Prologue: The power of a tome


It didn't look like much: an old, dictionary-sized book with a black dragon leather cover and a metallic spine, nothing radically different from many of the volumes that filled the Canterlot Palace's library archives. From the outside, the only aspect that would call attention to it was the odd metallic insignia on the front cover, keeping the book closed by holding a grey latch in place. Even so, it made the most notable Princess of Equestria's eyes widen at the very first glance, since to her, the symbol represented much more than that.

The decoration was what she recognized as a cranium, but not an equine one, or a dragon's, or any creature she had personally laid eyes on. It was much rounder, similar to a great ape's, in fact, but with a considerably different facial structure, one that the alicorn had only seen in extremely ancient documents from the unicorn tribes, written millennia before even Princess Platinum was born. Sadly, those documents were illegible due to the complete loss of the understanding of the language of whoever wrote them. But there were still images on them, one of which she remembered as clearly as the sun she always guided through the sky: a bipedal creature wrapped in a cloak, holding a long, crystal-tipped rod in one of its dragon-like hands, and a book in the other.

A book uncannily similar to the one she, unable to manipulate with her telekinesis, now contemplated.

Celestia gently grabbed the book with her teeth and carried it off to her private quarters. She had an unexplainable hunch not to expose her discovery to anypony for the moment. She would leave the inspection of her find, and the inquiry about how such a valuable and old find had found its way to the fiction aisle of the constantly and carefully checked front shelves of the archives' lobby, for another date. It had been a long day, and even though she was used to all the royal duties, administrative work, and the manipulation of the Sun, it still wore her out sometimes.

In addition to that, the only pony she thought could really help her without boring her to death was most likely asleep.


Spike huffed. Once again, his surrogate older sister, while looking for one of her topics of interest, had made a mess out of Books and Branches, the same library he had organized to perfection not half a day ago. Of course he loved Twilight Sparkle, but couldn't that pony clean up after herself even once?

He was about to grab a copy of The Missing Link: A Study On The Connection Between Neighanderthals And Modern Ponies when he felt his tummy tremble. The expected fiery belch came up, carrying the essence of a letter that fell on the intrigued baby dragon's hand. Why would anyone mail them so early in the morning? A second look at the rolled up sheet attracted his full attention to it. 'Oh, wow, the royal seal!'

Wasting no time, Spike ran up the stairs and into Twilight's bedroom, where Ponyville's resident librarian lay fast asleep, with her muzzle resting on the latest edition of Equestria's National Guide to Amateur Botanists. The dragon nudged her urgently with a palm, making her stir a little. "Not now… no class on Saturdays…"

Spike insisted. "Come on, Twilight, wake up! You got mail!"

As soon as he uttered the last two words, the lavender unicorn shot up like a spring-loaded toy, dazed and nervous. "I'm sorry Princess I didn't mean to take a nap but it was late and I was so tired but I promise I won't do it again I'm sorry!" she stammered quickly, trembling in both from sleepiness and only half-justified apprehension.

But instead of the wise feminine voice she expected, what broke her out of her semi-awake state were the guffaws of a definitely masculine nature. Blinking a few times to scare off the remains of sleep, she looked at the bed side, and at her small reptilian assistant, who was currently on his belly, pounding the ground with his fists and laughing hysterically. She glared at him. "Spike!"

The baby dragon piped down at the annoyed shout and picked himself up off the floor, wiping a tear from his eye. "Heheheh, where did that come from?" He looked at her again, and her expression made him quiet down completely. "Er, I mean…" He offered the parchment. "Here, you received a letter."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at that, as confused as Spike seemed to be. "Couldn't this wait until coffee?" she asked a little grumpily.

"No, look at the ribbon. It's priority mail from Princess Celestia."

She had already taken the rolled up paper and opened it before he could blink once.

As her eyes ran through the writing, she muttered the contents to herself. Spike strained to hear what she was saying, but gave up soon after and mounted on the mare's back to read it over her shoulder.

My faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,

Normally I wouldn't ask you this kind of thing so early, but do you have a few hours free at the moment? I have recently found something that I'm sure you will be interested in.

Please answer as soon as possible. I do not have much time before I have to attend to morning duties.

Your teacher, Princess Celestia

"Spike, take a letter," Twilight said as she finished reading, rolling up the parchment. " Are you ready? Good. 'Dear Princess Celestia, if you wish…'"

Twilight paced nervously around the library's main floor, her nerves on edge. She knew her teacher didn't mind the lived-in aspect of her dwelling – in fact, she knew it suited her more than the spotless chambers she spent most of her time on –, but she couldn't help feeling nervous. "Spike, would you please hurry up?"

"Hey, I'm trying!" groaned the small dragon from the top of a ladder. "You can't just align spines in a hurry, you know!"

"I know, Spike, I know, but-"

"BURP!"

She caught the letter before it was halfway to the floor, opening it eagerly.

I'll use this letter as a beacon! STAY BACK!

The unicorn quickly flung the piece of paper into the center of the room and closed her eyes, tightening her eyelids against the usual flash of a teleportation spell.

At least, until a voice whispered in her ear. "Boo."

It took ten minutes for a guffawing Spike and a giggling Celestia to safely pull Twilight out of the knot her horn was stuck to in the ceiling.


"Did you guys know I love weekends?" declared an orange pegasus filly walking down Ponyville's main street. "No school, no homework, nothing!"

"Yeah!" agreed her yellow-pelted earth pony friend. "Now we have more time to go crusadin'!"

The third member of the trio, a white, curly-maned unicorn, piped in. "So, what should we try now?"

"Ah know, ah know! Ice-skating!" shouted Apple Bloom.

"But it's spring, Apple Bloom. There's no ice to skate on," Sweetie Belle observed.

The earth pony deflated visibly. "True..."

"Then we can go roller skate racing instead!" Scootaloo offered. After all, she had to train her speed. She had an idol to surpass!

"Er..." Apple Bloom fidgeted, "ah'm not exactly allowed in the roller rink anymore." Rainbow Dash knew that much.

"Hmm…" the young unicorn tapped a hoof to her chin. They had tried baking, stage performing, sewing, and pretty much everything that wasn't too dangerous for fillies to do, and the ones that were dangerous as well.

They were close to the library at this point, and Sweetie Belle was assaulted by a bout of inspiration. The door to the tree/building mix-up was open for a brief moment as Spike set a trash bag on the can beside it and went back inside. She turned to the other two. "We could try breathing fire like Spike does!"

"Breathe fire? Why'd we want that?" Scootaloo asked with her head tilted.

"Lots of things!" her friend explained. "We could cook without a stove, light campfires without matches, and even send letters to the princess!"

Apple Bloom nodded, starting to get enthusiatic about the idea. "Y'know, sometimes we get a big order o' homemade pies back at the farm and our oven jes' can't make them all. If ah breathe fire ah can roast more pies and get it done quicker an' we have more time off!"

"There's smoke, too!" Sweetie Belle squeaked out. "It scares away insects and miss Cheerilee said ponies used it to send messages many years back."

The farmer filly started bouncing on her front legs. "Smithing too! Imagine us makin' our own crusadin' tools!"

With each suggestion, Scootaloo became less skeptical and more enthusiastic. She lay her own idea on the table. "And fireworks and our smoke trails, too! Imagine a show you can do yourself right on the spot! Yeah, that sounds really cool!"

"Ah'm in!" Apple Bloom nodded.

With a yell of "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS FIREBREATHERS, YAY!", the trio was off to the library.


Five minutes prior…

Twilight was so transfixed by the book in front of her and Celestia that she forgot about the ring of wood firmly stuck around her horn. The mere presence of the cluster of bound pages, so old yet so preserved, awed her to no end.

"I would have asked Luna, but I have my reservations," the teacher explained. "I am still not sure if Nightmare Moon was a possession or an alter-ego, and she is still quite shaken by her recovery. Letting her near a possible source of unknown power is the last thing I would wish for her."

The unicorn didn't answer, her eyes glued to the book, her attention in a not very different state. She moved a hoof over the artifact. "It has a tingly aura…"

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "It does?" She repeated her pupil's gesture. "I can't feel anything."

"But, Princess, it's right here. It feels like…" Twilight hesitated, unable to put what she felt in exact words. "It's like it flows with my magic. I can feel its essence seeping a little into my body, circulating with my mana. It's kind of soothing." She squinted at the cover, as if something on the leather might hold the explanation.

Celestia being at a loss for words was something that didn't happen too often. This was one of those times – try as she might, she didn't know how to answer the young mare's question. What Twilight described sounded like the effects of a mana stone, the kind of jewel that unicorns without much power used to amplify their reserves... but Celestia herself wasn't exempt of the effects of those artifacts. It was puzzling.

Her train of thought was derailed by her student's face shooting up with the most perfect puppy dog eyes she had seen in centuries. "Please, can I open it? Please, Princess?"

Normally, the trick would be ignored, drained of effects by the lack of novelty. It happens when you're over a millenium old, and have a younger sister. However, she was being eaten by curiosity herself, and so Celestia couldn't help but nod. This prompted Twilight to open the latch and the cover as fast and meticulously as an aficionado opening a rare comic book they were trembling with anticipation to read, an action that forced the alicorn to hide her quiet chuckle behind a hoof.

As Twilight ran her eye over the very first word of the first page, something clicked within her brain. The runes inscribed in the old paper were suddenly legible, but more than that, they made sense. Every syllable, every word, even the slightest scratch of ink on the pages felt just right, and in a way that no evil magic could.

She was immersed so deep into the ancient artifact that she didn't notice her own mouth articulating almost unintelligible words, reading the page's syllabic runes out loud. Neither did she see that her teacher was trapped in the same trance, mimicking her actions.

What she did feel, however, was that her mana was running thicker, faster, and more vividly within her body and spirit. With that, it brought a sense of calm euphoria, a radiant inner peace.

To anypony who wasn't reading the book, a thick, suffocant shroud of power emanated from the two mares. It certainly was the case for Spike, who lay prone near the bottom of the stairs, panting painfully as he was held down by an invisible weight.

A door slamming and three loud yells broke both princess and librarian out of their reverie. Were she thinking straight, Twilight would have instantly remembered how channeled mana had to have some kind of exhaust chute if a spell was ever aborted midway through.

And that was exactly what happened.

The greater source of magic in the room overshadowed the involuntary repeated casting of her latest application of mana – a feat of basic levitation –, suppressing any action it might have caused. However, Celestia's re-cast teleportation spell lacked both a target and a focus... a focus it found in the three fillies standing at the door.

A bright white flash, luminous enough to overshadow the sun's rays with ease, and the only testament that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had ever been at Ponyville's only library was Apple Bloom's mane bow lying on the floor.


Author's Note: Remember, this story is set right after "The Show Stoppers". Don't nail me to a cross because of how you remember Luna to be: by the time this takes place, she's still recovering from the Nightmare Moon fiasco.

Also, it's implied by "The Ticket Master" that it's not just Celestia that can send Spike mail, remember? She's just the most frequent on-screen sender.