Booksalot slowly woke up the next morning with the sun shining in his eyes from the window. Groaning and blinking his eyes repeatedly, he remembered the events that had taken place at Joe Dimtec's hut, and noticed a hoof and wing wrapped around him. As he begun to feel the satisfying heat from the second body, he could not help but chuckle softly as he spun around into the mare's grasp. With a loving smile he gazed upon the slender sleeping purple figure, "Good morning love I wish I could stay, but I need to attend to the library."
As Books began to rise, he felt the mares grip tighten. "You're always in that stupid library," the mare mutters sleepily, "I can never get you in bed for feeding until I'm really low on energy." She opens her eyes and looks at him with her changeling green eyes before kissing him lovingly on the lips. "I'm just lucky I was able to get you here last night," she whispers in his ear playfully.
Books chuckles and gently nuzzles her cheek before crawling out of her grasp, "I'm sorry Zilla, but my job requires a lot of time. Not to mention, the fact that you over exaggerate how low your magic levels are." The pegasus gives him a sheepish grin before bursting into green flames as a changeling with deep purple eyes.
"What can I say, your probably the most passionate stallion I know" Zilla explained as she stretched her wings. Turning to Booksalot, she quickly morphed back into the pegasus, Fria Quil and took flight. "I'll get your breakfast and bring it back."
Booksalot sighed as he trotted through the hall that connected his simple Canterlot apartment with the Library of the Two Sisters. Once in the library, Books got to work re-shelving books that Celestia and Luna had recently returned. "Lets see "Life of Pony", "Equestria Games", and... "Fifty Shades of Hay"! What would drive one of them to read this!???!" he muttered "And besides I thought I hid this one so no pony would find it." When Booksalot put the books back on the shelf, his ear flicked as he heard gears clicking behind the shelf. He began to wonder, "what is that" and with a final click, the shelf slid back and to the left, revealing a sloping staircase. "Interesting....." he mutters starting to descend the steps. As Fria flew in behind him her eyes began to widen. In the end, she simply followed the elderly unicorn downward.
As the pair walked down together a random pony was watching them on a screen at the Dimtec HQ. The stallion let out a soft chuckle before turning to the man next to him who was wearing bright rainbow clothing before saying "Sir, the Librarian has found his Library. Should I send out the Artifacts?"
"Go ahead." the man states in a voice that spoke of age and wisdom beyond his years. "And be sure that Detective finds her way to him as well."
When they reached the bottom of the staircase Booksalot's eyes widen at the sight of a room larger than anything Equestria had filled with shelves and shelves of books and artifacts. "It's...... So....... Beautiful." he says slowly trotting forward in awe. Booksalot then noticed Flutterbat and Timberjack sitting, in what one could say was a the town square of the Library, and reading books. "What are you two doing here?"
"Oh.......Well.....Joe told us to come here to help you out." Flutterbat says with a shy smile at Booksalot and Fria "It's nice to meet you and your marefriend."
"Ya shouldn't just assume things like that Flutters" TImberjack says putting her book aside
"Well it is true" Zilla tells them before turning to Booksalot "Now who is this Joe and why would he be sending you Mares and a Library?"
"I meet him yesterday and I have no idea about the rest of this" Booksalot says trying to stay on her good side
"Ah believe Ah can help with this here problem" Timberjack says standing and walking over return the book on the shelf "Me and Bats are here to assist in keeping the Library safe as well as help retrieve more items to be stored here." Just then a shelf slides to the side similar to the way the one upstairs moved when a dark green pegasus mare with deep dark blue eyes and a slit taken out of her right ear tumbled into the middle of the group. She had a two toned grey mane, that was a bit shorter than Rainbow Dash's, that was roughed up from living on the streets. She seemed a bit smaller than the average height and seemed thin from undernourishment. With a cutie mark of a question mark broken into four pieces and a broken heart in place of the dot.
The small green mare paused to collect her senses after her small fall, shaking her mane and blinking in confusion, before her eyes focused on the group in front of her. Her face turned to one of even more confusion and her ears leaned back slightly. Her mouth opened before shutting again as she looked around the rest of the room, somehow getting more confused as she slumped over and flicked her tail around her to take up less space. Booksatlot stared at the mare before asking "Okay I'm assuming that you aren't with them" nodding his head at Flutterbat and Timberjack "So who are you and how did you get into my Library?"
The mare looked up at him with a curious gaze, then down at the floor. She paused a moment, likely in thought, before giving a small shrug. Probably more to the second question then the first.
"I really hate being ignored like that" Books said at almost a growl as the shelf replaced itself behind the mare. Flutterbat walked next to her with a kind, yet toothy, grin "its alright we won't hurt you." she states softly. The mare looked back at Flutterbat, she seemed to tense more at first, but after a moment of silence she sighed and relaxed. "I'm sorry..." She mumbled as she turned her head to look at the floor next to her, ears leaned back but still perked enough to listen to everything going on.
"What for Sugarcube?" Timberjack asks as the timber wolf parts of her start to slowly fade. "Looks like the sun is rising in our world Flutters." she states as Flutterbat started changing back to a normal pegasus. The mare, not yet giving her name, watched them curiously for a moment. Her ears had perked in interest to gather information and her head tilted slightly before. Books quickly cast a glance at the Applejack and Fluttershy now standing in his library. With a sigh he then looked at the still mysterious mare "Alright listen I'm a very forgiving kind of guy but, could you please tell me your name?" he asks as his horn lit ruby red casting a simple spell that made most sentient beings become open books around Booksalot and trust him. "I feel bad about doing this but I hate not having answers" Books thinks to himself. The mare relaxed suddenly and looked up at Booksalot, ears perked. "Sorry, I'm Toxic, Toxic Smoke." She stated.
Booksalot let out a relived sigh "Thank you. Now do you happen to be looking for something Toxic?" As Booksalot spoke Fria noticed his horn and desided to leave his breakfast on a nearby table. Then leading Fluttershy and Applejack away so she could speak with them she thought "I hope he doesn't have her say to much". The mare, Toxic, Looked around. "To be honest, I don't know why I'm here. But I am in the midst of looking for a small artifact." As she finished her explanation she looked at Booksalot curiously. "You look rather familiar." She stared at him for a few silent moments before something clicked. "Ah like a few ponies I met a time ago. Escaped a timberwolf with no training or experience. Lucky pair they had been."
His eyes momentarily went wide as he heard what she had to say. "What. Did. You. Say?" he asks her in a voice that told most that the user was angered to the point of staying calm. As he spoke he slowly rose off his hunches to stand over Toxic and add to the intimidating effect.
Toxic looked up at him. "Well, it's just you look like them." She said again, in a slightly softer tone. The smaller mare, spelled to stay relaxed and trust him, calmly looked off to the side, trying to recall what happened all that time ago. "You look like the young stallion who was walking with them prior, too."
With a heavy hearted sigh Booksalot's horn flared up causing his book protection spell to activate on all of the shelves near by. "So your saying that my parents weren't killed twenty-two years ago by a Timber Wolf?" he asks his spell on Toxic strengthening as flames burst forth from his horn and flared in his eyes. "And that I have mourned for Nothing?" the last words coming out as a growl.
Toxic looked at him and pinned her ears sadly. "You thought they had died?" She asked softly. "No, they had escaped..."
"Where are they now?" he asks her with a sigh realizing his fury was for naught. As he calmed the flames around the shelves and his horn died down the same time Books also sat down. "Could they really be alive?" he thinks to himself. The green mare shrugged. "I have no idea. I followed but they entered a hut. I left, leaving them to their own life."
"Me and Joe are having a talk later" Booksalot growled as a sudden flash happened next to them and Discord and a purple bat pony appeared. The bat pony mare giggled and playfully nudged Discord "Oh Discord if it wasn't for the fact you have a think with a special somepony in the future I would be all over you." She then looked at Booksalot and Toxic Smoke as Discord chuckled and disappeared. Tilting her head curiously the purple mare stared at Toxic and softly asked "Mom? Is that you?"
Toxic looked around and then behind her, trying to find the mare she was speaking to, only to realize it had to be her. She turned back to the bat pony and blinked. "Uh... pardon?" She asked, almost at a whisper.