• Published 15th Feb 2014
  • 2,370 Views, 78 Comments

The 37th Librarian - Autumnschild



Scarlet Letters is a lot of things. A Mare. A pegasus. A former member of the guard. And now, a librarian. She's looking forward to the post-war peace and prosperity that's been promised. Now if only she could get some sleep.

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Chapter 2

Scarlet Letters hummed an off-pitch tune to herself as she rifled through the cabinetry of the library’s kitchen. She was trying rather desperately to soothe her frazzled nerves, but she wasn’t having much luck in that regard. Nor was she having any luck in the whole ‘finding tea’ category, either.

She did however manage to send an adorable mug with a pair of hugging kittens on it smashing to the ground.

“Is everything alright in there?” asked the concerned voice of her unexpected royal guest.

“Oh my, y-yes, haha,” she laughed nervously in reply. “Just looking for the tea. It seems to have run off.”

Pulling her hoof out of the cabinet, Scarlet cursed as her shaky limb managed to dislodge a second mug, one that claimed to be WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND. As it tumbled through the air, she instinctively kicked at it when the doomed cup fell past her hips. Instantly bemoaning the impulse, she winced as it sailed on a terminal arc with the refrigerator door.

The mug hit and burst like a piñata full of ceramic shards. The kind of piñata that would get you in trouble with the local constabulary because they tend to frown on the whole ‘feed shards of things to foals.’ At any rate, the score was now gravity two, Scarlet zero.

For a brief snippet of time, Scarlet felt like she was being stretched and pulled. It was reminiscent in a way to the time she got stuck in a taffy machine as a small filly. In the next instant, she was sitting at the table back in the library’s main room. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, and found herself completely devoid of content. So she made a series of polite noises instead.

Princess Twilight smiled reassuringly at the bumbling librarian, rose to her hooves, and made her way into her old kitchen. “Please, allow me,” she said, brooking no argument.

None was given.

Scarlet Letters spent the next few minutes looking around the library. She’d not yet taken the opportunity to just sit and enjoy the library’s main room since she took up the post two weeks prior. It’s not that it wasn’t beautiful or well maintained or anything. She just didn’t care for public spaces.

Not after what happened in Appleoosa.

“Cream and sugar?” came a question from the kitchen just over the sound of the boiling kettle.

Scarlet nodded, before catching herself and answering out loud “Yes, please.”

The Goddess of Magic re-entered the main room from the kitchen with a smile of nostalgia on her otherwise tired face. Seated on her back and balanced by partially extended wings, she carried a tray laden with tea and goodies. Taking the tray in her teeth as she reached the table, she set it down between the two mares and sat down with a contented sigh.

Scarlet marveled at the little apple jam filled pastries that sat on the tray alongside the tea and its trappings. They smelled fresh from the oven, and she could feel the warmth radiating off of them, but she knew that couldn’t be.

Princess Twilight’s magic bandied about the table, filling her mug with steaming hot liquid that smelled of mint, and grabbing one of the pastries and putting it on the plate in front of her. Scarlet took it as a sign to do the same, and filled her own cup before winging the remaining pastry over to her plate.

The two strangers sat in the library at just after three in the morning and sipped their tea in silence. Scarlet felt like a voyeur as she watched the Princess sigh her happy sighs and smile her genuine smiles as her eyes danced around the library. Scarlet reached for her mug and took a sip, for bravery, before daring to dive into conversation with an actual, factual Princess.

“So!” she blurted, catching the undivided attention of the divine being on the other side of the table. “What uh... that is to say, why... how...” She found the bravery melt out of her words and sink to somewhere far beneath floor as the Princess looked her right in the eyes. If a pony could wilt, Scarlet Letters would be one such pony.

“You know, this is one of my favorite places in the whole world,” Princess Twilight said, more to herself than to Scarlet.

Scarlet looked up and smiled. “Oh. Is it, mum?”

The purple Princess nodded. “It is. Did you know I used to be the librarian here?”

“Oh. Fancy that. You know, I do believe it was mentioned on the brochure.” Of course Scarlet knew that the Goddess of Magic was once the librarian here at Golden Oaks library. Everypony in the library arts knew that. It’s a given, like how the Solar Court raises the Sun, or that everypony has a cutie mark.

The Princess looked down into her cup and added another sugar cube before giving it a judicious stirring. “So much happened in this town. In these walls. I’d do anything to keep it from harm.” She looked up and fixed the pegasus across the table with a gaze that could scare the stink off a manticore. “Anything.”

Scarlet Letters, feeling every bit the chastised child, nodded furiously. “Oh yes mum, absolutely mum. Perish the thought, mum.”

Princess Twilight’s damning glare washed away so quickly, that for a moment Scarlet wondered if she imagined the whole thing. The two mares returned to silence as they went about their tea in the early morning stillness.

“Sorry.”

Scarlet looked up from her half-eaten pastry at the Princess. Did she just—

“I’m sorry. The last few months have been tough. For me, at least. I guess I’m still worried that just about anypony could be a changeling.”

Scarlet reached across the table and patted the Alicorn across from her on the hoof. It was an instinct to comfort. One she couldn’t fight in the face of the tears that threatened the other mare’s face.

“It’s been tough for all of us, mum. For what it’s worth I’m… I’m still not over my time in the war either.”

The Princess looked at her with new eyes. “What’s your name, soldier?”

The red pegasus stood up and saluted before responding. “Flight Lieutenant Scarlet Letters of the 501st Squadron.”

“The 501st?” the Princess asked, as she worked through her mental organizational charts. “So you flew under Tempest, right?”

Scarlet laughed bittersweetly, remembering the zany old stallion who led the 501st. Cracked as he was, the changelings never did figure him out. “Yes mum, I served under old Grey Gills right up till the end.”

“That’s right you all were at The Big Push…” she trailed off and stared into her tea cup again. Scarlet joined her, and the two sat in silence once more. Until something purple caught her attention from the corner of her eye.

It was the Princess. She was reaching across the table. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Scarlet. I’m Twilight, if you please. I like to keep things informal between us librarians.”

Scarlet Letters took the hoof in her own and shook firmly, smiling mutely back at the immortal creature she was now on a first name basis with.

“That is, assuming you’re the new librarian, and not just a squatter,” Twilight offered dryly before taking a sip of her tea.

Absentmindedly, the new librarian replied “I’ve got my degree in Library Arts hanging in the bedroom if you care to come up and see it.”

Twilight simply raised an eyebrow at the now furiously blushing mare as she continued to sip her tea. The pegasus from Trottingham, completely aghast at the folly of her careless words stared with boundless interest into the grain of the table. She marveled silently at its craftmareship as she nervously clapped her forehooves together just over her lukewarm mug. She also prayed for an aneurism to kill her dead on the spot.

Gently, Twilight lowered her mug to the table and smiled slyly. “Perhaps another time. Tell me, why did you choose Ponyville? Surely there were libraries back in Trottingham that could use your services?”

“Oh. I uh…” Scarlet sat up and the blood drained a bit from her face. By the way her ears where pinned back, Twilight knew everything she needed to know. “Honestly mu—Twilight, if it’s all the same to you, I’d... rather not talk about Trottingham.”

“Of course Scarlet, forgive me. We’ve all got our little secrets, after all,” she said with a soft smile as she nodded towards the empty spot on the wall where the door that started all of this had appeared and then disappeared. Scarlet smiled back gratefully.

“Have you met any of the locals yet?”

Scarlet let out a puff of air and dropped her head to the table, resting her chin on the plate that once held a tasty apple pastry. “More than my fair share, I’m afraid.”

“Oh?”

“Just between you and me?” Scarlet looked left, and then right before leaning closer to Twilight, who also leaned forward to hear what the other mare had to offer. “I think the ponies in this town are crazy.”

Scarlet considered herself a mare of action. She was always one to come up with a list, a plan if you will, of what needed to be done in just about any situation. But for the second time this early morning, her mind drew a complete blank. The first was when she was presented with the awe and splendor of Princess Twilight Sparkle standing in her library.

The second was right now, when she was present for the barking, nigh-hysterical laughter of Twilight Sparkle, her new Alicorn friend.