//------------------------------// // A Stormy Day // Story: Fur and Feathers // by Nexas //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle stood in an open field. Just standing there and taking everything in. The brilliant sun shined down on the unicorn, warming her lavender fur. White clouds dotted the sky, looking fluffy enough to sleep on, and not a single black cloud was present. If Twilight had to say, she would have said that this day was the best day ever, simply because of the perfect weather. Closing her eyes, Twilight sighed happily and- A random bolt of lightning, and a flash of thunder, shook Twilight Sparkle from her daydreams. The student was sitting at an open window of her tree house, a storm raging just outside the confines of her wooden home. Twilight looked around in confusion. Remembering what was really going on, the librarian let out a sigh as she watched the rain fall. "Why can't the weather ponies put the storm somewhere else?" Spike, who was dusting the shelves for the third time today, basically out of boredom, answered plainly with a sigh. "For the last time, they're moving the excess rain from Canterlot here so nopony gets flooded. Besides, we need the water for the plants and crops." "I know that," Twilight sighed again. "I read the notice too." She glanced outside just as another bolt of lightning came down, briefly illuminating the dark town. She sighed a third time. "Can't we just let the plants starve for one day?" "Hoo." Twilight's pet owl, Owlowiscious, cooed as he flew down from upstairs and fluttered down to the stand that sat on the desk in the middle of the room. "Hoo?" He called again, looking at Spike. Spike shrugged as if he knew what the bird was saying. "I dunno, she's having trouble waiting for this year's summer sun celebration or something." "I'm going to miss it!" Twilight snapped, dropping to the floor, despairing fully by this point. "This was going to be the anniversary of my coming to Ponyville and the defeat of Nightmare Moon! I was going to be the chief organizer!" Twilight curled up into a ball on the floor, a distressed expression painted on her face. "Think of the unchecked checklists..." She looked up at her assistant. "The checklists, Spike." Spike and the owl shared a look of exasperation at the unicorn's worries. "Sheesh Twilight, you really need to calm down. The celebration will still be held later." Twilight groaned into the library floor, her voice coming out muffled by the floorboards. "It won't be the same." Owlowiscious cooed again and fluttered threw the air, landing without a sound on Twilight's head. He sat there and preened his feathers. "Hoo." Spike climbed down from the shelves and walked over to the fallen librarian, stopping just in front of her. He didn't like seeing his sister figure like this. "Come on, Twi, why don't we try practicing some new spells instead? You can you can try a few new moustache spells on me!" "New spells..." Twilight mumbled, her eyes widening slightly. "Yeah, I actually found a new moustache spell that I wanted to try and-" "Spike!" Twilight gasped. She jumped to her feet, accidently knocking the owl atop her head to the ground, though she was too excited to notice. "You're a genius!" She said. "Thanks!" Spike grinned, enjoying the fact that she recognized his genius. "Now, I've been having ideas about one of those handlebar moustaches, only a huge one like five feet-" "I'm going to use my magic to stop the storm!" Twilight ran to the shelves, darting all around the room gathering books of all sorts. The expression on the assistant's face dropped. His joy dissipating "Of course." Twilight moved to the desk in the middle of the room, a swarm of books floating around her, all of them painted in the purple glow of her magic. "Okay..." she spoke hastily, "I'm going to combine a teleportation spell with a time traveling spell, so I can go back in time to Canterlot, so I can talk with the Princess and avert the storm, so that the celebration can go on schedule!" "Or..." Spike butted in, motioning to the raging downpour outside. "You could simply get rid of this storm instead." Twilight went silent, gazing at her assistant with widened eyes. "Right!" Twilight said louder than necessary. About half of the books that were floating softly in the air suddenly shot around the room and into their respective parts on the shelves only for an almost equal amount to fly out again to Twilight. "Right, of course! I mean that would obviously be my real plan," She hastily inserted her face into a book to avoid the other's suspiscious looks. "Right." Spike responded with a raised eyebrow that Twilight ignored. Owlowiscious, sensing something was happening, got up from his position on the floor and flapped over to Twilight and Spike, landing on the desk without a sound. Twilight flipped rapidly through the books, one by one, looking for the right spell. "Okay..." Twilight muttered as she set up the proper incantations in her head, feeling the buildup of magical energy in her body. She focused it into her horn causing it to glow and spark. "Okay, Spike." Twilight spoke through gritted teeth as her horn glowed brighter and brighter. "If my calculations are correct, and I have complete focus, my spell should go off without a hitch." Spike couldn't talk; he was in the middle of building a bunker out of extra thick books. By now the buildup of magic was intense; the air around Twilight began to crackle and pop, electricity building up with Twilight's magic. Unknown to the two, the storm outside was also getting worse, lightning bolts striking closer and closer to the tree house. Owlowiscious waddled back from the unicorn, sensing something was going to happen. "Okay." Twilight grunted. "Just one blast and the entire storm is gone." From inside his book bunker, Spike spoke up. "Don't you think that's a bit dangerous?" "Only if something breaks my concentration, but nothing can do that." Just then, as if the universe just wanted to spite her, a bolt of lightning came down through the open window and struck the unicorn. Twilight's convulsed and spasmed as the electricity coursed through her rigid body. "Twilight!" Spike shouted, concerned. "Herga-flerga-herg!" Twilight grunted. The added electricity from the bolt ran through her entire body all the way up to her horn mixing with the built up magic and unfortunately causing havoc with Twilight's concentration. The strain on Twilight was too much; stray bolts of charged magic shot out of Twilight and around the room, knocking books off their shelves and sending papers flying. With the build up at critical level, Twilight's charged magic was released in a wave that spread out around her, knocking down Spike's book bunker on top of him. The wave passed effortlessly through the library's walls and into the town all around it, blowing out the light in the process. Darkness and silence overtook all of the residents of the library for what seemed like forever, only the sounds of the disappearing storm let them know that they were still conscious. Sunlight coming in from the windows caused Twilight to groan. She rose weakly to her hooves and examined the damage. Her body was covered in black splotches of ash and her mane and tail were singed at the ends but other than that she seemed to be okay. "Twilight?" Spike called from inside his fortress of charred books. "Are you okay?" "Spike?" She groaned quietly at the sound of a voice, at least she thought she heard a voice, the ringing in her ears made it hard to figure out. "Where are you? I need you to clean up this mess." Spike groaned loudly as he quickly dug himself out of the pile of doorstoppers and went about picking up anything that wasn't burning. Twilight, slowly and shakily, got to her hooves and surveyed the messy room, flinching somewhat from the sunlight now pouring in. "Well...on the plus side, I think the storm stopped." "Yeah, and on the minus side I think you almost destroyed the town." "Almost only counts with horseshoes and explosion spells Spike" As the duo continued fixing up the room again, something began to stir in a dark corner of the room, the sounds reaching the ears of the librarian and her assistant. "Spike, I know that you're not hurt that much. You can stop groaning now." "Uh..." "...It's not you is it?" They turned as one towards where the noise originated from; a dark form in the corner that was covered in books. "Owlowiscious!" Twilight gasped. She rapidly crossed the room and found the familiar feathers of her owl buried underneath a mountain of books. "Has..." Spike spoke up suddenly, confusion washing over his face as he watched Twilight dig him out. "Has he always been that big?" Twilight didn't reply but was surprised that he was correct. Her second assistant was suddenly very big instead of the little pet owl that she had taken in. As she picked more and more books off of Owlowiscious, the form started to stir more and more. Eventually all of the books were cleared away, allowing Twilight to see the owl and inspect if he was hurt. "Well?" Spike asked over her shoulder. "Is he alright?" Twilight gulped and searched for the words. "Well... he's not hurt." Spike sensed distress. "But...?" The pony on the floor looked up at both of them. It was a Pegasus, his fur was light brown while his wings were darker shades, but the strangest thing was his eyes, light grey iris like a normal pony's except for the yellow sclera around it. "T-twilight?" Spike stuttered in shock. "Is-is that...?" She nodded slowly, not believing her eyes. "Owlowiscious... is a pony." The Pegasus smiled. "Hoo?"