A Friendly Visit to the Library
Wedgemare, Equestria
November 13th
“So...Jonathan.”
“Yeah?”
It had been several minutes since they had given their farewells to the mayor. In this period of time, neither Celestia nor Jonathan spoke even a word to each other. With both having a clear destination in mind (even if the boy had no idea how to get there), there wasn’t really much to be said.
Or at least that’s what Jonathan thought.
In Celestia’s mind, however; the lingering question she had had ever since she first got a clear look at the human was what drove her to silence. As they walked past several buildings on their way to the library, she repeatedly cast glances at him out of the corner of her eye. Thankfully for her, Jonathan was too engrossed in his surroundings to notice. Celestia held her tongue for as long as she could, thinking it would be rude to dig so much at the boy in a single day. But really—
—the curiosity was killing her.
When it finally hit Jonathan that Celestia wasn’t walking with him anymore, he came to a stop. He turned and saw her still standing in the middle of the road a few feet back. There was a piercing look in her eyes that—if he had to be perfectly honest—was kinda freaking him out a bit. He raised a brow in confusion. Awkward silence hung in the air for a few moments, Jonathan becoming more and more uneasy as Celestia’s violet eyes never left him.
“Jonathan, why...why is your mane so short?” Celestia broke the silence, self-consciousness causing her to alternate her gaze from Jonathan to the ground.
Caught off-guard by the unimpressive question, Jonathan’s mind went blank for a few seconds. “Uhm—w-what?”
“Your mane! Why is it so...so short?!” Celestia asked, frustratedly huffing.
It took him a second. Jonathan took a steadying breath, then laughed to himself. “Well...for a few reasons, really,” he said, a hand subconsciously going up to stroke his chin in thought.
“Like what?”
“For sta...actually, shouldn’t we be walking as we talk?”
Celestia gave a small nod and trotted up ahead of Jonathan. Once he fell into step behind her, he continued by saying, “I guess the first reason for this haircut is practicality, really.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“...say the weather gets too hot,” said Jonathan, running a hand through his blonde-hair. “Don’t you imagine the experience being—you know—more bearable if your hair was short?”
“I suppose s—oh! My apologies, Vibrant Tenor!” said Celestia, hastily veering out of the way of a stallion carrying buckets of water. After recovering from nearly dropping one of the buckets, he gave a friendly nod to the two (albeit with an odd glance at Jonathan), then continued on his way.
“So, Celestia. Where’s this library at anyway?” Jonathan asked.
Celestia stopped and turned to smirk at him. “Right there,” she said, pointing a hoof over at a building not even ten feet away from them.
The low murmur of voices was just barely audible when they walked into the library’s entrance hallway. Said area was small; with wooden walls and red-tile flooring stretching across the hall from door to door. A mare, an elderly unicorn wearing spectacles, called out to them from behind a desk to their right. Jonathan followed a step behind Celestia as she trotted happily over to her.
“Why hello there, little miss…” the librarian trailed off. She squinted through her glasses at Celestia, then smiled in recognition. “Ah! Welcome back, Tia!”
“A pleasure to see you, Shrewd Tomes. Have you seen Luna today?”
“As a matter of fact; yes, I have! And—” Shrewd Tome’s gaze shifted to Jonathan, the friendly smile on her muzzle changing to one of curiosity. “—you know, young stallion...it’s been quite a long time since I’ve seen one of your kind here.”
“What do you mean, ‘one of my kind’?” The boy asked, eyes widening.
Shrewd Tomes adjusted her glasses, her eyes inquisitively scanning Jonathan as she spoke. “Why, you’re a minotaur, are you not? Though, then again—you DO appear to be missing quite a bit of fur…”
Mouth tentatively opening to speak, Jonathan was shocked to hear that the next words spoken were from Celestia, instead. “Actually, Tomes, Jonathan here is what’s called a hooman.”
“A ‘hoo-man’?”
“Uhm, it’s pronounced ‘hue-min’, actually,” Jonathan said, correcting them both with a slight chuckle.
“Hmm...a human, you say? In all my years of research, young one, I don’t think I’ve even once ever heard a thing about these ‘humans’.
“My kind isn’t really from around here.”
With one last smile on her part, the librarian nodded and said, “Yes, yes I can certainly see that now.” She turned to Celestia. “Well, I should be letting you two run off and find little Lulu now. She’ll be in the fantasy section, if I had to wager a guess. And tell her I said ‘hello’—that filly ran past me before I could even get a word out.”
“Thank you for the assistance, Tomes! And don’t worry, I’ll tell her,” said Celestia.
Nudging her head toward the door ahead of them, Celestia motioned for the human to follow her. The doorknob glowed that familiar yellow color, but she could turn it, the librarian called out from behind them:
“Oh, and—it’s Jonathan, correct?—I hope you’re enjoying your time in Wedgemare. Will I be seeing you around?”
His brow furrowed slightly as he pondered the question. WOULD she see him around? They have magic, Jonathan—it’s almost certain they have the ability to teleport you or something like that back to Earth.
But what if I tell them I don’t WANNA go back. Wouldn’t they respect my wish and let me stay? I can only hope.
“Probably...Shrewd Tomes,” Jonathan said, the foreign name on his tongue causing him to smile. If there was one thing in this new world that would take him awhile to get used to; not counting the obvious answer of magic, of course; it’d be the bizarre names. “Probably.”
Shrewd Tomes gave him a nod, and then disappeared into an area somewhere behind her desk.
Jonathan followed Celestia through the door which, after going down a short flight of stairs, lead to yet another door. As they went through the second door, Jonathan felt his knees almost buckle beneath him when the doorway opened up into a huge library area—bookcases a little below head-level for him neatly placed in vertical rows and along the walls.
“Jesus,” said Jonathan after recovering.
Operating on what seemed like auto-pilot, Celestia immediately turned to the right and walked along the wall. She glanced at him over her withers. “Jesus?”
Jonathan shook his head, effortlessly staying close behind Celestia as she continued toward their destination. Waving his hands toward the shelves around him, he said, “Nothing, nothing. It’s just that...I’ve never seen this—this many—”
“—books in one place before?” Celestia helpfully suggested, finishing his thought.
“Yeah…”
Celestia giggled, slowing her pace down until she was walking next to him so she could look up at him. “If you’re freaking out now, Jonathan, you should see the castle’s library.”
“...I can’t imagine anything much bigger than this, really, ” Jonathan muttered, his eyes once again looking around at surroundings in wonder. “You know, this looks a lot bigger than the building we saw from outside. Magic?”
“Correct! A Class-B Enchantment from the Chamber of Conventional Magic—the Sidratanos spell is actually a relatively easy one to cast, despite its monumentous effect on architecture,” Celestia explained, the words rolling off her tongue at a speed difficult to comprehend. Of course, at the moment the speed didn't really matter, as Jonathan could not comprehend a word anyway.
Jonathan looked down at the unicorn blankly. “...my god, it is going to take FOREVER to get used to this whole magic deal.”
“Well, if there's anypony in Equestria that can assist in introducing you to the concept of magic—it'll be me!” said Celestia with a look of pride. “Come on, follow me; we can go check out a book to help.”
“Wha—”
Celestia abruptly turned around, nearly bumping into Jonathan as she trotted toward her new destination. Wherever in this gigantic library that happened to be.
It took a jogging pace to catch up with her. “Wait, Celestia—hold on! Shouldn't we be looking for your sister?!” Jonathan cried, earning him a few glares from the various other ponies browsing through the books. He mumbled a quiet apology and followed Celestia down one of the aisles.
Violet eyes rapidly sifting through the hundreds of books lining the shelves, Celestia didn't look at him as she spoke in a hushed whisper. “Of course we are! But remember; we have all day to just mess around and do things. I doubt Lulu will just up and leave if we find you a book before we find her.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Jonathan sighed and lightly leaned back onto one of the bookcases. “I…suppose you’re right, Celestia,” he admitted. “But what are you looking for, exactly?”
“Give me a second and you’ll see. And…” Celestia trailed off as she looked through the titles, her eyes eventually coming upon the book she was looking for. “—a-ha! Here you go, Jonathan.”
Jonathan hesitantly grabbed the thick book and held it up in front of him. “Introduction to the Wonderful Art of Magic…” he said, reading the title aloud to himself.
While Jonathan would never say it out loud, the thing sounded to him like some sort of prank book or joke gift you'd buy someone when you had no idea what else to get them. From what he had already seen and heard about this world today, though; was it too farfetched to think that the book may actually contain information about magic? The mere thought of the possibility intrigued him at a level nothing else ever had. Right when he was about to open it, however, he found his arm being tugged toward one end of the aisle by some yellow haze.
“You’ll have time to read that book later, Jonathan. Now—come on, let's go find Lulu!” said Celestia a little too loudly, earning her a few glares and ‘shhh’s. Embarrassed, her face lit up with a blush clearly visible through her fur. She quickly muttered an apology to the nearby ponies but kept pulling Jonathan with her as she turned a corner.
They found the fantasy section of the library quickly after that. Like Shrewd Tomes had said, Luna was there with a book lying open in front of her. Celestia looked over at Jonathan with a smile he returned with a shrug. A silent agreement was made: they would just stand and wait to see if she'd eventually notice them. One minute passed with no results. Then another. A third minute passed—Luna still had no reaction to the two standing there. Finally, Celestia grew impatient, huffed, and stepped closer to Luna.
“Ahem.”
“…”
Celestia frowned at getting no response, but tried again—this time louder.
“Ahem.”
“…”
Standing idly by, Jonathan watched with an amused expression as Celestia repeatedly cleared her throat at the hopelessly distracted pegasus. That girl's mind must be a thousand miles away, he thought, staring at the odd display. A few ponies around them had merely stopped what they were doing and joined in on the observing. Jonathan couldn't help but wonder if this kind of thing happened often with the two sisters.
“AHEM!” Celestia cleared her throat again, though at this point she was practically just yelling it.
This finally seemed to have gotten little Luna's attention. She looked up from her book with a start, her eyes frantically darting to look around her until she came upon the sight of Celestia glaring down at her, Jonathan standing a little behind her, and about six or seven random ponies observing from a distance.
“Wha—oh...” said Luna, her cheeks flushing a little. She laughed nervously. “Heheh...hello, sister. Wh-what brings you to this fine establishment?”
“Oh, nothing—just doing some browsing around and looking for you! Luna, why did you just scamper off ahead and not wait for us?” Celestia chided, still leering at the small pegasus.
“We-well, you guys were taking too long!”
“The instant I told Jonathan how we were getting to Wedgemare, you bolted off.”
“I got impatient!”
Celestia rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “Just...just forget it,” she said. A smile on her muzzle replaced the look of agitation as she walked over to Luna and looked down at her open book. “So tell me, Lulu. What book is this to have you so immersed that you didn't notice us, anyway?”
“A fairy tale!” Luna exclaimed. Happy to have a change of subject, she had a smile on her face as she lifted the book and showed Celestia some of the illustrations. “It's a story about a group of ponies that use the elements to fight crime.”
Tilting her head in confusion, Celestia levitated the book over to her and intensely examined the pages. “Elements?” she asked, not taking her eyes away from the pages.
“You know; fire, water, electrici—“
“Oh! Okay, you meant 'elemental magic'.”
“Yeah, yeah...I'm a pegasus, Tia. I can't use magic, remember?” Luna asked, frowning. That frown quickly turned into a smile as she took to the air with a few flaps of her wings. “I CAN fly, though!”
Celestia let out a huff, though any mask of frustration was betrayed by the still evident grin on her face. “I know, I know...but hey! Jonathan can't use magic and HE's willing to educate HIMSELF on the subject!”
“—or CAN he use magic?” Luna suggested. Her wings flapped a little slower as she lowered herself to look into Jonathan's eyes suspiciously.
Jonathan clutched the Introduction to the Wonderful Art of Magic to his chest. “Uhm, haha...no. As much as I wish I could—it's not possible for me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Are you SURE?“
“Yes, I'm sure.”
“...are you SUUUUR—“
“Luna, leave it be,” interrupted Celestia, closing the book. She levitated the book back into its original spot on the shelf—shown clearly by the empty space between two similar ones—and turned to face Jonathan and Luna with a smile. “Come on! We have a day we should be spending doing a bunch of fun activities. Why are we spending it in some library?”
Jonathan and Luna agreed. With a final wave to the librarian; Shrew Tomes, the three walked out the library's front door and back into the town. Once they started heading toward Wedgemare's plaza, a nagging question burrowed its way into Jonathan's head.
“Hey...Celestia.”
“Yes, Jonathan?” she asked, raising a brow at him.
Taking a second to think of how to phrase his question, Jonathan absentmindedly flipped through his book. “You guys keep bringing up how...we should be 'doing something today', or 'making today count'. ...what e-exactly is happening tomorrow?”
“It's the final rain of the year tomorrow!” Luna said.
“...what do you mean, 'the final rain of the year'?” asked Jonathan, still skimming through the pages of his book.
Celestia answered this time. “The final rain of the year is the last bit of raining Equestria gets before the season changes to winter.”
“How are you so sure of it raining tomorrow?”
“Because,” said Celestia, turning her nose up with a smile. “The pegasi schedule it for the same day every year.”
“...”
After a second more of walking, Celestia realized that Jonathan had stopped walking and turned to look back at him. He simply stood there staring blankly ahead, the book shaking in his hands. Frankly, he looked like he was close to having a heart attack. “Jonathan?”
“You guys control the WEATHER, TOO?!” he asked exasperatedly.
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The mane six will appear or at least get mentioned in this story eventually, right?
7089243 Sorry, friend. This story takes place way before any of the Mane 6's time.
I do, however; have plans to SOMEHOW connect this with the present, eventually. We'll see how things work themselves out.