//------------------------------// // The Book // Story: Half-Blooded Harmony: The Lightning Thief // by SonicSpeedster97 //------------------------------// The time had come again; the time that gave Princess Twilight Sparkle the most excitement out of her week. She shot around the room closing blinds. “Everything must be perfect. Nothing can get in the way of this,” she assured herself. “Reshelving Day!” With a single pull of her magic, every book in the castle was pulled off the shelves and shot to the ground. Once they were down, she raised them all and started spinning them slowly around her, as well as several new books. She’d been receiving more shipments from her mentor Princess Celestia and she had also raided the library of the Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree. “Let’s see… Supernaturals? That definitely belongs under Mystic Remedies. The Sisters’ Diary? Historical Archives.” Then she caught something in the new arrivals; a dark leather book with no title, only a few small green gems on the cover. “Huh. Never seen this one before. Spike!” Her number one assistant quickly arrived and appeared to be just as surprised to see this book as Twilight was. “Huh. Is that one of the new ones?” “Yeah, but I don’t recognize it,” Twilight noted. “Call the others; let’s see if any of them know anything.” “Right.” Spike nodded as he moved to the door, but stopped as he realized something. “Oh, does that include Starlight?” “No, she can stay in the Crystal Empire for now; I’d hate to cut her hang-out time with Sunburst short over something that might not even be such a big deal.” Twilight shrugged. “Just bring in the girls from town, okay?” “Got it.” Spike saluted and bolted out of the library. “Well, I’ll just set you – my little mystery – off to the side for now.” Twilight smiled as she placed this book on a table in the middle of the library as she returned to her process of her reshelving. Eventually, the library was organized to Twilight’s preferred standards and the rest of her friends had all gathered around the table to look at the book their royal friend had found. “Ah dunno what to tell ya Twilight; Ah ain’t seen this book or anythin’ like it before.” Applejack shrugged, the others offering echoes of her answer. “Though I must say, it looks rather intriguing for an unknown book.” Rarity remarked. “Is there nothing to determine where it came from?” “Nothing.” Twilight shrugged. “I think I might’ve brought it back from one of my trips to the Castle of the Two Sisters, but I can’t be sure. That last trip was a bit foggy.” “Maybe there’s something written in it that might explain it,” Spike suggested. Rainbow Dash flapped over and flipped the cover open with her hoof before she flapped her wings a bit to blow the pages, only showing them all as empty. “Huh. Totally blank. That’s weird.” “No kidding. Why would a completely blank book just end up in a ruined castle library for no reason?” Twilight asked. “M-Maybe it’s a new journal someone left there by accident,” Fluttershy suggested. “Maybe, but aside from us, who goes anywhere into that place?” Rainbow reminded. “Oh, you’re right. Um, n-nevermind.” Fluttershy nodded shyly. “Ooh! Or maybe it’s written in some sort of super-special spy-ink that only reappears under a weird light.” Pinkie Pie suggested. “Well, it’s the best idea we’ve got so far.” Twilight shrugged. “And I cannot believe I said that about something Pinkie just said. Let’s see if I’ve figured out that blacklight spell yet.” Magic surrounded her horn as it projected a small circle of purple light onto the entire book, starting with the front cover. Nothing was revealed there, so she opened it to the first page and found something. “Whoa. Well, there’s definitely something here.” “You mean Pinkie was onto something?” Rainbow asked seriously. “Ooh! Maybe it’s a secret super-spy mission dossier! With one mission still unfinished…” Pinkie smiled, eagerly hoping that was it. “Well, it doesn’t completely appear to be any sort of spy ink. It looks like normal ink, just enchanted with some sort of magic.” Twilight remarked. “I don’t recognize it though.” “A kinda magic you don’t recognize? Well, that on its own scares me.” Applejack remarked. “Yeah, me too.” Twilight nodded. “Lemme see if I can break the enchantment.” She closed her eyes and focused hard as she surrounded the book, her horn flaring with more and more magic as small sparks shot from her horn. Finally, the text on that first page was revealed as the book dropped back onto the table, Twilight leaning against it in exhaustion. “Whoa. You alright there, Sugarcube?” asked Applejack. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Twilight nodded as she shook her head. “Whew, that was a powerful spell. But at least we have the text now.” Rainbow looked at the book and saw she was right; the text was visible. And somehow, it seemed familiar. “This looks almost like old Pegasian,” she remarked. Twilight was surprised and looked at the pages herself, to see she was right; the text was the old language of the Pegasi. “How do you know that?” “Eh, I picked up a few symbols from the new Daring Do book.” That figured; how else would Rainbow figure out something like this? “Can you translate it?” asked Rarity. “Maybe. If I walk it through modern Pegasian first.” Twilight noted, quickly floating a few language guides and a notebook over, which she quickly started writing in as she carefully translated each and every word. “Hm. It looks like... the introduction to some sort of… story.” “Ooh! What kind of story?!” Pinkie asked happily. “Well, this translation isn’t perfect but I think it’s called… The Lightning Thief?” Twilight remarked. “There’s a weird set of directions here too. ‘Find the thief before he flees, stop the war before it begins, and the world will be saved’.” “A world-saving story? Pfft. Please. We’ve been through more than enough of those.” Rainbow remarked. Suddenly the book started glowing as more text appeared, this text easily readable by all those present. “Good. Then you’ll be more than prepared for this quest.” it read. “Wait, what?” Twilight couldn’t ask more than that as suddenly, a strange warp-hole opened up on the pages and a strong wind started pulling at the mares. “Oh boy! Uh, Spike? The House of Enchanted Comics doesn’t sell full books, does it?!” asked Rainbow. “If they did, no one told me!” Spike assured. “Does it matter?! Let’s get outta here ‘fore that thing swallows us whole!” Applejack ordered as she started galloping toward the door, only for the winds to swoop her up. “Wh- Whoa- Whoa!” “I gotcha!” Rainbow yelled as she grabbed the farm-mare from the vortex and tried flying as hard and fast as she could to avoid getting sucked in, but to no avail; the wind was too strong and started pulling her wings back. “Twilight! Try to close it!” “I don’t know if I can!” Twilight returned in concern; she’d barely managed to break the spell hiding the text in the first place, so she was fairly positive she wasn’t going to be able to seal a portal created by similar magic. “Well, if this is anything like our stint as the Power Ponies, then perhaps the only way we can stop it is if we enter it and play out the story?” Rarity suggested. “Worth a try!” Spike shrugged. “Alright, but be careful; we don’t have any sort of context for what’s going to happen once we go through that portal, so everyone be ready for anything!” Twilight ordered. “When am I not?” Rainbow smirked as she stopped flapping her wings but held them out to catch the wind, tumbling in with the others quickly following her. But what none of them knew was that not even the ever-eager Pinkie Pie or the solid strength of will of Rainbow Dash could’ve prepared them for what awaited them in those pages… and the quest for the Lightning Thief.