//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Never Meant To Be // by Unknown //------------------------------// Never Meant To Be By: Unknown Chapter 4 Celestia’s sun had been burning in the sky long before Twilight was able to pull herself out of bed. She rolled over, her blanket covering her face from the light which filtered through the curtain of her bedroom window. She had been awake, lounging in the soft, fluffy blanket for what seemed like hours already, but she didn’t have the will to remove herself from the comfort that she was enjoying. Facing the windows, she begrudgingly opened her eyes and rapidly blinked to try and remove some of the sleep that had gathered throughout the night. Her eyes focusing, she saw that the sun was already hanging quite high in the sky; it was nearing noon. She lazily removed her blanket and put her hooves onto the ground. She couldn’t remember why she was so tired. Walking to the bathroom, she tried to gather her thoughts. She hadn’t done much drinking last night. Rarity had brought a very nice bottle of wine to the picnic, but unless she was remembering incorrectly, she only had a single glass and certainly wasn’t hung over. She looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. Her mane was tangled, and brushed to one side, showing her horn. Seeing her horn in the mirror sparked her memory and her eyes shot open as the events that took place after the picnic came rushing back to her. She had sent that letter to the princess right before she went to sleep! That would explain why she was so tired; after spending all day having fun, and casting the same energy-consuming spell earlier the same day, she was surprised she was even able to cast the spell a second time at all. After quickly brushing her mane, she galloped downstairs to find that Spike was awake and already preparing lunch. “Hey, Twilight!” Spike said, looking up from the sandwich he was making for himself. “You sure did sleep a lot. Are you feeling ok?” Twilight ignored the question Spike had asked and returned with a question of her own, “Spike! Did we get anything from Princess Celestia today?” “Not that I’m aware of. Why? Were you expecting something?” Twilight’s excitement turned into confusion. Her face scrunched up in a slight pout. “Really?” she asked “Nothing from the princess?” Spike looked at her, interested in what she was expecting. “Sorry, nothing. Believe me, I’d be the first to know.” Twilight stood in the kitchen, confused. ‘Why wouldn’t the princess have returned my letter? Maybe she’s too busy? Or maybe I messed something up and it didn’t make it to her?’ She continued to ponder while Spike just stared, trying to figure out what was going on. “Um, Twilight?” Spike started “You going to tell me what you’re thinking about?” Embarrassed that she had been standing there, thinking off into space, Twilight looked at Spike and explained. “I sent that letter to the princess last night, and I was expecting some sort of response by now. I’m just trying to think of the reasons that she wouldn’t have written back.” “Maybe you messed up the spell?” Spike finished making two sandwiches, walked them over to the table and set one in front of Twilight, who had sat down at the table. “You seemed a little tipsy from that wine.” He winked at her. “Spike! I was not drunk last night! I had one glass of wine! Just one!” Twilight blushed, picking up her sandwich with her magic and taking a big bite. “After we finish eating, I want you to send the princess a letter asking her if she got the message I sent last night. I’m going to go and see if I can’t figure out exactly what happened to it last night if it, indeed, didn’t end up in Canterlot.” Spike, mouth full of food, responded, “Yes ma’am!” The two spent the next couple of minutes eating their meals in silence. After finishing off her sandwich, Twilight stood up and got herself a glass of water, quickly drinking it down. She was already thinking of a way to trace exactly where her magic had sent the letter. She’d never done something like that before, but she was sure it was possible. All magic left traces of itself, and everypony had a different “scent” when casting magic. If she could pinpoint hers, it could possibly lead to answers about where the letter had gone. She stared down into the empty glass. Spike had finished his meal as well and walked over to the desk where he quickly scribbled a note down on some paper before engulfing it into flames and sending it flying straight to Princess Celestia. “Letter is sent, Twilight!” Twilight looked up from her glass and smiled. “Thanks Spike. I’ll be in my study. Let me know the moment that the princess responds, ok?” “No problem!” Spike saluted his friend, and started to return to the main room of the library to resume his chores. Twilight went to her office and pulled out “The Complete Guide to Everything Magic”. The nearly four thousand page book slowly slid off the shelf, and Twilight struggled slightly with its immense weight. She’d never needed to track magic before, so she really had no idea where to look for specific books. This particular book was a good place to start; she couldn’t remember a time that the book didn’t have some sort of useful information about a topic. She flipped it open using her magic and looked for entries entitled “magic tracking”. Magic tracking redirected her to “Magic Scent”. She turned a few more pages and was surprised to see that there were three chapters relating specifically to what happens when a unicorn casts a magic spell and the effects it might have. She flipped to the third chapter and saw a section entitled “Tracking the Origin of a Spell”. Bingo. She quickly read through the entirety of the section, which explained how it was possible to figure out what spell was cast, what its effects were and possibly even who casted it. Towards the end of the section, the spell was written out perfectly for her to try and cast. She quickly memorized it and set the book down. Closing her eyes, she focused on trying to track something simple: the spell she had just used to lift the book into the air. Her horn started to glow and, faster than she expected, a slight pop told her that the spell was complete. Before she could open her eyes, her mind was filled with... herself! The mental image being painted in her brain was of just mere seconds ago, when she had used her magic to lift the book up to read it. She could clearly see herself and could easily tell when and what she was doing! When she finally opened her eyes, the memory disappearing, she saw a very faint purple aurora surrounding the book that she had set on the table. The spell had worked! She was able to track her own magic spell! Now it was time to try and track the spell she had cast last night. She was unsure of how much harder it would be to track, considering both that the spell happened last night and that this particular spell was much more complicated than simply lifting a book into the air. It didn’t matter, though, because she shut her eyes and started to concentrate once again on the tracking spell, focusing on the teleportation magic she had cast the night before. Before she could get very far with the tracking spell, though, Spike burst through the door. “Twilight! The Princess responded!” Twilight’s slight annoyance with Spike for interrupting her spell disappeared quickly as she levitated the sealed scroll over to her face. She opened it and started to read it out loud. “My dearest Twilight Sparkle, I’m very sorry to say that I didn’t receive any letter last night from you. Perhaps something with your spell didn’t work out quite like you planned? Please, keep working on it. I’m sure the next time you try, it will work perfectly! I have complete confidence in you! And be assured that I will respond as fast as I can should I receive anything from you in the future. Good luck, my faithful student, Princess Celestia” Twilight lowered the letter. “Well, that certainly confirmed my suspicion. My letter went somewhere else completely.” “Where do you think it went then?” Spike asked, his face scrunched up in thought. “I don’t know.” Twilight smiled. “But I do have a spell that’s going to help us find out!” Returning to her desk, Twilight once again focused on the tracking spell. She closed her eyes, and began to recollect the spell from the night before. Spike, very interested in new spells that Twilight had learned, stayed in the room, but stepped back slightly; he never knew exactly what these spells were going to do, and better safe than sorry. It took quite a bit longer for Twilight to track the spell she had cast the previous night, but finally, with a sharp POW, her mind was filled with the images of the night before. She could see herself, looking very tired, casting the spell. Her horn lit up the room, and when the light had disappeared, the image in her head no longer was focusing on her, and instead following the letter. The letter traveling wasn’t much to see, just blurs and flashing colors. After a few seconds, Twilight starting to feel sick, the jumbled view came into focus as the letter reached its destination. Twilight gasped slightly, her eyes still closed. The letter had landed in what seemed to be a forest, but something seemed off. It wasn’t like any forest that she had ever seen before. Everything seemed... slightly grey, and darker, even though it was clearly daytime. In all of her studies, she was having trouble placing exactly where in Equestria the letter had landed. But before she could ponder further, the image left her brain as fast as it had come and she was forced to open her eyes again. “Spike! The letter landed in a forest somewhere. I couldn’t recognize it!” Twilight was frantically trying to get her story out. “But you know everything about Equestria!” Spike walked closer to her, noticing how tired she was after casting the spell. “Are you sure you couldn’t tell where it was?” “Positive.” Twilight slumped over, exhausted. “I had never seen anything like it. It didn’t even look like a real place, more like a picture out of a comic book or something. It felt like my eyes were playing trick on me.” Spike knelt down next to Twilight and patted her on the back. “Are you sure the spell was working correctly?” Twilight looked up at him. “I... I guess? I don’t really have a way of knowing that, though it did work the first time.” Spike sat down next to her and the two pondered internally in silence for a couple of minutes. Suddenly, Spike felt Twilight twitch. “Spike...” “Yes, Twilight?” Twilight turned her head towards Spike, a look of panic and excitement filled her eyes. “Do you think... I could have sent that letter... to a different world?”