The Dark Heart of Canterlot

Chapter 3: The Great Library

"I never liked books - that was Twily's job..."

Shining put down his quill and listened. Yes, there it was again. A howling and shrieking, discordant, distant- but coming closer, and closer, till the air was throbbing with the incredible noise.

"What is that?" he muttered. he glanced over at the tiny window. there was only one way to find out. Scraping his uncomfortable chair back on the wooden floorboards, Shining jumped up, knocking the scrolls he'd been reading to the floor, and hurried across the room. As he flung the window open with his magic, what had been a raucous noise abruptly became a deafening cacophony. What was causing it?

The white unicorn colt thrust his head through the small window as far as it go and craned his neck backwards. A blizzard? he thought, surprised by the sight of the snowy banks of whiteness swirling round in the air. In such warm weather? And making so much noise? Then, catching sight of glinting beaks and gleaming talons, he realised that it was a blizzard not of snow, but feathers.

"Snow Eagles!" he gasped. There were hundreds of them! Of course, when growing up in Canterlot City, Shining had seen the white birds of prey flocking before. their eerie flights brought news to the Royal Palace from all over Equestria. Everypony knew that, but the young colt had never seen so many so close before. Nor heard them so loud.

Even now, as they came spiralling down out of the sky, they were maintaining their ear splitting screech. Easing his rear hooves off the ground, Shining squeezed himself a little further out of the window and twisted round until he was lying flat out on his back across the window sill. He watched in awe as in a great feathery drift, the flock of eagles came in to land on the roof of the Tower of Harmony.

"Incredible...Ouch!"

Something numbing and powerful had taken hold of his tail, and was wrenching at it painfully.

"Ow!" he cried- though nowhere near loud enough to be heard above the din of the eagles. He bucked outwards with his hind legs in an attempt to kick whoever or whatever was pulling him. "Get off me!" Shining wriggled awkwardly backwards. The pair of tufted forehooves suddenly grasped his white rear ones.

"Cadence, if that's you I'll...whooaah" he groaned as he found himself being pulled back into the room. The next moment, the back of his head knocked sharply against the edge oft he sill on its way down to the floor, which it struck with a loud crack!

"Unkhh!" the white unicorn groaned.

His rear hooves were released and crashed down onto the floor. His eyelids fluttered open. The room gradually stopped leaping about. "You!" shouted Shining in surprise. "Why in Celestia's name did you do that?"

"A thousand apologies" said Comet Catcher, bowing stiffly, "I did not mean...that is, I thought you were in danger" he muttered with agitation. Shining Armour rubbed the back of his head and winced theatrically.

"I'll be fine" he said at last.

"That is just as well" said the senior pony, "for I have been requested to convey the following summons of attendance by my mistress, who is also your mistress and Princess, who, as such..."

"What?" interrupted Shining sharply.

The old unicorn stallion solemnly closed the window to muffle the shrieking din of the snow eagles. "Princess Celestia wants to see you"

"Now?" asked Shining, steadily standing up on all four hooves.

"No, fifteen minutes ago. Urgent, she said. Extremely urgent."

Without any further convincing, Shining bolted to the door of his little study chamber. Over the last week he had heard, if not seen, just how angry the Sun Princess could be when kept waiting for something important, so different to her mask of gentle care she usually showed. He was just about to leave the room when Comet catch put a forehoof on his shoulder.

"Just One thing, young assistant"

"Yes?"

"The Princess hates to be kept waiting"

With his poky little garret a narrow staircase up from the vast balcony chamber, and the princess' private study two floors above that, Shining hurtled up the stairs in twos and threes, occasionally teleporting short distances in flashes of magenta coloured light. He didn't want to be more late than he already was.

"Ah, there you are Shining Armour" said Celestia cheerily, looking over her shoulder as a hot and breathless unicorn poked his head around the open doors of the Princess' study. "Come in, come in."

Shining entered the room, and was relieved to find that the Sun Princess, who was seated on a long recliner at a polished white oak desk overflowing with royal documents and scrolls, seemed to be in a better mood than he'd anticipated- although she did look strained and tired.

Shining had yet to discover that Comet Catcher would always lie about the time, so that those he was called to summon were always on time.

"And close the door" Celestia added. her voice suddenly dropped to an urgent whisper. "I don't want a single word of what I'm about to say to go beyond these four walls. Is that understood?"

Shining nodded calmly as he closed the door with his magic. "Yes your highness." His heart was pounding. What was the Princess about to say?

The aurora maned alicorn folded her papers and set her quill down on the desk.

"So Shining, how are you finding the Palace?"

"Um...it...it..." he stuttered, at a loss to know where to start. Everything was so bewilderingly different from what he was used to at the Training Camp, so different to the rest of Canterlot- from the unspoken, yet rigidly upheld, pecking-order of the steamy refectory to the intrigue, whispers and lies that took place in the many hidden courtyards. And then there was the High Halls of the School for Gifted Unicorns: the archaic rules he inadvertently kept breaking in Professor Silver Star's classroom- and the lessons themselves, so long, so repetitive, so tedious...

Just then, the white snow eagles outside, who had been silent for a while, started up again. His words were lost to their raucous clamour.

"What was that?" the Princess shouted back, straining to hear Shining's answer.

"Noisy!" Shining yelled back, "I find the Palace very noisy"

The Princess let out a small laugh. "Yes, I agree" she nodded earnestly. She stood up crossed to the windows and closed them all at once with her golden magic. "Shamefully noisy for a so-called place of Harmony, I would say."

She turned and smiled.

"How would you like to go to the quietest corner in all of Canterlot?

"I think I would like that very much, your highness"

"Very good" beamed Celestia. She folded her wings against herself before ruffling all of the feathers. "It concerns one of those little tasks I mentioned the day your captain dropped you off here. Do you remember?"

Shining nodded warily, remembering that the only thing keeping him through this whole ordeal was a promised place at the Academy of War. He had watched the Royal Guards practising jousting, one-to-one combat, and formation marching. It was probably the noisiest place in all of Canterlot, but that didn't really matter.

"The place I want you to visit, is the Great Library"

Shining's brow furrowed. "The Great..." he paused. "I don't think I know where that is." He had heard of the Royal Canterlot Library, but the Great Library, the young unicorn had no clue.

"Very few ponies do any more. It was the old centre for knowledge before the Royal Library was built. Nopony goes nowadays" Celestia murmured unhappily. "Here I am, Princess of all of Equestria, a land where such a vast centre of knowledge is being ignored."

The Princess' arresting eyes had a faraway look in them. She seemed to be talking to herself.

"Oh, how dreadful that day was, when the Library was forced to be locked away from the world." She glanced around nervously, as if worried that somepony might be listening. "Don't get me wrong, the Royal Library still holds a vast cache of knowledge on almost every subject, but not the subject which I wish you to fetch for me."

Shining's ears perked up. His first official errand for the Princess.

"The problem is Shining, is that the knowledge accumulated in the Great Library over the centuries is being lost. Despite my best efforts to revive it, the old building is being ignored and the inner most archives are crumbling into dust as we speak. And it is knowledge we cannot afford to lose." Celestia sighed.

"Can't we go and tidy the place up a bit? Sort things out?" suggested the blue maned colt. Celestia chuckled slightly and shook her head slowly at the idea.

"Oh Shining, you haven't a clue what you're saying. A hundred librarians could work for a thousand days and barely scratch the surface.

"Then, what do you want me to do?"

Outside, the departing snow eagles flashed past the windows, startling both ponies in the study. Celestia began tracing a gilded horseshoe against the wood of the desk, clearly agitated. "I want you to fetch me a scroll" she breathed.

"Is that all?" said Shining, smiling.

The colour drained from Celestia's already white face, making the sun goddess have the complexion of a spirit.

"This is no laughing matter" she said coldly, "I would go myself, but this situation with the Griffin Kingdoms is keeping more than busy."

"I'm sorry, your highness, I didn't mean..."

"I cannot impress upon you the seriousness and importance of your task" the Princess continued, "if you fail, then...you must not fail" shuddered the white alicorn, her angelic wings ruffling again. Shining nodded solemnly. Celestia stood up and paced over to face the windows. The last of the snow eagle flock hovered around the tower, cawing loudly.

"Listen well", she began, "Comet Catcher will give you the precise directions to the Great Library. Once inside, the layout is complicated to the uninitiated, but not impossible to negotiate. It is set up like any other Library, but the shelves are arranged in massive blocks that one could easily get lost in. Each shelf has a core subject- Anatomy of Ponies, Organisms of the Water, that sort of thing. You'll find the exact academic discipline on a small plaque nailed to the bookcase. The core subject you are to look at is |Aerial Creatures"

"Aerial Creatures..." repeated Shining, committing it to memory.

"You are to climb that shelf. The higher you climb, the more sub sections you will come to. By following the words and symbols carved into the wood, you must climb up to the relevant sections- each one representing a branch of that subject- until you home in on the scroll I need"

"This sounds complicated..." said Shining hesitantly.

"That is why you must listen carefully" declared the sun goddess boldly.

As she spoke, the stragglers of the great white flock flapped past the windows and a plaintive cawing began. "Oh no" she whispered, "I'm going to be late again."

"Late for what your highness?"

"As Princess of Equestria I have to act as ambassador to the other independent pony nations across the world. There are delegates from Neighpon arriving soon. So much to do and so little time" she muttered, and once again, Shining couldn't help but notice just how exhausted the Princess looked.

"Then tell me quickly exactly how to find the scroll"

"You must take what is known as a negative ascent" the Princess explained. "At the first fork you will come to bird and not bird. Take not bird. At the second fork, reptile and non reptile. Take non reptile. At the third fork, mammal and non mammal"

"And I take non mammal" said Shining

"Precisely. Do this so long as the option allows. Then it becomes more difficult- and the scrolls are rather cluttered so be careful. You need to find two shelves, one marked legendary..."

Shining nodded.

"The other marked celestial"

He nodded again.

"Hanging from the point where these two cross, you will find the scroll I need." The monarch breathed out noisily. "Have you got all that?"

Shining beamed proudly, puffing his chest out a little bit as he did so.

"I thin so, Aerial Creatures. Not, not, not, as far as it will go, legendary and celestial."

"Well done, you make it sound so easy. I only hope you don't find it too difficult in reality."

"You can count on me" Shining declared with a low bow. The Princess chuckled warmly, before her mood suddenly darkened again.

"As I said before, you must not fail. So keep your mind on the task at hoof and at all times and do not let yourself be distracted."

She turned and readjusted her ill fitting crown. "now go, and good luck to you", she sighed, "I must go and see to my blessed duties."

Head spinning with Comet Catcher's directions and the Princess' instructions, Shining Armour stepped outside of the Royal Palace for the first time that week. The Court of the Sun and moon greeted him, the marble plaza bathed in the shadow of the two massive statues of Celestia and the legendary Luna. It came, as it always did, as a shock to Shining when he stepped outside to find that it was still in the middle of the afternoon- and sunny. Since the towers of the Palace and neighbouring buildings kept him in the shade, daylight was a constant twilight and even the sunniest day seemed overcast. As he emerged from the wide steps that led to the Court, Shining took a narrow alley to his far left which led onto a broad central concourse opposite the Grand Viaduct. He had to shield his eyes from the dazzling sun with a foreleg.

"Which way?" he muttered, and answered himself in the same breath with Comet Catcher's words, "at the western end of the Viaduct, by Ilinata's Tears"

A week earlier even this would have confused him, and he remembered how Cadence had laughed at him when he'd headed in completely the wrong direction when trying to find the High Halls for his first lesson. Compass points had never been Shining's strong point in school or in the Training Camp. But he had learned that the Canterlot Opera House was located at the southern end of the Viaduct, and so headed towards it.

In the week he'd been in the Royal Palace, Shining had learned a lot about Canterlot High Society as a whole. Although he came from a settled middle class family, Shining had no idea how vast the spaces between classes really were. His school day now started at the unearthly hour of six in the morning, but finished at one, which meant he had his afternoons free. Every one, he had spent walking around, getting to know the various other ponies who attended the High Halls. He had tried familiarising himself with all of the avenues and walkways, the bridges and landing stages, large and small. The Royal Palace itself was so vast it was like a city within a city. However, the Grand Viaduct especially fascinated the young unicorn.

high above, the Grand Viaduct itself was a magnificent structure, gilded in white gold and deep violet tiles. It formed the main thoroughfare between the Opera House and the Northern District. Lined by some two hundred small towers of dozens of apartment blocks- the Viaduct was seen as the cheapest area in Canterlot- it stood astride twenty four mighty pillars of marble. Beneath and between these were the Court Gardens, east and west sloping.

At first, Shining had paid little attention to the shifting groups of clustered academics and politicians that seemed to flock around the green areas beneath the arches. But as the days passed, he started to notice the same characters in the same places doing the same things, and began eavesdropping on their conversations.

The Garden of the Stone Rose, for instance, was the place where young students like himself would furtively swap exam papers and gossip about their professors. The Yellow Glade, in contrast, was a place where students with a grievance would air them out publicly, and often to a huge audience. While on the other side, the Moonrise Grove, hosted various political speeches by charismatic politicians and council members.

On this particular afternoon however, with the urgency of the Princess' instructions still ringing in his ears, Shining Armour did not dawdle- tempted though he was. He hurried on past garden after garden of feverish activity without once pausing, round the base of the elegant and prestigiously decorated Opera House, and stopped dead in his tracks.

How in Celestia' name did I miss that? he wondered, staring at the massive towered building before him. It was made of the same white stone as the rest of Canterlot, but was faded to a light grey. Various cracks ran across the stonework, and ivy was draped over the entirety of the purple roof like a blanket. All but the highest windows were boarded up.

Shining crossed the shadow filled square and disappeared into the still deeper shade beneath the great roof. Nopony noticed him walk round the curving wall or stumble across the concealed door. And nopony saw him enter.

"Wow..."

If the outside of the great Library had surprised Shining, the inside left him utterly breathless. It was vast, yet deserted, cool and silent. It smelled faintly of pine sap with an ominous hint of something Shining could not quite identify. it was like nothing he had ever seen before.

the shelves were massive columns of wood set into the dusty stone floor, with tall ladders on wheels resting against them. The bookcases all had small faded gold plaques nailed to them near the base, and all had smaller ones dotted across the ascending volumes of tomes and scrolls. Gulping, Shining started forwards. His horn flared up to provide some illumination. All of the ruined chandeliers were empty of candles, and the highest windows barely let in any light. As the unicorn moved towards the mighty forest of shelves, his hoof dragged against a piece of parchment scattered on the floor. Levitating it up to his face with his magic, Shining strained his eyes to see what was inscribed on it. As he did so, he thought several shiny things- objects or creatures, it was not clear- gliding across the floor. But when he looked round, there was nothing to be seen.

Returning his attention to the scroll, he smoothed it out against the floor and crouched down to gaze upon the text. The writing was all neatly written in a minute feathery script, and accompanied by annotated sketches and charts. the detail was phenomenal. And this is just one bit of one scroll, in a Library of thousands...Twily would love it here he thought.

"But don't get distracted" he reminded himself, his voice bouncing off the high vaulted ceiling. Shining discarded the piece of paper and continued.

The young unicorn failed to notice the writing on the other side...

...RUN...

He soon discovered that finding this scroll for the Princess was easier said than done. Not only were there more than a hundred shelves to check through, but the plaques which differentiated them were written in a curling script which Shining found almost impossible to decipher.

"S-o-c-i-a-l G-e-s-t- Social Gestures" he said, tracing his forehoof over the unfamiliar letters. He moved on to the next. "G- No, C-a-r-n... Carnivorous Flora." And the next, and the next. Gradually the letters became easier to read. The A's were like S's, the F's were like T's, the C's were like G's. The white unicorn moved more and more quickly from shelf to shelf, searching systematically for the one core subject he had to find.

But as time passed- half and hour, and hour, two hours- Shining became more worried and his searching increasingly frenzied. What if he'd somehow missed the one he was looking for? What if he couldn't find it before sundown? The Princess' doom laden words echoed round his head- You must not fail!- over and over, like the tolling of a bell. But what if he did fail?

"Pull yourself together" he told himself harshly, "it is here. And I will find it." There was were still three bookcases to go. The blue maned pony ran from one to another, reading off the names they bore, but as he feared- not one of them was labelled Aerial Creatures. If his calculations were correct, then he was right back where he'd started from. However, in the pink light of his glowing horn, Shining started towards another bookcase. it was the first one he'd started at.

"Social Gestures...wait..."

He leaned forwards for a closer look. "Bucking hell!" he exclaimed.

He had misread the plaque. 'Social Gestures'  was in fact 'Aerial Creatures'. Furious with himself for his mistake, yet relieved beyond words to have finally found the right case, Shining wasted no time in scampering up the rungs of the ladder that rested against it. He was agile, with strong legs that allowed him to zoom up the ladder's length in seconds. His burnt leg had healed well enough for him to climb without discomfort. He was soon at the first fork.

"Bird. Not Bird" he read, the words carved into the plaque in the same floral script. As instructed, he chose Not Bird and continued. Using his magic, Shining shuffled the ladder along the shelves. From this point on, the search went higher and higher, and more than once the white unicorn's heart stopped when he heard the rungs creak. The light outside was also beginning to fade.

Further up the Princess' 'negative ascent', the choices began to get stranger. At first, Shining gave it little thought, simply taking the 'not' option each time, but it wasn't long before he was questioning exactly what sort of aerial creature the scroll dealt with. Pony / Not Pony. Stable / Not Stable. Sane / Not Sane.

"Unstable and insane" murmured the white stallion uneasily, and he found himself wondering why the fair Princess would want information on such an unpleasant sounding creature. Did she have one? Did she want one? What type of pony was the Princess anyway? And more important than any of these questions, where was the next fork to choose from?

Having fumbled about in the near darkness of the vaulting for the previous ten minutes without finding any trace of lettering carved into a plaque, Shining was feeling worried. The ladder had started to become extremely rickety, and he was far, far, above the Library floor. He tried to remain calm.

"Okay, you must have reached the end of the negative ascent" he told himself reassuringly. He looked round awkwardly. In the darkness, he could make out the various shapes of ancient scrolls and dusty old books. The light emanating from his gleaming horn wasn't helping a great deal.

"Legendary and...what?"

Shining's head spun. His hind legs shook. He hadn't come this far to fair now- yet try as he might, he could not remember...

"Dammit" he muttered,  and though softly spoken, the word echoed around and around the domed building, desecrating the hushed stillness of the Library before fading away. At the same time, the full moon appeared from behind the clouds and shone down through the windows of the crown like tower above Shining's head. Light- wonderful silver light- flood into the Great Library.

"Celestial..." said Shining happily.

Edging himself along, the young unicorn beamed in delight as he saw, etched into the wood of the shelf, the words Legendary and Celestial. he looked up, and just where the Princess had said- where the two of them crossed, a single scroll was hanging. "There you are!"

All those hours of searching, and Shining had finally found what he was looking for. His horn glowed again as he wrapped his magical grip around the delicate parchment and gently unhooked it from its place.

At that moment, there was a sharp tearing sound below him. Shining's head darted down just in time to see the rung he was standing on snap clean in two. Within seconds, the entire ladder had begun to creak and splinter.

"Buck..."

The white unicorn plummeted from the dizzying heights of the bookcase and hurtled straight for the stone floor below him. Shining screamed as loud as Cadence's damn tree fox as the cold slabs raced quickly upwards to meet his face. he was falling to certain death...when all of a sudden and out of nowhere, a forehoof seized him around his own.

"Hold on!" a voice hissed close to his ear. Shining tried in vain to crane his neck round to see who had rescued him. It was all happening to quickly. Yet he was aware of a dry, crackling sound and a ripe juicy odour like the smell of rotting leaves. The next moment, he found himself being swung hard to one side. Terrified, Shining Armour screwed his ocean blue eyes shut, and for an instant he imagined himself flying like a pegasus would. If I was a pegasus, none of this would have happened, he thought angrily.

Then, with a jarring thud, he felt something solid beneath his hooves and looked down to find he was on the stone floor of the Library. But who had got him here? How had he not fallen to his death? Scrambling to get back on his hooves, Shining's horn flared up again to illuminate more of the moonlit room. He scanned the bookcases for any sign of the one who had caught him. There was nopony there.

Shining frowned. "You saved my life" he murmured. Something above him caught the young unicorn's attention. His mouth broke into a grin as he watched the precious scroll gently glide down in front of him. Taking hold of it with his magic, Shining looked back up to the darkness. "In more ways than one."

Although Shining knew he hadn't been quick, he had no idea just how long his task had taken him. By the time he reached the Court of the Sun and Moon, the new day had already broken and the far horizon was blushing pink and red. He turned the great brass handles and pushed the heavy gilded front doors open. The two guards standing duty looked as if they had fallen asleep. An eerie creak echoed around the grand entrance hall. he stepped inside as quietly as he could.

"Where have you been?" came a voice. Shining turned to see Cadence standing in the centre of the hall, wings flared out aggressively and eyes showing a simmering anger. Yet despite that, Shining found them unusually beautiful. Her mane was lusciously curled, and her little tiara glinted in the dawn light streaming through the high windows.

"I...I was on an errand" said Shining, "for the Princess." He hovered the ancient scroll in front of her. "She asked me to fetch this for her" he stepped forwards. "I need to get this too her at once.

"Oh, no you don't. You know how tired she's been looking"

"But..."

"She was up working all night again. She's absolutely not to be disturbed" Cadence insisted firmly. Shining stepped forwards again, until he was a bare few feet away from the young Princess.

"But Cadence, I mean...your highness" he protested. He really couldn't make her out at all. Did she like him, or didn't she? Sometimes it seemed as though he couldn't do a single thing right.

"Just give it to me" she said impatiently, her hoof outstretched. "I'll give it to her the moment she wakes"

Reluctantly, Shining did as he was told.

"Thank you" said Cadence primly. "Now go and get washed. You can't possibly come to class looking like that. Silver Star would throw a purple fit- and anyway, it reflects badly on my aunt and me."

"Class? Silver Star?" said Shining confused beyond measure, "what time is it?"

At that moment, the bell at the top of the Old Bell Tower chimed the three-quarters. "Quarter to six" said Cadence, "we've got fifteen minutes before school starts!"