The clock struck midnight in Canterlot and the moon hung high in the sky. Most souls were in bed and even Princess Celestia had turned in for the night several hours ago. While a city was never truly asleep, Canterlot would almost seem like a different world to anypony wandering the streets right now. The lights covering for the minuscule amount of illumination the moon brought, the few graveyard shift workers going about their business, night-owls, hoodlums, and insomniacs also out roaming. So much quieter than the hustle and bustle of the day. There were many ponies who preferred it like this, though not many that actually stayed up and enjoyed it.
It was in the darkness under the cover of night that Starlight and Spike stealthily moved from shadow to shadow, evading every sliver of light, as they made their way to the library and the restricted section deep inside it. The two of them wore tight black catsuits that Starlight had procured from who knows where. Spike certainly had no idea, the feeling of deja vu was already enough for him to mentally give up and not bother questioning things.
“Alright, Spike-” Starlight started as she stood flush against the outer wall of the library, the door right next to them. “What sort of security does the library have? Will there be an alarm?”
“Nopony has really broken into the library before. I don’t think it even has security. Only the castle’s archives have security.” Spike answered.
“Good for us then, that makes this job much easier.” Starlight slinked close to the ground like a snake, crawling on her belly till she was right under the library door. Her horn lit up softly as she stared at the door in concentration. “Hm. I don’t sense any defensive spells or anything. So I guess you’re right, Spike. The door is still locked though but I can take care of that.”
And sure enough a little strand of magic went from Starlight’s horn into the keyhole of the door. With a soft click the lock was undone and the door opened up by a hair.
“Why do you have a lock-picking spell?” Spike asked as he walked up behind her.
“I don’t, it’s simple telekinesis.”
“Uh-huh.”
Starlight ignored him and pulled the door open just slightly enough for them to squeeze inside, quietly closing and locking it again afterwards. The unicorn looked around the big circular room of the library they entered into, as expected it was empty with only the light from the moon coming in the windows allowing Starlight any vision. Good enough to see where they were going but not so great if they wanted to read any books.
“Can’t turn on the lights so this will have to do for now.” She said as her horn lit up, giving them about a candlelight’s worth of illumination.
“Okay so what are we looking for that we couldn’t just ask Celestia about?” Spike asked again.
“Anything relating to time-travel. So probably nothing in the public section, we’ll have to go down to the restricted section later.” Starlight answered.
“You know I’m pretty sure Celestia likes you now, we could’ve just talked to her.” Spike said.
“I didn’t want to take the risk of her saying no. Besides, we’ve been stuck here forever now and I want to see if I can find a way back to the present. The lack of Twilight coming to rescue us has me concerned and I’ve burnt down enough buildings and caused enough problems to not want to stay back here anymore.”
“At least we agree on that.” Spike sighed. “No more vacation?”
Starlight groaned and shook her head. “No more vacation. Results from my tampering have been mixed.”
“That’s certainly one way of putting it. Happy to hear though.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t fought harder about us breaking and entering the library.”
Spike could only answer with the truth. “I guess I’ve kind of gotten swept up in your pace.”
Starlight looked around the library, first attempting to see if there was maybe anything worth checking out here before they headed over to the restricted section. But all the sections of History, Science, Poetry and more held no interest to her. In the Hobby section there may have been a book about kites that she might want to read later but for now that would have to wait. She knew by now that the Starswirl the Bearded wing in the castle wouldn’t help since his only time-travel spell was most assuredly not what had gotten her and Spike in this problem either.
“Okay.” Starlight said as she walked over to the librarian’s desk. “I don’t think there’s really any reason for us to stay up and look around here. We should just head into the restricted section.”
“Sounds good to me.” Spike nodded along.
“Yep.” Starlight said, smiling
And then stood there.
“Er, am I missing something?” Spike asked.
Starlight’s smile fell. “I was waiting for you to lead the way to the restricted section.”
“Me?” Spike said, a single eyebrow raised at Starlight. “I don’t know how to get in there. I didn’t even know it existed until Twilight told me about it a little while ago.”
“Well same here.” Starlight frowned.
She started to pace around in a circle before her eyes settled on the floor of the library, thinking deeply as she rubbed her chin with a hoof.
“I can tell what you’re thinking, do not try and blast through the floor.” Spike accusingly pointed a finger at her.
“I wouldn’t!” Starlight said defensively, peeling her eyes away from the floor. “Besides, Twilight said it was hidden behind some secret pathway that you reach after pulling on a specific book. I thought she would’ve told you in more detail while entering it in her journal or whatever.”
“Well she didn’t. And I’m somewhat concerned she told you about the restricted section at all.” Spike said.
“I’m her student! She probably wanted to take me someday.” Starlight sat on the floor, folding her forelegs over her chest and grunting in annoyance.
Spike sighed and went to sit down beside her. “We probably should’ve planned this out just a little better.”
“It’s only a minor setback.” Starlight quickly got back up, causing Spike to fall over backwards, and began pacing around the floor of the library again. “I don’t know the exact spell but I know there’s a way I can search for hollow spaces and hidden passages. And the passage to the restricted section has to be against a wall so that narrows things down for us already.” Starlight grinned in the darkness and turned to her dragon friend. “Alright, Spike. No lollygagging, let’s get to finding this secret passage!”
An hour or two more was spent with them searching in the dead of night through every inch of the library where a secret passage could actually be. No stone was left unturned as Starlight and Spike poked and prodded along every wall and shelf.
Every now and then Starlight’s horn would emit faint pulses like echolocation that searched for hollow spots when they bounced off the walls, the sound made when striking something solid being different than when striking something hollow.
“Find anything yet?” Spike asked her.
“Not yet but my spell is still working, I think it’s only a matter of time.” Starlight answered as she continued to send out pulses of magic. “There can only be so many places something like this can hide.”
“Yeah. And no offense to the Princess but I doubt it’s actually that secure.” Spike said. “Just based off some prior experiences.”
“Don’t let Twilight hear you criticize Celestia.” Starlight chuckled.
Spike laughed back too. “Oh yeah, no way.”
Starlight was wandering down one of the bookshelves, absentmindedly probing it and looking for anything special, when her magic noticed something odd. The bookshelf here was not fixed to the floor in the same way the others were. Grinning to herself, Starlight grasped the whole shelf in her magic and inspected the entire thing. Looking for any way that it could open up or move.
“Spike! I think I’ve found it!” Starlight called out to him.
Spike ran over to her side, looking from her to the bookshelf. “This the door?”
“For a given meaning of door, yes. There’s definitely something behind here.” Starlight smiled as she used her magic to check that there was indeed empty space behind this particular shelf.
“Can’t find out how to open it? I’m surprised you haven’t just blasted a hole through the whole thing.” Spike crossed his arms.
“I’ve gotten enough of destroying books back at the Golden Oak Library, if I do it anymore I feel like some kind of evil phantom of Twilight will haunt me for the rest of my life. Now help me try to find a switch or lever or something.” She said to Spike.
“If I know cliches it’ll probably open up by pulling a certain book.” Spike said as he began doing just that. Yanking on every book one by one and tossing out the duds. “Help me out, Starlight.”
Starlight joined him, moving from trying to yank the whole shelf over to finding the hidden trigger. There were a lot of books and Starlight wanted to be careful to pull them one by one to make sure they didn’t miss anything. Up and down each row they worked their way through the bookshelf until Spike saw something that caught his eye.
“Hey, Starlight, look at those books.” He said, pointing to two books that sat side by side. One with a sun emblazoned on its spine and the other a moon. “They look out of place don’t they?”
Starlight looked at the books he was talking about and smiled. “Good catch Spike, you’re right. And more than that they look like just the kind of thing Celestia would use.” Starlight grabbed both of the books in her magic and gently pulled on them.
With a heavy clunking noise the wall moved and the shelf slid away to reveal a stone hallway and stairs leading down into the restricted section. Immediately stale air hit both Spike and Starlight in the face and they could see the whole passage was covered in dust and cobwebs hanging in the corners that had been undisturbed for who knows how many years. Obviously neither Princess Celestia nor anypony else had been in here in a while.
But it was their destination.
“Well, ladies first.” Spike gestured, gentlemanly stepping to the side.
Starlight snorted and grinned at him. “Thanks.”
Together the two took their first steps into the restricted section and with any luck would find what they needed inside.