*POP*

A loud snap erupted from the small vial in front of Twilight. The noise, on top of the bottle jumping out of her hooves made her yelp in fright and jump back instinctively. As the unicorn watched smoke rise out of the vial as it rolled back and forth on the table, she noticed Glitterball walking over to her from the other end of the table.

“You alright?” Glitter asked with mild concern while watching the frightened unicorn. Twilight slowed her rapid breathing as she realized that no danger was present. She then looked over to the rainbow haired pony with slight embarrassment.

“Yeah… I think I just added too much of that blue liquid.” The purple mare huffed in a downcast tone. Glitterball frowned slightly before picking up the smoking vial with her magic and inspecting it. After satisfying that there was no more of the blue liquid, she shook the bottle gently to dump the rest of the smoke out.

“Sorry about that. I guess I should have told you that strobes can be a little bit volatile if they’re not prepared right.” Glitterball’s statement didn’t make Twilight feel much better about her failure. She thought she knew enough about magic and potions to at least get her by, but apparently she was mistaken. The purple mare sighed before taking the vial from the other unicorn and picking up the pouch that held the blue liquid she was using.

“How did you find out how to make this stuff anyway?” Twilight asked while cautiously eyeing how much and how fast she was pouring the liquid into the vial. Glitterball shrugged her shoulders in indication that she was clueless.

“We didn’t make the strobes… those were all Princess Luna’s idea. I haven’t even had a chance to tinker with them up until now.” Glitter explained while looking over to her side of the table where Rarity had been watching her work. There were many more open vials of different shapes and types strewn around, and there were a few more ingredients than Twilight had been given. The purple pony examined the intriguing items from afar with burning curiosity.

“I could help you with the experimenting if… you know… you need some help?” Twilight offered with a helpful, and perhaps a little too cheery, smile. It wasn’t hard to tell that the unicorn was eager to get her hooves on some new magical ingredients to tinker with. Glitterball smiled politely at the offer, but shook her head in refusal.

“Sorry Twilight, but for now I just want you to focus on the strobes. I will handle tweaking the other charms myself. As you can see, it is hard enough to put together the strobes the way the princess showed us. I don’t want to blow up the library after you’ve been nice enough to let us stay here and work.” Glitter stated while glancing over to the vial Twilight was working on. The lavender pony sighed in disappointment before returning to her work.

“Ok… I guess I can live with that.” Twilight said in a deflated manner while fidgeting around with the vial in her hooves and wondering what she could have done with all of the other magical ingredients. She felt the vial nearly slipping out of her hooves in her distracted state and panicked slightly as she fumbled to keep the bottle from falling. Glitter giggled silently while turning to walk away so the purple mare wouldn’t see her snickering at her mishap.

As Glitterball was returning to her side of the table, she overheard Spike and Peppermint talking over by the back wall. Rarity and Twilight noticed the two conversing as they started laughing at something that was said.

“What are you two talking about?” Rarity asked quizzically. She never figured that Spike would socialize this well with a complete stranger so soon. The two stopped themselves from laughing while turning to face the three curious onlookers.

“We were just telling a few stories from our past.” Peppermint spoke up casually. Spike nodded in agreement before speaking himself.

“Yeah, we actually have quite a bit in common.” The young dragon added with a smirk. The others smiled at seeing the two interact. Twilight was happy to see that Spike had made a new friend.

“That’s good to hear Spike. Maybe after all of this is over we can go hang out with them sometime.” Twilight suggested while looking over to Glitterball. The white unicorn nodded in approval of the idea. Spike was happy to hear that he would be able to stay friends with the group.

Suddenly, a knock at the door pulled everyone’s attention away. Being closer to the front of the library, Glitterball decided to volunteer to walk over and open it. As the white unicorn opened the door and looked outside, she was greeted by the sight of Glimmer Shine, Neon Streak, and Applejack standing outside with worried expressions. Glitter’s eyes widened in shock as she noticed that the orange mare had a large and bloodied gauze pad held to her chest by medical tape.

“Oh my gosh! What happened to you?!” Glitter asked with an alarmed tone while watching the three walking inside. As Twilight and the others watched the group enter, they gasped in shock as they saw their injured friend.

“Oh dearie me! Are you ok Applejack?” Rarity asked with a concerned expression while holding her hoof up to her mouth in horror. Applejack winced in pain as she looked down to the bandage. The gauze pad had already been bled through as the wound underneath continued to pour out the crimson fluid. The sight of the red bandage made everyone feel sick with worry for the orange mare.

Everyone in the room turned to Glimmer Shine and Neon Streak for an explanation as to why Applejack had been hurt so badly. The two shared a quick glance to each other before frowning sadly. Glimmer Shine stepped forward and decided to tell the group about what happened.

“When we got to the bookstore, Cotton Quill wasn’t there. When we asked the guy at the front desk if he knew where he was, we got jumped by three ponies that were in there. Apparently the pony at the front desk has powers like that other guy out in the forest, because after we dealt with his three cronies he flat out vanished.” The yellow stallion explained with a disheartened expression. Applejack spoke up and interrupted Glimmer Shine to finish the story.

“That feller… Ah think he said his name was Shadow Mist, he could turn invisible somehow. After the fight was over, one of the knives the three ponies used to attack us just floated in the air. It swung at me and got me pretty good. He would have done a lot more damage if Neon here didn’t tackle him.” The orange mare said while cringing in pain from her wound. Glitterball gently lowered the bandage enough to see how bad the gash was. The rainbow haired unicorn frowned with worry when she saw that the stab wound was still bleeding.

“We couldn’t stop the bleeding by ourselves, so we came back here as fast as we could.” Neon Streak stated while cringing in sympathy at the large gash. Glitterball shook her head sadly as she came to the realization that her magic wouldn’t be able to close this size of a wound.

“I don’t think I can heal this myself…” Glitter said with a somber tone. Twilight and the others felt a feeling of dread settle in their stomachs as they realized that the orange mare might bleed to death right in front of them. Spike and Rarity especially felt a sick feeling due to the sight of so much blood coming out of someone they knew.

“Tom and the others might not be back for hours… what are we going to do?” Twilight fretted with concern while forcefully shoving the thought of her friend dying out of her mind. Suddenly, Peppermint walked up to the injured mare with a determined expression. Glitterball backed up and let the red haired stallion examine the farm pony.

“Twilight, can you go get me a towel please?” Pepper asked with a calm demeanor. Twilight was slightly confused as to why he would need a towel, but she trusted that he knew what he was doing.

“Right.” The purple mare said while trotting upstairs to fetch the requested item. Meanwhile, Applejack was left to wonder what the white pony had in mind for her.

“What are you going to do with a towel?” The orange mare asked with a slightly nervous tone. Much to her dismay, she noticed Peppermint frown slightly as he turned to face her. The red haired pony reached down to his vest and pulled up another vial that had a strange design traced into the casing. The bottle also had a conical tip that came out of one end with a small hole in the top.

“I can use this to cauterize the wound and stop the bleeding…” Peppermint paused and looked down apprehensively. “But the thing is, and I’m going to be honest with you here, it is probably going to hurt a lot… like, really a lot.” The white stallion’s explanation made Applejack’s eyes widen in fright. The towel wasn’t to clean anything up, it was for her to bite on so she had something to help her cope with a great deal of pain. She could practically feel the anxiety attack coming on as she started breathing rapidly. The orange mare wasn’t normally scared of pain and medical treatments, but the severity of the situation and her shocked nerves from earlier were starting to get to her.

“Well… thanks for being honest Ah guess.” Applejack stated while chuckling nervously. Despite the orange mare’s attempt at humor, everyone could tell that she was extremely nervous about going through with this.

“Hey, take it easy… you don’t want to be hyperventilating when you’re already losing blood. How do you feel?” Pepper asked in a gentle tone with a sincerely compassionate expression on his face.

“Now that you mention it… Ah feel a little bit light headed.” Applejack replied while taking note of the dizzy sensation she felt.

“That’s normal all things considered… don’t worry, I can give you something to deal with the pain, and it should be over really quick.” The red haired pony said in an attempt at calming the anxious mare down. Applejack took in a few deep breaths to regulate her breathing back to normal. She then focused on mentally preparing herself for the pain she would be feeling.

“Can’t you just apply pressure to it to stop the bleeding?” Rarity asked with almost as much concern as Applejack was feeling. The sight of blood made her queasy and sick on a normal day, but seeing her friend pouring out the crimson liquid was making the white unicorn’s stomach flip uneasily.

“Normally I would, but she’s bleeding pretty badly and I’m not sure if we have enough bandages with us. I would rather stop the bleeding immediately rather than run the risk of her losing too much blood before we could get her to a hospital.” Peppermint explained with relative calmness that impressed Applejack and the others. Judging from his timid nature, the ponies would never peg the white pony to be able to focus so much while someone was injured like this.

“Ok, I’m back.” Twilight announced while rushing down the stairs with a sense of urgency. She had a small towel levitating beside her as she trotted up to the group and handed the item off to Peppermint. The white stallion wasted no time and put on some blue rubber gloves he produced from a pouch on his vest.

After unfolding the towel and inspecting it to ensure that it would suffice, Peppermint handed the cloth over to Applejack. The orange mare eyed the item apprehensively while her mind raced as to what kind of torment she was about to undertake. Before she could hesitate any longer, the farm pony winced in pain and looked down to see her wound still bleeding through the gauze pad. Not wanting to waste any more time, Applejack shrugged in defeat and placed the towel in her mouth.

“Just sit tight and look at me Applejack… Pepper is going to give you a little shot of some local anesthetic before he does anything.” Glitterball explained in a gentle tone while keeping the nervous mare’s attention on her. Applejack knew she was just trying to distract her from the white pony preparing her skin for an injection from a needle.

As much as the farm pony hated needles, she knew that the small stick of the syringe would not compare to the pain that would follow. She tried her best to keep her attention on her friends and Glitterball as they gave her compassionate expressions.

“Do you feel this?” Peppermint asked while pinching a section of skin near the wound. Applejack felt nothing more than a slight tingly sensation to alert her to the pinch.

“N-no…” Applejack stammered nervously while taking a few more breaths through the towel. The experience reminded the orange mare of waiting for a doctor to perform a painful operation.

“Alright Applejack, I’m going to just remove your bandage and get my cauterizer ready. I’ll let you know before I do anything else.” The red haired pony explained to inform the nervous mare of his actions as she looked away while he worked. Pepper slowly removed the gauze bandage and placed a new one just below the wound to catch any blood that trickled out before he sealed the wound.

As the white stallion unclipped the strange vial from his vest and twisted the bottom, the bottle emitted a monotonous hum while a red light flickered to life at the tip of the vial. He pressed the button on the bottom of the bottle to test it out before applying it to the orange pony’s skin. Everyone watched silently as the very top of the nozzle glowed red hot.

“Ok… here we go. I’ll try to get it done as fast as possible.” Peppermint stated while lowering the pointed tip of the vial towards the wound. Applejack tensed up slightly and averted her eyes as she waited for the process to start.

“Mmmph!” The orange mare groaned in pain while clenching her teeth down on the towel. Even through the anesthetic she could still feel a sharp burning sensation that made her nerves scream out for mercy.

Everyone watched with empathy clear on their faces as their friend tried her hardest to remain still through the pain. Applejack thought it was a little bit odd that she had to put so much effort into helping the person causing her this much suffering, but that was how medicine worked after all.

Just before the orange mare thought she could take no more, the flaming hot sensation ceased and a relieving feeling of coolness washed over the area where Peppermint was working on. She looked down to see that her wound had ceased its seemingly endless bleeding.

“See? Almost good as new… almost.” Peppermint stated in a jesting manor before realizing that the gash still looked rather gruesome, even without blood pouring from it. Despite her unsightly wound, Applejack chuckled as she gave the white pony a thankful smile.

“Thanks Pepper… Ah don’t know what would have happened to me if you didn’t step in.” The orange mare said with a bright expression. Peppermint was happy to see another pony returned to health and happiness.

“My pleasure… now let’s get you all fixed up so this can heal on its own.” Pepper said while reaching into a pouch on his vest to fetch another bandage.

Suddenly, the group heard another knock on the door. Curious as to which of her friends it might be, Twilight took it upon herself to walk over and answer the door. After opening the door, the purple unicorn was greeted by the sight of Sunspot and her two pegasus friends. What Twilight didn’t expect to see however, was the sight of Pinkie Pie standing behind them.

“Girls! It’s good to see you’re back… and, Pinkie?” Twilight asked in surprise as she noticed the pink pony behind the three flyers. Pinkie Pie smiled awkwardly and rubbed her arm as she realized how late she had been to arrive at the library.

“Sorry I couldn’t be here earlier… I had some things to work out back at the corner. But now I’m ready to help out.” The party pony stated while returning her cheerful smile. Twilight was always pleased to see her friends and their own uniquely warm personalities.

“Come on in everyone.” The purple mare said with a courteous smile while welcoming the four inside. Once inside, everyone walked forward to join the group. The group of ponies was surprised to see Applejack getting patched up by Peppermint.

“What happened to you Applejack?” Rainbow Dash asked with slight concern as she watched the orange pony getting bandaged around the chest. She might not have been around for the worst part of it, but the cyan pony could tell that something bad happened. Applejack turned her head to face the pegasus to explain her injury.

“We got attacked down at that bookstore… Ah’m fine now though, so it all turned out ok.” Applejack said with a cheery disposition. The cyan mare was still uneasy as to why they would be attacked, but decided to just be happy that her friend wasn’t badly hurt.

“Any news from you guys?” Neon Streak asked curiously while looking to Sunspot for answers. The suited mare sighed while thinking of her relative lack of progress.

“Well, we pretty much confirmed that someone stole a body. I found a trail from the grave that led out of the cemetery and down to the edge of town where it disappeared.” Sunspot’s news only made everyone feel more upset as to the obscene nature of their opponents.

“Man… those guys must be sick in the head if they think doing all of this is alright.” Spike stated with slight disdain. He couldn’t believe that the society he grew up in could produce such despicable individuals.

“Don’t worry Spike, we’ll catch them soon enough.” Twilight said in a reassuring voice while looking down at the young dragon. “Once Tom and the princesses get back, we can decide what to do next.” She said with a level of confidence that told Spike that she knew that they could win. Before anyone else could say anything, a knocking sound came from the door again.

“That must be them now…” Twilight muttered while walking back over to the door and opening it, her suspicions were confirmed when she saw Tom, Brimstoke, and the two alicorns standing outside. The purple mare smiled as she saw the small group.

“Guys! It’s good to see you made it back.” Twilight greeted while beckoning the four inside. Now that the four had entered the library, the room was a bit crowded as everyone moved around to find their own spot to stand.

After relaying all of the information that they had, Celestia and Luna thought about the matter deeply while trying to figure out the answers to the many questions that were plaguing them. Why were the hooded ponies doing so many experiments with dead bodies? Why did they take a dead body from a cemetery? And possibly the most important question, what would they do next?

“So… all we know at this point is that whoever these ponies are, they are doing something that has to do with dead bodies, and we know the names of three of their members.” Celestia thought out loud while looking around to see if anyone had anything to add.

“Brimstoke, what do you intend to do next?” The white alicorn asked the stallion quizzically. Brimstoke thought for a moment while everyone looked to him to see what his answer would be.

“I say we try to track down those three names we have to see what comes up. In the meantime we should decipher that book that Tom and the others found out in the forest.” Brimstoke finally spoke with a confident tone. Everyone agreed with the white pony’s conclusion.

“Then it’s settled. You should probably leave a few people here with Twilight to decipher that book tonight and tomorrow while you take care of that.” Luna suggested while looking over at the book that was lying on the table.

“Just be sure to meet up with us by tomorrow Brimstoke. We will need you and most of the team with us when we make the speech.” Luna added while looking over at the white stallion.

“Alright then… Pepper and I will stay here overnight while you guys sort all of that out… as long as it’s alright with Twilight of course.” Glitterball said while looking over to the purple unicorn for confirmation.

“Right, of course… you two can stay as long as you want.” Twilight stated with a courteous smile. Peppermint nodded in agreement to the rainbow haired unicorn’s proposal.

“You should be present at the speech as well Tom… I think it’s about time we properly introduce you to the rest of the town.” Luna suggested while looking at the human thoughtfully. Tom wasn’t sure how to feel about being stared at by a crowd of strange talking ponies, but he nodded in agreement anyway.

Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie sighed in disappointment. She was already upset that she arrived late, but now she had nothing to do, nothing to help her friends, nothing to contribute to the investigation, just plain nothing to do. This caused a feeling of sorrowful regret in the pink mare.

Twilight noticed that her friend was looking down at the floor with a disheartened expression. It was very unusual to see the party pony without a smile on her face. The unicorn wondered what could have been wrong with her.

“You ok Pinkie?” The purple mare asked with a tone of friendly concern. Pinkie looked up from her bored reflection and shrugged as she noticed that she had appeared more sullen than she thought.

“Yeah… I’m just a little sad that I didn’t get here early enough to help you guys out.” The pink mare explained in a regretful tone. She took a moment to get over her negative feelings before adopting a less depressed expression.

The group felt a little bad for the pink pony. After all, she only wanted to help them out with anything she could. They all wondered what it would be like for them if they were unable to contribute. While everyone else shared sympathetic frowns with the party pony, Celestia looked down in thought as an idea came to her.

“You know Pinkie… I’m sure that we could use a little help with decorating the square for tomorrow.” The white alicorn’s proposal made the somber pony perk up instantly.

“R-really?” Pinkie asked with a hopeful expression. It was clear that she would jump at the opportunity to do something like that.

“Yes really… We were going to have to go without any decorations because nobody wanted to do it on such short notice, but if you want to step in and get the job done… I suppose we could-” Before the princess could even finish her sentence, she was interrupted by a cheerful outburst by the pink mare.

“Yes! Yes, yes, yes!” Pinkie stated with barely containable joy as she bounced up and down happily. Celestia was glad to see that her suggestion had returned the pink pony to her usual cheerful self.

“Alright then, I think we should get going now. We have a lot to do in a short amount of time.” Luna said while moving towards the door. Celestia nodded as she decided that it was best to leave sooner rather than later.

“Ok Glitterball, you be sure to let us know anything you find in that book.” Brimstoke instructed while everyone but Glitterball and Peppermint followed their leader. The unicorn nodded confidently while turning to her red haired partner for assurance.

“What time should I be down there?” Tom asked the two alicorns with a sense of curiosity. Celestia turned to the boy and thought about it for a moment before replying.

“We’ll send someone to pick you up. Just be sure to be up early.” Celestia said with a friendly smile. Tom chuckled at the notion that he needed to be reminded to get up early.

“Sure thing.” The boy replied while waving to the departing group. Celestia and Luna gave the ponies, dragon, and human one last parting glance before heading out of the door with Pinkie Pie, Brimstoke, and his three teammates in tow.

“So… is anyone heading down to the square tomorrow to check out the speech?” Rainbow Dash asked quizzically while turning to the group. Twilight obviously had to stay to help Glitterball and Peppermint with the book, but the others hadn’t really put much thought into whether or not they wanted to attend the speech.

“I don’t know Rainbow Dash… Sweetie Belle has been practically begging me to bring her down here to… help out with the investigation as she puts it.” Rarity stated with an unsure tone. “So if it’s alright with Twilight, I think I will bring her down here tomorrow when there isn’t much going on.” She said while looking to the purple mare for confirmation.

“Yeah, Applebloom has been bugging me about that too… do you think Ah could bring her down here for a while too?” Applejack asked while also turning to the purple unicorn for an answer. Twilight knew that she would probably be busy with deciphering the book, but the two fillies were usually well behaved enough.

“Sure… that sounds like a great idea. Matter of fact, why don’t you go ask Scootaloo if she wants to come Rainbow Dash?” The purple unicorn suggested in an accepting tone.

The cyan pegasus smiled at the idea of Scootaloo getting to stay at the library while Twilight and the others worked on the investigation. The orange filly had seemed so disappointed about not being able to assist the group in even the smallest way, so naturally sitting in the library while some crucial case work went on would do wonders for the young pegasus.

“That sounds like a good idea… I’ll go by her place later and ask her. I should be able to swing her by here before the speech starts.” Rainbow Dash said happily. Everyone felt a warm sense of joy in knowing that they were doing something good for the three crusaders.

“Oh yeah, by the way Rainbow Dash, I think I could go to the speech with you.” Fluttershy volunteered in a cheerful tone. She was pleased to see the cyan mare’s eyes light up with excitement.

“Awesome! Maybe we could pick up something from Sugar Cube Corner after we’re done. I haven’t had a cupcake in like a week.” Rainbow Dash suggested with a warm smile as she made plans to hang out with a friend for the better part of the day. Tom was surprised to hear that sweets were such a large part of the ponies’ diets, but then again, he figured that with someone like Pinkie Pie around that there would be a lot of desserts and parties thrown around everywhere.

“Well I’ll see you guys either tomorrow or some other time. If you don’t want to come in and wait around for something to do, I could just let you know when we find something of worth.” Twilight said while watching her friends heading towards the door. Everyone nodded and waved to the others as they left the library to carry on their daily business.

“Guess it’s just us again.” Spike said while looking over to the book on the table. “Us and a lot of research…” He shrugged his shoulders and sighed in annoyance as he remembered what they would be doing for the rest of the day. Twilight could tell that the dragon was frustrated by the amount of work he would have to do. She didn’t want him to stress himself out so much because of something like this. The unicorn felt that the dragon should take his mind off of everything that had been going on, especially after his involvement with the incident at the hospital.

“Don’t worry Spike. You don’t have to help us if you don’t want to. Peppermint and Glitterball will be plenty of help while Tom is at the speech, so you can take some time off to relax.” Twilight said while placing a hoof on Spike’s head and ruffling his scaly hair. The dragon felt a calming sense of peace as he thought about taking a day off to rest, but he also felt conflicted in that he wanted to help the purple unicorn.

“Are you sure?” Spike asked with a doubtful expression, to which Twilight nodded in reply. The young dragon sighed in defeat before resolving to at least help a little bit before he went off to relax.

“Hey Twilight, are you coming to help or are you going to leave us with all of this?” Glitterball asked in a jesting tone. Twilight pulled her attention away from her assistant to look over at the two ponies waiting by the book. She could tell that they were eager to get the ordeal over with as fast as possible.

“Uh… sure thing. Tom, would you mind helping us out? You seem to know a lot about the code these guys use to write.” Twilight asked while looking over to the human pleadingly. Tom shrugged his shoulders in indifference. He might as well offer them his expertise in the matter.

“Alright, let’s crack that thing open and see what’s inside.” Tom stated while walking over to the table and rubbing his hands together in anticipation. The four quickly got to work in going over the new contents of the recently discovered book. They had a lot of work ahead of them, and they had to start somewhere.