//------------------------------//
// 2 Sroirraw fo Elav 
// Story: One Prologue Later... 
// by Brass Polish 
//------------------------------//

	“She doesn’t know the safe word,” said Lightning Dust.
“You better reel it in quickly so we can go in and get her out ourselves,” said Spike.
Lightning Dust’s hooves were getting numb, but she kept a firm grip on the pole as she reeled the comic book in. Spike watched apprehensively as the book drew nearer to the moat. They could hear the wind picking up, and their hearts skipped a beat. If the gust was too strong, it might rip the pages from the hook, and they’d lose the book; maybe in the moat. Luckily, the wind wasn’t that strong, and it lifted the book well over the moat. There was no booming noise from beneath the snow, and the book remained suspended in the wind as Lightning continued reeling it in.
“It worked!” cried Spike. “The frostaceans didn’t stop her! You’re a genius, Lightning Dust!”
He dashed to pick up the comic book, took the hook out, and looked at the other side of the bewitched page.
“It’s Trams,” he told Lightning.
“Can we go to town before you go in?” asked Lightning as she dropped the fishing rod. “My hooves are freezing.”
“Okay, but hurry,” said Spike. “She might come across a villain in the story and wind up far away from the starting point by the time I get there.”

Lightning Dust chose to go to Clopley Hill rather than the Crystal Empire because it was downwind, and they had to minimalize resistance if they wanted to get to Amber before she was dragged away from the starting location by some character.
“Where can we go where no one else gets sucked in by accident?” asked Lightning Dust.
“Let’s see if the castle’s empty,” suggested Spike.
They were glad to find Caerfilly Castle was not having a tour. The courtyard was completely empty.
“Will we be able to go in even though Amber had a head start?” asked Lighting Dust.
“I don’t know. I’ve never tried it. But we gotta try,” said Spike, getting off Lightning’s back and opening the comic to the enchanted page. “You can return to the spot where you began when Prince Boxpok is defeated. Take a closer look to join the adventure in this book.”
After a second, the bright light enveloped Spike and Lighting Dust. They were lifted off the ground and pulled into the page.

They found themselves on a ledge in the middle of a large cliff face.
“Whoa!” shouted Lightning Dust through a beard net. “Does that hurt?”
Spike realised he had a bard wire net draped over his shoulder.
“Nah,” he said. “I guess there’s a dragon character in Vale of Warrior’s with thick scales. What- what’s this I’m holding?”
“Looks like a baseball bat made out of a cactus,” gawked Lighting. “I wish we had time to read the story so we’d know who or what we’re supposed to be. I’d love to know what I gotta wear a hair net and plastic gloves and this apron. What’s this on my apron? It looks like mud.”
Spike tried to examine his own apparel, but he didn’t realise how little space there was on the ledge until he slipped and fell sideways. But just as Lightning Dust was about to jump from the ledge and fly him to safety, she was surprised to find Spike floating upwards into the low clouds rather than down into the misty valley. She took off after him, finding him on the mountain top standing next to a mud puddle with a puzzled look on his face.
“How did I do that?” he asked.
“You character must have anti-grav powers,” thought Lightning. “Try letting go of your cactus club. See if it floats.”
“But I might need it,” said Spike.
“I’ll fly up and catch it before it gets too far away,” said Lightning Dust.
“But it’s covered in thorns,” Spike warned.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got these plastic gloves on. I’ll be fine,” Lightning Dust insisted.

Spike held his club out and let it sit in his palms, but it didn’t float. And it was a good thing, because at that moment, they were accosted by a spiked creature that looked like it was made of clay. It made contact with them both, nearly knocking them off the mountain top.
“Whack it! Whack it!” cried Lightning Dust as the creature growled fiercely.
Spike swung his cactus club hard at the clay creature. It hit hard, but it seemed that it the impact caused all the spikes on its surface to disappear. In fact, the cactus seemed to grow even more thorns. The creature was no longer growling. It slunk backwards for a moment, and then disappeared into the mist. As it slid out of sight, Lightning Dust realised two things; her apron was now clean, and the mud puddle Spike had been standing next to was gone.
“Why is everything happening backwards?” asked Lightning Dust.
“Backwards?”
“Yeah. I mean it things were going forwards, that clay creature would have snuck up on us, you would have spotted it and whacked it with your cactus club, it would have been covered in thorns and fatally wounded, pushed us off this mountain top as its last act before being reduced to a pile of slime.”
Spike scratched his head. He looked down and saw a crushed flower. He stepped on it and raised his foot. The flower was standing tall, proud, and colourful now.
“Weird,” he said. “Maybe we should’ve read the comic first. Like, even before we went to see Amber. We’re never gonna find her if everything’s backwards.”

They soon realised that there was a vast landscape on this mountain top. The mist made it looked like it was only as wide as a swimming pool, but there was actually a civilization beyond the fog. The ground also sloped downwards as they made their way past several little wooden huts and found themselves beside another cliff face.
“Look at that waterfall,” Spike pointed to the blue streak on the side of the cliff. “The water’s going up.”
They approached the river.
“What’s that floating in it?!” cried Lightning Dust.
They gasped when they realised the unmoving figure was a griffon fledgling floating face down on the surface close to the waterfall. They both felt pangs in their hearts when they saw that her wings were tied together. But suddenly, she drifted towards the waterfall, and then shot upwards, screaming, flailing, and with feathers dry as a bone.
“Oh. Well, whatever terrible thing happened to her, it’s being undone now,” said Spike, feeling much better. “Looks like everyone’s safe if everything’s backwards. No one can get hurt.”
“I still wanna see what’s going on up there,” insisted Lightning Dust.
So Spike hopped onto her back and she flew them up to where the waterfall started. The water in the river was still flowing backwards. They quickly saw the griffon fledgling; she was in the clutches of a creature with tentacles, one of which was holding her beak shut to keep her from yelling for help. Spike stepped forward, brandishing his cactus club.
“Let her…!”
“Wait,” hissed Lightning Dust. “Don’t you remember? Time’s going backwards. She’s not in danger. Look.”
The squid-like being released the young griffon and untied her wings. She then hand her a large golden key, and jumped into the river.

“This is way too weird,” groaned Lightning Dust as the griffon fledgling flew away backwards with the golden key. “But at least we know Amber can’t be in any real danger.”
At that moment, bears of many colours emerged from the fog, shuffling towards them with confused looks.
“What do we do?” asked Spike. “I know they can’t hurt us, but they must do something.”
The bears stood side by side, looking at Spike and Lightning Dust like they were the weirdest things they’d ever seen.
“What we gotta do is find Amber,” said Lightning Dust.
She flapped her wings, ascending a few feet from the ground. She took a deep breath, but then noticed that some of the bears started retreating.
“Oh. I think I know what their deal is,” she grinned.
Soon enough, the rest of the bears backtracked and were out of sight.
“Amber!” she called. “Are you around, Amber?! It’s me and Spike! We came to get you out of here!”
The sound of her voice echoed around in the thick mist. There was no reply.
“See, Spike?” Lightning Dust touched back down onto the ground. “Those bears were following the sound of my yelling, but in reverse.”

Spike and Lightning wandered around the settings, witnessing several shocking things happening backwards. First there was a heap of twisted steel and wood tumbling backwards out of a ditch to form a passenger train that sped away backwards up a steep hill. Then a bruised kitsune stopped his howling when the pile of stone around him shot upwards to form a bridge connecting two gorges. Also, it was actually kind of funny when a hydra spit out a peach tree per mouth, each of which planted itself firmly into the grass. And in each place Spike and Lightning Dust ventured, crowds would gather close to them for about a minute before leaving. They knew what to do one they’d all left. But they got no response whenever they called Amber Aldis’ name.
“I’m getting tired,” sighed Lightning Dust hours later. “Can we go back and try again later?”
“Sure,” nodded Spike. “Trams.”
Nothing happened.
“Trams!” repeated Spike.
They were still there.
“Trams!” Spike and Lightning Dust shouted together.
The mist was still surrounding them.
“That stupid safe word doesn’t work!” cried Spike. “We’re stuck in here!”

Twilight was also in a panicky state as she flew around Canterlot looking for Spike. She had absolutely no leads. Spike had told her he was going to Donut Joe’s the last time she saw him, but Joe told her he never saw him all day. No one in Canterlot Castle had any information for her either. Princess Celestia tried sending Spike a letter, but got no response. Twilight considered the House of Enchanted Comics, as that was another place in Canterlot Spike was likely to go to, but she knew he’d already been there that day. She wondered if he might be inside his comic somewhere, but there was no sign of a copy of Vale of Warrior’s lying around either. As the night grew darker, she found herself hammering on the door of Carousel Boutique.
“What in the name of sock suspenders is going on?” yawned Sassy Saddles upon opening the door.
“Sorry, Sassy,” said Twilight, “but Spike’s missing. Have you seen him?”
“No, I haven’t,” said the bleary-eyed Sassy. “Oh, but somepony else came into the store just before closing asking me if I’d seen somepony else who’s missing.”
“Who?” asked Twilight.
“Uh, I didn’t get her name,” said Sassy groggily, “but I remember the pony she was looking for was called Lightning Dust.”
“Updraft!” exclaimed Twilight. “Maybe Spike and Lightning Dust are together! Thank you, Sassy!”
And she took off, leaving Sassy to close the door and return to her bed.

Twilight hoped Updraft hadn’t left town as she went from hotel to hotel asking for her at each front desk. Before long, she found the right hotel, and banged on Updraft’s room door.
“What is it?!” Updraft was looking just as exhausted as Twilight when she answered the door.
“I’ve heard you were looking for Lightning Dust,” said Twilight.
“Yeah!” cried Updraft. “Have you seen her?!”
“Uh, no, I haven’t. The thing is Spike’s missing as well,” said Twilight.
“Spike!” shouted Updraft. “Of course! I forgot! She wanted to use his enchanted comic for something because I didn’t want her to use mine until I was done reading it.”
“What did she want it for?” asked Twilight.
Updraft groaned. “She didn’t tell me when she agreed to come with me. She tried to after I got back with my book, but I was too happy that I got the last copy and I told her to wait for me to finish getting through it.”
“She must’ve asked Spike for his,” said Twilight. “But what do you think they did?”
“Probably got confused,” grinned Updraft.

She went back into her room for a few seconds and returned to the door with her Vale of Warriors copy.
“Take a look,” she said, passing it to the princess.
It didn’t take Twilight long to see that something was amiss with the panels.
“Why did the punch line come before the setup?” she asked.
“It’s in backwards order,” said Updraft. “I think in Fengust, they read books from back cover to front cover.”
“Hm. I’ve been meaning to study up on august rooster culture,” Twilight yawned.
“But look where the enchanted page that sucks readers into the story is,” Updraft continued.
Twilight found it at the back of the book, as she was used to.
“I think the publishers who translated the text didn’t realise that they put the enchanted page in the wrong part of the story,” said Updraft. “Even though it’s at the back, it’s still not at the end of the story. When I went into it, everything was happening backwards. And this story has a prologue that takes place 88 years before the main events.”
“Alright, I get it,” said Twilight impatiently. “But we still have no clue as to where Spike and Lightning went with their copy.”
Updraft nodded. “I can’t think what she’d want with it. But whatever it is, it must’ve backfired.”
“And now Spike might be in danger as well,” groaned Twilight. “We’ve got to find them. Oh, I wish Amber wasn’t stuck on that glacier surrounded by frostaceans. She could find them with her special magical talent in no time at…”
Both Twilight and Updraft gasped.

“Look at this!” called Updraft over the arctic wind about an hour later. “There’s a fishing rod lying here next to the moat!”
“They did try to use that comic to get Amber off the glacier!” cried Twilight, half delighted, half anxious. “And it looks like it worked.”
She’d been shouting for Amber Aldis for the first two minutes of their arrival. Amber was nowhere to be seen and gave no reply.
“Or maybe it fell into the moat,” Updraft grimaced. “That could be why they’ve disappeared. They feel terrible for losing Amber forever and don’t know what to do with themselves.”
Twilight shivered for reasons that had nothing to do with the snow and wind.
“Why didn’t Spike tell me they were going to try this?” she groaned. “He knows Amber’s one of my best friends from school.”
Updraft had a suggestion for where to go with their investigation.
“If they’re hiding and brooding over this,” she said, “they might’ve gone either to the Crystal Empire or Clopley Hill. There’s castles in both places, right?”
“Yeah. There’s Caerfilly Castle in Clopley Hill, and it won’t be open for tours right now,” said Twilight. “And there’s Sombra’s spiral staircase in the Crystal Castle. They’ve both been in there before.”
So they split up.

Spike and Lightning Dust were watching a herd of caribou regurgitating tall blades of grass neatly onto a prairie field. They’d gone unnoticed for fifteen minutes before most of the herd looked up sharply at them.
“I guess it’s time to call for Amber again,” sighed Spike.
Lightning Dust nodded wearily as the caribou returned to un-eating the grass. They both took a deep breath.
“Amber?!”
That voice was not Spike’s or Lightning’s.
“Spike?! Lightning Dust?!”
“That’s Twilight!” cried Spike. “We’re over here, Twilight!”
Spike and Twilight kept shouting to each other and following the sounds of their voices through the fog. Then at last, Spike and Lightning spotted Twilight flying towards them looking like a member of the Protective Pony Platoons.
“I found you!” beamed Twilight as Spike jumped into her hooves. “But where’s Amber?”
“We can’t find her,” said Spike grimly. “She didn’t look at the safe word before she entered the comic.”
“And even though we did,” added Lightning Dust, “it doesn’t work.”
“We can’t figure out why. But you can,” said Spike hopefully. “I know you can. You’re smart.”
A small white hole opened up over the trio. Spike was quickly lifted off the ground and sucked into it.
“What?!” exclaimed Lightning Dust. “How?!”
“He said the safe word,” said Twilight.
Another white hole appeared, and Twilight disappeared into it.

Spike watched as the comic spat Twilight out.
“Of course! Smart is Trams backwards!” he shouted.
Lightning Dust was also ejected from the book.
“Thanks, Twilight,” she said.
“Yeah. Sorry if we scared you,” said Spike. “I was really worried no one would find us.”
“So was I,” said Twilight. “Don’t get me wrong. This was a good idea. But you should’ve told me you were leaving.”
Spike nodded. Lightning Dust frowned.
“Was it a good idea?”
“Well, you did manage to free Amber from the frostaceans,” smiled Twilight.
Lightning Dust perked up a bit.
“She’s still trapped though,” she admitted. “But I’m not giving up. You know me. I love a challenge.”
Twilight magiced the book up off the castle court ground and passed it to Lightning Dust.
“Good luck, Lightning Dust,” she said. “Now we better get to the Crystal Empire and tell Updraft that I found you.”
Lighting Dust nodded and took off north. Twilight knelt down so Spike could climb on her back.
“Can we head home?” he asked. “There’s something else I should’ve told someone.”
“What’s that?” asked Twilight.
“I don’t think Starlight knows that jar of pickled eggs in the fridge is actually a jar of pickled gemstones.”