If you stopped anypony in Ponyville, and asked them where Twilight Sparkle would be on a cloudy morning like this one, they'd give you one answer: the Ponyville Library.  Most times, they would be right, and today was no exception.  She was, in fact, in the library, studying.  However, today's study seemed a bit strange. She was reading from a book clad in black leather, bearing a golden dragon's eye on the cover, and the title, "Malicious Magics: Spells and Secrets of the Dark Arts". It was not the sort of thing anypony would expect Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia, to be studying.

After reading a mere ten pages of the book, she had come to the conclusion that nopony could ever want to use these spells against another pony.  But she continued to study, hoping to learn about each spell's potential effects on ponies.  She figured that if she learned about the spells, she could counter them with some of her own magic.  She just wasn't too sure about that yet.  After all, she had read about some pretty horrifying spells; Celestia herself probably couldn't counter some of them.  

As mid-day approached, Twilight gazed out her window, observing the ponies that roamed through town.  The clouds had started to clear, casting beams of sunlight through her window.  After taking a small bite out of an apple, she dove back into the book, blocking out the sunshine from her mind.  Only a hoof-full of pages remained, and she was going to finish them all.

=============

Spike entered the library, back from running all around Ponyville. Twilight looked up from her book as the small dragon walked into the library.

"Welcome back Spike!" Twilight said cheerfully.

"Hi Twilight!" Spike responded, "Still reading that book?"

"Yes, but I'm almost done!  Just a few more pages to go!" Twilight was very pleased with herself; having nearly finished a book of this length in a couple of days was no easy task. She had more notes on dark magic than anypony she knew, with the probable exception of her mentor Celestia, who undoubtably had so many notes that you could bury a pony in them. "Did you get all of your errands done?"

"Yep, all done! Except for-"

"Good." said Twilight, obviously distracted. "Thank you, Spike."

"You're welcome, Twilight." Spike turned his attention towards the book.  "You didn't try any of those horrible spells out, did you? You know I'm not exactly a big fan of you reading about this stuff." And with good reason. He had glanced at the book’s contents on a couple of occasions, and had seen some of the worst that this book had to offer.

"No Spike, I’m not that crazy.  I’ve told you before, I’m just trying to learn about this stuff so I can counter it with magic of my own.   And the only way I can do that is..."

        Spike sighed.

"Studying it." he said.

“Exactly.” Twilight quickly refocused on her book. “Now, remember, Spike, you can't tell anypony about what I'm studying.  If word somehow got to Celestia, I could be in big trouble."

        Spike looked kind of disheartened.

"All right..." He said.  Twilight approached the small dragon.

"Hey, something wrong?"

"Nothing.  I enjoy sharing this sort of thing though.  You're fun to hang out with, and when you learn something new or cool, I want to be able to share it." He paused.  "It's just kind of weird for me, that's all."

"Spike, this is the only time you'll have to do something like this; I promise.  It's for my safety, okay?"

"Okay." He said.  "I guess I can do it.  But just this once!" He said, enthusiasm and energy returning to his voice.

"Thank you Spike." Twilight said, turning back towards her desk, "You've done a lot of work this week, and I had you do a lot of errands today as well."

"You're welcome Twilight. It's no problem!" Spike said.  As he started to go up the stairs, he suddenly remembered his incomplete favor. "Oh, and Twilight,"

"Yes?"

"I have a little message for you, from Fluttershy." Twilight turned her head back towards Spike.

"Go on..."

"She wanted to ask you to go outside, and maybe visit her today.  She said that she hadn't seen you around in a few days, and was starting to get worried."

Twilight sighed.

        "She's right. I haven't exactly been outside a whole lot, now have I?"

"Nope." Spike chuckled,  "I think everyone's starting to get worried about you Twi. Including me."

"I'll make sure to go out and visit in a little while.  But right now, I've got another spell or two to read about." Twilight said.

"Twilight, you always get so wrapped up in your books." Spike said as he continued walking up the stairs.

"I know." Twilight said, "Oh, and I have something for you as well!"  Twilight's horn lit up as she used some magic to open her saddlebag and levitate a large gemstone towards Spike.  "There you go!"  At that moment, Twilight could have sworn she heard Spike's jaw hit the floor.  He stood there silently, staring at this delicious looking gemstone being held out just in front of him. After a few seconds of simply staring at it and drooling, he quickly grabbed it out of the air.

"Oh thank you Twilight! You're the best!" Spike shouted excitedly ran up the rest of the stairs, intending to relax after doing errands all over Ponyville. This gemstone was the icing on the cake.

"You're welcome!" Twilight half shouted.  A loud crunch was heard from upstairs, and Twilight smiled.  Turning tail to the stairs, she walked back to her desk, prepared to descend back into the strange world of the dark arts.

================

The sun was now shining across Equestria; the pegasus ponies had finally gone and cleared the skies.  Twilight had finished Malicious Magics, and took her stack of notes upstairs.  Swiftly sidestepping around a now sleeping Spike, she quietly opened a drawer.  She carefully stored her notes, bound by some string, and quietly closed the drawer again.  Smiling, and going back downstairs, approached her desk, stowing Malicious Magics in the shadows below it.  Finally, she felt truly ready to be outside again.  As she left the library, the sun's warmth and light shone down on her face.  It felt great to be out again.  Twilight was pleased with how the day had shaped up, and a bright pink pony was just pleased to see Twilight out of her library.

"Hi Twilight!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly.  Her big, bright smile seemed to light up the ground around her. "It's good to see you again!  Being cooped up in that library all day just can't be good for you!"

"Hi Pinkie.  How have things been going around Ponyville?" Not having been outside, Twilight was curious if anything interesting happened while she was studying.

"Oh, not too much.  Gummy escaped from me yesterday, but I managed to find him."

"Oh?  Where was he?"

"Biting a tree outside."  The two ponies shared a laugh at this. "Yeah, that was just weird!"

"I'll say!"  The ponies continued to laugh, not a care in the world.  Twilight wiped a tear of joy out of her eye as they started to calm down.

"Hey, we should have a party to celebrate you being out of the library for the first time in forever!" Pinkie shouted, getting more excited.

"That sounds like a lot of fun!  We'll need to talk everypony if we're going to make it happen though!" Twilight paused, pondering what to do. "How about this; I'll go talk to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash about it, and you talk with Rarity and Applejack?" Pausing again, she thought of a brilliant idea to make the party even better.  "Maybe we could have..."

"A SLUMBER PARTY!" Pinkie shouted again.  Everypony within 100 meters stopped, and just stared at Pinkie.  "Sorry." She said.  It was enough to satisfy everyone else, and they all continued to go about their business.

"Yeah, that's what I was about to say." Twilight said, trying to calm the party pony down, "Where should we have it?"

"What about here, at the library?" Pinkie suggested.  Twilight thought it might have been a joke, but she was completely serious about this though, despite the fact that Twilight had just spent a couple of days solely within these walls.  However, she knew that the Ponyville Library was the only place big enough to conceivably hold all 6 friends for the night.  Twilight would just need to do some work to keep her studies hidden from everyone else.

"Sure, I don't see why not!" Twilight said.

"All right! It's a plan then!  I'm going to get stuff ready for the party tonight!  I'll see you in a few hours!"

"Bye Pinkie!"  The pink party pony half skipped and half bounced away from the library.  Twilight left in the opposite direction, going to visit Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy and tell them about this party.  Then, she needed to return to the library, and get ready herself.  And of course, hide her reading material.

===============

Meanwhile, in a house near the outskirts of Ponyville, a purple pony was working on some magic of her own.  She had been practicing her spells over the past few days, and had finally perfected them.  She could pull them off without fail because of the sheer dedication she had put into them over the past two weeks or so.  And now, she was ready for a live test, and she had a volunteer.  A volunteer with an orange coat and a purple mane.

===============

Twilight Sparkle finished making her rounds to her friends.  After talking with Rainbow Dash, and a small visit with Fluttershy, she was more than ready to see all of her friends again.   She wasn't sure if Pinkie had finished yet, but she was fairly certain that Pinkie would be done.  She knew that tonight, there would be a party among her friends, and that party would probably go on well into the night.  Twilight had a lot of cleaning to do.  She re-entered the library, knowing that Pinkie would be there soon with decorations.  Walking up the stairs, Twilight used some magic and opened the curtains, and approached Spike's bed.  Twilight gave him a small nudge, and said, "Wake up."  Spike's eyes slowly opened.  It took him a little time to adjust to the light levels of the library again, but soon enough, he was awake.

"Hey Twilight.  What time is it?" Spike questioned, wondering how long he had been left to sleep.

"About mid-afternoon." Twilight replied. She started to walk towards the stairs, "Spike, you need to get up now.  We're having a party here, and we need to get cleaned up."

"'We'?  Who's 'we'?"

"Me, Pinkie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity."

"Rarity will be here?!?!" Spike shouted.  He jumped out of his bed, clearly excited about the party, "What needs to be done?!?!"

"I figured that would get you going.  The books need to be organized, the room needs to be dusted, and I need a better hiding place for my book.  I just can't let anypony see it."

"I'll organize and dust, and you look for that hiding place.  The library has to look really good if Rarity's going to be here!"

"Thank you Spike.  I really appreciate that."

"No problem!  Anything for Rar...I mean, you." Twilight allowed herself a little chuckle.  She knew Spike was crazy for Rarity, and telling him that she would be here acted as motivation for him.  Twilight went down the stairs, and grabbed the dusting cloth for Spike.  She placed it on a table near the bottom of the stairs, and went to go retrieve Malicious Magics from her other desk.  As approached her desk near the window where she peeked under the desk.  She didn't see the book at first, so she used her magic to shine some light under there.  Her eyes widened as she noticed a critical detail.  It was gone.

=================

Twilight's heart dropped into her stomach. "Spike!" Twilight shouted, now concerned with one thing only.  The missing book.  Somepony had gotten into the library and taken it while she wasn't there.  Spike came rushing down the stairs, shocked look on his face.

"What? What happened?!?!" Spike asked, mixed in a state between tiredness and shock.

"The book is missing!"

"Book?  What book?"

"Malicious Magics!  The one on dark arts!  Spike, who came in here?" Twilight was getting frantic now, mind racing for answers.

"I dunno, I was asleep." Twilight began pacing across the room.

"So, literally anypony could have walked into this library, taken the book, and walked out.  Anypony in all of Ponyville.  That certainly narrows my search down."  Now Twilight was frustrated.  How could she have forgotten to lock the library, especially with a book of that subject just lying around!

"I'm sorry Twilight!  I forgot about..."

"I know, otherwise this wouldn't have happened!"

"What wouldn't have happened?" Pinkie Pie asked as she entered the library.  She removed her saddlebags and approached Twilight.

"Oh! Hi Pinkie! Umm...nothing.  Nothing at all!" Twilight nervously replied. 'If Pinkie found out,' Twilight started thinking to herself, 'the news would be all over Ponyville within the hour.'

"Did you lose something?  I'm great at finding things!" Pinkie offered.

"I lost...a book of mine. A very important book."

"What book?" Twilight knew that she would have to tell Pinkie about her studies.  And that could end badly, if she didn't have one trick up her sleeve.

"If I tell you, you need to Pinkie Pie promise that you'll never tell anyone."

"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."  Pinkie promised, swearing by her own name.  Twilight began to explain her studies of the dark magic arts over the past couple of days.  She told Pinkie about the book she had lost, Malicious Magics. "Oh, that book?  It was under your desk!  I came in here about 20 minutes ago, after I finished talking to Rarity and Fluttershy. You were already in here silly!  Don't you remember?"

"No, I don't."

"You don't?!?  Well, I came in, and you were under the desk grabbing the book!  You put it in your saddlebag, told me you were still busy, and ran off.  After that, I left, and now you're back here, done your errands, and ready to party!" Twilight definitely didn't remember any of this.

"Did anything look strange about me?" Twilight asked.  Her mind was already racing at this stage. Pinkie saw Twilight in the library 15 minutes before Twilight even got into the library?

"Well, your saddlebags were darker, but other than that, I saw nothing!" Pinkie smiled.  Twilight could tell that she was being completely honest.  This wasn't a pony she had just imagined.  This was a real pony, who had somehow impersonated her, and stolen her book.  That pony just walked out the door with dozens of dark spells, and as far as everyone else could tell, was Twilight Sparkle herself.

===============

Across Ponyville, a unicorn with a dark grey coat entered her home.  She wiped a little mud off her hooves at the entry, and entered the house.  With a stomp of her hooves, the lights came on, dispelling the darkness from every corner.  It all came to reveal a sparsely decorated room, with dark brown walls, and a hardwood floor.  Small bookshelves dotted the wall, and a picture of the unicorn as a filly was present over the door.  This was the home of Eclipse.  At first glance it seemed like the home of any normal pony in Ponyville, except for the lack of bright colors of course.  

Eclipse opened her saddlebags, and removed a single book.  Malicious Magics.  She had "found" it at the Ponyville library, and the unicorn had already begun studying.  While this particular copy of the book hadn't been given to her by her leader, she had the study material they had been using.  Eclipse had of course gotten this particular study material by illegitimate methods, but she had it nonetheless.  Her transformation spell had worked perfectly today, unlike most times, and even slipped by one of Twilight Sparkle's friends, Pinkie Pie.  Everything will be perfect from here on, Eclipse thought, and there's no way Twilight would ever find me again.  For now, I just want to study this book.  Eclipse opened the book to the first page, and began to read.  And unlike Twilight, she had every intent of trying each and every spell out.

===============

Everyone had now arrived at the Ponyville Library.  Streamers hung over the door, and balloons were hanging inside.  Pinkie had done a great job on the decorations, and the library certainly looked festive.  Rarity was giving makeovers to everypony who wanted one, which meant Applejack was not going anywhere near Rarity until that was over.  Rainbow Dash also stayed away from the makeovers, and was happily flying around outside the library.  Everyone else, even Fluttershy, allowed Rarity to make them over.   The mud certainly made everyone feel better, and after a quick rinse off, everypony felt rejuvenated.  Even after a makeover though, Twilight was already wanting to move on to a pillow fight.  She suggested the idea, and Rarity was the first to give feedback.

"But that will mess up my newly styled mane!" Rarity complained.  Her mane certainly did have more shine than usual after that makeover.

"No one said you have to join in if you don't want to.  Just call in Rainbow Dash for us all, won't ya?" Applejack said.  Rarity obliged, and called in Rainbow from her flight session.

"Finally!  Those makeovers took forever!  I thought you guys would sit there with mud on your faces all night!" Rainbow Dash said.  She flew through a nearby window, and landed on the main floor. "So, now what are we doing?"

"Pillow fight!" Applejack tossed a pillow at Rainbow Dash.  She dodged, and picked one up of her own.  Instead of tossing it at Applejack though, she tossed it at Twilight Sparkle.

"Ummm...girls..." Fluttershy started to say.  She ducked as a pillow soared past her head.  "Oh..." Fluttershy moved out of the way, as more pillows started to fly through the air.  Pillows hit the ponies left and right.  Fluttershy and Rarity both retreated to the safety of the upper floor of the library, as a battle raged on.  Books were knocked off shelves as the pillows impacted, and Applejack was bucking the pillows as if they were apple trees.  Everypony was having a blast, pillows and feathers flying everywhere.

=================

The pillow battle had finished, and Applejack was declared the champion.  Her bucking speed had gotten her more hits to the face than could be counted conceivably.  The ponies were all tired after that, and all agreed to go to bed.  Twilight pulled out some beds for three of the ponies.  Herself and two others would sleep upstairs.  They'd had a long night, and a good party.  But now, it was time for a rest.

=================

Eclipse had just finished reading the 30th page of Malicious Magics.  She had already learned the basics of some new spells, but had gotten the hang of none of them.  Her frustration was starting to get to her now.  She was at the point of screaming, when another pony knocked on her door.  Eclipse answered, and was greeted by the deep voice of a yellow stallion in a dark cloak.  "The meeting is in 5 minutes.  You need to hurry, Eclipse."  She nodded, and approached her book again.  She closed it, placing it in her saddlebags.  Back at the door, she put on her own near black cloak, and walked out the door into the cold night without speaking a word. Off to a meeting of the Shades.

Next Chapter: Chapter 2 - A Letter at Dawn Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 2 Minutes