A Study in Twilight

by The Master Whoovian

Home Sweet Home

One Week Earlier...

It was a beautiful summer day in the small town of Ponyville. All the earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi enjoyed a wonderful time in the warming glow of Celestia’s sun.

Proceeding through the town square was the bookish alicorn, Princess Twilight Sparkle, her wings stuck to her sides and her horn emitting a faint glow, for she was levitating a book in front of her muzzle.

Through years of practice, and the help of peripheral vision, she moved passed the other trotting ponies with ease, not missing a single step.

In the sky, she could see trails of rainbow following a cyan blur that would have almost gone unnoticed, if not for the vibrant rainbow mane atop the blur’s head.

Rainbow Dash proceeded to train, as she did every morning, in hopes of climbing up the ranks in the Wonderbolts Reserves.

Twilight smirked at how hard she trained. She knew that Rainbow’s speed and dexterity didn't need practice, but she really needed to work on her stubbornness and people skills.

Rainbow Dash slowly lowered to the ground until she began to float between Twilight and the book she had in her magic.

“Hey, Twilight!” Rainbow said in her usual tomboyish voice. “So, what is the new book of the day?”

Twilight proceeded to move Rainbow Dash with her magic out of her field of vision, and, with a slight hint of annoyance in her voice, responded, ” Well Rainbow, before your very unwelcome interruption I was trying to learn more about ancient civilizations and the history of Equestria. In fact, I just learned about a really interesting civilization that went ext-“ Rainbow Dash put a hoof to Twilight’s mouth.

“Listen Twi,” Rainbow Dash said with her hoof still blocking Twilight’s voice,” that all sound’s really interesting, but it also sounds really boring. If you find more interesting stories that aren't meant for eggheads, than please feel free to give me a call.”

Twilight pushed Rainbow's hoof out of her mouth and said,” You call me an egghead yet you faint at the announcement of a new Daring Do book.” Rainbow Dash only blushed from embarrassment and almost immediately shot up into the sky, causing some of the dirt trail they were on to shoot up with her, thus causing Twilight to cough.

Twilight scooped up her book and, to save time, proceeded to put the book in a satchel on her back and flew to the Golden Oak Library, which seemed to sag a little in the summer sun.

Twilight walked through the door into her home, and proceeded to place the satchel down on the ground in front of her desk, the sudden thud awakening her pet owl Owlicious.

“WHO!!!” Owlicious shouted. Twilight cringed slightly at the loud noise and apologized to the bird, who immediately proceeded to drift into a deep sleep.

Twilight ascended the steps to her small bedroom, while being very careful as to not disturb her other sleeping companion. Spike the Dragon was snoring in his little basket at the foot of her bed, while also mumbling recipes for various gem-themed deserts that he learned from Pinkie Pie at Sugar Cube Corner.

Twilight laid onto her bed, hoping to at least take a little nap before she took part in one of her late night study sessions.

Not only was Twilight looking forward to her study session, she was also looking forward to the trip her and her friends were taking starting tomorrow.

Every four years, an annual summit is held to discuss peaceful alternatives to global conflicts through long talks and discussions between major world leaders. Since Twilight and her friends were able to reform Discord, Nightmare Moon, and defeat both Chrysalis and Sombra, they were offered to be special guests. Of course, since Twilight was a princess, she would be attending either way.

Twilight was relaxing on her bed until something gently landed onto her stomach. She lifted her head and noticed that it was a leaf. Twilight raised her eyebrows and wondered where it came from, that was when she felt a slight breeze coming from her window.

She went towards the window and noticed something very strange, the glass wasn't there. The window was non-existent, nothing but a hole in the side of the tree.

Twilight was shocked to see that she no longer had a window, and decided to wake Spike and see if he knew how this happened.

She walked over to his basket and tapped Spike on the head, but he continued to snore loudly. Twilight did this over and over again to no avail, and eventually decided to lift him with her magic and shake him.

He eventually woke up and said,” Ugggghhh… I knew I shouldn't have eaten that Omega Ruby Jubilee.” He looked around the room and saw that he was above the ground and floating in the air.

Twilight than said,” Spike, do you have any idea how the window is missing?” Spike looked towards where the window once was and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know Twi, I was awake almost all morning, and while I was taking my noon nap I was never awoken by any noise.”

Twilight than lowered Spike back into his basket and trotted down the stairs into the main library.

She proceeded to look through the shelves of books looking to see if any of them were missing, while shouting out the numbers and letters of missing spaces to make sure that they were rented by other ponies.

Spike was looking through the list of rented books and told Twilight which were rented out,” Well, Friendship is Witchcraft was rented out by Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo, and Philomena: Ace Attorney was rented out by Lyra. That leaves four books unaccounted for!”

Twilight’s eyes widened in shock. “Which books were taken?!” Twilight said with a very serious yet sad tone in her voice. Spike looked through the list of books and said,” Know Your Pony: An Almanac of Famous Ponies and Their Deeds, Advanced Alchemy Volumes I & II, and The Magical Atlas of the World.”

Twilight paced back and forth mumbling with a nervous tone, only to stop and take a deep breath, moving her hoof away from her chest, a trick she learned from her sister-in-law Princess Cadance, now Queen Cadence of the Crystal Empire.

Twilight said,” It is alright, luckily these books are very widespread so it should be easy to replace them, I only wish we had the time to figure out who broke into the library.”

At that moment, there was a strong hearty knock at the door. Twilight trotted over to the door and opened the top portion of the door.
When she opened the door, she was met with a brown earth pony, who was wearing a beige plaid hat and a briefcase hung over a hook attached to his side.

In a Trottinghamian accent he said,” Greetings your excellency, my name is Clever Quill.”