Twilight's Research

Alright. There's a lot of questions I need answered, but they all revolve around my body. What do I need to ask? I need to figure out why I feel what I feel, when I feel it. The temperature increase could be related to a sickness, but I've been healthy for the last few months, and it's not time for allergy season yet.

I let my body move on auto-pilot to the square, the sun high up in the sky, despite it barely being past ten. Ponies walked by, giving me waves to which my body, thankfully, responded with a smile or a wave, making sure not to trip itself up. I sometimes wondered just how Ponyville could be so awake at such an early hour, even if ten wasn't all that... well, early. Canterlot was really sleepy when it came to the hours before noon, and most of the streets would be empty, except for those stallions who enjoyed taking a walk in the breezy city, or mares heading out for some early shopping.

Me? I just stayed cooped up in my house all day, so it didn't bother me much whether I woke up at nine or five. Well, until I started attending Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. My manic scheduling started pretty well after the first day there, stuck with me ever since. The whole process was never that hard, but it was a lot of busy work back then. Just wasn't that good at time-keeping, so I'd find myself constantly re-scheduling and re-re-scheduling and re-re-re— oh, there's the bench.

The walk went by faster than I'd thought, the smell of the park in Autumn greeting me. A frigid breeze blew across my back, reminding me that I really should have brought a scarf or some kind of jacket. Just too excited to read this book, I guess. Well, I'll find a spell that can help in the meantime. I hopped up onto the orange bench in front of me, the gentle curvature of it supporting me perfectly. If there was one thing I always applauded, it was the craftsponies who worked in Ponyville under Mayor Mare, as they made some of the best benches in Equestria. Smooth oak with a laminate finish, and was that a— yes it was, a heating enchantment! Those ponies really think of everything when making these! Oooo, now I know why Lyra loves sitting on these! I grinned to myself as I settled into the bench, and cracked open the cover of the book.

As soon as I'd set off on the first page, I was taken on a trip through the solar system. The acid rains of Nyx, the chilling tundras of Mu, the seemingly-war-ravaged landscape of Teerus... it was all fascinating, and Orion's writing really brought the studies and numerous exploration efforts of scientists to life. Though ponies couldn't reach the stars, we could still see out far enough to make guesses. Just how cold could Mu get...? It's like a comet grew too big for a tail. Astrology was a field that always interested me. Sure, magic was interesting, and so was geology and geometry, and yes, they are two entirely different fields, but what's better than wondering what's beyond your own world? I've never even travelled beyond Equestria's borders... and to read about things beyond every border on our planet is just incredible.

"Oooo, mountain studies... 'Though the tallest mountain in Equestria is easily The Lonely Mountain that supports Canterlot, the current tallest mountain in our solar system is the massive Mt. Keynote of Teerus, at over fifteen miles high.' Ohhh, so fascinating!" I giggled with excitement, nearly bouncing on the bench as I flipped through page after page, containing more scientific tidbits of the solar system. By the time I was finished, the sun had fallen quite far out of the sky, sitting around the four o' clock mark.

Telling the time via the sun wasn't all that hard, come to think of it. "Guess I'd better be getting home. I can think on it more later." I started moving my legs, inwardly groaning about having to leave my warm bastion of comfort. Now that the book's finished, I can get back to my original problem... why does my body do what it does, when it does. This morning, I was looking out the window and I saw Cheerilee. Lost focus, stared... then came back into the world when Spike interrupted me. I sat up on the bench and tapped my chin, the toasty wood keeping my legs warm. Maybe I should... ooo, that is nice... very high-quality wood, and the heat enchantment is just right. Wait, huh?

My eyebrow shot up a good inch at the sudden realization of warmth. But it was a weird kind of warmth... far out of reach of the bench. And... wait... that smell... oh no. I didn't even have to look down to figure out what was going on, and immediately threw myself over the side of the bench and onto the cool grass behind it, a rather unceremonious 'thud' coming from it. I know that smell! Oh, thank goodness I understand at least *that** much!* My eyes whipped around to a few curious looks aimed back at me, offering a rather normal smile in return. At least, I thought it was normal. It should've been normal! It was normal, wasn't it?! Wait, no, don't freak out! Don't give them a hint, don't even *look** at them in a funny way! It'll pass, it'll pass... it always does.*

Despite the many eyes on me, this was a practice I'd fallen into over the last year or so, couldn't be shaken, even if I had the world staring at me. Even if I couldn't figure out the why, when and how, I always knew what was happening: a certain part, or parts, of me would heat up, and if it got hot enough, a weird smell would come up, and the answer to getting rid of the smell would be to simply sit in a cold spot for a while and let it fade. It was a simple biological reaction for when a mare was... well, the word would be 'aroused', but I never understood it that way, since it was never logical about when and where it happened. I'd just lose my focus and keep on staring at something. What was weird is it tended to happen around warm places, so I avoid fireplaces more than what would be considered 'healthy' during Winter. Wonder if this happens to Lyra and Bon Bon a lot?

Maybe it was a lie that I couldn't be shaken, since I ducked my head down behind the bench to avoid the eyes of everypony around. Sometimes I loved that Ponyville was such a small town, since peace and quiet - besides the occasional Hydra attack, and the Ursa Minor - was assured, but it also meant that anything at all happening that could be called interesting caught everypony's attention. And a mare hiding behind a bench? It was just enough, I figured. Maybe if I teleported? Ah, but then everypony'd come by the library and ask what was going on. I grimaced as a shudder ran down my back, but at least the heat was fading away. Cold shower once I get back... not comfortable in the slightest, but it always works. Just, um... need to wait for this smell to go away.

Also in a village like Ponyville, boredom was such a prevalent occurrence that I actually loved it when Pinkie came by to knock down my door. I was thankful that that didn't happen while I sat on the grass, though that didn't stop my eyes from hunting around for any suspicious trench coats; I was an open target there, and that mare had the eyes of a hawk! Well, with luck, she won't spot me on my way back... and Luna forbid she gets a whiff of this. It'll be a mile a minute with questions. I turned to look at the tree behind the bench that I sat on, hopefully hiding my quick sniff of the air. Oh good, the smell's gone... alright, time to head home then. And hopefully not pull anypony else along for the ride.

After a few more seconds of enjoying the chilling grass, I got to my hooves, slowly, and took a long whiff of the air. The park was always covered by the fragrant scent of flowers, so it helped cover up my actions, but it didn't really help me in finding the scent I needed to. Still, it was gone for the most part. Ok, so it's gone... now I just have to make it home without anypony finding me. Avoiding *her** is gonna be pretty difficult though, and I can't randomly teleport from place to place. I wish teleportation wasn't so hard to do... it makes it hard to move around when you're the only mare who can do it in the whole village!* I inward groaned as I moved out from my fortress of warm wood, looking around to make sure nopony was staring. Sure enough, the square was filled with more interesting things than me, and everypony decided that they'd focus on those instead. It was time to move.

Making a last glance about, I grabbed my book and slipped it back into my saddlebag with my magic, moving away from the square. "Ok, what else was I planning for today? I was gonna read this book, which I finished off already. Helped Spike out with the chores... don't really need to do any shopping. Oh dear... the dreaded 'free time' is coming." I grimaced at the thought of having hours on my hooves, but it was a cruel fate forced upon me by my efficient planning. Is this what they refer to when they say 'digging your own grave'? That was an interesting saying, actually. The phrase originally pointed to the concept of a lie, and how it would go deeper and deeper until somepony found out the truth, almost like digging a deeper and deeper hole in order to hide yourself from somepony else. And, when the lie became too deep and you were found out, it was like a grave, since you couldn't escape the implications.

Funny, how four words could carry such a meaning... wait, right, getting home, I had three hours saved the next day for philosophy! With a quick shake of my head, I set off down the street towards home, vying for the cover of the alleyways. I need a bit of silence to think on all this, and the alleyways should keep me out of everypony's way. So, these reactions of mine... they're triggered nearly at random, but there does tend to be a linking property: other ponies. It's just a question of what triggers it... but I don't think anypony'll let me just experiment on them. Kinda creepy, staring at them all day. So what's a good alternative? My eyes drifted up towards the darkened wall of a building as I stopped in the alleyway, the minor stink of a few trashcans not registering. It was obvious what kind of alternative I could use, and I'd been taking them once in a while over the last two years. How'd I not figure it out sooner? Pictures! I've got pictures of my friends at home in a big scrapbook. Only a few, but it should be enough for testing... it'll be nice to look back at some of those memories, as well. With a smile, I picked up the pace out of the dark and into the sunset light of Ponyville, tromping on down the dirt path.

And I passed by that quill and sofa place, another question boiling in the back of my mind. One that had been bothering me ever since I first heard about the place. How *does** somepony sell quills and sofas in the same place!? It's crazy! The two have absolutely no relation to each other!* I felt a grimace cross my face as the shop seemed to spit in the face of logic. Spit in the face of my logic, at that! Ooooo, it set me on fire sometimes! But that was a question I could save for later - granted I could solve it all, like the Thing-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named -, as the shops finally let go and my library came into view. It was strange, though, that my library's leaves didn't change color in Autumn, unlike Whitetail Woods. Oh, right! Whitetail Woods! The Running Of The Leaves is coming up, isn't it? Maybe I should participate again... I entertained the idea of competing against the entire town, charging between the wonderful colors of the trees: the reds, the oranges, the yellows all zipping past in a beautiful blur. The wind cascading past my face in a chilling breeze as my heart raced and my lungs exploded with the fresh air...

But it was all just a dream. I mean, sure, I competed once, but it had been so long since I ran in a race. Wait. When's the Running of the Leaves? A few weeks from now... hm. I should look into getting fit for that, it'd be a great use of my spare time! Only question is... where'd I put that book on running? My head tilted slightly at the thought. Where had I put it? It was easy to find most of my books, since they were organized by subject: biology, chemistry, physics, magic... but none of them really encompassed the science of running. Maybe I could learn from Applejack?

Applejack was a good runner, definitely, as those monstrous bucks of hers would indicate. Should help out at the farm more often, get some strength back into these legs of mine. Buck a couple trees with her, talk about running... would she even be interested? No, after that whole fiasco a year ago, she'd definitely accept help. Get to work alongside her, knocking apples off the branches... watch her kick tree after tree without even breaking a sweat... so much power in them, so sleek, so... mesmerizing...

Watching Applejack buck trees was a strange thing, to be honest. But the strength in those hind legs of hers was insane... she could probably knock down a tree on her own if she kicked hard enough. She'd often take a while to get her aim right, tail waving as she used it, almost like a crosshair. She'd lean forward and hop up off the ground, then strike with the force of a God. It was poetry in motion, each second passing by in the slowest of moments... watching her hips flex and turn like a well-oiled machine. Then the crash exploding in my head like a bomb as her hooves made contact, showing off her built frame. The sweat on her coat shining in the s—

"Oof!" I shook my head as I ran into something, blinking a few times to stare at the red... thing that had popped up in my way. "Who the heck put a door here!?" My glare couldn't have said enough to the door as I looked around, rage building in my g— oh, it was the library. "Did I lose... huh." I blinked a few times at the innocent sign looking back at me, offering a friendly greeting to the Golden Oaks Library, the familiar sketch of a book sitting on a tree branch - the one that I renewed with a few quick swipes of my magic. I got home before I even realized what I was doing... Weird. Very, very weird... but why is that heat there again? Wasn't I picturing working with AJ? My brow fell slightly as my magic made a path for me, pushing open the door as I walked in. My answers were still avoiding me, and it only bugged me more as that same feeling welled up inside my gut, the same one I linked to 'arousal'. But why would it come up when picturing Applejack? It didn't make sense.

I mean, she's nice, but... just how did 'arousal' work, anyway? This needs more study... a lot more study. Right, the test method I was gonna use to figure all this out.

"Oh, hey Twilight!"

Gotta be Spike. A quick look around didn't reveal him, however. "Hey Spike... uh... where are you?"

"Up here..."

I looked up as his voice trailed off into a groan, and spotted him hanging from the ceiling. He'd apparently set up a sort of gym on top of two bookcases, a ladder spanning the distance between them, and was hanging from his legs. Or was that his s— was his head stuck between the rungs!? "Spike, what'd you do!?"

"Well, I got bored since nopony was coming by. Read a few pages of one of those Daring Do stories, then I... guess I decided to do something with my time. So I set this up, and please, don't ask me how I did it. I'm still figuring that out myself. Anyway, I set this ladder up up here... started walking over it like a bridge to a castle," his voice trailed off as I noticed a telltale gleam in his eye, and that same silly smile as you-know-who came up in his mind, "the castle holding my Lady Rarity..." His grin curved and widened as he started walking, or at least trying to... his legs were moving at least!

"Spike, you really shouldn't do that. How long've you been up there?"

"Ten minutes or so." His eyes turned up in thought as, I guess he tried to confirm his time estimate. He'd probably be scratching his chin too, if his arms could reach down - up? Down? - through the ladder rungs.

I simply rolled my eyes and pulled him out of the crazy contraption with my magic, bringing him back down to earth. "If you're gonna set something like that up, could you at least do it in a place where you might not be knocked unconscious?"

"Knocked unconscious? Whadya mean?"

"Really? Spike, it's a paramount fact of the circulatory system. Aren't you reading books from the medical section from time to time?" I raised my eyebrow at his curious, then slowly falling to understanding, face. He scuffed a foot on the ground as he grimaced.

"Heh, um... no, I haven't."

"The blood rushes to your head, Spike, and the brain is overwhelmed by the rush. You black out, and that's a really bad position to fall asleep in."

"Right... sorry." He sighed, staring at the floor.

Ohhh... now I feel bad. I frowned with him; I didn't like lecturing him like that, because it always ended with him feeling bad, like he was taking time out of my day to get him out of a troubling situation. I was always happy to do it, but I suppose the lecture route was just too hard-written into my head... darned teachers at the school. "It's alright, Spike, honestly. You just have to be careful, alright?"

"Yeah, I know. You were out for a long time, though. Enjoy the book?" He looked back up as he spoke, and I was glad to see that little spark in his eyes of a returning happiness. Certainly lifted my spirits!

"Oh, definitely! Gonna recommend it to Rarity next time she comes by!"

"Huh? Why Lady Rarity?"

"Didn't you know? She likes astronomy as well. Though she mostly comes by for books on new sewing techniques, fabric details and other stuff, she pops in once in a while to learn about the stars. Always fun talking about what I learn with her, since she's got a pretty good understanding as well." I walked over to one of the bookcases and started looking through the titles, my hoof tapping each one as I ran through them all.

"Seriously? Hey, do you still have that book on the solar system, or whatever it is?"

"Oh, come now, Spike, you should know that much. I teach you better than that!"

"Right, right, sorry. Doesn't stick sometimes..."

"Then how about a question? How many planets are in our solar system?"

"Five, counting Equis. Ours." Spike definitely sounded sure in his answer. Good thing it was right.

"Correct. What are the names of the planets stretching out from our sun?"

"Let's see... Ariys, Mu, Equis, Teerus, and Nyx." And he said it didn't all stick!

"Right! What's the one feature we know about Nyx?" The quizzing made my search a little easier to bear, it was usually such a pain to sort through the books by hoof. Still, it was nice to feel the leather bindings, if only to remind myself of what it was like.

"It's really, really, really cold!"

"Right! And you said it didn't all stick."

"I said sometimes. But c'mon, Twi', I need that book! Please, can you lend it to me?"

"I can tell you only have the best intentions about learning about the planets and stars. Sure, go ahead, it's in my saddlebag." I shrugged the bags off my back with a smirk, kicking it back towards Spike as I continued going through the books. Magic section... where was that scrapbook? Restricted... that was three sections up! Ugh.

"Thanks Twilight!" Spike chuckled as he rummaged through the bags, grabbing the book and running upstairs past me. "I'll go read it right now!"

"Have fun, Spike! Remember what learning's about!"

"It's not about what you need to learn, it's about what you want to learn! I know!" He was up the steps before I could blink. It was amazing just how quickly that dragon could run, but that book would keep him occupied for a very long time. Especially with his hardwired sleeping schedule.

"Baby dragons will be babies... even when it comes to something they want to stay up for," I mumbled to myself as I slowly walked up the steps, tapping each of my books as I searched. The scrapbook had a blue cover with gold stripes... as well as a drawing of my Cutie Mark. I still remembered when that scrapbook was started... it was a few days after Nightmare Moon was beaten. We all came to the library to talk and get to know each other, and Pinkie of all ponies brought up the idea of a scrapbook. I entertained the idea, since cameras had been circulating through the country for quite a while, so we pooled some of our bits - even me, way back when, and I was still skeptical about the whole 'friendship' thing -, and bought a neat little camera.

Same camera's still sitting in Pinkie's bedroom, actually... funny how she didn't bring it out unless it was for a picture with her friends. She did let me borrow it from time to time for research, though. I'd snapped lots of pictures over the years, mostly of trees during their transitions from season to season, some of Froggy Bottom Bog, some of the wildlife in Whitetail Woods, even one or two from my rare trips into the Everfree. It held a lot of good mem— Ah, here it is!

My hoof fell on the familiar cloth spine of the book, and moving it down revealed Rainbow Dash's incredulous drawing style. She went through five versions of this drawing... I giggled at the thought of her constant grunts and shouts about how frustrating it was to get my Cutie Mark right. She always said 'why are the stars in such weird places?' As if it was difficult to get the five little stars correctly placed around the main starburst. Well, maybe it wasn't all that hard for me, at least getting the measurements right... I pray that nopony ever asks me to draw a face for them during a criminal case. I'd probably send them after some innocent Gryphon halfway across the world!

Drawing it out with my magic, I inspected the cloth folds holding the parchment together. Despite its age, and the one really bad moth infestation I got a few months back, the book still held as strong as ever. The three brown strings used to hold the spine were still tied as well as ever, thanks to Rarity's accurate magic, and the cover had a wonderfully stylized picture of the six of us, the combined efforts of Rainbow's tenacity and Fluttershy's keen eye. Despite her shyness, the mare had such attention to detail... it was incredible.

"Alright... I should be doing this in my room, though. Uhhh... well, it's an experiment, right?" I nodded at the thought; it really was just an experiment. Not like I was gonna be doing anything beyond looking at pictures, right? So I set a course for the kitchen table, it'd be private enough for what I needed. Nopony could see much through the kitchen window unless they got a good angle, and that would take them quite a while. Long enough for me to find out, anyway. I sat down at the end of the table bearing the most light from the setting sun, and very gently placed the book on the table. Even if it had fared well against time, I didn't want to throw it around. It's been a while since I went through these pictures...

Opening the cover revealed the first picture that camera ever took, and one Pinkie said she was quite proud of. A picture of me and my friends all set up in the library, hooves on each other's shoulders and grinning like nothing was wrong with the world. It brought a nostalgic smile to my face, Pinkie fumbling with the camera on the stand, Rainbow trying to help out. She managed to knock it over more often than getting it stable, but she meant well, and the camera was a lot harder to break than that. The picture itself... it was the usual group photo. AJ with her legs crossed on the far left, a smug smirk on her face... Rainbow at her side, hoof up behind her head as some childish thing somepony would do in a class photo, a big smile under her puffed mane. Fluttershy peeking out just behind her, like the camera was going to roar at her or something. Me and Rarity smiling next to each other, my horn lit so I could snap the picture... and Pinkie off to the side, making a silly face with her tongue stuck out.

"And that was only a few days after we saved Equestria for the first time... heh, looking at this, you'd think nothing at all was going on." I leaned on my hoof as my eyes trailed over the old photo. "Hard to believe it's already been two years... two years since we beat Nightmare Moon, and learned about the power of the Elements. We were inseparable after that... not even Discord could keep us apart."

I gently brushed the page across the book to look at the next few pages. All the pictures were of Pinkie's parties: one of Gummy's birthday, all of us dancing around the little alligator - what a time that was! Another of her tail, for some reason... Weird, didn't think I put that one in here. Did she sneak it in while she was here? The next one was, thankfully, a little more normal: a picture of Rainbow rocketing through the sky during one of her amazing stunts. That mare was a real daredevil... I'm surprised she's not already one of the Wonderbolts. Heh, maybe Captain Spitfire doesn't want a challenger... then again, I don't think Rainbow would be all that great a captain. I smiled, moving away from the rainbow line carved through the sky, to a picture of myself. Must've been from when I was still practicing with the camera, and just wanted a photo.

"Wow, I looked young back then..."

The picture of me was rather... youthful. I was definitely shorter, and my horn had a lot less wear and tear in it. My face had, maybe, a few less wrinkles in it, but a lot of my features survived to twenty one years of age for me. What a relief that was. That twinkle in my eyes... the ever-living drive for knowledge. I guess that survived as well. It was a good profile shot of me, the stars on my flank seeming to shine under the flash of the camera. "Ahhh, the memories... I think my voice was a little higher back then, too."

Another page brushed aside, and I was shown two other images. Lyra on the left as she was learning a few of my tricks, and Roseluck on the right, tending her garden as usual. Ahh, Lyra. Wonder if you're still just as lazy today as you were a year ago? I giggled at the thought. She really was lazy for a unicorn, but that drive of being outdone by others pushed her along to learning most of the spells I had to teach. She always groaned about it being too much work, but the moment I made it look easy, she took it as a challenge and fought tooth and hoof to learn it. Kinda like a pegasus I know...

Then there's you, Roseluck. You never leave those flowers along for a moment. I looked away from the picture of Lyra struggling to move four things at once - a titanic task when you don't know the trick - to the one of Roseluck, simply raising her eyebrow at me in the picture. What? It's just practice, Roseluck! I blinked at the random thought as she replied, 'I know, Twilight, but why a picture of me?' Heh, the memories all come back way too easily. Didn't she keep asking me what I did with the photo after I took it...? Went on for days, even after I told her it was just as a memory. Acted like I was gonna get her a career in modelling or something... she certainly has the looks for it. That flowing, wine-colored mane of hers, the cream body a stark contrast... true to her name in body and soul. Pure like a flower.

The next page revealed one of my more troubling memories, me and Rarity, each holding a ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala above our heads, smiling. What a night *that** turned out to be! Quickly became one of the worst nights of my life. But, a quick trip to Joe's was all I needed to pick myself up. I still remember his shocked face when we walked into the store, all dressed up to take on the world.* My grin grew at the sight of his face, despite the fact that the night really was terrible. "Every cloud has a silver lining, as they say!"

Beside it was a picture of a very familiar trophy, its owner sitting beside it with a rather troubled smile on her face. A trophy that still decorated Applejack's foyer, even today. That thing dug a pretty deep trench from Town Hall to Sweet Apple Acres! It didn't take long for Mayor Mare's staff to get the trench cleared up, but they sure weren't happy about having to take care of it. It was a good three miles long!

"I haven't even cracked the tip of the iceberg, and already everything's coming back to me... photo of Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom a day after they met, a picture of me with my fifth place medal in my first ever Running of the Leaves... oh yeah, this one." I stopped flipping the pages on one of the most memorable, something that Rainbow Dash would never let me live down: a photo taken above a Sonic Rainboom, with the arced rainbow shot through it like an arrow at a target. That was an incredible sight... the legendary Sonic Rainboom... I could feel the shockwave from the stadium. The ring was still expanding when I took it, and the flash was nearly bright enough to blind me. Princess Celestia actually sent me a letter, asking what Rainbow was like after the stunt... I stared at the picture as the words I sent back to her scrolled by in my mind. I reported that nothing was out of the ordinary, beyond an extreme increase in her brashness and ego... but I never put much thought into what the Princess was talking about in the first place. "Should look into that later... it's been two years since that happened."

The pictures scrolled by one by one: a photo of me in my All-Team Jacket, after so much effort to help the town - without magic, and boy did I learn not to use magic for the next one! -, a picture of the Crusaders with their medals, after one heck of a show. Didn't they hang those up in Sweetie Belle's room at the Boutique? Oh, what a week that was. A trio of destructive jokers... but everypony loves them all the same. I bet everypony was just like them at their age, even me...

I had pictures of a lot of things in my scrapbook, but one of the most impressive, and the one I was most proud of, was a picture of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and my brother, Captain... well, Prince Shining Armor, the night after their wedding. What a day that was... nopony ever expected Chrysalis and her horde to attack the city, or to do it in such a manner... Still remember when nopony believed me when I said Cadence was acting strange... but why would anypony doubt me? I had her as a foalsitter for four years. Right up until I was accepted as Celestia's protege. Hmm... speaking of Cadence, actually... I leaned back from the scrapbook, closing it as I stared up at the ceiling. When I had Cadence as a foalsitter, the only name I knew her by was Cadence. I had no idea she was a Princess... it wasn't until I saw her in Canterlot that I found out she was. So why hide that? Secret mission, maybe? Run out of her home? But why would my brother marry a tyrant?

"Ahh, maybe I'm overthinking it..." I shook my head and sighed, crossing my forelegs. "Shouldn't be thinking about Cadence right now anyway... I went through the entire scrapbook, and none of the pictures triggered... well, anything. So what can I do now?"

The obvious thought of asking my friends crossed my mind, but I immediately dismissed it. This was a problem I wanted to solve on my own, and though I'd love the assistance of my friends, this kind of thing was a discovery a mare had to make herself... only trouble was figuring out where to go. What can I do to incite the reaction? I can't just ask a pony to pose in front of me randomly, to see what'd happen. It'd be creepy. And I don't want this reaction triggering near another pony, since I know that's just wrong. Mom always said it was... and she's been right. So what do I do? Sneak around town and find a pony to watch? Then enjoy a few days in a cell when I get found out. I let out a heavy sigh as my eyes drifted to the window, mind scrolling back through the day. Pictures didn't work at all, and sneaking about to hunt down a test subject would just get me labelled as a creepy stalker... There's gotta be something. I felt that reaction when it came to three scenarios. When I saw Cheerilee. When I was lying on that bench. And when I thought about Applejack. Hmm... Applejack?

Now there was an interesting thought. Applejack... didn't I...? A slight quirk crossed my mouth as I placed my chin on the table, the gears cranking in my head, Working with AJ, that's what I thought about. Going to her to work out and talk about running, right? Get prepared for the next Running of the Leaves... wonder how... that'd... go...

My focus blurred as the kitchen faded from my sight, my thoughts running rampant.