Twilight Gets Drawn In

Foxxy Love took to the confessional again. "You know, I'm gonna miss that purple pony. She might not have known how to have fun when she got here, but I'll bet she does now! I'm kinda pissed off that her "mentor" told me she didn't want me kissing her anymore. I'm hoping she'll come back, though."

Princess Clara went into the confessional next. "I enjoyed having Twilight here -- she's a lot nicer than any of the other housemates and I'm going to miss her. I hope she comes back, but I'm not holding my breath for that."

Captain Hero took his turn in the confessional. "Y'know, she was kinda cute. Yeah, I'm gonna miss her as well."

Xandir was up next. "I was hoping Twilight could show me how to use magic. I really enjoyed how friendly and sweet and nice she was and that she also washed the dishes for us a few times. I hope she comes back soon!"

Ling-ling sat in the chair for a moment. He muttered some more of his gibberish, the subtitle reading, "Ling-ling will not miss purple dog. Good riddance!"

Stebbins drove the Royal Carriage to the airport where they got onto the King's private chartered jet. Twilight had to be scooted onto the plane, as she was absolutely terrified of getting on board it.

"What manner of carriage is this? I've never seen anything like it before. How does it work?" Twilight asked the King.

"It's called an airplane. It lifts off the ground and travels through the air, Twilight."

"It doesn't look like it can fly -- I don't want to get on that thing!"

"You don't have a choice, Twilight. Do you want to go to my castle? Then you have to get on the plane."

Very reluctantly she walked into the plane, noticing a bunch of seats. She decided it might not be so bad, so she sat down in one of the seats by a window. The plane was a relatively small leer jet, comfortably seating eight passengers.

"Be sure to buckle up, Twilight, this shouldn't take very long at all," the King said, smiling at her. Using her magic, she strapped herself into the seat.

"I wonder what this will feel like," she mused. Shortly the plane taxied onto the runway and took off. Twilight felt her ears pop as the plane gained altitude. "Ow, that hurts! Why does that happen?"

"I assume this is your first time ever flying in a plane," the King said. "Swift changes in altitude do that to you. I'm used to it now, but that's basically what happens. We should arrive on my island in a couple of hours."

"You live on an island?" Twilight asked, then looked out the window to see the Pacific Ocean. She gasped when she saw the expanse of water as far as she could see. "What if the plane falls into the water?" she asked nervously.

"I assure you, Twilight, there's no danger of that happening. Air flight is very safe."

The rest of the flight went uneventfully and the plane landed on the King's island. Another carriage took the King, Twilight, and his four bodyguards to the castle, though when they arrived, Twilight was astonished to see that the mansion looked nothing like a castle. In fact, it looked quite similar to the expanse of the house she had left before.

"I thought you lived in a castle!" she exclaimed in exasperation.

"I used the term loosely, Twilight," the King chuckled.

"It looks exactly like the other house! Please don't tell me there are crazy people in there!"

"I can assure you that there aren't any crazy people in my castle," the King said, starting to show some annoyance. "Now, if you don't mind, I will escort you to my Library. I don't want this to take any longer than it has to."

"Thank you, your Majesty!" Twilight exclaimed excitedly, bouncing in anticipation.

"Behave yourself, please." The King showed her through the front door, the main room, down a hallway and into a large room with bookshelves lining the walls. The books had been packed fairly tightly, but Twilight was agog at the sight. "There are about 4,000 books in here. I hope you can find what you're looking for, and find it quickly at that. Do you need anything to drink?"

"If you could make a pot of coffee for me, that would be great!"

"I will have one of my servants brew a pot of coffee for you. Espresso okay?"

"Ooh, yeah! That would be wonderful, your Majesty! Thank you so much!" She used her telekinesis to examine the books one by one, reading titles aloud as she did so. The King's library had many volumes on various subjects, but then she found something that truly piqued her interest. "Encyclopaedia Brittanica? Shouldn't that be Bittanica instead?" she asked herself. She opened the first volume and started reading. The immersion into human culture, history, geography and other study was so complete that she lost track of time during her voracious reading. She plowed through all 27 volumes of the Encyclopaedia, but it took her two full days just to do that.

"I can always find that book on magic soon," she mused to herself while reading the Encyclopaedia. She went through pot after pot of the strong black coffee, her eyes becoming bleary from the constant reading. She was utterly fascinated by the thick volumes and desperately wanted copies for her personal library and the Canterlot Library. Then she found the Oxford English Dictionary.