"Alright, first things first. I suppose Princess Twilight already gave you a general overview of the Silent Vaults?"

Spike nodded. "She wanted to, yeah, but I already knew the basics. That drinking buddy I mentioned earlier was already a good source of information... though I don't know anything about this Silent Vault in particular, the Library?"

Luster hummed, flipping some more pages. "Alright, that simplifies it somewhat. Let's see... okay, to start, this story begins some four centuries ago, nearly a decade in the aftermath of the Deer War, when Celestia authorized and used Starfall to wipe out the invading force. Due to the absolute destructive nature of the spell, seven enormous craters were formed from the multiple impacts, which eventually turned into the Seven Vales as we know them today after nature settled into them."

"Right, that was an... unpleasant history lesson, back when Twilight first told me. I still get shivers whenever I hear about that event, to think that Celestia and Luna could annihilate an entire species, just like that." Spike said, looking down solemnly.

Emerald thought for a moment, before continuing. "Well, Celestia did what she had to, in the end, to protect Equestria. The Deers had already conquered and razed a few notable nations before they set their sights on our homeland, and their unique anti-magic equipment and dreaded airships had made them widely known as being brash and brazen, thinking themselves unbeatable. They were not, obviously, as history has shown."

She started to bite on the pen in her hoof, somewhat trailing off.

"It was unfortunate, however, that we never managed to learn just how they came up with their designs. Anti-magic is difficult enough as it is to cast, so to use it as an enchantment is unheard of, even after so many centuries. A pittance, then, that Starfall also destroyed all their records."

Emerald stopped talking when she noticed Spike giving her a strange look, before realizing what she was saying.

"I mean, the enormous loss of life was, eh, terrible as well. Just to be clear, sir Spike! It's just, you know, it happened so long ago, and it, well..." She started to bumble, blushing as she was trying to pick herself up.

Spike shook his head, putting up a claw. "Ah, no, it's okay. I didn't meant to insinuate that.. well, I admit that anti-magic is an interesting topic, so it is a shame that there was no other option Celestia could take back then. Please, do go on."

Emerald breathed in and out a few times, trying to find her pace again, and started turning some more pages.

"Okay... eh, Silent Library, right. So, the craters slash vales were declared forbidden zones by Celestia shortly after they were formed. Initial reports of ponies entering the craters to officially look for survivors, and unofficially to loot whatever was salvageable, spoke of numerous ponies suddenly falling ill, and when they were brought to a hospital and examined, the doctors discovered that all the magic in their bodies had effectively been destroyed. Somehow, someway, the doctors theorized, the impact of Starfall had somehow broken the anti-magic enchantments, and that clouds of anti-magic were somehow 'floating' inside the craters, as impossible as it may sound to modern scientific standards."

Emerald looked particulary annoyed at that last statement she made.

"Celestia immediately barred all entry when she was notified, of course, and ordered that the entire area around the craters was effectively on lockdown, until she was certain that the clouds had, eh, dissipated or something. It took over ten years ago before the craters were deemed safe again, at which point, like I said earlier, nature had already settled in and was in the process of turning the the craters into the Seven Vales we know today. Of course, by then nearly all traces of the Deer folk were gone, including all of their records. And so a great nation, as terrible as they may have been, was lost to time."

Spike cocked his head. "You're right, that does sound somewhat insane, clouds of magic? Then again, Twilight's always bemoaning how hard it is to study and research anti-magic, as it's so hostile to innately magical beings like ponies and even us dragons, so maybe we still don't know enough about it... wait, the craters were untouched for a decade, and nothing remained? Then you're saying..."

Spike's eyes went wide at the realization, before jumping up and looking down at the ground he was still sitting on. Emerald was confused by his sudden behavior, before it dawned on her.

"The remains of the Deer folk themselves? Well, yeah, that goes without saying, it's how nature settled in here in the first place. Starfall made sure that everything that lived here before the impact, be it plant or animal, on the ground or under it, died near instantly. So the, eh, tens of thousands or so corpses of the Deer folk that eventually started to decompose in the craters formed a base for new live to move in. If you dig even a few steps down, I'm sure you'll stumble on some kind of bone or the other."

Spike almost looked sick as the words sunk in. Emerald, noticing the look on his face, stood up and got a bit closer.

"Ah, I see... My apologies, sir Spike, I could have eased that in a bit better, perhaps. Are you alright?"

Realising that Luster and Emerald had already spend a month here, having known what was under their hooves before they even began, Spike mentally berated himself. As morbid as it is, and the feeling of nausea still somewhat present in stomach, he forced himself to calm down.

He put up a claw to halt Emerald's advance, trying to show that he was better now. "I... yeah, just needed a moment to... process that. Circle of life and death and all that, huh? Hehe..."

Spike tried to laugh, but stopped when he noticed Emerald's gaze was still concerned. "No, really, I'm, well, fine now. Just, you know, didn't see that coming." He sat down again, as if to prove his point. "I mean, if the two of you managed to hold out here for over a month, who am I to complain? Just... you know, don't remind me of the whole, eh, sea of skeletons under my feet again, if you could. I can, well, do without that, for now. Let's... let's continue, yeah. I don't think it'll be much longer before Luster wakes up again, after all."

Emerald looked at Spike a few more seconds, clearly unsure if his listener was being honest. In the end, she decided to comply with his request, and went to sit down again, picking her notebook up again.

"Well, where did I leave off... oh, right, ten years later. When search parties were started up again, this time without anyone falling sick, the Vales were properly scoured for the first time. Like I said, nothing really remained for them to find, but one party did stumble on something they never expected to find. I'm of course talking about the structure in front of us, the seventh and so far last of the Silent Vaults. Perhaps it was a stroke of pure luck, perhaps it was an act of fate, but the impact of Starfall directly on top of it is what lead to its unearthing and subsequent discovery. It was eventually dubbed the Silent Library, after the image of a stack of books above the entrance, and that's pretty much where we are today."

Luster finally closed her notebook, seeming satisfied with her story.

"This place was thoroughly examined after it was discovered, naturally, with researchers from all over Equestria and beyond swarming about. The fact that there was an indication of dead language writing on the outside walls got them even more excited. But in the end, just as with the other Silent Vaults, they couldn't conclude anything worthwhile. The writing on the walls was too faded away, and the only thing they did learn didn't help them at all."

Emerald suddenly turned towards the Library, and pointed a hoof at it. "Actually, you can see it for yourself, sir Spike. Have you noticed the state the outer walls are in?"

Spike turned to look, but try as he might, he didn't notice anything in particular. Other than the icon of books and the outline of a doorframe, the black walls were immaculate as far as he could tell, beyond the few scraps of faded symbols here and there. "They... look fine, I guess? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking at?"

Emerald looked at him with a sly smile, almost smugly. "Precisely, sir Spike. They are entirely undamaged, to the point that you can't even see a single crack or the like anywhere. It endured Starfall, maybe head-on, and even now, four centuries later, it looks none the worse for it. Back then, even though all attempts to damage a Silent Vault in the hopes of making even the tiniest of an opening were met with disappointment every single time, it was then that researchers truly realized how impregnable the Silent Vaults were, if even Starfall couldn't so much as make a scratch on it."

Spike softly whistled. "I already knew that no-one ever managed to break one open by force, but this is... well, beyond words, I'd say."

Emerald hummed in agreement. "You're right about that. It's a big part of why the Silent Vaults are so fascinating, but also so frustrating at the same time, and clearly showcases just how advanced the bald apes must have been to build such a thing. A truly unforceable vault."

"And one that you and Lusted are somehow apparantly close to opening, lest I forget why I came here in the first place. So, can we now talk about what that time-spell uncovered?" Spike asked, eager to hear the conclusion of this story. Whether it was the enthusiasm with which Emerald relayed its discovery, or the anticipation of what could be a monumental scientific and historical event, he wasn't even entirely sure if it wasn't both, he somehow was happy that Twilight convinced him to come here.

His mission came first, of course, and if Luster didn't leave tomorrow he would personally drag her back, but still... he couldn't help but feel a shiver of, something, though he couldn't quite place it.

"Not just close. We already know how to open it." A voice suddenly said behind him, making him jump up.

Turning around, he noticed Luster was standing behind him. Was he so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't even hear her wake up and approach?

Spike shook his head, lambasting himself for dropping his guard like that. Then he suddenly froze, actually realising what Luster just said.

"You... wait, what?" Spike began, but found himself lost for words.

Luster sat down herself, clearing a bit of her frizzy hair out. She looked at the pegasus, a bit annoyed.

"Weren't you going to explain it, Emerald? I had thought you would be done already, so we could continue where we left off... how long was I out?"

In response, Emerald Streak looked up, taking a peek at the sun shining through the treetops overhead.

"A bit over an hour, miss. And I was just about to, actually, I simply... went on a bit of a tangent, here and there. Oh, do you want to inform sir Spike yourself?"

The unicorn sighed. "Alright, I will. Spike, you listening?"

The drake snapped out of his thoughts, still stuck on those few words.

"What... what do you mean, you know how to open it?! Neither Professor Paleo or Twilight told me anything about that." He asked, clearly in disbelief.

Luster rolled her eyes, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Because I didn't inform them yet, of course. We hadn't finished translating all the dead language writings on the wall, so I didn't see a need to yet."

Spike looked at Emerald with a pleading look in his eyes, clearly flabbergasted. Emerald could only offer a sheepish smile in return.

"It's true, sir Spike. We couldn't have done so without the 'window"-spell Princess Twilight gave us, of course, but we already uncovered instructions on how to open the Silent Library about a fortnight ago. Still, there was a lot more writing on the outer wall that we hadn't studied yet, and miss Luster wanted to be certain she had all the possible information before attempting to follow those instructions, which is why we've been taking so long, just in case there was some kind of warning hidden there."

Luster clacked her tongue at this. "And it didn't even teach us anything, in the end. Because as it turns out, it's just the same sentence written all over the wall, just in over thirty different dead languages! Would it have been too much to ask for the Bald Apes to just stick to one or two? No, of course not, let's make over thirty different ones, that's not going to cause problems or the like. Or, well, we think it's that many, at least, because we've never even seen a majority of them before, so we're not even sure about the number, and neither what those parts are saying as we can't translate those!"

She stopped and thought for a moment, calming down while considering something. "Okay, no, that's not the right way to put it. What we found is helpful, yes, immensely so even, as being able to compare different dead languages that describe the same sentence could teach us a lot about them, if that is even the case, and helps with the study of the Bald Apes in general. But that's just in a linguistic sense. What I meant to say is that it didn't tell us a bloody thing about the Silent Library itself, or what is in it, as far as we are able to tell, if you catch my drift."

Spike couldn't help but scratch his forehead, overwhelmed as he was. If she noticed, Luster made no effort to slow down.

"Still, we were almost done with outer wall at any pace. Just two or so more casts and we've looked at everything we could find, which is why I said that earlier that we would be leaving tomorrow either way. Once we're done, we'll try to follow the instructions, see if the Library opens, and if it doesn't then there's nothing left for us to do here, end of story. Did I forget anything, Emerald?"

The pegasus thought for a moment, before shaking her head. "No, I think that's all, miss. Sir Spike, do you have any further questions? If not, then I think miss Luster wants to finish with those last few casts now. And while she's channeling, she needs to be as focused as she can be, so we can't talk during it."

Both mares looked at the drake, who suddenly didn't know what to do with himself.

"I... uh... not really. No, wait, there is one thing I've been meaning to ask. How does this "window"-spell work then, precisely? Twilight said that it was completely harmless, which I found a bit, eh, difficult to believe."

Luster waved a hoof dismissively. "Oh, no need to worry about that. Put simply, think of it as a photograph drawn in the air, the image on it being directly what's behind it. Now, imagine that same photograph being taken hundreds of times in the past, with years between each other, then taking tiny pieces from each photograph and compiling them into one large picture. That's effectively what you see once the 'window' is channeled, do you understand?"

Spike frowned, somewhat understanding the explanation. "I, yeah, I guess. But that sounds needlessly complicated when the result is almost completely useless, right? If the, eh, subject of the photograph changes in any way over time, the picture itself will be, what, a jumbled mess?"

Emerald hummed in agreement, and Luster chimed in. "That's right. Then again, it's also still a spell in its experimental stage. If the princess ever changes her mind about time-magic and this was properly developed, it could bring about, to put it mildly, a lot of changes. Anyway, if the subject of the photograph doesn't change over time, than the image is a lot more clear, though still somewhat distorted. Like, say, our ancient Silent Library here."

Spike started to catch up, wanting to speak up but Luster cut him off. "Well, if you want to see for yourself, we're going to start again. Emerald, are you ready?"

The pegasus nodded silently, and both mares suddenly got up, leaving Spike scrambling to follow. Taking a seat to the far right end of the wall, Luster closed her eyes, an intense glow starting to envelop her horn. A few moments later, a rectangular shape of light appeared between them and the wall, slowly expanding in size.

Spike watched on in amazement, the wall inside the window violently flickering before it settled down. Parts of the view inside the window still flickered, but Spike could now clearly see the general outline of strange symbols where there were none before. Emerald seemed to see them as well, as she silently started to transcribe the symbols he could make out in the notebook she had been holding all this time, and Spike now understood how they had been working together, remembering what Luster was doing when he first saw her earlier today.

While Luster can channel the spell, she needs to close her eyes to maintain focus, and so it falls to Emerald to transcribe the readable writing down, even if she herself doesn't know how to translate it. Afterwards, when Luster is recovering, she takes the notes Emerald wrote down and sees if she can translates them herself. Rinse and repeat.

Time passed, and the window eventually broke apart, taking Spike out of his train of thought. If he had to guess, he would say that about 15 minutes had passed since they started... which matches up with what Emerald told him.

"Does that satisfy your curiosity, Spike?" Luster said, and the dragon nodded. Emerald Streak handed her notebook to the other mare, who immediately started writing. The pegasus stood up and walked to one of the sacks, mirrorring Luster's earlier actions and taking out some snacks, this time enough for three, while also grabbing a few flasks of water.

Spike didn't even realize that he hadn't drunk anything since he arrived until Emerald offered him a flask, which he gratefully accepted. Taking a large gulp, he eagerly cleared his throat, before looking as the other mares did the same.
Not much was said for a short while, once again only the scratching of pen on paper the only audible sound around them.

Emerald eventually broke the silence. "I think we explored everyting, miss Luster."

The unicorn didn't even look up, continuing to write away. "You sure? I thought we still needed one more cast?"

"No, I couldn't see anything more from the side. We should be in the clear now." Emerald said, before emptying her flask.

"Alright, good. Good. Can you start the preparations then, Emerald? I'm almost done here, and it's looking like this batch wasn't useful either, so the plan hasn't changed." Luster said, looking back at the notebook.

The drake wanted to ask what she meant by that, but the other mare had already gotten up and walked over to the bags again, this time opening the 'equipment' bag and starting to empty it, organizing the tools that came out on the ground.

Spike was looking between the two, wondering what was going on, before he remembered what Luster had said to him when she woke up.

"Wait, wait... you're going to actually try it? Try to open the Library? No, wait, how are you even going to do that? I totally forgot to even ask what those translated instructions you found even were!"

Luster closed the notebook, having finished her translations. She stood up and walked towards the outline of the tall door, giving Spike a sidewards glance. "Eh, that can wait, this should take just a moment. Luster, are you ready?"

The pegasus nodded, having already finished her organizing and holding her spear at the ready, standing next to Luster Dawn. Before Spike could say anything else, the unicorn's voice suddenly rang out loud and clear, in a tongue that sounded almost intelligible to him.

Registreer nieuwe gebruiker; Annelies Lambertsen.

Everyone was quiet for a while. Emerald gripped her spear tightly, Luster looked intently at the Library, while Spike was... well, not sure what to do, if anything, so he stayed silent as well.

Then, to the surprise of everyone present, the outline of the door frame started moving downwards. It revealed a lit tunnel gently sloping downwards behind it, a faint tune audible from within its depths, until a voice started ringing out from no discernible source.

Nieuwe gebruiker geregistreerd. Welkom, Annelies. Geniet van uw verblijf. En herinner, we sluiten om seven uur stipt vandaag, dus verlaat gelieve het gebouw voor het aangeduide uur.

Emerald started to shine, elation clear on her face, while Luster audibly let out a breath she had been holding. The two looked at each other and smiled, knowing what they had accomplished.

Spike, meanwhile, was absolutely losing his mind.

Emerald Dawn noticed the expression on Spike's face, and amusedly motioned towards Luster, who turned around as well.

"You heard it, Spike. We're officially welcome inside the Silent Library now, wouldn't you know it?"

Spike couldn't even say anything, taken aback as he was. As he did, that strange voice suddenly rang out again.

Gelieve de doorgang vrij te maken, deze gaat nu automatisch sluiten. Ik herhaal, gelieve the doorgang vrij te maken, deze gaat nu sluiten.

Just a few moments after that, the door that slid down before now suddenly slid upwards, sealing the Library again, as if it never even opened.

Luster nodded, as if understanding something, though Spike could only guess as to what. He still hadn't regained himself enough to speak up.

"It closes at seven o'clock, then. Emerald, what time is it now?" Luster asked, turning back to the pegasus mare, who had put her spear away again by now. Said mare looked skywards again, studying the position of the sun.

"Four o'clock, give or take, miss. If you're right, we should still have about three-ish hours left, I suppose?"

Luster gave an approving nod, before walking over to the drake. "Alright, that's enough of that. I take it you're wondering what just happened?"

Spike suddenly snapped to attention when he was adressed, finally shaking him out of his stupor.

"That's... putting it very lightly, Luster. At least give me a blazing warning before you pull something like... whatever that was!"

Luster shrugged. "Eh, you seem fine now. Here, take a look at this. This is the only part we could translate from the dead language writings on the wall." She pulled the notebook out again, and flipped to a specific page before turning it around and giving it to Spike.

As he took the notebook, he looked at the page and noticed the same weird symbols he saw through the window of light earlier. A bit under it, there was a translation written in Luster's elegant writing style, which was underlined several times. He read it out loud.

"To enter the building, please state your registered name loudly and clearly. If this is your first time visiting, please register with the following command, 'new user, (name here)'?" As he finished, he looked up, right into Luster's eyes, disbelief clear in his face.

"It's... no, that's it? That's... you're telling me that the... I'm sorry, I need to process this, that's..." He said, shaking his head.

"It's practical, at the very least. If you know how, entry is extremely easy to obtain, and considering said 'how' was clearly written on the outer walls if you could understand it, this indicates at the very least that this was once a publicly accessible building. Perhaps even for travellers from far and wide, considering how many times the instruction was repeated in all those dead languages." Luster said.

"I was going to say dumb, but that works too, I suppose." Spike said, not managing to hold his sarcasm back. "And even then, it still worked! It's been here for what, millenia? And the door just, what, worked, after you asked it nicely to? Did no-one ever bother to try that?"

"Well, I don't know if people tried to before, but you're forgetting a small detail here, Spike. I specifically needed to say the entry command in a relevant dead language, which in itself is a small miracle that it even worked, all things considered. Our theories on the Bald Apes and their languages are shaky at best, let alone the pronunciation of one, so I'm, well, very happy we seemed to nail the head on part of it, at least. And as for it actually still running... well, it seemed the Bald Apes knew how to build things to last, in more than one sense of the word. That's all."

Spike suddenly seemed to realize something.

"I... I need to let Twilight know. She's going to be... well, she's going to want to hear about this."

He took out pen and paper from his hipsack, and wanted to write something down, until said paper was suddenly ripped from his grip in a magical glow.

"Actually, if you mind... could you wait with that for a while longer, Spike?" Luster suddenly asked, confusing him.

"What, why? She's going to want to hear of this, no doubt about that. Heck, I'll bet she'll even personally teleport here when she receives my letter, just to congratulate you!" Spike said, not knowing where Luster was going with this.

Luster nodded. "Yeah, I think she will as well... which is kind of the problem, you see." After Spike clearly did not, she continued.

"As happy as I would be for my teacher to come here, it also comes with a caveat. If she were to learn that we found a way in, I have no doubt that she would immediately lock it down and set out to assemble an exploration team to enter, which knowing her could take, well, months at worst."

Spike still wasn't following along.

"So what are you trying to say? Wait, no... Luster, please tell me you don't want to explore it now?!"

Luster brightened up at that. "Ah, so you do understand, that's good. Well, it'll only be a short, cursory expedition, at best. You heard what that... voice said earlier, right? If I translated it right, it basically said that the library will close in three hours, so we can take at least a quick peek before reporting back. In and out, as it were, that's all. If you want to come along, be my guest, but I'm not going to lose this chance." She finished, determination clear in her eyes.

Spike wanted to object, pointing out how insane this was... until he suddenly recalled Twilight's words from the day before.

Whatever happens, can you, well, watch out for her? Emerald will be there to help as well, of course, but it'd put that voice at ease if I knew you were there to help her as well, before she does something rashly.

Spike silently cursed himself for recklessly agreeing with her back then, but recognized a promise when he saw one. Luster clearly wasn't going to back down from this, so he begrudgingly accepted that he didn't really have a choice in the matter, silently wondering if Twilight already anticipated this outcome, if only subconsciously.

"I... fine, I'm coming along. But on the condition that I let someone know what we're doing, who can inform Twilight in case something does go wrong and we don't come back out."

Luster seemed to agree, thankfully. "Fair enough. It's an additional layer of precaution, if nothing else. Did you have someone in mind?"

"Yeah, Starlight Glimmer. If she needs to, she can quickly reach Twilight, and she still owes me a few favors, so she's trustworthy enough. I'll write what transpired here, how we got in, and that she should hold off on telling Twi if she doesn't receive another letter after four more hours. Will that do?"

Luster considered it for a moment, before agreeing. "Alright, go ahead."

Spike retrieved the paper Luster took away, wrote his message down, and then rolled it up before throwing it in the air and incinerating it in his flames, the ashes flying away towards their destination.

After he was done, he looked at Luster again. "Okay, so what now? Do we just go in, just like that?"

Luster shook her head. "No, I still need to recover from casting the window-spell, after all. And we need to be properly equipped before entering, though Emerald's busying herself with that, speak with her for more information. I'm going to lie down for an hour or so, and then we'll enter. Eat, drink, go to the toilet, I don't care, just be ready when we are."

And with that, she once again turned around and walked to her bedding, plopping down with a care in the world, a quiet snoring once again audible.

Spike was almost jealous with how quickly she managed to do that.

Turning to the side, he saw Emerald was busy off to the side, standing back near the tools she took out before the door was opened.

Walking over, he struck up a conversation. "So, that was quite the surprise, huh?"

Emerald looked up, putting down a few sets of what looked like crystal-powered flashlights. "You could say that again, yeah. Well, we were at least expecting it, or more like hoping for it, but yeah, I'm, well, ecstatic that it worked. This is, eh, calling it exceptional would still be doing it a disservice, I feel like. I take it Luster already told you about her plan?"

Spike nodded. "That she wants to enter before informing Twilight, yeah. Which I feel is still incredibly stupid, mind, but I agreed to come along, as she's clearly not going to be swayed by anything I could bring up, so I might as well tag along to make sure that nothing happens to her. She told me about being properly equipped before going in?"

"Right. As you can see, I was doing just that." Emerald said, before grabbing a few different things here and there. "Besides a small supply of food and water and some rope, here's the essentials you're going to want to wear before going in. Best case scenario, we don't end up using any of them, but considering we're about to plunge into one of the most mysterious places left in this world, it doesn't hurt to be at least somewhat prepared for whatever we might find in there."

She started to go over each item, explaining its function and how to securely fasten and wear each.

"First up, oxygen tanks with attached gas mask, and a rebreather just to be sure. We don't know if the inside of the Silent Library was hermetically sealed or not, or if there has been a circulation of fresh air present. If not, these two combined should guarantee any healthy pony about six hours of breathable air, though I remember dragons managing to do even longer with them."

"In addition, there's also this particular Diamond Dog marvel of engineering, a multi-tracker wristband for a variety of gasses, essential for any serious cave explorer. Basically, if any of the needles leave their green zone and an alarm starts to blare, be sure to put your mask up, as the air isn't certain to be breathable. Additionally, because Diamond Dogs never had any magic, this is designed to run on another power source, crystals in this case. One small pure crystal can make it run for well over seven days, so for short exploration sessions there's no fear of it suddenly running out of power. I just swapped the crystals yesterday, by the by, so that's all in order."

"Next is a compass with built-in depth gauge, so you can keep your bearings about you. This comes packaged with a set of crayons, in case you get lost and want to mark the path you've taken, to avoid running in circles. You'll also need to carry a first-aid kit, because if you do get lost and then get hurt, you'll at least have a chance to patch yourself up before continuing on."

"And lastly, there's the trusty flashlight, powered by crystals as well. Take a set of three, just in case one breaks while we're inside. And that's... about it, I guess. Luster and I are also going to carry climbing gear, in case we encounter any spaces that are too cramped for me to fly in, but I take it that isn't going to be a problem for a dragon like you?"

Spike nodded. "Yeah, claws are much better suited for that than hooves. Okay, that's everything then. I was going to ask why Luster even brought three or more sets of all those things if it was just going to be the two of you here, but I realized that this is Luster we're talking about, and that she just brought along a spare of everyting just in case. I suppose we now just wait until Luster wakes up again?"

"Mmh, you're right about Luster always being prepared. And I suppose so, yes, we just have to wait for the time being. If you want, we can just talk until then."

Spike agreed, and sat down, Emerald following along. As they fell into a relaxed rhythm, time flew by.

After an hour, Luster woke up, and walked over to the pair. Talking a bit more amongst themselves, they each started to gear up, afterwards walking over to the entrance of the Silent Library.

Sharing one last look between them, they all nodded, and Luster spoke the words again to open the door. It opened, the voice spoke again, and the way forward was clear, a faint tune becoming audible once again at the far end of a well-lit passageway. Though they were all anxious, some more than others, they all continued on all the same, already well aware that they were writing history.

Spike went in first, his dragon eyes seeing the clearest of them all, and his dragon body being more resistant to damage than the others should they trigger some kind of trap ahead, as unlikely as it was. Emerald Streak followed, spear at the ready to defend her friend, her dark-purple armor gleaming under the exploration equipment. Luster Dawn closed the small column, intently studying her surroundings.

Not even a few steps after entering though, Luster suddenly froze. Emerald noticed, and turned around.

"Miss? Is there a problem?" She asked.

"No, that can't be... Emerald, Spike, wait here, I'll be right back." Luster said, and ran outside again. Spike and Emerald looked at each other, confused.

"What happened?" Spike asked. Emerald shook her head, before turning around to look in the direction Luster herself was looking in, before noticing something peculiar.

"Oh, down here. On the wall, it seems to be some kind of writing? Scribbled, though, as if it wasn't planned to be written here? If it's dead language writing, it isn't similar to anything I've transcribed from the outer wall, that I'm sure of."

Spike got closer as well, and when he took a closer look, his heart almost skipped a beat. "Wait, I... I think I recognize those symbols. Some of the books in Twilight's study have covers with text similar to these symbols, I think she called it-"

"Proto-Equestrian, no doubt about it." Luster finished for Spike, surprising the other two. When they turned, they saw the unicorn approaching with a thick book levitating besides her, one she was quickly paging through.

"Proto..." Emerald began, but Luster quickly cut her off, stopping before the scribble on the wall. "Proto-Equestrian, the language used by the pony tribes in the early days when Equestria was formed, when each tribe still had an unique language specific to them and a unified language was needed. It went extinct well before your own period of historical interest, Emerald, so it's not too surprising you hadn't heard of it. Actually, outside of a few people at the university, some librarians, and the Princess of course, I don't think anyone currently alive knows about it, as it relatively quickly evolved almost unrecognizably shortly after being adopted, eventually leading to the Equestrian we're using at the moment. Good thing I brought an old treatise on it on the trip, though I only intended to read it when I had some free time. This is... unexpected, to say the least."

Spike scratched his head. "In the early... wait, no, that doesn't make sense. This Silent Vault was uncovered after Starfall impacted here and unearthed the entrance, Emerald mentioned that just earlier. But that was just a few centuries ago, while Equestria itself is thousands of years older than that, right?"

Luster nodded. "And even if someone decided to write this down sometime between Starfall and the present day, in a language no-one had used for millennia, that would still imply that the Silent Library had actually been opened in Equestria's history. As there has been no mention of it in any record that currently exists, as far as anyone else knows, this in itself is something of a conundrum, considering how huge such an event would have been whenever it supposedly happened."

Emerald Streak had a hard time keeping up, not noticing how tight she was gripping her spear. "So, this means... what, precisely?"

Luster kept paging through the book, occasionally looking at the wall and back, and shook her head. "Not a lot we can know for certain, for now. There's a lot of things we can assume from this, but many conflict with each other, so it wouldn't do us any good to unnecessarily brood over them when we could explore further instead. The few things we do know for sure is that someone that knew Proto-Equestrian somehow entered the Silent Library and decided to write this message here, where it was preserved until we came in. Well, that, and the contents of the message itself, of course, which I'm almost done translating. Just one more... word...?"

Luster closed the book, looking unsure at what she just said as she frowned, before the glow surrounding the book suddenly dissipated, dropping the book entirely.

"Luster? What does it say?" Emerald asked, troubled by Luster's reaction. Spike wasn't sure he could handle the stress either. Luster meanwhile could only shrug her shoulders, dumbfounded as she was by the answer, before speaking up.

"The lie must live?"

Author's Note

The name used in the text was created through a random name generator. If this is a real name, then this is purely a coincidence.

Furthermore, If this is in fact your name or someone you know, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, pinky promise.