The SS

Twilight sighed, closing the crystal door behind her. Today had been a long and tiring day. She had helped Fluttershy with her animals, Rarity with her dresses, and Applejack with rounding up pigs on her farm. But even after all of that, she didn’t feel the slightest bit tired.

‘Go back to the library.’

Twilight groaned. She had forgotten about the pestering voice. She locked the doors to the library using her magic and flew into her bed. ‘Go back to the library, Twilight.’ Giving another groan, she stuffed her face into a pillow.

She sat, waiting for the voice to continue. All was silent save the sound of her breathing. Heh, maybe it finally went awa- ‘Go back to the library, now.’

“That’s it!” Twilight flung her pillow across the room and quickly flew down to the library, whacked the door open. “Where in Equestria is that book?” She looked around to see where she left the spellbook. “Ah, there it is! …..Though I don’t remember putting it back on the shelf.” Twilight shrugged and brushed aside the anomaly. There were more urgent matters at the moment.

“Alright, book, what do you want?”

‘Practice the Extractor Spell.’

Twilight blinked. “Really? Is that all you wanted me to do?”

‘Yes. Just go upstairs and practice it before you finally decide to use it.’

Twilight let out a small ‘huh’ noise before grabbing the book and carrying it upstairs. “Wait a second!” She stopped. If the voice belonged to a visible being, it’d probably be shaking in irritation. “I need to test this thing for dark magic.” Lighting up her horn she aimed it at the spellbook, which glowed in her purple aura. Twilight gave the book a once-over, the voice remaining silent. Then, without a noise, the book slowly fell back onto the ground. “Hmmm. No dark magic, that’s good.”

The confirmation didn’t do anything to make her bad feeling about the spellbook and the weird voice go away though.

She mentally noted that she’d have to take extra precautions.

She opened the door to her personal study only to see Spike sitting on her counter writing on a scroll. “Oh, hi Twilight!” He cheerfully greeted. “I was just writing a letter to the Princess telling her about the Castle.”

“That’s a good idea Spike!” Twilight set the spellbook down on the table and flipped through the pages until she got to the right spell. “Spike, would you mind doing that in another room? I’m testing out a new spell I found in my library and I don’t you to get hurt when something bad happens.”

Spike nodded, picking up his quills and paper before walking out of the room. “Do you want the door locked?” he asked as he looked back into the room. Twilight, engrossed in the book, just gave him a small nod before returning to her reading. “Got it. Just give me a call if you need anything, alright?”

“Got it, Spike.” Twilight gave her assistant a wink before he closed the door, the lavender princess hearing a clicking noise from the other side. “Oh, and don’t eat too much ice-cream!” she yelled out after him, laughing a little bit when she heard him groan.

Twilight’s light mood faded as she turned back towards her book. “Alright, time to test this out.” She quickly read through the required pages again, just to make sure she wasn’t missing anything out.

That was when she saw an extra footnote.

NOTICE: Low success rate (50% chance failure).

No negative effects upon failure.

“Eh?” Twilight said in a half-annoyed tone. “Well, I guess I’ll be here for a while.”

* * *

“Rainbow Dash darling, have you seen Twilight lately?” The fashion unicorn asked her speedster friend as the two relaxed in her boutique. “The poor dear hasn’t shown up since she found that new book..”

“I have no idea, Rarity,” Rainbow yawned fiddling with a scarf Rarity had given her that day as a present.  “You know Twilight, she’s an egghead. That books obviously got her sucked in.”

“Of course darling, but she doesn’t spend that much time reading, does she?” She said rhetorically.

“Hm, well….Yeah. Psh, I wouldn’t worry. She’s probably read half her library by now. Or more.” Rainbow snarked. “But I guess you are right. She hasn’t been around in a while.”

“Speaking of which, darling, do you mind checking up on her. I haven’t been able to do so, with all this fashion and so.” Rarity winked.

Rainbow sighed. “Eh, I guess I could. Although, you sure she’s not doing something I shouldn’t be messing with? Twilight gets real serious with her work.”

“I’m sure that she would have told us like I said, darling.”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I’ll be there in a flash. See you later, Rares!” Barely moments after that, Rainbow Dash had already flown half-way to Twilight’s Castle.

* * *

Rainbow Dash landed in front of her friend’s castle, knocking violently on the door. “Yo, Twi! Open up!”” No response. “Hm, maybe Spike is in here somewhere.” Rainbow Dash touched the door only for it to slowly creak open. “And she also forgot to lock her door.”

Slowly slipping through the crack in the door she created, Rainbow looked through the room. Everything was silent, and no one seemed to be home. That was of course, until she saw a dim light coming from one of the rooms. Slowly opening the door, she saw Spike half-asleep on the floor.

“Rainbow...Dash? Is that you?” Spike yawned, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“Yeah, but I’m just looking for Twi. You seen her?”

Spike nodded sleepily, pointing directly upwards. “She’s been upstairs...for a few weeks. Won’t come back...down.” Rainbow Dash frowned. Spike looked like he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in forever.

“You need some help first?” Rainbow Dash asked the sleepy dragon, who happily nodded at her request.

“Do I ever?”

* * *

“Ugh, finally.” Twilight mumbled as she stared over at the spellbook. “I’ve barely had anything to eat. After this is cast I can finally get out of here.” Twilight’s horn lit up once again as she prepared to cast the practice Extractor Spell. This time, I won't fail. She thought to herself as she pushed every ounce of her magic into the spell.

And this time, instead of it simply vanishing, it stayed on her horn. “Ohhh, thank Celestia.” Twilight was half-way through wanting to pass out and jump like Pinkie Pie, but she still had to actually fire the spell. She looked around her room for a target. How about...Oh! If I just aim for a random object, it won’t do any harm. Pointing directly towards one of her wardrobes, and fired.

It didn’t hit. “H-Huh? Did it fail again?!” Twilight’s eye twitched. “No problem, I’ll just do it one more taaaa…” Twilight stumbled off mid-sentence, staring at the seemingly empty space directly in front of wardrobes. She was right, it didn’t hit. It had hit something directly in front of the wardrobe, evident by the glowing effect in the middle of the air.

Twilight laughed nervously. “It can hit air? Some lousy spell.”

The voice laughed. ‘That wasn’t air. Thank you, Twilight Sparkle.’

“H-Huh? what do you mean by tha-”

Twilight blacked out before she could finish her sentence.

* * *

Rainbow Dash, feeling satisfied after helping Spike finally get some shut-eye was about to exit the Castle. “Twilight!” She went wide-eyed as she remembered why she was there in the first place. How could she forget? Racing up the stairs, the pegasus speedster saw that a room had an extremely bright light radiating from it. “Twilight? You in there?” Rainbow sighed when she got no answer, and opened the door much to her surprise. Huh, Spike said he locked this.

And all she saw was a smashed window.

“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash rushed over to the window, only to see a silhouette of the Alicorn Princess speeding away. Spreading her wings, she jumped out the window and gave chase.

She had no idea what was in store for her.