> Shade paradox > by dragenfire68 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > naught but a whisper > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a bright moonlit night, the full moon shining down on the nearly empty ponyville square, a stallion was sneaking through, his head swiveling around, and dodging lights as he made his way to the huge crystal castle overlooking the village. "Hmm, it should be here, I've heard that she keeps records of everything that has happened in the last thousand years." He made his way to the crystal door, he tested it with an ethereal hoof, it swung open, he crept in, keeping his head low and his eyes alert, but it was dark, but it didn't bother him as a purple glow emanated from under his hood that he pulled down before he entered, looking for the library, he came across multiple rooms, one containing a small baby dragon, causing him to raise his eyebrow, but he moved on, eventually finding the library, but with a catch, there was the purple princess herself, twilight sparkle, her hair disheveled, the only strand staying in place was the pink strip through her hair, she was sleeping at the desk, the candles went out. "This will be a little harder then I thought, I hope she is a heavy sleeper, otherwise..... I don't want to think about it," he muttered to himself, standing on the tips of his hooves, making sure to make no noise as he slipped between the shelves, his eyes scanning the spines, quickly reading until he reached the end of the bookcase, looking up he went to get nearby ladder, climbing on it while scanning the spines, but he wasn't careful enough, he fell hitting the ground and with a loud clatter, like bones smashing against the ground. "Uh wah?!" Twilight sat straight up, her horn flaring bright light as she looked down the alleyway of books, what she saw was a pile of books, but what drew her attention of the grinning unicorn skull that rolled in front of her, she froze in fear, a scream barely held before the eyes glowed with ethereal light, only too look up and meet her eyes. "Uh..... I'm sorry?" the skull said before Twilight screeched a high pitch scream as the the skull's eyes, swiveled around before looking down and realizing that his head wasn't attached to his body, he groaned as the book pile shuddered and half his body climbed out, the cloak hanging off it, before it was joined by the other, soon it trotted over to the head and slipped the skull under the cloak, the skull being put on the neck as Twilight tried not to hyperventilate. "Twilight what wrong!?!" A pink pony with a blue stripe in her hair, her cutie mark a star with a wisp coming out of it, shouted as she rounded the corner into the library, only to stop and see him, standing in front of Twilight, her horn soon glowed with magic as she glared at him. "Ladies, please calm down, I can explain!!!" he said as he raised his hooves, forgetting what happened before, the cloak parted as his bone hooves came into view, causing the new pony to drop the spell and start sucking in air, he knew what was coming, he shot over and covered her mouth with his cloak as she tried to let out a high pitch screech, but it was muffled by the gentle pressure of the cloak to her mouth. "GET OFF MY STUDENT MONSTER!!!" Twilight shouted as she calmed down to see his hoof on her mouth, soon he was lifted into the air and slammed into the wall, his magic soon came into effect as his bones were held together. "Ouch, look cant we talk about this?" he said as Starlight and twilight advanced on him, their horns glowing, but hearing that he just want to talk stopped them in their tracks, their horns still glowing. "What could you possibly want to talk about?!" twilight challenged. "your stunt at hollow shades, that's what I want to talk about, you unearthed many bodies, but my little brother was missing, and You're one of the most well-known ponies that could have a record of the burial site." He explained quickly, hoping that this would help ease the rising tension. Twilight's horn stopped glowing as the urge to learn overtook her instinct to fight, her instinct was dying down anyways, the being in front of her wasn't fighting back, her companion's horn also stopped glowing. "if that's so, why did you sneak into my castle too go through the library?" Twilight questioned, momentarily forgetting the last 20 minutes. But the being in front of her simply lowered the hood, revealing the grinning skull, but the implication not lost on Twilight as the pink pony planted a hoof on her face. "Twilight, do you really think that he could walk into town, or even getting in during the daytime?" the stranger asked, looking at the sheepish Twilight. "by the way, whats your name?" Twilight asked. He tried to remember but it had been so long since anyone called him by his name that in the end he couldn't remember, but then he remembered what he was and a name came to mind, it described him perfectly. "My name is Paradox." Twilight's student narrowed her eyes, she was Applejack, but she knew that it wasn't his real name, but she would ask later, for now, she and Twilight needed his trust, it wasn't often you meet a sentient magical undead that doesn't want your flesh, soul or brains. "Nice to meet you Paradox, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and this Starlight glimmer," Twilight said as she motioned to the pink pony standing next to her, deciding that what happened before is water under the bridge. "well met, Princess." "How'd you know I'm a princess?" "well since the only being with both wings and a horn, are the princesses, I simply assume that because you live in this castle and you have both magic and wings, you are one of the alicorn princesses." Twilight said nothing, as fatigue played on her features, this didn't go unnoticed as both Starlight and Paradox looked at her. "ah right its late and the events of today took a lot out of you, so you two go to bed, ill return tomorrow night, I'll go stay with a good friend of mine, see you girls tomorrow" "wait, you have a friend?" Twilight asked, before realizing how it sounded "I do, and you should know her since she has talked at least a few times about you girls." "who is she, and how have we met her?" "her name is zecora."