A Toy for Children

"I don't know, Twilight.  This still seems like a really bad idea."

"Don't be silly, Spike!  Princess Celestia said it herself that I was free to read through all of the books in this old library."  The purple mare flared her wings for a moment.  "And since I'm not only the Element of Magic, but also the newest princess, it's my duty to learn from the works of Star Swirl the Bearded, one of Equestria's most important conjurers."

A green and purple ball of scales came bobbing into the room under the weight of a few crystalline rods.  "Maybe the pages that were ripped out of that book are gone for a reason.  You know better than some ponies that teleportation can go wrong fast."

"I doubt that.  The notes were clearly leading to something."  She opened the book to the last page.  "I mean, he starts out describing how the application of augmented teleportation could be endless.  That could mean quick and easy travel for anypony between settlements, borders, and possibly continents, but the next page is suddenly missing?"  The torn paper tickled her hooves as the time-worn edges frayed beneath her touch.  "Star Swirl always kept careful notes of his experiments and revelations, so this missing page just doesn't make sense."

Her little assistant stood from arranging the circles of crystals in the middle of the ruined castle's library and brushed his claws together.  "Maybe he found something dangerous and didn't want anypony else to get hurt.  Why is this the first time anypony's heard about one of his pages missing if he's like how you are with lists?"  After setting the diagram that Twilight had drawn for him atop the remains of his lunch, he looked it over before adjusting several of the rods.

"That's just it, Spike, he was a stout believer in the accrual and exploration of knowledge.  I remember reading about one experiment where he kept a detailed log of over one thousand failed attempts."

The dragon's eyes widened slightly.  "Woah, I guess he was really dedicated."

A purple hoof slammed onto the desk.  "Exactly!  If this page is missing it's my duty to recover this lost knowledge for Equestria!"  Spike simply shrugged and went back to following the diagram.  'He does have a point, though.  Star Swirl often wrote down particular experiments into separate journals when he was studying the Seapony kingdom.  I remember reading somewhere that he accidentally dropped a ledger into the sea on more than one occasion.  He never did call the experiments failures either, they were just ways he learned how not to do something...'

A loud crash brought the Alicorn's wandering mind back to reality as her eyes flicked around.  "I'm okay,"  shouted the little dragon.  Twilight just smiled and shook her head.

After she read the last page again she rose and trotted over to her newest experiment, bringing the open journal along in a haze of orchid magic.  "Is it ready, Spike?"

A wiggling forked tongue was poking out from between his teeth as he slowly inched a piece of crystal around.  "Almost..."  She set the open book on a wooden easel as her helper stood back up.  "You sure this is safe, Twilight?"

"Yes, and as I've said before, we're doing it here instead of in the library so nopony else wanders by and gets hurt."  It really wasn't safe at all.  Picking up such a complicated experiment in a seemingly random place was dangerous and she knew it.  'Good thing I'm the Element of Magic and not Honesty...'

"Okay, then," Spike mumbled.  Twilight sidled through the concentric circles of crystalline pillars and stepped onto a pedestal which runic symbols had been carved upon.  "Do you need me to do anything else?"

Spike wrung his claws with a worried look as Twilight turned towards him.  "Nah, it's okay, Spike, I got this."  She turned away to hide the frightened expression on her face.  'What could possibly go wrong? Oh, that's right, lots of things!  This could become overpowered and explode!  No, stop that, I have to be positive about this.  The math is all done and I checked it twice. The third circle is angled to contain and stabilize the magic while focusing the teleportation. That should create a magical tether so no matter how far away I teleport, it will be easy to use that to 'blink' myself back.'

Her mane tossed back and forth as she shook the last of the doubts from her mind.  An orchid light permeated the air as her horn lit up.  Runes began to glow and reflect the translucent wave of magic spreading out from the Alicorn, refracting in the surrounding crystal, creating little, monochromatic, purple rainbows in the air.  As the rippling magic reflected back towards Twilight, she focused harder, creating slight darkening warps in the aura around her horn to send intermittent bursts of additional magic into the surrounding charged fog.  She continued for a time before the layers of overcharge around her horn formed a solid encasement of white light. It shone atop her head like a piercing candle in the deepening bank of violet, giving the runes enough power to pulsate with self-sustaining energy.

'Excellent!  My calculations were right after all!  Well, of course they were, what was I getting so worried about?'  Twilight shifted her stance and lowered her magic laden head.  'Wait, something's not right...'  There was a leak on the edge of her concentration. It was small at first, barely a whisper, but then it grew.  She grimaced through her clenched teeth as the 'why' came to her;  she hadn't done the math right, the third circle was completely out of alignment.

The matrix crackled, causing Spike to nearly jumped out of his scales.  "Twilight!  Is it supposed to do that?"  His caretaker trembled as the magic darkened and warped his field of vision.  "Twilight?"

"Spike!  Get out of here!"  Her pale light purple wings visibly spasmed in pain.

"Huh?"  Before the thought of running could even form itself in the baby dragon's mind, an arc of violet lightning connected the magical matrix with a nearby bookshelf.  "Agh!"  Spike was sent bouncing to the ground following the shock wave of the bookshelf exploding.  Flaming books and charred splinters were sent flying through the air.

The fog of magic pulsed with the shattering force of the crystalline pillars before Twilight felt herself thrown off the pedestal.  A crippling wave of pain and surge of heat assaulted her senses.  Landing roughly on the stone left her momentarily stunned and when she opened her eyes she could barely see.  Shards of crystal, wood, and half-burnt books littered the library floor surrounding the dissipating matrix.

Pattering claws caught her attention.  "Hey, Twilight, are you okay?"

She tried to rise in response, but her legs barely moved an inch as her muzzle rubbed against the cold stone.  Twilight's vision blurred and faded as she blinked.  She opened her mouth to speak, but her mouth only formed the shadows of words.

Sounds around her began to dim as Spike neared her.  "Say something, Twilight, are you hurt?  Are you injured?  Are you..."  Twilight's ears twitched in response to every syllable, but they soon twitched erratically before flattening against the sides of her head.

Wisps of lavender were all that remained of the magical matrix which arced and billowed around Twilight and the pedestal.  She could barely feel Spike's claw on her forehead as the remnants of her experiment withered further.

And then she felt nothing.