The afternoon sun barely managed to shine through the blanket of clouds down onto the streets of Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle and her troop of companions walked dauntlessly through the empty street on their way back to the library. The wind had picked up since they had started their journey, creating a pleasant cooling sensation as it whipped past them. The cool temperature of the steady breeze complimented perfectly with the warm atmosphere of mid-summer Equestria to create a pleasing atmosphere. If one were to ignore the events that had taken place at the hospital, they might say that this was a nice day overall.

As the group walked along, they chatted with each other and their newfound allies. There was a lot to learn about these new ponies, and if Twilight and the others would be working with them, they wanted to get to know them better as individuals.

“So how long have you guys known each other anyway?” The purple unicorn asked Brimstoke and his teammates with an intrigued expression.

“Well…” Brimstoke paused for a moment to think of how to reply. “Neon and I worked together in the civil branch of the royal guard for a couple of years. Glimmer Shine joined us as a rookie and worked with us for about a year and a half, which is how we met Peppermint, who was in training to become a field medic. Glitterball and I were old buddies back in the academy, but she went away to study advanced magic…” He explained while pointing to each of his teammates.

“And I bet you were lost without me in the exams.” Glitter chimed in with a friendly smirk. “Before he met me, he could barely recite the oath without forgetting the words, let alone study for a test effectively.” She chided the stallion playfully, much to his dismay.

“Anyway… we didn’t see each other too much after she left... up until the princess gathered us up to train for this job. As for Sunspot, she’s relatively new to us. We don’t really know her from the academy or anything, but we saw each other a few times before she left to join the Wonderbolts.” Brimstoke stated casually. The stallion’s explanation shocked the ponies slightly. The one who was most surprised however was Rainbow Dash.

“You were in The Wonderbolts?!” Rainbow Dash asked in a mixture of shock and intrigue as she looked back to the suited pony. Sunspot chuckled proudly and nodded.

“Yep… That’s where I got this suit.” Sunspot said while drawing attention to her full body suit. The similarities between it and a Wonderbolts’ uniform were uncanny.

“I thought that looked like a Wonderbolts suit… but I wasn’t sure, what with the missing mask and different pattern.” Rainbow Dash observed the suit curiously to compare it to her idols’ uniforms.

“Yeah, well… I had it customized to better fit my likings once I learned that I was going to join a team of monster hunters.” Sunspot explained with a slight sense of joy as she pointed out the various pieces of equipment hanging from her suit

“That is so cool!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with excitement while admiring the uniform further. She imagined what it would be like to have her own custom suit like that, and what it would look like. Suddenly, a slight tapping on her leg interrupted the cyan mare’s fantasy and made her look down. She then noticed Scootaloo was poking her leg to get her attention.

“This is where I turn off to get home… I’ll see you guys later.” Scootaloo stated while walking away from the group. Rainbow Dash was a little bit confused to see the filly leaving without her.

“You sure you want to leave on your own?” The cyan mare asked the young pegasus courteously. Scootaloo turned around to face the group with a slightly disappointed expression.

“I’ll be fine on my own, and besides… you should stay to help the others.” Scootaloo said with a slightly gloomy tone in her voice as she abandoned all hope of staying to help. The others were a little upset to see the filly leave on such a sad note. After waving farewell to the orange filly, the troop continued on their way.

As she walked behind Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash was starting to get worried for the yellow mare. She had been wobbling to the side slightly from time to time as her head drooped from exhaustion. She practically fell over a few times as she nearly fell asleep while walking.

“Are you ok Fluttershy? You’ve been acting like this ever since you arrived at the tent.” The cyan pony’s question made the group pause briefly to check on the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy kept walking for a brief moment until she collided with Pinkie Pie and jolted awake.

“Wh...wha? I’m fine, alright? I’m just a little bit tired.” Fluttershy mumbled in a sleepy daze while keeping her eyes halfway open.

Seeing the yellow mare so disheveled and drowsy made everyone worried for her. She was normally so upbeat and content with life, but now she was barely aware of her surroundings and looked as if she hadn’t slept all night.

“It’s alright if you want me to take you back home Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash offered in a friendly manner.

“No!” Fluttershy yelped in a fearful tone. The sudden question made the shy pegasus jerk backwards in surprise and become fully awake for a moment. She then realized her abnormal outburst and nervously tried to regain her usual composure.

“I... err… I mean… I don’t want to leave you guys without helping you first.” Fluttershy said in an awkward attempt to put the conversation back on track.

“Fluttershy… is there something you aren’t telling us? You seem awfully adamant about not going home, and you look like you haven’t slept in a year.” Twilight reasoned in a caring tone while walking up to the anxious pegasus.

“I… I…” Fluttershy stammered nervously while looking around at her concerned friends. She knew that she couldn’t just hide such an important matter from them, but she didn’t want them to worry for her at the same time.

“Come on Fluttershy, we’re your friends… you can tell us anything.” Rainbow Dash stated lovingly. Keeping something from her best friends while they were giving her heartfelt speeches was too much for the timid pegasus to handle.

“*Sigh*… I’m scared to go home…” Fluttershy finally looked down and caved in. Everyone was surprised and confused to hear about the yellow mare’s issue.

“What…? But why are you scared to-” Rarity started to ask, but was interrupted by Fluttershy continuing.

“I was just about to go to bed last night… Me and Angel were cozying up in our beds, and everything was going just like an average night.” The timid mare explained with slight unease. “After I had just nodded off, I was woken up by the most terrifying noises I have ever heard in my life. It sounded like some kind of ghostly howling and moaning, and it sounded like it was coming from the Everfree Forest. It was horrible! I tried to ignore it as best I could, but it got so loud and unnerving that I had to check to see what it was. I went to my window and looked outside… normally, I would have some trouble making out the tree line from so far away after dark, but there was this odd green glow coming from behind the trees. I thought I saw things moving around, so I decided to lock my door and hide under my sheets.” Everyone was shocked and uneasy from hearing the yellow mare’s tale. Fluttershy was shivering with fright from merely remembering the experience.

“I was too scared to sleep at all last night, even after the noise stopped. At the first sign of daylight, I ran out the door and left… I haven’t been back since.” Fluttershy seemed to be more afraid than sleepy as she finished her story. Rainbow Dash sat down next to the shivering pony and put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. Fluttershy looked beside her to see the cyan pony was giving her a look of confidence.

“Don’t worry about it Fluttershy… I’m sure that Tom could help you out.” The blue pegasus volunteered the help of the slayer to the shy mare. Fluttershy was surprised to hear such a proposal. She turned to Tom and gave him an unimposing look.

“R-really?” Fluttershy asked to confirm with the human. Although she didn’t want to ask something so large of the slayer, the desperation was clear on her face. Tom nodded reassuringly with a confident smile.

“I would be happy to help you out Fluttershy.” The boy stated sincerely. Fluttershy smiled weakly from hearing this and turned back to Rainbow Dash.

“And if it makes you feel any better, I could come along with you and stay the night.” The cyan pony offered with a friendly smile.

“I can come too! It’ll be like a sleepover!” Pinkie spoke up from the crowd while bouncing eagerly. Fluttershy looked around at her friends with a warm and happy expression.

“But… won’t Twilight need us to help her with the research?” Fluttershy asked timidly. Twilight smiled and shook her head.

“We have plenty of eyes to help us out while you’re gone. And besides, you can stay at the library and help out until sunset.” The purple unicorn suggested reassuringly. Seeing her friends offer to help her so much made the yellow pegasus feel fuzzy from joy.

“Thanks guys… A pony couldn’t ask for better friends.” Fluttershy said with a big smile that deceived her current state of exhaustion. Everyone was happy to see their friend’s cheerful spirits return.

After stopping to lift the shy mare’s spirits, the group continued on their path towards the library. After a few more minutes of walking, the familiar shape of the tree-like building came into view. Twilight walked up to the door and opened it up while ushering her large group of friends inside.

Once Inside, Everyone got comfortable and attended to their business at hand. Glitterball sat the books she was carrying down on a table, Brimstoke and the other members of Spirit familiarized themselves with the books and layout of the library, while Twilight’s friends waited for a chance to be useful.

Fluttershy sat down on a chair and rested her head in her hooves tiredly. Her eyes slowly drifted shut and her head drooped onto the table. After a few moments, the pegasus started snoring softly as she fell asleep. Twilight walked over and gently tapped her on the shoulder to wake her up. The yellow mare jerked upwards and looked around as she came to her senses again.

“Fluttershy… why don’t you head upstairs and take a nap in my bed?” The unicorn suggested in a friendly manner. Fluttershy was excited to hear the word bed in any context relating to herself.

“Really?” Fluttershy asked with as much emotion as she could convey to sound courteous, which wasn’t very much. The pegasus was still drowsy, but she didn’t want to impose on her friend. Twilight smiled and nodded to the tired pony and pointed upstairs.

“Go on… we’ll wake you up when it’s time for you to head home with the others.” Twilight said in a friendly tone. The purple pony’s offer made the yellow mare smile warmly.

“Thank you…” Fluttershy said in a sleepy tone while getting up from her chair. She then slowly walked upstairs and tried to prevent herself from falling asleep on the way up. After hearing her bedroom door open and close, Twilight smiled before returning to business at hand.

The unicorn walked over to the nearby table and picked up one of the books stacked neatly on the edge. Unable to decipher the title of the book from the outside, she flipped open the pages and skimmed through them while searching for something to catch her eye.

The sight of a bookmarked page made the purple pony stop in her tracks and stop breathing momentarily as her heart jumped in surprise. On the page that was highlighted by a colored in portion of the corner, was a terrifyingly familiar creature that made Twilight’s blood run cold.

A blood red humanoid mass of liquid was artistically drawn reaching out of a swampy looking body of water. It was staring forward with its empty eye sockets while its mouth was open in a silent growl as it stretched its fluid arm towards the viewer. Twilight easily identified this creature to be the same one that plagued the school yesterday.

“Hey guys… come take a look at this.” Twilight announced to the others after remembering to breathe. The unicorn held the book open and moved it closer so everyone could see it as they gathered around her. Everyone had mixed reactions of fear upon seeing the illustration, from minor gasps of fright, to outright recoiling in horror.

“Oh my…” Rarity exclaimed under her breath as she held her hoof up to her mouth to catch a gasp. She immediately recognized the bloody creature staring back at her from the book. Pinkie Pie wasn’t faring any better than the white unicorn.

Pinkie’s pupils shrank as memories of being held under water against her will came flooding back to her. She could still practically hear Rarity’s yells as she desperately tried to save her from being drowned in the icy depths.

“Whoa! What in the name of Celestia is that?!” Rainbow Dash asked in shock as she studied the drawing closely out of morbid curiosity.

“That’s the thing that attacked us at the school…” Twilight spoke with a dull tone as she tried her hardest not to remember her experiences.

“You mean that’s the thing that hurt Fluttershy and the crusaders and almost drowned Pinkie?” The cyan pegasus asked in disbelief as she forced herself to look away from the disturbing image. Pinkie Pie started shivering as she had even more fear triggered by mention of the event. Rainbow Dash noticed her friend’s face pale and felt awful for being so blunt about such a traumatic event.

“Sorry Pinkie. I didn’t mean to dig up any painful memories.” Rainbow Dash stated in an apologetic tone while putting a reassuring hoof on the pink mare’s shoulder. Pinkie stopped shivering and took a moment to shake the frightful images from her head.

“It’s alright… I guess almost drowning shook me up a bit more than I thought. I’m fine though.” The party pony said while slowly returning her casual feeling of happiness. The fact that even Pinkie was being affected by everything that was going on served as a grim reminder to the ponies of the severity of the threat they were facing.

As the other members of Spirit were examining the creature’s drawing with the rest of the group, Glitterball was studying the page on the right and analyzing its contents. The white unicorn turned to the others and spoke up to redirect their focus.

“This must be a summoning book then… It has instructions on how to find ingredients for a spell to bring this creature forth.” Glitter explained her findings with slight intrigue. Twilight’s curiosity was peaked again as an idea popped into her head. The purple pony flipped through the pages once more and looked for another bookmarked page. Finding what she was looking for, she stopped and looked at the new illustration.

“Aha!” Twilight exclaimed triumphantly. The illustration depicted a dark hallway of a rundown building. Standing on the blurry edge of the shaded darkness, was a tall shadowy figure wearing a hood with barely noticeable pale skin.

“The midnight men.” Tom stated as he recognized the shadowy silhouette. Rainbow Dash and Spike were filled with a sense of dread and unease just from looking at the drawing.

“This is what they used to bring those monsters to the school and hospital. Maybe we can find out what goals they have by studying what spells they are using from these books.” Twilight deduced out loud with slight enthusiasm.

“Only one way to find out… everyone, break off into groups and grab a book. We can get more done if we work in numbers.” Brimstoke announced to the group while picking up one of the other books and heading over to the corner of the table.

Neon Streak followed the stallion and sat down next to him to see the open book in front of him. Sunspot and Rainbow Dash looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders before getting up and joining the two by sitting beside them on the other side of the table.

Tom grabbed the last book and walked over to a spot on the floor before kneeling down and sitting cross legged with the book on the floor in front of him. Peppermint and Glimmer Shine walked over and sat down beside the human and began studying the book on the floor. Pinkie Pie decided to join the open spot in the circle and trotted over to sit down next to the three.

Twilight was left with the remainder of the group by default as her study aids. Spike stood on a chair and rested his palms on the table while he leaned forward to see the book. Glitterball sat at the end of the table and read over the book with her horn while trying to understand the spells contained within. Rarity was huddled next to Twilight while peering over at the other various pieces of blank paper on the table that they would doubtlessly need for notes. Without further delay, the group got to work studying the books for clues.

The group spent the better part of the evening researching the three books. Various bits and pieces of knowledge of varying importance were discovered in the three tomes. Judging from the contents of the other two books, one was a detailed instruction booklet on pentagrams and other magical symbols, and the other one was a book on making different kinds of magic compatible with each other.

Each of the books had certain pages that appeared to be tacked on to serve as notes. The paper on these pages was a different color, and was haphazardly glued or grafted into the book on the pertinent page. The notes were mostly written using some sort of strange code or language that was undecipherable to everyone in the room.

Over the course of the hours of research, each group had decided to move to a different room to better organize their notes and efforts. Tom had taken his three companions into the kitchen to have more space for papers used to try and decipher the pages using his knowledge on occult symbols and ciphers. Brimstoke brought his group to the small half room of bookshelves that sat in between the main room and the kitchen, while Twilight and her troop had remained in the main room.

“Any luck figuring out those notes Glitterball?” Twilight unburied her head from the book she had been reading and looked over to the unicorn analyzing notes copied from all three books at the far end of the table. She looked over to the curious purple pony and frowned slightly.

“Not as much as I would like… I can tell that these notes pertain to a section of the pictograms that isn’t covered in the books, but I can’t understand enough of them to make out what they are.” The rainbow haired unicorn sighed in frustration as she racked her mind to crack the code.

“That’s better than nothing right?” Twilight added in an optimistic tone. Glitterball flashed a smile and nodded.

“Right… I’m sure we can figure this out.” Glitter stated happily before returning to her work.

“So Glitter… how long have you known Brimstoke? I know you two know each other from the academy, but he didn’t mention how long for.” Twilight asked curiously while looking up from the book.

“Hmm… I guess it’s been… four years since I met him.” Glitterball scratched her chin in thought while trying to recall the first time she met the stallion. “We had bumped into each other a few times before, but we started getting to know each other first year of the academy. We were pretty close around the time I decided to leave for magic classes… I felt like I didn’t want to head down the same path Brim was going, so I left to study magic to become a unicorn guard.” She explained to the curious listeners.

“Brimstoke must focus on his job a lot… he seems a little rough around the edges at times.” Twilight stated while thinking back to the unwavering attitude of the stallion. It seemed like he had to force himself to be nice to people at times.

“Eh… don’t mind him. He’s really a big softy once you get past the brick wall of an appearance he has. He wants people to think he’s tougher than he is… but sometimes he can try a little too hard.” Glitter chuckled while thinking of how awkward the stallion was back at the academy. He had come a long way since she first met him.

“Wait a minute, I think I found something.” Rarity announced while looking up from the pile of notes she had on the table. Everyone gathered around the unicorn and waited for her to elaborate with baited breath.

“I think this section of notes here corresponds to a gathering spell of some kind… If I’m reading it correctly that is.” Rarity stated while tilting her head and squinting to try and make sense of the mixture of languages and symbols.

“Hold on… these look kind of familiar.” Twilight said while pointing to a few of the symbols on one page. She looked over to the far table and lit up her horn to grab something. The purple unicorn lifted a roll of paper over to the table and set it down beside the section of notes. After a few moments of reading through the roll of paper, she smirked triumphantly as her thoughts were confirmed.

“Aha! Some of these symbols match the symbols we found in the cave!” Twilight announced with an excited tone before looking at some of the writing below the symbols on the notes. “If we can find out which symbols are referenced here, then maybe we can reverse engineer some of the other ones too.” She stated optimistically. Spike and Rarity cheered with excitement at the lavender pony’s discovery, while Glitterball frowned slightly as she looked at the section of notes.

“Yeah… but first we would need to decipher this strange language. Most of the notes are written in it, and the sections that aren’t don’t mention any of the important stuff.” Glitter huffed in annoyance. The new obstacle in her path made Twilight groan in frustration.

“I guess we should go see if Tom and the others have figured it out yet.” Twilight suggested while getting up from her chair. She grabbed the notes and the list of symbols with her magic and walked towards the other room. Everyone got up and followed the unicorn as she entered into the room Brimstoke’s group was in.

The four noticed the other group had decided to occupy a small table on the far corner of the room. Rainbow Dash was leaning up against the wall with a book in her lap, Sunspot was lying on her stomach on the floor with her head resting on her hooves while studying another book, while Brimstoke and Neon Streak were sitting at the table researching several sheets of paper with notes on them. Everyone looked up from their books and watched the group walking through the room.

“You find something?” Brimstoke asked curiously to the passing troop. Twilight paused for a moment and turned to answer the stallion.

“We might have… we’re going to show it to Tom to find out if he can make sense of it.” The purple mare replied. “How about you guys? Find anything interesting?” She asked quizzically while hoping that they would have found something that could help.

“Well, we found a few notes depicting the pictograms used at the school and Hospital.” Sunspot replied, optimistic that the discovery would be useful.

“Actually… we might be able to use that. Do you have a copy we can take?” Twilight reasoned while thinking of how the pictograms would assist them.

“Yeah sure…” The orange pegasus said while getting up from her spot. She then flipped through the pages of her book and took out two pieces of paper clipped to the pages.

“Here you go.” Sunspot stated while handing the papers over to the purple unicorn. Twilight looked over them for a moment before adding them to her pile of papers.

“Thanks, hopefully we can figure some of this out.” Twilight added optimistically before turning to walk into the other room.

The four walked into the kitchen and were greeted by Tom and the others standing around the kitchen counter staring down at several notes and their own book. They looked up to see the approaching group and watched them curiously.

“You look like you’ve made some progress…” Tom stated while observing Twilight’s giddy expression. The purple pony walked up to the boy and sat her papers down on the countertop in front of him. She then smiled at him with hopeful excitement.

“We think the symbols on these notes correspond to some of the symbols we found in the cave and on the pictograms. We were hoping you could translate some of the writing for us… any luck in that area?” Twilight asked with slight hopefulness in her voice.

“Actually yeah… the writing in the notes is a mixture of an ancient language and a code cipher. Here, let me see what you have.” Tom said while scanning over the notes, symbols, and diagrams the unicorn brought him. He picked up the paper with the symbols and the notes to study them closer.

“Hmm… interesting.” The boy muttered out loud while checking between the pages and the symbols to decipher their meaning. Everyone watched the human with eager anticipation as he mumbled to himself to better find his way through the jumbled mess of the writing.

“From what I can make out… these symbols from the cave are mostly part of a suppression charm to hide negative energy… most likely to cover the presence of that mass of dark matter we fought.” Tom explained while pointing to the majority of the symbols from the cave. “However… this little cluster here appears in both of the pictograms, so they have a different meaning. They look like a smaller version of this section here.” He added while pointing to one of the sections of the pictogram divided by lines.

“What does that mean?” Glitterball asked while trying to keep up with the human’s train of thought. Tom looked away for a moment and closed his eyes while deep in thought. He then looked back over the writings.

“If I’m reading this right… it says that these symbols are used in a collection spell… designed to gather up negative energy, but more specifically fear.” The human finally looked up and finished his explanation. Everyone was confused by the sudden discovery.

“Fear…? Why would they want to gather up fear?” Pinkie asked with an appalled expression. She couldn’t believe that someone would want to induce so much fear in a living creature.

“From what I remember of the books the princess made us study, fear and other forms of energy derived from emotion can be used in a plethora of spells and rituals. It’s actually kind of ingenious in a twisted sort of way. They summon a monster, and feed off of the fear that it creates… all in one convenient pictogram.” Glitterball explained with a disgusted expression. Everyone else shared her opinion on the horrible method being used by the hooded ponies.

“The question is… what are they gathering energy for? They obviously have a plan figured out… we just need to discover what it is and stop them before they have a chance to complete it.” Tom stated with a determined tone of voice. Everyone nodded with serious expressions as they resolved to put an end to this nightmare.

“Hey… you guys find anything in here? We hit a dead end with our book.” Brimstoke interjected while walking into the room with his group. Twilight decided to inform them on their progress.

“We found out that the mystery ponies are gathering fear to power some sort of spell or ritual… can we use the spell to trace where they are Tom?” The unicorn asked curiously. Tom looked down and read over the notes a few more times. He then shrugged in frustration and looked back up with a defeated frown.

“I can’t tell where the pictograms send the energy once it’s gathered… it’s too vaguely described in the notes.” Tom sighed in annoyance. Before Twilight could react to the disheartening discovery, Brimstoke spoke up again.

“Maybe we can help out with that… we can take these books down to the guard station in town and have them dusted for hoof prints or analyzed to see if there are any unique magic signatures from a specific unicorn. We can also see if these books have been in circulation at some point… it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s worth a try.” The stallion suggested with a hopeful attitude. Twilight smiled at the progress being made on the investigation.

“Ok then… you guys go and see what you can find on your end. I think it’s time we all headed home and got some rest.” Twilight said while looking around at her friends, who all nodded in agreement.

“Alright, we’ll get these checked out and update you when we find the culprits. Goodnight Miss Sparkle.” Brimstoke bade farewell before motioning for his teammates to follow him. Twilight was shocked to hear the way the stallion worded that.

“Hold on a second… update us when you find the culprits? We’re going to help you find them!” Twilight stated enthusiastically. Brimstoke was surprised to see such a spark in the unicorn.

“I… I thought you would have wanted us to take this case off of your hooves. It is dangerous after all.” The stallion stated with a slight sense of nervousness from confronting the shocked pony.

“No… we are seeing this through to the end.” Twilight spoke in a determined tone while looking around to her friends. “These ponies have attacked me and my friends multiple times. They cost two innocent ponies their lives… they attacked a school full of children for crying out loud! Princess Celestia asked me to take care of this… I’m sure she wouldn’t want me endangering myself, but I feel like I need to personally ensure that these ponies are brought to justice.” She spoke in an inspiring tone while looking to the group of awe struck ponies in front of her.

“You guys are going to either help us with the investigation, or get out of our way… because we are in this to the bitter end, right guys?” Twilight asked while looking around at her troop of friends. Everyone nodded confidently at the unicorn’s words.

“Now, how about you meet us in the library tomorrow afternoon and report your findings so we can make a plan?” Twilight half asked- half instructed to the stallion and his troop. They were impressed by the spirit held by the purple pony.

“Yes Ma’am.” Brimstoke said while offering a salute. All the other members of Spirit saluted as well before turning and walking out of the door.

“Phew… that felt good.” Twilight remarked while noting how much she enjoyed standing up for her beliefs.

“Way to go Twilight… you really sounded sure of yourself there.” Spike praised the unicorn while giving her a proud smile.

“Thanks Spike… I just really want to protect those I care for most.” The lavender pony replied with a modest smile of appreciation. She then looked out of the kitchen window and noted the sun setting in the sky.

“Huh… it’s getting late. I guess I should go wake Fluttershy up so you guys can get going.” Twilight stated while heading back into the main room to walk upstairs. She hoped that the pegasus was well rested after all of the hours that had passed.