The early morning sunshine went through Twilight Sparkle's window as she began to wake. Taking in a deep breath, she wandered to the far window to be greeted by Ditzy Doo, the mail mare. Twilight ran outside and began greeting everyone, running past the mayor and her entourage and then over to the tables near the Quill shop.
"Morning, kid!" said Davenport as she passed. Twilight carried on through Ponyville and further down to Rarity's Carousel Boutique.
"Oh, doesn't my sky look smashing, darling?" Rarity asked.
"Rarity?" Twilight was confused. Her sky?
“Do you like it?" she asked again.
Twilight was beyond confused now. "What do you mean your sky Rarity?" she began. Then she looked down to see that Rarity had a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt for a cutie mark, instead of her usual three diamonds. "Wait…that’s Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. Oh, no." Twilight quickly turned around and headed back for her library. Today is definitely not fine.
She arrived back at her library minutes later, soaked by Rarity’s checkerboard style rainstorm. "Spike, I need your help; something did go wrong last night." She looked over to the glass case that held the elements of harmony and found that they were all different. "That spell corrupted the elements and changed everypony’s destinies. SPIKE!!!"
The little dragon came tumbling down the stairs in a rush."Wooah, woooaahh. Ow! What are you talking about, Twilight? Oh, right," spike looked at the case and realized what she was talking about. "What can we do? Is there any spell to reverse this?"
"I don’t know! Wait, do you remember that black grimoire that Princess Celestia gave us?"
"Yeah?"
"I think there is a spell in there that could fix this. Grab it and let’s sort this mess out." Spike stumbled through a pile of books until he came across a sizable black hardback book, nearly as big as him, Twilight grasped the book in her magic and levitated it in front of her. The book opened as it flipped through its pages. "Aha! This is the one! Now Spike, I want you to stand over there just in case something happens; this book was in the restricted section of the Palace library. Even the Princess had second thoughts of giving me this." Spike toddled over to the door so he was out of the way.
Taking a deep breath, Twilight began the spell. "Connected from one to all, true destiny shall be revealed, brake the heavens with thy plea, lest thy destiny be everfree!" suddenly Twilights eyes glowed bright white as she rose into the air, just a moment before Celestia flashed into the room.
"No, Twilight! I’m too late." Twilight began to scream in pain as the magic reverberated against the walls of the library. "Spike, get out of here, now. I will contain Twilight." He obeyed, sprinting out the door with tears in his eyes. "I am so sorry, I wasn't fast enough," Celestia opened her wings wide as she made a protective orb around Twilight to stop her magical rampage. It did not, however, stop her from hearing her student’s almost animalistic screams. It stopped as quickly as it began, and Twilight’s body dropped to the bottom of the orb, lifeless. Celestia began to cry.
All across Ponyville, the other Elements got their own destinies back and turned to face the library. They knew Twilight had something to do with it, so they all five rushed to the library, where a disheveled alicorn lay holding the lifeless body of their friend. One by one they broke down. Seconds turned into minutes, and still Twilight lay without quivering.
"I am sorry my dear little ponies; this is all my fault. I was testing her in this trial to see if she could ascend, but she used a spell only an alicorn could perform and it ki-" a sharp breathe came from Twilights body “Twilight!" Celestia quickly inspected her student’s body. Her chest rose up and down ever so slightly. "She needs a hospital, quickly!"
Waking from the darkness
Twilight was awoken by a faint beeping. "He.....hello?" No response. Where am I? This doesn't feel like my home. She moved and felt pain coming from her face, and moved a hoof up to her left eye. Soft bandages could be felt. She tried the right, with the same result.
"Miss Sparkle?" A sudden stallion’s voice made her jump. "Oh, I’m sorry; I didn't mean to startle you. Do you have any pain? Can you hear me fine?"
Twilight thought for a few minutes before answering, "Yes. It hurts a bit, but I can hear you fine. Where am I? Last I remember I was at the library."
"You are at Canterlot hospital, my dear. My name is Dr. Heart Med.
"Why am I here? What are these bandages for?"
A shuffling of hooves could be heard as the doctor’s voice became more heartfelt. "When you first came here, you were dying. It’s been three weeks, and the bandages are nearly ready to be removed, but…" the doctor became quiet for a minute before carrying on, "but when we checked your eyes, the optic nerves within them were damaged beyond repair. I am sorry, but you are blind. I’ll come back later to check and see if the bandages are ready to come off." Hoofsteps could be heard moving out of the room as a light switch was pressed.
Twilight sat there for hours, thinking. She could not feel her eyes, but still tears formed in them. Her patches became damp and pressed on on her face as she cried. Many hours later, the doctor came back to replace the old bandages and gave her news that another week she could have them taken off and go home. But everything had changed now. No more books, no more spells. It wouldn't be a normal life anymore; it wouldn’t be her life. What about my friends? Then she cried herself asleep.
Unknown hours later
Light noises of weeping could be heard. Twilight turned her head in the direction of the crying. "Hello?" her voice was raspy from dryness. The weeping stopped as a hoof came over to Twilight’s.
Then a voice came. "I am so sorry my dear student; I never meant for this to happen. I should have never gave you that grimoire…" sniffles came again.
"Princess Celestia, this isn't your fault." Tears came to Twilight as well.
"No, Twilight, it was. It was a test to see if you were ready to become the next alicorn princess of Equestria. I had very little doubt that you would succeed, but then there was that book. That was something I did not foresee, and I arrived too late to stop you"
A silence filled the air for many minutes until Twilight finally spoke. "I would have become an alicorn…" Celestia shifted from the bed. "This just shows I wasn't ready, what has happened was meant to. It was never your fault; it was me who used the book." suddenly Twilight was grasped in a tight hug as she felt trickles down the side of her face as Celestia cried. After a while they broke the embrace.
After a while, more hoofsteps could be heard again and then Celestia spoke. "Hello Velvet." A slap could be heard. "I deserve that. I will leave you and your daughter alone." Celestia could be heard leaving. "I will come by again tomorrow Twilight." then she left as the door closed, two sets of hoofsteps came to the right of her bed.
It was a stallion who spoke first. "Hello sweetie. How are you feeling?"
"Hi daddy. I'm okay, it’s still a bit itchy though," a small giggle could be heard from Nightlight. "Mom I.....It was my fault, please don't blame the Princess for my accident"
"It wasn't you who was egging yourself on to use magic now, was it?" Velvets voice was braking. "Now my little baby is blind…" Twilight felt her mother hold her hoof.
"No one egged me on; it was of my own accord that I used the spell." A sad smile creeped onto her face, "and it was my fault that this happened, nopony else’s"
"Fine, but after you are released from the hospital you’re moving back home to Canterlot. Alvin can care for you again. We may be of low nobility, but we can hire him again."
"No mom, you can’t. My home is in Ponyville....."
"What, you stay there and run a library? You're blind now, you can’t even use a library properly. Can you, Twilina bella Sparkle?"
"I..I..I don't know, but..."
"But nothing! There’s nowhere else that you can go, sweetie. You must come home." at this point another set of hooves could be heard that sounded like Celestia’s.
Twilight turned her head in the direction of the sound, "Princess Celestia, I thought you went home."
"I am afraid that my sister did go home. I have come for a different reason involving you, Twilight"
"Oh, sorry Princess Luna. You sound quite a lot like Princess Celestia when you move."
The hoofsteps came to the left of the bed. "It is quite alright; it is not the easiest of things to recognize somepony by the sound of their hooves. Now, Miss Velvet, I am afraid I have other plans for where Twilight will be staying."
If Twilight could have seen her mother’s face, it would be very shocked. "I'm sorry, but where would that be? My child has just been blinded by your sister! You may be royalty and our princesses, but that certainly does not mean we trust you!"
"I cannot express how sorry we are, but it would be best if I take Twilight. There is a way for her to be able to see again, but it will take time." Another set of hooves came into the room. "I will give you all the paperwork of where she will be. It is an old, trustworthy friend of mine. She will be able to help Twilight."
"I have not agreed to this, but for Twilights sake, I will hear you out. We will discuss this another time. I have to go now sweetie, but we will be back soon"
"See you soon honey."
"Goodbye mom, dad." They left, leaving Twilight and Luna alone, "I am so sorry. Please forgive my mother; she’s just hard headed. It was my own fault for using the spell. It was meant for high mages and Celestia said most of the spells must be ran through the 'Order' before being used, but I used that one without permission."
A sigh could be heard escaping the princess. "It is alright, and just between you and me, please call me Luna. The spell was actually one my sister made. Even if the greatest mage in history tried the spell, they would not be able to use it; it would kill them, which comes to my next point. You survived"
"What do you mean?"
"It was supposed to be impossible for a normal unicorn, even with your innate ability, to use a spell of this fortitude. The spell should have overloaded your body and shredded every single cell of it. To be blunt, you escaping with merely blindness is nothing short of miraculous. I have tried to see your dreams since the accident, but I cannot enter them. The only other pony that I cannot do this with is my sister, this is another impossibility. Finally, is your magical prowess: it has changed. What was once an overflowing fountain is now comparable to Neighagra Falls. Even more, it is growing every minute.
"Wait…can you actually see my magic?"
"It is odd to explain .think of this, only a miniscule amount of unicorns are able to do this. Your horn can do more than focus your magical power onto the world. With practice, it can sense the miniscule amount of magic inside of everything. This is the reason that I want you to meet my friend. She will train you in the more spiritual essence of being a mage. not many unicorns think this is proper practice and completely ignore this side of being a castor."
The door opened as the doctor strode in, "Am I intruding, Princess? I’m here to take Twilights bandages"
"No, no, just a conversation. We can carry on after you are done."
"Thank you. Now Twilight, am I safe to touch your face whilst I take the bandages away?"
Twilight just nodded her head in reply. She then felt a hoof over the patch on her left eye, slowly the patch lifted, and the cool air could be felt bracing her eyelid. "Now just try opening your left eye for me please." For a few seconds all the lid did was twitch, but then with pain she opened her eye. "Hmmm. A little swelling, but nothing major. No problems apart from your eyelid is still black. Now for the right eye and then we'll slip the bandages off." Once again slight pressure could be felt as the patch came up giving the eye room to breathe. "Brilliant. Much better. It’s not as swelled as the last. Aaaand there we go. The bandage was pulled over her mane and taken off. "Just a few days of rest and you can be released.
"Thank you, doctor." He then exited the room. "As for what you were saying?"
"Another time Twilight; you need your rest. I will be back when you are to be released. Good night."
The alicorn left, leaving Twilight to her own thoughts. Days passed and her recovery came more easily than the doctors expected; only four days and Twilight was ready to leave the hospital. As she said, Luna came and took her to Canterlot, after getting her parents’ consent. It will soon be time to see this mage Luna was talking about. What will be in store for Twilight?