Chapter 3

I awoke the next morning, feeling like a piece of shit. The floor is not really comfortable, even if their is carpet. I looked out a window and saw that the sun had just risen. It took a few seconds for me to realize where I was. Then it all came back to me. The storm, Ponyville, the castle I had slept in.

''So it wasn't a dream,'' I said as I stood up. I would really like some coffee right now. I then started walking a little trough the castle. I did not come far however, as it became darker with each step deeper in the castle. So I decided to just turn back. It wouldn't help me if I could not see anything. (no, I'm not scared of the dark, dammit)

I came back to the entrance hall and started to look around. I noticed that in front of me there was a big staircase. Where I stood, just in front of the staircase, there where different corridors you could walk in. There were three at the left, and three at the right.

''Okay, I'm gonna go... the second one on the right!'' I walked into the corridor and just started walking down. It was way lighter here than in the other section. Probably because there were windows here. I then reached a big double door. And big door always meant something. Mostly the protection of the things behind that said door door. And if something needed protection, it would be valuable or powerful. I started pulling at the door

''Oh, come on, open you.... oh goddammit!'' I said as I pushed against the door. And of course, it opened smoothly. I walked inside to see a very nice sight. It was a library. And a big one too. Now normally, I don't like reading. I don't understand why people read for fun. Watching TV is way more fun. But if I could learn anything from a book, I would gladly read it. Ever heard of the saying: knowledge is power? So I was really glad that this ruin had a functional library. I walked into the library and walked down the bookshelf's.

The library was divided in two sections. The old-and new section. The old section was the biggest, with the most books. The problem was that those books where in some weird other language.

''Dafuc is this?'' I said as I was looking in a old book. This was not working. While it was the same alphabet we had, it was another language altogether. I set the book back and walked to the new section. Lucky for me, this books were written in normal English. I picked up a book called 'Equestria and everything you need to know about it' and started reading

It was a very helpful book as I was reading it trough. But why was I reading it, you ask? Well, while I knew a lot of this world there was also a lot I didn't knew. This book helped me with all the basics I needed to know. Of course, I also read about things I already knew, like that there were two princesses who ruled this land, before one became corrupt. I knew this already because Kelvin forced me to watch the first two episodes as well. I didn't pay much attention to the episode, though. So then I read that the princesses raised the sun and the moon

''Oh oh oh, Celestia and Luna, you little, little liars. I have to say, its a smart way to control your people. Let them believe that you raise the sun and the moon, so that they wouldn't dare to take over. Seriously, this is something that many other dictators did to control their people!'' I just skipped the part about them raising the sun and moon. It was to stupid to read. Then I came to a chapter that made me curious.

''different creatures'' I said out loud before starting to read.

It was very interesting. There was info about those weird wooden wolves, (which are called timber wolves, bydeway) and what they could do. I read about manticores and hydra's. But I also read about creatures who were lesser known, like a cockatrice. I then found something that shocked me.

In the creature section was also something written about some kind of dogs. These dogs walked on two legs and were, according to the book, only interested in gems and fortune. They were called diamond dogs. Now, why did those diamond dogs stood out? The book said that they were all sentient. So that meant they have to feel emotions, that they had be able to think, and have memories and experiences. But if something is sentient, then not everyone of the species think alike. So that meant that not all diamond dogs would only care about gems. This didn't make much sense.

I looked if I could find the one who wrote this book. I didn't find any writer. I did found the publisher of the book, though. The national publisher. I started doing some research to the publisher, because you know, a library....duh. It took a few minutes and I already found what I needed. The publisher was sponsored by the princesses. With other words, the princesses had total power about what would be published and what not. Because to make sure I was right, I started picking random books out of the bookshelf's. All the books I picked, were from the the national publisher.

I was still not sure, however. So I took another book about creatures of Equestria. It said the same thing about diamond dogs. Of course, it did say it somewhat different, but it came down on this: diamond dogs only care about gems. In one book their was even written that it was common knowledge.

''Does the books also say how to deal with them?'' I said as I was looking in the books ''Ah, here. Advised is to stay away from the diamond dogs, as nopony knows how they react. If they by chance come to your town, hide inside until they are gone. If you know something about fighting, try scaring them off or to fight them. But only do so as their is no escape.''

I closed the book and was silent for a few minutes. This world does not look so innocent anymore. Not because this world has diamond dogs, but how much power the princesses have here. There is no way this info was correct. If a being is sentient, then they are not mindless beasts that only want food (or in this case, gems) The ponies did not view the diamond dogs as equals. They saw them as mindless beasts, thanks to the info.

Okay, I might be wrong here. I thought This could be real info, and the diamond dogs really DID only care about gems. After all, I have never seen these diamond dogs in the first place. But the fact that the ruling factor here has the power to deny something to be published, is a worry. You know, now that I think about it, I think I need to meet these diamond dogs.

I read the first book again, and apparently most diamond dogs lived in the mountains south of Equestria. Those mountains went on to the zebra kingdom. (seriously, A zebra kingdom?) There lived the most diamond dogs. Trough the rest of Equestria, some packs lived underground. Lucky for me, their was a dogs den very close to the ruin.

I was about to get outside, when I tripped over a book

''AU, FUCK!'' I yelled. ''Stupid book.'' I stood up and picked the book up. It was a book about the old castle in the everfree....wait, that's this castle. ''This might be good'' I thought as I opened the book to read.

Now, most of it was stupid background info. About the two royal sisters, yadayada. But there was one thing that stood out of the book. Apparently there were magic lanterns in this castle, that you could activate by saying a password. When you said the password, the lanterns in this castle would stay on forever. They would only stop bringing light if you said the password again. Lucky for me, the password was in the book. You could also do a password for each chamber, and chance the password. Not going to tell how you did that all, because you were probably not interested.

''So, to activate them, I have to say: let there be light.'' as soon as I said it, a few lights flew on in the library. I putted the book down and walked out of the library, to see that there was also light in the corridors. In fact, whole the castle was lighted.

''Awesome!'' but before I started walking to the entrance hall, I picked up the book about the castle. I decided that I would do some exploration first, before going to the diamond dogs. I want to know more about the diamond dogs, but they are not going anywhere. And it might be better to know the castle better before trying to figure out more about the dogs. I also saw opportunities with the castle. It was clear that no one has lived in this castle for quite some years now. This could be a great hiding place for me.

But the ruins do need work to make them like they once were, a castle. And it needed A LOT of work. There where cracks in the walls everywhere. The ceiling of a lot of rooms were broken of, while lying on the ground. To make a long story short, the castle needed a lot of work. I saw in a window that there was a second building. It was just a very small building, looking from here. That building did not survive time as well as this building. From where I stood, I could see that whole the ceiling was gone, just as most of the outer walls. Someone could see that there used to be a building there, but that was it.

Lucky for me, it seemed that the other building was just outside these buildings. That was good, because if the building... okay, lets just say that the building where I'm standing right now is building one, and the building that is almost gone is building two. So it was good that building two was not so close to building one, because that means it had no strategical value. So that meant that I didn't need to find a way to restore building two.

I started walking again and exploring. After a hour I had discovered all the rooms that were still pretty much usable. I found a kitchen, a room that was in some period in time the barracks, a throne room, a war room, a eating section and some other rooms. I also found the master bedroom, with the bed already gone. The cabinets and all the other stuff was still in there, though.

I also found something else when I was looking out of a window. I saw that next to the castle, was a section with a lot of rocks on them. The fun thing was that I could make out some rails that went in a tunnel. My guess is that it used to be some kind of mine back when this building was still a castle.

When i'm fixing the castle, I can use rocks from that mine to rebuild te castle, I though as I started wandering trough the castle again

But there was one room that perked my interest. On first sight, it looked like a library. But when I walked into the room, I saw that there were no books here. No, there were scrolls here. And not just normal scrolls, no. Magic scrolls. I walked and picked a scroll up. I opened the scroll to see a lot of weird scrabbles on it. I had no idea what stood on the scroll. But with a little research I would find out.

Not right now, though. Because I couldn't use magic without an artifact. It was around lunchtime right now, and I remembered that I hadn't eaten since I arrived here. I walked outside, looking if I could find some plants I could eat. I found some weird berries on a bush, and ate them.

''Hmm, not bad.'' I said as I ate all the berries on the bush. ''So I guess its time to find those diamond dogs,'' I said as I was finished my meal. I stood up and walked to the place were the dogs would be.