Twilight ventured out into the town square, and her horn started to glow. This was the spell she had used to summon Discord when the Everfree Forest attacked. Discord had been unhappy that he was summoned without being notified beforehand, so she wasn’t sure how he was going to react now. A large flash of light blinded everyone in the area for a few seconds, and when their vision was restored, an old style telephone was sitting in front of her. Twilight rolled her eyes. She levitated the speaker piece to her ear and heard in a familiar voice, “This is your operator speaking. How may I direct your call?”
“Discord!” Twilight yelled, but before she could continue, the “operator” chimed in,
“Oh, come now, Twilight. Can’t I have a little fun?”
“Not right now!”
“Ugghh… fine. I’m transferring your call.”
The telephone began to glow, and changed its shape. What was the earpiece materialized into a head, with a crooked, cyan horn and a deer antler. The cord became his neck, and the base grew four mismatching legs, two different wings, and a tail.
“I thought I told you last time to give me warning before you zapped me here,” Discord said, irritated.
“Sorry,” responded Twilight, “But I need your help.”
Discord yawned, and stretched out. “I don’t know if I’m up for that. What have you done to help me?”
Twilight glared at Discord. “I’m the reason you’re not spending the day as Celestia’s lawn ornament.”
“Hmm… I suppose you do have a point. After all, what are friends for?”
Twilight rolled her eyes again. “I got these books and I think that you are old enough to have learned the language that they’re written in.”
When Twilight looked up, Discord was holding a walker, had glasses, and was covered in wrinkles. “I’m not that old,” he said, then changed back to his normal self. “Awww who am I kidding? Wait. Couldn’t you have asked Celestia? After all, she was the one that taught you everything, was she not?”
“I tried her. She never learned because royalty wasn’t expected to learn that kind of thing. She had to prepare for her duties.”
“Are you forgetting that I was once king of Equestria as well?” Discord asked, wearing a crown that he made appear out of nowhere. The crown grew wings, and flew from his head onto Twilight’s. “Though I admire the work you Alicorns have done, I have to say I liked Equestria better back when I was king.”
“Can you read it or not?” Twilight raised her voice impatiently.
“Whoa, whoa, calm down. I’ll take a look at your books.”
Twilight opened her saddle bag to see that her books were gone. She looked up at Discord, who was already skimming through the first journal.
“Before I begin let me just say that you need to take better care of your belongings,” Discord said, tossing the torn off cover of the first journal to Twilight. He flipped through the pages, showing a mock sense of focus and interest. “Well,” he said, “The Alphabet of the Unicorn. I haven’t seen this in years. He poofed back into the old man getup. “Why, back in my day, we-“
“Enough!” Twilight interrupted. “What does it say?”
“I personally think it would be easier to do this,” he made a scroll appear with the snap of his fingers.
“What’s this?” asked Twilight.
“It’s a translation. The Alphabet of the Unicorn is exactly that – an alphabet. It’s still English, same syntax, all of that. Unicorns years ago would use this to stop their magic from getting in the wrong hands, like mine.”
“Wow! Thanks Discord! You’re a real friend!” Discord rolled his eyes.
“Yes, I suppose I am. Now begone with you. I’m a busy draconequus.”
Twilight sprinted back to the library and shut the door. She locked herself in a small room with a desk and a lamp. She pinned the translation to the wall and began to read, starting with the first journal. She couldn’t wait to find out what was written.
A week passed, and Twilight hadn’t exited the room except to use the bathroom. When she was hungry, a sandwich or something else would levitate across the library into the slightly ajar doorway, and then the door would shut. Spike was beginning to worry about Twilight, and was about to leave to gather Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie to talk to Twilight when Twilight finally emerged from the small room. Her mane was matted and unkempt; her normally pearly white teeth were beginning to yellow from neglect.
“Twilight!” Spike cried, “I was worrying about you!”
“No need for that, Spike. Look!”
Twilight help up a notebook; this was not one of Star Swirl’s, it was brand new. Spike opened the cover and looked. Twilight had rewritten Star Swirl’s journals!
“Look on page 65,” Twilight said.
Spike flipped through the pages, stopping at the designated page, and he saw what the page contained.
THE FIFTEEN STEPS TO CREATING SPELLS
Spike smiled. “You can finally make whole spells now? That’s awesome Twilight!”
“Yeah, I know. Check this out!” She held up another notebook, and on the first page was written:
WORLD PEACE
Spike gasped. “Was this in the journals too?”
“No,” said Twilight. “I made this.”
“Well then, what are you waiting for? Use it!”
“I can’t yet. This spell is enormous. It requires a way of amplifying my magic. I need to go to the Everfree Forest again. This time, I know what I’m going for. We’re going to borrow the Elements of Harmony.”
“You’ll be the most successful princess Equestria had ever had!”
“That’s not important to me,” Twilight reminded Spike, “We’ll put an end to all of the world problems!”
“Let’s go then! We gotta get the others if we’re going to need the Elements!”
Twilight’s first stop was at a small cloud hovering over Ponyville. “Hey, Rainbow Dash!”
“Hey there, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash yelled back, “Come on up.” Twilight had forgotten she could fly and muttered “duh” under her breath when Dash had said that.
“Better stay down here, Spike,” Twilight said, “Only ponies with wings can walk on clouds.” Twilight flew into Rainbow Dash’s small cloud home. Dash was sitting on a cloud sofa, with a plate with some scraps next to her and a half-empty glass of apple juice.
“What’s up, Twi?”
Twilight showed Rainbow Dash the contents of her notebook.
“A world peace spell? How come nobody thought of that? What are we waiting for? Let’s get the other four and be on our way!”
Minutes later, the two walked into Sugar Cube Corner. The Cakes were sitting in chair, each holding a baby.
“Princess Twilight! Rainbow Dash! What brings you two here?’ Mr. Cake asked while burping Pound.
“Is Pinkie Pie here?” Twilight asked.
“I’m afraid not,” Mr. Cake replied. “We sent her out for a few ingredients. You should be able to find her at the market.”
Twilight and Dash left the bakery and headed toward the town square.
“Okay,” said Twilight, “We’ll split up. Meet me back here in fifteen minutes.” Ten minutes passed and Twilight returned with Pinkie Pie. They waited a half hour for Rainbow Dash, but she never came. She turned to look at Pinkie and say something but…
She was gone without a word.