The Riddle

-write all this down. Twilight pulled up an empty sheet and put her quill at the top of the page.

Things I can do next:
– Ask the princess for more detailed information
– Try to get Peewee’s consent for a few experiments. Otherwise, try it until he shows signs of rejection
– Ask Spike to tell me exactly what he has seen Peewee do

At this point, Twilight had to admit that she was already getting desperate. Asking Spike was unlikely to lead to any new insights; if he had seen something extraordinary, he would have told her.

After a while of thinking, Twilight gave a barely audible sigh and added a fourth point.

– Set up safety measures, try to poke at his mind

That would not be safe, measures or not.

But so what? It seemed clear, at this point, that staying safe wasn’t working. It was not working. As much as she wanted it to, it just wasn’t working...

Before she could put the connection into conscious thoughts, she wrote down a fifth point.

– Try to bring Peewee back to his parents. See if he wants to leave

This was not unlikely to kill her experiments, setting her far back.

But...

It was wrong to keep him around if he didn’t really want to be here...

Twilight felt frustration dwelling up inside her. She still believed that he was intelligent enough to make that choice, even though it had not shown. Why did she believe that? Why...

With a renewed sense of determination, Twilight made a checkmark beside the first point, then she grabbed another letter.