Chapter 2: Where Am I?
"Twilight!"
The last panicked yell echoed through the library, fading to leave a heavy, harsh silence.
Everyone stood staring at the scorch mark that surrounded the cushion that had previously held their friend. It expanded from the center, across the floor, and up the bookshelf nearest to it. A seared spine of one of the books disconnected from its pages, and they all watched it fall slowly to the floor.
Several minutes passed before anyone moved.
Princess Celestia finally turned. Her eyes raked across the room, landing on the Spirit of Chaos standing behind the rest of them, his paw resting on Fluttershy's back in a comforting manner.
As if in a trance, he slowly looked up to meet her eyes. He nearly flinched at the anger radiating from her body, but he held his ground and stared back, the smallest hint of sadness in his gaze.
Princess Celestia shot daggers at him for a few more moments, the rest of the group slowly turning to watch them.
Finally, Celestia sighed and lowered her head.
"You didn't do it, did you?" She asked softly.
Discord raised an eyebrow at her question. "Well, if it'd make you feel better, I'll say I did
it," He said in as comforting a tone as he could muster.
Celestia looked up at him. "Why couldn't I save her? It blocked my magic and my physical attempt. How could it possibly do that? Who could possibly do that?"
"Discord could," Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath.
"Rainbow!" Fluttershy scolded. "Both Discord and the Princess said he didn't do it, so I'm going to believe that he didn't."
Rainbow looked slightly ashamed, looking up at the draconequus and muttering a hurried apology under her breath.
"In answer to your question, Celestia, I have no idea. No one in this day and age, I know that," Discord's eyes darkened. "If anyone needs me, I'll be in the gardens," He turned and walked towards the door, shoving the book he still held into one of the shelves as he passed.
"But..." He paused. "I do know one thing for absolute certain," He glanced over his shoulder.
"All we can do now is wait."
The first thing she noticed was the smell of books. The smell of books mixed with the smell of candles. It was a heavy, musky scent, yet completely familiar to her. She had probably fallen asleep while reading late last night. That explained it.
Her sense of taste came next. A smoky taste, rough on her tongue, which made her crave water. How late had she stayed up?
She could feel hard wooden boards beneath her, uncomfortable to say the least, and she shifted slightly. Her leg was in a most awkward position and was cramping up. What had she done, fallen off her bed?
It was incredibly quiet. The sound of her own breath roared in her ears, and if she listened closely, she could hear her heart beating.
Right as she went to open her eyes, she stiffened. I wasn't in the tree library. The last thing I remember is...
Twilight jerked up, heart pounded as she peered into the darkness. Or, to be more specific, semi-darkness. There were candles placed periodically across the room, and a crescent moon shone through a window on her right. Illuminated by the light were hundreds upon hundreds of books, with countless more absorbed in the shadows. Twilight would have been thrilled had she not been more concerned about who she was with.
Directly in front of her was a figure, cloaked in shadow. The only thing she could perceive, as she strained her eyes in the dark, were the shadow's eyes. They were a deep, piercing yellow, and they stared back at her with equal intensity. The figure said nothing.
Twilight tried to speak, but no words came out. Her throat was simply too dry. Instead, she broke the stare and began studying the room more carefully, keeping the figure in the corner of her eye. It simply continued watching her.
The room seemed somewhat like her own library. If she focused, she could see a bed in the corner, and a telescope by the window. Unlike her neat, tidy study, however, papers were strewn about everywhere, on the floor and on every desk. The sight of so many books and papers laying haphazardly about the room gave Twilight a sick feeling in her stomach. The stallion in front of her obviously had no sense of organization.
Indeed, the mysterious figure sitting a few feet from her was a stallion. As her eyes adjusted, Twilight began to see the distinct shape of a male pony's head and a short beard on his chin. She could have sworn that he hadn't blinked yet.
Once again, Twilight tried to speak. As before, she seemed unable to get her words out. She gestured wildly at her throat, then mimed drinking something, hoping that the stallion would understand, and if he did, that he would care.
His eyes widened slightly. "Oh!" He exclaimed. "Water?" Twilight nodded frantically. His horn, which Twilight just now noticed, lit up with a magic as yellow as his eyes. She heard no sink run, but a glass of water floated up to her. Not caring about manners, she grabbed it desperately from his aura and gulped it down.
The stallion raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's probably a side-effect," He muttered under his breath.
Twilight drained the last drop of the precious liquid and put the cup down at her side. It disappeared with another flash of the colt's magic. "Who are you?" Twilight asked, slightly out of breath.
The stallion seemed to not hear her question as he fell over on his back in relief.
"Haha! Thank goodness!" He poked a hoof towards her as he gave a pleased sigh. "I was terribly worried that you would speak some foreign language! This is going much better than expected!" He glanced around the room.
"Goodness, it's dark in here. I guess I lost track of time, waiting for you to wake up! You took your time with it too," He glared at her darkly. "Three hours I waited! You must have been incredibly tired. Come to think of it, that's probably a side-effect as well," He began to trot around the room, lighting more candles.
"Side-effect?" Twilight gulped. "Side-effect of what? Who are you and where did you take me?" She stood up, bristling with fury before wobbling on her hooves and collapsing back to the floor.
The stallion glanced over at her and muttered, "Dizziness upon standing, that's another one."
Twilight noticed that a quill was on the desk next to her, illuminated with his magic, scribbling everything he noticed. He's taking notes on me?! What am I, a scientific experiment?
"Listen, whoever you are," Twilight began again, staying on the floor but narrowing her eyes dangerously. "I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic and Princess Celestia's most prestigious student," She flared her wings to emphasize her statement. "If you do not release me from whatever tests you are doing, I will make you regret ever having the very thought of kidnapping me," Twilight inwardly smirked. That'll work.
The stallion was staring at her wings in absolute fascination. Twilight held her stance for a moment, then began to droop. Did... Did he even hear me?
He seemed speechless. "You have a unicorn horn... and pegasus wings?! How is that even possible?" Candle-light danced in his eyes as he weaved through the many piles of paper that cluttered the floor.
"Do you happen to have earth pony in you as well? Now that would truly be a miracle," He stopped next to her and kneeled down to try and touch her wings. Twilight immediately slapped his hoof indignantly.
"Ow!" He snatched his hoof away and rubbed it gently. "I just wanted to look!"
"I'm not letting you anywhere near me unless you tell me where you took me," Twilight glared at him.
"My workroom/bedroom/living room/house, now if you would be so kind," The unicorn snapped, reaching for her wing again. There was something about his voice when he snapped at her that sounded familiar, though Twilight didn't pay much attention to it as she slapped his hoof away again.
"That's not a good enough answer. Tell me how you took me out of Canterlot, right out from under the Princess's nose, without being stopped!"
"Hey, hey, hey. Spoilers. I don't what any of that stuff is, so if you could refrain from telling me until I explicitly ask you, I'd be pleased," The stallion sniffed, looking quite put-out. "I was going to reveal it to you gently, but since you're being so pushy," He shoved his muzzle into her face as he said that word. "I'll just say it right out."
He grabbed a piece of paper and began scribbling on it. "So, look. Recently, I've been very interested in how different the future is from the past, and how history will remember this time period. In order to figure this out, I invented a spell that would bring one of the smartest ponies in a position of partial leadership from the future back to the past. Apparently," He turned to glare at her again. "That meant you. Though as of right now, I'm wondering if the spell malfunctioned."
Twilight bristled. "So you just dragged me from the future without any idea what I was doing and brought me here so you could question me? Then you insult me by implying I'm dumb? What kind of scientist are you?"
"The kind that puts up with arrogant brats apparently. What did you call yourself? A Princess? Wonderful. We have an monarchy in the future too," He muttered all of this under his breath as he finished drawing a diagram on the paper.
The stallion sighed heavily and looked into Twilight's blazing eyes. He managed to look slightly guilty, hurt flashing in his eyes. "Look, I know we probably got off on the wrong hoof, and I'm not terribly good with other ponies. But I promise, I'm going to send you back after I ask you a few questions. I'm not evil or anything," He added softly as he handed her the paper.
On it was a small diagram of how the spell he had described worked. It located and honed in on the smartest pony who was in a position of power, but not the highest power, and flashed them back in time. This was achieved by bending the metaphorical 'line' of time so that two specific periods of time were close enough to teleport one creature from one to the other.
Though she didn't want to admit it, Twilight was quite impressed with the stallion's power. She could hardly imagine the amount of concentration that would be required to bend time like that.
"I don't know what you call our era in the future, but ponies here are starting to call it the Renaissance," He said simply. "Does that answer your question on where you are? Or, really, when you are?"
The Renaissance Era? Twilight thought eagerly. As crazy as this is, this could actually be an incredible learning experience! Who knows what I could learn by literally living in history?!
Feeling more confident, Twilight lifted her head to look at the unicorn as he checked the diagram over her shoulder. He met her eyes and gave her a small smile.
Taking the diagram back, he trotted over to one of the desks and shoved it in a random drawer. "So, your name's Twilight Sparkle, hm?"
Twilight blinked in surprise. He did hear me when I yelled at him! "Y-Yeah," She stammered.
He gave her a curious look. "And what exactly is an Element of Magic?" He positioned another candle on his bedside table, lighting it with a sweep of his horn.
Twilight smirked. "Spoilers," She used his own word against him.
"Oho," He chuckled. "Alright then. Who's Princess Celestia?"
I guess that information wouldn't hurt too much. Twilight reasoned with herself. "She's my former teacher. She rules Equestria and raises the sun. Oh, and she's an alicorn like me." She flicked her wings out proudly.
"Is that what you call yourself?" He walked over to her. "Alicorn?" He reached out again, before stopping abruptly. Twilight stretched out a wing so he could examine it. "Fascinating," He said softly, eyes brimming with curiosity. "So, were you born like this, or-"
"I was originally a unicorn, but... Well, I don't really know exactly how, but Princess Celestia said it was because I had finished a spell. Created new magic, to be more specific," Twilight smiled to herself. The stallion let go of her wing and looked at her with interest.
"I do that all the time. Wonder why I'm not an alicorn yet," He joked, turning to scribble something else down. "Maybe I could make a spell to transform into one..." He said more quietly, under Twilight's range of hearing.
I guess alicorns either didn't exist back in this time or they were really rare. Twilight thought. She looked around the room again. "You make magic all the time?" She questioned, intrigued by the hundreds of books.
"Mmhm," He confirmed distractedly, still scribbling on the paper.
"And you invented the spell that brought me here?"
"Yeah, why?" He queried, turning his attention back to the alicorn.
"Would the spell happen to be somewhere in here? I'd love to see it," Twilight replied eagerly.
"Uh," The stallion glanced around the cluttered room, a slight grimace on his face. "Yeah, it's here somewhere. I just have to find it," He began sifting through papers, and looking in books. "Nope, that's the book on farming," He tossed a book over his shoulder, his magic catching it and laying it gently on a desk. "Ah! I remember where it is!" He turned and walked to the opposite side of the room.
He turned and grabbed a book from a desk in the corner with his magic and brought it over to her. It flipped open and stopped at a page labeled, "Time Spells".
He handed it to her, underlining a certain spell with an ink quill.
Time Spells
Time Displacement
To pull from the future,
To bring to the past.
To target one creature,
Knowledge unsurpassed.
I know this spell! Twilight thought. This was a spell created by Starswirl the Bearded! One of the more dangerous ones at that. Princess Celestia would never allow me to practice it. And... Wait... He just underlined that spell. In the original copy of Starswirl the Bearded's book of time spells, recovered literally from his office, this specific spell is underlined. And he just said that he invented this, but... That's not possible.
Twilight slowly dragged her eyes up from the book, locking on to the stallion's golden eyes.
"Who are you?" She asked, voice barely audible as she held her breath for his answer.
He blinked. "I didn't tell you that yet? I could've sworn I did," He laughed. "Sorry, that was quite rude of me!"
The stallion held his hoof out for her to shake, smiling at her.
"Starswirl the Bearded, at your service."
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Great job! I loved the buildup to revealing where Twilight was, and the writing overall in the scene felt really smooth and well-done, as well as funny--especially the 'Spoilers' joke
One minor nitpick:
I think you meant monarchy.
And by the way, the imagery in this sentence was phenomenal.
Keep up the good work!
3709236 Whoops! I should probably change that! Wonder if I can edit a chapter from my phone...
I was definitely trying to make a build-up, instead of rushing the storyline as I have tended to do in the past. And I'm glad you noticed the effort I put into the imagery!!! :D
That's wonderful story.
MOOOAAARRR!!!! :D
3714766 Certainly! Just you wait!
WHAT?
Cliffhanger?!?! More! This is best story! 
4370384 Well, the idea of another person reviewing my story got me all hyped to finish a new chapter! So it should be up in not too long at all!