Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie were all gathered inside Twilight's library, along with Midnight Sparkle, Crimson Lionheart, Haze Drift and Rosenburg, some good friends and relatives. They had just finished reading the note, and all were distraught. Pinkie Pie, of course, reacted first, being Pinkie Pie and all. "OhmiGOSH, Twilight LEFT! Guys, we gotta go find her, she's in trouble! It's like that one time Applejack ran away, except WORSE! This is horrible! Come on, let's go now!" She grabbed Spike and made for the door. "Pinkie!" shouted Spike in protest. "We can't leave yet! We don't even know where we're going!" "Oh, right..." Pinkie set Spike down and thought for a bit. "We need to find the book?" Spike offered. "Aha! We need to find the book!" shouted Pinkie. She immediately started looking through the books in the library. Spike sighed and turned to the rest of the group, still looking worried. "Twilight said in the note the book was hidden. Where do you guys think it is?"
Applejack wiped her eyes again and walked to the table to read the note over again. "Well, if it took her this long to find the book in the first place, it must have been hidden pretty well," She raised a hoof to tap her chin. "Spahk, do ya know of any possible secret hiding places it may have been in? Any a those fancy pull-a-book levers?"
"well, If twilight is still like she was when visiting me in Canterlot after her brothers wedding she would probably be where books similar to it are". Midnight was sad that her god-niece left but she seemed to be keeping calm, unlike pinkie.
Spike shook his head. "I already checked all the ones I knew, but I couldn't find it!...then again, if I knew about it I would have found it sooner..." Spike thought for a moment at Midnight's question. "...Um, do we even know what it's about?" He grabbed the note out of Applejack's hooves and read it again. He shrugged. "All it says is it's about some disaster. She didn't even mention the name of it...but I know every book in this library, so if I haven't seen it before, then that must be the one." He stood there, unsure of what to do next, while Pinkie continued to frantically pick apart the shelves.
Haze was in the background, listening in on the conversation. Sat on the steps at the back of the library, she took in what was being said...
Rosenburg was staring thoughtfully at a shelf, racking his brain to try and find any hint of where Twilight might have disappeared to. He didn't have much to work with, none of them did, but he hoped that a logical work-through would turn up something. "Spike", he said, turning round to look at the baby dragon. "Did you notice anything out of order after Twilight left? Anything at all? Perhaps something that you might have overlooked in your confusion?"
Fluttershy... always the main background character, quietly watched the others move back and forth and she spoke in a soft voice, almost as if not ready to be heard. She was, after all, quite shy around all these others. "Maybe she hid it under her bed..."
Spike perked up at Rosenburg's words, missing what Fluttershy said in his excitement. "Well...there is one place. It wasn't by any of the books, though..." The young assistant walked over to a cupboard and opened it. It was pretty much empty, except for a few random objects strewn about at the bottom. "This is Twilight's cupboard, where she kept all of her memorab...memorabli...uh...keepsakes. She never touched it, and nothing is missing. It's just all knocked over. I thought maybe she was just...you know...saying goodbye or something...but now that you mention it, it's seems like a good hiding place." He began searching the walls of the cabinet for secret panels. After about thirty seconds, he shrugged and stepped back. "Eeh, I can't find anything. Anypony got any ideas?"
Midnight was looking at a magic book seeing if there were any spells she could use to help find it. "ah here's one, a x-ray spell to see through stuff". Midnight charged up her horn and did the spell hoping it would work.
Spoiler: Lore for Midnight Lore Stat: 7 Modifiers: +3 for having a book Rolled: 10 PASS Midnight cast the spell, and suddenly she could see through everything, including the rest of the ponies there...weird. Anyways! She looked in the cabinet, and immediately saw that the book was not in the walls where Spike had been looking, but hidden in the bottom of the cabinet! This explained why all of the objects in the cabinet were knocked over and strewn about; Twilight, in her rush to re-hide the book, must not have put them all back how they were supposed to be!
Rainbow Dash hovered back and forth in the room impatiently. "Come on! Anything?! Anything at all?! We cant help Twilight sitting around doing nothing!" She continued to hover around, a bored look on her face.
"Spike can you get out of the way. I think I've found it". Midnight then walked to the cabinet her horn still charged and slid the bottom of the cabinet open revealing the book.
Rosenburg smiled heartily. "Bravo Midnight, that was some brilliant thinking and spellwork." He clopped over to the cabinet. "So, what is it?" he asked, a hint of excitement creeping into his voice as he tried to peek past Midnight. "A book of prophecies? An ancient spellbook? Something by Star Swirl the Bearded?"
Spike walked forward past Midnight and Rosenburg, picking up the book and setting it on a table. Naturally, everyone immediately crowded around him. The book was old, that much was apparent. It did not look extraordinary in any way, shape or form. It had a plain, brown cover with no words on it. On the spine, in simple, hoofwritten black letters, was the title and author. Magyck by Starswirl the Bearded Spike stared at the spine for a moment. "Huh. Whaddaya know? It is by Starswirl the Bearded!" he exclaimed. He opened the book to the first page, where it could be seen that everything else, not just the spine, was hoofwritten. It was also the Table of Contents. Everyone was able to read: Preface: In which I discuss the definitions of Magyck, magic, and give several examples thereof to help the reader understand the topic of this book. Part One: In which I describe each of the types of Magyck and their unique traits. Part Two: In which I describe Magyck as it relates to its effects on the history of Equestria. Part Three: In which I discuss Magyckal and magical flora and fauna, and the ways in which Magyck interacts with other creatures, ponies being the focus. Part Four: In which I describe the many natural events that take place regularly that are related to Magyck in any major way. The opposite page was blank. "Uhhh..." said Spike. Obviously they couldn't read the whole book right here and now; it was too long, and some ponies (like Rainbow Dash) would never stand for it. "Where should we start??" He turned to face the rest of the group. Pinkie raised her hoof and waved it wildly, but he ignored her.
Applejack studied the table for a few moments. "How's 'bout part two?" She suggested. "Twilight wants to prevent some terrible catastrophe, right? I'm sure what we're lookin' for is in that part!" She grinned for a moment before realizing just how large the book was. "But there's only four parts here... How are we gonna know just where to look? It's a start, but that's still a lot of reading!"
Fluttershy had a suggestion... but it was probably meaningless and wouldn't have any effect on anything, and nopony would probably hear her anyway. "What page opens easiest? If she had one open for long enough, the book will lead us right to it." It was after all, a really old book...
Spike scratched his head. "We-e-ell...shouldn't we start off at the beginning? I mean, what is this book even about, anyway?" He picked it up and looked at the back cover. "It doesn't even have a description on the back!"
Rainbow Dash sighed. "I cant believe this! Twilight has ran away because of a book, and it wasn't even Daring Do! How could she?!"
Rosenburg re-read the contents, mulling the topics over in his mind. The 'disaster' that had startled Twilight had to be in one of these topics, but finding out which was the problem. A thought sprang to mind, an old trick of his 'friends' (he tried to avoid that term) back during his academy days in Canterlot. "Well, Miss Applejack certainly has a point." He nodded respectfully at her. "We should not rule that out, but I'm more inclined to believe that the answer may lay in the forth section of the book, the section about 'natural events' that are related to this 'Magyck' in any 'major way'." He paused and looked around the room. "I know of a spell that could potentially find what we're looking for, but I'd need to know what we're actually looking for; keywords, places, anything. Does anypony have any ideas?"
(Currently at my Grandparents to post this. Dont expect me to post again for a while.) Crimson looked at Rosenburg and began to think of what or where Twilight could have gone. " I just dont know why Twilight would just go stop whatever is going to happen and not tell us about it." He waked around, motors circuling around in his head. "I guess there is some musical code that could tell us all about this book. He polietly took the book of Rosenburg and began to study it. He knew that the opposite page was blank on purpose to let the next caretaker of the book study and record it's results. Or maybe..... "The words might have been hidden on purpose so that starswirl can hide the important infomation from any of his enemys. Does anypony here know a spell that could reveal the page?" Crimson said.
