Morning couldn't come soon enough for Twilight. Every time she closed her eyes, the scene repeated unrelentingly. Her eyes had to have been playing tricks on her. There was no logical explanation for it, but she knew her reflection smiled at her. The more the scene replayed in her mind, the more concrete it became. She needed to tell Celestia, she warned against this, and she would know how to fix this.
If you do, she'll stop your training. Telling her that you saw a ghostie in your mirror after just one measly spell? That will make her really confident in your abilities to handle it.
She considered the idea, and eventually agreed with her thoughts. For all she knew, it could have been just her overactive imagination, put on by the stress of what she learned yesterday. Yeah, that makes sense, she was sure that it wouldn't again. She finally decided to get a few hours a rest, and thirty minutes later, the sun gave her yet another rude awakening. She pulled the blankets over her, hoping to defy the morning for just a little while longer, when her trusty servant burst into the room, no doubt with another hearty breakfast and upbeat demeanor. “Good morning Twilight! I do hope you had a wonderful sleep! I have your break-oh? Twilight, are you still asleep?” The stallion went to Twilight's bed, and saw a growth coming out of it. Smirking, he yanked the blankets off of the purple mare, and yelled out in a soprano voice, “Twilight Sparkle! The sun is up and the day is new! Now is the time you get up too!”
Twilight wasn't amused in the slightest by the impromptu song, and grumbled some unintelligible noises as she dragged herself out of bed. “Ooh, I just knew that would make you just jump out of bed!” The servant said cheerily.
“Sir, what is your name? I haven't asked since I got here.” Twilight asked, a faint icy tone in her voice.
“Why, it's Drudge, kind mare!”
“Well, Drudge, while I appreciate your fantastic singing, I'd appreciate it more if I could stay in bed for a few more minutes if I need it.”
Drudge was slightly taken aback by the comment, the venom in her words clearly stinging him, but still showed a smile. He remembered how precious sleep was when he was her age, and decided not to hold a grudge on the comment. “Of course, Twilight, however, it was the Princess' request to get you up at this hour, and I was only obeying orders.”
Twilight felt slightly guilty hearing this, she knew it wasn't Drudge's fault, she was here for a reason, and he had to make sure Celestia's wishes were fulfilled. She couldn't let her lack of sleep affect her mood, and especially couldn't snap at people like that. “I'm sorry Drudge, I just had a rough night is all, I shouldn't take it out on you.”
“It's quite alright. It's nothing to be sorry for, I just hope your day gets better! Maybe we can find a few ways to sneak in a couple minutes of sleep. I'll tell the Princess you're gonna eat your breakfast slowly. I'll be back in 30 minutes to collect your plate.” He winked at her, and Twilight graciously took the hint. She thanked him, slunk into bed, and hoped that she won't have any more interruptions. Thirty minutes was going to be an instant to her, but she'd take anything she could get.
Applejack was always up before the sun rose; she had to in order to get all her duties for the day completed. She didn't mind really, she wasn't one to lay about in the house, when so much could be done during the day. Her mind never wondered off from her thoughts from the previous day, but she couldn't constantly dwell on them. She knew her paranoia would eat her alive if she delved into it, so she filled her day with extra chores to keep her occupied. Hopefully it would fade away into the back of her mind by the time lunch was served, and she could actually try to be happy for her friend.
Lunch came, and unfortunately for Applejack, her thoughts were still in full swing. Furious, she slammed a hoof on the ground. That's it! I'm tired of worrying myself to death, the Princess would not put Twilight in danger! Get that through your head! Twilight is smart enough to know when she's in over her head, and if she ever needed any help, she would tell us. Now stop your bellyaching, and hope Twilight is having fun learning all she can about what she loves!
With that, the matter was settled. She was going to force it out of her thoughts one way or another, and she was going to be supportive. This isn't how a friend should act, and she was going to make sure she was just as excited as the rest of the girls were. She idly chewed on her apple, and wrapped up the muffin Pinkie had promised to give her. She wandered out in the orchards, and started getting ready for the second half of her duties.
Besides, she thought, The letter will still get to her, and she will tell me everything is alright one way or another. It's best I don't make her feel guilty about leaving us. Just hope I get the letter soon, and it'll be settled once and for all.
Twilight walked up to the Princess, bags under her eyes, and gave her best impression of a pony who has had their best sleep in ages. “Good morning, Princess! How's your morning been so far?” she said in a slight exaggerated tone.
“Good morning, Twilight. My morning has been grand, and I trust your ready for your training today?”
“As ready as ever! I can't wait to learn some new spells. Can we go now?”
“Of course, let's go up to the observatory and we shall begin immediately.”
The trip to the observatory was becoming routine for Twilight, the Princess telling to guards to stay at the base of the staircase, and the long, silent walk up the staircase. When they reached the top, Celestia looked at her oddly, giving her a quizzical look and seemed like she didn't want to say the next words that were about to come out.
“So, have you experienced anything odd, Twilight? Anything at all?”
Twilight again debated on whether or not to tell her about the ghostie, and decided to follow through on her decision earlier, “Nope, nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Good, good. Well, with that out of the way, let's get started. Today you're going to learn a variation of your magic-drain spell, as well as how to incapacitate pegasi. Now, the magic you took out can just as easily be put back into a unicorn, and, eventually, you can give non-unicorns the ability to channel their magic like we can.”
“Non-unicorns have enough magic to channel it like we do?”
“Not necessarily; as you know, other types of ponies have magic as well, just not near enough to channel it and perform spells. It's this magic that allows pegasi to walk on clouds, for instance. However, using Void Magic, we can give them enough magic to allow the channeling to naturally form, and allow them to cast basic level spells.”
Twilight could imagine the implications of such a spell, smiling to herself at letting her friends have enough magic to cast spells. Seeing Rainbow Dash use teleportation spells to go even faster across the skies would give her a chuckle, and Fluttershy would twitch-cast all sorts of spells at the slightest startle, which could be hilarious or disastrous.
“Now, Twilight, first we shall use the same dummy as before, and I want you to give some of your magic away to it. Just do like you did yesterday, and it will come naturally.
Twilight did as she was told, emptying her thoughts, her worries, and focused on summoning the dark forces again. Sure enough, the gnawing nothingness filled her being, her emotions and identity being replaced the dark void that the magic brought. Just as she expected the flash of light to appear, she heard a voice. It sounded like her, but muted, as if she had a pillow across her face. She couldn't tell that the voice was saying, but as the spell continued, the voice became clearer, and deeper, until it sounded like years of smoke inhalation took its toll on her voice. At the last moment, an instant before the blinding light, she heard exactly what it said.
Beware Celestia. Silent and Still.