The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the gems were crunching... And they were delicious.
“Slow down, Spike!” Twilight said, laughing. “Don’t choke yourself; the gems aren’t going anywhere.”
“I know, Twilight, but,” I took another bite, chewing loudly. “They’re just so good!” Twilight laughed again and returned to her own breakfast. I took another bite. Twilight looked up at me.
“Would you get that, please?”
I stopped chewing long enough to ask, “Get what?” My question was answered by the sound of somepony knocking on the library door. I rolled my eyes and left the room to answer it.
“Why does no one ever remember that this is a public library?” I didn’t get an answer to that question. Not that I expected one. I opened the door to find a grey pegasus standing outside.
“Hi Spike! I’ve got a delivery for Twilight.” I accepted the package and thanked her. She flew away, only hitting one house before I got the door closed. I turned around to see Twilight coming into the room.
“What was that about, Spike?”
“Delivery for you,” I said, holding out the package. “I think it might be that book you asked Celestia for.” Twilight smiled wider than I’d seen in recent memory. She practically ripped the package out of my claws with her magic. She didn’t tear the packaging, even with how fast she unwrapped it. The book didn’t look anything like I was expecting. I wasn’t sure what the book was, but from how excited she was to finally get it, I was thinking it would be something... more. There was a letter with the book, and Twilight got even more excited upon reading it. She dropped the letter and started jumping around in circles with the book.
“Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!”
“Twilight?”
“Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!” She was lost to the world, so I picked up the letter and read it for myself.
Dear Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student,
Here is the book you requested, I believe you are finally ready for it.
At this point in your training, it is time for you to study this book, but due to the nature of the dark magic contained inside, I cannot stress enough how important it is that you do not cast any of the spells you learn from it under any circumstances.
If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to ask me.
Princess Celestia
My eyes were wide by the time I reached the end. I had no idea that this was that kind of book. I was even less impressed by its appearance, but suddenly felt a little intimidated by it.
“Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!”
“Twilight, you’ll be careful, won’t you?”
“YesyesyesyesyesyesyesYESYEEESSS!”
“Twilight!” Twilight stopped jumping around. I guessed she finally remembered that she wasn’t alone. She looked at me, embarrassed, but still couldn’t stop smiling.
“Yes?”
“You’ll be careful, right? This stuff looks dangerous.”
“Oh, Spike, of course I’ll be careful. I’m always careful.” I cocked an eyebrow at her. She sighed and rolled her eyes.
“Okay, almost always. But I will be careful with this. I promise.” I nodded, satisfied. Her smile reappeared.
“I’mgonnagoreadnowcleanupbreakfastokay?” She darted to a corner of the room where she settled down with the book. I chuckled and shook my head as I left her alone to read. I started cleaning up from breakfast when there was a loud crash, like somepony, well, crashing... into the door. Only two ponies that would likely be, and one of them had already stopped by.
I heard Twilight greet the visitor. “Oh, hi, Rainbow. You know, it’s a lot easier to get inside if you land first and then open the door.” Score one for logical thought. I promised myself not to tell Twilight about actually keeping score on that. Or the list where I wrote down the score. Mainly because logical thought was losing, and she wouldn’t take that well.
They continued to talk for a couple minutes while I cleaned up, but I didn’t pay any more attention to it. I was surprised to hear Twilight call out to me.
“I’m going out for a while, Spike. Remember to dust the bookshe-” Her voice was cut off by the front door closing. I looked into the main room to find it completely empty. Twilight must have left with Rainbow Dash for some reason. Which meant I had just been left alone in the library.
“Well, well, well,” I said, turning to look at the bowl of gems still sitting on the table. “Where were we?”
After I finished the whole bowl of gems, something Twilight wouldn’t have allowed had she still been home, I got to work dusting the bookshelves like she wanted me to. The problem was, dusting bookshelves was boring. Really boring. Boring enough that using the duster like a microphone seemed like a good idea. I kept working, some, but mostly I was dancing around and singing. I lost track of the time, but it had to be early afternoon and I still wasn’t finished, when I heard a loud pop from behind me.
“Spike? Spiiiiiike?” I dropped the duster and spun around, embarrassed to be seen like that. I forgot all about my own concerns when I saw Twilight. She looked terrified. Her eyes kept darting from side to side like she was afraid she was being hunted.
“Twilight? What’s wrong?”
“I-I- I don’t- I can’t- I-”
“Twilight?”
“I- she- the rocks- the- I-”
“Snap out of it!” She looked at- through me, and stopped talking. She just stood there, hyperventilating.
“What happened, Twilight?” Twilight tried unsuccessfully to focus her eyes on me. Her mouth worked soundlessly.
“You left with Rainbow Dash this morning...” I prompted. For some reason, Twilight tensed up even more and let out a small squeak at the sound of Rainbow’s name.
“Where did you go?”
“Ghastly Gorge,” Twilight whispered hoarsely.
“Why would you go there?”
“That’s where Rainbow,” she struggled to say the name, “wanted to go.” She cleared her throat and continued more steadily. “She had some new tricks she wanted to show off. I took the book with me, because I was so excited to read it. She said that was fine, because I wouldn’t be able to keep my eyes on the book when she started performing. She was wrong. I could hardly stop reading, and when I did, it was because she had landed in front of me and was yelling at me to pay attention. I-I should have stopped right then, just closed the book and left it alone until later, but I didn’t. She started to do another trick, and before I knew it I was reading again. Those spells were just too fascinating, I’d never seen anything like them before! But... then...”
“Then?”
“I heard her calling my name. I looked up and she was diving almost straight down. She was waving at me and wasn’t looking where she was going. She was going to hit the sharp rocks along the wall of the Gorge. With how fast she was going...” I gasped.
“Is she okay? Is she in the hospital?” Twilight shook her head.
“She’s... not in the hospital. I-I didn’t have any time to think of something else! I had to do something! I cast the first spell I could think of to save her life.” She sounded like she was pleading with me.
“If Rainbow’s okay, what’s wrong?” Twilight sighed and sat down, looking at the floor.
“She’s not... exactly... okay.”
“What do you mean?”
“I cast a spell from the book.”
“Which spell?” Instead of answering directly, Twilight looked up at me and showed me a book. Not the same book which had been delivered earlier; this one had a very light cerulean cover with a rainbow border. In place of a title, this book had a picture of a cloud with a red, yellow, and blue lightning bolt.