The Manticore, otherwise known as mardya khowr. Averages at eight hooves high at the withers and twenty hooves long from snout to the base of the tail. Short-tempered, territorial. Can be—

With a sigh Shining closed another yellowing, dusty tomb and sat it down. “That’s not it either…” he muttered, looking around in annoyance.

The room around him was a small one, dimly lit and smelling faintly of old paper and blood. All around the room were rows upon rows of books, ranging from foot thick spell books to journals that were just a few pages thick. The covers of many of these books and journals, along with the walls and ceiling, were the color of sandstone and were in so many different languages that Shining wouldn’t make heads nor tails of what they said.

In the center of the room was a plain wooden bench. It was a big bench and a well-used one if the gashes in it were any indication. It was the kind of bench that could be found in a blacksmith's shop or maybe sitting in a woodcarver’s workshop. But Shining could see black splotches all around the floor and on the bench itself. He could also see two small but sturdy looking cages sitting in the corner of the room. Whatever had happened in this room Shining was absolutely sure that none of it concerned woodworking or blacksmithing.

There was a tenseness in this tiny room, a weight. He could feel it in each book that he picked up and each time he turned toward that scarred bench and the little table of knives, hooks and cleavers sitting in a neat little row next to it. Bad things had happened in this room; things that probably should be forgotten.

The unicorn’s vision started to darken. Yawning hugely, he shook his head like a dog in an attempt to stay awake. He had to stay awake. He had to find the book that would help him save Ares and Cadence. He needed to keep his eyes open and keep looking until he found something. A hint of something. Then, and only then, could he get some rest.

“So did Ares tell you what kind of book to look for?” Flash asked as he played with what Shining hoped was a replica skeleton of a diamond dog. “Like the size of the book, it’s color, if it has any markings on it or something like that?”

Realizing that he was swaying side-to-side Shining took a few hasty steps around the room. “I didn’t have time to ask him,” he said, looking at the various shelves for something to catch his eye. “Princess Celestia pulled me out of the room before I could ask.”

Grunting, Flash poked at the skeleton’s ribs, causing the skeleton to wobble back and forth on the steel cable holding it up in the air. “Of course he didn’t,” the private muttered, looking around the room. “Though, to be fair, it’s not like all of these books are all that different anyways…”

“Hey, you didn’t need to come down here with me,” Shining pointed out.

Flash’s nose scrunched up. “Hey, I am not complaining. All I’m saying is the two of us really aren’t equipped to search through all of these books. At least not by ourselves.”

“You haven’t picked up a single book since we came in here,” Shining dryly remarked, picking up a book with his magic.”

“Hey, I might be dumb enough to come down here with you but I’m not dumb enough to touch books that could have hexes and curses and evil magic woven into them.”

Snorting, though he casted a quick spell on the book that he was holding to make sure that it was safe, Shining flipped the book open. “Well when you ever decide to—” Cursing under his breath, Shining shook his head again as his eyelids drooped. “—decide to stop being a baby you can start working on the shelf over—“

Shining flicked as light erupted from his side. “WHAT THE BU—”

BANG!

Both Flash and Shining were knocked off their hooves as a burst of magic tore through the still air in the little room. Papers, quills, and knives went flying all around the room, forcing the two stallions to quickly crawl toward any available shelter. Flash managed to get behind the bench and Shining was about to dive underneath a small metallic table when a hoof stomped down onto his tail. Yelping in both pain and surprise, Shining quickly found himself on his back staring up at both Princess Celestia and Luna. He stared at the two glaring alicorns before looking down at his shoulder, which was still dimly glowing.

“Oh horse apples, you put a location spell on me didn’t—”

Before he could finish his sentence Luna’s horn sparked to life. Not two seconds later Shining Armor was fast asleep and dead to the world, snoring so loud that the noise would have put a chain saw to shame.

“Private Flash Sentry, I will give you five seconds to get your kiester over here before I lose my temper,” Celestia said evenly, teleporting Shining out of the room with a flash of her horn.

Flash was a blur as he jumped over the bench, ducked under a table and dove between two shelves to get to the two princesses. “Private Flash Sentry reporting for duty your highnesses!” he yelled, smartly saluting. “You wish is my—epp!”

The private jumped away as Luna nearly steamrolled him, her lips drawn back into a snarl. “We commanded that thou take that foolish stallion to a bed and instead thou followed him into—”

Before the Princess of the Night could continue her rant Celestia put a hoof on her shoulder. Furious beyond words, Luna quickly turned toward her sister. “What?!” she snapped. “Can’t thou see that—!”

Without saying a word Celestia gestured around the room. The fury on Luna’s face quickly drained away, confusion replacing it as she looked around. “I do not remember ever seeing a room like this…” she muttered to herself, making a face as she sniffed the air. “What foul place is this?”

“I haven’t the foggiest idea, sister mine…”

Both alicorns looked around the room for a moment more before turning their attention back toward Flash, who was literally shaking in his horseshoes. There was sweat dripping down the private’s face and his eyes were nervously darting around. If one didn’t know any better they might have said that the private had just seen a ghost, but it was much, much worse than that.

Flash was a stallion that knew he had royally messed up. He had disobeyed orders from his boss, one of which moved a solar body that was bigger than the planet he was currently standing on. And not only that but both of those ponies didn’t look too happy about his disobedience. So it only made sense that he was a little nervous.

“Flash, would you be a dear and tell us where that half-delirious stallion led you to?” Celestia asked, the harshness in her tone lessening somewhat.

“W-We, I m-mean Shining, well, you s-see he—”

“Stop yammering and answer us colt,” Luna snapped, her patience nonexistent.

“IfoundasecretroominajanitorsclosetandShiningmadeusgoinit!” Flash cried, ducking behind a table that did nothing to hide him from the princesses’ gaze.

Celestia and Luna exchanged glances.

“Could this be that nonsense that Shining was talking about?” Luna questioned.

Celestia looked around the room once more, unease settling on her features as she did so. Just like her sister Celestia could feel the wrongness in this room. Walking over to one of the small tables in the room she quickly grabbed a tombs from one of the shelves and opened it with a flick of her horn, setting it down on the table.

“Anatomy of the Ursa Major,” she muttered, flipping through the pages. Her horn glowed again, pulling more books off the shelves. With each book that she opened the more grim and sickened she looked until she finally placed the books back where they belonged, an almost haunted look in her eyes.

“I always knew that Sombra was a monster but not even I...” Shaking her head, she turned toward her sister. “Luna, please take Mr. Sentry away and get my student.” She took a few deep breaths, still trying to digest whatever she had just read. “I believe that we may have found Sombra’s private study.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~

As Ares trekked through that mind-numbing cold he couldn’t help but think of his little brother. He hoped that Matthew was doing alright back at his college.

The chubby dork was studying to become a park ranger. Ares had always teased him about it, saying that he didn’t think there would be good internet reception or a McDonald's out in the middle of the woods, but all the teasing aside he knew that he would probably be a great park ranger or whatever the hell he wanted to do with his natural science degree or whatever he was getting.

The kid loved animals and walking through the woods. In fact there was one time when he—

W̵̘͔̩͇ͥ̍̓ḧ́͌̿̑̑ͩ̒͠͏̠̱͔͍̯ͅA̺̝̟̪ͤ́̎̉̒͒t̞̮̤͎͌̓ ̧̹̭ͣͧ̽ͬ̒́F̵̼̥̺̄͛͝o̰̞̦̳̲ͧ̓̏Ō̯̘͓͓̩͍̖̳̺ͤ̍͐̑̚d̀͂́҉͍͍̰̬̲̣ͅ ̶̨͐̊̉ͮ͑̂̈́ͩ͏̩̳̻̗̲͓͕̮ͅI̢̳̱̦͙̠̬̯ͮ̅̽͑ͯ͌͟s̸̸̗͎̳̤̃̅̎ͩ͒̚ ̨̨̝̹̙̱̯̯̊̈̏̒T̞̟̜̜͂h̥ͣͤͨ̕͟Í̴̴̺̣͚̰̞͍̣̲͆̍ͣ̂̏̄s̜̯͓̩̑͐̃?̷̨͓̹̯͎̗͑́͒͠%̨͚̖̺̗͚̐ͫ͋̈́̓̐
͈͖͎͉̍͋ͤ

Ares stopped walking, his head darted around to find where that voice had come from. “HELLO?” he yelled. “IS ANYONE THERE?”

He looked in all directions but there was nothing and no one. The only thing that was there to greet him was white. Frowning, Ares did his best to ignore the howling winds and listened for the sounds of someone yelling, walking around, anything. After a while the cold became too much and he was once again forced to move forward.

“I must have just imagined it,” he muttered, pounding his fists against his chest to try to get the feeling back in them. “There’s nobody out here ri—”

C̲͙̘͚̓̏͆ͫ̍̒͘͡ō̽̈̈̃ͥ̆͑͏͚͚̣̖̘ͅM̠̘̓̋̿̾̑͟͠ę̛͔͙̣̰͚͐̽ͥ͌̐ͤ̚
̧̛͈̟͓̙͚̗͍̉ͣ͋C̡̹̱̺͌͂͢ọ̧̪̓͆ͦͫͭͫ͜M̼̰̙ͬ̈ͯ̔ͮ̕͟ẽ͊̉̈҉̠̲͕
̧̲̬͖͓̝̏͐ͨͫ̓̔̔̚Å̸̳̹̺̤̳̫̩͂͟n͓͚̪̥͈̪ͥͬ͂̈́ͬ̿ͥ͂D̞͓͉̺̯̱̼ͬ̎́͟
̬̳̭͇̲̯̤̯ͭ̔̃͒ͫ͐̑̃̀s̷̫̣͓̺͎̯̖͚͋͊̄̀̀E̟͇̺̗͚̐̄̂̾̅̈́̉͒ͥȩ̗̮̭͛͐
̶͓͖̩̰̮̫̺͊̈́ͤͤ̓̾̉̈́̀

Once again Ares forced himself to stop. His head turned toward the left where the voice had come from. Stomping his feet against the snow-covered ground he tried to remember if hypothermia caused hallucinations. Since his knowledge and experience about outdoor survival was zero he drew a blank, but a part of him felt that it didn’t. Someone was around here not that far away from him, and if someone was around here that meant that civilization could be right around the corner.

Spurred by the thought of getting out of the cold Ares trekked through the snow toward where he thought the voice was coming from with newfound vigor. He might lose a couple fingers and toes because of all of this walking in this tundra but he was fine with it as long as he got out of this cold. If he got out of this cold then he’d get warm. If he got warm he’d live.

“HEY! CAN YOU HEAR ME? WHOEVER THE FUCK WAS YELLING CAN YOU FOLLOW THE SOUND OF MY VOICE? I GOT LOST IN THIS FUCKING BLIZZARD AND I NEED SOME SERIOUS HELP RIGHT NOW! PLEASE!”

With each step he took Ares could see something appearing in the distance. After another minute or two of him walking and having his calls unanswered he saw that he was making his way toward what looked like a cave. Since it was the only landmark for MILES the cave seemed especially big, with a gaping hole that showed nothing but darkness inside. There was a certain… something that made him stop his advance toward that cave, a sense of wrongness.

“IS ANYONE IN THAT CAVE?!” Ares yelled at the top of his lungs. “CAN ANYBODY HEAR—” A particularly cold blast of wind made him grit his teeth as his partially frozen hands and face screamed in pain. “Fuck it,” he muttered, once again making his way toward the cave. “I don’t care if that cave has a fucking monster in it. I need to get out of this cold for a little bit. Hopefully whoever’s around here sees the cave too and makes their way toward it.” With his mind made up he started making his way toward the eerie cave as fast as his frozen feet could take him.

To Ares’s immense relief the wind seemed to die down the closer he got to the cave. “Thank god,” he murmured. “Hopefully I’ll find someone in there…”

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_

I watched as my human violently twitched in his sleep, his face scrunching up as he kicked his blanket off his body once again.

Reaching over I pulled the covers back over him. “What the hay are you dreaming about?” I muttered.

I had no idea how long I had been laying on my bed watching Ares sleep. There was no sense of time in this room other than the odd maid coming into the room to give us something to eat or coming in to clean the toilet. I didn’t have enough strength to get up and walk around the room and I was sick to death of reading the giant book that Twilight had recommended so the only thing that I could do was hold my human close.

For the last few days Ares had been getting weaker and weaker, sleeping more and eating less. Though he did his best to appear cheerful and carefree I felt how he held onto me whenever we slept together, I could see how he looked at me when he thought that I wasn’t looking. My human was scared. Very scared.

I extended one of my wings to touch Ares’s face. A frown came to my face when I felt how cold he was. “Oh that won’t do,” I muttered.

Taking a few deep breaths, I got to my hooves. My legs felt weak, like they were made out of rubber, but I forced them to move over to him. Ares twitched again, the fingers on his hand contorting to impossible angles before they straightened out. As I laid back down I could hear him muttering nonsense to himself, his body curling into a ball.

“It’s alright honey,” I muttered wrapping a wing around Ares and pulling him against my side. Almost instantly I could feel him wiggling closer toward me, his freezing cold hands finding their way underneath my wing joints. It was my turn to twitch but I didn’t shy away. Instead I pulled the blanket over the two of us and nuzzled his cheek.

“There we go. Let’s get you nice and warm,” I said, looking toward the little wooden nightstand sitting by our bed. “And how about we get you something to eat?”

My horn sparked to life, picking up the wooden bowl and plate that were resting on top of it. The maids had left the two of us some stew and a few sandwiches. While both were chilled, frozen really, a quick heating spell fixed them right up and had the smell of meat and stew in the air. Trying to ignore the fact that my mouth started to water the second that I smelled the cooked meat I nuzzled my human.

“Ares, honey, it’s time to wake up. We gotta get something in that belly of yours to help keep your strength up.”

After a few more persistent nuzzles, Ares began to stir. His eyes slowly fluttered open, blinking a few times as his eyes focused on me. “…Cadence?”

I smiled, pushing a lock of hair out of my human’s face. Even though Ares had insisted that he looked like a monster I honestly didn’t think so. Even with the lighter skin, the teeth, and the eyes he was still the adorable little human that I know and loved, especially when he was just waking up.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” I said as he yawned.

“It’s morning?” he asked, slowly sitting up. When I saw that he was struggling I discreetly helped him with my wing.

“Well… I don’t know really,” I admitted, quickly wrapping my hooves around him and pulling him against me so he wouldn’t fall over. “But I got something for the two of us to eat!”

Ares looked down at the food, his nose scrunching up. “You go ahead and eat it. I’m not that hungry right now.”

“Well you better get hungry real quick because you’re eating this whether you want to or not, Mister. You remember what the doctor said about keeping your strength up right?” Magicking up a spoon I scooped up some of the stew and brought it to my human’s lips. “Now come on and take a few bites. For me. Please.”

Ares hesitated, staring at the spoonful of food for a few seconds, before he finally opened his mouth. Smile widening, I stuck the spoon into his pie hole.

I could see disgust clear as day on Ares’s face as he chewed the food and swallowed. “Goddamn is that stuff awful,” he said as I helped myself to a bit of the stew. “Are you sure they’re not putting anything in the food they’re giving us? Medicine or some weird herb or something?”

Stuffing a bit of stew into my mouth I thoughtfully chewed before swallowing. “Nope, I don’t think so. It just tastes like normal stew to me.” Setting the spoon down I picked up one of the sandwiches. “How about you try to taste one of these sandwiches to see if they’re any better?”

Ares looked up at me in irritation. For a moment I thought he was going to start arguing with me but he just sighed. “…Alright, I’ll try one of the sandwiches,” he said, pressing more of his weight against me. “But you just make sure that you get some of this food too. I’m not going to be the only one suffering here.”

I knew that there was nothing wrong with this food. There was no medicine, no herbs and the ingredients that went into making everything was as fresh as could be. But no matter what the servants brought in, soup, meat, cake, or vegetable, Ares could barely eat it. It all tasted horrible to him. It was like my little human’s body was starting to reject the food that he needed to survive. This was why he had started to rapidly lose weight, something which worried the doctors and scared me half to death. So every day I made sure to hold Ares close to me and feed him until he flat out refused to eat anymore, even though it was getting harder and harder to get him to do it and the portions he was eating were getting smaller and smaller.

“So how was your sleep?” I asked as I made sure that he didn’t just try to throw the sandwich away when I wasn’t looking. “Did you have any pleasant dreams?”

Swallowing a mouthful of roast beef sandwich, his nose scrunched up as he did so, Ares shrugged. “I have no idea. I can’t remember if I dreamed or not.”

That was a lie. I could hear it in his voice and he didn’t look me in the eye when he said it. “Do you want to talk about it?” I asked, taking a bite out of one of the sandwiches.

Ares’s eyes widened in alarm. “Candy, there’s meat in that!” he exclaimed just a little too loudly.

My eyes widened as well. They grew even wider as I found myself swallowing. Even though the soup had been good it was nothing compared to what I had just put in my mouth. Never before had I eaten something so amazingly tasty as that sandwich, or more specifically the meat inside of it. If a dozen more sandwiches would have been brought into this room right this instant, I could have eaten every single one of them with a big smile on my face. In fact, I would
have asked for more afterward.

And that was not okay. That was not okay at all.

Levitating the sandwich away from my face I let it drop onto the plate right next to me. I then moved the plate on the other side of Ares so I wouldn’t get any funny ideas. “Oh… whoops,” I said, a sheepish grin coming to my face. “I guess I wasn’t paying enough attention and just grabbed it.”

Ares smiled weakly, both of his hands finding my hooves. “Just remember if you start getting any cravings that I taste like shit,” he said, placing my hooves close to his heart.

I giggled, nuzzling the side of his cheek. “Oh I don’t know about that. You look pretty yummy to me,” I teased, playfully biting his neck. I had to be as careful as possible with my new teeth so they didn’t hurt him but my biting was playful. I swear. “If you’re not careful I might eat you right up!”

Grabbing one of my hooves Ares brought it to his face and gave the frog a kiss. “I got a meat log right here if you want something to snack on,” he said, wiggling his lower body. “You can’t bite it though; gotta suck on it until—”

Ares’s head snapped down toward his arm. I could see the shadow gently prodding the hoof that was against his heart. Though I couldn’t feel it touching me exactly, the fur on the back of my neck was on end and I started to get a little colder each time it touched me.

” Ĝ̼̭̣̪̞̯ͅē̥̘̞̖͇̼͑ͭ̔̀ͩ͛̎t͚͌͐̽ͯͮ͂̄ ̥̳̮̱̙͚̏͋̓̉͋̈́̚a̗͎̣̭̙̯̣͈̦ͭ̏̃͂w̱̳̆̑͒̄̔̚a͍̣͓̯̖̞̝͔̠ͫ͗ͣ́ͯy̟͕̰̯̻̼͉͕͛͆̓̏̃ͯ̏̀ͅ ̗̺͔̫̻͇̯̍ͮ̓̆ͪ̂ͪf͍̱̞͇̤̊̃̉̔̀̎r͉̜̪̟̠ͨ̃ͣ̄ͪ̌̿ȍ̘̬̜ͭ͆m̺̞̱̝͌ͨͮ͂̑ ̝̳͕͆͂̇ͦ̋ͦͪ̆h͓͕̻̦̜̺͕̩̓̿͆ͦͦ̿e͕̜͉͈̘͊͑̑r̜̺̳̟̯͖̋͆͌̓̆ͅ
̱̺̔̍ͩ̊ͯ̄ͤ̔ͧ”

I watched as the shadow darted back into Ares’s arm. My honey bunny let out a tired, tired sigh, sinking into himself. “Candy, do we got any water lying around here?” he croaked, closing his eyes.

“…Ares, honey, are you—”

“Water first. Please.”

I looked around the room for any stray water bottles lying around. I couldn’t get up because there was no way that Ares would be able to hold himself up so I was going to have to hope that the servants had left it within eyesight. Finding a half-full bottle of water sitting on the ground a couple of feet away from our bed (a place that I do not remember putting any water bottles) I quickly snatched it up.

“I got some water right here, baby,” I muttered, quickly bringing it over, twisting off the cap, and bringing it to his lips.

Ares tried to reach up and grab the bottle but his shaking, far too thin hands couldn’t quite get up that high. But that was fine; I was more than happy to hold the bottle and tilt it up so he could drink.

Ares finished the water in three big gulps, letting out a quiet groan as my grip around him tightened. “That’s never… going to… get any… easier,” he muttered, mostly to himself.

“Do you want any more to eat?” I gently asked, leaning the two of us against the backboard of the bed. I noticed the he was starting to shiver just a bit so I grabbed another blanket and wrapped it around the two of us.

“If I… eat any more… right now… I’m going to be… sick,” my human told me, cracking open an eye so he could look up at me. “You go ahead and eat it.”

“I’m not all that hungry,” I began with a shake of my head. “The two of us can just eat it la—” I let out a squeak as I felt one of Ares’s hand reach down and pinch my flank. It wasn’t a very hard pinch but it was more than hard enough for me to feel it.

“You’re going to eat the rest of this food and you’re going to like it missy,” he said, a grin— the smallest grin that I had ever seen but a grin nonetheless— coming back to his face. “I’m going to be real upset if you lose that butt of yours.” I couldn’t help but blush when I felt Ares’s hand brush up against my flank. “If you lose that what am I going to stare at when you aren’t looking?”

I could feel tears beginning to form out of the corners of my eyes but I ignored them, kissing my little human’s neck. “I’ll only eat if you eat with me,” I told him. One of my wings snaked down his pants, tickling lil’ Ares. “If you don’t eat so you can get big and strong how is this little guy going to get big and strong?”

Closing his eyes once again my human let out a quiet guffaw. “I’ll have you know that he’s big and strong enough to give you a good time, missy.”

I hoofed him a sandwich as he blindly pawed for the plate. Scooping up another spoonful of stew I stuffed it in my mouth and slowly started to chew. Even though Ares made another face as he stuffed the sandwich in his mouth he ate every last bit of it along with some stew. Even though there wasn’t all that much food laid out, barely enough for somepony’s lunch, by the time Ares and I finished all of it I felt fuller than I had in a long time.

Patting my swollen stomach, I put both the bowl and the plate back on the nightstand and grabbed one of the books sitting next to our flickering candle. By now Ares had regained enough of his strength to be able to sit up unassisted, but even still I held him close against me.

“Cadence?” my human said as I placed the book in his lap. “What do you want to do when the two of us get out of here?”

“I’m going to go in our room and take the warmest, longest, bubbliest bubble bath that I’ve ever had,” I instantly replied, eyeing my unkempt mane with disdain. “And maybe afterwards I’ll go and get a mane cut.”

Ares shook his head slowly as he opened up the book that the two of us had been reading together. “Well, I think after all of this is over I’m going to talk you into expanding our sexual locations.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?”

Ares nodded again. “Yeah.” He looked up at me. “I’ve kinda always wanted to have my way with you on your throne, and for some reason whenever I stand on your balcony I think about fucking you under the stars.”

Oh? Did my little human have a bit of an exhibitionist in him?

I giggled again, a soft blush coming to my cheeks. “Maybe on your birthday and if you’re really convincing,” I told him.

If the two of us… When the two of us got out of here I would be more than happy to carry Ares to my throne room and rip the clothes off his body myself, in fact to celebrate us getting better I’d probably do that and a whole lot more, but Ares didn’t need to know that. I’d just let it be a very nice surprise for when this was all over.

Looking up at me with one last smile, a teasing, loving smile that just made my heart ache, Ares cleared his throat and began to read. “Though the natives knew the jungle like the back of their hoof Daring Do had something that they didn’t: wings. And with these wings she…”

I closed my eyes, a smile on my face, as I listened to my human read. At that moment there wasn’t a choking darkness all around us, there wasn’t ice caked to our bed and a flickering candle wasn’t the only light in the room. All there was was a warm, wonderful stallion that I was holding close and who was reading to me.

And it was wonderful.