They had been walking round the archives for a little over half an hour now, and Sweetie Belle had had just about enough of this. She could feel the faint migraine that always followed her, tugging at the back of her head. She mentally adjusted her spells and proceeded to where Luna currently was.
Princess Luna was at yet another junction. Eight paths, each looking identical to the last, save for one that had books and jars instead of scrolls. She was contemplating their next route to take when Sweetie Belle approached.
“I can’t believe you got us lost.” Her contempt was loud and clear for everypony to see.
“I have certainly not gotten us ‘lost’” Luna turned her nose up at that remark, “We’re just...” She wiped a strand of hair away from her face, “We’re just a little bit turned around is all. And look!” Luna held up another clipboard she’d found and continued as she flipped over the cover page, “This one will surely tell us where we need t- Oh.” Luna’s eyes went wide and she went suspiciously silent as she read the rest of the note.
“What is it?”
“N- nothing!” Luna was now blushing, or at least she felt she was by how her cheeks were burning. She had no idea if anypony else could see it, due to how dark her coat was. She tossed the clipboard away, leaving it to clatter to the floor and slide to a halt several feet away, “It seems we will have to rely on my intellectual wit to get us out of this mess.”
Luna clearly didn’t want to tell her what was on that clipboard and, naturally, this only made Sweetie Belle want to know even more. She squinted at the princess, “... what did it say?”
“I told you, it said nothing!” Luna snapped, “Now come on, let’s find my sister’s scroll so we can get out of here,” Luna waved for Sweetie Belle to follow her, but the filly ignored her. Instead she simply sat where she was, looking to the side with a slight mischievous grin. Luna followed her gaze to where the clipboard now lay face down.
She looked back to the filly, a grave expression on her face. She shook her head slowly saying, “... no.”
Sweetie Belle nodded. Yes.
Luna shook her head again, slightly more forcefully, “No, as your Princess I forbid it!”
Sweetie Belle lunged after the clipboard and Luna ran after to grab it first. Unfortunately Sweetie Belle had the upper hoof. She got a head start, and due to her smaller size, was much faster than the lumbering Alicorn Princess with an abnormal fondness for lunar related delicacies. The filly was on top of the clipboard within moments and yanked it out of the way just in time for Luna to come crashing down against the hard marble floor.
She then ran to the far corner of the room and sat herself down with her back to the wall. She floated the clipboard in front of her and began to read aloud. “Dear Diary,” it said in bright orange crayon. “Luna is such a poopy butt. Today she ate all of my dessert again,” Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow at this, and glanced to where Luna was still picking herself up. She continued to read, “But this time I was ready. Today during Starswirl’s classes I ‘found’ a really powerful laxative spell. I used it on the cakes and-”
“Okay, that’s quite enough” The clipboard was pulled from her hooves before Sweetie could read another word.
“Hey! Give it back!” She protested and looked to find Princess Luna glaring down at her. She had the clipboard floating in her aura.
This time Princess Luna had the upper hoof, quite literally. She smacked her lips, her tongue was numb from where she’d bit it from the fall, and yanked the clipboard higher just as Sweetie Belle leaped at her to try to get it back.
Sweetie Belle tried and failed to retrieve the clipboard, and after several failed attempts she slumped in defeat at the princess’ hooves to try a different tactic. She pouted up at the princess in annoyance. “Pweeese give it back?” The puppy dog eyes always had its desired effect, Sweetie Belle found.
Luna, however, was a very different kind of animal from Sweetie’s bigger sister, “I know what you’re doing, and it’s not going to work.” She returned with her own variant of the puppy dog routine, “You’re not the only one with an older sister, you know.”
Sweetie Belle huffed and crossed her hooves, conceding defeat to the better and more experienced younger sister, “What was that, anyway?”
“I think it is perfectly clear exactly what that was. My sister used to hide her diary entries where I couldn’t find them.” She took the clipboard in her hooves to regard the page once more, “There must not have been ponies in this section for a very long time.”
“I’ll say,” Sweetie Belle snorted, “So how are we getting out of here anyway?”
“Hm...” Luna considered this for a moment, yanking the clipboard slightly higher as she did so, thus thwarting Sweetie Belle’s latest attempt to get a hold of it, and set the clipboard down on one of the higher shelves, much to Sweetie Belle’s annoyance, “As I was saying earlier. We will have to rely on my intellectual wit to find the exit.”
“You know, I have been studying magic.” Sweetie Belle offered, “We could just tel—”
“No” Luna shushed the filly, “That would be cheating. And besides, we can’t leave without my sister’s scroll.”
“Why not?”
“We need to at least look for it. Otherwise the author won’t have any way to progress to the next scene. Now pick a side and start looking. It cannot be far.”
“Well, okay than,” Sweetie Belle turned her attention to the row of scrolls before them, not forgetting where Luna had left the clipboard with her sister’s Diary entry. Whatever was on there, she was going to get it, and read it too. She looked along the shelf a few times before picking out a scroll that looked promising.
She pulled it free from its hiding place and unravelled it from its sheaf; another cooking recipe. These Canterlot ponies must really like their recipes.
She checked to see what Luna was doing. The princess was in the process of pulling out several scrolls, and had thus left Sweetie Belle unattended. She looked up the shelf once more, the one she knew the clipboard would be resting atop.
It shouldn’t be too hard to climb up there, right? She checked once again, Luna had her back to her. This was her chance. Sweetie Belle shoved the scroll back into its place and began to climb.
The step shapes of the shelves worked well as make-shift hoof-holds and Sweetie was already starting to make quick progress, when, “Ahem” She was halted by Luna’s cough from behind her, “Sweetie Belle” The Princess began. Sweetie Belle froze mid climb, awaiting the inevitable.
Instead Luna continued in a relatively calm tone, “I’ve been wondering. Why do you want to read about Starswirl the Bearded anyway?” A wave of relief washed over the filly. Looking back she could see that Luna was still facing the other way. She hadn’t been found out, yet.
She silently grumbled to herself about this minor delay to her plans and halted her ascent to think of a response. “I’m, uh, it’s because of this time-loop thing,” she began to explain, “Every Friday it resets and I end up going back to the Monday of that week.”
“Really?” Luna’s ears perked up at this, “That sounds interesting and I presume nopony else remembers?”
“Nope,” she squeaked out a response before continuing her ascent.
Luna picked out another scroll and began reading its cover whilst the last one sorted itself into one of many growing piles, “And can you bring anything with you?”
It seemed her plans were going to have to wait. Sweetie sighed again, “I can” She nodded, “Anything that’s in the same room is brought with.”
“Hm...” Luna became thoughtful on this, “Theoretically speaking, you could duplicate items, could you not?”
Sweetie shrugged, “Well, yeah.” That much seemed obvious, “I duplicated you, didn’t I?” As she was reaching the shelf where the clipboard lay, Sweetie Belle came upon a sudden block to her plans. The scrolls on this level were sticking out slightly further than the rest, and thus wouldn’t allow her to climb any further. She looked over her shoulder to see if there was any other way. The design of the shelves left few options. Every few meters there was a vertical rung that stuck out from the edge of the shelves, and at this height Sweetie Belle couldn’t stomach the thought of trying to climb around them.
“So” Luna rolled a hoof in the air, still focused on searching scrolls. “Could you do the same with say, a box of moon cakes?”
“M- Maybe” Sweetie Belle made the mistake of looking down, Princess Luna, still oblivious, looked like a filly from here. Sweetie’s stomach lurched and she grabbed onto the shelf for dear life and squeezed her eyes closed.
“So you’ll take me with so we can try then?”
Sweetie Belle gulped, “Yeah, sure!” Sweetie shouted back, trying her best to sound calm and not at all scared out of her wits.
She pried her eyes open and checked her progress. Sweetie could see the corner of the clipboard hanging off the edge. It wasn’t far, only one more step higher and it would be hers. Maybe if I just... She let go with one hoof, using the other to steady herself, and stretched to reach the clipboard. She was just inches away from her prize when there was a loud crack from below. The entire shelf lurched to one side, almost sending the filly flying.
“That’s wonderful!” Luna sounded happy. Sweetie Belle also heard something that sounded a bit like ‘Wait. Where did you go?’ But at this point Sweetie Belle didn’t really care. She hung on for dear life, the entire shelf now tilted, only an inch, but still enough to bring a literal cascade of papers down on the poor filly.
Sweetie Belle lost her grip and landed with a thud in a pile large of papers, “Bleh,” she spat one out and floundered to the top of the pile to look around. Moments later, something hard and strangely clipboard-shaped landed on Sweetie’s head, dazing the filly.
Two Princess Lunas were staring at her with a strange kind of surprised expression. They were also dancing around each other for some reason. Sweetie Belle shook her herself, and suddenly there was only one Luna again, though not looking any less surprised. With the split ends, twitching eyelid, and just about everything else about this scene, she was suddenly reminded a lot of the time she’d helped Twilight reorganise the treebrary.
A cold shiver ran up Sweetie’s spine. Those were truly dark days. She could remember nothing but books for days and, in the end, Applejack had to send in a rescue team with shovels to get them out.
Noticing Luna’s stare was not halting, Sweetie Belle coughed, “So, uh...” She tried to change the subject, “I, uh, heard you were married?” She gave one of her best ‘it’s not my fault’ grins in an attempt to defuse the situation.