The Royal Library

Seeing the inside of the Royal Library, Lucien had to admit, if there was any evidence of the Dread Father or the Dark Brotherhood in this world, it would likely be here.

He doubted that they would be easily located however.

The interior of the building seemed to stretch a hundred yards or so on either side of the entrance, and just as far to the back. Looking up he could see that there were at least four levels above them; the floor was open to show this. And at the top of it all was a rotunda made of glass, letting in natural sunlight to illuminate the building, or at least the parts the sun was shining.

Lucien took a moment to marvel at this, and noticed that the areas the sun wasn't shining into were illuminated by lamps, but the lamps in the sunlit areas seemed turned off. The lamps themselves glowed with an ethereal presence. They were likely magic themselves.

He looked to his companion, and noted that the elation she showed at seeing her family had started to fade as she looked to the work in front of her.

She turned to him and smiled, though it seemed a tired smile. "Well, let's get started," she said, her tone matching her appearance.

She immediately went to the Library's directory, "we'll start with more direct titles," she said, "if we can't find any I suppose we'll have to look for obscure titles that may have what we're looking for."

Even if it was only slight, Lucien noticed that she was eager for this. He smiled, admiring how much the thrill of learning seemed to outshine her frustration at the difficulty of such a task.

"Yes," he agreed, "I'll search in…" he trailed off, and looked around, "the west wing, gather what books I think may help, and find you afterwards," he said.

She nodded in affirmation, as she continued to scan the directory, her horn glowing as she pulled a pencil and notebook from her saddlebag, likely making notes on where to search.

Lucien took one more moment to look at her, before he turned to look where he said he would. Finding a cart he pushed it along slowly as he scanned the book titles for something to catch his eyes.

There was of course nothing on the Dread Father or Night Mother or Dark Brotherhood, at least not in the titles. So he instead gathered books with titles such as 'Lost Legends,' 'Dark Legends,' 'Histories of Secret Organizations,' and the like.

He doubted greatly that any of them would help, but he wanted to see for himself if the dark brotherhood, or groups like it, have existed in Equestria before.

After gathering a fair number of such books, enough to fill the cart, he pushed it along as he looked for Twilight.

He found her not far from where they had started. She already had a pile of books on a desk and was paging through them one at a time.

He pushed the cart up next to her, "anything yet?" he asked, sitting down and cracking open a book himself.

Twilight shook her head, "no," was all she said as she went through book after book at a quick pace.

Lucien looked to her stack, and noted that they were titled like his were. Vague and mysterious.

He took another moment to look at Twilight as she skimmed through tome after tome. Her expression was one of stress and frustration as she set another book aside, finding nothing.

Lucien himself also set to work, reading through some of the books that he had collected.

…..

It was nightfall now, and the library was mostly empty, except for the librarian and the two ponies who had been reading for the better half of a day.

Lucien looked to the clock on the wall, "Twilight, perhaps we should go for the night, and start again in the morning after some rest," he suggested.

Twilight didn't look up from the books, as she continued to skim through them.

He was starting to think that she didn't hear him, but when he was about to speak again, she started before he could.

"You can go, I'll stay here tonight," she said.

The Dark Pony tilted his head, "you haven't slept in a long time, perhaps you should…"

Twilight cut him off, "I can't sleep," she said, setting the book down and cradling her head in her hooves. "I just can't. If I close my eyes I'll have those dreams again, and I'll have even more questions, and have to learn even more," her voice was getting desperate as she looked Lucien in the eyes, her gaze desperate and she seemed almost consumed by madness.

"I feel like I'm losing my mind and myself," she whimpered pathetically, trying to keep quiet in the library. "I've never been this obsessed with anything in my life, even when I was a little filly studying magic, I feel like if I don't find this out I'll go mad."

Lucien looked at her with a genuine look of sadness, for the first time his heart was split, and he wasn't sure why. This was the will of the Dread Father, but it actually hurt him to see her this way.

After a moment, Lucien nodded, "I understand, I'll help you as much as I can," he told her. "But I do need sleep myself," he said, coming closer to her, he gave her an affectionate nudge, unsure of what drove him to do so.

The act of affection seemed to calm Twilight somewhat, though tears threatened to escape her eyes, "t-thank you, Lucien," she said. "Please, get some rest, I'll be fine, I promise," she told him, turning back to the books.

With a nod, and a final look of pity, Lucien turned to leave, his mind wandering to the mare who stayed in the magnificent hall of knowledge as he tried to remember where the Hotel he saw when touring the town with Shining Armor.

…

Lucien walked the deserted streets of Canterlot, lit by the full moon hanging low in the sky.

He soon came to a large and fancy building, but before he went inside, he growled, cursing himself for forgetting that he didn't have the chance to bring any bits with him.

It was then, that he noticed a rather well dressed pony stumbling along the cobbled streets of Canterlot, humming what seemed like a rather jovial tune to himself.

Lucien smiled, 'one must always be ready to adapt when finding themselves lacking funds,' he thought to himself, before looking around, seeing only a discarded broom, leaning against the wall of the Hotel. His smile turned to a sly smirk. 'Or weapons.'

One more glance again as the drunk was passing by on the opposite end of the street, oblivious to the dark pony's intentions.

There were no guards around; the last one turned the corner only moments ago.

Lucien would have to be quick.

Grabbing the broom with his hoof, he stalked into the shadows, going behind alleyways and across the street behind the Drunk; he followed him for a couple blocks.

Now waiting in an alleyway just ahead of him, Lucien mussed up his mane, and did his best to look like he was drunk as well. Given some time he would have washed his mouth with some kind of booze to have the smell on his breath, but he doubted the drunk would really notice over his own stench.

Leaving the broom behind against the wall, he stumbled out of the alleyway.

"Hey thar friend," he slurred out, his posture swaying as he eyed the drunk.

"Wha? Who'r you?" The wealthy victim slurred back.

"Ahm no on important," Lucien added a 'hiccup.' "Ah, jus thought, you n ah, kin share a drink the alley, ah got mah hooves on some Diamond Dog Brandy," another 'hiccup.'

The Drunk stared with wide eyes in disbelief, "yer foolin with meh, Diamond Dog Brandy?" the Drunk asked with his own 'hiccup.' "How'd you git that into Canterlot? Bin outlawed fer weeks."

"Thas why we gotta drink in the Alley, so no guards'll see us," Lucien asked, his excitement showing through his eyes. The Drunk would think it's the excitement of the drink, but it was another darker excitement that grew in Lucien.

The disbelief turned to joy, "well, let's go then," the Drunk laughed, going into the alleyway before Lucien.

The Dark pony followed, his stride sobering the moment eyes were off of him. As he passed it he picked up the broom.

"Wher is it?" the Drunk asked, looking around confused.

"It's here," Lucien's sober voice sounded behind him, followed by the crack of the broom handle being broken.

…

Shining Armor came to the Alleyway that was roped off, where he was greeted by one of the lieutenants.

Silver Guard of morning patrol in fact.

The Unicorn Lieutenant nodded to him, "Sir," he greeted.

The young silver-blue Unicorn was originally from Manehattan, but transferred from the Manehattan PD to the Royal Guard due to valorous service.

"Lieutenant Silver," Shining returned the greeting. "So what do we have?" he asked.

Silver adjusted his stance, "A big mess, Sir," he started, "Earth Pony Noble, name of Rocks, not too well known around Canterlot yet," he continued. "We had him in a cell a couple times to dry out before, he tended to like his liquor," he explained.

"We found his wallet, wouldn't have been able to id him otherwise, aside from his identification it was empty though, might have been a mugging gone wrong, but….." the Lieutenant paused. "Well, you'll need to see for yourself," he said, using his magic to lift the rope.

Shining walked into the alley, where several other Canterlot Guards were searching for more evidence, and what he immediately saw were splatters of blood, a number standing next to it showing it was evidence. Also nearby was the end of a broom, broken off. It also had a number. Looking to the end of the alleyway, Shining could see the blood trailing back there. He followed it with the Lieutenant, and when the turned the corner, it almost made The Captain's stomach turn.

Leaning against the wall was the body of a dead Earth Pony, his face viciously torn by what was likely a sharp object, what was left of it was frozen in a silent scream, his throat looked like it was torn out too. Likely the first target if no one reported any screaming or disturbances last night.

It didn't take long to find out what the murder weapon was, as it was sticking out of the pony's abdomen.

"This wasn't just some mugging," Shining said, Silver nodding in agreement.

…

Lucien felt so alive and rejuvenated after last night.

The Drunk hadn't been difficult, but it was a welcome distraction, and he had more than enough bits on him to cover a week in one of the Hotel's finest rooms.

He doubted that he and Twilight would stay so long in Canterlot, but he was prepared, after all, he had the money.

As he made his way back to the library, and came by a small, but active café, and decided to get himself and Twilight some tea.

He doubted that she got much sleep, or any, so tea would probably help her calm down somewhat.

Picking up the tray in his teeth, he carefully carried it all the way back to the Library, and upon entering, he saw Twilight sitting exactly where he left her. He neared her, and placed the tray down next to her.

He then noticed how bloodshot her eyes were and also the pile of discarded books, behind her. The normally tidy unicorn was tossing books over her shoulder one after another, eyes skimming pages for any useful information before tossing another one.

"Twilight," he spoke softly, trying to get her attention.

She looked up from the book, obviously in even worse shape than before. "Did you happen to find anything?" he asked her.

She just shook her head, and turned back to the book. Lucien sat down across from her, "I brought some tea, please, take a break and drink some."

This got him a scowling look, but Twilight sighed and put the book she was looking at down and levitated one of the cups of tea to her, taking a breath as she tried to relax, and take a sip.

"You didn't rest at all, did you?" Lucien asked, voicing his concerns.

"No," was Twilight's simple response as she seemed to try and drink the tea faster, so she could get back to reading.

"Twilight," Lucien started, "I know you've only scratched the surface of these books, but you have to admit to the possibility that there just isn't any knowledge of the Brotherhood or the Dread Father here," he told her, actual concern in his voice.

"There has to be," Twilight stated stubbornly, "this is the largest Library in all of Equestria, there has to be something on them," she said, looking through the books with even more desperation, as if Lucien only convinced her to look through faster.

"Twilight," Lucien started again.

"NO!" she shouted, "It has to be in one of these," she seethed, throwing book after book over her shoulder into the pile.

Lucien only stared at her sadly, tears streaking down her face, "I NEED them to be here."

The dark pony saw her break down, dropping the book and burying her face in her hooves as she finally realized how futile it all was.

She sobbed and wept openly.

Lucien got up from where he sat and went to her side, and rubbed her back as she cried out her frustration.

'Sithis, please,' Lucien thought to himself, 'please let her be ready soon, I can't bear to see her continue to suffer like this.'

…..

AN: Some more Pony Murder.