The gray unicorn clad in glasses groaned in annoyance as other ponies absolutely insisted on greeting her as she passed by. She just wanted to get some exercise and shopping done before getting back to her work.
Having ended up after her weekly hike and prepared to take it easy, she noted that she had to occasionally get fresh air to stay healthy, but one thing was for sure: friendship was something she was sure she’d never need to touch. She took one look at her mess of a corkboard and the looming deadlines. This was not going to be the right night to start de-stressing.
The unpresentable unicorn sighed and hurried down the stairs to the basement that she used as her laboratory. She put on her protective coat and gloves, starting to search the storage room before remembering how she had to move it to her secret laboratory due to the large size.
Having graduated from the School for Gifted Unicorns, Celestia had noticed her ambition and given her the old unused sewer system near Ponyville for her dangerous experiments. This is where the large machine was sitting, right in the middle of the circular underground room. Wanting to start work as soon as possible, she promptly diverted power from any non-essential stuff like ventilation.
The mare was working on a machine that could extract her magic. She wanted to know where magic came from, and the best way to find out seemed to be to rip it out along with the roots. The machine she was planning to achieve this with towered far above her, lit up by the soft glow of gargantuan prismatic crystals decorating the walls.
She had worked late into the night as she began brewing yet another pot of coffee, which she halfwittedly poured on her face in an attempt to drink it, being unphased by the scorching hot liquid hitting her eyelids. She stumbled back to the lab and passed out on the console, her limp chin swatting the start switch. The entire laboratory started shaking violently, but the exhausted dork seemed to be unphased by the tremor.
The machine came to life, its coils warming up as the gleam of the crystals on the walls became brighter and brighter. Having nopony to direct the energy towards, the cutie mark remover charged a sphere of magical waste right under the brick ceiling.
Twilight still wasn’t used to being royalty, nor to her not-so-new-anymore job as the Princess of Friendship. Honestly, she still kind of just wanted to study the nights away and sink her teeth into her vast collection of 20 000 books for the umpteenth time. But she had a life outside of that now. As much as she loved studying, she had also shared so much love for her friends for many now, and she was incredibly thankful for her mentor Princess Celestia for dragging her away from her comfortable little ball of knowledge.
She was studying late into the night, reading through each book in seconds. The magic emanating from her horn was flaring around each book, making the books fly through the air, the pages quickly being turned until the books were read, as they passed Twilight's gaze. She was scrawling something on scrolls. Her hornwriting was worse than she would like it to be but better than she gave herself credit for. Then she suddenly stopped reading and turned off her magic. The books fell on the floor making a large "thud" sound. Then she called out "Spike!"
A small purple dragon rushed in through the door, carrying various quills and scrolls.
"You called, Twilight?" Spike said, admiring his relatively new pair of wings. The growth of wings is an important milestone in a dragon's life, as it marks the start of puberty.
Twilight used her magic to levitate the scrolls she was writing.
"I think I cracked it! Take a letter to Princess Celestia."
Spike grabbed a quill and an empty scroll. "Ready!"
"Dear Princess Celestia. I believe I have made a grand discovery in the arcane world." Twilight recited and Spike wrote everything down as soon as it was said. "Um, Twilight? How do you spell arcane?"
"Um... Just write this instead," she said hesitantly. "I think I have broken through; I may have created a basis for several new enchantments." Spike looked even more confused. Twilight gave a frustrated look "...I might have invented a bunch of new spells." Spike happily wrote this down.
That's when they heard an explosion from the basement. They left the letter unfinished, going down to check it out instead. They followed their noses to the basement, the stench of smoke stinging their nostrils more and more as they approached the source. There, in an old, dusty storage room, there was a smoking hole in the floor that leads to a large, dimly-lit room.
"What's this?" Twilight said as she flew down into the room. She began examining the large crystals near the walls and the giant smoking machine in the center, with all its overheated coils and the broken glass shaft in the center, splitting in two at the bottom and leading to a space that was just the right size for a pony to fit in. She then noticed how the bookshelves in between the crystal slots were nearly empty and all the books had fallen to the ground. She was dying inside a little bit from the giant mess and all the disorganized information. This was absolutely the source of the explosion. Just then, she decided to turn on the lights. She noticed the switch near the giant metallic blast door and flicked it on. The crystals began emanating a soft light, lighting up the whole room. This allowed her to see the room in all its glory.
Spike opened his big mouth. "Twilight, I didn't know you had a lab!"
"Spike, this isn't mine. I had no idea this was under here the whole time. But that's not important," Twilight said. "Spike, get a quill and scrolls. Lots of scrolls. I want you to inventory EVERYTHING in this place!" She was talking quickly and loudly. She soon started walking in circles around the readily-worn groove in the floor around the machine. Someone had paced there before her, but she didn't give that a single thought. She was thinking of all the unknown information and potential hazards that were threatening her and everypony else in the castle. What if the floor had collapsed? What if the explosion had hurt somepony? That's when she saw the collapsed unicorn mare on the floor.
"So it DID hurt somepony!" She started laughing maniacally, before clearing her throat and taking a few deep breaths. "Calm down. I'm a princess."
Crystal Alloy woke up, seeing the face of Princess Twilight Sparkle as she did so. Crystal deliriously floated her glasses back on her eyes, speaking something along the lines of "Princessipal Twilestia? Is that you?" as she did so.
"So, how are we doing on the coffee?" Twilight asked, "You look exhausted."
"Third pot, I think. Why?"
"You need some sleep."
"Sleep is for the weak. I need answers." Crystal said, "I need to bring magic to all of ponykind, not just unicorns." Then she muttered something. "I promised Celestia I would..."
Twilight thought for a moment, then decided to change the subject.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle. But your story is bound to be much more interesting."
Crystal was just getting up when she heard the words. She didn’t get out much, but she had had the decency to attend, or well, at least read about, Twilight’s coronation. She yelped in surprise and panic and was taken aback, both emotionally and physically. Mostly physically, though. She summoned her old Celestia-student skills from the depths of her memories and gave the princess a hasty royal bow, trying in vain to look presentable. Her horn flared and magically restyled her messy mane, resulting in a straight, puffy manestyle, sort of like she had been forcibly tossed into a balloon pit.
“O-oh, excuse me, your majesty. Forgive me for my insolence!”
She lifted Crystal’s chin with her hoof. “That is not the proper greeting. I may be the Princess of Friendship, but I’m still just a pony.” She looked worried for her fellow pony, eyeing her injuries and bruises. “Are you alright, madam?”
"I'm fine. My name is Crystal Alloy. It appears my machine has turned itself on while I was doing my research,"
Twilight responded quickly. "You look exhausted. Come up to my castle. We'll discuss your illegal laboratory later."
"Yeah, about that... I'll just... take a little..." At that moment, Crystal Alloy collapsed on the floor again.
Crystal Alloy awoke in a bed in Twilight's castle. Her wounds were bandaged up, and Twilight was reading a book nearby. Crystal tried getting up and leaving silently, but just as she was getting up, Twilight interrupted her.
"Nuh-uh. You're not going anywhere, mister. You're hurt."
Crystal looked at her with a confused expression. "I'm a lady. Why did you bother to drag me up here?"
"I know, it's an expression. But to answer your question, that's what friends do."
"But I'm not your- Ugh, nevermind."
"I couldn't just leave you there to bleed out.”
“I’ll be fine, really. I’ve had worse,” Crystal Alloy protested.
“Yeah, I’m sure you have. But you’re not fine now.”
“I’m okay!”
“No, you’re not!”
The unicorn shook her head. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me,” the Princess retorted.
Crystal started getting a bit angry.
“You could have died! My laboratory is dangerous!”
Twilight yells back. “Ya think? Your laboratory is a death trap!”
“No, I meant for you.” Crystal Alloy said bluntly. “I’m a trained professional.”
“And I’m the Princess of Friendship. Professionals fail all the time, but they’re strong enough to acknowledge they did something wrong. That’s what makes them professionals.”
The unicorn stares at the ceiling in defeat, making her last argument after a moment of silence.
“Why did you do it? You barely know me.”
"What?"
"Why did you risk your life to save mine? Nopony in their right mind would do such a thing."
Crystal started mumbling something before pretending to pass out again.
