A Familiar scene awakens over Ponyville. In the distance the sun can be seen as it sets behind the mountains and blankets the land in a warm orange hue. Soon one phase will end while another will take it's place and my favorite time will begin. It brings the most soothing scene to my eyes that I could never get enough of. The entirety of the land is given time to rest for both itself and those who look upon it. Bright colors are mellowed out and can still be enjoyed under the light of the moon. Stars pepper the skies and even make shapes to try and get our attention. Polaris guides the weary for a place to rest their heads for the night while the moon lights the way. The most beautiful sight, though, is when the moon is so bright that everything cloaked in a bright light and even looks as if the world is blue. An indescribable blue. It is my favorite yet most elusive color.
"I wonder if that's why my coat is blue..." I said aloud as I sat out side the library.
Rarity was going to show me around Ponyville before I left but she decided to help Twilight look through the books in the library to try and find a way to get me back to my world.
"A few extra hooves, even for a short time, can make a huge difference." She said some time before.
It had been twenty minutes since then.
"Even if she helps for the rest of the night I doubt they can make a dent in that library. There are books everywhere!" My hooves raised up to emphasize just how big the library was. "The only way they could do that is if they had at least ten other ponies." I didn't mind her leaving me at all but it seems a lot more like a journey than a drive.
Getting curious, I peek into the library. Fluttershy was flipping through a book on the ground while Rainbow Dash quickly removed books from their shelves and stacked them up. Applejack was helping Spike reach a book on a shelf.
"I wonder were Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight ran of to?" I thought to myself. Feelings of guilt grew as the ponies continued without rest to find a book that would somehow be the answer to my problems. "They're probably in another part of the library. Maybe I should help them out. It would be a lot better than just sitting out here."
The door to the library opened with ease to the scene of the three mares and dragon still at work.
"Hey every....uh...pony?" I said walking in and trying to get their slightly different language down.
Rainbow Dash didn't seem to notice me walk in but Fluttershy was very quick to notice.
"Oh hi Alan." Fluttershy said looking up from her book. "Is everything ok?"
"Ah bet he was just gettin' bored sittin' outside all alone." Applejack added.
"Yeah, I feel bad having you all work while I do nothing." I said walking up to a shelf. "If Rarity and Pinkie Pie are helping then I should too." I lifted a hoof to the bookshelf and dragged a book out.
Upon opening the book I found it was written in very complex writing. There were very few words I understood and the ones I did were words I barely even used. Turning the book to the front page I found the title was, "Theoretical Alchemy: an unabridged history."
"So where is everypony else?" I said quickly shutting and re-shelving the book before my brain exploded.
"Ah think Twilight an Rarity are up stairs." Applejack said pointing towards a staircase.
"Cool. Maybe I'll go on up and see if I can help out. Maybe I can take a few of these books up and.." I said as clumsily trying to carry a few books in one hoof.
"Here let me help you with that." Spike said grabbing the books and placing them on my back. "There!"
"Thanks Spike. Back were I came from I never ran into a problem like this before."
"No problem, I help Twilight out all the time." The young dragon said as he proudly proclaimed his usefulness.
To be honest, though, now that I don't have hands anymore it's a good thing there is a dragon who has the next best thing.
Hopefully I won't be in such a state of helplessness for long.
Steadily I went up the stairs with my book cargo. Stairs seemed to be a whole other animal when you have hooves. There was no telling how I was supposed to use them and I found my head closer to the steps while walking up but thankfully it didn't last long.
Note to self. Never take stairs for granted ever again.
"Twilight Sparkle? Are you here?" My eyes quickly inspected the room. Even the entire upstairs of the library was filled with books but this time it seemed to be a smaller room. On closer inspection I found a desk stocked with paper and quill pens. I didn't even know those were even used any more. How in the world would a pony even use one? I guess using teeth to hold the pen is an option but I don't think the words would be too legible. At the top half of the room I found what looked like the edge of a bed. Would that mean that this also double's as Twilight Sparkle's room?
"Is that you Alan?" The voice of Twilight called out from the direction of her bed.
"Yeah! I just wanted to see if I could help even just a little. I brought up some books too."
"Great! I'll be right down." Just as she said this a wave of books came down from her location and still managed to stack themselves followed by Twilight who just jumped down to my level. " Here let me just have a look at those books." She said as I felt the weight of the books on my back disappear. "Now if we're going to get you back home we might need to use this..."
"W-what!?" I said jumping from the sight of the floating books.
"What's wrong?" Twilight asked in a manner I was used to. The kind that said, you look like you've never seen this before.
"S-so you have flying ponies and flying books here?" I said grabbing a book from it's stationary position in mid air.
"What are you talking about? Books can't fly..." Not listening, I tossed a book into the air expecting the tome to achieve flight again but instead hearing a thud and getting a scold from Twilight.
"Oh no...did I break it?"
"What do you think you're doing? You need to treat books with upmost care! You can't just be throwing them around!" The bookworm steamed.
"Sorry!" I said rushing to pick up the book and by instinct tried to use the hands I didn't have only to fumble the book.
Twilight sighed followed by her hoof making contact with her forehead. "Here just let me do it." The book was now once again airborne by mysterious means but this time I noticed an aura that surrounded it. It was a transparent red...purple...color. I'm not good with colors.
"How is it doing that?" Questioningly I lifted a hoof and waved it above and under the book. "Are you doing this?"
"What, you mean levitating the book? Yeah, I thought it was obvious. I am a unicorn after all." Turning to look at her I noticed that her horn, too, was surrounded in the same aura.
"But...how?" I asked.
"Wait...you really don't know what this is? Do they not have magic in your world?" She pointed to the horn that rested on her head which also had the same aura of the books.
Images of Aura and the little magic I witnessed her preform flashed through my head. The only time I had ever witnessed real magic before now. The memories, however, were painful to bring up
"No, not really. The magic we have is just stage magic like card tricks and disappearing acts. The only real magic I knew of came from Aura." I said staring at Twilight. "Then that means you can do magic? Can all ponies do magic?"
"No, just unicorns. It's sort of our thing." She said as more books were surround in her aura and lifted.
"That's amazing Twilight Sparkle!" Feelings of a child who watched his first magic trick and thought it to be real were brought back to me but this time the magic WAS real.
"Oh come on it's not that amazing." She said bashfully. "Rarity can do levitation spells too."
"It's STILL amazing Twilight! You are using magic, REAL magic!" I said skipping around a bit like Pinkie Pie had done earlier. It was just so exciting to see magic like this.
"Heh, you sound like a little colt." She said chuckling. "Were you still considered a child back in your world?"
"Hey! I'll have you know that..." I began before I heard hoof steps climb the stairs
"Oh Twiiiiilight! I brought the sandwiches! Oh Alan! Will you be joining us?" Rarity said strolling in the room with grace with a plate full of sandwiches floating above in a light blue glow
"Um, yeah. Thought I could lend a helping hoof. I didn't want to just sit around and wait while you all are helping me out. Is Pinkie Pie helping out too?" Come to think of it, I haven't seen the hyperactive mare for a while. I've been meaning to at least talk with her a little.
"Well she was helping with the sandwiches but I don't know where she could have run off to..." Rarity said looking around her self.
"Here I am!" Pinkie yelled, appearing out of nowhere.
"Ah!" Screamed Rarity, resulting in her losing control of the plate she was holding. Luckily Pinkie Pie reacted and caught the plate before it could hit the ground. "Pinkie! Don't scare me like that!"
"Sorry! I was trying to surprise everypony. I guess it worked a little too well..."
"I'll say." I said while trying to get over my heart nearly breaking out of my chest. "Twilight I thought you said only unicorns could do magic."
"They are, but Pinkie is....well, Pinkie. There's not really a better way to say it." Twilight said trying to fake a smile.
"Never mind..." I said realizing I was probably better off not knowing. "Anyway, it's nice that we finally get a chance to talk like this after that episode we had earlier."
"Yeah, I'm super disappointed we can't have a welcome party for you like everypony else but this is kind of like a party too!" Pinkie said only looking disappointed for half a second and then filling the rest with cheerful optimism.
"Oh, right. Alan I'm so sorry I took so long in the library." Rarity added. "I was going to go out and get you as soon as I was done but..."
"No worries Rarity. You were just trying to help me as much as you could. I couldn't be more thankful for that."
"Well, now that everypony is here, why don't we get back to the books?" Twilight said cheerfully.
"Okay! Maybe one of the books I brought can help."
"No no. The books you brought don't contain any spells in them. We're looking for a spell to send you back home. If a spell brought you here then I'm sure another spell can send you home."
Twilight directed me to a shelf where she said that she kept most of her spell books. Along with Pinkie Pie, we searched the shelf while Rarity and Twilight quickly flipped through the books they levitated.
"So do you get any of this?" I whispered to Pinkie as we look through our own books.
"Hm?" She looked up. "Sorry I was just thinking about what I was going to have for breakfast today." She flipped around the book revealing it to be a cook book with many breakfast recipes.
"Pinkie! Aren't we supposed to be looking for a spell?"
"Sorry!" She said grabbing more books from the shelf and causing two more to fall.
"Well I found a spell for teleportation. Do you think that would work?"
"No Twilight does that all the time, and usually for just small distances. Oh, but I did find a spell on how to turn carrots into tomatoes!"
"I don't think that would help too much..."I said smiling awkwardly. This mare is pretty random but I just can't help but smile at how innocent she can be. "heh, maybe we can use this one. It can make windows taste like ice cream!"
"No way! You can do that? I would love to wake up in the morning and have mint chip flavored windows!"
Both of us started to laugh at this. I was joking but she might have been serious about the window thing.
For the next few hours Pinkie Pie and I searched through various books looking for the right spell. We would often just bring books that interested us or had pictures of food. To be honest, though i had no idea what kind of spell i was looking for. It wasn't long before i could hear a few small yawns come from the pink mare sitting next to me. Her eyes seemed to look like they were growing heavier by the minute. She didn't last much longer after this and within a few minutes she was sleeping up against the book shelf with a book still open in her hooves.
"Looks like everypony is getting tired..." Twilight's voice called out from her bed. "Even Rarity fell asleep in my spare bed. Do you think we should call it a night?"
"Well I don't feel tired yet so i can keep going if you can." I said lifting another book up.
"Of course I can. I usually do a lot of late night reading anyway." She said proudly. "Maybe you should check on everypony else then..."
"Ok!" I said trotting down stairs.
When I arrived the only pony down stairs was Applejack and spike was asleep in a small pile of books.
"I guess everypony left..."
"Well it is gettin' late now sugar cube" Applejack said with a yawn. "I was just about ta leave mahself till ah realized you were still here. You ready ta get going?"
"About that...well I was planning on staying to help Twilight a little more..."
"So then yer gonna stay here tonight?" she asked
"Well...I'm not planning to...I don't want to keep asking you girls for a place to stay the night."
"Ah guess ah understand what yer sayin' but then where do ya plan on sleeping tonight?"
"Most towns have inns right?"
"Yeah, but those cost bits" She said with another yawn.
"Bits? Oh, that must be what you call money here..." I said with a snicker. "Don't worry AJ, I'm sure I'll figure something out. Now you go get some rest." I said urging her to not press the matter further.
"Well ok...but ya'll better..." she was about to say before I cut her off.
"Pleasant dreams!" I said closing the door.
"I have no idea if things will turn out fine, but I'm a pony. I'm sure one night outside won't hurt. If Applejack finds out, though, she might give me a real talking to. I can't keep asking them for a place to stay. Now if only I had bits for a stay at an inn."
Twilight was still busy on a stack of books when I finally returned.
"Everypony else down stairs went home?" She asked not looking up from her book.
"Yeah..." I said stopping to think. "Twilight? What if there really isn't a way to get me back home?"
Twilight said nothing.
"Could...this have just been for nothing?" just then a bright light flashed and in it's place stood Twilight.
"No Alan, don't think that way. I'm sure if there is a way to get you home we will find it, don't worry." She said looking me straight in the eye to get her point across. "Sure, it is taking a long time to find it...and I only have a few books left...but that doesn't mean we still can't find it. You might not go home today, or maybe even tomorrow, but you will get home, okay?"
The expression she wore on her face was a mixture of a reassuring smile that tried to stay away from the worry it masked but her words alone seemed to be enough.
"Okay Twilight...sorry I got a little pessimistic..." I said rubbing the back of my head and picking up a new book. "...back to work?"
Twilight smile became more genuine when she heard this and she levitated the three books she was reading down to us.
"Sounds like a plan!" She said
For the next half hour, though, the spell of sleep began to take it's toll on me.
"Are you sure you don't want to just go to sleep?" she said noticing me jolt awake again.
"N-no...I...I can do this." Unfortunately I was more than wrong when I felt my head land on the hardwood floor.