Why does this have to be so confusing? Thought Twilight to herself. She was trying to figure out a new spell, and the equation was much more difficult than it should have been (practically unknown to everypony except unicorns and the Princesses, spells were actually written in equations, and to cast them, you had to find the answer. This was why many unicorns had a limited level of magic, because they had lower level math skills).
The spell: a simple (but apparently not) color change spell.
The equation: (248+54^5(15+210)^7)/25(31-2)^3 .
She had poured over it for hours on end, and scoured all the math textbooks she had to try and find how to solve it, and though one came close, she gave up after filling two whole sheets of paper (front and back) with work.
“Hmm…” she thought out loud to herself.”Maybe if I add the- no, that won’t work… or what if I did a-no, that wouldn’t do it either... or if I moved the 31 minus two all cube to the beginning…. Hey, that looks promising!” Her supposed breakthrough turned out to be false, however, and she became immediately frustrated and, using an incineration spell (one with a simple equation of 2x+5=3y, find x and y, express as an ordered pair), and burned up all of her work on the problem and barely kept herself from incinerating the book that contained the awful spell along with it.
She sighed.”Well, I guess I’ll give up for today, and ask Pinkie about it tomorrow.” Being satisfied with that plan, she called for Spike whilst ascending the stairs.
“Yes, Twilight?” he asked when she emerged onto the main floor of the castle, into the Circle Room.
“Can you make me a daisy sandwich and some hay fries please? I’m hungry and stressed from a full day of work, and I need some comfort food.”
“Sure thing, Twilight! I’ll have it in a few minutes!”
“Thank you, Spike.” She gave him a nuzzle.”You’re the best.”
“You know it,” he called as he began to make his way down the hall to the kitchen. “Do you want me to just bring it to your room?”
This made Twilight smile. “You know me so well, Spike. That would be great.”
~*~
The next day, Twilight did as she had said and went to Sugar Cube Corner to ask Pinkie about the problem, just as she had done with others a few times before (It turned out that Pinkie Pie was strangely good at math). As soon as she walked in, Pinkie dashed out of the kitchen and bounced over to Twilight.
“Heya, Twilight! What’s up?” She asked.
Twilight stated her predicament. “Well, Pinkie, I’m glad you asked. You see, you know I’ve had you help me with spells before, but the equation for this one is particularly difficult. Seeing as you are surprisingly outstanding at math, I was wondering if you could possibly help me with it at all.” Twilight found herself slightly surprised that Pinkie had managed to hold her tongue during her spiel, normally she became somewhat fidgety and bored during Twilight’s math problem explanations.
Pinkie pied answered, “You know, you don’t have to say it so fancy shmancy every time! You can just tell me, ‘Pinkie I need help with a math problem!’ It’s as simple as that!”
“Well… okay… Pinkie, I need help with a math problem. There. Now, can you help me or not?”
“I’ll try, but can I see the spell itself?”
Cursing herself for forgetting it at home, Twilight used a teleportation spell (equation: (-23)2-3/6+54) to bring the book to her, opened it to the correct page, and handed the book to Pinkie Pie so she could give her two bits on the problem.
“Here, you go, it’s the third one on the left hand side on page 233.”
“Thanks, Twilight!” She took a moment to read the spell. “Wow, this is a toughie! I don’t even know what the answer is!”
“What? You don’t know what the answer is?”
“Nope, sorry, Twilight.”
“But-But- You’re the pony calculator! How can you not know it?!?”
“Sorry Twilight, but I just can’t get it! I would need at least five whole notebooks to solve this one, and that’s waaaay to much paper to be healthy for the environment!”
Then Pinkie giggled.
Twilight, having thought that her friend was laughing at her, felt a hair pop out of her mane, and she said hurriedly, “Why are you laughing! This is a serious predicament!”
“Oh, I’m sorry twilight,” she said. “I wasn’t laughing at you, Rainbow Dash had just told me a really funny joke before you got here, and I was just remembering it.”
The stray hair settled back down.
“Oh, Rainbow’s here?”
“Yeah, of course she is!Didnt I just tell you that she told me a funny joke? Hey, Dashie!” she called. “Come out here!”
She burst out of the kitchen covered in flour and sugar, and stirring cake batter in a large bowl. “Whaddya wa-a-ah I’ll just be going now!”
She sprinted, almost flew, back into the kitchen, her face and ears having turned bright red, dropping the bowl of batter on the ground, making a small mess.
“Oh, no, Dashie! You dropped your bowl!” She sighed. “Oh, well. Mrs. Cake!” She called. “Could you come out here please? Dashie just dropped her bowl AGAIN and I’m talking to Twilight!”
Mrs. Cake emerged from the kitchen. “Didn’t you consider that maybe she ran off and dropped the bowl because Twilight is here? You know how she feels about that…” With that, she picked up a wet rag and began cleaning up the batter mess.
“Wait a second…” Twilight spoke, bewildered. “I’m confused by all of this. Rainbow Dash bakes? I never knew…”
“Yeah, actually!” Answered Pinkie. “And of course you didn’t know! Dashie’s great at keeping secrets, especially her own! That’s why she was so surprised when she saw you out here. She had been baking with me, but when you showed up I came out here to talk to you, but she stayed in the kitchen. She doesn’t want anypony who doesn’t already to know that she likes to bake, and is good at it, too. So, promise you won’t tell anypony? I would feel bad if Dashie’s secret got out because of me….”
Twilight took a moment to decipher the mad scramble of sentences that was Pinkie’s speaking pattern. After she had it completely figured out, she answered, nodding her head,“Of course I won’t tell anypony! If somepony has a secret, it’s nopony’s place to tell it than the one who the secret belongs to,” She tilted her head slightly to the side thoughtfully. “You know, that would have made a good subject for a friendship report to Princess Celestia, back when I still sent them.”
“Hmm… Princess Celestia… Princess Celestia… Oh! Princess Celestia!”
Twilight was (of course) confused by her pink friend’s sudden outburst. “Umm… What are you talking about?”
“Princess Celestia!” Pinkie said excitedly.”You should send her a letter and ask her about the spell! She should know it!
“Wow, Pinkie, that’s a great idea! I’ll go home right away and write her a letter!” She began to make her way to the kitchen.
“Uh, Twilight, the door, and the castle, are both that way,” she said confusedly pointing towards the door in the opposite direction of which Twilight was walking.
“I know, but I have something I need to take care of first.”
She quietly opened the door of the kitchen, so as to not alert her friend of her presence. Inside were Rainbow dash, who was at a counter, making a new bowl of batter, and Mr. Cake, who was busy with a rolling pin a few feet away from Rainbow.
“Bye Rainbow!” She said, making her friend jump six inches off the ground, and causing her to drop her new bowl of batter, earning Rainbow a glare from Mr. Cake. “Consider that revenge for all the times you’ve pranked me this week.”
Rainbow turned around. “Only this week? I’ve been pranking you for a lot longer than that.”
“Maybe,” Twilight answered, “but if I were to get you back for all of that, it would have to be something much bigger than that.” She said this with a smile adorning her muzzle. “Oh, and Rainbow,” she continued while turning to leave, “You don’t need to worry. Your secret’s safe with me.”
With that, she left the kitchen, waved goodbye to Mrs. Cake and Pinkie as she passed them, exited the bakery, and trotted back to the castle.
~*~
Twilight wrote her letter to Princess Celestia.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I recently encountered a spell with an equation that is particularly difficult and I require your help. I have already seen Pinkie Pie, who’s math genius rivals my own, and she cannot decipher it either. We came to a decision that I should send you a letter to ask you about it. I could either send you the equation in a letter, or I could come visit you in Canterlot and we could discuss it there.
Sincerely, Princess Twilight Sparkle
Celestia’s reply came quickly, and it was quite succinct.
Dear Princess Twilight,
You may send me the spell name and equation in a letter and I shall see ifI may help you.
Sincerely, Princess Celestia
Twilight sent her reply.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Thank you for your quick reply. The name of the spell is ‘color change’ and the equation is (248+545(15+210)7)/25(31-2)3. Please feel free to send me any questions you may have.
Sincerely, Princess Twilight Sparkle
Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
Come here right now.
Sincerely, Princess Celestia.
“oh, no…” Twilight said. “She doesn’t know it either….”
She went to the train station and bought a ticket to go straight to Canterlot.
~*~
When she arrived, she went straight to the castle to find Celestia waiting in the main room Twilight, but instead of the look of distraught confusion Twilight had expected, Celestia had a look of anger on her muzzle.
“P-Princess? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked nervously.
“I cannot believe you had thought I would be tricked so easily. And, to go so far as tampering with a spellbook… I just can’t believe it! You know as well as I do that if somepony had managed to actually solve this equation and try to cast the spell, the results would be disastrous. You could have killed somepony, Twilight!” A sad, desperate tone entered her voice. “Then what would I do?”
“I’m terribly sorry Princess, but I don’t know what you are talking about. That is the equation that I found when I opened the book, honestly.”
“well, if you didn’t do it, who did? It would have taken a genius to come up with an equation off the top of their head.”
“Hmm… A genius, you said? Well, in that case, I think I know just who did this. Two ponies, in fact. We have to go to Ponyville, Princess.”
~*~
Twilight and the Princess walked into the bakery. Princess Celestia used her Royal Canterlot Voice, shouting, “Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, you are needed here IMMEDIATELY!”
The two startled ponies burst from the kitchen, and lined up in front of the two serious looking alicorns before them.
“Hi, princesses… What can we do for you?” Pinkie asked, a tremor in her voice.
Still using the Voice, Celestia replied, “ you two are under arrest for the tampering with of a legal spellbook. The punishment is five years in prison. Come face your charge.”
Both the bakers began to shake uncontrollably where they sat.
Rainbow Dash spoke up, “D-do we really h-have to go to j-jail?”
Twilight laughed.”No, you two, get up! You aren’t going to go to jail. It isn’t even a against the law to tamper with spellbooks.”
“well…“ said Princess Celestia.
“Anyways,” Twilight continued, giving her former teacher a look.” You two aren’t really in trouble. It was a valiant effort, but you have failed this time in pranking me, Princess Twilight Sparkle!”
The two looked confused for a moment, them simultaneously, looks of relief spread over their faces.
“Oh, and Rainbow?”
“Yeah, Twilight?”
“Consider my debt to you from your pranks paid in full.”
“ha, yeah, I’ll do that…”
“Oh, and Princess?”
“Yes, Twilight?”
“What was the actual equation for that spell?”
“2x=4”
Twilight Facehoofed.