Sunlight streamed through the windows of the Golden Oaks library forming puddles that drifted across the floor as Celestia’s sun climbed higher into the sky. One of these puddles drifted onto a small basket at the foot of a larger bed where a small dragon was curled tightly in on himself struggling to deny the day and the end of sleep for as long as he could.
It was a losing battle though as the sunlight struck him and wormed its way through tightly shut eyelids to force wakefulness, the hated state, on the baby dragon they belonged to. Finally giving up Spike stretched in his basket pushing his blanket aside and looking around.
A moment later the panic struck as he realized that he’d overslept. Twilight had probably been yelling for him for at least an hour given the sun’s position and he’d some how managed to sleep right through it. As much as he appreciated extra sleep time an irate Twilight was something to be avoided at all costs.
He scrambled out of his bed nearly tripping over the raised edge of his basket and bolted for the stairs, “I’m coming Twilight!” He called hoping to convince her that he hadn’t just been sleeping in when he should have been working, “I’ll have breakfast ready in a minute! Don’t worry I’ll just...”
Claws dug furrows in polished wood as Spike screeched to a halt at the sight that confronted him in the library proper. Around Twilight's desk was a mess arranged in almost concentric rings. The first and outermost ring consisted of piles of reference books and magical texts left open to various pages that needed to be consulted frequently. Not too frequently though obviously since most of the open books had other open books piled on top of them.
The next ring in was stacks of paper, the stacks almost seeming more massive than the piles of books, each covered front and back by Twilight’s neat horn-writing. Arcane formula and, of all things, anatomy diagrams filled the pages. All of which were stacked in something that Spike could only recognize as a form of complex organization due to familiarity with Twilight acquired literally from birth.
After that was a ring of discarded quills and ink pots. Each less discarded and more pushed to the side or dropped when no longer useful. In the center of this debris field was a single sheet of paper on which was written out the finished spell formula. Something that Spike only knew from experience, because on top of that paper was Twilight Sparkle. Princess Celestia’s personal student, nominal leader of the Elements of Harmony, her self holding the Element of Magic, genius among geniuses, most powerful unicorn in Equestria, and currently unconscious on her desk and only narrowly avoiding drooling on her brand new spell.
Soft steady breathing assured Spike that she was still asleep in spite of his earlier yelling. This was good. Waking up Twilight after she passed out from an all night study session was a delicate process.
Twilight her self had constructed a two hundred point checklist on how to wake somepony from such a state. She kept it easily available and made sure that Spike knew where to find it as he had more cause to need it than she did.
Spike however had never used the thing. He had his own method of waking his sister/mother/guardian/taskmistress up. A method he had developed over the twelve long years of their association. It had never failed. Never failed to produce the desired result. So Spike carefully worked his way around the tower of research, moving on tip claw to ensure that he didn’t accidentally wake twilight before it was the correct time, and headed into the library kitchen.
***
Twilight woke slowly with the pleasant smell of coffee and pancakes filling her nose. A small smile crept across her muzzle, and she indulged in a large stretch. Which led to her indulging in a shriek as a stray hoof impacted one of the delicate towers of the outer most ring of mess and sent the entire thing collapsing like dominoes.
Spike popped his head out of the kitchen at the sound, “Twilight?” He called, “Are you okay?”
The pile of books were suffused in a lavender aura and raised into the air as Twilight scrambled to her hooves her horn glowing, “Yes Spike. I’m fine. I just...” She scrambled to think of a excuse that wouldn’t be more embarrassing than what actually happened, “I just...” It wasn’t working.
“It’s just you woke up, weren’t paying attention and buried yourself in books?” Spike asked suppressing a giggle.
“Yes.” Twilight said at last with a sigh.
Spike did laugh then but managed to pull himself together quickly, “Well I have coffee ready and breakfast will be done soon.”
“Thanks Spike!” Twilight chirped.
“Did you finish?” Spike called disappearing back into the kitchen.
“Finish what?” The unicorn was slightly distracted by the need to reshelve everything she’d pulled down before the library opened.
“What ever it was you were working on?”
“Oh Celestia, I did finish it!” Twilight squealed nearly dropping all of the books all over the library in her excitement. Instead she managed to maintain the levitation after the aura only flickered for a moment as she scrambled back over to her desk to check what she had accomplished before the weakness of the body’s need to sleep overcame her.
She quickly scanned over the finished spell twice and then catching the two check marks in the top right corner of the page she squealed again, “And I managed to double check it last night to! It’s ready to test!”
“That’s great Twilight. Test it after breakfast? It’s ready.” Spike answered.
This caused a momentary tug of war in the unicorn’s mind as her struggle to play with the new spell right now warred with her empty stomach. Quickly enough though her stomach won and Twilight trotted into the kitchen to get coffee and food.
***
It was noon by the time Twilight managed to finish up everything that needed doing in the library to the point that Spike could handle the rest. So after a quick lunch she was trotting through the Ponyville streets towards the park, looking for one pony in particular, new spell clutched in her magical grip.
The day was beautiful. Only a few clouds in the sky, the sun bright and warm. The park’s green grass and shade trees were popular as many ponies sat or walked together simply enjoying the day. Twilight though was watching the clouds, searching for a prismatic tail draped over the side of one. Or a rainbow contrail streaking across the sky.
Scanning the skies she almost missed the pegasus daredevil that she was looking for. Instead of working the weather, practicing her stunts, or napping on a cloud, she was on the ground standing face to face with Applejack.
“Hi girls!” Twilight called happy to have found two of her friends but trailed off as neither one of them responded. The two mares were face to face glaring at each other and as Twilight watched Applejack was starting to turn a not altogether healthy blue shade. “Um... girls?” She slowed as she reached them looking back and forth between the two wondering what in Tartarus they’d talked each other into now.
She didn’t have long to wait long to find out though as Applejack collapsed to the ground gasping her color quickly returning to it’s natural orange as Rainbow executed a victory back flip.
“Ha!” The pegasus crowed, “I win!”
“What was the contest this time?” Twilight asked sitting down. Though she already had a pretty good idea what it was.
“Applejack bet me that she could hold her breath longer than I could.” Rainbow Dash explained while continuing to celebrate her victor.
“Yeah, yeah. Yall won it, fair ‘n square.” Applejack grumbled pulling herself back to her feet, catching her breath.
“That was a bad bet Applejack.” Twilight told her slightly amused at the on going contests between the two, “Pegasi have more efficient lungs than the other pony breeds. Combine that with the cardiovascular heavy exercise routines that Rainbow engages in and it wasn’t much of a contest...”
“That’s right!” Rainbow Dash declared pointing a hoof at Applejack, “The Dash is just more awesome!” She had no idea what ‘cardiovascular’ meant, but she got the gist of what the Egghead was saying. She was just better. That sounded about right.
“... much like the plowing contest you two had last week was a forgone conclusion.” Twilight finished as though Rainbow hadn’t spoken.
A week before Rainbow had bet that she could pull a plow at least as quickly as Applejack could, and of course since she was Rainbow Dash, queen of all things speed, she’d do it faster. The pegasus’ downfall had been the dirt the plow had to move through.
In the end Rainbow managed a single row, eventually, and Applejack had beat her previous record. The pegasus didn’t like to talk about the incident. Which is why she immediately landed and coughed into her hoof trying to look nonchalant.
Applejack just rolled her eyes and turned back to Twilight, “So what can we do ya for, Sugarcube?”
Twilight perked right up at the reminder of what had brought her looking for her pegasus friend in the first place, “Oh yes! Rainbow, I just finished a new spell I’ve been working on and I wanted to ask for your help with the experiment that goes along with it.”
Rainbows facade cracked and she started to look worried, “Um... I don’t know Twilight.” Rainbow started nervously. Spells she could handle. Twilight knew what she was doing when it came to her magic and her obsessive tendencies meant that she was usually over prepared for anything that could go wrong. She could handle experiments, because usually when those happened Twilight was sure to keep them out of the blast radius. The two combined though seemed like asking for a crash.
Twilight just smiled wider, “Relax Rainbow. The spell will only be cast on me. It’s a modification of the wing spell I used on Rarity. I altered it to give me more pegasus like wings. All I want from you is to teach me how to fly, and manipulate the weather.”
“I’m in.” Rainbow said instantly.
“Now hold on a second there, Twi.” Applejack cut in, “Even if’n ya gave yerself feathers as ‘posed ta those butterfly things that Rarity had, ya still aint gonna be a pegasus, how do ya expect RD ta teach ya how to do her weather thing when ya ain’t got the magic for it?”
Rainbow Dash groaned and face hoofed as Applejack triggered what was sure to be, given Twilight’s excitement, an epic lecture, “Doesn’t matter. I said I’m in.” Rainbow said again, trying to derail the inevitable.
“That’s just it AJ! I think I do have the magic required!”
Both of the other ponies glanced at each other and blinked, “Sugarcube,” Applejack said carefully, “Ah think, maybe, you’ve been the lab too long again.”
“I’m not losing it AJ.” Twilight rolled her eyes, “I’m testing a theory I call the unified magic theory. You remember how when we all got our cutie marks thanks to Rainbow's rainboom, I Pinky and Fluttershy had an upsurge in our magic. I had that magic surge, Fluttershy started talking to animals, and Pinky’s mane... poofed.” She finished lamely, but plowed on anyway, “But why is that? The rainboom is pegasus magic! By current theories it should have had no effect on any of us except maybe Fluttershy. So why did it?” She was getting excited now dancing back and forth between her two front hooves, “I think it’s because what our wellsprings produce is all actually the same! It’s just the different focuses that allow us to express it differently. So if I have a pegasus focus...” She trailed off inviting them to follow her to her conclusion.
“You’ll be able ta do pegasus magic.” Applejack finished slowly, “So if you can do all the stuff a pegasus can do then yer right?”
“Doesn’t matter, still in, why are we talking and not flying?” Rainbow tried to get them back on to, what was for her, the point.
“Well the theory will be a long way from being proven, but it will be a good first step.” Twilight hedged.
“Well then Ah got jest one more question afore Ah sit back and watch the show.” Applejack scratched her head tilting her hat out of the way, “Why’re yall doin' it this way? Why not give RD a horn ‘r some thin?”
Twilight stared at at Applejack flatly for a long moment before answering, “Aside from how bad the idea of giving one of Ponyville’s premier pranksters magic is, I’m rather sure that I’m more interested in learning to fly than Rainbow is in learning spell formula.”
“Sounds about right! So lets do this!” Rainbow’s impatience had reached the point where she had to hover around the other two in circles to try and vent some of the energy.
Applejack chuckled, “Ah reckon so. All right, you be careful Sugarcube.” the farm pony waved and headed over to a tree to lay under and watch what was sure to be prime entertainment.
***
Twilight cast the spell and soon enough she was panting on the ground with two brand new feathery appendages flopped out gracelessly on either side of her. Rainbow landed and paced around the flat unicorn examining what she had to work with.
“Well you’ve got good feathers, and they look to be in good shape, structure and shape of the wings is about right...” Rainbow hesitated for a moment before continuing, “But Twi, I don’t think this is going to work.”
“What?” Twilight’s head jerked up as she craned to get a look at her back, “What’s wrong with them? I worked so hard! I double checked the spell and everything.” The spell complete with two check marks in the corner was thrust into the cyan speedsters face, “See?”
Rainbow gently pushed the paper out of her face, “Calm down Twi. I don’t know about the spell but you don’t have the muscle to fly right now. It’s no problem, I’ll give you some exercises you can do and we’ll work up to it.”
As Rainbow spoke Twilight flopped down in the grass, her shoulders shaking. Rainbow was getting ready to try and be more comforting, uncool but for her friend it was a sacrifice she was prepared to make. Besides she could sympathize, to be all ready to fly then discover you couldn’t... Rainbow shuddered.
As she was getting ready to try and calm the hysterical mare down she leaned down and discovered that Twilight was laughing. Rainbow cocked her head confused, “Um.. Twi?”
“Oh sorry, Rainbow.” Twilight gasped out through her giggles, “I just thought something was really wrong.” She took a few deep breaths before continuing, “I didn’t include the muscles in the transformation spell. It would have made the whole thing much more complicated. The wings a magically motivated as opposed to muscularly.”
Rainbow blinked at her friend, “...What?”
Twilight looked up at Rainbow and smiled, “I means I’m going to be using magic to move my wings, not muscle.”
“Oh...” Rainbow thought for a moment then shrugged, “They’ll move right... right?”
“Yes, Rainbow. As far as you’re concerned there should be no difference.”
“All right then!” And Rainbow was back in the air, “Lets get started.”
***
Twilight had no illusions about how complicated flight was. She had read a great deal both for the spell and because not knowing something about a subject that she’d chosen to study was just unacceptable. Because of this Rainbow found she could skip explaining a lot of things. Wing positioning, how to turn, bank, catch a thermal, hover, take off, land. All of this Twilight knew how to do. Getting her to do them at the right time, and quick enough was proving to be a tad more difficult.
“Cup your wings Twi!” Rainbow shouted as the purple unicorn flailed her way through the air, trying to keep in mind everything that she had to keep track of, “That’s a thermal! Cup your...”
Frantically Twilight tried to drag her wings into the cupped position. She was finding that getting her wings into any position aside from fully spread was far more difficult that it should have been. In retrospect doing without muscle structure could have been a mistake.
Well practiced spells could be reflexive, but in general unicorn magic was a conscious effort. The result of focus and formula. In other words much slower than muscles would have been. She managed to get one wing half cupped before hitting the thermal, and being flung sideways, spinning. She tried to flap but found another argument for muscles as the disorientation made it hard to coordinate.
The ground came rushing up at her as Twilight frantically tried to flap at the same time she flooded the one large leyline she’d built with in her wings to try and correct her self that way. In the end that only made things worse as Twilight Sparkle overloaded the fragile leyline and her wings, unable to take the magical strain, simply unraveled.
Rainbow Dash saw the thermal coming. She saw the tail spin coming too given how the purple unicorn had been flying up until that point. Which was terribly. So terribly that Rainbow had been, for the last few minutes, trying to figure out how to tell her friend that her theory was clearly wrong and she should probably never try this again. Because what she was seeing was probably what would happen if the Cutie Mark Crusaders tried to get their flying cutie marks. So heading towards Twilight to help the unicorn steady herself was a the logical next step.
Which was good because what Rainbow hadn’t seen coming was the tail spinning unicorn’s wings simply vanishing into rapidly fading motes of purple light.
Twilight fell like a stone, the air ripping past her ears blotting out any other sound. The ground grew closer filling up her vision. She narrowly avoided her first instinct, which was to teleport straight to the ground. The part of her mind that never stopped analyzing, inferring, and extrapolating informed her that she was already going too fast to survive hitting the ground, and shortening that trip was ill advised.
That part of her mind speculated idylly on what the splatter pattern would look like and how far various parts of her would spread from the point of impact. Most of her was gearing up for a good panic though.
At first she didn’t notice the strong hooves wrap around her barrel. She did notice when the forelegs grew tight around her as Rainbow’s wings snapped open in a desperate bid to halt their plummet.
Rainbow could carry another pony easily, even two without too much strain. Without the added magic of a rainboom though challenging the inertia of two fully grown mares that were hurtling towards the ground as fast as they could wasn’t something she was sure she could pull off.
The cyan pegasus’ wing muscles screamed and her chest burned as she strained against the air. Her magic blazed through her wings, calling the air into a powerful updraft directly beneath them.
It seemed to be working much to Rainbow’s relief the were slowing. A moment later they’d slowed enough for the pegasus speedster to pull their headlong dive into horizontal flight again. The air shrieked around them which is likely why Rainbow Dash didn’t hear the loud wet pop just as she managed to pull up.
She heard Twilight’s scream though, and felt the mare go limp in her grip a moment later.
Author's Note
Sooo... I've never done this before. By that I mean actually submitted something I've written where other people I don't know can get their hands on it. So let me say a few things.
I have no editor. I have spell check. And believe me I know that the one is no substitute for the other. So if you see something I missed feel free to point it out.
I have no cover art. I draw at the level of cave painting, So unless one of you wonderful people feels like making me some, for which I will be profoundly grateful, don't expect any.
Updates! This isn't going to be a short story. I have two large arcs already planned out and have little place holders in my outline for more. New chapters will come when I finish them, usually that shouldn't be too long. Maybe a week or two. There may also be unanticipated and unexpected delays. They may also come quicker. Aside from Pinky nobody knows what the future may bring, and she hasn't confided the sequence for 'new chapter coming soon'. Largely though as I finish. Or as there are enough positive comments, likes, favorites, cash deposits, or some combination of the above, to make me feel guilty enough to grind something out quicker.
Seriously, I live for the feed back.
Twilight woke slowly to the sound of a regular beeping in a comforting and hated rhythm. She was in a hospital. She hated waking up in hospitals. It was hardly the first time this had happened. One could hardly be as smart, curious and powerful as Twilight was without ending up in the hospital a time or two. That’s why she hated it, less because she was injured and more because it meant something had gone wrong. Usually she had done it wrong too.
“Miss!” An older male voice came from outside her room, “You can’t go in there.” She didn’t know that one, probably a doctor or a nurse.
“But there was a nose twitch, nose twitch, mane wiggle! That means an injured friend is waking up!” The high pitched energetic squeal could only be Pinky Pie.
“Jest let it go.” That was Applejack’s drawl, “Best ta jest take ‘er at her word and move out’a the way.”
Slowly Twilight pried her eyes open to look around her room and found Rainbow Dash on a chair next to her bed. The door to her room slammed open and an enthusiastic Pinky Pie shot into the room as though launched from a cannon. It occurred to Twilight then that she very well may have been, “You’re awake!”
“Ghaaa!” Rainbow awoke with a jerk at Pinkie’s shriek knocking herself off her chair. She hit the ground with an audible thump, immediately followed by a groan and some swearing.
“That means I get to throw you a super awesome spectacular congratulations on almost kinda flying and get well soon party!” Pinky had arrived on the bed straight from the door, jerking to a physics defying halt, straddling Twilight and pinning her in place with the blankets. The party pony’s face was pressed so close to the unicorn’s that she couldn’t even see the manic grin that she knew had to be there.
Behind Pinky came Applejack, Rarity and Spike, with the little dragon walking next to the glamorous white mare, seeming torn between adoration for his crush and concern for Twilight, carrying a bouquet of wild flowers. Behind them Fluttershy tiphoved into the room softly closing the door behind her.
Rarity proceeded directly to the bedside table and started arranging the flowers to best effect while Applejack proceed to the other side of the bed and nudged the party mare.
“Come on now Pinky. Git of the poor mare.” Applejack scolded, “Wait till she can dance at the party before throwin’ it. How’re ya feelin Twi?”
Twilight groaned, “Kinda fuzzy.” She blinked several times as Pinky climbed off of her, “What happened?”
“I’m really sorry Twilight.” Rainbow Dash said miserably, “If I’d been quicker or...”
“Rainbow stop it, I seriously doubt this was your fault.” Twilight cut her off, “Tell me what happened.”
“You got caught in an up draft an spun out, and then...” Rainbow couldn’t seem to finish so Applejack picked up the story.
“Then yer wings jest disappeared. Rainbow managed ta catch ya, but only just. One’a yer hind legs clipped the ground. A’course by then the two ah ya were goin so quick that yer leg just... uh... snapped.”
Twilight blinked, the first thing to go through her mind was that the painkillers must be very good, she didn’t feel a thing. Looking down she fed power through her horn and moved the blanket off her legs, revealing a cast that ran from her thigh to her cannon. She blinked again, “Could you hand me my chart, Spike?”
“Sure thing Twilight.” The little dragon pulled the clipboard off the foot of her bed and climbed up the blankets and handed it over.
Twilight whistled slowly, “That’s a lot of soft tissue damage.”
“The bone was kinda pokin out’a ya.” The farm pony admitted scratching her mane and tilting her had forward.
“Applejack!” Rarity exclaimed turning around, “Is that really necessary? Twilight doesn’t need to hear about that, and the image is just... disgusting.”
“True though.” Applejack muttered.
“Twi...” Rainbow started again, guilt thick in her voice.
“Rainbow.” Twilight tried to shush the pegasus with a hoof and missed slightly, “It’s not your fault. If it's anybody’s it’s mine. It was my spell that failed.”
“Yes,” Rarity turned away from where she was glaring at Applejack to look down at Twilight her face full of concern, “It’s not like your spells to fail darling.”
“Yeah, well, it didn’t exactly fail. I broke it.” Twilight yawned, and looked over at Rainbow, “How was my flying?” The pegasus froze eyes going wide as she searched for that would be both accurate and not insulting, “It was terrible wasn’t it?”
“Well... Um...” Rainbow Dash shuffled her hooves and then decided just to go for it. Twilight had already said it herself, “Yeah. It was pretty awful Twi. I really wouldn’t...”
“It was the wings.” Twilight interrupted, “I tried to make them the base minimum needed to fly. In my effort to simplify, I think I over simplified. I gave myself the equivalent of TLS.” she managed to restrain a giggle. These were really good painkillers
“Tee El what now?” Applejack asked hesitantly, it had to be the first times that she hadn’t understood Twilight because the words were too short.
“Truncated Leyline Syndrome.” Everypony except Twilight turned in amazement to look at Fluttershy as she offered up an explanation, “It’s... um... it’s what happens when a pony’s leylines are underdeveloped in their focus.” Fluttershy slowly started to shrink behind her mane though she kept going, “It makes the use of a pony’s natural magic much more difficult.”
“Darling! I... Thank you for the explanation, but how do you know this?” Rarity asked, it certainly looked like Fluttershy but that sounded like something she’d expect to hear from Twilight.
“Um... Well... you see...” The yellow mare swallowed, “It’s... my case isn’t too bad.” She managed to get out at last, “But it’s why I don’t fly so well.”
Everypony’s mouth dropped open to ask more questions, but Fluttershy was saved from the on rushing interrogation by the door swinging open and admitting an older unicorn stallion wearing a white coat that still displayed his reflex hammer cutie mark for anybody who cared to look.
He glanced around surprised to find an extra four mares in addition to the two he had been expecting, “Well it’s always nice to see our patients getting visitors. Lets see how your doing Miss Sparkle, how do you feel?” He asked recovering quickly and checking the edge of the bed for the chart that ought to have been there. It took only a moment of searching for him to find it next to Twilight where she’d left it distracted by Fluttershy's revelations. The doctor coughed, “Miss Sparkle could I have your chart?”
“Huh?” Twilight blinked then flushed, her drugged mind catching up, “Oh! Yes, sorry doctor.” She floated the chart over to him and waded back through her recent memories, “I’m feeling drugged.” She finally answered after dragging his question up from her memory.
The doctor chuckled, “Yes, painkillers will do that. What I meant though is are you in any pain anywhere? Do you itch, feel nauseous, or anything else I should know about?” He finished with a very pointed raised eyebrow. Twilight hurriedly shook her head, which she immediately regretted, “Good. Well then Miss Sparkle I’m inclined to let you go. I’ll write you a prescription for painkillers you can take at home. That cast is going to need to stay on for four to six months. If anything feels off you come right back here, or to the nearest emergency room. Understand?”
Twilight nodded knowing all of this from her own medical education but the doctor didn’t know that and she didn’t really have the energy to tell him. “Well then, I’m sure your friends can help get you home and pick up your prescription. With all that taken care of lets get you home shall we?”
***
Twilight once placed in her bed passed out and slept through the rest of that day, the entirety of that night, and most of the next morning only stirring to take the painkillers when Spike woke her up.
By noon though she was back at her desk. She had managed her morning routine, keeping a water repulsion spell on her cast while in the shower, and almost killing herself getting out of it. It was tricky to get around with only three legs, especially when the one missing was one of her back ones.
But none of that mattered because she was back at work again and all was right with the world.
“Work’in on that spell again are ya Twi?” Applejack’s voice caused her to jump and Twilight only narrowly avoided slamming her cast into the underside of the desk. “Sorry, didn’t mean ta scare ya.” The cowpony was standing just inside the library door with a sheepish look on her face and a basket on her back. “Come ta think of it should you be up an workin’ again already?”
“I have a complex metaphysal fracture, not a concussion.” Twilight told her friend with a scowling smile.
Applejack blinked, “Say what now?”
“Sorry,” Twilight winced, “I said I’ve got a broken leg, not a broken head.”
“No problem. Any way, granny always says ta feed the hurt so I thought I’d bring ya somethin’.”
“Thanks Applejack!” Twilight said with a smile and looking around, “Um grab a chair, get Spike and join us?” The unicorn smiled brightly at her friend and floated the basket off her back and over to the desk. Applejack trotted away, and was back moments later with a chair from the kitchen. With Spike following a moment later carrying his own seat, the three settled in for lunch.
“So have ya figured out what went wrong with yer spell yet?” Applejack asked between bites.
Twilight sighed, “Yes. Unfortunately there were several problems. The big one though is that I don’t have the power to really make it work.”
“You don’t have the power?” Applejack’s voice was full of disbelief.
“Come on Twi!” Spike almost shouted, “You’re the most powerful unicorn in Equestria! The world! Ever!”
“That’s unprovable, and likely untrue.” Twilight told Spike with a smile, “The problem is that I’m pretty sure that I’d need a complete pegasus ley network to really make the wings work like pegasus wings. Which means the spell becomes exponentially more complex, and correspondingly more demanding in power. I don’t have the power to both fuel the spell and the complete ley network. Especially since putting any real power into the wings blows out the false ley lines, which would in turn require more power to remain stable. I either need more power or to make the wings permanent so I don’t have to maintain them, and that seems like a bit much for an experiment.”
Applejack watched as Twilight continued on oblivious to her surroundings, gesturing with a fork firmly held in her magic. After a moment she leaned over to Spike, “Did yall understand that?”
“Eh, I got the jist.” Spike shrugged.
“I wonder how the princesses do it? Are they simply that powerful? Or do the Sun and Moon provide them the power somehow?” Twilight evidently hadn’t noticed their conversation in her frenzy of magical speculation.
“So why do you ask these questions if you know you’re not going to understand the answers?” Spike spoke softly enough to not interrupt Twilight’s flood of thought. Though like a flood it wasn’t really that easy to stop.
“Ah don’t know if ya notice, but Twi talks.” They both looked back at Twilight who was now happily pouring through books on how various creatures produced their magic as she theorised with cheerful abandon. Spike snorted, “Ah think it’s more than that.” Applejack continued, “Have ya ever noticed that whenever we need a brilliant plan Twilight always comes up with it while she’s talkin? She thinks better that way. If’n all Ah have ta do ta help ‘er is let her twist mah ear a bit with things Ah don’t understand.” She shrugged and watched as Twilight found something in one of her books that made her almost seem to glow with excitement, “That don’t seem like much of ah price ta pay.”
Spike considered Applejack, “That actually makes a lot of se-urp!” The little dragon belched a gout of green fire that narrowly missed the books on Twilight’s desk before it spiraled in on itself, popping into a scroll that dropped onto the book littered surface. The flash of light and threat to her books snapped Twilight out of her research trance and she looked down just in time to see on the scroll roll to a stop, the wax seal facing her.
Applejack leaned back expecting to see the excitable unicorn begin to get giddy at the prospect of a letter from her mentor. She waited, and continued to wait as Twilight simply stared at the scroll with an expression that looked very much like dread.
Spike looked at the unicorn, concern growing on his scaly face and he reached for the scroll, turning it in his claws until he could see the sigil pressed into the wax, “Oh damn.” He sighed.
“Wut is it?” Applejack asked nervously, “Yall look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“It’s from the Canterlot Guard.” Twilight said her voice hollow.
“And pretty soon we probably will have.” Spike muttered.
“Wut in Celestia’s name does that mean? Why is the Canterlot Guard sending you a letter?” Applejack was beginning to get worried.
“I used to consult for them sometimes when I was still living in Canterlot, when they’d get a case that involved weird or unusual magic.” Twilight’s magic surrounded the scroll, and Spike let it go. The purple unicorn levitated the scroll over to herself, popping the seal to read it, “I haven’t done any consulting since I moved here, because... well because I’ve been here. Not that I got called on a lot anyway. They had to ask the Princess before they could ask me.”
“Still do evidently,” Spike pointed out, “Otherwise they wouldn’t be able to send messages via me... Twi?”
The unicorn sagged in her chair expression hardening, “It’s a murder.” She said softly.
Twilight was no stranger to death, this wouldn’t be the first murder she’d worked. Even if it was none her friends were exactly the same as they had been when they met.
Most people had misconceptions about what it was the Elements of Harmony as ponies did. The series of foal’s books that had been started to explain to all the little colts and fillies why the sun hadn't come up one morning painted an idealistic view of their ‘adventures’.
In the books they had never faced any real danger of any measure on their way through the Everfree to the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. There hadn’t been a distraction led by the Royal Guard and the army against the Nightmare that cost hundreds of lives, keeping her distracted long enough for the six mares to slip into the castle mostly unnoticed. They hadn’t barely made it out alive from a battle with a maddened goddess while they scrambled to figure how to activate the ancient magical artifacts.
In the books Discord wasn’t an agent of chaos so much as a wacky clown. Nobody was driven mad as the world unraveled around them into something that literally could not be described. The six mares who were his focus needed only a simple spell to make everything better. Not years of therapy that they all still needed. No lingering nightmares that still woke them screaming on some nights.
In the books there were no casualties from the changeling invasion. No pitched battle in the streets. The invasion only lasted a day. Not a month. Celestia was defeated in a moment, not after an hour of pitched battle that killed dozens caught in the dueling goddess’ path. Their own charge to secure the elements was a bloodless affair, even if it proved futile. Not one that left a trail of changeling dead in their wake, and left them battered, beaten and broken. Victory came from a deus ex archana, not a week long bloody guerilla campaign led by Luna. The damage from the entire affair was so minor that they could hold the wedding the next day, instead of having had to spend months recovering.
In the books Sombra was just a menacing cloud of smoke with no real presence or impact on events, not a terrifying creature of evil and darkness. They were largely unmolested while they looked for they Crystal Heart, not fighting off a siege where they enemy had an infinite supply of shadow warriors spun from dark magic and terror. The dark magic that she and Spike had been exposed to only induced a minor abandonment fantasy. Not the perceived lifetime of custom tailored hell that added to both of their therapy bills and nightmares.
The Elements of Harmony were not a weapon. In the books.
The full series actually sat on her shelves, and as far as Twilight knew, she was the only one of her friends to have actually read them. She’d only done it because she was physically incapable of having a book on her shelves that she hadn’t read.
No Twilight was no stranger to death, but that didn’t mean it got any easier. She honestly hoped it never did. That’s where ponies like Sombra came from.
“Now just hold on a second there Twi.” Applejack said after a moment unaware of Twilight’s grisly retrospective, “Yer gonna run off ta Canterlot, ta chase after some crazy killer, who’s got some kinda real fancy magic, with yer leg in that cast, all by yer lonesome?”
Twilight blinked, “Well... yeah. In a murder case, especially a magical one, time is always against us. The rest of the crime scene investigators can’t start their work until I’ve taken a look, in case their forensic spells mess with any lingering magical signatures. And the longer we take the more the evidence will degrade. So we need to go as quickly as possible. The guard is even sending a chariot for me.”
Infact Spike had already dashed off to find the magical analysis kit that they hadn’t used in years, and to pack what else they would need. At the same time Twilight had started yanking books off the shelves with her magic, stuffing them into spare bags at a frantic pace.
Applejack was having none of it though, “Yer not goin’ alone.” She told Twilight flatly, “If this crazy pony decides the best way to not get caught is ta add you to his body count, yer not exactly gonna be at yer best. Ah think me ‘r RD should go with ya. Jest in case.”
“Applejack.” Twilight said distractedly doing her best to scramble even with the broken leg, “I’m going to be surrounded by guards, and no matter what crime novels say, killers very rarely target the people investigating them. Who ever it is won’t even know I’m there. You don’t need to worry.”
“Twi, given our lives to date wut makes you think this case is going to be anything but ah complete mess? It’s been quiet for too long, somethin’s bound ta happen.”
Twilight rolled her eyes, “That’s not how statistics work.”
“Do ya really have the time ta argue the point with me, Sugarcube?”
The unicorn slumped, “No not really.”
There was a thud from the stairs as Spike dragged Twilight’s kit and equipment up from the basement putting it next to the other bags that Twilight had stuffed full of books. He leaned up against the heavy saddle bags panting slightly.
“Look at it this way Twi, take me along an ya got somepony ta carry the bags for ya.”
***
As it turned out the pegasi guards pulling the chariot were more than happy to help load the saddle bags. They didn’t mind bringing an extra pony along either once they saw Twilight limping along with her cast.
Applejack sent a note to her family about going out of town for a few days. She was pretty sure they could do without her for that long, and if it turned out that this case took longer she could work out a way to trade off with Rainbow Dash.
Then with all the niceties taken care of, they were off. The pegasi were in a hurry so they flew high and fast, the cold and the wind making conversation both impossible and undesirable. So the trip was, if not short, quick and with little to remove two ponies and a little dragon from their own thoughts.
When the chariot landed it was late afternoon and the sun was beginning to strike the glittering towers of Canterlot at an angle. Turning the city, if viewed from the correct direction, into a shining beacon on the mountain.
The guard’s ponies didn’t take the chariot to one of the landing platforms, but instead took it down into the city, landing just behind the guard barricade that blocked off a large section of street in one of the midtown club districts.
Guard’s ponies swarmed over the area. One earth pony stallion wearing a long coat and a fedora, came trotting over as soon as the chariot hit the ground, the impact jarring Twilight’s cast painfully making her stifle a hiss of pain. The stallion arrived while the Pegasi who had pulled the chariot were still unharnessing themselves, and Spike was helping Applejack get the heavy saddlebags onto her back, so he offered a hoof to help Twilight down.
Twilight smiled at him gratefully and took it, easing herself down from the chariot, letting the stallion brace her until she had her three available hooves under her again. Once she was certain she wasn’t about to fall over, she looked up at him with a wide grin, “Terrible to see you again, Sharp.”
“Awful to see you as well, Miss Sparkle.” He agreed with an answering grin that was thick in his light tenor voice.
Applejack hearing the exchange looked down at Spike, “Wut was that?” She asked pointing a hoof at where her friend was bantering happily with the new pony.
Spike glanced over at them as he finished tightening the last of the straps for the bags and scrambled onto Applejack’s back, “Oh that? They get along pretty well but only see each other during murder cases. So the joke is they hate seeing each other.”
“Oh.” The farm pony supposed that made sense, though something about the situation still bothered her. After a moment of thought she decided to let it go not being able to put her hoof on whatever it was that was bugging her. Bouncing once or twice to make sure the bags were secure, nearly launching poor Spike who was more accustomed to Twilight’s magical method of checking things. The saddlebags hadn’t shifted but Applejack waited for Spike to resettle himself before she climbed out of the chariot, clearing her throat to get the attention of the two happily bantering ponies.
Twilight jumped slightly then smiled guiltily back at the farm pony, “Sorry. Applejack, this is Inspector Sharp Insight. Sharp, this is my friend and fellow Element, Applejack.”
“Honesty, right?” the Inspector asked holding out a hoof which Applejack took with a nod, “Well then you’re very welcome. Honesty is something in short supply in a murder investigation. Speaking of which,” He looked over his shoulder at the club the cordon had blocked off, “let’s get started shall we?”
He led them forward keeping his pace slow for Twilights sake as he filled them in, “The club owner,” he waved over to were a pair of guard’s ponies were talking to a loud and wildly gesticulating mare with a white coat, a two toned electric blue mane and tail, and large purple sunglasses. She looked vaguely familiar to both Twilight and Applejack though neither could place in in the moment, “came in a few hours ago to start getting things set up and found... well let’s call it a body for the moment.”
Twilight frowned, “Well is it a body or isn’t it?”
“Honestly Miss Sparkle? I’ll let you decide when you see it.” Sharp told them, winking at Applejack at the use of her element. He held the front doors of the club open for the two mares, and followed them through into a short tunnel like hallway that serve as a kind of air lock to allow ponies to brace themselves for what they would find inside. With the absence of the normal pounding beat, hallway was an eerie place, though likely still serving the same purpose, “She called us after talking to all her employees. At first she thought it was a prank and was trying to find out to to make clean it all up.”
“Sharp,” Twilight said slowly, “you’re beginning to make me nervous. What exactly is in there?”
“Like I said Miss Sparkle, you tell me.” With that he pushed open the doors to the club and let them in. Far from the dark, loud space it was when open, at the moment the club was brightly lit by house lights, filled with the soft sound of camera shutters snapping, and ponies softly whispering to each other.
At one end of the club space was a raised stage, a very well, and expensively, set up DJ booth sitting front and center. On the opposite wall from the stage was a bar the length of the wall, stocked with hundreds of bottles holding various amounts of amber, clear, and in one or two cases green, liquid. Set into a wall over the bar were a series of what looked like mirrors, but were no doubt one way glass mirrors for the VIP rooms.
What grabbed all of Twilight’s attention though, was standing in the middle of what should have been the bare expanse of the dance floor in the center of the club. Instead in the middle of the floor, face caught in a rictus of agony, mouth open in a scream, was a pony.
Or at least Twilight assumed it used to be a pony. Because now it was a statue composed entirely, it seemed, of ash.
Author's Note
So, chapter two. Still no editor, so if you see something point it out, please. Second there is a single medical term up there. I have no medical training, this term came curtsey of Wikipedia. So if I used it wrong, and you know better, tell me about that too. Even better tell me what I should have put there. Lastly, likes, faves, and comments make the stories come fourth, so do all of the above.
Especially the likes.
Those bring more readers.
Till next time.
