Chapter 2: Everyone is Fond of Owls
“You need a hand, Winona?”
It hadn’t been difficult for Tank and Winona to find Twilight’s library. The two of them had paid Twilight multiple visits ever since Spike had decided to take up pet- sitting, and the directions to the library were all but completely burned into their memories.
Upon identifying the balcony as a potential point of entry, Tank was easily able to hover up onto it. Winona, on the other hand, was having a little more difficulty making the ascent.
“Ah’ll… be… fine!” Winona grunted, jumping up and down and desperately trying to reach the balcony to no avail.
Tank sighed and rolled his eyes. At times, it seemed like Winona was even more stubborn than he was. Five minutes would pass before Winona finally gave up, collapsing on the ground in a heap.
“All right…” she gasped. “Ah… ah give up. Help me up, Tank.”
Tank nodded, rolled off the balcony and slowly hovered downwards, stopping just within Winona’s reach.
“Grab on.”
Winona complied, hopping up to Tank’s level and wrapping her forelegs around his shell. As soon as she was able to secure her grip, Tank began his ascent.
Tank struggled to make it back up to the balcony, straining under the burden of Winona’s weight. Winona couldn’t help but feel concerned when she noticed his face: his eyes and teeth were both clamped shut, and beads of sweat were starting to dribble off his neck and onto her snout. Nonetheless, she decided to have faith in her tenacious friend and continued to hold on tight. Sure enough, Tank’s unshakable tenacity and spirit won out in the end as he managed to hoist Winona directly over the balcony.
“Y-you can let go,” grunted Tank. Winona nodded and let her friend slip out of her grip, hitting the floor of the balcony with a resounding thud.
“You *gasp* OK?” Tank asked, still trying to catch his breath as he lowered himself to the floor. Winona got up, brushed herself off, and gave him a nod in the affirmative.
“Y’think Owlowiscious’ll be happy to see us?” Winona pondered out loud, gingerly peeking her head through the glass door.
“I mean, I don’t see why he wouldn’t,” Tank responded, nudging the door open further with his head. “Though I, uh, think it’s best if we try not to surprise h-”
“OWLOWISCIOUS! OWLOWISCIOUS!”
Before Tank could even finish his thought, Winona barreled through the glass door and started bounding down the stairs, barking her friend’s name as loud as she could. Tank sighed, shook his head and hovered down after her.
The two of them arrived at the ground floor to find a very annoyed looking owl glaring at them, with a pile of books lying just below his talons.
“Oh, there y’are!” said Winona. “For a sec there ah was worried we wouldn’t find you. What’ve you been up to?”
“Well, I was helping mistress Twilight organize her books,” snapped the owl, “until I was so rudely interrupted. What in the blazes are you doing here, anyway?!”
Winona frowned and hung her head in shame. “Ah- ah’m sorry,” she whimpered.
“That doesn’t answer my question. What are you doing here?”
“Ah…dunno,” she said, shrinking away from Owlowiscious. “Ah just thought ah… ah… ah…”
Owlowiscious’s expression softened. No matter how hard he tried, it was impossible for him to stay mad at Winona whenever she got like this. He fluttered down onto the floor next to her and started to gently caress her back with his wing.
“It’s fine, okay?” he said as tenderly as he could. “I didn’t mean to snap. I just… well, sometimes I just get really caught up in my work. Mistress Twilight’s an awfully picky one, you know. I wanted to make sure that everything was perfect before Twilight returned, and, well, I got a little tense. That’s all.”
Winona reluctantly picked her head back up and looked Owlowiscious in the eye. “That’s all?” she asked timidly.
“That’s all,” he said. “You’re a good dog, Winona.”
A brave smile started to break across Winona’s face as soon as she heard those magic words.
“Now, what brings you to my library?” asked Owlowiscious.
“I can answer that,” said Tank, who had just finished descending the stairs. “I fell off a cloud and crashed into Winona’s house, and we decided we had nothing to do, so we came here.”
Owlowiscious eyed Tank confusedly. “I…see.”
“We’re tryin’ to round up all the other pets,” explained Winona. “We’ll be havin’ a pet playdate, ‘cept with nopony around tellin’ us what to do! Whaddaya say?”
Owlowiscious shook his head. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to say no. I have far too much work to do tonight.”
“Then we’ll help ya!” exclaimed Winona, grabbing a book off the shelf with her teeth. “Where’th thith go?”
“Where does what go?...oh, LORD!”
Owlowiscious looked on in horror as Winona’s teeth dug into the binding and drool started leaking all over the cover. He quickly glided over, snatched the book out of her mouth and stuffed it back into the shelf.
“I-I appreciate the offer,” he said, “but I think I can handle this myself, thank you very much.”
“What’s the big deal, anyway?” asked Tank. “I mean, who’s gonna notice if one or two books are out of-”
“Tank, before you finish that sentence, I want you to try to remember exactly who it is I work for.”
“…Oh,” mumbled Tank.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I still have plenty of sorting to do,” Owlowiscious said rather tersely, continuing his work. “I’ve wasted enough time as it is.”
Winona let out a deep, disappointed sigh. “Oh, well,” she muttered. “C’mon, Tank. Let’s get out of-”
“Wait,” Tank interjected. “Owlowiscious, let me ask you something. Did Twilight ask you to organize her books while she was away?”
“W-well,” Owlowiscious stammered, “she said…well, not explicitly… I mean, not exactly-”
“Yes or no, Owlowiscious?!”
“…no,” conceded Owlowiscious. “I decided to take it upon myself.”
“You sure that’s a good idea?” asked Tank, raising an eyebrow.
“Why, whatever do you mean?”
“Well…I mean, let’s say you’re Twilight,” Tank explained. “You come home one night to find that the books in your library are not the way you left them. How would you react?”
Owlowiscious gasped as his eyes shot open and beads of sweat began to form on his brow. “Oh, my lord,” he cried, “I’ve made a TERRIBLE mistake!”
He darted around the library, shifting books around and desperately trying to remember how they were originally. “Mistress Twilight will be most upset,” he muttered under his breath. “Most upset.”
“Y’know, Owlowiscious,” interjected Winona, “y’don’t have to-”
“Oh, most upset, indeed! I’ll be lucky if she doesn’t send me away to the Everfree-GAH!”
In the midst of his panic, Winona leaped up and grabbed hold of one of his talons. “What are you doing?!” he squawked, furiously pumping his wings in a vain attempt to get free. “Let go of me!”
“Listen, s…sugar,” grunted Winona, straining to hold him back, “everything’s gonna…gonna be fine, y’hear?”
“FINE?!” cried Owlowiscious. “Twilight is going to have my head on a-”
“No… she won’t,” interrupted Winona. “Ah promise you’ll be all right.”
Owlowiscious’s flapping started to decelerate. “How can you be so sure?” he asked.
“Trust me,” said Winona. “Worst comes to worst, ah’ll take the blame for th’ whole thing and you’ll be off the hook.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Owlowiscious sighed and gradually lowered himself to the ground, letting his body relax itself. “Okay.”
“So does that mean you’re comin’ with us?”
“Well, I don’t see why not,” Owlowiscious sighed. “It does sound like quite an enjoyable affair.”
“All-righty then!” exclaimed Winona, bounding out the front door. Owlowiscious and Tank quickly hovered out after her, desperate not to let her out of their sight. The three of them were now headed directly towards the Everfree Forest…