Silver awoke in the library.
It was like nothing he'd ever imagined, a place he'd heard stories of as a child, but knew he would never reach. The Sacred City, where no creature was allowed to visit. The graveyard of the ancient Alicorns. There were no bodies in the library anymore, or anywhere else in the city for that matter.
This time Silver had a proper meal, not just drinking down the water saved at the bottom of the cans they'd stolen. Magpie wasn't sitting vigil over him, though he suspected she would probably be lurking somewhere. By the time he finished eating, she'd appeared from the ancient shelves.
"I'd really like to know," she began, settling beside him on the low table. From the crude look of the metal, it was probably one made in Moonrise, and brought here by the Gatecrashers who'd done the initial exploring. "You called this place a library when we found it. But I haven't seen any books. How do you even know that's what it is?"
He stared down at his bowl of preserved vegetables, groaning a little at the smell. His stomach wasn't exactly happy eating them, and he couldn't have said if that was just a product of tasting things he'd never eaten before, or maybe it was just too old. He didn't have a choice if that was the case: he couldn't hide here without food. "I don't know how the Gatecrashers figured it out originally. I don't think we ever got a real translation, for one thing. Maybe they just wandered around pushing buttons until something happened."
"I'm sure the princess would love that." Magpie watched him, eyes narrowing with concern. "She loves it when creatures visit this place. I'm sure she would like it when they go around breaking things."
He went back to his meal, forcing the mixed vegetables down even under duress. However sick he was beginning to feel, his hunger was stronger. "We won't be doing that, anyway. We're not here to make the princess angry, just hiding until they forget about me."
"And working on my wings," Magpie said, nudging him in the shoulder. "This was the only place you could get the material, remember? A wing that will last as long as I do, that whole speech?"
"Yeah." He didn't argue with her, didn't stop eating until his bowl was finally empty. "That should be easy. We just need to find the same stuff the air-armor is made of, and cut it so it's the right shape. Probably we'll need one of their knives to do that, since none of ours are sharp enough. There's probably a lot of cloth to find in a whole city."
That seemed to satisfy Magpie, because she let him enjoy the rest of his awful meal in peace. He should've enjoyed carrots and potatoes and celery, but he didn't think he'd be able to look at their real vegetable equivalents the same way again. "I... refuse to believe there isn't water here. You probably just didn't recognize it." He stood up, making his way along the edge of the library.
Magpie followed close behind, looking slightly annoyed. "If you say so. I found all those cans, you'd think a pony would be grateful."
"Thank you, Magpie," he said, without skipping a beat. "But now I'm going to find something else to drink, something that might actually settle my stomach."
Besides, he hadn't ever gotten a good look at their temporary hideout before. He barely even remembered arriving here. He lit his horn at first, but when the soreness started to return he quickly abandoned that plan. Clearly he wasn't finished recovering from the magical strain that had brought him here.
It might not look very much like the libraries of Moonrise, but some parts of this place did seem similar. There were lots of private areas tucked away, booths where scholars had probably come to study. Some had strange metal objects left behind, or crumbling bags of ancient possessions. If any dead had been here when the city finally fell, they were mercifully removed. He could thank the Moonrise of centuries before for that little service.
Eventually he found something that looked interesting: a set of doors tucked away in a corner with no airlocks and light shining in from inside. Each one had a symbol near the middle, set into the metal at about head level.
"Didn't check in there," Magpie said. "Even searching this place was pushing my luck. New room might mean the death-machines would come for me."
"I still don't think they ever will," he muttered, pushing on one of the doors. It swung open at his pressure, leading into... a latrine?
There was no misunderstanding it. Large stalls with dividers and enclosing doors, with strange vessels filled with water in each one. And on the other side of the room, a counter and bowls for washing. On a whim, he tried one of the knobs beside a bowl, and nearly jumped when actual water flowed out. He jerked his hoof back, afraid it might be some industrial acid or something—but it came out crystal clear, and didn't have so much as a smell. He stuck his hoof into it, holding it there for a second, and only the mud came washing away, none of his flesh.
This explains why the Gatecrashers didn't have water supplies. He leaned forward, sticking his mouth into the stream and slurping greedily. He stayed there so long he had to come up for air, gasping. It was easily the cleanest water he'd ever tasted, without even a hint of the metallic aftertaste that came from reprocessing. Or even worse, the barely-drinkable biopoison that ran thick through the water ponies collected from the walls.
"I was drinking bean water," he said, breaking down into desperate laughter. "This has been waiting here the whole time, and I was drinking bean water."
Magpie pushed the knob back with her hoof, and the flow stopped. "Don't you think you should conserve, Silver? You don't know how much is stored here. This city is... thousands of years old. I can't even imagine the spells powerful enough to survive all this time."
He couldn't sense any spells in the latrine, even if the hardware was new to him. "Probably just skilled Alicorn craftsmanship." He left the room behind anyway, wandering back into the library. "It makes sense that the Gatecrashers would focus all their efforts here. My father always said that recovering the Alicorns' lost knowledge was the most important thing. He never even mentioned any old weapons."
"Just don't forget why we’re here," Magpie insisted. "I'm sure the old Gatecrasher guild was amazing. Your family were probably members for centuries, blah blah. But we're only here to find some cloth and stay hidden long enough to make it back to Moonrise." She moved suddenly closer to him, her icy cold body suddenly shivering. "I know nothing has happened yet, but I can feel it. This place hates me. If we stay too long, it's going to get tired and clean out the trash." She flicked her good wing back the way they'd come. "Think about it, Silver. The latrine still works. What else do you think might still be running out there."
Silver considered that, and he could imagine only good things. Clean water on command, like the fanciest Skytower homes. Lights in even white that made him want to go back and stand in a latrine of all places. The Alicorns had accomplished incredible feats in areas of life that barely seemed to matter. How much more power had they invested in their food-growing, or maybe their telescopes? Maybe he could find one of those, and look at their ancient inheritance with his own eyes.
It was probably a little too ambitious to expect to be able to scour Vanaheimr on his first day. First he had to win the battle against his stomach, adjusting to the nearly-rotten food that would be his only sustenance for the next several days. Wealthy ponies might have a supply of fat to help ease the burden, but Silver had none. That took a lifetime of proper meals to build, a life he just hadn't experienced.
But a little while later, and he felt comfortable enough. He didn't puke his guts out all over the floor, anyway.
"So when do we go find my fabric?" Magpie asked, following him as he wandered through the library. Silver was searching for an intact privacy stall, and after a little more searching he finally found it. Here the glass sheets weren't separated from the table, or cracked into pieces. Maybe here he'd finally be able to learn a little more about Vanaheimr. "We should do it today, yeah?"
"No," he grumbled. "My horn is still aching. I could probably do a bubble for an hour or so, but... I'm better off letting my head heal before that."
"Or you could just put on some air-armor," she suggested. "That's what everypony else uses, right? When there isn't a unicorn to magic something to breathe, you have to bring your own."
"Sure, if there was any." His eyes narrowed. "You're not telling me the Alicorns have intact equipment here of all places. In their library?"
"No, they didn't. But the Gatecrashers did. You said they left in a hurry—so why shouldn’t we take advantage?" She led him away from the privacy stall, towards another semi-enclosed portion of the library. This one looked like it had been a storage room at one time, with shelves covered in glass and metal machines in various stages of decay. But much more importantly, the interior space had been turned into a Gatecrasher staging area, with a disorderly pile of old machines left probably exactly as they'd been a generation ago.
Silver Star didn't have a clue how any of it worked of course. But aside from a machine with several different sized tanks, and something else he was sure was a chemical battery, was a single set of air-armor. It wasn't terribly large, or even a little bit modern so far as air-armor went. It was undersized, and would probably be a tight fit when he put it on. The armor wasn't anything like the clothing used to protect guards. Silver didn't even know how it worked, something about altering the way metal bent to form flexible sleeves for the legs, while using stolen fabric for the joints. It also offered no protection against conventional dangers, and would puncture easily if anything damaged it.
In addition to the suit itself, there were complex saddlebags of bakelite tubes, with their insides yellowing. There was a complex mix of chemicals in here, which did something to the air to let him breathe it over and over. What had his father said about wearing these? Don't get them wet? And come to think of it, this little storage closet was on the opposite side of the library from the latrines. It made sense. "This is a good find," he said, stepping back. "But I'm still not going to do it. I don't, uh... I don't know how any of this works. Just look at those saddlebags. There are six different knobs and dials in there. One wrong move, and I suffocate."
Magpie glared back at him, and for a moment he wondered if she was going to lunge or something. She didn't, though she did stick her tongue out after a few seconds. "You're not getting out of that wing, Silver. Not only did I give you somewhere to stay, but now I've saved your life at least twice. You owe me."
"I'm not trying to get out of it!" He gestured back into the library, at the supplies she'd found. “See all that? That's the real deciding factor about how long we can stay in here. So long as those last, we can keep hiding. Probably... the longer the better.” Except that life is getting worse in Moonrise. But aside from that. "The only bad thing about working on it here is not having my sketches. Those designs are hidden in your shelter. But... I still remember most of it. It shouldn’t be too hard to reconstruct where I was going if we're here long enough to build anything."
The real question is whether I should rush to get it built or go as slow as possible. Will you still be willing to help me after I give you what you want? Or will you leave after that?
But Silver wasn't going to waste this chance in the Sacred City as though it were just another hole to climb into and wait for Moonrise to forget about him. This was the library, the very place he'd heard about as a child. The Alicorns themselves had come here to study. Maybe there was something here he could use to fight Flint? Some... secret combat spell she wouldn’t see coming or weapon he could build.
As soon as Magpie left him alone, Silver found his way back to the privacy booths, and returned to the one without any visible damage. If he was going to get Vanaheimr's secrets, then there seemed no better place to learn them.
It was less clear how he was going to learn them. What was he supposed to do to a flat piece of glass stuck into a table? His father had told him plenty of times of the incredible things these machines could do, if only he could activate them. But this one at least didn't seem to care that he was nearby. He poked and prodded, and it might as well have been switched off for all that he accomplished.
"Why won’t you work?" he muttered, frustrated. "I don't know what the buck you want me to do."
The glass lit up, an even white glow like an unseen unicorn was illuminating it. The light faded after a moment, leaving something strange behind. Lots of little shapes were spread along the outside of the glass, each one distinct in its colors. They were labeled, but of course it was in the language of the Alicorns, and he didn't speak that. He was lucky to even be able to read with a background like his. "Voice interface activated," said a voice. Somehow it was coming from the glass? He couldn't place its tone, or its accent. Like the wealthiest Greens from the Skytowers, who walked in the company of the princess. Or... maybe just how he imagined ponies like that would sound.
"Does that mean you'll help me?" he asked. "Entrapped spirit, I need your help."
The empty center of the glass glowed and shone whenever he spoke, as though it wanted him to know that it was listening to him. "I'm afraid the connection to Vanaheimr central database has been disrupted, so only basic queries are available. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may cause."
Magpie emerged from the hallway tucked between the booths, watching him with amusement. "You got it to yell at you in Alicorn, how useful." She hopped up beside him, looking at the screen. "How long before you give up?"
Silver ignored her for the moment. "What is a basic query?" he asked.
"Locally stored multimedia resources may be accessed. Basic reference questions may be answered. Tutoring and instruction may be provided for basic academic competency levels 1-4."
He sat back in the booth, considering those options. He could imagine one of the great Gatecrashers sitting in this exact seat, wondering what wisdom would be most needed in Moonrise.
"You're not going to get it to speak Ponish," Magpie said, exasperated. "Ask questions all you want. It's old Alicorn magic, it doesn't care about us."
"What are you talking about?" He tilted his head to the side. "Magpie, it is speaking Ponish." And apparently it's smart enough to know when I'm not talking to it, because it isn't trying to answer these like questions. "Magpie, are you honestly saying you can't..." He turned slightly back to the glass, as though it could somehow see his attention. Then again, maybe it could. He had no idea how powerful the Alicorns' magic could actually be. "Can you tell me where I can find more of the fabric you use in your air-armor?"
The glass flashed bright again for a moment, clearing away the little shapes around the edge. "Inquiry... fabric. Air... armor. Did you mean, space suit?" As it spoke, a perfect model of one of the sets of incredible Alicorn air-armor appeared on the glass, spinning in a slow circle. The image seemed so real that Silver had to reach behind it, to make sure the space was still empty. It was. "See, Magpie? I asked about air-armor, and... Yes, I meant space suit. Where can I find the cloth for a space suit?"
The little model disappeared. "Querying inventory... central database not responding. Emergency supply cache located at junction 84-23. Inventory node reports three compatible space suits waiting for deployment. Would you like directions?"
"Yes," he said eagerly. "Please!" It didn't seem like the spirit trapped in the glass had actually understood him at all. But in its haste to obey, it was actually going to give far more than he could've hoped for. One of the nearly invincible sets of Alicorn air-armor, the ones that remained almost untouched while their wearers rotted to nothing. Apparently there was more of it hidden away somewhere.
The screen filled with the dense lines of a map, there was a massive opening in the center, with a little star that seemed to represent them. "If I'm reading this map right... it shouldn't be far at all. Less than ten minutes." He stared, committing the route to memory. Vanaheimr was far too vast to wander and hope to discover anything useful.
"It bucking listened to you," Magpie spluttered. "You just... told it what you wanted, and now it's... That's where to find air-armor?"
"Space suit," he said, feeling the strange shape of the words on his tongue. "And yes. I changed my mind about not wanting to make the trip, come on. It's closer than I thought."
"Like I have a choice," she muttered, expression dark. "If I stay behind, this place will kill me. Don't get away from me."