After the first night of Twilight’s awakening, Signal Flare had returned to the room to discuss with Celestia and Twilight the situation revolving around her some more. Before divulging into that topic though, he asked Celestia to leave the room so he could conduct some memory tests on Twilight as he didn’t think she would be able to bear hearing and watching Twilight struggle to remember events or ponies.

As it were, he concluded that for whatever reason, Twilight’s memory loss was unlike standard cases. She seemed to retain knowledgeable information on her education on magic, her theories were still incredibly sharp, and it also seemed as though her critical thinking as well as her ability to learn were much faster than he expected. But, her memories pertaining to crucial and significant ponies as well as events were shaky at best or all together gone at worst throughout the time she had been conscious. Small, insignificant events or information seemed to pop up in her memory very easily though, she seemed pleased to be able to recall such mundane information, but Sig figured that it was the one of the few things she could still find familiar and comfort in the world in which she currently lived in.

Celestia was downtrodden upon learning the state of her memory.

“Please do not be so remiss Celestia.” Twilight said with a small smile, “I am certain that the matter is not as bad as it seems. My memory is certain to return at a later date, in the meantime though, there is no reason why I cannot make new memories.”

The princess could not help but smile at Twilight’s statement.

“Now, as for your curse… while it is still dormant, I suggest that we do our best to study as much about it as possible to figure out ways to counter it, or at the very least, slow it down.” Sig stated

Twilight looked down at her hooves in silence, “You do not believe we will find a cure?”

He shuffled in place nervously, “I’m not entirely sure.” He truthfully answered, causing Twilight and Celestia to wince. “Please understand that I, as well as the Princess and the Circle of Magi, will do everything we can to help you find a cure, but in the case that your curse spreads faster throughout your body, then it is imperative that we have a counter ready on hoof to stop or slow it down.”

The small alicorn fiddled with the sheets, “But… I do not understand. Why is it necessary to… keep me alive?”

“Twilight-“ Celestia looked ready to protest

“Please, do not misunderstand my question as a plea to leave me to my… inevitable doom.” Twilight began, “Believe me when I say that I wish to live, but I do not understand why it is necessary as magical affairs seem to be doing decent and why Signal Flare would wish for my welfare when he does not even know me.” She gestured.

Sig for his part looked utterly shocked and almost offended, “Twilight, as you know, you are the Embodiment of Magic itself, or as some of the previous Circle of Magi and Archmages have referred to you as, The Guardian, and as the title implies, you are meant to watch and guard your realm from any creature that may try to cause a disturbance and maintain order within it. And if there are any such disturbances, you are to fix it. As has been one of the original responsibilities of the Archmage, it has been our duty to help you determine the cause and find the best solution to do so, then upon understanding the situation, it is then the Circle’s job to help you go to the location, or do so themselves, and repair the connection.” He paused for a breath while Twilight furrowed her eyebrows

“The Princess has been doing a wonderful job trying to keep it under control, but she does not have your natural connection and attunement to the magical bodies, as you are able to sense those and pinpoint exactly where they are whilst she struggles in finding the general area.” Celestia winced at this statement, while Sig continued on. “Not only that, but the Princess is often over worked or piled with so many responsibilities, it is not uncommon for us to try to do these responsibilities ourselves. And you know… attempting to divulge through the arcane plane is excruciatingly tiresome and dangerous work for us normal ponies. Furthermore, as you may recall, it is of utmost importance to ensure that the magic of this world remains in balance and harmony, otherwise the upset could create a backlash in a number of different forms. It is also important to note that along with the discharge, an imbalance of magic also influences the living creatures with magic negatively.”

It was with a grimace that Sig continued speaking, “Because of that, Equestrian relations have shaky at best for the past few centuries, fluctuating between being on the brink of war and tensile relations. We are constantly on edge when other creatures are not even certain exactly why they are hostile toward each other or us. So when you say that magical affairs seems to be decent, believe me when I say that it is not with constant struggle and putting in our best efforts to make it ‘decent’ despite it supposed to be more. And when you ask why I personally am wishing for your welfare, it is because as the Archmage, it is my duty to uphold my responsibility and perform the original duty of an Archmage and honor of serving by the Guardian’s side. So it is of course, of utmost importance that we are able to bring you back to full health.” He finished with his chest sticking out in pride

Twilight was rather touched with his dedication, thanking him for his belief in her as well as for all his hard work. But, she confessed that she did not remember there ever working with an Archmage or the Circle of Magi, so she asked if he could help inform her of their duties and responsibilities, then she would be much obliged. She also thanked Celestia for taking over her duties for the past millennia, apologizing for the inconvenience.

“There is no need for apologies Twilight, it’s not your fault.” Celestia stated with an affectionate nuzzle.

Unfortunately, as they continued their discussions and diagnosis of Twilight’s condition, they found that there wasn’t anything they could do about it but hope that her body age normally in time. Furthermore, after doing a quick analysis and conducting a few tests, they found that Twilight is unable to perform her duties as, for whatever reason, she could not perform any sort of spells.

“This doesn’t make any sense…” Sig stated, rubbing his chin with his hoof. “You’re performing the spells correctly, your formulas and runes are being drawn perfectly for those that need it, and your emotions are of the correct structure and level as well. There is no reason for these spells to not be put to action…”

As he kept muttering about possibilities and reasons, Twilight continued sitting in bed… starring at the 6, different color-coded, marbles meant to represent each branch of magic. The purpose of the exercise is rather straight forward, each colored marble will only respond to its’ correlated magic branch and Twilight was meant to hold them in the air as long as possible simultaneously as Sig and Celestia would cause them to weigh more and more after a specific time. The test is the quickest and simplest way (as well as one of the most conventional) to assess a unicorn’s magic aptitude in the different bodies of magic as the levitation spell is one of the few spells that is shared in all of the magical branches as well as a method to display a unicorn’s magical strength depending on the size and weight of the subject.

But she couldn’t even lift one of the marbles in her magic.

It would not even form properly around her horn when she tried.

“Twilight? Are you okay?” Celestia’s voice brought the Guardian out of her reverie. “I know this must be incredibly difficult for you…”

Of course it had to be. Twilight is the Embodiment of Magic itself, and she could not even perform what should be the simplest spell despite applying the practice behind it perfectly. She could not do the very thing she is meant to be.

“Twilight?”

“Oh! Yes. I’m fine!” Twilight said with a smile, “I am certain that there is a reason why my magic is not functioning as it should be. We may not know of what that reason is at present, but I am certain Signal Flare and myself will learn of it in due time.” She turned to face the Archmage, “Would I be correct in mine assessment Signal Flare?”

“Hm? Oh yes. Not to worry Princess! We will have Twilight back in top shape as quickly as possible!”

That was just a few days ago.

In that time, Twilight had not been able to perform one single spell. In the mean time though, Sig had given her some texts he thought she might find interesting and Celestia brought her some novels to help past the time. As the Princess had expected, and to the Archmage’s pleasant surprise, Twilight had managed to finish every book brought to her. It was to her pleasure that modern vernacular is now mostly filled with casual language, and was quite eager to change her speech pattern.

It was just today that the Doctor had discharged her from her bedridden state and allowed her to explore outside of Celestia’s bedchambers.

To celebrate her release, the princess had offered to show Twilight around the castle to help get a bearing of her new surroundings.

“Hm. I’m quite surprised, I thought there would be a significant difference with this castle from the old one and was afraid that I would have trouble to gather my bearings here.” Twilight stated, “But, beside it being more massive and luminous than the other one, it still retains the old castle’s color schemes and… grandiosity.”

Celestia chuckled, “I supposed it is, to be quite honest I haven’t noticed.”

Twilight gave a small hum of thought, “That makes sense. You’ve lived here every day for the past few centuries, so it would only be logical for you to be desensitized to… all of this.” She gestured

The princess didn’t respond, but gave a warm smile to the small alicorn.

The sole attention of Celestia’s gaze was getting incredibly unnerving to Twilight that she had to look away. After a few minutes of being on the receiving end of it and fluttering her wings out of nervousness, she finally looked back up into magenta eyes. “Uh… Why do you keep looking at me like that?”

Shaking her head out of her stupor, the white alicorn gave a sheepish, apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, it’s just… I still can’t believe you’re actually here.” She confessed with tears welling in her eyes. “I’ve missed you so, so much.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry Celestia…” Twilight said, trotting over in front of the larger alicorn. She found that with their drastic difference in size, she had to flap her wings a little in order to wrap her hooves around Celestia’s neck to provide comfort.“It must have been so difficult watching over an entire empire by yourself for so long.”

Lowering her head to accept the embrace, Celestia allowed a few of her tears to fall in happiness.

After several minutes passed, the two let go of each other and the Princess wiped her eyes and face of tears. “It’s alright Twilight, you’re here now and that’s all that matters. Besides, it wasn’t entirely lonesome.” She smiled, “I’ve had the Archmages, the Circle of Magi, the Counsel, to keep me company on some days. I’ve even had the company of little colts and fillies from the time I have spent at the school.” She paused and looked up in thought, “In fact, I could arrange a visit to the school for you sometime this week if you’d like. I know how much you enjoy teaching Magic to others. It could even give you an idea about the level of education modern unicorn society is at. As you were originally the pony in charge of and leading education in Equestria, I would love to have your input pertaining to that area.”

“Oh… Uh. Sure.” Twilight smiled, despite not recalling any of this. She didn’t even know she had experience in teaching, much less enjoy it. “I’d be happy to help.”

With a beaming smile, Celestia continued to guide Twilight through the castle.

By mid-day, Twilight had seen most of the castle and was currently divulging herself in these interesting and VERY delicious confections called pancakes in the Royal Dining hall. (Upon being introduced to the Head Chef, Maple Syrup, he had stated that despite the delectable course currently being served, his specialty was in Breakfast food, from Canterlot Pancakes to Prench Crepes to Germane Waffles, so she shouldn’t hesitate to ask for any kind of food she’d like during the early morning hours. To his dismay and horror, he learned that Twilight had never tried, much less heard of any of those foods. So, he took it upon himself to ensure that she would have tried all of his specialties within the next couple weeks.) She could not memorize the entire layout of the castle, but she was able to remember the locations of areas she would frequent the most during her “recovery period”; the Royal Gardens, Royal Archives, Main Library, Observatory, and of course, the kitchen.

The only other places that she had yet to see and were deemed important by Celestia were the council chambers and the Tower of Magus, which she would see during her tour with Sig after lunch.

“Sitting in a class to observe and speculate or shadowing Archmage Flare to learn of his and the Circle’s duty is one thing, but jumping into politics is a bit much after waking.” Celestia reasoned, “Take this time for yourself, you already have enough to worry about as it is. I can handle politics for a while longer.”

Twilight could only force a smile at Celestia’s reassurance.

She just couldn’t bringer herself to confess that she didn’t remember having a roll in politics.

All she could remember was lounging around in her room or library studying or traveling somewhere (although, she could not remember the names of said destinations) for studies or to fix a connection or cause of disturbance in the arcane plane.

She could not recall ever having an active roll in politics.

But that was okay right?

Because her memories will come back some time in the near future

Who is to say that they won’t come back after experiencing or witnessing something familiar to her? It’s quite possible that after learning of Signal Flare’s duties as Archmage, as well as the Circle of Magis or observing a classroom would jumpstart something in the recess of her mind, causing a whole flood of memories to come in through her mind.

“Hello Twilight, I trust you had a wonderful morning?” Sig asked as he took a seat on the other side of the large cushion with Celestia’s cutie mark embroidered on it.

To the Princess’s dismay, she was only able to procure that morning free to spend with Twilight, so was remiss to excuse herself a little after the two had begun eating.

Twilight on the other hand, did not see what the problem was until she remembered that despite it seeming like a mere week had passed since they last saw each other, to the Princess a near millennia had passed since she spent time with Twilight.

“It was fine.” Twilight stated, “I have always enjoyed spending what little time I was able to with Celestia. It wasn’t uncommon to only procure an hour of leisure time from her before, so I was happy, although albeit reluctant, that she cleared the entire morning just for me. And despite how ostentatious this castle may be, I was excited to be introduced to the MUCH larger library as well as the observatory. Those were a few things that I’m happy to have woken up to.”

Sig chuckled, “I must say Twilight, I’m pleasantly surprised that you have been rather positive about this. But then again, I don’t know what else I would expect from The Guardian.”

With a pause, Twilight warily eyed the Archmage. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, forgive me. I had forgotten that you would not know of this.” Sig bashfully said, “There is a book of your grand magical accounts from when you were still living among us for the sole purpose of allowing archmages and members of the circle to have an idea of what you were like. To tell you the truth, I, as well as the other members of the circle, were rather excited to inquire you on said accounts. But, since you… um…” He trailed off, unsure of how to word it without sounding rude.

Twilight gave a small, apologetic smile. “I’m sorry.”

“No no, please do not apologize.” Sig waved it off. “Our expectations were rather high and it is not your fault that you wound up in the current state you are in. But, as I’ve referred to before, I think that your optimism of your situation is rather refreshing and I’m certainly happy that the text was accurate in regards to that part of you.” He beamed.

The Guardian returned the expression with a small, albeit tight, smile of her own.

“Now, how about I show you that Tower of Magi?” Sig asked, getting up and off his cushion. Twilight followed in kind. “I’ll explain a bit more of the resident’s of the Tower’s responsibilities on the way.” He said as they began their trek to the other side of the castle.

“Residents? Do all the employees live in the tower?” The Guardian asked

“For the most part, yes.” Sig nodded. “It is not required, but it has been tradition to do so since around the time the Tower was first established, as it simply was more pragmatic. Though, from what I have learned, it was actually by complete accident and manner of timely intervention that this happened. You see, as a member of the Circle and the Archmage, the job requires the pony’s fore and utmost attention and requires one to be at attention at any time of day or night. So, back then just a while after being formed, one of the members of the Light Branch, Magus Hearty Hoof, had fallen asleep in his workroom studying a potion. Sometime later that evening, a rather troublesome event in another kingdom pertaining to a love potion had occurred and your presence there was required immediately. You were worried that you would be unable to find another pony well adverse in Light Magic and Love on time to travel with you and were prepared to leave by yourself, until you stumbled on Magus Hearty Hoof while gathering materials. As it turned out, he was actually just the pony you needed and promptly took him with you. Ever since then, the other members had simply decided it would be more convenient to stay at the tower in case you, or Celestia as the case was the past millennia, needed us.”

Sig turned to look at Twilight to see her reaction of learning a bit more about herself, but was met with a face contorted with questions fleeting across all over her face and her mouth soundlessly forming words as though trying to make sense of the information he just provided. “I’m sorry, that’s terribly fascinating and all, but I’m not certain what you meant when you said ‘one of the members of the Light Branch’ followed by the esteemed title of ‘Magus’. Because that would insinuate there is more than one pony in the circle specialized in Light magic as a master of said branch only carries the title.”

“Ah, yes.” The Archmage nodded in understanding and agreement. “As you know, there are 3 Main fields of magic; Emotional, Psych, and Celestial. Or, as common ponies now-a-days refer to it as, Heart, Mind, and Outer magic. Each Field is further split into their opposing forces of magic of Natural and Chaos magic to make up; Light and Dark Magic, Traditional and Singular Magic, and finally - Day and Night Magic, and they of course make the 6 branches of magic.”

“Yes, and as one might assume, to perform a spell one only needs to know which Field of Magic the branch is from and one can guess what is required to perform a spell from said branch. Furthermore each branch of magic requires different spell performances as well as what one might call language.” Twilight continued with a wave of hoof, “In the most basic summary, to perform Light magic, positive emotions such as kindness, love, happiness, amongst other emotions are required. For Dark magic, negative emotions such as fear and hate. Traditional magic, the most common kind of magic and is argued to be a science instead of magic, requires formulas, codes, and hard facts to be used. Singular magic, or otherwise known as Trickster Magic, on the other hoof requires an interesting combination of constant imagination as well as focus. Those who express and hold themselves with pride and loyalty can only wield Day magic. And Night magic can only be called forth by those willing to help others before themselves and are passionate of something. But what does this have to do with how large the Circle is?”

“Well, with this basis, you initially had the circle be compromised of 6 ponies, each specialized in a branch of magic, thinking it necessary to keep the circle as small as possible in order to have the highest productivity level.” Sig stated, causing Twilight to nod in agreement. “Unfortunately, there was later a case that required knowledge on not only Light magic, but Traditional magic as well.”

The Guardian could only let out a small groan and face hoofed, already seeing where this was going as Sig chuckled.

Light Magic users have always been known to be sensitive and rather emotional, as is expected from those who specialize in “positive” emotions. Therefore, it was safe to assume that they had a very strong sense of empathy along with being the type of ponies to act according to how they “feel” before “thinking”.

Traditional Magic users on the other hoof were the atypical pause to thinkers. Refusing to allow emotions cloud their judgment and would only act until they had all of their facts straightened and laid before them.

While this did not to apply to the standard unicorn, it did strongly apply to those specializ-ed/-ing to the aforementioned branch of magic as having a lengthy period of time dedicated to studying any branch of magic could affect a pony in such a way.

“As you might guess, it did not turn out very well for those on the trip. Not only that, but it seemed as though they were not knowledgably enough in the area specific to the cause of disturbance. If I remember correctly… there was an unnatural magic growth occurring in a lake near what is now called Marechigan, causing elated feelings of happiness to near hysteria to those exposed to the water. The Light Magus at the time could not figure out how to dispel the affects of the magic from the ponies, as their flights of fancy were genuine enough to cause happiness and the Magus did not know any other way to appeal to them. As for the Traditional Magus, they had calculated that the growth was occurring within the Lake, near the middle. But did not know how to help you get to said point of interest. It was then, you met your second members of the branch and received the idea to include more members. The first mage of the Light Branch gave you the idea that instead of appealing to every pony’s happiness, that appealing to their compassion and concern to others should be prioritized as their hysteria was causing harm to those around them, and themselves. The first mage of the Traditional Branch was an ecologist, so had offered the solution of allowing the plants at the bottom of the lake and trees nearby to soak up the lake water in order to allow you to safely go to the point of magic and fix it. With the plant life corrupted and holding the altered magic, it could easily be examined and purified. That was when you realized that having more ponies specialized in different areas could be more useful. And as such, you would have a larger variety of ponies to help you with different things if needed.” He explained, seemingly summarizing historic events.

“So after weeks of thought, you finally decided that having 4 ponies per branch would suffice, with one pony as Magus and in charge as well as responsible for the remaining 3, while the Archmage continued to be in responsible for all mages. This later proved to be rather favorable when your curse had… spread through most of your body.” He awkwardly finished.

“I see…” Twilight said, trying to ignore the awkward feeling in the air. She also wasn’t sure how to feel in regards of Sig talking of her adventures, when she couldn’t remember doing any of those things or ponies. It also seemed as though she was much more adaptable and open minded to change in her regimens, but she could only ever remember being stressed in regards to straying away from protocol. She decided that it was actually rather frustrating that some pony she had met recently, and 2 other dozen ponies she had yet to meet, knew more about her than she did herself.

Author's Note

Hello readers!

I'm sorry that this chapter may seem rather boring as this is quite obviously an info dump, but not to worry! Things should be moving along a bit quicker within the next few chapters.

If you see any mistakes, please don't hesitate to let me know. I'll be more than happy to go over it again and correct it.

Thank you for reading.