Twilight knocked lightly on the door that led to Gillian's room. From the outside, the room was just as silent as the rest of the cabin.
"Maybe she's still asleep, I should come back later," she whispered.
Twilice gurgled vexedly. "Are you the princess of sloth or are you the princess of friendship? You two are the only creatures in this Boiuna forsaken house that might actually be able to release me. Just open the door."
"No, that'd be rude, and I don't want to wake her up if she really is-"
Twilight was interrupted by Gillian opening her door. The second the door opened, a cacophony of clicks, thumps and whirrs of machinery flooded the hallway.
"C'mon in, Princess! Quickly, I don'wanna wake up anyone who's still sleepin'." Gillian said in a voice that was barely audible above the noise coming from her room.
Twilight hurried into Gillian's room, who quickly shut the door behind her.
"You're up early today! Are you excited t'make some new discoveries?" Gillian squealed, casually bounding over to the table where the small ice clump once sat.
"As ready as I'll ever be. I'm actually up early because I forgot to give you these yesterday." Twilight took two large pieces of magical ice from her bag. "Thank Celestia these don't melt, I brought my notebook for us to write our findings in, and I would hate to have it ruined."
"Don't you have twenty more hiding in those bags of yours?" Twilice pointed out.
"Can it," Twilight thought to herself and her friend. She turned back to Gillian, taking out her notebook in preparation as Gillian excitedly took the pieces of ice in her talons. "So where did we put that other piece?"
"Oh the first one? Well I was gonna follow through on that chemical test I planned t'run. I wanted t'start with th' basics, but I decided t'put it in a case for now so I wouldn't expose it to anythin' accidentally," Gillian hovered in the air, grabbing a small metal box from a metal shelf that nearly touched the ceiling. She carefully minded her footing as she landed, then stood to the side of the table to allow Twilight ample room to work her magic. "I wouldn't want to conduct such an experiment without my friend's help!" She beamed.
"Aww, thanks Gillian." Twilight walked over to the table, trying to ignore Twilice's grumbling.
Gillian's smile grew as she began to open the box. "O'course, Princess! You've been helpin' me with my work, 'n' your magic's been incredibly valuable. I couldn't do it withou-"
The lid to the box flipped open suddenly, and a cloud of sky blue sparkles spewed out and into Gillian's face. She sneezed, then, as the sparkles dissipated, tilted the box to look inside.
"uh... Twilight?"
"What happened?" Twilight leaned in to look into the box, and Gillian obliged, tilting it toward her. It was completely empty. There was no ice, no water no anything. the only sign that anything had been inside it at all were the faint cyan sparkles that had yet to escape.
"I don't understand, I didn't move this box at all since yesterday. Th' ice should be in here."
"Hmm... let me see something," Twilight reached for the box. Gillian handed it to her, and she flipped it upside down. She held it up as she kept an eye on the few traces of magic left. Within a few moments, the last remaining glimmers of magic faded away, leaving the box empty and grey.
Twilight set down the box on the table, her face contorted in thought. "That's not good."
Gillian snatched the box, turning it around in her talons. "What is it? What's th' matter?"
"The ice, it's not melting. It's fading."
Gillian tilted her head in confusion. "The ice's fadin'? How?"
"I'm not sure," Twilight placed one of the ice chunks on the table, "but I want to try something."
Twilight's horn shimmered as she began to cast a spell. The ice that sat on the table suddenly began to float in the air as it became surrounded in a bright purple glow. Twilight focused, and the blurry, gaseous aura around the ice slowly sharpened, until the ice was encased in a magical, violet sphere. It continued to float, even as the glow from Twilight's horn disappeared.
"There, that should keep it from disappearing on us while we figure out what's going on with it."
Gillian wiped the starstruck look on her face. "Right, yeah! OK! So... uh... how d'we do that?"
"We need to figure out what spell was cast, and what it's composed of. If we can find what Base the spell uses we might be able to figure out if there are any counter enchantments or naturally occurring phenomena that might be interfering with it." Twilight pulled out a large, weighty book and handed it to Gillian, who nearly tumbled over from its weight.
The griffon slowly stood back up, heaving the heavy tome onto the table "I'm uh... I'm gonna pretend I understand anythin'a what'chu just said."
Twilight giggled. "It's alright, I just need you to try and find a spell that might be line up enough with this spell in order for me to cast a uhm... an anti-spell, to undo the spell that made this ice. You get it?"
"I uh... think so?"
"Just sift through the chapters and look up anything on shielding or warding and we'll see where we go from there."
"Yes ma'am!" Gillian flipped through the dusty pages with lightning speed, her eyes a blur as they scanned its contents. Her eyes froze on a spell and she pointed to it. "Ah, this oughta be a good start: a spell to encase an object or being in stone."
"Hmm, I remember using that spell on Discord. Guess it's worth a shot to try it."
Deep within her mind, Twilice sighed. "Take your time, Princess. I'm sure I can dig myself out before you two figure this out."