"Hey, wake up," Pretzel Roll nudged the sleeping students with a hoof. "Library's closin' soon, so unless you want stay locked up in here, you should get up. Really." The students just stopped their snoring. After prodding them a few more times, the librarian gave up. They wouldn't notice they were locked inside if they woke up after he came back. Before leaving the library, he lit his horn and shot a beam of magic at a nearby newspaper, turning it into a red wool blanket. After draping it over the students, he left the library. The students apparently were going to have some sort of test, so they came to the library to study. That was all Pretzel knew, but to find them sleeping on the carpet was a surprise, to say the most. Cozy Glow, who had volunteered to organize the books, told him that they were tired from helping her sort the books. Strangely enough, she didn't seem as tired as the others.
He began to think. What where those weird noises earlier? They sounded like Twilight shouting. He didn't see her come in, so where was she? Under the school? That could explain the clanging noises. What else would that mean? A secret basement in the school was what that would mean. But where was the entrance? Pretzel turned around and went back into the library. He headed over to the sleeping students, who had gone back to snoring. He lifted them up with his magic and checked underneath them. Nothing. He looked behind the paintings. Nothing. He peered into a nearby grate. Nothing, except for some crystals. After an hour of searching, he found nothing, not even by pulling out books from bookshelves, or pressing on the walls. Unless there wasn't actually a secret basement and he was just hearing things, the place was hidden well. Sleep time. He locked the door, crawled under a table, and drifted off to sleep.
After waking up the next morning, he unlocked the door. He glanced at the students, who were somehow still asleep. How could he wake them up? Water. That would do. He trotted outside to the courtyard and magicked up some water from the fountain. Wake up time, he thought, returning to the sleeping creatures on the floor with a small glob of water hovering behind him. He removed the red blanket, dropping the water onto the sleeping students. They woke up with cries of surprise. "Awake now?" Pretzel asked.
"Yeah, yeah, we're awake," Smolder replied. The dragon rubbed her eyes.
"Upupup. Studystudystudy. You have a test," Pretzel said, prodding them with a book.
Sandbar yawned, "Didn't we get an extension?" The earth pony stretched, yawning again.
"You still gotta wake up anyway. And study. What's the test about?"
"Friendship's Effect on the Course of Equestrian History." Ocellus answered.
"Oh. I can give you a rough timeline of events," Pretzel sat down, then continued, "Let's start with the Pillars. They planted the Tree and they went off to fight Stygian," He waved a hoof, "Then it grew up or something and made the Elements. The princesses used the Elements on Discord and statuized him, then Luna became Nightmare Moon and she was banished with the Elements. And then after a thousand years of effectless friendship Nightmare Moon returned, and then your professors used the Elements to reform her. Discord became unstoned and hid the Elements in a book. He also discordified the ponies of Ponyville. After undiscordifying her friends, Twilight and her undiscordified friends used the Elements and restatuiezed him. I know those aren't words, but you know what I mean. After that there was a changeling invasion at Canterlot," Ocellus squirmed a bit, "But I'm not sure if that has anything to do with friendship. Then Sombra popped up with the Crystal Empire and the Crystal Heart got rid of him. After some time Twilight decided it was a good idea to use an unfinished spell. It messed up things. She fixed them by making her friends do their old things and she finished the spell. Then she became a princess."
"Well that escalated quickly." Gallus commented.
"Very." Pretzel agreed, before continuing, "I'm kinda bored of talking, so I'll make it simpler. After Twilight ascended, plunderseeds popped up. Returning the Elements to the Tree fixed that. Then there was Tirek. After blasting him there was Starlight. After reforming her there was the changeling coup. Then the Pillars came back with Stygian and he was reformed. He makes good books now. Then Storm Guy happened. Making friends with his commander was a good idea. It worked. After that there was the founding of this school, and you should know the rest." The students nodded.
Yona raised her yak hoof, "Uh, Yona not understand."
"I didn't expect you to, but it would be better if you did."
Gallus scowled, "Not cool."
"Nope. Not at all." Pretzel nodded his head and grinned, earning a frown from Smolder. "You don't need to get a perfect score, you just need to not fail. Simple as that. Just remember the important things and you should be fine."
"Well that should be easy!" Silverstream said, flapping her wings in apparent excitement. Pretzel nodded again.
"You should be going to class. Shoo. Shoo." Pretzel waved a hoof towards the door, gesturing them to leave. They picked themselves up off the floor and left the library. Pretzel, remembering the theoretical secret basement, thought some more. There was at least one secret passage in the school, so why couldn't there be a secret basement? He already checked around the place, and he found nothing. But what about that grate? What was it for if it just had crystals in it? He went back to the grate and removed it from the floor, setting it down on a bookshelf. He looked in the hole. Still just crystals. He stomped on the crystals. The crystals didn't move. He stood on the crystals and jumped with all of his might.
When his hooves slammed onto the crystals, they shattered, much to his surprise, and he fell onto a slanted platform of crystal, which oddly didn't shatter. As he carefully slid down the branch-like platform, he surveyed the area. He was in a crystal cave of some sort. Sort. Why was the expression 'of some sort'? How many sorts were there? It was a weird expression. Now what was he thinking about earlier? Oh yes, the cave. He was in a cave. It was quite the wide cave, and it stretched off in several directions. Where should he go? And where was the other entrance? He turned in a random direction and walked away from the entrance. What could possibly go wrong? He did not just jinx that.
As he later found out, he did.
