Prologue: A Trip to the Library
The Doctor paced back and forth in the control room of his TARDIS.
"Where to go next?" He muttered to himself. “Telos? No, too dusty... Poosh? No, that’s gone...”
What the Doctor really wanted was to go somewhere...different. A place where he could relax and not be chased by daleks or cybermen...What he really needed was a perpendicular universe.
“Ponyville?” The Doctor shuddered as horrible memories came flooding back. “I can’t go back there, not after what happened to Derpy...”
But wait! What if he went to the same universe, but to a time and place where Derpy could never exist?
“Brilliant!” cried the Doctor. “Allons-y!”
And he rushed for the control panel.
New Manehattan—5,000,000,073
Shine Stardust was, in two words, completely exasperated. She had been trying to perform a fetching spell to find all of the books related to time manipulation, but her efforts and several attempts had turned up absolutely nothing. It looked like, although she considered it a crutch, she’d have to use the Automated Magic Assistance. She crossed her reading room to the AMA Console.
“Starswirl?” she spoke directly to the glowing emerald screen. A perfect holographic replica of Starswirl the Bearded appeared in front of her.
The ancient, ghostly wizard’s golden eyes fixed upon Shine Stardust. “What is your request, Miss Stardust?”
“Starswirl, I want you to locate and bring up all the books concerning time manipulation.”
The wizard’s look seemed to lose focus for a moment, then his gaze became as sharp as ever.
“Unfortunately, I can locate no books related to that subject. Would you like me to search again?”
“No, thanks, Starswirl,” sighed Shine Stardust. “I guess I’ll have to look somewhere else for information.”
It was time for a trip to the library.
Chrysler Building, Mark VIII
The Chrysler building was a library.
Now, historically, the skyscraper had never been anything of the sort, but at least the chromium outside was authentic. The 777-story edifice towered over the surrounding buildings, so tall that it needed an Atmosphere Extension spell on the tip of its ninety-foot antenna. The polished curves of the upper seven floors housed the genealogy sections. Underneath was a seventy story block of Fiction, and below it ten blocks of seventy stories each dedicated to different classes of the Dewhoof Decimal System. Below ground was library storage, because in a city of 8,000,000,000 ponies, there were far, far more books than could be housed in a 777 story building. The below-ground Secondary Shelving unit stretched fifty floors underneath the skyscraper.
First Edition knew all this and more. She had been one of the Elite Librarian Force (ELF) since her second year at the New Manehattan Public Library. Now she was fulfilling the request of a long-time patron of the library and a friend of hers, Surehoof. He had asked her to find him a very rare title, Legendary Wars and Battles of Ancient Equestria. It was indeed a rare title—in the entire library there was only one copy, and it was stored on the –50th floor.
First Edition stepped off of the Speedlift onto the –40th floor. She wasn’t sure why the pony who had designed the building hadn’t made the lift go all the way to the bottom floor. It would have been much more convenient for her not to have to take the stairs ten flights down.
Ah well, she thought. I need to get some exercise anyway...
She began the long trek down the stairs. Somepony really needs to come down here more often and clean, she mused to herself. The lowermost floors of the Chrysler building were filled with dust.
What’s more, mused First Edition as she passed floor –43, It’s so poorly lit down here I can barely see.
The stairs could really use some upkeep as well. She listened to their creaking, wondering when the last time was that anypony had been down here. Most of the ponies in New Manehattan were more interested in things like celebrity gossip magazines and movies, which were stocked very near the library entrance. But there was still a handful of ponies who truly appreciated good literature. Like Surehoof. He may have been a little outside the norm for a New Manehattan pony, but he had never been one to care much what other ponies thought of him. He was always absolutely certain where he stood. That was why First Edition liked him. He knew himself inside and out.
First Edition stepped off the staircase and rounded the corner. She passed her gaze over the dark, dusty shelves before her and shuddered. She had to admit, the lower floors were a little spooky. She began to walk toward a large circular clearing in the middle of the floor.
“Lights.” First Edition knew there was a voice-reading spell that should turn on the chandeliers installed in the distant high ceiling.
Oddly enough, nothing happened. She decided to try again.
“Lights.”
Still nothing. She ambled forward, all the time edging closer to the center clearing.
“Lights!” First Edition was beginning to become frustrated. She knew nopony had been down here in a while. Maybe she should have taken somepony with her to recast the spell. Too bad she was an earth pony and not a unicorn like most of the rest of ELF. She blew a lock of her light blue mane out of her eyes and tried it again.
“Lights!”
The chandeliers did not flame, but a sound of metal on stone answered her. She stopped.
“Hello?”
The same clank, like a strange footstep, sounded distantly.
“Anypony there?”
This time, there was silence. First Edition cautiously edged herself forward. A bead of sweat dripped down her navy neck. She carefully approached the center clearing. If anypony was there, she decided, she would catch them by surprise and have them thrown out of the library. Only librarians were authorized to use the lower floors. She crept up to the edge of the last shelf.
“A-HA!” First Edition jumped into the clearing.
Nopony was there. She glanced about herself, confused.
Suddenly, a steel hoof clamped itself across her mouth. First Edition moved her eyes fearfully to one side—and tried to scream.
She was meeting the gaze of a soulless metal mask. A panel on its forehead retracted with a hydraulic hiss. A metallic horn sprang forth, crackling with electricity.
The thing’s voice sounded in her ear.
“YOU WILL BE UPGRADED.”
Then First Edition knew no more.
The Abduction of First Edition
Chapter One: Fiction Section
The Chrysler Building, Mark VIII—Floor 0
On the ground floor of the New Manehattan Public Library, a tall orange pony with dark brown hooves and a blonde mane waited.
And waited.
For nearly an hour.
Surehoof was absolutely certain that First Edition would have found Legendary Wars and Battles of Ancient Equestria by now. In fact, he had guessed that she would have found his book in the first ten minutes! So where was she?
Surehoof glanced about himself and noticed a pony passing by with the familiar ELF badge. He stopped the unicorn as it walked by.
“Excuse me, miss—?”
The spotlessly white unicorn looked back at him. “Flyleaf.”
“Flyleaf. You wouldn’t happen to know where First Edition went, would you?”
“No,” replied the librarian. “Last I heard, she was headed to Secondary Shelving to find some old history book. Would you like me to go and look for her?”
“That would be great,” said Surehoof.
Flyleaf stepped onto the Speedlift and began the descent to floor –40. She had worked in the library about two months longer than First Edition, and they had become fast friends when she joined the staff. In fact, she and First Edition had been promoted to ELF on the same day. She figured that First Edition was probably having some trouble with the lighting—it had been a while since anyone had been on floor –50.
Flyleaf looked around. No wonder it was taking First Edition so long. All of these floors were obviously in a state beyond disrepair. It was rather saddening to see the library in such poor condition, even the sections that were rarely, if ever, used.
Perhaps if she found First Edition Flyleaf could help her repower the lighting. Then First Edition would certainly have no trouble locating whatever volume she had trekked down this far to retrieve.
She stepped forth into the darkness.
The Chrysler Building, Mark VIII—floor 700
In a closet in back of the 700th story of the Manehattan Public Library, the once still air vibrated with energy and sound. The shelves and cleaning supplies rattled slightly as a faint blue tinge filled the air in front of them. The haze darkened, and a solid form filled into the space where before there had been empty air. The pulsing light of the TARDIS's lamp seemed to drive its materialization. The TARDIS engines boomed to a halt, and its doors swung open.
It's a good thing no one thought to make any significant improvements upon the janitor's closet since the twentieth century, thought the Doctor. He peeked carefully out the closet door and then walked out into the library.
"Ah, fiction!" cried the Doctor. "I love a bit of good fiction. So much better than real life. Tamer. More... Predictable, really."
The Doctor frowned. "Hmm, I seem to talk to myself much more in this form than as a humanoid. I shall have to remember that."
He turned around, marveling at the countless literary works surrounding him.
"Where to start...?"
Three shelves down, an exasperated Shine Stardust followed grudgingly behind a young pony with a forest coat and a grass green mane. His cutie mark displayed an open book with a page missing.
"Right this way, miss Moonrock. There's got to be some books on time manipulation somewhere around here."
"There can't possibly be time manipulation books on this floor, Dampstain." replied Shine. "This is the fiction section. And my name is Shine Stardust."
"That's just what I said," retorted Dampstain. "Mist Moonrock. And you've got to trust my judgment, miss Moonrock. I am a member of the library's Elite Librarian Force!"
Celestia knows why, thought Shine. The pony had been leading her through all the wrong sections for hours, and it was clear he didn't know a book from a breadbox. What was more, he didn't seem to know how to give up, either!
"Just a few more blocks to search, miss Moondust," said Dampstain. "Then we can look on the next floor! What kind of books did you want again?" He turned around to face Shine and began walking backwards. A librarian pushing a cart full of heavy-looking volumes suddenly emerged from an aisle behind Dampstain. He took three more steps backward and crashed right into the cart. Books flew in all directions.
Dampstain's head emerged from under the pile of fallen manuscripts.
"I'm sorry, miss Moonrock. I just don't know what went wrong."
In the next aisle, the Doctor's ears perked up as a strangely familiar phrase caught his attention. Who had said that before?
"Derpy?" cried the Doctor. "Derpy!"
He rounded the shelf to see two dazed librarian ponies sitting on the floor, surrounded by what appeared to be the entire Daring Do series. A bemused library patron stood watch over the scene, and was trying not to giggle as the Doctor screeched to a halt, nearly tripping over one of the fallen ponies.
"You're not Derpy." said the Doctor to the green librarian.
"Of course I'm not Derpy, silly! I'm Dampstain!"
Dampstain looked confused for a moment, then turned to face the Doctor. "Are you Derpy?"
The second librarian glanced around nervously. "Well, I'll just... Um... Get going... I think my shift's almost over..."
She turned and bolted.
The Doctor watched the librarian retreat for a few seconds, then looked back at Dampstain.
"No, I'm not Derpy either. I'm the Doctor." He turned to the blue and pink bystander. "Who are you?"
"I'm—"
"Mist Moonrock!" interrupted Dampstain.
"Not Mist Moonrock, Shine Stardust. I'm trying to find books related to the subject of time—"
Shine was interrupted yet again as the librarian who had just left galloped back into the aisle.
"Dampstain!" cried the worker. "All librarians are to report to the lower floors at once. There's been a disturbance."
The Doctor pushed ahead of Dampstain. "What sort of disturbance?"
The librarian looked at them grimly.
"The lights are going out."
