Tom placed his hands on the ground beside his head to push himself up. He struggled for a moment before managing to barely lift his face off the floor. His chest heaved in and out rapidly as he made a vain attempt at catching his breath while beads of sweat fell freely from his face.

Twilight looked at the pitiful sight with concern as she sadly thought about the strain he must have gone through. She looked back to the princess lying on the ground a few feet away. After confirming that the white alicorn would still be alive if she left for a few minutes, the lavender pony slowly walked over to the human.

“Tom, are you okay?” Twilight looked at him sadly as he refused to leave his current position to respond to her. She could barely see Tom’s eyes shift over to her position. The response filled the unicorn with a slight sense of hope. The boy kept breathing rapidly while giving the concerned pony beside him a look that pleaded for her to give him a break before talking.

He finally turned his head weakly and slowly faced the unicorn. He flashed her the biggest smile he could muster, which at the time was just barely noticeable, and opened his mouth to speak.

“I’m good…*Wheeze*... Just give me a few minutes.” The human rolled his head back to face the ground and planted his head forward onto the hard grassy floor. He continued to breathe rapidly and showed no further signs of wanting to talk.

The boy’s response did little to make Twilight any less worried, but she decided to leave him to rest. The unicorn walked over to her friend before sitting down on the ground herself to relax. In a moment of carelessness, she rubbed her open wounds against her leg.

The unicorn winced and let out a shrill cry of pain. After mentally coping with the pain, she looked at her front legs and shuddered in despair at the sight of the bleeding lacerations. Taking care not to cause any undue pain, the unicorn gingerly wiped the excess blood off of her legs.

Rainbow Dash looked over to her injured friend and frowned with concern. She hadn’t paid much attention to Twilight’s wounds when she got them due to the stressful situation, but now that she had a minute to examine them in full, she couldn’t help but cringe sympathetically.

“Those look pretty bad… are you sure you’re alright?” Rainbow Dash watched sadly as the unicorn grimaced from trying to place her legs on the ground without letting anything touch the sensitive areas.

“It stings a little, but I think I’ll be fine. I’m just glad that this was the worst thing that happened.” Twilight winced as she rubbed the area around the wounds. She looked over to her friend, who was shooting her a sad sympathetic look. The unicorn chuckled in disbelief as she thought about the close call.

“I thought that I was a goner there too. If I hadn’t stopped where I did, or if Tom hadn’t intervened, I don’t think I want to know what would have happened.” The thought of how close she came to dying made Twilight shudder nervously. She still felt the icy cold numbness of the dark mass trying to latch onto her and suck the life out of her through the barrier.

The unicorn shivered fearfully at the remembrance of the sensation, she could now understand why the princess felt so weak after having only been exposed to the shadow for only a few uninterrupted seconds

Twilight’s train of thought was interrupted suddenly by the sound of Tom groaning loudly as he tried to get up. He managed to get on his feet and paused briefly while his legs wobbled uneasily. He placed his hands on his knees for support and lurched forward to make himself comfortable with his stance. He then inhaled sharply as he started walking slowly over to where the ponies were sitting. The boy was still breathing heavily as he looked to the princess resting behind the two ponies. She looked almost peaceful as she breathed calmly and deeply with her eyes closed.

“How is she doing?*Huff*… We didn’t really have time to look at her back there.” Tom looked at the two ponies to ensure that they themselves were unharmed. He quickly glanced to Twilight’s wounds to see if they needed immediate attention. Satisfied that the injuries were not an immediate concern, the exhausted boy then shifted his eyes to look to whoever would answer his question.

Twilight was about to answer when she was suddenly surprised by the princess stirring. The sickly alicorn raised her head up without much difficulty and opened her eyes to look at the others. She appeared to be far less pale than she was a few minutes ago. The ponies were surprised yet thankful at the princess’s sudden improvement.

“I’m fine Tom… Just a little weak is all. That was a close call in there… If you weren’t there with us, I don’t think we would be alive right now. Thank you very much for your help.” Celestia smiled weakly at her strange blue suited savior.

The human finally regained his lighthearted attitude, but he was distracted by how exhausted he felt.

“Sweet lord… I don’t think I have ever used that much energy at one time. I feel like I’m going to pass out… Hopefully, we can find out a little more about who did this from those symbols… you still have them right Twilight?” Tom asked curiously while hoping that he didn’t just go through that ordeal for nothing.

The unicorn lit up her horn and searched through her magical reservoir just to be sure that the symbols were still where she had left them. “Yeah, I got them. But wait… How can you be sure that somepony did this on purpose?” Twilight asked quizzically, still wanting to believe that this was not the intentional work of a sentient creature.

“In all my months of experience as slayer, and with all the inherited knowledge I have on the supernatural, I have never seen dark matter that powerful or aggressive. That stuff actually tried to ignore the sunlight to get at us. No shadow creature acting of its own free will would do that.” Tom explained uneasily. The ponies did not know much of anything about the supernatural, but the genuine nature of the boy and the surprise and amazement in his voice made them comprehend that this was an astounding event.

Rainbow Dash looked curiously at the darkness of the cave, the thoughts of what laid within sent chills down her back. The pegasus eyed the shadows carefully, satisfying the part of her mind that told her that the thing might still be in there.

“Good thing you managed to overpower it. Hey, why didn’t you try to do that earlier?” The cyan pony wondered at the relative ease that Tom employed to dispatch the darklings from the night before. She had no doubt in her mind that it should have been a snap for the slayer to have dealt with the shadowy conglomerate while they were in the cave.

Twilight was also curious as to why the human chose not to try and destroy the shadow creatures earlier, but she also remembered how stressful the event seemed on his body.

Tom closed his eyes and grunted a sigh of annoyance as he thought of an answer to the question. His reasoning seemed obvious to him, but he had to remember that they were not accustomed to him or his methods.

“I didn’t know if it would work… I’m pretty sure the only reason it did work was because the sunlight already weakened it. And I didn’t want to try and destroy it in the cave, because if I failed I wouldn’t have had the strength to fend it off long enough to get us out after using that much energy.” Tom stated in a concerned tone. The ponies shuddered at the thought that they would have been left to fend for themselves in that dark cave had the human not kept a cool head.

“We should probably get going. The princess needs to rest somewhere, and I need to get these wounds fixed.” Twilight sighed at the sight of her own injured legs. She didn’t know how she would keep Spike from destroying himself with guilt once he found out that she had gotten hurt with him absent.

“Yeah and besides, I think we could all use a little rest after that ordeal.” Rainbow Dash exclaimed eagerly at the thought of relaxing at home. Between the experience in the cave and the events from last night, the pegasus just wanted to take a few minutes to unwind in an environment she knew was safe.

Tom nodded enthusiastically at the thought of leaving the forest. He then thought for a moment on which way to go to get back to the path. Luckily for the group, he had been paying attention to where they had been going. He then walked to the edge of the clearing and waited for the others to catch up.

Rainbow Dash heaved and groaned as she helped Celestia get up, she then decided to help the princess walk on her own to let Twilight avoid using her injured legs for anything other than moving. The group quickly followed Tom into the woods and started the journey back home.

After finding the path and walking for a few minutes, the group found themselves back at Zecora’s hut. The ponies looked at each other and nodded silently, they decided that they would rush straight home instead of stopping by the zebra’s hut. Not wanting her to worry about their wellbeing, Twilight hobbled in front of the door and waved to the Zebra inside. Zecora noticed the group walking away and nodded while waving back. The unicorn then winced as she picked up her pace to catch up with her friends.

As soon as the group made it out of the forest, the princess moved away from the cyan pegasus assisting her and turned to face the others. She looked at the three in front of her with a sad expression. She had to leave to return to the castle and deal with a few things. Most important of these things was to find a bed to collapse into and sleep while she got her energy back.

“I’m going to head back to Canterlot.” The princess sighed as she tried to look less exhausted for the sake of the worried ponies.

Twilight looked to her mentor uneasily. She wasn’t sure if she should even try to make the long journey by herself. “Are you sure you’re okay enough to travel alone?” The purple mare shifted her expression into a frown as she watched the princess wobble while trying to steady herself.

Celestia smiled weakly at her concerned student to cheer her up a bit. She wasn’t sure if she appeared as healthy as she wanted, but she had to ease the unicorn’s fears somehow.

“I’ll be fine Twilight. I just need to rest for a while once I get back. You all should investigate this further and see what you can find out about the purpose behind these strange events. I will send my sister to help you out should you need it. She should be here in a few days.” The alicorn stated happily while ignoring her intense desire to return to a tired stupor instead of a cheerful smile.

Twilight was still doubtful about the princess’s health. However, she was confident that the alicorn would ask for help if she really needed it. She waved goodbye to her mentor along with the other members of the group as the princess walked away. The unicorn then shifted her attention to her pegasus friend.

“Hey Rainbow Dash… I know you probably want to head on home, but could I ask you something first?” Twilight asked pleadingly.

The cyan pegasus smiled at her friend. She felt exhausted herself from the ordeal in the cave, but she could spare a few more minutes to hear what the purple unicorn wanted.

“Sure, what’s on your mind?” Rainbow spoke softly while looking at Twilight with a quizzical expression.

The unicorn sighed as she thought about the odd events that took place the night before and just recently.

“We’re probably going to need some help studying these symbols and checking to see what purpose they serve. And after we find that out, there will probably be a lot of other questions that need answering. I was just wondering if you would drop by the library tomorrow to help us do some research.” Twilight invited with an imploring tone of voice. Rainbow Dash hummed curiously and placed a hoof on her cheek as she thought about the request. She then nodded and smiled warmly.

“I would be happy to help. I’ll drop by a little while after morning, does that sound good?” The cyan mare clarified happily while planning out what time she should get to sleep once she got home.

“That sounds perfect.” The purple unicorn smiled back to her friend as she accepted the offer. “Hopefully I can convince the others to come by and help as well.” She stated optimistically. Rainbow Dash waved to her friends before spreading her wings and taking off to fly home. Tom and Twilight watched the pegasus rapidly disappear from view before turning and walking toward Ponyville.

After a few minutes of walking, Twilight decided to stop by Fluttershy’s house to see if she would be interested in assisting them with their investigation. She turned down a path that would take her toward the shy pony’s cottage.

Thankfully, the yellow mare’s cottage wasn’t too far out of their way. After walking for a short while from the edge of the forest, the pair could already see the house in the distance.

Once the two reached Fluttershy’s home, Twilight walked up to the door and knocked gently. The yellow pegasus opened the door and smiled at the sight of her friend. Her bright smile then shifted to an expression of horror and worry as she noticed Twilight’s wounds.

“Oh my goodness, Twilight are you okay?! These look horrible!” Fluttershy placed a hoof beside one of the wounds to inspect it further, being careful to not actually touch the injury. Twilight winced in remembrance of the wounds. Although they had stopped bleeding, they still stung occasionally as the unicorn’s muscles contracted around the injuries.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I think I’m going to drop by Rarity’s to see if she can patch me up.” The unicorn carefully lifted her leg up so both herself and Fluttershy could see it better. The size and severity of the gashes made the shy mare squeamish, but she didn’t want to make her friend feel any worse than she obviously already did.

The yellow pegasus put a hoof to her mouth to catch her gasp as she surveyed the pair at her doorstep. Between Twilight’s injuries and the look of exhaustion on Tom’s face, they looked like they had just been through a war.

“What happened to you two? Are you sure you’re ok?” Fluttershy spoke softly with shrill concern evident in her voice.

Twilight felt bad for letting her friend worry over her injuries. She spoke calmly in an attempt to quell the gentle pony’s fears.

“It’s a long story, nobody got hurt too bad thankfully. Anyway, we’re here to ask for your help with something… Something unrelated to how we look… well, sort of.” The unicorn rolled her eyes at the thought of what they had just been through.

The yellow pegasus looked at her friend with intrigue. She was always willing to lend a helping hoof to anyone that needed it.

“Of course I’ll help. What do you need?” Fluttershy smiled and waited to hear about the purple unicorn’s request.

“We’ve been investigating the spot in the forest where we got attacked last night. We found some things that are going to need a lot of research done on them, and we were wondering if you wouldn’t mind coming to the library tomorrow to help us out.” Twilight explained in a cheerful tone. She was glad to hear that her friend was willing to help out so readily.

“I need to do some things around here, but I’ll be there as soon as I finish up.” Fluttershy stated eagerly. She smiled warmly at the two, trying her hardest to not look at the wounds on Twilight’s legs.

Satisfied with the answer given, Twilight closed her eyes and smiled while nodding. She then said her goodbyes and walked away with Tom in tow. The unicorn walked back to Ponyville while leading her human friend around. She decided to visit her other friends to see if they would want to help. Stopping by Sugar Cube Corner first to enlist Pinkie Pie for her cause, Twilight opened the door and walked in while Tom followed suit.

“You guys don’t know the meaning of the word subtle do you?” The boy asked while thinking about the design of the building and looking around the interior. Twilight chuckled at the thought before walking up to the counter and waiting for someone to come in so she could ask for Pinkie.

“Hi!” Tom jumped back in fright and surprise as the energetic pink pony suddenly popped up from below the counter. As the human clutched his chest and breathed deeply to recover from the scare he was given, he looked over to Twilight to see that she was only slightly startled by the unexpected jolt. He looked at the pink pony with disbelief before letting out a sigh of relief.

“Good lord Pinkie, how do you do that?” Tom walked up to the counter and eyed the cheerful pony. He then took a glance at the height of the counter and made an analysis in his head as to how the pony could jump out like that on accident.

“Do what? All I was doing was looking at something.” Pinkie Pie giggled and smiled at the human. The pony seemed oblivious to her own almost creepily cheerful nature. She looked curiously at Tom before returning to her casual smile.

“Never mind… it’s nothing.” The boy shrugged and gave up on rationalizing a logical explanation for how the party pony could seemingly defy nature with how she moved so suddenly. Twilight rolled her eyes and looked over to Pinkie Pie, who met her gaze and waited for her to speak.

“Anyway, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind coming to the library tomorrow Pinkie. We need as much help as we can get with investigating this case for the princess.” The purple mare explained pleadingly. The pink pony trailed her eyes off as she thought about the matter.

“Weeeell, I guess I’m free tomorrow... Sure! I’ll be there bright and early.” Pinkie bounced happily in the air and giggled innocently at the thought of taking part in such an important matter. She then looked at Tom and smiled. “Hey Tom, you want to try a cupcake?”

The human was caught off guard by the sudden question. He looked down at the glass sample area of the counter at the delicious looking treats kept inside. He then looked back up and smiled contently. “No, I don’t have any money to pay for one. Maybe another time.” Tom declined in a friendly manner.

“Oh… don’t be silly! The first one is on the house!” Pinkie smiled at him and giggled at his kindhearted tone of voice. She then turned around and walked into the other room. She came back with a tray that had three cupcakes with pink frosting and sprinkles all over them.

“Here, one for each of us. You look like you could use one too Twilight.” Pinkie added while noting the exhausted appearance of the two in front of her.

“Oh, umm… thanks, Pinkie.” The unicorn smiled at the gesture. She then reached forward and grabbed one of the cupcakes off the tray. Pinkie gasped upon noticing Twilight’s cut up foreleg.

“Oh my gosh...! Are you ok Twilight? Where did you get hurt like that?” The chipper pony suddenly became more concerned as her smile was replaced with a shocked expression of worry.

Twilight looked sad as she reeled her injured foreleg back. She didn’t want to make her friends worry about her, even if their worry was justified.

“Oh… right, I guess you weren’t there with us. We went out into the woods to investigate where those creatures came from. We found some more of them in a cave, one of them jumped on me and left these when Tom got it off of me.” The purple mare explained. Pinkie gasped quietly upon hearing the news. She put a hoof to her mouth and looked sympathetically at the unicorn. Twilight let out a fake chuckle in an attempt to cheer her up.

“It’s ok, I’m going to have Rarity stitch me up, so there’s no reason to fret over these. They’re not even really that big.” The unicorn smiled and hoped her friend would do the same. Pinkie then slowly returned to her cheerful self.

She picked up her own cupcake and ate it feverishly. Upon seeing this, Twilight took a bite out of her cupcake. Tom picked up his confection and looked at it for a moment. He hesitantly took a bite and savored the sweet taste.

“Hmm… these are actually pretty good.” The boy quickly finished the treat and wiped the crumbs from his hand off on his pant leg. The pink grinned upon hearing the satisfaction in the human’s voice.

“I’m glad you like them. Come back here some time, I might be able to give you a couple more freebies every now and again. I mean you are a friend now.” Pinkie went over to Tom and placed a hoof around his shoulder and held him close. Tom pushed her away gently as she started to hug him a bit too tightly against her.

“Well, you never know. I’m sure a guy like me can earn some money in a town like this, so hopefully, you won’t have to give me any more freebies.” The human smirked at her warmly. She returned the gesture and walked back behind the counter.

Twilight said goodbye to the pink pony and walked out of the store. Tom gave her a quick wave and followed the unicorn out the door. The unicorn breathed in and out as she took a moment to take in the fresh air. She then started heading towards the Carousel Boutique where Rarity worked and lived.

Upon reaching the building, Tom couldn’t help but face-palm mentally as he thought about the lackluster nature of the names in this world. He was going to a building aptly named Carousel Boutique, in a town called Ponyville, and he was being led by a fluorescent purple talking pony named Twilight Sparkle. He decided he would have to temper his sense of judgment if he were to live here without going daffy.

Twilight opened the door to the boutique and held it open for Tom to step through. She then went in after him and took a look around the inside. Rarity sat at one of the chairs in the back of the building. She was working tirelessly on fixing the hair of a young filly. Twilight recognized the white filly to be Rarity’s little sister Sweetie Belle.

Rarity frantically tried to smooth out her sister’s ruffled hair with a comb. Judging from her appearance, it looked like Sweetie Belle just went through a tornado. The white mare stopped what she was doing and looked up to the two visitors. She smiled and put the comb down for a moment.

“Twilight, Tom, how nice to see you two!” Rarity greeted before looking to her sister, who was curiously looking at the human and studying his appearance. “Sweetie Belle, I would like you to meet Mr. Thomas Greene.” She pointed to Tom and cheerfully introduced him to her sister.

“Wow, so this is the person that beat up all of those scary monsters you told me about?” The filly looked at her sister and then back to Tom. She smiled and seemed very eager to meet the human. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Greene… you must be very brave to have fought all those monsters out in the Everfree Forest.” She seemed genuinely impressed by the feats accomplished by the human.

Tom chuckled humbly. He wasn’t used to getting this much admiration, even from a child. All things considered, it was an experience he could learn to enjoy.

“Please, call me Tom. We’re all friends here after all, right Sweetie Belle?” Tom said lightheartedly. The young unicorn smiled brightly and nodded with confidence at the human’s statement.

“What happened to your hair, Sweetie Belle? It looks like a mess.” Twilight looked at Sweetie Belle’s messed up hair and gasped with mild shock. Sweetie Belle sighed in annoyance and felt her soaking wet hair.

“I got sprayed by a leaking pipe at school. They must be having some trouble with plumbing because there is an awful lot of water leaking in the basement.” The filly pouted sadly as she thought about her own misfortune. “I guess I must just be unlucky. I mean what are the odds of me finding the one bad pipe in the entire upper floor?” She threw her hooves up in frustration and huffed in annoyance.

Rarity stroked her sister’s hair before shaking the water from her hoof. She then turned to Twilight with a curious expression. “Enough of that dreadful business for now… Anyway, why are you two here?” Rarity asked quizzically while glancing between the two.

“Well, I need to ask you something.” Twilight got right to the point of their visit as Rarity listened intently. “We need help with researching things for the princess. It has to do with our trip to Zecora’s last night. I was hoping you could come to the library tomorrow to help speed up the process.”

The white unicorn sighed to herself and looked annoyed as she thought about doing any kind of research. “Well darling, I’m not much of a bookworm… But I guess if it would help you I’ll come.” Rarity stated contently at the prospect of assisting the unicorn.

Twilight shifted around joyfully at her friend’s acceptance. Unfortunately, she got a little too enthusiastic as she brushed one of her injured legs up against the wall. “Ow!... oooh.” The unicorn jumped in pain and gingerly rubbed the area. She could see that the wounds were starting to show signs of getting infected. Rarity cringed as she saw her friend in pain. She quickly walked over and examined the injuries closer.

Twilight bit her lower lip to prevent herself from crying out in pain as the white mare inspected her wound. Even with Rarity being as gentle as possible, the cuts sent twinges of pain coursing through the unicorn’s body with each touch.

“There’s one more thing too Rarity. Oww… As you can see, I seem to have received a rather nasty bunch of cuts on my legs.” Twilight droned sarcastically as she tried to downplay her wounds. Rarity looked at her friend with prominent concern.

“Cuts Twilight? These look more like gashes to me! How on earth did you get these ghastly injuries?” The white mare asked while bringing the unicorn over to a chair. Sweetie Belle gasped in surprise as she saw a passing glance of Twilight’s injury.

“I would rather not talk about that right now.” The purple pony winced while looking over to Sweetie Belle, who was looking at her with concern as well. “Do you think you can give me some stitches... and maybe some disinfectant as well? … Oww!” She cringed while the white mare inspected the wounds closely.

Rarity sighed in frustration and thought for a moment. She had experience with patching up Sweetie Belle from her escapades with the cutie mark crusaders, but the unicorn was unsure of whether or not she could fix injuries this size.

“I don’t know Twilight… these look a lot larger than anything I’m used to handling, but I’ll see what I can do.” Rarity offered in a friendly manner.