The dark mist flowed not far above the floor covering the remains of previous explorers who dared to set the hoof in this forgotten place. The bones cracked under their steps, making the leader gulp audibly. She was brave to see it so deep into this cursed place, but nothing could prepare her team for what lies ahead.

The mare stopped in place feeling the ground moving near her, with eyes widening she watched as the creature raises from the mist staring at her with its empty eye sockets. The skeletal pony roared menacingly causing a wave of shrieks from the-..

“What a dumb movie..” Carrot Top groaned and turned off the TV.

After a quick look at the clock the mare pulled up from the couch, it was a good hour past midnight and Ditzy still wasn’t back. Her nighttime flying sessions usually ended earlier, perhaps something happened. She asked herself in thought.

Once the TV was off she could pick up the quiet knocking coming from the door, joined with deep irregular breaths. The mare froze in place, all the horror movies flashed before her eyes at once. The knocking repeated itself.

Slowly she approached the window, peeking through at what was waiting for her outside.

“Ditzy..!” Carrot Top gasped petrified by the sight.

The sound of snoring was filling the library when Twilight returned, the dragon once again found himself a comfortable bed in punch bowl. She hung her head disappointed by the turn of events, ignoring the decorations and food still left around when they left the party in a hurry.

The trace she discovered led them nowhere, she accomplished nothing and surely annoyed her friends by chasing a ghost. But she had to try again, find him before its too late before he disappears again.. like he did so many years ago.

It didn’t take long for the memories return to her, from the years ago. When she read the incantation. She must have failed because from that moment everything went downhill, the room exploded drown in bright light. She could remember even so briefly what happened after, someone lifted her from the rubble and carried to the hospital..

Princess Celestia canceled all her appointments just to stand beside her faithful student’s bed. When Twilight woke up she could see the relief on her tutor’s face. It was a miracle that she was unharmed by the accident that shook the entire academy.

They asked her a lot of questions, how did it came to be, did she know what was inside the room.. she answered as best as she could, knowing but a little. Yet when she asked: “Where is Keeper?”; all they could say is “gone”.

“..just like now..” Twilight verbalized her thoughts.

The lavender mare carefully lifted the baby dragon with her magic, carrying him over to his cradle. Before finally heading towards her bed, she wandered off to sleep right away, exhausted by the recent events.

The image once again flashed again before her eyes. The bloodied stallion laying at the lake, barely aware of what is happening around him. She knew then that the tides turned and his life was in her hooves this time. Even when he proved to be dreadfully light for his size, it was still a miracle that she managed to carry him all the way. When they returned she fell flat on the ground, exhausted from the extreme trial that she was put through. It was her roommate who helped them both inside.

The mailmare wiped off the sweat that gathered on her forehead, holding the bandage with her teeth she gently pulled it making sure that it will stay the way it is. After that she took a step back take a look at the patient, she did all she could – now it was only up to the stallion to get through it.

It pained her to see anyone suffering, it was wrong to leave such ponies to themselves. It was hard to tell what else she can do to help or at least ease the pain, for now she could just watch his chest raising in shallow breaths. She enjoyed reading books on various topics, learning anything that could prove useful one day.. like first aid.

Ditzy’s hoof gently stroke stallion’s mane, hoping that it will help him unwind and calm down. It wasn’t her choice to return here, in hospital he would get much better care.. but he demanded, asked and even begged her not to do it, because it will have dire consequences, he said. She didn’t understand anything of it and still she did as he asked, hoping for the best..

When the breaths became more regular she sighed out in relief, sitting at the edge of the bed where she put him in. The eyes disagreed with her and chose not to cooperate at that moment, forcing her to close them and massage eyelids again to reset their position. Once clear she moved her gaze at the stripes that decorated his coat, now presenting themselves in full grace when the attire was removed during the bandaging.

The mailmare saw Zecora once or twice before, even if they didn’t spoke with each other she still could remember the unique neighbour of Ponyville. These markings didn’t quite match with ones she could see before her..

They were unusual, complex and apparently had some meaning behind it. Her eyes moved across the body of exhausted stallion, he was injured and exhausted, no wonder he went to sleep so fast after getting to safety.

With a bit of hesitation she reached out, touching the markings with her hoof. The stripes proved to be unnatural, alien in touch, unlike the rest of his light gray coat.

The mailmare yelped quietly, backing up upon hearing Keeper groan, with her mind wandering her hoof must have touch a wound. The expression on stallion’s face eased up after a moment, returning to peaceful sleep.

The baby dragon yawned heartily, peeking out of the saddlebag at the commotion outside, they were moving and fast. Twilight stormed through the halls of the university, trying her best to dodge the ponies in her way and get there on time. The students followed her with curious gazes.

‘How could they do such a thing?! How they could even consider such thing to be funny?!’ The lavender mare cried in her mind, trying to catch her breath while sticking to the gallop. It was in another wing, yet despite the distance she had to at least try and make it in time.

The sound of a crash echoed through the hallway, pulling the attention of the ponies nearby.

The purple mane unicorn froze in her steps with eyes widening at the thought what might have happened. It took a moment before she resumed her rush towards the west wing. She could hear the ponies whispering between each other, no one moved to help however.

The books were laying around the unfortunate pony who took part in accident. Keeper slowly stood back up on his hooves after the fall, he was tough like any earth pony, nonetheless that was still a long stairway that he just fell down through.

“Keeper..!” Twilight cried out panting after the long run.

“Hello Twilight..” he smiled weakly while gathering the books that fell out of his bags during landing.

“..are-.. are you alright?” she asked, finally able to catch a breath.

“I will be fine.”

“..but..” the lavender mare blinked, he didn’t seem even disturbed by what just happened. “..you just fell down the stairs..!”

“I guess I’m just unlucky.” the librarian gave her a goofy smile.

“No, no, you don’t understand I overheard them talking..!” she helped him with the last book.

“Hm..?”

“I heard the older students plotting this!”

“I see.. I will consult this matter with the arch chancellor.” the librarian nodded after a moment of silence, his expression serious.

“But-..” she paused when he raised his hoof to prevent her from speaking.

“If this happens ever again then you just tell me what you know in secret, alright? Promise me that you will tell no one else, alright?”

The lavender mare nodded quickly, still rather surprised by the turn of events, she expected Keeper to be furious.. yet by some strange reason he was very calm while learning about what caused the ‘accident’.

He made a promise to speak with the arch chancellor, one that was never fulfilled.. he has done it once already, years ago, afterwards there was simply no point to do so again. They wouldn’t lift a hoof to help.. they would merely offer him an resignation to sign up, like so many times before.

Deep inside the Everfree Forest a several shady shapes rushed through the darkness, searching, sniffing. They moved quietly, tracking, trusting their savage senses. They knew it was here at least once before.

Their eyes lit up at the first trace, they found it weak and debilitated. This was the time to act, they had to be fast before it regains strength and will be able to battle them. It was an opportunity of their lifetime after all.

They rushed back into darkness, to prepare, to finally get their hands on what belongs to them.

Twilight shifted again, trying to find at least some comfort after facing a sleepless night. The thoughts of what might have happened tormented her and prevented from even closing her eyes. She scolded herself for thinking that way, it couldn’t end like this.. it would not. She repeated in thought.

The knocking on library door woke her up from the thoughts. The sound repeated itself forcing a quiet groan out of her, she was exhausted after the restless night. At least Spike got some sleep..

With another grunt she finally pulled up, moving downstairs to see who it could be this time in the morning. Normally the ponies would at least wait till afternoon before trying to bust the door down.

“Oh.. its you Dinky, hi.” Twilight smiled weakly a bit surprised at the sight.

“Hello miss Twilight!” the filly beamed at her.

“What can I help you with?”

“Ditzy asked me to ask if you have any more books with adventures in them! Oh and also I was supposed to ask if you could come over, its important..!”

Twilight blinked unsure where to go with all this flood of information. One thing at the time.

“So basically you want more fairytale books?”

“Yes, with knights and princesses!”

“Alright, lets see.. please come in.” the lavender mare walked over to the bookshelves picking appropriate titles with her magic.

The little filly trotted inside looking around the library, curious as always. She soon found herself assaulting the bath of muffins that were laying around from the party last night.

“We have.. “The History of Equestria for fillies” this could be an interesting lecture and can teach a thing or two too; “Coltan the Barbarian” uh, this one is quite rough but has curious plot; “Golden Fairytales Collection” and this one has a bit of everything in it..” Twilight nodded and packed the books into her bags.

“Thank you miss Twilight.” Dinky smiled.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why does Ditzy want me to come over?”

“Oh, its not her.”

“Not? Then who?” the lavender mare raised an eyebrow.

“Mister Keeper. He is sleeping now, Ditzy said he needs a lot of rest.” the filly nodded. “He woke up for a moment and asked me to ask you if you can come over.. can you come over miss Twilight?-..”

Dinky hurried after the mare, not expecting her to rush over right away and without any convincing at that. But nonetheless she was successful on her quest and that deserved a muffin as a reward.

The antique clock rang announcing the coming of another hour. It wrapped in nicely with the expensive decorations that covered the walls.

The elegant unicorn sipped some of his tea, looking over the files piling up on his desk. The magic lifted the files presenting one after another to him, with the expression of deep boredom he put some of them back on the pile before he finally found himself on the envelope marked by Canterlot Medical University.

“How did this get in here..?” the unicorn frowned slightly opening the package.

The stallion looked through the wall of text picking only the most important information to read. By some strange reason the neighbour academy send them a request for aid in the research.

“Ponyville..” he read out loud the town name, where the patient file arrived from.

The magic opened the attachment packet on the back, viewing the pictures of the subject that the documents were tied to. With a slight frown he moved the images closer, watching them closely.. the cup of tea shattered on the floor spilling its contents on a priceless carpet.

“D-did something happen?” the secretary peeked inside alarmed by the sound.

“Bring me everyone of the higher staff in here..”

“Everyone..?” the mare blinked.

“EVERYONE!” the unicron roared at her stretching the word to its limits.

The door to his office were shut as quickly as they opened. There was no time left to be subtle, they had to act now.

The smell of newly baked muffins was more than just refreshing, a gray pegasus carefully watched the oven ready to pick them up. Protected by the gloves she set down the bath on the table. Now just had to wait for them to cool down a bit.

“D-derp!” she yelped almost sending the plate flying, when the door were slammed open behind her.

“Where is he?!” the lavender mare burst inside. “I-.. I’m sorry Ditzy.. where is he..?” she inhaled the air to calm down.

“S-sleeping..” the mailmare explained, leading her towards the bedroom.

The draft gently raised the curtains inside the room, filling the house with refreshing breath of morning air. The summer sun peeked inside the room, adding to serene and refreshing atmosphere.

The stallion was laying on the soft bed, covered with a blanket that he hardly could fit under. She blinked slowly walking up closer, a part of her afraid that like some phantom he will disappear again.

It were years since she last saw him, for a stranger it would be next to impossible to recognize an old academic librarian inside that battered stallion. The strange white stripes joined with bruises and scars from the long travels marked his coat.. but it was him, that she was sure of.

Twilight smiled softly trying to quell the tears, all the dark thoughts vanished replaced with the feeling of relief. The lavender mare gently hug him, trying to don’t disturb his sleep.

She closed her eyes for a moment, listening to his quiet heartbeat, his mane was still smelling of old books. It will be alright, she told herself. The mare pulled up and slowly backed up through the open door letting him rest.

“H-he was hurt..” Ditzy explained quietly, waiting for her outside.

“It was you who took him from the lake.. wasn’t it?” the lavender mare asked.

The gray pegasus nodded slowly-.. suddenly holding a yelp, not expecting a hug from Twilight that came right after. Her wings that sprung up in panic now lowered themselves resting along the body.

“Thank you.. for taking care of him..” the lavender mare smiled. “..but how did you get him here..?”

“I f-flied..”

“Wow, that.. that is really impressive.” Twilight blinked amazed. “I mean he is quite big..”

“He i-is.. b-but not that h-heavy..” Ditzy blushed slightly, she rarely received any compliments.

“I have to ask, why didn’t you take him to the hospital..?”

“I w-wanted to but h-he didn’t want.. s-said that there w-will be consequences.”

“I’m not sure I follow.. I guess I can ask him when he wakes up..” she sighed quietly.

“Would y-you like a muffin, Twilight?” Ditzy smiled softly.

“Yes please..” the lavender mare smiled walking over to the table with her.

With surgeon like precision the gray pegasus moved the muffins onto a plate leaving no crumb behind and finally presenting it to the new guest.

“I was afraid that something bad could have happened, when he disappeared like that.. and all of it after fighting a dragon..” Twilight looked up the tasty treats to pick on.

“D-dragon?” the gray pegasus blinked rapidly.

“Yes.. he used a very complex spell to do that, you see-..”

“W-wait..” Ditzy interrupted her upcoming lecture when the sudden realization struck her.

The gray mare knew that she saw someone like that before, she quickly approached the bookcase briefly looking over the titles. The pegasus pulled out one from her collection of books, it was the same one that she read to Dinky earlier.

“Ditzy..?” Twilight raised an eyebrow.

With a slight frown of confusion the lavender mare walked up to her side, looking at what she is trying to do, flipping through the book pages.

“H-here..” Ditzy pointed her hoof at the image on one of the pages.

It was a picture where the team of heroes fought the great evil, while the story was unoriginal the choice of characters was something symbolical - being the representatives of three pony races. Among them was the earth pony covered in strange white stripes.

“Its just a fairytale-..” the lavender mare paused when her friend moved to another page.

There was a sketch of a different angle, similar in pattern to one she just saw in the bedroom a while ago. The character did seem unique to all the others..

“..-but it doesn’t make any sense.” she shook her head at the idea.

“His n-name is ‘Azriel’.” the gray mare read it out loud.

Dinky peeked out between their legs, looking at the book curiously, she too wanted to be part of this.. thing they were doing right now.

Pushed by the warm day outside, the gentle wind hummed its song, finding its way through every opening inside the cavern. Would this force of nature have a memory, it would remember how once the place was stacked from the bottom to the top with shiny gems and coins.

Now the piles of treasure were gone, leaving behind only a large statue. Which surface slowly crumbled and shattered, when the dust filled the runic ring around it. The vile green eye lit up when its life force was reawaken, shaking off the bonds of treacherous spell.

This new feeling of relief energized her pushing away the weariness caused by the restless night. Her old friend was safe and even if not in hospital he was still in good hooves. All that the stallion needed now was time, to rest and recover. Instead of sitting idly she chose to follow up on Ditzy’s clue and for that she needed the help of her friends.

The library was packed with visitors once again, yet this time not for a party. For a change it was about a complex and demanding research, at least according to what Twilight told them.

“Pinkie Pie, I cant believe you are going to eat a day old-.. ugh..” Rarity shuddered at the sight.

“Sugar cube, could you remind us again what are we lookin’ for..?” Applejack covered herself from the cake crumbs.

“Anything that has reference to a person named “Azriel”.” the lavender mare reminded them.

“Oh, I know that name.” Fluttershy smiled. “It’s a pony from fairytales.. he had-.. oh..” she blinked recalling the stripes.

“Exactly, but we need to find how he came to be.”

“From imagination?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“Well, yes.. that was my first thought but something tells me that there is more to it than just a fable.”

“So you are saying that this guy is some sort of a comic book hero?” the purple dragon scratched his head.

“Yes.. I mean, no.. I mean, I don’t know.. could you just help us, Spike?”

“How about this, Twilight? The squiggles!” the pink mare bounced around her with one of the books.

“Squiggles-..? Oh, you mean runes.." the lavender mare blinked looking at the title. "Pinkie Pie you are a genius!”

“I am?”

“Gah! Why didn’t I think of it earlier, so obvious.. Keeper was an expert on runes..!”

“So.. we can stop lookin’ now?” the orange mare looked up at her from above another book.

“No, no, there still could be an useful information to be found in these books!” Twilight nodded and trotted over to another section of the library. “I should just check the books about runes in addition to that, especially these tied to their history..”

“You mean more books?” the rainbow mane pegasus groaned.

Over the time the academic library fell into ruin, the books that still came of use were move out of the place while the rest was left there to battle their fate against the time all alone. The group of four unicorns, representatives of the high staff that commanded the entire university, walked among the collapsed shelves and piles of books.

With disgust written on their faces they entered the archives, now ridden with spider webs and everlasting dust. It was one of the oldest sections in entire academy, the place that marked its beginning. When Equestria came to be the first free ponies began to gather their knowledge here, keeping it safe for the future generations so they could learn on their mistakes rather than repeat them.

“This fool trifled with old runes..” the arch chancellor shoved the books around, looking for clues.

“Last time I checked there were no solid data on them, all that’s left is in here.. and its just brief historical information.” the mare with glasses said while lowering her head to don’t get hit by the flying scientific material.

“Then how do you explain this.” he shoved the photo into his colleague face.

“Are you trying to say that he somehow got hold of the incantation of Azriel?” she raised an eyebrow.

“That’s exactly what I’m trying to say!”

“What does this have to do with us?” the youngest unicorn in group asked, most clueless by the looks of it.

“Everything! He conducted these research under our noses and took materials from our supply!” the arch chancellor growled.

“Well, we could ask princess Celestia for help.”

“Brilliant idea..! If it wasn’t that she would blame us for this!”

“I have better one, we could deal with it ourselves.. make him disappear.” the elegant unicorn spoke up.

“Are you crazy?!”

“You knew that it might just come to it when you agreed to this years ago.”

“That was different, we were just supposed to encourage him to leave..!”

“And we did.. better yet, he disappeared. What do you think will happen when he returns?”

They paused, allowing the silence to befall them. It was hard to tell what was more dreadful about the stallion who just made such suggestion.. his ways of dealing with the others or the calm tone of voice which he used to manifest them.

“We will depart in a hour..” the arch chancellor nodded slowly.

It was looking like a twister would just make a pass through the library. The purple dragon groaned to himself seeing the piles of books still stacking up, it would mean more and more work for him once they will be done. But there was no stopping to them now..

“I think I have something here..” Twilight announced from above her book.

“Thank goodness..” Applejack let out a sigh of relief.

The orange mare groaned trapped behind the wobbly wall of books that was build around them, with the help of Fluttershy she was trying to get out of the treacherous trap.. which collapsed on the floor soon after she escaped.

“It looks like the first runes known to us were created by the earth ponies in the times before Equestria even existed. I guess this ‘Azriel’ played a major part in their creation..” she frowned slightly jumping through the pages.

“Something the matter, dear?” Rarity asked.

“Its just that.. the first ones were very.. gruesome..”

“How gruesome?” Rainbow Dash frowned.

“They used blood and bone dust..”

“T-that’s awful..! Why would they do something like that..?” the yellow pegasus gulped.

“..because they had no other choice..” said the weak manly voice.

The group of mares looked up at each other in confusion, before finding the source of the voice at the door. The gray stallion with white stripes cautiously walked inside the library, still not in perfect health. Ditzy accompanied him on this travel, to make sure he wont simply collapse on the way.

“Hello Twilight..” the old librarian gave her a sad smile.