"So... how are you doing?"
Spike didn't even look up from his comic book as he answered, "Fine, I guess. Can't believe Twilight roped me into this, though."
Twilight was in fact gone, busy somewhere else on the train. I assumed it was something to do with Princess duties, though she had been oddly vague on what exactly she had to do. So, that left just me and Spike. Well, us and a large number of books all over the train car.
Yeah, Twilight had gotten us an entire car for ourselves. It might have been impressive if she wasn't, you know, royalty. Still, it did mean that while we did have our privacy, the sound of silence was the only thing accompanying us on the tracks up to Canterlot.
And Spike was unfortunately not the greatest conversationalist at the moment.
"What are you gonna do once we're in Canterlot?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the precariously stacked books close by.
"I'm going to visit the House of Enchanted Comics after we're done in the Canterlot Library to pick up the latest Power Ponies issue!" The dragon put down the one he was reading and tucked his stack of comics under his seat. "No offense to Twilight, but I really don't need another tour from her in Canterlot."
I simply nodded, not really sure how to continue.
Then the train car hit a bump, and both Spike and I went flying. Along with the books. The baby dragon landed flat on his face, looking up only to see a massive piece of literature falling right towards him, ready to also smack him in the face.
Or at least it would have, had I not put my hoof out just in time to stop it. The book bounced harmlessly against my outstretched limb, hitting the floor in front of both of us. "Thanks," Spike said, pulling himself up and already moving to grab what fell off the stacks of reading material.
"No problem. You, uh, need help with that?" Getting no response, I took that as a yes and started gathering the books back into stacks and filing them neatly. The two of us worked in silence, occasionally keeping each other's stacks steady whenever the train hit another bump in the tracks. Slowly but surely, the mess was cleaned up until finally, everything was back where it belonged.
Once that was finished, both of us took our seats again, sitting a bit closer to each other than we had before. "Thanks for the help," Spike finally said. "Guess I'm just used to Twilight being too busy with her princess duties."
"Well, I'd imagine you'd be pretty busy too, being the assistant of a princess," I answered, staring intensely at the books mentally willing them not to fall again. It seemed to be working... or maybe it was the fact that the train ride had finally gotten smoother.
"I was busy before Twilight was a princess too! I'm either doing everything or just waiting around." I heard a sigh and turned my head around to look at the dragon. "I bet you had fun out there, being an adventurer and all that."
Tentatively, I placed a hoof on Spike's shoulder. "You'd think so, but nah. I had a lot of doing nothing too, you know. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get your chance in the spotlight one day." He looked at me, as I stared right back at him. "We all get one someday."
Spike didn't answer. I put my hoof back down, my head and eyes moving again to stare at the floor. Weeks passed. Or maybe minutes. I couldn't tell either way; handling boredom was not one of my strong suits.
"Well, I'm bored," I finally admitted, standing up to stretch my legs. From the corner of my eye, I saw Spike roll his eyes before pointing at the books arrayed before us.
"Why don't you just read one of those?" he asked. "I'm sure there's plenty of exciting stuff in there."
Oh boy. That was not exactly a question I wanted to answer, but I couldn't just let it go unanswered either. These binds were both annoyingly difficult to get out of and annoyingly frequent. A truly brutal tag-team combo.
"Well... you see..."
And at that very moment, the forces of Equestria finally chose to grant me mercy as Princess Twilight walked through the car door with a clipboard in tow within her telekinesis. "We're almost there," she told both me and Spike. "Princess Celestia is busy so she'll be a little late meeting us at the library. That means that we'll have time to explore!" Twilight's attention focused from the two of us to just me. "I'll get to show you all my favorite books there too! There are some great reads, particularly the ones written by Star Swirl the Bearded about the theories of magic and-"
Yeah. Little too dense for me. I tuned out the rest of the alicorn's babbling, giving a small nod now and then to make it seem like I was paying attention. By the fifth nod she seemed to realize what I was doing and started glaring at me, but I was saved by the jolt of the train finally putting on the brakes as it reached the station.
"Welp, looks like we're here!" I said overly cheerfully, relieved that the optimal exit out of the situation has presented itself. "If you can get the books back on the wagon I can hook myself up to it-"
Twilight waved a hoof. "Oh, now that we're in Canterlot I can just teleport all of them! Besides, I need to work with the librarian on getting all these books sorted, so you and Spike can go explore for a bit while I get that done! Just make sure not to take too long."
I shrugged. "Fine with me. You alright with that, Spike?"
The dragon looked up from the comic he had started to read again. "Huh? Oh, yeah, sure, whatever."
"Great! Then I'll see you two at the library!" And with that, Twilight teleported out of the train alongside all of the books. After lightly tapping a hoof on Spike's shoulder and motioning with my head that it was time to go, the two of us exited out the side door, getting the first real good look of Canterlot.
...It was big. Really big. I would have expected as much from the capital of Equestria, but having never seen any cities other than small villages, the sheer size of everything astounded me. The many towers that rose high into the sky were the most eye-catching parts, with their gold-adorned rooftops and extravagant design, but they were not the only things I was in awe at. Even the simple buildings that were just a few hoofsteps away were fancier than any building I had ever seen before, though that probably wasn't saying much considering my standards.
I both loved it and hated it at the same time. Feelings are complex like that.
"So," I began, looking at Spike who had finally snapped back to the real world at this point, "how about we go to that comic book store you wanted to visit first? I'm sure that we'll have time for the detour."
"Really?" When I responded with a nod, the dragon started jumping up and down, much to the slight amusement of the ponies trotting nearby. "Great! C'mon, let's hurry and get over there!" Spike started half-waddling down one of the streets of Canterlot, surprisingly fast for his size. I gave a slight smile before following close behind.
I mean, how far away could the store be? Canterlot couldn't be that big, could it?
"You're LATE! Do you have any idea how long you two took? Celestia could be here at any minute!" Twilight looked incredibly annoyed as both of us rushed through the front doors of the Canterlot library, completely out of breath.
Yeah, so it turns out that Canterlot was in fact that big. The shop had been all the way across the city, and it had taken Spike a good amount of time just to buy the comic he wanted. Couple that with getting lost once or twice and having to retrace our steps, and you got yourself one very angry Princess.
Oh well. I'm sure I had heard the term "fashionably late" before somewhere, so it was fine. Or maybe not. It sounded like something Rarity would know anyway, being heavily into the whole fashion stuff.
"Relax, Twilight," I said breezily. "If Celestia isn't here, it isn't a big deal, right?"
My lax attitude only seemed to fan the flames of Twilight's anger, until finally she closed her eyes, took a deep breath in and out, and relaxed her posture a bit. "You're right," she responded to my semi-shock. "Why don't you look around a bit until Princess Celestia gets here? I need to talk to Spike here about unnecessary detours."
Ah. So it was less her being less angry and more aiming it at the unfortunate dragon. Well, I never was one to just ignore a chance to skirt blame. With a simple nod, I trotted off towards the nearest aisle of books, taking just a second to shoot a sympathetic look at the soon-to-be tortured soul I was leaving behind. Spike looked too invested in his new comic to notice both my departure or his impending doom. The last thing I saw before the many books lining the corridors obstructed my view was Twilight approaching her assistant menacingly.
So, there I was. Now in a library, stuck with a ton of books to pass the time. Not very helpful, to be honest. I took more notice of the colors and symbols that the books had than the actual words on them, actually finding some slight enjoyment seeing the reds and blues and greens and all the other colors blend together in an orderly fashion. Sorting through all this must be a nightmare for the librarian.
My distraction proved a bit of a hindrance, however, when I slammed my face into one of the many shelves. The path I had been taking was a dead end. But just as I was beginning to turn around, something caught my eye above me. Or rather, two somethings.
A pair of books. One was larger than the other and was yellow with a picture of a sun on it, while the other was blue and had an image of a crescent moon. Two nondescript novels compared to their surroundings, yet there was something so familiar about them...
...
...a sketch of two books, one emblazoned with a sun, the other with a crescent moon and the stars. When pulled back simultaneously, the entire bookcase would slide aside to reveal a passage...
...
Well, it was worth a shot. On a hunch, I got up on my hind legs and reach upwards to grab a hold of the two books. Then, using my awkward position to my advantage, I leaned backward, letting gravity do the pulling for me.
As soon as I let go, the two books snapped back into place, and just as the diagram back in the castle had shown, the entire bookcase slid to the left, revealing a hidden passage downwards. My jaw dropped in shock. Honestly, what were the odds?
After collecting myself and my growing excitement, I carefully walked forward, the library walls giving way to old chiseled stone and torchlight. The stairs led downwards, only spiraling around twice before flattening out at a set of heavy ornate double-doors. And I do mean heavy. It took me a solid ten seconds just to push those things open.
Was it worth it? The short answer; no. The room beyond the doors was certainly cool-looking enough, clearly older than the library above it and filled with tomes I could only assume were ancient and likely forbidden for eyes such as mine. To be honest, however, I was kind of hoping to find some sort of cool magical artifacts here instead. Maybe like a staff or something with a blood red gem, or a large magical sledgehammer. This... was disappointing.
One thing did pull me to the table closest to me, though. It was a large book, simple and nondescript, only having a large image of the sun printed on the cover. A bottle of ink and a quill were still next to it, and it looked recently used. Pulling up a chair to the table, I took a seat and had a closer look.
"Now what do we have here?" I asked myself while opening the book. The pages were filled with writing I couldn't make out, the words illegible for a pony like myself. What was more interesting was how they were formatted. It was almost like whoever had this book was writing... letters. But to who?
I turned the pages until finally, the first blank page was reached. Now, what I planned to do next was incredibly stupid. Somepony had obviously been writing, or at least reading this recently, and they were probably going to come back eventually. I wasn't even supposed to be here. But, curiosity clouding my better judgment, I moved the ink jar and quill closer before grabbing the latter with a hoof and, with great dramatic flair, drew a single straight line downwards.
"Jungle?! Jungle, where are you?! Princess Celestia is here!" Twilight's voice startled me so hard, my legs bumped upwards into the table. The ink jar went flying, and to my abject horror, landed on the pages of the book and permanently stained the ones I had opened them to.
Oh no. Oh no no no no. This was really bad. The time for rational thinking was over. I grabbed the tipped-over jar and placed it with the quill back where it belonged, then got up and set the chair right where it was before. Then, in a misguided move fueled by absolute terror, I slammed the book shut and stuffed it into my saddlebag before running as fast as I could out of the room and back up the stairs.
There must have been some sort of magical tripwire or something, because the bookcase hiding the hallways slid shut right as I galloped back into the public part of the library. And just in time too, as Twilight rounded the corner immediately afterward, even more annoyed than when Spike and I had first arrived here.
"There you are!" Her horn glowed as I was grabbed by her telekinesis, floating up in the air towards the central open area of the library. "Celestia has been waiting for you for an entire minute! Where even were you?"
"In a secret part of the library you probably don't even know about ruining someone's writing," I mentally said. "I don't know, I guess I just got lost," I responded in words, as my mouth was being much smarter than my brain at this point.
What I said probably didn't even matter, as Twilight paid no heed to my words. With an air of tension, she dropped me onto the library floor, my reflexes just fast enough to catch myself. "Well, you didn't have to do that," I said while giving my own look of annoyance at the purple alicorn, who was very pointedly motioning towards something in front of me.
That thing happened to be a very large, very white, and very royal Princess. I guess Twilight wasn't lying. After giving the smaller Princess one last glare, I sheepishly turned my attention to Princess Celestia, who was looking at me with what I was really hoping was slight amusement in her eyes. I dipped my head in respect, which to be fair was a lot more than I gave most ponies I met.
Twilight now looked even more peeved. Did she expect me to bow or something? Well, guess you can't win them all.
"So, Twilight, this is the new friend you were speaking of?" Celestia's voice was serene and almost impossibly calm, though her intent behind the question was impossible to read. Twilight, in typical Twilight fashion hurriedly nodded.
"Yes, Princess. Though he wasn't supposed to be this late." Oh come on, how long was she going to hold that over my head? I had done much worse things in my life in Equestria... none of which I was going to tell her about.
Celestia gave a small laugh. "Well, I can think of quite a few times I've had to find you in this library, Princess Twilight." Said Twilight immediately started blushing as she looked away. I, on the other hoof, was too busy being surprised by Celestia's sense of humor, or more accurately the fact that it existed.
"Yes, ahaha..." Twilight trailed off, still sounding very embarrassed. "Well I might have gotten carried away in my studies a few times..." I raised an eyebrow at her, but she intentionally decided not to notice it. Or so I assumed, You could never tell whether something she ignored was intentional or just caused by her obliviousness.
Just as I was about to bail her out, Celestia looked up towards the clock hanging in the library. "Well, it was nice seeing you again, but I must return to court now. You are always welcome back, Twilight. And you too, mister..."
Right. Hadn't even introduced myself yet. "Jungle Trek, at your service," I said, tipping my hat with a flourish. "Or rather, I would be, if you weren't leaving."
That actually got a small smile out of the Princess. Look at me, the master of comedy. "Yes, you are welcome back at any time too, Jungle." After one last graceful nod to each of us, Celestia teleported away, the flash of gold light being the last thing we saw of her.
"Welp," I said, perhaps a little too loudly for a library, "that was fun. Time to head back to Ponyville, right Twilight?"
She just looked at me with a confused expression. "Already? But I thought you wanted to see Canterlot?"
"Yeah, well..." The technically-stolen book in my saddlebag grew even heavier. "It's been a busy day and I'm already tired. You wouldn't mind if we cut things short and just took the next train back, right?"
She blinked a few times before nodding. "Well, if you want to go back already, I guess we can leave now. Spike!" The baby dragon waddled in through the front doors, meaning he was probably just waiting outside while Celestia was here... for some reason. "We're leaving Canterlot now. Do you have your stuff ready?"
Spike just looked like she asked him whether the sky was blue. "Twilight, all I brought is my comic book, and I have both that one and the one I bought right here." He held one in each of his claws, very clearly showing us the covers.
"Oh, right. Let's go, then." Twilight sounded kind of... disappointed? I guess she expected me to want to stay longer. And I had wanted to, at first. But the whole mess I made that shall not be named, and just the day in general was already starting to take its toll on me, and I was starting to feel tired. In fact, by the time we had gotten back onto the Friendship Express I was ready to lay down and close my eyes.
I really hoped that this was going to be the end of everything. That nopony would notice my little theft, or that I hadn't accidentally started some large adventure that was foretold by some dusty old scroll somewhere. All I was looking forward to was some rest, some familiarity, and maybe that suit that Rarity was making.
"But we're never that lucky, are we?" That was my last slightly-depressing thought as my mind slowly faded out of consciousness.