Act 3
After figuring out what caused the changes in Equestria, Twilight comes up with a plan to change it back to normal. She asks the others to help her, and they will, because they got nothing better to do anyway.
“A book?” I ask, dumbfounded.
Reykan nods his head. “A book.” He looks at Twilight, who's sitting across the table from me. “That's what they're called, right?”
“Mhmm,” the mare replies, nodding.
With a shrug, the panther cub returns to his task.
I blink. I open my mouth. I close it. I open it again. I close it again.
Twilight nods her head again. “Yes, Jay. From how Reykan described it, it was indeed a book.” She puts a hoof on her fluffy chest. “And I saw it, too.”
I furrow my brows. “So let me get this straight,” I say, bringing both my front hooves on the table. “A book caused...” I lift a hoof up and make circle-motions in the air. “...everything?”
“Mhmm...”
I blink and point a hoof at her. “...So you're responsible for everything?”
“Mhmm—wait, what?” she asks in surprise. “Why are you accusing me?”
I shrug. “Well, you love books, so...”
She rolls her eyes. “And here I thought you were trying to be serious about this whole thing.”
“I am,” I reply quickly. “Well, the ‘trying’ part, at least.” I shake my head. “But how can I be serious about it if a book caused everything? A book!” I take a breath to calm myself down a notch. “I was kinda-sorta expecting it was maybe Discord, some other villain the show haven't...shown yet, or a magical experiment gone wrong.”
Twilight shakes her head. “For the record, Discord is reformed and, believe it or not, appreciates order, logic and, in Fluttershy's own words, unchaosness.”
I sigh. “I just...can't believe a stupid old book transported me here, of all things...” I frown at her. “I could have gotten a paper cut from it, too, and I really, really hate how it stings like a...” I sigh. “Was it an old, ancient, magical book? I bet it was an old, ancient, magical book!”
Speaking of Fluttershy, I'm yet to meet her. I wonder how different she is.
“Well, um...” she hesitates, ears drooping. “...maybe?”
“Maybe?”
“I haven't seen that book before.” She places a hoof over her chest again. “And trust me when I say that I have seen a lot of books.”
And I bet you remember every detail of each book. “No arguments here,” I reply with a nod. “But you've never seen this book before?”
She shakes her head. “Nope.”
“Well, any ideas what book it was?”
“It was...” she smiles a small, teasing smile, “an old, ancient, magical book.”
I deadpan. Two can play that game. “...And here I thought you were trying—”
“Okay, okay, sorry...” she says, waving a hoof. She takes a breath and sighs. “I'm sorry. I'm just...trying not to stress here.”
“It would have been Lesson Zero again,” I mutter under my breath.
“Huh?”
“Nothing.” I cough. “Ahem. So uh, a book.”
She pauses. She blinks. “...We're really not going anywhere with this conversation, are we?”
I shrug and stare at Seri as she, Reykan and Xana gather the scattered gems to a corner. “I'm just waiting for you to figure something out, so I'm just filling the void.” That, and I'm too lazy to help picking up gems.
She sighs. “I honestly don't know where to start.” She levitates a piece of gem and stares at it. “Well, I do, but I'd need new sets of fresh gems.”
I blink and look at the many dim gems on the floor. “I'm guessing that these aren't usable anymore?”
“Well, they're still usable, but it'll take me a lot longer to recharge each of them to be properly usable...” She sighs, placing the gem on the table in front of her, only to be picked up by two pairs of white wings. “Hm...” Twilight hm's as she places a hoof on her chin, her furrowed eyes burning holes on the table.
“Hm?”
“Now that I think about it, I received a crate-full of new books the day before all of this happened.”
“Oh?” Revelation! Also... “A crate? Wouldn't a box be better for books?”
“Probably.” A happy and sad sigh escapes Twilight's muzzle. “I can still remember how I excited I was when it arrived.”
I roll my eyes with a smirk. “I bet Spike felt the same.”
She missed my sarcasm. “Oh, the crusaders invited Flurry to do some questions and answers in their school, and Spike went along since we were still baby-sitting her.”
I blink. How can they do a QnA with a baby? Unless Flurry isn't a baby anymore? And speaking of Spike, I wonder where the little guy is.
I shake my head. “Well anyway, since these gems are kinda unusable anymore, does this mean you'll be visiting the unicorns again?”
She blinks. Her ears droop. “...Maybe.”
“Were you the one who stole their hoard, or was it the other Twilight?”
She bites her bottom lip and looks away.
I nod my head. Right, I guess that was obvious.
“I'm gonna have to apologize to Rarity and to every unicorn there after we fix this.”
I shrug. “Ehh. Maybe, or maybe not.”
She looks at me with a curiously-raised eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
I shrug. “I have watched a number of sci-fi movies and read a lot of...” coughfimficscough “...stories about changing timelines and stuff.” I wave a hoof. “One possibility is that, if we ever do fix this, nopony other than us will remember what happened.”
She taps her chin in thought. “Mmmaybe...” She shakes her head. “But I'm still gonna apologize to them, Rarity especially.”
I shrug. “Anyway,” I say, “back to the day you received that box—er, I mean, crate of books. After you were done drooling over them, what happened next?”
She throws a glare at me. “I was not drooling over them!”
Yeeeaaah...no, not buying it.
“Don't give me that look.” She crosses her hooves over her chest and looks away, feigning anger. “...You weren't there, so you can't prove your claim.”
Heh, sure. I just realized how fun it is to tease Miss Bookhorse. I sigh. If only I was transported here without a huge problem that's waiting for us to face.
Then again, even if I was transported to the real Equestria, I'd still try to get back home, but at least getting home would be easier than where we are right now.
I shake my head. “Right, sorry. Sooo...?”
She composes herself. “Well, I was unfortunately busy that day, so the only thing I did after that was Starlight and I placed the crate on a corner in the castle's library and left her in charge of sorting the books.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You were busy? With a friendship problem, yes?”
She blinks. “...It's really scary how you know a lot about us, considering you're literally not from here.”
I wave a hoof. “I'll explain in due time.” I cross my currently non-existing fingers.
“And I can't wait for that.”
“I can tell,” I lamely reply. “So you were busy that day that you weren't able to touch that crate nor the books inside until the next morning?”
She sighs and looks away. “...There was no ‘next morning’. In that timeline anyway.”
Oh... I bring a hoof on my chin. “Hm... Was the book really from that crate?”
Twilight nods her head. “Most likely. They're books from the expedition I funded.”
I blink. “Expedition?” Twilight can fund expeditions? That's something the show didn't...show.
“You know... Expedition? A group of ponies going to a—”
“I know what the word means,” I cut her off with a frown. “What I meant is, where?”
She blinks. “Oh! Well, they went to an ancient underground city near Starlight's town and—”
I thought the official name of that place is ‘Our Town’?
“—that's where they got the books from.”
“Reykan?” we hear Seri call.
I look and see the cub just standing there, his ears turning and twitching.
“What's wrong?” the swan asks, catching the kangaroo's attention.
“What is it, love?” Xana asks, standing tall.
“Something's coming this way,” Moon Gaze squeaks from Miss Roo's pouch.
Reykan suddenly throws his gaze on the wooden door.
I blink. “Um...” I turn to Twilight. “It's been a while, but if I remember correctly, no one should be able to figure out that we're here, right?”
“Well, yes,” she replies with a nod. “Unless they know that—”
Hoofsteps. Frantic yet light. A shout. A thud.
The door swings open and—
“Hi Sienna!” Reykan greets the blurring deer.
A roar. A roar that sent shivers down my spine.
A panther larger than Reykan runs inside, its ferocious roar mixing with the frightened shouts and shrieks of everyone inside.