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.
So, Rainbow Dash is a book now? Wow. That's a bit harsh. Then again, I think that it would be a book that in comparison to "Daring Do" is at least... 20% cooler.
YYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!
On a more serious note, though, is Rainbow an equivelant of "The Diary of Tom Riddle"? If you open the book, can she communicate through a drawing version of herself? Would you be able to see all of her secrets in plain Equestrian text, and be able to... read her like a book?
YYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!
OKAY, OKAY I'LL STOP DOING THAT!
However, this story plot puts a huge twist ripe full of potential. Mabye the possibility of having different ponies having different book styles when they are hit by the spell.
Speaking of that spell that made this mess in the first place, what is the name of that spell? How exactly does it work? Is it similar to how Twilight uses dark magic in the Crystal Empire episodes? It probably doesn't have a known counter-spell, and is probably a permanent transformation or a reeeaaaalllly long lasting spell if Twilight can't fix the problem right away. I also wonder what the name of this book is as well.
Will these inquireries be answered? Will the Equestria Inquirer talk about a rampaging burrito? Will Twilight ask either Princess for help?
These questions will be answered...
Right now.
(If the author wants to, possibly, and - due to the description - most likely not.)
Keep writing, my friend.
P.S. I wouldn't put it past the Equestrian Inquirer to talk about rampaging burrito's. They are approximatly that silly... possibly even more-so.
Wait a minute, is this a story with no "Alternate Universe" tag.
Why, whatever do you mean by that statement?
Remember the episode "Lesson Zero" or that episode where Applejack exhausts herself doing the entire apple orchard and helping her friends?
Yeah. My reaction too.
Basically, if Twilight chooses to outright avoid help of any shape or form, she would be acting out of character. I understand the first few minutes or hours she would be too terrified to ask for help from Princess Celestia, but downright disregarding any help would be disastrous to the character credibility, as well as canon. Maybe she could rationalize in her unrationalized mind that she could get help from Rarity since she is a unicorn. Then the fashionista's life is threatened and Twilight uses the spell, again.
Just wanted to put my two cents out there.
Keep writing, my -
Wait a minute...
What do you mean "as portrayed in the epilogue?" *Takes another look.*
But Rainbow Dash got turned into a-
!!!
...
You clever cheeky bastard. Why did I not see that?
2047737 Thanks for reading and commenting. Out of all your questions, I'm afraid I can't answer many now without spoiling something later. What I can tell you is that I did not name the book or the spell, I may come up with something for it at some point, but it's really not that important what it's called for now. I can also say that when casting the spell, Twilight's magic aura looks almost normal. It's a little bit darker, but unless you knew her really well, you wouldn't notice a difference.
So "Will these inquireries be answered?" Yes and no.
"Will the Equestria Inquirer talk about a rampaging burrito?" I hope so.
"Will Twilight ask either Princess for help?" Come on, this is Twilight Sparkle we're talking about. Terrified of disappointing the Princess? Not to mention expressly forbidden from casting the spell under any circumstances.
I'm glad you like it so far.
P.S. I really want to answer some of the other questions you've raised, but I have to be patient, just like you do, so as not to spoil the story.
It's a good thing Dash avoided those rocks, she could have been mashed into a pulp! Oh, wait...