The SS

Twilight let out a small yawn as she slowly staggered out of bed. She looked out her window at the view of Ponyville below. She sighed, still being able to see her former home.

She pushed the negative thoughts out of her head. C’mon Twilight, now isn’t the time to be thinking of those things, She thought to herself as she scanned her new home. It definitely was a lot bigger than the Golden Oaks Library, making it somewhat easy to get lost in, but she was sure she’d get used to it eventually.

That’s when she remembered something.

“Oh! Princess Celestia told me this place had a library!” She quickly rushed through the different rooms in the Crystal Castle in search of her literary prizes. “There it is!” She let out a tiny squee noise as she slowly pushed the door open with a creak, her eyes lighting up when she saw the magnificent array of books all across the room.

She quickly flew through the room, scanning all the books that she had. Some of these books date back to Starswirl’s time! She thought to herself gleefully as she raced through the different archives, all displaying different years, dating up to the recent event of Nightmare Moon’s return.

Her curiosity was aroused by a bookshelf that was sparsely filled.

‘Unknown Times - Before Equestria’

She rushed down to bookshelf of her focus. Most of the books there appeared to be scorched, missing covers, or had smudged ink. It didn’t matter though; she wasn’t if even Celestia herself knew of these books. How did the castle obtain these?

She picked a few of them up and briefly glanced through their pages. Most of them appeared to be about some alien history. Twilight, wide eyed, flipped through the pages, seeing pictures and words she’d never heard or seen before.

“I’ve got to show these to Celestia!” Twilight beamed, grabbing two of the books before preparing to race off.

‘Wait.’

Twilight froze midair. “Hello? Rarity, is that you?”

‘You missed a book.’

Although Twilight still had no idea who was talking, she looked back and confirmed that it spoke the truth. “Uhm, what’s so important about that other book?” Twilight asked the voice, uncertain if she was talking to herself.

‘It’s a spellbook.’ Twilight’s ears perked up a little at those words. Slowly making her way back to the bookshelf, she stared at the remaining books. One had a purple pattern, and seemed to have been kept in better shape than the others.

‘Take a look at it.’

After some deliberation, Twilight picked up the small book with her magic and began to scan through the pages. It was indeed, as the voice had said, a spellbook. She wasn’t sure if it was some form of dark magic, but she didn’t care, hyped up as she was from finding books about an otherwise unknown civilization.

“Oh. Well, thanks-”

‘You don’t have to thank me. I’m the one who should be thanking you.’

Twilight was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable, but her thirst for new knowledge overpowered whatever misgivings she had. She placed down the two other books, curious about the spellbook that had been called to her attention. Placing it down on a table, she began to read.

“Hmm, Shapeshift Spell, Drought Spell, Telepathy Spell…..” Twilight began to trail off as she read through the extensive repository of spells. “Wait...Extractor Spell?” Twilight thought aloud as she flipped onto the page of the rather unusual spell.

“This spell has the ability to extract beings, or other objects out of something without harm, unless it is cast on a….human?” Twilight stopped at that word, but elected to continue reading, making a mental note to look it up later. “The spell should only be used by people with extensive experience in spellcasting. It is not a beginner’s spell!”

Twilight’s eyebrows furrowed for a second. This spell seems to imply some practical use…. but… what could I use it for? Twilight scrunched her muzzle. “A spell that can take objects out of other objects without harming said object…..I’ve got it!”

Around a year ago, Twilight and her friends had to give up one of the things that made them special; their Elements of Harmony. But because of that, it was a lot more difficult to remove evil beings from Equestria. But with the help of the spell… A lightbulb went off in her head. We could get the Elements back without harming the Tree of Harmony!

Twilight’s eyes scanned the page once more, checking the requirements of the spell. It appeared she happened to have everything on hoof.

“Should I tell the girls?” She thought out loud to herself. She didn’t know how her friends would react if they knew she brought back the Elements of Harmony through the use of a long-forgotten spell.

‘I think you know how they’d react. I suggest that you keep this one to yourself, Princess Twilight.’

Twilight frowned. She still had no idea where the voice was coming from. She got an idea. Firing up her horn,  she abruptly filled the entire room with a purple aura.

Hmmm. The Detect Life Spell isn’t seeing anything.

“Are you a voice in my head?”

‘I guess you could say that.’

Twilight tried to shake off the weird feeling of knowing that there was somepony or something following her around that she couldn’t detect. Maybe it had something to do with the book? Twilight slammed the book shut. She didn’t know what to do anymore. Where had the voice come from? Would the spell get the Elements back? She shook those thoughts off.

“I’ll try the spell tonight. I’ll just go out to town today.” She sighed, already exhausted from her awareness of the new knowledge from those few books.

As Twilight slowly walked away from the library, leaving the books behind, she felt the weird feeling fade. Trotting over to her front door, she to felt the breeze coming through. Weird, I don’t remember opening that door.

She flew out and looked down at Ponyville. It was finally time to start her day without her feelings about the Castle weighing her down.

“Sister, should we warn Princess Twilight about the Castle?” Luna asked her celestial sister.

“I think it would be better if she figured it out by herself. Remember, not even we knew what it was at first.”

A silence gathered in the room as the two royal sisters sat next to each other in their dining chamber.

“....Do you think this has something to do with ‘5170’?” Luna asked in a near whisper, sipping on her tea.

“Luna…. please don’t jump to conclusions,” Celestia’s expression fell. “We know that even Twilight wouldn’t be able to stop him. He likes to take drastic actions. If he was here, we would have known by now.”

Luna sighed. “Right. Sorry, sister.” She looked out the window down at Ponyville. “But there is a disturbance in her town. Do you think Princess Twilight and her friends could stop it?”

“I’m sure they will sister. They always do.”

‘I hope.’