MLP: Technology is Magic

A week had passed since Discord had been released from his stone prison. There hadn’t been a single sighting of the draconequus since then. Sophia had to guess that he was trying to avoid Violetta as much as possible. It was unfortunate for Discord that such a feat would be impossible. Any who knew of her existence would harbor her presence in their minds.

The terrifying part about that was the fact that she could act upon the minds of any who knew of her existence. That meant that she could mold one’s psyche however she wanted, even turn them into murderous psychopaths. Of course, that was one of the things she was forbidden to do unless explicitly ordered to by a family member who was of sound mind.

Speaking of the eldritch horror, there hasn’t been any sign of her either. Sophia could only hope that she wasn’t tormenting the poor draconequus further.

She turned her thoughts to other matters. Starlight and Nova had stayed in Canterlot to help train new instructors for a while so it could be some time before they returned.

Suddenly, Sophia sensed that Twilight’s stress levels were rising. The behavior was still normal for the obsessive-compulsive mare but it still warranted monitoring, especially since Starlight wasn’t around to calm her down right now.

For now, the bunny decided to ask the one creature who always kept an eye on Twilight whenever he wasn’t in school. “Hey Spike!”

“Oh, hey Sophia! What’s up?”

“I noticed Twilight might be having an episode.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Spike grumbled.

“What’s going on?”

“So far it’s been the usual Twilight being Twilight. She sort of messed up an order of cupcakes we got earlier and almost completely removed the icing from them because they didn’t look perfectly proportioned.”

“Yes, she does seem to need to develop flexible thinking skills. Obsessing over every little thing is not a healthy way to behave. So why am I sensing her stress levels rising further?”

Spike shrugged, “I dunno, last thing I mentioned was that we hadn’t written a friendship report to Princess Celestia in about a week and she started freaking out about magic kindergarten. She then ran off to find a friendship problem, I guess.”

Sophia could only hope that she would find a problem because that much stress was bound to attract Violetta’s attention.

Unfortunately, the hours ticked by and Twilight was getting worse as her stress was reaching breakdown levels. None of her friends were having any problems that they couldn’t solve themselves. She also ignored her friends’ council that a late friendship report wasn’t a major issue.

Sophia was now fearing for the unicorn’s life as she could tell that she was going insane from her doubt in others, which made her mind a prime target for Violetta to prey on. She needed to intervene immediately.

However, Sophia realized that she waited too long to act as the moment that Twilight returned to her house, the entire tree the building was composed of was shrouded in a black mist before becoming transparent and intangible.

“Blast it all! I’m too late!” Sophia shouted.

“Too late fer what?” Applejack asked as she, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rainbow and Rarity approached. They then noticed the state of the building, leaving their eyes widened in shock. “What in tarnation happened to Twilight’s house?!”

“Yeah, it’s all dark and weird-looking,” Rainbow added.

“I hope Twilight and Spike are alright in there, she seemed really upset earlier,” Pinkie remarked.

“I guess this whole friendship report thing was really eating at her,” Fluttershy figured.

Suddenly, the phantasmal door to the library opened and Spike flew out the door screaming as he was thrown out. Rainbow managed to catch him. “Hey Spike, what’s going on in there?” the cyan mare asked.

“I don’t know! Twilight’s mane was getting all out of sorts which tends to happen when she’s really stressed out. She said something about making a friendship problem for her to solve but just as her magic grabbed onto that old doll of hers, she dropped it and stopped moving. Her eyes turned completely black, as if they were empty sockets. It was so creepy! Next thing I know, the door opened and I was thrown out of the house as if I got bucked by Applejack.”

Sophia sighed, “Then there’s nothing we can do for Twilight. Her fate is in Violetta’s clutches now.”

Meanwhile, Twilight, in her frazzled state, was trying to enchant her old doll with a spell to make everypony obsessively desire it. However, her horn wasn’t lighting for some reason. She felt like she still had access to her magic but she couldn’t push it out of her horn. She struggled to activate her magic with as much effort as she could muster but that only succeeded in giving her a brief headache.

“Are you finished trying to give yourself an aneurysm?” asked a voice behind her. Twilight quickly turned to see Violetta sitting in a black chair she didn’t remember having in her library.

Except, when she turned around she found that she wasn’t in her library but in a different place completely. Looking around the room she could see the light gray walls of a room that looked like a normal pony’s house. She spotted several bookshelves containing a multitude of books that looked familiar. A few light fixtures gave a soft white glow that reminded Twilight of Princess Celestia for some reason while bright sunlight shone through a small window in the back. A rug in the middle of the floor was lavender with a dark blue outer ring and a raspberry ring inside. The rug smelled like old books and ink which gave Twilight a feeling of comfort for some reason.

However, Twilight still felt the need to be on guard with the horrific mare in the room. “Violetta?! What are you doing here? Where am I? How did I get here?”

“Yes it’s me,” Violetta responded. “You are in your library and you never left.”

“I’m pretty sure my library didn’t look like this.” Twilight waved a hoof at the surroundings.

“True, I had to do some redecorating in order for this place to look like a proper therapist’s office. And no, your library hasn’t changed at all. Sophia warned you about what I can do. I’m sure a smart pony like you can figure out where we are.”

Twilight thought back to what Sophia said about Violetta and how her powers were psychological in nature. She remembered what happened to Discord and how he ended up depressed when she created a grim world within…

“Wait, are we inside my own mind?!” Twilight exclaimed with a louder voice than necessary.

“Correct, my little pony,” Violetta slightly smiled. “I fabricated this room using your mental image of your library as a template. You may have noticed the books here are all ones you have read. They come straight from your memory center so some of the texts might be a little fuzzy if you don’t have them perfectly memorized.”

“That doesn’t explain what you’re doing in my mind.”

“You don’t get it, I exist within any mind who knows of my existence. I exist within your friends, your princesses, my family and Discord. If you tell any creature that I exist, then I will exist within their minds as well.”

“That’s…terrifying to think about.”

“Not really,” Violetta shrugged. “Most of the time I’m nothing more than a benign presence in your mind unless I act upon that presence. But enough about me, this is your therapy session.” Twilight then spotted a framed diploma behind Violetta, reading it was a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. “I can assure you that degree is very real. I wanted to surprise Sophia and my mother with it since they seem to enjoy showing off their skills in their respective scientific fields. You can ask me about my mother later. Right now, it’s time for your therapy session.”

A lavender-colored couch manifested in front of Violetta to which she gestured to Twilight to have a seat. Seeing no harm in it, the unicorn obliged.

“My therapy session? There isn’t anything wrong with me,” Twilight protested.

“So it’s normal to fuss over a weekly friendship report like it’s the end of the world?”

“Wait, that’s right! I need to make a report by the end of the day or I’ll be…tardy!” Twilight fretted, uttering the last word as if she had committed a taboo.

“Perhaps you might, I can’t imagine how many foals are flayed with a whip for being late on an assignment,” Violetta casually remarked.

“Princess Celestia would never do that to me…would she?”

“Maybe. When was the last time she did that to you?”

“Well, never actually,” Twilight remarked.

“So what about Celestia changed that would make her want to do so now?”

“She would never hurt me like that, she would probably send me to magic kindergarten instead.”

Violetta hummed, “I see. So she would send you to take remedial classes in magic because you are struggling with the most basic of spells?”

“What? No, of course not! I always get good grades and Celestia praises my spellwork.”

“Then what’s the point of sending you back to magic kindergarten? How is sending you to remedial magic class with a bunch of foals going to help you learn about friendship?”

Twilight paused for a few moments to consider how to answer the question. She wondered what the point would be to send her to magic kindergarten. Try as she might, she couldn’t think of a practical reason. “I…I don’t know. I’ve never been late on an assignment before. I don’t even know what the consequences would be.”

“Tell me, Twilight, have you ever considered what life is like for the average student? Have you ever witnessed an example of a student who failed to turn in an assignment?” As Violetta asked that, the scene shifted into a classroom that Twilight was familiar with at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Most of the ponies were just equine silhouettes, to Twilight’s horror.

“Remember Twilight, this is still your mindscape,” Violetta explained. “The reason these ponies are silhouettes is because you never took the time to remember them. The ones who look like actual ponies are the ones who have left a significant impression on your memories.”

This made sense to Twilight. Oddly enough, despite Violetta’s presence, she was feeling comfortable. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that she challenged her to attack her concerns with logic; something that helped her to relax. When the world around her made no sense, such as times when Pinkie’s antics infuriated her, she counted on logic to bring her comfort.

She vaguely remembered one student coming into class late though she didn’t hear much else since she was too engrossed in a book at the time. Violetta helped to clear the fog on that conversation, with the help of Twilight’s subconscious, to find that the brief exchange was rather anticlimactic as the teacher only had them go to their seat with nothing more than a reprimand.

“What you observed was a typical student being late to class. They were certainly a common example of a tardy student,” Violetta explained.

“So…they weren’t even punished?” Twilight asked.

“The only real punishment is missing out on a few minutes of class time. It might be important in some circumstances, but negligibly consequential in most cases. Though repeated instances of this in a relatively short amount of time can get on the teacher’s nerves and could lead to punishments to discourage the student from such behavior. Ask yourself this: do you need to be punished in order to remember to turn your assignments in on time?”

Twilight shook her head vigorously, “No, I always do my best to turn in my assignments on time.”

“And this will be the first time you gave Celestia a late assignment?” Twilight nodded. “And because you are giving your teacher your first late assignment, you believe that she will send you to take remedial magic lessons in an environment that is without your friends whom you are learning about friendship from?”

Twilight thought about that for a few moments before she realized something. “Now that you mention it, there doesn’t seem to be a point in sending me to magic kindergarten without my friends when I’m supposed to be learning about friendship from them. I still don’t know what Princess Celestia will do to me when she finds out I didn’t give her a weekly friendship report.”

“Oh yes, she must be thinking about so many other ways to punish you. From what you tell me, she must be quite harsh and unforgiving.”

“Princess Celestia is not like that!” Twilight protested indignantly. “She’s the kindest, wisest, most benevolent pony in all of Equestria.”

“And yet you fear her like she was a tyrant. Your desperate actions to find a friendship problem to write about tells me as much.”

“It’s not that I fear her, I’m afraid of failing her. She tasked me with making weekly friendship reports and I feel like I’m letting her down when I don’t keep up with them.”

“I see,” Violetta hummed. “Let’s consider a different angle. Have you ever considered the purpose behind the weekly reports? Does Celestia grade your reports like school assignments?”

“No, not that I know of. She wanted me to make reports on the magic of friendship but I never received any feedback on that. I figured that she wanted me to learn about friendship to help strengthen the bonds I have with my friends and strengthen the power of the Elements of Harmony.”

“Have you considered the idea that these reports were not meant to be an assignment?”

“It was a task given to me by Princess Celestia herself, what else could they be?”

“Give it some thought. Also consider this, why are you the only one to make these reports on friendship when you have friends who can help you out? Did she say that your friends weren’t allowed to help you with them?”

“Well, no…I guess that was sort of implied.”

“Careful about assumptions, Twilight, they can often lead to misunderstandings and such things can lead to damaging a friendship.”

“Huh, you’re right,” Twilight realized. “I guess I should have asked my friends to help me write a report instead of taking on the burden myself.”

“That or just tell her the truth,” Violetta offered. “If you haven’t found a lesson to write about then you simply don’t have anything to report. Is it truly realistic to expect a lesson every week?”

“I guess not, but I feel like I’m letting her down if I don’t have anything to report.”

“Perhaps we can discuss your fear of failing the princess in another session. Do consider what I said about the nature of these friendship reports. If you think about friendship as an assignment then you might end up missing the whole point of friendship, thus rendering the entire assignment moot.”

“When you put it like that then it seems like making a friendship problem defeats the purpose of the assignment.” Twilight smiled. “Thanks for helping me realize my mistake and…I guess…not preying on my mind like Sophia said you do.”

“Oh, I very well could have. You were ripe for the harvest by the time you were about to enchant that doll and I am quite hungry for a depraved mind. Make of that what you will.”

Twilight gulped.

“Now then, this session is over. Time for you to return to the real world, your friends are worried sick about you. In fact, it seems that they even called in Celestia for help.”

“Princess Celestia?!” Twilight shouted.

Before she could say anything else, the world around her shattered like glass to reveal herself standing in the middle of her library. She looked around to check her surroundings and saw that everything was where she, Starlight or Spike left it. She appeared to be back in reality.

The door suddenly opened and her friends clumsily flooded into the building and ended up in a pile. “Twilight!” they shouted in unison.

“Twilight, are you alright?” Rainbow asked.

“Are you hurt?” Fluttershy asked.

“What in tarnation happened?” Applejack asked.

“Spike said your eyes turned black and empty.” Rarity added.

“It was so creepy. Your library turned all black and ghosty like OoooooOOOOooooOOOOOOOOoooooo…” Pinkie supplied.

Once her friends had finally given her a chance to speak, Twilight explained what happened between her and Violetta which amounted to telling them that the horror gave her a psychological therapy session.

“So she just talked to you?” Rainbow questioned.

Twilight nodded, “Yeah, and she stopped me from making a huge mistake. I was so desperate to make a friendship report that I was about to do something that would have defeated the purpose if I went through with it.”

“Gosh Twi, ah’m awful sorry ah didn’t take your concerns seriously. Ah…we didn’t realize how much this meant to ya.” The others voiced their own apologies after Applejack.

“I apologize as well, my faithful student, I misspoke about what I wanted from you,” Celestia added. “I shouldn’t have added pressure on you by requesting weekly reports. I meant that you could send me a report any time you learn something new about friendship. There never was any real deadline, truth be told.”

“Princess, you don’t have to–” Twilight tried to protest but Celestia raised a hoof to stop her.

“I can make mistakes as well. I am far from perfect, Twilight. Starlight found out a long time ago that I’m as approachable as any pony. I even encouraged her to behave casually toward me whenever I am not doing anything official.”

“Princess, perhaps ah could offer a friendship report in Twilight’s stead?” Applejack offered.

Celestia smiled, “That sounds like a wonderful idea. In fact, I think all of you should write to me about what you learned about friendship, whenever you discover something of course. I’ll extend this to Starlight as well.”

Everypony agreed before Applejack and the others, sans Twilight, gave their report together about taking their friends' worries seriously.

“Thank you for that wonderful report, my little ponies. Now if you will excuse me, I am nearly finished with the first batch of reforms. Umbra and Luna have been quite helpful in drawing up a plan to modernize Equestria.”

With that, the ruler teleported away, leaving the others to continue enjoying their peaceful days that were slowly coming to an end.