//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Whatever Happened to Princess Sparkle? 
// by Algorhythm 
//------------------------------//


-1-

The night was unusually cool for summer – a perfect night for a campfire to keep fillies and colts at camp warm as they told stories and sang songs. After all, today was the thirteen hundredth Summer Sun Celebration. 
Up at Canterlot Castle, however, there was less to celebrate. It was a quiet night for the Night Guard and one where they tread cautiously. The longest day of the year seemed to upset the Princess of the Sun, Princess Celestia. It wasn't a very new phenomenon – but it certainly made the guard nervous.
There was a time when that was not the case. The castle and all the residents of Canterlot were greeted by a parade and festivities lined the streets sponsored by the castle. The princesses joined in that procession, displaying their finest robes, armor, and effects. 
Guards took on the tradition of the joust to an effect. Each year at the height of the festival, each of the subdivisions pitted themselves against one another, to prove who had the mettle to be claimed as the most powerful protectors of Equestria.
Sitting on her throne, Princess Luna watched the moon make its short trip over the horizon. Her gaze was transfixed to the sky, unmoving, unwavering from some kind of place her mind seemed to be. She could still smell the aroma of baked treats in the room, but now it was stale. The servants would come to take them back eventually.
"Iron Wing."
One of the two unicorn guards standing in front of her throne, moved ever so slightly in his place. He turned and bowed deeply before the princess. "Yes, Your Majesty?"
"How many of the Night Guard have been assigned duties?"
Iron Wing cleared his throat. Her eyes reflected the moonlight in such a way that he couldn't see her pupils behind the glow of the moon. "All but the new recruits, Your Majesty."
Luna nodded and turned her gaze back to the sky. She held it for a moment. "What of the new recruits?" Her voice cut through the cool air like a knife through hot butter. "What are they doing?"
"Shadowing potential positions within the castle and completing assigned chores as they are given."
Luna didn't make it appear as if she'd even registered a word that he said. 
A small bead of sweat dripped down Iron Wing's face and off of the end of his helmet to the floor. He shifted his weight to his other side. “Is there one in particular you wish to see?” he asked.
Luna’s gaze turned to him. He froze in place from his fidgeting. Their eyes stayed locked together for what seemed like an eternity, before her unwavering gaze softened and her eyelids slid closed. “No. Thank you, Iron Wing.” Her lips pursed together as she returned her gaze back to the moon, silhouetting the tower in which her sister slept. Rather, where she knew her sister brooded and was unwilling to be comforted.

--*--

The observatory was perhaps one of the most boring and uninteresting places that rookies could be. Whenever stationed there, their task was to walk around and clean up after the librarian. Some of the captains said that it was to give a sense of history and preservation to the new recruits. Behind closed doors, they were sick of picking up heavy books that the librarian could no longer lift on his own.
Captain Fine Point happened to be one of the latter. It was one of the few reasons he still brought rookies to the observatory – that, and his insatiable desire for non-fiction. The cool blue pegasus stallion walked through the doors, the smell of worn paper and stale ink delighting his senses. His amber eyes flicked to one of the far shelves – his destination for the evening.
“Alright, listen up.” His voice was firm and even. In this room, it carried a soft echo, giving it a more authoritative tone. “This job is easy: Tomes have a marking on the sides that indicate where they go. If you can’t read it, bring it to me and I will translate the old equestrian. The Royal Alchemist makes a rather large mess of the place, and our librarian, Final Note, tends to leave his research scattered about the room. If it has a star on its side, it belongs in the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the archives and you will place it on the cart by the door. Any questions?”
Behind the large, older stallion came three smaller ponies. First in the line, was a pegasus with a red, candied apple mane. Her mint colored coat was hidden behind the golden armor of the Royal Guard, but her bright orange stare came through her helmet clearly. It was quite apparent that she was not happy about being here. 
The second pony seemed to share that feeling, his light blue eyes darting from shelf to shelf, looking for the fastest way to finish the work for the night. The unicorn’s cream colored coat and golden-brown mane looked off in the pale moonlight coming through the large windows behind the Captain.
The last pony, however, was a more interesting sight. One of the few batponies in the castle, her rookie status always had her being shafted and sabotaged at any chance she could manage. In her deep blue armor, she seemed at home in the moonlit room. Her eyes gazed over the vast space, taking in the sheer amount of knowledge stored in this one space. It was beautiful and harrowing.
“Any questions?”
The three younger ponies shook their heads. Fine Point studied their faces, noting that only the batpony mare wasn’t really paying attention. A slight frown played on his features. He knew she didn’t deserve the reprimands she received on a regular basis. But being soft on her was not what he was being paid to do, nor was it the goal of her training.
“Willowisp!”
The batpony froze in place and her eyes locked onto Fine Point. She could feel the calm before another agonizing reprimand. As much as she didn’t want to, she knew the castle grounds had her name on them. The snickering from her fellow recruits didn’t help.
“Do you understand the goal of this shadowing? Can you understand why you are being assigned this particular task?”
Willowisp nodded her head. He narrowed his eyes at the batpony mare. “Yes sir!” she replied.
“I’m not so sure of that.” Fine Point walked forward a few steps. “I’m keeping an eye on you, leather wing. Prove me wrong.”
Willowisp sunk into her armor slightly as he walked into the center of the room. Her peers continued their soft laughter as they followed in suit.
The room was large – domed with a large glass window facing out towards the moon. Books lined the shelves which soared up to the edges of the ceiling above. In the center of the room was a raised floor, suspended by steel and stone. Several tables with cushions lay in a star pattern on the landing, one of which was now occupied by Fine Point. She caught him staring at her and she kicked off into the stale air. 
From the higher shelves, she was able to get a better look at the lower levels. Huge scrolls – some the size of her entire body – were neatly organized in slots along the lower wall, their wooden hoof-holds sticking out of the wall like an oversized wine rack. The larger part of the bottom floor housed the main apparatus of the telescope, which stretched over the upper landing and pierced through the stone ceiling at an angle.
Willowisp swooped down to the lower level to get a closer look, but as she landed, her eyes focused on the big scroll sitting on a reading apparatus. Curious, she walked over to it. Her head ran through all the possibilities of what it contained – history, star charts, famous battles. The more she thought about it, the quicker her pace became. She placed her hoof on the edge of the handle, her eyes alight in wonder.
That is, until she tried to read it. Her eyebrow slowly crept up her brow in confusion. Every symbol seemed foreign, yet Equestrian looking. She tried to sound out the script quietly to herself but it was worse than trying to scrape paint off of the marble floors. Disappointment and frustration tugged on either end of her expectations. 
Why do we even have this thing? she thought.
Her eyes flicked to the mess on the table and she sighed in frustration. Work wasn't going to help her improve in the skills she needed to be accepted. Her marks in combat were rough, to say the least. She wasn't doing much better in the physical department either – her scores for the mandatory requirements were barely passing. On several occasions, she was on the receiving end of taunts like, 'Do they let anyone in here?', or 'I didn't know we were accepting fillies now'. 
She shook her head. The best way to look useful was to complete something properly at this point. There weren't many other options. Grabbing the scroll from the stand, she hefted it into her forehooves. She grunted under the weight and let out a bit of her breath. It looked heavy, but it was a lot more than she'd expected. After a moment or two of adjustments, she managed to get a good enough grip on it and she set about the stacks looking for the right section.
It continued much the same for the majority of the short evening: find a heavy book, find the symbol, follow the number, put it on the shelf, get yelled at. In fact, it seemed to occur every single time Fine Point came to check on her work. Being off by a single book or a single number had her scrambling to fix her mistake. Of course, she knew it wasn’t all incorrect, but it certainly felt like it.
As she struggled to slide another heavy tome onto the shelf, she noticed something rather peculiar about the library. While in the other sections, she could hear the sound of her fellow recruits shelving books, here, it was as if there was no sound at all. Her hoof pushed the book neatly into place as she strained her ears for some kind of sign that they hadn’t up and left the room. Her features turned sour and irritated when no such sound came, except for the book.
When she looked back, she could still see the other ponies flying around the library. Her eyes narrowed as she settled down on the lower floor. Something was amiss. She tiphooved down the aisle looking around for some kind of sign and as she reached the end, she was greeted once again with sound.
What the hay?
She looked behind her at the bookcase. The aisle was still free and clear of books. She walked back down the opposite direction and was faced with sound on the other side. Her mouth hung open in confusion as she stared at the shelf.
“So we’re going to do this the hard way, eh?” She moved towards the center of the shelf. Looking to the left and to the right to make sure it was clear, she began to remove books from the shelf at eye level. Old tomes thumped to the floor as she fervently pulled them away to see through to the other side. She pushed aside those on the other side of the shelf and peered through the small gap.
“What the hay?”
On the other side of the gap a unicorn lay face down in one of those huge tomes from the other side of the room. She couldn’t hear any snoring, but it was clear that the pony on the other side was asleep.
She quietly zipped around the corner of the bookshelf and landed next to the sleeping figure. Up close, she could tell it was a mare. She had a silver coat with a white patch on her back and on her muzzle. Her lavender mane had fallen loose of what she assumed was a braid or pony tail and was spread out all over the table. A strip of white hair ran loosely down the center, still holding the hair tie in its grasp.
Willowisp placed her hoof on her shoulder and shook her softly. “Uh, Miss?”
The unicorn continued to snore softly. Willowisp smiled. It was kind of cute. She heard the sounds of a book being shelved nearby and her eyes lit up. Sound?
She shook the mare a little harder. “Hey.”
The unicorn groaned and opened her eyes. She shot backwards in her chair and slammed into the back of the bookshelves. Willowisp jumped back as if the unicorn was going to attack her and assumed a half-assed stance to defend herself. She looked up at the bookshelf and her eyes widened. She looked back at the unicorn getting up and then, back at the shelf. Deciding she was no threat, she focused her attention on all the books about to spill onto the floor.
"Oh, no you don’t,” she said angrily as she shot up into the air. She zoomed around the end of the bookshelf and aimed her body for the center of the unit. Just before the shelf could topple over, Willowisp grabbed it and pushed hard against it. For the moment, she breathed a sigh of relief, feeling it moving back into a more stable position. But that was just one part of its wobbling desire to collapse and make a mess of the whole library. Willowisp flew hard against it, trying her best to prevent it from falling over.
“What’s going on over there, leather wings?”
She began to feel a sense of panic wash over her. Fine Point had heard the commotion and was coming to investigate. Great. It was exactly what she didn’t need to have happen. The clatter of a book turned her attention back to the situation at hoof. Some of the books towards the top were starting to slide towards the edge – an inevitable path to the floor and to a hundred laps around the castle with her wings tied down.
Miraculously, the falling motion seemed to stop. Wisp’s eyes lit up with adrenaline as she pushed her strength to the edges of her capability. Slowly but surely the shelf managed to move back into the upright position. She felt the edge slide into place with a dull thud.
Without a second thought, she dropped down to the floor to sit down. Her panting filled the aisle and she threw her head and back against the bookshelf. She watched as the books she’d tossed around lifted into the air with a silvery glow around them. She rose to grab one, but only managed to flop stomach first onto the floor.
The unicorn from before peered out from the other aisle and pressed her hooftip to her lips. She winked and placed the remainder of the books onto the shelf. Then, she disappeared with a loud pop and a flash of silver.
Willowisp rose to her hooves and stumbled towards where she last saw the mare, but couldn’t find any evidence of her. Even as she trotted back to the desk she was sleeping on, both her, the scroll and the small pile of books were gone.
“What was that noise?”
Willowisp turned around and snapped to attention. Captain Fine Point trotted into the aisle with the other two trainees. They seemed bewildered at how clean everything was.
“It was...” She looked around the room for an excuse. Her eyes focused on the huge scrolls in the wall. She pointed at one of them. "That. Somepony didn’t push it all the way back in so I, uh... pushed it. Back into the wall.” 
Fine Point looked at her suspiciously for a moment, before nodding in satisfaction. “Time’s up. Go back to the mess hall for breakfast, and then you can get some shut eye. You three will be shadowing the librarian for the evening shift and with Lieutenant Eagle Eye on the walls for the night shift.”