"Precisely Twilight," Luna Said. "However as much as I wish I could stay and help you in acquiring his aid, I am afraid I have other matters to attend to. Give Spark this seal and you should have no problem receiving compliance from him." Luna levitated small red circular stone out of her saddlebags and gave it to Twilight. "I wish you all the best of luck." With that, Luna left as quickly as she had appeared. Soaring off into the distance back to the Canterlot Castle, I couldn't help but look after her wistfully.

"Okay," Twilight started "First off," She looked to me. "Where are Spike and Fluttershy?"

My Stomach sunk and my eyes widened as the realization struck me that I had completely forgotten about them. Twilight seeming to pick up on this fact widened her eyes in fear and apprehension.

She ran into the gaping lobby and yelled back at me. "I'll check in what's left of the library, you check the surrounding area in case they were launched like I was."

Obeying the librarians orders I began frantically searching the area.

We spent the better half of the night searching high and low for any sign of them.

There I sat, with my back against the Library's tree exterior, the librarian not five inches away from me with her head in her hooves, still the occasional sob escaping her. The morning sun had just started casting its light into the sky. A luminescent orange glow resonating in the sky, contrasted only by the silhouettes of the morning weather ponies shifting the clouds in preparation for the scheduled weather for today.

It had taken many stages of sorrow, denial and even hysteria at one point before we had resolved to "take a break" from looking for Spike and Fluttershy. Of course when I say resolved I mean after me talking her into it. Once I had gotten her to sit down with me I think acceptance finally hit her. She immediately broke down in tears, realizing, no doubt, that chances are, they had gotten grabbed, and that didn't bode too well for them.

There was far too much to think about, I didn't mind letting Twilight weep over her missing friends, it at least was an opportunity for my overstimulated and overtired mind to scan over the absurd events that had come to pass in the last couple of hours.

My mind abuzz with thought, the morning was soon looking upon us with its full glory.

Who was this Wilhelm character?

What connection does he have with the princess?

Why and how was he a human?

Who is "Sarcomere Bound"?

What relation does he have to the corpse brigade?

How does an undead human come to harbour such notions of grandeur?

Every question I posed seemed to give way to three more.

When I was beginning to fear that the exponential increases of confusion would fry my brain, my thoughts were torn from me by Twilight nudging me.

I turned to her to see her rising from her laying position next to me and wiping her face.

"C'mon" She said with a level yet sullen tone. "Spark Plug should be arriving here on his way through to Canterlot, we're gonna need his help if we're gonna hope to even stand a chance against Sarcomere."

My mind jumped at this.

"Wait what?!" I practically blurted out. "You know about this Sarcomere guy?"

"Only from what I read in some old Canterlot court records" She spoke back as she began walking. I sprung to my feet and rushed to catch up to her, hungry for answers.

Now walking in pace with the librarian, she elaborated."Sarcomere Bound was an extremely talented unicorn with the unique ability to manipulate and even materialize muscle tissue using magic. Naturally this had a lot of application at the time and was in high demand due to the ensuing war with the griffins at the time.. He was employed as a sort of super medic. He could even improve upon the injured, usually having them coming out of his medical tent stronger than their first day on the battlefield."

"hmm spike didn't mention there were any wars around here." I said slightly perplexed. You would think that would be something to mention.

"He probably wouldn't have bothered mentioning it." Twilight began "seeing as it happened over one thousand years ago."

"what?" Now utter confusion gripping at my buzzing brain."what does that mean then, how could he still be alive?"

"Well that's just it" twilight said as she veered slightly toward me to avoid an oncoming cart. "No one really knows what happened to him."

The librarian let out a large lingering yawn. I, almost completely out of reflex, reached out and grabbed her and lifted her on the the other side of me, just in time for a speeding cart full of soldiers to come barrelling through the space the librarian had occupied seconds before.

"Thanks". She said through the last of her yawn. The night of stress had taken its toll on the librarian. "Anyway, I was intrigued by this individual at the time, so I did look a bit further into the court records."

Twilight veered into my stomach suddenly, winding me,

"Oh, uh sorry," She said, shaking her head. "We've gotta go left here."

"Its fine" I replied breathlessly. I checked to make double sure that no more carts were sweeping by as we made our way across the middle of the road. Once we reached the other side, I walked around to the right side of Twilight to keep myself between her and the centre of the road. "Sorry, you were saying?"

"hmm?" Twilight perked up at this. "Oh right! sorry." She wiped her eyes. as she returned her hoof to the dirt path, the sheen of wet fur on said leg caught my eye. Oh, she's still crying, I hadn't even noticed. A sudden guilt began lapping at my stomach. I mean she was masking it very well in her voice so I didn't even think to look at her face.

I've gotta remember that even though Spike and Fluttershy were just new acquaintances to me, they were probably really close friends to Twilight. She needs more time to deal with this than we have leisure of unfortunately, and she knows it.

Still, she seemed to be holding up okay. She still knows what she needs to do, and she still seems competent for the most part. Only time will tell I suppose.

"Like I said" Twilight resumed. "I looked more into it and found that Sarcomere was retired from duty not long after the war ended. Once the war ended his line of work was no longer in high demand, and the muscular enhancements he could provide were considered immoral and were frowned upon by politician and common pony alike. Eventually there was legislation passed to prevent any sort copy cats arising and Sarcomere was "retired" by the court."

"However his talent, innovative thinking and inquisitive spirit earned him the favour of the princesses" Twilight Continued, using her magic to straighten a few strands of her admittedly matted mane. "They granted him the position of Court Magician, and allowed him study in private with the castle's research materials and resources at his disposal."

"This was not the end of it though" Twilight said. "I looked further, and apparently as time went on Sarcomere began more controversial and invasive test and proposals, some even sounding outright apaulic and insane. The princesses began to worry and warned him not to outstepp his bounds. They even removed his privileges a couple times. One of his pleas that had been recorded had mention of him rambling of some supreme beings he claimed to have discovered. This of course was not received well, and he was suspended from his privileges. However, during this suspension, he broke into his labs and in the dead of night conducted an experiment which no one would have believed. When the guards arrived they saw Sarcomere standing in the labs, with the late mr. Abernathy standing in the room. The abomination fell upon one of the guards ass they entered. The undead was dispatched and Sarcomere was arrested for necromancy and direct defiance of the princesses. Sarcomere was eventually excused by the princesses due to how much progress he had been making in the medicinal field, but was to move his lab into a different area of the castle where he would be under strict supervision during his studies.

"hmm the princesses seemed pretty lenient toward this guy" I mused.

"Well in addition to him being a great alchemist, magician, and doctor he apparently was also a very charismatic and pleasant individual with a very strong sense of morality only rivalled by his curiosity. He got along well with the princesses." Twilight said with hints of admiration in her voice. "That is probably why the princesses were so concerned by his strange state. Thought it does seem that his virtued curiosity was his undoing. Yet again, during clean up of the lab, one of the technicians found evidence that would suggest that Sarcomere was attempting illegal magics again, however when the guards arrived at his residence, he was gone, and later that day it was reported that six graves had been raided the night before."

Twilight stopped and turned to me. "and he's never been heard from since."

"Nice, so you're saying we're dealing with an ancient necromancer who has somehow managed to stay alive all these years, that now wants to kill everyone for some reason." I stated, barely believing my own words.

"Well he would definitely have a motive" Twilight said turning back and continuing on her path. "Outdated, misunderstood, unappreciated out cast out for revenge, it wouldn't be the first one."

Its true, in all the cop or homicide movies I've ever seen that's the same formula for all the twisted villains.

Twilight was looking a bit more like herself now. Though her eyes were still blood shot from tears and sleep deprivation, the conversation seemed to be a good distraction from her missing friends. Its probably best if I keep the conversation going. Gotta keep her attention focused on the mission, cant let her mind wander.

"So, who is this Spark Plug guy anyway?" I asked, legitimately curious.

"He's practically the father of pyromancy." Twilight said with hints of excitement. "He travels all around Equestria helping people and seeing what there is to be seen. Or "Bringing light to the darkest corners of the world" as he would say. He's... a little arrogant to say the least."

I looked at her with a sideways grin with an eye brow raised.

"Don't get me wrong" Twilight said quickly. "He immensely powerful and talented, the only problem is he knows it..."

I laughed at this, eliciting a small smile from Twilight.

"There he is" Twilight said, sounding slightly exasperated.

Standing at the end of the street talking to a couple of mares was a burgundy unicorn wearing a brown and tattered cloak which flowed and hung down to his hooves. His jet black mane was longer than most stallions and had a reckless frazzle to it. A pair of tinted goggles hung from his neck which one could assume would protect his eyes while executing his no doubt fantastic displays of pyromantics. He spoke to the mares with a façade of casual indifference and his body language only exaggerated that fact.

When he notice our approach spoke a few quick words and waved the mares off.

"Hello Spark" Twilight said, dawning an obviously forced smile.

"Hey Twi, looking ravishing as always." Spark quipped with a smirk. He then looked to me. "Hey big fella how's the weather?" He then turned back to Twilight, waiting for a reaction.

A flash of rage manifested as only a glint in twilight's eyes as she continued. "Look we need your help Spark, the town and possibly all of equestria is in danger."

"Yeah, I saw the hole in the wall." Spark began. "Though I'm sure its nothing you cant handle, now if you'll excuse me." Spark plug began walking past Twilight, who promptly reached into her saddle bags and retrieved the seal and levitated it in front of Spark Plug.

He stopped. "Where did you get this?" he asked flatly.

"From Luna" Twilight replied, allowing a smirk to burn a hole in the back of Spark's head.

Spark took it and placed it in a pocket in his cloak. "Okay I'll help you." Spark said exasperated. He turned to face twilight and I. "What's the problem?"

My stomach grumbled audibly, which caused two heads to turn to me at once.

"hehe" I Laughed dryly. "Could we perhaps discuss this over some lunch?"

Author's Note

Ho boy. I have literally no good excuse for this stupidly late update. I finally managed to get my grubby hands on a copy of dark souls 2 and it pretty much ate up all my free time for the past two weeks because I'm a weak willed nerd with a passion for dark souls. Anyway I'll try not to make this a trend.

As always any constructive criticism, or comments in general are hugely appreciated! :)