The Joy of Magic

by ray10k

Chapter 1: Ardens Curiositas

In the land of Equestria, magic is often considered a form of science. A part of the world, well-researched and understood to the point where one could say that, indeed, they had hardly begun understanding the true nature of it.

Still, most of the time one could predict well enough how magic would behave, much like one can say with a degree of certainty bordering on the statement of a fact that gravity pulls stuff down, or that a gas will generally be less dense than a solid.
In fact, magic is researched well enough to establish certain ground rules that most assume to be universally true. It is for this very reason that a certain lavender Unicorn mare was currently getting dangerously frustrated at one of her close friends.

“HOW! DOES! IT! WORK!?!”

-------------

Twilight Sparkle, bearer of the Element of Magic, pupil of Princess Celestia, was not having a good time.
Recently, her studies into the magic of Friendship and Harmony had taught her an important lesson: Sometimes, you just have to accept things the way they are, even if you think they cannot be true. It was a lesson learned through a desire to help her friends, but possibly more importantly, repeated physical injury and at one point even a showdown with an angry hydra.

“Come on, Twilight, you know what happened the last time you tried to prove the Pinkie sense wasn’t real,” her Draconic assistant said, hoping he wouldn’t have to push her around in a wheelchair again.

“I know, Spike, but even if I agree to call it a real thing, it doesn’t change the fact that I have no CLUE how it could possibly work! And it is driving me MAD!! And worst of all, I can’t just ask her, because even she has no clue how her own, reality breaking powers work, for Celestia’s sake!”

“Then just drop it! You’re only going to get hurt again!”

Twilight stomped a hoof in frustration. “No Spike, you know I can’t just let a mystery like this unsolved. It’s just going to linger in the back of my head, until I finally crack the riddle, and drive me CRAZY until I finally do!”

“But Twilight, what can you do? I mean, you’ve been up all day, trying to find anything at all about Earth ponies using chrona-, cirno- chronono-”

“Chronomancy,” Twilight corrected her assistant in a slightly annoyed tone.

“Yeah, that. Like I said, you’ve been looking all day for anything about that, and you haven’t found even the smallest thing!”

Spike was right. Twilight had gotten up early that day, and even though it was only around lunchtime, the Library looked as if a hurricane had pulled every book off the shelves and dumped them on the floor, making small hills of highly academic literature.

At this point, Twilight’s body decided that a light breakfast consisting of some hay and an apple was not nearly enough to get through the day, announcing its conclusion by making her stomach rumble louder than she would ever like it to.

She sighed. “You’re right, Spike. I’ve been at this for too long already. How about we get some lunch, and then clean up the mess I made together?”

At the offer of having both lunch AND his workload halved, Spike brightened up considerably.“That’s the spirit! Let’s go!”

“OK, let’s go to that one restaurant we visited a while ago. You know, the one that made those hay fries you liked so much?” Twilight said as she walked towards the doorway.

“Nah, we’ve been there the last several times. Can we go to Sugarcube Corner instead?” Spike said as he jumped on her back.

“Hmmm, I don’t know Spike, I guess I need to get my mind off of Pinkie for a while,” Twilight responded as she got outside and started to walk in the general direction of the marketplace.

“Ah, please Twi? It’s been sooo long since I’ve had one of those absolutely delicious cupcakes. Besides,” he added with a sly grin, “maybe you can catch her in the act of doing her twitchy thing and figure out how it works.”

Twilight thought about it for a moment, and suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, a large smile creeping up over her face. “Spike, you are a GENIUS!” she cheered, startling the young dragon on her back.

“Woah! Well, thanks, I know, but why this time?”

“Observation! I just need to observe Pinkie Pie, and that way I can figure out how her twitches work!”

“You tried that last time, remember? That ended with you getting hit by everything in that mover’s cart!”

“Oh, I know. That is why, this time, I will not just be sneaking around! This time, I will just ask her if she is OK with me observing her throughout the day. Whatever she does won’t have a reason to backfire at me, and I’ll finally get my answers! It is a perfect idea!”

“But, you don’t know if she’ll say yes! Don’t get ahead of yourself again, please Twi!”

“Oh, you know how she is. If I remind her of the fact that I, a good friend, will be spending a lot of time with her, she’ll agree faster than you can say ‘cupcake’!”

-------------

Twilight walked through the front door of Sugarcube Corner, finding Mrs. Cake behind the counter.

“Hello dears, how can I help you today?” she greeted Twilight and Spike as they walked up to her.

“Hello Mrs. Cake, how are you today? I’d like two cupcakes with strawberry frosting for me please.”

“And two of those delicious Baked Bads for me please,” Spike said as he licked his lips in anticipation for the culinary disasters Applejack had made during a fit of stubbornness-induced insomnia.

“Sorry dear, but we don’t have those anymore. Would you like some blueberry muffins instead?”

“Hmpf. Ok, the muffins sound good. Hey Twi, can you tell me if you see that mailmare coming?” Spike said with a look of disappointment at the lack of the horrors from the kitchen he had come to enjoy.

Twilight chuckled at Spike’s indignant expression. “Sure will, Spike.”

“Ok then, that will be six bits for the two of you,” Mrs. Cake said. “By the way, Miss Twilight, Pinkie Pie asked me to tell you something.”

“Hm? What did she say?” Twilight said, mildly confused.

“Well, she asked me to, when I would see you again, say ‘behind you.’ She didn’t tell me why, do you-”

“Hey Twilight!”

Twilight jumped nearly three feet into the air, startled by the sudden appearance of the Pink Party Pony behind her. “Pinkie Pie! What did I tell you about suddenly popping up behind ponies?”

Pinkie looked at Twilight for a moment, her head tilted in confusion, before she started to talk. “Well, last time you told me that it is not nice to suddenly pop up behind ponies who are busy with something, and you said that I should first warn them so they wouldn’t be scared or shocked or startled, and then you started to lecture me about the importance of respecting the personal space of other ponies, right before you remembered that you had some big experiment going on, so you rushed over to your lab and then-” At this point, the rapidly talking mare was silenced by a lavender hoof, keeping her mouth shut.

“Right, so why didn’t you warn me?” Twilight said, before removing her hoof once more.

“But I did! I knew you would come to Sugarcube Corner, so I told Mrs. Cake to warn you about me, so I wouldn’t scare you, because while being scared at nightmare night is fun, it is no fun to get scared of your friends, because then-”

“Ok, Pinkie, I get it,” Twilight said as she removed her hoof again. ” One more thing though, how did you know I’d be here? Did you have one of your twitches again?”

“No, but I heard you and Spike talk on the way here, so I thought I’d send you a warning in advance,” Pinkie said as if it were the most logical thing in the world.

“I see... Actually, that was something I wanted to speak to you about. Your Pinkie Sense.”

“Oh, Twilight, not this again. You know it is real right? I mean, you wrote the Princess a letter about it, saying that sometimes you just need to believe, remember?” Pinkie said with a look of slight worry.

“I know, and while I do believe that it is a real thing, I still don’t understand how it works. And not understanding how something works is just something I cannot stand, so will you help me? Please?” Twilight answered, putting on her large eyes in the hope to persuade the party pony in front of her.

“I don’t know. I mean, last time you couldn’t find anything, right?”

“True, so this time I wanted to do things differently. For starters, I’d like to try observing you again, but this time without trying to hide. All I’d be doing would be to look at what your daily life is like, maybe help out here and there...”

Pinkie jumped up, her trademark smile threatening to split her face in two. “You want to hang out more?! That sounds like a wonderful idea! Oh, we could make cupcakes, muffins, donuts, cakes... Ooh, and I can introduce you to all my other friends! I’m sure you’ll like them!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow in confusion at the last remark. “But Pinkie, I already know our other friends. You know, ever since the whole Nightmare Moon ordeal?”

“Ah, no silly, those are not my only friends! You’ll see, hang out with me, and you’ll meet so many new friends, you could fill all of Canterlot with them!”

Twilight gave a slightly awkward laugh. “Well, I’ll mostly be busy taking notes, but sure, sounds like fun. Shall we start tomorrow?”

“Why wait until tomorrow? You can just stay here and we can hang out while I help the Cakes.”

“Well, like I said, I’ll be taking a lot of notes, so I’ll need to get home first. Sorry,” Twilight said as she slowly backed away to the exit.

“Ok, I’ll see you tomorrow then. Meet me early, then you can help me with baking the cupcakes and the muffins and...” Pinkies voice slowly faded out of focus as Twilight trotted out of the door, with Spike still sitting on her back.

-------------

“Ok, that went well. Guess I can get started on my research tomorrow morning,” Twilight said as she got back to the library.

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t see it as research. I mean, you must admit she has a point. You haven’t really made any more friends since you got here,” Spike said as he got of Twilight’s back. “Besides, even now you spend most of your time working on your studies. The Princess sent you here to get you to socialize a little, so just for once, try not to take it too serious Twi.”

“I know, Spike, and I will try to have some fun, but this is important! Think about it Spike, If I can figure this out, maybe one day everypony could use magic, regardless of what they were born like. It could mean the beginning of a new age of Harmony for all ponykind! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, I’ve got to prepare for tomorrow,” Twilight said as she trotted off to gather supplies.

“But you promised we’d clean up the library together!” Spike shouted to her as she went down the stairs to the basement, where most of her supplies were.

“Get started, I’ll join you in a moment,” She replied while putting a few empty scrolls and some writing materials into a pair of saddlebags. Tomorrow would be a big day indeed.

//////////
Ray10k here. So, first chapter of my first fic.
Please, if you at any point spot any error, please tell me.
I cannot improve my writing if I don’t know I’m doing it wrong, so don’t hesitate to highlight EVERY. SINGLE. TINY. MISTAKE.

The title means Burning curiosity, translation credit goes to Google Translate.

Comments

[Hyper Futas Are Great]

Hmm. Good. Good. Also, "Pinkie" not "Pinky"

Other than that 4.5

[Bashfluff]

Ah, I DO love this ship to death. I kinda wish I hadn't read the plot synopsis, because it almost ruins the surprise. But I suppose that since this seems a common enough premise (Twilight trying to study Pinkie more, usually ending up in her learning something important), I don't think I would have had to think to hard to piece it together. I like what you've got so far, but Kirby is right, and that little mistakes annoys the hell out of me.

Other than that, good work.

[Wings Of Reparation]

Good story. Just the one thing that's irritating me: Pinkie Pie. Not Pinky.

[Talow]

it's Pinkie, not Pinky. otherwise, seems to be pretty good.

[sparkleshyguy85]

Great so far. Keep it coming.

Everypony else has pointed out the only mistake I noticed (and they're correct, it's PinkIE Pie), so nothing to add there.

[kryxel]

"using google translate"
Well theres your problem
good story but i am getting Kryxel sense thinking that twilight WONT get out of this without a scrach.