To say that Fiero was bored with her life was an understatement. It was a perfect example of boring complacency, she lived in Canterlot and because she worked for the city she was already given an apartment along with the other ponies of similar occupations. She worked in two of Canterlot's libraries, one being the public library, and the other being the Canterlot Archives, as such she was lucky the apartment was given to her as she doubted her salary working at either one of those places would have been enough to live as comfortably as she did. Sometimes she considered looking into other jobs, but there always seemed to be something that did not sit right with her about them. Either they involved putting in more work and effort than she cared to put forward, or the job did not match her talents.
Fiero rolled over in her bed and took a look at the clock on her bedside table, it was already half past noon, and she would have to be at work in a half-hour at the Canterlot Archives. She sighed and rolled out of bed, still feeling as though she could sleep several hours more despite already having slept for about ten, and grabbed her ID tag and saddle bag. Looking out the window she saw the skies were mostly overcast, and it would probably rain later in all likelihood. At least it isn't raining now. She thought. Not wanting to go through the flights of stairs inside the complex, Fiero trotted over to one of the windows in her living room, spread her wings, and made sure to close the window after she leaped out and flew toward the general direction of the Canterlot Archives.
Fiero had made it to the Archives a little earlier than she anticipated, and had her ID scanned by the Royal Guard unicorn who was stationed at the entrance. She was not frequently asked to come to the Canterlot Archives, but the pay was better than just working at the public library, and whether or not she came in depended more on what archaeologists found, or when very secret and powerful spellbooks were written. Pegasi like her were perfect for this job, they could reach the high shelves and had no use for any sort of highly dangerous or illegal spells which may have been locked in the Archives, which was a primary reason unicorns were not allowed. In fact even knowing students in Celestia's School of Gifted Unicorns was enough to disqualify you for employment, least you try and sneak out a forbidden tome for a friend or a bribe.
Upon entering she saw a unicorn wearing the armor of a Royal Guard officer, she looked up at Fiero.
"Good day, Fiero." The unicorn said, reading the ID tag around Fiero's neck. "My name is Status Quo, if you would kindly follow me." She said, very formally. She lead Fiero down a long hallway, where each door was locked and guarded. Eventually they arrived at a set of two doors. One was the entrance to this particular section of the Archives itself, and the other was for the guards. Status Quo turned to Fiero.
"As you know, I cannot enter the vault because I am a unicorn, so the Private here will follow you in." She gestured to the earth pony guard to her left who was originally there to guard the door, the Private nodded and readied his key, while Fiero pulled her's from her saddle bag. The door to the vault had two locks and needed the key of an employee and another from a guard to open the door. On the count of three they inserted their keys and opened the door.
"Just remember." Status Quo said to her. "Like always we will be watching you." After giving her the cryptic warning she entered the watcher's room while the Private accompanied her inside. On the inside was a shadowy room lined with shelves of books and objects that could do things Fiero could only guess at, and could only imagine why they would need to be locked away in the first place. In the center of the room was a warded shipping crate, with a lock that would only open for her key. When she opened it, she found the box was far larger than the object inside, which was just a book. She held it in her hooves for a moment, the cover felt and looked like it was made of obsidian, and even though it was dark she could feel that carved in it was the letter phi, and that it seems someone tried to color the letter blue with chalk of some kind.
"Fiero, if you would please place the object on the shelf." Status Quo said over an intercom, interrupting her investigation of the book. She shook her head and looked around for some shelf space to place the book, even though the shelves seemed to be crammed full already. Finally she found a space, on the top shelf of a book case that went to the furthest back corner of the vault, and placed it on the shelf.
She left the room as the Private returned to his post, and followed Status Quo to a room just before the main entrance, Fiero knew what was coming, and always hated this part of the job.
"Please surrender all belongings and prepare for a cavity search." Status Quo said, as she placed a glove over one of her hooves.
***
True to her prediction, the overcast skies had turned into a downpour. It was so bad that even with the umbrella she brought in her saddle bag she still felt miserably wet. When she got to her apartment she dropped her sopping wet saddle bag on the floor and went to the bathroom to take a relaxing shower. Fiero turned the nobs in her bath tub and let the hot water relax her into a stupor of daydreams. She would often do this during showers, wondering about what she would do on her days off to whatever she was locking away in the vaults of the Canterlot Archives, but there was something she heard in the distance that interrupted her train of thought. She paused and listened for a moment, even though she had these moments before and they always ended up being nothing, Fiero was paranoid enough to always check anyway.
A tense few moments passed, but just before she was going to dismiss it as nothing, she heard a murmuring from somewhere inside the apartment, just loud enough to be heard over the loud beating of raindrops, yet not loud enough to make out what it was saying, the only thing she could make out was that it was a male voice. A sharp chill ran down her spine. Fiero stepped out of the shower as quietly as she could, not helped by the fact that she was wet and was going to make noise no matter how careful she was. Looking for anything resembling a weapon would not work, she knew everything in her bathroom and nothing in it would do. Instead she grabbed her towel, figuring that if there was an intruder then she could throw it over his head and use the time to run or something.
The apartment was small, so there would not be too many places an intruder could hide. A cautious search of the hall closet and bedroom yielded nothing, all that remained was the living room and kitchen. She tread carefully down the hall, tensing up for a moment before finally working up the nerve to peer inside the room. On the living room side of the room there was nothing but her saddle bag, and on the kitchen side there was no one behind the counter.
Fiero glanced at the front door, but it was locked from the inside, she briefly considered the window, but it was old and very creeky, there would have been no way anypony, no matter how stealthy, would have been able to get in or out through there without her knowing. Possibilities still ran through her head but it all still unnerved her, not that she wanted an intruder but she could have sworn she heard something.
She sighed, but then she heard a low hiss come from her right, her saddle bag specifically. Fiero was now confused and partially intrigued. If it was an intruder, then what could it be? Something small, able to bypass locks and speak in a voice that seemed almost comically deep for it's size? Her mind drew blanks. She crept towards her bag with the towel at the ready to catch whatever it was. She quickly flipped open the flap very quickly, and what she saw was far more surprising than an intruder, in fact it was not a living thing at all.
It was that book from the Archives, the one with the obsidian covers and the blue phi carving. But how? The vault it was in was guarded and warded to a ridiculous degree, even if there was an inside conspiracy there is no way it would go unnoticed by another superior. Then another stark realization hit her, one that filled her with dread. The book was missing, and not only would they find out sooner or later, but it is in her possession and the Royal Guard probably punish her to the nth degree for that alone, and she doubted they would buy the "it just ended up in my bag" story.
The book autonomously slid out of the bag, and flipped open to it's cover page, where text started to appear.
"The Guard is coming for you, and they are not happy. By now you have already seen enough to be charged with treason and terrorism." Fiero shuddered, even though she was already aware of the consequences. "Be it fate or bad luck, this book is now in your possession and you are going to be a criminal." Said the text in the book. "You will be charged for reading this book anyway, so why not go farther? Who knows, it may even help you."
It was a tempting prospect, she was very curious about what was written in it. Yet she also knew that whatever was in here appeared to be dangerous enough to lock away in a high security vault, and also to label anyone who took such an object to be charged with treason and branded a terrorist, merely because of how serious it would be if such artifacts ended up in the wrong hooves. Either way she had to do something about the book, she could not just leave it here and it was also correct in that the Royal Guard would be searching high and low for it.
Before anything else could be done or thought of, her door was rather abruptly bucked open and a bolt of magic struck her body, causing it to instantly go numb. She collapsed to the floor as three Royal Guard ponies rushed into the room, her body partially collapsed on the forbidden book. Fatigue began to course through her body, as the guard members came in and out of focus. One was an earth pony who moved in to collect the book wearing gloves. The second one was also an earth pony, who picked up Fiero and slung her over his back. She recognized the last one, Status Quo, and the look on her face told Fiero that she had already marked her as guilty in her mind, it looked very cold and it probably took all of her composer to keep from exploding into a rage by the looks of it. Shortly after meeting her gaze, the fatigue finally overtook Fiero.