Daring Do and the Hand of Doom

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 7: The Library

Daring Do was floating. All around her, she felt the familiar sensation of the Void. The eternal, lightless abyss surrounded her, extending outward in all directions. This was the same emptiness that she had encountered more than once; it was where she went whenever she was being teleported.

Except that this time, it was different. She was aware of a sensation of time passing: not seconds, exactly, but units of time that were close, at least in her mind, even though each unit was in fact several hundred million years.

There was also a sense of motion, even though motion was impossible. It was a strange motion, though. Not the sudden click and sensation of being dragged forward that accompanied a controlled teleportation, nor the turbulent, agonizing course of the unstable portal in the Tower of Ducks. Nor was it something that she only remembered distantly, a strange sense of travelling obliquely, pulling forward and across the endless chasm. Instead, Daring Do felt herself falling.

The Void retreated, and Daring Do felt herself continuing her descent through the universe- -through blackness devoid of stars and through burning air, the heat of which somehow was unable to touch her. Then she fell to the ground. Distantly, she was aware that it should have been painful. Instead, though, she felt nothing.

She lay still for a long time. She was not in pain, but rather simply apathetic to her surroundings. Then, as she began to grow curious, she stood, and looked at the world around her. A dull and ominous fear began to surge through her as she remembered who she was. She was an extension of the endless and nonexistent space between realities; she was Daring Do.

The world around her was strange. Daring Do had ventured into many jungles throughout Equestria, and although she was no botanist she had come to know the names and shapes of nearly every plant and stone that she might use to point her way toward ancient temples and forgotten ruins. The plants that surrounded her, though, were entirely unfamiliar to her, as were the stones that surrounded them. The rocks were jagged, and the plants seemed to be odd, enormous mosses and strange, singular cycads with massive, gnarled roots and leaves that swayed gently without any breeze. No animals were present; the air was silent, with not even the sounds of birds detectable in the humid but frigid forest.

Confused, Daring Do began to walk through the strange forest of moss, cycads, and gnarled horsetails, her hooves dipping through the swampy ground and clicking on black volcanic stone that only very seldom held odd, multicolored lichen.

When she came to a hill, she was able look out over a vast plane. They sat there, waiting for her. She had felt them since she had arrived, but did not understand how to put her perception into words. They stood apart from each other, evenly spaced as if planted by some vast divine hand: indescribable metal things that stood over the vast and endless jungle, silver flowers thousands of meters high that were lit from within by a ghastly blue light. Daring Do did not even realize that she was screaming in abject horror- -or that she stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She turned suddenly, but did not understand what was behind her. There was no word in the Equestrian language for it, and her mind could not give it a shape. All she felt was the hand as its fingers slowly closed around her neck, stifling any screams as the world faded to gray and finally black.

“Hey? Daring Do, we’re here.”

Daring Do awoke with a start, instantly grabbing the hoof that was gently shaking her shoulder. Rainbow Dash did not even recoil in surprise, clearly not realizing how close she had just come to having her limb broken in several places.

As the ponies exited the train, Daring Do stared at them, carefully watching and taking account of them as they left. Many were there on business, or perhaps as tourists, and a number of crystal-ponies were happily returning home. None of them interested Daring Do terribly much; she was instead looking for Sweetie Drops. Unfortunately, she did not see the mare. She was not sure if she had somehow exited the train during the overnight trip- -which seemed unlikely for a pony without wings, but she would not have put it past a CRUT agent- -or if, somehow, Sweetie Drops had completely disappeared into the background and rendered herself effectively invisible.

“Hey,” said Rainbow Dash. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” lied Daring Do. A crow cawed in the distance. “Everything’s fine.”

“Well, we should probably get going.” Rainbow Dash stretched. The sight was actually rather adorable. “I really need to stretch my wings.” She took to the air, but then seemed confused that Daring Do did not join her. “Do you not want to fly?”

“I’ll walk.”

“Oh.” Rainbow Dash reluctantly landed. “Then I will too.”

They started walking from the train platform. It led immediately to a long, perfectly made street that had just a slight uphill slope. Ahead, in the distance, Daring Do was able to see the Crystal Citadel, an impossibly vast tower of glimmering, reflective crystal that rose high above the multicolored crystal structures that emerged from the warm, grassy ground. Despite the warm and pleasant climate, though, Daring Do was distinctly aware of the fact that just outside the radius of the Citadel’s protective magic, the land around the Crystal Empire was barren and frozen for countless hundreds of miles.

Her feet tapped softly on the crystal street, and Daring Do sighed audibly as she stared at the Citadel and surrounding buildings.

“What is it?” asked Rainbow Dash. She was as perceptive as ever.

“Did you know,” said Daring Do, “that I spent the first twenty years of my career searching for this place? For the lost Crystal Empire, the kingdom of the dark Crystal King Sombra. And now here I am, walking down a crystal street. I took an express train to get here, slept in a sleeper car on the way and had a Danish for breakfast.”

“But you’re finally here. That’s something, isn’t it?”

“It’s not the same, Rainbow. It’s like…” It was like something was stolen from her, a chance for something she would have savored for her entire lifetime. To have been the one to have discovered the Crystal Empire- -and yet here she was, standing in a fully functional city that already had a ruling Alicorn, a Prince-Consort, a royal daughter, and a population as fully versed in the Empire’s ancient traditions as they were train schedules or the cost of exported crystal.

Daring Do did not finish her sentence, though. She only sighed, and became aware of a unicorn trotting toward them.

“Sunburst!” cried Rainbow Dash, taking to the air and waving him over.

“Oh my Cadence!” he wheezed, reaching them but nearly doubling over from the exertion of a simple canter. “I’m not in shape!” He gasped. “I’m sorry! I got caught up in an argument about matrix structure in invisibility, and I lost track of time!”

“Wait. YOU were arguing with somepony? Like, in person?”

“Well, no, it was in a letter to Moonda- -” Sunburst froze and suddenly blushed. “- -to a colleague!”

Daring Do took note of the unicorn’s features. It was immediately apparent that he was an academic, or perhaps even a wizard: he wore an appropriately starry cape, complete with an ornate crystal buckle shaped into what Daring Do assumed was the form of his cutie mark. He also wore a pair of round glasses that only succeeded in exacerbating his appearance as a hopeless academic; Daring Do was immediately reminded of the way Dulcimer had looked.

Except that this pony seemed remarkably young, especially for one interested in pursuing magic. Young wizards were an especially rare commodity. Daring Do was also sure to note that- -assuming he did not dye it that way, which would have been ridiculously pretentious- -he had a bicolored coat, complete with white stockings and a blaze. Though his mane and beard were both disheveled, if Daring Do had been twenty years younger she almost surely would have made an advance on him. Even if he did turn out to be married.

Sunburst seemed to notice Daring Do’s wandering eyes, and cleared his thought. “Oh,” he said. “Hello there. Twilight mentioned that Rainbow Dash would be bringing somepony. I didn’t realize it would be her mother!”

Rainbow Dash gasped, and Daring Do’s gaze sharpened. “I’m not her mother.”

“Oh! My- -my apologies, it’s just that- -well- -you look so similar- -”

“Do you have any idea who you’re talking too?” snapped Rainbow Dash. “This is Daring- -I mean A.K. Yearling! You know, famous author?”

“I can’t say I recognize the name.”

Daring Do raised an eyebrow. “Do they not publish Daring Do novels in the Crystal Empire?”

“Oh, well, no, but they are available in some of the bookshops. I never read them myself, of course. They’re just too stressful. And I tend to have a preference for nonfiction.”

“So the Crystal Ponies don’t read the books either?”

“No, they can’t. They only read Crystallic. And translation is surprisingly difficult, because of several linguistic anomalies- -”

“Excellent.” Daring Do swept off her shawl and glasses, shaking out her long gray mane as she did so. Sunburst- -and Rainbow Dash to a lesser extent- -both blushed heartily.

“What?” said Daring Do. “It’s like you’ve never seen a mare naked before.”

“I- -I haven’t,” sputtered Sunburst.

“Dude, yes you have!” snapped Rainbow Dash. She pointed at herself. “Um, hello?!”

“Oh- -sorry- -I forgot.” He stammered for a moment longer and then turned around. He cleared her throat. “Well,” he said. “How about we get to that library?”

Sunburst led the way, although the path was not difficult to discern. The Empire was laid out radially, and the Crystal Citadel was no doubt visible from every portion of the empire, even out into the grassy fields that reached all the way to the icy border.

It took a bit for Sunburst to regain his composure, but when he did, he became more talkative.

“So,” he said. “Twilight informed me that you were interested in information on the Exmoor ponies.”

“The Exmoori. Yes.” Daring Do frowned as she fell in step with Sunburst, who despite being taller was not nearly athletic. Rainbow Dash hung in the air behind them, listening. “That’s odd…”

“What is?”

“That you didn’t immediately dismiss them as a myth.”

“A myth?” Sunburst seemed both surprised and confused. Then he laughed. “Oh, no! Of course they’re not a myth!”

“They aren’t?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“No. Not here. In the Crystal Empire, it is widely believed- -if not outright known- -that the Exmoori were real.”

“Why here?” asked Rainbow Dash, still clearly confused.

Sunburst paused, thinking as he walked. “Well,” he said, “I suppose it’s because they’re closer to history than you or I are. They are over a thousand years old, after all. That, and it’s common knowledge that the Crystal Empire was built on Exmoori ruins.”

Daring Do stopped walking. “Wait,” she said. “What?”

“Oh,” said Sunburst. “I assumed you knew. Sorry. Isn’t that why Twilight sent you?”

“No no no, we’re not getting off topic. You said this place is BUILT on Exmoori ruins?”

“Well, yes. They’re supposedly rather extensive.”

“I need to get into them. As soon as possible.”

“Into them?” Sunburst suddenly looked afraid. “I- -I’m sorry, but that’s not possible!”

“Then you are going to make it possible!”

“I can’t! The majority of the ruins are collapsed, closed off! You wouldn’t be able to get to them even if you tried! And whatever is still accessible is unstable. Not that you would want to go there.”

“I’m not afraid of danger.”

“It’s actually her middle name,” whispered Rainbow Dash.

“No it isn’t.”

“It’s not a matter of how dangerous it is!” exclaimed Sunburst. “All of the caverns that we have access to were stripped clean a long, long time ago. There’s nothing there. Just empty holes. The only part of the ruins that’s actually intact is the Citadel.”

Daring Do and Rainbow Dash both stared at Sunburst. “What?”

“You mean you didn’t know?” Sunburst pointed at the Crystal Citadel. “According to legend, the Crystal Citadel itself was built by the Exmoori as a housing for the Crystal Heart. No pony knows why or even how, or how it stayed in such good condition.” He paused. “Although, I suppose it looked different fifteen thousand years ago. Sombra made substantial changes to it. So did Cadence.”

At the mention of the Dread King’s name, several passing crystal ponies squeaked in terror and retreated. Sunburst winced.

“They’re still afraid,” noticed Rainbow Dash.

“Like I said. They’re over a thousand years old. Every crystal pony you see today older than four years was once enslaved. I can’t even imagine what they had to go through.”

The trio passed into the Crystal Citadel with ease. Sunburst was, apparently, a wizard of great importance. The majority of the guards simply stepped out of his way wordlessly. Daring Do stared long at each one, admiring the translucence of their crystalline beings. She also paused to admire the fabled Crystal Heart. She would have given her right hoof to have been the one to discover it. Now it sat in the very center of the empire, slowly revolving below the four-legged Crystal Citadel and radiating a strange glow of pure love. A crowd had gathered around it to bask in the glow, consisting both of ponies of every race and whimsically colorful Thoraxian changelings.

They did not tarry around the Heart, though. They quickly moved up into the Citadel itself. From what Daring Do understood, this structure had once been Sombra’s tower, although it had been far more advanced than the term usually denoted in relationship to unicorn mages. While every powerful wizard had a tower, Sombra’s had been a seat of horrors: his own thrown, his stables of personal slaves, and numerous dungeons where unspeakable acts were performed on prisoners for his own amusement. Daring Do even supposed that some of the Dark Thirteen- -possibly including Gxurab Al’Hrabnaz- -had held their offices as members of the dark court.

Under the rule of the alicorn Cadence, however, the nature of the tower had been completely redefined. It now served not only as her and her family’s personal residence, but as a center for a number of municipal functions. Her personal royal library- -which Daring Do surmised and hoped she had inherited much of from Sombra himself- -was one of these.

“So,” said Sunburst as they approached through the long, curving crystal hallways. “Do you have a grasp of Crystallic?”

“I can read it. I can’t speak it worth a darn.”

Sunburst laughed. “Well, of course not! You’re not a crystal pony. At least not that I’m aware of.”

“Nope. Just an ordinary Pegasus.”

Rainbow Dash snorted with laughter. “Ha! Ordinary! She’s an expert in over fifty eight languages!”

“Well, then, we shouldn’t have too much trouble going through the texts. Although I’m afraid they’re not organized well.”

“Twilight recommended one specific author. Gxurab Al’Hrabnaz.”

There was a sudden clattering from down the hall, as well as a stifled scream. Daring Do turned to see that the source of the sound was a guard dropping his crystal lance. Him and several of his comrades had blanched entirely at the name of the wizard. One of them burst into tears, and a mare took hold of him to lead him away, glaring the whole while at Daring Do. The others shakily made strange signs with their hooves and retreated, leaving their weapons behind.

“Please don’t say that again,” said Sunburst. “Not out here. Once we’re in the library, but not here.”

“Why?”

“I told you. Because they’re still afraid.”

Sunburst hurried them along until they reached a large and ornately decorated door. Above it was written some text in Crystallic- -although Daring Do was perceptive enough to notice that the motifs that surrounded it bore a striking semblance to several depicted on the rubbings she was carrying.

Two guards were stationed outside. Daring Do had no idea why guards were always stationed at libraries, but alicorns seemed to place a premium on books. One of the ponies was a large and gloriously many crystal mare; the other was an orange Pegasus.

The Pegasus seemed to recognize Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow!” he said, perking up. “Hey! Have you heard anything from Twilight- -”

“Shut it, Flash Sentry,” groaned Rainbow Dash, passing by him and ignoring him. “No one likes you.”

Flash drooped. The large mare on the other side of the door smiled. “I like you, Flash.”

Flash Sentry shivered. Daring Do pretended not to notice.

As they entered the library, orange magic surrounded the door and closed it. Daring Do was immediately surrounded by profound quiet; despite being made from crystal, the acoustics of the room were perfect. They were completely alone, surrounded by nothing but several levels of extensive bookshelves.

“I never liked this one,” said Rainbow Dash. “It’s always kind of creepy.”

“Agreed,” said Sunburst, surprising both Daring Do and Rainbow Dash. He turned around. “So. Twilight did mention the rather…particular author you were looking for. I didn’t think you were serious.”

“Do you have anything?”

Sunburst stared at Daring Do for a long moment, and then sighed. “Yes,” he admitted. “Unfortunately, we do.”

He began to lead Rainbow Dash and Daring Do across the labyrinthine library.

“Why ‘unfortunately’?”

Sunburst looked over his shoulder. “Because Gxurab Al’Hrabnaz was a very, very dark wizard. You have to understand that.”

“I know. Twilight mentioned it. One of the Dark Thirteen.”

Even though Sunburst was not a crystal pony, he winced at the name of their order. “But you don’t know what that means. Not to the crystal ponies. You weren’t there.”

“Neither were you.”

“No, but I’ve heard the stories. So many times. They were evil.”

“There’s a lot of evil things in Equestria,” said Rainbow Dash. Then, with a little more pride, “I’ve helped defeat more than a few of them.”

Sunburst still maintained a stony expression. “Sombra was himself a powerful mage. Maybe one of the most powerful ever, short of an alicorn. And in a fair fight?” He shook his head. “I don’t think any one alicorn could have stood against him. Not alone.”

“And part of that power came from the Dark Thirteen?”

Sunburst shook his head. “Sombra chose carefully. He didn’t take anypony who would ever be more powerful than himself. Those, he…well…” Sunburst shook his head. “But,” he continued, “he also chose ponies like himself. Cruel. Sadistic. Evil, really. That’s what the Dark Thirteen were. The worst of the worst.”

“So he assembled a team of mages. Any particular reason?”

“To find him spells. Artifacts. Power. I’ve done a lot of research. I tend to think that he was too ambitious. He couldn’t leave the Crystal Empire, not without risking an uprising.”

“So he had his servants bring magic to him.”

Sunburst nodded. “Whatever he could use to spread fear and increase his own power. And the Dark Thirteen certainly did a good job at it.”

“And Gxurab Al’Hrabnaz? How evil was he?”

Sunburst stopped walking and paused. “We don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Daring Do pointed toward the door. “You have an entire nation of eye-witnesses.”

“Regardless. Not much is known about him. Most ponies never saw him in person. Those that did said he spoke little and was covered in strange armor. I mean, Scarlet Mist? Buttonhooks the Mad? Ponies knew about them. And what they did. But Al’Hrabnaz mostly stayed here, in the Citadel.”

“Reverse engineering Exmoori artifacts, no doubt.”

Sunburst frowned. “No,” he said. “That’s just speculation. In truth, there are no Exmoori artifacts. No record that Al’Hrabnaz ever found anything, despite taking interest in it.”

“But you said he had texts.”

“Mostly on architecture. It was apparently something of a hobby of his. And a few manuscripts on the language, and the culture. But not much else.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning we are very lucky that none of his spells or research texts survived.” Sunburst shivered. “And it’s better that way. For all of us.”

Daring Do nodded. She could not help but agree with him. Too many times in her life had she been forced to thwart some young, misinformed wizard bent on gaining undue power from strange texts, or from certain individuals attempting to sell such texts without considering the destruction they could cause in the wrong hooves.

Sunburst seemed to understand. “I think what we do have will help, though. For what you’re trying to do at least.”

“I agree,” said Daring Do. “I’m not in the mood for messing with trapped or cursed grimoires.”

Sunburst nodded and stopped a heavy door consisting of a crystal grate. Affixed to it was a lock into which he inserted his horn. The lock was quite clearly meant for somepony with a much longer cranial organ, and Daring Do held her breath. Horn locks looked innocuous enough, but Daring Do knew that they were nasty machines. They were almost invariably designed to ununicorn unauthorized individuals by severing their horns. Doing so would render the unicorn powerless, at least for a time, although the psychological trauma from the removal would last much longer.

Fortunately, Sunburst was apparently an authorized user of this lock. It clicked in response to his horn, allowing him to open the door. He then gestured for Daring Do and Rainbow Dash to enter.

“Why is this section sealed?”

“Because this is where we tried to put all of our most dangerous books. Please don’t tell Twilight I said that, but it’s true. These are restricted texts. I wouldn’t even have considered letting ANYPONY in here if Twilight hadn’t said it was absolutely necessary.”

“It is,” said Rainbow Dash, even though she had no idea what was going on. Daring Do was just glad that she had decided to contact Twilight. This might prove to be an advantage. The Royal Archeological Society had no access to these texts, and neither would Caballeron.

To be perfectly honest, Rainbow Dash had always expected that a Daring Do adventure would be more interesting. Things flowed differently in the books. Much more time was spent on action and far less on rising action that involved sitting in dusty libraries reading books. Sure, there was information about it, but it barely took a few paragraphs- -or, at most, just one chapter.

Rainbow Dash was, of course, glad to be with her favorite author/book character. That was something she could not deny; however, as Daring Do and Sunburst sat pouring over moldering books that were filled with strange text, Rainbow Dash found herself getting bored.

“Is this going to take much longer?”

“It might,” said Sunburst.

“No, it will,” sighed Daring Do. “These books aren’t catalogued. They don’t have titles and half of them are encoded somehow.”

“Although, granted, the writing is surprisingly neat,” added Sunburst.

“It will probably take the rest of the day. Maybe even tomorrow.”

“I can probably get you guest accommodations. For as long as you need.” Sunburst set down a pile of books he had been levitating. “I’ll just have to speak with the Princess.”

“You have access to the Princess? Whenever you want?”

Sunburst blushed. “Well…um…in a sense? I mean, I’m the court wizard, so…um…I’ll just go ask her now.”

He departed awkwardly. Daring Do did not look up from the black book she was reading. “Wow,” she said. “He should really start up a correspondence with Twilight. They would have the most awkward children in history.”

“Nah,” said Rainbow Dash, her forehead now against the crystal table on which the books were piled. “Everypony ships him with Starlight.”

“The creepy teleporting girl?”

“They grew up together or something. Like me and Fluttershy I guess, but nobody ships us.”

“Less blabbing more researching. Unless you’d rather have Caballeron get the artifact before we do.”

Rainbow Dash lifted her head and sighed. She reached for one of the black-bound books. Some but not all of the Al’Hrabnaz books were black, and although they had no titles they marked with a symbol on the spine. It consisted of a yellow circle containing radial images that varied with each book, as well as a pair of wings and a horn which remained constant on every text. Rainbow Dash was not sure what that meant, unless Al’Hrabnaz had somehow been an alicorn and nobody had told her. And she somehow found that unlikely.

The boredom, however, had reached such a critical level that Rainbow Dash actually turned the book around and opened it. What she found was exceedingly unpleasant. The entire inside was filled with dense, perfect cursive. As Rainbow Dash looked closer, though, she saw that she could not recognize any of the letters.

“Um, Daring Do? I can’t read this.”

Daring Do looked up. “Oh,” she said. “It’s in ancient Crystallic. Which I guess is the same as modern Crystallic.”

“I don’t read Crystallic! I barely read regular Equestrian unless you’re the one who wrote it!”

“I’m flattered.” Daring Do went back to turning through the texts, cross-referencing them to her rubbings. “But you’re not missing much.” She slammed the volume closed and held it up. “This whole thing is about façade construction. Literally, it’s the only thing he discussed. How Exmoori built façades. That’s it. I don’t think this guy was evil. I think he was just really, really boring.” Despite that, Daring Do picked up another book. “‘On Linguistics: a Comparison of Twelve Languages Used to Render the Arcane, and their Diverse Effectiveness for Polydimensional Differential Equations’.” Daring Do raised an eyebrow. “Actually, that one sounds pretty good.” She leaned into the book. “I wonder if Twilight’s read this one…”

If there was one thing in Equestria that Rainbow Dash hated more than anything, it was math. And whatever Daring Do had just said had sounded like math. The pull of being near her hero was no longer great enough to stop Rainbow Dash from at least attempting to escape.

“I’m going to stretch my wings,” she said.

“Don’t stretch them too far,” muttered Daring Do, absentmindedly. “They’ll dislocate. And then you’ll get arthritis.”

“I’ll…keep that in mind?”

Rainbow Dash flapped her feathery organs and took to the air. Within seconds she had disappeared into the high stacks of the restricted section, and after a minute or two she felt that she was out of range of any possible math.

Strangely, the library seemed to dampen sound; in seconds, Rainbow Dash was in absolute silence. She did not like it. To be surrounded by strange, ancient books, smelling them but not able to hear anything or comprehend what terrible things they might contain. This was the sort of thing that got Twilight’s wings twitching, but Rainbow Dash had little appreciation for it.

What she did have an appreciation for was how dangerous books could be. She had once witnessed a single book turn Rarity evil, and had been trapped in a comic book at least once. There were even rumors that Fluttershy of all ponies possessed a guide to magical animals that would attempt to bite and gnaw on anypony who dared to open it. Rainbow Dash had never bothered to look; that commitment to literature was far beyond her.

Rainbow Dash had no idea what these books could actually do, but was aware that it could be absolutely horrible. Pulling one down and attempting to read it could do any number of things: it could summon Satin, for example, or perhaps an angry mass of interdimensional tentacles; or it could turn her into a stallion, or worse, a unicorn. As much as Rainbow Dash would not mind potentially having a horn or punching Satin in the face, she did not want to embarrass herself in front of Daring Do. So she left the restricted section immediately.

The main section of the library was empty, leaving Rainbow Dash to wonder if Sunburst had cleared the hole place just for them- -or if Crystal ponies were just so afraid of what this place had once contained that they did not dare approach it.

Absentmindedly- -not a common state for Rainbow Dash- -she soared up to the top shelves of the third mezzanine level, a distance much higher than most ponies would be able to reach. She then moved through the stacks before stopping at one top shelf and randomly picking off a book. The title read “A Guide to Scootland”. Rainbow Dash opened it up to find pastoral pictures of green fields dotted hordes of small, orange Pegasi with tiny, useless wings.

It was boring, So Rainbow Dash tried to put it back, only to find that the space it had come from had somehow seemed to have shrunk. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, knowing what this meant. It had happened more than once at the Golden Oak Library; it occurred when Twilight had too many books and tried to shove all of them on one shelf.

In an attempt to fix it, Rainbow Dash removed several exceedingly dull texts: “Horsetails of the Gelding Grotto”, “Blinders of the Pre-Celestial Age”, “Wooing Pegasi: Their Wings are Fluffy”, and a tome describing pore-sizes of sponges. All of it was admittedly safe- -save for perhaps the Pegasi book, which Rainbow Dash found contained suggestions more likely to earn one a beating than a date- -but they were all weird and boring. And every time Rainbow Dash removed one, the entire shelf seemed to expand and close ranks.

When at last she finally produced a hole, she attempted to put the books in- -only for them to slip out of her hooves and fall to the floor.

“Well, that’s just great,” she muttered. “You know, Twilight probably felt that. I don’t know how, but she did. And now she’s going to yell at me.” She sighed, and only then realized part of the reason why she was having a problem. The shelf was surprisingly deep, and a book was lying behind the others on its side. Rainbow Dash reached in and attempted to grab it. Despite being dusty and clearly long-forgotten, its cover was strangely slippery.

Upon removing it, Rainbow Dash found that it was small and black. She blew away the dust- -sneezing cutely in the process- -and found that it contained no title. As she turned it, though, she suddenly felt cold. The spine was decorated with a golden circle, a pair of wings, and a horn. It was a Gxurab Al’Hrabnaz book.

“Horsefeathers,” she swore, slowly descending to the floor. “How did this get here?” She stared up at the shelf, which was at least twenty feet tall. There did not seem to be a latter. Rainbow Dash wondered how long it had been since anypony had been up there. Based on how out of date the Pegasus-wooing book had been, Rainbow Dash supposed it was quite a long time.

Her first thought was to take the book back to Daring Do. She did not know how it had gotten into the main section of the library, but knew that Daring Do would be looking for it. After a moment, though, she reconsidered. At the moment, Sunburst of all ponies was being more helpful than her. Thoughts of how impressive it would be if she were the one to crack the code rushed through her head, and she figured that she could at least try. After all, Sunburst had said it himself: all of Gxurab Al’Hrabnaz’s magical texts were gone. Only boring stuff on architecture and math remained.

Rainbow Dash found a table and sat down. She positioned the book in front of her and started to open it. The cover felt strange, like the leather that Rarity used in some of her clothes- -but much softer and somehow almost wet. Rainbow Dash found it disgusting, but opened it anyway.

Like before, the text inside was completely unreadable. Even not being able to read it, though, Rainbow Dash was able to instantly realize that the letters in this particular book were vastly different than in the other. Whereas the first had been filled with perfect cursive, this one was instead filled with strange letters that consisted entirely of square characters with complicated geometric contents. They were tiny and exceedingly complicated, all aligned on the page with Twilight-like precision.

Rainbow Dash had no idea what language she was looking at, but it was not Crystallic or anything close to modern Equestrian. It was something else.
` She began to turn through the pages of the book and quickly found that it had pictures. This at first overjoyed her; even if she could not read the strange geometric writing, she knew she could probably understand what was present from the pictures. As she looked closer, though, her stomach began to turn and her hope fell that this was any kind of book she wanted to read.

The first pictures to catch her eye were anatomical drawings. Rainbow Dash had once picked up Twilight’s copy of Bray’s Anatomy and could recall the pictures present there, but they were almost always disembodied and clinical. Here, though, the stages of dissection were far more complete and gruesome. The artist had even gone so far as to depict the eyes of the figures filled with fear, and their faces contorted with horrible screams as if they were in agony. As Rainbow Dash grew more nauseous, she desperately hoped that it had been artistic license from a sick mind.

The context seemed to be strange. In almost every case, one of the terrified and screaming anatomical figures was represented next to something else that had been drawn with traditional criticality. What it was, though, was not clear. It was pony-like but smaller, and Rainbow Dash got the impression that some of the organs were different. On some pages concerning skeletons, bones were compared- -in addition to strange diagrams of machinery and aggressive, sickening runes.

Rainbow Dash flipped through the book more quickly. Many of the later chapters contained spells, or what Rainbow Dash took for spells, in addition to diagrams for machines that she could not understand, apart from one very peculiar depiction of what appeared to be a vast mechanical Pegasus. A small, strangely shaped pony in armor was used for size comparison; he was almost a quarter the height of the machine. Rainbow Dash shivered. From how that tiny pony was drawn, she took it to be a self-portrait.

Then, suddenly, she stopped. An image in the center of the text gave her pause, even though she did not understand what it was: it was a single depiction of something made of strange metal carved with intricate but ominous and bizarre patterns. On one end sat writhing cables, or tentacles, each of which was tipped with a deadly mouth filled with numerous teeth. On the far end stood five projections, arranged like a claw. The detail was exquisite, but more than that, something about it that drew her eyes to it- -and made the small rainbow hairs at the base of her mane stand on end.

Rainbow Dash picked up the book. As she did, a page suddenly dropped out and onto the desk.

“Princess rumps!” cried Rainbow Dash, suddenly dropping the book and panicking. “Oh no! Holy carp, I damaged a book! A really OLD book! Twilight’s going to string me up by my wings and beat me like a piñata!” She slid off her chair and looked around. “A stapler! A STAPLER! I need a stapler! Or glue! Or TAPE!”

Rainbow Dash ran quickly around the immediate area, trying to track down anything that could be used as adhesive to attempt to repair the book. All she could find was a stack of rubber bands, but she supposed it was good enough.

As she picked up the bands, though, she paused. Something felt strange. The air tasted like metal, and she heard the rush of wings.

Rainbow Dash turned around suddenly. The table she had been sitting at previously was in view, and in an instant she saw that the book that she had left lying atop it had vanished. While she stared gaping at the lack of the book, Rainbow Dash suddenly saw movement: the rear of a black pony disappearing behind one of the shelves.

“Hey! HEY YOU! STOP!”

Rainbow Dash suddenly accelerated. For her, the act was effortless, but her speed was unparalleled, as was her agility. In less than a tenth of a second, she swooped past the shelves where the black pony had just been. As she turned around the stack, though, she saw him disappear again- -down the far edge of a corridor of books nearly twenty meters away.

Gritting her teeth, Rainbow Dash accelerated again. She did not understand how he had moved so quickly without making a sound, but she did not care. If it was a race he wanted, it was a race he would get- -and no pony could win in a race against Rainbow Dash.

“Give it back!” she screamed. “Daring Do needs that book!”

She turned again and again- -but each time, she was never able to catch up with the black pony, or see who he was completely. He never seemed to move quickly or hurriedly, but was always just barely out of reach.

Rainbow Dash quickly realized that he was moving toward the exit. She decided to try to cut him off, but to no avail: she saw the flick of a long black tail as the door to the library opened, and she rushed after him.

Outside, the enormous manly crystal-mare guard was holding Flash Sentry like a baby. Both of them looked at Rainbow Dash and blushed.

“Rainbow,” said Flash, “this isn’t what it looks like!”

“I don’t care! Did you see a black pony go through here?”

The mare and Flash Sentry looked at each other. They did get a chance to answer, though, because Rainbow Dash spied him moving at the far end of the crystal hallway. He was not heading for the exit of the library- -he was trying to escape the Citadel entirely.

“NO YOU DON’T!” Rainbow Dash accelerated again, this time approaching supersonic speed. She did not know what would happen if she performed a sonic rainboom inside a building, but she did not care if she happened to find out. At this point, she was angry. She intended to catch whoever it was who was trying to make a fool out of her and slap the information on how he was moving so quickly out of him.

Once again, though, she never got the chance. She followed him to an exit: a balcony, specifically, that contained a courtyard. As Rainbow Dash burst through the door, she was sure she had cornered him. There was no way to escape. Even if he was a Pegasus, she would be able to see him flying away for miles, even if he tried to go straight down to the bottom of the Citadel. He was trapped.

Except when Rainbow Dash got there, there was no pony to be found. The courtyard was empty. Its crystal benches sat unoccupied, and a fountain dribbled quietly in one corner. The trees sat silent- -even though they were not unoccupied. Hundreds of eyes peered back from them, causing Rainbow Dash to cry out and recoil when she saw them. Each set, she realized, was connected to a black-colored bird. The trees were filled with crows.

The door behind Rainbow Dash opened suddenly, causing her to cry out in surprise. This startled the crows, and a tirade of cawing filled the air as they took to the air in a vast, plume-like swarm, spreading angrily in every direction.

“Rainbow Dash!” cried Daring Do. “What happened? I heard you yelling!”

Rainbow Dash stared at her, and at Sunburst- -who was wheezing heavily- -as he entered the balcony.

“I found a book!” cried Rainbow Dash, suddenly. “One of those black ones with the circle and the wings and horn on it! I was going to take it to you but I tried reading through it first- -and somepony took it!” She pointed at the edge of the balcony. “He came out here, but he must have got away somehow! We have to mobilize the guards before he gets away!” Daring Do turned to Sunburst, who just shrugged. Rainbow Dash frowned angrily. “Come on! We have to get him!”

“I didn’t see anypony,” said Daring Do.

“Because you weren’t there! But I saw him! A black pony! And he stole the book!”

“Stole a book?” Sunburst regained part of his composure. “Rainbow Dash, that’s not possible. I secured the library before you got here. Twilight suggested it.”

“Well no offense but you’re not exactly known for your skill at magic, are you?”

Sunburst’s expression darkened. “No, I may not be, but it’s not my magic. The Citadel has a powerful security system that draws straight from Princess Cadence. I can review the records if you want me to, but it’s absolutely impossible that a thief could get in here. Not without leaving a trace.”

“But the book!”

“What book?” asked Daring Do.

“I don’t have it, because he…” Rainbow Dash trailed off, instantly realizing how stupid she sounded. There was no evidence of the black pony, or of the book she had found. Neither of them had seen it. She was making a fool of herself.

Then a realization came to her and she jumped up. “Here!” she said, holding out the piece of paper that had fallen from the book. It was actually the first time she had looked at it, and much to her surprise it did not seem to match the rest of Al’Hrabnaz’s book. The paper was a different color, and there was no text- -only a picture of a perfectly black rectangle that filled most of the page. Rainbow Dash did not understand what it was, and for a moment started to panic, wondering if it was some pointless piece of waste that had been shoved into the infinitely more valuable text by accident.

Daring Do took the paper and stared at it. Her expression suddenly hardened and she grew pale.

“What is it?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“This is vellum,” she said, recoiling from the paper. Sunburst, on hearing that term, also became pale. His eyes bulged so much that Rainbow Dash was sure they would unseat his spectacles.

“What is vellum?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Sunburst and Daring Do looked at each other. Sunburst’s normally white blaze had taken on a greenish tint. Daring Do, though, only looked exceedingly stern. “It’s a type of paper,” she said dismissively. “And you say this was in a book?”

“Yeah. It fell out when I opened it up. Whoever that guy was got the book, but not that picture.”

Daring Do looked at the picture again. “If only I knew what it was,” she sighed, sliding it into the manila folder that contained the rubbings of the Mighty Helm mural. “But I have a gut feeling…”
 

Comments

[MJP]

Quibble pants automatically hates this and thinks you're a hack

[Opium4TmassS]

The story keeps getting better and better.

[KeePony]

Vellum is sheep skin. or probaly here pony skin, were the hair has been scrapped off.

[AppleTank]

Dang shapeshifting crows
or the original owner has a backdoor.

[Fiddlebottoms]

“You know, Twilight probably felt that. I don’t know how, but she did. And now she’s going to yell at me.”

So does Twilight actually have book sense or does everyone just assume she does?