On a Whim

Chapter I

Quick Decisions

“Who the buck are you?”

With a contented sigh, Twilight plopped down in her seat. This was an unusual event, to say at the least. Weeks of planning, late nights studying to work ahead, and asking friends to help around the library to get cleaning done faster had cleared just over three hours in the unicorn’s schedule. That meant that she had free time, and she never had free time. After all was said and done, it was up to the ecstatic mare to decide what to do with this treasured down time. Unsurprisingly, she had chosen to spend it reading.

With a brief burst of magic, Twilight flipped the library’s ‘open’ sign to ‘closed’ from across the room. Turning to the small stack before her, she scrutinized the book titles her friends had recommended. Unsure of what to start with, Twilight lifted the small paperback off of the top of the pile.

It was a fantasy novel by Fluttershy’s recommendation, Pony Potter. After chuckling at the strange name, Twilight began to read. A mere hour later, the book was slapped shut with a satisfying wop, and set back on the desk under the small ‘out’ sign. That was an easy read, not bad, either, she thought to herself.

Picking up the next book, Twilight furrowed her brow as she realized it was Pinkie Pie’s pick, Where’s Waldo. Opening it to the first page, she found a massive red circle had been drawn around the small character, making him stand out quite badly. Flipping through the various puzzles, Twlight found almost every puzzle had been defaced with the same obnoxious circles, and the one that hadn’t was adorned with arrows pointing towards the red stallion. The filly’s book was tossed into the stack ‘out’ alongside Pony Potter.

Flipping the next on the list over, she rolled her eyes. Smiling to herself, Twilight stood up and replaced Daring Do and the Sapphire Stone back on her shelf where a certain pegasus had taken it early in the day, presumably having no other recommendations. Sitting back down, Twilight moved on to the next story. She was enjoying this immensely, for reading for pleasure was something she didn’t get to do very often.

By Rarity’s recommendation, the next on the list was Fifty Shades of Dapple Grey. The fashionista had been insistent that she read the novel in the past, but this was the first chance Twilight actually had to look into it. Lifting it with interest, the purple mare brought it under the candlelight and began to read. Only eight pages in, however, and it was sent sliding across the reading desk in distaste. “Rarity reads this stuff?” Twilight asked nopony in particular. “And to think up until today, I didn’t understand why libraries have banned book lists… This explains a lot, actually.” After glaring at the black covered heap of paper for another moment, the purple mare sighed and made her way back to the stack of books.

The next on the list was one of her own picks, more specifically, an absurdly large hardcover book titled Thermonuclear Dynamics and You. Unable to suppress a grin, Twilight sat back and flipped to a bookmark near the end of the book. This had been a favorite read of hers for some time, for her personal reactor was still in the planning stages, and knowledge (especially on any subject that threatens to destroy a small town if maintained poorly), was power after all.

…The fuel is considered a miracle material to many, but is almost impossible to condense. One force capable of confining the fuel well enough to satisfy the Lawson criterion is gravity. The mass needed, however, is so great that gravitational confinement is only found in stars. The least massive stars capable of sustained fusion are red dwarfs, while brown dwarfs are able to fuse deuterium and lithium if they are of sufficie-

“I’m confused, is this book about dwarves, or stars?”

Twilight leapt up in shock at the sudden voice. Twisting around midair, she landed face to face with a sky blue pegasus, who promptly fell over laughing hysterically at her friends’ reaction.

“RAINBOW! Don’t sneak up on me like that!” Twilight said, sinking back into her chair slowly, heart racing. Making no effort to hide her laughter, Rainbow Dash continued to snicker as she wiped a tear away.

“Sorry Twilight, I couldn’t resist. I just came to get the next Daring Do book. Finished the last one you gave me.”

The shocked unicorn continued to pant, chest heaving with every breath. “How did you even get in? I didn't hear the door open.” With a proud smile, Rainbow Dash pointed a hoof towards the open window on the upper floor of the library, it’s lock hanging limply from uprooted screws in the frame. Twilight looked back at her with confusion. “You know the front door is another viable option, right?” Rainbow simply shrugged and began to examine the books on the desk.

“Yeah, but not nearly as fun. You read mine yet?” she asked, motioning towards the cluttered desk.

Twilight laughed and retrieved her own book from where it fell on the floor. “I read that years ago, Rainbow, remember? I was the one who told you about it.”

Rainbow Dash turned around and struck an aggressive pose on the table, akin to the protagonist on the cover of her book. “Yeah, but they’re just so awesome! You should read them again.”

The unicorn subtly pulled the books on the desk away from Dash’s hooves as she continued to tromp around the table top, occasionally jumping into the air and landing back on the table heavily, scattering papers. “Maybe another time, Dash. Right now I just want to read this text. I only have an hour and…” Twilight closed her eyes, mentally number crunching. “Twenty three minutes left,” she finished, looking somewhat worried. “That’s enough time to finish these if I hurry.”

The cyan pegasus stopped her mental adventure and landed lightly next to her friend on the floor. “Alright, fine. Where’s the next Daring Do book? I want to grab that before I go.”

Twilight’s face was already buried back in her reading as she gestured up the library steps. “They should be under ‘D’, look upstairs."

Rainbow simply nodded, still snickering slightly. With that, she hurried up the indicated stairs. She wouldn't want anypony else seeing her in a library and getting the wrong idea, or worse, the right one.

Shaking her head, Twilight returned to her reading:

Research into controlled fusion, with the aim of producing fusion power for the production of electricity, has been conducted for over 60 years. It has been accompanied by extreme scientific and technological difficulties, but has resulted in progress. At present, n- knock knock knock

There was a soft knocking on the door, ripping Twilight from her reading once more. Glaring daggers at the door, Twilight mentally dared it to make another noise. With so little time left, she didn’t have time for distractions. When no further sound was made, she continued:

controlled fusion reactions have been unable to produce break-even (self-sustaining) controlled fusion reactions.Workable designs for a reactor that theoretically will deliver ten times more fusion energy than the amount needed to heat up plasma to requ- knock knock knock

With a  groan, Twilight gently laid the book back on the counter. Walking swiftly to the entrance, the irritated unicorn swung the door open in a lavender halo of magic. A tall stallion stood in the shadows of the doorway, looking down at her casually.

“Twilight? Twilight Sparkle?” The stallion asked.

“What?” Twilight replied in a flat tone. One hour, twenty two minutes, eleven seconds and counting.

“May I come in and have a word with you? I have a Tome I’m told might interest you.” He maintained a stoic expression as he spoke.

“I’m sorry, the library’s closed and we don’t take book donations,” Twilight began to turn away to return inside.

“All the better, to be frank.” The stallion told the retreating unicorn.

This stopped Twilight, and her ears perked in interest. “Why’s that?” She asked curiously.

“If you’ll allow me in, I can explain.” The stallion was leaning forward slightly, trying to get a better look at the interior of the building.

Twilight glanced over her shoulder into the common room. Rainbow Dash was upstairs, out of sight. She tentatively stepped out of the way, allowing the stallion in. “Sure.” There goes my break

Nodding his thanks, the stallion entered the library. Once inside, Twilight got her first good look at the pony as he took in the room around him. The mysterious stallion was well built, muscles visibly flexing under an orange coat as he walked. His short mane was a dusty brown, and an offset part being its only discernible feature. Strangely, he wore a dirty white button up shirt and an aging leather jacket, scratches and ancient stains littering it as a testament to it's long years of service. Across his back were a single saddle bag and a long, slender sheath of some kind. Inside the sheath, a wad of cloth caked in dirt and dust obscured it's contents from view. Barely visible behind his saddlebag, Twilight could see a shield and compass made up his cutie mark. He wore a poker face and held his chin high as he moved, his demeanor similar to that of a Royal Guard. Spying the table Twilight had been sitting at, he swiftly removed a large leather bound book from his bag and set it down. As he began to flip though dusty pages, he addressed her. “I’m told you’re gifted in the field of magic. Is this correct?”

“Who told you that?” Twilight inquired, ignoring the question.

The stallion didn’t respond. Twilight looked on awkwardly while the stallion flipped intently through the book. After a moment, he raised his head and motioned her over indicating that he had found the desired page. Leaning forward, Twilight could see it was crowded with rough sketches of various shapes and sizes, all drawn in faded pencil. The stallion looked at the young unicorn curiously. “Do you know what these are?”

Twilight glanced up at him for a moment before looking back at the book. “Let’s see…they are all runes of some sort, most are related to energy transfer…” She was addressing herself more than the pony standing by her side as she examined the drawings. “This one is related to teleportation, but is partial; those two are bases, not actual runes… why are you showing me these?” She looked up to see him staring at her with one eyebrow risen slightly. For a fraction of a second, she could have sworn he was smirking before his lips snapped down into his frown once again.

“So I know that you know what you are doing” He said this bluntly, sounding slightly proud of his simple ruse. “I’m relieved to see you are proficient in physical manifestations of magic as well as being able to use it yourself.” Lifting the book off the table, he exchanged it for another from his saddle bag. “Now on to business. Can you tell me what this is?” He set an extremely old tome in front of her, its fading leather cover depicting eight spear heads forming a star. The stallion opened to a page cluttered with semi-circles inscribed with various finely drawn tribal swirls and other geometric designs.

Twilight looked at the book with confusion. “I don’t recognize this, no.”

“Look closer, and ignore the inscriptions, note the general shape,” the stallion pressed. He stood close by, looking at Twilight expectantly.

Twilight continued to examine the picture for a few minutes. “I’m sorry sir, but I don’t…” She trailed off as her eyes widened. The stallions grin returned, this time much wider. “Where did you get this?” the unicorn breathed.

“Can’t say,” the stallion replied, shaking his head slightly.

Upstairs, Rainbow dash tossed another book haphazardly over her shoulder, still trying to find the desired Daring Do novel. Why are there so many books in here? She thought in agitation. After reducing a few more dictionaries into crumpled heaps on the floor, Rainbow heard excited voices downstairs. What gives? I thought Twilight was the only one down there. Hovering slowly towards the staircase, Rainbow began to listen in on the conversation.

“-have to tell me where you got this! This is a record of Starswirl the Bearded’s only incomplete study! This belongs in a museum, not someponies backpack!”

It sounded like Twilight was chewing someone out, but Dash couldn’t see who. Hovering closer to the edge, she peeked down into the common room.

Twilight continued her rant against the still-silent stallion. “Starswirl claimed that a proper combination of runes and channels could activate multiple spells by one user by connecting their shapes, and therefore their power. After he proved it, he began research on more powerful and complex combinations, such as weather control and prospecting spells.” Twilight was rapidly and uncontrollably slipping into lecture mode, nearly tutoring the visitor instead of arguing with him. “Ponies he worked with in his later years claimed he had designed a combination of eight complex runes for an unparalleled effect. This was said to be the most promising and powerful spell ever created using this method. Unfortunately, the purpose and design was kept a secret from everypony some reason.” Now completely forgetting her anger, Twilight telekinetically retrieved a book from a shelf across the room. After opening it to a crudely drawn graphic of the same shape as the one in the stallions tome, she continued. “The spell’s purpose was never discovered, because Starswirl…well, died. Drawings from his offices and classrooms depict images and parts of runic circles like this, but never a complete diagram. This… this looks like it, in perfect clarity.” After looking at it for another moment, she rose and glared at the stallion again. “Where in Equestria did you find this?”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. Should have known it would be egghead stuff. Who’s the colt, though? Never seen him around here before.

Slowly shaking his head, the stallion silently answered her question. With a disgruntled groan, Twilight let her head hit the table. The stallion turned to the bookshelf behind him, examining its contents. “I take it you’re interested in the studies of Starswirl, judging by your collection here."

Twilight laughed at this, her seldom seen cocky nature presenting itself. “I know nearly everything there is to know about him.” Realizing how vain she had sounded, the mare quickly lowered her head and rubbed a hoof awkwardly. “Well, that’s not true. I mean, I’ve studied him extensively, but… you know... I just-“ Her mumbles were cut short by the stallion’s amused chuckle. Twilight began to blush and lowered her head further.

Deciding she simply didn’t care, Rainbow went back to ransacking the book shelves above Twilight’s bed.

Slowly, almost thoughtfully, the stallion spoke. “These compound runes, how would one activate them should he or she… come across one?”

Grateful for the change of subject, Twilight looked up at him “The runes are designed so that you’d only have to charge them, that’s the beauty of it all. If drawn correctly, the runes do the work for you. Casting a single spell activates them all.” Suddenly suspicious, Twilight gave the stallion a quizzical look. “Why?”

The stallion nodded at the book he had brought in, still lying open on the table. Twilight, taking the hint, laughed and shook her head. “It’s not that simple in this case. Even with these designs you brought, the spell can’t be done." Walking up to the book once again, she motioned towards a grouping of overlapping hexagons scrawled in one corner of the drawing. “Take this as an example. This complex rune looks like a teleportation spell, but not one that I’ve ever seen. It looks as if it’s been simplified, and could be any number of designs.” Twilight motioned to another part of the drawing, a scowl spreading across her face as she spoke. “That long spiral is another type of teleportation rune, a portal, really. These require two surfaces to be marked, one receiving and one sending. This drawing doesn't show where the other is, or what it should look like. Even this one has conditions that need to be met. And this one? The one that looks like a lightning bolt? That's a weather spell. weather spells need very specific conditions to be met when they are being used, in most cases altitude." Twilight flipped through a few other pages, quickly scanning them as they passed. "There are no notes as to any such conditions in this book though, so you'd have to guess repeatedly when drawing it. If you guessed wrong, it could be catastrophically dangerous to cast. No, this drawing is not so much a blueprint as it is a notes page, and we don’t have the necessary information to draw it ourselves. As I said, nopony does. It’s valuable information, granted, but it can’t be used to recreate it.” Twilight seemed genuinely depressed as she explained this. The stallion, however, seemed unfazed by the unicorn's ramblings.

"Who said I was going to try and draw it myself?"

Twilight laughed sarcastically without looking away from the tome. "Lucky guess."

“I don't have to.” She looked up at him, regarding him first with amusement, then with bewilderment as she realized he was serious. The stallion motioned towards the tome. “Look along the bottom edge of the crescent. See the small swirls? What do they look like to you?”

Still baffled at his implication, Twilight looked back at the sketch, this time being careful to inspect the lower edge. After a moment, she looked back up with her conclusion. “They appear to be small swirls,” she deadpanned.

Suppressing a chuckle, the stallion made a circular motion with his hoof. “What if each ended in a square?”

Glancing back to the diagram, Twilight realized what he meant. “It’s… a tracking rune?”

The stallion smiled knowingly. “A homing rune.”

Twilight looked at the floor, trying to make sense of this development. “That would mean… this isn’t a blueprint, but a drawing of a place?”

“The place. The place where this sequence is not only drawn out in its entirety, but the only place in Equestria it will work.”

The final piece of the puzzle was on the board in the stallion’s mind, but the librarian still looked bemused. “Why would it only work in one specific location? And why tell me? You seem to have this all figured out, anyways.”

With a shrug, the stallion turned away, looking casually out the window. “As you said, the runes require certain circumstances to be met in order to work. You’re the magic expert, I’d expect you to know where it is and isn’t possible. As for why we came here, you came highly recommended. My team would like you to come with us to find it.” He said this simply, Twilight noted, as if he was asking somepony to take a walk with him. “And no, I can’t say who recommended you.”

Twilight rubbed her snout in agitation. “So let me get this straight. Somepony thinks that he or she has discovered the key to Starswirl the Bearded’s greatest secret, so he or she dispatched a crack team to go… somewhere, to do something with an ancient something, and they need a small town’s librarian to do it.”

The stallion's smile faltered. “That’s the gist of it. All you need to know, at least.”

Twilight’s angered flared. “No, it isn’t all I need to know! You come to me asking me to come with you to do something somewhere for someone regarding, given that you’re telling the truth, the greatest discovery in science and historical magic in thousands of years, I have to know what I’m doing!”

The stallion turned around and regarded the fuming unicorn evenly. “Sounds like you’re interested, if your impatience is any indication. How about this, would you consider joining us provided I tell you everything I know?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. Being involved in such an expedition would be a tremendous honor and an unparalleled learning opportunity, but she didn’t know what this trip would entail, or who she would be dealing with. “Before hand?”

The stallion nodded slightly, his gaze still fixed on her.

“Would this be dangerous at all?”

Any trace of the stallion’s smile vanished as she asked. “I can’t promise it would be a walk in the park, because I don’t know where we’re going yet.”

Twilight stared at him disbelievingly “What do you mean you don’t know where we’re going?”

“If we did, we wouldn’t need you, Twilight,” he said. “You would be the one to find the site in the first place, using the homing rune we discussed.”

Twilight pondered this for a moment. It made sense, but she still didn’t want to jump into anything she couldn’t handle. “I might consider it… But I want more information up front. Who’s in charge of this expedition?”

The stallion thought about this before answering. “I suppose I would be the closest our little group has to a leader”. Extending a hoof, he finally introduced himself. “You can call me West.” Twilight took his hoof slowly, as if afraid he would bite.

“Who’s financing the trip? An educator? Museum?”

“Afraid I can’t say. Canterlot elite with vested interest in the discovery is as much as I can give away,” the stallion said, this time seeming dejected at having to say so. Twilight simply nodded, having already gotten used to not knowing details.

As much as she wanted to, it was hard for Twilight to just stand up and leave. She had responsibilities in Ponyville. She had friends to talk to, reports to write, and studying to do. There's no way, after all, that she could write her weekly friendship reports traveling. And what would her friends think if she just got up and went on an adventure by herself?

...Then again, Spike could easily watch the library for a few days, and she was sure her friends would understand. As for studying, the entire trip would be in the interest of science! She had been a shut-in recently, studying for long hours alone in her room. She had been seeing her friends, true, but only briefly for lunch breaks, and even those were only when she had time between reports and experiments. Truth was, Twilight’s life had been utterly boring in recent weeks. Ponyville hadn't been plunged into mortal peril in... what, two months now? She looked up after a minute, her inner turmoil resolved. “I’ll go.”

Taken aback by the sudden decision, the stallion smiled to himself, his job for the day complete. “Oh! Excellent! When can you leave?”

“Give me just a moment, and I’ll begin making arrangements. How’s tomorrow?” Twilight asked, already trotting towards the stairs.

The stallion nodded, still surprised at the swiftness of her decision. “Tomorrow should work. I’ll arrive early to see you out.”

Twilight smiled. She was beginning to like this idea of traveling to an unknown place to research her idol. Shaking herself out of her brief trance, she called upstairs. “Spike? Spike can you come down here please?” The requested dragon promptly leaned over the railing of the staircase, wiping sleep from his eyes.

“What’s up Twilight?” he asked, curiously eyeing the new visitor.

“Do you think you could run the library by yourself for a few days, maybe a week? I’m going to be leaving on a trip for a little while.” Twilight’s grin grew as she spoke.

Before the little dragon could answer, there was a frantic knocking on the library door. Everypony looked to the source of the sound in silence. After another burst of pounding, Twilight began to trot over to open the door. An instant before she reached it, however, the door burst open in a shower of wooden splinters.

Hearing the tremendous crack of the front door being broken down, Rainbow Dash withdrew her head from the box she had been searching. -The hay was that?? Galloping across the room, Dash peered over the railing down once again, this time making no attempt to stay hidden.

Covering her head to avoid the flying shrapnel, Twilight peeked between her hooves to see a pony frantically looking around the room. It was a pegasus mare, slightly older than Twilight, with a forest green coat and a reed map as her cutie mark. Her hair was a stark shade of white that matched her strikingly ghost-like eyes. The intruder appeared be wearing tan hiking fatigues and a camel-back saddle bag. Every inch of her coat that was visible was frayed, scratched, and drenched in sweat.

“Who the buck are you?”  Dash called out from the top of the stairs in surprise. The intruding mare’s gaze flew over Twilight and Rainbow before settling on West.

“There you are!” the mare said between pants. “We need to go.” Her demeanor seemed to panic West, as he immediately began to cross the room to retrieve his belongings.

“What happened?” he asked, already packing his saddle bag with the books he brought.

“Sparky says...“ She trailed off, as if suddenly aware of the others’ presence in the room. She looked at Dash and Spike briefly, before giving Twilight a long, scrutinizing stare. “You talk to her yet?” Her voice was gravelly, but suddenly calmer than it had been a moment ago.

Having finished packing, West swung his bag over his shoulder and nodded. “She’s willing to come with us. She said that she’d be-“

“What? Agreed to come with who? You?” Rainbow Dash interjected as she flew down to the ground level of the library, landing between the two newcomers. She pointed an accusing hoof at West before spinning around to face the mare. “Why did you break in? I have no idea who the you are either, who are you? Are you with him?“

Completely ignoring Rainbow Dash’s questions, the mare took a step towards Twilight. “You, purple. Twilight was it? If we leave right now, as in this instant, would you still be willing to come?” She spoke in an urgent, almost panicked tone, occasionally glancing over her shoulder as if somepony was going to attack.

Twilight looked shocked, glancing between everypony present. “N... now? I haven’t told anypony where I’m going yet! I haven’t packed! I can’t just get up and leave!”

West swiftly walked up to Twilight, pushing past an increasingly agitated Rainbow Dash to do so. When he was only feet away, the stallion set a hoof on Twilight's shoulder and looked her in the eyes. “Listen Twilight, if you want to know what those runes are used for, if you want to know more about your idol Starswirl the Bearded than anypony else in Equestria, and if you want to travel with us into what very well might be unexplored territory, you need to leave with us right now. We won’t come back until we’ve found it.” This made Twilight lower her head in thought.

“Come on, West, we need to go, like, now!” the mare urged, shuffling nervously closer to the doorway.

Every eye in the room was locked on the unicorn, who was seemingly staring through the floor, deep in thought. After what felt like an eternity, Twilight looked up to the green mare, then to West. “Let’s go.”

Without another word, the three of them began storming towards the door, closely followed by a pissed off blue pegasus. “Wait, you’re just going to run off with them? You don’t even know who they are! Don’t ignore me, get back here!”

Spike, completely bewildered by the situation, called after Twilight. “Wait! Twilight! Where exactly are you going?” This simple question caused the entire group to stop in their tracks and share unsure glances. Stepping forward, West answered it in the most appropriate manner possible.

“She’s going on an adventure"