Lightning had ended up arriving very late to the castle, along with an Octavia who felt as though she had seen too much. It turned out that the passage Shadow had taken all those years ago was on a steep downhill from its origin, meaning a venture through it from the pizzeria was exactly the opposite.
To make things worse, it was dark, darker than anything the refined music pony had ever experienced. Lightning had been in similar situations before but had yet to develop any real tolerance. The tunnel wasn’t kept either, and it was so full of bugs, living and dead, that sense of touch was ignored to remain sane. The ceiling was barely high enough for Lightning to walk comfortably up the passage, but Octavia was in an awkward sort of crawl. For an agonizing hour and a half the two felt their way through the musky darkness, smelling the fetid odor of the place all the way.
By the time they emerged through a tiny door under the main foyer stairs both were dusty and miserable. The red of Lightning’s fur had been ruined to a dusky clay color and Octavia’s well-groomed mane had become a cobwebbed mess. Overall, they came out of the archives looking dirty and out of place.
The charge to greet them in the hall at the time happened to be Celestia herself. The princess was on her way back from a late lunch when she encountered what she at first assumed to be two miner ponies or rock farmers. It wasn’t until a distance of less than three meters that she recognized the cutie mark of Octavia Von Clef.
“My goodness…” she said “You two are in a state…”
“Someone has got to be put on secret passage upkeep,” said Lightning, shaking the dust out of her tail while Octavia bowed low “Get someone on that, will you sun-butt?”
“Lightning!” Octavia snapped, feeling her stomach drop out at the comment “I am so very sorry princess, my student is irreverent at the absolute worst of times, I’ll see to it that she’s well disciplined.”
“I think she can be forgiven,” said Celestia, actually cracking a slight smile. Sun-butt was Luna’s timeless nickname from their filly years and nostalgia beat out any anger she was experiencing “To what do I owe the pleasure of the premier cellist of Manehatten to be in our halls?”
“The pleasure is mine princess,” said Octavia, flinching again as Lightning sneezed, releasing the dust on her coat to settle on the floor “We’ve been hired for the small event taking place here tomorrow evening. Would it be too much to ask where the showers might be?”
Celestia was resisting the urge to laugh. The cellist had played locally before and always to a very excitable crowd. Now here she was, looking as though she had crawled through a dusty tunnel with the little filly (was she maroon or was that the dust?) who was just as feisty as her own sister.
The princess reclaimed her composure before speaking “The baths are on the second floor, right of the foyer, that is to say, off this room here. I think your young friend could use a full workup…”
“I’m fine!” said Lightning, dislodging a little more grit from behind one ear and totally ignoring the little tan spider clambering across her mane “Believe me I’ve been worse, there was this one time-“
“Thank you!” Octavia said, stepping between Lightning and Celestia as quick as she could “We had better be headed there now! If it’s not too much trouble could you send someone to get us and bring us to our room later?”
“I believe that can be arranged,” said Celestia “I hope to see you both at dinner?”
“Of course!” said Octavia.
“But…” Lightning’s argument guiled under the daggers shooting from Octavia’s eyes “Okay…”
The gray mare forcefully herded the little filly towards the stairs. Celestia watched them go, wondering what in Equestria Luna had planned for tomorrow. On a similar note, however, she had the uncanny feeling she recognized the filly with the full moon on her flank. She would ask her sister about it now, but she was already feeling trepidation.
Octavia herself was livid, desperate to get away from the princess while she still looked like a mess. Her cheeks were burning as she turned to face Lightning outside the door to the baths.
“What exactly do you call that stunt?” she hissed “Sun-butt? What were you thinking? That is the princess of Equestria you were talking to and you’re grasping for silly names?”
“Oh she’s just one of the princesses,” said Lightning “And Luna’s way cooler. Hey, do you think we’ll get to meet Shining Armor on this trip> I know he’s on leave after the whole Tyrek thing but-“
“You insulted the princess of Equestria!” Octavia found her voice rising ever further “And you have the gall to ask about your dreamy boy-toy? As long as we are in Canterlot you are in my charge, you understand? When you get to meet the duke I don’t want any of this attitude, and if you see Celestia again I want you to apologize.”
Lightning’s gaze seemed to glaze slightly when Octavia mentioned the duke, apparently triggering some memory, there was a brief silence following the scolding before Lightning found it in her to release a snappy comeback.
“Yeah, whatever ‘mom’,” she said, intentionally brushing past “I’m going to have a look around, okay? Meet you back here in an hour when you finish washing your hair?”
Octavia gave up “Fine!” she said “But if I hear that one iota of this castle has been disturbed by you then I’ll have some choice words for your brother when we get back to Ponyville!”
Lightning felt slightly cautious after her brother was mentioned, but didn’t break stride. “Got it!” she called over her shoulder as she trotted off on some unknown agenda.
“And Vinyl wants kids…” Octavia scoffed as she pushed the doors open, looking well forward to a bath to relieve the stress of reigning in that red devil of a filly.
Lightning could feel an odd prickling in her stomach, one, had she been slightly less adamant, she would’ve recognized as a nervous sensation. The layout of the castle was painfully familiar, on past the red door of the throne room, south towards the rear-left tower. She still thought even now about how they had crashed down the guest rooms opening every door in their way, and how Shadow had infiltrated a room through the window, technically not voiding a verbal contract. She remembered even the twinge of jealousy as a white furred unicorn had attempted to capture his fancy.
It was all so long ago but so vivid in her mind that it might as well have been the events of last week’s lunch. Her lessons blended together day-by-day into a collage of events she could make nothing out of. Memory only seemed important before that time. Even as she walked the halls her sixth sense caught notes of Luna’s Lullaby and her heart fluttered. Those were cords so close to her that she didn’t dare play them.
Just as she was preparing to turn to the final hallway she noticed a young mare in frills and lace standing, hesitant, at the corner. She wanted to go on more than anything but this was just way too odd. Curiosity or reunion, this was a choice that took annoying to a new height.
Nerves fought on the side of curiosity and she stood next to the mare, peeking down the hallway. A plain, white toaster oven was in the middle of the floor, dented on one side as though someone had kicked it. Nothing seemed particularly out of place in the situation other than the maid.
“Excuse me,” said Lightning, trying to keep any hint of condescension out of her voice “What are you doing?”
The maid looked down at Lightning, shuffling slightly “Well I’m supposed to be vacuuming this hallway, it’s my first day you see. But I’m slightly afraid to go out there now.”
“Got a phobia of kitchen appliances?” asked Lightning.
“Only when they’re flying…” said the maid “I’m sorry, that sounds crazy. Duke Shadow was in the hall about ten minutes ago and he kicked that down the way there very forcibly. I don’t want to go out there again until I know if he’s coming back…”
Lightning snorted, some things never did change “Well where was he headed?” she asked “I, um, have to take a memo to him.”
The maid considered this for a moment, mumbling what sounded like a schedule “He would be talking to the party planners by now, it is his party after all. His needs must be tailored to.”
“He’s turning eleven tomorrow…” said Lightning, her tone very similar “I guess I’ll go find him.”
She turned down the hallway, eyeing the toaster oven curiously as she passed. “Be careful!” the maid shouted.
There was a consideration in Lightning’s mind to barge down and interrupt whatever meetings Shadow was having, after all, her visit was more important than any of that right? The only problem with that was that wouldn’t be quite enough shock value for her standard. That and she didn’t have the slightest idea where in this enormous building those meetings would be taking place. With nothing better to do she committed to turn at random, into a doorway she didn’t know.
Such an action brought about the smell of crisp paper and pine, the feel of rough, red hall carpet giving way to a smoother, blue shag texture, and a vision of every wall connected to narrow walkways, each made of one thing: books. Bookshelves, tall and almost menacing about the place, with only a single balcony exit to interrupt the pattern and display the city below. Everything in the room gave off an air of something old and somehow magical. Though Lightning didn’t know it, Princess Twilight had lived in this very room before she had even been born.
Lately the Canterlot Castle library had been in much more public use, though it wasn’t necessarily popular. The citizens of the city were more often found collecting texts than actually reading them, a prominent reason why Lightning felt very alone as she walked along the bottom level. Everything was in such pristine condition given what it was… Light’s only experience with libraries had been Ponyville Public, and then only sparingly. There the books had been handled so often that many had become totally illegible. The books here were in a complete contrast to that idea, not a single spine dented or frayed. She shrugged the notion, unicorns were weird, and this wasn’t news.
Though on the subject of unicorns, she was just able to catch the quiet hum of magic from one of the walkways above, meaning one was in fact present. She sighed, hoping to avoid confrontation with the stranger. As much as she disliked unicorns she had the dull feeling they disliked her even more.
Lightning picked a route at random, following a tight spiral staircase up to the next level in search of something that hopefully would not be literature with which to take up her time. A comic seemed ideal but she had a silent doubt that there would be anything like that here. Still, no penalty to try, and she took quickly to one of her least favorite activities, browsing books. In fact she was making an extra-special effort to look at the books and nowhere else, ensuring she would not catch the eye of the unicorn she knew was somewhere around here…
This, of course, sent her toppling over a book lying on the floor right into the unidentified pony she had been trying to avoid. She caught a flash of blue as she tumbled over and under the stranger until they came to a stop a dozen feet away. Nothing was going well…
Lightning looked up at the pony now on top of her and breath sound stopped. The filly above looked just a little older than herself, her coat a bright sky blue with a mane of matching navy. A dim light seemed to pulse somewhere in those ocean colored locks as though she was harboring fairies to nest in her mane. A dull tipped horn was still buzzing faintly on her forehead, glowing a very slight yellow. When her eyes opened, seeming to do so in slow motion, they were revealed to be the same color as her gentle magical glow, staring right into Light’s own. The moment drowned her and she was oblivious to the voice until several moments after she heard it.
“Huh?” she mumbled.
“I asked if you were alright,” said the blue filly, tilting her head as she watched Lightning pierce her with her eyes “You seem a little out of it, maybe we should get you to the infirmary.”
“Yeah…” said Lightning, able to agree with anything that lovely voice said. At least until the meaning actually caught up with her “I mean no!” she exclaimed, quickly scooting out from under the unicorn, glad her fur color was useful at hiding her blush “I’m fine, oh Celestia, I’m sorry, I didn’t hurt you or anything right?”
“Just my concentration,” said the filly, her horn lighting yellow again, several scattered books floated into piles on the floor again, “I’ve been working my way through some old spell books for ideas, total drag. Reading you know? Why isn’t there like a resident mage to talk to?”
“Yeah!” said Lightning, coming back to her senses as she perceived common ground with the stranger “Who in Equestria has time to sit down and read anything anymore?”
Somewhere far away from the two fillies a disgruntled author wants to kick her.
The unicorn giggled, “If you’re so convinced of that what are you doing in a library? You’re so interested in looking at books you ran right into me.”
“Oh, boredom,” said Lightning, an invisible blush taking her again “I’ve got someone I need to meet up with and it’s going to be awhile, took a random door. I’m sure you know how it is.”
“Sort of,” said the unicorn, resisting the urge to giggle again “I forgot to mention, I’m Charm, Charm Artifice. Figure anyone who can be clumsy enough to trip over a pony and interesting enough to talk to them afterwards should know my name?”
“Heh, yeah,” said Lightning “Oh, I’m Lightning, um, Lightning Strike.”
“Your parents had no imagination, like at all,” said Charm, cocking an eyebrow “But that’s regular I guess, no offense! What do you do, build tesla coils or something?”
“If a tesla coil is some kind of instrument… I could learn to play it maybe?” said Lightning “I’m a musician, guitarist actually, I’m playing at the party tomorrow.”
“Ah, I’m just using the library,” said Charm “I wouldn’t usually though, I hate all the hustle in the castle. Worst place to study ever to be honest, but I can’t take the books with me.”
“Sounds rough,” said Lightning, her eyes trailing to the three-dimensional triangle on Charm’s flank. Or, was that just a bunch of connected rectangles? How were they bending like that and still connecting? Not bending? What was going on with this girl’s cutie mark? She had a nice flank…
“Yeah, no joke,” the next comment jolted Lightning “There’s not a lot of stuff on illusion spells here anyway.”
“Oh, cool,” said Lightning, feeling all this information whizz uselessly over her head “Um, if you don’t mind me asking, what is your cutie mark supposed to be?” she felt a little out of bounds asking this, some ponies considered it rude to ask what another’s mark stood for.
“That?” said Charm “That’s an infinity triangle. I like to think it’s pretty unique…”
“Well what does it mean?” asked Lightning.
“Oh, well have you heard of M.C. Escher?” asked Charm, skimming over a few more books, “He was a famous unicorn artist years and years ago. I think the triangle was one of his designs. His paintings were famous for one thing…”
Lightning was afraid to ask, but Charm seemed interested in showing her regardless. A flash of yellow consumed Lightning’s field of vision for a full five seconds before she stared out again. The world had turned black and white, looking like it had been drawn with a pencil. A very good pencil, but it was monochrome to the extreme. Stairs were everywhere, on the walls, the ceiling, and the windows that looked like they lead to nowhere. There was a sudden uncertainty as to which way was up as she watched Charm, suddenly meters away, walking one of the staircases sideways.
And in the next instant it was gone, leaving Lightning feeling dizzy and disoriented. She was back in the library and nothing else seemed to have changed. Her heart was racing as she turned back towards a smirking Charm to ask what had just happened.
“Illusions,” she answered before the question “You’ve never been in one before huh? Don’t worry none of it’s real, but it can throw you for kind of a loop if you aren’t prepared for it.”
“You just turned the whole library into a sketch!” Lightning exclaimed, turning around to confirm everything had, indeed, returned to normalcy “How the heck did you do that? It’s like master mage stuff to do something to a room this big!”
“I didn’t do anything to the room,” said Charm, giggling slightly “I did mess with your head though, that’s a lot easier.”
“So you’re making me see things?” Lightning asked.
“That’s the general idea of it, yeah,” said Charm “I can do public illusions everyone sees too, but they aren’t that powerful. Would you like to see one?”
“If it’s not, like, interrupting,” said Lightning, obviously trying to sound casual through her enormous curiosity “Like, I’ve got stuff to do too, so if-“
“Shut up,” said Charm, breaking into a wide smile and pulling Lightning close “Close your eyes okay?”
At a loss for breath Lightning nodded and silently complied. The hum of magic intensified as she kept her eyes tight shut, waiting for some sensation to show the magic had worked, or maybe that there was some other agenda. She didn’t know, trusting herself to this unicorn.
“Okay!” said Charm “You can look now!”
When Lightning opened her eyes she didn’t immediately recognize what she was looking at. Charm was still that painfully close inch away but the sight of her seemed to flicker, dyed an odd orange as though in a dancing light. Lightning looked down to her hooves, at where the orange glow around them faded purple and then blue, flowing and dancing like boiling water. She squeaked and jumped back as she realized what she was looking at.
Charm was almost laughing “Never walked through fire before?” she teased “Don’t worry, it’s nice and warm.” She turned a circle in the dancing flames, tossing the red filly a wink.
Lightning moved with caution back to the flames, waving a hoof about them in curious awe. “I don’t feel anything,” she said, half to herself “It’s not even warm.”
“Well of course not ya dork,” said Charm, the glow of her horn fading and taking the fire along with it “That’s because it’s an illusion, weren’t you listening? It looks like it’s there but it’s not. It’s more fun as a prank than anything really, you should see the look on your face.”
Whatever look Charm was relishing slipped off Lightning’s face as a scowl took over “You know I wasn’t really scared right? I was just letting you know how good of a job you did. I have a friend who trots around in real fire all the time.”
“Sounds like quite the friend,” said Charm, cocking one eyebrow “Tell me, does he hang out with the human you’re friends with too? I feel like I might have seen them together.”
“I’m serious!” said Lightning “That’s who I was going to meet when I came in here, in fact-“
--------------------------------------
Shadow’s state of mind had been on a roller coaster since the day began, and the mission statement he had received was helping matters about as much as a hole in his head. The passage had vanished into nothing almost as soon as he was out of it, leaving his silent wonder to be if the whole thing had been imagined. Given the stakes he wasn’t sure whether it would be more of a risk to assume it was truth or fiction.
His senses were still in fine shape though, demonstrated by the throbbing pain in one hoof. After over an hour of discussion with the party planners he had gone back up the halls to the tower. The toaster oven he had a fateful encounter with earlier was still right where he left it, undisturbed, smug-looking. He promptly kicked it out one of the high windows to disturb some pony else.
With that taken care of he got to thinking, as there was quite a lot of thinking to do. No deadline had been given for the task but given its requirements he didn’t want to dawdle. On the other hoof the party was tomorrow, and a lot of ponies had put work into making it absolutely perfect. The trepidation of leaving before that was less out of pity for them and more out of his desire not to miss the festivities.
In a huff he walked past his own staircase, coming to the conclusion that he would compromise. There were still details he was fuzzy on in the first place, those being what the best way to execute the mission would be, as well as precisely where this “Great Cape” place was.
With thoughts of a continent shaped like a DC character he turned towards the library, agitated wings picking up dust in little puffs as he walked. In his wake a young maid peeked out from the corner, found it to be free of the toaster oven, and got to sweeping.
Out of all the possible places to look for information, there was really one consistent staple, the library, his least favorite place ever. It was a public resource now, opened by Twilight herself when she decided the books were really being hoarded rather than used. When he had first heard this announcement Shadow had hoped it would become an interesting hub for him to meet ponies from all over the world. But it wasn’t. There were a precious few scholars who bothered to use the place, and when they did they were less interesting and more… well… insane… treating the library as some precious treasure that they had to treat with reverence. He didn’t really like ponies who were reverent about much of anything.
And now he was just hoping it would be one of those oh-so-common times when it was as empty and quiet as a tomb. Especially because among all those high bookshelves were ridiculously difficult to navigate, that is to say, it was a Dewey decimal system and he didn’t even know where to begin with that. He had developed a private enjoyment of reading over the last few years, when the games ran out the bookshelf yielded wonders, but when it came to number systems he didn’t even know where to begin.
But the logical place was the bottom, and that’s where he was, trailing along the lines of literature as the numbers slowly moved upward. No maps, no resources, just a lot of fantasy stories, it seemed to be the starting genre… He would have to come back here some time when he was in more of a private setting because these looked fantastic…
From somewhere above he could hear voices, mares talking, probably some scholars. He was already dreading recognition should they notice him, the last thing he wanted now was conversation that could yield to questions about why he was in here in the first place. He really didn’t have a good answer for that anyway.
And yet the bottom floor yielded nothing of use to him, a second check of the whole of the floor confirmed that. He had a vague memory of maps somewhere on a higher level, and supposed that might be a good place to start. Voices, or a map, that was the question of the hour to see if he could or couldn’t just avoid the scholars he was certain were up there. At least he was quiet about how he went about scaling the ladder, and when he turned to the two ponies seated near the railing he paused. That coat… it was an almost familiar sort of red, and that blue was rare in and of itself.
The next word more escaped him than was actually formed, but there it was out in the open, attracting their attention as he said “Lightning?”