Chapter 1
“Really Twilight, I can't believe a pony with your knowledge couldn't pick up on that.”
“How was I supposed to know what you meant? You never said anything!”
Rarity sighed as she stopped at the crosswalk. Her bag of crystals clinked and chimed as she shifted her saddlebags around and looked back at Twilight, who was carrying her own bags, behind her.
“I was signaling you the whole time, darling. You even looked right at me!”
Twilight furrowed her brows as she sat down on the snow covered sidewalk, replaying the entire scene in the back of her mind.
“He mentioned the roads had been particularly icy this year...”
“Yes, and remember how I signaled to you that they weren't? He was playing you darling!”
“You didn't 'signal' anything! You just stood there!”
Rarity sighed as she put a hoof to her face.
“I wasn't just 'standing there' I was trying to communicate to you quietly that the merchant was being more than generous in his description of the snow. Isn't your brother not too far north from here? I would have figured that of either of us you'd have known more about the weather in this area.”
Twilight shook her head, ignoring the comments about the weather.
“Rarity, if you're going to use sign language, you need to sign when I'm looking at you.”
“I didn't use sign language dear, I was using body language! I had my front hooves crossed and I even rolled my eyes! That alone should have been a dead give away.”
Twilight looked even more irritated as she rose from the snow and began crossing the near empty street.
“Well there's the problem, I don't know your secret code. If you had just... what's so funny?”
Rarity snickered and bit her lip as she caught up to Twilight and the two resumed walking towards their hotel.
“I'm sorry darling, it's just that I've never heard anypony refer to it as a 'secret code' before.”
Twilight rolled her eyes as Rarity continued to snicker into her hoof, however her eyes stopped mid-roll as they caught sight of the bookstore right next to them.
Immediately all frustration with her shopping partner vanished as she turned into the store with a lighthearted bounce in her step. Before the little bell over the door had even stopped chiming Twilight was browsing the shelves, looking for something new to read. Rarity had been book shopping with Twilight before, and as such, was far less excited to spend what she was certain would be no less than three hours, in a tiny old store on the edge of Equestria's northern reaches.
For the first hour, Rarity was interested in what the dusty, old store had to offer. By the second hour, Rarity's hooves were beginning to get sore from standing around on the old hardwood floor with nowhere to sit, and as the fourth hour ticked by, Rarity realized that she would have to do something drastic if she was going to escape the musty prison she had found herself in.
At first, she looked for a book that might shed some light on how a pony's stance conveyed as much, if not more, than a pony's words, but the tiny store didn't have anything that fit what she was looking for. She did however, find a small book that she was certain would get Twilight's interest.
“Ah! Twilight? Have you seen this one?”
Twilight instantly appeared behind her, causing Rarity to jump a bit, but she soon regained her composure as Twilight cracked open the book and looked at the title page.
“Great and Powerful Pranks, Jokes, and Spells for Beginners and Foals...”
“It's a little joke book. You know, harmless little pranks and things. I bet it would prove quite useful when Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie go on another one of their pranking sprees to have a few comebacks of our own.”
Twilight said little as she skimmed through the pages. Seizing the initiative, Rarity leaned in closer.
“It looks like good fun, darling. How about we get this and try a few back at the hotel?”
Rarity gave her best sales-pitch-smile while Twilight looked at a few of the spells in more detail. Finally she closed the book with a wide smile of her own.
“This will be so much fun! I'm actually looking forward to our first prank war!”
Much to Rarity's relief, Twilight bounced happily to the counter and before long, they had paid for the book and were walking through the snow back to the hotel. Twilight and Rarity hurried through the empty streets as the snow began to lightly fall from the sky and before long they were both looking through the book with mischievous grins.
“Which one do you think would be the funniest?”
Twilight rubbed her her chin for a moment before turning to a spell a few pages into the book.
“How about this one? It mutes its target.”
Rarity looked over the spell and shrugged her shoulders.
“I don't know, Twilight, that seems a little light to me.”
Twilight smiled as she reread the spell's procedure.
“Remember all of that bragging she was doing during the whole Mare-Do-Well incident? This would put a humorous end to it.”
They both stifled a laugh as they each imagined the look on Rainbow's face as her words disappeared mid-sentence.
“Alright, alright, let's try it.”
Twilight's eyes widened as she looked at Rarity, who normally didn't volunteer for such things, but Rarity smiled and winked as she stood in the center of the room.
“If you want to catch Rainbow Dash by surprise, you're going to have to have this spell down.”
“I guess that's true, still it's a brand new spell, are you sure you want me to try it on you?”
“It's a practical joke book for foals, darling. I have full confidence a unicorn as talented as you will have no trouble with this. Now hit me while I'm talking about something. Just like you would hit Rainbow Dash.”
Twilight smiled as Rarity began chattering about random things. This prank was already sounding more and more fun as she quickly skimmed through the instructions again. With an eager grin, Twilight rolled off of the bed, took a firm stance, and fired the beam of magic directly at Rarity. The violet ray hit its mark with perfect accuracy and exploded into a bright flash that soon engulfed the entire room.
When Twilight opened her eyes she saw Rarity, still standing in the center of the room. Rarity looked at her with a curious look in her eyes, but when she attempted to ask her a question, no sound came out of her mouth. Her lips moved in the vague form of a sentence, but no sound could be heard. As she grinned with satisfaction, Twilight leapt for joy at her success.
“...”
Then she suddenly stopped.
“...?”
At first Rarity didn't understand why Twilight wasn't celebrating like she usually did after a new spell's successful casting, but as Twilight's eyes widened and her stance became more rigid, Rarity figured it out quickly. Twilight was also muted.
Twilight attempted to clear her throat and speak again, but nothing came out. Racing back to the book, Twilight almost instantly spotted her mistake. The spell didn't just silence its target, but anypony within five feet of the target, including the caster.
Smacking her forehead with her hoof, Twilight let out a sigh. She couldn't believe she had missed that part. But as embarrassing as this mistake was, it was easy enough to rectify. Twilight's hoof traced the lines of the prank's entry to the bottom of the page where a humorous little caricature of a unicorn with a conical hat “demonstrated” the spell's technique and effect. However, Twilight's ability to laugh at the cute, little picture was hampered by the lack of a listed counter-spell. Running her hoof through the article again only caused Twilight to become more exasperated. Turning back to the book's introduction pages, Twilight's eyes landed on the line that both relieved and infuriated her all at the same time.
“For counter-spells and defenses against the spells listed in this book, please refer to the follow-on manual: Great and Powerful Defenses Against Mischief for Beginners and Foals.”
Twilight slapped her forehead again as she looked over to Rarity, who was no doubt getting worried about their situation.
Rarity gave her friend a comforting smile as she walked over to her. Judging by how Twilight had furiously skimmed through the book and now looked at her with despairing eyes, she had guessed that the counter-spell was either simply waiting for the effects to wear off or it was probably listed in a different book. She could only imagine how embarrassed Twilight was, though her face gave Rarity a pretty good idea as she embraced her friend and looked over Twilight's shoulder at the introductory page of the book, now lying on the end-table.
Returning the embrace, Twilight did her best to comfort her friend. She wished she could tell Rarity, who was no doubt already confused and panicking, what exactly was wrong. As the two separated, Twilight made an exaggerated motion to her mouth before violently shaking her head. Then she pulled up the book and showed Rarity the lines about the spell's range and the location of the counter spell.
Rarity nodded in acknowledgment of their situation. Clearly they would have to go back to the store and look for the other book, but it was already getting late and the weather looked to be getting worse outside. As Twilight began to gather her bags and head for the door, Rarity stopped her and pointed outside the window towards the falling snow.
Twilight tried to smile as she followed the hoof pointing outside. Obviously Rarity was wanting them to hurry towards the store. It might be hard, but Twilight was more than ready to help her friend and fix this mess.
As Twilight walked out the door, Rarity felt the urge to smack her own forehead. She knew Twilight was bad at communicating without words, but this was getting silly. As she galloped after her friend, who had evidently just become aware of the time, Rarity began to wonder whether it would be easier to stop Twilight for a game of charades or to just let her read the “closed” sign for herself.
The door of the inn burst open as Twilight sped out to the sidewalk and raced towards the bookstore. Looking back over her shoulder, she saw Rarity stopping by the hotel desk, understandably distraught over their situation and unable to continue. Returning her gaze forward, to the objective at hoof, Twilight sped down the dark, snow covered sidewalks until at last the store appeared on the horizon. Not wasting any time, Twilight sped up to the door and pushed, but the door didn't budge. The sign hung behind the door's window spelled out the disappointing and obvious: the store was closed.
“And then she burst into song! Right there, in front of everypony!”
Rarity shared a silent laugh with the other guests as the earth pony across from her continued her story. She had already arranged with the hotel manager to keep the room for another night in preparation for missing their early morning train tomorrow. Now all she had to do was wait for Twilight to come back, no doubt disappointed, and they would pick up the book tomorrow. Of course there was no reason to not enjoy herself while she waited. Sipping her tea and nodding in agreement with the pony next to her, Rarity leaned back and relaxed.
Twilight couldn't feel much more depressed as she walked back into the inn. She had no idea how she was going to explain their predicament to Rarity. The store wouldn't reopen until fairly late in the morning and after they got the book and performed the counter-spell, they wouldn't have enough time to get all the way to the other side of town to catch their train. As she started walking for the stairs leading up to their room, a burst of laughter in the hotel's lobby caught her attention. Twilight couldn't believe what she was seeing until Rarity, who had noticed her, got up and politely bowed out of the conversation.
Placing a hoof on her friend's shoulder, Rarity lead the clearly confused Twilight up the stairs. She could easily see that Twilight's mind was filled with questions, no doubt about her ability to socialize without her voice, but the mute spell prevented Twilight from having any means of asking any of them. Judging by the fact that Twilight blankly followed Rarity's lead, Rarity guessed that Twilight had all but worn herself out after racing back and forth through the snow. After carefully leading Twilight to her bed and tucking her in like a filly, Rarity breathed a sigh of relief. In just the short time since the spell had been cast, Twilight had been almost as much of a hoof-full as Sweetie Belle.
Of course that didn't mean that Rarity wasn't just as eager to get up in the morning. Both Rarity and Twilight got up with the sun and raced out of the inn and down the street to the bookstore, which didn't open until much later in the morning. However, the moment the door was open, both ponies shoved the title of the counter-spell manual mentioned in their book's introduction into the clerk's face. It was the quickest and easiest sale the store had ever made and as the light from the counter-spell faded, both ponies breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
“Are you okay?”
Rarity nodded as she leaned back from where she sat on the sidewalk.
“Of course, darling. Ah, I'm glad that's dealt with.”
There was a brief silence as the two looked out over the streets, covered in the freshly fallen snow, before suddenly Twilight bolted upright.
“Ah! The train! We're going to miss the train!”
Rarity shook her head and motioned for Twilight to sit back down.
“We already have, dear. But don't worry, I've already taken care of the hotel and we can get new tickets at the station. We just have to extend our little shopping trip for one more day.”
Twilight sat back down next to her friend with a clear expression of confusion and curiosity on her face.
“Rarity, how did you manage to do that? How did you tell the hotel manager that we were muted?”
“Well I didn't tell him everything, darling. But body language is quite universal and with a little care here and there, you'd be surprised what you can convey without words.”
“But you didn't tell me anything!”
Rarity shook her head and placed a hoof to her forehead.
“We really should find you a book on body language when we get back, Twilight. I told you several things, though it all seems to have been lost in translation. Either way...”
Rarity got up and stretched her back.
“We should probably go and buy our new train tickets.”
“I'm sorry for all of the trouble that this caused.”
“Nonsense darling! That spell is perfect for Rainbow Dash! We know that now more than anypony. Though perhaps it is a bit much for Pinkie Pie. We'll need to look through that book and see what we can find for her... though let's make sure we have everything we need for undoing the magic before we cast the spell this time.”
Twilight nodded and, with a laugh, the two trotted off towards the train station.