First Checklist Item [Misc Journal Shenanigans / Action]

[fourthgenerationprincess]

[ In the middle of the day, Luceti is treated to the following eloquent series of letters: ]

DDDDD

[ So this is what happens when a hoof gets ahold of a drawing-to-text synthesizer. This is followed by a voice post about three minutes later: ]

... triangle, a couple of straight lines, and a square have to do with...

[ Several minutes pass, and then a video materializes. The viewer may be greeted with a pair of huge, intense violet eyes. ]

A-ha!

[ The sight of this particular creature might seem out of place to anyone who doesn't know Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash. You can now see a purple pony with a horn protruding from her mane. The horn is bathed in a magenta glow, as is a pointy stick that is way too close to the camera. Like mankind before her, Twilight is learning how to use tools. ]

Hi, um... anypony who's watching this! I'm Twilight Sparkle, and... I don't recognize these woods at all. [ She looks around, probably for the umpteenth time. Twilight's found herself deep within the forest, to the southeast. Not that she knows this. ] It doesn't look like any part of the Everfree Forest I've been to. [ A cloud parts and the sun shines in her face through the unseen treetops. Twilight shields her face with a hoof. ] Oh. Actually, I guess I could...

[ She looks back at herself and spreads her wings. Not her small Luceti wings, though. A huge pair of alicorn wings, of the same purple as her fur. She prepares to take off, then remembers the journal and hits it again with the stick. Video feed switches off. ]

---

[ Following this recording, the population of Luceti may witness a purple shape flying around the sky, observing the village from above. She'll circle a few times, trying to orient herself, before deciding to alight in the fountain square.

Two areas will grab Twilight's interest fairly quickly. First, she'll see her coronation outfit in the window of the clothing shop. She'll find this strange enough to go inside and consider buying it.

The other building she'll notice is the library (with a squee of excitement). Good luck extracting her from perusing the many, many, many tomes that now litter the floor. This is why Twilight needs an assistant librarian. What she wouldn't give for Spike right about now.

Feel free to interact with her in the square, at the clothing store, in the library, or in the air: she's several yards up but not out of shouting distance. ]

Comments

[geniustheveil]

I don't think anyone should be forced to fight. Especially not like this. But we don't have a choice; the Third Party won't hesitate just because we say we don't want to be there on the battlefield.

[fourthgenerationprincess]

[ Twilight's pulled her journal out and is attempting to scroll back through previous entries. ] Right, and maybe the Malnosso needed us and brought us here. What if they couldn't fight the Third Party themselves?

[geniustheveil]

After this long, they may have been depleted in resources. [And manpower, she doesn't say. Casualities... And there have been vague hints she doesn't fully understand yet that all is still not as it seems - or as they've been told.]

[fourthgenerationprincess]

Has anypony... [ gulp ] died here? Anypony you knew?

[geniustheveil]

[She has. But Ami doesn't say this. She prefers to keep a mental distance from it, and she doesn't want to alarm Twilight even more right away.]

Sometimes. I know they also return, but... [But it's still a loss, a pain.]

[fourthgenerationprincess]

What do you mean? They return... alive again?

[geniustheveil]

They do. It takes some time, and they might be changed for awhile - like losing their voice, or changing their age, or something like that. [She doesn't mention some of the worst ones she's heard of or seen.]

[fourthgenerationprincess]

[ Dammit, Ami, keeping all the bad stuff from Twi. Oh well, she'll find out eventually. ]

That's... wow. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, then. I mean, it's good! I wouldn't want anypony to die. But... it seems against the natural order, too. [ She frowns, thinking. ]

[geniustheveil]

I know I should think about that possibility, and about what it means for this world. But I can't help being glad to see those people again anyway.

[fourthgenerationprincess]

And what sort of chaos would it create if somepony here died, and then never got back to where they came from?

[geniustheveil]

I think our being here already creates a very uncertain situation. Our worlds can't remain unaffected.

[fourthgenerationprincess]

But I've been here and back again multiple times, apparently! So how does that work?

[geniustheveil]

You were brought from different points in time; perhaps even slightly different variances of the multiverse.

[fourthgenerationprincess]

... Multiverse?

[geniustheveil]

All the worlds we come from. Multiversal theory seems to have been close to the truth, even if it wasn't fully understood yet.