Over at Sweet Apple Acres, the group of ponies was sitting downstairs in the living room chatting cheerfully with each other. Now that peace and quiet had been restored in the quaint home, the members of the apple family seemed much more like their usual selves as the tiredness they had felt before was replaced with joy.

The orange mare beamed cheerfully at Tom and Twilight. She could hardly contain her feeling of happiness as she smiled from ear to ear.

“That was some mighty fine work you did up there Tom. Ah would like to personally thank you on behalf of the apple family for getting rid of that pesky polter… thing.” Applejack sighed as she failed to recall the pronunciation of the strange word. “And for saving my sister…” The cow pony smiled as she looked over to the young filly beside her, who happily returned the gesture.

Tom smirked as he swelled with pride over his work. He tried to remain humble however, as he could not take full credit for the job well done.

“Come on Applejack. I wouldn’t have been able to do anything if you hadn’t grabbed your sister and gotten her out of there. You should be thanking yourself and not me. I was just doing what comes natural.” The human’s comments made Applejack blush as she smiled coyly. She giggled to herself for a moment as she thought about how brave she had been in the face of danger.

“Aww shucks Tom. Ah was just doing whatever Ah had to do to save Applebloom. Ah don’t know how Ah would live with myself if Ah let something happen to her on my watch.” Applejack hugged her sister close and nuzzled her head with her nose. She then looked up and turned to Twilight in surprise.

“So now that all of that business is taken care of… what did you come here for, Twilight?” Applejack tilted her head in curiosity at the unicorn. Twilight was surprised that she had forgotten about the matter herself in all the commotion.

“Oh! Right… of course. I came here to ask you if you wouldn’t mind dropping by the library tomorrow to help us do some research on what happened last night.” Twilight shrugged at hearing herself repeat the same sentence so many times in one day.

“Hmm… You know what Twilight? Ah would be happy to help you out after what you guys did for us. But first Ah think we could use a loooong nap.” Applejack yawned tiredly before looking around at her family. They seemed to share the same sentiment as they nodded in agreement. The purple mare smiled and nodded in agreement herself.

“You guys have certainly earned a day off, so I think we will be going. See you tomorrow Applejack.” Twilight bade farewell to the family and got up to head to the door. She turned and waved to her friends before heading out. Tom got up and waved as well before following the unicorn outside.

During the time they had been at the farm, the sun had traveled a far ways from the middle of the sky. In a few hours it would start getting dark. Twilight looked up to the sky and gasped in surprise.

“Wow, we must have been out and about for a while. It was around noon when we started wasn’t it?” Twilight turned and asked her human companion quizzically.

“I guess time flies when you’re in a dark cave surrounded by ferocious monsters.” Tom looked at the sun’s position in the sky and shrugged.

“I guess so…” Twilight added drearily. The two then started making their way home. Now that she had gotten all of her friends to agree to help her, she was free to think more about how they would go about the situation. She lit up her horn and closed her eyes to concentrate. Reading over the symbols stored in her memory, her face crinkled up in frustration as she failed to make any new progress on deciphering the odd glyphs.

“Ughh… I keep going over these symbols in my head, but I can’t seem to get anywhere with them.” Twilight fumed in annoyance. Tom could see the unicorn pout angrily as she cursed her own inability to understand simple magical glyphs.

“Don’t focus on those too much right now. I’m sure we can find a book or something that might be able to help us. Heck, I might be able to read those things if you teach me the basic symbols used in writing spells.” Tom suggested optimistically.

“Really? You think you could do that?” Twilight looked at him with eager curiosity. He nodded slowly in return.

“Think about it for a second… It seems like those symbols are a mixture of things you are familiar with, and things I am familiar with. So if you teach me how to read the regular symbols used to write spells down, I might be able to determine what arcane style they belong to, and what their purpose is.” Tom smirked eagerly at the unicorn. Twilight smiled a bit as her face became less tense.

After spending a few minutes walking back through Ponyville, the two found themselves back at the library. After opening the door and heading inside, the purple mare let out a sigh of relief.

“Feels good to be home...” Twilight stated in a relaxed tone. Suddenly the sound of small feet scampering down the stairs made the unicorn look up to the landing. Sure enough, Spike was eagerly descending the stairs in a rush to see the pair.

“You guys were gone a long time. I was starting to get worried.” The young dragon chided with loving concern as he walked up to Twilight. He then gasped in shock as he noticed the various injuries littering her body. The wounds on her legs looked much better in comparison with how they were before Rarity cleaned them up. However, the large gash on the unicorn’s chest worried Spike the most.

“Oh my gosh! Twilight are you alright? You look like you just came from a war zone!” Spike stared at the bloody laceration wide eyed as it trickled onto her fur, staining it crimson.

Twilight looked down at the cut on her chest and gasped in shock. She had been too preoccupied with removing the glass shard from the wound to fully understand how big it actually was.

“Oh my goodness! I didn’t think that it was this bad when it happened…” The purple mare looked to the worried dragon with a frown and sighed. “I’m sorry Spike. I didn’t want to make you worry about me so much, and now I’ve gone and gotten myself hurt.”

Spike watched the unicorn as she looked down sadly. He couldn’t help but feel bad that she was feeling guilty over herself getting injured. He placed his hand on her leg tenderly, causing her to look up from the floor to face him.

“It’s alright Twilight, I just don’t want to see you get hurt… especially after what happened last night.” Spike smiled at her in an attempt to lift her spirits. She lightened her face up and smiled back to the dragon.

“Don’t worry Spike, I promise I will take better care of myself in the future… Ack!” Twilight suddenly jolted in pain as she put a hoof to her chest, forgetting that she had a large wound there. Spike frowned with concern and studied the wound.

“Come on, let’s head upstairs and get that cleaned up.” Spike suggested while tugging on her arm to make her follow him. Tom decided to stay downstairs as the young dragon led the unicorn up the stairs by her hoof.

Twilight followed the dragon into the bathroom and sat on the floor as he rummaged through a cabinet to find some peroxide and bandages. She heard him exclaim in triumph as he discovered the items he was looking for. He pulled out some gauze bandages and a bottle of peroxide.

Twilight looked at the bottle apprehensively as she thought back to the earlier pain she had experienced. She quelled her fears as she realized that it would not hurt as much due to the size of the wound. Spike started the process of cleaning and dressing the wound on the unicorn’s chest.

“So how did you get this cut? It looks pretty jagged.” Spike tilted his head in curiosity as he waited for an answer.

“A glass vase was thrown at me at high speeds.” Twilight explained apprehensively. She decided to come clean and answer truthfully. The dragon gasped silently and paused what he was doing.

“A glass vase? Who threw it at you? I don’t see why someone would want to hurt you.” Spike asked with a concerned tone. The purple pony sighed before turning to the dragon.

“We were at Sweet Apple Acres, and we found out that something had been levitating objects around the house and attacking Applejack and the others. I got caught up in the middle of one of the more violent fits the thing threw.” Twilight explained in a disheartened tone. The dragon didn’t seem any less worried by the unicorn’s answer.

“And what about those big gashes on your legs? Those don’t look like a glass vase made them.” Spike observed the stitched up wounds and cringed sympathetically.

Twilight looked away from the dragon and closed her eyes. She did not want to remember the experience for herself, much less tell Spike that she had almost been killed while getting the injuries. The dragon looked at her sympathetically in understanding.

“It’s ok. You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to.” Spike stated kindly. The unicorn nodded slowly to the baby dragon as he continued working on her chest. After spending a few more minutes on the wound, Spike patted the bandaged cut gently as he looked at Twilight with pride.

“Alright, it’s done now… looks good as new if you ask me.” Spike remarked cheerfully while admiring his work.

“Thanks Spike.” Twilight smiled at the innocent little dragon and stood up to look at herself in the mirror. She looked like she had survived some sort of disaster as her body was now covered in first aid supplies. After shrugging at her appearance, the unicorn went back out of the bathroom and went downstairs. She walked into the living room and sat at a table next to Tom. The human looked up suddenly as he noticed the unicorn next to him.

“Well you look a lot better.” Tom remarked in a friendly manner upon taking in her appearance. Twilight gave him a passing smile before looking to the table. She levitated a quill and paper over from a nearby shelf and placed them at an angle in front of her.

“I better write those symbols down before I forget them. Might as well see what we can find out from looking at them with fresh heads.” Twilight sighed before closing her eyes and concentrating on the symbols in her head. She started writing down the symbols from memory and imbued them with the magical energy that comprised the magical part of the glyphs. She then sat down the quill next to her and admired her work.

“I didn’t manage to get too many of the symbols before we had to… relocate.” Twilight nudged Tom and glanced back to Spike as he walked around the living room. “But I should have gotten enough of them to make sense of what they are when we finally do figure them out.”

Tom was impressed at how well the unicorn was able to recreate the symbols. Even if she had a perfect image of them in her head, she would still have to manually draw them to get them out on paper. Twilight let out a heavy sigh as she started to read over the symbols again. The human gave them a few once overs himself to be extra sure that he didn’t miss anything.

After a few minutes of feverishly reading over the symbols, Twilight began to rub her eyes from them getting strained. The human looked at her nervously as she groaned in frustration.

“I don’t think we’re going to get anything else without hitting some books. Why don’t we put this off until Tomorrow?” Tom looked at her and calmly hinted at her own growing state of agitation. Twilight could feel a slight headache coming on from focusing so hard on something so frustrating for so long.

“ughhh… I guess.” The unicorn pouted in frustration and turned her head away from the glyphs. She then started to think about other things to occupy herself with until it was time to head on to bed. “Say, Tom…” Twilight suddenly turned to the human quizzically.

“Hmm?” Tom looked back to her while leaning back on his chair.

“What do you think you’re going to do in the long term around here? I’m not sure if we would be able to send you back to your time, but would you go back if you could?” The unicorn asked with intrigue in her voice. The human hummed with curiosity as he furrowed his brow and thought about the matter.

“Well, there wasn’t exactly much to go back to… I don’t age, so if I went back I would have to live through the end of the human world should I decide to keep my powers that long.” Tom stated while imagining what the experience would be like. Twilight looked curiously at the human as another question popped into her head.

“And just how long do you plan on being slayer? I mean… I know you have barely started but…” Twilight trailed off as she waited for a response.

“It’s not quite as simple as choosing how long you stay sometimes. A slayer can only exist and use their powers if they have the will and drive to keep using energy. If a slayer gives in to overwhelming exhaustion, and they no longer have the spirit to continue and fight through the pain, they will fade out of existence and essentially die again.” The human’s explanation struck a nerve in Twilight. She suddenly thought back to how Tom had fought off the swirling mass of shadows in the cave, the notion that he could have died while trying to save her made her look down sadly.

Tom noticed the unicorn as she sulked silently. He could tell that something was troubling her, but he wasn’t sure what it was.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Why the long face and puppy dog eyes?” Tom asked with genuine concern. Twilight glanced at the worried human briefly before looking back down at the table.

“I can’t help but think to back in the cave… I could have gotten us killed back there.” The purple mare sighed in a depressed sort of manner. “What if more of those things had gotten in while I was being attacked and they went after you, or the princess and Rainbow Dash? You were already under so much stress, what if your shield broke down while you tried to help me?” The more she thought about the negative things that could have happened because of her, the sadder the unicorn grew.

Tom looked at her blankly as she started sniffling and tearing up. He let her cry silently to herself for a moment before trying to comfort her.

“It’s ok Twilight. You don’t need to worry about that. All of that stuff is in the past… there is no use in beating yourself up over something that could have happened.” Tom stated in a sincere tone. Twilight stopped sniffling for a moment and looked at the human as he gave her an earnest and caring look. “If being too weak to protect your friends is what you’re getting at, just forget about that. I saw the way you acted back in the cave. Like I said earlier, you did extremely well for someone who isn’t accustomed to tense situations like that.” He reached forward and gently wiped a stray tear from her eye. She hiccupped as her sadness ran its course through her.

“T-thanks Tom... That means a lot coming from you.” Twilight wiped her eyes and brightened up her expression a bit. “I just don’t want anybody to get hurt because of me.” She spoke softly with a worried tone of voice.

“Well you don’t need to worry about me ok? While I might get exhausted from using my powers, I wouldn’t run into any major problems unless I repeatedly used some of my more taxing abilities. And even then as long as I had the will to continue, which I do mind you, I would probably just end up passing out… And any injuries I sustain will heal up pretty fast, so aside from the pain I’m pretty much indestructible.” Tom stated happily. He smiled at her cheerfully before trailing his eyes off in thought. “And as an answer to your previous question, I think I will stay around here for the long term.” He said with a slight smile. Twilight perked up a bit from hearing this.

“R..really?” The unicorn asked in a surprised tone.

“Yep, you all seem like decent people to hang around with. And judging from the events that unfolded during the past few days, I would say you could use a friendly neighborhood slayer of evil around here.” Tom smirked at her in a friendly manner.

The unicorn nodded in agreement and chuckled. Her chipper attitude finally returned to her fully. She then yawned and stretched her arms.

“I think it’s about time to head up to bed. We can worry about this tomorrow when the girls are over to help us out.” Twilight suggested tiredly while looking over to the symbols and sighing in annoyance. She then looked around the room in search of her number one assistant.

“I guess Spike must have gone up ahead of us… Oh yeah! We will need to get you something more comfortable to sleep on at some point if you intend on staying here.” Twilight stated eagerly while starting up the stairs. The human was slightly taken aback at the proposal.

“Really?” Tom looked to her with a surprised expression as they ascended the stairs. He never expected to have someone offer to give him a bed to sleep on. She turned to him and smiled warmly.

“Yeah, you are more than welcome to stay here permanently with us. I think that Spike would agree with me.” Twilight said happily. The two chuckled to each other and went into the bedroom to settle in for the night.