//------------------------------// // Zoom (Rewritten) // Story: Of Bone and Steel // by joe mother //------------------------------// ZOOM Twilight cracked open her eyes as sunlight streamed in through the window onto her face. She yawned and blinked twice to clear a few of the fuzzes dotting her vision. She stayed prone in bed for a moment, feeling contentment course through her body. She sighed and moved her eyes to Spike, who was sleeping in his bed, snoring softly. She got up and walked over to him. She prodded him gently with her hoof, and he stirred. "Wake up," she whispered. "Huh, wha-?" he said, looking around in confusion. His eyes widened. "Oh, no! Did I sleep in?!" Twilight chuckled softly and smiled. "It's okay," she said. "The library's opening soon, though. We have to get ready." Spike moaned and crawled from bed, his mood changing from fear to unwillingness. He got up and followed the now departing Twilight from the room. He landed next to her on the main floor. "Should I cook breakfast?" he asked. "You do it every morning," Twilight said. "So, yes." Spike nodded and darted to the kitchen, leaving Twilight to find an assortment of books she could read in her free time today between ponies coming in to check out a book. She started to scan over the spines of the many stories and biographies on her shelves. "What to read?" she said, pushing her tongue through her lips in thought. Her mind thought of a book she had not gotten to finish a few days ago. "I know!" She spun around to the other side of the room and was greeted with a shock. Her right eye flickered off for a brief moment and then zoomed in on the books across the space from her. "Ah!" she yelled in surprise, falling down on her haunches. She started to breath heavily, trying to focus on something with conflicting optics. She waved her hoof in front of her face, and blinked in instinctive reaction as it appeared to be mere millimeters from her eyes. The zoom reverted back to normal, and she paused in place. "What?" she said. "That's- what- what?" "Twilight?" Spike called from the kitchen. "Breakfast's ready!" Twilight sat in stunned shock for a minute, wondering what had just happened. "Twilight?" Spike asked, coming out from the kitchen to see her sitting there, immobile. "Twilight, what's wrong?" The unicorn just sighed and stood. "I- it's nothing," she said, turning to face Spike. "Well, breakfast is ready." Twilight followed her assistant into the kitchen, where a plate of pancakes awaited her. "Thanks, Spike," she said, taking her seat. She levitated her fork to her mouth and chewed. She barely enjoyed the delicious flavor as she thought about the incident that had just occurred with her eye. What was it? she asked herself, swallowing. It was so strange. Could it have been just a burst of magic? She took another bite of pancake. Maybe something's in my eye. It's not very likely, but after all the things I've gone though in my time here in Ponyville, it could very well be just that. "Twilight, you've been sitting there for a few minutes. Are you okay?" Twilight snapped out of her trance and shook her head. "Yeah, I'm okay," she replied to the dragon. "I was just thinking." Spike nodded and continued to eat his food. Twilight placed her head in her head in her hooves and closed her eyes. Okay, Twilight, just think about something else. Don't let this get to you. She opened her eyes and was greeted by incredibly close up pancakes. "Ah!" she yelled, falling from her chair, which was sent toppling backwards in her reeling shock. "Twilight!" Spike said, running to her side. The unicorn rubbed her head. She suddenly started to panic, standing and running in an anxious circle. "Twilight?" her assistant asked. "What's wrong?" Twilight stopped pacing and turned to Spike. "I don't know," she said. "Something weird is going on." She waved a hoof in front of her face. "What is it?" Spike asked. "My eye is- it's zoomed in," she replied. "I can see everything up close and in great detail. I'm confused." She started to hyperventilate, thinking about all the things that could be wrong. "It could be anything!" she said. "It could be magic, it could be some ancient curse or something, there could even be something in my eye!" "Come on, Twilight," Spike said. "Don't be so paranoid!" Twilight paused her thought train. Spike was right. She did not want to go into some insanity episode like when she had forgotten to send her weekly friendship report to Celestia, or when parasprites had overtaken Ponyville, or when herself from the future had come to deliver a message that ended up to be telling her not to worry about anything. "Yeah, Spike, you're right," she said. "I don't think going crazy over this will help anypony. Especially not myself." She patted the dragon on the back and blinked. Her right eye became normal again. "Whoa," she said. "It just fixed itself!" "Maybe it's something to do with Pinkie Pie?" Spike asked. "She might've done something." Twilight laughed. "I was serious, Twilight!" he yelled as she left the kitchen. Twilight walked over to the door of the library. "I'm going to ask Pinkie about it!" she said. "Can you watch the library while I'm gone?" Spike came out of the kitchen and saluted. "You can count on me!" he said. Twilight smiled and opened the door. She stepped out into the air and breathed in deeply. It was a light but warm air that woke her up and made her feel more alert to the world around her. She closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened them, her right eye had zoomed in again. She flipped out, flailing wildly as she fell on her butt, trying to get a grasp on what was going on. The ponies who were walking past the library looked for a quick second, then decided to never remember the scene again. "What is happening?!" she yelled, drawing glances of confusion from hallway across town. "This doesn't make sense!" She blinked, and the odd occurrence vanished once more. She breathed deeply, trying to process the wealth of information pulsing through her head. "I think I should just go inside and... do something," she said. "Maybe... experiment? Yeah." She rushed back in, much to the surprise of Spike, who was carrying a plate of dishes that he head just finished cleaning. He started and dropped them, wincing as they approached the ground. Twilight stopped them mid-fall with a levitation spell and put them back in the assistant's claws. "Thanks, Twi-" he began, only to hear the basement door shut as Twilight left. He grumbled. Twilight flew down the stairs and saw her machine. She placed all of the electrodes and stuff on her and magically turned the machine on. It began to sputter out readings, all of which seemed perfectly normal. "Gah!" she yelled, unlatching herself. "Nothing seems to be wro-" She felt something hot prick in her leg. It was just like a needle poking her back leg at first, but it soon grew, taking up her entire right hindleg. It started to burn, and the pain entered her body. She felt as through her leg was being invaded by thousands upon thousands of burning fire ants that were biting her flesh and ripping it from her bone. She tried to scream, but the sound caught in her throat as the agony began on her other hindleg. She felt like her flesh was being burned away, slowly becoming something else. Soon, the pain reached a crescendo, tearing through her mind. This time, nothing could stop her from screeching in agony as her body collapsed to the floor, trying to fight the burning overtaking her lower body. "Twilight?!" She heard Spike call from the top of the stairs, and heard his footsteps come closer. She winced as the pain got to its horrifying peak, causing her back to arch. The baby dragon saw her and ran over. "What wrong?!" he asked. "I- don't- know!" Twilight screamed between bursts of fire. Her breathing was becoming erratic, slowly making her brain go numb. "Should I get somepony?!" Spike asked. "Yes!" Twilight replied. "Please!" The dragon ran off to go find anypony who could help. Twilight felt the pain begin to recede. She gasped for air as it slowly became a moderate ebb in her legs. She turned her sweat-soaked head to see that her fur was singed and cracked, matted with blood. The world was spinning as Twilight returned her gaze to the floor, where she vomited. She shut her eyes, and suddenly she lost consciousness.