Twilight Sparkle - 12th of Solarus ‘15 EoH - Noon

Clover the Clever’s library! In front of me! And she gave it to me! She gave it to me via note!

Begone door! Your obstructing presence will not keep me from this treasure another instant!

I took a deep breath to calm myself. “No, no… That might damage the interior…” And decided against disintegrating the door with a positron burst.

“What?” Jade shouted.

“Uh, nothing! Heh heh…” I quickly turned around and turned the doorknob, and pushed the door open.

The door opened with a creak, the expected plume of dust absent as the opening door revealed a pristine and clean interior. The floors were polished and waxed dark hardwood, obviously shaped with magic due to their perfect smoothness and perfect nearly seamless state. The walls were covered with a wooden paneling just as well made and beautiful as the floors, but stained a much lighter color.

The roof was stained the same color as the floor,and supported by large iron beams that had the same look to them as a cast iron pot. There were two doors opposite the front entrance, each made from single sheets of wood and unlike every other surface, were painted a cheerful white. The room I looked into now was small, and simple. A living space, rather than a working space.

There were shelves upon which sat books, nick knacks, and household goods. A large dining table meant for four if the matched chairs were any indication. A simple magic powered cast iron stove, an icebox, an absolutely gorgeous carpet that was made to be a map of Equestria circa 1853 R.H. A simple brown cloak hung on a pe-

I teleported over to the cloak and gingerly picked it up in my hooves. “Oh… My… GOSH!”

“What?” Jade shouted from outside. “I think my eardrums popped… Hold on.”

This was it, her cloak! Clever’s cloak! I’d never been able to ever ever ever find anything more about it’s appearance other than being a simple brown hooded cloak with a darker brown mantle. Now it was in my hooves!

I gingerly turned the relic over to look at it, noticing that it didn’t appear to be very old at all. It only appeared to be about as aged as one might expect if they were browsing an antique shop. Perhaps time flowed more slowly here? The cloak was worn, but still quite sturdy! I could wear it myself if I liked.

A glint of silver caught my eye, drawing my attention to the clasp. A simple four leaf clover brooch, and clearly enchanted beyond the capabilities of your average pony by it’s bright shimmer and glow. Beyond the ability of silver to support in fact… how-

Some more silvery glint caught my eye, just a glimmer from under the cloak mantle. The entire underside of the mantle had a fabric formed of extremely fine arcanite wire! A fabric made of a thaumaturgic superconductor.

“Ah ha! Brilliant!” I cheered to nopony in particular.

“I can hear again,” Jade informed as she trotted up behind me, “you’re not thinking of wearing that, are you?”

“You’re right. That would be a bit disrespectful.” I lamented, putting the cloak back onto it’s peg.

“Actually… I just meant the brown would not look good on you.” Jade informed.

“I happen to think I look great in browns!” I objected, resolving to at least learn what the cloaks enchantments did. And maybe put it on once or twice…

Oooo! I could use it in this year’s Hearth's Warming play! Hehe! Nopony would know it was the genuine article! Rarity would have a fit over it’s worn state…

Yes! I was going to do that.

“Well, everyone has their own opinions. Mine is you’d look better in a dark green than that.” Jade said as she started to look around the living room.

I was about to check the icebox to see what sort of food or drink Clover may have liked when Jade called. “Hey, Twilight! Somepony’s left a ton of notes on the table.”

Quickly moving over to her side, I found the tabletop was piled with notes! Most written in Equish, some in changelish (thankfully not Jade’s dialect!) and a few in that odd glyph language the book’s page had been written in.

I picked up a note at random and read it.

Starswirl,

I’ve destroyed Terra-Delta’s book. There is nothing more to be gained from having a link to it, and I’ve discovered the new strain of Lycanthropy has it’s origins in TD. It would seem you are correct, our current method of dimensional linking will eventually begin to transfer undesired elements between dimensions. I’ll work on a safety mechanism for future linking books.

“Interesting…” I muttered, stroking my chin as I set down the note. “I thought Starswirl developed the mirrors after Clover’s death.”

“Mirrors?” Jade asked, looking up from another note curiously.

“Starswirl created a set of four enchanted mirrors that allow access to other dimensions. They work like permanent portals. Two of them were destroyed a long time ago, one more recently, and the last remaining one… Well, I hid it away.

“My point is, I didn’t know that they were based on anything. These book portals must have been a prototype.” I explained.

Jade nodded and looked a few of the notes. “Wait, Starswirl the Bearded was Clover’s apprentice thousands of years ago, right?”

“Yes.” I answered, suppressing my fangirl-lecture.

“These notes don’t look too old… I can see Clover having left a recent note, being a Queen and all. But how could Starswirl? He’s a unicorn.” Jade asked with a perplexed look.

I couldn’t help but smile, “Well as far as anypony knows Starswirl is alive. He just left Equestria a long time ago. He invented time magic, Jade. He never said how, but when asked about his age he said and I quote, ‘I told aging to go stuff it, so it did.’”

“Oh. Seems legit.” Jade quipped, turning back to the notes.

I picked up another note at random. While the books were a glorious treasure, knowing more about one of the most elusive historical figures was much more appealing. Especially since Celestia and Luna mostly only knew things related to the friendship the three of them shared.

Clover,

I’ve successfully re-written this Age’s chronology. Time here passes at the slowest possible rate I could manage. The days here are eons on Equis. You will be in pain, but we will have as much time as we need. Until we can find a means to cure you of this malady, you must remain here. As that seems unlikely, and as per our agreement that nopony can ever learn of this art, I have informed Celestia and Luna of your “death”. I’m sorry. I know you will be sleeping frequently from the poison's effects. If you can’t be awake to talk to me, simply leave a note here. I’ll keep you apprised of the situation outside in the same way.

“Look at this!” Jade exclaimed excitedly as she held up a note in her magic. “I found my hive’s origins!”

“What?” I exclaimed, taking the note for myself and quickly reading it.

Starswirl,

I swore I would never do it, but I can’t stand being cooped up in here anymore! I’m going to lay some eggs. Please take them to a remote place on Equis and allow a small hive to develop. If there are white changelings in the world it won’t look out of place if one of the drones I plan to remote-link with is ever found. Besides, we can’t keep my spellbook here. How else will somepony pick up where we left off if we fail? The hive can safely hide it until ordered to send it to Celestia. I’m sure somepony at that school of hers will crack the riddle one day.

I gasped, grinning, and only barely holding back a squee. “Oh my gosh that’s me! I did it! Well… No… We did it.”

Jade shook her head. “No, you solved the riddle. All I did was help you read it.”

I raised an eyebrow and put a hoof on Jade’s shoulder. “It would have taken me years to learn how to read that. You helped. A lot. We are only here because of both of our efforts.”

She bit her lip in thought then nodded slightly. “Well… I guess. But… I just feel a bit useless.”

“Why?” I asked, realizing that the young queen was opening up to me pretty deeply.

“I don’t know anything.” Jade answered. “I can read, write, I know a little of my hive’s history, and I know how to shapeshift. I can cast three spells, light, spark, and warmth. I can use telekinesis about as well as a unicorn filly. But I’m a Queen. I’m supposed to start my own hive, and I’ll need to impress people to do that...

“Yeah, I guess some people see me as a national hero because I helped defeat Chrysalis… But I only helped. I didn’t do anything especially important. Nothing anypony else couldn’t have done at least.” She finished, scuffing the floor with a small pathetic hoof kick.

Oh boy… I remembered being at this stage of life. It wasn’t all that long ago actually.

Fortunately for Jade, she had somepony who could give her better advice than anypony else standing next to her. I had to decipher Celestia’s cryptic lessons! Sure, that generally made the information stick, but this was just a simple bit of advice that you could just tell somepony in my position.

“Jade, how old are you?” I asked.

“Seventeen.” She answered.

I nodded. “Right. Now, assuming somepony doesn't kill you, how long will you live?”

“A hundred and seventy years or so.” She replied instantly, giving me a confused look. “Why are you asking?”

“Because you haven't realized something yet.” I replied. “You’re ageless now. Or at least, you’re going to live a minimum of eight thousand years. I’m not sure if Queens are truly ageless… Uh… your ancestors tend to be killed.”

Jade paused, but didn’t reply. Maybe I hadn’t given her enough?

“You, Celestia, Luna, the other Elements, and I are not in the same position as everypony else. It’s a hard truth, but they are going to age and one day die. We are not.” I explained.

“I… I don’t understand what you mean.” Jade said after a long moment.

“You are seventeen,” I said pausing to do a quick bit of math, “you have been alive for three thousandths of Celestia’s life. If her lifetime were a day, you would have been alive for just over four minutes. Immortals like us deal in a totally different timescale. Sure, right now you know nothing, but in three hundred years, you will be really good at things and your entire life up until today will seem like just an afternoon.

“Heck! Ponies aren't adults until we’re thirty! I was just starting… Uh… Well I was ten years ahead of my age group in school… Bad example… Oh! Rainbow was barely starting High School at your age. If you were a pony instead of a changeling, you would still be a child. Time is relative to who and what you are, Jade. You’re immortal now, you have all of eternity to grow however you like! Don’t worry about who you are now, just seek improvement.”

Jade’s lips pursed into a  frown. “But, I have to get the nobles to like me and-”

“Sure,” I agreed, cutting her off, “it would be best to get everything done soon. And I’m helping you do that. I’m working on arranging private meetings with the Barons, we took care of them seeing you, now it’s time to slowly work the political system… But you want to know what the worst case scenario is?”

Jade nodded, “I’ve been worrying about that even since the meeting…”

“The current Dukes will step down from rule, passing it to their children in about seventy years.” I said giving Jade a grim smile. “About a hundred and fifty years after that, their children will pass the titles to their Grandchildren. Those grandchildren don’t exist yet. They will grow up hearing about the friendly changeling Queen who helped save the world back in their grandparents days, who nopony has helped with the one thing she wants to do, and they will give you some land.”

Jade's ears flattened angrily, “Seriously? I can just wait and get land someplace? Why the buck are we even… Why!?”

“Because do you really want to wait that long?” I asked. “Also part of the reason Equestrians tolerate permanent immortal rulers is we have agreed to work on their timescales.”

“Oh…” Jade said, frowning slightly. “I… Yeah, I can’t actually imagine waiting two hundred years.”

I nodded. “I can’t either. But you know who can? Celestia. To use the day analogy again, Celestia would just have to wait around ten hours. See why we need to make efforts to work with everypony else? If we don’t we will loose… Well, our equinity. So yes, we are jumping through the hoops to get you a home for your people so it happens soon. But if worst comes to worst, in a generation or two, you’ll have it as long as you haven’t turned evil. Don’t worry, just be patient.”

“Huh…” Jade said to herself. “I need to process this.”

“Awesome!” I exclaimed with a grin. “Because I want to read these notes! Take all the time you need.”

Jade pulled one of the chairs back from the table and sat down. I returned to the notes, scanning through them to try and build the narrative they created in my mind. I needed to know what happened here. This was real history!

It began when Clover fell into a rift, where she had reportedly died. She survived, but was dying, so Starswirl built this place here where she could live for nearly ever because her illness was apparently tied to the passage of time on Equis. While staying here, Clover developed several arts she had been working on before Discord’s reign, one of which was an art involving things called ‘Descriptive’ and ‘Linking’ books.

Apparently she had happened upon a traveler who showed her the art a long time ago, but never did much with it due to other projects. However, the art allowed you to create a book which described a world, and then another book referencing it. Together these worked to allow you to travel between dimensions, like the mirrors did, only the Descriptive Book defined the place you wished to go to, so if you could write one, you could go anyplace.

There were rules. Clover learned them as she went. It was definitely going to a place as well, rather than making the place by writing the book. She learned that by trying to create a world that specifically had a cure for her in it. That book didn’t work. Meaning the places you could go were real, and existed independently of any tome you might pen.

At first Clover simply had been looking for a cure. But she began to start finding things which she believed could help ponykind in the worlds she found. Starswirl began helping her explore, and the two used their discoveries to do many things. Apparently modern apples are an alien fruit.

After some time traveling, the two began to notice certain small things. With an infinite multiverse there should be infinite varied possibilities. But there were not. Every single universe bigger than a single world shared certain small attributes, and the same physical laws. Finding this weird, the two began to search for answers.

They called this their ‘Great Quest’. Unfortunately, after a note mentioning Clover discovered something which made their quest extremely dangerous they stopped talking about it in much detail. All I could learn was that it was extremely important they finish their quest, but based on Clover’s message on the door, the fact she wasn’t here-

“Oh my gosh!” I yelped.

“What?” Jade exclaimed, jumping into the air, wings buzzing loudly.

“I haven't looked into any of these doors! Clover might be sleeping in the other room right now!” I exclaimed running to the closure of the two doors and throwing it open wide with my magic.

I was faced with an empty bedroom. One desk, an open book atop it. One candle holder. One small alien looking bed with a steel box for a frame. One wardrobe.

No Clover.

I felt my ears droop. I supposed if she had been alive and here the note wouldn’t have been on the door. Realizing that the open book might be a journal, I felt my spirits lift as it might provide some light on the situation.

It definitely was a journal, the last entry sat on the two  open pages, and a silver quill was resting tip first on the left hoof page.

Eighth of Snowfall, 5134 R.H.

My surprised gasp brought Jade into the room. “What is it?” She asked looking around quickly, a braced for combat look in her eyes.

“This journal’s last entry is my birthday!” I exclaimed in stunned surprise.

“Well, I mean there’s a one in four hundred chance of that… Is it that surprising?” Jade asked, landing with a thump next to the bed.

“No! I mean I was born on the Eight of Snowfall in the year nine hundred and thirty four of the Solar Era.” I said, still a little surprised. “That’s when this entry was written! It’s dated using the ‘Recorded History’ year system instead of the Era system, but this is my birthday, month, and year… That’s… well surprising.”

“Yeah,” Jade agreed pursing her lips in thought, “that is pretty odd.”

I shook my head. “Coincidence… I’m just surprised I could have been alive while Clover was.”

I turned my attention back to the journal.

I must be brief in this entry. You have my apologies. I fear this will be the last and I hope my journal is of use to you, my heir to be.

Starswirl has told me the twins have vanished without trace from his library. He begged me to divine their location, and while I could determine one remained on Equis, the other has been flung from our universe. Our Quest must have at last been discovered by the powers that be. Why they did not strike at us directly, I know now.

Starswirl and I will make one last trip to the Deadworld to gather all the power we can, then meet with our ‘friend’, Vitae, to try and end this and hopefully retrieve the twins. We are not at all ready. We will likely fail.

I am glad I have prepared for the last two thousand years to guide you to follow in my path. My paranoia is justified, it would seem.

Remember the three golden rules. You can not create a world, that always fails. (Yes you should be able to find one like anything you can imagine, because there are infinite universes. You can’t. That’s clue number one that something is wrong.) You can learn facts about other existing worlds via my scrying spells, and record them until a book is completed. Since all worlds are somewhat similar, you can also reuse facts from other worlds. Things that work, work, things that don’t never will.

You must not forget to write safety locks in a Linking Book or you will cause a violent collapse of both universes with overuse.

Do not trust a jet black stallion who calls himself Vitae Deus. I don’t care that Starswirl trusts him, I don’t. You will meet him eventually, as all Travelers do when they come to our world. That is as suspicious as an unshifted Changeling. I don’t know why Starswirl can’t see that... If I am not here when you find this, I blame him.

I have locked all my existing books with my spellbook. It must be finished before you can use any other Linking Book. This is to force you to take your time. Do not rush anything.

Good luck,

-Clover

I took a long slow breath. “Yeah… Okay… This is definitely pretty important.”

“What’s important?” Jade asked.

“From what I can tell, Clover and probably Starswirl died trying to do something, and intend for whomever found this library to finish it for them. And that something is big and very important.” I summarized.

Jade nodded, “Alright. What do we do?”

“We?” I asked curiously.

“I.. I know I’m not very good at much, but if two of the world’s most powerful mages died trying to do something, it had to have been pretty important… I can’t not help if I can!” Jade stated firmly, giving me a very serious look.

It was the sort of look that said there was no way in tartarus I was going to get her to change her mind. A look that made me remember that despite not knowing even one combat spell, this mare played bait for one of the most dangerous forces in the world. The sort of serious look of someone whose morals wouldn’t let them stand by and do nothing when there was important work to do.

The sort of look of somepony with that rare blend of brave to the edge of stupidity, a mind set that said ‘I am expendable’, and the ironclad sense of duty that makes for a hero.

I decided that I liked Jade.

“Well, I don’t know what we do yet.” I answered, giving Jade a look of acceptance. “Because we need to find the rest of the pages before we can do anything else, according to the journal.”

“Alright, I’ll get Dusk, David, and Lily, and we work this all out in a day or so, then do whatever needs to be done.” Jade said decisively.

“No!”  I quickly objected holding up a hoof.

“Why not?” Jade asked, in mild shock. “We’ll need help!”

“You don’t get it!” I hissed. “The two most powerful mages I am aware of kept this secret for millennia! Clover’s journal states she was paranoid, and based on the rest of the entry, justifiably so. We do not breath a single word of this to anypony! Not until we know everything and can find a safe way to discuss it.

“I’m not going to tell Celestia. I’m not going to tell Luna. I’m not telling Flash, and I’m his marefriend! Heck, I’m not going to tell Fluttershy and if Flash would be okay with it I would also be her marefriend! I’m not telling anypony.”

Jade pursed her lips to object, but then paused, nodded slowly and said, “You’re right. We do at least need to know the details first. Maybe the library will have a helpful guide?”

I nodded. “It’ probably will. To the library!” I exclaimed quickly trotting out the door to the other white door.

“You’re a bit too happy about all of this…” Jade muttered, probably thinking I wouldn’t hear.

“Oh, I’m sorry that my two biggest heroes ever left a quest behind for me to follow!” I said teasingly, opening the library door with my magic.

It was smaller than I expected. An octagon. Seven pony lengths across from corner to corner. Wooden walls paneled in a light red stained color. Floor the same as the rest of the home. One large brass chandelier with glowing crystals in place of candles set in the middle of a ceiling painted like the sky over Canterlot at night.

The wall left of the door held a fireplace. The wall to its left had a bench for reading on. The wall left of that held a map of Equestria. The wall directly across the room held a large bookshelf

filled to capacity with books (Well, large by everypony else’s standards. This was about the size of my summer reading shelf.). The wall to it’s left held a massive sheet of parchment which was covered in thousands of tiny lines, and labeled ‘Known Worlds’. I decided to avoid that headache for now. To its left was another bench. The wall next to it and also the door was blank.

“Okay Twilight… You’re in Clover’s Library… Just cross over to a shelf…” I said slowly to myself as I crossed the floor.

Jade giggled. “I know you said you like boo-”

“No, I love books.” I corrected, taking a volume down from the shelf with my magic.

I gently traced my hoof along it’s red leather cover embossed with gold- oh…

My ears drooped. This was horrible! Simply awful. This was the worst possible thing!

It was printed in Jade’s changelish dialect. I couldn’t read it!

Why? Why must this be?

Jade zipped over to me and wrapped me in a tight hug. “Please stop! That tastes super bad! I’ll fix it! Just stop feeling that emotion! I don’t want to hurl on floors this nice!”

“I can’t read this language…” I whimpered holding up the book for her to see.

Jade glanced at the title. “Oh… I could read it too you.”

“But… But I want to read all of them… And you won't always be here with me every time…” I lamented.

“Well… How about you teach me magic, and I teach you to read my language?” Jade offered. “You’re the one who said we have all the time in the world, right?”

That’s right. We did! But also… Books… I needed them!

I took a deep breath and tried to collect myself. “Okay…”

I could do this. I’ve learned harder. I’d have this done within… a month? Maybe two? I could wait that long. Possibly… Probably… Most likely...

“We can start now, okay?” Jade said gently guiding me to the bench and sitting on it. “Let’s start with the title… Huh… So, this book is called ‘Enigma’.”

I facedesked.