A Wacky Read

The library was quiet. The few holding the fort here weren't much of a talker, except for the pink one, who was bored to death.
Starswirl arrived a few minutes ago and he brought the timespell the Humans needed for their journey back.

Rex listened carefully to the grey Unicorn's explanations about how the spell worked. Sam on the other hand didn't believe one bit of it. She tried to come up with a scientific explanation of her own.

"It's not your fault, you don't understand it", Starswirl comforted her. "It takes many years of studying magic to get even the slightest grasp of its nature."

Sam didn't try to get into an argument. She nodded and smiled, looked away and let them do what they had to do. She would just watch. "Be my guest."

"Well, technically, you're the guest. But, anyway. Let me fix that Mirror for you."

Starswirl took a stand in front of the Mirror and everyone and -pony were watching him casting the spell. A cyclon of wind formed around him when his great horn started to glow. But once the beam of light emerged from it and hit the Mirror, the wind vanished.

Immediately the nature of the spell revealed itself to Rex and his magical gaze. Learning from other people's spells by watching, was what he enchanted his eyes for in the first place. That, and discovering traps.

The beam stopped and Starswirl went to the Mirror. It was shining and alive. The glass was replaced by a moving, swirling light, and the crystals in the frame were glowing all together.

"What time were you from again?", he addressed Carter.

She thought about it, "To us the Universe was thirteen point four billion years old. But then again, what is one of our years to you?"

"The Universe, somewhat billions of years old?" He started to laugh because he sincerely thought, she was making a joke. "That one was well thought of. I have to remember that one."

"Just go back in time, okay? I'll tell you when to stop."

"Yes, of course." Spell after spell ran through the Mirror, setting the picture within back in time, a period at a time.

Everyone was distracted. Even Krator was looking at the Mirror in the hope to find his own timeline. The opportunity for Rex, that he was looking out for.

Nobody noticed him vanishing in the back of the library. Nobody saw his smile.

There were a few books that caught his attention before. One of them spoke of a Book of Creation, the Inspiration Manifestation. A magical artefact of such power was surely what Rex needed to add to his arsenal.

He held the book that told of it in his hand, and his blue spellbook in the other. The page of his book showed a ring of runes with adornment all around but nothing in its midst.
Rex pressed the page onto the one with the picture of the Manifestation-Book. And when he separated them again, the runes were burned into the paper of the history book.

It was a spell, runes ready to cast a conjuring ritual. Whatever was displayed in their midst, was called upon and summoned through spacetime.

Once he put his spellbook away, he started to summon the book he wanted. The runes started to glow and soon, a white portal appeared in their stead. Rex reached into it and from it, he pulled the Book of Creation he desired. It remained stolen from the place of its holding.

Another chip of Inaji lost its glow. The powerful portal drained it and left it dark.

"That's fine, really", Rex said to himself. "We have another way to cast our magic now."

The book he summoned was fancy, with a pinkish cover and golden trimming, adorned with plant-like designs. It smelled good too, almost like,

"Rarity. You're an Unicorn of many secrets, darling."

Another book Rex showed interest in, told him about a place called Tartarus, which held the prisoner Tirek. Tirek was boring all together, seeking power for wealth and to comfort his ego, like some poor, beaten soul. But regardless of Rex's disgust for him, he had an interesting ability.

Rex reached out the Book of Creation and Manifestation and in front of him the shelves moved aside. Like doors they opened to the Tartarus, with the gates of the prison appearing on their hind sides.

Once the mage stepped in, he was charged by a great, black beast with three heads. But the sneaky Lizard didn't flinch. No, he smiled instead.
The green glow of the book framed the beast and it started to shrink down, further and further. By the time it reached him, it was as big as a ladybug and squashed with similar ease.

Up the stone stairs, that rose upon a glowing cliff, stood the cage of the Tirek he seeked.

"That's an interesting cage you have there", Rex told the prisoner while he was looking at the magic within the metal bars.

They annihilated the usage of magic, may it be from the inside out, or the outside in.

Tirek turned to the visitor, "Well, yes. Thank you, but it's not exactly my cage, you know?"

He looked down at the black coated Lizard, "Who are you? What earns me the pleasure of a visitor so rich on", and licked his tongue, "Magic."

"My name is Rex." Rex curtseyed. "The pleasure is mine. You are Tirek, are you not?"

"Yes, yes, I'm Tirek. Why?"

"You have something I want."

"That makes two of us."

"I'm sure of that."

"What do I have, that you could want?"

"I will open this cage, then I'll open your skin, your bones and your heart and then you will die."

"What? You can't be serious."

When Rex showed him the Book of Creation, the look on Tirek’s face turned to panic. He cowered in the back of his cage and asked him of mercy.

But there was no room for mercy in Rex's plan.

The platform they stood upon was framed by the green light of the runes, burned into the stone. The corners of the cage opened and the bars fell apart and to the ground. The magic of the metal was gone and Tirek froze in time immediately.

Framed by the green glow of the treacherous book, his body floated back into the center and up a few steps into the air. His skin opened like a coat, leaving the body behind.
The muscles spread out like a flower in bloom, before they fell off and scattered into the four winds.
The bones however were infested with the blue shine of the Inaji. "Wonderful."

Chip by chip they broke apart and floated over to the mage's book, until the bones were depleted and wrecked.
This Inaji was special, it had the curious ability to store the immaterial magic of the Unicorns, rather than to grow from it. And just like Tirek, Rex could steal the power directly and grow new Inaji himself, without stealing it from more bodies.

The blue Inaji however was placed upon the cover of the Book of Creation. The shards covered the face of it and laid themselves all around it, until it was emerged in the crystal and shine. It was no longer a fancy Book of Creation, framed and adorned, but a Crystal Book, the Book of Inaji.

"Now", Rex held the Inaji-Book in his hands and smiled, "We'll end this misery."

"Halt!", Krator yelled at the Unicorn, "This one maybe?"

"Oh, I think it looks nice", Fluttershy liked what she saw. No wonder, it was a sunny field crowded with bunnies and other wildlife.

"The bunny-fields of Medfosst?", Elisa asked half joking.

Krator looked puzzled, "I've never heard of such a place."

"We'll move on then." Starswirl zapped further through the times and they had surely a few hundred thousand years more to go through.

When Rex joined them from the shadows, everyone was looking at him and listening to what he had to say. "Where does this spell lead to?"

Starswirl shortly looked at him, "Through time", before he returned to the Mirror.

"Why, I understand that part. But time never comes by itself, does it? How do we know, the other time on the other side of this Mirror isn't simply on this planet? How can we tell, where it leads to?"

Sam nodded, "You know, that is actually a good question."

"Why, of course it is."

"Well", Starswirl mumbled, "To be frank, we don't. I don't know where you come from or what time that was, so we have to check them all."

The look on Rex's face turned into silent rage. Krator knew that look and it usually was followed by a massacre. "Are you trying to tell me", Rex calmly said with a voice like the fresh ice of the first winter’s day, "You want to check every possible planet in every possible time of every possible reality?"

"Uhm, yes. Why, yes. That was the plan. There's really nothing else we can do."

Rex slowly laid his hand on the Mirror's frame and at once, the magic started to fade from it. He shut down the fool's spell and caught his attention.

"Hey, what are you doing? That spell was hard to cast!"

"Excuse me for a moment, will you? Please, I want to show you some ... alternative."

"Oh, alright", the grumpy Unicorn grunted. And together they walked down the long library hall.

"Wait here, it won't take long", Rex ordered his servants. And while they were vanishing in the dim lights of the distance, Krator had a really bad feeling about this.

"I have a really bad feeling about this."

"Yeah", Elisa nodded, "So I've heard."

"Don't you think Rex acts ..."

"Cold, distanced, mad?"

"Stranger than usual?"

"More suspicious than usual?"

"Yeah, that."

"Yeah. I noticed. But isn't that kinda his thing?"

"Wait here."

"Oh, no, you don't leave me behind like that."

Krator looked at Jack, "Take care of her, General."

He nodded, "You got it. Come, no need to be stupid now."

Elisa remained with Jack, but she was close to tears. Whenever Rex and Krator clash, nothing good is gonna happen. "Don't fight him, Okay, big guy?"

"I'll try." And so Krator went down the dim light alley, to have a serious talk with the mage.

"What is here? Here is nothing. You have nothing to show me."

"Patience, grey one." Rex brought the Unicorn Wizard into the darkest corner of the hall, behind shelves and books no one ever read but the Princess herself.

He took out the Inaji-Book for the Bearded to lay his eyes upon it. "Here, have a look at this."

"What? What is this?"

"This", Rex was petting the book, "Is the infamous Book of Creation, the Inspiration Manifestation."

"No, you're not allowed to ... hand it over so that I can put it where it belongs."

"You know what this is, old one? This crystal?"

"What about it?"

"You never seen it before? Have you no anatomical studies?"

"Anatomical? You're insane! The body is sacred. Studies on Pony anatomy are outlawed for centuries."

"Why, that's what I thought. It's a shame really. This crystal, I call it Ih'Na'Ji'Sh Haff'Fa'Sha'Mr'Ah Zuh'Vin."

"Inajish-what?"

"It's a name from my people's tongue. The Inaji however comes from your people."

"What are you saying?"

"What I'm saying is, that this is the answer, the solution, the salvation. You Unicorns have this crystal imbedded into your bones. What did you think
makes your horns grow?"

"Wait", he shorty looked away, "When it is in the bones, where did you get it from?"

Rex opened the book and immediately the magic of the Bearded started to fly into it, sucked from his body and mind.

Powerless and exhausted the Unicorn fell onto its knees once the process had ended. "You monster."

"A monster? It wasn't me ripping the ether apart. Don't you see that I'm the one who will save everyone and everything of existence? How self centered can a Pony be?"

"You'll never get away with this."

"Oh, but I already have."

The Inaji-Book was steaming from a magic overload. The blue ether contained in it was leaking, the Inaji saturated. "Now, look at that", Rex smiled.

"Tirek had his use, but it looks like, without his body, there's no more growth."

"Without his body?" Starswirl coughed, "What did you do?"

"Oh, please, not like you needed him." The Lizard stepped away for a moment to think. The Inaji of Tirek was absorbent, but it didn't grow with the magic contained, like it would or should have, when he used it.

"Because it is dead now. Not alive."

"You are insane."

"Don't you get it? It's a corpse. Which means, that, with the amount of magic I gain, I need to stock up more Inaji as well."

"Why are you telling me all of this?"

"Because I know, you won't tell anyone." With a swing of his book, the runes appeared around Starswirl and he started to float above ground.

"Let me give you a lesson in anatomy, dear."

"Are you back here? Hey, Rex!" Krator was walking through the dim lights of the library's backend. "Ey! Princess! I'm talkin' to you, ey!"

Suddenly his dark, deep voice startled the Templar and he turned around only to see his smug smile. The blue Lizard was leaning onto some shelves, like he wasn't doing anything suspicious. "Your Grace got lost in the shelves?"

"No! I'm having an eye on you!"

"Why, isn't that nice of you. Caring so much for me, don't you?"

"For everyone around you, yeah! Where is the Unicorn, Princess?"

"The Unicorn Princess? Why, I believe she's still outside."

"Don't play games with me, thief! I'm on to you. What are you planning? Are you raging havoc on these sweet little horses? How dare you, when they are trying to help us?"

"HELP US?!", Rex yelled with his eyes opened wide.

Krator never heard Rex yell before and even for the brave Highpriest, that was always the first into battle, it was a frightening thought to behold.

"You don't know anything, do you?" Rex stood up and walked to the almost naked, yellow skin Bat-Lizard. "They! Were the ones who made this mess. Their Mirror, their magic brought us here. You think they are helping us? They can't even fix their own, rotten Mirror."

"Well", Krator turned to a more silent tone of voice, "Not like you could fix it."

"Oh, but I will. You ask me what I'm planning? I'm planning to fix everything and save the cosmos."

"Come on, mate, no one has to get hurt. We can do this together and we can do this right."

Rex turned from him, "Too late. It has already begun."

Krator took a step and clenched his armored fists, "You can't just-"

"What?!", Rex faced him with the Inaji-Book in his hands.

"What is that?", Krator pointed at the book.

"This? This is the answer, our way home."

"Hey, where did you get that from?"

"I made it from spare parts. It is mine. Do you want to claim it?"

"No, I just thought-"

"Do you wish to fight me?"

Silence raged between them. Krator knew that Rex's methods were brutal at times and he feared that he might bring annihilation to Ponyland. But he also knew, that fighting him would lead to just this annihilation.

"No!", he strongly responded. "But I wish to ask you of mercy. Show compassion for a change, will'ya?"

Rex smiled and shook his head, almost chuckling. "I'll consider it." And then went back to the Mirror.

Krator lingered a moment longer. He had to at least warn the others about Rex's schemes before it was too late or someone did something utterly stupid.