The Canis Clan

Twilight was having a normal day in the library part of her castle until she tripped over something. As she looked behind her to see what she tripped over she saw the most horrifying scene. A book was OUT OF PLACE! She gasped at the sight of it, but then put it back in its place with her magic. The book had something in it though, but Twilight didn't see it.

Knock knock. Some pony was at the front door and trying to get in. "Hello, is anypony home?" A voice called out.

"Sorry, I was in the library." Twilight said as she opened the door. "Why did you come here? Do you have a friendship problem?"

"No, not at all. I have something for you; from Princess Celestia."

"PRINCESS CELESTIA SENT SOMETHING TO ME?!" Twilight said as she lunged toward the pony.

"Ye... Yes." the messenger said in shock. "You see, as an alicorn princess, you now have the right to enter 'The Hidden Library'."

"What do you mean by ... 'The Hidden Library'?"

"The Hidden Library is a library that is concealed in a powerful magic aura. Only ponies with permission or blood can enter it."

"What do you mean by blood?" A fearful Twilight asked.

"As stated, permission is required. However, alicorns do not need permission for they have the blood that allows them to enter. I can enter because of this coin. This coin may seem normal, but it was given to me by a friend."

"Who was this friend of yours?"

"I cannot say, for if they found out; she'd probably kill me." The visitor said as he walked away.

In a matter of moments, he disappeared. The door was all the way at the end of the hall so there is no way he could've gotten to the door that fast. However, he dropped a scroll in which Twilight picked up to read.

"Follow the children of space, for the door opens when the sun dies." After reading it, Twilight was confused with the sentence. "Why would a door open when Celestia dies? What are these, children of space?"

As Twilight kept pondering, Spike walked into the room.  He was carrying another comic book; this time the cover art featured a pony looking up at the sky. In the sky, was a comet shooting across the page with the sun down. Spike continued to read it and then cried out about the dialogue between the characters.

"Oh come on, who calls the sun a star? I mean, everyone knows it's just a giant fireball."

"Ugghh, Spike; I'm trying to focus here. Can't you keep it down?" Twilight yelled at Spike.

"But Twilight, these characters are just so unbelievable. I mean, listen to this: 'Those lights are our GODS. We worship them with our lives. You, warriors, cause the pain to their children. Look at all the children that light up the sky; you try to study them for your own interests, but we raise them. Their parents are barely there, always rotating. But we will continue to protect them.' What idiot calls a star a child?"

As Spike finished complaining, Twilight realized what the note really meant. It wasn't a literal statement, but somewhat metaphorical. As Twilight left the room, Spike fireballed a scroll from Princess Celestia. The purple princess used her magic to take it with her and read it as she ran outside. "Dear Twilight, I have something for you to do. Meet me at my castle in Canterlot. Sincerely, Princess Celestia."

With a new mission, Twilight flew across Ponyville towards Canterlot. However, the darkness of the night began to set in. She had to light her horn and landed in the courtyard. She was greeted by two guards who opened the door for her. She found Princess Celestia looking out one of the windows into darkness.

"What's wrong Princess Celestia?" Twilight asked as she tried to recollect he breath.

"An outsider has visited me and told me about some clan that lives up in the mountains. They're called 'The Canis Clan', and based off of the description they seem hostile. I need you to seek out this leader and try to form some sort of friendship with him; just like you did with the yaks." Celestia said as she continued to look out the window. "They are located in the mountains north of here and may seem to have approximately 50 ponies. I just hope that you can succeed."

"I will do my best, but I have one question. What did this outsider look like and why did you let him speak with you? After Tirek, I would've thought that security would be increased here." Twilight asked as she walked closer to Celestia.

"I couldn't make out his face because he wore a cloak, but he seemed smaller than the average pony. I let him in because he said he had valuable information for me. He adressed me only by name, not with my title though."

Celestia had then thought more about her conversation with the pony. "Before you go Twilight, take this scroll with you. It will allow us to communicate without using Spike." Celestia said as she handed it off to Twilight along with a quill. "When you write down a statement, it'll disappear but I'll be able to read it. It was created by a great magician who called it 'Fast Action Xpress' or FAX."

The conversation had ended and Twilight flew outside towards the mountains. Twilight traveled a fair amount of distance from the castle until,she quickly lost control of her wings and crash landed onto the ground. However, as she got up, she quickly fell back down; her horn was glowing a bluish color with her body outlined by a different color. As she fought the magic, a pony walked up to her; however, the face was concealed by a cloak.

"Well, if it isn't Twilight Sparkle. What brings you out here?" the mysterious mare asked.

"Are you the one who told Celestia about the Canis Clan?" A struggling Twilight asked her.

"Canis Clan? I've heard about them, but I wanted the joy of finding them. The real question is, why are you here?" The mare asked as her magic grew more powerful.

"I came here, to forge an alliance with them. But why do you prevent me?"

"Prevent you? Hpmh, why don't you help me?" She asked as she weakened her spell. "If you join me, you can do what you want while I look for their valuables. Deal?"

Twilight was in no position to bargain, so she accepted the offer. The spell around her dissipated and Twilight got up, slowly. Night was at its finest for the two had been surrounded by complete darkness. However, their magic lit the way as they wandered through the area.

"So you didn't visit Celestia earlier?" Twilight asked as she looked around.

"Celestia? I haven't met her in my entire life. I left Canterlot years ago to find ancient relics of past civilizations. This Canis Clan is a weird one though."

"How so?"

"There are no records I could find about them at any library. I searched the one in Ponyville, when it was around; I also visited the one in Canterlot and the Crystal Empire. Hell, the one in Griffonstone didn't have anything. It's almost as if, they just dissappeared or something."

"Well that'd be impossible, unless of course they had a large amount of magic. Oh by the way," Twilight paused to remember something. "What is your name and why is your magic of two colors?"

"Call me, Radiant Flare. My magic is of two colors because of something that happened to me. I was on the hunt for a relic called the Arcane Flame Sprite, but instead it reacted to my magic. As soon as my magic surrounded it, it was absorbed into me and my magic was amplified.

"The magic around your horn, was that of the Sprite?"

" Apparently, it can also shut off the magic of others."

"Where did you find something like that?"

"Near the gateway of Tartarus." Radiant said nonchalantly.

"Tartarus?! Why would you venture to an area that dangerous?"

"You trying to say you care about somepony like me, Princess?" she replied seductively. "Besides, I've been to Tartarus many times and come back alive. The artifacts that exist there are worth my life, which is why I can't die. If I die, she'll never forgive me."

"She?" Twilight asked hesitantly.

"What? Nevermind; I think we're almost there."

That conversation ended on an open note; one which Twilight wanted to know more about. However, Radiant Flare stopped answering Twilight's questions and continued to lead the way. Even when Flare had almost fallen down, she continued to push herself and would always refuse Twilight's aid. It seemed like night was lasting forever for they'd traveled for hours, but Flare had slowly been losing her energy.

Instead of continuing, Flare finally decided to rest. So, she spread out her hooves and fell straight on the dirt. She proceeded to pull out a blanket and lie down on it. Twilight had brought nothing with her so she tried to get a space on the blanket, but Flare kicked her away several times. There was enough space for the both of them, but Flare didn't allow it for some reason. Twilight thought that it was just Flare being selfish, but Flare started to talk in her sleep and would call out to some other pony.

"No ... no don't leave me. Flora, please don't leave." Flare cried out as she squirmed around her blanket. "You promised me. You said so,"

"Radiant, are you okay?" Twilight asked while slowly walking towards her.

"Cirrus," Radiant Flare said to herself as she was still asleep and didn't hear Twilight. "Cirrus, please. CIRRUS!!"

Twilight jumped back with her hooves over her ears. Radiant Flare continued to squirm around her blanket, but only on half of the blanket with the other half completely open. Twilight tried to get to sleep, but Flare kept on crying in her sleep.

Suddenly, Flare had woken up only to see that the moon and stars were still out. "What the hell is going on? It should be day by now." She said as she looked around. "You ready to continue, Princess?"

"Yeah." Twilight said as she stretched her legs. "By the way, are we close to the Canis Clan's area?"

"I think so. Like I said, there is no record of this place ever existing so any guess is as good as any."

They continued to travel up the mountain toward the Canis Clan, but came across a grand structure standing on a flat part of the mountain. They both gazed at it with awe, and started to walk towards it. It looked like architecture from Cloudsdale, but the door was decorated with dragons and alicorns as well as armored ponies.

"How old is this thing? It doesn't look like anything I've seen before, and I've been almost everywhere." Flare said in awe still looking up at the door.

"I don't know, but it looks incredible." Twilight said to Flare.

"Wait, that looks odd." Flare said as she pointed out a hole in the door. She put her hoof in it and quickly pulled it back out. Her right hoof began bleeding and as she held it, she saw blood traveling up the door. "What the hell?" She couldn't comprehend what was going on, but the blood continued to travel across the door. It soon dropped into a path that led to an alicorn. The door opened up, and both Flare and Twilight entered it.

As they walked into the building, a bright light flashed their eyes and almost blinded them. They let out screams of pain, but soon they were able to see clearly. The room they entered, was a large room full of shelves with books in them. It was much larger than the library in the Crystal Empire.

"Woah, I've never seen a library like this before." Twilight said in awe.

"What the hell is this place?" Flare asked out loud.

Behind them, they heard a pony walking and then stop. They turned around and saw a unicorn that was fairly young with glasses. Her mane was all over the place, but she sat behind an organized desk. "Who are you two?" She asked bluntly.

"Sorry, my name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship." Twilight answered.

"Radiant Flare," Flare said to her. "Who might you be?"

"I'm the assistant librarian and desk pony. The librarian calls me Dusty, but my name is actually Sola Libro. If you need help, just ask me." She said as she looked down at a book.

Twilight and Flare had stumbled upon something that not a whole lot of ponies knew about; but they themselves knew nothing about it. They wandered around the room and came across many ponies of different ages reading and looking at books. Twilight was continuously in awe about the collection of books, while Flare was suspiscious of these other ponies. While wandering, they bumped into the librarian.

"Can I help you two with anything?" She said angrily.

"Yes, can you tell me where we are?" Flare asked bluntly.

"Welcome to the Hidden Library, a library built thousands of moons ago by many great unicorns. One of which was Starswirl the Bearded."

"If I might ask, why are so many ponies here?"

"Are there really that many? To be honest, not that many ponies are here. Only the ones with permission or alicorn status are allowed in here. So, how did you two get here?"

"We were looking for a group known as the Canis Clan and stumbled upon this. When I put my hoof on the door, it took blood from me and then opened."

"You must be an alicorn then, because if you weren't it would've fallen into the pony slot and opened up a box for you to enter a coin of permission."

"Wait, what was that?" Twilight butted into the conversation as the librarian trotted away. "You're an alicorn?"

"Ugh, yes. I am an alicorn, but not a princess. Sure I was raised to be one, but I abandoned my castle to live a life of adventure." Flora responded.

"Really?"

"No idiot. I am an alicorn but I was never raised to be a princess. Not every alicorn is a princess you know."

Flare walked off towards a series of shelves titled 'Geography'. As she walked off, Twilight walked towards another wing; one called 'Civilizations of Equestria'. Based off of the plaque, it is edited almost every year because some civilizations still exist and grow. The section was one of the largest in the library and it was filled with many ponies reading books about past clans and tribes. One of the ponies was reading about the Changlings while another was reading a more detailed book about griffins. The princess walked past many books until she saw a sign that was labeled 'Canis Clan'. However, there was no book present  so she walked up towards Sola.

"I'm sorry, I can't help you right now. This library is equipped with many books but some of them have been destroyed due to aging magic." Sola said to a pony.

"Fine, since you won't help me, I'll just leave." The pony said.

As the pony walked away, while looking at the floor, Twilight walked towards Sola. She could see that Sola was moving around her desk frantically.

"What is it Twilight?" She asked as she kept moving.

"Do you have the book about the Canis Clan? It appears to be missing." Twilight asked calmly.

"We have it, or had it to be precise."

"What happened to it?"

"Someone is renting it, or at least that's what they said. They haven't come back and I'm sure the librarian will be pissed if it doesn't come back."

Suddenly, a book came out of some sort of box. Sola looked in, and was astonished by what she had saw. The book about the Canis Clan was lifted out of the box and a note was attatched to it. 'Sorry it took so long, I was making some edits. Hopefully you aren't punished for it. Also, Dusty, you might want to spend more time cleaning these books.'.

"What is it that box?" Twilight asked, pointing out the box behind Sola.

"You see, since we are a private library, it helps ponies and others to return books if they happen to take it. A spell is lined in every book and when stated, it will teleport to this box. Neat isn't it?" Sola replied.

Sola proceeded to hand over the book to Twilight who was still curious about the box, since only Discord knew multi-dimensional magic. Twilight disregarded it and walked away with the book towards Radiant Flare. She too had a book, only her book was a bunch of maps of land outside of Equestria.

"What'cha got there Princess?" Flare asked as she continued to read.

"A History of the Canis Clan; apparently this was gone for a while, but this can help me understand my mission at least." Twilight responded.

"Tell me if there is anything about any artifacts."

Twilight started to read the first chapter, of course, and almost immediately she was shocked about this group. She learned that they weren't even ponies, but wolves. Wolves! The only thing she knew about were Timber wolves so she couldn't realize if it were real or fake.

As she began reading the prologue, she was futher shocked by the fact that Starswirl the Bearded was mentioned.

"A clan of war, but some of respect. The Canis Clan was trusted by me, and betrayed by another pony. I do not know who it was, but this clan was a friend of mine and I hope that they are not forgotten." - Starswirl the Bearded.

End of Chapter 1