The Lost Spell Book

by ASGeek2012

Chapter 2 - More Accidents Happen, Elsewhere

The ancient works annex of the museum was like a tomb, dead quiet and smelling of the mustiness of the ages. A sigh like that from a haunting spirit drifted through empty corridors lit only by the baleful light of the full moon. Well, it would have sounded more eerie had it not been accompanied by the impatient, staccato cadence of hard-heeled shoes.

The "spirit" finally stopped at the doorway to the back room and spoke. "Amy?"

At a table, yellowed parchments and musty tomes littered in organized chaos around her, a mousy-looking dark-haired young woman sat, her nose buried in a book larger and heavier than most cinder blocks.

The "spirit" of the museum -- namely a middle-aged woman named Patricia Tanner who was its manager -- called out again, more insistent, "Amy?"

The young woman seemed not to notice.

"Amy!"

The woman's head jerked up, her large-framed glasses almost flying off her head. "Huh? What??"

Patricia sighed. "Amy, you need to go home."

Amy Sommers sighed and adjusted her glasses. "Already?"

"Already? It's almost eight at night!"

Amy's eyes widened. "Eight? Oh, um, sorry, Ms. Tanner. Time must have gotten away from me again."

Patricia shook her head as Amy closed the book and gathered her things. "I know you're really interested in this stuff about ancient magic and witchcraft, but I'm getting a little concerned that you're too obsessed with it."

Amy pushed her glasses back from the tip of her nose. "I am not obsessed."

"This is the fourth day in a row you've been here well past your shift time. I'd call that obsessed. Now, I've been gracious enough to let you look at these old documents against my better judgment."

Amy giggled.

Patricia cocked an eyebrow. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing," said Amy as she selected a smaller book from the top of a neat stack of old documents whose pages were yellowed with age. She cradled the book to her chest with one arm, her other holding a tote bag that she slung over her shoulder. "I'll see you Monday." She started for the door.

Patricia frowned and stepped in front of her. "Wait a minute."

Amy blinked innocently and smiled. "Yes?"

"What's that book you're holding?"

Amy glanced down at the book, a medieval relic on witchcraft. "Oh, just some reading I wanted to take home with me."

Patricia folded her arms. "You know you can't take stuff out of the museum. It's against the rules."

"Oh, but I really need to take this home with me, Ms. Tanner."

"No, you need to leave it right here."

"But I really need it."

"You do not need it, Amy."

"Oh, but I really do."

"Amy, you do not. You need to leave it here."

"Ms. Tanner, I need to leave it here."

"Amy, for the last time, you need to take the book home!"

Amy smiled. "I'm glad we were able to reach an agreement. See you Monday."

Patricia nodded and smiled, watching Amy head out of the room and down the hall with the book. Wait, with the book? Why, yes, that was what Patricia had wanted all along. She was glad Amy had seen reason in the end.

Amy burst out giggling as she walked out of the museum and into the cool night air. I did it! I did it! she exulted in her mind. I understand how even the oddest nuances of pony magic work! I'm almost ready!

Her heart thumped as she drove from the museum with the book sitting in the passenger's seat. She wished she could cast the transformation spell as soon as she got home, but she needed just a little more preparation, hence the need for the relic from the museum. Not to mention she would want a whole day to get used to her new form and learn how to channel her new power.

Amy felt as giddy as a schoolgirl on prom night as she pulled up to her house. She ran up to the front door, threw it open ...

"About damn time you got home, sis. When's dinner? I'm starved."

... and her mood promptly crashed and burned like the aforementioned schoolgirl being stood up at said prom.

She stared at the lanky form that was her younger brother Brad as he lounged on the sofa in the middle of a beer can and potato chip crumb infested hive of chaos where a neat and tidy living room once was. Such a mess was more appropriate for a college dorm room, which was where Amy had last seen him.

"Wh-what ... what are you doing here?!" Amy cried.

"Hey, tone it down, I'm trying to watch the game," Brad said, gesturing at the football game on the TV.

"I don't care what you're trying to do! Why are you doing it in my living room?!"

Brad smirked and ran a hand through his disheveled blond hair. "Oh, yeah, that. Gotta crash here for a bit til I find another place to stay."

"And just what is wrong with your dorm room?"

"Heh, turns out, they don't want me staying there if I've dropped outta school."

Amy's book fell from her limp fingers. "What?? Why?!"

"Guess I failed too many tests," Brad said with a short laugh.

Amy clenched her teeth. "You can't stay here."

"What, you gonna toss out your brother? Your own flesh and blood?"

"You don't understand! I ... I have something really important I need to do, and I can't have you here when I do it."

Brad snorted. "You? The wallflower? What could you possibly have to do other than bury your nose in another book?"

Amy gave him an indignant look. "I will have you know that--"

Brad raised an eyebrow as his gaze dropped to the floor at Amy's feet. "Speaking of books, what's that?"

Amy gasped and snatched up the book, hugging it to her chest, but not before Brad had seen the pentagram on the cover. "None of your business."

Brad rolled his eyes. "Christ-on-a-pony, are you still into that weird occult shit?"

"I don't have to answer to you."

"You're gonna turn out to be as batty as Mom."

"Don't say that," Amy snarled. "Don't ever say that about my mother."

"Hey, she's my mother, too."

"Don't remind me."

Brad shrugged. "Anyway, what about dinner?"

Amy frowned. "Like I'm going to cook for you."

"Fine, then let's order out. I could go for some pepperoni pizza."

Amy narrowed her eyes and marched through the living room. "Then go order it. None for me."

"Huh? You love pepperoni pizza."

"Not anymore. I'm vegetarian."

Brad frowned. "When the hell did that happen?"

Amy whirled around at the base of the stairs. "When I discovered what my true calling is, what I am destined to be. It is in preparation for when I transcend this limited form so that I may tap more fully into the great pool of mystic energy of which I have only taken the barest sips until now."

Brad made fake gagging noises. "Fuck, Amy, you sound as batshit insane as Mom was before she was committed."

Amy set her eyes hard. "I don't expect you to understand," she said before turning on her heel and marching up the stairs.

She rushed into her bedroom and slammed the door, leaning against it and letting out a frustrated sigh. She stepped over to her desk and set the book down, raising her eyes to the large, faded poster taped to the wall above. In the poster, a woman stood clad in a robe and pointed hat of deep blue covered in arcane symbols. One arm was raised in a flourish, her hand trailing sparks, a smug smile on her face. Below the picture were the words: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TINA.

Amy sighed wistfully. "Don't listen to him, Mom. You just didn't discover the secret, that's all. But I did. I found it."

Well, "found" in a relative sense. She had needed to look only as far as the end of her bed, which was where the "secret" had fallen after appearing in a flash of light somewhere near her ceiling several years ago (her mattress preventing a jarring thud due to its fall from a height).

Amy smiled and glanced towards the door. Panting softly in anticipation, she reached under the bed and slid the instrument of her rebirth out, its appearance a pleasure that would be rivaled only when she could at last consummate this relationship begun when it had first appeared in her midst. She slid her hands in a gentle caress across the inlaid gold of the title: Totally Tantalizing and Titillating Transformations.

The door behind her suddenly opened. "Hey, you got money to pay for the pizza?"

Amy gasped, thrusting the book back under the bed. She leapt to her feet and whirled around. "Get out of my bedroom!"

Brad smirked. "Hey, relax. I'm not gonna look at your secret stash of sex toys."

Amy blushed. "I do not have--!"

"So will you pay, or what?"

Amy narrowed her eyes. "Yes, I will. Now go away."

"Hey, um, this thing you gotta do," said Brad, scratching the back of his neck. "You're not gonna do something weird like a séance or something, huh?"

"It is most definitely not a séance."

"Good, 'cuz I kinda invited my girlfriend over tomorrow."

"You did what??"

"And I really don't want her having to hear you doing weird chants or something like that."

"Brad, how could you do this?!"

"Don't worry, if we start making out, we'll keep it down."

"You cannot do this in my house. I--"

"See ya later!" Brad retreated and closed the door.

"--forbid it! UGH!!"

Amy clenched her hands into fists and fell onto the edge of her bed.

She closed her eyes. "All right, calm down, Amy. Don't let this deter you. You can still do this. Just don't let yourself be distracted. Then you can turn Brad into a newt, just like Mom did once."

Or so her mother had claimed. Unfortunately, Brad had gotten better by the time Amy had a chance to see for herself.

Amy took a deep breath and pulled the book from the museum into her lap. While she had understood the basic language of the transformation book, the arcana contained within was far more complex. She was the most recent in a long line of witches, magicians, and conjurers, but this magic was advanced enough to require extensive research.

It had paid off. The bit of bamboozlement she had done on Ms. Tanner was from an obscure branch of reality-warping abilities that was part of what the book referred to as "earth pony magic." Very few of these "earth ponies" were graced with such abilities. Since she had been able to tap into it, she felt this meant she was worthy of the book and capable of the spells contained within.

The book from the museum represented the final link. It would enable her to start casting the actual transformation spells upon herself. Then she would be fully open to the "pony magic" and almost nothing would be beyond her grasp.

---

Amy was so excited that she could barely sleep that night (well, that and her brother's snoring was enough to wake the dead). Early the next morning, she crept out of her bedroom, careful not to disturb her slumbering brother. With luck, he would stay in bed until at least ten or eleven like he always had on weekends when he still lived at home. She made herself a cup of tea to brace herself before returning to her room.

Her heart pounded, her hands trembling as she withdrew the transformation book and placed it atop the bed. She opened the book to the page she had bookmarked and smiled. She took a deep breath and stood. She opened herself fully to the Earth's magical energies, feeling them tingle and buzz inside her. She pushed her glasses up her nose and gazed down at the book.

She giggled, her eyes twinkling. She had waited for this moment for years ever since she had been gifted with this book. She was sure she had been smiled on by the divine. What else would explain why the book was written in perfectly legible English? Or why its magic was compatible with Earth magic? Surely this could not be some mere contrivance or coincidence!

The spell she was about to cast had no means for her to choose what kind of pony she would become. It instead performed the transformation based on the innate abilities and personality of the one to be transformed. She was not worried. With as great and powerful a magical pedigree as she had, why would it not make her a unicorn? Really, the only question was what her cutie mark would look like.

"All right," Amy said in a breathless voice. "I'm ready."

She started the incantation, pronouncing each word carefully but with enthusiasm. Her heart raced as power surged through her body, her voice rising in equal measure with her growing delight. When she reached the end of the spell, the last words were shouted with enough force to shake the walls.

Light exploded and thunder boomed, and Amy was thrown hard against the door, knocking her glasses askew. For a few moments, she swam in the twilight waters of unconsciousness before finally climbing upon familiar shores of perception, the room spinning around her head a few times before growing still.

Amy blinked rapidly. She raised a hand before her face and uttered a loud gasp, her eyes growing wide, for her hand ...

... was still a hand.

"W-what??" Amy cried. She looked at her other hand, which was also still a hand. Feet were still feet. She felt the crown of head and felt nothing more than her disheveled hair. "No. No! What went wrong?! I had the spell perfect! Why am I not a pony?!"

---

"Mmrgh ... huh?"

Brad's eyes flickered open just as the rumbling stopped. He frowned and lifted his head, squinting at the clock. He groaned at how early it was and let his head fall against the pillow. He winced when he heard his sister shout something from her bedroom.

"Ugh, keep it down, sis!" Brad called out. "Some people are tryin' to sleep."

Brad closed his eyes, but less than a minute later, his face scrunched up, and he opened them again. He felt weird. His limbs seemed to lay at odd angles, and he couldn't feel his hands or feet.

He grumbled and turned over, thinking he had just slept on something wrong, but that only compounded the weirdness. The pair of briefs he had worn to bed felt loose, like the elastic band had failed. His attempt to pull them up compounded the weirdness again with interest. All he felt was a hard, rounded something slide across his skin.

"What the hell?" Brad murmured, now rising to full wakefulness but still short full understanding. He tried to fiddle with his briefs again, gave up, and rolled out of bed so he could adjust them properly.

As he slid over the side, the briefs slipped further down, entangling his legs. He let out a startled yell as he fell, crashing to the floor on his face like a drunken horse. He gasped to recover the wind that had been knocked out of him.

He planted a hand against the floor and blinked when he heard a very odd clopping noise. The oddness was doubled when he heard it again with his other hand. He muttered a curse when he felt his legs entangled by his briefs. He kicked them off in his hurry to right himself.

He rose. Sort of. He seemed to be half-risen. His attempts to correct this state of affairs were ignored by his body, which insisted there was no more rising to be done. Was he not still on all fours? Brad looked down to confirm this was indeed the case.

Except he was not expecting to see the kind of fours he was on.

"Wha--?!"

He raised a trembling hand to his face, but unlike his sister just moments ago, his gaze instead fell upon a hoof attached to a sea-green leg.

"What the fuck?!" Brad cried. He tried to move and almost fell on his face again, his body appearing to continue to adhere to the earlier unexpectedly apt analogy concerning inebriated equines. He looked behind him and saw a tail trailing from his butt, colored bright peach.

"What happened? ... Wh-why ... why am I a pony?!"

---

Amy sat on her bed, the transformation book in her lap, her eyes wild. She curled her fingers into her hair. "I had it right. I know I had it right. Why didn't it work?!" She yanked the museum book from her night table and flipped through it. "All I needed was how to direct the magic. Direct it up and into me, then ... um ..." She stared down at the book and face-palmed. "Amy, you idiot."

She had everything right except the direction. She had the enactor phrase wrong. One syllable had been out of place.

"Okay, all I need to do is repeat the spell and use the correct enactor." She lifted her head and looked around in puzzlement. "But if that means the spell did work, then where did it get directed to?"

"AAAAAAAMMMMMMYYYYYY!!!"

"Gah! What?!" Amy cried, her head jerking to the side so fast that her glasses almost flew from her face. She rolled her eyes. "Not now, Brad!"

"Get in here, quick!"

"Rrrgh! I'm busy!"

"I need your help, Amy, PLEASE!!"

Amy tossed the museum book to the side and slammed the transformation book shut before hopping off the bed and throwing open the door. "Brad, I swear to the goddess, this had better be nothing short of your bed being on fire!"

She marched down the hallway and threw open the door to the guest bedroom.

"Now what were you ... shouting ... a-about ...?" Amy's voice trailed off as her eyes fell on the green-and-peach little earth pony who stood beside the bed, a pair of discarded briefs near his hindquarters. "Brad??"

"Y-you're seeing this, right?!" the pony spoke with Brad's normal voice (adjusting for abject panic, that is). "I'm not hallucinating? I'm not crazy?!"

Amy's eyes filled with tears ...

"I know! This is terrible! I have no idea how this--!"

... and she burst out laughing.

Brad looked on in wide-eyed confusion as his sister clutched her sides and leaned against the door frame.

"Oh, g-goddess," Amy struggled to speak amidst peals of mirth. "Oh, my ..."

"You're laughing at this?!" Brad cried.

"I-I can't help it ... your ... y-your cutie mark ..."

Brad blinked. "My what?!"

"On your flank."

"Flank?? What are you--?"

"On your butt, you dork!"

Brad looked at Amy as if she had grown a third eye -- which was sounding a lot better than being a little pony -- and turned his head. His eyes widened as he spotted a detail he had not noticed about his morphed body. He had a tattoo on his rear, that of a magnetic compass but with a large crack in the glass.

"I always knew you were aimless in life, Brad, but this just proves it," said Amy, setting her off again in gales of laughter.

Brad stomped a hoof. "Will you tell me what the fuck is going on?!"

Amy wiped her eyes as she straightened up, her belly aching from her prolonged laughter. "Okay, I'll try to explain this to you, but not in here."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because you've lived in this room for less than a day and it already reeks of beer, chips, and pizza. Come downstairs with me."

Brad sighed. "Fine. Assuming I can even use these stupid hooves. I ... huh?"

When he tried to take a few steps forward, he felt something waggle in the rear that was not his tail. His eyes widened, and he lowered his head, peeking between his forelegs. "Gaaah!" He backed up and rammed his butt into the side of the bed.

Amy rolled her eyes. "What's your problem now?"

"I am not moving from this spot until you find something for me to wear!" Brad cried.

"Huh? Why?"

"I'm naked!"

Amy sighed. "Brad, you're a freaking pony. You don't need clothing."

"Yes, I do! At least on my rear!"

Amy looked askance at him. "Why?"

Brad blushed. "Because I may be a pony but ... I still have ... um, bits."

"Bits? What bits?"

"You know perfectly well what bits I'm talking about!"

"I have no clue."

Brad paused. "Boy bits," he said in a low voice.

Amy snorted, then started laughing again.

"This is not funny!" Brad cried.

"Dude, if you think I'm going to be impressed by your manly stallion bits--"

"You're my sister! You shouldn't be seeing my bits, period!"

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Amy cried. "Your tail will hide them. I really don't have the patience for your crap now, Brad."

Brad's eyes widened. "You don't have the patience? I'm the one who's the pony here!"

Amy smirked. "Yes, I know. And until you learn how to use those 'stupid hooves' as you put it, you're dependent on me. So unless you want me to just lock you in here, you'll do what I say and stop screwing around. You got it?"

Brad clenched his teeth -- which for an earth pony made an impressive grinding noise -- before he hung his head and sighed. "Fine, whatever."

Amy grinned. "Now, come along." She giggled. "My little pony."

Brad frowned and made a very horse-like snorting sound as he clopped along behind her.

---

Five universes over -- four if one takes the hyperspace bypass -- inside the Castle of Friendship, Princess Twilight Sparkle was suddenly roused from a sound sleep with a gasp, her heart pounding. She knew something was ahoof, as there was no mistaking the sensation that now filled her with a sense of dread.

Her alicorn senses were tingling.

Comments

[Dipti]

sooo an occult nut found the real book of magic with REAL MAGIC principles... Said nut now has a viable way to apply all human knowledge/ ideas of magic into practical use. WHEN THE FUN GONNA START?

[Crystal Static]

6716983 roundstable.com/forums/images/smilies/excellent.gif

~Crystalline Electrostatic~
23:41_12/9/2015

[Emperor]

derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/7/24/681953__safe_animated_screencap_scootaloo_sweetie+belle_apple+bloom_cutie+mark+crusaders_hub+logo_loop_stuck.gif

[ASGeek2012]

6716983
She already seems to be having fun, considering her reaction to her magical accident

6717451
Now I have a vision of Discord sitting off to the side with some popcorn enjoying the fun

6719238

[DualKitsune]

some mere contrivance or coincidence!

ummmm... yeah, sorry to mess with your delusion of grandeur but.... that was the title of one of the books that sent that thing..

Her alicorn senses were tingling.

I see.... So Peter has to be bit by a spider, and she gets a pair of wings and a crown. Somehow that doesn't seem fair. Especially since her sense work way better.

[wlam]

Amy is kind of an asshole. What a witch.

[Mine_Menace]

7465798 Really? Based on what I have seen so far, I think she's fine. Taking the book home is the only thing I don't like about her so far, since it's obviously not hers, but based off of what I've seen of Brad so far, he's kind of a lazy, inconsiderate asshole who invites himself into his sister's house and does whatever the heck he wants. So I think she's justified here.

[ferret]

"With as great and powerful a magical pedigree as she had, why would it not make her a unicorn?" she thought after literally just using earth pony magic.

[Avatar Sprite]

Some of theese names seem familiar..

[The Spy of the Tiger]

Patricia Tanner, The Great and Powerfun Tina, those names sound like references to something.

On an unrelated note, the ad at the bottom of this page, by pure coincidence, is for 2K Games, and has Borderlands 3's box art featured.