*Clop* *Clop* *Clop*

No.

*Thud*

From a pile of them, another book was shrouded in gold, quickly joining the pacing Daybreak. His magic connected his horn to it, flowing between the two as the pages danced.

They stopped.

No.

*Thud*

Another step, another book.

*Clop* *Clop* *Clop*

He sighed. No.

*Clop* *Clop*...*Clop*

NO!

Another book found a rapidly growing pile as Daybreak expelled an angry breath. He looked around the sheer numbers of books. Rows and rows of them, from an age before digital formats and search engines. He sighed, longing for his old library.

It'd been some time since he'd seen it...

In a wide room, Daybreak stood alone, save for the various objects he'd surrounded himself with. Above him, a crystal about the size of a foreleg was suspended from the ceiling, its surface perfectly reflecting everything in the room. Across the room, a screen was indented into the wall, writing visible on its surface. Much of it, to most, was gibberish, but as the last of the writing suddenly appeared, even most might feel a twinge of concern.

Subject number one primed for animation.

Daybreak stood before a white table, upon which was a curious thing. A metal dragon, its scales a deep grey. It was lacking almost all features. Even its eyes were hollowed out, completing an appearance that would be rather intimidating.

Would be, were the thing not one third Daybreak's size.

“Beginning animation spell.” Beginning animation spell.

His horn flared into life, magic travelling from it like smoke, wrapping around Subject Number One, seeping into it.

*click, clack*

Daybreak grinned, it was working! The dragon's claws scraped the table beneath, as its head moved around. Perhaps it would have opened its mouth, if it had one. It stood, first on all fours, then slowly it forced itself up to its hind legs, a claw reaching out for Daybreak-*Ding dong*

Daybreak's aura vanished, his subject falling down, as he reminded himself for the Nth time to replace that blasted bell. “Okay, I know I put up the 'closed' sign.” Okay, I know I put up the 'closed' sign. “Wait, no, don't record-no-stop-” His horn flashed. “Turn off!” The screen complied, as Daybreak turned to the ceiling. “You too!” The surface of the crystal became blank.

*Ding dong*

His horn flashed into life again, his voice echoing “Coming!”

Daybreak trotted out the room, headed for the elevator, the very odd addition to this very old building. As the elevator made its way down, Daybreak couldn't help but ponder, as he sometimes did, the oddity of the building he called home.

It was old, ancient, but like most buildings with magic serving as the foundation, it withstood immense tests of time. Ponyville Library had a long history, woven intricately with that of Ponyville itself, or so he had been told. With a “ding” he hit ground floor, walking out into the hallway, glancing at the curious architecture. They really didn't build them like this anymore.

There was a statue across the hallway, of some Alicorn who once lived here. Owned here, most likely, but left the castle to Ponyville on her passing. For whatever reason the castle just became “Ponyville Library” after that. The Crystal Empire's University had something of a similar story, if memory served. Daybreak never really looked at the statue in all honesty, and had asked once that the thing be removed, since it took up quite a bit of space, but alas the current mayor was descended from her (so she claimed anyway, who tracks their bloodline back that far?), so Daybreak was stuck with it at least until her administration ended. Not that he was against recognition for accomplished individuals or anything, but what did a statue do that a painting couldn't?

He smirked to himself. He was sure that after his request, the mayor wanted his flank fired, but his smirk vanished when he recalled that he was literally the only pony who wanted the job to begin with. It was inevitable really, between video games and video period reading took a back seat. Even reading changed when ponies stopped needing books to do it, just take a device and put book files on it. Even the Library had caught up to the times, just countless screens waiting to service a would-be reader.

Physical copies were more for collectors, and older copies fetched a notable price (once restored). Daybreak had a made a business out of finding such books and buyers, and had earned a pretty penny from it. Still, if one out of every hundred sales Daybreak made was ever actually read, he would be surprised. Not that he was questioning how one spent their money, but why buy something you're not gonna use? He shook his head, yet another thing on the list of things he didn't understand about ponies.

That list could probably fill its own library, a pointless endeavour. More and more it felt like the library was still here (well, the building was a library) simply out of habit. That, and the library itself doubled as the town information repository. His profession left him much time to pursue other things he deemed important, but it was not without other perks. One pleasure in Daybreak's life was looking over the logs of what information was sought, and some of that left him scratching his head at times. One day of the week he'd close the building, the last of the week was his day, and nopony came knocking unless it was an emergency.

When was the last time that happened?

Putting that question aside, Daybreak opened the door. He was greeted by the sight of two ponies, one a Unicorn, the other a Pegasus. Daybreak wasn't much one for clothes (being a pony and all), but he saw their occasional uses. They sometimes made the wearer easy to identify, and in this case, the green fatigues might as well have come with a badge declaring who they were.

The only question was, what would the military want with him?

The Unicorn spoke. “Daybreak Flare?”

“Yes.”

“Doctor Daybreak Flare? Researcher of obscure and ancient magic?”

Daybreak blinked, and repressed the urge to roll his eyes. “Okay, you obviously know exactly who I am, so let's get to what you want.”

The Pegasus spoke, “May we come in?”

The fact that was a request was surprising...“Will it make this go faster?” They said nothing, and expressed nothing, in the second Daybreak waited for something to happen. “Fine, just wipe your hooves please.”

He turned, the pair following him inside. With a thought Daybreak closed the door behind them, running through the list of possible reasons the military of all things was visiting him. Finding no law he'd broken, nor anything he'd done lately that might interest them he found himself drawing a blank. Maybe a wanted pony had past through here lately...

The pair looked around, looking and listening for-“Is anypony else here?”

Daybreak shook his head. “We're alone, library's closed today. Let me guess, something that involves 'classified information'?”

The unicorn nodded. “We'll be brief. There's an ongoing incident. An entity has appeared in Equestria, one we've been as yet unable to contain.”

In a move that would might just get him military attention, he rolled his eyes. “I'm sorry, I think there's something in my ears. The military budget is how much these days? And you're having a problem?” He glared. “Just pulverize the thing and be done with it, that's your usual MO.”

The unicorn seemed-embarrassed? “It's been...resistant to such efforts. It's using Magic we don't recognize, so we've come to you, and others with your expertise.”

“'Others?'” That was something. “Who else have you bugged about this?”

“Clover Field, Starlight Twinkle and Clear Space.”

Had Daybreak been holding anything, it'd have just hit the floor. “If you've called them in you're not foaling around.” He turned from them. “I'll pack some things, give me ten minutes.” He made it out of the room, before yelling back-“Oh, and call your superiors! Tell 'em to call in Luna Shine and Stardust Wake too!”

Daybreak reported up to his room, the highest room in the library. Ponyville was quite a sight in the mornings and evenings and Daybreak's room was the best seat. He briefly considered what he'd might need, and his horn got to work. He decided against any equipment, none of his instruments were custom-made, so if his-he was going to go with “employers”-were remotely competent they'd have everything he'd need. Though given their budget, they probably had state-of-the-art equipment...

Daybreak was suddenly very happy to take this job. Sure, his was no minor matter, to bring forth ponies from his field, the finest minds in his field. Yet that was the thing, they were the finest minds, this wouldn't take too long between them all.

Shouldn't take more than week. He smiled. I'll be back in time for the Hairy Potter reboot.

Did they ever release that movie, I wonder? He soon shed the thought with a shrug. Probably sucked anyway.

Part of him would like to go back in time and deck his past self. “A week”, oh how naive he'd been, and now here he was, in a castle older than he could comfortably comprehend, and perhaps worst of all... he looked to the table.

What I'd do for a pot of Coffee about now...

The lack of caffeine was making him paranoid. He turned his eyes to a wall, before which was a statue, a rather large one too. It was a life-sized statue of an Alicorn, one who, if Daybreak were to guess, ruled this castle way back when. Maybe she was one of the two sisters he'd heard legend of. He took a glance at her flank, finding-yep, one of the two sisters. He couldn't put a name to her, sadly, he wasn't sure any story he'd heard actually included her name. The statue was very life-like, for a stone carving. A bit too lifelike, if Daybreak's opinion meant anything. Her eyes were...

He shook his head. Paranoid. There was no way the statue was watching him. It was caffeine withdrawal and stress, nothing more. He picked up another book while pacing once more, flipping through it. No. He replaced with another, catching the statue's eye briefly.

No.

Yet another book, yet another set of pacing. This was a larger book, and a longer pacing, and in the end-No.
He felt the hair on his neck stand up, and found himself looking at the statue again. He forced himself to turn away.

No, it wasn't.

Another book. More pacing. No.

Another book, another pa-No.

Another book, anot-No

His eye caught the statue again.

It wasn't watching him!

He picked up another book, the biggest yet. He flipped through it, finding information on battles, weapons, spells and-no! He threw the book away, catching the statue again.

It was-“What do you want?!”

With that he lit up his horn, unleashing a blast. The golden blast shot across the room reaching the statue with a *BOOM*. The statue was briefly enveloped the face of the former princess, until it parted way, revealing her face was- What?

Completely undamaged.

What's that thing made of?

“Daybreak?” his lens seemed to speak, “What's going on?”

“Nothing, Terra, this place is... just making me jumpy is all. As you were.” He turned his attention back to the statue, and gulped.

It was definitely looking at him now.

The statue's horn started to glow yellow. On instinct, Daybreak formed a shield around himself, standing in a dome of gold. The yellow glow passed down the horn, to the owner, all the way across its form. Death by exploding statue, I did not see this coming. It glowed brighter, and brighter, and brighter until-

It vanished. In its place, was a hole in the wall. Inside that...

Daybreak slowly let his shield fade, before walking forward, cautiously, in case something else felt like...like doing something. He entered this new chamber; a circular room with little of note or to be noticed, saved for a single thing. In the middle of the room was a pedestal, and upon it was a book. Daybreak approached, glancing down at this tome.

The Chronicle of Harmony.

He smiled. Now this is more like it. *Beep beep* Hm? His lens flashed, showing his eye- What's this? His horn flaring, bringing something into light.

On the surface of the book an aura was now visible, one unlike Daybreak had ever seen or read of, a barrier of many shades of color. He chuckled. Now I know this is important. His horn flared into life again. I'll just remove this and start reading. His magic reached out, getting close and closer to touch-“What the-!” All Daybreak saw as a sudden flash, before-*THUD*

Daybreak pulled his form from against the wall, almost stopping to count the stars before his eyes, but something else was far more prominent in his mind. “That...happened.” A book that refuses to open, never thought I'd see the day.

“Daybreak!” came Pearl's frightened voice. “Are you okay!?”

Daybreak shook his head, the star population dropping. “Yeah, nothing to worry about, just an accident. Keep searching, I'm alright.” Not getting any more enquires about his health, Daybreak made way back to the pedestal. The glow was still present, and Daybreak could almost hear it mocking him. His lens flashed Commencing Full Scan. Seconds ticked by, every few flashing something else before Daybreak's eye.

Holy Nova, that's powerful! Who could've cast this? Hm?

Multiple Auras detected He waited scarcely second before-Auras detected: 2 He blinked 3, he barely registered-5. Daybreak watched, as the number just kept going up, and up, and up. He blinked. Schematic The book was shown in its entirety, wrapped in this strange shield. There didn't seem to by anything else to it, at least outside the barrier. Primary Aura identified The bright yellow in the mix was singled out. One shield, with multiple auras. Somepony used other ponies magic as a component. Why? Daybreak's lens was shrouded in gold, and pulled from his face, floating away beyond the chamber entrance as he looked down at the book. This is only opening by brute force. Daybreak grinned. Not a problem.

His magic ignited, his horn like a raging fire. The fire grew brighter, becoming a beacon in the chamber. The book seemed to shimmer for a moment, as if sensing him, challenging him. Daybreak was only too happy to oblige.

His magic struck down, like a hammer to the forge. Sparks flew, as the fall of golden fire rained on the rock of magic. With a grunt, Daybreak's flare grew stronger, turning the previously dimly-lit chamber into a room of light. It wasn't giving way. The barrier held firm against the onslaught, giving no ground against Daybreak's magic.

It wasn't giving way, but it did react. The surface of the barrier began to spiral, like a whirlpool of magic, it still gave not an inch to Daybreak, preventing it from reaching the book.

Instead, it reached out. Wrapping around Daybreak's magic, it travelled up the stream of gold.

This isn't just a barrier! The spiralling magic made way up his own, and Daybreak suddenly found his hooves quite unresponsive. I can't stop! The magic was getting closer, and his own would not relent. I can't stop it!

It touched his horn, stemming his magic, and travelling down the magical appendage, reaching closer and closer to its base as Daybreak's vision turned to white.

When his vision cleared, Daybreak found that he stood upon nothing, nothing he could see, standing in a world of pure color. There were no structures or features, just an abyss of rainbow.

He did not stand alone. Across from him was one far taller than himself, an Alicorn with a white coat, and mane much like the world around them. Her expression was hard to read, there was so little to read, but her gaze was focused upon him. He knew her face, he had seen it carved in stone such a very short time ago.

“You, who have attempted to open the Chronicle, what is it you seek?”

“The Elements of Harmony.”

If the answer got a reaction from her, she didn't show it. “You are not the first to seek their power, my little pony.”

Around them, things began to appear in the Rainbow. Windows, to other places, to other times. Wherever he looked, the rainbow showed something else.

A Mare shrouded in night, laughing manically as she proclaimed the beginning of a night eternal.

A Centaur of immense size, magic glowing between his two colossal horns.

Under a full moon, atop a cliff, a wolf howled to the skies. Around the wolf, its kin gathered, their savage howls filling the night.

A cloaked figure, of a creature he could not make out. Around it, countless apparitions hung in the air, phantoms of countless forms.

There were more, but there were more important things Daybreak had to find. “The Elements defeated them all! Now we need their power! Or Equestria will fall!” At his hooves, darkness was born, spreading across the rainbow, quickly turning all it found to darkness. The Alicorn's expression changed-was that sadness? Her horn lit, and black became white.

Black became white, and two became more, out of the white new ponies took form. He was soon surround by them, their gazes all upon him. He knew them, somehow, he knew these were the ones whose magic made the barrier. Between him, and the former ruler of the sun one more took appeared, an Alicorn, with violet eyes and coat. She seemed familiar, somehow. Where had he seen her before... She looked upon him, as the others did, but she was the only one to speak.

“In time, darkness always comes, to extend its reach over all things, but as long as friendship remains, a fire will always burn, to light the way for the world.”

With that she raised her horn, emitting magical light, as around him other lights grew rapidly, quickly blinding Daybreak.

“Wait-!”

Everything faded to light.

The light was fading, and Daybreak was back in the-*Thud* He groaned, oh his aching head. He pulled his head from the pedestal, looking at the barrier on the book again, as it-

It faded away.

He blinked. “Huh. Well, yeah. That's good...”

“Daybreak.” Daybreak looked up from the book. “Daybreak!” His horn flashed, as Blueblood's voice came from the incoming Lens.

“I'll go look, if you don't hear back from me, don't follow.”

“Scratch that!” Daybreak affixed it to himself. “I'm here.”

“Daybreak,” Blueblood's voice continued to speak, “are you alright?”

“Yeah, I found a book.”

“Holy stars, really?” Something was off in Swift's tone... “You hear that, guys? Daybreak found a book! In a library! Hallelujah!”

Daybreak's hazy mind scribbled a note to curse Swift to suffer an electric shock every time he spoke, after finding/inventing a spell to achieve that effect. “No. This book's different, it was sealed with a- with a powerful spell. Ughh.”

“Seriously, Daybreak, you alright?”

Daybreak forced himself to walk properly. “I'll live, and this is today's dream find. It's a book on the Elements, and somepony didn't want it found easily.” He put the book on the table. “Weighs a tonne too. Now let's see what secrets it's hiding.” He opened the book, his horn shrouding it in magic as the pages danced. He waited a moment, letting the pages move. “It's a compendium.”

“'Compendium'?” the word seemed foreign to Terra “You mean a collection?”

Realizing that would have been a better word to use, Daybreak continued. “Yeah, and it's vast too. Different writers, different styles, even different times. Just a bunch of thoughts all jammed together.” He thought back to his vision, to those who surrounded him. “I think it was written by former bearers, those who used the Elements power's through the years. It's their thoughts, theories, and even some studies on 'em. Guess they didn't pay attention to that being forbidden. It's gonna take me a while to get through it all.” He took a glance at the sheer size of it. “I wonder who complied all this.”

“Wait, that's it, the complier!” Daybreak rarely heard Pearl so excited. Then again, that was much the norm for them all. “Whoever complied it probably knew where the Elements are, right? Find out who it is and what they wrote.”

Daybreak smiled. “Good idea.” He thought back, to other complied works he'd read in his lifetime, how did the compiler identify themselves.... Probably wrote some kind of forward.

He opened the book from the start, flipping through pages-he grinned “Got it. This is the compiler's work. Looks like a history of the Elements.”

“Well,” came Storm's impatient tone, “don't leave us in suspense. Share!”

Daybreak smiled, and complied. “The Elements were created a long time ago, drawn from the ether of magic itself.”

“What does that mean?” Unknown to him, Swift's question was shared by others, if silently.

There went his smile. “The Elements are ancient magic. When ponies were first learning how to use magic, they sometimes stumbled across some extremely powerful things, some mystical, some dangerous, some much more so of both. There are secrets woven into the very fabric of our universe, some of which defy even imagination.” He frowned. “And too many have been forgotten by most.”

“Geez,” began Storm “I think that's like the third time I've heard him say something like that.”

“I'm on fifth.” Daybreak just knew Swift was smirking when he said that, and that set his horn ablaze. “Hey, how many times have you heard him say-wait, what's that noi-” *BzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ*

“OWWWWWW!”

It was Daybreak's turn to smirk, as the Pegasi pair reeled from the sound heard only by them. “Let's not forget that I'm right. Given how useful modern methods have been, I'm allowed to repeatedly rub it in. It's a rule.”

“Wait, it is?” (He hated when they spoke in unison!)

“I figured one of you would know.”

“Technically,” voiced Terra, “you can't rub it in unless the Elements beat-”

“CAN WE FOCUS!?”

Blueblood angry, yeah, that was familiar. To Daybreak's chagrin, his anger was well-founded. He turned his attention back to the Chronicle.

“The Elements are one part magic, many parts many other things. Their creators discovered that subjective attributes-personality traits,” he knew somepony just stopped themselves, “if expressed strongly enough in an individual, could be harnessed as power. If enough of these traits are gathered, along with one who embodies a strong enough attribute for magic, they could accomplish miracles-Chronicle's wording, not mine.”

He turned a page.

“The Elements were first used to break a curse, that caused infighting among the land, that's how they got their name. This was a very, very long time ago, way pre-Equestria. They cycle in and out of appearing, when they're needed, they show, until-hang on.” He took a moment to read through a particularly long section. “They were wielded by a group of six, who eventually parted with the Elements to seal The Untameable Forest, by turning them into a magical tree.”

“Seal a forest by creating a tree?” Terra paused for a second to let that sink in. “Something seem odd about that to anypony?”

Daybreak decided to ignore that one, fair question as it might have been. “They'd be extracted by two sisters much later on, and used to seal the Spirit of Chaos, and later, the Night Mare.”

“Nightmare?” came Storm's confused voice. “They used 'em on a bad dream?”

“'Night Mare', two words here.” He read on for a second before-“Says the Night Mare was one of the sisters, and the Elements would be useless for the next thousand years. Until a new-and I'm just skipping ahead.” He skipped something about “mares” and “little town”, moving right into “They'd be used on the Night Mare and Spirit of Chaos again, with both being 'saved' from their evils, then they fought a Centaur that could steal magic, and I'm moving further on.” This turned out to be much further on, the book went on about this particular group, but that was not what Daybreak was looking for... “The Elements would eventually be returned to the sisters when the bearers passed, and both remained here. But...”

Daybreak put his horn to the page, closing his eyes as the aura covered it. Each word flashed, in sequence, for only a fraction of a second each, quickly reaching the end of the page, turning to the next, and soon the next, and on and on....

“They'd be used again, through the eons. New bearers would always rise up to fight. I was right, the Elements were used quite a few times, against all kinds of entities. The names of some of these things, the complier didn't want 'em forgotten. 'The Plague Bringer', 'The End of Worlds', and 'The Spectre King'.” Sounds better than-

“'Night Mare'? 'Untameable Forest”? 'Spectre King?” (Daybreak had researched methods, but none were successful in finding a way to shut Swift up.) “Was somepony just sitting up late one night making up these names?”

Blueblood sighed, exasperatedly. “There are times you spout random stuff that's just annoying. Then there are times your random stuff makes some sense. These days concern me. Thankfully, this is not one of those days. The Elements sound like just what we need. Some kind of freak pops up, and these things make them disappear. If we can find them, they may be our best short.”

“Try 'our only',” muttered Terra.

“Hm.”

Lest they got off track again, Daybreak continued. “The history ends with them returning to Canterlot Castle again, and unless pages are missing, they were never removed. At least, not in the compiler's lifetime. I think we can assume that never changed, I'd have found something about it otherwise.” He closed his eyes, rubbing his temples. “Doesn't point us to a room, though. Sorry, everypony.”

“Well,” Bllueblood began, “at least we know they have a good track record. Back to searching on the double, everypony!”

Daybreak sighed quietly to himself, feeling more than slight disappointment. After having his head messed with like that he'd like something to show for it. He looked to the tome in his magical grasp. This tome was perhaps the single most complete history of the Elements around. There was no other...

“Guys, I'm leaving the library. I'm not gonna find a better book than this and we need as many hooves moving as possible.” The map and route appeared before his eye, his own joining and forming a path. “Here, I'll take this area as a whole, that'll save Terra and Swift the trouble.”

He opened the Chronicle again, feeling more than slight annoyance at this mysterious compiler. They forgot to end with the most important detail; the location of the Elements! Would “the Elements are ” have been so hard to write? As he made his way out, he could only think one frustrated thought.

Where are they?

Author's Note

The flashback was originally going to have Daybreak experimenting with a certain spell (just because), but then I actually looked up said spell, and figure I'd reference the joke, while bringing up an unpleasant scenario that could very well happen in the real world one day. (Just you watch, Hollywood has no shame/original ideas)