“Would you please just leave me alone?!” Gearhead implored, voice, hooves, and eyes raised to the high ceiling. Shocked silence replaced the drone of questions from the crowd of Unicorns who surrounded the table.
“What a surprise,” one stallion said.
“To be fair, I guess we were being really overwhelming?” A mare said.
“Yeah, really we can’t blame him for an outburst like that.”
“More like, why didn’t any of the Librarians stop us?”
“Look,” the pony nodded to a mare eavesdropping around a shelf. “She was curious too!”
“Ah-hah-hah. Well, I hope you’ll forgive us, little guy.”
“Yeah, sorry.”
As the dispersing crowd apologized, Gearhead felt more and more ashamed of himself. By the time he decided he wanted to apologize, however, they were already gone, leaving him alone with his shame. And all this after gaining admittance here. He lay his head on the table, careful not to touch the pages of the book open before him.
The Hidden Library and the Canterlot Library were competing for the title of ‘greatest repository of magical knowledge.’ For somepony who was not in the Third Conclave of Flowing Shadows, so named for its age and mastery over Dark and Water Magic, admittance was a true honour. And for that pony to be an Earth Pony was miraculously unusual – and if Gearhead was not ‘unusual,’ he did not know what was.
Gearhead looked like a normal Earth Pony colt, especially with his brown coat and rust-red mane (although it was a little long). The only unusual thing about his appearance was the bulky-looking horseshoes he wore, since they completely covered him from the bottom of his hooves to halfway up his forelegs. Father and Gearhead made them from a special set of materials that insulated the outside world from Gearhead’s power.
Nopony Gearhead knew could say what his power was. All they knew was that any time he went outside without his special shoes, it resulted in the ground around him buckling, flowing, and folding. But give him something small and broken, and he could fix it. Father had already exhausted the family library and the Hoofington Public Library trying to find out what was what. Now it was Gearhead’s turn to conduct research for his own sake.
Considering the likelihood that Princess Celestia had contributed material to Canterlot Library, Gearhead might find his answers there more readily, however that would require going halfway across Equestria. It was far easier to travel the hour or so necessary to get from Verdant Fields to the Hidden Library, which was on the Shadow Estates in Hoofington. That was why Gearhead had applied for admission, despite not being a Unicorn. He was genuinely surprised when the Conclave granted him permission after all.
And here he was, acting like a complete foal.
No, I must make this worthwhile, Gearhead thought, picking himself up. He had a pile of books through which to read, and less time in which to do it, since at the end of each day he had to walk home. He took a deep breath, and refocused on the page in front of his face.
“Hup!”
Gearhead blinked, then glanced right but did not see anypony. He returned to his studies.
“Hup!” This time it was on his left, but even looking down did not yield the source. Still, if the emerging pattern continued...
“Hup – ow!” This time Gearhead spotted a flash of white and a bit of lightest gold before his head collided with his visitor’s. He barely managed to keep from rolling off of his chair, piled high as it was with pillows so he could read the thicker books he had asked the Librarians to collect for him. Still rubbing his head, the colt looked down.
“Ow-heh-heh. It’s a good thing your brain-case is so hard,” the filly said from the floor, where she was lying on her back. The white was her mane, long, unruly, and wavey. Her coat was light yellow. She blinked her large, light purple eyes up at Gearhead, and then turned over to get back up.
“You were jumping up? Why?”
“I wanted to see what you’re reading. Sorry ‘bout that,” she bowed her head.
“Yes, please forgive my sister,” a colt said from nearby. He was a head-and-a-half taller than Gearhead, who was small for his tribe anyway. He had an earnest look in his dark purple eyes.
“Considering she got as good as she gave...”
“Yes?”
“You are forgiven,”
“Yay!” She shouted (quietly, to avoid the Librarians’ wrath) and bounced around Gearhead’s chair, while her brother used his magic to pull up two more.
“So what are you studying?” The colt asked, while the filly pulled herself up and into her chair on Gearhead’s left.
“I am looking for anything related to unusual magicks,”
“Oh? Why?” Gearhead turned to the left to find the filly seated so she was looking directly at him, tilting her head slightly to the right.
“’Why’ because I am an Earth Pony, or ‘why study strange magicks?’”
“Oh, you’re right: you totally are!”
The combination of that statement and the filly’s big smile nearly knocked Gearhead out of his seat. “You seriously did not notice?”
“I wasn’t going to say anything if she wasn’t,” the colt said wryly.
“By the way, what do I call you?”
“I’m Dawn!” The filly leaned across her chair so her forelegs hung past the legrests. She smiled happily when Gearhead gave in and shook hooves with her.
“And I’m Dusk,” the colt said, only shaking hooves because after Dawn, Gearhead expected him to follow suit.
“I am Gearhead,”
“Hey, if you’re studying strange magic, wanna be friends?”
“Why?”
“No good?” Dawn tilted her head the other way as her ears lowered, and her smile turned downward.
“It is just that I will have to leave eventually,” Gearhead said, trying to placate her. “I have already exhausted the Azure Library, and I do not want to hurt anyone when I go.”
“No offense to the Azure,” Dusk said, “but only Canterlot has anything on the Shadows. If there’s an answer you’re after, I’d be surprised if we didn’t have it.”
“B’sides,” Dawn said, “nothing says we can’t be friends after. So...”
Gearhead originally intended to politely refuse, since he did not appreciate ‘friends’ that came from curiosity, but his resolved melted when he saw Dawn’s begging face. “Fine,” he said.
“Yay!” Dawn managed to bounce in her seat without losing her balance and falling, somehow.
“So,” Dusk said as sent a book across to Dawn to peruse, “why’re you interested in magic?”
“I need to gain control over mine,” Gearhead said. “It is impossible to grow anything while the land around you... changes wherever you walk.”
“We didn’t see any changed terrain on our way here,” Dusk said.
“That is because my shoes are specially made to keep my magic inside,” Gearhead said. “But they do not help me to gain better control over it.”
“And that’s why you’re looking for any record of ponies with unusual magic?”
“Yes,”
“How’s it so far?” Dawn asked.
“Nothing, unfortunately.”
“Well then, that’s where we would be able to help!” She proclaimed.
“What do you mean?”
“Firstly, there’s our familiarity with the Library,” Dusk said. “We can help you find material the Librarians might hesitate to show you, because while you’re a student you’re still an outsider. No offense.”
“None taken,”
“Also,” Dawn said, “what one of us might miss, another might catch. As ponies with diff’rent perspec...” She decided to give up on getting her tongue around the more difficult word, which made Gearhead think that maybe she was not doing all these cute things on purpose. “...views, we can help each other.”
“What is in it for you?”
“We’re friends,” Dawn beamed.
“And on the practical side, we’re always interested in new and unusual magic.”
“One cannot get much more unusual than an Earth Pony studying magic,” Gearhead admitted, remembering the crowd.
“Not at all,” Dusk said, “after all you have magic.”
“Uh-huh! It’s on all the time, though.”
“’On all the time?’”
“She means it’s passive magic, as opposed to active magic that has to be activated each time, like Pegasus flight and weather control, or our spells. Your connection to the land is said to be the source and center of your magic.”
“That would be nice, but it seems like all my magic does to land is ruin it.”
“Aw,” Dawn jumped into Gearhead’s chair and hugged him. “That’s why we’re friends: to help you!”
Gearhead leaned back, so he could see Dusk. “Is she always like this?”
“Not always, but she does seem to like befriending ponies you wouldn’t call ‘normal’ the most.”
“Why?”
“Wouldn’t that be obvious, to look at us?” Dusk’s wry grin was back.
“Uh-huh. You’ve seen tons of other Shadow ponies since you got here, right?” Dawn said, her expression carefully neutral for once.
“Yes,”
“And what colours do they have?”
Gearhead only had to look at Dusk’s pitch black coat or navy blue mane to remind himself. “Blue, purple, grey, black – all dark.” Looking at Dawn, and her mane and coat which seemed to shine, the answer was obvious. “Then what about your magic?”
“As the name implies, we specialize in Dark and Shadow Magic and Water and Ice Magic.” Dusk summoned up a ball of water, wreathed in dark energy to demonstrate.
“It must be hard, being the only one with Light Magic,” Gearhead said to Dawn.
“Not at all!”
“Really?”
“I mean, it’s different if I can’t use magic at all, but...” She scrunched up her face, and her horn glowed, summoning a small ball of light that surrounded a little clear, blue water. “We’re mages,” she giggled.
“That’s our biggest truth,” Dusk said. “Any magic fascinates us, so we would never turn anyone away, no matter how different they are.”
“B’sides,” Dawn said, returning to her own chair, “everypony loves me so much!”
“It’s true: Mother or Father might scold her, but all of us are together.”
“Although,” Dawn put a hoof to her chin and looked thoughtfully upward, “sometimes Big Brother is too clingy,”
“Dawn!”
She just stuck out her tongue and giggled more.