“Hooboy.” Apple Bloom breathed as they stopped in front of the Golden Oak Library, home to the resident Librarian, Personal Student of Princess Celestia, and Element of Magic Twilight Sparkle. They shifted nervously as they unloaded the chest containing the cup of dice and the clown nose out of their wagon and replaced it with their helmets, cautiously eyeing the glances they were getting from passing ponies. “You guys ready?”

“Yeah.” Scootaloo confirmed as she and Sweetie Belle lifted the chest off the ground and lugged it onto the front step.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Sweetie Belle agreed and with a nod Apple Bloom pushed the front door of the Library open and they stepped inside, dragging the chest with their unusual cargo in with them.

Twilight was standing with her back to them pulling books off the shelf with her magic, quickly flipping through the pages and muttering to herself before she carefully replaced them with others, failing to find whatever she was searching for. They glanced around and found themselves alone, Spike absent from the room but not necessarily out of the Library. Good, they didn’t want to have to come up with a reason to get anypony to leave.

“Hoo!” A noise came from their right and they looked over to see an owl peering at them from an empty book stand.

“Hmm?” Twilight hummed as she turned around and saw them. “Oh hello girls!” She welcomed warmly, carefully putting the books back. “I see you’ve met Owlowiscious.” She introduced as the owl flew from the book stand to land on her back.

“When did you get an owl?” Sweetie Belle asked as they closed the door behind them and Scootaloo noted where the lock was to be safe.

“Oh he flew in the night of the Centennial Meteor Shower after a report I was writing flew out the window.” Twilight explained as Applebloom wandered over to the nearest window and anxiously stood next to the cord that controlled the curtains. “It was rather chilly out so I asked him to stay and now he’s my late night assistant!” She announced happily as Applebloom fiddled with the curtain cord with her hoof and Scootaloo moved to do the same with another window, leaving Sweetie Belle to cover the door. “Spike was a little jealous but they worked out their problems.” Owlowiscious hoo’d in agreement and stretched his wings. “Didn’t Rarity or Applejack tell you any of this? I introduced him to the whole group.” Twilight wondered.

“We’ve uh, been kinda busy lately.” Applebloom dodged. “Where uh is Spike exactly?”

“Oh he’s at the post office dropping off an order for a regular supply of mice.” Twilight answered and got confused looks in return. “Owlowiscious has got to eat and I think it’d be better if he didn’t hunt around Ponyville. He might accidentally kill one of Fluttershy’s rodents.”

“And how long will he be gone?” Scootaloo asked, shifting in place.

“Oh he just left so it should only be a few minutes. Why?” Twilight asked eyeing their spread-out position and anxious movement. “Is something wrong?” The three fillies glanced at each other and all simultaneously drew the curtains over their respective window and locked the door. Before Twilight could voice a question at their actions Sweetie Belle opened the chest and carefully pulled out the cup of dice along with a smaller blue cup, leaving the clown nose inside. When she saw the familiar green cup Twilight sighed and walked over to them. “Girls I thought we had been over this. There’s nothing magical or dangerous about that cup or the dice!”

Without saying a word Sweetie Belle turned and rolled the dice out of the cup towards a book shelf after Applebloom and Scootaloo had safely gotten behind her. Then taking the dice in her hoof she dropped them into the blue cup and waited. “Girls I don’t know what you’re try-” Twilight was cut off as a cracking sound filled the air and she looked down at cup and her eyes went wide when she saw it begin to rise in height and expand in width. Her mouth dropped and Owlowiscious took flight to the rafters when the green splotches appeared all around its sides, spreading outward rapidly and consuming its blue color. Soon all that was left was an identical green cup to the first holding the five dice.

“Told ya we weren’t lyin’.” Applebloom said triumphantly as Twilight just continued to stare at the cup.

“I- I don’t know what to say.” Twilight finally got out as she called forth her magic to levitate the two identical cups in front of her. “When I ran the tests there was no evidence of magical alteration of any kind!” The magic holding the cup with the dice flashed and then settled back to the standard magenta color of Twilights magic and she frowned. “And there’s still nothing!” She whispered as she started to pace around the library.

“Uh Twilight?” Scootaloo asked as the lavender unicorn began to mutter to herself and started pulling books off the shelves and scouring their content. “We sorta got another one.” That snapped her out of whatever trance she had been under.

“What?!” She yelled as she nearly bowled over them, the girls backing up instinctually as she brought the cup of dice close to them. “Where did you find it? What does it do?!”

“Are you okay Twilight?” Sweetie Belle asked cautiously as they pushed the chest away a little.

“Yeah you’re freaking out more than Sweetie Belle did.” Scootaloo threw in and got a glare from the unicorn filly in return.

“You just don’t get what this means!” Twilight said. “This defies the laws of magic! There is seemingly no magical force causing these actions to take place or any sign that anything magical has happened at all!” She explained in a quick voice. “Even the Everfree Forest has the barest minimum of magic to allow for an explanation of how it can exist, even if we’ve found no guiding force that makes the animals take care of themselves or the weather to form.” She held up the cup of dice. “Magic can physically alter any object but only if a continuous supply is given to maintain it. Otherwise it will simply revert to its original form but,” she stopped and brought the cup closer to herself, “there is no supply of magic to maintain this. It should be a smaller blue cup again. It has been permanently and physically changed forever!” The three fillies all shared a look at Twilights behavior. They had expected some confusion, a few questions, and then writing Princess Celestia. It was disturbing to see Twilights entire faith in the natural order and laws of magic be shaken up so badly by a small demonstration of a minor effect.

“And the other stuff you said it does!” Twilight continued seemingly reading their minds. “What does it use to attack ponies and how does it know what to do on what rolls? What guides the dice back into the cup after it does that? How does it even know what was rolled?!” Twilight went back to pacing around, swinging the cup wildly enough to set the girls on edge.

“The dice also teleport back into the cup if taken far enough away.” Sweetie Belle added. “No big flash of magic or anything they just blink in and out of existence.”

“What?!” Twilight stopped and swung her head back at them.

“Now why did ya tell her that?!” Applebloom chastised. “Now look at her.” She gestured to Twilight as she began muttering to herself again and magically calling forth a multitude of books that began to spin around her as she searched for answers.

“I thought I was being helpful! We came to tell her about these things so why shouldn’t I have told her about the teleporting?” Sweetie Belle defended as Twilight opened a closet door and pulled a wheeled chalkboard out, quickly making rough diagrams about the cup and dice. Applebloom sighed and motioned for them to follow her as they approached Twilight.

“Uh Twilight?” She said trying to get the frantic unicorns’ attention. “Ya remember when ya heard about Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie Sense and ya realized that sometimes ya don’t have to understand somethin’ to believe that it’s true?”

“Is that what happened?” Scootaloo whispered to Sweetie Belle. “Whenever they talk about that I only listen to the part about the hydra.” Sweetie merely shushed her as Twilight turned to face them.

“That… that is true.” Twilight consented and the multitude of spinning objects around her slowed. “But I accepted it because I gave up and couldn’t handle the stress of the impossibility in front of me.” She said and the objects spun up again. “I can’t do that again, I need to find out how and why this works. I need to find the logic in it.” She turned around and smiled at them and held her head high. “I need to test!”

“…See?” Sweetie Belle said to her friends. “Told you testing was the right idea.”

“Oh shut up.” Scootaloo denied her friend any kind of victory given that Twilight was more than a little unhinged right now. “Twilight we came here so you could send a letter to Princess Celestia asking who we could pass these things off to.” Scootaloo stepped forward and finally gave the reason they were there.

“I don’t think anypony handles these sort of things girls.” Twilight answered. “But I’d be happy to take them off your hooves so I can study them myself.” She offered eagerly and they all backed away a little to their chest which still held the clown nose.

“No no that’s okay.” Applebloom rejected for them as they all put on nervous smiles. “We’ll just uh let Princess Celestia decide, ah mean these are very important discoveries right?”

“You’re right!” Twilight gasped and the three fillies all breathed a sigh of relief. “We’ll send a letter to her as soon as Spike gets back. Now what was this other discovery you made?” Twilight asked moving over to the chest and the girls all tensed up at letting her near their other object in her current condition.

Luckily they were saved when a knock came to the library door.

“Oh please be Spike.” Scootaloo whispered as Twilight set aside all of her books and the cup of dice which Sweetie Belle quickly retrieved and put back into the chest, closing the lid for good measure. It was not Spike.

“This is your singing telegram I hope it finds you well!” Pinkie Pie sang as she danced in front of the library wearing a party hat and a red clown nose. The Cutie Mark Weird Thing Catchers opened the chest to make sure that their clown nose was still inside which thankfully it was. “You're invited to a party 'cause we think you're really swell!” Twilight and the three young fillies watched in silence as Pinkie went through a whole routine with her pet alligator Gummy. “It won't be the same without you so we hope that you say yes! So, please, oh please R.S.V.P and come, and be our guest!” She finished with a burst of confetti coming from somewhere.

“You’re… throwing a birthday party for Gummy?” Twilight asked speculatively eyeing the tiny reptile at her hooves as he chewed on a piece of confetti.

“Uh-Duh! Didn’t you listen to my song?” Pinkie Pie asked as she poked her head into the library. “So will you come? It’d mean the world to Gummy!” She assured holding up the blankly staring alligator.

“Of course I’ll come Pinkie Pie.” Twilight agreed and began to close the door. “Now I’m sure you need to go invite everypony else so I won’t keep you.” They all sighed in relief when the door closed and they were alone with their dangerous and mysterious objects.

“Oh I’ve got a few minutes!” Pinkie said popping out their chest with Gummy cradled in her mane and nearly giving everypony a heart attack. Wondering how she had gotten inside the chest took a back seat as girls saw what Pinkie was holding. “What are you guys doing?”
On her left hoof was the clown nose and on her right was the cup of dice.
“Nothing!” Twilight shouted and everypony winced. “Um, nothing.” She lowered her voice considerably. “So you can just go and please put those down.”

“Yes please.” The girls all said together as they inched towards her, ready to leap and take them from her if necessary.

“Are you okay Twilight?” Pinkie asked climbing out of the chest and thankfully setting the cup of dice down which the girls quickly gathered up. “You seem kinda nervous.” Twilight recoiled from the clown nose sending a silent question to the girls that they answered with a nod of their heads. She didn’t know what the clown nose did but if it was anything like the cup she didn’t want to see it. “You gotta learn how to relax!”

Time slowed for The Cutie Mark Weird Thing Catchers as Pinkie’s fore leg shot out and slipped the clown nose onto Twilights’ as they screamed for her to stop. Two things happened in the next instant. First was that Twilights’ body went slack for a brief moment and her eyes dilated. The second was that Gummy and Owlowiscious promptly lost their shit.

The baby alligator stood atop Pinkies’ mane and made the most threatening sounds it could muster as Owlowiscious flew down from the rafters screeching and started clawing the air in front of her. “Ahh! What’s going on?!” Pinkie cried as Owlowiscious backed up into her. The girls didn’t bother to answer her as they rushed over to and rip the nose off of Twilight, jumping up and flailing their fore legs to try and knock it off. They got in a good couple of tries before Twilights magic enveloped them and they were thrown into the air, screaming when the magic left them and they started to fall only for Twilight to catch them with her hoofs and throw them back into the air to juggle them.

“Pinkie!” Sweetie Belle yelled flailing in the air. “Knock the nose off!”

“Or at least give her something else to juggle!” Scootaloo added.

“What’s going on?!” Pinkie asked, looking at Twilights’ please smile as she juggled. “Where did you learn to juggle Twilight?!” She asked not quite getting the main point the girls were trying to get across as Twilight just shrugged.

“No idea Pinkie.” Twilight smiled. “But please call me Bit Savvy right for now.” That got through to Pinkie.

“Bit Savvy? That’s Juggles performance name!” Pinkie said. “Twilight if The Equestrian Clown Association finds out that you’re using Juggles name while he’s in the hospital you’re going to get into big trouble!”

“Pinkie for the love of Celestia just knock the nose off!” Applebloom ordered and Pinkie Pie finally walked forward and pushed the screeching Owlowiscious out of the way and smacked the nose off of Twilight. The Cutie Mark Weird Thing Catchers all cried as Twilight suddenly stopped juggling and they fell to the ground in a heap.

“Oh I’m sorry girls!” Twilight apologized and helped them up. “I’m not very good at the finishing act I see.” She said as the girls scampered to their feet, Scootaloo rushing off and getting the clown nose.

“What?” Sweetie Belle asked dumbfounded. “Don’t you realize what you just did?”

“Yeah I juggled you girls.” Twilight said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “I’m sorry if I caused any kind of discomfort but I felt it’d be entertaining for you if you were in on the act.”

“…What?!” Applebloom asked after a moment of silence. “I… I can’t take this anymore. Twilight can you just write the letter to Princess Celestia?” She asked wearily and slumped to the ground as Gummy and Owlowiscious settled down.

“Sure, although I’m glad that only one of your objects is actually weird.” Twilight said as she levitated a quill and parchment over to her writing stand. The Cutie Mark Weird Thing Catchers couldn’t even find in themselves to be surprised at Twilight denying that the clown nose had affected her.

“We messed up.” Sweetie Belle whispered. “We messed up bad. Look at her.” She said pointing at Twilight as she happily hummed, completely different than how’d she’d been a mere minute and a half ago and Pinkie just standing there confused out of her mind.

“I don’t get it.” Pinkie confessed. “What just happened?”

“You don’t want to know.” Scootaloo said and fell back onto the ground and sighed. “So all we did this trip was drive Twilight insane right?”

“…It could be reversible.” Sweetie Belle ventured with a sliver of hope that nopony shared. "Oh by Celestia we screwed up Twilight." She started to cry at being responsible for possibly losing one of their friends forever.

“Hey Twilight I’m back!” Spike announced as he walked in. “Why are the shades drawn? And what you guys doing here?” He asked as he looked around the library at the assembled ponies and animals.

“I don’t know.” Pinkie said as she walked out. “I’m, I’m going to go give out the rest of the invitations for Gummy’s party.” And with that the hyperactive pink pony of Ponyville left scratching her head.

“What happened while I was gone?” Spike asked aloud moving to look at the letter was writing. “Did you learn a Friendship Lesson or something?”

“No but this can go to Princess Celestia.” Twilight said sealing the letter and handing it to him.

“Um, okay.” He said and moved to the nearest window, opened it, and blew out his magical fire letting it consume the letter. “So what was the letter about?”

“Oh it turns out that the cup that hurts ponies the girls found actually does work by breaking nearly every rule of magic.” Twilight answered happily as she gestured to the exhausted fillies who weakly waved to Spike.

“…What?” Spike said before he leaned over and puked out a stream of fire and a response from Princess Celestia. “Uh, that was fast. What does it say?” He asked as Twilight unrolled it and the girls got up and tried to read over Twilights’ shoulder.

We’ll be right there

“What does that mean?” Applebloom asked before there was a flash of light outside the library that even the curtains could smother and the ground shook. Everypony in the Golden Oak Library turned to the door as it swung open and Princess Celestia and Luna walked in, followed by a pair of Royal Guards. Everypony stilled and shrunk under their gaze as they scanned the library.

“Where are they?” Princess Luna said, making her first appearance in public since she was stripped of Nightmare Moon’s influence. The girls nervously pointed at the chest in the center of the room and the Royal Guards immediately secured it, carrying it outside with them.

“Now then.” Princess Celestia said as she gazed down and examined at The Cutie Mark Weird Thing Catchers who huddled together and shivered a little at how cold her normally warm look was. “How exactly did you get those Cutie Marks?”

Author's Note

This is why The Foundation preserves normalcy, did you see how Twilight lost it? And that was just at a cup of dice.