Nervous. That was what Twilight was feeling as she stood before the door to Shooting Star’s home. It was not a nice feeling to have this early in the afternoon. Or to be up this early after having a long night the day before, for that matter. She hadn’t even had her coffee yet. There hadn’t been time for coffee, she had almost overslept. She’d barely managed a shower and brushing before running out on an empty stomach. She wasn’t helped by the fact that she was about to meet four entirely new ponies. Ones that she had never met. And from how she had understood it, some were not even local to Ponyville.

With a sigh Twilight took the plunge and knocked at the door with a brilliant smile. At least she was going to have a good afternoon. It might not be in a familiar environment but… these were ponies with a similar interest in knowledge. I should think of them as colleagues. Twilight thought to herself and smiled just that bit more. Colleagues sounded very nice, even though she was used to, and maybe preferred, studying alone. She knew this wasn’t a normal study session though, she was taking these ponies she did not know into a dangerous place.

As the door opened to reveal Shooting Star, Twilight simply smiled. “Hey, good morning.” She said, feeling her cheeks getting just that little bit hotter as she watched his sweet smile. She flashed him a small smile.

“Come on in, Twilight,” he said, and she was happy to note that she was not the only one blushing ever so slightly. It was hard not to, they would be going on a date and that had been on her mind for a long few hours. “We’re actually just having lunch if you want some? Gourmet kind of made a bit much on the pancake front,” he announced with a sheepish smile. Pushing the door open all the way,revealed the absurd scene of a long table stacked high with pancakes, enough that it could feed the Ponyville orphanage for two days’ worth of lunch. The amber coated stallion with his orange and blue mane smiled cheerily as he placed a plate out for Twilight with a small grin. And like that? All tension and nervousness was gone.

“This was… not what I was expecting.” Twilight said stepping inside with a gentle smile on her muzzle, taking the place that had been set out for her. Looking around the table she noted that there were three more ponies who seemed to be eagerly enjoying their pancakes. The first thing that she noticed was a pair of identical twins, although one was a mare and the other a stallion. Both had a raven black mane, and dark almost abyssal purple coats. The only difference (aside from gender) was the fact that they each had heterochromia. The mare had a green right eye, and a blue left eye. While the stallion had the reverse.

Then she noticed a small pegasus colt with a dark blue coat and a cobalt mane and tail. Twilight perked her eyebrow at him, he couldn’t be older than sixteen! He was also eating with all the grace of a colt. She chuckled inwardly a little. Shaking her head slightly she started to eat her own share of the pancakes with a gentle smile. Simply listening to the two siblings arguing about what sounded like the perfect way to construct a fireball spell. The two didn’t look like they were in the royal guard, it made Twilight wonder why they had any need for combat magic.

Shooting Star suddenly stood beside her, smiling a little, “Everypony, I would like you to meet Twilight Sparkle.”. “She’s the mare that I told you about, and will be leading this interesting little trip of ours.” He motioned at her with a bright, fond smile she noticed. She felt her cheeks heating up at that.

“E-ehm. Hello everypony!” she said. A little more nervous than she would have liked to. Though to her surprise everypony seemed to respond with a very cheery greeting as If they were happy to see her. It settled her in an instant, pushing her away from the panic of feeling like that awkward mare all over again. “Thank you, it’s good to be here among ponies with a similar interest,” she said with a gentle little smile.

“Maybe you should tell them what the plan is, Twilight,” Shooting Star suggested. “Or at least what we’re looking for.”

“That… might be a good idea, yes,” Twilight said with a sheepish smile, she hadn’t even thought about that. “I think I haven’t even told you exactly what I am after, have I?” she asked, blushing.

“No, you haven’t. But something tells me that it's going to be some important magic tome?” he shot her a small, teasing smirk.

“No! … Yes.” She gave an indignant pout, he was teasing her! She shot him a playful glare for a moment and nudged his side as revenge. It was then that she noticed the way the mare of the twins was looking at them both. “Right… jokes aside. We, apparently, are heading to the Castle of the Two Sisters. I am after a book. A long-lost manuscript that was authored by both Luna and Celestia. It contains some very dangerous magic, like a spell that could let a pony "survive" by consuming emotions,” Twilight announced with a small grin playing on her muzzle. “It's something that can’t be lost to time, something that needs to be studied.”

“Isn’t it dangerous? We have to cross through the Everfree forest,” the stallion of the twins piped up. “There’s horrible monsters there, like Manticores and timber wolves.”

“Well yes, that is where this comes in,” Twilight said with a smile, holding up the pendant that she had enchanted with the help of Shooting Star. “This pendant projects an invisibility field while worn, over a small area around the wearer. That will make the trip through the forest a lot safer,” Twilight explained plainly. Looking around at the ponies, “Maybe introductions would be a good idea?” she suggested.

“I’m Sigma!” the small colt piped up with a grin. A grin that revealed his muzzle smothered in syrup. “I’m not as young as I look! I’m from Canterlot, and specialise in healing magic,” he said in a soft chipper voice. “Also, these pancakes are great!” Without further ado, he went back to wolfing down the plate full of pancakes in that very colt like manner. Twilight could swear that he was eating as though he never gets any sweets.

“Thank you, Sigma,” the stallion wearing an apron said, smiling proudly. “I’m Gourmet Palate and I’m a wizard in the kitchen.” He said that with a small playful grin tugging at the edges of his muzzle. “Honestly my speciality might be cooking but I do have a curiosity for the arcane.” With that he simply sat down at the table and started to take his own share of the insane stack of pancakes. “Take as much as you like, the rest is going to the be preserved for later, I guess…” Gourmet said with a sheepish smile.

“Dawn Stars,” the stallion of the twins said with a sweet smile. “I’m the eldest of us, by ten minutes.” He seemed oddly proud of that fact, and his sister seemed to very much resent him bringing it up. “I have dedicated myself to learning all schools of magic, I guess you could call me a universalist, while my dearest sister has her hooves deep in the magical school of evocation,” he said wrapping her up in his hooves and hugging the mare close.

“And I am Starry Night. Like my brother said, my speciality is evocation,” she announced with a little smirk. “Honestly it is more than that, I have a firm grasp of a lot of concepts thanks to my ‘big’ brother.” She said it with a startling amount of snark behind the word big. Twilight had to remind herself to close her mouth as she gaped at the twins going from glaring daggers to starting a gentle kind look of sibling adoration.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all, and I look forwards to going on this little adventure with you all. Once we are past the Everfree forest, it should be smooth sailing, the castle itself is very much safe. At least it was last time my friends and I were there,” Twilight informed them, looking down at her pancakes with a very fond smile. “For now, eat up!” she said with a grin and eagerly dug in.

“Yes, we might be spending the night at the castle. Everypony brought their things for that, yes?” Shooting Star asked smiling as all the gathered ponies nodded their confirmation. “Wonderful! This will be an interesting evening,” Twilight said and smiled at him, noticing that his tail was resting against her, and she didn’t mind one bit.

******

“Next time… warn me before you change the enchantment.” Twilight said with an embarrassed little smile on her muzzle as she looked at Shooting Star

“S-sorry, I didn’t know it was going to be this… cramped,” he said with a small smile of his own while pressing himself close to Twilight’s side. Thinking back about the spell that he had woven he should have known that the field projected by the pendant was going to be cramped. He took a moment to run through the math once again and wondered why he had not considered the fact that there were going to be six ponies.

It was because of that tiny mistake, that the party found themselves smooshed together. All of them in some way pressing against Twilight or Shooting Star, with Sigma taking the cake by riding on Twilight’s back. If it hadn’t been for the others he wouldn’t have minded much. Twilight had a very soft coat and she smelled faintly of lavender. He could get used to that scent, and it was hard not to simply nuzzle her neck.

To his right was Starry Night, who seemed to take no such issues with the no nuzzling. Indeed, she was accidentally brushing against his neck while looking around. He knew it was a lie but he didn’t want to bring it up with Twilight present. Starry liked him, and he knew that well enough even though he had ignored every of her advances. Still she seemed very much obsessed with trying to sleep with him. He sighed a little and focused his mind somewhere else, the enchantment. It was holding out better than expected, if things kept going like this it would last four hours rather than the estimated two. To him that made up for the mistake in the field projection math.

“This isn’t that bad, it’s actually quite comfortable,” Sigma piped up from Twilight’s back with a small grin. “I think I could get used to this, let’s call it the royal treatment.” He laughed softly at his own silly comment, joined in by most, even Twilight. Star guessed there was no use in dwelling on a mistake, and making the best of the situation was good enough. Besides, coat contact with Twilight was a boon! He looked at her, and met those amethyst eyes. They both smiled. This wasn’t as bad as they both had initially made it out to be when they for to the outskirts of Ponyville. He chuckled softly, not looking away from her.

That Is until his attention was drawn to her hushed whisper of Dawn. “Stop. Look.” His voice was hushed, following his hoof Shooting Star came almost snout to snout with the terrible visage of a Manticore. For a scant few seconds Star (and the rest of the group) forgot how to breathe.

“That… is a Manticore.” Gourmet’s words were barely a whisper, “W-what do we do?”

“Don’t move. It might continue on its way,” Twilight whispered or rather squeaked. He could feel her trembling, she was shaking like a leaf like most of the group where.

The beast didn’t move on its way. No, it started sniffing at the air and very slowly started to prowl closer to the group of ponies, its hot breath washing over the gathered ponies. There was a sharp foul scent to its breath, that came accompanied by the coppery scent of blood. It had eaten, but it was still on the hunt. Every step closer made the group take a step back. Then it raised the scorpion tail, stabbing it straight for the group. The air became thick with its breath, blanketing them as much as the oppressive aura of terror that gripped them.

The aura was shattered not a moment later as they all scattered just in time with Shooting Star shouting “MOVE!” They scattered to all sides throwing themselves out of the way, all except Shooting Star. He shoved Twilight out of the way letting himself tumble after her. He could feel the wind of the stinger brushing past his side, barely missing him as he landed on top of Twilight then rolled off of her. That was too close for comfort. He nudged Twilight’s side while shouting, “Run, now!” at the rest, they (save for Twilight and him) were all visible now, that was bad. Shooting Star and Twilight quickly ran past the Manticore, followed closely by Dawn Stars and Sigma. “Where’s Starry!?” called Dawn.

“Attack me will you!?” came the voice of Starry Night. The mare was grinning ear to ear as the winds of magic enveloped her. The very air around her started to vibrate from the extreme heat she was creating, sparks of fire crackling along the surface of her long slender horn. She wasn’t moving her lips to cast, instead her right hoof was slowly drawing small runes into the dirt as she backed away from the creature’s predatory prowl. As it pounced, her horn sparked to life. It took Shooting Star a long moment to recognise the spell, by the time he, and the others noticed it was the spell Starry had been practicing for the past month. He threw a hoof over Twilight’s eyes and shielded his own with magic. There was a loud, pained roar, a whimper, then the sounds of a large creature retreating. The heavy, thick scent of scorched fur washed over them,. “And don’t you dare mess with me!”

Opening his eyes, he witnessed the devastation she had wrought. The soil in a twelve-inch range of her was turned to glass. Twelve inches away from that it was scorched from the extreme heat. Starry was standing in the middle of it all, unscathed by her own spell, save for the small sparks of magic emanating from her horn, the tip scorched with the tell-tale signs of magical burnout. A manic grin playing on her muzzle, she relished power and she loved showing off. It had taken her every ounce of magical power but she’d managed to cast one of the most powerful spells a mortal pony could wield. “Solar Flare?” he asked, arching an eyebrow. “Wasn’t that a bit much?” Star did his best not to sound impressed, being impressed would just feed into her ego.

“Maybe? I … it was the first spell that came to me in the moment,” she said defensively, fidgeting uncomfortable in place. “It’s not like it left me much of a chance to think of what to scare it off with.” Starry brought a hoof to her horn, rubbing it slowly, “Goddess that hurts…” she muttered.

Shooting Star shook his head slightly letting out a small sigh. “Let’s go before it comes back,” he said turning away from the show off mare.

Starry smirked a little as she rushed past Shooting star stealing his place at Twilight’s side, making sure that there was no way for him to get in between them both, forcing Shooting Star to be on the outside and away from the mare he liked. Looking to her right she offered Shooting Star a flirtatious smile, she didn’t even seem to realise she had annoyed him. He ignored her, and with a bit of shame noted the worried look Twilight gave him. She was too much to deal with right now.

“Let’s hope that won’t be a repeat incident…” Twilight muttered, picking up the pace and starting towards the castle once more, this time Shooting Star could see she was being much more observant and wary of her surroundings as her pace quickened slightly.

******

By the time the group finally got to the castle it was already starting to get dark. The sun had lowered and the sky was burning a bright orange mixed with a faint purple, the light slowly yielding to the star filled darkness of the night sky. The moon was making its slow ascent casting it’s cool and comforting light upon the party.

Before the gathered ponies loomed the ominous form of the Castle of the Two Sisters. From a distance, it had looked quite normal, but now that they were closer its Gothic and haunted aesthetic wasn’t lost on them. It was shrouded in a thick unnatural darkness much like the rumours that talked about it told of. Even though the sun had not fully crested the horizon its rays seemed to be absorbed by the darkness. For a moment Shooting Star thought back to the rumour. Supposedly the castle had been cursed by Nightmare Moon before her banishment, a last act to spite her sister. An act that forced her to relocate the capital of their kingdom to Canterlot City.

Shaking his head, he smiled a little. Those were just rumours, right? There were no such thing as actual curses in magic. Those were old mares’ tales told to scare children. The idea of curses he knew mostly linked back to the ancient zebra superstition of stars being malevolent beings. He knew better now, especially with the return of Princess Luna. The stars were her creations, what she shaped to make the night sky beautiful.

“Maybe… this was not such a good idea,” Gourmet commented, looking at the castle wide eyed. There was a clear look of anxiousness written on his face. “It looks haunted,” he added with a nervous smile.

“It’s not haunted,” Twilight spoke up, confidently, “My friends and I were here during the summer sun celebration. The Darkness hails from an ancient enchantment put on the castle. At least that was what Princess Celestia told me.” She smiled gently at Gourmet and the others. “It’s why the weather over the Everfree forest is wild and untameable by pegasi.”

“It still gives me the creeps,” Shooting Star said, motioning to the castle. “Enchantment or not it looks ominous.”

“Very, though I would assume that was the point of it,” Starry commented, slowly walking towards the main gate of the castle. “Are you all coming? Or must I go ahead alone?” She smirked just a touch. “Or is it that you are all going to be cowed like most people by the enchantment?”

“Never!” Sigma piped up and leapt off Twilight’s back to join Starry in Flying up to the gate. “I’m not scared of some silly enchantment.”

Looking over to Twilight Shooting Star smiled at her. “Shall we then?” he asked kindly starting to walk with her. “How do we get to the library do you know?”

Walking besides Shooting Star Twilight nodded slowly at him. “Yes, there is a passageway that leads right to it from the main hall. It’s actually pretty easy to access,” she explained, walking a bit quicker to catch up with the others.

“H-hey wait for me!” Gourmet called after them.

The gate of the castle was a ruin. It had been a ruin for over a thousand years now, the doors were smashed and much of what survived of them was barely recognisable. What had once been a mighty sturdy gate was now a mass of rotten wood and rusted metal. The portcullis had been quite literally ripped from its stone housing, laying discarded a few feet away from the gate. A legacy of the battle that had been retold in legend.

That was not what drew the eyes of the group though. What drew their eyes more was the empty suits of armour scattered around. Rusted beyond recognition none of the suits were distinguishable from each other but they had very clearly been in a pitched battle. Yet another legacy of an age past where fellow ponies had fought and killed each other. None of the group of adventurers spoke. Words failed them to describe the startlingly macabre scene. There were no bones, no remnants of blood. But the scene itself was horrible enough to give every pony a moment of pause.

It took Gourmet catching up and lightly nudging ponies forwards for them to start moving once more. Pulled from their stunned silence and ushered onward into the castle proper.

“I…” Twilight started, gently pressing herself against Shooting Star’s side, “d-don’t remember that…” She admitted, looking more than a little startled by the scene they had just passed by. “W-we didn’t enter though the main gate… we entered through a hole in the side of the castle…”

“Shh... It’s alright now, Twilight,” Shooting Star whispered comfortingly, gently nuzzling her on the cheek.

Somewhat hesitantly taking the lead, Twilight smiled a little at the rest. “It should be this way, follow me,” she said and started walking across the entrance hall. It had once been a grand sight to behold. Opulent in the extreme even after a thousand years of decay. It was lit only by the light of the moon filtering through the overhead skylight dome. Much of the leaded glass had been shattered but some of it remained to stain some beams of pale moonlight with a multitude of rainbow colours.

The walls had once been draped with the most luxurious tapestries of various shades of midnight blue and purple and floored with the finest carpets. At least that was the impression. The tapestries were torn and the carpeting was rotten. Much of the marble floor had been shattered. Here and there lay the occasional empty suit of armour, or a long-abandoned weapon. Many of the statues of notable historical figures had been broken in one way or another.

“I can only imagine how this place would have looked in it’s prime,” Dawn said, awed by the lingering majesty of the hall. “It… might have rivalled Canterlot Castle back then.”

“It did,” Sigma said with a grin. “There are paintings in Canterlot’s historical museum. The castle in Canterlot started as the summer home of the princesses back then. This place was made to be much grander because it was the seat of power in all of Equestria,” he said.

“We might have a problem,” Twilight announced. Motioning her hoof to a passage that had been entirely blocked off by rubble. “The passageway we need has collapsed,” she said.

“What do we do now then? It’s too late to head home,” Gourmet said, looking over his withers at the main gate. “The Everfree Forest is dangerous by day, it’s even worse at night!”

“We find another way,” Shooting Star said. “There must have been more than one way to get to the library in a castle this big.” There was a series of nods from the rest.

“Alright, everypony let’s split-”

“No. We stay together,” Dawn instantly interrupted his twin sister. “We are not splitting the group,“ he said firmly. “The library is in the west wing, by the looks of it. If we head in that direction then we should be able to find it.”

“Fine…” Starry sighed.

With that they started moving as a group to head up the stairs towards the west wing of the castle. The hallway was long and startlingly devoid of doors. What it had in abundance though was ancient rusted suits of armour and more torn tapestries. At the end of the hall they could make out a rather simple oak door.

The door lead them into a spiral staircase that went down into blackness. There was no source of light to illuminate its winding steps. An inconvenience that was very quickly solved with some quick thinking from Shooting Star who illuminated his horn with s simple light spell. The staircase was simple, plain even, almost screaming servant’s entrance. And sure, enough at the bottom there was a hallway spreading to the left and right. One side was marked “servant’s quarters,” while the other was marked “Royal Library.”

The left passage took them into a simple hexagonal room. The walls were smooth stone as if it had been cut from one massive piece of granite. It would have been an unsightly room had it not been for the rather intricately woven tapestries that lined the wall. At first glance, it looked to be a dead end. Indeed, there was no door to be found anywhere not even behind the simple tapestries. In the middle of the room there was one small imperfection marking the smooth floor with the simple word ‘surrecturus’.

“Okaaaay, I think the sign lied to us,” Sigma said, rolling his eyes.

“Maybe not…” Starry said, her voice laced with the sound of disbelief, “Look.” She said this while pointing up with a hoof drawing everypony's attention to the door. The door that was a good two hundred feet above them.

“That… does not make any spatial sense,” Gourmet deadpanned. “This room is taller than the castle! ” he said while stomping a hoof on the ground.

“I… think it might be…” Twilight started, looking to Shooting Star for a moment.

“Yes, it’s an enchantment on the room. It’s very much real and not an illusion just… most of the tower is using planer magic to fit,” he said, tilting his head. “Whoever did this did it recently. I don’t think that this was the original room. Everything is too clean and smooth with no decay.”

“Are you suggesting someone set up a trap?” Dawn asked.

“Maybe?” Star replied. “It’s too much of a coincidence, at least. The initial access is collapsed and now this? I mean this clearly does not belong in the original architecture of the castle. And it took some powerful magic to even do this.”

“He has a point,” Starry said with a small sigh. “Still we need to get up there.”

Sigma grinned and flapped his wings hard, launching himself into the air. Then quite promptly slammed into the ground as he mysteriously flipped over and changed directions. “What the-”was all he could say before crashing muzzle first into the ground.

“Flying isn’t an option,” Dawn helpfully commented.

Twilight let out a deep sigh as she wandered around the room. Inspecting the word carved into the centre of the room. “Arise, or the ancient equine word for it,” she mumbled softly, looking around the room, ignoring the argument about using tapestries to climb up behind her. No, the pony who set this up wanted them to do something with the word she was sure.

Her eyes slowly moved from tapestry to tapestry. Then she paused, “Interesting.”

“What is?” Star asked, approaching Twilight.

“These tapestries. Do you notice the difference?” she asked.

Frowning slightly, he looked at them. It took him only a moment to realise the difference. “Yes. That one is enchanted, and the rest aren’t.” He smirked a little and by lighting up his horn to pull it down and closer, inspecting it. Pressing his horn to the fabric he slowly and methodically inspected the enchantment, “It’s enchanted with a levitation spell.”

“I think I solved it. Step back, dear,” Twilight said grinning from ear to ear. As Star stepped back she said in a loud and clear commanding voice “surrecturus”. Not a second later the tapestry started floating in front of her. “This is very Saddle Arabian in design,” Twilight commented.

“Alright every pony, get on,” Shooting Star said, motioning to the floating tapestry.

Twilight was the first on, taking her place at the front while the rest slowly, cautiously piled on after her. To their amazement the carpet slowly ascended to the door up high.

Upon their arrival and opening the door they were offered a rather peculiar sight. Yes, the library was just beyond the small corridor. But between them and the open door to the library stood a creature that the group could scarcely describe. It was a mixture of many races. It had the head of a pony, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird.

“Is that a… lamassu?” Twilight asked in utter disbelief.

“It… would appear so,” Sigma said, tilting his head a little. Watching the creature sitting down with a stoic look.

“Come forward, adventurers.” It coaxed them, feline tail swishing slowly, “You wish to pass into the royal library?” it asked them.

“We do,” Shooting Star admitted.

“Then you must answer these five riddles first,” it said, in a voice gentle and calm. “If you fail to answer, I will send you back from whence thy came. And thine quest will perish here.”

“Riddles? I think we can manage your riddles,” Starry Night said very confidently. “We’re all scholars here. Nothing will get in between us and the quest for knowledge.”

“Ah, but knowledge is power. And power must be protected,” it cautioned. “If you fail this, you will have no memory of this night, nor of the quest that led you here. Indeed, you will think this all a dream if you remember any detail.”

“I always wax, yet always wane; I melt, succumbéd to the flame. Lighting darkness, with fate unblest, I soon devolve to shapeless mess.”

The creature posed its first riddle with a predatory smile. Its voice a thickly accented reminder of a time long passed, when equine had been a much different language.

“A candle!” Shooting Star answered almost instantly, it hadn’t taken him long to puzzle it all together. He watched the creature smirk.

“Correct. Very good.” The stoic creature nodded his approval, “But that was just the first of my five, do not celebrate yet.” It cautioned the group, silted predatory eyes wandering each and every member.

“I welcome the day with a show of light, I stealthily came here in the night. I bathe the earthy stuff at dawn, But by the noon, alas, I'm gone.”

It said , pleased with its riddle. The creature even allowed itself a thin stoic smile.

No one dared speak up for a long moment. Everypony was deep in thought for a good few minutes when Sigma finally stepped forwards with a rather cocky smirk on his muzzle. “The answer is the dew. It’s formed during the night when an exposed surface cools by radiating its heat, as a result atmospheric moisture condenses at a higher rate than evaporation. It happens in the morning and eventually by afternoon the droplets will have evaporated.”

The creature let out a deep rumbling chuckle, reaching out a paw to gently pat Sigma on the head. “Very much correct little pegasus. Truly a little scholar” It’s tone was slowly grew warmer, more fond of the group. “Still there are two more riddles before I can allow you mortals access,” it cautioned them.

“Large as a mountain, small as a pea, endlessly swimming in a waterless sea.”

“Asteroids, the answer is asteroids,” Starry Night said, flashing the creature a smirk. “The waterless sea is space.” She nodded slowly, glancing over at Twilight who had her mouth open to give the answer. It pleased her that she had managed to cut the mare off.

Clapping it’s paws the creature nodded in turn. “Very good. I must admit that it is refreshing to have visitors who are up to the challenge!”

“Alright then let’s see how you all handle a little bit of math. Thirty-four, twenty-one, thirteen, eight, five. What number is next in this sequence?”

It flashed a wicked grin, “Think carefully. One mistake dooms your quest,” it reminded them with a low rumbling purr.

Every pony stared at each other in confusion. Everypony but Twilight Sparkle who rather confidently stepped forwards without deliberating with the rest. “It’s a reversed Fibonacci sequence. So, the next number is three,” she announced confidently.

“Is that your final answer?” it asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Yes.” Twilight stated firmly, not letting her confidence waver in the face of being questioned.

“Then you are indeed correct,” it announced with a low rumbling chuckle. “Alright, here is the final riddle.” The creature looked very appeased by the party’s ability to answer its riddles.

It paused a moment, considering its options. Then the creature spoke once more.

“With potent, flowery words speak I, of something common, vulgar, dry; I weave webs of pedantic prose, in effort to befuddle those, who think I while time away, in lofty things, above all day the common kind that linger where Monadic beings live and fare; Practical I may not be, but life, it seems, is full of me!”

Its eyes were alight with a burning with passion.

“That is your final riddle?” Dawn asked with a somewhat disappointed smile. “The answer is Riddler,” he said.

“No, the answer is riddle!” Gourmet chimed in. “Life is full of mysteries and riddles,” he said, wisely.

Chuckling softly the creature watched both ponies, “Actually, you are both correct, both answers are right.” It slowly stepped aside offering the group passage, “You may enter, mortals. Thank you for entertaining an old spirit, and helping him serve out the ancient duty binding him to this place.” Slowly it bowed to them, one paw across its chest. Then slowly it’s ethereal body started to phase out, vanishing from sight with an uproarious laugh, a laugh of true joy.

“Wait… was he… a ghost!?” Gourmet asked, shocked.

Twilight nodded slowly, “It… seems so. I think, we just helped him pass on…”

******

“Finally,” Starry Night said, taking the first step into the library, shoving her way past the others in the group. “That was a lot more effort than it should have been. And look we’re alone.” She motioned a hoof at the deserted library, the room was indeed empty. Save for the cases of well (mostly) preserved looking tomes. The thing that was off about the room was the fact that it was not only lit up by an entirely shattered skylight dome, but also with magical cold flame torches. The room also looked immaculately cleaned and lacked such things as shards of glass.

“Then who lit the torches, and cleaned up the glass? Lawn-midget ponies?” Sigma asked sarcastically.

Shaking his head Shooting Star slowly moved further into the room, looking around and up. Seeing that the library had three more floors above them. “This is smaller than the Canterlot library,” he commented, only having been to the Canterlot Royal Library once.

“It is, this was actually the private library for the princesses.” Twilight said with a low giggle, already at one of the bookcases browsing through the collection of tomes. “Actually quite a few of these have copies in the Canterlot library,” she explained with a smile over her withers.

“Still surprising they made the Canterlot one bigger.”

“You shouldn’t be,” Dawn piped up without even looking up from the tome he had pilfered from one of the cases. “Canterlot was always the city with the biggest university, even back then. Starswirl the bearded was a young stallion when it was founded.”

“And he was one of the five ponies who founded the Canterlot university, with royal support,” Starry commented and sighed a little. “They really drive that point home when you study there,” she commented while slowly trotting past a far bookcase. “Some of these books however are from before the purge… like this one.” She said pulling out a book entitled ‘Walking the Dreamscape - By Princess Luna’.

“Purge?” Gourmet asked, having managed to find a book about cooking. “What purge?”

“After Luna’s banishments ponies purged every reference to her in a positive light, which included ponies who were seen as on her side by the virtue of being in professions that were seen as aligned with the night. It was led by the Sol Invictus Church who… well their name already suggests their bias,” Twilight said with a sad sigh. “Many of the ponies who were branded ‘lunatics’ were driven into hiding, or arrested. By the time Celestia and the guard could get things under control…” she shook her head trailing off there. “There is a reason that most of Luna and her legacy has passed into myth. It’s also not a subject taught in history classes… the only reason I know is because of Princess Celestia’s personal archive.”

“But… how could it have gotten so far?” Sigma asked. “It makes me happy that the Church has fallen into obscurity…”

“You know, I asked the very same question back when I first read about it,” Twilight said with a gentle smile. “Celestia and the guards had to clean up the remnants of Nightmare Moon’s army. Most of the bat ponies who were not routed or did not surrender were still putting up a fight. Word of the situation in Canterlot did not reach it until a week after.”

“That is… horrible,” Gourmet said.

“It is… It also was the start of an age where the church had a lot of political sway. Celestia… I shouldn’t continue,” Twilight said with a deep sigh.

“Why?”

“Because the princess wouldn’t want me to talk about her personal life,” Twilight said with a pained smile. Pulling one of the books from the top shelf to look through it. “She told me those things in confidence. I shou-” she froze at the loud click that echoed through the room. Blinking slowly as the bookcase slowly started to slowly swing open away from the group, revealing before the assembled ponies a dark room. A dark room with in the centre a pedestal with on it a single book.

“What is this a Daring Do novel!?” Starry Night exclaimed. “Hidden rooms triggered by pulling out a book? Whoever built that was cliché as all hell.”

Slowly Twilight started walking towards the book on the pedestal. “I found it…” she said, amazed by the fact that the rumour was not just a rumour. “The book actually exists! I must study it!” Twilight exclaimed but before she could sprint to the book her ears perked attention drawn by a low rumbling chuckle.

“My, my, you are such a knowledgeable and lucky little whelp, Twilight Sparkle,” a voice suddenly called out from the shadows. Slowly the sound of claws scraping across the stone floor became louder. From the shadowy corner of the hidden room prowled a powerful looking mare who stood as tall as Princess Celestia. Her head was raised proudly while a pair of silver orbs scanned across the group. The creature wasn’t a pony, though she was covered in platinum coloured fur. She had four clawed feat,, a reptile like tail and her teeth were sharp fangs. Her leathery wings were spread wide, and they were big the membrane reaching and connecting with her tail, shielding the book from view.
“W-what are you!?” Sigma demanded.

“And how do you know Twilight!?” Shooting Star jumped in, defensively.

“My dear, have you never seen a dragon before? Of course, you haven’t. Not a real dragon at any rate, but maybe a drake,” she mused with a smile. “Normally I would prefer to keep my pony form. But, this is the Everfree Forest, so I prefer my war from. Which as you can see is a mixture of both. Does that sate your curiosity, or should I go more in depth, little colt?” Her grin was broad, she was amused, playful even. “And before you ask the obvious next question I am Silver. That is the only name you will get, it is the only name ponies can pronounce. And what I want, well I already have it,” she said as she swiped the tome from its pedestal. “As for how I know Twilight Sparkle… I keep a close eye on ponies Celestia calls her personal students.

“T-that’s property of the princesses!” Shooting Star objected.

“Indeed it is, and it is here for ignorant mortals to find. You can tell them that it is in safe claws, in my library,” a low purr escaping her as she spoke.

“But it should be studied!” Twilight objected, pointing a hoof at the book. “It could have countless of uses!”

The dragons looked at her, her eyes sad, “Maybe. Maybe not. Do you know what this magic is, Twilight Sparkle?”

“A spell that could let a pony "survive" by consuming emotions.” Twilight said without hesitation.

“Correct. Do you know what that does to the pony who the emotions belong to, Twilight Sparkle?” the dragon asked, staring at her intently. Watching her slowly shake her head. “As I thought. It drains them. It leaves an empty broken thing of a pony. By the end there is nothing left. They are emotionally dead.” Watching the looks of horror appearing on every pony’s face the dragoness sighed, slipping a claw into her bags, rolling an orb over to the group. “Go home, there is nothing here for you. This is magic based off changelings. It is vile and none should have access to it.”

“Was it you? Who set the puzzle, the lamassu?” Dawn asked.”

“The room, yes. The guardian? No. You did good setting his soul free. But it is dangerous here. Take the orb, release its magic. It will teleport you all back to Ponyville.” Silver scratched her claw into the floor, drawing an arcane rune on it. “Be well, Twilight Sparkle. We will most definitely meet again.”

“Wait!” Twilight cried out but it was too late. In a flash of silver magic the dragon was gone, leaving them in the empty room. “I… wanted to know more.”

Placing his hoof on her back, Shooting Star took the orb and smiled at her, “If what she says is true… I think you will get that chance. Let’s head home.”

Author's Note

This story was commissioned by Shooting Star1234.

I hope you all enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed writing it, quite honestly this is my first brush with a romance adventure (with some Slice of life) kind of story. If you have and feed back or even critisism then please feel free to leave a comment below.

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Big thanks to my editing team for giivng this a well needed pass:
Javarod, Sixkiller5

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