The door to the library slammed open with such force it shook the entire place. Twilight stumbled a bit as books fell around her and glared to the door. She rolled her eyes and started to focus her magic on cleaning up the mess around her. Books slowly floating up into the air and some closing.
"TWILY!" Justin yelled out, breaking her concentration again. "I found something you might want to look at."
"Justin." Twilight inhaled, a bit irritated at him. "You know what today is, correct?"
The human took a moment to look at the mess. "Library RE-organizing Day?"
"Yes." Twilight lit up a bit, then came back down. "Do you know how important today is?"
"Obviously enough for me to interrupt?" Justin beamed at the alicorn with teeth bright.
Twilight shot him a glare, he quickly retracted his smile. "Fine, it can wait."
Justin thought it was best to help Sparkle Butt with her chores and reorganized the books with her. Careful to listen to her so well, that it was almost unnatural to him. Atleast, that's what Twilight thought about it since he's been known for his outbursts at times. She did appreciate the helping hand as it took a bit longer, but it was interesting to look over at the human and see him working with his fingers.
Golden Oaks was split into halves. Twilight took one half while Justin worked on the other. It was almost like clockwork with the quiet humming Justin was doing as he climbed up and down, putting books on the shelves. She'd occasionally look over her shoulder to check on his progress only to see that he was a decent pace ahead of her.
A few hours had passed, and the library was finally done. "So, what is it you wanted to show me?"
Justin stared blankly for a moment, before it came back to him and he pulled a book out of his pants. "This!"
"How did you-"
"Dimensional rift jeans." Justin stated with no indication of obscurity.
Twilight looks a t him confused for a moment before turning her attention to the book.
"It's just a normal book. What about it?" Twilight asked, looking back to the human.
"Look closer, Sparklepants."
Twilight rolled her eyes at his comment and observed the book closer. She noted the material of the book was something leathery, polished to a shine. The cover was decorated with gears, and what looked like a clock face with no hands. Twilight leaned in closer to examine them and noticed that they were moving.
"Justin." She called quietly before taking a few steps back. "Where did you find this?"
"In my attic." He calmly stated. Flipping over the book.
"Why're the gears moving?" Twilight asked.
Justin squinted a bit as he looked at the detail. "Those weren't moving before...."
Justin started to run his fingers over the book's cover, letting them feel the cold metal of the gears. Twilight was quietly objecting the touching, but to no avail. He stopped on the clock face, feeling the numbers as though he were blind. They were branded into the metal, the face clicked from and popped up.
Twilight was soon at Justin's side as he lifted the ornament to reveal a gem in the middle of another gear. Suddenly, the other gears stopped, switching direction and rapidly increasing speed. The gem in the center of it started to glow bright.
"Drop the book..." Twilight said, wanting the pull away.
The gem only got brighter, almost blinding, the gears kept spinning.
"Justin, drop the book!" Twilight exclaimed.
The human finally dropped the book to the floor when the gem was blinding enough. As soon as the book made contact, magic burst froth from the stone and grabbed both of them. They were helpless to escape as the book pulled them into it and disappeared. Leaving the library empty with no trace of where they had gone.
Justin was the first to come to. He sat up groaning and holding his head as his mind reeled from the spell. He gained focus and looked for Twilight first, who thankfully was closer than he thought. Justin reached out and placed his hand on the alicorn and shook her a bit. Twilight groaned a bit and slowly opened her eyes.
"Where..." Twilight took a moment to sit up and look around, "..where are we?"
Justin looked at their surroundings a bit. "Looks like an alleyway."
It was dark out, a dim light shining down what corridor they were in. The walls of the buildings looked dingy and covered in dirt. Justin helped Twilight to her hooves before standing up himself. He just scratched his head a bit, stilling scanning the surrounding area. This time, he was looking for the book.
Twilight had been walking to the end of the alley. "What is this place?"
Twilight was looking at the street, seeing it was cobblestone and the buildings. She couldn't quite put her hoof on it, but the buildings seemed quite familiar to her. Something about this was eerily familiar to her. Twilight was about to take another step forward, but was quickly pulled back by Justin.
"Hold it there, Sparkle Butt.." He cautioned as she looked back to him. "..'bout to step on out ticket out of here."
She cocked her head to the side in confusion. He simply just pointed to where she was about to step and followed his finger. Surely enough, there it was, on the curb. Justin walked up and leaned over to pick it up. His fingers were about to touch the book's cover, then a foal scampered by and snatched the book away.
Justin straightened up his back with hands curled into fists. "Gawd... DAMMIT!" He yelled out in frustration, slamming his fist into the wall.
Twilight got worried that Justin just hurt his hand from the punch. It is a stone wall after all, yet, he pulled his hand away with a sigh. It looked just fine, but did he know? She then looked at the wall carefully and saw the impact and cracks surrounding it. Justin turned to her with some new found determination in his eyes.
"We have a new quest."
"What? Get back our book?" Twilight questioned.
"Precisely." Justin exclaimed with a grin. "And guessing by the surrounding buildings, and the foal, We're definitely in Equestria. Still."
"Still?" Twilight was taken back by the casual tone. "Are you saying we traveled through time?!"
"I can't say for sure..." Justin shrugged as he turned his head back to the edge of the alley. "I know these are Equestrian buildings, same architecture as home."
"How could you possibly know any of that?" Twilight asked, both both dumbfounded and impressed.
"I used to be an architect major." Justin declared with a wide grin.
Twilight just sighed, more inconvenienced at their predicament. Whether it was time travel or something else, she wouldn't know just yet. It seemed like Justin had some sort of idea what may be going on, which gave her hope above all. Justin walked back over to Twilight and knelt down in front of her.
"I'll get us out of this mess. I promise." She saw the sincerity in his eyes. She nodded at him.
Justin smiled back at her and stood up again. The duo soon left the alley to go find an inn somewhere. The human was looking up at the houses, noting the pipes on some of them and gears posted on others. She could see his face, his mind was at work. He was working on piecing together exactly when they are, and where they may be. They had gone a few more steps and reached an in with no problem.
Justin took moment to look at the sign. Reading it aloud to himself, it reads Ponyville Inn. Alteast they were still in town, still at home. Home was different now though, it was the familiar but also foreign.
"We don't have any bits."
Justin snapped out of his daze. "Say again?"
"We don't have any money." Twilight said, looking back at him.
"Don't worry." Justin smiled a bit at her, pointing both of his thrumbs to himself. "This guy's got a hundred sneak and a hundred pickpocket skill."
Twilight didn't know what he was talking about until he crouched. Somehow she lost sight of him, Justin just giggled as he stayed in front of her face. He whispered for her to go inside and distract the innkeeper for him. She nodded and did as she was asked. Twilight found it odd when there was a menu in front of her about the conversation.
Twilight quickly noticed that Justin's hand appear over the counter and reach into the keeper's pocket. And stopped. She tried no to let on, but something about this situation didn't seem right in the first place. A hundred in skills? Dialouge boxes? All of this felt strange. Then she could see him, something seemed off.
Justin closed his menu, thinking nothing of it as he got the key to one of the rooms and stood up again. He signaled for the alicorn to follow him upstairs. She did so and met up with him trying to find the right door the key works on. Twilight approached him as a door open, he smiled at her and ushered her inside.
"Didn't that seem a little off to you?" Twilight asked him.
"No.. Why?" Justin looked at her as the door closed and pocketing his new key.
Twilight shrugged a bit. "I don't know. Something seemed weird."
