The Substitute Librarian

by Georg

22. The Memoria of the Mountain Mare

The Substitute Librarian
The Memoria of the Mountain Mare

---

... slightly earlier

It was strange when Harmony slowed her pace down the stairs to take a short but intent glance at Emerald’s rear. The direct observation felt just ever so slightly like he was back in Canterlot at one of the elite parties his parents kept dragging him to, but did not dent his cheerful mood. Thankfully, she did not look as if she were figuring out what parts of him she would need to change after the wedding, but was considering a more serious topic, made only more obvious by her next question.

“I’ve seen many cutie marks, but none like yours. How does it relate to your special talent?”

Complimenting a griffon on her smooth feathers was a sure way to make her push out her chest and fluff up like a happy puffball. Asking Emerald about his favorite subject worked much the same way, only with more talking.

“I got my Mark at Celestia’s school as a volunteer assistant during entrance exams,” he admitted not-so-reluctantly. “I was helping the young students awaiting their turn, including my little sister. They were all understandably nervous, so I talked to them and calmed them down, got them focused, and helped them practice their magic a little before they went into the testing room. When the last one went inside, I found out I had this.” He wriggled his rump, which made the small white bits of fur around his stubby unicorn horn Mark move as if it was actually casting a failed spell.

“So your Mark is in foalsitting?” she asked.

“Teaching,” countered Emerald. “That was about… Oh, ten years ago. The students spread the word to their friends, and I had young unicorns asking for my help with their magic ever since. I’ve even helped a few young pegasi, but no earth ponies yet. I lost track of how many cutie marks I’ve seen since then. I don’t actually give Marks,” he quickly added. “Nopony can. The students get them on their own. I just give them a little nudge in the right direction.”

“You’ve been doing this on your own for ten years,” said Harmony. “Have you been injured?”

“Just once, and nothing serious. Being a geranium for an hour or so is oddly relaxing, but young unicorns normally don’t have the magical field depth to maintain a transformation for very long.” He stopped on the stair landing so he could touch one ear and fold it forward. “See. There’s always the danger of nibbling, but you can hardly see the bite. That’s one of the reasons I love teaching children. I’ve heard so many horror stories from other unicorns who had something terrible happen to ponies around them when they managed their first spell. Something like that can scar somepony for life, and since I’ve gotten so good at avoiding injury, it would be a disservice to not help the children with their early magic.”

Taking a few steps around the landing to stretch his aching tendons, Emerald looked around the vast open space of the stairwell with a deep breath. “Teaching is a lot like today has been so far. There’s a dangerous surprise you can never expect around every corner, but it’s worth it in the end. You see, young unicorns who are just coming into their magic have no idea what they can’t do, so that first magical burst can be more powerful than adults can ever manage. That’s one reason my parents are so set against my career, I suppose. Magic is dangerous.”

“Yes.” Harmony thought on her words for a few moments and added, “I may never understand it. I’ve found it complicated and frustrating, also quite dangerous at times, but worth the effort so far.”

“Like mares,” said Emerald with a nod. “Or Twilight Sparkle, who is both a mare and quite dangerous.”

“I thought you were willing to face danger to protect unicorns from their own uncontrolled magic,” said Harmony. “Twilight Sparkle is a unicorn who would benefit from somepony to calm her down and give her a little nudge—”

“Not on my checklist,” said Emerald, turning for the next set of downward stairs. “Twilight Sparkle has her friends for that, and a young dragon. Besides, how in the world could a mere earth pony protect the most powerful unicorn in Equestria?”

His light source did not move, so Emerald paused at the top step without heading down into the inky darkness where most likely he would trip and roll all the way to the bottom of the mountain. Harmony looked at him with a peculiar tilt to her head, glittering in the illumination of her horn like a collection of precious jewels and not saying a word.

“You think my Mark might protect me from magic?” he asked after a time. “It… could be. It would explain a lot, but I want to teach young unicorns their first magic, and I don’t want to work in my father’s magical widget factory. Those are my decisions, and my Mark has nothing to do with them.”

“Perhaps,” admitted Harmony as she moved forward and the two of them began descending the stairs again.

* * *

The grass under his chest was softer than a mattress and Sun was comfortable on Emerald’s bare back, with a cool spot where his saddlebags blocked the blessed warmth. Alas, it could not last. Muscles that he had never known existed protested in vain when Emerald pulled himself up, but it was afternoon Sun, and there was still quite a distance to walk before he reached the Ponyville train station.

“Up, you lazy bum, before you sunburn your rear,” he muttered, getting his aching legs centered under his body, then turning to face his objective. “Got my book,” he confirmed with a quick peek into his saddlebags, “and closed the door behind me so the city doesn’t track me down and fine me. Should have enough bits for the train back to Canterlot, so all that’s left is a short, flat walk through Ponyville over there.”

There was a faint cloud of dust rising from said town, with the feminine cry of “I want it!” drifting on the breeze.

“Or better yet around the town so I don’t meet anypony before I reach the station.” He eyed the cloud of dust. “Quickly.”

A few stretches helped calm the red-hot wires of stressed tendons from the awkward trip down the lengthy dark staircase, but there was no firefly lantern in his immediate vicinity no matter how hard Emerald looked.

“It has to be here somewhere,” muttered Emerald, checking behind a low clump of grass. “I remember having a light source on the stairs. I had to be using a light or I’d still be creeping down one step at a time. Maybe…”

For just a moment, Emerald thought of a glowing Crystal unicorn with him in the pitch-black staircase, but he gave his empty head a shake to clear it of the cotton wool clogging it. “No, there’s no imaginary library ghost in the mountain like I told the children in Ponyville. Don’t be stupid. I’ve got things to do back at school, so I better get to it.”

Emerald took one last look at the row of thick wooden doors which were all securely closed, and none of which had the Canterlot Archives rental lantern coincidentally sitting nearby. Twenty more bits down the infinite hole of his educational expenses, and the fine would only grow the longer he sat here, so Emerald started a brisk, pained trot in the direction of a path around the nearby town and to the train that would take him back to his life in Canterlot.

He never noticed the glow around his cutie mark slowly fade while he traveled.

Comments

[Georg]

And that’s the last chapter for now as it goes back into hiatus status. Enjoy…..what was I saying again?

(I have over a hundred thousand words in something I'm writing just as an exercise. Well, as long as you're all entertained.)

[Neece]

Aww, such a shame. They'd be cute together, even if this tree also seems to want for him to pollinate Sparkle

[FordPrefect]

Really don't like memory wipes... to similar to the "It was all a dream" trope.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Harmony works in mysterious ways, and works to keep them mysterious.

Also, hadn't expected the evacuation route to go all the way to Ponyville, but see above.

Very nice look at this corner of probability space. Looking forward to the next installment.

[Booster Spice]

Couldve been worse.

He couldve ended up a real Smarty Pants.

[FTL]

Welp, it is confirmed, Emerald is both an official weirdness magnet and source of weirdness!

Poor blighter is destined to be 'haunted' both metaphorically and possibly literally... that said, being haunted by Harmony does not seem to be a particularly distressing situation.

Again we see that Emerald's thoughts seem to feature a certain Librarian no matter where he is...

[ChakatRedstripe]

I always think it's sad when people are made to forget someone they meet, especially when they hit it off so well.
Good chapter I enjoyed it

[Hobbestc]

Guess Harmony needed to get to know her potential match for a Twilight a little better, lol. Good on Emerald for avoiding a Want it Need it obsessed town too.

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

Oh my...

H.A.R.M.O.N.Y. has initialized a System Update to Emerald.ep.
I can't check the packets downloading at this time, but based on the download size, that might be the HORN.uni module being installed.
That's going to require a restart.

Tree will be pleased at this upgrade.

[Heavyhauler75622]

10860993
WHAT COMPETENCE...???

The only reason it runs with even the semblance of competency is because Celestia had time over the last 1,000 years to at least round off the corners of the worst of it...and hers tends to make the conflagrations in and around Ponyville barely worth a footnote...

[Da Fennec]

10862173 Why not if you are evacuating the mountain you want to be as far as possible from the disaster. Ponyville being one of nearer towns to Canterlot is a good gathering point not mention there is a train station if evacuation to points further away is needed

[Dan]

Piper at the Gates of Dawn vibes here. Rescued by a holy being who erases the memory of the encounter as a mercy.

That was always one of my favorite chapters and it's a damn shame some editions omit it. And an even worse shame that people associate it more with Pink Floyd.

[FTL]

10862167

Aww, such a shame. They'd be cute together, even if this tree also seems to want for him to pollinate Sparkle

Good point... possibly an aspect of his earth pony magic is interacting with the trees and is making him a target of their ‘pollination’ drives. As both trees are also tied to Sparkle in some way that seems as good a theory as any so far.

If Harmony did allow Emerald to remember her and their interactions became regular, then things could get quite interesting. When Sparkle finds out that her ‘rogue book-pulping librarian nemesis’ has a closer relationship with the Tree than her it will likely bring on an even bigger outburst than any we have seen so far.

[Captain Nitpick]

10862376
He's already got the software for that. It's the hardware that's lacking.

[Reese]

10862141
Well, thanks for this enjoyable if brief break from the hiatus. :)

[Georg]

10863893 It seems to be a habit among authors whose name starts with Georg.... Although I hope Mr. Martin resumes his bloody path through the pages soon.

[Reese]

10863898
Heh. Well, good luck. :)

[Sozmioi]

All this talk of pollination has reminded me of a story setting concept I had where the ponies literally pollinate - stallions emit pollen from their navels, and mares absorb it. If they feel pregnant, they check whose cutie mark is in their navel to identify the father and decide whether to grow or eject the seed.

This causes some compatibility issues with the resident human.

[Burgesse]

I liked the subtle cues that I saw.

Scene description was solid and the poor guy always seems to take incremental steps forward.

[Alondro]

10863106 I remember when God tried to do that to me and I was like, "OY!! No mind-molestation, thank you very much!"

And besides, I only went a little absolutely insane from the exposure! ... Ok, maybe a lot... but I'm feeling MUCH better now!

[SilverScales]

This is an EXCELLENT read. Any idea when the hiatus might end?

[Joural]

10862172

I dunno, I get more a "I remember it but I was really hoping it wasn't true" vibe. He still remembers talking to her, same way he remembers talking to Luna. He just chooses to ignore that reality.

[fieryShaman]

10863779
Perhaps it's a firmware update which will provide support and activate latent macrostructural features not enabled on product release, resulting in Emerald sprouting a horn AND wings as he seizes his destiny as Prince Emerald Chrysanthemum, Alicorn of Education?

[Georg]

10886226 No idea of an exact date, but I did acquire a fierce wooden beast and arranged to have Emerald fight it (but not to the death):

The Wolffhauser in his family’s music room was about two octaves smaller than this monster, and just slightly under a century old. Every one of the children had been dragged through lessons except himself, and the resulting sibling bonding had taken off in a direction that his parents had not expected or noticed. When it was his younger sister’s turn to lie down on the padded piano bench and practice for hours, a deal had been struck with her curious older brother: one hour of his noisy practice matched against one of her NuttyOatyOat bars, to be delivered at the earliest opportunity. Many weeks of practice while Frost studied in the same room with earplugs gave him time to get the practice pieces just about as good as he ever was going to get. Of course, all good things—like a dependable supply of candy bars—come to an end when parents find out, and to be honest, it was his fault for missing several points on a test at school due to lack of his study time.

That padded bench was far more comfortable than the black Ironwood of this model, and the upright console keyboard easier to get situated against, but the thick, rich sound that emerged when he pressed the first key made it all worthwhile. He let the music carry him away for a short time, ignoring any mis-struck notes or shift-register misses with the excuse of time and an unfamiliar instrument. Perhaps it was easier now that he was an adult, or maybe the professional piano was balanced more precisely than the Chrysanthemum House heirloom. In either event, it was a welcome break from his normal intensive study schedule, and he was reluctant to stop when he ran out of his limited collection of memorized pieces, so he dug a piece of sheet music out of the bench and battled with Reinbits for a time until he inevitably lost the fight.

[Reese]

11120701
I don't really remember the details of my confusion, sorry, but thanks for the clarification!
And good luck with that plate!

[duckmagee]

Emerald is such a chad that he seduces harmony itself