//------------------------------//
// Chapter XLVIII 
// Story: Lessons in quirks 
// by Mike84 
//------------------------------//

	As they arrived back at the library, Twilight turned to Spike: "Spike, please write two letters, one to Princess Celestia and one to Princess Luna. Tell them everything that happened during the hearing, and all we know about the attacker that wasn't in the letter I wrote to Celestia yesterday."
"Everything?" Spike asked a little unsure.
"You were at the hearing. You were around all along. You know all I know, so please write those letters and I will check them to see if anything needs to be added." 
Twilight gave him an encouraging smile. "You can do it!"
"What will you do?"
"I'll check if I can find anything else in the books that could help us. I've been so focused on preparing for the hearing and proving that Frank can't have done it that I didn't try as hard to find out who could have really done it. I'll see if I can find out anything about the kind of memory loss and depression and also about what we've just seen about the birds."
As she said it, Twilight levitated about a dozen books from various sections of the library onto a table. Spike was looking somewhat skeptical.
"Are you sure this is going to help, Twilight? Don't you know all these books by heart anyway? Wouldn't you remember if there was anything in them?" 
Twilight sighed: "I'm not sure, Spike. But even I don't know every book here and maybe I have just overlooked something. There are still many missing pieces. For example, why would the attacker attack the birds, or Miss Cheerilee? I think if I find out about the why, it may lead to the who... Anyway, I sure hope Zecora finds out something or that Princess Celestia or Princess Luna know who might come up with that kind of magic."

A pony was heading for Golden Oak Library. It had been a very long time since he had last walked the alleys of Ponyville. He was wearing an old top hat that he hadn't been wearing in a long time and he had turned up the collar of his black tailcoat so they covered much of his face. He had his look fixed straight ahead and never looked at any of the ponies he passed on his way, however blatantly they were staring at him. His pace was steady and too quick for any curious passerby to try to engage him into an unwanted conversation. It was only when he reached the library that he stopped and hesitated for a moment. Nopony was around to be seen. 
Swallowtail took off the top hat which he had set over his defective horn and fanned himself. He was more nervous than he would ever allow for his expression to give away. Celestia's sun stood unusually low for the time of the year and day, yet still the heat was lingering. It had been a very long time indeed since he had last left the Rich Mansion and he felt unprotected outside its walls. He avoided anypony outside those walls and had done so for a very long time. But for all he was aware of now, it was not him but his master who might be in need of a protection he could not provide himself. He would have gone to Tartarus at his master's bidding and perhaps he would have felt less awkward about that than he felt about talking to other ponies and doing so without the explicit bidding of his master. 
He put the top hat back on his head, and with a working life's experience of countenance, put on a stern expression as he proceeded to the door of the library. It felt rather unusual as he knocked on the door to request rather than grant or deny entry.
"That must be Zecora", he heard the voice of Princess Twilight from behind the door. Moments later the door was yanked open. A smile on the face of the princess froze and gave way to a startled, almost scared look and Swallowtail had the impression that she had just suppressed a little scream. Perhaps he was a bit of an uncanny sight with the dark coat, the top hat and the stern look. But he was not here to scare anypony. He removed the top hat from his head with a little nod. 
"Princess Twilight."
"Mr. Swallowtail. It is you", the princess said, still looking rather surprised. An awkward silence followed. "I'm sorry. I didn't expect you."
"No. Miss Zecora was at my master's place, but learning that apparently Miss Cheerilee has been submitted to the same... inconvenience as Master Rich has, she decided to attend upon her too." Swallowtail said. 
"Why have you come here?" Twilight asked, looking at the unflinching face of the old servant.
"There is something I got to tell you, Princess. Something that I think you should know."
Twilight was giving him a probing look before she stepped aside.
"May I enter?"
"Please do!"
Swallowtail let his look wander through the library room. Piles of books and some pieces of papers covered more than one table in the room and some books were even lying on the floor. He would have never permitted such disorder to blemish the rooms he was in charge of in his master's house, but he had not come here to judge the service personnel of the princess, which, if word was true, consisted of a dragon even more juvenile than the princess herself. 
"Would you like to drink something, Mr. Swallowtail?"
For a moment the old servant felt tempted to accept the offer, but managed to restrain himself. 
"Please, no courtesies, Your Highness."
"As you wish", Twilight said cooly as she moved over to one table, inviting Swallowtail to the opposite site with a silent gesture.
"Twilight, is that...?" 
As Swallowtail looked up, he saw the little dragon he had heard about, but never seen before. He stood on the stairs leading to the upper floor of the library, holding a quill in one and a sheet of paper in another hand. 
"Mr. Swallowtail does us the honor", Twilight said stiffly. 
"Can I help... do you need anything?" the dragon asked. 
"Thank you Spike, but we are fine. Please just finish the letters." The dragon nodded slowly and climbed back up the stairs. Swallowtail couldn't help the impression that he was being observed though. 
"I regret the way things turned out yesterday evening", Princess Twilight said formally. "I am sorry for this. I hope you are alright?"
Swallowtail realized the situation was not much less uncomfortable for the princess than it was for himself. He wanted the talk to be over as quickly as possible.
"The little Miss has not talked to me since", he said bleakly. "But I have not come here because of that. Master Rich told me about the hearing. I understand the defendant had to reveal a cutie mark that he would have rather kept secret?"
Twilight nodded.
"That must have been unpleasant."
Twilight was frowning. Of course she did not miss the parallels to the events of the previous evening. 
"The defendant said he is studying cutie marks on behalf of the ones who don't have a cutie mark or one they are not happy with?" 
"That's what Mr. Blanket does", Princess Twilight said. 
Swallowtail nodded slowly. 
"Mr. Swallowtail, you said there is something you think I should know? Something that has to do with all this?"
"Miss Zecora hypnotized my master, put him in a trance and gave him something to drink that she said would, 
'make him remember and tell, 
what has been forgotten through course or through spell'."
Twilight nodded. This sounded like Zecora. 
"I would not have permitted for my master to undergo such a treatment but for his own insistence, while I insisted on staying there for the whole time. Miss Zecora however did not find anything. No matter how much she probed and insisted, to a point that I felt almost compelled to intervene and protect Master Rich from her, she did not get any response other than 'nothing' from him about anything she asked about his memories of the day before yesterday and the night after. Miss Zecora said: 
'I know not how a memory could be completely destroyed
but in Mr. Rich's mind there is nothing but a void'. 
She said that there was absolutely nothing at all in my master's mind, not a suppressed memory or anything that had been magically tampered with. Just nothing at all."
"A void...", Twilight mumbled, remembering that this was the same term Princess Luna had used to describe what she had, or rather hadn't, seen in Frank's dream. "Is that everything, Mr. Swallowtail?"
"No, Your Highness. I have not come as a mere errand messenger for Miss Zecora about something she would tell you anyway. In fact I am not here by anypony's errand but on my own accord."
Twilight raised her eyebrows a little. The way Swallowtail said it left no doubt that it had been a long time since he had been doing anything significant without it being an errand.
"I talked to my Master after Miss Zecora left and there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that he is indeed unaware of what I am going to tell you, Princess Twilight. I would not tell you this if I felt that it incriminated my Master in any way."
"You have my undivided attention, Mr. Swallowtail."
"I am a light sleeper. A noise that would have left most ponies sleeping roused me two nights ago. Since I consider it my duty to check out everything that might indicate any infringement on the regular proceedings in my Master's house, I got up. When I left my room I only just saw Master Rich walk down the stairs. When I followed him down and into the backyard of the mansion, I saw for my surprise that he was levitating six bags which I knew to be filled with a fortune of bits."
"You saw him levitating the bags of bits?!" Twilight shouted. "And didn't that seem the least bit strange to you?"
Swallowtail remained utterly calm and phlegmatic: "Rest assured, Princess Twilight, that in a lifetime of service to the Rich Family I have grown aware of the fact that my master is an earth pony not usually capable of levitating anything."
"Then why in Equestria didn't you say anything?"
"I did address my master in the backyard. He told me never to tell anything about this. He then asked me to return to my bed, but I still saw he teleported the bags away that were now outside the perimeter of the spell that protects the mansion against this kind of magic."
"You didn't tell because he told you not to?"
"Yes, Princess."
"Then why are you telling me this now?"
"I have been in the service of the Rich Family for all my life. I know Master Rich better than even he may know himself. I was surprised about his actions that night, but I assumed for it to be part of a scheme that I was not supposed to understand. There were some uncertainties however, and after Miss Zecora's examination and a talk with my master before I set out here, I do not have any doubts anymore. That night, I did talk to Master Rich's body, to his voice, to his intonation, to his way of saying things and to his memory, but it was not Master Rich I was talking to. It was not Master Rich who ordered me never to tell anything about what I had seen."
"You must come to town hall right now and tell this to Mayor Mare and judge Lady Justice!"
"No, Princess!"
"What?"
"I have entrusted you with this information, hoping that it may help you to find the real thief. While you don't know who the thief is, there is still a chance that this information will be held against my master. Therefore, I will deny it to anypony else."
"But nopony would suspect your master! Ponies don't get arrested so easily!"
Swallowtail frowned slightly. "Perhaps they would not. But would you not have said something similar to the defendant... Mr. Blanket, is it? ...before he got arrested on what I understood to be rather vague basis?"
Twilight didn't respond.
"Let me speak clearly, Princess. I would lie and get imprisoned myself before I would allow for Master Rich to suffer any inconvenience from the information I trusted you with."
"You would lie to everypony, see an innocent pony in prison and would get arrested yourself to spare your master inconveniences?"
"Yes", Swallowtail said flatly.
"This is crazy!" Twilight shouted angrily about his stubbornness and indifference for everything but his master's interest. 
"I would not expect Your Highness to understand this", Swallowtail said with a voice of great decorum. "But perhaps there is, even in the life of one so high-standing as yourself, one for whom you would act just the same in a similar situation."
Twilight noticed a momentary flickering in the eyes of Swallowtail and as she followed this short glimpse with her own eyes, her look fell onto her escritoire where a picture of Princess Celestia was standing. Whatever else Mr. Swallowtail was, Twilight had to admit that he was a keen observer. 
"Is there anything else?" Twilight asked after some moments. 
"I think I have told you everything that I can. I wish you to find whoever did whatever to my master. I am going to leave now. Your dragon may come out of his concealment."
There was a gasp from the top of the stairs. Twilight cast her head around. Spike was not within sight, but stepped forward now, looking guilty.
"Spike, did you eavesdrop on us?"
"Your servant was worried about the safety of his mistress", Swallowtail said. 
"How did you see me there?" Spike asked, his bafflement overcoming his embarrassment. 
"I did not. But I knew from the look you gave me, that as a loyal servant you would not leave your mistress alone with me. A servant can read more from the faces of others than he can hear from their words. Perhaps that is why I know that however much of my master was in the backyard that night, it was still not my master."
With that, Swallowtail put the top hat back on his head, opened the door, gave Twilight and Spike a curt nod and walked away. Twilight was looking after him as the somber figure walked down the alley that lead towards the Rich Mansion without ever looking back or to any other side. 
She noticed Spike stepping beside her. 
"Would you lie and go to prison to spare me inconveniences?" Twilight asked flatly. 
"I would, but I know you would never ask me to, Mistress", Spike answered, lost in thought. 
Twilight nodded and pulled Spike in a hug. "But call me 'Mistress' again and I'll have to send you to prison myself for lèse-amitié."
"Say what now?" Spike asked, freeing himself gently from the hug.
"Insult to friendship", Twilight translated. "Just promise never to become that... submissive."
Spike nodded. "I think I got something more to add to the letters to Celestia and Luna."
Twilight agreed: "You certainly do."
Twilight was looking at the sun. It was late afternoon, but given the time of the year the sun stood unusually low and dusk was setting in already. Perhaps the royal sisters had decided to lower the sun earlier today because of the heat and the persisting lack of rain clouds.