I sigh a long sigh. “Why can’t the potion simply be milk from cows?” Well, it’ll be easy to get milk if the potion really was made out of that stuff. And of course, the universe wouldn’t want that... Sigh...
We’re still inside the library. Er...in Twilight’s tree home, I mean, and we’re all gathered in the main room, sitting around the circular study table.
“So...” Sienna says, catching our attention. She’s giving Twilight a strange look. “...you’ll need mushrooms that are red during the day, and turns into blue when the night?”
“And clover leaves that create sounds when you blow air at them?” Seri asks.
“Silver ladybug eggshells?” Reykan asks, tilting his head to the side a little.
I frown. “And some roots of poison joke.” I close my eyes, take a breath and exhale through my nostrils. I reopen my eyes and frown at Miss Purple. “The ingredients sound like a joke... I’m starting to consider just staying in this world until I die...”
Twilight rolls her eyes with a frown of her own. “Zecora made the potion, Jay, and she gave me the list of the things she used when she made that potion.” She brings a hoof over her chest. “She’s a friend, and I trust her.” She brings her hoof down. “She told me that the ingredients can be found in the Everfree Forest.”
“But the forest doesn’t exist in this world,” I point out.
She nods her head, her ears drooping. “Yes... Which is why I told you that I don’t know where to look for them in this world.”
I sigh.
“So what are the other two things?” Sienna asks with a curious blink.
Twilight looks at her. “Well... They’re spider silk from leaf spiders and cockatrice’s feathers.”
Sienna winces. “Cockatrices?”
Twilight slightly shakes her head. “They’re very dangerous creatures, yes, especially with their ability to turn others into stone aside from their own kind. But I can handle—”
“Yep!” Reykan interrupts with a nod. “They’re kinda scary, but it’s a good thing wild storms turn you back to normal.”
I blink at him. Wild storms can unpetrify you if those chicken snakes turn you to stone? Huh... I wonder if petrification can stop your body from aging. Wouldn’t that be a great an alternative way to travel through time? Meh...
Reykan chuckles. “It was really funny when Syroc became a rock!”
I arch an eyebrow. “Sywhonow?”
“My sibling.”
Sienna blinks blankly at him.
“Aww...” Seri coos. “There are more cute little panther cuties like you, little Rey?”
Reykan glares at her.
Sienna gulps, ears drooping. “They’re pr-probably bigger...scarier...meaner...”
Reykan turns to her with a smile. “They are! They’re also better at hunting than me!” He frowns. “Don’t tell them I said that.”
Something tells me that Sienna’s definitely not going to tell them that.
Reykan continues: “That’s why I left them earlier than I should, so I could become better than them! Hahah!” He looks at me with a smile. “And I’m going to prove that by eating you, Jay!” He blinks at me, smile still present. “I’m still gonna eat you, right?” He turns to Twilight. “After you’re done talking to Twilight pony?” He turns back to me.
I arch an eyebrow. “Uh...sure, I guess.”
“Cool!”
“Jay!” Sienna yells as she throws a horrified look my way. “You’re just...gonna let him kill you?!”
“It won’t come to that,” Twilight says with a shake of her head. “Not if I can help it.”
Reykan doesn’t seem to have heard them as he is still looking at me. “So when are you gonna be done talking to Twilight pony?”
I shrug. “Soon, I guess. But I need to gather the four items she needs first.”
“’Kay!”
Whatever. I guess if the potion wouldn’t work, then Twilight’s going to think of another way to fix Equestria, making my ‘talk’ with Miss Purple to extend.
...I sure hope the potion works though. I don’t want to be stranded here for too long...
Reykan suddenly stands up on his stool, jumps down to the floor and dashes towards the door. “Well, I gotta go!”
I arch an eyebrow once again as I see him stopping in front of the wooden door. “You’re...leaving?”
“Yup!” Reykan turns and smiles at me. “I gotta get ready!”
I blink. “Get ready for what?”
“Just let him go already,” Sienna says rather hurriedly.
Igniting her horn, Twilight magically opens the front door, and closes it after our little panther cub walks out.
“Huh...” I blink at the door before I shrug. “Oh well...” I suppose it’s better to have a healer companion than having a hurter companion... I turn to Twilight. “Random question... Why do wild storms unpetrify petrified...creatures?”
“Chaos magic, Jay,” Twilight replies. “Chaos magic cancels other chaos magic. Cockatrice uses chaos magic to turn their victims to stone, and wild storms are created by huge amounts of chaos magic.”
So if wild storms are created by chaos magic, does that mean chaos magic taste awful? Eh... I nod my head. “R-right...” Not sure if I get that and all of these magical nonsense. “So... Mushrooms that are red by day and blue by night, sound-making clover leaves, silver ladybug eggshells and poison joke roots.”
Twilight nods her head. “Yep. That’s all of them.”
“Right...” I sigh. “Now to figure out where to freaking get these freaking things...”
Seri smiles at me. “There are many ladybugs in Swan Lake!”
First, Oddete, and now she mentions Swan Lake? What, is Prince Eric here in this world, too? I wonder who the pigs consider their god here is. Babe? Meh...
“I wonder how everyswan is doing over there,” Seri asks to no one in particular.
Twilight’s horn glows, pulling out a large rolled-up scroll from one of the shelves. She magically places the scroll on the table and unrolls it, almost covering the entire table, revealing a rough drawing of what looks like Equestria.
“Oh!” Seri chirps, smiling as she looks at the map. “It’s the map!”
“A map?” Sienna asks, blinking at the swan. “What’s a map?”
Dora, get out of my head.
Slightly shaking my head, I look down at the map as Seri and Twilight inform our deer friend what a map is. There are a few labels, mostly around the middle part of the map. The map is facing Twilight, so the labels are all upside-down on my end, but I can still read them well.
What? When I was younger, my bro and I read stuff upside-down if we were bored. Not often though, because it gives us a headache, but hey, we had fun. We didn’t have a lot of money back then, so we tried to find ways to kill time. Eh... Not the time to walk around memory lane.
Hm... Let’s see here... Canterlot Mountain is on the very middle. A little to the east, inside a drawn forest by “Foal Mountain,” is a tree labelled as ‘Twilight’s Tree.’ So that’s where we are right now. A little south from Canterlot Mountain is ‘Sheep Hills,’ followed by ‘Cow Pastures.’ Further south is a forest and then...blank. Around that vast blank space is where AJ and Pinkie live. Most likely near the forest’s edge. I wonder if it’s all right to tell Twilight where they are now that Alter-Twilight’s tamer? Eh, anyway... Far west from Canterlot Mountain, aside from the numerous ‘Pony Pastures,’ are ‘Fox Dens,’ ‘Goat Valley,’ ‘Giraffe Pastures,’ a few more ‘Sheep Hills,’ and ‘Elephant Plains.’
And far down south from Twilight’s tree home is a lake-like drawing labelled ‘Swan Lake.’ The said lake is in the middle of a forest. The eastern edge of the forest is a sea or an ocean, and on the west is the mountainous borders of the “Badlands,” complete with quotation marks.
I blink... Wait a minute... I look up at Twilight. “...Why are the labels written in English?”
Twilight stops her little map explanation to blink a curious blink at me. “English?”
I look back at the map. “I...can read the labels.”
“You can?”
I nod my head as I read a few of the labels on the map. Afterwards, I look back at her.
Twilight leans forward, her eyes growing wide. “You can read! B-but I thought...”
I shake my head. “Twilight, no offence, but I don’t have a clue what you wrote on that little piece of paper earlier, but,” I look back at the map. “...I can read the labels you wrote on this map.” I blink and look back at her. “You...are the one who wrote the labels on the map, right?”
She nods her head. “Well, of course. It’s a common practice to use the old Equestrian alphabet in labeling locations on a map. Often times with book titles on their covers and spines too, but over the years, publishers and authors began using the modern Equestrian alphabet instead of the old one.” She clears her throat. “Ahem... Anyway...” She looks down at the map with a curious frown. “This doesn’t make sense...” She looks at me. “How come you can read old Equestrian, but not the modern one?”
I blink. Old Equestrian? English really does exist in this world, but with a different name?
“I don’t understand most of what she just said,” I hear Sienna whisper.
Seri chuckles a quiet chuckle. “You’ll get used to it.”
Twilight shakes her head, either not hearing or simply ignoring the other two females. “But...maybe...just maybe...” She looks at the map with furrowed brows. “In history, unicorn tribes who are responsible for raising the sun and the moon were the ones who invented the Old Equestrian alphabet. They were—and still are, I think—living in the neighboring region of Equestria to the west. The tribe who controls the sun lived in the mountainous regions in the north, while the tribe who controls the moon lived in the watery south.”
I blink and look back at the map. Hm... Welp, the drawn map only shows Equestria.
Twilight continues: “Because the two tribes lived so far away from each other, delivering messages through the mouths of their messengers became impractical, especially if the messenger starts to forget bits and pieces of the message during his or her journey. So one day, the tribes agreed to meet and during that meeting, they invented the alphabet, and ever since then, they started writing to each other and the messenger ponies carry the letter to the other tribe.”
I blink. Huh...
“The Old Equestrian Alphabet was invented long before the Windigo insident.” Twilight blinks at me. “So... Since the past was changed, the modern Equestrian alphabet never came to be. Not only that, but the unification of the three pony races never happened, thus, none of the three groups of ponies ventured out to find new land. They didn't discover Equestria...yet.”
I blink again.
Twilight continues: “Through the years, more and more sapient creatures learned about the old Equestrian alphabet in the neighboring region.” She nods her head. “This is just a theory, but over the years, many ponies probably started...‘branching out’ and maybe, your ancestors settled here in Equestria, carrying the knowledge of the letters. Your ‘alternate self’ must have probably already knew it before your ‘real consciousness’ came here in this world, and that is why you can read Old Equestrian literature.”
“Huh...” I blink. “I...guess that makes sense?” I tilt my head to the side. “So...why is it called ‘Old Equestrian Letters’ if it didn't originate in Equestria?”
Miss Purple shrugs.
I arch an eyebrow. “Er, not really the answer I was expecting from you, Miss Bookworm.”
Miss Purple shakes her head. “In any other day, I would be thrilled to tell you all about history and its specifics in great detail, but not right now.”
Sigh... “Right, right... The potion. Let’s get this over with.” No reason to prolong it any longer anyway. I look at our swan companion. “Seri,” I call.
“Hm?” she blinks and looks at me with a beaked smile.
“You said that there are silver ladybugs in the lake?”
“Oh, absolutely, positively maybe.”
I blink. I frown. “What do you mean by ‘maybe?’”
She shrugs. Wow, I didn’t know swans can shrug too. “I didn’t see a lot of them when I was still living there. They shine when the light of the sun hits them, plus, they’re pretty delicious, so...” Seri chuckles. “Most swans race to eat them if they spot the white glow on leaves and grass. Ah, good times.” She shakes her head. “I left our little lake...hm...seven moons ago, I think? So I don’t know if there are still any silver ladybugs there. But hey! There are other colored ladybugs there, if you’re curious.”
“So... Your kind drove them towards extinction?”
Seri blinks a blank blink.
I take a breath and sigh. “Eh... It’s worth a shot.” I look at Sienna. “Maybe we can also ask the...uh...swans over there if they know where to get the other items.”
Sienna nods her head. She then furrows her brows, glaring at me. “I can help you and Twilight, but do we really need to have Reykan coming along with us?”
I blink at her. “Why not?” I shrug. “If he wants to come along, that is.”
“Jay,” Sienna’s glare intensifies. “He’s a panther. A predator! He eats leaf-eaters like us!”
I shrug. “We’re not yet eaten, last time I checked.”
“That’s not the poi—!”
“Calm down, everyone!” Twilight suddenly says, silencing Sienna. She then gives me a pointed look. “And Jay, that was not a nice thing to say.”
I blink, feeling my ears droop. I take a breath and sigh. This is why I don’t usually talk with someone, because I can barely watch what I say...
“Especially to someone who’s willing to help us restore Equestria,” Miss Purple continues to say, still giving me a disapproving look. “Jay, I need you to apologize to her.”
I grit my teeth. Wow... Twilight’s treating me like a kid, and that stings... I take a breath and sigh. Unfortunately, she’s right... I look up at Sienna, who is staring blankly at Twilight for a second or two before she shifts her gaze on me.
“Sorry...” I say rather quietly.
Sienna shakes her head. “...For what?”
Right... Make this even more difficult for me, why don’t you? Sigh... “For...my sarcastic remark. And stuff...”
Sienna shakes her head once more. “I don’t care about that.” She furrows her brows. “But what I do care is why you want Reykan to come along!”
“I...” ...why do I want him to come along, anyway? “...don’t.” I slightly shake my head. “I said, if he wants to come along, then why not?”
“I’m not going to help you if he will come along.”
I sigh... “Fine, fine...” I turn to Twilight. “Any thoughts?”
“Hm...” Twilight hms. “I’m sorry Jay, but I’m going to side with Sienna on this one.” She takes a breath. “While it is true that Reykan hadn’t eaten you or any of us, and while it is true that his child-like innocence is, in Seri’s words, cute, he is still a predator, and predators are often times unpredictable, especially during the age of maturity. Not to mention that Reykan was able to harm you and Seri before, so what’s stopping him from harming you or any of us again?”
I sigh as I nod in defeat. I turn to Seri.
The swan is quietly looking at the map with a smile. After she probably noticed the silence, she looks up at us with a blink. “Hm?” A pause. She squawks a surprised squawk. “Oh! I’m sorry!” She quickly throws an apologetic look at Twilight. “I wasn’t listening! Um... What were you talking about?”
Twilight chuckles as I roll my eyes. “Don’t worry about it, Seri,” Miss Purple says.
I stand up on four hooves with a defeated sigh. “Right. I can’t win against the majority. I might as well let Reykan know.”
“Reykan?” I hear Seri ask as I turn and walk towards the door. “Let him know what?”
“He can go and hunt anywhere he wants,” Sienna replies.
“Aw...” Seri says as I stop in front of the door. “He’s not going to help and is going to leave us soon?” I hear her sniff. “I’m going to miss the little cutie...”
“I can’t believe you!” Sienna yells as I turn my head to look at Twilight. “He attacked you and Jay as well!”
Ignoring the deer and swan banter, I gesture with my head. Twilight nods her head and magically opens the door for me, and almost immediately, fresh and cool foresty air fills my lungs.
“Ah...” I breath out with a smile as I look outside. Beyond the wide brown earth that surrounds Twilight’s tree home, the green grass and the green leaves of the many trees embrace the sun’s morning rays, morning dews reflecting the sunlight like tiny diamonds in the sea of green. “Feels like I’ve been stuck inside a stinky library for years.”
Whew... The outside world looks really wonderful. I wish my home world is as naturally beautiful as this world.
Eh, enough of the boring sappy stuff... I turn and look at Twilight. “Right. Twilight, do you happen to have any backpacks lying around here?”
She blinks at me. “...What’s a backpack?”
Sienna and Seri ceases their banter and curiously looks at the two of us.
I blink. Oh... Right... “Er... S-saddlebag, I mean.”
“Oh,” Twilight says as she tilts her head to the side. “Whatever for?”
I give her a deadpan look. “For the ingredients, you egghead. What else?” Yesh, and there I go again with my snappy choice of words. “Sor—”
“Oh, right,” Twilight says with a sheepish grin. “Eheheh... Eh... Ahem...” She stands up on four hooves as she looks upstairs. “I...may have some materials that I could use to make something for storing items.” She slightly shakes her head. “I’m not sure if I have enough materials for a saddlebag, but I’m sure I can come up with something!” She then smiles at Seri. “Seri, would you mind helping me?”
“Not at all!” Seri chirps, and soon, the two females trot and wobble up the stairs.
“With magic,” I hear Twilight say, “it wont take long for me to make one, Jay.”
I nod my head, even though she wouldn’t see it. “Take your time.” I didn’t mean that though. I actually want her to hurry. I know she will, because she’s eager to restore Equestria back to normal.
Anyway, I turn back and look outside. Hm... I wonder if it’ll be a good idea to walk outside as I wait? Now that the storm’s gone, cockatrices and other creatures might be wandering around.
...
... ...
... ... ...meh. I’ll just not wander too far.
“Where are you going?” I hear Sienna ask as I walk outside—
Eugh... The brown earth’s freaking wet and muddy. Sigh... Well, I’m going to get muddy hooves sooner or later anyway. “Just going for a walk,” I reply without looking back as I slowly take a few more steps, feeling the weird cold muddy feeling on my four hooves.
Huh... It was raining when we were entering Twilight’s home. I wonder why our hooves and paws weren't muddy at the time. Meh, must have been an oversight.
I stop my slow little walk before I look up and around. Above the glittering green sea of leaves, thin wispy clouds peacefully roll by on the morning blue sky. Chirping noises echo from the forest, adding a peaceful and melodic effect on the natural beauty of the morning scene.
My ear twitch as I hear a quiet little noise from behind me. Looking back, I see the door open and the darkness inside the hollow. Something moved above my peripheral vision. I look up and see a familiar black feline cub on one of lowest yet thick branches of Twilight’s dead tree home, his sapphire eyes on me.
Oh, right. I almost forgot. Well, I might as well tell him that he’s not coming with us before I forget about it again. “Oh, hey there, Rey—”
“Grraaawwrr!” he suddenly jumps off of the branch towards me, sharp paws and jaws at the ready!