//------------------------------// // Ch 1: Discovery // Story: Worlds of Literature // by SergeantShenanigans //------------------------------// "But Twilight!" Pinkie complained "Gummy's 'Three weeks until halfway birthday' party just started and you've only been here for a few minutes! You can't leave yet!" Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy were attending another of Pinkie's almost weekly pre or post birthday parties for Gummy. This one was celebrating that it was three weeks until halfway to his actual birthday. "Pinkie," Twilight sighed "it's been three hours and I have a report for Princess Celestia I have to finish by tonight." "Alrighty, I'll let you off the hoof for this one, but I still expect you to attend Gummy's 'Two weeks until halfway birthday', his 'One week until halfway birthday', and his 'Halfway birthday" parties!" Pinkie exclaimed. A confused look grew on Twilight's face "Don't you mean that I'm off the hook?" she asked. "Why would I mean that?" Pinkie cocked her head to the side. "Because it's an expression," Twilight explained. Pinkie rolled her eyes "But I don't own any hooks silly!" Twilight shook her head dismissively "Anyway… why not, instead of throwing a bunch of parties celebrating it every week, don't you just spend this time planning for Gummy's actual party and make it that much better?" Pinkie waved her hoof dismissively "Well isn't it obvious? It's because…" She looked to the ceiling in thought with a hoof on her chin "You know what? That's a supertastic idea! I can start planning right now and make his halfway birthday party the best party ever!" She exclaimed bouncing circles around the lavender unicorn. "Supertastic?" Twilight inquired. "It's a combination of super, and fantastic! I came up with it one day when I was watching Dashie preform some tricks. She was all WHOOSH and ZOOM and PINKIE STOP DISTRACTING ME! When she asked what I thought I couldn't think of a good enough word so I combined two of them!" Pinkie exclaimed proudly. Deciding not to point out that "supertastic" wasn't a word, Twilight said goodbye to the rest of her friends and made her way back to the library, where she had a report on the poorly known species of Equestria to finish. * * * "Explain to me again why you have to write this report?" Spike asked handing Twilight a large book titled "The Big Book O' Species" Twilight rolled her eyes "After all that's happened in the past year or so, Celestia feels a little unprepared and wanted me to look into any species of creature that might pose a threat to Equestria." "What do you mean?" Spike asked, "I thought that Celestia knew everything?" "Just because she is an alicorn doesn't mean that she knows everything," Twilight said with a slight chuckle. "But what if she does know everything? What if she's just asking you to do this so that you would learn it yourself?" Spike asked. "I'm pretty sure that she still doesn't know everything, though she may have just asked me to do this so that I would learn about it," Twilight admitted, putting down the large book she had just been reading "now, would you mind getting 'Starswirl's Guide to Creatures of Fact and Fiction'?" Complying, Spike walked over to the opposite wall and climbed the step ladder to the top shelf, where a medium sized book with strange decorations on it rested. Spike took a moment to look over the book; it was a dark blue book with figures of both mythical creatures, and real ones. "Spike? Are you going to bring me that book or stare at it all day?" Twilight remarked. Spike slowly began to climb down from the step ladder with one hand while holding the book in the other "Yeah yeah, I'm coming keep your saddle on," he joked. After placing the book on the desk in front of Twilight, Spike began to shift in place anxiously "Is there anything else you need me to do?" he asked. "I don't think so, why?" she asked. "Because Rarity is going to go and dig for gems and she asked me to go with her and help," Spike explained. "Alright lovercolt-" Twilight faltered for a moment "oops, I mean loverdrake, you're free to go." Spike grumbled under his breath for a moment before realizing that he had been dismissed, at which point he ran out the door as fast as he could. Shaking her head slightly Twilight opened the book in front of her and began to read. * * * About an hour after Spike had left, Twilight was just finishing the last touches on her report to the princess. Reading over it once and being satisfied, Twilight rolled it up and set it to the side of her desk for Spike to send when he got back, but for now, she had books to put away. She was putting said books away when somepony suddenly burst through the library door, surprising her and making her lose concentration, causing her to drop the books. Looking to the door Twilight found that it was none other than Rainbow Dash who had burst through the door "Do you have it yet?" she demanded. "Like I told you yesterday, and the day before that, and many consecutive days before that, the new Daring Do book won't be here till Wednesday," Twilight explained. Rainbow groaned "Couldn't you like, ask the princess to get it to you early for research or something?" she asked. Twilight shook her head "No, the book comes out the same day for everypony, even the princess has to wait to read it. Although I doubt she even reads the series." Rainbow groaned in frustration once more before storming out of the library "I wonder how she would react to the many year long waits I usually suffer through for the books I like to read…" Twilight wondered. Shrugging this thought off she began to pick up the books that she had dropped and put them away. Nearly satisfied she inspected the library, deciding to see if there was anything else that she needed to attend to. Her eyes were immediately drawn to a slip of paper on the ground near a bookshelf "I bet that fell out of one of the books I dropped," she guessed. Picking up the piece of paper and reading it she found that it was written backwards, like she was looking at it through a mirror. Using a nearby mirror she deciphered the slip of paper to find that it was a spell that she had never even heard of. To put it shortly, it allowed the caster to enter the book of their choice. Twilight's mind ran with the possibilities before logic quickly took over "They aren't real worlds though, how do I enter someplace that doesn't exist?" Sighing, she placed the slip of paper onto her desk and quickly began trying to forget about it. After an hour of idly taking down and re-sorting the books in the library, the curiosity was getting the best of her and she decided she could at least try the spell. Picking a simple book from the selection she decided her first attempt would be "The Pony and the Beanstalk" Closing her eyes in concentration she cast the spell.