The Elements of Virtue

by Rakoon1

The Element of Sorcery, Part I - The Hidden Library

Star had just split ways with his brother and prepared himself to go to Canterlot when he heard a bark. Turning around, he saw Timber running towards him.

“Timber?” Star asked, as his timberwolf pet arrived to him and he petted him. “What are you doing here, buddy? I thought you were with Heartbeat. She was supposed to look after you.”

But Timber just replied with a bark.

“I see…” Star said. “You run away from her… or rather she let you go. Honestly, it doesn’t matter. I could use the help of someone with a great sense of smell like you.”

“Really?” Kurama asked him in their plan. “You can use sage mode to detect anything and still you’re gonna take your pet wood dog?”

“Hey, Timber can be of great help” Star told him. “I won’t be in sage mode all the time and gathering natural energy will make me exposed.”

“Do whatever you want” Kurama said. “I’ll just take a nap. Make sure to not bother me for meaningless things.”

“You don’t have to worry about that” Star replied. “But feel free to help if you feel like it. It’s not like we’re facing a dangerous villain that just turned my mother and her friends into stone.”

But Kurama didn’t reply, with him just laying down and pretending to be sleeping. Star then just smiled and rolled his eyes, while shaking his head.

And so he teleported himself and Timber to Canterlot, where he went to meet Princess Celestia and Princess Luna at their throne room, sitting on their thrones.

“Star, it’s so good see you” Celestia said, while she and Luna flew down the thrones and landed before Star. “Ever since I heard about the return of the Pony of Shadows, we’ve been worried sick.”

“Everypony is very fearful of this new threat from the past” Luna said.

“And with good reason” Star said, petting Timber’s neck, who had sit down beside his owner. “He’s very dangerous.”

“If you’re here, then that means you already have a plan to fight him back” Celestia said. “Is it a plan of your mother?”

After hearing Celestia asking about his mother, Star got a somber look. Noticing that, Celestia asked:

“What’s the matter, Star?”

“There’s one thing you need to know” he told.

And so he proceed to tell the two alicorn princesses about what happened during the fight against the Pony of Shadows.

“I can’t believe it…” Celestia said. “Twilight and her friends… are turned in stone?”

“How can that be possible?” Luna asked.

“The Pony of Shadows was using the Elements of Chaos” Star spoke. “It caught us completely by surprise. He used the Elements of Chaos to nullify the magic of the Elements of Harmony and then… Well, you know.”

“That damned Lord of Chaos…” Luna said. “He finally managed to get Twilight Sparkle… and even her friends.”

“Not that if we have anything to say about that” Celestia said. “I believe you and the others have come to find a solution for all of this situation.”

“Yes, we might have come” Star said. “Since we can’t use the Elements of Harmony to counter the Elements of Chaos’ magic, we are looking for an equally powerful magic: the Elements of Virtue. And we believe the objects of the Pillars of the Pony World are the key for that.”

“The Pillars?” the two sisters asked at the same time.

“You mean like Star Swirl and other heroes from the past?” Celestia asked.

“Yes, I am” Star said. “My friends and I are gathering those objects. The Tree of Crisis sent us to locations that may lead us to them and I was sent here to look for Star Swirl’s book. Do you know anything about it?”

The two sisters shared a look and then Celestia said:

“I don’t know if you know this, Star, but Star Swirl was our teacher.”

“He taught us most of things we know” Luna continued. “But he also kept many secrets to himself.”

“We didn’t even get to meet the other Pillars” Celestia said. “But if there’s one thing we know that, if the tree sent you here, then maybe you need to find Star Swirl’s personal library. Maybe that’s where the book you’re looking for is.”

“Maybe that’s it” Star said. “Where can I found it?”

“We don’t know its exact location” Luna replied.

“But we do know it is located under Canterlot… somewhere in the caves beneath it” Celestia added.

“I’ve heard about them…” Star said. “But, for what I’ve heard, those tunes are like a big labyrinth.”

“Yes, but I’m certain a clever young one like you can find it” Princess Celestia said, with a smile. “If there’s one thing I know it’s there’s nothing you can’t do.”

“Yeah, I guess so…” Star said, while continuing to pet Timber.

At that moment, looking to his pet timberwolf, he had an idea.

“Wait a minute…” he said. “That’s it. Timberwolves have a great sense of smell. Maybe Timber can smell the way towards the library.”

“Hum, that may work” Celestia said. “Timberwolves do have a talent to find even the slightlest of scents.”

“It’s a good thing you got to me before I left, buddy” Star said to Timber, who let out a bark and licked his owner on the face.

“But for that to work, you’ll need something to give you the right scent to track” Luna said.

“And I know exactly what you can use” Celestia said.

Using her magic, she conjured what appeared to be…

“Is that… one of Star Swirl’s hats?” Star asked, looking to the hat that once belonged to one of his greatest heroes.

“Indeed” Celestia replied. “It’s one of the relics that was left by him. Maybe Timber can take a scent from it.”

Star took the hat with his magic, struggling to not let his admiration for Star Swirl to make him fanboying the hat, and approached it to Timber.

“Okay, buddy, just give a sniff on this hat. Memorize Star Swirl’s scent.”

The timberwolf did what his owner asked him to do and then he bark, with that meaning he did it.

“Very well, everything is ready. Let’s go to the tunnels. I need to find that library as soon as possible.”

And so, following the princesses’ instructions about where to find the entrance to the tunnels, Star started to explore them with Timber leading the search, sniffing around for any trace of Star Swirl’s scent that could lead them to his library. However he wasn’t having much luck with that. Timber looked confused at best.

“Don’t worry, buddy” Star said, approaching his timberwolf pet. “You’re looking for a scent that is centuries old. It may have already fainted, even for you. Why don’t you rest a bit. I’ll try another thing.”

Taking a deep breath, Star started to gather natural energy. While he did that, Kurama remarked:

“So, it would appear you didn’t have much luck with your little dog.”

“And I thought you were sleeping” Star said, in their plane.

“And lose this opportunity to mess with you?” Kurama replied. “It’s worth interrupting my sleep just to do that.”

Star just rolled his eyes and then told him:

“Do you mind, now? I’m trying to get in sage mode.”

After a few moments, Star got in sage mode and tried to use his enhanced senses to find the library. Focusing, he hit hard with his hoof on the floor, causing vibrations to spread through the tunnels, what would allow him to detect any secret rooms. However, he was able to detect many secret rooms and, because his use of vibrations was not that refined, he could tell which one could be Star Swirl’s library.

“Damn…” he said. “Now how will I find the library?”

While Star tried to find another way, Timber, while preparing to lie down, suddenly caught up a slight scent, coming to him through the air current that was passing. He recognized it as the same Star made him sniff from the strange hat, the one he wanted to find. Wanting to satisfy his owner’s wishes, he tried to sense where the scent was coming from. As soon he found out, he barked to Star. With him turning to the timberwolf, Star asked:

“What is it, boy? Did you find something?”

Timber barked again and Star took that as an affirmative answer. The timberwolf started to move way, following the scent he was feeling, with Star flapping his wings after him. After a while, Timber stopped beside a certain wall and started to scratched. When he did that, Star realized that should be what he was looking for. Smiling, he approached Timber and calmed him down, by petting his head, saying:

“Good job, buddy. But I think I can handle this now.”

The young alicorn prince started looking around, trying to find something that could open that wall, but there was nothing that would open it. At that moment, Star realized that he was trying to get to Star Swirl’s library. That meant that the old conjurer must have protected his library with magic and not with mechanical defenses.

Using the rest of the natural energy he still had, he analyzed that wall and noticed the magic around it. For what he could see, Star just needed to use his magic on a specific point of the barrier, one tiny spot at the barrier’s weakest point. It was difficult to perceive that point, as it appeared the barrier was very uniform, but, eventually, he found a weakness and pressed his magic there.

Once he did that, the bricks on the wall just move aside, revealing a passageway. Star started walking through it, with Timber following him. The passageway went down, with torches getting lit up as they passed by, for a while until it ended with a tall door that Dusk opened. It was then that he came to contemplate Star Swirl’s library, much to his amazement.

It was a two-level room excavated inside the mountain where Canterlot was, with stalactites hanging on the ceiling and with the walls built to accommodate shelves filled with books, parchments, jars with diverse contents, between other things. A little ahead of the entrance there was stairs that lead to the lower level that was the main part of the room, having also some shelves with books, some entrances to other divisions, a desk at the middle and a big fireplace at the furthest part that was lit up as soon Star and Timber got in.

“Oh… my… gosh…” Star said, excited. “I can’t believe I’m really in Star Swirl’s library!”

He went to some of the shelves at the top level and started examining the books there.

“So many books… all unread for centuries!” he exclaimed. “Ancient historical artifacts! No way! Star Swirl has Canterlot Cantabiles Volume Thirty-One? It’s the best one! And there’s also an original Windigo Weather Warning from the pre-Equestrian era! Can you believe this, Timber?”

He turned to his timberwolf, hoping to see him sharing the same excitement as him, but he just went to near the fireplace and lied down to take a nap.

“Well, I guess I can expect a timberwolf to be as excited as me with books” Star said. “But my mom would for certain freak out even more if she was here…”

The moment he said that, Star remember the reason why he was there and all the excitement just faded away. He needed to find any clue that could lead him to Star Swirl’s book. He didn’t know if the book was there or not, but he couldn’t just fanboying around. He proceeded to place the book he was seeing on the shelf when he noticed something on a nearby shelf: a framed portrait. Approaching it, he proceeded to observe it.

It was Star Swirl, a bit younger than the time he sealed the Pony of Shadows, and he was accompanied by a young colt wearing a hood, one colt that Dusk quickly recognized because he spent weeks with him.

“Wait… But that’s… Clover. How does he know…? No… Could he possibly be… Clover the Clever?”

“Now that’s a twist” Kurama commented. “Who knew that little stinky pipsqueak would become a famous sorcerer? Much less be known as Clever... It’s a good thing I just interrupted my sleep to peek on your quest, otherwise I wouldn’t believe in this.”

“It really is just so unbelievable…” Star said, picking the portrait and then flying towards the desk. “Clover heard me talk about how much I admired Star Swirl and his work. Why didn’t he ever talked about being his apprentice?”

“Judging the way you admire the guy, you’d probably bomb him with questions and start asking about all the things Star Swirl taught him” Kurama said, with a certain teasing in the mix.

“I would never do that!” Star replied, making an offensive reaction. “Okay… maybe I would… But I just wanted he would just tell me about it. I, Dusk and all the others… we were together for so long, fighting Skullivar and his skeletons… I guess it must have been hard for him.”

Star looked to the portrait for a few more moments and then placed it on the table, looking then to a book that was there. Feeling a certain curiosity towards it, he took it and opened it, noticing then something written on the pastedown.

“Property of Merlin…” Star read. “Wait, Merlin is the name of the colt that was with Star Swirl… his apprentice at the time of the Pony of Shadows. This must be his journal… Maybe there’s here some clues about Star Swirl’s book.”

With that thought in mind, Star started to search any hint of an entrance that could have been written soon after the Pony of Shadows was defeated…