The morning sun seeping in the windows did nothing to rouse the pale buffalo from his peaceable slumber in the lower bunk. The sound of panic and commotion from somewhere lower in the castle didn’t so much as phase him. The bookshelf sliding open to allow two royal guards and the Lunar Princess herself didn’t prompt him to so much as move. When an all too familiar spear nudged his side he finally deigned to open his eyes.
“Alright you little runt,” Dawnstar’s voice came from beside the bed “Where are they?”
“Where’re what?” Mesa muttered, letting out a tremendous yawn and sitting up “I swear I have no idea what happened to those trays of cinnamon rolls, you’ve got the wrong guy…”
The spear jabbed just a little bit more forcefully “Where is the duke?” Dawnstar demanded “If you don’t talk within the next few moments your head will roll!”
Mesa blearily looked over the bed next to him, the sheets were thrown back and the occupant gone. He looked from side to side, then up, seeing no sign of any of those he had so trustingly fallen asleep near. It figured that would be how he woke up…
“That’s a really dull spear…” he said idly.
Dawnstar moved towards him again, fire in his eyes, but Luna put a hoof on his shoulder. It only took a glare for him to back off before she turned to Mesa.
“Your friends have disappeared in the night,” she spoke, toneless “Do you know what happened to them?”
“Should I?” Mesa murmured, rubbing at his eyes “Damn if that wasn’t the best sleep I’ve had in…”
“We just want to know where they are,” said Luna, interrupting the statement “Did they mention anything? Any detail at all that they might be going somewhere?”
“Nope,” said Mesa, ears flopping as he yawned “Is the breakfast bar free?”
Luna sighed “We’d better start a search,” she said “I thought he’d grown out of this. I’ll have to speak with Dusk about it, would you make sure they aren’t still in the castle again?”
“We’re sweeping every room,” said Dawnstar “If they’re here, they’ll be found.”
“Good,” said Luna “I’m going to check on some things of my own, keep the order would you?” she didn’t wait for an answer, hastening out the door.
Dawnstar sneered as he turned back to Mesa, spear lowering again “I think I already told you, snot,” he said “That I’d have you rot in the dungeon if I saw one piece of this castle disturbed.”
Mesa moved off the bed, standing a little straighter “Whoa there, dude,” he said “I’ve got no idea what happened, this isn’t my fault!”
“You see,” said Dawnstar “I’m not so sure about that. I think we might have to take you down to the interrogation chambers to make sure. Until you talk we’ve got no way of knowing what part you play in this do we? So you’re going to come with me, right now, unless you want to get skewered.”
Mesa’s stomach sank, watching the opening in the bookshelf, noting there was no viable way past the guard to get to it. His gaze flickered to the windows, registering the drop of several stories entailed that way. He took another few paces backwards, feeling trapped as the angry yellow eyes of Dawnstar followed his every step.
“There’s no way out of this one, kid,” said Dawn “Just come quietly and you won’t have to get hurt, well, not as much…”
One drastic idea came to Mesa in his moment of need, one that might just be crazy enough to work. Dawnstar watched in confusion, positioning himself before the only exit as the damnable buffalo ran towards the only other doorway- the bathroom. Dawn stared in dumbfounded silence as the door slammed shut, unsure of his next action. He walked to the door, jimmied the handle, finding it locked. What was that kid doing in there, stalling?
“You’ll have to come out of there eventually!” Dawn threatened, tapping his spear on the ground as he prepared for a siege “Whenever you’re ready to eat you can come on out. If I were you I would’ve picked a prison that smelled better.”
To Dawn’s temporary astonishment the click of the lock came mere moments later, followed by a quiet creaking sound of opening. He lowered his spear, ready for an ambush as he shouldered the door open, finding Mesa in a prominent stance beside the heavy bronze chamber pot.
“I have come to a realization,” said the buffalo, failing to hide a smirk.
Dawn was too caught up in his checkmate position to question the expression “Well I’m certainly glad to accept your surrender,” he said “Why don’t you step on out and we’ll take you downstairs, have a little chat on the way…”
“You see,” said Mesa “That wasn’t at all what I realized.” One hoof came to the edge of the chamber pot “I just realized that, well, I’m not the brainiest, but compared to me you’re pretty dang stupid.”
Dawnstar took on a far less satisfied expression as he approached again, intent on giving this smart-ass a spear wound to remember him by, knock him down some pegs. His eyes widened in pure terror three steps later as he realized what the buffalo was doing, at the position he had been tricked into. And in the next second he lost all consciousness as he was overcome with a wave of unadulterated revulsion.
Mesa stumbled out of the bathroom with hasty, careful steps around the filth, only daring to take a breath as he found carpeted footing. The putridity still reached him from here, but not as much, safe from the full impact of the stench of refuse at least. He would make a point of washing his hooves before doing much else… washing his hooves very thoroughly…
“Don’t light a match,” he said to the unconscious form of Dawnstar, hoping he didn’t track crap across the carpet as he ran for the bookshelf.
After a stop at a downstairs bathroom Mesa went about doing the only thing that made sense to him at that point: leaving. There clearly wasn’t anything left for him here, except maybe a few snacks, an angry guard made angrier, and a wagon driver to whom he owed a debt. The trick would be leaving without suspicion, or at least, in a hasty enough way that no one would care enough to question it.
The second one was overwhelmingly opted for, but the castle seemed to be on lockdown with the duke’s disappearance, guards posted at every entrance and even a few at the lower windows. Spread as thin as they were Mesa was feeling safe in the fact the guards wouldn’t pursue him, that is, unless he tried to leave.
Hiding fell to the best option, but trying to remain inconspicuous was about as likely as not spotting a white buffalo among a crowd of armored unicorns- that is to say it was as near impossible as things routinely worked out in Canterlot. Instead he was focusing his entire energy on trying to locate an unguarded exit. The only thing that appealed to him in that likeness, however, was a tiny door he happened across in the main hall.
It was under the stairs, plain, wooden, small, with a single golden knob on one side. It seemed totally unguarded, insignificant even, but it held the possibility of hiding out, or being found, he didn’t know what was in there. It was his best bet though, so he was somewhat dismayed to discover it to be utterly locked down.
“Come on…” he grumbled, trying to turn the stubborn knob by force “Budge!”
He slammed his shoulder into the oak, grunting and growling as he tried in vain to force passage. As the futility of his action steadily dawned on him, breath coming in heavy gasps, he came to the realization he had been making quite a lot of noise. Many of those crowded in the hall had turned to him, and the guards at the main door had their eyes narrowed in his direction.
“Buck…” Mesa mumbled, fumbling for the handle again. He gave it a pull, without turning the handle, and it swung wide. Apparently there wasn’t a tumbler in the thing at all. Cursing what seemed to him like an absurd and difficult puzzle, he ducked through, hoping to Celestia that he wouldn’t be followed.
Blackness gripped him in that moment, a total all-consuming dark that he wasn’t overly familiar with. The only light, which he ignored, was coming from the keyhole, just enough to illuminate the edge of the first stair in what was surely a spiral passage.
And Mesa gave no bucks, taking a first, stumbling step into the blackness before catching the hang of how to walk the stairs without sight as he ventured downward, not entirely curious, but lacking any sort of better agenda. He didn’t wholly register that he was going anywhere but down until his hooves touched paper.
“What the…?” he muttered, trying and failing to step around the parchment that now seemed to consist of the entire floor. Not so much caring as he was concerned for his sanity, he continued, fumbling about in the darkness and discovering what felt like an endless row of bookshelves and an infinite supply of paper. He cursed the darkness again, annoyed that he couldn’t peruse the situation further.
Moments later a voice came out of the darkness, harsh in tone and at shocking proximity “Who are you?” it hissed “What are you doing down here?”
Mesa turned to the voice, his hoof stamping into the mould of paper to impact the stone beneath. “What’s it to ya?” he challenged the stranger, ready for combat.
The next moment was entirely underwhelming as his imagined opponent revealed herself with a magical light, casting the ancient wooden shelves into clearer detail, and more importantly, the mousy haired unicorn eyeing him from behind thick spectacles. If nothing else was clear at this point it was at least obvious this strange pony posed no real threat.
“What,” she said “Is a buffalo doing in the Canterlot archives?” she paused “No… don’t tell me… old temporal acquaintance of the now-missing duke looking to shelter himself from questioning. I’m going to have to get a mage to fix that lock, but they won’t for another two weeks and four days.” She shook her head “Can’t get decent help these days, still, you need something before you inevitably leave, or you’ll ask me for it, and no, not a question…”
Mesa was not intimidated, but he was confused and a little weirded out. “Well,” he said “I guess you aren’t wrong but… you know all that how?”
“Well right off the bat, elephant in the room, white buffalo,” said the unicorn, expression softening just a bit “Extinct as of 840, so either a temporal anomaly or a mutation, and weirdly enough, it’s more likely to be the former. You’re here, at the castle, meaning someone invited you, or at least know someone well enough to be comfortable crashing in, and the duke has a famous reputation for weird friends, and also, a history of time travel. The fact that you’re here, clearly not knowing where you are means you were avoiding something, and the fact that you’re alone means whoever was with you and Shadow isn’t anymore, and Shadow probably went with them, and you haven’t got the slightest idea where they are. The guards couldn’t have known that though, and a natural predisposition against the buffalo would provide an obvious reason for you to take a shortcut down a random door to hide. Isn’t it all obvious?”
Mesa blinked “Well excuse me, Sherlock,” he said, hiding how impressed he was “But I’m just looking for a duck and run… you said that, so, yeah. Who even are you anyway? And-“
“Why am I here,” the unicorn finished the sentence with a smirk “Sorry, your face had the question written all over it, but anyway, my name is Letterheart, I’m the chronicler of the Canterlot archives, which is where you are now.”
“Well whoop-dee-bucking-doo,” said Mesa, flicking a page of ancient runes off his hoof “Looks like a big mess to me. No chance that there’s a secret passage out of the castle here or something is there?”
“Oh, of course, dozens,” said Letterheart, turning away from him and walking along the shelves “Though most have been closed from the other side, residents aren’t partial to having the royal family traipse through their homes, but a few are still open. Though, I’m guessing you’re looking to get all the way out of Canterlot before you’re caught?”
Mesa was in a more prominent state of malaise at this point, trying to ascertain what meaning lurked behind the yellow eyes that seemed to probe every mote of his mind “Well yeah, I guess,” he said, shifting his weight between his hooves “If you’ve got some idea on what the quickest way to do that would be then I’m all ears.”
“Actually,” said Letterheart, her horn glowing a little bit brighter “I think I may just act on it right now…”