Shadows of the Past

by Dr Atom Discharge

Chapter Four: Library (Unedited)

Shadows Of The Past
Chapter Four: Library

Last time: The small group made its way across the bridge, up the stairs of the old palace and into main chamber, but stood there… in the middle of the main chamber, just in front of what once held the Elements of Harmony was stood Dr Atom Discharge, waiting for them
“ATOM!? How did you get here so fast?” Twilight cried in shock, running to the front of the group. But before Atom could reply a smooth charming voice sounded.

“Me… That’s how young mare.” Said Discord as he slithered out from behind the stand of the Elements and rests his elbows on it, then resting his head on his hands as his body floats up behind him.
“Hello again kiddies”

Twilight skidded to a stop a few feet past the front of the group, her heart sank in fear. Twilight started running towards Atom again just as Discord started talking again.
“Now… I want to discuss with yo- Er… young mare… I wouldn’t do that if I were you…” Discord said in a patronising tone. Twilight ignored him and Collided into Atom hugging him close and tight.

Pop. Atom burst and bits of Balloon sprayed everywhere, Twilight screamed before realising what had happened, she jumped back and scooted away from Discord back towards the group. Discord looks wholly unimpressed by the display and said in an unamused tone
“Stupid filly, you didn’t think I’d just lay my one bargaining chip out in front of you… while ensure you he is safe… you won’t be see seeing him until you hear me out.” Discord said with a dark grin.

Discord slithered over the stone and into the air, moving closer to the group, several of the guards got into defensive positions, but Twilight, Blade, Sabre, and Luna all held their ground. Discord sat down in front of them.
“Now… let’s do business… I want to make you a very generous offer.” Discord said followed by a chuckle.

Twilight and Luna shared a glance before looking back at Discord
“What kind of offer are we talking about here?” Luna said cautiously as if just agreeing to hear it was dangerous. Discord somehow appeared between Twilight and Luna, resting two elbows on their shoulders and resting his head in his hand.

“Well… You see… I reeeeaallly want to get back at Celestia, since she is responsible for me being stuck in stone… Twice… even if you both helped… she’s responsible, hell, I was just trying to have a little fun… and being stuck in stone is sooooo boring!” Discord said, then slithered out from between them and hovered in mid-air. Twilight frowned
“Is this going anywhere?” Twilight said irritably

Discord Tutted in mock annoyance.
“My, my, children these days.” Discord said, Twilight shot him a glare
“Fiiine, I want you to promise not to turn me back to stone, and I’ll help you with everything I can remember about the Conclave… and for a Limited time offer! I’ll also return your little ‘Atom’ Completely unscathed… well… unscathed by me at least.” Discord said dramatically followed by a dark chuckle.

Twilight’s eyes flashed with anger but before she could say anything Luna stepped forwards
“Alright Discord… what’s the catch..?” She said suspiciously.
“No catch.” Discord said inspecting his talons.
“Really..?” Luna replied.
“Really… you know… if I didn’t know better…” Discord said wriggling through the air so he was close to her face, looking into her eyes. “I would have said you didn’t trust me.” He said, then fell back and laughed in mid-air.

Luna kept a blank expression.
“Alright… but we’ll be keeping a close eye on you…” Luna said seriously.
“Oh you’re such a worrier Luna… relax a little… you’ll live longer.” Discord said with a giggle. He snapped his ‘fingers’ and the pieces of balloon formed together back into the shape of Atom and then there was a quick flash and Atom was stood there covered in blood and scratched, his eyes dreamy, then they seemed to focus on Twilight.
“T…Twilight…?” He said before falling forwards unconscious.

Discord Tutted again “Yes… the Timberwolves really had a go at him… good job I found him when I did really.” He said deep in thought.
Twilight ran to him and leaned down, trying to help him with Magic, but crying out in frustration at the restraint still around her horn. She felt a gentle hoof on her shoulder and looked up to see the caring gaze of the Luna Princess, who hugged her gently, as two of her guards picked Atom up and the rest started to set up camp in the old Decrepit Castle, and Discord flew up and sat on the roof, relaxing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Few Days later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the next few days they set up a permanent, Discord was surprisingly helpful, it seemed he really did want to help, despite disappearing every now and then. The next night Luna removed the magical restraints from Twilight and Atom, who’s condition rapidly improved after that and he was soon back to almost full strength, still he found it hard to work for long before needing to rest, the injuries had taken a lot out of him. As had Twilight’s own injuries.

“Twilight, can we talk?” Luna said, beckoning Twilight over to her. Twilight wandered over, limping slightly; her leg hadn’t fully healed yet.
“What is it Princess, is everything okay?” Twilight asked with a slightly worried tone; worried that something may have gone wrong.
“Yes, everything is okay but I have noticed that, with your injured leg, you have been having trouble with some of the tasks you have been working on. And since it will be better to start sooner rather than later, I was wondering if you would prefer to start work on finding information on the Conclave? Since everyone is still busy setting things up and we haven’t has a chance to talk to Discord about it, we need someone working on The Conclave, simply so we can make headway.” The Princess explained to Twilight.

Twilight’s eyes glowed with anticipation, the physical labour that was involved in setting up a permanent camp was not really Twilight’s strength, especially when she was still in pain for quite a major injury, in fact she had been looking forward to studying the library since they had arrived. Twilight tried not to let her excitement show too much.
“Oh yes princess, I would love to, I had been hoping to see the Library.” She said happily

Luna smiled, she could tell exactly how excited this made Twilight.
“I thought you’d like the idea Twilight, shall I show you where it is now?” Luna said happily, leading Twilight down a set of stairs to the side
“Oh, I can’t wait… there must be hundreds of years of knowledge that no one will have read in centuries, protected by magic… in perfect condition.” Twilight said, squealing in excitement for a moment before stubbing her bad leg which quickly stopped the excited noise.

The mention of the magical Protection made Luna falter for a second and stop, turning around to face Twilight, who was still rubbing her leg, with a worried look.
“Twilight… that reminds me… you will have to be very careful, the spells of protection have laid un maintained for a thousand years… I have no idea how they will have degraded, these were our most important records, so please… be careful, old magics can be dangerous… most likely nothing bad will happen but… just… be careful, okay?” Luna said cautiously

Twilight was a little shocked by Luna’s sudden change of mood, and for a moment her excitement was dampened with fear, but not for long as her excitement returned in full force along with a sense of confidence, if there was one thing Twilight knew it was books. Twilight smiled a Luna.
“Don’t worry Princess I will be careful, after one thousand years anything dangerous should be almost completely gone, or so faded that it has no effect.” Twilight said, her confidence shining through.

The Princess nodded and smiled, but inside she was still tentative about the dangers. She lead Twilight down the stairs and through the old halls of the forgotten palace, old, broken down rows of dining tables lined one of the halls, sad and alone, forgotten. After they had descended a good few floors they came upon a solid stone door with intricate patterns engraved onto it. All of the flowing designs met at a single point in the middle of the door: A simple circular slot.

At first this confused Twilight as she saw no way to open the door as there was no handle, not to mention the door was much too heavy to move by hoof, and she was about to try magic when Luna stopped her.
“You don’t want to try that… it’ll hurt…” Luna said to Twilight putting a hoof in front of her before stepping forward and sliding her long Alicorn horn into the circular slot in the door, suddenly Twilight recognised the similar design as was in the door to the vault Celestia kept the Elements of Harmony in.

Once Luna had slid her horn all the way in the patterns in the door glowed and there was a rumbling, rasping sound as the door segmented and slid into the wall. What Twilight saw next made her jaw drop. The library was massive, the biggest collection of books she had ever seen, it must have several floors underground and must have been a hundred feet wide, and there was no way to tell how long it was, it stretched on until she could make out nothing more for the dust.

Twilight stepped forwards into the chamber and the heat and dryness of it hit her like a wall, making her cough a little. She lifted a bottle of water out of her saddle bag and drank from it. Luna looked at her worriedly, but Twilight looked back and smiled confidently.
“Time to get to work… probably best to start in the restricted section, right? Anything I’ll need to get in?” Twilight asked, starting to get a little excited.

“I don’t think so, it was a pretty complex locking spell, but it’ll have faded mostly by now, easy enough to break, keep going down the main row and you should find it easy enough.” Luna said, a hint of concern in her voice and in her eyes as Twilight set off into the dusty fog of the ancient library.

What Twilight noticed after a good ten minutes of walking was; firstly, that she needed to take a drink very often as the air seemed to leach it from her. Secondly, that, despite the dustiness of the air, none of the dust ever settled, it just floated, leaving every surface as if it had just been cleaned. Thirdly, despite the fact that there was not even a hint of a breeze, the dust seemed to flow in odd patterns, twisting and flowing as if it were alive. All three of these things soon dampened the excitement Twilight had felt upon entering the Library. But what was most unnerving was the simple repetitiveness of this place; it hadn’t been long before the view of the door had been swallowed up by quagmire of dust and since then the rows of bookshelves seemed to blur together so that Twilight felt like she was making no headway at all.

But it wasn’t just distance that seemed immeasurable in this place, but time too… with no sun or other external light the only source were the dimly glowing gemstones that seemed to give off more light than they should, making the view seem flat at the dust spread the light out. And so, when Twilight finally reached barred entrance to the restricted section of the Library, she had no idea of how long she had already spent in there.

Twilight studied to gate closely, it was a simple iron gate with a weakly enchanted lock. Twilight was easily able to break the spell on the lock and suddenly the gate swung outwards and a gust swept past her. Only there was no rushing of air… only of dust. It made no sense since the gate had been made from bars and so it should have been able to flow out anyway.

Twilight’s fear rose and she paused, not sure whether to proceed or not. But she built up her courage and stepped through the gateway and into the restricted section. This area was much more densely packed. The shelves seeming to press down on Twilight as she passed them making her arch her back and crouch subconsciously. It felt more like a prison than a Library.

Eventually after wandering for some unknowable period of time across a locked cabinet labelled ‘Records Of The Conclave’. Twilight looked at it and rubbed her eyes, slightly disbelieving that it would be labelled so blatantly. But when she opened her eyes again it was labelled differently: ‘Palace Financial Records’. Twilight looked around panicked, but she soon spotter the same cabinet, ‘Records Of The Conclave’, right next to the one she was now stood in front of, despite the fact she had not moved at all… somehow, either her or the Cabinet had moved without her knowing, and it scared her.

Twilight carefully moved towards it and undid the latch opening it slowly and studied the covers, though for some reason, she couldn’t make out the titles, whenever she tried to read them her vision blurred and her head throbbed. She soon gave up and simply picked one of the books of the shelf and opened it, then turned the page quickly, then again, and again, she picked another book down and did the same.

“B-but… this… this doesn’t make any sense… they’re all… blank…?” Twilight was right, every single page of every single book she pulled off the shelf was blank, as if nothing had ever been printed on them. Then Twilight froze as an ice cold breath broke against her neck.
“Awwww… poor Twilight doesn’t get it… he he he” Said a hoarse, rasping whisper in her ear, followed by the eerie giggle of a foal.

Comments

[TheMyth]

Something is rotten in the state of Equestria

[Sonicbrony66]

Oh shit....CREEPY GHOST FOAL I CHOOSE YOU!

[MC BR0N3]

HOLY SHIT! IS THAT SPIKE!?
Wrong library.
Oh...Damn, that voice is creepy.

Love the chapter.

[Blik]

"… while ensure you he is safe…" --> while I assure
Discord Tutted again --> tutted again(period)
good job I found him when I did really.” He said deep in thought. --> Good job; really(comma); he said

"The Princess nodded and smiled, but inside she was still tentative about the dangers." Why do you switch narrators here? Seeing inside Luna's head where we couldn't before is jarring. Perhaps "The Princess nodded tentatively and smiled, but she was clearly still nervous about the dangers." That way it's still Twilight who's talking.

Perhaps the records were kept inside a single, living soul? And she just let it out of its cabinet?

Now that I'm caught up, I can't wait for the next chapter!

[Dr Atom Discharge]

444231 Alright, firstly thanks for the mistake spotting.
Secondly, evidently this was meant to be a quiet escape, such a massive use of magic would almost certainly have attracted Celestia's attention, something lun does not want to happen, as it would make escape all but impossible

[Dr Atom Discharge]

444282 I would like to say that I write in my own style in a way that I think gets the mood and feeling of the scene along to my readers in the best possible way, I am sorry if you don't like it, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't critasize it.

Also, An interesting Idea and one I did toy with... but I have other plans right now... he he...Don't worry, I plan to have the next chapter out tonight as I managed to get some writting (or typing as it were) done while traveling

[Blik]

444719 I like to think I only criticize constructively. You don't have to alter the text on my account - that's your purview - but I was so used to being only in Twilight's head that to suddenly look into Luna's was as I said a bit jarring. As an effect, it's done so rarely that I thought you might have missed it in editing. Therefore I posted a small suggestion. Take it or leave it. I was only trying to help... *mumble grumble*

[Dr Atom Discharge]

447057 Oh no, I do understand that and I was not criticizing.. your... criticisum... er... but I was simply explaining why I would include it. criticism is always welcome, it's something I am always happy to recieve and from now on I will try and cut down on that kind of thing

[See ScriptScrolls]

another awesome chapter but i consistently see one mistake... "was stood"
stood is the past tense of stand and needs no 'to be' verb.