Trailing along the bookshelf, I checked the titles before I picked one from the shelf. “Dangerous Equestrian Beasts and how to avoid them.” I read from the title before quickly flipping through it.
Pictures, texts... this one will be interesting. Nodding to myself, I closed the book and continued on, floating it next to me as I looked for anything else that seemed interesting.
Five minutes or so later, I returned to the corner of the library and dropped a couple of books on the small table before sitting down on the pillow, looking at the books.
One on monsters and one on trade agreements between Maretonia and Equestria.
Hmm, which will I start with?
Heh, like it was ever an actual choice. Dropping the one on trade treaties back on the table, I started to flip through the one on monsters.
Chimeras, huh?
Those are real? I'm not sure why I'm even surprised anymore. You would think that after over two years in Equestria I would be used to this kind of thing.
Chimeras did seem like something a Bond-style villain would keep as a pet, though so I made a note on my parchment before starting to read about them.
“Good evening, Lord Page.” a soft voice said and tore me from my book as I looked up in surprise at the Princess of the Sun.
“Oh... good evening, Princess.” I answered and did a small bow before I sighed. “And I wish you wouldn't call me that.”
She smiled at that. “You earned that title. Without your actions a lot of ponies might have died.” She glanced around and moved closer, lowering her voice. “That's more than the majority of the nobility can say.”
Sighing, I nodded. “It just feels... pretentious. Lord, lord of what? I don't even have any land to be lord over.”
Celestia moved up next to me and peered at the book I was reading with a faint smirk. “That could be easily arranged.”
When will I learn to watch my damn mouth!?
“...Forget I said anything...”
“What are you reading?” the Princess asked as her horn ignited and she started to look through the books I had gathered on the table.
Shrugging, I flipped the book on dangerous equestrian beasts over so she could rear the title. “Just doing some research. Right now, I'm basically picking anything that sounds like it might be interesting and might cause some inspiration. My plan is to write a spy novel, but I quickly realized that I don't know enough about Equestria and the other countries to be able to pull it off. So... research into basically everything. But even so, I might just... not make it about Equestria or one of the other countries and just do a bunch of worldbuilding.”
“Spy?”
I nodded. “Secret agent, beat the bad guy, get the mare, look amazing in a suit while doing it. Not realistic, but it should be a fun read. But trying to write it revealed exactly how little I know about my new world. So I'm researching the hell out of it.”
Celestia earflicked and nodded slowly. “I see.” she noted before she got up and disappeared into the stacks.
I spent a moment looking after her, debating whether to follow her or not before deciding against it and returning to my book.
It didn't take more than a couple of minutes before the Princess returned. “I believe these would interest you.” she said with a smile, putting a pair of books on the table. “One is a autobiography of Steel Heart, one of the generals during the last war with the griffins, some two hundred years ago.” she explained and continued; “It is... somewhat true, but I would take the contents with a grain of salt. The good general had a tendency to exaggerate. But even so, the major events really happened even if his own involvement might have been less than he wrote down.”
Picking it up in my magic, I nodded and turned it over to check the title. “Iron Struck.” I read before I nodded. “Thank you, Princess.”
“The second one is a travel guide.” she continued, giving the thinner but wider book a poke with her hoof. “It is reasonably factual and includes all lands around Equestria as well as all parts of Equestria itself, though being almost fifty years old some part may be out of date. However, if I were you I would skip the chapter on the zebra lands, her writings and opinions in that section were strongly colored by a bad experience she had there.”
“Thank you. This is exactly what I was looking for!”
Celestia smiled and shifted her wings. “I know this library better than anypony but the librarians and possibly my student. It comes with old age and sleepless nights.”
...That made sense. How could it possibly have been to do this alone? Raise the sun and moon, every night raising the moon, looking at the image of her sister which she had been forced to banish? Every night?
As bad as it was for Luna... I think Celestia might actually have had it worse. She felt the entire passage of time, Luna didn't remember much about the time on her moon.
Celestia felt every year and lived with the guilt of what had happened.
I would have problems sleeping too.
I nodded and flicked my ears. “I see. Guess you would know where all the best books are.”
Celestia nodded and sat down across from me. “How is my sister?”
Blinking in slight surprise, I shrugged. “She is well. Excited for the Winter Solstice.”
“Mmm, I gathered the same. What do you think of it?”
Shrugging again, I smiled. “It sounds like it will be rather nice. I'll help where I can, but it's a lot of stuff that needs to be done. At times I do feel a bit in a way, but I think it's good for Luna to have a celebration that's not aimed at running away from her.”
Celestia sighed. “Nightmare Night. After... the banishment of Nightmare Moon, I went into seclusion for a few hundred years. When I returned, I found that the ponies had made a holiday of her banishment. I debated banning it, but it was already integrated into our culture.”
“I see. Two hundred years... yeah, that would be difficult to change.”
“I managed to moderate it, at the very least. The version eight hundred years ago was quite a bit... darker than the fun holiday of candy and games for children. Even so, it is not my favorite holiday.”
...Fully understandable.
Really liked this chapter, especially the light bonding with Celestia. Despite it being over something a tad depressing, at least the books for his spy novel is a plus :3
I do like how quickly and consistently this updates, but why always between 1 AM - 4 AM?
6808983 Bond? James Bond?
Nice chapter, good work.
A good "realistic" spy novel is exactly what Rainbow Dash need to read, it will fuel her paranoia of spy to no end!
It was a good read, but I find that it cuts off at an acouward moment.
6809238
No, she needs a spah novel.
img07.deviantart.net/b6e5/i/2011/328/5/c/it__s_a_spah_by_thetig3r42-d4h5tik.jpg
This is looking good. Can't wait for more.
Ah…nothing like see some family bonding, its good to see the 2 of them chatting, for how things went last story I though he and Celly might had a bit of a tension problem.
Maybe next time he could bond a bit with Cadence
His main character can be a Changeling. Hurry along that societal integration by casting a Changeling in the good guy role
OOooooh! I LIKE that idea
He'll have to also introduce the music of the Bond movies into the society somehow, too--who can imagine reading any of Ian Fleming's work and NOT think of the tunes these days?
6809120 Fun fact for today: Ian Fleming actually was a spy during WW2.
6810571 He also wrote Chitty Chitty Bamg Bang with Roal Dahl. The same guy who wrote Matilda and James and the Giant Peach.
6810642
Not only that, but Bond was actually based off of a real-life double agent that tricked the Nazis into funding a spy ring that didn't exist.
I can't remember his name offhand.
I only know about this because of a program that sometimes appears on AHC called Secrets of WWII.]
Actually, it's on right now ironically.
6874927
Fairly certain that his code name was "Garbo."
Huh. Earflick is a verb? When did that happen?
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Earflick became a verb when mlp made it a verb
6810307
What better casting for a spy could there be, than one who could be anyone, anything? It's perfect.
Don't you just love those elements of harmony? Though I personally believe their use by Celestia was simply a plot hole the show makers could not have filled. They had to have some way to banish Luna to the moon, otherwise the entire Nightmare Moon incident at the first two episodes would have to be deemed non-cannon. But having the elements do what they did must have affected both of them, and the way the elements simply cleanse Luna at the series opener is an ultimate slap in the face for both Luna and Celestia.
7505396 True, but you also can throw in that they no longer embody harmony. The elements only made do with the alicorns and just launched luna to the moon, but when a "pure" embodiment came it can crush all powerful demons and cleanse depression.
Well, I take back my last comment XD
7967972
lel
Actually, that's probably the best explanation as to why Nightmare Night came to be. I never do like those fics where Celestia basically starts the holiday. Why in the hell would she commemorate the day she was forced to banish her sister?!
Personally, I blame the fucking nobles.
7928711
Or that Celestia wasn't able to use the elements to the fullest potential since she only truly represented half of the Elements so the Elements sent Luna to the moon since they weren't capable of cleansing her.
Um... that sentence didn't make sense. Did you accidentally omit a word or two? Consider re-phrasing it.
7505396
ah, but in using them for evil, they stopped being harmony and became Elements of Disharmony. betrayal, lies, selfishness, cruelty, dieing of laughter. it is why the built in failsafe activated and they destroyed themselves to be reborn as ponies.
FUCKING SWEET
9817132
That video is hilarious.
Celestia the booknerd that was a nerd before book were invented...
Heh, I remember this one story which revealed how Celestia reacted to the victory celebrations when Nightmare Moon was banished...
It was not pretty, to say the least. Something along the lines of "Pray tell, what is there to celebrate? That I had to banish my own sister?!"
10963668
Imagine the crickets
9094998
Reborn as ponies? Is that what you got from the whole the elements being inside them thing? I'd always thought that it referred to the fact the Elements of Harmony were each inside of everypony. Though not in equal measures obviously. I mean because then anypony would be able to use the orbital friendship laser....
They key to Bond stories are the Changelings!
They are spys after all! Give them a 30% cut of the earnings and the Changelings will make profit and be able to write a lot of awesome stories!
Changling writers would be a amazing harvesting ground!
It would be renewable as well! It is difficult, but reliable to make many stories again and again!
Wondering why he referred to Celestia as princess?
In public it makes sense, but in the library?
James Bonds charm is for me the gadgets mostly, also the one liners
11894577
He's just being polite and showing respect to her. He's currently just dating Luna at this point, so isn't even technically family yet.
Don't forget, Shining Armor actually is married to their "niece" so technically IS family, but still calls Celestia and Luna "Princesses" NOT "aunties".