//------------------------------// // Twilight, I Need A Book! // Story: The Princess and The Seamstress // by PortalJumper //------------------------------// The Princess and The Seamstress Chapter 3: Twilight, I Need A Book! "Spike?... Spiiiiike?... SPIKE!?" The longer and louder Twilight yelled, the more and more apparent it became that her voice just did not carry as well in the castle as it used to at Golden Oaks. She had been leaving notes for herself for weeks to try and beat it into her head to do something about that. "Maybe I should put a spell on this place to make my voice carry better..." she mused to herself. Sullenly she got up from her desk and went to go fetch Spike. The early morning light was just starting to filter in through the castle's stained glass windows, which almost certainly meant that her loyal assistant was sound asleep. The echo of her hoof steps through the crystalline halls only further hammered home just how big and empty this castle really was. Unless some of her friends were responding to a call from the map, it was pretty much herself, Spike, and the tapestries. "Maybe I should throw a big party here," she pondered. "It'd be really nice for the townsponies, and it's such a shame letting all of this real estate in here go to waste. It'd be a logistical nightmare, though; I'd need to get Pinkie and the Cakes for catering and planning, Rainbow would need to call in a favor with the Wonderbolts for some entertainment... Maybe I can get Vinyl Scratch for the music? She doesn't talk all that much, but when you mention you have a gig for her she just lights up!" Twilight's mind swirled with dozens of images; ponies from all over town dressed to the nines, lights and balloons and fancy hors d'oeuvres, a special address just from her to the rest of the town. Sure, the planning and preparation would be a hassle, but just the thoughts she was having would certainly make it all worth it! She was already visualizing where the streamers could go in the hall she was walking in... Until a solid object slammed into her at a breakneck speed, sending her toppling head over hooves to the ground with a solid crack in the head at the end. Vision blurred and lights dancing in front of her, Twilight looked up to see a familiar and very worried face standing over her, one rimmed by a purple mane. "Oh my goodness, Twilight! Are you alright, darling?" "Hiiiii, Rarity..." she slurred in response. "Fancy meeting you here." "Dear, are you alright? I am so sorry for running into you like that, but I'm in a bit of a hurry and just wasn't looking where I was going." "Oh, it's fine," Twilight replied as Rarity offered her a helping hoof. "It'll take more than that to get rid of me." "Are you sure? I could run and go get you some ice if you hit your head or something like that?" Her antsy expression told Twilight that Rarity really didn't have much time to waste, so she decided to just deal with her throbbing head later. "Nah, it's fine, really," she replied while ignoring the developing knot on the back of her head. "What brings you 'round here this early? Shouldn't you be getting ready to open up shop for the day?" "I'm taking a bit of a sabbatical from the fashion business here in Ponyville for a while. I have enough profits coming in from Canterlot that I can set some more flexible hours for myself when I'm here at home. One of the perks of being your own boss," she added with a wink. "If that's the case, then I guess we can go talk in the map room. You probably want to take a load off as much as I do." "I would very much enjoy that, actually," Rarity replied with an expression of relief. "I ran my rump off getting here, so I'm quite tuckered out. It doesn't help that I didn't sleep well last night." "Why not?" asked Twilight as they made their way down the cavernous hallway. "Oh, just some business things on my mind. Running two storefronts has been more hectic than I had originally anticipated. Thankfully I have Sassy covering my bases in Canterlot, and your teleportation spell has done wonders with the commute, but it's still about twice the workload on the sewing front." "Wow," Twilight answered, her voice a bit more pained than she had intended, "it makes me a little jealous to hear you say it that way, honestly." "Oh, surely the life of royalty is far and away better than having to juggle two businesses, family matters, and being a savior of Equestria." "Well, it is and it isn't, in some ways," Twilight said as her head drooped. "I really miss the library, for starters, and this castle is just... it's just so..." "Austere?" interjected Rarity. "Utilitarian? Perhaps a tad stark?" "It's empty, is what it is," answered Twilight. "You and the girls did a great job decorating it with the root ball from Golden Oaks, but unless you or one of the others are responding to a call from the map it's pretty much just me and Spike here by ourselves. I miss the hustle and bustle that my studies and the library offered." "Don't some of the townsponies drop by every now and then with a friendship problem? You do have quite a few ponies aside from us that love and care about you here." "Not as much as you'd think. I think they're all a little put off by the size of the place, and it makes it hard to invite ponies over. Back when we had Golden Oaks ponies would drop in and out all the time to chat or check out books, but they stopped coming around here even though we managed to get copies of most of the library's contents." "It really is such a shame about the library," Rarity said with a sigh. "That old place had been there since I was filly. I checked out my first book from there when Mrs. Pennywhistle still ran it, you know. She was always so sweet; she'd make recommendations, would waive late fees if it was only a day over... Oh, you don't want to hear me prattling on about this, do you?" "It's just nice to know that other ponies loved Golden Oaks as much as I did. We should probably be getting to the heart of the matter, though," Twilight added as the pair of them entered the map room. "What's on your mind?" "Funny that we got on the topic of Golden Oaks," Rarity answered as she sat down on her throne, "because I wanted to borrow a book from you. I need a book on Alicorns: their customs, their history, anything you've got on them I want." "Ooh, that's a new one!" Twilight replied, her old librarian's fervor reigniting in her chest. "Lucky for you, Princess Celestia gave me a lot more than a new set of wings and a couple inches height on all of you when she made me a princess. I think they're over in my room; I hope you don't mind that I have a bunch of research notes scribbled in the margins," she added with a sheepish smile. "Not at all, darling, the more the merrier!" With a skip and a jump Twilight bounded out the opposite entrance, leaving her to her thoughts. "Maybe I could get Rarity to help design a party dress for me," Twilight wondered as she made her way through the castle's hidden passages. "Her dress she made for the Grand Galloping Gala was stupendous, and her "Rarity's Royal Regalia" line was stunning. I guess I'll just have to wait until after her sabbatical." In no time at all she had made it to her room, where she quickly swept up the three books Celestia had given her on Alicorns. She neatly stacked them onto her back and, rather than risk them toppling off while she trotted back to the map room, teleported her way back to the front side entrance. "Okay, so I've got Alicorns: An Anthology, The Secrets of the Ancient Races, and A Comprehensive Guide to Alicornhood," Twilight declared. Rarity gave a sharp yelp as she spun around to face her, and nearly fell out of her chair doing so. "Goodness gracious, that was quick!" she said through heaving breaths. "And didn't you exit through the other side? How did you loop back around like that?" "Firstly, I can teleport." Twilight said matter-of-factly. "Secondly, when you live in a giant, empty castle you get bored really quick, so I took to making some alterations with my magic to the architecture. Since this place was basically magically spawned for us, it seems to respond to whatever I want it to do. There are secret chambers and passageways all throughout it that I've put in just to shorten trip times." "Well, methinks the Princess of Friendship might have a little too much time on her hooves," Rarity replied as she took the books from Twilight and put them into her saddlebags. "Thank you so much for doing this for me, it's a big help." "Not a problem, although if I could pry, what do you need these for? You don't strike me as the type that would use history books for light reading," Twilight added. Immediately Twilight could see that there was a problem. Rarity, normally a very verbose and quick to respond pony, had clammed up like a filly giving an oral report to the class. Her eyes darted back and forth and Twilight could practically hear her brain grinding to a halt. "Oh, um, well you see, it, uh..." Rarity sputtered, "I'm, um, starting up a new clothing line, and I want it to be a bit more... inclusive, you know. I mean, why limit my pieces to one type of pony when it would make better, uh, business sense to make them uni-racial?" "And that's why you need a comprehensive guide to Alicorn history and culture? For uni-racial fashion design?" Twilight asked incredulously. "Sure!" Rarity answered, her voice jumping up an octave or two. "What better inspiration for uni-racial fashion than the type of pony that best symbolizes the three main pony races? I'm certain that their couture was elegant and graceful while still having that certain practicality to it! Plus my best friend and her sister-in-law are both Alicorns, and what sort of friend would I be if I didn't bother to learn more about their race's history?" "As flattered as I am that you'd do that for me and Cadance, didn't you say you were taking a 'sabbatical' from your business in Ponyville?" Twilight asked. Rarity's story wasn't adding up, and Twilight had the gnawing feeling that she was hiding something. "Planning for a groundbreaking new fashion line doesn't sound like much of a break period to me." "Surely I can plan for what I want to do when I come off my sabbatical while I'm still on it?" Twilight's brows furrowed, and she could tell from Rarity's body language that she was making all of this up on the fly. Still, as tempted as she was to dig further, she had been Rarity's friend for a long time and knew that if she was trying to hide something it was generally for a good reason. Twilight could feel that Rarity's intentions were good, and if worse came to worse she could always find out what was going on later. "Well, I think that that's a wonderful idea!" Twilight said as all the tension vacated the room. "Speaking as an Alicorn, I think that uni-racial fashion could be a great boon for everypony that doesn't want to spend the extra bits for wing holes in clothes or horn coverings on hats! You really are a genius at this stuff, Rarity." "Well, inspiration can come from the strangest of sources. I really ought to be off, unfortunately," Rarity added. "I'll let you know how progress comes on my new line, but it might be a while before I get it off the ground." "Well, if you need somepony to model for you then feel free to drop by any time, 'cause I've got a whole lot of nothing to do otherwise," Twilight replied. With a hug and a wave goodbye, Rarity cantered down the way she had come. As she rounded the corner, Twilight's friendly smile shifted to a worried frown. "Rarity, what are you planning..." Twilight murmured to herself before a twinge of pain on the back of her head motivated her to go look for a painkiller and something to deal with the swelling. * * *