Twilight Sparkle rubbed her hoof against her head in frustration. She couldn't seem to figure out what that number meant. She had run multiple tests, and verified that it was part of the journal, but it held no magical properties, which was interesting considering it contained magical spells.
"Is there anything you could do?" Lyra pleaded.
"Well, I could..." Twilight said in an unsure voice
"Could what?" Lyra said in an excited voice.
"I could perform the magicka granus el-perfaso spell."
"Speak Equestrian."
"Er...it's a spell that can decipher most cryptic writings, but it is extremely exhausting and will destroy the item trying to be read. It might not work either..."
"It's worth a try, isn't it?"
Twilight, knowing Lyra's unrelentless personality, gave up arguing and prepared to perform the spell.
--10 minutes later--
After performing multiple tests to verify that she was both mentally and physically prepared, Twilight Sparkle did feel ready.
Her horn lighting, Twilight began the spell. She was soon enveloped in a deep magenta glow, stopping Lyra (who was protected behind a magic-proof glass sort of thing) from seeing what was happening.
--2 minutes later--
Just as Lyra started to get tired of waiting, there was a bright flash, and then the light subsided, revealing an unconscious Twilight. The note was gone, and Lyra began to get worried that the information was lost. Lyra sat on the couch, waiting for the sleeping unicorn to wake up.
--5 minutes later--
Twilight felt woozy.
"Whear urm I?" she said in a groggy, exhausted voice.
"Well, you performed a spell...and passed out." replied Lyra.
As her critical thinking slowly returned, Twilight remembered what happened.
"Oh, about your note...here's what it means..." she grumbled.
Twilight proceeded to write a series of odd-looking glyphs on a pad of paper.
"Uhh..Twilight?" Lyra expressed.
"Yes?"
"Uh, I can't read it, do you think you could translate it to Equestrian?
"I could, but translating from Ancient Ponyglyphs to Equestrian represents a rough loss or distortion of 12.3567 percent, if that's fine with you."
"Um...yes?" said a rather confused Lyra.
The purple unicorn then proceeded to translate each glyph into rough Equestrian. The result was this:
Three hand days
Peering over at it, Lyra tried to deduce what it meant.
"What does it mean, Twi?"
"It means your hands will only last three days."
"But I got them yesterday!"
"Well then you have two days left. Go ahead and use, unless you would like to study with me."
Lyra walked out the door, her mind filled with sadness.
I try this hard, and my reward only lasts three days? she thought miserably.
As if on cue, it began to rain.
Well, if I just mope around the next two days, I won't really enjoy my hands, will I?
Even though Ponyville had seen her hands already, she was gonna take it one step further.
Lyra was not gonna let Ponyville just passively see her hands.
She was gonna make a show.
And that way, everypony in Ponyville would see hands. As Lyra was obsessed with the titular appendages, that was good. She wanted everypony to know what hands were.
But what would she do in this show? After poring her brain for a while, Lyra came up with the following routine, all involving hands:
Warm-Up: Play the piano (why do they make pianos if almost nopony can play them?)
Act 1: Type faster than nopony before, with the typewriter!
Act 2: Juggling
Act 3: Cup stacking (Look it up!)
End: Use various hand tools with more finesse than ever before!
Well, Lyra didn't know how to do these things. She had some hand tools and cups, but where would she get a ball?
Pinkie Pie.
So off Lyra went to Sugarcube Corner to find the ever-knowing being named Pinkie Pie. Lyra recalled Pinkie Pie saying "I have balls stashed all over Ponyville in case of ball emergency!"
--5 minutes later--
As Lyra trotted in to Sugarcube Corner, she was immediately greeted by the sugar-powered energy ball known as Pinkie Pie.
"Hilyrahowareyoudoingwantacupcakethey'refreshbaked!" she said so quickly that it was tough to understand.
"Um, no thanks Pinkie,I just want to borrow a couple of balls."
"What kind of balls? I have mini-balls, giant balls, rubber balls, paper balls, apple balls, any kind of ball!"
"Uh, do you have juggling balls?"
"Well of course I do silly! Be right back."
With that, Pinkie rushed into the back. A few clanks and rustles were heard, before the pink pony emerged with a dusty old set of juggling balls.
"Here you go Lyra! Keep them as long as you like!"
Not about to question why Pinkie had a bunch of juggling balls, Lyra set out to practice.