//------------------------------// // Intermission: The Element of Magic // Story: From the Ashes // by Dark0592 //------------------------------// Twilight found Celestia in her chambers, a place she knew well. The nostalgia hit her like a truck as she looked around the modestly decorated room. The sun was still up, but the Princess was napping peacefully on her bed. Twilight was glad the guards on rotation right now knew her or she would have to have waken her to get in.As it stands, they just smiled at her and let her through. Twilight couldn’t help but indulge in a bit of selfishness as she looked at the princess. She couldn’t help but carefully crawl up next to her and wrap her arms around the woman. Twilight realized she was caught when Celestia’s arms quickly wrapped around her and pinned her there. “I thought I heard someone enter.” She said with a sleepy chuckle as she cracked her eyes open. She seemed relieved she was correct in guessing who it was, though to be fair the only other person who would ever be able to enter unannounced was her sister and she’d have done the same thing. Twilight didn’t reply, at least for a little bit, relishing in the contact and the overwhelming love radiating from her current cuddle buddy. “You know, now that I’ve hugged you enough and I can find the spots to wrap my arms around you, the chitin isn’t too uncomfortable. The fact that it’s you always leaves that in the dust though.” Celestia continued, squeezing just a little harder for effect. Twilight giggled at that. “I know you had something important to talk to me about, but I missed this. Even before I became a Changeling I missed this.” Twilight sighed. Celestia just hummed and seemed content to lie there with her student for a minute or so before groaning and finally ending the impromptu cuddle session. “Unfortunately this is very important so it can’t wait much longer… I need to test something…” The princess sighed tiredly again. She walked over to the large desk, currently overrun by documents that are probably important. With a flash of magic and a flick of her fingers, a very familiar box dug itself out of the pile of paperwork and into Twilight’s surprised arms. “The elements of harmony?” Twilight asked, confused. It only took a few seconds to realize what Celestia was wanting to test. “Oh… OH! You want to see if I’m still the Element of Magic after all of the changes that have been happening.” Twilight guessed. Celestia nodded. “I have a feeling nothing has changed, but I have to make sure.” The princess replied. Twilight nodded and used a spell only she, the princesses and the other elements knew to unlock the box. She looked at them, the pendants and headdresses. Her was on top, just the way it was left last time they used them. She was almost scared to touch it, and Celestia saw her hesitation. She put a reassuring hand on Twilight’s shoulder and the queen took a deep breath and made to take her headdress. The flash of light and the palpable magic aura in the room answered all of their questions, but also raised new ones. “What was that?!” Twilight gasped when the magic dissipated. She watched in a mix of curiosity and horror as the lavender magic of the element coalesced into her hands before dispersing throughout her entire body weaving along in a seemingly random pattern. On closer inspection though, Twilight was shocked. She recognized those patterns. They were Glyphs. They weren’t just any glyphs though, they were glyphs she had invented but haven’t gotten to work yet. “I don’t know… but those arrays are an unknown glyph pattern… I’ve never even seen it before… Are you alright ,Twilight?” Celestia started, noticing Twilight’s shock. “I know these… These are modified versions of the general purpose glyphs I created to make the magic batteries work… But these… I hadn’t even begun research on them aside from writing out what they’re supposed to look like.” Twilight explained. Her brain immediately went into scholar mode and blanketed herself with scanning spell after scanning spell. “My, it seems the Element of Magic wished to help you in your arcane endeavors. Are they functional?” Celestia guessed. Twilight nodded as the last of her spells turned up positive. “They’ve been magically branded into my skin and carapace, but it seems they don’t show up when I’m not channeling through them. If my ideas and what the scanning spells came up with are right, they allow complete control over magic even without verbal or somatic manipulation and should amplify the power I give out. I had been planning to create a strain of my children with the glyph imprinted into their genetic data to amplify the already present but abysmal arcane mastery.” Twilight explained as she experimented with putting magical energy through the glyphs and taking it away, causing them to glow and testing their effects. She Was about to continue but froze as she realized her energy was being replenished slowly before she absorbed what she channeled. “Celestia… I… I think I just got turned into an arcane battery…” Twilight stuttered out, her mind ablaze with dozens of experiments and possibilities. Her researchers back at the hive were already preparing them, actually, she hadn’t even consciously asked them to. But they knew. It was Celestia’s turn to be surprised. “Well… that’s interesting…” Celestia could only say.