"So, how do you feel?" asked Princess Cadance, addressing Equestria's newest princess, Twilight Sparkle.
"Overwhelmed and overjoyed are the two best things I can think of. I've just been thinking about the responsibilities I have to undertake, now that I'm in a position of power. Will I have to live in the palace now that I'm a princess?" asked Twilight, sipping the tea that Candace kindly prepared for her. They were having a talk in Cadance's room immediately after the coronation about her upcoming duties, as Celestia and Luna were in a press conference about the newly reformed Discord.
Cadance shrugged. "That has always been a personal choice. The castle was made for Queen Faust and her husband, King McCracken, but that was a long time ago. Little known fact is that there are many castles around Equestria, some from abandoned cities and some made specifically for seclusion. If you were to pick one of those we could bring servants and such down to one of the castles. The Crystal Empire is always open for your use, as is the Castle in Canterlot. Why do you ask?"
"I would rather just stay at the library, honestly. All of the ponies I've gotten to know in Ponyville would miss me and I could never leave my friends..." Twilight responded. Cadance smiled.
"That's fine. You can do whatever the hay you want to now. Be my guest." Cadance put her tea down on top of a book next to her. Twilight had become interested in the book as soon as they sat down; it was brown and seemed to have nothing written on it to indicate what book it was. It had to be important if Cadance was reading it, though.
"Reading a book?" Twilight asked, pointing toward it with her hoof. Cadance rolled her eyes.
"I read all the books that the Crystal Library deems controversial. They leave it to me to judge which books can get in the library and which ones are banned. This thing was sent to them in the mail a few days ago by an unknown sender; it was deemed controversial within the first five pages. I haven't gotten around to it yet, but if I don't start soon that librarian will keep pestering me about it-"
"Can I do it?" Twilight suddenly asked. Cadance gave a skeptical look.
"Why do you want to read it? I'm sure it would just be a waste of your time. Half the things this library deem "Controversial" end up being nothing."
"No, I'm interested. What's the title of the book?" Twilight asked.
"It says "Volume Four" on the inside cover. Whether that is the title of the novel or just the volume in the series, I don't know. The book itself appears to be very old, but that could just be the owners fault, treating it badly. If you really are interested in reading it, be my guest. Just tell me what you think about the content and if I need to ban it from the library. Consider it your first duty as a princess." Cadance replied.
"Consider it done." Twilight said, smiling. She was very intrigued by the mysterious book. Whatever was inside it couldn't be that bad, right?
"Alright, thanks. I owe ya one. Now, we need to talk about your upcoming duties as a princess, which is why we're here in the first place. The first thing you need to know is-"
* * * * * *
If you could fit everything that was illegal in the arcane world in one single book, it would be the book Twilight was reading.
It was filled to the brim with dark magic and witchcraft, detailing how to do it and what to do with it. Not only that, it gave a full analysis of all the beings you could summon with dark magic, usually with a short anecdote to go with it. Twilight already knew that it couldn't be put in a public library but she kept reading anyways.
Twilight finished around ten o'clock. She put the book by her bedside and hopped into bed. The Crystal Empire was nice enough to let her stay at the castle for a week as she began her training there, and everything they had to offer was luxurious. She fell asleep thinking about her upcoming duties, with that book in the back of her mind...
* * * * * *
Twilight shot out of bed, panting. She had a horrible nightmare. All those creatures from the book were hunting her friends, and she had to watch as they were killed, one by one. She turned over to her bedside where the book was; she was met with a surprise.
The book was gone.
As Twilight was turning towards her left, wondering if she had put it at the other side of her bed, she saw the most terrifying thing she ever looked upon.
It was a huge figure, composed entirely of black mist. It had no facial features beside it's eyes, which seemed to be made up of fire. It stared at her menacingly.
Twilight screamed and instinctively fired a powerful electricity spell towards the figure; it passed right through it, and the figure continued to stare at her. Twilight tumbled out of the bed in attempt to further the distance between the two. However, as soon as she looked up, the figure was gone.
Twilight nearly had a panic attack, but she managed to bring herself under control. Whatever was at her bedside was not described in the book, and it seemed to want the book, since the book was now gone. Not to mention the castle had a protective barrier against things it wasn't enchanted to allow through; usually involving wild animals, but it still shouldn't have been able to get inside the castle.
Cadance and Shining Armor came into the room running and turned on the lights.
"What happened? Are you okay?" asked Shining. Twilight got up and turned around to answer them.
"I...I don't know." Twilight said, once again looking to where the book had once been.
Author's Note
Is this the end of the beginning?
Or the beginning of the end?
Twilight left the Crystal Empire the next day.
She couldn't sleep at all that night; if she did, the figure would surely show up once more. The image was still stuck in her head. When she attempted to think about something else, the fiery eyes seemed to burn in the back of her head. It may not have been with her physically, but it was still watching her, controlling her every thought.
She was about to hop on the train to Ponyville, but at the last minute decided to pass and get on the next train to Canterlot. She wanted to see the Princesses, and tell them all about it. Surely, with all the time they had spent on this planet, they would know what decided to pay a visit into her last night. And even if they didn't, they would still make things right. They always have. Why should they fail her now?
She hopped off the train after an hour long ride. Canterlot was busy, as this was a Monday, so the train station was crowded. She eventually made her way through the crowd, but not without getting pushed around or occasionally bumped. In their hurry no one seemed to recognize her, and if they did they didn't say anything. Celestia made it clear that no one crowd around her everywhere she went; she still wanted to be normal.
She took a few steps out of the train station before she saw a familiar face. She couldn't be happier.
"Hi, Rarity!" Twilight said, waving a hoof at her. Rarity smiled and ran up to her, dropping her bags beside her.
"Hello, Twilight! My, darling, what are you doing here? I thought you were in the Crystal Empire beginning your training as a princess!" Rarity replied. She frowned upon getting a closer look at Twilight. "Did you get any sleep last night? You look like you could pass out right now." Rarity said, concerned.
"No, I didn't." Twilight honestly replied, chuckling. "I'm resuming my training as a Princess here in Canterlot, under the guidance of Celestia and Luna. I'm assuming that you're here on a business run?" Twilight responded. She was hoping that the lie was convincing enough.
"No, actually. A designer friend of mine invited me down here to hang out with and I simply couldn't refuse. I had a wonderful time and I'm heading back to Ponyville now. Why are you continuing your studies here instead of the Crystal Empire?" Rarity said.
She couldn't think of another lie, so she went with the most commonly used excuse in the book, which usually worked if you said it right.
"It's really complicated, and I don't want to hold you up. I'll tell you when I get back to Ponyville, okay? I'll see you in a week, and tell everypony I miss them." said Twilight. Rarity raised an eyebrow, but did not question further.
"Okay then, I must be going. I'll see you later,Twilight!" They embraced before Rarity went to go catch her train. Twilight gave a sigh and began walking down towards the castle. It was a half an hour walk, but she still enjoyed it. She had reminisced all the times she had here as a filly and growing up. It truly was an amazing city. But ever still, the figure in black continued to plague her mind...
* * * * * *
She arrived at the castle doorstep.
"Ah, Princess Sparkle." The guards at the front door bowed to her. Twilight hated it, but she let it slide for now. She was antsy and wanted to get in the palace to talk the Princesses.
"Princess Luna wanted to see you. In fact, we just sent a messenger to the Crystal Empire, but it appears you are here. I'll let her know you've arrived, you can go ahead and make your way to her room." The two guards opened the massive door to the castle. She hesitated for a moment, and then proceeded to make her way to Luna's quarters.
What could Princess Luna want with me? I supposed this was very convenient... She continued to guess the meaning of the requested meeting when she entered Luna's quarters.
Luna was there, but was joined by her older sister. They were both sitting on a red couch in her room. It suprising blended well with the purple and dark blue surroundings in the room.
"I saw very alarming and disturbing things in your dream last night, Twilight Sparkle." Luna said. Celestia seemed to be somewhere else in her thoughts but living with her during her adolescent life made Twilight know better; she was most certainly listening.
Twilight mentally kicked herself. Luna saw everyone's dreams and sometimes even showed up in them.She knew what had happened in her nightmare, the whole thing. Did she know about what happened after?
"As did I" Twilight joked, with a smile. It quickly faded. "That's part of what I came here to talk about." The sisters raised their eyebrows.
"Part of?" Celestia asked, turning to face her. If she was going to continue, Luna cut her off.
"The creatures you dreamed of can only be summonded by dark magic, birthed from the hatred of the user. You would have to know what they look like to dream about them, obviously, so that raises a lot of questions. Which I would appreciate if you explained, Twilight." Luna said. Twilight gave a weak smile.
"It was in a book, with illustrations. It was anonymously sent to Crystal Library a few days ago and was immediately deemed controversial. They have to send this to Princess Cadance to judge whether it is suitable for Crystal library. She hadn't read it yet, and since it had nothing on the cover I offered to read it. Things like that interest me. The book was all about dark magic, when and where to use it. I wanted to stop reading, but I couldn't. I don't know why. It had descriptions and pictures of the beasts you could summon with dark magic. That's why they appeared in my nightmares." Twilight recounted.
She didn't realize it while talking, but Celestia had her horn lit up the during the entire recounting. She promptly deactivated whatever spell she was using and nodded.
"She's being truthful. Now, Twilight, where exactly is this book now?" Celestia asked. Luna seemed to be relieved that one of the ponies she most cared for was not, in fact, beginning to dabble in the forbidden arts of dark magic. Twilight could see it on her face.
"That's the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. When I woke up, I looked to my left where the book was, and it was gone. I looked to my right, and...I saw it. It was dark black shape, that seemed to be composed of mist. It had no other pony like features but it's eyes, which were made of fire. I'm not sure If I was hallucinating, or if it was there, but I fired a spell at it. It passed right through it, so I backed up and fell out of my bed. When I got up to see if had gotten any closer, it was gone. Ever since then it's been burning in the back of my mind, plaguing me. I came to you guys to see if you knew what it was, or if you can help me." Twilight said.
The royal sisters looked at each other, then back at Twilight.
"The book is gone? For sure?" Celestia asked. Twilight nodded, causing Celestia to look at her sister once more.
"Luna? Have you seen anything like this? I haven't." Celestia asked. Luna shook her head.
"I haven't either, which means I'm leaning towards hallucination. You said you fired magic and attempted to escape, meaning it was not, in fact, sleep paralysis. Dark magic has always caused hallucinogenic properties but that usually pertains to practicing the art, not reading about it. It must be horrible, what you're going through." Twilight nodded in affirmative, before rushing up and embracing the lunar princess.
Luna was taken by surprise, but did the best she could to reassure Twilight.
"It'll be okay. For now...we'll have to track down the sender of the book. They must have been trying to get rid of it, or trying to spread it's influence. By the looks of it, you didn't get any sleep after the event. You can stay here for as long as you want, and me and Celestia will watch over you." Twilight look up at the princess.
"Thank you so much, both of you." Luna smiled.
"It's no problem. Run down stairs and inform the guards of your stay. They like to know these things." Twilight nodded and rushed out of the room, not even closing the door. Luna looked over to Celestia, who was already staring at her.
"What is this that stands before us, sister?" Luna asked.
Author's Note
And so as you hear these words telling you now of my state
I tell you to enjoy life I wish I could but it's too late
