Author's Note

I feel unsure about this chapter, but at the same time, I feel like it's at it's best. I just keep changing words from one synonym to the next. So I don't think there's much repetition... I hope.

But hey! A 2k word long chapter!

Chapter 5: The Book Thief

George slowly opened his eyes, the sun shining it’s light on his eyes again, welcoming him to the new day. When he finally was aware of himself again, he noticed he was hugging a pillow. He shrugged it off, not bothering to question this, since it’s happened before. It’s something he’s grown to live with. He slowly crawls out of bed, and walks out of the room, preparing for another day.

Though he wasn’t able to tell Twilight or Spike about the stallion yet, they were too busy sorting books trying to actually find the book they needed.

“Morning, George.” Spike smiled weakly, glad to see his friend awake and well. “Looks like you slept good last night.”

“A little…” George replied groggily, “Though I did find it a bit weird, yet comfortable, that I woke up hugging a pillow…”

“Maybe you had a dream and don’t remember it?” Spike theorized, “Well, anyways...Twilight isn’t here at the moment, that’s why there’s no pancakes.”

“Meh, I was starting to get a little tired of them anyways.” George shrugged, “Where’s the cereal at, again?”

Spike simply pointed to where Twilight kept the cereal at. Resulting in George setting himself up a bowl.

“So…” George began, eating some of his food, “What have you been up to for the past half week?”

“Nothing much, sending letters to Celestia for Twilight, and still trying to find that darn book.” Spike continued, “I’ve been checking everywhere that isn’t the library, because it obviously isn’t here.”

“Now that you mention it, Spike...”

“Hm?”

“I...think I know who stole the book.”

Spike immediately spit the milk that was in his mouth at him in shock.

...

“Heh…” Spike sheepishly smiled, “So...uh…Why didn’t you mention this yesterday?”

“I tried to, but then the both of you yelled at me for interrupting you guys while you were sorting all the books.” George grumbled.

“Oh…” Spike uttered, “Well, uh...We should probably go tell Twilight, huh?”

“Gee, that sounds like a great idea…”

________________________

*Knock Knock Knock!*

“Just a sec, Fluttershy.” Twilight said, walking to the door and opening it.

“Oh, hey, George!” Twilight smiled meekly, quickly stepping out of the house, then closing the door behind her immediately afterwards, “What’s...uh...what’s up?”

“Uh…” George uttered, “Something wrong?”

“No!” Twilight replied unusually loudly, “...I mean…no...nothing’s wrong! Heh heh…”

George narrowed his eyes for a moment, then reverted back to his original state.

“Well, anyways. I think I know where the book you’ve been looking for is.” George explained.

“Really?” Twilight asked curiously, “W-where is it?”

“Somepony stole the book.”

George looked back, seeing Spike right behind him.

“George visited Sugarcube Corner, sat in a nearby bench, and heard the thief talk about the book.” Spike recapped, “The only reason why he didn’t do anything was because he didn’t want to screw up his chances for his memory.”

…

“Well, I’d help get the book back. But I’m gonna have to trust you two on this, I’m kinda busy at the moment helping Fluttershy with a problem…” Twilight foolishly smiled.

“...What kind of problem?” George asked, cocking his head to the side.

“...It’s a small problem, but it can’t wait.”

“Do you need any h—”

“Gottagogoodluckgettingthebookbackbye!”

*SLAM!*

“...Well that was weird.” Spike blinked, receiving a nod of agreement from George. “So, George, what did the thief look like, anyway?”

“Uh, he was a white stallion, his mane and tail was grey, and it was also a little curly” George described.

Spike nodded, and walked off.

“Uh, Spike? I’ll catch up with you, I need to check something.”

Spike nodded again, still walking off.

Meanwhile, George slowly opened the door. Now being able to fully listen to what Twilight’s been trying to hide.

“What are you doing?”

“Going to return Philomena, remember?”

“We can't now!”

“Why not?”

“You have no idea what the Princess is gonna do when she finds out you're the one who took her pet, do you?!”

“Do you?”

“Well... no. But it can't be anything good! She might banish you from Equestria, or throw you in a dungeon. Or banish you and then throw you in a dungeon in the place that she banishes you to!”

“Aha!” George shouted, “I knew there was something going on!”

“Gah!” Twilight yelped in shock, “George! Haven’t you heard of ‘knocking’!?”

“I’ve heard. In fact, I just did, earlier.” George sarcastically replied, “Remember?”

…

“So what’s this I hear about the Princess?” George asked, “What’d I miss while I was asleep?”

“Ugh…” Twilight groaned, “Princess Celestia came by an—”

“Princess Celestia came here? And I wasn’t awake to meet her?”

“...Uh, yeah…” Twilight smiled sheepishly.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“You were sound asleep! I didn’t want to bother you!”

“...So, what was she here for, anyway?” George wondered.

“Well, she came for a special brunch, and Fluttershy decided to kidnap her pet bird and nurse it back to health.” Twilight explained.

...

“Oh.” George uttered, “That actually makes sense! ...Kinda.”

“See?” Fluttershy blurted, “Even George understands the situation!”

“Well, yeah. Nursing someone’s pet bird back to health would be the right thing to do.” George began, “But I didn’t expect the birdnapping part.”

“Well, it’s not really ‘birdnapping’...” Fluttershy corrected, “More like...um...’borrowing’ the bird until she’s fully healed.”

…

“Well...Good luck!”

*Click*

“Well that was...something.” Fluttershy commented.

“I just hope he doesn’t tell anypony…” Twilight added.

“I don’t think George would be capable of such a thing, Twilight.” Fluttershy replied, “Why would he, anyways? You’re doing everything you can as a friend to help him get his memory back, why would he turn against you now?”

“...You’re right.” Twilight smiled warmly at the thought, “Now, about the bird…”

________________________

“Took you long enough.” Spike grumbled, “What were you doing back there?”

“Nothing, I was just asking a few questions, that’s all.” George smirked, “So, anything yet?”

“Nope.” Spike replied bluntly, “I haven’t seen any stallions by the description you gave.”

“Darn.” George groaned, “If I knew how to fly, I could get a birds-eye-view of the town.”

“Haven’t those lessons helped you in any way?” Spike thought aloud.

“It’s only been about four lessons. Half of the time I either almost drowned or fell on my face. I don’t think that would be enough to fully learn to fly.”

“Right...”

“Look!” George said, pointing to something in the distance, “There he is!”

Off in the distance, was the same stallion George had met yesterday, carrying a saddlebag, as well as whatever the bag contains.

“That was a lot easier than I thought.” He thought aloud, turning his head to where Spike was standing. “What now, Spi—”

Spike was already running off to the white stallion. George simply sighed, and slowly followed.

“I told you already, I don’t have your freakin book!” The stallion shouted.

“Really?” Spike asked sarcastically, “Then why did my friend say you had a book just like one we were looking for!?”

“It’s just a coincidence!”

“Then what was that about your ‘master’ wanting you to run around with ‘this stupid book’?” George asked, “You even complained that ‘it’s like the master wanted you to get caught’.”

“You heard that!?” The stallion exclaimed in shock, “I didn’t see anypony sitting next to me!”

“I sat down just before you started talking.”

“...Oh.”

“Listen, we just want the book back.” Spike clarified, “It’s really important to us, it contains some stuff we’ve been needing to research for a while…”

“What’s so special about it?”

“Well, uh...There’s some spells my friend needs to research.”

“And I should care...why?”

“Dude, just listen, I’ve been having a rough week and a half. I have no memory of who I am, where I live, who my family is. I’m a total blank.” George explained, “And that book is the only thing that might be able to help me.”

“Ohhhh.” The stallion sarcastically uttered, “Well, why didn’t you just say so? Sure, I’ll give you the book!”

“Really?”

“No.”

And with that, the stallion turned to run off, but then bumped into somepony, causing both of them to fall down.

“Quick! Get the book!” George yelled, Spike immediately reacted by looking in the saddlebag, shouting “Found it!”, and tossing the book back to him.

“Geez.” A familiar voice said, getting back up from the floor, “Watch where you’re going, bub.” finally standing up, the voice in question turned out to be from Rainbow Dash.

“Oh. Hey Dash.” George smiled warmly, “Glad you showed up.”

“Hey, George.” Dash returned the smile, “I was looking for you… How come you didn’t show up for flying lessons?”

George pointed down to the stallion, who was still lying on the floor for some reason.

“What’s he gotta do with you not showing up?”

George pointed to the book Spike was now carrying.

“Oh! Hey, you finally found the book.”

The two of them simply stared at Dash, who was still oblivious to the obvious.

“...Oh wait, you mean…? Ohhhhh!” Dash came to realization, “He had the book all this time?”

George sighed. “Yes…”

“Well, why did he have th...He stole it?” Dash asked, receiving a nod from both Spike and George in response.

“Well, how in the hay was he able to do that without getting caught?”

They shrugged.

“Well, what do we do with him?”

Everyone looked back down at the stallion. However, at the exact time they looked, the stallion was slowly turning black, almost like a shadow. They tried to grab him, but it’s like he wasn’t even there. Now, the stallion was completely black, his mane, tail, his entire figure. Just a complete shadow.

Then, it faded away.

“Well, uh. That was weird.” George commented.

“Yeah…” Dash nodded, “...So, uh, now that we got the book back, should we tell Twilight?”

“Speaking of Twilight…” Spike pointed off in the distance, Fluttershy, Twilight, and more importantly, Celestia; who was holding a red and orange, fiery-type bird.

“Woah.” George slowly spoke, his eyes fixated towards the bird, “What is that?”

“Dunno, let’s go find out!” Spike suggested, running off in the distance, with Dash quickly following him.

“Right…” George mumbled softly, looking behind him where the white stallion previously laid.

“Why did he really want the book? And...how did he do that?”

________________________

“All you had to do was hold on to the book until it was time, and you couldn’t even get that right!”

“I-I’m sorry, master. I..I tried…”

“You obviously didn’t try hard enough!”

“If it weren’t for that mare behind me, I would’ve gotten away.”

“But they would’ve caught up to you, eventually.”

“I’m...truly sorry.”

He let out a sigh. “It’s quite alright. Let’s just hope Twilight isn’t able to recover George’s memory yet. Otherwise our whole plan is in jeopardy.”

“What’s so special about this ‘George’, anyways? He looks like an ordinary pegasus.”

“Looks can be deceiving. Soon, you’ll understand.”

“Right, master. I shall await for your next command.”

“Good. Run along, now.”

…

“You’re in for a real show, George. Just you wait…Everything is going according to plan...Not even the Chaos Five realize what I’m doing yet. But soon, it’ll all be clear.”

“While you may have that book sooner than I hoped, we can still finally get this party started.”

“All we need is to find our fifth member to help end the party once we're all done...”

________________________

“Should I write you a letter about that lesson, Princess?”

“No, that's quite all right. I think I can remember.”

“Remember what?” George appeared out of nowhere, causing Twilight to jump quickly in surprise.

“Stop doing that!” Twilight softly punched him in the chest.

“Why? Pinkie does it all the time?” George joked.

Twilight sighed in defeat, and turned back to Celestia, who already had a curious look on her face.

…

“Oh! Right!” Twilight suddenly remembered, “Princess Celestia, I’d like you to meet my new friend, George.” She pointed to the stallion, who was standing next to her.

“So you’re the new friend Twilight told me about in her letters.” Celestia thought aloud, “So, has she helped you recover your memory yet?”

“Uh...Not yet.” George responded bluntly, “We’ve been looking all over town for the book on memory loss, and I just recovered it from somepony.”

“Somepony else had the book?” Celestia cocked her head, “That seems peculiar. Twilight told me her library was the only place that had that book.”

George sighed, “Yeah...Turns out the book was...stolen.”

“Hm. I see.” Celestia nodded, “And where is the pony in question?”

“He vanished!” Spike cut in, “It was so weird! He turned into a black shadow and vanished!”

When Celestia heard Spike’s description, her face flipped from being normal to being extremely curious, her head cocked to the side more than what it was, before. Then, her expression did a 360, switching right back being normal...ish.

“That is weird.” Celestia said without emotion, trying not to attract attention.

“Something wrong, Princess?” Twilight asked curiously.

“No, everything’s fine.” Celestia replied, “But I think it’s time for me to return to Canterlot.” She added, turning away to fly back home.

“Oh, um. Alright.” Twilight mumbled awkwardly.

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Celestia remembered, turning around, carrying what seems to be a golden ticket in her magic aurora. and giving it to George. “It’s only fair that you have this, George.”

“Uh...Thanks?” George awkwardly replied. “...What is it?” He whispered into Twilight’s ear.

"I'll explain later" Twilight whispered back.

Celestia smiled, and flied back to Canterlot.

“...Well. I finally got to meet the Princess.” George thought aloud, “She’s a lot taller than I thou—”

“So what’s this I hear about somepony stealing my book?”