"Okay, so...I'm helping you break into a underground part of the library that might not even exist?"
"No." Nora answered Nimbus simply. "We are NOT breaking in." Nora watched her steps as she galloped quickly down the stairs leading to the section of the library restricted only to those authorized. We're sneaking into a restricted section of the underground part of the library, looking for an aisle that might not exactly exist."
"Sounds legit." Nimbus gagged. "And why me?"
Nora sighed and stopped in her tracks to poke Nimbus in the chest with a blunt edge glow she made from her magic. "Because." She jabbed her magic hard into Nimbus's chest with every other word or so. "You were able to comprehend that book a lot faster than I could." She sent her magic away and descend back down the stairs again. "I had been reading that book back and forth to try and learn stealth as effectively as I could for months!"
A single wooden door was at the end of the steps with a picture of the sun burned over it. Nora began to touch each blade of the sun before setting her hoof in the middle circle. "But you were able to pick up the knowledge in a mere amount of seconds. In theory, I think the reason you were able to is because you were always capable of those specific traits, hence now you're more agile, nimbler, and stealthier as you mentioned before."
"Stealthier, maybe. I've never actually-" Nimbus was about to tell Nora he was never really much of a sneaky pony but he remembered all the times he use to sneak in through Rainbow Dash's window at night to talk to her and have a place to sleep before he properly moved in.
Nora saw the obvious realization Nimbus had just discovered. "See?" Nora pushed the hoof she had set on the middle circle of the sun deeper into the door. Not longer after, the door made several heavy clicking sounds and released itself slightly off the wall. "You were always capable of learning that material in your mind. My spell just..."
Nora thought long and hard to best explain why her reading spell was able to help Nimbus. She had no logical reason why or how it worked, so she just gave him more elaboration to her theory. "My spell just helped give you the key to a door you already had."
"Makes...sense?" Nimbus cringed at trying to understand what Nora was saying, it was like trying to read a comic book flipped side ways and upside down. "But why me, couldn't you have gotten a real ninja or somepony who has that sort of expertise?"
Nora laughed at Nimbus's mistaken attempt for humor. "I didn't feel like spending the bits. Come on, it's right this way."
"Wait, I'm not getting paid for this?!" Nimbus yelled to Nora as she pushed open the door with a burned sun on it and disappeared into the room it concealed.
***
Nimbus kept shooting ideas for compensation at Nora who had tuned him out several moments ago. They had been walking for over five minutes since Nora had opened the burned sun door from earlier. Even when Nora lead Nimbus to their destination behind a wall, Nimbus was still talking.
"Maybe not bits, but maybe something like a jewels, or jewelry, or blue berry pie, or something?"
The slouch in Nora's shoulders were the lowest she had ever had them. "Are you THAT stupid? I stopped listening to you a long time ago."
"Stupid? Pfft!" Nimbus made a motor sound with his lips before bragging about himself. "My friend Rainbow Dash, and all our class mates, used to cheat off of me for every test we had."
Nora rolled her eyes. "Keyword: USED TO."
Beyond the wall Nora and Nimbus were standing behind, a guard, armed with a spear tucked and grasped into his wing, was standing strong in front of a stone picture of Princess Celestia. To the guards right was a hallway where all the ponies who were allowed in the underground part of the library was supposed to venture only.
Nora could see Nimbus looking at the guards spear with a great peak of interest. Making a claw with her magic,she plucked one of Nimbus's feathers off his wing to yank his attention away.
With a yelp, Nimbus saw Nora twisting and spinning the blue feather she had plucked. He swiped it back from her and waved at her in his hoof. "Don't. Do. That." He placed the feather back in place where it belonged and gave her his attention.
"Obviously, you saw the guard and the stone picture he's gaurding, right?" Nora pointed out.
Nimbus took another look at the stone picture behind the guard and caught on to what Nora was getting at. "There's something back there, isn't there?"
Nora nodded, impressed with how quickly Nimbus caught on. "Now do you know what I want you to do?"
A few strands of golden hair fell out of Nimbus's mane as he shook his head with vigorous excitement. "Yep!"
Nimbus jumped out form behind the wall and shook his tail end of his body at the stocky built armored guard. "Hey, tin can, does this look like the face you saw in the mirror this morning?"
The face the guard had was indeed blue with a yellow golden stripe going down his face, but he fought the desire to hurl his spear at Nimbus for fear of losing his promotion. "Sir, I'm going to have to-"
Nimbus continued to wave his two back ends of his flanks at the guard. "Look at him, he's smiling at you!"
The flames of the guards anger were being teased and kindled. He knew his Company Commander would have this rank on a plate if he attacked Nimbus for being nothing short of annoying, but maybe he'd go easy on him if lied ot him and said Nimbus spit on his armor.
Air whistled sharlply as the guard charged at Nimbus after setting down his spear first. Nimbus anticpated for the guard to make the first move and back flipped over the guard. The guard's relfexes were more than Nimbus had expected him to have. With a heavy donkey kick, the guard placed two firm back hooves to Nimbus's turned back.
Nimbus flew into the stone picture of Princess Celestia with his forelegs as widely spread as her was, embracing her hug. Sliding his face down the wall like a thrown squashed tomato, Nimbus recovered back to his hooves and began bouncing left to right. "Okay, okay, you got some moves, but I'm Nimbus! I move so fast I might already be behind you."
The guard snapped his head behind his back to see if Nimbus had really made his way behind him in a blink. When he turned his head back towards Nimbus, Nimbus had his hoof placed behind his shoulder, ready to plant into the open space of the guards helmet.
"But I'm not." Nimbus said before punching the guards lights out with a single punch. The guard fell to floor, clanking his armor to the stone floor.
Pain throbbed in Nimbus's hoof as he tried to shake it out. "It's safe to come out." He called after Nora.
When Nora made herself visible from behind the wall, Nimbus started to toot his own horn. "You'd think these Canterlot guards would be a lot smarter and in better shape."
A quick laugh escaped from Nora before she laid the truth on Nimbus. "A Canterlot Guard? This is a library security guard, maybe a rent-a-cop. He's no better some pony dressing up as guard for Nightmare Night." Nora went to the stone picture of Celestia and began to trace the art with her magic.
"Plus, you weren't even supposed to fight him. I meant for you take tell him he was needed elsewhere." Nora's magic and attention to were too focused to see the disappointment in Nimbus's eyes.
"B-but I thought this was a CANTERLOT GUARD! I kicked the crap out of him!" Nimbus was angry for believing he had won a one on one fight with one of Equestria's finest.
Bluntly repeating Nimbus, Nora said "Keyword: YOU THOUGHT."
"That's getting really annoying..." Nimbus confessed to Nora.
Looking at the spear the guard had set down, Nimbus picked it up with his wing and grasped it firmly. The spear wasn't thick enough to be an uncomfortable grip for Nimbus and it was too long for loss of control when he thrust safely forward to see how it felt. Nimbus liked how he felt holding spear. He flipped the sharp end behind his wing to avoid jabbing it into anything when he walked forward.
After a half hour of rotating the image of Celestia, Nora got fed up with trying to solve the puzzle of opening the door and shot a red flare at it. "This makes no sense! The picture is perfect, why won't it open?"
Nimbus looked over at the image completely over and noticed a glimpse of something in the sun over Celestia's left shoulder. "The sun looks like it's the wrong way or something."
"It's a circle, there is no wrong way to turn it." Nora gritted her teeth. "Just let me do this."
Shrugging, Nimbus turned back around, careful not to hit Nora with his newly acquired spear. "Whatever, it's just a suggestion." After finding a corner he could curl up into, Nimbus told Nora one last thing before shutting his eyes. "Just wake me when you figure that out."
Waiting until Nimbus went to sleep, Nora looked at the sun Nimbus had mentioned and noticed that one edge of the sun was darker the rest of it. She looked over at Celestia's right shoulder to see the moon with a lighter edge on one side as well. "That can't possibly..." Nora said to herself. Spinning the sun to the right position, the stone picture began to shake and vibrate violently, waking Nimbus.
"What'd you do different?" Nimbus asked, rubbing the small time of sleep he got out of his eyes.
"Err, I said the magic word." Nora lied. She waited until the door completely lifted overhead to walk through it.
"What was the magic word?" Nimbus asked. He grabbed his spear back up and tucked it back underneath his wing same as last time.
"It was 'Please, open', then the door opened." Nora was going to stretch the lie for as long as she could before she would admit she took advice from Nimbus. "I thought I knew what I was doing, I just forgot that one little thing."
Nimbus couldn't see the picture that had been tucked into the ceiling over his head to see that Nora had changed the sun the right way like he told her to. With a cocky smile and a bad impersonation of Nora's voice, Nimbus said "Key word: YOU THOUGHT."
***
Unlike the main part of the library up above, the underground infamous hidden part consisted of old red wood bookshelves they fooled ponies into thinking they were newly added. The surface of the wood was fairly smooth to the touch when Nimbus dragged his wing across it. He also looked up to see old floating chandeliers that more than likely had the same enchantment as the lamps upstairs.
"How long does a a levitation enchantment last for if these things have been here forever?" Nimbus asked curiously. He wondered if and how long a pony would stay floating if they had a levitation enchantment on them.
"It depends on the pony who casted it." Nora floated a scroll from one of the red wooden shelves. "Take me for example, if I were to cast a levitation enchantment on this light piece of paper, I could have it float only a few hours. Levitation is exactly something I emphasis a lot of my magic on."
With a snapping pop coming from her horn, Nora pulled down one of the chandeliers with her magic and enveloped it with a soft pink glow after placing the scroll she pulled back where she got it. "Now, if I were to place that same enchantment on this chandelier, I could only keep it up for a few minutes."
Nimbus snorted at the "keep it up" innuendo he had just thought of. After Nora gave him a disgusted look, he cleaned up his act and asked "Is that because it's heavier?"
The pink soft glow slowly disappeared from the chandelier when Nora allowed it to float back up to it's regular position. "Yes." She nodded. "The pony who put the enchantment on these chandeliers must be incredibly talented. From what I can read from the enchantment on this chandelier, it should stay floating until next week."
"Which means somepony comes in here every few weeks or so and recreates the same enchantment." Nimbus added.
"You're not as dumb as I would have thought a Pegasus should be. Keep impressing me and I won't be so judgmental when a Pegasus walks into the library." Nora complimented Nimbus for the first time at her own expense.
Brushing and changing the style of his mane, Nimbus cleaned the loose golden strands of hair on his hoof. "Then I bet you'd be absolutely amazed I go to the Cloudsdale public library every Wednesday." Nimbus's tone was a lot lower than he used normally.
"To read newest issue of 'Gold Lightning' the comic book series? Yeah, keep trying to get brownie points, airhead." Nora said, walking and turning a corner at one of the aisles. At the end of the aisle Nora turned at was a giant blue glowing orb consistently spinning in place inside of a snugly fit bowl.
"I don't read Gold Lightning!" Nimbus shouted after Nora."...it's Bat Mare, and she kicks ass." He admitted quietly.
"I heard that. Now, stop horsing around and get over here."
Nimbus did as Nora asked and turned the corner after her. Looking at the blue glowing orb inside of the bowl curiously, Nimbus asked the expected question. "What's this thing?"
A blue glow brightend Nora's face when she leaned closer towards orb. "This, my comic book reading level friend, was a globe that any unicorn use as a first map if they wanted to get a look at a specific location in visual detail." Nora paused and lifted her away from the orb. "Keyword: WAS."
"You going to keep doing that every ten minutes?" Nimbus asked in a annoyed tone. "It's getting old really fast."
A flicked hoof coming from Nora told Nimbus she was going to ignore that question and continue explaining. "I'm going to try and reactivate then permanently reinvent the map inside of my mind."
"You can do that?" Nimbus asked. He didn't think unicorns were ever capable of accomplishing task as such as this.
Nora's pink mane brush both sides of her face as she shook her head. "I'm not entirely too sure if I can. I know I won't be able to see a town in real time like I could with the orb or even copy the entire world in my mind, but I at least want to be able to know where I am if I ever get lost somewhere in Equestria."
"I still don't know what you want me to do." Nimbus told Nora again.
The blue orb Nora specified as a real time globe began to become surrounded in Nora's pink magic. "That won't come until we reach the back of this library that's probably still guarded by a Chimera."
"There's a Chimera in this place?!" Nimbus shouted before quickly slapping his hooves over his mouth in case the unsuspecting Chimera was in earshot. Nimbus's question didn't reach Nora in time before she got lost in reading the globe with her reading spell.
Nimbus reached out to tap her shoulder, but he quickly pulled it back, remembering how dangerous Twilight told him it was supposed to be when somepony interfered with her reading.
Sighing with boredom, Nimbus flew up to one of the chandeliers and rested on it, hoping the enchantment would be able to hold him up. Now with an aerial view of the layout, Nimbus looked out in the opposite direction of where he and Nora had entered from. He couldn't see too much farther than maybe a hundred feet in front of him. The area was entirely open and completely unblocked but it was difficult to see past the darkness of the dimly lit underground library.
There was no sign of any Chimera that Nimbus could see but he didn't dare challenge Nora's warning.
A few minutes under twenty minutes had passed by and Nora was still "activating and reading" the globe down below. Nimbus was growing impatient and decided to fall down back to the ground and read one the scrolls to keep himself busy. There was no obvious categorization for the scrolls like in most libraries. They just seemed like they were randomly placed on the shelves to Nimbus.
Not being able to make heads or tails of what subject the shelf in front of him covered, Nimbus groaned and looked up to see a hanging banner with the words "Geography and Maps" etched on.
Feeling stupid for having missed such an obvious sign, Nimbus looked back at the shelf again and noticed a small tag at each end of the scrolls. Each tag had the title or specified what the scroll in particular consisted of.
Well, here's Cloudsdale. Nimbus thought to himself. He saw no point of reading about a city he was already home to, plus the scroll was more than likely out dated and was fairly thin. Looking to find something to quench his boredom, Nimbus began to flip and read each tag from Cloudsdale down. It wasn't until Nimbus saw a sparkling blue scroll that his interest suddenly spiked.
The blue scroll had a quiet hymn to that synced with it's sparkling flashes. The tag Nimbus grabbed and read told him the particular scroll in mind covered the entirety of the "Crystal Empire".
Nimbus repeated the unfamiliar name out loud and rolled the scroll open. The scroll was far more thicker than the Cloudsdale one her looked at. Reading from top to the middle of the first page of the scroll. Nimbus learned that the Crystal Empire used to exist far up north in Equestria and was known to have disappeared a long time ago when a Unicorn known as King Sombra came to power. Nopony really knows why or where the Crystal Empire disappeared off to and nothing else was known about it since then.
The rest of the scrolled pages was about the very first history of the the Crystal Empire and how jousting was a local favored sport to it civilians. None of it which really surprised Nimbus, so he put it back to feel a shaking at the ground underneath his hooves. He nearly dropped the spear he was holding for so long he almost forgot about it.
"What the hell is that?" Nimbus asked as he looked around the scroll shelf to see what could be causing the shaking.
Past a few more scrolls shelves, down the main aisle, a fully armored pony casted in black steel was making his way Nimbus's direction. No part of the pony's body was exposed, every spot was covered in the rusted black steel armor. The armor didn't seem like it was very durable like it would be back in the day, but it still casted an intimidating image. To the knight's left was a sword way to long to be carried if he/she tried to carry it between the scroll shelves. At the tip of it's armored tail was a a thick shield with a half circle cutout of the right side, made for spear thrusting.
Nimbus pulled his head back behind the shelf and swore under his breath. "Shit." He ran to Nora to check on her status. She was still deep within the globe and completely still in place. Nimbus knew better than try to wake her from her reading.
Nimbus looked at the spear tucked under his wing. It was a completely obsolete weapon compared to the Knight's own weapon of choice and armor, but it prove useful if Nimbus wanted to attack from a narrow distance. Even with his sword sheathed, Nimbus expected the Knight would have trouble walking in between the bookshelves comfortably.
Walking around the scroll shelf the Knight was passing by, Nimbus waited until the Knight strolled past the shelf to walk in the aisle behind him. Nimbus's steps were light and fast, almost no sound escaped from them but the Knight's clanky loud armor made it beneficial for Nimbus to run quickly without sound.
His breathing was quick but light, Nimbus was about taking on the Knight. He had no real expert fighting skills. His speed and agility would have to be his main focus. After flipping the sharp end of the spear towards the Knight's helmet, Nimbus made a plan to remove or knock off the Knight's helm to expose a soft spot. He had no intentions of killing or seriously hurting who was underneath, but Nimbus needed a hole in the Knight's defense.
Nimbus easily set the spear down without a sound and crept further towards the Knight. Only a few inches from reaching out and touching the Knight, Nimbus glide jumped and landed on the Knight's back.
Nimbus wrapped and clenched his hooves tightly around the Knight's neck and held on tightly as he began to buck. The Knight was too heavily armored to properly buck or even try to get Nimbus off his back. Instead, the Knight rolled to his left to crush Nimbus with his weight, but the scroll shelf to his side stood strong and kept him at a lean.
Seeing how he almost came to his possible end, Nimbus made quick time to place his right hoof over the top of the Knight's helm and yank upwards. There was no seal to fasten the helmet to the rest of the armor, so Nimbus had put forth too much effort into his pull and rolled off the Knight's back.
Nimbus recovered quickly just to see the Knight leaned back on all four hooves. When Nimbus looked to see the Knight's exposed head, there was none, no head at all, just nothing. The helmet-less Knight turned slowly around to "face" Nimbus. Nimbus chunked the empty helmet at the Knight's chest but it proved nothing more than mere failed attempt.
The Knight picked up the helm Nimbus had removed and tried to place it back on but it only stayed in place for a few seconds before it fell and clanked to the floor. The Knight tried to same task several more times but his helmet was now forever gone from his body. He looked back where he last seen Nimbus to see that he was no longer there.
Nimbus took the time the Knight used to place his helmet back on and snuck away behind one the scroll shelves. He took a wild guess but he thought if the Knight couldn't put his helmet back on, he wouldn't be able to place his other armor back on if Nimbus removed it. It was a gambling decision but it was the only one Nimbus could think of.
The spear was too far away for Nimbus to grab but it still didn't have the weight Nimbus need to thrust the rest of the Knight's armor off. He couldn't risk trying to get close enough to pull the armor off now that the Knight was aware.
Nimbus could hear the Knight going in the opposite direction of where he was. He ascended upwards quietly and placed himself on top of the chandelier over head. When he placed all four hooves on the chandelier, Nimbus quickly got an idea. If he could jump down and push enough weight to break the enchantment, he could probably use the chandelier to smash the Knight underneath it and push all the armor off. The chandelier was plenty large enough to cover the entire Knight, it could actually work.
Heavy footsteps made their way back around in Nimbus's direction. He waited until the Knight was walking right in front of the chandelier to finally jump up and push all his weight down. As he had hoped, Nimbus put too much weight for the levitation spell to handle and broke it. He went flying down, riding the chandelier directly in the Knight's back.
He never saw it coming, the Knight looked up too late to see Nimbus smash his armor all in different directions. Nimbus fell over with his body laid out over the carnage of separated armor.
Nora came running around the corner just in time to see Nimbus laying down with his eyes closed. "You've been taking a nap this whole time?! What if somepony saw us here?"
Nimbus cracked open an eye and glared at Nora with disgust at her gratitude. "You have no Celestia damn idea..."
***
The way down the back of the library didn't take as long as Nimbus had thought, or as boring. He had so many questions about what Nora got from the glowing globe.
"So, what did you find out?"
"I didn't 'find out' anything." Nora told Nimbus with a sharp tone. "I wasn't able to copy the entire map of Equestria into my mind, but I did get an accurate layout of the Everfree Forest like I wanted to originally. Getting the entire map of Equestria was just something I wanted to try." Nora put her hoof over her head and laid it flat. "Though, just getting a map of the Everfree Forest nearly tapped out my magic. I'll be useless if you can't deal with the Chimera properly, unless I can get a replenishing elixir or something."
"and again, I have to do all the work." Nimbus said with disappointment.
Pink magic came from Nora's horn, tapping Nimbus lightly on his head. "Buck up. We're almost done...Keyword: Almo-"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Enough with that 'keyword' stuff." Nimbus requested after swatting Nora's magic away.
A foul stench filled the air, making Nimbus cringe his muzzle and make a gagging sound. "What the hell is that smell?" He said, cuffing his hoof over his muzzle. "That smell is nauseating."
"It's Chimera drool, and you're about to step in it." Nora warned and stopped Nimbus from stepping into the large puddle with help from her magic.
The smell of the drool was making Nimbus dizzy and his eyes watery. "Why does it smell so...like that?" He asked, stepping over the puddle.
"That's what the Chimera uses as fuel to breath it's fire."
"Oh, cool, it breathes fire. How exciting. If you excuse me, I'm going home." Nimbus turned sharply and got quickly dragged back by his tail from Nora's magic.
"No, you're not. Come on, you don't even have to fight this one, just sneak past it." Nora released Nimbus's tail from her magic. "All you got to do is find a book made of pony skin."
Nimbus's ears twitched from what Nora had just told him. "...do what?"
"It won't be hard to find at all. Oh, and it has an actual pony spine for a book spin. You should have no trouble finding it." Nora peered a bit past one of the last shelves before there was a wide open dark space in the middle of the library. "This is where I'll stop. You go on and sneak past. I shouldn't have to tell you but stick to the walls so you don't get lost. I don't know what it's like past this."
Nimbus's eye was twitching as he was trying to comprehend what was happening. "Let me get this straight, just so we're on the same page, and no that's no an intended pun because we're in a library." Nimbus moved his hooves left and right to explain his side of what was about to happen. "You want ME to walk out there in the dark and sneak past a Chimera, something that breathes fire, and try to find a book that's made of pony remains?"
"Yes, it's like I didn't just get done saying that!" Nora approved. "Now stop stalling and go get my book!"
"Why are you so casual about this?! You act like this is a normal weekend for everypony!" Nimbus was getting really animated with his dialog and pronouncing his words.
Nora sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with a pinch of her magic. "Look, I'll make a deal with you. You help me get this book and I'll help you with your heart problem."
"Heart problem?" Nimbus laughed. " I don't got no damn heart problem."
Rolling her eyes at Nimbus's attitude, Nora rephrased her offer. "Heart defect, whatever you want to call it. I know you have one bad heart and one good heart, it's why you been haven't been racing as much as you used to."
Nimbus went quiet. Nora was right, Nimbus did have a bad heart he didn't want anypony to find out about. It was something that couldn't be explained, not without him dishing out about a thousand bits, not to mention a thousand more if he wanted to fix it. He had been keeping his secret about having two hearts for so long from everypony, not even the pony he trusted the most, Rainbow Dash, knew about it.
"H-how do you kno-"
"I got permission from your doctor to look at your medical profile. All I had to do was ask nicely. It was a real convenience that you came along today. I was just about to give up on reading that book for the hundredth time." Nora peered back behind the bookshelf to make sure nopony or any creature was going to creep up behind her. "I don't want to black mail you, but I REALLY need this book. I can even use it to help you, you just have to give it time though, okay?"
Nora held out her right red hoof up to Nimbus as a friendly gesture. "Deal?"
Trusting somepony he just met, especially mares, was starting to become a trend with Nimbus. If Nora could help him with his heart, he could go racing with Rainbow Dash again like he did back then. "Deal." Nimbus took Nora's red hoof in his wing and shook it firmly. "Plus, I don't know my way back."
***
Keeping to the walls like Nora had suggested, Nimbus made it to the very end of the library within a few seconds under a minute. Unlike the rest of the library underground. This section had actual books. They were all fairly great condition, except for the dust they collected over however long they had been here.
Nothing like a pony's spine seemed to stand out of the shelves. There was no possible way Nimbus could be over looking it, it was too unique....and strangely out of place. The actual title of the book had never actually been dropped on Nimbus, so he had no idea what to look for as category went.
Nimbus felt like he was on a wild goose chase until he turned his third aisle of book shelves and saw something jutting out way beyond the other books. No question it was a pony spine and the very book he was looking for.
Excitedly, Nimbus began to run towards the book until a deep growl caused his coat to nearly take off in a different direction. No doubt it was the Chimera or whatever was supposed to be guarding this section of the library. Nimbus stopped in his tracks and pressed his back against the shelf. He slid towards the book he wanted slowly and without a sound. He didn't hear another growl or any other indication of where it could be.
Finally reaching the book and pulling it from the shelf by it's actual skeletal spine, Nimbus froze up when he got a good look at the front cover of the book. It was an actual pony's skinned face looking directly back at Nimbus. There was only the empty eye sockets Nimbus was looking at, but he felt like the original owner of the face was still staring right back at him. The even creepier part of the face was the fact that the face seemed to have a still consistent smile.
Shuddering in his feathers, Nimbus hesitated to look any further into the book, but he needed to know what he was going to lend over to Nora. He struggled to open the book. It wasn't exactly very thick, except for the skin layered front and back covers of the book itself. Nimbus frighteningly placed his hoof over the dead face cover and tried to pry it open from the front that way.
A voice that Nimbus had never heard before nearly made him jump higher than the Chimera's growl. The voice sounded like there was two ponies simultaneously talking at once. "Hehe don't tickle my nose, it tickles." The unknown voice laughed.
Nimbus hugged the book to his chest asked in a whisper "Who's there?"
Feeling a few tugs at his chest, Nimbus heard the voices again. "Down here."
Fear told Nimbus to keep the book close to him if he wanted to keep his eyes inside of his skull, but his curiouslty was louder than his wisdom.
Finally putting a face to the voices, the face on the book spoke. "Hey, have you seen 'Tia or Woona? I haven't spoken to them in years!"
Nimbus's mouth hung wide open as he stared long at the talking face on the book. "Celestia's sweet shinning ass....it talks."
"Hey, I'm Knowledge. Who are you?" The book asked.
A growl tore between Knowledge and Nimbus's conversation. The sign to leave as fast as he could was finally given to Nimbus. He tucked Knowledge underneath his wing and began to book it back to Nora.
"Hey, that's Tiny Tooth! Tiny Tooth we're over here!" Knowledge shouted to the Chimera's unknown location.
Bookshelves few in different directions when the Chimera pushed his way passed them. Past the loose flying pages in the air, the Chimera saw Nimbus running away just in time to see him duck and slide the bottom shelf of one of the scroll shelves.
"Run! Runrunrunrun!" Nimbus pushed Nora with his forehead to the main aisle between all the scroll shelves and helped slide her down back towards direction he felt like was the entrance.
"What are you doing? We're about to miss our left."
Hearing Nora complaining, Nimbus turned left sharply down the next aisle he could and continued to push her forcefully. "Where do I turn next?"
"Slow down, you cloud kicker, and tell me if you found-" Nora got distracted from completing her sentence when she saw Knowledge tucked and smiling up at her from Nimbus's wing.
"Hey, I'm Knowledge! Who are you?"
A screech, followed by several knocked over book shelves, let Nora know exactly what Nimbus was running away from. She screamed before jumping on Nimbus's back and hugging his neck tightly. She enveloped Knowledge into her magic and screamed again at Nimbus. "Why are you running? You can fly!"
The hamster in Nimbus's head stopped running on the hamster wheel and started to run on the treadmill it forgot it had instead. "Oh, yeah..." Nimbus said before flung out his wings and carried Nora on his back. She was much lighter than any chariot or sky wagon he had ever had to pull.
Getting away from the Chimera was a lot less difficult task for Nimbus now. He could see the entrance only about one hundred yards away. The door was too narrow for Nimbus to fly through with his wings out. He arched his head back to Nora, who was still hugging his neck. "I'm going to close my wings and dive for the door. Make sure you put a levitation spell on me so I don't crash too hard."
Nimbus aimed for the middle of the door and closed both his wings and his eyes.
Hope and confidence left Nimbus instantly when Nora told him. "I can't do a levitation spell...."
Both of Nimbus's eyes popped back open. He anticipated the landing and turn his chin up. It was too late for him to try opening and closing his wings quick enough to slow his downfall.
The hard concrete floor beneath Nimbus's chest gave no mercy. The floor was rough, it pulled and tugged at each strand of fur on Nimbus's blue coat. Only tiny missing patches could be seen on Nimbus's chest but the pain inflicted was far from tiny.
Waiting until Nora removed herself from his back and safely placed all four hooves on the ground, Nimbus rolled over and hissed as he clutched at his chest. He removed his hoof quickly to see if there was any visible blood, but to his relief, his hoof was clean.
Nora lightly kicked Nimbus in his rump. "Get up." She ordered.
Nimbus pushed her away wit his wing. "You get up...out of here, you and your non-levitating spell ass." Nimbus shot his insult at Nora. "Why can't you...wait, you pulled that chandelier down earlier, though."
"HELLO!!" Nora placed and launched her hoof off of her head. "That wasn't a levitation spell, it was a magnetism spell, only works on metal."
Trying to make sense of what kind of unicorn Nora was, Nimbus spelled out his perception. "Let me get this straight, you can use a magnetism spell, read a map and permanently imprint to your mind in under an hour, read books with your mind in a quarter of the time it takes to physically read it, but you can't levitate that same book off a bookshelf?"
The look on Nora's face told Nimbus she was in deed quite upset the issue. "SO?!" Nora shouted at Nimbus, trying not to cry. "Maybe I can't comprehend something as basic as the levitation spell, but look at everything else I can do."
Nora pinched and picked up Knowledge by his spine, using the same claw spell she used to poke Nimbus in the chest. "I found this, it's going to change everything for me!"
"Oh" Nimbus started, rolling his eyes. "Is living in Canterlot as one of Celestia's gifted students not enough for you?"
The next thing Nora said threw Nimbus's question right back in his face. "...I'm not a student of Celestia's."
A sign with the word "ASS" should have been placed over Nimbus's shoulders for the way he felt for being so rude to Nora. "M-my bad, I thought you WERE a student because you were in the library."
"Keywords: WERE A STUDENT" Nora said with her head down and setting Knowledge down gently before patting him softly with her claw spell. "I was a student of Celestia's class...Key-"
"I get it." Nimbus interrupted. "Keep it moving forward." He urged her to continue telling her story.
Nora breathed in deeply through her nose and exhaled a heavy weight of air. "I was a student for about three years, until one of the teachers was persistent that I learn the levitation before I advanced to the next year. Obviously, I didn't. I never have. I was let go from the school and to resort going to regular grade school like all the other ponies in my age group."
"Since then, I've been motivated to prove those who told me I wasn't good enough wrong. I learned the reading spell really early in my quest so I could learn faster, but it's advanced far more than just reading a book with my mind since then. There are times when I learn spell simply by reading that pony's mind and mimicking that spell. I'm even capable of performing spells none of the teachers at the school could ever learn. I've even created my own spells!"
Nora performed the claw spell again and demonstrated it by flexing it into a fist and back into a flat palm. "This is what I use instead of the levitation spell most times, it's own of my own." The spell, along with the small spark at Nora's horn, dissipated with a twinkle. "But...it's still not enough. I've tried, again, and again, but it's never enough to get back into Celestia's school!"
Knowledge got lifted back up again by Nora's magical claw. She spoke softly and bowed her head on the front cover of Knowledge. "That's why I pursued this book. My last personal hope to show everypony I AM special."
If things had gone a little differently for Nimbus, he could have been in the same situation as Nora. He never told anypony, but Rainbow Dash was really the only reason he stayed. Not because she was his best friend, but because she was his own personal coach. Back when they first met, Rainbow Dash pushed Nimbus to fly faster and to never give up, in return she would give him a one on one race. Even though their first race wasn't entirely fair, Nimbus always did as Rainbow Dash told him: fly fast, and if you feel like giving up, fly faster, and he always did.
For some time now though, one of Nimbus's two hearts was having problems. It was no longer able to keep with the other heart and preventing Nimbus to fly as fast as he wish he could. Fortunately, Nimbus was grateful he had trained so much to still keep way ahead of his other classmates.
Nimbus pulled Knowledge down from Nora's forehead with his wing and told her. "I'm not going to stand here and tell you 'I know how you feel' because I don't, but I do think you need to see the silver lining."
"What silver lining?" Nora asked, almost forgetting Knowledge had a face now that he was smiling as her.
"I mean" Nimbus pulled Knowledge away from Nora. "Look at what you've done. You got me to move around like a freaking ninja without even meaning to! You found this amazing..." Nimbus took another glance at Knowledge's disturbing face. "...this amazing-yet-very-grotesque-looking-book! You have done two things nopony has ever done."
Nimbus laid a hugging wing around Nora's neck. "You're an amazing pony, Nora, and ever let anypony tell you otherwise."
***
Nora and Nimbus made it back outside of the library after ten minutes of leaving the underground archives. The sun had set about two hours ago and Nimbus freaked out when he saw how late in the night it had gotten.
"It's freaking nine already?! I left home at like six!" Nimbus started to pant. "Rainbow Dash is going to kick the living crap out of me. I mean she already does, but she's going to do it more brutally this time!"
He turned to Nora and apologized. "Sorry to go so fast, but I REALLY have to go."
"Don't you want to know what just got for me at least?" Nora asked Nimbus and grabbing his tail with her pink glowing claw.
Nimbus turned around to face her. "Okay, but only the first few pages then I'm out."
"Okay!" Nora cheered for finally making her first friend with a Pegasus.
Using her right red leg, Nora tried to open up Knowledge but he just grunted and refused to open up. Letting go of Knowledge's strangely soft pony skin cover, Nora asked him. "Why won't you open for me, Knowledge?"
"Because you don't have to read me, silly!" Knowledge told Nora with both his voices giggling. "Just tell me what you want to know about the Fellowship Wands."
"The Fellowship Wands?" Nimbus repeated "What in Tartarus are those?"
"The Fellowship Wands are what created the Elements of Harmony, Nimbus" Knowledge happily informed. "But they're so much more capable than just creating things."
"The Elements of Harmony?" Nimbus repeated once again. "Am I supposed to know what those are?"
"The Elements of Harmony, Nimbus! The very things that were used to defeat Discord and Nightmare Moon." Nora said. She couldn't believe somepony she knew wouldn't know what the Elements of Harmony were.
Nimbus stared speechless between Nora and Knowledge with the two of them staring back at him just as hard. "....who?" Nimbus asked.
***
The wind in Nimbus's eyes were lmiting his vision as he dodged and juked around every cloud in his path. "WHY ARE THE SO MANY CLOUDS ALL OF A SUDDEN?! IT'S NOT EVEN SUPPOSED TO RAIN TONIGHT!"
Nimbus was flying faster than he was on his way to the library. He was only able to cut his time by about ten minutes of travel between the library and the edge of Cloudsdale.
After finally finding somewhere solid to land, Nimbus set his hooves down and panted heavily. Both of his hearts were punishing him from the inside of his chest for pushing himself so hard. His breathing was heavy and barely controllable. Nimbus breathed in through his nose deeply, placing a hoof on his chest, and exhaled slowly to catch his breath.
When Nimbus finally caught his breath, his ears twitched at the sound of loud constant blowing horns. He knew that sound clearly, it belonged to the city knights of Cloudsdale. They were only used when there was something big going down, usually along the lines of somepony being severely injured or a murder.
Knowing better than to go anywhere where a murder could have gone, some sixth sense told Nimbus he needed to go towards the sound. Going against all safety precautions, Nimbus raced his way towards the horn sirens and made no hesitations to fly faster.
It took Nimbus about a few minutes to reach the horns, or actually to see where they were coming from. About a hundred feet in front of him, Nimbus spotted a large crowd circling something of obviously great interest. The group hovering above was just as crowded as the one down below. Nimbus had to push his way to the front to see what all the commotion was about.
Getting about half way through the crowd, Nimbus heard his name be called out by a familiar voice.
"Nimbus!" Sky Forge waved and called out to him. "We're over here!" On opposite sides of Sky Forge, Nimbus could see her uncle and Rainbow Shine, but no sign of Rainbow Dash or Storm.
Rainbow Shine ran up to Nimbus and hugged him tightly. "I know you were angry..." She could help herself from crying or hugging Nimbus tighter. "but did you really have to be gone for so long? We started to think you weren't going to come back. I know Rainbow Dash is harsh at tie buy, you know better than anyponyelse, she means well. That's why she went out looking for you, and then she was gone for over an hour-"
"Rainbow Dash is missing?!" Nimbus interrupted Rainbow Shine suddenly, making her jump in place. "Where did she go? I'm going to go-"
A wing got draped over Nimbus's shoulders. "We found her, okay? There's no need to get all worked up." Sky Forge told Nimbus.
Finally realizing that Sky Forge was there, Nimbus asked her. "What are you doing here anyways?"
Sky Forge held up the lighter she used to send letters to Nimbus and Rainbow Dash every now and then. "Rainbow Dash used your lighter to tell me you were missing. We came as soon as we could." Sky Forge tilted her head back to emphasize who "we" were. "But then...well..."
"...well?" Nimbus repeated, looking at all three ponies in front of him. "Did something else happen?"
Rainbow Shine's eyes were shifting back and forth to the middle of the crowd they were all surrounded by and back to Nimbus. "Storm got worried too...He went looking for you and...and..."
There was something different about the way Rainbow Shine's voice was, now that Nimbus finally payed a lot of attention to it. Her voice sounded broken and the red in her eyes told Nimbus she had been crying just moments ago. The way she was twitching at that very moment, it looked like she was preventing herself from crying again.
"I-I can't stay over there anymore...Nimbus, y-you need to go to the middle and be there for Rainbow Dash. She really needs-"
As soon as Nimbus heard that Rainbow Dash was in the middle of the crowd, he began to push his way past all the ponies more aggressively than he did before. He wanted to apologize for worrying her, but when he finally reached the middle Nimbus knew an apology wasn't going to fix what he took away from Rainbow Dash that night.
Storm was lying there in the middle, chest slightly pierced open, but covered from the open wound and down in his own blood. Rainbow Dash was holding him, yelling and screaming at him to come back, but he wasn't going to. Storm was dead.
Nimbus didn't have to step any closer once he broke through the crowd for Rainbow Dash to see him. She called out for Nimbus's name softly and he came to her side as quickly as possible, careful not to disrespect Storm's body. She wrapped both her forelegs around him completely and cried into his chest, asking him "W-why? Why did he have to leave without me saying good bye to him?"
There wasn't answer Nimbus could give Rainbow Dash. The only thing he felt was all the responsibility of Storm's death falling onto him. Even though nopony had directly out the blame on him, Nimbus felt like the murderer. "What even happened?" He asked, hoping Storm went out with some dignity.
Rainbow Dash looked up at Nimbus and rested her head back on his chest when her eyes were finally clear of tears. "Dad went looking for you."
A shiver went down Nimbus's back that Rainbow Dash could feel as she hugged him. Even though it was the absolute truth, Nimbus didn't want to hear Storm went out looking for him and died doing so.
"He asked everypony in town if they had seen you." Rainbow Dash continued to explain. She could the intensity of Nimbus's shivering growing as she went on. "Somepony lied and said they did. He led Dad right into a trap. There was a pony waiting for Dad where the other pony told him to go. He tried to mug Dad but he didn't think he was going to put up a fight. He stabbed him and left him for dead."
Rainbow Dash didn't have to look up at Nimbus to see he was already blaming himself. "Nimbus, please, it's not your fault. He would do it again if it meant you came home. I don't want you-"
"Where'd he go?" Nimbus asked quickly.
Not knowing what his intentions exactly were, Rainbow Dash shook her head in Nimbus's chest and refused to tell him. "No, I'm not telling you. It's not your fault. What would you even do if you found-"
"Rainbow Dash, just tell me!" Nimbus shouted at her, removing her from his chest and holding her to his face. "I want to know! I-I need to rectify this." His voice was torn and raspy. True anger could be seen in his words.
"That's the knight's job, not yours." Rainbow Dash kept herself relatively calm for the aggressive way Nimbus was acting. She knew he never acted like this and he would never come to bring harm to her, no matter how mad she made him.
"Please," Nimbus begged. His voice now softer and pleading. "I want to try and fix th-"
"You're not 'fixing' anything!" Rainbow Dash finally shouted back at Nimbus. "You're not like that! I know you, and you're not invincible. What's going to happen if something happens to you? Are you just going to let my Dad die for nothing?"
"It's not going to come down to that. I-I...I'm not even going to approach him." Nimbus lied to Rainbow Dash. "I just want to see what he looks like before the knights lock him away." Nimbus didn't know what was coming over him. He was lying to Rainbow Dash, he wanted to hurt somepony he didn't know, he wanted somepony to pay for what happened to Storm. He wanted to do this, for himself.
Rainbow Dash wasn't as dumb as Nimbus was mistaking her for. She knew all too well that he was lying. She didn't know exactly what he had in mind, but she was going to tell him where the knights were holding up the pony who stabbed Storm, then she would follow him there to make sure he didn't do anything he would regret.
The clouds that were building up when Nimbus was getting home had finally made there way to Cloudsdale. They sprinkled tiny rain drops onto the whole crowd and half of Cloudsdale from the start, but after a few seconds the tiny drops turned into hard rain. The rain forced both Rainbow Dash and Nimbus's the fall and hang low past their shoulders.
"They have him hold up at those old apartments on Aerial Lane." Rainbow Dash told Nimbus firstly. She pulled and grabbed his wing when he tried to fly away. "Nimbus, I'm telling you right now, if you're trying to do something else and get yourself hurt, I'll never forgive you."
Nimbus nodded and smiled at Rainbow Dash. "I promise, I won't."