The Curse of Discord

by Creative Charmer

Chapter 9: A Rude Awakening

The next morning, Spike was still in the main room of the library, but he was wide awake and cleaning up the place with his feather duster. He had fallen asleep in the room the previous night, so he had never gone into his and Twilight's bedroom to go to sleep. But he didn't mind, and was just as willing and able to complete his chores as always.

Soon enough, the door to the bedroom partially opened up, and Twilight stepped halfway out the door. She was not looking well: her eyes had bags underneath them, her mane was all mussed up, and she was just all-around exhausted.

Spike looked towards Twilight, and became quite surprised to see her looking so slovenly, which made him cease his cleaning. "Are you okay, Twilight?"

"Huh?" Twilight murmured, not looking to be very aware of her surroundings.

"I asked you if you were okay."

"Oh..yeah, I'm okay, Spike," she yawned. "Just feeling a bit tired. I didn't get a very good rest last night."

"Well, that explains why I woke up before you did, since you're always the first one to wake up each morning to prepare the day's schedule."

Twilight yawned. "I know, Spike, and I'm sorry I'm so behind. I'll make sure to get on the schedule right away. And then we can write that letter to Princess Celestia."

"Okay!" Spike said happily, glad to hear Twilight talking like her normal self. "I'll go get your paper and quill!" He then ran over to Twilight's desk to attain the necessary materials.

"Thank you, Spike," Twilight said contentedly. She then proceeded to walk the rest of the way into the room, shutting the door behind her.

Spike placed the feather duster down on the desk and began picking up the supplies. "So, what should we write first on the schedule?"

"Well, the first task should be completing the schedule for the day."

"Why did I even ask?" Spike asked himself.

Twilight continued speaking, taking no notice of what Spike had muttered. "Now the second task should be—"

"Writing the letter to the princess?" Spike said, completing Twilight's sentence.

Twilight chuckled. "You're certainly learning, Spike," Spike chuckled along with Twilight for a few moments. "Come on over here, Spike, so we can get started."

Spike collected all the materials in his arms, and turned around to face Twilight. "You got it Twili—" Spike's speech had halted the instant his eyes were on Twilight. He stared, mouth agape as the supplies lid out of his arms and fell to the floor.

Twilight looked to be both perplexed and surprised with Spike's actions. "Spike? What's the matter?"

Spike looked like he was unable to say anything, as his thoughts were still trying to gather themselves together. After several moments of stuttering, he was finally able to speak. "T—Twilight! It's...it's your leg!" he proclaimed with much dread in his voice as he pointed at Twilight's right hind leg.

Puzzled, Twilight turned her head to see what had Spike so alarmed, and as she set her eyes on her leg, a look of horror spread across her face as she saw that her leg was now a deer leg!

Several minutes earlier, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity were all heading towards Twilight's house together.

"I can't wait for our new day out!!" Pinkie gleefully exclaimed as she bounced along with the others. "Although I could have sworn that Twilight would have wanted us to come later in the morning—or is it later in the morning already, and my watch is just running slow?" she glanced to her watch, which currently had the arrow pointed on "early morning", with the next two sections being "morning" and "late morning".

"Actually, Pinkie," Applejack began to say "The reason we're comin' earlier is because we're all still feelin' a bit concerned for Twilight after her outburst the other day."

"You mean all that shouting stuff? She said she was fine! Why would she want to do something fun if she wasn't fine?"

"Because she didn't want us to worry about her. that's somethin' that friends do sometimes."

"So friends say they're fine when they're not...so their friends will have more fun?"

"No! I mean...ugh...never mind..."

"Oh, okay then!" Pinkie replied as she reverted back to her gleeful ways as if nothing had happened., with Applejack looking quite perturbed from their whole conversation.

"I do hope Twilight's feeling better today," Fluttershy said.

"She was certainly acting strangely," Rarity said in addition.

"Now that you mention it," jumped in Pinkie. "She definitely wasn't acting like Twilight! She was acting like somepony who wasn't Twilight!"

"Now that they mention..?!" Applejack blurted out in response to Pinkie, but her mind was too frazzled from trying to comprehend Pinkie Pie's train of thought, so she decided to just forget about it.

"Ahhh, you guys are making a big deal over nothing," Rainbow Dash said gruffly. "I'm sure Twilight's just as normal as she always is," Suddenly, Rainbow Dash's claim is proven to be false as the ponies hear the horrified scream of Twilight emanating from inside her dwelling. "That was Twilight!" shouts a terrified Rainbow Dash.

"That doesn't sound like normal Twilight at all!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"Come on!" Applejack ordered to the others, and they all ran to Twilight's house. Applejack was the first pony inside, bursting through the front door. "Twilight! We heard yah scre—" Her sentence was immediately halted as her and everypony's else's mind's became consumed by the shock of seeing their friend Twilight with the leg of a deer!

"Oh my goodness!"

"What the..??"

"Oh dear!"

None of the ponies could comprehend what they were seeing, or how to react properly to it. They all were just as confused and shocked as the next pony, each unknowing of what should be done or said. Each pony continued to contemplate their thoughts of this conundrum in their heads, until Applejack became the first to pull her thoughts together and form a response.

"Twilight!" Applejack exclaimed in alarm. "W—What in Equestria happened to yah??"

"I don't know!!" Twilight shouted, completely distressed over this entire situation. "I woke up with this leg in place of my normal leg, and I haven't a clue where it came from!"

"So you were like this before you went to bed last night?" Rarity asked.

"Yes!"

"Yeah, she was!" Spike appended. "She was just saying how tired she was feeling and went to bed while I stayed up to finish the chores—until I fell asleep, that is."

"So neither of you knows when or how this happened?" The two shook their heads in response.

"And you're sure this didn't come from some magic spell of yers?" Applejack asked, sounding a bit warily.

"No, of course not!" Twilight snapped. "I would never try out a spell on myself like this!" her eyes then sparked with the formation of an idea. "Although, this whole incident is definitely magic-related, which means I should be able to use magic to change myself back to normal!"

"How are you going to do that?" Fluttershy asked.

"There is only one spell I know will work: the amniomorphic spell, as it is used to change living creatures into other animals, so I'm sure I will be able to use it to transform my leg back to the way it was."

"That sounds perfect!" Spike exclaimed enthusiastically.

"So Spike, where is the book located?"

"...umm, well, I haven't gotten that book for you before, so I don't really know," he replied with much embarrassment.

Twilight looked a bit frustrated, but knew now wasn't the time for it. "We'll all just have to search for the book! Everyone! Take a different section of the library and look for any book that contains magic spells!"

Everyone agreed and each ran off to different parts of the library; perusing every book they find until they discover the correct one that will reverse this dreaded curse set upon Twilight Sparkle.