Simply Existing

Chapters

Chapter One:
Chapter Two:
Chapter Three:
Chapter Four:

Chapter One:

Chapter One:

The Royal Canterlot Library Head Librarian, a unicorn known as Bini Filters, hated Mondays. She didn't know what was worse, Mondays or weddings that interrupted her whole daily schedule so that two lovebirds she didn't even know, nor particularly care about could get hitched. One of the lucky married couple to be, didn't even seem that nice if she was being perfectly honest with herself. The Alicorn, who came out of nowhere a few years ago and simply existed in the Canterlot, wasn't very pleasant to be around these days.

Not that her option mattered in such topics. She did have a high-level job as Librarian for the Canterlot Castle's Library and Archive. But that didn't exactly give her much clout, especially since she sort of stumbled into the job one day after she got rejected for the position of Librarian for Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Which she certainly wasn't bitter about. Not one bit.

Bini jolted in alarm as she realized she slammed her cup full of Hot Chocolate far too hard onto the Library's main desk, a circular desk that surrounded a large hourglass that ticked down the seconds of the day using sand from Saddle Arabia. She flinched as some of her drink spilled onto her hoof, burning slightly. She used her blue magic to quickly fix the issue and privately considered that yea, ok, maybe she was a little bitter. Especially since the position was handed down to her arch Enemy.

She mumbled curses to herself as she adjusted her small glasses and scarf to be more presentable despite the fact she was sitting in a massive library without a soul in sight. Not that she had a problem with that exactly, she didn't really feel like listening to some Nobel come in, explaining why she or he was better than herself due to their positions in life. Frankly, she was just trying to exist in the world and that was hard even on a good day.

But, as always, someone eventually interrupts. This came today with one of the large double doors openings, allowing a pegasi guard to come in with a big goof smile to bother that Librarian as he let the sounds of a frantic castle staff trying to prepare for a dumb royal wedding inside its quiet walls.

"For the love of the sun and moon, close that blasted door." She barked as the guard rolled his eyes and closed it shut at her request. She flared her magic alive to teleport needed scrolls and files, including her list of daily activities, from her office to her current position at the circular desk she found herself spending much of her time at. "What can I do for you, Sunlight Shield?"

"I just wanted to talk with my favourite Librarian!" Sunlight chirped and he trotted over to her. Bini gave him a knowing look.

"We both know that is a lie. You hang out with me due to convenience and the fact we both like gossip. Let me guess...You are here because you were stationed to guard the Library's front doors with that one guard you hate...what's his name...The son of Mayor..."

"Lucky Clover." The guard mumbled under his breath with hatred. "He will not stop bragging about his luck in life and how great it is that his Father is the Mayor!"

"Well, in his defence, it's in the name. Lucky Clover. Fits. Also, the fact his cutie mark is connected to luck so really, who wouldn't brag about that?" Bini argued as she organized her files into nice piles for the sake of it looking nice for herself.

"OK, sure, but there is being proud of that and like... Frankly, he is like Prince Blueblood but not as powerful or not as able to follow through on his threats." Sunlight replied with a dramatic roll of his hoof before he looked towards the double doors of the Library with new disgust. "Frankly this royal wedding isn't helping my temper either. Being on alert for some unknown evil that sent a letter in. I mean really, who warns their enemy they are coming to take them over with a letter? Why warn anypony at this point?"

"For the laughs?" Bini suggested as she wrote notes on a scroll in front of her with her magic. "For the sake of a challenge? Where is the fun in taking over a nation if you don't give them a chance to fight back any hoof? All I know is that I miss seeing a blue sky and not that pink abomination above us, surrounding the city."

Bini pointed her hoof up to the dome of glass above them, showing the pink sky in all its glory, which was actually a shield surrounding the city.

"That shield is protecting us from the mentioned threat." Sunlight argued. "Show some respect to the Captain. He is trying his best, he can't change the colour of his magic, Bini."

"Change the colour of his magic? Now that's an interesting idea." Bini smirked. "Maybe tell Twilight Sparkle that, she is in the city isn't she? With the rest of the Elements of Harmony? How could she not, it's her brother getting married after all."

"Why, in this big beautiful nation, would I trot up to somepony as important as Twilight Sparkle, and say something like that?" Sunlight demanded with a raised eyebrow.

"Um...For the sake of having some fun in life?"

"Bini, if you wanted to have fun in life, you wouldn't be living in Canterlot and sending other ponies to do your dirty work." Sunlight replied as he adjusted his armour. Bini, narrowed her eyes at him, as she slammed a scroll down on the table and levitated another scroll to herself.

"I do no such thing, and you are aware of that. Besides, the world is screwed up enough as it is. It doesn't need me to help it along in its path of self-destruction."

"Everyone knows you were the one that sent that messenger to the Captain about how Blueblood was attempting to poison the Princess...Again."

"Oh, really? Prove it." Bini challenged.

"The Messenger claimed he was paid twenty bits to deliver the scroll, it was written in your hoof writing. Your magical signature was attached to it, thanks to the science of unicorns reading other unicorns' magic patterns. You kept complaining the day after you were broke and begged me to buy you a Hot Chocolate to get through the afternoon because you lost twenty bits on "A bad deal." that you refused to tell me."

"I like keeping secrets just like anypony else, that doesn't mean I may have heard about some overthrowing plots and wanted the idiotic stumbling moron of a Prince to get thrown into the deepest dungeons of the castle and rot there because I was petty he threw my precious books on the ground and-"

Bini stopped mid-rant as she realized what she was saying with wide eyes. Sunlight shield was smiling back at her with a knowing, far too happy smile. Bini growled at him before clearing her throat and sitting a bit straighter.

"Like I said. Keeping secrets is nice."

"You like watching the world burn, don't you?"

"You make me sound like a monster." Bini replied, acting half hurt, but silently, she considered if it was true. Sunlight didn't seem as sure either as he started the journey back to the main large Library doors.

"Well, just...try not to get yourself killed in these little adventures." Sunlight hesitantly called back to her as he got closer to the doors.

"Don't worry. I am just trying to exist. Not trying to live some grand adventure that would fulfill my soul." Bini replied with a roll of her eyes. Sunlight gave a small smile and nodded.

"Agreed. There are too many ponies like that these days."

Chapter Two:

Chapter Two:

Bini Filters, as many would say, was a cynical pony. This was probably one of the reasons she was accepted at the Royal Canterlot Library and Archives, not the city Canterlot Library or the position she had been praying for, the Library at Princess Celestia's school for gifted unicorns, but the castle's main Library. Arguably, the most important Library. But also the most lonely job in...maybe the city? She wasn't sure but based on the amount of traffic she got in the Library and around, she assumed it was.

She wasn't well-liked, maybe a few acquaintances here and there, but no real friends. She, usually, didn't consider herself the type of unicorn to need friends. Her job didn't require it and she liked spending her off days either reading books with a nice cup of tea or writing for the sake of simply writing a story floating around in her mind. Unfortunately, there were brief moments of weakness she wished she did have friends.

Shopping on the main street always caused one of those moments to occur. It drove her mad. One of the reasons she hated shopping. She had lived in Canterlot all her life, as she trotted down the semi-busy main street with bags on her back ready to be filled and a scroll with a neat list right in front of her, she had become used to the routine that would follow her.

She would, as she was always alone, pony-watching. As she trotted down the street she would watch the nobels and the locals interact. The locals of Canterlot by no means were at the level of simplicity you would find in...Perhaps Ponyville, but that didn't stop the Nobels from thinking such a thing and choosing to act on it.

Drove her mad, once again, as she watched nobels at least once a week, yell at some business owner, throw items and then cause a scene to the general public. As if anypony living in this city for more than a year hadn't caught onto the play they were running and chose to ignore it. But, as always, tourists happen to pass by and eat it up like disgusting food at restaurants.

She wished she could talk to somepony on these sorts of trips to distract her from...society itself in this city. Today, being the Royal Wedding and all, had of course a lot of tourists roaming, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Royal couple or watch a show of yet another Nobel making a fool of himself. Maybe even see the Alicorn rulers but that was even rarer.

Bini gritted her teeth as the tourists littering the street had no sense of direction and couldn't seem to look in front of them for five seconds to miss the "action" as some Nobel, who, Bini had forgotten the name of since they all sound like fancy liars trying to prove something in their names, yelled some waiter over a hay sandwich being too...big?

Really?

Bini shook her head to focus her thoughts on the stupidity of her existence once again invading her life as she quickly dodged a tourist and his partner. She refocused on her list.

Quills
Scrolls
Labels (For Bookkeeping)
Notebooks (3)

And...

And what?

Bini paused in the street, disrupting a few passing ponies' paths at the abrupt stop but she didn't mind. She rarely did that in a normal sense and right now she needed to stop. To think. She had the nagging feeling she was forgetting something on the list. What was it?

She ignored the bells of the Wedding, or the ponies passing by as they wished they could be in attendance at such a historic occasion inside the halls of Canterlot Castle. As a staff member, Bini could have gone. But frankly, as much as she hated being on the main street, it was better than dressing pretty, pretending that she didn't have anything better to do with her life as she watch two ponies she barely were aware of make out.

"What the hay is that?"

The voice caught Bini's attention. Not because of the voice itself, but the tone. That wasn't a good tone. Bini looked hesitantly up from her scroll to another couple staring up at the sky across the street from her. It seemed the wife's outcry had been heard by more than just her husband standing fearfully beside her with wide eyes directed at the sky, but by others and the number was growing. Everyone was coming to a stop, the world was practically stopping to look at something in the sky.

Bini, hesitantly followed the gaze of the crowd to look up at the shield surrounding the city. Something was up there.

It was a small change at first, Bini barely saw it. Five ponies, what she thought were ponies hovering about the shield. As she used her magic to adjust her small glasses and squinted up she realized they weren't ponies. Not exactly. They were more bugs, giant bugs.

That really disturbed her.

Her mind was working overtime, trying to understand what was going on when she suddenly remember what she forgot to write. Magic, she needs magic spell books to improve as a sort of hobby in her free time. She groaned at herself for being such a numbskull, as a threat loomed across the sky, she was literally still thinking about her shopping list.

But she brightened up, the shield, as stupid looking as it was, would protect her and the city. That's what it was designed to do after all. The ponies around her seemed to relax a little as they also came to the same conclusion with each other but no pony moved still, still staring up at the sky to the creatures now growing in number.

Ten, to fifty, to even one hundred of...whatever those things were, were suddenly teleporting above the shield. Bini was growing concerned again like everypony else as she flared her magic and rolled her scroll into her bag. Her stomach had a sinking feeling that whatever was happening was about to end very badly.

But, of course, there was still that pink hideous shield intact-

Everypony jumped as a magical blast could be heard from Canterlot castle, screaming from that area, a mere four streets away. Finally, every pony's eyes fell on the castle in dead silence as the structure loomed in the distance.

When Bini was sworn in as the Librarian to the Castle's staff, she made a promise that, at the time, didn't seem so hard, to protect the library from harm. Do NOT let the enemy take from Equestria. Do NOT let a single book, single page, a single scroll leave its halls in the enemy's clutches.

That oath was still in effect, frankly the moment Bini heard the blast from somewhere in the castle, she should have abandoned her quest and returned to her post. That Library was filled with countless secrets and dark spells that no one, no pony should know. Not even her.

But her hooves, at that very crucial moment, decided to give up on listening despite Bini's job. The unknown of what was ahead held her in place. Then, screaming around her brought her back from her mind in frantic thoughts of how to move.

They were screaming at the sky, Bini looked up to see the little bug things slamming into the shield and it was cracking. Easily. What a great job the Captain did, Bini has to look up at the abomination for weeks just for it to crack when a bunch of bug things slam into it. It's a wonder the city was still here.

Soon, the ground shook and rumbled as the shield completely broke apart. Everypony had to brace themselves as the ground beneath them rumbled so much that Bini thought for a brief moment the whole city would fall off the mountain. When it didn't, she found herself genuinely surprised she was still standing.

More screaming continued around her.

Chapter Three:

Chapter 3:

Those, those bugs had magic!!

Those bugs were basically fake alicorns, nose-diving into the city! Bini managed, through the will of some sort of alicorn god, to get her hooves to obey her just as the ground stopped shaking when pure panic took over the city and everyone went into blind panic galloping.

Where were they going? Those were the least of Bini's issues at the moment as she galloped down the street toward, what seemed to have been the source of the whole issue. The castle. Not smart if Bini hadn't sworn an oath to protect the Library. That was when she looked up at the sound of magical blasts above her to see the bug creatures nose-diving in a magical field of green surrounding their bodies, allowing them to be unharmed when they slammed into the ground, leaving deep marks on streets and buildings alike.

Bini, unsure of what else to do but gallop like mad towards Canterlot castle let out a series of curses to the creator herself, all alicorns in existence, the wedding, and her own life for having been born when she barely managed to dodge one of the creatures heading to the ground before coming to an abrupt stop when another interrupted her path and landed right in front of her.

The creature snarled at her with its evil large pure blue eyes, with its very sharp teeth. Bini gulped as her mind jumped to conclusions about how she would die. That thing could tear her throat out easily, she could be crushed by debris, crushed by a failing bug, burned by a bug. None of those options was how she wanted to leave the world. All too painful. All too foreseen to her liking.

She lit up her horn as the thing prepared to tackle her to the ground and blasted him with the strongest spell she could muster in blind fear that any of her normal very limited combat spells could subdue such a creature. The creature screamed in pain, the sound ringing more in her ears than the screaming of the other creatures and citizens around her. Everything, despite the constant motion of erratic behaviour surrounding her on the street, faded away when the bug slam into the ground a mere meter away and twitched before not moving at all.

Her breathing was heavy, the magic took a lot out of her but she still managed on shaky hooves, scared out of her mind to move forward slowly as she got closer to the thing. She didn't want to look at it. The next few moments of her life might be scarring her forever if she looks for the answer to a question she feared.

Did she kill it? Did it deserve to die?

Bini didn't know.

She wasn't sure she wanted to know as her eyes drifted down to the hole in the bug's chest, clearly burning around the wound had occurred. It looked deep. Faint sparks of blue magic flashed before completely disappearing, the only evidence that her magic had caused such a wound.

She reached out to maybe feel its pulse, watching for any sign of life before she looked briefly up to the world around her rejoining reality as she watched a unicorn mare running through tables and chairs outside a restaurant before being tackled to the ground. She screamed for help but everypony else was dealing with their own little issues as the bug creature lit their horns and sucked some sort of...energy out of her. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapsed motionlessly.

Bini looked down at her outstretched hoof, not yet touched the bug for a sign of life. She pulled back, disgusted. Not quite at the bug itself, but herself. She stumbled backwards, she shook her head. Hoping she could live without an answer. So, she kept galloping towards the castle.

Soon, she found herself in a sort of rhythm.

She would stumble a few times and have to jump over falling ponies or bugs as the attack waged on. Having to dodge flying debris and weapons as the guards tried to get a handle on the situation before continuing on. Soon, four streets turned to three, two, one and finally, the main door to the castle staff was in her sight. The key was to ignore the blasts of magic, the screams and the buzzing straight from hell around her.

She blasted open the staff door, not bothering to open it with her keys, snapping the lock in the process. She stumbled into the dimly lit corridor as she coughed from her adrenaline dying and her throat soon turning to feel as if it was on fire from the galloping she had done. She coughed a few times more before staying still, leaning against one of the refreshingly cold walls as she listened to the sounds of the castle.

Buzzing, screaming, crying, shouting, galloping. Horror.

She was not surprised to know the enemy was in the castle, but it didn't hurt any less to hear the sounds inside.

"Come on, come on, move forward already," Bini muttered to herself, trying to gain energy as she stumbled away from the wall and started into an uneven trot toward one of the main hallways. Bini peeked into the main hallway cautiously, waiting to see any movement. She slowly stepped further into the bright larger hallway, one that she knew would lead her to her needed destination. The Library.

She paused as she looked at the walls around her, the curtains lining the large windows were either burned or falling apart, and windows were smashed as something had entered causing burn marks across the walls as magic was thrown around. She gulped nervously as she started to move out of the hallway into one of the main lobbies of the castle that brought her right in front of the double doors to her Library, which was under her protection. She carefully looked around to make sure the coast was clear, the noises in the castle signalled to her that most of the action was towards either the middle of the castle or the Wedding hall.

Bini carefully flared her horn as she checked the lock on the doors, they seemed fine but Bini was soon cursing herself for not taking the threat made against the city more seriously as she remembered she had neglected to activate any of her magic security systems she made in case of a castle invasion, so, if those bug things could use magic, they might be able to teleport and for all she knew, they simply teleported inside, maybe broke through the glass dome ceiling while they were at it.

Bini unlocked the door to the Library, opening it very slightly before slipping in and shutting it again as fast as she could. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the Library's darkness, the only source of light came from the sun shining through her dome window and the larger windows looking into the Canterlot garden.

She didn't want to alert the enemy, if there was one inside with her, that she was there.

She took as soft steps as she could muster as she crossed the room very slowly to approach her last location before she left the Library, the desk surrounding the hourglass. She looked up at the glass dome, seeing a small hole cut into it with the glass placed on the table rather than crushed to the ground. She looked from the circular piece of glass, back up to the hole in her ceiling, before back down at the glass with more confusion if anything than fear.

But the issue still remained. The chances of somepony being here were very high still.

She kept telling herself to calm down, maybe call a guard or two while she was at it but as she considered the plan further, there was no chance she could do that. The whole guard was probably trying to either defend the outside city or were caught in a battle near the center of the castle.

Alright, she got very basic combat training from Sunlight Shield once, these things were bugs, she probably already killed one and frankly if a low-level unicorn could take out one of them in a street, it shouldn't be too hard for her to take out another one in the silence of her Library, she reasoned.

Her ears shot up at the sound of buzzing and hushed voices further in the Library, a far darker area. She began her soft slow steps again as she entered deeper into her Library because truthfully, it was hers. She had been at the job for years, had been adding books, making records and running the whole place mostly by herself. This was like her home and she wasn't about to let some bugs get her fired.

She clenched her teeth together in fury at the idea of these bugs tearing apart all her hard work within a matter of minutes, she felt fear at the small idea she might possibly lose whatever battle she might find herself in as she weaved through a maze of bookshelves was clawing at her brain.

She stopped again, it was a lot darker now, allowing her to easily see that green light was a few steps ahead of her. She ducked behind another bookcase, a bookcase that if she moved correctly, would allow her to see her new enemy. To observe and come up with a plan before she attacked.

She used her hooves, not her own magic as that would cause too much light, to move a few books apart to allow her to see it.

It...the bug was sitting on the ground a few meters away, next to another bookshelf, with a book open and seemed, as hard as it was for Bini to believe, to be reading. It looked pretty delighted at whatever it was reading as well. It was smiling with its sharp teeth, but not an evil smile as it used its green magic to flip another page before squinting its eyes to read a little more and occasionally muttering in a strange voice as it tried to pronounce words in the Equestrian language.

She was here to defend her Library, the enemy was currently reading one of her books. By basic logic, she should have blasted him across the room by now and snagged the book before galloping off. But she hesitated as she looked over to the section they were in.

"Friendship section."

The "Friendship Section" was established a mere month after Bini joined the job. Princess Celestia herself came to her with an idea to dedicate a whole section to the magic, research and general information on the subject of friendship for those who wanted to know, and, as Bini suspected, for her student Twilight Sparkle. Who was an anti-social pony at the time and despite them being a bunch of books, spent one hour there before never returning to that specific section unless she had an assignment about Friendship she needed to read.

Why was this bug here? Why not the Archive? Filled with dark magic and ways to even mind control a whole nation.

Then, another crash of glass, causing the both of them to jump in further alarm. Bini had to steady herself and watched the scene again. Thankfully, the bug was too preoccupied with the sound to notice her.

"Thorax! Thorax?" An awful voice that made Bini want to go deaf yelled out.

"B-Back here, Pharynx."

Bini scratched her nose, strange names. Then again, they weren't Equestrian. There were sounds of galloping before another changeling appeared on the scene, this time looking slightly different with a red mane...? and different coloured eyes and...back shell she guessed.

"What are you doing back here?" The creature named Pharynx hissed before pointing a hoof toward where he came from. "We are supposed to be subduing the city already!"

"W-Well, y-you don't need my help with that, big brother. You have more than enough training and many willing to follow your command. I have never been much into fighting as you know." Thorax stammered as he seemed to be trying to justify his actions. "I wouldn't be much help."

"Hiding in the dark and reading some...Equestrian filth will not do you any better."

"It's actually quite interesting!" Thorax seemed to light up a little at the mention of his current activity. "You see, while I was outside, I saw six ponies and they seemed so strong and had such a tight bond. Really, brother! I am interested in this and just happened to stumble upon this Library-"

Thorax trailed off as he realized his brother really wanted him to get to the point by the death glare he was being given. So Thorax cleared his throat and did indeed get to the point.

"Anyway, apparently friendship has some real power here and as much as our Queen despises it, it can really create something magical! I believe that if we brought this information back to the hive-"

"Back to the hive?" The brother questioned. "We are not ponies! We are the noble changeling nation, we will not snoop down to their level!"

"Snoop down?" Thorax questioned. "Pharynx, this system they have of friendship to connect their race together is working for them. They grow stronger, like those six ponies, when they are together. Their friendships with those around them is the reason they have love at all for us to feed off of. Maybe we are the problem. We steal, we hunt, we ruin. This is why we are always hungry. Maybe, just maybe if we tried their ways, maybe tried to get on good terms with us as a nation they would help feed us."

"That is ludicrous!" Pharynx roared with rage. "Thorax, I will not have this discussion with you right now. We are in the middle of a battle that needs to be won! Let go of your foolish dreams, the world is not black and white! Step up, be a warrior as you were trained to be."

"But br-"

"Enough!" Pharynx snapped, interrupting Thorax once again when he slammed his hoof down onto the marble floor, surprisingly cracking it a little in the process before he ignited his horn, bringing the book into the air. "This book, all equestrian books is full of propaganda! Believe nothing these food say! Because that is what they are brother, food."

Bini felt her blood boiling at the interaction as Thorax looked down at the floor in shame. Bini cursed herself silently, if only she had attacked when she first came, no questions asked then she probably wouldn't have to take on both of them because she knew she couldn't avoid it no matter what at this point.

"T-They have lives just like us."

"They lie. They kill. They say we are the monsters in legends. In reality, they are too blind to notice that they are monsters. Forcing every creature to conform to them and their ways. This is karma, Thorax. If we hadn't done this to them," Pharynx gestured to the way he came once again, probably to the sounds of war outside and inside, "Then someone else would have. At least we are doing it for a reason, we need to eat."

Bini's breathing stilled for a moment at his words as she considered them. Denial was always a nice friend but at that moment it was clouding her judgement a bit too much, until it was too late for her to see the warning signs when Pharynx, within a moment, surged magic through his horn to the book still held in his grasp, burning it within seconds.

Bini, pushed all thoughts aside, dealing with her conflicting emotions over society could be dealt with later in a far too expensive therapy office in downtown Canterlot later. But this, they burned Canterlot Property. Even one book burned, meant she had allowed the enemy to take it from the world. She wasn't about to let that happen again. She swore an oath.

Chapter Four:

Chapter 4:

Bini, as she pushed any self-preservation aside for the upcoming attack, watched as the burned remains of the book fell to the ground. Thorax barely looked at it and then back down to the floor in further shame of his actions. Pharynx stayed silent for a moment as he watched his brother's behaviour.

Bini ignited her blue magic, immediately tipping off the brothers that they were not alone. In a flash she teleported behind Pharynx, hoping to ignore the aftereffects as her mind tried to come up with some sort of plan within five seconds as the older brother started to turn and Thorax cried out in alarm at the sight of her. She immediately fired a blast at Pharynx, sending him into the air and nearly hitting the back wall of the Library, luckily for him, he managed to stabilize himself in the air using his wings and slammed back down to the ground, next to his brother.

"How dare you!" Bini yelled. Thorax, to his credit, stood up and tried to look intimidating but frankly, it was clear his heart wasn't in it. But Pharynx was a larger issue since as much as Bini loathed to admit it, he was clearly stronger than the one she had dealt with earlier and much more ready to most likely kill her. She stepped forward, charging her horn as she did so. "Get out of this Library. Refuse to comply, I will kill you if I have to."

"Oh, look Thorax. The food has decided to come willingly to us." Pharynx taunted, showing not a hint of fear. Not that Bini could blame him, she was certainly no alicorn and frankly, Librarians are not known to be very intimidating.

"I said, leave!" Bini barked. Thorax looked between them both with frantic eyes. "You are both quite lucky you are not dead on the spot!"

Pharynx lunged at her. She fired a shot at him, which he dodged in the air before slamming into her. She cried out in pain as his horn dug into her shoulder when they hit the ground. She used her front hooves to push him away, before stumbling up as he tried to recover and kicked him right in the ribs.

"Brother, stop! P-Pony, please stop!"

Thorax's cries were ignored as Pharynx stumbled back as he growled in pain and rage. Bini wasn't doing much better as she could feel blood running down her shoulder from the wound which burned in pain with each twitch of her muscle. Pharynx easily recovered and seemed to take delight in the injury he caused.

"Now, Thorax. Watch as a warrior takes down the enemy."

He lit up his horn and yanked the bookshelf behind her down, Bini rolled out of the way as books plummeted down with the shelf. She barely managed to miss the shelf itself but falling books were a bit harder to avoid. She did her best as she brought up a shield a little too late, hoping the books were not unrepairable when this whole mess was over.

Bini teleported away from the damage, surprising both the brothers when she reappeared near the hourglass in the light of day raining down from the ceiling. She cringed as she realized she was stepping on glass, she looked briefly up to realize that Pharynx mostly likely just shoved himself through the ceiling without care and broke the whole dome.

Great, she thought with more boiling rage than she thought she would have to deal with for a lifetime, another thing to add to the great list of issues she would have to deal with after this. She was brought out of her thoughts on her tasks ahead when green fire whizzed past her.

"Oh, good job, Thorax. You missed."

"W-Well...She was moving, Pharynx."

"Moving? She was staring upwards!"

She looked over to the changelings barely hidden in the dark. Thorax, per usual at this point, probably missed on purpose due to his will to not fight, while his brother, probably hoping for him to grow a backbone wasn't any happier with his skills as he glared at him for a moment before refocusing on Bini.

Pharynx shot towards her again, Bini flared her horn and steadied herself, ignoring the glass digging into her hooves when the blast suddenly went upwards into the sky before exploding. Thorax's eyes went large at he looked at the sky before turning back to his brother.

"Y-You didn't need to do that! You could have just knocked her out! She will stand no chance against more of u-"

"I am done playing games, Thorax!" Pharynx snapped. "She is a bore to battle. Clumsy. Weak. Cheating. I do not have the patience to fight such prey."

"What the hay did you just do?" Bini growled, interrupting the conversation. She soon heard more buzzing. A lot more, her ears fell as she dared look up, but she didn't get very far before green magic rained down on her, quickly slamming her into the ground before everything went dark.

Bini groaned as she managed to open one of her eyes, she could feel the carpet surrounding the main hourglass of the library. Her body felt broken, her glasses that lay in front of her were indeed broken. Her hooves were on fire from some glass digging into her hooves still and now parts of her body, now that she was on the floor. Her shoulder wasn't any better, her scarf was probably ripped.

But, somehow, she was still alive.

Bini spat out some blood as it dripped out of her mouth before she wiped it away with her hoof as she tried to get up. She leaned heavily on the desk as she tried to understand the world around her. Her head was spinning, her vision certainly wasn't doing any better. She probably had a concussion.

She was weak, probably a lot weaker than she should have been. She paused, she could hear the sounds of ponies. Ponies trying to work, or talking, or even the wing beats of ponies above her. She painfully looked to the sky to see that pegasi were flying around and that the moon was setting into the night sky.

So the threat, at least at the moment had passed. The world was moving again. For a few brief moments, she considered the whole day was just some bad dream, but the throbbing of her horn due to using so much magic in large quantity, the pain in her body and the fact that the Library was still a mess, proved to her that despite the threat having passed. She still had a lot of paperwork to fill out before she could maybe put it behind her.

Pharynx's words rang in her head as she stumbled towards the doors of the Library, bringing her broken glasses with her as she attempted to mend them with her magic, and barely managed to push one of them open for her to slip through with her hooves. What he said was bothering her more than all the pain she was feeling because, even she couldn't deny, that they had some truth to it.

She could hear the sounds of everypony running around the castle halls in the distance, thankfully, none in the lobby near the Library. She didn't need anypony to see her this way as she stumbled towards another hallway in the direction that she knew was the Castle infirmary.

As she looked out the windows of the castle, as she stumbled along in an uneven trot, she wondered what happened after she was knocked out. They probably took...what was it...the energy...Ugh, Bini shook her head. She supposed she didn't even want to know. But, she did wonder what happened to the brothers.

She chuckled as she walked as a silly little thought crossed her mind.

Thorax really should grow a backbone.

Wait...

She paused.

Can changelings even grow one?

The End