Ponyville’s Tiny Librarian

Chapter 5

Griffon Brushoff
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Part 1

“What is this place?” the white alicorn murmured to herself as she fought her way through the jungle, pressing herself against the leaves and bushes while her horn ended up stuck between branches more often than she would like, a small disadvantage of being tall. “How did I get here in the first place?”

An odd rustling sound coming from the bushes caught Celestia’s attention as she lit her horn and turned to the source of noise while taking a fighting stance, her legs steeled and horn aimed. “Whoever you are, show yourself!”

Her eyes opened widely as a normal sized Twilight Sparkle in a safari hat jumped from the bushes and ran pass her.

“Twilight...?” Celestia murmured as more noises attracted her attention. A group of tigers and huge cats jumped over the bush and followed her student. It took only seconds for the princess to comprehend her situation as she shot the advancing predators an intimidating glare while spreading her wings. Her student was in danger and she was not going to stand aside.

Celestia’s horn lit as she focused her magic to restrain those big cats with simple levitation, carefully charging her magic to not kill them in anger. She gasped and took a step back as her magic refused to capture her foes while the angered predators ran straight at her. With a shake of her head, she turned around, her long legs preparing for physical combat as even without spells, she still had strength of earth ponies and years of training at her disposal.

Her leg shot towards her target with her hoof advancing directly against the tiger’s face with enough force to kick him at least a mile away, only to pass through it as if he was made of thin air. Celestia could only stare in shock and confusion as the huge cats passed through her as if she wasn’t even there, not feeling anything but a weak breeze when the tiger made contact with her chest.

With a weak slap against her own face, she recovered from her shock and galloped, following the wild animals as she shot stunning beams at them, her attacks passing through their bodies as if they were ghosts. The princess kept running while screaming Twilight’s name, only to find her student was trapped on the edge of a cliff. “Twilight!”

To Celestia’s surprise, her student grabbed a vine and swung to the other side of the cliff, leaving the big cats behind with no means to follow her. Wasting no time, she spread her wings and followed Twilight into some sort of temple. “This looks familiar…” she murmured as her student started to evade multiple traps like a flaming hole in the ground, or alligators hanging down from the ceiling. “Why is Twilight acting like Daring Do?”

“Daring Do?” a familiar voice asked as Celestia looked around for its source, only for a blue figure to emerge from the darkness. “Who is this Daring Do thou speakest of?”

Celestia shook her head in disbelief. “L-Luna?” She ran towards her sister as barrage of questions followed: “How did we end up here? Why is my student no longer small and why we are in the Temple from Daring Do’s adventures?”

Luna smirked and spoke. “The answer is quite simple, dear sister. We dragged thee into thy student’s dream. Though We must admit, thy student loves adventures so much that she has them even in the land of dreams. As if she doesn’t get enough in the world of the living.”

“You dragged us into her dream, why would you do this?” Celestia asked curiously while Luna responded with an innocent smile.

“We were merely practicing our dream magic. We are too weak to protect our subjects from nightmares just yet, but dragging thee here was a good practice,“ Luna said while trying to read her sister’s facial expression. After noticing Celestia sighing in relief, she smiled slyly and added, “We are also going to punish thee for all the sleepless nights thy idea caused thine student.”

Celestia flinched as her calm heart started to beat faster. “Y-you don’t mean.”

“Thou shalt play part in this adventure about–Daring Do, was it called?–while We watch and enjoy,” Luna said cheerfully while Celestia gave her a sarcastic glance.

The moon princess shook her head. “Why read when We can watch? Now, entertain us,” Luna said as she lit her horn, and disappeared in a wave of magic, leaving Celestia alone in the temple. “Have fun, sister,” her voice echoed as Celestia glanced forward upon empty halls.

Celestia knew that whatever reason her sister had placed her in a dream just like one of those Daring Do novels, it was meant to be a punishment, so even if it was a dream, the experience would feel very real. Knowing her sister, in order to wake up, she had to proceed. After lighting her horn, Celestia made her way through the first tunnel, careful for any of the known traps the series was famous for.

“I just have to keep on my gu–” Just as she expected, she felt her hoof suddenly sink into the floor followed by a loud click. Out of reflex, she jumped back just in time to avoid spear that shot up mere centimeters in front of her muzzle. Her peace of mind didn’t last long as she felt her hind leg sink into yet another hole in the floor, activating a trap that her millennia old mind didn’t recognize. Celestia’s eyes widened as she yelped, “Oh, pony-feathers.”

Suddenly, arrows from hidden holes in the wall shot out. Celestia reared back, barely avoiding them before gasping in pain as two hit her straight in the back. As she expected, the pain felt somewhat real despite it being a dream, and she would forget most of it the next day. In desperation she tried to form up a shield, only to find out that Luna had blocked her magic. With no other choice, the princess ran for it, doing her best to dodge the arrows, but a few hit their mark on the sides of her flank. When she had reached what seemed to be the end, she sighed in relief.

“Ugh…” Celestia froze as she slowly looked down and saw a spear heading straight towards her chest. Stumbling, the princess fell down to the floor with spear emerging from her back and found it harder to breath, darkness surrounding her. Luckily, it didn’t hurt nowhere as much as if the same happened to her if she was awake, a side effect of her being in a dream.

If she learned anything, it was that Luna took more than just her spells away as her always nearly impenetrable flesh was now swiftly pierced by a simple spear. Is this… death? thought Celestia as it got colder and colder. This isn’t so bad… kind of peaceful even if it is a dream. Knowing that she would wake up as soon as her “death” was complete, she gave up and closed her eye as she let out her final breath of air, allowing herself to be swallowed by the darkness.

Celestia slowly opened her eyes as she was no longer feeling the pain from the arrows. The alicorn got up and looked around, expecting to wake up in her safe and comfortable bedchamber, but to her surprise, she was where she started. “What? But I died? Aren’t you suppose to wake up when you die in a dream?” she asked with confusion while looking around, waiting for any response.

“Normally yes, but this is a special kind of dream. Every time you die, thou shalt have to start all over again,” Luna explained before chuckling. “Until thou manages to complete the dream without dying even once, thou shalt have it continuously from dusk to dawn,” she said in a neutral tone. “Also, no magic allowed, sister. Good luck! Try not to fail too many times.”

Celestia growled. She should have known better than to think Luna would let her off that easy. With a choice between facing the temple or refusing to accept her sister’s punishment, Celestia mentally prepared herself, refusing everytime Luna asked her to give up. This time she made sure to avoid any loose stones on the floor with the help of her wings before landing right where she died. The princess huffed as she saw what appeared to be a gravestone with her cutie mark on it. Must be Luna’s twisted reminder of where I fallen last time. On the bright side, it is nice to be teased by her again like in the old days, a good sign of her warming up to me.

“We almost forgot. That Daring Do thou speakest off, could she fly in this story?”

“Not in this one if I remem… I mean yes, she could!” Celestia added hastily but too late as her wings refused to cooperate with her, only for her face to meet the stone floor with a loud thump.

She raised her head from the hole in the floor before shaking the debris from her head, now focused on the big strong wings that refused to heed her call. Annoyed by losing her biggest advantage, she stepped forward, only to feel a loose string break as an axe came loose from above and swing at Celestia’s wide-eyed head. She didn’t speak but instead raised her eyebrow in ‘you have to be kidding me’ gesture before closing her eyes.

After dying from countless attempts, Celestia finally reached the last part thanks to memorizing her sister’s newly placed traps. “If I remember correctly, I need to walk on the parts of the floor that have the picture of a mouse on it,” Celestia said to herself, already forming a plan as she glared at the shining reward in the middle of the room. “Once I grab it, the lava will burst from the floor, then I wil–” She didn’t finish her sentence as she heard an odd noise coming from right behind her, and the moment she turned around, she saw a giant boulder rolling towards her.

Caught off guard, she lost her balance to the tremor under her hooves, only for her ears to flatten against her head while her mane lost its multicolored brightness and turned grey. Celestia yelped, as she felt the humongous weight of the boulder crushing her legs before doing the same with her belly and head, leaving her mighty body flattened against the floor.

Not wanting to give up just yet, Celestia rolled and stood while bruises covered her entire body, only for the boulder to shatter the shiny statue into unrecognizable pieces. Suddenly, the earth trembled under her hooves. “Wait, this didn’t happen in the story,” Celesta remarked to herself as she make a run for it and jumped towards the center of the room as lava emerged from all sides.

"It seems thou student added a few," she chuckled, "modifications to make it more unpredictable. This is understandable, as what kind of challenge would it be if one knew how to proceed to win."

Celestia frowned at the remark of her sister as sweat started to fall from her face. She looked around at the red scenery while waiting for pillars to break from the earthquake as it was her only means to escape. Not wasting her opportunity, the princess jumped onto a damaged pillar and next on another, her freedom just one leap away.

She bend her forelegs, her hind legs following in suit, when suddenly the pillar under her hooves crumbled, and she fell into the pit of hot boiling lava. As the magma splashed around her, one loud word escaped her mouth, “LUNAAAAAA!”

“Another day, another dungeon,” Twilight murmured in her sleep as Spike poked her harder. “Huh, what?” she murmured in confusion as she slowly opened her eyes, her vision of the young drake sharpening. “What is it Spike? I had a really pleasant dream.”

“Rainbow Dash came by and asked to see you,” Spike said firmly as Twilight blinked a few times and looked at Spike in confusion.

“Really? I thought that she and Pinkie Pie would run around the town and play countless pranks here and there… Amateurs. Their pranks were nothing compared to the ones Philomena and I…” she paused and stretched her legs before standing on her pillow, slowly recovering from her sleepiness. Spike on the other hoof trembled upon the memory of the prank spree this duo performed, especially the one where Celestia ate soup spicy enough to send at least thirty ponies begging for water.

As much as I like spending time with Dash, she's far too intrusive. Twilight sighed. It seems the break from her that Pinkie Pie arranged didn’t last long. “What does she want this time?” she asked with a frown as Spike shrugged. After taking a deep breath to relax herself, the little unicorn raised her foreleg and hind leg, only to drop it as her hooves moved up and down on her pillow, pressing against the soft surface as she tried to realign her sleeping spot. With her pillow once again presentable, she jumped off and ran until she arrived on her balcony where Rainbow Dash waited impatiently.

“I thought you were hanging out with Pinkie Pie. Bored of her already?” Twilight asked with annoyance as Rainbow Dash shook her head.

“It’s not that. I mean, Pinkie Pie is okay, I guess. Proved to be more fun than I thought,” Rainbow Dash said hesitantly before taking a few steps towards Twilight, “but that’s not the case. Just yesterday my old school buddy visited me. Isn’t that great?”

Twilight raised her eyebrow. “Great…” she said and gave Rainbow Dash a questioning look. “If your friend is visiting, shouldn't you be spending time with him…”

Rainbow Dash rubbed back of her neck. “Well, it’s kind of… let’s say that besides me, she doesn’t really like other ponies.”

“And I’m worried that she may not like the idea that I have more friends than just her. She tends to be jealous… but let’s be honest, an awesome pony like me can’t just have one friend. Wouldn’t you agree?” Dash asked in excitement as Twilight rolled her eyes.

Rainbow Dash lowered herself to Twilight’s level, her forelegs bent together in a pleading gesture. “I wanted to introduce you to her, so that you both can be friends.”

Twilight walked closer and jumped onto Rainbow Dash’s foreleg. “Why don’t you introduce Pinkie Pie to her instead?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Because Pinkie and Gilda’s style just don’t mix. I need a cool pony to befriend her, and if you manage to get on her good side, maybe I can convince Gilda to befriend the rest of the team,” Rainbow Dash explained with a growing smile.

Twilight rubbed the lower part of her neck as she thought deeply for a moment while her friend stared at her expectantly as a curious “Soooo?” escaped her mouth.

She raised her head and smiled warmly. “Sure, why not. If she’s your friend, then she can be mine as well.”

“Awesome!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she jumped into air while Twilight, who was sitting on her hooves, was swiftly thrown upwards above Dash’s head. The little mare yelped as she performed a forced somersault in mid air before landing on the edge of balcony, her widened eyes blinking in shock. Rainbow Dash turned around and glanced at her apologetically. “Sorry.”

Celestia jumped from her bed like a rocket as she now looked around her bedchamber in panic, expecting poison arrows to shoot from the walls at any second. After making sure that no traps or giant boulder would crush her, she walked outside of her bedchamber. She had a few words to exchange with her dream-invading sister.

Step by step, the princess walked through the hallway towards wing with several guest rooms, not paying attention to the bowing guards and maids who stepped back at the mere look on her face, making passage for their angered ruler. Finally, she arrived at VIP guest room that was now her sister’s freshly redecorated bedchamber as she struggled to keep her heavy eyelids open.

Celestia rubbed her eyes and shook her head as she mentally prepared herself. Not bothering with pleasantries, she pushed the door open before entering with a loud stomp. She restrained herself from saying a single word and looked around to admire the added decorations in attempt to calm down. She could see several various star constellations with huge moon decorating the ceiling while the room itself was a little dark. One would think that after being trapped in this cold lonely prison, one would get sick of even looking at it, but not Luna. Celestia could see two unicorns working diligently on preparing the room for the Princess of the Night as they followed her instructions, only to bow the moment they noticed another princess present in the room.

She gestured her hoof for the servants to leave before her attention focused on Luna who was lying comfortably on four eiderdown pillows. In front of the night princess levitated a book that quickly closed as Luna’s head turned to look at her with a wide grin. “Hast thou slept well, sister?”

“Quite,” Celestia said while rolling her bloodshot eyes, now somewhat calm after admiring the view of the room. “Though I still question your methods, Luna. You always manipulated other ponies dreams to prevent nightmares or helped to face them, not other way around. Slight abuse of your power if you ask me.”

Luna frowned as she put her book aside, it joined the rest that lied in a pile. “We merely punished thee accordingly.” She took deep breath before continuing, her voice calm but cold, “Thine idea caused thy student to have ten sleepless night. We merely see fit to punish thee with ten bad dreams.”

Celestia looked down at the floor, her voice slightly sad with hint of guilt. “My dear sister. I know that you are having fun, paying me back for how I treated you a thousand years ago, or even for banishing you, but aren’t you going overboard?”

The smaller alicorn shook her head. “We merely punish thee for thy manipulations. As long as thou wilt not make a mistake, thou will be safe from our watchful eyes.” She took a slow breath and continued in a calm tone, “If thou fear the pain, fear no longer, as we made thou aware in thy dream to explain our punishment. Thy further nightmares, with one exception, will be safe from it.”

Celestia sighed in defeat. “Is there any other way for me to earn your forgiveness?”

“There are many ways to earn it, dear sister,” Luna stated before lowering her head as Celestia noticed a note of disappointment on her face. “Though we didn’t expect thy resolve to extinguish so quickly.”

The taller alicorn rubbed her foreleg as she murmured, “So, nine nightmares left?”

“While We are ashamed to admit it, We would lie if We said that We don’t.”

Celestia quickly glanced at the books that were lying next to her sister’s bed, easily noticing titles like ‘Trotting Dead’ and ‘Fallout: Equestria’ before she let out a deep sigh and slowly walked away from Luna's not yet finished Bedchamber. The things I do for my sister.

The moment Luna was left alone in her room, she looked to the side at a rolled letter before levitating it over with her magic. She unrolled and read it in her mind.

I am afraid I cannot accept your offer to decide your punishment. Please, do not feel guilty over what happened to me, Your Highness. It was my fault for spending so many sleepless nights on my research when one or two hours each day would have been enough.

Furthermore, I learned a lot by examining your blessing and found this research project quite thrilling. I am very grateful for all the information you provided me with, and wish you and your sister a good time.

She put away the scroll and once again glanced at the books before murmuring to herself, “Thy student is too forgiving, sister. Now We must find a proper punishment ourselves.”

“So, what can you tell me about your friend, Dash?” Twilight asked curiously while sitting on her friend’s back, however, instead of being perched against her fur with rear hooves anchored on sides of hers neck, she was attached to a saddle as she now rode Rainbow Dash with professional equipment.

“She’s is cool, she has guts, she’s fast and most importantly, totally radical,” Rainbow Dash explained as Twilight smirked.

“So she’s just like your mirror reflection, outside of the fact that she doesn’t like anypony beside you. I guess she must be a pegasus.”

“Not really,” Rainbow Dash responded as Twilight shot her friend a confused glance.

“You’re about to find out,” Rainbow Dash said as she landed on a hill with a loud thump. “She should be here any moment.”

Twilight wasted no time before she unhooked herself from her saddle and jumped down to the ground, walking across tall grass before Dash’s voice caught hers attention, “Here she comes.”

Rainbow Dash pointed into the air as Twilight looked up, only to see a shape of a Griffon slowly descending from behind the clouds.

Twilight shook her head. “Not at all. To be honest, I meet a few Griffon delegates more than once during my public appearances,” she said with her muzzle raised proudly as Rainbow Dash gave her a questioning glance. The little unicorn just returned it with a wide grin as a memory flashed in her mind.

“I must say, Princess, your hospitality is quite impressive. You even accommodate us with meat though your subjects are vegetarians,” the griffon ambassador spoke professionally while a few Griffon delegates and even one young dragon representative now sat in front of a very long eating table, Celestia at the head of it.

“Not a problem at all, it is important to respect each other’s racial eating habits,” Celestia said cheerfully, an honest smile on her face. “Speaking of which...” the princess said as she pointed her hoof at the platter with food under a metallic cover, now moving across the table towards them.

The griffons looked at it and blinked in confusion before the ambassador gave Celestia a questioning look. “I thought that whenever something is being levitated, you can see an aura of magic surrounding it, Princess. Would you be so kind to explain why this platter levitates without any sign of magic?”

“I'm not using my magic,” a quiet voice spoke from the platter, capturing them off guard, while Celestia giggled with a hoof on her mouth.

“Did the f-food just speak?” one griffon asked, dumbfounded, while another gave Celestia an odd glance.

“Should I assume that we will need to kill it. As much as I would appreciate eating fresh meat, it seems a bit inappropriate to do so in front of you, Princess.”

“I am not the food, I am just carrying it,” once again the voice spoke, this time slightly louder. The moment the platter was close enough, one of Griffon delegates lifted the metallic cover with his talons, only to see several cooked fish on it.

“It was me,” once again the voice echoed as only now the griffons noticed that it came from underneath the tray, and the moment one of them lifted it, a tiny purple unicorn mare appeared in their line of sight.

Twilight waved her hoof. “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia’s Protégé, nice to meet you.”

All the griffons’ mouths opened agape while Celestia laughed lightly, barely preventing it from bursting out. Twilight smiled and pointed at the tray with food. “I hope you all will enjoy the food. Bon Appetit,” she said cheerfully before running towards her mentor, jumping over obstacles on the dining table before ending up on Celestia’s exposed shoulder and sitting on it.

“Y-your protégé?” the ambassador asked, still dumbfounded as Celestia looked at him and nodded.

The ambassador raised an eyebrow as he finally recovered from the shock. “I understand that you often call your subjects ‘your little ponies’, but this is new,” the ambassador said in disbelief as he pointed towards the tiny mare still perched on princess’s shoulder who waved back at him.

Celestia gulped and wiped her mouth with napkin before speaking, “Sirs, I’m sure you have many questions, but why not ask Twilight? I’m sure that she’ll be comfortable answering anything you are curious about.”

The little unicorn smiled and nodded. “Yup, go ahead. I will be honored to answer your questions, ask me anything.”

The delegates all looked at each other, unsure of what to say. Finally, one of them, a griffon who had just earned his spot not too long ago, asked with childish curiosity, “Um, how do you use the bathroom?”

A long silence erupted as ponies and griffons stared at the rookie delegate. A large red blush appeared on Twilight’s cheeks as she suddenly wished to teleport herself from here to Vanhoover.

“Um…” said the main ambassador, who was sweating like a dog on a hot summer’s day, “...Um, how about those Wonderbolts?” To everyone's relief, the conversation, thankfully, turned in a different direction.

Ponyville's Tiny Librarian

by CommanderX5

Ch5 - Griffon Brushoff - Part 1