Author's Notes:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BKZvw1p0GyWMZJ0_ylvRGYFr6CzwjQ7RooVCm2BmcNY/edit

You know, there are so many more ways I would have rather spent the day than getting sucked through a hellish vortex leading into a bookish sub-dimension. Fucking Kumani, messing around on the computer, practicing with my sword, teasing Fluttershy with my body… So many better things.

Instead, I was stuck with Twilight.

“W-where are we?” she breathed, slowly looking around the enclosed area. I did the same, finding mounds and mounds of large tomes all around us, some stacked high and others low. “And how could anypony do this to so many books!?” she gasped, horrified.

“Is that really your concern right now?” I asked, looking past the books and seeing more things. Where there weren’t bookcases, the walls were completely devoid of color, a scary featureless black that seemed to absorb the ambient light of the area. The lack of a roof gave us a clear view of the swirling vortex of red and green that comprised the sky. Looking at that made my head start aching, so I pulled my eyes away quickly.

“But look at them!” she said, pointing a hoof at one of the piles. “That’s terrible for them!”

Before I could slap her in the back of the head, I felt a wind picking up around us. “New patrons…” a voice whispered, carried by the wind. I fell into a combat stance quickly, flipping the knife in my grasp and looking all around for the source. “New seekers of knowledge,” it continued. “Will you find what it is you seek, or shall you end up as one of the guardians, always looking but never finding?”

“Where’s the exit?” I called, not seeing anything that might be talking.

“You will find all that you seek at the end of the road,” the voice quietly answered. “But the pursuit of knowledge isn’t always safe. Be wary.” Just like that, the wind stopped and the voice shut up.

“What… what was that?” Twilight asked, spooked.

“Something very unpleasant, probably,” I said, standing back upright.

“What did he mean by end of the road?” she asked.

“I don’t know. If I had to guess, we’re supposed to go through the archway there.” There was only a single way out of the room, unless I felt like flying over the walls.

“Then let’s go,” she said with a nod. “I’m sure we can find somepony that can tell us what’s going on!”

“If what he said is true, I don’t think there are going to be many friendly people here,” I said. “We can try talking to the first… whatever we see, but I want you to be ready to blow it up. Alright?”

“Ugh. Why is it always violence with you?”

“I go with what works,” I answered, gently tossing the dagger up and down. “I’m willing to try diplomacy. But I’m not about to get torn apart by whatever the fuck lives here because you felt too queasy to blow it to shreds on the off chance it proves hostile.”

She sighed and nodded. “Alright, Nav. I… I don’t like it, but I trust you. But if there are too many, I’ll need help.”

“I got you covered,” I said, tossing the knife again. “I’m not a good tank, but I have a rogue’s legacy.”

“...What?”

“It means we’ll be fine,” I answered. “But if there’s a fight and you lose sight of me, don’t panic.”

“Uh… Okay. Are you ready?”

“Sure.” I led the way to the archway, wanting to get a good look at the new hell in which we found ourselves. Right before we crossed under it, I saw the only decoration in the room: A small pocket watch inlaid into the wall above the exit. Outside our small room was a world all unto its own, completely changing from the dusty chamber we left behind.

Gone were the books and the must, the horrid sky and the darkness. The world we stepped into—or rather, appeared suddenly in—was unlike anything I had seen since.

Wait…

I was suddenly standing at the head of a long table set up in the middle of a forest clearing. On the table were various food items, multiple tea things, and all manner of plates. And I could feel some extra pressure on my head, something that wasn’t there before. When I felt up there, I found exactly what I was expecting: A very large tophat.

Oh my God, I’m the Mad Hatter. Does that make Twilight…? Sure enough, a confused Twilight wearing a large, old-style white and blue dress, wandered into the clearing. Her eyes lit up when she saw me.

But before either of us could say anything, a squeaky voice yelled, “No room!” I looked toward it to see a large rabbit sitting at the table, propped up on a mound of cushions on a chair. Between us was a mouse of some kind, snoring daintily.

“Play along,” Flo whispered.

Oh thank God, you’re still there. “No room!” I shouted back, putting some anger in my voice. Twilight looked even more surprised. Before she could ruin anything, I stealthily pointed at the chair across from me, staring dead at it. “There’s no room at this table!”

“But… there’s plenty of room!” Twilight indignantly said, walking up to the chair and uncomfortably sitting on it. Thank God, she might play along. Now let’s just see if I can remember enough of my lines.

“Would you like some punch?” the large rabbit asked.

Twilight looked around the table, blinking and still trying to figure out what the hell was going on. “I uh… I don’t see any?”

“There isn’t any punch,” the rabbit dully replied.

“It wasn’t very nice to offer any, then!” Twilight answered.

“And it wasn’t very nice for you to sit here uninvited, either!” the rabbit said.

“But… there are so many empty seats!”

“You need to cut your hair,” I said, still staring at Twilight.

“W-what? But I like my hair like this!” The rabbit suddenly looked even more annoyed and the mouse kicked in its sleep, stirring slightly. My eyes narrowed and I mouthed the right word to her. It took her a second, but she eventually said, “That’s… uh, that’s… rude?”

I blinked in mock surprise. “Oh, is it now? Hm…” After pretending to consider that, I asked, “Why is a raven like a writing desk?”

“Oh, that’s easy!” she happily said, finding a problem she could think about.

“Do you mean that you can find an answer for it?” the rabbit asked.

“Of course!” she replied.

“Then you should say what you mean,” the rabbit went on.

“But… I did! Er…” She looked to me for assistance.

Shit, even I was lost at that point. Lewis Carroll makes some really strange stuff. Thankfully, Flo was there to the rescue. She fed me my lines as I said them aloud: “Not the same thing at all!” I said, putting some fire to my words. “You may as well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same as ‘I eat what I see’!”

Then the rabbit jumped in. “You might as well say ‘I like what I get’ is the same as ‘I get what I like’!”

And then the little mouse woke up, sleepily adding, “‘I breathe when I sleep’ is the same as ‘I sleep when I breathe’...”

“It is the same with you,” I muttered, glaring at the little mouse as it curled on its cushions. Thankfully, Twilight had no idea what the fuck to say to that, so she didn’t say a word. She did, however, look confused as all fuck. Which was understandable, but at least she was playing along. But since Flo was whispering again, I pulled an exaggeratedly large watch out of my pocket and fiddled with it. “What day of the month is it?” I asked aloud.

“Uh… The seventee—” She saw my dark glare and then looked down to my hand, where I had four fingers held up. The rabbit and the mouse were both staring at her with soulless eyes, ready to do… something. “The… fourth?” she slowly said, still unsure.

“Ugh, two days wrong,” I sighed, turning to the rabbit. “I told you butter wouldn’t do it!”

“It was the best butter,” the rabbit grumbled, rolling its beady eyes.

“Yes, but some crumbs must have gotten in there,” I said. “You must have—”

“What in Celestia’s name is going on?!” Twilight finally shouted.

The rabbit and the mouse both jerked, starting at her. She gulped as two of the animals slowly stood and began changing. My knife carved through the skull of the mouse before it could turn into anything, but the rabbit turned too quickly for me to recover. The freakish monster that stood before us was a large furry beast, what looked like a bear mixed with a leopard, with a spotted grey coat, massive claws on each of its four legs, and a horrifying set of teeth.

“Beware the bandersnatch,” the voice whispered on the winds.

As soon as it regained coherence and turned to us, I shot up out of the table and grabbed the edge of it, throwing the thing up onto the monster. Twilight was having a minor freakout moment, backing away from the awful beast, her eyes widening.

Since I appeared to be the immediate threat, the thing pounced at me. As close as it was, the only thing I could even try to do was dodge, which I just barely managed. It slammed into the large-backed chair I had been on, crashing through it like it was your mother’s loose vagina.

“Stop panicking and help me!” I shouted, using my wings to propel me up and onto the monster’s back and then slamming my knife into it, trying to kill the damn thing as it thrashed around and tried to dislodge me.

“What is that thing?!” Twilight shouted back, not doing shit.

It finally got me off its back by rearing up, the same trick Celestia pulled on me once. Thankfully, I jumped off before it could land on me, leaving it mostly defenseless on its back. Not so thankfully, I lost my grip on the knife, sending it who knows where.

Twilight seemed to have finally come to her senses, shooting a ball of light at the thing, piercing its side. The beast screamed, an awful sound, as it rolled over and tried to stand.

“Keep shooting it!” I said, looking around the area for my dagger.

“I… I don’t want to kill it!” she said.

“Then it’ll kill us!” I shouted, finally seeing the sparkling red edge of that bloody naga steel. As she tried to conquer her moral dilemmas, I sprinted toward it, hoping the monster wouldn’t recover before I could get to it. Thankfully, I made it safely. And when I turned around, all that was left of the monster was a hunk of mostly destroyed meat. “...Whoa.”

Twilight was staring at it with wide eyes, her horn still slightly smoking. “I… I… I k-k-killed s-something!”

“Damn straight!” I happily said, shaking the blood off my dagger and walking over to her with a smile on my face. “Good job, Twilight.”

“B-but…”

“No buts,” I said, kneeling down and hugging her. “You did good.”

“Oh Celestia,” she huskily whispered. “I… I’m a murderer!”

“Nope,” I said, pulling back to look her in the eye. “That was self-defense. And man, that was one hell of a defense!” She still looked rather traumatized, so I had a feeling my method wasn’t working.

“You are so bad at this,” Flo sighed. She was probably shaking her head, too.

So I sighed and put on a more somber tone. “There were two outcomes here, Twilight,” I said. “It killed us or we killed it. Personally, I think I prefer being alive. Don’t you?”

“...Yes.”

“I’d be worried if you didn’t. Now, are you fine?”

“I want to see it,” she quietly said. That was a bad idea, but I knew it would forever haunt her either way. So I stepped aside, letting her walk up to the smoking remnants.

“You like learning about other cultures, right?” I asked, moving next to her.

“...Yeah.”

“Want to hear about a human custom called blooding?”

“Anything to get my mind off… that,” she said, not even looking away from the body.

“In my world, after a new hunter gets its first kill, the experienced hunter that goes with him takes some of the blood from the first kill and applies it in some way to the new hunter. Usually tasting or applying it as war paint on the face. It’s a way of signifying how the first kill never truly leaves you, no matter how many others you rack up in your time. It’s a sign of responsibility, in a way. You are responsible for taking their lives. It’s a burden you bear until the ends of your days.”

“I… I just want to forget…”

“You never will,” I sighed, turning away from the body. “Let’s go, Twilight. I bet the exit is this way.”

I began walking, not waiting for her to follow. She joined me after a second or two anyway, her halting steps soon matching mine.

“What was this place, anyway?” she asked when we got in front of the archway leading out. “You seemed like you knew…”

“A scene from a book,” I answered, taking the large hat from my head. With a shrug, I tossed it aside. “I… think I know what’s going on. If we had played along, we could have gotten out of this place with no bloodshed. But since you didn’t…”

“The inhabitants turned on us!” she said, pleased to have something to think about. “But why did it pick a book from your world? I’ve never heard of anything like this!”

“I don’t know,” I answered, looking up to the top of the gate leading out. “But do you see this inscription here?” I asked, pointing at the one present there. She studied it as I continued, “There was one before we stepped into this one, a watch.” The one on this gate was another gate.

“...And you had a watch before I broke character!” she said.

“Yeah. But don’t feel too bad. The only reason I was able to keep going was because Flo was helping me. You ready for the next one?”

“...No.”

“Too bad,” I said, pushing the gate open. In a flash, we were back in the dark area full of books with the freaky sky and black walls. But now we were somewhere new, away from that small room in which we started.

This new area had a much better view of the area around us, too. We were at the top of a tall staircase with no walls around us, meaning we could see a long way. The view was… not promising. It showed room after room after room, each connected by the arches. Some of those rooms seemed to have some kind of occupants, but it was hard to tell because the light wasn’t all that great. Many of the rooms also seemed to have all kinds of other items in them, not counting the occupants. The stairs we were on led down to a large chamber, where a few of the occupants resided.

“I don’t like this,” I said, gripping my dagger tighter.

“What’s this?” Twilight asked, looking at a pedestal behind us that I somehow missed. On it was a book.

“...Alice in Wonderland,” I said, running my hand over the cover gently. When nothing happened, I picked it up and thumbed through it. Nothing happened. The text within was perfectly legible. “I guess we get to keep the books we defeat,” I said, setting it back down on the pedestal.

“You don’t want it?” she asked.

“Nah. I already rewrote it. Now, do you want to go wreck some shit?” I asked, looking back down the stairs. “Bet you fifty bits that those things are hostile.”

“No deal. But… just in case, what do you think we should do?”

“Hm…” I took a few seconds to study the area. No cover, but plenty of maneuvering room. Those things are just wandering around the area, looking at the piles of books. Can’t tell much about them since it’s too dark. “Can you cast that invisibility spell on me?” I asked. “I can go do some scouting and you can follow me down in two minutes. That way, if they do end up being hostile, I’ll be in the perfect spot to strike.”

“I can do that. But without me there to maintain it, the spell will wear off as soon as you touch somepony else.”

“Noted. Cast it and give me two minutes.” Her horn lit up and a thin light shot at me. I could see the same aura around myself before I disappeared from view entirely. “See you soon,” I whispered, starting to carefully walk down the long staircase.

“Be careful,” she said. I held up a fist in a gesture of solidarity that I immediately realized she would never see.

I don’t suggest trying to walk up or down stairs when you can’t see your legs. Thankfully, Flo was able to take them over and control them perfectly, successfully getting me to the bottom. And when I got there, I quickly realized I didn’t want to be there. The inhabitants of the realm were emaciated, hairless, and made up of different races. The three immediately before me were an earth pony, a griffin, and a minotaur. There was absolutely no life in their eyes. The only good thing about them is that the griffin’s wings looked really funny without any feathers.

I was getting into some manner of position when all three of them instantly turned their heads toward the staircase, where Twilight was making herself known. The minotaur roared and began charging, setting his horns to gore her if he could get close enough.

Of course, I didn’t let him, grabbing one of his horns with one of my hands to sling myself around onto his back, where I slit his throat with casual ease. He ran on a few more steps before the bloodloss caught up to him and he collapsed to the ground, deader than he was before.

That didn’t stop either of the others, of course, so I almost immediately felt a griffon pounce on my back. Since the dude was just skin and hollow bones, he did very little to knock me off-center, but his talons hurt like hell. I used the hand not holding the knife to grab him around the neck, ripping him from my back and slamming him onto the ground in front of me, then twisting and kneeling, my knee on his chest and the knife to his throat.

Thankfully, Twilight was holding the earth pony with her magic, though he was struggling heavily in her grip. “Are… are they going to talk?” Twilight asked, her wide eyes staring at the struggling griffin under me.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “I think their minds checked out long, long ago. All that’s left is a husk…”

Her ears dropped as she considered that. “W-what about us?” she asked. “Will… Will we be like them?”

I pretended to consider that for a few seconds before grabbing both sides of the griffin’s head and twisting sharply, breaking its bony neck. “No,” I answered, standing. “Because we’re going to beat this place.” I walked over to the struggling pony and stared it in its soulless eyes. “I give you my word that neither of us will end up like this.” One way or another. To punctuate that point, I drove my knife into its chest, piercing its heart. After a few seconds, the monster stopped struggling. And horrifyingly enough, I saw that my knife was covered in… ink when I pulled it out.

“...Okay. We can do this,” she said, letting the dead thing fall. “We can… we can do this…”

“Damn right,” I said, shaking the filth off my dagger yet again. As I did, I started walking around the room, looking for anything of interest. Aside from the books, there were a number of strange statues and tables covered in papers with illegible text, vials of strange substances, and more recent-looking books. “Can you tell if any of this stuff is magic?” I asked.

“I… think I know that spell,” she said, walking up to one of the tables. Her horn lit up and one of the vials started to glow. “That’s some kind of potion made with magic,” she said. “But I have no clue what it does.”

“And we’re not going to find out,” I said. “Let’s check the other tables.” We walked around the room, looking for anything of use. I found a very ratty bag half-covered by some of the ancient tomes. We started loading all of the magic items in there, skipping the potions. Into it went scrolls, gems, and a single book. Since we didn’t know what any of them did, I just used my dagger to push them into the bag so neither of us had to touch them.

“So what are we even going to do with these?” she asked as we searched the last table.

“Look over them when we get back, I guess,” I said. “It’s not like they’re going to be any use here. You can take them back with you and do magic to them, or whatever.”

“Ooh! I’ve never gotten to experiment on unknown magical items before!”

“Well, wait until we’re out of here first. Now… which way do you think we should go?” I asked. There were three doors leading away from our courtyard. Each had a symbol above the archway.

“Hmm…” She started walking around, studying each one. Finally she pointed to the one on the left and said, “If we’re going through any, it should be that one.”

“Why?” I asked, looking above the archway she pointed at. On it was a quill between a set of mismatched eyes.

“Look at the ground,” she said. “The voice said that what we sought was at the end of the road. The floor leading up to that one looks more like a road than the others.”

“...You’re right. But hey, I have wings and you can make wings. Want to just fly over the walls and skip possibly getting killed by guardians?”

“Definitely,” she said with a nod. “Just check to see if you can fly over them first. I don’t want to spend that much magic uselessly.”

“Easy enough.” I set the bag and knife down, then jumped into the air, flying to the wall. As soon as I passed over it, I came hurtling down from the other side of the room, a searing pain on my wings. I hit the ground with a painful thump and a string of unpleasant curses.

Of course, Twilight was immediately at my side. “Nav! Are you okay?”

“Oh God… My wings,” I groaned, clutching at them. She flinched when she saw them and pulled my hand back.

“You… Your feathers are gone,” she said. I forced my hand away from her hoof and felt one of the wings, realizing that yes, it was now just as barren as…

My eyes went unbidden to the dead griffin, suddenly realizing why it didn’t have any feathers. “I can still walk,” I grunted, forcing myself up. “I won’t let useless chicken-wings stop me.”

She breathed a sigh of relief, nodding. “So flying isn’t possible… I guess that means we walk.”

“Yeah. Let’s get started.” Together, we walked up to the imposing archway. “What do you think?” I asked when we stood before it.

“Well… The things in the other one only started attacking when we… I deviated from the script. So if you know the story, try to help me keep up. I’ll help you if it’s one that I know.”

“Easy enough. You ready?”

“Just… one question, first. How is a raven like a writing desk?” she asked.

“My dear, I haven’t the slightest,” I airily answered.

“...That’s a terrible book,” she grumbled, rolling her eyes.

“Yeah. On three?”

“One,” she said.

“Two,” I said.

“Three,” we said together, stepping through the next door.

The first thing that came to my mind when I viewed the next place was chaos. Bodies of changelings were thrown about so casually that I thought this was an alternate history book where Canterlot fell to the changelings. But as I continued to look around, I saw a pink haired white horse with Twilight at her side, each wielding what looked like glowing artifacts of power. In front of them was a wounded chimera, one that I had seen a statue of many times.

“You should all be thanking me,” he said, laughing as he slowly pushed himself away from the two ponies in front of him. “All I ever gave you was fun!”

“For what, Discord?” the white horse—what I came to realize was Celestia—growled. “For murdering the alicorn race? For perverting Moonbeam? For depriving Luna of her parents? For taking the only hope I had of a future and dashing it to the ground? Why would we ever thank you?!”

“Her name is Chrysalis,” he said, his horrid yellow eyes looking to me. “And you asked for it, didn’t you? You accepted that deal, fair and square.”

“You cheated me!” I shouted, hoping it was the right thing to say. Don’t want to fuck with Discord and Celestia, no sir.

“You wanted children!” he said. “So I gave you more children than you could ever want. And it seems they love their mother enough to turn on their father…”

“I wanted children, not… monstrosities!” I said.

“Enough!” Celestia broke in. “We’re not here for that. We’re here for vengeance!”

“You should be careful what you wish for,” the chimera said, smiling slightly. “But you’re wrong, Celestia. I didn’t take your future from you. I gave you the best future you could have asked for. A shepherd’s future, guiding your new family down the road to enlightenment. The alicorns were stagnant! Frozen in time! They thought themselves so superior that nothing would ever change them. No race can survive like that. So I… brought them down a peg or three.”

“You tore them in three parts and just laughed as the entire civilization collapsed!”

“Well, no one ever said I was nice!” he said, giggling.

“And soon, you will be no more,” Celestia growled, her eyes glowing. “Luna, ready yourself!”

“...Uh, ready?” Twilight said, looking at one of the artifacts on her neck.

Thankfully, Twilight didn’t have to know what to do for the magic to actually work, so a rainbow beam shot toward Discord and… completely missed. He just vanished, then suddenly reappeared right in front of Celestia, his talons around her throat. Twilight yelped in fear and rushed to try to help, but Discord’s lion paw thing grabbed her by her hair and held her up, though he was still staring at Celestia.

“Do you truly think I would let myself lose?” he growled. “Do you know how long I’ve been alive, how long I’ve been in power? Do you know who gave you those artifacts? I created those elements and I placed them in that hidden bolthole. I lose when I say I lose!” He casually tossed Celestia back and gently set Twilight down. “You will never beat me, Celestia. Because I lose on my own terms. You will be their shepherd, like it or not. You will guide them and train them to be not better than other races, but friends with them. Because should any large conflict arise, I will break free from my temporary home. And when I do… I’ll be most disappointed in you, Celestia.”

“I’m not beholden to you!” she croaked, sitting up from her spot on the ground.

“Do you want to become like the others of your kind? Destroyed, driven mad, split, or cursed as a changeling? You will either live, or you will become like them. Because unless you give me your answer, those trinkets around your neck might as well be tinfoil for all the good they’ll do you.”

“You’re a monster!” Twilight hissed.

“I am a god!” he shouted, glaring at her with fire in his eyes. “Do you want a taste of eternity, child? To see what I’ve seen, to do what I’ve done? You would be as empty as I, were the circumstances different. Empty and searching for any scraps of joy to fill your heart, anything to break up the monotony.” He shifted his gaze back to Celestia. “Answer me.”

“I despise you,” she hissed, raw pain and hate in her voice.

“Good answer,” he said with a grin. “Give me your best shot.” Celestia stood with a grim look on her face, marching to stand next to Twilight. Discord turned to me with a smile on his face. “I will see you in a few millenia, my new servant…”

God that is creepy. As though sensing my thoughts, he lifted his arms and started laughing to the sky, howling his amusement for all to hear as Celestia and Twilight finally silenced him, turning him to stone.

“It’s… done,” Celestia sighed.

“...Now what?” Twilight asked.

“We go and rebuild,” she said. “Come.” She began walking off toward a familiar gate. Twilight and I immediately joined her, seeing the way out.

Soon, we were through another portal… and immediately beset upon by more of the abominations. The two of them looked more worn and damaged, each bearing some signs of injury. One was a pegasus and the other was some kind of biped, but I couldn’t tell just what it was. They were both dark brown and completely missing any kind of fur, as though they had been burned.

Of course, I was too busy defending myself against an immediate threat to do much of anything else than just look at them. The biped came bearing down on me, swinging both arms to slap my head on the ears. I ducked under that and tackled it, forcing it back. Sadly, even after its rot, whatever it was had more strength and mass than I did, so it didn’t go far. When it recovered and before I could stab it, both of its hands clenched up and slammed onto my back, hurting enough to force me to release it and nearly hit the ground.

And then it shot back against the wall so hard that I could hear something within it break. “You alright?” Twilight asked, panting.

“Yeah,” I groaned, pushing myself up. Nothing feels broken. But fuck did that thing have some strength. “You?” I asked.

“Just… peachy,” she said, her voice slightly strained. I looked her way to see her holding up a struggling pegasus. “Can you… help me?” she asked.

I finally stood again, grabbing the dagger from where it had fallen, and walked over to the pegasus. It glared at me with hollow eyes, each seeming sunken in and very dry. No remorse, no fear. The dagger plunged into its chest, destroying its heart. But since that’s a fairly inefficient way to kill something, it struggled a few more seconds before ceasing and then falling to the floor, allowing the dagger to pull free.

“Let’s look around,” I said, not commenting on her inability to kill an actual pony.

“Nav… What was that book we were in?”

“A history book,” I answered, walking over to the gate from which we entered, where a pedestal stood with a large tome upon it. “The Founding of Equestria.”

“I… I’ve never heard any of that…”

“I knew bits and pieces,” I said, grabbing the book and sliding it into the pack. “Celestia has censored history a lot. This seems like a more accurate version of things that happened. We can read through it later. But for now, let’s look around.”

“...Alright.”

The room we found ourselves in was much smaller than the previous one, with doors on all four sides. More of the large, ancient books lied in piles against the walls, annoying obstructions blocking some movement. There was only a single table alongside one of the walls, covered in an odd assortment of items. According to Twilight’s spell, none of it was magical.

As I took another look around the room, I saw something mostly hidden by one of the piles of books, something that made me smile. “Well looky here,” I said, pulling the sheath out from under the books.

...With it came a skeletal arm of something with fingers and a completely rusted blade still jammed inside the scabbard. With Twilight’s help, I was able to pull that free and use it for the naga dagger. It was a very poor fit, but better than carrying it around the whole time.

“Are you ready to move on?” Twilight asked, looking at the floor to determine where we had to go.

“Yep. Looks like the road heads that way,” I said, nodding to where it looked like the road led.

“Shall we, then?” she asked. I started walking that way and she joined me. We stopped at the entrance. On it was a quill and a sword held by a human hand. “What do you think?” she asked.

“No clue. But let’s both be ready to face anything when we get out of this book. There’s no telling what might be on the other side, and running into those abominations here was almost bad.”

“Agreed. Three?”

“Three,” I said with a nod as we both stepped in.

What struck me first is how… grey everything looked. The countryside we were in was vast, open, and very green while the large body of water behind us was lively and active, but the sky above us was just dull and dreary. That was my first hint that we were in Britain. The second was that I was surrounded by other humans, aside from a purple horse that stood next to a man wearing nothing but furs. He was so filthy that I could practically see the lines of stench emanating from him.

Between me and him was a tall figure wearing some form of scale mail, a shield and spear in his hands. In fact, everyone there except for Twilight and the dude in fur had a shield and spear. Many of us also had swords, axes, clubs, or various other weapons.

“He’s coming for me, Arthur,” the fur guy said. “Nothing can stop him, not even all your arms and armor.”

“Derfel and I will not fail you, Merlin. That monster can try to break past us, but he’ll never succeed!”

“He will. Nimue has foreseen it. I’m the last, Arthur. Magic is nearly dead in this world, aside from his.”

“Surely there’s something we can do!” Arthur shouted.

“Buy as much time for me as you can,” Merlin calmly said. “I have a few tricks left up my sleeve. And this weapon will aid you greatly in the coming battle,” he said, holding both hands together, balled into fists, before slowly pulling them apart. As he did, a sword materialized between his fingers, a sword I knew very well. “I present Excalibur.”

...Flo, how did you wind up with that sword?

“It was a gift,” she answered. “Now listen.”

“A sword, Merlin?” Arthur sighed. “This is only good should our shield wall break. Against those barbarians, we shall hold firm!”

“They’ll be as an endless wave. The wall will break. I must have time if my last work is to be completed.”

“What are you planning?” Arthur asked.

“...Avalon,” Merlin quietly answered. “Nimue, come. We have preparations to make.”

Twilight was silent until I glared at her and she jolted. “Oh! Uh, yes, Master Merlin!” That seemed to be good enough, as the two of them turned their backs on us, walking back a few paces.

“We have things to do ourselves, Derfel,” Arthur said, turning to me. “Sagramore! Galahad!” Two men from the group behind us jogged up to us. “We have to buy time. Sagramore, send scouts out. I want to know Mordred is coming before he gets here.”

“Yes, Arthur,” the very large fellow said.

“Galahad, I want your men preparing for a siege. This land isn’t very defensible, but by the spirits, we’ll take what we can get. If you can, dig trenches. Layer the bottom with broken weapons.”

“Aye, Sir Arthur,” the ruggedly handsome fellow answered.

“Derfel, I want you in the center, ready to pull back to assist Merlin if he needs anything. I know your blood sings for battle, but of all of us here, you’re the one most familiar with their magic. We’re here for Merlin, not glory.”

“Of course, my friend,” I replied.

“Then I’ll leave you up to your own devices,” he said. “May your gods be with you.”

Galahad and Sagramore both clamped down on either of my shoulders in a symbol of solidarity before walking off. I turned and started walking to the guys who were spending the most time staring at me, assuming they were mine. “What’s the word, warlord?” one of the guys asked when I got close enough.

“We’re guarding the center,” I said. “Arthur wants me close to the druids in case they need assistance.”

“Honor is honor,” someone else said. “And the center is always the most heated!”

“We’re here for Merlin, not honor,” I answered. The fellow that spoke up spit on the ground in disgust, sneering. Oh man, oh man… This is starting to worry me.

“Relax,” Flo whispered. “You’re a warrior and a leader. Just play it carefully. That’s all we can do.”

If I get a line wrong…

“You won’t,” she said.

“No disrespecting the old magic,” I darkly intoned. “You know what Merlin is capable of.”

“He was gone for two years and then came back, demanding we sacrifice everything for this!”

“In the most glorious last stand you could ever ask for!” I shouted. “Standing with Arthur against Mordred, our sworn enemy. And you would complain? What better death could you ever desire?” He went silent, looking away. “You trust in Arthur, don’t you?”

The guy scowled. “I trust in you, warlord. Arthur… I worry about him.”

“Well, I trust in Arthur,” I answered. “And he trusts in Merlin. Neither of them would just throw us away, at least not without a chance of more glory and honor than anything else could give us.”

“Then die we shall,” he sighed.

Someone else answered, “Not die, no. We fight!”

“For glory!” the men shouted. “For honor! For Arthur, for Derfel!” Even though none of this was real, it brought a smile on my face to hear my troops cheering my fake name.

That smile was instantly wiped off my face as the scene suddenly… shifted. I was now standing side-to-side with the men I had been talking to, my shield held in front of the man to my left and my spear aiming forward. The man on the right had his shield in front of me. Together, we formed a wall of shields twenty men wide, with an extra man behind each of us ready to take advantage of any impaled enemies. There were other groups of us to our right and left, but since we were all so bunched up, I couldn’t tell how many other groups there were.

Before us was a horde, stretching as far as my eyes could see. Our backs were nearly to the ocean, with the baying horde charging across a massive field. I could barely see a single man on a large horse near the back of the group, spurring them forward.

The sky, before a dead grey, was now swirling in two places. One of the vortexes was centered somewhere behind us, presumably on Merlin. It looked clockwise, but it was hard to tell. The other was centered on the man with the horse, spinning counter-clockwise. There was a small humming in the air, wind gently blowing the heat of our closeness away. Aside from that and whispered prayers in my group, I could hear nothing else.

It seemed like time skipped again, because suddenly the enemy was surging into trenches, clogging them almost immediately with their numbers, and trampling over the dead and injured trapped within the holes. They clashed against my shield wall with a sudden roar and clap of sound, tearing my mind from any manner of concentration.

Suddenly, my entire world became the men immediately around me. The one my shield was protecting, the one that was protecting me, the man in front of me, and the man behind me. It was just a maelstrom of death, blood, and screams.

As it turned out, my spear did nothing other than line someone up to be murdered by the man behind me. I could try to move it to do more damage, but truly, it was all I could do to stand in place, holding back the tide of humanity that was constantly threatening to break me.

I have no clue if time skipped again or if the confusion and horror of the battle was so much that it warped my sense of time, but suddenly I was being dragged backwards. “DERFEL! MERLIN NEEDS YOU!” Galahad shouted over the din. “HURRY!”

I nodded and started to go, but stopped when I saw something truly amazing: Arthur dueling the man from the horse. The runes on Arthur’s sword were glowing a bright blue with every swing, countering the blows from the fiery red blade Mordred was wielding. They shared blow after blow, each being blocked by the other, fire and ice flying from their blades every time they pressed together.

However, it seemed that despite all of Arthur’s experience and prowess, he was being pushed back. Even though I absolutely knew I had to get to Twilight and Merlin, I couldn’t pull myself away from watching that fight, that truly epic dance of man and steel.

But it all went to horror before my eyes as Mordred suddenly kicked Arthur back, then lifted a gloved hand. From that hand shot an arrow from each finger. One missed. Two glanced off his armor. But two found weak spots, forcing their way into Arthur’s body. Mordred’s face gained a vicious smile as Arthur gasped, speckles of blood falling from his lips.

Despite everything, I found myself sprinting toward them, hoping I wouldn’t be too late. Mordred was slowly advancing, not even keeping his guard up, knowing he won. He didn’t see me until it was too late, my spear slamming into his body before he realized I was coming. The man’s eyes went wide as my sword came in to finish the job, slicing off the fucker’s head.

Instead of a death sentence, as I had expected, some force of pure darkness shot out of his body, writhing about. “Der-Derfel,” Arthur gasped. “M-Merlin!”

“Not without you,” I answered, dropping my sword and grabbing the once and future king. Ignoring his protests and his extremely heavy weight, I carried him toward where Merlin was shouting incantations to the sky, each one an explosion of magic.

When I got close enough for Twilight to notice me, she dropped what she was doing and sprinted my way. “N-Nav, what’s going on?” she whispered, her eyes wide and haunted. “This place is terrifying! The screams… Oh Celestia, the screams!”

“It’s almost over,” I answered, setting Arthur down next to her. “What has Merlin told you?”

“I… I don’t know! Nothing he said made sense! I have no clue what kind of magic he’s doing!”

“God… Help him!” I said, pointing to Arthur as I started running toward Merlin. “Mordred’s dead!” I shouted between Merlin’s words.

“Then the true threat is revealed!” he answered. “Chaos has come to claim us all, boy. Where is Arthur?”

“Right here, lying broken behind you,” I angrily answered. “Mordred injured him.”

“...Derfel, do you trust me?” he asked, finally turning to face me. In his eyes, I saw an old man. Wizened, broken and battered, but still fighting, still defiant. And almost completely terrified.

“Yes, Merlin,” I answered, nodding.

“Take Arthur’s sword. Take Excalibur. Survive this fight. Then cast the blade into the sea. The lady of the lake will need it for a new champion that will continue the fight against chaos.”

“What of you?” I asked, not caring if it was part of the script. “What of Arthur?”

“Chaos will not have me,” he answered, pulling a dagger from the folds of his furs. “I will ensure that. But Arthur and Nimue will escape. To what ends… I don’t know. May your god be with you, Derfel.”

“And may the gods be with you,” I slowly answered.

“Nimue!” he shouted. Twilight jerked up, away from trying to ease Arthur’s pain. “It is time. To the portal!” he shouted, throwing his arms wide. The gate that we both had to use suddenly appeared before him.

Without even taking a second to think about it, Twilight and I both sprinted to it, diving through before we ruined the script. Perhaps proving that there was, in fact, someone looking out for me, the room we both flew into was empty, so it wasn’t a problem that we hit the floor painfully and didn’t move an inch for several seconds, aside from panting.

“What… what was that?” Twilight breathed, utterly and totally confused.

“I… don’t know,” I answered, not panting but thoroughly confused.

Flo whispered, “There may be more to old legends than we thought, Nav. See what the book on the pedestal says.”

I slowly pushed myself up, walking toward the book. Sadly, it seemed that nothing I had with me came through, so I lost the very well-made leather armor, the good shield, the sword, and the spear.

On the pedestal next to the door was a leather-bound book with no inscriptions. When I opened it, I found that all the words were in some extremely old alphabet that I couldn’t read.

“You can’t,” Flo said. “But a spell could help you. This book could give us a key to fighting Discord.”

“This bag is almost full,” I said, closing the book. “Is it worth taking?”

“Absolutely. We might be able to find another bag in the other rooms we pass. But I don’t think another copy of this book exists anywhere.” I shrugged and carefully pushed it into the already bulging ancient bag.

“Did you say something?” Twilight asked, finally pushing herself to her hooves.

“Nah. Let’s look around, see what we can find.”

“Are… Were all human battles like that?” she asked me.

“No, of course not. I mean, they’re all terrible, sure. But that was centuries before I was born. And that was just one small part of the world. Things have changed a lot since then and vary from place to place. That was nothing compared to World War Two. But that’s not really important.”

“...Right.” She slowly turned her head, looking around the room. “I don’t see any tables this time.”

“But…” I said, walking over to one of the piles of books, where it seemed like something was partially obscured. After casually tossing them aside, I found something that made me seriously question my sanity.

“A chest?” Twilight asked, walking up next to me.

“Think it might be trapped?” I asked, wondering just what the fuck a chest was doing here.

“Hm. Let’s stand over here,” she said, pulling me back with her magic. When we were standing against the far wall, her aura surrounded the chest and it slowly creaked open.

Nothing happened.

“Guess not,” I said, walking back over to it. Inside was a sack of silver coins of indeterminate age and make, a few books that none of us could make heads or tails of, vials of dried ink, a few quills that broke at our touch, and a single shabby dagger that I didn’t even bother with.

“Why is this even here?” Twilight mused.

“With this many books and with books from my time, this world is old,” I said. “This chest has probably been here for thousands of years, likely brought by a scholar that wanted to study in this world. But it was a hindrance, so he left it behind.” Or he died. “There’s no telling what culture this thing is from, or what year.”

“That… makes sense. So now what?”

“We move on,” I said, grateful that she didn’t bother asking what happened to the chest’s original owner. “There’s no telling how many more books we have to travel through and we don’t know how much time is passing outside for all the time we spend in here.”

“Then shall we?” she asked, walking up to the next door the road led to.

“Sure,” I answered, joining her. Together, we walked through the archway that had nothing but a heart at the top.

The setting of the new world hit me like a hammer. I went from fully clothed to almost completely naked, only a pair of very short shorts covering me. Twilight stood next to me with a long, brown trenchcoat. In front of us was a large red door with a neon sign displaying “Whinny Cocktail Lounge.” Around us was a seedy back alley, probably chosen to hide the club.

“Well alright then,” I said, clapping my hands together. “Let’s find the gate immediately and get out of here, shall we?”

Before Twilight could answer, the sound of breaking glass rang through the alley. We turned that way and saw a multitude of street rats staring at us silently, daring us to deviate from the possible script.

Twilight gulped and said, “A-Are you sure about this, Snow?” she asked, jerking her head slightly toward the door with some uncertainty on her face. God fucking dammit.

“Absolutely,” I sighed, face-palming. This is going to end so poorly.

Flo giggled and said, “What Kumani doesn’t know…”

“Let’s just go,” I growled, pushing the red doors open. Twilight followed behind me into what appeared to be a very extravagant BDSM club. I could hear grunts, groans, and moans from all around us, but the very nice front room was empty but for a single stallion.

When he saw us walk in, he smiled, showing off a set of pointed fangs. Oh my God, it’s a vampire. Fucking really? “Ah, Snow,” he quietly intoned, slowly stepping forward. “It is good to see you and your slave took my invitation.”

Oh God, my what? “I uh… I could hardly refuse,” I answered, hoping I didn’t fuck up. “When do we start?”

“First, payment must be discussed,” he said, finally reaching us. He began to circle, eyeing Twilight appreciatively. “I believe I can waive the usual fee… should you give me some time with your pet.”

“She is not yours to toy with!” I growled. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief before looking up at me and jerking her head. “But… uh… We could… share her?”

The vampire was at her throat in an instant, sniffing it gently and then licking her tenderly before backing off. “I accept. I trust you know the rules?”

“Of course,” I placidly answered, having absolutely no clue what they were. From the look on his face, the slowly growing sense of irritation, I knew I fucked up. “But why don’t you remind me?”

“Simple,” he answered, starting to walk toward a staircase. “You are the master. He is the slave. And if your slave does not obey, you mete out punishments.” One of the words that guy said slipped right past me.

“Simple,” I sighed, following the fellow. Twilight silently dogged my footsteps. Up we went, further into the club.

Thankfully, he chose a room close to the entrance of the building, so we didn’t have to hear the disquieting sounds all around us. Since the room he chose happened to be sound-proof, it got very quiet very quickly.

“You know why we’re here,” Twilight suddenly said, shedding her coat and stepping forward.

“Oh, I know,” the vampire said. “And you’ll get it. After I take my… price. After all, it would hardly do for you to blow your cover. And if you aren’t walking funny when you leave this building, nopony would ever believe you came here for anything but the information.”

Twilight muttered, “Horsefeathers,” before looking away with a blush.

“Such a beautiful mouth, sullied by such foul language,” the vampire whispered, stepping closer with a bright grin. He pulled a blushing Twilight into a kiss before releasing her and saying, “Let’s use it for something better, shall we?” He backed off and looked up to me. “Don’t be shy, Snow. Shining Armor here is just waiting for your delicate touch.”

As soon as he said that, I blinked a few times, completely lost. My eyes slowly moved to Twilight, who was blushing up a complete fucking storm. Then they slowly went back to the vampire. He was just grinning, but it was slowly becoming more irritated.

So I casually strode across the room… and stabbed that fucker through the eye.

“We’re done here,” I calmly said, pulling my knife out of him. He flopped to the ground, but didn’t stay down for long. I felt a pair of fangs sinking into my heel as I was walking away, tripping me.

Kicking backwards with my other leg did little other than increase my pain, so I’m glad Twilight didn’t fucking panic this time, instead using her magic to pull the fucker away from me. He was struggling like a mofo in her grip, though, actually making her strain to hold him. “Get… up!” she shouted.

Of course, I wasted no time complying, even though my right leg was currently in a fuckton of pain. I also snatched my knife up and hobbled forward to continue stabbing the bastard.

None of them seemed to do anything until Flo whispered, “The heart, Nav! He’s a vampire.”

Oh yeah. Duh. With that new goal in mind, I sent his dark and edgy soul back to hell where it belonged. Thankfully, there was almost no blood involved in killing him, since technically he was already dead and didn’t have a pulse.

“Well that was fun,” I said, my arms going limp as Twilight dropped the corpse to the floor. “Now how did you know what to do, again?” I asked, turning to her. She looked away and stammered some excuse that I couldn’t understand at all. “No really. How?”

“Cadance… used to write… stories,” she said. “And well… she needed somepony to proof them… But his name wasn’t Shining Armor, then, I swear!”

“Uh huh.” At her blush, I very strongly suspected it was, but I didn’t call her on it. “Well, let’s—” A massive blow against the door of the room drew both of our attention that way. “Isn’t this room soundproofed?” I asked.

Another loud blow cut off whatever Twilight was going to answer. A sound from behind me made me look back, finding that the gate appeared on the wall.

“Time to go!” I shouted as the door burst open. I didn’t even turn to face it, just sprinting as quickly as my fucked leg could take me to the door. Something crashed into my back as both Twilight and I reached the exit, making me stumble and fall into a bundle of cloth that immediately started screeching.

The heads of the other two abominations shot our way as whatever it was I landed on shot upright, dragging me with it. The cloaked being held me at arm’s length by my throat, but then I realized it wasn’t an arm as much as it was just pure cloth. The only face it had was some cloth situated in a facade of a scowling face, but it was still somehow emanating an awful screech.

And then something began circling my legs. I looked down with panic in my eyes and found that the cloth from the monster was slowly wrapping me up, traveling up my body. Before my arms could react, the main body of it split, shooting toward me. Some reflex of mine shot my arms up, grabbing the two halves in an attempt to stop them from getting my body.

It didn’t work, since it just enveloped my arms instead, still traveling inexorably onward. Despite my struggles, it still managed to sneak up both legs and both arms, reaching my torso. And I could already feel my strength sapping in my limbs, submitting to this thing’s will…

Until it suddenly stopped, its shriek cutting off suddenly. My body was instantly awash with heat as the cloth burned away in a flash, leaving me to fall to the floor panting. I was completely unable to move, my arms and legs all completely asleep.

“Nav!” Twilight shouted, kneeling down to look at my face. “Please tell me you’re okay!”

“Thank you,” I whispered, struggling to rise. “I can’t move my arms or legs.”

She looked at them, her ears dropping. “Oh Celestia,” she whispered, her eyes going wide. “Your… your skin isn’t supposed to be that color.”

Where my arms and legs were usually a straight darker tan, they were currently mostly grey and mottled, looking completely lifeless. “Shiiiit…” I sighed, looking at my arms. Since there didn’t seem to be anything else to do, I rolled over onto my back and forced myself to a sitting position so I could see my legs. “Shiiiiiiiit…” My left leg was as bad as my arms. But my right leg was partially black around the area the vampire had bit me. “Can you heal this?” I asked.

“I can… try,” she said, lighting up her horn and leaning in. I felt the waves of healing flow through me and thankfully, the blackness around the wound faded away. But the other colors remained. “How do you feel?” she asked.

“Better than I was,” I answered. “Just… give me a few. Walk around, see what’s here. I don’t think I’m going anywhere.”

“...If you need me, just yell,” she said, giving me a long look before walking to one of the tables in the room.

“Flo?” I quietly asked.

“Working,” she tersely answered. “I can fix this, but it’s going to be a while before you regain full control. Walking should be easy, but there’s going to be some lag, slow response time. You should be fine in an hour.”

“...But do we have an hour?” I asked, not expecting an answer. I wasn’t disappointed.

Twilight joined me a few minutes later, a few more jewels and a small box with her. “How are you feeling?” she asked, sitting next to me and laying all the items down.

“Right now, fine,” I said. “Flo’s working on me, says she can get me up to full speed in an hour. I’ll be weaker until then, but I should be able to walk soon.”

“That’s… good. What was that?” she asked.

I couldn’t answer her, but something else could. “Not all librarians want patrons,” a voice whispered. “And all libraries have guardians. Expect surprises…”

“Fucking… great,” I sighed, my shoulders slumping.

“That… certainly doesn’t sound promising,” Twilight said.

“Yeah. How long have we even been in here?” I asked.

“With all these new worlds we’ve been entering, it’s hard to tell,” she said. “But I’d guess at least two hours.”

“...How long do you think it’ll take for the ship to send a rescue team?” I asked.

Her eyes went wide as she realized that what I said was probable. “Oh Celestia… My friends would demand to come! They can’t be here!”

“And Watcher wouldn’t even think about letting them,” I replied. “But I don’t want to risk anyone. We’ll push on as soon as I can walk. Just… be ready to do more of the work. I’ll do my best, but… God, that was close.”

“Of course, Nav. Just… play along next time. I know it didn’t sound the best, but I wouldn’t have minded. I mean, it would hardly be the first time we explored… that hole.”

“Yes, but I’m also in a relationship with an extremely jealous dragon.”

“Well, I’m sorry for considering our lives more important than your relationship! I’m sure she’d understand, if she ever even found out.”

“...I’d certainly hope so,” I sighed, trying to lean back and use my arms to catch myself, only to remember that my arms weren’t working. So instead I kept falling until some magic caught me. Then a purple pony situated herself under me, allowing me to use her as a pillow of sorts. “Thanks.”

“Least I can do,”she said. “But I do want to know why you’re with Kumani. What do you see in her?”

“It’s… nice to have someone that actually cares about me,” I said. “Luna… Well, I’m sure you know by now what happened there. But she kept pressuring me into things I didn’t want and took advantage of me more than once. Despite her heat and very jealous nature, Kumani is controlling herself. Sure, she’s extremely lusty and suspicious, but she’s keeping the worst of it in check. She actually cares enough to hold herself back, unlike Luna. And besides, she’s a fucking beast in bed.”

“And it was actually starting to sound sweet for a second,” she said with a giggle. Then she put on a more serious tone. “If you’re happy, you’re happy. I can’t fault that. I just… It doesn’t seem like you would be the… Ooh… the weaker partner in a relationship.”

“Just because I dommed for you don’t mean I like that,” I said. “I’ve gotten to the point where I usually prefer being on the bottom. Well, figuratively. Sexy or not, she’s heavy enough that she could hurt me if she was actually on top. But that’s not really important.”

“R-right.”

“But since we’re going to be here for a little while anyway…” I said, since I knew she was interested. She definitely didn’t stop me as I went into some details, that’s for sure. By the time I could move my arms and legs well enough again, she was breathing heavily. “...and that’s when I discovered yet another use for tooth floss.”

“T-t-that was… interesting,” she said. I could hear her tail wagging from behind me and I really wished I could see the blush on her face. “But um… I think…”

“Yeah, I can move,” I said, slowly pushing myself off her, using my arms. They were still sluggish, but mobile. My legs were responding as well, allowing me to stand. “Feels good,” I sighed, stretching. Excellent job, Flo.

Twilight stood as well, keeping her tail firmly against her backside. “So should we… go?” she asked, making a pointed effort not to look at me.

“Let me walk around, get some blood flowing in my legs. Wherever we might end up, I want to be able to move.”

“...Yeah. So have you seen any pattern?” she asked as I started walking.

“It’s either been humans or ponies,” I answered. “And they’ve been alternating. So if that continues, the next one will be human. I swear to God, if we end up in some fanfic, I’m killing everything in sight.” For some reason, Flo giggled at that.

“Hopefully we won’t,” Twilight said, giving the pedestal with the heart-shaped book a quick glance. “I’d like something that’s actually useful, like more history about the princesses or your people.”

“Speaking of that,” I said, stopping a second to pop my legs, “have you noticed a thread? Namely, Discord?”

“...Yes, I have,” she said. “I’m definitely going to have to ask the princess about it next time I see her.”

“Be careful about mentioning it,” I said. “She’s wiped Shining Armor’s memory about some things before. I don’t doubt she’d be willing to do it again, to someone else that finds things she wants hidden. I’ll let you read through the history books we collected from this place, but they’re staying with me as I travel.” And by that, I meant I’d be giving them to Bloodbeak so copies could be made.

“Would she really do that to her student, though?” she asked, concern coming through.

“I don’t know. She’s cleared stuff from Rarity’s mind before. And she’s removed a lot from the history books, like the true founding of Equestria, Reginald the dragon, Discord himself. It’s gonna have to be something you ask yourself. Risk it or not?”

“...I’ll think about it.”

“And I think I’m ready to go,” I said, stretching my legs one more time. After stopping to get my knife, we walked over to the next door. Above it was a quill and a star. “Thoughts?” I asked.

“The quills have been history,” she said. “The star…” She looked back at her ass. “It usually represents magic. So magic history?” she asked, turning to face the gate.

“Which means this is probably your show,” I said. “I’m following your lead.”

She took a deep breath and nodded. “Alright. I can do this. Let’s go.” Together, we walked through the portal.

I had about a second to orient myself in a brightly glowing room before the sound of voices dragged me out of my stupor. “And we told thee, there is no choice!” Celestia angrily said to some weird looking dude in a strange hat and a cloak with bells on the edges.

“And I said thy mind is taken by paranoia,” the stallion said. “Clover is a genius, a magical genius! And thou wouldst waste her on thy bastardized magic?” Looking around the room gave me a view of Twilight standing behind the weird guy. The actual room we were in was small and circular, with a large glowing crystal in the center.

“We would use her, Starswirl,” Celestia said, standing to her full height. At this point, her hair was still pink, but she seemed more regal and less angry than she had been the last time we saw her. “Thou knowest what happened, how the everlasting winter took the north. How one mad mage doomed thousands to starvation! Something must be done. And we have found a solution!”

“Thou hast found a solution?” Starswirl asked. “Or was it thy sister?” When he asked that, he turned to me. Oh God, am I in that blueberry bitch?

“Semantics!” Celestia said, pulling his attention back. “A solution has been found, Starswirl. And we will teach thy disciple.”

“Thou art doing nothing but delaying the issue,” he said, shaking his head. “Anyone that has magic of any kind will be able to find ways to abuse it. Putting unnecessary restrictions upon it does nothing but make stopping the abuse harder for those that have to fix it!”

“It makes stopping the abuse possible, Starswirl,” Celestia growled. “Should we be the only ponies with true magic, we can fix any horrors others would bring upon the world.”

“Providing what oversight?” he asked. “When I die, when the last of the magi perish, what will the rest be left with? Thou and thy sister? Wilt thou lie to the coming generations as well, tell them thou doth raise the sun as thou told us?”

“Thou wilt cease thy slander!” Celestia hissed, her eyes narrowing.

“Dost thou thinketh me a fool, Celestia?” he asked. “Think thee that we all be fools? The council has known for ages! It was a convenient lie, for we needed the support of the earths and the pegasi. But shouldst thou thinketh to turn them against us, do not think for a moment that we will let your lie live any longer. Thou and thy sister are powerful and ancient, but without the support of the unicorns, how long dost thou thinketh thee will last?”

“We will start this revolution of magic, Starswirl,” Celestia darkly said. “With or without the council’s assistance. Thou may either assist us and have a say in how things progress or go against us and be lost in time. We last forever. Thy star is fading, even now. In two thousand years, who doth thou think will be remembered more? Us, who will still be living? Or thou, who will have faded millennia since? Join us now and help us or risk being left behind for eternity.”

“Taketh thyself to Tartarus,” he answered. “Clover, come.” He started walking to the only door in the room, Twilight following him in a complete daze. Celestia looked to me, narrowing her eyes. Hopefully taking the hint, I blocked him from leaving with an arm. “What doth thou want, Lady of Battle?” he asked me.

Celestia was looking at the crystal ball in the center, where a scene was playing out. “Look,” I said, pointing toward it. He set his teeth, but turned his gaze upon it.

“Doth thou know of Discord?” Celestia asked as Starswirl watched the scene.

“Of course,” he answered. “What hath that monster to do with this?”

“We have reason to believe that he has no defense against the spells we would create,” Celestia said. “Discord himself is a magical being of immense power. But spells are only partially magic. True magic has many elements of chaos, something at which he excelled. But the spells we wouldst create are… different. They require order within thyself. They require a lack of chaos and a centering within one’s mind. And we believe that a world with much less true magic would decrease the risk of him escaping again. But we can’t know this without testing. Thou sayest that Clover is a genius, that she could truly change the world. What better change than being the building block of killing chaos itself?”

There was silence in the room for a few more seconds as we watched the images of Discord’s cracking statue stranded within a snowy wasteland. Not enough to completely break, but it was very obvious that the stone was damaged and weakened.

“...I shall discuss it with the council,” Starswirl finally said. “Clover, come.” Celestia let him leave, this time. The door slid shut behind them both with a gentle hiss, strangely.

“We detest lying,” Celestia sighed, shaking her head.

“You did the right thing,” I said, hoping I was as well.

“We know, Luna. And of course, thou knowest what must be done if they do not assist us?”

“Purge?” I asked.

“Make it quick, should the need arise. We do not want friends to suffer. Now, let us depart this unpleasant room.” Thankfully, the door suddenly took on the shape of the gate. I sprinted for it, not wanting to risk it disappearing.

Twilight and I appeared side by side. Before we could relax or get a good grasp on the next room, a single sheet of paper in the center began unfolding… and unfolding and unfolding. Soon, that single sheet of paper stood at twice my height, revealing a two-dimensional humanoid shape that was completely covered in a writhing text that upon trying to read hurt my eyes.

“What the hell…?” I whispered. As soon as I spoke, its head faced me. Then its arm shot my way, almost faster than I could throw myself aside. Thankfully, it missed. Not so thankfully, it seemed to be able to unfold even farther, meaning that it was able to follow me. A fiery spell from Twilight did nothing more than light up its runes and bring its attention to her, its other arm seeking her plump flesh.

Now, I wasn’t going to be having any of that. I snatched my knife out of the shitty scabbard it was in and slashed at the strange arm-like apparatus, slicing it down the center. But since this thing was made of fucking paper, all it did was give it more maneuverability as it tried to reach for the knife in my grip.

Unfortunately, continued dodging without really paying attention to where I was dodging put me with my back against the golem. One of its legs extended from its base on the ground, shooting past my thigh and giving me the most painful fucking papercut I have ever felt in my life. My leg jerked back and I quickly reacted, succeeding in cutting the extended leg from the rest of the thing’s body. The freed paper flopped to the ground, smouldering but not burning.

Before I could back away from its body, though, the arm that had been chasing me connected with my body, wrapping around my arm without the knife. Before I could cut its tendrils off, one of the pieces of the arm lit up bright red, emanating extreme heat. The other turned blue, turning bitterly cold instead. By the time I succeeded in removing its arm, I once again had no feeling at all in that arm other than pain.

The golem appeared defenseless, given that its other arm and leg were seeking Twilight, who was teleporting around the room and blasting it uselessly with whatever spell she could think of.

Be very wary when you think something defenseless.

I spun my dagger in my hand for what I was hoping was a killing blow against its body, trying to slash it in two, but its fucking head extended down, shooting straight toward me. Once again, only my quick reflexes stopped me from a whole world of hurt. Thankfully, it gave me a nice shot at removing its head. Not so thankfully, it jerked away as I tried slicing down on it. Even less thankfully, its head took on the shape of a fucking sword, folding and refolding itself to be as sharp and strong as copper, something I probably couldn’t hold my own against with one hand.

But hold I did, dueling with a single hand and a single dagger against something about twice my size. Thankfully, it seemed to have no idea what it was doing, so all it really had against me was its height advantage. And it also didn’t seem that intelligent, so I was able to slowly back away to make it continue unfolding its head, drawing it further away from its body. By the time I was about two meters away, it was no longer able to follow me, making me realize I had reached its limit.

Only about two feet of that head was converted into a saber, leaving the rest as some strange manner of arm, thrusting the weapon about. With its general lack of expertise, I was able to slide right through its guard and get close enough that I could jump up and slice, severing its head completely.

With an inhuman screech followed by the sound of a newspaper being crumpled and tossed away, the paper monstrosity collapsed to the floor, suddenly held together by nothing.

“What the absolute fuck?” I gasped, panting. Christ, I need some sun. I’m using way too much energy in this place!

“Sweet Celestia,” Twilight panted, falling to the floor. “What was that thing?”

“No clue,” I said, limping over to her. “But can you heal me? My leg and arm are fucked.”

“I can… try,” she said. “But I’m tired. I haven’t used this much magic in ages…”

“Worry about my leg first,” I said. “That thing fucking burns.”

She looked down at it and at my arm. “But… your arm is actually burned.”

“Have you ever had a papercut?” She blinked a few times before her eyes widened and she immediately healed my leg. “Ooh, much better,” I sighed, the horrid pain leaving me.

“Even with that as a papercut, it’s still hard to believe that it hurts worse than… that,” she said with a pointed glance to my fucked up arm.

“Oh, this is actually completely numb,” I said, lifting it. “Can’t move my fingers, can’t feel any pain anymore. I think the extreme hot and cold killed my nerve endings or something.”

“You think correctly,” Flo whispered. “I’ve been working on it, but no promises.”

Take your time. If it can’t get healed immediately, I’d rather not feel the pain.

“I can try,” Twilight said, pushing herself up. “But working with nerves is a lot harder than just healing cuts. I really don’t want to push myself too far because we don’t know what else is ahead.”

“Understandable. But know that if I’m at half-capacity, I’ll be about half as useful. If this thing lasts for too much longer, we might just have to risk a search party and rest for a few hours. My legs and good arm are still feeling wooden from that damn rag monster. This damn paper golem just made it worse.”

“I thought you were supposed to be a knight,” she said, her horn lighting up and moving next to my arm.

“Knights have armor. And swords. And armsmen. All I have right now is a fucking dagger. Hell, I’m lucky to even have that. Also, technically I’m retired from the knights.” As I was saying that, some magic was being done to my arm.

“That’s all I can do,” she said when I finished speaking. I could still barely move my fingers, but the burn and ice marks were gone. And ‘barely’ being able to move them was good enough.

“I can get Taya or Zecora to try their luck when we get back,” I said, flexing the digits as best I could. “Hopefully we’ll only have one more book world. Speaking of that, I need to get the book for this one.”

“Why?” Twilight asked. “It was obviously just some silly story.”

Thinking back to what Taya told me, I very much doubted that. “Eh. It’s still something that bears looking into,” I said as I walked over to the pedestal. “And if nothing else, I could use some light reading on the long trip ahead.”

“If you say so,” she doubtfully said. “You want to look around the rest of this room?”

“My bag is bulging already,” I said, finding a way to slip the new book in there. “I can’t carry any more. At all.”

“Well… there aren’t any tables in here anyway. But I wouldn’t mind getting a good look at the remains of that golem.”

“Go for it,” I said with a nod to the paper on the floor.

She walked over to the main body of the thing, walking around and examining the paper from several angles. “This… isn’t actual paper,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it!”

“Think it’s parchment?” I asked, walking over to the head.

“Parchment is paper,” she answered with a roll of her eyes.

“Not in my time, it wasn’t,” I said. “Parchment was very fine leather, or dried animal skin. It was used in old times before the invention of paper. I can’t identify it for sure, but this stuff feels leathery.”

“That’s… horrible,” she said, paling slightly. “But it would explain why my magic didn’t do as much to it. Well, aside from the runes. And I’ve studied magical runes many times but haven’t seen any like these.”

“Think Jak would know?” I asked. “Minotaurs are supposed to be really good with runes, right? I know I wouldn’t mind having one of these things on my side.”

“Hm… He might. But there’s no way we can take all of this body with us, even if we did have a bag large enough.”

“It died when I cut off its head,” I said. “Whatever activation stuff is in it has to be there. I’m sure someone that knows the runes could reverse-engineer the rest based off the head.”

“Well… its head is also pretty large,” she said. “About three meters long. There’s no way it’ll fit in that bag.”

“I’m carrying it with us, one way or another,” I said. “Let me see…” I knelt down to pick the thing up and started messing around with it. “Look around the room. See if there’s anything else of use here. Another bag would be awesome.”

She did as I asked, carefully setting stacks of books aside with short bursts of magic. As she looked, I began pulling and pushing the paper around, trying to figure out just how it folded. It took me a few minutes, especially with both of my hands sluggish, but I figured out how to fold it. After halving it four times, I wrapped it around my waist and slipped the ends into pockets, creating a belt of sorts. Paper armor equipped. -5 defense, -10 mobility. Hard mode activated.

“Rarity would be so disappointed,” Twilight said, coming forward with another bag. This one was in slightly better shape, but smaller than the one I had. Attached to its side were two canteens. “This was under one of the stacks,” she said, looking back slightly. “...And attached to its previous owner.”

“Good to see you’re learning to be more pragmatic,” I said, taking the pack.

“Well… it’s not like she needed it anymore,” Twilight sighed.

When I opened it, I found a few books already in it. “Looks like a seeker of knowledge,” I said, pulling one of them out. There was absolutely nothing on it that I could read. “We’ll toss some of these if we need the space,” I said, sliding it back in and beginning to transfer some items from the shitty bag I had into the new one, then threw them both back around my weak shoulder. “Shall we continue, then?” I asked.

“Might as well. But remember that we’re both weakened. So be ready to work as a team in case we run into anything else.”

“Noted. Hopefully this next world won’t involve any fighting.”

“Yeah…” When we walked up to the gate, though, it showed a skull, a slash, and a crystal. “What… could that mean?” she asked.

I had a very bad feeling that I knew. “A crystal might be Sombra. And a skull might be Grogar the necromancer.”

“N-necromancer?” Twilight asked, her eyes wide. “That’s been banned for ages!”

“Yeah, and he’s why,” I said. “Hopefully I’m wrong. Either way, we have to keep moving.”

She sighed and nodded. “Ready?”

“Ready.” With that, we both walked through…

...And appeared in a dark tomb, both wielding spears and flanking a crystally pony. Sitting in a throne made of skulls in front of us was a blue ram with twisted horns, red eyes, and filed-down teeth. “The great King Sombra demands you control your undead spawn!” the guy between us shouted.

“I created this winter expecting every living thing around me would leave,” the ram rasped, his voice a weary whisper. “And yet you remained, clinging to the ice and etching out a pitiful existence. Why should I even care if you foolish mortals complain? Wiping you from this wintery wasteland would be a favor!”

“If you don’t, it means war!” the foolish diplomat said.

Grogar answered with laughter, dark and dry. “War?” he finally wheezed. “For every one of yours that fell, I would grow stronger! The dead need no heat, no food, no sustenance other than magic. Should you attempt to strike against me, I would remove that city of yours off the map. And if you could somehow reach my lair and strike me down, my phylactery resides in the shadow realm itself! I would come back just as strong as I was before, while you will be weaker after every battle. Attack me if you dare.”

“And your undead attacking us isn’t already a declaration of war? They murder traders, attack caravans, eat townsponies… What would you call that?”

“They do so under no order of mine,” Grogar flippantly answered. “Failed experiments that were cast aside. If you want to kill them, destroy their heads. I make that the weak point of all of my experimental creations. I couldn’t care less if they never wandered back into my domain.”

“Do you truly expect us to believe that?” the diplomat hissed. “You said yourself that you expected us to leave! How can we know this isn’t just an attempt to force us out or kill us all?”

“Believe what I say or don’t,” Grogar replied. “But unless you wish to become one of my experiments, I suggest against calling me a liar in my own home.”

“You wouldn’t dare harm a diplomat! All the pony countries would be up in arms, rushing to assist us!”

“Perhaps you aren’t paying attention. I am unkillable. Destroy my body, it will regrow in the shadow realm and I will cross over again. Since nothing living can enter that realm and come out alive, you can destroy my body all you desire and I will come back every time.”

“You’re bluffing.”

“Strike two,” Grogar answered.

“Recall your undead abominations or suffer the consequences!” the diplomat shouted again.

“Should I have any desire to, it would be impossible. I cut them from my control and cast them out,” he casually answered.

“You liar!”

Without a word, Grogar’s hooves slammed together and the diplomat went stock-still, unable to move. Grogar’s head turned to me and he said, “You have until I count to three. I suggest you run quickly. One.”

My eyes widened and I looked at Twilight, who was also looking at me in fear. Before he could say two, my spear was falling to the ground and I was running to the door.

“Two.” Twilight joined me as the stallion we were abandoning began screaming. The two of us were out the door before anything else happened.

Then things… shifted and we were once again in the room, both wielding spears. “This is the throne room?” Sombra asked next to me. He was resplendent in a set of bright steel armor, glittering even in the unholy radiance provided by the infernal green flames.

“Yes, my lord,” I answered quickly. “This is where he was before.”

And he was here now as well, still on his throne. At one side was a very terrified donkey and on the other was the mutilated body of the diplomat we were supposed to protect. “So here you are,” Grogar said, not moving.

“Did you truly expect to murder a diplomat and get away with it?” Sombra demanded, stepping forward.

“It’s hardly murder,” Grogar answered with a shrug. “After all,” he said, waving a hoof forward. “He never died.” With that, the undead diplomat stumbled forward, shambling toward us.

“Disgusting,” Sombra said, actually angry. “Soldier, destroy this… thing.” Hopefully he meant me, since I was the one that moved forward. The zombie thing offered no resistance as my spear stabbed right through its head, impaling it easily. It slid off my spear with a nasty sucking sound as it fell to the ground, even deader than it was before.

“I suppose you want to kill me, now?” Grogar asked, seemingly nonplussed.

“That is the plan, yes,” Sombra replied, walking past me.

“I have a proposition, then.”

“...I’m listening,” Sombra answered, stopping.

“If you allow my servant to live, you may kill me with no resistance on my part. And when I come back to this realm in a month, I will find somewhere else to occupy, away from this cold area. You and your kind may return to a life of peace.”

“How am I to know this isn’t a trick?” Sombra demanded.

“Because if I wanted to kill you, that corpse your soldier just made would explode,” Grogar replied with a shrug. “Or I would just kill you.”

“Very well. You will die and your servant will live. Perhaps he’ll find a wiser occupation in what remains of his life.”

“Perhaps. Bay!” The donkey jumped, staring at his master. “You are free. Live as you would. You know where I will be if you want to find me.”

“Y-y-yes, Master Grogar,” the donkey whimpered.

Grogar nodded once and then twitched, his eyes losing their color and turning grey. His lifeless body slid from its seat on the throne, collapsing onto the floor. Then it began to rot before our eyes, the fur and skin quickly disappearing. Then the bones began to turn into dust before they, too, were entirely gone. Soon, all that was left was dust.

Sombra nodded and looked to the donkey. “You have three minutes before we destroy this entire dungeon. I suggest making the most of that time.” The fellow’s eyes went wide before he sprinted out of the room, the door turning into a gate as he departed. “Follow him,” Sombra told us. “Make sure he doesn’t take anything but gold.”

“Yes, my king,” I answered before we both started jogging toward the door.

Unfortunately, something caught Twilight’s foot and she tripped. I didn’t notice until it was too late and I was already going through the foggy wall.

As soon as I entered the next room, alone, I realized I might be out of my element: two diamond dog ghouls and a massive minotaur with two swords as long as I was waited for me in the very tight room. My eyes opened wide as they all started charging me, the minotaur in the middle. Since I had no idea what would happen if I went backwards, I dove into a roll between the left dog and the minotaur as the two swords slammed to the ground in the space I had been occupying.

The dogs recovered faster, both rushing at me as I regained my footing and drew my dagger. I was able to sidestep the one to the right, burying my dagger into the back of its skull as it tried tackling me. When I wrenched it out, I immediately dove to the right, away from the minotaur, not even looking to see what was happening.

My guess was a good one, as both of the swords sailed over where I had been, dicing the remaining dog and leaving me against the minotaur alone. Or not so alone, since Twilight came out of the gate at that moment. But her eyes only widened as she saw me jump forward before the minotaur could get its sword back up.

Slicing across its chest did nothing but make it angry enough to try slamming its swords into the ground again. I sidestepped and quickly jumped behind him, where I sliced the hamstrings on his left leg, forcing him to one knee and making him roar in pain and anger. Since his shoulder was now low enough to reach, I used my bad left arm to grab it as I jumped again, using my arm to give me the boost to get to its head.

The sharp naga steel actually glanced off the skull, giving it a chance to jump back up, ignoring its bad leg. One of its swords dropped to the ground and its meaty arm started reaching back before I could correct my aim and slice the thing’s neck instead, since not many species had any resistances against that.

Even with a mortal blow and ink raining from its neck, the thing still tried to fight, grabbing my skull with its large hands and ripping me off its back, then starting to slam me to the ground. Thankfully, Twilight finally woke up and grabbed me with her magic, stopping me very suddenly, though I was still slowly moving down as it struggled against her grip.

Thankfully, though, the blood loss was taking its toll, weakening the monster. But it still had a sword and Twilight was doing nothing to the arm holding it. So the minotaur lifted its remaining greatsword and let me go so he could swing it at me. As soon as he let go, I shot upwards from Twilight’s magic and her not being able to compensate quickly enough. The blade sailed under me and then flew into the wall as he lost his grip on it, then fell to his knees. With one final roar of anguish that was more a rasp because of his bloody smile, he fell heavily to the floor and was still.

Then I began slowly moving back to the ground until I was finally left there in a pool of ink. Twilight collapsed when she finally let me go. I pushed myself up, my skull still smarting from being squeezed as it had been, then walked over to her. “You okay?” I asked.

“Give me… a few minutes…” she panted, breathing as though she’d just been gang-banged by the whole royal guard.

“Take all the time you need,” I said, walking over to the pedestal with the book. There was no text on the cover, so I opened it up and immediately regretted it, the spidery writing inside burning my eyes. I slammed it shut and slid it into one of the bags without a second thought, knowing I’d need some magic to read it. Given how it was written, I assumed it was a personal journal or something of Grogar.

Since Twilight was still out of it, I walked over to the bodies and checked them to make sure they didn’t have anything worth looting. Sadly, they were all naked. The minotaur at least had some of his fur left, but none of them had anything. After one look at one of his giant swords, I didn’t even bother. The naga might be able to use them, but carrying them wouldn’t be worth the effort.

Aside from their bodies, there was only a single pile of books in the room and nothing else. I walked over to that pile and started tossing books aside, casually glancing at the cover each time. By the time I had gotten to the bottom, I had run into a single book that I could read, which was just a cookbook.

With nothing else to do, I walked over to Twilight and sat next to her, pulling out my knife and checking it for damage. Sure, it was naga steel, but that didn’t make it invincible. And it had been doing a lot of work. Work that showed, since there were a number of small notches on it from where I had stabbed through bone.

“Gonna have to get Jak to fix this thing up,” I muttered, testing the sharpness. Thankfully, despite the damage, it was still doing fine. Just means it’ll tear slightly instead of a clean cut. More pain for them, I guess. “You feeling any better?” I asked, setting the dagger down.

“A little,” she quietly said. “Rub my belly?” she asked.

“Roll over,” I answered. She did so with a smile and I started gently rubbing. It was the least I could do after she bailed me out all those times. “So what do you think this place is?” I asked.

“Pocket dimension packed away and stored in the book, guarded by traps that ensnare the unwary,” she answered with a silly smile, her eyes closed. “I can feel magic in the air, but I don’t know what kind. It obviously predates pony society. I can’t say anything else.”

“Maybe we’ll find some answers the further we go in,” I said. “Though it seems we’ve gone so far already…”

“And getting more and more tired after each fight,” she sighed.

“I’m feeling it, too,” I said. “No sun. I’m getting tired.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and the next book will have a scene where we have to sleep.”

“Even if it did, we might be on a timer here.”

“Yeah, I know… But I’m really tired. The books are mostly easy, but these rooms… Celestia, they’re awful!”

“I know. Hopefully whatever’s at the end will be worth it. If not, I’m gonna be hella pissed.”

“We can take it up with the librarian,” she replied with a weak chuckle.

“Yeah. Or we can light this fucking place on fire before we leave.”

Her eyes jerked open and she stared at me in horror. “All those books! I could never do that!”

“What, you plan on coming back?” I asked. “I sure don’t. This place can eat a dick. Maybe if I didn’t have to start at the beginning and go all the way through. Or I could bring more of my crew.” Man, the naga’s big, strong arms would be so nice right now… “But otherwise, I’m chaining this book shut and throwing it back in my chest.”

“That… might not be a bad idea. But think of all the knowledge in here!”

“If you can’t live to read the books, they’re useless. It’s taken us a long damn time and a lot of effort to get this far, with no telling how much farther we have left. Coming back probably isn’t worth it, unless you came with a small army.”

“Hm… But we still shouldn’t just light it on fire.”

“Eh.” We fell silent after that, just sitting there. Well, I was sitting and she was on her back, getting her belly rubbed. “We’re going to have to move on eventually,” I finally said.

“I know. You really need to let somepony give you a belly rub if you’re ever a pony again.”

“I’ll think about it,” I lied. “You ready to go?”

“For now,” she said, rolling back over. “But I’ll really need to be careful. That minotaur was strong.” She slowly stood, making sure her legs were working. “I don’t want to fall into a magical coma.”

“Sounds unpleasant,” I said, standing as well.

“It is. And it would render me useless for days, possibly. Most unicorns know their limits and stay within them. But sometimes, in a truly desperate situation, it’s possible to shoot past those boundaries. The consequences are swift and put you out cold for hours or even days.”

“Ever happened to you?” I asked, stretching. My arms were working better, thankfully, though my left one was still a lot more sluggish than the right.

“Once, during a test. I learned my lesson after that.” She looked at the ground and grimaced. “So much ink, it’s hard to tell where the road is…”

“Looks like it’s straight ahead,” I said, walking toward that door.

“Yeah. What do you think those markings mean?” she asked, looking to the top of our new gate. There were three marks this time: a wave, a fire, and a rock.

“No clue,” I answered.

“Elementals,” Flo whispered.

“But Flo thinks it’s something to do with elementals,” I added.

“Then this is going to be really interesting!” Twilight happily said.

“Maybe,” I answered. “Just be ready for anything. Remember that the elementals got their shit wrecked. Hopefully we won’t show up during the fight.”

That curbed her enthusiasm slightly. She just nodded and asked, “Ready?”

“Sure.” We both stepped through.

Thankfully, nothing too terrible seemed to be going on in the world we entered. I was standing in a row with two fires to my right. The one on the far right was actually female. Twilight was standing in a row across from us, next to two waters to her left. Both were female and all were facing us. In a third row, facing into the center of the little group we had, were three pillars of rocks.

“Not the actual elementals,” Flo told me when I saw the rocks. “They’re fairly large and heavy, so those are just proxies.”

One of which was speaking. “What say you?” it slowly asked, its voice like hearing a landfall.

“We are innocent!” something in the center of us answered. After concentrating, I was able to see an air elemental suspended between us all. “Release us!”

“After you betrayed us?” one of the fires growled, exploding in heat. “You’re lucky we don’t destroy you all!”

“What is a prank?” the air asked. “It’s just a short time and then they’ll all be free again!”

“Then you won’t mind sharing their fate,” one of the earths said.

“We have to be free!” the air answered.

“And so do they. But you did not consider that. And now you will pay for it.”

“It was just a joke!”

“You locked away our sisters!” one of the waters shouted. “Locked away fires and earths! All because of our true enemy!”

“He’s not so bad,” the air answered.

“Enough!” the center earth thing answered. “For your trickery and betrayal do we bind you and lock you away.” The air elemental began howling in anger, but the rock talked over her. “May you forever be bound in darkness, forgotten until the end of time.”

“You can’t do this!” the air shouted. But it seemed that none of those present cared. Several stones shot out from the rocks making up the earth proxies, surrounding the air elemental. The fires shot liquid flame from their arms as the new prison rotated until the rock melted, filling in all the empty spaces, completely enclosing the still-howling air. Then the water elementals shot some cool water from their arms, stopping the very hot rock from flowing to let the elemental out.

“It is done,” the central rock intoned. “The last we could capture is sealed.”

“But at what cost?” one of the waters quietly said. “Chaos is still free. All we’ve done is punish the airs…”

“It is the price they pay for betrayal,” the female fire answered.

“The location of their cells will be noted,” one of the rocks said. “If there is ever a time when they are forgiven, they will be freed. Take this one away.” The two fires looked to me and the two waters looked to Twilight. So I just stepped forward as the very large boulder slowly lowered to the ground. Twilight did the same. When we got to it, the gate suddenly appeared to our left, where I assumed we were supposed to take the boulder.

So we just stepped on through it, ignoring the giant rock entirely. That was a decision we quickly regretted, given that there was a giant blob of what looked like ink through the portal.

“Holy fu—” Its entire surface wrinkled and I took that as a hint that moving would be a good idea. I was correct, as a pure black spike shot into the area where I had just been standing. It quickly retracted and the blob began moving toward us. Seeing how fast it was, I tossed both packs into the corner behind me, knowing I’d need the extra speed. Twilight’s horn lit up as she tried maneuvering around it and soon a ball of heat hit it, doing nothing but being absorbed. Another spike shot at her and she yelped, jumping and just barely dodging it.

“What do we do?” she yelled, backing into the corner she was closest to. It responded by moving closer.

“Teleport around the room to distract it,” I called, making it move toward me. “It reacts to SHIT!” Instead of a spike, an entire wave of itself crashed down on me, absorbing me and burning like fire. Only Flo stopped me from screaming and poisoning myself with ink as I tried clawing my way out.

Thankfully, despite being completely unable to see, the blob was small enough that I could escape without too much effort. I broke the surface of the thing and gasped for breath, immediately regretting it as a torrent of viscous ink got into my mouth. I made sure to wipe the ink away from my eyes before I opened them, pulling myself the rest of the way out of the blob.

It didn’t seem to mind me leaving, given that it was more focused on Twilight at the time. So I crawled away, trying to recover and think of a way to fight this thing. Suggestions?

“I… have no idea,” she said. “You might have to just flee, but we really need that map for the air elementals.”

Grab the book, get Twilight, run the fuck away. Simple. In my crawlings, I reached one of the large piles of books. Since I was slippery from the ink, I used that pile to pull myself up. As I did, I noticed something. Where’s all the ink going?

“...Pick one of the books up,” Flo said. I did so and marveled as the ink running down my hands began slowly sliding up, toward the book. When I rubbed it down my other arm, it sucked all the ink right in. “Well then.” We both seemed to be thinking the same thing, a dark smile coming to my face as I chucked the book right toward the ink blob.

It shrank slightly, the book absorbing some of the ink. “Throw books at it!” I yelled to Twilight, reaching behind me and grabbing more of them.

“WHAT?! THAT WOULD RUIN THEM!” she yelled as I threw several books at the guardian. Thankfully, it was more concerned with the sound than my efforts to kill it.

“Yeah, and getting killed would ruin us! Fuck the books, we’re more important!”

“But—” Another spike slamming toward her shut her up. Luckily for her, one of my books absorbed just enough ink to shorten the spine so that it was just barely too short to hit her. In response, she just stood there with her mouth dropped, watching as the spine retracted and the blob continued inching toward her, shrinking as I tossed books at it.

Then she blinked across the room toward a large pile of books, grabbing the entire pile with magic and throwing it at the beast. It immediately disappeared, fully absorbed in the books. I let out a sigh of relief before I felt the ink still left on me beginning to flow down, pulling away from me. It started coalescing into another blob on the ground before I dropped the book remaining in my hands on it, destroying the budding menace.

“That’s that,” I said matter-of-factly, now cleaned of ink.

“All those poor books,” Twilight sighed, her morose eyes staring at the pile.

“Eh, fuck ‘em,” I said as I walked back toward the gate we entered from, grabbing the book on the pedestal. “Not like they were useful to us anyway. Probably just sports almanacs or literary criticism. You know, useless things that no one cares about.”

She sighed again and said, “Yeah, you’re probably right. So what was that book we were just in?”

I opened it and started poking through it, unable to read any of the text. “I can translate,” Flo said.

“Stuff about the elementals,” I answered, closing it and walking over to the bags in the corner. “The air elementals worked with Discord to imprison some of the other elementals. For their crimes, it seems that they were imprisoned as well. But not so well-kept that they couldn’t be released with my key. Hopefully, this book will have a map with the locations of more of them.”

“Do we really want them freed?” she asked.

“Not really, no,” I said. “But they might be useful later. I’ll put it up to the waters, when we get them together.” After making sure Aerie wasn’t around, of course. Or I might put it up to the humans, if I survive long enough to bring them forward in time.

“Well… At least it would be interesting,” Twilight replied as I slid the book into the bag and picked both of them up. “You see anything interesting in this room?” she asked.

“There was another chest in the pile of books I was throwing,” I answered, walking back over to it.

“You want me to check for traps?” she asked, making me stop.

“Go for it,” I answered, backing away from the chest that was barely poking out of the pile. It lit up with her aura and jerked out of the pile before safely opening. “Looks clean,” I said, continuing to walk over. She joined me. “Looks like a cloak,” I said, reaching my hand in and running it along the smooth leather surface of it. As I was doing so, my hand bumped into something metallic. “Hm?” I picked the thing up, finding that it was completely invisible. “What do we have here?” I asked, trying to look at it.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

“Something invisible,” I said. “Feels like a ring.”

“Maybe it’s a ring of invisibility?” she asked.

I shrugged and slid it on. “Can you see me?” I asked.

“Yeah. Are you just joking, or is there actually a ring?” I reached up to her horn and tapped the ring against it, letting the sound answer for me. “That’s strange… Who would enchant a ring to be invisible?”

“An artificer that’s terrible at magic?” I suggested, pulling the ring off and sliding it into a pocket. “Maybe they were trying to make it a ring of invisibility and just made it invisible instead.”

“...Maybe. What else is in there?”

I pulled the cloak out and held it up, revealing nothing. “Simple cloak,” I said, tossing it around my shoulders and attaching it.

“...Or not so simple,” she said, reaching over and lifting up the hem. As soon as I put it on, it started shifting colors. “That’s… weird,” she said, mesmerized.

“And ugly,” I answered, not bothering to take it off. “This chest is interesting but… is anything here actually useful?” I reached my hand in again and grabbed a short metal rod. After looking it over, I quickly realized that it could be extended, like a baton. So I jerked my arm down, making it expand. Nothing really happened, so I just tossed it aside to look back in the chest.

“Whoa,” Twilight said, looking at it. I sighed and looked over toward it, seeing it balancing perfectly on its tip, standing straight up.

“Fucking really? What else is in here?” The next item I pulled out seemed to be a pack of cards. I shrugged and pulled one out before wincing and dropping the entire pack. “What the fuck?!”

“What?” she asked, grabbing the card with magic before it fell. “M-mom?!” The picture on the card was my mom in lingerie, which was just horrifying imagery. And apparently it was the same for her, since she threw the card aside with a look of disgust on her face.

“One more. I swear to God, if it’s useless…” I pulled out an amulet and looked it over, seeing nothing particularly bad about it. With a shrug, I slipped it around my neck and immediately felt… something coming from Twilight. “What the…” I pulled it off and the feeling went away.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I… don’t know,” I said. “Try putting this on, see what happens.” She pulled it from me with magic and her eyes widened slightly, looking up at me. “I feel… something coming from you,” she said.

“Huh. Flo?”

“It’s… an amulet for detecting thoughts, I think,” Flo said.

“It just got stronger!” Twilight exclaimed.

“...Flo thinks it’s an amulet of detect thought,” I slowly said.

“But I can’t tell what you’re thinking.”

“But you can tell that I’m thinking.”

She blinked a few times, realizing what I meant. “Well that’s useless!”

“Yeah, we’re done here,” I said, standing and grabbing the packs. As an afterthought, I grabbed the baton as well because it could actually be used as an alternative weapon to the knife, if I needed one. “Next door is over here,” I said, walking to the right.

“Yeah,” Twilight said, walking up next to me. She was still wearing the amulet, for whatever reason. Maybe she liked knowing where I was or something. “You ready?” she asked.

I slammed the baton into the ground to close it, then slid it into one of my pockets. “Sure,” I answered. The image above the gate this time was just a star. We stepped through it together…

...And appeared in another large room with books, though this one had a ceiling. And the books were much more neat, all aligned on bookshelves. “Now pay attention, children,” a griffin at the front of the large area said. All around Twilight and I were children of various ages and races. Most of the ponies were unicorns, though there were a few of other types as well. “Your first lesson in magic starts now.”

“Magic?” Twilight whispered. “A griffin?” I gently nudged her, shaking my head. She got the hint and shut up, thankfully.

“Now most of you have parents that can do magic, but not many of you know how,” the fellow continued. “The concept is simple and yet, so incredibly difficult. It’s belief. Cast aside the limitations that everyone says exists and force your own reality onto the world.”

Twilight muttered something, but I wasn’t listening since one of the kids up front was saying something. “I don’t get it.”

“As I said, it’s difficult,” the instructor explained. “It takes most students years to be able to understand it, though some can do basic things within a month or two of practice. But to truly become proficient takes a lifetime.”

“Can you show us something?” another kid up front asked.

“Certainly!” The griffin clicked one of his talons on the floor, looking up at one of the top book shelves. Three books pulled down, shooting straight for him. “Simple as that,” he said.

“Impossible,” Twilight whispered.

“What about something cool, like a fireball?” one of the others asked.

“I don’t really like using magic for anything violent,” the teacher said. “But as an example…” He lifted up one of his talons while the other clicked on the floor. A wad of fire appeared in his outstretched talon. He tossed it into the air and with another click, it went from fire to fireflies, flying around the classroom and lighting up randomly. The students watched in wonder and awe. “Truly, almost anything is possible with magic,” he said.

“...Almost?” one of the other students asked.

“We can go over the limitations later,” the fellow hastily answered. “But for now, let’s get started…” The scene shifted, showing a room full of kids that were slightly older, with the same teacher. “Welcome back again, students,” he said. “Last year you learned the basics, how to move things from here to there. Simple things. This year, we will begin moving into more difficult topics. Many of you will not see much need for most of them. If that is the case, it’s quite alright. Many practitioners don’t use magic for much other than helping with their daily lives. But for some, it’s a way of life, stretching the limits of reality for effects both big and small.”

“Like what?” one student asked.

In response, the professor’s talons clicked the floor again and he teleported across the room, much to the amusement of the students. “That is one of the benefits,” he said, teleporting back with a click. “But it’s much more difficult to master. It involves truly convincing yourself that you’re in another position, away from where you are. It might take the full year for some of you to master. And I’m sad to say that it’s likely some of you never will.”

“Why is that?” another student asked.

“Because not all of you will stay here long enough to learn,” he answered. “Many parents send students here for a minimum of two years, deciding they need little more. It’s a fair thought, since magic can be mastered on one’s own, but… disappointing. But enough of that. Does everyone remember their trigger?” The world shifted again. We were once more in the room, but about half the class was gone. The remaining half was older again. “Ah, it’s good to see you back,” the teacher said, himself seeming older and more grey. There was a multitude of replies from the students. “What do you think is left to learn here?” he asked, smiling.

“Combat?” one of the boys suggested.

“Well, yes,” the professor said with a nod. “But that’ll be later.”

“Healing?” a girl asked.

“That will be covered at the same time as combat,” the professor answered. “This year, we will focus on item manipulation.”

“Levitation was first year stuff!” one of the students at the front said.

“No, no,” the professor said with a gentle smile. “I speak of changing items. Transmutation.” One of his talons reached out and the other clicked on the floor, making a ball of dull metal appear in his hands. “Observe, lead to gold!” With another click, the dull grey began to shift into bright gold, turning the entire sphere into an object worth a princess’s virginity. “Bane of economies everywhere,” he said with a chuckle, dropping the ball. It disappeared before hitting the ground.

“Ridiculous,” Twilight muttered darkly.

“But it can be used for food and other purposes,” the griffin said. “So it’s good for everyone to know. Now let’s begin.” And once again, we shifted. There were even fewer students left and once again, everyone seemed older. “And here we are again. What do you think is the main subject for this year?” he asked. “And no, it’s not quite combat yet.”

“Conjuration?” one student suggested.

“Indeed!” the old griffin answered. “True life is impossible to create, but golems and other constructs can be brought forth to do our bidding… Or given a semblance of free will. And regular, everyday objects can be created out of nothing. A truly powerful mage can imbue special properties into his objects, giving them impressive abilities. Sadly, many of the runes used for the creation of truly legendary items have been long since forgotten.”

“Can’t they be recreated?” one of the students asked.

“Perhaps,” the griffin replied with a shrug. “But I’m merely a teacher. Maybe you can make that your life’s work, finding ways of creating new, powerful items. But such a thing isn’t part of this class. Now, you’ve all seen me create things before, but creating something with a semblance of thought is different. I’ll demonstrate, and then we can begin the lessons in earnest.” Once more, things shifted. We were again in the class. Less students, all older. “This year, we’re going to be learning how to manipulate living energy,” he said.

“Which means…?” a familiar male voice asked.

“Combat,” the griffin answered. “And healing. And other things of that nature. The first lesson that you must all learn is that it is impossible to simply will someone dead. Using magic against another person requires your will overtaking theirs, and even in the deepest of depressions, someone’s will to live is always stronger than their enemy’s will to kill them. That said, it is still possible to seriously injure or even kill somebody with what I am about to show you. Because of that, combat magic will never be practiced on another living thing. If I catch anyone here doing it for any reason, you will be sent home immediately and never allowed back in. The same is true of healing, until I decide that you are skilled enough to handle it unsupervised. Am I understood?”

“Yes, professor,” a chorus of voices answered him.

“Excellent. Let us cover the simplest of spells, then. A simple spike of ice taken from the water particles in the air…” Another shift, another year, another few less students. At this point, only five were left. “This is my last lesson,” the teacher said, seeming more old and grey than ever. “There is much more to learn after this. Necromancy, though that’s universally frowned upon and widely banned. Enchanting, though that’s very similar to creating new items. Runes, though you would have to find a minotaur to teach you many of those. Then there are just further and further fields of specialization. But this year, we will learn divination. Does anyone know what that is?”

There were no answers from the three ghost people, so I shrugged and answered, “Finding information?”

“Correct,” the griffin said with a nod. “The reason that this is saved for the last year is because many are unable to do much of it aside from the basics. Looking ahead into the future and seeking the truth in past events are both… difficult. Even I am unable to do it, though I can teach the methods.”

“How will we know if we’re doing it correctly?” one of the students asked.

“True foreseeing is impossible to mistake,” the professor answered. “But the number of seers in existence is truly small, so trust me when I say that any foresights you might make will be tested very ruthlessly by mages of all walks of life, each hunting for truth in the words. The best most can do is random shots in the dark, things that are true but with no context, no dates, nothing useful. But today is going to be an early day. My old bones are tired and teaching this subject will be fairly simple. I will see all of you tomorrow.”

Twilight and I shrugged and hopped off the floor, turning to face the door, which was thankfully our gate. The other students remained behind while we walked straight for it.

“You ready?” Twilight quietly whispered when we stood before it.

I pulled out my dagger and whipped out the baton, holding the blade with my good arm and the bludgeon in the weakened left. “Yeah,” I answered, stepping forward. We both entered the gate, thinking we were ready for anything.

And on the other side we found ten paper golems, each staring us down. Twilight gulped in fear next to me as the golems just stood before us, not moving.

“It isn’t often that patrons reach my room,” the voice whispered over the wind, tickling my ears. “Don’t mind the janitors. They’re harmless. Come, come! I want to get a look at you.”

I slowly looked down to Twilight, to find that she was looking at me, my confusion mirrored on her face. Seeing no answers there, I just shrugged, put the knife away again, grabbed the book—Magic and Its Uses: A Primer—and started walking forward, using the baton as a cane. Twilight slowly began following.

None of the golems reacted to our presence, not even watching as we walked past. Though one of them did walk through the gate we left behind, doing who knows what.

The room we were in was much nicer than the others we left behind. It didn’t have a roof, but there were no random stacks of books or any dead bodies around. All the shelves were neatly stacked and the books looked much newer and better taken care of than many of the others we passed. There was also furniture here, though most of it was simple. A few staircases leading to other parts of the large room, though we didn’t take any.

Finally, we came to a hunched figure sitting in a chair. The only piece of skin visible from where we were was a wizened hand. “So you found me,” she quietly said, the voice of an old, broken woman. “Congratulations,” she said as she slowly turned, revealing her disturbing visage. I think both Twilight and I flinched when we saw her face. Human… mixed with bird? What the fuck? “Relax, mortal,” she easily said, not standing.

Saying that is one thing, but doing it is something else entirely. Instead of hair, she had a head full of brown feathers that were about as long as my hair, hanging against her skeletal skull and going down her back. Her eyebrows were also replaced by feathers, the one on the ends resembling an owl’s, the way they stuck out. Her nose seemed more beak-like than anything else, though she also had a mouth.

Now that I got a better look at her, I could tell that her hand wasn’t so much wizened as it was changed, resembling something closer to talons than anything else. Her other hand had finger armor, covering them and ending in sharp points that seemed blackened by something, likely ink.

Her body was covered in a plain blue dress, thankfully blocking the rest of her. Several strips of either cloth or paper covered parts of her dress, each with black runes that seemed to pulse slightly with energy.

“What… what are you?” I asked.

“I was human, once,” she answered, slowly standing from her chair. “A long, long time ago. Then I became something else as I explored magic. I’ve been known by many names. One I believe you might recognize is Athena.”

“...Goddess of wisdom?” I asked.

“And knowledge. Though I am no god.” She looked behind me, under the cloak, and her head tilted like a bird. Suddenly she was behind me, pushing the cloak aside. “Something so beautiful, yet hidden and abused,” she whispered, caressing my barren wings and making me flinch in horror.

But to my amazement, as she moved her freaky hands over them, feathers instantly grew back. “Sweet Celestia,” Twilight whispered, her eyes going as wide as mine when she realized.

That got Athena’s attention, oddly. “Celestia, ruler of Equestria. Age, six thousand two hundred and forty-six. Threat level, minute. Power, waning. Influence, great. Status, worried.”

“Six thousand?” Twilight whispered, her eyes wide.

“Barely a baby,” Athena answered, appearing back where she was originally, standing before the seat. All of my feathers were once again returned, thankfully.

“Thanks for uh… the feathers,” I said.

“Did you find all that you sought?” the crazy bird lady asked.

“Not quite,” I answered. “Where’s the exit?”

“Upstairs. Book on pedestal. Did you find the knowledge you were looking for?”

“...Some of it?” I said, unsure of how to answer. After all, I didn’t exactly come here for anything in particular.

“The portal is always open,” she said by way of answer.

“What is this place?” Twilight asked.

“Pocket dimension. I created it as a way to store the world’s knowledge. Visitors come and either add to the collection or borrow from the collection.”

“Why is this place so dangerous?!” Twilight demanded.

“Knowledge has a price,” Athena answered.

“We could have died!”

I leaned down and gently snatched her hair, whispering, “Don’t antagonize people that can kill us!”

“Only those that desire knowledge the most may borrow from my library,” Athena said.

“But… there were so many husks!” Twilight said, completely ignoring my advice. “How many ponies have died here?”

Athena blinked and said, “Two thousand four hundred and fifty ponies have died within this dimension.”

“What about other races?” I asked, genuinely curious.

One of her eyes twitched. “Total count, 107,892. Humans, thirty-two thousand—”

“Enough,” I said, cutting her off. She stopped talking. “Do you know who Discord is?”

“Spirit of disharmony. Created before my birth. Origins and age unknown. Goals unknown. Threat level, immense. Power, waxing at an alarming rate. Influence, immense. Playful but dark. Must be destroyed.”

“Do… you know how?” I asked.

“...Unknown.”

“Will you help us do it?”

“The main goal of my research is killing him. Many proposed methods. None succeeded. His own attempt closest, thwarted by Anonymous, human.”

“Wait, what?” I broke in.

“Death by suicide. Method: Kill all life, nuclear war. Pockets of humanity left. Science used to create new life. Research headed by Anonymous, human. Machines created to guard young races and ensure proper evolution. Suicide failed.”

“...Well then. Do you know if he still wants to die?”

“Unknown.”

“Well, do you have any idea where we can start looking for ways to kill him?”

“Continue present path. Check in periodically. Book will take you straight to me.”

“Awesome. Can you think of anything else we should know?”

“No.”

“How do you do magic without a horn?” Twilight butted in.

Athena looked at her and blinked. Then she held up both of her hands, away from each other. “Magic,” she said, clenching one. “Spells,” she said, clenching the other. The hand for ‘magic’ enclosed the hand for ‘spells’. “Spells are a subset of magic. Magic is not a subset of spells.”

“...What?” Twilight asked.

I said, “Magic can exist without spells but spells can’t exist without magic.”

“Correct,” Athena said with a nod. “Magic is universal. Spells require components.”

“But… I don’t use anything for my spells!” Twilight said.

Athena blinked forward, standing right in front of Twilight, and tapped her horn with the finger armor things. “Component.”

“...Oh. But that’s silly! Why would spells exist… if…” She suddenly petered out, remembering some of the books we went through. “Oh Princess, how could you…?”

“Can you teach magic?” I asked the bird chick.

“Unknown. You have a primer. Learn. If you figure out the basics, teaching the rest is easy. Can you learn magic?”

“Probably not, no,” I answered with a shrug. “But it’s worth looking over.” Silence took over then, since I couldn’t really think of anything else to ask. So I just said, “Well, it was nice meeting you. I’ll check back in on you in a few weeks, I guess.”

“Bring fresh fruit,” she said before turning and moving back to her seat.

“Right. Come on, Twilight.” She was too shocked or depressed to do much more than follow me as we walked back the way we came. None of the janitors were present in the big open area that time. We just went up one of the staircases, since it seemed like they both went to the same place. In the center of the balcony was a pedestal with the mirror of the book that originally brought us there. “Thank God. Let’s get out of here,” I happily sighed.

“...Yeah.” As we walked, I collapsed the baton again and slid it into a pocket, happy to be almost free.

“Cheer up,” I said, patting her back warmly. “Almost free. Then we can both get some rest and food. Lord knows we need it.”

“It’s just… Celestia’s been lying for so many years!”

“Well, yeah. I could have told you that. Now, you ready to go?”

“...I guess.”

I nodded and opened the big book on the pedestal. Once more, inky tentacles shot out and grabbed the two of us, pulling us through. We suddenly appeared in the command room of my ship, in the middle of a group of soldiers that seemed geared up for war. They all stared at us in shock and confusion.

“Sup?” I asked with a nod.