As Twilight dug through book after book, her memories slowly came back to her. But the key piece was still missing. She went through about half the books on only one shelf before becoming fatigued at the effort.

Twilight was rather peeved at this and asked, “How am I supposed to go through all these books page by page till I find it? Isn’t there an easier way?”

"Twilight," started the shadow, "This is your mind, if you can’t figure out how to move from place to place or do things you can’t normally do in the real world, you can’t possibly survive in this place. But hey, if you want to let me win, then by all means. Continue doing things your way. The slow way."

"Can I use magic in here?"

"Of course, you can do anything you want. I’ve been trying to tell you this since the beginning. I’m not going to give you all the answers, but you should probably start using that large cranium of yours you call a head."

The shadow flew to the top of the library and started browsing a floating bookshelf.

"Huh, never knew Twilight used to wet herself."

"Hey, that’s private!" Exclaimed Twilight.

"Nothing’s private since you let me into your mind, Twilight."

Twilight was now mad, so she kept digging through book after book, quickly. So quickly she finally cleared 2 bookshelves in almost 2 minutes. She hadn’t even realized this, but she was beginning to speed read through most of the books. Soon, she cleared almost all the books of the lower floor and moved onto the second floor. All the while, the shadow taunted her. Telling her she will never escape her mind unless she knew what she was looking for. Twilight went on unimpeded and ignored the taunting and focused her mind on finding the clue.

Book after book, no clue, just bits of memories she already remembered; Becoming Princess Celestia’s student, meeting Pinkie Pie and Rarity, Going to Wonderbolt Academy with her friends to talk to Rainbow Dash. But no clue to why she stole the scrolls from Canterlot Castle. She started thinking, why did she go to the castle, why did she go to the archives, where did she go once she went into the archives, and why did she meet with Princess Luna.

"That’s it!" Twilight exclaimed, "I met with Princess Luna, maybe if I can find her, she’ll tell me what happened."

"Oh, Twilight, you are so close and yet so far. Luna wasn’t involved in this matter at all. As a matter of fact, she didn’t even see you."

"Then why do I remember Luna being involved in this?"

"Your mind is fuzzy. Remember, I am you, I remember all the details, but you do not."

"Oh really? Did you also remember that I asked Luna to talk to Celestia for me?"

"Wow, you’re delusional even in your own mind. I didn’t think this was even possible." Said the shadow, shaking it’s head, "Luna was never involved, only Celestia and and even she barely remembers it as it was months ago and it was a book you showed her."

"Then why do I get the inkling that you’re not telling me everything about the situation? Why are you telling me riddles instead of answers?"

"Because you know all the answers, for the last time. You were there, months ago when the incident happened. Everyone you met that day knows what happened. Including your friends. They all thought you were crazy, they visited you month after month but you were already my puppet at that point. What boggles my mind is why you didn’t heed the warnings like everyone told you to. You call yourself a student of magic yet you had no idea what you were getting yourself into at the time. You were overeager to learn a spell and that drove you to Canterlot Castle. Maybe this clue will jog your memory a bit."

"I wanted to learn…a spell?"

"Dear Celestia, are you dense. Yes, this incident involved a spell you wanted to learn. Maybe this pony will refresh your memory."

The shadow transformed into StarSwirl the Bearded.

"Ring any bells, Twilight Sparkle?"

"No, not unless I wanted to bring you back from the dead."

"Ah, now we’re getting somewhere."

"What do you mean? I wanted to bring Starswirl back from the dead? Why would I do that?"

"Why indeed," said the shadow curiously, "You seemed far too eager to learn a revival spell that day, but something came over you and you wanted to try your luck at reviving a unicorn."

"You must be joking. I can’t revive a unicorn. The amount of magic needed to revive a magical being is far too taxing for any unicorn alone."

"Ah, but you are no ordinary pony, now are you?"

"So did I do it?"

"No, you didn’t even come close. You went to a cemetery to find his grave and tried the revival spell. Obviously, it didn’t do anything, so you left for your library back in Ponyville. You feverishly went through your books for a way to do it. You found no help there either, so you went to Zecora who first told you that you shouldn’t mess with the circle of life. You ignored her warning and went to Canterlot Public Library instead. Is any of this ringing a bell at all?"

"Yeah, somewhat. But I don’t remember going to Canterlot’s library."

"That’s when you found a book of necromancy and showed it to Celestia. She didn’t look at the book too in-depth but she said something along the lines of follow what you think is best. But she warned you about trying the spell on the dead. That was warning number 2. And once again you didn’t listen to her."

"I’m starting to remember some of it, keep going please."

"I can’t believe I have to tell you everything," sighed the shadow. But it continued anyway, "So you jot down the ingredients, ask the librarian if you can buy the book, paid for it and mailed it to yourself."

"So what about the scrolls?"

The shadow sighed again, clearly tired of dealing with this. Figure it out yourself. I already told you half the story. You can figure out the rest by yourself.”

"How? I’ve already gone through an entire library floor and found nothing."

"Then I suggest you start digging deeper into your mind by reading more books."

The shadow started floating away to read more of Twilight’s personal life as a filly, and Twilight went back to reading books though she felt dejected about the prospect of having to read even more books.

Author's Note

I decided to finally finish this chapter on my birthday. I figure, I might as well do myself a favor and "give back" the the community in the sense that I tried to do something positive for this community but I seem to get backlash with this community no matter where I go. I really don't understand this thing with the community over the years. Shun those that have different ideals? Just cause I think Hasbro isn't working toward what the community wants to see, I'm suddenly seen as a bad guy cause of my opinions? I really don't get this community at all.

Nonetheless, my ramblings end here. This is chapter 9, finally updated after several months. Everything will be wrapped up by Chapter 10 and I'll finally be done with this piece of crap I call a "fan fiction". God, I loathe that word. I had to actually re-read chapter 8 to figure out where the hell I left off. I honestly don't care if people dislike this story as a whole, because it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I think I did the best I could with this story and people who dislike it cause of it's pacing or whatever can go fuck off. I worked hard on this story to the best of my abilities and I realize no one is perfect, myself included. But I feel obligated to finish this story So after Chapter 10, I'll be leaving permanently.