//------------------------------//
// A Failed Attempt 
// Story: A Failed Attempt 
// by Gandalf158 
//------------------------------//


A Failed Attempt
By: Gandalf158


"Twilight, I think we're lost." Spike said for the tenth time.
We were in the Everfree Forest looking for a very rare plant that is required for a spell I was researching, and, well, I had lost our map during a break. Now we were walking through the forest looking for something, anything to point us in the direction of home and had so far come up with nothing.
"We are not lost."
I said, more trying to reassure myself than him.
"Yes, we are, Twilight, and I think we're going in circles."
"Why?" I asked, stopping to look at him.
"Because that's the third time I tripped over that root."
"How do you know it's the same root? There must be at least a billion roots in this forest!"
"Because I marked it with fire after the second time." He said, a bemused look on his face.
Okay, we were officially lost. After about ten more minutes of walking we decided to take a break. As we were resting, it started to rain. Somehow the droplets made there way down through the tree canopy and onto our heads. We huddled under a tree to protect ourselves from the deluge.
"Well, this sucks." Spike said, not inaccurately.
"Well, at least it can't get any worse." as soon as the words left my mouth, I instantly knew I'd regret it.
From the tree line we heard a fearsome growl. All at once, three timberwolves came out of nowhere and started to circle us. I just had to say it, didn't I? 
They kept getting closer and closer, and we had nowhere to run. I looked to Spike who was trembling. I didn't know if it was from fear or from the cold, but he was shaking uncontrollably. I had to think of something and fast. As I got ready to cast a fire ball at them, there was a blinding flash and a puff of smoke.
"Go back to the depth from where you came, you will eat no ponies this day!" a familiar, rhyming voice cried out as the timberwolves retreated into the forest, wooden talks between their legs..
"Zecora! Thank Celestia you found us!" I said as she came into view. She had an umbrella with her and was wearing the cloak she wore on the day me and the girls first met her.
"Yes, a great coincidence it would seem. Tell me though, what are you doing this deep in Everfree?"
"We were looking for a plant, and we may have gotten a little lost." Spike said, running under her umbrella.
"Back to my cabin we shall go, lest we all catch cold."

We took her advice and went back to her cabin. When we got there, she put on some soup as we dried off. When we were dry, we followed her into the living room. The smell of herbs and other assorted plants permeated the air in her home. After a few minutes, she returned with three bowls of her special celery soup in tow.
"For a plant into the forest you came? Tell me, what is this plant's name?"
"It is a rare variant of Poison Joke that always plays a specific joke. It always changes the color of its victims coats to the exact opposite color. I need it for a spell, so we came out here to get it. Then we got lost, and, well, you know the rest."
"I know of this plant Twilight, and have some of it I might. I will be back shortly, and I shall bring some samples with me."
She went into her bedroom and came out a few minutes later with the plant. Three blooms of it, just as much as I needed. She placed them into my saddle bags and came back over to finish her soup.
"Thank you Zecora, now we don't have to go looking for them again!" I said, relieved.
"That is what friends are for, I only wish that I could do more." she said.
"No, you've done quite enough already, you saved our lives, took us in during a storm, and made our jobs so much easier! How can we ever thank you?" I asked, finishing my bowl.
"You were a friend in need, and you looked like you needed a friend indeed."
"Well, if you ever need anything, come and see me, and I'll help you to the best of my abilities."

Spike had finished his soup, and the rain was letting up, so after borrowing an umbrella from our zebra friend we set off home. We thanked her one more time on our way out the door. When we got back to the library, I finished the spell and used it. All at once the library and everything in it changed color. I had done something wrong. I reviewed the ingredients I used, and realized that I had the wrong amount of Poison Joke, which caused the spell to backfire. As I went through books to find a way to counteract the spell, I heard Spike groan.
"Why didn't you check how much of that stuff you put in there?" he asked, faceclawing.	
"I thought I did!" I said, going through the stack of books I had out, "I must've miscalculated the amount needed for the spell to work."
I looked back at him and barely held back my laughter. The spell had turned his scales yellow and his spines red. I knew that it had messed up my colors too, but he still looked funny. At that exact moment, Fluttershy and Applejack walked in. Fluttershy's coat had turned purple and Applejack's coat had turned blue. They looked funnier than Spike did!
"Excuse us, Twilight? Did you know that the library has changed color?" Fluttershy asked, voice barely more than a whisper.
"Sugarcube cube, Ah think they know." Applejack said, looking down at her coat with confusion, "What exactly happened here, Twi?"
"I was trying out a glamour spell that would allow you to change your coat color temporarily, but I messed up on the ingredients. Would you two mind looking for that book Super Naturals? I can't seem to find it."
In fact, all the titles on the books seemed to be missing, I chalked it up to another side effect of the backfired spell. We kept looking, but we couldn't find the book. We couldn't fix this without knowing how to counteract the spell! I kept looking, but no dice. At least it can't get any worse.
"Oh dear, my gorgeous coat!" Rarity said, and promptly fainted onto a conveniently placed couch.
Stupid, stupid! Stop saying that! Rarity, on entering the library, had her coat turned black as coal, and her perfectly curled mane an unappealing shade of yellowish-green.
Applejack and I helped her to stand up, and asked her if she was okay.
"Okay? Oh darling, out of all the bad things that could've happened to my coat and mane, this is the worst. Possible! THING!" she shouted and almost fainted again, but AJ caught her.
"Calm down, we're looking for a way to reverse this." I said, and she did calm down a little.
We kept searching for the book, but without the titles, it was slow going. Book after book, we kept looking. Finally, Spike found it and passed it over to me. I looked through it, but couldn't find the spell I'd been researching.
"Could this get any worse?" he said after I told them.
Before I even had time to facehoof, there was a burst of confetti and trumpets playing a fanfare that sounded the arrival of Ponyville's very own God of Chaos.
"Good evening everypony! How are y-BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" he broke down in hysterics, pointing at us.
Surprisingly, (or not surprisingly, considering he rules the sphere of Chaos magic) Discord's assortment of animal parts remained the same color they normally were. When he finally got through laughing, he stood back up and took a deep breath.
"Oh, I had forgotten about that prank! That was hilarious! Almost worth waiting a thousand years to see it pay off." he said, then he snapped his talons and everything went back to normal.
"What just happened?" Spike asked.
"I'm the one who put that spell in that book. It was a prank! And quite a funny one at that." He started chuckling again.
"That was you?" I shouted, taking the draconequus by surprise, "We almost got eaten by timberwolves trying to get the Poison Joke to cast this spell!"
I could see in his eyes that he felt bad for almost leading us to our deaths for a prank, so I softened a little. Fluttershy walked over a tried to comfort him, Spike and Applejack were looking at Discord in displeasure, and Rarity was too preoccupied with looking at herself in a full-body mirror she had summoned to care.
"I'm sorry for shouting, I've been through a lot today." I said, lowering my head.
"That's alright, I didn't realize the danger this prank would've caused." He said, waiving a claw, "Besides," no, please don't say it, "at least your day can't get any worse!" He said it, and a wicked smile spread across his face.....

THE END