//------------------------------// // Twitter Sprinkles' Library // Story: The Path of Lore and Kings // by PassionQuill //------------------------------// Chapter 6: Twitter Sprinkles' Library Several minutes of awkward silence had passed by since they left the cave. The grassy meadows had quickly turned into small hills which became more and more densely populated by apple trees as they came closer to Ponyville. The unspoken tension only seemed to grow by the absence of communication between the two. And, as per usual, Namworth was the one to remedy the friction caused by their last adventure. “I really think we sh–“ was all Namworth said before he was cut off by Loré. “No,” she growled. “We need to talk ab–“ “Be quiet.” “It should be clea–“ Loré finally turned around to face Namworth, who was walking a few steps behind her. The maddening eyes of Loré sent shivers down Namworth’s spine, making him to take a few steps back. “Namworth, I’ll only say this once. If you don’t let it go, I’ll take away that one thing that makes you a stallion, got it?” Her aggravated expression was covered up by the smile that he’d learn to fear. “Emotions were running high, and I had a tiny moment of weakness, there was nothing more to it. Understood?” The twitching of her right eye became more noticeable as she took a step closer to shorten the distance between them. He gulped audibly, and responded with a shaky voice as Loré’s imposing figure almost towered above him when she was being this aggravated. “Y-yes, I understand. I won’t mention it again, Loré!” “Besides, if there was anything to really talk about. How about we examine why it all went down?” Loré completely closed the distance between the two. “The matter of fact is this; we wouldn’t have gone into the cave if you hadn’t needed to rest. It’s your fault that we went on that little detour, and it was your fault that I ended up embarrassing myself like that.” Loré approached Namworth a little more with each accusation, accenting the blame with a poke to his chest for every claim of fault that she attributed to him. “B-b-but, it was you who said that the cave wa—“ was all he could say before he was interrupted by Loré. “Those are merely minor details in your lack of oversight on this situation!” she flared her teeth at him, huffing once before turning back around to once again continue the march towards Ponyville. Namworth’s ears drooped in unison with his head as he simply sighed, “yes, Loré.” The slightly dampened mood of Namworth was short lived, and as lo and behold, Ponyville appeared before them once they had cleared the last few trees south of an apple orchard. Loré paused in her step and slowly assessed the situation from atop the grassy hill. They had a beautiful view over Ponyville from their resting spot. The afternoon sun shone brightly above them, making the calm river running through the quiet town shimmer serenely. Although it was a quiet place, there were still plenty of ponies up and about in the town square. “We’ve finally made it, Namworth,” she gestured with a forehoof at the small town. “Hah! I’d love to see that idiotic conductor's face now. It took us only a few days of walking, but we made it here, and we did it much faster than those idiots on the train.” She grinned from ear to ear over her minor triumph. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in Ponyville, but it looks as pretty as ever,” said Namworth. “Have you ever been here before, Loré?” “Well, kind of.” Loré was hesitant in her answer. “I’ve sort of been here. I’ve gone through Ponyville on the train whenever I went to Canterlot for my work, but never really stopped in this loathsome place.” “Really? I don’t really get what you dislike about this place. Things have always been really nice when I’ve visited. Come on, let me show you what I mean!” he chirped eagerly about to lead the way into the heart of Ponyville, but he was immediately held back by Loré. “Woah, woah, slow down there. Don’t you know what we are dealing with here?! This is not a place we should just trot into without proper preparation and a healthy dose of caution.” She pushed Namworth back some so she could sit in front of him on her hunches with Ponyville in the background. “You see, I can’t risk anypony stopping me from getting the spell I need from Twitter Sprinkle.” “Twilight Sparkle,” corrected Namworth. “My mission is of dire importance, and I’m sure that a royal twit like her would stop me,” Loré continued without paying any attention to being corrected. Though, she did halt her little speech as Namworth waved one hoof around eagerly like a colt about to ask his first question in school. “Yes, what is it, Namworth,” Loré sighed. “Just one quick question. Why would anypony want to stop you? I mean, isn’t Celestia in charge of the historical society? So aren’t you working for Celestia like Twilight is?” he asked with a tilted head. “Are you comparing me to HER?!” growled Loré while rubbing her hooves against her temples. “No, I don’t technically work for Celestia. She is the head of the committee for the historical departments, but I work for a Stallion who is the head of the Las Pegasus History Department. All Celestia does is some administrative duties, or something like that.” She waved dismissively at the thought of Celestia ever having contributed anything important to the preservation of Equestrian history. “I’m nothing like her little protégé. I’m a very diligent student of history. I don’t waste my precious time on unimportant things such as prancing around with my, friiieeends.” The last word was laced with contempt and her face contorted into an expression of disgust. “Oh, okay.” Namworth seemed strangely satisfied with her explanation. “But, this still doesn’t answer why anypony would stop you from walking around in Ponyville. It’s not like anypony knows what you are doing there.” “Isn’t it obvious? Look at my horn…” she glared at him unamusedly. “Twilight and her little group of friends defeated King Sombra less than a month ago. It’s obvious that there is a connection between him and me.” She turned around to face Ponyville. “I’m sure that somepony would stop me if they saw me, let alone knew that I was there to retrieve lost knowledge about King Sombra.” “I have another question!” he chirped, waving his hoof around once again. “You don’t have to put your hoof up, you can just ask me straight away…” groaned Loré. “It honestly took me a while to really notice your horn being different. Are you sure anypony will really notice it?” He smiled sheepishly at her. “Oh sure, we’ll just walk right up to Twin Sprinter and ask her for help, barely two weeks after her encounter with King Sombra. I’m sure she won’t notice anything odd about that.” She rolled her eyes annoyedly. “Her name is Twilight Sparkle.” “Whatever! The point is there could very well be some ponies in there who’ll resent me because I have a trait similar to Sombra, and they might stop me if they were to find out that I’m actually related to him by blood.” “Erhm, maybe we could put a big hat on your horn?” Namworth looked more worried than ever as he felt Loré’s patience was running thin. The eye twitch had once again returned from the suggestion of wearing a hat awkwardly over her horn. “How would I even go about getting a hat as it is? I would need to go into Ponyville to buy one, which would make acquiring a hat pointless!” Her teeth flared some. “I don’t think I can make my dilemma any clearer with you. So, let’s make it easy for you. Just follow me, and try to be quiet and careful when you do it.” She motioned for him to come along as she galloped down the hill to the nearest house, darting from building to build, hiding within the alleys as she spied at the ponies walking around the town square. Namworth just trotted along a few paces behind her, not staying low to the ground, not being any quieter than usual, and not even attempting to stay out of sight. “Hhhmm, I wonder where the library could be located at,” Loré pondered verbally to herself while peeking out from the inside of a small wooden crate in the alley she was hiding in. “There should be some kind of sign somewhere that’ll give us an indication of where it’s a—” Loré looked around in confusion as her assistant had disappeared from her side, only to be found a moment later in the middle of the town square, talking to some light green unicorn. “What is he doing?!” she quietly screamed. “Is he trying to blow my cover already?” Loré stared intensely at Namworth as he exchanged words with the unicorn, even a happy chuckle was shared before they parted ways. She peaked out of the crate she had been hiding when he returned to the alley. “Are you trying to get me caught?” she growled. “S-sorry,” mumbled Namworth, “But, I figured out where Twilight’s Library is. The nice mare told me where to go.” “Oh, well, erhm. Good job, I think. Lead the way, Namworth!” “A-also, I had an idea for how you could get around easily without anypony noticing your horn being different.” “An idea huh? What could you have thought of that I couldn’t have figured out myself?” she raised a suspicious eyebrow. “Yeah! Why don’t you just turn the red tip into the color that the rest of your horn is? I’m sure you can do it with some magic, right?” “Well, I…” Loré was stumped. She hadn’t thought of using her magic to simply conceal her horn, nor was she willing to admit to Namworth that she was quite incompetent when it came to magic. “Erhm, why didn’t you come up with this idea earlier!” she quickly snarled at him. “We could have avoided all this sneaking around if only you had opened your mouth a bit earlier.” She motioned for Namworth to step aside. “Now stand back while I try this. A simple color change shouldn’t be a big problem for somepony who’s been to an advanced magic school,” she bragged confidently despite having flunked out of the school to then pick up her current career. Loré’s face curled up in exertion as she groaned loudly, her horn barely glowing more than when she levitated objects around. Her eyes closed as the need for focusing increased, and the extra effort paid off with the glow turning into a bright flash. “Did… did it work?” Loré opened her eyes slowly. “You did it!” celebrated Namworth. Loré propped herself up on her hindlegs with her front hooves on a windowsill. The reflection confirmed what Namworth had said, the red color had completely disappeared from the tip of her horn and it was now a uniform gray color like the rest of her coat. A cocky smirk emerged on Loré’s face. “I did? I did! I mean, of course I did it! Was there ever any doubt?” Her worried expression quickly gave way to the more commonplace cocky smirk of hers. Namworth smiled innocently and shook his head. “I didn’t doubt you for a second, Loré. But, we really should get going.” The two proceeded out into the town square, Loré still keeping her head a tad low, as if she was being watched by everypony in town. This was however as far away from the truth as possible. Everypony was more than eager to grant her a smile, a wave, or even a “Good afternoon” whenever passing by the two. Though, this did little to alleviate Loré of her paranoia and tension. “Nopony will know as long as you act naturally, Loré.” Namworth nudged her once to knock out the paranoia riddled expression on her face. “Of course, I’ll just, smile and wave.” She forced a rather frightenly awkward smile, waving at any pony passing the two by. Her best attempts at faking a calm and natural demeanor when under the imaginary pressure of being watched was a lot less impressive than what her confidence, and excessive bragging had led Namworth to believe. “I guess it won’t get any better than that,” mumbled Namworth under his breath, shaking his head a bit at Loré’s horrible acting. “There it is!!” exclaimed Loré with a stretched hoof in the direction of Twilight’s home, the town’s library. “We finally made it here. After all the trials, all the misery, all the frustration. It’ll finally pay off.” A wicked grin broke from the fake smile she’d been sporting for the past few minutes as they hastily walked through the town square to the more north eastern part of Ponyville. “Yeah, let’s go knock on th–” Namworth tried to say while moving up close to the front door of the library. However, a quick firm magical pull on his hind legs got him right back to Loré. “What in Equestria do you think you are doing?” Loré growled in between small pants from her magical exertion. “I’m politely getting us inside?” he asked, unsure of where Loré was going with this. “Urgh, we aren’t doing that. My plan was never to sit down with miss prissy and have a cup of tea with her in there. No, we are breaking in and stealing the spell we need.” Loré’s eyes narrowed while her smirk grew simultaneously. She first went up to the nearest window on the ground floor, eyeing the interior for any sight of her arch nemesis. “I can’t see anypony in there. I think they aren’t home. Perfect!” “We should wait for them to get back, Loré. I still think it’s better if we just asked to come in. Who knows, Twilight might be willing to help us.” The optimism in Namworth’s voice was fully ignored. Loré was far too engaged in her diabolical scheming to pay any more attention to him than needed. “I got it! It’s so simple.” She pulled Namworth to the left side of the library, ending up near a low hanging balcony. “There, that door should be a breeze to open up. All we need to do is get up there. Namworth, lift me up there.” “Oof, ow, hey!” Namworth didn’t even get a second to add any objection to Loré’s plan as she was already climbing onto his shoulders. “Stand still you oaf!” She almost whimpered while wobbling about on her hind legs. “I need a bit more elevation, get up on your back legs already,” she growled annoyedly. “Loré, I can’t… you’re too he– “ “I’m too what!?” A subdued ocean of wrath lurked beneath her dilated pupils, and one spoken misstep was bound to set it off now. “N-nothing!” whimpered Namworth as he gave it his all, lifting Loré higher and higher up. “Almost… there!” “Erhm, what are you two doing?” sounded a mare behind them. The sudden intrusion upon their wobbly pony tower was more than enough to break Namworth’s strained focus, ultimately sending their structure into a quick collaps. Loré released a loud eep before crashing down on top of her assistant. “Dammit, can’t you do anything right, Namworth?” asked Loré. The both of them looked up at the third pony as she cleared her throat to finally get their full attention. It was in fact the very pony Loré had tried to avoid meeting, Twilight Sparkle, and on her back was her own assistant, Spike. “Let’s try again, would you mind telling me what you two are doing?” Twilight asked, this time a bit more worried. Loré quickly got back up on her hooves, brushing off her coat some as she acted nonchalantly. “Well, my friend,” her last word ended up sounding very strained, “and I were simply trying to get into the library. But, we noticed nopony was home. So, naturally we assumed something might have happened to you. We took matter into our own hooves and that’s why we were trying to scale your home.” Twilight and Spike shared a mutual stare of confusion before looking back at the odd duo. “I wouldn’t ask, Twilight,” said Spike as Twilight almost did. But, she managed to stop herself from further questioning their rather idiotic approach to something as mundane as nopony being home. “I’ll just take your word for it,” she sighed before adding, “Well, since you two obviously want to get inside, why don’t you join us?” asked Twilight while opening the door with just a tiny spark of magic from her horn. “Oh, and my name is Twilight Sparkle. The little baby dragon on my back is my assistant, Spike.” “It’s nice to meet you two,” greeted Spike while jumping off Twilight’s back. “Well, I’m Loré, and this is actually my assistant Namworth,” Loré spoke a bit more reluctantly to Twilight this time. Namworth on the other hoof gave the both of them a warm and friendly wave. The four of them all went inside the Library. The resident inhabitants of the place just went about with their daily or weekly routines of storing away recent purchases, going over Twilight’s check list, and setting up the next tower of books for Twilight’s studying. Meanwhile, Namworth walked around in a slight baffle, taking in the impressive collection of books. Loré, although also taking in the sight, was more focused on singling out one particular thing. “You’ll have to excuse us for a moment, but Spike and I just returned from buying two dozen scrolls. It almost seems like we burn through a dozen or more each week,” she chuckled a bit as she pondered how she could get through so many in no time at all. “Yeah, I wonder how that happens,” Spike sarcastically commented as he wandered across the room with a stack of scrolls to store away. Twilight cast Spike a slight glare before looking at her two guests. “What brings you two to Ponyville, and to my home? I mean, I can tell you aren’t from around here, I’ve seen everypony in this town at some point. I’d definitely remember seeing a Hippogriff and a Unicorn with such intensely red eyes.” “We’re here for a spell,” blurted Namworth before Loré could object to him telling Twilight the actual truth. Loré glared at him for a brief second, her teeth painfully gritted together as she held back the urge to inflict unspeakable harm to her companion. “A spell? Which kind of spell?” Twilight asked curiously. “I’m sure I can find whatever you need. I almost have a copy of every spell book there is.” She gleefully clapped her hooves together. Loré had, meanwhile, snapped out of her quick fit of rage, being calm enough to elegantly phrase, “Well, my assistant and I were travelling across Equestria in our pursuit of historical knowledge when we just happened to stumble upon this book.” Loré fished out the book from her worn saddlebag to show Twilight. “It’s nothing major, seemingly a cookbook of some sort, but it’s a mystery I’d like to solve. Unfortunately, it’s written in a way that I can’t decipher, so I figured you’d have a spell that could get the knowledge out of the book and into my head.” Twilight had to think for a moment to comprehend the reason for using drastic measures of extracting the content of a book that was apparently only recipes. “Why would travelers be this interested in a cookbook though? It can’t be so important that you’d want to use magic this frivolously. Is there something you two aren’t telling me?” Twilight’s eyes narrowed into suspicious slits as they wandered back and forth between the two ponies sitting across from her at the table. “Well, not that it’s any of your business, but I’m in fact THE Loré Scroll, and I need the content of this book to finish my research on the Crystal Empire. I’d like to add a whole chapter about their cuisine.” The stare Twilight gave Loré did not seem to affect her, despite her earlier fit of paranoia. She seemed much colder and collective when faced with the mare she’d proclaimed to hate the very existence of. “Hhmmm, your name sounds familiar,” was all Twilight said before turning her head to the many shelves surrounding them. Her horn once again lit up, and the resulting magic was several books flying from the shelves to stream in front of her eyes till she found a particular one. “Ahah! I knew your name was a bit familiar, you’re the author of some rather controversial books. Do you have something against the princesses?” Twilight asked while glancing at the title of the book in front of her, ‘The Excessive Hegemony of Royalty’. “She actually works for Celestia,” Namworth chirped lightly to help ease to growing tension between the two unicorns. “Oh, so she’s like Twilight?” Spike asked while leisurely strolling past the table with a feather duster. “No, I’m not like her, and I told you before, Namworth. I don’t work for Celestia. I work for the head of my historical department,” growled Loré in deep frustration. “Yeah, and you told me he worked for Celestia,” said Namworth. “Kinda the same thing if you ask me,” added Spike while dusting off some shelves. “I don’t get it, if you work for Princess Celestia, then why write a book like this? You look like a diligent student like me.” Twilight still remained a bit concerned. Loré finally slammed the table with both of her front hooves with enough force to give Namworth a slight scare. “This is NOT an intervention of why I wrote anything. I really just came here for a tiny bit of assistance so I could read a book. Now, are you going to help me or not? I have really important research to do, and maybe I was wrong about your abilities as Celestia’s protégé.” Loré smirked cockily while shrugging her shoulders. “It’s fine if you can’t help, but at least have the decency to tell me straight away instead of wasting my time.” “Who are you to comment on my abilities?!” Twilight fumed as Loré had managed to strike a nerve. She got up on her hind legs, with both forelegs planted on the table as she leaned in closer to her opponent. “I’ve read your biography. You didn’t even get all the way through magic school. I’ve also read some of your books, and maybe you should put some more time into your own ‘research’ so it isn’t full of historical errors, instead of coming all the way to Ponyville just to insult me.” Loré mimicked Twilight in her stance on the table, their faces almost crashing into each other as they shared a mutual look of disdain. “What do you know about proper research and history!?” yelled Loré, “When was the last time you actually did some field work or wrote a research paper that didn’t pertain to what nancy pancy things you learned from frolicking around with your friends?” “Loré!” “Twilight!” It was up to the assistants to help end the quickly escalating feud between the two unicorns. Though, as reluctant as both of them were, Namworth and Spike were more than capable of calming them both down, at least enough to get back to a somewhat civilized dialogue. “I’m sorry for what I said,” mumbled Twilight. “I guess I am as well,” answered Loré. The room filled with an awkward silence as the two just sat there without looking at each other, not wanting to say anything else. But, Loré had to, as she was still in desperate need for Twilight’s aid so she could decipher her book. “So, can you help me with my translation problem?” was Loré’s best attempt at asking her enemy for help in a nice way. Twilight sighed before mumbling, “Spike, could you fetch me the book on advance spells, volume nine.” Spike performed a little salute before running off to a ladder so he could retrieve the book. “I’m on it!” Twilight flipped the book open with her magic once Spike had dropped it on the table. “There, page 138, Mental Absorption. I think that’s what you are after.” She shoved the open book over in front of Loré with her magic. Loré studied the pages very intensely, doing her best to grasp the complexity of the spell. “Want me to explain it to you?” Twilight asked in a more friendly tone, trying to bridge over the tension between the two. Though, she was still only met with hostility from Loré who growled, “No thank you, I can figure this out just fine on my own. I might not have finished any advance magic classes, but I can surely master one spell when given clear instructions like these.” A vague hint of confusion crept into her face, like a foal attempting to solve a math problem out of its reach. “Just… Just give me a moment to memorize the instructions.” Twilight sighed once more in frustration by the sheer amount of resistance she got from Loré. Spike tried his best to ease her annoyance as he gave her shoulder a reassuring pat and her eyes a look of compassion. It caused a smile to return to her face, and she finally looked over at the quiet second guest. “While we wait for your... ‘boss’ to memorize the spell, can I offer you anything to eat or drink?” “Really? I’d love if you got something sweet to drink or eat.” He smiled warmly at Twilight who got up from her hunches, turned towards Spike and simply told him to fetch the guest something to snack on. Loré kept on squirming and groaning every now and then as she seemed to ignored the three other individuals in the room, deeply focused on getting the spell right in her head. Her own absorption into the spellbook had left her completely unaware that Namworth, Twilight and Spike were each having a cup of tea with some cookies. “She really isn’t that bad once you get to know her,” said Namworth while fiddling with his cup of tea. “She’s perhaps a bit eccentric.” Twilight tried to be nice about the obnoxious nature of Namworth’s friend. “Where are you two heading anyway? She said you were traveling across Equestria, but why are you doing that?” “Oh, we’re heading towards the Crystal Empire, or somewhere further north than there. Loré really likes the history of that place, and she wants to do more research there.” Namworth smiled awkwardly as he hoped the two of them would buy the lie. “That’s a really long journey there, are you going on hoof? And don’t you have equipment for when you reach the colder climate?” Twilight asked curiously. But before Namworth could answer the questions, Spike chimed in with, “Huh, that’s strange, we were in the Crystal Empire just two weeks ago. What a small world. Twilight, you should tell him about how we heroically defeated the evil king and– “ Loré finally heard something else than her own thoughts when Sombra was referenced. “Please tread lightly when speaking about Sombra. There was more to that Stallion than either of you know.” She slammed the book shut before getting up. “We’re leaving now, Namworth.” Loré managed to bark her orders before either Twilight or Spike could put in a question or retort to her comment about Sombra. She didn’t really wait for her assistant to follow her out of Twilight’s library, she just walked straight out the door with a, “Thank you for the spell. I hope to see you some time in the future. Sometime real soon…” The last part was grumbled under her breath in a far more sinister tone. Namworth gave the rather bewildered looking Twilight and Spike an apologetic look, “I’m really sorry. She can be nicer than this. I’ve seen her be really sweet at times.” Namworth performed a little bow before turning to the door. “Wait, Namworth.” Twilight stopped him from leaving. “If you are going to the Crystal Empire, you should both take some warm clothes with you. My friend Rarity could help you with that. She runs the carousel boutique here in Ponyville. You should go see her for some clothes before leaving. Just tell her I sent you two.” “Oh, okay. Thank you, Twilight. I’ll be sure to tell Loré that.” He waved once at the both of them before running after Loré as quickly as he could, having quite a bit of distance to catch up already.