Operation Recognition
Unlikely Scenario
By: Bronius Maximus
Edited By: FanNotANerd
The following takes place just before the episode 'Boast Busters'
Twilight's sneeze echoed through the candle-lit library. It seemed this particular section was long overdue for cleaning, if the piles of dust were anything to go by. The unicorn backed away, sneezing again. 'Alright.' she thought 'This section can wait.'
Driven by a fit of late night boredom, she'd decided to give the library a thorough cleaning before bed. She and her sinuses certainly wished she hadn't put this task off for so long. She found her gaze slowly gravitating toward an old, leather-bound tome, and quickly tore it away, berating herself for getting distracted. The one problem about cleaning up her beloved books was that it was always so tempting to stop cleaning and read them.
Twilight allowed herself a longing stare at the rows of books before her, and glanced back at what she'd accomplished. "No." she told herself, "I said I'd get this done tonight, and I meant it."
'Who am I kidding?'
An instant later, she had succumbed to her love of the written word, scanning the shelf for something to read.
'Maybe just an interesting page...or the first chapter.'
She put her hoof to her mouth in thought, scanning the spines of the perfectly aligned books for a volume piquing her interest. A book wedged in the far corner of the shelf caught her attention. A quick spell, and the old tome hovered before her. The dust covering the surface of the book took to the air, adding to her already distressed sinuses as she let out what had to have been the seventeenth sneeze that day. Not that she was counting.
Once her fit of sneezes had subsided, she read the title to herself, "Morally Questionable Spells for Unicorns with Questionable Morals?"
Twilight coming across an unfamiliar book in her library was certainly a rare occurrence, though it wasn't an impossibility. She kept thousands of books in her home, with the occasional peruser checking out a few a week. Sometimes guests would even donate a volume or two. During the many re-shelving days she so enjoyed, it was possible for one or two of them to get lost in the shuffle.
Below the title was an interesting looking symbol that seemed to shine even through years of sitting on Twilight's shelves sandwiched between other books. Curiosity getting the better of her, Twilight flipped open the front cover and scanned the publishing information for the author. Near the bottom of the page she found a simple, horn-written note.
'Tia.'
"Hm...that's unusual," Twilight said to herself, flipping through the rest of the book, finding the margins free of her notes and criticisms that usually adorned the textbooks she kept. It wasn't like anypony ever checked out the textbooks anyway. Cherilee was the only pony who ever needed them, and she genuinely seemed to enjoy Twilight's notes, scribbled into the margins or otherwise. None of the pages were dog-eared, the book still tried to close when she opened it; this book had certainly not been looked over for some time. The pages were just beginning to show their age, but other than that, it was in perfect condition.
"Hey Spike, do you know anything about this book on morally questionable spells?"
She heard the baby dragon awake with a grunt, followed by a groaning sarcastic reply "It probably has a cover, a spine...maybe some pages thrown in there. Possibly about morally questionable spells."
Twilight smiled to herself. 'He sure gets grumpy when I wake him.'
She took the book with her to the loft and settled beneath her starry bedspread, opening it to the table of contents as she propped herself up on her elbows. The title of this book was absolutely apt. Every spell contained within toyed with either emotions, or deception in one way or another. There was a variation of the want it, need it spell, except this variation was for casting on ponies, not objects. Twilights eyes darted to Spike, who had managed to resume his sleeping schedule in no less than a few minutes.
'The lust it, need it spell can and will turn any pony, regardless of gender or orientation into a bubbling cauldron of hormones, with eyes only for the one the spell was cast upon.' Twilight read to herself.
'I better remove this page,' she told herself, tucking it away safely in her nightstand, 'Can't have this spell falling into the wrong hooves!'
She glanced nervously over to Spike one more time to make sure he was still asleep. She didn't need him bothering her with questions as to why an attractive if not socially awkward pony like herself would need such a spell. 'Morally questionable' was only becoming a more appropriate title the further she read into the book. Spells for mind control, thought reading, doppelgangers, thought projection, and all manner of potentially havoc wreaking notes filled its pages. Even though her curiosity was piqued, her eyelids grew heavy, demanding that she turn in for the night.
She closed the book and blew out the candle by her bedside, her thoughts drifting towards what she could do with the spell in her nightstand if she were such a morally questionable unicorn. In reality she was not, but her dreams were another story.
Twilight awoke the next morning to the smell of Spike's delicious cooking. A quick trot downstairs for breakfast and she was ready to start another exciting day of...nothing. She had nothing planned, no big events were happening in town, it was just another day of lazily hanging around the library with Spike. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy the young dragon's company, but all he generally did was sleep, moon over Rarity, or hunt for jewels to eat. The hot oats Spike was famous for slid her way, Twilight grateful, but not overly excited about the same thing she had eaten the day before.
After breakfast, Applejack stopped by for a friendly visit. She usually stopped by on her way into town to sell apples and apple accessories. Like clockwork, Twilight heard her country pal unhitch herself from the cart outside.
"Hey there Twilight!" she greeted coming through the door.
"Hi Applejack!" The lavender unicorn returned happily. Her friends were a large part of why she hadn't gone stir crazy in this old library. "Got a lot of apples to move today?"
"She sure does!" A smaller voice said from behind Applejack's hind leg. "And Ah'm in charge a helpin' her!"
Applebloom pushed her way in front of her sister, beaming with pride at the chance to try her hoof at selling apples with her big sis.
"You sure are!" Applejack added, "You'll have your cutie mark in no time!"
"Good luck Applebloom!" Twilight wished.
"So what's on your schedule today?" the country mare asked as the yellow filly bounded back outside to put on her selling apron and mind the cart.
Twilight sighed, knowing that a whole lot of nothing was the only thing on the agenda...although that book she found last night reminded her that perhaps today wouldn't be so boring after all.
"Nothing much," she sighed, "Just some studying to catch up on. And...I fell a bit behind cleaning up the library."
"Well, Ah'll leave ya to it." Applejack said turning back to the cart filled to the brim with apples. "Hop in th' cart silly filly! We've got apples ta sell!"
Twilight bid the sisters goodbye and shut the door. Her thoughts slowly returned to that old book she had found the night before, written by the mysterious 'Tia'.
Everypony else had a special talent they were known for, and generally got to use on a day to day basis, but Twilight found herself growing bored of the mundane reasons for which she used her magic. She had been told by Celestia herself that she had more raw ability than any unicorn she had ever seen! But it seemed like all she ever did was light candles, or re-arrange books. The pride of her unicorn ancestors stirred within her, demanding she do something incredible. To flex her magical muscle in such a way that nopony would ever doubt why she was Celestia's top student.
'But how...' she thought taking a seat back at the breakfast table, her hoof to her mouth in contemplation.
"Bit for your thoughts?" Spikes words snapped her out of her inner monologue.
"Oh! Uhm, nothing." she answered quickly.
"Didn't look like nothing." Spike teased as he continued to clean up the kitchen.
'I don't want to look like a show-off, but I want to do something amazing! Something everypony will be talking about...' she continued, deciding it was better if she schemed in private than to have Spike question her every expression. A quick trot and she was in her loft. Twilight turned the pages of the book from last night to where she had left off.
'Maybe there's something in here I can use...'
Scanning through the table of contents, she stopped on something at the very end of the page. It seemed to have been hastily added in at the last second. In somepony's horn-writing, squeezed in at the bottom of the page was something that struck Twilight as impossible.
"Creating artificial ponies?"
A quick flip through the pages and Twilight found herself reading about something she surely thought must have been a joke of some kind. Scribbled into the last few pages of the book was more of the horn-written notes, with a few diagrams of how to, in effect, create a pony of any kind. Unicorn, pegasus, earth pony, every species represented in the short few pages dedicated to such a seemingly important spell.
As Twilight read the procedure, her disbelief that such an act could be possible faded into stunned acceptance. The understanding of magical theory and practice was on a level that nearly befuddled the normally sharp-minded unicorn. Still, with a little research, she was sure she could attain the same level of understanding that whatever magical genius had written this achieved.
As she poured over the information, her conscience slowly began to reign in her scholastic enthusiasm.
'What would the others think of me playing god like this? What would the princess think?' Twilight wondered apprehensively before her growing ego stepped in to put a stop to all that worrying.
'They won't find out. It says right here that the spell is only effective for twenty four hours, so it's not like I'm just creating ponies willy-nilly' she countered, 'Besides, is it wrong for me to want some recognition without looking like a show off?'
"No." she said aloud.
"Know what?"
She had been so wrapped up in her book and her mental debate, she neglected to notice Spike enter the loft, kicking back in his basket, ready to continue his marathon sleeping session.
"Know...what time it is?" she asked grinning sheepishly, trying to talk her way out of looking like a lunatic. It didn't seem to be working.
"It's eleven thirty." Spike chuckled, looking at the clock behind him, "You forget how to tell time?"
"Good, Spike I need you to run into town and get me some...red ink." Twilight said, ignoring the question.
"Red ink? For what?" The young dragon demanded, having just gotten comfortable.
"I'm critiquing this book for the princess, and I want my notes to stand out," she lied, eyes shifting rapidly from Spike to the wall clock, "Easier on her eyes."
"Okay, I'll be right back." Spike groaned, forcing himself out of bed and down the steps.
"This is very important Spike!" she called after him "I need red ink!"
'There isn't a quill shop within fifty miles of here that sells red ink!' she thought smugly to herself. She hated to lie to Spike, but if she was going to do this, she couldn't have any distractions. Once Spike had left the library, she focused on the task at hoof.
"Okay, you will need...a reasonable facsimile of the pony form you wish to create." she read aloud to her empty bedroom.
Rarity had lent her a mannequin to keep her dress from the Gala in the proper shape when she wasn't wearing it. Twilight pulled it from her closet and removed the metal stand, deciding it would be a perfect model for her little pony.
A childlike grin spread across Twilight's face as she read on, gathering the necessary materials for her experiment. Even when she was a just a filly playing 'scientist' with Smartypants in her room, experiments always excited her more than any other step of the scientific method. An innocent happiness flooded her heart as she merrily put the final pieces of the puzzle together.
"Okay, I've got the form, the horn, the mane and coat color, now all I need is to determine her personality..." Twilight checked off the checklist she had made just for this occasion, before noticing her pony was missing something rather obvious.
"Oh!" Twilight exclaimed, realizing her mistake, "Almost forgot your cutie mark!"
Twilight looked around the room for something to inspire her, but nothing came to mind. She spied the old book she had been reading from, settling on the symbol gracing the cover.
"It's magical looking, and she is a unicorn..." she reasoned, using a 'copy and paste' spell to affix the image to both flanks of her creation.
"Okay, almost done!" Twilight said happily, checking her list to see what else remained before the actual casting of the magic.
"Hm...Inscribe the name and traits you desire onto a scroll, and place the scroll into the form's mouth." Twilight's eyes dropped, the mannequin didn't have a mouth, or even a face for that matter, although the book didn't mention anything about needing one.
"I guess I have to make one..." the lavender unicorn levitated a pair of scissors towards her subject and cut out a rough mouth, removing some of the stuffing to create the desired cavity. Quill and scroll at the ready, Twilight began to ponder every facet of her new mare's personality.
'She should be the opposite of myself...'
"How about an arrogant show-off with a constant need for attention and adoration?" she said writing each trait onto the scroll, pausing to think of more un-Twilight attitudes.
"Oh! Can't forget unwarranted self importance!"
She took a look back at the book and noticed a note scrawled along the margin, saying in effect that you can also add any memories you would like your creation to believe while it interacts with the world around it. In addition, the creation will be endowed with the ability to perform any spells written on the scroll.
"Hm...let's have her tell everypony she vanquished an Ursa Major, when she knows she didn't!" Twilight added quickly, ensuring that should worst come to worst, she was still the more powerful unicorn.
"Let's see...spells, spells..." Twilight wracked her brain to try and think of some easy spells that would impress, but not put anypony in danger.
After a few minutes of writing, she had her spell list; limited to levitation of light objects, and for good measure the ability to summon a tiny storm cloud, as well as a few pyrotechnic spells to attract some attention. Twilight didn't want her pony to blend in with the crowd, she needed some way of standing out. A quick trip to a dusty trunk of her foalhood toys in the corner and she came up with an old cape and wizard hat her uncle Comet had given her for her birthday one year.
She admired the mannequin now dressed in her old magic outfit and smiled. "Perfect. Alright! Now for her motivation, and it'll be time to cast the magic!" Twilight said happily, thoroughly pleased with how her 'rival' was turning out.
'Motivation...this must be what it feels like to be a movie director!' she thought, trying to come up with a good backstory to accentuate the overwhelming arrogance she had already forced upon her unfortunate subject.
"You're the most powerful unicorn in Equestria, no...the world!" she wrote, running out of space toward the bottom of the scroll. "You know it, and everypony else should too! If there are neigh sayers, you never hesitate to challenge them in public!"
Twilight grinned from ear to ear, having a lot more fun creating a pony than she thought her conscience would allow.
"There we go!" she said taking one last look over the checklist before checking it against the scroll, "That's the last item! Oops! Forgot the name!" she giggled in embarrassment.
"Hm...you're pretty much a really complex magic trick...how about Trixie? No, The Great and Powerful Trixie?" she glanced expectantly at the mannequin as if it would respond.
"I knew you'd love it!" Twilight added, writing the name to the top of the scroll and stuffing it into the as of yet inanimate objects mouth. The unicorn grinned widely, unable to contain her excitement. One ear twitched slightly as she took in the soon-to-be pony. Twilight teleported herself and her experiment to the edge of town, so nopony would see her bring her creation to life. The library would have been more private than a field at the edge of town, but she couldn't risk somepony seeing a unicorn leave the library that never entered, or that anypony in town had ever seen before. Not if her plan for recognition was to go off without a hitch.
Something was still missing; it nagged at the back of her mind as she began to charge the necessary magic. Finally, it occurred to her. This pony needed a place to live! A quick couple of spells and the gifted young unicorn had made a somewhat sturdy, gypsy-like cart for her to live in. Twilight had never been good in magical shop class, but figured this would probably not collapse for twenty four hours.
She beamed with a pride at the structure she had made, casting quick glances between the cart and the soon to be traveling show-off that would be living in it. Twilight had brought the book and the checklist with her, reading the very last line before she cast the spell.
"After casting, you will have one minute to instill a directive in your creation before it begins to act according to your traits."
She stood firmly in front of the mannequin, ready to bring the ragtag assortment of items to life. She charged the spell, a small bead of light gathering at the tip of her horn. Twilight lowered her head, and fired the tiny ball into the chest of the mannequin. It splashed against the fabric in a way one would expect a drop of water to react, though instead it thinned, slowly covering the entire form in a bright cocoon. In a flash, an azul unicorn with an off white mane stood before her, a blank expression across her face.
"Yay! It's a girl!" Twilight shouted happily, clapping her hooves together in pride. "At least..." she went around to the back of her still motionless pony and gave her undercarriage a quick peek. "Yep! She's a lady!" the lavender unicorn said proudly, trotting back in front of her change with the still vacant stare.
'This must be what motherhood feels like!'
Her jovial thoughts were interrupted by a return of her conscience.
'If motherhood entails me bringing a life into this world only to humiliate it and have it disappear forever...'
Her enthusiasm quickly began evaporating. Come to think of it, what she was doing was so un-Twilight that it should have been included on her list of traits. She considered her options, but quickly decided she didn't want all this work to be in vain, also somewhat bolstered by the fact that she had just created a living, breathing pony. 'Well, I've come this far, no point in backing out now...'
"See that town down there?" Twilight said pointing a hoof toward Ponyville. Trixie nodded.
"They all think they're better than you! The Great and Powerful Trixie! Go down there and show those snobs what real magic looks like! You take all challengers and aren't afraid to let them know who's the best!"
A simple nod was all the reply she received, prompting Twilight to hope she was a bit more responsive once she got settled into her new 'life'.
The thought of the traits she had forced on what she felt was somewhat apart of her still tugged at her heart. She just couldn't let something live only to be humiliated and then fade away! Everypony needed something to cling to in this world, even if they were only going to be a part of it for twenty four hours. It wasn't Trixie's fault she had been made to be universally despised for her behavior. Twilight scrunched her nose in thought, trying to think of one last directive to give her little pony before sending her out into the world.
"Remember, no matter what happens, you are the greatest there is, and nopony, is better than you." Twilight said looking into eyes that were the exact same color as her own. She had to give her a beacon, something to hold on to after her planned besting at the hooves of Twilight Sparkle, something to comfort her in her final hours.
"And never forget, your mother loves you very much."
A quick, yet motherly peck on the cheek of her 'daughter' and Twilight teleported back to town, to await the arrival of the Great and Powerful Trixie.