Where You're Needed Most

This little story is just an exercise to keep my mental juices flowing for a different story I am writing elsewhere.

Story updates on Tuesdays and Fridays.

I have not seen a single episode of the show, nor am I interested in watching youtubes of it. That's why it's labeled Alternate Universe... so if I get something terribly wrong... heh. :)

Enjoy the show!

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"You guys! You guys!"

"Oh, hi, Rapid." Sunny Rose looked up from her gardening, the dirt staining her coat from beige to almost solid brown and concealing her cutie mark of a rose growing in sunlight. She pulled a twig out of her black mane as the pegasus sped toward them at high speed.

"Incoming in three, two..." Weighted Words smirked, the dark cyan unicorn being as cynical as ever and twisting a few strands of his long light gray wild mane around his hoof.

Rapid Waters, a light azure pegasus whose cutie mark was a raindrop surrounded by a ring of water, barreled into Sunny Rose in a big hug. "You won't guess what I found! It's amazing! It's unbelievable! It's..."

"Obnoxious?" Weighted Words asked.

Rapid Waters rolled her eyes as Sunny Rose struggled to get her face out of Rapid Waters' lion-esque dark orange mane. Her hair was everywhere and got into everything. "No, it's..."

"Boring?" Weighted Words grinned. His ability was sarcasm, the 'ability to pour a little proverbial salt in the wound' while lighting a fire under those he 'named and shamed' so that they would better themselves. He never meant any real harm though, and most tended to just ignore or write off his childish insults. His cutie mark was a pair of salt licks.

Rapid Waters bounced up and down. "No, silly! It's..."

"Something you shouldn't meddle with." Triple Blaze said, coming up behind her. He was a huge earth pony, coat a deep gold with a curly mane, the color of chocolate. His cutie mark was three flames on top of one another; his talent was getting things done so fast he tended to leave a cartoonish trail of fire in his wake.

"Aw, you already know?" Rapid Waters looked down.

"And you undoubtedly got the translation wrong, too, whatever it was." Triple Blaze had no taste for adventures or "stupid stuff"; he was a simple pony with simple tastes and didn't like to get into deeper mysteries. He had a knack for languages, and had even helped Twilight Sparkle translate several of the books in the library. Having known Rapid Waters couldn't pull herself away from there, he figured that it was likely she'd found a spell she wanted Weighted Words to try to cast. Even more likely, since she often never thought through her actions, whatever spell she had pulled out of the books... she'd probably translated it wrong. She always went for the largest storybooks and "spellbooks", books which Triple Blaze steered clear of. He liked the smaller, simpler things.

"No, I didn't! No, I didn't!" Rapid protested, holding up the book. "It's a fate spell! It binds people together for a great adventure, and I want to go on a great adventure!"

Both Triple Blaze and Weighted Words looked each other and facehoofed at the same time while Sunny Rose looked amused.

"Lemme see that." Weighted Words said, nudging the book open with his horn and looking at the runes inscribed therein. "Rapid, this is... wait a minute." He concentrated, his horn lighting up a little bit. "This is beyond my... no, wait, I think I can..." He concentrated further, his brow furrowing and his horn's glow turning from a clear gold to a darker orange. "Yeah, I can cast this, but... Rapid, where did you get this? Certainly something this potent wouldn't be in Twilight's library..."

"I know! It was in a box marked 'Destination: Canterlot'! I think it was destined for the archives for the library there! Twilight said I could read any book I wanted if I just watched the library while she stepped out on some errands with Spike!" Rapid Waters was getting more excitable by the minute. "And I want to go on an adventure! With you guys! You're my best friends!"

"We're you're only friends." Weighted Words said. Rapid ignored this.

"Now hold on." Sunny Rose said, putting down a gardening tool. "Something this powerful is not meant for us, Rapid, and you know it."

"But... but... please?" Rapid Waters gave Sunny Rose puppy eyes. "There's even a way to break out of the spell! I read it myself, but I can't cast it! I'm only good with the rain."

Triple Blaze looked unappreciative. "If it gets cast and you get hurt you only have yourself to blame."

"But... but..." More puppy eyes.

Weighted Words facehoofed again. "All right, all right, enough with the puppy eyes. Lemme see the book again." He skimmed it for a few minutes while the rest of them waited quietly, then he shut the book with a snap. "All right, there's a way out of it if we don't like the location we end up at. The spell seemingly binds ponies' fates together and teleports them to 'where they need to be the most.' This could be anywhere."

"And since you're my best friends, I want to do this with you!" Rapid Waters smiled.

"This is stupid." Triple Blaze snorted. "What if it drops us on top of an active volcano and we have to save somepony inside it?"

Weighted Words shook his head. "It won't do that. The spell's designed to drop the targets within five miles of a 'target location' which they have to proceed to and accomplish something."

"Five miles isn't that far..." Sunny Rose said. "Okay, I guess I can do this, it's a nice little break from my gardening."

Rapid Waters grinned. "I know! We'll finish it and be done in time for dinner!"

"Or BE dinner for something..." Weighted Words grumbled. It was obvious that the only way to shut up Rapid Waters was to cast the spell, do whatever happened, and then the "return magic" would kick in and send them back to where they started. "All right, if we're going to do this, we're going to do this right. Everypony stay close."

Rapid Waters bounced over next to Weighted Words. "Coming, Triple?"

The huge equine grunted. "Somepony's got to watch over you." He replied as Sunny Rose walked next to Weighted Words.

Ignoring the big guy for the time being, Weighted Words concentrated. "Here we go. And if we're not back in time for dinner, Rapid, you're buying me dinner. I hope you have bits saved up, because I eat a lot."

"Working that big mouth of yours takes an awful lot of energy, yes." Triple Blaze said as Rapid Waters bounced up and down and Weighted Words began to focus on the spell.

"Gentlemen, please." Sunny Rose said, looking back and forth between the two.

"Boys will be boys!" Rapid Waters said cheerfully as sweat began to form around Weighted Words's horn.

"And... pant... away we... go..." Weighted Words finished as the spell took hold, surrounding them all with a yellow-green ribbon of bright light that spun into a twisty spiral, covering them so that only their outlines were seen. When the spiral spun itself out, they were gone, leaving Sunny Rose's gardening tools and the book itself laying on the ground.

-- Later... --

"We found this next to the garden. They've been missing for a while now." Spike handed the book to Twilight, who flipped through it. "What's that do?"

Twilight winced. "It's a... teleport spell. Kind of. It has some... additions."

Spike tilted his head as he accepted the book back and slipped it into the box labeled "Canterlot", then began filling another box with books destined for Cloudsdale. "You make it seem like that's a bad thing, Twilight."

Twilight sighed. "Anypony who recognized the author of the original spell and remembered their history would realize the spell is one-way. The author of the spell, one Silent Eagle, liked to teleport and then WALK back home."

"That kinda defeats the purpose of a teleport spell, doesn't it?" Spike asked.

Twilight shrugged. "He liked to see the world, and liked others to see the world as well, whether they wanted to or not. Those who knew him could activate the spell with its intended distance and duration. Friends of his, such as they were, got special treatment. There's a fail-safe to return them home, but the fail-safe can't be cast by the same one casting the original spell and the material components aren't all in the same location, so it will take time to prepare it to get them back."

"Sounds to me he was a bit of a jerk." Spike turned around, filling the box and closing it up.

"That is an understatement." Twilight nodded. "He was full of himself and liked to impose his rules on everypony, which is why most of his long-distance spells linked those travelling in groups together."

Spike began filling another box by pulling books from the bookcase with his tail. "Linked?"

Twilight nodded. "A psychic link, usually linking emotions. Stronger cases could link people's senses to one another, and for those he truly disliked, he linked their thoughts. Silent Eagle got a kick out of seeing people experience the world 'differently' or at least unusually. On the plus side, such groups never got their members separated from one another. On the minus side, seeing yourself from the point of someone else's eyes is..." She let the statement hang in the air, unfinished.

Spike gave her a "You're crazy." look.

"He got what was coming to him in the end." Twilight finished. "Somepony tricked him with this version of the spell and mislabeled it. Nopony ever heard from him again."

Spike's tail curled. "So what happened to whomever cast this version of it?"

"It's a banishment spell, not a full teleport spell. Anypony under its influence has to accomplish something 'unique and amazing' and word needs to reach the original caster in order for them to return." Twilight replied, using a minor spell to levitate a box of books off the top shelf and set it on the ground in front of Spike for organization. "It looks like this particular spell binds their fates instead of their emotions or senses, but only in the sense that all targets of the spell must be present when the 'unique and amazing' feat is performed."

Spike set the box with the others and labeled it for Cloudsdale. "Rapid Waters isn't exactly the smartest pegasus in Cloudsdale..."

Twilight didn't seem terribly worried as she spotted Applejack through a window, bringing with her a large cart full of supplies. The books they were organizing, along with Applejack's supplies were going to the mail office to be sent out to Canterlot, Cloudsdale, Fillydelphia, and Manehattan. Once they were finished organizing, their next stop was off to meet Zecora in the middle of town to pick up yet some more supplies of an alchemical nature, to be sent along with the books. "She was seen in the company of her friends, a gardener named Sunny Rose, a big guy named Triple Blaze and that rude little brat Weighted Words. They should be fine if they're looking after her, and since Weighted Words is the only pony in their group who is a unicorn and could cast the spell in the first place, if she does and he's with her, the return to their starting point will... or at least should, be nearly instant."

"What could possibly go wrong, right?" Spike asked, then quickly turned his back to her with a grin to avoid Twilight's dirty look. "Don't answer that."