A Squire's Tail

by BBkat

Chapter Three

The library itself was surprisingly easy to find, once Chase had tracked down someone who could give him directions to it. It was also big, very big, and on the opposite side of the castle grounds from the barracks.

Ever so slowly Chase pushed one of the large wooden doors open and stepped inside. He’d never been in a library this big. While the Royal Canterlot Library was the largest library in the city, it was not the only one, there were several much small branches found through out the city.

As he stepped inside he realized just how much larger this library actually was. Much like the main halls of Canterlot castle, the ceilings were immensely tall with smooth, sloping arches. There were rows upon rows of shelves, each one packed with books on probably every conceivable subject. To his left was the check-out desk, behind which sat a lone unicorn mare, who was checking in books and setting them aside on a cart after stamping each one inside the cover.

It was also quiet, so quiet that Chase winced a little at the sound his hooves made over the floors, the noise echoing in the large room.

“Um, excuse me ma’am?” he asked, placing a hoof on the table.

She looked up at him over the top her glasses, regarding him for a moment before speaking. “Can I help you?”

“I-can you direct me to books on defensive magic?” he asked.

“Defensive magic?”

Chase nodded, “Yes’em, basic defensive magic, like shielding spells.”

“Those should be over there,” she pointed towards one of the rows. “In the magic theory section.”

“Oh, thank you.”

She went back to work and Chase headed in the direction she’d pointed, reading off the section names as he walked, making sure to be quiet so as not to disturb anyone.

The shelves were all quite tall, so they all came equipped with a sliding ladder to make it possible to reach the books on the higher shelves for the patrons without wings or magic.

“Magical theory, magical theory…” He mumbled under his breath as he walked, finally coming to a stop at the section in question. It was huge, easily several rows deep and filled with books, so many books.

“Oh boy.”

He tilted his head to one side to read the spines of the books as he walked, though most of them had long, convoluted titles that he couldn’t even begin to understand. A basic spell book, that was all he wanted, basic ones, not foot thick theoretical texts on the properties and effects of polymorphic spells on living beings being turned into non-sentient life forms. He groaned in annoyance before quickly covering his mouth and looking around, hoping that he hadn’t been heard.

“How can anypony even read this stuff?” he wondered, flicking through one of the books he’d pulled off the shelf. He could barely understand any of what was written, and there were very few diagrams to help make it clearer. Snapping it shut he put the book back on the shelf and turned his attention to the sliding ladder.

Perhaps, for some strange reason, the books were placed higher up and that was why he hadn’t found them yet. He tapped the ladder, testing its stability first before slowly placing his hooves on it and climbing up. Chase gulped, balanced on his hind legs like this felt awkward at best, like he’d fall if he moved wrong, and he worried just how high he’d have to go. For all his daydreams of what it would be like to fly, he hated heights, especially if he felt like he could fall from the tall height. Climb the stairs to the top of a tower, fine; balance on a ladder several feet of the ground, not fine. With a deep breath he continued up the ladder, head tilted slightly as he read the book’s spines, looking for something, anything that might help.

Chase wasn’t up the ladder long before had had to climb down. His legs were shaking like he’d been standing in an earthquake and the idea of being up the ladder had begun to freak him out. With all four feet on solid ground he felt much, much safer, but no closer to finding the books he needed.

“This is hopeless,” he groaned silently, doing his best not to start hitting his head on the shelf.

He started back down the aisle again, perhaps he’d just overlooked them in his search, or they were farther down the shelf somewhere. He didn’t know what the titles were, and with everything organized alphabetically maybe they weren’t under ‘B’ for ‘Beginner’. ‘S’ for ‘Shielding’ perhaps?

Up and down the rows he walked, reading over the titles and occasionally taking a book off the shelf to flip through.

‘Simple Shielding Spells for the Studious Unicorn’ Chase balanced on his hind legs, front legs resting on the shelf as he looked at the book, which was just out of his reach. It was one shelf up, just barely out of his reach, and the ladder was of no use as evidenced by the ‘Out of Order’ sign hanging off it and the fact that there was a missing rung. Reaching out he stretched as best as he could to grab at the book, each swipe missing the book by a hair’s breadth.

“So close, if only I were a few inches taller,” he thought, trying once again to reach it. With a sigh he dropped back onto all four hooves and decided to go look for something to stand on, a stool or chair maybe. The library had to have something like that around.

With a new goal in mind he trotted off, making a note of where the book was located so he wouldn’t spend forever searching for it once he got back. First he headed back to the main desk to find the librarian and ask if she knew where he might find a stool or chair.

“Um, ma’am?” he asked, tapping the table lightly. She looked up at him and Chase flattened his ears, her stiff expression made him worry he’d interrupted something. “I um, I was wondering if you might know where I can find a stool or a chair?”

She sighed and pointed towards the other end of the library. “The study area is down there, you should be able to find what you’re looking for there.”

“Oh, thank you.” Tucking his tail close he trotted off, lest he linger there a moment longer and upset the librarian even more.

The study area was exactly what one would think a study area would look like in a library, an open space among the shelves with several large wooden tables surrounded by any number of chairs. A couple of them had ponies seated at them, books piled up around them and scrolls of paper stretched out in front, the soft scratching of a quill or pencil the only sound that could be heard.

Chase avoided those tables, he didn’t need to bother anyone else, and set about looking for an empty table with an unused chair. Finding such a chair wasn’t difficult as only a handful of the tables were actually in use.

Chase stared at the chair for a moment, debating on how he was going to get it back to the shelves; he couldn’t exactly carry it after all. Pushing it was then, as he wasn’t about to try and drag it around with his mouth. The chair feet squeaked as he pushed it over the wood floor, Chase wincing and looking around quickly. A few heads lifted, but they went quickly back to their work, paying the young unicorn no more attention.

Slowly but surely he began to push the chair across the floor, stopping every now and then when it squeaked or jutted across the floor. The noise seemed incredibly loud in the quiet of the library. Chase held his head low in embarrassment, ears pinned to his skull as he pushed the chair through the library. It took longer than he would have liked, or felt like it at any rate, and once he was out of sight of everyone he grabbed the chair in his teeth and dragged it the rest of the way. No one would ever know.

Wiping his brow Chase finally came to a stop at the shelves, while the chair was not exceptionally heavy it started to feel heavy after dragging and pushing it such a distance. Carefully he nudged the chair into place so he could climb up onto it to reach the book. He glanced around; making sure no one was around to see what he was about to do. Satisfied he was alone, Chase climbed onto the chair, momentarily balancing on his hind legs as he pawed the book free. Once it was pulled out far enough he grabbed the book in his mouth and pulled it off the shelf and quickly hopped down from the chair.

---

No magic, it was like being a foal again when he had to do everything by hoof and imagine what he spells he was reading about would look like when cast. Chase sighed as he flipped the page, the book resting between his front hooves as he sat on the floor. He’d found a small; out of the way spot to sit and read where he wouldn’t be disturbed and had made himself quite comfortable. The library’s silence made it easier to concentrate on what he was reading; it didn’t however make it any less boring.

Closing the book up he trotted back to the shelf to locate any more, if he was going to be studying like this all week then he was going to need more than one book. And there had to be more than one on the subject anyways.

A few minutes later Chase settled back in his study spot with several books piled up around him.

Shielding spells came in a variety of strengths, sizes and kinds. The most basic of which were just small barriers made of magic that the caster could use like they would a physical shield. They could then be further altered to absorb or reflect magical attacks. On top of being used to protect against magic, a barrier or shielding spell could be used to shield against other things if the caster wish and was strong enough. Everything from physical projectiles to diseases could be blocked out with a barrier of magic. After that the only thing that differed between the kinds of barriers were sizes, from a shield, to a full body bubble, to a spell to protect an entire building to something akin to the Canterlot wide barrier Captain Shining Armor had erected before the changeling invasion. That of course would take far more magic than Chase could ever dream of producing.

Usually the larger spells would require several unicorns to cast it at once. These larger building to citywide barriers could also be used to keep intruders out, or lock something in. Chase remembered a passing reference to them being used to keep someone under house arrest but didn’t pursue that one any farther, he just wanted to know about small, personal barriers for the time being.

He pushed one book aside and started on another, searching out the sections about small shielding spells and protective barriers. Anything larger he doubted they’d even touch until much later in training, maybe not they were actual guards and doing more advanced training.

Chase sighed, looking up at his horn, or as best as he could, not being able to use magic sucked, a lot. Standing up he moved all the books he needed into a stack and carefully picked them up, balancing them so they didn’t fall as he walked.

He returned to the front desk, dropping the books on it with a thud, much to the dismay of the librarian who winced at the sound.

“Found everything you need?” she asked in a bored voice.

“Yes ma’am,” he said with a nod.

She looked at the books, then at Chase, giving him a curious look but said nothing as she checked them out. “Do you have a library card?” she asked.

“Yes actually I do, let me get it out.” Twisting around he fiddled with the clips on the bag, trying to click it open. The librarian tapped her hoof impatiently and he gave a weak laugh. “Ah s-sorry about taking so long,” he said. “It’s these darn straps.” Finally it clicked out and he fished out the small card, placing it on the counter.

She sighed and finished with the checkout process, pushing everything back across the counter to him, card sitting on top of the books.

“They’re due in two weeks, the date’s stamped inside,” she said.

“Thank you,” said Chase with a nod. He turned, carefully flipping the bag open as he maneuvered the books in, making sure not to drop them. It was awkward and difficult and took more effort than simply levitating them in, as he usually would have. With a nod to the librarian he trotted towards the door and back to his room.

---

A murmur of voices seemed to swirl around his head, hissing and whispering. They weren’t very loud, whispering softly among themselves.

With a yawn Chase raised his head, blinking slowly as he rubbed his eyes. “Hmm, what’s going on?”

He was stretched out on his bed, face pressed into one of the open books on his pillow, the rest lay piled on the ground along with his saddlebag. At some point while reading he’d dozed off, head resting in the open book. The side effect of the painkillers he’d taken earlier had kicked in and put him to sleep.

The whispering voices belonged of course to his roommates, who had returned at some point while he slept.

“You ask him,” hissed one of them, pushing his buddy towards Chase. He was pretty sure that voice belonged to Sky Fire.

The following groan belonged to Thundermane, who shook his head in annoyance.

“Ask me what?” asked Chase, now sitting up and closing the book he’d been reading.

“What’s, what’s with the horn decoration?”

Chase was silent; his magic inhibitor was that easy to see? He’d thought it was hidden by his mane; no wonder the librarian had given him such an odd look. His ears flicked back nervously and he rubbed his hooves together awkwardly. “You can see that huh?” he asked.

“Yeah, it’s kinda obvious,” said Sky Fire. “And it’s, kinda weird. What’s it for anyways? I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that.”

“It’s, a magic inhibitor,” said Chase quietly, looking down at his hooves. “I got struck by a stray spell during training this morning.”

“Wait, were you the cause of the commotion earlier? Cause there was a huge commotion on the ground during training and lots of noise. What that you?”

“Did everyone hear that?” asked Chase meekly, lifting his head slightly.

There were a few snickers, “You mean the screaming? I think half of Canterlot heard that,” said Cloud Runner, the blue pegasus with a wispy two-toned blue mane.

“Hey don’t laugh, it hurts!” snapped Chase. “It’d be like if you slammed your wing in the door. Painful and unusable for a while.”

“How would you even know what it’s like to slam your wing in a door?” asked Cloud Runner, pointing an accusatory hoof at him. “You don’t have wings, unicorn. Besides, a horn’s made of bone, how can that possibly hurt?”

Chase snorted as he stepped off the bed, “You’re right, I don’t have any wings, but I suspect it would hurt a lot. I’ve seen pegasi with hurt wings before. And for the record, my horn might be bone, but there’s a giant nerve running through it. Think like your teeth, a chipped tooth hurts and that’s made of bone. Same thing. My horn has a crack in it so I’m not allowed to use any magic for at least a week, hence this thing,” he pointed to the inhibitor. “And painkillers so my headaches don’t last all day. So I really don’t want to deal your crap right now.” He wasn’t usually this crass or short with ponies but his head was sore and he was already losing his patience with them, and being made fun of like this was only making it worse.

“Nice going featherbrain,” hissed Thundermane, hitting Cloud Runner in the shoulder with his wing. “That was way uncalled for. You wouldn’t like it we laughed at you for getting hurt.”

“Why do you keep sticking up for that horn-head anyways?” asked the blue colt.

Chase turned to face them abruptly, stamping his hoof loudly to get their attention, silencing them almost immediately. “What is your problem with me?” he asked. “Ever since I moved in here you have shown nothing but utter disdain for me and I can’t figure out why. Especially since we barely talk enough for me to have done anything to offend you.”

There was an awkward silence as the two parties stared at each other, Chase determined to get an answer from them once and for all, and the pegasi dumbfounded by the outburst.

“Hey don’t look at me,” said Thundermane, finally breaking the silence, “I’ve been trying to talk some sense into these guys for a while. I have no problem with you.”

Silence, no pony seemed willing to break to the silence, the other two colts shifting nervously on their feet.

“Oh for the love of Celestia fine,” groaned Thundermane. “Sometimes I can’t believe I’m friends with you morons.” He turned to Chase, “I am sorry about them. See, we’ve had some, bad run-ins with unicorns before, especially ones from the noble families. So they were kinda upset when we found out we were going to be rooming with, well you. I tried to convince them to give you a chance but I think their outlook was already rather, soured.” He pawed the ground nervously as he spoke, awaiting the inevitable backlash from Chase. But it never came; instead, after several moments of quiet, Chase began to laugh.

Author's Note:

The confrontation. Sort of. I did want to drag out the animosity longer but I couldn't. I just wanted them to get over themselves so I have them actually interacting. All of them, not just Thundermane. And yes I'm aware, their attitudes makes them just as bad as the ones who wronged them, that's the point, they're being stupid.