//------------------------------// // Of Runes and Marvels // Story: Magic is her Talent // by Lanafilly //------------------------------// A lavender unicorn groaned as she slowly sat up in her bed, which creaked in protest as if to yell at her to be more gentle in its old age. Slowly Twilight stretched almost like a cat, her joints snapping back into place with a series of satisfying pops. She carefully got up out of her stretch and ambled her way to the bathroom. Upon reaching the bathroom, she turned the faucets to start running the hot water and went over to the sink to brush her teeth while waiting for it to fill up. She peered into her mirror and saw the same mare she saw every morning: a twenty-two year old Unicorn with purple hair with a pink stripe running through it. Her luminous purple eyes gazed back at her with glowing runes curving all along her face, ears and horn. Some formed recognizable symbols, like the one in the middle of her forehead that had two lines going down then curving away from each other then in on themselves; the Equestrian Arcane Rune for Binding. Others, like the lines under her eyes that made it look like she was crying, had no known meaning to her no matter how many books on runes she had scoured. The set that stood out the most were the twin runes in her eyes; the ancient Neirse Rune Ehwaz. The meaning, in this case, was "harmonious power," for quite obvious reasons. Her personal favorite, though, was the one near the base of her horn; Sol. It was a symbol that looked somewhat like a backwards S, signifying to her the Sun and the strength of her will and control over her magic. It reminded her of Princess Celestia. Twilight sighed in annoyance as she charged up her horn to re-apply her illusion spells. The runes glowed even brighter, the Rune of Binding in particular one of the brightest, exceeded only by the glow in her eyes. 'That's the third time this month my Illusions have been wearing off early,' she thought in frustration  steadily casting the numerous high level illusions to hide all the arcane markings marring her body. She started with her hooves and, as she started weaving the illusions, the markings disappeared as if she rolled stockings up her legs. Runes for speed, strength, and control among many others that she does not know the meaning of started to slowly vanish. She sighed again as she thought back to how Rainbow Dash had nearly found out about her Runes. "Hey Twi, how's it hanging?" the rainbow maned Pegasus asked as she lazily floated above Twilight on a cumulus cloud "Mmm," Twilight mumbled as she was re-reading through one of her books by Star Swirl the Bearded on Runes and their meanings. Rainbow Dash's eye twitched in aggravation, but she tried to keep her calm. "What are you reading that has you so enthralled Twilight?" she asked sarcastically "Mmm," Twilight mumbled again, turning a page in her book Rainbow growled under her breath as her anger rose. 'Oh come on! I thought me using one of those big words I saw in one of the Daring Do books would surprise her enough to get a reaction.' She fumed for a bit before, slowly, a sly grin graced her muzzle as she thought of a way to prank the oblivious Unicorn.   Runes are among the most powerful of magykal mediums; they give ponies the ability to create the most stable of arrays a unicorn has naught to do but give a spark of magic to set the array off. The primary problem with Runes, is that if there is even the slightest waver in the rune, then the whole of it is ruined and could potentially spell disaster for the high level spell you are trying to cas--   KRAKA-THOOOOOOOM   Twilight screamed in surprise as the glow around her horn cut out, her book falling to the ground, its pages bent and the spine facing upwards, gilded letters shining from the sunlight reflecting off of them. Twilight's eye twitched. "Rainbow Dash," she growled as her her mane and tail started to smoke slightly. "BWA-HAHAHAHAHA!" Rainbow was in the air clutching her stomach, a mini cumulonimbus was floating next to her, sparking with leftover static electricity as she laughed hard at her friend's reaction "Y-YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN YOUR FACE HAHAHA!!" Twilight's mane and tail were smouldering now, and it seemed she was just about to have another flaming episode like she had when she was trying to figure out Pinkie Pie's Pinkie Sense. The smoking stopped abruptly and an evil grin formed over Twilight's muzzle as she took a step towards Rainbow Dash, her horn lit up with her magic as a purplish aura surrounded Rainbow; making her stop laughing and start sweating in nervousness. "Ahehe T-Twi?" Rainbow's eyes shifted left and right, futilely looking for a way out of the inescapable grasp of her friend. "Th-there isn't any hard feelings right? It was just a harmless prank." Twilight's horn glowed brighter but, unbeknownst to her, her eyes began to glow as well. She slowly brought the pegasus up higher, then used her magic to put a temporary bind on her wings. She let go of her magical grip, making Rainbow Dash fall to the ground with a solid fwump. Twilight walked over and looked down at Rainbow Dash and smirked. "That is why you do  not mess with my books," she said in a false-haughty voice "Ahehe. Yeah, I get ya Twi," Rainbow put a hoof behind her head, closing her eyes in a sort of upside down kind of smile. She started a bit then blinked twice in confusion. "Um. Twi? Your eyes," she pointed her hoof at Twilight's still glowing eyes, "Why are they glowing?" "G-Glowing? O-oh! Yeah, I channeled some magic to give them that effect. Give me a second." Her horn glowed for a bit and she closed her eyes as she applied a quick illusion spell. She opened her eyes again and they were their normal purple eye color again. "See? Just a spell." "Oooooooooh," Rainbow Dash said in understanding. "Well as I was sayi-- wait is that the time?!" she yelled in shock as she looked at the Sun's position in the sky "I'm gonna be late for work! Gotta dash Twi!" With that, Rainbow flew off at breakneck speeds, leaving a rainbow trail in her wake. Twilight kept a smile on her face, watching as the trail grew fainter and fainter as Rainbow went off to do her job as weather manager. As the trail fully left, so did her smile as she all but collapsed in relief and not a small amount of fear "That was too close." All the runes but the ones on her face and horn, now covered by the Illusion spells, she sighed again as the spell creeped over her fur. The spell created a nigh impenetrable barrier that only Princess Celestia or Princess Luna could forcibly dispel. 'I seem to be doing a lot of sighing today,' Twilight thought as the spell finally creeped over her eyes, concealing the glow and the runes inside them. She sighed once more then turned back to the bath and started as she saw that the tub was nearly overflowing. She hastily ran over and turned the valves to stop the flow of water, but now she couldn't get in as getting in would flood the bathroom floor. Sighing once more, she unstoppered the tub for a bit as she waited for the water level to get to a more acceptable level. 'That was too close,' Twilight sighed again, this time in relief. 'That spell takes way too long to cast sometimes, but one can't argue with results, I guess.' When she saw that the amount of water in the tub was at an acceptable level, she stoppered it again. She carefully climbed into the tub hissing a bit as her legs touched the steaming water. She lowered her whole body into the tub hissing some more then sighing in relief as the hot water did the trick and slowly loosened her overly stressed body. As she was relaxing, her thoughts strayed to other matters; in particular, how she got the arcane markings in the first place. Flashes of light. Electricity dancing through the air. Pain. Pain all throughout her body. Want to scream. Can’t scream. Gonna die. Gonna-- knock-knock-knock-knock-knock Twilight jerked out of her reverie as a voice carried through the wooden door. “C’mon Twilight, we’re going to be late for the trip to Canterlot at this rate!” It was Spike, her faithful assistant. ‘What was going on today?’ She searched her memory for the answer to that question but was coming up blank. Until it hit her full force. “I’m meeting Princess Celestia today!” she exclaimed in horror at the fact that she could ever forget about meeting her mentor and teacher.   A sigh of exasperation met her on the other side of the bathroom door. “Yes, and if you don’t get ready soon, we’ll miss the train to Canterlot.” Twilight practically shot out of the bathtub and used a spell to dry all her fur as quickly as possible, leaving the faint scent of burnt hair as a result. She dashed out of the bathroom, her horn glowing. After grabbing things off the shelves in her room in a panic and the suitcase of prepared clothing, she started packing some of her books and toiletries. “Um, Twilight?” Spike hesitantly asked, “You do know we’re just there for a weekend visit right? A casual visit at that so you don’t need clothes, either.” “Can never be too prepared, Spike!” she yelled in a hurry as books flew off their shelves and flew back on them as she glanced at titles of books and discarded them. Spike ducked under a large, heavy-looking book titled ‘Canterlot Castle: A History Vol. XXIX’ and  had to quickly jump over another even larger book titled ‘The Extended History of Rocks: Abridged Version.’ Just as he was about to be hit with another book, he grabbed it out of the air and read the title out loud. “ ‘The Extended History of Llamas’? Why would you even need a book like that in the first place, Twilight?” Twilight paused, all the books in her magical grasp hovering in place. She then chuckled sheepishly. “Ahehehe, I guess you’re right, Spike.” She hesitated slightly. “But I’m going to bring along my Rune books, at least.” “Should I bring my rune maps as well?” Spike asked, shelving the heavy book in its proper place. Ever since she had gotten the Runes, she had tried her best to record all of them on her body so that she could study them more thoroughly. There was one glaring problem, though; she couldn’t see or draw all the runes accurately. When Spike had finally grown old enough to start being her faithful assistant, she asked him to map out her Runes onto parchment. At first, his attempts at drawing were pitiful, to say the least, looking like nothing more than just random scribbles. In order to further help Twilight, Spike took it upon himself to keep practicing his art until he became adept enough at it so that he could copy the runes on a Rune Map flawlessly. Twilight smiled at the memories. “Yes, Spike. Please.” Spike saluted. “Be right back.” He hurried to the study to grab them. She giggled at how cute he could act then went back to packing, putting away the majority of books except for her Rune books. She looked around her room, seeing if there was anything she had missed. Seeing nothing else, she picked up her bags in her telekinesis and put them on her back. She descended the stairs to see Spike carrying several of his Rune Maps in his arms, struggling with the height and weight to the point of toppling over on them. She quickly grabbed the pile with her magic and put them in her bags neatly. “Thank-you Spike.” She gave a small rub on the top of his spines in appreciation. “I don’t know what would happen without my number one assistant.” “Everything would be in flames and the library would be a mess,” Spike said in a teasing tone. Twilight rolled her eyes as she opened the library door and trotted past. Spike quickly ran past her, eager to get to the train station as quickly as possible. Twilight carefully shut the door behind her with a resounding click, quickly trotting after Spike so as to not get left behind. “Alright, Princess. I hope you have found some answers for me this time.”