“I can’t believe that Canterlot has been here all this time!” A white Pegasus said, flapping her wings as she flew around the room the group had managed to find themselves in. However, it was merely one room of not only an entire city but of a massive castle. What pony hadn’t been told stories about the mythical city of Canterlot when being put to bed as fillies and colts? The place where the alicorns reigned and the most magical artifacts were supposedly held. But it was nothing more than a story, or so everypony thought.

After magically being led to the city months prior by the elder Draconequus Discord and him almost destroying the crystals that supplied magic to the lands the crew had been baffled at what they saw. Though sadly they didn’t have to explore the city as much as they would have liked, needing to stop the magical dragon-like creature from destroying all magic and leaving ponies powerless, again. Then the situation with Opaline, a Fire Alicorn torturous bent on stealing everypony’s cutie marks and hoarding all magic for herself, got worse. But thankfully Sunny Starscout, the orange earth pony that could summon the power of alicorns, managed to beat her with the help of the dragons.

But with things finally calmed down and the world wasn’t threatening to end from that week's big baddie the crew finally managed to get some downtime to go and check out the city and the castle. Well, mostly the castle as there were dozens of buildings knocked down in the town, any food that once existed was expired at best or well persevered and belonged in a museum more than it did in any kitchen. Maybe the library was worth looking at later but the group agreed that the castle was probably more interesting to discover. So they broke up into two teams of three to help make exploring easier.

“Yeah, I can’t believe it! The Canterlot castle, right under our noses!” A nerdy high-pitched voice said, making Zipp frown as she saw a light blue pony with a crystal unicorn horn and glittering silver and purple hair looking at a book he had pulled out of a shelf.

“I wasn’t aware Auroricorns knew about Canterlot, Comet?” The Pegasus said as she continued to zoom around the room. They had managed to stumble into the royal library of the castle so there were hoards of books lining the walls, all with a thick coating of dust blanketing them.

“Oh, we don’t!” Comet said leaning over to a pink Pegasus with purple wavey hair. “She just seemed so excited I wanted to join in.” He said with a suppressed giggle.

“AH!” The pink Pegasus squealed jumping a foot in the air before landing, her phone in her hand.
“Pipp!” Zipp yelled as she turned and zoomed beside her sister, brandishing her wings as if she was going to slice into something with them. “What is it? Monsters? Strange hermit ponies? Living pumpernickel bread?!”

“No, worse!” The pony’s sister cried, wrapping her space front leg around her sister's neck and shoving a grey phone screen in her sister’s face, a white spinning circle in the center of the screen. “I have like no bars in here!” She cried. “How am I supposed to livestream this like once in a lifetime event to my followers!” She asked before falling backward onto the dusty wooden floor. “WORST DAY EVER!”

“I would say that is just a touch of an exaggeration,” Comet said, her crystal horn shimmering with purple energy as he lowered the book in front of the fallen pony. “Look at these spells. Incantations I’ve yet to ever see, runes probably lost to everypony kind for millennia, and this is all from one book!” He cheered, pouncing in place as he used his magic to flip through the pages as fast as he could, making Pipp's hair wave in the wind.

“That's really cool and all, Comet. But do you see a horn on this head?” She asked, clapping her hooves at her forehead. “If you want to show me how useful these spells are maybe find one that gives us some WIFI?” She asked as she got back up.

“Hm… I’ll do my best… What is a ‘Wifi’?” He asked though, this time getting an eye roll from both Pegasi. Their newest member of their team had come from a place where lights were almost brand new technology so they were patient with his ignorance of things like computers, blenders, and running water. But sometimes it could be a bit much needed to explain everything to him. But thankfully as he shoved his nose into the book the two wouldn’t need to explain anything for the moment.

“Ok so what are we doing here anyways, Detective Zipp?” Pipp asked her sister, sticking her phone under her wing for safekeeping. “It just looks like a bunch of books and not saying that's a bad thing… but I’ve seen words on paper before.” She pointed out.

“Well looking for information mostly,” Zipp said, holding a magnifying glass up to the books.
“Right right… Information for what exactly?” She asked next, trotting over to the wall her sister was at, though she examined the lower part. Swiping her hoof across the books freeing them of a bit of dust.

“Well, anything! Maybe where the alicorns went would be the most important thing. But I’m sure Sunny would appreciate a book on old Canterlot gardening techniques.”

“Boooooriiiiing!” Pipp sighed as she looked up at the different signs that divided the different sections. Mystery, her sister was probably going to be all over that section. Office work, that made Pipp yawn just reading that. Gardening, eh maybe shed swipe a few books to pretend to be helpful. Horror, oh yeah that was something she could get behind. “Oh hey, what's that? I better go off and look at it… alone!” She said before rushing over to the Horror section of the library. And to add to the creepy vibe of the section, the little light that was trickling through the windows of the library didn’t reach that part. Leaving the books in a blanket of shadows. Thankfully she had her phone on her, so brandishing the small piece of tech she turned on the flashlight before starting to trot down the aisle as she looked at the books.

The Pegasus used to have a large collection of horror books that she would read with her mom, the Queen of Zephyr Heights. But they all vanished one day and the pony had just recently found them in the secret library locked away for some reason. So seeing a guard-free horror section was like finding a gold bar. She was hoping to find things like ‘NEIGH’ or ‘THAT’, a couple of her favorite books penned by Steven Queen, her favorite author. Though as she pulled out a couple of books she saw a few different authors that she had never heard of. E. F. Bearson, William Hope Hedgehog, and other names like that. However, the castle was ancient so it made sense that the stories on the shelves would have been written by ponies and other creatures lost to time. But the most important thing was, she had unlimited access to the horror books and her mom couldn't get her hooves on them.

“Ah!” The princess yelped as a small black spider skittered across a few books as the phone light exposed it.

“Pipp?!” Her sister called out in response to the squeal, “Everything ok?!”
“Yes, Zipp, I'm perfectly fine.” The pink pony sighed as she moved the light around trying to spot the tiny arachnid that had managed to spook her. “Just focus on playing the part of detective and not a knight.” She mumbled, beads of sweat forming on her forehead as she failed to find the spider. If there was anything worse than a spider it was one that was great at hiding. “Ok uh… yeah you stay away from me and I'll leave you alone.” Pipp sighed and pressed forward until she got to a bookshelf of books with the same binding and a crimson red cover over them. It was clear that these books were a part of a series of sorts. A pretty in-depth one from the looks of it. The only thing that wasn't a book was a stone statue of a star-like object separating the books on the bottom shelf in the middle of the shelf.

“Hm… Let's see here.” She muttered as she flapped her wings, the dormant dust springing to life and jumping up to try and choke her, and got to the top of the shelf to pull the first book out. “Canterlot-.” She mumbled the first part of the title of the book out, trying to keep the title to herself as she landed on the ground and grabbed the last issue of the book.

“AH HA!” A voice cried from behind her. “A LOFI SPELL!” Comet cheered as his nose was still in the book.

“CANNIBALS!” Pipp yelled up in surprise as she turned to the pony, his body managing to glitter even in the darkness of the shelves. “Comet, not cool! You just scared like 10 years off my life!” She huffed, her wings flinging out to her side, hitting the star object on the shelves.

“Oh, um… I'm sorry Pipp,” The pony said with a nervous chuckle. “I was just excited because I found you Lofi spell!” He cheered as his crystal horn shimmered with purple energy and the room suddenly filled with a soft sound with a bass that shook the shelves silently, making the dust fall off all the books.

“No, Comet.” Pipp sighed, her voice going soft as she put a hoof on the foreign pony's shoulder. “Wifi spell, not Lofi… But these are some pretty sick beats. So good job with those.” She praised him.

“Where are the cannibals?!” A new voice said from behind them, making the two ponies jump as Pipp spun around with her phone pointed at the voice. Revealing her sister, who recoiled at the beam of light attacking her eyes. “Ah, ow, Pipp!” She whined, covering her face with her hoof.

“Zipp! Don't sneak up on a pony like that!” She huffed, “And there are no cannibals. I was just reading the name of the book.” She explained brandishing the story to her sister to see. “Canterlot Cannibals Issue 31.” She huffed. “I'm guessing it must have been pretty popular since there's a ton of these books over here!” She said, pointing to the bookshelf but as she looked over she frowned seeing that the bookshelf was missing. But in its place was what looked like a pitch-black hallway.

“The books are down there? Wow, this library goes deeper than I had thought!” The eldest princess mused, trying to look through her magnifying glass down the dark hallway.

“No, there was a bookshelf right here!” The purple pony tried to explain, flapping her wings and floating in the air so she could wave her front hooves at the empty space. “You saw it, right, Comet?” She asked the Aurapony, but looking over the pony was too busy bobbing his head to the beat of the music playing.

“Oh…” Zipp said, her jaw-dropping hearing the news. “You know what this means then, right, Pipp?” Her sister asked.

“The bookshelves are trying to make me look like a liar?” She muttered as she landed back on the ground.

“No, that means this was a hidden passage!” The white pony cheered, her eyes basically glowing in the dark as she looked down the hallway. “Who knows what we will find down here? Maybe magical forbidden artifacts? A prison that hid away and held Equestria's most dangerous enemies. A hidden bakery that only Princess Twilight had access to?!” She cheered, sounding like a filly who had just found an extra bit on the ground and could get a cupcake with it.

“Yes, because the one thing you’d want to hide in a library is a bakery?” Pipp scoffed, smirking at her sister's suggestion.

“I mean I do enjoy a cupcake when I’m reading,” Comet added as a golf ball-sized orb of golden light left his horn and started to float down the hallway.

“See, he gets it,” Zipp said, playfully bumping into her sister as she started to head into the tunnel.
“Is it really a good idea to just go into the random cave without Sunny here? You know… the alicorn in our little group?” Pipp said, making her sister stop in her tracks. “Because there might be unknown dangers at the end of the threatening pathway that was found in the horror section of the library.” She added on.

“Uh… Yeah, that might be good.” Zipp agreed, her cheeks flushing red as she looked back. “Comet, you want to go and find Sunny and the others!”

“Of course!” The blue pony said, all too eager to help like normal, but Pipp reached a hoof out and held him there.

“No, he’s the one with the magic light powers,” She reminded her sister, “My phone’s battery isn’t going to last forever you know. And I haven’t taken a single picture of anything in the castle!” She whined.

“Ok, Pipp, you go and find the other then. Happy?” The future ruler of Zephyr Heights asked, getting a head shake from her sister.

“Hey, I’m the one who found the weird secret passageway, on accident.” The younger princess said, fake coughing the last part out.

“Ok… then I guess I’ll go and get the others then?” Zipp said, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion at her sister's workaround to get her to find their friends. “I’ll be right back, don’t go in there until I get back!” She ordered, giving a powerful flap with her wings before dashing off.

“Yes, mam!” Pipp said, giving a half-hearted sarcastic salute to her sister before starting to walk down the hallway. “Come on, Comet.” She ordered her friend, who immediately began to follow her.

“Uh, but didn’t Zipp say to-?” He started to ask, trotting up beside the princess, who was quick to butt in.

“Look Zipp can give all the orders she wants, but as her little sister I get a pass to ignore them.” She explained, chuckling at her explanation. “Plus Zipp can’t give orders like she's Queen when she doesn’t even want to be Queen. You can’t play on both sides of the fence.” She said as they continued to march down the hall.

“I think that makes sense… maybe?” Comet mused, frowning as he followed the very thin line of logic that was just thrown at him for why they were ignoring what they were told. “I guess if we fall into a deadly trap then everypony will find our bodies.”

“See, all you got to do is look on the bright side of not listening to Zipp.” She giggled as she went from a trot to a dash. “Now come on!” She called out as she went into the darkness.

“Ah, wait!” Comet called out as he tried to catch up to her. The two ran until they got to the end of the hall, which opened to a room that was probably half the size of the library that had been in.

“Whoa!” Pipp gasped as she immediately stopped her run as they got to the room. Though Comet wasn’t as lucky as his hooves got tangled in between one another as he tried sliding to a stop, sending him flying across the room. “More light please?” She asked the pony, not too concerned about him as he tended to take a dozen falls every day.

“Yes, mam…” The blue pony groaned as a dozen orbs of light started to float across the room. Revealing stained glass windows on the walls that weren’t letting in any light, which made sense since the room was obviously hidden away. So having a way to just enter the room seemed like a bad idea.

But one of the stained glass windows had three ponies on it, a tangerine pegasus with purple hair and teeny wings, a marshmallow white unicorn with purple and pink hair, and a yellow earth pony with red hair and a bow on her head. They all had a similar cutie mark with a different symbol in the center of it, the pegasus having a wing, the unicorn having a musical note, and the earth pony having an apple on it. The next window had a yellow unicorn with red and yellow hair though beside the pony was some creature that stood on two legs and was fully clothed, with a matching body and hair to the pony. The third glass was of a purple unicorn with a long purple mane with a blue stripe down the middle.

Then on the other side of the room, the nearest picture had half a dozen creatures on it. One of a pale green earth pony with dark green hair, and an orange dragon-like creature, though it wasn’t like any dragon Pipp had ever seen, along with a wooly brown creature, a teal creature with bug wings, a pink creature with wings but a frail frame, and a big blue bird creature with a lions tail. Beside it was a buff-looking purple and green dragon that somewhat represented the Dragon Lord Spike but only slightly. Then the last stained glass window showed a white alicorn and a blue alicorn in a circle.
In the room, there were even more bookshelves, though these ones weren’t as large as the ones in the library, and a table that was probably used for reading. But the strangest thing in the room easily had to be the ice sculptures that waited at the other side of the room. The bright blue statues looking at them and the doorway.

“Hm… seems like a weird place for ice sculptures don’t you think?” Pipp asked, finally going over and helping her friend up to his hooves.

“Yes it is strange,” Comet agreed, going towards the sculptures and tapping her hoof against one of the pegasus, an angry look on their face as they pointed one of their front hooves at the entrance they had gone through. Though instead of cracking the sculpture let off a ringing. “Well, these aren’t ice. They’re pure crystals… which explains why they aren’t melting. It isn’t exactly freezing in here.” The Auracorn mused as he examined them, the orbs of light gravitating towards him. Revealing the front of the room, a throne, and one more stained glass painting. Two pegasi, one yellow with a pink mane holding a bunny and the other cyan with a rainbow mane with a rainbow around them. Two earth ponies, one orange with a yellow mane and a farmer hat on their head and the other pink with frizzy dark pink hair and hugging a canon. Then there was a white unicorn, much like the one in the first picture, but this one had a dark purple mane and hand diamonds surrounding her. Then surrounded by the ponies was a purple alicorn that had a book in her hand, and her cutie mark was exposed, which looked like the star object that had been on the shelf the Canterlot Canniables was waiting on. And on the throne sat a crown golden crown that had a gemstone that looked like the weird star object.

“Princess… Twilight?” Pipp called out, seeing the picture. Not that Pipp had a picture of the alicorn and was purely going off the memory she had of the recording she and her friends saw when magic had almost destroyed the world. Her sister had that entire event on her phone, but Pipp was certain the purple Alicorn was Princess Twilight.

“Princess who?” Comet asked, still pacing around the crystal statues, frowning as if there was something off about them.
“Oh right, I guess you Auroricorns wouldn’t know her.” She said, breaking eye contact with the glass painting and going to the throne. “She was the pony that sealed away pony magic in an attempt to save us from a power-hungry alicorn. According to Sunny, she was the last ruler of Canterlot and quite the book nerd. That explains why this hidden throne room room was in the library.” She giggled as she lifted up the crown that waited on the throne. “Golds a bit tacky for a crown, but the design on this is superb!” She praised, toying with the idea of putting the accessory on. Was that even allowed though? To put on an Alicorn's crown, that sounded highly illegal and like she shouldn’t do it. But… she was also technically a princess and not wearing a crown seemed like a waste.

“PIPP!” A familiar voice barked, making the pink pony roll her eyes. “I thought I told you two to stay put until we all got here.”

“Did you? I couldn’t hear that over your sassy bossy attitude.” Pipp shot back as she turned to see the rest of her friends and her sister pour into the room. “But anyways look, no bakery, just like I said.” She said.

“No.” An orange earth pony with purple hair that split off into a melody of colors said as she looked around. Her bright green eyes sparkled as she looked around. “What you found was A LOT better, Pipp!” The pony squealed as she started to run around the room. “T-this is Princess Twilight's secret library!” She squealed practically foaming at the mouth as she started glancing through the books. “OH MY CELESTIA!” The earth pony squealed as she pulled a book with a red binding off it. “CANTERLOT CANNIABLES ISSUE 32! YEAH YOU HEARD ME RIGHT 32! THATS WHEN THINGS GET GOOOOOOOD!” She cheered, huffing as if she were getting ready to pass out.

“Well, Sunny seems happy with all this!” A purple unicorn with blue hair said as she bounced over to the crystal ponies. “Hm…. Why am I getting a reddish aurora from this statue?” She asked confused. “I didn’t know crystals could be angry?” She scoffed with a giggle.

“Ok can everypony just stop running around!” A yellow earth pony with a shortcut green mane announced, looking around worried at everypony touching the mysterious objects. “Who knows if any of this stuff is cursed with some ancient Equestrian magic.” He sighed, shaking his head. “It's a good thing I didn’t bring Sparky, he’d have his claws over all this stuff.” He muttered. “Izzy, don’t lick that!” The town sheriff ordered, pointing his hoof at the purple unicorn who currently had her tongue pointed at one of the crystal statues.

“But Chip, they have auras!” Izzy whined like a filly being told it was their bedtime. “You know how weird that is?”
“If you are saying it's weird then I will say it is probably really weird. But that doesn’t mean you just lick it!” He barked, sounding like a dad tired of chasing his kids around.

“There is a strange energy coming from these statues.” Comet said, “Like some sort of life force. But I don’t see any entry wholes for bugs or rodents.” He explained, not taking his eyes off the current statue he was examining.

“SEE STRAAAAAANGE!” Izzy said, suddenly appearing beside Hitch, making the earth pony jump as the unicorn melted away to the statues.

“Uh… I-I might be able to explain this.” A soft voice said, almost lost to the sound of Sunny furiously flipping through the books she grabbed. But the confession made them all freeze, well all of them past Comet, and turned to the final member of the group. A blue unicorn with frizzy blue and teal hair stood behind Hitch as if she were using him as a meat shield.

“Really, Misty?” Zipp asked, tilting her head confused at the unicorn. She knew unicorns had some supernatural connection to magical stuff, maybe that's what Izzy’s obsession with auras was. But the blue unicorn wasn’t exactly a master of magic.

“Um… yeah.” She said, kicking her hoof against the ground. “Opaline told me about this place and what happened.” She explained, keeping her head down and not wanting to look around the room.

“Well…?!” Sunny asked her front legs on the table she was at, leaning forward and staring at her friend with stars in her eyes. “What happened?! Don’t leave us in suspense!”

“Um… T-this is where Opaline and Princess Twilight's final battle took place.” Misty explained, shuttering as her eyes darted around the room, seeing everypony’s mouths drop open. “Princess Twilight had already separated pony kind at that point and the pony magic was starting to fade away. But Opaline tried to get the gemstones that held the magic from Princess Twilight, unaware that they were already divided amongst the different ponies.” She explained. “Opaline made it sound like she was the hero of the story though. Hunting Princess Twilight to get the magic from the Alicorn that was sealing it away. Standing here against the princess and her royal guard.” She whimpered looking at the statues. “She said that Princess Twilight had turned her guards to crystal in an attempt to draw their magical power from them and fight her. But with how wonderful Opaline had turned out to be I don’t think that's the case.” She sighed, shaking her head as Hitch reached out and put a hoof on her.

“Hey, you don’t need to worry about her now and her lies,” Pipp said, going over and hugging her friend. “We’ll figure out what happened here.” She promised.

“Well, their energy definitely wasn’t drained.” Comet chipped in as he tapped the statue nearest to the throne, this one with large wings unfurled as if it were trying to hide the throne. “If that were the case these would be piles of bones, not crystals.” He mused. “They are very much alive though. Just kind of stuck like this.” He explained.

“Well is there a way to get them unstuck?” Pipp asked as she let go of Misty and faced the rest of the group.

“Pipp, what are wearing?” Zipp sighed, walking over and swiping the crown that the pink princess had put on her head at some point. “Where did you get a crown?” She asked.

“That's not just a crown!” Sunny squealed, jumping over the table and running over to Zipp and taking from her friend. “T-t-t-this is PRINCESS TWILIGHT’S CROWN!” The earth pony cheered. “This is the Magic element from the Elements of Harmony!” She said, “My dad explained this to me as a filly!” She cheered as she went to put the crown on her head before jerking her head away. “No! I can’t! I shouldn’t!” She whined, closing her eyes as she held the crown away. “Maybe for a second, it would be ok?” She asked, peaking at the crown with one eye.

“Oh come on Sunny, you’re the alicorn here!” Pipp said with an eye roll as she zipped beside Sunny, plucking the crown out of her hooves and putting it on the earth pony’s head. “If I wore it and nothing bad happened then what is the worst that can happen?” She asked before looking the pony over. “Eh I don’t think gold is your color but past that it looks good on you.”

“Heh, thanks. But I don’t think I should be wearing another Alicorn’s crown. Who knows what-?” Sunny started to say reaching up to take the crown off but she froze mid-sentence, her pupils growing wide.

“Um… Sunny?” Pipp asked, frowning seeing the pony in front of her freeze, waving her hoof in front of the orange pony's face.

“Pipp don’t tell me you broke Sunny!” Zipp gasped going to the other side of their friend and shaking her.

“SILENCE!” A booming voice ordered as Sunny’s body began to move again. “IT IS TIME TO FIX THIS!” The voice said, Sunny’s mouth moving but the voice wasn’t hers. It was high-pitched and somehow more nerdy than Sunny’s. But not the pony’s eyes started to glow purple as an orange transparent unicorn horn and pegasus wings appeared and the pony. The sight of Sunny’s Alicorn form sent all her friends to their knees like normal. But this time was different. Normally a wave of regal energy came off Sunny when she transformed as if she had suddenly been given five years of royal training. But this time an almost ancient twinge of magic radiated with the girl this time as she confidently walked past everypony to the statues.

“My loyal friends.” The ancient voice said, echoing off the walls, a twinge of sorrow in their tone. “I’m sorry it took so long to free you from my spell.” She said, closing her eyes as she walked past the statue. “I hope you can find joy and peace in this new time.” She announced as she went to the throne and sat on it. “Now… BE FREE!” The voice announced blasting in the room like a canon, making the pony's ears ring as Sunny’s horn shimmered with a purple light before a blinding white light filled the room.

“Protect the-!” A new nasily voice started to order. “Ah… what the… fuck?” It asked before the sound of crashing could be heard, getting everypony’s attention again.

“Whoa!” Comet yelped, jumping back, but his hooves slipped over somepony and sent him crashing to the ground once again with a loud thud. All the ponies that had been nothing but pure crystal statues were now on the ground and normal ponies. “I uh… wasn’t expecting that!” Comet yelped.

“Hey, watch where you’re stepping!” A pink earth pony in a thick grey armor growled, panting as he lay on the ground.

“Princess Twilight?!” A lime green pegasus in a black and yellow tracksuit said, struggling to get up, her legs wobbling as she tried to push herself up. “Gallus?!” She called out.

“Gallus is here!” A voice close to the throne called out, “I can’t move but I am here and alive!”
“Ok, that's good.” The pegasus said before glaring at the group at the other end and tried lunging at them. But her wings only gave one weak flap, sending her to the ground. “Where is Princess Twilight, you traitors?! Who are you?! Where is that crazy alicorn at?!” She barked out as she tried to push herself back up.

“Hey, hey don’t push yourself so hard,” Comet said to the pegasus, but it was also met for everyone. “You all have been practically asleep for who knows how long. Your bodies need to regain their strength!” He chided.

“Plus we weren’t with Opaline,” Zipp muttered as she stood in front of her sister, her wings unfurled. “Well uh… not all of us were anyways.” She muttered trying not to look at Misty. “Who are you guys anyways?!”

“Oh my goodness, Zipp?” Pipp huffed as she brushed past her sister. “They need help not to be grilled.” The younger princess said, failing to mention that the older Pegasus was the first one to start throwing out questions. “Don’t worry we aren’t your enemies.” She promised the green Pegasus. “And trust me we are probably just as confused as you are right now.”

“She does kind of have a point, Zipp,” Hitch said, walking past her. “Besides it is not as if any of them are in any condition to cause any trouble right now.” He said. “Sunny, what do you think we should do?” He asked, looking at the thrown where the orange pony was back in her normal form, passed out, and snoring with her mouth open. The crown still sat on her head, the weird symbol in the center of it shimmering. "Ok… never mind. As sheriff, I am taking control of the situation! Izzy- Hey stop trying to lick them!” The yellow pony barked, seeing the purple pony with her tongue back out and trying to lick one of the horses. “Go to the bedrooms we found and get some blankets.” He ordered. “Misty go to the cafeteria and see if you can find anything in cans and jars, those should be preserved and safe to eat.” He said. “Well get you all comfortable while you recover and we trade stories.” He explained to the group, squatting down and helping the Pegasus off the ground. “I’m Sheriff Hitch.”

“Eh… Lightning Dust.” The Pegasus muttered, not meeting the younger pony’s gaze, obviously not pleased with needing help. “Make sure every creature else is taken care of before me.” She ordered the sheriff.

“And me too.” The gruff voice ordered as something stood up in the back of the group. The sight made Hitch freeze and his eyes go wide. There was some sort of blue creature with huge eagle-like wings and face, rubbing his head with talons. “As Captain of the Guard, I can make do without anything if need be.” He assured everyone trying to give them a confident smile, though his pulsing eyes told a different story. But him being on his feet and not instantly toppling over made Comet look at the creature shocked.

“What?” The creature asked them, seeing all the new faces staring at him. “Do I have something on my face?” He asked, scratching at his beak.

“Um… no Mr. Bird creature…” Hitch said shaking his head. “I just wasn’t expecting to see a huh… non-pony here.”

“He's a griffin you fucking degenerate.” Lightning Dust hissed at ‘Mr. Bird’ comment.
“A what?” The pony asked

“A Griffin?” The Griffin said, raising an eyebrow at the pony. “You know, Ponykinds most trusted and powerful ally?” He explained as if that was going to help things.

“Any of this ringing a bell?” Hitch asked as he leaned back and whispered to his Pegasus friend. But when he didn’t get an answer he looked back at Pipp, who had her eyes locked on the Griffin.

“Uh-huh, yeah that's great, Hitch.” She said, her voice high-pitched and soft. “You got this bro.”
“Ok, this is not how I thought my day would be going!” The Sheriff huffed as he got Lightning Dust to the rest of the group. “Well, Mr. Griffin I’m Sheriff Hitch.” He said with a head nod to the bluebird creature.

“Gallus,” He introduced, sitting down next to Lightning Dust, who was huffing and puffing as if she had just run a marathon. “Captain of Princess Twilight’s Guard.”

“Like… the Princess Twilight Sparkle?” Hitch asked trying to clarify things and wanting to make sense of the situation.

“Unless you know of a second one.” He groaned at the question. “Where is she anyway? Last I saw she was on her throne and that crazy Alicorn, Opaline I guess, was walking into the room. We were going to try and stop her… but then next thing I knew I was on the ground and you ponies were helping us.” He explained.

“Yeah, I was getting ready to kick some Alicorn ass!” Lighting cheered, “I don’t like it when my fun is interrupted.”

“Hm… Well…” Hitch hummed, sitting with the group, bringing a hoof to his chin as he thought. It was clear these ponies had been with Twilight at her final moments in the room, or her final moments in general, and the voice. It had wished them happiness in this ‘new time’. “I don’t really know how to say this gently. But I think… you all were… frozen in time and now you’re stuck in a new time that isn’t like the one that you are familiar with!” He said, tapping his hooves on the ground with a squeak leaving his body.

“What?” Lightning Dust asked, glaring at the Sherrif. “What absolute bullshit are you trying to say? We were frozen in time?”

“I think the theory is sound,” Comet said pacing around. “From what I have been told about Opaline. She was trying to drain magic from all ponies. So while you were trying to protect this Princess Twilight, she cast a spell turning you all into crystals to prevent the evil Alicorn from essentially killing you all from draining the magic from you.” He expanded on what Hitch’s idea was.

“Princess Twilight was hurt pretty badly by Opaline,” Hitch muttered remembering what Sunny had told him.

“Wait she was?!” Gallus asked hearing that, reaching over and grabbing Hitch, “What happened to her?”

“We don’t know,” Hitch confessed, “But you being surprised by it tells me it was after you were all turned to statues. Whether it was right after or years after.”

“Ok that's a fine theory, but how did we get free of the spell then?” Lightning Dust asked, “If Princess Twilight was the one who cast the spell then she must’ve undone it!”

“Oh well, our friend was the one who managed it.” He said pointing to the thrown, where Sunny was now on her back on the throne still fast asleep.

“Rrrrright… the earth pony cast magic… sure.” Lightning scoffed, “Wanna try a different lie?”
“No, I swear she did. She's also an alicorn!” Hitch said waving his hooves. “She put the crown on and started to act all weird before casting the spell that brought you all back.

“Out of all the brain-dead, shitty, moronic-!” The Pegasus started to yell but stopped when Griffin reached over and covered her mouth.

“Calm down Lightning!” He ordered with an eye roll, “Don’t act like stranger things haven't happened in Equestria. Besides… if they were lying where is Princess Twilight? Where is Opaline?” He pressed, staring at her until the Pegasus sighed and relaxed. “Ok good.” He said with a smile and moved his hand before addressing Hitch again. “We’re gonna take you at your word for now. But if it turns out you are lying to us you’re gonna need a lot more than a stone turning us to crystal to stop us.” He promised before looking over to Pipp who was still looking at him. “And can I help you? You’ve been staring at me for a while.”

“Uh, um, what?!” The younger princess yelped as she jumped, her wings sticking straight up. “I mean, nope nothing. Just wanted to introduce myself and say. Princess I Pipp am!” She said, getting a confused look from everyone. “I mean I’m uh… Princess Pipp.” She introduced.

“Uh cool, nice to meet you.” He sighed, glad the awkward staring had stopped. “And can I help you?!” He asked Pipp, who currently had the griffin’s wing pulled out and was looking at it with her magnifying glass.

“Nope, just looking.” She said as if this were totally normal behavior. “I’ve never met a griffin before. Honestly, I thought you guys were just creatures in stories!” She said.

“Really? You haven’t seen one of us before?” He asked, pulling his wing away. “Have you?” He asked Hitch, who just shook his head no.

“Apparently we have a lot to go over.” Hitch sighed as Izzy hopped in and started to toss old dusty blankets on everyone, including Sunny. “I think… we are all about to be surprised.” He said looking over at Sunny, who would probably be the best one to handle the conversation after they all rested up.

Author's Note

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you have any comments, criticisms, or critiques, feel free to leave them below. I am on the never ending journey of becoming a better writer and all the help I can get would be appreciated.