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!