Rainbow Dash sighed to herself as she stopped in front of the spot where a cloud had been previously.
I wish that there was more action down there. Anything to keep my attention! This job is so boring! Nothing interesting ever happens...
"Tweet."
"Huh? Who's there?"
"Tweet."
Rainbow spun around, looking for the source of the noise, but saw nothing.
"Knock it off, guys," said Rainbow in annoyance.
"Tweet."
The sound was directly behind her. Rainbow spun around in an instant and her jaw dropped.
There was a book flying in the air in front of her, open down the middle and flapping its pages and book covers to stay in the air.
"What the hay?"
Suddenly, more book birds came from nowhere and surrounded Rainbow, 'Tweeting' constantly.
"What do you want?" cried Rainbow defensively.
One of the book birds rubbed against one of her hooves.
"Hey!" cried Rainbow as her hoof lashed out. The book bird flew out of the way and in front of her face.
A previously unseen red book mark stuck out from between the pages and started flapping at Rainbow, accompanied by an obscene noise.
"Why you... goofy... book bird thing!"
Rainbow stopped to contemplate the words that had just come out of her mouth.
"Where'd you all come from, anyway?"
Another book rubbed against her hooves, as though inviting Rainbow to hold it.
"Get away from me!" cried Rainbow. She flew backward away from the flock, but the books followed her through the air.
"Gah! Stop following me!"
"Guys!" cried Rainbow Dash as she flew through the opening of the Fort. "We have a problem!"
"What is that noise?" said Dinky. "It sounds like there's a bunch of birds outside!"
"There are, sort of," said Rainbow Dash. "They won't stop following me!"
"Really? I thought there were no critters in this Ponyville," remarked Apple Bloom.
"Why wont they be quiet?" asked Diamond Tiara, annoyed.
"Look, you guys aren't going to believe me if you don't see this for yourself," said Rainbow.
"See what?" asked Scootaloo.
"These aren't birds," said Rainbow Dash. "They're... Just come see!"
Suddenly, there was a flash of light in the middle of the Fort and a book bird appeared.
"AGH!" screamed Rainbow Dash. "How did that one get in here?"
The book tweeted and began flying in circles around several of the colts and fillies.
"This was what was chasing you?" cried Sweetie Belle.
"There's more outside!" shouted Rainbow. "I don't have any idea how this one got in here!"
"Gotcha!" screamed Diamond Tiara, who somehow managed to snatch the book out of the air.
"It's a spell book!" cried Diamond Tiara. "Fundamentals of Teleportation!"
"Wha?" cried Spike. "That's one of the books in Twilight's library!"
"Where is Twilight?" cried Rainbow.
"I don't think she ever came back after last night," answered Rumble. "She promised me that she would grab a book from the library and she hasn't come back to give it to me yet."
"Do you think she's still there?" asked Rainbow.
"It's possible."
"I'm going to go find her. She's got to know what the hay is going on here!"
Rainbow Dash flew out of the Fort.
Suddenly, the spell book vanished from Diamond's grasp with a flash of light and reappeared in the air.
"Ugh, what are we going to do about that thing?" cried Diamond.
The book let out a series of angry tweets.
Fluttershy whistled at the book in response.
Dispite being an object with no facial expressions, it somehow managed to appear to calm down. It swiveled in the air to face Fluttershy, and then flew toward her.
"Are you kidding me?" cried Scootaloo in shock as the book eagerly flew to Fluttershy's side.
The spell book landed in Fluttershy's outstretched hooves. She gently ran a hoof down the book's spine. It shivered, and then fell open in her hooves. It remained completely still.
Rainbow Dash stood in front of the door to the library, watching as the swarm of books that had followed her suddenly flew away.
"Thank goodness," Rainbow said to herself.
She opened the door.
"Twilight!" cried Rainbow in relief. "Good, you're here!"
"Rainbow!" cried Twilight in suprise, turning her head to look at the pony. "What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here?" cried Rainbow. "I'll tell you what I'm doing here. There are books loose all over Ponyville! Flying books. From your library. Would you happen to know anything about that?"
Twilight gave Rainbow an embarased look. "Yes."
"What did you do?"
"That," responded Twilight, pointing toward the potted poison joke, which was sitting on a table.
"It's poison joke," explained Twilight. "I was just experimenting on the effects that it causes, and it got a little out of hoof."
"No kidding! What happened?"
"Well, at first, I only exposed a few of my possessions to the poison joke plant," began Twilight. "But, it takes hours for it to take effect. I admit, I got a little restless waiting and started exposing more and more of my things to the plant to pass the time."
"And you got poison joke all over all the books in the library?"
"Almost all of them. I saved the sailing terminology guide for Rumble, like I promised. And I didn't mean for the books to get loose, but I had no choice!"
"What do you mean, you had no choice?"
THUD
"Erm, Twilight...?" began Rainbow nervously, only now realizing that Twilight's horn was lit up. "What do you have trapped in your basement?"
"It's nothing!" said Twilight quickly.
"You used the poison joke on more than just books, didn't you?" accused Rainbow.
"Well, yes. The dishes all ran away with my spoons. I don't have any idea where they went. The forks all turned to rubber and their prongs are flimsy and useless. The telescope now only shows you the back of your own head if you try to look through it. But none of those things are actually much of a problem."
"So, what's in the basement?"
CRASH
As if in answer to Rainbow's question, the basement door exploded in a shower of splinters. Both ponies watched in horror as a gigantic book smashed through the door and flapped wildly in an attempt to regain it's bearings. It was easily the hugest book that Rainbow Dash had ever seen in her life.
Somehow, Rainbow was able to tell from the way it was vibrating, it was furious.
The thick book rotated around until Rainbow somehow knew that it was looking at her.
Suddenly, the book closed for a moment before opening again, revealing sharp teeth along it's edges.
"ROAAAAR!"
The force of the book's roaring was enough to knock Rainbow to the ground. She watched in horror as the book turned around and threw itself through a window, shattering it.
Twilight was beside Rainbow in a moment, helping her to her hooves.
"What in Equestria was THAT?" screamed Rainbow in terror.
"That," said Twilight in a voice of terrified veneration, "was Thesaurus."