//------------------------------// // Scribbles // Story: Iron Mountain // by computerneek //------------------------------// FOOOOM! Princess Celestia looks up from her breakfast, making eye contact with her sister for a moment as the scroll drops onto the table.  Perhaps the most interesting part is how much rougher it looks.  Celestia runs through the familiar process of opening her heart to the energies of her world before she lifts it off of the table with a ray of sunshine, rather than a thaumic aura, to uncurl it for her reading. She reads for two seconds before lowering it, looking towards her sister.  “This is going to be a good one,” she mutters. Princess Luna begins the process of activating her power as well.  “How far did you get?” she asks, as she works on it- and adopts an accent that makes her sound like she has a severe headcold.  “Some’fing tear-bowl is hap-nen?” Her older sister chuckles lightly.  “No, I got as far as ‘Derr Purr-sees’.  I never knew her hoofwriting was this bad.” Four seconds later, Princess Luna sticks her head sideways through a dreamscape portal that places it next to Celestia’s.  “This is going to be good.” Princess Celestia uncurls the letter once again, and they read it together, out loud. “Derr Purr-sees See-Boota, “L eeb ooq, Hthmlb.  Lou nun oompeleby ost olmoyo, mb ee…” The two princesses pause to laugh several times as they read their way through the letter without being able to pick a single readable word out of the gibberish.  Some they could guess, but the purpose of the letter, and any information contained within, is left as a mystery. “I never knew Twilight’s hoofwriting was this bad either,” Princess Luna agrees.  “Any guesses she’s asking about the magical side of her ascension?” Princess Celestia nods.  “That’s my guess too.”  She gives the bracelet on her leg a single tap.  “Zeus?  Do you know what Twilight wrote in her latest letter?” The response comes as instantly as they always do.  “I did, but I’m curious how entertaining it was.”  Luna, having tapped her bracelet and received his response as well, chuckles with her sister. “Quite, actually,” Celestia responds.  “I never knew I was called see-boota.” Zeus instantly recites the entire letter, deviating only slightly from how they had read it- and not pausing to laugh even once.  Score, he even does it in a good imitation of Twilight’s voice! A royal guard outside raises his eyebrow, his eyes flicking to the closed dining room door he’s guarding.  He only holds this position for a second before returning to his trained neutral appearance.  He might just have to ask what’s amusing his Princesses so. “Wow,” Luna states simply, once the two have calmed down.  “You had that down.” “I’m still not sure which language Twilight thought it was readable in,” he replies. The guard’s head actually turns this time, resetting just as quickly. “So, how’s the original text read?” Celestia asks, stifling her laughter again. “Dear Princess Celestia, “I need help, I think.  I’ve run completely out of magic, and it’s not regenerating.  Zeus tells me my ‘magic gland’, the organ that produces magic, is disintegrating itself!  I can’t seem to find any books on the matter- do you know what’s doing this? “Your faithful- erm, princess, “Twilight Sparkle.” Luna raises her eyebrows, stuffing her head through the portal again.  “Seems much shorter than this.” “Many of the ‘words’ on the page are supposed to be crossed out, or are simply scribbles while she figured out how best to hold and move a quill with her hoof.  That was how she read it to herself before finding Spike for the mailing.” “Wow.” Celestia simply nods, looking at her sister across the table- but leaving her comset on.  “So, Twilight is having trouble with the magical aspect of her ascension.  Shall we help out, or see what comes of it?” Luna withdraws her head from the cross-table gateway, closing it silently.  “Depends.  How did Cadence take it?” Celestia raises her eyebrows.  “She refused to stop trying,” she replies.  “Took her almost six months- mostly because she was satisfied when her wingpower and cloudwalking returned.” Princess Luna nods slowly.  “That reminds me, Cadence was a pegasus before her ascension.  How’s Twilight going to react?” Zeus takes his unspoken queue- despite not having a camera near Canterlot.  “I take it her powers will depart completely for a time before returning?” Celestia tilts her head slightly.  “Kinda.  She’ll be utterly powerless, on her own, for about a month.  After that, her wingpower and cloudwalking will return- but her magic will be so far different from what she’s used to it could take her a while.” “Ahh.  Her reaction- as of right now- is outright panic.  She’s sent me thirty-seven- now thirty-eight- different requests for some way to ‘fix’ her magic, but has yet to either allow time for my response or to approach close enough for me to utilize my magic production capabilities.” Celestia raises an eyebrow.  “Magic production capabilities?” “Affirmative.  I am capable of producing, storing, and transferring mana in raw form.” “Can you use it?” Luna asks. “So far, I have only been able to directly facilitate magical activity through my motive and weapons systems.” “Weapons?”  Luna pauses only briefly.  “Makes sense, with armor.  Are you a fighting machine or something?” “Affirmative.  I am, indeed, a machine of war from a civilization I believe long dead.” Celestia nods slowly.  “How bad?” “I have yet to find a single entity, across the entirety of Equis, that might possess the power to penetrate my armor, were I to disable my defensive fields.” “Except magic.” “Even that has very little effect against duralloy; Twilight tried, before I perfected my antimagic barriers.  It is true, though, that duralloy alone does not stop teleportation.” “So how powerful are your weapons?” Luna asks. “I possess the firepower to wipe all life off Equis in six seconds flat.” Luna’s jaw drops, but Celestia recovers first.  “I’m glad we made friendly relations,” she says. “Agreed.” Celestia blinks.  “Come to think of it, Twilight’s been trying to dig up and identify something in the edge of the Everfree for the last week.  Think you could help?” Both princesses blink when he hesitates.  “I suppose I could help identify my own aft plating,” he finally answers.