Sweet Destruction

The Grand Library in Canterlot was an enormous collection, with hundreds of thousands of works, that filled a building nearly as large as the palace. Twilight had worked as an intern librarian a few years ago, so she was familiar with the shelving system, although she felt that she had improved upon it in her work at the Ponyville library. She walked resolutely down the aisles, navigating her way to the Biology section, where she would begin her search. Spike followed her, looking up at the tall booksehlves on both sides. Neither of them had been to the Canterlot library in a long time, and visiting it again made Spike remember all of the time they had spent there when Twilight was going through school.

"Here we are!" whispered Twilight. A sign at the end of the shelf read "Biology". "If there's a book about sugar, it's going to be here," she said, beginning to scan the rows of book titles.

"Or in the cookbook section," Spike offered. Twilight, engrossed in her search, didn't answer. After staring at an entire shelf of books on shrub taxonomy, Spike grew restless and decided to walk around the library for a little while. "I'm just going to stretch my legs," he said. Twilight nodded, and Spike wandered up and down the aisles. Most of the books looked academic and dry, but when he reached the Dragon section he found a tall red book and began flipping through it, looking at the pictures.

"I hate the thought," whispered a timid voice. Spike looked up. There was nobody there.

"We're just following instructions. Now stop talking. It will only draw attention." The second voice spoke in a low, harsh tone. Spike pressed his ear against the bookshelf and heard the sound of shuffling and heavy breathing. Two ponies were on the other side of the bookshelf. Librarians, it sounded like. What were they doing? He tiptoed to the end of the aisle and peered around to the other side of the shelf. A young grey unicorn with a parchment and quill pen cutie mark stood in the middle of a ladder. At the bottom was an elderly green earth pony with a raven cutie mark. The unicorn pulled books from the shelf and passed them down to the earth pony, who placed them onto a rolling book cart. Several shelves had already been cleared, and as Spike watched, they cleared one more shelf before the unicorn climbed down the ladder and both ponies walked away with the cart.

As they rounded the corner and left Spike's view, he walked up to the shelves that they had been clearing. Most of them were too high for him to see, but he noticed the papery residue of a sticker that had been torn off, which would have had the name of the subsection written on it. Dragons were on the other side of the shelf, so maybe these books were about dragons as well.

"Spike! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Twilight came around the corner and bounded to her assistant.

"Twilight," Spike whispered, "Two ponies--librarians, I think--were taking away all of these books."

"That's strange," Twilight said. "I guess they must be reshelving. They have changed a few things since we were here last."

"One of them said something about not drawing attention to themselves. I think they didn't want anyone to know what they were doing."

"Well, anyone who looks on this aisle can see that they've taken the books away. What section is this, anyway? Sentient species, I think."

"That's right," Spike said, holding up the dragon book he still held in his claw. "Dragons are on the other shelf. What were the books they were taking away, then?"

"I don't remember," said Twilight, squinting at the torn labels on each abandoned shelf. "I never spent much time in this section. I guess we could ask a librarian."

Spike shook his head. "But if the librarians are secretly removing the books, they're not going to tell you anything about them. That's the whole point!"

Twilight shook her head. "Oh, Spike. There's probably a reasonable explanation. Maybe the librarians you saw were just trying to keep the library quiet and not make a big noise while they reshelved the books. Maybe they weren't even librarians. Let's go ask someone." She began walking down the aisle, Spike running behind her.

"Can I help you?" They turned around. The elderly librarian stood at the end of the aisle that she had left through with the unicorn. Twilight stepped forward and smiled, but the earth pony's face remained stoic.

"Yes, thank you," Twilight said. "I was wondering what section this is."

The librarian's expression did not change. "Sentient species."

"I know; I meant the shelves that had been emptied. Are you reshelving those?"

"Yes, reshelving," said the librarian.

"What subject is that?" Twilight asked.

"Sentient species," the librarian said, becoming visibly annoyed. "Do you need help looking for anything?"

"Where will the books be reshelved? Are you moving the whole sentient species section?" Twilight asked. Spike looked down and rolled his eyes. As usual, he was right. They weren't getting any help from this obvious conspirator.

"The books will be reshelved in a different area of the library. If you need any assistance, please let me or one of my coworkers know." The pony turned and walked away slowly.

Twilight turned to Spike. "That was strange," she said, her eyes narrowed. "I think you're right, Spike. Something is up."

"I told you," he said. "What are we going to do now?"

"We're going to write to the Princess, of course," she said. "Let's go find something to eat, and then I'll let you take a letter."