Chapter 7
Greater Knowledge, Greater Unknown
The librarian, Rose Page, sat in the silence of the Archives, the sound of her light scratching quill failing to fill the quietness of the large, cavernous room. Occasionally, she would see an off yellow pegasus flying past. Normally, no pegasi are allowed in the archives, as the wind force they generate is too much for the books to handle. She has had too many incidents that caused the books be damaged, so pegasi are normally banned from flying in the archives. But this one, this off yellow pegasus was given permission by princess Luna herself to fly here. That didn’t make her less nervous whenever she flew by though.
This group was abnormally active today, grabbing books from left and right. History books, magic books, alchemy books, they didn’t discriminate when it came to collecting. Rose was glad that they were reading so much, but she also dreaded when the time came for re-shelving. What was even more curious was what they needed the books for, she couldn’t find any rhyme or reason.
It wasn’t just books and scrolls though. Rose saw the pegasus bring in a potted plant, a bucket of water, cooking equipment. She was even sure she saw a blood bag from the medical wing. One thing Rose was sure of, if it wasn’t for the princesses blessings, they would have been out of the archives long ago. She knew that there were three magic users present in that special room of theirs. Rose could not even fathom what they where doing, maybe practicing magic?
But where does the earth pony fit in to that? The pegasus is if for fetching items, obviously, but why she stayed in the room with them was beyond whatever reasons Rose could think of. Maybe they were all scholars. Maybe they just needed five ponies in the same room to research whatever the princess wanted. But what was so important that it needed five ponies, three clans and unrestricted access to the entire archives? Rose loved mysteries, and this was one of the juiciest she had ever heard of. Not only that, but it was real and right sin her backyard.
‘Oh well,’ Rose thought, ‘I’ll just figure it out later.’
Rose looked down at her stack of paper work. ‘I have too much to do right now.’
Moondancer and Bright Rune where at a stand-still, in terms of magical means. There was simply no way they could find to detect the arrow, let alone affect it. They had gone through every school of magic, and that was no exaggeration. Moondancer, Bright Rune and Radiant had put their heads together and learned the basics of all ninety-three or so schools of magic in an attempt to find something that would remotely affect the arrow, something other than just a slight shimmering from magical light spells.
For the past three days, all they have done is discover that the schools of magic all contain a spell that produces magical light, something that is both an oddity and a triviality in this case. Odd because producing magical light seemed affinity less, not unique to any single school of magic. But here it was, different in every single school. It was also trivial because the information was useless to them.
Moondancer sighed, shutting the book on metalicogy after the few basic spells failed to affect the arrow. It had already been a long three days, but now, with absolutely none of the schools of magic, even the obscure ones, affecting the arrow, they were stumped.
Moondancer let down her bun to re adjust it. Always in its signature style, her red and purple striped mane was always in a bun atop her head when reading. Her mane wasn’t too long, but she liked to pull it all the way back to give her full vision of what she was reading. Her black, thick framed glasses, were perched on her mussel, still taped at the bridge from some event from long ago. She was sentimental of the break at this point and did not bother to fix or replace them.
Sitting next to Moondancer was Radiant, she was reading a book on magical theory, and looked just as worn out as Moondancer. Radiant was a unicorn mare with a very vivid purple, one that seemed to shine with the slightest of light. Her mane was a bright red, brighter than Moondancer’s, streaked with blue. Her eyes were a bright and vibrant blue, matching the streaks in her hair. Her cutie mark depicted a single point of white, with straight lines of various, vibrant, colors coming off of it.
Across the table sat the earth pony mare, Ivory Puzzle. She had a light grey coat with a straight black mane. Normally, if left unattended, her mane would drape down over her eyes, but Ivory always wore two identical white elephant-head shaped pins on either side of her hair. They were nestled just behind her ears, uncovering most of her face. The pins were about half the size of the average hoof. Ivory was pouring over notes that Moondancer, Radiant and Bright Rune took in order to find a pattern that the others have missed.
Bright Rune, who was currently napping on a large, princess sized chair, had gone over other books on magical theory the previous night. He had pulled an all-nighter and needed the rest. He had a stark white coat, which was more often than not covered in various chalks, paints and dust from experiments. Currently, it is a pristine white, likely because he has been reading books for the past 3 days. His mane is also white, blending seamlessly with his coat, only breaking color with a deep green streak running down the back of his head. His eyes are green, a little brighter than the stripe. His cutie mark depicts a blue seven-pointed star encircled by a green ring with blue marks on the outside.
The final member of their little five sum was out gathering dinner for the group. Everypony wanted to try the new Neighponies restaurant that opened up in Canterlot, so she had a lot of flying to do. Still wind had a dark yellow pegasus, not unlike spitfire, with a dark grey mane. Her eyes were a bright vibrant green, and she had a thin scar extending back from halfway up her mussel to just under her eye. Her wings were a bit larger than most pegasi, but also paradoxically lighter. Her cutie mark depicted large, brown and white owl’s wing. The fade to white pattern matched her wings.
“Hey, Rune,” Ivory called, “You should wake up if you want to sleep tonight.”
Ivory was not a mute, like many ponies thought, she just had very little to say. She would always talk in a flat, but not monotone voice, no matter what she had to say, or what was happening when she said it. She would rarely raise her voice or drastically change in pitch. Her voice was a bit hoarse at times, but was hardly noticeable otherwise.
“Mphhgg,” replied Bright Rune.
Ivory Puzzle looked on in a passive manner, as she is with any other situation. It was clear to her that Rune would need a more forceful wakeup call, and Radiant was right with her. Charging up a spell, she unleashed an ultra-bright, focused light directly at Bright Rune’s head. Rune responded with grunts and flailing limbs, a vain attempt to grab sheets that were not there.
“Put that out!” Bright Rune cried, “I’m up! I’m up!”
“Not until you get out of bed,” Radiant responded in her usual Canterlot aristocratic voice, “I need at least a good few steps out of you first.
Radiant was a confident mare, say what she wanted in the ways she wanted. She had a sense of timing with what she said and a certain way of speaking that was not off-putting. Socially, she was everywhere she wanted to go, parties, gatherings, openings, anything that she wanted to go to, she seemed to know the right ponies and say the right things. She spoke with a light Canterlot accent, with a confident voice, but not loud.
“Mphh, fine…” Rune said, shifting off the absurdly large and comfortable couch.
Bright Rune stood for a few seconds in the light of Radiant’s spell, looking down, squinting, blinking, doing everything that he could to relieve himself of that harsh light. Radiant just kept grinning.
“Turn that off!”
“I said that I wanted three steps.”
Bright let out another grunt and turned his back to Radiant, using his body as a shield from the harsh light. Radiant’s smile seemed to grow wider. Swiftly, with an air of superiority, she cast a refraction spell. Normally a refraction spell would only increase the reflectivity or reactivity to light a solid object would regularly have. But in Radiant’s case, with her mastery of all things light, was able to increase the refractivity of almost anything, including air, to the point where it would reflect as much light as was hitting it.
Bright Rune did not know this.
“Gahh!” He screamed, now with a perpetual spotlight shining directly in his eyes. He back pedaled until he hit a chair and stumbled over.
“And that’s three steps!” Radiant said exuberantly, “Wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“She Devil!” Rune said in response, still shielding his eyes from the spots within.
“C’mon Ray,” Moondancer said, “did you need to be that harsh?”
Moondancer was always a little shy, more comforted by her books than ponies. She would prefer to read than talk. As a result of this she was reclusive, and never really got to go out with others much. She would talk with a soft voice, never raising it above what ponies consider an inside voice. She mostly kept thoughts to herself, only putting out when necessary.
“Yes,” Radiant said, looking at Moondancer with a look of satisfaction.
“It was a bit much,” Ivory said, “But it did work.”
“Celestia! Could you have made that any brighter?” Bright Rune asked indignantly, recovering from the light.
“Of course,” Radiant replies, charging up a spell.
Moondancer and Ivory realized what was happening before it was too late. They were able to shield their eyes before the light bathed the room. Bright Rune, to his credit, did close his eyes, but it did nothing to stop the impossibly bright spell from radiant. The spell lasted for a couple seconds, covering the room in an impenetrable white light.
When the blanket of white light ended, Moondancer and Ivory were left blinking with spots in their eyes. In the end, hooves were not enough for the volume of light headed toward them. They still fared far better than Bright Rune though, who was left in a ball in the corner of the room, covering his eyes with what was pretty much his entire body.
“Why…” Bright Rune asked in a quiet, shaky voice.
“You asked if I could,” Radiant said, “Now hold on, I promise this will help.”
A short wave of semi-transparent magic emitted from Radiant’s horn, making contact with everyone in the room. Immediately afterward, all of the effects from her spell, eye spots, blindness and whatever else was happening to Bright Rune, disappeared, leaving no trace of Radiant’s spell.
“That is impressive,” Ivory said.
“Thank you,” Radiant replies, “I spent a couple years and more than a few test subjects perfecting that spell.”
“Impressive is an understatement,” Bright Rune said, still looking around the room to find the spots in his eyes. “I didn’t know that was even possible with light magic.”
Bright Rune was always fascinated with magic, and would always doggedly pursue whatever caught his interest. Normally, his low voice was steady and moderately slow, but when he is exited, it becomes higher in pitch and faster. He was ok with friends, he had a few close friends, and most people liked him, but he had few intermediate friends.
“It is quite useful,” Radiant said, “And there is a semi-permanent version.” Radian smiled, “You can even look directly at Celestia’s sun if you use it.”
“You might have to teach me that,” Bright Rune said, “If we could enchant something like glasses to use that spell, the uses would be incredible!”
“That would be a rather miraculous pair of spectacles,” Ivory agreed.
“Hmm…” Radiant pondered, “The spell is a little difficult to learn, it might be impossible to put on as a enchantment.”
“Don’t worry about that!” Bright Rune said, “Any spell I learn I can enchant! No sweat!” Bright Rune said, beaming with accomplishment.
“I’ve never had a problem with enchanting, its come natural to me!”
“But it’s the learning part that trips you up, isn’t it?” Ivory said in a flatter than usual voice.
This comment caused Radiant to burst out laughing, and Bright Rune to scowl and pout.
“If this research thing doesn’t work out,” Radiant said, “You’ve got yourself a business partner!”
“Though do try not to sleep so much, Rune,” Radiant added.
This got a laugh out of both Radiant and Bright Rune, and a smile out of Ivory. A small one.
“What do you think Moony?” Radiant asked, “Is this a good business proposition?”
Moondancer stared ahead blankly, ignoring the question.
“Moony?” Bright Rune asked.
Moondancer was staring at the arrow, rather where it was. She was unresponsive to the others.
“Moondancer?” Ivory asked, “What’s wrong?”
Radiant waved a hoof in front of her face, eliciting no reaction from the stricken unicorn.
“I’ll get the princess,” Ivory said, turning out of the room.
“Hold on,” Radiant said, walking to Moondancer.
Lighting up her horn, she charged a small lightning spell. Moondancer knew this spell, but was still unfazed by Radiant’s charging. After a couple more seconds, Radiant pointed her horn at Moondancer’s flank, and let the spell go.
Moondancer shot forwards, startled by the sudden shock to her posterior, and let out a small eep.
“What was that?” Moondancer asked, turning to look at her flank.
“You were just standing there.” Bright Rune said.
“Not responding to anything.” Ivory added.
“I was thinking!” Moondancer said rather incredulously.
“Well, maybe you should think louder then,” Radiant said, “Save others the worry.”
Moondancer pouted, turning a little red around the cheeks. “It’s not my fault I get lost in thought easily.”
“That is your fault, actually” Ivory said.
Moondancer pouted even more and became almost completely red in the cheeks.
“C’mon guys,” Bright Rune commented, “We’ve probably all done something similar.”
“While I’m alone? Yes,” Radiant replied, “In a room full of people, no.”
“Well I have…” Bright Rune offered.
“Well you’re weird,” Radiant said, “Both of you.”
“I’ve seen all of you stare into space,” Moondancer said.
“Not while staring at a potentially deadly object that we know nothing about,” Ivory said.
“That was a bit worrying…” Bright Rune added.
“Well, I’m fine,” Moondancer said quietly, “really, I am.”
Everypony stood around for a moment, looking around at each other. Nopony moved or spoke for what felt like a couple minutes, but in reality was only seconds. Moondancer was still red in the face and pouting at the floor, occasionally looking back to her flank. Ivory was looking between everypony, likely looking for somepony to say something. Radiant was looking at Bright Rune with a quizzical expression on her face. Bright Rune had a look of worry on his face, while staring at Moondancer.
“I think we’ve been here too long,” Ivory finally said.
“Agreed.” Radiant spoke while moving to the door.
“If we move quickly we might be able to catch Still at the restaurant.”
“Right, sounds good.” Bright rune said.
“OK…” Moondancer agreed.
They all moved to the door. With some stomachs growling in anticipation of food. Radiant was already outside, waiting for the rest of the group with a flat look on her face that was matched only by Ivory’s. Bright Rune got to the door just after Ivory went through and waited for Moondancer to join him. Moondancer was moving slowly, and was still a little red, but was essentially over the shocking experience.
“Wait!” Moondancer said, “I remembered what I was thinking about!”
“Care to enlighten us?” Radiant asked.
“Ha, enlighten,” Bright Run cut in, earning a dirty look from Radiant.
“That’s it!” Moondancer said happily. “Enlighten!”
It was now Moondancer’s turn for the dirty look.
“Radiant!” Moondancer moved out the door. “I need you to go back in and cast that spell you did alone.”
She started to push Radiant into the room.
“And a cast it as powerfully as you can!”
Radiant stood perfectly still, almost not phased by Moondancer’s attempt to push her.
“OK,” Radiant said with a slight huff. “You don’t have to push.”
Radiant trotted into the room and closed the door behind her. The spell could be heard casting, a light twinkling sound emanated from behind the door with a small, lady-like grunt from Radiant. The spell lasted for a few seconds, and the ponies gathered outside couldn’t look at the door, the light that seeped out of the cracks was far too bright. The light stopped, and Moondancer started to open the door with her magic.
Radiant was still standing just inside the door, unmoving.
“Why didn’t you mention that my spell did this?!” She shouted in a very unlady-like fashion.
“I said I was thinking!”