//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10: The Thaumal Shelves 
// Story: Failure Isn't In Store For You 
// by Kiernan 
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Chapter 10: The Thaumal Shelves




After dinner, Akaitora and Fluttershy engaged themselves in conversation, catching up on what each had been doing for the past few years. "After the whole ordeal with my brother, he finally gave me the scroll he had showed us at his arrival. It said that I was to go to where my lab is now to undertake a task that I was not allowed to know until after I got there. When I arrived, I was given a small key, and was told to enter, bt the pony that gave me the key vanished before I could ask anything. So I enter, and there's this massive library. Then I see this cloaked figure standing in the center of the room, who asks me if I want to use my skills and talents to protect the realm of magic from any evil that wishes to halt it. I tell him, 'All magic should be protected for proper use.' And he smiles at me, and tells me that I am worthy. He spends the next week teaching me how to harness the flow of magic, and give it to those who deserve it. That's also how I got this."
Akaitora pulled up his cape and displayed his cutie mark, a circle with a star inside of it. 
"That's wonderful!" squeed Fluttershy, glad to hear of Kai's success. "What about your flying? Did you get any better at that?"
"Well, I didn't have a lot of time to do any practicing, but I've definitely improved quite a bit from my first flight."
"But this time, you don't have a murderous kidnapper chasing after you, threatening to kill you." joked Twilight.
"That too." laughed Kai. So what about you, Shy? What have you been doing since I left?"
"Well, I started out just caring for my animals, and helping Nurse Redheart when I had a free moment, just my normal schedule. Then I received your package in the mail, and I've been practicing with Twilight ever since. I've been practicing, too. Watch this!" She concentrated, plucking a carrot out of the ground without pulling up any dirt with it, and levitated it over to herself, and took a bite.
"Well done, Fluttershy! I gave you the amulet, what two years ago? and you're using it like you've been training for three and a half!  You truly have a gift for magic, despite being a pegasus."
"Thanks, but Twilight deserves most of the credit. She is a wonderful teacher. I just try to be a decent student."
"Fluttershy is a wonderful student. If she would just learn to accept praise, I'm sure se would be a great candidate for the Canterlot University of Magical Arts." said Twilight, causing Fluttershy to blush.
"I have a better idea," said Akaitora, standing up. "Are we all finished eating?" A quick nod from everyone in the room answered the question. There was another flash of light, and everyone immediately noticed a change of scenery. They were now in a gigantic library, lined with thousands of books. Twilight's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as she looked around, taking in the incredibly vast number of leather bound pages surrounding her. She almost fainted, ut Fluttershy caught her, realizing the effects that would probably follow. 
"This is the Thaumal Library. It holds a copy of every spellbook in existence. Everything from summoning light to summoning the walking dead, from bringing inanimate objects to life to granting them minds of their own. All of them. We even have a few here that are the only copies of them. We even have an area that holds all of the notes for those who experiment with new magics. Our collected knowledge is ever growing, and continues to grow as long as there are ponies writing about their magical exploits."
This is amazing, Kai!" said Pinkie, pulling a book from the shelf and flipping through the pages. She then put it back on the shelf, but in the wrong location. the book then took the liberty of placing itself in the correct place on the shelf. "How did it do that?" asked Pinkie, astonished.
"Well, our shelves are enchanted to sort books automatically, since we're almost always distracted by research or diverting the Thauma to ponies throughout Equestria."
"What's Thauma?" asked Twilight, somewhat recovered from her fit of amazement. 
"It's the magical energy that we supply to unicorns. without it, There'd be no such thing as magic. Even the princesses rely on us to supply them with magical energy. We harvest it from the gems blessed by Gim-Palarcanus, he who supplies the world with magical energy. The blessing grants an unlimited supply of magic, but we can only pump a certain amount, due to the filters we have to put it through. We had a worker skip replacing a filter, and it brought a human here to equestria. He now has assylum in the castle, and his own personal entourage of guards."
Pinkie shot Twilight a look that practically screamed, 'Told you so.' But Twilight didn't see it, still a bit entranced by the books.
"You keep saying 'we.' are there others here as well?" asked Nick. 
"Yes, there are," replied Akaitora, motioning for them to follow him. "As a matter of fact, there are three of us here at any given time. Anypony who wishes may come in, but we don't advertise, otherwise everyone in Equestria would come in, and we'd have our hooves full with all of the work that we'd have, and it would limit everyone's use of magic. So we make sure it's limited to unicorns, and anypony who has proven themselves worthy." He opened the large wooden doors he had led them to.
"This is our labspace. Mine is through that door, and that's where I usually work, when I'm not monitoring the flow of Thaumal energy. Right now, it's Terra's job, and you can see him down there, working his magic, so to speak." The five looked down over the balcony to see a brown earth pony recording some readings on a clipboard, and adjusting some knobs and levers on a wall of machinery. He looked up at the mention of his name, nodded, and went right back to work. "That machine is what allows us to extract the essence of magic from any gem, but we only ever use it on those blessed by Gim-Palarcanus, for reasons I have already explained. And now you've met Terra, which only leaves the obnoxious one..."
As if on cue, a blue mare, also wearing a cape, appeared around the corner, her face hidden by a book. "Akaitora, could you explain this to Trixie?" she said, moving the book right in front of his face, revealing her own to the five guests, even though they all already knew her name. . A flood of memories washed over everyone save for Akaitora and Braeburn, as Trixie recognised three of her guests. "What are they doing here?" she asked not even trying to hide her snobby tone.
"They're here with me, Trix. They're here for Gim-Palarcanus' blessing, and holy totem, as well as finding the locations of the other three symbols."
"Four," corrected Twilight. "We know the locations of seven, we need four more."
"Three," corrected Akaitora right back. "Just like with the elements of harmony, when you've collected all bt one, the last will appear, brought forth by a spark from the ten present. So you need only track down three."
Twilight blushed, her chagrin getting the better of her. Trixie scoffed.
"Even Trixie knew that, Twilight Sparkle. How could you have even found to locations of the first seven without knowing that? If Trixie were the one wanting them, she would already have them."
"Prove it." Everyone stopped, and looked at Nick, who had locked gazes with Trixie. "Tell us, Trixie, Where are the ten artifacts we need to gather in order to collect the final one?"
Trixie took a few steps back, surprised that anyone would dare to challenge her, especially in her own place of residence and work. "Well, obviously, they're all in the temples, respectively. Where else would they be?"
"All but two," Nick admitted. "But which two are not in their temples? Answer me that, and I will reinstate your title, and call you by that, as will my colleagues." Twilight and Fluttershy grew nervous, not wanting to stoop to calling Trixie 'Great and Powerful' "However, if you don't know, and you guess wrong, then you must be the one to concede, speaking to us with respect and admiration."
Trixie hesitated a bit. He knew the signs to look for if a pony came in looking for the Thamal bands, but not for this creature. She saw no adornments though, and since all but two were certain pieces of clothing, she thought her answer clever. "That's an easy one. Shumbra and Volkos. Trixie wins, and you are all beneath her."
"I'm afraid not, Trixie," Chuckled Nick.
"Nonsense. You have the fang of Volkos and the Statue of Shumbra. Everything else is worn on the body, and you wear none of them."
"Then what is this?" asked Nick, pulling out the amulet of Oneiros from beneath his shirt. He had tucked it back there to avoid losing it. "It doesn't look like a fang to me, though we now know what to look for when we go see Volkos. Now, what was it that we agreed to?"
Trixie was shocked, but she ha accepted the terms, by not backing out when she had the chance. "Very well, astounding and clever one. Trixie submits to you and your friends."
"Now that the bickering is over," said Akaitora, "This is a summoning spell, Trixie. It is used to call up certain books. I think it would be quite useful here in the library."
"I cold have explained that," said Twilight, glancing over the book. I'll have to use this a few times myself, back at my place."
"I was just thinking the same thing," said Kai. "But enough about that, let's give you an audience with Gim-Palarcanus himself."
Kai walked down a narrow hallway, Followed by Braeburn, Nick, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Twilight, and finally Trixie.  The hall twisted and turned, , and finally came to a circular room. In the middle stood a rack, branching out into four hooks, the top holding a violet sphere, seeming to have a pulse, resonating throughout the room, causing the walls to hum, attuned to the energy emanating from the device. Not counting the one they had just come down, there were four exits to choose from. Akaitora turned around and faced the six of them.
"This is the chamber of the bands. I'm afraid I can't help you from this point. You must face the trials he has wrought for you, without my help."
"So you can't really help us? That seems stupid of you. What's the point of helping us if you're not going to!?" shouted Braeburn, having been dragged from his home and forced to put up with everything since. "Fat load a' good this trip did us! We could have been to the next piece by now!"
"If it were any other temple, I would gladly help," defended Kai. "But it was put in place by YALORT himself that priests are unable  to lead through their own temple, lest we invoke his wrath. I'll be waiting here after every challenge to help where I can, but I'm forbidden from entry. I'm sorry."
"Then let's get this over with," growled Braeburn, starting down one of the hallways.




Author's Notes:
Sorry, everypony, I've been incredibly busy sorting out things with my editor, and some other writer who will remain nameless. He asked for my help in editing his story, but I believe he screwed it over, with his erratic styles, his underdeveloped characters, and his poor storytelling techniques. Not to mention his spelling errors, run-on sentences and lack of synonymous literary pieces that made one feel like they just read the same words over and over again. I tried to edit it, but he was posting two chapters a day, and with my schedule, I couldn't keep up with him and myself, and my editor at the same time, so I fell behind in editing. as a result, my editor caught him, and began trolling. Did you know that internet trolls, when concentrated, make wonderful editors if you can tolerate them? Absolutely exquisite.
Anyway, my editor catches up to him, and starts pointing out all the little flaws that I couldn't fix. So I step in and tell my editee not to feed my internet troll/editor. For a little over three hours, tat was most of what I said to him. Guess what he did? I'm trying to stop my editor from calling this guys story shit (really, though, it kinda was), and the guy keeps undoing all of the work I'm doing. Then he has the gall to ask me why I was pissed at him. Go figure. So I refuse to associate with him, and eliminate all of his comments.
But enough about that, what about my story? If anyone wants to take a guess at what I'm referencing, feel free. Winner gets 10 points (non-refundable, and utterly worthless). I managed to get my word count up, which leaves me ecstatic. I can't wait to write the other temples in later chapters. I also brought back Kai, and started a subplot that only one of you knows about thus far.
Me.
Shut up, Bloodstain. You've caused me enough pain today.
 You're probably right. That just leaves more for tomorrow, though. ( ^-^) /)
Anyone want a dead pegasus?
I'll shut up now.
Thought so.