Diaries of a Canterlot Librarian

by Cloud Shaker

Entry 4: Twilight Sparkle

Today, I learned something new. It was completely unexpected and against my nature, but still I learned it.

Today, I learned to find a friend in Twilight Sparkle. How long ago has it been since I could truly call somepony 'friend'.

-------------------------------Cue Flashback-------------------------------

It was late at night when Artemis awoke at his table. The room was pitch black, save the few rays of moonlight that filtered through a nearby window. Straightening up in his seat, he quickly realized that he must have fallen asleep while fiddling around with his new theory of planar manipulation. While his mind was now refreshed, his body constantly complained as he stretched in an attempt to ease the aching joints in his body from sleeping uncomfortably for so long.

"I've got to stop doing this before I make a habit out of it," he muttered darkly, reaching out blindly for a candle in order to have some light in the room. Finding no candle within a leg's distance, he repressed a sigh.

"No matter," he thought to himself. "I'll just conjure up some light with my horn and search for a candle outside. Surely, there will be a supply by the study table or the kitchen. I'll make sure to explain to Ms. Sparkle in the morning as to why I borrowed without asking, although I'll hope that she doesn't make too much of a fuss about it. After all, it's harmless if it's just one candle, right?" After reassuring himself that it would be quite within his rights to requisition a candle for his use, Artemis walked in the general direction of the door before smashing his face against it. "Right... light spell." Concentrating for a moment, his horn suddenly lit up with a muted blue glow. Satisfied that he would now be able to see, he opened the door that led to the rest of the library.

The main room was just as dark as his room, save for the light of a solitary candle. Artemis, still groggy from his sleep and dulled without his ritualistic cup of coffee, failed to notice the figure of Twilight Sparkle sitting at her desk until he'd walked right into her.

"Gah!" They both shouted out in surprise, Artemis wheeling backwards until his rump hit the central table and threatened to knock over the horse sculpture while Twilight gave a small jump before quickly whipping her head around. She visibly relaxed when she had seen what - or who- had caused her surprise. "Oh, hello Artemis. You scared me for a second. I wasn't expecting anypony to be up at this time of night."

As soon as his initial shock blew over, Artemis felt suitably chagrined. He cursed himself for not being more alert and avoiding such an awkward situation. Now all he wanted to do was to retreat back into his room, candle or not. "My apologies, Ms. Sparkle. I suppose I wasn't paying much attention to where I was going." Shaking his head to clear his vision, he noticed that Twilight was staring at him. It was rather disconcerting. "Is...something the matter?"

Twilight quickly shook her head. "Oh, no. I was just surprised to see you with bedmane." She smiled and, with a giggle, magic'd over a mirror so he could inspect himself.

Sure enough, his normally styled blue-black mane was completely sticking up on one side as if it had been licked by a giant dog. He sighed. "Well, I look rather silly right now." Taking in his new look rather somberly, he remembered why he was out here in the first place. "I suppose that you wouldn't have an extra candle that I could borrow, would you? I just awoke from my respite and I have a rather disturbing lack of candles. I was planning on getting some studying in while I still felt up for it."

"Oh, sure! Let me just open up my supply of candles," Twilight said, pulling out a long scroll of parchment. Upon closer inspection, Artemis realized it was a checklist of things she needed to do. "Note to self: re-stock guest room with candles." Rolling up the parchment in a flourish, she set it aside while she reached into the bottom drawer of her desk and pulled out two long candle sticks. "These should last you for at least tonight. I'll get a restock in tomorrow when the shop opens."

Artemis nodded, not quite paying attention. He was suddenly distracted by the way the light played across Twilight's mane, giving it a soft sheen in the darkness of the room. Did all manes do that? Artemis didn't know. He'd never seen another pony at this time of night, so he didn't have any past experiences to base his thoughts on.

"Artemis."

He shook his head. "Yes, Ms. Sparkle?"

"Are you sure you're alright? I know earlier you said that you were fine, but you just looked really spaced out right now."

"I assure you, I'm fine." Suddenly glancing at the clock, he realized that it was around 1:00 AM. "Although, it might be better for me if I just go back to bed instead."

"Well, alright then. Good night, Artemis." Giving him a tired smile, Twilight turned back to the book that she had been reading before he entered the room. A quick peek over her shoulder revealed to Artemis that she was reading Vol. III of "A Treatise on Planar Manipulation". He hummed. Perhaps it might be better to explore his theories with her. If she was of intellectual level to get that far into the treatise, surely she could make a decent partner of conversation unlike other ponies he knew.

"Actually, Ms. Sparkle, would you mind if I studied out here with you?" Artemis was surprised at himself. He'd never felt the need to study with another pony before. Then again, he'd never come across a problem as befuddling as the one that currently confounded him, nor had he come across a pony that might actually be a match for him intellectually.

Twilight ignored him, now completely engrossed with her reading.

"Ms. Sparkle? Are you awake?" Moving to her side, he waved a hoof in front of her face.

Her expression remained intense, completely enthralled by the book in front of her.

Artemis sighed. Deciding that he may as well move out here anyway as there was already a lit candle, he quickly retrieved his scroll and volume of "A Treatise on Planar Manipulation" and set it down on the opposite side of the table as Twilight Sparkle. As he sat down to make himself comfortable, he cursed. "I won't be able to concentrate on this without a good cup of coffee."

Moving to the kitchen, he selected a mug from the shelf and found the bag of Saddle Arabian beans. After pouring the grind into the coffee machine, he turned it on and waited for his brew to finish. As an afterthought, he took out a second mug for his host. "There's no harm in sharing the coffee. After all, I doubt even I would be able to finish a whole pot on my own. Not to mention the fact that it isn't my coffee." Coming across this realization guiltily (he held in the utmost respect everypony's claim to their own coffee), he looked back at the table where Twilight still sat. She hadn't moved from the spot except only to flip the pages of her book using her magic. "If I didn't know better, I'd say she reminds me of me. Except she's too friendly and trusting of other ponies. She hasn't experienced the true nature of this world, I'd wager." Noticing that the coffee was now done due to the delicious aroma that wafted past his nose, Artemis reached with his magic to grab the pot and quickly poured copious amounts of the liquid into each mug. After grabbing a nearby tray and placing the cups onto it, Artemis levitated it towards the table and sat down, manipulating one mug towards his seat while setting the other one down near Twilight.

----

Five minutes had passed before Artemis realized that Twilight hadn't taken notice of her coffee. While he normally wouldn't care if somepony was busy with their own ambitions, there was perfectly good coffee on the line and he felt it necessary to take intervening actions lest it go to waste. Remembering what he had seen this morning, he gripped the still steaming mug with his magic and started waving around under her snout in hopes that the bittersweet scent of the coffee might rouse her from her daze.

Sure enough, Twilight immediately reentered the real world and found herself looking at Artemis, an amused expression taking hold of his face. What was odd about this was that this was the first time Twilight had seen him exhibit any things even slightly related to a positive emotion. Most of the time, his face was either a blank canvass of nonchalance or a darkened mass of annoyance. To see him amused was a sight to behold indeed.

"Uhm...how long have you been there?" Trying to keep her tone only lightly inquisitive, Twilight bristled with excitement. This was the perfect opportunity to try and become friends with him!

"Not to worry, Ms. Sparkle. I have no ill intentions at heart towards, certainly not of that nature." Artemis, completely misunderstanding what she had meant by the question, continued on as Twilight blushed at the implication. "I've been here for but five minutes waiting for you to drink your coffee before it got cold."

"Coffee? I don't remember making-" Twilight suddenly took notice of the mug in front of her. It was still filled to the brim with the potent liquid she enjoyed to drink, steam rising from it's warmth.

"I took the liberty of making it. Originally, I was going to make enough coffee for myself to allow me to continue my studies-" he said, gesturing to the work set up he had on his side of the table," until I realized that you might enjoy some as well and made enough for the both of us."

"Oh...thanks." Twilight blushed lightly, slightly touched by the fact that Artemis would be so considerate as to make coffee for her as well as himself. She hadn't thought it possible for him to show that kind of benevolence towards anypony, but the evidence was staring her right in the face. Grabbing the coffee lightly by her magic, she took a small sip. It was surprisingly good, perhaps even better than when Spike made it. Taking in an even larger sip, she allowed her eyes to close in pleasure, fully enjoying the taste of the brew as it rolled over her tongue down her throat into her stomach.

"Not at all, Ms. Sparkle." Satisfied that the coffee would now be enjoyed instead of wasted, Artemis looked back down at his parchment and gazed at his current work thoughtfully. The coffee had yet to complete a circuit through his system and reach his brain, so in the meanwhile he simply stared and allowed his mind to run off on several different unrelated tangents at once. Images rolled around his head of stars conversing with llamas while polar bears ice skated on hockey rinks and all sorts of ridiculous, fantastic nonsense that runs through his head in it's pre-coffee state. He would have gladly frolicked amongst these hallucinations had not Twilight snapped him out of his reverie.

"Are you still working on that theory of yours? It looks fascinating."

"Erhm, yes. I've run into a bit of a snag though when I had to prove the existence of quarks without actually being able to see them."

"Really? But don't you just have to..." Twilight continued on explaining her perspective on the matter, causing Artemis' eyes to widen.

"Why didn't I think of that before? I'm a monumental idiot. Ms. Sparkle, you are a genius!" Hastily grabbing his quill again, he started writing down more numbers and growing excited all the while. He hadn't even talked with her one minute and she was giving him good ideas! This vacation thing might end up better than he thought it would. Furiously scribbling down the final line of his new formula, he suddenly jumped up and moved to the center of the room.

Twilight's eyes followed him curiously. She thought she had been stating common knowledge, but apparently Artemis hadn't thought about it in that way until now. Watching him scratch a magic circle into her floor, her eyes grew wider. She had already known of his intellectual genius, but watching him in action was like seeing the gods mold something into existence.
Every rune that dotted the circle was immaculately perfect, the final incantations being inscribed with a flourish. Seizing his coffee mug, Artemis strolled to the center of the circle, allowing his horn to go ablaze with magical energy. Closing his eyes in concentration, he began to intone the necessary spell required to achieve what he wanted to accomplish. Swirls of energy left his horn, fizzing out into the floor as the runes grew brighter. The energy eventually solidified into a fog, consolidating itself into the form of a mug. Suddenly, Artemis' eyes opened alight with a blue aura as he rolled over the final words of the incantation when everything seemed to blow up at once.

It caused quite a deafening bang, the light searing through Twilight's eyes for the slightest moment before everything dropped back to pitch dark as it once was.

Twilight coughed, trying to peer through the mist. She could make out the woozy form of Artemis as he stumbled from his spot, then gasped when she saw what was on the floor.

Two perfectly identical mugs stood side by side, complete replicates of each other down to the amount of coffee they held. She rubbed her eyes, unable to believe what had just happened.

Normally, replication spells were out of reach by normal unicorns, even by ones as potent as Twilight Sparkle, due to the fact that as soon as the replicated matter entered existence it would cause a cancellation reaction as there would be two items composed of exactly the same kinds of mass occupying the same time-stream/dimension space.

However, Artemis somehow managed to cheat Pauli's Principle of Exclusion by not forcing the particles he was transmuting into a replica, but by changing the inner nature of the particles themselves so that they were simply inspired to become almost the same as the item he aimed to copy, but would hold some minute change in their inter-molecular structures that allowed them to be different from the original structure they would be copying. Her mind wrapped around the implications of it all. By abusing that minute change to be as large or small as he wanted, Artemis could potentially replicate living beings like ponies and include a spell that would allow them all to share the same memories yet have the potential to develop into completely different beings. There was also the possibility of including a self-dissipation spell that would cause the copy to fall apart after a set amount of time to avoid having another "Pinkie Pie" incident again. Now being completely surrounded by the possible scenarios, Twilight momentarily forgot about Artemis until he coughed violently, coming back to life.

"Omigosh Artemis! Are you alright?" Twilight galloped over to him just as he managed to shake off the backlash of the spell.

"I'm -ARGH- fine, Ms. Sparkle. I've just developed a splitting headache." Rubbing at his eyes with his hooves, Artemis finally viewed the fruits of his labor. "I can't believe it... It actually worked." Ignoring the protests of his brain, Artemis leaned down to examine the mugs. While it was true that they both looked extremely identical superficially, there was bound to be some sort of change somewhere...

Scanning both mugs with his horn, he finally found the difference. "Aha! One of these mugs is made with a slightly more brittle composite of clay than the other. Absolutely fascinating." He stared at Twilight with as much gratitude that he could muster. "And it wouldn't have been possible if you hadn't inspired me. Thank you." Artemis made a sweeping bow towards the floor, causing Twilight to blush.

"I didn't really do that much..."She allowed her voice to trail off, unused to this side of Artemis.

"But of course you did! You're responsible for one of the most momentous scientific breakthroughs of the century! I can't wait to publish this!" He grinned evilly. "All those buffoons back at the academy will have to respect me more now. Hah! I want to see the looks on their faces when I get famous! Of course, your contribution would be mentioned as well, Ms. Sparkle."

"Well, if you say so." Twilight smiled. Artemis, for all of his precociousness and acerbic nature, had a childlike side to him as well whenever he got excited about something. Which, she noted wryly, appeared to only be about coffee and science.

----

The two of them talked well into the morning, discovering that they had much more in common than they would have expected. Artemis was glad to finally have a companion with whom he could discuss his favorite subjects with, while Twilight was happy to finally have a way of breaking past the walls that Artemis had set up between himself and every other pony he met. She was also encouraged to see how enthusiastically Artemis spoke with her. Compared to his state the other day, he now seemed full of vivacity and life. She could get used to seeing him like this.

Artemis quickly glanced up at the clock. "Oh my. It's already 7:00 AM." He glanced back at Twilight. "I'm terribly sorry for keeping you up all night when you just did so yesterday. I was just so elated to finally be able to discuss these things with somepony that I completely lost track the time."

Twilight nodded, barely able to keep her eyes open. Now that he had pointed out the time, the full weight of her exhaustion had crashed down upon her in full strength. All the coffee cups in the world would be able to revive her once she fell asleep.
"It's -yawn- alright. I can tell you had a lot of stuff you wanted to get off your mind." Rubbing her eyes, Twilight groaned. Regardless of how amazing it was to converse with a non-bitter Artemis, her body felt like crashing on the spot. Her misery was only compounded by the fact that she now had to carry on an entire day of running the library before being able to catch even the slightest wink of sleep.

Being perceptive as he was, Artemis was clueless when it came to ponies. Despite the fact that Twilight was exhibiting all the signs of somepony who was half dead from lack of sleep, he continued to believe that she was perfectly fine and ready to continue the days work. "Well, I'm glad we had this chat. We should do this again sometime." Giving her a slight smile, he left the library through the main doors for an early morning walk.

Twilight was too tired to appreciate the fact that he'd just smiled at her, and Spike found her dozing where she had stayed the past six hours, her consciousness now beyond the reach of both dragons and ponies alike.

----

Artemis strolled down the street in a considerably lighter mood than yesterday. Already three days through with his "vacation", he was now starting to enjoy himself a little. Who knew that Twilight Sparkle would prove to be a worth companion? "Celestia certainly knows how to pick her protege," he mused. Twilight Sparkle had a mind as sharp as a knife, with knowledge almost as boundless as he. While they fell short on certain subjects (For him it was the magic of friendship while for her it was the finer points of inter-dimensional travel), the conversation had been deep and greatly enjoyable for both parties.

He had been going over Twilight's argument for life beyond this planet until a feeling of dread suddenly overtook him. He felt like he was being watched, and by a presence that he was already familiar with. Slowly turning himself in a 180 degree angle, Artemis found himself facing his worst nemesis.

"Hiya!" said Pinkie.

"Cripes."

----

Rainbow Dash was relaxing on a cloud. Weather patrol had been harder than usual today, since colder winds from up north blew over into Ponyville and created large thunderheads that threatened to let loose an unscheduled downpour. She just finished moving the last cumulonimbus over the Everfree forest with a team of weather pegasi, allowing herself to celebrate a job well done with a congratulatory nap. This wouldn't last very long, as she would soon discover, as she heard a poofing noise and smelled the scent of ozone.

Cracking an eye open lazily, she saw a dark violet unicorn stallion panting as the magical fog generated by his teleportation spell slowly dissipated. She yawned, closing her eye again before her brain completely processed what she saw. There was a unicorn. Standing on a CLOUD. Bolting upwards, she was just in time to start watching the strange stallion start sinking through the cirrus cloud she had been resting on.

"Oh bother, not this again." Artemis muttered, enchanting himself with a quick "Cloud Walking" spell to stop him from sinking further. Realizing that he was not alone, he turned and noticed a cyan-colored mare with a messy rainbow- mane. "Damn it! More ponies up here too! By sweet Celestia, is there no escape?"

"Hey! Who do you think you are, messing up my cloud like this!?" RD was angry. She hadn't even known the stranger for five seconds and he ticked her off with the way he had appraised her with that demeaning look in his eye.

"Your cloud is of little consequence to me, madam. I only wish to escape before that harlequin-" he paused, pricking his ears. Upon hearing the whooshing propeller sound, he blanched. "Bloody Tartarus! She's found me again!" Quickly gathering up the energy required, he phased out of existence via teleportation spell just before Pinkie Pie busted through the clouds he had just been standing on with her hoofcycle helicopter.

"Hiya, Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie Pie waved cheerfully with the one hoof she could spare. "Didya see a unicorn stallion pass by here? He's got a deep violet coat, light purple eyes, and a black mane streaked with blue." She giggled a Pinkie Pie giggle at seemingly nothing. RD was not amused.

"Heck yeah, I saw him! He was bustin' up my cloud for no good reason! Then he looked at me like I was nothing but trash! That guy is totally a jerface." Rainbow pouted. She wasn't used to anypony looking at her with anything other than admiration or respect in their eyes. The fact that this guy hadn't even seemed the slightest bit impressed was a huge slight on her ego.

"Aww Dashie, he's not that mean! He's just a little shy, that's all!"

"Pft, says you! You think EVERYPONY that's new is just a little shy."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean it's not true! Dashie, you're such a silly filly sometimes." With another one of her characteristic giggles, she looked around and gasped. "Ooh, I see him again! Bye, Dashie!" With that, Pinkie Pie dropped down towards the earth again in her hooficycle leaving behind one very confused and offended Rainbow Dash.

"What in the hay was that all about?" Rainbow thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. "Must be a Pinkie Pie thing. But that guy didn't have to be like that. Sheesh!" Grumbling to herself, she gracefully flew into the air in search of a new cloud. Her old one just feel the same anymore.

----

Artemis re-emerged into existence by the town square. Panting, he quickly took refuge in a nearby alleyway. "Blasted party pony! How could she possibly catch up to me all the time! I'm not the most athletic of ponies, but it's impossible to have all that repressed energy bottled up inside her!" Taking in more deep gulps of breath, he tried to ignore the splitting pain in his head. After forcing himself to perform a chain of long distance teleportations just after trying out his new manipulation spell, he felt himself hit the rock bottom of his magical reserves. Now, he doubted he could even levitate a small pebble, much less send his entire body through the ethers of existence into a completely new location.

"The only flaw -gasp- with the the teleportation spell -wheeze- is that it can only take you to new locations -gasp- that you've seen," Artemis sputtered out to no one in particular. If he were in Canterlot, he could have teleported himself several times around the city without a problem as the locations he would have ported to were burned into the memory of his matter. In a new location like Ponyville, not only was he forcing his body into an area where it had never been, but he was also limited by the distance he can see. That's why he used his last teleportation to get a bird's eye view of Ponyville before porting off again. It's too bad that he'd only thought of that idea after expending his energy on a half-dozen other teleportation spells that got him virtually nowhere. His body now wracked with exhautions, Artemis brought a hoof to his head as another spike of pain cut through his consciousness. "Blast. I need to replenish my magic as quickly as possible. And quite possibly eat breakfast if I can manage."

Peering out into the main thoroughfare, Artemis watched for any noticeable appearances of the anomaly known as "Pinkie Pie". Satisfied that she had not reached this area yet, he made for the restaurant he had supped at yesterday as he remembered they had many curious items on the menu that he would rather like to try out. As he trotted out into the open, however, he had the strangest premonition that once again he was being watched. Shrugging it off, he continued on his path towards the cafe until somepony poked him in his flank with their hoof.

"What in Celestia's name do you think you're do-AH!" Turning around to redress the culprit, Artemis found himself once again standing face to face with Pinkie Pie.

"Ha ha! Found ya! DoIwinyet DoIwinyet DoIwinyet DoIwinyet DoIwinyet?" She said excitedly, bouncing up and down with each "DoIwinyet" to emphasize her exuberance in finding him.

Summoning up all the concentration he had left, Artemis poured it all into a Stare. Many ponies believed that Stares were reserved only to pegasi, but he had proven that anypony with the mental capacity for it could perform the legendary feat at will with the sufficient amount of practice. While using it consecutively against a target will gradually reduce it's effectiveness over the years, any first-timers experiencing should be frozen stiff in their position. Artemis was extremely loathe to use it against another pony, but he justified it in this case as a matter of self defense. Now fully into Stare-mode, he redirected all of his energies towards Pinkie Pie, who stopped bouncing up and down long enough to see what he was doing.

"Hey, what're you trying to do there, mister?"

She never knew what hit her. Suddenly, the world around her seemed to be moving a lot faster. She tried to lift a hoof to her head and check if she had a fever, but she was frozen on the spot. Desperately trying to break out of her mind prison, she pleaded to the audience beyond the fourth wall for their help.

"Come on guys, please? I need to throw this meanie pants a party!" Pinkie Pie uses the same face she used to convince Flutterguy to sing her song, and the cosmos don't dare refuse her. In a flash of light, Pinkie Pie once again breaks the mechanics of the universe, much to the dismay of one heavily winded unicorn on the verge of unconsciousness.

"Not bloody possible..." Artemis' voice trailed off as he fell to the ground, completely drained. The hubbub suddenly increased around him as ponies worried over whether he was alright or not. Had he been awake, he might have been disgusted by the amount of ponies he was surrounded with. Being as he was, however, he could do nothing as he was dragged onto a wagon and carted off to the Ponyville Hospital, muttering about harlequins and physics while he slept.

----

"Twilight, wake up."

Twilight groaned, not wanting to obey the voice speaking next to her.

"Come on, Twilight, it's time to get up."

Moaning, Twilight threw her hooves over her head. "Leave me alone, Spike..."

"Twilight, we ran out of inkwells!"

Twilight bolted upright. Not having any inkwells could pose to be a serious problem. How could she expect to check, double check, and triple check her checklists without any ink? Her panic, however, was soon laid to rest as she heard snickering from the other end of the room. "Spike! Don't do that!" Twilight protested indignantly. She hated when ponies got her attention that way, it gave her mini-heart attacks whenever it happened.

"Sorry Twilight, it was the only way I could think of to get you awake." Still snicker, Spike continued tidying up around the library.

Allowing her eyes to wander towards a nearby clock, Twilight's mouth hung open in horror. "It's 2 in the afternoon! Oh, Spike, why didn't you wake me up sooner!?" Her mind running on full panic mode, she immediately began thinking up a list of things that she would need to do and how she could squeeze them all in with the time she had left in the day.

"Chillax, Twilight. I got you covered. Between me and Owlowicious here, we've practically finished everything!" Spike took this moment to high five his feathered companion. Although in the beginning he harbored feelings of resentment towards the owl as he feared the avian would take his place as Twilight's number one assistant, those times were passed and they made the best assistants that Twilight could ever ask for.

Twilight visibly relaxed. "Thank Celestia I have you as my number one assistant to take care of things. Thanks Spike."

"Aww, it's not such a big deal. After all, I figured you needed the sleep after staying up talking to Artemis all night." Spike stuck his tongue out. "What WERE you guys talking about anyways? When I was walking down the stairs, all I could catch were some egghead stuff that sounded way too smart for me."

"Oh, Spike, it was just amazing!" Now that Twilight had nothing to worry about, she allowed herself a smile. "Artemis is one of the most learned ponies I've ever met! I've been dying to meet somepony to talk about all sorts of things from orgo-chemistry to all of Starswirl's magic theories! I just can't believe he doesn't open up to anypony. He just has so much knowledge to share!"

"Uhuh, good for you Twilight. Anyways, where did he go? He hasn't come back since he left seven hours ago."

"He's probably just walking around Ponyville again. He was telling me about how much he liked going out for leisurely strolls. It helps him feel at ease."

"Actually, he's in the hospital right now!" Pinkie Pie popped out of Twilight's mane, giving her another heart-stopping fright.

"Gah! Pinkie! Wait, did you say hospital?" Twilight's eyes suddenly filled with worry. Maybe that spell he did in the morning drained more magical power then he let on and he collapsed!

"Yeah! I was trying to be friends with him again but he just kept running away and teleporting until he caught me under a Stare at the town square but I broke free of it! Then he collapsed and we had to get an emergency cart bring him to the hospital, but they say he's stab- WAIT UP TWILIGHT!"

After retrieving her scarf, Twilight galloped out of the library. While she was still too tired to teleport to the hospital right away, she ran as fast as she could. She couldn't really understand why she was so concerned, but her heart was beating loudly in her chest as she headed towards the hospital where Artemis would be laying in whatever state. "He's just a friend, right? That must be why I'm so worried about him."

----

Artemis awoke with a start, groggily trying to view his surroundings. As far as he could tell, he was lying down in some hospital bed wearing one of those impossibly thin gowns that did nothing to keep away the cold. Shivering, he tried to pull his covers up via magic when he felt something obstructing it's path.

He found Twilight resting her head against the covers, snoring softly. Looking at her in confusion, he stared at the clock. It was 7 PM.

"I've been out for 12 hours? Oh Celestia." Artemis shook his head and sighed. All that time he could have spent discussing science with his companion, wasted down the drain. What he still couldn't explain to himself, however, is why she was here and currently sleeping at his bedside. Normally he would be sickened, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to actually be angry at her for being so close to him.

Moving his hoof to wake her, Artemis stopped when he saw her face. Even in sleep, it was etched with concern and compassion. It must have been by pure coincidence that she murmured his name at that exact moment, brow furrowed with worry.

"My lord," he said softly to himself. "She actually does care about me... and all I've done is try to push her away." At this realization, his heart warmed up. It had been a long time since he had ever come across somepony who genuinely cared. It was a rare thing to find a pony with a kind heart, but Twilight Sparkle was more than that. She was compassionate, understanding, and intelligent. Just the sort of pony he could imagine himself being friends with.

Friend.

"Twilight Sparkle is my friend," he murmured softly. Once again, he raised his hoof to shake her awake until she arose of her own volition, moving a hoof to her mouth to stifle a yawn.

"Hello, Twilight." Artemis gave her a smile full of warmth that truly reflected what he felt inside towards this lavender mare.

"Artemis! Are you alright? The doctor said you completely used up all of your magic! Why did you do something like that? You could have gotten hurt!"

"I'm quite alright, Twilight. But thank you for caring. I'm sorry for worrying you."

She sighed. "Well, as long as you're fine, I guess it's ok..." A stray thought caught her mind, fleeting yet incredibly important. Artemis has just called her Twilight instead of Ms. Sparkle. What's more, he smiled at her.

Before she could question him about it, however, Dr. Bifocals walked in. "Ah, the patient is awake, I see!" Taking out a medical chart, Dr. Bifocals scratched down some observations before approaching the bed. "Mr. Artemis, you were in a grave state indeed. Had your special somepony here not provided you with more magic to fill your tanks, you could have suffered some serious brain damage."

Twilight's face was flushed with embarrassment. "Dr. Bifocals, I already told you he's not my special somepony! He's just a friend."

"That's quite right, Doctor. Twilight Sparkle is not my special somepony." Artemis said, assuming as stern a face as possible.

The doctor paled under his scrutiny. "Ah, erhm, I'm uh...sorry? Anyways, you're free to go. Usually we'd keep you in bed until you had about three-quarters of your magic back, but this young mare here has filled you back up to the brim!"

"I see. Thank you, Dr. Bifocals."

"But of course. Just make sure not to overspend yourself next time! You may not be so lucky." With that comment, Dr. Bifocals left the room to care for other patients. Artemis swung his hooves out of bed and stood on his own, testing his limbs to make sure everything was functional. He gave a long sideways glance at Twilight. "Why did you give me your magical energy?"

Twilight, still embarrassed by Dr. Bifocal's earlier comment, turned a deeper shade of red and stared at the floor. "Well...that's what friends are for, aren't they? They help each other." She looked up to him and smiled.

"You didn't have to trouble yourself over me... but thank you." Artemis gave her another warm, enduring smile. "You're the first pony in years that I can call friend." Smiling wider as he saw Twilight's face flush with pleasure, he walked out the door followed by his newfound companion.

-------------------------------Flashback End-------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle, thank you.

-Artemis, Royal Scholar of the Canterlot Archives