The Journey of the Book

by jstar666444

A Story Unfolds

The Story Begins: (at) Night

Night looks at the figure for a few seconds before asking “ummm….Can I help you?” He was deeply confused as to how a random pony had found his house.

“Good evening madam. I’m sorry to bother you at this time of night, but I have some troubling questions that I believe you may have the answers to.”

“Madam? First off i'm a male and second off answers to what?”

“Well this is a bit embarrassing, but none the less. I am here to learn three things.”

“Learn three things? Mmhm...well...why don't you come in.”

“Very well, but I want this to be quick.”

Night stepped aside and allowed the cloaked figure to enter his abode. Night walked over to the couch and sat down. “Take a seat.” He motioned a hoof to the chair. “and would you like some tea?”

“As long as you’re good at brewing then sure.”

Night headed into the kitchen as the figure had taken a seat. “So stranger what's your name?” Night called out from the kitchen.

“Rohan”

“Mmm sounds nice. Well I have a big question you must answer for me.”

“That’s fine, but I want mine answered first.”

Night peeks around the corner “Okay what are they.”

“First question; what is this place?”

“Why this place. It's a house in the forest clearly.” He says with a smirk on his face.

“Alright mister smartass. Second question; who are you?”

“Me I’m Night Constant but just call me Night.”

“That sounds unoriginal and was very uninformative, but fair is fair. Third question; What do you know about a Twilight Sparkle?”

“Twilight who? I don't seem to know who that is.” The kettle at this point started to whistle so Night went about finishing up making the tea.

“You don’t know who she is? Oh well that’s a shame. It seems that I have wasted my questions.”

Night finishes making the tea and heads back into the living area with tea in tow. As he heads to the table he notices that Rohan holding papers in front of him. The same papers Twilight had. He placed the tea down on the table. He levitates one over to Rohan “For you.” He sits down on the couch and takes a sip of his own. “So what'cha reading?”

“Some local news. Was that your question for me?”

“Hmm...Oh yes right...I would like to know how you found my house?”

“I was on my way to deliver a basket of sweets to my grandmother and I guess I took the wrong turn at that tree.”

Night laughs at this. “Is that so.” He pauses to contemplate on what to do. Somepony had found him. Maybe just maybe. “I’ll cut out the act if you can help me with something.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere. What is your request?”

“Well I need your help with some magical problems. I don’t know how but you managed to get through the barrier and I need your help getting past that barrier. In turn I will answer all your questions to the best of my ability.”

“That sounds reasonable.”

“So how’d you do it?”

“I hit it really hard.”

“You hit it? No no no no no how did you even notice the barrier to begin with. Nopony other than Twilight and Celestia can even reach me. So how did you….”

“Would you believe I just ran into it after exploring the wilderness?”

“Yes and no. You were able to find this place but how could you physically enter it!” At this the teacup in front of Night shatter his anger clearly rising. He slowly calms himself down and spoke again. “What powers do you possess. Seeing that you are an earth pony I would say none but you do...So just give me a straight answer. What did you use to get past the barrier?”

“A book.”

“A sort of spell tome….no not that simple….It must be, in a sense, possessed? Am I correct. It has some form of mind of it’s own?”
Rohan smiles and laughs before saying “It’s good to find somebody that has knowledge of artifacts such as those. Most others think of those as myths.”

“Well believe it or not i'm quite old and I have a vast amount of knowledge in magic. Okay okay I now know you can help me get out of here and once we are out I shall answer any question.”

“Fine by me”

“Let me gather a few things from my room than we can leave.” Night heads off to his room to pack up his stuff.

Rohan:

I’m not going to lie. I didn’t expect this female looking pony named Night to be male, but there are stranger things in the world. As he went upstairs to gather his belongings, I drank the tea he game me. It tasted awful. Minutes passed before he returned down with what I assumed to be his belongings stuffed into bags on each side of him. I told him to follow me to the barrier.

We walked to where I had force my way in and found that the barrier healed itself. I took out my tome and told Night to watch and learn. I opened to the page I found the spell on and casted it. All I had to do was utter barrier breaker and give it a hard knock to open a way. I didn’t need to say my spells and all I needed to do was tap the barrier, but what can I say, I love being stylish. I motioned for him to go first, but he just stood baffled with his mouth agape. Taking the initiative, I went first to show Night that there was indeed a hole in the barrier. He walked through with an amazed expression on his face. It was similar to the face of a child finding out their special talent.

I told him that it would be better to return to the the town so that we can have a proper discussion. He agreed somewhat eagerly. I wasn't surprised as it seemed that he has been stuck in that invisible bubble for years with a very limited amount contact. If I was in there, I would most likely want to interact with more than one pony a week. In order to show him some trust I handed him the notes I took off of Twilight. I explained that I wanted him to be able to trust me so he would be more open to my questions.

We returned to my inn room at the dead of night. He’s not actually dead, I was talking about the time of day...at night. Before I began my question I decided to show him my face in order to make him feel more comfortable in talking to me. With my goggles and scarf off and my hood down, I asked him how he was feeling.

“Well to be quite honest amazed more so. To see how far civilization has come it's astonishing. Oh i can't wait to see what new spells have been made……..”

He look at his horn and made a deep frown. I thought of what to tell him. I decided to tell him that it was possible for me to fix his problem, but that it was risky.

“No not possible this spell cast on it is only known by Celestia. It was specially made for me. Plus i'm not worried about the device i'm just worried about how much power i can exert before the headaches come back cause as of right now i can do minor spells.”

Taking what he said into consideration I at least offered to make the ring removeable, though it would still be active.

“Ahhh... No thank you...i've grown quite fond of it...even though every so often i try to take it off Ha.”

I told him that that was understandable, but the offer stands if he decided to change his mind. I was a bit upset that he didn’t let me at least try, but it was his choice. Either way I decided to cut to the chase and told him that I need to know everything he knows about Twilight Sparkle.

“Well that's a tricky one. Mainly because she wouldn't tell me much of her personal life even when i poked and prodded. All I can tell you is she's a fairly new alicorn princess under Celestia. She currently lives within this town at the time. I do know she has five other friends within this town also but I don't know anything about them. However I did manage to over hear her talk of a pony who grows apples around here and how she needed to talk to her about a party a few months back.”

I made a deep sigh. I told him I already knew about that with the exception of the possible party.

“Sorry I can't be much help there. It was Celestia's orders that she was not to form any kind of bond with me. And well she stuck to it...kind of. She did sort of loosen up around me in time. Letting things slip from her mouth about her personal problems of the time. Also the fact that she sort of helped me learn about some new things in the world.”

I started to worry if that pony that I knocked out and left in the forest was innocent. I told Night that it was very important that I know everything about her and that if there was anything that he was hiding from me.

“Believe me if I knew any more i’d tell you in a heartbeat cause really anypony who follows Celestia that devoutly is a pony whom which i would preferably not like to know. So everything I told you is all I know. Sorry.”

It seems that everyone knows the exact same information about Twilight and that bothers me to no end. I hate bringing in others to help, but in a situation like this I have to. I asked Night if he would be willing to help me get the information I needed.

“Sure I mean just give me about a week though. I should be able to induce enough magic into this device so that i can have a sort of appearance alteration while I walk around town. Well I might be able to do it in three days actually if i'm not bothered at all. Deal?”

I told him sure but then asked if he would want to wear a disguise so that he can investigate sooner.

“That wouldn't work cause I also need to mask the aura of magic on the device itself. Twilight herself has no clue what my magic is like so if i were to just walk around disguised and happen to pass by her she would instantly sense the aura of the device.”

Just incase I told him that I was going to put an aura confusion spell on the room and get him something to wear if someone were by chance either stumble into the room or look through the window and sees him.

“Alright looks like we are in business. Soooo…..you got a mare-friend?”
I told him that we’ll talk more in the morning. The firsting I had to do now was to get what we needed. After saying that I went into town to borrow some things from the local stores.

Night:

After having fallen asleep shortly after Rohan left the room. Night woke up from a fairly uneventful sleep. With his eyes still closed he pondered whether or not the stuff that happened last night was real. He opened his eyes to reveal a fairly bland room.”So last nights events did happen.” he said to himself. He got up slowly and looked around for his stuff. “Ah there it is.” He reached over and opened one of the packs. He pulled a book out from the inside of the bag and opened it. “Still blank huh….oh well.” He placed the book back in the pack. He proceeded to go look for the pony that helped him last night. “Rohan?” He called out, but no answer came back.

He entered the kitchen and placed the kettle he brought from home on the stove after filling it up with water from a nearby spout. It took him a second to figure out that when the top of the stove turned red it was heating things up. He walked back to the room he woke up in and readied his supplies for the magic he needed to perform the ritual. He went back to grab his tea once it was ready.

“Okay let's begin” Night takes a sip of his tea. His horn begins to glow slowly. Sadly it can only hold a faint glow. He closed his eyes and focused on the band on his horn. Slowly a picture of the inner works starts to form in his mind. However it only show portions of the device but he should be able to make due with it. He then focuses on the foreign magic of the band. Slowly he seeps his magic in and starts to overlap the other magic. This is going to be a long night.

He is interrupted when the door opens.

“Rise and shine Night. I got something for you.”

Night flinches for second as the magic is forced out due to his break in concentration. “Uhhh..Oh hey...ummm what did you say?”

Rohan throws a bag at Night. “I got some food to eat and some cloths to cover yourself. Hope you like apples, this town has loads of them and I hope they don’t mind me helping myself.”

“Thank you...Umm I appreciate this but I need to get back to the magic stuff if you don't mind….i'll talk to you in a while okay?”

“Whatever, just be sure to try on those clothes though. I worked all night on them and I need to know if they fit.”

Rohan then leaves the room. NIght looks inside the bag that Rohan threw at him. Inside looks to be clothes and upon closer inspection shows that they were crafted together hastily. Night sigh and tosses it to the side. “Alright back to work.” He regains the mental image in his head and continues the process. He makes progress at a snail's pace and every so often takes a sip from his tea. However he is making progress, the former magic seems to be enveloped by his own.

He pauses from his work to Write a few notes of the device. It seems that outside of the barrier the power in the band weakened even further. This now gave Night hope that at some point in time he might be able to take over the device and use it as a catalyst making his magic slightly stronger. He looks down at his tea cup and notices that it's empty. “Well this is a good point to take a break. Hmph I might even get this done within this day if all goes right.”

After obtaining a second cup of tea Night went back to the room. He also made sure to tell Rohan that if he were to complete the spell today it was vital that he was not interrupted. The clothes given to him fit however he wasn't a fan of coats or hats. Rohan told him that he was leaving anyway. “Well let's get this done.” Night muttered to himself.

Rohan:

I wouldn’t call myself a real thief as I only take what I need. I also make a point to repay those who I took from anonymously. If it’s something that can’t be returned like food, I try to leave the amount of money equal to what I took and a thank you note with an apology. If it’s a returnable item like a tool I always give it back, unless I want it. Then I leave the money to pay for it with the same type of note. There were times where I refused to leave a town that I didn’t pay back, but there were a few exception. No matter what I do, I could never repay those towns for what I had done.

Since I asked around town about Twilight Sparkle, I would be looked at as a suspicious character when it’s found out what happened to her last night. In order to help cover myself, I had to decided what my next move would be. I not only had to create an alibi for last night, I also have to create a reason for me to come to and still be in this town. A part time job or even some odd jobs around town would not only give me a good reason to stay in town for a while and would also give me some money to use.

I went about the town looking for those that could use help. After a few minutes of walking I ran into a pony selling apples. She looked like there was something she had to do, but had an obligation to be there. I walked up to her and introduced myself as someone looking to help to make a little money. I offered to stand at her stand and sell her apples for a minor cut while she did whatever she had to do. She was hesitant at first, but she agreed. Her friend needed her help, because apparently their store was broken into last night and some items were stolen. I smirk as I realise I inadvertently gave myself a quick job.

A few hours pass and a good amount of sales were made. When she returned I gave her the money I made while she was out. She thanked me for my help and told me her name. While Applejack was appropriate for her talent and work, I couldn’t see that name on anyone else except maybe for food. She gave me a fifty percent cut of the money I made while she was out. I told her it was too much, but she insisted. I thanked her for the opportunity and went on my way. If she knew I stole some of her apples last night, she wouldn’t be this kind to me.

It was a little past noon, so I knew that I could do another small job before I went back or even try to establish a part time at one of the various stores around town. I went to that pastry building assuming that It was a bakery. I asked the two ponies behind the counter if they were looking of any temporary help. I was a little sad to hear that they didn’t need help as they had a third employee that covered them when needed. When I turned around to leave I was stopped dead in my tracks. It was that hyperactive pony from yesterday. It was difficult to pay attention to her the first time we met. She was Pokey Pop or something. Either way I was deeply confused as I had multiple questions. How long was she behind me, why didn’t I sense her approach me from behind, and how didn’t I hear her enter?

She had enormous wicked grin on her face as if she had been on a hunt for me. She opened her mouth and started a rapid fire of questions.I was only able to catch a few. The first being what was I doing here. I hesitated to answer, but I knew that somehow she could help me. I told her I was looking for a little work, but was having some trouble finding some. By giving her the option of helping me triggered her almost as badly as last time, but I don’t think those group of falling kids are going to help me this time. She began asking more questions and at a faster pace. I had to quickly stop her by shoving an apple into her mouth. I was surprised to see her effortlessly crush it in one bite and swallow it in one gulp. It was enough to snap her out of whatever happiness hypnosis she was in.

Cutting straight to the point, I asked her if she knew anyone that could use some help. She began to think for a few seconds and came up with something. Her friend had something happen to her very recently and might need a hoof or two to meet a deadline. I agreed to help with whatever she needed because I had experience with a lot of things. My only requirement was that she must be willing to pay even if it’s a small amount. She said that she will talked to her friend today to see what she could do and that I should go to the store tomorrow to meet her and introduce myself. I thanked her for this, but I had to tell her to not mention any of the things I told her yesterday. She loudly proclaimed okay is a strange manner and made a zipping motion with her hoof and her mouth. I thanked her once again before leaving, but not before buying a small cupcake to bring back to Night.

Night:

Night had finally finished. His muscles ached as he got up. He had been sitting in the same position for hours. He paced around the room for a just bit to loosen up. He headed out of the room and into the living area. He looked around for a bit wondering if Rohan had come back.

“Hey Rohan you here?” Night called out. There was no vocal answer however there was a knock at the front door. Night trotted over to it and after a moment of hesitation he opened it. Outside the door stood a cloaked figure...Rohan….”sigh.”

“Hey genius we’re undercover, don’t open the door for anyone. Not even room service.”

“Well I mean I was hoping it could be Twilight I do have her papers.” Night remarked sarcastically.

“Sorry I wasn’t your prison guard girlfriend, but I can lock you in a bubble if you’re so inclined to be caught.”

Night gave a short chuckle then walked to the kitchen. As he was putting the kettle on the stove he noticed that he had run out of teabags. “Oh that's a problem.”

“Seriously, I wanted to test you. I will never knock on that door. If you hear a knock, hide.”

“Huh...oh yeah sure. Regardless probably by morning time I should be able to start the alteration spell so I can walk around town freely. The masking spell is basically finished though.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard by using too much magic. When you’re here, wear the cloths. And be sure to mask your voice.”

“Don’t worry about me i’ll be just fine. I don’t need to use any magic for the rest of the masking spell. All I need to do is get a good night's sleep and let my magic continue to seep into the bracelet further. By morning there should be no trace amounts of foreign magic in it. So in turn I should start to regain my magic.”

“I also have some positive news.”

“Is that so? Pray tell as to what it is.”

“You failed the test, so take a guess.”

Night paused for a moment “No.”

“Well excuse me Mr.Frumpy.”

“If I play along will you go out and get me more tea?”

“Yeah and I have a special prize if you get it right. You have three tries.”

Night gives Rohan a playful look “Oh? Haha well could it be that the good news is you got me a book of new spells?”

“Sorry, but no.”

“Hmmmm you convinced Twilight i'm no trouble and she and Celestia want to forgive me?”

“Only if it was a trap to capture you and there was something in it for me.”

“Meanie. Uhh lets see...lets go with something general…” After a few seconds Night responds “Work?”

“Vague, but good enough. Here’s your prize.” He hands over a cupcake.

“Ew...I I mean thank you.” Night contains a shudder at the frosting menace.

“I made some money today so I could get some tea. What kind do you want me to get?”

“The tea doesn't matter. I have no preference. Also for future reference i don't like sweets.”

“Fair enough, not everyone has a sweet tooth. Either way just say a type or i”ll just grab one of all of them.”

“Do as you please. I guess one of all the types they have might be interesting at least I get to try some new flavors.” Night yawns into his hoof “Anyway i'm quite tired I shall bid you a goodnight.”

“Whatever though I can’t afford that much tea, I have way of getting a 100% discount.” Rohan puts on his guise.

Night proceeded into his and walked over to his packs. He lifted one of them and walked over to his bed, sat down and opened up the book. There on the first page was a smear of black ink. The same size and length of a normal line of text. Night smiled this was a good sign it means his magic was indeed coming back to him. He rubbed a hoof across the page the closed the book and returned it too the pack.

Night strolled over to the window and looked out. He then thought to himself ‘Oh Celestia I have waited for this day for so long. I cannot wait to see you again.’ After another yawn Night headed off to bed and fell asleep.