Parallel Worlds

Chapter One; Simple Curiosity

Twilight tossed the small journal onto her table with an exasperated groan, ever since she had found it three days ago it had been nothing but confusing. At first it seemed like a treasure trove to the young librarian, an adventure story about a far off land called named "Lord Resin's Journey and Documentary of the Creatures of the Tretonian Empire." She picked it from the shelf, not knowing where it came from, with the immediate concern of putting it in it's proper place, but the title caught her eye as soon as she had made three steps.

Twilight had never read a book with so many unfamiliar names, and the majority of the creatures described within were alien to even the farthest reaches of her Equestrian knowledge. But the story ended halfway through the beginning of the book. She tried everything she could to find a mention of either Resin or 'Tretonia' in Ponyvilles archives, and even went so far to order some textbooks from Canterlot, but none of them had anything on the subjects.

"Maybe you could try the Crystal Empires library next," Joked the yellow pegasus in the corner.

Captain Spitfire had surprised Twilight with a visit when she told the princess that she had urgent need of the books. She remembered blushing as she invited the wonderbolt in, needing to explain to her that maybe the need wasn't that urgent, and explaining to Rainbowdash why Spitfire was staying in the library for a few days. The captain had been surprisingly calm about the whole ordeal, and tried her best to help the librarian when she could. Otherwise the flame maned mare stuck to one corner of the library, reading something or other.

"At this rate I doubt this 'Lord Resin' or his Tretonian Empire even ever existed," Twilight mumbled.

"Then why are you still reading that book?"

"I'm not reading that book, so much as trying to figure something out." Twi answered, a little grumpier than she probably should have.

"What?" Spitfire replied, completely un-phased.

"There's some weird scratches on the back, almost like something is written in another language."

The wonderbolt trotted over to the book and flipped it open, curious what was drawing so much attention from Twilight.

"You sure he didn't just spill ink on it?" She asked after a glance at the scratches.

Twilight looked at the captain like she'd grown a second head.

"What?" She asked.

"No, it couldn't be that, the lines are two finely marked. Plus there are several characters that repeat themselves over and over."

"It could be some sort of code," Spit offered, she was still confused why the librarian thought the funny etchings in the back of a half completed journal were so interesting, but she made it a point never to question the eggheads, they usually knew what they were doing.

"Or a clue! Spitfire your a genius!"

Twilight began rushing back and forth, summoning books from their shelves both by horn and hoof. She was beginning to regret sending Spike on that errand to Fluttershy's, but didn't have time to dwell on the mistake. Spitfire wisely began moving back to here corner as the lilac mare dived through her tomes.

"Found it! The nine scrolls of Starswirl!"

Spitfire just nodded along, barely lifting her attention from the novel she was reading, but Twilight, also lost in her books, didn't notice her companies inattention as she read aloud.

"'The nine scrolls of Starswirl were written by the ancient wizard Starswirl the bearded in a language only a select few could understand. The texts, though illegible, were copied down after the wizards disappearance and sent throughout Equestria in order to find the ones he called his heirs. Though they were never found, samples of the scrolls still exist today.' See? The markings on the book match up with the excerpts of the scrolls!"

Twilight turned to show both books to Spitfire, who finally looked up at the question.

"Huh, so they do," The fiery pegasus took a closer look, "But it looks like the letters' orders are different from the scrolls."

"I know, maybe it's from a different part of one of the scrolls, or maybe one of the heirs is trying to reach out!"

Spitfire shrugged at the unicorns eccentrics and began turning back to her book for the fourth time that day.

"Maybe you should hit it with some magic to find out," She said sarcastically, just as the doorbell rang.

Resigning to her fate of never finding out if Daring Do would make it through the temple of Neptune, Spitfire tiredly trotted over to the door, listening to the tinkling behind her Twilight began to move more books around.

"I'm sorry Rainbow, Twilights a bit busy with something," She told the startled weather mare.

"Sp-Spitfire!" Rainbowdash stuttered much to her idols amusement.

"Rainbow, Come on in! I'm sorry, I've been so caught up studying this book I forgot you were coming over."

Rainbowdash wasn't suppose to come over, per se, but given that her idol of idols was mere feet away she decided to just smile and nod.

"Yeeeah, I wanted to come over and help you out."

Twilight fixed her friend with a deadpan gaze.

"You wanted to help me out?"

"Duh," Rainbowdash said with a roll of her eyes as she went to look at Twilights books, "Starswirls scrolls? Like magic scrolls?"

Twilight smiled at her friends sudden and unexpected, but not entirely unwanted, interest in her hobbies.

"Yep, and I was just trying to figure out what this one does so I ca-"

"Why don't you just activate it?"

"Because, unless I know what it does I have no way of knowing if it's safe or not!" Twilight groaned.

"Why don't you just take it outside of town? That way no-pony will get hurt and you'll find out!"

"If I do that the scroll might be destroyed!"

"Then copy it down first!"

"I-" Twilight froze, Rainbows statement, though uninformed, made plenty of sense once she thought about it.

There were plenty of safe places in the borders of the Everfree, and if she copied it down she could still be able to find the translation, maybe even the author! Rainbow watched the gears visibly turn in Twilights head in mildly irritated silence, more irritated that she had lost her cool in front of Spitfire than Twilights refusal to listen. But hey, Rainbow just tripped up Celestias student in front of her hero, that had to count for something.

"Egghead," Rainbow dash sighed.