//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 - Glowing Embers // Story: Night Reigns // by tursi //------------------------------// This corner of the ancient library had undergone some changes since Celestia had arrived. The rotting tables and chairs had been cleaned out, except for the large table that she rose from. Along either side of the room, stacks of relevant books had been picked out, and a large collection of moldy scrolls had been retrieved and stacked against the shelves. Celestia approached this stack and sent her golden magical aura towards it. The scrolls lifted into the air and began reordering themselves before her, shifting back to front and top to bottom until at last she smiled and drew one closer. The others settled quietly back onto the floor and their glow faded. She turned to the other side of the room, where she had mounted an ancient notice board, and unfolded the scroll. The unfolding revealed a grand, if ancient, map of Equestria. Her horn sparked tiny flashes of magic at its corners as she pinned it flat to the board. Then she let the glow fade as she studied the map. Even to her knowledge this map was old, but it was sufficient. It was old enough that the ruins she now occupied still stood as a small but magnificent castle at the edge of a much more open wood.  She let her eyes run over the map, noting the many towns and cities that did not even exist yet, and she sighed softly. Times had been difficult when this map was drawn, too, as she and Luna had not long before defeated Discord. The lands had still been in turmoil from the long rule of the Spirit of Chaos, but there was so much hope and Luna had been so excited. Celestia supposed that she had been excited too, but she had worked hard to appear more regal and more level-headed. She had taken her new responsibilities very seriously. Was that my first mistake? Celestia shook her head. She had no time for doubts right now. The spell that she needed to cast had to be done very carefully with her limited magic reserve, and precision was important. Her horn lit gently, and she reached out to the map. As if stitching fabric, she began to weave faintly glowing threads of magic between the map and the forest around the castle, working slowly and deliberately. She couldn't afford a magic surge that might give away her position and she couldn't afford to waste power, so she focused her mind and wove a single thread at a time. At last she was satisfied and her horn's glow faded again, as did the magical threads. She leaned in closer to the map, studying it carefully. After a moment, a single dot of ink moved just a hair. Then another did, on the other side of the castle. When she saw a third movement she allowed herself a smile. The spell was working as she'd intended: a perimeter was established around the castle that would show her if anypony was moving nearby. The threads of magic were largely passive - responding to the magic of the creature moving and feeding it back to the map. A larger magical presence would create a larger mark on the map, but the drain on Celestia's own magic would be minimal. It was nearly undetectable if you didn't know to look for it. Her next action had been to take advantage of a little known spell linking this library to Canterlot. When she had finally abandoned the structure and settled in Canterlot, she and her advisors had left many of the books here. Rather than be cut off from the knowledge and history, a spell linked the two libraries which allowed books from one to be transferred to the other - if a pony knew what book she needed. Although the spell was weakened over time, it was still functional. The main problem Celestia had was that she did not know what books would give her insight. A few random guesses had yielded some account-keeping books, but little else that informed her about the last few years. She was amused to find that they were somewhat unsurprising - apparently the Canterlot bureaucrats were not at all slowed by eternal night. She had also gained a rough idea how long it had been from the meticulous record keeping of the accounting ponies. She closed the latest book with a sigh. Ten years. Had it really been ten years of night? How could the time have passed so quickly? What had happened to the land in all that time? What had happened to Sunset Shimmer? That was one answer she could at least try to get. Lighting her horn again, she summoned one more book, a dusty old notebook with her own cutie mark inscribed on her cover. Her magic opened the book and flipped through to reveal a blank page. She summoned a quill and thought for a few minutes, and then began to write. It took her only a few moments and then Celestia laid the quill down on the table. The magic of her horn faded as the words on the page likewise faded from a golden glow to normal looking black ink. She sighed softly and read the message yet again. She knew that she was taking a large risk even attempting this. "Oh, Celestia," she whispered to herself. "Could you have been ANY more obvious?" She wondered if even a low ranking officer in Nightmare Moon's court would have fallen for her attempt to write it as if from the past. Her head turned towards the ceiling, beyond which she knew the night sky sparkled brilliantly. "At least Luna would not know much about the Summer Sun Celebration. Maybe she would be too busy to do more than dismiss it." But what if Sunset dismisses it as old magic herself? Celestia shook her head at the thought. "Sunset Shimmer is brilliant," she reassured herself. "She will know it means something more and read between the lines. Besides, didn't I just tell myself it was too obvious?" She closed the book gently, watching it for a few more minutes in case it responded. Sunset Shimmer was her best chance to find out the state of the world beyond the forest, but Celestia couldn't be certain she would arrive. She also couldn't just wait for things to solve themselves - that was in part why she was in this situation. After a moment longer, she stood up and made her way across the room. Her destination was the one part of this ancient castle that she was not very familiar with – the catacombs beneath it. Luna had been responsible for them, taking great delight in creating mysterious secret doors and creepy passageways. Celestia had largely left them to her, playfully dismissing her sister as ‘weird'. Was that my first mistake? She knew there were many entrances, including trap doors and secret slides, but she also knew that there was a closer and safer way down. She walked down the long library and turned into a small alcove, stopping before the narrow bookcase at the end. Activating her magic, she found the hidden switch and pulled, causing the ancient hidden doorway to swing open with a loud groan. Soon it revealed a dark stone staircase, leading down into the dark. Celestia brightened her horn and began to carefully make her way down the stairs. The staircase was well-preserved, but littered with dirt and stone debris that sometimes made footing treacherous. Still she moved steadily, her expression set. She may have been Princess of the Sun but she held no fear of the dark. She likewise knew that the dangerous creatures of Everfree would not have chosen to reside down here – for the same reason as they avoided above. The magic that still echoed in these walls disturbed them and kept them at bay. But she was vulnerable to falling and decay made the stone itself dangerous. She reached the bottom without incident and started down the mossy stone corridor. Her horn lit even brighter as she cast out and tried to sense residual magic, hoping for a sense of her sister. But there was nothing, at least here. Time had faded the ancient magic to echoes without distinction, and she resigned herself to exploring. "I should have done this much sooner," she thought to herself. "It was so easy to let myself be distracted… so easy to believe that everything would just be okay when she returned. I was foolish and all Equestria paid for it." Celestia was not naive. She had figured out most of it easily enough – Luna had all but spelled it out for her when she first appeared as Nightmare Moon. Luna felt neglected by the ponies of Equestria and she was jealous of Celestia's popularity. But that was the big picture... Celestia was now hoping to fill in the finer details – if it was still possible to do so. She started down the hallway, looking around. She remembered this part of the corridor - Luna had brought her this way to show her the latest trick room when the castle was still new. Turning a corner, you'd suddenly find yourself in a square room with no exits – not even in the direction that you came from. Illusionary walls hid the passage in and out and Luna had giggled in her playful manner when she described how confused a lost pony might be in there. No sign of that ancient spell remained today, and as Celestia turned the corner she could clearly see the corridor continue through the tiny room. To her knowledge, nopony besides herself and perhaps a few unfortunate members of the staff had ever experienced Luna's playful traps. There was not even any reason for visitors to come down here, but this hadn't stopped Luna from creating. Celestia smiled again as she remembered Luna's excitement while describing new rooms… descriptions that Celestia could not remember details of. Even while nodding, she had more or less tuned them out as she worked. Another mistake. After this room she was a little less certain of her direction, but there hadn't been any branches to worry about yet. She continued down the corridor, noting that another set of Luna's fake hoof torch holders lined this wall. She laughed softly… she had written in her diary about how weird Luna was after seeing these for the first time, but it had all seemed harmless enough.  That was in the early days, when Luna still laughed, too. When did she stop laughing? Did I even notice? She reached a junction and looked left and right along the dark passages. She could just see something at the end of the left junction, and brightened her horn further to illuminate it. The passage had caved in, making it impassable. She glanced nervously upwards at the crumbling stone ceiling, thinking about the tons of stone above her head and wishing again that she had her full magic. Steeling her nerve, she turned right, hoping she wouldn't have to excavate the other corridor. Luna had not only stopped laughing, she had all but disappeared. For weeks before the fateful night, Celestia only saw her at morning and at night as they exchanged sun and moon – sometimes not even then. By that point, Celestia had figured out that something was wrong, and confronted Luna. "Sister, what is troubling you?" "Nothing." "Now, now, you know you can't hide things from me like that." "I said nothing! Stop acting like you care!" "But Luna…" "I have to go." Celestia had let it go, hoping that Luna would get over it on her own. But as for where she was disappearing to - there were not many places that she could have gone. It had to have been down here, where nopony else went and where nopony would disturb her. Celestia searched on, hoping that there was something left to fill in the history. The ancient corridors were not giving up their secrets easily, and Celestia was certainly glad that most of the tricks and traps had decayed over the millennium. Still, she once had to jump quickly when she accidentally triggered a trap slide that dropped out from underneath her, and she caught her breath more than once when a panel popped open to deliver a decayed puff of air – the ancient trap within distintegrated to dust. But eventually, after half a dozen junctions, three wrong turns, and a second collapsed tunnel - she finally detected something. She slowed her pace, studying the walls carefully. Her horn lit brighter so that she could inspect every crack in the walls, and she circled the area carefully. She was tracing along the longer wall when she suddenly gasped abruptly and drew her spell back, stepping away from the wall. Something had reacted with her magic, causing a sensation not unlike a burn. She had found something… and the magic here was still active. Her magic reached out again, more carefully this time. Again she felt the touch of ancient magic still active, but she worked carefully. It was weak but it could still trigger a trap. While most of Luna's traps were harmless enough - this felt different. At last, she felt a magical catch – a hook that would undo the spell's lock - and carefully triggered it. The burning magic evaporated and the wall fell away before her eyes; revealing a small, dark room. After a moment, she entered the room and looked around carefully. It had preserved well enough that she could make out the remains of an ornate bed, a writing desk, and elaborately patterned walls depicting nebulae and galaxies. While faded and in disrepair it was still a beautiful room, and Celestia was awed. After a moment, her attention turned to the writing desk and she approached it. Lifting the top open, she looked inside and saw a large book with an ornate clasp. Emblazoned on the cover was a crescent moon and the book still glowed faintly with ancient magic. Celestia lifted the book from the desk and then closed the desk so that she could place the book atop it. As if it wasn't obvious, she could already tell from the feel of the magic that this was Luna's book. It seemed that the same protection spell meant to keep nosy sisters from opening it was likely responsible for the condition that it was still in. She probed the spell gently and smiled. It was definitely the locking spell of a young unicorn and she had no difficulty disarming it. Finally, she could find out what had been on Luna's mind one thousand years ago. Celestia opened to the first page, and read the careful printing therein. This book is the Property of LUNA and that means NO CELESTIA ALLOWED! I have put a spell on the book so YOU CAN'T READ IT! HAHA! Celestia smiled softly. "I'm sorry, sister. But I will have to ignore your warning." She flipped ahead a few pages and leaned over the book to read the entry, only to frown. Although the ink was reasonably clear and the words appeared to be there, she found that she couldn't actually comprehend what she was reading. It was as if the words blurred and shifted across the page as she watched them, while simultaneously she was certain that they were not moving at all. It left her confused and a little dizzy, and she had to look away for a moment. She flipped ahead to another page, only to find the same thing. She could tell that the entry was shorter and she could swear that there were real words on the page, but she didn't know what they said. Page after page did the same thing, until she had to close the book to prevent nausea. "Clever sister," she mused to herself. "If I can't even study the book, it will be very hard to undo the spell." After a few moments, she lifted the book into the air again, and turned to leave the room. "But at least I think I have what I was looking for." She left the room, and started back towards the stairs. "I'm sorry for snooping, Luna. I have to know what I should have done differently before I can face you again."