Dear Sunset Shimmer,

I’ve got some supplies to bring over to your side of the portal whenever you’re ready for them. I also found several books on the subjects you asked about:

The Undivided Mind: A Treatise on the Mental Prowess of Minotaur Warriors

A Treatise on the Art of Combat, or Gray-Ash’s Guide To Fighting Like A Minotaur

Wards, Wisdom, Words of Power: Magical Protections

Zebra Shamanic Practices, A Primer

Crystals and Circles

How to Ward a Magical Laboratory, Advanced Studies Edition

Crystal Compendium: A Complete Guide to Minerals and Their Arcane Uses

Arcanobiology Deep-Dive: The Horn, Magic Pathways, Aura, and How Unicorn Magic Works

Healing 101: Treating Magical Injuries and Magical Exhaustion

Legends of Equestria: Volumes 1-4

The Elements of Harmony, A Reference Guide

Please take care of them—they are all recent additions to my new library in the castle, and it wouldn’t look good if something happened to them when they are brand new. I’ve listed them as being checked out on an indefinite basis to you for the project, so no need to rush getting them back quickly.

In my own reading, I have found very little mentioning humans so far, or their world. Most of what I managed to locate was in the Legends of Equestria, but much of that seems more like fanciful fiction rather than fact, given everything I’ve seen in the human world. You might be a better judge though, since you have had much more experience there than I have.

At this juncture, I’ve exhausted most of the publicly available literature to be found in both Ponyville and Canterlot--Spike had to go there on an errand for Princess Luna, and he checked in the public libraries for me while he was there. Now I’m waiting to hear back from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna about what might be located in the palace archives. As you know, there’s so much there that relates to ancient Equestrian History and a great deal of first hoof accounts of major events. If humans did ever come to Equestria in any fashion, there might be some record there. If that doesn’t work, I’ve also sent a message to Princess Cadence in the Crystal Empire. They have a library that was hidden away for more than a thousand years, and it's even bigger than the library in Canterlot! (I would love to take a trip there to go through the whole thing!)

In addition to the books, I’ll be bringing over a selection of spell-grade crystals and gems for you, as well as a crystal based thaumometer and a few other standard tools for a research project of this nature...and the stipend I mentioned, to make sure you can fund the materials you’ll need on your side of the portal. Whatever’s left after expenses is yours to keep--standard procedure with Crown funded projects as I’m sure you well know. It's not much, but hopefully it will defray most of the financial burden of your research--I’m still not sure how human finances translate to Equestrian bits. When I was there, Rarity paid for me and I didn’t get a good look at the system.

Let me know when a good time is to bring everything across. Maybe we can catch up on what you’ve learned when I do. I’d love to hear if you’ve discovered anything new about the human world’s magic.

Your Friend,

Twilight Sparkle

PS- Hey Sunset! Spike here. Can you send some of those really tasty biscuit bones back with Twilight? Those were really good, and I wanna find out what they taste like with my favorite blue-raspberry and sapphire frosting on them.

Dear Princess Twilight,

Wow—I didn’t expect you to get the books together so quickly…though I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. Those will be great to start with—some I’ve never read before, and others? It’s been YEARS. I’m hoping they can give me some sort of starting point for some of the magic here. …I know it was limited to when we played music before, but I’ve had a couple of things happen in the last few weeks that make me think that’s going to change. I’ve sensed magic in the girls outside of music, but it's very faint or brief, and doesn't come with a pony-up…

But the more worrying case is what happened to me the week after the Battle of the Bands. I…got emotional over something and in the process…I THINK I almost had a magic surge. It sure felt like the ones I used to get as a foal, and it even built up in the same place my horn would be. I managed to stop it before I found out what happens when a surge happens without a horn, but I still have no idea WHY it happened in the first place. Despite my own inner magical reserves—which at the time were exhausted to dangerous levels—this body has no way to channel them properly, so the surge shouldn’t have happened.

I haven’t tested yet whether I still pony-up with the girls—we’re going back to school this week, and I intend to test it then. I’m interested to see if we can make the magic work without you there, or if you need to be here too. If it's the latter, that could pose a problem during an emergency.

Why don't you pop through after school on Monday? We’re supposed to stay late for a Rainbooms practice anyway, and you can help me set up the equipment to see if it works in this world. I also want to get a look at those spell gems, to see what I can do with them. I was never much of an artificer, but I’m not completely inept, and I’m wondering if I could combine them with some of the human technology. The hard part is worrying about the magic overwhelming electrical components, but I’m wondering if using spell grade gems will mitigate that by providing a conduit attuned to the frequency of Equestrian energies.

Let Spike know I bought him a big bag of dog biscuits for you to take back. I managed to get him one with six different flavors that a friend gives to her dog.

Your Friend,

Sunset Shimmer

Please enjoy this short taste of what is to come in Arc 2, with another conversation between Sunset and Princess Twilight. Next week will likely be a Shining Armor Interlude. After that, the story will officially be on hiatus while I work on Arc 2, but I also have a few short stories and one-shots being hashed out in editing to tide you guys over.