Previously...
He sat there, deep in contemplation, until his eyes slowly closed, and a brief sleep took him.
Our story continues
…
Zach opened his eyes to the soft moaning of winds sweeping through nearby woods and over hillsides. It wasn’t quite the howl of a gale, but it was an unnerving sound all the same.
He was in an open field at the beginning of a deep valley nestled between two mountain ranges, not a single familiar landmark anywhere to identify where exactly he was. Looking to either side of himself, there were mountains in the distance that gave the impression he could reach out and touch them. Trees coated the countryside just ahead, in the valley far below him. Looking closer, the valley was much further below him than should have been physically possible.
Everything was drenched in a menacing hue somewhere between crimson and deep, vibrant purple.
With a curious hoof, he reached out towards the mountains. Hoof hit stone, and he eyed his forehoof, the mountain it was touching, and the forests that were somehow miles below him in the valley. Despite his brain telling him this was perfectly acceptable, there was a part of him that knew this wasn’t right, everything about this was wrong.
Zach pulled his hoof away and looked to the base of the mountain, noting where it connected to the trees, the valley, the many fathoms deep that the valley ran; it all stretched to a point of absurdity.
Looking to the sky, his eyes were met with the dominating presence of a moon that wasn’t his own. The visage of a horned equine’s head was scorched into the pocked surface. As if that and everything else weren’t unusual enough for him, a vortex of what he could only assume was magic surrounded the celestial object.
The swirling colors that surrounded the moon were nebulous, cloud-like, but in some places held a consistency like dye dropped into a glass of water. All of the mass churned around with violent vigor around the glowing celestial orb like something out of a science fiction movie.
“Huh, that’s interesting.” He mouthed the words, but no sound left his lips. ‘Oh, right, dreaming… obviously. At least its more obvious this time. I hate the realistic ones that have me sitting and playing videogames. Those ones suck, I can play videogames anytime I want; I don’t want to dream about videogames.’ Zach shrugged and opened his mouth to say, “Well at least the moon looks neat.”
Neat? The moon voiced its wordless displeasure at such a simple-minded and worthless term.
Zach sighed and rolled his eyes at that, ‘The magical vortex moon is cool and scary and all, but, I think I’m gonna call this quits and wake up now.’ He closed his eyes shut, keeping them shut as tight as he could. It was an old trick he’d learned when he was younger, the fastest way to get out of a nightmare.
He’d open his eyes and wake up, be back in Derpy’s house, or back home, whichever, whatever, he didn’t care as long as he ducked out of whatever unpleasantness his subconscious had for him. Or whatever Luna had for him, as insane as that sounded.
Except, when he opened his eyes, he was not back in Derpy’s place. Nor was he home.
A frighteningly familiar and scowling black alicorn stood face to face with him; there was barely the space enough for a breath to fit between the two of them.
His heart pounded with enough intensity that he was convinced it would have leapt from his chest had it not been stuck behind his ribcage. His eyes wide with fear, he tried to speak, only to find his lips were sealed shut. Zach struggled to shut his eyes again, only to find them unable to close; his eyelids were forced to stay open by some manner that caused no small amount of discomfort.
Nightmare Moon’s eyes were staring directly into his; brilliant, blue, slitted eyes, glowing with a beautiful light that stood out against the mare’s impossibly black coat. Said coat, by contrast, seemed to absorb any light that shone upon it and refused to give any sheen. Even the darkest of hairstyles back home would reflect light of some kind, but not hers; her color looked like it was absence of light altogether.
Just behind her, the moon now took the appearance of an eye, mimicking the Alicorn’s eyes, and it was staring right at him. The stars, too, were replaced with eyes: hundreds, thousands, decorating the void with their uncanny presence. All were staring at him just like the moon was, shining in stark contrast to the blackness that surrounded them.
When Nightmare finally spoke, no words left her lips, nothing he could hear. Instead, Zach felt her words, deep within his mind. Her unspoken voice was like the bow of a violin, and his nerves the strings with which she played upon.
“I suppose I can’t blame you for wanting to wake up…” The mare said with a deceptively sweet tone, laced with a hint of venom. “After all, you wouldn’t want to miss such a lovely day, would you?”
An armored hoof lay upon his shoulder as the nightmare moved her face to his right. He felt her breath upon his neck as she leaned in closer, until her muzzle was to his ear.
Zach’s mind frayed with terror; growing dread was forcefully injected into every thought he could conceive from some outside force. He could only guess that it was all coming from her.
“What seems to be the matter? Does my appearance frighten you?” The dark mare taunted with the same faux sweetness she’d had before. “I think I understand… You just want to wake up and enjoy the warmth and comfort of the sun.”
Zach could see and feel the stars around him in the sky. They were, all of them, watching him; some glared daggers while others seemed to be grinning, their unseen faces mocking him while hidden behind their shimmering glow. He was unable to move, unable to close his eyes, unable to look around; he was practically frozen in place, paralyzed.
Nightmare Moon pulled away from his ear and locked her eyes with his once again. The terror intensified tenfold, as he took in the now grinning face of the nightmare. Grinning? No, the ends of the nightmare’s mouth were tearing, her mouth forcing itself open further than it could go; rows of teeth emerged from under the newly torn extensions of her maw.
The nightmare’s maw tore itself further open, revealing ever more sharp teeth inside; further and further it ripped until it went all the way down her neck. Impossible amounts of teeth glistened in the moonlight, eager to tear into him.
Nightmare let out a deranged cackle of a laugh, her voice filling every inch of Zach’s mind, “By all means, wake up, greet the morning, enjoy the day, cherish the sunlight…-”
Zach wanted to scream, he wanted to flee, he wanted to be anywhere but here.
Suddenly he found himself able to move again, the paralysis vanishing as if by the flip of a switch. He’d somehow managed to tear himself free of whatever force had held him; he took his opportunity and shut his eyes.
Nightmare appeared within the darkness under his eyelids, roaring with laughter, “-…it shall be the last time you’ll ever see it!”
…
Zach’s eyes opened, he inhaled sharply, and his senses returned. He lacked the usual drowsiness of waking up, thanks in part to him having slept earlier, but also thanks to the adrenaline now coursing through his system. There was a mild pain in his temple, mostly around his horn.
‘Uughhh… screw you Luna.’ He began thinking, only to stop and remind himself that that wasn’t Luna, that was Nightmare Moon. ‘Right, right, not Luna… She’s nightmare moon right now. Screw you, Nightmare; I can’t believe I ever thought you were a cool villain. What a bi-’
His thoughts were interrupted when a plate with a muffin sitting atop it was gingerly scooted in front of him by a gray pegasus’ wing. ‘huh?’
“Good morning, Käfer!” came the warm, welcoming voice of Derpy Hooves.
Zach roused himself, “Oh, um… Morning, Derpy.” He lightly yawned and started rubbing at his temple to help ease away the dull throbbing that was still present. “What time is it?”
“Eight O’clock, roughly.” The pegasus smiled, though the expression wavered as she looked more at Zach’s own expression. “Are you feeling ok?”
For a moment, the mild pain had Zach consider giving her a snide remark: ‘Oh yeah, super, I just feel like someone helped me get to sleep by clocking me in the head, never better.’ His conscience made him decide against it, “Yeah, I’ll be fine after I’ve gotten some coffee in my system.” He wasn’t interested in the caffeine so much as he sought the calming reassurance of the beverage itself.
Derpy’s ears tilted halfway back and she lightly frowned, “Did… did you have a nightmare too?”
Zach was halfway leaned in and about to sniff at the muffin when she’d guessed at his condition. The thought sparked some curiosity, causing him to pause and consider it. “As a matter of fact, I did.” He turned to face her and asked, “Why? Is that a big deal?”
“O-oh, well, a lot of folks in Ponyville have had some weird nightmares this past week. At first it was just affecting the unicorns, but now more and more ponies are starting to get them.” She explained.
That raised several rather concerning questions.
“Is everyone having the same nightmare?” He asked.
Derpy nodded, slowly, a serious expression on her face. Well, as serious as Zach imagined the wall-eyed mare could manage. “I think so. I’ve talked to a few ponies about it and I’ve heard a few ponies talking about it during my deliveries. I can’t remember all of it… but, I remember there’s always one specific detail about it that everypony seems to have in common.”
“Let me guess, it’s about the moon, right?” Zach posed it as a question, but he figured he was right on the money with his idea of what was going on.
“Yeah, that’s it exactly! Everyone always mentions something about the moon. Even the times I have trouble remembering things, I can remember that part. It’s always something to do with the moon, or… something in the moon, I think.” Derpy recalled. “Or… some pony in the moon…”
Zach was about to ask her why nobody here looked all that fatigued if they were all having the same nightmares, only to stop when he recalled what he knew about dreams and sleep. ‘If “Evil Moonbutt” wanted folks to remember the dreams for the sake of her ego, or to instill terror, it’s likely she gives out the nightmares during the last thirty minutes of sleep. Besides, maybe they have some kinda magic energy giving spell, like a magical can of redbull or something… eh, it’s not important.’
Nightmare Moon was never really fleshed out in the cartoon. She seemed the stereotypical ‘scary villain is scary and mean’ type and didn’t really do anything genuinely evil. The Nightmare Moon he saw in his dream felt a lot more malicious and menacing with her demeanor. Nightmare was actively trying to scare him, she wanted him to be afraid of her, and damn did she do a good job; If he weren’t so bothered by it, he’d have been impressed.
Taking the thought a step further, if she wanted to hurt anyone, she very well could do so simply by scaring people awake every time their body entered REM sleep. She could very easily cause severe psychological damage to everyone in Equestria in a very short amount of time if she wanted to, and there’d be little they could do to slow her down, let alone stop her.
‘Heck, if she wanted to go the genocidal psycho route, she could make it so they couldn’t get any sleep at all, and everyone would go “Game Over” of sleep deprivation within a week.’ Zach shuddered at the thought, ‘That would NOT be a fun way to go out…’
“What was your nightmare like last night?” He asked. While waiting for his answer, he leaned over and attempted to take a bite of the muffin without snagging any of the paper wrapping in the process. ‘What I would give to have my hands back right about now.’
The mare thought on it for a long moment before she answered, “Well, it started just like any of my other dreams, really… it wasn’t until the end where it got really scary and weird.” Derpy shuddered as she recalled the events, “I was flying home from a delivery at Cloudsdale. It was really dark… so dark out that I couldn’t see where I was flying. I don’t know how it got so dark, but, it was a dream, so I guess that explains that part… The lights were all out in Ponyville, even the water tower’s lights were out. I started to get scared, but then I remembered the moon can be used to navigate, I think!”
Her ears dipped back and she frowned before finishing her recollection, “B-but… but when I looked at the moon, there wasn’t any moon… it was this big, giant, dark face! The face had really bright blue eyes and, and, a huge mouth full of sharp teeth! It swooped forward and just… ate Ponyville!” Derpy flared her wings and jerked forward for dramatic effect. “It ate it all and just… laughed! It laughed and it ate everything; then it ate me!”
Zach blinked twice, mildly amused by Derpy’s antics, “Well, that’s uh, a bit different from my dream.” While her dream was different, it followed the same theme his did. If Derpy was to be believed (and he had no reason to doubt her) Nightmare Moon seemed to be giving everyone in Ponyville nightmares. ‘Maybe Moonbutt is going as far as giving everyone in the whole country these nightmares?’
More questions and implications, none of them good.
He leaned in towards his muffin and gave it a curious sniff. The smell of it was very enticing, unsurprisingly. Without any ability to hold the thing, he elected to break the norm and take a bite out of the muffin’s top. Zach’s eyes widened and he spoke with his mouth full of muffin, “Omf mmn, tha’sh good!”
Derpy’s expression perked up at his statement, and she smiled with agreement, “They really are! Sugarcube Corner makes the best muffins in Equestria! Believe me, I’ve tried a lot of muffins.” She paused for what felt like dramatic effect, then commented, “I… tried to make muffins once…”
‘Tried?’ Zach raised an eyebrow at the implications. He quickly swallowed what he had and asked, “Oh yeah? How’d they turn out?”
“I’m, uh… not allowed to make muffins anymore.”
He stared at her for a moment; Zach wanted to inquire as to the details of what happened, but he didn’t wish to pry. That, and he had a muffin that needed eating.
Zach took another bite, savoring it this time. The baked treat was sweet, but not dessert levels of sugary sweet. It was light and buttery and he imagined it’d pair well with some salty scrapple and scrambled eggs. ‘I’ve never had a muffin this good back home! Then again, I also don’t eat a lot of muffins… like, ever.’
He took another bite and offered a smile to the pegasus, “Best in Equestria, huh? I believe you.”
That brought out a giggle from the mare.
“So, what all else do you ponies eat?” Zach blurted out. It was a lot blunter than he intended, but he wanted to address the topic while he had the opportunity. If he was going to have to deal with a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle while in magical-midget-horse-world, he’d rather deal with that pill here and now and get it over with.
Derpy squinted her eyes with a look of confusion, “What? What do you mean? We eat regular food.”
He lightly huffed and took another bite of the muffin before rephrasing his question. “What kinds of food do you eat? Like, is it vegetables only, or..” He points his hoof to the muffin, “How are these baked? Do you make them with eggs?”
The pegasus smiled with an amused expression, looking at Zach as if he’d asked if water was wet. “Uhhh, yeah? You kinda need eggs to make most stuff in the bakery… I think… Do they bake things without eggs where you’re from?” Her tone lacked any condescending tone he would have expected in such a response back home. In fact, Derpy seemed more curious than anything else.
“Oh, no, we bake with eggs back home, it’s not that,” Zach started, “I’m wondering what your stance on animal product consumption is; aren’t ponies strictly herbivores?”
Derpy stared at him with her one cooperative eye for a good moment. The eye grew restless and wandered, forcing her to wrestle control of her other eye and focus it in. After another few moments, she opened her mouth and let out a low, “uuuhhh…” Scrunching up her face as she tried to process the question.
Zach rolled his eyes and rephrased the question, “Do you eat meat?”
Derpy cocked her head to one side, her ears dipping back, “Umm, no… why? Do… do ponies eat meat where you’re from?”
‘About what I expected, they don’t eat meat. Stupid question in hindsight. At least they aren’t super stingy on animal product consumption.’ He ran his tongue over those sharp, clearly carnivorous teeth, “Where I come from, equines are similar, but different to what you are.” Zach explained.
He considered trying to elaborate, or to try and explain that his kind were omnivores. ‘My kind? Humankind? I’m not a human anymore, am I?’ While it was true that he wasn’t a human anymore, that didn’t mean he no longer ate meat. He recalled eating the bug, how it tasted, that his mind had told him it was nourishment.
Zach couldn’t speak for other changelings, but he could at least speak for himself in that he personally didn’t see equines as food. Even when he was a human he frowned at the idea of eating equines. ‘Cows and pigs? Fair game. Horses? No.’
“Well, I don’t eat bug ponies, and I’m pretty sure nopony in Ponyville does either, so you’ve got nothing to fear!” Derpy asserted with a warm smile.
“I…” Zach started, but his train of thought had been completely derailed. His mouth hung open, words wanting to vocalize, but being stalled at the station in his head; the train had flown off the tracks and landed in a ravine somewhere. “What?”
“I don’t eat bug ponies.” The mare repeated.
“No, I heard that part, but, what… where did that come from?” He tried once more.
“Frrrom my mouth? What do you mean? Where did what come from?” Derpy asked in genuine confusion.
“No, I meant…” He paused, ‘Ohoho no, I’m not setting myself up for a “Who’s on first,” skit.’ He said in his head. Zach course corrected back to the point. “I thought you were afraid I ate ponies or something! I don’t, for the record; never have, never will.”
Derpy scrunched up one side of her face in an amused gesture, then started to laugh aloud; It was a giggly and lighthearted laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Zach asked, unsure where he’d missed the punchline.
“Oh, I know that part!” Derpy managed to get out after her laughter started to subside. “You think I’d just… let you in my house? And… and stay the night in my spare bedroom if I thought for even a moment that you might eat me?” She giggled again and added, “Come on, I’m not stupid.”
All he could do was stare at the mare with what he was certain was a dumb look plastered on his face for a good long minute.
“Käfer?” she started, a flicker of concern offsetting her otherwise happy and cheerful demeanor.
“Yeah?”
“Is something wrong? You aren’t eating your muffin.” She highlighted her point via aiming a hoof to Zach’s plate.
Zach conceded, ‘Oh, forget it. Muffin time.’ Without another word, he went in for another bite of the breakfast muffin. “Mmm, that is tasty.”
“Oh! Whoopsie!” Derpy said aloud and hopped up from her seat. “You asked for coffee, didn’t you? I don’t remember the last time I went to the store, I’ll see if I still have some around… if not, I’ll pick some up from the market when I get off work.”
Zach spoke up, despite the mouthful of muffin, “Ommff, yu donf haff…hmm..” He quickly swallowed what he had and cleared his mouth. “Mmh, damn this muffin is good. Hey, Derpy, you don’t have to get me coffee, I’ll be fine without.”
The mare was already digging through her pantry in search of coffee, only stopping to offer a quick agreement, “They’re the best muffins in Equestria!” Derpy dug a bit more, shuffling some loose cans aside, “No no, its fiiiine! You mentioned coffee, and I… uh… Darn it, I think I’m all out.”
“Not much of a coffee drinker, I take it?” It was an easy assumption to make. From his experience, one did not simply ‘run out’ of coffee if one regularly consumed the stuff.
“Not normally, no.” She cofirmed his assumption and pulled her head out of the pantry before shutting the door. “I mostly keep it for my friend, Carrot Top. Oh, and my mom! They drink coffee, but I don’t… at least, not often. Maybe every once in a whiiiile, but…” She trailed off and meandered her way back to the table while lost in her thoughts. She blinked and smiled with a light gasp once her eyes met the muffin she’d left where she’d been sitting at the table. “But first, breakfast!”
Zach blinked twice, ‘Did she really forget she had breakfast sitting there, or is she messing with me?’
As if on cue, Derpy shot him a quizzical look. “What’s the matter?”
“Did you forget you were in the middle of eating breakfast?” He asked.
The mare paused and stared at him for a moment, then looked down to her muffin. She glanced back, now with a sheepish look on her face, then grabbed the muffin and crammed the whole thing in her mouth.
The flavor of emotion that graced Zach’s tongue clicked in his mind as something along the lines of embarrassment. ‘Ok so she’s self-conscious about it. Noted.’, He let out a gentle laugh, “Hey, no worries. I know the feeling, you get up to do something and you forget what it was you meant to do, happens to everyone.”
Derpy’s ears tilted back and she looked away with a mildly flustered expression. It took her a little bit to finish chewing and swallowing the muffin. When she finally did, she looked back, her expression unchanged, “Its… uh, it’s not like that at all, actually…”
Zach got the message with a fresh sample of discouraging emotions that left a bitterness on his tongue, a good enough reason on its own to change the subject. Now was the perfect time to ask about Twilight’s Library, “Oh, hey, Derpy. Can you help me get to Twilight’s place? There’s a few things I’d like to look into, and…” He stopped, “What’s with the look?”
She was now eyeing him with her face scrunched up and he could almost see the gears turning in her head. “Who?”
He lightly sighed, “What do you mean who? You should know who, Twili- oh… right.” Zach stopped after realizing his obvious mistake. “Forget that part. The Library, you know, the one in the big tree? Do you know where that is?”
“You mean the Golden Oaks?” She offered.
“Yeah, that’s the one!”
Derpy looked down at the table and seemed to roll the name over in her head a few times, “Who’s Twilight?”
‘Right, I forgot, she’s not here yet.’ He waved off the mare’s question and got the conversation back on track. “I’ve got some things I need to look up and do some research about, can you help me get my disguise back on and show me to the Golden Oaks?”
She blinked once, her face returning to its usual cheery demeanor, “Oh, yeah! Sure! I mean, I have to get to work soon, but…” She nodded her head. “I’d be happy to help!”
Zach thanked her and took the last bite of his muffin.
…
Several minutes of frustration and accidental bumps later, Zach managed to re-equip his disguise with Derpy’s assistance. This time, a few adjustments were made to make it all look less like a jumbled mess of clothing scraps and more the part of a tangible, functional outfit. That said, the whole thing still looked on the ridiculous side, but it was less so than before.
“I appreciate the help, Derpy. I tried getting this on last night and I gave up after I got the jacket on.” Zach said as he looked himself over in the mirror. The saddlebags were gone, and instead, Zach wore a shirt under the jacket to cover the wing slots. Gone were the scarves tucked into his leg holes; he didn’t seem to need them anymore.
The leg holes had apparently diminished in their size and intensity. He didn’t notice any difference in sensation, but they were most definitely smaller. Zach’s legs had enough fullness in them to simply wear the socks on their own. ‘Is it just me, or is literally every part about being a changeling weird as hell?’ He mused.
He was able to use one of the scarves to hide his mouth, a much better use for the thing if he were to say so himself.
“Oh, it’s no problem at all! It’s pretty difficult to get outfits on without magic or wings… wait… Käfer, isn’t that a horn? Can’t you do magic like unicorns?” Her face shifted from her usual demeanor to an inquisitive one, eyeing the jagged horn jutting from Zach’s head.
“I don’t know yet, that’s one of the reasons why I’m heading to the library. I need some questions answered.” He offered his response honestly enough, figuring it answered her question without diving into unneeded detail.
Unfortunately, that only seemed to pique her curiosity. “How do you not know? Haven’t you tried to use magic before?”
Zach shook his head, “No, Derpy, I don’t, uh…” He had to choose his words carefully, “We don’t really use magic where I come from,” but even then, he was certain he was just confusing the pegasus even more. “Look, it’s complicated, really complicated. The simple answer? I don’t know; I just don’t know.”
Derpy chuckled and said, “That’s kind of a silly thing not to know, but… that’s ok, we don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
He paused and looked the mare in the eye, the one eye that she managed to keep focused on him. ‘Is she giving me an out? This feels like she’s giving me an out.’ Whether or not that was the case, he took the opportunity. “How soon can we hit the road?”
“Hmm? Oh! Right, I just need to get my bag and we can get going.” With that, the mare stepped out of the room and went down the hall.
Zach eyed his reflection one last time, making sure everything obviously “bug-like” was adequately covered up and hidden away. Satisfied with his assessment, he made his way to the stairwell and awaited Derpy.
…
The two stepped outside; Derpy turned and locked her door behind them.
“The Golden Oaks library is over on the west side of town, even my eyes can’t miss it!” She confidently asserted. A giggle broke free of her lips and she whispered, “It’s the easiest place to recognize, because it’s a big hollowed out tree.”
Zach shook his head with an amused huff, “That’ll make it easy then, lead the way.”
“Okay!” Derpy briefly pulled out her map, gave it a glance, then extended a wing to point in a direction. “West side is that way.” She tucked her map back into her pouch and set forth at a modest pace. “Off we go!”
The trip to the Golden Oaks was, thankfully, uneventful. It seemed that most of Ponyville was still waking up, there weren’t many ponyfolk out and about just yet. The ponies that did happen to be out and about were far too busy with whatever tasks they had at hand to give the duo any notice aside from maybe a passing glance.
‘Another score for the makeshift disguise, and for it being a major holiday today.’
…
A few minutes of walking later, the two came to the end of a line of houses and the street opened up into a circular junction. Sitting right at the center of the junction was a large oak tree. It was roughly the height of an oak tree from back home, but it’s overall size and shape was vastly different. The tree was far bulkier and wider than any tree he’d ever seen before by a considerable margin. There were balconies, a cohesive housing structure utilizing the larger branches as the main support beams and many of the smaller branches flattened to form into walls.
Many of the windows had been craftily carved out of the sides of the tree, rather than framed. The main entryway was its own structural component built into the side of the trunk. Out of all the components he could see, the main entrance and housing rooms seemed to be the only structures, aside from the balconies, that featured wood not shaped from the tree itself.
The structure may not have been a 1:1 replica of the building from the cartoon, but there was more than enough similarity for him to make the connection. This was the Golden Oaks library, soon to be the home of the endearing socially awkward purple book horse. It had to be.
Even if this place wasn’t the only “tree structure” in the town (which it was), he could have easily figured out this was the place. It most certainly had nothing to do with the fact that there was an ornate sign planted right next to the front door that had the name “Golden Oaks Library” engraved on it.
“Derpy,” he found himself thinking out loud, “this doesn’t look like it was ‘hollowed out’, it looks like they literally grew the tree into the shape of a building and then stuck additional structure onto it.”
The pegasus looked back at him, “Well… they still needed to hollow it out after it was done growing.” She looked back at the library, then added on, “It’s a lot easier to call it a hollowed-out tree, instead of, uh… magically grown Arballa…Arboree… umm… Arbora..” She struggled for a few moments before turning away and thinking.
Zach guessed what she was trying to say, “Arboreal construct?”
Derpy looked back, puffing out her cheeks and fluffing up in embarrassment, all while gesturing with a free hoof to punctuate her point. “See?”
“Ok, that’s fair,” Zach acknowledged, “hollowed-out tree is easier to say.”
As the two drew closer to the library, it occurred to Zach that this structure, even as large as it was, was still not nearly large enough to provide ample room to serve as a library. He felt like he was nitpicking, looking at the flaw as he was, but he couldn’t shake the thought from his head. Zach dropped it when he remembered the little detail that he was a ravenous love eating bug monster in the land of magical friendship ponies.
‘Ok, but everything else has been consistent, for the most part, so why’s this suddenly so obviously… well... wrong?’ he argued. ‘Wait, when’s the last time I actually went to a library? How would I know what a library is supposed to look like? I think I’m jumping the gun with this one.’
Derpy stepped up to the door and gave a few knocks.
‘Heck, maybe they use some kind of crazy ‘bigger on the inside’ magic or something.’ The thought made him chuckle. “That would be dumb. Practical and neat, but dumb.”
“What would be dumb?” the mare asked.
“Huh?” He blinked, “Oh, whoops, sorry; thinking out loud. Ignore me.” Zach quickly assured her.
Derpy smiled, “Ok!” She turned back to the door and patiently waited.
Zach observed as the mare waited… and waited. There was no answer from within, nor any indication anyone was in the library. He glanced to the windows for any signs of movement, but there was nothing to be seen.
The mare reached out and knocked again, but the results were the same. “That’s odd… normally there’s supposed to be somepony tending to the library by now.” She glanced back at Zach with a worried expression.
“Do you not have a librarian?” He asked, but Derpy never got the chance to answer.
“Sorry!” Came a mare’s voice from off to the side. “I was out late last night helping with some of the last-minute decorations!” Her coat was a mellowed light yellow and her mane was an earthy shade of orange.
“Oh, hi Carrot Top!” Derpy greeted the mare with a smile. “I didn’t know you were handling the library today.”
“Hi Derpy.” Carrot Top strolled right up next to her, returning the smile, “I-I’m not, actually, at least I wasn’t supposed to be. Lucky Day had to cancel for one of his weird reasons, mentioned something about having to watch out for someone, or some-thing.”
She sighed and continued. “I don’t know, he was very vague about it. Mayor Mare asked Corn Flower to cover for him, but she wasn’t able to either, oddly enough; That was a first for her. Everyone else is busy with preparing for the Summer Sun Celebration. Turns out I was the only one available, sorry I’m late.”
The pegasus took the news with a bit of pondering, “Really? That’s weird, I hope Lucky Day isn’t in trouble or anything…”
Carrot briefly dug through her bag and drew out a set of keys, holding them in her mouth as she stepped towards the door. “Ohh nuu, heesh fine,” She managed to get out with her mouth preoccupied, “heesh jush haffin hish ushuaw paranoih hooey.”
The mare fit the keys in and unlocked the Library door, releasing her keys and pushing the entry open with a hoof. “You know how Lucky Day can be sometimes. Last weekend it was the ‘Mare-in-the-moon’ and how she was going to eat our dreams, the week before that it was Vampires… or maybe Lycans, can’t remember which one he was ranting about, but you get the idea…”
Carrot stopped, pausing mid thought, before turning and looking directly at Zach. “Umm, Derpy… who’s this?”
“Oh right,” Derpy started with a giggle, “Carrot, this is my new friend, Käfer! He’s from out of town.”
Carrot Top gave Zach a once over, slightly narrowing her eyes, then said, “And he’s dressed like a ‘thrift store desert marauder’ because…?” She’d said the last word in an intentionally drawn out fashion.
Zach spoke the first thing that came to his mind, “What, you don’t like the ceremonial garb of my people?”
Carrot top recoiled and snorted in a failed effort not to laugh. “Ahahaha! Yeah, right friend, right, suuure.” She spoke with a lightheartedly sarcastic tone, then turned to Derpy. “Really though…”
The pegasus was overall confused by the display, but seemed to view it as positive, “Käfer’s nice, you’ll like him.” Derpy reassured her.
“Well, anypony with a sense of humor like that can’t be all that bad of a pony.” Carrot top admitted, “You didn’t answer my question, but that’s ok.” She then stepped into the library before stopping and looking back at Derpy, “Wait, Derpy, what’s got you coming to the library at this hour? Don’t you have work today?”
Derpy went to answer, “Oh I’m just showing my friend…” but a slow expression shift towards terror took root on her face, “I-I…I…” She deftly whipped out her pocket watch and recoiled in a panic, “Oh no! I’m gonna be late for work!”
The pegasus immediately took off in what Zach could only assume was the direction of wherever it was she was employed.
Once Derpy was out of sight, Carrot eyed Zach once again with that look of scrutiny from before. “So… would you care to explain what’s going on between you and my friend Derpy?”
Zach lightly flushed at the implications and shook his head furiously, “Oh, no, it’s nothing weird or anything like that. I was in a tight spot and needed a place to stay, she offered to have me stay with her for the time being. Once I can get on my fee… my hooves, I’ll be out of her hair.”
Her expression softened, “Yeah, that sounds like something she would do… I trust her judgement of character, though maybe not her judgement in general. If Derpy thinks you’re a decent pony, then I guess you’re ok in my book too.” She turned and went further into the library, “Well, the Golden Oaks is open now, at any rate. Feel free to browse and look around while I work, but I’m not going be sticking around for long.”
Zach took a step into the library and took in the scene. The bookshelves were carved out into the sides of the tree’s interior, just like the show, albeit far more orderly and deliberately. There were study tables and desks scattered about the center of the interior, piled high with leftover scrolls and books left behind from whoever used them last. Looking up showed the same upper levels as he was familiar with, just past the staircase.
Contrary to what he’d been expecting, the library was not “bigger on the inside”.
It was quite large still, large enough to serve its purpose as a small library, but there didn’t seem to be anything overly special about it. The Golden Oaks was just an ordinary hollowed out tree. Well, about as “ordinary” as a magical-hollowed-out-oaktree-turned-into-a-library-with-housing could be considered.
Carrot Top was busily removing the obstructions from the study desks and tables and shoving them into buckets and baskets. “Let me know if you need anything, I’m gonna tidy this place up a bit; after that, I’m out of here. Somepony from Canterlot is supposed to be arriving today for the Summer Sun Celebration, real big deal apparently. They’ll be staying here for a few nights and they’re going to take over Library duties during that time.”
Zach knew that ‘somepony’ was Twilight Sparkle, but he decided against mentioning it. Instead he spoke his mind on the library itself, “This selection seems a bit small for a library, doncha think?” Though perhaps he’d been a bit blunter than he intended.
Carrot looked at him with mild offense in her eyes, “What did you expect? Ponyville isn’t a city, we’re mostly an agricultural town. Didn’t you see all the farms nearby? You had to have at least seen Sweet Apple Acres.”
“Ok, but what if there’s a book someone’s looking for and you don’t have it stocked here just on the reason of lacking the room for it?” Zach inquired.
The mare finished clearing the tables before turning and answering, though she did so with a look that conveyed it was the last question she would have expected anyone to ask her. “No offense, but have you never been to a library before?”
He shrugged and replied evenly, “Never one that was in a tree.”
Carrot Top stopped, blinking once before offering a chuckle, “OK, I’ll give you that one.” She went over and grabbed a broom, shifting her posture to stand on her hind legs with the broom held between her forehooves. “To answer your question though: one, the Golden oaks has multiple levels and a basement where we store plenty of extra books. Two, we can always send in a request to one of the main libraries in one of the larger branches like in Canterlot if there’s reading material we’d like to swap out for. That’s not usually my job though, I’m just here as a helping hoof to keep the place tidy.”
Zach did his best to ignore the fact that the mare was walking in a pseudo-bipedal fashion as she swept the floors, difficult as that was for him to brush aside. He was here for a specific reason and he was letting himself get distracted. “How familiar are you with the books here?”
The mare stopped her sweeping to think about it for a moment, “I’d say I’m familiar enough to point out where a book would probably be, if we had it.” She shrugged sheepishly, “Like I said, I’m just a volunteer to keep the place tidy and functional, I’m not actually a librarian. Normally Corn Flower is the one who handles what book selection we have available.”
“Alright, fair enough.” He looked over to one of the bookshelves and gestured, “So which one of these would have something along the lines of a field guide to equinoid species?”
Carrot top stopped her sweeping once again and looked at Zach with a half-smile, half puzzled expression, “A field guide to equinoids? What, are you writing a thesis or something?”
Zach sighed, “Do you have the book or not?”
“No, as a matter of fact, we don’t. That’s not a book that exists.” She answered with a pinch of snark.
He rolled his eyes and muttered, “Oh you’re helpful.”
The mare set aside her broom and forced a smile, then she spoke with clear irritation, “Y’know, instead of copping an attitude and being a jerk about it, maybe you could try giving me an idea of what it is you’re looking for? I can’t help you if I don’t know what to look for.”
“Ok, fair, I deserved that.” He uttered with a bit of humility thrown into the mix, “I’m just trying to look for any information on a specific species. I don’t know if you would have ever heard of them before.”
Carrot left the broom aside and took a few steps over towards Zach, “Are we talking about mythological creatures or something?”
“That’s the thing,” he started, “I don’t know if they’re real, or if they would be considered myths or legends.”
Her curiosity was piqued, so she asked, “What’s the name of the species?”
Zach hesitated at first, but then mentally shrugged with a sigh; there was no point in not giving her the name, he doubted he’d find what he was looking for without her help. “They’re called Changelings. I asked Derpy, she says she’s never heard of them before.”
Carrot blinked twice before she furrowed her brow in thought, “Changelings? Can’t say I’ve ever heard of a ‘changeling’ either; if we take a peek at the available titles, maybe we’ll get lucky.” The mare walked over to a more ornate desk near one of the bookshelves and took out a large scroll. She unfurled the thing, eyed it over once, then twice, before sighing and rolling it back up. “Welp, no dice; we’ll have to do this the hard way then.”
“Do you think they would be considered mythological creatures? I’ve got reason to believe they’re real, but I don’t know for sure.” Zach ventured. He wasn’t being entirely honest with her, but he felt it necessary given the circumstances.
“What do they look like?” She asked, and then went on further, “Any crazy stories to associate with them that you know of? All the mythological creatures usually have weird stories.” She glanced back to look at him once, before stepping over to one of the shelves and looking through the stack of books. “It’s almost a requirement.”
‘Should I really describe them to her? If I don’t, she won’t be able to help me. Without her help, I might be stuck aimlessly searching through books with no idea what to look for. Oh, to hell with it, as long as she doesn’t see what I look like it should be fine, right?’ He took a breath and decided to take his chances. “They’re roughly pony sized insectoids, they look kind of like pony-bugs, if that makes any sense. One of the main features is that they can shapeshift; hence the name.”
“Really?” Carrot Top paused and considered what he’d just said, shuddering lightly, “Pony sized shapeshifting bugs… Well then, wow, that definitely narrows it down. I’m hoping that it’s going to be under mythology or legends, but I’m no bug expert. I’m more into plants and gardening; for all I know, those things could be real.” She paused and chuckled with slight unease, “Heck, we get weirder stories around town at least twice a month. Just last week, Vinyl Scratch swore she saw a ghost creeping around the old windmill when she was out on one of her late-night strolls.”
Zach scoffed, “Ghosts aren’t real.” Though, he felt a bit ironic in saying that, given the circumstances he found himself in.
Carrot considered him for a moment, then shook her head, “That depends on who you ask: Lucky Day, for example, would disagree. Then again, Lucky Day is a bit nutty. He’s a well-intentioned pony, don’t get me wrong, but he takes his conspiracies and myths way too seriously sometimes.” The mare turned and walked over to one of the bookshelves and started sifting through the available stack.
She picked one from the selection and open it up to what Zach assumed to be the glossary or index. “Changelings… chaaangelings…hmm.” She set the book back into its place and grabbed another one, looking through it much the same way she had the first one. “Nothing in the local field guides, thank Celestia.”
“They might be native elsewhere.” Zach suggested.
“Sweet Celestia, I sure hope not.” She grabbed a few of the books that neighbored the first one and briefly skimmed through their glossaries, one after another. “Nope, big nope… aaand nothing in this other region’s guide either. Welp, that about settles it, looks like you’re searching for a mythological creature. Now, let’s take a peek at what books we have concerning mythology and legends.”
Carrot walked over to the fictional reading material and peered through this selection of books and tomes in the same manner as she’d done previously. The more promising titles were pulled out, flipped open to their glossaries and given a once over. “Chaaaangelings… Ah, Aha!” The mare exclaimed and deftly set her current book down next to the field guides. “Found a reference to them in this one.”
Her overall demeanor reaffirmed Zach’s previous concerns regarding how ponies would react to his appearance. If the mere idea of a pony sized insectoid caused concern in this mare, well, he felt that maybe his caution thus far was warranted after all.
The mare sifted through a few more books and grabbed the ones that met the criteria, gathering them all together before taking the assortment over to one of the study tables. “Here, these all had references to your bug-pony thing in them. Hopefully you’ll find what you’re looking for in at least one of them.”
“I appreciate it.” Zach said plainly as he looked over the pile of books Carrot was neatly stacking onto the table for him. He reached out to grab one and was immediately reminded that he didn’t have hands anymore. ‘Oh, poop. Minor oversight, huh? Shoot, How am I supposed to turn the pages? How am I supposed to hold the book for that matter? Dammit, why did I not worry about this detail sooner?’
“Happy to help, just do me a favor and don’t mention anything about your bug-pony species to Lucky Day. The last thing we need is for him to get into his head that there might be a race of shapeshifting bug monsters among us.” Carrot said as she walked back over to her broom and resumed sweeping. “Can you imagine though? Sounds like something out of one of those nightmare night stories you’d tell foals to scare the living daylights out of them.”
The mare stopped her sweeping for a brief moment and laughed, “I can picture it now: Oh no, your best friend is actually a creepy giant bug monster! OooOOOooOOooOOoo! Scary!”
“Heh, yeah, scary…” Zach forced a chuckle and tried to ignore the one-way awkwardness. ‘There’s some cosmic irony at work here and I don’t like it.’ Taking his mind off of it, he ventured to see about actually accomplishing what he’d come here to do. “I hate to bother you again, but do you have a tool or something to help me with turning the pages?”
Carrot paused again and glanced back, “Why, is your horn not working?” She said in a half joking, half serious fashion.
“I’m just having some difficulty getting my magic up today.” He gave the vague excuse from off the top of his head.
Carrot Top snickered with a smirk and quipped, “I think there’s a pill for that.”
Zach blinked and squinted at the mare, “Wait, what?”
“Nothing.” Carrot hid her grin by looking away.
“Really?” He asked, not amused by her humor.
“I’m not apologizing.” The mare replied.
Eventually she looked back again and finally answered his question, “There’s little book holders over there on the wall next to you. They’re the things that look like little mini-easels.”
Zach glanced to the wall next to him and, sure enough, there they were. There were a couple of different designs between the assortment of these book-holding tools, but they all seemed to support the same basic idea. They had a core frame that held the spine of the book, a lip at the bottom to hold the book in place, and a collapsible support on the back to help prop the thing up at an angle. “They do kinda look like mini-easels, neat.”
He cast a quick glance over to Carrot and waited for when her back was turned. Zach quickly pushed aside his mask and grabbed one of the tools with his mouth, mentally gagging, then took it over to the study table that Carrot had set his book selection at. Opening Derpy’s front door was one thing, handling a wooden tool in a public library was something else entirely. ‘God, I hope Equestrians have strong immune systems… for that matter, I hope Changelings have strong immune systems. I do NOT want to get sick from some weird equestrian virus.’ His worry was forcibly set to the side as he had much more important concerns at hand.
He deftly set his mask back into place and checked to ensure he’s been successful in avoiding being seen. When it was clear that Carrot had been far too busy with her work, he sighed in relief.
Zach sat without any further ado, once more sneaking his mask off and grabbing a book off the top of the pile. ‘At least the books don’t taste dirty. They don’t taste like equine spit either, so that’s good. Wait, I don’t actually know what equine spit tastes like… OK, not thinking about that anymore.’ He slipped his mask back on and elected to just nudge the books from the rest of the pile as needed, rather than risk exposure.
First up was a book titled Tales of the Unknown: a Collection of Equestrian Myths and Legends. He hummed aloud, “Sounds promising enough.”
Zach was expecting the endeavor of opening the book to be about as difficult as lifting a toolbox lid with a pair of baseball bats, or something to that effect. Oddly enough, it was considerably easier than he expected. It took just a little bit of fitting one edge of a hoof between the two hardcover ends and then lifting. The book practically flipped open itself with how easy it was.
Turning the pages was a lot less difficult than he imagined doing with his hooves. The cloth that covered his legs actually helped in that regard, allowing him to snag the corners of the pages with the cloth fibers and flip them over. With that minor detail handled, he got to work looking through what the book of local myths and legends had to offer.
He would have liked to read through the book fully, but he had to focus on what he’d come here to handle first. Zach found what he was looking for, but it wasn’t at all what he was expecting. Then again, what had he been expecting? The story the book told in regard to changelings were obviously fabricated to a large degree. “Pony eaters? Changelings don’t eat ponies.” He said to himself as he read through the ambiguous witness testimonies. “Why would anyone believe this crap?”
The only things that this book seemed to get right were that changelings could change shape and that they were vaguely insectoid. Everything else was an erroneous mess, from being able to seduce their prey with songs and whispers, to the asinine idea that changelings could curse you with their spit. “I guess that’s why they’re called ‘myths and legends’, huh?”
He idly flipped through a few more pages out of curiosity, eventually coming to the image of a horned black equinoid’s head imposed over a crescent moon. “Oh hey, it’s the Mare in the Moon thing that Twilight obsesses over in the first episode, neat!” If he hadn’t had an important task at hand already, he would have liked to dive further into the myth. “Ehh, I’ll look at it later.”
Zach made a note of the page number and then set the book of myths and legends aside; then he grabbed the next book off the pile. This one seemed to be a loose collection of campfire stories and folktales. Judging by the contents, he wasn’t expecting this one to fare much better in its factual basis.
As he suspected, the book was devoid of anything even remotely factual about changelings. That being said, he had to admit that the stories were at least entertaining. Some folks seemed to believe changelings were aquatic, based on one tall tale. Others told of changelings killing a pony’s lover and taking their place, a particularly morbid and frightening idea. There was even one story of a changeling queen replacing a stillborn foal with a disguised changeling nymph, the mother having loved that disguised nymph as if it were her real foal; even after the nymph was outed as being a changeling, the mother still cared for her.
‘Huh, that last one was a nice story.’ As depressing as its intro was, he ended up liking it quite a lot. He would have mentally kicked himself for allowing himself to be distracted with what was obviously a waste of time, had he not recalled an old phrase: “Time one enjoys wasting is not wasted time.”
Zach set the stories aside and grabbed the next book in the pile, another book of legends. This one was even less helpful than the first book. This one insisted that changelings were actually a larger and parasitic version of something called ‘breezies’, which was some kind of tiny bug pony creature. “Who the heck writes this crap?” he bit out.
He tossed that book aside without looking any further into it, then grabbed the next book. More tall tales and made up nonsense. Apparently, some pony somewhere and somewhen had been convinced that changelings were alien life-forms that had fallen from the heavens eons ago and were observing ponykind while hidden in plain sight. “That guy probably overindulged in whatever he was using recreationally.”
So far, he’d managed to prove that ponies knew next to nothing about changelings. Unfortunately, it seemed to be a double-edged sword: On one hand, he didn’t need to worry about being outed as a known monster. On the other hand, if folks actually believed the myths about changelings, he’d have to contend with being outed as an entirely different kind of monster.
His saving grace was that changelings seemed to be an obscure myth, with no two sources able to corroborate similarities. ‘At least I have that going for me, which is nice. Better to be misunderstood than to be seen as objectively evil, I can make this work. I think… I hope. Let’s make sure it doesn’t come to that, yeah? Better safe than sorry.’
A short time later, Carrot Top had just about finished up with her work when there came a knock at the library’s front door. “Ah, that must be the mare from Canterlot.” She hurried over to the entrance and peered through the peep hole. Immediately after, she deftly swung open the door and greeted the newcomer with a smile.
Zach had paused his reading and looked over to the entrance. He was fully expecting Twilight Sparkle to be standing just outside the door; Instead, it was the tan earth pony known as Mayor Mare. Behind mayor mare was the famed purple unicorn he remembered.
The mayor stepped in and gestured behind her to Twilight, waving her hoof around in a warm display, “Welcome to the Golden Oaks, Miss Sparkle. As I believe I mentioned earlier, I’ve taken the liberty of having the living quarters spruced up to make your stay in our cozy little town as comfortable as possible. It’s no Canterlot suite, but I hope you find everything to be to your liking.”
Twilight stepped into the library, carrying saddlebags and a suitcase of luggage. “I appreciate that, thank you. I’m sure everything will be perfectly fine.” She smiled at the mayor, then cast a glance behind her. “Spike, don’t try and carry everything all at once, I’d rather take multiple trips than risk breaking something.”
The little dragon was carrying a bundle of luggage three times his size.
“I’m not carrying anything that could break, relax, Twilight!” Spike replied, grunting with exertion. The way his legs wobbled implied he was carrying more than he should have been. “Besides, you told me yourself, ‘work smarter, not harder.’ Right?”
“This is not what I meant when I said that.” Twilight sighed and conceded, “Alright, just be careful, ok? I’d rather take care of it with multiple trips than risk you taking a mis-step and…”
“Twi, I’ve got this.” The little dragon asserted, grunting again.
The Mayor and Carrot top both had a look that stated their belief to the contrary; Spike paid no heed and continued with his stubborn effort.
Carrot held a hoof out to Twilight, which the purple mare happily shook. “Pleased to meet you, Twilight. If you’ll come with me, I’ll show you to the bedroom.”
“That would be wonderful, lead the way.” Twilight replied.
Carrot Top ascended the staircase with Twilight in tow, moving up and out of sight from the main floor. Shortly after, Twilight returned to view, minus her luggage. “Spike, be careful!”
Spike had barely made it up to the fifth step before his balance began giving way.
In a cartoonishly amusing display, the little dragon struggled with his footing and made an assortment of sounds as if they’d help him maintain his balance. Sure enough, the wobbling and bad footing led to its expected conclusion. Spike took a wrong step and his weight shifted to an awkward angle that he couldn’t recover from. Gravity took hold and he slipped, falling off the side of the staircase and bringing all the luggage down with him.
The purple glow of Twilight’s magic caught the dragon before he hit the ground. In a fluid motion, the unicorn righted Spike and gathered the scattered airborne luggage with gentle precision. Spike landed softly and the luggage he’d been carrying was stacked neatly next to him.
Spike huffed in defeat and folded his arms, “Go ahead and say it. I know you’re thinking it.”
“I told you so.” The unicorn said with a grin to match.
“You two need any help?” Zach offered without thinking.
Carrot Top followed suit, “What he said; do you want an extra pair of hooves to help with your luggage?”
Twilight acknowledged both offers with a soft shake of her head and a grateful smile, “Oh no thank you, we’ve got things handled just fine on our own.”
Spike stared at Zach for a good long moment or two, before a big grin of excitement formed. “Whoa! Is that a ninja? Ponyville has ninjas?”
Mayor Mare seemed taken aback from the question. “Ninjas? I wasn’t aware our town had any ninjas.” Her expression shifted to one of curiosity as she looked over at Zach’s disguised form.
Zach laughed aloud, a bit nervously at that and quickly denied it, “No! No, I’m not a ninja. Why would you think I was a ninja?”
“You sure? You look like a ninja… I mean, minus the black suit part.” the dragon replied.
Carrot Top eyed spike with a look that questioned his perception just as much as her words did. “Seriously? You think he looks like a ninja of all things?”
“Actually, real shinobi wear blue.” Both Zach and Twilight corrected Spike simultaneously.
Spike narrowed his eyes, darting between Zach, Twilight and Carrot before arguing, “Well, what if he’s a special kind of ninja? You know, like from the comics?”
Twilight laughed and gave the dragon a pat on the head, “Spike, those are comics, not history books.”
The two started their way back out the front door.
“Yeah, well, history writers could take a page from comic writers and make history less boring to read through…” Spike insisted.
Zach shook his head with a smile, ‘It’s nice to see those two are pretty much the same as I remember them. I always liked Twilight.’
The pair returned, both carrying the rest of their luggage and continuing their conversation.
“I like adventure and action, tales of heroics and fighting evil.” The little dragon stated.
“History is full of plenty of that!” Twilight argued. “If you just gave it more of a chance, I’m sure you’d like some history.”
Spike rolled his eyes, “Hey, it’s not my fault history writers don’t know how to make it fun and engaging.”
Twilight sighed and gave up.
“Hey, what’s with your voice?” The little dragon asked Zach as he passed by. “It sounds like you’re gargling a radio.”
Twilight spoke before Zach could answer, “Spike! One, I highly doubt that gargling a radio would sound like that, two, you don’t just ask somepony a question like that!”
Spike shot her a look with his brows furrowed, “What? I know you were thinking it too, you just didn’t say it.”
“Ok, I admit I was curious about it too,” Twilight started under her breath, and then continued with her normal tone, “but that’s not the point!”
Carrot muttered under her breath, “Glad somepony said it…”
“I must admit,” Mayor Mare started, looking to Zach with a hint of suspicion, “I am also a bit curious as to why your voice sounds that way, and why you’re dressed as some foreign agent of espionage.” She paused and quickly added with a dash of embarrassment’s flavor floating on the air. “n-not that I wish to imply you’re engaged in such activities, of course; I’m simply curious. Its an… odd choice of attire.”
Carrot looked to the Mayor, then to Spike, and then back at Zach, “You sure he looks like a ninja? I think he looks kinda like one of those desert roaming folks from Saddle Arabia, except he got his clothes from a bargain bin.”
“Yeeeah…” Spike concurred, “I see it now, you’re right. A ninja would be all uniform and sneaky like, but this guy’s just wearing a bunch of stuff he scraped together. He sticks out like a sore hoof, no way he could be a ninja.”
Zach swallowed and wished he was anywhere else but here. “I’m just… uhh…” He dug through his mind for plausible ideas and said the first thing he came to. “Getting over a cold, throat’s still sore.” A lie, but hopefully one they’d buy for now.
Carrot took a quick step back and gave a look of sympathy, “Oh, sorry to hear that. Summer colds are the worst. Makes sense you’d be covered up like that, best way to get rid of a cold is with warmth and plenty of soup.”
“Yep, just getting over it.” Zach said as he played along.
By now, Twilight and Spike had gotten the rest of Twilight’s luggage up to her room and were settling in. Mayor mare got Carrot’s attention and said, “Thanks again for helping out with the library on such short notice, Carrot. I don’t know what’s gotten into Lucky Day; the poor stallion looked like he’d seen a ghost again when he came barging into my office.”
Carrot shrugged, “You know I’m always happy to lend a hoof whenever there’s little things that need doing around town. Corn Flower and I will keep an eye on Lucky Day, make sure he’s doing ok.”
The two looked to Twilight; Mayor Mare looked back to Carrot and gestured, “Carrot, would you turn over the library keys to Miss Twilight?”
“Oh, of course! I was just about to do that, actually.” Carrot Top nodded with a smile and went to grab the keys from her bag. She scooped them up with her mouth and set them over on one of the tables nearby where Twilight stood. Carrot then said, “It’ll be nice having a librarian in the Golden Oaks for a change, even if it is temporary.”
Twilight took the keys in her magic and held them aloft, “You’re not the librarian?” She asked.
Mayor Mare spoke up and answered for Carrot, “Our last librarian retired about a year ago. We couldn’t find anyone who wanted the job full time, so we’ve had volunteers helping to keep the library organized and maintained.”
Carrot nodded, “I’m one such volunteer; an earth pony stallion named Lucky Day and a unicorn Mare named Corn Flower are the other volunteers that look after the Golden Oaks. We rotate responsibilities between the three of us.”
Twilight gave a hum of understanding. “Well at least for the time being, I’ll be…”
Zach tuned out from the conversation and had gotten back to his reading. He set his current book to the side and closed it, then looked over to the last remaining books he had. ‘You know what? I think I’ve read enough about that to get the idea of what I’m working with.’ Zach let out a resigned huff, ‘OK, time to look for something practical, like magic, or…’ Flight, that was by far the easiest topic he could dive into.
He imagined magic would require a comprehensive uprooting of his conceptions of magic and spell-craft from the myths and legends back home. There would probably be some sort of equations or complicated techniques to learnt he ropes of even basic spellcasting. Flying, on the other hand, would be considerably easier. Not that he was going to pass up the opportunity to learn magic, of course. ‘If I’m still here tomorrow, which is highly likely at this rate, then I’ll look into learning how to do magic. Until then, I’ll focus on the simpler goal first.’
Flight was simple, at least in his eyes; you just needed a means of lift, and a manner of propulsion to enhance the lifting force through velocity. Zach had both of those in his wings, he just needed to learn how insects managed their wings. Apparently they didn’t work the same way as bird wings or aircraft wings. There had to be a book on insect biology and flight, right? Surely, someone had taken it upon themselves to study how insects flew.
‘You know what? I bet they went over that in biology class back in highschool and I just forgot about it because school manages to make learning a chore. Seriously though, how did school manage to make learning about new things such a miserable experience?’ He paused and blinked once, ‘Why am I thinking about school? I’ve been out of school for years now; who cares about school? Not this guy!’
Old resentments aside, he needed to find a book that contained details on insects and their methods of flight. Carrot Top would be able to help him find it.
Zach looked over to where the trio of mares stood, only to see that Carrot Top was no longer in their numbers. She must have left while his attention was to his books. ‘Oh, for crying out loud!’
“Thanks again for the warm welcome, Miss Mayor.” Twilight said as she finished up the conversation she’d been having.
“You are so very welcome, Miss Twilight. Feel free to let me know if there’s anything at all you need at any time, I would be more than happy to render assistance.” The mayor concluded, then turned and exited the library.
“So, what are you reading?” Spike asked, standing to Zach’s left and trying to peek over the table to see for himself. “Anything interesting?”
Zach cast a glance to the little dragon before offering an answer, “Just looking into Equestrian myths and legends, folklore and stories. Neat stuff.” The little dragon didn’t need to know what he was looking for specifically.
Spike’s curiosity seemed to grow at that, “Oh yeah?” He grabbed one of the books from the pile and opened it, holding it aloft with his claws and flipping through the pages with an ease that stirred a bit of envy in Zach’s heart.
‘Am I seriously envying the sidekick character because he has fingers and thumbs? Wow, I’ve stooped to a new low.’ Zach chided himself as he got up from his seat. ‘Twilight’s a bookworm, if there’s any pony in this town that would know a thing or two about biology, I’m confident it would be her. I’m sure she’d have a book or two, or ten to recommend to me if I asked her about aerodynamics.’
Without a word or even a glance, Spike hopped into the seat Zach had just left and popped open the book he’d grabbed out of the pile. He flipped it to a random page and started reading its contents, “Vamponies: monstrous curse, or misunderstood illness… huh, neat!”
Twilight was, as Zach had expected, sorting through a collection of books. There was quite a large quantity of them held in Twilight’s magic; she appeared to be looking through them and double checking with the scroll and muttering to herself. “Myths and legends, myths and legends… darn it, the list says the Golden Oaks has it, but it isn’t on the shelves.” She said aloud and neatly arranged her current collection of texts back onto their shelves in an efficient and orderly fashion.
Zach watched her work; the thought crossed his mind that, maybe she wouldn’t be able to help him. Twilight had only just arrived, she wasn’t familiar with where anything was in the library yet. ‘She has the library’s list though,’ he argued against the doubts, ‘she can still find it, right? She’s a smart pony.’
He was about to get her attention when, as if on cue, she turned to make eye contact with him.
“Can I help you?” She asked with a neutral look. Several books hung suspended in the air around her as if her magic were waiting for her to continue.
Zach paused, during which time Twilight had extended a hoof to him.
She set her current cluster of books down around herself and offered a smile to go with the extended hoof, “Sorry, I don’t think you and I properly introduced ourselves yet, have we?”
Zach looked hesitantly at the extended hoof and wavered, “Uhh… no, I guess we haven’t.”
Twilight looked unsure at Zach’s hesitance towards the hoofshake, but she wasn’t overly bothered by it either. “I’m Twilight Sparkle,” she glanced over to the little dragon and pointed her hoof to him, “over there is my personal assistant, Spike.”
The little dragon looked up long enough to give a wave, “Hi!”
“I see, nice to meet both of you.” Zach said with a nod, “My name is Käfer, I’m new in town too.”
“Käfer? Is that Griffonian, or Germane?” She asked with genuine curiosity in her tone.
Zach’s mouth hung slack for a moment, and he uttered a sound as if she’d asked him the delta velocity needed to break atmosphere and reach the moon. “I… which one’s farther away?” He kicked himself mentally, ‘Which one’s further away? Are you kidding me? Stupid, stupid, stupid…’
Twilight laughed, seeming to think it was a joke of some sort. “Well, I believe Griffonia is further away, if I’m remembering correctly.” She smiled and then added, “Käfer: Griffonian for Beetle; It’s definitely a unique name here in Equestria.”
“So I’ve been told.” Zach said in agreement.
Before he could get out another word, Twilight had turned and begun looking through the library’s collection once more. “Myths and legends… Mare in the Moon…” She opened a few of them and darted through their pages in a steadily growing exasperation. “It has to be here! The list says it’s here, where is it?”
Zach blinked and cleared his throat, “Uh, Twilight?”
Twilight halted the flow of pages and books, then turned to face Zach again, “Hmm? Sorry, I’m looking for a specific book, more specifically, an article on the prophecy of the Mare in the Moon.” She paused before asking, “Oh, I’m sorry, did you actually need something?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact.” He started, “Do you know of any good books detailing how insects fly?”
The unicorn mare stood there for a good moment or two, staring at Zach with a vaguely curious expression. Finally, she said, “That sounds like something you’d want to look for in one of the Canterlot Institute of Sciences Research Collections series, or one of the many pegasus published Theories of Aerodynamics; maybe you’d even find something of use in the Scientific Journals Weekly articles. I highly doubt you’d find much on the subject in a library like this.”
“Oh, you’re sure?” Zach said with his hopes dwindling before his eyes.”
Twilight grabbed the Golden Oak’s list of available books and brought it over before giving a nod, “I’m positive. Luckily, I happen to have read most of them and I’m more than happy to give you a summary of what I know concerning insect wing aerodynamics.”
Zach’s hopes were very rapidly lowered and then raised back up with a tempered air. “Wait, really? I don’t want to take up too much of your time…”
“Its no trouble at all!” Twilight asserted, “What use is knowledge if you don’t share it?” The unicorn cleared her throat, and then proceeded to go on a long-winded explanation into the physics of insect flight, and Zach was bombarded with far more information than even his brain was prepared to process.
“Based on the findings of the Canterlot Institute of Sciences, most insects use a method of flight that creates what pegasus scientists have dubbed a spiraling leading edge vortex. The insect’s wings move through two basic half-strokes. The downstroke starts up and back and is plunged downward and forward. Then the wing is quickly flipped over, this is called supination, so that the leading edge is pointed backward. The upstroke then pushes the wing upward and backward. Then the wing is flipped again, this is called pronation, and another downstroke can occur…”
…
“Uhh, Twi?” Spike interrupted several minutes later, “Twilight, I think I see smoke coming out of his nose and ears. You’re melting his brain!”
Twilight stopped her detailed explanation and then stammered, “I-I, what!? Oh, I’m sorry.” She looked at Zach with sympathy and a large helping of bashfulness, “Sorry for the overload; maybe it would be better if I drew you a diagram to explain things?” The mare offered a smile that only served to further highlight her embarrassment.
Zach’s eye twitched and his brain felt like it could have made toast if someone put some bread on his forehead. “Yeah, that would be very nice, thanks.”
Twilight turned to her assistant and started to ask, “Spike…?”
The little dragon saluted, “I’m already on it!” And with that, he ran off to grab an unused piece of parchment and a quill and ink to go with it.
“Thank you.” Twilight said as she took the items from spike upon his return and held them in her magic. She set them on a nearby table and got to work illustrating what she’d spent the last several minutes trying to unsuccessfully explain to Zach.
Zach watched her work while Spike went to go set the pile of books Zach had been using back into their shelves.
Drawing out the explanation took considerably less time than it did to explain it verbally; Twilight was done within three minutes. “There, that should be a good visual representation of the physics behind insect flight, more or less.”
Zach looked over the piece of parchment, taking in the shapes and symbols. The drawings representing the insect wings weren’t overly detailed, artistically speaking, but the labels on everything helped where the visual details were lacking. Twilight wasn’t an artist, that much was clear, but she could illustrate physics diagrams well enough to where Zach could make sense of it.
Ignoring the equations and mathematics she’d written, he got the general idea of how insect wings worked, or at least he thought he did. ‘I’ll figure it out when I get the chance to apply it. Jeez, this is crazy stuff; a vortex of air acting as a buffer for the wings? That’s gotta be some kind of magical nonsense at work. There’s no way insects work this way back home.’
“Was there anything else you needed?” Twilight asked.
‘Yeah, how do I use magic?’ He wanted to ask her, but he reminded himself that he was going to wait until tomorrow, just to be certain he was staying in Equestria for the long haul. On second thought, however, he could at least ask for a place to start. “Would you have any recommendations on reading material for someone who’s never tried to use magic before?”
The unicorn seemed taken aback by the question, tilting her head slightly and hanging her mouth ajar for but a moment of bemusement. She narrowed her eyes and Zach could practically see the gears in her head furiously spinning. Suddenly, she composed herself and smiled brightly, “Oh, absolutely! I’d be happy to help with that!”
Twilight then fired off a long list of book titles from the top of her head. “There’s the ever popular Magic:101 for if you want a no-nonsense introduction to all things magical; then there’s Basics of Spellcraft for Dummies, although I personally don’t care for that one as I believe it gives unicorns the wrong idea about their magical potential. My personal favorite though, is Princess Celestia’s own Beginners Guide to the Exciting World of Magic. There’s so many more, I could spend all day listing them!”
The unicorn reached out to several shelves with her magic and plucked books from each of them. She brought them to herself and looked them over before holding them out for Zach to see. “As I said, there’s plenty of reading material to choose from, but I’d be happy to make a recommendation.”
Zach held his hoof out and shook his head, “Oh, no, that’s fine. I appreciate it, but I was only browsing for a good starting point.” He made mental note of the titles Twilight mentioned, ‘I’ll look those up tomorrow.’ Just as he was about to bid the unicorn farewell, he found himself staring at the cover of a book enveloped in Twilight’s kinesis.
“Here, I insist, this is the Beginners Guide to the Exciting World of Magic; quite possibly the best starting point for any young unicorn looking to take their first steps into spellcasting. The Princess knows how to appeal to the young minds of…” Twilight trailed off as she held the book aloft, seeming as thought she were waiting for him to take it in his own grasp. When he hesitated, the mare asked, “…is something wrong?”
The thought of admitting to being unable to use magic caused Zach’s ears to flush with heat and knots to form in his stomach. While it was true that he came from a place where magic didn’t exist, having her assert that the starting point he needed was intended for children filled him with embarrassment regardless.
To be completely fair, it wasn’t just for a lack of magic. He couldn’t take it in his mouth for fear of how she’d react to seeing his uncovered face. It all compounded together and made everything feel worse.
He swallowed and asked in a weak voice, “Could you set it on the table for me?”
Twilight looked puzzled, cocking her head to one side and eyeing Zach’s horn. “Why not just take it in your kinesis?”
“I uh… I don’t know how…” He meekly confessed.
The unicorn stared at him with that same puzzled look, blinking only once before saying, “I’m sorry, what?”
“I don’t know how to use magic.” Zach said again with a bit more finality.
Twilights expression gradually shifted to one of disbelief, and then to shock. Her eyes widened and her mouth hung agape. “What!? You- but every unicorn knows how to use telekinesis! Even foals can perform the bare minimum telekinetic levitation spell.”
“Great, good for them,” he started with a barely concealed irritation at her attitude, “I don’t, ok?”
“Is this some kind of joke? You’re joking, right?” She stated, now grinning and offering a laugh. “A grown unicorn who can’t use magic… Ha! Good one!”
Zach scowled under his mask, his embarrassment turning to humiliation at this point. “You know what? Just forget about it; forget I said anything at all.” With that, he turned away and went to grab the illustration she’d made for him.
“Nice one, Twi.” Spike commented with no small amount of sarcasm.
Zach snatched up the parchment, pinching it precariously between his hoof and foreleg, then tucked it away in one of the pockets in Derpy’s jacket. From there, he headed for the door, “Thanks for your help, nice meeting you, I’m gonna head out now. Bye.”
“I- what? Wait, don’t go!” Twilight called out. When Zach didn’t respond, she reached out with her telekinesis and plucked him from the doorway before he could leave. “Please, don’t leave.”
The unicorn brought Zach back over to her, then turned him to face her. Twilight’s ears were tilted back against her head and she had a look on her face that rested somewhere between sympathy and remorse. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to make fun of you.” She tried to explain, “I had no idea you were being serious. The idea of a grown stallion unicorn not being able to use magic at all is, well, it’s unheard of!”
Zach had been embarrassed, laughed at, and was now being held aloft like a child’s toy. To say he was beyond humiliated at this point would be selling it short. When he offered his retort, it was dripping with spite and sarcasm, “Nice apology, that makes me feel so much better.”
Twilight winced at his remark, “I deserved that. Really, though, I am sorry for inadvertently making fun of you.” She looked at him with more sympathy, almost pity now, “You really can’t use magic? Not even a basic telekinesis spell?”
He sighed and reiterated with annoyance, “No, I don’t know how.”
Spike commented from atop one of the shelf ladders, “Wow, having a horn and not being able to use magic? That’s like a pegasus not being able to fly! Or a dragon not being able to breathe fire!”
The unicorn’s ears perked up and her eyes gleamed with an idea. She offered him a smile and said, “You know, as Princess Celestia’s personal student, magic is my expertise! There’s still much for me to learn, of course, but I know more than enough to be able to offer assistance to anyone looking to learn a thing or two about basic magic and spellcasting.”
Zach blinked at her, still suspended in the air by her magic, “Ok, and that means…?”
“If you like,” she started, “I can give you a leg up in learning the ropes of basic telekinesis spells. It goes hoof in hoof with getting acquainted with your personal magic.”
“If I say yes… will you put me down?” Zach asked with a raised eyebrow.
Twilight flushed red at the realization she’d kept him airborne with her magic this entire time. “OH! O-oh, sorry!” The unicorn set him down, gently, putting a hoof to her head in embarrassment.
Zach brushed himself off and made sure his disguise was still set before speaking, “No big deal, just, uh… don’t do that again, please?”
“The offer still stands!” Twilight blurted out, her cheeks still a little red. “If you’re interested, I mean. The books I suggested will be more than enough to get you started, but I can give you a head start, in a sense; I can help you get further along much faster than you would be able to on your own.”
“Twilight, why are you so eager to help me? You don’t even know me.” Zach asked.
She raised an eyebrow at the question, but she seemed to understand where he was coming from. “Well, for starters, I inadvertently insulted you and humiliated you…”
Zach shrugged, “Eh, water under the bridge.”
“That, and,” Twilight continued, “I’ve spent my whole life studying magic under the tutelage of Princess Celestia. I couldn’t bear the thought of being unable to use my magic. Seeing you, knowing you can’t use magic at all…” She trailed off.
“So… in other words, you feel sorry for me?” Zach asked with a mildly unamused expression.
The mare flushed red once again, “I-I didn’t say that!”
“You were thinking it.” Spike commented from across the room.
“Shut up, Spike!” Twilight shot back, her face flashing a brighter shade of red in that moment.
Zach looked over to the little dragon, then back at Twilight. “Don’t you have Summer Sun Celebration plans? I don’t want to interrupt anything important.”
“He’s got a point, Twi.” Spike stated, “Didn’t the princess ask you to oversee some of the preparations? Don’t you think we should get on that soon?”
Twilight looked at the dragon and replied, “I haven’t forgotten spike, but thanks for the reminder.” She returned her gaze to Zach and asserted, “I’d only be going over the basics, enough to get you started with a solid foundation; it really shouldn’t take up that much time at all. I insist, please, I want to help.”
Zach contemplated the idea; he hadn’t planned to do anything concerning magic on the off chance he didn’t end up staying in Equestria. He’d only come here for some information on changelings and to look up the technique he’d need to be able to fly. After all, magic was complicated, flying was easy.
That being said, he’d be an idiot to pass up the opportunity that had just been presented to him. Besides, Twilight made it sound easy enough, “Well, if you insist, I guess I’ll take you up on the offer. Its not like I have anything else to do or anywhere else to be.”
The mare was grinning with excitement as she set all the books back onto their shelves, save for Magic: 101. “Fantastic!”
Zach shrugged and eyed the book, “Ok, so what do I do first?”
Twilight’s smile widened as she opened the book and held it before her. “I’ll show you.”
...