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// 2: Scrambled Egghead 
// Story: Magical Undead Human Princess of Friendship 
// by totallynotabrony 
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By the next morning, Liv had decided that whoever Twilight had been, she was certainly an ordered, inquisitive person.  She spent most of the evening rereading medical texts and picking out things that she hadn’t even remembered from medical school.  She also found herself writing out a daily checklist several pages long.  The final item was make new checklist for tomorrow.  Twilight was possibly neurotic, but definitely intelligent.
 
Taking the leftovers of Twilight’s brain out of the fridge, Liv had scrambled egghead for breakfast and then went to meet her friends.  Twilight’s friends, that is.  It seemed like everyone had more friends than Liv.  Of course, that was probably because they weren’t literal brain-eating zombies.
 
She called Ravi to tell him where she was going.  He understood her extracurriculars and would cover for her.
 
She stopped at a coffee shop and got six cups to go in the little cardboard holders.  One did not simply show up the morning after a tragic loss without coffee.  It was Seattle, after all.
 
Liv came out the front door of the shop carrying the coffee and turned to the back parking lot to go to her car.  She hummed while she consulted her checklist.  She let go of the coffee, stopping where she stood to take out her pen and mark off get coffee.
 
“Oh, and one more thing!” she said brightly, adding take thorough notes below the as-yet unchecked box for interview Twilight’s friends.
 
Liv clicked her pen purposefully and slid it inside the spiral of her notebook.  She looked up to continue towards her car, suddenly realizing the coffee was still hovering beside her, right where she’d taken her hands off it.
 
She jumped back in surprise, and as if released, the six coffee cups in their cardboard tray splashed to the ground.  Liv stared at the mess.  Why had she unconsciously set the coffee in the air and expected it to stay there?  Why had it?  How could that have happened?  How could it even be possible?  
 
Magic?
 
Well, that would certainly explain it.  But it also drew up several other questions.  Was she actively doing it?  
 
Liv hesitantly put out one hand and tried to move the sodden cups on the ground.  Nothing happened.  Hocus-pocus finger wiggles didn’t help.
 
She glanced around.  Someone could walk by at any moment.  No matter what was going on here—magic or otherwise—people would wonder.  Collecting herself, she quickly turned and walked back towards the coffee shop to get another round.  As she walked, she jotted another note to the bottom of her list: investigate magic.
 
Liv showed up at Sunset Shimmer’s apartment a few minutes later with fresh coffee.  Her knock brought a sleepy yet still tired-looking Sunset to the door.
 
“Hi, I’m Liv Moore, we met yesterday.  I was hoping I could talk to you again.”
 
“There’s nothing left to talk about,” Sunset mumbled, trying to close the door.
 
“Please, I brought coffee,” Liv persisted.
 
“There’s no reason to talk,” Sunset retorted, now pushing at Liv’s foot, which was in the door.  “It was an accident.  Twilight’s gone.  End of story.”
 
“I know you’re hurting,” said Liv.  “Loss is painful.  But friendship is everlasting, and even when the person is gone, we keep the memories with us.  I know I can’t replace Twilight, but I want to help you, anything I can do.  I want to be your friend.”
 
Liv didn’t know where the words had originated.  It didn’t feel like something she would say.  It seemed to work, though.  Sunset paused, seeming to meet Liv’s eyes for the first time.  After a moment, she opened the door.
 
The other five girls Liv had seen the previous day were all still sleeping, draped over various pieces of furniture.  Sunset woke them gently one by one, gesturing to Liv and the coffee.
 
The six of them stood around the kitchen for a few minutes, just drinking coffee.  There wasn’t much talk, but Liv had learned their names.  She found herself more willing to accept monikers like Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie at face value today than she had before.
 
The tall blonde, Applejack, finished her coffee first.  As her head tipped back to drain the cup, she glanced at the clock.  “We’re going to be late for school.”
 
“Are you kidding me?” muttered Rainbow.
 
“Surely we can rest today.  The principals will understand,” said Rarity.
 
“Twilight would have wanted us to go,” said Fluttershy at a near-whisper.  The others nodded reluctantly.
 
“Plus, we need to—” Sunset stopped abruptly, glancing at Liv.
 
“What?” Liv asked.  She looked around, but the rest suddenly found their coffee cups very interesting.
 
She let it drop.  “Well, I can give you a ride to school.  It might be a little tight, but we can probably fit in my car.”
 
“I’ll take my motorcycle,” said Sunset.  The rest seemed happy to accept Liv’s offer.
 
Getting in the car, she asked, “So which school do you go to?  University of Washington?”
 
“Canterlot High,” said Pinkie Pie, who had claimed the front passenger seat.  She had the worst case of bedhead that Liv had ever seen.
 
“You’re high school students?”  Liv looked at them.  Strange that they all seemed so worldly.  Sunset even had her own apartment.
 
But the new information was welcome.  Liv remembered her mission.  If they were students, then Twilight had likely been a classmate.  Maybe the school could tell her something.
 
She parked at the school and walked the girls to the front door.  They thanked her for the ride and went inside the building.  When they were out of sight, Liv went into the administrative room near the front door.  A secretary sat at a desk inside.  Behind her was a darkened office with the name Principal Celestia on the door.
 
The secretary looked up.  “How may I help you?”
 
Liv introduced herself, using her official title.  “I’m looking for information about Twilight Sparkle.”
 
“Who?”
 
“I apologize, that was only the name I was given.  She has purple hair?”
 
The secretary shook her head.
 
Liv tried again.  “She’s a friend of Sunset Shimmer, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack?”
 
“I do know those names, but I’m not familiar with any Twilight Sparkle.”
 
“Wait, those are all real names?” Liv asked, incredulous.
 
“That’s correct.  Do you have any further questions?”
 
Liv searched her mind, berating herself for not keeping her checklist and notes updated in the last few minutes.  “No, if I think of anything, I can call.”  She copied down the school’s phone number and went back to her car.
 
Back at the morgue, Liv filled Ravi in on everything she had learned.  He was most intent on the possible magic she had encountered.  To be fair, so was she.  She felt a burning curiosity to experiment.
 
Ravi grabbed the nearest thing at hand—an erlenmeyer flask—and set it on the examination table in front of her.  “Try to levitate this.”
 
Liv replaced it with a sponge.  “There’s no way to tell what could happen.  Let’s try something that won’t break if I drop it.”
 
The two of them bent low over the table, staring intently at the sponge.  Liv waved her hands.  Nothing.  “Abracadaba!”  Still nothing.
 
Both of them were still focusing over the exam table, their heads nearly touching, when Clive walked in.  Ravi and Liv straightened up at the sound of his footsteps, but not quick enough to avoid his questioning look.  It wasn’t the strangest thing he had ever walked in on at the morgue, however, and he didn’t ask.
 
“Liv, do you have anything new?” Clive said.
 
“Twilight’s friends are all students at Canterlot High,” she told him.  “And those are their real names, believe it or not.  Despite that, Twilight was not a student there.  I’m not convinced she’s from Estonia, though.”
 
“Canterlot High?” said Clive.  “I’ve heard stories about that school.”
 
“What kind of stories?” Ravi asked.
 
“Just stories.  None of them were my cases.”  Clive’s tone changed.  “But I’ve heard more stories about that school than any other high school in the city.  Something strange must be going on there, especially any school that lets its students get away with hair like that.”
 
Ravi glanced at Liv.  Could there be more at work here?  More magic, even?  That could explain the girls’ reluctance to talk.
 
The two of them, with all their experimentation, had never revealed Liv’s secret, but that was personal.  If they discovered hard, repeatable, and demonstrable evidence that magic was real, could they keep that to themselves?  Should they?
 
“Let me know if you learn anything else,” said Clive, turning to go.
 
In that moment, Liv was hit with a memory.
 
“Dear Princess Celestia,” wrote Twilight.
 
“My friends and I all learned an important lesson this week: never judge a book by its cover.  Someone may look unusual, or funny, or scary. But you have to look past that and learn who they are inside.  Real friends don't care what your "cover" is; it's the contents of a pony that count.  And a good friend, like a good book, is something that will last forever.
 
“Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”
 
Liv came out of the memory with a gasp.  Clive had already gone, so she turned to Ravi.  “I saw Twilight writing a letter with an old fashioned quill and ink.  The quill was moving on its own, like with magic.”
 
“Was Twilight a horse again?” Ravi asked.
 
“A pony, actually.  She mentioned it in the letter.  But more importantly, she was writing to Celestia, the principal at Canterlot High”  Liv frowned.  “She was writing about a lesson she’d learned about friendship.”
 
“Your magical pony girl was writing a loving letter to her high school principal about the nuances of friendship.”  Ravi grinned.
 
“And what’s wrong with that?” said Liv.  “Also, it wasn’t her principal.  She didn’t go to that school, not to mention the letter was actually addressed to Princess Celestia.”
 
“Princess!” Ravi crowed.
 
Liv ignored him.  “Either way, it’s pretty strange and I don’t know what to make of it.  I’ll need more data.”