Twilight stormed across the crystal cobblestones, ignoring the ponies that scrambled out of her way. “I’m tired of it. I’m sick and tired of dealing with that pony’s neurosis. I mean really,” she said, wheeling on a bemused Rarity. “What the hay was I supposed to do? I told her she didn’t want to hear it. I told her it wasn’t even true, but she still made me say it!”
“You’re being a bit unkind, don’t you think, darling?” Rarity asked, her tone soothing.
“No,” Twilight growled stubbornly. “We fight practically every time we run into one another. It’s not unkind to say that she should be doing her part running this camp. Instead she’s hiding in her room out of a stupid misplaced sense of guilt for something that obviously wasn’t even her fault in the first place. I shouldn’t have to tiptoe around the neurosis of the only other pony in camp who should be able to actually lead.”
Troubled by Twilight’s words, Rarity frowned. “Twilight, that’s what friends do, they’re willing to look past your foibles and set free the better pony buried beneath.”
“Wow, Rarity that was pretty sappy,” Twilight snarked.
“Hmph, case in point,” Rarity said, flipping her hair. “I am going to look past that uncouth remark and continuing telling you the things you need to hear.
Rarity pulled Twilight to a stop in the shade of an awning out of the way of the main thoroughfare. “Seriously, Twilight.” “You and Princess Luna are very much alike. The difference is you have us and she only has you. You’re not used to being the sane and stable friend.”
“Come on. I’m not that hard to deal with,” Twilight protested.
Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Smartypants Incident. Remember that one?”
“Alright, point taken,” Twilight admitted, wincing.
“No, actually, I don’t think you have quite taken the point.” Rarity glared at Twilight. “Ever since we got here you’ve been ordering us all around. You have Applejack and Rainbow Dash training with the military from sun up to sundown. You’ve been treating me like some kind of secretary. You have Spike off on some secret errand. And you sent Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy of all ponies on a dangerous mission surrounded by ghastly dragons and beastly griffons. None of us have seen our families or homes in six months because of you.” Rarity’s voice was tightly controlled as she spoke, but her anger bled through and having it pointed at her made Twilight feel very small indeed.
“I, I–” Twilight began, scrambling for some kind of apology. Rarity held up a hoof.
“No, let me finish. You’ve done all that and you know what? We’re your friends anyway. All of us trust that you wouldn’t ask this of us without a good reason. Because that’s what friends do.” Rarity stepped forward and slung a leg across Twilight’s shoulders. “You said Princess Luna had been alone for 1000 years. I would guess the poor dear could really use somepony willing to trust her like that. Be firm with her when she needs it, by all means, but remember to be kind to her as well.”
Twilight still looked a little shell shocked, but after Rarity had stopped attacking and actually made her point the panicky feeling began to die down. She took a deep breath in and brought her hoof up to her chest. Breathing out, she slowly gestured out, imaging pushing all the stress away. After a few repetitions she felt centered enough to actually consider what Rarity had said with a clear mind.
The other pony was right, she realized, at least to a certain extent. Having Applejack and Rainbow Dash train with the soldiers had been a common sense way to keep them busy, and Applejack had appreciated the opportunity to follow in her parents’ hoofsteps. Rarity was well suited to helping out in administration, though Twilight could stand to treat her more like a friend and less like an employee. But no matter how Twilight thought it though she couldn’t explain away sending Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie out of camp. Even if Pinkie was, well, Pinkie, with all the strange abilities that entailed, Fluttershy certainly shouldn’t have been put in that much danger.
Luna was a thornier matter. Still, Twilight cast her mind back to the isolation she had endured before leaving Canterlot the first time, when she had not even understood how lonely she was. She tried to multiply that pain across a thousand years of loneliness and found that she couldn’t. Even with her prodigious mental abilities that span of time defied imagination, and emotions were notoriously difficult to multiply in any case. However, she didn’t have to be able to calculate pain to the nth degree to understand and appreciate the root cause of another pony’s pain.
Looking up, Twilight offered a feeble smile to Rarity’s firm but sympathetic gaze. “Thanks, Rarity. I needed somepony to talk some sense into me. I won’t send Fluttershy or Pinkie outside the camp again. And I’ll try and be more understanding of Luna.”
“I’m just repeating what you told me when you sent Spike off. ‘A little diplomacy goes a long way’ wasn’t that it, dear? Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a few minor tasks that require my attention.” Rarity stepped back and turned to go. “You go have fun playing with your heroic rescuer,” she teased, trotting off into the crowds.
“And I’ll try to be nicer to you too!” Twilight called after the departing pony, receiving an elegant wave in return. With one last deep breath she hauled herself to her feet and headed toward her appointment with the captain.
***
It turned out that training grounds and soldiers hadn’t changed that much in the 1000 years since the disappearance of the crystal empire; possibly because there just wasn’t that much to change. The training ground was a wide open space with sections of sand, dirt, and grass to let soldiers practice working on different types of terrain. They had set up training dummies, and racks of weapons and armor surrounded the space.
Twilight walked across the grass and over to the dirt where the captain waited. Something of Twilight’s inner turmoil must have showed on her face because Shining Armor asked what was amiss as soon as she was within earshot.
“Nothing. Or not nothing, but it’s a personal issue rather than something to do with the camp.” Twilight shook her head. “However, I could really use a good distraction right now and I can’t think of anything better than learning a new spell. So let’s get started.”
Shining Armor blinked, surprised at her hurry, but he caught his bearings quickly and led her over to a line of training dummies in a variety of colors perched at the edge of the dirt. “Ordinarily,” he began with a clearly well-rehearsed speech, “I would spend two to three days working through magical theory, or having one of our spell casters do it, before I allowed you to actually try the spell. Many of the unicorns under my command slept through basic theory and desperately need the refresher. I think we can get away with skipping that for the Archmage,” he added, winking.
“I think I’m up to date on the latest magical theory,” Twilight acknowledged.
“Good. Unfortunately, I can’t skip this next warning.” He cleared his throat and looked seriously at her. “This is not an easy spell. If you are unable to use this spell it is not a reflection on your character. Many upstanding, even heroic ponies have been unable to cast it. The princess herself has told me she is unable to cast this spell, though naturally she has other options available to her. Try not to take it personally if the magic just doesn’t come.”
Twilight blinked. Her library of spells was vast and there were very few that would have warranted a similar warning. Generally speaking, magic was agnostic as to the ethics of the caster. There were certain exceptions, complicated dark or light magic for instance, but a shield spell should not have fallen into that category.
Aloud she said, “Well, now you’ve piqued my curiosity. I’ll try to not get upset if I can’t get it working. Seriously, though, magic is kind of my thing.” She nodded to her cutie mark. “I can count the number of pieces of magic I’ve failed at on my hooves.”
“Of course, Archmage. Why don’t I just explain the spell? It should become clear why the warning is necessary.”
Nodding, Twilight gestured for him to continue.
“I’ll described the function first so you can practice that with free magic. Then we’ll go over the spell technique.” He cleared his throat and focused his attention. A purple aura colored his horn, slightly lighter in color than the beam that shot up and spread into a pink bubble that surrounded the two of them. “The bubble is an all-purpose shield; it can block physical, magical, and thermal attacks, and pretty much anything else you’ll encounter as well. It’s also fast. As you might have noticed the entire process of reaching for my magic and casting the spell took less than a second, and it’s even faster if you’re already holding on to your magic.”
Twilight held up a hoof to stem the flow of information. “That sounds too good to be true. There’s a drawback isn’t there?” Shining Armor opened his mouth to answer but Twilight beat him to it. “No wait, I’d rather figure it out on my own. Give me a second to examine it.” Smiling at her interest, Shining Armor nodded and stepped back to give her room to work. Reaching for her magic Twilight powered up her favorite diagnostic spells, sending them running through the shield to allow her to pick apart the components of the magic.
Peering into the pink bubble that surrounded them, Twilight's analysis spells suggested that Shining Armor had been correct. The shield was comprised of tightly woven threads of magic designed to resist just about everything. With enough time she might have been able to pick the shield apart, but each thread was itself coated in magic, providing both the shielding against magical attacks and rendering the shield inaccessible to anypony other than the caster. Ordinarily a shield of this complexity would require time to put together, but she had seen how fast Shining Armor had cast the spell.
Looking closer she realized the catch. Casting the magic as a spell provided the structure needed to snap the spell into place in a single instant. On the other hand, casting the spell via free magic would require layering resistance to each type of attack and holding the incomplete structure in her mind while working on the next layer.
Looking up, Twilight grinned. “It’s expensive isn’t it? Trying to cast this spell with free magic would exhaust almost any unicorn and the spell must have some highly specialized requirements so, despite how useful the shield is, if you can’t cast it as a spell rather than free magic it’s almost useless.”
“That’s right. I’m impressed you figured that out so fast,” Shining Armor congratulated as he pushed off the bubble and walked back over to her. “I got my cutie mark when I invented this spell and first cast it with free magic.”
“Wow, you must be a pretty powerful unicorn to have cast this with free magic as a colt.”
“It runs in the family,” he said shortly and Twilight was taken aback at his harsh tone. Before she could respond he rubbed his face and shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken to you that way. Family and magic can be something of a sore subject for me.”
“I suppose I can understand that,” Twilight agreed.
“Anyway,” he said, forcefully pushing off the uncomfortable moment so they could continue with the lesson. “The first time I cast the shield was still half spell just by reflex. Since you actually have the power for it, I want you to perfect the shield with free magic before I explain how the spell works. That way even if you can’t get the spell to work you’ll have the more expensive form of the shield for emergencies.”
When Twilight agreed he let the bubble fall and had her begin work. Over the next hour he coached her through putting the pieces of the spell together correctly, building the shield in such a way that the component layers had constructive rather than destructive interference.
After his explanation was finished it still took about half an hour before the first thin pale pink bubble shield phased into existence. Over the next half hour, as Twilight ironed the kinks out of her understanding of the way the shield’s layers fit together, the bubble grew darker and more solid. Finally, when she could hold it for a minute with Shining Armor leaning his full weight on against the bubble he proclaimed her ready for the next step.
The next level involved the training dummies. Given a spark of magic each dummy was capable of swinging a padded arm forward and hitting a target with a different type of force, white dummies for physical force, red for thermal, yellow for electricity, and so on. To confirm that she had properly woven together each aspect of the spell, Shining Armor had her stand in front of each dummy in turn and wait to raise the shield until she saw the arm moving forward.
The next hour seriously bruised Twilight’s pride, and plot, as she was repeatedly dumped on her rear by the dummies. It didn’t help that every time she fell Shining Armor was there with an infuriatingly encouraging smile to help her back up and tell her to try again. Before long, the only thing that let her stand back up was the urge to wipe that smile off his face. Oh sure, it seemed sincere, but Twilight could just tell that he was laughing at her on the inside.
If she had actually been casting the shield with free magic each time, she would have long since collapsed from magic depletion. Instead, she used a trick Princess Celestia had taught her when they were focusing on free magic. It allowed her to reabsorb the magical strength spent on free magic so long as it hadn’t been expended or dispelled. That restriction made it relatively useless in combat since any attack and most defensive spells had to be expended to be any use, but it was perfect for learning a new and costly shield spell.
And learning she was. Twilight slowly became more familiar with the magic and the proper combination of the layers and appropriate power levels became etched in her memory. Twilight graduated from the kinetic dummy first and slowly worked her way across the other types. Lastly, Shining Armor tested her with the final dummy, which could disperse any type of force its operator selected.
When her shield held for ten blows against attacks without knowing ahead of time what type the attack was, he popped up from his position at the dummies controls and grinned at her. “That should do it. Nice job! I don’t think anypony’s picked it up in less than a week before. Though I guess I should expect that from the Archmage, eh?” he nudged her teasingly in the ribs.
Magical conservation technique or no, Twilight was still feeling pretty ragged both mentally from the magic and physically from being whacked by the dummies so many times. As such, she barely had the energy to swat Shining Armor, but after that workout it seemed essential so swat she did, though she sank to ground immediately afterward.
Shining Armor, soldier that he was, dodged easily and trotted off to the water barrel, returning with a full dipper. Twilight snatched it in her hooves and guzzled the cold liquid down greedily. Rain water had never tasted so sweet and as it washed the dust from her throat she felt some measure of strength returning. After sending him back for a second and third dipperful, Twilight began to feel somewhat equine again. Having drunk her fill, Twilight fought her way back to her feet.
“Alright, I’m ready,” she said, determination warring with weariness, “bring on the next step.”
Shining Armor ran a considering eye over her and Twilight firmed her wobbly knees and did her best to look ready. It must have been enough for he resumed his lecture. “You’ll be relieved to learn that the spell isn’t physically or magically difficult. It just requires a specific state of mind. The spell is dependent on your desire to protect. You have to want to protect whatever you are casting the shield around, want to throw yourself in the way of any harm. You must be willing to endure whatever pain or injury is necessary to keep the subject of the shield safe. The more fervent your desire to protect the faster the shield goes up and the stronger it is.”
Nodding slowly, Twilight considered his words. It was common for a spell to involve a certain mindset. One of the traditional forms of the telekinesis spell involved imagining a limb like a griffon’s talon or a dragon’s claw to grasp and move the objects around. An impulse to protect made sense for a shield spell.
“So I just have to want to protect something to use the shield as a spell?” Twilight asked.
He shook his head. “Not quite. Self-sacrifice is a key component of the spell. You have to not only want to protect somepony, but protect them with your own self.”
“The level of dedication necessary to pull that off must be why the spell is rarely used.” Twilight hummed thoughtfully. “Wait, if self-sacrifice is a requirement of the spell then how is it you can cast the spell around yourself?”
“There’s a bit of a trick to that. You need to disassociate your mind from your body.” Seeing her horrified expression, he quickly continued. “Not literally. You just need to imagine your mind taking the hit for your body. I’ve found it helps to think about it the same way as when you go to sleep.”
“Why?” Twilight asked, before answering her own question. “Oh I see. Because sleep is essentially putting the mind and its goals on hold to make sure the body is in good shape.”
“Right. So, what do you think? Ready to try it out?”
Twilight stepped back and reached for her magic. She closed her eyes, letting the familiar power flow through her, then concentrated as she had been instructed. Visualizing her mind protecting her body she tried to push the magic through that image and into the form she had practiced earlier. For a moment it appeared that the spell would resolve. Then she felt the curious sensation of her mind diving behind her body for cover. At her minds unwillingness to put the body before itself, the spell dissolved.
After three more attempts and three more failures, Twilight opened her eyes with a huff. “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to cast it on myself. My body just isn’t as important to me as my mind. I mean, look.” She gestured to her missing eye. “I lost my eye and at the time I was just relieved that my mind was still working properly and I could still read.”
“It might not work,” Shining Armor acknowledged. “Several of the ponies I have tried to teach this to have had similar restrictions on how they could use the spell. Unfortunately, in your case the most important use of the shield is to protect yourself. Give it a few more tries. If you can pull it off once the necessary mental state might click.”
Closing her eyes once more, Twilight tried to will her mind into the proper state to use the spell. She had succeeded with other similar spells, learned how to inhabit the absent state of mind necessary for teleportation or nostalgia for memory restoration.
Unfortunately, this particular configuration was so alien to her usual way of thinking that she just couldn’t seem to reach it, like a contortionist stretching for a position they’d never used before that relied on muscles they’d never trained. After another few tries Twilight opened her eyes and let her head slump in defeat.
“No good, eh?” Shining Armor rubbed the back of his head. “There is one more thing we could try. I’m not a huge fan of this method, but it has seen some success in the past.”
“I’ll try it,” Twilight said forcefully. “There’s no way I’m letting this spell beat me without trying every conceivable course of action. And if I have to invent a way around this I will because there’s no way the Archmage should be stumped by a stupid shield spell.”
Shining clonked her lightly on the head. “What did I say about taking the spell personally? You of all ponies should know you can’t just force magic to cooperate.”
Glaring, Twilight bit back a sharp retort. First Rarity and now Shining Armor, she was getting tired of being told that she was wrong today. Still, Twilight had to admit that he was right, trying to invent a way around a spell’s restrictions was asking for trouble. That kind of change would require long and careful research mapping each individual thread of the shield to produce a new optimized spell. She simply didn’t have time for that.
“So what is this alternate method?” she asked.
Looking slightly sheepish Shining Armor replied, “some ponies can only pull off the spell when they’re actually in danger. The dummies won’t work since you’ve been hit by them so many times today already.” Twilight growled at that and Shining Armor chuckled slightly. “Instead, I’ll shoot a spell at you, something small like a weak electric charge, and you try to block it.”
“Hmm. That sounds like a good idea to me. Let’s try it.” Twilight trotted a few paces away and turned back to face Shining Armor. “Alright, I’m ready. Shoot a slow one so I have time to get the spell together.”
“Can’t,” he called down to her. “If this is going to work you have to raise the shield by instinct. Giving you time to think it through would make this worthless.”
Twilight gulped. She had been planning to dive out of the way if her shield failed, but at the speed regular spells traveled she wouldn’t have the time. However, she wasn’t going to back out now. “Fine. Full speed it is. Let me know when you’re going to fire.”
“I’ll count it down.” Shining Armor planted his hooves solidly into the dirt of the practice field. He drew in a deep breath and the lavender glow of his magic sprung into being around his horn. “Ready…Three…Two…One…Fire!”
Twilight reacted instantly, reaching for her magic and trying desperately to force it into the spell. Even as she did so she could feel a wrench from somewhere below her stomach and knew that the spell hadn’t gone right. Flinching, she prepared for the blow thinking, this is going to hurt.
A shadow fell over her and a dragon dropped from the sky. Leathery purple wings slammed down in front of her and the Shining Armor’s spell splashed harmlessly off of them.
“No!” Spike roared at the captain and a great gout of flame washed towards him.
Just before the flames reached him his purple shield sprang into being. Powerful as the shield was, it couldn’t completely protect from dragon fire. The shield itself held but Shining Armor was sent tumbling end over end, still inside the bubble. With the reflexes of a soldier he turned the tumble into a roll and shot back to his feet.
“Get away from her!” he shouted. His horn glowed more brightly and a powerful lance of crimson energy formed at the tip. “Twilight duck!” The bolt crackled and split the air as it shot toward Spike. In an instant, Twilight realized that Captain Shining Armor had spent six month preparing to fight dragons and he wouldn’t have used the spell if it wasn’t effective.
With no time to think further Twilight dove between Spike’s wings, coming up between him and the fast approaching bolt. She reared back, brought up her hooves, and poured her magic into the first spell that came to mind, the shield spell she’d spent all day practicing.
An inch before the wide crimson bolt would have hit them both, a purple bubble expanded into being. The bolt impacted on the shield which rang like a gong at the blow. Thunder rumbled in clearing. On and on it went as inch by inch the bolt was broken on the shield. Gritting her teeth, Twilight poured her magic into the shield, trying desperately to keep it up under the terrible pressure of Captain Shining Armor’s dragon-slaying spell.
Difficult though it was, Twilight persevered and at last the final inch of the spell faded as the red light vanished from the training ground. Dripping with sweat Twilight fell forward onto the ground, panting for breath. Spike knelt down beside her, torn between checking up on her and taking down Shining Armor.
Taking advantage of Spike’s proximity, Twilight managed to ground out a few words. “Not…attack...magic…lesson.” Hopefully that would be enough to explain the situation to Spike. It wouldn’t be the first time she had done something extreme in pursuit of magical knowledge, though admittedly being attacked by a member of the royal guard was a first for her.
Spike stayed where he was, which Twilight considered an improvement over charging Shining Armor. Dragon and captain eyed one another warily, each shooting glances to where Twilight was recovering on the ground
Twilight could tell that anything might set them back to fighting and that simply wouldn’t do, so she hauled herself back to her feet for what felt like the millionth time that day. She made her way in between the two and sat back on her haunches, holding up a hoof to both of them.
Catching her breath, she tried to clarify the situation. “Spike, this is Captain Shining Armor. He was firing a low power spell at me to help me learn a shield spell. The shield spell I just used to block the stronger spell he launched at you, in fact, so thanks for helping me get that. Captain Shining Armor, this is Spike, my little brother.”
“Little brother?” Shining Armor’s eyes narrowed and for a moment it looked as if he was going to launch another attack. Catching her glare, he realized just how bad an idea that would have been. “Ah, right. I remember that you had a baby dragon following you around before. He looks pretty different now.”
Spike chuckled at that, a low rumble like gravel shifting. He did indeed look different. The baby fat he’d still had when they’d come north had disappeared. He was tall now, as tall as the princess and more strongly built. His wingspan was as wide as he was tall and the wings had cruel bat-like claws at the ends. “I’m not quite a baby anymore,” Spike said, his voice deeper, if not so deep as a full grown dragon. “But I guess I owe you an apology. I thought you were attacking Twilight and just reacted. Sorry about that.”
“No, the fault was mine,” Shining Armor acknowledged, “I thought that you were from the dragon camp here to assassinate the Archmage. Truce?” Shining Armor stepped forward and offered his hoof to Spike.
“Truce.” Spike bumped the offered hoof with his own claw. “Can’t stay mad at anypony willing to take on a dragon solo for my sister. That was quite a spell.”
“Well I am the captain of the royal guard after all. If I couldn’t find a spell that’s effective on dragons after six months in the field, then we’d have a serious problem.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Spike said, folding his wings up behind his back. “Good thing Twilight blocked it.” His eyes widened as he realized he’d been neglecting her. “Twilight!”
The two of them spun and hurried to where she was still seated in the dirt, panting heavily. As they approached she waved them off. “No, no, I’m fine, really. Go back to your male bonding.”
Spike looked properly chagrined. “Sorry Twilight,” he said, as Shining Armor went for another cup of water.
“It’s alright, I really am ok,” she insisted. Accepting the cup from Shining Armor she drank deeply, slowly starting to cool down from the unexpected exertion. “And hey, I pulled off the spell.”
“Not just pulled it off,” Shining Armor corrected. “You knocked it out of the park. My attack was specifically designed to overcome a dragon’s inherent magic resistance. I’m not sure even I could have held the shield against that level of magic penetration.”
“One of the perks of being me,” Twilight said in between sips, “is that if all else fails I can just pour a metric ton of magic into a spell and hope for the best.
“Now that you know the state of mind needed to use the spell, do you think you’ll be able to cast the shield on yourself?” Shining Armor asked.
“I think so,” Twilight said slowly. “I’ll give it a try once I’ve recovered a bit more.”
Spike cut in, “is there something special about that shield?”
“To use it you have to be willing to throw yourself in harm’s way for the other pony. Or dragon, in this case,” Shining Armor answered. “She couldn’t make it work to protect herself, but, as was just demonstrated rather dramatically, she could protect you.”
Despite his increased size, Spike could still tear up with the best of them. He draped one wing around Twilight and hugged her close. “Twilight,” he said, voice rough, “let me take the hits, okay? I- I’m touched that you would do that but please, I’m a dragon, I can take it. Let me protect you.”
Twilight leaned in to the hug. “I appreciate it Spike, I really do. But no matter how big you get, you’re still my little brother and I’m not going let you get hurt for me. That’s just the way it is.”
“Ahem,” Shining Armor coughed, worried about intruding, but determined to speak. “I have to agree with Spike on this one. I can’t- none of us here on this trip can afford to lose you. So if Spike is willing to protect you, I vote you let him.”
Spike met Shining Armor’s eyes and an understanding passed between them. He nodded slowly and the Captain nodded back.
“Well,” said Twilight in tones that clearly indicated she knew she wouldn’t be listened to on this matter. “Let’s first see how well I can protect myself. I’m going to try casting the shield on just myself now.” She straightened and moved away from both Spike and Shining Armor.
Closing her eyes, she cast her mind back to the moment she had seen the red bolt shooting toward Spike. She conjured up the way she had felt then, the desperate need to save her little brother. Looking at that emotion with the benefit of hindsight she had a better sense of what Shining Armor had meant. There was, by the nature of the spell, a certain requirement to act without thinking that she would never have been able to replicate had the previous unique situation not occurred. However, since she had cast the spell once she found it possible to slip back into that fervently protective mindset.
Within her mind she placed her own self-image where the Spike of her recollection stood. With that picture held firmly in her mind she tried once more to push her way through the spell.
“Uh, Twilight?”
“Not now, Spike, I’m concentrating,” she said, not opening her eye.
“Yeah but listen,” he said. There was a knocking sound, like claws on stone. Twilight opened her eye to find Spike grinning at her, rapping on a purple bubble. “I think you pulled it off.”
Shining Armor kicked the air. “Alright! Way to go Twi— Archmage.”
Grinning, Twilight lowered and raised the shield, letting the process grow more familiar with repetition. “Time?” she called out.
“Uh, four thirty?” Shining Armor answered, confused.
Spike laughed. “No, when she decides to learn a new piece of magic she usually has me time her and then she tracks how long spells of various difficulties take her to learn.”
“I’ll just have to approximate,” she said cheerfully. “We started at one so that took about three and a half hours. That’s longer than usual so I guess your shield spell must be pretty tricky.”
“You can learn most spells in less than four hours?” Shining Armor asked, obviously disbelieving.
“How long does it take you to learn new military maneuvers?” she responded pointedly.
He shrugged. “Fair enough.”
“Besides,” Twilight continued, “I need to practice more to confirm that I’ve constructed the shield properly and that it will hold when I need it to.”
“I think we should leave that for some other time. After all, you were panting on the ground from magical exhaustion mere minutes ago.”
“I won’t always have the luxury of being fully rested when I use this spell, will I?” She turned to Spike who had been trying to slip away. “Oh and don’t you go anywhere Spike. I want to test this against dragonfire too. We’ll discuss your mission after dinner.”
Spike sighed but nodded. “Let’s get to it then. I’m starving and the faster this is over the sooner I can eat.”
Shining Armor glanced over at him. “This can’t take that long. She was just exhausted, how much energy could she have left?”
Catching the manic glint in Twilight's eye, Spike winced. “You’re going to regret saying that,” he muttered.