Tales of the Lunar Consort: Volume X

Three days ago (before the events of Chapter 1), Enoch's bedroom, seventh floor, Canterlot Castle

Princess Celestia walked about Enoch's chambers, reminiscing. A mixture of smells hit her nostrils: the smell of cotton, of... leather?..., of cleaning fluids and furniture polish, hoof-grown tobacco, and something else that was distinctly stallion. Her eyes roamed the bookshelves that lined the sitting room, finding the titles of the books that called them their home: Starswirl the Bearded's A Study of Gravitas and Inertium, E. Sock Neighton's Principia Mathematica,  The Complete Works of Lord Whinnyson, the autobiography of Alternative Current, and The Time Machine by H.G. Welsh, to name but a few, most of them first or second editions. All in all, it was a collection that, when the worth was all summed up, equaled well over four hundred million bits.

Well, after all he's done for our county and her people, why not? Reading has always been one of his favorite pastimes. And he can certainly afford it. She thought.

Four hundred million bits, not counting the collections at Soluna House and his house at 1529 East Mustang Road.

She next looked behind his desk, at the pictures that resided in frames hanging on the wall behind it. He frequently starred in them: Teaching a physics class at the University. Sitting at a table, partaking in luncheon with the Pendergrass family[1] at the Tiger Lily, down in New Horseleans, by the Southern Sea. Hunched over a bench in his workshop at the East Mustang house. One of the few that didn't have him in it was a photo of Twilight Sparkle, leaning against a wall, posing for the camera. Celestia smiled, thinking back to her own interaction with the lavender mare when she was a filly.

She turned her head to the next photograph on the wall, a picture of him and two young fillies, each of the three playing an instrument. The white filly with a two-toned blue mane and a Cutie Mark of a backwards double quaver was playing a baby grand piano which was connected to a synthesizer, and the grey filly with the Mark of a treble clef was teasing the sound out of a 1/4 Saddlevarius cello, whereas the Pegasus stallion was sawing on a 4/4 (full size) violin, also Saddlevarius made. Enoch and his two adopted daughters, playing their instruments together. If she remembered correctly, both mares were now well-known musicians.

Next, she went into the bedroom and launched herself onto the queen-sized bed, bouncing a few times on landing and disturbing a cloud of his scent, sending it up into the air. She simply lay on her back, breathing it in and exhaling with a snort, staring up at the ceiling.

I wish he'd come back, she thought. I enjoy his company. And there are a few things we need  to talk about.

Her eyes strayed to the bookshelf in the bedroom, the one that nopony who entered the place ever saw. Getting off the bed, she trotted over, perused the collection of old, leather-bound[2], hoof-written journals. Pulling one out and looking at the cover, she could barely make out the name on one, written in the Pegasus's semi-elegant scrawl: Natura Neurona.

Growing very uncomfortable with feel of the old leather on her hooves, she quickly put the journal back in it's place and continued to look at the collection. Most of the titles were unique, scientific volumes compiled by Enoch himself, like Natura Neurona.. Some of them, (excluding the scientific volumes, of course) however, were copies of titles that even the Canterlot Archives did not have, and yet others were forbidden tomes, prohibited from the Archives by Celestia herself. For example: several works on blood magic, called Maleficium, one tome on the subject of temporal physics (Why is that here? It seems rather out of place, she thought), and three books concerned with Discordian Alchemy[3].

She backed away from the shelf, a bit disturbed and wondering why he'd have all these forbidden tomes. She shook her head, dispelling those thoughts. She knew him personally, as a very good friend, and she knew his personality. Eccentric, yes, but not malicious. Which is what he'd be if he was following the teachings of those tomes. She figured it was just some of the esoteric part of his personal collection. Yes. That's it.

Feeling warm, she left the bedroom and went down the hall into the lavatory, bent over the sink and splashed some cold water onto her face with her hooves. She raised her head and looked in the mirror, water dripping off her snout. Am I ready for the Celebration? she asked herself doubtfully. Ready or not, it's coming.

Remembering the bar in the sitting room, she exited the lavatory and came into the afore-mentioned sitting room., crossed to the bar. Selecting a bottle of Neighermeister, she levitated a few ice cubes out of the small freezer, dropped them in a glass, and poured a finger and a half of the amber liquid after them. She swirled the glass, thinking back to earlier times. What happened? What went wrong?