"Celestia! What happened?" Twilight yelled as she quickly diffused her magic on the library, the pinkish fizzles flying into the late evening darkness. "Amissus! Amissus!" She shook his body, lying clumped on the floor, his breathing shallow. "Did I do this? I…I couldn't have, I didn't make any kind of spell that would do this." She ran through her mind to make sure that she wasn't responsible; But it wouldn't matter if Amissus didn't come back. A deep and lasting inhale marked Amissus's return to consciousness, coughing and groans of pain followed with the exhale. He began to lift himself but flopped back down, not having the strength yet.
"Amissus! Are you alright?!" Twilight eagerly asked, still cradling him, hoping to have him back to normal or at least as normal as he could be.
His eyes shot open and locked with hers. Twilight's were filled with delight but his with frenzy. He flung her with adrenaline driven strength off and away into the table as he jumped into the corner, beginning to drag himself slowly along the bookshelf wall around her to the door.
"You stay away from me, Sparkle!" His voice yelled with surprised fear and anger.
"I didn't-"
"I only came because you told me you had something! I was nearly killed by you! Is this what you had? Me, dead?!"
"I didn't do this!"
"Spike told me that only your magic could be done here; there's nopony else who could in this library!"
Twilight stood where she was flung, by the table in the center of the room, the wooden bust lying splintered next to it. He was creeping to the door, left open by Twilight in her surprise, eyes watching her for any sign of action against him. He neared the door, tensing and ready to dash; Twilight's horn warm and primed to cast a barrier to stop him from leaving. Pausing left the scene surprisingly calm, with both ponies taking care in their actions: graceful.
Amissus jumped and Twilight barricaded the door with her magic. She was sure to have stopped him again until she heard breaking glass. Twilight's magic faded as her shock took hold. Amissus had bluffed with the open door, then jumped out the window, leaving many shattered pieces and the wooden hatching broken. He had escaped from her sight. She hurriedly warped outside the door and she caught glimpse of him heaving himself into a run, many jagged scratches etching his sides. She warped again in front of him and he ran into her without the time to slow down, throwing both of them into the stone street. Twilight landed on her back, stunning her. Amissus fared worse, hitting his head and landing on his freshly lame wing. His scream was choked out by his need for the air he had lost from this entire attempt, leaving him vulnerable. Twilight, recovered, jumped on and pinned him. He struggled in every way, but her hold on him tightened each time he moved.
"Amissus, calm down!" She shouted. "Stop, just stop!" Her words echoed in vain. She did the first thing she could grasp in her racing mind; she restrained him with magic, forcing together his hooves. She still sat on him, continuing to pin him for extra assurance that he wouldn't escape again. "Stop trying to run!" She was nearing her limit for his continuous rebellion against what she knew to be best for him. "What happened to your wing?" She finally noticed the torn joints on the left wing. His only response was a glare of hostility and filling hatred.
She lifted him with her magic, as heavy as the stallion was, and placed him in the library, his bonds putting him in an awkward seating position. He continued his glare as Twilight picked up the pieces and repaired the window. She could feel it on the back of her head, just behind the eyes. All things put back in place, all things were not calm. Twilight walked up to her loft to escape the unruly stallion downstairs. Her private room was a mess from the research she did the entire night before to find something for Amissus, but she began to question if she should withhold it as punishment.
"He's not a foal, Twilight…" She told herself, gathering her findings from her desk, a series of books and few notes. She descended into the main room to sit in front of Amissus. She spread her notes and placed the stack of books to one side. She looked at him; he had given up his glare and now looked at the notes spread before him. Seeing promise, she continued.
"This was all I could come up with in this library. I first looked up the 'shards of the world' reference, but I only found it in a book of summarizations, a lot of legends in that volume." She pulled the book from the mid-bottom of the stack and placed it on the floor for him to look through. He did nothing, which began to dishearten her. "I also looked up references of your name, 'Amissus.' But I only found a few hoof-fuls, all unrelated to one another. She passed him a sheet, to which, again, he did not react. "They varied in names of spies, cult leaders, farmers, soldiers, and others." She paused, looking through her remaining findings.
Amissus magically lifted a book from the upper portion of the stack, flipping through it. He flipped through it once, set it down, and took another, doing so with each other book in the stack.
"Amissus…I know you can't read Equestrian Script but-"
"No. Why isn't there anything specific?"
"Well…I looked the library over and didn't find anything specific." She was glad that he'd spoken.
"Where's the legend you said was so important? The one you became excited over?" He asked, all books put aside.
"I don't have a copy here. There are few in Canterlot, but those are the only ones." She looked again through her papers and threw them into the air. They fluttered down in a flurry of disappointment that they weren't relevant.
"Then why not make more copies?"
"It's too risky to make copies of such fragile books, even the plain script. Exposure for that long could destroy them."
"Twilight…are there a number of books from a certain time that're rare to come by?" He began to suspect…
"Well of course. There aren't that many from a few years ago, but that was from a massive printing error. Thankfully we have the newer books of the same information, but not a lot of the originals still exist. Then there's a gap in Equestria's early years. But that was so long ago it may be just the age."
"What about that myth, that legend. Does the original copy still exist?"
"Surprisingly, yes; it's in the wing where all the original manuscripts and a few very rare books are kept. What're you trying to get at, Amissus?"
"Twilight, I don't know why, but I have a feeling that the books relevant to this problem of mine are lost in that first gap; and I think that it was intentionally meant to be that way."
"Amissus, I had a rough time believing you could to be from a different time, being an alicorn and all, but that was almost two thousand years ago."
"Two…thousand?"
"There's no censorship in Equestria, there's never been. Not even that long ago."
"There's nothing to do until I can see that myth you keep telling me about."
Twilight pushed aside the books and let the oration they shared end. Then she looked him down and asked, concern in her voice,"What happened to your wing?"
"I fell while Rainbow Dash was taking me to Sugar Cube Corner."
"Don't tell me you got stuck in the rain?"
"We did."
"Awful rain; the branches of the library nearly fell out."
"Rainbow said that all the rain was an accident."
"What about your wing? Doesn't it hurt?"
"I stopped noticing it until you made me land on it again out there." The hostility leaked into his voice again.
"I actually may be able to fix that." She looked over to a shelf and pulled a book to them. Amissus read the cover as Twilight looked through it: Arcane Bodies and Repair. He suddenly tensed and worried that she would actually try to 'repair' him. "Here it is: 'Wing Mending.'"
"Twilight…you don't have t-"
"Shh! I'm concentrating." She said as her horn sparked to life with a layered lavender glow. "'Lighter than the feathers that cover, stronger than the winds that it conquers.'" She began to read, the room filling with a smell that made one's nose turn up. "'The wind hath conquered and the feathers have fallen. The power that has taken will have given better.'" Amissus's bonds were released; he stood but didn't try to run, curious if this would actually work. The open books on the floor rustled their pages as the air was tossed around them. "'From the sky, it will give. To the sky, you will go.'" Amissus felt his wings being pulled outward, stretching them until the bones in the broken one cracked, but no pain was felt. "'Reestablish your link to the sky!'" Amissus felt heat on his wings as they glowed white and faded in red. After the glow faded, they fell to numbness and their natural color. The air calmed and the smell subsided. He felt his wings against his sides as they mindlessly folded, although he couldn't feel them. "Did it work?" She asked.
"Yeah, it worked." He looked to her face of satisfaction. "Thanks…" He was hesitant to give her more to pride herself on, seeing as she'll seek pride in that he didn't run away this time. She closed the book, now standing and stretching. "Twilight, why do all this for me?"
She turned her eyes to him with a questioning gaze. "Why wouldn't I?"
"I'm a complete stranger to-"
"You were a complete stranger." She felt need to correct him.
"-but nothing about the past few days has convinced me that I'm deserving of any of this, what you all have done for me."
"Is this appreciation I'm hearing?" She teased him, trying to play it off with humor.
"In a way; I still don't understand why. If someone came to me the way I did to you, I don't think I would've let them stay around for more than a day. Yet it's been almost a week that you've let me stay."
"It's just our way of life. We help others, no matter what."
Amissus fell to silence; He had no rebuttal to such philosophy. His mind was strained and he didn't want this problem of his to loom anymore, his body sagged from the thought of the enormity of it. He wished there only was a way to get closer to it, to know where to seek the answer. Even with Twilight's help, there was no more an idea or theory than there was before. Amissus felt the comforting wrap of Twilight's hug, which he accepted without realizing. The unwanted grasp of hers was better than the disorientation of his reality and memories, this one mare among her friends and with this town could be his haven, just until he knew.
"You might as well stay with us tonight and go to Rarity's tomorrow." She said as he was released. He nodded with agreement, feeling nothing coming to his voice to protest.
…
"Are you sure you don't want to sleep in the loft with Spike and I?" Twilight asked as the dragon, who had come many minutes later after their 'sit-down,' sleepily marched into the loft without acknowledging Amissus and barely acknowledging Twilight.
"I'm fine down here, Twilight. I'll make do."
"As always." She mumbled. "Night!" She shut the door at the top of the stairs, leaving her separated from Amissus for the remainder of the night.
Amissus sat near the staircase where he and Twilight had talked, huddled in a quilt he was given by Twilight. It smelled of her and Spike, inclining Amissus to leave it loose around his neck so he wouldn't have their scent accompany him into sleep. He kept a candle lit beside him as he read through Twilight's books she had brought down for him during their talk. It really was leading nowhere, as they had concluded earlier. He set the book aside and rubbed his eyes with quilt-covered hooves. The night took hold of him and began to drag him into the beginning stages of sleep. The dancing light from the candle lulled him even further.
But some of this light did not dance, nor did it shine as a flame did; it was dull and negated in its attempted illumination. Amissus, not wanting to take his sight from this oddity, used magic to suffocate the candle's fire. As it grew weaker, the light ahead was becoming clearer. It was something resembling a mist in the way it moved, only the edges visibly violet while the remaining interior was akin to the night. The void in the center formed lines of light and shaped a pony's head. It emerged through and what was left of its figure, assuming it had any remaining, was still in its mist. Eyes opened, full of white, to match Amissus's watch, the form stayed flowing and waited. As for the intent it had, Amissus feared. Letting this event go to waste, Amissus wouldn't accept.
"What do you want?" Amissus asked across the room, hoping the entity would respond.
It did not.
"Are you a spirit?"
"I am." It spoke with no mouth, the voice bounced and growled around the room.
"Are you here to speak with me, then?"
"I am."
Amissus fell to silence in hopes that it would continue speaking.
It did not.
"Are you going to talk?" He asked with a sense of beckoning.
"Do I have the permission?" It spoke in unchanging tone.
"I would assume so." Amissus said, confused.
The spirit and its mass of light and darkness moved closer, until it was at the center of the room; its darkness had consumed the table and bust into itself.
"You are searching for answers." It told him; something which was quite obvious.
"What would you know of it?" Amissus groaned, doubting the authenticity of this spirit's purpose.
"You cannot find the answers here, not on these lands. Its head will again and again turn away from you, refusing to speak."
Amissus quickly tucked his head away from the spirit and into the quilt, already tired of its vagueness. "What are you trying to say?"
"Do you understand?"
"No, I don't! It's deep into the night, I'm tired, and I certainly can't find a damned break in anything I do."
The spirit made a noise; a stifling series of sounds in what Amissus could only assume was a laugh.
"The magic mare certainly is your best friend in this endeavor."
"You mean Twilight?" Amissus asked, unsure of the spirit's conveyance.
"But more importantly, she will be a key to the best source of what you seek if the head refuses you."
"A key to where? What head?"
"In a city with the sun itself, there is that which will tell you what the brightest light will not. Of it, I do not know. I only know of its capacity."
"And I need Twilight to get it…or…or to it?"
The spirit didn't respond, not affirming nor denying his interpretation. This vagueness irritated Amissus further.
"And what of the others then: her friends?"
"The others' importance is trivial. I only know that that mare is the key to what you want, in the city with the sun."
"Do you have those answers yourself?"
"Of what?"
"Of me, that's what I want answers for!"
"Of you? Do you not know of your own lives?"
"'Lives?'" The spirit again fell to silence. Amissus was piqued. "Do you have anything further to say?!" The spirit kept its tongue. "Answers to who I am!" Amissus shouted, infuriated.
"Now is not the time for answers, only time for rest."
"Then leave! I have nothing further to ask you."
"Did I not tell you what you wanted to hear?"
This time Amissus became silent out of anger hoping that copying the spirit would cause it to become as irritated as he was.
"I lead you to your answers. I am knowing, but of you, nobody would know. Only the unliving may have memory of you and only may."
"The unliving?"
"That which could be eternal. I take my leave from you." The spirit's head lowered as if bowing then began to shrink. The table and bust were released and its darkness was consumed by the compressing edges of light. Only a prick of violet shone before the night's dark replaced the air in the spirit's absence; leaving Amissus unsure of what to make of the encounter.
Amissus's ears tuned to the noise of dying night: crickets grinding the night away with their legs and birds' awakening chirp songs. He stared out the window to the faint orange of a rising sun. He pressed his eyelids together and relaxed himself. When he opened his eyes again, he felt rested and awake. The encounter must've been a dream…or maybe Amissus wasn't as tired as he originally thought. But somehow it was morning, and morning leaves a new day open to him-
"Amissus, are you awake down there?" he heard from upstairs, Twilight seemingly was as awake as he was. "I thought I'd show you a few places today that would help you see Ponyville in a new light."
-a new day open to them.
He watched her descend the stairs and turn her head to where he sat. "Amissus, did you hear?"
"I can't." He said a little louder than he meant to.
"You can't; and why not?" She was shocked by his response and stopped at the bottom step.
"Just…give me today off. I'll go to Rarity's on my own tonight, but, please, I can't." He unraveled the quilt around himself and stood facing her.
"I don't think it'd be smart of me to let you go on your own so soon."
"Just today; it's only today, Twilight." He was becoming upset as she seemed to be reverting to her imprisonment of him.
"What if you pass out and nopony's there, what then?"
"I…" Amissus hadn't thought about his ailment for a while. "Fine, let me have this morning to myself and I'll come back."
"Where are you going that I can't come?" She sounded as if offended.
"Nowhere! I just want a couple of hours to myself!"
"And I don't want you to hurt yourself!"
He stomped his hoof. "What harm could come to me that you haven't already caused?!"
Twilight narrowed her eyes in irritation and turned her head away from him, looking off into the distance of the wall. He took the pause to march across the library and leave. As he closed and left the door behind, he heard a frustrated yell erupt from that tree and the door of that tree fling open.
"Amissus, get back here!" She yelled so loudly that it caused the birds in the library's branches to fly off.
Amissus did stop, but only to yell back "Why?! I'm through talking to you!"
"This isn't how this is supposed to go!" She began following him.
"Forgive me, princess, for not obeying thy command!" He mocked her sense of authority. He continued onward through the streets. "And just how is this supposed to go?"
"I don't know! Maybe spend some time with us, find out we're not so bad, then we…" She trailed off her sentence.
Amissus stopped, after she trailed off, in a clearing, the town on one end of the road and winding off towards the forest at the other. He stood tall against her, even if they both were the same height, staring at her. The birds' chirping returned during his stand. She was poised against him, attempting to match his stance with limited but acceptable success.
He then spoke softly but dauntingly. "You think that your plan is so very well thought out don't you?" He paused, as if waiting for her reaction, then continued before one could be applied. "I must admit, it is clever how I can meet all of you in less than a week with your plan. But you didn't think about one thing, one thing that made your plan impossible."
"And what would that be?" She spoke much more sharply than he did, each word like a knife.
"I hate you all." He admitted harshly. "From the first day I thought that I was captured and imprisoned; and for the first few days, that's what it felt like. Your forced friendship is meaningless to me. For once Twilight, realize who you're dealing with: I'm not like you or this town. I don't know who I am, but I'm for sure not that."
"Being cynical doesn't make you right."
"Nor does having the world on your side make you right."
"So what am I to do, Amissus? Just let you walk off at your leisure? Only to find out that your body had to be buried in an unmarked mound somewhere in the countryside and live with that knowledge? That I let somepony die; an alicorn, no less?! Amissus, I've taken care of you not for one week, but almost a full month. I don't know why I didn't just take you to the hospital, but something told me that they'd do no better. I wrote the Princess what happened and she told me to hold on to you and try to revive you. I succeeded, Amissus. I am the reason you're alive right now, and I'm for sure going to make sure that my effort isn't wasted."
"It's not that easy, mine isn't your life to control." He paused, realizing something else she said. "You told your Princess about me? What did you tell her?" He feared that there could be more like Twilight.
"I only wrote to her that I'm taking care of a pony that fell unconscious at Fluttershy's door and that you refused to wake up. There was no mention that you were…alicorn."
"Wait…" Amissus looked around the road and the surrounding clusters of trees. "I remember that road…I walked to Fluttershy's from over there." He began to gravitate towards the road over the field that separated it from the road they stood on.
"Amissus, what now? You're not just changing the subject are yo-"
"Shh, Twilight." They eventually made it to the side of the road he remembered. He looked towards town where he spotted the cottage. He turned to face…the forest. "Walked through there?" He had lifted his hoof and drew a line through the air from the cottage and along the road to the forest.
"You…walked through the Everfree?"
"I couldn't have. I walked through a grove but I didn't go through a forest that thick…I don't think."
"The Everfree does strange things, you probably were another victim-" She hesitated. "-a lucky victim."
"I walked for two days to get here, never had I seen that." He remembered walking through the Everfree after leaving Discord. He still remembered the fake ruins there, the disappointment coming back. He began walking parallel to the forest and the town towards the mountain with the city inlaid into it. "That's another problem of yours, Twilight: You never asked me how I came here." He told her as she followed. She only looked away from him with resentment.