It didn't take long for Josh to find Twilight's castle and run up to it. The castle was difficult to miss, especially since it was the only building that was made of crystals. ‘Okay, there is the door. Let's see if I can find any books that might aid me.’ There was a castle like door that was fitting with the rest of the crystal looking castle. It was the only entrance that Josh could see and so he decried to go inside that way. He placed his hand on the door and it slightly opened. He pushed it a bit harder and it opened the rest of the way. He walked
Since Josh was in a state of slight panic, his mind didn't register that he was breaking into someone’s house, or castle, in this case. That someone being a princess.
‘Now all I have to do is find the library.’ Too bad for Josh, because the castle he had just entered could be compared to that of a complex maze.
He ran around the castle halls searching every room he came across. To Josh, it felt like hours were passing by. Very important, very precious hours that he could have been using to research how to get back home. ‘It's got to be around here somewhere. So far I've seen a room with chairs around a large circular table, a bathroom, lots of closets, some empty rooms, and a kitchen. Where is the library? This place is a maze.’ Josh’s breathing became heavier.
While Josh was checking a room, he noticed there was a bed in it, which caught his attention. He decided that the room was worth checking out since it might have a few books in it. ‘Ah ha. Bingo.’ As soon as Josh had taken a closer in the room, he noticed a medium sized bookshelf. ‘I guess I could look around for some more books in this room before looking at the books in that book shelf.’
Josh took a good look around the room, and to his liking spotted a few more books. He also noticed a few more details that caught his eye. There was a few kites, a plant or two, and some pictures. One picture in particular grabbed Josh’s attention. ‘Is that an equal sign with a red line through it? It is. What does that mean? Whatever, it doesn't matter. I need to get back on track and look at those books.’
Josh grabbed all he could carry and sat them on the ground to go through the titles and the book, if he got lucky. He organized them into three categories; yes, no, and maybe. ‘Okay, let's see what we have here. Levitation magic, no, Haycards method, maybe…’
‘Alright, now that I've got them sorted, let's start with the most likely. Teleportation, exactly the kind of book I was looking for. Let's start with the intro, that should give me the basics of this book- wait. There is a bookmark that has writing on it. “Don't forget to give to Trixie.” Well, whoever they are must have forgotten to give this back. No matter, time to find some information.’
Josh skimmed around through the teleportation book for a good while before finding what he needed. ‘Here we go. “Teleportation is a useful magic technique that can be used by unicorns to instantly travel to any desired location the user so chooses. The spell can even be used to teleport others, though it is recommended that the user is advanced with the spell before teleporting anything living. The user must concentrate on what they are teleporting and have a clear and precise picture of where they are teleporting it, or themselves. The spell will not work if the image of either what is being teleported, or the image of the destination is not entirely clear.” So that's it. My stuff and me were brought here by a unicorn, or something with magic. Wait, how did they know what I looked like? What my stuff looked like? I need to find out more.’
Josh read for a while more and went through the rest of the books. The only one he found of any use was the Teleportation book, which he decided to keep with him. After going through all the books in the room, he left and began his search for the library once again.
Josh continued to search through the halls without success. ‘This castle must be bigger on the inside. It didn't look like it could fit all the rooms into it. Maybe magic is making the inside bigger. I wouldn't be surprised if it was. Man I'm getting tired.’ Josh took in a large breath of air for his oxygen deprived body and decided to look through the room on his left. ‘Well I'll be- it's the library! Finally, took long enough.”
Josh slammed the library door against the wall as he came inside, almost falling down in the process. “There are a ton of books to go through, I guess I'll start looking through the ones that are closest to me and go from there. At least there is a comfy looking chair and a desk to sit and read at, because this is going to take a while, a longwhile.’
Because of Josh’s panic and discovery of the library, he completely forgot what a particular bat pony told him.
Andromeda had a hard time at the local market. The supply trip took a lot longer than she had anticipated it would. Even though it was winter, everypony was still filling the market to buy gifts and supplies for Hearth's Warming Eve. This made the streets extra crowded, making it difficult for Andromeda to get to where she needed to be. Her hurt wing didn't help much either, especially when somepony bumped into her.
When Andromeda got out of the crowd, she happily went home. To Andromeda, anywhere was better than being in a large crowd of ponies. Her frustration with the crowd had mostly dissipated by the time she arrived home, and was ready to sit down for a while.
After she walked up to her door, she noticed it was open. This made her nervous, which caused questions to pour into her mind. Her ears lowered and she walked cautiously into her house. After entering, she laid her supplies down and called for Josh. “Josh! Josh, are you there?” She took a few more cautious steps into her home and scanned around the house until her eyes caught something out of place.
There was a few books laid out on a table and one of them was opened facing the ground. It was a book on Equestrian history. “Where did you go Josh, and why did you leave the door open?” Andromeda couldn't help but say to herself. She took another good look around the inside of her house to make sure nothing else was out of place before heading back outside.
On her way out, she closed her door and started to look around. ‘It would be really nice to be able to fly right now, but I am without that luxury. He has to be around here somewhere. There is no way he could have gone far.’ Andromeda looked around outside her house and noticed something that would aid her in her search tremendously.
There was still snow on the ground. All she needed to do was find the right tracks and follow them. The only issue with that is the fact ponies are walking all in the snow too, and they could mess up Josh’s tracks. Andromeda, however, was skilled enough to follow them, even if they were walked over by somepony. She had lots of experience tracking things down in the Everfree.
Andromeda squinted and lowered her head to the ground. ‘Let's see where you went Josh.’
It took Andromeda a good hour to find where Josh had gone. More ponies had walked on his tracks than she had hoped, but she did it. She found out where he went. Andromeda sat at the doorstep of Princess Twilight’s castle. Her pupils had shrunk, and her ears were once again folded down when she was looking up at the home of the princess of friendship. ‘Oh, this is not good. How am I going to get him out of there without getting noticed?’
Before Andromeda could think of anything, she heard the voice of none other than Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the element bearers. They were pretty loud and easy to hear, even though the were quite a distance away. Andromeda panicked and ducked behind the nearest bush to her so she wouldn't get spotted. After she ducked for cover she heard the conversation Twilight and her friends were having. “That was great trip, wasn't it girls? I think we all grew closer as friends. What do you think, Starlight?”
Andromeda wasn't sure she had heard of this Starlight before. It would make sense because Andromeda didn't keep up with the information on Equestria's saviors very well; she had other things to worry about. Before Andromeda could think anymore, Starlight spoke up. “I had a great time too, and I'm glad I went. The kites were my favorite part though.”
The pink flamboyant one then spoke up, “What was that Starlight?”
Starlight became slightly nervous, but quickly answered, “Oh, uh, nothing. Nothing at all.”
The group was getting closer to the castle, and Andromeda had to make a choice. She needed to find Josh, and if she waited too much longer, there would be nothing she could do to go in and get Josh out before being seen. Andromeda looked around for guidance and spotted an open window a few yards from her hiding spot. It was a now or never situation.
Andromeda looked back and forth at the window and at an approaching Twilight, faster and faster until squeezing her eyes shut for a second before letting out a large sigh. ‘Oh screw it.’ Andromeda hopped through the window and landed in the castle with a thud on her hurt wing. She bit her lip and tensed up for a moment from the pain. She waited for Twilight and her gang of friends to become alarmed outside, but they were oblivious. Once she heard them laughing with each other, she let out a breath of air, then stood up with a determined expression. ‘Time to find Josh and get him out of this mess.’