beige Stallion with a black mane wearing an identical set of glasses.

"Oh my stars!" the pony said. "I didn't think anypony would ever visit me!" he said, his orange eyes alight with excitement.

"Oh, hello! I didn't know anypony else was down here." Twilight responded.

The stallion seemed genuinely excited to have a guest, and even more-so when he noticed Twilight had a horn and wings.

"Oh my- And a princess as well! Good heavens! I'm so very sorry about the state of the Undercroft your majesty, I'm still waiting for the exit tunnel to be repaired!"

"The... Undercroft?" Twilight asked, still trying to process how long this stallion had lived in her basement.

The stallion didn't seem surprised at her response. "Ah yes, of course. I'm sure Princess Celestia has kept the whole thing top secret, she probably sent you down here without any details." He turned and gestured widely to the room of trinkets and bobbles. "This place is the Undercroft, home to dozens of the most powerful magical artifacts and ancient knowledge in all Equestria. I am the caretaker of artifacts, Clever Clover, at your service." he said with an exaggerated bow.

Twilight Sparkle had never heard of such a place, nor had she ever heard of a 'Clever Clover' in association with Princess Celestia. Clover had appeared to be telling the truth however, given the old tomes in the previous chamber and the collection of items around them. She had begun to wonder if Celestia actually had kept this from her for some reason.

She looked down to the pony, still in his bow stance before speaking. "I see... Clover, was it? How long has this place been down here?"

Clever Clover finally stood back up on all fours to reply. "Oh, it feels like we've been putting the place together for decades now. Progress has slowed greatly since the cave-in over in the castle exit tunnel. Not to mention how confusing it is to get around the blasted place with all these rotating walls." he lets out a sigh. "Sometimes I feel the princess is just pulling one over on us..."

Twilight smirked in amusement at the thought of Celestia pranking her subjects, before quickly realizing what else Clover had said. "Wait, you said an exit collapsed?" she asked.

He responded by pointing to one of the three tunnels that exited the chamber. "Yes, the one leading out into the perimeter of the castle. You know, nearby those ghastly woods, with the rope bridge?"

While she couldn't be certain, she assumed he meant the long abandoned castle Celestia and Luna ruled from centuries ago. Before she could confirm, Clover had pushed a cushioned seat over for her to sit on before also pushing one also for himself.

"So tell me princess." he said. "Did you happen to pass a mare on your way in?"

Twilight shook her head. "No, the only other pony I've seen down here is you."

Clover smiled warmly. "Ah, she must already have left the Undercroft, no doubt out through the library entrance. She probably went and chewed the foreman's head off for his teams shoddy job on the other path."

Twilight had never seen a mare or any other pony come out of the library's basement. She was certain the false shelf door was sealed until Pinkie Pie's little prank earlier, or else she would have noticed it beforehand. As she looked at Clover, he pushed his glasses back up his face causing them to reflect the light and obscure his eyes. Afterwards, Twilight felt remarkably at ease and her concerns over the odd things Clover had been telling her melted away.

"Is this mare a friend of yours?" she asked.

Clover's smile turned into a grin. "My best friend. She is my betrothed, and the first assigned caretaker of the archive half of the Undercroft. She also handles affairs at the Golden Oaks Library on the surface. I'm sure she would love to meet you."

…...

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" asked Spike as he, Matt and Pinkie continued walking the long abandoned tunnels.

"No, Spike. I was never sure. I will never be sure." Matt replied, frustrated by their lack of progress. "Everything in this damned place looks the same."

Pinkie Pie, bouncing gingerly ahead of them, stopped and turned to face the human. "Ooh, what does 'damned' mean?"

"We'll discuss that later, right now we need to focus on finding Twilight." Matt responded.

"Well in that case, why don't we just start throwing ourselves at walls until they spin again?" Pinkie asked innocently.

Matt, tired of walking in a straight line for what felt like hours, brought his hand to his face and sighed. "Sure, whatever. Why not?" he said, not thinking the pink pony would actually do it.

Naturally, Pinkie Pie was the first to try it. After comically splatting against the wall with no results, Pinkie got back on her hooves to try again.

Matt reached down to put a hand on her shoulder. "Whoa now, settle down. I really doubt you'll magically find the right wall on a guess. And I'd rather you not get a concussion." Matt leaned his back to one of the stone walls to think, planting the green torch in a a nearby sconce. "It feels like we've been walking in one direction for a very long time. But surely we would have found something besides just more tunnel, like a another room or even like-"

"A button?" Spike said.

"Yes, like a button. That would be magnificent." Matt said looking down to Spike, who was hovering a claw over a small round button next to the very wall Matt was leaning against.

Spike pressed the button and the wall behind Matt gave way to a pitch black shaft that Matt fell into with a surprised yelp. Without thinking, Pinkie and Spike reached out for him and also stumbled into the darkness, that section of wall closing behind them. They found themselves what felt like a slide of some sorts, twisting and descending deep into blackness. When Matt Nabal reached the bottom, he found himself in a dimly lit room. As he looked around to try and see what they had ended up in, his two companions collided with him as they too reached the end of the slide. The collision made them all roll forward into the room.

"Is everyone alright?" Spike called out as they climbed of each other.

Pinkie Pie giggled and snorted uncontrollably. "That was great!" she managed to say through the giggles.

"I'm glad someone enjoyed themselves." Matt said, dusting himself off.

"... it was pretty fun." Spike agreed.

Matt was glad they couldn't see him smiling in agreement in the dark. "Look there." he said, changing the subject. He pointed at a light In the corner of the room, quickly realizing there was a light in each corner.

The room had enough illumination that the trio could see after a few seconds off letting their eyes adjust. Matt reached for what looked like some sort of power switch and to his surprise, the lights in the room intensified to brighten up the whole room. The room was remarkably uninteresting aside from what seemed like a massive map of the complex and the skeleton of a pony in front of it.

Matt gazed at the map, showing dozens of intricate paths between massive chambers, one of which he assumed was the one they had started in. Upon closer inspection, he realized something. The long path they had walked before was set up almost like a treadmill according to the maps design specifications, meaning they literally hadn't gone anywhere the whole time until finding the slide, which he also spotted on the map.

Pinkie and Spike had noticed the map too, but were more focused on the bones in front of it.

"I-I guess we aren't the first to get lost down here." Spike said.

Pinkie Pie had picked up a small metal badge that had been nearby the skeleton.

"Oh hey look, this must've been the librarian before Twilight." she said. "Waaaay before Twilight."

She handed the badge off to Matt. It was definitely some sort of librarian badge, but the engraving was mostly unreadable due to how filthy the thing was. He put that badge in his pocket and looked back to the map.

"It looks like this..." he said, pointing to a path coming off of the huge chamber they were in earlier. "Is the path Twilight took. Which means we just have to go through here, here, here and here from this room to end up where Twilight must be." he said, pointing out the four paths chaining off the central room they were in that lead to another massive room. "Let's get going."

"Right!" Spike and Pinkie said in unison, before glancing back at the map and looking completely lost.

Matt chuckled. "Just follow me."

…...

Back in the artifact chamber, Twilight had completely forgotten why she was suspicious of Clever Clover to begin with. He seemed like a fine upstanding stallion and he regaled Twilight with romantic stories of he and his fiance.

"I assure you, Princess Twilight, she's quite the magnificent mare, I'm sure the two of you will get along swimmingly when she returns." he said.

"She sounds amazing, Clover. I can't wait to meet her!" Twilight replied enthusiastically.

As the conversation began to dull, Clover adjusted his glasses again before continuing. "What about you, your majesty?" he asked. Twilight looked slightly confused at his question, prompting him to elaborate. "Do you have a special somepony in your life? I promise not to tell!" he said.

"Oh! Uh..." for some unknown reason she was compelled to answer. "Well... there is somepony..."

"Oh?!" Clover exclaimed, adjusting his spectacles again. "Do tell!"

"I-It isn't anything official yet, we're kind of... working on it?" she explained, somewhat awkwardly.

"Ooh, scandalous!" What kind of Stallion is he?"

She smiled as she thought before answering. "He's... very smart, very quiet... mysterious... he prefers to keep to himself, mostly."

"... well, doesn't that sound exciting." Clover replied sarcastically.

Twilight giggled in response. "I know, I know. But we do share a lot of things in common. He also has some issues connecting with other other ponies, but he's been opening up to me a lot lately."

"Well princess, I hope things go well with your mystery-colt." Clover said with a wink.

Twilight blushed before remembering that Matt and the others were searching for her right now.

"If you'll excuse me, Clover, I must be going. He and my friends must be looking for me." she said, standing.

"Oh, but princess! Y-you can't go yet!" he stammered.

"I'm sorry, but my friends are wondering where I am, I should go find them." she replied.

"But princess..." said Clover, pushing up his spectacles again. "You should wait here, in case they come by."

"I should wait here... in case... they come by." Twilight repeated, almost as if in a trance.

"That's right, I'm sure they'll stop by soon..." Clever Clover said with a smirk. "In the meantime, have I shown you these glasses?" he asked, gesturing to the pair of antique glasses that mirrored his own upon the pedestal nearby. "I think they'd be a perfect fit on you..."

…...

"It should be just after this next room." Matt Nabal called back to his friends.

"How do you even remember that?" Spike asked.

"I've got a pretty decent memory." Matt replied.

"Me too!" said Pinkie, bouncing forward ahead of the others. "The last door is riiiiiight... here!" she said, smacking the wall of the room with a hoof. After a few seconds of nothing, Matt gestured for her to move to the parallel wall. After repeating her tap on the other wall, the door mechanism released and opened to what the group was looking for; the other grand chamber.

The chamber was strangely immaculate in comparison to the rest of the facility, and was even brightly lit. The group didn't have time to gawk about, however, as they all spotted the purple princess they sought to rescue. They all called out to her and she turned to face them.

Twilight's face briefly flashed between shock and relief upon seeing her friends. "Hello everyone!"

"I guess you took the initiative and just decided to wear a pair now, huh?" Matt said, commenting on her rounded glasses.

Naturally the first thing everyone noticed was that she was wearing glasses she hadn't brought in to the labyrinth with her, but considering the room had a bunch of other strange items lying around they didn't think it anything suspect.

"I did! What do you think? Do they look good?" she replied, fluttering her eye lashes.

"I knew it was only a matter of time." said Spike.

"You're really pullin' it off!" added Pinkie Pie.

The first thing Matt noticed was her speech patterns. Twilight didn't sound like Twilight. There was something about he she spoke that didn't sit right with him. He had assumed he was overthinking it.

"Let's get outta here." said Spike. "We have our very own human map to lead the way." he added pointing a thumb over his shoulder to Matt.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Spike. Except out of this place." Matt replied, crossing his arms.

"Human...?" Twilight said, almost as if in thought.

"Uh, yeah. That is what Matt is, right?" Pinkie Pie said, placing a hoof under her chin.

Matt raised an eyebrow and his gaze landed on Twilight. "Are you feeling okay, Twilight?"

"O-of course! Just still shaken up from being separated, is all." she replied.

"Right... well, come on then. The sooner we get out of here the better." Matt said, turning to leave.

"Wait!" Twilight exclaimed, once again drawing the attention of her friends. "D-did you see a mare on your way in? She had told me she would return..."

The trio exchanged glances. "We didn't see anypony else." Spike said.

"Well, we did find someone." Pinkie added.

There was a pause as Matt pulled out the metal badge they had found earlier. "It would seem we aren't the first people to get lost down here." he said, showing her the badge.

Twilight's eyes began to fill with tears and she began to sob. Once again, glances were exchanged among the others, as well as a trio of shrugs.

"Twilight." Matt said, kneeling down and placing a hand on her shoulder. "I know it's a terrible thing, but there's nothing we can do for them now."

Her sobbing ceased but the tears kept flowing. "Get off me." she muttered, near inaudibly.

"Hm?" Matt pulled his hand back.

"You're lying!" She screamed, letting off a magical shockwave, knocking her three friends back.

After the dust settled, Matt, Pinkie Pie and Spike picked themselves back up.

"What the hay was that about?!" Pinkie asked, rubbing her now sore noggin.

"That isn't Twilight." Matt said. "Just look at their eyes."

As Matt had said, Twilight Sparkles normal violet eyes were replaced by a pair of amber ones.

"W-what's going on?" Spike asked.

The impostor used the magic in Twilight's horn to begin whipping up a small twister in the confined space. "You're lying!" she repeated. "She... she couldn't have..." Tears continued to flow from the now-orange eyes.

"I don't know who you are." Matt began. "But if you-"

"But if you hurt Twilight even a little bit..." Spike added, trying his best to look intimidating.

Pinkie pulled what looked like some form of military helmet out of nowhere and put it on her head. "It's go time!"

Matt smiled, enjoying the solidarity that came with a caring group of friends. "Yeah. What she said." Matt said.

And with that, magical blasts began being shot all over the large chamber, all of which originating from Twilight's horn. Matt found himself behind a knocked over couch, using it as makeshift cover as Spike soon joined him.

"So, what do we do?" Spike asked.

"Good question. Where's Pinkie?" Matt inquired, peeking over the couch to she Pinkie attempting to bombard the fake with pillows. "Ah."

"Aren't you like, magic proof or something?" Spike asked.

"Yes. I can resist the effects of any form of magic and cause some recoil to the caster. Which is the problem, I don't want to hurt Twilight if that is her body."

"You can make it up to her later, it's the only move we have!" Spike replied.

"Fair enough."

Matt stepped out from the cover and nearly immediately started getting blasted by magical projectiles. Mere moments after impact, the blasts were reflected and Twilight Sparkle was knocked to the ground. Matt ran over to her side, scooping her body into his arms.

"Twilight? Are you in there?" He said.

Orange eyes opened and the person puppeteering Twilight's body replied. "The guy... she was talking about... was you?"

He cocked his head to the side as a translucent specter leapt from Twilight's body, placing the round glasses onto Matt's face.

Matt placed Twilight back on the ground and turned to face Spike and Pinkie. His brown eyes now glowed a wrathful orange. "You're all lying. There's no way they just left us down here to rot. I'm going to take this body and find her myself." not-Matt said.

"M-matt..." whispered a nearly unconscious Twilight Sparkle from below, catching the glare of the faker.

"Whatever this thing is... A 'human' or whatever you called it. It's body seems quite durable." the impostor Matt said, examining his form.

A moment later, he was clutching his head in pain, giving Pinkie and Spike enough time to run by and move Twilight away. She seemed to be okay, yet no longer awake.

The being posing as Matt hunched over and screamed in agony, before calmly standing erect and turning to face the frightened friends. To their surprise, his eyes were back to being brown. He let out a sinister chuckle.

"You almost had a good idea, there. Problem is, whatever you're using to possess people..." he said, pulling the glasses off of his face and gazing into their lenses to see a reflection of the phantom. "These glasses, I assume? It's magic based. Unlucky for you that magic and humans don't mix."

"No!" shouted the apparition of Clever Clover. "I... I must go find my beloved. Let me go!"

Matt's devilish smirk turned to a face of genuine pity. "I'm sorry you waited however long you did down here, but she's already gone. I don't know if this realm has an afterlife, but if there is a heaven..." he dropped the glasses to the ground. "I hope you see her again."

With that, he brought his foot down and shattered the glasses, releasing at first a blue aura until silence returned to the chamber of artifacts.

…...

On the way back out of the winding tunnels of the Undercroft, Matt carried the still unconscious Twilight Sparkle on his back, arms supporting her hind legs.

"So..." Spike piped up. "How did you know what was going on with that guy?"

"When his spirit entered my body, I was unfortunate enough to see a bit of what I guessed were his precious memories. It's... kind of haunting, actually." Matt replied. Pinkie Pie chortled when he said 'haunting', earning an eye roll from the human. "Yes, yes. Ghost puns. Terrific."

Twilight began to stir on the human's back.

"Oh!" exclaimed Pinkie. "You're up!"

"Yes... and I hurt all over." Twilight replied, wincing.

"That would be my fault." said Matt, as Twilight noticed what position she was in as red crept up her face.

"Oh, it's alright. I know you just did what you had to." she responded.

"He said he'd make it up to you!" said Spike.

"That I did. Just consider me your royal attendant for as long as you need." Matt said, turning his head over his shoulder to look Twilight in the eyes and smiling warmly.

"I-I'll keep that in mind..." she said, tightening the grip her forelegs had around the human. She rested her head against his back as they continued out.

"Twilight?" Matt asked, glancing back to see if she was awake.

"Yes?" she responded, opening her eyes.

"When he had your body under control... did you see anything? Like, from his memories?"

"I... I did, I think. They were heavily distorted and..."

"Yeah, I know. We can talk about it later."

They were both content to end the conversation there. Twilight once again resting her head to his back and listening to the sound of his heart beating, almost as if in rhythm with her own.

Within her mind, she began to realize this second heartbeat was something she never knew she needed.