//------------------------------//
// Chapter Four: Lesson Error 
// Story: The Adventures of Princess Erroria 
// by Secondbestscribe 
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The next day, Alula said nothing of the dream to Parasol. There wasn't much point, and at any rate her older sister looked like she could do with some strong coffee, which Parasol had after she got up at least two hours after Alula. Still, they had a good brunch of scrambled eggs and piping-hot cocoa and veggie burgers, and at one o'clock they went over to the Golden Oak Library.

Alula realised suddenly that she had never been to the library before. She wasn't that big of a reader, and whenever she did read, it was usually science-fiction: space-travel had always intrigued her. Princess Luna in particular was somepony that she both feared and revered - mostly, though, she just feared. After all, she had been up on the moon for a thousand years - she surely had seen aliens or something during that, hadn't she?

Well, actually, she was Nightmare Moon back then, so obviously she would've been plotting or something, right? And anyway, I reckon it's more of a metaphorical thing - I mean, the craters in the moon used to look like her head, so her soul or something was probably trapped within the moon or... or something. Ahem.

If ponies can literally jump out of their skin, Alula would probably have done so. As they can't, she simply started so violently that she nearly kicked a passing Berry Punch.

"Alula?" said Parasol, while Berry Punch tossed them an affronted look. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah! Yeah yeah yeah, I'm fine, I'm just... uh..."

Alula fixed a wide grin on her face while she cast around for an excuse, any excuse. She blurted out the first thing that came to her head, which was regretfully, "Itchy!"

Parasol blinked at her. "Itchy," she deadpanned.

Alula nodded, almost maniacally. "Yep! Yeah! Exactly! I'm really really really itchy! Like, soooo itchy!"

To illustrate her point, she began scratching ferociously at her head, her hooves, her wings, that awkward grin still glued onto her face. Parasol said nothing. Instead, she sighed and shook her head.

"Fillies..."





The Golden Oak Library was a giant tree, hollowed out into both a living space and walls lined with inbuilt bookshelves. When Parasol had knocked on the door, they had been greeted not by Twilight Sparkle but by her baby dragon assistant, Spike. Alula had seen him around town a few times, but only knew his name because Noi did - and then the guilt came back.

"Oh!" he had said. "You're Alula and Parasol, I guess. Come on in!"

And here they were now. Twilight and Parasol were going through the obligatory small talk, while Alula was allowed to walk around the place. The books were old and dusty, with titles down their spines that she had to tilt her head to read. She didn't for most of them, though, after checking out the upper layer of tomes and discovering that none of them were about space.

So she went over to Twilight to ask after them.

"Oh!" said the unicorn. "You like books, I suppose?"

Parasol laughed. "And Princess Luna was banished to the sun!"

Alula shot her sister an angry look, then turned back to Twilight. "Not really. Just the ones about space."

"Well, you were looking in the history section! The science-fiction books are over there - " Twilight waved a lavender hoof towards the other side of the library, " - and the space books are up near the top."

Alula thanked Twilight, then went over to the shelves, flew up and began browsing. She soon came across a likely-looking volume: When the Stars Align, which was book one in the Phenomena series. It was a fairly thick book, with a storyline that Alula was drawn to, so she descended and began reading.

That is, until the voice came back.

That looks good. Didn't you see somepony reading that a few weeks ago or something?

Alula said nothing. Then, very very hesitantly, hissed, "Who are you?"

I'm Princess Animatia Erroria. Have you forgotten me already? Oh dear, I'm not that boring, am I?

Alula couldn't tell if the voice was kidding or not. "Um... so... the dream was... wait, what? This is just like some bad fantasy series!"

I'd shrug if you could see me.

Alula frowned. According to the rules of these kinds of situations, she was supposed to be panicking, doubting her sanity. Rather, it was like somepony she had been expecting an hour ago had shown up, only that she had been expecting her for her whole life. In fact, she had been expecting somepony for so long, she had forgotten that she was expecting somepony. And now that pony was here.

I'm not afraid to say that that narration was terribly cheesy.

"What happened to being all scared and stuff?" commented Alula, turning a page.

"Alula?" came Parasol's voice. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," called back Alula, and lowered her voice. "Is there some kind of way I can talk psychically to you or something?"

No.

Alula pouted. "No need to be so smug."

Then Twilight was there, saying something about asking some questions, and Alula found herself saying yes, sure, why not...





"So," said Alula, "this isn't going to kill me?"

She was hooked up to a machine that Twilight had called the "x-ray". It had a large flat board with lots of buttons and knobs and dials and flashing things on it at the front, while at the back Alula was sitting in a chair in the uncomfortable way Lyra Heartstrings had. On her head was a bowl-shaped helmet thingy, with a lot of wires and blinking lights on it. It was heavy. Alula fidgeted.

Twilight laughed. "Of course not! I've tested this countless times on myself and Spike."

"It tickled," said Spike. "All it does is measure your magic levels." He frowned, and added, "You may feel a bit hungry afterwards, but you should be fine!"

"The stuff with your friend - " Twilight cleared her throat, and continued, " - yesterday got me thinking. Normally, only a strong surge of magic would have done something like that, so that got me thinking. It's probably nothing, but Parasol's agreed, so...?"

Alula shrugged. "Should be fine!"

She cast a look over at her big sister. Alula knew her - she would always act so nonchalant, but inside she knew that she was worrying more than a mother.

"I'll be fine," said Alula pointedly.

Parasol nodded stiffly, then laughed at Alula's poker face. "Well, alright. Is it okay if I stay here, Twilight, or...?"

Twilight winced. "Well, um, actually, the magic levels here can get just a teeny tiny bit too high when the x-ray's in use, so I'm afraid you'll have to stay outside. But I guarantee that she'll be fine!"

Parasol bit her lip. Alula could almost see the internal battle raging within her older sister. So the young vanilla pony sighed, and said, "Come on, Para, if it starts hurting I'll scream."

The other ponies laughed, and Erroria said, Good job. Get them calm. Then we'll be able to see what happened to Noi.

Maybe it's something to do with you, thought Alula, suddenly and viciously, and was immediately grateful when she remembered that Erroria couldn't read her thoughts.

The two mares had a quick conversation, while Alula looked around. The wires on her helmet were attached to lots of meters and small boxes with screens. She resolved not to touch anything, and to look as calm as possible.

Then Parasol was stepping out of the door, telling Alula to behave, and the door closed, and Parasol was gone.

"So," said Twilight, "first off, I'll just ask you a few questions. Okay?"

Alula nodded, as well as she could with the helmet on her head. "Okay..."

Twilight looked down at her clipboard. "Well, Alula - do you remember what happened before Noi fainted?"

"Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were picking on this filly with a bow... then these two other ponies came out from under a table, I remember that - oh! And I was trying to get to them to stand up for the filly, but..."

At this point, Alula frowned.

"But?" prompted Twilight.

"But Noi stopped me," mumbled Alula.

There was silence, apart from the beeping of the x-ray and the scratching of Twilight's quill. Erroria kept silent. Alula was glad of that at least, as the guilt suddenly overtook her. She didn't cry, though, not with Twilight around again and Parasol just outside the door.

"So," said Twilight, and her voice was gentler this time, "what happened afterwards?"

"Well," said Alula, and swallowed, and continued. "She started having a headache, so I got up to help her, and when I touched her, she yelled and... and fell over."

She sounded weak, and tinny, and stupid. But Twilight simply frowned, nodded and scribbled a few notes on her clipboard.

"Now," said the unicorn, and gave Alula a warm smile, "let's take some tests!"