Twilight Queen of Curses!

Chapters

From King to Peasant
Uno!
Magic Kindergarten
Family Dinner
Preparation
Exam
First Day
Private Lesson
Disdain
Friendship Attempt!

From King to Peasant

The Samsara cycle is nothing short of endless nothingness, where the soul comes when it faces its end, and to begin anew.

A place where the king of curses now resides, walking alongside the only subordinate he truly had. The humiliation he had received by being beaten by young sorcerers was a roaring inferno screaming for retribution, yet, because of that same defeat, he was free of the curses the world placed upon him, free enough to take another path perhaps.

It was hard to admit that Yuji had really managed to convince him, and even harder to admit he had grown soft. But such difficulties begets no challenge when in the cycle, there is enough time to think about everything. Sukuna doesn't regret anything he has done, as he was the strongest - but perhaps, only a small fragment, a small child-like part of him wanted to have someone to call a friend. He had experienced love, but friendship was a foreign thing.

"You may die alone, but never live alone," Sukuna concluded. It was simple, something anyone can realize but few grasp the meaning.

Well, grasping the meaning of things is one of the few things he can do on the Samsara so he shall do just that.

Then something besides his thinking happened, for a moment he felt claustrophobic, and then...

"Hnngh." Twilight rubbed her head then stopped, "Eh?" A small, stubby, purple hoof. This hoof hit something on the top of the head, a horn. "Eh???" Then a small flash of realization came, with a major sigh of dissatisfaction. Twilight, four years old has awakened the memories of her past life far too clearly.

In fact, Sukuna briefly questioned if a horse had not somehow eaten his remaining finger but dismissed it, the last finger had no fragment of his soul. His, now hers, head hit the table with a disappointing thud. What was he-she even doing before this? Oh right. Studying magic..?

"Magic?" Not cursed energy but honest magic? Of course, she was reading a book about magic it's her favorite thing! "Magic." He wasn't supposed to actually maintain his memories after reincarnating- heck it had not even been a full year since his demise! "Let's do magic then." Okay, his- her. Her new name was Twilight Sparkle, daughter of Twilight Velvet and Night Light. Younger sister of Shining Armor. Oh, curse these names... Wait, western names? Her eyes fixed on the book and sure enough, it was... English. She was reading a book in English about magic. Actual magic not cursed energy. Magic was real and it was scientific... Suk- Twilight banged her head on the table again. This was worse than the time Yuji watched three hours straight of those 'game shows.' Well, at least she didn't eat her brother this time and he actually seems like a nice colt- colt. Colt. Horse. "I'm an equine..." There were no humans around to ride us and that is a plus. She lifted her head and flipped the cover of the book to see the title, "Creation Magic for Dummies." The king of curses, feared and glorified for thousands of years has been reduced to that. A dummy. A horse dummy. Where is Kenjaku when you need him?

Twilight briefly recalled what she had just read, "Sections 1-5 are about how to put the right amount of direction and potential to enchant..." He wasn't dreaming, right? You couldn't dream inside of the Samsara, right? "An item and," Twilight turned her head, and next to her there was a simple wood cube, but she could feel the magic in it. "And this... I'm going to bed."

"Sweetie! Come down, dinner's ready!" Oh, golly. I'm not going to bed. Twilight walked to the door of her room, which was decorated with a single bookshelf half filled, a bed with a blanket decorated with silly stars, and a mobile with a string attached to the ceiling of pegasi flying. A single window stood to the wall, which the bed was against. She unceremoniously ripped the door off its hinges with telekinesis.

"Oops." Then she trotted forward and stopped for a moment, took a step back, and stared at the door, "How..?" Twilight lifted her hoof to the tip of her horn, "Magic." Magic is real, curses are not. Magic has no cursed energy. "Makes sense."

"Are you okay up there?" Night Light spoke as his hooves stepped through the ladder, the moment he came up and saw the door he sighed, "Another one?"

Twilight blushed, "Y-yeah-" Then stopped, her hoof slowly traveled down from the tip of her horn to her cheeks then promptly smacked herself.

"Twi?!" Night Light, nonetheless protective checked her cheek and sighed in relief before turning a stern gaze toward his daughter "Don't do that, you could hurt yourself." That was the point, she could never feel ashamed over such a small inconvenience! And if she does, a punishment is necessary. "Come on, else the food is going to get cold!" And so Twilight did, carefully stepping through stairs and adjusting her quadrupled self to a more natural stance. Her previous way of trotting was lacking, and she did remember how war horses did back in his time and just... Imitated. It was humiliating to even think about it.

The way downstairs was filled with family photos, of Twilight as a baby, Shining Armor's first time at school, and his first scores on a test which were C, terribly for a brother of mine. The floor was a criss-crossed wood pattern, the walls painted in yellow and brown. Downstairs there was the front door and two other doorways that led to a living room and an office, Night Light turned around towards a hallway alongside the stairs and so did Twilight, both trotted until at the end revealed a doorway that led to the kitchen, a fridge filled with drawings of Shining Armor and some of Twilight's notes, on top of the fridge there was another stone she had enchanted to glow at night. At the opposite of the fridge stood a stove and a sink alongside with a multitude of cabinets, and a few more cabinets above the sink. In the middle of the room was the dining table, large rectangular. Shining Armor was already digging in his food while Mother waited for both of us. Which they immediately took a chair - Twilight without using magic to avoid breaking the chair.

What they were going to eat was... Lettuce, a few tomatoes and a cauliflower. Twilight's head fell at the table with the clinking of the utensils her plate had. "Twilight!"

Author's Note

Oh hey! I'm used with 1st person stories so, uh. If you find any I's, My's, or We's please do tell.

Uno!

The hospital, home of the sick. The weak. It was the only place Twilight never had truly visited in her past life with her own body. Yet, now she found herself with her mother, sitting on a stool for children while staring at a horse doctor, struggling to barely see his muzzle. He was a dark brown stallion with a black mane, his horn was long and sharp while his eyes carried the hue of oceans, the mark on his flank was that of a syringe.

"So doctor, she has been acting weird for a week and we are really worried, she has not eaten nearly anything and has barely drunk anything." Velvet couldn't bear to watch her child go on like that, it stung to see how skinny she had gotten. At first, she only thought that maybe her cooking just wasn't good enough, flavor enough - yet no matter what she made little Twilight's eyes were clouded every time she saw her on the table. Velvet ran her hoof on Twilight's mane, "I'm really worried..."

And that small touch was enough to ignite an old emotion for Twilight, worry. She repeatedly shook her head until finally Twilight Sparkle slowly turned her head towards her mother and resigned with a silent 'screw it.'

"I'm sorry." What is the difference between horses and humans anyway? This is a chance, a chance to live without being cursed! Even more, in a world with no curses! With whimsical magic! It can be... Worthwhile. Twilight nodded to herself, she will make this work.

Velvet lowered her head and kissed Sparkle "It's not your fault, sweetie." The doctor, who had been silent his whole time cleared his throat, tapping a pencil on a notepad with his telekinetic field. He had a long schedule and honestly, didn't feel the need to entertain some sort of family drama.

So, direct he was. "Miss Sparkle." He looked at Twilight, "You should really start to eat more. Besides that, everything is normal although there is an unusual." Velvet gasped, "Which is the growth in her thaumaturgic pathways are thrice the size somepony her age usually has."

"Is it a problem?" Her hooves drew to her mouth.

The doctor shook his head, "It will only be if she doesn't eat anything." He then checked his notepad, "In the olden times, it was common for foals, to die due to magic starvation." Velvet sharply stared at the doctor for the unnecessary D-word. "So, as long she eats well all's good."

"I-I'm sorry." Sparkle had the urge to slap the silliness off of her as her face grew warmer. "I'll be a better daughter."

Her mother immediately hugged Twilight. "You're already the best daughter I could ask for!" It was so strange, to feel love after so long. Maybe giving it a try won't be so bad after all.

Shining Armor slapped a card against the blankets, multiple others rained down from Twilight's bed to the ground, "Plus two!" The purple unicorn swore to herself to make her brother pick up those cards later.

Twilight hooves had one plus four, one change color, and one "Plus two." The card barely shifted the mountain of cards.

The stallion grumbled louder as each card was picked from the deck until at the very last one, a smile ear-to-ear replaced grumble-le-grumbler, his revenge against his young sister begins now! "Plus four!" And once again he slapped the card down, more cards shifted and fell. This time Twilight did not even bother to say anything as she placed her plus four. "How?! You are cheating!" He threw his cards away. On the ground. She will need to talk to him about these frivolous actions.

A sigh escaped the purple unicorn, "Yes. I am." She slowly put her cards down and watched Shining Armor's mouth slowly widen by the second, "It took you ten games to notice." A sprinkle of disappointment leaked from her voice. Cheating is a heian-certified sorcery skill, if an advantage in battle can be gained then said advantage should be pursued, yet his brother has both a terrible eye and a huge amount of innocence, just like... Yuji.

"Moom! Twilight is cheating!" Twilight shook her head at her brother's shout, the way the cards made a mess on the ground was an easy way to push the blame on her brother, creating a false story that he had a fit of rage after a streak of losses. But was it worth risking her relationship with his brother?

No, no it wasn't. The slow hoofsteps getting louder by the moment made a pit in Twilight's stomach grow, but there was no visible change in expression - she had already got that down. Slowly the knob turned and the wooden door opened smoothly without a creak. Shining hopped like a rabbit towards the matriarch of the house. Velvet had to put a conscious effort to not smile and mess up her son's mane, a forced neutral face, and equally forced upright stance that any amateur, in Twilight's vision, could see through. "Twilight angel, you know that cheating is bad." She waited, expecting an excuse of sorts but as none came, she raised an eyebrow, "Why did you do it?"

Twilight turned her head to the window and slowly stretched her hooves on the bed, Velvet scoffed but before she could say anything Twilight cut short, "To teach him about the world." Her mother swole back her words, "That if given a chance, somebod- Somepony will buck you down for their own success." Velvet's eyes slowly widened, "And, if he doesn't know how to spot those 'lies' he will plummet in the mud." As many sorcerers did before.

Velvet slowly trotted to her bed and Twilight half expected to be slapped for disrespecting. Her past mother sure did that enough times, but all that she received was a hug. Warm as the first spring day, just as welcoming too. "Did something happen at Magic Kindergarten today?" Velvet soothing whispers shifted Twilight enough for her to be on edge and gently pushing her mother back.

A meek "No." was all that Twilight could manage. It felt wrong, a cold day in the summer - like a curse. Shouldn't she get disciplined instead of comforted? It didn't make sense.

Shining trots were uneven and slow stopping just by the bedside, a hoof rubbing on his chin "I don't really get what you said," then a small smile formed on Shining's face, "But, when I feel sad Mom and Dad are always here to cheer me up, right?" Velvet's smile was now impossible to conceal, "So, if you cheated because you were sad, that's fine! As long as you don't do it again."

"That's right! So, for us to make you feel better we just need to know what is wrong." Velvet said, Shining eagerly nodded and hopped onto the bed. It was certainly heartwarming but that put Twilight into a corner, or at least she felt that way as nothing was truly wrong.

Twilight shifted her hooves and sat on her haunches, nothing was truly wrong besides the fact of everyone being horses - while most structures are human-designed in nature. Then there is magic, actual magic, and not some scam created by a cunning old man to pawn off a few coins. "It's... Nothing." Nothing that they could help with. All Twilight had to do was adapt, then finally take a new path.

Another chance is another chance, being a horse or not doesn't matter. A life free of curses is not one that Twilight will throw away that easily. "Okay, just know we're here if you want to talk about something." Velvet slid off the bed and trotted to the doorway, stopping briefly. "Also no more cheating on games, okay sweetie?" Twilight nodded. Shining armor still smiling picked off card by card with his telekinesis and began shuffling the deck, a fire reignited in his eyes as he gave seven cards for himself and his sister.

This time, Twilight got... 7 blocks, there was at least one of each color. "I'll go first!" At least, this time she isn't cheating.

Author's Note

Uno! I win!

Magic Kindergarten

Night Light and Twilight Sparkle trotted through the flowing streets of Canterlot, ponies with their noses held high in the air were common like trees in a forest, which made Twilight wonder if this city was made up of feudal lords and run by slaves. Or whatever feudal lords would call their slaves. Besides the extravagant architecture the city had, it was very, en, westerny. Ponies aside, the few shops either sold clothing or food. Fancy tasteless food. The saddlebags on Twilight's back hurt a little due to the heavy books but she denied any help from her father even if her brows were wet with sweat.

"Good afternoon, Night." One of the snoot-in-the-skies spoke without batting an eye.

"Afternoon." Night spoke in an equal tone.

Then another greeted Night, then another, and another. Night was as casual with his greetings as unbothered he was by the high-class greeting him - of course, he was, this happened every time he walked outside after all. However, that left a certain purple pony a little too bothered, "Dad, why... Why do they know you?" Twilight spoke taking a brief stop to catch her breath, faint concern leaking from her voice. Connections with feudal lords were always two-edged swords unless said connection was forged with fear. Twilight's father didn't seem the type to pursue the latter.

"We met once at Land Four Us. A real state agency." Night Light said, Twilight further raised an eyebrow, "I work there." Then Little Twilight's eyes widened.

"You met them only once?!" Twilight said, she plumped on her haunches with heavy breaths.

"Yes..?" Night Light spoke, "It's not that big of a deal." Twilight hurriedly got up and began trotting anew, to catch the attention of a feudal lord was already a big deal! A farmer could live a comfortable life if they caught the interest of a feudal lord, this was the biggest deal! It was- "We're here. Don't forget to make friends, cupcake." Night Light ruffed Twilight's mane before leaving.

All around Twilight the same scene happened, parents leaving their foals to the hands of education - said education that looked extremely silly, a structure straight out of a children's coloring book. A big, curvy sign written in fancy cursive spelled out 'Magical Kindergarten,' somepony had drawn a smile on the bell right on top of the school, and the gate had two unicorn caricatures as decoration... And a huge colorful explosion just so happened behind the school. That sure is... Magical. "Just get this over with," Twilight muttered as she trotted inside, and when she did something clicked. She knew where to go.

The school has six classrooms and Twilight, as a four-year-old foal, is designed for the fourth. "How convenient." Twilight's voice was barely audible by the crowd of other foals eagerly talking. The interior was white alabaster with the tiles being blue, the hall toward the classrooms had its walls decorated with drawings of either plants or ponies with their parents. At the fourth door to the right, Twilight entered.

Twilight wasted no time and picked the first class that was in her sight, the one closest to the door at the front, as the foals entered one by one into the classroom Twilight took the time to look around, the alphabet was glued above the dark board, Star Swirl Five Paths of Thaumaturgy written around a... youthful drawing of the great mage himself, at the very back of the classroom were the atomic models of Bored and his other atomic pals.

With the foals setting in and grabbing their notebooks, the fresh scent of new pages filled the room and Twilight couldn't help but enjoy it, sure the chatter around was a tad bit annoying but nothing worth cleaving. The teacher, a torn yellow unicorn with a butter mane soon got up from her table and began writing, "Today, hm, we're doing a quick recap about the five basic elements then a debrief of natural and innard mana. Mhm." Miss Goofy Ball said while his chalk gave away for perfect cursive, "Okay. The five magical elements that a unicorn can use, first comes exothurgy, the ability to manipulate the outside. This is the most..." Twilight opened her book and began to doodle a few advanced exothurgy magic, mass teleportation magic circle... A sigh unanimously escaped her mouth, what was the benefit of memorizing and understanding such advanced concepts if she can't even control her telekinesis? Carving a few simple runes was all she could do. Maybe if she applied her prior knowledge and experience of cursed energy she could have some better results - it can't be that different, after all, right? Twilight began doodling a cooling zone spell next... "Now, a bit less used by modern mages comes Endothurgy, the ability to manipulate our own bodies, this one was most used on..." Why least used? Twilight recalls reading a few advanced endothurgy books that taught how to make the caster temporarily smarter, have better deductive skills, or overall become stronger and faster temporarily. Sure, it was complex and a whole different school from exothurgy but it shouldn't-

Twilight's line of thought was interrupted when a paper ball hit her head and fell on her table, she stared back and a minty green unicorn was waving at her. Twilight opened the paper ball, "If five units of mana are used to cast telekineses per second how many would be used in a... Son of a-" The mare behind her didn't do her homework! And now she was- and this was such an easy- gah! If she could, she would definitely cleave her. Twilight grabbed a pencil with her mouth and wrote the answer before passing the paper back to her minty colleague.

"Then comes an obscure one, alchemy! It was popular back in the day when modern medicine wasn't-" Teach continued writing on the board, and Twilight became even more confused. There were potions capable of rendering mortal wounds meaningless in seconds, healing and regenerating entire organs- there is no way modern medicine in a place that looks less advanced than the modern era would be this good! Sure, it'd take tens of years for an alchemist to become knowledgeable enough to make said potions, but that's meaningless! That is one of the few arts earth ponies could-

And once more a paper ball hit her head, when Twilight stared back the minty unicorn was blowing a whistle. She groaned and opened the paper ball either way. "After eating a chocolate bar with five hundred calories, a pony needed to levitate a small broken wooden carriage, with the mana obtained by the bar of chocolate the pony was able to push the carriage twenty meters... Oh my Celestia." Twilight didn't even bother reading the rest and just wrote one hundred Swirls then passed the paper back.

"Now, this one is only on the registers as modern mages don't use it anymore: Chanting Magic! A type of magic that uses the horn to overcharge the vocal cords and..." As Teach said more about 'forgotten' magic Twilight further shook her head, chanting can be used to empower cursed techniques- Ahem, to call the spirits of the world to empower magic, besides the possibility of making somepony else kneel with just words-

Another paper ball scored against Twilight, "Celestia-" Twilight turned around and this time the minty unicorn pointed to a pony behind her, a unicorn with a red mane with streaks of purple... Twilight unfolded the paper ball, "Do you want to play together later?" Two hearts were drawn with either yes or no. Twilight grabbed her pencil and promptly wrote, "This isn't a homework question." And sent it back. She had advanced magic books to read and no time to play outside, after all.

"Finally, back to a more popular style of magic: Creation Magic! This is what makes the roads, buildings, and architecture incredibly durable and..." Teach said, although not forgotten, this type of magic is, in Twilight's honest opinion, not used to its fullest potential. She read a few books about making paintings with their own little world inside, or artifacts of great power, or simply a magic pen that can write anything it's told. Creation magic has great potential that Twilight will surely use in the future to earn a few bits. "Now, we're onto the main topic of today's class! Direction and Potential! Everypony is born with a certain amount of both Direction and Potential, however, unicorns are those who can use most of it, with pegasi only being capable of endothurgy mixed with creation magic, and earth ponies with their endothurgy and exothurgy focused on earth, unicorns are not limited by it. We have the capability of enforcing a Direction and Potential towards anything to create a spell. That and each of us has a certain amount of Direction and Potential inside of us, some more, some less. That Direction and Potential is what we call mana!" The teacher finished a drawing of a pony on the board, with a cartoony nerve system, "Or, specifically, interior mana. interior mana grows with age and finally stops growing when somepony reach the age of twenty. That inward mana is converted by what we eat, mainly glucose. It's what the body uses to..." She began to tap the board with chalk, "Grow the magic root and our magic core. Now outside mana is the Direction and Potential of everything else." The teacher trotted to her desk and grabbed a stone, "This rock for example. It has its own mana but as long as I put enough Direction into it I can..." Teach began to coat the stone with green telekinesis, "Levitate it! And with enough Potential..." Her telekinesis dropped the rock onto the ground and it... Behaved like a slime, "I can surpass the rock's original potential to be 'sturdy' and give it the new potential of 'slimey.' This sort of transmutation is done through brute force and telekinesis, and is considered as exothurgy..."

Twilight noted everything down and further stopped paying attention once what she deemed interesting passed. Eventually, recess came and all the foals rushed outside, some eager to eat their snacks while others were simply happy to not be inside the class anymore, among the many foals Moondancer was the last to leave with a low-hanging head.

After recess, Twilight paid no further attention and simply delved herself into a history book to take a break from all the advanced magic she had been reading about, and even if Miss Goofy Ball noticed she wasn't paying attention she still approved of Twilight's self-study and didn't stop, that is until the bell rung and everypony rushed out, Twilight father came back to pick her up and lead the way back home.

Author's Note

My brain melted halfway through this. Sorry.

Also, Swirls are their version of Newtons.

If you find any mistake, don't be shy to point out? Oh! And if you think there is a way to make the story better, please do tell!

Family Dinner

Twilight sat still on her chair, eyes focused on a small wooden cube as her horn flared purple aura. She carefully picked the quill by its tip with telekinesis overcharging the ink with mana and began writing. A simple rune was inscribed on one facet, then another on the other facet, and so on, until the wooden cube was filled with simple runes. "Alright." She slowly put the quill back down and sighed in relief. The first time the quill didn't blow up on her face! Twilight then carefully focused on the cube giving it a certain amount of mana and it began to float! Then spinning. Fast. Too fast. Twilight ducked and a second later the cube hit the wall behind her like a bullet. "Ha! I'm a genius!" While the spinning effect wasn't intentional, the end result was the same. She had a weapon in the making! Not as reliable as cleaves or dismantles, but it was a step up! Of course, battle magic was still leagues superior, however, she could only dream of casting said magic on her teens. "I still need to figure out how to aim this thing." Twilight got up from her chair and trotted to the wall, retrieving the cube that had embedded itself deep within the wood with a hard telekinetic tug. She looked at all the facets of the cube and sure enough, everything was intact.

As she put the cube back on her table and prepared to charge it again a voice resounded throughout the house, "Sweetie, dinner's ready!" Twilight smiled and trotted towards the door and sure enough, she successfully opened it without destroying its hinges! Now that hit the right spot, just like wiping the Sun, Moon, and Stars squad back in the good old-

"Congrats!" Shining Armor said at the other side of the door, Twilight quickly wiped clean her silly smile and trotted forward, "Mom will love to hear about it!" His smile was contagious and spread to Twilight's face just as quickly. There was no helping it. Shining Armor trotted downstairs and was quick to meet with Night Light, "Dad, Twilight didn't rip the hinges off the door!" And as the saying goes, the news spread like wildfire.

"Really?" Night Light smiled back at Twilight downstairs, feeling his heart warm with pride he further said, "Well, we might just need to get that book earlier."

Twilight arrived downstairs faster than any pegasi could ever dream of, "Really?!" Then just as quickly she adopted a neutral expression, "Ahem, thanks." Night Light smiled and trotted to the kitchen, followed by Twilight and Shining Armor. Today's dinner was fried hay with tomatoes, in Twilight's honest opinion it still might not beat human flesh, but she had to make do. This whole new path will be way more worthwhile than human flesh in the end.

"Our little studious apple here has managed to open her first door safely!" Night Light said as he sat on the table.

"That's great, sweetie!" Velvet said with an immense smile on her muzzle and hopped out of her chair to give a hug to Twilight, which she reluctantly AND happily accepted. "Just a bit more and you will be a professional mage in no time." She let go and trotted back to her seat.

A mage, Twilight aspired to be no less than the very best! To have Celestia someday come to her for magical counseling is a dream that she will make sure comes true! "No matter what life, being the strongest is always the goal." Twilight muttered as a smile drew on her face, one she'd let stay there.

But, on the topics of future jobs and what-a-not, Twilight wondered something, "What do you want to do in the future, brother?" Twilight spoke as she picked up a fork to start digging into her food.

"I want to be the coolest guard around!" Shining said, only being held back from jumping onto the table by Velvet's telekinesis, "Oops, anyway, I will become THE royal guard! Royalest guard of all, the very captain!" Shining eyes were brighter were stars at the moment, "Brave, courageous, dutiful-"

"First you need to get over your fear of spiders." Night Light stated, causing Shining to flush red. "And get better grades."

Shining pouted, "Daaad!"

"Well, it would be a shame if the future royal guard needed a redo in the third grade," Twilight said, fidgeting with her food - she had taken the freedom to look at his brother's tests and figured that she could do them with a closed eye. Well, if she couldn't do even that then she wasn't worth getting into the School for Gifted Unicorns.

"It would also be nice if you made some friends." Velvet spoke, sparing a single glance at Twilight before continuing, "Don't you spend the time with anypony on school?"

Twilight shook her head, "Rarely anypony stays with me in the classroom after break time." Once Twilight said that the entire dinner table went silent.

"...You're not supposed to stay in the class after break time?" Velvet said, tilting her head as Twilight further raised an eyebrow.

"The playground is a terrible place to read with all that noise," Twilight said, "Plus all the running, screaming, random magic surges that may or may not happen makes me not very inclined to go outside." She slowly put some fried hay in her mouth.

"Wha- Who would want to stay in the classroom reading?!" Shining said with a huff, crossing his arms.

The purple unicorn shrugged, "Me." Twilight answered with hardly any difficulty between munchs.

Night Light just shook his head and continued eating, Shining followed soon after. Velvet kept staring at Twilight like she had grown a second horn but shook her head and began eating, she had hopes that when Twilight grew older she'd naturally make some friends. The past birthday parties had been a bit... Sad if she were to describe it, Twilight never invited anypony besides her own family.

Twilight herself didn't see really a need for friendship now, sure, she was curious but that curiosity could be satiated once she had a stable income, her own house, a lab for her own experiments, and had become the very best mage. Friendship could come then... Maybe after she got herself a doctorate she could have some disciples! Oh, how much she wanted disciples back in the good old days but had everyone was just so weak! Twilight shook her head and smiled, keeping munching on her fried hay. Today after she get that juicy new knowledge she would start experimenting anew, find a way to correct her weapon, and maybe even find a way to use the cursed technique embedded in her soul. Oh, how much could she do with her dismantles and cleaves right now... Nothing horrific of course.

Night Light finished dinner and got up, "Alright, I'm going to the library to pick it up," When Night Light said that Twilight nearly jumped out of her chair to the table, but was, once again, held back by Velvet telekinesis. "What was the name again?"

"Advanced Examination of Endothurgy on the Pony Body!" Twilight chirped, Night light tilted his head and shook his head, walking to a nearby counter he opened the drawer and took a small notepad, then a pen. Twilight, noticing his signal, gladly repeated the name of the book.

"Okay, be right back." Night Light said, trotting outside the kitchen, in a couple of seconds there was a click and the soft closing of a door. Twilight eyes were sparkling.

"Now, finish your dinner-" Velvet couldn't finish her sentence as Twilight had stuffed everything into her mouth, promptly becoming a chipmunk and hopping happily towards her room, Velvet shook her head with a smile, "Celestia..."

Author's Note

I don't really know if the whole cursed technique is in the soul thingy, but if is, point for me! If its not, oh well, bending the canon is what fanfic does best, doesn't it?

If you think this chapter isn't that great, constructive criticism is well received AND if you have an idea to better the story, please share!

Preparation

The entrance exam for the school for gifted unicorns is one of the most feared tests in December - studies show many young unicorns being unable to sleep weeks before the test. But not Twilight. Today was the last day of preparations before the exam, she had a full two years long preparation, memorized over seven hundred unique advanced spells, half exothurgy, and half endothurgy, over three hundred unique alchemy recipes plus being able to safely make one hundred of those, complex creation magic runes were learned after months of sweat and tears, and now equally complex magical artifacts stood at the side of her study table, and finally, four hundred chanting spells with fifty that she practiced to actually being able to cast. Twilight wasn't simply planning on passing the test, she wanted to absolutely crush the competition, and show her potential as a future archmage! No, not just an archmage, Twilight wants to give Star Swirl a run for his bits - and she is fully confident that she can do so. At last, the last page of the Advanced Examination of Endothurgy on the Pony Body is done for the ninth time. "I'm so gonna crush that test."

Twilight sighed and picked one of her earliest artifacts, the chaotic cube! Sadly, it was impossible to control which direction it would shoot at, "Of course it was." Anypony with basic magical knowledge would be able to make such a weapon, then why there weren't any cubes on the royal guard? Her hoof slid on her desk to something more interesting, the eternal ice cube! No matter the temperature, this cube is deemed to stay frozen forever by a loop of complex runes - as long as she keeps feeding it enough mana once a week. Another interesting experiment would be the eternal glass of water! Of course, as eternal as her mana lasts, but as long as the runes take their fair share it is nigh impossible for the cup to run out of water! Oh! And the spatial knif-

The sudden knock on the door nearly sent Twilight's heart out of her chest, "Hey Twilight, watchya doin'?" The pink cotton candy-like pony said, slightly peeking through the door. Twilight herself still wasn't quite used to the number of colored horses, but she would take that over curses anytime. As if taking her small scare as an invite, the pink pegasi mare entered Twilight's sanctuary, much to her annoyance.

"Oooh~ Are you making toys for somepony?" Cadence said, her hoof slowly coming forward to a black glowing cube, to which Twilight hurriedly slapped her hoof away.

"Careful! You almost touched the weird cube." Twilight said. She would have gotten rid of that thing if it didn't keep appearing back at her table each time she tossed it in the trash.

Cadance tilted her head, "Weird cube..?"

Twilight sighed, "It uses six complex runes to interact with the fourth and possible fifth dimension, completely subduing itself from possible future and past, only existing in the present." Twilight said, sighing midway. She still didn't quite get how this cube hadn't run out of mana yet. Cadence looked lost. "It burns to the touch." Cadence immediately retracted her hoof and just kept staring at the huge amount of trinkets Twilight table.

Until Cadence found a transparent bottle holding some sort of pink liquid, "What's that?"

"Sapience potion." Twilight said, "Give it to a non-aware critter, and boom, it is now aware of itself and having existential dread." Twilight tapped her chin, "Lasts about five minutes or so. Tastes like strawberry though." Twilight lifted the bottle with telekinesis, "Want some?"

"...I'm good actually, had my filling of... Ehe- strawberry juice downstairs." Cadence said, her eyes staring at the many other trinkets with newfound concern, "Are all of them... Magical?"

"Well, duh! There are the cube-like artifacts, the spatial pouch is under my bed, this here-!" Twilight said while picking up the knife on her table, just the slight movement of bringing it up briefly cut the very space it traveled, leaving a trail of nothingness before it quickly disappeared, "Is the spatial knife! Took a few months to get it right..." Twilight carefully put it back.

Suddenly, Cadence noticed why every other babysitter quit after the very first day. Nonetheless, she won't give up! But, just to be sure... "None of them are really dangerous, right?"

"Oh, definitely!" Twilight chirped, "Once a bird sat on the strange cube for a few seconds and it popped!" Cadence's eyes widened, Twilight noticing the rising anxiousness of her caretaker chuckled and waved a hoof to dismiss her worry, "Not like exploding, more like, uhm. Erased from the time-space continuum. Or it just teleported, that's also a possibility." Twilight lifted the strange cube to her face with telekinesis, "Because let me tell you, getting a complex rune to gather entropy from past and future was a hassle to make it work with the other four stationary runes- Wait, that is why because it keeps coming back!" Twilight snatched the nearby ink pot and threw the strange cube with telekinesis inside, and sure enough, it appeared right back at the table, completely dry. "Ha! I know how to get rid of you now..." Twilight grabbed another cube and began scribbling.

Cadence wiped her brows with her wing, little fillies at her age usually went out with their friends and ate ice cream together or something! They weren't supposed to build dangerous magical trinkets... Unless it was normal for unicorns? Maybe that was it. Yeah, that was it. "Do you mind if I stay and watch?" Cadence said.

"Sure! Make yourself comfortable!" Twilight replied, ever so happy to have an audience, it was almost like the stage fights, and oh, how many had come to challenge her back then.

Twilight's low cackling brought a chill on Cadence's feathers, this couldn't be healthy, could it? A filly alone in her room all day long... Cadence slowly trotted towards the window and slightly pulled the curtains, outside she could see a group of fillies playing with a ball and colts going around... Tackling each other? Colt business... Twilight should have been out there, the day was bright with no clouds, the sun was comfortably warm but all the filly had interest was in her cubes and magical trinkets. "Do you not have any friends to play with?" Cadence muttered.

"No." Twilight replied.

"Eep-" Cadence mentally noted that Twilight's hearing was incredibly good. But as the surprise went all that was left was a weird feeling in Cadence's stomach, "Uhm. Why you don't have any?"

The future archmage stopped scribbling and sighed, "Because I don't currently have time." Twilight said, turning from her stool to face Cadence. Surprisingly, the cube was still being inscribed without her looking.

But not having 'the time' didn't ring well to Cadence, "...Why not?"

"I have the exam next week, tons of unread books and research that I want to and will do, and even after I'm done with the school I'll need to challenge an archmage for a duel... No, I could do that later, hmm." Twilight got up from her stool and took a stroll around her room, "I'll still need a house for myself and a stable income... Plus not to say that I do want to take a look around equestria too and... There's a lot of stuff to do."

Cadence tilted her head, "But you could make friends along the way."

"Maybe, but then they'll take time," Twilight replied, then stared back at Cadence then began to trot back to her stool, "time better spent on experiments and research."

"But what about when you get tired?" Cadence said, there was no way-

Twilight giggled, "Tired? I have kept this for two years straight, I don't see myself tired."

The pink pegasi bit her lip and looked to her hooves, it still didn't feel right for a filly to be like this. A deep feeling in her guts was pinching her to do something. "Well," Cadence looked back at Twilight, now back at her table with a glowing white floating cube, "how about we become friends?"

It was right then, that the cube dropped with a faint 'tud' on the table, "What?" Twilight had heard something similar before, not exactly but with the same meaning. She turned to face Cadence, "Do you... Pity me?"

Cadence's wings suddenly fluttered open, ready to take flight. She felt like... She was staring at something from the depths of Tartarus. "I-" But she did, Cadence did pity her. She couldn't imagine herself without her friends, they were, in a way, what made her become what she is. "Yes, I do."

Twilight groaned, "Fine. FINE. Let's be friends then." She walked toward her bed and reached for something under it, a pouch. She stuffed her hoof inside and pulled out a deck of cards, "Do you know how to play canasta?"

Author's Note

And so, they became beeeeest frieeends!

As always, if you think this chapter isn't so great and can do better, do tell how in the comments. Do you have an exclusive, top-notch idea of how to improve the story? Also, feel free to comment in the comments B)

Exam

Tick, tock. There were no less than a hundred foals when Twilight arrived and tens more to come. Even as the competition seemed enormous, Twilight wasn't moved. She knew she would crush it and that was enough. The only downside was that she needed to wait for the hundreds of other ponies that came ahead of her, but she was thankful as her hooves were aching from the long walk that it took to get into the waiting room in the School for Gifted Unicorns. Twilight immediately shook her head, that was unacceptable! Her hooves, aching! At this exact moment, Twilight realized that two years of study nonstop took a toll on her body - who would have guessed - thus a training regimen was in order!

Maybe she could get her parents to get some weights to wrap around her hooves and concoct some potion to promote strength growth. Or just outright create an endothurgy spell for the perfect body- "Nonono." Twilight shook her head, that would take time to figure out what the perfect pony body for magic would be, but she had a guess it was the shape of an alicorn.

"Don't be nervous sweetie, just remember to smile when your turn comes up." Velvet said whilst rubbing Twilight's mane. Velvet herself had to reign her galloping heart from affecting her voice, she was honest to Celestia nervous, even more than when she had to defend her thesis on graduation. Thankfully, it didn't seem that Twilight noticed.

Twilight noticed, not only her but everypony in the room noticed. But Twilight didn't blame her mother, she didn't have the same confidence as her because they didn't see what she was doing these past two years. Well, they did but didn't understand. Night Light was sweating buckets and his hooves seemed restless while Velvet began nibbling on her hoof, if Twilight was a normal filly she wouldn't be really reassured. Thankfully she isn't normal, she is the best! And those that are grading these ponies will be absolutely admonished, shaken to their very soul by her genius!

As they first entered the school, Twilight had a small peek at the classrooms and laboratories they had and it was amazing! Sure, the architecture, fancy paintings, and pleasing patterns on the walls and tiles were nice but were nothing compared to a nice laboratory where alchemy could be practiced safely! Oh, how many recipes Twilight could've learned if she only had the right flask, or a good ember stone, or a laboratory chapel for more dangerous alchemical reagents, or-or..!

"Twilight, it's your turn," Velvet said, nudging Twilight out of her Twilighting.

"Ohwhuh- My turn?" Twilight looked at the many vacant chairs then smiled brightly, "My turn!" She hopped out of the chair and trotted with her head held high and with a flick of her magic the door shot open, the exam inspectors instantly turned their gaze to Twilight who didn't even bathe an eye at them until she was the very center of the stage, her parents following anxiously behind with very uncomfortable smiles. Finally, at the center she gave a good look around, the way the room was organized made her feel anxious with all the inspectors sat up at the back chairs, watching her down like some sort of circus animal. But that didn't bother Twilight. Four windows behind her brought some sunrays inside. The walls were just as fancy as outside and the blackboard filled with basic trigonometry, what a good way to intimidate younglings.

"Miss Sparkle?" The oldest of the three inspectors spoke, his voice sounding like old cardboard, his blue face barely holding his skin was the pure manifestation of the word old, his muzzle looked to be perpetually stuck in a frown, and his mane barely clung to his scalp.

Of course, Twilight wasn't bothered by the bit about this. "Yes?" Twilight finally gave them the appropriate attention. And boy, was she surprised to actually see a young face up there - the previous high jujutsu society was fully made out of old farts, her mistake to think it would be the same, "What is the test." The old man frowned at her words.

But then he smiled "Bring it in!" The oldest stallion said, and at his request the door at the opposite side of the room burst open, and in came a cart with an odd purple egg. Old Fart was sure this would teach a good and valuable lesson about respecting the elders at this youngling. And the expected result came in, the little filly eyes slowly widened as the egg came.

Twilight felt something familiar from the egg, just looking at it made a name come to the tip of her tongue, "Uraume?" Twilight muttered as she slowly approached to touch the egg but the one who brought it in slapped her hoof away and groaned a loud 'hmph!' before rushing back to the door he came.

"The test will be quite simple, you see? Just hatch the dragon egg." Old Fart said, his peers raised their eyebrows but quickly took their pencils and began noting down something.

Realizing her time was ticking, Twilight began by... Cursing her luck. "Frickin' heck. Okay, you can still do this." Her thoughts were about how eggs chickens develop inside an egg, which gave the idea of just tackling into a plant growth spell. The inside of an egg and plant seeds are very similar after all, aren't they? "Okay, here goes nothing..!" Twilight lit her horn and began setting the Direction of the spell by creating a magenta sphere encapsulating the egg, slowly the sphere reduced in size until it perfectly overlayed the egg, next came the potential which slowly gave the egg a clock shape at the very front of the egg.

Twilight wiped her brows as her breaths slowly became more labored, stabilizing the spell so it didn't break was harder wasn't the hard part... But pumping more and more mana in to keep the spell from breaking was exhausting. Without further delays, she released the spell and the clock began ticking, at first second by second. Twilight pumped more mana and hours passed in a few seconds.

More mana, day went by in seconds, still not seeing any result, Twilight gritted her teeth and closed her eyes, her horn glowed as bright as the sun and her magenta glow moved like flames, weeks passed by the second. Each inspector gasped in awe and even Old Fart's eyes was wider than anypony would think it was visibly possible with his forehead skin almost covering his eyes, "How much aether is this..?" Still not hearing any cracks, Twilight decided to pump it all- "Wait-" And the entire room grew into a blinding white, as the light slowly dimmed the cart that once held the egg was gone, and so was the hay that surrounded the egg, but the egg itself was safely on the ground. "Holy Celestia." Old Fart and the other inspectors stood up.

Twilight was covered in sweat as she stared at that cursed egg, if she could crack it with her hooves at this moment she would but she simply couldn't even find the will to stand up, the sound of hooves moving toward her - Night Light and Velvet hoofsteps, made her slightly comforted. She could shut her eyes right now, safely.

That is, if the egg had hatched. Twilight reignited her horn and then it happened, a huge explosion outside and then nothing, when Twilight opened her eyes she found herself in an old Shinto shrine, just on the other side of the torii. Inside the shrine, there was the sound of something being cut and the burning of flames, the smell of freshly cooked meat - it was near dinner by how the sun shone down through the trees. Of course, Sukuna remember this place, he was born into this cursed shrine, beaten to a pulp until his very mother threw him into the wilderness. The shrine morphed, mouths began to grow and skulls of bulls began to rise only to stop. "That's enough." Twilight shrine won't ever be like that, and Twilight will never walk the same failed path again. The shrine morphed, pony maidens began to take care of a small purple pony inside, and soon ponies began to appear in the distance, a small family of three came to pay their prayers.

That was more like it.

Twilight woke up and- Holy Celestia! "C-Celestia!" She barely paid any attention to the room, at the hundreds of slashes that covered the walls, shattered windows, and the very floor. Although there was no blood and no hurt pony. And a clueless baby dragon.

Celestia had a stern gaze that gradually faded into a gentle smile, "Say, are you interested in being my disciple?"

Twilight eyes widened as she fully comprehended the sentence, "Is that even a question?!"

Author's Note

Aether is another measure system but for magic only. Cool am I rite?

Anyhoo, feel free to tell when and where this chapter sucked and how do you think it should be done to improve, I'm all ears to suggestions.

First Day

Two years of accumulating experiences, studying, sweat, and tears finally paid off! Twilight happily shoved three notebooks and a pencil case inside her saddle bag, she gladly looked at her translucent reflection from her window smiling back at her, Celestia, the Celestia took her as a student! She was already destined for greatness! Heck, even on jujutsu she had attained a perfect body relatively soon. "I'm a genius." Twilight said, skidding out her door and then out of the house, her parents barely had any time to say goodbye.

Of course, Celestia didn't always have free time, she had a kingdom to rule and all. But she couldn't wait for her first personal class with the princess! And for that, she needed to do good in school. Not that she has anything to worry about that. Twilight galloped through the sidewalk, pushing as gently as possible the ponies that were in her way, and even as she began sweating and her back began aching she didn't stop, as her body needed to be brought back to tip-top shape. Along the way, she noted various flower shops and made a mental list of ingredients for a tonic of good strength growth, and further planned how to convince her mother to buy those flowers, and possibly a few mushrooms for her. Twilight might even be able to convince her mother to buy her a cauldron for 'school' reasons. "Phew," Twilight huffed, finally at the front of the school. Twilight squinted her eyes towards the sun, "An hour early."

"Enough time to explore the library!" Twilight said while wiping the sweat out of her brows. Trotting through the front gate Twilight came to face an ornamented ebony door, A faceless unicorn stood on each side thrice bigger than Twilight herself, she could certainly distinguish that one of these unicorns was Star Swirl but the other was a mysterious figure. Twilight threw her questions aside and knocked two times and as no pony opened the door, she opened it herself.

Inside, the halls were immense with a great stairwell to the second floor being held by pillars imitating cloud-crafted ones from the old pegasi empire, the school had statues of famous mages in between the small gaps of the windows, and the room she was tested was on the far right! Twilight hadn't seen any library anywhere there on her first visit at the right side, therefore she will go to the left, then up if the library wasn't there! Passing by the statues of Isaac Neighton and Pea Lagolas came one she didn't recognize quite well, Twilight narrowed her eyes and searched for a name but there wasn't any. "A problem for another day then."

Twilight trot lowered to a halt as the door at the end of the corridor drew closer, it was either this door or one of the many more at the opposite side of the windows. Twilight lorn lit in a soft magenta as she cast telekinesis, the door knob glued in equal color and pulled- then pushed, as she tried to open in the wrong way, and inside. "Holy mother of all books..." Was the biggest library Twilight had seen, she still desperately wanted to get a library card for the Library of Magic, "But this will do for now." Shelves as high as a house, wider than any bridge inside a Canterlot, and filled with thick, crispy, juicy pages filled to the brim with mysterious, exciting, delicious knowledge. Twilight wiped the borders of her mouth as she picked a book about... Endothurgy. "If I can master some spells to read faster then... Oh colts," Twilight shook away her blush and began to dig into the precious knowledge the book held.

The librarian, Stale Archivist had just taken a potty break and when he came back a filly was on the table filled to the brim with books, the once silent library was filled with the noise of scribbles and jitterings of a studious pony. Stale sighed, it wasn't even a minute when he took a bathroom break. "Miss, how did you get in?" He spoke, but the purple unicorn seemingly not hearing made him trot forward and for the pony to hear better, "Miss?" Then a few hooves forward, "Miss?" Stale Archivist was practically on her ear but Twilight didn't budge. Stale sighed in defeat and decided to sit next to the filly to get a read on what she was- "Holy heck!" Her notebook was filled to the brim with so many applicable forms of mana that he once thought were impossible. The little filly looked no less older than six, yet her focus couldn't be shaken... "But it's about endothurgy." Stale quickly lost interest, most mages nowadays gain money through exothurgy, after all, endothurgy only works on oneself. Whatever, he would keep an eye until it was time for the opening ceremony. Stale got up to pick his hourglass that he'd left on his table and returned, then waited.

By the time the hourglass was almost empty, Stale eyes were wider than a hoofball ball, if he had doubts before now there was none. That foal is a genius, but a very perturbed one - who would even think of how fast they could possibly go before their very limbs broke down?! Either way- "Well that was a good- Yaah!" Twilight jumped and fell backward from her chair, her hooves waved in the air to try to catch something but- "Ouchie!" Twilight hit her head straight on the ground, Stale took no time to check if she was okay but with no sign of an injury, he sighed in relief.

"The welcoming ceremony is happening in a few minutes," Stale said, and in no less than a second Twilight got up and began galloping toward the exit, but didn't exit before waving her hoof and giving Stale one silly foal smile, then gently closing the door.

"Oh, gone are the quiet years, aren't they?" Stale sighed and began organizing the library.

Twilight rushed through the halls and right ahead there was a makeshift stand surrounded by a crowd of ponies, and at the very top of said stone there was one old fart, a somewhat younger stallion, and Celes- CELESTIA!? "Oh no, I can't be tardy right in front of my mentor!" She galloped a tad bit faster and took a breath of relief as she got a good enough place to hear and see her mentor.

Celestia's perpetual smile shined brighter today, she lifted a microphone with her magic and gave it a slight tap with her wings before speaking, "I am glad to announce the arrival of our newest fresh ponies!" A small cheer came from the teenagers of the group, "Each one of you gave the best effort at the exam and thus has guaranteed a spot where your future will be filled with radiance!" Some ponies began smiling thinking of how much prestige and glory they'll have once they become true to Celestia magicians, "And thus, both I and the teachers welcome new faces!" With that done, she passed the microphone to the oldest stallion.

"Thank you. Yes, we welcome aaaall new faceees. Your class is the last on the left." The oldest stallion said.

"His left or my left when I entered the school?" Twilight muttered but was quickly answered as the stallion himself pointed to where the new ponies needed to go. His left. Twilight quickly galloped, being careful to not trip into his peers and seniors as those she would have to put up with, and once she was ahead of everypony she slowed down to a trot. At the furthest door, Twilight reached for the knob with her telekinesis and pushed, inside there was a sleeping brown unicorn that had a green nest of a mane, a badly shaven beard, and a lollipop on his mouth, the blackboard behind him was full of equations. Twilight shrugged and picked the first seat closest to the door.

The teacher stirred awake at the sound of chatting foals coming through the door. He yawned and patiently waited for everypony to get in, and once so the door closed without a sign of telekinesis. "Welcome. Take whatever sit. Names don't matter so just call me Teach. Or Master." Teach said, briefly looking at all the new faces, "Seats are comfortable? Good, because you will stick with it till the end of the year, also I don't bother with names." He raised a hoof and pointed to Twilight, "You're one." Then pointed to the furthest pony at the fifth line and last sit, "You're Thirty. Figure out your numbers or whatever. Today's subject is trigonometry." Teach then glared at every student, "Also remember your cathetus, sine, and tangent of thirty, forty-five, and sixty degrees as I won't put any on the board when test time comes."

Twilight groaned, she had already done this in her first six months of study! She wanted to do lab stuff and- Suddenly a ball of paper hit Twilight behind the head, she glared back, and a minty unicorn smiled back. Twilight nearly neighed in frustration but opened the paper... "Do you have a spare pencil- Why did I expect this to be different!?" Twilight picked up her pencil case and a spare pencil to give it to... Heartstrings. "Celestia forbid, I even remember her name now!"

"What was that?" Teach said, Twilight immediately shut her trap. It seems this year will be no less annoying.

Author's Note

I am editing like six chapter in quick succession so uh.

Blerhfg

Anyhoo, yada yada, point out mistakes with good criticism and if you have any idea of how the story could do better, do tell! I'm no two-headed man-eating beast(yet)

Private Lesson

Twilight fiddled around with a half-full water bottle before putting it to the side in favor to grab some blades of morning grass and setting it on the table, alongside a small mason jar half filled with tree sap, and a sunray she had captured in a newly enchanted sun-snatcher bottle on her class, Twilight stuffed all the grass on her mouth and chewed through the teacher incessant strokes of chalk, mid chewing she took a small sip of water washing clean her cheeks and teeth then Twilight opened the mason jar and spat all in before closing and beginning to shake it, meanwhile, her telekinesis ripped a page of her notebook and begin scribbling chain-runes of advanced reaction acceleration with reaction stabilization in a large circle before drawing a big rune of transmutation on top, there at the center, she put her water bottle and stopped shaking the mason jar and put it on the class, then her horn instead focused on a basic empowering of the throat to reach the world, "Awaken." Twilight whispered, the runes began glowing in a fiery purple overshining the sun, she hurriedly put her hoof without shaking anything around the paper and used her head to dim the light even less, but also unscrewing the cap of her water bottle and mason jar.

With the care of a painter finishing their art, Twilight put the sap into the water and didn't change position until the very last drop hit the water, however, once done she lifted her head back and watched the dim light glow dull as a lighter nearly out of lighter fluid but the liquid on the bottle began to change colors into a moody green, Twilight then reached for her backpack for a funnel which she placed on the top of the bottle then grabbed the trapped sunray, flipping it over on the funnel then carefully opening it, the moment the lid went off the liquid went from green to a bloody red. Twilight half expected for it to blow up with her saliva in the mixture, nevertheless, the success brought a smile to her face, she now had- "Twilight Sparkle." Teach accent made the 'kle' of her name sound sassy, maybe it was done on purpose. "Can you tell me what-"

"Five," Twilight answered.

Teach blinked twice, "What?"

"Sixteen plus nine equals twenty-five, which the square root is five." Twilight said, then tapped her table dissatisfied, "When will we do actual magic?" The other ponies gasped, "Bhaskara, trigonometry, or whatever we had the past two weeks is fine but..." Twilight made a circle move with her hoof, "It's essentially kindergarten subjects."

Even in the dead of night amidst the dark alleyways of manehattan were more capable of noise than this classroom at this instance. The wind briefly howled as student and teacher locked eyes in an invisible duel until the teacher without breaking eye contact opened the door with his magic, "Twilight, please go to the principal's office."

Twilight briefly closed her eyes and sighed, "Okay." Twilight said, picking up her bottle and heading out of the room with a low head that only raised with a smile after the door closed, her eyes locked onto the potion with an even wider smile, and she began trotting forward only to bump into- Holy sun! "C-Celestia!"

The governor of day and night looked at her disciple with a gentle smile, her eyes were crescent moons."What are you doing out of class?" Celestia said while slightly tilting her head.

"I was going to the bathroom." Twilight answered, her wits quick to cut down any possible stuttering and pointing towards the most plausible lie.

Celestia's smile didn't cease, "Hm." The glint of her eyes seemed to see through everything, "We are going to the castle to have some lessons," Celestia's words nearly caused Twilight to squee, "but I need to warn your teacher about your absence first." Said squee only didn't happen because Twilight froze, Celestia smiled a bit wider, "Is that alright?"

"No... I-I was to head to the principal's office." Twilight said.

A chuckle escaped the princess, "Well, well. A bit of a liar, are you?" Celestia said.

"N-No! I am no-" Twilight looked to her left and her right, she took a step back.

The alicorn didn't move, "Then why did you lie?"

"I... I just didn't want to disappoint." Twilight said.

Celestia stared at Twilight, the smile on her muzzle slowly being washed into a more neutral expression - one unfit for the dignified solar princess, one that expressed plain disappointment. "Don't do it again." Celestia said, turning around and slowly trotting before stopping, she turned her muzzle back with a new gentle smile "Come, we need to talk to the principal first."

Mentor and disciple sat opposite of each other on a cushion ornamented with gold lining, further separated by a round metal table. Outside the birds sang endless operas, and the ponies working on the royal garden chatted nonstop while cutting down bushes and greeting the critters that came to play, the princess's quarters were simplistic with only a single mirror, a chest, and a double bed which worked more as a normal bed for her height - it was not what Twilight expected at all. "What does the potion do?" Celestia said with her ever-present smile.

Twilight's ears perked up, "Oh! It quickens the reinvigoration of muscle tissue damage plus hardens the skin and grants a greater appetite!" Twilight said with a smile.

Celestia tilted her head but kept the ever-present smile, "Doesn't Weaver potion clog up the veins?"

That question didn't discourage Twilight, actually, Twilight tapped her chest with a hoof and spoke, "Only if made by an amateur, which would result in the potion being pink instead of crimson and have a sweet smell instead of an acidic one." Twilight said with a puffed chest, "Those failures of potions only happen if the ingredients aren't somewhat fresh."

Celestia nodded, "From who you bought this-"

"I made it!" Twilight said and just as quickly put her hooves on her mouth. "Sorry."

Twilight expected a scolding, but she received a hearty laugh instead, "Do not worry," Celestia said as she waved a hoof, "Quite impressive alchemical skills too." Celestia got up and began trotting near Twilight, "For somepony with no cutie mark." Now that remark slightly stung but Twilight didn't show it. Celestia's horn lit and in a flash, a baby dragon popped on the table, "Your first lesson then, and one that might not end so soon." The baby dragon was quick to awaken, he seemed about to cry but stopped at seeing Twilight and chose to instead crawl up to her. "You see, dragons consider the first thing they see after they hatch their mother."

Twilight's face slightly darkened, "Oh no." That gave Celestia another chuckle.

The sun princess shook her head, "Now, I will not ask you to take care of the dragon as a mother, but as family." Celestia said and sat next to Twilight, "So, what will be his name?"

That wasn't even a question, the soul of that dragon resonated with his. A... A friend of a past life. "Uraume." Twilight said, her heart felt slightly at peace as the dragon nibbled on her hoof, his teeth not quite sharp just yet.

"U-ra-u-me. Are your parents from Neighpon?" Celestia said and thus ignited a chuckle from Twilight, the squandering of her previous country name.

Twilight shook her head, "It just feels nice." Then she looked at the small spikes popping from the back of the dragon, "Uraume Spike." It doesn't really sound as catchy as Twilight would've wanted but it gave an option for most ponies not to look weird at Uraume because of his name.

Celestia nodded, "So, your first lesson is to learn how to take care of a life." Then her horn lit again, a heavy book falling onto the table, "Your second is to take a good read of the Marvelous Recipes."

Twilight nodded, reaching the book with her telekinesis with a smile - finally, she'll be able to practice true magic! "For now that's all," Celestia nodded to herself, and within a flash, they were in Twilight house. "I'll see you next week." Celestia waved and just as out of nowhere her first teleportation was, she teleported again.

Author's Note

Maybe a time skip will happen next chap, maybe not. I stopped thinking about the progress of this story once I got this done, so uh. Yay?

It'll take a while for me to update this again honestly, but I hope you enjoyed thus far.

Always remember that I do actually love criticism that do tell me what is wrong with the fic, and I like even more if YOU have an idea of how to solve said issue, either way, Eggbaguette out!

Disdain

"..Okay." Twilight stared at the spot where the princess once resided then looked at the baby dragon which looked back at her. There was no way that thing could harbor thoughts yet. "Okay. I've done harder stuff before, there's no way this will be harder than cutting through infinity."

Spike walked towards Twilight, tripped and fell, got up then hugged Twilight's foreleg and no matter how she tried to shake him off he didn't budge. Twilight resisted the urge to buck him away and scream focusing instead on the door, to which she trotted to nearly tripping herself but managed to reach the door just fine after a bit of adaptation and hit her head against the door strong enough for anypony inside to hear.

Yet, nopony answered. For the second time this hour, she groaned and fell to her haunches, the dragon finally had enough and let go. Twilight reached out and gently patted the dragon, "You better become a good stove in the future." The dragon giggled at her touch, then decided to hug her barrel. "..You better become the best stove in the future." Twilight said.

As the sun fell and the outside became chillier, Twilight kept sitting on the door with a dragon hugging her for the past half hour. The purple unicorn looked at the few ponies on the sidewalk then back at the dragon, a sigh escaped her mouth as she opened both hooves and hugged the dragon back tightly. At that exact moment, the door knob glowed with a blue hue and Twilight hearth fell.

The door opened and the sudden Shining Armor came to an abrupt stop at the scene, then had to put extra effort to not laugh at his sister's expression of pure despair. "Twi- pff- why are you hugging that lizard?"

Twilight took a deep breath and suppressed the temptation of hitting her brother square in the nose. "It's a dragon and Celestia asked ME to take care of him." The shining eyes widened and then he bursted out into a mad cackle at realisation.

"Y-you're a mother Twi!" Shining shouted between his misfit of mirth. Mirth that Twilight couldn't even begin to grasp why it was funny. "You're g-going to need to breastfeed him!" Twilight's horn shined and in a moment Shining's mouth closed shut, the smaller unicorn got up with the dragon still hugging her barrel and walked up to her brother up till their muzzles were inches from each other.

Twilight's eyes stared deep within Shining's pupils, they began to shrink and every single strand of fur on his spike up, sweat built up on his forehead and ran down his face like a bunch of innocent scared kitties. "Move." Twilight's voice was low, warm even. It made Shining take several backward. "Where is mom?"

"O-out for shopping with dad!" Shining eyes didn't leave Twilight until she began to go to the living room, at that point Shining slowly trotted to the door and gently closed it.

Twilight sat on the couch and tried to push the dragon off her barrel only for her to accidentally hit the dragon in the eye. A short moment of silence occurred Spike's lungs drew a humongous amount of breath and Twilight's face contorted to one of pure terror.

For a moment she wished Mahoraga could be there.

"We really need those hiking boots for our next vacation!" Velvet said while snuggling close to Night Light who honestly had all its focus on not falling with the multiple groceries held by his magic, "It will be so much fun!"

"Sure thing, honey." Night said automatically as his hoof reached for the knob and on the inside Twilight laid near the stairs with a dragon on top of her.

Twilight raised her hoof reaching towards her parents, "Please help!" Twilight said while the Spike happily fist bumped her raised hoof, oblivious to Twilight's suffering - Twilight couldn't help but realize that perhaps, this was how they felt back at Shinjuku.

"Ehm. Sun, my little flower, why is there a giant lizard on your back?" Velvet said.

"Mom, this is the dragon I hatched," Twilight said, further stretching her hoof to which Velvet finally deciding to do something about it magicked the dragon out of Twilight back to hers.

"Oh? It's such a cute little thing," Velvet offered a smile while looking at the lizard on her back, Spike promptly hugged her muzzle.

Twilight, finally relieved of such a burden gets up, wipes off the dust, and proceeds to explain her whole situation, "It is my task, assigned by Celestia, to take care of this Spike." Twilight puffed her chest, but another feeling arose from that same pride. Spite. Spite that she had been reduced to this.

Velvet gently pulled the dragon away from her snout, "Nighty, we might need some diapers." Velvet's smile nearly dissolved Night Light's incoming groan, he turned around and trotted to the convenience store once again.

"Ah~ this brings so many memories. Let me teach you how to take care of a child then..."

A week passed by, a week Twilight had to deal with those insufferable lessons that taught her nothing more than she'd already known - Twilight was in a school for magic and the only thing she learned till now was geometry! Twilight had read, learned, and even mastered all of the teachers taught, she could do it purely with her head, it'd be a waste of ink and energy to use a quill to write those inane lessons down. This poor horse country story, their philosophy, sociology, geography, everything! She was years ahead of whatever lesson plan was going through the equine neurons of her 'teach.'

Worse than the lessons are the subpar classmates who don't know anything about the subject Twilight mastered a year ago, their constant need to ask for her help, for she, a student just like them, to explain! Inane! Obsolete even, they should've known that by now! "Maybe it's because of them that I can't do magic yet." The only good things that the school has to offer are the library and the laboratories, but only one of those is within Twilight's reach!

Twilight stared at the swirling liquid of the small cauldron she had put on top of the stove, she promptly levitated a carrot and threw it inside, a bit of the crimson liquid splashing on her face but she was just too angry to care. The swirling liquids changed gradually from crimson to a light blue, this was the improved version of Weaver's potion, her improved version. The old stallion couldn't even fathom that substituting tree amber with diamond powder would intensify the effect to the point Twilight would need to throw in some greens to make it usable.

That was true magic in the making, not whatever her teacher insisted on passing them. Twilight had even begun to master some endothurgy spells to be able to think faster, read faster, experiment faster. Sure, the hunger this potion would cause was akin to being two to three weeks without eating, but the effects would be worth it, ten times better.

"Now- what's worse than dealing with classmates? Having to take care of a freaking baby!" Twilight put a big spoon on the cauldron and began stirring, the carrot slowly began to dissolve with the help of the runes she engraved inside. "Because of course! Taking care of a baby is better than learning magic in a school. For. Magic!" Twilight threw the spoon over to the sink and glared at the liquid inside the cauldron, "Only worse than that is having to deal with that pink little s- pegasi! If I wasn't so keen on not following a failed path I would've-"

"Twi?" Shining peeked from the corner of the kitchen and his spirit nearly left as Twilight stared back at him with a face covered in a crimson liquid. "Twi!"

But Shining's sister just wiped it off with one. "What?"

"I'm just wondering, uhm. W-would you want to play tag with me?" Shining words fell short as Twilight's eyes kept staring at him, her eyes seemed empty. "I-it's that the colts are, uhm, busy today and... Yeah." Shining began pawing the floor.

For a moment, Twilight's self was an inferno of boiling anger- but the eyes of his brother had that same potential, that same indomitable will if only different in desire. He was somepony that was threading a path that wasn't a rollercoaster like she once did.

Twilight stared back at her cauldron, the potion was done she just needed to put it in the fridge so it wouldn't spoil. She was planning on doing some more experiments later but... If Twilight is to thread a new path she has to learn how to be ingenue. The purple unicorn took a deep breath and for the first time in a while, she looked at her brother like an equal.

Author's Note

This one was a pain to make. I honestly see Sukuna as a connoisseur of art, where the art is cursed techniques but since he hadn't seen any actual magic until he awakened besides levitation and teleportation so far I never really got to bring that out.

When I first started this I searched what Sukuna's personality was like because in both manga and anime I didn't pick anything more than sadistic villain, which most sounded like traits more than an actual personality, so I figured to just make Twilight arrogant and selfish then mix in a bit of what I thought Sukuna would act like if he was suddenly isekaied to a horse world after his defeat bringing this fic to life. But I couldn't just do that because then he'd be apathetic with his parents and sibling, therefore the solution I made was just to awaken his memories at 4 years old, that was enough time for a bond to form after all.

I'm honestly quite surprised this got as many views as it did, but I guess that's reasonable, Jujutsu kaisen is on hype for now.

Anyway, to wrap this up, do you like this Sukuna/Twilight interpretation? Think it could be better? Be not afraid to tell.

Also do tell if you think this chapter can be better; the 'how' too, please.

Friendship Attempt!

"What is the meaning of a dream, objective, mission, or goal?" The noise from the crickets outside was drowned by a torrent of invasive thoughts, it took time to evolve these feelings into words, her room filled with potions neatly categorized on the shelf and artifacts of esoteric yet relatively useless use. Twilight blankets felt too hot at times but the night was also too cold for her fur.

Shining sure did a number on Twilight, both in the game and in her mind, just by being himself. They differed but were also similar. The one who opened his eyes was the one he hated the most. "I'm falling." Twilight covered her eyes with her hooves.

"I'm falling to that same path again." Twilight lifted her hooves and stared past the fur that covered her skin, it was more rough, less refined and more sturdy completely betraying her soft tulip coat. Too sturdy for a pony of Twilight's age. "What do ponies my age even do-" Those words made Twilight almost smell the terrible perfume that her friend uses. "..."

Twilight got up from bed, her eyes adapted to the darkness making trotting to her bookshelf a little easier - the potion shelf was right by it with the door of her room in the middle. Twilight ran her hoof through the books before setting into one. Starswirl's supposedly autobiography, Twilight didn't believe it was his as the stallion preferred much more putting complex spells on paper rather than life occurrences, but it was undeniable that the knowledge about creation magic within was useful. The unicorn lit her horn to cast a small spell to illuminate the room, imagining the spherical shape and possible mass of the orb was an elementary action for Twilight. As the light flooded the room Twilight blinked until her stinging eyes could somewhat take on the light.

Double casting a basic telekinesis Twilight moved the book from the shelf to her study table, pulling on the stool and then taking a sit, for a moment all she did was stare at the book, lifting her hoof to caress the cover. "I'll... I'll figure something out." The book opened.

Pages upon pages were turned, eventually, the crickets got tired and stopped screaming and the cold night grew comfortably chill until the first bird sang outside followed by the first set of hooves clip-clopping through the sidewalk, Twilight's ear flicked but she flipped the page again and again, until she heard the distinct sound of creaking coming from the room right in front of her study table, her parents room.

A sigh escaped Twilight's mouth as she closed the book and magicked it back to the shelf, shut off the ever-glowing ball, and fell on the bed, staring at the ceiling. "Maybe I could try to talk with somepony today."

More time passed and eventually, a soft knock resounded through the door three times. Twilight brought herself up and trotted to the door, gently pulling it open revealing a dragon on the other side. "Hey Uraume, how do you feel today?" Twilight said, the dragon promptly latched onto one of her forelegs, Twilight suppressed a sigh and carried on, she walked outside and moved towards the chairs, a bit more experienced and confident Twilight took, trotted down the stairs and further moved into the kitchen. More creaks resounded from upstairs as Twilight took both a pan from one of the cabinets and a cold milk bottle, then poured the milk on the pan while turning the stove on to heat some milk... With a free foreleg Twilight gently rubbed Spike's forehead, "Without that cursed technique, you'll finally be able to make some friends, Isn't that nice?"

Soon enough Twilight heard the sound of wood creaking and clip-clops. "I finally can put that into practice." Twilight's horn lit and she closed her eyes as her magic covered her eyelids, within a few moments the dark circles Twilight had disappeared. A pang of disgust rang in her heart at the thought of hiding something but was quickly snuffed out, Twilight had to abandon old habits- She needed to.

It didn't take long for Twilight's mother to arrive at the grandeur show that is a six-year-old messing with the stove. The second strongest emotion Twilight could experience always came from her mother speaking her full name. "Twilight Sparkle!" Velvet trot reverberated within Twilight, maybe due to panic. "What are you doing?!"

Velvet trotted towards Twilight and levitated her daughter away from the dangerous stove, bringing the young unicorn and dragon right in front of her. If Twilight felt panic before now she felt dread as Velvet's expression looked like she had just sucked on a lemon, making it even harder to look into Velvet's eyes.

Yet, the disgust grew empowered with a pinch of spite - Twilight hated how Velvet was staring at her, how she could even come close to judging Twilight by being lesser than her, magically, intellectually, and in the near future physically too. It just boiled Twilight's blood.

Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep slow breath, in that short space she felt... Hugged? "You got no burns, sweetie? Oh Celestia, we've got some ointment for sunburns but I don't know-" It was strange. Spite and disgust vanished without something to direct at thus leaving Twilight empty.

"Mhhf- Mom!" Both ponies turned to the dragon half crushed between the equine hug, Velvet's worry slowly melted as a smile took place. Twilight's ears swiveled at the sound of the milk boiling and promptly turned off the stove with magic. Those were little Uraume's first words.

"I'm fine." Twilight said reminding Velvet of her previous worry.

Undoing the daughter-mother embrace Velvet focused on Twilight. "Just don't do it again sweetie, stoves can hurt really badly if you don't have the help of a grown pony." Velvet trotted to the pan with boiling milk and if the milk could reflect as well as water it would have shown a smiling mother.

"Twilight, what are those under your eyes?" School had been boring as always, just retelling things Twilight studied years ago made it hard not to just trot out of the classroom towards the library... That actually sounded like a solid plan, ask to go to the bathroom and spend the rest of school time reading up, it's not like the teacher would care. "Equus to Twilight, anypony there?" Today Twilight decided to be a normal foal and use the break time to make friends. Thankfully she didn't need to approach anypony as the green blob made out of sheer extrovert enthusiasm in pony form called Lyra and her cahoots, Moon Dancer and the mare that reminded her of toothpaste, Minuette was it?

For all possible conversational starting lines Twilight had prepared, she decided to go with one that used to work pretty well on the heian days. "Hey, scum." Twilight said, she does remember quite well that this line always generated a lot of conversation and that is what friendship is all about, right?

Lyra tilted her head towards her toothpaste friend, whispering as low as she could. "What is a 'scum' Minuette?" Which wasn't exactly effective with Twilight right in front of her.

"Dunno." Minuetter replied, her eyes gradually brightening, "But it should be a compliment!"

"Pfheh, doesn't matter!" Lyra turned towards Twilight and in a swift move pulled the purple unicorn into a forced hug, "We got the smartest kid as a friend! Anyway, you still didn't tell me why your eyes look so red..." The green unicorn suddenly gasped and looked at both sides before lifting her head and speaking directly into Twilight's ear. "Did somepony bucked you?"

"No." Twilight said reeling her inner instinct from bucking the Lyra who was so... So adamant to not let her go. "I'm perfectly fine." The frogs on Twilight's hooves were itching from the grass and her horn was definitely just cosplaying dysfunctional welder. "Peachy." What was she doing with these annoying ponies again?

Moon Dancer smiled before looking at higher grades talking with each other while carrying odd trinkets of metal, it oddly reminded her of the slides magical kindergarten had. "I wish we had the playground back..."

"Me too." Minuetter replied following Moon Dancer's sight and at the sight of the grown-ups a bulb lit her mind, "Hey let's go-"

Twilight grabbed the whole of Lyra with a tight magical grip lifting her away from the ground and dropping her by Lyra's minions, the green unicorn let out a yelp of pain while her friends stared at Lyra worried but instead of a pained expression that lift seemed to ignite a fire on the green unicorn eye's "Again!"

"..I will go to the bathroom berightback!" Twilight broke into a gallop towards the halls, avoiding each grown-up on the way until she found the bathroom, entered an empty stall, and looked at her reflection in the toilet water. "I can't do this."

A few minutes before break's over back into the class Lyra turned around to chat with her friend in the class behind, "Do you think she ate rotten lettuce?" Lyra asked.

"Huh?" Moon Dancer gave the only plausible reply to the sudden question.

"When I ate rotten lettuce once I..."

Author's Note

Its near 2 am and I did this in a rush and aagghh! I just hope someone finds this chap enjoyable.