Three ponies walked along the wide passageway underneath Canterlot’s main square. Applejack led the way, with Pinkie Pie hopping along close behind her. Rainbow Dash hovered a few paces behind the others, the top of her mane occasionally brushing along the stone ceiling. Small grates installed high along the walls let in just enough sunlight to illuminate their way.

“See any more book bits up there, Applejack?” Dash asked.

“Yup, got some right over here.” Applejack nodded her head in the direction of two scraps of parchment on the floor in front of them. “Wonder why it’s fallin’ apart all of a sudden?”

Dash scratched her head. “Maybe Spike is finally getting the upper claw? If there’s anypony who knows how to mess up a book, it’s probably him.”

“Or maybe he’s shedding!” Pinkie chimed in. “He’s a growing book, after all.”

“Well, right now I’m just gonna keep tryin’ to spot them when I can,” Applejack said. “Although I will say that hopefully losin’ all these pages is makin’ it a might bit weaker than it was before.”

As soon as the words left Applejack’s throat, a powerful blast rocked the tunnel. Pinkie and Applejack swayed in place and fought to keep standing, while Dash flapped forward to take a look. The din of the crash echoed back and forth in the tunnel for several seconds, the noise keeping each pony stuck disoriented in place.

“Uh, maybe not,” Applejack said as the sound finally trailed off. She adjusted her hat and right rear leg, which was just about to topple off.

“That came from somewhere close.” Dash turned and motioned to the others. “Come on, let’s go!”

The ponies hurried forward. Ahead, the path curved to the right and turned into a long straightaway. No more grates appeared ahead, shrouding the tunnel in a deep patch of darkness. At the far end of the straightaway, a dim light was visible.

Of the three, Applejack reached it first: a large hole in the wall, outlined by broken bricks and still-crumbling mortar. Something had managed to break through the stone wall, throwing remnants of the masonry in a scattered arc all around the area. Through the hole, a small torch stood latched to a considerably rockier, less smooth wall.

“More tunnels?” Applejack asked.

“Guess the book’s still strong enough to do that,” Dash said. “I don’t know what’d be worse, if it used magic to do that or just busted through with one of its weird tentacle things.”

Pinkie poked her head through the hole. “Wow, this one looks way older than the ones out here. Oodles more dust and cobwebs and stuff. What’s with this city and all these tunnels? And why am I only now learning about them? Do you know how good it is to play hide and seek in places like this?”

“Let’s just stick to seekin’ our book friend right now, Pinkie,” Applejack said. She stepped on through the hole, her hooves moving easily from the hard stone floor to the soft dirt of the new path. Dash scanned the low clearance of the path, and lowered herself to the ground to continue walking forward.

The new path hooked right almost immediately, then left, then right again. More torches lined the walls, small cracks in the rock overhead letting the smoke leak out. Finally the path came to an end at a small doorway. The door, an old wrought-iron affair, had been partially wedged open and left ajar.

“Another scrap,” Applejack said. She knelt down to get a closer look at the page, finding it identical to the others. “We’re definitely on the right path here.”

“Hey, check this out.” Pinkie indicated toward a small wooden sign nailed to the wall next to the door. Taking a deep breath, she exhaled and blew off the layer of dust that had been obscuring the writing.

Applejack squinted in the light to read. “‘Looters take heed, danger ahead to all those who dare try to enter.’”

“Maybe it’s the crypt entrance?” Pinkie asked. “Ooh! I bet it is! Because something like that is totally gonna be full of all sorts of traps and dangers and then even more traps!”

“Not to mention that book leavin’ somethin’ for us to stumble on while we followed it,” Applejack said.

“Sounds dangerous… and fun!” Pinkie smiled. “Ready to get going?”

“I am, but no sense bein’ too foolhardy about this,” Applejack replied. “We gotta make sure we still stay as safe as we can.”

Pinkie scratched her head. “Well, how are we gonna do that? There’s no telling what’s in there, or what sort of spooky and splicey and spikey and splurchy things are just waiting for us to trip over them. How can we clear the way.”

Pinkie and Applejack glanced at each other. Then, slowly, both heads turned back to stare at Dash.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Dash sighed. “I go first.”

“Princess, I, uh, I…” Twilight stammered for the right words.

Princess Celestia stared at her for a moment, as did the entourage gathered around her. Finally, after a long, awkward pause of Twilight continuing to fumble around, she spoke.

“As I was saying,” Celestia said, “it’s good to see you. With all the sudden preparations under way today, I’ve been quite busy, and unable to attend to any matters with you. I wasn’t even sure you would make it in time. However, I can see my worries were unfounded.”

“But I– we– how did you know?” Twilight finally managed to get out.

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t Spike give you my letter?”

“The letter?” Twilight stared blankly for a moment, then her eyes widened. “Oh! Right! The letter! Of course, yes, Spike, he, uh… yes, I got the letter.”

“Very good.” Celestia smiled and nodded. “Then as I was saying, I’m glad to see you could make it on such short notice. I presume Rainbow Dash is around here somewhere?”

“Why?” Twilight blurted out. Her hooves flew to her mouth and her cheeks reddened. “Uh, I mean… why do you need her now? Is something the matter?”

“Why, no.” Celestia raised another eyebrow. “I mean, I don’t require at this moment, no. And nothing’s wrong. It’s merely that several of our esteemed guests have expressed an interest in meeting her. I… did put all this in the letter, did I not?”

Twilight fought the urge to gulp nervously. “Yes! Rainbow Dash is… waiting for me. Somewhere up ahead. Way ahead. But she did come with us. She’s just not here now. I’ll just, uh, need to go track her down real quick.”

Celestia cocked her head and studied Twilight closely. “Are you alright, Twilight? You seem considerably more anxious than usual.”

“Yes Princess, I’m…” Twilight took a deep breath. “I’m just fine. Like you said, it’s been a particularly hectic day. I’ve just got a few more matters I need to attend to in, uh, in the library.”

She forced a wide smile out up at Celestia. After a few seconds, the Princess returned it with one of her own.

“Still ever busy, I see,” Celestia said. “While I’m pleased you are staying vigilant on the archival project, you really can relax. I’ll get a status update from you during dinner. There’s no need to keep working on it now.”

One of Celestia’s many aides, who had been fidgeting off to the sidelines for the duration of the conversation, finally gave in and leaned towards the Princess’ ears.

“Uh, Princess Celestia?” the aide squeaked. “We really need to get moving. The delegates have already arrived, and the opening toast is fast approaching.”

“Yes, alright,” Celestia said. She motioned to the rest of her party, who began to move down the hall. Turning back to Twilight, she smiled again.

“You finish what you need to, and I shall see you shortly,” she said. “If you see Rainbow Dash anywhere, feel free to send her on ahead to the main banquet hall. We’ll all be waiting.”

Twilight gave a small bow. The Princess nodded her head, turned, and trotted easily down the hall. Twilight waited until the whole royal party had been fully absorbed back into the crowd before turning on her heel and fleeing down a side corridor. She breathed a long sigh of relief, one that lasted practically until she reached the ever familiar sign that signified the entrance to the royal library.

Pinkie bounded down towards the end of the increasingly-thin tunnel with a smile on her face.

“See? I knew that would be fun,” she said, her tone popping with festive energy.

“Dunno if that’s the word I’d use to describe it,” Applejack said as she walked up behind Pinkie. “But it definitely was an interestin’ experience. Even if I did have to fish my legs back on more times than I woulda liked. Still, ain’t nothin’ we couldn’t handle.”

“I’m glad you two got so much enjoyment out of that.” Dash’s grumbling voice emerged from the shadows behind the two.

Slowly, the pegasus flapped forward into the light. She was an impressive sight: her front legs and head were trapped in a portable pillory, which stretched out on either side of her to the point that it almost clipped the walls with every push forward. Her rear legs dangled limply behind her, each sporting multiple spigots of blood that trailed down her and onto the dirt below. The only thing keeping her up was her wings, and they strained against a few torn muscles to keep her aloft.

“Shoot, I’ll thank you again for takin’ the brunt of that, Rainbow Dash,” Applejack said. “O’ course, I’m not sure what you’ve could’ve done to avoid it, all things considered, but still…”

“That last trap was a cool one.” Pinkie twirled around and pointed at Dash’s precarious wooden confinement. “Remember? We were just past that acid bath, or maybe it was that big grinder thingy…”

“No, the grinder was earlier, Pinkie,” Applejack said, smiling grimly. “Just after the rope trap and whatever that stuff with all the iron spikes was.”

“No, no, I know, it was the fire arrows!” Pinkie continued hopping backward, still looking at Dash. “Anyway, we were walking along, and we’re almost out, and then you hit that switch by accident and woosh! That little trap came flying out of nowhere and clamped right onto your neck and legs! Perfect accuracy, prefect landing, and locked totally tight. And it didn’t even kill you, unlike every other little thing in there. And also those things that killed you twice. And that bit with the giant slicing fan that must’ve sucked you in at least a half doze–”

“Thank you, Pinkie, but I got it,” Dash said. She blew a puff of air up her cheek in an effort to get her bangs out of her eye. “I was there, alright? I think I’ve reached a point where I can keep track of my deaths on my own. And what’s the deal with this trap anyhow? Who puts a live capture thing after a big cavern full of terrible death traps?”

“I’m just surprised all those traps still worked so well.” Pinkie finally spun back around in time to nimbly dodge a low-hanging stalactite. “I mean, this path is really super old, and nopony’s been around here for years and years and years. But those tripwires and springloaded steps and all those other big and little tricks were working a-ok and cool as ice cream.”

Applejack grinned. “Hehe… never underestimate pony ingenuity when it comes to guardin’ somethin’ valuable. One of these days I’ll have to show you the setup we’ve got protectin’ our cider stash back on the farm.”

“What, down in that cellar by your barn?”

“Well, no, not that one, I mean over in… well, I guess I shouldn’t actually be talkin’ about–”

“Oh hey, we’re here!”

Pinkie paused at the tunnel’s mouth. Ahead of her, the walls expanded in every direction, revealing an enormous cavern of a room. The ceiling stretched high overhead, where it was carved flat, evenly, and entirely unlike the rocky and uneven tunnel the group had just walked through. The similarly-smooth walls curved around towards each other to give the room a large oblong shape. Torches marked the wall every few meters, though the light of their fires was somewhat unnecessary; a steady green glow lit the room, seemingly emanating from a series of shimmering crystals that jutted through a high spot in the wall as the room’s few architectural imperfections.

Scattered evenly throughout the room was what really drew the ponies’ eyes, however. A series of massive stone crypts, each more lavishly decorated than the last. Marble pillars as tall as a carriage and thick as a tree flanked imposing slabs of carved granite that served as the mausoleum entrances. Ornate carvings coated every surface, displaying everything from names and dates in a variety of languages to pictures of ponies long dead performing feats long since passed.

“Yup, looks like a crypt alright,” Pinkie said.

Applejack let out a long whistle. “Don’t think tombs get much fancier than this. Must be some pretty self-important ponies buried down here.”

“Probably some actually important ones, too.” Dash strained back and forth, her wings forced to turn her whole body to give her a wider view. “So, anypony see where we’re supposed to go next? I would think we should be looking for Mystar’s spot, not that I’d know what exactly that’s supposed to look like.”

Dash flew forward between Applejack and Pinkie, who both winced as she went by.

“Oooh, Rainbow Dash,” Applejack said. “I think you mighta got a bit more turned around back there than you thought after you got this thing on you.”

“Why? What’s the matter?” Dash asked.

“Well, you got a few more arrows stickin’ out of your flank here.”

“What?” Dash spun in a tight circle, trying and failing to look past the wooden planks. “How many? Are they deep?”

“Hang on, let me see here…” Applejack leaned in for a closer look. “I count nine arrows here… in pretty deep too. An’ one managed to go through another one. It’s a pretty good groupin’, actually. Whoever set this one up knew what he was doin’.”

“Sounds neater than my side,” Pinkie said. “Must’ve been skimmed by a few fire arrows over here. It’s all… melty.”

“Hang on there, Pinkie,” Applejack said. “Let me come see wha– wow, look at that! You can see right on through down to the bones.”

Dash groaned. “Oh would you two cut it out? I’m sure something will come along shortly to deal with me and give me a new body to cling to. So can we please just focus a bit here?”

The trio continued forward down the line of tombs. A fine layer of dust coated each and every one of them, all undisturbed in the slightest way.

“Hey, look!” Pinkie shouted. Up ahead, another scrap of paper fluttered around on the ground. Several meters past it, a large entryway was carved into the wall. The ponies rushed forward into a new room.

It was identical in style to the previous chamber, albeit considerably smaller and much more run down. Cracks marked every wall, and several idle pieces of other tombs looked to be scattered throughout, like this had been used as a dumping ground for excess building material. There was only one crypt in here, easily the largest of the lot. It occupied the entire far wall, a gaudy display of statues and carvings that looked to spell out somepony’s entire life story. The black marble coverings glinted in the pale light of the torches, sucking in all nearby shadows and looking to become part of the darkness itself.

What really set it apart from the others, however, were the large black bars that extended all the way around it. It had the look of a wrought iron fence that circled the crypt and then just kept going until it looped back to the ground again, like a gigantic birdcage had just plopped onto the ground over the entire structure. A comparatively tiny set of double doors, the only visible entrance, were installed in the bars straight ahead of the girls.

“Think this is the place?” Applejack asked.

“Oh yeah, no question.” Dash nodded. “If that book is supposed to be a slice of Mystar’s personality, this definitely fits.”

“Not to mention all those paper scraps in there,” Pinkie said. She pointed forward, her leg stretching out until it nearly touched the bars themselves. Several yards past them, a further pile of recently-shed parchment lay next to the doors of the tomb itself.

“So it’s gotten through… which means that Spike’s stuck along with it,” Applejack said. “So we gotta get in there. Shouldn’t be too tricky, right?”

She moved forward and tried the gate. It didn’t budge in the slightest, no matter how hard she pushed. A faint green haze shimmered over the metal, and Applejack shot back with a start.

“Ouch!” she complained, rubbing her shoulder. “Felt like somethin’ came up an’ bit me there.”

“It’s been enchanted!” A voice cried out from somewhere high above. The three ponies looked up to see a small light shine down from the ceiling. A wide crack illuminated the room with several rays of bright torchlight. A smiling face appeared in the middle, staring back down at the group.

“Hey look, it’s Twilight. Hi Twilight!” Pinkie stood up on her hind legs and waved up, both her front legs swirling around into a great twister of energetic pink.

Applejack tipped her hat back and gazed up at Twilight. “What’re you doin’ all the way up there, Twilight?”

“I could ask you guys the same thing about being down there,” Twilight said. She gestured to the room behind her. “I’m in the castle library right now. Or rather, the older part of it that’s being renovated. I guess they accidentally knocked a hole in the floor during construction.”

“Or maybe somethin’ tried to push through that way?” Applejack mused.

“You mean you split up from us earlier to run off to the library?” Dash asked. “That’s what was so important? Why didn’t you just say it was right over the crypt?”

“Probably because I didn’t know.” Twilight rubbed her neck. “I had only remembered the big archive of castle blueprints that had been moved here recently. I didn’t know that this wing of the castle had been built over the old crypts until… well, until I walked in and found the hole.”

Applejack nodded slightly. “Well, at least there’s that mystery solved.”

“Good timing on when to say hello, too!” Pinkie said.

“Well, I also stepped away for a little bit after I found the hole,” Twilight said. “I was kinda hoping to find a way down. There’s a bit of a drop from up here, after all.”

Applejack glanced around at the walls around the hole. A few other stones jutted out at odd angles, but other than that it was a sheer drop right down to the floor. She turned to Dash. “Hey Rainbow, think you can go an’ bring her down here? I don’t think it’d be a good idea for her to try an’ teleport right now.”

Dash nodded. “Good call. I’m on it.”

After a few hard flaps and a less than graceful takeoff, Dash rose into the air. Her bulky form wavered back and forth and nearly sent her falling back down, but she continued to climb. As she rose closer to the light, Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“I take it you guys took a slightly more… treacherous route in?” Twilight asked when Dash reached the ceiling.

Dash rolled her eyes. “Picture the most elaborate tunnel of dangerous traps you can think of. It was seriously straight out of Daring Do.”

“Not too surprising, I suppose,” Twilight said, moving back a few steps to give Dash a chance to rise into the library. “A lot of important ponies from the old world are buried down there, many of them with a lot of valuable treasures and artifacts. They had to deter grave robbers somehow, right?”

“Check out her flank! You can see some cool stuff!” Pinkie shouted up. One of her legs looped its way up to the hole to point at Dash’s more grievous wound. Twilight snuck a peek. Her eyes widened.

“Wow, would you look at that bone structure! And the joints!” she said. “Just like in my anatomy books. Hey Dash, can you move your leg back and forth a few times?”

“Anyway…” Dash grunted. “You ready to go? Unless you wanna try for the scenic route down.”

“Uh, right, sorry… but first, check this out.” Twilight pointed to a small box on the other side of the hole. It straddled the crack, half on the library floor and half hanging out in the open air. One corner had been smashed open, revealing the contents within. Dash leaned over to get a closer look, then gasped.

“Black books!” she said with a start. “You mean there’re more of those things?”

Twilight shook her head. “Not quite. I looked through them all earlier. They’re all completely blank, inside and out. Actually blank, not just magically. And look at this.”

Twilight walked over and pulled a small sign out from under the box. In tiny black letters, it spelled out: BLACK WRITING JOURNALS – BLANK – CASTLE LIBRARY BOOKSTORE INVENTORY

“I guess this box was meant to go to a different part of the library during the renovating,” Twilight says. “But instead, it ended up here. Inventory’s been a mess ever since they started this project. It’s one of the reasons I’m working– or, well, was working, on getting things organized.”

“So they’re a bunch of blank books…” Dash scratched her chin. “How’d we end up with all the magic stuff? And how’d one get all the way to Ponyville?”

“Well, and this is just a theory right now…” Twilight nudged the box. A book slipped out and fell through the hole. It spun lazily through the air until it landed on one of the crypt cage’s high bars, where it erupted in a flash of green light.

“Mystar’s magic is covering his crypt,” Twilight explained. “All sorts of magic. Including, maybe, some kind of energy that could be transferred. One of these books falls down, and gets infused with some of his magic, creating out literary friend that’s given us so much trouble. Then is sneaks onto the first box is can find, and sees how far it can get.”

Dash stared blankly at Twilight for several seconds. “…that’s an awful lot of planning on the part of a pony that’s been dead for hundreds of years.”

Twilight shrugged. “Magic’s funny like that. Especially when an extremely powerful set of spells are left to their own devices for so long.”

“And there’s only one book right?” Dash looked between the box and the crypt. “There’s a lot in that box, and I can imagine more than one fell down.”

“I’m pretty sure,” Twilight said. “Any more than one would’ve been too taxing on what magic was available. Plus, we would’ve encountered it by now.”

Dash stared at Twilight for another moment, then shrugged.

“Alright, fine, whatever. Sure hope you’re right about that one, because I really don’t wanna have to deal with more than one of this sucker,” She said. She turned to one side and knelt down next to Twilight. “Can you just get on so we can get back down there? Everything’s weird enough as it is, and I’d like to get it over with soon.”

Twilight opened her mouth to say something, then simply nodded and hopped onto Dash’s back. She moved her hooves carefully to avoid damaging Dash’s body any further, but still managed to swipe a leg across several arrows. One popped out of Dash’s thigh, taking a long strand of flesh with it.

Twilight winced. “Whoops, sorry about that.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Uh… nothing?”

Dash said nothing, and glided back down to the floor. Once there, Twilight walked over and examined the gate. After staring for several moments, her horn lit up, and a bright beam flashed onto the bars. An even brighter beam of green flashed back, and Twilight was knocked onto her hooves.

“Careful there, Twilight,” Applejack said, helping her up. “Told ya it bites.”

“Worth a shot,” Twilight said. She shook herself off and stared through the bars. A small metal pipe ran from the base of the gate all the way up to the mausoleum entrance. In the wall just above it, a small switch could be seen.

“Maybe that triggers the gate lock,” Twilight said. “All we have to do is get over to it.”

“Wanna give teleporting another shot, Twilight?” Pinkie asked. “Ooh, but if you go somewhere else that’s not here, that won’t work. Unless that somewhere you go that’s not here is even further inside this crypty thingy, which would be good! Unless that book is there and you have to face it all alone, which would be bad.”

“I’d advise leanin’ against that option,” Applejack said. “Doesn’t seem like those bars like lettin’ Twilight’s magic through anyway.”

“I know how to get in.”

All eyes turned back to Dash. She hovered in place and stared back.

“It’s easy, really,” she said. “I die, I picture myself coming back over there, and I do. Twilight, you said this thing is covered in Mystar’s magic? Well, this spell is his magic. It may not let yours through, but how could it reject itself?”

Twilight blinked, and nodded after a moment. “That actually makes sense. Barrier spells tend to be less effective when the original caster is involved. This bends those rules a bit, but that can hardly be helped. So all we have to do is, uh, well, you know…”

“I’m on it!” Pinkie saluted and dashed around the room. “Look for something heavy! We can squash her real nice with one of those pillars. Or may start pushing on all those arrows until she drops, one of them’s bound to slide through something important eventually. Or, oh, no wait! Twilight can blast her with another one of those big energy beams! Just slice right through her on through to– Ooh, no, no, wait, can we go back to that first tunnel? I’m still really wanna know what that one tripwire we skipped does. I mean, those massive spike balls have to do something, so why don’t we just–”

“I think I got a simpler solution,” Applejack said, walking up behind Dash. “You ready for this, Rainbow Dash.”

Dash had to smile. “Trust me. I’m used to it by now.”

“Alrighty then, let’s see here…” Applejack reached her front legs around what little of Dash’s neck she could reach. “One three… one, two… three!”

Applejack yanked her legs back, hard. Dash’s head snapped to one side to the accompaniment of a sound much like a cracked walnut, and her entire body flopped lifeless to the ground. The others looked over to the gate, waiting for her to reappear.

After several moments, nothing happened.

“Uh, Twilight?” Applejack asked. “Am I missin’ somethin’ here?”

“How about a dead me?” Dash spoke up. The others looked back to find Dash glaring up at Applejack.

“Huh, thought that would’a done the trick,” Applejack said. “Must be holdin’ back on some strength here. Don’t wanna lose a leg in the process, after all.”

“How do you feel, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked.

“Well duh, Twilight,” Pinkie said. “She can’t feel anything at all.”

“Thank you Pinkie. Hang on Twilight, lemme just…” Dash grunted and strained her head back and forth. No matter how hard she moved it, every part of her body below her neck remained limp. After a few more seconds of this, she paused and sighed. “Well, nice going Applejack. You paralyzed me.”

“At least it’s a start,” Applejack said. “Not like all that other bric-a-brac on you was gettin’ the job done.”

“Yeah, but come on; it’s me. It’s not like I’m hard to kill or anything. Your kitchen did a better job of offing me than–”

“Okay, okay, let’s just calm down everypony,” Twilight said. “Now let’s think for a moment. Because strictly speaking, Rainbow is right. She’s been dying all day. It can’t take much more to kill her again.”

“Well then just blast her, Twilight,” Applejack said. “Worked pretty well before.”

“Heads up!” Pinkie shouted. Applejack and Twilight looked up in time to see a large stone pillar come crashing down towards them. Pinkie’s front legs were wrapped around the top, and she was yanking it down as hard as she could.

The two ponies dove back as the whole stone structure came crashing down onto Dash’s backside. In an instant everything south of Dash’s shoulders were pulverized into the dirt. A pressurized blast of organs and blood fired out of her mouth like a cannon, spraying the dusty floor in front of her. The wave of energy was enough to make both eyes explode from her sockets. Immediately twin streams of blood gushed out from the holes, her body taking full advantage of another set of exits for what was left of her fluids to vacate the premises.

Meanwhile, a rumble filled the cavern. Sound from the crashing rock bounced back and forth, knocking streams of dust from the ceiling and several more blank books out of the box. Twilight rocked back and forth on her head, stuck in an awkward position after she leapt out of the way. After a few more seconds, the din finally died away, leaving the chamber in a state of silence.

After she adjusted herself, Twilight looked over to the crypt. Standing by the doors, on the far side of the locked gate, was a smiling Dash. She waved and flipped the switch. With a barely audible click, the doors to the gate swung open.

“Thank you, Pinkie,” Dash said with a grin. “Easy peasy.”

“Dashie squeezy!’Pinkie sang back. She drew her legs back in from the broken stone and hopped past a stunned Applejack and silent Twilight. “Let’s go you two! Time is a-wastin’!”

Applejack glanced at Twilight, shrugged, and moved forward. Twilight hurried past her to catch up with Dash.

“You know, now that I think about it, Pinkie probably could’ve just stretched her arms through the bars,” Twilight said. “She’s got just as much of Mystar’s magic in her as you do.”

Dash nodded. “True. But I really needed a new body, and was sick of waiting for it to just happen.”

The four ponies approached the main doors to the crypt. They stood slightly ajar, with a faint light peering in from the other side. With a slight hesitance, Dash walked up and pushed the door all the way open. On the other side was a long, slim hallway. It angled down at a mild angle, lit intermittently by small torches set in the walls.

“Because of course it’s another long path,” Dash said with a sigh. “I’ll go first. Again.”

After a few meters, the path curved to the right in a wide arc, deeper and deeper into the crypt. The walls closed in tighter, forcing the ponies to troop forward in single file. The path continued forward for some time, and the ponies stayed silent. Dash bobbed back and forth at the head of the line, careful not to accidentally stick her wings into any of the torches.

“Who the hay is lightin’ all these things?” Applejack finally asked.

“Maybe the book needed to see where it was going?” Pinkie replied.

Dash suddenly raised her hoof into the air.

“Everypony quiet down,” she whispered. She flew a few meters ahead of the others, her head cocked. “I hear something up ahead.”

Slowly, the group moved forward. After another curve, a light appeared at the end of the hall. The distant sound of conversation echoed around the walls. As the girls approached the light, the sound clarified into a pair of voices. Both of them exceedingly familiar.

“–don’t stop squirming, I’ll just freeze you again!”

“Hah, that barely slowed me down before!”

“You didn’t move the entire way up here; it seemed to work pretty well to me.”

“I was just biding my time, waiting to… strike!”

“Hey! What’d I say about the claws?”

Dash glanced back to Twilight.

“It’s Spike!” she whispered fervently.

“He sounds okay,” Applejack said. “Still tryin’ to fight it out with that book.”

“Come on, let’s get in there!” Twilight hurried forward, practically shoving her way past Dash and galloping off to the end of the hall.

She emerged blinking into the brightly lit room. It was considerably smaller than the one that housed the entrance to the crypt, and its white marble walls and domed ceiling were completely free of cracks or blemishes. The room was also completely empty, save for a single small stone sarcophagus at the room’s center. It was roughly the size and shape of a twin bed, constructed from solid granite, and features the faint outline of a nondescript stallion on its lid.

Lording over this central casket was the book, his spine to the door and his pages whipping back and forth. It had sprouted several extra tentacles, most of which were latched to the ground and keeping him steady as it swayed back and forth in the air. Two other tentacles were busy trying to keep a grip on Spike, who for his part was wriggling and swiping at every bit of paper he could reach. The book tossed him back and forth between tentacles, never quite holding him long enough for Spike to get a good grab in or draw a bead to breathe fire.

“Put him down!” Twilight shouted. The others filed out of the hall behind her, taking up positions on either side of the room.

The book whirled around, nearly dropping Spike in the process. He was halfway to the floor by the time a tentacle looped around his tail and pulled him back up. A second tentacle quickly shot out and wrapped around his mouth before he could get a word out.

“Well, super. The traveling freak squad, here to save the day.” The book flicked three of its tentacles out, cracking each like a whip and keeping the ponies back. “Took you long enough, I guess.”

“We can’t all just mosey our way through a big tunnel filled to the brim with traps,” Applejack snapped.

“Well, I sorta can,” Dash muttered.

“It doesn’t matter!” the book shouted. “I’m already here. I won! Time for you lot to feast your eyes on… this!”

With a dramatic flourish of parchment, three of the book’s tentacles reached down and yanked at the lid of the sarcophagus. It lurched into the air before sliding back down and resting against the sarcophagus’ rear wall. The three remaining walls quavered for a moment before crumbling to pieces. As the dust settled, the contents became clear: the bare remnants of a skeleton, consisting of a skull, a femur, a few scattered ribs, and a pelvis. One of the ribs rolled around at the casket’s sudden destruction, but otherwise the bones lay still.

The book paused. An awkward silence gripped the room.

“…uh, is that it?” Pinkie asked. “Because I’ve seen way better bones today. Not even just the ones in Rainbow Dash.”

“There was supposed to be a lot more meat here, which would’ve made resurr– oh, forget it, it doesn’t matter,” the book growled. “Didn’t expect so many bones to have turned to dust by now.”

“That’s all that’s left of Mystar?” Twilight asked. “I figured he would’ve been a lot more careful about, uh, storage options.”

“I di– I mean, he– that was the plan,” the book stammered. “But apparently you can’t trust masons as far as you can throw them. Although I admit, I could chuck them pretty far in my day.”

“Give it up then!” Twilight shouted. “Whatever you were planning–”

“And what was that, by the way?” Pinkie asked. “I’m pretty sure it’s something mean and nasty and evil, but anytime you wanna give a speech and fill us in, that’d be great.”

“–whatever you were planning, it’s over. You tried, you failed, you lost,” Twilight continued. “So put Spike down and–”

At which point Twilight vanished.

“I still keep forgettin’ she does that,” Applejack admitted.

The book gave what could loosely be interpreted as a shrug. “Yeah, that curse gets a little stale in the long run. Still, with her gone, I might actually be able to get something productive done for once.”

The book hoisted Spike higher into the air while a second tentacle circled around his tail. It sharped its tip into a fine point and brushed itself smoothly against his scales.

“Now then, despite your purple friend’s strong opinion to the contrary… no, I don’t believe I’ve failed at all,” the book said, its tone taking on a dry air. “There’s always a Plan B, as it were. For instance, do any of you happen to know what a bit of dragon blood will do on the right sort of magic-infused runes?”

Spike’s eyes widened. He increased his struggling against the book’s tight bonds.

“Oh relax, I only need… there.” With a quick prick, the tentacle sliced a small laceration along Spike’s tail. Several drops of blood leaked out, staining the light parchment a dark red hue.

The book’s pages ruffled back and forth. “Waste not, want not. And now, to finally get some real magic going…”

“As opposed to what?” Pinkie asked. “Have you not been doing magic this whole time? Could’ve fooled me. Especially with this part.”

Pinkie twirled all four limbs into the air, flailing her legs like a very lost jellyfish.

“If I had eyes, I’d be rolling them right now,” the book said. It dropped the blood covered tentacle down low, scraping it across the slanted underside of the tipped sarcophagus lid. With a low flash, intricate carvings became visible, lighting up half the room in a faint green light.

“Only a little power was transferred to this ridiculous literary form,” the book said. “Barely enough to conjure up some basic curses and parlor tricks. Harmless stuff, really.”

“Harmless?” Applejack shouted. “Are you pullin’ my leg here?”

“I suppose I could, but I feel like you’d want it back.”

Dash shook her head. “Exactly what about my whole problem could be considered harmless?”

The book repeated its shrugging approximation. “Well, basically, sure, why not. It’s not like this should be surprising or anything, I do believe I was at least somewhat properly labeled. You’re all still fine right now; there’ve been no lasting injuries, dismemberments, widespread calamities, or deaths. Not even an ancient, awe-inspiringly powerful sorcerer returning to this world to either take it over or run it straight into the ground.”

The carvings on the lid grew brighter. The book’s pages shuffled faster.

“At least, not yet.”

“Okay, I’m sick of this again. Time to take you down.” With a kick of her heels, Dash launched herself straight into the air, her wings quickly blurring with speed. In an instant she cleared the space between her and the book, who barely managed to duck out of her way. Two tentacles shot up, whipping around Dash in a ferocious frenzy. She curved around in a series of tight maneuvers, avoiding every sharpened paper point that came her way.

Finally, she pulled back towards the others. Hovering in midair, she narrowed her eyebrows at the book.

“You’re a slippery little thing, but you can’t escape me for much longer.” Dash grinned. “Especially since I’m way faster than your little paper arms.”

The book tossed two of its tentacles into the air. Each was stained red in several places. “Is that a fact?”

Dash thrust out a leg for an accusing point. “You bet it– huh?”

She stared at her outstretched hoof. A thin line of blood appeared, one that snaked all the way around her leg and up to her shoulder. Glancing around her body, she saw another line appear over her stomach, and still another over one wing. She looked back up to the book. A final line popped up on her face, running straight down between her eyes.

“Hey…” Dash muttered, blood pooling in her mouth. “Why’s everything getting so blurry…”

A drop of blood hit the floor, and Dash fell to pieces. Her face split in two, skull and brain divided up cleanly. Her legs dropped off at the lines, along with her wings and lower portion of her stomach. Cleanly cut pieces of Dash flopped to the ground in a series of wet splats. Her still-intact flank landed the hardest, where it tipped forward and all her intestines sloshed out in a single sticky mass. A pool of blood oozed out on the ground and flowed gently between the sliced slabs of meat that barely had time to bleed before they fell apart.

“Mmm, freshly cut pegasus,” the book’s covers smacked open, akin to a pair of lips. “Perfect for any summer barbeque or beach tri–”

“Now Pinkie!” Applejack shouted.

The book turned as Pinkie’s front legs reached up and wrapped around it. Closer to the ground, Applejack galloped forward and threw herself into a cluster of tentacles. The book flailed wildly, working to both free itself from Pinkie’s tight grip and not fall backward from Applejack’s grappling. Back in the air, Dash *POP*ed into view, a smirk on her face.

“Trust me, we can keep this up all day,” Dash said. “Especially me, because I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but I tend to spring back to action pretty easy. Thanks to you, as a matter of fact.”

“So noted,” the book grumbled. Its tentacles momentarily froze, and its entire form went limp. Then a bright green flash burst from his pages, throwing Pinkie across the room and scattering Applejack into a dozen pieces. Dash pulled a quick backflip to avoid being smacked in the face by a pair of legs.

“Wheeeeee!” Pinkie cried out. She gracefully looped her legs back around herself and then towards the floor, bringing herself to a soft and easy landing. “Again!”

“Whoa nelly!” Applejack’s head shouted as it rolled away from her body.

Meanwhile, at the room’s center, Twilight reappeared.

“–give it up,” she continued from before without missing a beat, “because otherwise–”

“Heads are gonna roll!” Dash smiled and pumped her hoof. “Finally, got one in before Twilight.”

“Aww, no fair,” Pinkie moaned. “I haven’t gotten one at all yet!”

“Never gets old for you guys, does it?” Applejack grunted. Her head had rolled back to the tunnel entrance, and she worked her jaw in an effort to turn around.

“Can I get some help over here, please?” Spike managed to shout after he shoved the bonds off his mouth. The tentacles quickly reapplied themselves and he returned to squirming noiselessly against it.

Twilight shot the others a bewildered look, one that only increased as she glanced around the room. Finally, she spoke. “This curse is getting really old.”

“Told ya,” the book said. It whipped a tentacle out at Twilight’s head. She barely saw it coming before Dash swooped in and pulled her to safety, while the paper scythe swung harmlessly through empty air.

“Glad you’re back, Twilight!” Pinkie waved. “I think the book’s doing the whole ‘get power take over Equestria’ thing, or maybe the ‘get power destroy Equestria’ thing, or maybe something in the middle. Whatever it’s doing, it’s definitely doing the ‘get power’ thing, or at least trying. It doesn’t seem to be working yet, but give it time, and then who knows what’ll happen.”

“So I can see.” Twilight eyes lit up as she looked at the glowing runes on the lid. “This is getting very, very bad.”

“All the more reason to take this guy down!” Dash shouted. She flapped high into the air, continuing up until her back was brushing the marble. Then she angled downward and kicked off the ceiling, firing herself directly towards the book’s cover. The book flipped Spike around, aiming his head right at Dash’s incoming form. It knocked on tentacle on the back of his head and quickly pulled off the one holding his mouth shut. Spike coughed up a bright green flame just in time to spray Dash in the face.

Flames covered her body in a flash, and just as quickly they were gone. A few specks of ash were all that remained.

A sudden silence gripped the room.

“Huh.” The book pivoted itself to look at Spike. “You got some powerful breath, you know that?”

Dash skid to a halt on the freshly-waxed floors, coming very close to banging her head on a large marble pillar in the process. She quickly snapped back around. She stood on the upper landing of an enormous room. Late afternoon sunlight filtered through a series of ceiling-high stained glass windows all around, and a large table was set up right before her. More tables continued along the rest of the hall, each one capped by mountains of food, silverware, candlesticks, and other assorted dinner accessories. Ponies were seated shoulder to shoulder at every table, and their steady rabble of conversation filled the room. It bounced back and forth to create such a din that Dash could hardly make out any individual voice.

“Nice to see you could join us, Rainbow Dash.”

Dash turned her head, and found Princess Celestia staring at her. She sat at the head of the main table, a slight distance from the other assembled guests. As far as Dash could tell, none of the others had noticed her arrival.

“Oh, uh, hi Princess,” Dash said, making a quick bow. With her head close to the ground, she noticed black lump directly under the table. Squinting, she saw that it was her own charred remains, just barely hidden from view by the long table cloth. Dash gulped and rose.

“That was quite an entrance,” Celestia said. “Had I not glanced down to see if I’d dropped my napkin, you very well would’ve appeared right over the appetizers. Although I must say, that was quite a fast exit out from under the table.”

Dash scratched her head. “You mean I teleported through Spike? Like one of those letters we send you? I didn’t know that worked with ponies, too.”

“It shouldn’t.” Celestia took a long sip from her glass of tea, then looked Dash straight in the eye. “Is there anything you’d like to tell me, Rainbow Dash?”

“Uhhh…” Dash tapped her hoof and glanced around. She took a deep breath before looking back up. “Princess, I’m not sure how to say this… look, have you ever heard of an old wizard named Mystar?”

Celestia froze for a moment, her expression completely neutral. She then released a long, drawn-out sigh, which made Dash raise her eyebrow.

“Where?” Celestia asked simply.

“Okay, first, I need to say that this is my fault, not Twilight’s, so please don’t get–”

“Where, Rainbow Dash,” Celestia pushed. “I’m afraid I must insist.”

“Down at his crypt. Which is under the library, I guess.”

“Not quite.” Celestia sighed again and glanced around the table. She called over one of her aides, who quickly scurried up to her side.

“I’m afraid I need to step out momentarily and attend to something,” Celestia said quietly. “Should anypony ask after me, tell them I shall return as soon as possible. Please pass the word on to the rest of the dining staff.”

The aide nodded and hurried off to inform her coworkers. Celestia took one final sip from her cup, stood, and turned to face Dash.

“Rainbow Dash, I’m going to ask you to remain here,” she said. Dash opened her mouth to protest, only to shut it again when Celestia raised her hoof. “Again, I must insist. This could be a tricky matter, and from the looks of things you’ve been through enough as it is. So please, just remain calm and patient. I’ll return immediately once this has been dealt with.”

At that, Celestia swept past Dash and out of a set of double doors at the nearest wall. Dash kept still, her face awkwardly looking between the doors, the table, and the floor. Eventually she glanced over to take a look at the crowd. As her eyes went from table to table, she noticed that every diner in the room was a pegasus. As she looked, she noticed a raised hoof waving in her direction. The call with it was faint, but still barely audible over the crowd.

“Rainbow Dash! Hey, Rainbow Dash! Over here!”

Dash hurried down the three steps to the lower section of the room. Ducking around a waiter and a large food trolley, she spotted the origin of the voice. It was a few seconds before recognition dawned on her.

“Cirrus?” she asked.

The smiling pegasus in the sharp grey suit and neat spectacles nodded and laughed. “Glad to see that crash didn’t affect your memory too much. Come on, have a seat and join us. I was just talking about you.”

Dash managed a small smile as she sat down at the table. Going off the various name tags and uniforms, she figured that she was sitting with a small chunk of the convention staff for the Weather Bureau.

“This is the one I was telling you all about,” Cirrus said to his companions. “Not that she needs much introduction around here, of course.”

“Yeah, isn’t that her on one of those windows over there?” a small, pink pegasus several seats down asked.

“What are you all doing here?” Dash asked. “Isn’t the big weather expo banquet happening at Cloudsdale with everything else?”

Several pegasi coughed, while a few others rolled their eyes. Cirrus went with a smile.

“That was the original plan, yes,” he said. “But an experimental lightning bolt did quite a number to the main hall this morning, and now it’s temporarily out of commission.”

Dash’s cheeks grew slightly redder. “Yeah, you gotta watch out for those things.”

Cirrus nodded. “Indeed. Happily, the Princess was gracious enough to let us move things to Canterlot, it being so close to Cloudsdale. So, here we are. Which is just fine in my book, seeing as the kitchens here make the best soufflé that I’ve ever tasted.”

“So, Rainbow Dash…” a red and black pegasus from across the table leaned forward. “Care to give us a talk about your little flight experiment the other day? Cirrus has been describing it rather enthusiastically, but I get the feeling you’d be able to clear up a few blurry spots for us.”

“Well, sure, I can do that,” Dash said. She smiled broadly, letting her shoulders and wings relax. “See, I got the idea a month or so ago, when the weather team in Ponyville started talking about what we’re gonna do once the seasons cha–”

A low rumble shook the room, silencing Dash and the rest of the hall with her. Glasses and silverware rattled against each other, while the large chandeliers hanging from the ceiling swayed back and forth. Everypony look around trying to find the source of the disturbance. Before long, the rumbling ceased, leaving the hall in a state of silence.

“One of you lot bring a thunder cloud up here?” a random voice asked. “Because really, we don’t need an encore from this morning.”

“It sounded like it was coming from below us somewhere,” another said.

Dash gulped and sank down into her seat.

Another tremor rocked the dining hall, this one much stronger than before. A few diners took to the air as their seats fell down from under them. Off by a wall, a food trolley clattered to the ground, much to the dismay of the poor waiter who had to deal with it.

“Look! Up over there!” one of the airborne pegasi cried. She pointed to the upper landing of the room, right next to Celestia’s empty chair. Others took to the air to get a better look, Dash included.

Cracks were sprouting out on the floor. One main one, then two, then four, and so on as the rumbling increased. Suddenly the whole section of floor gave way, crashing down into some room down below. A gasp rippled through the room. Some pegasi returned to their seats to converse in hushed whispers, while others took to the air to take a look. Over the noise of it all, Dash heard a very familiar voice rise above it all.

“Whoo! How’s that for a power burst? Almost too much actually, gotta filter it out a bit. Lessee here –ooh, nice energy blast there Princess, but watch your aim next time– alright, alright, hang on, which curse will this latch onto– whoa! Easy with the shots! Watch the bindin– hey!”

A massive yellow beam erupted from the hole. It bounced off the ceiling and ricocheted off two walls. Pegasi screamed and ducked their heads, but the beam continued to bounce harmlessly along the walls. One pegasus flew back down to the floor in front of Dash, leaving her with a clear line of site to the magical burst.

As soon as she laid eyes on it, it took an unnaturally tight turn and headed straight for it. It hit her head on, zapping down to a smaller line of energy and whirling around her body like a tornado. After a quick set of spins it erupted outwards in all directions. In a blink a yellow wave consumed the room, and in another blink it was gone, leaving only a large contingent of very confused ponies.

Back at the hole, the voice returned.

“Wow, did you all see that? Just went up and out, like there was… oh. Oh! Oh, yes! Rainbow Dash, you up there? I’m a bit –nice try, Twilight, but you know that spell never works on paper– bit wrapped up at the moment, but you go ahead and enjoy that extra twist! It’s just to die for, I tell ya!”

What followed was a series of high pitched laughter, and then another series of tremors, shouts, energy blasts, and general fight noises emerging from whatever battle was occurring down in the hole.

Dash took a sharp breath as a roomful of eyes turned to stare at her. Each pegasus wore a somewhat dazed expression, and some seemed to have trouble focusing on her.

“Uh… no idea what he’s talking about,” she said quickly, holding her hooves up defensively. “But I should probably get down–”

“I call first dibs!” a voice shouted out. A chorus of groans responded.

“Hey, no fair, I didn’t know we had to call it.”

“Second!”

“Third!”

“Fillies, gentlecolts, come now, let’s stay sensible about this and do it properly… nose goes!”

"That's not how nose goes works."

“I’m still second!”

Dash looked back and forth wildly as the ponies argued with one another. “Now wait just a minute. What the hay is going on here?”

She got no response. Instead, a dark shadow appeared over here. Dash glanced up.

The pointed end of a metal candlestick pierced through her eye, squishing its way through optical and brain matter until it bounced off the back of her skull. Her body gave a slight twitch, and she plummeted to the floor. She landed in a heap on the table, bouncing plates and food dishes off with the impact. Her head sagged off the table, the heavy candlestick sticking out of her face weighing her down and letting a pool of blood leak off onto the floor.

A fresh Dash *POP*ed back up above. She looked around and spotted Cirrus floating just overhead. He brushed off his mouth and wiped a few splattered blood spots off his suit.

“Bleh, that metal’s rough on the teeth.” He cleared his throat and looked out over the crowd. “Now please, everypony, just relax. There’s plenty of time and no real limit. I assure you all: each and every one of you will get a chance to kill Rainbow Dash.”