King had seen a few interesting locales while he'd been in Equestria. Even just in Ponyville, for that matter, as he was pretty certain he had passed a giant gingerbread house earlier and that seemed pretty odd to him. That aside, this castle certainly took the cake on local oddities, himself aside. He approached the door and knocked, expecting a guard or something, only for the door to be answered by a large purple lizard, nearly big enough to reach his chin, if you counted his spines.

"Hello..?" the lizard asked, head titled in confusion.

"Uhh..." King began, pausing in confusion of his own before continuing. "...is this the library?"

"Yeah," he said before making a slightly puzzled face. "Well, this is actually the Castle Of Friendship, but we have a library here, and it is open to the public. Are you looking to borrow a book?"

"Actually, I am. I'm a little, uhh, new in town?" he said, hoping the creature didn't ask too terribly many questions. "I'm just sort of trying to piece together what kind of place Equestria is, I guess. I've never been before."

"Yeah, I kinda woulda guessed that one. We don't tend to get a lot of zebras here in Ponyville, aside from Zecora. Well, if you'd like, I can guide you to the library and you can have a look around, see if there are any books that catch your eye." He smiled broadly, shortly before coughing up a small gout of green flames that somehow turned into a scroll in his hands. He opened it and quickly skimmed through the contents. "Oh, geez, that's Twilight. I'd better help her with that. Uhh, the library is down the hall, and it's the last door on the left. My name's Spike, by the way, it was nice to meet you."

"King, and likewise. See you around, Spike," he said before waving to Spike and heading into the castle, quickly finding his way to the library and tearing into the history section first and working through each section incredibly fast, finding himself capable of reading and processing information at a rate far above what he was used to. He had made it through three quarters of the books there before the sun finally began to set and Twilight entered the library.

"Oh, hello! I didn't know anycreature was still in here!" She smiled despite not recognizing the zebra before her, always eager to make a new friend. "My name is Twilight Sparkle. What's yours?"

"King," he coolly responded, mostly disregarding her in favor of the books.

"King, huh? That's an interesting name for a zebra, isn't it?" She tilts her head quizzically, though when he doesn't respond further, she tries to continue. "That aside, it seems like you really love books, huh? I may be understating it here, but I'm pretty fond of them myself, you know. Maybe we could trade favorites or discuss them sometime?"

"Maybe, I suppose." He was already starting to get annoyed, and he kinda wanted to get her off of his back for the moment. While behind the cover of books, he removed his guide from his chest. "Here, actually. I found this strange book not too long ago. Seeing as how you seem to enjoy books as such, maybe you should have a look at this one?" He was hoping the strange book might keep her off of his back for a few minutes.

Naturally, she immediately accepted, always interested to read a book she had never seen before, and certainly willing for a potential new friend. However, once she picked up the book and got a good look at it, once she felt the slimy yet dry cover, read the incomprehensible text, felt exhausting hefting despite it also feeling lighter than air, she immediately felt as though she had to put it down. Now, however, she was curious. She immediately opened the book and set it down to read it. Skimming through the countless illegible pages, she began to feel strange. She could almost read the text, like it was written in a language just barely harder to read than standard text, yet she just couldn't seem to comprehend it. "I'm sorry, King, was it? Do you mind if I borrow this book for a bit?"

"I dunno, you probably shouldn't" King said, suddenly realizing that it might be kinda hard to explain why he had to keep track of a book he just happened to "find."

"Are you sure, I'd just like to borrow it for just a few minutes, I'll have it right back to you," she said before rushing out of the room to her own personal study, planning to thoroughly dissect anything and everything about this book that she could manage, no matter what.

"That... could be an issue. Oh well, I'm sure it'll be fine. Hopefully." He shrugged casually. It wasn't like she could read the damn thing anyways. She'd probably just show up tomorrow or something and return it. She wasn't the type to get that obsessive over something silly like a book, right?

Shortly after this, King felt he had learned enough, at least for the day, and began to leave the castle before being stopped by little lizard, Spike, again.

"Hey, did you happen to see a purple alicorn while you were in there? She hasn't come for dinner yet and I'm a little worried."

"No, I haven't," he replied, and it was the truth, as he hadn't been paying a single iota of attention to what Twilight had looked like before, only that she was distracting him from reading. "I hope you find her, though. Have a good night, little dragon."

He then headed out into the night, hoping to find an inn to stay for the night. He found one after not too long a search, though he quickly realized he might need money to stay there. Luckily, he had found a single bit on the ground not too long ago, so he had a good base to work from. He molded the hoof outwards again, creating four golden coins that looked just the same as the first before heading into the inn.

"Hi, and welcome to The Hungry Sprite! Are you looking to stay the night here, sir?" the mare at the front desk asked jovially, excited to have a customer. Turns out, naming an inn after a small disaster the town experienced a few years back is not a good way to drum up business.

"I am. How much would a night be, here?"

"Four bits, sir," then she smiled a shy smile and continued. " though I'll mark it down to three if you'll tell your friends about us. I would really appreciate it."

"I'll take it, and I'll make sure everyone knows just how pleasant a stay I had here." He smiled at her warmly before handing her his three copied bits and heading to his room. Immediately, he laid down in bed, feeling exhausted. It didn't take him long at all to fall asleep. However, his sleep didn't last too long as he heard some heavy knocking on his door and the sound of strange music oompah-ing loudly just outside his door.

"Oh god..."

"I forgot the damn party..."

Author's Note

Sorry it took a whole day. It was my day off work and I was very tired. I pretty much just slept all day. Back though, so that's nice.

Also, sorry for the errors. Wrote this one on my phone and autocorrect is a stupid bitch.