Evil Empire

The student library at Canterlot High School was arranged much like any of its public equivalents. Which is far from an exactly helpful description to most people. After all, who doesn't search for everything on the internet, nowadays? Information found online might not prove as accurate as professional literature, but neither does it require anyone to get up and leave their homes. Thus proving once again that complying with people's laziness was the real key to success.

Following that rule, Vinyl Scratch had placed herself in front of a computer, researching the topic in question from a most reliable source.

She had also gone to a library to do so, which might seem hard to comprehend for the less skilled reader.

Naturally, the source material provided caused a good chuckle or two. As it died down however, she soon found herself blankly staring at the screen. Trixie had disappeared in between a couple of bookshelves a few minutes back, leaving her alone with said uselessness. The only internet connected desks, squished between endless rows of shelves, never provided any good way of overlooking the room.

How exactly was this better than being all depressed at home? Maybe the lack of chocolate milk simply contributed to her mood.

It took a moment longer until something caught her attention. Looking in the exact opposite of the direction Trixie had disappeared to, she saw the magician darting back towards her. A frown on her face, she stumbled forward, carrying some humongous volumes of at least several thousand pages. Or so Vinyl estimated.

By now, Vinyl hardly even bothered about how she got over there. Instead, she stared with an emotionless expression, as Trixie unloaded all her weight onto the table. She also slammed a thick, brown book onto the computer keyboard right in front of Vinyl. The DJ quickly found herself engrossed inside an impressively opaque cloud of dust particles. She choked on them several times, then instinctively pushed herself and her office chair back. Sliding over the ground a few yards, she ended up next to a can of water, took a sip, and choked on that as well.

When the dust cleared, it revealed a very disappointed looking Trixie. She raised an eyebrow of skepticism towards Vinyl, then motioned for her to get back.

For reasons she didn't quite understand, Vinyl obeyed, proceeding to do just that.

Taking a closer look at what had been presented to her, she examined the book's exterior. The wrapping presented itself rather monotonous, displaying nothing but a homogenous, sandy brown shade. The only thing highlighted was the all too curious title, printed on the front in bold, black letters.

Starswirl, Hon.PhD.: The World History Almanac of Literally Everything

"Starswirl, huh?" Vinyl asked, forcing a self-satisfied nod from Trixie.

"Indeed. One of the finest researchers and scientists of his generation, you might say."

"Yeah...I dunno. Isn't he the fortune telling guy from AstroTV Baltimare? At least that's where I've heard that name before...I think."

"Well..." Trixie's brow furrowed at the thought. "That might explain why he included every event two centuries into the future. I knew there was some missing link."

"Talking about missing." Vinyl crossed her arms, leaning back in her chair. "I guess what we're missing is a few reliable sources. I mean...you don't expect us to save the world using...this, do you?"

"Or what?" Trixie replied, as she narrowed her eyes. "Every piece of mainstream literature could be easily controlled by them, or whoever supports their cause. Tell you what: I may not know who these girls are, or what they're up to...well, except the world domination thing, uh, anyways...point is, they very probably made some important difference throughout history, without any of us knowing..."

"Please don't."

"And the reason we don't know is merely them deliberately keeping themselves off any possible records. Good thing though, information is always getting leaked sooner or later. And if we'll have to deal with some maniacs to find out, so be it."

"Whatever...how do I start?"

A vicious smirk creeping up on her lips, Trixie pointed at the book before them. "I suggest you go on checking that thing. Try to find anything useful...even if you have to scan the thing in its entirety. Just remember, time is limited. We need to be ready by tonight."

Vinyl rolled her eyes, and - while Trixie grabbed a copy of Why Global Warming is a Hoax off the stack - opened up the first page of relevant information in the book. Sure, there were some author's notes and publishing information, but nobody ever went through these anyway, right?

Carefully her eyes wandered over the first paragraph:

around 4.5 bln BCE: Creation of the Universe (probably)

She let out one long, frustrated sigh. This would be a very long afternoon...

After finishing a very detailed, as well as disturbing paragraph called 11/22/1963, Vinyl looked back up. Finding the opposite side of her desk deserted, she got rather confused at first. It took her a minute to recall Trixie excusing herself to go, grab some lunch. And Vinyl could hardly deny the rumbling of her own stomach. Considering she hadn't eaten ever since breakfast time, as well as 5pm rapidly approaching, this was all too convenient.

Looking around the table, she found dozens of volumes spread out all across. One in particular caught her attention, however. A small, azure booklet lay close to where Trixie had been sitting. Embroidered on the cover was a symbol of some silver silk fabric wrapping itself around what she presumed to be some kind of magic wand. Below it ran a short description, in cursive:

The Great and Powerful Trixie's Great and Powerful Journal

Greatly and Powerfully Secret

Vinyl couldn't help but bite her lip, reading that. Part of her knew she should simply leave it there. Yet, another one had already realized she wouldn't be able to hold herself back, anyways. She was rather satisfied about which part won her inner conflict in the end. Sure, she decided to do what was morally wrong. But it had taken her much longer than on an average day.

And above average had to do for now. She would help saving the world later, so at least some good karma should come flooding back. In case the Buddhists were right, of course. Or was that the Presbyterians? Whatever...

She picked up the blue book, and started reading the first page:

April 27

Dear Piece of Shit Journal,

Trixie just bought you earlier today, and already regrets having wasted ten bucks over a mindless piece of paper hardly worth catching her attention.

Vinyl grinned. If this didn't sound like Trixie, she didn't know what would.

Skipping through a number of pages, she discovered a few more facts and secrets, most of which were only mildly entertaining. Almost every entrance either dealt with Trixie's daily routine, or her apparent greatness and power. Or that of her routine, of course. Vinyl had almost decided to put the journal back to where she had found it, when another thought occurred to her. Curiously, she went through some more pages, hastily skipping ahead to the part of Trixie's showoff performance at the music store a few weeks back.

Dear frikkin fuc Journal,

Today, I learned about something. Yes, believe it or not, there are indeed some aspects of life, which had escaped the Great and Powerful Trixie's great and powerful mind so far. It is, by the way, great and powerful, if I failed to mention that earlier.

But back to the task. I was out at the music store, having decided that my guitar lacked a certain level of greatness and power (Required for servitude under my authority, that is. Better watch your ass, book!). At the store, a certain plebeian individual going by the name of *Rainbow Dash cheated me into an unfair contest, wherein I lost the chance to claim what was rightfully mine.*

Initially, that made me extremely angry, as you can understand. Then again, one can hardly blame those inferior beings for their savage behavior. Nevertheless, that horrible loss brought me into starting a conversation with the local store clerk, Vinyl Scratch.

I might have told you about her, earlier. She's that CHS disc jockey, who's pretending not to give a damn about socializing beyond her music, while secretly being head over heels into that girl Octavia Melody. And she really thinks I wouldn't notice...

Vinyl's jaw dropped, causing a mouthful of hot coffee to splash onto her lap. She hardly even noticed, though. Why the hell would Trixie even...

Then again, she could worry about all that later. Right now, there were another few paragraphs to finish.

So, like I said. Vinyl thinks I wouldn't notice. Or the entire school for that matter. If the possibility of her realizing the facts even exists, it probably is through this book. And who could tell? She's probably reading it right now, what do you think, journal?

If so, there's one thing you should know Scratchy: While my behavior might not make the impression most of the time, I am extremely well prepared, and planning ahead. Even though this text is a few weeks old, I can tell you that I'll be back from pizza place two blocks away in about seven point three five seconds. Better put this thing down if you don't want me to notice.

Also, get the buck back to work.

More pale than usual - if that was even possible - Vinyl put the book down in disbelief. Only a moment later, the front door burst open. Trixie stepped in, carrying two cardboard boxes from a nearby pizza takeaway. Vinyl kept staring at her in disbelief, even after the girl had placed the pizzas down on the desk, ridiculously brushing back her hair.

"Lunchtime," Trixie announced with a grin, ignoring the deadpanned look on Vinyl's face. "Figured I had a thing or two to make up for."

As the magician swooped one of the pizzas over to her, Vinyl stretched one hand out to open it up, her disbelief still remaining unchanged. She tried to figure out the strange topping presented to her.

"Special Lulamoon secret recipe," Trixie explained, her eyes falling on Vinyl's lap for a second. "Also, white clothing might not be your best wardrobe combination with diarrhea. Just saying."

"Wai...WHAT?" Vinyl shouted without thinking, several gallons of blood rushing up to her face, simultaneously. "I...I just had...no, well, my coffee had a short malfunction. And I don't even remember where it came from..."

"Huh...figures..." Trixie mumbled, removing the blue journal from the desk with a swift motion. "By the way, find out anything?"

"Wh-what? No...I'd never..."

"Not the journal, dammit." Trixie rolled her eyes. "You've probably gone through that ages ago. It's outdated anyway, so what do I care? I'm talking about our research for tonight."

"Oh," Vinyl mumbled, awkwardly massaging her neck. "No, not really...about anything."

"Meh." With a light frown Trixie leaned back in her chair, then shrugged. "Well, just gotta go with plan B."

"Which is...?"

"Haven't read that far, yet? No? That's cool, you'll see."

A smirk returning to her face, Trixie reached for her own pizza box. She opened it, revealing a large number of peanut butter crackers, instead. Starting to munch on them, her eyes wandered around the room for a few moments.

"Well...three hours left to save the world, I guess. Mind if I put on some music?"