“Achoo!” Twilight sneezed. Her sound echoed throughout the dusty library.

“Gesundheit!” Spike quickly responded, his voice also echoed.

Searching throughout the library within the Castle of the Two Sisters, Twilight and Spike sifted through the thousands of books organized in dozens of bookshelves. Their end goal was nothing too special though, just to find some reading material. However, with the very decrepit state of most of the books, their search proved more difficult than anticipated.

“Can we go back to Ponyville?” Spike asked in impatience. “There’s something I gotta do.”

“Your gem-collecting adventures with Rarity can wait.” Twilight nonchalantly answered. Her attention was too focused on the shelf of books before her.

“C’mon, just face it. We’re not going to find any good books here anymore. We found them all.” Spike pleaded.

Twilight knew that Spike was growing more and more antsy, and could easily go back to Ponyville without her help. However, she needed him to keep the lamp on while her magic was hard at work with the books.

She pulled herself away from the bookshelf and examined the library around her. It was incredibly dark and barren of any sign of maintenance, but she knew the area thanks to her countless explorations.

Her eyes locked onto a corner of the library, a makeshift room with bookshelves as walls. A small table was in the center of the tiny room with four massive books on each of its edges, open and exposed to the elements.

Twilight pointed to the area and asked, “How about the Reserved Section?”

“We’ve already checked there.”

“Well, never hurts to check twice.”

“Try thirteen times...” Spike murmured in a huff.

With Twilight in a skip and Spike in a stomp, the two entered the Reserve Section and examined it. Just as before, their search remained fruitless save for an extra helping of dust.

“Achoo!” Twilight sneezed once more.

“Gesundheit.” Spike said in a deadpan tone, not enjoying the moment at all.

The lamp he had in his right hand began to burn out. Quickly, Spike relit it with his dragon breath. The initial sparks of fire lit up the entire section. Twilight noticed and quickly read across the covers of the books. All of them were the same, Old English dictionaries, outdated almanacs, odd thesauruses, inaccurate encyclopedias…

All except for one book, one that was more brightly coloured than the others.

But before Twilight get a good look at it, the lamp dimmed and returned the books to their murky, unreadable state.

“Spike, bring the light over to me.” Twilight said as she approached the area where she saw the book. Spike, having not noticed the book, rolled his eyes and carried the light over to her. The bright book was illuminated once more, and Twilight quickly plucked it from the shelf with his magic.

Lowering down right in front of the light, Twilight analyzed the book now in her hooves. It was a hardcover book like most others, made of a leather fabric dyed purple. It looked incredibly old, but was in suspiciously good condition. On the cover was a silhouette of a mare and a golden title that read, “The Adventures of Arcega Minn”. It was roughly the size of a small novel, and had a completely blank backside.

“What an odd book,” Twilight remarked. “It doesn’t look like it should be in the Reserved Section.”

She opened it and quickly flipped through the book, skipping across the first and last pages. A lot of them bore illustrations, and not really that many words. What was most surprising was the lack of any essentials that a book would otherwise need. There was no authour page, no acknowledgements, no preface, none of that, all except for what can only be described as an dedications page that simply read,

In remembrance of Sanctus.

“Sanctus?” Spike noted. “That’s an odd name.”

“Well, it must be especially old. It would explain how a children’s storybook got here.”

“So now that we found something…”

Twilight breathed a sigh, “Yes, Spike. Let’s go home.”

“Finally,” Spike sighed in relief. With the book secure at Twilight’s side, the two exited the library and made their way home.

By the time Twilight and Spike got back to Ponyville, the autumn sun had already begun to fall into the horizon. Upon arriving from the main road, Spike immediately left to join Rarity and to finally go out on another excavation venture, leaving Twilight to walk to her castle by herself.

Twilight was a bit upset on her way home, but she didn’t know why. Her mind pondered the possibilities of why she was in this state. Perhaps it was that she and Spike only found one book to take home. Maybe it was the fear that her adventures in the old castle library may come to an end. Or it could have been Spike’s attitude. Regardless, Twilight was in a bad mood from her trip, and she figured a good way to remedy such is to read this new book and to solve its perplexing problems.

Twilight entered her castle home and went to the bedroom. She nestled the book onto the pillows of the bed and relaxed herself onto the covers. With the flames of the nearby fireplace providing both warmth and light, Twilight opened the book and begun her reading.

The first page was the dedications page, which she read once more,

In Remembrance of Sanctus.

Twilight pondered for a moment, trying to remember if she knew anything about such a pony by that name.

Still nothing.

She turned to the next page, which bore a table of contents. There were twelve chapters, including the prologue. Twilight turned the page again. It was the prologue.

Once upon a ti-

Knock!

Knock!

The echoes of the front door to her castle instantly broke her from her reading. Leaving no time to waste, Twilight scurried down and opened it. There standing on the other side were Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. Each of them were holding presents and a happy smile on their faces.

“Oh, hi girls.” Twilight cheered, always happy to see them.

“Hi Twilight.” Pinkie quickly replied. “You got your present for Applejack’s birthday tomorrow?”

Twilight nodded. “Yep, all wrapped up and ready.”

“Yay! Remember, twelve-o’-clock sharp.”

“I will.”

“Oh Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash remarked. “No need to worry. Twilight’s always on time.”

Pinkie replied, “I know, just making sure. Oh! Twilight, want to help us set up for the party?”

“I don’t really feel that well.” Twilight lied, not wanting to hurt their feelings, though her bitter mood was still present for some mysterious reason. “I’m just going to go to bed for the night.”

“But it’s only two in the afternoon.” Fluttershy pointed out.

Twilight’s eyes snapped up to the bright, cloudy skies and back to confirm that statement.

“Oh…” Twilight noted, thinking of something to say on the spot. “Well, there it goes again, my, not-wellness.”

“Aw, I feel so sorry for you Twilight.”

“Don’t worry. It’ll be gone by tomorrow. See you girls later.”

“Well, hope you feel better Twilight.” Pinkie cheered. “Goodbye!”

With that said, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Dash left Twilight. Rainbow Dash however quickly zipped back to the front door.

“Wait, Twilight.” She yelped, as if having recently remembered something.

“What is it Dash?” Twilight asked.

“Have you read through ‘Daring Do and the Philosopher’s Legend’ yet?”

“Almost, just about to hit Chapter 42.”

“Oh! That far? Please, you have to tell me, does Wolf find Daring Do’s mom, or does she still have the True Philospher’s Legend?”

“Oh no, you have to read that part for yourself, words can’t describe it.”

“Aw… Well, see ya.”

With a flick of her wings, Rainbow Dash was gone, leaving Twilight alone at the door. Twilight quickly got back into her bed and begun to read once more.

Once upon a time, in the faraway kingdom of Cen-

Knock!

Knock!

The knocking rung once more, prompting Twilight to see who it is this time. It was her friends, Lyra Heartstrings and Bon-Bon, needing her to sort out a friendship problem of theirs. Despite her earlier irritations, Twilight agreed to help them.

Hours later, Twilight returned to her bedroom, having solved the friendship problem. As she sat down on her bed, she looked out her window, seeing that it’s almost night.

She groaned in exhaustion and frustration and plopped her body across the bed. She bumped her head against the open book.

“Oh yeah,” she grumbled to herself. “This book, I can finally read it.”

Twilight slowly set herself into her reading position and begun to read,

Once upon a time, in a faraway land unknown to most, there stood two kingdoms, Centura and Damascariot. They were strong kingdoms, but with that strength came pride.

The ponies of one kingdom despised the ponies of the other, thinking they were superior. They insulted each other at every given chance, even if they didn’t know anything of the other pony outside of his or her alliance. Insults led to fighting, and fighting led to wars, wars that were frequent between the two kingdoms.

During one of these wars, a couple, a medic and soldier of Centura, produced a child upon the battlegrounds, named Arcega Shutts Minn. Arcega was a very thin, but very beautiful mare. She had a bright tan coat, and had long, flowing, golden hair for both her mane and tail. Her ocean blue eyes were as radiant as the sun.

Her parents loved her with all of their hearts, and wished to be there for her at all times. However, Fate had something else in store for them, for one day, they fell into the clutches of Death, and left their daughter alone. She was taken to her parents’ kingdom and raised there by her aunt and uncle.

Her aunt and uncle loved her as much as her parents did. They told her stories of knights in shining armour that went on epic journeys and saved the land. Arcega loved these stories, and dreamed of one day becoming the greatest knight there ever was.

She went on adventures throughout her village as a filly, play-fighting with the other foals and exploring her home and the forests that surrounded it. One day, while exploring the deep woods, she came across a strange pony. She looked like a normal pony, but had features resembling that of a bat, including eyes, ears, wings, and fangs. Her fur was midnight and her mane and tail were grey. Most would cower in fear at such a sight, but Arcega felt no fear.

She instead befriended the bat-pony, and let her join in her adventures. The two quickly became best friends, with a passion for adventure and fun as their greatest binds. They did not care if it seemed silly, even as they grew up, they enjoyed their childlike, carefree lives.

However, their innocent youths came to a grinding halt one day, as the dreaded news of a villain’s arrival shook the kingdom of Centura to its core.