On the Nature of Alicorns

by Typoglyphic

Chapter Four

There was a knock at the door.

Huh? Twilight blinked her eyes open, only to be greeted with a closeup view of her pillow. It felt as though her head were stuffed with cotton.

“Twilight, it’s, like, noon. Aren’t you gonna get up?”

She poked her head up and twisted. Spike stood in the open doorway with an apron on and a spatula in hand. She squinted against the glaring sunlight streaming through the window. A beautiful day, probably. She squirmed, trying to think of a way to get down to the kitchen without having to physically move. In the end she overbalanced and slid out of bed, landing face-first on her bedroom floor for the second morning in a row. She let out a low moan.

“Well,” Spike’s voice was choked, as if he was holding back laughter. “That’s sort of ‘up’, I guess.” She heard the patter of his feet down the hall as he left.

It took her a few minutes to will herself to move again, and a several minutes more before she was prepared to venture outside her room. What had happened to all her energy from the day before? Oh, right! The journal! The thought sent a jolt through her. She could get started on it today! She almost tripped down the stairs in her hurry to get breakfast out of the way.

She cantered up to the kitchen table. The scent of spice and egg filled the air. “Morning, Spike.” She yawned. “Thanks for waking me up.” Spike waved over his shoulder, his attention focused on the stove. Twilight hesitated, remembering her conversation with Luna the previous day. Breakfast smelled good, but… “Do you have a minute?”

He turned, an exasperated expression on his face. “I suppose.” He kept shooting glances back at the skillet on the stove. “What do you need?”

“Can you take a letter?”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Fine. Could you make it a short one though? I don’t want the omelet to burn.” He left the kitchen and returned with pen and paper. He looked at her expectantly.

“Dear Princess Luna,” Twilight began. “I—”

“Luna?” Spike said. “Really?”

“Yes. Why?”

Spike scratched out something at the top of the paper, considered it for a moment, then tossed it onto the counter-top. “Gimme a sec.” He left the room again.

He walked back in with fresh paper. “Right. Dear Princess Luna,” he repeated. “Okay…”

“Ahem. I haven’t gotten a chance to take a look at Star Swirl’s journal yet, but rest assured that I will uncover his secrets. In the meantime, I thought that you’d appreciate having Spike’s dragonfire signature, hence this letter. Feel free to contact me for any reason. Sincerely, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Spike’s pen hand stopped, and he looked up at her. “Okay, where am I sending this?”

Twilight lit her horn and conjured the green flame that Luna had shown her. Spike leaned forward and flicked out his tongue, tasting the smoldering air. He swallowed a few times, then pulled his lips back and let loose his usual green fire over the letter. The smoke billowed, then slowly dissipated.

Spike patted his hands together a few times, then turned back to the stove. “Anything else?”

“Nope.” Twilight sat down at the table. “Thanks, Spike. Enjoy your omelet.”

He snorted. “Uh huh, sure, my omelet.” He slid a plate of steaming egg in front of her. Scrambled, as she preferred. She beamed back at him, and then tucked in.

Twilight was halfway through her breakfast when she heard a restrained knocking sound—a hoof against crystal—come from somewhere below them. Twilight sighed. Technically, the castle was a public building, but everypony was too polite to enter her living space unannounced, which meant that visitors always wandered in a few rooms until they felt they were intruding, then started knocking on doors and walls until either she or Spike went down to see them. She took one more look at the remains of her breakfast, then pushed her chair back and trotted for the stairs.

It took her three tries to find the source of the knocking, eventually narrowing it down to somewhere near the council room. She pulled the large wooden door open and was met by a wide smile.

“Twilight!” Rarity beamed. “My, it feels like it’s been ages! Wherever have you been all of this week?” Twilight opened her mouth to respond. “Ah ah! I won’t hear a word of it. We’ve got the picnic all set up on our hill, and I know the rest of the girls are all simply dying to hear from you. Pinkie Pie brought lunch.”

Twilight wasn’t really hungry—she could still taste breakfast on her tongue. “Sorry, Rarity, but I—” A blue glow filled Twilight’s vision, and she found her mouth being gently pressed closed.

“Come along now, dear. I’m sure that whatever you were working on can wait a few hours.” Rarity turned and trotted off toward the Whitetail Woods, releasing Twilight’s muzzle from her magic.

The sun was directly overhead. The green grass shone in the warm sunlight. As much as Twilight wanted to begin her attack on Star Swirl’s journal…

She was the Princess of Friendship, after all.

---

Surrounded by the chirping of birds and the laughter of foals, Twilight allowed herself to relax. The sensation of warm grass beneath the checkered picnic blanket made for a comfortable seat. She had yet to touch the piles of food Pinkie always brought to these gatherings, though from the speed Rainbow and Applejack were digging through them she doubted they would go to waste.

“Sweetie Belle…” Rarity raised an eyebrow at her sister who had her hoof extended toward a plate of cookies. Sweetie gazed up at her with pleading eyes. Rarity shook her head. “No, you’ve had plenty. Go play.” Sweetie sighed and ran off toward the other two crusaders.

The six of them had begun holding weekly picnics soon after Twilight had moved to Ponyville, as a way of keeping in touch. In those days it hadn’t really been necessary. She was so thrilled to have discovered friendship that she usually spend some time with all of them every day. Now, however, they had settled into their friendship, and they had each found their responsibilities growing.

She had grown wings, and while she didn’t have many official royal duties, just learning about all that would be expected of her consumed hours and days. Rarity found that while the new Carousel Boutique locations in Canterlot and Manehatten increased her exposure and profit tenfold, they increased her workload by the same. Rainbow struggled to maintain both her regular weather duties and the mandatory Wonderbolt training for reservists. Applejack’s harvest had only gotten bigger over the years, and now Sweet Apple Acres was almost twice what it was when Twilight had arrived in Ponyville. The impossible task of dealing with Discord fell to Fluttershy.

And Pinkie… Twilight had no idea what Pinkie did with her time, actually.

Anyway, these picnics had become very important to all of them during the past few months, and, now that Twilight was here, she was glad Rarity had dragged her along. She didn’t want to risk becoming a shut-in again, no matter how much more time it would allow her for research…

“You still with us, Twi’?” Rainbow asked through a mouthful of bread and assorted veggies.

Twilight jumped. “Huh?”

Rainbow swallowed and grinned at her. “Yeah, that’s about what I thought.”

“Is something bothering you, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked. “You know we’ll help if we can.”

“Oh, no.” Twilight shrugged. “I was just thinking about a project I’m working on. Nothing important.”

Rarity tilted her head. “Is that what you’ve been doing these last few days? Working on this project?”

Pinkie bounced over to her and started to circle the blanket. “'Cause we noticed that you weren't around yesterday. And the day before. And I wondered where you were and none of the other girls knew and I said that maybe it was a princess thing that you couldn't tell us about for our own safety, but Rarity said that was silly and that you were probably just really really busy.” Pinkie was suddenly very close to her. "So is it?"

Thanks to her years of interacting with Pinkie, Twilight managed to not recoil at her sudden closeness. “Uh… is it what?” She looked around and saw only blank expressions. None of the others seemed to know what Pinkie was talking about either.

“I don’t know.” Pinkie moved her face even closer. “Is it?”

“Um… no?”

Pinkie stepped back. “Oh. Well, what is it then?” Twilight blinked. She had completely lost the thread of conversation.

“Your project, dear,” Rarity said. “We’re curious.”

“Speak for yourself.” Rainbow yawned. “It’s probably just boring sciency stuff.” She reached for another sandwich.

Twilight chuckled, feeling strangely caught off guard. “Yeah, it’s nothing really. Just some alicorn stuff.”

Rarity perked up. “So it was a… royal affair, then? A social project, perhaps?” She leaned forward, eyes filled with excitement. “A matter of politics? Of intrigue?”

“No, I’m not allowed to make policy yet. It’s just a technical thing. Not interesting at all.”

Rarity must have heard defensiveness in Twilight’s voice. She frowned. “Darling, if you can’t tell us then simply say so.” Rainbow stopped chewing. Applejack turned, dropping a sandwich she’d just picked up back on the plate. Pinkie stopped bouncing, and Fluttershy gave Twilight a sympathetic look.

Twilight shifted uncomfortably. It wasn’t like she wanted to keep secrets from her friends, she just… Actually, why was she trying to keep her research a secret? Celestia hadn’t told her to hide her findings from anypony, and Luna had told her that Star Swirl’s journal was harmless. Deciphering the journal would probably take a day or two, and analyzing it would probably take several more. Trying to hide—

“I know that look,” Applejack said, snapping Twilight out of her thoughts. “Something up ‘tween you and Celestia?”

“Huh?” Twilight squinted. “What do you mean?”

“I reckon the last time ‘ya looked this panicked was back when you were rantin’ ‘bout being tardy, and we all know how that turned out.”

“Ohmygosh you’re right! She kinda does have that crazy eye thingy going on! Don’t worry, Twilight, Celestia said we don’t have to write those friendship reports anymore. Unless you forgot about some really important princess thing which you can’t tell us about for our own s—”

Twilight stuck a hoof in Pinkie’s mouth. “It’s not a princess thing. It’s an alicorn thing. And the Princess—err, Celestia—has nothing to do with it.” Everypony stared her. She took her hoof away from Pinkie’s face. “Sorry about that, Pinkie Pie.”

“That’s okay!” Pinkie said. “Your hooves taste like ketchup.”

Right. She hadn’t washed up after breakfast.

“Sorry, girls. I’ve been a little bit stressed lately.” She sighed, then explained how she had come to find Star Swirl’s spell book and journal, and what she hoped to learn from them.

“Oh yeah, I remember that explosion in the castle. You shot lightning out your horn, right?”

“So you’re investigatin’ how to make alicorns? Well that sounds mighty important.”

“Please, tell us more about your arrangement with Princess Luna. I’ve been simply dying to get her in for a fitting. Her colours are very ‘in’ right now.”

After a few minutes, the conversation turned away from her research. Twilight relaxed back, letting their discussion of whether or not Luna was ‘as cool as the night’ wash over her.

A small cough behind her drew Twilight’s attention. “Hey, uh, Twilight?” Scootaloo said. “Did you mention something about pegasus magic?”

Twilight winced as she recalled her avid, academic interest in Scootaloo’s case. She’d completely forgotten about the little pegasus in the wake of Celestia’s letter. “That’s right, I did.”

Scootaloo pawed at the ground nervously. “Did you figure anything out about, ya know,” she shifted her wings, “about me?”

Twilight swallowed. What could she say to that? Sorry, Scootaloo, but you have a birth defect and will never fly? That no doctor will ever be able to help because unicorns know nothing about pegasi? She blinked. Wait…

“Twilight?”

Wait… She was a unicorn who knew something about pegasi. If she tried to… feel Scootaloo’s pegasus magic, maybe she’d be able to understand it. Maybe she’d be able to see how to fix it. Her mind whirred with everything she knew of pony magic as she tried to figure out how to diagnose the filly.

“Uh, Twilight? I’m sorry if I bothered you. I’ll just—”

“Rainbow Dash! Fluttershy!” Twilight called. “I need to borrow you.” She let a slightly devious smile play across her face. “There’s science to be done!”

---

Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Scootaloo stood in a line at the top of a nearby hill. Twilight stood in front of them, occasionally lighting her horn or shifting her wings.

She paused as Rainbow spoke up. “I don’t get it. What are you actually doing?”

Twilight pursed her lips. “Hmm. Give me a second.” She needed to figure out how pegasus magic actually felt. She fanned her wings, trying to channel some weather magic—something she’d never had to do before.

Rainbow glared at her. “We’ve been standing here for, like, five minutes already!”

“I’m sure Twilight knows what she’s doing, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said, touching Rainbow’s shoulder with a wingtip. “We might be able to help Scootaloo.”

Rainbow sighed and dropped her glare. “Fine. But I’d really like to know what’s going on in that egghead of yours, Twilight.”

Twilight crossed her eyes, looking up at her horn, then back at her extended wings. “Me too…”

“Umm,” Fluttershy squirmed in place and glanced back and forth between Twilight and Scootaloo. “Are you… um… sure this is safe?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Twilight said. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything to you. I’ll just, you know, poke around a bit.”

Fluttershy whimpered.

“Do you really think this’ll help, Twilight?” At least Scootaloo seemed excited. “Will I be able to fly?”

They stood in silence for a moment. Rainbow’s expression was tight and worried. Fluttershy just looked sad. Some of the light started to leave Scootaloo’s eyes.

“Maybe,” Twilight said. “Well, not today, definitely. But maybe.” She shifted her wings again. She was as ready as ever. “Rainbow. Do some pegasus magic.” She was answered with a blank look. “Just… I don’t know, flap or something. Hover.”

Rainbow snorted, but spread her wings and gave two powerful down-strokes, lofting her into the air. Twilight frowned. Nothing. She hadn’t felt anything out of the ordinary.

Rainbow touched back down seconds later. “That do it?”

Twilight was missing something, she was sure. She needed to be more sensitive. Could she try to… actively search out pegasus magic? She could with unicorn magic. Unicorns were extremely sensitive to their own race’s magic, and had to learn to tune it out as they grew older.

“One more time, Rainbow,” Twilight said. “Could you try to stay in the air for a bit longer this time?”

Again Rainbow took to the air, her hooves never more than a metre from the ground. This time, Twilight lit her horn and felt the area around Rainbow. Again, nothing. Darn. She was about to tell Rainbow to stop when she felt the base of her wings tingle. She paused, then redoubled her search.

“Find anything?” Rainbow asked, still in midair. She was barely flapping—somehow hovering with wings outstretched.

“Keep flapping!”

Now that Twilight knew to pay attention to her wing-bones, she could feel the magic pouring off of Rainbow in waves. It seemed to be emanating from every inch of the pegasus’ body. She delved deeper, moving with her unicorn magic but navigating by the sensations playing across her plumage and resonating within her bones. Rainbow’s magic pulsed like a tiny sun. Every bone, every blood vessel, every organ in Rainbow’s body shone with ethereal power.

“…Okay, you can stop.”

As Rainbow landed and folded her wings, Twilight tried to process what she’d just witnessed. This was original research, all right. Ground-breaking research. Research that could change the way modern medicine thought about racial magic. She eyed Scootaloo’s wings. Wait. She needed a control group. She looked at her third subject. Fluttershy would have to do.

“Fluttershy, you’re up.”

“Oh, um…” Fluttershy fluffed her wings a bit. “I don’t think I can hover like Rainbow did for very long.”

“Don’t worry about it. Just fly upward a little bit. Just for a few seconds.”

Fluttershy gathered herself and jumped into the air, her wings flapping furiously. Twilight immediately lit her horn and felt for weather magic. It took her a moment. Fluttershy wasn’t as stationary as Rainbow had been, making it hard for Twilight to stay focused. She soon adjusted though. Fluttershy’s magic was dimmer, more of a gentle hum than the surging tide Rainbow’s had been. Again, though, it permeated and surrounded her entire body evenly.

“Thanks, that’s good.”

Fluttershy dropped back down to earth, her breathing slightly uneven.

“Is it my turn?” Scootaloo piped up, her wings twitching with excitement.

Twilight nodded. “Just get as much lift as you can. It doesn’t matter how high.”

Scootaloo frowned, a look of intense concentration on her face. She buzzed her wings and jumped. Twilight lit her horn and flared her wings. She would only have a few seconds. Scootaloo’s hooves cleared the ground by inches. Twilight felt… nothing.

“Again,” Twilight commanded. Scootaloo jumped again.

As hard as Twilight searched, she couldn’t—wait. Was that a breeze, or—no, that was definitely pegasus magic. It was faint enough to be mistaken for background noise, but it was there. Scootaloo had some magic, at least.

“Did it… whew… did it work?” Scootaloo panted as she sat on the grass.

Twilight frowned. As exciting as the discovery was… now that she thought about it, this really only confirmed what she already knew. Rainbow was a powerful flier, and Fluttershy was a weaker flier. Scootaloo had a magical deficiency, and was therefore incapable of flight. Come on, Twilight! There had to be some way of actually using her newfound senses. Scootaloo seemed to be catching her breath.

“One more?” Twilight asked.

Scootaloo nodded, her face set.

Twilight found Scootaloo’s magic the instant the filly left the ground. It was a flickering flame—half-kindled. Acting on instinct, Twilight poured some of her own—she honestly couldn’t say which kind of magic it was—onto that sputtering little spark.

“Aaaaaah!”

Scootaloo fell from the sky and landed in a heap. Shouts of concern filled the air as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy crowded around her. Twilight felt terror rising in her gut. What had she done?

She stepped between the two other mares. Scootaloo’s wings were twitching, and her eyes were lidded and unfocused.

Rainbow Dash rounded on Twilight, her face twisted in fear. “What did you do?”

Twilight could only stare and shake her head. She should get someone. A doctor. A nurse. Someone who could fix whatever Twilight had done.

Scootaloo lifted her head, blinking. “I’m… I’m okay, I think.”

Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. Thank Celestia!

Scootaloo slowly rolled back to her hooves. “I feel…” she bounced back and forth on her hooves, “lighter.” Scootaloo tilted her head back to look at the empty blue sky. She moved her wings in slow circles.

“Uh… Scoots?” Rainbow said, squinting. “What’re you doing?”

Scootaloo stared at the sky. “Flying…” she whispered. She sprinted past Twilight and leaped off the hill, her wings flaring out. Twilight could see it. Scootaloo’s wings catching the air. An orange streak through the sky, twisting and climbing and diving like her idol. The shine in the filly’s eyes as she landed in front of her house, never bound to the earth again.

THUNK!

Fluttershy bolted down the hill toward the orange dent in the grass.

“I’m okay!” Scootaloo called.

Rainbow chuckled. “She means it.” Then she paused and turned to shoot a suspicious glance at Twilight. “What did you do to her?”

“I… I honestly don’t know, Rainbow. What I just did—whatever just happened—has never happened before.” Twilight paused, considering. “Probably.”

“Are you saying that you used Scoots as an experiment?” Rainbow’s eyes were narrowed dangerously.

Twilight had never known her to be so protective. “I didn’t mean to. It was an impulse thing. I’m sure you understand.”

Rainbow sighed. “I guess. Just… be more careful, okay?”

Twilight held back a snort of laughter. Oh, the sweet irony. Maybe Rainbow was growing up after all.

Once Fluttershy was convinced that Scootaloo was ‘fine, really’, the filly ran off to rejoin the other two Crusaders. Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy returned to the picnic to find the others packing everything up. Apparently they’d been on the hill for far longer than Twilight had thought. Twilight said her goodbyes and returned to the castle, her mind sloshing with ideas and theories. Her discovery today could be the beginning of years worth of experimentation. Twilight had never imagined herself as a medical doctor, but perhaps…

She walked aimlessly through the halls of her castle. If she wanted to gather more data, she’d need pegasi, and she’d already processed the two obvious candidates. She began to compile a mental list of Ponyville pegasi as she stepped into her study and used her magic to clear a space on her writing desk.

She heard a muted thud as something heavy toppled off the side of the desk. The journal. She’d completely forgotten about Star Swirl’s journal! Now she was torn between continuing her pursuit of pegasus physiology and deciphering Star Swirl’s lost knowledge. It was like a second Hearth’s Warming!

It only took her a few seconds to make a decision. The journal could wait. She picked it up and put it on a side table where it was prominently displayed. She wouldn’t forget about it again. She prepared a long scroll and a quill and set about turning her mental list of pegasi into a physical one. This, she thought, was what being a scientist was all about.

---

Twilight dropped her tenth completed scroll onto the small pile next to her. She’d done far more than create a list potential test subjects. Her notes documented everything she knew or suspected about the manifestation of pegasus magic in light of her new discovery. On their own, they were worthy of academic acclaim. Once she expanded her study, she wouldn’t be surprised if her findings eventually overshadowed her role as the Element of Magic, and possibly even as a princess.

She stretched in her chair and glanced out the window. The sun was beginning to fall. She glanced at the checklist balanced precariously on the corner of her desk. She floated it over and scanned over its contents. “Organize research time, check. Record details of initial discovery, check. Collate reference material, check. Prepare a list of follow-up experiments, check.” She leaned back. Every item was checked and accounted for, and she had hours left before sunset.

Finally.

She levitated Star Swirl’s journal over from across the room and dropped in on the desk. She prepared some fresh paper and got to work.

Three hours and several crumpled pages of notes later, she had ruled out every form of simple cipher Star Swirl was likely to have known about, and several that hadn’t been invented until years after his death. She’d tried simple word examination, then math, then simply guessing the key. None bore fruit. Either Star Swirl was a mathematical genius, or Twilight was nothing more than an amateur cryptographer in the first place. Twilight snorted. A little of Column A and a little of Column B, maybe.

She dropped her head back and gazed up at the crystal ceiling. How could any cipher be so impregnable? The key would have to be as long as the text itself, which…

Twilight’s head impacted the desk with a dull thud. Which was entirely possibly, considering who she was dealing with. She groaned. She would just have to tell Luna that this puzzle was beyond her, and then, once the embarrassment had died down a bit, maybe she could poke around the Star Swirl wing a bit more. The old wizard had excelled at many things, but his memory had been terrible, hence the sheer amount of loose paper and scratchings that filled his wing of the archives. He had written down almost every thought he’d ever had. If the key to deciphering his journal was longer than a word or two, he had to have written it down somewhere.

She lifted her head and squinted at the page in front of her. She could feel a headache coming on, blurring her vision and splitting her focus. She shifted in her chair, preparing to close the book and contact Luna early the next morning when something on the page drew her attention. Not the words, but the white spaces.

She rubbed her eyes with a hoof. Pattern recognition was something she prided herself on, and there was definitely something familiar about the composition of the page in front of her. She sat for a moment or two as her exhausted brain churned through the past several hours of reading material in search of whatever connection had just been sparked. She’d seen this layout before.

She flipped to the front of the book and glared at the first page. Again, something tickled her mind. She flipped to the last page. Same thi—same thing!

Twilight jerked upright. This was it. The very last paragraph, although as incomprehensible as the rest of the journal, shared a very telling detail with the very first. They had the exact same number of lines, and… she whipped her gaze over the words as she counted, then flipped back to the front—yes, the same number of words. The first words had three letters and—she flipped back—so did the last. The last page was the first page, backward! And if the key was as long as the text, then…

If she was right…

She shook her head. For all Star Swirl’s brilliance, his poor memory had seriously compromised the security of his journal.

She levitated a quill and scratched out the last paragraph onto a scrap of paper, then flipped to the first page again. She shifted the first letter of the journal by the last, and got ‘n’. The second gave her ‘o’, and the third… ‘w’.

“Now,” she whispered.

She’d cracked it. Now all she had to do was go through the entire book, letter by letter, and decode it. She looked over at the silver moonlight streaming through the window, and then at the six hoof tall stack of blank parchment beside her.

Who needed sleep anyway?

Comments

[Lunarian]

It is strange that you have no reviews. It may be because your summary is so nebulous. I like the route Twilight is taking, seeking higher arcane knowledge and supported by Luna against Celestia's status-quo. I just hope the thriller aspect isn't going to lead into Twilight's knowledge delve turning into a Cthulu-esque scenario, or Celestia being ever right.

[arabianhorse378]

Very intrigued so far. Keep it up!

[Majorshane]

Pinkie stepped back. “Oh. Well, what is it them?” Twilight blinked. She had completely lost the thread of conversation.

Pinkie stepped back. “Oh. Well, what is it then?” Twilight blinked. She had completely lost the thread of conversation.