“Easy enough fer you to ask Twilight,” said a very skeptical Applejack. “Head off to some ancient place an’ look around for some book. Ah’m afraid I can’t go, there’s chores that have to be done an’ I can’t trust Apple Bloom and Big Mac to do everything while we go off on an adventure.”
Twilight sighed. “Thanks for listening to me at least Applejack. Nick and I were just hoping to get some help but it’s okay.” As much as Twilight wanted the extra hooves, she wasn’t having much luck and without Applejack, convincing Fluttershy was far from ideal. She trotted off towards Fluttershy’s cottage, hoping for the best.
*****
Things weren’t going any better on the other side of Ponyville though. I was losing the fight in persuading Rarity. “Please Rarity,” I pleaded. “We’ll need your keen eye for detail.” Somehow, she managed to wrangle me into holding still for measurements while we were talking. I’d love to know how she did it sometime.
“I’m sorry but I’d rather not have to go gallivanting around a dank city.” She finished checking everything. “I’ll have something formal for you to try on when you return.”
Her tape measure had flown away from me and she had started to leave, I didn’t have much choice but to stall a little longer. “Then can you tell me if you saw Rainbow Dash at all today?”
She turned to look at me with a skeptical stare. “Not in the slightest, now if you’ll kindly show yourself out I have orders to fill.”
I left in defeat, no Rarity and the illusive cyan pegasus remained out of sight after I was back outside. I was a little fortunate though that I had at least given it my best, knowing I was going in with no chance of success and managing to get a word in edgewise was an accomplishment in its own right. However, I had to go track Rainbow down now. I hate losing…
*****
Most ponies were still keeping a distance from me, leaving me to look without help. As I searched, though I had found some company. Pinkie was looking around, as if trying to find what I was looking for. If I could, I wanted to avoid bringing Pinkie; the sheer notion that it wouldn’t be quiet for long was very unappealing. Then again, she claimed to know everyone and I could seriously use a hand.
I sighed, “Pinkie what are you looking for?”
She turned and looked at me. “What are you looking for Nick?”
I rolled my eyes, “Rainbow Dash. How about you, what are you looking for?”
“Well, I was thinking you could use a hoof looking for whatever you were looking for. Everypony just hurries away from you and that made me sad. So, I decided to help you out, but I was afraid you wouldn’t tell me what you were looking for.”
I put a finger to her mouth and smiled, “I need Rainbow Dash so she can help me and Twilight find something. Would you like to come along too?” Yes, I thought it might be trouble, but I needed the extra help. If I couldn’t get Rainbow, we were down some major help. If Twilight was having anywhere close to my luck we could use all the help we could get.
She nodded her head vigorously, “sure thing!” Not a second thought or anything, she just up and agreed. If only it really was this easy. “Last I saw Rainbow Dash; she was heading off towards the library. If we hurry we can catch her!” She galloped off, leaving me to try to run after her. I’ll be honest; I was never good at sports or anything like that.
*****
Twilight was knocking on Fluttershy’s door for what seemed like forever. There was somepony in there and Fluttershy hadn’t brushed off Twilight like this before. “Fluttershy,” Twilight chanced her friend to hear her. “I’d like to ask you to help me and Nick with something. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to, but please at least tell me.”
The door slowly creaked open, revealing a sliver of the yellow pegasus’ face. “What is it Twilight?”
“We’d like your help looking for something. We were going to go to the city Nick was at before he came to Equestria and we could use the help of everypony willing to go.”
The door opened further, closing quickly behind Fluttershy. “What is it? What you’re looking for I mean.”
Twilight smiled; at least somepony was willing to hear her out completely. “We’re looking for a specific kind of book. I really can’t go into too many details without a visual aid but we could really use any help you could give us. Any further trips for information would mean that we have to trek back through the Everfree Forest back to Ponyville.”
Fluttershy only nodded at first. “I’ll get my saddlebags,” she said suddenly. “If you want me to help I’ll come along.”
Twilight beamed, one out of two wasn’t too bad. Applejack would’ve been better but Fluttershy was no slouch when she could keep it together.
*****
I finally caught up to Pinkie Pie at the library. “Rainbow went inside with a book. I think she’s returning the last of the Daring Do books.”
I tried to catch my breath and simply nodded to the party pony. After a few moments though I had gotten back some of my energy and we went inside to find Rainbow looking around the bookshelves for something. I cleared my throat, causing her to jump a little. “Something I can help you find Rainbow?”
“Nah,” she tried her best to just wave off being spooked. “I thought there was a book I hadn’t read in the series and I don’t see it.”
“Well, let me just outright say it. Rainbow, Twilight and I need some help. We’re going to go looking for something back in the world I came from and I’d like to know if you can help us.”
“Didn’t you say you came in from a city deep below ground?”
I smirked, “is a dark cave a problem Rainbow Dash can’t solve?”
She backed up a little before glaring at me. “You think I can’t handle a cave don’t you?”
“I think you can’t handle the dark, cold earth in every direction. We just want to go and find a book, but I’m not sure where we could find one. We could really use your help Rainbow. We find it, come back, and make our way back through the Everfree Forest. Easy don’t you think?”
“Well, until you get to the Everfree Forest it sounds really lame.”
“Archaeology isn’t always dramatic treasure hunting. Actually, it rarely is. This is different though, we found the city on next to no information. Most of it is still unexplored so there’s plenty of places for things to get exciting.”
“But it’s just a book.”
I took a deep breath. “Yes, a book that can send us back to Equestria in the blink of an eye. Well, after we get it working it can, it’s complicated but I can try to explain it if you’d like.”
“Nah, I’ll come along. Doesn’t sound cool, but its someplace nopony’s been before. How can I refuse something like that?”
“Then get some saddlebags and get right back here,” I glanced over my shoulder to Pinkie. “Same goes for you Pinkie. We’ll be using that book I didn’t want you to use before.”
Pinkie’s eyes widened and she sped off. Rainbow went out after her, taking to the air just out the door.
*****
“Sister,” Princess Luna yawned as she saw her sister staring at the latest letter sent from Twilight Sparkle. “You’ve done next to nothing since that letter arrived. What has you bothered so much?”
Princess Celestia blinked and looked over to her sleepy sister. It was nearing sundown and she had indeed done nothing but stare at the letter all day. “I’m sorry Luna, but this is very important. You remember when we were visited by him?”
Luna blinked, snapped awake at the very question. “Everypony please leave my sister and I. We have something to discuss.” After they were alone, Luna encased the room in a silencing spell. “Now we have some degree of secrecy. Now you mean the one who visited the old castle right sister?”
“Luna,” Celestia paused and passed the picture of Nick, Twilight and her friends. “I’ll never forget that night.”
*****
Everyone had assembled in the library, and everyone was also surprised that Fluttershy was now incredibly gun-ho about the trip. I took a deep breath and opened the linking book to the page with the panel on it. “Now Spike, I want you to keep this book hidden from everyone. Nobody can find it okay?”
“For the last time Nick, I’ll keep it secret from everypony.”
I shot him a glare, “even if it was Princess Celestia or Princess Luna?”
He gulped hard and nodded. “Just be back soon.”
“Right,” I paused, my hand millimeters from the panel’s surface, “Give me a good ten count before touching the panel. Do the same between everyone.”
Twilight nodded, “we already went over this. Me, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Pinkie, then Spike hides the linking book.”
I nodded and touched the panel, vanishing on the spot while the book clattered on the floor. Twilight began counting.
*****
The dimly lit library that I once called home returned in a flash. I reached into my bag and pulled out my flashlight. With flashlight in hand I went over to a small case on what I had once thought to be a fireplace. In the case were several small, smooth stone orbs.
They varied from the size of a pebbled to a grapefruit, each perfectly spherical. I set the large flashlight down and grabbed one of the orbs, unleashing tremendous illumination on the room with but a shake of the stone. Of all the technology I uncovered in my isolation I found these to be shear brilliance. They must have been found on an age since there was no stone I knew of that could generate its own light.
Twilight soon joined me, her eyes wide as she saw the shimmering light in my gloved palm. “What is that?”
“I don’t know their names, but I’ve taken to calling them ‘fire marbles,’ the texture and consistency is like that of polished marble.”
We were now joined by Rainbow, who also was curious about the luminous orb.
“They react to being shaken to give off light,” I continued. “But like their name they can be extinguished by water.”
“They’re fascinating Nick.”
“Neat,” added Rainbow.
Fluttershy now joined us, hyperventilating from the sudden trip. “I’m afraid I don’t like travelling by book much.” Twilight and Rainbow helped get Fluttershy out of the way just before Pinkie showed up.
“Now that we’re all here I think we should just get everything squared away. We’re calling this place home for now. I have blankets for everyone, Twilight and I thought it best that we use the biggest bag for things like that.” I quickly swapped hands holding the fire marble and went into a side room. Everything was working just fine; my little hydroponic garden was still growing. I stuck my head back into the main room of the library, “we also have some food, but not a whole lot. I’m pretty sure that the others in the team have food, but right now I’m not sure if I should trust them. The descriptive book that sent me to your world was hidden.”
“Yes,” chimed in Twilight, “after we translated the journals, and cleaned up the original translations, we found out that the author hid the book so it would remain unspoiled by his people; by the D’ni.”
“Wait,” whispered Fluttershy, “the author wanted our world to be unspoiled?”
I nodded. “I’ll admit I was curious so I checked. I want you girls to know I’m nothing like the people the author was trying to keep the book from, he intended to keep your world safe from conquerors. I wanted to learn and understand. I know that in the past we humans enslaved each other, but from a cultural point of view I could understand some of it at that point in time. I want nothing to do with enslaving anyone or stripping a world of all its resources.”
I had gone over to a small chest and after thumbing through several parchment documents, I returned with a few. Sprawling them out for everyone to see I began to explain. “Here’s a bunch of maps. I think that we should start in this island,” I moved the island’s map to the front. “We’re here,” I pointed to a building that had been circled, “and I’ve not explored much so there’s a lot of ground to cover. There will probably be a lot of area we can’t reach due to eroded staircases,” I looked over to Fluttershy and Rainbow, “that’s where you both come in. Also, most buildings have pretty sturdy doors,” I pointed over to the fallen door to one side of the room, “we’ll need to work as a team if we’re going to break in.”
“Wait,” interjected Rainbow as she stared at me, “you said nothing about breaking into buildings.”
“The city’s dead Rainbow,” replied Twilight, “it isn’t like the residents are still around.”
I nodded, “archaeology isn’t very glamorous when it gets messy Rainbow. Breaking and entering will be the least of what we do by the time we’re done here.” I checked my watch, not something I had been doing lately. “It’s eight-forty now so we’ll make plans for the morning and get an early start.”
“I think we should also take the descriptive book with us Nick,” added Twilight. In case we are trapped by a cave-in or something.
Rainbow cocked an eyebrow. “What’s so important about the descriptive book?”
“Well,” I tried to find the best way to put it, “the descriptive book is our anchor back to Equestria. We’ll need it to get back.” Everyone but me gulped hard. I shared everyone’s thought though; I didn’t want this to be a one-way trip.
I moved over to the far corner of the library and pried up a panel on the floor. Quickly I went down, leaving the hatch open. I was beside myself in the small chamber; the descriptive book was gone.