Twilight let out a frustrated sigh which started a chorus of disappointment from around her. "That's the last book in the entire castle!" She said putting the book back into the shelf with her magic.
Rainbow's head shot up, "Hwhat?" She said, looking around, wiping the drool off the edge of her mouth that showed she’d been doing more sleeping than helping.
Spike closed the one he had been reading through, nothing about a seventh Element but it did have a lot about the Knights of Old. From what he could tell, it was a registry by the Captain of the old guard a lot of names and battles, but nothing interesting. "Does that mean we can finally go outside again?" He said stretching and yawning as he looked around the room. Twilight had brought every book from the library of the sisters’ old castle back to her own, hoping to find something of use.
After their little impromptu funeral, she’d brought all her friends back to the castle’s library and asked them to stay and help her find something that could shed light on the missing Element. Somewhere, somehow she had learned something, but it didn't seem like it was from this library. Shaking her head, depressed, she looked around at her friends.
"Ah have to agree we have been at this for what feels like days, Twi. We need to take a break." Applejack said as she got to her hooves, her back and neck aching from so much reading. She never was one for this kind of work. Hard, manual labor any day over staying cooped up and doing research.
Twilight's mane was slightly frayed as she looked around her friends all of which weren’t too happy with all of the reading she had forced on them, even though she had been silently rechecking the books they had gone over. "No! You can't leave, we could have missed something! These are the oldest books from Celestia's reign and if there’s any information about that missing Element, it’s in here!... Somewhere!"
Pinkie burst into laughter as if she had just realized what they were looking for in these books, "Silly Twilight! It can’t be in any of these books because they’re written during Celestia’s reign! It can’t be in any of these because even Princess Luna and Celestia never had it with them!"
Spike gaped at the pink pony, the others joining him with either looks of astonishment or annoyed glares, “Pinkie, you could’ve told us that hours ago!”
Pinkie gave a small shrug, "I thought we were looking for recipes. Check it out, I found a cookbook!" She said pulling out a book called 'How to Serve A Pony'. The six others shot wary glances at one another.
Twilight let out a frustrated groan. So few books and scrolls survived the era before Celestia, the Goddesses had brought with them a rebirth of science and knowledge that were almost lost because of Discords pranks. So much was lost in the migration from the Northern Home and the founding of Equestria that only a few...
Twilight’s eyes widened in realization, “Pinkie, you’re a genius! Girls, we’ve been in the wrong library this entire time!”
Every single one of them groaned at that statement.
“Look, Twi, I know finding this is really important but you think we could maybe, you know...” Rainbow tilted her head toward the nearest window.
"I think what Rainbow is trying to say, darling is that we spent the better part of two days looking through all these books and we’re all quite anxious to get back to our own homes." Rarity said, treading her ground lightly.
"Big Mac ain’t gon’ be too happy with being saddled with all the work for so long and Apple Bloom’s probably worried sick." Applejack said.
"And I was supposed to have my shift on weather duty today!" Rainbow said looking out at the cloud cover she was supposed to have gotten rid of. "I am so gonna get written up for that."
"The animals do kind of need me to, um.. check on them." Fluttershy said in a near whisper.
Twilight let out a sigh as she looked to her friends. They had lives to live and jobs to do and she couldn’t keep them away from it, “You’re right, girls. I’m sorry, Spike and I can handle it from here.”
Spike's eyes widened. "Wait I uhm... need too..." He bit his lower lip, looking at the rest of their friends who had wasted no time in leaving to continue their own lives. The last thing he wanted to do was spend another day looking through yet another library.
"Spike, come on, I need you with me!" Twilight said, causing Spike to flinch at the slight edge in her voice.
Spike glared in the general direction of their friends and muttered, “Gee, thanks..." Now he was left to deal with what could very possibly turn into another one of Twilight’s little psychotic episodes. Turning back to her, he asked, “So, where are we going, now?”
Twilight smiled, "We’re going to the Canterlot Archives!" She said, more than happy to walk alongside the smaller dragon as they left the tree castle and walked down the staircase into what was a grey cloudy day. "I thought today was scheduled to be sunny?"
Off in the distance, Spike could have sworn he heard Rainbow Dash muttering curses as she got to work cloudbusting. He shrugged it off rather quickly, turning to walk with Twilight towards the train station, "Can we pick up some lunch on our way there? I’m starving!"
~~~
One train ride and late lunch later, Twilight walked into the Canterlot library with Spike at her side. The guards posted outside the library bowed as she walked through the doors. Long ago there had been many books and wings that she had never been allowed into. Even as the privileged student of Celestia, there were things she just wasn't allowed to access. Now that she held the same status as Celestia however, every wing and room in the entire library was open to her, but she only wanted access to one.
The Starswirl wing of the library was in a constant state of disorder and incredibly messy. It was difficult to find anything in this place and Twilight groaned in annoyance, "Doesn't anypony here actually act as a librarian in this place? How hard is it to re-shelve books?!” They had already suffered through one library of books, and now they had all the writings of one of her idols to search through.
"Uhm Twilight, I feel like I'm missing something but, why are we here?" Spike asked as he started to check through the scattered and disorganized journals. He could never have imagined a single pony writing all of these.
"Starswirl the Bearded was one of the most famous and oldest ponies. His writings predate the unification of the three tribes and the very founding of Equestria. His books and scrolls were the most well protected documents in this world. The spells and charms on these books were so great that not even Discords Era of Chaos was able to destroy them. He traveled all over the world and discovered so many kinds of magic that no pony had even thought of before! He was basically the inventor of-"
"Twilight!" Spike yelled, getting her attention and giving her a mild glare, “You’re ranting again.”
Twilight blushed lightly and smiled sheepishly, “Sorry.”
The rest of the day was spent organizing and looking over the books. Spike let out a long sigh some time later, his stomach letting him know of it’s meal-deprived state. "What is with this pony?! Over half the things I have touched have been nothing but Horology, Chronometry and Chronology! It's like he's obsessed with-"
"Time Travel!" This time, it was Twilight’s turn to cut Spike off. Bright eyed, she continued, "I was trying to tell you earlier, Spike, that Starswirl the Bearded was basically the Father of modern Unicorn time travel! He wrote everything from the aging spell to spells that allowed a brief visit into the past... He never got more than a single week, though." She finished with a small blush.
"Why?"
"... Starswirl the bearded thought that time magic was the key to immortality. He thought that if he could control the flow of time he could stop it.... In the end he lived to an incredibly old age, but Time caught up with him regardless..."
"Bummer."
Twilight pulled up another unassuming journal and opened it up and immediately something struck her as odd. The writing was more feminine and a little more messy than Starswirl’s. If she had to guess, then she would have said it was written by an earth pony. It was very clear that this was not her idol’s journal and as she started reading her eyes lit up, "Spike! This is it, listen!"
"Dear Journal: This will be my one and only entry to this book.
The future needs to know. I swore I would never tell what we did, but somepony needs to know. I will hide this book for the day that somepony finds it. After the death of my dearest friend, I just have to talk or else it will haunt me forever. Consider it my last act of defiance to help sort out this country that I helped lie to create. Clover wasn't perfect. None of us are, and I go to bed each night telling myself that what she did was for the best.
S.C.
~~~
A lavender unicorn mare hid under an unassuming cloak. She had spent the last few days grieving, and now she walked with two of her closest friends. Where they were going she wasn't going to tell any of them, but she was so very glad to have them with her.
"Why do we need to do all this hiding in plain sight stuff?" An orange and blond earth pony said, walking along side Clover.
"Shhh." A yellow pegasus with a pink mane almost chastised, "Sorry Smart Cookie, but do you think you could be just a little more quiet."
"Pansy, I told you to just call me Cookie. My parents and the Chancellor are the only ones who called me Smart Cookie. It just makes me sound... arrogant."
"Will the two of you just be quiet? I told you this was a dangerous trip." Clover practically screamed at her two companions before calming herself down and sighing, "Sorry it's just..."
"We all know your suffering Clover, Starswirl’s death caused a lot of commotion and he was like a father to you, but what are we doing here of all places?"
Clover looked up at the Tree of Harmony. It's bark still stark white as the day they had found it in this cave, as the rest of the world was turning to ice. Clover placed a clam hoof on it, looking at the seven branches that all jetted out. One for each of their group that had been there. She could have spent her life studying what that reaction and powerful magic had been that had melted away the Wendigo's ice and got the tribal leaders to finally start seeing reason. Instead, she was going to burn everything, rewrite the story so that the Elements were never found and make sure that Starswirl was not a part of that story. She couldn't have taken it if he was, "It wasn’t long ago that we used these to save everyone but, the seventh one..."
Her friends stepped forward and each placed an understanding hoof on Colver’s shoulder. It was Smart Cookie who was the first to speak, "None of us knew what was happening and it wasn't your fault, Cover. That branch picked Starswirl and he couldn't pay the price. Heck I couldn't walk for weeks after what we did but whatever it was, it worked, Clover. We have homes, now. Fertile land and enough ponies with us to start over! We survived because of his sacrifices."
"And can we ever allow that to happen again?" Clover said her voice low with sadness. "I for one, can't! These things are too dangerous for any pony to use. Too powerful when all together, and the cost... to see him wither away like he did. To see your best friend and mentor give everything he had when he still had so much to offer the world?"
"We rewrote the story, Clover but taking one of them when we don't even understand what they are... That could be even more dangerous." Pansy said in a low tone, not wanting to speak up just like she hadn't wanted to speak up to Commander Hurricane for so many years.”
"They’re dangerous and that's enough for me." As she spoke, she focused on the limb that had claimed the life of her friend and mentor. Her horn glowing a soft blue as she pulled on the branch and soon ripped it from it's holding place, taking the gem and the entire limb. She warped it's figure, turning it into a finely made walking stick, brightening the element so that it was a fine tuned gemstone. She turned the branch into an ageless work of art with her magic and then wrapped it in an unassuming cloth so that no one would notice.
"Come on, girls... I know just where we can hide this thing so that it is never used again." She said as they turned and walked out into the cave.
Smart Cookie turned back at the cave, her eyes stinging. She had already lied once when they had decided to let the artifacts stay buried instead of taking them but since that day, Clover had become increasingly more depressed and more paranoid about these things. Maybe this would be the last time she ever had to lie for one of her friends... The tree didn't belong to anypony, so this wasn't really stealing and well.. She had no idea if the tree would continue to work or not, but six out of seven had to count for something.
...Right?