//------------------------------//
// 3 - 02 
// Story: Four Hooves 
// by destinedjagold 
//------------------------------//

"So here's the plan," Twilight says, her horn glowing with purple magic light as she looks at each and every one of us sitting around and away from her little round library table. Finally, her gaze settles on me. "I'll grab a few crystals from the unicorns, bring them back here, and I'll use them to amplify my magic once again."

I blink. "Oookay?" Another blink. "Amplify it for what?"

She shakes her horn-glowing head. "Right now, my magic is not strong enough to track that book."

Oh, so we're gonna be looking for that book, huh? I ask, "what are the chances of it being in this timeline?"

She blinks at me. And then again. And again. "I...thought we have already discussed that...there's only one active timeline." She waves a hoof in the air. "I mean, think about it. If that book—"

"Ah, right," I cut her off. I smile a small and apologetic smile. "Right... We wouldn't be here right now, dealing with...all of these."

I blame that little interruption a few minutes ago.

Twilight nods her head. "Mhmm. It's safe to assume that there are no multiple timelines. If there was, then the book could have easily created a branch timeline—this one—and we wouldn't have been here."

"Eugh..." Reykan groans.

Seri chuckles. "Just smile and nod."

Reykan responds with another tired groan.

"Hm..." I hm... "Sooo, you are gonna be stealing gems from the unicorns, eh?"

"It's not stealing," Twilight quietly says, looking away. "Just...borrowing..."

I nod my head and turn my attention to the pile of dormant gems by the stairs.

Twilight loudly clears her throat, catching my attention.

"Anyway," she says, "a book powerful enough to change the present by altering the events from the past would obviously have used large amounts of magic."

I nod my head. Yeah, I guess that would make sense.

“We're simply just gonna have to trace it.”

I arch an eyebrow. "...Assuming the book is still ‘releasing’ large amounts of magic right now, right?"

She smiles. "Probably not."

“No?” I blink. "Then ... how are you going to locate it if it's not releasing magic?" I shrug. "For all we know, maybe it already closed itself and is now lying dormant somewhere."

"And that is a very good point," Twilight agrees, nodding her still horn-glowing head. "I will, however, search for traces—leftovers, in other terms—of powerful bursts of magic."

I tilt my head to the side. "I don't get it."

"Let me give an example," Twilight says. "Lightning is a powerful force, isn't it?"

I nod my head.

"If it strikes a tree or the land itself, it'll leave traces behind that lightning had struck there."

"Ahh..." I nod in understanding.

"Here's my theory..." she starts. "Time in the present won't stop even if we head back to the past. If we change something in the past, it'll affect the present in real-time. Do you follow?"

"I think so, yeah," I say with a nod.

Twilight smiles and nods her horn-glowing head as well. "The problem is that nopony will ever notice these changes, because the present will correct whatever alterations somepony or something is doing in the past.

But that is only true if the changes are small. Powerful unicorns and alicorns will be able to sense big changes, but as I've shared with you before, we only have a fraction of a second to react. I was lucky enough to cast a spell to protect myself from it."

"Uh-huh..." I say with a slow nod. "So ... that means you thought I was a powerful, non-magical pony at first then?"

She frowns at me.

I cough. "Right, sorry."

She shakes her horn-glowing head. "Nothing can stay in the past forever, because time spells don't work that way.”

I slowly raise a hoof up.

She shakes her head. “Let me rephrase that. The old time spells will always return the caster back to the present.”

I slowly put my raised hoof down.

She puts a hoof over her fluffy chest. “My revised spell allowed me to stay, however...” She brought the hoof down. “I can't go beyond a week, and the revised spell required alicorn-levels of magic.”

“What about Discord?”

She blinks. She shrugs. “Eh, he breaks every law of logic anyway.” She shakes her head. “But we're getting off-topic. Anyway... so they, or it in this case, will eventually need to return to the new present time. They are going to be opening a powerful time portal to return here, and that would require an intense amount of magic that will no doubt will leave traces behind."

"And that is what you are going to be tracing?" I ask the obvious.

She nods her head. "Exactly." She looks at the others. "Once we pinpoint the location, we'll head there and investigate." She settles her gaze back to me. "Hopefully, the book will be close by."

"And whoever is responsible, right?" I add.

She frowns. "Probably. Maybe." She shakes her head. "It's safe to assume that whoever unleashed that spell from that book has been...altered as well."

I blink. The book?

She taps her chin in thought. "Although it's also safe to assume that the book granted whoever it was immunity to the changes. So I suppose it is possible for whoever's responsible to still be around."

"Wait wait wait," I say. "So the book is responsible for all of this?"

Twilight nods her head. "Most likely. Why do you ask?"

...Eh, well, if she says so. I shrug. "Just...making sure."

Twilight gazes on the table as she brings a hoof on her chin, deep in thought.

Moon Gaze takes this as an opportunity to say something. "I'm not sure what you two were even blabbering about," he says in his squeaky voice.

Seri chuckles and turns her long neck towards him. "Just smile and nod. It works everytime."

A squeaky snort. "Yeah, for you."

"Hm..." Twilight hms in thought, horn still glowing. "I suppose I should prepare myself to ‘borrow’ the gems we need." She then looks back at me. "I can simply teleport there, grab the gems, and teleport myself and the gems back here."

"Yep!" Seri quickly agrees. "She did it before!"

The mare blushes slightly.

I shake my head. "You think the unicorns will let you?" I ask.

Her ears droop. "I ... don't think they have much of a choice."

"Will you be doing it or will Alter Twilight do it?"

Her gaze lowers, probably thinking about it.

Silence...

"Are you guys seriously just ignoring that vicious thing?" Sienna suddenly asks.

I turn and see her still glaring at me and still cowering behind the amused kangaroo.

I then turn my gaze to the thrashing, adult panther floating above the table, held by Twilight's magic, trying but failing to reach the mare with its jaws and claws. The unicorn probably added a silencer, too, since we can't hear whatever roars and angry words it's throwing at us.

Then I return my attention back to Sienna. I shrug. "...Yes, we are?"

Reykan chuckles. He open his mouth—

“Zip it,” I glare at him. “I did not scream like a girl!”

Xana, Seri and Moon Gaze laughs.