Alicorn Princess

by Bad Dragon

6 - The Book I Spy

The prospect of me warming water with body temperature was ludicrous at best. Especially because I wore waterproof clothing that hindered temperature exchange further. I was fighting against cooling from evaporating water, radiation from the surface and convection at the same time. There was no point to it.

I perked up my ears as I looked toward the exit. It was quiet.

I stepped to the stairs and listened again. Nothing.

I crawled up the stairs and peeked in the library. The coast seemed clear. But there was something in the air. I could hardly detect the smell, but the presence of a heavy odor was undeniable. I couldn’t identify it. There weren’t many sensory memories to go on. A puff of smoke rising from a side room gave me a clue about what the smell could be.

I figured that Twilight’s pyromania would keep her occupied and hoped that the castle wouldn’t burn down. With each step I slowed my hooves just before they hit the floor, making almost no sound in my gait to the library. When I reached my destination undetected, I slowly moved toward the lower shelf I had my sights on.

With my mouth, I grabbed the book that Spike’d been reaching for earlier that day.

“Hey!” The sound behind me echoed through the hallway.

I twitched and turned around. The loud complaint came from another room. “Wow, a picture of the Princess of the Night! I’m definitely keeping you. Everypony hating on you for a thousand years. You know what it’s like to not belong, don’t you, Luna?”

From that point on, it was obvious to me what the smell was. She was burning something. Pictures, no doubt.

I slid back to the basement with the book in my mouth.

The anticipation made my skin crawl. The evidence for her transgression accumulated, but I needed a final confirmation to be sure.

When I came to the barrel in the basement, I put the book on the floor beside it and slid myself into the water. I kept my ears pinned toward the stairs in case my resentful host came to check on me.

I leaned over the edge and looked at the book: Legendary Artifacts.

I opened it and hoofed through the pages. Each one had a picture and text description below it. I visualized Twilight’s artifact around her neck and compared it with images as I shuffled through the book. There! A perfect match.

Crystal based energy capacitors were designed to resonate with brainwaves, displacing them in the process. The needed potential can only be achieved when no conductor is present within its bounds.

All the talismans were disposed of soon after being invented. They were supposed to be used to invade the memories of those who opposed the tyranny in the Crystal Empire. The prototypes were deemed unreliable. Because failure was illegal in the Crystal Empire at the time, the inventor met his end. He was burned alive on the pyre of his life’s research.

By unknown means, some talismans did survive the purge. They changed many owners via the black market through the ages. They are deemed dangerous to the health and wellbeing of ponies and are to be confiscated by the highest authority upon being found.

Author's Note:

Don't forget to participate in the Comment section minigames when you're done reading this chapter.

Comments

[Bad Dragon]

Comment section minigames for the The Book I Spy chapter of this story (anypony can play them in this comment section).

Does this story remind you of a song that you know? If yes, post it in the comments in the following format:
- Chapter of the story that this song is relevant to.
- A link or embedded Youtube video of it.
- Percentage of correlation (0% being an unrelated song, 100% being a song written exactly for this story).
- The reason why this song reminded you of this story or the excerpt of the lyrics.

[Illi]

So Twi-xie knows now, or at least has a good idea of what happened.

[Bad Dragon]

10070577 Indeed. And as they say, knowing is half the battle.

[Illi]

10070585
The next question is, what does she do with it?

Don't go to Trix-light about it, that's what. Maybe go to Spike? He might not want to help though, as he could get mad at Twi-xie for hiding the information when she had her memories.

[Bad Dragon]

10070597 Spike isn't around anymore.

I'll need some alone time, away from this place. For both our sakes.

and Starlight Glimmer is on a chronic friendship mission.

Twi-xie doesn't have anypony to go to. She's on her own.

[zimmerwald1915]

10070626
And wholly ineffectual.

[Bad Dragon]

10070901 Besides her intellect, she doesn't have much to rely on.

[zimmerwald1915]

10071117
And that is wholly an informed attribute. Which is to say, for all her knowitallism (which is always subverted by someone else actually being world-wise), not once has she ever really been clever.

[Walabio]

I get the impression that the artifact did more than transfer the memories of Trixie into Twilight:

Trixie seems to have the personality of Twilight and Twilight has the personality of Trixie.

[Bad Dragon]

10073360 You're starting to grasp the extent of the Interrogation Talisman's power.

[Walabio]

10073395

I have a confession:

I believed that you wrote tired and mixed up your characters a little. I decided not to say anything because I figured that you would get more sleep and fix it later. I would not be surprised if the downvotes are from readers believing that you mix up your characters.

Now that I know that all of the memories of Trixie are part of Twilight and that Twilight and Trixie switched personality, the story makes more sense. Indeed, I shall reread it because I got confused and did not understand parts of the story the 1st time I read it.

[Bad Dragon]

10073911 The purpose of all my stories is to make readers use their brains. Only when you connect the dots does the truth come to light.

[Walabio]

> "The prospect of me warming water with body temperature was ludicrous at best. Especially because I wore waterproof clothing that hindered temperature exchange further. I was fighting against cooling from evaporating water, radiation from the surface and convection at the same time. There was no point to it."

This is a very Twilightish thing for Trixie to think.

[Walabio]

10073940

Indeed.

[Walabio]

10074186

Spike helping Twixie assumes that he returns. He might have already decided that Twilight cutting off his wings because they are inconvenient is a bridge too far and be on his way to the DagonLands to live with Ember this very minute.

[Bad Dragon]

10074266 That might, indeed, be the case.

[KingSombraTheTyrantRuler]

I crawled up the stairs and peaked in the library. The coast seemed clear. But there was something in the air. I could hardly detect the smell, but the presence of a heavy odor was undeniable. I couldn’t identify it. There weren’t many sensory memories to go on. A puff of smoke rising from a side room gave me a clue about what the smell could be.

Did you mean peeked?

[Bad Dragon]

11086962 No, she always peaks when coming into the library. Cumming into the library is the peak of her day.

Fixed.