Starlight Sighed, reading this book on knots had seemed weird at first, but if she wanted to help Applejack on the farm tomorrow, she’d need to learn a few techniques of her own-plus, she wanted to test out this rope spell she’d been cooking up.
Getting this book in the first place was tricky, for some reason, it had been in the ‘adult’ section of the book store, and had taken her about three visits to the same store before she’d thought to look there.
Perhaps some group of youngsters had put it there as a joke, although what was so funny about a book on tying up livestock being put in the adult section of a pony’s book shop, she didn’t know.
She stood up, “alright, time to test this spell out” she muttered to herself, closing the book. She began casting her spell on the rope, and it started to twist and turn in the air, but with nothing the size of any of the livestock on Applejack’s farm, it simply wound itself up and failed, the rope landing back on the ground, softly.
She huffed in disappointment-taking note that although the spell had been cast by her, she was unsure wether or not it required her to be using it the whole time-siphoning magic from her horn even if she wasn’t aware of it, or if a simple ‘jump start’ was enough to get it going. Rummaging around in her drawers, she found it, a simple magic-stopping cap designed to slip over the horn of a unicorn.
“Now, to find something to…” she stopped, facehoofing. “Of course, I’d be the perfect size! I used to test all sorts of spells out on myself after all…” she quietened down.
“Heh, still talking to yourself Starlight…. Aaaaand still doing it too…” she awkwardly continued, breaking off her train of thought to get back on the matter at hand.
“Alright, time to test my hypothesis” she smiled, standing over the rope. Casting the spell was easy, as soon as she’d done it, she quickly slipped on the anti-magic cap, and giggled with delight as the spell continued.
“No constant source of magic? Check. Huh, this is strong stuff, I can’t wait to show-“ She was suddenly cut off by the rope dragging across her back, looping around her front and back hooves, restraining them underneath her, and for the first time, the stupidity of casting it on herself dawned on her. “Oh…oh no…” she whimpered, before falling over, face first into the rug in her room, which barely cushioned herself from the blow received upon hitting the floor of Twilight’s castle, one of Fluttershy’s flower pots wobbling off her desk next to her and smashing over her head.
Dizzy, she took a moment for the world to stop spinning, before blushing. ‘Oh, that’s why a book on tying creatures up would be in the adult section’ she suddenly realised, if she could, she would have facehoofed again.
“Okay, this is fine Starlight, just need to…” she strained, trying to at least get one hoof free in order to take off the anti-magic cap that was on her horn-but to no avail, the rope had been magically strengthened, and the knots she’d been reading about had most certainly not been weak ones.
“Ugh, now I remember why I stopped testing spells on myself, at least it can’t get any-“
“Starlight?!”
Starlight’s eyes widened, her flank up in the air facing the door, she strained to swivel her neck around, managing to do it well enough to see a very shocked Twilight Sparkle in her doorway, she blushed deeper.
“O-oh, uhh, hey Twilight, I was… just uhh, testing a spell and-“
Twilight slowly backed out, the door shutting, looking just as stunned as she had when she’d first opened it.
“H-hey wait! I-I need your help!” Starlight called back, before sighing “Great job Glim-Glam, you’ve really done it this time…”
There was a pause, then Starlight heard the door creak open. “I’m sorry, I sh-should have knocked” Twilight shakily laughed, sticking her head in slightly, Starlight could see Twilight was blushing just as much as she was. “I just heard a smash and thought you might be in trouble, so I came to look and…well…” her voice trailed off
An awkward silence descended upon the room, and Starlight realised her neck was starting to hurt from all the straining, and that Twilight was still staring at her in her… compromising position.
Starlight cleared her throat. “Hey uhh, you mind coming in front of me if we’re gonna talk? My neck’s really starting to get sore…” Twilight blinked, the sentence snapping her out of her daze.
“O-oh of course!” She hastily trotted across the room towards Starlight, visibly averting her eyes from the bound mare, she sat down in front of her.
“So…” Twilight muttered awkwardly.
“Yeah...” Starlight breathed, trying and failing to hide her embarrassed face in her mane.
“You uhh, need any help? U-unless you meant for this to happen, o-of course” Twilight questioned, trying to sound like it didn’t really bother her to no avail. Starlight’s eyes widened again
“Wh-what?” She squealed, somehow managing to blush deeper “Wh-Why would you think I-“ she breathed heavily, looking up at a concerned Twilight. 'Calm down, idiot.’ Closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths in and out in order to calm herself, she began again “Twilight, I did not mean for this to h-happen, so uhh, can you help me out of this? Please?” She whimpered. “My head hurts too, I think I might have hit it a little on the w-way down…”
Twilight poked the anti-magic cap on her horn “What’s with this? How come you put yourself in this position without being able to use your magic?” She raised one eyebrow at Starlight, not totally convinced.
“W-well, you see, I was testing out some new spells on some rope to help Applejack at the farm tomorrow and-“
“Oh yeah, looks like this would help a lot, maybe a morale boost?” Twilight teased, making light of the situation.
“N-not like that! A-and that’s not funny!” Starlight could feel her cheeks burning. “It was supposed to make tying up livestock easier! The anti-magic device was there to see if it would work without my power after I’d initially started the spell up, just to make sure it wasn’t siphoning any of my magic from my horn without me knowing, I made sure I’d know by cutting myself off with this thing” she looked up at her horn. “But I uhh, I needed something the size of some of Applejack’s farm animals to tie up, something alive. Then I remembered I used to test spells on myself and… a-are you even listening?”
Twilight couldn’t help it, she burst out laughing. “Hey, this isn’t funny!” Starlight repeated, growing annoyed, before seeing the lighter side of it. “O-okay well maybe it is a little funny…” she giggled, forgetting for a moment that she was tied up, but then remembering when she tried to stand.
The laughter continued for a while, before eventually it died down, and Twilight wiped away a tear.
“Oh Starlight, you really need to think before you cast spells” Twilight shook her head, smiling, looking off.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s a habit.” Starlight couldn’t help but feel that Twilight might have been staring at her flank, but due to their proximity she could no longer crane her head around to see. She cleared her throat.
“Uhh, mind untying me now please? This is really uncomfortable, and I think I need an ice pack, heh.”
“Oh, right” Twilight giggled, straining with her magic for a lot longer than it should have taken, Starlight thought.
Finally, she was free, Starlight rubbed her head. “Thanks Twilight, but how come it took so long?” She tentatively asked, stretching her back.
“Sorry about that, it was a really strong spell… and I uhh, kept getting distracted” She blushed, as did Starlight.
“Oh…right well, I won’t be casting that again anytime soon” She concluded, removing the cap from her horn.
As Twilight left for the door, she paused halfway.
“Good thing I learnt it myself in the process of taking it apart, huh?” She winked, before turning and walking out the door.
Starlight was left alone in her room again, she gulped, having to sit down a little.
“Uh-huh…”
