The town of Hollow Shades had always been a silent one, a kind of silence I had always enjoyed. The surrounding forest had provided the town with tranquil feel that made it easy to lose track of what you were doing. In most cases this would been welcomed by me, but not today, for today I actually had a customer in my book store. While usually this would be something to be welcomed by other shop keepers, I found it hard to part with my collection of old tomes my father had collected in his travels. But, known by many local ponies, I was in desperate need of some bits. Being the only unicorn in town, except for the occasional traveler, I was the only one that could actually use and understand these tomes. There was also the fact that most ponies in this town disliked me and would often tell traveling unicorns to “Beware of the unicorn with the flame cutie mark who runs that accursed store!” A bunch of untrusting and unforgiving jerks if you ask me. I looked from the stained glass window back to customer, she seemed to like to waste my time. The customer was a large, older, lightish gray mare, a coat similar to mine, and had several wrinkles upon her face, making it hard not to stare. She levitated several of the tomes around her, trying to decide on a good one no doubt, though it seemed to me like she was showing off her levitating ability, purposely trying to make, me angry. She turned head to me, probably wondering why I was scowling at her, and smiled.
“I think I’ll take this one, if that’s all right dearie.” She said levitating a leather bound tome to the counter. Her voice was cracked and left an uneasy feeling in my ears.
I looked down at the book and sighed. This had been one of my dad’s first tomes, on the cover there was a hoof print from when he first acquired it, a story he told me often. He was walking down the streets of Canterlot when a blue mare threw it at him, yelling some crazy nonsense, and my dad course tripped over it, being the clumsy pony he was, and was knocked out for several hours….and there I stood for several moments only just now realizing I was still with a customer. I quickly looked up at her and gasped, “Oh, this one, I’m sorry, uhhhhh…” I paused again. By Celestia this was taking too long. “This tome, I believe is…..Seventy five bits.”
The mare’s mouth dropped. “Seven…..Seventy Five Bits!!!!” she gasped, “Surely you must be joking, something this old and in this condition should no more than forty bits, and that’s being generous. Almost all of the words in here are not even legible.”
I looked at her unimpressed, she obviously had no value of history or a very good knowledge of magic language. “I’m sorry, but the set price for that particular tome is seventy five bits. No more, no less.” I said, trying to keep a cool voice, this mare was beginning to get on my nerves.
“Well then, I guess I’ll take my business elsewhere.” She said in somewhat of an uptight voice. I rolled my eyes at her, making her utter something under her breath. I never heard what she said as stomped out nor do I care to find out. I was alone now, alone with my books in my old store. I looked around at my shop, there were piles of books off their shelves, the wooden floor was cracked and creaky and the stained windows were started to dull. I loved this store, so much history, it had been through so much, ever since my great grandfather when he first built this place. My upcoming daydream was quickly ended by the sound of the creaking door. In flew a light Pegasus, who quickly jumped over the counter and tackled me.
“TEMPEST!!!” I yelled, “WHAT IN CELESTIA’S GLOUROUS NAME ARE YOU DOING!!!”
He quickly jumped off me and began to bounce up and down. “You’ll never guess what.” He said in an excited voice.
Tempest was an easily impressed stallion, so he couldn't blame me if I did not share his enthusiasm. “Your right, I will never guess what.”
He looked at me disappointingly and sighed. “I guess every party needs a pooper.” He smiled and laughed.
I remained silent and rolled my eyes. He looked at me and his grin widened. I held back a smile. It was pointless. He titled his head closer to me and to my surprise his grin grew even wider, more so creeping me out, then whatever his intent was. I smiled. “Ok, what?”
“There you go! Some travelers just arrived and there’s a new uni…”
“Already met her.” I said, a little disappointed that it wasn’t any better news.
“Her?” he asked. “Guess I missed that one. NO! This was a different unicorn, he’s a stallion. He had a bunch of magic book thingies like you, I thought maybe you could show him your collection and do some trading…..If that’s what you unicorns do?”
This, I was impressed about. Another possible unicorn, who might actually have an intelligence level. I looked at Tempest, whose grin was back to where it should be, and smiled. “No that’s not what we do with tomes, but that’s not to say we can’t do an exchange in knowledge.”
He jumped up and down and started to laugh. “Awesome! That’s great!” He bounced a few more times, before gasping and widening his eyes. “Ohhh, ohhh, I should go introduce myself! I’ll bring him over here, Ok?”
“Sure, sure, go knock yourself out.” I said, trying not to sound impressed, though it was hard. Another unicorn who also had a collection of tomes, if anything this would at least be an interesting meeting. Tempest had already flown out to meet this unicorn, leaving me, once again, alone with my piles of books and tomes. I decided if I was going to be meeting a new pony I might as well tighty up a bit. I looked at the several piles tomes and sighed. I never was a fan of cleaning.
About an hour or so into into re-shelving the tomes by hoof a quiet tapping noise came from my door. Too polite to be Tempest, I figured, must have been this new unicorn in town. I quickly stumbled past the remaining piles of books and made my way to the front door. Standing outside was a tall royal blue unicorn with a short black mane and unlike most unicorns I’ve seen he was very buff. In all honesty I was quiet surprised. Behind this unicorn was a large cart overflowing with crates. I stumbled back.
“Ummm….you…..I…..” I found it difficult to find a correct way to welcome this pony. The overwhelming amount stuff in his cart completely threw me off. Did he expect to bring it inside? Would it be rude of me not to let him bring it inside? Who was this pony? I decided first impressions were important, “Welcome, it’s….it’s nice to meet you.” It was very hard me to keep eye contact with this pony as said this.
He laughed. I tilted my head confused, I started to question this ponies sanity. His saddle that he used to pull the cart fell and he tumbled to the ground laughing harder, “I’m…I’m sorry….” He managed to say between the laughs.
“Oh, that’s all right?” I said a bit confused. Well I guess a bit confused would be an understatement, though I could see why Tempest would like this unicorn.
The blue unicorn stood up and wiped a tear from his eye and sighed, “I’m sorry, but that’s the first greeting I got like that since I got here.” He leaned in closer to me, his breathe reeked of hard cider, “Not sure if you knew this, but some ponies around here are a bit uptight, if you don’t mind me saying.” He burst out laughing again. His voice had odd accent to it, something foreign, an accent I’ve never heard before.
How old was this Pony I wondered? He looked young, around my age, maybe a bit older, but the way he talked, he seemed more like an older town drunk. I could really see why Tempest liked this pony. “Ummm…..well….yeah…” I thought I was at loss of words before, but now.
“Wooo, Tempest was right, you are a bit of awkward pony, said you’re a bit of a proper pony and look at me trying to have civil manners, knocking like some fancy pony.” He started. Awkward pony? Me? Coming from Tempest? And he considered a polite knocking to be exclusive to fancy ponies? My jaw dropped. “No need to worry boy! You seem like a nice colt. I’m Light Weight, its pleasure to meet ya!” Light Wight? Nothing about this stallion made any sense. He stuck out his hoof expectantly.
I paused for a moment, not knowing he wanted, “Ummm…..Oh!” That was stupid of me. I stuck my hoof and shook his. Or rather he shook mine, that is to say he shook my entire body or at least that’s what it felt like. “Crow, it’s nice to meet you.” I said pulling back my hoof.
He laughed again, “I don’t know why but I like you Crow! Now then, if you don’t mind I’m gonna park my cart then I’ll be right in. OH! And Tempest said he would be around in a bit.” He said carefully backing up his cart.
As he left I tried to close my jaw, which I only now realized was still hanging open. Where would he park such a monstrosity in this town? Surely no one would want that in front of their house. I slowly trotted back inside and went to the counter. The leather bound tome from before was still there. I bit open the cover of the tome and looked down at the words on the open page. Despite the ignorance of the grey mare from before she was right. Most of the words were not legible. There were only a few words I could make out myself. In truth I wasn’t even sure if this was a spell book. THUD! There loud noise behind me and the light from one of windows was blocked out. I quickly ran out the door and found a large cart blocking the window. Above the cart was Tempest looking down at the other side of the cart.
“Ok, your good!” Tempest called down.
“Thanks buddy! Couldn’t have done it without you!” The happy voice Light Weight called from the other side of the cart.
Once again my jaw dropped. Tempest now turned his attention to me, “You ok Crow?” I barely managed to mouth words, what were these insane ponies doing? “I’ll take that as a yes then!” Tempest smiled, “Come on Light Weight I’ll show you around.
The two insane ponies trotted passed me into my shop. I was frozen. My shop, I thought. Those ponies. My shop…my shop….MY HOME! It hit me, slowly. I turned my head to the closed door. I heard a shattering sound come from inside. My eyes widened. I quickly galloped in to find Tempest hovering above a broken flower vase and Light Weight over by the counter eyeing the tome that I had begun to read. Tempest said something, but I didn’t hear nor did I care about the vase, something was wrong…I’m mean besides the vase. It was Light Weight, he was levitating the tome, his eyes glued to it. But there was something about the look he was giving the tome, it wasn’t shock or interest, no, it was terror. Something about it terrified him. Tempest now saw the look on Light Weight’s face and landed, avoiding the shattered vase.
“Light Weight…” I said slowly, “Are you ok?”
“Hmmm.” He said loudly, “Oh, yeah, yeah, I’m always ok.” He smiled slightly and looked at me, “Out of curiosity…” he paused, his eyes returning to the tome, “Where did you get this tome?” He asked, levitating the tome over to me. The levitation glow around book faded and it dropped to the ground. He looked at me surprised, “Sorry, I thought you had it.” He said quickly.
“Oh, oh, no problem.” I said. I was no longer concerned with a strange pony in my home and shop, but I was now concerned with what he knew about this book. I pick up the book with my mouth and placed neatly back on the floor and opened the front cover. On cover page there were three black dashes that looked as though something scratched them on. Light Weight’s eyes immediately locked onto the dashes. “My Father found it.” Light Weight now looked at me, “He always told me the story of when he found it in Canterlot.”
“A STORY!” Light Weight bursted out, his old personality seeming to have come back, ‘Lovely, would you care to share it. I love a good story.” His gaze turned from the tome to me and smiled expectantly. I shrugged, it was simply story.
“Well…” I said trying to think if I had forgotten anything, “My father was Canterlot, visiting an old friend of his, I believe they had journeyed around before the friend settled, and my father was on his way to the local inn when a green, no, blue mare screamed some gibberish at him and threw this book at him causing my dad to trip over it, which is how it got the hoof mark on the cover.” I laughed, “My father was always really clumsy, how he got all these books I’ll never know.” I could tell Light Weight was losing interest because he was once again looking at the book, “Any reason you want to know this, I could never read much of it.”
“No, no…well yes there is.” He said with slight pause, “I’ve seen a book like this before, WAIT!” He bloated out, “I’ll be right back. He galloped out the door and there was rustling sound from his cart. I looked at Tempest, who had fetched a broom to clean the vase, he smiled and shrugged and began to sweep up the shattered vase fragments. Almost as quickly as he left Light Weight was back in the room levitating a similar leather bound tome. “Ever wonder how I got my cutie mark.” He motioned to his back leg which had an open book cutie mark. I was surprised it wasn’t a bottle or keg of cider.
“Well, I guess.” I lied. In truth had not even realized his cutie mark until just now.
“Well, like your father.” He began. I hated that, almost as much as seeing other unicorns levitate things, comparing themselves to other ponies, especially my father. “I also collect old books and I knew I saw one just like this.” He said motioning to my tome.
“So?” Tempest asked, never really caring for books.
“So, this is a very old book. And I don’t mean a few decades, I mean HUNDREDS OF YEARS!” He said loudly. My jaw dropped, Tempest yawned. “Actually this book here.” He said levitating the book he brought inside, “Is part of the reason I came here.”
“Here?” I asked, “Why here?”
“Well not here, but this happened to be the closest town with a train station to Ponyville, I wanted to bring this tome to a professional who lives in the local library, to better…” Light Weight stopped.
“To better….what?” I asked, partly knowing I wouldn’t get an answer. Tempest had finished cleaning up the vase and was laying down on his back pretending to fake sleep. He never did like long conversations about stuff he didn’t know about.
“Well….that’s a bit complicated you’re gonna want to give me a moment.” Light Weight took a long pause and began to walk around the room, observing the books and other miscellaneous items. Then looked back at me and smiled, “Well, it’s or at least the rumor is that this book here and your book is part a series, I believe there is three of them in all.” He took another pause and looked up, “I found this during one of my great exploits of a changeling cave.” Changelings? In a cave? I had always thought they lived in the badlands. “They were very difficult in letting me leave with it, almost didn’t make it. Changelings are a tough creature to fight, never kno…”
“What about the book?” I asked getting impatient. Whatever this was I wanted to know, I’ve had this book for a long time and only now I was getting some answers.
“Oh…yeah.” Light Weight said in a dull tone, probably upset that I didn’t let him finish, “It’s said these were written in an code by Star Swirl the Bearded, it was his greatest achievement, but nobody knows what they do…”
“Wait, wait, hold on.” I started, this was getting a bit too complicated, “Let me get this straight, three books, three extremely old books written by one of the greatest unicorns ever, one you collected, the other my father got, is here in this room, both of which have untold power and your telling me that there is no danger in having it here, in this unguarded bookstore?”
“When did I say it wasn’t dangerous? About a week ago I was attacked by a band of changelings, but listen…” Light Weight looked out the window, “It’s getting late, so let’s finish this conversation tomorrow, if you wish to continue that is.”
“I…I suppose after breakfast we could discuss this further” I said, not entirely sure of myself. What was I getting myself in? “Do you have place to stay?”
“Oh yeah, don’t worry about it my friend, I have room at the inn.” Light Weight turned to Tempest and kicked him in his gut, “Come on Tempest, let’s go get some cider.”
Tempest was up and fully awake at promise of cider. He hoped up back to his hoofs and stretched. He looked at me and smiled, “You guys have fun? I’ll see ya tomorrow, ok?”
I nodded and he left with Light Weight who waved his hoof as he walked out the door, leaving me alone with my books. I heard Light Weight’s cart being wheeled off, the sound of creaking wheels getting further and further. I sighed and turned to tome on the ground. “Star Swirl the Breaded wrote you huh?” I whispered to myself, “Worth a lot more than seventy five bits I guess.” I closed the tome and began to make my to my room, the floor creaking as my hoofs stepped on the old wood. I stopped. Something wasn’t right. It was getting darker outside, but the candles inside should be keeping the room light. But why was the room getting so dark. I felt the air get heavier, it was getting harder to breathe. The room began to spin, the urge to sleep was getting greater. I fell to my stomach. Everything was getting darker and darker. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.
