I reappeared in the library and made my way to Twilight's prison book. I set the duffel bag down and opened the book. It looked like she was napping again. I cleared my throat. “Twilight?”
Her head shot up and her eyes snapped open. “You're back. Did you find the guide?”
I nodded. “I did, thanks to your friend Rainbow Dash.”
She frowned and her ears fell back. “How is she?”
I smiled. “Bored and sad. She said she wants her egghead back.”
She giggled. “I miss her too. Where are you going to start?”
I glanced to the bag, then back to her. “I found what looks like Lyra's diary. I'll see if I can't glean any information from it. I doubt I will, but it'd be nice to have a little more background on what I walked into.”
She nodded. “Thank you. If you have time, can you say hi to Cadance and Shining Armor for me? Tell them I miss them?” I nodded. “Thank you.”
I closed the book and side-stepped to the other one. I slowly opened it and I was greeted with moaning, grunting and panting, so I closed the book up. I went back to Twilight's book and opened it up. “Now might not be the best time, Twilight.” She gave me a confused look. “I'm gonna go translate that diary.”
I closed the book, picked up the bag and sat down against a wall. I opened the bag and pulled out the guide and the diary and got to work on it.
About an hour later, I had ten pages of the diary translated. The translation was a bit spotty in places, but I managed to make it read as best as possible. There was a lot of talk about Jaxxon and how wonderful he was, when they first met he was initially appalled by the fact that Lyra and her friend Bon Bon were sharing a house together, thinking they were romantically involved. Great, we're dealing with a deranged, homophobic Mormon... that sounds about right.
There was a lot in there that I skipped. There was nothing too interesting until I came across some entries regarding her pregnancies. She was using some kind of serum to try and change the fetus' species, hoping his parents would be more open to her if she could raise a human child. Why the hell would he write in that ponies could be impregnated by a different species? When I run into him again, I'm going to ask what possessed him to write any of this.
I was beginning to get a headache and decided to close the translation guide. The envelope I put in there fell out. I can't believe I forgot about this. I picked it up and opened it. Inside was a torn sheet of paper, naturally written in Ponese. I stood up, walked to Princess Celestia's prison book and opened it.
Her head perked up and she looked at me. “How fares the search?”
I shrugged. “Well, I found this.” I showed her the paper. “I'm assuming it's for your book, since your cutie mark was on it.”
She nodded. “Be careful, there isn't a book here that can take you back to the island.”
I scratched the back of my head uneasily. “I'll keep that in mind. Your Majesty... how long has it been this way?”
She shook her head unknowingly. “I cannot say for sure. He had been here for almost ten years before the incident that drove him mad. It was another two years before he completed our prisons.”
I gave her an understanding nod, but I had to press on the questions. “Do you remember how old he was when he arrived?”
She nodded in a way that she knew she sure on the answer. “He was in his mid-twenties. Twenty-four or twenty-five.”
I nodded again. So... let's say he was twenty-five when he first arrived; spent about nine years living peacefully with Lyra and the others; she dies, he goes insane and spends another two years working on this new world and on a way to save her. Time must flow differently here. For all I know, an hour here could be a day or a year back home; or it could flow faster here, a day here could be a few minutes on Earth. I cleared my throat. “If you'll excuse me, Your Majesty, I just got an urge to check out the windmill.”
She nodded and laid back down. “Good luck, and be careful.”
I closed the book, walked to Twilight's and opened it. “Hey, sorry to bug you again, but where can I keep my new duffel bag?”
She took a moment to ponder. “I believe there is a basement in the duplicate. Now I don't know if it exists there, but in my library's basement, I had a place behind the stairs to store some... personal items.” She blushed. “If it's not there, just set it in a dark corner. He rarely comes here, but since you're here-”
I nodded. “He'll be sure to check this place out. Thanks, Twilight.” I closed the book and proceeded to the basement.
Well, her hiding spot didn't exist, but I did find a quiet corner to hide my stuff. It's off to the windmill. It was straight down a path in front of the library's main door, down a shallow hill and around a bushy corner. There was nothing remarkable about the exterior of it, but Jaxxon comes this way and I aimed to find out why. I gripped the knob, turned it, opened the door and walked inside.
Once inside, the windmill didn't look like it served any purpose, there were a series of wooden gears being spun, but there was nothing happening. I looked around and saw a desk with a couple of notebooks. I decided to check out the rest of the inside. I found a door going somewhere, but it was locked and he probably had the key with him. I walked to the desk and looked at the notebooks' covers. I recognized one of the glyphs as “link”. I glanced around, hoping he wasn't around and I pulled out my phone. There was plenty of light, but the phone took terrible pictures. I may not have had the best equipment to do this, but I wasn't going to let this opportunity pass me by. I was truly amazed that my phone wasn't dead yet, the charge was still near one hundred percent. I didn't know how it happened, but I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
An hour passed and I closed the second book and headed back to the library. Apparently there were two different types of books, a descriptive, which created the world its reader went to, and a linking, which took the reader back to the previous location. If I was going to have a chance, I needed to use the linking book in the Everfree Forest as a base.
I stared at it, “Tales of the Everfree”. I couldn't believe I was going back in there. I opened the book and touched the paper. The familiar energy flowed into me and the world disappeared.
I found myself at the ancient castle this time around. Why I ended up here instead of deep in the forest I didn't know, but I wasn't going to question it. I looked around, hoping to find a stick to flip the pages. I was in the woods for Pete's sake, I should be able to find a stick somewhere and it wasn't long before I did.
I picked up a stick and walked back to the linking book. I pulled out my phone, flipped open the book and started taking pictures. I still wasn't sure how I'd be able to make the copy, but I planned to ask either Princess Celestia or Twilight. Twilight might have a better understanding of how these books worked though.
After a while, I heard a “whooshing” sound come from behind me. I turned around and there was Jaxxon, holding a gun to my face. My heart skipped a beat and I fell backward. “What in the hell are you doing?!”
He looked real pissed. “You're going to ruin it all. Five hundred years of hard work will be ruined because you couldn't mind your own business!”
My eyes widened in fear. I felt breathless as he began squeezing the trigger. Click! He was out of ammo? I scrambled to my feet to tackle him, but he used the gun as a club and knocked me out.
I felt hot and smelled something burning. My eyes shot open and saw that the forest was on fire. I looked toward the pedestal where the linking book was and saw Jaxxon put his hand on it and he disappeared. I guess I hadn't been out long. I scrambled up to the book, grabbed it and made my way toward Ponyville.
I ran as fast as my legs could take me. The air in this forest was starting to choke me, but if I wanted to live, I had to keep going... but... I couldn't. I fell forward and lost my grip on the book. I was going to be burned alive. Unconscious, maybe, but alive.
My vision started blurring, but among all the flames, something was approaching me. I couldn't stay awake. My head fell on the ground and as I slowly lost consciousness, I had one last thought. I failed, everyone. Forgive me.