Twilight groaned while her mane curled and frizzed. She tossed and turned in her bed, unable to quiet her busy mind. Turning to her left, she looked at the clock on her wall. "4:32," it read. Another whole minute had passed since she had last looked at her clock. Twilight groaned again. Her eyes were bloodshot due to her repeated lack of sleep. She looked back at the clock: 4:33. Grunting to herself, she hoisted her body out of bed. If trying to fall asleep naturally would not work, then maybe tea with a mild sedative charm would.
'Please let me sleep tonight,' she thought.
As she made her way into the kitchen, careful not to wake her assistant, she spotted a book sitting on her table. It was that book, the one that had given her the infernal idea that was now running circles through her head. One simple little idea had been keeping her awake, not just tonight, but for the past week. Each night had been worse than the last.
The book itself was completely mundane. In fact, NOT having that book would be rather strange for a library. It was simply titled Animals of Equestria. Twilight had been reading a section on animal behaviors in times of stress when she came across an interesting passage.
In times of famine, all animals follow a simple rule of hoof: the starving animal is an omnivore. Without their natural prey, even strict carnivores will resort to eating plant material for nutrients. The reverse also applies to a starving herbivore. There have been several accounts of plant eaters who have turned to eating meat when the local food supply was depleted.
It had been a couple hours after reading the book that Twilight Sparkle had her troublesome idea. She wondered, ‘What does meat taste like?’ A thought like that would normally have been quickly dismissed by any other pony. Said pony would likely be quite disgusted with themselves for thinking such a thought. Unfortunately, the pony who thought it was none other than Twilight Sparkle, protégé of the solar princess and bearer of the Element of Magic. If there was one thing Twilight had more of than magic, it was curiosity. This, however, was one question she could not answer herself, and interviewing griffins just would not be enough.
The purple alicorn sat at her table while trying to tranquilize her busy mind with an enchanted cup of tea. After downing the contents in a series of rapid sips, Twilight marched herself up to bed. She looked at her schedule for the next day, deciding that she had the time to sleep in. With the last of her strength, she heaved herself into the bed and used her magic to turn off her alarm.
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“Twilight! Wake up!”
The alicorn, startled by her assistant’s rude wake-up call, jumped out of bed. “Ughhh, Spike… I was trying to sleep,” she said, rolling back into bed to fruitlessly trying to sleep again.
“No time! Your alarm didn’t go off! If you don’t get up now, your whole day’s schedule is going to be thrown off,” Spike informed his caretaker.
“I thank you for your concern, Spike, but I turned my alarm off last night. I have not been sleeping well this past week and wanted to sleep in. I don’t care if I mess up my schedule. It’s future Twilight’s problem. Now let me sleep,” the agitated alicorn complained.
“Okay, who are you and what have you done with Twilight Sparkle? Show yourself, changeling!” Spike jested, poking his friend in the stomach.
“Ha. Ha. Ha,” she laughed sarcastically. “I’m not going back to sleep anyway. I may as well get up now. It’s—” she paused to look at her clock, “—seven forty-five. Three hours of sleep. Fun.”
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“Twi, breakfast is ready! Guess who made waffles?” Spike called up to Twilight, who was brushing her mane in the bathroom.
Setting down the brush, she turned and trotted out of the bathroom. On her way into the kitchen, she made a slight detour into the culture section of the library. Spotting the book she was after, Twilight levitated it off the shelf with her magic. Twilight resumed her trot into the kitchen, the smell of syrupy waffles quickening her pace. When she finally entered the kitchen, Spike was already gorging himself on a stack of his fluffy masterpieces. Twilight flopped down into the seat across from him and dug in as well.
While she was eating, she levitated her book up to her face and began to read. Spike noticed the title. “1,001 Great Recipes for Griffins? Why are you reading that?”
“Oh, uhhh… I just… ummm… grabbed a random book off the shelf. Surprise reading, you know? Just for fun,” she lied. Twilight hated lying to Spike, but how could she possibly tell him that she was interested in eating meat? SHE could barely stomach her own idea, so there was no way Twilight would ever tell anyone the truth about this.
The fork’s pace slowed. Each load of waffle came in longer and longer intervals as she read. Almost every one of these dishes in the cookbook featured some animal part used in some unique way. Point for creativity, but seeing so many meats started to put Twilight off of her breakfast. The fork finally stopped when she realized exactly how many animals in this cookbook were hoofed. Pigs, cows, deer, giraffe, most of these animals had an uncomfortably close relation to ponies for her liking. She didn’t mind the chicken or fish dishes so much, but a hoofed animal? It was a little too close for comfort, the idea that a hungry griffin might just turn on a pony.
Yet, despite her growing disgust, Twilight’s curiosity continued to expand. These griffins had filled a cookbook with hundreds of meat dishes, which meant that meat had to be tasty to them. ‘What does meat taste like? I have to find out,’ Twilight thought to herself, aware of Spike’s presence in the room. ‘That means I’m going to have to try some. Ewwww…’
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Twilight was forming a plan. She needed to get meat without raising suspicion, so she had to go about this carefully.
She decided that she was going to start with fish. From the book’s description and her own mind’s rationalizations, Twilight decided that it would be her safest bet. Fish would likely be the most palatable meat, and Twilight’s research had found no medical issues that could arise from eating them. That was, unfortunately a hard subject to find information on, as there was very little to work with. Most ponies wouldn’t let the flesh of another creature anywhere near their lips, so studies on the effects of fish meat on a pony were almost non-existent. There was one, however, written by a cruel griffin doctor who had experimented on pony prisoners during the Griffin-Pony war 50 years ago. Despite his methods, he had collected valuable information on the pony digestive system and confirmed that yes, ponies can eat meat.
Satisfied with her menu choice, Twilight contemplated on where to get fish from. Perhaps she could ask Fluttershy where she got the fish she used to feed her carnivores? Yes, that would do. Plan in place, Twilight marched out of her library home, ready to violate one of the strongest pony taboos in existence. All for science, of course.