The Timeless Historian

Anxiety filled Twilight as she made her way down the stairs. Her thoughts couldn’t help but pray it wasn’t another suitor out for selfish glory and honor. Much to her surprise instead of finding another blueblood she found her guest toiling over an extensive reading list that included many advanced texts. His deep enthrallment with them occupied him so thoroughly he didn’t notice her approach. The whole image left faint traces of déjà vu. Twilight could only imagine this was the same image her friends saw when they visited unexpectedly.

The sound of pages turning filled the air drowning out her approach; finally realizing standing there and gaping wasn’t going to make him notice her she took a gander reaching for something to talk about. “I see you’ve got the tome on Advanced Alicorn Theory, is there anything I could help you with? Oh by the way my name is Twilight Sparkle and I’m the librarian here.” His verdant eyes turned quickly to look her over and like a critic he seemed to be studying her. Twilight couldn’t explain but with those eyes he seemed to be peering right at her soul.

Breaking the ice a moment later he responded, “I am pleased to meet you Miss Sparkle. You may call me Random. However there is nothing I am seeking at the moment. I really came just to meet you and to check on the state of my library. You must be commended for your diligent up keeping because I had been worried that it may have fallen into disrepair. But I see now that was all for naught.”

There was something to his statement she couldn’t grasp. His library…His library?! That phrase seemed to fatigue Twilight’s thoughts with the implications. “Excuse me, your telling me that you own this library? The library has been around since the early days of Ponyville and I’ve always assumed this was a public facility. Please explain how you can be the owner when Mayor Mare didn’t even have records showing the book shipments.”

Random chuckled placing the book down on the pile, “I had business outside of Ponyville so I left a message with the office. It wouldn’t do having the library closed simply because of me.”

“That’s certainly true but it still doesn’t explain how you’re the owner and why you left this place to travel the world.”

“The library has always been open to the public on the main floors. Knowledge is always meant to be shared or we’d all have rocks for brains.”

Realizing he wasn’t going to delve further into the matter she moved on, “I try to encourage learning when I can, but I don’t see many visitors other than my friends these days and even they seemed to have dwindled.”

“I’ve heard you’ve seen extra attention. Your dragon thought I was a suitor here for your hand. May I inquire to why they would have such an interest in you?”

Twilight was shocked, did he really not know who she now was, had he not noticed the wings at her side. Giving her wings a small flap; she braced herself for whatever his reaction may be. What actually resulted was not what she expected.

Interest piqued in Random’s face at the sight of her wings, “Well, well, I see now why there has been such interest and tension in the air. Really this is a surprise.”

“I’ve been a princess for only a few weeks but once the news hit the papers the hounding began with every noble family who has an extra son, daughter, cousin, aunt, uncle or other family member with status coming here to beg my hand in marriage. Even my parents have been getting bombarded with gifts and requests.”

His expression soured at her desperate plea for contact and he wiped away a forming tear from her cheek, “Hold on Twilight, everything will get better. I purchased some cake on my way here. Would you like some? Cake has secret wellness agents that even books can’t describe properly.”

Twilight smiled weakly but nodded in consent. The cake was the best medicine for the overwhelming melancholy she had been feeling. Perhaps they could be friends even with the strange differences between them.

However a question bubbled to the surface and escaped her cake filled mouth before she could contain it, “Why are you so cool about all of this. Everything so far has been, ‘We are not worthy’ and averting their gaze. It’s so tiring to be watched by concealed eyes.”

“Your ascension to Alicorn status is interesting and your alignment with the elements of harmony isn’t something I would expect to see in this lifetime. However it seems to me these have bogged you down with new duties and you need a break from the royal treatment. Everyone just isn’t used to you yet. Until they realize you aren’t going anywhere they’re going to be overwhelming you with the attention.”

"It's funny; Luna told me the same thing. That’s why I came back to Ponyville."

"She gave you some solid advice." Random looked over to his bags, "well I better get settled in."

"Wait, you're staying here? But there only one room, where will you stay."

Random’s smile took on a mischievous look, “Twilight in all your time here you haven’t figured out where all the rooms are?”

“The only rooms I know about are the main floor, the bedroom and the basement. What are you talking about?”

Picking up his bags the unicorn approached the base of the stairs, “Ahh here it is.”

“But there’s nothing there. In fact when I moved in the only space over here was a storage room filled with junk.”

The grin grew with her disbelief finally peaking when his hoof tapped the wall in several spots producing an echo and with it a door arch lined the wall. The arch bulged out from the wall creating a magnificent border lined with drawings of flowers and butterflies. Following suit a door pressed its way out of the woodwork completing its journey with a well-placed knob for turning.

“But how? And is this really safe?” her mouth shut with further disbelief.

“This door doesn’t open outward but it doesn’t really open inward either.” He chuckled. “Haven’t you ever seen a sliding door before Twilight?”

Blush suffused her cheeks with embarrassment at the offhanded remark, “I have before but I just didn’t-what’s so funny?” Random looks about ready to explode with laughter.

“It’s nothing really. You’re sort of cute when you blush, Princess.”

Grasping for straws she blurts out the first thing to come to her, “So what’s down there?”

“My room, it just needed to be opened. I can’t imagine all the dust it’s collected from disuse.”

The stairs were narrow and dust coated the walls. Twilight had known the library was old but its origins hadn’t been cataloged or she would have known by now. It twisted and turned with no regularity but still they moved downwards in the dark the only illumination was a green-yellow light that emanated from the unicorn’s head. Something sticky caught on her flank and she shied away from the wall keeping behind Random.

In what had felt like forever the stairs finally finished their descent by spilling out into a small passageway ended by another oaken door of glorious detail. The difference in this door was that it displayed equine glyphs of another age. Her mouth suddenly became dry and dusty as Twilight realized she had been practically salivating at them. Random paid her no mind as he hoofed the door open.

The alicorn was practically reeling at the secrets hidden in the place she called home. The books had always auto-rotated themselves and she was nearly finished organizing a complete card catalog but she had just chalked it up to old spells. Now things were beginning to become clear or rather less clear.

Stepping inside the door, it slammed shut throwing up dust obscuring the area from view. On top of that was the smell of damp earth that permeated the room. She hadn’t realized it but the reason it was so obscured was the light had died when they stepped inside. When the magic light came to life again she could now see an empty chamber bare of decorations of any kind.

“How can you expect to stay down here? Are you sure you wouldn’t rather stay at an inn?”

“Don’t be preposterous, Twilight. All it needs is a good cleaning.” Before Twilight could even open her mouth to respond Random reached into a flank side pouch pulling out a feather duster. The lacquered handle was worn from use and the mottled plumage was crusted with dust. The only reason she noted it was that was all she could see for a giant cloud of dust obscured the distance between them as he worked. Once the duster stopped its whimsical dance the cloud also subsided. Now the room was lit appropriately and more light came from a bedside lamp. The room was lined with shelves housing obscure titles of books including ones she had never heard of before. Among these were titles like “A Comprehensive Guide to Zebra Culture”, “Griffin Migratory Patterns”, and “How to be sure you’re not a changeling.”

“What’s with these books and why would someone think they’re a changeling?” bemoaned Twilight with wonder.

“To simply put it, superstitions. Most of these books were lost when the times changed and more often than not they wanted to forget that they even feared these things.”

Looking across the room she noted trinkets and treasures obviously collected over many years. His looks did not betray Random’s age and his speaking manner was gentler than the royal Canterlot voice so she could only elude he was younger than Luna and Celestia. However after seeing an accumulation of portraits on a shelf near the bed she wasn’t so sure. The first portrait was a full face of an Ivory coated pony sporting large braces. Her pink mane covered one magenta eye. Another was a dark cobalt pony hiding part of her acne ridden face behind a portion of navy mane. Following these two hilarious spectacles was a unicorn sporting a grand mustache, a griffon with a large frizzed afro and finally at the end was an insect-like creature wearing a braided mane and a giant pink bow. Twilight recognized it as a changeling child, “Who are all these people?”

Her visitor had made himself comfortable on a divan against the far wall while she had been gaping, “Colleagues, students and the last one was a pretty someling I dated for a time. First meeting was quite disastrous, tried to kill me. In the end we played tryst for a while.”

The last portrait that really stood out to Twilight was a gray Unicorn-if she could call it that-with a tree branch for a horn. The flower at the end of it was a giant white magnolia. Her blue eyes glimmered happily matching her smile. This portrait was different than the rest it had more life to it which piqued her all the more, “And who is this? I’ve never seen a pony quite like this.”

“Ahh her, an odd bunch they are. Some regard Discord as a god because he brought chocolate milk, but alas, that’s a story for another time.” To Twilight his expression said he didn’t want to talk about it.

A few other objects were scattered around the room haphazardly such as a chemistry set, a liquor cabinet and a spiral staircase that seemed to come out of nowhere. Somehow she got the feeling that it had inserted itself in a spot while she had been perusing his belongings.

“Well, thanks for the tour, if you want me I’ll be upstairs working on my studies.” her smile was weak but then again there was still much to learn so no matter how interesting Random was she couldn’t dawdle and linger.

Immediately his ears perked up, “What are you studying if I may inquire?”

“Ley lines in conjunction with Energy Relations but it’s been so difficult I haven’t made any progress.” Twilight wasn't kidding, she had been on the topic for quite some time, but the concept was very confusing. Not even Celestia could offer much help on the subject.

“Leylines, hmm. Section C. I might actually have materials downstairs that could benefit your studies.”

“You do?!” Twilight practically sparkled with glee.

“As far as I can see that you’re learned and if the princesses trust you with such material than I should be able to as well. Unlike their last failure you’ve actually proved yourself with at least some form of competency.”

That statement stung Twilight hard but still lent credence that this mysterious stallion was well bred with a good head on his shoulders.

“Well Twilight, are you going to stand there lost in your thoughts all day?” chided Random.

Noticing Random was already to the stairs she took another look at him as she approached. His cutie mark suddenly struck her as unusual. The meaning of his talents wasn’t clear if the sign of question mark was true. There were so many questions brimming from within her that there was no way to answer them all in such short time.

Following behind this time with the light at their back she noticed small green stones emitting neon light from the walls as soon as they were too far to benefit from the previous light source. The way felt like it went on forever until they stepped off the stairs into a place rushing with cold wind. She thought it was a cavern larger than any known in ponyville.

“Hmm…” a familiar voice hummed in front of her.

Realizing that he wasn’t going to light the room she shot a burst of white light from her horn. The shape was a luminescent orb emitting pure light. A small ethereal tether linked her horn to the orb. Shooting across the distance the light focused on Random who was holding a black crumbling stone that practically evaporated in the air.

“What are you doing?”

“Replacing a light that no longer lights, I’m surprised that it burned out so soon. The only thing I could think that would wink it out was the casting of a cataclysmically large spell.”

Focusing further the light revealed a small panel in the wall with obvious blackening from where the device had failed. It was then that the light refracted into many colors as soon as a rough cut diamond shaped gem was pulled from Random’s bag. It was beautiful if not blinding. Quickly using his magic he inserted it into the panel bringing the lights up. The brown panel closed up with the barest audible clunk but Twilight didn’t notice because all she could see was the cases full of books. Not even the Canterlot tower held so many books. The air shimmered with light particles that illuminated the room in golden halos. No lamps were anywhere in the room because the air was the light.

All in all the effect was mesmerizing. “Sorry the lights should have come up when we cleared the threshold.”

The room was circular with a circular grate in the middle and beneath that was pure light shining up to the ceiling. The shelves that lined the room must have been at least 3 stories tall with a sitting room cut into the third story of shelves. Another horsehead table sat in the middle of this clearing and comfortable high back chairs were surrounding it. In addition to all the shelves were branched off sections containing just as many books as the central room.

“What? How? Has this always been here?” the sheer number of books was dumbfounding.

“Depends on your definition of always; now you were looking for some reference material, I believe. Follow me and we'll find something closer to your subject over here.” Leading forth into a section labelled for the topic it accompanied. Getting lost among the books was something Twilight didn’t fancy but every binding seemed just as interesting as the last so following became increasingly difficult.

Random stopped before a ladder in the research section. Reaching up both hooves on the prongs he bid Twilight to wait, “It won’t take long, feel free to look while I’m gone.”

Her eyes watched for a moment while he scaled the ladder one hoof at a time. Once his shaggy tail was all she could see, that was when she turned to face the books. It was all so many and it explained the perpetual moving books. Occasionally she’d find a new book on its shelves and no answer to how it got there. Eventually she’d just accepted it as a donation.

It was at that moment she heard a loud, “Wooohhoooaaa!” as a figure came gallivanting down the ladder with several tomes hovering over his head. Shying away from the ladder all Twilight could do was watch as he sailed down the ladder at great speeds. She was sure he was going to die until he stopped 2 inches off the ground as he bounced of a bubble of green, “Excuse me, sorry about that.”

His demeanor had returned to normal and he had the books. She eagerly pranced as he pulled them across view and presented the tomes in another spray of magic, “Here you go my dear. Enjoy.”

“Feel free to go on ahead. I need to check something down here first.”

“Mind if I follow? I’m curious to see more of this place.” She twittered excitedly.

“I do not mind just follow closely.”

Taking the tomes from Random she did as he bid and followed close behind as he breached a section and descended down a set of half stairs into a room she had not previously noticed. The walls were the same brown as the tree with the rings of ages striping their path.

The smell of smoke permeated the air as they found themselves in another room. This one was full of outdated lab equipment and more books ofcourse. From what Twilight could see there was several chambers set up on tables containing oddly colored materials. They looked fragmented like they were only one piece of a whole.

“What are you looking for? All I see here is a lab full of outdated materials.”

“Same thing we saw upstairs.” his hoof pushed open the largest of the chambers releasing gray smoke from the chamber. Once it was all gone they could see there was no gem in the chamber.

“Damaged beyond repair I see. Something hit them hard and shattered the lacrima.”

“What is it they do exactly? And can't you replace them like with the lights?” Twilight asked tilting her head.

Random looking very serious shook his head, “Unfortunately no, lacrima of this calibur are really hard to cultivate and can't exactly be reproduced without the proper season.” Continuing to dig through the ashes, he no longer shows any delicacy with the remains of the gems. Crushing the remains of the bad stones he continued to sift through the ashes until his face brightened considerably when he produced a blue diamond like gem out the wreckage. “One survived the ordeal. I can study this and find out what exactly happened.” The glee was evident and his eyes practically glowed.

His magic touched the gem gentlyand it glowed weakly and faltered until it eventually regained a full glow.

“I see I see.” turning to face Twilight he didnt seem phased by the report he had received.

“Twilight where did you ascend to alicorn status?” his voice sounded more somber than before leading to her face flushing in embarassment.

“Upstairs in the lobby, why?”

He proceeds to quickly face-hoof. “That would explain it. The library's automated systems siphon off any surplus magic in the area, its usually unnoticable since its designed to only use that magic thats normally wasted when magic is in use. It keeps the system running perpetually so it doesn't need any maintaince from the outside. However, it tried to tap into the surplus power from your awakening and based on the damage, it tried to pull a bit too much and overloaded.”

“So, I broke it?” Twilight was feeling a bit ashamed that she broke such a marvelous piece of spellcrafting and didn't even know it happened.

“Looks that way. The one plus side of this is that if the system hadn't acted as a buffer, the damage would've likely gone elseware and based on how scorched the system is, it wouldn't have been pretty.”

“So what're you going to do now?”

“Well it wont be gathering magic for a while, so I'll have to feed it from time to time to keep the basic enchantments running. I mean we don't want timberwolves and all sorts of creatures from everfree wandering into town.” Closing the case he does one last look over the lab. “Well, shall we go back now?”

“Um sure, what was that about keeping timberwolves out, it does that?”

“If you've never seen a timberwolf anywhere except on the outskirts of town then it's been doing its job. I'm just glad I came back before it exhasted itself completely”

As they made they way back, Twilight couldn't help but ponder over how she was hoping this would be a normal, quiet day. Now she's glad she was wrong, so much was happening right in front of her. She especially wanted to know more about this stranger and the treasure trove of knowledge he kept hidden. She was continuing to ponder over the possiblities when they found themselves back at the top of the stairs. She must've been deeper in thought than she knew.

Her new housemate stretched out, appearently sore after all the stairs. “Well I'm glad that's taken care of, I'll get it fixed eventually, it's just gonna take time. Lets see, whats next on my list before settling in for the night, we still have a few hours of daylight left and i'd like to see if theres a good tailor in town.”

Twilight brightened up at the prospect of being able to help out. “I can show you around town and my friend Rarity should be able to help. She runs Carousel boutique and if anyone is able to help you with that, she can.”

“Well we best get started, we still have some time left before it gets dark.” He makes his way over to the door, Twilight following behind him.

As they make their way up the stairs, the sound of claws scrabbling down the other stairs can be heard; and as they come to the lobby, they're greeted by an out of breath Spike.

She tries to calm down the panicked dragon. “Whats got you so worked up Spike, we were just about to head out. Random needs someone to show him around town.”

Spike, after taking a few short breaths, says whats bothering him. “I was upstairs cleaning, and I looked out the window and guess what? He followed us from Canterlot. Prince Blueblood's just outside the front door.”