Chapter 7
Mystic opened his eyes and sat up. A sledgehammer slammed itself into the base of his horn, forcing him back onto the pillow. He sucked in a breath. His head felt ten times heavier than normal and his horn gave off rhythmic pulses that pounded in his skull like perfectly placed kicks. With his vision blurred by the pain, he closed his eyes and slowed his breathing. The ache ebbed a little.
“Sir Mystic,” came a voice beside him. “Can you speak?”
“Yes, but not for long.” Mystic turned his head just a bit in the voice’s direction. “Who am I addressing?”
“Master-Sergeant Sunny Days, Sir.”
“Days?” Mystic was silent for a moment before nodding. “Good, you have clearance. I need to focus on recovering my magic and attuning my horn, so I’ll make this quick. What is the status of Mi Amore and her parents?“
“Mr. Reed should be up by now, though I question the use of a sleep spell in the first place. Mrs. Aria was still unconscious last I checked, but didn’t show any signs of injury aside from some popped eardrums. As for Mi Amore, she suffered a small scrape and was a little shaken by the whole incident, but will hopefully be fine once her parents are awake again.”
“Good.” Another throb of pain went through his head, forcing Mystic to turn away from Days and inhale deeply. He held the air in for a moment before exhaling in a long and controlled breath. “I will find out what happened. My magic was perfectly attuned until we got to the middle of Garden; everything after that is a blur.
Mystic sighed and pressed his head deeper into the pillow. “I can at least fix one part of this mess though. Master-Sergeant, send out an order for an Earth Pony squad in Level Two Containment Gear to retrieve the necklace Mi Amore was wearing. It should be somewhere in the Statue Garden unless a guard picked it up. In that case, put anypony that’s touched it on quarantine until we get this all sorted out. Also tell R&D we’re putting that project on indefinite hold until we figure out what went wrong. Dismissed.”
“Yes, sir.”
Mystic turned his head upwards and focused on his breathing. A small glow wrapped around the tip of his horn and his muscles slackened. It made no sense. The princess herself had tested the necklace, and he’d personally overseen its development. Another shock of pain sent a torturous shiver down his spine. With a growl, he forced it down.
The creak of a door, the clink of finely-made horseshoes, and somepony giving a tired, patient sigh went unnoticed.
~~~
Celestia turned back to look at Mystic before she left. Tucked in bed and breathing softly, he looked much like he had the day he’d first come under her tutelage, albeit much cleaner looking. Poor colt was still so stubborn, though. Always pushing himself at the expense of his own health.
Quietly stepping out of the room, and shutting the door with equal care, she paused for a moment in the hall to cancel the spell altering her voice. Sunny Days had too much gravel in his tones and it made her throat hurt like crazy. When she felt the spell fade, she took a breath and the charm floated before her face. Aside from the undone chain, nothing appeared different about it— and her own swath of analysis spells had revealed nothing.
“Discord,” she muttered. “What did you do?”
Her face tightened for a moment before she teleported the charm off to her room. The harsh frown disappeared from her lips, but her eyes retained a seriousness to them. With a sigh, she began her trek to the infirmary.
The fading afternoon light gave a sepia tone to the halls as Celestia walked through them. The smell of the aged stone, polished metal, and fine carpet swirled around Celestia but the scents that dominated Celestia’s mind was that of stale cotton candy and rancid chocolate milk.
The smell was only a memory, but even now it roiled her stomach, as it had since she had been informed about the incident. For all she could tell, the only lingering effect on everypony was the color alteration spell, but that information did little to unclench her gut. Discord could draw out his machinations if he truly wanted to.
Celestia’s eyes hardened and her jaw clenched slightly as she imagined arriving at the infirmary. Everything was calm now, but that could change in an instant. Her steps quickened as prayed all was well with Mi Amore and her family.
~~~
Aria raised an eyebrow at Cadenza. “Green?”
“Yeah!” Cadenza pointed straight at Aria’s right eye. “Can a doctor fix it?”
“I…” Aria pulled her head back from Cadenza’s hoof. At the same time, she noticed Willow staring at her.
“Aria?” Willow asked. “Do you want me to go get somepony?”
“I, er…” Aria shifted her gaze back and forth between Willow and Cadenza. “No, I can go find somepony. I’m sure it’s just like whatever turned a bit of your coat pink.”
Willow blushed as Cadenza switched focus from Aria to the discolored parts of his coat. Before he could say anything, she poked one of the affected areas and giggled, watching the clumps of pink hair mesh with his regular blue.
“We match now, Daddy!”
“Maybe you should consider keeping it,” said Aria with a devious grin.
Pushing Cadenza off of her, Aria slid off the bed lowered her head to Cadenza’s eye level and flashed a smile. They shared a look for a moment before Aria trotted off to the front of the infirmary.
“I’ll be right back,” she said and vanished behind a partition. Her hooves echoed through the infirmary for what felt like years. When Aria’s steps grew quiet, then vanished behind the banging of a distant door, Cadenza turned to Willow.
“Daddy?” she asked. “Mommy will be okay, right?”
“I think she’s right.” Willow stared straight at Cadenza. “It’s probably just like what changed my coat. What about you? You’re sure nothing is hurting?”
“Uh-uh!” Cadenza gave her head two big shakes and extended her leg, showing off the bandage wrapped around it. “My ouchie doesn’t even hurt!”
Willow sighed and reclined against his pillow. “That’s good. That’s very good. Hopefully, we can just go back to our room soon. I think you deserve a good story time.”
Cadenza’s eyes widened. “Can we read the Tale of the Two Sisters?”
“Of course.” Willow gave a small smile. “You always want to read that one.”
“Aunt Celestia told me it’s her favorite!”
“It is quite a fun little read.”
Willow and Cadenza whipped their heads around as Celestia appeared from behind another partition, towards the back of the infirmary. With a smile on her face, she approached Willow and Cadenza and draped a wing over them.
“It’s good to see that you and your family are all okay.” Celestia turned to Willow. “Relatively speaking. I came as soon as I could. I just wanted to make sure Mystic was alright first.”
“Mr. Rune isn’t hurt bad, right?” asked Cadenza.
“Nothing some rest and relaxation can’t fix.” Celestia chuckled. “I don’t think he’s done that in a while anyway.”
Cadenza giggled but stopped when Celestia retracted her wing and looked around. She scanned the infirmary before getting a little closer to Willow. For a brief moment, a frown graced her face.
“Where is Aria?” she asked. “I assumed she’d be with you.”
“She was,” said Willow. “Her eyes had gone green though, so she went to go get somepony to check them out.”
“Hmmm, well it’s good to hear that she’s up at least.” Celestia placed a hoof to her chin. “Perhaps I should have come through the front way. I could have checked her quite quickly. Speaking of which…”
Celestia’s horn lit up and so did the pink patches of Willow’s coat. They brightened up to a neon pink before turning a blinding white like sun off fresh snow. The glare forced Willow to blink. When he opened his eyes again, the glow was gone and his coat was a singular oceanic blue again.
“Aw, I liked the pink,” Cadenza pouted.
“I’m sure I can find you a pink toy somewhere around here.” Celestia reached out and brushed a hoof over Cadenza’s mane. “You deserve it for being such a brave filly today.”
“Thank you, Aunt Celestia!” Cadenza said with a grin.
“You are most welcome.”
“Oh!”
Everypony’s head turned toward the front of the infirmary where Aria was standing. Her eyes, now back to their regular sky-blue hue, were glued onto Celestia. She stood still for a moment before dipping into a bow.
“Forgive me, Princess, I didn’t expect to see you here,” she said.
Celestia chuckled again. “Oh, Mrs. Aria, no need to be so formal. I tell your husband that enough as it is. Please, come sit with us. There are some things I’d like to talk about.”
“Yes, of course.” Aria raised her head and went over to the Celestia. Rather than climbing up onto the bed, she took her seat at the base of it, not quite within Celestia’s reach. “Sorry if I’m a little slow to answer, that color correction spell left me a little dizzy.”
“I’m quite aware. It’s easy to fix fur and hooves, but much harder with the face,” said Celestia. She then flashed Cadenza a smile. “You can ask Mr. Rune about the time he looked like a clown for a week once he’s better… though perhaps don’t tell him I’m the one who told you.”
Cadenza giggled.
“Anyway, I just wanted to check with all of you to hear about what you saw,” Celestia continued. “The guards are searching for what went wrong, but I wanted to ask in person. So, please, just tell me what happened whenever you are ready.”
Willow looked down at Cadenza and then turned to Aria. Her lips were tightly pressed together and her eyes occasionally twitched in the direction of the doors and windows and various partitions. When she noticed him noticing, she gave a tired grin and forced them to lock on the end of the bed, her tight lips drawing even thinner in concentration. As the silence grew longer and longer, Willow finally opened his mouth.
“Well, I didn’t see everything, but it looked like something disrupted Mr. Rune’s spell.” Willow reached out and pulled Cadenza a little closer. “Like something undid her necklace and threw it at Aria. Then the backlash hit. I didn’t pay much attention after that, I was too focused on Cadenza. Before I could even figure out what was happening, the guards brought us here and they knocked me out cold…” He frowned at Celestia. “I could have done without that.”
“I’ll be sure to look into that,” said Celestia. She then brought her gaze down on Aria. Aria did not meet it. “Was there anything else you could recall?”
“Willow probably remembers it better than I do.” Aria shook her head and brought a hoof to it. “All those foals and guards running around. Then absolute chaos. I’m just glad my little girl made it out okay.
Aria laid a foreleg over Willow’s and pulled Cadenza into a brief hug. “I’m sorry. I wish I could remember more but it’s all just a blur to me.”
“Completely understandable.”
Celestia was about to retract her wing from Willow and Cadenza, but paused when both of them shivered under her feathers. She channeled a spell through her wing and heat radiated out of it and onto their backs.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Sudden chill,” said Willow.
“Hmmm, the maintenance work on the castle has made temperatures a little uneven lately. I’m hoping to have it all sorted out by the Gala.” Celestia drew her wing to her side and took a step back. “Well, you all seem to be doing well, so you may leave whenever you’re ready. If anything comes up, please don’t hesitate to ask for assistance. I’ll be having dinner in the dining hall at seven if you wish to join me, but I understand if you want to have it in your room instead.”
Celestia shifted her gaze over to Aria once again. “And do be careful. That color correction spell can be quite taxing on ponies.”
“The nurse made that very clear,” said Aria.
Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Nurse Suture handled that by herself? My, she really has been hitting the books.”
Aria tensed up a little and shifted her gaze to the side. “I’m still a little concerned about the side effects but I’m feeling fine for now.”
For a moment, there was only silence. Then Celestia smiled, still warm and loving, but with an edge like a steel razor. It sent a chill down Willow’s spine.“Well,” “she said, “If you need anything else, the castle’s staff is always nearby and ready to help. I hope the rest of your afternoon is pleasant.”
Celestia turned toward the front of the infirmary. As she walked away, Cadenza rapidly waved her hoof back and forth. Willow mimicked her, but gave only a few waves. The last smile somehow made him even more nervous than the first one.
“Bye, Aunt Celestia!” said Cadenza. Aria’s focus remained rooted on the foot of the bed, even as the echoes from Celestia’s shoes faded.
Willow’s voice nearly made her jump.
“Well, I think it’d be best if we head back to our room.” Willow looked over Cadenza and Aria. “Are you two okay to move?”
“Uh-huh!” Cadenza eagerly nodded her head. “I wanna hear a story!”
Willow smiled and tousled her mane. “Of course, sweetie.”
“Yes, a little bit of reading before dinner sounds perfect.” Aria quickly moved away from the bed and closer to the nearest partition. “I’m going to rush off to the library to find something.”
“You don’t want one from the room?”
Aria’s head snapped back with a momentarily hardened expression that almost instantly softened. “I just want to check, okay?”
The glare still in Aria’s eyes made Willow lower his head. “Of course, dear.”
Without another word, Aria trotted off. Now it was just Willow and Cadenza. The latter lingered on the spot where Aria has stood, but was drawn away from it when Willow grabbed her and flipped her around so that she was facing him.
“Well,” he said with a growing grin, “while Mommy is looking for a book, how about we take the flying express back to our room?”
Cadenza’s face brightened as she jumped in place. “Yeah! Yeah!”
“Okay then!”
Willow stood so that his back was level with the bed. Cadenza quickly clambered on and locked her legs into place around his neck and sides. With a grin, Willow leapt off the ground and glided to the front of the infirmary.
A pair of lances shot up from behind the archway that led into the hallway and blocked Willow’s path. Two guards emerged, their horns aglow, and glared up at him. He quickly descended but the guards’ stares did not soften and they kept their lances crossed.
“Uh, Princess Celestia said we were fine to go,” said Willow.
“We understand, sir,” one of the guards replied. “But with Sir Mystic in serious medical condition, we’re in a Level Two Lockdown. All non-vital flight and magic is restricted until the Grand Archmage is competent again.”
“I wanna fly!” Cadenza shouted and puffed up her cheeks at the guards.
“Our apologies, Princess,” said the guard. “But we’re just following protocol.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine” Willow said. “Just remember what we’ve said about the ‘P’ word.” He turned around and nuzzled Cadenza. “I promise we’ll fly later, okay?
Cadenza loosened her hold on Willow’s neck and crossed her forelegs in front of her. “I want to fly now.”
“Sorry, sweetie.” With lowered eyes, Willow turned back to the guards. “Is there anything else?”
“No, sir. Just keep to the ground. Somepony will inform you when the lockdown is lifted.”
“Thanks.”
Willow shuffled down the hall towards his room. On his back, he knew Cadenza still had her legs crossed and could practically feel the glare drilling into the back of his head. He hoped a story would brighten her mood a little before dinner. If Aria didn’t get too absorbed in whatever book she found, perhaps she could sing Cadenza a song too.
~~~
Cadenza was too engrossed with retelling a few of her stuffed animals about the day and moving them around at key moments in her story to notice. Willow sat nearby in a chair for a pony twice his size. His half-open eyes glanced through a magazine with two lithe pegasi, one mare and one stallion, posing in their Wonderbolts uniforms under a cover that read: Cloudsdale Illustrated.
A knock drew their attention to the door. A guard slid in and gave them a salute.
“Lockdown has been decreased to Level One, so magic and flight may now be used,” he said.
“So is Mr. Rune doing better then?” Willow asked.
“Sir Rune’s status is now fair,” the guard replied. “A Level One lockdown doesn’t mean much once the castle is closed to visitors, just a few more guards, but I’d still be cautious in use of flight.”
“Right, wouldn’t want to run into any more lances.” Willow let out a forced chuckle.
The guard remained stone-faced. “Princess Celestia would also like to ask if you’ll be joining her for dinner.”
“Oh, I forgot.” Willow shook his head. “Aria, what do you thi—”
He paused and looked around the room before turning back to the guard.
“Sorry, today’s left me a little scatterbrained. Can I go check with my wife in the library on dinner plans and then get right back to you?”
“Yes, sir,” the guard curtly replied. He then marched over to the side of the door and fell still.
Willow slid off his chair and over to Cadenza.“Why don’t we go see how Mommy’s doing and then get dinner? Okay?”
Cadenza shifted her gaze to the ground. “We won’t have to be in the library long?”
“Not tonight,” Willow said with a grin. “It’s not that bad of a place though. All the stories Mommy and I read you come from there after all. Now, enough fretting, let’s get going.”
Willow pressed his body to the floor and waited until Cadenza was on his back. Standing up, he walked past the guard and out of the room. Outside the room, the silence that normally pervaded the halls was punctuated by the faint clang of armor from guards on their rounds.
Willow took a few more steps before he felt a grumble from Cadenza’s stomach on his back. She blushed a little when he turned around and flashed her a small smile. He then jumped into the air and went into a gentle glide, foregoing the dramatic flap of his wings in favor of staying quiet.
They kept low to the ground and slowed whenever they turned a corner, lest they run into guards or their lances. While the corners were fine, they would occasionally reveal guards lining the halls. Armored silhouettes were also visible through some of the windows.It made the wide halls feel compressed and led Willow to keep to a straight path rather than a curve or a serpentine that would have entertained Cadenza.
Cadenza was silent on Willow’s back. For the first few turns, she had had her head raised, but now she kept it pressed close to his neck. It gave Willow the sense that he was doing something wrong, as if he were sneaking around the castle.
When his attention wasn’t on spotting guards, Willow looked up at the torches that lined the halls. The flames stretched the hall’s shadows, merging them with the darkened ceiling, and the way they made the shadows waver, combined with the additional guards, caused a lump to form in Willow’s stomach.
As they grew further and further away from their room, the more the carpet and drapes brightened from a deep purple to a regal red. However, the colors soon shifted again to a soothing blue. Approaching an archway with a deep carving of Royal Library etched into its stone, Willow descended and softly landed on the carpet. He let out a small sigh of relief, but still felt the tension in the air, especially from the two guards that flanked the library's entrance. There was always a pair here, but their presence tonight was especially noticeable due to the addition of lances at their sides.
“Excuse me,” Willow asked. “Aria hasn’t come out of here has she?”
“No, sir,” said one of the guards.
“Okay, thank you.” Willow walked between them and into the library. “I’ll just ask inside.”
“Be mindful of your voice,” the other guard said with a glance at Cadenza, who pulled down one of her eyelids and stuck her tongue out at him while Willow wasn’t looking.
As they made their way to the large hourglass in the center of the library, Cadenza scrunched up her face and sniffed.
“I don’t like it here,” said Cadenza. “It smells boring.”
Willow turned and frowned slightly at Cadenza. “Something can’t smell boring, sweetie. Now, remember to watch your voice. You know how the librarians can be.”
Cadenza’s face scrunched up even more, as if she’d bitten into an extra-sour lemon. “They’re even worse than Mr. Rune!”
“Voice!” Willow said.
Cadenza blushed and hid her face behind her hooves. “Sorry.”
With a sigh, Willow continued over to the hourglass and the desk at its base. It was surrounded by a few filing shelves filled with unsorted books. The books were also stacked high on the desk, leaving only a tuft of grey hair and the tip of a horn visible.
Willow pushed aside some of the books, revealing more of the pony. An elderly mare sat with the left side of her face smushed against the desk. A tiny puddle of drool collected beside her as she snored softly.
“Eww,” said Cadenza.
“Hmmm.” Willow gave the mare a shake. “Mrs. Decimal? Mrs. Decim—"
Mrs. Decimal bolted up with a stifled shout, smacking Willow’s leg away. Her eyes were glassy, darting everywhere but seeing nothing, and her hooves skidded over the desk and sent papers flying to the floor. It took her hoof smacking into a thick book for her to come to a stop. Nursing it, she took a few breaths and settled softly back into her chair. She blinked at the sight of Cadenza staring at her and Willow rubbing a newly reddened blotch on his leg.
“Oh my goodness,” she said. “Mr. Reed, I’m terribly sorry!”
“It’s fine,” Willow said, putting his leg back on the ground with a small flinch. “I’ve dealt with worse on the job.”
“Oh, I don’t know what’s come over me.” Mrs. Decimal produced a handkerchief from a drawer and swabbed it over the mess on her desk. “I never fall asleep at the job. I suppose all the hubbub today just wore me out.”
“Right,” Willow dryly replied. “Um, anyway, I just wanted to come check with my wife about dinner.”
“Yes, yes.” Mrs. Decimal gave a few frantic nods. “I believe she came in and asked where the Archeology Section was. I hope she didn’t need to check out anything while I was asleep.”
Willow raised an eyebrow. “You’re sure that’s where she went? Not the Music or Fiction Sections?”
“I was surprised too.” Mr. Decimal paused and put a hoof to her chin. “Usually only Sir Mystic or dissertation students go there.”
“Huh, she’s probably just gotten a little too into her novellas.” Willow let out a slightly forced chuckle. “I just hope this doesn’t lead to another flea market on the opposite side of Equestria.”
“Daddy…” Cadenza pressed her face close to Willow’s. “What are you talking about?”
Willow glanced back at Cadenza before focusing on an interesting patch of the ceiling. “Uh, well… it’s a long story, I’ll tell you later.
“Thank you for the help,” he said with a smile to Mrs. Decimal before quickly turning and making his way toward an aisle. A few moments after disappearing behind the bookshelves, he reappeared and trotted back to Mrs. Decimal with a sheepish grin. “Uh, which way is the Archaeology Section?”
Mrs. Decimal extended a hoof toward one of the many aisles that branched out from hourglass. “Just head down that way until you hit a break in the shelves, then turn left and then right down another aisle and you should reach the Archeology section. If you see some Paleo-pony remains, you’re getting close.”
“Right.” Willow turned toward where Mrs. Decimal had pointed. “I’ll hopefully come back if I can’t find it.”
“Nothing wrong with getting lost in the library,” Mrs. Decimal said with a smile. “You never know what you may find.”
Cadenza rolled her eyes while Willow sped over to the aisle lest he listen to Mrs. Decimal go on. The smell of aged parchment grew stronger within the aisle, forcing Cadenza to hold her hooves over her nose. To her sides, the shelves reached far above even Willow’s head and partially obscured the lamps dangling from the ceiling. During the day, the streaks of glass that ran through the roof would have lit up the library, but at night, there was a permanent dimness near the ground.
The shadows faded a little once Willow made it to an open space dotted with shimmering chandeliers. They hung over long tables spaced equally apart throughout the area, marking the way the space curved around so that the break in the shelves circled the entire library. Willow walked over to the other side of the space where the aisles resumed. He stopped at the one closest to his left and peered down it. The dimness made it hard to see further down, so he took a breath and stepped into the aisle.
Cadenza screamed at the top of her lungs.
Willow jumped at the sudden noise and jumped again when he saw he was right beside a weathered skull and some leg bones. They were all displayed in a clear glass case on the shelf to the right. Willow stood locked into place for a moment and waited for his heart to settle before he turned back to Cadenza with a furrowed brow.
“What did I say about voices, Cadenza?” he said. “I could’ve bumped into a shelf and gotten both of us really hurt.”
Cadenza lowered her head. “S-sorry, daddy.”
“Well,” Willow sighed, “we’re going in the right direction at least.”
The books on the aisle’s shelves were now joined by the occasional glass display. Fossilized horns, rusted utensils, and other various relics sat next to placards that gave a brief summary of their history. Their scent, mixed with aged paper and binding glue, was strong enough the make even Willow’s nose twitch a bit. As Willow walked, Cadenza took in the various displays, sometimes with wide eyes but mostly with quick glances. Soon there was an abundance of locked shelf sections that had not been present in the previous aisle.
“Daddy?” she whispered, pressing close to Willow’s ear. “Why are there so many locks here?”
“There are some books that have a lot of very secret writing in them,” Willow said. “Only special ponies can read them. Although, I bet most of the books on these shelves are locked up because they’re so old and fragile, so they need to be treated extra carefully.”
“Can you read them, Daddy?”
“Not all of them.” Willow pressed his lips together and thought for a moment. “There are probably a few in the Weather Section that not all pegasi would be allowed to read.”
“Oooh! Oooh!” Cadenza rocked back and forth a bit on Willow’s back. “So can I read special books too? Like ones only Aunt Celestia can read?”
Willow came to a halt that sent Cadenza lurching forward and their heads collided. The strike was enough to momentarily fill his vision with a flash. He leaned against a shelf to keep his balance and gave his head a shake to clear away the last of the spots.
Despite the slight ache it caused, he looked back see that Cadenza had her hooves pressed against her head.
“Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry.” He brought up a wing and gently pressed it against her side. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“Your head is hard, daddy,” Cadenza groaned.
“Mrs. Decimal can probably give you a quick healing spell.
Willow was about to turn around and head back for the front desk when he realized that he was near the end of the aisle. Beyond the dimly lit shelves, he could see what looked like part of an open square lined with more shelves and multiple pedestals holding various artifacts.
“Let’s just take a quick peek to see if Mommy is over there though.”
Willow trotted out of the aisle and into the center of the archeology section. Star and moonlight streamed down through the domed glass ceiling onto the large area. Stairs led downwards to additional levels filled with more shelves and artifacts, each floor growing smaller the further down you went, like an inverted pyramid.
Amongst all the aged browns, faded reds, and chipped greys, Cadenza’s gaze alighted upon a shock of yellow hair hidden amongst multiple piles of books on the second level down from where she was. She pulled herself closer to Willow’s head and tapped him with one hoof and pointed at the hair with another.
“I think I see Mommy!” she shouted.
Willow followed Cadenza’s hoof down and was on his way towards the piles without another word. Upon reaching them, he walked around the table to see Aria hunched over a thick dusty tome.
She kept her head down, but her eyes flicked over to Willow with an angry flare that made Willow want to take a step back. It robbed him of his thoughts and left him in silence.
“What do you want?” she asked coldly.
“Well, uh, it’s about dinner time and we were getting worried about you,” said Willow.
“Yeah!” Cadenza exclaimed. “We came to rescue you from the library!”
Aria chuckled and glanced upwards at the bit of moon already visible through the ceiling. “I suppose I got a little caught up in my reading. These are quite fascinating books.”
Willow raised an eyebrow. “Right. Aria, you remember how this went last time. I mean, it’s good you’re using the library instead of buying the books, but it looks like you’ve taken quite a few out already. Please don’t set your expectations too high on whatever it is you’re looking for.”
Aria furrowed her brow and flared her nostrils. “What I’m looking for is none of your business.”
“Okay, okay.” Willow shook a hoof back and forth and took a step back. “No need to argue. How about we take some of these books back to the room at least?”
“I’m quite fine here.”
It was Willow’s turn to flare his nostrils. “Well, can you at least join us for dinner?”
“I’m still a bit full from all the food we had today.” Aria turned her attention back down to the book. “Besides, I can get a meal whenever I feel like it.”
Willow took a step forward. “Aria…”
“That’s enough. I’m not hungry right now. I just want to read my books.”
“Mommy...” Cadenza murmured.
“I said enough!”
Willow’s mouth dangled open as the shout echoed amongst the shelves. Cadenza trembled as Willow’s back stiffened to the point of feeling like she was perched on stone and while Willow’ next words weren’t loud, they didn’t have to be. Yelling would have been less frightening.
“Fine, if that’s how you are going to be.” Willow spun around and slammed his hooves into the ground. “We’ll talk about this later.”
Cadenza did her best to be invisible while Willow made his silent ascent. Only when they made it back to the skeleton did he come to a stop and let out a very long breath. His body lost its rigidness, his knees bent a little, and Willow stared up at the skylight for a moment before turning to the quiet filly clinging tightly to his back.
“I’m sorry, sweetie,” he said. “I probably scared you back there.”
“Are… are you and mommy mad at each other?” she said with a feathery soft voice.
Willow closed his eyes and pressed a hoof against his face. “I think we’re both tired. It’s been a long day and your mother is probably upset about losing her record.”
Cadenza tilted her head slightly. “But she said it was okay back at the park.”
“I know,” Willow sighed. “Sometimes ponies say things when they actually mean something else. Your mother loves coming across rare and hard-to-find items. It’s mainly music, but she can take inspiration from whatever book she’s reading at the time too. Sometimes she just gets a little carried away.”
“Does that mean you’re going to stay mad?”
There was a moment of silence before Willow reached up and ran a hoof through Cadenza’s mane. “I could never stay mad at your mother. We probably just both need some sleep. Then we can talk about things in the morning.”
“Oh, okay.” A loud growling noise made Cadenza look down at her stomach. “Can we get dinner now though?”
“Sure thing. I’m sure Aunt Celestia is really looking forward to hearing about your day.” Willow then noticed the slightly reddened splotch above Cadenza’s horn. “Let’s also ask Mrs. Decimal to check your head.”
Cadenza smiled and her eyes brightened. “Oooh, I wonder if Aunt Celestia has been to all the places we went!”
“I’m sure she has.” Willow managed a small smile, but it quickly vanished as he turned around and looked down the dim aisle. “Although it might take a while finding our way out.”
“Nooooo!” Cadenza groaned before flopping onto Willow’s back. “I don’t wanna starve!”
“You’re not gonna starve. And remember to keep your voice down. We’re still in the library after all.”
The sharp clang of polished metals striking each other rang from down the aisle. A guard appeared out of the dim haze. Even in the weakened light, it was easy to make out her piercing eyes and harsh frown as she flew over to them, gliding through the narrow corridor without disturbing a single one of her steely feathers. For the third time that day, Willow got the most nagging sense of déjà vu.
“Miss…” Willow gave the guard a sheepish grin. “Uh, sorry, what was your name again?”
“I never gave it,” the guard curtly replied. “Sergeant Gaze will do while I’m on duty, sir.”
“Well, uh, quite a surprise running into you again,” Willow said, trying hard not to look Gaze directly in the eyes. They were too similar to Aria’s.
“Following protocol, sir,” said Gaze. “All Royal Tier Entities require at least two bodyguards within an immediate response zone should an emergency arise. Usually Sir Mystic helps the Captain of the Guard organize the shifts but, given his predicament, it was decided that I and my fellow guard from earlier would keep watch on your wife should your family separate at any point.”
“I see.” Willow nodded a few times. “I suppose that’s efficient, but shouldn’t you be a little closer to Aria then?”
“As I said, my fellow guard is also here in addition to the regular library security. However, Mrs. Aria requested some space. We obliged given the overall security the castle provides.” Gaze furrowed her brow. “It also allowed the librarian to contact me about a ruckus she’d heard.”
Gaze’s attention went to Cadenza, who hid behind Willow’s mane. Willow let out a forced chuckle and rubbed the back of head. He hissed when his hoof brushed the knot on the back of his skull. Gaze focused on him again.
“You do realize a library is meant to be quiet, correct?” she asked. The words sent a chill down Willow and Cadenza’s spines.
“Y-yes,” Willow muttered.
“Perhaps you should take the Princess elsewhere then.”
“I… I was planning to.” Willow glanced back at Cadenza who had buried her head in her hooves and his neck. When he turned back around, his voice came out soft, but his eyes were a bit sharper and managed to look straight at Gaze’s. “And I know it’s been a long day for everypony, but please don’t call my daughter that. You know it confuses her.”
Instead of replying, Gaze spun on her hooves and marched off towards the end of the aisle. When Willow didn’t immediately follow, she glared back at him. Her irises seemed aflame and a dread pushed down on Willow, coating him in sweat. Something switched in his brain and his muscles contracted, readying his body to go into a full-speed flight.
“Are you coming or do I have to drag you along?” Gaze hissed.
When she faced forward again, the pressure on Willow abated. He let out a gasp for air and slowly took some shaky steps forward, but kept a good distance from Gaze. He could feel Cadenza quivering on his back, but didn’t say a word. He was too focused on just keeping upright and moving forward. However, his mind wandered to unfortunate places.
It had been one of his earlier jobs, when he was still green and couldn’t even handle a full thundercloud discharge. The work for that day was moving some rainclouds from a forest to a nearby town. It was the kind of low-maintenance job newbies did countless times in their first few months.
One of Willow’s team members was untangling a cloud from one of the forest’s taller trees when he was suddenly sucked inside. They called it “getting floofed” during training. It wasn’t too out of the ordinary for even graduates to get sucked into clouds, especially if they were ones that had been allowed to mature outside of towns. Older clouds were thicker, harder to move, and far easier to apply too much pressure to and get sucked in compared to the relatively uniform clouds weather ponies trained with. So, the team had continued its work for some time until they noticed that one section still had a fair number of clouds remaining.
Willow and the others had gone into their teammate’s section— a few of them even cracking some “floof” jokes. They still knew the risks though if somepony got stuck in a cloud that was heavy with enough water, so they went about the clouds until they spotted a leg dangling outside of one of them. It was only when they had drawn close to the cloud that everypony else had heard the muffled screams.
It only took a few well placed gusts to push back the cloud. That was when Willow and the rest of his team had discovered their partner with half his body in the jaws of manticore. Without a moment’s hesitation from being spotted, the manticore dropped its prey and pounced. Willow’s vision had filled with teeth.
Then it was gone in a flash of blinding light. It had taken the ensuing thunderclap to bring Willow back to his senses. It was all he could do just to stay airborne before his supervisor had guided him over to a cloud, her hooves still sending out tiny shocks you got when you made a thundercloud too quickly.
He’d been lucky. In many ways, so had the pegasus the manticore had caught, though nowhere near as much. The pegasus the manticore had caught never flew again.Sometimes, when Willow handled higher risk jobs, the memory came back and the thought of how he could have ended up crippled, or worse, still sent a chill through him. But what truly scared him and what appeared in some of his worst nightmares was the terrifying hunger that had blazed in the manticore’s eyes right before it launched itself at him. Willow was nothing more than a piece of meat on that job and, under Gaze’s stare, that was what he had felt he was now.
Though, if he’d been given a choice at that moment, he would have taken the manticore.
~~~
Back in the Archeology Section, Aria read over the last page of the thick tome in front of her before slamming it shut with a hoof. A fair amount of dust poofed out of the old book, but Aria just gave a low growl as her horn lit up with a green aura and the book floated over to the pile on her left while a different book floated down from the pile on her right.
Rather than instantly open the book, she turned to her right where a stallion guard had silently appeared. Under her glare, he went into a low bow and kept his head down while he spoke.
“Your highness,” Soft Step said, “280 has taken care of the stallion and the Wellspring. They won’t be bothering you anymore.”
“But that’s not all, is it, 823?”
Soft Step’s head was yanked up. Aria’s irises danced with green flames so intense that bits Soft Step’s fur began to smoke and spark with emerald embers.
“I can feel your doubt,” Aria hissed. “Are you questioning me in that pitiful thing you call a brain?”
“P-please, your highness,” Soft Step whimpered. “I… I’m merely concerned about 280’s demeanor. Y-your plan is flawless and c-cannot fail.”
“Of course.” Aria turned away from Soft Step and went back to her chair. Soft Step fell to his knees and gasped for breath. “My apologies, that incident in the Garden has me a little on edge. You’ve only worked with 280 on raids before, correct?”
Soft Step kept his eyes on the carpet. “Y-yes. That is why I am confused as to why you would want her here.”
“She’s here mainly for the worst-case scenario, but her strength and intimidation go well with ordering others around and keeping attention off me.” A grin slithered across Aria’s face and her eyes glazed over. “She’d be fun to try and take the throne from.”
The grin vanished and was replaced with a deep scowl. “Better than that old fool back at the hive. I hope she enjoys the next few days of thinking I’m dead along with Pupa and Cocoon.”
Soft Step felt Aria’s gaze on him again.
“I don’t want any more disruptions tonight. Deal with that senile mare up front so that she tells them I’m in…” Aria paused and blinked, her eyes turning blue once again. “Music, yes. I believe that’s what those black saucer things the stallion was babbling about were.”
Soft Step stood and offered another bow. “Yes, your highness.”
“I’ll contact you and 280 once I find what we’re looking for. Then we’ll get the Wellspring and be on our way.”
With yet another bow, Soft Step backed away and vanished among the shelves. Aria looked back down to the book in front of her and opened it. While its cover was a dull brown with only a few glossy filaments remaining from a long-destroyed illustration, the picture on the inside, while faded, was still visible. It depicted five gems of varying cuts attached to a pedestal with what appeared to be long sticks. At the top of the pedestal was an orb with streams of what was probably light radiating out of it.
Aria licked her lips. She was close. She could feel it.
~~~
“And the cloud was all floophy!” Cadenza exclaimed while extending her forelegs over her head in the rough shape of a cloud.
“Really?” Celestia smiled and took a sip from her cup. “I’ve heard of many pegasi’s first time touching clouds, but I think you’ve given me the best description yet.”
“Was the first cloud you touched floophy, Aunt Celestia?”
“Hmmm.” Celestia flicked her eyes up. “It was a very long time ago so I don’t quite remember, but I do recall greatly enjoying flying through a clear blue sky with white clouds of all shapes and sizes around me.”
“Wow,” Cadenza said with wide eyes. “I can’t wait to fly like that.”
“I’m sure your father will love teaching you.”
They both looked at the end of the table. Willow, caught in the middle of slurping up some noodles, quickly shoveled them into his mouth and managed to keep them down with a few coughs and thumps on his chest. Celestia patiently waited for him to finish, chuckling alongside Cadenza.
“Uh, sorry,” he said.
“Oh, no worries.” Celestia waved a hoof back and forth. “I was just wondering how you felt about the flight?”
“It was good.” Willow pulled Cadenza over and rubbed her head. “My little girl really took to the air.”
“Yep!” said Cadenza. “I wanna go again! Again!”
“That said…” Willow let go of Cadenza. “The first real time in the air is pretty scary for us parents. I’m just glad Aria and I talked with other parents about those kinds of things beforehand…” Willow looked up to Celestia. “And had your help as well.”
“Anything to make Mi Amore happy.” Celestia smiled at Cadenza again. It didn’t last long. “It’s a shame the day had such a major road bump.”
“No need to feel bad, Princess,” said Willow. “I’m sure by tomorrow everything will be fine. We all just need our sleep. I think I’d be saying that no matter what had happened today.”
“Of course.” Celestia took another sip from her glass. “Speaking of which, you’ll be happy to know Mystic is doing much better now, though he’ll still need a few days to recover. I was planning on sending him on a small vacation anyway, so things work out.”
Cadenza swallowed the bite she was chewing on and then turned to Celestia with a beaming smile. “Does that mean I won’t have lessons?”
“Your lessons are very important,” said Celestia. “Magic can be very dangerous if you don’t learn to use it the right way.” Cadenza’s face fell, and she idly drew across the table with one hoof in disappointed little circles.
“Mr. Rune says that a lot too.”
“I’m sure he does. Anyhow, you still need to continue your lessons.” Celestia leaned forward when Cadenza frowned at her words. “Now, Mi Amore, I know you can be a good student, and I hope you learn a bunch of new things while I’m teaching you.”
Cadenza jolted upright and stared at Celestia with a slackened jaw. “You’re gonna teach me?”
“Yes,” Celestia said with a nod. “I’ve been planning my schedule so that Mystic could have a few days off while I wouldn’t have too much work.”
“This is gonna be cool!” Cadenza stood up in her seat to lean a little closer to Celestia. “Are we gonna learn ancient spells? Old magic? Secret Princess stuff?”
Celestia closed her eyes and a pressure fell upon the room with the last question. Willow coughed as Cadenza settled back down into her seat. There was a moment of silence that stretched the very air in the room before Celestia finally broke it with a chuckle.
“If you promise to work hard and do all your homework, I think I can tell you a few ‘ancient hidden secrets’ that I know about.”
Cadenza gasped and bounded out of her seat and into Celestia, who let out a rather undignified “oof”. The filly reached out and, even though she could only get her legs around a tiny part of Celestia’s body, hugged her tight as she could. Celestia smiled down and her and embraced her with a wing.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Cadenza shouted.
“You are most welcome,” said Celestia. She glanced up from Cadenza toward the filly’s plate and saw that a sizable portion of the vegetable medley was still there. The noodles had completely vanished. “Now, for your first assignment, could you finish the rest of what’s on your plate?”
~~~
The moon settled high above the Archeology Section’s glass dome and found Aria still enmeshed in the ancient tomes. The stack to her left had grown exponentially while the stack on her right had dwindled down. Despite the extended hours of intense reading, her eyes were still clear and lacked bags. If not for her harsh frown and the steep bend in her back, it might have looked as if she had just woken up.
“Where are they?” she muttered.
“Looking for something?”
Aria nearly fell out of her chair. Slowly, her head swiveled in the direction of the voice and the color drained from her face at the sight of Celestia standing right beside her. Celestia had that razored smile again, and the only thing sharper than that was the deadly gleam in her eyes, hidden behind a veil of warm, loving concern.
“Y-your highness,” Aria stuttered as she got out of her chair and went into a deep bow. “You surprised me.”
“My apologies,” Celestia said. “I get a bit too into the whole ‘quiet in the library’ thing. I just wanted to check in on you since you hadn’t returned to your room yet. Willow and Mi Amore were worried about you when they left dinner.”
“Oh…” Aria glanced to the side. “I must have lost track of time.”
“That can happen a bit in here. Especially if one gets lost in the aisles or finds a good book.
Aria didn’t budge a muscle, falling still as the shelves all around them. Celestia’s smile didn’t let up. Aria could feel it biting into her neck, a flick away from cutting her to the bone, as Celestia drew closer to her and glanced over at the table, scanning over each of the books.
“You seem to have collected quite a few of the older selections. If you’d like, I can help you find what you’re looking for.”
A bit of sweat trickled down the side of Aria’s face. “That’s really not necessary, your highness.”
“I insist.” The smile suddenly vanished from Celestia’s face. The blade started drawing a line, torturously slow. “I make getting to the restricted selections much easier. It’s quite difficult to get past all the security spells.”
Aria became aware that it was getting hotter now. She also noticed that the wavelike motion of Celestia’s mane’s had ceased and now hung down like a regular pony’s.
“Don’t go doing something stupid,” Celestia said, her tone still calm but now carrying the gravity of a black hole. “Well, I suppose you’ve already done that, especially with that shoddy lie you told me earlier. I am the only pony aside from perhaps Mystic that could have fixed your eyes. I’ve met your mole as well and we came to a very clear understanding of what I will and what I will not allow to go wandering through my home. It takes quite a bit of skill to get into the castle undetected though, so I’m willing to be lenient if you’ll answer one little question.”
A tiny point of light appeared on the tip of Celestia’s horn and the temperature around her suddenly spiked. The air distorted and few bits of the nearby books crumbled to dust from the heat. Tiny streaks of flame raced the spectrum of different colors in Celestia’s mane and the purple in her eyes had turned into blazing red and gold embers.
“Or you can try my patience and see what happens.” The point of light grew a little brighter and the temperature spiked again. “Now where are Aria and Sergeant Gaze?”
Celestia glared straight at “Aria” as the heat made the latter fall to her knees. Amidst all the heat, Celestia suddenly felt a twinge of a chill run through her body. She still kept her spell ready and her stare strong as “Aria” shook her head and began to chuckle.
The creature flipped its head back and cackled with a fanged smile and smoldering green eyes. Her voice sounded as if a multitude of ponies, most of whom spoke in tones far deeper and more malevolent, had been hidden somewhere inside Aria’s lungs.
“Harm your subjects?” she asked with an unnerving tilt of her head. “We’ve done that for centuries and you’ve never even known. So congratulations: now you can spend the rest of your days looking over your shoulder.”
Celestia heard the air rip behind her. A golden aura sprouted up from the ground and encased her as she twisted to face her attacker. Green fire smashed into Celestia’s shield spell at head height and rebounded onto the carpet and shelves and, while the force of the hellfire combined with the surprise of the attack managed to push Celestia back a little, her defenses held strong.
Through the fresh fire and smoke, she could see the constant stream of magic fueling the spell, but not its caster. But that was enough for her and she knew a second attack from behind was imminent.
The point of light on her horn flew off and met the shield spell. In an instant, the golden sphere turned into a raging inferno. It no longer deflected the green flames, but absorbed them. The caster must have noticed as well because the green flames suddenly ceased.
“Your fire is nothing,” Celestia said, her voice causing the entire library to shake. “I am the sun, and you have made a grave mistake.”
The inferno erupted out from Celestia in two blinding beams that exploded upon impact with their targets. She then reformed the shield around her body.
Celestia leapt into the air and gazed down at the damage. Two darkened marks now adorned the library floor. However, at one point was an unmoving body. She swooped down and alighted gently on the floor, keeping her distance even though the creature before her appeared unconscious. She’d been careful to use a mixture of a stun and thunder spell, so she drew in her breath a little at the sight of the creature’s blackened skin. However, on closer inspection, she saw that instead of being burnt, the creature’s skin glinted like an insect’s carapace.
For good measure, she hit the creature with a more powerful sleep spell, teleported it off to the same cell she’d had “Gaze” sent to, and turned toward the table. All that was there was a smoldering mark on the carpet beside the table. Even Mystic would have been incapacitated from that, and the magical output for a proper shield would have needed to be intense. She hadn’t felt a such shield, and the spell’s speed was even swifter than General Firefly, so running or flying away was very unlikely.
Celestia lit up her horn once more. A glow surrounded her eyes and enchanted them to see in thaumatic. Traces of fresh spells laced the floor behind her as well as the desk “Aria” had been at, but their color was like nothing she’d ever seen.
She was used to the regular blues, yellows, and browns unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies gave off in thaumic vision. Familiarity with the common shades of magic had helped her greatly in aiding Cadenza and other mixed ponies like her. Their blue and yellow entwined magics were rare and Cadenza’s was the clearest she had seen, which reflected her functional wings and horn, but they were far from Celestia’s own marble white magic.
She also knew of the far rarer shades too. She was the only one alive in Equestria to have seen the brilliant pink of an empowered crystal pony and the dark purple and crimson of an umbrum. The black void that was Tirek still haunted the darker corners of her mind, as did the dirtied white with onyx thorns running through it that was much like her own magic yet so foul and malignant. Celestia even knew of the prismatic aura that would drive most ponies mad if they could even comprehend the chaos they were looking at.
The remains of magic around her now were green, like the flames still smoldering on patches of carpet and clinging to the utterly destroyed books on the table, but they all had tiny little strands connecting them together as if part of one single spell. Looking down revealed that the strands were entangled about her hooves like a spider’s web. Her magic felt untouched and she wasn’t aware of any physical pain, but she burnt the magical strands away with a quick burst of fire, quickly doused along with the last of the green flames. A benefit of this strange magic at least was that its strands made spotting it easier. However, nothing was visible to her other than the magic she already saw.
What puzzled her was how thick the magic was around where “Aria” had been. Celestia knew she wasn’t there anymore, but there was enough residual magic in her place for an average unicorn to use over two or three days. It was too much magic for simply moving the books or for energy stimulants to keep a pony awake. It wasn’t even enough to account for the minor brainwashing spell Dewey Decimal had been hit with.
Celestia suddenly gasped. There was only one form of magic that accumulated so much residue in one spot. For the first time in countless decades, Celestia felt fear. True, deep, unquenchable fear.
She hadn’t accounted for the use of an illusion spell.
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Absolutely great to see this story updated!
I did find one little thing however.
This sentence is off.
There are all these safeguards and things in place to protect Cadance, but it feels like the changelings are striking the real weak point in Cadance's life: her parents. Cadance might be safe, but if her parents aren't equally so, then Cadance's life will certainly earn that Sad tag.
6085852
I know. The sentence seems incomplete. Unless the goal was to make the cliffhanger even worse by delaying our knowledge of what else might have been cast. That would be upsettingly evil.
Oh, cliffhanger how I love you ;)
--
Some small things I noted:
"sing"?
Lacks closing: " space, etc.
For neat grammar "are" as was used everywhere else.
Well... The gambit didn't really pay off, Celestia caught on quickly.
But that ending, quite ominous. This won't end well, will it?
Too engrossed to notice what? What doesn't she notice, the guard entering, the lockdown, her own anger?
Someone's gonna be PISSED!
Now this brings to question why Celestia didn't believe Twilight during the wedding, unless this is a completely different time line. If so, I am even more excited.
I loved it! And I look forward to more!