The King of Swing

by The Sonic Mage

Chapter 5: The Finds

If nothing else, the search of the library was mentally taxing. Obviously searching through any large place in near pitch black conditions is generally difficult, no matter how well organized it is. That wasn’t the only reason it was difficult, however. The hollowing silence of the library, along with the lack of lighting, made the entire ordeal unnerving. The deafening silence made each pony hyper-aware and accentuated every tiny sound. The shadows in their horn-lights seemed to dance and act alive, causing a bit of paranoia to to rear its head. And the seemingly endless maze of bookshelves began to induce a slight sense of claustrophobia.

This was especially true for Radiant Hope, whose fear and anxiety was rising by the second. Her eyes and mind played tricks on her, as she jumped at the movement of the shadows, fearing that something, or more appropriately somepony, would creep out and grab her. At times, she had to put all her willpower into not screaming. It also didn’t help that the library’s layout had changed since she had last been there.

‘It’s all in your head Radiant,’ She constantly assured herself, ‘There’s nothing in this library accept a large number of books...and maybe a night guard...but that’s nowhere near as bad.’

All three ponies continued searching the shelves and shelves of books for anything vaguely related to history.

After about 15 minutes of quietly creeping around corners, finally something changed.

Radiant eventually came across a section of bookshelves that had rows of sectioned studying tables in between the shelves. She looked to the shelves on her right and shined a light on the title of one of the books.

It read: The Complete History of-

That was all Radiant needed to read for her to realize where she was in the library. She nervously looked around her, making sure nopony was nearby. She then focused her magic, seeking out the 2 disguised Princesses. She sent out her signal, and then returned her attention to the history books on the shelves.

Radiant finished reading the title of the book she had first looked at.

The Complete History of Crystal Agriculture

Not what she needed, but again, the fact that she was in the History section was a solid start.

Radiant began slowly walking along the shelf, her eyes carefully scrolling over the titles of every book, searching for that was about The Empire’s more recent history.

She heard hooves quickly, but quietly, hurrying over to where she was. For a moment, Radiant feared that a guard was coming. In a brief panic, she ducked under one of the tables and dimmed her horn-light.

The sounds of the steps got closer and closer. Radiant saw lights shine on the spot she was just standing in a moment ago. She briefly closed her eyes, only listening.

Until, she heard a pair of familiar voices.

“Radiant?”

“Where are you?”

Radiant breathed a sigh of relief. Of course it was Celestia and Luna. Slowly, she crawled out from underneath the table, making sure to not make too much noise.

Luna tilted her head and arched an eyebrow in confusion. “What were you doing under there?” She asked as Radiant rose to her hooves.

“I thought you were night guards,” Radiant sheepishly admitted.

Celestia shook her head, “Never mind that. You did the right thing.” She looked at the shelved books around her, “So this is the History section, is it?”

“Yes,” Radiant confirmed, “I don’t know how big it is overall, but we are in it.”

“Well then,” disguised Luna said, “Let’s get searching.”

The three then began scanning the shelves for any books on The Crystal Empire’s recent history, or Sombra himself.

They came across history books of all kinds. The history of Equestrian military, the history of architecture, and several other odd topics.

It felt almost dream like to Radiant sometimes. She saw so many titles and so many authors that she adored and read endlessly before she left. It took her back to the days when she would spend hours sitting in the library’s original layout. She could feel the ghost of a smile tug at her lips, as she glanced over or skimmed through some of the books.

Sadly none of the books were recent enough. The events they covered only went up to two years before her birth.

“Dang it.” Radiant cursed under her breath. She went on searching.

As she continued searching she noticed a few other things about the new layout of the library. Mainly that the history section was a lot larger than she remembered. And there seemed to be quite the emphasis on the preservation of historical documents and that there be public access to said documents.

This became most apparent when she came across 7 volumes of document transcriptions in a row.

There also seemed to be a recurring theme with these documents.

Many of them were thesis’s or speeches on the ideas of freedom, liberty, personal agency, and happiness. Some were old, some were new. Some were by college students and professors, others by public speakers and politicians.

It was an odd trend for sure, but perhaps it didn’t mean anything.

Radiant groaned at the lack of progress. “Why are none of these copies more recent?” She sighed.

“Well, books do take a long time to write.” Celestia said, as she searched through the shelves on her side.

“Sadly, that is not a helpful fact, considering our situation.” Luna responded, placing a book back on its shelf with an annoyed expression on her face.

“We must keep looking, sister,” Celestia said, extracting yet another book to search through, “There must be at least some semblance of an answer here in this library.”

Luna rolled her eyes, but went on searching.

---

The trio went on for what felt like an hour. Hoping to find something, and getting nothing in return.

Radiant walked between the towering bookshelves, praying for something, anything, that could help.

She got what she wanted sooner than expected.

As she read over the titles of all the books, she ended up entering a different sub-section of the library.

The books here were thick, but didn’t have proper titles. Instead there were years stamped onto the spine of each one.

Curiously, Radiant looked to the section separator. It simply read: “Newspaper Archives”.

‘Newspapers! That’s it!’ Radiant thought, as she carefully pulled the first “book” of the shelf. The year on the spine was the current year, but strangely there also seemed to be other binders with years yet to pass on their spines. Radiant didn’t think much of it. She magically signaled the Princesses, before turning her attention back to the matter at hoof.

The Princesses approached.

“What did you find, Radiant?” Celestia asked.

“Well,” Radiant began, “These are collections of news stories.”

“Recent information. Finally, something of use in this establishment!” Luna said, earning her an eye roll from her sister. She didn’t notice, though.

Celestia took the binder in her magic, scrutinizing it. “Let’s get this over to a table and have a look inside.” They carried it over to a nearby table, and Radiant slowly lifted the cover.

As Radiant opened the binder, she could feel the preservation spells radiating off the paper. Whoever compiled this clearly wanted to make sure it, and its contemporaries, would stand the test of time.

‘That or the apocalypse,’ Radiant almost found that mental quip funny. She cleared her throat and began looking over the preserved newspaper pages.

She skipped over the first few pages, since they covered the weeks and months before Sombra took over. She went straight to the month, week and day after Sombra’s coup.

She was expecting to see a horrifying picture of Sombra on the front page, accompanied by a shocking headline.

Instead she found a single sheet of paper that read:

“Newspapers were discontinued almost immediately after ‘The Coup’. No drafts of papers to be printed during the age of The Old Regime are believed to exist.

“Newspapers resumed printing with the beginning of ‘The era of Liberation’. All of the following newspapers are from this era.”

The explanation on the paper confused the trio as they read it. What did it mean? It was easy enough to guess that “The Coup” was when Sombra took over. But what was “The era of Liberation”?

“This is...strange to say the least.” Luna said, arching an eyebrow.

Radiant, meanwhile, was starting to get a tad panicky.

‘It doesn’t exist…?’ She thought to herself. Wordlessly she reached out over to the shelf to grab the next binder. She brought it up to her face and read the spine. The year on it was three years later.

Celestia shook her head. Luna rubbed her eyes. Radiant just stared with her mouth agape.

Her pupils shrank and her brain flipped. Three years? How was that even possible. She was aware that it took her one, possibly two months, to get to Celestia and Luna. There was no way in her mind that it took three years to get the Princesses and come back.

She quickly opened the binder. The first paper had a big celebratory front page.

“Newspapers Back in Print!!!” The headline read.

Radiant looked at the date on the corner of the page. Indeed it was three years later.

She quickly flipped a few pages forward. Another headline: “Economic Reform Program Announced!” There was a cartoon of ponies rebuilding a destroyed bank.

Another headline: “Radio Show Ratings are Through the Roof!”

‘What in the world is ‘radio’?!’ Radiant thought in her panic.

Radiant furiously flipped through the pages until she froze on the headline of the last page of the binder. One that made the entire trio go wide-eyed.

The headline was: “Crystal Orphanage receives 60 Million Bit Grant from the Imperial Treasury” The headline alone was shocking, to Radiant especially.

But it was the accompanying photo that really made the three drop their jaws.

There, standing in the photo, was King Sombra.

King. Sombra.

He wasn’t wearing his ermine trimmed cape. Nor was he wearing a large flashy crown. Instead, he had a simple metal headband, with one or two jewels for good measure. As for his clothes, he was wearing a black, cape-top overcoat, and probably a high-end dress suit underneath. The steel armor boots that he always wore were still visible, and he probably had a chest plate under his coat. Still, all things considered, it wasn’t a very “Royal” look

In the picture, Sombra was hoofing over an officially signed, stamped, and sealed Imperial grant to the orphanage caretaker.

Radiant didn’t know who the new caretaker was, but she did recognize an aged Miss Chestnut, the original caretaker, sitting in a chair with a cane next to the younger one.

But strangest of all, ignoring the crown, the clothes, and the hefty sum of money, one thing stood out the most. A detail that would easily be missed if one did not look carefully.

Sombra was smiling.

It wasn’t a cruel, malicious smile, or one of insanity. It was just a simple, small smile.

It was that little smile that officially broke the trio of ponies.

‘How is this happening,’ Radiant questioned frantically ‘Why is this happening? Faust's sake, What is even happening?!’ Radiant was completely in the thralls of confusion as she stared at the photograph with utter-disbelief. Her thoughts were going round and round endlessly, filled with questions that had no answers.

Radiant was so lost in thought that she didn’t immediately feel or hear Celestia nudge her or call her name.

“Radiant? Radiant?” Celestia gave the crystal pony’s side a firm push.

Radiant blinked, and shook her head, turning to look at Celestia.

“Still with us?” The sun alicorn asked.

“Y-Yes,” Radiant said hesitantly, “I’m just a little surprised…and confused.” She looked back at the Newspaper Record shelf. She gulped at the sight of more binders with future years printed on their spines.

“I just don’t understand,” Radiant said, “What happened in the time that I was gone?”

“This perplexes is as well,” Luna said, bringing the page up to her face to scrutinize, “From what you said, Sombra had done some insidious things. Yet, in this picture, he seems to quite charitable.”

Radiant looked around at the many packed shelves. “Maybe there’s an explanation over in-”

“HEY! WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?”

The trio froze, feeling the light being shined on them, and hearing the shout behind them.

Radiant gulped, “Oh dear…”

Author's Note:

Sorry this took so long.
Please leave your comments, questions, and concerns below.

Comments

[The Sonic Mage]

9848320
Thank you for the grammar suggestion. I will gladly take you up on that.