//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: Peer Review - The Great Correction // Story: The Education of Clover the Clever // by Daedalus Aegle //------------------------------// Beneath the calm streets of Cambridle, for some months, a war had been raging. It was spoken of in hushed whispers, its major battles shrouded in silence as though those who knew of it feared that to speak of it was to bring it down upon their heads. Or possibly to be laughed out of town, because really. Chocolate Bunnies didn't mind. Their laughter would end soon enough, and then rebound and double in strength, and end once again once their breath ran out. Then they would see who was laughing. Her hooves clipped and clopped on the stone, clad now in the clippiest and cloppiest of horseshoes that the blacksmiths of Cambridle could create. Her brow was adorned with a ring of daisies, because laurels were out of season, and she was draped in a toga of the finest silk, which dragged on the ground behind her because togas are huge and unwieldy and no matter what she did she couldn't hold it together but that was okay because nobody would dare laugh at her now, except of course when the Laughening occurred. All around her stood her loyal servitors, the army with which she had conquered Cambridle's underworld: the Siblinghood of the Hoof. They drove from the banking district to the candy factory in a triumphant procession of victory. “Pink Top,” Bunnies said. “Peace! Ho!” Cutting Edge cried. “Bunnies speaks!” “Pink Top,” Bunnies repeated, while Pink Top winced. “It's Gallopsky,” he muttered, and then spoke more loudly. “How may I serve Bunnies?” “This parade is great and all,” Bunnies said. “I'm just not sure about the carnival float.” “It's mandatory,” said Pink Top. “It's been lying around mostly-finished for months. It would be a huge shame not to use it.” “It's kind of blocking the view,” Bunnies said, looking up at the enormous backside of Cutting Edge's interpretation of Discord, hastily put together in cheap papier-mache and painted mostly green and orange. “I'm not sure anypony can see us behind this thing. Also, we're not doing this for Discord, remember? We speak for the glory of the Hoof.” “I can probably move the float to the back of the procession,” Pink Top said, though he sighed with disappointment at the prospect. “When the Hoof says 'do this,' it is done.” Bunnies smiled, and patted his shoulder with the Hoof. “Set on, and leave no ceremony out.” “Bunnies!” a voice cried out from the assembled crowds who were watching with a mixture of idle curiosity and sullen resignation at the state of their society. Bunnies froze. “Ha? Who calls?” she said. “Bid every noise be still,” Silk Road said. “Peace yet again!” “Who is it in the press that calls on me?” Bunnies asked. “I hear a tongue shriller than all the music cry 'Bunnies'. Speak! Bunnies is turned to hear.” “Beware thy sliding marks!” Bunnies frowned. “What pony is that?” She cast a glance to her assistant, who shrugged. “Somepony who bids you beware the sliding marks, apparently.” “Yeah, I got that.” The Hoof thwacked her other leg. “I mean—Set him before me! Let me see his face.” Within moments, Cutting Edge and Miss Silk had divided the crowd and were dragging out an old stallion who looked like a pile of faded laundry covered with sequins. He stared blankly around him. “Fellow, come from the throng,” Pink Top said. “Look upon Bunnies.” “What sayst thou to me now?” asked Bunnies, in her most haughty and commanding voice. “Speak once again.” Star Swirl the Grey looked around until his eyes landed on Bunnies. “Beware thy sliding marks.” Pink Top frowned. “What's that supposed to mean?” “It doesn't mean anything,” Bunnies said. “He is a dreamer. Let us leave him.” “Wait,” Cutting Edge said. “If he knows something, I wanna know about it.” “You care about what madponies in the streets have to say?” Miss Silk asked. “I guess that shouldn't surprise me.” “I hang out with you, so no, this really shouldn't surprise you,” Cutting Edge replied. Thus recommenced the eternal staring match. Pink Top groaned, and rolled his eyes. When his eyes rolled back, they found Star Swirl the Grey's eyes staring straight through them, from far too close up. “You have a choice, candyson,” Star Swirl the Grey said. Pink Top tensed. “What did you just call me, gramps?” “And lo, the little chick is grown, and is become a mighty eagle, who hunts to fill his stomach, and is feared far and wide,” Star Swirl the Grey said. “Thus always to eagles.” “What is that, Aesopony?” Pink Top asked. “Are you quoting griffon foal's tales at me, gramps?” “The castle is empty,” Star Swirl said. “The ants tell themselves they have won at last, while fire rains from the heavens. Look up, and see what awaits you. It comes for us all, eagle and ant alike.” Then he turned and trotted away down the street. “Well, that was weird,” Pink Top said. Bunnies nodded. “Let's just get this parade moving again, shall we?” Before either of them could say any more their ears perked up. There were screams coming from a nearby street now, and ponies running, and there was green smoke billowing out behind them. Star Swirl had just turned the corner and disappeared from sight as the shapeless horror sloughed down the street, calling out as it went, “Tekeli-Li! Tekeli-Li!” – – – “What is that thing?” Clover whispered as she and Star Swirl the Red peered through the cracks in a fence at the amoeboid monstrosity that now took up the street. “It looks sort of like the phase hydras.” She felt her stomach turning at the memory. “That's a shoggoth,” Red said. “Summoned monster from another world. Very old-school. Useful for constructing alien cities, but get very grumpy if you forget to feed them.” He smiled. “You weren't joking about the adventure, were you? This is going to be fun.” The shoggoth had latched onto the side of a building, and from what Clover could see through its semi-translucent gelatinous flesh it seemed to be corroding the building away into dust. Green smoke rose from the walls as it ate them, and from a glance around the skyline, Clover saw several more like it. “They must be all over town...” Her thoughts turned back to the foals. It had taken some doing, once they had left the museum, to persuade the trio of colt Star Swirls to go back to Canterlot House and stay there until the present crisis, whatever it was, had been resolved and Clover returned with the others. With Red's help, and many promises of unspecified favors owed to be repaid at a later date, just as soon as the trio could think of any, they had finally agreed to go back to Canterlot House and stay there. Red had played a major part in persuading Clover that the trio could be trusted to look after themselves on the way home. Since the moment they had left her sight she became increasingly convinced that had been some kind of mind control magic on his part because she just knew they were going to be abducted, or run over by a loose cart, or be killed by assassins grabbing the opportunity afforded by... well, whatever, and it was all going to be her fault. Shortly after, though, she had looked through the crack in the fence and saw the gelatinous creature from another world eating a building, and found that it was difficult to think about much else than that. Nonetheless, she persevered. "Are you completely sure the foals will be alright?" Red snorted with laughter, which he badly disguised as a cough. “Of course they will, trust us. Now look, we need to get past this thing if we're going to reach the library. Thankfully, I know how to distract it. Can you jimmy loose one of the cobblestones, Clover?” Clover nodded, and set about digging out a small stone from a corner of the street. She managed to get one loose, and passed it to him. Red reached into a pocket on the inside lining of his robe and pulled out a small vial of some fine green powder. He poured a tiny measure on the cobblestone, and spat on it. Then, with a small swirling stick, he mixed the powder out into a paste on the cobblestone. “There, that should do the trick,” he said. “Be prepared to move on my order, Clover, unless you want to end up in comic relief sidekick Elysium.” He stepped out from behind the fence, the cobblestone held above his head. “Hey, Tekeli-Li! Catch!” He threw the cobblestone. It flew through the air towards the shoggoth, and embedded itself in its side, sinking through the surface by about a leg's length before coming to rest. Then it exploded. A ton of bubbling gelatinous goo burst from the shoggoth's side, splattering over the street and all the nearby buildings. The remaining mass of the shoggoth vibrated, and made a noise like a herd of angry cattle echoing off a cliffside as it dislodged itself from the building and formed a multitude of angry eyes, each fixed on Star Swirl the Red. “Get to the library!” Star Swirl yelled with a huge grin on his face as the shoggoth lunged for him. “I'll catch up as soon as I lose this thing!” Then he ran down the street in another direction, laughing, the shapeless horror hot on his hooves, leaving the road to the library clear and free. Clover ran, dodging screaming ponies running the other way, and seeing several other shoggoths in the distance as she went, deconstructing Cambridle brick by brick, or shuffling slowly down the street towards some other project. Ahead of her she saw the library, and she broke into a sprint. The University Library of the Cambridle Academy of Magic was a masterpiece of monumental architecture. The largest single building in Cambridle, the library towered over the city like a pony-built mountain of learning. Normally a place of peaceful contemplation and scholarly excess, now the library was the center of a widening circle of green smoke plumes. As she watched, a swirling green vortex appeared mid-air and dropped another shoggoth on the street just outside the building. The small, green, shapeless mass made a soft, high trilling sound before turning spherical and rolling down the street. It sounded, Clover thought, like it was having significantly more fun than she was. Clover ran inside the open library doors, and froze. “Oh no, not this again.” The library was a magical warzone. Reading desks had been flipped over. Shelves had been toppled and rearranged into barricades. A number of tiny shoggoths were inside the building, and portions of the library were burning with green fire. There were young librarians trying to corral and contain them: they moved without speaking, expertly using “Quiet Please”-signs to signal each other to move into formation and surround lone shoggoths in order to cower them into submission with their most powerful glares and focused shushing. In the center of the hall was a wide circle of tall desks set up like an army camp site, and within, a cadre of adept librarians were girding themselves for battle in the manner of the mystic warrior-librarians of old. Stoically they donned their traditional papyrus armor and fastened their roc-feather spear-quills slung over their backs. A librarian wearing a black belt of the third circle stepped out in front of Clover as she came in. “Hold, citizen! The library is closed due to—oh, it's you.” He turned back to his fellows. “Grandmaster, the pupil has come to join her teacher.” Clover blushed under the sudden attention as two dozen librarians gave her angry looks. The Grandmaster Librarian, an old stallion with a Fu Moocho reaching down to his knees and a headpiece in the form of a stack of books, tottered unsteadily forward. “What do you want?” Clover gulped, and put on her bravest smile. “Don't mind me, I'm just trying to find Star Swirl the Bearded. Is he here, by any chance?” “Is he here?” the Grandmaster asked in a mocking tone. “There are two of him here, and they are destroying our library! What has your master done?” He jabbed her with a hoof as he spoke. “Well, it's—it's—kind of a long story,” Clover mumbled. “I'm trying to round them all up and bring them back home. Could you just point me to where they went?” The Grandmaster only stared at her, while all around chaos consumed the library. “Alright, look,” Clover said as calmly as she could. “I know you don't know him very well, and I appreciate that he is not giving a great first impression right now. But he's really a very nice pony once you get to know him.” “Shoggoths,” the Grandmaster said simply. “Destroying Cambridle. Destroying my library.” “I know, it's terrible,” Clover pleaded, feeling drops of sweat begin to form under her hood, “but I know that he honestly doesn't mean anypony any harm! He just doesn't appreciate that the things he does might not work out exactly the way he means them to. And I know he'll be happy to repair the damage he's causing.” “A likely story,” the Grandmaster said. “Clearly you are in league with your teacher and mean to lend him your aid. Well, your black-hearted scheme will not succeed!” “Hey!” an angry stallion's voice called out from behind Clover. “You have something to say about me, you can say it to my face.” They all turned to see Star Swirl the Red, strutting in with a roguish swagger and a confident smile like he owned the place, his mane tousled and wild and his robe spattered with shoggoth-goo. “Not another one,” the Grandmaster moaned. “How many of them are there?” “Seven,” Clover said. “I think. That have left the house. There might be more left inside, but never mind them. Star Swirl, are you alright?” “I was able to escape the shoggoth without difficulty,” Red replied. “It soon gave up on pursuing me and fell to weeping, whereupon another shoggoth came up and gave it a hug. Then the two of them began to eat a building together. Unnature is so fascinating.” “Right,” Clover said. “I'm trying to round the Star Swirls up and get them all home safely, and this one,” she pointed to Star Swirl the Red, “is helping. Would you mind telling me what in the world is happening here?” “Your master,” the Grandmaster said, his voice thick with contempt, “has ensconced himself inside our library and is unleashing these eldritch abominations upon the world. He toys with dark magics that ponies were not meant to know!” “They'll be in the Forbidden Knowledge Wing, then,” Star Swirl the Red said. “No problem. The library's collection is actually pretty shoddy compared to mine, but I can make it work.” There was a noise, and one of the warrior-librarians approached them and bowed before the grandmaster. “Most High Warden of the Filing Cabinet,” he said, “we warriors of the Ebon Scroll are prepared to initiate Star Swirl Protocol Alpha.” Clover didn't like the sound of that. “What's that?” she asked. “You would like to know, wouldn't you?” the Grandmaster asked. “As if I'm going to give away our secrets to our greatest enemy.” “But—I—what?” Clover sputtered. “What are you talking about? Greatest enemy, what? I love this library, I used to come here to study all the time!” The Grandmaster snorted. “You can't fool us. We have not forgotten the Library Hounds and their terrible baying. Even when all ponies else thought the Ink-Stained One's ravages were over and done, we knew he was planning to return someday and finish the terrible work he once began. Now that day has come, as we always knew it would, and our preparations will finally be revealed!” “That's completely paranoid,” Clover spat, glaring at the Grandmaster. “There was no plan.” “But if there was, you wouldn't stand a chance against it,” Red said. “Come on, Clover, let's leave this old buffoon to his fantasies.” He took a step forward and was promptly surrounded by half a dozen surprisingly sharp giant quillpoints aimed directly at his head. “You're not going any further, oh Ink-Stained One,” the grandmaster said. “If we can't capture the other two, at least we've got this one. Bring them both to Chamber 365.46 and leave them there until they tell us about their evil plans!” Clover felt her last frayed nerve finally snap. “None of this was supposed to happen!” she cried in frustration. “It's like—it's like he's drunk, or he's taken a powerful curative tonic and it's made him useless for the weekend. He was supposed to stay indoors the whole time and not do anything. He didn't mean for any of this to happen and—I just want to get him back home safely.” She turned her best puppy eyes on the grandmaster. “Please let me talk to them?” “You should listen to her,” Star Swirl the Red said. “You lot don't stand a chance on your own, and she's actually offering to help you. You could continue banging your head against a brick wall, or you can listen to the experts. Nopony knows Star Swirl better than us.” Clover felt a blush crawl up her cheeks again at the words of approval. Nopony else seemed to notice. The Grandmaster scowled. “Fine,” he spat out, then turned to the warrior librarians. “Continue with the activation of Star Swirl Protocal Alpha.” The librarians reluctantly lowered their spears and withdrew to a ritual circle beneath a row of statues of former librarians. The grandmaster turned back to scowl at Red. “You may be surprised, wizard. We learned a few things from the last time you were here.” “I'll believe that when I see it,” said Red. “Oh, you will. Follow me.” The Grandmaster and an aide led them across the library and to the uppermost floors of the great hall, from where they could look down upon the hall and see the many struggles there. Distant corners of the library were thick with the green smoke, and new shoggoths were emerging from portals regularly, heralded by a cacophonous warble of inequine magic, and fresh rounds of screaming from the librarians. There, high above the hall, the Grandmaster halted before a huge door carved from black stone, decorated with a great abundance of skulls of every creature known to ponies, things with tentacles in strange and obscure shapes, and eyes bound or blacked out in a flawless and perfectly preserved example of mid-classical forbidden sculpture which had delighted countless students of the form for centuries. A plaque beside the door read “Dewey 1000: Knowledge Ponies Are Not Meant To Know.” The door itself stood wide open: the many locks and chains and seals that usually kept it secure were all broken, and inside all was darkness. “They are within, but we cannot get inside,” the Grandmaster said. He thrust his hoof at the passage, and it smacked against an invisible barrier. “He has raised a forcefield around the entire wing. We are working on penetrating it, but so far we have been unable to pinpoint its resonant frequency. Once we do, we can cancel it out and shatter it, but until then you cannot—” Star Swirl the Red cut him off. “Silly old pony,” he said, and strode easily through the door. “Ah yes, I see your problem. Just as I thought, your methods are completely misguided, as usual.” That Grandmaster's jaw dropped. “How did you do that?” “By not being an idiot,” Red said. “Or, if I'm going to be nice, you're approaching the problem from the wrong angle. This isn't a regular shield spell at all, so your little resonance trick won't do a thing.” The Adventurer shook his head. “You thought he would make it that easy for you to get in? You really don't think very highly of us, do you? Well, don't worry, the feeling's mutual.” The Grandmaster harrumphed and was about to toss out an insult when Clover jumped in. “So if its not a shield spell then what is it?” “It's an ambient field in the air itself, like a magical gas cloud,” Star Swirl the Red began, “which – oh this is clever – has been keyed to the initiation rites of the Mystic Order of Librarians. If the trigger approaches, the magic reacts and the air itself turns rigid to block you out.” He smiled appreciatively. “It's a shield made specifically to keep out librarians. Clover and I can pass through it easily.” “That's great, albeit oddly and conveniently specific,” Clover said. “Star Swirl and me will go in and try to stop them.” “Marvellous,” the Grandmaster said bitterly. “Then there will be four of you ready to destroy us.” “Will you quit your whining?” Red asked. “We are going to save your skin, purely because we want to. You are not in a position to complain.” “That chamber,” the Grandmaster replied, “houses over a thousand years' worth of forbidden magics too dark,” and at that word Red snarled and glowered at the Grandmaster with great ferocity, “and powerful to be revealed to the world. And you are setting them off like firecrackers! If you want my gratitude, you will get them out of there without causing any more harm immediately!” “We can talk sense into them,” Clover said, stepping between the two stallions. “I promise!” “You can talk once you get them safely away from the collection,” the Grandmaster said. “First you subdue them and bring them out here. Then you can try to persuade them to see the light. This is against my better judgement, but... Here,” the Grandmaster presented an ornate casket and opened it to reveal half a dozen metal rings, about an inch in diameter, engraved with runic inscriptions. “You may use these.” Star Swirl the Red drew a sharp breath, and glared at the casket. “I hate those things.” “What are they?” Clover asked. “These are magic blockers,” the Grandmaster said. “Slip these on their horns, and they will be defenseless, and can be safely escorted away from here. Be very careful with those, they are three centuries old and I will be billing you all for any damage done to them.” Clover's face contorted at the thought. “Yes sir,” she grumbled, her head dropping low as she picked one up in her magic. Star Swirl the Red took another, cursing under his breath as he did. They nodded at each other, and crept through the tall doorway. The Forbidden Knowledge Wing was permanently shrouded in shadows, and full of creaking sounds hinting at hidden, possibly incorporeal creatures lurking just outside of sight. Tall bookshelves covered in dust and cobwebs loomed far overhead, forming narrow corridors that ran in odd angles and offered a predator many places to hide. Clover held her breath as she walked, feeling at all times as though something was directly behind her and ready to pounce. Red seemed not to notice. He was trotting along confidently, pausing only to study a bookshelf here and there, or to scratch behind his ear before continuing. Before long they saw a dim light up ahead, and heard the sound of scribbling quills, and somepony speaking. Red turned to Clover and gestured for her to approach from a certain point, using hoof-signs Clover could not fully understand. Before she could adequately express her confusion, her companion had ducked behind a column and disappeared from sight. Clover carefully moved up and peeked into the open space ahead, and saw both Star Swirls within. Star Swirl the Purple looked much like the original at his most professional: calm, collected, his mane and long beard impeccably groomed. He sat at a desk, his face impassive, heedless to the ominous and foreboding atmosphere of the Forbidden Knowledge wing. He adjusted a pair of reading spectacles on his muzzle for a moment, then continued his work, his quill scribbling ceaselessly in a book of ancient, semi-translucent parchment which seemed to moan softly, as though from a great distance. On either side of him on the desk – which might or might not have been carved out of solid bone, Clover couldn't tell in the dim light – were two stacks of books. As she watched, he closed the book he was working on, ignoring its cries of protest, and put it on top of the stack on his right. He then grabbed the next book from the stack on his left, and began to read. “The Princess in Yellow, Cultes des Mules, the Necroponycon,” he muttered. “Shoddy!” He dipped his quill in a bottle of red ink and began to cross out large sections of text. Clover tore her eyes away to the other figures in the room. Star Swirl the Green stood smiling in the center of a chalk circle painstakingly inscribed on the wooden floorboards, his hat resting on a nearby chair. His mane and beard was a single mad mess of white pointing in all directions, and as Clover watched it seemed to curl and flex on its own, like Maredusa's snakes. Perhaps it tickled, Clover thought. Perhaps that explained the constant giggling. Or maybe he was just having that much fun playing with the tiny shoggoth – no larger than a pony – that danced excitedly back and forth in front of him, its large morphic eyes billowing and turning in what Clover could only presume was the shoggoth equivalent of a smile. “Who's a good shoggoth?” Star Swirl the Green said, scratching the entity under a tendril shaped vaguely like a dog's muzzle. “You are! Yes you are!” Clover saw Red break cover for a split-second on the other side of the open space. Their eyes met, and he pointed to her, and then to Star Swirl the Green. Then, with his other hoof, he pointed to himself, and Purple. Clover nodded, and Red disappeared again into the shadows. I can't believe I'm doing this. Clover swallowed, and took a silent step forward towards Green, and then another. After a few steps she was directly behind him. His full attention was on the baby shoggoth, and the shoggoth seemed not to care for anything around it besides playing with its summoner. Once she was close enough, Clover fell motionless and began to gently lower the ring towards Green's horn. Suddenly she was looking into his eyes. He hadn't turned: two eyes had opened on the back of his head and were looking directly at her. “Eh? What?” he grunted. Clover shrieked, and leapt back, and fell flat on her rump. The magic blocker fell, released from Clover's grip, and bounced across the floor. Without warning, Star Swirl the Green rose up to twice normal pony height, revealing not four but eight elongated, multi-jointed legs akin to a giant spider under his robe, and turned to face her with an unnatural motion. “Clover?” he asked. “What are you doing here? Clover's jaw rose and fell wordlessly. She stared at him in wide-eyed horror, struggling to not throw up. “What am I—Professor, what have you done to yourself?” “I made some improvements,” Green replied with a grin. “This body is stronger, more flexible, and completely modular. My hooves can cling to any surface, I can see a full 360 degrees around me, and in case of emergencies I am filled with a tasty, nutrient-rich paste instead of blood. I can also glide for short distances in a strong wind.” His smile froze, and vanished when he spotted the ring on the floor beside Clover. “...Is that a magic blocker?” “Eep!” Clover's look of horror gained a level as she realized she had dropped it. She grabbed the ring and tucked it under her robe and tried to look innocent. Green gasped. “Sabotage,” he cried as he skittered around the room at incredible speed, sometimes going halfway up the walls. “Are you seeing this, Scholar? Our own pupil is betraying us!” Purple looked half-heartedly from his desk. “Must you go on so? I am trying to work. Hello, Adventurer. No, don't bother.” With a whisk of magic, the shadows concealing Star Swirl the Red washed away. Clover rose up on her hooves with a sigh and stepped closer. “Star Swirl... all of you, please come back with me to Canterlot House. You're scaring everypony.” Clover thought for a second. “You're actually scaring me too.” “Nonsense,” said Purple. “Our work is to the benefit of equine civilization. I am correcting the past errors of pony scholarship, and Green is converting our improved knowledge into more utilitarian advances.” Purple said the last two words with a sniff of distaste, but shook it off. “Don't mind the Innovator. We are going to make everything better.” “Shoggoths for everypony!” Green cheered. “Tekeli-Li!” the shoggoth whistled in a clear, high pitch. “Please listen to me, Professor,” Clover said. She stepped up meekly to Purple and tugged on his robe, and looked at him with pleading eyes. “Your shoggoths aren't helping anypony, they're destroying Cambridle and we need to stop them! Please, I'm begging you to come out and help the librarians banish them.” “Nonsense, Clover,” Green scoffed. “These aren't just regular old shoggoths. They're improved shoggoths! More compact, twice as efficient, 450% cuddlier, and 98% less likely to turn against us and lay waste to our civilization. They're not destroying Cambridle – they're disassembling it so that they may reconstruct it better than the original.” “I have been editing Alhoofred,” Purple said dispassionately. “His notation is appalling. Once I cleaned it up, all the parts that resulted in insanity and apocalypse disappeared. I believe once I finish this next chapter, Great Cthulhu will come and perform maintenance work on the ocean ecosystem. We are several thousand years overdue for it.” “Always an explanation,” Clover said under her breath, and sighed. “I'm sorry, professor, I really am, but this is too much. There are giant alien monsters transforming the city, and nopony is going to accept that no matter what you tell them! Everypony is panicking and somepony is going to get seriously hurt!” “Give them time,” Purple said. “They'll come around.” “Please, professor!” She tugged on Purple's arm, much to his annoyance. “The librarians let us in here to try to talk you down—” “To ambush us,” Green interjected. “—but if you won't listen to us then they're going to drive you out of here by force!” Green snorted at that. Then he chuckled, then giggled, and finally erupted into laughter which soon turned grim and maniacal. “Yes, I wish them luck with that,” Purple said, turning once again to his current book. Hardly a second passed before Clover felt a change in the air, and Purple looked up again. “Oh,” he said. “It seems they've disabled the magic field. Well, let them try their silly tricks and we'll—” “Playtime,” a stern mare's voice said from behind them, “is over, Star Swirl.” The effect was immediate. Clover watched in fascination as all three Star Swirls froze like little foals caught with their hooves in the cookie jar. Slowly, as though hoping that lack of motion would make them invisible, they turned to see the intruder. Clover did likewise, and saw that they had been joined in the chamber by a tan-coated middle-aged unicorn mare, who was staring them down through slim horn-rimmed spectacles. She wore a loose dark frock with a bow around its neck, her dark crimson mane tied in a bun. All in all, Clover would have said the mare was the least frightening thing she had seen since moving to Cambridle. But her effect on the Star Swirls was immediate. “You!” Red exclaimed, his voice cracking. “It's not possible,” Green blurted out. “Ginny?” Purple said, his impassive demeanor visibly strained. “My word, I haven't seen you—” Here both Red and Green turned to him and made urgent gestures of silence. “—since the practical Chronomancy exam...” Red and Green both cringed at a reference Clover did not know. Ginny's glare only intensified. Purple took a cautious step backwards. “Right, point taken, not going to discuss that now.” Clover cautiously raised a hoof. “Um, who are you, exactly?” Ginny turned and ran her eyes over Clover, and Clover suddenly felt very much like she did in her etiquette lessons with Miss Courtly Manners. “Who are you?” Ginny asked. “...I'm Star Swirl's student,” Clover said in a voice that was suddenly very weak and small. “Ah yes,” Ginny said, seeming to have heard her easily. “They mentioned you outside. I'm not going to have any problems with you, am I?” Clover shook her head. “Well, young miss, I am Ginny the Librarian. I was a young librarian here when Star Swirl was a teenage student, and after a hundred years I am apparently still the only pony that he is afraid of.” “That is... an exaggeration,” Purple said. The other two cast him angry looks. “You know what, nevermind.” “How are you still alive?” Green asked. “You're older than I am!” “Ancient librarian magics,” Ginny said. “A cockatrice's eye set me in stone, to slumber through the ages, until the Order had need once again of my service. Specifically, until you came back and made a mess of the library again, as we always knew you would, and they needed somepony to kick you out. Now here we are, and I have been awoken from my slumber to enforce the Edict of the First Circle. Star Swirl of Edinspur!” She proclaimed. “You stand accused once again of violating the codes of library ethics; of desecrating books that do not belong to you; of sullying the great works of the past with your unsolicited revisions. You are still not allowed to edit the library's books, Star Swirl. Have you anything to say in your defense?” “I had nothing to do with this!” Star Swirl the Red squealed. “It's those two! They're the ones who did it! I was helping! Tell her, Clover!” He nudged Clover more forcefully than was strictly necessary, and she nodded. Ginny looked to Purple and Green. “And you two? Are you going to put down that quill and leave the library peacefully?” Her eyes narrowed. “Or shall I get out the cauldron and the gurney again?” Purple snorted indignantly, but Clover could hear a slight trembling in his voice. “You can't do anything to me, now. I'm not some young and untrained student anymore, Ginny. I'm a professor. Honorary, but still!” Star Swirl the Green fumed. “Ignorant short-sighted children! We could make the entire world so much better! I won't let you stop me, Ginny, not this time! If you won't let progress come peacefully then let it come by force!” “So be it,” Ginny said, and levitated half a dozen magic blockers above her head. “By the power vested in me as Penmate and Paragon of the Codex Bibliotheca, Star Swirl of Edinspur, I inscribe your name in the Book of Shame! You are outcast, and shall never be welcome in a library of the Order ever again!” Star Swirl the Green rose up on his giant spider legs, and huge slashing claws emerged from behind his shoulders, ripping through his cloak. “Do your worst,” he spat. “The magic blockers won't work,” Purple said. “I came up with a workaround for them many years ago. Actually the most effective way to subdue us would be to block our vision and hearing while saturating the area with thaumic white noise.” Green's jaw dropped. “Why would you tell her that?” “I am a teacher,” Star Swirl the Purple replied. “I can't not teach. That would just be silly.” “Betrayed,” Green sputtered. “Betrayed on all sides by those closest to me! Betrayed, at the first sign of trouble. Cowardice!” Purple put down the quill and turned his eyes on Green. “I am here for the advancement of knowledge, not for your paltry games. I was never on your side, and ipso facto have never betrayed you.” “I no longer believe,” Green began, forming each word slowly and fiercely, staring at Purple with a dangerous glower, “that this library is big enough for both of us.” “Agreed,” said Purple, glowering right back at Green. At once, both their horns lit up, and a gust of wind whipped up all around them. Their horns glowed with the same aura Clover knew, but the similarity ended at the color: Purple's aura was solid, unmoving, while Green's sparked and crackled like lightning. Green struck first, launching bolts of magical energy that spun and curled through the air, which Purple shot down without difficulty despite their erratic movements. Purple then shot back a straight beam directly at Green, which Green dodged by standing up on his freakish giant spider legs and letting the beam pass under him to sear the wall. They both glared, and snarled, and grimaced at each other, while Clover, Ginny, Red, and one small, sad-looking shoggoth looked on. “Y'know, I should have seen this coming,” Clover said. “I've seen what happens when there's more than one Star Swirl in the same place. They either work together, or try to kill each other.” She sighed. “Now I just need to find the Prophet... Say... what's that shaking?” Clover looked down. The floor was trembling beneath their hooves, and it was getting stronger. At the same time, the already dim light was fading, and a strange whispering sound, like a swarm of insects rousing from slumber all at once, was heard coming from all around. Faint at first, it grew stronger and stronger as the shadows grew deeper. “That,” Red said slowly, looking up at the ceiling, “is a genius loci.” He turned to Ginny. “Say, Ginny... How old is the Forbidden Knowledge Wing, do you know?” “As old as the university itself,” Ginny said, looking up as dust fell from above, shook loose from years of stasis. “Possibly older.” “It'll be a very powerful one then,” Red said. “Well, let's just hope it isn't powerful enough to form a will of its own, or command the wills of others.” “Professor?” Clover asked, taking a step back. “What's happening?” “You keep asking me to explain things,” Red complained, as the floor rose and fell like a wave, the creaking threatening to drown out his words. “You know I hate explaining. Get somepony else to do it.” “This room has been hoarding misguided magic energies since ancient times,” Purple called out between firing magic bolts at Green. “Thanks to the librarians and their greed for bad writing, it now seeps through everything in this chamber. There are certain risks associated with this kind of magic nexus. They attract negatively charged magical influences, which merge and form vast super-consciousnesses that linger in dormancy until they grow powerful enough to awaken, or until something jolts them into action.” “Yeah,” Red said. “And that's the magic those two are drawing upon right now for their duel.” “Professor!” Clover yelled to Green and Purple. “Could you please stop fighting yourself before you wake the ancient evil?” “Don't worry about it,” both Green and Purple answered in perfect synchronization. “I will easily defeat this oaf before that becomes a problem.” A column snapped in two in a corner of the room, and part of the ceiling collapsed around it. The floor around them was cracking and pulsing. “I can subdue them,” Red said. “I'm Star Swirl the Bearded, after all. Nothing can bring me—” Star Swirl the Red was interrupted by a jagged spike of stone crashing down on him from above. “I'm alright!” he shouted from around it, but several more were coming down all over the chamber. “Tekeli-Liiii!” the shoggoth warbled in the distance as Clover screamed and dived for cover from the falling rocks. “I told you, you should have just let me edit the books!” Star Swirl the Purple called out from across the chamber. “There are consequences to containing so many bad ideas so close together. They begin to warp everything around them into copies of themselves.” Clover ducked behind a nearby shelf, and found herself sitting next to Ginny. The librarian was peering through the gaps in the stacks of books at the duelling wizards. “I need backup for this,” Ginny muttered. “Where in Tartarus are my guards?” – – – “The stars have foretold it! The world of ponies stands before a fall!” the voice of Star Swirl the Grey rang out through the library as shoggoths swarmed below and overwhelmed the library's defenders. He had climbed atop a spire of shelving, and the cavernous architecture lent his already powerful voice a booming, immaterial presence. “Your blindness will be your doom! Even as you languish in petty strife, a glacier comes, slow but unstoppable, to crush your civilization beneath it!” “There are too many of them!” a young librarian monk, his quill broken and with tears streaming down his face, collapsed to the floor before the Grandmaster. “They are all trying to reach the Forbidden Knowledge Wing,” another initiate said. “They must be coming from all over the city.” “You will burn the world around you for warmth, and when that fire dies there will be no shelter left for you and you will freeze! You are ignorant and fearful creatures, and in your fear you will rend this world asunder!” The Grandmaster whimpered, and clutched his crown of office to his chest. – – – “I need to shut them down before they bring the whole library down on our heads,” Ginny said, and turned a critical eye to Clover. “You. Student. Are you going to get in my way or not?” “I want to help,” Clover said. “I need to keep him safe!” “His safety is not my concern,” Ginny said. “Well, it's not his either,” Clover said, trying to keep calm in the face of adrenaline. “So I've made it mine, because somepony has to. Look, what the purple one said earlier, about white noise, can we do that?” "Not quite, but I have something bigger," Ginny said, and retrieved a small chalk stone inscribed with runes from a corner of her robe. “Do you know what this is? It's a Nullstone. Crush it, and it will disrupt the flow of magic in the area, and render all spellcasting ineffective for a couple of minutes. But you have to be close to make it work.” Clover gulped, and nodded. “Okay, I can do that.” Clover slipped the stone into a pocket of her cloak, and immediately after the floorboards beneath them cracked and splintered, forcing them to leap away before the shelf they were using for cover toppled over them. “Go!” Ginny yelled. Clover went. She ran around the fallen shelf and made a beeline straight for the two duelling wizards, but the building shook and threw her off her hooves. Shadows filled her vision, and the sounds of the battle seemed to come from different directions from one moment to the next. The room itself seemed to stretch and distort around her, and she turned back and forth, trying to find out where she was. She heard the sound of the roof creaking directly overhead just in time to look up and see the stone falling. Just before it made contact something tore her away, and she found herself hurtling through the air on a jungle vine that appeared quite out of nowhere. “It's the genius loci,” Red said as they landed on the far side of the room. “The forbidden knowledge wing is fighting you. It doesn't want them to stop. It feeds on anger and fear.” He peered through the shadows until he found something Clover could not see. “They're that way,” he said. “Control your emotions, desire only good things, and the library's evil will can have no hold on you.” “Is that what you're doing?” she asked. “Nope! And I'm scared witless and I want to smash things,” he said with a huge grin. “I am relishing the sensation! This is the most fun I've had in many years. Think happy thoughts! Do you think you can make it?” Clover closed her eyes and thought of sunshine and daisy sandwiches. She nodded uncertainly. Red patted her on the back, and she ran again into the chaos. “Ice cream on warm summer days,” Clover muttered as a wooden spike burst up from the floor not two feet beside her. “Hugs. Nice, long, hugs! Tender, loving hugs!” It's actually working, she thought, as she saw the bursts of magic missiles through the coiling smoke ahead of her. She reached for the nullstone with her magic just as she saw their silhouettes ahead. That was when the floor collapsed under her, and she fell, and looked up to see the entire ceiling falling in above to crush her under a hundred tons of rubble. “Tekeli-Li!” the cry rumbled a thousand times, and Clover's vision was filled with a gelatinous torrent, and then blinded by thick green smoke. The ever-present creaking of the building was replaced by the sound of heavy objects falling into thick goop. “Hi Clover!” a chorus of young voices yelled, and Clover found herself being grabbed by small hooves and pulled to safety. When she opened her eyes she was sitting on top of a shoggoth, her hooves sinking softly into its softly glowing mass, and the trio of foal Star Swirls were in front of her, grinning widely. “We know we said we'd go back home and stay there,” Orange said. “But we decided this was a better idea.” “We found out something we can be!” White said. “Shoggoth trainers!” “For some reason we seem to have a deep magical connection to forces that are pure of heart, and yet sow destruction on a cosmic scale,” Yellow said. “The shoggoths all worship us as their masters and obey us, but they're all being drawn back here where they came from.” Clover pulled her hooves out of the shoggoth's back, and found that she could stand firmly on it without difficulty. “Thank you,” she said. “You probably saved my life there. I guess I owe you even more favors now.” The shoggoth rose up from the pit in the floor, and behind it streamed a seemingly endless flood of its kin. With remarkable speed, they spread about the great chamber and latched on to the crumbling supports, holding up the ceiling as they burned the broken walls and columns in great bursts of green smoke. Clover watched the display in amazement, then remembered herself. “Can you bring me closer to the others?” she asked. “The purple and green ones! I need to reach them!” “The Scholar and the Innovator, coming right up,” Orange said. “Oh, look, they're trying to get away.” Clover looked ahead, and saw them. The two wizards were indeed running away as fast as they could, their duel forgotten, as shoggoths devoured the collapsing building all around them. Clover felt something cold in her stomach, and a bitter taste in her mouth as a shadow passed over her. There they were, amid all the chaos they had called down upon Cambridle, amid the final collapse of a whole wing of the university library, a rampaging army of alien creatures and the hungry ghosts of forbidden knowledge, all thanks to them... And they were running away from it, their sad little bells jingling on their robes and hats. Clover felt her chest tighten and her eyes narrowed to slits, as the memories of her day flooded back into the forefront of her mind. Every objection, every dismissal, every insistance, every little slight. Those cowards. “Those cowards,” Clover whispered, drawing the attention of the trio. “Get me closer,” she commanded. “I think it's time I taught him a lesson.” In the end, their backs were against the wall, or in Green's case, to the ceiling, as he was climbing backwards up the wall, with shoggoths fencing them in all around. Clover leapt down from the gelatinous creature and landed in front of them. “You,” Clover growled, taking a step forward. “I have been chasing you all day, all over the city. Even as you destroy everything you touch, I've only wanted to keep you safe!” I have defended you. “I have defended you against everypony, in spite of everything you've done. I made this whole city think I'm a madmare for defending you. And what did it get me?” Only mockery and ridicule. “Only mockery and ridicule, Star Swirl!” Tears of anger crept into the corners of her eyes now. You collapsed the Cambridle University Library on my head, Star Swirl. “You collapsed the Cambridle University Library on my head, Star Swirl!” I don't know what I ever saw in you. “I don't know what... I... ever... what?” You have brought me nothing but misery and heartache, Star Swirl. “You've brought me... You've... I...” Suddenly Clover felt very dizzy. She put a hoof on her forehead and rubbed her temples. Her skin felt numb, her hoof distant and detached. All seven Star Swirls were walking slowly, cautiously into her field of vision, looking at her. “I just wanted...” It's time to give up on this. It was always a stupid idea. Clover blinked, trying to clear the smoke from her eyes. “A stupid idea...” she muttered bitterly, her voice thin and weak. “I just wanted to learn magic... I just wanted everypony to see the hero I know...” Just walk away, Clover. It's not worth it. Clover turned to look back, and saw a pale light in the distance that might have been the exit. Leave the Nullstone and let Ginny deal with him. “Think happy thoughts, Clover,” Red said under his breath. He's a hopeless old madpony who only hurts everypony around him and destroys everything he touches. Why would you be any different? “He's....” Really, it's a miracle he's still alive. Nothing can kill him, but he'll continue causing havoc everywhere he goes so long as he lives. “Really...” You just have to say no, and walk away, and that will be the end of it. “He's... really... a very nice pony,” Clover's voice gained in volume and intensity as she reached into her pocket and withdrew the Nullstone, “once you get to KNOW HIM!” With all her might, she threw the Nullstone down, and crushed it beneath her hoof. The air around them exploded in an all-consuming torrent of magic static. The room screamed, the sound of the genius loci dying, torn to magical shreds from the explosion as the army of shoggoths devoured the last remnants of the infected structure that had housed it. The shaking stopped, as the smoke cleared to reveal the Forbidden Knowledge Wing rebuilt in pristine materials free of all corruption, all the books neatly stacked along the bright, clean, perfectly Euclopian walls. The shoggoths were gone, their work complete. Whatever magic had conjured them was spent, and all seven Star Swirls were lying unconscious in a pile, locked in what seemed to be comfortable, restful slumber. The foal trio lay in a tight triangle, each using one of the others as a pillow. Clover felt her exhaustion and her unhappiness melting away at the sight, and she snickered. She turned to Ginny. “Can I get a cart or something, to bring them all back home?” she asked. Ginny nodded. “Thanks.” – – – And that is how that particular week ended in Cambridle. The Council of Horns made the sun rise and set as scheduled, with no more complaints than usual. All over town, ponies retired from their work to their homes, and planned to prepare to return to work again, in spite of everything. “How is it?” asked the Grandmaster Librarian of his senior officer, rival, and first in line to succeed him. “Well, Grandmaster, if we add the new stacks to the ones he did the first time,” replied the senior officer, a tall and slender stallion with jealous hungry eyes, “in total he's managed to edit a full twenty percent of the tomes of knowledge ponies were not meant to know. But that's not the big issue. More concerning is that he actually fixed the index. Now anypony can come in here and just find things out without having to spend years learning the proper codes and rites beforehoof! It's a disaster!” “We shall begin rewriting the codes from the ground up immediately,” the Grandmaster said. “What else?” “The patrons are already reporting that the usual haunting visions are gone or sharply reduced. The initiates are speculating that the new Forbidden Knowledge Wing might no longer drive librarians insane, but the older librarians are complaining that this means we'll get a generation of weaklings. The Mystic Order has already scheduled a panel to discuss it at this year's general assembly.” The senior officer scanned through his notes. “Also, Star Swirl found a dozen books from the Discordian Era which we had thought were lost to history. Apparently Ponydent Whinnydy actually travelled back in time in order to kill himself.” – – – “We've carted away all the fakes to the flea market.” the Senior Curator's assistant said, and bit her lip. “I'm afraid that includes most of the furniture in your office, ma'am. Turns out the Indomitable Desk wasn't actually indomitable.” The Senior Curator sighed. “So our remaining exhibits now consist of...?” “Well, theres the doorpony's jacket, the floor tiles in the Neighyptian hall, the gift plaque from the Princess of Maresopotamia, which it turns out was real even though the materials she gifted us weren't, and the 500-piece collection of marital aids across history that we kept in the back.” “Wonderful,” said the curator. “So we have a giant empty building and nothing to do with it.” “We could open a dance school?” – – – The newly-established Cambridle City Planning office looked at the newest addition to their town. The shoggoths had all returned to the metaphysical plane of pure potential they came from, but their work remained. They had burned away, the architects and engineers calculated, a thousand tons of construction. In its place they had left behind new walls and supports of a material unlike anything anypony had ever seen. It had the texture of wood, but was stronger than concrete. It turned translucent when hot and seemed to glow when viewed at a precise angle. It would not burn, and emitted an aura of serenity. The ponies living in the affected structures reported that the buildings were much less creaky and wobbly, but also feared to go to sleep lest they receive visions in their dreams. The biggest change, however, was the new building which now occupied what had been an abandoned lot on the edge of town. Where previously there had been a decaying and unsafe warehouse, whose use was not worth the back-taxes owed on the property, there now stood a skeleton tower of alien architecture from beyond the stars, reaching for the skies. There was a sign outside the tower, which read: COMING SOON A PROMISE OF PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP ACROSS THE UNIVERSE WITH LOVE, FROM YOUR FRIENDS, THE SHOGGOTHS. – – – “That's all of them,” Clover said as she closed the door on the final chamber. “Thanks for helping me bring them all back here safely.” The warrior librarians, led by Ginny, had led the wagonload of sleeping Star Swirls through Cambridle in a full regimental dishonor guard. None of the Star Swirls had woken up, even when the librarians struggled to carry them up the rickety stair. Once indoors, Clover and Ginny had gently carried them down to the Experimental Manufacturing platform, and placed each one inside a chamber, color-coded for Clover's convenience. The eighth Star Swirl had been right where Clover left him earlier in the day, looking up at the sky through the telescope on the balcony. To Clover's relief, he had followed along without objections when Clover led them down to the machine. There was a ninth module on the machine which had remained sealed the entire time. A sign hung on the chamber door. It read: “Clover – do not open this module. Seriously. Don't. -Star Swirl the Bearded.” “It was nothing,” Ginny said from a nearby platform as her eyes ran over every sight in the great research hall. “So this is where he lives nowadays?” “That's right. Canterlot House 1. Celestia knows why it's named that.” “Old mythology,” Ginny said. “He always loved old stories... I understand the world has changed a lot while I was asleep. He certainly didn't live like this when I knew him. But from what I saw today, it seems like he's only gotten worse since then.” Ginny looked at Clover with a raised eyebrow. “Why would a nice filly like you want to study under somepony like him?” Clover gave a weak laugh. “It's... an experience,” she said. “I would say being his student is like going through a portal to a bigger world, except that thanks to him I've literally gone through portals to bigger worlds. To smaller worlds too.” “Sounds like a deal with Discord to me,” Ginny said. “I have seen what happens to ponies who try to get close to Star Swirl. You would be wise to stay away.” “You know, Star Swirl once told me something similar himself,” Clover said. “But I think he was wrong. Everypony knows he's powerful, but nopony knows him. Nopony but me.” She looked up at the hulking metal machinery that had temporarily consumed him. “I think he needs somepony to remind him that he's actually a pony.” The conversation halted for a moment as Clover turned the valve, and the machine came to life with a loud chugging sound, and lights flashed on in many different colors on each of the machine's modules. “What are you going to do now?” Clover asked. “Are you going to go back to sleeping in stone?” “I think I've earned some vacation time,” Ginny said. “Perhaps I'll teach the mysteries to young initiates, or see what the university is up to nowadays.” “Well,” Clover said. “Maybe I'll see you around.” “You might,” Ginny said. “Oh, and do remember to tell Star Swirl, when he wakes up, that he is forbidden from ever entering the library while under the effect of that magic ever again.” “I will,” Clover said. “But thanks for not just plain banning us both.” Ginny raised an eyebrow. “Why would I do that?” Clover shrugged. “Well, not everypony is as understanding as you, apparently.” “Well, let me know if you ever need any help or advice in managing him. We can share tricks over tea.” “We should do that,” Clover said, smiling. An hour later, Ginny was long gone, and Clover sat nearby reading a novel when, with a dull thunk, the machine finished its work. The hum ran down, and silence, and with a pneumatic hiss, the door on the machine's central chamber unsealed, and swung open. Star Swirl the Bearded skipped out, humming a breezy tune. “Dadedum... Let the wind come shake me do-o-own... dadadee... Oh, hello Clover,” he said, smiling. “I can declare this experiment a success. I haven't felt this refreshed in many years.”