//------------------------------// // 7 Gathering friendship fuel // Story: Book of Sparkle // by Homeshine //------------------------------// If Pinkie Pie could do one thing... it was to throw a party for foals. And she wasn't about to let temporarily being Twilight Sparkle stop her. Aurora Glory was getting at least two helpings of all the food, trying every game until she'd mastered it, and was having way more fun playing party games with Spike than any other foal at one of Pinkie's parties ever had; she did not stop laughing for more than a second for the entire time, in a continuous stream of giggles. Aurora even managed to wear Pinkie Pie out, and that took some doing. Of course, it could also help that Pinkie was still Twilight. But she was also quickly wearing out Spike. As she bounced on a trampoline for the umpteenth thousandth time, she finally apparently realized she was the only one still on it. "Pinkie? Spike?" She asked the two lumps resting in beanbag chairs next to the trampoline in the hastily-converted playroom. Spike raised one pointer finger halfheartedly in the air, "Be with you... in a minute," he panted. "Go on … without me," he continued in mock tragedy. Pinkie Pie's reply was simply, "Blarg." Aurora stopped bouncing and disembarked from the trampoline "May we have some more ice cream, then? Or cake? I dearly loved that cake." Spike said, "I hate to say it, but if sugar is giving you all that energy, maybe we've had enough sweets." "Sacrilege!" Pinkie protested. "Heresy!" Twilight Sparkle took that opportunity to walk in, Pinkie's body strangely trotting, rather than the frantic bouncing up and down it was normally known for, but the smile was still there, "So is everypony having a good time?" "I am!" Aurora Glory was positively beaming, "Can you read me another story?!" "Well, what kind of story would you like to hear?" "hmmmm," Aurora put one hoof to her mouth in thought, sticking her tongue out. "Ooooh, let me think of a good one!" Pinkie asked, "How do you choose which story to read? You always seem to get the right ones." Twilight straddled Pinkie Pie's prone figure. "The rule for teaching fillies is simple: you don't invite them into your world. You play in the fillies' world. That's how you teach; you don't transmit knowledge; you build the knowledge inside their minds, on their terms." "A story about cake?" Pinkie asked in response. "We both liked cake." Twilight responded, "No, let her control where the party goes. She is the planner now." Aurora was still thinking, "Oh! I know! Tell me one about Princess Luna!" Twilight smiled wider, and dutifully pulled a book off of a nearby shelf. "Oh, I know the perfect story about Princesses Celestia AND Luna." "Who is Celestia?", the little filly asked. There was silence for a full minute at that. "Is she a princess like Luna? I like princesses. I've heard talk, but I don't t really 'get it'. Who is she, anyway?" Spike was the first to recover, incredulous, "You don't know who Princess Celestia is?" Twilight picked up on that thread, "But you do know Princess Luna..." her eyes darted off to one side, staring at the wall, lost in thought. You could practically hear the gears turning in her head. "Oh, yeah, I know Luna. She's so great. I want to help her do everything. I want to learn everything to help Luna." Twilight's smile returned. "That's how I always was about Princess Celestia. I always wanted to learn more to impress her, so I pushed myself extra hard. It's as if … " the smile dropped. Twilight's eyes grew wide. The gears in her head shuddered to a final, resounding click. The deduction had been made. "Spike, Pinkie, please take over reading this to our friend. I have to go see Luna right away." Twilight practically threw the book at Spike, who just barely caught it in time, just short of it hitting him upside the head. "What's the holdup?'" Spike asked, scratching his head absent-mindedly with the book. But Twilight had already retreated in the distance without even stopping to close the door to the playroom. "But who is Celestia?" Aurora's face started to look pouty. "Well, Aurora," Pinkie took the book from Spike with one hoof... and when the book threatened to overbalance and tump over backwards, some extra minor magical assistance. "This book will explain alllllllll about our princesses Celestia and Luna; and it's just for little fillies like you." "Okay!" Aurora brightened up at that and literally hopped into a beanbag chair with a 'pumf' sound, snuggling up in it like a little nest. Spike repeated the action in the other beanbag, and Pinkie began to read, just as she'd read to the Cake twins. This was the part that she liked best, reading to the two children. Suddenly, Pinkie gasped. "What?" Spike asked. Pinkie recovered quickly, and her smile returned, albeit in a more mischievous grin than previously, "I think I know what's gotten Twilight all riled up. I think she's figured out where Celestia is." "She does? How?" Spike asked. "Well, for right now it's book time. Questions time comes after." Aurora replied, unwilling to wait any longer. So they did. * * * "Are you certain?" Luna asked Twilight in Luna's bedchamber. Luna, having just been awoken to set the sun, was rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Near as I can be." Twilight replied, "It's the only sequence of events that fits the current scenario." "But I do not see how such a sequence of events could happen. It's most improbable, requiring just the right mistakes at just the right places." "Well, it's as Detective Sherlock Pones says, 'if you eliminate the impossible, whatever improbables are left, must be the answer'." "Then, it would seem we have our answer. Only one question yet remains: 'How to we recover Celestia back'?" "That ..." Twilight trailed off, "… is a good question. I don't know yet." "Perhaps continuing to question the filly Aurora Glory will allow further insights to arise. I will go talk to her." Luna climbed out of bed, and started for the door. Twilight ah-hem-ed. "Aren't you forgetting something?" She smiled. "Ah yes, I must set the sun before I raise the moon. Pardon me, I am not fully awake, and my sister usually does that bit for me." "Well, we all make mistakes here and there... even Princesses."