True Wisdom

That was how it started. Twlight, Lyra, Spike, and Trixie came every night to learn new spells.  They were taught by members of the high counsel.  Twlight especially liked to learn new spells.  She had pushed the nagging thought, that something was wrong with all this to the back of her head and enjoyed it to the fullest.   One night however, something brought her annoying  feelings back to the surface.  It was one week after they had joined.  Twlight was told to go through the third corridor.  She walked with Spike through dim hall.

“Oh Spike, isn’t this so much fun?!  I haven’t learned so much since I was a filly!”

Spike shrugged “I just enjoy seeing you so loose and carefree.  I’ve brought this MP3 thing Lyra told me about . She let me use it while she practices.  It makes the time go faster.”

Twlight rolled her eyes at her dragon’s impatience.  Well, he is still a baby after all.  They soon arrived in the room.  Lyra was already there and she greeted them as they came.

“Hi Twlight! Hi Spike!  Nice to see you both.”

Twlight smiled. “Nice to see you too, Lyra.”

“What do you think we’re going to learn tonight?”

“I don’t know but whatever it is I’m sure it’ll be fun.”

Lyra looked at Spike and giggled. “It looks like he really likes my MP3 player.”

Twlight turned toward Spike.  He was doing a ridiculous little dance and quietly singing.  She too giggled at his antics. Her smile soon faded as Trixie came in.

“Hmph.  Hello pathetic pony.  You enjoying your silly friends?”

Twlight groaned.

“What? Trixie was just saying, hello.” She then saw Spike dancing and laughed.

“Oh Twlight, you have the weirdest friends.  Guess they make you feel special.”

“Oh knock it off.”

“Make Trixie.”

Lyra broke into the conversation. “Umm girls? You might want to look over there.”

Mooncatcher was standing right next to them, frowning hard.  The two ponies looked ashamed but Mooncatcher said nothing of it.

“Greetings, I’m going to teach you how to make a special potion.  It is quite complicated so please don’t touch anything unless I tell you to.”

She pointed her horn in the center of the room.  It glowed black and in a moment there was a cauldron and many bottles of different shapes and sizes. The cauldron was filled with water that oddly glowed a deep purple.

“Pardon me.” Said Twlight “I’ve made some potions with my friend Zecora. Which one are we making?”

Mooncatcher was looking at a large book and did not take her eyes off it. “This one, your friend most likely does not know.  It came from before Equestria, when Pegasus, Earth Ponies, and Unicorns were still at war with each other.  It is not only a potion, but a spell in liquid form.”

Lyra became fascinated in the conversation.  “So, it’s like a spell that you use on yourself?”

“Yes, It is sucked it through the horn and enhances magic beyond the normal skill.  It was used by ancient Unicorns to give themselves the power to do things such as, throw ponies across a field or predict where they were hiding.”

“I’ve never heard of it before.  If it’s so good, wouldn’t it be used more often?” Twlight asked.

“The potion would only enhance one’s ability by their cutie mark.  A gardener would have stronger gardening magic for example.  Many cutie marks then weren’t very useful in war.  It was also difficult to make and very hard to find the special ingredient, toad spit.  I was fortunate to find some.”

She lifted up a pink bag covered with streamers and pulled out a toad.  Twlight remembered seeing them before.  Those were Pinkie’s goody bags!

“And I thought she was crazy.   I’ll have to apologize to her  tomorrow.” She thought.

Mooncatcher asked Spike to stir as she added the ingredients.  She told the unicorns each one as she added them.  Some Twilight had seen from Zacora’s hut but others were new with strange names, such as Starshkamallow, Peroxide, Menerxie and Fluoride.  She watched with wonder as a rainbow of color swirled in the cauldron.  Mooncatcher lit a fire under the cauldron and the mix bubbled and foamed furiously.  As Mooncatcher reached for something, it spilled on the floor.  She looked at the spill and looked furious with herself.

“That was the last of the spring water.” She said as she put down the book “There is a spring close by.  I’ll go get some more.”

She picked up the bottle and began to leave,  then she stopped and said.

“Don’t touch the potion until I return.” The other ponies and Spike nodded as she left.

“Hey Twlight.” Spike said as he removed the MP3 from his head “Do you think stuff this is safe?”

“I think so.  The stuff looks safe. Maybe I should look in that book she was reading.”

“But she said not to touch anything.”

“She said only not to touch the potion so I’ll be fine.”

Spike frowned.  Twlight was the best loophole finder he knew.  Just yesterday Spike had a signed paper saying he could have ice cream for breakfast and she said that the word breakfast was separated into two words.  Break and Fast meaning he could only have ice cream during his five minute break.  He had gone upstairs and slapped himself silly.

Twlight picked up the book.  It was strangely light for how it looked.  The title had been scrapped off the cover and it looked very old, as if it had been around for hundreds of years.  She opened the book; the pages yellowed with age and saw that the pages were blank.  Not a word or drawing on them.  She was slightly perplexed as she turned the pages.  When she reached the end she at last found three words in blue lettering.

                                                                          Turn Around Twlight

Confused she turned around . She saw Trixie about to put a bottle of orange snake snot in the cauldron! She rushed over.

“TRIXIE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” she said

Trixie looked pleased to have bothered her “Trixie is just trying to fix it.  It’s such an ugly shade of green.  This should help.

“Trixie, you might mess it up or worse, if you put that in!”

She started pulling on Trixie’s cloak.  Lyra and Spike, now realizing the danger of what she was doing, also started pulling.  Trixie pulled against them trying to pour the bottle into the cauldron.  She wasn’t as strong as the three others and she was slowly being brought to the other end of the room.  Trixie was not about to be beaten by some lowly unicorns and a dragon.  She lessened her struggle slowly.  It was so gradual, Twlight and company didn’t notice.  Then, as they pulled their hardest, Trixie took her cloak off, the unexpected lack of force flinging the others against the wall.  Trixie jumped up and poured the entire bottle of snake skin into the cauldron.  As soon as she did the potion started to fizz and bubble furiously.  It turned a dark black, similar to tar.  Twlight got up fast.

“TRIXIE! WHAT DID YOU DO!?”

Trixie was a bit frightened at how her concoction looked, but she was not about to show that she had done something wrong.

“Well…………Trixie thinks it looks better this way.”

They started fighting then.  Across the room, Lyra was helping Spike up.  Spike had a black eye and was slowly rubbing his head.  He looked up and shouted.

“Twlight! Forget Trixie. Look at potion!”

Twlight and Trixie looked and saw the black goo start leaking out of the pot.

“Ummm.  Trixie thinks it supposed to do that.” She said hopefully.

Just then a large puddle of it landed on the floor…..and it ate right through it!

Lyra shook like a leaf. “It’s not supposed to do that, though!”

“Quick everyone, get on top of something!” Twlight shouted

Trixie didn’t even bother to fight Twlight as they all climbed up onto tables, shelves and held on to the roof.  The black blob quickly filled the room, dissolving everything in sight.  It moved as fast as Rainbow Dash. What were they going to do?

“Twlight! Help!”

Twlight looked and saw Lyra’s table sinking.  She grabbed her hoof and lifted her onto a higher shelf.

“Thank you.”

“No problem.  But what are we going to do about the goop.”

Spike was jumping from thing to thing.

“I don’t know.  Oh fireballs, this sucks.”

“Sucks.  SUCKS!  That’s it!”

“Everyone hold on tight to something.  I have an idea.”

Twlight focused on her horn.  It glowed bright purple and slightly sparked.  Slowly the black goo sunk down into the floor. It swirled downward until it was completely gone to reveal a giant drain in the floor. The room was a disaster with books half melted and a funny smell like wet dog filled the room, but they were all safe.

“Number 21, drain spell.  Nice job Twlight!” said Spike.

Just then Mooncatcher walked in.

“What is this mess?” she asked

They all pointed to Trixie.

“Trixie, did you touch my potion?”

“Um uh eh err um ere e oo uh.  Would you believe that it’s not Trixie’s fault?”

“No.  I’m very disappointed in you.  You can stay and help me clean up this mess.”

As Mooncatcher scolded Trixie, some remaining goop was dripping and dissolving her cloak near the bottom.

“Pardon me, your cloak is coming off near the back.’ Said Twlight.

Mooncatcher looked at her cloak and quickly covered her flank with more of the cloak.  Twlight must have been seeing things because Mooncatcher looked…….panicked?

“Hey, I’m a pretty good at sewing.” Said Lyra “I could take your cloak back home and sew it up if you wanted.” She reached out toward the cloak.

“NO!”

Lyra was spooked by the ferocity of the reply and scooted back near the others.  Mooncatcher turned and left the room without another word.

“What was that all about?” Lyra asked

“I wish I knew.” Twlight replied.  Her old feeling of S.M.A.R.T.I.E.S was coming back up again.  As she headed home with Spike she tried to figure out why Mooncatcher had reacted the way she had.

“Hey Twlight, is something bugging you?” Spike asked as they walked through the empty streets of Ponyville.

“I’m trying to figure out why Mooncatcher talked to Lyra that way.  She’s been pretty nice to me.”

“I’m trying to figure that out too.  Lyra’s a super cool unicorn.  Did you know she has this tiny flat box that has moving pictures on it?  It has music, games, and even funny cat videos.  She calls it a computer. She’s going to show me it tomorrow.”

“Spike, you’re getting off topic.”

“Sorry. Hey, did you notice how Mooncatcher was really quick to cover up her flank?  Like she was trying to hide her cutie mark or something.”

“Spike, why on earth would somepony want to hide their cutie mark?”

“Well, maybe her special talent is embarrassing or really bad?”

“Maybe.” Twlight replied as they walked into the library. Spike hopped into bed and was asleep faster than you could say rubber baby buggy bumpers. Twlight however, didn’t go to sleep so fast. Her mind had been so full of the black goo and Moondancer she hadn’t really had the time to think about something else. The book.  It had her name on it and told her to turn around just in time to see Trixie.  It was really old; she knew that, but not much more.  Maybe it was from ancient pony history as the potion had been.  As she sat there, her pet Owlowiscious flew over and perched near her.

“Who.”

“Hi Owlowiscious, hey do we have any books on books?”

“Who?”

“I’m looking for this book I found, the title was scratched off.”

“Who who who who.”

“Sounds kinda silly, yes, but do we have any?”

“Who.”

She flew over to a shelf and held out a wing, pointed toward a large pile of thick books.  Twlight smiled as she walked over and picked up top book.  It was titled “Honey for a filly’s heart: Well known books for young ones.” Twlight smiled.

“Owlowiscious, light a lantern. We’ve got a long night.”