Twilight Gets a Puppy
Season 3
By TDR
Callisto Mania
[Castle of the two sisters, Whinnysor, late summer]
“BoOOOOOOOOoooooOOOKss!!” Twilight cheered loudly bounding around the library grabbing anything that looked interesting to her and dancing off further into the library with a small collection of books hovering behind her.
The purple unicorn mare was happily bounding around looking over everything, popping in and out of book cases acting very much like Pinkie Pie.
Rahs was embarrassed for her as she started using the collection of books to build a book fort as the Guards posted at the castle watched on with amusement. The moon dog let out a long suffering sigh wondering what might happen if she saw the massive library that Spike had been at in the Crystal Empire. Perhaps it was better she had been focused while there.
Rahs was less interested in the books here, a number of them being simply tomes of various spells or construction techniques. A few were birth and death records and countless others were history and treaties. The few fiction works he had seen were some what dull and dry, though he had found two unedited works of The Bard in his original script. Any one who wanted to get those from him could pry them out of his cold dead claws, Princesses and siblings included.
Rarity and Fluttershy had shown up to look over some of the old tapestries and see what could be salvaged, while Applejack and Rainbow Dash were simply poking their noses about the castle seeing what was what.
Spike and Pinkie Pie were absent however as Spike didn't want to come, and the Cakes had a large order to deliver leaving Pinkie to foal sit the twins after giving them their first birthday party.
Rahs was rather curious how that was going.
[ Sugar Cube Corner]
“WHY IS EVERYTHING ON FIRE!?!?!” Pinkie Pie screamed as the giggling foals bounced around the smoke and flame filled kitchen.
Perhaps he was better off not knowing.
Twilight was constructing the rear parapet on her book fort based on a authentic model of Mustang Fort in the Unicorn Range when he decided to walk around himself. He hadn't seen much of the old castle last time he was here and Twilight would be far too distracted to stop him from exploring.
Once again Spike got to miss this due to it being a school night and he already expected to be walking back under the moon.
He padded down one of the side halls in the castle not really having a direction to go. He was surprised as Rainbow Dash tumbled out of a wall crashing to the floor before him.
“Ow.” Rainbow Dash muttered looking up at the moon dog.
Rahs raised an eye brow looking at the wall she had fallen from and the lack of any where she could have come from before shrugging and walking on. Dash and AJ seemed to be enjoying finding the old hidden passages in the place.
Walking on he took note of Fluttershy and Rarity carefully removing some old tapestry or another, while Rarity gushed about the skill of the weave or something. He gave angel Bunny a glare, which the rabbit returned, before Rahs walked on, he doubted any one would appreciate a fight in this place. Pity that would have helped his boredom.
Wandering around and dodging the sudden appearance of Applejack this time she dropped through a new trap door in the ceiling, Rahs came across a partially sealed door. A large star spider skittered across the wooden frame to get away from him. Rahs watched it scamper before ignoring it. He had found out that while they were magical, they tasted like old socks.
He was not eager to have a repeat taste.
Pushing open the door the rustle of paper drew his attention as the scent of old crumbling parchment assailed his nose. Forcing the door open further he pressed on into a room that was covered with old papers. The piles were thick on the floor, rustling like old leaves as the scant breeze from the now open door way blew into the room. Reaching down to pick one of the papers up he took note it was a postcard like slip of paper, the ink on one side too faded to read. The other side had a peeling stamp and heavier ink that had the post mark reading;' Whinnysor SL4 1NJ, EQ'.
Looking around he sniffed the air, ears perking up as he caught the scent of old magics, much like was in the library, though not as strong. Picking up another bit of paper he saw it was an old envelope. Opening it with a claw he found a letter in fairly decent condition, though not with anything interesting in it. It seemed to be a report of crop yields in a district of the Unicorn Range.
Moving through the papers carefully Rahs advanced further into the mail room noting a number of boxes and larger packages that had been dumped as well. The room wasn't very large, but it was packed to the brim with mail. Picking up another letter he could make out it was addressed to Princess Luna with the return address on Gallopagos islands, home of the Nox- Cal.
Frowning a moment Rahs sighed looking at the piles. Well if he did something it would alleviate his boredom here.
Heading back outside of the room, he later returned with a couple of shipping boxes for moving things out of the old castle and started dropping various letters he could understand into various boxes. He opened one every so often when he didn't know who it was to to see if the interior ink was any better than that on the outside. While he expected he was breaking some iron clad code of the postal service, they had been given permission by the princesses to look through anything here they wished.
More often than not Rahs found himself reading a insult to Luna, a indecent proposal to Celestia, or some boring bit of drivel that Twilight would love.
It didn't take long before the first box addressed to Celestia was filled. He wondered how long letters had come here before Celestia left the place to rot and started building Canterlot, there had to be years worth of letters here.
The sorting took Rahs a good part of the day as he ignored the screaming of Rarity, Fluttershy , Rainbow Dash, and Applejack as they crashed around the castle and were screaming about ghosts and shadow ponies. He then ignored the screams of the guard who was pretending to be said ghosts as a prank and now had three angry mares and, a 'very disappointed' one, chasing after him.
By the end of the day most of the mail had been sorted. Four full crates to Celestia, two for random unknown ponies who were probably census or accountants, and a few dozen letters for Luna. He also had a number of packages that were strewn about.
He quickly sorted them and was left with three that were unmarked.
Opening the first to look it over he found it was a novel by some one named 'Eclipse'. He read through a few pages and opted to tuck it into his coat to read later, it reminded him of one of his favorite romance drama novels 'Wolf of the Harvest Moon'.
The second book was a collection of names numbers and dates that filled a fairly thick tome. Figuring that was to go into the business pile he dropped it in.
The third item was marked but only with a angry hard pressed scrawl that was illegible. It almost seemed carved into the box by the writing implement. Even looking at the cut lettering though he couldn't make it out. Opening the box found it only had a small note and a hoof written journal. The note wasn't helpful as it only had one message.
'These were his last words you heartless tyrant, READ THEM! Read them and tell me what you did to him was justified, monster.'
Rahs frowned, not sure if the letter was addressing Princess Celestia or Princess Luna, with how things trended in this place it was most likely Luna. Opening the journal, it took him a few moments to understand the writing, but once he got that the script flowed along.
Twilight practically skipped down the corridor to where a few of the guards said Rahs had gone. So many books to go over, so much information. And Rahs had found a mail room, even better as if any of the old stamps survived she could give them to her father for Hearths Warming for his collection. Maybe she could trade some with Sunburst for some of the ones he was likely picking up in the Crystal Empire as well. It truly took nerds of their caliber to collect and trade stamps.
The other girls had headed back already and the Guards were looking to call it a night as well, one bruised one in particular.
Trotting into the room she spotted Rahs sitting on a crate staring at a journal in one hand, the book was closed though his ears were flat to his head as he glared at it.
Twilight glanced around casting a small scry spell and taking note of the weak spells in the room. Although nothing seemed to directed at her brother, the journal he had wasn't magical beyond the residual effect of the rooms preservation spell, she knew something was wrong.
Her spell did draw Rahs' attention and he rose offering her the journal.
“Read the last six pages.”
Twilight blinked, taking the journal and flipping to the back, pouring over it. Her eyes narrowed then widened at the words written there.
She finally lowered the journal lost in thought a moment.
“ You don't think....”
“Woof.” Rahs frowned shaking his head.
“Luna might know for sure. Or Sombra.” Twilight grumbled
“ Woof.” Rahs sighed not expecting the former king to be very forthcoming, Luna was the better bet.
“I need to warn Cadence and Shining Armor.”
Rahs nodded and the pair headed out of the castle with a brief stop over for Twilight to grab the large cart she had packed most of the libraries books into before they headed back to town with a Guard escort.
Along the way back to town, the small group took note of the howls of Timber Wolves in the distance.