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// 1 Old Management 
// Story: Blackout Shelter 
// by Brass Polish 
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	It wasn’t long before Ponyville Castle had been outfitted to suit Princess Twilight Sparkle’s royal needs. And now that all the work had been finished, Applejack was back in the orchards, Pinkie Pie was resuming her apprenticeship with the Cakes, Rarity was perusing her artistic endeavours, Fluttershy was back among her animal companions, and Rainbow Dash was taking back the reigns of the weather crew. The castle library was now open to the public, as Twilight was showing some out-of-towners one bright, blue morning.

“How fancy it is,” remarked Ms Peachbottom. “A real superb job, your highness.”
“Glad you like it,” replied Twilight. “We did our best to set everything up the way Golden Oaks used to be.”
She looked away from the group for a moment. The destruction of her old Ponyville home still caused her some heartache.
“That’ll make the old librarian happy,” said Amber Aldis. “Whoever that was.”
They looked expectantly at Twilight.
“Um…”
That was when Twilight realised that she had no idea who used to run the Library before she’d come to town.

“We were only supposed to stay at Golden Oaks for one night during the Summer Sun Celebration, so why didn’t the librarian come back afterwards demanding her home back?”
Spike was rather astounded when Twilight brought this up later. “Why didn’t either of us think of this before?”
“I guess it just never occurred to us,” said Twilight. “Could you keep an eye on things here? I’m going to go ask Pinkie Pie.”
“Good thinking,” smiled Spike. “She knows practically every pony who ever lived here.”

When Twilight got to Sugarcube Corner however, Mrs Cake told her that Pinkie Pie wasn’t there. It was something of a worry to her as she was meant to watch over the twins soon. So Twilight decided to go ask someone else. She found herself in Carousel Boutique talking to Rarity, who was applying emeralds to a freshly made garment.
“Hmm, well, the Ponyville Knitters’ Club used to meet at the Library whenever the community center was full,” said Rarity in response to Twilight’s question, “but that was years ago. The librarian at the time might have been replaced since then.”
“I see,” said Twilight, who eyed the crate of leftover green jewels.
“You’re welcome to them,” smiled Rarity. “I wager Spikey-Wikey’s getting hungry. Um, perhaps you ought to ask Applejack,” she went on. “I dare say she once researched the many different types of apples at one time or another.”

Applejack was applebucking her way through the courtland trees when Twilight arrived and inquired about her predecessor.
“I did meet her once,” said Applejack.
So the old librarian was a mare, thought Twilight.
“My hat blew away once and it got stuck in the library’s branches,” Applejack went on. “The librarian helped me get it back. I just said thanks and then came back here. I never had to look up apple names. We learned all that from Granny. Ain’t that right, Big Mac?!”
“Eeeyup!” Big Mac responded from his end of the courtland field.
“I, uh, was never much of a reader,” Applejack admitted. “So I never made a point of going there before you came around.”
Twilight nodded. “Maybe I’ll ask Fluttershy. Maybe she went there once to learn about animal care.”

The door to Fluttershy’s cottage opened a crack after Twilight knocked.
“Please be quiet, Twilight,” Fluttershy said softly. “Owlowiscious mustn’t be woken up.”
“Oh,” Twilight grinned. “How’s he coming along?”
“He’s nearly back in his normal sleep cycle,” smiled Fluttershy, opening the door all the way and beckoning Twilight inside. “I’d say another week should do it.”
Twilight saw that Fluttershy had a scroll and her phoenix feather quill out on her table.
“Writing a letter?” she asked.
“I just finished,” replied Fluttershy. “Just a moment, please. I’ll just send it off.”
Fluttershy rolled up the scroll and shoved it up her right nostril. Twilight gaped.
“That letter’s for Discord, isn’t it?”
“How did you guess?” asked Fluttershy.
“I really couldn’t tell you,” Twilight shrugged.

Twilight found out that Fluttershy had done most of her zoological research before she’d moved to Ponyville. When she’d taken her leave, she spotted Rainbow Dash, Blossomforth and Thunderlane dealing with some stratocumuli.
“No harm in asking her,” Twilight said to herself, taking flight and approaching Rainbow Dash.
She asked her if she knew who ran the Library before she moved in.
“Do I look like an egghead to you?” Rainbow replied.
Twilight frowned and turned back to the ground.
“Uh, wait, um…” Rainbow Dash faltered, “why don’t you ask Cheerilee? She must’ve rented books out before.”
“She’ll be teaching a class right now,” Twilight turned back to Rainbow Dash. “I don’t want to interrupt her.”
“What about Pinkie Pie? She knows everyone…”
Twilight interrupted. “I don’t know where she is.”
“She’s heading back to Sugarcube Corner right now.”
Rainbow Dash pointed downwards. The bakery sat right beneath them, and there was Pinkie Pie hopping through the front doors.
“Oh! Perfect. Thanks, Rainbow,” Twilight waved as she descended into town.

When she entered Sugarcube Corner for the second time that day, she found Pinkie Pie waiting on an order from the Mayor. Pound and Pumpkin were crawling all over her.
“What’s up, Twi?” she beamed as Mayor Mare took her leave with her large butter tart.
“Pinkie, do you remember who worked at the Library before that Summer Sun Celebration when I came to Ponyville?” asked Twilight.
“Hmm…” Pinkie Pie pondered. “Oh, yeah! Her name was Tuckaway. She was a pegasus pony with a green coat, white mane and tail, and red eyes. Her cutie mark was a faux fur satchel with brass clips and a blue, a green and a red book in it. Her birthday was 3 weeks and four days before you came to town. She had a one week return policy for every book, and…”

Once Pinkie Pie had divulged all the information she could recall, Twilight returned to Ponyville Castle that evening.
“Find anything out?” asked Spike as soon as he saw her.
“A few things,” said Twilight, sitting in her throne before telling Spike everything Pinkie had told her about the original librarian.
“Did she say where Tuckaway went after Nightmare Moon was stopped?”
“She doesn’t know,” replied Twilight, looking at the floor. “What’s this mess?”
“I looked through the stuff that didn’t get destroyed by Tirek,” Spike explained, picking up a few papers. “Thought maybe there’d be a record or something of who used to work at the Library. Didn’t find anything though. Most of these are just doodles.”
He showed some crude drawings to Twilight, who’s eyebrows dropped.
“Darn foals,” she said.
Spike picked up a blank paper and a quill. “How about we send a note to Princess Celestia?”
“That’s a great idea!” Twilight slammed her hoof on her throne. “She’s the one who made the arrangements for us. She must know what happened to Tuckaway.”
Minutes later, Spike had written down Twilight’s query to Princess Celestia and ignited it.
“I gotta say, I much prefer our method of sending mail to Fluttershy’s,” Twilight said.
“What’s that?” asked Spike.
He was soon sorry he asked.

Spike didn’t have to wait long for a much needed distraction. Princess Celestia’s reply arrived, and Twilight hurriedly looked it over.
“She says that it was pure coincidence that we were sent to a library,” she told Spike. “Tuckaway was keen to move out for some reason, so she was more than happy to leave Golden Oaks permanently even though Celestia only asked for one night. If she had returned after that night, other arrangements would have been made for our permanent move to Ponyville.”
“She won’t miss Golden Oaks then,” said Spike.
At the moment, the baby dragon walked over to a mini-fridge and pulled out two bottles of cider. Twilight took one, and they both drank to the memory of their old Ponyville home.

That night, Twilight had a quite pleasant dream. She was floating in a light evening sky surrounded by breezies. They glided by her carrying sacks of pollen and making no noise at all.
“I suppose using the Royal Canterlot Voice would not go over well with these creatures,” came a voice.
Twilight looked to her right. Princess Luna was floating amongst the hundreds of fairy creatures a short distance away from her. Eventually, the breezies between the two alicorns parted and they were face to face.
“Good… um, night, Princess Luna,” Twilight smiled weakly.
Luna chuckled. “Goodnight, Princess Twilight.”
“What brings you here?”
“I understand it was you who prompted my sister to inquire about Tuckaway, the old Ponyville librarian,” Luna said.
“Has she?” asked Twilight.
“Yes. And no answers have come,” said Luna. “Nopony seems to know where Tuckaway went after I returned to Equestria. And now Celestia is concerned as to why she was so keen on vacating the Library.”
“Could somepony have been after her for some reason?” Twilight wondered.
“Possibly. And we in the capital would certainly like to find out what became of a subject who has disappeared,” said Luna with determination. “Therefore I would like you to join a search party I am organizing.”
“Of course, your highness,” Twilight bowed in midair.
“You shall resume your regular duties, but whenever you can spare a few hours, please carry on from where you left off in your investigation,” Luna instructed. “We will keep in touch.”