//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: A Shadow of Your Former Self // by anonbecause1 //------------------------------// “Thank you for your cooperation Mrs. Glaze. This is the first lead we have had in a long time and any information helps.” “Not at all Princess Twilight Sparkle. Our entire staff is ready and willing to answer any questions you have but I’m afraid the attack happened after closing. All of our staff were home by then.” Twilight waved her hoof dismissively. “I doubt this is the first time King Sombra has been here. You don’t just show up and destroy one fire pit for no reason. Especially not him. Was there anything significant about that part of the library in particular?” Grassy Glaze tapped her chin, “Not that I know of. I would understand if this library was on or was an ancient ruin but it’s only 10 years old. Nothing here I know of a 1,000-year-old dictator would want.” Twilight sighed; Dash pulled her further away to have a more private conversation. “This is so dumb. Why here?” “I don’t know.” Twilight pulled the crown out of her bag, still shrunk down to its pocket size like it was discovered. “Applejack said she saw the crown at a pawn shop in Dodge Junction and now it’s here. What’s the connection?” “Maybe the pony who bought it just lives here?” Twilight shook her head and held the crown up. “It was regular size when Applejack saw it at the pawn shop. The train station pony said he gave it to his godson as a gift but that he didn’t like it and got rid of it right away.” Dash rolled her eyes, “What a brat, I sure wish we could have caught up with him if only to pound him for being such a jerk.” “I do too. But look at this crown, there’s a residual dark magic aura on it. King Sombra is the only pony who could have shrunken it down. And that fire pit was definitely destroyed by dark magic. Plus, the guard pony said it was a black and grey dragon with red horns.” “So?” “You’ve been through a transformation spell before; your species changes but your appearance doesn’t. That was definitely King Sombra who destroyed the fire pit. I just can’t figure out why. And now that we know he’s kept himself hidden by transforming, he could be anywhere as anything!” Dash put a hoof on her friends’ shoulder, “Twilight, calm down, you are way smarter than this King Sombra guy and if we can’t find anything here. I’m sure Spike, Fluttershy, and Rarity will find something in the dragon lands. He hasn’t done anything yet and it’s been like, two years.” “But that’s what worries me.” Twilight began to pace the room, “What does he want? What is he planning? Cadence and Shinning Armor have lived at the palace all this time and they still can’t find the crystal heart. He has to have it with him, where else could it be? Why the two most random places in Equestria? Why leave his crown? Is it just a red herring? What?!” Twilight was on the verge of pulling out her mane when Pinky Pie popped out of the seemingly empty space behind her back with a Sherclop Holmes hat and a bubble pipe. “Sheesh, someponies Twilighting hard right now.” “Pinky! Did you find any clues?” “Nope. But I did find out that a pony quit today. Does that help?” Pinky blew more bubbles from her pipe as Twilight leapt up in excitement. “Of course! King Sombra would have access to whatever he wanted if he worked here.” “I can’t imagine that creep working for anypony.” Dash said as she popped some of Pinkies bubbles as they floated away. “Did you find anything else out about the pony who quit?” “Apparently that would break confidentiality buuut I did manage to get a peeky weeky at a corner of their file. Their reason for leaving was because they were moving to Canterlot.” “Canterlot…” Twilights wings sagged down to the ground as the weight of realization fell on her. Rainbow Dash looked at her friend in concern. “Twilight-“ “I have to warn the princesses! If it took two years of planning then whatever he’s going to do has to be big. I’ll have to teleport, can you two meet me there as soon as you can?” “Okie dokie lokie. But what about the interviews?” “Get whatever information you can. Gather them in a group and only interview the ponies who saw anything suspicious that night or recently. Also ask about the pony who quit. Tell me everything when you get to Canterlot.” “Twilight, I think you might be jumping to conclu-“ Twilight disappeared in a flash of light, “…sions. Celestia damn it.” ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sombra was going to vomit, he was in a lineup with all of his co-workers and he was going to vomit. The alicorn left a while ago but his attempted murderer and a Pink pony who was somehow more terrifying was bouncing joyously in place as the pegasi marched up and down the line like a drill instructor. She would occasionally stop to give a pony a once over but would move on just as fast. So far, he hadn’t been singled out but that could change at any moment. “Alright listen up. One of you knows something so you better spill,” Sombra was finally singled out as she suddenly jammed their muzzles together to look him dead in the eye, “or else.” Sombra’s cold sweat became even more obvious but he nodded his understanding like everypony else. “Good.” The pegasi left his personal space so he could breathe again. “First off, did anypony hear or see anything out of the ordinary before the fire pit was melted? Did anypony strange come in? Were there any cases of weird or strong magic being used? Was anypony hanging around the fire pit for no reason? Anything.” They all looked at each other before Page Turner raised his hoof to answer. The pegasi pointed at him, “Yes, you.” “I just wanted to point out that this is a public library in a major metropolis. Literally all those things happen every day.” “Multiple times,” Sunlight Cast added. The pegasi face hoofed, “Uhg. Have you seen anypony use dark magic? Or talk about it?” Sombra was definitely going to vomit. One of the other trade school ponies raised her hoof, the pegasi called on her. “Our floor manager talks about dark magic theory sometimes.” “She talks about everything sometimes,” another pony added. Page Turner nodded, “She was an odd duck. She quit this morning.” Some ponies gasped; it wasn’t widely known yet. “Interesting.” The pegasi remarked while flying at a leisurely pace back and forth before rounding on Page Turner. “Wait, did you say ‘she’ as in a mare?” Page Turner was startled but nodded, “Ye-yeah, why?” the pegasi seemed to consider this before flying back to her pink companion. They spoke in hushed tones for a bit before the pink one shrugged and shook her head like she didn’t know. The pegasi sighed then turned back to the group. “Thank you for your time, we’ll call if we need you… Don’t leave town.” Sombra might leave town. The pegasi picked up the pink earth pony and flew her out the door. The earth pony seemed to enjoy it. The staff collectively sighed as Mrs. Glaze thanked everypony for their time and asked them to return to their regular duties. Sombra was about to make a B-line to the bathroom when Sunlight Cast caught his arm. “Hey Sombra, Moon Dancer talked to you more than anypony. Why didn’t you say anything about her talking about dark magic?” Sombra looked at her like she was nuts, “Because it was just talk. She didn’t use dark magic.” Sunlight shrugged, “How would we know? Have you ever seen dark magic? I haven’t. I’ve only ever heard of really high-level unicorns using it in Celestia’s school. Didn’t she used to go there?” Sombra was struggling with the realization of how blind everypony he worked with was as well as keeping his breakfast where it belonged. Was that really why nopony outed him as a dark magic user? They didn’t know? How! He never hid it. And why didn’t the inspectors call him out for his name! Did they not bother to look at the employee list? “Sunlight, I really don’t think Moon Dancer did anything wrong but I really need to get to the rest room. I drank a lot because I didn’t think the interview would be that long.” “Oh, sorry Sombra, go ahead.” “Thanks!” He made it just in time, he stood heaving over the bowel, hoping the tears pricking his eyes were from the acidic burns from his throat and not because he knew he was close to getting caught. He wiped his mouth and returned to the front desk; spotting the book Moon Dancer had placed on hold for him in the in the cupboard under the computer. He pulled it out and scanned it with his library card; his shift ended at 7 and the library closed at 9. That gave himself a few hours to find out why this was happening to him. He just hoped he could handle it.