Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned the importance of proper hygiene.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.
P.S. No, I won’t elaborate.
With her rather embarrassing letter to the princess finished, Twilight retired to her room for the night, however, she opted out of going to sleep, and instead decided to settle down with a good book for a few hours. As Spike soundly slept, Twilight was engrossed in the novel she had randomly picked out of the many that lined her walls. The novel turned out to be a rather long, sappy romance novel, and Twilight was blushing furiously before one minute had passed.
As she put the novel aside for the night, she couldn’t help but place herself into the story as she thought about the handsome stallion sweeping her off her feet. They would get married, and before long, there would be the sound of colts and fillies’ laughter as they played throughout the library. With a huff, she pushed such frivolous thoughts from her mind and turned over.
But as she slept, visions of family life danced in her head. Playing and laughing with her children, chatting at the dinner table with her husband, and seeing her children grow up to have children of their own. A ghost of a smile came to her sleeping form.
“Good morning Twilight,” Spike said when he noticed her up and about. “What’s on the agenda for today?” He asked with a sleepy smile.
“Nothing much, Spike,” Twilight said after letting out a quiet yawn. “We should probably check to see how Applejack is doing. That fall she took yesterday looked pretty bad.”
“Ooh. I almost forgot about that one,” Spike said with a grimace, remembering the way Applejack had walked off the cliff without even looking where she was going.
“Well you know how she gets when she and Rainbow are at it,” Twilight said with an annoyed look. “I can’t believe how stubborn they can be.” she said, remembering how Applejack had insisted on finishing the race even after her fall, which of course didn’t help her fractured foreleg.
“Say, Twilight?” Spike asked with a puzzled look, “Why were you making so much noise last night? It woke me up a couple times, and you sounded like you were talking to somepony.”
Twilight froze, her face immediately reddened. “D-don’t be silly Spike, it was probably just a dream.” Her face reddened even more when she recalled the events of the previous night.
“Is something wrong?” Spike said, with a worried look, “You look like you have a fever or something.”
“I’m fine, Spike!” Twilight said, rushing down the stairs.
What’s wrong with her? Spike thought as he walked slowly after her down the carved wooden staircase.
After breakfast, Twilight and Spike both headed over to the Apple family farm, where Applejack was reluctantly resting on the couch.
The visit was mostly uneventful, aside from when Granny Smith had come in dressed like a cow. Of course she couldn’t be bothered to explain herself, and rushed off after briefly babbling about milk and buckets.
After that Twilight and Spike politely excused themselves and were out the door before Applejack could say a word.
“Well that was weird,” Spike said quizzically.
“Granny Smith can be like that sometimes,” Twilight replied, looking only slightly exasperated.
“No, I mean you, the way you dragged us off like that, that was weird,” Spike said, even more confused.
Twilight froze for a split second, then continued haltingly. “Don’t be silly, Spike,” she said with an edge in her voice. “Granny Smith was being weird, so we had to go.”
“Doesn’t sound like a very good reason to run off like that to me, but if you say so,” Spike said as they continued to the library.
When they got there, Twilight immediately sat down with her book, as soon as she had sent Spike over to Rarity’s house.
She couldn’t help but smile at her cleverness, Granny Smith’s craziness was the perfect excuse to come back to the library to finish her book. She felt bad leaving Applejack so suddenly, but she figured it wouldn’t matter much, Applejack would be back on her hooves within a couple of days anyways.
As she sat sat there, she became more and more engrossed in her book. She fantasized about children as she read, and she soon became lost in her own daydream, no longer paying attention to the words in front of her. The more she thought the more that fantasy turned into a longing. She wanted to have children some day, but she knew such a thing wasn’t possible, she just wasn’t the type of mare who could get married. Yet the thought just wouldn’t leave her mind.
After a while had gone by, Twilight opened her eyes, rubbing the sleep from them as she looked around groggily. How long was I out? She wondered to herself. As she looked out the window, she spotted something strange, gray contrasting against the usually colorful landscape.
Curiosity getting the better of her, she stood and walked to the door slowly, dragging her legs as she walked. When she stepped through the threshold she thought she saw a shadow flicker for a split second, but when she looked, she saw nothing. Must be my imagination, She thought.
As she moved closer, she could see the object more clearly. It’s gray surface prominent in the green grass in which it lay. Its a book! She thought excitedly, Another one for the library!
It looked ancient, it had no cover, only pages and pages of worn parchment. When she finally reached it, she picked it up, blowing dust off the crinkled pages of the loosely bound tome. She brushed off the front, and squinted at the barely visible title. Chartoudimiou
I’ve never even seen that language before... she thought as she opened the book, her eyes wide in anticipation of discovering something new. Her eyes widened even further as she stared at the detailed diagrams and peculiar writing that covered the pages from top to bottom.
She wasn’t able to make much sense of the words, but the diagrams seemed to vaguely depict some sort of test chamber as well as a series of spells and various molecular structures. This is fascinating! If only I could read it… she thought wistfully. Oh yeah! A translation spell should do the trick, although it may not be completely accurate, it should give me an idea of the meaning behind the words.
As she prepared the translation spell, an eerie shadow flickered along the walls silently.
There! All done. Twilight thought with a satisfied grin at the circle of chalk runes that seemed to coat the floor around her. She set the book down gently, almost as if it could turn to dust in her hooves, and sent a gentle trickle of magic into the circle. The runes glowed softly, then shone brighter as the spell intensified.
Twilight breathed deeply as the glow became softer. It seems so dark now, I used almost all of my magic on that one spell... she thought with unease. Ah! The book is done! That unease was quickly quashed by childlike curiosity. Lying in the center of the runes where the book had once been sat two books, one was the old book, and the other a copy, newly formed from ethereal energies. She trotted shakily towards the circle, snatched up the new book with reckless abandon and opened it.
She breathed in sharply, there, in front of her very eyes, were pages and pages of documents detailing the inner workings of living beings. This is an incredible discovery! She thought in amazement as she flipped through the pages as fast as must’ve been physically possible. I’ll have to send this to the princess right away!However, just as she was about to send it off, a word near the back page caught her eye. Artificial soul.
