Sure enough, just under half an hour later, the doors opened and Twilight walked in. She was only slightly out of breath. I really have to thank Rainbow for all of that flight training. I can’t believe that I got here so fast and didn’t need to take a break on the way. She smiled and walked around the table to hug Celestia and kiss Artemis.

Celestia laughed “I don’t know why I bothered sending you back to Ponyville, Twilight. This investigation may take a few days.”

Artemis smiled

Twilight laughed “I know. I told the girls, Spike and Mayor Mare that I might be here for a few days. If anything comes up in Ponyville, Spike will send a letter to one of you with any information I may need.” She looked at the table. “Are these the charts?”

“Yes” replied Artemis, putting a wing over her and gesturing for Apple Crunch to bring Twilight something to drink.

“Oh yeah, can you ask Rose Petal to be in Night Court, Celestia? I want to ask her a couple of questions.” asked Twilight

Celestia nodded and glanced at one of the Day Guards standing nearby. He bowed and walked out of the room.

Artemis’ eyes lit up “You’re coming to court tonight, Twilight?”

Twilight nodded “I was planning to, if that’s alright with you.”

He smiled and nodded “Of course”

They looked up as Apple Crunch walked over with a glass of water. “Welcome back, Princess Twilight. I hear that you flew here from Ponyville. If so, you should drink this. That was a lot of physical activity.”

Twilight nodded “Yes, I did and thank you.” She lifted the glass of water in her magic and emptied it in seconds.

Apple Crunch walked back to the kitchen to get dinner ready.

Twilight bent over the star charts and studied them closely. Surprised, she pulled out the ones that she had out of her saddlebags and laid them next to what she had thought were fakes. They were identical. “These are not fake, they’re exact duplicates of the originals.”

Artemis nodded “I considered that possibility earlier. They look too good to be simple fakes.” He gave Twilight and Celestia a look “I want to know why anypony other than Twilight is copying my star charts.”

Celestia’s eyes widened “There should be no copies here. The only pony I authorized to make copies was you, Twilight.” She made sure she had Twilight’s attention. “Make sure you ask about this tonight, Twilight.”

Twilight nodded “I will” She rolled the originals back up and returned them to her saddlebags.

Artemis rolled the duplicates back up and set them on the table next to him.

The three of them looked up as Apple Crunch walked in with dinner. “Your highnesses, tonight I have prepared Tomato and Cheese Quesadillas. Desert is a blackberry pie and vanilla ice cream.”

Twilight sniffed the air and was surprised to find that the smell of the food was making her nauseous. Oh no. Please tell me I’m not getting sick. That’s the last thing I need right now. If I still feel like this tomorrow, I’m going to the doctor here in the castle. They should still have my file on record. I want to catch this quick and get it treated before it turns into something serious. I’d better eat anyway, I don’t want Celestia complaining about me losing weight or something equally silly.

Twilight, Celestia and Artemis began to eat their dinner.

Celestia smiled as she watched Twilight eat. If I’m right, she will be far enough along for a pregnancy test in a day or two. Her heat cycle was supposed to start last Wednesday, so it has been a week now and she’s missed it entirely. I wonder if she’s noticed. I just have to find a way to convince her to take the test without revealing that I think she’s pregnant. It’s actually a good thing that she’s here right now. If she is pregnant, I want the doctors here handling her care. “Hungry, Twilight?”

Twilight laughed “Spike and I worked all day to make the copies for my library. We didn’t even stop for lunch. Then I flew here. So yeah, I’m hungry.” She paused, glancing at her empty plate. “Well, I was anyway.”

Twilight looked back up at Celestia. “Where are Shining Armor and Cadance? If they’re still here and I don’t tell them that I’m back, well, let’s just say that I don’t want to do that.”

Celestia laughed “They are visiting your parents. Don’t worry, I’ll tell them about what happened and you’ll see them tomorrow.”

Celestia turned to Artemis. “Brother, it’s time.” He nodded and watched as she lit her horn, lowering the sun. He lit his horn and raised the moon and stars before he and Twilight walked over and nuzzled Celestia. “Good Night, Celestia. We’ll see you in the morning.”

The three of them walked out of the dining room. Celestia headed for her room to get some sleep. Twilight, still wearing her saddlebags, and Artemis, carrying the duplicates in his magic, walked to the throne room.

As they got closer, they heard several voices from inside.

Artemis shook his head “It’s going to take me a while to get used to that.” Twilight giggled as he opened the door and walked inside before following him into the throne room.

Like last night, everypony present turned as they entered.

“Good Evening, Prince Artemis” The ponies present gasped as Twilight walked in behind him. “Good Evening, Princess Twilight”

“Good Evening” Artemis and Twilight both replied as they walked up to the throne and sat side by side in front of it. Twilight removed her saddlebags and set them on the throne as Artemis set the scrolls next to her bags.

Steel Night and Midnight Fang had been there, waiting for Artemis. They weren’t expecting to see Twilight and looked at her in surprise before taking their positions in front of the Royal Couple.

Ice Blossom stepped forward “Welcome back, Princess Twilight” She turned to Artemis “Prince Artemis, tonight should be fairly light. There have been no new petitions presented to either Court today. The ponies present are all here just to see you.”

Artemis nodded “That works out well, actually. Twilight and I have made progress on one of last night’s petitions and would like to spend time tonight working on it further.” He looked around “Is Rose Petal here?”

Ice Blossom nodded as Rose Petal stepped up next to her. “Is there a problem, your highness?”

Twilight looked at her “Possibly. Where did you find the star charts that you brought to last night’s court?”

Rose Petal looked confused “That’s the strange part, princess. They were both in the room that we use for projects that are works in progress. I was a bit curious, so I spent today searching the Archives and Library for the others but was unable to find the rest of them. That is concerning because we should have several dozen.”

Twilight nodded “The reason that you could not find them is that I have them all. Celestia lent them to me last month so that I could copy them and replace the ones that Tirek destroyed a few years ago when he destroyed the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville. She wanted to make sure that only three individuals, Spike, Celestia, herself, and I knew that I had them. With all of the recent chaos, I wasn’t able to finish copying them until today. I will return them to the Archives after this investigation is finished.”

Rose Petal sighed in relief. “As long as I know that you have them, princess, that is enough for me.” She looked up at Twilight “Were you able to determine anything so far, princess?”

“Yes.” Twilight replied “After careful comparison, I have determined that the star charts that you found are exact duplicates of the originals.”

Rose Petal looked at her in shock “What? There shouldn’t be any duplicates!”

Twilight nodded again “I know. I have already discussed this with Celestia and confirmed that she has not authorized anypony other than me to copy these charts. Like Artemis and myself, she wants to know who made them and why.”

“The duplicates are extremely well made.” Twilight continued “That tells me that they were likely made by one of your fellow Archivists. Few ponies would be able to make such high quality duplicates other than myself, Artemis, Celestia or one of the Royal Archivists.”

“No, I do not suspect that it was you.” Twilight assured her, seeing her expression “If it was, you wouldn’t have brought the issue to Artemis’ court last night.” She paused “Do you know who made the copies?”

Rose Petal shook her head “I’m sorry, Princess.”

“That’s alright” Twilight replied “Celestia has asked me to investigate who made them and why. I will also be trying to figure out why the project was started without the knowledge or permission of Celestia and/or Artemis. Once all of that has been determined, Celestia, Artemis and I will decide what to do next. I will be in the Archives tomorrow as part on my investigation. Do Not tell anypony about this, please. I don’t want anypony panicking or making up stories.”

Rose Petal nodded and bowed “Of course, princess. If I may ask, how did you figure all of this out so quickly?”

Artemis laughed “I visited her dream last night and told her about the petitions brought to Night Court. She immediately noticed something wrong because she has the originals. That means that there shouldn’t be any star charts at all here in Canterlot. After checking to make sure that nopony had stolen the originals from her, she finished copying them for her library and came here to help with this mystery.”

Rose Petal’s eyes widened “Impressive. I didn’t think any progress would be made on this so soon.”

Ice Blossom laughed “After the events of the last couple of weeks, I am not surprised at all. Princess Twilight clearly has a talent for getting things done.”

Twilight blushed “There isn’t anything else that can be done for this mystery tonight. If you would like to go get some sleep, Rose Petal, please do so. I would like to see you in the Archives while I’m there tomorrow. I haven’t spent much time in them lately, so I may need your help.”

Rose Petal’s eyes widened and she bowed “I would be honored, princess. Do you know what time you will be there?”

Twilight thought for a moment. “I was up all day and am obviously here now, so I will need to get some sleep myself. I plan to be in the Archives around noon, or right after lunch. Will that time work for you?”

Rose Petal nodded “That is perfect, princess. I will see you tomorrow.” She bowed to Twilight and Artemis before walking out of the throne room.

Ice Blossom smiled “In that case, we can end Night Court now.”

Twilight shook her head “That’s not necessary, I’m just going to get some sleep. I’m pretty sure Artemis will still be here for a while.”

Artemis nodded “I plan on staying here for a while longer before I need to go check in on the Dream Realm. You did say that there are ponies are here to see me.” He was surprised to see that all of the ponies present were shaking their heads.

Ice Blossom smiled “That’s alright, Prince Artemis. I know that you will be making sure that the foals of Equestria are sleeping safely, but you should rest after that. If the two of you are going to be working together on this mystery, then you will need your sleep as well.” She bowed and turned to Twilight “Princess Twilight, are you going to be present in tonight’s Night Court?”

“I’m not sure” Twilight replied “That depends on how the investigation today goes. For now, let’s just say that I plan on being there.”

Ice Blossom’s smile widened “Good. Then we’ll see you both tonight. Until then, have a good day.”

With that, everypony left the room, except Artemis, Twilight, Midnight Fang and Steel Night.

Artemis and Twilight looked at each other and shrugged. “I guess we should just head to my room.”

Twilight nodded and yawned as she levitated her saddlebags onto her back and began walking toward the door. Artemis levitated the duplicates over as he followed her. They were both followed by Steel Night and Midnight Fang. The four of them walked to Artemis’ room. Artemis and Twilight went inside while the guards stayed in the hall, guarding the door to Artemis’ room.

Inside, Artemis levitated Twilight’s bags off her back and over to his desk along with the duplicates. He turned to see Twilight climbing into his bed and smiled. Walking over and climbing in himself, he wrapped his hooves around her and held her close.

She nuzzled him and snuggled close as she lay her head on his chest. “I missed this” she mumbled before quickly falling asleep in his hooves.

He gently returned her nuzzle before laying his head on a pillow. “Me too, Twilight.” He held her tight as he closed his eyes and entered the dream realm.

In the dream realm, Artemis was surprised to see that many foals were having severe nightmares. He chose the closest one and entered to see that the dreamer, Marigold, was having another nightmare about a creature from the Everfree Forest. She was pressed against a cliff and cornered by a Manticore. Just before the Manticore took a swipe out of the young filly, Artemis flew down and blocked the attack.

After a moment went by where she felt no pain, Marigold opened her eyes and saw Artemis in front of her. She gasped as she watched Artemis toss the Manticore into the air before using his magic to launch it to the other side of the forest. As soon as he turned to her, she jumped on him, knocking him to the ground and clung to him, trembling.

He wrapped his hooves around her, giving her a tight hug and nuzzling her. “You’re alright, Marigold. It’s gone and can’t hurt you.” He saw her sniffle a little and nod before lighting his horn.

Suddenly, the two of them were in a large field of flowers. There were every kind that had ever existed present. He watched as she looked around, eyes wide, before smiling. He lit his horn again, merging Marigold’s dream with Mythic Blossom’s.

Mythic Blossom’s eyes widened as her dream suddenly changed. Looking around, she saw her daughter laying in Artemis’ hooves. Walking over to them, she asked “Was she having another nightmare, Prince Artemis?”

Artemis nodded “It was a Manticore this time.” He looked down at Marigold. “Marigold, why are you dreaming so often about the creatures in the Everfree Forest?”

She shuddered and pressed herself closer to him before he nuzzled her again, causing Mythic Blossom to smile as she watched the way Artemis was comforting her daughter. “W-we’re learning about them in school, Prince Artemis. My teacher is telling us stories about what it would be like if they attacked us. They’re really scary!”

Artemis frowned as he looked at Mythic Blossom “Teaching foals about the dangers of the Everfree Forest is one thing, and a good idea, but purposely scaring them like this? That should not be happening.”

“Schools, and the teaching of foals, fall under my sister’s guidance and she takes that very seriously. My sister will hear about this and it will be taken care of.” Artemis promised them “Who is her teacher?”

Mythic Blossom smiled “Thank you, Prince Artemis.” She paused to smooth Marigold’s mane. “Her teacher’s name is Fire Fly. He is a good teacher and she has learned a lot in his class. However, he seems to have an odd sense of humor and enjoys scaring his students. She often comes home from school scared, sometimes terrified. I was not aware of exactly what was scaring her because she never wanted to talk about it.”

Artemis shook his head and nuzzled again Marigold to get her attention. “The creatures of the Everfree Forest can be scary, but they don’t like to leave the forest and many of them only come out at night. As long as you stay away from the forest, they can’t hurt you.”

He lit his horn again and heard Marigold giggle. Suddenly, there were songbirds and butterflies in the air above them. I’m glad that I’ve spent at least a little time around Fluttershy. I hope she doesn’t mind if I borrow her songbirds for this.

Mythic Blossom smiled as she watched Marigold stand and run around, chasing the butterflies through the flowers, before turning to Artemis. “Thank you, Prince Artemis, for taking care of my daughter.”

He smiled “Of course”

He looked up at the sky and frowned. “Unfortunately, there are other foals also having nightmares, so I have to leave now. However, I have made sure that neither of you will have any more nightmares tonight.” He smiled at them both before lighting his horn and vanishing.

The next dozen dreams were almost identical to Marigold’s. In each one, he found a foal under attack from one of the creatures that live in the Everfree Forest. After stopping each attack, he asked the young dreamer why he or she was dreaming about these creatures. They all, without exception, told him about a scary story that their teacher had told him or her about being attacked by monsters in the Everfree Forest. For each foal, Artemis stopped the nightmare and changed the dream. Then he brought in one of their parents to keep them company for the rest of the night. He explained the situation to each parent, as well as what he planned to do about it. The parents were surprised and upset at the knowledge of what their foals were going through, but happy that Artemis had discovered it and was taking action.

The last dream of the night that Artemis entered was Celestia’s. She was in her private garden relaxing with a cup of tea and looked up in surprise as her brother suddenly appeared in front of her. Even more surprising, he looked absolutely exhausted.

“I’m sorry, sister, for coming into your dream without your permission. However, something has been brought to my attention that you must know about.” Artemis told her, before she could say anything.

He showed her the nightmares of Marigold and her classmates and explained what he knew about Fire Fly. Needless to say, she was not happy about it.

“Thank you for telling me about this, Artemis.” She told him “I’m not upset in the least that you came into my dream.”

She continued “I will have my guards bring him and that entire class on a field trip to the castle this afternoon and deal with it today. I will also summon each foal’s parents to the castle and tell them what is going on. I have an idea of how I want to handle this and want their input before I put my plan into motion.” She shook her head “His job is to teach them, not scare them.”

She looked at him as he stumbled, almost falling over. “Are you alright?”

He nodded “I’m fine, just tired. I’ve used a lot of magic over the last few hours. I can’t remember the last time I dealt with this many nightmares of that severity in one night.” He paused “Unfortunately, I will not be able to lower the moon this morning. I just don’t have the magic for it right now. I will also not be able to meet you for breakfast because I’m going to need to sleep several hours to recover my magic.” He paused and shook his head “It’s a good thing I’m already in bed because I don’t believe I’ll be able to move at all for at least a few hours. I will see you sometime this afternoon.”

“Of course, Artemis. I’ll handle it.” She stood and braced him as he almost fell over again. “Go get some sleep.”

He nodded, nuzzled her and vanished

Artemis left the dream realm and groaned as it felt like he was suddenly hit with a wall of exhaustion. I’m glad I got into bed before going into the dream realm. I was right, I don’t think I can move right now, even if I wanted to. Glad to be holding Twilight in his hooves, he closed his eyes and immediately fell into a deep sleep.

A couple of hours later, Celestia woke to the pull of the sun and went out onto her balcony. She lit her horn, lowering the moon, before raising the sun. That done, she walked through her room and out into the hall. Seeing the captain of her Day Guard, a Pegasus stallion, she motioned him over.

“Good Morning, Princess Celestia. Is something wrong?”

“Good morning, Sapphire Wing. Yes, there is. I need the guard to go out into Canterlot this afternoon and bring Fire Fly and his class to see me on an unscheduled field trip to the castle. Neither he nor the school are allowed to refuse. I also need you to bring the parents of all of these foals to see me at the same time.”

Sapphire Wing bowed “Of course, princess. If I may ask, what is the problem? My son, Cobalt, in one of the students in his class.”

Celestia sighed “Artemis made a discovery about one of Fire Fly’s teaching methods that I don’t like. Every single one of his students had severe nightmares about the same thing last night. After a bit of investigation, Artemis discovered that Fire Fly is telling his students stories about what it would be like if they were attacked by the creatures in the Everfree Forest.”

“Naturally, my brother told me about this immediately. He didn’t even wait until he woke up to inform me. Artemis is taking this so seriously that he entered my dream this morning to make sure that I knew about the situation and could take action today.”

Sapphire Wing’s eyes widened “My wife mentioned that Prince Artemis had brought her into Cobalt’s dream last night after he had a particularly bad nightmare. I didn’t have time to listen to her whole explanation this morning. So that’s what happened.” He nodded “I will make sure they are all present, princess. Is right after lunch alright?”

Celestia nodded “I also need you to make sure that ponies know that Day Court will be ending at eleven-thirty. There will be no exceptions. I want to take care of this today.”

Sapphire Wing nodded and saluted “Yes, Princess” He walked down the hall to give the orders to the rest of the Day Guard.

Celestia continued to the dining room and ate her breakfast quickly. She was not surprised when Twilight didn’t show up. She was up all day yesterday as well as at least half of the night. She probably won’t wake up until lunch.

After breakfast, Celestia went to the throne room for court. The morning flew by relatively quickly, with only the usual disputes between ponies for her to deal with. At eleven-thirty, she closed court and walked towards the dining room for lunch.

Also around eleven-thirty, Twilight woke up. After nuzzling Artemis a couple of times with no response, she decided to let him sleep. She teleported out of the tight grip he had on her and over to his desk. After leaving him a note next to her saddlebags and the duplicates, she walked out of his room. Deciding to get a quick sandwich before going to the Archives, she headed to the dining room and met Celestia, who was already eating.

I was afraid of this. I’m nauseous again, just being around food. I must have caught a stomach bug or something. As soon as I’m done in the Archives, I’m going straight to the doctor. I still need to eat though. Twilight thought before asking Apple Crunch to bring her a lettuce and tomato sandwich.

As they ate their lunches, Twilight and Celestia told each other what they had planned for the afternoon. At noon, they both walked out and headed their separate ways.

At the entrance to the library, Twilight found Rose Petal waiting for her. “Welcome, Princess Twilight. Magic Scrolls found out that you were coming to the Archives from a visitor earlier this morning and asked me to wait for you. He says that he has something to talk to you about and seems rather upset.”

Twilight nodded “Let’s go deal with that before working on the star chart mystery.”

The two of them walked into the Archives section of the library to find Magic Scrolls, the Head Archivist, waiting for them. He was working on preserving what appeared to an ancient book and spoke before Twilight could say anything.

“How could you take all of our star charts without telling me?” he demanded, without looking at her “Nothing in these Archives is allowed to leave without my permission. Not only that, I have an ongoing project that I couldn’t complete because they are gone!”

Suddenly, he gulped as he finally looked up at her and saw that she was glaring at him, wings flared.

“First of all, you will not talk to me like that.” Twilight responded, still glaring at him “Second, I have permission from Celestia to have them in my possession and she is the one that wanted to keep the fact that I have them a secret. Whatever her reasons for the secrecy, I’m pretty sure her authority tops yours.”

Twilight took a deep breath and folded her wings. “Celestia was not aware of any project involving those charts and is not happy that somepony has begun one without informing her, or Artemis, first. She has asked me to figure out what is going on and why.”

Twilight gave Magic Scrolls a look “Are you the one that made the duplicates of two of the star charts? If so, why have you done this?”

“Of course, princess!” Magic Scrolls replied “I am creating duplicates so that the originals can be locked away for the purpose of making sure they are not damaged or destroyed as the public uses them. This is for the protection of the original star charts so I didn’t see any reason to inform Princess Celestia or Prince Artemis.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow “You do realize that the night is Artemis’ domain, right? He takes that very seriously and is not happy that the charts of his stars were being copied without authorization from either Celestia or himself. As for Celestia, this is her castle, right? She wants to be aware of the major things that happen here. Duplicating these documents does count as something major because many of these charts are considered ancient and must be managed carefully.”

She shook her head “Magic Scrolls and Rose Petal, both of you are coming with me. Now.”

Rose Petal nodded “Of course, Princess”

Magic Scrolls stared at her “Princess, I’m busy! I have so much to do today and talking to you has already taken a lot of my time!”

Rose Petal’s eyes widened Bad move, boss. She thought, glancing over at Twilight.

Sure enough, Twilight was glaring at Magic Scrolls again. Without saying another word, she lit her horn and teleported the three of them to the throne room, right in front of Celestia.

Next Chapter: Chapter 36 Estimated time remaining: 30 Hours, 35 Minutes