//------------------------------//
// Ch 2: The First Book 
// Story: Worlds of Literature 
// by SergeantShenanigans 
//------------------------------//

A few moments passed as Twilight waited for the spell to take effect. A few more moments passed and nothing happened, curious to see if she had done it wrong she opened her eyes and looked around for the slip of paper the spell was written on.

Inspecting the area she found that she was standing in a large dead field, with only the odd patch of yellow and dying grass here or there. Near the middle of the field was an old broken down looking house, in front of which stood a rather gaunt looking cow, grazing on a very small patch of yellow grass. "We're not in Trottingham anymore…" She remarked absentmindedly.

Twilight quickly regained her wits and approached the cow "Excuse me," She could now see that the cow was a female "I was just wondering, where are we?" she asked, gesturing to the entire field.

The cow simply stared at her for a few moments before returning to its dying grass. Before she could ask again a loud shrill voice pierced the silence "Jack Manure! You lazy hay bale! I told you to go sell that cow over an hour ago! What are you still doing here?"

Twilight spotted a cross looking brown mare walking out of the house. She was an earth pony with a dark brown mane, dark orange eyes, and a pair of knitting sticks for a cutiemark "Jack Manure!" She repeated.

Looking around, Twilight didn't see another living soul, excluding herself, the mare, and the cow.

"What're you stupid?" the mare asked.

Twilight looked back at the mare "Me?" she asked.

"I don't know anypony else this lazy!" the mare exclaimed.

"I think you have me confused for somepony else, I'm not Jack, my name is Twilight Sparkle." Twilight explained.

"What's this now?" The mare asked "Hate your old life so much that you've decided to be somepony else? Well tough! You're not getting outta this that easily!"

Twilight sighed "Why does this pony think that I'm the character from that book? All I did was cast that spell…"

Twilight gasped "I get it! The spell I cast doesn't just move you into the book; it puts you in the place of one of the characters! Of course! That explains why the cow can't talk; the only sentient races in this book are ponies, dragons and griffins!"

The mare glared at her "What's all this about? Have you been sneaking into town and listening to the merchants again? I told you they're no good!"

"Guess I'd better play along and see where this goes." Twilight decided taking a moment to get into character. "I wasn't listening to them again! But you should've listened to them, they could've helped us!"

"That's enough of that! Now go into town and sell this cow!" The mare exclaimed.

Twilight put a hoof to her mouth to stifle a laugh "This is amazing! Not only does it let me enter the book but things can happen differently than they're supposed to!"

Taking the rope tied around the cows neck she began leading it down the trail which she assumed lead to town.

*      *      *

Twilight had been trying for hours to sell the cow to any vendor she could find, but to no avail. "WHY WON'T YOU JUST BUY THE COW?" She shouted at a milk merchant, who was now cowering in fear. "I'VE BEEN TRYING TO SELL THIS COW ALL DAY SO JUST BUY IT!"

The merchant quickly retreated into the closest building when she stopped to take a breath "Why won't anypony buy this cow?" she wondered.

Giving up for the day, she began making her way back to the house she had appeared in front of.

While walking back to the house, Twilight's mind began to wander "It's going to be tough to sell this cow…" she suddenly stopped in her tracks "Wait, why am I worrying about selling this cow? That's not how the story worked! I was supposed to trade her to a hooded pony for some magic beans, how did I forget that?"

As everything fell into place she found one of her hooves quickly finding its way to her forehead "I could've just done that from the start, why was I trying to sell this cow again?"

Twilight searched her mind for answers before her eyes widened in worry "What if the spell really makes me become the character?"

After a moment of worrying she scoffed at the thought "Of course not, I can still think like myself! Now, to find that hooded pony!"

Resolute in her final decision, she made her way back up the path to town.

It wasn't all that hard to find the pony; in fact it was so easy she was curious as to why she hadn't seen him before. He was standing right in the middle of the market square, a large empty circle around him left from all of the ponies who were doing their best to avoid him.

Deciding against directly approaching the pony Twilight walked slowly past him with the cow following close by. "Excuse me sir," the hooded pony began.

This made Twilight frowned at being called "sir". "Yes?" she asked.

"I couldn't help but see what a nice looking cow that is, and I was wondering if you might be selling it?" he asked casually.

"That depends, how much are you willing to pay for it?" Twilight asked, knowing the answer.

The hooded pony held up one hoof "I'll give you these for it," in his hoof, were three green beans.

"Three beans? Are you mad?" she asked.

"These aren't any ordinary beans, these are magic beans!" he exclaimed.

Twilight rolled her eyes"And what do these magic beans do?" she asked.

The pony put his arm around her shoulder "I'm glad you asked!" he began "These beans are the key to all the riches you could ever imagine!"

Twilight eyed the beans still in his other hoof "How could those be the key to riches? They're just a couple of beans," Twilight scoffed.

"No, they're not just 'a couple of beans' they are the couple of beans. When you plant these, they'll grow a beanstalk that'll reach past the sky! And if you climb this beanstalk, it'll lead to a castle. Inside the castle is a goose that lays solid gold eggs!" he explained.

"Solid gold eggs? You could buy a million cows with that kind of gold! Why don't you do it then?" Twilight asked.

"Sharp one you are, alright you caught me there's a catch. A giant pony eating dragon lives in the castle," The hooded pony admitted.

"That's all? No dragon is gonna keep me from that kind of gold," she scoffed giving the pony the rope that was tied to the cow.

"That's the spirit!" He exclaimed giving Twilight the beans, before quickly turning tail and leaving as fast as he could.

*      *      *

"I did it!" Twilight thought proudly, looking up at the giant beanstalk. The previous day after she had taken the beans she went back to the broken down house, got yelled at by the brown mare, then planted and watered the beans. After sleeping overnight on the most uncomfortable bed ever made, she awoke to find the beanstalk just as the hooded pony had described it.

Twilight took a moment to think of a way to climb it; she didn't have any appendages that could climb, such as hands, like Spike did. Once again she found her hoof hitting her forehead "I'm a unicorn, I can just teleport." She realized.

Finally, after about 15 minutes of teleporting from leaf to leaf, she made it to the top of the beanstalk.

After taking a minute to rest, Twilight inspected the area and found that as far as she could see, there was a floor of clouds. Along with this, there was a gigantic castle a couple hundred meters away, "There it is," she remarked.

Casting the Cloud Walking spell, she made her way to the castle.