"So what do you think, Zecora?" Twilight asked. "Do you know what's happening to us?"
"Hmmm...." the Zebra muttered, rubbing her chin in thought as she looked the six ponies over. "I agree that your case is quite strange, indeed; however, I'm not sure I know of the cure that you need. Therefore I cannot offer a solid explanation; I'm afraid that would require far more examination. But through my books I'll search high and low; if I find something, you shall know."
"Thank you. I'll look through my books as well, just to be sure. I just wish we had some kind of clue to get started."
"There is one thing that stands out to me; surely it's something you also can see?" she said in her usual rhyme.
"Whaddya mean?" Rainbow questioned.
Zecora pointed a hoof at her. "If I am correct to remember, your ears now match those of the wolf of timber. Applejack, a dragon, with her fangs and reptilian eyes, it does not take much to realize. Pinkie is a Changeling, not hard to identify, and a ghost is our dear Fluttershy.
"And yours, Twilight Sparkle, is perhaps the most dire; I am certain you are turning into a vampire!"
"WHAT?!" everypony shouted.
"Oh dear.... that is pretty bad... Are you... are you sure?" Twilight asked.
Her answer was a nod. "Your once feathered wings, now rough like a bat; can you tell me of another monster with that?"
"True... But wait; what about Rarity? I've read about lots of foreign creatures and legends with monsters, but I can't recall anything that looks like that!"
"There is a possibility, one that has occurred to me. A beautiful but deadly creature, also of a singing nature."
Twilight's eyes widened as it dawned on her. "A siren!"
"A what now?" Rainbow asked.
"A siren," she repeated. "The last mention of them was from a long time ago; the days of Starswirl the Bearded. He was the one that defeated them. They were beautiful creatures, almost like seaponies. They also had special powers; their voices could put ponies in a trance-like state, forced to do the sirens' bidding, And to keep these powers strong, they would feed off negative energy and emotions of their victims, using their hypnotizing songs to stir up anger and confusion. I can't believe I forgot!"
"Hmm... beautiful, good singers, you say? That is quite fitting for me, don't you think?"
"Rarity, this is a bad thing, remember?" the alicorn reminded her.
"Oh, right. Sorry," she apologized.
Suddenly there was a loud, low rumbling sound. Fluttershy squeaked and dropped to the floor, hiding her face. "W-what was that?"
"Oops," said an embarrassed Rainbow. She put a hoof to her stomach. "I kinda skipped breakfast."
"Come to think of it, so did I," Twilight recalled.
"We could all go back to my cottage for an early lunch before heading to the library," Fluttershy offered.
"Sounds good to me," said her fellow pegasus, before another rumbling noise was heard. "Er, let's get going, shall we?"
The friends laughed, and, saying their goodbyes, began filing out the door. Twilight was last, but was stopped by Zecora.
"Before you go, if I might, there's something else you should know, Princess Twilight."
"Oh? What's that?"
"This spell will not be easy to beat; I get the feeling it is not yet complete. Acting careful I'd strongly advise, being too hasty may not be wise."
Twilight frowned. "Not complete? What do you-"
"You comin' Twi?" called AJ.
"Yeah.... coming," she called. With one last glance at Zecora, she stepped out of the hut into the forest, those last words running through her mind.
Back at Fluttershy's cottage, the girls and Spike were seated around the table, having a simple lunch of fruit and PB&J's, as they discussed their next move.
"We should head back as soon as we're done here; I'd like to get started researching as soon as possible," Twilight said. Rainbow groaned at the mention of "research".
"Are we gonna teleport again?" asked Applejack.
"I don't know... My magic is stronger now, but that still took a lot of energy, and that was before Fluttershy was with us."
"We could always just fly back," Dash reminded her. "Those of us that can, anyway. I doubt anypony's gonna notice our... new appearances from up in the air."
"And those of us that can't?" said Spike.
"I know! We'll jump from the rooftops like ninjas!" Pinkie suggested.
Rarity rolled her eyes. "Yes, that certainly won't attract any attention." She turned to Twilight. "If you, Rainbow and Fluttershy will be flying over, that leaves me, Spike, Pinkie, and Applejack; I suppose hiding my wings would be easy enough..."
"You could borrow my cloak," Fluttershy offered.
The unicorn nodded. "That should work. As for the others, I'm sure Applejack should be fine if she keeps her hat pulled down, but what about Pinkie?"
"We could each walk on one side of her, shielding her from view," Spike suggested. "If she doesn't bounce, that is."
"That might work fer now, but what about when four o' us can't be there?" AJ questioned.
Everypony thought for a moment, before Rarity spoke up, cringing.
"I can't believe I'm about to suggest this, but I suppose desperate times call for desperate measures. If we could stop by my shop, I could make some," she winced, "legwarmers."
"Cool!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Can you make them in neon pink plaid?"
"Er..."
"Ooh! What about glow in the dark polka dots?"
Rarity clutched her head. "Please stop..."
"Well then let's get going!" Rainbow said, standing.
Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow stepped outside and prepared to take off; the others had volunteered to clean the lunch dishes for Fluttershy before heading out.
The two pegasi were already in the air when they noticed their friend was on the ground, hesitating.
"What's the problem Twi?" Dash asked.
"Well... I wasn't that great of a flyer with my regular wings..."
"Oh, stop worrying. I mean, how different can they be?"
Twilight kept herself from rolling her eyes. Saying something like that was just asking for trouble. 'Oh well... Here goes nothing,' she thought.
Extending her wings, she gave an experimental flap, however, she was not prepared for how high they would send her. For unlike her previous wings, there were no feathers for the wind and air to pass through; instead her now firm bat wings gathered the air underneath them, using it to swiftly propel her higher than normal.
"AAAAHHHHHHHH!" she screamed, before remembering what Rainbow Dash taught her to do: hold her wings still and use the air to slowly glide back down.
"Wow... all things considered, I'd say you handled that pretty well," Rainbow commented as she landed.
"Oh goodness... You okay Twilight?" Fluttershy nervously asked.
"I'm fine... I'll just have to be extra careful."
Nodding, the three flyers took to the sky again, one of them making sure to make extra small flaps.
The trip took slightly longer than expected, but they finally arrived and hurried inside before anypony noticed them.
"Alright, I'd already gathered a stack of books earlier, but I'd like to look through the shelves one more time; why don't you two go on and start looking through the ones I'd pulled?"
"Of course." Fluttershy nodded and headed over to the stack.
"Here's hoping this doesn't take too long," Rainbow muttered, taking a book as well.
Twilight went back to scanning through the library's collection once more, but only found a couple more books that were relevant.
She wasn't sure how much time passed, but as she was about to head back to her two friends, she heard three knocks on the door, followed by, "Twilight, it's us!"
Recognizing the baby dragon's voice, she swiftly opened the door for them, closing it firmly once they'd all safely entered.
"Sorry we took so long darling; it was rather difficult to find something... suitable," Rarity said, motioning to Pinkie Pie, who was bouncing around happily.
She paused to hold out a foreleg to Twilight so she could get a look at her new yellow and blue striped fuzzy legwarmers. "Aren't they super duper?" she asked.
"Um, sure," Twilight replied, casting a glance at Rarity, who looked far less than pleased.
"Have you made any progress?" the unicorn inquired, eager to move the subject along.
"I'm not sure; I was just about to check in with Fluttershy and Dash," Twilight replied.
The five of them filed into the room where the two pegasi were poring over their books.
Rainbow looked up when they entered and answered her friend's unspoken question. "We got nothing so far." She grunted and tossed her book behind her, letting it hit the wall and fall to the floor.
"Hey! Be careful with that!" Twilight cried. In one swift motion, she dived across the room to cradle the book in her hooves, scanning the surface for any marks.
Finally satisfied her precious book was undamaged, she levitated six more books from the stack, magically handing one to each of her friends.
"Now that everyone's here, this should go much faster. We're sure to find something!"
Two hours later
"I can't believe we found nothing!" Twilight exclaimed. A couple of mane hairs popped out of place as she began to stress. "Not even the slightest thing!" She began breathing rapidly.
"Uh-oh, she's panicking again," Rainbow said. "Spike, ya might wanna get her a paper bag or something... Spike?"
The baby dragon didn't respond as he sat curled up in the corner, looking depressed.
"What's wrong sugarcube?" Applejack said worriedly.
He sniffed. "Y-you are!"
The earth pony blinked, then frowned. "Ex-CUSE me?"
"Well, it's not you you, exactly, it's just... you now..."
"Dude, you're making less sense than Pinkie Pie," Rainbow told him.
"Hey!"
"Care to explain a lil' more?" AJ asked.
"Well... Twilight and Zecora said you're all turning into monsters... And y-you're turning into a dragon... But I'm a dragon and... and I'm not a monster!"
"Some dragons are," Rainbow said bluntly.
Applejack knocked her upside the head. "Yer not helping!"
"Ouch!" the rainbow-maned mare cried.
The sudden commotion had brought Twilight out of her panicked state. She walked over to her dragon assistant and put a comforting hoof on his shoulder. "Oh Spike... of course you're not a monster; and neither are all dragons. Most ponies know that now. But there was a time when..." She paused suddenly, then facehooved. "Oh my gosh..."
"What's the matter, darling?"
"Many, many years ago, dragons were considered monstrous, natural enemies to be avoided at all costs. Even less was known about them than there is now!"
"Meaning what, exactly?" Rarity questioned.
"Meaning this spell would've been created at a time when dragons were considered just as dangerous as sirens, changelings, and even vampires.... And that means this spell must be very, very old... far older than I'd considered. No wonder we couldn't find anything; spells this ancient would only be found amongst the oldest and rarest of records. How did I not see this sooner?!"
"Great! Where're we supposed to get info on a super old rare spell?" Rainbow moaned.
"What about the Canterlot Archives?" Pinkie suggested.
"Better yet, why not just go straight to the Princesses themselves?" Rarity added.
"Yeah," Rainbow Dash agreed. "If it really is a super old spell, wouldn't they be the best ones to ask about this?"
"I suppose you're right," Twilight admitted. "I'd hoped we could find the answer ourselves, but we may be in over our heads here."
"Well, no worries; the Princesses'll get this fixed lickety split," Applejack assured her.
"Ooh, lickety split! That sounds like a great name for an ice cream sundae!" Pinkie exclaimed. She began listing off possible ingredients to include.
"Well, obviously there'd have to be at least one banana, because you can't have a sundae with the word 'split' in it and not have a banana!" She paused. "I wonder why.... I mean, what does a banana have to do with splitting? Maybe cuz it's usually a big sundae you can split with your friends? But, couldn't you do that with any sundae? Hmm...."
"Maybe it's because when somepony slips on the peel, it looks like they're doing the splits?" Rainbow suggested.
"Ooh, that could be it! Because then you'd wanna buy them some ice cream after that nasty fall to cheer them up!" She frowned. "But having a banana in there seems like kind of a cruel joke. I mean, wouldn't that be a little 'too soon'? What if the pony was seriously traumatized by the fall?!"
"If you two are quite done with your discussion on trauma by fruit, can we get back to talking about our more important situation?" Rarity asked, slightly annoyed.
"Sorry," both ponies muttered.
"It's settled then," Twilight said. "We'll head for Canterlot first thing in the morning. I don't know how long we'll be there, but we'd better pack for at least one overnight stay."
"Oh, but.... tomorrow's Tuesday," Fluttershy said. "I'm supposed to have tea with Discord."
"Darling, this is a rather pressing issue," Rarity pointed out. "Discord will just have to wait."
"Not necessarily," Twilight cut in. "I suppose we don't all have to go."
"Or maybe we don't have to go at all," Rainbow said slowly.
"What're you sayin, Dash?" Applejack questioned.
"I'm saying we skip the trip and go straight to the source of the problem! The Draconequus problem!"
"Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy scolded. "You can't really be accusing him of this! I know you don't like him, but that's no excuse to go pointing hooves whenever a problem turns up!"
"Oh come on!" Rainbow exclaimed. "Who else could it be?"
"You're both right," Twilight spoke.
"Huh?!"
"It could be Discord, but we can't jump to conclusions. Why don't Rarity, Applejack, Spike, and I go to Canterlot, while Pinkie and Rainbow join Fluttershy and Discord for tea? You can talk to Discord while we talk to the Princess," Twilight suggested.
"Works fer me," AJ agreed.
"Me too," Rarity and Pinkie piped at the same time.
"I do not like the idea of a 'tea party'," Rainbow began, "but I do wanna be there to confront that jer- err, Draconequus," she corrected after receiving a glare from Fluttershy.
"But what if it isn't Discord?" Pinkie asked.
"Well, maybe Fluttershy can convince him to help us find who did do i-" Twilight was cut off when she heard a sharp gasp. Scanning the room, her eyes caught sight of the top of a head, covered by a hood just outside the window. She thought she caught sight of a blue horn right before it disappeared.
"Quickly!" she shouted. "After them!"