Saturday evening was the best thing in the history of anything ever! Or at least this one would be, once Rarity left for her extended spa date with Fluttershy. “Come on, Rarity!” Sweetie Belle whined, dragging one of her sisters heavy bags over to the pile near the door.
Why her sister needed fifteen bags for a simple spa weekend, she would never know. What she did know was that Twilight would be arriving soon, and her sister hadn’t left yet.
“Keep your bridle on, Sweetie Belle. You cannot rush perfection,” Rarity replied, looking anything but perfect while she rummaged through one of the dressers she kept in the hallway. She had bags under her eyes, and despite a day’s worth of attempts at getting her mane to behave, it still looked as though Opalescence had slept in it. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Sweetie wondered if she should feel guilty, if maybe some of those frown lines her sister always talked about were from frowning at her. But at the moment, she was too focused on getting her sister out the door. Twilight had promised her more lessons, but Sweetie didn’t want her sister looking over her shoulder every time she tried something.
“But Fluttershy is already waiting for you!” Sweetie pointed out, not at all impatiently. She even helpfully pointed right at Fluttershy, just in case her sister had missed her.
“Oh,” Fluttershy said meekly, “That’s okay, Sweetie Belle. I don’t mind waiting.”
Rarity finally seemed to have found what she was looking for: a hair clip in the shape of a butterfly which she used to put up her mane into a little bun. The result wasn’t quite what anypony was used to, but if Fluttershy’s blush was anything to go by, it was still more than adequate where some ponies were concerned. If it got Rarity out the door faster, Sweetie was all for it.
“Now, darling, I expect you to be a good little filly and not to cause Twilight any trouble while she’s here, all right? She’s a busy and important pony now, and she agreed to watch you as a favor to me, but I don’t want to come back and have my friend tell me she couldn’t get her own work done because you kept pestering her..” Rarity warily eyed the pile of bags which was wobbling dangerously. While Sweetie Belle was good at all things organization, ‘packing’ was apparently not one of them. She eventually shrugged and levitated the bags onto the small wagon parked outside. If anything did turn out to be missing, she could always borrow something from Fluttershy. Turning back to her little sister, she arched her eyebrows. “Well?”
Sweetie Belle huffed and puffed, but rather than destroying houses she ended up with a long-suffering sigh. “Okay, okay. I promise I won’t bother Twilight.”
“And?”
“And I promise I’ll be in bed before nine.”
Rarity smiled and planted a kiss on top of Sweetie’s forehead. “Thank you, Sweetie. I’ll be back in three days.” And with that, she took a hold of the cart with her magic and set off towards the train station. Fluttershy smiled and waved before following, somehow managing to fit what she needed in just her saddlebags.
Sweetie watched them take off towards the station, waving while she tried to suppress the giddy squeal that was working its way up to her mouth. Twilight was a much more lenient sitter than her sister would ever be, and she was even willing to teach Sweetie some spells; something that Rarity was afraid of due to the many house fires it had caused.
I should practice, she thought to herself, closing the door and scrambling up the stairs to her bedroom where she took out a book on magical basics from under her bed. She opened it and left it there while ducking back under her bed, sticking her tongue out as she rummaged for two spherical balls of silver which Twilight had given her to practice levitation with. Once she had them, she lit up her horn and focused all of her attention on the first of the small silver balls, which, thankfully, couldn’t catch on fire. After their first lesson in the library, wherein Sweetie had almost caused a book disaster with her unstable magic, Twilight had wisely decided that they needed some non-flammable alternatives.
Sweat dripped from her forehead as she focused more of her energy into the sphere, until finally, after several minutes of trying, she succeeded in getting it off ground. The sphere lazily floated around in a few small circles before she had to set it down again, panting and wondering how Twilight always managed to make these kinds of things look so easy.
As ever when she practiced magic, she lost track of time, and just when she successfully got the two spheres off the ground simultaneously, it was already past time for Twilight to arrive. Just as she tried to set them down, there was a knock on the door which disrupted her concentration, cutting her magic short and dropping the items on the floor with a dull thud. She practically flew down the stairs, smiling in anticipation.
The door opened and there was Twilight smiling gently and holding a single leather bound tome in her magic. At least Twilight knows exactly how much she needs to bring when going foalsitting. Not that I’m a foal... She shook her head; thinking about such things for too long always made her head hurt.
“Hello, Sweetie,” the alicorn said, smiling sheepishly. “Sorry I’m late. I got caught up in my studies.”
Sweetie shook her head and stepped aside to allow Twilight entry. “That’s okay. I was just practicing.” She beamed at Twilight and proudly thrust out her chest. “I even managed to lift both orbs at the same time!”
Twilight magicked the door closed behind her effortlessly while she offered Sweetie a friendly nuzzle. Magic came to her as easily as breathing and Sweetie wanted to be just like her. “Very good! I’m proud of you.” She stepped into the living room and set the book she was holding on the table. “How about the other spells in the book, any luck?”
Sweetie didn’t respond the first time, busy as she was with basking in the praise. She couldn’t remember the last time Rarity had praised her. Usually it was all whining and disappointment with her sister. The second time her ears perked and she shook her head. “No. I still have trouble doing anything more than levitation, and even that’s really hard.”
“Don’t worry too much about it. You’ll get better with practice.” Twilight smiled at her reassuringly before sitting down on Rarity’s chaise lounge and levitating the book to herself. “I need to finish this book for a report to Princess Celestia later, but after I write that we’ll see where the problems with your magic are, okay?”
It wasn’t what she’d hoped for, but Sweetie understood that Twilight had her own things to do so she simply smiled and chirped, “Okay, I’ll keep practicing, then!”
Finding something to pass the time with until Twilight was done wasn’t hard. Even after Sweetie decided that she’d had enough practice—A decision that was made after only a few more minutes of intense concentration—there was still more than enough to do. Showering, for example, was first and foremost on the list. I wonder if Twilight becomes sweaty when she uses magic? she wondered idly as she fumbled around with the soap. Her train of thought was cut off when she slipped on one of her sister’s inconspicuous creme wash bottles, and replaced it with soft groaning. Next up was coming up with ideas for her next get together with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo; they hadn’t had any luck as girl scouts and with the way Scootaloo had been grousing, she would have to come up with something truly epic. Finally, rearranging the inspiration room for Rarity’s next big project was always a sure way to kill some time. If there was one thing they enjoyed doing together as sisters, it was coming up with and creating fashion. Rarity was clearly the more experienced one in the field, but Sweetie was a quick learner and had actually helped Rarity with a few designs. Admittedly, they were not quite what her sister normally came up with, mostly due to Sweetie’s lack of experience, but Rarity had thanked her regardless.
After everything on her list had been done, Sweetie walked into the living room and found Twilight at the dinner table eating a mixture of peas and diced potatoes. The alicorn smiled when Sweetie entered. “I made us some dinner,” Twilight said in between taking a bite and reading a page from the open book that she apparently still hadn’t finished. “There’s a plate for you in the kitchen if you want some.”
Though she was a little hungry, Sweetie was much more interested in continuing her magical lessons with Twilight. She walked over to the table and sat down at the opposite side. “No thanks, I’m not really that hungry.” The problem was, now that the only thing she could do was wait until Twilight was finished eating, it made getting some food sound somewhat more tempting, but she just didn’t feel like it at that moment.
Waiting was one of the many things Sweetie was bad at. Which was kind of sad, since ponies were always asking her to do it. She briefly wondered what a waiting cutie mark would look like. Maybe an hourglass? After only three minutes, she was already wondering if there were other things she could be doing; after five, she slipped from her chair and began pacing through the room. By the time ten minutes had passed, she was bored with that as well and had resorted to scooting along the floor using only her hindlegs.
Twilight must’ve noticed, because after Sweetie’s third revolution through the room, the alicorn spoke up. “I’m almost done. Why don’t you go get your study materials?”
Brief ponderings on why she hadn’t thought of that herself crossed Sweetie’s mind, but were disregarded just as quickly. She was finally going to get another lesson from Twilight, and perhaps they would even find out what was making things so difficult for her. With a hop, a skip, and a little bouncing, she got up to her room and gathered up what she needed. Trying to levitate the orbs down the stairs without dropping them, however, turned out to be a mistake. No sooner had she set hoof on the first step did she lose her concentration and let the silver slip from her magical grasp; and as if that wasn't bad enough, her attempts to catch them made her lose her balance and tumble down the stairs herself.
She braced herself for the inevitable pain as she toppled over. The first collision with the stairs made her cry out in pain, and the second was no better. It was around the third that something unexpected happened. Rather than hit the stairs again, she found herself floating, which, after a brief inspection of her own unlit horn, could only have come from one pony.
"Are you alright, Sweetie Belle?"
Sweetie twisted herself around in the magic, only to find that Twilight wasn't even in the hallway. She doesn't even need to see where she's casting, she thought glumly.
After a moment, Twilight poked her head around the corner and smiled up at Sweetie, horn alight with the energies keeping the filly from falling further. "There you are. What happened?"
Sweetie frowned. "I was trying to get the orbs down the stairs by levitating them, but I still can't move and use magic at the same time."
Twilight's smile was replaced by a sympathetic frown. She briefly looked back into the living room before saying: "Well, I'm just about done, so why don't we see if there's something we can do about that?"
In an instant, an ecstatic Sweetie Belle was bouncing up and down next to her.
"Really? Oh, thanks so much, Twilight! I can't wait to get started!"
How she had moved so fast, or had even gotten out of the levitation in the first place, remained a mystery Twilight was determined to solve. Teaching the filly magic, however, came first.
Teaching was what Twilight had been born for. She had such a vast reservoir of knowledge to draw from that she was technically capable of teaching anything from astronomy to zoology, and anything in between; even if she did not actually possess certificates for all of them. She delighted in explaining facts and theories to attentive listeners, though she sometimes went off on tangents that made her hard to follow for most ponies. Magic, however, wasn’t just a pastime for Twilight; magic was what was proudly emblazoned on her flank. It was her way of life.
“Okay, Sweetie Belle, let’s start with the basics,” she said picking up the implements Sweetie had dropped during her tumble and placing them on the table next to her book. “Have you read up on the breathing techniques yet?”
“There are many varying breathing techniques used by unicorns, but all of them share the same basic goal: to help the user relax and allow them to focus on their spellcasting,” Sweetie dutifully recited. “The breathing techniques discussed in this chapter are some of the most basic used by schools all over Equestr—”
“Alright, alright,” Twilight interrupted her, laughing softly. “I can tell that you have read it thoroughly enough.”
What little Sweetie had read hardly even qualified as a glance, and didn’t exactly give her any idea on how to perform said techniques. None of it made any sense to her, and while the entire chapter had been devoted to the subject, both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo agreed that such things were for physical exercise rather than casting spells. Nevertheless, she nodded enthusiastically and hoped that Twilight wouldn't ask for a demonstration.
It seemed as though luck was on her side, as Twilight smiled and nodded. "Very good, then I won't bore you with those. Why don’t you show me what you’re having trouble with?”
Finally she could get some help with the things she was truly struggling with. Sweetie smiled even more widely. “Okay!” For the third time that day, she focused to her utmost and directed the magical energies onto the two silver orbs, which were even less inclined to respond than usual. They seemed content to wobble a little, which frustrated Sweetie Belle and made her bite her tongue and pour more energy onto the spell. After some gasping and groaning, the orbs shakily rose from the table and circled each other slowly.
“Very good, Sweetie. Now try and keep them motionless in the air.”
Sweetie Belle nodded, not trusting herself to cast and talk at the same time. The tome she’d gotten from Twilight had said that power held the orbs in the air, but finesse held them in place, or made them move. She pulled back a little of her focus into the spell and kept her eyes fixed on the orbs, trying to keep them still. For a while, it all seemed to work and the orbs slowed down until the orbits they made around one another were only a hoof’s breadth apart. For a moment, she dared believe that she had succeeded, until the orbs started wobbling and fell back onto the table. Or perhaps it was Sweetie herself who had collapsed; she wasn’t quite sure which was which anymore.
“Sweetie!” She heard Twilight shout her name and blinked blearily, trying to distinguish one blur in her vision from the next. The weightlessness from before returned and carried her into another room, which could only be the kitchen. No sooner had she been set down than a heavy object began poking at her lips, and like a newborn chick she opened her mouth in response.
Peas. It tasted like peas and potatoes. She blinked a few times, trying to get the shapes in the room to resolve themselves into actual objects. The first thing that came into focus was a spoon, milliseconds before it poked against her lips again. I don’t like peas, she thought absently, nevertheless swallowing down what she was being fed. It made her feel better, though with that came a craving for something sweeter.
Slowly the room came back. First the cupboard on the other side of the room, then the counter which she was sitting on and the soft lavender aura that helped keep her upright, and finally, Twilight Sparkle looking at her with a worried expression while feeding her more of the food she didn’t like.
As more of her senses returned to her, the thing that stayed with her the most was the lavender aura. Twilight's magical aura. After three more spoonfuls, she pushed away the utensil with a hoof. Things were much clearer now, especially the way she had failed to stay upright while doing even the most basic of spells.
"Sweetie Belle..." Twilight's expression went from worried, to relieved, and finally to stern. "You need some food. You almost collapsed from casting a simple levitation spell! That means that the nutrient levels in your blood are extremely low, which means that you need to eat!" She brought the spoon up again but Sweetie pushed it away once more.
"I don't like peas," she replied sourly.
Her mother and sister would have insisted that she needed to learn to eat what was served, and practically force feed her if she wouldn’t listen. Twilight, in contrast, merely looked exasperated for a moment before walking over to the freezer. "Okay then, Rarity told me she had gotten some ice cream just for me, but I guess nearly fainting warrants something a little sweeter than peas."
Spike is so lucky to have a big sister like Twilight taking care of him, Sweetie thought while Twilight rooted around in the freezer. "Rarity keeps her ice cream on the top shelf."
Twilight shifted her search upwards and before long emerged with a tub of sub-zero comfort food. “Hmmm, strawberry! My favorite!” She happily pranced over to the counter and the cutlery responded like a litter of well trained puppies. The ice cream scoops met the plates halfway and the spoons followed shortly after, all landing in an eye pleasing arrangement without so much as a sound. "Alright, eat it while it’s cold."
The prospect of ice cream failed to bring a smile to Sweetie’s face. It was just so unfair; no matter what she tried. it always seemed as though she either did it wrong or simply wasn't good enough. Apple Bloom was fast on her way to becoming a real potions master, and even Scootaloo had graduated from riding to learning how to fly from Rainbow Dash. She was the only one who still hadn't found anything she was even remotely good at.
"What's wrong, Sweetie?" Twilight asked, two plates filled with ice circling her like a pair of miniature planets.
Sweetie jumped off of the counter and sat on the floor instead. Looking up at Twilight felt more in tune with how she was feeling. “I’m never good enough. No matter what I do, I always mess it up, somehow.”
“Sweetie... collapsing because you haven’t eaten enough can happen to anypony,” Twilight said, letting out a very exhausted sounding chuckle. “It’s happened to me more often than I would care to admit.”
“But it didn’t happen to anypony! It happened to me, and if it hadn’t... I can’t even lift two tiny, stupid orbs at the same time.” Sweetie pointed an accusatory hoof at the plates. “You and Apple Bloom and Scootaloo make everything look so easy! But I...” Her hoof dropped to the floor and her head followed suit. “I just mess things up. I'm not strong enough to do the simplest things, and I always set things on fire."
"That is because when a spell matrix falls apart, it releases all the stored energy as heat and pressure; with bigger spells, making a mistake could even lead to an explosion capable of leveling a small building." Twilight frowned when she saw Sweetie's downtrodden expression. Explanations came easily to her, words with which she could comfort a distraught filly much less so.
Getting your frustrations off your chest was supposed to make you feel better; that's what Sweetie's parents had always told her, at any rate. Instead, she simply felt tired and sad, like she needed to cry but couldn't. “Sorry, Twilight,” she said morosely. “I'd rather just go to bed.”
Twilight nodded. “Okay, Sweetie. Do you want me to tuck you in or read you a-”
“No thanks.”
Sweetie knew Twilight wasn’t trying to upset her on purpose, but watching her levitate the plates back to the freezer and opening it without so much as a glance backwards made her feel even worse. She trudged up the stairs and dropped down on her bed. Sleep couldn’t come fast enough.
The first rays of the early morning sun found Sweetie Belle in bed; her lower half anyway. After a long night of twisting and turning, her head occupied the floor, taking most of her bedding with her. She snored softly and twitched every few minutes while her left hind leg kicked at something that existed only in her dreams. Many a pony had firsthoof experience with bedmane, which invariably got tangled up and twisted into weird shapes; Sweetie’s mane, however, was trying to take it to a whole other level, having twisted into a malformed mockery of a braid that made it look like she had gotten her head stuck in a candy floss machine.
With a groan, she cracked open one eye, then closed it again before her mind clued in to the fact that it was morning. Having gone to bed early should have meant that she was fresh and ready for the new day. Nothing could be further from the truth, however, as the worries hadn’t left her alone and she had gotten little sleep as a result. She dragged herself out of bed the rest of way and collapsed on the floor in an unceremonious heap. Every muscle in her body felt tense and her head felt like it was full of cotton. It took her a long while to untangle herself, and longer still to make her way to the bathroom, but after splashing some water in her face, she at least felt like a pony again.
Yes, yesterday had been a bust. True, she still wasn’t any better at magic, but at least she could go crusading with her friends again. Somehow the thought sounded less appealing than it usually did. In fact, nothing seemed appealing, except for maybe taking a shower.
Twilight's probably right. She usually is, she thought while putting shampoo into her mane. If there was anything Rarity had managed to instill in her little sister, it was that taking care of one's appearance could do wonders for one's confidence. And sure enough, when Sweetie stepped out of the shower and ran a comb through her mane, she felt ready to take on the day; or at the very least like she could try magic again. When she came downstairs in search of breakfast, however, she found Twilight amongst several dozens of books.
“Uh... Good morning, Twilight,” she said, trying to navigate the floor which had been obscured by open tomes, almost to the point where getting to the refrigerator required a map and a hatchet.
Twilight was so absorbed in her reading that it took a full minute for her to even register that Sweetie had spoken, but she finally looked up from her book and smiled. “Good morning, Sweetie Belle. Sleep well?”
Sweetie let out a sigh of relief when the books were surrounded by Twilight’s magic and neatly stacked themselves near the table. She made her way over to the counter and pulled some instant cereal from the cupboards. “I think so. I wasn’t feeling so great when I woke up,” she said with a glance backwards at Twilight, trying to convey the cause without actually having to repeat her earlier misgivings with her situation. Thankfully, Twilight seemed to understand, getting up from her spot at the table and stretching while Sweetie poured milk onto her cereal. “Have you been reading all night?”
“Yeah.” Twilight stifled a yawn with her hoof before smiling at Sweetie again. “I wanted to make sure that I properly correlated the spell matrix with the synergetic effects of—” She received an uncomprehending stare from Sweetie Belle, who was slowly munching on her breakfast, and shook her head before smiling sheepishly. “Sorry, long night. What I meant was... I’ve been thinking about what you said yesterday, and I think I may have found a way to temporarily give you a boost in magical power so that we can more easily identify what the problem is with your spellcasting.”
Sweetie's spoon made it to her mouth one last time before Twilight's explanation finally registered and was left to its fate when Sweetie lunged from her seat, diving over the table to catch a surprised Twilight in a hug. “Did you do that for me? Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! You're the best princess ever!”
Twilight awkwardly returned the hug, only now beginning to feel the weight of going an entire night without sleep. She suppressed another yawn and ended the hug with an extra squeeze before disentangling herself from the filly. “It's not done yet. I need to look up a few more things in the library, not to mention get some sleep before actually casting the spell. Will you be alright on your own for the day?”
That was one of the few questions from Twilight that had an easy answer and Sweetie Belle nodded enthusiastically. “Of course! Me, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were going to try and get our cutie marks as cliffdivers.”
Perhaps Twilight was afraid of heights, or perhaps she simply didn’t like cliff jumping, but for some reason, the alicorn looked worried. Or at least, more worried than before. “But there’s only one cliff I know of near ponyville, and it doesn’t have water at the base...” she said, the concern in her voice growing by the syllable.
“It will!” Sweetie replied excitedly. “Scootaloo has an inflatable pool we can use. We’re going to get our cutie marks for sure!”
For anypony, hearing about the things the Cutie Mark Crusaders had planned on any given day could be considered grounds for concern. At this point, however, Twilight had passed into the realm of full blown worry—and perhaps a little bit of stress. “Do you really think an inflatable pool is big enough?” she asked the filly, trying ever so subtly to dissuade her charge from her plans for the day.
“Uh huh,” came the response. “I saw a pony do it at the circus. It’s not that hard.”
Being at a loss for words was never easy for Twilight. Continued exposure to her friends, especially Pinkie Pie, had made it difficult for other ponies to surprise her. But then, some leaps of logic simply boggled the mind. “Alright then,” she said eventually, trying to decide between four different ways of making sure that the crusaders wouldn’t inadvertently kill themselves. Forbidding them from doing what they were about to do seemed out; she had known the fillies long enough to know that they would go around her back if she did. Providing them with alternatives was similarly out; if anything, she would probably come up with more dangerous activities. In the end, she decided to reduce the gravity near the cliff edge and ask Rainbow Dash to keep an eye on the three as well. It was a little overkill, but it made her feel better knowing that somepony was keeping an eye on them. “I’m going to head back to the library for now, so I’ll see you around six for dinner, alright?”
With every sentence that had come out of Sweetie’s mouth, Twilight had felt more and more unsure about leaving the filly by herself. But I have to look through my spellbooks or all that effort will have been a colossal waste of time. Not only that, but the consequences of somepony casting an incomplete spell like that... it would doom Equestria and everything would be horrible forever! She blinked and shook her head. Wow, I really need to get a few hours of sleep. She waited but a few seconds more for Sweetie’s affirmative before setting out to find; her spellbooks, Rainbow Dash, and a surface she could sleep on, not necessarily in that order.
Sweetie waved until Twilight rounded a corner and vanished from sight before fixing her gaze on the books that still littered the table. The other crusaders wouldn’t be up for while yet—maybe Apple Bloom would be, but certainly not Scootaloo—which meant that she had some time to kill before going to the clubhouse to meet up with them; and just because she wasn’t good at magic did not mean that she didn’t want to know more about it.
The book she had gotten from Twilight for her magical studies was simple. Several pages worth of detailed explanation accompanied by pictograms detailing each step that had to be taken in order to cast the spells described therein. These books were nothing like it. Pages upon pages of text, row upon row of magical calculations, and nary a picture in sight save for the ones that detailed unexpected results of a certain spell and how to avoid them. They were not suited for a young filly like her who was just starting out; and yet...
She leafed through the book, focusing on the names of the chapters and the boldly printed words that denoted spells: Illusion, spectral helpers, mirror image, invisibility. Conjuration, magical familiar, magical mist, parasprite plague... why would anypony want to summon that? She shrugged and skipped to the last chapter in the book.
Transmutation:
A school of magic focusing on subject alteration, including, but not limited to:
•Night Vision
•Wings (partially functional. Discretion advised.)
•Horn (non-functional, decorative only)
•Age
•Body size.
Extreme caution is advised when attempting any of these spells; the results can be catastrophic if the proper procedures are not followed. Do not attempt to cast on self and if subject to a spell erroneously ...
Boring. There’s always so much ponies are afraid of... She leafed through the individual spells, giving each one a cursory glance until one particular chapter caught her eye.
Age.
Advancing or regression a subject's age is particularly challenging, as the power requirements and lengthy casting time have limited the spell's feasibility to alicorns and a small percentage of the most powerful unicorns. Its use is not recommended for experimentation. Failure may have disastrous consequences for both the target and the caster.
Success in the casting of this spell will move the target through time up to the ‘end’ point set by the caster before the channeling begins. This can be used to both advance or regress an object in age.
Sweetie’s eyes grew wide when she read the last passage. While the book did not specifically state it, she was sure that it could help her and the other crusaders skip past those pesky formative years and jump straight into adulthood. Of course, she couldn’t very well cast the spell herself, lacking in power as she was; but maybe Twilight would agree to cast it on them for a few minutes so they could see what their cutie marks looked like?
She read over the spell with interest and made an effort to understand the archaic runes and symbols on the page. Not that it helped her understand how they were supposed to translate into an actual spell, but she was interested in the application if nothing else. Would she ever be able to cast something like this? She sighed heavily. Not if silver balls gave her trouble. Still, it was the thought that counted, right? Too bad thoughts alone didn’t make magic, unless they did? Sweetie clutched her head in her hooves; she had a headache again.
By the time Twilight made it back to the boutique, it was already late in the evening, bordering on midnight. It had taken her most of the day, but she had finally managed to make the required alterations to the spell. Including a timer in its effects had been the most difficult part, but necessary. More than anypony, she knew how difficult things could be for a unicorn filly with a disproportionate magic reserve, and it wasn't a fate she wished on Sweetie Belle. Her eyes stung when she stepped through the door. Sleep had been one of the things sacrificed in her relentless search for knowledge. Regular meals had been another casualty, but her stomach had long since given up the fight.
To her surprise—although she could probably have seen it coming were it not for the exhaustion—she found not one but three young fillies gleefully awaiting her return. The faint smell of smoke that hung around the boutique could only mean that cliff diving wasn’t the only thing the crusaders had tried, but Twilight wasn’t about to admonish them for that; at least, not as long as the boutique remained standing.
Scootaloo rushed to the door when the entrance ball rang. “Hey, Twilight, Sweetie told us that you have a spell to make her magic super powerful! Is that true? Is she gonna be able to lift super heavy stuff like you can?”
“Maybe she'll even be able ta help ya with your flyin', Scootaloo.” Apple Bloom followed along a little more slowly than her pegasus friend, though no less excited about the prospect of seeing Sweetie perform magic.
“Don't need it,” The pegasus replied, flaring her wings as far as she could. “Didn't you hear Rainbow Dash? We’re going to practice every day instead of every week!”
It had been a hard-earned promise, meaning that Scootaloo had only managed to extract it from her idol after the trio had promised not to go ahead with their cliff diving expedition. That had been a bummer to be sure, but none of the crusaders ever remained downtrodden for long; especially not with an ecstatic Scootaloo dancing around the clubhouse. After the celebrations had died down, Sweetie had told her friends about Twilight’s offer, and of the spell she had found. She even tried to demonstrate it on one of the potted plants they kept in the clubhouse, but the spell had fizzled before she could even get to the second phase, and that had sparked a discussion on whether or not it was even really possible. The decision to simply ask Twilight had quickly become a problem, although it had been solved just as quickly when Sweetie had told them Twilight probably wouldn’t allow it. Now, all three Crusaders carried the secret with them, and behind their friendly bickering and innocent faces, they were all anxious for what was about to happen.
Noting Twilight’s bewildered expression, Sweetie swiftly made her way over to her mentor, smiling sweetly. “Hey, uhm, Twilight? Can Scootaloo and Apple Bloom stay for a sleepover?”
Between the exhaustion and the part of her brain that was still quietly analyzing the spell she had created, it took Twilight a minute to respond. She shook her head to try and clear it up a little so she could focus before looking at the trio of fillies. Every single one of them was looking up at her with a doe-eyed expression that made it impossible to say no. “Do you girls have permission from your parents?”
“Yup, AJ said Ah could go—” Apple Bloom responded.
“—And my parents told me I could stay over whenever I wanted since they’re working this week.” Scootaloo looked rather too pleased with herself, nodding and smiling in a way that made her look a lot like Rainbow Dash.
Twilight sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Alright then, I don’t see why not.” While Apple Bloom was probably telling the truth, Scootaloo might as well have had a neon signpost with whistles and alarm bells saying that she was lying; even then, however, there was very little Twilight could do about it as she didn’t exactly know where Scootaloo’s parents lived. The fillies cheered in unison, and the unexpected guests raced up the stairs and into Sweetie’s bedroom. The unicorn filly herself lingered, making it quite clear that she was waiting for Twilight to say something.
Finally, after two full minutes of silence in which Twilight’s analytical mind quietly snuck back to her magical calculations, Sweetie cleared her throat. “Soo... did you manage to...?” she began hesitantly, “I sort of told them that you were going to help me cast some real spells...”
Twilight covered her yawn with a hoof. “It’s almost done, Sweetie,” she replied tiredly, not entirely capable of suppressing a groan of frustration. “Go play with your friends for now. I’ll call you when I’m ready.”
Sweetie wrapped the alicorn in a quick hug, saying, “Thanks, Twilight, you’re the best,” before running up the stairs, and leaving Twilight to finalize her work on the spell.
It didn’t take Twilight much longer, as all she had really wanted to do was go over her theory one last time before casting the thing. Unfortunately, plants weren’t very good at telling her whether or not their magical reserves had gotten a boost, but when she was at the very least certain that it wouldn’t have any harmful effects on the recipient, she decided that the time had come.
Twilight made her way up the stairs and opened the door to Sweetie's room. “Sweetie, it’s read—” She halted mid sentence and beheld the elaborate ‘best princess ever’ card the crusaders were working on. Though calling the monstrosity that took up all available walkspace a card would be an understatement. The purple background was mostly obscured by hearts, stars, and more glitter than she had ever seen in one place. In the middle was a somewhat sloppy recreation of her cutie mark, and two wings made of similarly colored cloth flanked the entire thing.
She didn’t have a lot of time to take it all in before three pairs of hooves pushed her back out the door and slammed it shut behind the fillies they belonged to. “You weren’t supposed to see that yet!” Sweetie whined when Twilight gave her a flabbergasted look. Moreso than even their little project, the three fillies were covered from head to toe with glue and glitter, to the point where Scootaloo and Apple Bloom couldn’t even give one another a hoofbump without getting their hooves stuck to one another.
With a flourish from Twilight's horn, a simple cleaning spell got rid of the gunk that clung to the fillies' coats. She yawned and smiled at them while the spell worked. "Are you three enjoying yourselves?"
“Yeah,” Apple Bloom drawled, “but we were wonderin’ about that spell you had to turn Sweetie Belle into a better unicorn. Does it really work that way?” The filly gestured towards her unicorn friend’s forehead. “It ain’t like she’s gonna suddenly sprout an extra horn or anythin’, is it?”
“Oh, Oh! Maybe it could make her horn like... twice as long! Like yours!” Scootaloo, unlike Apple Bloom, was more enthused than concerned about the spell and it showed. “Or maybe... would she turn into an alicorn, too? That would be awesome!”
Twilight shook her head. “Nothing like that. While I took the basic design from a growth spell, its effects are solely focused on the magical capacity that springs forth from the ley-lines running alongside blood vessels in everypony. It should allow for a better magic flow to the horn, as well as provide a boost to Sweetie’s magic so that we can pinpoint the...” She petered out under the blank stares of the three fillies looking at her and sighed heavily. “No, it won’t cause any physical changes.”
“But I’m still going to be better at magic, right?” Sweetie asked, suddenly worried. Understanding Twilight’s intentions was difficult at times, and if she had misinterpreted the alicorn’s ideas, all of her plans would be in danger of failing outright.
Twilight nodded. “Not so much better at magic as... temporarily giving you more magic to use. Remember, this is to find out what’s wrong with your spellcasting, not a quick fix to make you Starswirl the Bearded.” Once again, she groaned softly as she watched her explanation fly over the fillies’ heads. “Nevermind. The point is, yes, you should be able to perform magic more easily.” She turned and walked down the stairs, beckoning for the three of them to follow with a wing.“Let’s eat something first, and then we’ll begin.”
Dinner was a rather simple affair; parsnip sandwiches, some hastily made tea and strawberry ice cream for dessert as none of the ponies present wanted to wait any longer than was absolutely necessary. The dishes were abandoned in the sink, and all four of them gathered in the living room to see what Twilight’s spell would accomplish.
“Are you ready, Sweetie Belle?” Twilight asked, already drawing the runes in her mind’s eye while making sure that the filly was in the right position with her real ones. The middle of the living room had been cleared of obstacles and had gotten a new addition in the form of a painstakingly drawn chalk pentagram, which featured several arcane runes drawn along the sides. It wasn’t, strictly speaking, necessary for the spell to work, but it gave Twilight markers which made guiding the spell easier. Where living ponies were concerned, she wasn’t about to take any chances.
“Yup!” Sweetie Belle was standing in the center of it all, spinning around slowly to try and take in the runes Twilight had made. She was excited, and perhaps a little scared, for what was about to happen. “Should I be doing anything special?”
Twilight nodded as her horn lit up. “Yes.”
“Uhm... what, exactly?”
“Don’t move.”
Minutes passed by, but it didn’t appear as though the spell Twilight was casting was having any noticeable effect, which made Sweetie Belle restless. She couldn't help but fidget ever so slightly despite Twilight's orders. Just as she opened her mouth to ask what was going on, however, the room was plunged into darkness, as if all the light was being sucked into the spell. For a few moments, she couldn’t see anything, and she couldn’t help the fearful thoughts that crept up on her. What if I’ve gone blind? What if I’ll never be able to see again? She tried to calm herself, taking a deep breath and staring at the spot Twilight had been before. Slowly but surely, the patterns on the ground began to glow, illuminating some of the room and keeping her imagined demons at a distance, even if it did not dispel them entirely.
The other two fillies had an even more impressive view of the action. From within the pentagram, small glowing runes floated up towards the ceiling before being pulled to Sweetie’s horn by some unseen force. As the minutes passed, the entire process slowly increased in speed, going from single runes to strings of them. Soon, they were moving so quickly that they ceased to be individual sigils and became blurred, pulsing lines of crackling energy.
Sweat ran down Twilight’s forehead, stinging whenever it rolled into her eyes, yet she dared not blink. Second thoughts and exhaustion were pulling at her mind in equal measure. I should have gotten some sleep first... why didn’t I at least rest? Even if there hadn’t been any complications yet, she began to wonder if it was even a good idea to help Sweetie Belle in this way.
It was, however, too dangerous to simply stop the spell mid-cast, so she pushed on. The twelve separate streams of light were all converging on the young unicorn, hiding her from view. The light spread out in a sphere, blinding everypony present when it exploded. Twilight sighed in relief only to find that she was the only one. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had rushed forward after seeing Sweetie Belle floating in the center of the glowing runes and Twilight reacted quickly to keep them away from her. After a few moments, her eyes which had shone with an inner light were extinguished, and Sweetie collapsed into a heap on the floor.
“Careful,” she warned the two fillies restrained in her magic.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo rushed forward the moment she dropped her spell, and kneeled down next to their collapsed friend to try to wake her up. “What happened to her?” Apple Bloom asked, Twilight, looking worried. “Did the spell fail?”
Twilight, too, walked over to Sweetie Belle and examined the unconscious unicorn with a critical eye. “No,” she said at length. “Don’t worry, the spell was a success. Incorporating this much magic is a lot to take in at once, and her body is going to need some time to get used to it.”
Carrying Sweetie Belle back to her bed didn’t take Twilight very long; reassuring her friends that everything had gone as it should have, however, took longer than she would have liked. By the time she had finally gotten them to go to bed, it was already close to midnight, and she wondered, not for the first time, if she was making a mistake. Using the excess energy drawn from Luna's dream realm for the magical boost had been a brilliant idea, as all it did was evaporate if not utilized. It put into stark contrast just how long she herself had gone without sleep. She was having difficulty staying focused, almost to the point of it being maddening, and she knew she wouldn't be able to for some time. Although she was sure that she had performed the spell perfectly, she needed to make sure there were no complications, if only for her own peace of mind. Seeing Sweetie Belle rest with a smile on her face, however, made all of it worthwhile.
Before she left, Twilight briefly checked up on the other fillies. Scootaloo seemed completely unconcerned with what had happened, sleeping soundly and dreaming about flying if her slowly flapping wings were any indication. Twilight tucked her back in and moved over to where Apple Bloom lay. Apple Bloom’s sleep wasn’t as restful as her friend’s. She grimaced in her sleep, and her hind leg spasmed irregularly along with twitches across her whole body. It reminded Twilight of Spike whenever he was having a nightmare, and like the little dragon, Apple Bloom calmed down after receiving a gentle nuzzle and a kiss on the forehead. Twilight smiled softly and walked back to Sweetie’s bed. She sat down, surrounding herself with a plethora of books that she summoned from downstairs... and waited.
For Sweetie Belle, waking up before her sister did was, indeed, a rarity. Waking up with the sun was rarer still. Today, however, she found herself awake well before sunrise; three hours early, in fact. She got up slowly, blindly searching for her night-light with a hoof, until an errant thought trickled by reminding her that she was in her sister’s boutique rather than at home.
Bah, I wish I could just make my horn glow like sis does. She had hardly finished the thought before her horn flared to life, casting a soft green light on her surroundings and illuminating her friends. Scootaloo was sprawled across Apple Bloom’s back and Apple Bloom herself was drooling rather heavily. Sweetie stifled a giggle. She slipped out of her bed, stumbling over an object she hadn’t seen and landing on her face a few paces further. Once she had gotten up and dusted herself off, she turned around to find an alicorn sleeping on a bed made entirely out of books. It was right next to her own and it had been through luck alone that she hadn’t hit Twilight.
Twilight looked... peaceful when she slept, though she apparently shared the pegasus trait of twitchy wings that responded to her dreams. Seeing her brought back the memory of the previous day, and Sweetie’s excitement skyrocketed. Her horn had responded when she wanted a light, so maybe it worked! She snuck out of the room, trying to keep the noise she made to a minimum. Enthusiasm, however, once again got the best of her, and she groaned softly after smacking into the closed bedroom door, face first. She traipsed down the stairs and levitated the first thing she saw when she entered Rarity’s inspiration room.
The floating dress form was swiftly followed by another, and then another, until Sweetie was holding all ten of her sister’s pony sized dolls in her magic. Then she began adding rolls of fabric into the mix, the sewing machine, needles and pins, all of them went from being ‘Rarity’s stuff’ to ‘magic practice equipment’ and with each item that floated up into the air, Sweetie’s smile grew a little wider.
“Wooooowwww... Awesome.”
Sweetie cringed and the items in the air stopped spinning, though luckily they didn’t fall. She turned around to find Scootaloo in the doorway, with Apple Bloom not far behind. Seeing that it wasn’t anypony she had to be afraid of yelling at her, Sweetie’s enthusiasm quickly returned. “Hey, girls,” she said, sending the items into a gentle orbit around her.. “Look what I can do!”
“We noticed,” came the reply from both girls, who looked at each other briefly, and then laughed. “It’s awesome!” Scootaloo said echoing her earlier sentiment. “Can you do anything else?”
Putting Rarity’s belongings back in their rightful places was almost too easy, though Sweetie still couldn’t do it without looking at the individual items. “I don’t know,” she replied, keeping her gaze fixed on the shrinking number of items still suspended in the air. “I haven’t really tried any other spells yet.”
“Make magic fireworks!”
“No, make yerself invisible!”
“Turn me into a dragon!”
“Me first!”
“Girls...” Sweetie watched her friends turn on one another and wrestle while they continued to shower her with possible ideas for her newfound magical strength. “Girls?” Eventually, she broke them up by using her levitation to separate them and keep them away from one another. Both of them had bruises, but they didn’t really look angry.
“Ah still think invisibility is better.”
“Nuh-uh, turning me into a dragon is totally the most awesome thing!”
“Girls!” Sweetie glowered at them both before setting them down on the ground and extinguishing her horn. “All of that sounds great, but... I can’t do any of that.”
She got a pair of blank looks and, just for a moment, understood how Twilight must feel.
“Well, why not? You have got awesome magic powers now, don’tcha?” Scootaloo asked curiously.
Sweetie shook her head. “It’s not like that. I need to know how a spell works and make like... this image in my head before I can actually cast it.”
There was silence for a few seconds after that while the two non-unicorn fillies tried to wrap their heads around the idea before Apple Bloom said, “What about Twilight’s spellbooks? She’s got ’em all upstairs, doesn’t she?”
Sweetie’s eyes lit up. “Oh yeah!” Before any suggestion could be put forth about checking Twilight’s tomes for spells she could cast, she had already picked up her friends in her magic and raced back up the stairs. She was eager to play a little more with her powers, but she nevertheless slowed down to a crawl when they reached the door. What Twilight didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her, but if there was anything the alicorn was protective of, it was her books.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were slowly lowered to the ground and together they snuck up to the book-bed. Stealing a book out from under a sleeping Twilight’s nose proved to be harder than it sounded. Sweetie Belle only barely managed to grab one of the cornerstone books before Twilight grimaced and rolled over, almost slapping her across the face. Apple Bloom got lucky when she stole a book from right behind Twilight and dodging a flexing wing just in time. Scootaloo was the unlucky one. The moment she tried to follow Sweetie’s example and take one of the cornerstone books near Twilight’s head, a pair of purple hooves shot forwards and repurposed her as a teddy bear. Scootaloo’s eyes bulged, and she threw both hooves to her mouth. Twilight’s embrace was crushingly tight, and she’d very nearly squeaked out a protest. Luckily, the hug had knocked her wind out, and she gasped for air when Sweetie Belle finally managed to pry Twilight’s hooves away. Sweetie then replaced her own book in Twilight’s legs and slowly let go, letting the alicorn snuggle up to a book instead of her friend. Their mistake only became clear once they retreated to the opposite end of the room and Apple Bloom opened the singular tome they had managed to liberate.
It wasn’t a spellbook.
Rather than seeing any of the dry, boring warnings about spells that Sweetie had expected to see, the book was filled with dry, boring, warnings about potions. With the way Apple Bloom’s eyes lit up, it was clear that she found it a worthwhile acquisition, but it still left Sweetie without any new spells to toy with. She sighed and shot the book a dirty look before perking up suddenly. “Oh, oh!”
“What?” Scootaloo asked.
“I just remembered a spell I read about before!” she replied, smiling brightly. “And it’s going to help us get our cutie marks!”
“What? How?” Apple Bloom asked. Both of Sweetie Belle’s friends looked as confused as the time they had tried to solve the crosswords in the paper in order to get their puzzle-solving cutie marks.
Sweetie didn’t reply for a time, focusing on remembering the spell which, if she was honest, didn’t make a whole lot more sense now than it had before. Regardless, she felt confident that she could successfully cast it if she just tried hard enough. “I read about this spell earlier. It’s an aging spell! I’ll make us all older and then we’ll see what our cutie marks are, because we’ll already have them!”
“But didn’t Twilight say that aging spells were impossible?” Apple Bloom asked, remembering the joke they played on Trixie with a fond smile.
Sweetie Belle nodded. “Yeah, but the book said that only alicorns and the most powerful unicorns could cast it.”
Scootaloo snickered. “Too bad we don’t have any powerful unicorns here, huh?”
She got a dirty look, and Sweetie humphed before turning to her other friend. “It could work right?”
“Uh... Sweetie Belle, are you sure that’s a good idea?” Apple Bloom, ever the cautious one—or at least as cautious as any of them ever got—looked uncertain. Which wasn’t all that uncommon, despite all the crazy stunts they pulled off almost daily. However, even Scootaloo looked like she was having second thoughts, and Sweetie Belle wasn’t about to let the one thing she was currently good at slip through her hooves.
She bit her lower lip and pouted at her friends, unleashing her weapons-grade cuteness to try and change their minds. "Please, girls? Can I at least try?"
As it turned out, not even her friends could resist her pleading expression. Apple Bloom sighed, “Okay then, but only if ya promise to be careful.”
“Of course!” With the matter settled, Sweetie channeled her magical energy into her horn and tried to create the spell as it was outlined in the book. It wasn’t easy, but then, she hadn’t expected it to be, and as the minutes passed, she closed her eyes and lowered her stance.
Waking up with a headache was never a pleasant thing. While it normally meant that she had made a fool out of herself the previous night, tonight Twilight’s headache felt... different. With a groan, she slowly righted herself and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. The way they stung told her that she hadn’t slept for nearly long enough, but all of her minor annoyances were forgotten the moment she felt the buildup of magic in the air.
Sweetie Belle’s voice drifted across the room. “Hold still, Apple Bloom.”
Twilight shook her head and half ran, half stumbled from her makeshift bed and towards the fillies on the far side of the room. How in the world does she know that spell?!
Working up a sweat from spellcasting was nothing new to Sweetie, but she had never been as bothered by it as she was now. She persevered, however. The spell was almost complete. She could feel it. “Almost... got it...”
“Sweetie, stop casting! Right now!” Twilight shouted, running towards the fillies with a mounting sense of dread. She could see her student’s eyes open and fill with fear before she had reached them.
“Twilight...?!” Sweetie abruptly tried to stop the spell she had been working on, and therein lay the problem. Anypony with a sufficiently advanced background in magic knew that aborting a spell mid-cast wasn’t simply a matter of discontinuing to cast. More advanced spells had to be disassembled slowly, otherwise they looped in on themselves and became stronger, rather than fading away. “It’s not working!” she cried, shaking her head, as though her horn was on fire.
Time slowed to a crawl.
The spell in Sweetie’s horn reached its firing point. Without anypony to aim it, the spell shot up into the air, ricocheting off of the ceiling, and careening through the room, unstoppable until it found a biological target per Sweetie's original cast parameters.
Twilight lunged at trio when the bolt whizzed past them. The alicorn pulled the three fillies towards herself with her magic and tried to shield them with both her forelegs and wings. Before she had even fully gotten her wings around them, the spell bounced from the wall at the far end of the room and hit her square in the back. She cried out in pain and very nearly fell over. Her vision blurred rapidly and every single fiber of her being felt like it had been set on fire, yet somewhere in the back of her mind a small voice warned her that blacking out here would be disastrous. With the last of her strength, she grabbed the three fillies hiding under her wings and fumbled together a teleportation spell.
Though Twilight’s wings blocked her field of vision, the sound made it clear just what was happening. The wooden panels and beams of the Carousel Boutique groaned obscenely as they underwent a thousand year long aging process in the span of a few minutes. Even the stone slabs used for the decorative floors couldn’t cope with the passage of time and were crumbling into dust.
Looking up, Sweetie could see that the ceiling of her room was starting to sag. She screamed when one of the beams above them came loose, but just before the decaying wood hit them there was a bright purple flash and everything faded away.
Rarity felt good. Even though Fluttershy had needed to leave early, Rarity none the less felt more relaxed and unburdened than ever. She looked at herself in the pocket mirror and laughed. Good? Perhaps I should say marvelous instead. I really must tell Aloe about those mineral baths. Perhaps they could import the water...
She felt so good in fact, that she didn’t even notice she’d taken a wrong turn somewhere for several minutes. How very odd. I’ve lived in this town most of my life, but I never noticed that pile of rubble before.
Writing it off to absent-mindedness, she took in her surroundings to see where she’d gone wrong. Hmmm. The Library is over there, Sugarcube Corner... Exactly where it should be. My sister and her friends and a large purple alicorn... Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Sweetie Belle, what’s going on?”
When Sweetie Belle looked at Rarity, her red-rimmed eyes made it clear that she’d been crying. She stood on her hind legs, using her forehooves to shake the alicorn awake, with little success. Judging by the size of the unconscious mare, it could only have been Celestia, though Rarity couldn't remember the princess having a mane that incorporated the darkest blues of the night with the cheery oranges of a new dawn, nor could she remember the princess having such a deep royal purple coat. It looked rather fetching, if she was honest with herself. “S-sis?” Sweetie Belle hiccuped, before tearing herself away from the alicorn and bowling Rarity over in a hug.
“Calm down, darling! Whatever has happened, it can’t possibly be that bad.” Rarity stroked Sweetie’s mane helplessly, eventually eyeing the other two fillies who looked just as out of sorts. “Apple Bloom? Scootaloo? Can either of you tell me what happened? Preferably while making more sense than Sweetie?”
Scootaloo chewed on the inside of her cheek and shook her head. Apple Bloom, however nodded slowly. “I think so, Miss Rarity. Twilight made a spell that made Sweetie more powerful because she had trouble during her magic practice, but then Sweetie—”
“Wait,” Rarity interrupted, not sure if she’d heard correctly. “Twilight did something to Sweetie Belle? Is that why she’s crying? Dare I ask if this relates to why there is a brand new pile of rubble where my shop should be?” At their panicked looks, she took a deep breath. “Calm, Rarity. Remember the mineral baths,” she muttered, before asking in a lower tone of voice: “Where is Twilight?”
All three fillies nervously glanced at the prone alicorn.
Rarity followed their gaze, unsure how she was meant to cope with so many impossible things happening at once. All she’d wanted was a nice, relaxing weekend. And if she was honest, that was exactly what she’d gotten. But now... now this. “You’re telling me that—” she pointed “—is Twilight?”
Apple Bloom nodded. “Sweetie hit her with some kind of age-up spell, and now she won’t wake up,” she said miserably, after which Sweetie began crying anew, her forelegs clinging around Rarity’s own.
“All right,” Rarity said. “It’s fine. It’s all fine. Clearly I’ve passed out on the train ride home and am now having a nightmare. Forgive me, but I think I’d like to wake up now. I’ll be under the tree next to where my shop was if you need me.”
Actually moving towards the tree was difficult. Despite the dream, Sweetie Belle clung to her insistently enough for it to actually hurt a little. “I’m sorry sis!” Sweetie cried, “I didn’t mean to ruin the shop. I just wanted to know how to do magic!”
“Yes, well. No harm done. I’m either dreaming or having some sort of breakdown. I’m sure it will be fine. Be a dear and find Opal, make sure she’s fed. I’m... I’m just going to lie down.”
Twilight awoke after the sun had already passed its zenith, feeling well rested for the first time in days and enjoying the feeling of warmth on her belly. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw were the faces of three worried fillies which made her smile. “Hello, girls,” she said, rolling over onto her belly and wondering why her vision was several feet higher than it should have been.
“Uhm, Twilight?” Sweetie said timidly, making scuff marks in the dirt with her hoof. “I’m sorry. I messed up the spell and you got hurt.”
Ah, yes... An aging spell... She looked herself over slowly, taking her time to become acquainted with any changes she found. Although the spell she had cast on Sweetie Belle had been temporary, she wasn’t sure if any spells cast by the filly while ‘powered up’ would have the same time limitations. At least nopony got hurt, she thought with a sigh. Looking around, she found Rarity huddled in between a tree and the remnants of Carousel Boutique. It was a sorry sight and Twilight couldn’t help but frown a little when she saw it. Restoring that is going to take some doing.
Twilight got up, or at least tried to. Having legs of almost twice the familiar length would take some getting used to. The three crusaders hadn’t moved, and Sweetie Belle looked more miserable by the second. “I... I...” the filly said, looking like she was about to start crying again any moment.
“Shhhh, Sweetie. Everything is okay. They were just things, and we can always replace things.”
Sweetie nodded mutely, hiding her face against one of Twilight’s forelegs this time. “Can you use a spell to make it like it was?” she finally asked.
Twilight surveyed the rubble once more before shaking her head gently Kneeling, she looked the filly in the eyes and said, “Not every problem can be solved by magic, Sweetie Belle.”
Sweetie looked downcast for a while, until Twilight nudged and winked at her.
“However, Princess Celestia had some money set aside for any magical problems I created when I was younger, and has been adding to it every year. Since this is technically my fault, and I technically haven’t blown up a building in a long time...” Twilight held filly’s gaze and let the idea sink in. “Besides, even if the boutique was destroyed, that doesn’t necessarily have to mean everything in it is gone.”
The spark of hope in the filly’s eyes was worth another smile. “So everything will be okay?”
Twilight looked from Apple Bloom and Scootaloo to Rarity and back again. Apart from a few bruises on the fillies, some excavation work to find what remained of Rarity’s designs, and a nervous breakdown which would require a bathtub of ice cream; nopony had really gotten out worse for the wear. “Nopony was hurt, were they?”
“Well...” Sweetie cast a nervous glance to her sister, who was still slumped against the tree having a crisis. She then looked up at Twilight herself, bigger physically, but apparently still the same Twilight she had known before the disaster. “No?”
Twilight giggled. “Then yes, I think everything will be okay.” She started walking towards the rubble of the boutique and levitated pieces of it into the air to see if anything had survived the spell unscathed. It was harder than she would have imagined, as her magic, too, had gotten a boost of a thousand years she hadn’t experienced.
“Twilight?”
A few pieces of debris went sailing over the horizon, never to be seen again. Twilight took a deep breath to collect herself before turning to Sweetie, who had apparently followed her. “Yes, Sweetie?”
“Where are we supposed to sleep now?”
“Well,” Twilight fluffed her wings which felt far too big to be hers and absently continued sifting through the remains. “Since it’s going to take some time before the boutique is rebuilt, I think you’ll have to stay in the library.”
There was a moment of silence before Sweetie asked, “Will you still teach me how to use my magic? Even though I messed everything up?”
Twilight sighed and called the floating debris to a halt so she could look at Sweetie Belle, lowering her head again so she was sure Sweetie saw her expressions as well. “Of course I will,” she said with a smile. “In fact, let’s start right now. Do you think you could help me clean this up?”
That finally brought a smile back to the filly’s face and she bounded forward to hug one of Twilight’s forelegs again saying, “Okay!” before lighting up her horn and doing her very best to follow her mentor’s example. With the spike in power gone, it was just as hard as it had ever been, but despite that she did feel a little better knowing that she was helping clean up the mess she had caused.
Author's Note
Thanks to Steel Resolve, Squinty Mudmane, XjuggernaughtX, Blue Paladin, and Cloperella for looking this over for me
The original 'story' was 2052 words long, written as a challenge to see how much I could get written in one hour. Then I wanted to improve on it a little, and the result sort of ballooned into this monstrosity.
I hope you all enjoyed it, and I'm gonna get back to working on the next chapter of Under Her Wings.
