Step 2: Read her mind
About ten minutes after Twilight left the library, an “AHA!!” echoing throughout the castle told me that she should be running to me any second to say “I told you so”. Knew she was too smart to stay fooled for long, but the Twi-fun was just getting started.
I was still lying across the couch; I should lay that way more often since Twilight doesn’t mind it.
Pink light flashed in front of me, causing me to shout with my heart skipping a beat: bursts of light appearing without warning will do that. When the light faded, Twilight was standing a pony’s length away with a big grin and pointed a hoof at me. “Ha! That was a nice try, but I knew it was a trick!”
“You figured it out?”
“Of course, and it was easy!” Twilight lifted her head up with her eyes closed. She had the air of a teacher about her. “If 'n' is not equal to '0', then n x 2 x 5 ÷ n - 7 = 3 and as long as 'n' isn't '0' and is a positive number, n x 3 x 4 x 6 ÷ n + 3 = 75, so that’s how you ‘predicted’ my end result of '3' and '75' no matter what numbers I picked." Twilight opened her eyes and formed a big, proud smile. "I can't believe I didn't see it right away. You had me for a while!”
“Oh?” I asked with a smirk. “I thought you were yapping about it being a ‘trick’?”
Twilight’s eyes widened. “B-but that’s not important. What is important is” -- Twilight pointed at herself with that grin deepening -- “I was right all along!”
Ha, she loves being right about stuff like this. Probably due to a type of ego that being a brainiac apparently gives you, even if Twilight is usually an otherwise humble pony. Not that I would personally know about the “ego due to brains” part.
“Good for you, but while the whole ‘predicting the future’ thing might have been a lie, I did learn to do something else entirely: I could read your mind.”
“Really?” Twilight asked with an annoyed frown. “You’re not done with your games yet?”
“Twilight, if you know me, you should know I’m never done with games, but I just don’t do them all day. Besides, who even said I’m playing games this time?”
She closed her eyes, but stayed silent. What was going on in her head? Would she even let me have round two? Her moment of silence finally ended with a cute smile and chuckle. “Okay, I’ll play along again. What do we have to do for you to read my mind?”
I pushed myself off the couch. It would be a little easier for me to “read” Twilight’s mind while standing up. “For this to work, I’m going to need to have contact with your hooves, so hold up your front hooves.”
Twilight raised the hooves on her forelegs and flapped her wings to hover. Probably better for her that she didn’t stand on her hind legs: the shock of what was coming might have made Twi lose her balance and fall on her flank. Though, that sight would have been HILARIOUS to see!
“How’s this?”
“Perfect. Now, mentally focus on one of those hooves and maintain the focus. While you do, I’m going to feel them and predict which one you’re thinking about. And promise to tell the truth when I get it right.”
“I promise.” Twilight’s smile flipped into a puzzled frown. “But you will have a 50/50 chance of picking the correct hoof. How will this prove you’re ‘reading’ my mind even if you get it right?”
“That’s because we’re going to do it more than once.”
The speed of her wing flaps slightly slowed down. Never noticed if that happened before when Twilight focuses harder while flying or hovering, but it’s not like she flies/hovers all the time for me to pick that up. “Okay, I’m thinking of one of them, so go ahead and read my mind,” Twilight said with a titter, her lips in a big ‘ol smug smile. I wouldn’t call her an "arrogant" pony, but she can be so smug when she really thinks she’s right about something.
How Twilight was showing her inner Trixie would make seeing her lose it that much more fun. Maybe I'll do this on Trixie later. And then maybe on Sunset Shimmer the next time I see her: she might want to try this on the Twilight on the other side of that portal.
Twilight kept her eyes on me as I took a step closer, reached out my hands, and lightly pressed against the hoof on her right foreleg. I did the same with her other foreleg’s hoof and repeated this a few more times. This is normally done by feeling fingers, but since ponies don't have fingers, I had to make do with hooves.
“Now, you’re thinking of --” I pointed at Twilight’s hoof on her right foreleg “-- this one.”
Twilight nodded her head with an amused smile, the smugness in said smile waning to just be a playful one. We’ll see how long it lasts. “That is the one I was thinking of, so you ‘read’ my mind. Hehe.”
“And I know you think I’m somehow faking it, so let’s do it again. Like before, mentally focus on one of those hooves.”
*four mind-reads later*
“You’re thinking of your left hoof.”
Twilight gasped and growled. Yep, that smile of hers from before had gone bye-bye, though she was still hovering over the floor. “I can’t believe it! That’s five times in a row! Are you just that lucky?!”
“Nope, I’m just reading your mind, but guess your memory's messing with you again. Ready to throw in the towel and admit you’re wrong, Princess of Forgetfulness?”
“No! Uh, I mean, you have to be doing something else, because this makes no sense.” Twilight stared at my head, or more like at the hat I was wearing. “Wait, take off your hat. I want to check the top of your head.”
After a snicker -- not the candy bar because I was already "me" -- I took off my hat. A few times, Starlight had cast a special spell on me that temporarily gave me some of her magic and the ability to cast spells. A small “unicorn” horn appears on my head when the spell’s active, so that’s why Twi wanted my hat off, just in case it was there. Should have seen this coming and already had my hat off.
Twilight flew closer to dig into my hair with her hooves. If I did have that horn, it would be obvious, but she wanted to be sure. She even turned me around with her magic to check the back of my head. After a few seconds, she growled, spun me back around to face her again, backed away, and landed to stand on her hooves. “No horn on your head, so Starlight didn’t cast the spell to give you her magic. I don’t think Sunset can--wait, I have an idea. Stay still.”
Twilight’s horn glowed in a deep pink.
I knew whatever she was doing was harmless, but I still couldn’t help but feel uneasy and even leaned back. Despite how I trust her with my life, Twilight Sparkle is still an alicorn, and I’m quite aware of the power difference between myself and alicorns. “Uh, Twilight? What’s with the glowing horn?”
“Just in case Sunset learned how to grant others her mind-reading ability and never told me, I’m scanning to make sure her magic’s not in you.”
Never thought about if Sunset could give others her power to read minds, but I have no idea if she can read minds in her pony form. As far as I know, she never tried. Keep forgetting to ask her that.
After another ten or so seconds of scanning, Twilight's horn stopped glowing. The particularly deep, sharp growl that followed told me what she found out.
“No luck with your little ‘Sunset magic’ scan, huh?” I put my hat back on. A little burst of smugness made me lay across the couch again. ”I usually charge ten bits, but I’ll give you a princess discount and let you try again for only five. You can thank me later.”
“I’ll pass.” Twilight flapped her wings to hover in the air and raised her front hooves. “Still, there must be something else going on, so take my hooves again and I’m already thinking of one. If this really is because of luck, you’ll get it wrong sooner or later.”
"If you insist." I snickered and pushed myself off the couch again. “Reading your mind is fun anyway.”
*seventeen mind-reads later*
“You’re thinking your right hoof.”
Still airborne, Twilight backed away from me with a big ‘ol frown of disbelief. “T-t-this is inconceivable! How in Celestia’s name are you doing this?!”
“Uh...you forgot I’m reading your mind again? Is bad memory something alicorns have to put up with even when they're still young?” I asked with a chuckle at the end.
Twilight swooped toward me and shoved a hoof on my chest. All I could see now was her purple eyes. “No, you’re not, and there’s nothing wrong with my or any other alicorn's memory! This just has to be a trick!”
With her mouth so close to my nose, Twilight’s warm, rotten egg-smelling breath went right up it, making me shudder. She doesn’t have bad breath all the time, but when she does, it stinks. Yuck.
“Okay, one --” I gently pushed the mare away, making her move her hoof off my chest at the same time “-- personal space, Twi. Two, after you wave the white flag, eat some breath mints. Three, you want me to prove I’m reading your mind again? If I do, it will tie the number of questions you asked me during our first night together.”
“I--wait, what’s that about the questions?” Twilight’s scowl vanished, the intensity of the frown dropping.
“I never said anything about it, but when you were asking me questions about my old world before you went to sleep, I counted them in my head, and you asked twenty-three. I just read your mind twenty-two times, so if I do it again, it’ll be twenty-three times.”
Twilight cocked her head and rubbed her neck. “I really asked twenty-three questions back then? I was tired, so I didn’t think I asked that many.”
I huffed out of amusement. “Of course you wouldn’t think that. You’re you.”
That forced an eye roll out of the Princess of Questions. “Very funny, but I’m just going to find some other way to figure out what you are really doing. I will be back!” Twilight grabbed more books from the bookshelves in her magic and ran out of the library, mumbling under her breath.
Like before, once she was gone, I burst out in hearty laughter again. Not often that somepony’s stubbornness can be tapped into for entertainment. Twilight can be very stubborn, and her OCD can take it up to eleven.
I wasn’t sure if she’d be able to figure out how my mind-reading worked, but I knew not to underestimate Twilight’s brainpower. Give her enough time, she'll figure out almost anything. Even if she did, though, I didn’t see her doing it in ten minutes this time, so there would be some time before she came running/teleporting back to me for more.
Then, for round three of the Twi-fun, I’ll do the trickiest trick to her that I know. Even I don’t understand why it works, but it just does...though it doesn't always work.
Stats
Page generated in 0.015 seconds
Total duration
969 users online
386,174 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I think I know this trick.
It has something to do with how tense the hoof/hand is, if you’re thinking about it, it’ll tense up.
Chapter three: the detachable thumb.
While I agree that thinking of one hand could tense it up, there are still quite a few people that can still think on a hand and still not have it tense. Cartoon logic would likely have allowed Eric to feel the sweat off the frog of the hoof Twilight was thinking of, however a more subtle approach would be Eric watching Twilight's eyes the whole time... she would have very likely (yet subtly) glanced at her hoof of focus.
As for the next step: mind alteration... though I am reminded of an old Russian mind control work trick my dad had once told me about.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/11/13/1294965__safe_artist-colon-arifproject_edit_editor-colon-watermelon+changeling_minuette_angry_animated_arif%27s+angry+pone_bust_caption_floppy+ears_flo.gif
10345135
Yep, that's it!
10345262
As much as Eric loves to see Twilight squirm any chance he gets, he doesn't want to that much
10345388
That sounds like something the season 6 Starlight might have been open to doing in a prank.
10345708
Trixie will be mad about the human using parlot tricks to outsmart and troll Twilight... without her.
10345135
That was actually my theory, lol.
10345388
The eye focus thing was my other theory, lmao.
10347590
Oh, yeah. Trixie would have loved seeing Eric troll Twilight so much!
I'd figured it had something to do with reflexive body reactions, otherwise he'd not have needed physical contact.