//------------------------------//
// Entry 18 and 19 
// Story: PONY OR DIE 1 
// by MLPG 
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Entry 18, by Tess


Entry 19, by Issac

"That's the last of them.  Are you sure you're only borrowing these?" Spike panted, resting against the latest box he'd hauled inside the library.  There were several dozen of them altogether, all neatly wrapped and tied, and each had been far heavier than he felt was strictly fair.  "Of course, Spike; they'll have the renovations finished in a few months," answered Twilight Sparkle.  She already had one of the boxes open and was excitedly poring through the various scrolls and tomes it contained.  "You can't expect us to keep an entire wing of the Royal Library indefinitely." "I didn't think we'd be keeping any of it at all," he grumbled. "Why'd they have to send it all here?  Don't they have places in Canterlot to store books?  Royal books at that?"  "This is just from the public collection, and Princess Celestia agreed to loan them to us as long as we help reorganize them for the new catalog."  Spike watched glumly as Twilight unwrapped another box, continuing to move literature around into numerous stacks, and asked her, "Doesn't she already have ponies to do that for her?" The unicorn went on as if he hadn't said anything. "And anyway, it'll be fun to go back through and see how many of these I can remember."  She stopped abruptly, and whirled on him.  "Do you think my missing test notes might be in here somewhere?"  He blinked at her.  "Never mind.  Help me start inventorying these, will you?"  Spike rolled his eyes, and went to fetch a fresh quill.  It was going to be a long day.

Late that night, after she'd noticed her assistant asleep in his chair and taken the time to tuck him soundly into bed, Twilight Sparkle was quietly rummaging through the latest open box by candlelight when a page fell out from the book she'd been moving to examine.  She chastised herself mentally for her clumsiness and gingerly levitated the paper to her desk.  "That's strange," she murmured.  The writing was clearly an older language, possibly as old as Akkribbean, and the document itself didn't seem much younger.  She wondered how it could have ended up in the public stacks; surely it must belong in one of the private wings for study and record.  "Uses of Thyme," she read, looking at the cookbook from which the page had fallen.  Flipping through its contents, she quickly concluded that it hadn't fit in there.  Perhaps it had been misplaced, she mused, or maybe it contained an ancient recipe.  That seemed unlikely to her, but Twilight thought she would write the Princess in the morning and ask her what to do about it.  In the meantime, she decided she might be more tired than she realized and began to carefully tuck the parchment away, when a thought occured to her.  She looked around, then picked up her candle to search for her dictionaries.

Hours later, Twilight had a rough translation of her mystery text.  "Amazing," she breathed.  It was a spell!  Not only that, but a spell as nuanced as any Starswirl the Bearded had conceptualized.  Its exact effects still eluded her, as the writing was somewhat difficult and did not conform perfectly to known translations, but the general idea seemed to be a kind of inversion or change of pony features.  Body reversal?  She wondered at that.  "Pegasi as unicorns?  Boys as girls?"  She giggled as she imagined a mixed up Ponyville, wondering how Applejack would like a big sister, or how Rainbow Dash would look as a stallion.  Would Rarity still focus on dresses?  Twilight supposed she would; she couldn't imagine her friend would abandon her specialties.  She sighed.  She knew she couldn't cast such a spell in the first place, not without permission and not without knowing precisely what it did.  Yawning, she slipped the scroll into a bag and set off for bed.  She could finish deciphering it in the morning.

"Twilight!" She became dimly aware of her name being called.  "Twilight!  You've got to come quick!"  Someone was yelling awfully loudly.  "Twilight!  Are you in here?"  She shifted in her covers.  "Twilight!"  Suddenly she was on the floor, looking up into the eyes of a small dragon and aware of a sharp pain in her back.  "Twilight!  You need to help!  Rarity, she-"  There was a crash from below, following by a voice that Twilight Sparkle could not quite place.  "Did you find her, Spike?"  "Come on, Twilight!"  Spike began tugging on her side, and she groaned and rolled over.  "What?  What is it, Spike, what happened?"  "It's Rarity, she read the-" "Rarity got small and we don't know how to fix her!"  Twilight peered down at the unicorn in the library.  "Who...?"  Her voiced trailed away as comprehension began to dawn on her. "Sweetie Belle?" "You've got to help change her back, Twilight," cried Rarity's younger sister.  She appeared to be taller than Twilight herself now and was dancing nervously near an overturned stack of books.  "What...what happened?" asked Twilight as she came down the stairs.  "I don't know!  I was just coloring when Spike gave her that message you sent her and all of a sudden everything got smaller!"  "What message?"  Spike gave her a desperate look and replied, "The one you put in the bag with those emeralds we got for her!"  Twilight's heart sank, and she turned and began searching for the spell she'd found the previous night.  It wasn't in any of her bags.  "What are you looking for?" asked Sweetie Belle.  "I just-here it is!"  She found the page tucked neatly in the dictionary she'd been using.  But her own translation was nowhere to be found.  "Where is she?" Twilight asked nervously. "She's still at home, but-" "Isn't anybody watching her?"  Spike and Sweetie Belle looked at each other, then back at Twilight. "No, but-" "Come on, there's no time to lose!" she cried, running out the door.

Arriving at the Carousel Boutique, Twilight dashed inside the shop and frantically looked around.  "Rarity?" She checked the back.  "Rarity?"  The bedroom door opened slowly, and a small filly walked out slowly.  "That was a cruel trick you played, Twilight.  It was in very poor taste."  Rarity was now roughly the size her sister had been yesterday, but did not otherwise appear to have changed much.  Relieved, Twilight said, "I'm sorry, Rarity, it was a mistake-" "And you are going to fix it.  Right now."  "Look, Rarity, that scroll wasn't supposed-" "Do you realize that I do not have a thing to wear?  Not one thing!"  Twilight tried not to let her growing annoyance show. "Rarity, where did you put that spell?"  Rarity peered coolly at Twilight, turned slightly to acknowledge the late arrivals of Spike and Sweetie Belle behind her, and turned to usher the three into her room.  She lifted the scroll from her bed over to Twilight.  "Here.  Now change us back, and do be quick about it."  Twilight accepted it and gave her notes a quick once-over.  "Did you try casting it again?" she asked.  "What do you mean?" "The spell.  It's supposed to be some kind of switch.  Did you try it again when it first changed you?"  "Twilight, all I did was read that once when everything went wrong.  I have been reading it over and over since then and nothing has happened since!"  Twilight frowned in puzzlement.  "That's strange, it shouldn't work like that."  "Are you saying you don't know how to undo it?"  Rarity sounded worried, now.  "No!  No, I just- nevermind."  Twilight set the paper down and, hoping for luck, began to cast the spell.

"Well?"  Sweetie Belle was the one asking this time.  Twilight opened her eyes, and saw everything as it had just been.  "That's strange," she said.  She looked at her notes again.  "Hey, Twilight, did you do something different with your hair?" Spike asked.  "No, why-" Twilight stopped, and looked for a mirror.  She noticed what had happened immediately.  Her mane was styled the opposite manner.  "I don't understand," she said.  "What's going on?" Rarity demanded.  Twilight just stared into the mirror, then began to cast the spell again.  Now she was looking back at the rest of the room.  Rarity looked impatient.  "I don't have all day, Twilight!"  Sweetie Belle asked, "Are you reading it right?"  Twilight just stood there, unsure of herself.  Sweetie Belle crossed over and moved to take a look at the paper.  "Let me see!"  "Hold on, I don't know-"  Something was definitely wrong, now.  Twilight knew it from the moment she saw herself standing on the other side of the room.

"Twilight?  What's going on?"  Spike asked.  She didn't know how to answer, but she knew that her assistant hadn't been a unicorn a minute ago, and the spell was definitely at fault.  "I think we're going to need some help with this one.  Spike, send a letter-"  She stopped abruptly, already realizing their predicament.  Rarity and Sweetie Belle then noticed what had happened.  "Twilight, why are there two of you?"  Spike, confused, turned around.  "What are you guys talking about?" he asked, and turned back.  Then his eyes widened, and he looked down.  "Twilight!  Why do I have hooves?" he yelled.  Twilight's mind was racing.  She knew something had to be done, but she didn't know enough about the spell to do it.  She didn't know enough about the spell!  "I don't know enough about the spell!" she yelled, and ran past Spike to go back to the library.  "Twilight?  Wait up!  You can't leave us like this!"

She tore open the door and, trailing three unicorns behind, rushed in and threw open the dictionary.  "Are you certain this is going to work?" Rarity demanded.  "Rarity, I really need to concentrate on this right now," she replied, scribbling furiously on a new sheet of paper.  A sullen silence took over the room.  Rarity pouted in a huff.  Sweetie Belle sat glancing awkwardly between her sister and Spike, who seemed to be standing rigidly still and staring at Twilight Sparkle.  At last she set down her quill.  The other three started expectantly.  "Okay, I'm not positive, but if I'm reading this right, we can undo this if we all read this at the same time."  "You're not positive?" Rarity asked sourly.  "It's either this now or we wait until we reach Canterlot and hope the Princess can fix this."  Exasperated, she merely crowded around the paper.  "Let's get this over with, then."  Sweetie Belle and Spike moved in as well.  "Here goes nothing."

"Did it work?" asked Sweetie Belle.  Twilight glanced at her.  She was back to her normal self, her eyes closed. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief.  "Yes, I think that did it.  Spike, you can stand up now."  He peeked an eye open, and sheepishly stood erect.  "Well, I'm glad that's over with.  I've wasted a prefectly good afternoon on this nonsense," Rarity huffed.  "Come along, Sweetie Belle.  Oh, and Twilight?"  She glanced back from the door.  "Thank you for the emeralds, they're simply perfect for my design."  Twilight smiled.  "You're welcome.  Sorry about today."  When they were alone again, Twilight told Spike, "It's been a strange day, hasn't it?  I need to tell the Princess about this.  Take a letter, will you?"  Flexing his hands, Spike replied, "With pleasure!  'Dear Princess Luna,'" Twilight looked at him.  "Why are you writing to her?"  "Didn't you say you needed to tell the Princess about this?"  Twilight Sparkle stared.