Chapter 4
Ingress
"... but Vice Principal Luna has refused further comments. These rumors are just some of many that have developed since the death of a young female student from Canterlot High School that rocked the city about two weeks ago: the first violent death of a minor that the city has seen in over ten—.”
Click. The snappy, upbeat tunes of a pop station filled the car, replacing the world worn voice of the local newscaster.
"Twily?"
"Sorry, Shiny." Lavender eyes never looked up from the handwritten book. "It's just... It’s so sad. And it’s already been weeks. I'm tired of hearing about it." The fingers of one hand traced the symbols on the page at a steady pace whilst the other idly stroked a gently resting Spike, her precious, obnoxious, loving pup.
Silence.
Her eyes snapped up wide. Fingers curled, accidentally giving the pup a pleasing scratch. "I mean—I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I know that you... I meant, uh..."
"It's okay, Twily," Shiny smiled, reassuringly, knowing better than to take his eyes off of the road. "I know what you meant."
"It's just..." Twilight's hands moved indecisively. "Yeah, I... yeah." His pale hand reached over and mussed Twily’s deep purple hair in a well practiced motion. He laughed as his adorable little sister floundered between helpless embarrassment and indignant annoyance.
Shining Armor lived for those moments: the snippets of easy fun with the loves in his life. Two days ago, it was brunch with mom and dad. One day ago, it was waking up to Cadance. The current moment was helping his 'Little Sister Best Friend Forever', the awkward and adorkable nerd and prodigy, with her independent research project: the 'Unidentified Energy'...
'Mystery Energy Encoder'...
Uh...
"So, Twily," Shining Armor began, "what was the name this project of yours again?"
"The Enigmatic Energy Projection Project.”
“Ah, that's right,” Shining nodded in remembrance, “‘Project: eep’.”
“Yes, if I can isolate—,” Twilight stopped and turned towards her brother. “What? No. Stop that.”
“Sorry, I couldn’t remember if it was pronounced ‘weep’ or ‘meep'.”
“That isn’t what—.”
“I gotta say," Shining powered through, "good choice on just cutting out the first letter altogether. Gives more room for any side projects, like ‘creep’ or ‘sleep’ or...”
“Shiny, stoppit!”
“Then again, some people might include the ‘project’ part, and I’m not sure you want ‘peep’ noted as one of your many achievements—.”
“Shiny!”
“What—ow! Twily, I’m driving!" Shinor Armor laughed as one hand flailed in a half-hearted defense against his sister's embarrassed fury. Fortunately, experience taught him that traffic was virtually nonexistent in this area around that time of day, and training kept him on course.
Eventually, Twilight did show mercy, but not without a vengeful poke to the ribs.
“Honestly, Shiny, why do you keep doing that?”
“Hey, it’s not my fault you have a thing for acronyms.”
“I do not!” A beat. “They’re easy to remember!” She blushed. “It’s not 'eep’!”
“Mhm,” the Shining hummed, clearly unconvinced, earning himself another smack to the arm. “So, how far along this project are you now? You’ve been on it for a while.”
“Not too far, unfortunately,” Twilight huffed. “The difficulty of it all is why I broke this up into different projects in the first place, but even then I’m only on the first." She gestured, holding her fingers as though she were pinching a pea, despite the fact that Shining probably couldn't see it (he did). "I'm just this much passed where I was three months ago.”
“That...” Shiny’s brow creased as he caught Twilight's hand torn between returning to the pup or fiddling with her clothes. “That’s a lot longer than your other research projects. This is just part one?”
“Yes!" Twilight flexed nervous fingers. "Exactly! But all of my other projects have been based on something that there was already a foundation for. I’ve been searching for any other potential ties to other more-documented phenomena for two months, two months!" Twilight scratched Spike behind the ears. "I was half trying to force myself to find ways to explain the phenomena away for the last month—just to keep my own logic in check, of course—but everything falls through or hits a dead end or turns right back into—!" Twilight's rant tragically collided with a furious coughing fit as she choked on her own saliva.
Shining Armor wasn't nervous. "Twilight—?"
"—Absolutely nothing is working!" Twilight cried as she tossed her hands into the air, before giddily giggling in glee. “It's so exciting, but crazy! So I think I need to try to broaden my horizons a little bit; I need to get just a little crazy, too.”
“Oh yeah?” Shining Armor idly scratched his chin, and definitely not out of nervousness, as the library came into sight. “How so?”
He saw Twilight adjust her glasses' seating upon her face—a nervous tell if there ever was one, despite the determined grin—as Twilight narrowed her eyes onto their destination.
“I’m consulting fiction."
'Holy crap, Twilight, you're such a nerd,' Shining Armor smiled genuinely. He was always happy to help his L.S.B.F.F. with her little projects. They were some of the few times that he really got to see her passionate about something. He just seriously hoped that Twilight found her book before she got sidetracked.
Again.
Somebody had her book.
Twilight had been looking for such a book for the last three days. Twilight's personal collection didn't have it. The two closest libraries didn't have it. That particular less-close library had exactly one out of three copies that hadn't yet been checked out.
And somebody had her book.
It was a book so unremarkable that it didn't even get stocked. This library's three copies were probably a result of buyer's remorse or a thrice re-gifted mistake. The book itself was criticized for pretending to "do a 'science!' without actually knowing how to 'science!'" by a somewhat reputable source. It was friggin' self published for crying out loud!
Why did somebody have her book?!
Twilight analyzed the stranger that was lounging lazily on the library couch from her hiding place. She disregarded the neatly folded newspapers as irrelevant, likely leftovers from a previous visitor. She noted the strange girl's perfect hair, a beautiful, probably custom-fitted dress, the immaculately polished nails, the lackadaisical lounging on furniture you're supposed to be sitting on...
After taking in all of these details and combining them with the fact that she seemed neither overweight nor oddly proportioned—it was hard to tell with that blanket pulled up to her chest—Twilight came to one conclusion.
That girl was popular.
Twilight quietly sneered at the sycophant. In her experience, these kinds of people never go to the library. If they did, they'd be surrounded by undesirables, like geeks and nerds and people like Twilight. That must mean she's only here to kill time until her "friends"—they're never really friends—get here so that they could go be delinquents elsewhere. That, or she's hunting for targets. She's probably not even reading it.
The girl flipped a page.
Okay, maybe she's actually reading it. Actually, of course she'd be reading it. She wouldn't know good fiction if it became a cruddy movie. She probably pulled it off of the shelf at random and stuck to it out of some kind of petty pride. It wouldn't hold her interest for long. Maybe Twilight could wait her out...
...
But Twilight really wanted her book.
It was time to do something drastic.
'Okay, Twilight, you got this.' She adjusted her glasses, wishing she had Shiny and Spike around to console her (or to distract the target—everybody loved puppies). 'Just go over and ask her for the book. You'd be doing her a favor anyway! The worst that she can do is say 'no.' That was a lie. Any time she asked somebody outside of her family for something, they not only didn't give it to her, but humiliated her in the process.
Can I borrow a pencil? Have a pen, it doesn't write though, oops. What page are we on? Ew, I thought you read the whole thing already. Hey, uh, could you pretty please do your part in the group project? Boy howdy, good ideer, Twilet! Ye're so smurt, take my part, too! Wouldn't want to ruin your average, ha ha ha! Ha! Ha ha!
Ha.
But Twilight wasn't so strict that she would call herself out on her own lie if it was to herself. Twilight took a deep, calming breath, counted to fifteen, breathed again, bravely adjusted the straps on her backpack and awkwardly shuffled her way towards her target.
"E-excuse me." She cursed herself for stammering. "I was w-wondering if I could borrow that-that... thuuh..." Oh gosh, she was pretty, too? Twilight slightly adjusted her footing. Save for Cadance, pretty girls tended to bring her nothing but pain. Twilight was as lost as her words, torn between apologizing and turning around, and... and...
What did she need again?
"Book!" Twilight slapped her hands over her mouth. "Book..." She quietly groaned. Twilight glanced around, cheeks aflame, as though there more than just herself and the girl before her in a library during an extended break.
The being before Twilight blinked at her outburst, disturbed. Twilight froze, stopped breathing entirely. Slowly, ominously, it turned its hungry gaze onto her. It breathed in deeply, taking in her scent, preparing a vicious attack of bile and fire and curses.
"Hi," a voice breathed.
"...Huh? Oh, uh." When did Twilight close her eyes? She opened her eyes and saw the girl, now upright-ish on the couch and even closer to her. The blanket pooled to her lap, revealing to Twilight that the girl was, indeed, physically superior to her in every way, as per usual.
That was fine. It was always fine. Nobody could match her smarts.
Emboldened, Twilight dared to briefly meet the stranger's glare over the rim of her glasses, before dropping her eyes again to the carpet.
"Oh, um, you, I, hi! Hi. Hello." 'Twilight doing what? Words use how—sentences!' She cleared her throat roughly into a delicate fist and tried again.
"Hi." She already said that. "How's it going?" Oh right, the book! "Do you like that book?" There were no pauses between those statements.
Twilight struggled to keep her hands still at her sides and oh gosh her cheeks hurt from all the shame. The girl moved her hand. Twilight's eyes tracked it, waiting for it to point—There! She's pointing at her, and now she will either laugh or tell her to leave. Twilight relaxed a hair, like one who is trained to relax before crash-landing does. She's back in familiar territory. But wait, the finger kept moving and her eyes kept tracking. "I... uh..." It got harder and harder to focus on it until... it jerked out at her!
And poked her on the nose.
"Ahwha?" Twilight stepped back in surprise, tears shocked to her eyes, and covered her nose in confusion.
The finger retracted, standing before smiling lips in the universal 'shut up' gesture. 'Oh gosh, was I too loud?' The amber redhead bobbed her head. 'Did I say that out loud?!' The stranger sluggishly pushed herself a cushion away on the couch in disgust. "Ah, sorry!" Twilight apologized urgently in a low whisper. Honestly, she should've known better.
"Sorry." She had no idea what had gotten into her. "A-anyway," she adjusted her glasses, "I, uh, just wanted to ask if... huh?" The girl stared up at her, expectantly smiling, as she patted the seat she just vacated. "Oh? You... want me to sit?" The girl nodded.
Twilight was once again nervous. Dread filled her very being. She looked from the couch to the girl's 'innocent' face, then to the seat again. Twilight really didn't want to... Twilight looked at the small tome in the girl's other hand.
...Twilight really wanted her book.
Braving territory she'd not ventured alone in years, she slowly eased herself onto the couch—'Wow, the seat is cold, what the heck?'—taking off her bag and hugging it to her chest protectively, her anchor.
There. She was sitting with this stranger. A stranger who was staring at her. Really staring at her.
A lot.
'...Um, wow, this was actually a terrible idea. Maybe I should try again later. And somewhere else.' Just before she finished the thought, the stranger breathed in deeply—Twilight leaned away—and spoke, her voice barely a whisper.
"Hi." This girl sounded like she just woke up. "I f-feeel like I kn-kn-know you."
"Oh, uh you do?" Twilight matched her volume, wincing at the girl's exaggerated mockery of her own stutter. Or did she actually have a stutter? She didn't seem too nervous. Twilight seriously hoped that this girl didn't think that Twilight was making fun of her.
Also, what? Did they meet before? That would be really embarrassing! 'Does she go to Crystal Prep, too?'
Inhale. Why does she do that? "Do you k-know mee?"
"Yeah, of course!" Twilight immediately lied without thinking. "How could I forget you! Heh, heh. Heh."
In. "Really?" Gentle exhale.
"Yep," Twilight popped the 'p' to cover up her own humiliation upon realizing what she had done. Twilight opened her mouth to say more, but opted to stay silent and play with the collar of her sweater, because wow it was warm—.
"L-l-liar."
And despite the warmth, a chill ran down her spine. Her heart clenched painfully in her too-tight chest. Twilight didn't look up from the zipper of her backpack.
"W-what? N-no I..." Twilight faltered. "I'm very sorry," Twilight whispered quickly. "I don't know why I... I'm sorry. I couldn't remember you and didn't know if I should have and now I just..." Twilight buried her face in her backpack "Oh gosh, just kill me now..."
"Shhhh..." Twilight felt a poke on her shoulder. Tentatively, she looked towards the girl. The girl breathed in, and Twilight cringed in preparation of the verbal onslaught. Yet, all the girl did was breathe out, smiling all the while. Again, she breathed in... then out. She raised a brow at Twilight and made a vague gesture with her hand. She breathed in...
"...Oh." Twilight, after a brief moment, decided to humor the girl, and inhaled deeply. As she did, she caught the scent of coffee and wool and some kind of wood and... something burning? No, something burnt. The girl breathed out. So too did Twilight. Together they repeated this a couple of times, watching each other.
Inhale...
Exhale...
Inhale...
Exhale...
Inhale...
...
"...!" Confused, Twilight urgently released the breath she had been holding for an uncomfortably long time. Meanwhile, the girl breathed out easily with an almost-smug smile. 'Did I lose or something?' "W-what?" Twilight spluttered. "Why?"
Inhale. "T-tried to kill you. You chose to live." The girl gave Twilight a proud grin.
"Oh. Uh? R-right." Unsure of what else to say, Twilight nervously chuckled at the poor joke and said nothing.
The silence was awkward.
"So, uh," Twilight held her bag tighter, "what's your name?"
A unsure frown and troubled brow presented themselves on the stranger's face, and Twilight had no idea what she did wrong. After an uncomfortable moment of silence, the stranger nodded, smiled, and took a small breath.
"C-call me Sunny."
"Sunny?" Sunny nodded. "Sunny. Okay. Hi, Sunny." Twilight repeated Sunny's name in her head a few times. It would somehow be even more embarrassing if she forgot. "I'm really sorry I lied to you, Sunny. I just didn't want you to feel..." She tried to gather words with her hands, but they slipped through her fingers. Belatedly, she wondered why she was even bothering to try and explain herself to Sunny. It wasn't like they were going to see each other again after Twilight left. 'Too good for my own good, I suppose.'
Luckily for her, Sunny seemed to get the picture, as she gave Twilight a reassuring nod. Sunny inhaled.
"The book'sh alright." It took Twilight a moment to realize what Sunny was talking about.
'The book!' "Ohyeah?" Twilight tried not to respond too quickly.
"Mhm. It's..." Sunny's head rolled sluggishly from one shoulder to the other.
'Oh... Sunny has a condition,' Twilight realized. To Twilight's shame, the thought that the girl before her was also flawed—no, not flawed, but vulnerable—in such a way was slightly reassuring. Almost like they were closer to being equals.
"... It's fine. By book shtandards." That was close to the expected response. "I m-mean. It's actually p-pretty funny." Inhale. "But it targets verrry specific readers. Assumes you have some ex-ex...perience with mundane physics."
Yeah, not much that Twilight would... "...Wait, what?"
Sunny bobbed her head as she inhaled. "Good shience parody. Based in factsh. But it's fake serious. Layered jokes. You wouldn't knoww it unlessh you kn-know it." Inhale. "Need to know some stuff for the besht jokes. The ending's..." A pause. "Y-you'd like it. It'sh clever."
"Yeah?"
Sunny nodded.
"Can I borrow it?!" Twilight blurted, then blinked. "Oh, uh, please? I heard about it online and I've been looking for it, and it's pretty rare because it was never really that popular so—," Twilight coughed into her fist, hoping it seemed natural so that she'd have an excuse to stop over-explaining everything. "So, uh, yeah..."
Sunny smiled and handed her the small book. Twilight received the book like a mother would receive her own child. Finally, the tome of questionable-but-probable inspiration was hers! Now she just needed to get away. But maybe just a quick peek first...
Inhale. "Why'd you need i-it?"
"Huh?" Twilight quickly flipped through some pages, just checking for things like damage, notes, font size, etcetera. "Oh, just a personal project," she offhandedly answered. It should only take about an hour for her to read it, she figured.
In. "Your p-p-pershonal p-project involves quantum mechanics?" Out.
Twilight stopped, and looked at the girl suspiciously. Sunny didn't sound sarcastic,
she sounded impressed. She must want something...
"That's..." How much should Twilight tell her? Not too much, surely. "...potentially a part of it, yes." Twilight adjusted her glasses. "How did you know?"
The girl jerkily crossed her arms atop the backrest of the couch and rested her head upon them. In. "Read it. To the end. You'll g-g-get it."
Twilight had her book, and seriously considered just leaving before this girl could reveal her true nature. However, curiosity unrelated to the book got her to stay. She adjusted herself so that she was leaning against the arm of the couch, keeping the girl visible over the top of her book. However, as she read on, her lean slowly became a lazy lounge and the Sunny's bright colors blended in with the background.
Out of habit, Twilight picked out errors and criticized word choices. She resisted the urge to cringe every time one of the characters (and only one ever did) used a personal statement in a scientific observation. Once or twice she did briefly chortle at a cheesy joke—'Wow, not many people would've gotten that.'—before remembering why she was reading the book and moving on. About fifty minutes later, she gently closed the book with a sigh of disappointment.
"D-d-d—."
"Gah!" Twilight caught herself before she fell off of the couch. Sunny sat in the exact same position that she was in when Twilight started reading. Was she watching her the whole time?
"—Didn't llike it?" Sunny groaned. She looked disappointed.
"Oh no, not at all!" Twilight assured in a panic, but then thought about what she just said. "Wait, I mean, I did!"
In. "B-be honesht." Out.
"I... uh..." Twilight glanced back and forth from Sunny's face and the book, before settling on the latter. "It was... a little sillier than I'm used to. And, uh... their observations were a little, uh, unprofessionally recorded...?" She looked up, checking to gauge how offended Sunny was by her observation. Against expectation, Sunny was smiling eagerly—well, as eagerly as the lethargic girl could seem—and waiting for her to continue.
"... And the progression through the story seemed pretty eclectic at times. Always bouncing, awkwardly doubling back, seemingly making stuff up. Oh, a few of the jokes were actually pretty good!" She whispered with excitement, glad to have finally found something good to say. "You were right, though, they were probably outside the realm of what the average reader would understand." Twilight flexed her free hand. "It's just a shame that some of the timings were awkward. Hm...
"Both of the main characters are weirdly written, too. They always felt kind of... forced together, in a way? Well, maybe not forced. Just..." Twilight realigned her glasses. "Even when their scenes were at two completely different places. It just..." Twilight paused to gather her thoughts. "I don't know—they always seemed to fight, even when they weren't. Not saying that they weren't an effective pair, but... Honestly, what was this story even about? Half the time, Spin and Measure were just bickering with each other about stuff that was completely irrelevant to the rest of the book. Even in the end, they did the same big experiment and—surprise, surprise!—got two completely... different..."
A line drew itself on Twilight's brow, and she turned to stare intensely at the book. Connections were drawn, details originally skimmed over were scrutinized. Twilight opened the book once more, jumping to different sections, rereading them, now finding the subtle clues left here and there, applying it to newly revealed contexts. After a few minutes, Twilight shut the book, stared a bit more, and then looked up to Sunny. Sunny had a wide grin on her face and her eyes were wide with excitement. She wasn't even breathing.
"The story started with a stupid, wacky experiment. It got them bound together. And they're complete opposites of each other. Were they...?" Sunny nodded in excitement—threw her head up and down, really. Twilight loosed a breathless bark of laughter. "Quantum en—we're the real scientists; we were observing them the whole time!"
"Yesh!" As Twilight quietly chortled, Sunny excitedly clapped her wrists together.
"Oh wow, that's pretty funny! And clever." Twilight adjusted herself into a more comfortable position. "How long did it take for you to figure it out?"
Inhale. "Mmuch longer than y-you." Twilight blushed in embarrassed pride. "Half an h-hour after finishing. Maybe."
"Really? Wow! What was your first clue?"
Sunny gained a thoughtful expression and Twilight suddenly had a realization. Twilight was, at that moment, having an earnest conversation with somebody that she had only just met—a contact that she herself initiated. She was expecting to spend her winter break studying and spending time with her family; a little lonely, but content. But here she was, talking about a silly, random, utterly pointless book with a complete stranger.
Twilight smiled tentatively, but genuinely. It seemed that, despite her best efforts, she was going to have another less-than-productive day. Oh, all of the work that she could have been doing...
Sunny inhaled. "I th-think I started to sushpect when... Hm... Oh! It w-was when..."
...But this was fine, too.