It had only been a week after she had gotten her cutie mark and hatched Spike that the pain set in. At first she had assumed they were just headaches or some mana burnout from her explosive entrance into the Celestial Sisters’ School of Magic. A month later after passing out from pain during a lesson with Princess Celestia she found out it was something else entirely. Some panic, a few accusations, and scans from the greatest minds in magic and medicine later it was determined what was going on. Twilight Sparkle, daughter of Lord Night Light and Lady Twilight Velvet, would be lucky to see her thirtieth birthday and it was all because she was too powerful for her own good. Apparently her mana well was growing geometrically by the day which would not have been so bad a thing if her mana supply was not growing exponentially at the same rate. If something was not done soon her own power would not only rupture her body but would be liable to destroy all of Canterlot.

Immediately upon discovery of this the princesses and her family began to do everything they could to help her. Hours and hours of research and testing was carried out in the hopes of preventing the loss of possibly the most powerful mortal magic user their world would ever see. At first it was easy to handle with teaching her power intensive spells for her to shunt all her energy into and housing her in rooms that were designed to block out external mana to slow down the rate at which she would recharge. As such she was housed in a series of such chambers in the palace and one was constructed in her parent’s mansion for when she would stay with them. This carried her through a few years into her teens until they discovered the problem was much worse than expected.

Spike had discovered his employer on the ground passed out one morning after her eighteenth birthday. Once more there was a flurry of doctors and wizards trying to determine what had happened to Celestia’s Favored. Once more something horrifying was discovered as it would seem that Twilight’s rate of magical absorption to recuperate her expended magic was now beginning to grow at an exponential rate every six hours. She would be lucky to make it through the year without extreme measures being taken immediately. Luna and Celestia provided access to extremely restricted materials to build a small suite in Twilight’s family home where she could live. These materials, a magically dead variation of marble that was impermeable to magic, would buy Twilight a few years while more work could be done to save her.

Twilight was not idle during these years of course. She spent many an hour poring over theories concerning energy build up and expenditure. Her failures to cure her problem lead to some of the greatest advancements in the fields relating to energy containment for Equestria. Many a device and new magical method came out of her works but none helped her issue. In her attempts to keep her magic buildup minimal she had taken to casting massive spells and putting them to work. One such method was that she currently supplied most of Canterlot’s electricity alone by tossing her power into an orb that would be replaced each day and hooked up the city’s electrical system. All of this was aside from the various spells and inventions she designed and theorized on that other mages had to work on in her stead given her lack of room for a proper lab. As such, her name and influence were felt throughout the capital even if the average citizen had never seen her.

“The same room. The same four walls. The same droning emptiness the lack of ambient mana registers as to my horn. Spike, if I can’t get out of here soon I might expire of boredom before I explode from magic overload.” Twilight complained to her assistant. The past three years spent in that room was beginning to become too much for her to handle. The purple unicorn rolled over on her bed to look at her assistant as he entered the room.

“Come now, Twilight, it isn’t that bad. You used to brag at how you could visit so many worlds even if you were stuck here for the moment.” Spike tried to talk her down. He only had to have this discussion every other day after all so it was old hat to him. Still he would give his tail for a way to help her with her problem. It could not be healthy for her to have not seen the sun in so many years after all. The young green and purple dragonling set up a tray with some simple breakfast items for his employer.

“That was two years and eight months ago, Spike. I’ve read every book in here including the four I wrote at least three times already. I couldn’t even go to my parent’s funeral. We couldn’t be sure that I could be outside this room for long enough to attend the ceremony.” Twilight grumbled to her assistant.

“Well, eat your breakfast for me at least, Twilight. Who knows, we might have a breakthrough today.”

“I might as well. Then it’ll be back to the old grind of throwing a lot of power around and then retreading the same research again.” The magician heaved herself out of bed and began to eat.

As Twilight got a start on her day Spike began to plan his trip to town for supplies and, with some luck, something a little more important. He had been hearing rumors spreading through town about a miracle worker within the realm of enchantments. Perhaps it was time to rely on an unknown rather than those with more titles and diplomas than sense.

Author's Note

Yes, I know. Show don't tell. A lot of the AU is being set up here so I do hope you'll forgive me for it in this chapter.