//------------------------------// // Magic and Mysteries // Story: Her Sunlit Lineage // by Graglithan The Greater //------------------------------// Lunch at CHS came far too slowly for Twilight’s tastes, and the moment it arrived she started going as fast as she could to get to the lunchroom without suspicion. Of course, she stopped in the restroom first to switch to her contacts. She didn’t want to risk wearing her glasses any longer than she needed to. Keeping them in her pockets was worrying enough. There was only one hiccup during her quick swap. Muffins had bumped into her on accident while exiting a stall, and Twilight’s hair had caught the edge of the sink as she fell. The pins holding her bun in place fell out on impact, and she lost a good number of the small metal clips down the floor drain. Twilight, however, had no time to spend complaining about having her hair down at the moment. Something bizarre was happening to her glasses, and she was 99.99% sure that it was magic related. This change in attire did lead to another problem she hadn’t foreseen happening any time soon. As she ducked and weaved through the hallways, Twilight noticed that people would not stop staring at her. It was like the Friendship Games all over again. She had a small sigh of relief when she finally reached the lunchroom and headed straight for the usual table her friends chose. Everyone, even Fluttershy, was there eating, though there was a notable blush on the butterscotch girl from whatever Rarity had been talking to her about. “Sorry for being late girls. I-” Before Twilight could finish, all of her friends turned to look and jumped in surprise. Rainbow even stood up and looked worried. “What are you doing here Princess? I thought you were with Sunset.” Twilight blinked dumbly for a moment before tilting her head. “... huh?” Applejack cleared her throat and put a hand on Rainbow’s shoulder, slowly pushing her back down into her seat. “Uh, Dash, that’s our Twilight.” Rainbow, for her part, blushed a bit as she rubbed the back of her head. “Oh.” She gave an awkward laugh and smile as she turned back to her food. “Heh, sorry.” “That does bring up something though.” Applejack turned to the lavender student with a raised eyebrow. “Ah thought you were just putting in contacts?” Letting out a frustrated groan, Twilight rubbed her eyes for a moment. “Small accident; lost some pins in the bathroom. I have more in my locker, but this is far more important.” “Are you sure?” Eyes turned to Rarity as she started to look over Twilight, making the dressmaker aware of what she was doing. “Sorry dear, but I may be in the same boat as Rainbow. The similarities are frighteningly accurate.” A wry smile crossed the alabaster girl’s lips as she rubbed her chin in thought. “Though if I may add, you do look much more confident like this. I recommend wearing your hair down more often.” Twilight blushed heavily as she frantically waved a hand towards her friend. “Can we talk about that later? We have a magic emergency here.” Rarity, as well as the rest of their friends who had yet to be informed, all stiffened. “Oh my... Nobody’s hurt; are they?” Pinkie Pie whimpered a bit and messed with one of the curling ends of her hair. “I hope it doesn't involve making anyone laugh. I’m still feeling kinda mopey.” Fluttershy’s hands trembled as she adjusted her hair. “Um, if it’s okay to ask, what happened?” Taking her glasses out of her pocket, Twilight handed them over carefully. “Here, take a quick look with them on around the room.” A small gasp escaped Fluttershy as she did just that, and saw the entirety of the lunchroom through new eyes. All around the room, focusing on different students, the little lights from before danced around. The number that flew around their table was astonishing, and it was almost like the lights were playing with each other. As she passed the glasses off to Rainbow for her to look through, A detail about what she saw struck her. Everyone had different colors around them, and for the most part, they all fit with the person in question. The ones that didn’t were floating around Pinkie. Amidst the bright white, lavender, blue, orange, and yellow of their group, the lights hovering around Pinkie were a dull pink, that shimmered every now and again, like a stage light that needed a new bulb. Fluttershy was brought out of thought when the glasses finished their rounds and Rarity looked at them curiously. The fashionista was scrutinizing every detail she could, before looking to their bookish friend. “I thought you said this was an emergency, Twilight.” The table was silent for a split second before they all turned to the alabaster girl “H-Huh!?” Twilight’s eye twitched for a moment before a hair sprung out of place. “How does this not qualify as an emergency!? My-” A glance at the other tables made her realize that the other students were starting to look at them with varying degrees of interest and worry. Lowering her voice, Twilight hissed her frustrations. “My glasses are somehow magic right now!” Rarity let out a small sigh and tapped her palm with the glasses in question. “Well darling, I can see this being a possible point in our favor. While these might not be aesthetically pleasing on most individuals, you being one of the exceptions of course, if something magical were happening we could follow the magic to its source and solve the problem faster. This little development could be quite the boon in the long run.” Twilight shook her head as worry danced in her eyes. “That’s assuming what’s being shown to us even is magic at all. We have no idea what exactly the glasses are showing us.” “Ah’m with Twilight on this one.” All eyes turned to Applejack as she frowned in thought. “Ya make a good point Rarity, but last time anyone got ahold of a magic doohickey and ran around using it-- uh,” the farmer winced as her lavender friend looked away for a moment, “Things didn’t turn out so well, an’ could have gone much worse. More importantly, we ain’t got Sunset over here in case a repeat happens to someone else.” Raising an eyebrow, Rainbow casually leaned back in her seat with her arms crossed. “Well, then why don’t we just break ‘em and call it a day?” The table as a whole turned to the colorful soccer star with looks of shock. “Rainbow!” Rainbow threw her arms up and frowned as she let her chair fall forward again. “What? Breaking the Siren’s amulets worked on them, so why wouldn’t the same make Twilight’s glasses normal again?” “Because I need these to see,” Twilight emphasized as she pointed at her angry eyes, before sighing and propping her head on the table with an arm. “Why does my eyesight have to be so horrible?” “Maybe it would be best to just keep them somewhere safe for now?” Fluttershy stared at the glasses in worry, fingers gently touching against her lips before curling down into her palm. “You wouldn’t have to wear them, but there wouldn’t be a chance for anything bad to happen either.” The group descended into silence, each pondering how to proceed before Pinkie looked up from her food. “I think we should go with Fluttershy’s idea. We can wait for Sunny to get back, and then do some kinda magic thingy to fix Twilight’s glasses.” Murmurs of agreement spread through the table shortly after. Applejack looked at her friends and saw how the mood kept dropping. “Let’s talk about something else for now.” Turning to Twilight, the farm girl raised an eyebrow. “Did ya find out how old Celestia is yet?” A long groan left Twilight as she slumped more. “No.” Rainbow Dash’s eyebrow rose to match her farming friend’s. “Seriously? How hard can it be to find someone’s age?” The bookish girl’s exhaustion could be seen in her eyes as she rubbed the sides of her head. “I have looked everywhere I can think of for any information I can. There's- I can't explain it. Nothing is matching anything else. Absolutely nothing!” Reaching into her bag, Twilight pulled out her laptop and opened her notes, showing the girls what little she found. “Either there were several generations of her family with the name Celestia and none of them added a number after their names, or someone keeps altering and shifting the dates! Trying to find anything on Luna wasn’t any better. It just doesn’t exist past ten years ago, and she’s only been the Vice Principal for the past six years.” Humming in thought, Pinkie narrowed her gaze for a moment, before her eyes shot open. “Did you try any books?” The whole table paused as Twilight blinked owlishly for a moment, only to turn and stare at Pinkie. “Huh?” Pinkie leaned back in her seat some as she looked up in thought, utterly missing the curls slowly came back into her hair. “Well, I noticed from a lot of the parties I’ve thrown, that when it comes to principals, they usually went to the school districts they’re in charge of when they were younger, and I mean they really loved to show their old photos from their high school graduations, so maybe you can find Celestia in an old yearbook and then it can tell you when she went to high school and use that super sciencey brain of yours to figure out how old she is!” By the time her rant finished, her hair had started to get at least half of its poof back, and a smile began to form on Pinkie’s lips. “Hey! I’m starting to feel better! Maybe I can--” With the sound of a deflating balloon, her hair quickly fell back down. “Oh, nope, there it goes.” During her friend’s rant, Twilight’s eye slowly started to twitch. Not because what Pinkie suggested was outlandish, no. It was because everything she said made absolute sense. She became so lost in mentally smacking herself and being physically incapable of doing so from sheer revelation, that she failed to notice her bag moving. At least, until Spike poked his head out giving the girl the smuggest smirk, he could muster. “I told you asking them for help was a good idea.” Twilight sent a soft glare, made weaker by her blush, towards the smug canine. “Shush you.” A small round of short-lived laughs spread through the table. They all ate their food in silence with Spike stealing a few bites from Twilight occasionally. The atmosphere wasn’t exactly positive, but the cloud of depression that had been looming over most of the group was at least fading into a moderate fog. All thoughts were on figuring out just what to do. They couldn’t leave something magic lying around for someone to mess with and potentially hurt somebody. “I wonder how Sunset’s doing right now.” All eyes turned to Fluttershy, as she idly poked the pudding they got for dessert. “I hope her day’s going better than ours is.” Murmurs of agreement were shared amongst the group before Rainbow perked up, and her eyes widened. “Wait... did Sunset give anyone her journal before going through? Last I checked we kinda rushed her back to her world without really thinking.” Looks of realization spread through the group, and faces got paler by the second. “Aw crap, it’s not closed for good is it!?” Clearing her throat, Twilight got their attention and reached into her bag. She pulled out a rather specific book that instantly got the group to calm down as they saw its sun emblazoned cover. “She slipped it into my bag before she left.” Twilight looked back at the journal and her lips pressed into a thin line. “To be honest, I’m a little scared that I didn’t even notice until I got home that night. Kinda puts everything you girls told me about how she was before you all became friends into a more believable light.” Spike raised a doggy eyebrow and dropped his smirk. “Are you kidding? I was in your bag, and I didn’t notice!” Applejack blinked in surprise as she scratched the back of her head. “Twilight, we didn’t know she could do that.” Rarity hummed in thought as she looked at the book. “Then again, this does make me wonder how she learned to be so deft with her hands. If she could slip a journal into someone’s bag without them noticing,” the fashionista gasped and had a small spark enter her eyes, “imagine how precise her needlework would be!” The group groaned, and Applejack was left rubbing her face. “Now ain’t exactly the time, Rarity. Magic glasses first, Sewin’ helper Sunset later.” Thankfully for the girls, any impending argument between the farmer and fashionista were put on hold as the journal began to glow and vibrate. Silently, they all looked at each other before nodding to Twilight, prompting the bookish girl to open the book and see what was inside. She gave the newest entry a quick once over before looking up. “It looks like they had their world’s Spike send the message over. They must not have their copy of the journal with them.” Fluttershy leaned in a bit, trying to hide her worry. “What’s it say?” Clearing her throat, Twilight looked back down to the page and began reading. “Dear Twilight, One, it’s kinda weird that I’m writing a letter from you to you, and two, Twilight and Sunset wanted to ask if you girls could find out what you can on somepony named ‘Sunny Days.’ The letter they sent me didn’t say why. Only that it involved Sunset somehow and that I needed to write a letter to you since Sunset gave you her journal? Honestly, it looks like she couldn’t focus on the letter when she wrote it, and I’m inferring from context at this point. Most of what she wrote was illegible. Sincerely, Spike the Dragon.” Rarity hummed and tapped a fingernail against the table. “A rather peculiar request. I can understand Sunset, but why would the princess want to know about someone on this side of the portal?” Rainbow nodded and scratched her head. “Yeah, and how would it involve Sunset anyways? Isn’t she from Equestria?” Twilight looked back after the journal glowed a second time. “There’s a bit more. P.S. Can I meet the other me sometime?” She could only blink for a moment before sighing. “Yep, that’s Spike alright.” “And I wanna know what it’s like to be a dragon!” All six girls looked at the puppy, who just pouted. “What? I’m curious.” Twilight rolled her eyes for a moment before turning to get Spike back in the bag. As that was going on, Applejack frowned in thought. “Either way, what are we gonna do about it? You’re still trying to look for info on Celestia, aren’t ya?” “Yeah, and we kinda have a magic problem too.” Rainbow Dash chimed in. “Any more stuff and there’d be too much to handle at once.” Twilight hummed in thought once Spike was situated again. Rainbow Dash had a point, and it was clear the rest of the girls agreed to some degree. The solution Twilight came up with, however, didn’t sit well with the studious girl. “It might be for the best if we split into teams for this. As Rainbow said, there’s just too many problems for us to solve one at a time.” She grimaced as she looked at her glasses one more time, before putting them in their case. “The magic problem can wait. I’ll keep my glasses somewhere nobody can get ahold of them, and we can figure out what to do when Sunset gets back. We should also bring anything from Equestria to somewhere safe so that any other potential magic doesn’t go wild and hurt anyone.” Applejack perked up and smiled. "We could bring all our souvenirs over to Sweet Apple Acres. Ah can't exactly move the trees Ah got, what with how big they keep getting, but y'all could bring your stuff there, for now, an’ Big Mac can keep an eye on ‘em." Twilight thought for a moment before sighing. “That’s probably the best option we have. Alright then, we’ll look into Celestia and Sunny Days when we can, and try to get our stuff to Applejack’s.” Rainbow smirked a bit and chuckled. “Wow Twilight, with Sunset gone, you’re stepping up to the plate like the Princess did.” Twilight’s face burned a bright red, and the bookish girl sputtered. “What!? But I- I don’t-!” The girls all shared a laugh at their friend’s expense, and Twilight looked down at her food. “I’m just trying to think of what Sunset would do.” A white hand landed on her shoulder and Twilight looked over to see Rarity giving her a sympathetic smile. “It’s all in good fun, darling. I’m sure Rainbow would have come up with a jab for Sunset if she was here too.” The fashionista then looked at her phone for a moment before grimacing. “It seems, however, that lunch is running short thanks to our little meeting. Shall we see who goes with whom?” Realizing how short on time they were, the girls dived into their discussion on who would be with who in their research. What they failed to notice, however, was an orange and yellow-haired girl listening in from a table away. “Hmm... stuff from Ponyland huh? I bet G would love to hear about this.” Turning and walking out of the lunch room, she chuckled and pulled out her phone as she started going through her contacts. “Soccer balls just aren’t cutting it anymore.” Lightning smirked as she turned down the hallway. “It’s about time we got back at you for bailing on us, Rainbow.”