Music of the Spheres

The Golden Oaks library is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Ponyville, it’s not
every day that you see a large tree that doubles as a public buidling. It’s also not a normal
day for the resident of said Library, oh yes, today is in fact, one of her favorite days in the
entire Celestial calendar, re-shelving day.

“Spiiiiiiiiiike!” Twilight called as she stood amid the maelstrom of literature currently
orbiting in her violet magic field. Twilight wasn’t entirely sure, but she had come to the
suspicion that her number one assistant feigned overtiredness on re-shelving day.

Given the lack of information on developmental dragon physiology, Twilight knew that
she couldn’t prove it. Especially as she had no baseline for measuring the number of
hours baby dragons needed to sleep each day.

“Geeze Twilight, you think that you would have this system down pat given we go
through it twice a month.” The young drake said as he meandered down the staircase.

“It’s not that Spike, I can’t find Starswirl’s journal!” Twilight practically shouted. “But
Twilight didn’t yo-”, he was cut off as the purple unicorns began pacing around the room
while levitating various titles to her face, grimacing once she discovered that they were
not the one she sought.

“The most important book in this entire library, definitely in Ponyville and maybe even
in all of Equestria and it gets misplaced!” Twilight wailed as she continued to franticly
scan the shelves. “I think you are over reacting.” Spike deadpanned “Have you checked
the stash where you used to hide the elements of harmony jewelry?” he continued.
Twilight blushed slightly as she realized her mistake “Heh, that’s right.”

As she went to retrieve the journal Twilight decided that aetherically tagging the book
would prevent her from losing track of it again. She knew that the Royal Canterlot
archives magically tagged all their rare manuscripts in the same manner to prevent much
of the same situation she had just gone through.

It was when she had recovered the book and was mentally constructing the spell
framework in her mind when she noticed something. “That’s weird.” Twilight said as she
turned the slim volume over in her magical grip. “What is?” asked Spike as he looked up
from the small hill of books he was currently placing back on the shelves.

“I’m detecting a pre-existing enchantment on the journal…..an illusion I believe, based

on the configuration of the spell matrix.” Twilight explained as she considered the
possibilities. She had read about paranoid mages concealing their work through layers of
magical encryption, but the journal already contained sensitive magical information.

Her curiosity getting the better of her, Twilight threw caution to the wind and started
unraveling the Illusion placed on the journal. “Are you sure that’s safe Twilight?” Spike
asked warily. “What do you mean?” replied the purple librarian as she focused on the
delicate spellwork.

“Well, it’s just that it seems like someone went to an awful lot of trouble to hide whatever
is under that illusion.” Spike said as he eyed the object in question. Twilight briefly
pondered this as a burst of magic leapt from her horn to the journal as she completed the
counterspell.

“Success!” Twilight sang as she merrily trotted in place, earning a chuckle from Spike.
Twilight’s merriment soon turned to confusion as she examined the newly dispelled
journal. It seemed to have swollen to twice its previous size, a plethora of new pages
appearing where before there had been nothing.

Twilight wasted no time in hungrily opening and devouring the newly revealed contents
of the journal. Her glee was stunted however as she glanced over the first page.
“This…this doesn’t make any sense.” Twilight said with a sharp intake of breath.

“That sure is a surprise coming from you Twilight, you practically worship Starswirl.”
Stated Spike as he waddled up to Twilight and glanced at the book over her shoulder.

Twilight traced her hoof over several diagrams and formulae on the page before
responding. “These are astronomical models and elliptical modification spells like I’ve
never seen before! These figures account for the manipulation of heavenly bodies
completely absent of Alicorn influence!” Twilight turned to Spike, her face plastered
with a wide grin and a made gleam in her eye, “Do you know what this means?”

Spike took a step back before braving an answer, “ Uhhh, it’s a nice find?” Twilight
returned to the journal, flipping through the remaining pages while chattering off in
Spike’s general direction. “ This is a pre-classical account of the managing of the sun and
moon prior to the coming of Celestia and Luna! By no less than Starswirl the Bearded!”
Twilight was practically shaking with excitement now.

“We know from sparse accounts that Starswirl was a member of the last unicorn cabal
that raised the sun and moon in the periods before Equestrian unification, but most
mainstream scholars believe that any firsthand knowledge perished in the great Canterlot
fire during the lunar rebellion!”

Spike just shrugged and turned to the kitchen before saying “That’s great I guess,
Princess Celestia will be glad to hear it.” He didn’t make it two steps before a popping
noise was heard and Twilight materialized in front of his face, eyes wide with intensity.
“The Princess can’t know about this Spike! At least not yet.”

Spike simply continued to stare at his friend, knowing that the best strategy to dealing
with Twilight in this state was to let her burn off her mania in a soliloquy. “Princess
Celestia gave me the journal, so that either means that A: this is some kind of test that
I’m supposed to pass by unraveling the mystery. Or B: that she didn’t know about it and
I’m on the verge of genuine discovery!” Twilight broke her manic stare with Spike and
darted down to the basement.
………………………………………………………………………………………

Twilight returned sometime later sporting saddlebags, a tan vest and a rounded explorers
hat. “I don’t know about this Twilight, are you planning on going somewhere?” Spike
questioned as he noticed the traveling gear that Twilight had donned before surfacing.

“I have to see this through!” Twilight froze and brought a forehoof to her chest as she
raised her head in her approximation of a heroic pose, “For magical history! For the
Princess! For Equestria!” Twilight was broken out of her reverie by the unmistakable
sound of a certain rainbow maned Pegasus laughing while she rolled around on the
library floor.

“Rainbow! What are you doing here! What has Spike told you?” Twilight gave Spike
another death glare before Rainbow ceased her guffawing and cleared the air. “I came
over to invite you to a Pinkie Pie party but it looks like you have something else going
on.”

“Hehehe, what makes you say that?” said Twilight nervously as she tried to
inconspicuously float Starswirl’s journal over into her saddlebags. “Oh I don’t know,
maybe the Daring Do hat, the two weeks worth of provisions and the magnetic compass
hanging off your saddlebags.” Rainbow then snatched the journal out of mid-air before
Twilight could respond.

“Hey! Give that back Rainbow, it’s beyond precious!” Twilight said as she considering
trying to wrestle the journal away, but decided to avoid possiblely damaging the priceless
relic.

“Not until you tell me what’s going on here.” Rainbow teased as she placed the journal
firmly behind a wing and obstinately dropped to her haunches. After Twilight got ahold
of her internal screaming she relented and after swearing Rainbow to secrecy, told the
pegasus about her discovery.
…………………………………………………………………………………

“I still don’t get the last part, where are you going, and how do you know to go there?”
Whined Rainbow as she mimed falling asleep. “I just told you Rainbow, the astral co-
ordinates defined by Starsw-” she was cut off as Rainbow held up a hoof, “In eqquish
please, not the original egghead.”

Twilight sighed before trying again “Starswirl makes exact astral observations in his
journal, I can calculate his relative position based on what stars he was observing at what
times.” Rainbow, seemingly interested, rose from the floor “So what? You are going to
Canterlot to visit his study or something?” Not it was Twilight’s turn to tease “ Not
exactly, the placement of Starswirl’s observations don’t originate from Canterlot as one
might think.”
Rainbow scratched her head as she motioned her to continue. When no further
information came Twilight spoke “Nothing more until you hand over the journal
Rainbow.” Begrudgingly, the brash weathermare did as she was asked. “ Now, as was I
was saying, this is interesting because there is no record of Starswirl living anywhere
outside of the ancestral unicorn capital. I’ve heard rumors of a lost mage tower that
Starswirl supposedly built in his final days but I’ve never given them any credit…until
today that is.”

Twilight excited grin was mirrored by Rainbow as she continued “The only problem is
that the stars have different positions today than they did in the pre-classical era when
Starswirl observed them. This made locating his exact point of observation impossible. I
was however able to narrow it down to a rough area, somewhere past the Macintosh
Hills, bordering on uncharted territory.”

It almost seemed as if lightning coursed through Rainbow dash as she sprang up into the
air with a powerful flap of her wings. “So you’re telling me that we have an ancient
artifact, a mysterious lost ruin and the fate of all of Equestria hanging in the balance!”
Rainbow Dash squealed as she hoof pumped into the air.

“All except for the last part, and what do you mean by “We”?” Twilight replied
skeptically. Rainbow Dash ended her jubilations and flew down to Twilight,
uncomfortably close, “ You are about to go on a real life Daring Do adventure and you
think I’m staying behind! Not a chance Twi.”

“Well.” Twilight stated while musing everything over, “We had better get started then.”