"Augh... What happened?"
Innate Enigma slowly put a hoof to his aching forehead as he opened his eyes to take in his surroundings. In his state of confusion from the ache and thinking he had been dreaming he mistook his new surroundings for someplace familiar.
"The library? Hmmmmm..."
As the pain started to subside and thought resumed in his mind he noticed a myriad of differences about where he thought he was and where he actually was. The most noticeable and reality breaking to him was the shape. The library of his home town an unusual shape and certainly a unique building in Equestria. Where he was standing now was unremarkable in design and clearly made by usual methods. As the obvious questions started rolling in his mind he remembered what he had been doing for past few weeks.
"But that had to have been a dream. That couldn't have actually happened."
"What couldn't have possibly happened?"
Innate turned around surprised by the sudden appearance of another pony. The librarian I suppose. Why is there a even a library on the outskirts of Manehattan anyway? If that's where I even am. Before Innate could return a question with a question of his own he inspected the pony before him. A timid grey Unicorn just shy of being average height, with a mane of jet black and a cobalt stripe running through it, with bright red eyes.
"I'm sorry if I'm intruding or anything but..." Innate ran a hoof through his mane, looking down feeling silly for having to ask, "Could you tell me where in Equestria I am?"
The new pony didn't seemed surprised by the question and adopted a small but kind smile as he returned an answer to Innate's question.
"You're in my book store just outside of Manehattan. I found you late yesterday, collapsed outside my door."
Innate's face turned from a calm, wondering look to a confused and slightly worried one. The new pony noticed this and adopted a slightly timid stance as he prepared to ask what was wrong. Innate snapped himself out of his confusion when he noticed the pony was about to ask something, something he knew he didn't believe the answer to himself, and moved to preemptively to block question for the moment.
"I'm sorry again, but what's your name?"
Taken aback by the sudden question the grey Unicorn shyly replied, "My name is Chilly Quill."
"Well Chilly, my name is Innate Enigma."
Innate watched as his new acquaintance slowly looked him over putting the name to his face. Innate felt that once Chilly was done that he would try to ask questions. Questions that Innate wasn't ready for so he decided to ask another question of his own, knowing that he had to come back to Chilly's questions eventually.
"I know you must have your own questions that you want to ask, but I feel..." Innate looked down looking for the right word, "odd. I suppose is the best word for it right now. Do you have someplace I could check myself over?"
Chilly's expression switched back to the kind smile it was earlier and shook his head yes then motioned for Innate to follow him. As he followed Chilly Innate's mind wondered back to the overbearing question. Was that dream real? Everything seems to point towards it being so, but there's no such thing as ghosts like that. I've never discounted ghosts as real, but something like that... thing in the forest can't be real. As his last thought finished Chilly indicated a room and proceeded to walk away. Innate looked at the door and called out a thanks, Chilly turned his head back in acknowledgement.
"Not a problem. It seems like you were in quite the ordeal."
Hanging his head and looking down at his hooves Innate quietly replied, "I think you may be right."
Innate proceeded into the room and shut the door. Looking about the small room he realized it was full a bathroom, tub, shower and all. Chilly must live here too. Shaking his head of unimportant thoughts for the moment Innate proceeded towards the sink, to run some water over his face and look himself over in the mirror. As Innate looked over his deep blue coat and mane with natural red highlights on the outside, he realized something that brought a small smile to his face despite the troubling thoughts he was just having. "I can always count on this mane to stay spiky." He let out a small laugh and decided he had come out none the worse for wear. He decided it was time to get back to the serious questions and stop avoiding them. He left the bathroom and went to find Chilly.
"Feel better?" Chilly asked after spotting Innate coming back to the main room, closing the book he had been inspecting.
"No not really." Innate looked about the room trying to figure out how to approach the coming questions, both his and Chilly's. As he glanced about he noticed Chilly's cutie mark, a quill with an ink line fallowing it. Focus! Moving around the room Innate took a seat on the floor on across from Chilly.
"Listen Chilly, I know you must have a lot of questions, but I have to ask a few myself. I need you to tell me what I was like when you found me yesterday."
Looking confused by the situation but resolved to fix that Chilly cleared his throat before telling Innate about the state he found him in. "Well I heard a knock on the door yesterday and realized I had forgot to open up again so I ran over to the door to see who it was. That's when I found you just laying there on the ground. You must have been running or something because despite being unconscious on the ground you were breathing really heavy."
Innate face darkened into a grim look as he quietly soaked in all these confirming details. Chilly not one to miss the obvious noticed this and started to look nervous.
"Is... Is so-something the matter?" Chilly asked as he stumbled over his words.
Glancing up at Chilly from the spot he had been observing on the floor Innate made his reply. "Yes, I believe there is. Although whether its a personal matter or more is..." At this moment alarm bells started ringing in Innate's head.That wretched tome! Where did it go? Chilly! When you found me I should have had an old book with me, please tell me you have it! With what you just told me it has become very important."
The sudden excitement and change in demeanor caught Chilly off-guard. "You mean this?" Chilly asked as he floated the book over that he had been examining earlier.
"Yes! Thank you Chilly." Innate reclaimed possession of his book, and quickly tucked it under his one of his fore-legs as he laid down on the floor. Settling in for the story he knew to be true now, and the one he had to tell Chilly.
"Whats so important about that book? Its just an old book of ghost stories." Chilly asked as he settled on the floor himself, bringing out some pillows for himself and Innate.
Innate looked into Chilly's eyes for a second, before letting out a sigh and looking down at the tome. "This isn't some old book of ghost stories. The beginning may make it seem that way but its much more than that. Its a... guide on the various ways to fight several forms of dark magic and the paranormal. At first I thought it was all old fiction too, but... recent events indicate otherwise. I have a story to tell explaining how I came to be at your door step." Innate took a deep breath preparing to tell what had happened yesterday. "But first I should tell you a little of myself..."
