Brother Librarian

Thought for the Day:

Carry the Emperor's will as your torch, with it destroy the shadows

Yet another timber wolf yelped in agony as lightning danced over its frame. It's life was short lived, though it came as no comfort to the rest of the pack, facing down this new threat. The beautiful fruit called to them, why has this thing interfered? Regardless, the pack had lost far too many to consider fighting more, and had lost not nearly enough to reform their losses into a larger being. They retreated for now.

Jonah snorted with great contempt. He had caught only glimpses of the greater forces at work in the forest, yet the only creatures that come out of it are the weaklings. Which is mostly likely a good thing, considering the state of the average pony. These so called 'zap apples' are so important to the continuation of the orchard that all other work stops during their growing season. Or, more accurately, growing week. They come as rapidly as a thunderbolt, and leave within a few days.

At least, that's the understanding that Jonah obtained form a hasty conversation with an agitated Granny Smith. Between the two, Jonah preferred fighting the denizens of the forest, for at least they were moderately understandable.

Jonah lowered his guard as he felt the primitive minds of the wolves retreat far enough away to trouble him, or the orchard, no longer.

The foul things stank of the Warp. Bound daemons? Unlikely, they are closer to animals than those most malevolent of spirits. Yet it is only through the Warp do they survive. A strange conundrum; the Warp does not often give life to anything so natural in its desires. From the many, many times he's had their minute intellects in his mind's eye, they've thought only of food, shelter, sleep, injuries, and the other creatures of the forest. The Warp has never granted such thoughts to other constructs. They are usually left with only the most base thoughts, such as 'kill'. Rather like Tyranids that have been separated form the Hive Mind.

Then again, it is entirely possible that they are not Warp-born.

Jonah hates them, for their incongruity, if nothing else.

He must have obliterated a half dozen packs by this point, and rendered even more combat-incapable. All for a small family of farmers, ponies that he would have killed sooner than associate himself with previously. Jonah feels some anxiety over the matter, but not terribly much. He has long since resigned himself to his fate. Previously, his fate was to forever battle the enemies of the emperor until he died. Now, though, his fate seemed to be up to him, a fact that irritated Jonah to no end.

As a Librarian of the Blood Ravens, he's always had a large hand in the planning of operations. He would divine the future, and every reasonably possible future, and take these futures to his brothers in command, and together the plan would be created, as would all possible deviations to the plan.

His future has always been foreseen, he's never not known what's just around the corner. He's seen his own death on occasion, he's seen the deaths of close brothers in arms, in his visions. Thankfully, thus far, he's been able to prevent a great many of them... but sometimes...  as they embarked on a plan that would finish the enemy with minimum casualties, Jonah had to look the battle brother in the eye, one that was going to die.

He was usually correct in his visions, he had an accuracy that few others could boast about. But he has no Tarot, he cannot divine his future anymore. Or at least, not nearly as well as he used to.

He doesn't know what to do.

He could do anything, which made divining the future even more difficult. A few dozen possible futures? Easy. A few hundred? Manageable. A value approaching infinity? Impossible. He would have to sift through a series of equally possible futures, all of them with a tiny possibility, yet each of them possible. That way lay madness.

Divination is best used in more controlled circumstances, when there really are only a few possibilities. Despite the relative chaos of battle, it is quite simple to use for such a task. There are a myriad of possibilities, but the most possible are always 'win' or 'lose'. Say if each had a 49% chance of happening, that leave 2% for every other possibility, a negligible amount. Of course, among the Blood Ravens, those would few possibilities would be well planned for. If a Librarian can alter the percentages, even if only by a small amount, he has done his job.

Again; Jonah knows not what he is to do. For the present, he is content with beating a few mindless beasts with his mind, but it won't last. He's never had a choice, as a Space Marine. He's had variations on what he could do, but the result was always the same. He's always been guided by his orders and his duty as a Space Marine.

This world, wherever in the galaxy it is, has no place for a Space Marine. Yet.

He just had to find his place, surely that won't be so hard?

As it turns out, it wasn't nearly as difficult as Jonah had assumed it might be.

After a hearty goodbye following the most difficult period of the apple harvesting process, Jonah left the good folks at the orchard to travel. He took only his armor, his blade, his staff, and the bits he had earned. Having no concept of the value of currency beyond what he borrowed from the ponies at the hospital, Jonah was left in a mild conundrum.

He felt that he had to find his place in the world, preferable by experiencing it, but he also had no idea where to start. After an hour or so of walking away, he doubled back for a conversation with Macintosh Sr. who was kind enough to give him a few ideas.

There's a city on this planet called Las Pegasus, and only the Emperor knows why. In it, there are many casinos, which are large places to gamble or so he's been told. Like the games of chance he learned from the Space Wolves, only perhaps with fewer accusations of psyker cheating. It's hardly Jonah's fault that he can literally create a field of good luck around himself. Colloquially known as the 'Possibility Shield' among Librarians, it has other purposes beyond battle.

This lead to his being thrown out of several casinos for winning too often, as well as no few number of common street thugs that either wanted his new found wealth or the slightly less common street thugs that worked for the casinos that wanted their money back. With wealth, a reputation, and monumental power, Jonah experienced some of what the city had to offer.

Most of these things were corrupt and villainous, so he did not partake. So did Jonah learn how to be a gambler.

Eventually, he ended up giving most of his wealth away to a few charities, hospitals, and orphanages and continued on.

He wandered about Equestria for a bit, not feeling the desire to wander beyond the borders of the nation. He was barely used to ponies so he felt he should not subject himself to any of the other species that this world apparently offered without getting accustomed to at least one.

He wound up in someplace called Stalliongrad eventually. A larger, more industrialized city than the others he had passed, though still a far cry from Meridian, or even the larger cities of Calderis.

Jonah entered the city after mentally deafening some corrupt guards seeking a toll, rather like an ocular flashbang except you also survive it. He found some pub or tavern or what have you for some food. He had more than enough wealth from his gambling to spend on food, and eventually some took notice. They ended up writhing on the floor, and necessitated Jonah's disappearance.

So did Jonah experience fugitivity.

He continued on to other cities and new experiences. He learned to barter without offending, he learned how to properly act as a mercenary, he learned how best to deliver packages quickly, he learned how the number of pigeons in a swarm directly correlate to the importance of the message, he learned how to accidentally overthrow a government, he learned how to operate a spy ring, he learned how to brew fine wine, he learned how to dig for ore, and he learned how to kill numerous new species.

But... what called him back to Ponyville and what made him set up his Librarium was rather simple. Despite the new found complexity of existence, some things remained unchanged. He would never have learned of this event had his spy network not been keeping tabs on the family in question for him. He would have gone on for quite some time without knowing this fact.

Macintosh Sr. passed on.

Feeling some sense of debt to the Apple Family he was nominally a part of, he went back to the Orchard and, in a very small way, he returned home. He came to establish his Librarium and came to realize that his place in life was something he knew all along; hoarding knowledge and providing a bulwark against the darkness.