Be careful what secrets you keep, because I can guarantee that any given person in any given place, knows at least one.
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Twilight was visiting Canterlot, and had planned a day at the royal library. She was currently in the section labeled "Mythology". Twilight enjoyed reading just about anything, and lately she'd wanted to know more about ancient cultures. The book she was reading had the title of "Myths and Stories from Forgotten Times", and the purple princess was nearing the halfway point of the old tome.
"What's next?" Twilight asked out loud as she turned the last page of a tale.
What she saw next was completely illogical, but then again, everything in this book was.
The Golden Books
Long before the Celestial Sisters ruled, during the age of chaos, an ancient and forgotten unicorn found an untitled book made of solid gold, sealed shut with pages that had melted to together, and magical runes carved in the cover.. He picked it up and brought it with him back to the village, for others to decide what to do. Some wanted to sell it, others wanted to read it, and everyone else wanted to put back where it came from. But while all the other ponies argued, the nameless unicorn tried harder and harder to open it until he deciphered the runes on the cover.
"Show me where the secrets lie." He said while channeling magic through his horn.
No one knows what happened to him afterwards, but he was never the same. He invented many new spells, and machines, but was soon killed for fear of some kind of disease. For you see, he never slept, ate, talked, walked, and he screamed in pain when he saw sunlight. So let this serve as a lesson for those who would seek this out, because while it may grant knowledge, it may also turn you into something less than alive.
"Wouldn't that be an interesting experience." Twilight said as she looked at the sundial in the center of the building, "Almost time to for dinner, I should check this out before I go."
The lavender alicorn stood up, took one step, and promptly tripped. She fell into the bookcase next to her, and knocked off all the books sitting on top of it. She stood up again, rubbed her horn, and froze when she opened her eyes. Sitting there, right in front of her hooves, was an untitled book made of solid gold, sealed shut by melted pages, and magical runes on the cover. Her first idea was to ignore it like the story had said, but then she realized all the good it could do for pony kind if she learned of even one new invention. That, and she was the princess of magic, what could a book possibly do to her?
"Show me where the secrets lie." She commanded.
The cover shot open, and there were small scratching noises, like someone writing with a quill.
Who has awakened me?
The message was written in perfect calligraphy with ink as black as the shadows.
"I am princess Twilight Sparkle."
I must apologize, but I cannot understand voices through these pages. If you could pick up a quill and write back, it would be greatly appreciated.
"Okay?" Twilight was confused, amazed, and intrigued all at once. She gathered her quill and ink, and wrote back.
I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, and I must say that you are very polite.
You learn to be polite when your only means of communication is a talking book. What would you like to know your highness?
What are you?
I am the Shadow Collector.
What do you do?
Exactly what my name implies. I collect the things people hide in shadows. The secrets that they don't want others to know, and the desires that they wish others would exploit. I am the fountain of all knowledge, good, bad, taboo, and forgotten.
You must be joking, nopony can know every secret. That's why they're called secrets.
I must beg to differ your highness. For example, I know several things about your magical "experiments" that you wouldn't like to see the light of day..
"Like what?" Twilight wrote back.
The time you sacrificed a frog to see if you could retain its life force somehow, I doubt Fluttershy would be happy to learn about that.
"How did you learn about that?" She said with a mixture of outrage and fear.
I can see all that the light doesn't protect. Now if you manage to find anything truly secret, I might let you learn something from my pages. Go eat dinner Twilight Sparkle, element of magic. You're already ten minutes late.
With that the book slammed shut, the pages sealed, and Twilight sat still, shocked at what she found. After about a minute she used her magic to set the bookshelf right, and set all the books in place.She figured that, since she was royalty now no one would say anything about her walking out of the royal library with an expensive looking book. It was her property too now, right? She stuffed the ridiculously heavy thing in her saddle bag and marvel at its weight. Sure it was solid gold but it was as if she could feel the added weight of the ink inside the book sloshing around. She finally made to the banquet hall, and the princesses had waited for her politely. In the spare time they had moved the room-spanning dinner table and replaced it with a simple wooden round table with enough space for eight chairs. Dinner began silently but within a minute Luna asked a question.
"What took thou so long? We were about to think you weren't coming." The dark blue princess said around her salad.
"Yes, I was starting to worry you liked the library wore than us Twilight." Teased the solar alicorn.
"Well, I found the strangest book I have ever seen."
Author's Note
This has been way too long in the making, and its nice to finally see it out there, hope you enjoy the next chapters when I get around to them. Sorry for the writing quality, like I said, this has been way too long in the making.
