“I sure hope Spike gets home with those quills I asked for before it starts to rain,” Twilight Sparkle said to herself as she looked out the window by her desk. She let her eyes linger on the dark clouds for just a moment before refocusing on the organized chaos spread before her. Various books on the fundamentals of gravity, mixed with books on anatomy, and a few important pieces of parchment which held known values and figures in chemistry made up the bulk if it. Of course there were several ink pots next to Twilight’s books. Plenty of parchment rested just out of reach on her table waiting to be used. Scattered on the floor were the remains of several dozen quills, the last of which was still dripping with wet ink.
Twilight levitated a quill and filled it in the ink pot, and carefully brought it down to the waiting parchment, conscious that it was her last usable one. She slowly began to write, cross checking the formulas she was using in triplicate. Twilight wasn’t as familiar with the magic of potions as she would have liked,
‘Which is probably why Celestia assigned them to me,’ Twilight thought to herself. ‘It’s not like this potion wasn’t already created nearly one thousand years ago by StarSwirl the Bearded, right? It’s just like cooking... only if I mess this up who knows what will happen?’ Twilight’s last thought caused her to double check her work for about the sixth time. When she was satisfied that things were in order, she levitated her quill to the ink pot and filled it again, quicker this time though as she wanted to get the next part on paper before she lost her train of thought.
As she was writing, a bright flash caused her to jump, making her to temporarily lose control of her magic, breaking the quill and sending the books tumbling to the floor. A split second later, a rumbling roar could be heard throughout the skies. A big drop of rain hit her window soon after and was quickly followed by another, and another until in just a few seconds the entire window was soaking wet. The rain came in visible waves and relentlessly soaked the earth. Twilight stared through the window in awed appreciation for nature and the roof over her head. She paused and watched the rain come down and was surprisingly relaxed by the sound. A moment later a familiar green light and the usual smell of dragon fire soon followed. Not surprisingly a letter materialized and landed on the ground with a soft wet slap, silently inviting to be opened. Twilight obliged, breaking the seal and letting the parchment unroll itself. From the looks of it, it seemed to be written in a hurry, as several ink blots stained the page. The parchment itself didn't even come close to the lowest quality rolls, and looked as though it was written on an old scrap. Several rather large raindrops graced the page, smearing the ink in several places. From these clues Twilight concluded that this particular letter must have been written very recently by her #1 assistant. Her suspicions were proven true when she read the actual text:
Twilight, got caught in the rain and I can’t make it home. I’m going to stay at Rarity’s until the
storm passes. Just don’t freak out and break your last quill before I get back. By the way, I
got a great deal on those new quills you asked for. Anyway, see you when the storm is over,
Spike
Twilight was relieved that Spike was okay, and went to fetch some parchment to write a counter reply before realizing that all of her quills were broken. She looked over to her desk with longing eyes, staring at the assignment that she could no longer work on. In a last ditch attempt Twilight ran to her room and looked in all of her usual hiding places. All of them turned up empty, and her head fell down to the ground. With her ears lowered she opened her eyes halfway, not really expecting to see anything that she hadn't already seen. As she turned to go back downstairs, her eyes drifted over Spike’s bed and she thought she saw the faintest trace of red. Twilight’s ears perked up a little, and she scrunched her face in confusion as she approached Spike’s bed. Pulling back the sheets she was rewarded to see the red feather Spike had gotten as a gift from Cheerilee on his birthday. The feather didn't look as nice as it once did, but the all important tip... was broken.
‘Drat.’
Twilight threw herself backwards onto her mattress out of frustration. When she went through all of the things that went wrong today she let out a frustrated sigh. “Alright,” Twilight said to herself “I can’t study because I don’t have a quill. I can’t go get another one because it’s raining. And I can’t tell Spike to go get me one because he isn't here.” Twilight let all these thoughts and more roll around in her mind until only one possible outcome remained. Twilight’s eyes lit up and her mouth formed a devious smile as she prepared herself for what she was about to do.
Twilight made her way downstairs wearing nothing but her night clothes, relishing in the cuddly warmth they offered. Her smile broadened when she reached the first floor and she went directly to the section of the library where she rarely went. She made her way through the shelves of school literature and pulled memorable titles as they struck her fancy. Twilight emerged with several books which included Celsius 232.778, The fantastic Ghastly, and a recent favorite, Hook 22. Twilight was satisfied with her selections, yet something felt lacking. Twilight let her instincts guide her and soon found herself in the science fiction area. She briefly wondered how this section felt so small in comparison to the others before giving a slight shrug and dove in. After what was literally only a couple of hoof steps, the books shifted topics to something Twilight dreaded above all else... romance novels. She quickly reversed her direction and managed to pull two books from science fiction in the midst of her hasty retr- er, tactical withdrawal. Prehistoric Panic Attack and Ride Bummer’s Guide to the Universe now graced her small collection of books. As Twilight made her way back to the main lobby she decided to take a shortcut only the foalish or desperate dared to take... a one way ticket down horror. Twilight braced herself as she made ready to -scream like a filly- charge into battle and put one hoof in front of the other. The light seemed to shift in this most peculiar row of books, making things seem darker than they really were. Even the books that followed in her magical tow seemed to hesitate, fearing some as of yet unknown evil. Twilight’s purple magic was the greatest source of illumination and it cast strange and sharp shadows on the walls and she had to squint her eyes just to see a few inches in front of her. She bravely pushed onward as the light at the end of the row seemed to grow brighter, the books following close behind as if they were anxious to leave the mysterious row of known only as horror. When Twilight reached the end she made a mental note to change the light bulb above the shelves and on a whim took The Radiant from the end cap.
Twilight decided it would be more dramatic to have a small magical fire and set out for her underground laboratory, content with her selections. As she passed row after row of books on her way, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was still missing. It gnawed at her and only grew worse after each step. Finally the feeling was too strong to ignore and she paused and thought about it. After a moment Twilight knew what she needed and ran to the self help area and picked a book at random, gathered her other books and descended into the basement, locking the door behind her.
Content with her fire, Twilight spread her books on the floor so they resembled a neat semi-circle. She closed her eyes and imagined that she was the director of a prestigious Canterlot theatre. When she had the mental image firmly established, she opened her eyes and looked upon her books.
“Alright, I got a new play to produce and it seems as though I’ll need some new actors. So,” Twilight said as she cast speculative looks to her books “show me what you’ve got.”
“Well for starters Miss Sparkle,” began Hook 22 “how can we be in a play if we are not alive, and merely the physical representation of your boredom?”
“Well, I suppose that would be rather difficult. Luckily I know an animation spell. Just hold still while I aim, no telling what might happen if I miss.”
Twilight cast her animation spell and the books came to life. Each one receiving a small amount of purple magic that infused itself into the pages. With a loud snap, the spines began to move and small amounts of residual magic were brushed off in a shower of purple sparks.
“Wonderful,” said Twilight as she clapped her hooves together “it worked. So, who wants to be in my play?”
Not surprisingly the self help book was the first to respond, but his... her... its answer shocked Twilight.
“What’s my motivation?” replied the book in an extremely tired and lazy tone of voice.
Before she could respond Ride Bummer’s Guide to the Galaxy spoke up. “Why adventure of course, my good sir. Also, has anyone seen my towel?”
“I burned it with fire. Trust me, it was for your own good. Terrible fashion sense you had there, besides the flames were glorious. Kerosene makes such a great fire starter, wouldn't you say?”
Galaxy’s binding hung open slightly in a comical way, to which Twilight couldn’t help but giggle. Seeing that it’s behavior was appreciated, Celsius 232.778 began looking for other things to burn with fire and was rewarded to find itself smack in the middle of what was clearly an illegal library. It set forth to gather the books into the middle of the room while Twilight was distracted by The Fantastic Ghastly, who for some reason couldn’t stop showering her with gifts and kept demanding a band to strike up a jazzy classic.
In the midst of Ghastly’s chatting Twilight couldn’t help but notice that the self help book was just lying in a corner rocking back and forth on it’s binding. Ghastly politely excused himself from the party, saying something about setting up a meeting with a friend of his. Twilight let it go, grateful for the relief of conversation.
Celsius 232.778 snuck behind Twilight with some books in tow and added them to the considerable pile it gathered, and carefully made it’s way back to the tower of textbooks that Twilight stored in her lab.
Twilight saw Galaxy swinging around in a state of rabid panic in search of a replacement towel and she decided to leave it be for the moment.
There was still two books that Twilight hadn’t seen yet, but she heard an animated conversation not too far away and as she got closer she could see Hook 22 and Prehistoric Panic Attack. She listened in on their conversation, curious as to what got them so excited.
“I am dead, and I am alive. But I am also alive, and yet I am dead,” Hook 22 said to itself over and over again trying in vain to understand.
Meanwhile Prehistoric Panic Attack was trying to explain to Hook 22 that life will find a way, and how it will break down barriers, painfully and even dangerously to do so. It also reasoned that it was logical to assume that in a place as chaotic as Ponyville, it was only natural that life would find its next irritation.
It freezed however, when it saw Twilight peeking out from behind a shelf and could only mutter two words, “Clever girl.”
Meanwhile Celsius was still busy collecting the books from the textbook tower and had to work around Galaxy, who was convinced the pile of books were some sort of spaceship that it could ride through the stars. Celsius threw it’s latest haul onto the pile and muttered something about burning Galaxy first.
Twilight had yet to find The Radiant and went around to look for it. But after several minutes of fruitless searching she decided to round up all of the books, a task easier said than done.
The textbook pile was nearly complete and Celsius was dragging the last book to the pile when something caught it’s attention. It glowed with a warm light and drew in Celsius as it played with its imagination. Celsius was enraptured with the dancing flames of Twilight’s magical fire and was instantly hypnotized by them.
The Radiant kept watch from it’s hiding place, letting it’s first victim slowly make its way towards the magical fire. It watched as Celsius took each step, savoring the moment and imagining how it would look when it started to burn. Finally, Celsius stopped just outside of the flame, completely entranced by the fire. Sensing that it was time, The Radiant lept out from it’s hiding place and shouted “Here’s Johnny,” while it pushed Celsius into the magic fire., laughing the whole time.
Luckley, Twilight saw what was going on in time to levitate Celsius away from the flames before any permanent damage was done. She looked at The Radiant with disapproval and decided that it would be a good idea to de-animate the books. Twilight lit her horn and cast the spell, which spread like a wave until it encompassed the entire basement. She let the spell hold for an extra second or two just to make sure and then let the magic go, leaving only the magic fire left to light the basement.
Twilight gathered her books up and set them down on her desk. She stared into the fire as she said “Books, books. God I love books. Dear Princess Celestia, I am so alone,” to no pony in particular.
Author's Note
http://www.google.com/imgres?sa=X&biw=1671&bih=912&tbm=isch&tbnid=ShsCEHrKU-VgJM:&imgrefurl=http://wildanime.deviantart.com/favourites/44128786&docid=E6pWfnBGpXCR4M&imgurl=http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/090/0/3/shrugpony_twilight_sparkle_by_moongazeponies-d3cvkds.png&w=945&h=945&ei=VRFvUorlMu33igLk_YCoBA&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:0,s:0,i:89&iact=rc&page=1&tbnh=186&tbnw=202&start=0&ndsp=32&tx=143&ty=115
