Friends Forever Issue 4

My Little Pony: Friends Forever #4 is the fourth issue of IDW Publishing's My Little Pony: Friends Forever comic series. In the issue, Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor team up to catch a ghost that haunts the Crystal Empire palace.

Summary
At the Golden Oak Library, Twilight Sparkle packs up for a trip to the Crystal Empire. With Princess Cadance away, Twilight hopes to spend some quality time with Shining Armor and reminisce about their childhood days of playing "monster trackers". She leaves Spike and Owlowiscious to look after the library while she's gone.

When Twilight arrives at the Empire, however, she is greeted not by Shining Armor but by two members of his royal court. They escort Twilight to the palace, and Twilight sees her brother, looking considerably stressed, in a meeting with the rest of the royal court. As Shining Armor greets Twilight, the palace librarian Lexicon speaks up. He mentions a recent string of strange occurrences in the palace: moans in the hallways, the sound of rattling chains, glowing eyes, and books disappearing from the library. Twilight says that sounds like the crystal ghosts mentioned in her monster-pedia, upsetting the members of Shining Armor's royal court.

Shining Armor assures his staff that crystal ghosts aren't real and apologizes to Twilight for being too busy to spend time with her. Twilight understands and agrees to wait in her room for his meeting to finish. As she waits, Twilight nods off to sleep and has a dream of when she and Shining Armor looked for monsters as foals. While she sleeps, something snatches her monster-pedia. The members of the royal court all encounter the crystal ghost in the palace hallways and go to alert Twilight. Twilight realizes her monster-pedia is gone and decides to track the ghost down. The court members are less than eager to help; only Lexicon stays as he wants to retrieve the stolen books.

When his meeting finally finishes, Shining Armor makes his way toward Twilight's room and the panicked members of his court race past him. In the library, Twilight and Lexicon use a book as bait to lure out the ghost. Their trap is sprung and Shining Armor comes in with a net, but the ghost barely escapes. They notice rope leading under the bookcase and deduce that the ghost escaped through a secret passage. Lexicon accidentally reveals the passage, and Twilight and Shining Armor follow it into an expansive cavern.

Twilight and Shining Armor make their way through the cave and past several traps that the ghost seems to have set for intruders. As they advance, the siblings recall their monster-tracking days and express pride toward one another over what great ponies they've grown up to become. Before long, they reach the ghost's lair and find a large, multi-legged creature with crystals jutting out of its head. Twilight and Shining Armor are puzzled to find the creature crying.

The creature notices the ponies' presence and begs them not to take him back to King Sombra, and Twilight and Shining Armor tell him that Sombra was defeated. The creature—a crystal bard—explains that Sombra captured him many moons ago and treated like a pet and slave. He discovered the entrance to the caves one day and escaped. He evaded the traps Sombra set and remained in hiding ever since. The crystal bard apologizes for stealing the books and says, with Sombra gone, he doesn't know what to do next. Shining Armor proposes finding a job and Twilight says the overdue books need reshelving.

The next day, Lexicon puts the crystal bard to work as an assistant palace librarian. Shining Armor sees Twilight off at the train station, wishing she could stay longer. Twilight says they'll always have time for each other, and if he finds another monster, she'll come running.

Quotes

 * Spike: Wow! A monster-pedia! I've never even heard of a tree goblin!
 * Twilight Sparkle: The one listed on page 33?
 * Spike: You remember the page number? That's impressive even for you, Twilight!


 * Lexicon: I'm so sorry to raise this during your visit, Princess Celestia.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Uh... I'm not Celes—
 * Shining Armor: Lex, you did promise to get your eyes checked again, right?


 * Shining Armor: Today, we're looking for wood sprites, which are listed on...
 * Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor: ...page 63!


 * Twilight Sparkle: You're not scared of ghosts?
 * Lexicon: Scared or not, something is stealing books... and they're overdue.


 * Twilight Sparkle: Does my old net mean...?
 * Shining Armor: Yes! The monster trackers are together again!


 * Lexicon: Did someone mention overdue books? ...And what are you all doing in my bedroom?


 * Shining Armor: It's getting dark. Watch out for night sprites. You know how they love trains!
 * Twilight Sparkle: Yep, they're listed on...
 * Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor: ...page 113!