Twilight Sparkle sat at her desk. Before her was a convoluted mass of overlapping scrolls and books. Each one traced a family lineage, each one held countless tidbits of genealogical information. A faint purple aura surrounded the books as she levitated them. They drifted around her as she scanned them for anything of interest. On the other side of the room, Pinkie Pie was conducting her own research.
In contrast to Twilight's thorough and focused approach, Pinkie Pie simply flipped open books at random and followed her gut. This made it all the more infuriating when she discovered things Twilight herself had missed. Her insistence upon sharing all of her discoveries did little to help.
Twilight was just chasing down an interesting lead when a blurry pink mass filled her field of vision. Two huge blue eyes stared into hers above a grin that seemed to consume all. She fell backward with a yelp, books and scrolls clattering to the floor around her.
“Twilight, guess what!” Pinkie Pie shouted, her voice painfully loud at such a short distance. “You have a long lost sister!” A book dangled from Pinkie's inexplicably prehensile mane, much too close to be read.
Twilight took the book in her magic as Pinkie began to bounce around her, jabbering excitedly about the inevitable “Long Lost Sisters Reunion Party” she was going to have to throw. There, in tiny print on the scuffed page, were the names of Twilight's parents. Below them, in even smaller script, were names. Not two, as she had expected, but three. Shining Armor's name was there, linked with a line to their parents'. Next to that, the line leading to Twilight's own name split in two. The other name was marred, obscured by a spot of water damage on the page that left only the initial “T” legible.
Twilight's jaw dropped. She didn't have a sister, much less a twin. This made no sense. Who was this mystery mare, and why did Twilight have no recollection of her? One thing was for certain, Twilight needed answers, and there was only one place she would find them.
“Get ready to travel Pinkie Pie.” She said, marking the page and closing the book. “We're going to Canterlot.” She was going to get her answers, no matter what.
The train ride up the mountain was unusually long, made all the longer by Pinkie's enthusiasm. The pink pony had gotten it in her head that a big party was imminent, and had already begun planning. As she scrawled out plans, heedless of the train's constant shaking as it rattled over the rails, something bothered Twilight.
“Pinkie.” Twilight began, trying to get her friend's attention. “Pinkie.” She said a bit louder when the other mare ignored her. “PINKIE PIE!” She shouted, her horn flashing as she used the amplification spell Princess Luna had taught her. The Royal Canterlot Voice seemed powerful enough, if only just, to tear Pinkie's attention away from the plans she was making.
“Yes Twilight?” She asked, smiling as if her friend hadn't just yelled loud enough to rattle the windows in their frames.
“Where did you find this book anyway?” Twilight asked, looking at the dusty old tome she held. She hadn't so much as thought about it before, but as the train made its way up the mountain she'd had ample time to examine it more closely. “I've never seen it before, and I know every single book in the library by heart.” This was a slight exaggeration. She only knew which were library property, not the contents of each one. Not yet anyway.
“Oh, it was just there on a shelf.” Pinkie replied. “I saw it there and I felt something weird, kinda like my Pinkie Sense. I had a feeling that the book was important, so I opened it and started reading.”
Twilight looked closer at the cover. It was blank, without even the slightest indication of a title ever having been there. The spine was similarly unmarked, and there was no mention of an author on any of the early pages. Each page was utterly covered in miniscule writing, detailing generation after generation going all the way back to the founding of Equestria and before. Footnotes and tiny scribbles filled the margins, all in identical script.
“This is too strange. Too convenient.” Twilight frowned. “It's like something out of a poorly written story, with some convenient macguffin to set the plot in motion that shows up out of nowhere.” Her brow furrowed as she glared at the book, as if her stare could somehow intimidate an inanimate object into revealing its secrets.
“To those whose blood runs true and pure, to those whose hearts are strong and sure. Cast thy light upon my tome, and all my secrets shall be known.” Pinkie Pie recited, her face hovering inches from a scrap of paper that lay on the floor.
Twilight sighed, grumbling about bad storytelling, and lit her horn. A thin line of magic traced its way across the book's cover, first vertically and then horizontally. In its wake thin lines of inlaid gold appeared, quickly forming words were not a trace had been before.
“The Complete Royal Lineage of the Sovereignty of Unicornia, by Starswirl.” Twilight read in increasing disbelief. “I don't believe it. This book shouldn't exist, the last remaining copy is in the Canterlot Archives under more preservation spells than my great-grandmother's fruitcake.”
“What is it?” Pinkie asked. “Sound kinda boring.” The pink mare had been bouncing around Twilight as she cast the spell, but had now frozen in mid-fall. She stared at Twilight as disbelief turned into excitement.
“This is a complete record of the royal family of Unicornia, the Platinum dynasty and all of its offshoots, spanning the last two-thousand years!” Twilight exclaimed, hugging the impossible tome to her chest. “Nopony knows how he did it, but Starswirl the Bearded enchanted it to update itself every time a new unicorn was born or married into the lineage. They say that there are as many pages as needed, that the book is bigger on the inside and will keep tracking the descendents of Princess Platinum until the end of the world itself.”
“Bigger on the inside?” Pinkie tilted her head in confusion. “How is that even possible?” This despite the fact that she was still suspended nearly a foot off of the ground. As if the laws of physics were catching up, she dropped to the floor in a heap.
“Nopony knows. Some say a mysterious traveler from far away gave the secret to a few trusted ponies in the distant past.” Twilight smirked at the idea that anypony could believe such nonsense. “Others say it is simply a spell that has yet to be replicated, that it is bound by the same laws that rule all magic, but works in ways we don't understand yet.”
She set the book in her saddlebag carefully, now that she knew how special it was. The train was rounding the final bend into Canterlot station. The capitol city rose overhead, majestic in the sunlight. Made of gleaming white marble and trimmed in gold, the Royal Palace dominated the view, overshadowing the city below. The train slowed to a stop, doors opening with a hiss. Twilight and Pinkie stepped out, picking their way through the crowd. A short hike later, and the pair found themselves at the palace doors. The vast marble slabs swung silently on perfectly balanced hinges.
“Afternoon Twilight!” The unicorn guard at the door waved as the pair passed. Twilight waved back, though she honestly couldn't remember the particular guard's name. The enchanted armor they wore made them essentially indistinguishable.
Their hoofsteps echoed along the halls. The archives were at the far side of the castle, and the only route there involved a long and twisting route through long unused halls and rooms where ancient rogue magic still lingered. Or a brief stroll through the gardens. As much fun as a perilous adventure through abandoned rooms and halls may have been, Twilight chose instead the gardens. It was a gorgeous day out, and the fresh air smelled of flowers in bloom.
Soon, they had arrived at the archives. The vast library was said to house almost every book ever written, many in languages not spoken in centuries. Several more guards greeted Twilight cheerfully as she passed them, and again she avoided using names as she returned their greetings. She silently cursed whomever had decided not to put nametags on their armor as she grinned and waved.
The guard at the entrance to the Starswirl the Bearded wing unlocked the door and let the pair inside. Twilight made a beeline for the back of the room while Pinkie Pie explored at random the sprawling labyrinth of shelves. Soon, the purple princess found herself at a large display case. Within, preserved over the centuries by powerful magic, was a book identical to the one in her saddlebag. She undid the latch and opened the case. Gingerly, she opened the book. Page after page flipped by until she at last found the entry. There, beside her name, was the end result of her long afternoon of search ing. The anticipation built as she looked at the name of her long lost sister.
A smear of something, dark brown and long dried, obscured the name. The book dropped gently back into the cradle of magic that sustained it. Twilight fell back on her haunches, a look of pure shock on her face.
She screamed. She yelled, ranted, raved. She uttered more obscenities and profanities in those few seconds than she had in her entire life. Only the relative emptiness and thick walls of the Starswirl the Bearded wing prevented her from being immediately banned for life. That, and the librarians' ingrained fear of what her reaction to being banished from a library might be. Only one librarian had ever had the courage to try and revoke Twilight Sparkle's library privileges, and he had spent the next several months as an orangutan.
The guards posted at the doors might have tried to remove her from the premises, had they not been busily taking notes on words and phrases they had not known existed. Once the shock of the normally mild mannered princess becoming such a font of novel expletives had faded they were eager to write down as many as possible.
Twilight's rage had just exhausted herself when she felt a hoof tapping on her shoulder. She turned, worn down from her explosion, and saw Pinkie Pie clutching a ragged scrap of paper.
“I found this while you were yelling.” She said, grinning as she offered her friend the scrap. “It feels important.”
Twilight rose, carrying the paper to a table. She flattened it, squinting at the hastily scribbled words.
“To find the answer you seek, just walk beside the creek. A cottage by a brook will tell the secret of the book.” The oddly poetic message echoed in the still air. “If you seek your answer still, you must return to Ponyville.” Twilight groaned in frustration. It seemed another train ride was in her future.
One more unusually long train ride later, Twilight and Pinkie were back in Ponyville. They left the station, the purple mare busily combing her memory in search of a creek and a brook in the town. So lost in thought was she that the street sign she walked into seemed to have appeared out of thin air. The rattling wooden sign read Creekside Road. The hard-packed dirt led off past the edge of town, where it ran parallel to a narrow creek that wound into Whitetail Wood.
The walk lasted long, through the late afternoon and into the early evening. Creekside Road wound through the woods, the creek always in sight. Twilight and Pinkie Pie left Ponyville proper far behind, the lights of town fading into the distance.
“I wonder how much farther it could be.” Twilight said, thinking out loud. “It's getting really dark out.”
As if on cue, a light appeared in the distance. It quickly resolved into a small cottage that sat by the creek. A cart, one that had seen better days from the look of it, sat beside it. Twilight followed the path up to the door, Pinkie Pie at her side.
“Pinkie,” She began, as the pair approached the cottage. “Have you ever seen this house before?”
The pink mare tapped her chin with one hoof, thinking.
“Nope.” She said. “It must be new.” A grin bloomed on her face. “If it's new, then that means whoever lives here is new! That means we need to throw a welcome party!”
“Let's just focus on one thing at a time Pinkie.” Twilight cut off her friend's excited chatter.
They had reached the door. It was unremarkable. Plain wood with brass fittings. The whole cottage was simple, giving it a cozy feel. Twilight lifted her hoof and knocked. Hoofsteps, muffled by the walls, approached the door. It opened slowly, revealing the mare Twilight had spent the entire day searching for.
“Who dares disturb the Great and Powerful Tri-” She began, sounding irritated, but her words trailed off. “Twilight Sparkle. Trixie was not expecting you.” The blue mare still wore her hat and cape, although both looked somewhat threadbare. “Would you like to come in?”
Twilight and Pinkie Pie stepped inside. The cottage was rather small, but well furnished. The upholstery on the chairs was faded and patched, but clean. A small fire burned in the fireplace, and a kettle hung over it.
Trixie poured tea as Twilight explained the situation, how she had spent all day tracking down this mysterious sister of hers and how the trail had led her here.
“I am not surprised. Many would dearly love to claim relation to the Great and Powerful Trixie!” The dramatic flair she had used so often on stage seemed to still be ingrained in her habits, Twilight noted. “But there is nothing I can do to help. Trixie, alas, is an orphan. A traveling magician and fortune teller took her in as a filly, and Trixie remembers little before that.”
“Oh well.” Pinkie Pie said, draining her tea. “I guess this is just one of those little mysteries that wasn't meant to be solved.”
“You have got to be kidding me!” Twilight exploded with anger. “I've spent all day searching, rode the slowest train in Equestria up that mountain, searched the entire archives for information, rode the same train all the way back down the mountain, and trekked all the way out into the woods for NOTHING?” She stomped her hoof on the floor, teeth grinding in frustration. “No. I refuse to accept that. This is like some kind of bad story, one where the author just couldn't commit and tacked on some cop-out ambiguous ending! I demand closure!”
She stomped again, the impact jarring loose a scrap of paper that drifted down and landed on her muzzle.
“The answer's not before your eyes. Is that really such a surprise? Yes, this ending seems cliché, but sometimes things just work that way.” Twilight crumpled the poem and threw it into the fire. “If I find out who keeps leaving these poems I'll make them regret crossing me.”
Twilight and Pinkie Pie said their farewells to the Perplexed and Confused Trixie and went on their way. The trek back to Ponyville was made more tolerable by planning ways to get revenge on whomever had sent Twilight on this ludicrous wild goose chase, and before long she stood at the library entrance.
“Oh, hey Twilight.” Spike said, waving from the top of his ladder as he shelved the last of the books. “Where have you been all day?”
“Don't ask Spike.” She sighed, climbing the stairs to her bedroom. “Just don't ask.” She collapsed on the bed, eager to leave this day behind.