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

[fourthgenerationprincess]

Yeah. I probably didn't have them last time I was here; I only got them a few hours before I arrived this time.

[semper_cogitans]

That... e-explains things.

[Robert nods to himself in a decisive sort of way, and then turns his attention back to Twilight -] Are there... a-additional details you would like to h-hear about my species...?

[fourthgenerationprincess]

Any and all information you could give me would be very helpful, actually. I already met one who seemed to be an outlier in terms of appearance, and made the mistake of assuming he wasn't human. It... didn't work out so well. [ Oh, Beast. ]

[semper_cogitans]

[That... is actually quite an unusual case. Robert wouldn't be entirely sure how to explain it even though he has actually seen Beast's movie. It's a long story.]

Ah... well, Homo sapiens sapiens - or, at l-least, the genetic variants present on T-Terra in my multiversion - vary from a-approximately one decimal five to one decimal eight m-metres tall, and anywhere from... f-fifty to eighty kilograms in mass, on a-average... there are certainly humans who are... s-significantly different, but these ratios represent the... t-typical numbers for adult members of my species...

[fourthgenerationprincess]

[ Twilight's grabbed a nearby scroll and quill and has started jotting down these measurements, even though she's not familiar with all of the units. She stops and looks at him, tongue between her teeth. ]

Hmm. And where on the scale would you fall? For point of reference?

[semper_cogitans]

My height is... o-one decimal six four four, approximately, and my w-weight is, as of... m-most recent measurements, sixty-two decimal one four t-two...

...

... I am... r-rather small... [For a human, anyway. Also pale, but he'll get into that after.]

[fourthgenerationprincess]

Could I see you to get some visual reference on that? [ She prepares some paper and ink, and scribbles down what he's said. ]

[semper_cogitans]

[In response, the man flicks on the video function of his journal.

His room - clean, organized and bearing the marks of compulsions that Twilight might recognize (and perhaps even empathize with) - comes into focus, along with the man himself - who looks as awkward as anything.]

Ah... how e-exactly will you effectively judge my h-height...? Do you not need... a measuring object of some sort...? [He doesn't have any precision instruments on him.]

[fourthgenerationprincess]

It'd be preferable! [ She stares at him with a quill in her mouth. ] Hmm. I can make something up. Can I come over there, or you here?

[semper_cogitans]

... I... s-suppose I could meet you d-directly where you are staying... [She is staying somewhere, right?] My home is... somewhat more d-difficult to access...

[fourthgenerationprincess]

Come to house 45 or the library. You don't live in the mountains or anything, do you?

[semper_cogitans]

... N-No. The... d-difficulty is... in something much different... [And magical. Which is a little reluctant to mention blatantly. After being afraid of being attacked once... he's not too keen on it happening again.]

[fourthgenerationprincess]

Well, that's all right. One human I've met here has friends who set deathtraps in his house. The pony house and the library are both accessible enough! And they have a limited number of open razor blades. The only thing you have to watch out for is Rainbow Dash's snoring.

Wow, the grammar on my last reply was bad, sorry about that

[semper_cogitans]

[...]

... Open razor b-blades sound... like a rather i-inefficient method or protecting one's h-homestead...

... In any case, I... would be glad to meet you at the l-library, Miss Sparkle...

No worries! I hadn't noticed

[fourthgenerationprincess]

Efficient or not, to me it just sounds dangerous! Well, unless you could implement them properly. Come on over whenever!

[ He may find her shelving books in any of the library's myriad rooms. ]

I DID IT AGAIN I am just on a fail-roll here. /blames everything but himself

[semper_cogitans]

[At this point, tracing the path from his own home to the Library is second nature. With the necessary explanations to Don, he's off - and, as is his wont, he arrives promptly, only about ten minutes after cutting the journal connection.

He lingers a little awkwardly in the doorway. It's been so long since he's had a proper meeting with Twilight that it feels... weird.]

... Miss S-Sparkle...?

[fourthgenerationprincess]

[ She turns around and brightens. ] Professor Hastings! Don't move.

[ She drops everything and canters into another room to go get her measuring tape. ]

[semper_cogitans]

[Since Robert takes everything as literally as possible, he does exactly that - or rather, he doesn't do exactly that. So Twilight will have absolutely no trouble finding him.

Standing completely still does free up some extra brain power for processing, which he sorely needs in order to digest her four-winged state properly. It was one thing to see it through the journal's camera... it's quite another to see it in person.]

[fourthgenerationprincess]

[ She returns quickly with the tape in her mouth, finding him in exactly the same place. She doesn't think too much of it. The tape levitates and extends from the floor to the top of Robert's head; a quill levitates as well and marks where Robert's height comes up to. ]

There! One point six four four. [ She sits down, divides up the rest of the tape to that point, and starts marking out more regular increments. ] And you're short for your species?

[semper_cogitans]

C-Considerably. [Robert watches Twilight's magical motions with a great degree of fascination. Witnessing such feats no longer has the same shockingness it did, but it will never exactly be commonplace to a man whose world is completely mundane.] I would... l-likely be considered to occupy one of the... l-lower height percentiles...

[fourthgenerationprincess]

[ Twilight continues marking; there's a fair amount of space beyond Robert's height, so she goes as far as she can. ] Hmm. Beast was pretty tall. I'd better make this two at least. What's the measuring unit you humans use?

[semper_cogitans]

It... d-depends on the object being measured... the standard m-measurement of length is the metre, but further measurements exist in e-exponents of ten, such as the c-centimetre, which is a factor of zero decimal zero o-one as compared to the m-metre.

For instance, my h-height is expressed as one decimal six four four metres, as I i-informed you earlier, but... it can also be expressed as one hundred sixty four decimal f-four centimetres. The two measurements are... e-equivalent, but it is... g-generally preferable to use metres in the c-case of height, as most humans... f-fall within this range.

[fourthgenerationprincess]

[ Twilight notes all of this - measurements, equivalencies - and then gets up and levitates the measuring tape next to her. She marks where she comes up to on the tape and then examines it. ] Hmm. I'm a little tall for a pony now, but not by much. Celestia would probably be closer to your height, though.

[semper_cogitans]

[That's quite the height variety.]

Is there a r-reason that... your species varies such in h-height? I had not heard of there being... s-strong variation prior, and... other individuals I have seen are not n-nearly so differently-sized...

[fourthgenerationprincess]

Most of us aren't! I think Celestia's a special case. I was about average height before, perhaps a little shorter, but I noticed I gained a few inches when I became an alicorn. Not that you could probably tell the difference from when I was here last time!