When a magical spell goes wrong, Twilight has to sort out what is going on, whether it can be fixed... and why is her horn emitting random magic?
Twilight's efforts to investigate the nature of the world result in her horn getting infested by an odd, indigo glow. Everyone is worried, but there isn't anything anyone can do about it. In addition, Rarity is somehow tangled up in the magic.
Rarity pushed open the door to the basement and looked down the steps. Twilight was down there, painting some kind of geometric picture on a canvas. She headed down the stairs, not sure what to make of this. “It’s lovely, dear,” She said, “But abstract art is going out of style in Canterlot.”
Twilight smiled. “Hi Rarity. I’m making a spell circle for a spell I want to try.”
Rarity blinked at that. “I hate to break it to you, dear, but that’s more of a rhombus.”
“‘Spell circle’ is just a term,” Twilight explained, “It’s just called that because most of the time they are circles. I once cast an animation spell with a two-dimensional projection of a dodecahedron.”
Rarity blinked again. “Am I going to have to go get Sweetie Belle as a translator? I can be right back…” Twilight snickered. “No, no, I’m done. Anyway, this spell should permit me to measure the unique resonance of our world, permitting me to notice the difference in resonance to other worlds, eventually facilitating travel between them.”
“Really, school just got out, it would take about five minutes,” Rarity replied. “I’ll be back in plenty of time for you to explain it.”
“I’m going to cast a spell to take measurements so we can get a portal to Canterlot High that works more often than once every two and a half years.” Twilight said simply.
Rarity went “Ohhhh,” and nodded. “A fine endeavor. Say, why does that portal only work once every two and a half years?”
“No idea,” Twilight said with a shrug. “Starswirl the Bearded was an amazing spell designer, but he often forgot to detail his process in his notes.” She put down the brush. “There. All I need to do now is cast the spell.”
“Can I help?” Rarity asked. “I know I’m not much of a magic user, but if I can help, I want to.”
“I don’t think so. I’ll let you know if something comes up, but I don’t think there’s really any way for you to help. Unless you took a class in metamagic while I wasn’t looking.” Twilight said with a hopeful look at her friend.
Rarity shook her head. “Alas, the choice came down to metamagic or thaumaturgy, and I went with the more elegant sounding one.”
Twilight blinked. “You took a lesson in thaumaturgy? I haven’t even taken a lesson in thaumaturgy! How did you pull that off?”
Rarity giggled a bit. “Funny story. Involves a wombat. Remind me sometime and I’ll tell it to you.”
Twilight turned back to the spell ‘circle.’ “All right, then. Here we go.” Rarity watched as Twilight’s horn glowed, and then was covered by a second layer of magic, and then a third, and finally that final spark. That was an awful lot of magic… Rarity supposed that the measurements of the universe were not easy to take, though, so she simply stepped back and watched.
A beam of sorts from Twilight’s horn hit the parchment, and the spell began in earnest. It looked to be going well (or at least not poorly) but Rarity’s attention to detail and aesthetic sense led her to notice something peculiar. Now, she didn’t want to distract Twilight in the middle of the spell, but…
“Twilight, dear… is the spell circle supposed to be shifting?”
Twilight blinked, and noticed it. “No… no it’s not! Rarity! Get over here and stop it. I can adjust the spell to compensate, if you can keep it from changing any more.”
Rarity stepped up and directed her own magic against the circle. It was weird; grabbing some art that someone else was directing magic through. It was like trying to arrange a vase of flowers while they were all spewing water everywhere and trying to squirm out of the vase. Possible, but difficult, and disturbing if you stopped to ponder why the flowers are spewing water and trying to squirm out of the vase.
“Rarity, it’s deviated too far. Can you revert it?”
“I can try.”
“Gah, the straight lines need to stay straight!”
“It’s not my fault it’s so wiggly!”
“Ack, no, stop the spinning!”
“It’s not spinning, the canvas is!”
“Oh snap! I lost control!”
“What is that ripping sound?”
“ABORT ABORT ABORT-”
“Well,” Celestia started carefully, “I’ll say first off that you did a good job. You went about it in an unusual way, but… you did a good job.”
Discord smiled. He gave a somewhat exaggerated, deep bow. “Thank you, princess. Always a pleasure.”
Celestia knew that he was being patronizing, but she honestly preferred it to when he was being snippy, sarcastic, or troublesome. Fluttershy had convinced Discord to be good… most of the time. The rest of the time he was borderline insufferable.
“I have to admit, your ad hoc puppet show was quite entertaining, and the way you saved the partygoers with the statues was inspired. Similarly, your speech did a fine job of breaking the vandals’ morale-“
Discord suddenly pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand, and then signaled for Celestia to stop with the other. “Sorry! Sorry. My sinuses just closed up. Ow. Ow. Ow… there. Better now.” He straightened up, ready for Celestia to continue.
She did not. “Discord, was that something important?”
“No!” He said, “Well, not in and of itself. I mean, why would something important clog up my sinuses? It’s probably just some pony messing with portal magic, or maybe some natural magical anomaly. Thunderstorms in the Everfree Forest can be interesting, you know.” He shrugs. “Whatever it was, it has gone now, so the most we can do is pay attention to the news and hope nothing horribly bad happens.”
Pinkie Pie cheered as she looked at the results on the dice. “That’s a crit! Even better than what I need.”
Bonbon, at the head of the table, made a face, while Lyra, Lotus, and Aloe all gave small cheers. “Once again your bizarre pendulum luck saves your hide, Pinkie.” Bonbon said. “Roll damage. For every six, roll another dice, because that means that some of the gunpowder in the area has gone off.” Pinkie picked up the dice, and rolled them. A lot of sixes. Bonbon sighed. “I can’t wait for your pendulum luck to swing back. It always does.”
Pinkie reached for more dice, and then suddenly stopped. She then began to vibrate and flail in almost literally every direction, and fell off of her chair onto the floor. Once down there, she vibrated for a minute before finally settling down. Every pony at the table blinked at this. Lyra was the first to speak. “Pinkie, are you allright?”
“Meble yinel bordum moog.”
Rarity shook her head. She had no idea what just happened, but as far as she could tell she was still intact. Yes, upon standing up she quickly confirmed that she was not only intact but her hair had avoided mussing. There was a discombobulating magical shockwave, it seems, but not a real forceful explosion.
Twilight similarly got up, and she looked mostly normal. “Oof… that went wrong. I’m not sure what went on there.”
“Twilight, do you feel alright?” Rarity asked. “Any kind of headache, or maybe that annoying feeling you get when you’re casting something, hiccup, and your magic gets gunked up?
“There’s a bit of a tingle,” Twilight admitted, “But that’s probably just residual effects from the haywire spell.” She then looked up at her horn. It was glowing a deep blue-purple, not her normal color by any stretch. “Huh…that’s bad. Rarity, run upstairs and stall Spike until I find the Geiger counter.”
Spike threw open the basement door and almost ran into Rarity. “Rarity! What happened down there? I heard shouting, an explosion, and… what’s that ticking sound?”
“I honestly have no idea, but I’m supposed to stall you for a minute. We’re both intact! Twilight just wants to check to make sure that her horn isn’t dangerous.”
Spike’s eyes opened even wider. “Her horn? What’s wrong with her horn? Is it like the poison joke thing? Or what?”
“Well…” Rarity said, “When I left it was glowing violet, so I’m going to assume that it’s not that.”
“Violet?” Spike asked. “That’s not that color of her magic.”
Rarity looked over her shoulder. “Maybe more of an indigo, really. I’d have to get my color cards to be sure. But yes, a long way off from her normal magenta.”
“Okay,” Twilight called from the basement, “The Geiger counter’s needle is barely moving at all, so I assume it’s safe. Just come down and don’t touch my horn, just in case.”
Rarity and Spike headed down the steps, and Spike saw Twilight’s glowing horn. He blinked at it. “Um… Twilight? What did you do?”
“What I was trying to do,” Twilight explained, “Was examine one of the fundamental natures of the universe. Now, I didn’t wind up doing that, and for that matter I don’t know what I wound up doing, but for whatever reason I now have some sort of unusual magical energy inhabiting my horn, and I believe it is feeding on my magical energy, but I’m not sure.”
“Wait,” Spike said, “There is an unusual magical energy, inhabiting your horn, feeding on your magic? That’s bad! There is no way that’s not bad!”
“Yeah,” Twilight said. “Definitely. Creepily enough, it’s kind of comfortable. It doesn’t hurt, but it is keeping me from using magic.” As if on cue, the aura momentarily flared. “Yeah, I’m going to write Celestia a letter about this. Rarity, could you get the mayor to institute a quarantine around my house? Just in case it’s contagious.”
Rarity backed up a few steps. She hadn’t even thought of that! “Right. I’ll do that right away. Good luck!” she said before running upstairs. She barely reached the main room before running into Pinkie Pie.
“Rarity!” Pinkie declared, “I came as fast as I could, which isn’t as fast as I normally could, because my Pinkie Sense keeps-” For a moment, Pinkie spaced out and vibrated. “-going off for some reason. What happened?”
“Not right now. Pinkie, what do you know about setting up a quarantine?” Rarity asked, making sure that the fact that this situation was completely serious came across in her voice and manner.
“Nothing.” Pinkie said simply.
“Nothing?” Rarity repeated in surprise. “Nothing?”
“Yeah,” Pinkie said before momentarily vibrating. “Why would I know anything about quarantines?”
Rarity blinked. “Well… it just seemed to be the kind of random, nonsensical, and highly specialized knowledge that you would have.”
Pinkie Pie nodded sagely. “Sound logic, and I would have thought that same thing, but I don’t know anything about quarantines. You’d have to ask Fluttershy.”
Rarity blinked at this. “Fluttershy?”
Princess Celestia perked up when a letter appeared in front of her nose. Oh, good! A distraction from the endless drudgery that was royal paperwork. She immediately opened it. The letter was not what she expected. Instead of a heartwarming lesson in friendship, it was a description of a problem, how the problem came about, and a plea for help. She immediately wrote and sent her response. Princess Twilight Sparkle,
I would first like to congratulate you on the usage of Starswirl The Bearded’s infamously incomplete notes to create such a spell, even if only in prototype. The casting issue you described is unique, to my knowledge, not something that I have ever heard, read, or had described to me. This implies a whole new school of magic, and possibly the most complex one since thaumaturgy. Please forward all finds on this topic to me so that they might be immortalized in the library.
As for your sudden condition, I have less good news. I will be blunt: I have no idea whatsoever.
The above answer would apply to most questions you have on the subject. Please keep me informed on this topic! I will do my best to find any answers at all.
~Princess Celestia
As Twilight finished reading the rather worrying letter from the Princess, she heard a knock on the door. She headed to it quickly, and found Fluttershy in an advanced, magically reinforced hazmat suit.
“Hello Twilight,” Fluttershy said meekly, “You… ah, you wanted to be quarantined?”
“Yes,” Twilight said, “there was a misfired spell, and the result was… this.” Twilight gestured up to her still glowing horn. The color hadn’t abated in that time; if anything it was a little stronger.
“Oh,” Fluttershy said as she debated this. “If it makes you feel better, it’s kind of pretty. Anyway, just don’t try to leave your home, and I’ll mark your door with an X.”
Twilight blinked. “That’s it? That’s all?”
“Well… no,” Flutershy admitted sheepishly. “We’ll also wrap up all your windows and doors in yellow caution tape and some medical unicorns will put up a quarantine field. Oh, and here,” Fluttershy handed Twilight an old radio with a speaker and a microphone on it. “If you need anything, even just someone to talk to, you can use this. Okay?”
“Yeah, thanks Fluttershy.” Twilight took the radio. “But, I have to ask, why are you the one that is setting up the quarantine?”
“Oh,” Fluttershy fidgeted nervously. “That’s kind of a long story. I’ll tell you some other time, okay?”
Next, it was Rarity’s turn to find the Hazmat-suited Pegasus at the door. “Just finished taping Twilight in?” She asked.
“Yeah.” Fluttershy said sadly. “Um, Rarity, since you were at ground zero, the doctor thought that you should, uh, watch your health for the next few days. Maybe a week. We’re hoping it’s nothing, of course, but if your magic does begin to act up, well, the doctors would like to know, okay?”
“Okay,” Rarity said, trying and failing to hide the worry in her voice.
“Well,” Doctor Stable said, “We’ve done every test we can think of, and the bad news is that nothing can remove that energy from your horn. The good news is that the energy flatly refuses to budge from your horn, so we can say that you are not, in fact, contagious. That means that we can take down the triple-layered caution tape.”
Twilight sighed with relief. “Good! Now instead of worrying about spreading this to the whole town, I just have to worry about the idea of never being able to use unicorn magic ever again!”
Spike came over and patted Twilight on the shoulder. “There, there. Could be worse. You can still use your wings, right?”
Twilight smiled. “Yeah. And good friends, who I know will stand by me.”
Spike nodded. “And a pair of princesses in Canterlot who are willing to help, and another princess in the Crystal empire who wants to help, not to mention several offers from many prestigious scholars offering to study and help if they can.”
Suddenly, the glow around Twilight’s horn flared up and an arc of magical energy sailed to Spike, who was consumed in a flash of indigo light. When the energy cleared, Spike was unharmed… but not unchanged.
“What the-why am I a pony?” He stumbled backwards on his four legs. His coat was purple, like his scales were, and his tail and mane were green like his spines, and his cutie mark was a scroll. “For that matter, why am I a colt? Aren’t I old enough to be a full-grown pony?”
Twilight blinked at this. “Well… in theory, but it must have translated your being a baby dragon into being a colt.”
“I’m going to be over there now,” Doctor Stable said, backing away quickly. “You two figure it out.”
Spike wobbled on his legs. “I hope this isn’t perman-” with a poof of indigo smoke wafting off of his body, Spike was once again a dragon. “-nent. That was weird.”
Twilight sighed. “I can’t go out now, can I? If this effect does random powerful magic to people who get too close to me…”
The doctor shrugged. “As long as the effects are temporary, I can’t require you stay. Just… try to stay away from people?”
Twilight blinked. She didn’t expect that!
Doctor Stable rolled his eyes. “Look, we let Pinkie Pie run around. If you somehow cause more trouble than her, then I might consider it to be a good reason for Quarantine. If there isn’t anything more, I have some things to do today. Let me know if anything bad happens. To yourself or others.”
Twilight walked through the town. It was nice to be able to walk through the town again! She knew, of course, that she still probably wouldn’t do it much, but the permission to go out into the world and read in the park instead of the library was nice.
“Twilight!” She looked toward the voice. It was Fluttershy, fluttering over sheepishly. “It’s good to see you’re out of your house. I’m sorry I had to tape you in, I didn’t want to, but-”
“But I asked you to,” Twilight cut her off, “and now Doctor Stables has written me off as not contagious, and it’s good to be sure it won’t hurt my friends.”
Fluttershy smiled, and pulled Twilight into a hug. Zap! The sound made Fluttershy jump backwards. She quite suddenly had a mass of little flowers for hair! She looked at this, sputtering, very confused.
Twilight placed a hoof on her shoulder to try and calm her. “Easy there. I think it’s just a side-effect; something similar happened to spike. Just give it a minute, and it should wear off on its own.”
Fluttershy took a few deep breaths, and in a few seconds her hair returned to normal. She couldn’t help but giggle a little. “You know,” She said, “I don’t think I would mind having flowers for hair. Anyway, everyone has gathered together at Sweet Apple Acres. They’re all really eager to see you.”
Ah, that news made Twilight all the happier. “I’m really eager to see them, too.”
It’s a good thing that happiness does not have mass, because if it did the sheer amount of joy would have crushed all six of them to death without question. Four ponies charged to give their friend a hug, despite the indigo glow on her horn, and the end result was a classic dogpile hug.
Up until an arc of energy touched AppleJack, making her ten feet tall. The others were thrown off quickly, and Applejack suddenly stood up to keep from squishing her friend. “What in tarnation?” She declared, stumbling backwards. “How-”
“Don’t panic!” Twilight said. “It will wear off, just give it a moment.” Everypony held their breaths, and applejack shrunk to normal size. “Okay. Everypony, I am more than grateful for this, and I am happy to see you all! However, I am not cured, and the condition causes random arcs of magical energy to appear at random, which cause odd but temporary effects. Nothing to worry about, as far as I can tell, but it may be a good idea to be careful with contact for a while.”
Everyone nodded, and Rainbow Dash rushed in for a quick hug. “Worth the risk! I bet it needs a bit to recharge between zaps, too!” Zap! As if to debunk Rainbow Dash’s theory, an arc of energy touched her and made her skin into some kind of metal. The oddest thing about this was that instead of being simply metallic, it reflected all the colors of the rainbow. Rainbow dash got just enough time to examine herself and declare this “Awesome!” before the effect wore off.
Rarity shook her head. “In any case, it’s good to see you again. Any plans right now? Any plan to get rid of the effect?”
Twilight shook her head. “I think I’ll just take the train to Canterlot tomorrow. See if the princesses have any idea what is going on. The truth of the matter is, I’m not sure that we can do this, just the six of us. The princesses are my friends too, and the most powerful mages in Equestria at that. No offense to anyone here, but the truth of the matter is I don’t think any of you can really help me.”
“None taken,” Rainbow dash said,
“Yeah, you’re the one that we would go to for things like this,” Fluttershy agreed.
“We understand perfectly,” Rarity said, “You can lose me just describing spells. I’m not going to claim to be a great mage.”
Suddenly, with no warning, an arc of energy went from Twilight’s horn to Rarity’s.
Twilight and Rarity both stumbled backward, and this time the arc was no instantaneous effect. It seemed to maintain itself, linking the two horns together with a stream of magic. They quickly retreated to opposite corners of the room, but this distance was not enough to stop the effect. Suddenly, in a fit of some mix of brilliance, heroics, and hyperactivity, Pinkie Pie leaped into the stream, severing it. The magic played over Pinkie’s body, and instead of falling back to the ground pinkie floated up to the ceiling.
“Are you two all right?” Twilight asked, not sure what to make of this.
“I’m fine,” Rarity said, checking her horn. “I don’t seem to be infected or otherwise changed.”
“Zero-G, Baby!” Pinkie shouted before the effect wore off, dumping Pinkie on her head.
Twilight sighed. “That was unusual. Rarity, what did it feel like? You’re not hurt, are you?”
Rarity shook her head. “Not in the slightest. In fact, disturbingly enough, it almost felt natural. The idea that anything of that sort would feel natural is an odd one, to be sure. More to the point, however, I think it was feeding on my magic.”
Twilight gasped. “Oh no… if this feeds off of other unicorn’s magic, too… I can’t go see the princesses like this! What if it drains their magic?”
Rarity rolled her eyes. “Twilight, there’s no permanent damage. It just kept me from doing magic for a bit. Even I would notice right away if my core magic ability decreased.”
“Still!” Twilight said, “It could be danger to unicorns around me.”
“And it really isn’t your color,” Rarity sighed, “And being all big and bright makes it stand out a lot, and I know how you don’t like to be the center of attention all the time. I know! I’ll get you a hat! I think you would look dashing in a trilby!”
“What’s a trilby?” Rainbow dash asked idly.
“It’s like a fedora, but with a smaller brim, often turned up in the back,” Rarity explained patiently.
After a moment to ponder this, Rainbow dash asked, “What’s a fedora?”
Princesses Celestia and Luna met Twilight Sparkle in their inner room. To say it was ostentatious would be misleading. It was obviously designed to be ostentatious, as if the builders expected the room to wind up lined with gold and jewels, but in reality it wound up lined with bookcases. The books varied between magic, poetry, diplomacy, history, and fiction. Twilight Sparkle silently noticed the complete Daring Doo series.
The other furniture in the room was expensive, but not honestly as expensive as would be expected for the princesses. There was a finely-crafted mahogany table and chairs, with some artistic swirls but nothing prohibitively complex. The silver tea set was of fine quality, but it was probably less expensive than Fluttershy’s tea set. A could floated near the ceiling, but it seemed to be a natural cloud, instead of one of those designer-brand comfort clouds.
Rainbow Dash had always insisted that natural clouds were straight up better than any artificial one. Twilight silently pondered trying that, now that she had wings and the natural magic to do so.
The princesses were there, of course. Celestia greeted Twilight amicably, and poured her some tea. It was Twilight’s second favorite, and had been her favorite for a great many years. The truth of the matter was that Zecora made the best tea, and that even the most expensive tea available in Canterlot could only be second-best.
Technically third-best, since Twilight’s second favorite tea was infamously cheap.
Twilight took a deep bow, but that was stopped by Celestia giggling. “Easy there, Twilight. You can relax here, here we’re all friends.”
Twilight looked around and smiled. “I admit,” She said, “that this has a lot more casual atmosphere than I expected.”
“Yes,” Luna said, sipping her tea, “the marble and gold trim is mainly a show for the public. Celestia’s real design sense is close to ‘early attic,’ with a bit of ‘antique store’ thrown in.”
Celestia laughed. “Yes, I admit it. There’s a lot of history in this room, if you think about it. Why, this table is older than I am. Amazing what the proper usage of mending and fortifying magic can do.”
Twilight blinked. “Don’t you pre-date known history?”
“Yes,” Celestia said, “Yes, I do. And this table pre-dates me.”
Twilight looked with awe upon the oldest piece of furniture in the world.
“Anyway,” Celestia said, “We do have a specific goal here today. Twilight, if you could please show us your horn?”
Twilight took off her dapper trilby, to let the princesses see her horn and the energy emanating from it. “Please be careful, I don’t want either of you to be…”
“We read your letters, Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia said in an effort to calm her. “We each have a magical ward active, strong enough that even Discord would have trouble affecting us.”
Somewhere, Discord broke into giggles, but this does not really affect this story.
“Indeed, we should be quite safe from stray magical effects for the duration of this meeting,” Luna agreed. As if to rub in that this wasn’t true, an arc of energy flashed out to Luna, momentarily making her coat a shimmering starfield. She gasped, Celestia blinked in surprise, and Twilight winced. It only lasted a moment, of course, but it was still very surprising for everyone involved.
“Impossible,” Celestia said, And then shook her head, “Er, well, not impossible, seeing as it just happened, but still very important.”
“And my ward is still up, so instead of powering through it, we know that it bypassed it, implying that this is a kind of magic completely undiscovered!” Luna exclaimed, gesturing for emphasis. “Quick, use scanning spells. Let’s look at it before it can cause any real trouble.”
A pair of regal horns glowed, and Twilight sighed. She wished that she could be the one doing the examination, instead of the one being examined. “Twilight,” Celestia said, “Have you been having odd dreams, or thoughts, or intuitions?”
Twilight shook her head slightly. “No. Why?”
“Just the kind of thing that commonly winds up happening with odd stuff,” Celestia said. “I’m not sure what this is at all… wait.”
“What?” Twilight asked.
“Luna, what do you think of this?”
“I have no idea.”
“Run an identity.”
“I did. It’s not Twilight.”
“More detail. Isn’t it familiar, though?”
“I gue-what?”
“What?” Twilight asked.
Celestia and Luna stopped, and exchanged looks. They turned away from Twilight and began to whisper to each other. “You two are scaring me,” Twilight said, “It kind of reminds me of the time that Pinkie Pie completely mixed up every book in my library. She knew that I would find out, freak out, and proceed to re-shelve everything, but she was hesitant to tell me. Except worse. Come on! I’ve gone head to head with the most dangerous villains in Equestria. I can take bad news! If you don’t actually tell me, I’ll have to assume it’s something horrible, like an alien shapeshifter energy form that will eat my brain and turn me into a stronghold for their invasion of Equestria. Or worse. You know, actually, the idea of me changing into some kind of contagious hive entity is scary. Would I still be a person if I was a collective?”
“Uh,” Celestia interrupted her student, knowing that she needed to nip this line of thought in the bud, “In the interest of everyone here not having nightmares tonight, we’ll just tell you. The magic energy signature isn’t yours; it’s a mix of yours and Rarity’s.”
“What?” Twilight said. “What? How-wait. It’s all because of that spell. When the spell circle began to warp, I asked Rarity to try and stabilize it. The mix of magic being used, the spell circle going wrong, and Rarity’s efforts to keep it from going wrong must have resulted in the unique magical pulse that gave this effect. However, due to the fact that Rarity’s magic was interacting with the circle, it also got mixed into the effect. This may be why my magic is blocked: there’s a magic that isn’t mine inhabiting my horn, preventing me from using it as a focus. This would also explain why it arced to Rarity’s horn; it recognized her as the other half of it!”
Twilight had begun pacing, but didn’t notice. “But why was I infested when Rarity was not? Wait… it must have been because I was casting the spell that went wrong, while Rarity was simply interacting with my magic! Does that make sense?” She asked the princesses.
Luna blinked. “Well… seeing as you have a theory, and I don’t, I would say it makes the most sense of anything we’ve thought of so far.”
Celestia nodded. “I don’t see how to remove it safely. Trying to would probably either directly affect your horn, or cause damage to your magic potential. Either way, if the affliction will somehow progress to a more stable stage, it would be better to wait until then.”
“Progress?” Twilight asked. “What do you mean, progress?”
“Well,” Celestia said, “You were in quarantine for three days, in which time you did not have any of the magical arcing you have noted in the last two days. It stands to reason that it’s progressing, slowly changing over time. It might become more stable in the future.”
“It could also become less stable, or turn you into a living explosive,” Luna added. This garnered a disapproving glance from Celestia.
“What’s important is that it’s changing over time,” Celestia said, “And we need to observe it over time in order to understand it.”
“Well,” Twilight said, “What do we do? Am I going to need to come up again soon? I don’t mind, but I can’t use teleportation and the train fare can get expensive.”
“No,” Celestia said hesitantly, “I think it would be better for you to stay here.”
“How long?” Twilight asked, worried about what the answer might be.
Celestia thought for a moment. “If I remember my virology classes right, it’s been a while so I might not, two weeks should be long enough.”
“Why would you be using virology class experience for this?” Twilight asked.
Luna raised an eyebrow. “What, no objection to staying here for two weeks?”
“The definition of disease is wide enough that this counts as a disease,” Celestia explained, “And therefore virology training is relevant.”
“All right,” Twilight said, “but I do have an objection for staying here for two weeks. I have things to do at home, and my friends are all there, and I do have a job there.”
“Oh?” Celestia said, “You got a job? Doing what?”
Twilight blinked. “I’m the librarian. I run the library. I live at the library. What else would I do?”
“The librarian?” Celestia blinked. “As in, you’re the only one? Wasn’t there a librarian there when you got there?”
Twilight shook her head.
“But… then… how did the library run?” Celestia asked.
“I don’t know,” Twilight said, “I’ve been getting money on a regular basis due to the late fees from the other ponies. I assume that’s how it’s worked for a while, but I don’t actually know if there were any librarians before I got there.”
“The inexplicable nature of the Ponyville library aside,” Luna cut in, “You can arrange around any plans you have, yes? You did say in your letters that you were worried for your friends’ safety.”
“In addition,” Celestia said, “you can still maintain written correspondence with your Ponyville friends. Discord has been Fluttershy’s penpal since she reformed him.”
“And Rainbow Dash could probably fly between Ponyville and Canterlot faster than the Pony Express,” Luna added.
Twilight sighed. “Okay. Princess Celestia, if I wrote a letter to spike, would you send it for me?”
“Of course,” Celestia answered.
Rarity found herself giggling. It was all going so magnificently! The way the stitches fell into place perfectly, the way the ruffles played into each other, the way that the pieces of fabric fused almost seamlessly, it was almost too perfect. “It’s done!” She cried, and took a step back. Indeed, it was done. This one was going into the window, for sure.
Sweetie Belle and Spike, who had been helping, looked it in wonder and befuddlement. “It’s like you took rainbow dash’s mane,” Sweetie Belle said, “And turned it into a layered cake… and then turned that into a dress.”
“And, it’s somehow still beautiful,” Spike said.
“Thank you!” Rarity said, with a partial bow. “Not quite the reaction I was going for, but that is the basic feel of the dress.”
Spike then exhaled a tongue of flame that solidified into a scroll. This startled Sweetie Belle, making her jump to the side. Spike unrolled the scroll, and both Rarity and Sweetie Belle leaned in to look over his shoulder.
“Why is the scroll covered in scribbles?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Is it a map?” Rarity asked. “This looks like Fluttershy’s house, and that’s sugar cube corner, or…”
“It’s a letter from Twilight,” Spike explained, “She’s so used to writing with her magic that her actual hoofwriting is, well, bad.”
“It reminds me of abstract art,” Rarity muttered to herself. “What’s it say?”
“Um… Twilight met with the princesses… something about an ‘Ur-Table’… uh… your magic is involved in the glow on her horn somehow… and she’s going to be staying in Canterlot for at least two weeks.”
“What?” Rarity said, “Two weeks? And how is my magic involved in the magic in her horn?”
“I don’t know,” Spike admitted, “I’m only an assistant. I once gave a sample of Twilight’s hoofwriting to a team of forensic analysts and it took them eight days to figure out what it said.”
“I don’t know what’s going on at all,” Sweetie Belle sighed.