Animal Antics

by Buytoast

Rating: everyone
Tags: Comedy
Length: 14893

Spike makes Twilight take some time off reading and she decides to help Fluttershy.

When Spike convinces Twilight to take a break from her reading, she decides to head over to Fluttershy's cottage to see if there will be something to do. She soon finds herself helping to care for the animals. This will be no problem for Twilight and her book smarts…right?

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-01-29 06:30:50 UTC

The Part With The Beginning

Animal Antics

By: Buytoast

Chapter 1

“Uh, Twilight?  You awake?” Spike called out as he entered the library’s upper floor.  Upon reaching the top, he could have sworn he had entered some paperback wonderland.  Books were stacked higher than he was, as if they were monuments to the authors themselves.  Within the midst of it all, he could spot a purple colored figure slouched over a desk.  Using a book as a pillow, Twilight Sparkle remained unaware of Spike’s entrance and snuggled further into the book.

“Figures,” Spike thought to himself.  For the past few days, all it seemed she was doing was reading, only stopping for a snack and a short nap.  He contemplated letting her sleep for the day, but soon shook off that notion remembering how finicky Twilight was about sleeping in.  He already knew it was going to get ugly letting her sleep in this late.  Gingerly, he approached her and shook her gently.

“Mmmm.  Oh Redondo, you’re so naughty…,” Twilight mumbled in her sleep, followed by a bit of light giggling.

“Twiiiiiiiii, wakey wakey.” Spike said in a sing-song voice as he continued shaking her.

“What’s that Redondo?  O-oh!  W-well I don’t know if we can…”

“Twilight.  Wake up.”

“I-it’s just, you’re a rare text and I don’t know how others would react to us –“

“TWILIGHT!”

The sudden increase in volume worked, as Spike soon witnessed Twilight Sparkle jolting up and then falling onto her face with a loud ‘smack’.  Groggily, Twilight got up, still reeling from the sudden wake-up call / pratfall.

“Spuh..Spike?!  Wha?”  Shaking her head to finally clear it up, she not only noticed her draconic assistant struggling to keep from laughing, but also the light pouring in from a window.  “Spike, what time is it?”

Recovering from his laughing fit, he casually answered her.  “About half past noon.”

“NOON?!  Spiiiiike!  Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?”

“I figured you could use some sleep!  You’ve been reading non-stop for days!  You need to take a break Twi.” Spike retorted, concern evident in his last statement.

Getting a moment to calm down, Twilight sighed.  “Spike, I appreciate your concern, but don’t worry.  I know when enough is enough.”

“Twilight, you were having a dream about being in a romantic relationship with a book.”

“Redondo is not just a b- GAH!”  Mortified that he had found that out, she desperately tried changing the subject.  “W-well, you always dream about Rarity, but I don’t tell you to take a break!”

Taken aback, Spike started to blush, looking for a reply.  “T-that’s not true!  Last night I didn’t only dream about Rarity!”

Twilight was actually a bit surprised.  “What?”

“Rarity2 was in it too.”

Twilight gave him a flat stare.  “Rarity2.”

“Yeah!  She’s Rarity’s identical twin.”

“Really Spike?”

“What?”

“You know what, never mind.  Now, as much as I’d love to hear more about you and your dream escapades, I should really get back to what I was doing.”  Twilight nearly had Spike pushed out of the room until the dragon realized what was happening and wriggled free, proceeding to jump onto her desk as if it were a stage.

“Twilight, I mean it. You need fresh air.  And sunshine.  Plus, I’ve got to clean up these books anyways.  C’mon, go hang out with your friends!” His short speech finished, Spike gave Twilight a pleading look.  One she tried to resist.

She couldn’t.

Sighing in defeat, she started heading downstairs.  “Fine Spike, I’ll go out.  But I expect this place to at least be clean if you’re going to make me leave.”

“C’mon Twi, you can count on me!” declared Spike from the top of the stairs, giving a stiff, mock salute at the end.

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle.  “Alright, I’ll be back later then.”  And with that, Twilight shut the door.

Spike went back upstairs and surveyed the room, planning on how to deal with this mess. “Well, I’d better get started…But first, a quick visit to Rarity2!”  A few minutes later, Spike was huddled under his blanket, muttering something about Rarity20, Rarity67 and, to his confusion, Redondo.

It was a sunny day in Ponyville as usual, and a new day for Twilight.  Stretching slightly in the sunlight, she tried to think of where she should go.  She unknowingly started heading to Sweet Apple Acres, driven by hunger, before she remembered that they would be busy today collecting enough apples and baking enough apple treats for Pinkie Pie’s upcoming ‘Applepalooza Party’.  The same reason why she also rationalized ruling out Pinkie Pie.  Granted, she would probably enjoy the company, but hanging out with Pinkie Pie for a majority of the day would probably leave her sanity broken and begging for mercy.  She briefly considered Rarity, until she remembered that she was busy as well with some big order.  She thought about what Rainbow Dash would be doing and, when it settled on either napping or practicing, she figured that either way, she wouldn’t want to be disturbed.

“Maybe I can go see what Fluttershy is up to.” she thought to herself, and set off towards her cottage.  Twilight was actually at a loss as to what Fluttershy would be doing.  She knew that she cared for the animals, but she never really considered to what extent. Whatever the case, she figured that she could find something interesting to do with the timid mare. She smiled inwardly, thinking of the possibilities. “Who knows, maybe I’ll learn something new!”  Spurred on by this prospect, she increased her speed ever so slightly.

Pinkie Pie was hopping all about Sugarcube Corner, working on making apple themed decorations and treats.  Suddenly and ever so slightly, her nose began to tingle while her tail spun in small circles.  This had an immediate effect on Pinkie, who suddenly stopped her actions and stood tall on her hooves, eyes the size of pinpricks.

“Pinkie, dear, what’s wrong?”  Mrs. Cake asked, noticing the pink pony acting stranger than usual.

Eyes unblinking, Pinkie slowly turned towards Mrs. Cake and said “Doom.”

“Doom dearie?”

“I sense doom about to befall someone in our fair town, Mrs. Cake.”

Feeling very uneasy, Mrs. Cake tried to lighten the mood.  “Well, all doom aside, we still need some extra cupcakes, and I saw that Carrot bought a new type batter.  Now I wonder if it’s up to Sugarcube Corner expectations.  What do you think Pinkie?”  She looked over to see that Pinkie had suddenly disappeared, only to be startled half to death by a loud sound behind her.  Flabbergasted, she turned around to see Pinkie Pie in some sort of military outfit, standing on her hind legs, wearing sunglasses and hitting her hoof firmly with a whip antenna.

“Can do Mrs. Cake ma’am!”  Pinkie shouted.  “I will not fail the Corner!”  Just as fast as she appeared, she dove into the kitchen, the sounds of pots and pans clanging and falling following her and leaving a very confused Mrs. Cake in the foyer.

As Twilight approached Fluttershy’s cottage, she could make out the shape of the yellow Pegasus.  As she got closer, she could hear some of the conversation she seemed to be having with...”A tree?” Twilight asked out loud.

“Alright, now, eat it all up please.  I wouldn’t want any of you to be hungry now.” Fluttershy whispered, with a smile on her face.  A smile that was quickly replaced with a yelp and a cloud of dust where Fluttershy had been standing.

“Sorry Fluttershy!” Twilight shouted up the tree, still standing where she had poked Fluttershy to get her attention.  “I didn’t mean to frighten you!”

“O-oh, Twilight, it’s you.” Fluttershy said as she floated down from the treetop.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t notice you there.  I was too busy focusing on the squirrels.”

“The squirrels?”  Twilight asked.  Fluttershy nodded and then pointed to a hole in the tree where, sure enough, a family of squirrels was eating some nuts.  Looking past the tree, she noticed there was a lot of activity going on in Fluttershy’s yard, even for it practically being an animal hangout.  “What’s going on Fluttershy?”  Twilight asked, interested in all the activity.

“Oh, it’s just Inspection Day.  Every week I go around and check up on all my little animal friends, making sure none are sick or injured before I feed them.  N-n-not to say I don’t do that every day, it’s just this day I do it morethroughlysothatI’mextrasureandeeep!”  Fluttershy squeaked and hid behind her mane.  A few seconds later, her protective wall of hair was breached by a familiar aura of magic and gave way to Twilight’s face.

“It’s alright Fluttershy.  I know you do everything in your power to make sure your animal friends are always feeling good.  This does sound interesting though.  Do you mind if I help out?”  Twilight asked with a gleam in her eye.

Fluttershy was quite surprised.  Nopony had ever really bothered to ask to help.  “A-are you sure?  I mean, I don’t want to imply you couldn’t do it, but sometimes caring for them can be a bit troublesome.”  At that moment, one of the squirrels jumped out and landed on Twilight’s head, staying there a bit before heading down onto the ground and looking at Twilight with wide, open eyes.

“These cute little things?  I think I can handle them.  Besides, I’ve read several books on animal care, and I’m sure that if I apply that knowledge, I can overcome anything!”  Twilight exclaimed while making a determined pose.

“W-well alright, in that case, here.”  Fluttershy carried a big sack of carrots over to Twilight and dropped it in front of her.  “I haven’t been to the bunnies yet.  I asked Angel to get them organized over there.  Just make sure you check them for anything that may be wrong.  If you see something wrong, tell Angel and he’ll tell me so I can see exactly what’s wrong.  If they’re fine, give them a carrot.  N-not that you shouldn’t give any sick bunnies a carrot too, just make sure that they don’t have a tummy ache, otherwise the carrot will hurt their poor little bellies.”

Making a mental note of everything Fluttershy had told her, Twilight gave her a grin and said “Don’t worry Fluttershy, I’ve got this!”  With that, she picked up the carrot sack and headed off to the bunnies.

The Part With The Bunnies and Cake

Animal Antics

Chapter 2

Angel Bunny was no stranger to Inspection Day.  Having been with Fluttershy for so long, he would be surprised if there wasn’t one.  As such, he knew certain methods of getting his bunny brethren to follow his word.  Of course, knowing where Fluttershy kept the carrots lying around and being able to bribe them didn’t hurt either.  However, as he stretched out upon his bush-throne, high above the other bunnies, he saw something that perplexed him.  Instead of the usual yellow pony he allowed to coddle him, a purple thing was approaching instead.  Angel stood tall and narrowed his eyes.  If there was one thing he didn’t like, it was unexpected intrusion.

“Alright, where are these bunnies?”  Twilight wondered aloud as she approached the area Fluttershy had guided her to.  Along the way, she had wondered if she could truly handle this, but quickly dismissed it.  She was Twilight Sparkle!  Element of magic and personal protégée to Princess Celestia herself!  Surely she could handle some cute little critters.

“There you are!” she exclaimed to the bunnies, startling a few and gaining the attention of others.  She gave a quick glace over.  There were big bunnies, small bunnies, some that were bouncing and some that were hiding.  She began looking for Angel Bunny, having trouble as she struggled to tell the bunnies apart from one another.  A squeaky grunt drew her attention, as she looked at a bush that was about half her height.  Standing upon it was a bunny wearing a cloak made out of leaves and carrying a stick around as a scepter, completing the regal image with a crown made of berries and vines.  It looked at her with a disapproving glare.

“Ah, hello Angel!  Fluttershy told me to come over here and inspect the bunnies.  I’ve also got the carrots with me.”  Twilight explained.  Glancing at him, she noticed he still maintained his uncaring expression.  Giving a nervous smile, Twilight began her examinations.  Picking up the closest bunny with her magic, she began to recall steps to identify animal illnesses from an animal caring guide she had read.

“Ven you pick up ze critter, you must examine it thoroughly and vith INCREDIBLE detail!  Do not be fooled by ze creature’s outer appearances!”  lectured the voice in her head.  Nodding to herself, thought wondering why she gave the voice an accent, she prepared to examine her patient with an eager, determined smile.

The bunny had a peaceful life.  With Angel the Mighty being able to supply carrots in exchange for favors and the Fluttershy always caring for him and his brethren, he felt joy fill him every morning.  However, at this moment, he felt nothing but fear.  The demon had caught him and, as much as he would have liked to escape, he was paralyzed with fear.  He saw the smile, that evil, demonic smile, a smile that could mean only horrors unimaginable.  What he felt next made him wish he had never left his burrow.

The demon turned him, over and over again, threatening to make his concept of balance a mere memory.  Pressure was going all over him, from his head, to his belly, even his feet.  He suddenly felt himself being pulled, stretched and even shaken.  Balling up was an action that led to no result, as the demon’s power was far too great.  Finally, as quickly as it had started, the torture seemed to have ended.  He was placed on the ground, dizzy and scared.  To finish, the demon cruelly shoved a carrot into his mouth and patted his head.  Scampering off to the corner of the pen, he could only breakdown and weep at the terror he just experienced.

Angel was dumbfounded.  He had just witnessed one of his bunny brethren get spun around, probed and scarred from this pony’s “methods” of examination.    How she managed to get approval from Fluttershy to check out the bunnies was a mystery to him.  All he knew was that this purple menace was NOT going to make another creature suffer.  Not on his watch.  Jumping from his throne, he hopped towards this clueless pony, malice in his eyes.

“Well, that wasn’t so hard!”  Twilight thought to herself, making mental notes about what she did so she’d be able to repeat it for each bunny there.  She felt a series of hits on her leg, and looked down to see Angel Bunny hitting her with his foot, a scowl on his face.  “Oh, Angel, did you see how well I did?  I’m a natural, aren’t I!  Don’t worry, I’ll get to examining all of them in a little bit, just after I finish perfecting what I did mentally.”  She finished with a smile adorning her visage, blinding her to the horror-struck face of Angel.  As she went to pick up the carrot sack and head over to her next target, she found herself suddenly yanked back, the sack unmoving.  Looking back, she noticed Angel gripping the sack tightly, pulling it away from her.

“Angel, don’t worry, there’s plenty of carrots for everyone.  You’ll get one too!” Twilight huffed as she pulled against the bunny’s surprisingly strong grip.  Getting fed up with his antics, Twilight started to use her magic, not hearing a series of squeaks from Angel.  Pulling with her magic and still finding resistance, she looked down to see all the bunnies pulling on angel, trying their best to stop the demon with the carrot sack.  “Let…go…of…this…SACK!” Twilight screamed.

Angel narrowed his eyes, grinned malevolently and let go.

Fluttershy floated out of her house, rag in her hooves.  She did love caring for the critters, even if she did have to clean herself off every once in a while.  “I hope Twilight is doing alright…” she muttered aloud.  Her peaceful thinking was interrupted by a loud scream.  Startled, Fluttershy turned towards the bunny grounds, just in time to see a large carrot sack fly off into the horizon.

“A cata-what now?” Applejack asked dumbfounded.

“A catapult!”  Applebloom exclaimed!  The little filly was indeed standing in front of a catapult, about as big as an apple tree.  Bouncing around it was Scootaloo, followed by Sweetie Bell, each one either cleaning it or just poking it to seem busy.

“Right.  And where in tarnation did y’all find this contraption?”

Applebloom started to answer, before she found an orange blur pass in front of her and did it for her.  “Pinkie Pie!  She said that she wasn’t going to use it anymore because the prank she was planning needed a trebuchet and not a catapult.  I asked what those were but she just gave me cupcakes and the catapult telling me to ‘Use it wisely lest Equestria crumbles’ or something like that, I don’t know, I was too busy watching Rainbow Dash do some awesome tricks! Like this one where she did a corkscrew and a loop-de-loop and then she did some big flashy…”  Scootaloo continued on listing off the tricks, unaware of the slight shift in her audience’s direction.

“Ah swear, I’m gonna’ give that Pinkie Pie a piece o' my mind, givin’ you girls somethin’ as dangerous as this...uh…doohickey.”  Applejack looked less than thrilled at the prospect of something of Pie design upon her farm.

“But sis, what if it leads to our cutie marks!  We just gotta try! Puh-leeeease!”  Applebloom pleaded, giving big puppy dog eyes.

Sweetie Bell piped up, “If it makes you feel any better, she also gave us these helmets!”  She pointed down on the ground, where three battered looking helmets were lazily placed in a pile.

“Well, Ah guess if you have them helmets it’ll be okay.  What do you think, Big Mac?”

Big Macintosh just stood there for a few seconds, examining the whole scene, before letting out a wary “Eeyup.”

“Yay!”  Applebloom shouted, as the other crusaders gathered around.  “CUTIE MARK CRUSADER CATAPULTERS ARE GO!”  With that, they picked up their helmets and began winding up the catapult.

“Well, enough gawkin’ Big Mac, we’ve gotta get this here cake over to Sugarcube Corner, remember?”  Applejack prodded his side and nodded towards the cake on the ground, a few meters away from the cart they were loading up.  It was a grand cake, with 4 layers of apple based confectionary delight.  Decorated with various apple designs and topped with signature Apple family buttermilk cream, it was truly a sight to behold.

“Eeyup” was all the stallion said as he moved to the opposite side of the platter his sister was walking to, bending down prepare for the heavy lift.  “How in the world can a cake weigh so buckin’ much?  Even if it’s as big as a pony, it just ain’t right.” he thought to himself.

Meanwhile, the catapult winded up and ready to launch, the crusaders had reached an impressive obstacle, who to go first.  “Ah say Scootaloo should go, what with Rainbow Dash being your idol and all.  Ah’m sure you’ll be able to find a way to break yer fall.”

“No way Applebloom, I’m not dumb enough to go on that death trap!  Uh, I mean, Sweetie Bell should go!  She’s a unicorn, she can just magic the pain away!”

“Scootaloo, I don’t know a lot of magic.  Plus, if I go, Rarity will be mad that I got all dirty.”

“Psh, like she’ll know.  Just go. Or are you…chicken?”

Bickering soon erupted from the three fillies, providing a distracting background for  the two older Apple siblings.

“Alright Big Mac!”  Applejack loudly explained.  “On the count of three, we’ll both lift up.  Ready?”

“Eeyup!”  he shouted back.

“Alright.  One!  Two!”

Between the bickering and the lifting, nobody noticed the giant, sack-shaped object falling out of the sky.

“ThreEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHH” screamed Applejack as the object landed but a few inches from her face, startling her and making her whip her head up.

Big Macintosh noticed two things.  One was that his sister was yelling, and second was that the platter was being jerked upward.  Between these two things, he didn’t have time to restrain his strength as he proceeded to join the motion and accidently launched the cake into the air.  Both watched, Applejack in dismayed horror and Big Macintosh in solemn contemplation, as the cake twisted and turned mid-air, before, miraculously, coming at rest.

On top of the catapult.

The sudden impact of the cake on the catapult startled Scootaloo, who had been next to the release lever.  The same lever that was soon pulled when Scootaloo fell backwards.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo…” was all Applejack could say as the cake found itself being launched at an incredible speed towards the Everfree Forest.  An awkward silence had formed over the farm, as Applejack remained fixed in place with a look of pure disbelief etched upon her face, the Cutie Mark Crusaders with sheepish grins on theirs and Big Macintosh maintaining an air of composure around him.  A few seconds later, the silence was broken as Granny Smith busted out of the farmhouse, wearing pots and pans.

“I heard that howlin’!  The timberwolves are attackin!  Quick, grab yer emergency pots and start clangin’!” the frantic mare screamed as she ran around the house clanging her attire.  Big Macintosh stood there for a while, before dragging a still frozen Applejack off to the farmhouse, leaving behind a confused Granny Smith and three fillies trying desperately to hide the catapult behind a tree.

“It is quite some work, building a new route.  All this activity has left me tuckered out.” Zecora said to herself, her house within her sights.  A few days ago, an angry manticore had torn up some trees along the route to her home, placing obstacles all over the pathway.  Knowing that a manticore, especially one in a foul mood, would be very dangerous, she opted to instead build a second pathway leading to her homestead, waiting a few days in case the manticore decided to stay around.  Approaching her door, she prepared to enter her home when she suddenly noticed it had gotten very dark.  Perplexed, she turned around and gazed to the heavens.

Just in time to see a giant cake collide into her, trapping her within a baked and delicious glob.

The Part With The Animals and The Breakdown

Animal Antics

Chapter 3

Stopping only for a second to watch in bewilderment as a cake soared into the Everfree Forest, Fluttershy quickly arrived at the source of the scream; a scowling Twilight squaring off against a small army of bunnies, with a determined Angel Bunny at the front.  The tension in the air was obvious.

“Oh my, Twilight!  What’s going on?” Fluttershy asked, slightly cowering at the sight of her angered friend.

Twilight, however, barely tried to hide her frustration at the situation.  “Your bunnies are being stubborn, that’s what’s going on!  I tried to give them a simple examination, but instead they managed to get the carrot sack launched off somewhere!”  she vented while glaring daggers are Angel Bunny, who returned her glare with an expression of pure malice.

“How?  I-I mean, I’m not calling you a liar, b-but I mean how could they even move it  when the sack is bigger than all of them?” She walked over to Twilight, concern in her eyes.

Caught off-guard by the question, Twilight tried to explain “W-well, I mean, my magic may have had something to do with it, but they…I mean the bunnies…and the sack!  GAH!”  Taking a deep breath and clearing her mind a bit, Twilight continued, “Anyways, I don’t know what to do!  The guide went over how to properly examine an animal, not how to handle a crazed combat-ready army of them!  Unless I accidently skipped over that part.  Which I’m SURE I didn’t!”  Finished with her tirade, Twilight sat down and started remembering the rest of the guide.

Fluttershy walked up to the bunny brigade, frown showing her disappointment.  “Now, now, you bunnies should know better than to cause such trouble.  Especially you, Angel Bunny.”  she said quietly.  The effect on the bunnies was immediate, as they started to break off and sit about looking guilty and ashamed.  All except for Angel Bunny, who looked at Fluttershy with a face of pure contempt at his actions.  Sighing, Fluttershy turned back to Twilight.  “I’m sorry Twilight, maybe I shouldn’t of set you up with the bunnies first.  Angel can be a little…un-cooperative with other ponies sometimes.”

Twilight gave her a face that practically screamed “You think?” before Fluttershy continued.  “Here, I have a list of some of the other animals I still have to check up on today.  Maybe you can check on them for me?  If it’s not too much trouble that is.”  Seeing a look of uncertainty flash across her face, Fluttershy attempted to lighten her fears.  “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll do great!” she cheered with a small hop to emphasize the sheer magnitude of her support.

Smiling at her friend’s encouragement, Twilight grabbed the list.  “Alright Fluttershy, I’ll do it!  The bunnies were just a minor obstacle!  I’m sure I can handle anything else your animal friends have to offer!”

Between the both of them talking, none noticed the frantic motions of Angel Bunny and the subsequent departure of most of the bunnies, all in the wake of a leader’s triumphant smile.

Agony.  This was Twilight’s world now, only agony.  She reminded herself to never offer to help Fluttershy with caring for animals again unless she was given special armor that made her invincible to pain.  It had all started simple enough too!  Sure, the bunnies were a wild card that she merely pushed aside as a mishap, but not every creature could be out to get her, right?

Then she found the birds.  They were at the top of the list Fluttershy had given her.  It seemed like such a simple concept.  She even tried the examination technique that was so effective with the bunnies!  The guide never actually specified an animal, so she assumed it was universal.  Of course, that’s when the pecking started.  It’s an interesting feeling, being pecked all over by birds.  Not enough to cause lasting damage mind you, but just enough to cause mild discomfort and irritation.  Her screaming probably didn’t help either.

After managing to escape the avian ambush, she found the next animals on her list: chickens.  She briefly thought about why there would be a dichotomy between chickens and birds to Fluttershy, but dismissed it knowing her friend probably had a good reason.  Realizing she had found the chicken coop, she poked her head in.  She was greeted with an entire coop of chickens aiming their eggs at her.  A few seconds later, the coop’s entrance was dripping with yolk and a very baffled Twilight was wondering just how the chickens were able to throw their eggs, before leaving, unless she risk another round of egging.

The rest of the inspections followed suit.  The crickets decided to swarm her, acting as if she were a magnet to their species.  The fish proceeded to splash her every time she came too close to the water.  The porcupines actually charged at her, making her back end wish it was wearing armor.  Even the kitty Fluttershy had clawed at her when she got too close, managing to even claw the last bit of the list into shreds, leaving only the locations of the last two animals, but not the animals themselves.

The worst part for her was that she couldn’t even figure out what was going wrong!  It was driving her crazy!  Every guide she had read did not have a section for dealing with animals that actually DID mean to harm you.  She couldn’t even stop the guides from all being read in that weird accent!  Sure, after the bunnies little rebellion she had calmed down, but after the pecking, slashing, piercing, swarming and slashing?  She was at the end of her rope.  Trying to desperately maintain her sanity, she stated heading to the second to last dwelling, not noticing the small bunny hopping quickly away from her destination.

“Alright Twilight!  This is it!  The final stretch!  Just two more and you can go home!  HOME!  And then you can take a nice relaxing bath.  With books.  Sweet non-lethal books.” Twilight exclaimed to herself, exhausted and on the edge.  She finally reached her destination.  It was a short burrow, made into the side of a hill.  Not knowing what creatures were in there, but too tired to truly care too much, she decided to just stick her head in and call out.  “HELLO?  ANY CREATURES IN HERE?”  Silence reigned within the burrow.  As she prepared another yell, she suddenly felt something writhe against her cheek.  Something long.  Something cold.

Something scaly.

Princess Celestia was sitting in the throne room, listening to some eccentric Pegasus telling her about a new invention that would take sunlight and turn it into super sunlight which, according to him, would be like sunlight, only super, with incredible excitement in his voice.  She appeared less than amused.  Even her royal guards were beginning to fall asleep.  Suddenly, a loud noise pierced the boredom with ear-splitting efficiency.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!”

The shriek caused several objects to break, including the double sunlight invention the Pegasus had been carrying with him.  As quickly as it appeared, the noise stopped, leaving a surprised princess, several shocked royal guards and a sobbing Pegasus in its wake.

Being locked within a stone prison is a very boring sentence.  Sometimes all you can do to pass the time is brood, even if it’s from within your own thoughts.  This is exactly what Discord was up to when he heard something.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!”

Recognizing the scream as that of someone experiencing pure terror, he shuddered.  Wishing whoever it was good luck in facing whatever it was they were up against, he went back to brooding.

Pinkie was whipping up another batch of cookies, testing the might of the new batter Mr. Cake had bought, when she heard a shriek.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!”

Pinkie stopped placing the cookies and looked in the direction of the scream.  “Doom….” was all she could say.  The ringing bell of the oven snapped her out of her trance and she went back to happily testing the batter.

“SNAAAAAAAAAAAAKES!” Twilight screamed, springing backwards as she tried to shake the snakes out of her mane.  She partially succeeded, only to end up with the ones shaken off latching onto her tail.  “GAAAAAAAAAAAAH”  Running in circles, Twilight couldn’t even focus her magic and she continued to panic and frantically try to get her unwanted reptilian friends off her body.  Instead, they proceed to wrap around her more and more, further entrenching themselves.  So focused was she in trying to get the snakes off that she didn’t noticed the cave she was entering.  The last one on her list.  Realizing it had suddenly grown very dark, Twilight paused for a second, only to hear a growl and heavy breathing behind her.

This time, there was no scream.  All Twilight could say was “Eep.”

One would think that living in Ponyville would be a quiet life.  A quaint little village with none of the hustle and bustle of the big city is just the picture of serenity.  However, the denizens of the town know better.  They’ve had evil goddesses, ursa minors, parasprites, a greed driven dragon and a spirit of chaos all affect their town.  One would say they were unaffected by anything other than a major catastrophe.

So when Twilight Sparkle ran through the town square with snakes wrapped around her, her mane and her tail, making a crazed face and running from an enraged bear, they simply blinked a few times and continued on with their business.

“Phew, I’m pooped.” Rainbow Dash heavily breathed out as she collapsed on a cloud she had left up just for this moment.  It was a long day of training, right after a quick cloud-clearing session.  It was times like this where, although she wouldn’t admit it to anypony, she enjoyed just looking down and looking at the result of her handiwork.  She enjoyed seeing it all.  The happy, playing foals.  The friendly, grateful ponies buying and selling.  The purple pony climbing dangerously high up a tr-What?  Rainbow Dash took a quick double take and, sure enough, there was a purple pony about 20 meters off the ground, clinging onto the tree as if for dear life.  Facehoofing, Rainbow Dash flew over to the clueless pony.  “Ugh, what are you doing climbing up this high with no sure way to get down!  Are you looking for a way to…Twilight?”

Dash stopped her annoyed rant and realized that the pony was, in fact, Twilight Sparkle.  Only sporting a very cracked smile and twitching her eyes.  “Uhh, Twi?  You alright there?”  No response.  “Helooooo, Twiiliiiight!  Anypony home?” she knocked on her head gently for emphasis.  Still no response.  Dash was starting to get worried.  Twilight was supposed to be the smart, collected one, and yet here she was, grinning at nothing and high up in a tree.  Wondering what in the hay she was doing up here in the first place, Dash flew down and witnessed what appeared to be a bunch of snakes all trying to lift a bear higher up the tree.  Blinking a few times, she shook her head and flew back to Twilight, who was still unresponsive.

Noticing a note impaled on a lower branch, she grabbed it and recognized Fluttershy’s writing.  Looking back at Twilight, she sighed.  “Well, I guess we should get you back to Fluttershy’s.”  Still no response.  Finally admitting defeat, Rainbow Dash lifted Twilight up and started carrying her back to the cottage.

To say that Fluttershy was worried would be an understatement.  Not only could she not find her friend, whom she had heard screaming out in terror, but now her bear and snake friends were missing as well.  As Angel Bunny went to get another set of smelling salts, she noticed a figure against the sky, carrying another figure with them.  A few seconds later, she recognized the tired form of Rainbow Dash carrying the motionless figure of Twilight.  The second she landed, she was met with a worried and panicked Fluttershy.

“What happened?  Is she safe?  Is she hurt?  Oh no, oh no, this is my fault!  Oh my, please, Twilight, say something!”

Dash placed Twilight on the ground…where she proceeded to flop over as if she were a statue with an unstable base.

“I dunno what’s wrong with her Shy.  She won’t respond to me, not even when I was telling her about by new routine for the Wonderbolts!”  Rainbow Dash exclaimed, pointing her hooves out for emphasis.

Fluttershy took this news in and looked at Twilight once more, who had not moved a muscle since falling over.  “T-twilight?  Can you hear me?  Are you okay?”

Suddenly, Twilight’s horn lit up and created a large spark.  Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash both shielded their eyes and, when they looked once more, Twilight had vanished.

“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness! Rainbow, we need to find her! Who knows what could be wrong!”  Fluttershy looked on the verge of tears.  “Oh, I shouldn’t of let her try to care for some many animals.  I’m so selfish.”

“Like heck you are Fluttershy!  You’re one of the most unselfish ponies I know.”  Rainbow Dash exclaimed, grabbing and shaking her friend.  Realizing she may have gone a bit far, she stopped and took a breath.  “Twilight probably did something that book-based egghead brain of hers couldn’t handle.  But you are right about finding her.  Head to Carousal Boutique and see if you can get Rarity.  I’ll go get Pinkie and Applejack and tell them to head there too.  Alright?”

Fluttershy merely nodded and, as soon as Rainbow Dash took off, turned to Angel.  “Angel, something has come up.  I need you to be a good bunny and keep the animals all safe and in order until I come back, alright?”

Angel gave a short salute, putting a relieved smile on Fluttershy’s face.  Turning towards Ponyville, she started flying.

“Twilight, please be alright.” she thought to herself.

The library was empty, its dragon inhabitant having left hours ago after completing his chores.  The still air was suddenly disturbed as a crazed purple unicorn teleported into the foyer.  Getting up slowly, she looked around at her books and cackled.

“I’ll show those little monsters!  I’ll show them all just how good with animals I am!  I’ll show them just how accurate and right the books are!  I’ll show them all the power of knowledge!”

With that announcement and a maddened laughing fit, a strong surge of magical energy flowed throughout the library.  Books were ripped from the shelves.  Fiction, non-fiction, biographical and even children’s books were not safe from the magic’s grip.  As they encircled the unicorn, a storm appeared to be raging within the trembling building.

The Part With Sun'Tzoof, The Bookbot and The Mannequin

Animal Antics

Chapter 4

“Pinkie Pie!  Open up!”

Having sped ahead to get the others, Rainbow Dash now found herself pounding on the front door of Sugarcube Corner, as if it were a beast in the way of her mission.  The door opened and Pinkie beamed a smile.

“Dashie!  It’s so so so good to see you!  I mean, not that it’s ever bad to see you, it’s always good!  So I guess that makes it better to see you!  So, what brings you here?  Are you here to finally teach Gummy to fly?  ‘Cause I have the suit ready and everything!  Oh, or maybe you’re here to set up a super duper pet play date!  Gummy could always use another reptile buddy to hang out with!  Or maybe you’re here for something else?  Do you want a pie?  A cake?  A prank!  I think I’ve got a prank pie that tastes like a cake somewhere around here…”  Before she could go and find this wondrous invention, she felt one hoof shut her mouth and the other wrapping around her.

“Not now Pinkie!  Well, maybe in a little bit, but not now!  We’ve got a problem.  Twilight’s gone like, totally weird.  She wouldn’t move or talk or blink or anything!’ Dash quickly explained, half to make this visit brief and half to make Pinkie be quiet, even for a little bit.

Hearing this, Pinkie’s expression hardened.  Suddenly, she jumped away, immediately hopping back in a military outfit.  “Yes ma’am!  What are my instructions, Officer Dashie?” she recited with a blank, unwavering stare.

“Uh…go to Carousal Boutique?”  Dash was very confused.  Where had Pinkie gotten that outfit?  Why did she have that antenna?  Where could she get a getup like that?  She nearly asked that question, before remembering who she was talking to and holding her tongue.  One crazy pony was bad enough.  The last thing she needed was another crazy pony giving a crazy explanation for her crazy antics.

“Yes ma’am!  As Sun’Tzoof once said ‘I will not let Dashie down!’”  And with that, she hopped away, whip antenna in her mouth and some kind of portable party cannon on her back.  Dash tried to find some plausible way to explain this situation to herself, but eventually gave up, heading towards Sweet Apple Acres.

The air in Ponyville seemed to be alive, as static crackled through the air and gales picked up on a bit.  Not only that, but the sky seemed to be darkening, with the majority of it focusing around the Ponyville Library.

Suddenly, the symphony of dozens of shattered windows greeted the denizens of Ponyville.  Books shot out of the buildings.  Cookbooks from restaurants, books from the School, even magazines from the spa were not safe from the force pulling them all in.  People could only watch in awe as the books circled above the town, before all shooting inside of the library, which was glowing in the darkness of the storm.  A giant lightning bolt cracked through the ceiling, crashing into the heart of the glowing tree.  The wind died down.  The glowing disappeared.  Silence reigned.  A minute later, the citizens of Ponyville went back about their business, chalking the situation up to simply ‘living in Ponyville’.

It had taken her a bit to recover from losing the cake, but Applejack soon found herself back out in the fields, bucking more apples to re-make the cake.  It gave her time to clear her head and prepare to bake another spectacular ‘appletastic’ cake, as Pinkie put it.  It also gave her time to stop herself from going over to the disaster site and seeing if the Cutie Mark Crusaders could get a cutie mark for being grounded for a month.  She heaved a mental sigh, knowing it wasn’t their fault.  But whoever threw that carrot sack was going to learn just how powerful the Apple family could buck.

“……aaaaaaapplllllLLLLLLLLLEJAAAAAAAAAAACK!”

A yell snapped Applejack out of her reverie, prompting her to gaze upwards.  Sure enough, a rainbow blur was zipping over the farm, calling her name.  She seemed to be looking at every tree she could see, hoping to luck out rather than conduct a proper search.  Shaking her head, Applejack got her attention, “DOWN HERE!”  The call worked, as she soon found herself face to face with a winded and worried Rainbow Dash.  “Now Rainbow, what’n tarnation are yah doin’ here?  I’ve got apples that need buckin’, and I can’t have any of your tomfoolery distractin’ me.” Applejack inquired, still a bit irked from the day’s earlier happenings.

Expecting an offended rebuttal, Applejack instead got an earful.  “Okay, look, I’m sorry to be bugging you and all, but this is a big emergency!  At first it was just a small one, with Twilight being all creepy and stuff.  But on my way here, there was this HUGE storm!  One that we didn’t plan for!  A whole bunch of lightning and wind was everywhere!”  Noticing Applejack’s concerned look, Dash quickly assured her.  “Don’t worry, nopony got hurt.  The weird thing, though, was that a bunch of books just shot out of everypony’s houses!  They all went in circles above Ponyville and then they all went into the library!  I think Twilight’s really lost it AJ.”

“Whoa nelly!  Now, let’s not be too quick on the draw here.  Are yah sure Twilight is the cause of this here mess?”

Rainbow’s eyes lowered.  “Applejack, a giant lightning bolt shot through the roof of the library.”

Hearing this, Applejack stood tall.  “Well then, I guess we best git on over and see if we can help.  Do we need ta round up the girls?”

“Already taken care of!” Rainbow beamed, accomplished look on her face.

Raising her eyebrows slightly at the sight of her pompous pegasus friend, Applejack turned towards Ponyville and started galloping.  “Lead the way, pardner.  Unless ya can’t keep ahead!”

“Oh, it’s on!”

Angel was a bit peeved.  Sure, he enjoyed being in charge.  He loved being the leader his bunnies needed.  However, being in charge of all the animals was more a nuisance than a gift.  Not only were some of them very obnoxious, but many of the more obnoxious ones were really, really starting to get on his nerves.  The ducks wouldn’t shut up, the frogs wouldn’t stop bouncing everywhere, and for some reason, the ants were trying to steal all the carrots.  Rubbing his temples, Angel Bunny fell on his back and looked towards the sky.

*ZAP*

*THUMP*

An earth shaking impact startled Angel, prompting him and all the animals to gaze towards the hill they heard the sound come from.  An eerie quiet greeted them, until they heard it again.

*THUMP*

Whatever it was, it was heavy.  It was also coming right for them.  Hopping from his bush throne, Angel ran to the front of the group, ready to face off against whatever monstrosity dared intrude upon his lair.  The vibrations increased with each thump, shaking even the cottage.  Suddenly, Angel saw the source.

Books.  Books in an incredible amount.  All forming some shape.  The spines of dictionaries formed it’s four legs, all thick as tree trunks.  Stray pages made up the wispy tail, which itself was attached to the thick mid-section, composed of books that seemed to be constantly shifting and moving, as if they were part of some clockwork contraption.  And the head.  The head seemed the most imposing.  A single horn jutted from the forehead of the behemoth.  The eyes beamed a fierce red, as if it was composed of nothing but books and fire.  Getting a better look at the grotesque figure, Angel realized that the beast had what appeared to be armor covering it’s body.  Shoulder pads shaped like parapets towered over him, as the limbs and back of the creature were all covered with a sifting array of books varying in size.  Even the head had a gruesome-looking face mask on, corners of books serving as giant fangs.  To top it all off, hundreds of books were flying around the head of the monstrosity, as if they were vultures awaiting a carrion feast.

Without warning, the head of the beast seemed to split open.  Pages ripped apart as the face was torn apart.  However, rather than blood or anything nasty of that sort pouring out, a strong, heavily visible amount of magic seeped from the cracks.  As the purple mist parted, angle could clearly see a smaller looking figure in the head of the Bookbot.

“Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii Angeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel!” it seemed to shriek, as if its teeth were scraping against a chalkboard.

Angel gulped.

Twilight Sparkle continued.  “How do you like my newest invention?  No no, don’t say anything!  I know you love it! Or at least, you’re going to love it!  Do you know why?  DO YOU?”  Seeing the crazed mare was actually expecting an answer, Angel quickly shook his head up and down.  “Oh good!  I get to help you UNDERSTAND!  Isn’t that such a strange word?  UNDERSTAND.  Rolls off the tongue, and yet it’s so hard to accomplish!  Oh ho, but now, now with THIS beauty, I’ll finally be able to teach you the guidelines in the manuals and make you all understand what it means to be true animals that I can inspect properly!  YOU’LL ALL BE THE BEST ANIMALS EVER!  AND IT WILL ALL BE DONE BY THE BOOK!”  With that, Twilight let loose a manic cackle and shut the pages to her Bookbot.  The bot moved again and this time stared directly at the animals, all of whom were either shaking in fear or hiding from the mad mare.  All behind Angel.

The Bookbot started making noise.  It was a terrible noise, like the sound of a thousand sets of pages being torn asunder.  Suddenly, pages shot out of the bot.  The pages were caught up in a magical aura, separating them into two sets.  The pages began forming limbs.  Thick limbs, enormous frames and fingers the size of a pony were formed, and the two book golems landed on their feet, taking a fighting stance.  The book swarm above now encircled the Bookbot and the Golumns, blocking out the sun except for a few flickering beams that made it through the fluttering pages.  One of the books spotted a small chipmunk away from the other animals and swooped down to grab it.  Succeeding, it worked against the struggling creature to bring it back to the Bookbot.  At least, until Angel Bunny hopped up and give it a quick uppercut, making it launch towards Ponyville. The chipmunk fell, saved by a bird flying by.  Seeing the chipmunk safe, Angel cracked his knuckles and let loose a war cry, rallying the animals into joining into one singular voice and charged towards their enemies.

The Bookbot and Golumns roared their own and charged in as well.

“Spike, darling, thank you ever so much for helping me with moving my order!  I sincerely appreciate it.” Rarity cooed as she lifted up another dress and placed it carefully onto a hanger and into the delivery cart.  Having finished a major order, all that was left was shipping it off.  Normally the individual would come and pick up their dress in person, but this client had a busy schedule and said delivery would be fine.

“No problem Rarity, I’m always happy to help!” Spike replied as he carried a stack of boxes bigger than himself outside.  After finishing his cleaning, Spike decided to see what Rarity was up to, and to try and perhaps win her heart.  So far, it hadn’t been exactly as he had hoped, but he was at least spending time with her.

“You are quite the little gentle-dragon Spike!  Now, if you could be a dear and hold the case open as I put the dress in, that would be wonderful.”  As she said this, Rarity carefully lifted a mannequin with a stunning dress on it.  It was lined with plenty of gems, and laced with incredibly fine fabrics.  It was the most important piece of the order, to be a special ball gown for the client’s wife.  As such, he wanted it to be perfect.  Rarity didn’t even bother to try and take it off the mannequin, for fear it would fall off the hanger.  Besides, she could always get another mannequin.  Perfection was not quite the same guarantee.

“Sure thing Rarity!” Spike exclaimed as he rushed to the case, propping it open and staring at Rarity with hearts in his eyes.  So focused was Rarity on her dress and Spike on Rarity that neither noticed the book flying in behind them at an alarming speed.

At least, not until it smacked Spike in the back of the head.

“GAH!” Spike shouted, exhaling a little bit of fire in shock as the blow set in.

Rarity, not expecting the shout, and was definitely not expecting to see a bit of flame shoot towards her grand piece, lifted up the dress with more force than she was used to.  Leading to the mannequin launching from her grasp, much to her horror.  Seeing the mannequin fly off, Rarity did the only thing she could do.

“WHYYYYYYYYY?!” she wailed, as she ran inside the boutique and brought a cushion outside, promptly collapsing on it and wriggling her legs.  “Why must this happen to meeeeee? “  She continued to wail, oblivious to the world around her.

Spike, realizing that his chances have dropped from possible to none at all in the blink of an eye, did the only thing HE could do.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

“I dunno Scootaloo; yah saw what happened last time.”

“Oh relax Applebloom!  This time we don’t have a cake to sca…er, to make me lose my balance!  There’s no way this can go wrong now!”

The catapult was ready to go again, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were standing right below it.  While Applebloom still felt a bit bad about the cake, Scootaloo was ready to give it a shot.  Right after Sweetie Bell tested it of course.

“C’mon Sweetie Bell!  Just get onto the part that looks like a spoon!”

“But it seems really scary.  I don’t want to get dirty or hurt.  Rarity would be mad!”

“Oh c’mon, like I said before, she’ll never know.  Besides, I heard that when you go on a catapult, your sister’s dreams come true.”

“…Really?”

“Of course…probably…just go!”

Applebloom just sat there, watching the two argue, when she noticed something.  “Uh guys, what’s that?”

Both Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo looked up, just in time to see a mannequin fall out of the sky and onto the catapult.  The girls froze.  Sweetie Bell was the first to say anything.  “That looks like one of my sister’s mannequins!  Why is it out here?”

“I don’t know…” Scootaloo said slowly, before gaining a mischievous grin, “But I think we should launch it!”

Sweetie Bell looked terrified.  “You can’t do that!” she squeaked.  “That’s Rarity’s ‘important’ dress that she’s been working on forever!  You can’t mess that up!”

Applebloom piped up. “Ah agree with Sweetie Bell.  Besides, you wouldn't like it if someone were to take, oh ah dunno, a Rainbow Dash autograph and just throw it away, would you?”

Visibly winching at the sound of such an act, Scootaloo thought for a bit.  “…Alright, alright, we won’t launch it, but let’s get it down quickly.  Maybe we can get a rescuing cutie mark!”

“For rescuing my sister’s mannequin?”

“We’ll never know unless we try!”

“Well then, ah say let’s do it!”

“Yeah!”

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER MANNEQUIN RESCUERS, YAY!” they shouted.

Unfortunately for them, their shouting caused a loose apple from a nearby tree to fall.  Right onto the release lever.

The crusaders watched in stunned silence as the mannequin flew off to join the cake that had gone off earlier.  Scootaloo opened her mouth to say something, but simply shut it and started to run away, quickly joined by Sweetie Bell and Applebloom.

Darkness.

It was all she knew for hours.  Trapped within this strange prison, she had worked for hours digging her way out.

Patience.

She was losing hers.  She had been working at freeing herself to no avail, and was seeing no improvement.

Cake.

She would never eat cake again.

Zecora finally caught a break, as her hooves began to dig at air, cracks forming to shine light into her sun baked prison.  Gaining a second wind, she began to eat in the direction of the saving light.  Finally, her head burst through and she inhaled a deep breath.  Noticing how the cake had seemingly hardened into a glob around her body, she got onto her hooves, feeling like she was carrying a giant rock.  “Such an ordeal, I’ve had to face.  I am glad there are no other threats in this place.” She muttered to herself, until she noticed another shadow closing in.  Bracing for impact, she peeked upwards.

Just in time for a mannequin with a gorgeous dress on to plow into her, forcing her within the cake once again and wedging the mannequin in as well.  From within the cake glob, a frustrated sigh could be heard.

The Part With Doom

Animal Antics

Chapter 5

Fluttershy sighed in relief as she saw Carousal Boutique within her sights.  She was also pleased that no more sudden, terrifying storms were around.  She still felt terrible about what happened earlier when the first storm hit.  The father said it took three days to make that potato salad.  Three days.  Shaking the memory from her head, she picked up her speed and landed in front of the boutique.  Fluttering up to the door, she knocked gently.  However, instead of being greeted by Rarity, she was met with a downtrodden looking Spike.  “Oh!  Hello Spike.  I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” she said with a hint of curiosity in her voice.

“Yeah, well, I came over here when I was finished with my chores. Figured I could…uh, you know, help Rarity with her work too.  Because, you know, I like to work.  And stuff.”  Spike finished his sentence with a forced smile, betraying the story he had just given.  Looking back into the boutique, the smile vanished and was quickly replaced with a small frown.  “Buuuut it didn’t go quiiiiiite according to plan.”  Spike started to explain, pinching his fingers together.

“Oh no!  Did someone step in her potato salad too?”

“Potato what now?”

“Uh, n-nothing…”

“Riiiight.  Anyways, we were putting some of her dresses up into a carrying cart.  But I got hit by something and, well, I uh, I kinda accidently made her…well…launch it.  Away.  Into somewhere far, far away.”  He scratched the back of his head, half in humor and half in shame at his actions.

“Are you okay?  You didn’t get hurt, did you?”  Fluttershy asked concerned.

“Nah, I’m fine.  Thick scales.  Rarity though, she’s, well, not taking it very well.” Spike turned around and unblocked the entrance, allowing the melodramatic ranting of the white unicorn to go unobstructed.

“All that work!  Wasted!  The horror!  The gems!  The fabric!  Oh, how will I show my face in the fashion community again with this blemish on my record?  They’ll think I can’t make a simple dress!  I’ll lose my customers!  I’ll lose my business!  I’ll have to move back in with…MY PARENTS!”  A torrent of sobs concluded the tirade, as Spike once again stepped in front of the doorway.

“So yeah, it’s really not the best of times.  But, you know me.  I’m a caring guy.  Figured I’d help her through this tough time.” Spike looked at his nails and smoothed his spines back subconsciously as he spoke, donning a goofy grin.  A few moments passed and Spike finally snapped out of his daydream.  “Say, Fluttershy, what are you doing here anyways?”

Seeing that the young dragon was no longer in his own little world, Fluttershy explained.  “Well, I came here to get Rarity actually.  Twilight was helping me with my animal inspections, but then Rainbow found her and she was all stiff and she wasn’t responding and now she’s gone and I’m worried she may have hurt herself and I’m such a bad friend I should have nev-“  Her self-berating was cut short by a small dragon claw clasping her mouth shut.

“Twilight’s in trouble?!  Aww man!  Uh, Rarity!  RARITY!  Fluttershy is here and Twilight’s in trouble!”  If Spike was trying to hide any worry in his voice, he failed spectacularly.  He also failed at holding his ground, as he was suddenly launched into the air by a recovered Rarity.

“Fluttershy, darling, is it true?  Is Twilight in peril?” she asked while restyling her mane and brushing off her coat from her lamenting.

Before she could answer, however, a certain pink pony popped out of a bucket of water and beat her to the punch.  “That is affirmative, Officer Rarity!  Sergeant Sparkle is in trouble and Officer Dash has ordered me here!  Private Pinkie is ready for orders!”  She stood up on her back legs and gave a salute, before sitting down, oversized helmet blocking her eyes.  Before anypony or any dragon could question this behavior, they were greeted by a sudden gust of wind with a rainbow tint to it, knocking over all except the stalwart soldier pony.

“Ha!  I win!  You owe me an apple pie, AJ!” said a voice filled with boastful confidence.

“Like heck Ah do!  Ah never agreed to that!” replied a slightly irritated but worn out voice.

“Details, details.  Anyways, where is everyone?” Rainbow Dash asked annoyed, before a series of groans caught her attention.  Grinning sheepishly, she landed to help them up “Ahehe, my bad.”  Noticing something in the corner of her eye, she flew over and picked it up.  “Hey, what’s this?  A book?”

“I think that’s the thing that hit me and made Rarity’s dress meet space.”  Spike said casually, unaware of the slight glower Rarity shot him.

“Let’s see, ‘The Major Guide to the Astronomical Meanings of the Sky and How to Read the Signs of the Stars’.  Huh, seems like a snore fest.”

“Wait, are you sure that’s the title?”  Spike asked with increasing worry.

“Yup, why?  What’s the big deal?” Rainbow Dash replied, tossing it haphazardly over towards him.

“That’s one of Twilight’s books, that’s why!  She’s always reading it when she goes to watch the stars and stuff.  She never lets it out of the library.  She doesn’t even want me messing with it too often.  What’s it doing out here?  And why is it all beaten up?!”  Spike collapsed on the ground, confused and lost in thought as he stared at the book.

“Permission to speak Officer Dash!”  Everyone was startled and turned towards Pinkie Pie, who was now on all fours.

“Uh, Pinkie Pie, you don’t need my permission to talk you know.” Dash explained, feeling a tad awkward.

“Permission to speak, Officer Dash!”

Rainbow Dash took a hoof and, with great precision, smacked it on her face.  “Fine, granted, whatever.”

Going from serious to her old self in the blink of an eye, Pinkie Pie pointed towards the sky and asked “What are those?”

Everyone turned around to see the sky darken with shadows that were increasing ever so slightly.

Eagle had a nice life.  There was never too much stress, unless some birds decided to be unruly, in which case he had to restore some order as the high bird.  After all, he was agreeably the most dependable of the winged creatures and was pretty strong to boot.  Even if he had lost the race to be the Rainbow one’s companion to falcon, falcon still lost to the tortoise.  Not that anyone was angry; the tortoise had worked very hard, even with the odds stacked against him and he was also one of the nicest creatures at the cottage.  It was felt that he had earned it, even if he had lost the race.  But that race was some of the only action that had happened in some time, and everything had fallen back into the boring rut of life.  At least, until today.

The loud, thunderous rumblings felt by the ground creatures had alerted the birds as well.  Eagle had called for them and he, along with his brethren, were all above the ground animals as the creature showed itself.  Eagle was worried; he had never dealt with such a monstrosity, and his mind was racing as to what they should do.  A loud smack broke his thoughts and brought him back to reality, just in time to see a creature falling from the sky.  Screeching out to a scout bird, the bird darted out and caught the little chipmunk, saving it from an unfortunate demise.  Narrowing his eyes, Eagle decided that it was time for war, and called out to his avian allies to prepare themselves.  Falcon flew next to him, at the ready, as the rest of the birds of the cottage filled the sky behind him.  They watch unmoving as the creature formed two more creatures, and instead focused their attention to the sky above the beast, where strange flying creatures circled over heard, like an ominous cloud of beating wings.  A cry rang out and both sides charged.  The battle had begun.

Eagle called out and shot out straight towards the darkened swarm, tons of birds following him.  The swarm responded in turn, racing towards them at incredible speeds.  Eagle made the first contact, gripping onto the lead book with all the strength he could muster and spinning it around in circles, before letting go and watching it crash to the ground.  Many other birds followed in turn, launching the books in all different directions; some towards Ponyville and some towards the Everfree Forest.  Pages were torn left and right, as the birds struggled to contain the books.  The books, on the other hand, had no troubles.  Their goal was to get the birds into the Bookbot, which would have led to direct confrontation anyways.  However, the birds fought with more ferocity than many of the books could handle, leaving them as torn husks, dropping from the sky as the magic that fueled them was torn out.  Books began to drop by the dozens, as the birds were able to repel them with ease.  However, some birds weren’t so lucky.  Eagle watched in horror as some of the birds, Falcon included, were dragged into the giant monstrosity, with a series of books interlocking to serve as a barrier.

Anger flowed throughout Eagle, as he called out for his brethren to encircle the books.  The birds, realizing what this called for, looked at each other worriedly, before following through and encapsulating the books in a vortex of wind.  Faster and faster the birds flew, tightening the circle and forcing more books into the middle.  Eagle called out once more, prompting some of the faster birds to start cascading down as a cyclone began to appear in the midst of feathers and pages.  Soon enough, a fairly sized tornado had appeared, trapping the books within, tearing out pages after page with sheer velocity.  One more call echoed out and the birds increased their speed one last time, before finally stopping suddenly.  The tornado, losing its driving force, began to dissipate, and the books began to fly out at rapid speeds, leaving bits of their covers and many pages trailing them.  Their aerial foes defeated, Eagle directed his troops towards the giant that had started this conflict.  The giant that had devoured his friends and troops.  The giant that he swore would fall.

“Are those…books?” Rarity asked, cocking her head ever so slightly.  A second later, her question was answered as a series of books struck Carousal Boutique, breaking several windows and startling Opalescence.  The five mares and the small dragon all stared wide-eyed, before similar sounds rang out through Ponyville.  Turning their heads from the broken boutique, they all stared in horror as books began to rain down from the sky, breaking buildings and shattering windows, causing many ponies to flee in fear and in general confusion.  One of the books crashed at Spike’s feet.  Picking it up, he opened it up and started reading what was left of it.  “Uh, guys.  This is a book from the library.”  He lifted out a small slip, signifying that it was indeed a library books.  More books crashed around them, and each mare went to examine them.

“This one is from the school!  I recognize it; Sweetie Bell brought it home one day and made me read it.  And read it again.  And again.”

“What in tarnation are all these books doin’ here?  You told me they all went to the library Rainbow!”

“They did!  Maybe something happened to Twi…light…”

The silence after Rainbow’s ominous thought was short-lived, as a loud smash was heard coming from the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage.  The five ponies each nodded to one another and began to head off to the cottage.  Fluttershy, however, doubled back.  “Spike”, she began, “Are you going to be alright?”

Spike, who was still in shock, got on his feet and brushed himself off, “Yeah, I’ll be fine.  I should probably start picking up these books anyways.  Just so that everything will be easier to fix when you guys help Twilight.”  He gave her a small smile and began to pick up the books.

Fluttershy, warmed to see such an act, gave Spike a quick hug before hurrying off to join the rest of the gang.  Spike scampered off to collect more books, thinking about Twilight’s well-being, and how he can use this situation to avoid eating green beans for a while.

Golumn A stared at the creatures below him.  All bugs and water animals.  If it could smile, it would have at the thought of such an easy task.  Reaching into the stream with its limbs, magically protected as to not dissolve in water, it began to fish out subjects for the master to study.  Grabbing a few, he placed them into a water sphere and then tossed it into the Bookbot.  It began this again, until it found itself tumbling into the water.  It rose out and spotted the offending creature; a seal.  It was clapping, as if mocking the construct.  Unmoved by this act of taunting, the Golumn began to crawl out of the stream and attempted to capture the seal, only to find it’s leg stuck.  Looking down, it noticed a series of fish swimming rapidly around its leg, trapping it in a whirlpool.  This proved to be a futile effort, as the giant paper monster easily tore free of the suction and lunged at the seal.  What the Golumn didn’t notice, however, were the other seals gathered below him.  The tables were suddenly turned, as the seals bounced the giant up and down as if he were a ball tossed into their pen.  All the while, the fishes, realizing they couldn’t trap it, decided to try and spray it with as much force as they can.

Meanwhile, the birds began to circle around the two Golumns.  The fish, seeing their feathered friends, began to try another method.  Attracting the attention of the birds, the fish began to formulate their plan, while the Golumn was still having a ball with the seals.  The Golumn, while not having a mind of its own, knew that this was not productive to its mission, and so decided to end it.  A great flash of light shone out, and the Golumn began to fall apart.  The seals, not expecting this, panicked and let him drop to the ground, allowing him to reform unobstructed and proceed to capture the creatures.

The bugs, who had been watching the giant fight, decided at this moment to strike.  Swarming around its face, the butterflies formed a wall of hypnotic color around the Golumn, confusing it and distracting it from the bees.  The bees, aiming their stingers, bombarded the Golumn with a barrage of stings and pokes.  Unfortunately, with the Golumn being made of paper, all that this did was poke a few holes, leaving the bees feeling embarrassed and disappointed.  With their main course of attack gone, the butterflies faltered, and the Golumn seized this opportunity to shoo them away, leaving the bugs defeated and at its mercy.  The Golumn towered over them and captured them all, putting them in a special bag and tossing it in the Bookbot.  He began moving towards the seals again, this time determined to make them share the bugs’ fate.  At least, until a pair of puffer fish, carried high by the birds, dropped onto its face, bodies puffed and spines out.

The Golumn, now blinded, began to spin in circles, looking for a way to shake off the offending fish.  Seeing an opening, the fish called upon their secret weapon.  Tentacles, attached to a giant squid, began to rise out of the water, rising above the Golumn.  They snaked around its legs and held him firm, while more wrapped around its arms and, finally its neck.  The Golumn, struggling, started to try and fall apart again.

Suddenly, a series of clams fell upon its head, stunning it.  The seals all jumped into the water, and began swimming towards the bottom, before rocketing to the top.  Helped along by the extra tentacles of the squid, the seals all launched towards the head of the Golumn and smacked it hard.  The Golumn started shaking, before falling face forward onto the ground with a massive crashing sound, defeated.

Golumn B swiped at the ground, picking up squirrels, chipmunks and even a deer or two.  It placed them all in the Bookbot and looked back at its targets.  Deer, small rodents and all other forest dwellers stood to oppose it.  To reject the workings of the master and to reject the glorious forwarding of science.  Such madness.  The Golumn prepared to go and gather another load, when it was suddenly blindsided.  A dozen or so deer had charged at it with their antlers loaded and had caught it off guard.  However, a few meager deer were no match, as a few of them were even scooped up and thrown into the Bookbot.  The squirrels all began chucking nuts in a synchronized manner, hoping to topple the construct.  It merely waved them off and charged at the trees, determined to shake them out.

Another sudden smack knocked it off balance.  It turned around into another snack right in the face, as it stumbled backwards and fell onto its back.  The goats, having gone to get more of their kind, stood next to the deer and scraped at the ground, ready to charge again.  The Golumn continued to lay unmoving.  Just as the animals began to celebrate their victory, the ground started shaking and the Golumn rose up, a red gleam replacing the blackness in its eyes.  It shot out bits of its arms, which wrapped around nearly all of the goats and threw them into the Bookbot, crushing any hope the animals had of besting the monstrosity.  The Golumn turned around and began slowly walking towards the creatures.

Only to find it restrained.  Looking at its arms, it beheld the source of the opposition.  Snakes, tons of them, had begun to wrap around its limbs, trapping it in place.  Moving against them proved useless, as they were too numerous and coiled for it to break free.  Focusing on the snakes, the Golumn didn’t notice the big, brown creature barreling towards it.  The snakes suddenly released their grip on the Golumn, just in time for the bear to ram right into it, launching it a good couple of yards.  The Golumn got up, looking battered and torn, and refocused on the new beast that had struck it down.  The bear growled, bracing itself for a struggle against this strange, flimsy foe.  The construct charged, running at the bear with its arms extended, ready to grab it and send it to the Bookbot.  The bear smiled and assumed a stance, much to the confusion and panic of his animal brethren.  The Golumn closed in on the bear.

*RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP*

The silence that followed was thick enough to build a house with, quietly of course.  The Golumn stood still, unmoving.  The bear stood, its arms extended upwards in a swiping motion.  Suddenly, the arms of the construct fell down and crashed to the earth with a loud thud, leaving the Golumn shocked and unable to process what had happened.  It began to back up in the direction of the Bookbot.

Angel gazed upon the thing in front of him, unable to tell whether or not he should be impressed or terrified.  The Bookbot seemed to have focused solely on the bunnies, having ignored all other creatures and separating them.  The bunny army behind angel stood prepared to fight off the clockwork, book-made monstrosity.  Angel raised his paw up, and with it tons of carrots rose out of the furry sea.  He brought it down, and the carrots were launched.  The Bookbot stood tall, as the carrots merely bounced off its armor.  Suddenly, tendrils of magic shot out, all shaped like hands, and began to take bunnies out from the army below lifting them and bringing them into it.  The carrot barrage still continued, but it was no use as the armor was too strong.

Eagle noticed their attempts were doing nothing, and so gathered his finest birds to help.  They flew around the head of the construct, disorienting the pilot and allowing the bunnies to try and bring it down some more.  Eagle and his elite, while confusing the Bookbot, also worked at tearing off the armor.  Even with all their might, the armor was just too interlocked to be torn off.  A high pitched wail permeated the colossus, “ENOUGH!”  The magic aura around the head increased, and suddenly all the birds found themselves trapped within the aura, being dragged into the depths of the pony-shaped book machine.  Eagle gave one final salute to Angel, before being dragged off into the depths.  Angel saluted back and glared at the Bookbot.  He would see this thing fall.  This time, it was personal.  The Bookbot looked at him and the aura began to increase in intensity again.

Golumn B was still backing up, trying to escape the situation that had suddenly turned for the worse.  The bear, realizing that it was finished, picked up the arms and ran towards the Golumn. It could only watch as the bear approached it and proceeded to slap it silly with its own arms.  The bear, having slapped it good and plenty, decided to give it a finishing blow.  With a quick couple of spins, the bear launched the arms towards the Golumn, sending it flying towards the Bookbot.

Angel held his ground, as the towering monstrosity inched ever closer.  He grabbed a couple of carrots and held them as swords, ready to fight until the end.  The Bookbot began to launch its attack.

*THA-DUM!*

*CRAAAAAAAACK*

Angel scrambled away from the construct as a series of noises erupted from the side of it.  Turning back, he saw what had happened.  Next to the Bookbot was a crumpled heap, which used to be Golumn B.  Another object next to the Bookbot was what really caught his attention.  The armor, which had once adorned the Bookbot, was now strewn across the ground.  A loud noise, much like a grinding of rusty gears, pierced the cloud of dust that had been thrown up from the impact.  The Bookbot crawled out, it’s armor stripped.  Angel noticed for the first time how weak it looked without its armor.

The parts where armor had been now only housed bare gears, made entirely out of books, each turning to make the giant move.  Within, multiple cages of animal could be seen all hanging and swaying with the movements of the contraption.  A large series of book spines protruded from the spine of the bot, most likely from the force of them impact.  However, none of that compared to the face of the beast.  With its facemask gone, the Bookbot revealed its true visage; one of its pilots face, increased in size and multiplied tenfold in creepiness.  The red eyes completely engulfed the sockets, as the mouth was nothing but jagged books, each shifting as if it were a series of teeth engulfing a meal.  In the middle of it all, a faint outline could be seen.  The outline of Twilight Sparkle.

Another loud grinding sound brought his attention to the Bookbot’s head, as it began to glow a deep shade of red, only this time, the entire body began glowing.  Angel watched in horror as tons of animals were drawn into the Bookbot, as if it were a giant magnet to them.  He then noticed how many of the gears seemed to be struggling to keep up, as if they were being stressed to their very limits.  Giving a triumphant grin, he began sprinting towards the Bookbot as it cooled down from the major spell.  Using a tree as a ladder, he climbed up and leapt upon the back of the behemoth, carrots in paw.  Hopping onto the highest point of the protrusion on the back of the monster, he aimed at the gears and threw his carrots.  The carrots wedged themselves in the gears and stood still.

The air grew quiet and the only noise that Angel heard was his heart beating rapidly in anticipation.  Suddenly, the Bookbot started shaking violently.  Books started shooting out of the sides of the body as gears began to break and groan with intense stress.  The Bookbot began collapsing, as Angel madly hopped to the edge and jumped into a bed of flowers.  He turned around and watched as piece after piece of the construct fell onto the ground, creating a small rhythm as they hit the earth.  The cages holding the animals fall as well, only to be picked up by the birds that weren’t captured yet.  The Bookbot made one last attempt at magic, before finally falling in unto itself and settling with a thunderous crash.  The cages with the captives landed near Angel and opened, releasing their captives.  Angel breathed a sigh of relief.  The fight was over.

They had won.

Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy all approached the cottage with a worried expression.  One that disappeared when they saw what awaited them.  The beautiful fields around Fluttershy’s cottage had become a warzone, with pages torn all over.  Near the stream they could see what appeared to be some creature made of paper, fallen flat on its face.  Nearby, they could see another creature similar, but with its arms torn off and seemingly thrown against it, sitting in a collapsed heap.  And in the middle of it all, a series of books, all piled into one major group, seeming to emit a cloud of smoke as they laid in a pile.

Nobody knew what to say.  Suddenly, a loud clicking noise drew attention to Pinkie Pie, who had aimed her portable Party Launcher at the pile of books.  “Target within sights!  Ready to launch upon your command, Officer Dash.” she said coolly, as if she was unaffected by the sight before her.

Rainbow Dash facehoofed, as did the rest of the group.

“No! Nonononononono! NONO! No!”

Angel nearly jumped in surprise as a crazed purple unicorn crawled out of the debris, looking even more insane than she previously had.

“OH-HO!  I BET YOU THOUGHT YOU WON, HUH?” she exclaimed with a tint of paranoia in her voice, as if she wasn’t sure what was real anymore.  “Well, I’ll show you!  Yes, yes!  I’ll show what true knowledge can do!  I’ll show you why books are wonderful!  I’ll show you why THE GUIDES ARE RIGHT!”  Twilight reached behind her and pulled out a book, titled ‘A Clockwork Apple:  How to Build a Proper Giant Robot and How to Have a Back-Up Plan!’  Angel read the title in sheer disbelief.  “I know, right!  It’s a wonderful book!  It’s a guide actually!  You know, one of those books that TELLS YOU WHAT TO DO!  And unlike you animals, this Bookbot followed what I told it to do and didn’t rebel or try to kill me or make me run WITH SNAKES IN MY MANE!”  She began flipping through the pages, before coming to rest on a particular one with an incantation.  “You WILL learn to follow the guides and you WILL be inspected!  I’LL BE CERTAIN OF THAT!” Twilight screamed, laughing manically.

Her horn lit up, and the sky began to darken.  Lighting began to shot onto the ground and into the pile of books.  No fire emerged from the strike, but the books began to give off a glow.  Suddenly, giant tendrils shot out.  Each one roped around the Golumns and any books or pages that were within the areas.  They were all dragged into the pile, which began to pulsate.  The pulsating increased, as the pile began to grow to immense proportions.  Limbs shot out of the piles, eight in total, like a spiders legs, but thick like a hydra’s.  The mass began to form a body, with a long snaking neck emerging from the top.  On one side, an arm was formed with a simple claw, while the other side had no arm, only a head of one of the Golumns, warped beyond recognition.  At the top of the neck, the other Golumn’s head popped out, donning a maddened visage.  The sky lit up with lightning and began to clear up, as the Abookination stood tall, its body actually oozing papers as if it were fresh out of a book bath.  It gave a mighty growl and took a step forward, determined not to lose this time.  Twilight stared up at her creation and gazed with maddened joy at it, knowing it wouldn’t fail her.

A joy that evaporated when a large explosion went off and the Abookination was struck with incredible force by an orb the size of a pony’s head, which proceeded to explode into confetti and cake.  The Abookination fell forward and slumped in defeat, leaving hundreds of confused animals, one very confused bunny and one shock frozen unicorn.

Four ponies were also frozen in shock, not by the giant creature before them falling but at the sheer amount of noise and the subsequent explosion that had gone off next to them.  All eyes turned towards Pinkie Pie, who was now covered in soot.  Her helmet had fallen off and her eyes were open wide.  She shook the soot off and looked at her friends.

“Whoopsie!  My bad!”

The Part With The Conclusion

Animal Antics

Chapter 6

The ground trembled slightly, as the five mares rushed towards the scene of the book creature’s unfortunate meeting with a Pinkie Pie Party Ball.  As they arrived, the dust began to settle as the results of the impact became clear.  The creature, whatever it was, was reduced to a mere pile of books.  Tomes, dictionaries and scrolls began tumbling from the hill of texts, landing with a soft thump at the pile’s base.  And in front of it was Twilight Sparkle, frozen with an expression that was either sheer disbelief or complete horror.  A small pocket book was impaled on her horn, as she stood hoof deep in books.  A flash of white zoomed around her body, before stopping to reveal Angel Bunny smacking her with his foot, with little visual effect.  The other animals around began dispersing, seeing that their mission was completed.

“Angel Bunny!  You stop that this instant!” Fluttershy yelled, zipping to the bunny and giving him a glare. The intimidating gesture faltered, however, when Angel looked at her with an even more venomous glare.  “W-well, you know, if you don’t mind that is…”

Meanwhile, Rarity was tentatively stepping around the dust mounds formed by the impact of the behemoth, as Pinkie Pie was climbing the pile with a grappling hook.  Applejack pawed at the books on the ground, while Rainbow Dash, following Fluttershy’s lead, zoomed to Twilight, shaking her and pushing Angel off.

“Twilight!  Twilight!  Are you alright?”  No response.  “Twilight?” she knocked on her head a few times, “anypony home?”  Silence still greeted her.  Frustrated, Dash did the only thing she could think of.  Spotting a dark cloud in the distance, she fetched it and positioned it over Twilight, bracing herself for the shocked outburst of an angry, wet pony.  What she didn’t expect was a lightning bolt turning Twilight Sparkle into a roasty, toasty pony.  Everyone’s eyes darted to Rainbow Dash, who had already thrown the cloud away into the sky and was whistling a very nonchalant tune.  Everyone’s ears perked up as they heard a small cough coming from the blackened unicorn next to her.

Shaking the soot off her body, Twilight Sparkle blinked her eyes a few time, as if just waking up.  Feeling a bulky mass at her hooves, she looked down and was perplexed to see books all around her.  Turning around, the confusion was replaced with shock and despair as she noticed the enormous amounts of literature strewn haphazardly in the field.  Turning to her friends, who had now formed a small group and began approaching her, she cried out.  “What happened here?!  Why are there so many books piled up in the middle of the field?!  Why does my head hurt?!  Why…”  She paused momentarily, sniffing at the air.  “Why do I smell like burnt hay fries?”

Letting out a collective sigh, the mares moved in, with Rainbow Dash taking initiative.  “You mean you don’t remember going completely nuts and stealing everyone’s books, filling the sky with lightning and apparently attacking all of Fluttershy’s animals?” she finished with a circling of the eyes and a flourish of her hooves.

Hearing the accusations, Twilight’s eyes widened as she began to recall the snakes.  And the bear.  And the destruction of the library.  That last recollection hit her especially hard, as she felt her back meeting the ground with a hard smack.  A pink hoof waving in front of her face snapped her out of her dumbstruck state as felt more hooves lift her off the ground.

“Silly Twilight, you shouldn’t be sleeping on the grass!  Unless it’s a grass bed!  Then you could sleep on grass all night!  Or would you be sleeping on a bed?  Grass Bed?  Bed of Grass?  Grass Bed?  Bed of Grass?  Gra-“  Pinkie Pie found herself with a white hoof in her mouth, and a glowering Rarity looking at her with an expression that seemed to read ‘Never again’.

Eyes watering, Twilight found her voice again. “You mean…I did all this?  I stole everyone’s books and tried to hurt the animals?”

“It looks that way, sugarcube.”  Applejack responded, patting her friend on the back in a comforting manner.

Turning to Fluttershy, Twilight walked slowly to her, head hanging down.  “Fluttershy I…I’m so sorry.  I don’t know what came over me.  I thought I could handle this, but all I ended up doing was causing a giant mess.”  Tears began falling as sobs began to break up her speech.  “C-can you e-e-ever f-forgive me?”  She nearly jumped when she felt a pair of legs wrapping around her neck.

“Of course Twilight.  Everyone makes a bad decision once in a while.  It’s just something you’ve got to learn from and fix, that’s all.”  Fluttershy looked at her friend’s face and wiped the tears away.  “Although, you may want to apologize to the animals.  Don’t worry, I can go with you and help you.  That is, if you want me to..”

Twilight smiled at her friend and gave her a hug back.  “I’d really appreciate that Fluttershy.”  Looking down, she noticed Angel Bunny glaring at her, as if trying to make her vanish with his gaze alone.  Lowering herself, Twilight cleared her throat. “Angel Bunny, let me apologize to you first.  It was wrong of me to, well, go absolutely crazy and build a giant book robot to try and capture you and your friends.”  She gave a small grin, trying to banish the awkwardness of the situation.  “Do you forgive me?”  She outstretched a hoof, her smile growing wider.

Angel Bunny looked at the hoof, paused for a moment, and then smacked it away, pointing at Twilight and making a series of punching motions into his paw.  Fluttershy sighed and walked over to him.

“Angel, couldn’t you please forgive Twilight?  She didn’t mean to cause so much trouble.  Pretty please?” she pleaded, her eyes expanding and twinkling with hope.

Angel made no motions for what seemed like an eternity, before finally extending a wary paw and looking Twilight dead in the eye.  Twilight smiled meekly and extended her hoof, meeting his paw in a shake.  She looked at his eyes and saw a deep grudge contained within them.

“Well, it’s better than nothing.” she thought to herself.  She smiled at Fluttershy.  “Well, if you’re ready Fluttershy, let’s go.  The sooner I can apologize to the animals the sooner I can feel better about this whole situation.”  She turned to the rest of her friends.  “I can’t believe you all went through so much trouble to try and help me.”

Applejack walked over first.  “Oh now hush sugarcube.  Yer our friend and we stick together!”

Rarity joined in next.  “That’s right, darling.  It would be terrible to leave anypony in such a situation!’

“Not to mention completely mean!  Can you imagine what would happen if I didn’t remember to load the Pinkie Launcher?” Pinkie added, popping out from the book pile.

Rainbow Dash flew over and hooked her leg around Twilight.  “You should know by now I could never leave my friends hanging.  You know, loyalty and all.”

Twilight gathered them all into a group hug.  “Thanks girls.  Now, I’ve got some animals to apologize too!”

As she turned to head towards the rest of the shaken creatures, a bush at the edge of the Everfree Forest began shaking.  The six mares froze, and immediately assumed a defensive stance, preparing to face whatever beast lurked in the forest.  What they saw horrified and shocked them.  A giant circular body, lumpy in some sections and flat in others, emerged from the top of the bush.  Twigs and other debris were wedged in its body, as it slowly hobbled towards the ponies.  A series of grunts accompanied it, sounding strained and frustrated.

The beast stepped into the light, revealing a very disgruntled Zecora, encased in some sort of globule, with a mannequin pony wedged next to her head sporting a beautiful dress.  She spotted the six mares and narrowed her eyes.

“Frustration and anger have guided my path, now tell me which pony shall suffer my wrath!” she said in calm, chilling voice.

Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy immediately pointed to Twilight Sparkle, who could only shrink a little and give a sheepish smile.  Zecora slowly waddled over to Twilight Sparkle, pulled a pouch out of the cake ball, and blew it in her face.  At first nothing happened.  Suddenly, the cake ball began shaking, subtly at first, but then with increasing intensity.  Twilight began to shake too, as the cake began flying off Zecora and attaching to Twilight.  A few seconds later, and Zecora was clean, while Twilight was now trapped inside of a giant cake ball, with only her head sticking out.  Seeing there was no more cake, Twilight raised her eyebrow at Zecora, expecting something worse.  If only the mannequin hadn’t begun shaking as well.  Twilight found herself being jerked backwards by the impact of the mannequin, firing her off into the direction of Ponyville.

“ZEEEEEEEEEECOOooooooooooraaaaaaaaaaaaaa……” she screamed as she rolled off into town.

Zecora smiled gently and, chuckling to herself, began to head back to her hut, leaving behind five speechless mares and one hysterically laughing bunny.

Spike let out a sigh of relief as he picked up the last book and tossed it into the cart.  After seeing the trouble he was going through to pick up the mess left behind by the crazy book shower, the mayor had given him a cart to help haul it all back to the library.  If only she could throw in some other helpers too.

“I hope that Twilight is alright..” he wondered aloud, hoping nothing too dangerous had happened.  An echo ringing out throughout Ponyville caught his attention.

“STOP THIS CRAZY THIIIIIIIIIIIING!”

Spike turned towards the main road, just in time to see a giant cake ball roll past him, with a certain purple unicorn’s head sticking out of it.  He looked at his book cart, then back at the cake ball and sighed.  “I’ll get a bath started’ he said flatly.  The ball continued rolling, passing ponies and stands, until it smashed into a stand at the far end of the square.  A series of screams of pain followed.  Spike sighed again.

“And the bee sting ointment.”