A group of ponies sat in the throne room of Canterlot as the sun swept through the windows. Half of the room was shrouded in darkness and the other half in light. Amidst it all was a purple Alicorn who walked back and forth in extreme agitation. Eyes unfocused, she tried to comprehend what she had just heard.
“Y-You can’t be serious. This can’t be right!” Twilight’s hair, normally neatly cropped and easily kept in her style, was starting to spike up, one hair at a time.
In one corner of the room, Twilight’s five friends recovered from the shock. Rainbow Dash stayed hovering, half-stuck in a motion to fly away. Applejack held her hat over her head, hiding her emotions so she could stay strong in front of her friends. Fluttershy was shaking in fear and her innocent face was broken by silent horror as she half turned away. Pinkie Pie simply stood there, mouth opening and closing, as if she was trying to think of a joke that would clear the atmosphere. There was also Cadence, sitting to the side of the two princesses Celestia and Luna.
Finally, there was Rarity. Her face was covered by her long and lustrous mane, attempting to appear completely devoid of any emotion to the outward eyes. Her tail hung limp and her ears were pinned back. Despite her efforts, tears silently rolled down her cheeks and fell to the hard stone floor.
“I’m afraid so Twilight. I wish there really was another way.” Celestia stepped forward, her broad wings flaring briefly to illuminate the darkness. Pure white fur covered her, and yet: even in the light of the sun sprinkling through the windows, it was obvious she was paler than normal.
“There must be another way, Celestia! We’re not murderers!” Twilight turned to face her mentor, her face stuck between her desire to protect her loved ones and her moral code.
Celestia’s face held a sincere sadness.
This time, it was Luna who stepped forward. “We have explored all other routes. It cannot be any other way.” Her coat was a midnight blue, mane sparkling like the night sky. However even her mane lacked its normal lustre, as if a dawn was draining the colour.
Twilight fought desperately over what decision was right. Eventually, with tears cascading down her face, she collapsed to the floor and heaved a final sigh. After attempting to collect herself, Twilight dragged herself towards her friends. “I’m so sorry, Rarity.” Twilight’s voice held a finality about it. Rarity didn’t move and her face still hidden behind her hair. But a small puddle had formed on the ground at her front hooves.
“My darling Sweetie Belle is not this ‘Sweetest Belle’ and nothing you say will convince me my sister is going to cause the destruction of the world.” All eyes turned to Rarity as she flicked her hair out of her face, revealing a serious and stern gaze under the tears still streaming down her cheeks. Rarity's resolve seemed to give Twilight new energy. Twilight picked herself up, wiped her own tears away and walked over to her friends. Her mane came back into place as she turned to face her mentor, Luna, and Cadence.
Luna’s voice travelled softly through the room. “All signs point to your sister. However, we called you here to warn you at this early stage, not to act. As much as I love your sister, we have to sacrifice one for the many if this indeed is true,”
Rarity nodded, her face stern and unyielding.
“It won’t come to that. Sweetie Belle is not going to destroy the world. I stake my life’s work on it.”
Sweetie Belle hummed happily as she went about her task of cleaning up the road that led to her sister’s Boutique. She had not been asked to, of course, but she felt it was her duty to make her sister’s life easier by not having to worry about getting rocks in her hooves. Finishing up, she turned around to marvel at the spotless path, only to frown at the sight of a single pebble in the middle of the road.
“Pesky pebble, why are you being so mean to me?” Trying to brush it off the path, she found it was stuck, and even a good kick with her hoof would not dislodge it. Glancing upward at her horn, she sighed in dismay. It would be so easy if she could just do a levitation spell. However, no matter how many times she tried it, magic just seemed to slip away from her.
“Dumb rock! You’re going down.” Closing her eyes, Sweetie concentrated. Her tongue stuck out as she tried to focus on the part of herself that directed magic. Her horn sparked and slowly a weak aura began to build up around the tip, slowly making its way down her horn. When the aura stopped halfway down, Sweetie tried to grab the pebble with her magic like Twilight had shown her.
The magic flew slowly from her horn and wrapped around the pebble. Sweetie Belle clenched her teeth when she felt the spell flicker but forgot that her tongue was out and bit herself. She ignored the taste of blood in favor of focusing on moving that pebble. She had never felt so close to moving anything before and wasn’t going to give up now.
Her magic took hold of the pebble and ever so slowly it rose into the air.
“Sweetie Belle, what in Equestria are you doing?” Concentration lost, her horn sparked once and failed. When she opened her eyes, she was struck by a wave of pain. Rarity tutted her sister and gently pushed her towards the boutique so she could put some ice on the bit tongue.
“Oh come on, Rarity! I was so close!”
“Of course dear, but why on such an dirty rock? Why not try a brush instead?” Sweetie groaned and headed inside. She failed to notice Rarity quickly glance to the mentioned rock. There was a small indent where it had obviously been permanently implanted into the road, however now the rock was next to the indent instead of inside it.
Think nothing of it, Rarity; she is your little sister, it’s good her magic is growing in strength. Rarity quickly swept the rock off the road before heading inside after her sister.
“So Rarity, did the biggest and bestest sister bring me back anything?” Rarity chuckled in response and brought a small box into the room.
“It’s a magic practice kit. It helps you learn to use your magic.” As Rarity held up the box, Sweetie Belle squealed in joy and dove for it. Only for Rarity to levitate it out of reach. “On one condition,” demanded Rarity. Sweetie Belle nodded enthusiastically. “Next weekend we go on a two day spa extravaganza in Canterlot. I’ve already purchased the tickets and I am so looking forward to taking my dear little sister along.” Rarity’s demand normally would have made Sweetie Belle groan. But with Rarity holding all the cards, she gave in without a fight.
“Okay, okay, now can I have it?” Sweetie Belle begged, but Rarity held off. After getting visual confirmation that she agreed to the demands, she gave the box to Sweetie Belle. Sweetie snatched up the box and ran towards her room, causing Rarity to chuckle.
“It’s going to be nice to have a weekend doing something we both can enjoy.” With Sweetie appeased, she headed into the kitchen to start on dinner.
“Most unicorns start using magic at an early age, even without realising it. Sometimes it can be a simple change of eye colour to match their parents or levitating an object in anger. Most fillies and colts experience their magic key so quickly that it’s instantly forgotten. Hence their difficulty to call it up unless in danger.
“Some unicorns can access this easily, others through practice. However, as they begin to learn their magic, it grows stronger. So even if a filly or colt is having problems finding their key, there are ways to help them learn how to use it - like training wheels. This is called a channel.
“Normally, the channel is the horn. But in extremely rare cases where the magic isn’t flowing to the horn fast enough, a different part of their body can be used to better access their key. There are also outside channels, but they are much harder to—blagh this guy doesn’t shut up!” Turning the pages, Sweetie Belle moved onto the actual exercises, looking at the pendent that had been included with the book.
“Ok step one is…Find your magic channel. This crystal is a magic detector. Touch it to different parts of your body until your find the point it glows strongest. Common channel locations are: hooves, heart, mouth, nose, ears, and in one case; eyes.” Sweetie placed the book down and held the crystal in a hoof, noting how it had a very faint glow. Tossing it between her hooves, she noticed how her right front hoof had a stronger glow.
Pulling the crystal near her horn, she saw it light up; nearly twice as bright as before. It dimmed as she put it on her nose, mouth, heart, and ears. Finally, she closed one eye, and walking towards the mirror, she held the crystal on her closed eye.
Sweetie was nearly blinded when the crystal’s glow flared up several times brighter than it had on her horn. With a surprised shriek, she stumbled backwards. The choice became obvious as she blinked the stars out of her eyes.
“Okay, so I can call magic better out of my eyes? Oooh does that mean I will be able to shoot magic beams from them!?” Sweetie heard Rarity call her down for dinner but chose to ignore it in favor of skipping to the book’s chapter on eyes. However, the chapter was little more a single page at the end - as if it had been added as an afterthought.
“To use your magic, focus like you would in using your horn but use your eyes instead. These two are connected, so if you are able to even cause sparks with your horn, you have the mark of a…gifted magi!” Sweetie grew excited and ignored a second dinner call from Rarity as she stepped away from the book and put the crystal around her neck.
Staring at the book, she tried to work out how she focused her magic on her horn and realised it was more a direction of thought more than anything else. So as her eyes narrowed, she ignored the horn on her head, glared at the book and willed her magic to levitate it. There was a brief moment where it went towards her horn. But after a few failed attempts, she managed to channel the magic into her eyes, which began to glow a bright green.
Sweetie Belle barely noticed footsteps and knocking at her door as the magic rushed to her command. The book rose into the air and eventually reached the ceiling. Done with mere levitation, she began attempting to move it around but strained under the multitasking skills she required for it.
“SWEETIE BELLE, STOP!” Rarity’s panicked voice sounded from the door. Sweetie blinked and as she gazed in her sister’s direction, her eyes returned to normal and the book fell to the floor.
“Sister, look! I did it!” Sweetie was so proud of herself that she barely noticed the brief moment when Rarity’s face was struck with fear before she was smiling warmly again.
“I am very proud of you, Sweetie, but it’s time for dinner.” Sweetie Belle found she was absolutely starving. Forgetting about the crystal around her neck, she dashed down to eat.
Rarity gazed around the room, and her face grew sick with worry.
“Magic always tells the truth, malevolent eyes hidden by youth.”