Pyromancer's delight

A light mint furred unicorn with a mostly cropped-short orange mane shuffled through a stack of books. They were almost all chemistry books and magicians guides, mostly about the applications of certain elements reacting to heat. She couldn't believe her luck at finding such tomes; she knew most of their facts by heart, but although she found by skimming a lot of them to be full of useful information, she chuckled at the one on the top of the stack and discarded it.

"Author o' that one must not have spent much time by fire, eh Ferrice?"

The sleepy grey weasel on her back perked up at his name, looked at the book, and fell back asleep. He couldn't read, so he couldn't form much of an opinion of the book other than that the cover was hoof-sketched and the book was smaller than the others. Fairground Dance returned to shuffling about the stack of books and found one of the chemistry ones she had picked out to read. She dared not check anything out, for if she took them back to her home in Appleloosa she'd just have to send them back with her friend Cirrus as soon as she got there, not to mention that books might not survive the travel. The mint-tinged pony settled down by the end of a shelf and began to read quietly, although evidently thrilled by what she was reading.

Switchblade entered the library with a nod to the pony on the desk, he walked over to the table next to a unicorn with what looked like a weasel on her back, he shrugged and pulled a heavy looking, leatherbound tome out of his bag, setting it on the table, causing an audible thud, it read 'Advanced smelting, the art of the forge.' in large lettering on the front, he had been meaning to read through it for some time; although he was already a master blacksmith, he wanted to read another angle on it.

Fairground perked up with the thud of something padded but heavy landing on the table nearby. Curious she looked up from 'A guide to pyrotechnic colorants' to look at the black-and-bronze newcomer. Another unicorn, and one who seems familiar with the more technical side of temperature from the looks of the book he was reading. She briefly looked at the unusual outfit he was in before glancing at his cutie mark for an explanation. It gave none that she could understand. Dance faked a sneeze when she realized she was staring and returned her eyes to her own book; She had just gotten to the section about lithium, which she sometimes used for a touch of magenta in her special effects, and she was about to forget about the male in her excitement for research when Ferrice sprung off of her back and onto the table.

"Claws Ice, and don't bother anyone, okay?" she said quietly to the weasel without looking up. Ferrice didn't respond, and instead dukes quietly at the other pony and sat down in the middle of the table. If one were to inspect the weasel more closely, he was really more brown than grey, and had stains in his fur from something greyish that had been poorly washed out.

Switchblade saw the mare staring at him out of the corner of his eye, 'why do they always pretend to sneeze? It just draws more attention.' he thought to himself. He looked back at his book and laughed slightly to himself; the author of this book must have been overly imaginative when writing because he was pretty sure that some of the alloys would do less than nothing. While he read his book, he took his lunch and put it next to him, just out of his eyesight, it was a lettuce sandwich with tomatoes in, he kept it near as a incentive to finish the book quickly.

Despite not usually being interested in reading - she preferred hooves-on action, which sitting down looking at a book didn't often provide - Green Cream was in the library. Randomly-picked storybook in hoof, she walked silently to a table, more because she didn't want to disrupt anypony's reading than because she didn't feel like making noise.

Cream yawned softly as she looked around at the two other ponies at the table; waking up at dawn daily did take its toll on her. Still, she figured she would be able to finish up this book (she realised, with slight embarassment, that it seemed to be geared towards twelve-year-olds) before checking it out if she wanted to and going home.

Fairground yet again glanced up, and shifted her weight uncomfortably. She understood the need for silence, but still it bothered her when so many ponies simply sat and did nothing. A young-looking pegasus had entered and didn't seem quite so happy with the book she had chosen. Fairground Dance attempted to steal a peek at the cutie mark as subtly as possible, but saw that a wing seemed to be mostly in the way and gave up not 2-3 seconds later. Ferrice had curled up in the center of the table and was watching the bronze male read his book, for which Fairground was grateful. It would be a disaster if the cute little furball attempted to steal the sandwich, if not for reaction then for dietary difference. Swaying slightly left and right over her front hooves like a flame pushed by a gentle breath as she turned the page by magic, the fiery-maned unicorn tried to bury her conscience back into her book. Such a needlessly solemn situation this was...

She set her book down on the table, looked about at everyone in the room, smiled at nothing in particular, and mentally thought of a familiar tune while staring off into space.

Switchblade saw the pony with the weasel looking around, evidently uncomfortable with the quiet, he got up and moved next to her "You seem uncomfortable, madam." he said, smiling.

Green Cream scanned the cover - Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone. Seemed interesting enough. It was adventure, too, her favourite genre. She opened it up and read. As expected, it was thrilling, about some explorer roaming around finding a fancy sapphire. Not exactly the most original plot, and she found herself looking about frequently, wondering what the others were doing.

She found not many changes; ponies were still reading. The unicorn was now sitting next to the... other unicorn, who looked rather uncomfortable with the environment. Adjusting her headband, she turned back to her book, not wanting to seem like too much of a busybody.