Shadows of the library
Chapter 5
As the five slept, they were unaware of the villainous ring wraiths that were waiting outside of their inn. Dismountin’ from their black lizard dragin’ thangs, the 5 cloaked guys walked slowly into the inn, menance hidin’ deep bentahe their black cloaks of ever present doomy doom. Slowly creepin up the stairs, they snuck into the room where our brave heroes slept. Bringing out their black blades of utter black darkness they poised themselves to stike at the little ponies.
But that’s when AJ shot out of the bed and then tackle one of them no good varmints! Her muscles a ripplin’ as she proceeded to beat the tar out of the wraith that she tackled to the ground while the other 4 shook a little in their now stained little cloaks. Somehow findin their courage they charged at the cool headed pony, but was she afraid? NO! She just tipped her hat and bucked two of them in the abbadomen and sent them carreeeeeeeeening into the fall, wakin up the other four mares in the room. Twilight, shooting up first, immeatily tried to find a book that told her how to beat shadow thingies, while Pinkie did somethang weird and insane that made the fourth feller fall to the floor in laughter. Rarity began to become over dramatic and began to scream and holler while she grabbed onto Fluttershy for dear life, Sweetie on the other hand sang a hopeful little song that made the idit fourth faint from being bad. This left the sixth one as she began to back away, only to be tripped by RD.
“Wow, you are great Darling,” Rarity said.
“Yes, genius word, genius word, smart talk,” Said Twi.
“Brilliant,” Pinkie said.
“Your awesomeness even gave me back my voice,” Sweetie Belle said.
“................................." Fluttershy said, to the sound of no one, but they knew it was deep and pro…pre… it was exciting.
“ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ,” RD could only say, as she was asleep.
“Whoa Hold it,” Scoots interrupted one of her best friends!
“Thanks for filling in for Rainbow and all, Applebloom” Scootaloo said, looking at the yellow filly sitting next to her bed, “But there are several things wrong with it.”
The yellow filly, rubbed the big bow on her head, “Like what?”
“Well, first, why did AJ being awesome cause Sweetie’s voice to come back?” Scootaloo asked.
“Are ya saying that seeing my sister bein awesome wouldn’t cause a pony’s voice to come back?”
“Well, no, but why during that awesome moment and not when the others are bein awesome, or some of the other times?”
Applebloom’s eyebrows raised in realization, “Maybe they just weren’t awesome enough!”
“Taking down an invincible pony to an awesome song isn’t being awesome enough?” Scootaloo asked, eyebrow arched.
\
“Well, personally I would rather used another song... ” Applebloom said.
Scootaloo chose to ignore that last comment, “Second, how could anypony, ESPECIALLY a former air force captain like Rainbow, sleep through a fight like that? And wasn’t Rarity acting a little out of character for that last moment? She should’ve been there for her little sister!”
Applebloom shrugged her shoulders, “Well, I guess Rarity was just too tired at the moment, and Rainbow could probably sleep through anything,” she then pointed a yellow hoof at the orange Pegasus, “I have a great uncle that said he slept through the resurrection of Discord. And besides, its’ probably just as awesome as what Rainbow had planned next. Uhhhhh, what was it?”
“Well, when they wake up, they’re planning on heading into the library,” Scootaloo said, taking a moment to remember the story from last night.
“A LIBRARY?” Applebloom exclaimed, throwing her hooves into the air, “Now what kind of exciting stuff can be found in a library?”
“You be surprised. I can tell you some weird stuff I crashed in on,” Rainbow Dash said, walking in.
“Hey Rainbow,” The two fillies yelled in unison.
“Hey there,” Dash said as she walked next to Scootaloo’s bed, Applebloom jumped off and headed towards the door.
“See ya later Scoot, hope ya feel better soon,” she said with a wave as she walked out the door.
“Well Dash, am I feeling better?” Scootaloo asked with a hopeful look.
“Well, lets see,” Dash said as she picked up a thermometer and put it into the orange filly’s waiting mouth. After waiting for about two minutes, Dash pulled the small glass tube out, “Hmmm, 102. Better than it was when I got you to the hospital, but still not good enough to let you out of bed.”
In response to the news, the purple maned Pegasus put a pillow onto her face and let out a small scream, “I AM NEVER GOING TO GET BETTER!!!!”
Rainbow Dash brought a small smile of affection as she rubbed the filly’s head, “Hey, don’t worry kid, you are. So, why was Applebloom here?”
“Oh, she was here to tell me all about the ‘AMAZING’ field trip that she and Sweetie Belle were on earlier. Did you know that they met up with Babs and they stopped a smuggling ring together?”
“I can bet Rarity was frazzled about that news,” Dash laughed as she brought out the book.
“Who’d think saved them from the smugglers at the last second?” Scootaloo said, only thinking about the rescue that the farmer and fashionista pulled off.
“Tell you what kid: when you get better, I’ll take you to Cloudsdale; Then we can stop our own crime ring and have our own adventure,” Dash said, smirking.
“Really?”
“Yep,” Dash said, opening the book, “Now lets see. Ah, here we are… The sun rose slowly over the small...
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The sun rose slowly over the small city, filling it with the warmth and radiance of its golden rays. Inside the inn where AJ and friends were staying, the light of the sun was able to enter directly through the window and onto the eyes of Fluttershy. She opened her cerulean eyes just as the light hit; she woke up softly and let out a small yawn before stretching out her legs. She then looked at the sparkling pink gem that was in the center of the ring she wore. As she watched the sparkle glow, she then watch it slowly fade away, making the gem assume its normal bright luster. Looking around the room, she began to note the disappearance of a glowing bubble of energy from the room, leaving behind only the small sparkles of magical energy. Her searching of the room soon caught sight of AJ, standing by the window and watching the sun rise in the distance, “Oh, AJ you’re awake,” She said as she got off the bed and walked to her friend, “Did you sleep well?”
“Perfectly,” Aj said as she passed a hoof through her mane, “ You know, it’s the weirdest thang. When I woke up this morning, Ah felt as though everything that was wrong with mah body was healed instantly. Like this sore hoof I still had from the fight last night? It was like Ah had never hurt it in the first place.” As if to demonstrate, she lifted up her forehoof and showed how there was no visible marks or bruises on it at all.
A smile came to Fluttershy’s face as she realized what this had meant, “I’m so glad to hear that AJ,” Fluttershy smiled, knowing that the spell had worked, “But why are you awake so early?”
Applejack sighed with an air of happy memories, “Tradition. Ah just have been waking up to the sun rising so much that Ah don’t see much point in staying asleep in the morning and missin’ out on that beautiful sun rise.”
“You’re right, it is beautiful,” Fluttershy said, putting her hooves onto the windowsill and watching the city awaken, “All of the little creatures waking up to their families, gathering their food, and all of them ready to greet the new day.”
Suddenly, a Pink mane pushed in between the two ponies and stretched her legs out the window, “Its almost as if the sun is saying, ‘GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDD MORNING EVERYPONY! TIME FOR YOU TO WAKE UP BECAUSE THERE IS PLENTY OF WORK TO DO!!!!!”
“Well, with a wake up call like that, I suspect that they would have no problem waking up,” Rarity groaned as her head shot up from the loud awakening. Then she began to stretch on the bed a little, letting her body rub against the sheets as much as possible, “Oh, it feels so good to be able to sleep on a bed again, instead of the ground like some sort of wild animal.”
“I agree, that was a great sleep,” Twilight chuckled, “Even my magic feels restored.” Getting up, she brought out her library card, “Now, lets go get that book!”
“Sugar, Ah’m as excited about doing this as you are, but lets get some breakfast first,” AJ said as she put her hat onto her head.
“Breakfast does sound good,” Twilight said as she got off the bed, listening to Pinkie trying to wake Rainbow up, “I do hope that the breakfast is complimentary, I kind of want to save my money for a new robe.”
“Oh it is darling,” Rarity stated as she woke Sweetie Belle up with a small nudge, making the filly awaken with a silent yawn, “I spared no expense in making sure that we have the best room imaginable. So the breakfast is free for the whole time we are here, and I made sure to save enough for each of us to do some shopping together later.”
“Sounds great Rarity,” Twilight said, smelling the food cooking from below, “mmmmm, I can smell the muffins,” her voice was then interrupted by the whoosh of a pink blur that past her by, “ and cider from here,” she was once again hit with a blur of speed, this time it was cyan colored.
“I will be with you girls in a minute, right now I need to do something with Sweetie Belle that we haven’t done in a while,” Rarity said as she took the little white filly in her purple magic and carried her into the bathroom, “We are both going to have a bubble bath before we even dare to try and go off into another dingy dungeon, dusty library, or any other mangy tomb that we might encounter.” With that last statement, she pulled her head back into the room and started up the tub. Using some of her magic, she grabbed a bottle of bubble bath from the wall and poured it into the tub.
Fluttershy looked at AJ as she stood next to the window, deep in thought, “I’ll stay here for a moment too, Twilight. I just need to make sure we have everything,” Fluttershy said as Twilight nodded in response and walked away.
Inside the bathroom, Rarity watched the little unicorn get into the warm tub as the water began to fill with bubbles and water. Walking up to the tub, Rarity pushed back some of her purple mane and began to charge up her magic, “Now, my dear little Sweetie, let’s see if we can’t get you sparkling clean. Hmmmm?” The white unicorn then began to use her magic to lift up a sponge, shampoo, a brush, and a washcloth with magic and brought it over to the waiting filly.
The little filly looked at her big sister with pleading eyes, wanting something else to go along her bath, “Sweetie, what do you want,” asked Rarity as she looked at her little sister. After taking a few moments to realize what she wanted, Rarity let out a small tired sigh, “Sweetie, I haven’t done that in so long,” She then looked at the sad look in her sister’s green eyes, “All right, I’ll do it while I wash you up.” Using her magic, she took control of two bright pink bubbles and began to form them slowly, crafting the soft foam into a bright pink unicorn, “ Once upon a time, there was a handsome unicorn stallion that liked to craft gems. He would make them into all sort of things, like little gem bunnies,” using her magic, she began to craft the images out of the bubbles, “ kittens, hearts, smiles, trees, and so much more. One day, he met this dressmaker who liked to visit his shop frequently. There were two reasons as to why she visited his shop,” she then had the female unicorn bubble come close to Sweetie’s nose, “one was because she liked to use his gems for her outfits. The second was because,” then the pink unicorn bubble kissed Sweetie on the nose,” she loved him.”
“One day, the unicorn said, ‘why don’t you marry me. We go great together and I love you so much.’ To which the lovely mare could only respond, ‘But I CAN’T! You are so much better than I ever could hope to be,” Rarity then began to play with the unicorn mare and stallion, moving them in dramatic ways, making her little sister giggle in the tub, “ ‘How about I prove that we are perfect for one another, you make a dress and I will help with my diamonds. By the end of it, we will make a dress that will put a queen to shame,’ Reluctantly, the mare agreed. So the two began to work on the dress for three months, and at the end of every week the stallion asked the same question, ‘do you believe we go together now, do you see how perfect we are?” Rarity then had the bubble stallion tickle her little sister.
“ When the dress was finished, a beautiful queen came to the couple and was shocked by the dress’ beauty, ‘why, who made such a lovely dress’ asked the queen. To which the unicorn mare responded, ‘why me and my husband of course. See how perfect we are? We make each other shine beautifully,’ and that was when she finally agreed to be married to the stallion of her dreams. Soon, they had two lovely gems of their own,” Rarity then formed two small unicorn fillies out of the bubbles and presented them to Sweetie Belle, letting them dance before her. Stretching out her small hoof, the little filly pointed to herself and then to Rarity, “That’s right, you and me. Do you know what I said when I first saw you,” she chuckled as she watched her little sister shake her head no, “Never before, have I seen such a beautiful or lovely of a gem. She is such a sweetie, and that,” Rarity then kissed her sister on the forehead,” Is how you got your name, and how mother and father met.”
AJ could hear the story from where she stood by the window and began to cry a little as she listened to the end of the tale, “Something wrong?” Fluttershy asked as she walked up behind AJ.
“It’s nothing…Ah’m just being reminded of me and my little sister, and big brother,” AJ said, wiping a tear from her eyes.
Fluttershy looked on in understanding before pulling in AJ for a hug, “It’s going to be all right, we’ll find them.”
AJ pulled away, looking straight into Fluttershy’s blue eyes, “AND WHAT IF WE DON’T! What if, when we get there, we find nothing but a withered husk and a destroyed red bow? What if they’re dead,” AJ yelled, slamming her hoof to the ground, “What if they’re all dead, and its all MAH FAULT!”
“No, no don’t say that. Its never anypony’s fault,” Fluttershy said, trying to offer a comforting hoof.
“YES, it is! On the day they had disappeared,” as the memory came ot her, she let out a small shudder, “I had left the farm to do some selling of our crops. Ah should’ve been back just a bit earlier, but Ah spent a little extra time talkin’ to friends and pallin around with them. By the time Ah had gotten back, they were gone. Ah had tried so hard to find them, Ah looked for months in some small hope that they would be close by. Until Ah had just gave up all hope of seeing them again, and just went back to work. Do you see why its all mah fault: AH SHOULD’VE BEEN THERE!”
“But there was nothing you could’ve done,” Fluttershy said, trying to find the right words to comfort her.
“Don’t you get it! Ah could’ve done somethang, ANYTHANG to keep them safe, but AH didn’t ,” panting rage, she squinted her eyes to stop some of the tears as she slammed her hoof against the wall,” and now, for the first time in mah life, Ah failed my farm, Ah failed to protect mah family, and AH FAILED MY FAMILY! Ah promised Paw on his death bed to always watch over them, but Ah didn’t.” Reaching a hoof to her Stetson, she pulled it down over her eyes, calming down, “Ah promised maw that Applebloom would grow up into a great young mare, but Ah’m about to fail in that as well.”
Fluttershy said nothing as she pulled the crying mare into a tight embrace, letting the orange mare to cry out on her shoulder. She slowly rubbed her yellow hoof along the earth pony’s back, trying to comfort her as the tears moistened her yellow shoulder. They stayed like this for a while as Rarity came out, dressed in a bath towel around her body as Sweetie Belle hopped in after, similarly dressed.
“Besides, darling,” Rarity said as she walked behind AJ and rubbed her friends back, “Thanks to you, you saved me from starvation,” the unicorn stated, looking over to Sweetie Belle as if to show what she would’ve done in the end if she had reached that point, “and Rainbow would still be a statue. Your sister is about to be saved thanks to you. So please, don’t you worry… we will save them, I give my word as a lady,” Rarity said as she hugged AJ, joining in with the group hug.
AJ smiled, breaking from the embrace, “Thanks guys. Come on, lets stop moping and get to eating!”
As they made their way downstairs, they saw that their friends were already into the free breakfast buffet along with some cider at Rainbow’s side and some tea for the others. Getting their plates, the four ponies took their seats alongside their friends, “Did you hear? Firefly has been seen in town lately,” Twilight said, finishing her waffle.
“Firefly? Who’s that,” AJ asked, biting into an apple.
Fluttershy was about to speak up, but a look from Rainbow caused her to let out a squeak and hid behind her pink bangs.
Twilight sighed, “She’s one of the best air fighters in the entire kingdom’s history, decorated several times over. She is one of the fastest fliers I have ever seen, and also, she’s the leader of the emperor’s search and attack unit.”
“Wow! Just think of how big trouble that meanie pants emperor would be in if she knew the truth,” Pinkie Pie said, throwing a cupcake into the air and eating it.
“She does, that’s the problem,” Dash said in disgust, slamming an empty cider mug down, “She’s like me, immune to mind control spells. She’s just serving under his dumbness because she’s just because she thinks it’s the right thing to do,” to finish she crossed her hooves, a bit of anger in her eyes.
“She must have been that mare she was talking to earlier, wonder why she gets her tail all twisted about it?” AJ thought to herself, “Sounds like we don’t have that many friends in the empire that could help us.”
“Well, I do know we have some spies in the emperor’s midst, like Gleaming Shield. Strange thing about her communications though,” Twilight chuckled, “When I hear from her, I get reminded of my big brother,” a smile came to her lips as she began to think of Shining. “ I bet he wouldn’t have let himself get affected by the spell! He… would be too strong for it to work and… ” the purple unicorn sniffed a little, a small tear coming to her eyes.
AJ reached over and gave her friend a hug, patting her back, “Don’t worry about it hun. We all have something we want to make him pay fer,” Aj said, looking at her friend, rubbing a hoof through her friends mane, “and once we get that spell, we’ll all have a few words for him.”
“OOOOOH! How about instead of words, we bring out a big rock that says, ‘you’re a big meanie face’ on it and throw it at him,” Pinkie said jumping in her chair, while Sweetie Belle whistled in response.
“As much as I am enjoying a good talk about rebellion, shouldn’t we be worried about somepony listening in,” Rarity asked as she finished her meal.
Twilight smiled, “Oh don’t worry, I put a cone of silence spell over us just in case somepony wanted to listen in.”
“WHAT,” Pinkie yelled as she put a hoof to her ear.
“I said, I put a cone of silence spell over us.”
“What,” Pinkie yelled again, a smile on her face.
“I SAID…oh wait, is this one of those prank things,” Twilight asked, eyebrow raised as she watched Pinkie nod enthusiastically.
“Good one Pinkie,” Dash cheered as she high hoofed her friend, “ Besides, we can talk about why the emperor is a bastard later.”
“Rainbow, language,” Rarity said.
“No he really is, I found out his mom and dad weren’t married when he was born,” Twilight said, drinking her tea.
“Anyway, we can discuss all of the smart things later. I say, lets have an enjoyable breakfast for right now and then go to that library,” Dash said as the others nodded in agreement.
With their breakfast done, the group trotted out of the inn and made their way to the library. As they walked along the path, Twilight began to think out loud, “I wonder if this means the emperor is onto us.”
“Trust me,” Dash whispered as she flew close to Twilight, “If Firefly were on our case… you would be dead by now and I would be short five friends.”
“You don’t think you could stop her, I mean she is,” Twilight was then interrupted.
“LOOK! I don’t like talking about how that pink traitor is my mother, especially in front of the others, OK?”
“Sorry,” Twilight said, looking down.
“It’s ok, its just.. something personal,” Dash said as she landed next to Twilight as they made their way up to the front door of the library.
“HALT! Do you…oh, its you,” Perfect Teeth said as he looked down at the purple unicorn and friends.
“Yes, and I am sorry for what my friend did earlier,” Twilight said.
“Don’t be, I was being a stupid idiot earlier. Besides, while I was at the dentist to get my teeth fixed, I met this wonderful mare there who also had her teeth busted by a pony. We talked for a bit, and soon we found out how much we had in common. Now I have a date for later on tonight and it is all thanks to you,” Perfect Teeth said happily, “Now if you just show your id card, I’ll let you in.”
“Uh, you’re welcome,” Twilight said, questioningly as she hand the card over, “Here.”
“Thank you… Mirrored Image?”
“Yes. You see, he was badly beaten at the last competition and asked me to get him some new spells to help heal him from his wounds,“Twilight said, a smirk on her face.
“Oh I see,” the unicorn said as he placed the card to the invisible barrier around the library, causing it to dispel, “ Come on in. Remember, only the unicorns can check anything out.” The unicorn then bowed to the 7 ponies as he let them walked through the open doors.
As they stepped into the large domed building, they were greeted by large rows upon rows of bookshelves. Twilight just stood with her jaw slacked and eyes opened in wide amazement as she looked over the wide selection of books leading from the front of the building to the back, with the only break being the center where a reading table stood. The book shelves seemed to reach the high ceiling alongside the marble pillars that lined the walls of the library. Walking forward slowly, Twilight’s lips began to quiver in excitement, “Oh my goddess above! LOOK AT ALL OF THESE BOOKS,” and with a squeal of joy began to race down the rows with her horn glowing with magic as it began to pick up the books, “Lets see: read it, read it, read it, curious about, read it later, read it, read it, need to correct this it has errors, read it, read it, OOOOH Immortal Game I can’t wait to read it again, read it, now who wants to read a fanfic where a girl goes away from her own dimension and is trained by an experienced alchemist while her friends go off searching for her, want to read, want to read, loved it, loved it, correct, correct, need to change, hey I wrote that one!”
As Twilight began to grab book after book, her friends looked on in utter shock and awe at her speed, “Look, I am going to keep an eye on the egghead,” Dash said as she flew up and towards Twilight. She was also muttering under her breath, “and see if I can't find some good books on flight tactics and some really good adventure novels. You girls go and check out where they keep all of the cool spells.”
Nodding in agreement, Rarity turned and walked towards the front desk where no pony sat at the moment. Looking back and forth, Rarity began to wonder where the librarian was. She then reached over a white hoof when suddenly a book popped out, enveloped by a magic aura, “raw, I am the monster of books. Beware, growl!,” Said a small filly voice as she began to open and close the book in synch with her voice.
“Dinky, please don’t try and scare the guest like that,” a female Pegasus said as she walked in from the back room, going under the desk and picking up a small unicorn filly with a blonde mane.
“Ok mom, I’ll go and talk to the little filly instead,” Dinky said, sitting on top of the desk and looking down at Sweetie Belle. Taking out her book she proceeded to make it talk to the white filly before her.
“Sorry about that, sometimes she likes to try and scare the guests,” the blonde Pegasus laughed a little as she turned to the mares in front of her, her glasses doing little to hide her misplaced eyes as one went up into the corner of her socket while the other focused in front of her, “My name is Derpy Hooves, and welcome to the ‘Bright Eyes memorial public library’. If this is your first visit, then have a free muffin.” The Pegasus then dipped her head below the counter and brought out 7 chocolate chip muffins.
“Excuse me, but Ah can’t help but notice that you’re a Pegasus. Ah didn’t think that they would have you working here as a librarian,” AJ said as she took the chocolate chip muffin and ate it.
“Yes, normally they get an unicorn…but due to certain,” with a sigh, Derpy pointed to her mismatched yellow eyes, “problems, they assigned me here. They thought it would the best way I could do work without hurting anything. And it gives Dinky a great chance to read and learn without anypony attacking her because her mom’s a Pegasus,” Derpy said with a smile as she looked down at the little blonde unicorn as she began to play some more with Sweetie Belle, “so in a way, it’s a great job! Must rather be back as the one of the mail carriers in the city, but you know how the emperor’s forcing every pony to do tasks that he wants you to, not the ones you want.”
“I am sorry to hear that, my dear,” Rarity said as she put a hoof to Derpy’s back.
Derpy let out a sad sigh as she looked down at the ground, “It’s ok, really,” her face then perked up with a happy smile, “So what are you girls looking for?”
“Well, you see, my friend is working in the emperor’s conjuration field of magic and wants to see all of the scrolls on that subject. Might you know where the private mage hall is?” Rarity asked.
“The private mage hall is at the end of the building, the hallway on your left. But I should warn you,” Derpy said with a frown, “ The emperor has recently had his unicorn mages put some magical defenses in there to prevent any rebels from getting in and using those spells against him.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll handle any old meanie traps that the mages have in there,” Pinkie said as she skipped off towards the back of the library.
“Oh, and darling, do you mind if you could keep an eye on Sweetie Belle? I don’t want her to go in with us,” Rarity asked, looking down at the young filly as she listened to Dinky talk about everything that came to her little mind.
“I don’t mind at all, Dinky loves to have fillies her age to play with,” Derpy said as she watched her little girl play.
As the girls walked away from the grey Pegasus, they began to look for Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie. Walking through the long rows of bookshelves, their attention was grabbed by a small high pitched yell as a pink blur ran up to them, “Look out guys! It’s a walking, talking, book monster!” Pinkie gasped, pointing to a glowing stack of books with four purple legs at the bottom.
“Twilight,” Rarity asked, grabbing the book that she assume was eye level with the purple unicorn and pulled it out to reveal a pair of violet eyes.
“Oh, hey girls,” Twilight said from behind the stack, “Sorry for scaring you like that, Pinkie. I just saw all of these interesting books that I just had to check out, and of course some that I know are completely wrong and need some correcting,” Twilight said as she walked to the nearby table and placed the 30 foot tall stack down, “So, did you guys find out where the mage hall is?”
“Just at the back and it’s the hall to our left,” AJ said, matter of factly.
“Great,” Rainbow said, dropping a book onto the table from above, “ Then lets get moving.”
“RAINBOW DASH! Can’t you be a little neater than that,” Rarity reprimanded as the 6 mares made their way to the end of the library.
“Nope, not in the least!” Dash had gained a smirk on her face while Rarity facehoofed in exasperation.
As they approached the back of the building, they saw the back split into two hallways. The one on the left reading, ‘mage hall’ and the other reading, ‘conference room’, taking a turn to their left, they walked down the long hallway leading to the hall where the scrolls would be kept. As the hallway continued, the once marble like walls gave way to a more crystalline like form, slowly taking on a black obsidian appearance to match the black carpet that was beneath them. After a minute of walking down the darkening hallway, they soon came across a pair of large golden doors. Emblazoned upon the face of these doors was a long, slender dragon that twisted and curved along the edges of the door until it laid its head on top of the door handles, with its black opal eyes staring down them menacingly as If it was judging them.
“Now, how are we supposed to get through there?” Twilight asked, looking up at the large doors inspecting it.
“By pulling on the handle, silly,” Pinkie said as she put her hooves around the door handles and tried to pull on them, not getting them to budge.
“Hang on, let me try,” AJ said as she went over to the door and bucked it as hard as she could, but failing to get it open.
“You’re not doing it right. Let the master mare get this,” Dash said, taking a few steps back and charging the door with all of her might, only to be stopped by the unmoving doors, “Ok, new plan. AJ, lets ram it together.” Watching her friend nod, the two mares charged at the door, hitting it hard, and still unable to move it.
Twilight began to walk around the door as the Pegasus and the earth pony continued to try and fail to get the door open, “There must be a clue or a trick that we are missing. The card isn’t working, so it must be a thing that tests your intelligence instead. Hmmm?” The purple mare looked down at a small golden plaque to the right of the door, “What’s this? ‘To get to the source of magic, one must look to the eye of the hero’s birth.’ The eye of the hero’s birth? Now what could that mean?”
Pinkie put a pink hoof to her chin as the others, with the exception of Rainbow and AJ, tried to figure out the weird saying on the wall. she began to look around the room for anything that could help and then her eyes caught a glimpse of the dragon, “I GOT IT!!!! It’s the dragon’s eyes.”
“Come again?” AJ asked, putting a hoof to her shoulder and rubbing it.
“See, my granny Pie one time told me this story of a mother dragon and her little colt,” Pinkie said skipping up to the dragon’s eyes.
“Pinkie, what does a story about a dragon have to do with this,” Dash asked, getting her senses together.
“EVERYTHING!” Pinkie exclaimed as she went to the dragon’s eyes, “ You see, the mother was turned into a dragon by a powerful witch when she was pregnant with the baby. After finding someplace quiet to give birth and to protect the child, she had the baby as an egg and sent it down the river to her mother where he could be safe. This egg came from,” the mink mare reached up to the black eye while making a drum roll sound effect, “her EYE! And the baby was fed from that eye till he got really strong and became a hero to his people.” To finish, Pinkie pushed as hard as she could onto the black eyeball, causing it to turn in the socket and reveal a diamond with the image of a small colt within it. As its brother got revealed, the other eye slowly began to turn as well, revealing another crystal eye. Once the two were revealed, the doors sprung to life and began to slowly swing open to reveal the black room behind the large doors
“That was brilliant Pinkie, now with any luck finding the scroll should be ea-“ The doors slammed shut behind her, “-sy.”
Hearing Fluttershy let out a small squeak at the sudden darkness, Rainbow began to look around the pitch black room, “Oh, buck me sideways! Just how are we supposed to find the scroll in this!?”
“Hang on, let me get a light,” Twilight said as she ignited her horn to cast the room in a small bright light. What she saw next caused her to step back and gulp, “Great, shadow wraiths.”
“Shadow-what now,” AJ asked, backing into the circle with the others, her hat tipped in determination.
“Shadow-” Twilight ducked one wraith’s black claw as he swiped at her, its red eyes glowing from within the shadows, “wraiths. Don’t let them touch you!”
“Why?” Dash asked, trying to swipe at some of them with her sword, only to feel one graze its claws along her flank, “Hey! Wat… ch it. Oh god, I am,” Dash then landed onto the ground, her eyes brimming with tears as she put her head under her hooves, “I am so sorry Fluttershy. Please, don’t, don’t be mad. M… mother, what… are you doing?” Her eyes opened wide as she began to fervently look around, “No, MOM! STOP! Their my friends, stop it, DON’T KILL THEM. Why am I not fast enough to save…”
“What the buck’s wrong with her,” AJ asked, trying to back up to Dash.
“The shadow wraiths feed on all of your negative emotions. Your tears, sadness, anger, and worst fears. Once they hit you, it puts an hallucinogen into your body and drives you mad. As you lay there, they’ll drain you dry and leaHHHHHH,” Twilight screamed as two wraiths managed to cut into her back, causing her to collapse to her knees, tears flowing, “Shining, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to kill mom and dad, it was an accident… please, forgive me. Why am I so… worthless.”
“TWI!” AJ yelled as a wraith scratched the back of her neck, “Maw, Paw, Ah am so sorry. Please… please… ” she said as she crumbled to a whimpering mess, unable to move.
“We need to- AHHHHH” Rarity screamed as a wraith slashed her side, making her fall, “Useless, I am so… useless. Sweetie, I am so sorry my talents led to this, I should never have been born. I am such an unneeded thing. I should be dead,” Rarity began to cry,
Jumping away from the incoming wraiths, Pinkie Pie tried her best to collect the others and get to safety, but was clawed in the leg by the red eyed creatures, “Why is it that they doubt me? Do they think I am so pathetic that I can't help them?” Her eyes burrowed in rage, “Maybe I should just let them turn into withering husks. Yes, husks.”
Fluttershy looked on in horror as her friends were crippled one by one, leaving only her left standing. Slowly she began to back into a corner while the wraiths crept in on her, their feet trailing along the floor as if they were crawling instead of walking. Feverishly, her blue eyes darted back and forth, in a vain attempt to see if anypony could help. As the creatures reached their dark claws to flay her
__________________________
“Don’t worry Scoots, they get out of this all right. I can promise you that,” Rainbow Dash said, patting her sister on the back comforting.
“Well, I…knew that. Of course,” Scootaloo said, gently pushing Dash’s hoof away.
“I am just saying that, because everything here looks hopeless and that look in your eyes says that you are worried,” Rainbow said, smiling.
“Well, I’m not. Its just that I am very into the story is all,” Scootaloo said as she got back into her place on the bed.
“Uh huh,” the cyan mare said with an air of disbelief as she opened the book once more and continued.
As the creatures reached with their dark claws to flay her alive, the buttery pegasus closed her eyes in horror as she could feel their claw looming in on her. The feeling of hopelessness, fatality, and fear were overwhelming, but not as much as the knowledge that she may lose her friends in the same way that she had lost her mother when they had found out about her ‘talent’. The idea that her friends were to die caused a burning fire to stoke up within her, making her open her eyes with a newfound courage, “NO!” Her voice surprisingly boomed with a roar as she furrowed her eyebrows in a rage as she took a step forward.
“YOU!” Three wraiths’ claws were swatted away by Fluttershy’s hoof, stopping them from touching her.“WILL!” as she took a step forward, the creatures backed up in fear as they stared into the pegasus’s eyes, feeling as if their souls were burning.“NOT! HARM!” Taking a few more steps caused the wraiths to feel an utter terror in their hearts, this in turn, made their fellow wraiths turn on them in hunger and to leap upon them like a pack of wolves, eating them whole. “MY! FRIENDS!” She shouted, making the monsters in fron of her back away for a moment, clearing the way for her to run to her friends. The first pony that she ran to was Pinkie Pie, who was busy smirking to herself as she watched her friends suffer through their emotional pain, “Pinkie, you have to help them. They’re going to die if you don’t!”
“Why the buck should I?” Pinkie questioned as she swatted the pegasus’s hoof away, “ They are always judging me, underestimating me, and treating me like slime. Just because I joke around alot and try to make them laugh, they think it’s alright to treat me like a stupid foal without any feelings?” Pinkie turned her head to the suffering four ponies behind her, her eyes glaring down on them, “Well, now they can all join in the joke and see how wrong it is to treat a pony wrongly behind her back.”
Quickly putting her hooves around the pink mare, Fluttershy pulled Pinkie into a tight embrace,
“OH Pinkie, none of us here think that about you. We think that you can be a bit silly, but that just helps to cheer us up.”
Pinkie let out a snarl as she turned her head, “You never heard them! You never heard the ponies ignore your news and treat it as a joke. You never lost a family member because they thought you were only playing around when you were calling out for help. Then,they have the nerve to blame you for not helping in time!” The pink mare’s blue eyes began to water as the rage gave way to crying as she put her head to Fluttershy’s shoulder, “ So I’m silly, so I have a little fun, but I can take things seriously when its important. I just…I just.”
Fluttershy said nothing for the moment, just held her friend close to her, rubbing her back, “But we don’t. You, help us forget our worries and make us laugh. Somehow you make us feel hope whenever you do something random. We love you for that, those others are just… just.. ”
“Cads? Meanies? Jerks? Ponies with no sense of taste,” Pinkie asked as she looked up at Fluttershy with a smile.
“Close. I was just trying be nicer about it,” Fluttershy said as she broke the embrace.
Pinkie chuckled as she wiped a tear from her eye, “ You know, you are pretty good at being nice,” A smile came across Pinkie’s face as the pendant on her neck began to glow softly with a pale white light, “You know… I never really cared before about what the other ponies thought of me before. I just liked the thought that at least somepony could be cheered up with my laughs. Why did I even think of that anyway?”
“Because of…them,” Fluttershy said with a small squeak as she pointed behind Pinkie to direct her to the wraiths behind her.
Pinkie turned around slowly to see the monster wraiths behind her, slowly regrouping from their scare at the hands of Fluttershy, “ OH, HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Mr. shadow thingies!” Pinkie smiled as she waved a little nervously, “ You know I was just having a really good laugh with my pal Fluttershy here about how silly it was that you guys made me angry over such a small thing. Ha! I was also think of how many laughs me and my friends are going to have when get out of here.” Pinkie then began to giggle a little more, and the inner light that was shining from her pendant began to glow brighter, making the monsters back up a little. Sneering, one creature stretched out his claw and watched in horror as the light that Pinkie was producing turned his arm into dust.
“Oh, my. Did you see that,” Fluttershy asked as she looked at Pinkie’s pendant.
“ ‘The more you feel the bright laughter of your friends nearby, the brighter the light will glow.’ That’s what it meant! Everytime I’m near you guys, the happier I am and the more I laugh and feel good,” Pinkie said, a smile on her face.
“The light of laughter, can also mean… HOPE!” Fluttershy said, her eyes wide in realization, “Pinkie, if you don’t mind that is, could you keep your light going?” Fluttershy asked as she saw Pinkie raise up a hoof in confidence. Smiling back, the yellow Pegasus ran to AJ first, lifting her up as best as she could and hugging her, “AJ, don’t forget what we talked about earlier, you couldn’t have done anything if you were there. At worst, you might have been caught and you wouldn’t been able to save your family now.” Grabbing AJ’s hoof, she put it to the light that was coming from Pinkie’s pendant.
AJ shook her head, as if she began to get out of a drunken stupor, “Yer right Flutters. Thanks, Ah don’t know what was coming over me to make me think like that.”
“It was them, they’re making us feel our worse emotions so they can drain us,” Fluttershy said as she looked to the others, “I think if we can talk to our friends and get them near Pinkie’s light, we’ll cure them.”
AJ looked to Rarity and nodded back at Fluttershy in understanding. Using her lasso, she pulled Rarity away from an approaching wraith and close to her, “Come on Rare, we need ya. Sweetie needs you, so for crying out loud… SNAP OUT OF IT!”
Rarity looked down, “No, Sweetie doesn’t need me, it was because of my talent that she is homeless and parentless to begin with. If I had never been born with this gift, she would never have lost-“
AJ then grabbed Rarity by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes, “She would have then been alone when the emperor wanted her instead.” AJ then wiped a hoof through the purple mane of the unicorn, “Look, you sacrificed everything to make sure that little filly back there had somepony there for her. If you didn’t exist, this world would not only be a little bit dimmer, but our lives would be less brighter because of it.”
Feeling her hoof being taken in her hand, Rarity watched as AJ put the white hoof into the white light of the pendant, which seemed to have gotten brighter as she neared it, “You’re right AJ,” a smile came to Rarity’s lips as she wiped her tear, “Without me, this world would be missing something grand. Besides, if the emperor wants my talent so bad…then he will have to see it up front!”
Turning her head, she used her magic to pull in Twilight closer to the group while Fluttershy began to make a dash towards Rainbow Dash. Putting her hooves under Twilight, the white unicorn lifted Twilight up to her level and embraced her, “Twilight, I know you feel responsible for what happened to your parents and in a way I can understand too. The emperor killed my parents because they wouldn’t give me up for what I could do, they would let me be taken by him for his own. There… are just some things you can not control darling, but what we can do is to make sure we can do our best to take control of our destinies in the future to make sure we don’t mess up again. Then we can be brighter than any diamond.”
Twilight looked up at Rarity, a smile came to her as she placed her hoof into the shining light of Pinkie’s pendant and felt the corruption wash over her, “That’s… that’s what the sun queen always taught me. It’s usually what she would do in order to make my nightmares go away!” the purple unicorn said, sniffling a little as Rarity hugged her.
Fluttershy flew over to Rainbow Dash, noting the weak condition that the normally rainbow maned Pegasus was. Rushing closer to her friend, Fluttershy placed a hoof onto the prone Pegasus and tried to pull her closer to her and away from the wraith that was draining Dash, “BACK OFF!” She commanded with the help of her stare, making the creature snake away, “Come on Dashie, we need you.”
“Go… go a… way,” Dash said, shivering in fear, her voice quaking with her weak raspy voice.
“No, Dashie. We’re not leaving you,” Fluttershy said, feeling AJ stand next to her helping to pull Dash away.
“No,” Dash said, her voice barely above a whisper as AJ and Fluttershy began to drag her away, “It’s not safe, I can’t protect you. Not from her, she’s better than me. It was all of our fault that it happened, it’s all our fault and hers. If she can do all of that, there’s no way I can protect all of you.”
Twilight and Rarity began to use their magic to lift up Dash and bring her to the inner light that was shining from the pendant, “ Darling, you shouldn’t worry about protecting all of us. We’ll be fine,” Rarity said, laying next to Rainbow and placing a hoof onto her’s.
“Yeah, we can handle ourselves sugarcube, don’t ya worry,” AJ said, lifting up Dash, and hugging her.
“After all there isn’t much we can't handle when we are one, right,” Twilight asked as she laid a comforting hoof onto Dash’s shoulder.
“Dash, if something bad happened in the past then I will forgive you. No matter what may have happened back then, it wasn’t your fault. Because I trust you and I know that you will do everything you can to protect us even if the opponent was the sun queen herself,” Fluttershy said as she hugged Dash alongside the others.
Dash began to feel her strength return as she neared the light and began to smile, “You’re right,” the cyan mare then got to her feet as she turned to the wraiths, standing alongside Pinkie, making her pendant’s light shine brighter than before, filling the hall with a bright shining light, “And no wraiths are going to make me forget that I have some ponies that need my help. I don’t care about my past… only what's ahead and I don’t like creeps like you guys standing in my way!”
The bright light continued to fill the entire hallway with it’s shimmering brilliance, covering every corner and causing every wraith that it touched to fade away into dust with an unearthly howl of pain. After a few minutes had past, the room stayed filled with the amazing white light of Pinkie’s pendant, “Uh, Pinkie… is there anyway that you can turn down the light?” AJ asked, closing her eyes, “Ah can’t see a dang thing!”
“I don’t know,” Pinkie exclaimed. She happened to be the only one not blinded by her light as she looked down at the bright pendant around her neck, “There doesn’t seem to be an off button on this thing.”
“The witch said that the pendant was powered by the laughter that you feel around your friends. But we also know it to mean the hope that we bring you, so maybe you could turn both down just a little?” Twilight asked, stumbling around to get to Pinkie.
“I’ll try,” Pinkie said, closing her eyes, making the bright light tone down in its brilliance; however, the pendant still sparkled with a little bit of bright light.
“Wow,” Twilight said as she walked to Pinkie and lifted up the pendant with her magic, “I knew that wraiths were vulnerable to white magic, but I didn’t think that such a powerful source of it would come from such a little pendant.”
“Yeah, when the witch mentioned about it being a powerful light, I just thought she gave me a powerful and really cool flashlight to use,” Pinkie said, playing with the pendant a little.
“What can be cool about having a flashlight?” Dash asked.
“Well, duh. I could make really cool rave parties!”
Fluttershy stared at the empty room, seeing the lack of the wraiths, “Twilight… we didn’t kill all of them, did we?”
“They weren’t really alive in the first place, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, reassuringly, “They were creatures made out of living shadow, just a bunch of constructs with no minds of their own nor souls within them. Just monsters of instinct.”
“ That’s good,” Pinkie said with a smile as she began to walk to some of the shelves, “I don’t want to put anything under the big sleep, ever. I mean, a little nap is ok, but when you are under that big nap, then you can't really enjoy all of the fun things about life. You never get to have any more fun that way, you would just be,” the pink mare looked a little down as she remembered her saddest memory, “gone.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head sadly, “Kid, you aren’t going to live much longer with that attitude. One of these days, you are going to have to fight real ponies that are going to want to kill you and they won’t be beaten just with a smile or a light show,” walking to one of the shelves, Dash put that thought out of her mind for the moment, “ So where the hey is this stupid scroll supposed to be anyway?”
Twilight began to look around the shelves, taking note of some of the conjuration and evocation spell scrolls that lined some of the spells and taking them for herself, “It should be under the divination section, unless the mage’s here before us decided to move it to another section.” Seeing a spell scroll labeled ‘Endure Elements’ Twilight decided to take it and put it into one of the spell pouches of her cloak. “I really need a new cloak.” She thought as she noticed the various tears in it.
Rarity walked by some of the scrolls on enchantment and empowering clothes and chuckled to herself as she looked at some of them. A smirk came to her lips as she pulled out one particular one and read it. Closing her eyes and letting out a small chuckle, she put the scroll back into its holding spot and went back to looking for the spell. Fluttershy flew up to the higher rows of the scroll sections and began looking at some of them herself, taking a particular note of the commune with nature and control nature scrolls. AJ began to look with Dash around another section, as the orange mare looked at some of the more interesting spell selections she began to talk with Dash, “So, Rainbow, what did y’all mean that you can’t protect us from her? Who’s her?” AJ asked.
“It’s not important,” Dash said, shrugging off the question, “ It was just the wraiths making me lose my confidence. No matter who she is or how tough she is, I WILL beat her. Even if it means… ”
“Now don’t start thinking about that, sugarcube,” AJ said, looking at an open scroll and quickly putting it away, “Ain’t none of us here about to give up our lives for anything. “
“How can you be sure of that?” Dash asked.
“Because Ah won't let it, and neither will you,” AJ said, smirking as she looked at Dash. Looking back at her friend, Dash shot a reassured smile, “So… what was all of your fault?”
“Nothing, just something bad from the past and I don’t want to talk about it. What’s past is past. Nothing more I can do about it,” Dash said as she heard Twilight call from the farthest part of the hall.
“Found it! It was in the farthest part of the hall,” Twilight said as she unfurled the scroll.
“Great, now lets read that stupid spell and we can get-” Dash said as she flew up behind Twilight and got a good look at the scroll, “What the buck? How are supposed to read this?” Her magenta eyes then began to look over the words of the scroll.
Pour trouver le Pan du château, vous devez compléter un shadowfax de montagne et de porter une lentille pour voir. Laisser la lentille un faisceau de lumière, même si son visage et dire le sort scrying clos. L'objectif puis le faisceau lumineux vers le château, suivre la lumière au château. Soyez averti jeune mage, si vous n'atteint pas le château dans un délai de deux semaines, vous perdez site du château et tentera à nouveau de trouver un nouvel emplacement ème château
Twilight sighed, “It’s written in old Satyr, a language that nopony has ever spoken in years. What’s worse, it might even be encrypted with a code to trick other mages from reading it.”
“Can ya still manage to translate it?” AJ asked as she joined with the others and looked at the scroll.
“Well, Old Satyr is a very ancient language. It would normally take a pony months to translate all of this into something workable. Even then, they might not be 100% accurate,” Twilight then looked over her shoulder with a smile as they walked out of the hall, “Luckily… I study old languages as a pastime. So it should only take me a day to translate all of this.”
“That’s wonderful darling, that gives us another day to relax and examine the town just a bit longer,” Rarity said as they neared the front of the library. Turning her head, she saw Sweetie Belle trot over to her big sister and gave her an affectionate nuzzle, “Sweetie Belle,” Rarity stated, returning the affection, “Did you have fun staying with the librarian?” To this, the little filly gave a very happy tweet on her flute, “I hope she wasn’t too much trouble, Mrs. Hooves.”
“No trouble at all! She and Dinky got along great,” Derpy said as she watched the 7 walk away, waving goodbye.
As they stepped out into the sunlight from the library, Twilight walked a little ahead of them, “I am going to go back to the inn and translate this scroll. I’ll see you there.”
Rarity looked at Twilight’s cloak and grabbed it with her magic, “And if you’ll permit me darling, I’ll go and see if we can’t do something about this dreadful cloak of yours,” the white unicorn then turned around and looked to Fluttershy, “Come along Fluttershy.”
Quietly, the little yellow Pegasus nodded and flew along with Rarity and Sweetie Belle. AJ walked to the right along with Pinkie, “Me and Pinkie will just take a look around the town then. What are you going be doing, Dash?”
“Just a little fly around, I just need to think about something,” Dash said as she flew off from the others. The cyan mare landed on top of of a stationary cloud and laid her head on top of her hooves. Trailing one of her forehooves along the soft and wet material, she began to look out over the horizon and think about her mother, “Why did I let that thing get to me like that? Do I really think I can’t beat her at all,” Dash asked herself as she rolled over on the cloud and just looked up at the sky, “I’ll keep my promise to her… wont I?”
“And we’ll stop there squirt,” Dash said as she closed the book.
“Why,” Scoots asked, looking up at her sister with half-closed eyes.
“Because you are starting to fall asleep, and we can’t have you missing something important,” Dash asked, smiling, “Right?”
“I,” Scootaloo then let out a big yawn, “ am so not getting sleepy. Not,” another yawn escaped the orange filly’s mouth, “at all.”
“Kid, I am the master of napping and I know what getting sleepy looks like. You’re eyes are starting to droop,” Dash said as she watched the little filly snuggle into the bed, “You’re looking for a nice spot to relax. You are letting your body rest somewhere comfy, while your eyes are slowly closing for the night,” rainbow maned Pegasus then grabbed the edge of the blanket and began to tuck her ‘sister’ in, “ and you are getting too tired to argue. Now, go to bed, I’ll back tomorrow,” Dash said as she kissed Scootaloo on the forehead and turned around to the door.
“Dashie,” Scoot said as she snuggled in, “Thanks, for everything.”
“No prob kid,” Dash said as she walked out, but not before hearing…
“Love you, big sister.”
Dash looked over her shoulder and smiled, “Love you too,little sister.”
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2717507
Yes, yes you did
2727070
Please rewrite it. I am really curious to what you are going to say so I can improve myself.