It's gone!

The friendship journal.

It's gone!

Twilight ran around her room in a panic. She swore she had left it open by the window. She knew she did. But why was it missing? Twilight ran to the pile of books she had stacked in a tower at the end of her bed. It seemed to not be as high as she remembered but what did it matter. She scanned the spines for anything that stuck out like the gold bands around the spine or the brown cover that looked rather old. None of the books matched the description and she sighed. Twilight looked through her drawers and file cabinets. The friendship journal wasn't there.

Twilight didn't understand this. She had left the room without letting anyone come in so how was the book gone? The princess kept searching for it. Before she knew it, her room was once again trashed as if she never cleaned it in the first place. The ink wells were back to being drippy bottles on the desk, the papers were scattered all throughout the room, and books lie open; a maze of stuff to step over. That was when Twilight noticed something.

One of her Astronomy books was gone. And so was a History book and a volume on Psychology. It wasn't just the friendship journal that was missing...it was a few other books as well. Just then a mare walked in gripping a duster between her teeth. She was startled by the sudden mess on the floor. Twilight sat up and a bunch of papers near her rustled loudly. The mare jumped back and sighed with relief when she saw it was Twilight.

"Oh, your majesty. You scared me," she said.

"Miss, you don't, by chance, know where a few of my books have gone, do you?" Twilight asked.

The pony frowned.

"Why no, your majesty. I just came to do my daily clean and then saw all this..."

Twilight nodded and sat back down in deep concentration. Where would they be..? She retraced her hoofsteps in her mind. Twilight had gotten up that morning, combed out her mane...Organized her room, found the journal. Then read it, became late for a meeting, ran out...oh.

Twilight had shot out of her room without closing the door. She was too much in a hurry to think to do that. So whoever had her book was someone who could have walked in during the time of her meeting. But there were so many ponies in the castle that could have done that! When she had come to her room, the door was closed. That's why she didn't suspect a thing when she came in. The only people she would think to even walk in her room would be someone on the cleaning staff. But the cleaning mare had just arrived. So it couldn't be her.

Twilight wanted that journal.

It had all the entries she had ever written to Celestia and the casual talk she made with Sunset. The two most important people to her had traces of themselves in that book. Both of them she knew she would certainly never see again. Twilight looked to the door. The library. That's one place they could be. Twilight sat up and galloped out the room and frightened the cleaning mare, who was trying to gather some of the loose papers. Twilight headed down the corridor of the palace in Canterlot toward her destination. That had to be the place.

As Regal Advisor, Twilight had to stay close to Luna by living in the Canterlot palace. Her own castle was now the new Ponyville Library, since she graciously gave it to them since she wouldn't ever have use for it anymore in its location. But sometimes she wished she still lived there because at least at her old castle, she didn't have awkward encounters with a certain stallion.

Twilight sped down the hall and turned the corner to the library only to crash into someone. She fell back on her flank and rubbed her head. She groaned and closed her eyes. Around her she heard hooves tapping on the polished floor in a nervous dance. She opened them to see Flash Sentry fidgeting and felt quite unsurprised to see it was him she ran into.

"A-are you ok?" he stuttered.

Twilight nodded.

"Yes, thanks for asking."

Twilight stood up but fell back down. She was feeling pretty queasy from the impact. She just had breakfast and she was afraid she might throw it back up if the hall didn't stop spinning. Flash lent her a hoof and she slowly stood back up.

"Where are you headed?" he asked.

"...The library..." she told him.

The two of them headed there slowly as Twilight tried to regain her sense of balance and shake off her nausea. Flash watched her and smiled as she walked beside him. He liked her a lot and wanted to say something, but was too shy to. Being near her made him feel timid and unsure of himself. Not only was Twilight a beautiful mare, she was one of the most important ponies in Equestrian history. Ever wince he met her almost a year and a half ago, he knew he wanted to be her knight in shining armor. The thing was...he couldn't tell if she had the same feelings or not.

Before Celestia's death, Twilight seemed to have the same feelings he did for her. The blushing, the shyness, the whisper talking...They were all clear signs of it. But now she's back, all of that seemed to have gone. It could be because of her new position as Regal Advisor is so demanding that she has to put her feelings aside. After all, she does have to be very disconnected with her emotions in order to make decisions that are best for the kingdom....

The two of them went into the library. Twilight turned to Brian Flash and nodded a thank you.

"You can go back to your duties, Flash."

The colt looked at his hooves and cleared his throat. He could ask her now. He could ask her if she has any feelings for him right there. But what if she didn't? Then he'd be embarrassed. You just don't ask ponies as important as she questions like that.

"Uhh...um, yes. I will do that..."

He turned and walked out the library. So much for asking.

Maybe the next time he told himself. Yeah, the next time.

Twilight glanced down the hall at him and tilted her head. What was up with him? It's not like she was Luna, where he would have a reason to seem so fearful and timid. Twilight shook her head. This Flash and the other one were the same in terms of being scary-like. Whatever was bothering him, he needed to get it checked out with a doctor. Shrugging, Twilight went back into the library and began her search.