“Hay diddle diddle
Discord wasn’t little
The sister was trapped in the moon
But with Laughter
And the other five
We will all be safe soon!”
Twilight grumbled as she tried to focus on her book over the din of the other fillies and colts in her class singing that song. She wished she could go back inside for recess, but after the teachers caught her flying through the upstairs windows they’d locked them up, so she was stuck out here with the unicorns. It had gotten to the point where she’d considered actually playing hooky and flying out of the courtyard entirely, but the lecture Celestia had given her after the window incident drove that thought out of her head. Maybe she could work on a silence spell of some sort? Was that possible? Maybe if . . . no, she had to focus. She’d scheduled out her study time, and she had to finish this chapter during recess. They were done singing anyway, so now she could --
“Hey, you’re Twilight Sparkle, right?”
Sighing, Twilight lowered her book and looked up at the filly interrupting her. She was a blue unicorn a little shorter than her whose blue and white mane made her think of toothpaste for some reason. She didn’t quite remember her, she may have been one of the transfer students who had come in the last few months.
“Yes, I am.” With that, she levitated her book back up and tried to pick up where she left off, hoping that the other pony would take the hint and move on. She was too busy to bother with things like small talk or games or --
“Great, can you help me research my essay?”
(1)When she first got to school there were only four. After the first year there were fifteen, and the school librarian finally stopped granting her requests on what new books to get.
“Research!” Twilight closed her book so fast that she almost forgot to secure her bookmark first. “On what? Biology? Alchemy? Ooh, I know where to find all the biographies on Starswirl the Bearded!”(1)
“Cool, but I actually wanted to ask you about your mage sight.”
“Oh . . . so you just want an interview?”
“Yeah, after all, I’m told you got mage sight when you became an alicorn, so you know what it’s like to both have it and not have it!”
“Um, that’s not true, I had mage sight even before I got these,” she said, ruffling her wings.
“Oh,” the other pony said, lowering her head and ears. That meant she was upset, right? Twilight really ought to have continued her book, but didn’t this other pony have to do research?
“I . . .” Twilight began hesitantly, “. . . most ponies aren’t born with mage sight anyway. Well, they are, but it takes a while to manifest. I do remember when I first realized I had it, and --”
“Ooooh, tell me! Tell me!” she said, startling Twilight as she started jumping up and down.
“B-but . . . wouldn’t you get better data from a before and after comparison?” asked Twilight. The unicorn answered by leaping into her face.
“Who cares? Story time!”
“Gah! Alright! Alright! Just back off!”
She did, which meant Twilight didn’t have to shove her back like she was preparing to do. “I’m Minuette by the way. So, this was back when you were a unicorn?”
Twilight nodded at Minute, glad that she had at least been paying attention. “Right, although it wasn’t all that long before that. It was actually at the Summer Sun Celebration . . .”
Twilight held back a yawn. This was the first year where she was both old enough to stay up for the Summer Sun Celebration and Celestia was holding it in Canterlot. She didn’t want her parents to think that she needed to go back to sleep, not when she was so close. This was the only time Celestia did the raising in public like this instead of in the castle, she wouldn’t do it in Canterlot again for four years, and Twilight was a big filly now. She was going to . . . well, maybe she could rest against her mommy’s leg. And rest her eyes, just until Celestia arrived. And . . .
“Twily, wake up!” Next thing she knew, her big brother was shaking her awake. Trumpets were blowing, and when she looked up she couldn’t see the moon anymore. Oh no! She missed the moon going down, and Celestia was about to raise the sun! Galloping from her family’s side towards the trumpets, she squeezed between the legs of all the adults until she reached the front and saw the most amazing thing she had ever seen.
It wasn’t the first time she had seen Celestia outside of pictures, although this was the closest. She was certainly regal and majestic, but what really made Twilight stop in amazement was what her magic was doing. Twilight spent years afterward trying to describe it in terms others could visualize. The best she could say was it was as if six chains of pure sunlight were being launched out of her body, two from the wings, two from her cutie marks, one from the horn, and one from the heart. These chains stretched to the horizon and beyond, and energy travelled along them in both directions, both like lightning and nothing like it at all, creating a tension between the alicorn and what lay on the other end. Once the chains were taut, Celestia flapped her wings, carrying herself up above the crowd, and as she rose she pulled on the chains, drawing them and their power back into herself, and finally towing the sun over the horizon, beginning the longest day of the year.
As the crowd cheered, Twilight merely gaped in awe. Celestia had put so much power into at least six similar yet distinct spells, and somehow was able to summon just as much if not more power from it. She knew unicorns used to do this, yet the princess had used her wings as well, plus the chains from her heart and cutie marks had seemed different than the one from her horn.
“Twilight, there you are! Mom says you shouldn’t run off like --” her brother began, but was interrupted by a sudden hug.
“Thank you for waking me up Shiny! That was wonderful, but confusing, but amazing, and I wanna know more!”
Shining Armor finally gave in and hugged his little sister back. “You’re welcome Twily. What do you wanna know more about?
Twilight grinned as she hugged him tighter. “Magic, Shiny. I’m going to learn everything I can about magic.”
“Wow, so you could see how Celestia raised the sun?”
“Yeah, it was kinda hard to miss,” Twilight said, book all but forgotten as she gave her lecture to the Mini-Get filly. “I found out pretty quickly in my research that I would never be able to Cast all those spells myself. Even unicorns with a Personal Spell or cutie mark that lets them move either the sun or moon can only really do one ‘chain’ without permanently damaging their ability to Cast. Since Celestia is both an alicorn and has sun moving as her special talent, she can use all methods of pony Casting to support the process, as well as Infuse the sun with her own magic.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense. I kinda thought that if you could see spells you would know how to do them.”
“I do know how to do it, that’s what my mage sight does, it shows me how spells are done, so long as I’m paying attention to them. I just don’t have the talent to actually do it myself. At the time, the spell had to be really strong for me to ‘see’ it, and even the ones that don’t need talents were still too strong for me to Cast.”
“So how long did it take for you to see a spell you could Cast?”
Twilight paused. She actually did remember the first one within her general range, although it had taken a few days for her to actually do it, but . . . the day she had seen it had been scary. Did she really want to share it with Money Get? Well, it was for research . . .
This had to be the most amazing day in Twilight’s life! The Bearer of Loyalty and Magic, Red Wand, was retiring, so a Choosing Ceremony was being held in Canterlot to see who would get her Elements.
(2)He never did figure out who was on first.
And Shining Armor had been chosen to bear Loyalty! He would get to go on adventures with Daring Do, the Pegasus Bearer of Generosity, Pinotto, the earth pony Bearer of Laughter and Honesty(2), and best of all, Cadance, the alicorn Bearer of Kindness and the best foal sitter in the world!
Now she and her parents stood on a side stage watching him and the other Bearers, who stood behind Celestia and Red Wand as she gave another speech about her time as a Bearer. With them on the side stage were several other friends and families of the Bearers, such as Pinotto’s brother, Cadance’s adoptive parents and a unicorn mare Twilight had seen pick Cadance up once after coming to watch her, Sunset . . . something, she didn’t remember the last part. Not that it mattered though, for as soon as Red Wand finished her speech she smashed the Element of Magic on the ground, shattering both it and its connection to her, allowing it to begin studying the crowd, seeking a new Bearer. Sure enough, after a few seconds the pieces began floating up, and they were drifting towards them . . . oh, wait, they turned back to the Bearers and now the pieces were circling around Cadance! She got to be the Bearer of both Kindness and Magic, this was amazing! Twilight always had known she was magical ever since she’d seen her use her magic to stop that couple from fighting, and now everyone would know just how great she was! Yes! Yes! Yes!
“NOOOOOO!!!!”
Twilight yelped and fell over mid hop as Sunset gave a yell of rage.
“How!?” she asked as everyone around her backed off and she stepped forward, horn beginning to glow. “I spent years learning all I could about magic, waiting for a chance to earn that title!”
“Sunset Shimmer,” Celestia said, not shouting and yet still projecting an iron strength, “the Element has chosen, and I believe I have taught you enough to know --”
“I taught her! She was a pegasus who didn’t know the first thing about spell Casting before she grew a horn and you asked me to tutor her! How . . . is that it?” She started laughing, but Twilight didn’t think she sounded that happy. “Are even the most magical of unicorns no longer enough for the Element of Magic if there’s an alicorn it can choose? And you live practically forever . . .” She paused, her horn dimming for a moment before shining even brighter. “I won’t let you do this!” she shouted before launching a beam of magic at Cadance.
Fortunately, before it could reach her it was intercepted by a dome shield cast by Shining. As most of the crowd started running and screaming, several guards launched a few spells back at Sunset, but she teleported away, arriving right on top of the dome. Celestia must have anticipated this, however, because almost before the glow of her arrival had faded she was knocked off by a beam of the princess’s own magic. She landed in a heap, and in a few moments the guards had surrounded her with spears and lances while Celestia cast a weak shield spell around all of them, which Twilight later learned was designed to only block teleportation.
Twilight could make her face out from between a few of the guard’s legs, and if she was old enough to swear she would have sworn that Sunset had a few tears in her eyes as she took in her predicament. However, while everypony else saw her lower her head in submission, Twilight saw sparks. Not coming from her horn, but from inside her, beginning in her heart and making it’s way up her body like a fuse. At the same time, wisps of power were gathering just below the base of her horn, with effort being put into not letting them actually touch her horn. She had no way of knowing what would happen when the sparks reached the wisps, but some instinct told her that it wouldn’t be good.
“Look out!” she cried out as she tried to also light some sparks from her own horn to get somepony’s attention, although in the noise of the herd only Shining and a couple guards turned to look at her. When the two parts of the spell connected, all Twilight heard was a deafening bang, all she could see was a blinding flash before everything went dark, and all her horn felt was burning. She started screaming, and she thought she could just make out the sound of everypony else doing the same, but it was hard to tell over the ringing in her ears. She spun around, trying to find where her parents were, but the darkness still surrounded her. Making a guess at where they had last been, she started galloping forward, but in just a few seconds she screeched again as she fell off the stage. She called for help, trying to figure out how she could find somepony when all she had was her nose receiving the scent of fear all around her and the ground shaking around her and OW! Somepony had just stepped on her tail!
She scurried backwards until she felt herself bump up against the stage, at which point she curled up against it holding her throbbing tail and hoping whoever had stepped on her wouldn’t come back. Had it been Sunset? Or maybe the dark was because of Sombra. Or what if it was Nightmare Moon! Just last year she’d decided she wasn’t going to give the Mare in the Moon any candy and that night she’d had a terrible dream where Nightmare Moon had tried to make her tell everything she knew about Cadance and SOMEPONY WAS GRABBING HER! She struggled against the hold of the large pony, it was too big to be her parents, Nightmare Moon was going to gobble her up and --
“Twilight, it’s okay, it’s me!”
C-Cadance? Her hearing was coming back, although that did make the screaming louder as well. But now that she thought about it, it did feel more like one of Cadance’s hugs than a monster grabbing her. She started crying into her coat, so glad that somepony had found her.
“Shh, shh, it’s okay, I’ve got you. Just let me see what I can do about your eyes.”
“You actually saved her you know.”
Twilight looked up at the other voice, her bleary eyes finally clearing enough from Cadance’s Earth Pony healing to make out the tan pegasus she realized must have been Daring Do.
“Your warning. It kept Shining and a few of the other guards from actually looking at that flashbang spell when it went off, so Shining was able to focus enough to keep his shield up and the guards chased Sunset away. Thanks kid.”
Twilight blinked as her vision cleared. “M-me?”
Cadance gave Twilight a nuzzle. “That’s right Twilight. You were very brave.”
Huh. That had all been very scary, but if Cadance said she was brave then she must be. And if she was brave, then she could stop being scared! To demonstrate, she nuzzled Cadance back and gave a big smile. “You’re welcome.”
“How did you know Shimmer was going to do that anyway?” Daring asked.
“Well, I saw her magic below her horn . . .”
“So wait, Sunset Shimmer was mad because a former pegasus got the Element of Magic?”
(3)While any pegasus could make Weather Devices, Ratchette had the ability to work with almost any Device in existence, even if she couldn’t Craft them herself.
Twilight shrugged at Money Gate. “I guess, but that doesn’t make sense. After all, Rachette was the Bearer before Red Wand.”(3)
“Weird. Anyway, you were able to copy the flashbang spell?”
“Yes, my parents applied me to Celestia’s School after they learned about my mage sight and I thought it would make a good demonstration during my entrance exam, but, well . . .” Twilight hesitated, remembering how her first “successful” attempt blinded herself.
“I’m guessing it wasn’t useful for the test they gave you, huh?”
“Yes, exactly!” Twilight said, eager to move on to a less embarrassing topic. “On the plus side the test was the last time that I --” she began before realizing that in her rush to change the subject she was about to mention something even worse.
“Last time you what?”
“I . . . it was . . . the last time I used mage sight before becoming an alicorn.”
“Neat, comparing that to after becoming an alicorn would be helpful.”
Oh, so now Mold Gate wanted a before and after comparison. Fine, she’d gone this far, might as well go the whole way . . .
‘They want me to hatch a dragon egg!?’ she thought. The sign on the wagon certainly seemed to indicate that, but her parents had told her that the test the school would give her would be easier if she did well on her written application! She didn’t think she’d gotten anything wrong, but with a test like this? Every book she'd ever read on dragons (all two and a footnote of them) said that they were not just physically strong, but also magically resistant. Logically, their eggs would be too. Even if they weren’t, she didn’t know any spells to help eggs hatch! The only ones she’d even heard of would kill what was inside it, but the drawing didn’t have any x’s on its eyes, so she assumed they wanted it alive.
“Well, Miss Sparkle?” asked one of the teachers sitting at the back of the room, a clipboard hovering beside her just like the other three.
She supposed the only way things could be worse was if Celestia had been there, but Shining had told her that she’d been spending the whole week since the Choosing searching the nearby countryside trying to find where Sunset had disappeared to, while the Bearers stayed in Canterlot to protect Cadance from further attacks. Even so, the filly could barely think straight, so she just started trying to fire energy out of horn towards the egg. Maybe when she saw how the egg reacted to her raw magic she’d remember a spell that would work, or maybe she’d get lucky and her Personal Spell, whatever that was, would work on the egg. But what if they only let her use one spell to try? What if certain spells weren’t allowed? What if . . . why wasn’t her horn glowing?
‘No! Not now!’ This was the most important day of her life, the day she was supposed to get into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns! All the great wizards of the last hundred years had studied here, it had lessons taught by Celestia herself, and their library had books found nowhere else in Equestria! She couldn’t blow this! Grunting, she tried every position she could think of for spell casting, from the standard charging form to the close range near-casting. She even tried pointing and waving her hooves around like she’d heard stage magicians did. Yet no matter how much she tried her magic never made more than a few sparks. Finally, she slumped down in defeat.
“I’m sorry I wasted your time,” she mumbled to the teachers, who merely made some more notes. She dared not even look at her parents. They’d been so proud when they found out about her mage sight, and they’d gone to so much trouble getting her this opportunity, but when it was actually important she couldn’t even cast a single simple spell. She wouldn’t be surprised if any minute now they exploded in anger at her.
Well, okay, given how she jumped at the sound of an actual explosion she was a little surprised. The sound and the wave of something passing in front of her mage sight startled her into releasing more magic than she’d ever cast before, striking the egg and popping it open, revealing a surprisingly cute purple dragon inside. She didn’t get a very good look at it before her magic surged again, stronger than before. She gave a cry as the power burned away at her brain, the magic she released lifting her in a telekinetic field and shooting uni-lighting blasts all over the place.
‘It hurts! The teachers are good- AH! M-magicians, can’t they stop --’
Before she had even completed the thought, her magic followed her mind and lanced out at them, placing them in their own writhing fields that seemed to absorb the spells they attempted to cast.
‘Mommy? Daddy? Please, you have to help m--’
Once again her magic went where her thoughts did, turning them into a fern and a cactus just before they could cast a spell to defend themselves.
‘The baby dragon’s still here! I have to get away or it will --’
It was too late. Her magic stuck the infant, and within moments it had grown so tall its head had burst through the roof.
‘Don’t think about anypony else! Nopony else! You have to do this!’
Her spasms continued, she didn’t know how long except that it was too long. Eventually, her mage sight picked something out of the corner of her eye and she forced herself to look that way. One of the teachers was doing something with her magic. While the spell looked like a normal cancel, before she actually Cast it she made some sort of tunnel though her head, which seemed to allow the magic to be pumped through at much higher pressure. This technique actually seemed to be making headway against her telekinetic hold, although it did cause her magic to change from a light blue to purple for some reason. She didn’t care about that though, all she saw was a way to fix things, to end the pain.
(4)Oh, and fixed all the people in the room her magic had affected, was that important?
She began to shape her internal magic, pushing through the difficulty. After a few seconds, she felt the magic change from painful and burning to soothing and cooling. The sensation after all the pain was incredible, and she unconsciously pulled all the magic she had cast back into herself(4) just so she could feel it more. As she did, her mage sight opened up in ways she’d never imagined, showing her not only the workings of the spells around her but filling her head with knowledge of all the spells she’d ever seen. Even better, with her new power boosting method, most of them had suddenly become within her reach! She laughed as she targeted the window for a test run. Nothing could hurt her now, she’d never felt better in her life!
“It was the worst mistake of my life,” Twilight said.
“But you got your magic back under control, didn’t you?” the blue unicorn asked. “Just like your mage sight said it would?”
“That’s the problem, my mage sight only says how to cast the spells, it doesn’t tell me anything about what the spells do. If you cast a spell on a pot behind a sheet I would be able to copy the spell, but unless I’ve already studied that spell I would have no idea whether I’m causing the pot to glow or turn into a rock.”
“Oh. I guess there were side effects then?”
Twilight gave a dark chuckle. “Side effects? I cast dark magic without shielding my mind at all. I welcomed it into my head. It drove me insane.”
Twilight grabbed another spellbook off the shelf, hoping that this would be another good one for keeping her from getting hurt. She skimmed the title: “Summoning Lost Pets”. Interesting. She didn’t have any pets, but summoning spells might be useful. She placed the book on the pile she’d been building. She couldn’t stay here in the aisles because somepony could sneak up behind her, so she’d take these books to a corner to read. In the meantime, she pulled down another book. “Tentacles and You: How to Gain Suckers for Suckers”. Oh, this one was just another one for body enhancements. She considered burning it on the spot, given how much the last one she had done had hurt, but decided against it. She was pretty sure the pain came from the transformation spell added to the enhancement, but just in case she’d leave the book here.
She was about to pull another book down when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye and it was somepony else coming to hurt her she needed to stop it give it tentacles to trip it up then teleport to --
Right as she was about to release the spell from the middle of the book her eyes finally focused and she saw it was just a pig. Or rather, it was currently a pig, based on the armor it was wearing it had been one of the royal guards who’d come to hurt her, but thanks to her earlier transformation spell it no longer had magic or flight or strength to attack her with. Still, it wouldn’t do for her to get distracted like that again. She needed to get that pig out of here. Well, she already had the enhancement spell. One quick Cast later (oooh, did casting it feelgood) and the now legless pig guard tried to drag itself away with its tentacles. It would wear off eventually, just like the transformation spell, but with as much power as she put into the spell it would take a while, and by then she’d have studied even more spells to stop him and anypony else from hurting her.
“But this isn’t the only library in Equestria,” she thought, “and it doesn’t have quite all the books. What if somepony else finds a really powerful spell and then comes to hurt me? I’m getting a lot of practice Casting spells, but the guards haven’t been using many advanced spells. I need to practice undoing spells, but just undoing my own spells won’t help since everypony’s magic is slightly different. I need somepony to help me.”
“Twilight?”
Twilight brightened up as she heard that voice. Sure enough, when she turned around she could see him peeking through one of the windows.
“B.B.B.F.F!” she called, teleporting outside. “You’ll be perfect!” she said before grabbing him and teleporting both of them back to her pile of books. She carefully removed one from the middle before shoving it in his face. “I need you to cast this spell so I can see how to stop it.”
He took the book, but instead of reading the spell like he was supposed to he just lowered it a bit, revealing the Element of Loyalty on his neck, and looked at her for a bit with an expression she didn’t recall seeing on him before. Was there something on her face? Maybe . . . oh!
“Yeah, the wings,” she said, fluttering the dark wings on her back. “I found this neat spell that gave a pony butterfly wings, and then I found another spell that transformed butterflies into birds, so I thought I’d combine the two. I’m not gonna do it again though, even after they wear off, it HURT!” As she said the last word she sent a quick blast of magic off, letting the cooling sensation ease the memory of the pain. Shining jumped a bit, though she wasn’t sure why, she wasn’t aiming anywhere near him.
“And . . . you being a few inches taller with glowing blue eyes?” he asked quietly while breathing a bit heavily.
“Really? I didn’t know that. Now come on, cast the spell already! More guards could come at any minute!”
He finally took a closer look at the book, but instead of casting it he just said “Wait, this is the Tazzy Twister!”
“Not really,” she growled, “I can’t find the full version of that spell. This one could only get a chair spinning up to five wing power before it tore itself apart. The book said the full version got its energy from everything the resulting tornado destroys, rather than the object itself. Still, if somepony who does know the full version of the spell tries to hurt me, I need to practice disabling it.”
“Twily, don’t you see the problem with what you’re doing?”
“Oh, don’t worry Shining, I’ll stand back far enough so I won’t get hurt. I learned that the hard way after the teachers got mad and tried to attack --”
Then there was pain something was attacking her the world was going sideways and it was a small bookcase somepony had kicked into her, knocking her over. As she tried to get her bearings she saw the other Bearers had joined Shining and the Elements were glowing and they were going to use them on her and banish her or turn her to stone or both and the magic she launched was just deflected she needed something better grab a book put all the power possible into it and . . . why were there bears in the pet summoning book?
A portal opened in front of her, but even though it was day she could see stars on the other side. She didn’t recognize the constellations though, and were they moving?
“She’s summoning an Ursa Major!” Pinotto called out.
“Switch targets!” Cadance shouted, and the other Bearers followed her instructions, willing the Elements to close the portal instead. The Gems finally activated, launching out the Rainbow of Harmony towards the portal, zigzagging from one end of it to another like giant stitches, before pulling both ends together and sealing it up with a power no mere pony could match. Twilight realized even with her amazing new powers she wouldn’t be able to do anything against that power. And they were going to turn that power on her!
“I won’t let you hurt me!” she shouted, launching a powerful kinetic spell at them. They all dodged out of the way, but the two taller ones accidentally dodged into a bookcase, which started to tip over. Both of them were trying to stop it, but they were just getting in each other’s way. That left her time to deal with Daring Do and Pinotto, which was good because Daring was charging towards her quick teleport Pinotto predicted arrival and is turning for a buck shield spell to block . . .
While she let her magic help her keep from getting hurt, a small part of her mind listened to her foes talk among themselves.
“She’s just a unicorn with wings, not a real alicorn,” Daring called out while trying to hit her with a whip, “go for the horn, a good whack there should stun her long enough for us to get another shot and may neutralize her altogether.”
She was right, she wasn’t a good enough flyer to keep away from Daring in the air, and whenever the whip made it through her defenses and glanced off her horn it stung and she had to struggle to keep the momentary interruption in her Casting from making whatever spell she was using from fizzling out. If she hit the tip or managed to get the whole thing wrapped up she might not be able to stop them from hurting her. Worse, while she’d been able to avoid Pinotto’s strikes, if he got lucky and hit her horn he might crack it, or even break it!
She needed to protect herself bubble shield and that gave her a breather for a moment before it was down in couple bucks shoot beams no they missed but maybe she could use that. After another quick teleport to give herself some space she fired several transformation spells at the shelves behind them and turned the books into a swarm of flyders, which quickly overwhelmed Daring. While she dealt with those Twilight turned all her focus onto Pinotto, and now that he was isolated--
“Hey, did you know that five times fourteen is twenty-five?”
Twilight hesitated. “No it isn’t.”
“Sure it is, look,” he said as he pulled a small chalkboard out of his saddlebag, wrote out the multiplication question, and activated a growing enchantment Crafted into it.
14
X 5
“Now, five times four is twenty,” he began, writing it out.
14
X 5
20
“Five times one is five.”
14
X 5
20
5
“And when we add them up . . .”
14
X 5
20
25
“See, five times fourteen is twenty-five!” he said, bowing with a flourish.
Twilight frowned. “You put the five in the wrong column. It’s not five times one, it’s five times ten, and you’re trying to distract me!” She spun around and fired a spell just in time to catch Daring Do mid charge, which knocked her out of the air. As she collapsed and skid to a stop in front of her, Twilight grabbed her with her telekinesis and spun her around into Pinotto, who had been trying to close the distance with her back turned. Both of them were thrown into another bookcase and buried under the falling books.
“That worked on Juniper Montage,” Pinotto groaned.
“First, the elements were ready to take advantage of the confusion and clear the dark magic out,” Daring answered, “second, that girl was an idiot and crazy, Twilight’s smart and crazy.”
Twilight tuned them out. If she let them go, they’d just come back later with the Elements. She needed to make sure they couldn’t. She started pulling more magic into her horn, but just as she launched the spell Shining jumped in front of her, a bubble shield blocking her. She’d forgotten about him and Cadance! She teleported to an open spot, preparing to block the next attack.
“Twilight, listen to me!” Cadance shouted as she joined them in the shield, “we don’t want to hurt you, we just have to get the dark magic out of you!”
Get rid of the one thing that was keeping her safe? Even assuming the Elements didn’t turn her to stone or smoke or banish her or something, she’d never give it up. She conjured up a fiery net and launched it at them. It wrapped around the shield, and she pulled them all closer. A quick adjustment to prevent teleportation through it, and she had them all trapped. If Shining dropped the shield, the net would fry them before they could do anything about it. Still, he might figure a way out if she waited too long. She started to shrink the net. Soon, they wouldn’t be able to hurt her ever again!
But . . . I’d lose my B.B.B.F.F.
Who’d tried to hurt Me!
No . . . that couldn’t be right. He’s my big brother, he’s always looked after me. He didn’t try to fight me, and neither did Cadance.
They tried to use the Elements on me!
They . . . hadn’t they also helped her before? Shining kept me from missing the Summer Sun Celebration, and Cadance healed me after Sunset’s attack.
Why would that matter?
. . . hadn’t it mattered before?
Unbeknownst to Twilight, she’d stopped shrinking the net and the glow in her eyes was flickering.
“Twilight?” Shining hesitantly called out.
“Why,” Twilight gasped, “were you . . . trying to . . . hurt me?”
“We weren’t! We just wanted to keep you from hurting anyone else, or yourself.”
“But the new magic is keeping me safe.”
“Is that all you want?” asked Cadance.
Of course it was! Well . . . it seemed to be all she wanted now. Hadn’t there been other things she wanted? Like . . .
“D-Do you promise not to hurt me?”
“Of course, sweetie.”
Slowly, carefully, and fighting her instincts all the way, she lowered the net to the floor and dissipated it. Shining dropped the shield, and they didn’t attack her. Yet.
“Can . . . can I have a hug?” What was she doing! They could crush her or grab her horn to keep her from casting or -
Hugs always made her feel safe, didn’t they? Shiny and Cadance had promised . . .
Slowly, carefully, and ignoring the whispers of protests from the other two behind them, Shining and Cadance stepped towards her and hugged her. It felt . . . actually, she didn’t feel anything.
“W-Why doesn’t this feel good?” she asked. “Why don’t I feel safe?”
(5)Assuming, unlike Sombra, you cared about anyone in the first place.
“That’s what we meant by you hurting yourself Twilight,” Cadance explained. “Dark magic, the magic you’re using right now, hurts your ability to care for others.(5) It makes a shortcut through your brain that keeps you from thinking about anything but what you were wanting to do when you started casting. Most wizards are careful to only use a little at a time so that they can stop and go back to using regular magic.”
“However, dark magic is addicting,” Shining added, “and if you cast too much it . . . you can’t stop.”
“I could stop if I wanted to!” Twilight protested. Why would she want to stop something that felt so good anyway?
“It won’t let you want to, Twilight,” he soothed. “That’s why we tried to use the Elements. If Pinotto had confused you long enough for us to try again or while you were . . . um . . . dizzy . . . it would have cleared your head up. If we tried it while you were focused on fighting us, however . . . they wouldn’t be able to get rid of it without hurting you worse, so they would have either banished or imprisoned you instead.”
So, she could be safe and feelgood by continuing to use this dark magic, or she could risk being zapped by the Elements and maybe be able to feel . . . whatever it was that she usually felt with Shiny and Cadance. She knew the old her would have really missed the feeling . . . no, she missed it, but how could she be sure she’d be safe? Except, hadn’t they kept her safe before? Shining had both kept her from missing the Summer Sun Celebration and from getting lost, and Cadance had protected and healed her at the Choosing. Even if she didn’t feel safe with them, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Use them.”
She felt the two of them stiffen and the other two Bearers gasp.
“Twily, are you sure?” Shining asked.
“No, but I need you to do it before I change my mind. Just . . . promise not to let me get hurt.”
“I-I promise,” he said. He and Cadance let go and stood in front of her, and she heard the other two take their places behind her. As they powered up the Elements once again, all she could do was whisper to herself as she fought the urge to flee, to fight back.
“Please don’t hurt me, please don’t hurt me, please don’t hurt me . . .”
Right as the Elements were about to fire, the fear grew stronger than ever, and only the loving faces of her brother and best friend kept her still. When the Elements fired, she could feel the power in them flooding into her, pulling at the magic in her and trying to rip it out. Gritting her teeth, she used the loosening grip of the magic to help the Elements push it away. It . . . didn’t actually hurt, but it skirted the edge. She could feel that just one wrong move or thought and that would quickly change. As the rainbow around her grew brighter and brighter, she could make out the glowing star of the Element of Magic, growing larger in her vision, filling her sight and mind until it overtook everything.
When the rainbow cleared away, all that was left was a star shaped burn mark on the floor.
Twilight always liked watching the stars. Granted, this was largely because it was a good excuse for staying up late, but they certainly were fascinating; beautiful pinpricks of light twinkling in the sky. They were a little more concerning when they were in all directions, including the ground. At least, she figured it was ground, since she was standing on it, but she couldn’t actually see anything solid, just something that looked like those pictures of nebula in her books. She couldn’t be flying, she no longer had her wings. Wait, why did she think she had wings again?
“Hello? Shining? Cadance?” she called out.
“Well, I certainly didn’t expect to see anypony else here so soon.”
Twilight turned to the voice and saw --
“Princess Celestia!” she gave a hurried bow, but the lack of horizon confused her and she fell over with an “Oomph”.
“It’s all right, my little pony,” the Princess said as she helped Twilight back up. She gently nudged the filly to start walking along the nebulous path by her side. “There’s no need to stand on ceremony in this place.”
“Where are we anyway? How did I get here?”
“That is a little complicated, and I expect we won’t be here long. As for how, let’s find out, shall we?” As she said this, images started flying in from the distance, slowing down when they got close. To Twilight’s surprise, each image showed herself and there was even a little bit of sound. One showed her playing with her favorite doll, others getting ponyback rides from her parents, Shining waking her for the Summer Sun Celebration, Cadance protecting and healing her, and the beginning of her entrance exam. As they reached this, though, Celestia stopped, and Twilight stopped with her.
“What’s wrong Princess?”
“I’m going to have to ask you to wait here a moment Twilight,” she said (and how did she know my name?), “I won’t leave your sight, but it might be best if you don’t remember most of this for now.”
She left, leaving Twilight a bit confused and worried, but thankfully the Princess came back just a couple minutes later, an image held in her aura (which left Twilight slack-jawed at the control her mage sight revealed). Unlike the others, it showed some strange alicorn with raven wings hugging Shining and Cadance with a slightly fearful look on her face. Wait, that was her! She remembered now! Well, sort of. She could remember being afraid and that she’d tried to hurt a lot of ponies, but she couldn’t quite recall exactly why she was so afraid, or what she did to hurt others.
“It appears,” Celestia began, not noticing the sick and confused look Twilight was giving, “that during your entrance exam you used dark magic to escape from that strange surge you had. I must apologize to you, if I hadn’t left on a fool’s errand I might have been there to stop you from getting so far. However, I must also congratulate you. You have done something no other pony has managed to do. You rejected the dark magic, even when it had completely filled you, for the sake of those you loved.”
As she said this, Twilight felt something shift in her heart and a strange ribbon of light floated up in front of her before beginning to orbit and stretch out around her. As it did, she saw tremors of magic bounce to and from it which passed through her, although she couldn’t tell if it came from the strange substance or herself. At first she wanted to be afraid, especially as she began to lift off the ground, but Celestia was smiling at her. And, she didn’t have to be afraid if those she trusted were around her, right? So she surrendered to the sensations as they the world went white . . .
A bright purple star appeared above Canterlot. Of course, given that this was the middle of the day it wasn’t quite as visible as it could have been. Even among those who saw it, most couldn’t approach it because the guard had set a cordon around Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, which it was slowly descending towards. It did, however, catch the attention of the Bearers even through their panic over what they had done to Twilight. They arrived in the courtyard just as the star landed and dissipated, leaving a small filly behind.
“Twilight?” Shining Armor asked. Twilight slowly stood up and spread her wings. Not the black ones she’d made with dark magic, but true alicorn wings as purple as her coat.
“. . . and that’s how I became an Alicorn,” Twilight finished. “When Celestia got back she took me on as her student, which I was super excited for, and taught me more about being an alicorn. She also . . . helped me when the memories of dark magic came back.”
“But what about your mage sight?”
“Oh, well, it was quite a bit more sensitive, and now I can see how a spell is cast even if I can’t see the pony casting it. For instance, I can see the methods used whenever Celestia moves the Moon.”
“What about the sun?”
“That’d burn my eyes,” she said, rolling her eyes. Just then, the bell rang, and Twilight got up with a start. “Oh no no no no, we have to get back to class, and I barely studied! I might only get a 95 now!”
She began to gallop inside, followed by Mole Gate at a much slower trot. Didn’t she get how important this was? “Thanks for the help, Twilight!”
Right, Twilight was her studying. Well, she guessed she could respect that, especially since she hadn’t seemed bothered by the last part of the story. “You’re welcome Colgate!”
Right as she passed through the doors, her new acquaintance said one last thing in confusion.
“Huh? My name’s Minuette.”
Author's Note
For author's notes, go here: https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/790591/the-midnight-filly-authors-notes
