Ebony lay in her new bed, but she didn't sleep, instead, she read, and thought, about Cutie marks, and defensive enchantments, quite a contrast. She had taken some books from the few shelves in the house, she had silently vowed to make the place look like a library by the time she had finished here. For now, however, the party had left her exhausted, not because she did anything, rather because of Pinkie Pie. Needless to say, the books had little useful information, one was a simple book on physical directional magic, the book was poorly organised, though a dedicated reader, such as Ebony, could discern what little information it had, though she still found nothing similar to the spell used "one of Twilight's own, it would seem, well, Ebony would know, she had ways of finding information, she had a plan, so she dramatically and heroically fall asleep, finding out could wait until morning.

Or not. After about an hour of tossing and turning trying to sleep, she rose from the bed and trotted out the door into the blackness, light shone nearby to her, a deep blue orb of light formed in front of her, she remained out of the light cast by the orb, for two reasons, one, flies, it was midsummer, and flies would be attracted to the glow. Two, foalhood fears, Ebony reasoned that if the monsters couldn't see her, she had a better chance than if both sides could see the other, of course, this was just her foalhood, she knew that her monsters weren't real, but old habits die hard.

Suddenly, something collided with Ebony in the dark, both of them fell onto the floor, but one side screamed in panic, while Ebony silently regained herself, she placed the light over the cowering lump, a pink mane shaded her coat, which, as far as Ebony could tell, was a bright yellow. The pony trembled as the light splashed her body.

Ebony said nothing, until she knew this pony, she would not reveal herself. The pony looked around, their pupils appeared to be slits down her irises, she looked strait at Ebony, despite Ebony's best efforts to hide herself, this pony saw her "umm... Hello?"

"Who goes there? Friend or foe?" Ebony had nothing else to say.

"I, I'm..." Her voice became a high pitched whimper.

"Your eyes, what are you?"

"I... I'm a..." The same whimper emerged.

Ebony stepped into the light, causing the pony to cower again "explain yourself!"

"I, I'm sorry... I didn't mean to, I was..." Ebony began to tire of this pony.

"I swear if you don't tell me who you are I'll vaporise you."

This caused the pony to scream a little, before answering "I'm Flutterba-" she paused "Fluttershy!"

"Fluttershy, I see, Ebony," she instantly regretted giving her name, but knew she couldn't take if back now.

"I should go." Fluttershy began to trot away.

"Fluttershy!" Ebony called after her.

The pony whimpered as they turned.

"What are you doing out?"

"I'm searching."

"For what?"

"For, for, umm, Actually, I just woke up here."

"Sounds like lycanthropy is at work," Ebony muttered to herself as she watched the pony disappear, when the pony was gone, Ebony retreated into the shadows.

Twilight's palace was not a difficult or distant place to reach for anypony with a sense of direction, so naturally, Ebony found it after about three hours. She entered slowly, deciding not to use any magic once inside, she climbed the steps to find the closest thing to a library. which happened to be Twilights bedroom, as she was asleep on a bed against the wall. Ebony quickly killed the light as she entered, and set about searching "it should look like a notebook, or a journal," she whispered, and continued the search, after a while, she found what she was looking for, a dull, worn notebook that had seen heavy use. Ebony began to read the small book with the dim light from her horn, what she read read was fascinating, without thinking, she picked up a quill and inkwell that were neatly arranged on the Princess's bedside and began to scribble notes and suggestions on the book. This time was entertaining to Ebony, her idea of fun was a dark room, a Princesses notebook and a quill pen. Until.

"Ah, hello?" Something stirred at the back of the room, the voice she had heard when hospitalised echoed through the room, with a small flash, Ebony had disappeared, just in time, because the lights on in the same second, Ebony dropped the items she was carrying onto the floor, though she tried not to knock the ink bottle over, or break it, Ebony figured it was probably worth more than the little nerdy black Unicorn in the corner, she killed the light from her horn and sat perfectly still while the dragon climbed onto the Princess's bed, he shook her "Twilight, Twilight!" He said as loudly as he could while whispering.

"What is it Spike?" Twilight rolled over half heartedly.

"Their's a, a, g, gho- Ghost!" He accidentally shouted, and immediately covered his mouth.

Twilight's eyes opened "Spike, there's no such thing as gho-" she was interrupted by Ebony telekinetically knocking a book from a shelf at the far side of the room, Twilight leaped out of bed and stared at the book "there must be a logical conclusion. Spike, detecting life, make sure I can see you."

"Why detect life!? What would that prove?" Spike seemed.

"Hmm, good point, detect magic then," Ebony was less pleased to hear this, she could counter a life detection spell, with magic, I don't think I need to explain why this wouldn't work for detect magic. Ebony knew she could just stop casting any spells, but her invisibility spell would be cancelled, and that's counter intuitive, Ebony vowed to make her invisibility spells undetectable to spells like that, preferably using an algorithm, she enjoyed algorithms, anyway. Ebony lifted the book, opened the door, and mocked a unicorn running by using several different miserly spells, Twilight chased the fleeing apparition out the room, followed by the dragon.

She waited a while, mustering her courage to face the Alicorn, who was, Ebony predicted, now very angry with the floating book ghost, in other words, Ebony, Twilight was probably very angry at Ebony. Ebony stood, and walked slowly out the door, Twilight's notebook hovering beside her head.

Twilight stood in the large room, staring cautiously at the book "I apologise for the deception ma'am!" Ebony called from the top of the stairs, causing a shocked Alicorn to turn to her.

"Irid! What are you doing!?" Twilight was obviously angry.

"I apologise profusely ma'am. I merely wished to understand the events after my arrival, unfortunately, I uncovered nothing, however, I did find some of your spells facinating."

"What were you doing in my room!?" Twilight stared at her, eyes narrowed.

"I was making notes, ma'am, many spells here are interesting, and even the greatest Unicorns collaborated at some point," she defended, before describing a spell from the notebook "I'm especially curious about this failsafe, I'm not a fan of Celestial magic in general," she paused, gave a small chuckle through her unchanging mouth, when the Alicorn didn't react, she explained "you see, Celestial magic is very direct, so the irony of the statement 'Celestial magic in general' amused me, apologies. As I was saying, celestial magic is very direct, it often works with single targets rather than, as you did, using it for general environment. I believe you made the mistake of ignoring this fact, as, in your notes, you claim it targets all magic but the used spell, the spell however was general, placed through a celestial medium, this, instead of improving the power and range of the spell, split it into many direct spells, all targeted at spells that are not the general spell you first cast, including the direct versions, in short, the spells destroyed themselves."

Twilight flew up to her quickly and snatched the notebook from in front of her face "one! I don't like it when ponies come into my room uninvited!" Her tone was scolding, one Ebony didn't expect from such a gentle looking pony "two! I don't like it when ponies look through my things! Three! No pony writes in my notebook! And four! Don't know more than me!"

"Apologies ma'am, and no offence meant, but-"

"Stop calling me ma'am!!!" Twilight's eyes became white orbs and her horn began to glow lavender.

"Twilight I'm really sorry but I have no choice," Ebony spoke quickly, like when she talked about science, before she bowed her head, a flash of light burst in between them, and twilight was launched across the room. Her notebook floated gently down to Ebony, who caught it as it landed. A large bubble formed containing the sprawled Alicorn, it floated down to the floor. Ebony watched the dragon, Spike, who could have been a thousand years old for all Ebony knew, stared at her, then at the mess of purple that was Twilight Sparkle. Ebony trotted calmly over to the dragon "she will be ok, I hope, in a minute, and hopefully, calmer."

"What was that!?" Spike looked on the verge of screaming 'NOOO!' At the top of his voice.

"The Pinkie Parker," a voice emerged from the bubble on the ground "I made it, in case Pinkie ever needed to be thrown across a room, stunned, and trapped in a magic bubble, Irid, just used it on me." Twilight sighed, as if to say 'is that how low I've sank?'

"Ebony ma'am."

"What?" Twilight stirred inside the bubble.

"My name, it's Ebony, I lied, apologies."

"Ebony? Why didn't you say?"

"I, I didn't trust you, my apologies."

"I understand, but, why now?"

"Because I, I trust you now."

"Ebony?"

"Yes ma'am?"

"Someponies, at your party, I'd never seen them before."

"Go on."

"I don't know, but I've seen everypony, do you know them?"

"No, ma'am, but I may ask, what did they do?"

"They were very still, I wondered if you would know them."

"I'm not sure, I will be sure to investigate."

"Ok, that's good enough."

"Ma'am?"

"Yes?"

"Do you mind if I borrow your notebook? Just for a while?"

"Fine, I never use that one."

"Do you have another one?"

"Yes, several."

"Can I-"

"No."

"Thank you, ma'am," Ebony hurriedly left, and set out for home, but before she could return, she saw the sun rising, and changed her mind, she would drop off the notebook, then go about her business, first conscious day in town jobs needed to be done, and on the second day, she would stettle in to a book, and not leave the house till morning on the seventh day, or not at all.

No social interaction, no friends, and no interruptions. Sounded like heaven to Ebony. That was the plan, but it seems, Ponyville and plans don't coexist.

Author's Note

Dear princess Celestia:
Today I learned, never write in another nerds notebook, no matter how good friend you are, it's like jumping the friendship shark...
Your faithful student.
Twilight Sparkle...
And Breeze Ark.

Not as happy with this chapter...