“... so then I got back, and the page was gone”
“I see,” Twilight nodded, half listening to Sweetie’s explanation as she looked over the torn out page. Both she and Sweetie Belle were stood in the foyer of the Friendship Castle, Twilight standing agitated with her saddlebags ready to leave, and Sweetie Belle in the doorway blocking her exit. They were just about to lock up when the filly approached, out of breath and waving an old tome in her hoof as she screamed for her to wait. Naturally, as Ponyville’s premier librarian, and devote follower of the written word, it was her duty to ensure the book was well taken care of, “And you’re sure it wasn’t like this before?”
Spike joined them shortly with his own bag slung over his back, stopping next to Twilight to watch the conversation as it carried on. “I’m certain,” Sweetie Belle nodded; adamant.
“Well if I did give you this book like you say I did, then there’s a good chance that you’ll find another one in my library.” Twilight snapped the book shut and levitated it back down for Sweetie Belle to take, “However, I don’t have any time to help you right now. I need to—“
“Meet Applejack at the market,” Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes as she completed Twilight’s sentence for her. She’d already been through this how many times. Every loop it was the same thing, waffles on Monday, Rarity heads out for Manehattan, and Twilight leaves early to go to the market. It was something she could set her clock to, if that even mattered right now. “I know,” she added with a huff and the tipped the book back into her saddlebags. Turning around to follow Twilight as she crept around towards the exit “Isn’t there something you can do?”
“Well,” Twilight paused, midway through the door. She kept one hoof pressed against the frame, waiting for Spike. She tapped her chin with other as she considered, “I could leave the library open for you to look for yourself,” Her gaze hardened, and she quickly snapped, startling both Spike and Sweetie Belle, she pointed a hoof, “but you have to promise me you won’t cause any damage.”
“Oh!” Sweetie’s face lit up, and she nodded frantically, “Yes, I can do that.”
“Good,” Twilight nodded to Spike, motioning to Sweetie as she spoke, “Stay here and help Sweetie Belle find what she’s looking for; I’ll be back in an hour or so.”
“Aye, aye, Twilight,” Spike saluted and waddled over to Sweetie’s side. They shared a glance and both watched in silence as Twilight disappeared from view, the door clicking silently as it closed behind her.
Sweetie Belle sighed, “Finally,” She turned to leave, calling Spike after her, “Now let’s go find that—”
They were about to leave when the door suddenly cracked ajar and Twilight’s head poked through to shoot the filly a sharp glare, “And if you do find it please don’t tear out any pages.” She begged.
Sweetie Belle nodded, rolling her eyes, “Okay!” and once again Twilight was gone.
She made to trot away when suddenly the door opened again, “And don’t replace it with your own copy either!”
“All right!” Sweetie Belle screamed. Rushing up to the door, she grabbed it with a hoof, “Princesses, who do you, take me for? Spike?” She shouted at the Princess and slammed the door, this time with a loud click as the lock was set in place. She huffed and turned up her nose, turned away from the door, to trot past Spike.
Spike waggled his eyebrows, watching Sweetie Belle as she trotted past him with an upturned muzzle. “... so?”
“Not a chance.”
Spike deflated, utterly destroyed, “Oh...” was all he could say. He dragged his feet and trudged after the filly, keeping his eyes to the ground.
“Okay,” Spike waved for Sweetie Belle to follow him as he trotted across the library, “The Starswirl section should be back here.” He led the two to a shelf at the far left, and pulled a small stool closer to climb on top. Sweetie Belle watched patiently from the base, holding the stool steady whilst Spike looked through the row of old tomes, “Since when are you so interested in Starswirl anyway?” He asked, not bothering to look back as he ran a claw across the bindings of books,
“Oh,” Sweetie Belle paused, “It’s, uh, for a school project. I just found his work in time travel really fascinating.”
“Interesting,” Spike commented. There was a momentarily pause, before Spike spoke up again to add, “Don’t tell Twilight I said this, but I’ve always found Starswirl to be a bit of hack.”
“What do you mean?”
“So much of his work was lifted from other scholars,” Spike paused to look back, “Why, his Tempora Porealus spell was taken directly from the works of Summer Shine the Little Known. All he did was change the wording and swap out a couple of the old Sigmas for his own.”
“... I had no idea.”
“What? You think I’d spend my entire life living in a library and not know something about magic?”
“No, I mean it’s—”
“Aha,” Spike suddenly shouted, startling Sweetie Belle. He pulled out an old battered book, with a brown cover and tattered pages, holding it in triumph, “Found it!”
“Great!” Sweetie belle squeaked, her voice cracking an octave out of excitement. Releasing the ladder, she made to do a jump for joy, but was stopped short when the ladder wobbled and reminded her why she was holding it. Blushing, she wrapped a hoof around the left leg and held it steady for Spike, then stepped up on it with her other to get a better look at the book, “Open it up, and let’s see what it says.”
“Okay,” Spike nodded and turned the book on its side, “What page was it?”
“Hold on,” Sweetie turned to pull her own copy out of her saddlebags. She quickly paged to the torn out page and noted the number of the previous one, “Page 37,”
“Okay.” Using his claws as a kind of wedge, he cracked on the book close to where he’d imagine the page would be, but before going any further his eyes widened, “Oh, wow.”
“What is it?”
“Cdzf Qwgjgd Fdzcf”
Sweetie Belles eyes glazed over, her mouth turning down into a frown, “Uh, what?”
“It’s complete gibberish!” Spike stated, and held up the book for Sweetie to see. Indeed the pages were covered in nothing but garbled words.
“But...” Sweetie Belle stepped away from the ladder to let Spike climb down. He sat at the base whilst she paged through her book, “That’s not right!” She finally came to the same page Spike was showing, “Mine’s in plain Equestrian!” and held up her book for Spike to see.
“Why’s this one different then?”
“I don’t know, did you check the missing page?”
“Hold on.” Spike resumed paging through the book, eventually coming to the page number in question, “Yeah,” Sweetie Belle sat down next to Spike, dragging the book sideways so they could both see. Indeed the page was there, however it seemed like it had been torn out and then stitched back into place. Its edges were badly ruffled and it was covered in symbol and etchings she’d never seen before.
As the book tilted in their hold, the ink on the page seemed to almost shimmer with a faint silvery glow. Sweetie belle frowned and turned the page. The back was blank, but the next page had more symbols, though this time more familiar to her.
They were arranged in a grid, four to a line with eight lines. No two identical. Before she’d passed them up as nothing but, given this new page, they had to mean more.
“Uh,” Spike spoke up, reminding Sweetie Belle that he was sitting beside her, “So what does it mean?”
Sweetie Belle huffed, “I’m taking this.” She tossed her own book back into her saddlebags and made to pull the other out of Spike’s claws, however he held firm.
“Wait, you can’t!” Spike protested. He pulled the book back, hooking his tail around the back of the ladder for some hold before Sweetie could pull him all the way over, “You’re not allowed to check out any books unless Twilight’s here, and she’ll kill me if she finds out you’ve taken one of her Starswirl collection!”
“It doesn’t matter, you won’t even remember this.”
“What do you mean I won’t—” Sweetie Belle pecked Spike’s cheek with a soft kiss. The dragon was instantly frozen solid, his eyes wide as dinner plates as he stared at Sweetie Belle, “... y- You—” and before he could utter a single word he was hit by a hibernation spell, knocked back against the shelf and slumped to the ground, unconscious, under an avalanche of books.
Turning her back to the dragon, Sweetie Belle rekindled her magic. She winced, stumbling slightly, and slapped a hoof to her forehead. The room spun as another shot of pain rang out through her temples. Taking a moment to steady her nerves, Sweetie Belle adjusted her shield and turned her focus back to the task at hoof. With a loud pop she teleported away and back to her room.
Upon arriving she was welcomed by the flutter of feathers and Philomena’s incessant squawking, “Philomena, I know,” She rolled her eyes, trotting past the cage and over to her vanity. She pushed the other books out of the way and laid out the two volumes next to each other on the same page, “It’s Friday, as of tonight none of this will even matter. I have” — she glanced to her clock, “Two hours, thirty one minutes to figure this out before Twilight gets back.”
She was answered by another squawk from Philomena’s cage. Rolling her eyes, “Yeah, you’re right. Without Spike to slow her down Twilight likely won’t stop at the café for her usual hay sandwich and a soda. Which means I have two hours, ten— nine,” She corrected herself, “minutes before somepony comes stomping at my door.”