//------------------------------// // 12 - Taking The Reins // Story: Soft Reset - A Novice Chronomancer's Guide to Tempomancy // by Foxvolt //------------------------------// TAKING THE REINS Twilight Sanctuary. Eclipse. Recursion. Sound Barrier. Major runes: Kroe (Recursive) - Kroe - Oso/Mité (Major) - Ri/Flow (Modified) - Lunaris Energy required, nearly 5 Vis. Casting time ranging from three to five hours depending on mana output capacity. The premises for a magical sensory deprivation containment chamber, invented nearly 1200 years ago and deemed even then to be too cruel for public use. The perception of time for a creature within is skewed by Twilight Sanctuary, their view of the outside world obfuscated into a perpetual vision of dusk-like colors. Eclipse forms a rounded barrier of night, absorbing all light and reflecting none, allowing nopony sight in or out. Recursion substantiates the magical nullification field, mana expended within generates a painful feedback loop in the caster until their wellspring destroys itself; The more mana used, the more severe the backlash. The Sound Barrier is but a personal touch, so any detainee cannot utilize their proximity to our station to eavesdrop. In addition, silence over an indeterminable amount of time results in frequent paranoid delusions. I stand alone amid the ruins of my painstakingly-woven wards and barriers, soaking in a dim moonlight whilst I study the ground for clues as to how they all could have possibly been overcome so easily. Several lesser machinations of the spells were well beyond the spellcraft of any unicorn alive in this age, insurmountable via teleportation, scrying, or enchantment. "Why do you persist so, my shooting star...?" I mutter, eyes tracing dead and singed patches of grass, destroyed by my distorted spells and pressed into the earth by the riveted detainment plates, long since hauled away. I glance to my left where Star Swirl's portal once hovered for a brief moment and I feel my chest flutter, my teeth grind, and the space behind my eyes ache. I close them quickly and rub my pastern against each in turn, hoping to find some relief from the conflicting feelings rising inside me. In my unorganized thoughts I let my gaze fall to the ground beneath me, the spot where Twilight fell and took what could have been her last breath. The innocent, deluded fool. She is no student of ours, alas we do owe her a great debt that has yet to be repaid. Sister favors her as a daughter, though such a one-sided reverence from the mare raises great concern for the eventuality of her ascension to Archemage. If sister’s visions are correct, which I have never known them not to be, a scant few years are all that separate her from wielding power nearly matched to ours. I trust in Twilight, I believe in her good nature, but if misguided by blind ambition and spite-fueled agendas… “Ignorant FOAL!” I yell into the empty clearing, hanging my head low. The edge of my mouth is twitching and I need to squeeze my eyes shut to keep the traitorous tears at bay. He deserves no sympathy, he’s fallen perhaps even further than I in pursuit of nothing less than treason. He will find no leniency in my judgement; If he assumed otherwise, our last encounter made it perfectly clear. Should he reappear, I shall rend him asunder without hesitation nor mercy. I cast my eyes to the sky, the tears and mourning already becoming a distant memory in the face of my bold proclamation. As a princess to the throne of Equestria, I shall perform my duties to excellence. Only when Equestria is safe shall I mourn. I spot a tiny spec half a mile up, then shoot a thin streak of azure light into the air. It breaks into a starburst just above the canopies of the surrounding trees before Quiet Skies descends to me at breakwing speeds. Within moments he lands on the ground beside me. Acceptable swiftness on his behalf. “Nightmother?” He asks, bowing his head in expectation of his orders. “You are to relieve Spark and Venom from Twilight’s detachment at dawn, when she wakes escort her to her home in Canterlot via my chariot and await further instructions. I shall inform her family of her impending arrival. She is not to leave Canterlot until I send word. In the meantime, I shall interrogate the pegasus. I grow tired of sister’s methods, the time has come for action.” That last quip was more for myself than him, though he seems inspired as he launches into the air, corkscrewing around a cloud towards Ponyville. Within four seconds he’s beyond the broad horizon of trees and clouds. I charge my horn for a long-distance teleport straight back to Canterlot with a grim look of determination. There’s a mare who has answers I will extract, one way or another. Sister doesn't need to know. With a whip-CRACK! I blink out of existence, leaving the field empty and barren once more. - - - - Cyr's Seeing. Pathfind, modified. Sustain. Celestia's Chronomancy. Major runes: Verita - Verita - Elu/Lov(Minor), modified - Verita/Solaris(Major) Princess Celestia sat silent and still amid a multi-layered arcane network of advanced scrying, divination, and custom-crafted spellwork. They lit up the smooth stone floor with an eerie gray glow, bathing the perfectly circular chamber walls and her weathered coat in the magical radiation of the powerful mana currents pulsing through them. If one were to look closely enough, they would be able to see physically manifested clumps of energy as they approached the relay runes interlocking each matrix, before they were dissipated and absorbed into the rune and sent coursing forward to be recycled into the next circle. Her eyes were wide open, a swirling mist of white and gray glossing them over from the inside as the infinite possibilities of the universe were made plain for her to see. Many powerful casters had created fantastic and awe-inspiring magic through the ages, but this was her magnum opus; Chronomancy. The ability to divine the optimal actions at optimal times to result in a specific outcome. In laypony's terms, the art of magically creating artificial luck. While no course of action or outcome is ever assured, a glimpse into the future in just the right place at worst allows her to circumvent disaster, or in the best of circumstances turn a losing hand into a winning one. It was this very magic that had led her to send her student Twilight Sparkle away all those years ago. She hadn't wanted to let go, but it was the way things had to be if she were to truly prosper. Why, then, did she not foresee this? Her own student murdered by a madpony from ages past, his resurfacing in ponyville of all places. Why would he resort to wanton murder now, after all this time? There was something missing. Star Swirl despised her, hated her, even, but even in his maddest delusions he retained his twisted morals. Did he see Twilight as a threat, a foreign agent he couldn't outmaneuver? Perhaps he has indeed gone mad after centuries of doing mother knows what to preserve his mortal form across the ages, perhaps the answer is as simple as his desire to hurt me at any cost. No, that was wishful thinking. There was more to it, much more. There was a goal, an agenda. Until she knew exactly how to act to finally rid this nation of the genius gone renegade, she would not leave this room. Sustain would preserve her appearances and satiate her physical necessities for as long as she maintained concentration on the network of matrices. Sleep, food, and comfort were no longer factors. At the rate she replenished her mana, even a spell network of this magnitude could be perpetuated for weeks before she would finally succumb to mana deficiency. As she pondered the tribulations the future had in store for her and her kingdom, the rising sound of armored hoof falls came to her ears, her heightened alicorn senses forewarning their approach from nearly two chambers over. She withdrew her consciousness from the spell, though continued to perpetuate the flow of magic to keep the spell ablaze. The haze of the future faded from her eyes, and she shook her ethereal mane back behind her shoulders and prepared to accept the visitor or visitors, sat upright and tall, a polite smile on her face despite the weariness of her mind. There were two loud rasps of metal on wood, and then silence as the ponies reached the door. "You may enter." She called out. As the door opened, though, her eyes widened ever so slightly, her mouth curling into the faintest smile. Stood in the doorway was a very worried-looking unicorn flanked by two Royal Guards, who both gave a deep bow before taking posts at either side of the open doorway. This wasn't part of her plan, but it was a welcome deviation. - - - - "I love you too, mom. I'll come back soon, promise!" I reassure her as I give her and dad the biggest hug I can manage. A Lunar Royal Guard is waiting patiently out front with a Day Guard pegasus to take me to the castle. I insisted I was capable of walking, but once again it was on Luna’s orders. "You promise me you'll come see our doctor if those headaches keep bothering you, okay? Mister Marrow does great work, I'm sure he'd be able to prescribe you something so you don't need to keep doing... That." Mom gives me a half-concerned half-stern look. "Honestly, it’s not that bad! Headaches are totally normal when I read too much. I'm sure it'll pass soon," I lie, rubbing a hoof against my other pastern, hoping she doesn't probe any deeper. I've had to cast Aville's twice since I got here this morning to keep the debilitating migraines at bay, and she noticed. Maternal superpowers are next up on my checklist of superpowers of the universe to be unraveled, right below Pinkie sense and modern mail delivery logistics. Because seriously, how do we do that? Dear Princess Celestia, Modern parcel, letter, and postcard delivery systems are largely monopolized by privatized pegasus-owned-and-operated corporations, establishing internal logistical routes in attempts to monopolize delivery services in their respective cities and outposts. Likely due to overwork and ethically questionable shift durations, the expected twice-daily inter-city delivery exchanges have risen to nearly half a dozen in the past decade, leading to unionization seeking reform to- “Twilight, honey?” The voice snaps me back to the present. “Oh! Sorry, I just got a little lost in thought for a second. I should, uh… Probably get going!” I excuse myself before her or dad’s insightful Twilight Vision (patent pending) can see through the stacking fibs. I back up a couple steps and give them a last awkward smile before turning around and following a pegasus guard who had been patiently waiting at the door for me. As I step outside into the late afternoon air, I feel myself tense up just a tiny bit after leaving the safe and comfortable atmosphere of my old house. It’s barely enough to notice, but it’s definitely there, and it’s more than a little unsettling. Maybe I should talk to somepony after all this is over… I don’t have long to sit and think about it though, as once again I’m carried off the street in a royal chariot less than a mile to the castle. Seriously, I can teleport at this range. It occurs to me that the reason I’m being escorted so closely likely isn’t for my convenience, but like with the Lunar Guard at home I’m instead being watched closely. It makes sense if I think about the potential security risk I am from Luna’s perspective, I guess I can’t blame her. Well, not for this at least. I shake the annoyance out of my mind, I’m getting bitter lingering on it. I’ve learned to forgive and forget, and even if it’s hard I’m sure I’ll be able to move past all the questionable decisions and moral scruples the princess has displayed the last week. Or princesses. I never stopped to consider that Princess Celestia could have also been to blame for how things have turned out. Star Swirl said it himself with very colorful language, she was the problem in his mind. I’m sure it’s a hyper-fixation bred from centuries of distrust and anger, but not listening to him properly and giving him a chance is a mistake I already made once. I’m not going to dismiss him again, even if he is a psychotic murderer. Wow, I never thought I’d think that thought in this day and age. A murderer. Somepony who actually took the life of somepony else. I stare at the floor of the chariot for the rest of the short flight, lost in a troubled miasma of thought. - - - - “Welcome back, miss Twilight!” I jump a little, still lost in thought as I follow the pair of earth ponies toward the Princesses’ private wing of the castle. One of the maids waves to me from the open doorway of a guest suite she’s cleaning with a bright smile on her face. She’s got a familiar cutie mark of three sets of white folded sheets with a standing pressing iron, contrasting gently against her light gray coat. “Oh, hey miss Press! Thanks, I guess it’s been a while, huh?” I give a little nervous chuckle, but the guards-ponies leading me don’t slow down to let me acknowledge my old acquaintance. I glance back and forth between the two, but she keeps her understanding smile and shoos me away. “Go on, lil’un, time to talk later. I’ll let Spike know you’re here, he’s been-“ She stops mid sentence, that gentle smile fading as the wrinkles on her face get a bit deeper for just a second before she catches herself. “I’ll… Let him know you’re here. Hurry up, then!” In all the hustle of the last afternoon I’d almost forgotten he was staying in the Castle. After I talk to Luna I’ll have to sneak away from these guards at least long enough to touch bases with him, assuming he won’t come find me in the meantime. Hopefully he’s calmed down a bit. “Miss Sparkle,” One of the guards calls after me as I walk past him. I look back at him and he’s stood in front of Princess Celestia’s private study. “Huh? Oh, sorry, I just kind of assumed we were going to meet with Princess Luna?” The guard shakes his head and motions to the large, ornate birchwood doors. They’re easily twice my height, and the golden inlay trailing along the edges and angles surrounding a large gem replica of the Sun in the center gives it a massively imposing feeling. I’ve been in the Princess’ study once, when I was a filly and she’d wanted to personally test my wellspring capacity in a safer environment. I can’t remember anything about the inside now, but I do remember it was massive. The guard raises an armored hoof and rasps it against the door twice, then waits. “You may enter.” My ears perk up at the sound of the Princess through the doors, and I take a deep breath to calm myself before seeing her. Before I’m ready, the guard presses down on the handle and heaves the massive door on the left wide open, letting the light from the hallway spill into the incredibly dim stone chamber beyond. There’s a light blue glow of what I presume to be mana so potent it’s coalescing. It’s bright enough to illuminate a head or two up the walls before that, too, fades to gray, then black at a point where I can only assume the ceiling is. I just barely fail to hold back a wide grin as I lay my eyes on my mentor, heavily entangled with sophisticated arcane craftwork and balancing what seems to be an interwoven divination or scrying spell no less than three or four layers deep. It’s an astounding piece of spellcraft, and it ignites a fire to rush off to the castle’s private library and dig up a dozen tomes on Divination and Rune-based spell matrix studies just to have an excuse to learn more about what it is she’s doing here. The enthusiasm teeters off quickly when I look at her directly. Her coat is ragged and her eyes are bloodshot. The primaries on her left wing seem like they’re vibrating with some electric build-up, and the rest of her secondaries haven’t been pruned in at least half a week. Her crown and other regalia aren’t on her either, but I see them in a neat pile just to my left beside the door as I take a careful step in. I rub a hoof over the pastern of the other nervously and bow my head a little in an attempt not to stare. “Come now, Twilight, there’s no need for that.” She calls over to me. I raise my head and she’s smiling kindly, albeit with a bit of amusement dancing in her eyes. It eases my mind seeing the luster return to her face, suddenly looking much more like the Princess I remember. I trot carefully across the threshold and into the center of the room with her, being incredibly careful to not disrupt the leylines of her massive project with a stray hoof or tail. I stop just in front of her as she turns to face me, lowering her head and nuzzling the side of my face and my neck affectionately. I happily return the gesture, and let my shoulders slack a bit as I’m convinced things are still normal between us. As we pull away from each other the door to the room closes, and we’re jutted into darkness, illuminated only by the soft blue glow of her magic dancing across the floor. “I was not expecting you, Twilight, though I always welcome your presence. To what do I owe the pleasure?” She seems to relax a bit, offering her wing to me. I approach her and turn to sit beside her, but i suddenly stop and look up at her, puzzled. “You weren’t? I thought I was going to be talking to Princess Luna, but they-“ I glance at the door, and she follow my gaze for a moment before we look back at each other. “-led me here. I’ve, uh, kind of been surrounded by half a battalion of Lunar Guards for the last three days.” There’s a thought flashing through her mind, but sans the ever so slight tilt of her head there’s no expression or other give to it. We look at each thoughtfully for a few seconds, and I finish sitting down beside her while she ponders some unknowably deep thought. She must have held her breath while thinking, because she lets out a long sigh before draping her wing over my back and closing her eyes, having reached some understanding. I enjoy the intimate moment for the time I can, but there’s some important stuff to get to. “Well, whatever the reason, I’m glad to see you again. I was worried you, ah- I mean, I got your letters from Spike, not to imply you wouldn’t be-“ Her wing brushes up and down my back patiently while I try to find the right words. I stop talking and clear my head, trying again from a fresh slate. “What I mean is I know you’re totally fine, or at least that you don’t need me checking in on you, but, you know, what with the burned scrolls, and the-“ I catch myself, cutting away from my rant into an apologetic silence with a sheepish grin up at my mentor. She looks amused if anything, phew. The last thing I need is to accidentally imply she had a freakout and ignited the throne room then locked herself away from everypony for three days. That’d be insulting! She doesn’t say anything for a minute, and we both sit there in silence, the quiet hum of her spell resonating off the smooth stone walls the only sound filling the backdrop. Looking from where I am now, the lines beneath her eyes are much more pronounced, and there are dark bags that would give early-rise Luna a run for her money. “…Princess, are you okay?” I finally push out, my voice cracking a touch at the end. I feel her wing tighten around me a bit after a few seconds, but her expression doesn’t change. Not even one bit, as if she’s got it plastered on like a mask. It doesn’t have the nurturing, caring warmth behind it that it usually has. My chest tightens up, and I feel a dull ache in the back of my throat rising up. I manage to swallow it down, and I gently nudge the wing far enough for me to turn and face her directly. I’m almost scared to ask again, but she’s always been there for me. If anypony in all of Equestria is qualified to be a good friend for her right now, in this very moment, it’s me. “Princess, what’s wrong?” The mask cracks. And from that crack, for the first time in my adult life, I see a tear roll down my mentor’s cheek. I never thought I would see a goddess cry, but the day Princess Luna returned proved it could happen. To see Celestia in any state but her formal, practical best though? This was foreign on another level. The manic hornwriting on the scrolls comes back to me, the charred parchment, the pile of messages. The pile I never responded to. Dammit, now I’m crying too, and right in front of her! Get a hold of yourself, Twilight! She needs your help, not the other way around. “I’m so-“ My voice breaks. I try to say it again, but there’s no sound, just tears and my apologetic intent trying its’ best to find its’ way to her. I manage to gasp a fresh lungful of stale air, and I squeeze my eyes shut in an attempt to force the words out between sniffles and tears. “I- I’m sorry for… Making you worry, P-princess, I…” “no…” The breath I was taking gets stuck in my throat, and I feel my heart wrench up inside my chest. ’no? She won’t accept my apology?’ I whip my head back up to face her again, and the mask is gone. In its’ place is a tired and remorse-ridden mare who looks like she’s hurting more on the inside than I could possibly hope to understand. I open my mouth to say something, but she presses on. “No, Twilight, it is I who should apologize to you. You have always been my faithful student, always found the solutions to my failings when I was unable to protect my ponies. I had hoped to keep you from-“ She suddenly cuts herself off, and the soft hum of the magic fills the room once more as she contemplates her next words. I want to jump in and interject that I was only doing my best as a subject, but some deep corner of my mind has the good sense to let her continue. Just like Fluttershy, sometimes everypony just needs time to get their feelings across. “That isn’t the truth.” She finally forces out. That catches me by surprise, but before my face can scrunch up in confusion she hangs her head low. In penance or shame I can’t tell, but it hurts me to see her hurting because of it. “The truth is, Twilight… I’ve used you for a gambit and lost. I’ve been trying for centuries, Twilight, centuries! Nothing I ever did worked, and I fear it’s because Star Swirl has indeed developed a precognition spell. I developed my own, by mother’s grace from a formula that he invented before tearing our empire apart, but never found a course of action that resulted in his capture without unacceptable loss.” I feel some of the color draining from my cheeks, and subconsciously I begin pulling away to give myself space to parse everything she’s saying all of a sudden. Her wing gives way, and then falls limply to her side as I stand beside her. “You… You knew this would happen? That Luna would… You knew that pegasus and I would…?” I trail off, suddenly mortified of the alicorn sitting in front of me. So I was the acceptable loss? Everything that happened, it was according to some vision of hers? She continues sitting in front of me, and her shoulders and neck slump forward in defeat. I see her chest shaking a bit with each breath, and she swallows something back down before raising her head to my level. “I was not shown the outcome, only that you two would meet there, in the ruins of Sister’s spells. I had hoped that you might be able to reach him, to appeal to his intellectual nature, perhaps he would realize your potential. I never thought-“ I’m not sure what’s happening on my face anymore, but I stumble backwards and fall onto my flank, head swimming with the implications if it all. There’s a twisted sense of betrayal, and I find myself questioning if I can even believe what she’s saying now. “Twilight, truly, I apologize. Had I known, I would have looked for another way. I-“ “Star Swirl was right,” I breathe out softly, shaking my head and staring blankly down at the floor. “He was right, and I all but ridiculed him.” I look back up at Celestia, and there’s a shiver that spreads across my back as she stares back at me with yet another new emotion; Fear. “Twilight, please, if you still have any faith in me, that any of my guidance these last decades was genuine, listen now; Do not follow down Star Swirl’s path. I beg of you, Twilight. I would sooner give up my crown than lose you to the same rage and arrogance that I could not save him from.” Wait, what’s she talking about? Does she think I’m considering fighting her now? “Princess, I…” I sit up straight and take a deep breath. In… Hold… And out... “Princess, I understand that there’s a lot going on here that I don’t understand. A Future-scrying spell, Star Swirl and Luna’s Chronomancy, I don’t even know why I was brought here!” Her expression softens just a bit, and she huffs out a relieved breath, letting her head hang again as she realizes I’m not about to become a psycho murder pony. “…But I also know that if this is going to be okay again, we need a plan, and we need to talk. Really talk. About your policies, and about Star Swirl.” I keep my voice low and even, trying to keep the calm, rational tone we've established going so that we can make some progress. "But first, I really think you should take a break. You've been up for days and I can tell. I can keep the spell going for a couple hours at least, you should at least get a nap in before we we go over everything." That gets her worried. She shifts her weight around between her forehooves and glances uncertainly between the spell and me. "Do not take this as a slight, Twilight, but the details of this spell are... Incredibly intricate. While I hold you in the highest regard as a mage, this ritual has five major runes, and over thirty subrunes, three of which are-" She stops as I stare at her blankly. My tail is brushing over one of them right now. "I apologize, you've studied it already, I see. I'm sure you can infer its' purpose, but I'll affirm your findings, if you'd like." I have in fact glossed over it, and it looks like a lot of very heavily modified divination magic, one of which uses completely archaic and foreign runes I'm not at all familiar with, though that shouldn't inhibit me from powering the circle as long as I don't delve too deep into the spell. I give her a nod for her to continue and light my own horn, reaching out to connect with the nearest Epsi rune to begin feeding it. As soon as I do it seems to reach out and latch onto me, eager for more energy to sustain itself. "You'll find these circles may be more aggressive to synchronize with, it's by design unfortunately. Elevate your mana resonance to match mine, and you'll be able to contribute. Here, if you would," She reaches out a bare forehoof, hoof-up and looks at me expectantly. A stubborn small part of me wants to try and decipher the safety mechanism by force, but there's at least a dozen reasons that would be a bad idea. Curious, I reach out my own hoof and lay it over hers, and I feel the thrumming of something incredibly foreign begin to flow through the less-exercised mana network of my hooves: Earth Pony magic. She leans forward towards me and places the tip of her horn against mine, and there's a gentle pulling sensation as if she's somehow siphoning magic through my horn without taking any mana. It's warm and tingly, like a more pleasant version of the after effects of a stunning bolt. The pull slowly draws her magic up and through my forehoof dissipating out into and across my chest, allowing it to merge into the rest of my internal mana network. I feel it begin to permeate my wellspring, and I picture a drop of her golden magic swimming in an ocean of my raw purple mana pool, ever so subtly pushing and pulling on it until the drops surrounding it begin to hum and join its' chorus. I close my eyes, focusing solely on the experience happening in the hidden meta-levels of my body. I will myself to respond, and quickly the small spark of influence takes and begins spreading into a puddle, then a lake, until it's permeating from the core of my wellspring which begins pumping it throughout my body like a second, invisible heart. The feeling is extraordinary, I can literally feel the thrumming of the Princess' Earth Pony magic resonating in every muscle and limb. The pulling feeling from the end of my horn grows steadily more insistent, and I begin pulling from my wellspring, drawing some energy into my horn to complete the strange cycle of magical injection and siphon. "Ouch!" There's a sharp sting in my horn as the foreign magic passes through my most sensitive apparatus, and I yank my head away instinctively, rubbing a hoof against the suddenly very tender horn. "I know it may be painful, but I promise it only lasts a moment." She promises with a gentle, reassuring smile. I look back at her and mentally steel myself to endure it this time, then lean forward and make the contact again, holding as still as I can. There's another sharp pain as the magic is literally ripped away like an adhesive bandage. I give a little whimper and grit my teeth against the sensation, but I manage to keep the contact. I close my eyes again and refocus. True to her word, the unpleasant stinging recedes incredibly quickly, and in a matter of seconds it feels almost as if I'm weaving an ordinary seventh-tier multilayer spell matrix. The foreign warm and fuzzy mana brings an almost ticklish feeling to my now-sensitive horn as it permeates the thousands of branching pathways, reaching out and spreading across every last crevice it can find. Once the drawing of mana matches the rate at which she's giving it to me match, we reach some homeostatic resonance with each other. It doesn't feel like a strange, foreign invasion on my mana network anymore, it feels like a steady stream of readily accessible magic just like I've always had. My wellspring feels a little different, (if something so intangible could be described with feeling,) as if it's moving just a bit faster than before. There's a sensation of harmony, in the melodic sense, that it's attuned to. I hone in on it, committing it to memory and trying to perpetuate it on my own, without the help of the constant magic influx. I begin resisting the mana injection the Princess if giving me, and slowly it begins to dither in response. The pulling feeling from my horn fades drastically, and I summon more and more energy to it in order to keep my horn lit and supplying the magic it needs to stay in rhythm with my newly attuned wellspring. It dissipates a lot faster than I'm used to, almost like water evaporating in the summer heat the moment it enters my horn, but I'm able to make up for it with more quantity, subtly opening the leylines of my magic and alleviating the strict limiter I subconsciously have on at all times, letting as much of the fast-moving magic flood my horn as it can handle. I have flashbacks to my parents, the magical entry exam, my magic surging and losing control over everything. My horn acting without direction, the implications of failure. I begin to sweat a little under both the magical and mental pressure, and my heart rate rises just a little bit as I begin to reign it in, culling the flow in fear of losing control of it. I can't let this explode, it's an unknown quantity in- "It's okay, Twilight. You don't need to be afraid." I feel her other forehoof supporting mine from the bottom, cusping the shaking limb in a grounded, firm support. I realize she's not supplying any of the magic anymore, I'm perpetuating it all on my own. The feedback loop is closed off completely. I'm not sure how long her horn has been separate from mine, but this magic of hers is mine to command now, and it bends and flows in exactly the way my own does, just faster, lighter, making me hyper-aware of it as it moves and is expended. In exchange for its' fluidity and accuracy, though, I need to use a lot more of it to supply the same amount of raw output. I'm capable of nearly half a vis per hour with my normal restricted network, I have no idea if I can keep up with this even if I uninhibited myself. But I have to try. I take a deep breath and let the magic run wild, uninhibited. Almost instantly, I feel a sharp prickly feeling shoot all across my entire being as the lightning-fast magic shoots across my mana network and presses against the confines, stretching the theoretical muscles to their limits, finding any and every nook and neuron to inflate and doing so. It's excruciating for less than half a second, the white-hot flash of pain leaving me gasping for air and doubled over in the expectation of a hellish trial of adjustment. I'm left surprised for the better, though. There's no more pain, no more fuzz, just the warmth permeating my body and suddenly I'm hyper-aware of all the many overlapping and crisscrossing ley lines in my hooves, back, flank, horn, neck, and every other area of my body I'm not sure I've ever in my life channeled magic through. In a terrifyingly alien and foreign way, it's almost liberating to have this much awareness and fine control of my entire magic network. Without any bars held, I let the magic stream back into my horn, pouring from a massive source in my core to continually push it out as fast as I can generate it, pulling what I can't create in time from my wellspring which has plenty to spare. Instead of the resistant, defiant Epsi rune I encountered before, I find there's no need to interact directly with the relay at all. The spot I'm sitting has something willing to accept the newly calibrated magic, drawing it from my horn and distributing it effortlessly to the five major runes, then their subsequent sub-runes which perpetuate the many spells happening in tandem. Even without looking at any of them, I have a perfectly vivid picture in my mind's eye of the precise measurements, throughput, capacity, and requirements of all of it. It feels just as natural as telekinesis, or flipping the page of a book, or even teleporting, like it's something I've been doing all my life. The hooves cusping mine press against me a bit more firmly, shaking a bit. I open my eyes and the Princess has an inscrutable look on her face. I can't tell if that's a good or a bad thing, though in that moment I do see that her horn is completely inactive. I'm now the one powering the spell, entirely on my own. Every second that passes it gets a little easier, and the feeling of familiarity grows as that annoying, pestering part of my new mind kicks into overdrive and shows me exactly what to do and how to do it. For once, I'm glad for the barrage of information, and so much is happening that it doesn't even have the spare time to dredge up useless trivia. "Congratulations, Twilight," The Princess coos from in front of me. I open my eyes and look up to see her staring down at me with beaming pride, and a hint of something else I can't decipher beneath the heavy load my mind is struggling to categorize and solve. "On casting your first Alicorn-tier spell."