The Golden Oaks library is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Ponyville, it’s not every day that you see a large tree that doubles as a public buidling. It’s also not a normal day for the resident of said Library, oh yes, today is in fact, one of her favorite days in the entire Celestial calendar, re-shelving day.
“Spiiiiiiiiiike!” Twilight called as she stood amid the maelstrom of literature currently orbiting in her violet magic field. Twilight wasn’t entirely sure, but she had come to the suspicion that her number one assistant feigned overtiredness on re-shelving day.
Given the lack of information on developmental dragon physiology, Twilight knew that she couldn’t prove it. Especially as she had no baseline for measuring the number of hours baby dragons needed to sleep each day.
“Geeze Twilight, you think that you would have this system down pat given we go through it twice a month.” The young drake said as he meandered down the staircase.
“It’s not that Spike, I can’t find Starswirl’s journal!” Twilight practically shouted. “But Twilight didn’t yo-”, he was cut off as the purple unicorns began pacing around the room while levitating various titles to her face, grimacing once she discovered that they were not the one she sought.
“The most important book in this entire library, definitely in Ponyville and maybe even in all of Equestria and it gets misplaced!” Twilight wailed as she continued to franticly scan the shelves. “I think you are over reacting.” Spike deadpanned “Have you checked the stash where you used to hide the elements of harmony jewelry?” he continued. Twilight blushed slightly as she realized her mistake “Heh, that’s right.”
As she went to retrieve the journal Twilight decided that aetherically tagging the book would prevent her from losing track of it again. She knew that the Royal Canterlot archives magically tagged all their rare manuscripts in the same manner to prevent much of the same situation she had just gone through.
It was when she had recovered the book and was mentally constructing the spell framework in her mind when she noticed something. “That’s weird.” Twilight said as she turned the slim volume over in her magical grip. “What is?” asked Spike as he looked up from the small hill of books he was currently placing back on the shelves.
“I’m detecting a pre-existing enchantment on the journal…..an illusion I believe, based on the configuration of the spell matrix.” Twilight explained as she considered the possibilities. She had read about paranoid mages concealing their work through layers of magical encryption, but the journal already contained sensitive magical information.
Her curiosity getting the better of her, Twilight threw caution to the wind and started unraveling the Illusion placed on the journal. “Are you sure that’s safe Twilight?” Spike asked warily. “What do you mean?” replied the purple librarian as she focused on the delicate spellwork.
“Well, it’s just that it seems like someone went to an awful lot of trouble to hide whatever is under that illusion.” Spike said as he eyed the object in question. Twilight briefly pondered this as a burst of magic leapt from her horn to the journal as she completed the counterspell.
“Success!” Twilight sang as she merrily trotted in place, earning a chuckle from Spike. Twilight’s merriment soon turned to confusion as she examined the newly dispelled journal. It seemed to have swollen to twice its previous size, a plethora of new pages appearing where before there had been nothing.
Twilight wasted no time in hungrily opening and devouring the newly revealed contents of the journal. Her glee was stunted however as she glanced over the first page. “This…this doesn’t make any sense.” Twilight said with a sharp intake of breath.
“That sure is a surprise coming from you Twilight, you practically worship Starswirl.” Stated Spike as he waddled up to Twilight and glanced at the book over her shoulder.
Twilight traced her hoof over several diagrams and formulae on the page before responding. “These are astronomical models and elliptical modification spells like I’ve never seen before! These figures account for the manipulation of heavenly bodies completely absent of Alicorn influence!” Twilight turned to Spike, her face plastered with a wide grin and a made gleam in her eye, “Do you know what this means?”
Spike took a step back before braving an answer, “ Uhhh, it’s a nice find?” Twilight returned to the journal, flipping through the remaining pages while chattering off in Spike’s general direction. “ This is a pre-classical account of the managing of the sun and moon prior to the coming of Celestia and Luna! By no less than Starswirl the Bearded!” Twilight was practically shaking with excitement now.
“We know from sparse accounts that Starswirl was a member of the last unicorn cabal that raised the sun and moon in the periods before Equestrian unification, but most mainstream scholars believe that any firsthand knowledge perished in the great Canterlot fire during the lunar rebellion!”
Spike just shrugged and turned to the kitchen before saying “That’s great I guess, Princess Celestia will be glad to hear it.” He didn’t make it two steps before a popping noise was heard and Twilight materialized in front of his face, eyes wide with intensity. “The Princess can’t know about this Spike! At least not yet.”
Spike simply continued to stare at his friend, knowing that the best strategy to dealing with Twilight in this state was to let her burn off her mania in a soliloquy. “Princess Celestia gave me the journal, so that either means that A: this is some kind of test that I’m supposed to pass by unraveling the mystery. Or B: that she didn’t know about it and I’m on the verge of genuine discovery!” Twilight broke her manic stare with Spike and darted down to the basement.
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Twilight returned sometime later sporting saddlebags, a tan vest and a rounded explorers hat. “I don’t know about this Twilight, are you planning on going somewhere?” Spike questioned as he noticed the traveling gear that Twilight had donned before surfacing.
“I have to see this through!” Twilight froze and brought a forehoof to her chest as she raised her head in her approximation of a heroic pose, “For magical history! For the Princess! For Equestria!” Twilight was broken out of her reverie by the unmistakable sound of a certain rainbow maned Pegasus laughing while she rolled around on the library floor.
“Rainbow! What are you doing here! What has Spike told you?” Twilight gave Spike another death glare before Rainbow ceased her guffawing and cleared the air. “I came over to invite you to a Pinkie Pie party but it looks like you have something else going on.”
“Hehehe, what makes you say that?” said Twilight nervously as she tried to inconspicuously float Starswirl’s journal over into her saddlebags. “Oh I don’t know, maybe the Daring Do hat, the two weeks worth of provisions and the magnetic compass hanging off your saddlebags.” Rainbow then snatched the journal out of mid-air before Twilight could respond.
“Hey! Give that back Rainbow, it’s beyond precious!” Twilight said as she considering trying to wrestle the journal away, but decided to avoid possiblely damaging the priceless relic.
“Not until you tell me what’s going on here.” Rainbow teased as she placed the journal firmly behind a wing and obstinately dropped to her haunches. After Twilight got ahold of her internal screaming she relented and after swearing Rainbow to secrecy, told the pegasus about her discovery.
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“I still don’t get the last part, where are you going, and how do you know to go there?” Whined Rainbow as she mimed falling asleep. “I just told you Rainbow, the astral co-ordinates defined by Starsw-” she was cut off as Rainbow held up a hoof, “In eqquish please, not the original egghead.”
Twilight sighed before trying again “Starswirl makes exact astral observations in his journal, I can calculate his relative position based on what stars he was observing at what times.” Rainbow, seemingly interested, rose from the floor “So what? You are going to Canterlot to visit his study or something?” Not it was Twilight’s turn to tease “ Not exactly, the placement of Starswirl’s observations don’t originate from Canterlot as one might think.”
Rainbow scratched her head as she motioned her to continue. When no further information came Twilight spoke “Nothing more until you hand over the journal Rainbow.” Begrudgingly, the brash weathermare did as she was asked. “ Now, as was I was saying, this is interesting because there is no record of Starswirl living anywhere outside of the ancestral unicorn capital. I’ve heard rumors of a lost mage tower that Starswirl supposedly built in his final days but I’ve never given them any credit…until today that is.”
Twilight excited grin was mirrored by Rainbow as she continued “The only problem is that the stars have different positions today than they did in the pre-classical era when Starswirl observed them. This made locating his exact point of observation impossible. I was however able to narrow it down to a rough area, somewhere past the Macintosh Hills, bordering on uncharted territory.”
It almost seemed as if lightning coursed through Rainbow dash as she sprang up into the air with a powerful flap of her wings. “So you’re telling me that we have an ancient artifact, a mysterious lost ruin and the fate of all of Equestria hanging in the balance!” Rainbow Dash squealed as she hoof pumped into the air.
“All except for the last part, and what do you mean by “We”?” Twilight replied skeptically. Rainbow Dash ended her jubilations and flew down to Twilight, uncomfortably close, “ You are about to go on a real life Daring Do adventure and you think I’m staying behind! Not a chance Twi.”
“Well.” Twilight stated while musing everything over, “We had better get started then.”
Twilight always loved the train. It reminded her of a vast nervous system that connected the body of greater Equestria together. Flying along the tracks felt like the race of an electric pulse, propelling her toward the unknown.
She could always hear the train pull in from her home in Ponyville, the thundering tracks and whistling horn always reminded her that, even though she was out in rural Ponyvile, she was still connected to everywhere else. It wasn’t that she terribly missed her old life in Canterlot, she loved her new friends in Ponyville more than anything. Still, it was nice to get out into the greater world every now and then. Rainbow seemed to have a different idea.
“Ughhh this is taking forever!” Rainbow Dash moaned as she hovered near the roof of the small train car she was sharing with Twilight. “It would have been faster to just fly there Twilight, even for you.” Rainbow said as she landed near the window and gazed longingly out at the sky.
Twilight looked up from her transcription of Starswirl’s journal before replying, “Hey, I’m a decent flier, I just prefer to ride in style when I can,” she continued “ Plus, we would have been exhausted by the time we arrived at the border.”
“This is just like Daring Do and the Gryphons Goblet!” Rainbow exclaimed as she walked over to her seat and started digging around in her saddlebags. “ I wouldn’t get ahead of yourself Rainbow, this is real life and we have to be prepared for whatever we find.” Cautioned Twilight.
Rainbow Dash plopped next to Twilight and shoved an open book into her line of sight, on the page was a simplistically stylized map, much like the kind foals draw on at family restaurants.
“See?” Inquired Rainbow “We are on the same route Daring Do took on her journey to the lost Aramaspi temple of Arous the vile!” Twilight gently lowered the book with a hoof before allowing a slight smirk to draw on her face as she turned to Rainbow, “We won’t be trudging through the Aramaspi lands, the potential radius ends well before we have to worry about ancient goat monsters.”
Twilight’s nose creased as she scrunched her face up when a thought struck her, “I’ve been trying to figure out why Starswirl would build his tower, if that’s even what we will find, so close to as dangerous location a location as the Aramaspi Empire.”
“I actually saw a skeleton of one when the map called me and Fluttershy to Griffinstone, it was totally huge.” Rainbow said lazily as her gaze once again drifted to the window and beckoning sky. Twilight nodded as she pulled up a large stack of notes from her saddlebags, “ I actually have a hypotheses regarding his decision,” Twilight’s speaking toned quickened as she entered full on lecture mode.
“In the pre-classical era the Aramaspi had a large jungle empire that stretched over a vast swath of land past the Macintosh Hills. Although they were a warlike race, there is evidence of limited trade with the southernmost earth pony settlements.” Twilight motioned to several diagrams depicting the individual components of an ornate orrery.
“ I believe that Starswirl chose this location because of both the distance from Equestria proper and the access to rare material that close trade with the Aramaspi could furnish him.” “In fact it stands to reason tha…………”, Rainbow Dash never made it to the end, she lost focus somewhere between the 12th dynasty and the breakdown of the reagents required for Starswirl’s anamorphic spell.
Rainbow’s daydreaming only held up for a short while. The pegasi’s reverie was broken by the sharp whistle of the train and the conductor shouting “End of line everypony.” Finally, she thought, the real adventure could begin.
As the pair trotted off the platform they took a moment to truly appreciate the expanse around them. A vast forest spread out before them, sparse near the bottom, but a thick tangle obscured the canopy at the top, allowing only slight tendrils of sunlight to escape to the forest floor.
“Huh, it’s like the good twin of the Everfree.” Dash commented as she followed Twilight towards the center of the town. More of a trading post than an actual settled community; a large semi-circle of space was carved out from the dense foliage. It was populated with numerous vendors, merchant shacks and impromptu structures of various kinds. “We are still pretty far from Starswirl’s approximate location,” she gestured towards a two-story building with an outstretched hoof “We may want to call it a day and start fresh in the morning.”
“Sounds good to me,” replied Rainbow with a yawn as they set out towards the inn, “I’m always down for a good nap.”
