Storms only meant one thing to Twilight Sparkle: Studying. The unicorn went about her library gathering the necessary tools, including quills, ink, parchment, books, and candles. After her search was finished, she went and placed everything at her desk in the corner of the library. Satisfied that nothing was missing, she lit the candles and began.
The storm started shortly after, the rain picking up as the minutes went by. Engulfed in her studies, she almost didn't hear the door open. She turned around to see her assistant drenched from his green spikes down to his purple scaled tail.
“Oh dear! Looks like when the pegasi said 'storm,' they really meant it! Here Spike, let me me get you some hot cocoa.” Twilight retreated to the kitchen and returned shortly with a mug of cocoa.
Spike shook himself off and graciously accepted her offer. “Thanks Twilight. I think I'm gunna go hit the hay. I'll see you in the morning.” The young dragon yawned as he went upstairs.
With Spike taken care of, Twilight returned to her studies.
Hours later the storm started to subside. Rolls of paper littered the space around Twilight's desk and books covered most of the table space. She looked out the window and could see Orion where some of the clouds had already cleared. She gave a long yawn and decided that the mess could wait until the morning.
Twilight forced herself up the stairs and under the blankets. The warmth of the blankets and the gentle snoring of a dragon lulled her to sleep in seconds.
Twilight Sparkle woke up to a welcoming sun and cheerful birds. Getting out of bed, she trotted over to the mirror on the opposite side of the room. Her lavender fur was frazzled and her purple and pink mane was unruly. The horn peeking through her mane began to glow with a purple aura. The brush in front of her started glow in the same manner as it was levitated off the table and up to her mane.
Twilight trotted downstairs after grooming herself. When she reached the base of the stairs, she noticed that her previous night's work had already been sorted and cleaned. Spike then walked out of the kitchen, holding a plate of grass pancakes and hay bacon.
“Oh, Spike, thank you! This is why you're my number one assistant!” Twilight said.
“Aw, it's nothing. Just don't you forget that.” Spike said with a smirk.
After breakfast was finished, Twilight took out her checklist for the day.
“Let's see here. First thing on the list is... storm cleanup.” Twilight stood up, rolled up her list, and went to get ready.
Halfway through prep, Twilight heard a faint scream. Curious, she opened the front door to check things out. Convinced that nothing was happening, she closed the door and resumed her preparations. Seconds later, there was a flash of rainbow followed by a crash, throwing dust into the air.
After the dust had cleared, Twilight saw that the books had been thrown off of their shelves and buried a cyan coated pegasus with a rainbow mane.
“Rainbow Dash! What just happened? Are you okay?” Twilight asked anxiously.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, totally fine. Just trying out another trick and couldn't decelerate fast enough.” Rainbow Dash replied, dusting herself off. “And sorry for crashing into your place... again.”
Spike bolted into the room. “What was tha... oh no.” He said.
“Don't worry Spike. And it's not big deal, Rainbow. I needed to reorganize anyways.” Twilight sighed.
Twilight started to lift each book one by one and place them on their designated self. Rainbow Dash stayed around to help the two organize the books, often turning to Twilight for location. After about half an hour, Rainbow brought an aged book to Twilight.
“Hey Twilight, where does this book go?” She asked
Twilight took the book and studied the cover. “That's strange, I don't recognize it. I've read every book in this library at least twice now. How curious.” She opened the book to take a look at the contents. Rainbow hovered over her in curiosity.
“Wait, that's not Equestrian. What do these symbols mean?” Rainbow queried.
“This is Ancient Equestrian. It hasn't been spoken in hundreds of years. I don't know where this would have come from. Most books have either decayed or are being preserved in museums.” Twilight answered.
“So, we can't read it then?”
“Well, I studied a little Ancient Equestrian back in Canterlot, but not enough to translate this whole book. I can read a few of the beginner spells, but that is all. What confuses me is that there isn't any description as to what these spells do.” Twilight explained.
“Then there's only one way to find out!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “Spike, help me clean up the rest of this room so Twilight can perform a spell.” She started to fly around the room, putting books in random places.
“Now wait just a minute. That could be dangerous! We don't know what they do!” Twilight retaliated.
Without stopping, Rainbow replied, “Exactly why we're doing this! I mean, when else are you going to try an ancient spell like this?”
Twilight was about to protest, but gave a sigh.“Fine, fine. This is kind of exciting. But only one!” She sat down with the book and studied the first spell.
By the time Twilight Sparkle was prepared, the sun was high in the sky. She stood in the center of the room, looking at the decorated circle drawn on the floor. She glanced up at Spike and Rainbow Dash, both of whom had excitement written all over them. Focusing on the circle, she cautiously placed her right hoof in the middle, just as the book described. She took a deep breath and focused on herself, letting her magic flow through her. She then felt a secondary source of magic flow into her from her right hoof.
Items all over the room began to levitate, the magic almost tangible as silvery wisps emanated from Twilight's horn. Then something happened that worried Twilight, her cutie mark appeared in the middle of the circle, a large star surround by five smaller stars. Fear struck her deep as she imagined only the worst.
Twilight tried to step out of the circle, but the magic seemed to keep her bounded in place. Spike and Rainbow Dash started to get worried as they saw their friend struggle to move away. Spike started forward to try and help Twilight. When he reached the edge of the circle, there was a blinding light, and when it dimmed down, a new born dragon sat where Spike was before.
“Stay back!” Twilight yelled when she saw Rainbow starting to advance.
After what felt like hours, Twilight could feel the magic retreat through her right hoof. Once it was gone, the circle disappeared and she collapsed.
When Twilight woke up again, she found herself back in her bed. On the floor near her bed was a pegasus with a yellow coat and a long, pink mane. Twilight recognized her as the gentle, animal loving Fluttershy.
Twilight tried to get out of bed, but found her body sore from earlier. She struggled to get up, her groans waking up the sleeping pegasus.
“Oh, you're awake. I was getting a little worried. Um how do you feel?” Fluttershy said with a soft voice.
“A little sore, but nothing to keep me down. Do you know what happened?” Twilight groaned as she stretched out her body, testing what parts were most sore.
Fluttershy looked towards the ground. “Well, not exactly. It all happened at once I just wasn't sure what to make of it. Here, I think you should just see for yourself.”
Fluttershy led Twilight downstairs to the library entrance and carefully opened the door. Twilight, still a little drowsy, kept walking through the door, and plummeted towards the ground. Fluttershy managed to fly down and grab Twilight and help her land softly on the ground.
“Oh dear! I'm so sorry, I didn't know we were in the air.” Fluttershy said.
When Twilight came back to her senses, she tried to take in the scenery around her. What she saw, though, was incomprehensible. Around her was not the Ponyville she was used to. The small town had been plunged into a state of chaos.
Trees were flat, the ground undulated beneath her hooves, houses levitated, were flipped upside-down, and in all sort of odd angles. Nothing around her escaped the reign of chaos. Rainbows seemingly bled their colors, and rain fell from patches of the cloudless, color splashed sky.
Twilight stood there in a daze caused by the confusion around her. “How... How is this possible? This looks like the work of Discord. But... but we turned him to stone already! There's no way he could have escaped.”
“Um... um I'm not sure. I don't think Discord is behind it this time.” Fluttershy said.
“Well, we should go find the others and make sure they're okay. After that we need to fix this mess.”
“Oh, I saw them earlier. They wanted me to make sure you were fine. And um... it's... scary out there... so can I... just stay here and keep and eye on Spike?” Fluttershy asked, shyly edging back to the library.
“Well, okay. Do you know where any of them went?”
“I think Pinkie Pie said she was going home.”
“Okay. Then you wait here, I'll gather the gang and bring them all back. Stay safe.” With that, Twilight was off.
To Twilight, it felt like she was traveling through an entirely different town. All of the paths twisted around in spirals, sometimes even leaving the ground and disappearing into the sky.
After wandering around almost aimlessly, Twilight was able to find Sugar Cube Corner, Pinkie Pie's residence and place of occupation. Twilight cautiously approached the bakery and proceeded to knock. Once her hoof hit for a third time, the door crumbled at the touch. The outside of the house appeared normal, but the inside of the house was twisted around. The ceiling on the floor and vice versa, with tables and chairs still in there proper places, gravity not seemingly affecting them.
Taken aback, Twilight cautiously called inside, “Hello? Anyone home?”
A pink pony with a mane that resembled cotton candy poked its head out from the kitchen and looked down toward Twilight. “Hey Twilight! What are you doing up there? Oh, why am I even asking! Everything's gone bonkers around here! And so quickly, too. I mean I was just minding my own business when 'BOOM' everything became loco. Of course it scared me and I darted home but...”
“Pinkie!” Twilight interrupted. Despite the recent events, Pinkie's attitude was still extravagant and giddy. “I'm glad you're okay. But do you have any idea what's going on around here?”
“Nu-uh! Like I said I was just minding my own business when 'BOOM' it looked like Discord came back! Except with Discord there was chocolate rain. OH! But the ROCKS are chocolate! Did I tell you I was..”
“Pinkie, do you think you could come down here? That would make this easier for both of us.” Twilight said.
“Yeah! Give me a second.” Pinkie started to walk towards Twilight, staying on the ceiling. She then started to walk down the wall towards Twilight as if it were an everyday thing. Pinkie stopped when she was level with Twilight.
“Normally I would be confused by something like that... But I guess it makes sense with everything else that's going on around here.” Twilight said. “So what are you doing here anyway?
“Oh, I was just checking up on the twins! When all the crazy started, I got worried about the babies and what might have happened to them, but they're okay. Oh, and I also ran into out friends on my way here., Rainbow said she was worried about you and Fluttershy was sent to help you. Everypony else went... somewhere. I don't know where. I came here, but you knew that.” Pinkie said, her extravagant actions emphasizing everything she said.
“Well, I want to gather up all of our friends so we can try to fix this. Do you want me to find the others? If not you can head to the library and wait there with Fluttershy.”
“Nope, I want to help you. I mean I want to make sure our friends are okay too, because if they got hurt that would be bad. Oh, and then I could also get some more chocolate rock! Those things are good!” Pinkie said.
“Okay then. I think we should check out Carousel Boutique first to see if Rarity's there.”Twilight said.
Twilight turned around and stepped over the door pieces. Pinkie Pie followed right behind her, hopping along in normal Pinkie Pie fashion as they headed towards Rarity's boutique across town.