Sizable Differences

Chapters

Large Problems
Unhappy Medium
Feeling Small

Large Problems

Breathing techniques. Used as meditative tools to help relax the body and focus the mind by magicians and shamans alike, they were said to bring clarity and help anypony to find peace within themselves.

Whether they be expansive routines which were designed to come into contact with one's own body or corral one’s thoughts, or as simple as counting the breaths one took in order to help still the mind, they had one thing in common: They were deceptively simple.

After her narrow escape from Rarity’s collapsing boutique, however, Twilight was having a lot of trouble getting even one of them to do what she wanted. She didn’t blame Sweetie Belle for the trouble her aging spell had caused, she herself had done worse at that same age. Yet it was hard not to be a little overwhelmed by her new looks.

In...

Out...

In...

“Please, darling, hold still. Making a suitable dress is hard enough without your constant fidgeting.”

Twilight let out the last breath in a sigh and fluffed her wings.“Sorry, Rarity,” she replied, only half paying attention to her friend. Even while occupying a body three times the size she was used to, she still didn’t know what to do with all of her nervous energy. Not at all helped by the fact that she was supposed to remain motionless.

In...

Out...

In...

A small stinging sensation made the muscles in her flank ripple and would have been lost on her had she not consciously been trying to keep herself from moving. She looked over her shoulder and came face to face with an incensed fashionista holding a ripped dress form.

“That’s the fifth one you’ve torn today,” Rarity said dryly, tossing it onto an ever growing pile of dressmaking materials that Twilight had ruined.

All Twilight could do was let out another sigh and mumble another apology while watching Spike run around doing Rarity’s bidding out of the corner of her eyes.

The unicorn sisters had quickly acclimated to their new living quarters in the library. Rarity shared a room with Twilight, and had finally taken to using the bed after Twilight had convinced her that she herself no longer fit in it anyway. For Sweetie Belle and Spike, they had cleared out a spare room that had been filled with all manner of junk. Twilight had obstinately refused to classify a single piece in it as anything other than ‘research materials’ but Rarity’s need for cleanliness had won out in the end.

“Why am I your eniquin again?” she asked irritably. “I'm much too big for anypony else to comfortably wear the dresses you're making, and I should be preparing for when Princess Celestia arrives.”

“Well, it’s funny, that. Normally I try not to bother you girls unduly to model for me. I have a rather nice set of eniquins back at the shop... or at least I did,” Rarity replied nonplussed, clasping another dress form around her barrel.

Twilight folded back her ears. The fund Celestia had set up for her ‘accidents’ would more than cover replacing everything Rarity had lost, but it was going to take time. Time that Rarity spent going stir-crazy in the library, and since she lacked a rather important part of the dress design toolkit... Twilight found herself filling that role. “Rarity, I don’t know how else I can say I’m sorry—”

“I know, darling. I am just trying to stay busy...” Rarity stopped working for a brief moment so she could look Twilight in the eyes. “Trying not to think about my lovely home in ruins. Forgive me for imposing on you.”

“I...” Twilight hung her head. “Nevermind, forget I said anything.”

Rarity smiled briefly before returning to her dressmaking. “Already forgotten. So, what do you think she’s going to say?”

Twilight cringed. The reply to her letter to the princess had amounted to a terse: ‘Expect me in a week’, and ever since then she’d been beset by anxious self-doubt. What if Celestia disapproves of what I did? What if she decides that I’m too reckless to be a princess?

Rarity laid a hoof along her friend’s barrel. “I’ve seen that look before. Don’t get too wound up, darling. I’m sure she won’t be very upset. I mean yes, technically this was your fault, but it’s hardly the worst thing you’ve ever—” Rarity shut her mouth with a snap. “Um... well I just mean... I doubt it will be as bad as you think.”

While Twilight appreciated the attempt, it wasn’t helping at all. Rarity was right, this was ultimately her fault. To make matters worse, she hadn’t exactly told the princess that she’d been the one that got hit with an aging spell. Normally, that wouldn’t have been a problem. A week should have been more than long enough to find a counterspell, but she hadn’t taken into account the fact that Rarity needed her help for most hours of the day. It had made doing a little research on the side all but impossible.

“Is there anything else you need, Rarity?” Spike asked, entering the room with a roll of fabric that was proving difficult for him to handle.

He had been helping Rarity out for the better part of the day, which, in and of itself, was not a bad thing. He had, however, taken Rarity’s side and refused to provide Twilight with any of the tomes she could have used to solve her predicament. It made him just as much of a tormentor as Rarity was, and Twilight had quietly cursed him on more than one occasion.

“Nothing for now, darling, thank you,” Rarity replied, giving him a friendly nuzzle before turning back to Twilight’s wing. “Right now it is simply a matter of making sure that Twilight stays still while I start on the dress. Perhaps you could help Sweetie Belle clean up the library?”

Spike snapped to a salute. “You can count on me, Rarity.” He sprinted off towards the cleaning cupboard, leaving Twilight in Rarity’s capable, if somewhat ruthless, hooves.

Twilight smiled shakily. For everything he had done, Spike had at the very least broken her out of her introspection, which was something she found she could still be grateful for. “If only he was that eager whenever I ask him something.”

“Simply a matter of rewarding him for the right behaviour,” Rarity replied absently while she tugged a few primary feathers back into alignment, making Twilight wince. “Now hold still, darling.”

Sweetie Belle was bored. Between not being allowed to see her friends, and the fact that Rarity insisted she help Spike clean the library every day, she was ready to declare this the worst time of her life. Ever. The only consolation she had was that Twilight was still willing to teach her magic, and even that was hampered by Rarity’s constant demands on Twilight’s time.

She listlessly dusted the spines of the books, barely paying any attention to what was going on at the other end of the room. For all the all practicing she did, there was little to no change in her magical stamina, nor the difficulties she had with the simplest spells, which frustrated her greatly. She had just about cleaned the non-fiction section when Spike showed up next to her, carrying his own duster and wearing an apron.

“Hey, Sweetie Belle. How's it going?”

“How do you think it's going?” she groused, before realising that he probably wasn't asking about her magic lessons.

Spike nevertheless frowned sympathetically and asked, “Being grounded is the worst, right?”

“Yeah.” It wasn't what Sweetie had been grousing about, but she nodded emphatically all the same.

She got a wry smile from the young dragon, who simply began dusting books right beside her. “So, what else is Rarity making you do?”

“Nothing. That's the problem—” The duster she had been holding with her magic unceremoniously dropped to the floor when her spell unexpectedly cut out, and her horn refused service when she tried to pick the duster up again “—and my magic is useless as well…”

Spike arched an eyebrow and made short work of the bookshelf he was dusting before turning back to her. “Could you do that again?”

“No.” Sweetie replied dejectedly. “And even if I could, it's not like I'd do any better than the last fifty times.”

Spike hummed thoughtfully while he, without magic, cleaned two bookcases in the time it had taken Sweetie to clean just one. “Do you practice those breathing exercises before you go to bed?”

Sweetie shook her head. “Not really. The book Twilight gave me made them look so silly, and when I asked the girls about it, they said that it’s important for physical exercises but not so much for magical ones.”

“And they’re better at magic than Twilight is?” Spike asked, rolling his eyes. The dragon never seemed to stop moving during their conversation and had already dusted off most of their side of the library, working his way back towards her in what Sweetie suspected was merely a way to keep the conversation going.

“Do you really think I should?” she asked, finally picking up the duster in her mouth and following Spike’s lead, not wanting to appear lazy. “How mutf of a differenf could it make?”

Spike shrugged, putting away his duster and climbing the ladders to run a cloth over the top of the shelves. “Back when we lived in Canterlot, Twilight used to do them all the time. Once before breakfast, once before bed, and twice before every time she had a lesson with the princess,” he said indifferently. “Not saying that it’s the best, or only way to do it, but... y’know... it worked for Twilight.”

Sweetie thought about his suggestion while she went from bookcase to bookcase, quickly realising that there really wasn’t anything left for her to dust off; not only had Spike done a better job than she could have, he had done it in a fraction of the time as well. Great, another thing I’m useless at. At least he had said a few things worth keeping in mind, and she resolved to at least try the homework Twilight kept giving her.

Her ears, and those of Twilight and Rarity, perked up when the loud shouting of military commands reverberated through the wood of the tree. Sweetie was the first one at the windows and her gloomy thoughts were quickly replaced by a foal-like enthusiasm when she saw the chariot and the guards outside. “It’s the princess!” she yelled, running back to her sister and looking up at her with gleaming eyes and a wide smile.

“Can we take a break now, sis?”

Rarity resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Sweetie had been complaining all day about having to clean the library, and Rarity decided that both her sister and Spike could use a break anyway. “Of course, Sweetie. Thank you for all your hard work today.” she said, leaning down to give her sister a friendly nuzzle. Before Sweetie could break out in cheering however, Rarity continued, “Although I must insist that you stay in the library.”

Sweetie frowned. “Awhh... but, Rarity!”

“Ah-ah-ah.” Rarity held up a hoof, waving it back and forth admonishingly. “No buts, Sweetie Belle. You’re still grounded.”

Her little sister sighed, but eventually nodded. “Okay, sis,” she said, hanging her head.

Spike was enthusiastic about getting some time off from helping Rarity, for once. “Don’t worry, Sweetie Belle,” he said, “I got the latest comics of Daring Do, and the Power Ponies the other day, and I have a lot more you probably haven’t read.”

His enthusiasm brought a small smile back to Sweetie’s face as well and she nodded to him.

Rarity watched both youngsters disappear through the door leading to the former storage closet and chuckled softly. Already well on their way to ignoring everything and anything that isn’t on a page, no doubt. When she turned back to the pedestal Twilight had been standing on, however, she found that empty as well. Her quarry couldn’t have gotten far; it was hard to hide when one was that big, after all.

Sure enough, when she let her gaze drift along the inside of the library, she caught a flowing tail that held every colour of the sunset disappear up the stairs towards the bedroom she and Twilight shared. And if that hadn't tipped her off, the trail of discarded pieces of fabric that were supposed to have become Twilight’s dress would have. Rarity tsked and followed her friend up the stairs while picking up the pieces; she was going to complete the dress, one way or another.

When Rarity stepped into the room, she found that very same tail inexpertly sticking out of Twilight's closet. It was an impressive feat, all things considered. Rarity had seen the inside of the closet, and she wouldn’t have thought it anywhere near big enough to fit a fully grown alicorn, especially one as big as Twilight was.

“Really now, darling,” she said with a sigh. “You’re worse at hiding than Sweetie Belle is, and her I could find with my eyes closed.” Twilight flinched when Rarity opened the closet doors, dragging her out by her tail—Rarity was certainly stronger than she looked—and huffing after she had set Twilight down in the center of the room. "And you really need to watch your weight.” She pulled her friend upright and gave her another slap on the flank. “Come now, darling. I’m sure it won’t be as bad as you think, and it’s terribly rude to keep guests waiting at the door.”

Twilight bit her lip while she looked from Rarity to the door and back again, before letting out a long-suffering sigh and trudging back down the stairs. No matter how much her mind was telling her that opening the door for an angry princess was a bad idea, she knew that Rarity was right.

Princess Celestia of Equestria was distracted. It had taken her three weeks of playing mediator in the carousel diplomacy between the Minotaurs and the Saddle Arabians before they had finally come to an agreement, which hadn’t left a lot of time or thought for anything else. Now, standing in front of the library, she realised she could not remember even the basic premise of the letter she had received the previous week, aside from the fact that it was from Twilight; a little tidbit she only remembered because the scroll had appeared in the middle of a heated discussion, which provided just enough of a distraction for her to help soothe tempers.

The chariot ride had barely given her enough time to come up with an excuse and even then, she still could not recall if Twilight's letter was idle banter, a request for help, or something more personal. if it wasn't, I can always say that I simply needed some time away from court. she thought with a small smile. If nothing else, that much at least, was true.

The door opened and she widened her smile in preparation of greeting her student, only for her breath to be taken away by the pony that appeared in the doorway. It was an Alicorn. An Alicorn she had never seen before; with long shapely legs, a royal purple coat that did little to hide the soft blush she sported, and a flowing mane that shared its colors with sunrise, Celestia's favorite time of day. It did not end there, however. The Alicorn was a head bigger than Celestia herself (A rare treat for a mare that could look the bipedal minotaurs in the eye) and though they weren't first thing Celestia took note of, the Alicorn had deep lavender eyes which seemed to have been created specifically to pierce any defences she put up.

"H-hello, princess."

Even her voice was soft, melodious, and pleasantly lilted, and it wasn't until Celestia recognised the stammer and inflection in the sentence that she realized who she was looking at. "Twilight?" She asked incredulously, while her mind tried to equate what she knew of her student with the mare in front of her.

Two ears, which up till then had been plastered against Twilight’s skull, swiveled towards Celestia and their owner nodded hesitantly. “Yes?”

“You look—” Beautiful “—different.”

Twilight flashed her another awkward smile and stepped aside, allowing Celestia into the library, even if it meant stepping around one another. “I would have told you about it in my letter, but I sort of—” Twilight rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. “—forgot.”

“I see...” Celestia didn’t even spare a glance for the rest of the library, her attention riveted on her former student.

If anything it only made Twilight look more uncomfortable. The purple alicorn fidgeted nervously and struggled to keep her wings from making tiny agitated flapping motions. “I’ll just... go... and... make us some tea! Would you like some tea, Princess?”

“Jasmine will be fine,” Celestia replied absently, her eyes lingering on Twilight’s rather sizable flank before, it, and Twilight, disappeared into the kitchen.

“She has become rather beautiful hasn’t she, your majesty?”

It took Celestia a moment to come to her senses. With Twilight gone, thought returned to her, and she quickly checked herself for any traces of a beguiling spell before turning to the, thankfully, normal sized Rarity who smiled up at her.

“Quite,” she agreed.

Rarity smiled and bowed. “In lieu of Twilight adhering to proper protocol when one is entertaining a Princess in one’s home, allow me: Welcome to the library, Princess. As you might be able to tell, it is a little crowded as of late.”

For the first time since she had set a hoof in the library, Celestia genuinely looked around. The first thing that immediately caught her attention was the fact that there was no litter of books spread out over the floor. Unusual enough for any place that Twilight inhabited, but even more so when each and every one of those had been replaced by either rolls of fabric, measuring tapes, or even the occasional dress sketch. It made her wonder if Rarity had taken over the library, and if so, why Twilight didn’t seem to mind.

“Did the two of you get married while I wasn’t looking?” Celestia asked with a curt smile. There was a tiny sting of jealousy, but it was expertly squashed under a mountain of logical enough reasons. Rarity was a fine mare in her own right, and Twilight had every right to choose whom she wanted to be with. Even if— No, especially with her new looks. Celestia had no right, or perhaps more accurately, no inclination to feel jealousy towards a mare that would be gone in a relative blink of an eye.

To her surprise—and relief— Rarity merely tittered. “Oh, heavens no, I’m spoken for by another I’m afraid. Please, sit.”

Talking to Rarity rather than Twilight posed a problem. While not quite as intelligent—Celestia doubted that anypony alive could really measure up—Rarity was a lot savvier when it came to social decorum and reading between the lines.

It was as if the unicorn had been waiting for Celestia to have that thought, because in the same moment she did, Rarity asked, “I thought Twilight had told you all about our problems in her letter; was I mistaken?”

“I fear that she may have left out a few crucial details...” Celestia replied, idly glancing at the kitchen. Whatever was happening in there was noisy, but hadn’t produced anything worth consuming just yet. “Like the fact that she seems to have grown a little.”

“A little might be understating things.” Judging by Rarity’s smile, she knew that there was more to Celestia’s words. Nevertheless, her voice was amicable enough and she didn’t press the issue. “Well then... where to start...I had just booked a marvelous three day trip up to the Crystal Empire. For some rest and relaxation, shall we call it? Anyway, it seems that my little sister was having some difficulty with basic levitation, and you know Twilight, the answer to everything is throw more magic at it! It went about as well as you could expect and before long my baby sister had both the power and the idea to try and cast high level magic...”

The atmosphere in the kitchen was a lot less relaxed than that of the living room. Mostly due to an agitated and aged alicorn, who was nervously trying to get her magic to cooperate long enough to make a cup of tea. Sadly, things weren’t going her way. She had already wrecked three kettles, two of which had simply crumpled under the pressure of her telekinesis rather than float over to the faucet like they were supposed to; water was dripping from... pretty much everywhere, due to her having switched tactics and tried to guide the water to the fourth and final teapot instead. It was probably the only reason the kitchen wasn’t on fire. Twilight herself was faring no better; though she no longer had a mane that could frazzle, the colors swirled and the unruly hair got in her face more than once, making her misstep or bump into things, though that may have been because she still wasn’t used to her size.

One of the cupboards had a neat circular hole near the top and would probably have to be repaired at the least, while another had been ripped from the wall in its entirety and would have to be replaced. Twilight’s attention was scattered at best.

All she could think about was the look on Celestia’s face when she’d seen her.

She’s never looked at me like that! Not even when I blew up the north tower! Twilight thought, trying to regain her calm. Her mentor hadn’t looked angry so much as... bemused. Had she finally done something stupid enough to stump even the princess?

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Calm down, Twilight, calm down. She was just shocked by the way you look.” She quelled the panic rising in her stomach as best as she could and, rather than risk the last teapot, picked up an individual cup which she placed on the tray; or at least... would have placed on the tray.

Seconds later she was staring at the wall, where the cup had neatly embedded itself into the wood. At least it hadn’t shattered. She bit her lip and once again carefully tried to extract the cup from its resting place, only for it to hit her square in the muzzle. The pain was negligible—courtesy of Alicornian pain tolerance—but this time the glass had shattered.

What the hay is wrong with me? She knew the answer even while asking herself that question: Seeing the princess after she had done something wrong always stressed her out, and while her control over both her body and her magic had remained mostly the same, the power and size of both, hadn’t.

Another deep breath preceded trying to pick up a cup with her hooves, which, in turn, preceded a yelp and Twilight finding herself on the floor of the kitchen.

Back in the living room, Rarity had finished her tale about the boutique being blown up with the necessary drama. There were no longer any tears; she had accepted what happened, but nopony could blame her for a little bit of theatrics, could they? “So as you can probably tell, Twilight and Sweetie Belle made quite the mess,” she concluded. “And it could all have been avoided if Sweetie Belle just learned some patience...” She stopped for a moment, hoof covering her own mouth in shock. “Heavens, I sound like my mother.”

Celestia smiled indulgently. Letting Rarity talk was amusing enough, and it gave her some time to think. “Do you mean to say that you never wished for your cutie-mark when you were a filly?”

“Well... yes, of course. I doubt that there is anypony who hasn’t,” Rarity admitted. “But I did not go running around causing havoc every day of the week, and I certainly did not try my horn at a spell that was clearly beyond me!”

“Perhaps you would have if you’d had access to spellbooks,” Celestia replied. Her mind had been on Twilight which, when mingled with Rarity’s retelling of Sweetie’s activities, brought to mind some amusing, or at least interesting anecdotes. “Though I think it has more to do with impetuousness of the youth. Twilight already had her cutie mark, and she made bigger blunders than this.”

“Oh?” Rarity perked up and scooted forward on her seat. “Please, do tell.”

“While I did the best I could to restrict her access to the truly dangerous spells, Twilight learned to teleport fairly quickly. I had guards posted, of course, but for her I had to create an entirely separate layer of magical wards.” Celestia smiled in fond remembrance. “In any case, Twilight somehow got her hooves on a tome dealing with animation spells. It took us three weeks to find all the statues she had used in her impromptu hide and seek game, and another week to get them all repositioned properly.”

Rarity hid a smile behind her hoof, trying to remain stern. “If you ask me, she shouldn’t have had access to a spell that makes other unicorns more powerful at all. Then maybe all of this could have been avoided.”

Celestia smiled weakly. “That is the problem with Twilight, I’m afraid.”

Rarity looked at her for a moment before softly shaking her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

Once more, Celestia looked over at the kitchen for a second, trying to determine what Twilight could be doing that was causing such a racket. “Such a spell does not... or did not exist, as far as I can recall.” At Rarity’s baffled look she smiled and continued. “Ever since she learned that the rules of magic are not carved in stone, the archive holding dangerous spells has all but doubled in size. We’ve had to expand the tower it was housed in, simply because of Twilight. She really is a savant when it comes to magic and keeps coming up with the craziest ways to modify spells to suit her needs.”

“Like... say... a spell that makes Parasprites eat houses instead of apples, for example?” Rarity asked, a smile blooming on her face as she too recalled some of the antics that Twilight’s magic had gotten them into.

“Exactly like that. Though granting another unicorn more power...” Celestia hummed thoughtfully. “I’ll be honest, I had no idea that was even possible. It sounds more... sophisticated than anything Twilight has crafted previously.”

“Sophisticated enough to destroy my boutique at least.” Rarity kept her expression neutral, but it was easy to tell that she was having a hard time of it.

“Speaking of which, have you given any thought to how you wish to rebuild it?” Celestia asked, idly adding the costs of the boutique to the running tally of Twilight’s lifetime destruction list in her head.

Rarity nodded. “A lot of thought, actually. I was thinking of expanding my inspiration room, and perhaps have an extra guest room on the ground floor and a few other trifles, though I’m afraid construction won’t be starting anytime soon.”

“Oh?” Celestia let her face show surprise, a hard thing to do on command, one that had taken her many centuries to perfect, but saved her a lot of headaches. She knew of several reasons why it wouldn’t but chose to let Rarity answer instead. “And why is that?”

“I’ve been to see several contractors—” Rarity well and truly frowned then. “—but they each have a safety clause built into their contract, stating that they can refuse to work on a site where potentially dangerous magic has been used in the last quarter.”

“I’m sorry to hear about that.”

“Please, there’s no need. I must admit that I rather like staying in the library.” Rarity shot a meaningful look at the podium Twilight had been standing on. “There is something about having somepony to talk to while I work that’s unmatched in getting my creativity flowing. And that’s not even mentioning the colors in her mane, have you ever seen anything like it?” The sound of something exploding in the kitchen, and the low groan that followed sounded more comedic than alarming, nevertheless, Rarity sighed, got up, and made for the kitchen. “Please excuse me, I do believe that dear Twilight needs some help getting the tea ready.”

After Rarity had disappeared into the kitchen, Celestia sorted through her thoughts, trying to figure out which she was most interested in; Twilight, or the spell she had created. This has certainly proven to be an interesting visit. From the corner of her eyes she watched a young filly come through a door near the stairs. Twilight’s very own student, she thought. Melancholy washed over her, remembering a time when Twilight was still a filly. Things move so very fast. The filly made her way over to one of the bookcases, stuck out her tongue, and strained herself trying to lift a simple book.

That too reminded Celestia of Twilight, in more ways than one, although Twilight had been trying to lift something a few magnitudes heavier. “Try feeling it in your stomach,” she said idly. “Putting undue strain on your body only makes magic that much more difficult.” The filly startled, dropping the book with a dull thud. Celestia picked it up with her magic and held up for her with a soft smile. “Try not to focus too much on how the magic works.”

The filly nodded cautiously. “Okay,” she said before lighting up her own horn again. Her magic sputtered and fluctuated for a few seconds before it coalesced into a weak aura which tentatively touched the book through Celestia’s own.

Celestia slowly released her hold on the book, watching both it and the filly become still as a statue. “Breathe.” The book wobbled dangerously when the filly took an exaggerated deep breath, but it didn’t fall. “Don’t think about what you’re doing, just do it.” It took a few moments, but eventually the filly cracked open an eye, looking at the book in disbelief. Celestia smiled. It felt good to help somepony without the endless bickering that plagued politics. “Very good,” she said, “your posture looks much better already.”

The filly squealed and reared up briefly before composing herself and coughing in a way that made her look a lot like her sister. What was her name again...

“Thank you, princess,” The filly chirped, “but... how did you know?” She set the book down, intentionally this time, and regarded Celestia with the same open minded curiosity all children shared.

It was too good to pass up. “I know many things,” Celestia replied cryptically, hiding a small smile when the filly looked frustrated with herself for just a moment.

“No... I meant... ugh...” The filly nodded towards the book. “How did you know I was thinking about the spell?”

Celestia finally let her smile show and said, “Because your teacher was the same way.”

It took a moment before the filly— Sweetie Belle, that was it. —made the connection. Apparently she had never really thought of Twilight as a teacher. She looked up at Celestia in awe and asked, “Twilight had trouble with levitation, too?”

Celestia laughed softly. “Not quite, for her it has always been quite natural to think about the spells she’s casting. It makes her very good at what she does, but she did make the same mistake you are making.”

“What mistake?”

Lighting up her horn, Celestia picked up the book and levitated it over to the table where she leafed through its pages idly. “You are trying to cast spells in the same way you’ve seen your sister and Twilight use their magic.”

Sweetie nodded eagerly. “uh-huh.”

Hmmm, not very quick on the uptake. Celestia thought, biting back a sigh. “Different ponies cast magic in different ways. Some think about it—”

“Like Twilight.”

Celestia nodded. “Some, like your sister, visualise it happening, and their magic takes care of the rest. And some... like you, have to feel the magic in their gut— stomach, before they can get it to work.”

Sweetie was silent for a while after that, walking over to the table and sitting down opposite Celestia. “I wonder why Twilight didn’t tell me any of that?” she wondered aloud.

All Celestia could do was shrug. “Perhaps she simply hadn’t realised it was a problem.”

“But you said she is good at what she does, didn’t you? Twilight has been teaching me magic for months while you only saw me lift one book one time...”

Celestia nodded thoughtfully. “While I think Twilight will become a great teacher, she doesn’t have a lot of experience yet.” she poked the filly on the nose with her magic. “I have had over a thousand students to make mistakes with and learn from. You are Twilight’s first student, she hasn’t had that chance yet.”

Another silence fell between them, leaving Celestia to wonder if what she’d said had been another mistake. It was never a good idea to undermine the authority of a teacher in any way, no matter how good the intentions. It always made the students either question if what they were being taught was correct, or—

“Maybe you could teach me magic instead?”

Celestia sighed. Or it made them question whether or not they should have a different teacher. “I don’t think that would be a good idea, Sweetie Belle.”

“Why not?” There was an honest ruthlessness to foal-like curiosity. Young ponies never seemed to think about how their actions might hurt others; In their black and white view of the world, things were so much simpler, and yet harder to deal with.

“For one thing, you would have to move to the castle in Canterlot so you wouldn’t be able to see your sister or your friends very often,” Celestia said, watching the filly deflate. “And it wouldn’t be fair to Twilight. From what I have read, she is doing everything she can to make it easier for you to learn magic.” She smiled slyly and winked. “Although something tells me that you aren’t doing all the lessons she assigned to you.”

Sweetie flushed with embarrassment and looked down at the table. “I know... it’s just so... boring.”

That made Celestia laugh once again. “Yes, sometimes it is. But boring doesn’t mean that it is not important.”

When Rarity stepped into the kitchen, it was all she could do not to turn away in abject horror. At the center of the room stood a miserable Alicorn, flanked on all sides by shards of broken glass, dented kettles, and at least two broken cupboards. It was as if a tornado had come through the library, but had been obliging enough to leave most of it unexploded.

“Heavens, darling, what happened?”

Twilight merely shrugged, continuing her staring contest with the floor with as much zeal as she usually reserved for research and the reading of books. “Just nervous, I guess.” Her voice sounded even more morose than she looked, and Rarity suppressed her self thought cleanliness balking at the mess in favour of giving her a heartfelt hug.

After she cleared a path anyway. Getting glass stuck in one's hooves was unpleasant to say the least.

The glass gathered itself together in neat little piles and was then swiftly consigned to the trashcan, immediately followed by the kettles. That is going to make preparing tea significantly more difficult... With most of the debris out of the way, Rarity walked up to her friend and gave her a friendly nuzzle, once again admiring just how much presence contributed to a pony’s stature. When she was happy and in control, Twilight’s new size could be very overwhelming to anypony that didn’t know her like Rarity did. Right now however... the young Or perhaps not so young? Alicorn looked like more like a lost child than anything imposing.

Rarity huffed softly when Twilight didn’t respond. If she was going to be like that, Rarity would simply have to do something about it. “I’ll take care of tea, darling,” she said, walking over to the counter and opening cupboards, looking for any glasses that had survived Twilight. “You go gawk at the princess. Go on.”

That finally earned her a reaction, in the form of Twilight jumping on the spot and making another dent in the ceiling. “I-I wasn’t gawking!” she stammered, turning red with embarrassment.

"Of course you weren't, darling," Rarity titered, finding the third kettle to be just as broken as the other two, or perhaps even moreso as it had ruptured rather than merely crumpled in on itself. It soon joined its brethren in the trash. "No furious blushing. You didn’t stammer a greeting when she so much as looked at you..." She finally found a small pot to boil water in, which didn't shed any light on why Twilight even possessed three kettles. Questions for another time, Rarity. Focus. "Have I told you about my lovely trip?"

Twilight had been silently muttering, trying to come up with some way to refute Rarity's claims beyond 'it isn't what it looks like' no doubt. The sudden non-sequitur took her by surprise and she gape at Rarity for a few seconds. "Six times, Rarity," she replied dourly.

Right... Rarity laughed a little awkwardly. "So I have... Forgive me, darling." She opened the faucet and waited for the pot to fill with water. "My question was rhetorical, as it were. I haven't told anypony what actually happened during the trip and—"

"But you have! You didn't stop praising the mineral baths you'd had for a full day, and after that it was about the 'unique'—" Twilight made the air quotes with her hooves. "—Seaweed wrap they had, or the—."

She petered out when she saw the look Rarity was giving her. The unicorn had halted her tea making activities and looked to be quite cross with her. "Twilight Sparkle, darling... I know you’re a little rattled right now, but could you please let me finish?"

Her ears had been folded back against her skull so many times that day that it almost felt comfortable. "Sorry, Rarity."

Rarity coughed politely, and did not comment on it further. "As I was trying to say, while I enjoyed the trip immensely, Fluttershy did not exactly share those sentiments."

"Oh? I thought she—"

"Ah ah ah ah!" Rarity all but glared at her conversational partner.

Twilight folded in on herself a little further. "Uhh... Sorry."

"As I was saying—" Rarity glared at Twilight again, daring her to interrupt, but the Alicorn had sat down on the spot and busied herself with the floor. "—Fluttershy wasn't exactly jubilant about our trip at first. She was constantly blushing and stammering— yes I know that isn't all that strange for her." She said when Twilight looked up, halfway towards forming a sentence already. "However, she was also making the same faces that you are when you look at Celestia."

“What kind of faces?”

How Rarity could fill her eyes with longing on command, Twilight would never know. But combined with the small, almost shy smile and the simultaneous floppy ears that conveyed both embarrassment and a hint of regret, she had captured the face she was talking about perfectly.

“What...” Twilight swallowed heavily. “What does that have to do with anything?

Rarity dropped the dopey smile and snorted. “Don't play games with me, Twilight. I might not have been completely sure about my observations before, but I am now. You are completely and hopelessly—"

“—What happened during the trip?” Twilight asked quickly, trying to postpone the revelation she knew was coming, but didn’t want to admit to herself. It only made everything that much more complicated. A few seconds passed during which Rarity scrutinised every inch of her face. Not the most pleasant experience, but still preferable over hearing somepony else say what she already knew deep down.

At last, Rarity sighed and returned to her task of making tea, lighting up her horn and casting a simple heating spell on the pot. "At first I wasn't quite sure whom she was making those faces at. It was always in a public place when she thought I didn’t notice, so I assumed she had seen one handsome stallion or another. But in those very same mineral baths I was 'praising' Fluttershy finally found the courage to tell me that she liked me.”

Twilight swallowed nervously. “You mean like-like?”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Don't argue semantics, darling, you know very well what I mean.”

“So, are you going to go on a date with her?”

Finally, Rarity smiled, albeit deviously, and said, “I already have been, darling. Two of them in fact.”

“What?” Twilight wracked her brain but couldn’t remember any time when Rarity would have had the time to do such a thing, or even when she had left the library in the last week. “When?”

“Once during the trip,” Rarity replied with a smile and eyes that looked through Twilight and saw something in the past. “It sadly had to be cut short because we ran into some injured animals, and you know how Fluttershy gets when that happens.”

Twilight nodded.

“The other one was a few days back. Nothing more than a simple picnic, mind you, but very enjoyable none the less.”

“But you haven’t even left the library since the boutique was destroyed!”

Rarity’s smile grew and she laughed, which made Twilight feel even more self conscious than she already had been. “Really now? Darling, with the way you lose yourself in a book, I could replace every book in the entire library with fudge replicas and you wouldn't even notice.” She began arranging the glasses that remained on the tray and nodded towards the living room. “Enough stalling, darling. Shoo. Go talk with your princess.”

Twilight moved slowly; Her relief at not actually having to tell Rarity that she was in love with Celestia, was overshadowed by actually having to be in the room as her mentor. Especially after Celestia had taken a very keen interest in her. She must have lingered too long for Rarity’s liking, because she could feel Rarity’s magic on her flank a split second before it pushed her through the door and out into the living room.

Unhappy Medium

Celestia was enjoying a rare moment of peace. The racket from the kitchen had stopped after Rarity had excused herself, and aside from the ambience, the library had gone completely silent. She wasn’t tired, or at least told herself as much, but it nevertheless felt wonderful to rest her eyes while listening to the soft turning of pages. Sweetie Belle had taken her words to heart and had apparently decided that sitting down and reading through the entire tome on the basics of magic was as good a place to start as any.

The peace was shattered when Twilight stumbled out of the kitchen, almost taking down a bookcase with her when she face planted on the hardened oaken floor.

For Celestia keeping her eyes closed suddenly became a challenge. Her ears had already identified the unfortunate pony by the sound she made when she crashed, and now she wanted nothing better than to open her eyes and watch her student move about. Twilight wasn’t exactly graceful in her new form, but Celestia nevertheless found herself looking forward to seeing how she moved again.

She again checked herself for a beguiling spell. Just in case.

“Were things as bad as they sounded in there?” she asked, turning to Twilight who had just rolled over to a prone position and shaken her head.

Twilight folded her ears back and smiled sourly. “Worse. I broke most of the glasses, and I think I might have broken a cupboard by running into it.” She ran a hoof through her flowing mane and sighed. "I guess I'm still not used to any of this."

"But you just made tea yesterday."

Both mares briefly looked at Sweetie Belle, whom, despite her apparent focus on the book had had enough presence of mind to contribute to the conversation. Celestia then looked back to Twilight and arched an eyebrow. "Did something change between yesterday and now?"

Twilight sighed again. You. For just a moment she wanted to lay everything out on the table, consequences be damned. But while her body had grown threefold, and her power possibly even more than that, her mind still belonged to an insecure young mare who let logic guide her actions. And right now, logic warned her that a direct confrontation would result in heartbreak, followed by sadness, ridicule, and possibly exile.

A small voice in the back of her mind spoke of hope, promising wonderful things and an end to the constant tension she carried with her, but it went ignored. Once again, Twilight chose safety and tried to swallow her feelings. But that tiny voice was not so easily silenced and instead of making an unrelated excuse like she normally would have, she heard herself say; “I think it's because of you, princess.”

The effect of her words was unmistakable. Celestia stiffened in her seat, shoulders tensing and wings splaying in an instinctive fight or flight response. It was a wonder to behold, and yet, the reason was less than wonderful.

The little voice of courage was silenced by a sinking heart that, in spite of her trying to stay safe, had been wounded, and Twilight hastily continued before the princess could denounce her. “I-I mean... All of this is because of a mistake that I made and I guess I was... am more worried about what you might say than I thought I was.”

“But it's not her fault! She was just trying to help me learn magic.” Sweetie jumped on the table and looked up at Celestia with a frown that outshone Twilight’s. “All of this happened because I wanted to get my cutie mark, and yet everypony blames Twilight.”

Hearing the filly speak out in defense of her teacher brought a gentle smile to Celestia’s face. It reminded her of a filly who had done something similar, by shouting at a diplomat for ‘accusing the princess’ of wrongdoings. “Owning up to your mistakes is a very admirable trait, Sweetie Belle,” she said. “Try not to lose that honesty as you grow up.” She let her smile fade before turning to Twilight. “However, when a student does something they shouldn't in a field, the teacher always shoulders most of the blame.”

Twilight bowed her head respectfully. She had known that there would be some recompense for her mistake—besides being whined at and used as a living doll by Rarity that is—and now that it had, she was relieved. Not knowing what the punishment would be had always been far worse for her, as her overactive mind conjured up punishments the likes of which probably never even entered the princess' thoughts. “Just tell me what I need to do, Princess.”

“Well...” Celestia got up from her seat and walked over to Twilight, giving her nuzzle, taking care to keep it friendly. Who ever thought I would be happy to have a pony lie down for a simple nuzzle? she thought with a smile. “I think that your current situation is punishment enough.”

“What?” “Really?”

Sweetie jumped from the table and landed right next to Twilight, turning around to look up at Celestia with a hopeful smile. “Could you make it so that I’m no longer grounded?”

The mares shared a laugh and Celestia shook her head slowly. “No, Sweetie Belle, I’m afraid that even I don’t have the authority to overrule your sister when it comes to matters of punishment.”

“Awhhh...”

“Are you sure it’s okay, Princess?” Twilight asked. Her smile lingered, but she couldn’t help but feel like she was getting away with something she shouldn’t have.

For Celestia, that very smile made it hard to think. For the first time in what could be considered forever to most ponies, did she feel the stirrings of longing. A wish for something more. She smothered the feelings with ruthless efficiency and cleared her throat to buy herself some time. “I’m sure, my faithful student. I would like to know how you created the spell that gave Sweetie Belle enough magic to set this whole debacle in motion, however.”

“Uhm... sure. Just let me...” Twilight finally got up, gathering up some paper with her magic while making her way over to sit down next to Celestia. “I used a plant growth spell as the basic template and then recalculated the growth patterns—”

Twilight made rudimentary sketches for reference while she explained the theory to Celestia, but to Sweetie Belle, it all looked and sounded like gibberish. Rather than let herself be frustrated by it, however, she decided that going back to her studies would be the quickest way to learn what they were talking about. Maybe, if she became good enough, she could make her own spells. When she did, she was going to create a spell which made sure that nopony would ever have to wonder what their cutie mark was ever again! It proved more difficult than expected. She couldn't focus while the two mares on the other side of the table were talking.

“And where does the extra power come from?” Celestia asked, looking more tense now than she had when Twilight had told her that her presence was the problem. “You didn’t use the third necromagical law to tie it to a pony’s lifeforce, did you?”

“No, no. No.” Twilight chuckled weakly. “I mean... I thought about it, but I found a better way."

Sweetie Belle did her best to follow along, but there was a lot of talk about dreams and power sources which didn't make any sense to her; how could dreams make you stronger? Twilight seemed really excited about all of it, and Princess Celestia seemed just as interested. Actually, the princess seemed...

"Power siphoning?"

"Of a sort.”

Sweetie Belle frowned in thought. It was sort of... weird. Granted she’d only really seen Twilight up close, but did Alicorns usually act like this around each other? Princess Celestia seemed to be acting kind of like some kind of silly filly that had found a colt she liked, and Twilight wasn’t even a colt.

"So loss of consciousness?—"

"—Is inevitable, and it’s an important part of the spell.”

There it was again! They were even finishing each other’s sentences!

“So while its maximum duration is limited by the time the target can stay awake, it has virtually no drawbacks!" Twilight exclaimed, smiling broadly.

"Amazing, Twilight."

Both alicorns seemed to have forgotten that she was even there. On, and on it went... Studies, and potential applications. Prospects and potential problems... Praise from the princess, and embarrassed happiness from Twilight. If it hadn't been for the subject matter, Sweetie would have been convinced that she had ended up in one of Rarity's sappy romance novels.

Both the comparison and their enthusiasm was extinguished when Rarity stepped back into the room, a tray full of sweet smelling treats held in her magic. "Here we are. Tea and biscuits for everypony."

The spell was broken and the two alicorns separated discreetly, going back to their respective sides of the table. Even though they were still seated next to one another, the distance between them had magnified tenfold. The excited smile Celestia had worn throughout the conversation was gone, replaced by one that, while no less sincere, nevertheless looked...distant. Twilight’s demeanour had changed as well, although hers was much more obvious. She looked upset, even angry, at least until she turned around to smile at Rarity. “Thank you, Rarity, sorry for making you take care of the tea.”

“Think nothing of it, darling. You needed some time to talk to the Princess, and I was due for a break anyway,” Rarity replied airily, setting down the tray on the table and turning to her sister. “Sweetie, could you go ask Spike if he wants some?”

Sweetie got the distinct impression that her sister knew more of what was happening than she let on, but decided that, while asking now might get her an answer, it might also end with her being punished. Besides, she could always ask her sister about it later. “Okay, sis,” she said, bounding back to the room, her head full of all the things she had seen.

What were they so excited about? She tried to imagine being that excited about something, but the only thing she could come up with was getting her cutie mark, and Twilight and the Princess already had theirs. Maybe they were trying to find a cutie mark spell as well? it didn't seem very likely, but then again, she didn't even understand what Twilight did most of the time.

"Spike? There's tea if you want some," she said when she climbed up on the bed she and Spike shared. The room itself was small. Little more than a broom closet that had been cleaned out; big enough for one medium sized bed, but no room to walk around it.

A wall of comics greeted her, from behind which came a disinterested "'Kay."

She walked around the great wall of comics that separated Spike's side of the bed from hers, and plopped down next to the dragon. "I said, tea is ready."

Spike was lounging on his back, the latest issue of the Power Ponies held in his claws, while his eyes roved over the pages. "I heard you the first time," he said, briefly looking over to her before the comic sucked him back in. He looked back at her before turning the page and asked, "Something wrong?"

"I don't know," Sweetie admitted. "Twilight and Princess Celestia were talking about that spell Twilight used to make me stronger, but they were acting really weird."

Spike chuckled. "Don't worry about it. Twilight always gets like that when she's allowed to explain something difficult."

His explanation made little sense to Sweetie Belle. "But she's never this excited when she explains magic to me."

The dragon lowered his comic and treated her to a deadpan look. "Does she debate 'the intricacies of triple layered spells as proposed by Starswirl the Bearded' with you?"

The title alone was enough to make Sweetie scratch her head. "No?"

"Exactly. Normal magic might be difficult for you, but it isn't for her. Which is why she gets so excited when she talks to the Princess."

Sweetie merely tilted her head. "What does difficult magic have to do with the princess?"

With a sigh, Spike put away his comic and sat upright. "Princess Celestia might be the only pony alive who knows as much about magic as Twilight does. That means she’s the one pony that Twilight can talk to that she never has to stop and explain what she means.”.

“But I thought you said Twilight liked explaining things!”

“I meant... ugh...” Spike chewed on his lower lip thoughtfully. “Okay, imagine trying to explain what it’s like to use magic to Apple Bloom. I mean yes, it might be fun at first, but eventually you’d start to get a little frustrated because there’s no way she’s ever really going to get it. That’s how Twilight feels all the time.”

“Oh...” Sweetie replied, frowning to herself as she tried to remember what explaining magic to either of her friends had been like. “I think I see what you mean.” What Spike said made sense, but even with the new information, it felt as though she was still missing part of the picture. Deciding that it wasn’t super important at that very moment, she shook her head and smiled at Spike. “So... tea?”

Spike snorted and shook his head. “No thanks, I’d rather just read a few more comics.”

It was a little disappointing, but Sweetie Belle none the less smiled. “Okay then.”

She hadn’t even set foot inside the living room before Twilight called out to her. “Sweetie Belle? Could you please bring the mageweight-spheres with you?”

"Okay." She ducked back into the room and looked around for the twin silver spheres. She remembered practicing on them right before bed the previous day, but couldn’t remember what had happened to them afterwards. They weren’t on the bed—Rarity always insisted she make her bed first thing in the morning— and there were few other places in the room they could be. A peek under the bed revealed the spheres in a corner against one of the bed’s legs and Sweetie was reminded of her frustration from that evening. Her magic hadn’t wanted to cooperate then either, and she had cursed her horn before going to sleep.

“Looking for something?”

Sweetie bumped her head against the bottom of the bed, startled by the sudden question. “Yeah,” she replied, rubbing her head. “But I already found it.” She took a deep breath and lit up her horn which sputtered and faltered before she had good and well cast her levitation spell over the spheres. No, no, no... not now! taking another deep breath, she tried to feel the spell in her stomach, just like the Princess had said. The effect wasn’t as immediate as she’d hoped, but her aura nevertheless grew and solidified until she could finally pick up the spheres with confidence.

To say that all her magical problems had been solved would be an overstatement, but she did carry the two lazily orbiting spheres back to the table with few problems, and she didn’t even drop them once. “Here.”

Twilight smiled at her before picking up the orbs in her own magic. “Thank you, Sweetie Belle.”

The alicorn closed her eyes in concentration and the lavender aura that surrounded both her horn and the mage-weights grew darker until it resembled the color of her coat. It wasn't like anything Sweetie had ever seen before, and a quick glance to either side revealed that she wasn't the only one spellbound by what Twilight was doing; Rarity's mouth hung open in a very unladylike display of the same, and even all of Celestia's attention was on whatever spell Twilight was casting—Or perhaps she was simply looking at Twilight again, Sweetie couldn’t be sure.

The entire thing lasted for no more than a minute before Twilight's posture slackened somewhat and she opened her eyes, smiling self consciously at the four pair of eyes that looked like they were trying to burn holes in her face. "Sorry, I guess I should have known something like this would happen."

Sweetie Belle was confused until she looked to the princess for clarification. Celestia's attention remained focused, but for perhaps the first time that day, it wasn't on Twilight. Twilight's aura retained its darker coloration, but the silver spheres she had been holding hadn't; one of the orbs had gone from silvery-white to a deep, warm, orange. While the other had only gotten whiter, to the point where it emitted light. The two floating miniature suns retained their spherical shape only so long as Twilight held them in her magic, and the moment she put them down on the table they dissolved into puddles of molten silver. Apparently Twilight hadn’t thought that part through because she picked them up straight away after the edges of the twin puddles quickly began to blacken. Sweetie looked at her mentor in awe. “What did you—”

“Well... that certainly isn’t how we measured it back when I was a filly,” Rarity interrupted her, eying the two red hot orbs with just a hint of trepidation. “I always thought the idea was to hold them in the air for as long as you could?”

Twilight nodded sheepishly. “That’s the idea, the enchantment is supposed to make them heavier which means that you have to put more energy into keeping them aloft, which in turn gives the spell enough magic to make them even heavier.”

“So what did you do differently?”

“She overloaded the enchantment,” Celestia answered in Twilight’s stead, looking at her former pupil with a smile and no small amount of fascination. "And I daresay that she did so faster than I ever have."

"But you said you couldn't!" Twilight sputtered, going red in the face when Celestia arched an eyebrow. "B-back when I was..." She pursed her lips. "Ten! You told me that even you sometimes had trouble keeping both spheres the air, never mind being able to melt them!"

Celestia nodded thoughtfully. "Correct. Though I recall you were having doubts about your magic when I told you as much." She lifted her cup and took a sip of her tea before continuing. "What do you think you would have done if I had told you that I could muster enough magical power to melt them in under a minute while you were struggling to keep them airborne?"

"Well I... I... I would have—"

"—You would have been crushed and possibly have given up on magic altogether." Celestia interrupted her stammering. The princess then drained the rest of her cup before continuing in a wistful tone. "You have always wanted to be the best at everything you set your mind on, experience of other ponies be damned."

Hearing about Twilight's own struggles with magic and her shortcomings as a pony was difficult for Sweetie Belle. Ever since she had started practicing with the alicorn, Twilight had become somewhat of a role model to her. A perfect example of what a pony could achieve if they tried their very best, even if she didn't have the same level of ambition. And now that perfection was being stripped away to reveal that Twilight was a pony just like her. On some level she knew that it had always been that way, but that she simply chose not to see it. It did, however, help her understand how Twilight must have felt. Their student teacher relationship had only been a few months long. Twilight's relationship with Celestia however, had been most of Twilight's life. It made some of what she had seen before make more sense, but she still didn't have the whole picture.

More to the point, they weren't even talking about the most important parts! "But why didn’t they become heavier when I practiced with them? And what am I supposed to practice with now?" she asked the alicorns, both of which looked up in a daze as though they had forgotten all about the rest of the table.

“Because the enchantment hadn’t been activated, Sweetie Belle.” “I think I have another set downstairs, let me go get it.”

A sentence a piece later and Sweetie still didn’t have the answers to her questions, if only because they talked through one another. She watched Twilight get up and canter towards the stairs with a face that resembled a tomato, Celestia’s eyes following her all the way while her sister, in turn, seemed to be having a staring contest with the back of the princess’ head and wasn’t any of help either.

She looked, first to the princess and then back to her sister. “Sis?”

Rarity’s only response was a brief smile which was only half aimed at Sweetie Belle as her eyes were still locked on Celestia.

“Sweetie Belle, could you please go with Twilight?” Princess Celestia asked, refilling both her and Rarity’s tea cups. “It seems your sister and I need to have a word in private.”

“Is something wrong?” Sweetie asked her sister.

“Not at all, Sweetie. There’s just something the princess and I need to talk about, mare to mare.” It sounded like Rarity was trying very hard not to bite the tail end off of her sentence, which usually meant that she was having a hard time not blowing up at somepony.

“O...kay.” Sweetie replied, beginning to resent being sent away all the time. She decided that she wasn’t going to stop pestering Rarity until she had a good explanation for all this weirdness later. It didn’t seem like she’d be able to get a straight answer at the moment anyway. She jumped off of her seat and slowly trotted around the table, looking back at her sister one last time before descending the stairs.

Rarity’s eyes were sparking, which usually meant that she was really angry, but too polite to start anything while other ponies were around. For just a moment, Sweetie felt sorry for the princess.

After Sweetie Belle’s hoof falls had disappeared, Rarity turned to Celestia expectantly. “So,” she said, sipping demurely at her tea. “Are you deliberately leading Twilight on, or are you merely blind?”

“I am not ‘leading her on’ as you say. Twilight is a grown mare, and, like you said, she has become quite attractive.” Celestia paused to take a sip of her own tea. “That does not mean, however, that I am obligated to indulge every little fancy she can conceive of.”

“So, blind it is, then. I’ll talk to Fluttershy about a seeing eye dog.” Rarity smirked at the princess. “But in all seriousness, you know how horribly awkward she is, if you can see how she feels how can you let her suffer in silence?”

“I could say the same about a certain dragon hatchling, you know—”

“That’s not the same and you know it.” Rarity snapped back, irritated. “Spikey has an adorable little crush and I don’t want to hurt his feelings. Besides, he knows very well I don’t feel the same. It doesn’t have to be said.”

“Does he?” Celestia sighed and rubbed the side of her head with a hoof. “All I ever hear from him is how great, and wonderful, and kind you are to him. Does it really sound like nothing has to be said?”

Rarity’s cheeks colored, and she looked away from Celestia. “It’s perfectly fine if he wants to admire me, but he—”

“—is holding out hope against his better judgement?”

Rarity harrumphed irritably, “So is that what Twilight is doing then? At least I let Spike know that I knew how he felt, even if I haven’t dissuaded him enough, apparently. What exactly have you done?”

Celestia glanced at the stairs down which Twilight had disappeared. “What could I do? What I said about striving for perfection back there holds true in every aspect of Twilight’s life. Rejecting her outright would more than likely crush her. She’d be convinced that she isn’t good enough for anypony to love... A problem I have sadly seen her deal with before.”

“And why would you need to reject her? I would think her a fine romantic partner, social anxiety aside. You share the same interests, go about problems the same way... and you practically finish each other’s sentences!”

“I agree,” Celestia said simply. “If all else were equal, I would love nothing more.”

“Equal? For goodness sake she’s royalty as well, isn’t she? Intellectually, socially, and I daresay even magically she’s more than your equal.”

“It is not power or social status that I am talking about young filly,” Celestia replied hotly. “I am not the virgin saint many ponies these days describe me as. I have had lovers, noble and common born alike, and I loved them all equally." Her fire and passion left her all at once, leaving her looking tired and pained. “It inevitably ends in tragedy,” she finished softly.

"Do you think she’d love you any less for failing to grow old with her?” Rarity demanded. “Because if you do, I will tell you right now that you are doing her a disservice.”

Celestia chuckled sadly. “It is not her love I am concerned about. Surviving your spouse—lover—beau, once in a life-time is bad enough. For most ponies it is such a deep blow to the soul that they follow their lifelong partners to the grave within a year...” She petered out and took a deep breath to steady herself. “I have held nine ponies I cared about as they breathed their last, and I never want to go through that again.” Moisture had gathered in her eyes but she shook it away angrily. “That, Rarity, is why I choose to do nothing.”

Rarity considered that for a long moment. “I suppose that must be very hard, I admit I am having a hard time imagining what it would be like. Generally a pony finds the one and that’s it, if they are lucky enough to find them at all.”

“And generally, they do not have to deal with the pain of losing more than just the one.” Celestia flexed her wings and twisted her neck, trying to get rid of the anger she was feeling in a non-destructive way. She knew it was difficult for ponies to understand why she did what she did, but always being second guessed and forced to relive painful memories was difficult. “Were I a few thousand years younger, I might have agreed. But the happiness is always fleeting, whilst the pain is cumulative.”

“If you truly feel that way, at least do her the kindness of telling her she has no chance, princess.” Rarity said, sighing heavily. “It really isn’t fair to keep her pining away like this.”

“As I told you, if I were to do such a thing, she would think herself unworthy of anypony’s love. The best I can do is ignore her for now, and hope that she finds some other pony with which she can be happy.”

Rarity laughed bitterly. “Let me tell you about that, princess. Love is a rather stubborn thing, not easily shaken. I’ve fallen in love many times myself, with ideas of ponies I never met, who I wish I’d never met in the flesh, to be honest. But at the very least I had the opportunity to have it dashed on the rocks of reality, heal, and try again. She won’t just give up because you refuse to see how she feels.”

“Then what?!” Celestia near shouted. “Apologise and tell her that I love her but we can never be together? Make up an excuse? Send her off to some remote location perhaps?” The teapot crumbled in her magical grip and only after she noticed did she take a few deep breaths to calm down and regain her composure. “I keep my distance for a reason, my little pony. Losing a friend is difficult enough, and I have lost a lot of friends. I don’t— cannot allow myself to grow closer than that to anypony, knowing that they will leave me within a few short years.”

“A few short—” Rarity sputtered. “Majesty, have you forgotten why you were asked to be here? Let me remind you: My boutique was turned to dust by the selfsame spell that hit Twilight. Yet there she stands, having aged who knows how many centuries. So, tell me again, what exactly is the problem?”

Celestia looked at her like she had sprouted a second head, opening and closing her mouth without actually producing any sound. Eventually she shut it, and stared at her teacup with an intensity Rarity had, before today, only seen on Twilight when she was focused on a particularly engaging research question.

“So why do you and princess Celestia finish each other's sentences?” came the question from Sweetie Belle, while she looked around the basement laboratory.

Twilight, red faced and extremely embarrassed, coughed and continued to root through the shelves and chests that might contain the mage-weights. She had hoped that offering to get Sweetie Belle’s balls for her would give her some respite after the way she made a fool out of herself in front of the princess.

No such luck.

“And why do you always blush when the princess asks you something?”

“Sweetie Belle..?” Twilight asked, groaning softly.

“Yes?”

Plumbing the depths of her mind for a competent excuse came up empty, and with a sigh she decided to go with the truth. “I don’t really know why, okay? I think it’s because I get embarrassed when I make mistakes.” And maybe just a teensy bit because she’s so kind, and beautiful, and patient and... no! Bad Twilight! She shook her head vigorously. “How about we focus on finding for the mage-weights?”

The filly remained motionless for a few moments before nodding. “Okay!”

Despite what she’d told Sweetie, Twilight’s searching was scatterbrained at best. Her thoughts kept returning to her— the Princess. Even after the several years she had spent learning about friendship in Ponyville, she still did not think of herself as being very good at reading social cues, but Celestia’s looked had been so unabashed and overt that even she couldn’t have missed them. Every time she thought about it, it sent a tingle through her stomach, making all the butterflies that made it their home scatter.

Sluggishly did she make her way through one of the closets at the back of her laboratory, letting her mind wander while she absently picked up each item on the shelves with her magic before identifying it as being something other than the mage-weights and putting it back. Halfway through, she realised that the shelf she was searching only held alchemical components, but continued to pick the items up one by one anyway; if nothing else, it gave her some more time alone with her thoughts.

Why would the princess look at me like that without saying anything..? I suppose she did say that I looked different, maybe she’s just curious? Twilight sighed again and suppressed the idle fluttering of her wings suggesting more hopeful ideas. Even the princess can be caught unawares by something. She’s just a pony after all. Just a beautiful, gorgeo— dammit.

“What’s that?” Twilight jumped, very nearly dropping the alchemical flask she was holding in her magic when Sweetie suddenly appeared next to her. “Sorry,” the filly continued, “You were just looking at it so intently that I thought it could be important.”

Twilight needed only glance at the label once to remind herself what exactly the vial contained, and chuckled. “This is a plant growth potion, which I used as the basis for the empowerment spell.”

“Empowerment spell?”

“It uses the same growth formula to strengthen the ley-lines in a pony’s body so that they can handle the extra—” Twilight stopped, having to mentally adjust for the fact that she was no longer talking to Celestia. “—You know how plants become bigger, taller, and stronger as they grow older?”

Sweetie smiled and nodded, remembering her biology lessons on plant growth; it made more sense than magic at least.

“Well,” Twilight tapped the vial with a hoof. “this makes all of that go faster, and I used the same idea for the spell I cast on you.”

She realised it was a bad idea to bring it up about two seconds after Sweetie Belle’s smile had faded and the filly hung her head. “I’m sorry for making you older, Twilight.”

Twilight leaned down and gave her student a gentle nuzzle. “It’s okay, Sweetie Belle. I told you before; we all make mistakes. Besides...” She smiled for the filly’s benefit. “I don’t have to look up to the princess anymore.” Sweetie’s smile remained absent, and Twilight deflated a little. “Let’s find the mage-weights and get back upstairs,” she said, putting the vial back on the shelf and walking towards the chest she should have been looking in all along.

Before she’d had a chance to open it, however, Sweetie spoke up. “So... why is okay for me to make a mistake, but you get embarrassed when you do it?”

Twilight let the lid of the chest drop and turned around. Sweetie Belle hadn’t moved beyond turning to face her, though she looked more curious than downcast which was an improvement at least. “Because you’re still young, and I should know better,” she replied.

“But that’s not all, is it?”

Twilight gritted her teeth. "I don't know. Sometimes I wish there could be more, but it's not a decision I can make on my own." She delved back into the chest without another word, levitating the entirety of its contents in one go, and picking out the twin spheres from within the chaotic mess which she then floated over to Sweetie Belle. "There you go. Let's go back upstairs.”

It was frustrating not getting any straight answers. Everypony was treating her like a dumb filly that couldn’t understand anything, even Twilight who was supposed to be her teacher wouldn’t tell her what puzzle piece she was missing. Sweetie pouted and said, "But you haven't told me what—"

"—And I don't want to!" Twilight screamed. Sweetie Belle recoiled at the harshness of Twilight’s tone, backing up a few paces and falling onto her rump which made Twilight close her eyes and sigh before lowering herself next to the filly. The size difference was still laughable, but anything to help lessen the disparity helped. "I'm sorry, Sweetie it's just..." She glanced over at the stairs. "It's something personal and I would rather not talk about it." She started towards the stairs, silently fretting over her actions and her feelings. Sweetie Belle wasn’t responsible for her dilemma, she had just been the catalyst that made her have to deal with those feelings. She stopped when Sweetie piped up again, timidly, but nevertheless curious.

“Is it because you’re so old now?”

“No, Sweetie Belle. It’s not because I’m old now.”

“But it feels strange, right? The spell said that you could make ponies younger as well so wouldn’t you want to...”

An icy feeling of panic set itself up in Twilight’s stomach, giving the butterflies a hard time. If she was honest with herself, aging a thousand years in a day wasn’t what she would ever have wanted. There was too much to acclimatise to; from her size, to her magic, to even the way everypony reacted to anything she did. On the flipside, Princess Celestia finally looked at her as something more than just the awkward filly that had been her student for years.

“I think so,” she said finally, shooting a smile back to Sweetie Belle, mostly in reassurance. “Being big can be kind of fun, but it’s really more trouble than it’s worth.”

A few minutes later, Twilight was busily trying to keep her brain from running away with her imagination. The princess had looked when she and Sweetie Belle stepped back into the living room, but it had been a look of such bewilderment that Twilight reexamined anything and everything she had done that day; not at all helped by the unprecedented silence from the princess. “S-so... did anything happen while we were downstairs?” She asked, trying to forestall her worst fears from playing through her mind like she knew they would.

Two more cups were emptied and refilled in the oppressive silence that hung over the room like a thick woolen blanket, before Rarity finally dropped her own icy gaze, which had on the princess the entire time. “Nothing important, darling. The princess and I were just talking how much of a difference a thousand years can make for a pony, and how well you’ve acquitted yourself so far.”

One of Celestia’s ears perked up and she shot a sideways glance at Twilight before returning to her silent tea-cup-staring-contest. She remained silent, letting Rarity talk, and talk, and talk some more.

It fueled Twilight’s concern, but Rarity was still going. “—And after that, I tried to explain to the princess how far you’d come with your research into a counterspell, but I realised that it couldn’t have been easy. My constantly designing dress around you must have been terribly distracting,” the unicorn said with an amiable smile. “And the princess was kind enough to offer her assistance.”

“I should go,” Celestia said, pushing her teacup to the center of the table and almost stumbling to her hooves. “Thank you for the tea, miss Rarity.” She briefly turned to Twilight and opened her mouth, but nothing came out; after a scant thirty seconds, she gave up, simply nodded to her student, and vanished in a blinding flash of light, leaving a confused trio of ponies behind.

Twilight, who had gotten up when the princess did, whirled around to her friend. “Rarity... what did you do?”

“What do you mean, darling? She and I were merely—”

“You broke the princess!” Twilight yelled in a panic, having galloped halfway up the stairs before remembering that Spike’s room had been moved. Perhaps she could save, or at least help what was left of the princess if she got a letter to her fast enough. Why didn’t I ever take the time to learn how to send scrolls? she quailed, ineptly trying to turn her weight around on the stairs which were suddenly too small. Three missteps, and half a fall later, she was facing down on the stairs which lasted for all of three seconds before she tried to skip most of the walking by spreading her wings and gliding the rest of the way. When she arrived at the door however, she found it blocked by the light blue glow of Rarity’s magic.

“Calm yourself, darling,” Rarity said sternly, swatting her on the rump once again. “The princess doesn’t ‘break’ that easily.”

“But what if she did?! I have to write her a letter and—”

“Twilight!” Twilight was yanked away from the door by an ear and pulled down to Rarity who looked less like her longtime friend and more like the harsh headmistress at the school for gifted unicorns. “What I told the princess might very well have rattled her a little, but trust me, darling, it was a wake up call that was sorely needed. Now, you and I are going to go back to what we were doing and let the princess sort herself out.”

“What about me?”

Rarity looked over at her sister and let her expression soften. “I do believe that there’s still cleaning to do, and after you are finished, perhaps we can all go out and get some ice-cream.”

“Ice-cream?!” The door to the former closet opened to reveal a hungry young dragon who rubbed his stomach with one claw while the other snatched Sweetie Belle in passing, and dragged her up the stairs to continue their assignment.

“Uh... Rarity? Could you...”

Belatedly, Rarity realised that she was still holding Twilight in a magical hold and let go with a sheepish smile. “Terribly sorry, darling. Shall we get back to the dress designing then?”

“But I—” Twilight sighed and hung her head. “Okay.”

“Splendid! Now where did I leave my measuring tape?”

Twilight spent the rest of the day in a state of mild panic, which was assuaged every now and again by Rarity. The fashionista wouldn't hear any of her wild theories about what could have made the princess leave so suddenly and repeatedly assured her that; "Even the princess needs some time to herself sometimes, but that doesn't mean that she is going to ignore your request for help.”

How she was going to tell Rarity that her letter hadn’t included any such request, Twilight didn’t know. What she did know, as the sun set and time came for them to put Sweetie Belle and Spike to bed, was that she was scared.

“Rarity?” she asked after the two youngsters had been put to bed, and they had each settled down with something to read. Rarity had once again taken it upon herself to make something to drink for the both of them, which Twilight was grateful for; she didn’t trust herself around glassware.

The unicorn did not reply beyond humming thoughtfully.

“Do you think I should do it?”

Rarity looked up from the romance novel she had opened after finally putting away her designer implements and cast a quizzical glance her way. “Do what, darling?”

“Reverse the spell.”

“Well, whyever not?" Rarity used her magic to idly stir the tea leaves. She looked graceful, even while merely reclining on a few pillows, making Twilight wonder why she could never seem to stop being so awkward, which in turn lead to her wondering if that was the reason for Celestia’s dismissiveness. "I thought you said this entire age spell was more trouble than it was worth.”

Twilight nodded slowly. That was exactly what she'd told Sweetie Belle, and yet she wasn't sure anymore. “I know... I know... I’m just... scared.”

All Rarity did was arch an eyebrow and yet Twilight understood the silent question as if the unicorn had screamed it at her.

“You saw the way the princess looked at me, right?” She asked before chuckling weakly to herself. “Of course you did, you’re good at that sort of thing.” When Rarity didn’t reply immediately, she continued, trying to fill the silence that seemed unbearable.“It’s just...” Twilight sighed and scoured her mind for an explanation that made sense. “I saw it too. And it made me feel... pretty? Or... wanted, I guess? I liked it. I liked it a lot, but now...” She blushed and used the book she had been reading to hide her face from her friend.

“Now, you’re worried that nopony will look at you that way once you reverse the spell?” Rarity hid a smile behind her hoof, but got up and gave Twilight a friendly nudge before more doubts set in. “Darling, you were already beautiful before all of this happened. The spell merely helped refine it.”

“No, not everypony has to look at me like that but... but this is the only time the princess has..." Twilight petered out, taking a deep breath and then another, trying to rephrase her fears. "Before I got hit with the spell, she never so much as glanced..." The second time she failed to finish her sentence she groaned in frustration and looked at Rarity, imploring her to divine and understand what she was trying to say. "What if this the only chance I have? Once we undo the spell, she'll never look at me like that again."

"Twilight, darling, if Celestia only cared for your looks, then she wouldn't be the right pony for you anyway."

Twilight’s ears flattened themselves against her skull, and the butterflies in her stomach twisted into unreal mockeries of themselves making her feel nauseous. “So I was just being a lovestruck filly?” she asked, wanting nothing more than to run to her too small bed and hide. She got another nudge from Rarity, and then another when she lowered her head to the floor and hid her eyes behind her hooves.

“I said ‘if’, darling.” Rarity poured herself another cup of tea and took dainty nibbles from a cookie. “I am not a mind-reader, Twilight, but I can tell you that Celestia is at the very least interested in you, even if she doesn’t show it.”

“Technically, looking like she did is showing interest,” Twilight said with a sigh. Her stomach was uncoiling itself little by little, but she still felt tense. “But why wouldn’t she say anything?”

Rarity remained silent for a moment, looking at Twilight in a way that made her feel more uncomfortable than she already was. “Have you considered the idea that the princess might be as scared of admitting her feelings as you are?”

Considered it, mulled it over, ran tests on it... Of course I did. Rather than utter a word of what she was thinking, Twilight responded with a noncommittal grunt. “Maybe.”

“Think about it, darling, despite everything, Princess Celestia is still just a pony. She can be strong, and intelligent, and everything else besides, but even the greatest of ponies get scared sometimes.” Rarity yawned into her hoof and smiled. “Well, I am just about ready for bed. Try not to worry about it overly much, darling.”

Twilight absently bid her friend goodnight, going over the conversation in her head. Most of what Rarity had said made sense, the princess needing some time to sort out her thoughts for example, wasn’t uncommon and Twilight had seen it many times before. But inexorably, her thoughts were drawn towards the things she couldn’t believe; The fact that she was beautiful even without adding a thousand years to her lifespan, or Princess Celestia being scared of anything. Twilight had known the princess for the better part of her life, and yet she had never seen the princess be scared of anything. Angry, yes. Happy, yup. Disappointed? She winced. Definitely... But never scared.

“—oon, darling?”

Twilight blinked, realising that Rarity hadn’t disappeared up the stairs just yet. “Sorry, what was that?”

Rarity gave her a meaningful look that conveyed both disbelief and bemusement. “I asked when you were heading to bed.”

“Oh...uh...” Twilight looked around for a reason to forstal going to bed, and her erstwhile ally, the romance novel, readily provided one. “I’m just going to finish this chapter,” she said, patting the book. “It just got interesting.”

Rarity shook her head with a bemused smile. “I should have known.” She stepped forward and embraced Twilight in a brief hug. “Goodnight, Twilight.”

“Goodnight, Rarity.”

Unlike Rarity, Twilight’s mind did not seem to require rest. At least, it hadn’t in the days following the destruction of the boutique. She hadn’t slept in over a week and yet, oddly, still felt fresh. Any books she had consulted regarding Alicorn physiology had been theoretical at best, and downright speculative at worst. It had come to the point where she no longer knew if incredible stamina was part of her new form, or if Sweetie Belle’s botched spell had affected her in some manner that she couldn’t have foreseen.

Even if that hadn’t been the case, she doubted that she would have actually been able to fall asleep given how worked up she was. The day had turned out to be much more... difficult... than she had expected and she could do naught but doubt herself even more.

If the princess really is attracted to me like Rarity said, then why hasn’t she said anything? Rarity’s reasoning had been fear, but fear was Twilight’s neighbour, and the princess did not possess any. Given that, it naturally follows that either, A: the princess did not consider me attractive before, and simply doesn’t want to give me false hope, or, B: Rarity was wrong and the princess was merely intrigued and had never really been interested romantically.

Looking back, it was easy to see how point A could be the case. Compared to Celestia who, at least in Twilight’s eyes, was as close to physical perfection as a pony was ever going to get; She had a small stubby horn that lacked the length or surface exposure of leylines to effectively channel all of her power; her wings, while serviceable, looked awkwardly disproportionate to her body and made her walking gait look oafish; and her flanks had become a little wider than they probably should have, the result of too many hours spent studying in lieu of exercise.

With a half-smile she remembered the physical exercises that Celestia had foisted upon her when she became the princess’ ‘faithful student’. At the time, she had done little but moan and gripe about the, in her eyes, waste of time. They had grown on her, but had swiftly been discarded in favor of more intellectual pursuits when she moved to Ponyville.

Could that be it? I didn’t keep in shape and so....Twilight paled and shook her head violently. No. no no nonono “No!” She startled herself with the exclamation and quickly checked to see if anypony had heard her. She remained still for a full minute, listening for any movement from upstairs. When none came, she eventually relaxed, physically, if nothing else.

The princess should be back at some point to reverse the spell, if I don’t do it myself. Nodding to herself Twilight poured another cup of tea, finding her magic much more cooperative without all the stress that Celestia’s visit had caused. So, if I don’t do it myself, I have at least one more chance; all I’d need is a plan...

She eagerly got to work, pulling the blackboard that had been ousted from its normal resting place closer and quickly and decisively outlining her options. Keeping busy helped. It kept her mind occupied with constructive thoughts and ideas, rather than the crippling self-doubt and worry.

Not needing sleep was a cause for concern— Note to self: ask the princess about her sleeping schedule. —but at least it gave her plenty of time to come up with a plan that had a chance of working.

After two hours she had something that resembled a plan. A plan which boasted a whopping eighteen percent chance of success. A record by all accounts. Whatever drive or bravery that had made her resolve to work out a plan, seeped away when she realised how desperate she was if that low a number was acceptable. Eighteen? Is that really the best I can do? A brief jaunt through her memories sadly confirmed that, yes, it was.

Her spirits fell further when she listed already enacted plans in her head, many of which had been pulled straight out of a romance novel. She would have rated most as having a ninety-nine percent success chance, like giving the pony of her affection flowers, sending her a semi-anonymous gift during Hearts and Hooves day... she had even written a report on the flora of the Everfree, describing each flower and its uses in detail, simply because she knew that the princess dabbled in gardening on the rare occasion she had some free time on her hooves.

Counting the number of machinations, tactics and ideas brought her to the startling number of seventeen-hundred-and-sixty-two, none of which’d had any measurable effect.

So perhaps the princess doesn’t like me? She swallowed heavily shook her head once again. No! One more time. Just... just one more time. I simply have to do better and make it clear how I feel. She coughed, looked at the blackboard, and set her jaw. If the princess returns at around the same time she did today, that should give me a little less than ten hours. That should be enough to come up with something workable, shouldn’t it?

Less than ten hours to work out and refine the, arguably, most important plan of her life to in the finest of details. She was being tested, and for the first time in her life, she knew the despair of not being able to study for it.

Feeling Small

Six hours was all Twilight got. Six hours before Rarity pranced down the stairs—all bright eyed and bushy tailed—and caught her smack dab in the middle of working out ever more problems with her plan; apparently Rarity needed less sleep than she would have thought. So deep had she been in concentration, that the first indication she got of somepony else being in the room was Rarity clucking her tongue, followed by a set of giggles that made her blush despite herself. After that, all trying to dissolve her research into thin air accomplished was to make Rarity step forward to stop her.

“Darling....Darling, stop.” A white hoof came to rest on her back and she needn’t turn around to see Rarity’s sympathetic smile, which caused an even redder blush. “I apologise for laughing. It was just... I was caught unaware by the disappointments you must have faced, having gone through this many plans.”

Rather than removing every one of her schematics and notes, Twilight ended up discreetly removing the ‘#1763’ from the blackboard, whilst Rarity looked over the rest of it with a bemused smile. “What’re you doing up, Rarity? It’s not even...” Twilight trailed off when she looked over to the window and saw that dawn had, in fact, broken some time ago. “I guess you’ll need me to model for you again?” she asked with resignation.

“No need, darling, I think it is rathe—”

“I might as well,” Twilight cut her off, getting up and lifting up the eraser with her magic. “It’s not like I was getting anywhere with it anyway.”

Two hooves placed themselves on her chest and a potent, though significantly weaker magical force pushed back against the eraser. Rarity reared up to try and look her in the eyes and frowned at her. “Don’t you dare give up now, Twilight Sparkle. You could only have gotten this far through determination, and you owe it to yourself, and me, to see it through to the end.”

Twilight’s confusion must have been enough to inform even the most superficial pony of her state of mind, but she asked anyway. “Why would I owe it to you?”

Rarity smirked victoriously. “Because I am going to help you, darling.” She lowered herself to all fours and refocused her attentions on the three dozen papers and the blackboard. “And because, this is a romance straight out of one of my romance novels. I won’t have your sadness taint my view of something that is supposed to end happily. It would be the worst. Possible. Thing.”

Even without any of Rarity’s normal dramatization, Twilight could hear the gravity in her voice and nodded her assent, albeit hesitantly. “Okay, I guess. The plan I came up with only had a twenty-three percent chance of succeeding anyway. What should I do?”

“Well—” Rarity rubbed her hooves together and looked around with a sense of glee that was unnerving. Twilight wasn’t sure if she was entirely comfortable with the fact that her love life was being giggled over. “—First, I’ll need you to get back up on the designing podium...”

A groan escaped her before she could hold it back, but Twilight nevertheless dutifully walked over to the platform she had spent so much time on in the last couple of days. With a sigh, she planted herself on the stage and tried not to let the heavy feeling that had settled on her heart affect her mood. At least Rarity will have a good time playing matchmaker, she thought with a wan smile. She was all but convinced that Rarity’s eagerness would amount to little more than she could come up with herself; but then, her own ideas had gotten her nowhere. She comforted herself with the thought. She had given it all she had, and if that wasn’t good enough for Celestia, then at least she could make Rarity happy by letting her play at being a matchmaker..

“Alright then! I already have an idea for something that will positively sweep Celestia off her hooves when she sees you in it,” Rarity told her, already busily making dozens of dress parts swirl around the room.

Twilight found that her smile came easily, even if it wasn’t as happy as she might have wanted. “I’m sure it will be great, Rarity. You’re the best.”

“Just hold still, darling. This is going to pinch a little.”

Celestia was having a hard time staying calm. Spending an entire night debating with her younger sister, and subsequently flying to Ponyville under her own power was taxing enough. Worse was the fact that she still hadn't found a satisfying answer. While the stamina of a full grown alicorn was more than ten times that of even the hardiest earth pony, even they had their limits, and Celestia was swiftly closing in on hers.

"Sister. You cannot. You must not."

Celestia sighed and looked at her younger sister, who had landed just a few paces behind her. If only Luna had supported her a little more. "So neither of us should ever allow ourselves to be truly happy ever again, Luna?"

"No!... Yes." Luna snorted in agitation. "I do not know. What am I supposed to do if she is the one to break your heart? I feel weak enough as is, and even if I felt fine, I could never beat you."

Celestia folded her ears back and sighed again. "Twilight isn't like that, Lulu. You know that she—"

"—That's what I thought about... him as well," Luna cut her off with a piercing look. "Right up until the point he stuck a dagger in my chest." Her anger disappeared as suddenly as it had formed, and her voice quavered when she asked, "please, sister. Forget about this fool’s errand. Let us go back to the castle and—"

Celestia shook her head. “Enough, Luna. Even without all of this, Twilight still needs my—” she glanced over at Luna meaningfully. “—our help.” She draped a wing over her sister’s withers and smiled encouragingly. “It’s not as though I plan to pounce her the moment we set hoof inside the library... but I want a chance to determine of how I feel.”

“How you feel?” Luna looked at her incredulously. “From the passion with which you argued, I could have sworn that you were all but certain.”

For the first time since she had stumbled into Luna’s room and blurted out what was on her mind, Celestia found a real smile. “I know. I think I am, but...” she trailed off and looked around, noticing that a small crowd was gathering around them. The sisters had landed close to the fountain and without guards to keep the crowd in check, ponies would quickly come up to them if they did not move quickly. “You’ll see once we’re there,” she said eventually. “Now let’s get inside before we draw even more attention to ourselves.”

With a good natured smile and a wave at the gathering ponies, both princesses stepped forward and Celestia lifted a hoof to knock.

The door opened before she could, and once more, her breath was taken away by the sight in front of her. Sure enough, even without embellishments, Twilight’s long shapely legs, and curves would draw the eyes of any mare or stallion that possessed them, but today, they were accentuated by an off-white satin dress that looked to be two sizes too small.

The dress fit snugly around Twilight’s barrel and—while it must have been at least somewhat uncomfortable to wear—accentuated the soft curves of her flank and neck, making them even more pronounced. Somepony had apparently attempted to do something with her hair as well if the fluttering ribbon that uselessly followed the ebb and flow of Twilight’s mane was any indication.

Despite having promised herself not to stare, it took Celestia a moment to tear her eyes away from all the candy and look into Twilight’s own. Her former student was smiling softly, and looked a lot more at ease than she had the previous day, which lasted for all of three seconds.

“Oh no. No! This isn’t fair!” Luna, apparently having had a similar reaction to Twilight’s appearance as Celestia had, stepped past her sister and circled Twilight with an irritated look. “Who are you, and what have you done with the adorkable—”

“That isn’t a real word, Luna.”

“Fie on your logic! We hereby declare it to be!” Luna yelled irritably, poking and prodding Twilight from every which direction. “Do you have any idea how many moonrises I have been witness to, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight mutely shook her head, her smile replaced by an anxious look of concern.

“Millions, many millions!” Luna waved a foreleg around for emphasis. “And here you are, less than a fraction of my lifetime old, and already... beautiful.” The final word came out as a stage whisper and the brief look she spared for her sister told Celestia that she understood her reasons for arguing much better. “Just look at you, you’re all legs, and flank, and those wings... isn’t it uncomfortable having them underneath the dress like that?”

Twilight smiled weakly. “Only a little, Rarity made sure there was a little extra room for them.”

Luna snorted softly but Celestia cut her off before the upcoming and undoubtedly scathing reply. “It looks lovely, Twilight,” she commented with a smile. “But I do believe we have work to do if we want to find a counterspell.”

With more than a hint of trepidation, Twilight watched not just Celestia but both princesses enter her humble home. It wasn’t what she had prepared for; Rarity’s plan of seducing Celestia felt awkward enough without her sister being there in the room. After a glance at her unicorn friend, however, she steeled herself and smiled in what she hoped was a seductive manner. She’d already accepted that it wouldn’t work out, hadn’t she? There was nothing left to lose — and everything to gain.

“Well, first could you help me out of this dress?” She fluttered her eyelashes like Rarity had shown her and felt a small surge of excitement—or maybe panic—when both princesses looked at her. She gulped and stumbled of the rest of the sentence. “It... it’ll get in the way when we... uhm...” Oh stars I sound like Fluttershy... “When we research.... the spell... together...” She didn’t need to turn around to imagine Rarity’s sub-vocal groan and facehoof but nevertheless tried to keep a smile on her face as best she could. Luna opened and closed her mouth several times, looking increasingly agitated while Celestia merely looked perplexed. Twilight finally let her smile fade, despite herself she had been hoping for at least some form of reaction from Celestia. “Or I could just... I could go and... do it myself,” she said quickly, lighting up her horn and vanishing in a flash of light.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid! Twilight wanted to be angry, at Celestia, at Luna, at Rarity... but most of all at herself. You knew this was going to happen. Why did you expect anything else? Especially that delivery... it violated at least seven different rules in ‘The Beginner’s Guide to Romantics’ She let out a choked sob. Telling herself that she would have no more expectations and actually having no more expectations were apparently two completely different things.

Her eyes drifted to the mirror where she found the same fully grown alicorn that had been staring back at her for the last couple of weeks; the only difference being the satin dress that tightened against her neck every time she moved. With a frustrated grunt, she grabbed the closest part of the dress between her teeth and pulled. Tearing the dress to pieces was almost effortless, and would no doubt earn her Rarity’s ire somewhere down the line. Right now, however, she simply wanted to get rid of anything that could be associated with her enduring infatuation; especially if she had to spent the rest of the day with the princesses to find a way to reverse the spell.

She doubted that Rarity would give up so easily, she had made clear that there were a thousand and one ways to seduce somepony, after all. However, Twilight doubted that even she had foreseen the spectacular way in which she would bungle the first, and more than likely, any subsequent attempt at being seductive. No more. She wasn’t going to delude herself into thinking she was something she wasn’t any longer; or that she could get things other ponies couldn’t. From this point forward she would simply be Twilight Sparkle; the bookish, awkward, not-so-sociable, alicorn.

The pieces of the dress were picked up by her magic and incinerated before the ashes flew out the window. Twilight was going to go downstairs, figure out a way to reverse the spell that had made her into this... thing she kept seeing in the mirror, and work the princesses out of her home as quickly as she could. Her mourning romantic side could stay right here, in her room, where nopony but her would see it.

She sat down in front of the mirror and inexpertly removed the make-up Rarity had so carefully applied, reasoning that it no longer served a purpose. Without a doubt it made her look less pretty and would further destroy any chance she could have had, but she no longer cared. Once she was done, she made her way back down the stairs to find Celestia sitting at the table, alone.

“So...” Twilight said when she reached the bottom of the stairs, trying to inject some cheer into her voice. “I guess we should start as soon as possible. Equestria can’t go without its princess for long, after all.” With a flick of her horn, all of the books relevant to her ‘affliction’ floated from the shelves and onto the table in front of the pony she admired above all. She swallowed something that stubbornly stuck in her throat. Only a few more hours...

Celestia gave her a strange look. “Twilight? What happened to your—”

“Nothing, I just took it off. I don’t know what I was thinking, wearing something like that. It’s not like me.” Twilight shrugged halfheartedly before opening the book closest to her and leafing through it. “I think that the best way to reverse the spell is to apply Starswirl’s inversion matrix and then redress any inconsistencies with a point by point redistribution.”

Twilight picked up steam, quickly levitating several books and reading through relevant sections while letting an unending stream of information pass over her lips, completely unaware—or at least, seemingly unaware—of the fact that Celestia hadn’t opened the book that landed in front of her yet. Instead, she regarded her student thoughtfully.

Physical attraction was undeniably a part of what she felt, a big part, which was exactly what worried her. Even if Rarity was right—and Celestia was more and more convinced that she was—it wouldn’t be fair to desire Twilight only for her looks. On the other hoof, Twilight’s clumsily delivered seduction line and subsequent stammering, made her heart go out to her former student in ways that went far beyond simple attraction.

She put the thoughts aside and tried to absorb every bit of information Twilight was spouting at her. Perhaps she could gain some perspective on her own thoughts once the spell had been reversed and Twilight went back to being the young mare she was used to.

As time went on, Twilight’s fountain of words slowly dried up, and they worked in a relative silence just long enough for it to become uncomfortable. Right up until the moment the kitchen door slammed open and Rarity marched out, followed closely by Luna. “Even if that is true, you do not have the right to decide for them!”

Luna raised herself up to every inch of her regal height, looking down at Rarity and declaring: “I am trying to prevent a catastrophe!”

“Oh yes, two ponies might be happier with their lives than you are with yours. What an absolute disaster!” Rarity huffed and turned to Twilight, stopping dead in her tracks when she noticed something missing. “Darling, what did you—”

Twilight simply shook her head which was apparently all Rarity needed to continue her tirade against Luna.

“It seems like very little of your ‘intervention’ was even needed. I hope you’re happy.”

Rarity huffed at Luna, shot a frustrated and disappointed glace to Celestia and then told Twilight: “My parents have come back from Neighagra falls and I was going to bring Sweetie Belle there so she can stay with them over the coming week, do you want me to take Spike along so you can work in peace and quiet?”

Another dirty glance went flying in Luna’s direction but when Rarity turned back to her Twilight smiled wanly and nodded. Rarity’s eyes softened into a look of understanding and compassion, and she embraced Twilight tightly around the neck. “I’m terribly sorry, darling,” she whispered before letting go and marching off towards the room that held the two youngsters, without another word to either princess.

After a brief interruption during which they said goodbye to Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and Spike, all three alicorns focused on the singular task of undoing the aging spell. At least, that was what should have happened, but every single one of them was distracted by their own thoughts, as well as the proximity of the other two. Luna kept watching her sister and Twilight intermittently, trying to stay ahead of a decision she was sure her sister would regret. Celestia was making the most progress out of the three of them, but even she was distracted; trying to untangle the web of conflicting emotions and thoughts that all centered around her student, while also having to deal with her sister's interference.

For Twilight, it was pure misery. Every minute that passed made her wish she had discovered a solution before the princesses became involved, as being this close to Celestia and knowing she had given up, hurt. Despite her best attempts at dilligence, she found herself having to read most every section in the books twice or even three times. Whether it was due to the spell, some form of exhaustion that only affected her mind, or simply her emotions regarding Celestia remained unclear. Every time she looked up to see Luna staring at her—or worse, Celestia not staring at her—however, another emotional dagger planted itself in her chest and the words she would otherwise have remembered clearly before that came tumbling out of her head.

Nevertheless, there was only so much reference material on wild magic available, which they, despite their shared absentmindedness, worked through in a matter of hours. By the time the sun was due to set, Luna’d had enough. “This is pointless!” she growled, snapping the book held in her magic shut before tossing it over her shoulder.

“I agree that it can be a little tedious, Luna, but it’s hardly pointless,” Celestia replied, placing a bookmark in the tome she had been perusing before closing it and putting it down in front of her. “Though I’ll admit that I could use a break.” She got up and stretched each of her legs in turn, followed by her wings, before looking at Twilight for the first time in hours. “Did you find anything, Twilight?”

Twilight did not respond immediately, having buried her attention deep within the two books floating in front of her. The books were almost identical in most cases, each having been written by one half of a twin. Even the somewhat remarkable insight into spell consequences were mired in difficulties due to their shorthand which often required the other book to translate. Somewhere along the way she had decided that simply looking at them side by side was the most efficient way of going about it, with the added benefit of requiring enough of her attention that she hadn’t any left for thoughts on the princess.

“Twilight?”

Only after a soft prod from a gold-shod hoof did she move, blinking languidly while her mind returned from the depths of magical theory. “Hmmm?” Looking straight into Celestia’s eyes— especially from this close— set her cheeks alight, but fortunately for her, also temporarily put her vocal cords out of use.

“Did you find anything useful?”

Twilight shook her head slowly. “N-no. I mean... it’s interesting to see how many spells twins can botch while working together, but I wouldn’t exactly call it useful.” She looked around for something else to focus on, but her eyes kept going back to the mare in front of her.

“Like I said. Pointless."

Celestia smiled at Twilight and exaggerated rolling her eyes before turning to her sister. “And what do you suggest we do, Luna?”

Luna let out a short laugh and pointed at Twilight with a hoof. “What we should have done all along, sister: examine her, and find out what the problem is at the source instead of wasting time with reference guides.”

A thrill that uniquely blended anxiety and excitement together, ran along Twilight's spine, making her shiver. The idea of having Celestia examine her up close made all manner of naughty images play out in her mind. Unfortunately, they only lasted for the few split seconds it took for her to see how Celestia would respond.

The princess did not look happy. In fact, she looked like she had just swallowed a particularly sour lemon but was too polite to spit it out anywhere. Like the idea of being that close was repulsive somehow. It turned all the images in Twillight's mind into twisted mockeries of themselves; where the princess either did not want to get near her, or judged her to be less than nothing when she did.

“Of course," Luna continued idly. "If that makes you uncomfortable, I could always do it alone.”

“No.” Celestia took a deep breath. “We can't risk missing anything when it comes to Twilight's well being, and you were never patient enough when it comes to thorough examinations."

Luna bristled walking up to Celestia until they were nose to nose. "Art thou suggesting that we are incapable of handling this?"

"What if I am?" Celestia returned her sister's fiery gaze and Twilight could swear she saw sparks flying between them. Her library had never been the biggest of places, but it felt even smaller now that it contained two angry alicorns.

"Thou art the one ignoring our warnings!"

"And thou art more concerned with thyself than others, as ever!"

Twilight was perplexed. Never in her entire life had she heard Celestia use the same old equestrian that Luna slipped into whenever a situation became stressful. It felt surreal. Almost as much so as seeing the two princesses bicker in the first place.She became aware that things had fallen silent and looked up to see Luna stare blankly at her sister.

Celestia bit her lip and shook her head softly. "That was uncalled for. You are trying to think of everypony and it's me who's being selfish." She let out a deep sigh and bowed lightly in apology. "Please forgive me, Lulu."

"Nay." Luna leaned forward and ran her horn along Celestia's, culminating in a comforting nuzzle between the both of them. "Thou— you... were right. A little, at the least. There is nothing to forgive."

With a grateful smile, Celestia leaned into the nuzzle a little further before pulling back and asking: "Alright then, shall we get started?"

Twilight's fascination in seeing the two most powerful ponies in the world argue, cost her dearly. With only a vague idea of what had transpired, she was woefully unprepared for the pair of downright lecherous smiles aimed at her while Luna simply replied with: "Let's."

She involuntarily took a step back "P-princess? What is—"

"If we are to find out how to return you to your adorkable self, we need to know what exactly happened in the first place, Twilight Sparkle," Luna replied whilst stepping closer with a salacious sway in her hips that made Twilight back up a little more. At least, until her rump hit a bookcase.

"Don't worry, Twilight." Celestia's voice was much more controlled and her gentle smile was enough to make Twilight believe that she had imagined the lecherous one from before. "It's merely a close inspection that will tell us what kind of magic caused your growth." The explanation helped. It calmed Twilight down enough that only her wings twitched nervously when Celestia, too, stepped forward.

Having not one but two princesses press themselves against her sides was an experience that had only happened once before, and only in her naughtiest dreams. Of course, in her dreams the were on a big bed made of clouds, and doing a whole lot more than just some gentle nuzzling. Her fantasies certainly didn't include a shot of pain traveling up through her wing for which Celestia apologised, but even though she felt a stab of pain and longing every time her princess closed the distance, she also reveled in the attention.

Celestia's troubles were of a different kind. Perusing the different reference guides had been a safe way to help Twilight, while maintaining a modicum of distance. And then Luna had gone and ruined everything by suggesting they inspect Twilight up close; made only more aggravating by the fact that she was right. They needed to know the magical makeup of the spell in order to create an effective counter-spell, even if it meant getting up close and very personal.

There was nothing inherently untoward about it, of course, but while Luna’s fears were not her own, and Rarity had taken away her fear of losing Twilight to the passage of time; her rational mind had lost control of her emotions. She prayed that neither of them heard the shuddering breath she took while running her muzzle through Twilight’s coat, committing to memory the smell and texture of the first pony she had allowed herself to love in over a millenium. The tiny voice in the back of her mind telling her that she had a task to do did not go unheeded, however, and ever the paragon of restraint, she reigned in the desire to simply do away with any sense of propriety and claim Twilight as her own. Not giving in was a gargantuan effort, but she managed it all the same. Still, when presented with such a golden opportunity, it would almost be criminal not indulge a little, wouldn't it?

So indulge she did, running her muzzle along Twilight's under the pretense of inspecting her horn; catching herself nipping at one or two primary feathers, which she explained as simply helping her student preen a little while she had the chance; giving her flank an appreciative twice over...

She was rudely—and magically—pulled away from her 'inspection' by Luna who appeared at her side, horn alight with the energies that pulled Celestia away from Twilight. "I think we have seen all we need to see, haven't we, sister?" She exclaimed loudly.

Celestia's first impulse was to break her sister's magical hold and continue with her inspection, but she quelled it and called herself to task once more. She had seen all she needed to and the way Twilight was fidgeting made it clear that she wasn't having as great a time as Celestia was. Right now, getting her back to her 'adorkable self' as Luna had put it, was a priority. "Yes," she replied belatedly, kicking herself mentally for not sparing a thought to Twilight's apparent discomfort.

“Y-you have?” “You have?”

Hearing the same disbelieving question come from both mares made Celestia smile, even if it did mean that Luna took every opportunity to undermine the possibility of a relationship. “Yes.” She softly pushed Luna aside and turned to Twilight. “Aging spells generally aren’t attempted by anypony but the most experienced of sages, and with good reason.” She indicated Twilight with a foreleg. “Had the spell hit anypony but you, they would have been... well...”

“Dead.” Twilight nodded. “I know.”

Celestia smiled. “Exactly. But while it means that it’s hard to find a precedent, it is essentially no different from any other incomplete magic. Reversing what was cast should return you to normal, although—”

Twilight was no longer listening. She lit up her horn, drawing the patterns and runes she had been over so many times in the last couple of weeks from memory, weaving together the aging spell. From what she had managed to deduce from Sweetie Belle’s, admittedly sketchy, retelling of the way she had gone about casting the spell, it should be easy to reverse engineer it.

Part of her eagerness was due to her annoyance at bumping into cupboards, and crushing things she didn’t mean to with her magic. More than that, however, it was the lingering feeling of Celestia’s lips on her plumage, and so tantalizingly close to her lips. It felt like her heart was tearing itself asunder, splitting under the pain of being forced to watch the love of her life get as close to her as she had, without being able to do anything about it.

That’s manure and you know it. All you’d had to do was kiss her. Heck, you could kiss her right now.

She smothered the thought. Locking it up in a safe before throwing away the key, and burying it in the deepest parts of her mind where only half-forgotten childhood heroes dared venture. It hurt too much. The princesses needed to leave as soon as possible, and the finishing the counterspell was the quickest way to achieve that. All she had to do was take out one of two components that the spell usually required for successful casting and...

A powerful magic slammed into her own, violently shaking the spell construction apart and leaving her with a massive headache. She recoiled, falling off of her chair and clutching a hoof to her head. With eyes squeezed into tiny slits, she looked around in bewilderment, searching for her would be attacker. The only ponies she found were an equally bewildered Luna and a disapproving—no, angry Princess Celestia.

Even while angry, the princess somehow managed to remain graceful. Her mane billowed a tinge more erratically, but her tone was still smooth, albeit with an undertone of repressed frustration. "How many times have I told you to double check spells before you cast them, Twilight?" she asked coolly, stalking around the table and getting right in Twilight's face.

"Four hundred and..." She petered out under the princess' withering stare and folded her ears back against her skull. "A lot, princess."

Celestia sighed and softened her expression. "Then why is it that, despite everything, you still haven't learned that particular lesson?"

"Because I'm stubborn as a mule, princess," Twilight replied dutifully, a small smile playing on her lips. Using the same responses she had when she was a filly felt a little silly given her new size, but at the same time, it provided a measure of comfort; as it had over a decade ago. It made her aware that her problems were only temporary, and everything would go back to the way it was soon enough. Including how much attention you get from the princess, a small voice sneered right before it was locked up and joined the other unwanted thoughts in the recesses of her mind. She got up and dusted herself off saying, "I have some leftover materials from the boutique downstairs... We can practice on those," before quickly disappearing down the stairs.

She needed a little time alone. The rollercoaster of emotions she experienced while around Princess Celestia was draining, and she was, only now, coming to realise that she in fact did have an upper limit as far as going without sleep went. Having Luna present and acting rather strangely only made it worse.

She looked around for the materials. Originally she had taken several parts of the boutique that hadn’t turned to dust, in order to experiment with the effects of ancient wood and magical debris. When Sweetie Belle, and especially Rarity, moved into the library, however, she hadn’t been able to find the time. And now, she didn’t remember where she’d put them.

Locating the materials took a few minutes only because she’d forgotten she had never had the chance to file the materials away either, and found them right next to the bottom of the stairs. Mentally kicking herself for being blind, she picked them up and cantered back upstairs. At least the search had given her some time to collect herself and she felt ready to finish... this. Whatever ‘this’ would turn out to be.

“Sorry it took so long, I—” A blast of energy hit her square in the chest and would have knocked her back down the stairs if it hadn’t been for two differing forces speeding to keep her upright. Twilight coughed and for the second time that day looked for anypony that would do something like that. And for the second time, the only possible assailants were the two princesses. Both of them looked at her as though they had been caught with her hooves in the cookie jar, horns locked and each with a mouthful of the other’s mane they quickly spat out.

“Are you alright, Twilight?” Celestia asked, being the first to step back to make herself look presentable, erratic mane notwithstanding. Luna merely glowered.

“Yes, I’m...” Twilight looked herself over, part of her curious what kind of spell it had been, and the other, bigger, part of of her trying to equate what she’d seen with what she knew of either princess. “Were you... fighting?”

Luna and Celestia looked at one another, a silent conversation expressed wholly through expressions and looks passed between them making Twilight wish that she was better at reading body language.

“We were just having a...” Luna began after their ‘conversation’ was over.

“Disagreement,” Celestia finished, nodding to herself. “Nothing you need to concern yourself with, Twilight.”

Twilight looked between but neither Luna nor Celestia gave any indication of wanting to continue the conversation. Just as well. You wanted them out of here, right? “Oh... Okay.” Belatedly she remembered the debris she was still holding in her magic and put the half dozen pieces on the table. “I found the pieces from the boutique. Will these do?” Celestia and Luna looked at one another, nodded, and took their respective seats at the table, each picking up a piece and starting their experimentation without another word.

Twilight wanted to say something to try and help them resolve their differences, maybe even mediate or serve as an unbiased third party. Even with the way you feel about princess Celestia? Face it, you can hardly call yourself unbiased.

In the end, she said nothing. Contenting herself with a piece of the debris and trying to figure out which combination of mistakes had lead to her current predicament.

The next several hours were spent with a lot of trial and error and very little conversation. In one of the sparse exchanges, they had agreed that the most expedient thing would be to each take one of the major components of spellcasting; trying to see if any one area could lead to a solution. Twilight experimented with different levels of power for the spell, and Luna worked on different or wrongly drawn runes. Celestia meanwhile, was trying to figure out if the problem could have occurred while the spell was actually being cast; a focus intensive task as it was difficult to build a spell matrix in one’s mind without actually putting any magic behind it.

When singular areas didn’t work they combined their efforts, which made for slow going. It took them several more pieces of debris to figure out the level of power to put behind the spell, so that it wouldn’t simply erase anything it touched from existence, and several hours after that to figure out which parts of the spell matrix Sweetie Belle had failed to construct.

“I have to say,” Luna said when they finally closed in on the solution. “I find it hard to believe that your student got all of the runes right on her first try.”

Twilight, who up till that point had been the one repeatedly casting the spell, took a few seconds to catch her breath. Making her cast the spell for the practice attempts had been a decision they’d made after realising that it could prove catastrophic to try and put the power she was currently wielding back into a smaller body, but it nevertheless left her feeling like she had been participating in the running of the leaves for weeks. “She’s... been... having a lot of trouble with the practical side of magic... but—” Twilight took a deep breath and let it out all at once. “—But she picks up the theoretic side rather quickly.”

“Reminds me of a filly I used to know,” Celestia said with a small smile. Where Twilight’s exhaustion came from physical and magical strain on her body, Celestia was having trouble focusing. Her mind kept drifting off to the past. Back to Twilight’s formative years and all the trouble she had gotten into, and out of, because of the now grown up mare sitting across from her. “I’m proud of you, you know that?”

“Yes, Princess,” Twilight replied, only half listening while she tried the latest iteration. The princess had been talking about the good old days, each time stopping herself to tell Twilight how proud she was, which only twisted the knife. Finally, after three hundred and twenty two attempts a piece of debris returned to its former state. From the looks of it, it had once been a corner section part of Rarity’s boudoir, but that barely registered. “Luna?” She held up the piece for the younger princess to see. “I think we found it.”

“Wonderful.” Luna sighed and rubbed her her temples with her hooves. “It certainly took us long enough.”

Twilight nodded, picking up a quill and writing out the specific variations she had cast. “Yes it did...” She pushed the paper over to Luna and sat back. “Would you like some tea, or dinner?” she asked, smiling sheepishly. “I sometimes get so wrapped up in research that I forget to eat, myself.”

“Nay.” Luna stifled a yawn behind her hoof. “T’is long past due for me to begin my duties at the castle, and ‘Tia needs her rest for the coming weeks.”

Twilight arched an eyebrow. “Coming weeks? Did something important come up?”

Luna shook her head. “Not as such. She mediated for the Minotaurs and the Saddle Arabians in their trade dispute and word has gotten out. Just before we left a delegation of Zebras showed up asking for her help with the Bisons, and she, like the fool that she is, agreed to help them as soon as we were done here.”

“We all do foolish things sometimes, Luna,” Celestia replied with an almost dopey smile. “I remember the first time you tried to raise the moon. You were so upset that it didn’t move that you.. mprph...” She got no further, her mouth being held shut by Luna’s magic.

“That is enough, sister,” she said testily before turning back to Twilight. “In any case, I think it best if we got this over with. Are you ready?”

Am I? Twilight looked over at Celestia whom had all but dozed off. She’s beautiful. But you won’t be. Not after Luna casts the spell, at least... Maybe I should say something? At least let her know? She let out a sad sigh and nodded. “I’m ready.”

A moment later, a flash of light engulfed her. Her second to last thought was that shrinking back to normal size hurt more than growing in the first place; her last thought was of the princess she loved more than life itself.

Twilight Sparkle, an Alicorn counting twenty years, sighed once again; three weeks had passed since the spell was reversed, and things had quickly settled down in the library. Rarity had returned with an enthusiastic Sweetie Belle telling her that levitation was becoming easier; and an ecstatic Spike who had apparently gone fishing with Rarity’s father.

She’d smiled when he boasted about catching the biggest of fishes, and encouraged Sweetie Belle to keep up her training; she had even offered to model for Rarity some more, apologising for the fact that she was no longer the ‘stunning beauty’ that had given Rarity such inspiration.

But no matter how she tried to go about her normal life — in as far as it was normal, the world seemed a little greyer. Like the sun was muted, or the light itself just wasn’t feeling at its best. And despite her best efforts, Rarity quickly figured out what was bothering her.

“I know how you feel, darling,” the unicorn said, wrapping Twilight up in silk that would serve as basis for the next dress. “But trust me when I say that: Time heals all wounds.” She bit through one of the threads and tied it off, keeping the entire thing in place without needing her magic to support it. “Although... a tub of ice cream never hurt anypony... we could even share it if you’re worried about your waistline.”

Twilight smiled weakly. “Thanks for the offer, Rarity, but I’d really rather just...” she sighed and hung her head. “Could we continue this tomorrow, I’d like to go to bed?”

A spark of magic and a flurry of movement later, she had been freed from the dressform and had been embraced by a sympathetic unicorn. “Of course, darling. Just let me know if there’s anything I can do, promise?”

“Promise.”

She hadn’t even good and well stepped off the platform before Sweetie Belle came running out of her room holding a scroll in her magic, followed an enraged Spike. “Sweetie Belle! Give that back. She doesn’t want to—” they skidded to a halt in front of Twilight and Sweetie floated the scroll over with a big smile.

For once, Twilight didn’t feel like reading about another problem in Equestria no matter how imperative it was for her to be involved. For once, she didn’t want to go out and save the world, or even read Celestia’s polite questions about her life or her research. Yet, a sense of loyalty and duty made her accept the scroll anyway, absently praising Sweetie for her continuing improvements.

She removed the wax sun seal and unfurled the document to see what awaited her this time. Her eyes widened when she read the first sentence, and continued to grow with every line she deciphered. Her lips silently repeating the words, trying to make them tangible; trying to make them real.

“Twilight? What is it, darling?” “What’s it say, Twilight?” “Is it from the princess?”

Twilight Sparkle, looked at her student and her number one assistant over the top of the scroll, wetting her lips with her tongue and quickly rereading the thing to make sure that the words hadn’t sneakily rearranged themselves the moment she had taken her eyes off them. She found that her voice was stuck somewhere in her throat, so she cleared it and with a hoarse voice began to read out loud: “To my dearest love, Twilight Sparkle...”

Author's Note

~Fin~

I hope you all enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Now, it's back for a chapter of Under Her Wings before continuing with the secret project. (That, too, ships Twilight with a white pony :twilightsheepish: )