Author's Note

And here we have the beginnings of a new story, of a type I’m unfamiliar with and would greatly appreciate feedback on.

Prologue

Twilight did a check over the spell she had decided to do a test with for the twelfth time; Starlight was in position ready to do her part. It was a known fact that due to their complicated nature clairvoyance spells got a bit messy when they interacted with shield spells. The spell Twilight had chosen was an older clairvoyance spell, one that dated back to the time Starswirl the Bearded was said to be in his prime. Starlight was ready and waiting with a newer shielding spell, one of which was only a few years old when Twilight had moved to Ponyville.

The plan was to have Starlight erect the spell then cast the clairvoyance spell. The two mares were almost ready; they just had to confirm no undesired interruptions occurred. In particular, they were waiting for the go-ahead from Spike, who had the all-important job of telling everypony, especially Pinkie Pie, that Twilight and Starlight were to not be interrupted until after noon. The sun had just barely risen, and Spike was putting written notices around town and telling all of Twilight’s friends personally.

Starlight had taken care of that issue the day before, where she told all her friends what she and Twilight would be up to. Trixie, predictably, asked to be kept apprised of the project, mostly because she thought that learning it might make for a decent stage show if the results were good. But that was the main problem; there were dozens upon hundreds of both clairvoyance and shielding spells, Twilight and Starlight were going to be testing them all in sequence. They had decided to have the clairvoyance spells start in the past and move forward while the shielding spells would start in the realm of newer formats and move backward.

Keeping track of the spell and date of the spell was made easier with this method, it meant they could progress the project without having to ask what era both spells were in and instead just ask which era the clairvoyance or shielding spell was. They would keep the shield going and cycle through all the clairvoyance spells from oldest to newest. Afterward, they would go down the line with the shield spells and do the whole thing all over again.

This project was a massive undertaking; it could take days or weeks to complete. But due to the possibility of magic fatigue, the two magic-wielding ponies would take periodic rests.

“Spike is fifteen minutes behind schedule,” huffed Twilight, her ocean blue t-shirt with a violet circle on the chest that contained her mark heaving back and forth with her annoyed breathing, her pants were actually a pair of older pajama bottoms that were just starting to get snug. She missed her days as a unicorn at times like this; she wasn’t pleased about how her bosom had shot up to a pair of FFF-Cups from her pert CC-Cups or the fact that her plot had gotten a bit more girth. “I guess we should start the first of the tests. If nothing else, we’ll get some more concise data on why this practice was said to lack usefulness in the past.”

“I’ve already erected several barriers on all the doors and window that could potentially lead here,” said Starlight, her black tank top holding light purple circle that housed her cutie mark heaving with her breathing. And by the looks of it, her choice of pants was a pair of cargo shorts. “I’m raising the shield now, get ready Twilight.”

“Time to get that data,” said Twilight as she prepared the spell.

The shield was fully formed and the clairvoyance spell was a little over half charged when a pink pony in an eggshell blue jumpsuit that had three balloons, two yellow and one blue, on a pink circle at the chest said, “How’s going Twilight?”

“Gah,” said Twilight causing the energies she had been carefully focusing in her horn to envelop her and Pinkie in a burst of dark pink and lilac purple.

This prompted Starlight to say, “Well, I better round up all the girls to look for those two. It could take a while; I hope it’s nothing too serious,” which was immediately followed by her leaving the room to do just that.