“So why couldn’t you get any sleep, Spike?” Scootaloo asked as they all
walked toward the Ice cream shop.
“I don’t know, I just wasn’t feeling tired at all, despite the fact I had worked
all day reorganizing book shelves with Twilight.”
“That’s weird...” Applebloom said. “It’s the same for me. I wasn’t feeling tired
at all last night, even after a full day of activities.”
“Me too...” Scootaloo added. “What if it has something to do with those black
balls?”
Spike looked thoughtful for a moment.
“Well, I guess that IS possible... I mean, they could be charged with magic
or something. Sweetie Belle, you’re a unicorn... Did you feel any magic from the orbs?”
“No, but I’m not good at all at detecting magic yet, I haven’t learned how to do that.
But if they are magic, I’m sure Twilight will be able to feel it.”
“Yeah, she will. She’s very good at the tracing spells, So if there’s even the tiniest amount
of magic in those things, Twilight will find it.”
After a few more minutes walk, they reached their destination. Spike, as the gentledragon
he often is, open the door and held it open for the fillies as they entered.
Behind the counter they saw an old mare, around Granny Smiths age.
She was pale blue with a grey mane knotted up in a hairnet.
On her muzzle was a pair of small round glasses.
“Welcome, welcome. What can I get you young ladies? And, dragon.”
“You can give us a few minutes to decide.” Spike said with a friendly smile.
“Jus’ tell me when you decided, I’ll go serve another customer in the meantime.”
The old mare responded and walked out into the shop and approached one of the
tables. Spike and the three fillies carefully considered their options.
This place had nearly thirty different flavors of ice cream.
After a few minutes, the old mare came back. “Decided yet?” She asked.
All of them nodded.
“Then, Line up and I’ll take your orders.”
Sweetie Belle went first. “I want two scoops. One lemon and one orange with chocolate
chips in it.”
Next up was Scootaloo. “Two scoops, both that dark-chocolate-and-mint.”
Then Applebloom. “One scoop raspberry and one scoop strawberry, please.”
Lastly, Spike came up to the counter. “I’m going with two scoops of plain old vanilla
today, I feel like something simple.”
The old mare scooped all their ice creams and gave them the bowls.
“That’ll be forty bits all in all, five per scoop.”
“I’ll pay now, and then you girls can pay me later, okay?” Spike said.
“It’s easier that way.”
The fillies just smiled and nodded, and grabbed their ice cream bowls.
“Now, let’s find a table...” Scootaloo said while looking around.
Sweetie Belle pointed toward a corner table. “That one is empty, and has four seats.
Let’s take that one. I like the corner seats, you can see the whole place from there.
And, I like watching other ponies, it’s fun to observe and see what others do.”
The others agreed, so they all sat down at the corner table and started eating their ice cream slowly, savoring the moment.
* * *
Twilight stood in the kitchen, waiting for the water to boil.
She was humming to herself as she did so, and did not notice the door open.
“Hey, Twilight? You in here?” A voice yelled, and Twilight turned her head to respond.
“I’m in the kitchen, Rainbow. Want some tea? The water just started boiling.”
“No time, I’m in a hurry. I just came by to see if you had any of the ‘Daring Do’ books
available. Me and Fluttershy are going on a trip to Cloudsdale, and we decided to take the
train most of the way and just fly the last bit, so I need something to do on the train.”
“Oh right, the school reunion, right?”
“Exactly, and the train’s leaving in 15, so I need a book, like, right now.”
“The Daring books are all placed in the shelf marked ‘800’, just check along the wall.”
“....800? What kind of label is that for a bookshelf?”
“It’s standardized book sorting, of course! I use the ‘Dewey Decimal System’,
in which the number 800 corresponds to ‘Literature’, which in turn includes fictional works.
I WAS planning to have Daring sorted in shelf 900, for History and Geography
due to being real-life events, but since Yearling wants to keep it secret that she’s
actually Daring Do for real, I decided to sort them as fiction.”
“Dew-whatimal system? You’re going egghead on me again, Twi.
Anyway, I’ll just grab a Daring book and then I gotta leave.”
“Okay, most of them should be available.”
While talking, Twilight had prepared a cup of steaming hot liquorice tea.
She lifted the teacup with her magic and carried it over to the desk where
the two black orbs lay resting next to a pile of parchments, a quill and a small ink bottle.
Rainbow Dash looked over at the table. “What you got there? New paper weights?”
“No, these are unknown objects. Spike found one, and the Crusaders found the other.
I’m spending my day examining them to see if I can find out what they are.”
“Okay... Have fun with that. I gotta go. I’m taking ‘Daring Do and The Iron Throne’.”
“Sure. Have fun on that reunion. See you in a few days.”
Twilight and Rainbow both waved goodbye at each other as Rainbow
trotted out the door, and took off into the air, flying toward the train station.
Twilight used her magic to close the door. She opened the nearby window to let some
fresh air in and started looking at the orbs. She started talking to herself, half mumbling.
“...Let’s see... Size... like tennis balls... Smooth, glass-like surface.. or possibly crystal,
not yet determined... Magic aura... none that can be seen, but... hmm...”
She let her horn shine, and started a scanning spell to determine if the orbs radiated any
magical energies.
“....Very faint... almost too faint for me to notice... and... it feels...”
At that moment, Spike came back.
“Twilight, I’m home!” he said as he came in through the door, smiling.
Twilight stopped the scanning spell and turned around.
“Oh, hi. The water is still hot if you want some tea.”
“No thanks, I’ll have a cup later. I’d prefer to get to work, so I can
get the sorting done. I still have the “Science and Magic” shelf to fix.”
“Oh, that reminds me. While you’re sorting that pile, could you give me
the books about crystals, and the ones about magic artifacts?
I want to check and see if these black orbs appear anywhere there,
or if there is something similar.”
“Sure.” Spike responded and started his work. Beside the shelf lay piles of books,
which were to be sorted by category, instead of alphabetically by author name like the
previous sorting system had been. Fiction was sorted by author and series.
Spike started checking the titles and subjects of the books, and placing them
in their corresponding section in the shelf. When he found the books Twilight
had requested, he handed them over to her and then continued working.
While Spike sorted the books Twilight kept examining the orbs and searching in
the texts for anything resembling them. After seven books and a number of scrolls
she sighed deeply.
“Everything okay?” Spiked asked. “I guess you’re not finding anything?”
“No. The closest I got was crystal balls and magically charged mineral
such as Spell Gems, but nothing about black orbs. Crystal Balls are always clear.
Spell gems are colour coded, different color for different magic.
Black is NOT listed as one of the colors. I think we need some expert help
with this if we’re going to find anything.”
I don’t have any books or scrolls here, and not to brag, but in Ponyville
I’m the local expert on spells, nopony here knows more than me.
We need to upscale and ask Celestia if there’s any books in the
Canterlot Public Library or the Castle library that might have answers, or if there are
any experts on the subject who knows more than me.”
Spike looked at her with anticipation, knowing what she would say next.
“Spike... Take a letter.”
Spike had already prepared. “Ready.”
“’Dear Princess Celestia’”, Twilight began...