Twilight Sparkle skimmed through the pages of another book. She was in a trance of sorts, desperately seeking information. She had done it once, but she didn't know where to start!
She wanted to make a spell.
She had completed an unfinished spell - and that was what had given her her wings and made her an Alicorn and a Princess - but she didn't know the first thing about making an entire spell. She continued to skim pages, unaware of a baby dragon behind her. "Hey," Spike said.
"What is it Spike? I'm kind of busy"
"Princess Celestia sent this." He held a package that seemed too heavy for him to carry. It was almost bigger than him and he grunted as he hoisted the parcel on to Twilight's desk. The wood in the desk began to bow and Twilight picked up using magic and set it on the ground next to her. A package from Celestia? When she was Celestia's student, this kind of thing was normal, but she was no longer the Princess' apprentice, and she was surprised to see it. Especially since it was so large. She gave Spike a confused look and asked, "Do you know what it is?"
"No," he replied, "I'm just as confused as you."
Using a pair of scissors, Twilight carefully removed the tape on the top of the package and opened it. Inside were a bunch of old-looking notebooks and scrolls. Attached to the top was another piece of paper, only set apart from the rest by its age. This one was brand new. Twilight picked up the paper and recognized it right away: royal parchment. She read out loud:
Twilight,
As you are well aware, as of now, you are my equal, not my student. However, I know you are infatuated with magic and everything about it. I have sent one of my guards to my and Luna's old castle in the Everfree Forest to retrieve these. I hope they assist you in your quest for knowledge.
Sincerely,
Celestia
She dumped the contents of the package onto her floor and they fell to the ground, releasing a cloud of thick dust in the process. She coughed and used her magic to open a window and let it clear. When the air was clean, she piled the notebooks and scrolls and looked at the top. It was a notebook, ancient by the looks of it. She brushed some of the remaining dust off of the cover and was astonished as she saw the revealed words, hidden by the dust of a millennium:
THE JOURNAL OF STAR SWIRL THE BEARDED
Twilight gasped in awe and immediate picked the journal up and hugged it. She laughed, jumping up and down, jumping like her dear friend Pinkie Pie. She opened it, indifferent to the dust still trapped between the pages. In her excitement, she had forgotten the age of the notebook and ripped the cover right off the spine. That brought her back to her senses. She looked at the pile again, seeing the second notebook, and her excitement increased.
THE SECOND JOURNAL OF STAR SWIRL THE BEARDED
The closer she looked, she could see more words below the scratch writing. These were obviously letters, but not of an alphabet she knew. She separated the scrolls from the notebooks and quickly realized the purpose of each one. Each notebook was a different journal, one that Star Swirl had written when the previous had run out of pages. She was too entranced by the journals of her idol to notice the scrolls right away. She looked again at the notebook with the torn off cover and began to read...
But she didn’t know the words. Or the letters for that matter. She looked back at the cover she had displaced and began to compare the odd language on the pages to the one on the cover. A few of the letters matched, but this taught her nothing, other than the languages were the same. She quickly flipped through the book, looking for a translation, similar to the cover, but there was none. She began to think, Star Swirl’s magic is documented in the Canterlot library. Whatever was in these journals was better. More important. But she didn’t know how to read it. She sighed and dropped to the floor. She looked over to the pile of scrolls she had neglected and picked one up out of curiosity, assuming to find the same symbols of the forgotten language. She found pictures. Some were plants, others of strange rocks, others of ancient machines. Each one, however, did have the same language in the form of captions and jotted down notes. She looked at every scroll, hopefully finding something she COULD read. She didn’t, but she found something that surprised her; A picture of a blue flower. She had no idea what the captions said, but she didn’t need to. It was Poison Joke. There’s no way she could have mistaken it. Maybe, she thought, I have to return to the Everfree Forest to find my answers.
She filled her saddle bag with as much as she could comfortably carry – there was no way she’d take everything into the forest with her; there was far too much there. She bolted toward the door but was intercepted by Spike. “Going somewhere?” he asked.
“Yup, these books are in a language that I don’t know, and I want to search the Everfree Forest for hints.” She showed Spike the picture of the Poison Joke. “There’s only one place in Equestria where this plant grows, and I may just be able to find something I need to know there.”
“You might want to hit up the others then,” said Spike. “Remember the last time you were in that forest alone? Those flytrap things kept spitting that gas all over you, and the others had to save you. I want you to be safe. Even more so now that you’re royalty.”
“Alright then. I’m going. Don’t burn the library down.”
“You can count on me,” Spike replied, then sneezed. Green fire was expelled from his nostrils. “Heh heh… I think”.
Twilight left the library, and headed in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres to recruit her first partner.