Learning By Example

Twilight was aware of several things, in the first vestiges of consciousness. First and foremost was how wet her entire body was. The next two came at the same time; she was sitting exactly where she had before her waking nightmare took hold of her, and staring at the far wall. The last thing was Spike sprinting into the room at full speed sloshing a bucket of water all over the floor. When Twilight's gaze shifted to the strange sight, Spike came to a sliding halt.

"Are you awake Twilight?" He asked preparing to splash her with the now partially full bucket of likely cold water. Twilight now had one explanation.

"I am, and what are you doing?" Twilight asked shortly.

"Trying to wake you up, Princess Celestia said you shouldn't try to sleep anymore, it's too dangerous; or something like that. She sent a spell scroll that you cast on yourself, it should keep you from feeling the worst of the fatigue for about twenty-four hours. You're supposed to leave for Canterlot first thing in the morning."

Twilight caught only some of what Spike was saying as she scanned the room for any unspeakable horror that may have been released from her dream. When none seemed present she turned back to Spike, who'd finished speaking and was offering her the spell scroll sent by Princess Celestia herself.

"Did I cast any spells while I was out?" Twilight inquired, partially fearful of the answer.

"Your horn was glowing, kinda like when you found the secret staircase in the throne room of the Crystal Palace. That and you were crying, I was getting kind of worried. No spells though." Spike said as he placed the spell scroll on the bridge of Twilight's snout. "You look really tired." He mentioned, motioning towards the scroll.

Twilight grumbled irritably, as she unrolled the scroll. Wondering how she was supposed to cast a spell if she couldn't even manage to drink tea correctly.

Twilight was paralyzed. The scroll had been a trap or trick; which she didn't know for sure, but her first thought was not of her own health. It was instead of what had become of Princess Celestia if she was being forced to send her most faithful student magic runes meant to paralyze a creature when read.

Spike rushed over and hugged Twilight as tightly as he could manage, tears in his eyes.

"Princess Celestia wrote and said that you were better off doing as little as possible until you were with her. She didn't want you teleporting to Canterlot, and said that traveling the distance on your own would be too risky. So we're going to send you to her."

"Rcss Llesta in is o 'e?" Twilight tried to say though moving even her lips was quite impossible.

Spike scratched his head as he downed a potion. The bottle bore the symbol of the sun, it was from Celestia's personal alchemist workshop.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say, yes." As he spoke wisps of green flame shot from his mouth. Twilight was quickly growing uneasy.

"She wants you to know how sorry she is for taking drastic measures like this. There will be many apologies and explanations when you arrive." Spike walked up to his paralyzed friend and poked her hard.

"Can you feel that?" He asked, spitting more flame as he spoke.

No she couldn't feel that, nor could she feel the heat from the flame as it licked her leg. Twilight was liking this situation less and less. She tried to convey all of this to him, but Spike was satisfied with the " 'oo." Which he took to as a no.

He took a few steps back, now waddling more than anything. "It'll be a lot like teleporting I hope." Spike said apologetically before inhaling and exhaling in one swift motion. A huge gout of green dragonfire enveloped Twilight. For an instant becoming her everything, and very existence. Then she was sitting or more accurately floating, yet paralyzed, before a frazzled looking Princess Celestia. She'd been caught upon arrival, in the soft golden glow of her teachers magical grip and was slowly being lowered to the floor, tears filling the corner of her eyes as she looked upon her equally frazzled student.

"Twilight, I know you don't fully understand yet, but I hope you can forgive me for what I've done here. I just never imagined you would pick up on channeling dark magic simply by seeing it. I understand that I was wrong to underestimate you in this regard, and now I need to see that you are safe from such magic's negative influences. I'm going to release you now." Celestia ended her monologue with a quick flare of her horn.

Twilight collapsed into a pile of slightly less stiff unicorn. She did nothing but breath now that her lungs weren't restricted to the barest minimum motion to maintain life. As her breathing normalized Twilight looked up to see Celestia retrieving pillows and a blanket. Twilight felt the tiniest of nudges urging her to lift her body for the pillows. Her muscles ached but she manged to stand long enough for the cushions to slide underneath her before her legs gave out.

She felt miserable and confused, and must've also looked the part as Celestia began to shake with her sobs.

"In centuries I haven't known a pony, unicorn or otherwise, as capable as you." She confessed to her exhausted student. "It didn't even occur to me that you would be able to replicate magic just by seeing it, though you have shown so great a potential in other areas. Now my shortsightedness has put your health in jeopardy."

It broke Twilight's heart to see her mentor and friend such a mess over the mere thought of having hurt her student.

"No Princess," Twilight interrupted feebly, "I'm fine and- Something." Twilight was having increased difficulty with coherent thought.

"Rest Twilight, I will stay by your side and keep you safe. Tomorrow we will speak properly. I will have something of a surprise for you." Though Twilight hadn't finished what she was trying to say, Princess Celestia felt her heart put slightly at ease that the first words from her most faithful student weren't words of spite or bitterness over having been paralyzed via fake letter to be then transported by dragonfire. Indeed she was grateful for apparently instant forgiveness.

Celestia watched as Twilight slept and saw her horn begin to radiate a sickly green light that should not belong to her; at the same time Twilight began to whimper struggle against an unseen force. The alabaster alicorn conjured a small glass orb and placed it in front of Twilight. Immediately the green energy jumped to the glass orb. Twilight's fidgeting ceased immediately.

Celestia lay down next to Twilight for some much needed rest of her own. Twilight was an immediate emergency, but she'd had a persistent problem for the past couple weeks. Celestia fell into an uneasy sleep of her own, cradling Twilight in her arms.