//------------------------------//
// New  -- Chapter 2 
// Story: Phases of the Moon 
// by Laurence Brown 
//------------------------------//

"Oh dear."

Luna stared in disbelief as the events around her went from calm to chaotic in the blink of an eye. She had been levitating the sapphire that had been created when Twilight had cast her spell that had changed her into an earth pony. Then, a filly had been shoved through the entrance of the bakery and into Twilight, who had then somehow managed to swallow the gem!

Twilight tried to cough up the stone on her own, but was unable to regurgitate it. Sweetie Belle glared back at Scootaloo, who was rubbing her head with a hoof from the collision she had just initiated. "What were you thinking?" the unicorn filly demanded of her friend, pointing at the coughing pony. "Now you've gone and made Twilight choke on something!"

Scootaloo tilted her head in confusion. "Twilight? What are you talking about, Twilight isn't here!" The orange pegasus filly motioned with a hoof. "Now come on! We're in the middle of a game, remember?" Without waiting to see what Sweetie Belle was going to do, Scootaloo ran off towards Apple Bloom, who was waiting for them a short ways away outside.

"But, but, magic, glowing, Twilight, changing..." Sweetie Belle's voice drifted off as the filly tried to comprehend everything that had just happened and found herself unable to do so. "You are Twilight, right?" she softly asked the crimson red earth pony in front of her.

Twilight gave Sweetie Belle a sad smile. "Yes, I am." Seeing the filly's eyes start to tear up, she placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder. "Don't worry, I don't blame you for this, and I'm sure we'll be able to find a way out of this mess. Just don't go telling everypony about this, okay?"

Seeing Sweetie Belle nod, Twilight steered the filly towards the door. "Why don't you go back outside and play with your friends, we'll take of things here. After all, we have Princess Luna to help us out. She'll be able to solve this quickly with her magic, right?"

Sweetie Belle looked over at Luna, who nodded and said, "We'll have this taken care of in no time at all, I'm sure. Now go ahead, you don't want to keep your friends waiting, do you?"

The filly glanced back and forth between Twilight and Luna one last time. "Okay, if you're sure. And I won't tell anypony, Twilight. I don't think they'd believe me anyway!" She then turned around and ran out the door.

Dewdrop walked over to the door and closed it. "So, what do we do now?" she asked worriedly.

"Well," Luna said, "I think the first thing we have to keep in mind is that we have a year before the spell becomes permanent. We don't need to rush or stress about anything for quite a while."

"Why is that stone so important?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"That's the spell focus," explained Luna. "In order for the spell to be canceled, so Twilight can return to being a unicorn, we need to break the stone. When I changed back from being Moonbeam, I just needed to give mine a stomp."

"Ooh! Want me to stomp on your stomach, Twilight, to see if I can crush the stone that way?"

"Um, thank you for the offer, Pinkie Pie, but I think I'll hold off on trying something that desperate at this point," Twilight replied wryly. She turned to Luna. "I don't suppose you know some sort of spell that could get the stone to come back up, do you?"

Luna paused to consider the request. "I don't think I could do it with simple telekinesis. Too big of a risk of me pulling on something that I shouldn't. I could maybe do it if it was inside of me, since I would have a better idea of what I was manipulating, but I wouldn't feel comfortable trying it on somepony else."

"Ooh! I know!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. "We could find somepony who has the flu! We can make you sick, and then all you need to do is have a bucket nearby!"

Dewdrop made a disgusted face. "Eww, no! Besides, she'd still be sick afterwards, that'd be no fun!"

"I'd like to avoid getting sick as well, if at all possible," Twilight agreed, "but that does give me an idea. Maybe there's some sort of spell to make a pony vomit. In case somepony eats something they shouldn't have, like a poisonous mushroom? Would any of the nurse ponies here in Ponyville know one?"

"No, Nurse Redheart is an earth pony, so she wouldn't have any use for a spell like that," Dewdrop replied. "Still, I can go check to see if she has some sort of medicine that would do the same thing. Want me to go check?"

"Please do," Twilight said. "While you do that, the rest of us can go search the library. After all, it had the spell book with the transformation spell in it, so I don't see why it couldn't also have a book containing medical spells."

Luna nodded. "We could also have Spike send a message to my sister, I'm sure they could find a spell for the job in Canterlot if you don't have one here in Ponyville."

Twilight paled at the suggestion. "Um, I'm not certain I want to tell Princess Celestia about this right now, to be honest. I wouldn't want to worry her, especially if we have the solution here in town."

Pinkie Pie giggled. "Somepony's embarrassed!" Seeing Twilight give her a reproachful look, Pinkie Pie bounced over to her friend and tossed a foreleg over her shoulders. "Don't you worry, Twilight! I won't blab about this to anypony. Besides, like I was telling Luna earlier while you were getting the spell book, this could be the perfect chance to prank Rainbow Dash! She'll never know what hit her!"

"Let's get the stone out of her first, and then we can see what Twilight's feeling up to, okay?" Luna looked at Twilight. "And we don't have to tell Celestia anything right now if you don't want to. I only suggested it because it might help get the stone out of you faster."

"And I appreciate that, I really do." replied Twilight. She looked at Luna with pleading eyes. "It's just too embarrassing at this point though, and we have some options to explore first before we have to tell her, right? I don't want her to think that I need to go to her whenever some emergency comes up. So let's get working on our ideas first, that way if we have to ask her, it won't be too late in the day when we do."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Dewdrop said as she opened the door again. "Let's head on out, I'll catch up to you at the library as soon as I can!" With that, the orange unicorn left the bakery, followed closely by the other three mares.

Even though it was a short walk from Sugar Cube Corner to the Ponyville library, Twilight still felt nervous that somepony would point at her and start laughing. She was relieved to see that Princess Luna was the one receiving all of the attention. Many of the ponies they passed bowed down and called out greetings to the alicorn, while a few also waved to Pinkie Pie.

When they got to the entrance of the library, Pinkie Pie hopped ahead and opened the door. "Don't worry," she called back to Twilight and Luna, "I'll handle Spike." Bouncing inside, she looked around and, not seeing the young dragon around, hollered out, "Spikey! You have some visitors!"

"Coming!" After a second, Spike came down the stairs carrying a couple of books. "Heya Pinkie Pie! Oh, hello Princess Luna! Wait, weren't you with Twilight? Where did she go, and who's this other pony?"

"Well, this here is my aunt Sunri- mrrphit!"

Twilight shoved a hoof into Pinkie Pie's mouth. "Actually, I am Twilight, Spike. Remember how I just ran in here a few minutes ago to grab a book?" Seeing Spike nod slowly, she continued, "The book I got was 'Teakettle's Tome of Transformations'. The book that Luna used to disguise herself as Moonbeam, remember?"

"And so, you cast the spell yourself then?" Spike asked. "Why haven't you changed back?"

"Well, um, that's a long story, but to make it short-"

"Hey!" Spike interrupted. "Where's the book? Twilight would never leave a book behind!" Spike turned and pointed at Pinkie Pie. "This is a prank of yours, isn't it?" The pink pony started to protest, but Spike interrupted her. "You almost had me. Getting Princess Luna, of all ponies, to go along with it was a master stroke, but I saw through your scheme this time!"

"Oh my gosh! I left the book at the bakery!" Twilight exclaimed. "I need to go get it!"

Spike nodded as he watched the crimson earth pony gallop out the door. "Yup, and the next thing you know, Twilight will be the one who comes back in. Just watch!"

Pinkie Pie was smiling widely. "Yup, Spike, you figured me out! And you're right, Twilight will be coming back through that door in just a minute or two. You're on top of things today!" She then turned, covering her mouth with a hoof in an attempt to conceal the fact that she was about to explode from laughter.

Luna did her best to hide the grin that she felt growing on her face. While she felt some guilt about the prank, she thought it might be best to let Pinkie Pie have this chance now, instead of trying to fool somepony else later when it might have worse consequences.

Spike continued to look smug while they all waited. Soon, they could hear the galloping hooves of an approaching pony, and Twilight came back through the door. Closing it behind her, she dropped the book onto an empty shelf. "Boy, I can't believe I did that! Just goes to show how rattled this has me."

The dragon looked at Twilight. "Look, there's no need to keep trying to fool me, I-"

"Spike! I am Twilight!" She stomped a hoof in frustration. "I cast the spell that changes a unicorn into an earth pony, but we had a literal run-in with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and I ended up swallowing the stone, so I'm stuck like this for now!"

Pinkie Pie burst out laughing. "See? You were right! Twilight was the next pony to come through the door!"

Looking at Luna for confirmation, and seeing her nod in agreement, Spike simply stared at Twilight in shock. "So," he finally said in a weak voice, "are you going to be stuck like this forever?"

Twilight gave her dragon companion a comforting smile. "Not if we can help it. We've got a couple of ideas we're looking into, and Princess Luna can ask Princess Celestia for help if we need it. We'll figure this out in no time." Twilight turned and headed for the stairs. "Now, if you'll excuse me for a couple of minutes, I'm going up to my room. I haven't had a chance to look in a mirror yet, and I want to see what I look like before I change back."

As Twilight trotted up the stairs, Luna turned to Spike and asked, "Maybe you could help us get started in our search, please?"

"Um, sure. What are you looking for?" asked Spike, who was still trying to come to grips with what had happened.

"We're looking for a book that might have some medical or healing spells in it. We would like to be able to help Twilight get the stone to come back up, if possible."

Spike considered Luna's request. "Well, with how often the books get taken off the shelves, things aren't as organized as they should be. However, there" he said, indicating a shelf near the ground, "and there," while pointing across the room to another group of books, "might have what we're looking for. Let me go grab the ladder, there's also another section up there that might have something too." A few minutes later, Twilight came back down the stairs with a thoughtful look on her face.

"What's up, Twilight?" Pinkie Pie asked after placing a book down on the floor to look through.

"Oh, I'm just wondering if this is how I would have looked if I was born an earth pony instead of a unicorn."

"Oooh. That would be weird, especially with you being the Element of Magic and all. Or would you still be the Element of Magic?"

Twilight blinked. "I hadn't even thought about that. Wow, I wonder if some other pony would have become the Element of Magic then. I can't see anypony but a unicorn in that role." She looked around. "Well, those thoughts can wait for later. What can I do to help?"

Luna pointed to a small stack of books next to her. "How about you read through these while I keep on looking for more possibilities?"

"Sounds good to me." Twilight trotted over and peered at the stack for a moment before shaking her head. "No offense, princess," she said as she awkwardly used her hooves to open a book and slowly flip through its pages, "but I hope I don't stay like this long enough to get as good at doing things without my magic as you must have been."

"Oh, the first week was miserable, let me tell you," Luna said with a chuckle. "I felt like a foal, learning how to do even the most basic of tasks all over again. Preparing a meal, taking a bath... I almost drowned the first time I tried to pull the plug from my bathtub while it was full! The hardest thing for me was trying to learn how to use my telescope. So many tiny and precise adjustments go into setting it up, it drove me to frustration at times." She paused to levitate another promising looking book down from the shelves. "Still, after a while, I got used to it, and it really wasn't any problem at all. I just had to keep on telling myself I was doing things that fillies and colts did on a daily basis, so there was no reason why I couldn't do them either."

Twilight nodded slowly. "That makes sense. Still, I don't want to stay as an earth pony long enough that those things become second nature. No offense, Pinkie Pie!"

"None taken! I can't imagine what it would be like to lose something like that. Oh, wait, maybe I can. I bet it would be like if I lost my Pinkie Sense. That would be terrible, not knowing when things were about to fall out of the sky!" Pinkie Pie gave Twilight a very sad look. "Don't you worry, Twilight, we'll get that stone out even if I have to reach down your throat myself to get it!"

"Hopefully it won't come to that. Worst comes to worst, I'm thinking we'll just have to wait for it to work its way through."

The next half hour was spent in silent study. Soon everyone had a small stack of books next to them, and they were all scanning the tomes, looking for a suitable spell. A knock on the door made them all look up. "Who is it?" called out Twilight, who then put a hoof to her mouth.

"It's Dewdrop! May I come in?"

"Please do!" called out a relieved Twilight. Once the unicorn had entered and closed the door behind her, Twilight said, "I was worried that I had just called out to somepony who wouldn't recognize my voice and wonder who the new librarian was!"

Dewdrop was carrying a bag in her mouth which she placed on the floor. "I'm sorry I took so long. Nurse Redheart didn't have anything to help induce vomiting, but she did want to know what the problem was. So I gave her a very basic account of what happened. I told her that a friend of mine had accidentally swallowed a rock, and I asked if there was some way to get it out, since she was worried about it getting stuck in her stomach.

"Nurse Redheart said that while there was a very small chance that the stone might get stuck, she didn't think it was likely, and that all we had to do was wait a day or so for nature to take its course. Still, to be on the safe side, in case you want it, she gave me some medicine to help you out." Dewdrop opened the bag to show a jar containing a green powered substance. "You sprinkle some of this on your food, and it will help your digestive system. It will give you the runs, but should guarantee that the stone works its way through. She also said that if you use the medicine to drink a lot of water, so you don't get dehydrated."

Luna walked over to examine what Dewdrop had brought with her. She sniffed at the jar, and then wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Ick, not a pleasant odor at all." She turned back to Twilight. "Well, we haven't found anything yet, but we still have some books to go through. What do you want to do?"

"Hmm, well, if Nurse Redheart thinks that the stone will come out on its own, I think I can wait a day and see what happens. I honestly wasn't that keen on making myself vomit anyway." She turned to Dewdrop. "Thank you for visiting with the nurse and bringing me back this medicine. I don't think I'll use it yet, though. If by this time tomorrow nothing has shown up, then I might take some and see if that helps. After that..." Twilight shrugged. "I don't know. But I'll have time to think about it, and that's what matters."

After a brief moment of consideration, the other ponies were nodding their heads in agreement. "Let me go back to Sugar Cube Corner," said Pinkie Pie. "If you're going to make that stone work its way through you, you might as well have it helped along by something tasty!"

After she had bounced out the door to make good on her word, Twilight turned to Dewdrop and Luna. "Thank you very much for your help, and I'm sorry that I kind of stole the show from you, Princess."

Luna smiled at Twilight. "And thank you again for your help in setting everything up for today. I know you didn't mean for this to happen, Twilight. I'd like to stay and help you out in any other way that I could, but my sister is expecting me back home shortly."

"I understand," said Twilight. "It would be awkward for me to have Spike send her a scroll asking you to spend the night with me, without explaining the situation to her. Dewdrop, would you be willing to stay and help me out? I don't foresee there being any difficulties, but then I didn't think I would be in my current situation either."

"Of course, hun. Just give me a few minutes to run back home to tell Feather Down where I'll be and to gather a few things." She turned to Luna. "I'll see you again in just a few days. I'll make sure to tell you how things went then, if we don't end up asking Princess Celestia for help in the meantime."

"I'll be looking forward to it." Luna hugged her friend tightly. "Tell Feather Down I said hello, would you?"

"I certainly will." The two mares headed to the door to leave, and opened it to reveal what was apparently a mobile stack of cakes, muffins, and other sweets.

"Thanks for getting the door!" Pinkie Pie called out. "Twilight, where do you want me to put these?"

Twilight boggled at the sheer amount of food that Pinkie Pie had brought back with her. "There's no way that I can eat that much!" she exclaimed.

Pinkie Pie giggled. "It's not all for you, silly! The rest of us will need something to eat too!"

Luna's horn glowed, and she floated the baked goods onto a table. "I wish I could stay, Pinkie Pie, but I have to be heading back to Canterlot."

"Aww! Do you have to? I barely got the chance to see you too! You'll come back to visit more, right?"

"I'll try to come as often as I can, but I can't guarantee anything. Celestia is keeping me busy, what with all the studies I let slip when I left last time. I'll do my best though, I promise."

Pinkie Pie bounced over and gave Luna a hug. "Okie dokie loki!"

Luna waved to everypony one last time, then walked out the door and headed to where the guards patiently waited for her by the chariots.

"It'll take me around ten minutes to go home, get my things for the night, and come back," Dewdrop said after Luna had disappeared around a corner.

"Just knock and come on in when you get back. I'm not expecting anypony else at this hour," said Twilight.

"Don't take too long," cautioned Pinkie Pie, "or all of the food may be gone by the time you get back!"

Dewdrop paused to look at the mountain of food that Pinkie Pie was referring to. At just a quick glance, she counted no less than four cakes, a platter with some fritters, two plates of cupcakes, a bag full of muffins, and a few items she couldn't see clearly because they were behind or underneath the other items. "Just how much food are you going to..." Dewdrop paused as Pinkie Pie opened her mouth and proceeded to eat a cupcake in a single bite. "Ah. Right. Well, save some for me, please?"

"Will do!"

"Thanks, hun. I'll be back as quick as I can." Dewdrop briskly trotted away from the library.

Pinkie Pie watched Dewdrop leave, then turned towards Twilight. "All righty! Let's get some tasty pastries inside of you! What do you want to start with, a few fritters, a couple cupcakes, or a dozen danishes?"



Feather Down was surprised to see her roommate enter, yell out a quick greeting, and then run upstairs. "Hey," she yelled up to Dewdrop, "what's the rush?"

Dewdrop poked her head back into the stairway. "Sorry, Feather Down, something came up, and I'll be spending the night at Twilight's."

"Really?" asked Feather Down. "I'm not trying to be nosy or anything, but what do the two of you have in common besides being unicorns? Oh, does this have anything to do with those meetings you helped set up for Luna?"

"Ah, well..." Dewdrop blushed a little. "To be honest, I really don't want to talk about it. It's kind of unicorn related, but..." she trailed off and looked away from her roommate.

Feather Down was surprised. There were practically no secrets between the two of them; whatever it was that Dewdrop didn't want to tell her must be pretty embarrassing for her to keep her mouth shut. She smiled up at her childhood friend. "Well then, don't worry about telling me. You just let me know if there's anything that I can do to help you out somehow, okay?"

Dewdrop gave Feather Down a relieved smile. "Thank you so much for understanding! By the way, have you seen my toothbrush?"

"I think you left it in the kitchen. You were in such a big hurry to get to work this morning, you pretty much did everything at the same time. I'm surprised you didn't try to eat your hair brush and use your breakfast to wash your face!"

Dewdrop lightly rapped her forehead with a hoof. "You're right, now that you mention it I know exactly where I put it. Thank you!" She came back down the stairs with her saddlebags on her back, and walked into the kitchen. "I'll be honest, I'm not certain how long I'll be over there, but I'll be surprised if I'm not back before this time tomorrow." Her horn glowed, and her toothbrush rose from its resting spot in an empty glass next to the sink to float into her bags.

Feather Down whistled. "A whole day maybe? Huh. Well, I won't pressure you, but like I said, I'm willing to help if you need it."

"And I appreciate it, hun. I really do." She gave Feather Down a big hug. "But it isn't my call on who I can tell. I'll pass along your offer though, I promise."

"Okay. Have a good night then, Dewdrop!" Feather Down held the front door open for her friend. "I'll try to find some way to survive," she said melodramatically.

Dewdrop rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you'll manage somehow." With a final wave, the orange unicorn galloped off.

Feather Down closed the door and looked around. "Ooh!" she said, her eyes lighting up, "If I'm right..." Trotting into the kitchen, she opened the freezer door. "Yup! Looks like the last of the mint chocolate chip ice cream is mine for the taking!"



Dewdrop knocked on the library door and then stepped inside. "I'm back!" She looked around and didn't see anybody except Spike. "Huh. Where did they go?" she asked the dragon.

Spike pointed at the stairs leading up. "They're getting the bed ready for later tonight. Pinkie Pie said to help yourself to the food." He gestured at the table, which looked to Dewdrop to have only half the food on it that she remembered it holding just a short while ago.

"My goodness, Pinkie Pie sure ate a lot, didn't she?" Dewdrop said as she chose a couple of pastries for herself.

"Actually, Pinkie made sure to feed most of it to Twilight. She really wanted to make there was enough stuff in Twilight's stomach to help push the stone." Spike glanced upstairs. "I'm a bit worried though," Spike admitted.

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Twilight isn't much of a big eater, or one for too many sweets."

"Ah, you're worried that Twilight's going to get stomach cramps?" asked Dewdrop.

"Actually, I'm more afraid of what all that sugar is going to do to her. I'm not sure the world is ready for a hyper Twilight Sparkle."

Dewdrop giggled. "Well then, it may be a blessing in disguise that she doesn't have the use of her magic right now." Her horn glowed, and a plate with the food Dewdrop had chosen rose up to sit on an empty shelf near the ceiling. "I'll save that for later. Right now, I better go check and see how they're doing on getting things ready up there."

After a quick climb up the stairs, she saw that Twilight and Pinkie had managed to successfully get a second bed set up. "Hello! Spike said you two were up here, so I thought I'd see what was happening."

"Hello Dewdrop!" Twilight said in a happy voice. "I've been thinking about this whole situation, and I realized that this is a chance to do some experiments that I might never get a chance to do again! Well, I guess I could do them again, all I need to do is cast that spell, but honestly why tempt fate more times than I need to, right? But this is an opportunity for me to see just how much I take my magic for granted, by trying as many everyday tasks as I can! I've been making a list of them, and the funny thing is, I didn't even think that making a list was one of the things I was going to put on the list until I got started writing and realized just how hard it is to write with the pencil in your teeth instead of using a basic telekinesis spell! So far, I've got making a bed, reading a book, making a list, watering plants, making a sandwich..."

While Twilight continued to read off her list, Dewdrop edged over to Pinkie Pie, and quietly asked out of the corner of her mouth, "Sugar rush?"

Pinkie Pie nodded with a giant smile on her face. "Sugar rush!" she exclaimed happily.

Dewdrop sighed. She hoped things weren't going to be this hectic the entire night. Seeing Twilight pause in her reading to take a breath, she asked, "What can I do to help you, Twilight? Would you like me to be in charge of the list?"

"Please!" Twilight said enthusiastically. "It'll be much easier for you to take notes, and this frees me up to actually do the things I've written down." She motioned for Dewdrop to come over and take a look. "What do you think we should start with?"

Dewdrop examined the list. It was obvious that Twilight had very little practice writing without using her magic; she could barely make out half of the words because of the sloppy pencil work. She was about to comment on it when she realized that she would be no better if in Twilight's position. Thinking back, the last time Dewdrop could remember writing with her mouth was way back in school, before her magic had come into bloom.

Seeing Twilight looking at her questioningly, she smiled. "Sorry, my mind wandered for a bit there. Well, it looks like you can cross a few items off this list," she said as she levitated a pencil. "You've made a bed and a list, for starters. Hmm, well, we have some dirty dishes downstairs, do you want to try cleaning those?"

"You bet!" Twilight trotted down the stairs, humming a tune to herself.

Dewdrop looked at Pinkie Pie. "Do you think it was a good idea to get her so hyped up on sweets?"

The pink party pony nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! Not only is she so excited that she's turned her apprehension about not having her magic into a fun challenge, when the sugar rush wears off it'll be easy to get her to bed for the night. Hopefully the crash will overwhelm any lingering worries she might have, and she'll fall asleep right away."

Dewdrop was momentarily stunned. "Wow, that's great thinking Pinkie Pie! I apologize, I had thought you were just being reckless, but you've obviously put more thought into this than I have."

Pinkie Pie smiled at the orange unicorn. "Oh, I also did it to see what Twilight is like when she's all hyped up on sugar," she said with a wink. "C'mon, let's go make sure she doesn't break anything in the kitchen." Pinkie hopped down the stairs, and Dewdrop quickly gathered up Twilight's list and the pencil with her magic and followed after her.

Down below, Dewdrop saw Twilight stack a couple of plates on top of each other, then carefully grab the bottom one with her teeth. Fearing the worst, She prepared a spell to try and grab anything that the former unicorn might drop on her trip to the kitchen. Although Twilight had to occasionally stop in order to make sure nothing fell from the small pile she carried, she made it through the door that Pinkie Pie held open for her without dropping anything.

Carefully placing the stack down next to the sink, Twilight looked around the kitchen for her cleaning supplies. "Let's see, I have some dish soap out already, and I have some towels and sponges too. All I need to do is fill up the sink, and I'll be set!"

Pinkie Pie looked at the stuff that Twilight had assembled. "Oooh, it's going to be hard to clean dishes with a sponge like that. Want me to run over to Sugar Cube Corner and grab one of our sponges for you?"

Twilight blinked. "What's wrong with my sponge? I use it all the time to do the dishes."

"With your magic," Pinkie noted. "You won't be able to get a good grip on a sponge like that with just your hooves though. The sponges we use at the bakery are like socks; they slip onto the end of your hoof, and let you scrub without worrying about losing your grip on them."

"Hmm, thank you for the offer, Pinkie Pie, but I'm going to try this with what I have here. If I don't get them clean now, I'll make sure I do them again once I get my magic back." Twilight leaned over and turned the hot water faucet on with her mouth. She then looked around for the bottle of dish soap, and picked it up with her hooves.

Or at least tried too. The half empty bottle was slippery from previous uses, and the container squirted out from between her hooves to fall into the sink, dumping some of its contents in the process. "Oh no!" Twilight exclaimed before fishing with both hooves in the slowly filling sink for the bottle. She finally got it up against the side of the sink, and managed to drag it out to leave it laying on its side on the counter top.

By now, a lot of suds had built up, and Twilight found herself having a hard time finding a way to reach the water faucet without getting her muzzle sudsy. Finally, seeing that the sink was about to overflow, she gave up and stuck her head into the soap bubbles and turned off the water. When she pulled her head back out, Pinkie Pie and Dewdrop both laughed. Twilight's head was framed by a fluffy halo of soap suds. "You look like you have a manticore's mane!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie.

Twilight giggled and brushed the bubbles off of her face and back into the sink. "Okay, here goes nothing!" Grabbing the top plate from the stack she had brought in with her, Twilight slowly let it slide into the sink. She then carefully grabbed a sponge with both hooves and dropped it into the sink also. Sticking a hoof into the water, she pinned the sponge against the plate and started to scrub it clean. She turned to her friends and smiled. "This is weird! I've never gotten my hooves wet doing this before, and now even my forelegs are getting soaked. I hope we have enough towels."

After half a minute of scrubbing, Twilight grabbed the plate with her hooves and lifted it out of the sink to inspect her work. Blowing a clump of clinging soap bubbles back into the sink, she then eyed her work carefully. "Could use a little more effort," she decided as she put the plate back into the sink. "Oh, I forgot to fill up the rinse sink! I'm so excited by all of this I'm forgetting simple things."

As the other sink filled up, Twilight went back to cleaning the plate. She stopped several times to feel the dish with her hooves, and after finding spots she missed each time resumed her scrubbing. Finally she felt she had done enough work on the plate. Dunking it in and out of the rinse sink, she put it on a towel to air dry.

Pinkie Pie gave the plate a look over. "Good job, Twilight!" she said. "It may be taking you longer than usual, but it's as clean as it was when I loaded it up with food to begin with."

"Thank you. Let me get the rest of these plates clean, then I'll try something else on the list. No sense filling up the sinks just to wash a single dish, after all."



Over the next few hours, Twilight helped Spike put books back on the shelves, swept the floor, performed a simple experiment in the basement, and watered the plants outside the library. The sun had finally set, and Dewdrop noticed that Twilight's energy was quickly fading.

"Well, you managed to get quite a few things crossed off the list," Dewdrop said as she looked over the scroll. "Did you want to call it a night and start again in the morning, or...?"

Twilight shook her head. "There's one last thing I want to try, and I've been saving it for now. Luna said the hardest thing for her to learn to do was use her telescope. Well, I've got a telescope on the uppermost balcony, so I thought I'd give that a try now that it's dark enough to use it without blinding myself."

The three mares headed upstairs, and soon found themselves outside, shivering as a breeze made the autumn night feel colder than it was. Dewdrop whistled at the sight of the telescope. "Wow, this one is much bigger than the one Luna had. But I think hers was made to be carried around. This one looks to be more stationary."

Twilight nodded. "It is, although it can still be moved easily enough. For example, if the pegasus weather teams have a storm scheduled, I make sure to bring it inside. And with winter about to start, I'll have to drag it in so it doesn't get snowed under." She looked over the knobs and dials on the device. "Okay, see that mountain top over there?" Twilight pointed with a hoof to a nearby peak.

"Ooh! That's the one where the dragon wanted to take its nap, right?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Correct. Since the telescope is currently set to look at the Pleiades, this should be a good challenge of how well I can adjust it without my magic."

Twilight took a moment to consider how she wanted to proceed, and then got to work. She found that while it was easy to loosen the knobs that held the telescope's barrel and lenses in position, getting them tight again while maintaining what she was aiming at was extremely difficult. Even the slightest unintended bump to the barrel of the telescope would result in the viewing target being off center.

After struggling with it for a good twenty minutes, Twilight looked ready to give up and head back inside when inspiration struck her. "This is almost cheating, but I think I have a solution that will work for what I want to do." She turned the telescope away from the mountain, and started to adjust its aim by supporting the telescope's barrel with her back.

Dewdrop looked at Twilight with a funny look. "That may let you get the telescope set up easier, but you're going to end up looking at the side of Canterlot Mountain, not the peak you were talking about."

Twilight gave a knob one last twist with her teeth, and then turned to smile at the unicorn. "Right now, yes. But, all I have to do now is turn the entire telescope around like this..." Twilight grabbed a hold of the base of the telescope, and slowly tuned it counter clockwise. She looked into the telescope's sight, then made an adjustment with the base.

After half a dozen more nudges, Twilight looked into the telescope and smiled. "It may not be perfectly set up to see all of it, but I think this is close enough. Take a look!" Pinkie Pie and Dewdrop took turns, and saw that the telescope showed a view of most of the peak, although the left part was cut off from view.

Twilight shivered as a strong gust of wind blew through. "Alright," she said, "that's enough of that. Let's head inside, I'm feeling really tired all of a sudden!" The three mares headed inside and got ready for bed. While Pinkie Pie and Dewdrop were busy brushing their teeth, Twilight went and got some buckets from the basement. "I don't know if there is a chance for it to come out tonight or not," she explained as she put them in a corner of the bathroom, "but I'd rather start checking for the stone too soon instead of too late."

Spike came up to grab his sleeping basket. "If its all the same to you, I'm going to sleep downstairs tonight," he said. "I don't want to be kept up listening to you three talk about girly stuff all night long." Twilight chuckled and gave him a good night hug, and then the baby dragon went downstairs, basket and blanket in tow.

Soon, the trio were pulling back the covers and climbing into bed. Twilight was in her usual bed, while Dewdrop and Pinkie Pie shared the other one. Once everypony was comfortable Dewdrop turned off the lights with a quick spell, and they drifted off to sleep.



Dewdrop awoke with a small gasp, her head shooting up from her pillow. It had been a terrible dream; she had been back in Sugar Cube Corner, right as Twilight was casting the spell. However, instead of Twilight turning into an earth pony, the spell had reached out and grabbed her horn instead and then flew off with it. Thinking about it, it all seemed awfully silly, but it had felt so real!

Waiting for her heart to slow back down so she could try to get back to sleep, she looked around the darkened room. She was surprised to see the light of the moon reflected in another set of open eyes across from her. "Twilight?" she whispered, trying not to wake up Pinkie Pie next to her, "Is that you?"

Seeing the silhouette of the other pony nod its head, Dewdrop asked, "Having a hard time sleeping?" Another nod came in reply. "Have you gotten any sleep at all?" Seeing Twilight shake her head no, Dewdrop frowned and slowly got out of bed, doing her best not to disturb Pinkie and quietly walked over to Twilight.

"What's wrong, hun? Too much sugar in your body to get to sleep?"

"No," Twilight whispered, her voice sounding ragged. "I'm scared, Dewdrop. Really, really scared. I know I shouldn't be. After all, if I need it, I can have the two most powerful ponies in Equestria helping me. And the nurse said there shouldn't be any problems. But still..." Twilight rubbed her eyes with her hooves. "What if it does get stuck? What if it blocks things up inside me, and I need to go to the nurse, but she can't do anything? What if I miss the stone coming out, and I end up flushing it away?

"What if I'm stuck like this forever?" she asked, her voice cracking.

Dewdrop reached over and pulled Twilight into a hug. "I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like for you right now," she said, feeling Twilight starting to cry against her, "and I wish I could tell you that you don't have to worry about those things, because I don't know if they're valid fears or not.

"What I can tell you though is that you aren't alone. You have friends that will do anything they can to help you out. Not just me and Pinkie Pie and the princesses either. I'm sure if you asked, everypony in Ponyville would do whatever they could to help you out. Feather Down didn't even know what the problem was, or who was in trouble, but she wanted to help too. We'll do everything we can to get you through this, okay?"

A rustling from behind Dewdrop told her that Pinkie Pie had woken up. "Oh, Twilight!" the pink pony said, and hopped out of bed. She walked to the other side of Twilight and joined in the hug. "You don't need to cry! We're going to get through this, okay? Everything will be all right, and that's a Pinkie Pie promise, you hear me?"

Twilight cried for a little bit longer, and finally settled down. "Thanks guys. I'm sorry. I just couldn't fall asleep right away, so I stared at the ceiling, and my head kept on coming up with all these terrible thoughts. I tried to think of other things, but no matter what I did, my brain kept coming back to those awful ideas." She sighed. "I'm sorry."

"There's no reason to be sorry," Pinkie Pie said. "You're scared, and I know just the thing for that!"

The smallest signs of a smile appeared on Twilight's face. "You're going to sing me a song?"

Pinkie's eyes lit up. "Ooh! That might work, but I don't have any songs for unicorns turned into earth ponies who can't fall asleep. No, here's what we're going to do." Pinkie climbed into Twilight's bed. "We're all going to sleep in the same bed. We're going to be right here next to you, so you know you aren't alone." She patted the mattress next to her. "Now scoot on over so Dewdrop can get in on the other side of you."

Twilight did so, and soon all three ponies were scrunched together on the bed. "It's a little bit of a tight fit," Twilight said as she pulled the covers up, "but you're right, Pinkie. I do feel better already. And it's comfortable too." She closed her eyes, and after a short yawn said, "Thank you. Both of you."

Before long the three ponies were all sound asleep, one big ball of soft snores and smiles.



Dewdrop woke up, feeling much more refreshed than she though she would have been from the cramped sleeping conditions. Being the first awake, she wondered how she could extract herself from the pile without waking either of the other two up when she felt Twilight start to stir next to her.

"Good morning," Dewdrop whispered. "I hope you'll excuse me, but I'll need to go run by the inn real quick to let them know I won't be able to come in to work today."

"Oh my gosh, you don't need to miss work for this!" Twilight exclaimed.

The orange unicorn smiled warmly at Twilight. "Don't you worry. The other day shift mares owe me from a couple of weeks ago when I covered for them. I'm sure Hazelnut and Lilypad won't complain at all, despite the short notice. It isn't like we're that busy this time of year anyway." Dewdrop got out of bed and stretched. "I'll just gallop over there and back real fast, I should be gone a few minutes at the most."

"Thank you Dewdrop, I really appreciate this."

"I'm glad to. And after everything that happened yesterday and last night, you had better believe I want to be here for the end of it!"

By the time Dewdrop returned to the library, Pinkie Pie was awake and was already downstairs. "Twilight's in the bathroom right now," she said. "I'll wait to see what happens, and if the stone doesn't come out, then I'll run over to Sugar Cube Corner to get us something for breakfast and tell Mr. and Mrs. Cake where I'll be today."

A few minutes later, Twilight joined them downstairs. "No luck yet," she said. "The worst part of this has to be the searching. It's just... eww!" She shuddered at the thought.

"Okay, it's my turn to go out then," Pinkie Pie said. "You better not go to the bathroom again until I get back! I want to be here when it comes out, all right?" Before Twilight could reply, Pinkie was out the door and on her way.

The rest of the morning was uneventful. With the novelty of having no magic gone, as well as last night's sugar rush, Twilight didn't feel any desire to perform any more experiments. So the three of them simply sat around and chatted. Twilight made several trips to the bathroom, and Dewdrop and Pinkie Pie waited right outside the door to find out if the stone had finally been passed. "You know," Twilight commented on one visit, "it really feels weird having other ponies waiting on me as intently as you two are. Even with the door closed, I feel a little self conscious."

Finally, right before lunch time, Pinkie Pie and Dewdrop had their wait interrupted by the loudest exclamation of joy that either of them had ever heard come from inside of a bathroom. Throwing decorum out the window, they rushed through the door to see Twilight hold up a soiled stone between her hooves. Pinkie Pie started to hug her friend, then stopped when she considered how messy that would get. Dewdrop's horn glowed, and soon she had everything cleaned up.

Twilight set the stone down on the bathroom floor in front of her. "I hope you two don't mind, but I'm not going to waste any time, or risk another accident, by putting off changing back." She quickly brought a hoof down onto the stone and shattered it.

White light erupted from beneath her hoof, swallowed her up and lifted her off the floor. A purple streamer appeared from nowhere, and flew around Twilight several times. As it circled her, her coat and mane returned to their normal, purple hue, and her cutie mark reverted to its normal design. Finally, the streamer floated to her head and twirled around itself until it shaped itself as a horn and attached itself back to Twilight. The light around her faded away, and she gently drifted back to the floor.

Twilight smiled widely and hugged both Pinkie Pie and Dewdrop tightly. Seeing Spike looking in from outside the bathroom, her horn glowed and she picked the dragon up with a spell and carried him over to her so she could give him a hug also. "Just needed to make sure my magic was back," she said as Spike half-heartedly protested the affection he was being showered with.

A short while later, Pinkie Pie and Dewdrop had their possessions gathered up and were getting ready to leave. "Thanks again so much," Twilight said. "I don't even want to think of how much of a wreck I would be right now if you two hadn't been here last night. I owe both of you so much."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Pinkie Pie said. "After all, you'd do the same for somepony else if they asked you, right? That's what friends do, after all. Ooh! Are you going to write about this to Princess Celestia, and make it into a friendship report?"

Twilight shook her head. "Maybe later, but I'm still pretty embarrassed about the whole thing. Besides, I don't think she'll want to hear about me digging through my own manure."

"Aww," Pinkie Pie said, "that's too bad. I even had the perfect line for it!"

"Really? What was it? I may use it if I do write a report later."

Pinkie Pie cleared her throat, and then spoke in a very cultured tone. "It might not always be obvious who your friends are," the pink pony intoned, "but no matter how messy things may get, you'll see that they'll shine through in the end, like a diamond in the roughage."

Dewdrop groaned, and then joined the other two ponies in laughter. Spike simply shook his head, muttered something about toilet humor, and entered the kitchen to make lunch for himself and Twilight.