Princess Spike

by Daelyx Len Auphydas

The Search

Twilight and Spike's lunch is just about wrapped up when they are interrupted by the telltale thundercrack sound of a teleportation downstairs, from the Cutie Map room directly beneath their dining room.

"I guess that's Starlight back from her investigation. Shall we go see what she's found out? With any luck we can figure this out and get you back to normal." Twilight announces. Spike looks unsure, and rubs the back of his neck.

"Heh, right... Normal..." he frowns, as Twilight teleports the two of them downstairs as well. Starlight was present, as she had expected, looking a tad tired and frazzled.

"Alright, student! Report!" Twilight requests, raising one hoof. Starlight snaps to attention, but hesitates before responding, unsure where to start.

Eventually, she decides to take it in roughly chronological order of when she learned about things. "So, firstly, nopony else has been affected, everypony in town's memory is fine! Apparently you visited Fluttershy the other day to get a phoenix feather, and entreated Rainbow Dash to help you get some water from the River Lethe in Tartarus. According to Pinkie Pie, we had an accident with that water that caused our short term memory loss, and you were casting a spell from one of Starswirl's old scrolls... But she also said she wasn't there and doesn't actually know, so I don't know how to take that. Anyways, Rainbow Dash also stated that you were excited about some scrolls you found the other day, so we should start by looking for those scrolls!" Starlight rattles off.

Twilight's heart glows with a little spot of pride- Look at her student, being so organized! Hopefully everypony was nice enough, I know they're still suspicious of Starlight. Twilight contemplates. That was neither here nor there though, right now... She had priorities.

"Of course! Let me see, if I was just using them, they should be filed alphabetically in the magic spells section of the library. Come on Spike, lets go see what we can find!" Twilight announces, feeling a wave of relief. This was certainly less traumatic than last time one of her spells misfiring had caused problems, and it was good to know there wasn't any kind of nefarious force behind the situation to worry about. Instead, just a magical problem to be solved. She was feeling more at home already!

With that in mind, Twilight seems more than set at ease as she starts digging through the recent stacks of scrolls; On the contrary, she seems just about giddy. A spell which could make an Ailcorn out of her little dragon companion was certainly magic worth studying!

It only takes a cursory check to determine that the scroll was not in the magic spells section. Twilight frowns. "It's not here. Hey, Spike, could you go check the section on Starswirl from the library, while I look through the Alchemy archives?" Twilight asks, absentmindedly, already moving on to her own target. It didn't seem likely that the alchemy archive would have much- It wasn't one of Twilight's specialties, but, it would explain why she needed reagents, as that was not a typical feature of most spells.

Spike jumps to his feet, happy to finally have something to do rather than just follow along, and nods his head. "Roger!" Twilight's distracted state is interrupted shortly after by a sudden crashing sound, and she looks over to see Spike laying flat on his back, looking dazed. "How do you ponies use ladders like this?" Spike protests, before trying once again to climb the stepladder, awkwardly raising up onto his hind legs before placing his front on the steps and raising one of his hind legs.

Twilight can't help but snicker a little. She was so used to relying on her number one assistant, she didn't even consider that he was otherwise predisposed right now. "Sorry, Spike, I'll look through it." She apologizes, but Spike shakes his head, looking frustrated.

"No, I can get it!" He insists, little sparks of green fire hissing from the sides of his mouth in his irritation. Twilight's eyes grow wide in concern, but before she can do anything to stop him, Spike's horn lights up...

And the section of books is levitated off their shelves, circling Spike just like he'd seen Twilight do many times as he looks through them. Twilight sighs in both surprise and relief- She had been expecting another disaster to burn down a section of her library, but instead he was scanning them perfectly efficiently. After a moment, Spike shakes his head, looking somehow both disappointed and proud simultaneously.

"That's a negatory, Twi, these are all just biographies, history, and magical theory. Certainly no ritual magic." Spike reports.

Twilight's heart swells with a hint of pride. Her number one assistant was getting used to his new powers so rapidly, it had been less than a day! Of course that was partially because he was taking after what he was used to Twilight doing. Having said that, when Spike levitates the books back to their shelves, Twilight winces- His magic was seemingly not precise enough to sort them just then, and the shelf was now painfully disorganized. I am definitely going to have to fix that later. Twilight thinks to herself, already planning a stay-cation to reorganize the entire shelf.

That did leave her without a clear place to search, however. Thinking carefully, she raises her hoof to her chin, contemplating where else a magic scroll might have been. It wasn't like her to not have something properly sorted!

"Have you tried your magic laboratory?" Starlight suggests, hesitantly. "That is where you would have brought a new spell to try it out, right?"

Twilight frowns. "Well, yes, but I certainly would have put it back afterwards... It wouldn't make sense for it to still be in there."

"But, you got splashed with some of the water from the River Lethe, remember?" Starlight points out. "That may have caused you to forget to put it back."

Twilight blinks in surprise. Of course, that seemed so obvious now that it had been pointed out to her! "Good thinking, Starlight! I'll check over there, in the meantime, you and Spike can keep looking through the library here." Twilight exclaims, before wincing a bit. "Um, and Spike, please try not to burn the whole library down." She cautions.

Spike places his hoof to his chest, looking self-confident. "When have I ever failed you before? Number one assistant is on the job!" He salutes. Twilight rolls her eyes- she could think of several times he had caused problems. But, it was true that he was a truly faithful and diligent companion, and she was willing to place her faith in him. Nodding, she teleports away to her laboratory.

The room was decidedly cramped- Rigorously organized as it was, it still appeared a little messy on account of the sheer number of things in it. Twilight's career as Princess of Friendship had given her numerous opportunities to acquire more scientific and magical equipment- Scanning from one side of the room to the other, she notes Chaos Magic sensors, Anemometers, Magic-neutral chalk for drawing summoning circles imported all the way from Griffonstone, a unit of bioreactors, a refrigerated vat of nutrient solution, a series of scales and measuring equipment, an empty bottle with a biohazard symbol on it... I should really split this up between multiple rooms, this is too much for one place. Twilight finds herself thinking.

Resisting the urge to drop everything and begin organizing immediately, Twilight forces herself to focus on the task at hoof. In short order, she finds that one of the many display cases in the room is home to an ancient , scorched looking scroll. Her eyes light up. Eureka!

Delicately lifting the scroll with her magic, she scans its contents dutifully. Remembering what had happened last time she read from an ancient scroll without thinking, Twilight is sure to keep a damper on her magic and read in her own head as she scans the scroll. Some parts are hard to read, and she finds herself wondering just what had happened to the scroll, and where it had been found- The damage done to the old piece of parchment was quite simply a travesty.

It seemed like the first section was instructions before it launched into the actual spell itself- She recognized the first table as a reagents list.
An artifact of Rebirth, an artifact of Oblivion, and an artifact of Desire. Perhaps I could find something of the kind in the everfree forest? Twilight reads the notes, a quiet excitement building in her. It seemed to be notes left behind by Starswirl! There was a long, rambling entry discussing possible reagents and why their magical attunement wouldn't work. Notably, only the artifact of Oblivion had any actual suggested components; Water from the River Lethe. The other two, seemingly, Starswirl had never figured out.

Fascinating! I must have acquired the phoenix feather to serve as the artifact of Rebirth, perhaps in Starswirl's time phoenixes were not well known. But I wonder what I used for Desire? Starlight's story had not included any items that seemed relevant to that particular need.

But much to Twilight's annoyance, try as she might, the section discussing the actual effects of the spell were totally unreadable. Even with the aid of a clarifying light spell, all she could find was a blackened smudge. Twilight hisses in irritation, but continues looking; She would have to pore over the notes in detail later. For now, her gaze lowers down to read the actual spell, which was thankfully mostly discernable.

Two brought apart by circumstance
United... heart and soul
With destiny contain... I think that says 'contained', rewrite our stars
And bring the Fates together as... Something.

While she wasn't ready to guess what any of that actually meant, and she would have to fill in the blanks later, she was satisfied that she had found what she was looking for. She would just teleport back to the library, but with such an old artifact, who knows how it would respond to magic like that? It was safer to simply carry it. So, tucking the scroll delicately under her wing, she takes off for the library where Spike and Starlight were waiting.

Comments

[zachary12]

nice work

[Daelyx Len Auphydas]

11878191
Thankyou!
How am i doing regarding staying in character? Thats half the reason I'm writing this story so I'd appreciate any input.

[Dinojo]

He would be a prince not a princess

[Daelyx Len Auphydas]

11878242
Just you wait, I'm getting there.
...It has taken me longer than I expected to be honest but
I'm getting there!