Three rolls of thunder echoed from the outside storm as Spike looked over the scroll that Owlowiscious gave to him. It took a while to translate the text in his mind, but Spike eventually got himself reading “Prince Doúlos Thanatus and the Mad Book of Power” with decent fluency.

            A long time ago,

In a land greatly west of the Far East,

But far east from the Great West,

Stood a kingdom known as Wisteria.

It was a grand kingdom,

At its greatest in fame and prosperity,

But that all changed in a fortnight,

When the monsters known as Centmasters came.

In a fortnight,

The skies turned to scrapes. In a fortnight,

The seas turned to tar. In a fortnight,

The land of Wisteria became a nightmare.

But from the shadows of Death,

Emerged a hero to end the nightmare,

And save his land. Heir of Wisteria’s throne,

Known only as Prince Doúlos Thanatus.

With an army at his reign,

He set off beyond the walls of Wisteria,

For he had heard of a mystical book,

One that may save his land.

The Mad Book of Power.

Said to grant whomever read it godliness,

With great strength, magic, and immortality,

But would turn he who read it mad.

With no regard to consequence,

The prince searched the land for the book,

And in six days’ time, he done so,

Within an old chapel, the book was found.

At one’s first glance,

The book was a mere almanac,

But the book wielded several tricks,

For the pages within held great power.

The prince read,

Upon reaching the eleventh page of the book,

He could lift a mountain with a single hoof,

Yet, he wanted more power.

Stop!

Spoke his loving friends and advisers,

Heed our pleas and warnings,

You are growing mad.

But the prince didn’t,

He read on, and by the halfway mark,

He could create a tidal wave with a single yawn,

And kill without a second thought.

He soon grew alone,

The more his friends warned him,

The more the prince despised them,

Distrust blossomed from the book’s seed.

Finally, it came,

When his friends decided one night,

To take matters into their own hooves,

And take the prince’s book.

They snuck into his tent,

And stole the book from his hooves,

They ran as far away as they could,

But couldn’t prevent the inevitable.

One by one,

The prince, now lost to the book,

Slain each of his friends and advisers,

All with great ease with his vast power.

One remained,

It was the prince’s wife, his closest,

She fled into the woods from his wrath,

But she could never hide from the watching shadows.

In only a night,

The prince found his wife and the book,

His wife pleaded for mercy and love,

She died halfway through her pleas.

With the book back,

The prince continued reading the almanac,

Convinced that what he’s done is right,

Despite the blood in which he shed.

He was nearly done,

Upon reaching the final page though,

His hooves began to wither and shake,

He couldn’t find himself reading the final words.

His mind was gone,

It was shattered to where he couldn’t read,

It had molded to a bloodthirsty animal,

But was guided by the force of power itself.

The book talked,

It told the prince what to do and where to go,

It guided his every action from then on,

It used the prince as his student, his proxy.

With the book as guide,

The prince slain his entire army and revived it,

Into monsters of the darkness and shadows,

They became the slaves of him and the book.

There was no longer the prince,

Only a demon’s servant known as a lord,

Whom wanders the land with his armies,

Fulfilling his master’s dark and evil wishes.

From good intentions,

To aligning with the nightmares themselves,

Prince Doúlos made a great, selfish error,

And became the deathly Lord Thanatus.

What came of the book?

It changed shape once more,

Beware a simple story known as,

“The Adventures of Arcega Minn”.

For if one reads,

Till the very last word and letter,

The demon of the book shall come,

And the Nightmare shall be once more.

“Twilight!”

Lord Thanatus stabbed his sword into the ground and took a knee.

He spoke, “I was a lot like you. I myself sought the fruits of justice. My homeland was under attack by great beasts, and only I could stop it. I set out in search of the blade that rests by my side. After many days and nights, I found it, but when I touched it… I realized something. All that I fought for, the souls of who I once cared about, who I loved, would all go away.

It was inevitable. All the battles, the bad days, the brutalities, it would all be for nothing. The way things were going for me, it would only bring peace for half a second before everything was gone. Touching that sword, a becoming filled with the truth it had forged inside, it changed everything.

Do you realize what a vile world we live in, how lonely it is to wade through all the wretch and filth the past has brought, only to join it in the future? Even in a crowd of other loved ones and strangers, you're so insignificant that you can kick, claw, yell, kill, do whatever you want, and in time, no pony cares. It's like you don't even exist! I felt, sometimes I felt like I'm trapped on this eternal path leading nowhere, into just emptiness before I’d eventually die…”

The sword lost its grip on the cracked earth and rested against Thanatus’s shoulder.

He continued, “Then I touched the sword, Margáil Le Bás. I touched the sword, and I immediately felt adrift, floating, anew with the power it gave me, and I was plucked from the river into something new. It was the sweet release of death practically, and it was all very exciting really. Looking in the reflection of my sword, it was like meeting somepony new, entirely different from the old, weak me, which believe me, dear, I've never felt before.

You understand don’t you? The rush you felt when reaching this room, makes you almost forget the loss of your friends. Even the ponies you swore to protect seem to fade away from your mind as you feel the power emanating from the sword that you have found!”

“…” Ace was deathly silent.

“Arcega, join me, and my ageless army, and together, we can escape the inevitability of being worthless, you and me, teacher and student.”

Ace silently stared at Lord Thanatus through the golden hair in her eyes. Thanatus stared back with the fiery tint of his eyes, but not making eye contact. The cavern turned silent once more, with the only sound being the dripping of Ebony’s blood from the black blade.

Slowly, Ace rose up and approached Lord Thanatus. The metal armour rose back up, towering over the mare as she approached. It stretched out a steel-clad hoof to her, and Ace reached out hers. They two hooves drew closer, and closer, and closer.

However, Ace’s hoof stopped before contact. Lord Thanatus paused. His sword began to emit a red aura.

“You want to know something?” Ace asked the King of Nightmares.

“…” The helmet and crown shifted downwards.

“After telling me all that, your origins, your philosophy, what that blade means to you, I have just one question... Well, more of a response.”

“…” The helmet and crown crept to Ace’s head.

Immediately, Ace pulled out something behind her and smashed it against the helmet, screaming, “That does not excuse you killing everypony!”

She swung the object again to the other cheek. Before Lord Thanatus could even react, the object smashed into the other side of his helmet, sending him tumbling a few hoofsteps to his side.

“Justice shall be brought upon you!” Ace declared. “For my friends, my kingdom, and the world!”

As she pulled the black object behind her head, preparing for an overhead chop, Lord Thanatus drew his blade. It extended out over his head just as Ace swung. As the two weapons clashed together, a snapping ring echoed.

The top half of Lord Thanatus’s blade dropped to the floor, cut clean off from the rest.

Lord Thanatus took a step back, and finally saw what Ace was wielding.

“Glacadh An Bháis… How did you-”

“I picked it up when you threw me across the room.” Ace answered. “I learned that little trick from Ebony.”

A wave of steam ruptured from Lord Thanatus’s helmet. His sword extended to its previous length, but lacked the razor tip now on the floor. Ace and Thanatus charged at each other, their blades primed to strike. The two black swords collided in the middle and grinded into a lock.

Sparks showered Ace and Thanatus as their heads violently pressed against each other below the scissoring blades.

Lord Thanatus growled with a bloodthirsty hiss, “Even with that sword, you don’t know the true power it wields. You’ll be cut to pieces before you put a scratch in me.”

“We’ll see about that when I strike you down!”

Twilight set the book down onto the podium before the altar, furiously reading through the last words of the eleventh chapter.

“One more…” Twilight muttered to herself as she stripped off her raincoat, revealing the robes once worn by royals underneath. “One more chapter after this, and all of Centura will be saved!”

“Twilight!” The distant cries of Pinkie Pie echo throughout the ruins.

“Blast!”

“They really are a pain, aren’t they?” A ghastly voice spoke behind her.

“Yeah…” Twilight agreed.

“Can’t they just leave you be?” the voice asked. “No, it seems, they only seem try harder, despite the fact that, once you’re done, there will be no more worry of the book ‘possessing you’.”

“As long as I am anywhere near it, they’ll hunt me down and try to take it.”

“They’re still your friends right?” The voice questioned.

“Barely,” Twilight hissed.

“But, they trust you more than their ringleader.”

“You have a point.” Twilight nodded.

“Then why don’t we use that, convince our little idiot gallery.”

“…”

“Twilight!” Pinkie shrieked again.

Twilight looked over one of the ruined stone buildings. With a crack of lighting, she saw the shadows of Pinkie and Discord against the wall. The pair of red eyes stabbed her in the back as she stared at Discord’s snaking figure. It felt just like the first time they met when Discord was still a villain.

Pinkie’s and Discord’s heads poked from around a corner and saw Twilight.

“Twilight!” Pinkie cheered. “Thank goodness you’re safe!”

Applejack and Rarity followed shortly behind.

“What in tarnation got to you, running off into a storm in… that?” Applejack impatiently asked.

But before Twilight could even have a chance to reply, Rainbow Dash chimed in from above, “And what was going through your head when you dropped a tree on my and Fluttershy?”

“The squirrels want an apology for their tree!” Fluttershy added alongside Dash.

Twilight took a moment to compose herself. Putting on a calm, neutral face, she slowly approached the gathering army.

With a throat-clearing cough and a click of her tongue, Twilight said, “It’s fine, there’s nothing to worry about. I’m just finding a nice place to read.”

“Why here?” Rarity asked.

“It fits the climatic mood.”

“Why in that?” Applejack asked.

“It’s, comfy, to read in this.”

“Why in the rain?” Pinkie asked.

“It’s just a little rain.”

“And you nearly killed us because…?” Dash asked.

“…I thought you were Timberwolves.”

“How do you confuse ponies with-” Fluttershy asked, but was cut off by Discord.

“-Oh please, cut the charade already, Twilight. We all know why you’re doing this.” Discord berated Twilight.

“You do?” Twilight asked.

“It’s because the book is telling you to…” Discord replied, slowly realizing what he just said.

“The book?”

“…Well it makes sense in context. That book you love so much is possessing you, and making you do these things…”

“Doing these things because…?”

“…Well… What other sensible reason would you be here, in the middle of suspicious ruins, in the midst of a storm, wearing robes like you’re clergy or something, attacking your friends, and reading that book aloud?” Discord questioned with a smirk.

“And you call this, a mere fantasy novel, a collection of pages between two cloth panels, somehow possessing me into doing this otherwise random stuff, sensible?”

“I’ve never heard you use such blatant terms to describe your boo-”

“Listen girls,” Twilight interrupted. “Whatever lies Discord has been telling you, are simply that. Lies. He probably just making this giant scene out of a mere activity of mine just to get him kicks.”

“…” The five mares silently thought to themselves.

When Discord gathered them all up and told them that Twilight was being possessed, they didn’t even have much of a second thought before joining him to save Twilight. Now, in hindsight, what Discord said did seem to be far-fetched, even after the odd occurrences that followed the book. Perhaps it was their own underlying suspicious that ushered in such a hasty acceptance.

“He’s the Spirit of Chaos, some thing that embodies it. He loves it. He loves to start it, he loves to watch it, he loves to see everything in shambles.”

“I’ve changed!” Discord retorted.

“Uh-huh, sure,” Twilight waved off the comment. “Let me ask you something. Why should we believe you? How do we know it isn’t a trick? Is there anything that’ll solidly confirm your theory that this here book is evil?”

“Yes there is!” Spike’s voice echoed throughout the ruins.