I suppress a yawn as I watch Twilight quiver with barely-contained excitement in the main room of the Golden Oak Library. By the look on her face, this is probably another one of her boring science lectures. Sure, she said it was important when she dragged me out of bed, but then, she said the same thing about the time she found a schoolbook that broke the Textbook Font Guidelines. Just to be nice to her, though, I try to look a little less uninterested than I actually am. Heck, maybe I'll even pay full attention this time.
…Nah.
"Soooooooooooo…," Twilight says, now practically hopping in place out of giddiness, "you remember when Pinkie, Spike, and I snuck into the Star Swirl the Bearded Wing of the Canterlot Archives earlier this week to look for a time spell, right?"
"'Snuck' is a bit of an exaggeration, considering they pretty much just let us walk in," Spike points out from beside her. "In fact, I'm pretty sure you could've just asked a patrol or two to come help us look for a spell and save us all the hassle, instead of pretending we're in a cheesy heist movie."
I snicker into my hoof as Twi's face reddens, but her excitement overrides her embarrassment, and she continues, "Well, anyway, Princess Celestia actually sent a response to my friendship letter!"
Huh. The Princess actually responded to a friendship letter? She doesn't do that a whole lot, right? I wonder what got her to do that. Whad'ya know, this might be interesting after all.
"She said that since I tried the time travel spell, she'd like me to look over another one of Star Swirl's time spells — and research it!"
Oh, never mind, spoke too soon.
"The notebook containing this particular spell was very newly discovered, which is why not much is known about its exact function, beside what Star Swirl himself wrote down — that's why it's such a big deal the Princess is entrusting this to me! But supposedly, it's a sort of enchantment that lets the user rewind time by up to one second, and give themselves an opportunity to alter and improve their own actions!"
Okay, Twi's definitely in full "Dump a Cartful of Info on Your Helpless Victim" Mode now; I'm not sure she's even pausing for a full second between sentences. Ah well, I've kinda gotten used to it by now. Heck, it's not actually as bad as I usually make it out to be. There's even something strangely nice about listening to somepony talk about something they're super-passionate about.
"Star Swirl named it 'Second Chance' — as it turns out, he had a terrible sense of humour. Like, really, the whole description for the spell is filled with awful wordplay like 'give yourself one second chance' and — no, sorry, I'm digressing. Back to the point; the way the enchantment works is by channeling the interdimensional matrix of mana and intertwining it with the temporal flow of events by…"
As Twilight starts babbling about all the nitty-gritty details of the spell, I kinda lose track of what she's saying, which is no surprise. Granted, this time, I actually recognize a buncha fancy sciency words from Daring Do, so I actually sort of get the general gist of it sometimes. …Yeesh, I pray to Celestia this isn't a sign Twilight's successfully converting me over to The Egghead Side.
"…and because utilizing the spell's effects properly requires good reflexes, thanks to the one-second limit, I thought my first test subject should be you, Rainbow!" Twi declares, pointing at me.
"Buh?"
"Mm-hmm," Twilight nods, as if I'd just said something clever and interesting, and continues, "You don't have to, of course, but it could help a lot in my research! Plus, who knows? It could prove useful to you! So will you help me? Please?" She does that thing where her eyes look like they get way bigger, and she grins wider than Pinkie Pie, and she kinda forgets that personal space is a thing.
"Uhhh… yeah, sure. Why not?"
Twi doesn't even wait for me to finish the sentence before she starts charging a spell. Flashes of weird blue and purple cloudy stuff circle her horn, occasionally making fancy patterns for just a moment before going back to a shapeless mass. About ten seconds after she started, she zaps me.
I feel a strange prickliness that spreads out from my chest. Once it reaches every last inch of my body, it peaks, then stops entirely.
"So? So? So? So?" Twilight asks. I notice Spike behind her, holding on to her tail to try and keep her frenzied hopping from colliding with my face. Thanks, Spike, for helping me not get a concussion. Twilight goes, "How-does-it-feel-what-is-it-like-can-you-reverse-time-canyoucanyoucanyoucanyouDOITRIGHTNOW!"
"Whoa whoa whoa, Twilight, slow down!" I say, backing away half a step.
Twilight seems to snap to her senses a little. "Sorry," she says sheepishly. "I may have gotten just a little… overexcited. But anyway, how do you feel?"
I think about it. The prickly feeling has passed already, but… "I still feel a little… weird. Dunno how to describe it. Tingly, I guess?"
"Interesting," Twi says, scribbling something on a clipboard that she just poofed out of nowhere with her magic. "And can you try to activate the time-reversal effect?"
"Lemme see." Well, here goes nothing… wait, how do I do this? Uhh… magic, go? Time, go back? Hocus pocus? Second Chance? Do the thing? …Eh, whatever. I give up. "Doesn't seem to be working, sorry," I say, shrugging.
Twilight's shoulders sag, and her ears droop. She sighs. "Oh well. It… it was a pretty complicated spell, even for me. I suppose I can't expect to get it right the first time."
"Hey, don't be that way," I say, putting a hoof on her shoulder. "Maybe I just can't get it to work right. All this fancy unicorn magic stuff isn't exactly my thing, you know."
"Well, let's hope that's it." Twilight looks a bit less down-in-the-dumps now. "For the record, the enchantment's supposed to last for exactly sixty hours, if it's performed correctly. If you get it to work, you'll come tell me straight away, right?"
"Of course." I spread my wings and bend my knees, preparing to take off. "Well, if there's nothing else, then I'm off to do some practice flying. Wonderbolts tryouts are only a few months away, and I gotta be at my best for them!"
"Alright," Twilight says. "Good luck!"
"Good luck, Rainbow!" Spike says, waving as I take off and fly through the window into the clear blue sky.