Even though the printing room had been cleared many hours ago, a single light remained on in the back of the room, and the sound of a quill scratching across paper and book pages being turned could be heard. Under the light sat a lavender unicorn, his mane slightly darker with a few white streaks in it. His horn lit up with a blue magic aura as he levitated several items in the air, looking back and forth from one to another.
“If it were just these seven then it would make sense… However, these three make up different parts, and that either makes its own statements completely void, or it’s proving that none of what’s written in the other seven has any valid relevancy to the case whatsoever…”
This statement to himself was the only thing said in the room for a long while as he continued looking over the papers. The only thing that eventually drew him away from the words on the pages was the sound of a door clicking open as a maroon Pegasus walked in, looking curiously in the direction of the light, then sighing and shaking his head as he saw the unicorn and the papers floating about.
“Art… should have guessed. You know I’m not paying you overtime for this.”
The chief editor’s words brought a light laugh from the unicorn. “I know. I clocked out when everypony left earlier.” he stopped behind Art as he looked over the papers the unicorn was studying. “Aren’t those… Ryder’s newest sections? We are supposed to be printing those tomorrow you know.”
Three separate documents dropped in front of the Pegasus.
“These are three older sections done a few years ago. You will find that the highlighted sections prove that all the facts Ryder has found are just fiction. In fact I referenced the books that he probably pulled most of them from in a side note,” Art said, continuing to look over more pages.
The editor tilted his head and gve him an annoyed look. “You know this means I’m gonna have to fill the front page with something new right… And unless you have something for that-”
Two other papers slipped out from under the ones Art had passed to him.
“Ryder wasn’t completely wrong in this research though. I did find enough to make up for the parts that were incorrect, and still give you a front page,” the unicorn said.
The Pegasus looked over the papers a few times before giving a look of defeat. “Art… You have to stop doing this. I’m going to have to call in the press crew early tomorrow so they can change the print, and it’s the third time this week.”
Art shrugged and threw a bag over his back. “Sorry chief, but I can’t let us publish something that isn’t true. That’s the reason I’m here. If the crew has a problem with it then they can talk to your reporters about getting their stories right the first time.”
He walked away from the editor, with a pleased look spreading across his face. He knew he would hear about it in the morning but for now he was just glad to be using his talent the right way. He gave a brief glance back at the cutie mark on his flank – a piece of parchment and a quill. He didn‘t quite remember exactly how he came about getting his mark but he did remember the first time he realized what it meant his special talent was. He had received a report assignment for school on anything he chose; it had started out at first as a basic star gazer’s guide, but he had gotten distracted by writing out a whole history on the stars and how they too played a part in the way Equestria was maintained. From there, he began to try to find new way to write the paper over and over again. Before he knew it, he had set down a 300 page book on the teacher’s desk with a big smile. He hadn’t seen anypony else’s reports until later; theirs were all just a simple two or three pages. It was then that he knew his talent was dealing with anything that involved documents, books, or anything written. Naturally, this later led him to become one of the head transcripts at the newspaper facility in Manehatten.
Art closed the door to his home yawning loudly after throwing his bags to the side. Indeed, he had not planned to stay that late at work, but he’d gotten caught up in the papers, and now it was far later than he had hoped, leaving him very little time to do anything besides bathing, fixing something to eat, and going to bed. However, no matter how late it would get, he wouldn’t break one last habit he always had. Even as a colt Art would make sure to open his window and look out at the moon. He eventually came to realize that it wasn’t the moon itself he was looking at, but the image dotted across the surface. When he had asked his mother about it, she explained to him the tale of the Mare in the Moon. He didn’t have the same reaction to it as most foals who were told about Nightmare Moon, instead he only wanted to know more. That was probably where his first connection to his special talent was made, for it was shortly after hearing the story that he wrote the report and found out what he could do. Nonetheless, Art once again found himself looking out at the image dotted across the surface of the lunar figure.
“What are you really?” Art asked out loud, as if truly expecting an answer from the image.
Even though he’d been told countless times that it was just an Old Foal’s tale to keep fillies and colts in bed at night, Art still wanted a real answer to what caused this figure on the moon. With a light sigh he turned, closing the window with his magic and put out the lights in the room as he found his way to his bed, quickly drifting off to sleep.
****
It took a moment for Art to realize where he was. At first, it looked like he was someplace he’d never been to. Then he saw something that he remembered seeing several times before. Though he still had never really been to this place, he knew this dream well. Even though the land was dark as night, the sky had an orange tint to it, similar to something one might see before the sun rose. Many of the trees were similar but off in the distance was one that was different. Art knew it was a weeping willow; he’d looked up what the tree in the constantly recurring dreams was called, hoping the tree had some significance, but found nothing that helped him any. As he made his way towards the tree, his ears perked up at the sound of a young foal crying, as he always did in these dreams. In every one, Art had tried countless times to identify who or what it came from. The first time, not knowing what was going on, he simply walked up to the tree. He had tried running around it, used magic to try and pull out whoever it was who was crying, and even went as far as to try and make a large circle of light around the tree to find the foal. Each time he would find nothing but a small scorch mark on the tree when he got to where he thought the foal might be. This time, Art stopped and called out.
“Are you okay?”
As he called out, he heard a difference in the crying; it slowed down a little and he saw what he thought was a figure looking up from the base of the tree. From the size of the figure Art was right in believing it to be a foal, but that was all he could make out.
“Why are you crying?”
The only answer he received was the black figure running around to the back of the tree. Art sighed lightly and began to try something new. His horn lit up and lifted himself slightly, levitating himself off the ground enough to prevent any noise as he made his way up the to the willow tree. As he got within 7 feet of the tree, he heard a sudden crackle and pop, like from a fire, and then it was gone, leaving him wondering just what was happening. As he leaned around the edge of the tree once again all he saw was a burned mark on the ground. He sighed and set his flank on the ground.
“Geez… When am I going to figure out what this means?”
He sat for a moment longer wondering if this time if something more will happen. Then he heard a tap, as if from somepony rapping on glass, glass that was not anywhere around. There was nothing for a moment, then several more came. As the tapping continued, the world around him began to fade. He woke up, the bird tapping on the glass outside his window now began chirping happily.
“You couldn’t give me another 5 minutes…” he grumbled at it.
The bird merely continued chirping.
****
Art had a few scrolls levitating in front of him as he walked down the streets of Manehatten, taking time every now and then to stop and glance over the papers to check his path. He finally had to stop as he got within a block of the news building, looking at the crowd surrounding it. He made his way toward it curiously, slowly folding the scrolls he had out back up and returned them to their place in the saddle he wore.
“What’s going on?” he asked a light pink Unicorn at the back of the crowd.
“Princess Celestia came to town today. They say some of the royal researchers had problems translating something new that they discovered; a lot of ponies are saying she brought it here to be translated by somepony.”
For Art, it wasn’t the news that Celestia was in town that got his attention, it was the thought of working with new scrolls that make his eyes light up.
“Translating new scrolls…” he said to himself gleefully.
Suddenly a voice from the front of the crowd caught his attention. “ART! Get up here!”
Art knew the chief editor’s vice as soon as it hit his ears and the crowd moved aside, everypony looking at him. Instantly, he lowered his head and blushed a little with embarrassment.
“Um… Hi everypony…” he said quietly as he made his way up to the chief, who quickly pulled him inside.
“You’re late Art,” he said with a stern look, but Art knew there was no real threat behind it.
“I know, but are you really going to hold that against me after I corrected that paper last night? Something like that would have really ruined our credibility you know.” Art walked over to his office door levitating his bags up to the hook next to the door. “By the way, what’s this about some translating needing to be done? Tell me you don’t have Harper on that.”
At that moment a red Pegasus walked by sticking his tongue out at him, to which Art nodded and smiled.
“Back at ya Harper,” he quipped. A sharp smack to the back of the head brought his attention to the chief, who for once actually had a stern look, which bothered Art. “Ok…” he grumbled, rubbing the back of his head. “ How about you tell me what’s going on?”
The chief pointed a hoof to the door that Art was standing in front of. Art slowly followed his gaze. There, sitting in front of his desk, was the rainbow-maned Alicorn that ruled over all of Equestria and held the utmost respect from all Ponies. For a moment Art stood there, unmoving, just staring at the princess of all ponies, which for some reason drew a light smile from her.
“Greetings Art, I was told you might be able to assist me with something.”
Art tried not to grin, biting his lip to the grin from showing, and grabbed the doorknob with his magic. “E-excuse us for a moment princess…”
He softly shut the door, making sure not to offend the princess before looking over to the chief.
“That’s the Princess in there…” he whispered. This got a sarcastic nod from the chief.
“You don’t say?”
“And she’s here to have somepony translate something… And she’s in my office.”
The Chief waited patiently for him to make the connection.
“Chief did you have anything to do with this?”
For a moment the chief looked away from him and leaned against the wall. “Look, Art. Princess Celestia has actually been asking about you for a while…”
Art leaned in a little, confusion clearly on his face. “Why? I’m just a newspaper editor.”
The Chief reached back and got a few papers from a nearby desk and handed them to Art, who took them and looked them over.
“These are those ruins that they found a few weeks back, the ones where you wanted me to figure out why the Translations were so scrambled and didn’t make much sense,” Art said, looking at them.
The Chief nodded and pointed to the section Art did on it. “Yeah and do you remember what you came up with on that?”
“Well yeah, I figured out that a lot of the spelling was incorrect and mismatched with the symbols.”
The Chief pulled the papers away from him and looked him in the eyes. “Art, ya translated a stuff from a lost civilization. That wasn’t just some magic art that was changed into another language.”
Art shook his head, trying to throw all this into something he could actually believe. “No… that was all just a mix of Poniopilan, and Trotsylvanian words… I mean sure it’s an odd mix of languages based on their locations but that was all.”
The Chief reached over with his wing and bent one of the blinds outside of the office, looking in at the Princess. “Yah well, that’s what we thought too. Turns out Princess had that sent out to the papers as a last resort to get them translated.”
Art leaned in speaking quietly to the chief. “You mean… she was testing everypony?”
“I don’t really know, but ever since then she has been sending guards and letters once a week to try and contact you.”
Art shrugged a little, looking over at the guards still posted up at the front door of the building. “But why I haven’t seen any of them or heard from them even once?”
The chief’s ears lowered and he kicked the ground lightly. “Yeah… I may have told them I don’t know who you were or that you don’t work here…”
Art eyed him a little, not liking where this is headed. “Why did you say that? I’ve been here the whole time.”
After a while, Art silently waiting for an answer, the Chief finally looked him in the eye. “’Cause I don’t wanna risk losing you… They may want you to go back to Canterlot and work with the Ponies there. You’re one of the best editors we got here.”
Art did feel a little annoyed that the Editor was keeping him from progressing to something far greater, but inside he knew that he wasn’t really sure if he would actually want to leave the paper.
“Chief…”
For the moment Art wasn’t sure what to say, or if he should open his mouth.
“Let’s just see what the Princess needs… we’ll go from there…” he said at last.
As he turned away and started to turn the doorknob, he felt the Chief touch his shoulder.
“Art, sorry for what I did… If Celestia does ask you to go to Canterlot then you should go… Just don’t forget us here at the paper ok.”
Art rolled his eyes and looked at the chief annoyed. “I’m not going to be asked to the castle, that ain’t my kind of luck, so stop getting my hopes up.”
He left it at that and walked into the office, still surprised that it was actually Princess Celestia and not some prank from one of the other ponies.
“So… Princess, you think I can help you with something?” he asked sitting down behind his desk, trying to be courteous as possible.
“You’re the Unicorn that did the article on the scrolls I sent here a few weeks ago correct?”
Art rubbed the back of his neck seeing this going towards what the Chief was talking about.
“Well… yeah, I was just going over a few of the sections done by the reporters. I didn’t actually receive the article in person, but I took it upon myself to correct the mistakes that were made. In the end I had to redo the whole article so the Chief gave me the credit for it.”
Celestia levitated a few pictures from the ones he had worked on during the paper. “But you did translate these symbols didn’t you?”
Art didn’t want to waste her time so he just gave a nod and a quick answer. “Yes princess, that was me.”
“I see…”
She began opening a pack that was next to the chair lifting out several more pictures. “I’ve had several ponies look these over, and none of them have been able to get anything from them, however most of them see a similarity between the symbols in your past article.” She lifted out something that made Art’s eyes glaze over. It was his dream to get to see something like what she was setting on the desk in front of him. “This is one of the three books that have been found in the same place as those symbols, honestly we aren’t sure what it could contain… it could be just a harmless cookbook, but I would still like to have it translated just to be safe. Perhaps it even has a great recipe for a berry cobbler.”
She said the last bit with a light laugh, though her humor was lost on Art as he was still in awe of the ancient tome in front of him. Never had he believed that something of this age would be sitting in front of him, least not while he was in this newspaper office.
“Princess… This is… may I touch it?”
The regal Alicorn nodded and laughed lightly. “Yes, it’s protected by a strong magic to keep it from ripping or just falling apart.”
As she said this, Art quickly took ahold of the book and opened it to a random page; immediately a few symbols jumped out at him and he managed to make out a few words. The look and feel of the book was more than he imagined it to be; for a moment he felt himself going back to the days when he was a colt and his mother would bring home her own old scrolls that she had dug up. She had to come up with an excuse several times to explain why the scroll was in pieces after having it only for a night, but she would never let anypony know that she had been showing the relic to Art, who would usually cause some spark of magic trying to get it and result in a rip here or there. Now he was old enough to control his magic and know how delicate the object he held was.
“My Art you seem quite interested in the book,” Celestia noted.
Art waved a hoof, still not taking his eyes off the book. “It’s just that this reminds me of my days as a colt. My mother was an archeologist, and she use to always bring something like this home to work on.”
The mentioning of his mother brought a smile to the Alicorn’s face.
“Does your mother still work in the field? Maybe she helped with uncovering this.”
Once again Art just waved to her while keeping his eyes locked on the book. Now several more words were coming together. “No, she retired when I finished school; she works in the library down town now to keep herself busy.”
Finally, Art set the book down and smiled, his eyes sparkling as he knew what he was reading over. “Princess, this isn’t some cook book… I’m seeing a lot of interesting things here. Things from foalish fairy tales, to star signs, and even a mentioning of the word Alicorn.” He looked up and saw that now Celestia seemed to be off in a world on her own now. “Um… Princess…”
She blinked a few times and returns to her normal self. “Art, this is good news, I just know it. But I have to ask. How did you manage to make out those few details in that amount of time?”
Art pulled up the papers from before and pointed to a few of them. “A symbol here and there stuck out, and I could see a few differences in the symbol here and there, I figured that must mean that one of the letters was changed to something that matched another one. That and I doubt you would believe me but a few of the symbols just seemed to jump out at me, like they seemed important…”
Celestia shook her head and gave him a gentle smile. “Nonsense Art. Many times a pony’s special talent manifests itself in odd ways. It’s these ways that helps a pony understand why they are good at what they do.”
Art blushed a little and traced his hoof on a spot on the desk next to the tome. “Yeah… I guess that does make sense. Nopony else seems to understand it when I say it’s like something highlights itself, but then again I guess I wouldn’t ether if I didn’t see it.”
Celestia pushed the book close to Art and got back to the topic they had talked about.
“Then I see I came to the right pony. It was hard to get in touch with you, but I can already see that it will be worth the wait.”
Art looked from the book to Celestia giving her a confused look. “Princess… What exactly do you want me to do anyways?”
The princess once again nodded to the book.
“Art, I want you to translate this book, and possibly the other two we have found.”
Art looked back to the door, knowing this was just what the chief was talking about.
“How long would I be away for?”
His question got a slight tilt of the head from Celestia.
“Away? What makes you think I would require you to leave?”
Art looked down to the old book sitting before him, lifting one of the pages with magic.
“Well… if I’m going to translate this… I hope I can… But if that’s what I’m supposed to do, won’t I have to go with it back to Canterlot?”
Celestia laughed lightly and closed the book, pushing it into Art’s lap.
“Art I already told you the book is protected by magic, you can’t damage it. Along with a protective magic it is also secured with a safe return magic, if I will it to return to me it will. I’m not afraid of what will happen to the book. Besides I have seen that some of the best and quickest translations have come from ponies doing work where they feel most comfortable, in their own homes.”
Art could hardly believe what he was hearing, the princess was going to allow him to take this ancient book home, and work on translating it.
“Princess… are you serious?”
She nodded and pushed it toward him again.
“Yes, there are things in that book that I believe may be of use to me in the coming month, I know this may sound like I am placing you on a time constraint, but this is just something I am asking as a personal favor.”
In all his life Art would never have believed he was being asked a personal favor from the Princess of Equestria.
“I…I don’t know if I can have it done in a month… it’s a very thick book… and I still have my work here at the paper…”
Celestia closed her eyes and nodded.
“I understand, I don’t wish to push something like this on you, I apologize for making this sound important.”
Art felt the book being pulled back by Celestia and felt a lifetime of dreams and opportunities being pulled away with it.
“Wait!” he said quickly grabbing a hold of the book, hoping she wouldn’t pull it away from him. “I wouldn’t pass this up for anything, I really wanna work on this. I’m just not sure how fast I can get it translated.”
Celestia seems relieved to hear this.
“Don’t worry about that, I don’t have to have it translated by next month. I was just saying it would help me with something I am afraid will be happening soon. If you are able to do it before than I will be eternally grateful, however I do not wish for you to overwork yourself just to please me. I’m just glad to see such a strong determination on my little pony’s face to do this.”
Art once again found himself blushing but held the book a little closer.
“It’s just… I guess this feels like something I shouldn’t pass up.”
He knew later he would realize just what he hadn’t thought about in this brief moment, but for now all he wanted to think about was actually getting to work on the book, finding out just what had been written in it. Celestia stood her wings extending outward as she rose.
“Thank you Art, I look forward to hearing what you find. If you could, I would greatly like to know what you find as you translate it.”
Art nodded as he too stood up. “Of course Princess, I’ll send you a letter when I come across anything interesting.”
Celestia bowed her head and began walking toward the door. She paused and looked over her shoulder at him.
“Also, I do want to compensate you for your troubles. I would like to pay a fair sum of bits for your help.”
Art was about to request she not do that before she spoke again.
“I won’t take no for an answer either, I am taking your time so I feel it is only right.”
Art nodded as he slid the book into his desk and walked over to the door to open it for her. “Of course, Princess. I would gladly do it without pay, but if you insist, I won’t turn it down.”
Celestia nodded and proceeded to walk out, followed by Art; the guards that had been waiting by the door joined her as they appeared.
“Oh if it’s not too personal a question, may I ask, when you got your Cutie mark?” she asked.
The question seemed a little out of the blue and made Art have to think for a moment. He couldn’t really remember when he had gotten it; he had actually started school with his mark and got a lot of resentment for it from the other foals. “that’s hard to say really princess… when I started school I already had it, My mother said she came in one day and found one of the scrolls she had brought home in pieces in my room. She said she would have been depressed by it if it wasn’t for the fact that my cutie mark had appeared.”
“You were quite young then. Quite a rare event for a foal to discover his special talent so early.”
Art laughed rubbing the back of his neck with embarrassment.
“Yeah, you’re telling me. Some ponies think it’s bad to be a blank flank throughout most of their school days, they should try starting school already having their cutie mark.”
Celestia gave another warming smile and bowed.
“Well, thank you for doing this Art, I look forward to hearing from you.”
Art returned the gesture, offering a deep bow. “I’ll do my best Princess.”
With that, the Princess walked out of the building, the guards at her side moving the crowd aside as they passed. Art was just about to quickly rush back into his office when he turned and pushed his head into the heavy chest of the chief editor.
“Oh… hey chief.”
“Well, when are you leaving?” There was a hint of disappointment in the chief’s voice as he asked the question, looking down.
“Chief, I’m not leaving, the Princess just asked me to work on something for her. It’s related to the article we did several weeks ago.”
The chief perked up a little hearing this.
“Really? It was just some personal project of the Princess’s?”
Art nodded and started to walk towards his office, hoping to get a start on the translating.
“That’s good to hear then,” said the chief. “I was afraid you wouldn’t be part of the editorial meeting, which is going to start in a moment. There’s a lot of leads on some new market failings and the usual pony idol scandals, I know I’m gonna need you there so you can start looking for what’s just gossip and what’s a real scoop.”
Art barely managed to hide his disappointment at the mention of a meeting that would take 2 to 3 hours to get wrapped up, leaving the book to sit in his desk instead of in his hooves.
“Oh, I wouldn’t miss it for the world chief…”
To most his false smile would be clear but the chief just threw a hoof around his neck and shook him.
“That’s just what I was hoping to hear," the chief said with a grin.