Castlevania Equestria: Paralogue 7: Grimoire Tidings

Trish really dislikes his useless feeling. The longer his teammates are gone with him hearing nothing, the more the feeling builds, and they've been gone quite a bit of time on their separate assignments...which has left him restlessly productive. Part of him had considered taking a trip to Rusty's house to visit his family, force himself to relax for a day. But like all changelings, his family emotionally perceptive, and they'd know he was bothered all day...there would be no rest for anyone, just mountin agitation at their shared uselessness. So today he was forcing himself to strike out and find something new. The Canterlot Archives-usually a place he usually avoided for the mere reason it was easy to get lost in there for days and days. Even an avid reader thirsting for knowledge like himself would take a lifetime to know all the information held within-however today he had a specific focus. Demonology...what little he had not been able to glean. He was able to trace, if only faintly, the energies surrounding demons, based of just familiair smells from Abby. However, like any creature, each Demon had a particular scent, and the best way to track these things was to expand his knowledge on them. As he pushes open the door to the Canterlot archives, he shakes his head as he remembers his attempts to get Sin to share at least some of her knowledge. She had been evasive at first, but then he shortly came to realize she was just really bad at explaining things. Definitely not an optimal teacher. That had been a dead end-it seemed that the shadow magics she used to track her quarry were something she had a natural aptitude for, not something that was taught easily. He had resigned that school of magic to dead and moved on. He did know that knowledge on demons was not unlike demons themselves, rather uncommon and of little concern, because demons were no longer a large PROBLEM in the common age as they had been in previous eras of Equestria's past. He actually found it a little irksome, given the propensity of certain races to bide their time until they could strike-as much as he was loath to admit it, that is what his Changeling grandmother had done. No one expected the Changeling coup and that's why it had ALMOST worked. "Darkhold...Danger Novels...Daring Do...Dancing...Daemonology. Hah." He stops as he turns to eye the tucked-away section. "MMmmmm this will take a few days..." he murmurs to himself as he eyes the selection. As to be expected, a few of the Grimoires are locked away, only to be accessed with the assistance of a higher wizard or the monarchs themselves. "Let's see what tidings you have for me..." he says as he uses his magic to start sorting multiple shelves for knowledge. Within a half an hour he has compiled both a reading list, and five stacks for different subjects. The smallest stack is on demon summoning, that's for light reading to gain some insight on their enemies, not to...practice it. He drops his quill down and pulls the first book of the first stack toward him opening it. It was the largest one, with a general history of Demon summoning-he skimmed it before, and it looked promising... As the quiet minutes go by, a little tic starts to form on his brow, and it's clear he's just reading the same paragraph...after a moment, he fixes his glasses, looking up at one of the nearby shelves. "I can tell you're there, please stop staring at me. If it's the mane, it's natural. If you're an assassin, let's stop outside, this is a library and they need to be quiet." Hiding from a changeling never really will be much of option, it tends to only work if you're dead, emotion-sensitive as they are. Trish's quarry, a hooded, robed pony with a pronounced shake, wobbles from around the corner, head drooped. "I am sorry. You've been busy, there...I didn't know a good time to cut in..." the person sounds like a rather aged stallion. "True, but hanging about prevents me from working at all..." Trish says as he crosses his hooves, eyeing the stallion. The thing doesn't seem much of a threat...although the hood is odd...looking closer, he CAN see some scars on the visible muzzle. "What can I do for you?" "Well...I don't know..." the pony draws close and looks at the piles of books around, before blurting out. "I am sorry, forgive me, I've been following you for a while! I....I've...your friends...I think they're your friends? I saw you with them...." he raises his head to blink at Trish, before pulling off his hood. Sure enough, the stallion looks like he hugged a bonfire-his face is covered with a variety of burn scars, healed, but still bad. The fur is growing back in patches... "I'm sorry...I should start with the beginning..." the pony huffs as he plops down. "I'm from Vanhoover-the outskirts, we lived in a nice, quiet neighborhood...I worked in the city..." he starts, his eyes quickly welling up. "I was working late one night...I shouldn't have...if I hadn't been pulling the overtime..." he closes his eyes as he pauses. "I had a wife and daughter. Had. They were already in bed...waiting for me to get home...when I got there, the entire neighborhood was on fire...and my house..." he raises his hooves as tears stream down his face. "I tried. The fire department told me to get out of the wreckage but I had lost it. If they were still in there, I needed to TRY...but they were gone. It didn't matter." Trish stares as the stallion shudders. Could this really be...one of the victims of their fiery perpetrator from Vanhoover? "....I...we all thought it was just some crazy arsonist, but...that many fires at once...and that late at night? I was suspicious, and the police...they weren't doing anything...and they just kept happening, no evidence was ever even FOUND of petrol, matches...anything...I work at an arcane college you see, nothing impressive as Canterlot, but..." the stallion rubs his face as he sighs. "Everyone expected it. That I'd cracked, after losing my family. But I KNEW something was up. And I was RIGHT!" he shouts triumphantly before placing a hoof over his mouth, looking around. Trish just smiles weakly as the stallion lowers his voice and continues. "Your friends. They came to town. I mean...I knew there had to be something up-A crystal pony, a zombie-looking pegasus, and priest-looking guy-I saw them together and figured they had to be here looking into something...I'd lost my job at that point...so...I figured I might as well follow them...and...and..." the stallion swallows as he looks at Trish hallowly. "I saw him." "Reddish stallion, fiery mane, some sort of pyromancer?" Trish says as he stands, eyeing the stallion. "Exactly that. Talking a lot of noise-I didn't really catch what was said-I was hoping your friends would fight him, it WAS a three on one-but then he went all fiery and...and I think they decided it wasn't a good idea..." the stallion trails off before stomping a hoof. "We need to STOP him! I don't care if you want to help me or not...but...but I REALLY need your help, if you're willing! Please, I'm begging you...if you all are planning to stop him...I want in...I followed you here to Canterlot, but you all..disappeared into a wall?" he seems a little confused, but...that was how they hid the headquarters. Trish sighs softly and fixes his glasses. He wasn't SO foolish as to believe everyone would be unobservant to them. "We do in fact have an organization, and we are planning to take this demon-infused stallion down. However he is more dangerous than you know, and to keep the rest of Vanhoover from a fiery end, we have to handle the situation very carefully. My associates are currently working on this." Trish definitely admires the fortitude and effort this stallion his put in to get his revenge. He understands how important family is... "What's your name sir? Mine is Trish." "Armin...nice to meet you finally Trish...heh..." the stallion says as he shakily takes Trish's hoof, before hugging him. "Thank you...thank you, I...can't tell you how long I've been angry about my family's killer, the thought that we're finally doing something...my goodness..." he says hoarsely. The hug took Trish by surprise, but at least he can tell the stallion is genuine. "We will do everything in our power. I would be very happy if you could join our organization, but I will have to check with my associates first. I may be...de facto leader of our organization, but I still want to maintain a slight image of democracy, heh..." Trish says as he fixes his glasses. "For now...professor...how about you help me glean some knowledge from these books, so I know what we're dealing with?" he says with a slight smile, sliding Armin over an apple as he plops back down. "We have a while yet til my comrades get back, we can yet busy ourselves." Armin pulls over his stack, grinning with a newfound resolve at the perhaps-too-big pile. "We're a team now, let's...do this thing!"