//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: Twilight Spells Trouble // Story: Two Worlds; One Family // by MrEnter //------------------------------// "I can't take it anymore," Harry said, entering the library. It had been a month since the spider incident. "Look, I know this is hard for you, but you have to move on," Twilight said, not taking her eyes off of her book. Harry muttered something and sat down. He pulled a random book off of the shelf and began to read it. He didn't want to talk and Twilight could tell. She sighed to herself, feeling kind of guilty for him. Twilight and her friends tried to cheer him up each day, but he just seemed to become more and more distant. Twilight decided that she should try to make him happy once more. She levitated a book that she thought he might like over to him. "I already read that one," Harry groaned. He tilted his head. "What are you reading, Twilight?" "Oh, I'm just reading a spell book I found in the back of the library. It's got some really fascinating spells, and—" Twilight stopped when she realized that she had struck a nerve. "I'm sorry." "It's okay. It's not your fault that I can't do magic. Or fly." "Hey, you don't need to do magic or fly to be special," Twilight told him. She gave him a very awkward grin. "Earth ponies don't have magic or wings, and they fit in just fine." "I'm not an earth pony either." "I wish I could help you," Twilight said as she walked over to comfort him. "Wait, maybe you could," Harry said. His eyes lit up brightly when he said that. "I don't know anypony better with magic than you. I've seen you turn apples into oranges and rocks into hats. Could you turn me into a pony?" Twilight stepped back in surprise. Harry was making a pretty big order. Not only did that magic require a lot of skill and energy, but it was extremely dangerous—for both the caster and the target. Fruits and stones were one thing, but a creature like Harry was a different world entirely. But Twilight saw a spark in Harry's eyes that made it extremely difficult to say no. So she babbled incoherently until she could find an answer. "I've never done anything like that," Twilight said. "I don't know." "Could you try?" Twilight's mind flashed with the possibilities of all the horrible things that could go wrong. Harry could end up being a hideous beast with five eyes and two heads that breathes fire and spits poison out of its ears, and that was one risk that Twilight did not want to take. "It—it's too dangerous." "Come on Twilight. Please, do it for me." "No means no," Twilight said. She shifted her eyes from left to right as she saw an octopus-creature in Harry's place. "Please!" Harry asked. Twilight kept telling him no for what seemed like hours. Even that alone was tiring her out. Harry wasn't going to drop the issue anytime soon. If she said no today he would just be back again tomorrow asking for the same thing once again. Still, there was the possibility of backfire. Did the goods outway the bads? The longer that this went on the more that Twilight didn't care. She closed her eyes, hoped that this would work, and shot a beam of magic at Harry. There was an explosion of color. Blues and purples filled the room to be echoed by greens and reds. Twilight flew back into the bookshelf and was buried in an avalanche of books. She popped out of the pile and looked around the room in a daze. It was the strangest experience: there was two of everything and they were wavering back and forth. There was two tables, there was two windows, there was two doors, and there was two Harry's lying face-first on the floor. Uh-oh. Twilight shook her head. Harry was lying face-first on the floor. "Ohmygoshohmygosh are you okay?" Twilight asked, charging over him. Twilight shook Harry with her hoof for a few worried seconds before he groaned and jolted up. He looked to his hands, and sighed when he saw that they were still hands. No hooves. He looked at his whole body, and realized that he was the same old Harry. He moped up to his feet. "I'm sorry," Twilight said. "It's okay. Thanks for trying. Can I tell you something?" "Um sure..." Twilight said, half-nervous. "Your mane is on fire." Twilight put her hoof on her head and felt some extreme heat. Indeed, Twilight's mane was on fire. She bolted out the front door of the library screaming all the way as she ran towards the town's fountain. Harry sadly walked out the door, watching Twilight catch all the attention of fearful townsponies. That night Harry couldn't sleep. It wasn't the disappointment of a failed spell, although that didn't help. No matter how much he tossed and turned he just couldn't get comfortable. It felt like there were spikes in his back and they were wriggling. By morning his eyes were red and bloodshot. Harry thanked Celestia that it was Saturday and he didn't have to go to school today. Harry got out of bed and wearily gazed in his mirror. If he wasn't awake before, he was definitely awake now. He had wings; bright yellow, feathery wings. Harry looked to his hands. Still hands; no hooves. But wings. He tried to move them and to his surprise they actually flapped. And they knocked a pile of books off of the dresser. "Are you okay in there?" Fluttershy asked. Harry dashed to put a shirt on over the wings. It was a really tight fit and it hurt a little, but they managed to fit even though it pushed the sweater to its seams. It was a good thing that Rarity made such high quality clothes. Harry wanted to surprise Fluttershy about this whole becoming a pony thing and didn't want to unveil the surprise until he became a full pony. Then it hit him: the spell was working! Sort of. Harry had the wings of a pegasus and the body of a whatever-he-was. He would have to talk to Twilight to see why the spell didn't take full effect, but he would cross that bridge when he got to it. It could wait until after breakfast. The surprise of having wings overtook the feeling of having hunger. "I see you had some pleasant dreams," Fluttershy said over breakfast. Harry smiled as he spooned piles of oatmeal into his mouth. He wanted to get out of there and get to Twilight as soon as possible. As soon as the bowl was empty he dropped the spoon into it and nearly charged out the door before he noticed his hand... or rather, his claw. Each finger now had a sharp talon-looking thing tipping it off and some of the skin had become greenish scales. "Is something wrong?" Fluttershy asked. "No! Nothing!" Harry said, keeping his hand-things out of sight and he bolted out the door. Harry ran down the street towards Ponyville. This wasn't good, not good at all. Suddenly he heard a tear behind him. He took off the sweater to see that it had been riddled with holes. Harry extended his wings. They now had sharp spikes along the spines. These weren't pegasus wings. Harry had no idea what kind of wings they were. He upped the speed. What was happening to him? As he ran he looked to his other hand. It was still the same familiar hand, for the most part. Trickles of green cascaded across his palm and his pinkie finger had the same sharp nail that his other hand did. Harry almost knocked over every pony that he ran past. For the most part, they grumbled and strolled past. Harry didn't care. He made to the library and began banging on the door with his changed fist. To his surprise and horror the door broke in two. "I'm coming, I'm come—agh! What happened to you Harry, and—what did you do to my door?" "Twilight, you've got to help me! This morning I woke up with wings and I thought it was awesome, but then the wings grew spikes and I grew claws and what's happening to me?" Harry asked. His mouth ran a mile a minute. "I told you that the spell was dangerous," Twilight said as she ran to an open book and began rapidly flipping through the pages. "That's why I didn't want to cast it on you!" "I'm sor—" Harry said before his voice turned into simplistic growlings. Twilight turned to Harry, curious as to why he started growling. She shot back in horror to see that Harry's mouth had become a snout with fangs. This creature hobbled up to Twilight before it fell on all-fours. Its claws dug into the floor. Twilight backed up away from it. She knew it was Harry, but... this was Harry? Twilight had never screwed up a spell this badly before. Harry's eyes pleaded with Twilight to fix all this mess. Twilight tried to concentrate as hard as she could. She thought of that exact spell that would fix Harry and turn him back to normal. She focused and prepared to cast the spell, but Harry snarled. That focus was lost and Twilight shot a random bolt of magic. Harry's eyes grew red and he blew flames all around the library. Twilight barely managed to teleport herself onto the balcony in time. She watched helplessly as most of her books turned into ash. A fire brighter than the one Harry blew lit in Twilight's eyes. Her whole face turned red and she shot another beam of magic at Harry. This time it had the desired effect. Harry whimpered out of the library... by breaking through the walls. Ponies screamed in horror as the Harry-creature stormed by them, pushing ponies out of the way and demolishing stands. "Well, that could have gone better," Twilight said She gave a blank stare towards all of the wanton destruction. She decided that she had better stop this before somepony got hurt, especially because this was kind of... her fault. Twilight bounced off of the balcony and ran over the remains of her door only to bump into Fluttershy. "Oh, hi Twilight," Fluttershy said. "Have you seen Harry? He seemed to be in a hurry this morning and it got me kind of worried." "No. I mean yes. I mean no," Twilight said. Her eyes shifted back and forth. She gave a nervous grin. "Is that a yes, or a no?" "Yes it is," Twilight said. "Can't talk now. I've gotta... do some cleaning. The library is a total mess. Need to fix it up." And Twilight ran in the complete opposite direction from her library. Twilight had made it to the center of town to see that the Harry-creature was on top of SugarCube Corner and blowing fire down at the townsponies. Pinkie was even trying to throw cake to get the creature down. It was a major sense of deja vu. Twilight teleported herself onto the roof. The Harry creature blew smoke at her angrily. "Look, I'm sorry I turned you into this... um... thing, but I know a spell that'll turn you back to normal. If you'll just let me cast it," Twilight said. The second her horn glowed Harry clawed her and knocked her off the roof. Twilight managed to catch herself with a spell before she hit the ground, saving her from most of the pain. "What is that thing?" Fluttershy asked. "It's um... a... um..." Twilight stuttered. Fluttershy's eyes widened at the creature. "I'm going to talk to him," Fluttershy said. Fluttershy flew up to the roof of Sugarcube Corner. The creature was about to take another swoop, but stopped when he saw who was standing there. Fluttershy looked at Harry with a very disapproving glance. "Harry, why are you scaring all these ponies?" Fluttershy said. Harry gave a simple snarl and moved his eyes towards Twilight. Later on, near Fluttershy's cottage Twilight cast her spell that turned Harry back to normal. Harry's scales turned back into skin. His claws turned back into hands. His snout disappeared completely and his fangs turned back into teeth. "Now do you two want to tell me what all of this was about?" Fluttershy asked. "I..." Harry began. Twilight looked to Harry. He was struggling to tell the truth, she could see that, and that was enough for Twilight. She put her hoof on his shoulder, sighed, and began. "I tried to turn Harry into a pony. I saw how he was being bullied and I tried to help him fit in," Twilight said. She gave the same awkward expression she did before. "I messed up a little." "Harry, why did you go through with this?" Fluttershy asked. "I just wanted all the bullying to stop. Mom, I can't take it anymore," Harry said and he hugged Fluttershy. "Harry, if you try to change who are then the bullies win. Harry, we will love you no matter what and how you are, pony or no pony. You just need to love yourself, as you are. Can you do that for us?" "Yeah, I'll do that," Harry said. "I'm just about to start lunch if you wanted to stay," Fluttershy said, turning towards Twilight. Then Fluttershy left to go inside the cottage. "Thanks for covering for me," Harry said after Fluttershy went inside. "No problem. Just do me one favor." "What's that?" "Let us never speak of this again. Ever."