Jeeves, an unimportant servant pony, was idly smoking in the catacombs below the crystal palace. Obviously, he was meant to be cleaning, but smoking was far superior in terms of entertainment. Then, he heard steps from the entrance to the underground chamber and Jeeves sprang into action. At least, as much action as cleaning was. As he dusted and swept the musty floor, he came to wall. Ordinarily this wasn't a problem for him, but when he saw the broom he was using go through the wall, it quickly became one. After a few short moments of internal debate, Jeeves stuck his head through the wall. Instead of a minor concussion, he found himself looking at a large, Crystal door. A lock and chains made of black magic secured it, rendering it locked and unopenable to lowly Jeeves. Instead of resuming his paltry duties, he rushed up the steps and into the crystal halls, flailing and hollering like a madpony.
About an hour later, when Jeeves had managed to convince the guards hauling him to the asylum that he was not mad, a pair of Guards and Princess Cadence herself stood before the discovered locked door. Cadence had been fiddling with the lock for about ten minutes, ten agonizing minutes. Opening a magic lock that the caster didn't want opened was something akin to trying to solve ten rubix cubes in under a minute. Another ten minutes flew by as Cadence fussed with the magic security system. On the twentieth try, the lock sprung open and its associated chains vanished into thin air.
"Yes!" Cadence cried as she reveled in her success. She then hurriedly pushed open the door and rushed beyond the frame. The room the door led to was decidedly not worth the anticipation.
It was little more than a broom closet containing a large crate. the only significant improvement was an impressive spiderweb in the corner. Lovely as it was, Cadence was only interested in the crate. it was wooden, medium sized, and smelled oddly of whiskey. She pried open the lid and was met with a collection of books, which all had the same black leather color. On each was an undecipherable, to Cadence at least, title written in red runes. Upon opening them, each revealed page after page of the same kind of runed writing.
"Odd... Who would put all this effort in hiding a bunch of books?" She asked herself. "Guards!" the identical guards sprang to attention. "Take this to the archives, please." The guards saluted and hauled the crate to the specified location. Once Cadence had arrived as well, she thought of who might be able to decipher the books. "I got it! Twilight!" She cheered as she conjured a pen and parchment. A minute later, an elegantly written summons was sent o the address of the illustrious alicorn. "Now, we wait." Cadence said as she went off to do whatever it was she did all day, presumably princess things.
Twilight arrived at the Crystal Palace not a day later. She happily trotted through the halls to the castle archives, eager to enrich her mind with newfound knowledge. No pony would lock away books without them being good, right? Her mind buzzed with conjecture on what the volumes might contain. She was so lost in her fantasy that she rammed her muzzle straight into the door of the library.
"Ow!" she understandably exclaimed. She then pulled open the door and trotted into the book filled room. Near the front of it all, A crate sat in the open. "This must be it." she concluded. She took the first book off of the stack inside and examined the cover.
It felt... strange in her grasp. Almost like it was sentient and was trying to wriggle its way out of her magic field and crawl back into its dark, peaceful crate with its many brothers and sisters. Pressing on, she read the runes on the cover. She recognized the language to be that of the frost trolls, a barbaric race that went extinct a few years before the empire was founded. This revelation sent Twilight into a Glee filled trance. Perhaps this was their history, maybe their magical secrets, or even better, how they organized their literature! Yes, the possibilities were endless and boundless in Twilight's mind. She would need a translation guide, however, as she wasn't entirely familiar withe the frost troll language. At the very least, she recognized the language. It was this time that Cadence returned to the archives.
"Twilight!" She cheered as she rushed over to give her sister in law a hug.
"Cadence!" Twilight returned the embrace.
"I came as soon as I got your summons. these are the books, correct?" She gestured towards the crate of Tomes.
"Yep, you can read them, can't you?"
Twilight put a hoof to her chin. "Off the top of my head? No. I'll have to spend some time with them and a book with translations. These books are written in frost troll, by the way." She stated almost smugly.
Cadence rolled her eyes but kept smiling. "I knew you could do it.... sorta" she said. "I'll have the guards prepare you a room. but for now, why don't you catch up with your brother? He's down in the barracks."
Twilight needed no further encouragement as she dashed down the hall, eager to speak to her brother. Cadence moved to follow, but took one last look at the crate. It was then that she found the whole situation somewhat sinister. A locked door, unreadable black books, in the basement of a place where an evil king ruled? yes, very sinister indeed. But it was only a passing thought. Cadence turned back to the hall and pursued Twilight, eager to witness the reunion of her husband ans sister in law.
Author's Note
My first crack at story writing. It came to me that this site apparently has a use other than finding RP partners. criticism is welcome and encouraged. But I only have one box of tissues nearby, so please be semi-gentle.
