Twilight wasn't exactly sure what brought about the series of thoughts ruminating about her brain on this lovely ponyville evening, trotting idly on her way home down the trail. It wasn't as if it was the first time she'd considered and pondered it, but now, it was prying... chipping it's way into her curiosity without any sign of letting up any time soon. The particular thought process she was on, of course, was Pinkie Pie. Other times, she found herself questioning her friend's Pinkie Sense, or questioning her seemingly extremely versatile way of moving her tail and mane...but the more she thought about it, the more she realized there was far more to mull over. Pinkie's entire existence was in and of itself, an anomaly. The pink earth pony's levels of reality bending were, at times, rivaling her own- and she was an alicorn, for Celestia's sake! Twilight let out a soft huff of air from her muzzle, ears lying down flat on her head in pure contemplation as she continued to stroll casually along her path back home. Instances of Pinkie's strange abilities came flooding back to her. The pink pony moved at rates that only pegasi should be able to, was able to create things only magic could really explain, and even did things she could not physically comprehend. When she had explained all of what she 'predicted' Twilight had done in the human world with perfect accuracy- THAT could not have been something to simply write off. And yet...it was only now that she was really fixated on the subject. Wondering why, the princess paused her trailing to dig her hoof in the ground and contemplate. As she stood, Twilight heard a sound disturbing an area off the trail near her. Ears perking, and brow raising, the alicorn stepped forward quietly to observe the source of the scene.
In some kind of remarkable coincidence, the sound belonged to Pinkie Pie! The pink pony was bouncing along in a small circle- not too odd for her, really- but then she pulled one of her frequent tricks. She disappeared behind a bush and appeared, seemingly out of nowhere on the other side of Twilight's vision, as if moving from one side of a screen to another. Twilight's jaw dropped. It wasn't like Pinkie never did that, but every time, it made the magic-user flabbergasted...but now, just after her thinking to herself, it was uncanny. There was no way this was just some crazy random thing to write off anymore. What Pinkie was doing was impossible- it wasn't even like Pinkie Sense, it was something else entirely. Something supernatural!
With newfound energy, Twilight sprung into the air and started to soar off into the sky towards her castle, prompting a "Oh, bye, Twilight!" from Pinkie as she had been relatively close to the oddity herself. It didn't take long for her to reach her castle, but once she was in, there was no stopping her path of knowledge.
"Spike? Spiiiike?" Twilight called, looking around frantically. "Oh don't tell me you've gone to sleep already? It's early!" She claimed, peeking her head through each door. Eventually, the baby dragon came yawning into the hallway with a comic book under his claw.
"What is it, Twilight?" Spike asked, irritated a touch from being woken up from a very good nap. It was actually a post-nap nap, to celebrate how good the last nap had been. "You look really serious."
"That's because I am, Spike!" Twilight replied, levitating him into the air and starting to rush towards the library. "Is Starlight home? Ohhh, it doesn't matter, she'll join me when she can. This is something that's so incredibly fascinating, I can't believe I haven't thought to do this before!"
"Are you gonna do that thing where you're really vague about what you're talking about until I eventually find out through something else?" Spike groaned. Twilight paused and looked at him.
"Nice use of the word vague, Spike! Good to see you studying my vocab word cards, after all!" She complimented, nearly completely ignoring the context of what he said. "Oh- but no! I can tell you, no worries. I realized something on my way home today about Pinkie Pie- and it's that she entirely cannot exist!" Suddenly, Spike felt very awake.
"Whoa, Twilight-" He replied incredulously. "Isn't that- a little scary to say?"
"Oh, no, Spike, I don't mean she shouldn't, just that it's impossible! Have you seen some of the things that Pinkie Pie can manage?" Twilight continued. "The jumping around our vision, the impossible body transformations, the well of knowledge that she has, the items she pulls out of nowhere, the pinkie sense- all of it paints her as a bubbly pink anomaly! This is something that I have to look further into."
"Maybe you should ask Pinkie before you go studying her..." Spike suggested, still a little confused by this entire thing. "We don't want to talk about her behind her back."
"Hmm..." Twilight put a hoof up to her chin. "I have a better idea. Let's start with someone really close to Pinkie, someone that knows her well enough and her past to tell us if it isn't something to look into- that way we don't spoil our studies to our friends, but we don't hurt anypony!"
"Oh- I didn't know this was a surprise." Spike admitted, tilting his head. "Who do you mean?"
"Her family!" Twilight replied, her grin spreading across her face in a way Spike had seen many times. It was her studious revelation smile- the kind that she got when she really was onto something good. Despite his best friend's excitement, Spike found himself feeling wary above anything else. Twilight didn't usually perform studies on other ponies without their permission- at least, not anymore. That was kind of an old Twilight Sparkle habit that the dragon had assumed died off with her growing friendship. He opened his mouth to speak, but found himself unsure of how to address all of it when the purple alicorn rushed past with determination glimmering clearly in her violet eyes.
"Her... family?" Spike instead echoed with a soft edge of unsoundness in his wavering voice. "What, right now? We're going right now?"
"Spike, there's no time to wait! This is a scientific endeavor, and if we don't start, we may never get the chance! I'm a busy pony nowadays, so I have to go before something comes up and I have to stop before I've even begun!" Twilight insisted, already hefting some saddlebags over her torso and prying them open with her muzzle. She shuffled some empty notebooks into one, along with a few other things just in case. "Besides, they aren't that far from here, it'll be a quick trip and back. Can you imagine the kind of discoveries we might make here tonight?"
"I didn't know there were discoveries to make about our friends." Spike muttered ruefully. "Uhh... do you want me to come with you?" Twilight paused, glancing at Spike for a moment before shaking her head with a soft chuckle.
"You can go back to sleep, Spike." She replied, stifling another giggle of amusement as the dragon brightened at the prospect of going back to bed.
"Well, if you insist!" He punctuated the response with another yawn as he left the room.
"Tell Starlight where I've gone if she's here before I get back!" Twilight called after him, to which she was met with a half-hearted grunt of affirmation. She rolled her eyes fondly, and finished up her preparations. Within a few minutes she was back outside and airborn.
Her next stop; the rock farm.
