Crystal nervously tapped his hoof on the floor as he waited for the librarian to come back, he stared at the empty desk with slit eyes, Come on, I don't have all day. His ears perked, his attention moved towards the group of ponies sitting around one of the tables as he heard them giggle and chuckle.
He sighed and turned away from the scene, Why are you even here?, he asked rhetorically. Wasting time, joking around with other disappointing parodies of students.
"I'm sorry mister," the Old librarian said as she came back, she slowly sat in her chair, "but there're no more copies of 'Advanced Summoning.' by Polar Murry available for taking out."
Crystal's demeanour contorted into a scowl, his eyes narrowed and nostrils slightly flared, "Excuse me?" He said through gritted teeth. Old mare sitting in front of him didn't pay him enough attention to notice these changes, she corrected her glasses and took her time to answer.
"We only had one copy and it has already been taken out." She said and opened one of the register books.
"How can you only have one copy of the damn book?!" He nervously tapped his hoof on the desk while stating his point, "you're supposed to be one of the biggest libraries in this country." He gestured to the huge bookshelf behind him, as he stared at the calm, unimpressed librarian.
"Listen, mister, firstly please be quiet, this is a library." She slowly waved her hoof around, "secondly, there are other books covering the subjects of summoning, however, there's only one copy of Polar Murry's book." She looked up from the register she was going through, her bored eyes seemingly making contact with Crystal's raging green irises. "If you want you can take out any other book on the subject."
"I will not stand for second-rate material," he exclaimed, "who took out this copy?"
Old mare sighed and closed the big dusty tome she was reading so far, she stood up from her chair and walked over to the small bookshelf behind her. "Give me a minute mister."
"Every minute counts." He mumbled under his nose as he tapped his hoof on the desk, his patience slowly ran out as he watched old lady search through the number of books over and over again. He ran his front hoof through his grey unkempt mane back and forth as he couldn't stand idly.
"Mister," Librarian said, bringing a huge book back to the desk with her, she gently placed it with her magic and sat down. "I found the register."
"Great, then tell me who took it out?" Crystal's face slightly lit up as he was happy for all of this to be over.
"Mister, I just found the book, now I must look for the proper data." She said and slowly opened the book on the last page where the newest registers were put.
Crystal's eyes were narrowed, teal fur on his muzzle gave way to a crimson heated colour of his blood, rushing in. "Take your time." He said emphasising each word.
And she did, diligently reading each line of text, helping herself by pointing her hoof to each letter, every now and then she would correct her glasses or simply stop searching for a few moments whatsoever. With Crystal's patience quickly running out she continued to look for an answer he wanted and finally found it.
"Well mister, it appears that the book you're looking for was taken by our student by the name of Twilight Sparkle." She said and closed the old book.
"Twilight Sparkle?" Crystal repeated, that was a name even he recognised, Princess Celestia's favourite pupil as well as one of the top scoring students of the academy.
"Yes mister, is there anything else you need?" Old mare yawned as she looked Crystal, hoping he will say no.
"That'll be all." Crystal moved away and took a few steps, he turned his head and unwillingly said, "Thank you."
He left the library and headed for the dean's office, where he was hoping to acquire information about Twilight Sparkle's whereabouts. He couldn't help but feel a small tingling sign of happiness at the concept of meeting this person, finally, somepony who understood the importance of knowledge.
Crystal walked through the luxurious halls of the school, walls were adorned with beautiful paintings showing different famous scenarios from history. There was one illustrating the fall of Nightmare Moon, one where the royals sisters circled around Equestria, bringing forth day and night. These paintings were brought here from all different parts of Equestria. Every now and then he would pass by a stone bust of a famous wizard, like Polar Murry whose handcrafted book he was trying to obtain, or Starswirl the bearded.
Finally, he arrived at the office, not wasting any time he knocked on a door once and walked right in, "Excuse me, sir, I would like to ask about—"
Dean Blackwind stared at one of the students standing in the door to his office, who stared back at him and his secretary sitting atop of him. Awkward silence overtook all three of them for many painful moments until the dean himself finally broke it, "About that—"
"Don't say anything," Crystal interrupted, "I didn't see anything, I don't care, just tell me what I need to know."
"Of course mister?" Blackwind said and looked at the young colt with one eye narrowed while his secretary jumped off his lap, without any comment she simply sat down at her desk and stared forward blankly.
"Crystal, my name is Crystal."
"Well mister Crystal what is it that you need to know? By the way, it wasn't like that we were just—"
"I don't care." He repeated, irritated, "I need to know where is Twilight Sparkle stationed."
"Twilight Sparkle?" He raised his eyebrow, he placed his chin on his front hooves. "What business do you have with her?"
"What business do you have with her?" Crystal asked pointing to the secretary with his hoof.
"Twilight Sparkle is stationed in the western tower, more precisely in the library at the highest floor," he said quickly as small drops of sweat formed on his forehead.
"She lives in the library?" Crystal asked dumbfounded, "I mean I like to read too but that's a bit too much isn't it?" He gave the dean one last look and turned towards the doors, "Thank you for your help sir." He said half sarcastically.
"No problem," Blackwind said as Crystal walked out of his office, shutting the doors with a loud slam. He sighed in relief in leant into his chair.
"This is why I told you to lock the doors," secretary commented, still adorning same blank expression.
Crystal left the main campus and headed on his way to the western tower. As he stepped into the broad gardens of the schoolyard he looked back on the main building, from atop of it a big clock looked down at him, reminding Crystal of all the time he has already lost.
He trotted through the gardens, his pace constantly increasing as his patience was decreasing accordingly, he soon broke into a run. He finally saw the western tower and run towards the entrance, he dashed around the corner and suddenly his body felt the effect of bumping into a solid object at high speed. He tumbled around in confusion, ending with his muzzle planted into the ground.
"Are you all right?" He heard a female voice asking, but there was no time to waste on useless politeness. Crystal quickly stood up, shook his head and without saying anything once again dashed towards the entrance.
The young mare stood up and wiped dirt from her lavender fur. "He could have at least apologised for running into me." She commented out loud, deciding it's not worth to pay him any more attention she left the scene, with a smile on her muzzle. I wonder what Princess Celestia wants from me. She thought as she trotted slowly through the gardens.
Crystal finally climbed the last stair and arrived at the highest floor of the tower, he gasped for air a couple of times and sat down on his haunches, "Whose brilliant idea was it to put the library on top of a damn tower," he said between his quick breaths.
After a couple of seconds, he stood up, still winded he looked for the door to the library. Luckily enough there were only three rooms on the floor, so it didn't take him long to find his destination. Crystal sighed and knocked on the door, this time multiple times. He waited for an answer, as impatient as he was, he most definitely didn't want to relive the situation from before.
Just thinking about it send small shivers down his spine, finally a voice answered his knocking , "Who is it?" He heard. Crystal narrowed his eyes and perked his ears, this wasn't expected, this wasn't a voice of a young mare, rather that of a small kid, colt perhaps.
"Hello, my name is Crystal, I'm a student of this school, I was told Twilight Sparkle lives here?" He said out loud.
"Oh yeah, she does, what do you want from her?" Voice quickly asked.
"Listen," Crystal said, slowly feeling his temper boil up, "can I walk in and see miss Sparkle?"
He waited for an answer, second after second he could feel his left eye starting to twitch. He couldn't help but get irritated, after all, if it wasn't for this whole stupid situation he would already be in his room, working with notes on summoning.
"Well I mean of course you can come in." The young voice finally answered, "It's a library, you can come in anytime."
Spike suddenly heard a loud smacking noise from behind the door, before he could ask about it, doors opened, revealing a teenage colt. Crystal stepped in and nodded his head in a greeting manner, young dragon waved his claw and noticed a small red circle on colt's forehead. "What happened to you?" Spike asked pointing with his claw to the mark.
"That?" Crystal asked focusing both his eyes upwards, "That's a life lesson," he said and walked further in, "So who are you? I never expected to see a living dragon here." Seeing young dragon loosened his temper, as his anger was changed into curiosity in a matter of seconds.
"I'm Spike, Twilight Sparkle's number one assistant." He said proudly puffing out his tiny chest.
"An assistant? Peculiar indeed." Crystal commented, observing young dragon carefully. "I didn't realise miss Sparkle is this influential, to even have a number of assistants."
Spike suddenly lowered himself a bit, rubbing his claws together nervously, he mumbled out, "Well she, she doesn't."
Crystal raised his eyebrow, his head tilted a bit to the left, "But you just said you're the number one?"
"Well yes, I am number one, and also the only one." Spike put his claws behind his back and glued his stare to the floor. "Yeah." Young colt stared at the dragon for a couple of moments, he sighed and decided to ignore this part of the conversation.
"Anyways," Crystal said, suddenly remembering why was he here in the first place, "I need to speak with miss Sparkle, she borrowed a certain book from the main campus library, a book I really wanted to work through." He looked around, "It appears however that she's not here at the moment."
Spike's face lit up, his nervous grin changed to a delightful smile as he once again puffed out his chest, "I know where Twilight keeps her books, tell me which one is it."
"Just like that? Shouldn't we first ask her for permission or something?" Young colt asked, he really liked Spike's idea, but at the same time he didn't want to get under the skin of Princess Celestia's favourite pupil.
"Don't worry about it, Twilight always takes out books in bunches, I'm sure she will just read something else before you give it back." He said as he walked towards one of the bookshelves, "This part was empty when we moved in, so she uses it to store new or rented books here."
"Wait a second, so you're telling me that she borrowed the only copy of 'Advanced Summoning' by Polar Murry, just so she would have something to read when she runs out of new books?" He asked through gritted teeth.
"More or less." Spike looked at the bookshelf, "Advanced Summoning by Polar Murry, let's see." He quietly repeated the title given to him.
Once more today Crystal could feel his left eye twitching a little and his nostrils flare, his breath quickened as he nervously tapped the floor with his front hoof.
"Are you all right?" Spike asked, turning away from the bookshelf as he noticed the weird behaviour of his guest.
"Yes, I'm quite fine, I—" Crystal took a deep breath, he exhaled and shook his head, "I'm very short-tempered, sorry about that."
Spike waved his claw and chuckled, "It's quite all right, Twilight has a temper too."
Crystal sighed, he was very well aware of how easy it was for him to get angry, and he despised that about himself. Through his years of studying he quickly learnt that having short fuse is a huge nuisance in a learning process, he tried to work on his patience many times in the past but to no avail. Eventually, he gave up and accepted it.
He observed Spike who searched through the number of books. His demeanour calmed down, his widened eyes slowly loosened up and relaxed, along with his looks went his thoughts as he focused on the so very rare dragon specimen, standing in front of him.
"How did you become miss Sparkle's assistant? Were you hatched here in Equestria? He asked.
Spike looked at Crystal through his shoulder, his claws moving to the next book, "I helped out Twilight for as long as I remember, I mean she hatched my egg, magically of course."
"Did she now? When was that?" Crystal asked, his ears perked up as his curiosity grew by the moment.
Young dragon scratched his chin thinking back to his first days, "Well I remember it like a blur, but she told me that hatching my egg was a part of her entrance exam."
Crystal's eyes widened once again, this time however not in anger but in awe, "Really? That's impressive."
"Is it?" Spike asked, this time keeping his eyes on the book titles.
Crystal nodded even though he knew his interlocutor wasn't looking at him, "There are only a few spells she could've used to initiate a dragon hatching process, they aren't that complicated to cast, however, they require a huge amount of energy." He looked up at his horn and shook his head.
"For a filly to pull off something like that, truly impressive," he said.
"She surely is good with all this magic stuff but—" Spike suddenly stopped as his eyes spotted his target, his claw reached and pulled out a huge tome out of the bookshelf, "I got it!" He proudly exclaimed and looked at the black cover, adorned by some weird magical patterns of triangles and circles, with two big words, 'Advanced Summoning', written atop of it.
Suddenly the book was engulfed in a crimson aura of Crystal's magic and levitated over to the young colt, he stared at it and sighed in relief, "Thank you," he said, and he truly was thankful.
"No problem!" Spike said with a big smile on his small face. Crystal turned around and walked towards the doors, only to be stopped by the young dragon, "Hey, wait a second!"
"What is it?" He asked, looking over his left shoulder.
"You didn't tell me your name yet, I have to tell Twilight who has her book right?" Spike said.
"I'm Crystal, just Crystal." He said and moved forward only to once again be stopped by Spike.
"Wait a moment, you're Crystal? Don't move." Spike said and dashed off into the direction of one of the desks, filled with different scrolls and books.
Young dragon quickly searched through the pile, throwing the pieces of paper left and right, only being careful around the books. It didn't take long before he found what he was looking for and ran back to the confused Crystal.
"What's going on?" Young colt asked, running his front hoof through his mane.
Spike cleared his throat and opened up one of the two scrolls he brought back, "Dear Twilight, there's something urgent I need to discuss with you about, head over to my office as soon as possible."
Crystal looked at Spike dumbfounded, his stare was blank and expression deadpan, he leant his head towards the young dragon and tilted his head to the side, "And?" He asked, "What does that have to do with me?"
"Just wait," Spike said and opened up the other scroll, he cleared his throat once again and read, "Dear Spike, I have sent a message to one of our students by the name of Crystal, however, I have not received any answer. I was informed by the dean that he headed to the library in the western tower. If you happen to meet him please tell him to head over to my office immediately."
Crystal thought back, remembering a letter delivered to him right as he was leaving his room earlier today, back then, however, he decided to pay it no mind and check it out after he took out the book he needed. He didn't expect it to take so much time.
"I still don't see why you found it necessary to read the first letter," Crystal commented.
"Princess calls for you and Twilight at more or less same time, doesn't seem weird?" Spike asked raising his eyebrow.
"Maybe a little, anyway thanks for the book," he said, motioning towards the floating piece of literature with his head, "I will go visit Princess's office."
"Like I said, no problem! I'm happy to help." Spike said with a big smile on his face and waved his head towards the leaving colt.
Crystal walked out and closed the door to the library with his magic, he shook his head and sighed, he finally had what he wanted, only to be interrupted with his studies by Princess Celestia herself. "Oh well," he said out loud, "I'm sure it's nothing important."
Crystal's left eye twitched nervously, his hoof tapped the floor in rhythm to his speeding heart, beating faster and faster in his chest. He could feel his blood rushing to his face and his eyes widening as he asked, "I'm sorry Princess, could you repeat?" He asked the white alicorn, towering over Crystal and Twilight Sparkle who stood next to him.
Princess smiled and with her soft voice she said, "As I said before, I am happy to inform you, that I have chosen the two of you to represent our school in the Grand Academic Tournament next month, exciting isn't it?"
Crystal took a deep breath and asked, "How many days does it last?"
"There will be twelve competitions, spread around ten different days."
Ten precious days spent on competing with some second rate wizards. While many ponies were motivated by rivalry with others, Crystal simply saw it as another waste of time. He didn't care about proving his superiority to others, but it's not like he would reject such offer from Princess Celestia, she was his principal as well as ruler of Equestria. The last thing he wanted was to annoy her.
"I'm honoured Princess," he forced himself to say, "now if you excuse me I must go to my room and read a certain book." He said and turned away from her, heading towards the door.
"Of course, well then see you tomorrow," Celestia said, smiling innocently.
"What?" Crystal stopped in his tracks and asked without even turning his head.
"Obviously an event this grand requires an amount of preparation, not magic-wise but also in an official manner." She pointed with her hoof towards a pile of documents next to her desk, "You will have to sign up a couple of scrolls, perhaps we will have to prepare you for some interviews."
Crystal turned around, a clearly fake smile glued to his face, he sat down on his haunches. He felt suffocated as if the whole room was on fire, with him sitting in the middle. He stared forward without blinking for quite some time and finally said, "This is fine."
