The Enforcer and Her Blackmailers

by scifipony

Chapter 5: Reading Barthemule Recommended

"Unlikely, but any medical procedure can present complications," Dr. Flowing Water said as he checked my reflexes with a tiny hammer. Purple phosphenes still clouded my vision from the lights he'd shined in my eyes. "What it sounds like is stress exasperated by lack of sleep. I got details about the practicum yesterday. Combat stress can be debilitating, but you're too sweet a filly to find herself joining the guard or constabulary. You're never going to have to deal with that kind of stress again."

Until tomorrow at least.

He said, "Stop drinking overly strong tea and get some sleep," as he levitated me off the exam table and wrote on a notepad. He ripped off two slips. "This is for school, excusing you for two days. Again, get some sleep. I don't expect sleepwalking, again. And this is the title of a book by Barthemule. I saw how you mirrored my spell while I healed the cut on your shoulder. I discussed it with a friend and we agree, any high level unicorn can benefit from a challenging mathematical treatise. At the very least, it'll put you to sleep." He chuckled.

I didn't know about Sunset Shimmer, but I had learned to sleep when I could and not need it in a pinch. Yes, lots of strong tea helped. I wasn't yawning. Maybe sleepwalking counted. In any case, when I gave the slip to the librarian at Celestia's School, he sent me to the university library. There, I levitated the paper before a white-maned blue-green mare with rhinestone glasses. Magnified gray eyes blinked at the name, then at the girly twin ponytails tied up behind my ears. "Are you sure?"

"Some light reading—" I read her brass name plate. "—Miss Verdigris."

"Hardly," but she trotted over to a special card catalog in a cabinet carved out of white marble. Drawers whooshed out in her magic and cards softly rustled as she flipped through them. "Yes, here," she said. Her eyes narrowed, then she appraised me again. "I don't think you're authorized."

I didn't have to act surprised because I was, and my voice showed it. And I used that to power forward. "B—but Sunset Shimmer's father, Dr. Flowing Waters—the princess' physician—told me I should read it."

The glasses came off and a silver temple went in her mouth. "Even so, it appears that our one copy is cataloged in the Star Swirl the Bearded Time Wing. I can, however, get you a redacted version of the book as part of Stasis and the Biological Sciences omnibus. Will that do?"

I could get used to this name dropping access thing. "Nicely."

An old gray pony delivered the book to a room filled with mahogany tables, paneled in stained cherry wood, decked out with red velvet reading couches, below sound absorbing cork ceiling panels. Muted magical spotlights searched for, found, and shined on whatever book lay open, providing just enough light and no more. The SBS Omnibus turned out to be a genuine grimoire, with a brass lock and bolts, and a wood and linen binding. Not only did it look foreboding, the binding smelled foreboding. Though stained by centuries of hooves and smoke, it was free of dust. In contrast to the outside, the yellowed pages, hornwritten in careful round calligraphic print, had a reassuring old smell that somehow radiated wisdom. I had a few amazing classic tomes in my parents' library, like Jewels Turner's Cis-Lunar—and a first edition of The New Magicks—but this thing was amazing with its olden-pony syntax, cross-outs by the original calligrapher, and margin notes by later readers explaining obsolete words or clarifying or speculating on this or that passage. One read, "If the spell initiates one millisecond in the past, is it precognition?"

I shivered with anticipation. I read about a very subtle mathematics for finding multidimensional temporal and spatial solutions. I could sense that the doctor used it to visualize tissues in the patient through a feedback loop.

The doctor was right about another thing. I fell asleep beside the book, standing at the table. I awoke before dinner, the book gone, my notebook moist from my face laying on it, and a joyous sense of doing integrals in my sleep.

Did unicorns do sleep-spellcasting? I wasn't going to ask Sunset Shimmer as I was afraid she might know.

***

Up three flights of unlit stairs, worn and wavy by decades of hooves, lay a graffitied plywood door. Three flights was actually good; it got me away from the slight scent of urine that permeated the entrance hall. I cleared the simple ward that served as a lock since the door had only a latch; since I had never been good at wards, it had to be simple. I had no possession worth stealing anyway. Inside, the porthole and casement were open as always. (To ameliorate that smell thing I mentioned.) On the pile of last week's hay I used for a bed lay a note delivered by "pegasus express." I had no secrets any more.

Undoubtedly work; I didn't even look.

A washbasin. A pantry cabinet. A lopsided knotty pine table on sawhorse legs that acted as a desk. Blankets and a few pieces of clothing for cold or rainy days, and a shared bathroom down on the second floor. What a contrast to Sunset Shimmer's pretty ivory tower!

She had a solar cutie mark. I didn't.

And she had earned it in the street before being found. Cutie marks made a difference. Hers kept her from getting laid. More importantly, they changed ponies.

Me, I changed myself, thank you very much. A blank flank and proud.

I settled into my haystack, the rustling sound and alfalfa smell surrounding me in basic comfort. I was glad to have run away from my trust fund and patrician upbringing, the fine stone house that stayed toasty in the worst winters, and the stodgy old butler, Proper Step, who served as my guardian.

Here, I felt distilled down to my essence. Potent. And somewhere, with all the distraction gone, I knew in my heart I would find myself. I had seen through the tyranny of the cutie mark and knew, some how, I was going to learn how to help everypony through it, too.

I blew the blue paper note aside and went to sleep.

Author's Note:

Next:
Chapter 6: Using What She Learned
Starlight asks Sunset Shimmer to blast her with a force spell; the result is... unexpected, and enlightening.