This was not what Astral had been expecting.
When Twilight told her she would be running some experiments, she had imagined beakers and explosions. Instead, she was sitting on a cold metal table while machines around her measured her vitals, magic and other, more complicated things to name.
"Well, you weren't wrong about the increase in magic. It's spiked by a good twenty percent," Twilight was looking at a graph which showed her magic greatly increasing. Astral resisted the urge to roll her eyes. They had already gone over this in great detail, and she didn't want a repeat.
"So, are we done here, or?" Astral glared as Twilight blushed. Finally allowed to get down from the table, Astral landed and shook out her hind legs, which had fallen asleep.
"Alright, here's all the notes I took down. Hopefully you can give them to me in the next loop. Anything else you want to discuss before you head out?"
Astral hesitated a moment, before saying "actually, yeah. I was checking out the memory spellbook you gave me, and I'm not exactly sure how to do the Memory Sharpening Spell?" The book was full of interesting spells, though the amnesia spell in particular had caught her eye. Erasing someponies memories was a strange spell to have in a book.
She watched with no small amount of horror as her mom levitated out a blackboard.
"First, you are going to have to understand how the memory works, and to do that we're going to have to delve into the pony brain . . ."
Gods help me.
"Morning Astral Plane," Starlight greeted, as she shoved a plate of pancakes over to the filly. Astral's eyes lit up at the golden , fluffy discs.
"Thanks mom!" She chirped, digging in. The sounds of hoofsteps alerted the two to a new addition, and Rarity appeared, smiling triumphantly as she held up a little blue box, which she gave over to Astral. The sound of the lid being opened and the rush of hooves was the only warning Rarity got before being glomped.
"Oh thank you!" Astral held the scarf in her magic. It was so fluffy and soft, and was made with that blue sparkly wool that Astral loved so much.
"Oh really it was nothing. If anything, I should thank you for giving me this- this bolt of inspiration! I already have an entire clothes line in mind thanks to you." Rarity looked behind her at the clock on the wall, and sighed. "Well, I must be going. Jackie gets annoyed if I try to get out of the daily chores. Ta-ta!"
Twilight gave Rarity a nod as the two crossed paths, before the alicorn focused on her daughter, levitating what looked like a glass ball with electricity in it. "Astral, I've gone over what you've told us, and I have an idea. I put some of my magic into a ball. If you have this with you when you loop, and the magic in the ball increases, then we know how-" she visibly hesitated for a moment, before pushing on "we know how Jam and Butterscotch died. The magic overloaded their bodies, and they-um- evaporated."
There was silence as everypony processed this. Astral blinked rapidly, trying to get rid of the tears and the memories threatening the edge of her vision, and tried to think rationally. If this was how Jam and Butterscotch died, why didn't she die too? Did it have something to do with her increase in magic?
"So, do you want to go to school?" Twilight asked, and Astral shook her head furiously.
"No. Noooo. Nope, not happening."
"Alright sweetie," Starlight hid a smile at her daughters childish response. It was good she hadn't completely lost that overdramaticness that came with being a child.
Thursday rolled around, and Astral was waiting on the bed, hugging the glass ball and notes close,her new scarf on her shoulders, when both her moms came in to give her a hug.
"Remember sweetie, even if we don't completely understand, you can always talk to us" Twilight said. Starlight didn't say anything, instead just burying her head into her daughters shoulder. Astral felt tears slid down her fur, and more pricked at her eyes. It was strange, to grieve for two ponies she would see the very next day, but here she was.
She glanced at the clock. 11:56. "You need to get out of here," she told them. Bad enough she had watched her best friends die, she didn't need to see her parents die too. The two nodded, and headed to their rooms, eyes red from crying, and Astral switched between watching the clock and watching the ball.
11:59
00:00
Instantly, the glass orb, which had been cool to the touch, became unbearably hot. Astral let out a small scream, but didn't let it go. The orb glowed brightly, and exploded outwards, slicing Astral's hooves open and sending glass across the room. The sheer magical force sent Astral onto her back, where she lay to try and regain her breathe.
After a couple of seconds, she hesitantly sat up, and looked around. Her notes were still locked firmly in her telekinesis, and her scarf was still on her shoulders, but the glass ball was completely gone, leaving only glass shards behind. Astral winced as she inspected her hooves. The wounds were not deep, thankfully, and she knew were the first aid kit was.
After bandaging up the soles of her front hooves, she went off to find her mom, wincing slightly from the dull ache of her cuts. "Read this," she handed the note to Twilight, and waited for her to process what was happening.
So, what now?