Misconceptions

“Spike!” Twilight Sparkle yelled, annoyed.

    No response.

    “Spike!”

    Again, no response.

Huh. Maybe he’s in the kitchen.

    Twilight walked over to the kitchen’s doorway, and decided to try her luck one more time.

    “Spike!”

    No more than a few seconds later, Twilight heard footsteps behind her, and turned to face the source of the sound.

    “What?” Spike asked, rubbing his eyes with his claws as he spoke.

    “Ah, there you are. Could you come down here, please? I need some help with the cleaning.”

    “That’s what you woke me up for? Cleaning?”

    Twilight recoiled. It wasn’t like Spike to behave like this. Then again, she had just interrupted his favourite pastime, for the sake of a chore she could quite easily do by herself.

    “There’ll be gemstones waiting for you when you’re done,” Twilight mused, trying to bribe him.

    “Tempting,” Spike said, as he raised a claw to his chin in mock thought. “But the nap still sounds better. Have fun cleaning!”

    “Wait!” Twilight yelled, much to Spike’s annoyance. “Could you at least tell me where this book came from? I haven’t seen it before.”

    Twilight’s horn lit up, and not too long thereafter, a massive green book floated past her. It was almost the same size as Spike, he noted, and didn’t feature any images on the cover. The only noticeable part was the gold printing, and how damaged it was. The Pony’s Skeleton, it read. What Spike could only assume was the author’s name had once been written below, but some kind of stain prevented him from deciphering what it said.

    “Huh,” the dragon said. “It looks...”

    “Interesting? Intriguing? Captivating? Mysterious?”

    Spike shook his head. “Damaged.”

    “I can see that,” Twilight frowned. “But that’s not what I wanted to know. Have you seen this book before?”

    Again, Spike shook his head. “Nope, never seen it. Can I go back to bed, now? Napping is important business, after all.”

    “Are you sure you don’t want to help me clean up? I wasn’t joking about the gemstones, you know.”

    It didn’t take Spike very long to think of an answer. “No, I think I’m just going to go back to bed,” the dragon replied, almost instantly. “I’d rather sleep.” The dragon turned around and dashed away as fast as his little legs could carry him.

    Twilight shook her head, sighing, then let go a yelp as Spike slammed his door shut. She looked around the library, trying to determine which area would benefit the most from her efforts. The area around her desk looked the messiest, she thought. She set green tome she was still levitating down on her desk, taking one last glance at the title.

I’ll have to take a proper look at it, to determine on which shelf it belongs. Too bad the author’s name is damaged.

    Luckily, most of the books on Twilight’s desk had all come from the same shelf. They were sorted by category, after all. Using her magic, Twilight sorted the books into neat piles, and would soon begin of sorting them on alphabet. The shelf she’d have taken the books from would have empty spaces where the books had once been, so the only thing she’d have to do is take the top book from the pile, and return it to the first vacant spot on the shelf she’d see.

    No more than a few moments later, Twilight had successfully sorted all of her recently used books, and was in the process of returning them to the shelves, rather than just leaving them for Spike to clean up.

    With the last book safely on its shelf, Twilight turned to her desk. The Pony’s Skeleton was still waiting for her, as expected.

Well, the book isn’t going to read itself, and I’m going to have to decide in which bookcase it should go, Twilight thought.

    Opening the book to the first page, she noticed that the contents were damaged even worse than the cover was. Fearing the worst, she decided to open the book to a different page, hoping that the damage would have affected only the first few pages. Sadly, this was not the case.

    It looked like somebody had spilled water on it, or perhaps even dropped it in a lake. The edges of almost all of the pages were ragged, and the ink that had once formed coherent sentences and perhaps even beautiful writing had started to run down the pages, causing irreparable damage to the writing that hadn’t been submerged. Twilight cringed as she noticed the damage, as any librarian would have done. Seeing a book in such a state pained her, but the damage had been done.

    Twilight sighed, and lifted a hoof to close the book, when a sentence caught her eye. “Ponies today are much smaller than they ought to be,” the sentence read.

Huh, Twilight thought. Now why would that be the case? Ponies have been the size they are for centuries now, as far as we know. Why would they grow larger?

    Intrigued by the sentence, Twilight tried to continue reading. Sadly, most of the page had been damaged so badly that Twilight couldn’t even begin to decipher what it had once said. The words she could read left Twilight wanting more, however, so she turned the page.

    Much to her dismay, this page had only three decipherable words on it. Ponies are changing, they read. Twilight hastily flipped through some more pages, growing progressively more annoyed with each page she turned. That the book was damaged had been obvious from the very beginning, but the extent of the damage was a rather unpleasant surprise.

    Page after page she turned, each new page more illegible than the last. Angrily, Twilight tossed the book aside. It wasn’t something she’d normally consider doing, but the book was a lost cause already. Any more damage really wouldn’t make a difference.

    As the book soared through the air, a note fell out of it. It drifted easily to the ground, landing on top of the book from which it had come. The book itself had lost some of its pages upon collision with the wall, but the note didn’t look anything like a page from the book. It was folded, and for some reason not damaged at all.

    Twilight picked the note up using her magic, and examined it. She was pleased to see that the writing on the note had indeed been spared, and was still completely legible.

As we all know, ponies’ bones begin as cartilage, and are hardened by assification. Osteoblasts invade the cartilage, and form a matrix or cancellous bone, with the cartilage still inside. The cartilage matures over time, and becomes calcified, resulting in bone formation. Yet, why do bones stop growing? The equine skeleton as we know it is incomplete; the epiphyseal plates ought to continue growing far longer than they do, until the cartilage cells stop multiplying, and the fusion of the epiphysis and diaphysis takes place.

Judging by the rest of the skeleton, the last growth plates to fuse in what ought to be a growing pony are located in the vertebral column. Yet, for some reason, this fuse never occurs.

Of course, the timing of this can only be determined depending on the bone itself, but as I’ve already said, this never occurs in ponies. For some reason, a pony’s skeleton will stop maturing when it reaches a certain point. I think the appearance of a cutie mark may have something to do with it, but further analysis is necessary to confirm my suspicions.

    Twilight looked up from the note, frowning yet again. Ponies growing larger than they do? Well, it sounds like nonsense, but even I have to admit, this is convincing stuff.

    Deciding that this was definitely deserving of some more attention, Twilight levitated what remained of the book from which the note had come back onto her desk. She winced as she noticed that the already fragile binding had now almost given up completely. Several pages had gone missing from the book, and were now lying on the floor where the book had come to rest after its flight.

    “Spike!” she called. Minutes went by, and no response came. “Spike!”

    “Wha~at?” the dragon’s voice came, from atop the staircase.

    “I’m going out for a bit, can you take care of yourself while I’m gone?”

    Spike sighed, apparently making an effort to be loud enough for Twilight to hear him. “I’m going back to bed.”

    “Is that a yes?” Twilight called out to him. No response came, so Twilight decided that she’d just have to assume that he’d manage.

    The librarian levitated her saddlebags over to her desk, and carefully placed the remainders of the book inside. The pages on the floor were damaged, Twilight noticed, so she didn’t bother to take them.

    With the book and note tucked away into the pockets of her saddlebags, Twilight left the library. She’d want to find somepony with some medical know-how to answer some of her questions. The Ponyville hospital would probably be her best bet, she thought.

    After making her way to the hospital, through a blend of teleporting and galloping, Twilight

entered, and was immediately blinded by synthetic light. She was used to candlelight, and the fluorescent lamps used to illuminate the hospital were quite a bit brighter than that.

Directly opposite the entrance was a desk, occupied by a single, grumpy-looking secretary. “If you need immediate medical attention, tell me now, and I’ll see if I can find somepony to help you. If your injury isn’t an emergency, take a seat and we’ll call you when somepony is ready to help,” the nurse mumbled, as she noticed Twilight approaching. She hadn’t even bothered to make eye contact.

    “And what if you’re not injured at all?”

    “The door’s behind you,” the nurse replied, still not looking at Twilight.

    “Very funny,” Twilight frowned. “I was just wondering if I could ask a few questions about the skeleton. Is anypony around here not too busy to help me?”

    This time, the nurse looked Twilight in the eye. “All surgeons are in surgery right now, and most doctors have taken the day off, or weren’t scheduled to work today. We’re understaffed, today. I can show you to Nurse Redheart, but she only ever deals with newborn fillies.”

    “Perfect!” Twilight exclaimed, realizing exactly how useful somepony with knowledge of a newborn’s skeleton would be.

    The secretary sighed, and got up. “Follow me, then, and don’t get lost,” she grunted.

    Twilight nodded, and followed quietly, the sound of her hooves being the only one she produced. Nurse Redheart was quickly found, and the secretary wasted no time in getting back to her desk. Procrastinating was important to her, it seemed.

    Nurse Redheart herself was, in contrast to the secretary, extremely busy. She was standing in the midst of a room filled with newborn fillies, quite a few of them crying loudly. Twilight cringed when she first heard the noise, but decided that for the time being, her research was more important than her eardrums.

    “Nurse Redheart?” she yelled, trying to make herself heard over the crying newborns.

    The nurse looked up, and appeared to be speaking, but Twilight couldn’t make out what she was saying.

    “Nurse?!” she yelled again.

    This time, Nurse Redheart saw fit to approach Twilight. “You had better have a good reason to yell at me like that, in particular when I’m trying my very best to calm these newborns down!” she fumed.

    Twilight recoiled at the Nurse’s yelling. In hindsight, she had been impatient indeed, but this reaction was definitely not what she had been expecting. “I was justing wondering if you wouldn’t mind explaining a few things about the equine skeleton to me,” Twilight mumbled, afraid to induce even more rage in the already fuming nurse by speaking too loudly.

    Nurse Redheart simply sighed, raised a hoof to her forehead, and shook her head.

    “Nurse?” Twilight asked, when no response was forthcoming.

    “You come here, you disturb the sleeping newborns even more than the crying ones already are, you distract me from my job, and now you want me to teach you? Go back to school, lady. I don’t have time for this, she snapped, before turning around without even bothering to announce her departure.

    "Wait, Nurse Redheart!"

    Nurse Redheart turned around once more, and shot Twilight a venomous glance. "This had better be good," she said.

    "I found this book in my library... It says that ponies ought to grow much larger than they do today. Do you think you could explain what the author meant?"

    "Don't be stupid," Nurse Redheart barked. "If ponies ought to grow larger, they would. You're spouting nonsense."

    "But, the book..."

    "Do you have it with you?"

    "I do, actually!" Twilight smiled, as she levitated the book out of her saddlebags.

    Nurse Redheard took one look at the damaged book, and instantly started smiling. "Ah, I see. Well, let's just say that the author did his research, and definitely accomplished what he wanted to."

    "Excuse me?"

    "Sorry, I have to go. Newborns crying."

    "Aren't you at least going to explain the purpose of the book? Did the author ever manage to discover something significant? Did the theory amount to anything?"

    "Well, it made for an interesting read, if you're into those kind of books."

    "Huh?"

    Nurse Redheart smiled one more time before turning around, and walking away. "That's all I'm going to say," she smiled. "You're wasting my time, Miss... whatever your name is."

    Appalled by the nurse’s attitude, Twilight decided that she’d be better off trying to study by herself, in her library. Spike was napping, so he wouldn’t be a source of disturbances. Not that he usually was, but the napping provided Twilight with an extra sense of security.

So much for the hospital being helpful, Twilight thought, as she left the hospital.

    A short trip and a few teleportation spells later, Twilight found herself back at the library’s front door. Twilight heaved a sigh of relief as she entered, but was immediately disturbed by Spike. “Hey, Twilight!” the dragon greeted her. “I was just wondering if--”

    “Not now, Spike! I have research to do!” Twilight yelled, before marching over to her desk, and starting to take notes. "The nurse at the hospital didn't give me any direct hints, so I'm going to have to figure out what she was talking about."

    Spike glanced over her shoulder, wondering how Twilight could be making notes whilst not even reading. What he saw puzzled him greatly; Twilight was writing down titles of books, all of them seemingly related to medicine.

    “You trying to get a job in the hospital, Twilight?”

    “After seeing how ponies are treated there? No chance. No, I’m just trying to study our skeleton.”

    “‘Our’ skeleton?”

    “Ah,” Twilight laughed. “Ponies’ skeletons. Sorry, Spike.”

    “That’s alright. I’ll just leave you to your research, then. Still have some sleeping to do, after all!”

    Twilight nodded, then realized that Spike would be able to help her find the books she needed. “Wai--”

    Her sentence was cut short as she once again heard Spike slam his door shut.

I’m going to have to tell him to stop doing that, sometime soon...

    Shaking off the thought, Twilight wrote down the last of the books she’d need, and immediately began to scan the shelves of her “Science” bookcase for the titles she’d written down.

    Moments later, Twilight was sitting at her desk, completely engrossed in her studies, taking notes for every page she read.

    She had already discovered numerous flaws in the note’s theory, but despite this, it was still possible. The joining of the growth plates in the vertebral column did occur, it just never finished. Then again, she may have been looking at an outdated book. Or perhaps the note was outdated?

    Twilight continued unfazed, fascinated by what she was discovering. As it turned out, the theory was largely incorrect, but there was a core of truth to it. Ponies’ growth plates did fuse, and many of them finished fusing before the pony himself stopped growing, but there were exceptions. The only problem was determining exactly how common these exceptions were.

    Studying picture after picture, taking notes, and reading entire books in a single sitting, Twilight managed to study through the entire night. It wasn’t until Spike came downstairs in the late morning that she finally looked up from her studies, if only briefly.

    “Twilight? Can I go visit Rarity?”

    “Hmm? Yeah, sure. Whatever,” Twilight replied, not paying attention to what she was being asked.

    “But why no-- what? Okay, bye!” the dragon yelled. He knew all too well that Twilight was far too engrossed in her studies to be paying attention to what was going on around her, and wasted no time in rushing through the front door before Twilight would realize what she’d done.

    The door slammed shut, and Twilight was left to her studies. It wasn’t until half an hour later that she finally looked up from her book. “Wait, what? Spike!” she called, turning faster than she should have to find the dragon. She felt the world spin as she turned, and felt dizzy shortly thereafter. A sign of fatigue, or perhaps a lack of sustenance, she knew.

    Realizing that Spike would be long gone by now, Twilight decided to sit back down. Her stomach disagreed, however, as it decided to growl louder than Twilight had ever heard it do before.

Maybe I should get something to eat, she thought.

    After making her way over to the kitchen, Twilight started to check her cupboards, only to realize that she didn’t have anything decent to eat. All she had was a slightly moldy slice of bread, and a leftover leaf of lettuce.

    Deciding that the bread would probably end up making her ill, Twilight threw it into the bin. The lettuce was probably the healthier choice, she reckoned.

    Twilight returned to her desk, munching on the single leaf of lettuce as she walked. She returned to her desk just as she swallowed the last bite of lettuce, and was eager to return to her studies when she heard the front door slam open violently.

    “Darling! Get away from that book!” Rarity yelled.

    “What? Why?”

    “Because you’re making a mess of yourself! Look at yourself, dear!”

    “How did you...?”

    “Spikey-Wikey told me, and it’s a good thing he did! No friend of mine is allowed to look like... that. Oh, no offense.”

    Twilight frowned. “Some taken, but why is my situation an issue? I always do this, when studying.”

    “No longer!” Rarity exclaimed. “Your mane is a mess, you look like you haven’t slept in weeks, and you’re studying by a lit candle, despite it being midday!”

    “Oh, come on. I was just getting something to eat! Here, I'll blow out the candle.”

    “And what, pray tell, were you eating?”

    “A... leaf of lettuce.”

    “And?”

    “That’s it. Just a leaf of lettuce.”

    Rarity frowned. “Darling, this has to stop! This isn’t healthy! To think that this could have carried on for weeks, if Spike hadn’t told me!”

    Only now did Twilight notice the vigorously blushing dragon who was hiding behind Rarity.

    “Spike! Why did you-- Oh, never mind! Rarity, I always study like this, I have done for years, and I plan to continue doing so. Now, if you don’t mind, this is important.” Twilight shot Spike an angry glance. “Spike is going to spend the rest of this day in his bedroom, and I’d really, really appreciate it if you left me to study.

    “I’ll do no such thing!”

    Twilight sighed, “Yeah, I figured you’d say that.” Her horn lit up, and a pink glow started to envelop Spike. No more than a second later, a flash blinded the two onlooking ponies temporarily. Spike had vanished, Rarity noticed.

    “As I said, Spike is going to spend the rest of the day in his room. Now, I’m going back to studying. Maybe you can visit again when I’m done?”

    “Please, Twilight,” Rarity said, this time trying to persuade Twilight, rather than force her. “Would you at least go to sleep, and continue studying when you wake up? You’re worrying me.”

    “Well, stop worrying, then. I’m fine,” Twilight smiled.

    Rarity’s expression changed, but not for the better. Her frown lightened up, and turned into a look of genuine concern. “Please, Twilight?”

    Twilight, now starting to get tired of her friend’s complaining, frowned. “I’ll be fine, Rarity. Now, I’m going to ask you one more time to please leave me alone. Are you going to listen, this time?”

    Rarity paused, considering her options. Twilight, growing more impatient with every passing second, decided that she’d spent long enough waiting for her friend to make her next fruitless attempt at persuasion.

    Twilight’s horn lit up, and the door to the library slammed shut. “Sorry, Rarity, but I need to return to my studies.”

    "Please, Twilight," came Rarity's muffled voice, from outside. "Get some sleep."

Sorry, Rarity, but I'm too busy to be sleeping. This is important research, after all.

    With that, Twilight returned to her desk. Using her magic, she picked up the damaged green book one more time. Whoever the author of this book was, he had made a definite medical breakthrough. She started flipping through the book one more time, hoping for some more hints as to what had led the author to believe what he did. His theory was flawed, Twilight knew, but there was still a slight possibility that he had been onto something.

    Twilight’s thoughts were once again interrupted, as she heard what could only be Spike, descending the stairs.

    “Spike, I thought I told you you’d be staying upstairs for the rest of the day.”

    “You know,” Spike replied. “Rarity isn’t the only one who’s worried about you. Why do you think we were talking about you?”

    Twilight couldn’t help but feel sorry for the little dragon. “I’m sorry, Spike, but this research really is important!”

    “Rarity was right, you know. You should go to sleep.”

    That was it. Twilight had had enough. “Seriously, Spike? Here I am, on the verge of a breakthrough, about to change our understanding of our very own anatomy, and you want me to go to sleep? No, Spike, I won’t go to sleep.”

    The dragon cringed as Twilight continued her ranting.

    “Did you really think that I’d just give up and go to sleep? This book... it’s fascinating! We shouldn’t be ponies, Spike! We should be... I don’t know what, but larger! Don’t you understand how important this is?!”

    “Twilight, you’re taking this too seriously. Please, just go to sleep. Your research won’t be the same if you’re tired when you do it.”

    “Oh, nonsense. I’ve done plenty of research when tired, and I’ve always been correct. And taking it too seriously, Spike? Really? I’m talking about medical breakthroughs, about a fundamental change in the way we think of ourselves, and you respond with “taking this too seriously”? Go back upstairs, Spike. I have research to do.”

    Spike opened his mouth to protest, but quickly realized that doing so would only annoy Twilight even further, and would probably end with him getting teleported again. Reluctantly, the dragon backed away, and climbed up the stairs once again. He gave Twilight one final glance before he went back upstairs, but she had already returned to that damned green book.

    “Taking this too seriously,” Twilight imitated Spike’s voice. “Just go to sleep. Your research won’t be the same.”

I’ll show him. They don’t realize exactly how important this is, but they’ll see. Whoever wrote this book didn’t understand what he was on the verge of discovering, but I do. I just need to find one more--

    Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted as she reached the final page of the book. Miraculously, some of the printing was still legible. Twilight’s heart skipped a beat as she started reading.

...to thank Masato, for his continuing support. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have been able to write this hopefully realistic piece of fiction.

    Twilight looked up from the book, shook her head, rubbed her eyes, and checked again.

...piece of fiction.

    She sat back, unwilling to believe what she had just read. All of that fuss, all of the arguing, and the entire two days of studying, had been because of a work of fiction.

    "But... it's still possible, isn't it?"

Of course, the story is based on nothing more than an exception to an otherwise unyielding rule in medicine, but I hope that my more educated readers will be able to see past this. It's been a pleasure to write this book, and a challenge to keep it as realistic as possible, whilst still twisting the facts I started with.

    Twilight shut the book, and dumped it in the trash without hesitation. As she climbed up the stairs, Spike’s words echoed through her mind one last time.

    “Twilight, you’re taking this too seriously.”

    Rather than going straight for her bedroom, she decided to visit Spike's first. After knocking to make sure he was still awake, she entered.

    "Spike?" she asked.

    The dragon sat up in his bed. "Twilight? Finally decided that you need sleep, huh?"

    "Do me a favor, Spike?"

    "Uhh... sure?"

    "The next time I research something, remind me to check the book's source."

    Spike nodded once, but quickly stopped, and frowned. "Wait, what? Why?"

    "Let's just say I suddenly hate fiction," Twilight mumbled, before leaving the bedroom and closing the door behind her.

    Spike simply smiled once, and lay back down.

I knew she was taking it too seriously, he thought to himself, smiling.