//------------------------------//
// A chapter where I go completely insane with the power of physics and magic 
// Story: As The Sun Sets 
// by Noobblue 
//------------------------------//

Twilight took a glance at the mare who was currently gesturing her forwards. The Crystal hall itself, while simply a wall, looked more inviting than Quick Silver did.

I guess there's a reason my gut is telling me not to trust her

"We're not going to just be standing around here all day right?" Silver swung her hoof again, losing her posture and rolling her eyes.

Twilight had frozen for a moment by her thoughts before she was able to recover. "Do you have somewhere specific in mind?"

"We'll head back to my place, I was hoping to show you my lab, and take advantage of you." Silver started trotting down the hallway while Twilight blanched again, "Specifically your ties to magic, and alicorn magic."

Twilight couldn't tell if she was joking. "Is... that a joke?"

Silver looked over her shoulder, "Is that the question you really want to be asking? Are you sure you don't want me to distract you with the mysteries of the arcane?"

"Yes?"

Silver frowned. "Ah" She turned and waved Twilight onwards, "I'll explain when we get there."

Twilight followed until the two of them exited the hallway into one of the many chambers in the Empire, this one had four guards posted on the interior, it was sparingly decorated. Likely a hallway interchange for high hoof traffic, hence the guards.

"This oughta do it," Silver said, reaching into her bag.

"For?" Twilight walked up next to Silver as she pulled a white and brown pile of dust out of her bag and threw it onto the floor.

"First little lesson of mine I guess, how can an ear- well, how can a Pegasus cast a teleport spell?"

Twilight, stunned by the casual attack on the room's décor, didn't respond. One of the guards however, did, "Hey! Clean that up!" A stallions voice came from the side, Twilight noted the aggression from the brownish crystal pony, and Silver's seemingly complete ignorance of their command. Silver was watching Twilight, waiting for an answer.

She waved a hoof at the guard, smiled apologetically. It seemed to cause the guard to come up short, and he settled into a frown and continued glaring at Silver.

"Alright, well, short answer is, they can't."

Twilight returned her attention to Silver, who was shifting the powder around on the ground. On second glance, Silver was maneuvering the powder with a dexterity that Twilight had never seen before. She opened her mouth to say something she hadn't thought out yet, but Silver continued, "Well, at least I can't, not without any alicorn."

"Alicorn?"

"Is it not called that anymore? The bone that makes up unicorn horns?"

Twilight blinked, "No... there's a medical term for it, but it's not called alicorn anymore."

Silver shifter her focus from the dust to Twilight, "Huh" 

Silver stamped her hoof on the ground. A bubble sprung up around them, and Twilight felt the telltale shift of teleportation as the bubble rippled from opaque to translucent, and then they were simply somewhere else.

Silver began walking off.

Twilight only had moments to take in the scene before hurrying up after Silver. They were underground, that much from her pegasus senses she could work out, but not how far. 

Of course, it was obvious enough, the cavern of ice they were stood in was black as night towards the edges. If she wasn't just standing in a structure made entirely of crystal, she would have assumed the ice, as clear as it was, was crystal as well. It gave her the sensation of standing on air, and looking out into the void.

Once she began trotting forwards after Silver, she noticed the lines of metal inlaid into the ground, just underneath the ice where they teleported in. 

You got this Twilight

"An anchor." She said, striding up next to Silver

Silver smiled wide and almost pranced for a moment, "Good! Good! Of course I needed an anchor, a memory based spell would have cost far to much magic for a two pony translocation matrix."

"Which was what the dust was for?"

Silver stopped her stride and simply began sliding on the floor, Twilight could hear it happening, which is why it was unconcerning.

I guess she never got any horseshoes.

While sliding, Silver lifted a hoof and began to explain, "The purpose of the dust was two fold. The white was an enchanted diamond powder, designed to power the spell, the brown was powdered copper and bronze, and some agate to function as a the runic symbols"

Twilight was tempted to try sliding too, but unlike Silver, she didn't have the dexterity, or likely practice to stay stable. She elected to continue walking, and tried not to slip. "So where are we going?"

Silver came upon a bend in the cavern, and merely readjusted their slide by pushing against the wall. "I'm surprised you didn't ask until just now, ponies these days are way more trusting." It seemed almost as if Silver was chiding her with the remark.

"Well..."

Silver interrupted, "We're just about to my lab."

"Okay."

They lapsed into silence, and sure enough a couple of moments later, they walked and slid respectively into an opening in the cavern wall, definitely carved out, as the interior was blocky. The walls, ceiling and floor were a different colour of ice; like the entire room full of ice had been compressed down into the walls. 

The interior had numerous large pieces of metal in them, things Twilight had no name for, and what generally looked like scrap metal. The centerpiece looked like a sideways ribbed tube, half imbedded in a massive bluish-silver metal block that was imbedded itself into the ice. The entire structure took up most of the room, and rose to a couple of hooves above her horn, and further down into the ice than she could see.

Twilight, still at the threshold of the room, turned as Silver's slide stopped upon the denser ice, and she stepped into the room.

"This is what I'll be needing your help with." She said, gesturing towards the large... Object.

"What is it?"

"This? Why, this is a humble magnet reactor."

Twilight, along with Silver, approached the machine, "What does it do?"

"I promise it's less complex than it looks." Silver pointed individually at the four points, "See those four outcroppings going around the housing of it?"

Twilight nodded.

"In each one of those, there's a magnet, a very powerful, enchanted magnet, sitting on a track on the opposite side of a tightly wound electro-magical circuit" Silver waved, "Nothing more complex than an electromagnet. The magnets are connected to a shaft, and when the shaft spins, it generates rotational force. Following?"

Twilight nodded again

"The mechanical force is driven into a mechanism at the end of the shaft, that creates electricity and feeds back into the main machine, and out into a large battery underneath."

This must be what my friends feel like when I explain things to them

"So it's a generator?"

Silver bounced their head from left to right for a moment, before slowly responding, "In essence, yes."

Twilight was still at a loss for what particularly she was supposed to be doing here. She knew 'friendship' but as of far, they've only really... Well, they're not really friends are they? Silver said she was going to use Twilight for her magic. 

I guess... it wasn't a joke.

"And you want me to?" Twilight lead

"I need you to help me start it. You see, there's this funny little gimick where you can cheat more energy out of rotating magnets that you put in. With enough magic, you can cross a threshold where you can power the function of the reactor with itself, and still produce a positive net of electricity."

That's impossible

"Issue is, the amount of magic required is also far above the amount that would destabilize the local area's space-time, causing magic to assert itself over reality and making the reactor... not do that."

Twilight stepped in verbally, feeling like she finally had something to contribute. "Of course, Yonder's theorem proves a null state exists over physics. Causing magic to take precedence over energy consumption." She paused to think and Silver took the moment to interject

"Unless of course you were able to harvest the electro-magical-magnetism factor, and pump it back into the equation." Silver pressed their hoof into the ground, and a plate appeared made of slate. 

"Look" Silver began running their hoof accross the slate, writing out what Twilight surmised shortly to be an... A less defined version of the math required to prove Yonder's Law. "Once the energy consumption changes the factor of magical wave form from static to fluid, so long as you can manipulate the outflow, you can keep the same constant, and as the equivalence starts to go to infinity, the output side begins increasing faster than the input once you pass eleven point six thaums."

Twilight checked over the math. "Wouldn't you have to factor in for the electro static discharge from the magnets affecting the mana flow?"

"Not if the magnets themselves are the centrifugal force. Inverse gravitational mana waves force the electro-magnetic field inwards."

"Which means you'd be able to control the rotational force without disrupting the energy being pushed into the spin." Twilight checked the math again.

That's... ingenious

"How would you control the outflow of the thaumic disruption?" Twilight asked, now genuinely curious, her diplomatic side abandoned in the face of her scholarly side demanding information be found.

Silver frowned. "Originally? I used the reality stabilizer. Unfortunately it's time outside of time didn't treat it very well." Followed by a smile, "So I'm going to use Alicorn magic instead"

Twilight lifted a hoof defensively, "You're not... going to take it from me, are you?"

"What no!" Silver turned away with a dismissive hoof wave, "Of course not. I'm going to teach you a base of a simpler targeted version of a rose grade reality anchor enchantment, and I'm going to use what magic I have left stored up to get the reactor past it's thaumic threshold, and then I'm going to use the output to take over your spell, and lock it into the reactor."

Wait... what?

"You want me to hold a Astro-chronoturgy spell over a thaumic disruption of over ten thaums?"

Silver looked back at Twilight, and tilted her head, "...Yes?"

Twilight stared

"For how long?"

Silver smiled and nodded, as if she understood where the issue was coming from, "Ah, only a couple of minutes."

"A couple of-!"

"What?"

"I-"

"Can you not do it?"

Twilight stopped. She didn't expect that kind of tone from Silver. It was soft, and... really fit with the melodic voice they had clearly taken on. "No"

"Oh." Silver frowned. Then scrunched her face, visually displaying their depth of thought.

A couple of moments of silence past before Silver retuned to a less squishy expression, and smiled and waved at Twilight, "Okay, bye then."

Silver pressed on the slate on the ground, and it disappeared just as quickly as it appeared. She turned and stepped over to a piece of scrap metal and started rolling it towards another section of the room.

Twilight, very noticeably, did not leave.

Silver stopped and sighed. "We're not going to be friends Twilight, you can go."

Frustration bubbled up out of Twilight's core and into and out of her mouth before she could think better of it. "How would you know if you won't even give me a chance!"

"Because I'm smarter than you."

The bluntness of the comment cooled Twilight's frustration into hurt before it could really get going.

"And besides that, it's exactly what you think." Silver's tone darkened with her expression as she turned, and glared at Twilight over her snout. "I am choosing to not try to befriend you, because I have more important things to do with my time."

"I thought so too. Friendship turned out to be more important to me than I could-"

Faster than she could blink, Silver was in front of her, "Don't try to emphasize with me girl." Twilight would have mentally commented on the return of Dusk's voice, but after Silver locked eyes with her, everything about her gaze made Twilight want to shudder. She'd later describe the feeling as, 'the opposite of Celestia.' 

In the gaze was less than the lack of warmth and love, it was full of hatred and pain. Then the gaze was broken, and Twilight let out a breath.

Silver finished quietly, "You'll hurt yourself." a beat passed, "now get out."

This time, Twilight left. With a flash of teleportation she was gone. Only when she rematerialized under the crystal heart did she realize how alien her own mind felt.

I didn't think I could panic that much over... that

When she thought back to Silver's face, she felt her anxiety rising, telling her to get away from the danger.

Twilight shook her head.

What am I gonna tell Cadance? That I just ran away?

"Princess? Are you okay?"

"Huh?" One of the guards had snuck up on Twilight while she was thinking. She turned to face him, "Oh yes, I'm okay, would you mind taking me to Cadance?" 

Best get this over with.

"Of course ma'am."

"Thank you."



Twilight met back with Cadance and Shining in Cadance's office. Probably the most wood she'll see in the whole tower was located within the confines, it gave the office a warm feeling to it that helped straighten out her nerves.

When she walked in, she was given a warm greeting from her old foal sitter, "Twilight! That was fast, how did it go?"

Straight to the point

She steeled herself and spoke, "It went pretty badly actually."

"That's okay Twily, we knew it wouldn't work out." Shining similarly smiled warmly, though Twilight could see the hint of a smirk on his face; the sign that her brother knew something she didn't.

Cadance said, "He's right, Dusk wasn't going to talk to you from the get go. This was part of a bigger plan."

Twilight glanced between the two of them, "Wait, was dinner part of the plan too?"

Cadance nodded, "To try and throw Dusk off our trail. Although Shining overdid it a little bit." She looked at Shining who rubbed the back of his neck with a hoof, making the effort to avoid meeting her gaze.

"Huh."

"What did you learn when you were with him Twily?"

Twilight thought for a moment; and as she thought more, she came to a series of conclusions that displayed as a grimace on her face. "You never wanted me to befriend Silver? You just wanted to trick her? And me?" Her wings drooped and for lack of better description, felt sad.

Cadance leaned forward over her desk, "Of course we actually wanted you to be able to befriend Silver." She leaned back and steepled her hooves in font of herself, and looked away, "We just assumed it would be very difficult, or at least take multiple tries."

Shining spoke up as well, "Dusk really only seems willing to interact with Cadance."

"Then why not have Cadance do... this?"

"Because Dusk is smart. Very smart, and from what we can tell, he'll keep me at hoof's length to stop me from learning anything."

Twilight felt a little reassured that she wasn't just at tool in this scenario. At the very least, she was glad Cadance wasn't taking advantage of her. Though, she wasn't really sure why she considered it in the first place. "So the plan was to confuse him, and then let me interact with him one on one, and hope I would be able to achieve anything?"

Shining spoke, "That's it, really, yeah."

A beat passed before Cadance spoke again, "And did you? Achieve anything, I mean."

Twilight thought back to Silver, and their short encounter, her ears folded against her head. "Not really. She made it pretty clear she didn't want anything to do with me. At least after she learned I couldn't help her start her machine."

"A machine?"

Twilight held up a hoof, "I'm not gonna tell you, at least, I don't think I should. It was hidden, and if I want Silver to be my friend, than the first thing I could do is keep her secrets."

Shining frowned, "Twily, Silver is a dangerous pony."

"Well-"

Cadance interrupted, "What Shining means is that while we personally agree with that, if this 'machine' is something that could hurt ponies, then we have a responsibility to act on that knowledge." She tacted onto the end, "As rulers."

I can't argue with that

"It..." 

it's not right though

"I don't think it could hurt anypony..." Twilight trailed off, "it was just a generator."

Honesty is a tenant of Friendship Twilight

So is Loyalty...

Cadance nodded and stood. She turned the side of the table and approached Twilight with spread wings.

Twilight didn't show it, but the relief spread through her as she embraced the taller Alicorn.

"I'm sorry this was such a stressful experience."

Twilight gave a deep tone whisper, "I can only imagine how it is for you two."

Cadance giggled and broke the hug. "So Dusk just shooed you away then?"

"Well..." Twilight trailed off,

It seems silly now

"She scared me, and I uh..." Twilight gave a strained smile, "ran away?"

Cadance and Shining exchanged a glance, Shining said, "Sounds about right."

Cadance turned back to Twilight, "Do you think you could interact with them again?"

A quiet, "no"

"That's okay Twilight, thank you for all you've done so far."

"That's not it, is it?"

Shining waved to get her attention past the large form of Cadance, "We'd really like if you could work out a few more protection spells, but otherwise...?" He lead looking to Cadance.

"Otherwise... Yes, that's it. I'm sorry for the short trip. You are of course, welcome to stay in the Spire until you want to leave."

I guess I could stay for a little... 

"I think I'll just try and get the evening train home."

"Well you're not going anywhere until I get a hug too LSBFF" Shining stood, Twilight laughed, and hugs were had before she left.

Twilight, instead of teleporting back to the station, took to the air and flew her way towards the station with the intent of taking in the sights, and getting her mind off of her most recent stress.

Once she found her way onto a train, she pulled a book from her personal stash and enjoyed a calming read on her way home.



The castle.

Twilight had a lot to say about 'The Castle'

She didn't really know how to say it though, and at the moment, she was a bit too tired to be introspective. She simply pushed opened the doors and walked inside. Spike had almost certainly gone to bed with the sun, and Twilight was going to make no fuss, and just go to bed herself.

Her stomach grumbled

Twilight was going to go to bed after getting a bite to eat.

She tried to avoid taking in the crystal hallways as she tried not to get lost on her way to the kitchen. Luckily for her, the kitchen was noticeable by the wooden door, and the sweet smells and light coming from inside.

Spike must still be up

Without more thought of the subject, Twilight opened the door, and yawned mid speech, "Spike?"

"Oh no my dear, I'm afraid spike went to bed an hour or two ago."

The distinctively non-spike voice, plus the cutting figure stood in the room caused Twilight to mentally sober from her sleepy self. "Discord?"

"The one and only."

Something was off, despite his jovial words, Discord sounded different

"What are you doing in my kitchen?"

"Baking a mud pie."

Twilight grimaced

Discord levitated above the counter, "Oh don't worry, not the pony, the ground."

Twilight sighed, "It's a bit late for this Discord."

Instead of a comical remark, or otherwise any decidedly 'Discord' actions, Twilight heard him snap his fingers, and the light from the stove went off, and the smells from the room disappeared. Twilight had never seen Discord look so serious on his own. Sure when he was betrayed, but to have that look on his face for no discernable reason? Of his own accord?

"Discord?" Twilight tenitively asked

Instead of responding, Discord thought and Twilight was reminded of Discords power, as she felt the rise of ambient magic as Discord fully brought his presence to his physical location.

Discord stopped floating, and sat on the island counter upright. "Hold still please my dear."

Twilight held still, and Discord reached a hand, with the arm elongating mind you, into her head. Twilight grimaced, but otherwise it didn't feel like anything.

Discord's serious look turned... Angry. He jerked his arm and pulled out a mass of... something from her.

It looked like a mixture between a cloud of smoke, magic, and a pile of metal shavings. Whatever it was writhed in his claws before he crushed it, and two comical puffs of white smoke appeared on either end of his eagle talon.

"What was-"

"A nasty little charm meant to track you, and steal your senses."

Twilight was decidedly worried.

I've never seen him like this before

"Are you okay Discord?"

His look went from serious and frustrated to surprised

Discord began floating again and pressed his lion's paw to his chest, "Why me? Of course! I am the lord of cha-"

"Discord"

Discord looked back down at Twilight.

She was unamused.

Discord didn't look like he knew what to do in this situation.

"Just... Tell me?"

Discord held up a talon, and, then put it back down, he pursed his lips. Which to Twilight looked strange, as he didn't really have lips, and it somehow went over his snaggle tooth, even though it was still visible, but she tried to just ignore that.

Discord leaned in, "I've made... a lot of mistakes in my lifetime," he looked at his hands as his voice deepened, "Let me tell you about the one named Dusk Swirl."