Chapter Text
“Twilight, please make sure to clean up after you leave, won’t you dear,” called the young woman out towards the girl sitting at the checkout desk.
A pair of glasses poked from behind the cover of the book currently being held up. Setting down her marker, Twilight Sparkle gently closed her book and stood up from her seat. “Will do Ms. Celestia,”
With a mellow nod the owner of the library turned to leave the building. A massive echo from the wooden doors bouncing off the walls. Twilight was left by her lonesome to close out for the rest of the day. It was not very often she did close, mostly because she had to attend university early in the morning. It meant she only closed the property mainly at the end of the weekdays and sometimes during the weekends if she was feeling particularly confident.
Since today was Friday it had been a relatively slow day too, people not having classes the next day did lead to dip in attendance at the private library. Not that Twilight minded one bit. Quite opposite actually, she relished on the particular days since it gave her time to delve into her own books, maybe finish her homework without interruptions or merely walk around the place to lose herself in the great stacks of books surrounding her.
Without a doubt she knew factually that she was a nerd. The effects of being somewhat of a hermit came with fewer friends, time spent by herself working or maybe partake in less sociable activities. Out of the whole group of few friends she had Twilight was easily the most aloof. Even her meek friend Fluttershy had a bigger friend count than she could dream of, if animal pals counted that is.
It did drive a couple of the girls bonkers at time, they regularly pestered her to hang out with them rather than to sit in the gloomy book vault like some old croon. Rainbow Dash did tease her the most but Twilight understood why they did it. They cared for her, simple as that. Few others did besides her parents and friends. Among them was the woman who had just exited the building, Ms. Celestia and a few of the regular visitors. Beyond them, everyone else was oblivious to Twilight, the unrecognizable face behind the counter ready to stamp the books for lease. Likely they considered her a bit of an oddball nerd who wanted no interaction with anyone.
Even the other assistant, Wallflower Blush, joked that she was just as invisible to everyone else like her. Twilight thought otherwise but she knew her word counted for little when there was no one to listen to it. Which partially made Wallflower’s comment ring with some truth sadly.
To keep herself from sinking too far into her thoughts Twilight ultimately decided to do her final round around the place before locking the doors and heading out for the day. Tucking her book into her backpack she got up and did a few stretches to rid of the little kinks in her back and neck. That old chair was beginning to be a nuisance but until the place had enough money to replace it, it would have to do.
Sipping a bit of water, Twilight rounded behind the solid wood table to the massive stairs besides her.
Even during her first time here Twilight had wondered how magical this place was. Almost as if taken from a palace, Canterlot Library was a great edifice with two floors completely stuffed to the brim with all manners of books, texts, scrolls, charts and even more. Its main lobby was a clean area, the very first thing most people saw the minute they came in. It did have enough room to have a dance battle, which by the way was strictly forbidden for obvious reasons, with enough study tables. Surrounding it was the contents for which it was known. Curved bookshelves, nearly twenty feet high in some places, awaited to be used by daily visitors.
Not that they did very much using but that was beside the point.
By single glance no one would think too much of the building, often its towering shelves misleading newcomers from its true size. In stark reality the whole architecture was larger than a school, not taking into account the slimy basement where the restoration room was or the break room. Twilight was not ashamed one bit to admit she had found herself lost in the great maze, twice no less.
Since then she had taken careful notes to learn the place inside and out as soon as she got the job. Always she ventured into the deepest reaches to make sure no straggler was left by accident. It would not be the first time but Twilight certainly wished to make it the last time it did not occur anymore. Poor guy had to wait until next day to be found by the janitor.
Once the backwall was scoured and the few books littered beyond their respective homes put back she then made her way back up.
She zigzagged seamlessly, her natural intellect allowing her to keep her sense of direction sharp at all times even when the corridors grew dark. Once the second floor was scanned for traces of yet-alive guests she hanged up a sign at each stair entries to block any last minute comers from disappearing from her sight.
A quick check on her watch told her the library was due to close in twenty minutes. Just as anticipated too. Having done this on a regular basis she had come to judge her activities without the need for a clock, most useful when her own clock did not have a light-up functionality and she often was nowhere near any to tell time in the less ventured corners of the building.
With half the building looked over she began idly walking the lower isles. These were thankfully not as big as those on the second floor due to the greater space for tables, couches and a few private study rooms for use. Not to mention that the children’s section was located on the backwall, just behind the checkout desk in case anything happened. Since their collection of books was diminutive so were the plastic shelves which meant a single glance was enough to reveal if someone was playing hide and seek or more than likely being too loud. It was often the first floor that had the messiest tables thanks to students or just idlers dropping by to look for a small piece of information to then leave without returning the book to its respective place.
Twilight did not have to worry much about putting these books up, only collecting them for Wallflower Blush to work them in the morning. She did not think it was too kind to leave the poor girl to do it all by herself but apparently most morning there was little to do besides sort books and read. Or just watch movies on her laptop.
Twilight decided to leave the subject well enough alone, preferring to spend those last minutes locking up the main entrance with only five minutes to close. She rounded the desk to grab the master key and made her way over to the great large wooden doors engraved with the equestrian logo of the library stamped on its panels.
As she grabbed the handle of the door a small click sounded from behind it. It took a bare second to register the door flying open. By mere chance Twilight held up her hands to catch the slab before it came into contact with her face. She grimaced as she looked over behind it to see who possibly had come in this late in the afternoon, four minutes till closing time no less.
Twilight did not properly see the person’s face, only a mane of wild red hair with yellow stripes running down it. Following the cascading flow of hair Twilight gave a quirk of her eyebrow. The newcomer was definitely a girl, a punk girl no less with lack of decency if she was to guess. The facts pointed at the girl having long boots, a stylish but somewhat questionable jean skirt and some sort of leather jacket.
Already Twilight was expecting to have her perfectly good day ruined by an insensitive person barging in. Twilight coughed aloud to catch the girl’s attention. Immediately the girl who was looking around for some item snapped rigid. She turned around to find herself with a rather miffed Twilight.
“Oh, sorry.” Apologized the punk girl. “Didn’t mean to barge in this late. Is it alright if I pick out a book?”
Twilight felt herself go dumbfound at the request. The gall of this woman! Twilight had made sure that this library was closed right on time, never later. Not once had she missed the deadline and to do so would besmirch her impeccable record thus far.
“It’s past closing time,” Twilight flatly said.
The girl looked down at her own watch and frowned.
“No it’s not. According to my clock I still got three minutes.”
Twilight felt her eye twitch at the comment. Just to be sure she looked at her clock hanging on the nearby wall. To her dismay she found that indeed there was but few valuable minutes left before the turn of the hour. She shot the girl a glare.
“Fine. Three minutes,” she said between gritting teeth.
The girl gave her a nod and quickly picked herself up from the spot. With an apologetic smile she then quickly darted behind on of the nearby isles. Twilight looked over to where the girl had waltzed through, very aware that her type often did venture regularly into place such as this. And when they did there was generally trouble to be had.
She slipped behind the girl, knowing what she was doing was actively wrong against any library visitor but Twilight’s intentions were honest and she wanted to make sure this particular guest was behaving properly. With as much effort as humanly possible she listened carefully the sounds of book pages shuffling or the occasional grunts. With the general location narrowed down to the science section, Twilight stealthily moved in the shadows to the place.
She however found that the newcomer had by now piled up a sizable amount of books and was beginning to make her way over to the desk. Quickly she turned tail to arrive at her counter just in time before the girl did.
By the time the trouble maker dropped the heavy stack of books into the desk she found an out of breath Twilight fixing her glasses.
“Huh,” she eyed Twilight with raised eyebrow. “You okay? It seems like you just ran a marathon,”
Twilight felt herself turn pale. Quickly she gave her the biggest grin a liar could. “It’s nothing, just doing a few laps around the library,”
The girl seemed dumbfound at the statement. “Cool, I- huh- guess.”
Twilight felt her cheeks grow a bit red from shame, mostly for having just blatantly lied about spying on her less than two minutes ago. To take her mind of it she quickly began to scan the books. To her surprise she found that the girl was in fact reading –
“Intermediate’s Guide to Engineering,” murmured Twilight aloud.
“Heh, yeah. Just something to study about,” chuckled nervously the girl.
Twilight gave her a grimace. What kind of girl who more than likely skips out on school has something to do with engineering. She of course did not say anything, only continuing to scan through the rest of the books. She did however caught the girl stealing a few glances here and there when she thought she was not looking but otherwise said nothing.
Finally, when the last book was stamped for the return date Twilight pushed the stack of half a dozen books for the redhead to grab.
“Awesome. And just on time too,” beamed the girl as she hefted the books in both arms.
Twilight gave her a dirty look for actively mocking her. Just as she said the time was right on the dot, 9:00 PM. As if on point the automatic light sensors began to loudly turn off the main headlight overhead, casting a looming dark over the entire library with the exception of the dimly lit wall lights.
Twilight quickly grabbed her bag and hoisted it over her shoulder. As she exited the desk she found the girl standing in the same spot she had left her.
“How about if both of us go together, it’s dark after all outside,” she explained as she turned away from Twilight’s rather confused gaze, face somewhat indescribable.
Despite the tingling sensation in the back of her head that Twilight was perceiving as caution she did feel like there was something behind the shadows. It was silly, that was very much the most factual thing about it, but ever since she had been a child she had always hated the dark. Despised it more likely, which was somewhat an oxymoron considering the place she worked in was often dark itself.
“If it’s not too much trouble,” Twilight said with another blush of embarrassment.
She half expected for the girl to laugh at her or maybe begin to tease her about being scared of the dark. Instead she was stunned for find the girl letting out sigh of relief.
“Great then,” she chuckled. Nervously?
Twilight found the sound a bit difficult to comprehend but remained silent. All she did was nod before stepping beside the girl. With a mumble she asked the girl to follow her to the exit. Quietly they left the building, only stopping to lock the great oak doors with a great metallic ping.
Twilight turned to look at the girl standing in front of her, mountain of tomes half-hiding her from view.
“Guess this is it then. I’m guessing that’s your ride over there, isn’t it?” gestured the redhead towards the compact car, the same color as Twilight’s hair.
“Yeah, that’s me.” She said hesitantly. Why did I just admit what my vehicle is like?
“Oh, well, no need for me to walk you anywhere then,” she said in a low voice, the barest signs of disappointment seeping through. She turned to look back at Twilight with great shiny eyes, enough to cause Twilight to grip the leash on her bag. “I’ll be going if you’d like. Gotta study all these books, right?”
Twilight looked down at the books and only then did she realize she had made a mistake.
“I forgot to put your name under your record!” gasped the librarian with wide eyes.
“Did you,”
“I completely forgot to write down your name before we left the building.” Continued Twilight, ashamed she the simplest act had slipped her mind. “What am I going to do?”
She reached out for the lock only to withdraw her hand from the handle. Right, the building’s alarm would have been triggered already at the final lock of the door for safety reasons. She would have to wait until tomorrow morning when the silent alarm would be disactivated automatically.
“What? Can’t you just go in and type in my name on the file or write it down before I get written to the police for stealing books?” joked the girl.
“No,” exhaled Twilight. “Our security system is old and once the door is locked for the day it won’t deactivate until tomorrow morning. Thankfully your file is saved but I will need a name to write into the system once I come back tomorrow.”
Quickly Twilight took out the book she had been reading earlier in the day and a pen.
“What’s your name again?” Twilight asked as she prepared to jot down the identifying piece of information so she could later be on the alert for. No doubt the girl would likely be returning the books late, or worse, never. She suppressed a shudder at the mere thought of it.
The girl however gave her an sincere smile and stepped closer into Twilight’s personal space.
“Sunset Shimmer, at your service,”
Twilight felt a knot in her stomach form at the sweet sound of the girl’s voice. She doubted it was her real name but unfortunately it would have to do.
“Do you need my phone number as well?”
Twilight suddenly felt the air around them grow hot. In the beginning of autumn too. Impossible. “We -ahem- Canterlot doesn’t require phone numbers,”
“Okay Sunset Shimmer, your books are due in two weeks. There is a tardy fee of 25 cents for every day you miss returning each book and a compensation fee if you damage it of 10 dollars. Please be sure to return the books by the date or give us a call if you need an extension on the deadline,”
Sunset Shimmer let out a small chuckle as Twilight finished the rehearsed speech she had given every customer at the library for the past two years. It, however, did not bode well with Twilight who gave the girl a curious glare.
“What?” she near-growled as she pushed her glasses against the bridge of her nose.
“No, nothing. Just, this is the first time I’ve heard you say something that was longer than just a couple of words.” Sunset explained with a light shrug. “Also, now you know my name but what about you. What’s your name?”
Twilight blinked. It took her a second to respond, wary, of course. And meekly too.
“Twilight. Twilight Sparkle,” she squeaked.
“Twilight Sparkle,” repeated the girl softly, the corners of her lips lifting higher with delight. She seemingly repeated those words two more times, each a decibel lower than the last, as if playing with the letters of the name. “You have a lovely name,”
Invoking a light blush, Twilight shied from the girl by hugging her book close to her chest. “I- huh- thanks, I think,”
With a nod, Sunset Shimmer stepped back to allow Twilight a bit more room to make her way towards her dainty car. “Now that I know your name I guess it is really time for me to go.”
“Goodbye then,”
“Bye to you too,” said Sunset as she began to backpedal towards a small truck parked further back. “See you soon, hopefully,”
Twilight barely began to register that last word before she glanced up to look at the flaming mane flowing away from her into the dark sunset bidding her a wave.
Sunset Shimmer.
Twilight would not forget that name, she would make sure of it. Not until those books were returned, hopefully.