//------------------------------// // Starswirl the Bearded Wing, Canterlot Library, Part 2 // Story: Memory of Magic // by Little Kaiser //------------------------------// “I tell you, she was totally trying to deny it!” An orange mare’s rant broke the silent ambience of Pony Joe’s. Apparently she and her two friends were arguing about how a recent scandal involving some ponies of the royal lineage had been denied by them. Canterlot’s gossiping habits hadn’t change for the past thousand years. It’s as if its lack of morality was a tradition from generation to generation. There seemed to be no end to it. “She’s so going to be shamed. I can’t wait to see that day! I’ll be the first one to rub it in her face!” The thousand-year-old city still had room for improvement for its moral code of conduct. In a far corner of the donut joint, Velvet sat on a cozy cushion, Spike sitting beside her. She had ordered a special recipe; Pony Joe claimed that it had a unique hint of ‘good flavor magic’. Now she had concluded that flavor magic was a hoax. It had instead robbed 17 bits from her pocket. She wasn’t satisfied at all. Luckily Spike hadn’t felt too hungry and had agreed to sharing the treat. Velvet stared at the blank table whilst her friend chomped down on the chocolate donut with tiny rice balls. “I like it Vel. It’s really good!” All along the way to the Pony Joe’s, Velvet hadn’t said a word to anypony other than Pony Joe. She was still mad, disappointed at herself for not having taken the slightest of chance at getting her hoof on the book. “The rice balls are really crunchy, too!” Spike had been trying to cheer her up, but she had been shutting him out of her head. All she wanted to do right now was ball up inside her dorm blanket and sulk for two weeks, until Librarian Linen gives her permission to spend time in that wing again. She didn’t care if others would call her a crybaby or mocked her. “Come on, Vel! You’ve been like this for two hours!” How could the librarian not see it? He was the Grand Librarian for Celestia’s sake! It was supposed to be his inherent nature to be curious about every single spark of findings that anypony made! A memoir about Starswirl, for crying out loud! She couldn’t understand the reason. Was he uninterested? Was he trying to hide something? Velvet continued the barrage of questions in her head. “Look, I’ve been thinking about it too. Why don’t you ask the princess for her permission?” “Like that’ll ever work, Spike. What princess would give an anonymous student like me that kind of privilege? I’m not as popular as Twilight Sparkle is with her.” The previous class had one particularly nerdy unicorn: Twilight Sparkle. She was the ever-faithful student of Princess Celestia. Being an extremely gifted unicorn, she had successfully captured the princess’s attention. Not to mention her achievements so far: predicting the coming of Nightmare Moon during the last Summer Sun Festival and ultimately saving Princess Luna – Princess Celestia’s younger sister a month ago. Velvet had grown somewhat jealous of that purple mare. Because she wasn’t a unicorn, she couldn’t be placed together in a class of one: it wasn’t practical. She had to attend a normal school for fillies and colts like her, and at least twice a week, she would spend half a day studying with the gifted unicorns. And it was exclusively on topics that did not involve casting any magical spell: topics that the princess did not personally teach. Being a non-unicorn in the school, and approaching the end of her studies, she had wanted to leave a mark. She wanted to show that even an earth pony like her could still be versed in the arcane. Although she envied her peer’s ability to construct new spells for their final school project, Velvet didn’t back down like most ponies would do. She decided to rise above the inferiority. Linen’s rejection had, however, broken her resolve. She had been pursuing that knowledge for more than half a year, and a pony had just pulled her away from it. She really didn’t want to talk about what had happened at the moment, but Spike was insisting about a solution. He didn’t seem to give up on it, even though Velvet was just about to call quit. “I know that, and I’m not as popular as that other Spike. But hey, she’d at least listen to your plea. That won’t harm anypony.” She remembered that every time she messed up, Spike would always be there to lift her up. He was always optimistic about the outlook and finality of things. She couldn’t count the times he didn’t cheer her up – because there were none. It was then that Velvet decided that she couldn’t just pout about every small thing or every missed opportunity. She had to take control. “Yeah, you’re right. I should give it a try at least.” “Great! That’s the Velvet I know.” Velvet helped herself to some donut. The special didn’t really taste that bad. The chocolate and crackling rice balls were fun to chew. It was probably just her mood. She really shouldn’t let her feelings get to her too easily. “So, do you really think that the rest of that book is still in the library?” “I’m positive about it.” “About what?” A loud voice disturbed their conversation. Velvet was surprised and quickly turned her head to face an orange unicorn stallion. “So, I heard you’ve got some hot stuff going on there. Not gonna keep me out of it are you? That’s not very friendly you know.” “Hiya, buddy!” Spike shouted from his seat. “Hey Spike, good to see ya!” ‘Not you,’ Velvet thought. It was the last pony she wanted to see right now. There were times when she needed him – for bits, a drink, maybe a little laughter, and sometimes for dangerous doings. Now was just not it. “Ugh, not now.” The stallion harrumphed, obviously offended by the disregard. “You owe me a full report at the very least. You wouldn’t have gotten in there if I wasn’t around, you know?” Velvet sighed. She knew he was going to use that card straight away. He was the most shameless pony she had ever met. No pony was more mischievous than him. No matter the circumstances, he was always going to get what he wanted. Even if it meant playing dirty or unfair. There was never an end to his devious behavior. He was the one and only- “Alright, Prince Sandalwood,” she said with annoyance, “I got you loud and clear.” “I’m not a prince.” “Really? You sure act like one.” Velvet smirked. The stallion frowned at her, but decided to let it slip. He had won the battle anyway. “Alright, now spill the beans.” Velvet gestured for him to sit down with them. He took the spot next to Spike. He grabbed a donut and began to munch on it. “You know how I’ve been looking for info on Starswirl these last few months, right?” Sandalwood nodded. “So I got into Starswirl’s wing this morning, thinking that I could find something about it. You know, maybe a scroll, or even a full book.” “Uhuh,” Sandalwood said whilst chewing on the treat. “And I did find something. It was a book introduction. The problem is that we’ve only found just that. The rest of the book is missing. So I thought that it could be in there somewhere.” She paused, looking down on the floor. “But we didn’t get to it in time. I tried to negotiate with Linen, but he isn’t going to let me walk into the archives again. Not without permission from the Academy or the Princesses.” “Which is why I suggested to her that she seek Princess Celestia or Princess Luna’s help,” Spike added. “Oh. Is that it?” “Well you wanted a report.” Sandalwood laughed. “You could’ve just asked me for the keys, silly filly. They’re just in the guard’s quarters.” “Can you really get the keys? I thought you need the Captain’s permission or something.” Sandalwood was a Second Rank Royal Guard: just a rank below the Captains (one of whom happened to be Twilight’s brother). That meant he had access to virtually any room within the walls of Canterlot castle, including the archives. He should be able to get his hoof on the keys whenever he wanted, and for whatever purpose. Not one pony but his superiors would question his intention whatsoever. And from his experience, he had never been in such a situation. “Nope, no need for permissions the last time I check. Only problem is, we need to deactivate the magical trap that Linny’s set on the doors. I know that it’s automatically set every time the door is closed and it’s the highest level trigger spell and the complexity level is... two, I think. That won’t be easy to counter, but I think I can manage something. Besides, I’m just a level below him.” Disabling a magical trap was a tricky yet simple thing to do. The basic principle of it rested in the knowledge of the nature of the magic: like knowing its signature. Once it was known, a counterspell could be conjured to disable it. It was much like adding water to fire in hope of nullifying it. But advances in magical research – thanks to the graduates of the princess’s school in particular – had made it much more difficult to disable it. “Once the trap is disabled, it won't take long for it to reactivate. You need to get in as fast as you can. I’ll keep watch outside and pretend that nothing’s happened.” “So you’re basically suggesting that we break into the archives? That's dangerous!? I would probably be expelled and… and we’ll be banished from Equestria!” The kingdom did have strict laws on crime. Although Equestrians are nice creatures in general, there were previous cases of great evil. The punishments weren’t in any way light, and usually served as a quite terrifying deterrent to anypony who wished to do bad on this soil. “Okay, okay, calm down. I was just giving you an idea, that’s all.” “Not so sure I like that idea, although I admit it’s the most obvious,” Spike said. It was, hooves down, the most obvious of ways indeed, despite being the riskiest. There are absolutely plus points to it. Judging by the rank Sandalwood was at, he was sure to have excellent mastery of magic that could match Linen to a certain extent. He might just be able to break the magic trap. And there would be zero suspicion whatsoever given his status. But in Velvet’s mind, she could only see the risks. She faced expulsion without a doubt, and the worst addition to that would be banishment to Celestia knows where. Sandalwood would probably be charged for misconduct, if not treason. Velvet cringed at wondering what that would lead to. And even if they managed to go into the archives, how long would they take to find the book? And getting out was another question, too. Since neither Velvet nor Spike had the magic to disable the trap from the inside. Even if they found what they were looking for, they would almost certainly lose it in the end. Why did Canterlot go all this way just to secure some old scrolls? “Or, I can request a special clearance permit for us, maybe in a fortnight at the very best. We can go in at night and you can spend all that time looking for that book of yours,” the guard suggested. “But wouldn’t they ask you, like, a lot of things? Like, what you want to do at that hour of the night?” Spike asked. “Rest assured that I can come up with something. You know how I play.” A fortnight meant two weeks’s worth of waiting. It meant two weeks of agony and frustration waiting for the day. What if the archives suddenly burned down? What if the scrolls turned to dust? So many scenarios ran through Velvet’s head. To her, two weeks was an eternity. It was too long to wait even an hour! In two weeks, if she had had the book by now, she would’ve written another book to comment on the book itself! It was riskier than breaking into the archives. “Sandy, I’ll go with it.” “Go with what?” “Your first plan. Let’s do it. Tonight.” The guard stumbled. Tonight? It was too soon. He wasn’t in charge tonight and that meant the library would be guarded by other ponies. He had thought that it would be better to wait for his shift. And besides, wouldn’t they need a bit more time to plan this through? Especially the escape part? “Now wait a minute. I know my plan is great but I don’t think we should do it tonight. We should wait for my shift in two days.” “Yeah. And you still have the Princesses to ask,” Spike said, wishing that she would reconsider. Spike wasn’t too keen on doing these kind of stuff. He had had his share of toils and troubles with her when she was younger, often getting caught sneaking around in places that are off their limits. And of course, he had had his share of punishments, too. But of all the things they had been through, this would be one with the biggest consequences. It’s one risky business. “We’ll be okay. I trust Sandy, and I trust you too, Spike. We’ll break into the archives tonight.” “Vel, can we please wait till tomorrow? Or some other day? I really have a bad feeling about tonight,” Spike pleaded to his friend. “I’m going, Spike. With or without you. This is too big for me to pass.” He had no choice. Velvet was always like this whenever she wanted something so bad. Why else would she have gotten caught many times, other than trying to get herself into things that are too big for her? And for every time they succeeded in escaping, it was thanks to him. He wished that she was a little more considerate the next time. It might save her flank for all he knew. He sighed. “Here we go again. I still have nightmares about last month, when we ended up in that detention area in Manehattan.” “Alright, if that’s what you both prefer, then I’ll go get the keys. We’ll meet up at the garden before midnight,” Sandalwood said. “Great. So how about the escape plan? I can’t cast any magic and neither can Spike. Do we make a run for it then?” The guard scratched his head, then shook it. “Not a good idea. They’ll catch you before you can even make it out of the library.” “Then how about I send you a message through my flame?” Spike asked. “I would’ve been nice, if it weren’t for the permanent seal that the Academy planted in the walls. Your flame ain’t gonna pass through.” “Then you’ll come and get us,” Velvet said. “We’ll wait for you to come back.” “That, I can do. But it would be too obvious if I were to return in an hour or so. I might have to come back before dawn, when the guards change shift. You think you two could stay in for that long?” A whole night in the archives? Who wouldn’t want to do that? Just the thought of it made Velvet’s eyes gleam with desire. “You betcha. We’ll have tons of fun in there, right Spike?” The dragon could only smile half-heartedly. This was going to be it. All the hard work she had put on her search was finally coming to a pay. If she finds it, there was no doubt that she would be the most talked-about pony in that magic school. Her name would go down in history as the earth pony that had cracked the secrets of magic history. Even the Academy would speak of her for the centuries to come.