My Little Teelo: Masquerade

by Ardwolf

An Ever Shifting Landscape

In which shadows begin to spread and our heroine is forced to reflect on her queenly responsibilities while Twilight confronts her own personal Hell.

Lady Silkwind dismissed her attendants and settled herself comfortably on the full length couch. She relaxed with a full body purr, her eyes half-closed in contentment. Sunlight poured through the open windows, along with a delightful breeze and melodious birdsong.

In spite of the sunlight streaming into the room there were a number of shadows, one cast by the couch the griffiness sprawled on so decadently. Given that her eyes were closed and she was breathing slowly and deeply a hypothetical observer could have been forgiven for thinking she was asleep.

Greetings, Sunbird.

The silent voice didn’t seem to startle the griffiness in the least.

“Hello, dear sweet friend,” She murmured so quietly her words couldn’t have been made out more than a few feet away. “What news?”

Plans are proceeding, the voice said mildly. There have been a few minor setbacks. Ponies have always proven surprisingly resilient so it is only to be expected. The trolls are stubborn, of course. Still, it is a predictable recalcitrance that can be turned to our advantage. What of the griffins?

“My associates are amusing,” The griffiness chuckled, a soft liquid trill. “They are being typical males, confident in their boasting, thinking they manipulate the Sun Princess while she laughs behind her kindly smile. Only Iron Beak is truly canny enough to prove troublesome, but I have him well in claw. Silver Claw believes the Sun Princess to be his true ally, and as for dear Firewing, well,” she chuckled. “He is young and proud and thus easy to lead where we wish.”

Excellent, the silent voice said in satisfaction. What of the strange ones?

“The humans? Oh, Celestia was being clever with me,” Silkwind said carelessly. “She says they have an excellent theoretical knowledge of magic, yet do not believe it actually exists. This is pure drivel, of course. Either they have no knowledge of it whatsoever, or they are exceedingly good at it. Lady Teagan bested Discord and led the effort that defeated Tišina. She clearly did something to subvert Mountain Heart to her will, a feat of magic no one else has managed in thousands of years. No, these humans are magically adept. Frighteningly so, I should think.

“Celestia also told me they are omnivorous pack hunters, and thus unlike any other sentient species in Equestria. My first instinct is to compare them to timber wolves, but not having met any humans I cannot say for certain.”

Do you think they can be incorporated in our plans? Her friend asked mildly. Or are they more likely to be—obstacles?

Lady Silkwind paused, thinking.

“At this time I cannot say. But don’t be so gloomy. After all, an obstacle is often nothing more than an opportunity when correctly addressed,” The griffiness advised. “Much like the trolls.”

This is so, the voice replied, seemingly unperturbed. Would it be possible for you to meet a human? Their influence in Equestria and beyond seems to be growing.

“I have an invitation to meet Lady Teagan before she returns to her world at the end of summer,” The griffiness replied. “A farewell party will be held in her honor.”

If you can find no earlier opportunity, that will be acceptable. However, it would be very helpful if you could ingratiate yourself with her, perhaps accompany her to Hejm. We need as much knowledge of these humans as we can get, given their strangeness.

“My dear sweet friend!” Lady Silkwind actually opened her eyes, peering down at the floor in shock. “You expect a griffin to plunge into the bowels of the earth? Surely you jest! Is Hejm not more like your own realm than mine? Surely you would find it far more congenial than I?”

Hejm is warded against us, the voice said with just a hint of sulkiness. Yet friendship for you brings me to your realm, which is hostile and unforgiving to my kind. If I can do that, surely you can dare the darkness? After all, it will not actually harm you. Do you hold our plans in such low esteem you would not inconvenience yourself to see them accomplished?

The griffiness huffed in displeasure. “Sometimes you are too shrewd for comfort,” she informed the voice sourly. “Very well, I shall see what may be done. Trolls are notoriously suspicious of other species and Lady Teagan is too occupied with her duties as queen to be out and about. I am told they depart for Hejm soon, but I will do my best.”

Thank you. You may find better luck with the other human, the troll queen’s companion, the voice noted.

“Hmm,” The griffiness cocked her head. “Do you know I don’t even know her name? In all the gossip I’ve been hearing she’s never been mentioned. How odd…What did Celestia call her? Lady Emerald? Wait, no, not Emerald. Emma.”

So the Sun Princess spoke of her? The voice asked eagerly.

“Only in passing,” The griffiness replied. “All she said was that Lady Emma shared the troll queen’s initial belief that all Equestria was one unending tea party and was shocked to discover it was not so.”

Tea party? The voice sounded confused. I do not understand.

“Nor do I,” The griffiness said, shaking her head. “It may simply have been Celestia spewing more nonsense to confuse me. What she said was that humans knew of Equestria through dreams and created plays for their young based on those dreams. Of course she said that’s how humans knew about magic too, so you can understand my reservations.”

Ponies are strange creatures, the voice said. I cannot find any reason for such a bizarre fabrication. What did the Sun Princess hope to achieve?

“I am unsure,” Silkwind said in a thoughtful voice. “The odd thing about the Sun Princess is she seldom lies outright, the more important the matter the less likely she is to do so. Given the importance the troll queen has played in the alliance between trolls and ponies anything involving humans is crucially important—so she wouldn’t lie.

“However, her genius lies in misdirection. She blithely tells you the absolute truth—but somehow always does so in a way that makes you believe what she wishes you to. Thus you can only trust her to tell you what she wants you to hear.”

This is not unknown to us. Surprisingly, that admission sounded weary to the griffiness.

She felt a sudden stab of sympathy, given her acquaintances often provoked the same reaction in her.

“Enough work,” she said in a deliberately bright and chipper tone, “Time for refreshments, my dear sweet friend. Are you hungry?”

I am, the voice admitted. How kind of you to offer, very few in your realm show such consideration to me. I have been so active lately I fear I am rather famished.

“Oh, we can’t have that, now can we? On egin, nire lagun maitea gozoa.” She languidly dangled her front paw into the shadow, which seemed to surround her paw and crawl partway up her leg. She shivered in obvious pleasure, and sighed, slumping bonelessly on the couch, eyes half closed, purring with satisfaction as the shadow fed.

When the shadow released her several minutes later she was nearly unconscious.

“My, you were hungry, weren’t you?” She murmured contentedly.

My apologies, dear friend. Allow me to reciprocate. We just obtained a fresh supply. Unfortunately the production run was—interrupted. But, enjoy. There will be plenty more where this came from if our plans succeed. The voice sounded much more energetic than it normally did, almost giddy.

A small glass vial appeared in front of Silkwind’s beak, the contents emitting a golden glow that seemed to perk up the griffiness, who grinned happily and grabbed the vial, opening and downing the contents in a single greedy gulp.

She shuddered and reared up, her back arching as golden light shone from her eyes, a look of pure bliss on her face. The glow slowly spread over her entire body, forcing a groan of pure delight from the stiffened creature. As the glow slowly faded she relaxed, settling into the typical catlike repose griffins used when resting. Her coat and feathers gleamed with new health and vitality, her eyes were sharp and her energy clearly restored to that of a griffiness half her age.

“Oh, that will never grow stale,” she crooned. “You bring me the best gifts, my dear sweet friend. I do hope you enjoyed your repast.”

I did, the voice actually chuckled. And now I must go. My best wishes on your endeavors with the humans.

“Oh, must you go so soon?” Silkwind complained with winsome grace. “We never seem to find the time to do more than talk shop these days. I miss our long conversations. They were so intellectually stimulating!”

Alas, as our plans mature my free time grows scarce, the voice replied regretfully. I too enjoy our time together, but when we have accomplished our plans there will be nothing but free time.”

The shadows in the room somehow lightened, and the griffiness decided a little nap was in order now that her friend had left.

When she woke she would see about arranging an accidental encounter with Lady Emma…

ooOoo

Earth, Sunday afternoon, May 29, 2013 3:08 PM

As they heard the outside door close Teagan relaxed with a visible sagging of shoulders.

“That was too close,” she commented to her mother, who nodded.

“I want you to know I don’t blame you for how you handled that Bainbridge woman,” Elaine told her daughter, “not one bit. Twas not your fault she was a vindictive petty shrew, too cowardly to fight her own battles. I’d have probably done something a lot worse and landed us in a deeper mess. Having said that, my girl, just imagine the kind of enemies you could make as queen. Think on what they might do to you and yours.” She gave Teagan a hard look.

“You’re preaching to the choir, Mom,” Teagan said ruefully. “Being a queen is no fun, believe me. I’ve had to make a lot of decisions this week that could have ended in complete disaster. I know if I screw up other people could die, and that scares the hell out of me.”

“Other people like Emma?” Elaine asked mildly.

Teagan opened her mouth to answer, catching herself at the last moment.

“No fair, Mom. If I answer either yes or no I’ll be breaking my promise to Emma, and as troll queen I absolutely cannot do that. You have no idea how seriously trolls take promises! All I will say is the choices I made kept everyone alive. Subtle Dancer was hurt pretty bad, so they weren’t perfect choices, but none of my people died. In my book that’s a win.”

Elaine stared at her daughter, wondering sadly when her laughing little girl had been replaced with this grim and solemn young woman. For the first time she realized that Equestria had forced her daughter to grow up long before she should have, and neither Elaine nor her husband had been willing to admit it.

“I’m not blaming you, Teagan,” Elaine said softly. “I’m not saying you did anything wrong. That bastard Fate dealt you a bad hand, but you did what you had to do and you came home safe. And now you’re a queen, heaven help us. I hate it but I can’t deny it. It makes my heart ache that it had to be you, but there’s nothing I can do to keep you safe anymore. I can’t even give you any advice—except be careful.”

Teagan blinked, blindsided.

“Um, wow. Where did that come from?” she asked her mother.

Elaine sighed. “Every parent knows their child will grow up someday, Teagan. But I never expected it to be this soon. I mean, you haven’t even learned to drive yet! We should have had another two years at least.” The woman shook her head.

“Normal parents have to worry about their daughter getting pregnant,” she said, “We have to worry about ours getting killed! Normal parents have to worry about prom, and making ends meet, and underage drinking. We have to worry about dodgy legal trusts to deal with our sudden inexplicable wealth and mingling with royalty who aren’t even human. Normal parents watch their little girls grow up, graduate high school and move out to attend college. We had to walk into another world and watch our little girl grow up and be a hero.”

Elaine paused, feeling terribly tired. “I admit it. You’re an adult now, you’ve grown up. You’re making the hard choices and taking the responsibility for them. I just have one question left, Teagan, as one adult to another.”

She watched her daughter sadly.

“There will come a day when your luck runs out, and you make a choice that ends up with one of your own paying the price. Maybe it will be a troll, or perhaps a pony…or heaven forbid, Emma. On that day, what will you do?” Her mother’s voice was quiet, with no hint of anger.

Teagan stared at her, thinking. Her father came back into the room, stopping when he saw the serious expression on both their faces.

“On that day, Mother, I will ask Fjell how he deals with it. Then I’ll ask Celestia. I’ll listen to what they tell me and then I’ll decide what I’ll do. Trust me, I’m not deluded enough to think that day won’t come. It may even happen this summer. But I swear to you, upon my soul, that every single day I will do everything in my power to make sure it isn’t that day.”

ooOoo

Earth, Sunday afternoon, May 29, 2013 3:10 PM

Teagan found Twilight lurking in a corner of the basement, a unicorn figurine floating in her magic.

“Hey,” the girl said softly.

“Did everything go okay?” Twilight asked hopefully. Teagan nodded.

“Yeah, the social worker said it was a false alarm and apologized for bothering us.”

“Well, that’s good news, right?” Twilight said, carefully setting down the figurine and giving Teagan her full attention.

“It is.” Teagan sighed and collapsed into a chair.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked. “You don’t seem as excited as you should be.”

“My mom told me she realized I was an adult now,” Teagan said, watching the alicorn with slumped shoulders.

“That’s a good thing isn’t it?” Twilight asked cautiously.

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But my mom is kind of blunt. Being an adult means you make your own decisions, and bear the responsibility for them, right?”

“Yes,” Twilight nodded after a moment’s thought, “at least in Equestria. Isn’t it the same here in your world?”

“Well, no, not really. We use age to measure it. If you’re 18 you’re assumed to be old enough to be an adult, or maybe 21 for some things. There are a few ways to become adult sooner, but they all involve proving you’re financially self-sufficient to a judge so it doesn’t happen very often. But my mom pointed out even though she admits I’m an adult I’m not just an adult, I’m a queen. My decisions don’t just affect me, but all the trolls. In the forest I was responsible for the Royal Guards too, and I gave Stormwind orders. If anyone had gotten hurt it would have been because I screwed up. My mom asked me what I would do when my orders got somebody killed. Let’s face it, sooner or later that’s going to happen. Nobody’s lucky forever.”

Twilight’s irises shrank as Teagan’s words sank home.

“What did you say?” The alicorn asked in morbid curiosity.

“That I’d ask Fjell and Celestia for input and then make up my own mind.” Teagan said heavily.

After a moment, Twilight relaxed. “That’s a very good answer, Teelo.”

“Is it?” Teagan asked with an arched eyebrow. “Is it really a good answer, Twilight? What would you do?”

“I don’t know,” The alicorn answered honestly. “I’ve never been in that position before. I’ve been really lucky.”

“You’ve done lots of dangerous things, though, and your friends went with you. What if Fluttershy had been killed by that dragon? What if Rarity hadn’t managed to duck that swipe by the manticore, or if Rainbow Dash hadn’t caught her and the Wonder Bolts when her wings burned up in the sun?”

Twilight shuddered. “I can’t answer you, Teelo. I don’t know what I’d have done. Thank Celestia none of those things ever happened. It still shocks me that you know all those things about us. If you weren’t my friend it would be really creepy.”

“Sorry,” Teagan muttered. “You know I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable. Forget I asked.”

“No,” Twilight managed a genuine smile. “I won’t forget it. You’re my friend, Teelo, and you need my help. I’ll do whatever I can to help you. It’s just I don’t know the answers. Once I’m back in Equestria I can consult my books. I’m sure a lot of ponies have had to find an answer to that question. Maybe my brother will know. I’m certain Princess Celestia does.”

“I’m sure she does,” Teagan said. “In fact I’ll bet she knows it so well I don’t dare ask her until I absolutely have to. Just because she’s a goddess doesn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt her to remember stuff like that.”

“She’s not a goddess,” Twilight objected, “just a really long lived and wise pony.”

“Come on, Twilight. She raises the sun, for goodness sake. She’s immortal and probably the most powerful mage on your world. Ponies worship her!”

“She never asked them to!” Twilight snapped back. “She was my mentor, Teelo, I grew up with her! She’s just a really old, really powerful pony. She’s lived such a very long time she can’t help but be experienced in just about everything. Everypony should respect her for all she’s done for them, but nopony should ever worship her. She’s not a goddess, just a very good and kind pony that works really hard to protect everypony.”

“Think what you like,” Teagan spread her hands. “I still won’t willingly cause her pain, goddess or pony, she doesn’t deserve that.”

Twilight opened her mouth to answer, and found herself unsure of what to say.

“Um, thank you?” She eventually managed, and chuckled.

It lifted the somber mood. Teagan waved her hand. “Hey, sorry to lay all that gloom and doom on you. What were you doing just now?”

“Just trying to stay quiet. I happened to notice some toys on this shelf and I was looking at them.”

“Oh, those,” Teagan said dismissively. “They aren’t really toys. They’re part of my dad’s collection.”

“Collection?” Twilight asked, eyes lighting up. “You mean like a little museum?”

Teagan laughed. “Sort of, he collects all kinds of mythological creatures. These are just the ones that look good on a shelf.”

“I can’t help but notice a lot of these unicorns are really strange looking,” Twilight noted. “This one has cloven hooves! And every single one of them is proportioned like Princess Celestia, but their horns are ridiculous. Take this one. If it was to scale the horn would be four feet long! It would be like wearing a broom handle on your head!”

“Well, according to most myths unicorns are actually goats, not horses,” Teagan said. “They’re about your size, but have a lion’s tail and their horns are about three feet long. They’re very slender and have all kinds of mystical powers. The touch of their horns is supposed to neutralize poison, and they’re so fast and elusive they can’t be caught. Well, unless you use a virgin, then they’ll come right up to her, lay their head in her lap and go to sleep.”

“Uh, what?” Twilight’s jaw dropped. “Really? That’s, um, kind of weird, don’t you think? Why would I ever do something like that?”

Teagan snickered. “Because magic, Twilight. It doesn’t have to make sense. I was talking about mythical unicorns, not ones from Equestria. Besides, aren’t you an alicorn now? ”

“Oh, right,” Twilight dipped her head in embarrassment. “I keep forgetting that.”

“Aren’t wings kind of hard to forget about?” Teagan asked with a laugh. “I know I wouldn’t!”

“That’s what I was afraid of at first,” the alicorn said with a chuckle. “But really, unless I need to fly or get startled or something, they pretty much just lay there.”

“Have you had a chance to take any readings?” Teagan asked to change the subject.

“No, I thought I should be as quiet as I could until your guest left. Can we do that now?” Twilight asked, perking up.

“Sure,” Teagan said smiling. “What do you want me to do?”

ooOoo

Earth, Sunday evening, May 29, 2013 8:03 PM

Famous last words, Teagan thought with a groan as Twilight jotted down more notes. It’s been five hours now and she’s still the Energizer Bunny! Where does all that energy come from?

“Twilight, how about a break?” Teagan asked hopefully. “It’s past dinner time, anyway.”

“Hmm, what?” Twilight raised her head, blinking, the pen in her telekinetic grip pausing. She had already filled half a notebook with diagrams, formulas, and indecipherable text. “Dinner? Already? But it’s only been a few minutes!”

“Try five hours, egghead,” Teagan said drily.

“Really? Wow, time really flies when you’re having fun, doesn’t it?” Twilight replied enthusiastically. “This pen is a marvelous invention, you know. You don’t have to keep stopping to get more ink! How very clever. Do you think I could take one back with me? Please?” Twilight tried to use puppy dog eyes. Her utter failure was still so adorkable Teagan had to laugh.

“I’ll give you a whole pack, Twilight. They’re like ten for two dollars or something. In fact I’ll get you a pack of each color ink: blue, black, and red. How’s that?”

“They have different colors of ink?” Twilight’s expression was like a religious epiphany. “Do you know how useful that would be for creating my schedule? Yes, yes, yes! Please!”

Teagan decided right then she was going to buy the excited alicorn one of those pens with four different ink colors, and watch her brain melt. She grinned in anticipation.

“Okay, we should probably get ready for dinner. Oh, wait…” Teagan paused. “I just remembered. We aren’t vegans, Twilight. Is that going to gross you out?”

“Vegans? What’s that?” Twilight asked in confusion.

“It means we, uh, have meat as part of the meal.” Teagan said apologetically. “If that’s a problem you can eat in another room, I’ll be glad to bring you a purely vegetarian meal. I’m sure Mom knows about ponies being herbivores, I think she went to the store while we were taking your readings.”

“No, that’s okay. The meat is from non-sentient creatures, right?” Twilight said nervously.

“Absolutely!” Teagan assured her guest. “In the first place humans are the only sentient creatures on Earth—well except maybe for dolphins but nobody eats them. Humans aren’t cannibals, trust me.” She shuddered.

“Well, strictly speaking cannibals eat members of their own species…” Twilight said after a moment.

“Um, Twilight? Trust me. Eating anything sentient would be cannibalism no matter what species it was.” Teagan said forcefully, shuddering again. She sniffed suddenly, brightening.

“That smells promising.” She said. “I bet Mom is going with a Lenten meal plan. Smart.”

“Lenten?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Lent is a religious holiday, and way too complicated to explain, but one of the things you do during Lent is give up meat. It’s a sacrifice to help you remember how fortunate you are to be able to eat well the rest of the year and remind you of all your other blessings.”

“Fascinating,” Twilight started a new page in her notebook. “So humans have religious practices to promote inner harmony as well as harmony between humans?”

“Um, yeah, I suppose so,” Teagan considered the matter. “I think it’s because we’re kind of violent, we have a lot of little rituals and ceremonies to remind us to be better people whenever we can.”

“You keep saying humans are violent, Teelo, but I haven’t seen any evidence of it,” Twilight said. “Surely if humans were as bad as you say I’d have seen something by now?”

“Well, you’re a princess, after all. Everybody you’ve met has been on their best behavior,” Teagan said slowly. “Besides, not all humans are violent all the time. Most of us are nice unless something scares us or threatens us. Of course some people scare easier than others, and some react badly when their world-view is challenged. Humans are more like trolls than ponies, except we aren’t as honest.”

Twilight shivered just a bit, remembering her confrontation with Søyle.

“You need to be careful while you’re here, Twilight. Nobody can see you, okay?” Teagan said seriously. “It could end very, very badly for all of us if somebody does.”

“Okay, Teelo, I’m convinced.” Twilight held up a hoof. “Let’s go to dinner. I’m really excited to eat a real human meal! I can’t wait to record it in my journal!”

Teagan couldn’t help it, she broke out giggling. “Just don’t forget to enjoy the taste, Twilight!”

ooOoo

Earth, Sunday evening, May 29, 2013 8:45 PM

“Lady O’Gara, that was a wonderful meal,” Twilight said happily.

“Call me Elaine, Twilight,” Teagan’s mother requested. “Lady O’Gara is way too formal in my own house!”

“All right, Elaine,” Twilight nodded. “I’ve never had anything like that. What was it called again?”

“Spicy Thai curried lentils,” Elaine responded. “I’m glad you enjoyed it, Twilight. It’s not something I make regularly but I thought it would be a nice meal to celebrate your visit.”

“I’ve never read about lentils in any of my books, nor the spicy sauce they were served in. Was that curry?” Twilight asked with great interest.

“Yes, it’s a spice from India. The recipe calls for coconut milk as well. Do you have coconuts in Equestria?” Elaine asked.

“No, not that I’ve ever heard of,” Twilight said. “I’m surprised that such a wide range of ingredients are available in the center of a large land mass. Teagan tells me we’re in the middle of one of your continents here?”

“We are.” John joined the conversation. “But a lot of our food is flown in from different countries. We fly most of what we produce to other parts of the country and other countries around the world too. Everything is global trade, these days.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “You fly food around the world? That’s—just amazing! Wait, humans can fly?”

“In machines, Twilight,” Teagan said quickly. “We don’t have magic, or wings, or things like that. So we create machines to do all those kind of things. When it comes to technology, we’re pretty far along.”

“And these plays about Equestria are technology too?” Twilight asked.

“Why don’t you show her, Pumpkin?” John asked his daughter. “Might explain how we know so much about them.”

“Yes, please!” Twilight’s face lit up hopefully.

“You sure it won’t creep you out?” Teagan asked cautiously. “I mean you’ve never been very comfortable with the whole thing.”

“But this is for science!” Twilight protested, leaning forward eagerly.

“Um, okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Teagan replied, leading the eager alicorn to her room. She fired up her computer, which started its boot up sequence.

“What’s this?” Twilight asked curiously.

“It’s my computer. It’s like five years old, so it’s pretty slow,” Teagan apologized.

“What’s a computer? Is it a machine for calculating things?” Twilight asked, endlessly curious. “Like an abacus?”

“Well, they were at first, I guess,” Teagan replied. She typed in her password and Twilight peered at the screen, looking at the picture of her and Emma at the beach, waving wildly at the camera.

“That’s you and Emma!” Twilight said, surprised. “It can show pictures?”

“Oh yes, and movies too,” Teagan responded. “Just let me get on Youtube and you’ll see. If the Internet will cooperate, that is.”

“What’s the Internet?” Twilight asked plaintively.

“It’s um, the world’s biggest library, kind of. In fact it’s a library that is the whole world. The Internet connects computers all over the world. There’s books and pictures and music and movies. You can—”

“It’s a library so large it covers the entire planet?” Twilight shrieked, pupils suddenly filling her huge eyes.

“Um, yeah,” Teagan said carefully. “Are you okay?”

“As in—there are parts of this library scattered across the whole world—and this machine can talk to any part of the library whenever you want?” Twilight was trembling.

“Yes.” Teagan was belatedly remembering exactly who she was talking to and kicking herself for not preparing the alicorn better.

“If—if I wanted an answer from a part of the library that was on the other side of your world, how long would it take?”

Teagan shrugged. “It really depends on how good the connection was, but usually a few seconds at most if you wanted a book. You might have to wait a few minutes for a movie, but they try to build the Internet so delays like that are rare.”

“A. Few. Seconds. For an entire book?” Twilight was gibbering. “Does the book materialize on the desk or in your hands…no, that would be dangerous. Show me!” Twilight demanded.

“Okay, okay, calm down. The book doesn’t actually physically appear, it’s just a picture of each page on the screen as you read through it. Um, kind of like a very detailed illusion spell.” Teagan tried to calm the quivering alicorn.

“SHOW ME!” Twilight shouted.

“All right, jeez. What do you want to see?” Teagan asked, fingers poised over her keyboard.

“A book on astronomy!” Twilight said after a brief agonized internal debate.

“Okay, let’s see. If I just typed book about astronomy it would just give me a list of astronomy books and places to buy them,” Teagan mused. “How about astronomy?”

She entered the word and pressed the Enter key. Almost instantly a list of text appeared.

“Let’s see, Astronomy Magazine, news for astronomy, the Wikipedia article on astronomy…”

“Wikipedia?” Twilight asked, puzzled. Her eyes were feverishly bright and her movements were abrupt and jerky.

“It’s an online encyclopedia that anyone can contribute to,” Teagan said. Twilight’s expression went blank.

“Anyone?” She asked breathlessly. “Oh my goodness. That’s—that’s incredible! If this Internet is everywhere on your world then that means scholars from everywhere are able to get in touch with one another. You said anyone can contribute? Does that mean this machine can write to the Internet as well as read from it?”

“Of course,” Teagan said, seriously worried that Twilight was about to have a seizure or something. “Calm down, it’s not going anywhere.”

“Do you have any idea what an invaluable research tool this Internet thing is?” Twilight squeaked in rapturous joy. Her eyes were wide and brimming with tears, her smile beatific.

“Well, yeah. I mean we’ve had the Internet for over twenty years now,” Teagan said, trying to calm the hyperventilating alicorn before she exploded.

Suddenly the most horrified look appeared on Twilight’s face.

“What?” Teagan asked anxiously, honestly worried Twilight might have burst a blood vessel.

“Two days,” Twilight groaned. “I’ve only got two days!” The alicorn’s head sank slowly, her entire body slumping in dejection. “It’s not enough time! If this library is so big it covers your whole world then how can I possibly take advantage of it in only two days! I don’t even read your script, so I’d have to have help. It’s hopeless.”

Teagan was shocked to realize Twilight was crying.

“Hey, its okay, we’ll figure out something. Maybe there’s a way to tap into the Net from Equestria. You’ve got all kinds of really weird magic spells and stuff, right?”

Teagan stroked Twilight’s mane, trying to comfort her.

“I have no idea how to do that,” Twilight sniffled. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

“Hey, you can talk to Celestia from this side, so I’m sure you’ll come up with something.” Teagan soothed. “Email would certainly solve a lot of problems!”

“What’s an E male?” Twilight asked, the puzzle distracting her from her personal hell. She’d just been shown a library vaster than any she could have possibly imagined, knowing she couldn’t read any of it…

“Electronic mail, you know, sending messages over the Internet,” Teagan said.

“This box can do that too? Like Spike sending messages to Princess Celestia?”

“Sure. The Internet is just the wires connecting all the computers in the world together,” Teagan said. “I mean, some computers are a lot bigger and faster than mine, of course, but if my computer can talk to it I can send messages to it, just like it sends messages to me.”

“The implications are staggering…” Twilight said breathlessly, her eyes unfocused. “That’s what you meant!”

“Huh?” Teagan blinked.

“When I was telling you about the keep-me-safe, you were shocked I didn’t understand the implications. But you—I mean humans—you’ve been living with this Internet thing for so long you expect to be able to talk to anyone, anywhere! You trade with other humans all around your world! You think it’s normal. Your whole society is built around it! Oh no, where’s my notebook, I’ve got to get this down, this explains so much!”

Teagan watched Twilight start to scribble furiously and sighed quietly, choosing an episode of My Little Pony to show Twilight when she ran out of steam.

Comments

[Thadius0]

Twilight having what I am now terming a braingasam.
You did it very well. Bravo.

[More Dakka]

[Jolly Wolfe]

FOR SCIENCE!!

[Jolly Wolfe]

Here I am reading this again 5 years later when I should be sleeping