“When he popped out of the ground and saw Soren, he just fainted right then and there!”
“Who?”
“Yeah, and then when we asked him about what had happened to his parents he... he broke down crying.”
“Who.”
“Yeah uh… he really needed someone to lean on. So I took him under my wing... taught him a few things...”
As the voice trailed off, a grumbling beast began to stir.
From downstairs came a loud cackle, bristling the snoozing drake’s scales.
The little purple dragon sat up and stretched, suppressing his yawn with a claw. After rubbing his sore eyes clear of sleep, he begrudgingly discarded his blue blanket and stood. Another laugh rose out from below; the library’s central reading room called his name. Spike groaned.
“Twi?”
He squinted at the bed beside him where his friend lay; the lavender unicorn’s chest rose and fell slowly.
Twilight Sparkle, for all intents and purposes, was asleep.
Another round of shrill laughter erupted from downstairs, prompting the librarian’s assistant to sigh. He grumbled to himself as he clambered down the first of the many steps on the library’s staircase, careful not to slip and fall in the bleary low-light setting.
“Who the hay is up at this time of night?”
The drake’s claws clitter-clattered to a stop just beyond the final step of the staircase. It was there he stood awestruck, taking in the sight laid before him.
The towering gray owl swiveled its head towards the frozen child and dulled its laughter. Caught in the headlights of the predator, the dragon’s heart began to pound.
Claws wrapped around the edges of the central reading table, the owl peered forth at Spike. Another creature in the room also rested their gaze on the dragon; sitting on his usual perch was Owlowiscious. The familiar gave a single hoot and swooped across the room, alighting with a soft click beside the imposing gray owl.
“Who.” Owlowiscious greeted, but Spike was too weak to respond.
After a few moments, the large gray owl let out a quiet churr.
“So,” the owl began, “you must be the ‘number one assistant’ that Owlow was talking about.” The great gray ruffled his feathers a bit and took a step forward on the table.
Spike, feeling a little intimidated by the haven-intruding owl, took a step back and swallowed thickly. “E-heh, yeah… that would be me.”
The owl eyed him again for a moment. Seconds passed by as the owl's stare intensified.
“Owlow’s told me good things about you,” the great gray affirmed. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Much to Spike’s surprise, the owl bent over with a bow. Straightening out, his broad beak broke into a smile. “The name’s Twilight. Yours?”
In that moment, the little assistant’s natural instinct
“I'm Spike!” With a rapidly widening beam, he jabbed his thumb inwards. “Twilight’s number one assistant!”
Twilight’s face quickly grew deadpan. “You’re not my assistant.”
“Of course not! I’m Twilight’s assistant.”
Twilight's feathers ruffled with irritation. “But I’m Twilight.”
Spike could feel Twilight’s patience growing thin.
Spike began to sweat, feeling intense heat filling the room. “Well, you see… There’s a pony upstairs and her name is Twilight… and your name is Twilight…” Spike sputtered as he repeatedly gestured towards the stairwell. “...the Twilight I know—”
Twilight, having finally lost his patience, groaned. “Spike.”
“Y-Yeah?” Spike asked, sweat dripping from his brow.
"Just… call me T.”
“You got it!” His enthusiasm was awarded with a quiet groan from upstairs. “Oh!” he whispered hastily. He spoke again in the much quieter tone. “You got it!”
Twilight rolled his eyes at Spike, then turned his head to Owlowiscious.
“Are you sure this is the uh… what’s the word... dragon, that you were talking about?”
“Who.”
“Huh. I thought he would’ve been a little bit bigger… and smarter.”
Spike ignored the insult, more occupied with the new fact that had been brought to his attention; Owlowiscious had been the one to answer Twilight's question. Spike stood up from the floor.
“How’d you even meet Owlowiscious?” Spike asked, genuinely curious. “And how can you even understand him?” Much to Spike’s embarrassment, he recognized the stupidity of the second question too late.
“To answer your first question,” Twilight began, “I was taking a midnight flight over the Sea of Hoolemere when I ran into a thunderstorm and blacked out. When I woke up, I was on this table right here.” He tapped on the library’s center table with his right claw for emphasis.
“The Sea of Hoofamere? I’ve never heard of that place.”
Twilight groaned once more in annoyance.
“It’s Hoolemere, not Hoofamere or whatever you said.”
Spike gave him a cheeky grin in response, countered by a deadpan stare.
“Anyway,” Twilight continued. “I just sat up and Owlowiscious was there. He told me that he had found me outside and brought me inside. We talked for a little bit, introduced ourselves, and were in the middle of talking about each other’s pasts when you decided to show yourself.”
The dragon nodded, but he was more focused on the fact that Owlowiscious had carried an owl that was twice his size.
“And for your second question, is it really hard to put two and two together? We can understand each other because we’re both owls.”
To Spike instead of reviving his previous bout of embarrassment it brought up another question; If Twilight could speak Equestrian and was an owl, then that should’ve meant that Owlowiscious could speak Equestrian, too.
“Can Owlowiscious speak Equestrian?”
Twilight’s brow furrowed in curiosity. “Eh… Equestrian?”
“It’s what we call our language?”
“Ah!” Twilight blinked. “That’s a good question, I s’pose.” He turned towards Owlowiscious.
“Can you speak Equestrian, Owlow?”
“Who.”
Twilight responded to the owl's response with a frown.
“What’d he say?” Spike asked, confused.
Twilight ignored his question and pressed Owlowiscious further. “Why?”
“Who. Who. Who.”
Twilight gave him a curious look before he turned to Spike again.
“He says that the other Twilight—” Twilight leaned a little closer to Spike who quickly grew uncomfortable. “—and he said specifically ‘the other Twilight,’ told him that Equestrian owls couldn't move their beaks well enough to speak Equestrian, and some foreign... erm, avians?" Twilight took pause to look at Owlowiscious for an answer. He recieved a hoot in reply, and was quickly back on track. "Yeah, avians, could move their beaks in certain ways so that they could speak Equestrian. Well, sort of.” Once Twilight had finished his statement, he settled backwards once more.
Spike gave him a curt nod; he knew that those foreign birds obviously had to be parrots. “Makes sense to me.”
And yet it didn’t… Twilight obviously wasn’t a parrot. Where had he come from, anyway?
The trio sat in an awkward silence, all at a standstill on what to say next. The silence was broken by a loud yawn from Spike.
“Well, I was sleeping before you started laughing,” Spike muttered, rubbing at his eyes gently.
Twilight gave him a cheap grin. “I bring no apologies. There’s always time to party.”
Spike just sighed and turned to head back upstairs.
“I’m going back to bed.”
“Yeah, I kind of have to be getting back to the Great Ga’Hoole Tree…”
“Wait,” Spike stopped and turned back towards the great gray. “How will you even get back to your tree?”
“Good point,” Twilight said, idly looking around the room. His eyes landed on Spike after a moment.
“Mind if I crash in your tree for a while?”
Twilight smiled softly as she awoke. She could hear the birds chirping softly outside the window and smell the delightful aromas of her assistant’s cooking as the scents wafted in from downstairs. Her mouth broadened further as the prospect of a homemade breakfast on a Saturday morning formed in her mind. Slowly, she cracked open her eyes...
…only to find herself gazing into the eyes of a great gray owl.
“Hello there! My name’s Twilight! It’s great to finally meet you!”
Spike smiled as he flipped another pancake in his pan. The screams of the two Twilights upstairs made for quite the morning melody.
Spike wasn’t sure what ticked him off most about the library he called home; the fact that the foyer that he had meticulously cleaned earlier that day was completely trashed, or the fact that Owlowiscious now had two friends flapping by his side. Owlowiscious looked at least a tad bit guilty, while Twilight for the most part simply grinned sheepishly as Spike stepped in through the front door. The duo alighted before Spike, Twilight throwing him a quick wave of his large gray wing.
“T,” Spike growled. “What did you do?”
“Who.”
Spike’s gaze softened as it landed on his friend. “Not now, Owlowiscious, I’ll get to you later.”
“Well,” Twilight began, shuffling his wings awkwardly while he stood in place. “We brought Digger here and he sort of… panicked.”
“Sort of?” Spike arched an eyebrow, surveying the room, the wooden carving that had served as the centerpiece of the room now lying on the floor, the new carpet sat scuffed in a multitude of places, and many of the books lain haphazardly open on the floor, many of their pages scuffed. Spike quickly filed away a self-reminder to refurbish the books away from the prying eyes of the library’s unicorn; that was just another problem that could be solved later.
“Sorry!”
Spike jumped backwards, a brown bird now standing at his feet.
“Gah!”
The brown bird shrank further, though to Spike it seemed an impossible feat as the owl was already half his size.
“Jeez,” Spike let out a heavy breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “Relax, uh… “
“Digger,” the burrowing owl stuttered out, staring up at Spike with a look of fear.
Spike snapped his claws. “Right, Digger. Listen, buddy—”
“I’m not buddy…”
Spike paused, mouth agape.
“I…” The drake sighed, took another breath, then crouched down to Digger’s eye level. The smallest bit of curiosity flickered in the eyes of the terrified owl. “You’re not in any trouble.”
“I’m not?” Digger ruffled his feathers, and pulled himself up just that little further. Spike nodded, giving the small owl a grin, careful not to show any teeth. “But what about the…” Digger peered around him, shrinking once more. “... mess?” Digger locked eyes with Spike again.
“It’s nothing,” Spike gave a dismissive wave as he took a step back, standing back up to his full height. “I was just going to read comics all day, at least this gives me something to do.”
In the back of his mind, the dragon was screaming at the fact that he would have to clean the second mess this week as a result of an owl’s antics; though, at least this owl had the integrity to not do so at breakfast.
Suddenly, an epiphany hit Spike like a flock of owls slamming into him.
“Hey T, not that I don’t enjoy your company or anything… But I thought you flew back on Sunday?” Twilight had arrived on Saturday just after midnight, and Spike had waved him off Sunday morning. So why were there now two more owls in the library?
“I mean, I tried...” Owlowiscious suddenly whacked the gray owl with a wing. “Okay, I lied; I slept in the branches on Sunday.”
Spike let out a sputter before his sudden shout of reply. “Why?” He ran a claw over his spines in confusion. “If you were going to stay another day, you could’ve just told me and you could’ve slept with Peewee and Owlowiscious!” Spike shuddered, remembering a particular experiment Twilight had performed, sending Spike flying into the branches of the second floor; they weren’t exactly comfortable.
“It’s not that, I flew around and over the dark forest below the rising sun—”
“The Everfree?” Spike interrupted. Twilight shrugged.
“I guess…?” Owlowiscious let out another woo and whacked Twilight, the great gray cringing in response. “Sorry, I forgot you told me.” Twilight took a breath and squeezed his eyes shut. “I told Owlow that I was flying west when I blacked out over the Sea of Hoolemere, so he offered to show me the right thermals to ride over the Everfree. Something about the winds being too strong?”
“Who.” Twilight nodded, grinning broadly as his eyes flashed open again.
“Yeah, and he was right, because the first thing that happened was I flew into this white cloud that was moving super fast! It even had a rainbow following it as it moved!” He paused and stared off to the side, mumbling as he continued. “But how did I slam into the cloud like it was a wall?”
“Okay so then you turned around, yada yada yada, so why is Digger here?” Spike said, gesturing to the burrowing owl who was attempting to smooth out the carpet on the floor, albeit slowly.
Twilight looked annoyed for a moment at the inability to finish his story. “Well it was more than just turning around because this absolutely massive orange lizard with three heads—”
“Twilight….”
“No, hold on! It’s important! We saw the giant lizard trying to bite something on the ground that was running around really quickly. It almost got eaten by one of the heads so I flew in and grabbed it before the lizard had another chance to eat it.” Twilight puffed up, wings extending slightly in pride.
“Who.”
Twilight shrank, rolling his eyes. “Yeah and Owlow helped too… gave one of the heads a nice long scratch across the side.”
Spike looked to Owlowiscious in a mixture of surprise and admiration. “Really?”
“Yeah, and—”
“But anyway, getting off topic.” Spike waved off Twilight with a cocky grin. “So I assume that was Digger you grabbed?”
“Yep! Quite a reunion that was while we were flying back.”
“You called me a midget,” Digger mumbled from the shelves as he flapped hard to lift a particularly heavy book.
Twilight seemed not to hear his little friend as he continued to frown at Spike.
“Just leave it there, I’ll get around to fixing it.” There was a loud thud as the book hit the floor. “So what’s your plan now?” Spike asked, his attention returning to Twilight.
“Well, I don’t want to get hit with another book from your purple friend.”
“I told you her name is Twilight.”
“Whatever!” The great gray sighed. “I’m not all too sure. I don’t know how to get back to the Great Ga’Hoole tree and I doubt Digger does either. All I know as that I was flying west when I disappeared.” Twilight stopped, turning to the nervous burrowing owl behind him. “Actually, how did you get into the forest?”
Digger gave a loud, audible gulp.“B-bobcat?” Digger stuttered.
Twilight’s eyes widened, and he shuffled over to the small owl. “Bobcat? How did a bobcat get you into the forest?”
“I don’t know!” Digger cried, curling up into a ball. “Me and Soren were just stopping to get some crickets and then a bobcat jumped out at me and… and…”
Twilight’s gaze softened. “And what, Digger?”
“T-that’s the last thing I saw.” Digger wrapped his wings tighter around himself.
Twilight wrapped one of his wings around Digger, pulling the little owl close as he began to quietly cry.
Spike felt his chest tighten as he took a couple steps towards the pair, eager to help comfort the easily frightened owl. He felt something yank him back him.
“Who.”
Spike turned to Owlowiscious, the former simply staring at him after having successfully held Spike back with a surprisingly strong wing. It took him a moment to realize what exactly Owlowiscious’ stare meant. He nodded in reply to the silent suggestion.
As the pair left the library to leave the other two to their private comfort, Spike made a promise to himself and the misplaced guardians.
I’ll figure out how to get you back to your own tree.
“Where’s Digger?” The drake suppressed a yawn to scratch his head at the sudden question.
“Uh, fourth floor balcony.”
“Got it,” With a quick wave, the owl flapped up the staircase.
Spike stretched, letting another yawn escape him.
“Who.”
“Yeah well,” Spike grumbled, rubbing his droopy eyes. “I don’t know how you owls do it.” He glared at the clock in the room; it read a little after midnight. “Twilight will kill me if she figures out I was getting late night ice cream.”
“Who.” Spike waved Owlowiscious off as he went to find his basket on the second floor.
Twilight found his friend perched on the railing, quietly staring up into the night sky.
“There you are,” Twilight chuckled, setting down on the balcony behind Digger. “You weren’t in the main room when I got back from my late night flight.” His friend kept his gaze locked on the night sky. Twilight voiced his concern. “Digger?”
“Have you ever noticed just how different this place is from Hoolemere?” Twilight blinked slowly.
“Well, yeah. There are ponies here instead of owls—”
“I meant how different this world is, not this place.”
“Huh?”
“Come up here.” Twilight obliged, hopping up to the railing beside Digger. “Look at the stars.”
Twilight was caught off guard. “By my gizzard.” He stared. All around him, the stars twinkled, shining down on the duo atop the tree. The red, yellow, and blue sparkles were familiar, but their placements were strange. It was nothing like Hoolemere or any of the other owl kingdoms. “How did I not notice this before?”
“It’s methodical,” Digger whispered. “It’s like someone placed them there.”
“What do you mean? They just don’t look familiar.” Twilight wasn’t usually a fan of Digger’s philosophy, but this time it was for something more important than whether or not there were intelligent puffins.
“Look again.” Twilight glared at his friend for not simply telling him, but eventually looked once more at the stars. He stared for a good minute, eyes tracing over the lights, but nothing came.
Digger supplied a hint. “They’re in groups.” Twilight took in the new information, and in moments, he was staring wide eyed. In one spot, a sun formed. Elsewhere, a flower showed itself. In every place that Twilight looked in the night sky, there was a constellation, and no stars were exempt from one.
“Where’s Glaux?” Twilight stared horrified, unable to find the great constellation.
“I don’t know.” The two best friends stood huddled together, scanning the new night sky.
“This isn’t Ga’Hoole.”
Twilight was slow to reply. “And it isn’t the Beyond. I’ve been there, and the stars were never like this.”
The minutes passed in silence, the two friends content to sit there with their new realizations. It was shattered by Twilight’s dark chuckle.
“You know, I used to be able to say that you could name a place, and I could say that I’d been there.” He sighed, looking over the strange settlement below them. “But I don’t think anyone in the entirety of the Owl Kingdoms would even be able to name this place.”
Twilight sighed, then pulled Digger close to him with a wing. Digger perked up as Twilight began to sing:
Where go our stars, where goes our dark, the night once black and clear? Worry not, worry not, home, we’ll find home. Spread out your wings, don’t be afraid, let your gizzard sing.
Worry not, my friend, we will find a way through. Worry not, Digger, we’ll see our friends soon.
Here comes the night, here comes the night. We’ll learn to navigate this night.
Digger sat still, thinking quietly to himself as the bard finished his impromptu performance.
“So..." Twilight shook his little friend a bit “...whaddya think of that one?” Digger looked up at the expectantly grinning great grey.
“It is… a lot more cheerful than your battle cries.” Twilight let out a quiet hoot of laughter and turned back to the stars, pulling his best friend even more close. The two sat there, content to stare. Digger felt his featherless legs shiver and pulled them in, causing him to turn into a little ball of feathers, wrapped up in even more feathers.
Twilight chuckled. “Just like a hatchling, aren’t you?” Digger said nothing, letting the cool breeze hit the bigger owl, content to stay warm. “And don’t you go sleeping on me, I don’t need another incident like that last time we came back to the Great Ga’Hoole Tree after that trip to Ambala.”
“I won’t,” came Digger’s murmur as his eyes closed. Surely a little wink wouldn’t hurt him?
“Digger?” Twilight stared in disbelief at the little owl wrapped in his wings. He had continued to inspect the night sky in an attempt to make a mental map of the unfamiliar atmosphere. He was no navigator, however, and gave up minutes later, only to find that his friend had fallen asleep.
“I told him not to sleep,” Twilight grumbled, awkwardly carrying the owl as best he could from the balcony. Inside the library, he found Owlowiscious dusting off a bookshelf. There were gentle snores from coming the second floor a floor below, no doubt the other Twilight that Twilight had bothered just two days prior. He sat there for a moment, thinking that statement over.
“Good Glaux, that’s confusing.”
“Who?” Twilight locked eyes with Owlowiscious as the assistant set the duster down.
“Just the owl I was looking for!” Owlowiscious made a quiet ‘who’ in response to Twilight’s outburst, much to his chagrin. “Alright, alright, I’ll quiet down.” He shrank under the smaller owl’s gaze. “Anyway, do you have anywhere I can put Digger? He likes little crevices; always sleeps in the crooks of tree branches.” He sighed, moved his wings apart a tad to glare at the sleeping owl. “And he also likes to sleep when he shouldn’t.”
“Who.” Owlowiscious flew towards the stairs leading down, stopping to make sure Twilight was following. “Who.” The message was clear, Stay close and don’t make a sound. Resisting the urge to perform a mock salute with his wing for fear of dropping Digger, Twilight followed the midnight librarian to the second floor.
The snoring came full force, Twilight blinking as the once gentle sound turned into a tidal wave of noise. Confusion swept over him; the mare had been a quiet sleeper ever since meeting her. A quick glance at a candlelit writing desk gave a reason for the change; a large pile of scrolls.
Scholar at heart, almost like Gylfie. Twilight gave an internal sigh as he thought of his friend, continuing downstairs to follow Owlowiscious. I wonder how she’s doing. He didn’t have to wonder for much longer as he stepped into the interior.
“Who.”
“I am not tiny!” He heard a scoff as Owlowiscious wilted a little. “I see some owls on top of a tree and the first thing that one of you says is that I am tiny!”
“Gylfie when did you get here?” The tiny, or rather, small elf owl’s eyes snapped to Twilight as he rounded the corner.
“T-twilight?” Gylfie gasped, flying over and wrapping her wings around the great grey’s body as best she could. Digger was roused from his short nap by the contact that the three of them shared.
“What’s going on?” Digger was a little frightened. Twilight stepped back, causing Digger to spill out across the floor.
“Digger!” The slightly bigger owl was scooped up in a hug by Glyfie. Digger looked a little sheepish as he returned the hug. As the two separated, Gylfie turned to Twilight and jumped up to whack his beak with a wing.
“Oi!” He stumbled back, surprised. “What was that for?” Gylfie looked between the two, a mix of annoyance and worry evident on her features.
“What was it for? It was for acting so casual after being gone from the Great Ga’Hoole tree for five months!” She turned to Digger. “And you and Soren have been missing for two months! The whole tree thought that you two had been lost on some adventure somewhere!” She glanced between the two, huffing. “And now after waking up in a different spruce than the one I had slept in, I find you two in this strange settlement that looks like it belonged to the Others!”
“What’s going on down here?” The four owls turned to regard the drake descending from the second floor. “It’s hard enough to sleep with Twilight snoring.”
“You’re not Soren.” Gylfie said plainly, eyes wide as she watched Spike reach the ground floor.
Digger looked a little fearful as he turned about to face Gylfie. “W-wait, Soren’s gone too?” It was Gylfie’s turn to look scared.
“You mean he wasn’t with you?” Digger shook his head.
Spike raised a claw. “Um…”
“Well he has to be here somewhere! You didn’t see him when you woke up?” Gylfie turned curious. “How did you even get here? Did you wake up in a tree, too?”
“Nah, that’d be me.” Twilight interrupted. Spike opened his mouth to interject.
“I g-got…” Digger took a shaky breath. “B-bobcat pounced me.” Gylfie looked horrified, rushing over to her fellow smallkin to hug him again. Twilight soon followed, wrapping both of them up in a bigger hug.
“Is nobody going to ask about the fact that Twilight’s been gone for five months when he's only been here for five days? Or that Digger was here for two days and gone for two months?” All eyes turned to focus on Spike. He cringed. “Sorry. Bad timing.” Spike scratched his head for a moment. He chose to mutter his next sentence to himself. “Or where that ‘Soren’ is?” Noting that the three owls were still in the middle of comforting one another, Spike returned upstairs with Owlowiscious.
“Whatever’s going on, I’ll figure it out.”
“Who.”
“Right, I mean we,” Spike chuckled as they reached the third floor. Spike wandered over to his own personal writing desk, littered with several books from the shelves.
He pulled up a list of notes from under one of the books about natural magic surges and went about adding a third and fourth name to the page about the strange Band. As he went to put the note away, Spike’s eyes caught sight of an open page in the book. He yanked it up quickly and read over the text again. He grinned widely.
“Owlowiscious? I need you to go grab some readings from the forest for me. I think I know what brought them here.” He looked over at the list of names again. “And maybe even what that Soren’s doing right now...”
