/Whenever the character's POV is thinking, it will be in slashes. I find it much more noticeable and easier to read./

•••

The entire day flew by as Twilight read through her stack of books. It was, in fact, something she enjoyed greatly, and she would often enough to refuse to get up once she had sat down. Sometimes she was so caught up in a story that she would become oblivious to her surroundings altogether.

Spike had eventually returned home from helping Rarity and waved hello to her, but she payed no mind and continued to fly through each book in a matter of minutes.

Spike sighed heavily. "What am I going to do with her?" He muttered and walked away.

The room was quiet for several minutes when a book suddenly fell out of the case and landed on the floor with a loud thump. However, Twilight didn't even blink.

Then another book fell down, hurtling at the ground faster than the first. No response.

Then another. And another. And another.

Twilight did not move at all.

The room was still for a few seconds when a final book was flung across the library, as if it had been thrown, and hit Twilight in the back of the head. She yowled and jumped to her feet, whirling around to where the book had come from.

/Um... that was weird.../ Twilight blinked, stepping towards where all of the books had fell. "What in Equestria?" She muttered under her breath. /Spike and I are the only ones in this castle, and I'm the one here with magic. Who threw that at me?/

"Hoo."
Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs for half a second and whipped around to face the thing that had nearly given her a heart attack.

"Hoo."

"Oh, for bucks sake..." She grouched, glaring at her pet owl, Owlowicious. "That's not funny! You scared me!"

"Hoo?"

"Are you okay, Twilight?" Spike yelled from the doorway, staring into the library. "What was that all about."

"Owlowicious came out of nowhere." Twilight chuckled, hiding her annoyance.

"Oh." Spike laughed. "He's like a ninja owl or something."

"Hoo!"

"Carry on with your egghead business, then." Spike left.

Twilight growled under her breath. "What in the world happened here?" /I'm pretty sure books don't just hurl themselves across the room at ponies. That was rather strange./

She walked back over to where her stack of books was and quickly surveyed the library. /Nopony's in here besides me and Owlowicious. Who could have done that?/

She turned back to the table, swiveling her ears to listen to her surroundings. Nothing. Absolutely no sound.

/Well, this doesn't make any sense at all./ She huffed. /Owlowicious, if that was you somehow... ugh./
Twilight looked back to her books, but was surprised to see the one she had been reading was gone. In fact, the whole stack of them were gone.
There was just one book sitting on the table. It had a blackish blue cover and was tattered and torn. A grey skull was printed on the front.

This was a book that held dark magic.

Well, it held the power to TEACH somepony dark magic, but it wasn't much different.

Twilight blinked. /I... I remember this book./ She bit her lip. /I was pretty young. Second year after Celestia chose me as her student. I managed to snatch that out of the restricted section of the library. She wasn't too happy when she found out I took that./ Twilight chuckled. /But what can I say? I'm as curious as a cat./

/But why the heck is it here now?/ She wondered in confusion. /I-I think I should leave it alone./ She turned her back to the book, looking towards the doors. /Dark magic is a bad thing./

The book suddenly flipped open, scaring the daylights out of Twilight. Her fur was bristling, but she ignored it and stared at the page with a look of sheer horror on her face.

The pages were blank; they didn't have any spells or words whatsoever. But, writing began to fade onto the first page as she focused on it.
'Hello, your highness.' It read.

/What in Equestria..?/ Twilight's mouth hung open in shock. /Who is writing that?/

'We've met before, princess.'

/Sweet Celestia.../ Twilight's eyes narrowed in confusion. /Are you reading my mind somehow?/

'Magic can allow you to do anything, my dear.'

/My dear?/ Twilight's face fell and she sighed. /I don't like where this is going./

'Of course you don't. Nopony is perfect enough for the great princess.' If it was a pony talking to her, rather than- well, a book- they'd probably have a very sarcastic tone.

/Oh, shut up./

'I apologize, your highness.'

/Who are you, exactly?/ Twilight thought again.

'You will know once you must.'

/Ooh, ominous./ Twilight rolled her eyes.

/Look, unless you're some dead pony from the past that's speaking to me through A FREAKING BOOK, I'm going to leave now./

'You can't get away from me.'

/Oh really?/ Twilight smirked. She slammed the book shut. /I just did, didn't I?/

CRASH!

Twilight's very fancy porcelain coffee mug shattered into about a million pieces. She shrieked and ducked under the table to try and avoid the flying shards.

When she finally dared to come out of hiding, she looked at the tabletop.

The shards were arranged to spell out letters.

'I am watching you, princess. I am your worst nightmare.'

That was enough for Twilight. She raced towards one of the massive open windows and took a huge leap, spread her wings wide and flew away from her castle. The tips of her wings caught the rocky edge of her castle on the downstroke, but she didn't care. She just had to get away from that book. From the library. From the castle.

/I need to talk to somepony about this./ She fretted, nervous sweat running down her forehead. She landed on the outskirts of Ponyville and blinked slowly, trying to calm herself down. /It was probably just a prank./ she told herself desperately. /Or something like that. Yeah./

But those words had given her a horrible sense of doubt that was growing bigger every second.