Delaying the Inevitable

Chapter 4

‘So we will have to wait a couple more weeks before he’s finally going to tell something about it,’ I was talking to Shade while eating a hayburger at Bourgon’s. I was talking about what I had read in the book about the Spell of Harmony.

‘Hmm, that’s indeed quite strange’, Shade answered.

‘Not only that, but it was written down two hundred years ago,‘ I took a little break to take a bite in my hayburger and continued: ‘that must mean they’ve only known about that library after those two hundred years.’

‘Or maybe they knew about the library, but not that it was there where the spell got lost.’

‘True, but still: who would’ve come up with the story that Scorpan stole it?’

Shade rose his shoulders: ‘who came up with the Mare in the Moon or the Crystal Empire? People just like to fantasise about that sort of stuff.’

‘Hm, I guess you’re right. It’s just so unprofessional to write down a myth in such an important book without having proof to support it.’

Comet Shade had finished his hayburger: ‘it was quite delicious, but I’m growing tired of eating this. Next time, I’ll try something else for a change. Changing it out of my habit, but oh well.’

The rest of the day went without delay, it was still Thursday by the way. Well that was an unintended rhyme, but in any case, when I got out of school, I immediately got back to the library once again because I wanted to answer a question that I had in mind: when did they find out the spell was burnt away in that library? Getting back there, I looked for yet another book which was pretty tricky to find of course as I had gone through most of the books already, but nothing is impossible. However, I had to take my words back, none of the books seem to talk about it at a first glance, so I decided to read the books I was the most confident in that they would bear the answers. Three of them I had taken home with me.

‘You seem to be very fascinated about this, aren’t you?’ I heard the voice of the old librarian speak to me. I was just about to leave the library.

At first, I didn’t know where he was at, the whole library was empty. Until I saw him walking out of a passage.

‘Oh, you bet I am,’ I responded to his question.

‘Very well, but be aware of that. Would you like me to tell a little story about Starswirl the Bearded?’

‘Sure,’ I said for with interest.

‘It’s about a darker story than any other is of Starswirl. Something most of the public is not aware of. But when Starswirl got the task of Princess Celestia to create a spell to keep Tirek away for good, he got so fascinated about it that he would do everything to get that spell done. That lead him to abandon many of his pupils, friends and even other equally important projects.’

The librarian sneaked closer to me: ‘and when Scorpan decided to discontinue the project, Starswirl got so furious he started harming Scorpan and got completely crazy about it. Princess Celestia then had to intervene and decided to split the two apart. Scorpan returned to his homeland, Celestia kept the spell safe by having it guarded the whole day long by well trained guardians and Starswirl, he tried to sneak into the library, but it got out of hand. Instead of using his sane thoughts, he tried to get rid of the guardians by using fire. He had thought he would be able to extinguish the fire before it would reach any of his artwork. But his mind wasn’t clear and the fire spread all around.’

The old librarian was right in front of my muzzle: ‘he created his own fate by his own stupidity, by his foolishness. Do you now see the danger in your adventure?’

I took a step backwards to get myself some space and continued: ‘but I’m far not that fascinated by it that I would start doing that.’

‘Oh, you may think so. But before you know it, you might become a threat to our society.’

I took many more hoofsteps backwards and then I said: ‘don’t you worry, it’s going to be fine.’

I left the building back to my home, being pretty scared about all he said. I started reading in the first book titled: ‘Starswirl’s untold tails’. The first few pages didn’t speak about the Spell of Harmony and I couldn’t finish the book in just an evening. So again, it would have to wait another day.

And then, the next morning, something happened, something that barely never happens: Comet Shade had arrived before me. I hadn’t overslept me, did I?

‘Well that doesn’t happen quite often?’ He said. Making out of the tone he’s speaking at, I could conclude he just decided to get here earlier than he normally would.

‘Why the rush?’ I asked him.

He put himself in a concentrating position with his tongue sticking out and said: ‘oh, you’ll see.’

All of a sudden, my bag weighed less as Shade has been able to lift up the book I had started reading in yesterday.

‘Pretty impressive,’ I complimented him.

‘Thanks,’ and he brought the book towards him, ‘I thought it would take much longer than this, it’s still only five meters though.’

‘Don’t you worry, you’ll get you seven meters some day,’ and I winked at him.

When we got to the university, Veral wasn’t standing outside anymore, neither did I had to ask him any questions so we just got into the building towards the astronomy class, it was Friday.

And the day went as usual just like every other day, until the afternoon when we were busy following the history lesson. The history lesson itself wasn’t anything new to me, I already knew everything about Starswirl’s adventures in the caverns of Maretania. But the lesson got interrupted by a secretary worker who entered the aula. She started whispering with professor Veral and everypony was wondering what was going on.

‘What is she doing here?’ Shade wondered.

Obviously I couldn’t answer his question: ‘I don’t know.’

And then professor Veral pointed towards me and the secretary worker looked straight into my eyes. I looked behind me, there were 2 more ponies sitting, but it was clearly me they were pointing at as she shouted: ‘Omega Flame, the principal wants to speak with you.’

Everypony looked towards me and that felt a bit embarrassing for me. Being asked by the principal mostly means you have done something wrong, but as far as I know, I haven’t done anything against the law. I walked down the stairs and made a facial expression to Veral to ask what was going on. He just signified with his hoof to continue and nodded with his head that everything was going to be fine. The door got closed behind me and I was sent to the principal’s office. There, I was able to take a seat and the principal took the word: ‘Omega Flame is the name, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, why was I asked to come here?’ I said stressed out a bit.

‘Don’t worry, Omega Flame. Everything is fine, I just wanted to warn you for something.’

‘For what then?’

‘As I’ve heard from trustworthy sources, you are very interested in everything that is Starswirl related?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well then I will have to tell you to mind your interest,’ he said, stood up and continued: ‘Equestria knows a big history of ponies being obsessed with something. And as far as all our sources are concerned, none of those obsessed ponies ever got out without leaving a negative mark on our society. That is why we are getting slight concerns about your great interest in Starswirl.’

‘But, there are many ponies who are obsessed with something? What’s so wrong about me wanting to know so much about Starswirl,’ I tried defending myself.

The principal rose his hoof: ‘do you even have examples of that?’

‘Yes of course. My friend Comet Shade is very fascinated about astronomy.’

‘Has he ever wished to travel to the moon?’

‘Well, no. That’s not possible…’ I got interrupted.

‘That is what I wanted to point out to you. You would go through weather and wind just to increase your knowledge in Starswirl unlike other ponies would. And that is the dangerous thing about it.’

I looked down to the ground and then rose my head again to ask him a question: ‘so then what do I have to do to avoid that in the future? Cancel my studies?’

He sighed and got a bit closer towards me: ‘that is not what I am trying to say. Just, keep yourself cool. We will keep an eye on you if we see it is going to far.’

‘I still don’t understand all of this,’ I made the principal clear.

He put his hoof on my shoulder: ‘you’ll see later on, don’t worry.’

I stared at him until he tilted his head towards the door and nodded to signify I could go. I left the room with the same creeps as I had after the confrontation with the librarian.

In the evening, I got to Shade’s again.

‘That’s weird. Why do they warn you for that?’

‘I have absolutely no idea whatsoever. They say Equestria knows a big history with ponies who were too eager to find out about things. And they have apparently ‘ruined’ the society.’

Comet Shade started laughing: ‘why in the hay would they ever think that our community is bad? I can’t imagine a better and more peaceful one.’

‘I know right? And all those warning are not going to make me stop continuing my research.’

‘That’s the spirit,’ he said while getting out of the sofa we were sitting on, ‘everything they say is pure nonsense.’

‘But the librarian, he did give a valid example of Starswirl,’ I made clear.

‘The fact that it had happened with Starswirl, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen to you. You are a historian, he was a magician.’

We both stayed quiet for a while until Shade broke the silence: ‘so, you want to see some cool magic tricks I learned?’

‘Sure, go ahead,’ I told him.

He bowed down his head and closed his eyes. I saw the sparkles around his horn appearing. He started by grabbing a couple books out of his shelf and let them orbit around him in a nice circle.

‘Not bad, not bad,’ I complimented him.

‘Oh, this is just the beginning. Here is a trick you’re going to be jealous with,’ he boasted.

‘Alright,’ he said. He let the books turn around until the book that he was looking for came in front of him.

‘On the following page, line 16, there is written ‘from this day on, everypony started using the newly found oats’ on it. Correct?’

He opened the book on a page.

‘Line 16… ‘now add 250 grams of sugar to your mixture’ it says.’

Comet Shade opened his eyes with astonishment: ‘are you sure?’

‘It’s a cookbook, Shade,’ I laughed.

He closed the book and started to snigger awkwardly.

‘Oh well, it’s still a work in progress.’

He started rotating the books again and a new book got in front of him. It opened on a page.

‘Let’s see ‘from this day on, everypony started using the newly found oats’ it says. Wow, pretty impressive if you ask me. I would’ve thought this was something for more professional ponies?’ I said.

‘Yes, well, too be honest, I did in fact knew about that sentence and on which line it was. The real magical part here was locating the correct book.’

‘Oh, you tricky little pony,’ I laughed.

‘Well, doing that was already hard enough for me,’ he said while putting the books back, ’I’m not planning to fully master it any time soon. Besides, learning history is still a bit more fun, isn’t it?’ He said with a smile.

‘Of course,’ I answered and I looked through the window, it was getting dark.

‘But it’s time for me to go now if you don’t mind.’

‘Absolutely not! I’ll see you again next week?’

‘Sure, because I will be studying the whole weekend long. Bye!’ I ended the conversation and got out of the door, back to my house through the chilling cold of the night.