Darkest Depths

"Winter, 878 A.S., there is less food this year than last, but there is still enough. The food supply doesn't matter much, however, since the Storm is slowly eating up our land. By the time the next census is written, there may no longer be any food at all, much less a kingdom". Twilight stopped reading and slowly sat down on her haunches, taking a moment to collect her thoughts, which she had lost track of several moments before. Well, she had been looking for an old book, after all. Just not.... This. She began reading again. "Winter, 879 A.S.; This is in all likelihood the going to be the last entry in this book. It is a wonder there is enough sanity left in this God-forsaken for me to write this. As predicted, the Storm is upon us, twisting the land and forcing the world into demented parodies of it's former beauty. To our horror, this Storm isn't really a storm at all. That would suggest a natural phenomenon. There is nothing natural about this. It is a single creature causing this, for his own sick amusement. His like has never been seen, with a body made of many animals. We are at the mercy of his cruel whim. This is the End of Days." Twilight flipped to the next page. It was blank. As were the rest of the pages in the old book, which disturbed Twilight deeply. The description matched Discord, yet... Discord had never done anything truly evil. He had done simple things, such as pranks and mind games. He had never, to Twilight's knowledge, attempted any violence, let alone destroy a civilization. But Discord had only been freed for a matter of days. Could he truly be capable of this?

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! The knocking on the door jolted Spike out of a dead sleep. Turning over onto his side, he hoped whoever it was would go away. This was not the case. After a short pause, there came another series of loud knocks. KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! Spike groaned. A shrill voice sounded through the door."HELLOOOOO? Anypony in there? Open the door, I have a surprise!". It was Pinkie. "It's too early for this," Spike thought aloud. "It's only..." he sat up and looked at the clock. "TWELVE O'CLOCK!" he shouted, leaping out of bed and running to the bathroom. KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! "HELLO?!?" Pinkie tried again. It took Spike all of 20 seconds for him to get ready and race to the door. Not all that difficult, considering Spikes' only morning routines were straightening his spikes and swishing with some mouthwash. "I'n conning!" he yelled, mouth still full of mouthwash. He spit it out in the kitchen sink on his way to the door. He quickly opened up the door for Pinkie Pie, only to find she had left. He shrugged and shut the door. As he turned around, he had no time to react as Pinkie yelled,"SURPRISE!" and open-fired with a cupcake launcher. Before long, Spike was covered in cupcakes, and very disoriented. "I told you I had a surprise! I was baking cupcakes for an order at Sugarcube Corner and I realized that I had waaaaaaay too much cupcake batter but I could never throw away cupcake batter I mean who does that? So anyways I thought I'd make a bunch of extra cupcakes and bring 'em to my friends and I already brought some to Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash so where is Twilight so I can give her some cupcakes?" Pinkie finished. Spike was out of breath just watching her talking. And now his head hurt. Of course, that may have been due to the head trauma he'd received from the cupcake launcher. "Uh, sh-she went to the Canterlot Library this morning," he stammered, still recovering from another normal Pinkie Pie greeting. If it could be considered normal. "Okie dokie! Bye!", Pinkie replied, then she was off. How, he had no idea, since she had galloped the opposite direction from the door. Spike shook his head dazedly, and started on his morning "assistant duties", which were more like doing Twilight's chores than anything.

After finding the first book, she had noticed another one that looked interesting. And that book, right at the bottom left? Well, why not. But what about the one next to it? It probably has some useful information. Even the blue-bound one at the front.... After all was said and done, Twilight had gathered up at least thirty books that may or may not have had relevant information. It had taken a couple hours to get all of the books she wanted, and another twenty minutes checking out, with a librarian who was clearly not too pleased to be lending that many books to one pony. After thanking the librarian, Twilight headed to her old suite in the castle, the one she had lived in while studying under Princess Celestia herself. The sun was already setting, and Twilight didn't want to be out after dark. "No offense, Princess Luna," she assured the night. It was strange, Twilight reflected, that she had only been gone for a couple of years. She felt almost as if she had lived in Ponyville her entire life. With all- *crunchcrunchcrunch*-Twilight stopped suddenly. She had taken a shortcut, and there were no other ponies on the small dirt road, since the sun had now set. But she could've sworn she'd heard somepony in the bushes along the sides of the dirt path she was on. Looking back and to the houses on her sides nervously, she continued walking. She was almost home, anyways. If she just hurried she could-"Twitchy twitch-a-twitch!" came a voice from the bush next to her. Twilights eyes widened, and she leaped to the side of the road, just as a cake fell and splattered on the ground where she had been standing. "Pinky?!" Twilight exclaimed, wiping off some cake frosting that had splashed onto her side. At least she had remembered to put the books behind her, so they weren't ruined. If she hadn't, then- "SURPRISE!" yelled Pinkie Pie, popping out of one of Twilight's many borrowed books. "What are you... How did you.... Why.... Why are YOU in Canterlot?" Twilight managed to ask, still recovering from the scare Pinkie had given her. Pinky just grinned, then launched into her story."Wellllllll........ I was making cupcakes for an order at Sugarcube Corner and there was some extra cupcake batter and I thought, 'who would throw away perfectly good cupcake batter?' not me, for sure! So I made extra cupcakes and I gave some out to all my friends but when I got to your house Spike said you weren't home and that you had gone to Canterlot for books about magic and I couldn't let your cupcakes go bad so I decided to come here and give them to you and so here I am and you're here and CUPCAKES!" she explained. Twilight suddenly found a pan full of cupcakes shoved in front of her face, with Pinkie holding it up with two hooves, while using her back left hoof to hold the cake that had fallen from the sky, which she had somehow managed to fix. She balanced on one leg, hopping alongside Twilight until Twilight finally used her magic to carry the baked goods for Pinkie. Twilight didn't even bother to ask how Pinkie had found exactly where Twilight was, even in a large city such as Canterlot. It Pinkie Pie, no further answer needed.

About fifteen minutes later, the two ponies arrived at Twilight's suite. It was exactly how she had left it. Except for the dust. But that could be overlooked, for the time being. Turning on the light in the main library of the house, Twilight did a 360 degree turn to face Pinkie. Trying to put on the most serious face she had, Twilight told Pinkie that she was working on something very important, and needed to concentrate. Pinkie nodded, and bounced off to the guest bed. "Pinkie?" Twilight called after her. Pinkie was back in front of her in a flash. Twilight took a step back, startled by Pinkie's speedy appearance. "What is it Twilight?" Pinkie asked excitedly. "When I say I need to concentrate, that means you need to be quiet," she said. "Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie replied. Twilight shook her head. This was going to be a long night.

Morning sunlight poured through the huge glass window of the study, waking Twilight. Slowly opening her eyes, she realized there was somepony directly in front of her. "Too... Early.... Just five more minutes...." she complained. The pink pony standing in front of the half-asleep Twilight blinked. Who would want to miss such a great morning? Sure, there was nothing special about that morning in particular, but still, EVERY morning was amazing! Making up her mind, Pinkie put her face veeeery close to Twilights. Without warning, Pinkie shouted, "GOOD MORNING TWILIGHT!!" Twilight's eyes popped open as she jumped all the way up to the ceiling with a speed that would make most pegasi envious. Hanging on the chandelier, Twilight looked down, only to find that there was nopony there. Confused, Twilight looked back up to the ceiling, and came face-to-face with none other than Pinkie Pie. With a small cry, Twilight let go of the chandelier and fell, only to have Pinkie break her fall. "PINKIE!" Twilight began,"I told you not to-" Twilight stopped as she realized Pinkie wasn't listening anymore. She was too busy making a book-pyramid with the formerly-organized books. With a sigh, Twilight began cleaning up the books on the floor. She had fallen asleep while studying, just like old times. Equestria was a fairly new kingdom, Twilight had found. By cross-referencing some of the books, Twilight was able to approximate the age of Equestria and compare it to previous empires. It was frustrating, since most of the books only contained scraps and snippets of what she was looking for. After she had put it all together, she had found that the last great empire had been located very close-by. But for some reason, the bits and pieces she had connected pointed to a different species than ponies having inhabited the great empire. 'Maybe it was populated by zebras!' thought Twilight excitedly. Only one way to find out. "C'mon, Pinkie, we have work to do! Uh..... Pinkie?" The small book pyramid had somehow turned into a book-fortress, complete with walkways, a drawbridge, and a moat. Pinkie exited the throne room and crossed the drawbridge to come stand next to Twilight. Twilight didn't even bother asking Pinkie how she'd done it.

The only pony who would have any more information on the subject would be Princess Celestia. But nopony could simply walk into the throne room and expect to get a one-on-one audience with the Princess, even if the pony in question was the Princess's star pupil. Royal duties and obligations to the citizens of Equestria kept Celestia quite busy. Luna, on the other hand, wouldn't be doing anything until nighttime... Maybe she would have some helpful information about Discord, and possibly some clues about the book Twilight had found. Making up her mind, Twilight stepped into the main hallway of the guest wing, Pinkie Pie following in her own fashion. Namely, galloping from one side of the hall to the other, hiding behind columns, statues, and guards.