Inside a great oak tree, nestled into the mountain that sheltered the city of Canterlot and overlooked its Moon District, there existed the Golden Oaks Library.
The library was as large and full of books as the Sun District’s own glorious archives, though it was as devoid of ponies as any normal tree, the only creatures inside it being its librarian and her son, the latter of whom was soundly tucked into bed asleep by this late hour.
The librarian, Twilight Sparkle, was sitting behind the reception desk of the silent, darkened library.
Though she was aware that nobody was going to be looking for a book anytime soon—her library only received visitors once in a blue moon—her home and place of business were still open for another couple of hours, and she saw no reason why she couldn’t be present at the counter just in case anyone needed her.
Especially since it was a great place to curl up with a good book and read by the soft light of a lantern.
Imagine Twilight’s surprise when the door of her library suddenly swings open, the poor librarian nearly jumping from her seat with a frightened yelp that was drowned out by the sound of the raging rainstorm outside.
The one who opened the door was a light blue pegasus with rainbow hair cut incredibly short in the back but with messy, uneven bangs in front, and Twilight couldn’t help but feel a little bit endeared to someone with such a powerful mane.
“Hey, sorry to bother you,” the woman spoke with a raspy voice and stumbled into the library dripping wet, “but are you open? Can I stick around for a bit, at least until the storm passes?”
“Yeah, of course,” Twilight sat upright to get a good look at the mare walking into her library. “Sorry, I don’t have any towels or anything on hand right now, it’s a little sparse here still except for the books. I have blankets, will that help?”
“Nah, don’t worry about it,” the rainbow-haired mare waved away Twilight’s concern and sat down on a chair nearby the receptionist desk, so Twilight could see her a little more clearly in the light of her lantern.
The woman was thin and small, but she looked to be quite physically fit. She wore a sleeveless shirt and her arms were well defined with muscle, even if they were rather thin. Most importantly, Twilight could see that she was shivering and kept rubbing her arms in some futile attempt to warm up her soaking body.
Twilight sighed softly and walked over to the stranger, and as she knelt beside the chair and hovered a hand over the pegasus’ leg, the pegasus gave Twilight a curious— even a little skeptical— stare.
Twilight stood up and placed a hand on the woman’s forehead and before she could protest, Twilight’s horn lit up with a raspberry glow which soon enveloped her hand and then the pegasus she was touching.
Within a split second, the pegasus’ body was completely dry, and presumably warm if Twilight’s spell went off correctly— which of course it did, because Twilight Sparkle was not one to screw up something as simple as a mere drying and heating spell.
The pegasus took a baffled look at her own body, raising her arms and fluttering her wings before bolting to her hooves. “That was awesome!”
“Eheh, it was nothing,” Twilight said bashfully, rubbing the back of her neck and feeling a tingling heat peck at her cheeks. “Just a little heating spell, I use it all the time.”
“I’ve never seen magic like that,” the pegasus said, pumping her fists in front of her. “You didn’t have to draw any runes, you just held out your hand and bam! That’s incredible!”
“I guess I’m sort of a prodigy when it comes to magic,” Twilight muttered, a cheeky smirk on her face. “So, what’s your name, anyway?”
“Rainbow Dash,” the pegasus said proudly, pounding a fist against her chest. “You?”
“I’m Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight said, extending a hand to shake Rainbow’s, who took it firmly and grinned as she shook Twilight’s hand.
“I take it you moved in here pretty recently, huh?” Rainbow said, looking around at the spaciously empty library. “Either that or they didn’t have anything but books where you come from?” Rainbow said with a smirk, needling Twilight with her elbow.
“I do have a lot of books,” Twilight said, eyeing her hoard with a satisfied gleam in her eye, “I’m a bit of an avid collector. But also, it’s true that I just moved in. I only made this tree my home this past month.”
Twilight’s ears perked up and she stepped away from Rainbow, placing her hands in front of her. “I hope it’s okay, that I took the tree. No one else seemed to be using it, so I—”
“Look, I didn’t even know you could turn a tree into a place like this,” Rainbow placed her hands on her hips and looked around again at the library, seemingly in awe of its size, “so I think you’re fine. How did you do this anyway?”
“Well,” Twilight said bashfully, fretting with her bangs, “I do have my magic.”
“That’s some cool magic, Twilight Sparkle,” Rainbow gave a coy giggle and took a few steps around the library, Twilight following behind her unconsciously, though she stopped in her tracks when she noticed something peculiar about Rainbow’s body, something she was surprised she hadn’t noticed before.
Rainbow’s shoulder had an ugly scar on it, from what appeared to be nasty claw marks. And if Twilight had to guess, she would say the woman had gotten them recently.
“Are you okay?” Twilight said without thinking.
“Hm?” Rainbow turned around and looked perplexed by Twilight’s question, until she followed Twilight’s line of sight to her shoulder, where she laughed softly and patted her injury. “What, this? Don’t worry about it, it’s nothin’. Got this from a bugbear couple moons ago, no big deal. It’s almost healed up anyway.”
“You—what?” Twilight tilted her head and stared in complete bafflement, which only served to confuse Rainbow even more. “How did you get attacked by a bugbear? Their territory is all the way in the north-eastern mountains, north of Griffonstone!”
“Yep,” Rainbow puffed up her chest and pounded her fist against it, “and when they leave their territory to make things tough for ponies, the Celestial Slayers show ‘em who’s boss!”
“The Celestial Slayers?” Twilight asked, hoping her smile hid the sense of unease that was steadily building in her stomach.
“Yeah,” Rainbow nodded and cricked her neck, “I’m a Slayer. Me and my pal took out a swarm of bugbears couple moons ago like I said, and I got this sweet scar in return. Pretty sick, right?”
Twilight said nothing. She instinctively took a step back, but then she gave Rainbow a smile to hide her wariness.
“I’m just glad it’s nothing to be concerned about.”
“Nah,” Rainbow shrugged, and Twilight was thankful that Rainbow seemed oblivious to her distress, “this is nothin’ to me, so don’t worry about it.”
To the ponies of Equestria, the Celestial Slayers were a beacon of hope.
Not to Twilight.
She knew the power that Slayers held, the power that they saw fit to wield over others.
Twilight’s past had been scarred with the memories of Slayers using their power and clout to abuse the weak and helpless, and she knew that this dark side to their guild was something that no one could know about, for speaking such things was tantamount to blasphemy in Equestria.
But Twilight didn’t build a new home to continue living in fear. She deserved a better life than that. Her son deserved a better life than that. It was true that where she came from, she lived in fear of the Slayers. But that was not going to be her life, or Spike’s, from this day forward.
Lost in her thoughts, Twilight had lost track of Rainbow in the library and she felt like her heart nearly stopped beating as she worried that Rainbow might have gone upstairs to where Spike was sleeping.
“Rainbow Dash?!” Twilight called out into the pitch dark halls of books, her voice cracking with fear.
“Ssh!” Rainbow replied teasingly as she poked her head out from one of the halls. “This is a library!”
Twilight breathed the deepest sigh of relief in her life, hand clutching her chest, as Rainbow walked back toward her.
“Something wrong?” Rainbow asked.
“Wh—uh, no. Sorry,” Twilight awkwardly mumbled, “I just, I thought I lost you for a sec, and I got worried.”
“About what?” Rainbow cocked her head to the side.
“I thought—” Twilight hesitated for only a moment before she realized that a small part of the truth would suffice as an explanation. “I was worried you’d wake up my son. He’s sleeping upstairs, and if he woke up and a stranger was in the library, he might get scared.”
“You shouldn’t be yelling, then,” Rainbow stuck out her tongue, and Twilight just rolled her eyes and shook her head in response, though she couldn’t help the smile on her face.
“So,” Twilight tacitly guided Rainbow back to the reception desk and eagerly changed the subject, “were you thinking about checking out a book while you were here? This is a library after all, that’s what it’s here for.”
“I don’t really-” Rainbow paused for a moment, letting out a soft groan under her breath as she rubbed between her neck and shoulder “-read.”
“You don’t read?” Twilight had never heard anything more ridiculous in her life. She added with a sly grin, “Or do you mean you can’t read?”
Rainbow’s cheeks puffed up and turned bright red, but not in a way that was funny to Twilight, who recognized all too well that she had struck a sensitive nerve with Rainbow.
“It’s never too late to start,” Twilight said gently, clasping her hands in front of her and giving Rainbow a sincere smile.
Rainbow stared right through Twilight and took a step back, almost getting into a defensive posture like she was measuring Twilight up.
Seeing the Slayer in her midst tensing up pushed every panic button in Twilight’s brain, but she wasn’t going to back down.
This Slayer… Twilight wanted to believe that this Slayer wasn’t like the ones that she knew. She wanted to extend an olive branch, maybe even… be friends. It was worth a try, and what better way to make friends than through reading?
She couldn’t take another second of the pregnant pause between them though, so Twilight decided to take the initiative, and she quickly compiled a list of all the things she knew about Rainbow Dash.
She’s a Slayer, so she leads a dangerous life. Adventure novel, perhaps? Maybe she could relate, or would that be too close to her everyday life?
She got bit by a bugbear and apparently just shrugged it off, so she’s either very experienced or very reckless. Gut says both. In which case, adventure novel might be the right call, especially if it’s one with a quick pace and light tone; something fantastical that’s fun and doesn’t try too hard to be realistic.
She likes to joke around, and it feels like she’s using jokey-jokes as a defense mechanism, though she probably has an earnest appreciation for snarky quips, so something with a dry sense of humor and plenty of wit.
And she hasn’t read much of anything before, and appears to be sensitive about that, so don’t recommend anything too complicated or advanced.
Oh.
Oh, I’ve got just the thing.
“Have you ever heard of Daring Do?”
“Um, no?” Rainbow frowned and arched an eyebrow, but she didn’t protest as Twilight grabbed a copy of Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Statue from underneath the reception desk, where Twilight had just recently been reading it.
Twilight handed the book to Rainbow, who took it tentatively in her hands and looked it over like it was written in a foreign language or something.
“Hm, uh,” Rainbow flipped through the pages with a furrowed brow, “what is this, exactly?”
“That is a book,” Twilight said, helpfully pointing at the book in question, and didn’t realize until she saw Rainbow’s annoyed stare that she had taken Rainbow’s question a mite too literally.
She cleared her throat and ignored the heat in her cheeks as she explained, “This is the first of the Daring Do books, they’re lighthearted adventure novels. I thought you might enjoy something you can relate to, being a dangerous Slayer and all, but not something that takes itself too seriously, since you seem pretty lighthearted yourself.”
Twilight smiled proudly and felt completely naked as Rainbow just stared silently at her, flitting her eyes between the book and at her, before finally sighing and hanging her head.
“You really think I can—” Rainbow bit her lip.
“Enjoy that?” Twilight interjected. “Yes, I do. Reading is a great way to pass the time, and I promise that one’s really good. I was just reading it myself!”
Rainbow took another look at the book and inhaled slowly through her nose. She looked once more at Twilight, a glimmer of pain and frustration barely visible in her eyes before she tore them away from Twilight to refocus on the book.
“Okay,” she grumbled, “I’ll give it a try.”
“You won’t regret it.”
Rainbow sat back down at the chair close to the reception desk and Twilight returned to her place behind the desk. Twilight picked up her own book to read, relishing the opportunity to get some reading done in quiet while a patron discovered the joy of reading next to her, but she quickly realized she couldn’t focus on her book.
Not when every time she looked up, she saw Rainbow staring wide-eyed at the pages of hers, or reading with one hand while the other was busy having its nails clipped by Rainbow’s teeth. Twilight had to bite down a giggle when she saw that Rainbow had begun standing and even pacing back and forth while reading.
How could Twilight focus on reading her own book when she was enjoying Rainbow’s book so much more?
After a couple of hours in silent reading, the rain had passed by the library and it was time to close its doors for the night. Twilight headed over to the door to turn around the sign in the window, before returning to Rainbow who, to Twilight’s surprise, was waiting in front of the reception desk, Daring Do novel firmly in hand.
“So, um,” Rainbow awkwardly cleared her throat, “you said this was a series? There are more, right?”
“Did you finish that one already?” Twilight said eagerly, impressed that Rainbow managed to clear a novel almost as fast as she could.
“I couldn’t put it down!” Rainbow cheered, gripping the book tightly in front of her. “You were totally right, this was awesome!”
“Well yes,” Twilight walked behind the desk and folded her arms across it, “there are plenty more Daring Do books and, as you can see,” Twilight motioned toward the countless halls of books adorning the library, “many other books as well.”
Twilight yawned and had to resist the urge to rest her head on top of her folded arms.
“I would find the next book in the series for you-” Twilight grumbled as she tried to fight back another yawn and eventually failed “-but the library’s officially closed, which is code for ‘I need to get some sleep so I won’t be dead tired when my son wakes me up in the morning.”
“Can I check this one out?” Rainbow asked hesitantly, clutching the novel to her chest for dear life in a gesture that made Twilight nearly want to swoon.
“Of course,” Twilight smiled softly, “and if you come back tomorrow, I can put together a whole reading list for you if you want.”
“That’d be amazing!” Rainbow cooed, her wings flapping excitedly behind her. “And maybe I could talk to you about this one? You could tell me all the stuff that you liked about it and we could like, exchange notes or something?”
“That—” Twilight’s eyes started to mist up and she smiled ear to ear, but she bit down on her lip and wore a more reserved smile so she didn’t accidentally put Rainbow off with her over-eagerness. “That would be great.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Rainbow flashed a bright grin as she ran for the door. “Goodnight, Twilight Sparkle!”
“I’m looking forward to it,” Twilight beamed at Rainbow and gave her a wave as she exited the library.
Twilight groggily walked over to the door and locked it, peeking out the window to see the snow-swept village of Canterlot’s Moon District outside, a place that had seemed so cold and alien and even intimidating to her before, but now held a small spark of hope for her.
She smiled wide and let out a soft sigh as she turned her back to the door and slid down the wall to the ground, quickly falling asleep on the wooden floor right in front of the door, smile still on her face as her last thoughts before drifting off to sleep were of the first friend she’d made in Equestria.