This chapter takes place one week after the events in Chapter 47 of The Inheritors of Friendship.
“Whoa…” gasped Bloodthirst as he looked around the library. “So… huge. Like it would take me a day to walk this entire place!”
“It’s a castle library, what do you expect?” Melody Aurora grinned at him. “Basically you can find the same book from bookstores whenever library you go!” She said as she arranged a row of books using magic.
“I’ve always wanted to visit a library, I just wanted to read, and I don’t know why, and Platinum Royale suggested me to visit yours!”
“Oh,” chuckled Melody. “You are so modest. But let me tell you, there used to be a library named the Golden Oak Library. That’s where my mom stayed when she first came to Ponyville!”
“Oh! Where is it?”
“Unfortunately,” sighed Spike who was entering with a stack of books. “Twilight had a battle with Lord Tirek who wanted to conquer all of Equestria, and the library was destroyed in the process.”
“That’s sad.”
“What you see above the throne room,” continued Melody. “Is the roots that belong to the library. Mom’s friends helped to decorate it.”
“Wasn’t that the crystal-sparkling thing hanging which I saw just now?”
“Yep, uh-oh…” Spike gasped as he was about to sneeze from the dust from the books. Just as he said “Atchoo”, Melody immediately casted a barrier upon the books, saving them from his dragon fire breath.
“Phew!” She breathed a sigh of relief. “Saved me several hundred bits!”
“Has he been sneezing and destroying the books by accident?” asked Bloodthirst.
“Once in a while,” sniggered Spike. “Actually I did burn off some books by accident before…”
“And what did Mom do to you?” asked Melody.
“Err, well, just, punishments, like, hard work and no pay, well, kinda, err, awkward, heh-heh,” he giggled in embarrassment. “But yeah, I seldom do that nowadays, and just now, well, I got carried away.”
“It’s okay, Spike, everyone makes mistakes,” smiled Melody. “It shall be a lesson to be learnt and after this it’ll never happen again.”
“True to that,” agreed Bloodthirst. “Well, how did you get to have so many books?”
“Mostly donated from Canterlot,” Melody replied. “Sometimes we make trips to the Royal Sisters’ Old Castle in the Everfree Forest to get back some, for hardcore historians. A few days ago we managed to gather some more books from there!”
“An old castle in the forest? That should be thrilling.”
“Speak about the books from Canterlot, my brother helped to donate them, and oh, talking about Orion Galaxy, he happens to be visiting tomorrow!”
“Oh wow! I could probably talk to him again! I hardly talked to him during our Canterlot visit.”
“You sure can. He loves everypony,” said Twilight Sparkle who just entered. “When he and Melody returned five years after they stayed to learn with Princess Celestia, he told me he wanted to be a royal guard, protecting anypony he loved.”
“Even his friends, too?”
“Even Thunder Clash idolized him! You remember that female strange-looking royal guard Honey Drops? She was his childhood sweetheart to him. They’re now dating for three years already, you know that?” asked Melody.
“Oh, so when are they going to marry?”
“You can ask him, maybe he knows,” said Twilight. “He’s coming tomorrow, he usually comes on weekends to visit us.”
The next day, Bloodthirst got himself groomed.
“In a hurry, darling?” asked Rarity to him.
“Not quite, I’m going back to Melody’s castle again. I’m going to meet her brother today.”
“Oh, Prince Orion! Everyone says he’s a pure gentlecolt. He’s got good manners, so maybe you can talk well to him.”
“Would you mind if they asked me for a sleepover and they asked me in?”
“Why, certainly! You might spend the night reading all of her books, who knows?”
Bloodthirst walked all the way to the Castle of Friendship. He opened the main door and trotted into the hallway when Melody ran up to him, looking anxious.
“Bloodthirst! Thank goodness you’re here!”
“What just happened?” he asked.
“We woke up with a start to see all of our books lying everywhere! I dunno what happened, some culprit might have sneaked into the library in the middle of the night, then read these books and left them at where they were!”
“Take me to the situation!”
They entered the library, and Bloodthirst stared wide-eyed at the mess, the books lying everywhere. Twilight and Spike were clearing everything.
“Has it been happening like this all the while?” he asked.
“Not always. Whenever we move in books from the Castle of the Sisters, this place would go all messy in a few days! We have interrogated all the ponies in Ponyville, but none have sneaked into the library into the middle of the night to read the books! Besides, I always close the library before midnight,” explained Twilight.
“I’ll try to give a hoof. I can’t stand to see you three working alone,” Bloodthirst offered.
“Good… help me!” called Spike, lifting up a stack of books.
The four worked well for a few minutes. Then, the door opened, and Orion Galaxy entered.
“Hey you all. I’m here!”
“Oh, hey…” As Spike was placing back a book, he didn’t notice a stack of books beside him and bumped slightly onto it. The tower of books wobbled.
To make matters worse, they were right next to Orion. The books began to collapse, and Orion only stared at it wide-eyed.
But Bloodthirst, who had seen everything, dashed across swiftly and pushed him away, taking the blow from the collapsing books by himself.
“Bloodthirst!” Twilight and Melody, who had been lining up the books had heard the noise, came to the scene.
“Bloodthirst! Are you all right?” Melody asked.
“I’m… okay…” he moaned, crawling out of the heap. “At least… he didn’t get hurt…”
“You saved me,” gasped Orion, helping him out of the books. “For a vampire pony like you, you’re pretty swift to save a damsel in distress. Maybe you could’ve survived that collapse if you flied.”
“But, it looks like, I can’t fly…” he said sadly, spreading out his bat wings.
“Aww man,” sympathized Orion.
“My father was supposed to teach me how to fly, but he already died before he could… *sigh*”
“Cheer up, young lad,” said Melody. “I can introduce you to Greenie Hats and her family. They’ll be glad to teach you how to fly.”
“They’re part of the Wonderbolts, they know all sorts of flying techniques,” added Twilight.
“That’s nice to hear it,” he beamed. “But first why don’t we clear up the remaining mess?”
“Oh, yeah, you got the point. Back to work!” murmured Spike.
Soon the friends gathered at Sugarcube Corner.
“Messed up again? That’s ridiculous!” remarked Pepper Flake after hearing their story.
“Are you gonna ask everyone again?” asked Fiji Appleoak.
“Err, no way we’re gonna do it,” replied Melody. “Even if we ask everypony again, it’ll be the same result.”
“Everypony follows the rules here nicely, darling. What can we expect more?” asked Platinum Royale.
“Are we gonna be up all night just to see who’s behind all that?” asked Greenie Hats. “No offense, Melody, but maybe Spike might be behind this.”
“We asked him before,” said Melody. “And it turned out that he didn’t know a thing about it!”
“Even if Spike did it,” added Orion. “He would’ve been tired out because someone getting up to do something in the middle of the night would usually sleep late.”
“Spike was perfectly fine when we asked him. Besides, he would have developed black rings around his eyes if he stayed up late.”
“Hmmm, no other one else, so who did it?” Raisin Brandy pondered.
“I think we’ll have to do this,” said Melody at last. “I’m going to stay up all night to see who’s the culprit!”
“Up all night? Are we going to do this with you!??” exclaimed Pizza Frenzy.
“No way we’re gonna do this with you. I got orchard duties to do!” remarked Fiji.
“I’ll do it,” said Bloodthirst who had been silent throughout the entire conversation. “I’m having a sleepover with Melody tonight anyway. Besides, what do you expect from a vampire pony?”
“That’s nice to hear it!” beamed Melody. “I’ll be telling you what to do later on.”
“Show me what you can do, darling,” Platinum told him. “I’ll be waiting on your return.”
“Good luck on your operation tonight, buddy,” said Chaos Control.
“Thanks, guys.”
As the group dispersed and he began to leave, Greenie Hats went up to him.
“So Melody tells me that you need some flight lessons, huh?” she said to him.
“Uh, yeah?”
“I’ll talk to my mom about this first, then we can arrange the time.”
“Thanks, Greenie. I’ll be eager to learn how to fly.”
“Good luck on that!” she wished him.