//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Golden "Croak" Library // Story: Hey Ferb, I know who we're gonna be today! // by RainbowJack2000 //------------------------------// After leaving the Maretel the next morning, Phineas and the gang decided to go to the Golden Oak Library, also known as Twilight's home. Since they could be stuck in Equestria for quite sometime, they decided to learn more about it from Twilight. Finally, they reached their destination, knocking on Twilight's door. Surprisingly, instead of Spike opening it, it was no other than Twilight herself. "Oh! Welcome back! Come on in, make yourselves comfortable!" She led them in. The gang walked in and took a good look around. Nothing was out of order, maybe a few books or so however. Phineas took a good look at Twilight who was reading a spell book. Not wanting the silence to continue, he called her name. "Eh...Twilight?" "Yes?" "What are you doing?" "Oh! How foalish of me! I'm studying a new spell that will turn objects into frogs! Unlike the last spell which turned objects into oranges-you weren't here-." "I...see." Phineas nodded. "What is it that you ponies do around here, anyway?" Candace asked, a little hint of irritation in her voice. Twilight picked this up quickly, but didn't turn away from the book. "What do you mean?" she asked. "All I see you do is sell stuff on the streets, read, and other lame stuff. Don't you go to the mall or concerts or anything for fun?" "I'm not really sure there are that many malls in Equestria, I rarely go to concerts, and of course we do things for fun! What are you talking about?" Candace sighed, "Nevermind." It was Doof's turn to speak up, "So, don't you have any evil scientists or anything like that?" Twilight pondered at the thought, then shook her head, "We have evil villains, but not evil scientists. Villains are only here to over throw the princesses and rule all of Equestria, so not very likely." "Rule all of Equestria?" Doof put a hoof under his chin as an evil grin spread across his face. Perry rolled his eyes and looked forward. "Oh, yes. Equestria is very large nation and only Princess Celestia, alongside of her sister of course, rules it all. They're immortal, you know, so I doubt there will be another ruler anytime soon. And Princess Cadence rules the Crystal Empire, which is still part of Equestria, so..." Twilight trailed off. "Somehow, 'Cadence' sounds so familiar to me, and so...different at the same time." Candace said to no one in particular. Ferb rolled his eyes but kept quiet. "What about you Twilight?" Baljeet asked, "Don't you rule over a kingdom?" There. Right there. That was the question Twilight was hoping they wouldn't bring up. She stopped reading to look at them, and each and everyone of them saw a traumatized pony in front of them. Baljeet took one step back, thinking that he might have said something terribly wrong. He began to apologize. "Uh...sorry, I probably shouldn't have brought that up." "It's..." Twilight sighed, "It's okay. No harm done. Really." "Are you okay?" Isabella asked. "I-I'm fine. Don't worry," she sighed to recollect herself, then forced a smile,"So, do you guys want to help me?" Phineas looked at her questioningly, "With what?" "I need one of you to bring me my fake pony dummy for a test subject and see if it turns into a frog!" Twilight clapped her hooves together, her usual sparkle returning to her eye. "I'll do it! I don't want to stand around all day." Buford said. Trotting up the stairs, within a matter of seconds, he came back with a dummy in his mouth."Here you go." "Thanks. Stand back, everypony, this might blind you a bit." Turning her head to see if they stood back, which they didn't, she sighed and tried again, "I mean, stand back, everybody." A chorus of "oh's" went around the room and everyone took a few paces back. Twilight mouthed "thank you" and focused her attention on the object in front of her. Closing her eyes, she created a purple magic aura around her horn and it blasted the dummy. However, it hit the eyes that was made of metal and it bounced back, receiving an "eep!" from Twilight at which she moved away from it hitting her. The magic then bounced onto the mirror on her table, one of her windows, and into a new direction so quickly, the Wonderbolts would have envied it. There was a bright light and Twilight covered her eyes not to become blind. When she looked back, there was ash were the other ponies stood. Twilight gasped. "Oh no! Nonononono! They're gone! What happened to them? How did they disappear?" Twilight had tears in her eyes. "Ribbit! Welcome to my world." Twilight turned around and saw herself face to face with a green frog with dark blue eyes and...red hair? Well, do to the voice sounding feminine, she assumed it was... "Candace?" "The one and only." The frog replied sarcastically. The others soon popped up from behind Candace and took a look at their new forms. First ponies, now this? How much more of this could they possibly take? "You know, I'm actually starting to get used to changing now." Candace groaned, folding her arms. "Great! Now I earned my "Become a frog" patch! Although, I am not quite sure this is what they meant..." Isabella said, looking at the large pink bow that was currently on the floor. "Ribbit!" replied Ferb. "Twilight, anyway you can, oh I don't know, CHANGE US BACK?!" Candace shouted, clearly not used to changing at all. "Aw, Candace. Loosen up! It's actually kind of fun!" Phineas said, wiggling his suction-cup fingers. "No! We're stuck in another dimension, no idea how to go back, and you want me to 'loosen up?'" Candace growled. Phineas jumped back, "Um...yes?" Before things got any uglier, Twilight stepped in, "Enough! I will change you back! I just need to find a counter spell. In the meantime, go out and find something to do!" Cursing under their breaths, the gang hopped out the open door (Twilight opened it for them) and went into the busy streets of ponies. Phineas tried his best not to glance back at Candace, who was too busy looking around for an escape. Isabella saw this and wanted to reassure Phineas. Tell him everything is fine and that she was just upset. Confused. Angered. Homesick. They all were. But as usual, she got too caught up in the moment to say anything like that and focused on the path ahead. "Well, what do you guys want to do? Because I'm so bored right now." Buford said plainly. "We could always ask other ponies to help us fit in around here. We may be here forever, who knows?" Baljeet shrugged. "What do you mean 'forever?' You mean, there's no going home?" Candace said alarmed, and with anger. "I...guess." Baljeet said. "WHAT?! You can't be serious! I'm never going to see my friends, my family, or Jeremy ever again!" She growled and turned to Phineas, pointing a finger at him, "YOU! You did this to us! You always want to make summertime the best time, but you never do it as a normal kid would! Always gotta ribbit! have some crazy invention come into your mind and do something extremely dangerous! I've had worse times, but this is downright outrageous! It's all your fault, Phineas! It's always your fault!" Just then, a large jar scooped Candace up and dumped her into a basket. "Candace!" The kids shouted. "Oh my! All these frogs talk? How wonderful!" A yellow pegasus said, clapping her hooves together. There was something about her...she seemed so familiar. Before they could say anything, she grabbed all of them in a hoof-full and dumped them into a basket filled with a bunch of other frogs. "Great! We've been frog-napped!" Doof exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air. "It can't be that bad." Perry said, after a long day of silence. "I can't wait to take you all to Froggy Bottom Bog for your new lives! Oh, you're all going to love it there. My last trip was kind of scary, but they took out the big scary hydra anyway, so it's all good!" The pony exclaimed before flying off. "Okay, maybe it is that bad." Dumping the last frog into the...bog, Fluttershy sigh of relief told her what a great job she did, and soon, took off. The others, meanwhile, were holding their noses and gagged at the smell. "It reeks!" Isabella complained. "I'm used to it." Baljeet shrugged, "I've been put in gym lockers smellier than this." The gang shuddered at the thought of Baljeet passing out in a locker like that. Candace just remained quiet, the smell not even bothering her as she sat on a log and stared at her reflection. Phineas sighed and looked at Ferb, who made a gesture for him to talk to her. Hopping over, he sat and scooted next to Candace. "Mind if I sit here?" "Doesn't matter. This is our new home after all." She sighed as a tear ran down to her cheek, "It will always be our new home." Phineas winced. It was not like Candace to become so upset like this. She was a drama queen, sure, but...this was different. This was a whole new side to Candace he had never seen before. It was almost as if someone had taken away the greatest thing in the world. He looked at his own reflection in the water. "Candace, I-" "Phineas?" Isabella called, with a lot of worry in her voice. "Not now, Isabella." "T-Turn around." "Why would I-?" Before he could finish, he turned around and was face to face with an alligator which, eventually, roared in his face. "RUN!" Phineas shouted. He grabbed Candace and hopped into the water, with the others following behind. The alligator was hot on their heals, as he too dove into the water and swam to eat his dinner. Perry, being a semi-aquatic mammal his entire life up until now, grabbed Isabella and the others and swam as fast he could. Phineas still had Candace wrapped around his arm. Paddling as fast as he could, he tried to swim away from the gator. Then, he bumped into a rock, catching him off guard and he accidentally flung Candace to the other side of the bog, where Perry had everyone else safe. "Where's Phineas?" Isabella asked. "He's...with...the...gator!" Candace gasped for breath. "What?!?!" Meanwhile, Phineas' head was hurting way too much for him to continue swimming forward. The gator crept up to him opening his jaw wide enough to snatch the little critter and gobble him up. Just as all hope was lost... The gator randomly passed out and fell deeper into the water. Confused, Phineas swam up to the surface to see a purple faced pony on the other side with the yellow faced one. The gang was also there, cheering when they saw Phineas' face pop up. "Twilight! What are you doing here?" Phineas croaked-shouted. Levitating him back to safety, Twilight explained, "I was looking for you guys everywhere and I saw Fluttershy coming towards the library. I asked if she's seen a few talking frogs and she said she has, and that she put them here. When I told her it was you guys, she panicked and, well...we flew here. Then I saw most of you over there and that you said Phineas was being attacked by a gator. So I used the knock-out spell on him and...well, you know the rest." Twilight blushed lightly, "I was so worried about you guys." "I'm so sorry! I didn't know you guys were the talking frogs! Why didn't you tell me?" Fluttershy asked. "Um...we...panicked?" Phineas lied. Fluttershy didn't notice. "Oh, okay. Well, um...warn me next time." "Come on," Twilight said, "We gotta get you back to the library so that I can cast the counter spell." *** After finally turning back into ponies, Phineas and the gang waved goodbye to Twilight and started their way back to the Maretel. Phineas looked at Candace who hung her head down and looked sad. "Candace," he said finally, "About what you said earlier..." "I'm sorry, Phineas," She cut him off, "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. Just a little homesick, I guess." Phineas nodded in understanding, "It's okay. And...I'm sorry, too." "For what?" "For not being the normal little brother you want me to be." Candace winced at that, "Phineas, if you want to make me happy...just keep doing what you're doing. I guess I never realize how much more exciting you make summer for me, even though it drives me crazy 24/7," she chuckled, "I don't want you to become a normal brother just to make me happy. I just want...you and Ferb. Be yourselves. You know what would really make me happy right now?" A smiling Phineas looked at his sister admiringly, "What?" Candace's stomach growled in response, "Some of Mom's apple pie." "I think Applejack might have a few left over at her place. Should we go there?" Ferb suggested. "I think we shall." Candace pulled her brothers in for a hug, not letting them go for the rest of the way to Sweet Apple Acres.