TMToA: The Artificer · 7:33am May 28th, 2019
Name: Twilight Sparkle
Aliases
The Artificer
The Mother of Invention
The Artificial Unicorn
Ascension: Magitech
Story
Twilight Sparkle lost control of her magic during the entrance exam into Celestia’s school. During the event she did a few things without meaning to. She hatched and aged a petrified Dragon egg. She transformed her parents and the instructors into a variety of plants. She drew the attention of Princess Celestia herself. She even got her Cutie-Mark!
She also shattered her horn, destroying any chance of ever becoming more than a novice spellcaster.
With so much magic running through the tiny focus of her horn, Twilight was lucky that the pressure only shattered her horn. Unicorns had lost their lives in similar accidents in the past. Twilight, dreams shattered, retreated into herself after losing any qualification she may have had to become a student of Celestia’s school.
Her parents tried comforting her, tried to be there for her, but Twilight had, for all intents and purposes, locked herself away within her own mind. Her parents could only do their best to make sure she never accidentally hurt herself more, pushing her away in the process of trying to protect her. Even her brother had treated her like she was made of glass for while. A split lip had reminded him that everything else on her still worked. They returned to being the best of friends.
The only pony that seemed capable of drawing her out, besides her brother, was her Uncle, Wise Watcher. He was Twilight’s only light after the accident, as he never treated her any different. They still played games, Wise would still read her bedtime stories like a maniac, always acting out the parts in a grandiose way, and they still talked about magic. He never tried to protect her from the world, instead encouraging her to experience it, broken horn or not.
“Life is a leap of faith. It’s scary. It’s terrifying. You don’t know what’s at the bottom. You don’t know if you’ll be alright. That’s why you have to find a reason to take that leap. You need a reason to stare down that fear, and tell it to sit down and shut up, or you’ll never take the leap. You’ll never live.” - Wise Watcher
So that’s what Twilight did. She decided that if she couldn’t experience the world as Unicorn, she would do it her own way. She took to reading after this decision, learning as much as she could about her condition first, and discovering that she still had her magic. It was all still there, she just lacked a means to use it. She started reading about how magic was cast, and discovered that a focus was necessary for most magic to be used effectively, usually a horn in this case.
It was at this time her brother got into tabletop gaming, and Twilight found herself joining him, becoming fascinated by the many different ways magic could be used in these games. So she decided to start there.
Her first experiment, a simple wooden stick left soaking in liquid rainbow for twenty-four hours, was a success. It exploded after ten seconds of sustaining a levitation spell, but it still worked. Emboldened by her (somewhat) successful experiment, Twilight jumped into research like a mad-mare.
Years later, Twilight is an adult and recognized widely as one of the most successful artificers in Equestria, capable of creating most any kind of magical artifact she needed. A special prosthetic of her own design sat on the remains of her horn now, a focus that allowed her to cast magic like any other Unicorn. Unfortunately, it had a problem in that it could only handle certain levels of power being channeled through it before failing, usually explosively. Twilight was still trying to overcome this problem when Eternal Night happened.
Not one to ever leave her home without her trusty tool and basic artifacts, Twilight is able to help the Royal Guard evacuate the burning Canterlot. Knowing her Uncle lives in Ponyville, she leads one of the the groups of escapees there. Once she arrives, she instructs ponies to place stones of her own invention as specific points around the town. Once done, she dropped her own stone at the center of town and activated it, raising a nigh impenetrable shield of pure magic around the town.
She later discovers her Uncle had gone off into the Everfree Forest in search of a way to stop Nightmare Moon. Fearing for her Uncle, Twilight immediately wanted to go searching for him. Five other mares joined her, unwilling to let her risk her life any more than necessary. Twilight dismissed them as more ponies who assumed she couldn’t take care of herself because of her horn, telling them quite vehemently that she didn’t need help. She stormed into the forest without them.
She managed to survive being attacked by a manticore and river serpent through frantic use of premade artifacts, all of which only could be used once before becoming useless. With no more of her artifacts left, Twilight is forced to take cover in cave. There, she founds the injured form of her Uncle.
She tried to find a device that could heal him, but realizes she had lost her tools at some point in the trip. As she stares at him in denial, he speaks up and tells her he’s proud of her. She had gotten strong and independent. She begs him not to talk like that. He laughs and said he knew that he would die here, even before he entered the forest. Twilight asked why he came in then.
“Because you needed a reason.”
Wise Watcher’s words from all those years ago crashed into Twilight’s mind. A reason? She had taken the leap though! She had plenty reason to live life.
Wise told her that she had done the opposite. She had looked fear in the face, and shrank back from it. She saw how ponies were treating her differently and allowed the fear of that treatment to guide her. She had walked away from the edge.
“I see so much potential in you!” he had said quietly, but fiercely. “I see a spark unlike any other, and I know that you’ll do great things with it. But the accident took away more than your horn. It took away your willingness to depend on others.”
Wise grasped her shoulder and, with his final breaths, said, “The only thing I’ve ever wanted is to see you live life. Not just survive, but thrive! But you can’t do that alone. No pony can. It’s not wrong to let friends help you. Makes some friends, Twilight. Let them be the light that guides you into the unknown.”
In Ponyville, five mares in particular felt a sudden urge to turn and look at the forest. Just as they did, they saw a brilliant ball of purple light soar into the night sky. A magical flare. They knew instantly who had done it and didn’t think twice about going to help the mare.
When they found Twilight, she was sat in front of hastily dug grave, with a chunk of stone acting as a headstone. It read the words, “Life is a leap of faith. Your friends will light the way down though, so never let go of them as you tumble into the unknown.”
When Twilight turned to the five mares, she had tears flowing down her face, the artifact on her horn was melted and smoking, but her eyes were slabs of diamond determination.
“I need your help.”
I actually drew a lot of inspiration for this Twilight from Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse. Wise Watcher is supposed to be a mixture of Stan Lee and Uncle Ben.
REALLY good backstory for this universe's Twilight. Actually makes her look like even more of a Good Counterpart to Tempest Shadow. Like Tempest, she ALSO lost her horn at a young age, but UNLIKE Tempest, she managed to AVOID the darker path and learned to focus on what she still had.
5065837
Yeah. Makes pretty good sense.