5 Hearts [visual]/[action]

[verygassy]

[Hey guys, its Minako!...And she looks like crud. Better than Kyouko, but that's not saying much.

She looks drained, almost defeated, as she speaks.]

As Kyouko said, Jappleack's been taken by the Pale Pony. There's...more to it than that, but if you need to know, I'll be at the library.

That's all.

[And in the library she'll be, stuffing her face with food. She's not eaten for weeks, even though for her, it had only been a night at the most inside that horrible place.

She's staring at one panel of shelves in particular, pulling a particular book in and out, while looking at another book at her side: the purple book with gold border that they'd brought from Stalliongrad.

Hmm.]

Comments

[verygassy]

Hey, Twilight. Thanks.

[She takes the cupcakes because damn if she isn't hungry.]

...Eh, been better, but falling apart isn't exactly an option.

[magicalrealist]

It's usually not an option.

(Especially with others looking to you for help and leadership.)

I heard it was rough, but you seem to be taking it well.

[verygassy]

It sucked.

[Yeah, being a leader sucked sometimes, too.]

Its because I'm sure that Jappleack and Kreutzer will come back. If they're both part of whatever the Pale Pony's after - if those files meant anything - she'd want to study them more, right? So she has to bring them back.

Plus, I found a clue while we were there.

[magicalrealist]

(Twilight nodded. It made sense. They had answers that she wanted and would have to keep them alive until she got those answers. After that...there's no telling what she does with them after that.)

You mean something besides the flash drive? What did you find?

[verygassy]

That's right.

[She holds up the book.]

You remember the books we found in Stalliongrad, right? The purple one was the switch to open the secret room up.

[magicalrealist]

(Twilight studies the book intently, then looks around the library.)

So if that book is here, then the secret room might be, too.

[verygassy]

I looked through the library already. The general area where the door had been was over there--[Points.]--but none of the books in the area where the switch had been open anything.

[magicalrealist]

(Twilight begins inspecting that very wall, looking through all of the books and pulling them all out one at a time in search for a reaction.)

Did the secret room look like a recent addition or at least an addition after the library was built? Was it separate from the basement?

[verygassy]

Considering there was a high-tech computer in it, I'm pretty sure it was more recent of an addition.

[She helps, of course!]

Yeah, it was separate from the basement.

[magicalrealist]

(Twilight's still digging through the books, but she looks pensive.)

...Considering AI Twilight's circumstances, maybe it was a very recent addition. Maybe months, weeks or even days before Calice took over.

[verygassy]

Maybe. But do we know how long it took for Calice to take in the universe?

[magicalrealist]

I'm not sure. All I know is it's sometime after Twilight became a princess. The data files didn't have dates on them.

[verygassy]

...I guess the next question is when she got that information on all of us. I mean...does Calice stare herself into the secret room somehow? But its in her body, so is it like a weird invert my head thing, or...

[magicalrealist]

(Twilight momentarily stops when she pulls out a history book.)

...A friend of mine is also on that list. Back in December, he changed his name to Andrew, but the file lists him as Handy. It also listed when Nightmare Moon possessed me, which was October of last year. Not all of those individuals were around at that time, but if she can see into others' universes, then she's probably studied them while they were still home.

If I had to guess, I'd say it began before we arrived in Equestria and continued from that point onwards.

[verygassy]

...Hmm. That makes sense...