Where's My Book!

by TheCrazyAsian

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Romance, Shining Armor, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 6099

Twilight goes to Canterlot after Celestia's lies about the discovery of a new book.

Twilight feels it's her duty to help her mentor on any tasks, especially ones that involve books. What she doesn't know is the Princess Celestia has called her to Canterlot for a much more romantic reason. How will Twilight react to the sudden revelation of her mentor's love, and how she manipulated and tricked her. But most importantly, how will she deal with not having a new book? More comedic in the beginning, more serious at the end.

A sequel to Everypony Has Secrets. You could probably not read it and still make sense of the story. Though I would suggest reading the story before reading this one if you want to understand the premise of this story.

Special thanks to prereaders: That_One_Brony and TeXXy

Also thank to: My friend Nolan who has helped me with some small details in various stories and for listening to me complain about everything.

Published 2012-08-21 21:34:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-26 22:04:14 UTC

Hug?

Where's My Book!

Chapter One: Hug?

By: TheCrazyAsian A.K.A Feasttalon

Twilight opened a cabinet and used her magic to gently uncurl the piece of parchment she just received from the Princess. Inside that cabinet were various folders that she used to store letters from the Princess and copies of letters she had sent to the Princess, they were all organized alphabetically. She looked up at the shelf labeled B and absent-mindedly pulled out a folders labeled Boots instead of the one next to it labeled Books. Then she shoved the piece of paper into the folder and put the folder on the shelf two shelves below B, labeled D. The purple mare didn't seem to notice any of this, as her mind was consumed with thoughts of what could be inside the book.

Maybe it held some sort of spell that could get rid of Discord forever. Or maybe it could tell her about how Discord got his powers, and possibly even a way to harness his powers to help all of Equestria. Then again the book could be a fake, some elaborate prank that somepony decided to pull on the princess. But Twilight shoved the last thought out of her mind, too overcome with excitement to bother worrying about it being a dud.

After misplacing the letter from the Princess, Twilight started humming a pleasant tune and went over to her closet and pulled out a suitcase, it was purple and had her cutie mark on the front of it, and proceeded started filling it with general travel items. She got various items from her closet, dresser, bathroom and storage closet.

The case was soon half full with clothes, saddlebags, extra horseshoes, and various sundries. She also decided to bring along her scientific equipment to test whether the book was real or fraudulent. She went over to he lab table picked up a microscope and tubes of various multicolored chemicals, all of which were to be used to test the paper of the book. In her closet she got a pair of goggles, rubber gloves, a white jacket, and of course some books about determining the authenticity of books.

She put this all into the purple piece of luggage and tried to close it to no avail. Twilight then put her front hooves on top of the suitcase and pushed down on it, still no effect. "Maybe I should jump on it," she thought to herself, she climbed on top of the suitcase and started to jump up and down, cracking open several tubes of chemicals while doing so. "Come on you stupid piece of luggage work!" she screamed while continuing to jump on top of it, breaking her microscope. Finally she stopped and got off of it and decided to get her slightly larger suitcase.

She opened the door to her closet and rummaged through it for a few seconds before finding what she was looking for, and dragged the case out of the closet and next to the original one. Using her magic, she calmly opened the top of both suitcases, she immediately stopped humming and jumped back at what she saw what was in the smaller one.

Twilight could see the chemicals pouring out of the broken test tubes and mixing together and right below the mixture were all the books about books that Twilight had decided to bring with her. "Hayseed! My books!" she shouted as she dived to rescue them. She pulled the books out of the suitcase and threw them onto the floor; she almost had a mental breakdown at the sight of the destroyed books.

Twilight let out a scream in frustration and proceeded to pick up all of the items in the suitcase and throw them all across the room with her magic. The books, or what was left of them, ended up in the trash, the lab equipment smashing into the door, her clothes on the lab table, and everything else scattered through the room. The chemicals had formed ball, with a color that was similar to a blue, but with a hint of purple. It flew through the air with a magnificent shimmer. When they landed Twilight let out another shriek, "Nooooooo!" To Twilight's horror the mixture had landed on the folders within her filling cabinet. She immediately ran across the room, jumping over her bed, and sliding to the files, but by the time she got there it was too late, the A-H sections had been destroyed, as had parts of the I, J, and K sections. Twilight quickly grabbed all the remaining folders and threw them in a pile on her bed.

Seeing as the mixture ate through any paper it touched Twilight decided that it had no place in a library and had to be disposed of. She decided the best course of action would be to dump it down the "Special" drain. The mixture acquired a purple glow as it flew up into the air and became the form of a ball about the size of a cantaloupe. The mixture followed Twilight to her lab area and towards one of the lab tables, which had a small indentation in it. When the concoction floated above this indentation the glow stopped and it fell into the "Special" drain. Out of sight, out of mind.

Twilight scratched her head, frazzling some of her hair, and said to herself "It's alright it's not like I would really need any of that stuff. I just need to let Spike know I'm going to Canterlot." She turned around and went out the door and ran around the house looking for her assistant. She started with the room across the hall, where she could normally find him sorting through piles of books, but when she got there the room was empty. She tried his bed, the kitchen and the library, but there was no sign of Spike.

Twilight trotted back up the stairs and down the hallway, having decided to go back to her room and wait for her assistant to return. As she neared her room she could see a piece of parchment taped to the door. The note glowed purple as it was ripped off the wall and floated over to Twilight. On it, in barely legible handwriting was "Twilight, off to market to get more ice cream and for baking lesson with Pinkie, will be back in two hours."

Twilight opened the door, put the note on her desk, and began to write her own message on the back. When she was done she ripped a piece of tape and brought both the tape and the note with her as she trotted back down the hall. After walking out of her house she closed the door and taped the new note on the front door of the library. Written on it, in very careful handwriting was, "Spike, off to Canterlot to help the Princess. Take care of library for a few days, I will be back soon. Don't eat all the ice cream."

With that worked out Twilight trotted downtown, saying "Hi" to most of the ponies she saw, when she reached the station she saw the 3:00 o'clock train to Canterlot pulling in. She approached the mare at the ticket booth and said, "I would like one ticket for the train to Canterlot."

The mare in the window replied, "That'll be fifteen bits." Twilight reached for her saddlebag when she realized she didn't bring any money with her.

"Oh, it seems I left my money at home," Twilight explained with a nervous laugh. The ticket mare seemed impatient and there were several ponies behind Twilight waiting to buy tickets. The purple mare sheepishly turned around and galloped back to her tree house. Not bothering to consider the repercussions, she slammed opened the door with a loud thud and a torrent of books fell from the shelves. "Celestia damn it!" she exclaimed. Nothing was going her way today. But it didn't matter she had to get to Canterlot to see that book.

Without bothering to re-stack the books as she normally would Twilight ran into her room and searched for her saddlebags. She ran around in circles looking at various things until she found her saddlebags, they were on top of her nightstand. She opened them and used her magic to lift them upside down and shake the contents out. About fifty bits tumbled out, along with three books, a magazine, and an unlit candle.

With her newly found money Twilight summoned a bright light from her horn and disappeared from her room. The ticket mare was slouching in her seat, reading a magazine when she saw a bright light to her left. She leaned forwards and looked towards the light, and all of a sudden the same purple mare that was there before appeared before her eyes. Twilight ran up to the counter and frantically said "One ticket to Canterlot."

The ticket mare looked at Twilight then the money and said, "That was the last train to Canterlot, today's Elements of Harmony Day so we're running on our weekend and holidays schedule." Twilight just stared in anger at the ticket pony for a few seconds before turning around and storming off. She ended up sitting outside of the train station. She squirmed uncomfortably as she contemplated her failure at getting to Canterlot. What was she going to do? What would the Princess do? Then a thought popped into her head, "Why don't I just teleport to Canterlot?" It made perfect sense to her, if she couldn't take a train there she might as well teleport.

Twilight stood up and her face contorted as she concentrated all of her energy into this one spell, her horn began to glow and sparks began to fly in all directions. Teleportation spells generally become more difficult, and therefore more dangerous, as the distance increases between where you are and where your destination is. They also used up more energy the longer the distance is.

For example, if you were to mess up a teleportation spell that teleported you five feet you might get slightly bruised. If you messed one up that teleported you five miles you might end up killing yourself and everypony else within a five meter radius. So as Twilight continued the spell the train station began to glow up like a laser light show.

Everypony within a few blocks dropped whatever they were doing and stared in utter shock and awe at what Twilight was doing. They hadn't seen her do a spell of this magnitude since the whole Ursa Minor incident. Bright sparks began to shoot out of the base of her horn and it looked liked her spell was faltering. There were the sounds of rapid hoof beats as everypony ran away, afraid of what was about to happen. Then there was a bright flash and nopony knew what happened, either Twilight had succeeded in her teleportation or she had blown herself to smithereens.

Bells tolled four times in the background as Shining Armor went about his daily work checking on the various guard ponies around Canterlot Castle. Suddenly a grey stallion appeared out of nowhere panting and in a frantic voice told the him, "Sir, there's something you have to see. It's at the front entrance, there's some sort of teleportation spell, and a damn powerful one at that. We think that the demons of Tartarus are trying to break through." Shining Armor nodded and began to gallop to the front entrance of the castle, stopping along the way to hit a large button that unleashed bright red flashing lights and a deafening warning sound.

As Shining neared the front of the castle small purple lightning bolts began to pour from a floating purple entity. He ordered the all the guards with him to form a protective square with their shields up to defend themselves, fearing that there would soon be Celestia knows what pouring out of the portal. As the object began to flash Shining dived behind the wall of shields, at first there was nothing. After a few seconds there was a loud boom and the sound of something shooting out of the portal at supersonic speeds.

He dared to only take a peek at what was happening, and what he saw wasn't a terrifying monster or demon from the underworld. It was his sister. "Twily!" he shouted as he jumped up, "Stand down, I repeat stand down!" Twilight on the other hand didn't take notice of any of this due to the ringing in her ears, an expected side effect of a teleportation spell of that magnitude. She just continued on her absent-minded walk, oblivious to everything happening around her.

Shining Armor ran towards his sister intent on glomping her, but as he jumped up to tackle her she jumped back as if her brother was a mugger trying to rob her. She looked down to see Shining lying on the ground face first, she let out a small chuckle and said, "You sure are uncoordinated for a Royal Guard." He was then surrounded with a purple glow as he was helped up and dusted off.

"Very funny. Just try not to make everypony think there's an attack on the castle every time you visit."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"So why are you here?" Shining asked.

"That's confidential," Twilight said as she continued through the courtyard, and towards the castle.

"Come on, I'm the captain of the Royal Guards, I'm pretty sure you can trust me."

"I don't know..."

"Please Twily," Shining Armor said when he stopped at the entrance of the castle.

"Uhh. Fine," Twilight said as she motioned for her brother to lower his head. She put her mouth next to her brother's ear and used her hoof to cover her mouth, "There's a new book I need to help the Princess with," she whispered.

"So she's got you on librarian duty. So, do you have any free time?"

"I don't think so, she told me to get there A.S.A.P."

"So, not enough time for your B.B.B.F.F.?"

"Sorry, but no. The princess needs my help."

"At least give me a hug, come on"

"Don't you have a job to do? You know 'Captain of the Royal Guards', and all."

"Please Twi? One hug? Please?" Shining Armor begged.

"Fine," Twilight replied, as she wrapped her hooves around her brother. After a few seconds of silence Twilight pulled back and relinquished her grasp. "I'll come visit later, but I have to help the Princess now. Alright?" she said.

"Okay Twily, good luck with your assignment," he replied. Shining Armor put one of his hooves in Twilight's mane and gave her a playful noogie. After he finished he turned around and walked towards the group of guards he was with earlier.

Twilight made a mental note to remember to visit her brother the next time she was in Canterlot and continued on into the castle. All she had to do was to follow the red carpeting on the ground until she reached the big double doors. Behind those doors would be the infinite cosmos, the Holy Grail, the new book she so desperately wanted to read. No way to mess this up.

Right?

End Chapter One. Don't worry there will be more chapters.

Anypony There?

Where's My Book!

Chapter Two: Anypony There?

By: TheCrazyAsian A.K.A. Feasttalon

Please don't call this a troll fic, I meant it to be an over the top kind of Romantic Comedy. When you call it a troll fic I cry a little, on the inside.

Twilight continued down the grand hallway in Canterlot Castle, looking at the various stained glass windows and statues decorating her surroundings. She reached a large pair of double doors and took a moment to compose herself, she straightened her mane, made sure her hooves were clean, and thought to herself, "You're just going to see Princess Celestia everything's fine." After a few moments the doors became covered in a purple glow and swung open as Twilight stepped forwards into the throne room. She looked towards the far end of the room where she expected her mentor to be, but in her place was an empty chair.

"Hello, Princess Celestia?" Twilight shouted. She looked around the room and saw that not only was Princess Celestia gone but so were all the Royal Guards, the only living thing left in the room was Philomena, who was once again going through the sick part of the cycle.

Twilight began to get worried, "Hello anypony there?" she shouted, again no response other than a few coughs from Philomena.

Where is everypony?

A Few Minutes Earlier

"Luna are you sure this was the right thing to do? What if she ends up hating me?" Princess Celestia asked. The sun was high in the sky as she sat on the throne next to Luna who was sitting on a stool. The room was empty except for the two of them and Celestia's pet, the contingent of guards usually in the room was in the mess hall getting lunch.

"Asking me again isn't going to make me give you a different answer," Luna replied, with a slight hint of annoyance in her voice, " I don't know. You just need to do what you think is right." She loved her sister but sometime Celestia was just worried too much.

"You're right, but how do I tell her? Do I just say 'Sorry but your book is in another castle and I love you'? Doesn't that seem a bit, you know, sudden?" Celestia asked. Luna got up from her seat on the stool and walked in front of her sister to reply.

"Maybe you should be more, I don't know, gentle. Don't just say that you love her, say that you're sorry that you tricked her but you have something important to tell her. After that tell her about why you like her so much and then tell her that you love her," Luna explained. Celestia tried to remember every detail of what Luna just said.

"Okay so how's this, 'Twilight I know you came here for the book that I promised you, but there is no book. I feel really bad about tricking you but I had to get you here to tell you something really important, and I knew that telling you there was a book would be the fastest way'," Celestia asked.

Luna mulled it over for a few seconds and replied, "Good, good. Now keep going."

"Okay, ummmmm. 'As you know as your mentor I have had the chance to be really close to you, and to get to know you very well, and I feel a very strong attachment to you'," Celestia continued.

"Yeah, the problem with that was that you're being a little too technical at the end, how about 'I feel that we are very close friends' or something like that," Luna commented.

"Got that. So for the end 'So as you know I really like you, and recently I have thought about our relationship. I don't want to force you into anything, but I just wanted to let you know I lo-'. You get the picture already, I don't have to say the whole thing do I?" Celestia said.

"Of course not. Anyway I think I'll be going back to my room I'm-" Luna tried to reply before being interrupted by the loud blaring sound and flashing lights of the emergency alarm. "Sister what's going on? When did you have a laser lights show and dubstep installed in the castle?" Luna asked.

Celestia sighed and said, "It's not a laser lights show, the closest thing we have to that are the fireworks shows the Royal Guards do on Fridays. This is the emergency alarm, which is for some reason, is going off when there is obviously no emergency."

"Do you know why it's going off?" Luna asked.

Celestia responded, "How should I know? The next drill isn't for a few more weeks so I have no idea. Maybe Shining Armor sat on it while he was making out with Cadence. It's not like it'd be the first time that's happened."

After a few seconds of awkward silence and pondering the double doors at the far end of the room slammed open. At the end of the hall were about fifteen ponies, formed into two rows with one leading the columns at the front. They were all wearing the special body armor designating them as members of the Praetorian Guard. They were running across the room to the princesses who just sat there unaware of what was happening.

After marching across the room the group stopped in front of the throne as Luna and Celestia waited to be informed of what was happening. The pony at the front of the group saluted Celestia, took a few seconds to compose himself, and told her, "No time to explain the specifics but we think demons from Tartarus are trying to attack the castle, we're implementing emergency procedure #27."

A smirk formed on Luna's face, "No emergency you said. Everything's fine you said," Luna mocked. She looked at her sister with a look of "Nice going idiot".

"You can brag later, right now we have an emergency on our hooves. Come on Lulu it's time for #27," Celestia said.

"Wait, what's #27, and what's going on. Am I the only pony that's completely oblivious?" Luna responded.

"We don't have time for this Luna, we have to get going," Celestia told Luna. Before she could respond with another round of pointless questions Celestia had already grabbed Luna by the hoof and was dragging her along the ground with her. Every now and again Luna would let out small sounds along the lines of "oof" or "ow" or "Let go of me". When they reached the back wall of the room Celestia's horn came alive as she cast a spell on the wall, revealing a door that swung open to reveal a dark concrete passageway.

"Lulu, on your hooves," Celestia taunted.

"Well that would have been easier if you hadn't dragged me across the room," Luna said indignity.

"I haven't seen you get this upset since you were a little foal," Celestia responded.

Luna just blushed and remained silent as she got back up. After getting up she ran forwards to catch up with Celestia and began trotting next to her sister down the hallway. Behind them was the column of guards making sure that nopony followed them into the passage. The passageway led to a large steel door, it looked like something you would see in a bank vault or a military compound. The group walked into the room behind the doors, it was mostly barren, with only a small table and two chairs.

"Sister, what is this place?" Luna asked.

"Well Lulu this is the Emergency Situation Evacuation Bunker or E.S.E.B. I had it installed after an incident twenty years ago that involved some rogues that you don't want to know about," Celestia explained.

"Okay, so how long are we going to be here?" Luna asked.

"I wouldn't know that, whenever the demons stop attacking I guess," her sister replied.

"Yeah I guess so. Also, why didn't you tell me about this bunker?" Luna questioned.

"Well I told the captain of the night watch to tell you, so I assume he forgot.," Celestia told her.

"So are we just going to stand here all day or what?" Luna asked.

"Yes, we're going to stand here all day," Celestia responded. "

"Well that doesn't sound very comfortable, you should have gotten a couch or something," Luna said.

"Uhhh. Parthicus, could you show my sister to her room," Celestia commanded.

The pony who had been at the head of the column of guards, and for all intents and purposes seemed to be in charge of the group stepped up. He was a grey stallion wearing the standard Praetorian Guards armor with small dents in various parts of it, assumed to be from combat. He saluted Princess Celestia and said, "Yes princess." Then he walked up to Luna, saluted and said, "Your room is right this way princess, I will lead you to it if you would follow me."

As he started walking down the hallway leading to the barracks there was some chatter over the intercom, it was Twilight's brother, and he sounded rather happy. He said, "Don't worry it turned out to be a false alarm, there are no demons coming out of the portal. I repeat, it was a false alarm there are no demons." There was silence in the bunker; everypony took in what had just been said and they all let out a collective sigh of relief.

The head guard cleared his throat and said, "Well that's good news. I'd be more than happy to escort you two back to the throne room."

"Actually I will be going back to my room in the tower," Luna added.

"Of course, let's see. You seven will be escorting Princess Luna back to her room. Am I understood?" he said as he pointed to one of the columns of guards.

The seven let out a collective, "Sir, yes sir."

The two princesses headed out of the door and down the hallway, with the contingent of guards behind them. Luna waited for her and her sister to get a large enough lead on the guards before asking, "So what was that incident that happened twenty years ago?"

"Oh nothing, it was just a small incident, nothing worth talking about," Celestia replied.

"So a small incident made you install a bunker and a hidden door, that makes perfect sense."

"Yes. Yes it does."

"You know I was being sarcastic, tell me what happened."

"We're here," Celestia said, ignoring Luna's request. Her horn started to shine as she cast the spell once again and opened the secret door.

Twilight stared at part of the wall as it started to glow, it wasn't the whole wall but a portion of the wall. It looked at if someone was drawing a rectangle on the wall. After a few seconds it stopped glowing and swung open, behind it was Celestia and her sister. "So that's where she was" Twilight thought to herself. But then she heard a voice it wasn't Celestia or Luna, it was a more gruff voice.

It was a voice more indicative of a stallion and he was shouting something, all Twilight could make out was, "Out. Changeling. Attack. Demons." What could that mean? After pondering it for a few seconds Twilight saw something emerging from the passageway behind the door. It was a a grayish colored stallion who was, for some reason, running as fast as he could out of the area behind the hidden door.

I wonder what his problem is?

End Chapter Two

Changeling?

Where's My Book

Chapter Three: Changeling?

By: TheCrazyAsian A.K.A. Feasttalon

As Princess Celestia cast her spell upon what seemed like a blank wall at the end of the hallway the guards behind her stood at attention, ready for anything. The yellow magic formed into the same rectangle as before and the black wall formed into a door. After a few seconds the glow stopped and the door swung open.

The throne room looked the same as before expect for one little detail, in the center of the room there was a familiar looking purple mare. Parthicus, who up until now had been standing still, rushed forward in front of the Princesses the princesses. He put hi hooves in the door way blocking the path to the throne room and shouted to the everpony, "Look out, there's a changeling. It's probably part of the demon attack! Grab your spears and swords and attack!" He grabbed his sword, which up until now had been resting at his side, and his shield, which had been on his back.

The princesses just stood there in confusion about what the head of the Praetorian Guards was doing. His shield and sword both had an eerie grayish glow surrounding it as he levitated them in front of him. Without warning he charged past the princesses and out of the hallway. His sword was aimed straight ahead at the purple mare standing in the middle of the room.

The rest of his cohort prepared to attack; though they did it rather slowly when compared to what was expected of the a Praetorian Guard. "What exactly are you doing?" Luna asked.

A rather large stallion who was at the head of the column stepped forwards and told the princess, "We are just obeying the order of Captain Parthicus."

Before Luna could say anything else the column of troops began to march out of the tunnel, two abreast. It wasn't until the first two reached Luna that she realized that they were marching with their swords and shields at the ready. Thoughts began rushing through her head; trying to decide what she should do. Out of no where Luna shouted, "BE STILL!" in the Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice. With her scream came the crackling of magical thunder and the flashes of magical lightning, conjured up by the princess.

All the guards froze in their place not knowing what to do. They were supposed to follow their commander's orders but Princess Luna had scared them, grown stallions of the Praetorian Guard, to the point where a few of them were afraid they were going to urinate on the floor. Celestia, who had craned her head back to see what her sister was yelling about, began to think about including Luna's Royal Canterlot Voice in the training course for the guards.

Luna cleared her throat and resumed her orders to the guards in a much more reasonable tone, "As I was saying, just because your CO tells you to do something that you think isn't right doesn't mean that you have to. You have a right to question his orders based on your sense of morality. My sister and I will be sure to bring that up during tomorrow's briefing. I apologize for using the thunder and lightning."

Parthicus looked back to see how many of his comrades had followed him in defiance of the princess's orders, he saw none. "Cowards," he thought to himself, "They don't have the guts to do what's right." His heart was now pounding in his chest, no matter how many times he went into combat this never got any easier; doing it alone didn't make it any easier either. He could see the purple pony's head turning to look at him. No, it wasn't a pony, it was a changeling. A creepy, evil, despicable creature who feeds on the emotions of the good ponies of Equestria.

He would not back down, he was going to do his part in bringing victory, victory and glory for Equestria! He was about to stab the foul beast when he was lifted into the air. He could see a purple aura around him as he was levitated into the air by the magic of the monster. He wriggled while in the air trying to overpower the purple magic. "Wait, why is this magic purple? Isn't changeling magic green?" he thought to himself, but his conviction that the pony was a changeling overpowered his doubt.

"Release me foul beast. Face me like a stallion!" Parthicus screamed.

"What are you talking about? You come charging at me, out of nowhere, with a sword pointed at me and you expect me to fight fair? I, for one, didn't even know we were fighting. If you want to fight fair at least announce your name before starting a duel," Twilight rebutted. For somepony who almost got killed she was acting rather irately rather than angry or frightened. She said it almost as if she was an angry neighbor complaining about loud music.

"Twilight are you alright!?" Princess Celestia shouted as she ran out of the secret passage. She carried a look of intense concern on her face as thoughts of what could have happened. Twilight could be stabbed, or even worse, Twilight could be dead, and it would be her fault. She had asked Twilight to come to Canterlot and if she had gotten killed it would have been her fault!

When she saw Twilight standing up and using magic she was relieved; though she couldn't find any trace of Parthicus, it was as if he had disappeared into thin air. After a few seconds she looked up and saw Parthicus struggling against a purple field of magic as he was levitating in the air. The princess couldn't help but let out a small chuckle, the captain of the Praetorian Guard, who had spent years in training and combat, was overpowered by a teenage mare. The whole situation seemed so silly.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight shouted in joy as she spotted her mentor. The purple magic field around Parthicus disappeared as Twilight ran toward Celestia. He dropped head first onto the ground and stayed there, presumably knocked out from the drop to the floor.

The princess opened her hooves and brought her student into a hug. The feeling of her student wrapped in her hooves helped calmed her down and stirred something in her, something she hadn't felt for a long time. Though to Twilight this hug was strictly platonic, a hug shared between two friends.

Twilight pulled back and broke the hug, the princess kept her hooves wrapped around her student as long as she could. When the hug ended she was left with a slight hollow feeling inside of her chest. "So, where's the book?" Twilight asked.

Princess Celestia was rather surprised by her student's rather sudden question. She knew that Twilight liked books but she had just been attacked by a member of the Praetorian Guard. Wasn't she at least a little concerned about what had just happened? "Twilight, aren't you at least a bit concerned about the guard that just attacked you?" the princess asked.

"No, not really. I assume he thought I was some sort of demon from Tartarus, that's why he called me "Foul beast and tried to kill me. I mean that's why he did it right? It wasn't some sort of attempt at a coup d'état was it?" Twilight responded.

"Wow, she was able to piece that together from a two words?" Celestia thought. "Yes, that was what happened. Anyway would you like to request any special punishment for him? After all he just attacked you," Celestia asked.

"No, that's quite alright. He was just doing his job based on the information given to him. He did a good job, he faces the enemy without fear. Unlike the rest of them who I assume were scared by your sister," Twilight told Celestia.

"So it's almost tea time, would you like to join me for afternoon tea?" Celestia asked.

"Sure, but where's the book?" Twilight said.

"The book's fine, I let you read it after tea. I wanted to catch up with you, spend some time together," Celestia responded.

"Sure then," Twilight replied.

"Alright let's go then," Celestia said. The pair turned towards the pair of double doors leading out of the throne room.

"Uhh, princess. Shouldn't we help Parthicus, he looks like he's knocked out," Twilight said.

"Don't worry the rest of his squad will help him; I'm leaving Luna in charge and I'm sure she'll let them help," Celestia replied. Celestia turned back and saw her sister standing outside of the hallway with the rest of the Praetorian Guard behind her staring at their unconscious commander. Celestia gave an almost imperceptible nod of the head to her sister; Luna then gave a hoof signal to the guards who began marching forwards towards Parthicus.

"Princess?"

"Yes Twilight?"

"Can my brother join us? I promised I'd spend some time with him while I was in Canterlot. If you don't want to he doesn't have to be there. I can just spend-"

"Twilight, it's fine. He can join us for tea. It'd be best if he were to know about the book too," Celestia told her. In her head she was thinking, "Great! Just great! Now I'm going to tell her and Shining Armor at the same time. I'll work it out, calm down. I'll just wait until he leaves; or I could arrange for Luna to call him away."

End Chapter Three