“Oh this isn’t good! This is not good at all!”, Spike exclaimed in the throne room after our explanation of the situation.
“Well no schtick! Your princess is gone and now you can take the throne for yourself.”, Brim said sarcastically.
“How bad of a situation is it Spike?”, Sunset asked him.
“It’s really hard to say, but now that Lucy has Twilight’s magic as well as the elements of harmony, there’s no telling what she is capable of.”, Spike explained.
“But wasn’t the elements of harmony used for friendship magic or something like that?”, I asked.
“Not exactly. While they can create magic, they can also cause destruction in the wrong hooves.”, Spike explained.
“Good grief!”
“Well what can we do to stop Lucy from her plan?”, Sunset asked.
“I’m not so sure. We can’t really do anything since we have no way of finding where the Hellfree forest is. And our scouting teams have gotten nowhere in finding out how to get to the forest.”, Spike explained shrugging before his eyes widened for a moment,” however, I think I may have an idea on how we can find a clue to the forest”.
We followed Spike back into the royal library where he was flying high to reach some books on the top shelf. He flew back down to put them on the table in front of us. He quickly flipped through the first book frantically turning pages before getting frustrated and moving onto the next book.
“Are you sure you know what you’re looking for in these books?”, I asked him.
“Oh please. Over the past couple of years while Twilight had been ruling over Equestria, I made it a personal goal of myself to read through all of these books at least once. So far, I have read every book here at least 47 different times.”, Spike said confidently.
“Wow, I would’ve thought you would’ve had more responsibilities as a royal advisor.”, I said.
“I’ll be honest, it’s a bit over hyped. Ah, here it is! This might be able to help us.”, Spike said, showing us the page he found.
On the page was some writing and an ancient looking artifact. The most distinguishing feature of the artifact was the horn-like structure along the top.
“Legend states that there is another way to reach the Hellfree forest. And it is with this artifact that it can not only show where the forest is, but also a way to reveal it permanently. It is called the Capra Vesta.”, Spike explained.
“How come nopony has ever found it before?”, Sunset asked.
“Ponies have found it before. The only issue is that they never make it back.”, he explained.
There was a brief silence in the room as the thought of all those who tried to seek the artifact set in. If we were to do this, all our lives would be at stake.
"But, I think that with the three of you working together to get this you can make it out alive.", Spike said.
I looked over to see what Brim thought of this until I realized that he wasn’t in the library with us. Before I was able to call out his name…
“Whoo, I just spent the past ten minutes making out with a weird bug pony hybrid statue and realized that you guys had shifted rooms. What’s shaking? Can the guard handle this situation?”, Brim asked looking all proud.
We all gave him an annoyed stare as he looked surprised.
“Well buck, am I the one who kidnapped the princess here? I’m just asking about what is going to happen and everyone here is looking at me like I committed a war crime.”, Brim defended.
“What we were discussing, is a plan to try and rescue the Princess.”, I told him with an annoyed look.
“Cool, what are you two gonna do”?
“This involves all of us. Including you Brim.”, Sunset said.
“Whoa whoa whoa! This wasn’t in my terms in services. You said that after today we would be going home. And if time here is similar to the other world, it’s about to be dinner time.”, Brim argued.
“Well, we didn’t expect some evil being to kidnap the princess. Yet, here we are.”, I told him.
“Nope, you guys can deal with this world that I care so little about. Not after it made me have an existential crisis.”, Brim said walking away to the mirror.
“Are you being serious right now?!”, I yelled at him.
“Yes. I am being serious. Forget this world, I’m going home.”, Brim said before running face first into the mirror.
Spike rose up from the desk.
“Without Twilight, the mirror doesn’t have enough power to send you home. You’re pretty much stuck here until we can get her back.”, Spike explained.
Brim placed his hoof on the mirror and gave a long frustrated sigh.
“If Lucy manages to take all of Twilight’s magic, all of the pony kind could be at risk. We can’t stop her without you. You’re the only one who could possess the magic of the Capra Vesta to find the forest. Now will you help with our plans?”, Spike asked him.
Brim gave a small chuckle of insanity.
“I’m going to kill this author. When I get out of this world I will kill him.”, he said before turning around to face us again,”Fine. If anything, I’ll do it out of pure boredom of things to do in this world”.
“Great! Now we’ve got a head start on this journey.”, Spike said.
“Yes, but this means now we have another problem.”, Sunset said.
“What is it Sunset?”, I asked her.
“It’s about you. If we’re going to rescue Twilight, you need to learn how to use your magic.”, she explained.
“Well, I could learn overnight. I don’t see an issue there.”, I said.
“You don’t understand. Most unicorns from birth can take years just learning how to immerse light. Even the spells that are needed, I didn’t even learn until much later before I moved back to Canterlot.”, Sunset explained.
I gave a disappointed look to the realization of how much I would really need to learn in order to start on this journey. It didn’t hit me until then that I was capable of doing magic. I just had no clue on what to even do.
“But, I think since Rocky here isn’t a colt, he could do it much faster than them. I mean I hope he has the motor skills to do something productive with that horn.”, Brim said, booping my horn.
“It’s a bit of a stretch, but I think Brim might be right about that. It could be possible to teach him the basic spells you think would be required for this. I think overnight he could do at least two spells. Maybe three if we can squeeze it in with no breaks.”, Spike said.
Sunset looked at me.
“Do you think you could handle this for the night?”, she asked me.
I looked back up to her.
“Whatever it takes to save your friend.”, I said.
“Great. You can use this library as a training ground for the spells. I must go to attend some royal business for the princess. So please don't destroy anything while I am gone. I’ll be back in the morning to send you off on your journey.”, Spike said walking out of the room.
The room was now empty with the three of us sitting at that one table. Without any haste, Sunset walked over to a set of books that looked like it would be useful for training me to use my magic for the first time.
“We have a long night ahead of us. Let’s just get right into it.”, Sunset said, opening the book to the first page.
In the course of several hours, I managed to learn how to do only two spells. One was how to use telekinesis to lift things. I couldn’t even do it very well. Even with a small piece of paper, I couldn’t keep it in the air for more than a few seconds. However, the one that I was really good with was using my horn to illuminate light. It was a huge pain to try and learn, but once I figured out a way to do it, I could never forget it.
What I was learning now was something a little bit more dangerous. Because of the threat, Sunset thought it would be best if I learned to use attack spells as a weapon. There are plenty of other spells that could’ve been used for me to learn, but the one that Sunset thought would be best for me was essentially like a fireball that came out of my horn. It sounds a bit crazy, but how do you think I felt trying to learn it?
For the next hour or so, I was really struggling to try and even get a single beam out.
“This is hopeless. I’m never gonna be able to do this.”, I said in frustration.
“It’s okay. Don’t give up now. You just gotta focus on trying to do the spell.”, Sunset tried encouraging me.
Brim was sitting off to the side eating an apple.
“We’ve been here for hours. Is it really that difficult to think of firing a ball of energy so hard that you end up doing it through a horn?”, Brim asked sarcastically.
“I’d like to see you try.”, I told him.
“I’m just saying. We’ve been here almost all night and all you can do is lift up a paper and essentially become a flashlight. “, Brim said
“Progress is progress”.
“Guys, we need to focus. Rocky, what do you feel like you are struggling with on this spell?”,Sunset asked, trying to get us to focus again.
“It’s everything with this spell. It feels way too similar to the illuminate spell. You’ve seen me accidentally do that instead of the attack way too many times. I just can’t differentiate between the two.”, I explained.
“What if you tried to think of it like flashbanging somepony in a bathroom stall? That’s a way I would think of it.”, Brim said, taking a bite of his apple.
“If he does think of it like that, it will blind somepony.”, Sunset explained.
“Really? Now I wish I turned out a unicorn instead of a goat. Would’ve given me something to do instead of waiting for Rocky to get good at something that most ponies his age have already probably learned.”, Brim said snarkingly.
“You’re horrible. Now please be quiet so I can try and think of a better way to explain it to Rocky.”, Sunset said.
She pondered for a moment before getting an idea.
“Ok, have you ever thrown a ball before?”, Sunset asked me.
“I’m sure every kid does”.
“Well, imagine doing the illuminate spell to a very large degree. Then use the telekinesis spell in conjunction with it and the spell will work.”, She explained.
“But I’m not good with the spell to begin with.”, I told her.
“You don’t need to do it for long. Just imagine really pushing it forward for a second and then let gravity do the rest.”, Sunset explained some more.
“This still sounds complicated.”, I said.
“I know, but it’s a start. Just try it and see what happens.”, Sunset encouraged me.
I gave a small sigh before looking at the books that were being used as targets for me. Not a single one of them fell over in the two hours I had spent trying to do the spell. This time, I was hoping to change that.
I took a stance and began the process of trying to muster up the spell. I closed my eyes to imagine that beam of light that Sunset told me to think of. I felt its energy emerge from my horn as the magic began to flow. Right there, I began to imagine taking that beam of light and shoving it forward with the spell I had learned a little while ago. The amount of imagining I was doing was causing a heap of sweat to drop down my forehead.
Then out of nowhere, I felt the energy launch away from me and disappear. There was a loud blasting noise as it happened. It made me jump before opening my eyes. I looked over to Sunset to see that she had a somewhat shocked face. Looking at the books in the target range, I saw they were still standing. I began to feel disappointment before looking at Brim, who was sitting with an equally shocked face while holding what looked like an apple set on fire.
“You did it!”, Sunset exclaimed with excitement.
“And almost killed me in the process! Learn to bucking aim!”, Brim said tossing the apple to the side.
“I really did it!”, I said now smiling with excitement.
“I told you it would work if you just focused.”, Sunset said.
We looked back at the books that were still standing.
“Well, almost. You just gotta get into the habit of opening your eyes when doing spells. Brim is right about you needing to aim, but we can do that a couple more times tonight.”, Sunset said.
“I have to do it more?!”, I exclaimed.
“We have to get it consistent for tomorrow. It could get very dangerous.”, she explained.
“But it’s so late already. I’m starting to get tired.”, I said in protest.
“Yeah, I almost fell asleep eating this apple until Rocky gave me a wake up call.”, Brim agreed.
“I’ll tell you what. If you can hit three of these books, we’ll call it a night and rest up for tomorrow. Deal?”, Sunset asked.
“Deal.”
“Alright, let's get prepped up for tomorrow”.
The rest of the night was a series of trial and error trying to hit the targets until I was finally able to hit them dead on. By that point, we were all beat and ready to get some rest. We didn’t get much sleep that night in the library, but it was enough to feel energized for the morning after.
We were patiently sitting in the library waiting for Spike to come back from his royal business. We decided to make some small talk about this world and the creatures in it. More specifically, Brim was.
“So, you’re telling me that the bug pony was one of the most dangerous queens in this place?”, Brim asked.
“Yes. That’s why they put her in stone. To keep her from lashing out again. Along with the other two to stop them as well.”, Sunset explained.
“Yeah I get that, but since this world is all about friendship and rainbows and all that other garbage, do you think she could’ve been turned?”, Brim asked.
“What exactly are you getting at?”, she asked.
“I’m just saying, with the right guidance from someone like me, she could turn out alright.”, he explained.
“Brim, I think they froze her into stone because she deliberately chose to be evil and not make any friends.”, I chimed in.
“My kind of girl. Or mare? This is really confusing to try and find a difference between the two.”, Brim said.
“You’re a pig!”, Sunset told him.
“No, I’m my own food in the other world. I hate pork.”, Brim said.
The doors to the library opened up with Spike following right after. He looked like he had rushed from some important meeting to get us going on this journey.
“Sorry I’m late. Ponies were asking about Twilight and where she was. It is not easy trying to come up with an excuse on why she couldn’t show up to a certain event. Anyways, is everything ready with Rocky?”, Spike asked.
“Yep, he should be good enough for this plan that you have.”, Sunset told him.
“Great. Follow me and I’ll tell you along the way”.