• Published 17th Dec 2016
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Fat Stacks... of Books - Justice3442



Celestia prepares for another routine day at the castle with the recent addition of teaching her new, young student. However, an impromptu structure made from books causes a slight change of plans.

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Chapter 3

Fat Stacks… of Books

Chapter 3


“No, no, no!” Celestia said to the off-purple unicorn mare with her grey-white mane in a bun. “We don’t need books on construction material. We need to know which books would work best as construction material.”

From behind her wooden desk in between a couple modest stacks of books, the elderly unicorn mare looked up at her monarch with a completely dumbfounded expression. A look which Celestia filed under ‘Things I don’t see nearly enough’.

Next to Celestia sat Twilight Sparkle, her eyes full of wonder as they darted all over the insides of the sprawling two-story building with its towering shelves full of books and high domed ceiling.

However, the librarian was far less concerned with the filly and far more concerned with the words that had come out of her monarch’s mouth. Her mistake, Celestia thought to herself.

“You want to use books… as construction material,” the librarian clarified.

Celestia nodded. “It’s part of a teaching exercise, you see.”

“Oh… um… begging your pardon, Princess Celestia,” the librarian said as one of the books on her desk floated off with a purple glow, followed by another, and another, “but wouldn’t it be more educational to erm, read the books?”

Celestia looked down at her student. Twilight was already muzzle deep in a book she had pilfered from the librarian’s desk and had assembled a stack of books next to her that went up to just a hair’s width under the small unicorn’s horn.

“Oh, I’m quite certain my student will get to them all eventually, given enough time.”

The librarian’s brow tensed slightly. It’s not quite aggravation, thought Celestia. More the look of a pony who’s in a conundrum except the choice has been made for them and they can’t really be blamed for what’s about to happen.

“Be that as it may,” the librarian spoke in a knowing and slightly protesting tone, “this isn’t going to be like the last time you came here with your…” the librarian trialed off slightly, her expression clearly that of one who decided she needed to pick her words rather carefully, “…last student, is it?”

Celestia shook her head in immediate response, she had already reviewed the file for that particular incident. “No, this will be nothing like the ‘Knowledge is Power Hour’ which actually lasted the better part of a day.”

“… And sent over a dozen ponies to the hospital,” the librarian added. She tilted her head downwards slightly while maintaining eye contact. “Yourself and your student amongst them.”

“Yes, I remember,” Celestia replied. “This lesson will be safe—”

‘Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.’

The librarian looked past and above Celestia, a look of concern which drifted a bit towards pure fearfulness, crossing her face.

“—ER by comparison.” Celestia turned to see a large, rather unbalanced pillar of books behind her that started at the floor and went almost all the way to the topmost shelf of the library. This was capped with a triumphant purple filly holding a book almost as large as herself.

My deepest apologies Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle, but look at the silver lining here! This large decorative vase full of your daughter’s remains has SO many more options for displaying than a casket would!

“Twilight Sparkle!” Celestia shouted in a stern tone. “You get back down here this instant!”

Twilight’s triumph once again turned to another ‘t’ word that conveniently ends in ‘error’ as she looked over the sides of the teetering tower of books she was so precariously balanced on. “I don’t think that’s such a great idea!” she retorted.

I could have phrased that better. With a canary glow of Celestia’s horn, Twilight and the book she held were taken up in a similar aura that also straightened the wobbling book stack. Slowly and safely, Twilight was returned to the ground at Celestia’s hooves.

Twilight set her book on the floor then looked up at her teacher, apology smeared across her face with a small smile of gratitude dribbled on for good measure.

Celestia chiseled on a serious expression, not allowing Twilight’s precocious antics to get the better of her this time. “Twilight, that was a very dangerous thing of you to do,” Celestia chastised.

Twilight’s smile faded in an instant as she looked up at Celestia with worry that seemingly went to her very core. “I’m sorry, Princess Celestia, please don’t stop being my teacher… I promise I won’t do it again!”

“That’s where you’re wrong, my little student.”

Twilight’s worry gave way to confusion. “Princess?”

“You will do that again, but only after you put all those books away where you got them, are taught a basic teleportation spell, and have a firm grasp on how to create a sturdy foundation before you create impromptu structures of that height, in that order.” Celestia lowered her head down until she was on the same visual plane as her small student. “Am I understood?” she said as she maintained her serious tone.

Twilight beamed a smile at Celestia in response. “Yes, ma’am!” she said happily before turning to the towering book stack, which she quickly disassembled tome by tome.

Celestia turned back towards the librarian who was currently staring at Twilight in awe. “She… she’s really reshelving the books back where they belong,” murmured the librarian.

Celestia couldn’t help but smile with pride. “Indeed, hence why we need more books with a bit more volume to them, if you’ll excuse the pun.”

The librarian watched as the pile of books got smaller and smaller, then looked back up at Celestia. “Do you remember the section containing the logs of the royal court proceedings?”

Celestia smiled through the wince that instinctively took hold of her. “How could I forget?”

“Well, you did take a few rather serious blows to the head that day. One in particular left you out cold on the library floor for quite some time.”

“Yes, I remember that as well,” Celestia replied dryly.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight called out excitedly. “I finished putting away the books.”

Her warm smile returning to her face, Celestia turned and began trotting towards Twilight. “Very well, my student. Let us begin.”