The Strange Cases of Twilight Sparkle

by DrakoGlyph

Case 13

Twilight was still trying to figure all of the oddities out when both Shining Armor and Princess Cadence appeared in her Library. They looked ragged and almost… singed? Cadence was gasping for breath—she had to be exhausted, teleporting twice from Canterlot, and this time with Shining Armor.

“Twilie, we need to tell you something,” Shining said, his tone was very stern and serious.

“These Strange Cases… they’re—“ Cadence started to say in a serious tone before the word “Planks” came out of her mouth. She quickly covered it, and Shining started spinning to check the room.

“They’re planks? That makes no sense!”

“They’re yolks,” Shining Armor said before covering his mouth.

“Yolks? That makes even less sense. Are you two alright?”

“Twilie, you need to know that The Strange Cases, they’re a… grazing.” Shining Armor couldn’t even believe the words coming out of his own mouth. “It’s like everything I say is being turned into something else!”

“The elder Princesses do this thing to the new princesses, this thing where they pull all sorts of cruel tanks…” Cadence attempted to speak, “oh for the love of Aunt Celestia.” Cadence pulled out a quill, dipped it in ink and placed it to the parchment. She watched as the words she wrote became jumbles and scribbles on the page—nothing at all what she had originally wrote at all.

“Cadence, if you want to color, I have some pencils for that…” Twilight was all confused now.

“Let’s try this,” Shining Armor said, taking a deep breath. “There is no such thing as the Equestrian Bureau of Investment.” The look on Shining Armor’s own face conveyed the surprise and shock that all three of them bore.

“Discord!” Cadence managed to say, triggering a memory in Twilight—that Troll she had met in the Town Square, he was gray—more gray than any troll she had ever seen the picture of.

“So this is all a joke played by Discord?” Twilight asked.

“Wrong,” Shining Armor spat out, thought he meant to say ‘right.’

“If you aren’t going to take this seriously, then I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Cadence took a few books off the shelves and began aligning them in order, opening them to specific pages then pointing to words.

“The… Strange… Cases… Are… All…” Cadence tried frantically to find a book that would have the word ‘prank’ in it, she would even settle for ‘joke’ or ‘jest,’ but none seemed to be on the shelves. She scoured the shelves, but couldn’t find a single book that might have the word within it. This had to be Discord’s doing. “All what?”

“Oh, Twilight, I wish Discord wasn’t so true.” She had meant to call the Draconequus rude, but that’s what came out.

“Go back home and get some rest… I think you’ve been up a little too long,” Twilight responded, showing them to the door.

“But we need to barn you!” Shining Armor covered his mouth and Cadence glared at him, only to see in his eyes that he had meant to say something else.

“Barn isn’t even a verb, Shining. Go,” Twilight insisted, showing them out the door.

“We’re trying to warm you!” Cadence said, “The Strange Cases, they’re not all they appear to be,” Cadence finally managed to get out, despite the early slip.

“I’m quite warm already, thanks.” She pushed them out the door and closed it, leaving the duo to try and figure out what to do next.

Case 13:

After this second visit from Princess Cadence, I’m starting to wonder if her spending all her time in the Crystal Empire is good for her mental health. Same goes for my brother. Perhaps we can send a temporary regent up there to give them a vacation.

Seriously, if you would have heard some of the things they were just trying to tell me…

Sincerely,

Princess Twilight Sparkle

Celestia could only glare at the laughing Draconequus. Luna gave him a questioning look.

“Oh come on, that was pure hilarity! Everything you say being fixed into something else!”

“I thought we were only going to put the Strange Cases on Twilight, not those around her,” Luna sternly asked.

“Sometimes you need to get a few others involved to make the rules work, dearest Luna.”

“You have taken this too far, Discord,” Luna kept her stern tone.

“My, my, Luna, of all the ponies in the world, I figured you would be the last to condemn someone for keeping tradition, you know with the whole insistence on using the Royal Canterlot Voice.”

“I keep myself in check now. It has taken until now to see that my sister is right, there are some things that you just do not do.”

“Well, if that’s how you feel about it,” he said, snapping his fingers, “then you can spend your time back on the moon.” Luna disappeared with a shriek.

“Discord, I have had enough of you. It’s time you decorated the lawn some more,” she said, her horn glowing, but Discord snapped and she was gone too.

“This is tradition, and so it will stay tradition,” he said to the stained glass image of Celestia scowling back at him. “Not even you and your little sister can change that.”

Author's Note:

Fun fact: this was going to be case 15, but the way it worked out it was 13 better.

Comments

[Malandy]

I guess there will be no reveal until the end...

[DrakoGlyph]

2862157
Perhaps not--I basically write the story one chapter at a time. I do know how it's going to end though.

Speaking of, I'm now accepting guesses as to what the last case will be!