Crimson arrived at the library within a few minutes and started gasping for breath. He pushed his limit to get there as soon as he could, but didn't care that he was in pain. Twilight was in danger and Crimson was the only one who could save her. He walked up to the door and went inside, only to find a purple dragon with green round scales panicking in the corner. Crimson walked up to him and tapped him on the back.

"Who's there?! Hey I remember you. You're Crimson, right?" Crimson nodded in response and let the dragon continue. "I'm glad you're here. Twilight's gone missing! Have you seen her?!" He started to panic again.

"No Spike, I haven't. However, I do know where she is. Before you ask anymore questions, I need to know that you trust me to explain everything first." Spike nodded while biting his claws. "Twilight has been taken into another world and is currently in danger. I have reason to believe that I can follow her in through a vortex that is somewhere in this library. It is likely to have appeared in something that Twilight is emotionally connected to, like a journal. Do you have any ideas where it may be?"

Spike looked extremely confused, but tried to help anyway. "Well all Twilight's personal stuff is in her room. Its upstairs if you want to take a look."

Crimson started to walk upstairs and Spike followed along behind. As soon as Crimson walked into her room, he found something out of the ordinary. A huge book was opened up on a pedestal. Crimson approached it and noticed that the pages it was open at were blank. "Spike, what book is this?" he asked while still staring at the book's worn pages.

"Its Twilight's biggest encyclopedia. She told me it contains every single bit of Equestrian history. Its her most precious possession, at least thats what she said." Spike was curious as to why Crimson was so focussed on that one book.

Crimson touched the page and to his suprise, it rippled, sending a wave across the pages, much like a water drop would ripple in a pond. Bleeding Heart appeared at Crimson's side and examined the encyclopedia in front of them.

"Crimson, this is it. This book is emitting a dark aura and the pages rippling like that confirmed my suspicions. A Shadow has been in contact with this book." Bleeding Heart stood there, looking at Crimson, waiting for the next order.

"If this is our way in, we need to go now." Crimson looked at Bleeding Heart and nodded, then turned to face Spike. "We are going in after Twilight. Stay here and do not let anypony into this library for any reason."

"We? Who are you going with?" Spike rubbed his head in confusion. A moment later, Bleeding Heart revealed himself to Spike, causing him to jump back and fall to the floor. "What just happened?! Who are you?!"

"I am Bleeding Heart. All you need to know is that I am a part of Crimson. Trust our words and remain here. We will return with Twilight as soon as we can."

With that, Crimson and Bleeding Heart began to place their hooves into the book, slowly entering it completely and transporting themselves to the world of the Shadows. When they arrived, they saw themselves in a dark library. No windows could be seen. The bookshelves were all old and dusty, the books themselves even more worn. Crimson walked over to one of the bookshelves and took one of the books. The cover was torn and the spine was split. He opened the book and the pages were all the same. Each only had one word written on it.

"Alone. That's all each page has on it. What do you think this means?" Crimson picked up more books, only to find that they too, only had the word 'alone' written on each page.

"I guess this means we've found Twilight's inner library. I'm not sure how to interpret our surroundings, but its best if we don't. Come on. Twilight is probably nearby, we need to keep moving and find here as soon as we can." Bleeding Heart began moving towards the back of the library and Crimson followed him.

When they reached the back, they found a doorway. However, instead of a door, there was a red and black vortex standing in front of them. Voices could be heard through the vortex, but neither of them could figure our what was being said. They proceeded through, Crimson's resolve overpowering his fear of what lies ahead.

The two found themselves standing in a round room. It was almost pitch black. The only source of light was a small swinging lamp dangling from the dark ceiling in the centre of the room. All Crimson and Bleeding Heart could see was a table and chair in the centre. A lavender unicorn was sitting on the chair with her head hanging down.

"Twilight!" Crimson ran straight towards her. He knew it could be no other pony. She looked up at him and she had tears in her eyes.

"Crimson. Please, help me. Get me out of this horrible place." Her voice was faint and she was genuinely terrified. She held Crimson tightly, not wanting to let go.

"Its ok Twilight. Lets get out of here. Bleeding Heart can help us leave." They started to walk back to Bleeding Heart, when they heard a voice. It was very similar to Twilight's, but was more ominous.

"Finally, somepony came to save me. I didn't think I was ever going to leave this scary place. Why can't I ever take care of myself?" another lavender pony emerged from the darkness, surrounded by a dark blue aura. She looked exactly like Twilight, the only difference being this pony's yellow eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Twilight stood close to Crimson. She was curious and somewhat scared of this pony that appeared out of nowhere.

"You think you can't do anything by yourself anymore. You feel like you depend on your friends so much, its impacted your ability to stand on your own four hooves. You don't want to lose your friends yet you don't want to be around them? Twilight, you are so pathetic. Why don't you take a good look at yourself? Go on. I'm standing right here." The other pony walked towards Twilight and Crimson and stopped right in front of the pair of them.

"What are you saying? Who are you?" Twilight's voice was still faint and her head was still hanging. She didn't want to look up.

"I believe I just told you that. I am you. You are me. We're both one and the same. Thats why I know all about you and what's really inside that heart of yours." The other Twilight started laughing maniacally.

"No. I can't accept that. You're nothing like me. Its not true." Twilight tried to continue, but Crimson stopped her before she could say another word.

"Twilight listen to me. This thing in front of us is your Shadow. If you reject it, it will grow in power and try to take your life. You have to accept it." He kept her close, hoping she would listen to him.

"Sorry Crimson, but I can't accept what isn't true. That thing isn't me and it never will be!" Twilight shouted and as she did, she saw the Shadow in front of her begin to grow.

"You're right. I'm not you, yet. Although when I'm done, I'm going to be the only Twilight Sparkle left standing. Say goodbye!" The pony in front of them started to transform into a more powerful entity, as lesser Shadows throughout the library began to merge with it. Soon enough, Twilight's Shadow had become completely black. A huge hole now appeared in her chest, revealing how empty Twilight's Shadow truly was.

"I am a Shadow, the true self. I'll never lose my solitude and I'll kill anypony who gets in my way!" Twilight's Shadow immediately charged at Twilight and Crimson. Her horn began to glow and increase in size.

Bleeding Heart appeared right in front of them and blocked the attack with his own horn. "You wanna play with darkness? Then I'll do the same!" His horn began to glow and a dark barrier surrounded Twilight. She began to worry but Bleeding Heart began to speak through the shadows. "Do not worry Twilight. You are safe within that barrier. Crimson and I will handle this."

Crimson's horn started glowing as he charged at Twilight's Shadow. She charged at him and their horns clashed. They each began to struggle for control and Bleeding Heart took this opportunity to change the rules. Two Shadows rose out of the ground and merged with him, causing two black wings to form on his back. He rose into the air and unleashed a wave of fire at the pair of them. Crimson saw the flames out of the corner of his eye and leaped back. Before she could do the same, Twilight's Shadow was trapped in the fire, unable to move and slowly taking damage from the flames.

"You think this is enough to stop me?! Think again you troublesome foals!" She unleashed a wave of dark energy, which extinguished the flames in one single strike. She then charged at Crimson, knocking him to the ground.

"You just made a big mistake. It is my duty to protect Crimson." Bleeding Heart immediately charged at her from the air. She stood her ground, causing the two to clash. Due to his advantage of height, Bleeding Heart was able to ram Twilight's Shadow into the ground. While she was down, Bleeding Heart created a vortex in the ground. A black hand emerged from that vortex which then plunged into Twilight's Shadow. As it did, the hand began to drain the darkness out of her, returning her to her original form. After Bleeding Heart was sure it was safe, he lowered the barrier around Twilight. She got up and walked over to Bleeding Heart. Crimson then followed suit and stood up. He limped over to the others, realising it was time for Twilight to face herself.

Twilight's Shadow then stood up weakly and looked at Twilight, saying nothing at all. Crimson gently nudged Twilight, indicating that she needed to do what he said earlier. She looked at him, nodded and then turned back to her Shadow. "I didn't want to accept it, but I can't hide the truth forever. I really do feel that way sometimes. I just didn't want my friends to think that I didn't want them around anymore, but at the same time I didn't want to depend on them too much. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I understand now. You really are me, or at least part of me anyway."

At that moment, Twilight's Shadow began to glow. Her form was transforming once again, but this time it was different. Her coat changed from lavender to bright white, her horn grew larger and a small book of spells appeared on a chain around her neck, the larger equivalent appearing at her side. She then began to speak.

"Twilight Sparkle, you have demonstrated the strength of heart needed to face oneself. For this, you have unlocked the facade to overcome life's hardships. I am Shining Star." She then faded away and in her place, a tarot card appeared in front of Twilight.

She grabbed it and showed it to Crimson. "Crimson, do you know what this card is for?" She handed the card to him. He looked at it and saw that it was the magician arcana card.

"This card represents your Persona. Since you were able to face yourself and overcome your Shadow, it changed into your Persona, Shining Star. She now resides within that card. If the time ever comes, you will know how to realease it. Trust me." Crimson smiled at her, supporting her as they began to walk out of the room and back into the main library.

"You seem to know a lot about this. Is it because of Bleeding Heart?" She looked at Crimson, who nodded. He didn't have anything else to say about it. All he wanted to do was leave this world as soon as possible.

They walked back to where they entered and found that the door to the library was rippling, much like the pages of the encyclopedia they used to enter it. Crimson didn't hesitate to walk through the doorway with Twilight and Bleeding Heart. When they reached the end of the path, they found themselves back in Twilight's real library.

Spike saw them come back with Twilight and was glad to see them return. "Oh thank Celestia you saved her. Is she gonna be alright?"

Crimson nodded. "She will be fine. She just needs rest." He helped Twilight to her bed and laid her down. Within a minute she was sound asleep. Crimson walked back over to Spike. "Don't let her do anything stressful for the next two or three days. She needs to stay in bed and relax." Spike nodded and saw Crimson out before going to clean up the mess in Twilight's room.

Crimson then headed back home and decided to go straight to bed. He was exhausted from being inside the Shadow's world for so long. He went up to his bedroom, climbed into bed and drifted off to sleep as quickly as Twilight did. Next Chapter: Revealing the Truth Estimated time remaining: 45 Minutes