//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Then the Storm Blows Cold // by Llama the Kujo //------------------------------// Chapter 5 No matter how many times she went inside for Save-Equestria-This or Save-Equestria-That, the Everfree Forest still made Applejack uneasy. It was more than a mite strange - the vegetation grew on its own, the clouds didn't like to yield to the pegasus ponies, and it was just generally unfriendly, especially to farming and farm folk. Then there was the Poison Joke Incident. She'd been so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she hadn't noticed the large root until she tripped over it. It also didn't help that it was late afternoon - nearing dinner time at Sweet Apple Acres - and the sun was nearly down. She quickly recovered and decided she'd watch much more closely as she heard giggles from behind her. Okay, yeah, it was funny - she'd been so focused on how strange the forest was in general that she'd forgotten how strange the forest could be right in front of her. The ground was riddled with roots and plants, making it difficult to walk very far without paying close attention. As they reached the steps to the Castle of the Two Sisters, Applejack thought of the night she and Dash had been competing for the title of Most Daring Pony. She had to chuckle. Good times, she thought. Gosh, has it been that long? she thought. It had been over two years before. Time sure does fly fast. The ponies entered the ruins and made their way to the library. They'd been able to do quite a bit of restoration work in what spare time they occasionally had, and the castle looked a lot better than it had during their competition, or even before that, when they'd found the Elements of Harmony. Rarity had restored some of the tapestries, which looked much better, even to Applejack. The floor had occasionally been swept, so there wasn't a layer three inches thick of dust. They'd even managed to start the repair work on some of the stained-glass windows. As they arrived in the library and Applejack gazed at the seemingly endless bookshelves, she sure hoped Twilight knew where to look in this library, or they were going to be there for a while… * * * * * “No. No. No. No. No. No!” Twilight screamed with frustration. She and her friends had been searching for hours, by candlelight and light of horns, up the bookshelves and down the bookshelves, excitedly and dejectedly… and they hadn't found anything. Twilight had seen books about early Equestrian cuisine; she'd found books about how to have a proper royal tea party; she'd glanced through books in which philosophers debated whether the story of the founding of Equestria was true or not and the implications of both sides. At this moment, she was perusing a book about Equestrian geography. She slammed the book closed and groaned loudly as she hurled her face onto the table. Twilight lifted her head and looked out a window to see a series of blues with hints of yellows expanding over the eastern horizon. Rarity, who had a pile of books next to her that was taller than any of them, had apparently seen the same thing, because she gave Twilight a supportive smile as she kindly suggested, “Twilight, darling, we've been at this all night. Perhaps we should take a break?” Twilight just groaned and yelled, “But Princess Celestia told us we'd find clues in here about how to defeat the Alicorns! And we haven't found anything!” “Umm, does a book called The Alicorns: The Rise and Fall of Tyranny help at all?” piped up Pinkie from the air as she was bouncing as though on a trampoline. “Well, that doesn't sound like what we've been looking for all night at all,” Rainbow said with an obvious eyeroll. “Are you sure…?” Pinkie asked uncertainly from about the level of the top shelf. “Just grab the book, Pinkie!” Twilight snapped. “I don't know… Rainbow Dash says it's not what we're looking for,” Pinkie said, still looking unsure. “She didn't mean it, Pinkie. Please just grab the book and bring it here?” Twilight said, trying her best to stay calm. Pinkie bounced back up to the top shelf, grabbed the book, and then was suddenly in front of Twilight with it. “I'm almost afraid to ask, Pinkie, but how long has it been since you found this book?” Twilight asked hesitantly as Pinkie dropped the book in front of her. “Oh, I found it and laughed at the title hours ago, but by then I’d forgotten what we were looking for, and then I forgot about the book. Then I just found it again,” she replied brightly. Twilight had to take a couple of deep, calming breaths as Pinkie vanished to elsewhere, out of sight. At least she knew where to look now. * * * * * “This book doesn't say much more than Celestia and Luna told us, but I did find one thing of interest,” Twilight piped up from the table. “The author is very vague about exactly how the Alicorns were defeated, but it's more to go on than we had before. He mentions something here about ‘an unknown but extremely powerful form of magic’ the other ponies of the time used to defeat the Alicorns.” “Well, Sugarcube,” Applejack told her, “I don't know very many ponies who know more about magic than you do. Do you have any idea what it might be?” “None. The author didn't know, either.” She very excitedly prattled on for a few minutes about how wonderful a find this book was and how old it had to have been because of this and that and the other. Applejack took the time to think some things through. She didn't understand all of it, but as she thought about what Twilight had said about “unknown but extremely powerful magic,” something struck her like a solid buck to the face. “Hey, Twi?” She interrupted. Twilight stopped speaking and glowered at Applejack for having stopped her mid-sentence. “Sorry to interrupt,” Applejack continued, “but what about the Elements of Harmony and the whole 'Magic of Friendship’ bit we used to defeat Tirek?” Twilight's eyes widened and her jaw hit the table with an audible thud as a sound akin to a donkey's bray escaped her open mouth. Pinkie Pie happily trotted over and shoved the jaw back into her skull before happily trotting away. Twilight shook her head like a rag doll and stared at Applejack incredulously. “That hadn't even crossed my mind,” she said, “but it makes a lot of sense. Friendship magic is not something that very many ponies understand, but it's proved to be more powerful than normal pony magic.” Fluttershy walked over to Twilight and asked, “So… what's next?” “Now we need to return to Foal Mountain,” she said, then yawned. “After a nap.” She then collapsed face-first onto the table, books and all, and started snoring. Pinkie appeared from nowhere, shouted, “That sounds like a plan!” and quickly proceeded to collapse and sprawl out on a chair before beginning to snore. The other four ponies just looked at each other and chuckled. * * * * * The sun was glaring right into Twilight's eyes. Sometimes, in her more cynical moments, she was sure Celestia did that sort of thing on purpose. This is Celestia I'm talking about! she thought with horror. She's Princess Celestia! There's no way she does anything like that! She just shifted her head so she wouldn't be blinded. This wasn't her bed - she wasn't at home. Where was she, again? She opened her eyes and moved them as little as possible to get an idea of where she was without spending too much effort. Books everywhere. A library. What library? Oh, what does that matter? she thought happily. It's a library. A thought crossed her mind that she needed to go… somewhere. She didn't remember… oh, yeah. The Castle of the Two Sisters. That's where she was. Now, where did she need to go? That was going to take longer. Oh well. This position felt nice, except for a pointy thing jabbing itself into her lower jaw. She decided to put forth the energy to figure out what Pointy Thing was and why it was pointing into her jaw. She lifted her head only to realize she'd fallen asleep atop a small pile of books, and Pointy Thing was the corner of a hard cover. Now that she was moving, she wanted to remember where she needed to go… She couldn't think. She'd been here with… her friends - her best friends. Where were they? She sat up a little straighter and looked around the library. She saw books on shelves, books in piles, and books on the table she'd slept on, but her friends were nowhere to be seen. She sighed as she lifted herself off the chair she'd slept on. Surely her friends were around somewhere close. She wandered around the castle ruins in the early morning light until she heard the unmistakable sound of Pinkie Pie laughing. Twilight followed the sound until she reached the Royal Pony Sisters’ private study. Sure enough, there were all her friends, laughing and giggling. “Mornin’, Twilight!” Applejack shouted at a volume Twilight thought too loud for this early in the morning. “Good morning, everypony,” Twilight responded with a yawn. Now she remembered. Foal Mountain, Filigree Frost - everything. “Does anypony have anything for breakfast?” “I brought some,” Applejack piped up and grabbed some apple brown betties out of her pack, which she promptly shared with everypony.