With the archives changed to a twisted version of itself, Stormy was more that convinced that he was in an alternative reality, if he ever makes it out alive, he will tell Twilight to never use that mind delve spell ever again. The static sound started to appear in the radio again as soon as he started to explore the twisted reception, he saw more Hopping Ponies coming for him, he prepared his hooves waiting them to come, thanks to the lantern he could see them, one of the creatures jumped towards Stormy, as he dodge it, another jumped to him, he took this chance to use his back hooves to give it a good buck, but the other creature he dodge previously was able to bite his front hoof, grunting a little he managed shake it off, the wound was not serious.

“I don’t have all day to do this dance,” he said as he looked at the stairs.

Stormy started running towards the second room, he ignored the pain that each step made, due to the wound and his half healed body, but he did not had any other weapon, the bite marks on his front hooves where proof enough that fighting bare hoofed is a terrible idea. The second floor of the main lobby was in no better shape than the first one, it was damaged, the torches were replaced by some hoof-shaped lantern that provided a very dim light, the stallion touched them and found out there were squishy, simulating flesh, the carpet had disappeared, and all he could see was broken concrete, and sometimes holes in them, in said holes, there was a metallic floor separating him from the first floor lobby, the static sound of the radio was getting stronger, the stairs had changed, they passed from being spiral like when he first entered the area, to be now shaped like a big Y, the hopping ponies were able to slowly climb them, he checked the other door at the opposite end of where he was, he tackled it opening it up returning to the hallway of the second floor.

“I cannot keep up running forever, I need a weapon,” Stormy said as he ran away from the creatures.

The hallway just like the rest of the place had changed, the usual red carpet it had more holes and bloodstains in it, some of the torches were out or broken, and even the usual moon and sun shield designs were busted, the walls had more doors, but there was one that caught Stormy attention, it was the Starswirl the Bearded Wing Door, it was wide open, he got closer to the door to inspect it, it was forced open, he entered the wing, thankfully the radio silence provided some comfort to the stallion.

The giant sand clock was still working, and most of the scrolls there were intact, since the main door is locked, he probably could find something there that could help him either recover his magic or exit the Archives, he checked on several scrolls, but most of them were illegible due to the old age they all share, perhaps if the cycle between day and night affected the buildings and items, if it was day he could read them?, with no luck with the scroll, he checked some pages in the floor, that was kind of unusual, as he checked one of them, it reads “Song of Refresh”, Stormy stopped for a moment, reflecting about the content of that page.

“Song of Refresh, wait, isn’t that one of the pages of the book I picked up earlier?” he said as he placed the lantern on the floor.

With the light next to the page, Stormy took out the book, and searched for the song name on the table of contents, in fact it was a page from the Book of Ancient Song of Harmony, he placed the page inside, the book made true to it’s content, as the magical song restored itself to the book, now with the page back where it belongs Stormy took a more closer look to the song description, it reads the following;

“This magical song was created by the medical team to heal the guards in battle, it can recover serious wounds, but using it would cause a total magic usage in novices, experts performers will not be affected by the side effects though,” he said as he read the song description.

If he used that song, being novice, there is a risk of never regaining his magic again, for now he will keep the book as a last resort, once he stored the book back to his saddlebags he resumed his search for an alternative exit. He noticed something on the window behind the sand clock, he picked up his lantern to take a look, it seems there was a path that took outside the Canterlot Archives, it leads to the main street, he could get out from the window, if, he had a rope and could break the bars on said window.

Stormy decided to head out, feeling better, it was time to explore and find a way to get to that path, sadly for him, the radio started to emit a faint static, he froze in place as soon as a metallic echo started to sound on the place, his face started to turn pale as the static and the echo increased with the passing minutes, he turned around, there was nothing in the dark, he started to move away from the static sound, trying to find a safe distance into the sand clock, but that is when the static suddenly burst through the radio speakers, Stormy saw the entrance to the Starswirl the Bearded Wing, and a big knife opening the door, Stormy fear grew more and more, as he saw a big pony almost as big as Celestia entering the room, but with a Iron Mask and the giant knife on its mouth, just as the one from his nightmare before.

“No, nonononono!, Not him!” Stormy yelled, freaking out.

The creature was walking towards him, Stormy never felt this kind of fear, and he had nothing to defend himself, maybe the nightmare he had before was a warning about this creature in specific, if he couldn’t beat it in his dream, he sure as heck cannot beat it unarmed. The Iron Mask Pony came closer to him and raised his sword, Stormy mind told him to move, to run away, but he was frozen in place, the knife came downwards towards him, Stormy mind finally send orders to his legs to move, dodging to a side just barely, his raincoat was cut, but he didn’t suffered any injuries, the knife also cut part of the sand clock metal ornaments, he could not do anything to that kind of monster, he ran away towards the exit of that room, the iron mask pony was slowly following him, Stormy opened the door and pushed it back to place, the Iron Mask Pony just stood there, as if he was watching in silence, how the former lunar guard was completely lost in his own fear, Stormy not taking his chances around that creature ran toward the stairs taking him to the Third Floor.

“Oh great, now that monster is protecting the only exit, can this get any worse?” Stormy said a little releaved.

“Groaoooawl!” a creature roared in front of him.

“Damn it, I had to say that phrase didn’t i?” he said annoyed.

A hopping pony was already waiting for him, he used his front hooves this time to hit the creature, the creature jumped, but it received the blow, with the monster in range, Stormy continued to hit the creature in hoof to hoof combat, his hooves were strong, but not enough to prevent the creature from getting up, he used a combo, 3 hits with his front hooves, then a good kick with his 2 back hooves, that let the creature on the floor knocked out, he had no idea where to run from the Iron Mask pony, but wait, there is one floor he had completely forgotten , the Fifth Floor, it was kind of the Archives Attic, if he is lucky, he can run pass the monsters on the 4F, Stormy quickly found the stairs leading there, he was glad he had the lantern with him, otherwise he would already have… no, he did not wanted to think of the worse, he still have to get out, find Luna and find his brother.

The fact that the Iron Mask Pony is in Canterlot, just fueled his desire to escape and find them both fast, when he reached the 4F, there was something strange there… the lack of monsters.

“Wait… where did the creatures go?” he said confused.

The 4F had most of the doors unable to be opened, except for the one were he got the songs book, inside there was nothing other than a foal drawing, the drawing depicted Stormy playing with his ocarina, next to him was the book he found, but in the right side, torn pages, he checked behind for a message, the previous drawings had a message, this one should follow the same rule right?, nope, this time what it contained, was a rusty key.

Continuing onward, he reached the final floor, but as he went up, something surprised him. The place looked exactly the same as the library before the transformation…the red carpet was intact, the torches lit, so there was no need for the lantern there, also the moon and sun shields are on the wall and in perfect shape, the floor itself only had 3 doors, did he stepped into another dimension?, he took some steps backwards, returning to the 4F, and the 4F had the transformed aspect, he was not understanding what was happening, but he returned to the 5F, Stormy slowly turned off the lantern and put it away in his saddlebags, opening the first door he had access to, it looked like a bathroom, there was a rusty steel pipe on the tub, he took some steps closer to the tub and picked up the pipe, it was 1 meter long, but hard enough to use it against something, he place it on his back where he used to keep his sword, with nothing else worth checking, he exit the bathroom and entered another room, it was a bedroom, nothing unusual there, just that he found a health drink, the same one as his previous dream, everything was turning far more that strange, why is a bedroom and a bathroom doing on the Canterlot Archives, and why is that floor the only normal one?, he could have suffered a concussion while Twilight performed the spell and now he is imagining this?, or had he finally lost it?.

Stormy shook his head in denial, he refused to believe he lost his sanity and continued forward, he checked the last door, it lead towards a big circular place, the center of the attic, where most of the books that are no longer available to public are placed on special bookshelves, but the whole attic only had one Table, it had a great view of Canterlot, just that right now, nothing could be seen since it was dark outside, the table had a open spell book and a tea, Stormy touched the tea cup, it was still warm, that was very unusual, the table itself had a Lantern lit and a little picture in it, Stormy took the picture, it was the receptionist.

“W-wait…I know her… she is the Cantelot Archives receptionist, Mythic Quill, the attic was her home, she was devoted to the Library in both heart and soul.” Stormy smiled, putting the picture back on the table.

Stormy looked at the book, it had something that caught Stormy eye, it was a architecture book, from the Canterlot Archives, it even had a map attached to it, Stormy read the book, smiling at it’s contents.

“In Cases of Extreme Emergency, the Starswirl the Bearded Wing has a secret passageway that leads to the basement, from there some stairs leads towards the exit just below the window in the wing, in order to activate it-“ The book ended there, Stormy checked the other page, a riddle was present, as the riddle was written in blood, making impossible to read the actual page “-the path of salvation will open, when time itself run backwards”

“Welp, a clue is a clue” Stormy said as he rip the map out of the book and closed it, the stallion checked the nearby bookshelf, most of the books were about history, there was a book with a page in it, used as a bookmark, he open the book where that page indicated, it was a nutritional explanation of equestrian fruits, there was information about Sweet Apple Acres and the different kinds of apples they harvest in their farm.

“Let’s see here, Sweet Apple Acres, the most principal income of Ponyville and Canterlot apples supply, besides hay and the daisy flowers, the apples consist one of the most fundamental parts of a pony diet, the red apple is one of the most common fruit in Equestria, studies of Princess Celestia School for Gifted Unicorns have discovered that for injured unicorns, the apples had some special effects, hold up, special effects?, I have eaten apples all my life and I never felt special effects coming out of them.” Stormy said to himself as he sat on the floor and read.

“Besides being nutritional and tasty, the apples helps in the recovery of injured unicorns that lost their magic capability, the effects are usually passive, but a healthy stallion would not notice them, unless it is under heavy stress, although is not much the quantity the sick unicorn recovers, a whole red apple is enough to allow usage the most basic spells, like levitation. As for the Green Apple, it recovers more amount of the sick unicorn magic, sadly, the green apple have a history of spoiling fast if it is stored in a closed space, like a bag. Finally the legendary Zap Apples, being magical, provide a full recovery of the unicorns magic, and gives a little boost, unfortunately, the Zap apples are too rare and almost impossible to acquire before the Zap Apple Harvesting Day, also, are the quickest one to spoil if you store it on a bag for more that 30 minutes, Granny Smith recommends; don't waist time in picking it up if you are not going to eat it, that's why the Zap Apple Jam or dishes had to be made almost right away when the apples are ready, once they are ready, there is no problem over time” that was the whole article.

Stormy read to the fullest the book information, so in unicorns, the apples had special effects if they are eaten, he never heard of that before, although he remembered that one time, Pinkie Pie said something about special meals, like the Mint Tea he always drink that calms the jitters and relax the mind, or that the Strawberry Cupcake grants her superultraawesome detective powers!...But of course that last one was Pinkie Pie overactive imagination.

Stormy took the apple he had picked and ate it, somepony would say he is extremely gullible for believing what the books says, but taking into account where the heck he is, it won’t be the weirdest thing he has seen all day.

He was both relieved and surprised that he actually was eating something after all the scares, wounds and problems he had already experienced in this so called "nightmare ", he rested a little and felt how his magic slowly reappeared on his horn, he tried a simple trick, levitating the book back to its place, the book was surrounded in his magical aura as it moved from the table to the bookshelf, the apple worked, he took a look on the paper used as bookmark, it was another page of the songs book, it was called “The Brothers & Sister Duet” and it was actually a song that required 2 ponies to play, recommended to be blood related as the name implies. One pony plays the notes as the other sang the lyrics, his usual happy face turned into a extreme sad one, Brother and Sister Duet, the name of the song brought out a bad memory, his eyes started to get filled with tears, tears he could not hold back any longer, first the nightmare where his brother Mistshine did not remember him, the fact that he was all alone now in that limbo, that for some strange reason, drawings made by his brother are laying around and that Pinkie Pie, the pony he saw more as a big sister than a friend, was nowhere to be found, why?, he keeps wondering, why did they left him alone in that place?, he was crying as far as his eyes were capable of producing tears, this was not a dream, he was much more awake, only one word could describe where he was, living hell, once again, he ended up crying, due to the events of a living nightmare, just like when he started, only that this time, he was more than awake.

“Mistshine, Sunnybreeze, Pinkie Pie, little bro, big sisters, where…. where are you now that I need you the most?". He continued to cry, letting out from his chest all his stored pain, carpet on the room started to absorb Stormy´s tears.

Stormy lost count of how much time had passed since he cried in that room, the memory of his family hit him hard, and must have fallen asleep. He was hoping that he ended up awake in his bed, but sadly, one quick look at the windows let him know he was still in the Archives Attic.

That memory was something he decided to close deep inside his mind, all he could remember is that is was something so awful, that it made him abandon Manehatten, as a little foal, and live on the streets, for a while, but almost all of that happened in his fillyhood, so he forgot it to pass the page and move on, but now, that image was trying to revive, he lit up the lantern to his face and dried his tears with his raincoat, getting up and with the clue at hoof, he decided to go back to the Sand Clock.

Stormy also wanted to save as most magic he could, something told him that, he will be using it a lot, specially if he ends up finding more pages of that book, he stored the map on his saddlebags, and also turned off the lantern on the table, he used his illumination spell to use his magic as lantern again, to make sure the apple did its job, thanks Celestia it did. He took the steel pipe on his hooves and opened the door, leading to the 5F hallway… but that’s when everything turned to worse, the hallway already looked old and in the same condition as the rest of the Archives, the door leading to Mythic´s Attic closed, he slowly turned around and opened up the door and sadly for him, it also looked twisted, old and with bloodstains on some places in the walls, the special books, most of them were missing, except the 2 books he already read, he noticed something on the table were the archives book was it looked like a puddle of blood, a drop of it keep falling on the puddle.

“Don’t look up… don’t look up… for the love of Celestia, DON´T LOOK UP!! “ his mind was screaming to him.

His curiosity won this round again, his eyes looked at the ceiling, he saw a corpse in a advanced state of decomposition, without it skin, it was suspended on the roof with barbed wire, it had a glasses on what it looked was the face, a middle age mare, the only thing he could use to indentify the poor pony, was the glasses, he looked at the photo of the table, even in this state, he could see who the pony was, since the glasses themselves had a tiny sapphire stone in them just like in the picture.

“M-mythic Quill!“ Stormy almost jumped from the scare.

At that moment, the radio burst into a loud static, Stormy feeling a presence dodge to a side, just in time as he saw the blade of the Iron Mask pony ripping the door apart, the creature had a coat on his empty hoof, with a scroll and quill cutie mark, Stormy knight mind did not took long to process what happened, that monster killed the receptionist in the alternative world, that’s why he couldn’t feel the creature coming when he was reading the books previously, the transformation had not taken in the whole library because of the song page, Stormy´s fear turned into anger, as he launch himself to attack it using his recently found pipe. The creature did not move an inch when Stormy hit it on the face with it almost as if it was expecting the mistake the knight was about to perfom.

“You killed a helpless mare!” Stormy yelled, his anger was overcoming his fear.

"..." The Iron Mask Pony did not replied

Instead of giving Stormy a answer, the creature threw mare ripped skin towards him, Stormy receive it, the blood was still fresh and manage to stain his raincoat, mane and hooves, this was more than enough to break his anger and revert back to freakout mode, the Iron Mask Pony attacked him, using its Big Knife, Stormy instincts and guard training, told him to shield himself with the pipe, one of the dumbest idea he had all day, the creature strength was huge!, it manage to send him towards the window, which almost broke from the impact, he definitely could not fight that beast, having woke up from his anger rage, he quickly prepared to run back to the hallway, as far as his hooves could take him, but before that, he will give the creature a taste of it’s own medicine, Stormy levitation to return the skin of Mythic towards the creature and allowing him to ran as the creature was “blind”.

“Hope she can hold him off a little.” Stormy said, looking regretful of the tactic he had used.

Stormy burst the door opened, and closed it again, when he was already at 4F he heard the sound of a door opening , just what he need it, the creature knows how to use doors, what next?, dancing?, he did not wasted any time on the 4F or 3F with that thing following him, he must get out of the Archives as soon as possible, so he moved straight to the 2F, sure there was some doors he wasn’t checked that had the Custodian Badge slot, but it was better to come back later during daytime, he got quickly to the Starswirl the Bearded Wing, the door was open, he quickly closed the door and pushed a nearby bookshelf, blocking the entrance, to give him some time.

“Let’s hope that this creature is dumb as a rock” he said as he started to search the wing.

The secret exit has to be there, he must use the hourglass, it was so obvious, he checked the clock, for his bad luck, some of the ornaments of the clock was broken, thanks to Iron Mask previous attack, but he noticed, that there was something inside the sand clock, it looked like a page of a book, Stormy tried to read the title before the sand covered it, it reads “Song of Time“

“Oh perfect! Even if I get the page I could not perform it, my magic only allow me levitation or illumination at this point, not time manipulation,“ Stormy was starting to get irritated.

He noticed something on the sand clock, it was a hole to use something as lever, the pipe he was holding was 1 meter long, it could easily fit in it, risking his only weapon he insert it on the hole until a click was head, locking the pipe in place, making it a makeshift lever.

“Ok, now, let’s see if what the diary page said was correct,” Stormy said to himself again, perhaps making small talk to himself provided with some level of relief?

Stormy moved the “lever” downwards, a loud clank and a little quake started to make the clock move slowly, Stormy quickly took the pipe out and watched the clock spin around, more faster with each cycle, until the clock stopped completely, confused, Stormy stared to analyze it, according to the diary there was supposed to be a hidden passage right in front of him, was the diary a illusion?!

“Oh come on! What else I’m supposed to do? Without the Song of Time I cannot turn time back-,” Stormy said walking around the clock, stopping to reflect on the clue he found earlier. “-or maybe… I don’t need the song after all”.

Didn’t the clue mentioned time moving backward?, The sand clock is still a clock, and if it is intact compared to the rest of the Archives, there must be a reason for it, as he looked closer at the ornaments, he found a little slot that looked like a badge, Stormy quickly took out the Custodian Badge and insert it on the slot, a click made the remaining ornaments detach themselves from the clock, turning into horizontal levers, it did not take much thinking of what to do next.

Stormy pushed the lever counterclockwise, and the circle where he was, clock included, started to lower itself moving towards the Archives Basement, during the decent, the clock was working, and the sand was magically returning to the upper part of the clock, leaving the book page on the below part without sand, but, it didn’t took long for the stallion to notices something was wrong.

The deeper the clock goes, the more darker it became until that, even with the illumination spell active Stormy was only able to see where he was putting his hooves, until a loud clank anchored the clock in place,

“It took too much time to get to the basement, way to long,” Stormy said to himself, a cold shiver traveled his spine.

The stallion guard training was kicking in again, he felt a deep cold at the base of his spine, something was not right, the top of the sand clock suddenly started to give light, Stormy stopped using his illumination spell to save magic, as he stepped out of the circular area, his hoof felt something unusual on the floor, he looked down, only to find that the floor was made of fence!

“If there is pure fence here,” Stormy said, tightening the grip on his weapon.

He turned around, nothing behind him, nothing on front neither, why he was feeling so uneasy? A loud bang came from the sound clock, he turned around to check that the clock was now changing to a twister version of it, the top ornaments started to emit a powerful fire, enough to lit almost all the room, that’s when he hard the sound of something eating, followed by the screams of a creature.”

“GROOAAA!!!” a creature yelled.

Stormy looked in front of him, there was a huge creature in front of him, it looked almost the size of a teenage dragon, but it had fangs and it coat color was very dirty, it had a visible overweight and two front claws with chains, the back of its body was missing the back hooves making the spinal column visible and so part of some rib bones, what shock Stormy the most, is that it was eating another monsters, he quickly looked at it´s claws and saw at the floor several Hopping Ponies and Ceiling Filly’s corpses, the last one, the one that emitted the yell, was a Ceiling filly screaming in pain under the creature’s maw grip, the huge monster put the creature out of it’s misery by ripping them apart. Sadly for Stormy, the sand clock light was enough for the creature to notice his presence.

“Foooooood” the creature exclaimed in a slow but deep voice.

The monster face did not had eyes, or at least that is what it looked, since its “eyeballs” were black all over, and just a tiny dot in color red, what could be the iris, the creature with its two massive claws moved towards Stormy, who was still frozen, his mind reacted in time when the claws of the beast was just centimeters from him, he held the grip of the steel pipe with his remaining magic and moved to a side making the creature miss its attack.

Stormy continued to attack it with the pipe; it didn’t seem to do much, due to the massive mass of the creature, turning around, feeling an annoyance, the creature hit Stormy with his claw, it ripped his raincoat and also injured him on his side, the nails of that creature were unusually sharp, and he could already feel a little amount of blood leaving his body.

But he had a idea, taking advantage of his speed, he hit the exposed spine column with the pipe, although the creature seems to had felt the hit, it turned around and attacked Stormy again, seems it will do everything to protect that spot, Stormy tried to use his magic blast spell, but his current magic amount only will last him for 3 shots, he has to make them count, he galloped towards the creature, the monster took the bait and moved towards him, trying to eat him alive, Stormy´s horn glowed as he hit the creature in the face with the steel pipe, making it turn another way, he climbed on the creature and stabbed his horn on the creature dark eye, he was going for a point blank shot.

“Let´s see if you can see me after this!” Stormy said as he shoots one magical blast

The creature let a loud roar as it’s blood stained Stormy face, the blood of the creature was dark red covering Stormy´s horn, the creature managed to shake off Stormy, sending him crashing to the fence floor, he felt a big pain on his back, the creature, even with one eye working, he could see Stormy very well due to the flames on the clock, it raised it’s claw to squash Stormy like a bug, the stallion however, had a idea, he placed the pipe on the holes in the Fence and held into it, when the creature lowered it’s claw, the pipe went through it’s flesh, since the previous usage of the pipe have sharpen it a little, it made it easy to pierce the creature flesh, part due to it’s insane strength, the creature lifted the pipe along with Stormy the creature had something Stormy did not noticed before, the left hoof had a bracelet, a bracelent with wind designs.

“I-I know that bracelet, it belongs to-“ Stormy could not finish the sentence before a bite from the creature managed to remove him and the pipe from it’s claw “-Ah!, Celestia Damn it!”

Stormy hit the floor again and charged another magical bullet, using that spell under stress takes too much of him, thanks Celestia he was trained in how to control and it use efficiently, he galloped to the back of the creature and shoot his second fire at close range, the impact manage to break the bone of the spinal column and the creature stopped for a moment, Stormy tried to find his pipe, he was surprised he was actually fighting something so big.

“All right... time to take out the big ugly here,” he said as he faced the creature

Unfortunately, the creature wounds only made it more mad, as it moved more faster to Stormy, this time he could not react in time, the claws of the creature stabbed Stormy body as if he were made of paper, he could feel the cold air and the blood escaping his body, the creature throw Stormy into the fence floor, Stormy felt as how the floor literally broke, unable to withstand the impacts of the battle, he ended up hanging on the edge, using the pipe as a improved sword to prevent him from falling to the bottomless abyss

“Gah!, you have got to be kidding me!, that fence did not break with the creature weight, but it did with a attack?!, Sweet Luna, how I’m gonna to beat this thing?” Stormy questioned himself as he put all his strength on getting back up on the fence floor.
Once he was able to get out of the hole, something felt from his saddlebag, it was the energy drink!, it felt into the abyss, the creature had ripped a hole in it, he did not had time to check if anything else was missing, so he galloped towards the creature, and the creature just opened his fangs to eat Stormy up, he used his Steel pipe and stab the creature, leaving the pipe sideways, this of course prevented the creature to close it mouth, he charged his last bullet spell.

“Open Wide! “ Stormy screamed as he used his last bulled with all his strength

He did not knew how much amount he used on that last bullet, but he remember that it took it all his remaining magic, the creature coughed blood as a large thump was heard, the creature was no longer moving, Stormy tired took the pipe and hit the creature head several times, the creature did not moved. It was dead finally, a faint eco of a siren was heard at the distance, Stormy could not stand anymore and felt towards the ground, fainting from exhaustion…everything turned into black again.

During the time he was unconscious, he could hear some voices that echoed in the darkness, he tried to pay attention, but his body was not moving, they were kind of fuzzy, all he could see was a little colt standing next to a big stallion in a expensive suit

“Get out of my office kid, that issue is not my jurisdiction” said the big pony while he was eating a big amount of hay fries

“What in the hay do you mean is not you jurisdiction?!, my mother, your secretary is very ill!, she could lost my little bro that is on it’s way!, how can you run a town if you don’t help others?! “ the little colt yelled

“I said get out!, Guards! Take this filthy filly out of my office!“ the big pony angrily yelled, as the guards took the colt out

“You will not get away with this!, you will pay! You hear me?! “ those were the last words of the colt before he was throw outside the office

Stormy´s eyes started to open, still dizzy from the fight… but those voices keep echoing on his mind… he was able to recognize one of them… the little colt one, it was his own voice, maybe a fragment of the past he forgot, once he was able to open his eyes without feeling dizzy, he noticed with his hooves that the floor was solid, it was concrete, he took his lantern out and turn it on, he noticed a key on the floor next to a broken bracelet, it reads Canterlot Castle Main Gate.

“This was the key for the main doors of the Canterlot Castle, guess that’s where I’m going next,” Stormy said, as he stored the key on his saddle.

The key felt thought the hole of his left saddlebag, he quickly took all his items to see if he was missing something, the Book of the Song of Harmony, prevented the lost of the little Custodian Badge, same thing goes for the maps, radio and ocarina, but the Energy Drink was the only thing missing, he looked at his current location with more detail; It was a basement, with several wooden boxes there and some very old fabrics that have not being used on a long time, most of the boxes had books, also there was only one door, leading outside.

“I…I made it out of the Archives?” Stormy said, letting out a sigh of relief.

He took one of the fabrics to fill up the hole on his saddlebags, but it was too big, he checked the room for something else, between boxes he noticed some needles, not for tailoring, but it will have to do, he ripped a piece of the fabric using the sharp end of the pipe and started to stitch the bag using his mouth, once he finally was able to fill the hole, he placed all his items and the key again on the bags.

As Stormy stand up, he remembered that the hourglass for the Starswirl the Bearded Wing was right next to him, he checked the clock the sand was in the upper part, but the lower part do not longer had the Song of Time page, so he tried to pull the lever clockwise to go back up, but when he touched the lever, the page was wrapped up like a stroll on said lever.

“Ok… this is strange, how in Equestria did the page got out of the hourglass?” he questioned as he read the page contents

With his current state, no effect would happen if he play it, due to his lack of magic, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t learned it, the page described that it will turn time backwards or forward depending what the user wants, it affect the whole environment, but the user and the ones that touch him in that moment will be unaffected.

“...” he took the book out of the saddle bags and placed the page inside after he finish reading it “So... Basically, anypony that touch me while I play this song, will travel thought time with me for a couple of hours.“

Stormy sighed for a moment, finding the new song he found not very useful in this kind of hell, not to mention the song seems to consume a good amount of energy, he got up and held the lantern with his mouth, as he stored the book back with the new page, he walked towards the door he had in front, opening it up slowly, just as the receptionist book said, the stairs took him outside, he was in the little path that leads towards Canterlot Streets, his short travel back to the streets was cut shut when a bottomless pit appeared just outside the exit door, cutting him off from the main avenue.

“Oh great… holes here again,” he sighed in annoyance.

He can forget a direct approach, he went back to the path and tried to find another way around, he managed to spot a forest area that seems to go into the mountain, Stormy used his lantern to look into the cavern as he walked in further in, the sounds of water running in the cave indicated him he was probably getting closer to the town outskirts, since the draw bridge is usually nearby the waterfall, as he walked in several question filled his mind, the most important one being, what in the name of Equestria went wrong when Twilight used that Mind Delve spell?, and how come monsters are roaming the buildings?, where is the Royal Guard?, Stormy finally managed to exit the cave, the loud sound of water falling confirmed his initial suspicion, he was outside Canterlot, just near the draw bridge, the waterfall water was clean as always, Stormy saw some stones in the water, big enough to jump into them and into the draw bridge, once he managed to jump until the draw bridge, it rose, making Stormy slip into the city. Luna wasn’t joking when she said she couldn’t see the floor from her room, after all.

“This looks far worse up viewed from ground level,” he said, looking at the city state.

The town itself was covered with a very dense and thick fog, but just like the Archives, it was completely deserted.