Never Meant To Be
By Unknown
Chapter 2
This was it. No distractions, no interruptions. It took the entirety of the afternoon to get Spike out of the library. He kept on talking about some sort of project he was working on and refused to leave his room in the upper-story of the library. Twilight couldn’t care less what he was planning; she just wanted complete, and total silence to continue her very important work. She, desperate, finally contacted Rarity and begged her to convince Spike to leave. It didn’t take long for Rarity to get Spike out of the library. Now, the only sounds coming from the room in which Twilight sat were her own, excited breathing and the occasional bird chirping from its home on top of the library.
The project Twilight was so desperate to work on what something she’s been trying to figure out for months. While it was easy for her to teleport herself, others or objects quite a distance, she wanted to test the limits of her teleportation. She was finding it quite difficult to get items she wanted teleported as far as, say, from the library to Canterlot. There was a certain distance that her magic let her teleport herself or objects, but Twilight wanted to prove to the princess that she was, indeed, her best student by teleporting herself straight to Celestia’s chamber from the library in which she stood. But she found she just didn’t have enough information relating to the specific spell she was casting to get items, or ponies, to go as far as she wanted it to.
It wasn’t until recently that she finally had a breakthrough. She had been reading the oldest books in the library, most of which, she assumed, hadn’t been opened for hundreds, if not thousands of years. There were ideas that she had never considered before, but it seems some unicorn, long before Twilight was born, had conquered the art of long range teleportation and the book documented the findings of this unicorn. By the time he had mastered the spell, he had been able to transport his entire village nearly all the way across Equestria and back again.
Twilight, inspired solely by her passion to know everything, and the want to impress her princess, was determined to teleport an object to Celestia. And if it worked properly on objects, she couldn’t think of a reason to not try it on other ponies, or even herself.
With the library empty, Twilight started lifting up book after book with her magic, hovering them at eye level to both the left and right of her so she could concentrate on the item that sat on the table right in front of her face.
An Apple.
Applejack had brought over a dozen or so of them for a picnic their friends were supposed to have later in the day. Every one of her friends had noticed how focused on this new project Twilight was, and decided they wanted to do something nice for her, to try and relax her and get her mind off of work. The picnic was supposed to be in a couple of hours or so, and Twilight saw no reason not to spend that time studying. These apple’s were the perfect test subject.
“Alright...” she mumbled, licking her lips as she started going through the process of starting the experiment. She pictured Celestia’s throne all the way in Canterot, and concentrated on the path the apple would take to get there. She focused her energy on the knowledge in her mind, on all of the information she had gathered and studied, and initiated the spell. The room began to light up as Twilight’s horn started to spark and glow. Papers scattered across the room as her magic created a sort of whirlwind throughout. Twilight strained and forced all her magic onto the apple. A incredible bright light filled the room and a loud POP sounded from her horn. Exhausted, Twilight flopped over, the bright light from her horn gone, her magic completely halted. She was afraid she had ran out of energy before she could complete the spell.
After taking a few moments to catch her breath, she stood back up and looked at the desk. There was no apple! But that didn’t mean it made it all the way to the princess. She’d have to get confirmation before being assured that her spell had worked.
She sat down on the couch and waited for a response from the princess. It seemed like forever, but not three minutes passed before the window tore open, letting the letter inside. Twilight watched in anticipation as the letter was reassembled before her eyes. She picked it up with her magic and started to read it.
“My dearest student, Twilight Sparkle. I was sitting in my room, enjoying my afternoon meal when, out of nowhere, an apple hit me straight on the head! I assume you’re working on increasing the distance of your teleportation? I’m so very proud of you, Twilight! The apple arrived perfectly fine, and was quite tasty as well! Please, keep up the good work, and give my regards to Applejack for growing such a tasty apple.
Yours truly,
Princess Celestia”
Twilight was fascinated! It had actually worked! She hopped around in excitement before realizing how tired she still was. She stopped, and crashed onto the floor, hardly caring how unconformable it was. A very happy smile on her face, she shut her eyes, and dozed off.
Ƹ
“Thanks, everypony, for a wonderful time!” Twilight was waving from the front door of her library. Spike standing next to her, as her friends began to trot away.
“O’ course, Twi.” Applejack said “We all just hope it took yer mind off o’ yer work fer once. Ya’ll really shouldn’t work yerself so hard.”
Rainbow Dash flipped her hair back “Yeah, you should spend all your time doing things you love to do! Forget work!”
“You didn’t work yesterday?” Rarity’s eyes narrowed as she glared at Rainbow Dash “So while you were lazing around not doing your job, a random thunderstorm rolled in through town while I was out shopping at the market?!”
“Wha.. of course not! I, er, wasn’t scheduled to work yesterday anyways!”
“Why can’t you just accept responsibility for your actions! It took me three hours to get my mane untangled.”
“Well, excuse me, princess!”
Rainbow Dash and Rarity continued arguing as the other three stood by them, laughing at their friends bickering. Twilight chuckled from where she stood.
“Well, ladies, I feel like I could sleep for a week, so I’m going to head off to bed.” Twilight spoke over her two friends arguing.
“Nighty-night, Twilight! Hey, that rhymed!” Pinkie Pie burst into a fit of laughter and started skipping down the road. The rest of the friends said their goodbyes and headed down the road as well, leaving Twilight and Spike by themselves. Twilight used her magic to hold the door open for Spike, they both entered the library, and started walking towards Twilight’s office.
“Are you really going to bed, or are you going to stay up and study some more?” Spike asked.
“I just want to do one more test before I go to bed.” Twilight responded.
Spike chuckled, but didn’t press the matter. She had been working hard, but it wasn’t unusual for Twilight to work herself to the bone once in a while.
Twilight pulled out the old books she had used earlier that day and flipped open to the pages she needed to read. At this point, she almost had the spell memorized, but she wanted to make sure she didn’t mess up. This was especially true because, regardless of what she said, Twilight was indeed, very tired. Tomorrow, she could probably repeat the spell without the books. But tonight, she’d use them again just to be safe.
“Alright, Spike, take a letter for the princess” Twilight nodded towards Spike, who quickly ran over the table and grabbed a piece of paper and quill.
Twilight cleared her throat.
“Dear Princess Celestia,
You made a very good guess earlier; I am trying to improve my teleportation magic! I’m so proud of my accomplishment of getting that apple all the way from Ponyville to Canterlot. I’m hoping to increase my range even further as I continue to study about the wonders of teleportation. As a note, though you probably already guessed this, I teleported this letter to you myself; I didn’t make Spike do it! Anyways, I’m sure you’re trying to get rest for your morning duties, so I’ll leave you be. Have a wonderful night, princess.
Signed, your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle”
Twilight grabbed the rolled up letter from Spike, and set it on the table. She, once again, levitated the books she needed to read the spell, and started to focus her energy on the letter. About half way through casting the spell, she suddenly felt a wave of fatigue overpower her. It took the majority of her will not to stop the spell right then and there. She forced herself to continue teleporting the letter, regardless of how tired she was.
Finally, after what seemed to be at least twice as long as it had taken for the apple, the letter disappeared with a *poof*, and Twilight slumped over, happy, but exhausted.
“I’m... just... going to sleep here..... toni-” was all she could say before Twilight had completely fallen asleep on the ground. Spike chuckled to himself; she always wore herself out with her studies. He quickly went to her room and grabbed her blanket and pillow, and, without waking her, slid the pillow under her head and covered her with the blanket.
Spike started the walk back upstairs to his own bed. Before reaching the top of the stairs, he turned his head back towards his teacher “Good night, Twilight.”