It took far longer than anticipated, but you finally shoveled a pathway to the main road. The snow made the library so beautiful it almost felt like a crime to upset the scenery. Winter was in full swing, and even ponies had trouble maneuvering through the massive amount of snow which fell the previous night. You hurriedly headed towards the entrance to Twilight’s home; it was much chillier outside than you expected. Partway through shoveling a nasty cold front blanketed Ponyville, and even your winter gear wasn’t nearly enough to curb the cold’s numb embrace. You lost feeling in more places than you cared to count, but on the bright side at the cold forced you to work quicker.
Your fingers barely registered any feeling as you pulled the doorknob and quickly ducked under the doorframe into the library. You closed the door with more force than necessary, catching the attention of Spike at the center of the library.
”Anon?”
“Just a sec, Spike.” You responded while placing your coat and shovel in a nearby closet. “What’re you up to?”
“Ugh, Twilight’s making me do math.” Spike answered as he looked up from his worksheet as you came closer.
Twilight’s assistant rested with his stomach on the floor, and in his right hand he held a quill recently dipped in a nearby ink well. Crouching down to see what he had in front of him, you found a sheet of parchment with exactly one hundred basic math equations on it. A small pile of assorted flash cards also rested near the dragon’s side. Spike had excellent penmanship and could read quite well given his age. However, he did not know much in the way of simple math or history. Twilight sought to change that.
“Good to see Twilight’s keeping you busy.” You remarked as you pointed at an addition problem where Spike had forgotten to carry a one.
”Uh… thanks…” Spike said as he looked at where you were pointing, his brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what he messed up on. “Oh, thanks for shoveling for me.”
The snow shovel was far too large for Spike to adequately handle, and after seeing him struggle earlier in the morning you volunteered to help him out.
You rose from your squatting position and began to walk towards the kitchen.
“No problem. I need something hot to drink.”
”Wait, Anon, you need to go find Twilight.” Spike declared as soon as you started walking away.
Now that got your attention.
“What?” You asked with a hint of worry in your voice. “Did Twilight go somewhere? I didn’t see her leave while I was outside.”
Spike shook his head from side to side.
”I meant Twilight’s hiding in the library and she wants you to find her.”
”Hide-and-seek?” You questioned.
”Yeah” Spike responded as he shifted himself to face towards you.
You weren’t quite sure how to reply. This was something you could see yourself doing with a bored Pinkie Pie, or perhaps Applejack’s sister and her friends, not necessarily Twilight. You wondered why she didn’t just ask you directly. Then again, she did make things unnecessarily complicated on occasion.
“Twilight also said if you find her in fifteen minutes you can keep any library book.”
With that, all doubts about Twilight’s methods went completely out the window. In its place a deluge of thoughts filled your mind concerning what you could take. Despite spending so much time with the element of magic, you didn’t know too much about how enchantments and spells worked. Perhaps one of Starswirl’s many treatises on it was in order. Reading a textbook, however, might not be the most engaging activity. Maybe some fiction would do…
There weren’t a great many places she could be on the first floor of the library. A quick glance into the kitchen and the closets quickly eliminated the few spots Twilight could be. After finishing your sweep of the first floor you headed for upstairs, all while contemplating what to claim as your prize. You could nab the latest copy of Daring Do to screw with Rainbow Dash. Better yet, take a random volume from the library’s dictionary set just to see Twilight’s reaction. The thought of your unicorn friend having a panic attack over a hole in the collection put a smile on your face as you reached the top of the staircase. This one’s in the bag.
***
Well, Twilight can hide infinitely better than you expected.
After combining over the basement twice you hadn’t seen any sign of her. As you give one last peek behind her kooky science machine you let out a grunt of frustration. Just as Twilight garnered no useful data when testing for Pinkie’s strange precognitive powers, you too had come up empty handed. Without a doubt, there was little to no time left and you had no clue where else to look. The search on the upper floors was equally thorough, and you had even checked outside to see if she had clung to the tree’s branches.
While hurriedly walking up the basement steps a thought suddenly crossed your mind, one which should have been there from the beginning: You were hunting for a unicorn. This one, in particular, was well known for her magical prowess. Once again your mind raced with thoughts, this time over what spells she could have used to garner an advantage. Was she capable of an invisibility spell? You don’t recall ever seeing her working on one… Granted, if she succeeded you wouldn’t have been able to. She possibly could have shrunken herself to hide where you would never look. If poison joke did it to Applejack, Twilight likely had the skill to figure out how to replicate it.
As you opened the basement door, a thought of accidentally kicking your tiny friend across the room sent a shudder through your body. That also may have been due to how cold you were; you brought your hands together, blew into them, and started rubbing them together.
Regardless of whether she was using magic, you had exhausted all sensible locations she could be. With so little time remaining, it was time to adopt a new strategy. Under normal circumstances you wouldn’t stoop this low, but with a free book on the line Twilight had forced your hand.
“Hey, Spike.” You whispered across the room, being much quieter than needed. “Follow me.”
Spike’s bored expression instantly changed to one of curiosity, and the dragon quickly abandoned his math worksheet to follow you. Chances are he was looking for any excuse to get away from it. The two of you entered the kitchen, and you reached into a cupboard far above Spike’s clutches to pull out a slender red ruby. The gemstone didn’t last longer than a second once you tossed it down into Spike’s waiting hands. He already began munching on it by the time you asked your question.
“So Spike, I don’t suppose you can tell me where Twilight is, can you?”
”Well Anon.” Spike responded as he looked up to you with a toothy grin marred by bits of ruby doting the teeth. “I actually didn’t know until a few seconds ago.”
…What?
Your brain couldn’t process Spike’s message quickly enough. Your eyes closed themselves in reflex as a purple hoof immediately filled your vision and pressed your nose.
Boop.
The soft yet firm frog of Twilight’s hoof gently applied a bit more pressure as you slowly opened your eyes to see what happened. The hoof, astonishingly, came from above. As you gazed upwards you met a pair of purple irises, and above them was a smile so wide it almost looked painful. Twilight’s hooves, aside from the fore hoof imbedded on your face, were planted against the ceiling. Her head was no more than a few inches above yours. Oddly enough the hair of her tail and mane did not droop towards the ground but rather hung upwards, seemingly unaffected by gravity.
”Time’s up and I win, Anon!” Twilight proudly declared as she pulled her hoof from your face. “I can’t believe you didn’t check the kitchen, did you forget?”
Though dejected over the loss, you can’t help but smile that Twilight used her magic in such a creative fashion.
“Sort of. I looked through the doorway.”
”I was right above it.” Twilight replied.
As a demonstration, she walked above the entrance and pressed her body as flat as possible against the ceiling. Content that she had adequately explained where she hid, Twilight looked down at Spike, who was now chewing the last bit of ruby you had given him.
“Spike.” She began, her voice faintly less playful than a moment before. “Tell me, with a fraction, how much of your worksheet you finished.”
Spike’s face contorted from one of glee over your predicament to a completely blank expression as he stared back up at Twilight. For a few, brief seconds the room remained dead silent as the purple dragon pondered if he had ever even heard the term “fraction” before.
”Two.” Spike finally answered.
Twilight let out a short, lighthearted series of giggles before calming herself down, though a smile still adorned her face.
”That’s fine. Maybe we can cover fractions next week.”
Spike, slightly embarrassed at his lack of knowledge, took that as his cue to get back to his homework. As her number-one assistant walked out of the kitchen, Twilight again began speaking to you.
”So, Anon, what do you think of my new spell?”
“Very impressive, Twilight.” You said as you leaned against a nearby counter, hoping to avoid straining your neck from looking up so much. “You could have just showed me though, why all this?”
”Well… I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off…” “Twilight responded while sheepishly looking away. She quickly gained her confidence back as she continued talking. ”I got the idea when you and Spike talked about comic books last week.”
“So you’re like Spider-Man now? You can climb on walls and shoot webbing?”
”Nope, not quite”
In response, the unicorn bent her knees and hopped a few inches off the ceiling. She returned right to it as if she had jumped off the ground. Your mouth stood faintly agape as you tried to comprehend what you just witnessed.
”You brought up Superman and how he could fly without wings. I wanted to see if I could replicate that.”
“So you’re flying up there?”
”No, I learned a flight spell probably take decades of constant research.” Twilight answered with a slightly dejected tone. “I did figure out how to reverse gravity for myself though!”
You snickered in response to that statement. The way Twilight said that last sentence showed just how much she delighted in discovering of the wonders of magic. Where others saw a tool, or a means to an end, she saw a beautiful craft where the process was just as stunning as the result.
“That’s amazing, Twilight!” You praised. “You do have a way of getting down though, right?”
”Absolutely.”
Twilight’s horn lit up in a magenta glow and brought a scroll of parchment from the ether. Little space on the paper went unused, it was filled with scribbles, notes, and crossed out mistakes. After scanning through the document she levitated it to her side and the light from her horn increasingly got brighter. The mare rolled over onto her back, and her mane and tail splayed out disorganized across the ceiling.
“Mind catching me?”
“Not at all.” You stated, walking beneath Twilight and positioning your hands so fall would be over quickly and comfortably. “Ready when you are.”
Now comfortable you were set, her horn released the spell she built with a flash. After a brief moment, however, only her hair dropped towards the ground rather than her entire body. Alarmed at the spell not properly working, Twilight quickly righted herself onto her hooves as a look of uneasiness spread across her face. She began skimming over her notes to find out where she had miscast. Her multicolored mane fell against your face as she stood up, forcing you to move so you could see again.
”Uh… Hold that pose. I might still fall.”
For an entire minute you held your arms out in the event that Twilight fell as she reread her notes.
”Alright…” Twilight mumbled, holding off on completing her sentence for a few seconds. “I don’t think I’m going to fall to the floor anytime soon. The blood’s rushing to my head though.”
“Want me to pull you down? You question with a grin on your face, happy at the premise of holding one of your best friends.”
”Please do.”
After taking a few steps to the side to position yourself, you reached up and pressed your palms against her midsection and belly.
”Meep!” Twilight screeched as she wiggled from your grasp and pressed her body against the ceiling within the span of a second.
She wasn’t out of your reach, but you lowered your hands at the thought of having accidentally injured Twilight.
“Twilight, I’m sorry, did I hurt you?” You quickly asked with a voice full of worry.
”Anon!” She scolded. “Your hands are cold!”
A quick rubbing of your hands confirmed Twilight’s complaint was true. Your hands were ice cold even a quarter of an hour after being inside. No wonder she was able to feel it even through her coat. An idea of how to circumvent the issue quickly came to mind, and you excused yourself from the kitchen. Twilight propped her forehooves against the doorframe and watched you head over to a nearby closet. From there you pulled a simple yellow blanket and headed back to the kitchen. Though she gave you an inquisitive look, you didn’t bother humoring her with an answer as you unfolded the blanket below her. Holding the loose cloth in both hands, you reached up and pressed the fabric against Twilight’s sides as you pulled her towards the earth.
As you drew Twilight down you cupped the blanket around each of her legs and snugly clasped the ends of the fabric together at her stomach, creating a Twilight burrito with only her head sticking out. Though not unfamiliar with carrying Twilight, the sensation of the mare falling upwards created a unique feeling. It was appropriate to say you were holding Twilight down rather than up. You faintly tightened your grip as you brought her into the central room of the library as the ceiling was much higher here than in the kitchen.
“Take me to the spell books over there.” She mumbled while raising a hoof to a bookshelf across the room. “I used some of them for reference.”
Upon Twilight’s command you walked over to the library’s collection of sorceries. After a quick search she levitated two from the shelves. Books in tow, Twilight motioned you to head upstairs; she didn’t want to disturb Spike. Upon entering her room you stood in place for a moment. The unicorn’s desk was small, and it would be uncomfortable to squeeze the two of you at it. The wooden floor didn’t strike your fancy either.
”It’s okay, we can lay on my bed.” Twilight remarked, realizing the small dilemma you faced.
Seeing how your arm was getting tired, and since Twilight probably wouldn’t mind, you held her against your chest and lay down on the bed, gently sandwiching her between yourself and the sun and moon themed comforter sprawled over the bed. Just like when you held her, the feeling of the pony’s weight pushing up against your torso was a feeling you wouldn’t soon experience again. Thankfully you weighed more than her, and could keep her pinned with little effort. The situation made you feel a bit crass. To an outside party, the position the two of you held certainly would have appeared lewd.
The excuse ‘keeping your friend from floating into the stratosphere’ likely wouldn’t work either.
You rested your arms on either side of Twilight’s body, and maneuvered your body so that your head was side by side to the left of hers. Meanwhile, after fidgeting to get comfortable, Twilight set up her reference books ahead of her against a pillow and set her own notes to the side. For nearly an hour, both you and Twilight remained silent. The loudest sounds either of you heard came from the two of you breathing and the occasional scratch of an inked quill on paper.
Suddenly, a realization hit you that you could be stuck holding this purple pony for a long while. Who knows how long it would take for Twilight to reverse the spell? Even at sunset you might still be here! You weren’t averse to holding a dear friend so close, but you couldn’t exactly accomplish much of anything resting atop her. The only source of entertainment was the spell books in front of you, and you couldn’t make heads or tails about their mystical contents.
“Hey Twilight,” You asked, breaking the monotony. “When you get the time, can you teach me about magic?”
Twilight’s eyes grew wider the instant the words left your mouth.
”You really want to learn about magic?!” She excitedly asked while looking up from her notes.
As Twilight turned to look you in the eyes you began nodding your head. To further emphasize the point you began rubbing the pinna of her right ear.
“I had to take science classes when I was younger. Seeing how common magic is here, I figured I should learn about it.”
”You know, pegasi and earth ponies almost never bother learning the fundamentals about magic. Lots of unicorns don’t either! Can you believe it!?” Twilight exclaimed with a distraught tone. “A good place to start is the Central Energy Theory, which states that magic is the base of all energy. All energies, like light, temperature, and gravity, have magic as their base.”
It brought a smile to your face to know Twilight was so willing to drop what she was doing to teach you, but you had to remind her of her gravitational predicament.
“I’d love to learn from you Twilight, but shouldn’t we be focusing on finding a counter-spell right now?”
”I’m stuck” She quickly responded. “Besides, a refresher couldn’t hurt for me either. Magic can be shaped into any energy, but only creatures with naturally formed, magically conductive matter can properly channel it and cast spells.”
Twilight opened her mouth to continue, but stopped just as the first syllable began forming. Her horn began glowing and a raggedy textbook floated from a drawer at her desk to the bed in front of you.
‘The Fundamentals of Magic’ the title read.
The book saw much use over its lifetime. The binding was frayed and some of the pages looked ready to fall out. The hard cover had been stained with a number of substances if the strange colors adorning it were any indication, and the corners of the book were dulled and rounded rather than sharp and pointy.
“Anon.” Twilight softly said while looking you straight in the eyes. “If I didn’t read this book, I don’t think I would’ve loved magic as much as I do now. I didn’t understand a lot of it as a filly, but I’m sure I wouldn’t have been Celestia’s student had I not gotten my hooves on this. I want you to experience the same joy I had when reading through it, Anon. And I want you to have it.”
You hardly knew what to say as Twilight levitated the book into your waiting hands.
“Take good care of it, Anon.” Twilight requested as she turned her body around to wrap her fore hooves around your neck for a hug, which you eagerly returned.
“You bet I will, Twi.”
Into the waning hours of the afternoon Twilight continued educating you on the basics of magic, and you eagerly remained attentive through all of it. In time, you together noticed the effects of the botched enchantment fading away. Slowly but surely the planet once again pulled the mare towards it. By the evening, Twilight already had a few ideas on how she could possibly fix the counter-spell. And rather than having any average book in the library as a prize, you got a heartfelt gift from your best friend. Sometimes, fate has a funny way of giving you something better than what you hoped for.