//------------------------------// // Secret Envies // Story: The Soul's Twin // by RDTwin //------------------------------// Rainbow and Twilight entered the large, oak library after a short walk from Sugarcube Corner. The door closed magically behind them, effectively shutting out the chilly night air. “Make yourself comfortable, Dash.” Twilight turned toward the kitchen door. “Would you care for something to take that headache away?” Rainbow just nodded before finding her normal cloud-bag and flopped into it. She shifted, allowing the clouds to conform to her figure. The cold night air had done her some good, but now that she was back in the warmth of a building, the pounding in her head greeted her once again. Twilight soon returned bringing a tea cup with black liquid in it. Rainbow eyed it tentatively, unsure of what it was. Twilight rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Look, it may not smell or look very good, but I guarantee It’ll help with your headache.” Rainbow only shrugged and thought, If it would get rid of this damn sledgehammer in my head, I’ll gladly drink it. She wrapped a hoof around the handle and eyed it once more before taking a cautious sip… and spat it out seconds afterward. “What in Celestia’s name is this?!” she asked, still spitting several times. “It’s called coffee,” said Twilight, “and it’s really good for getting rid of hangovers. I should know. Last year, when cider season rolled around and we got drunk that night, I drank three cups to get rid of the nasty headache I got the next morning.” “Oh, yeah, I remember,” said Rainbow, suppressing a giggle. “That was the night I tried to make out with Rarity; she’s actually pretty hot for somepony who has to be perfect everywhere.” “Yes, well, I found out that there’s only one drawback to the drink.” Dash again eyed the black liquid. “And that would be?” “The seed from which the drink is made contains a substance most commonly known as caffeine. This is a form of stimulant which, given the subject…” “English, Egghead!” Rainbow huffed in annoyance. Twilight blushed slightly. “Oh, sorry. In simpler terms, caffeine make the pony really hyper. But a note from me to you: don’t ever give Pinkie Pie any of it. She had a cup and she was literally bouncing off the walls. It normally takes me two or three cups to even get half that hyper.” Rainbow was giggling uncontrollably. “I can only imagine the chaos she caused.” Twilight just sighed into her hoof. “So how exactly do you expect me to drink this?” “I just usually gulp it down,” explained Twilight. “You can taste less of the bitterness, which technically is good. Theoretically, the more bitter it is, the stronger the coffee, and the more potent the effects.” Rainbow sighed and looked at the cup before tossing it back and hastily gagging down its contents. “Ugh...” Dash groaned. “I don’t care how effective it is, it tastes horrible.” She continued to rub her temples in annoyance. “You know,” Twilight began, “I can make you forget that headache with a minor distraction.” “I'd like to see you try.” Twilight said nothing but instead brought out a small, circular object from underneath her left wing and set it down on the table. Rainbow’s eyes widened in shock, flaring her own wings to look for her own device, but to no avail. It was staring at her from the table. “Wh… where’d you find that?!” she finally managed to stutter. “While you were sleeping off your rum, I went to investigate the causes of a mysterious levitation spell cast on your last shot glass,” she said pointedly. “And I found this,” she pointed to the device, “underneath your chair.” Rainbow glanced around nervously, fiddling with her wings. She had been caught and she knew it. “It was you, wasn’t it?” Twilight asked. Rainbow sighed, acknowledging her defeat. “Yeah, it was me,” she admitted, but then added quickly, “but you can’t tell anypony! Please?” “Why not? Yeah, it’s different, but why wouldn’t you want anypony to know?” “Because it would ruin the reputation I built for myself. I can’t have ponies knowing that Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria, does magic, because they’ll think that I’m turning into an egghead like you!” “Well, you already like reading, so I’d say that’s pretty accurate.” “Exactly!” Dash looked up with a pleading expression. “Please Twi, just don’t tell anypony.” Twilight sighed. “Fine, I won’t tell. Pinkie Promise.” She cringed, half-expecting Pinkie or her voice to pop out of nowhere. Rainbow knocked Twilight over in the biggest hug she had ever give to anypony. “Thanks, Twi.” Twilight unconsciously snuggled into the hug before she’d realized what she had done. “Uhh… Rainbow?” she asked cautiously. “Huh?” “You can let go now.” “Oh, sorry.” Rainbow go up off of Twilight and backed up slightly. An awkward pause ensued as both ponies tried to (unsuccessfully) avoid embarrassment. “So...” Twilight finally broke the silence and asked, “Where exactly did you find this?” “Well, I went back to Cloudsdale to visit my parents and I found my great-great-great-grandfather’s uniform in my dad’s closet. It looked like part of the belt buckle, but when I took the uniform out of the closet, it fell off. Dad let me keep the uniform, seeing that I liked it so much. Plus, it was kinda a family heirloom.” “Could I see sometime?” Twilight asked eagerly. “Yeah, sure. Probably tomorrow.” “So how exactly does it work?” “Well, to answer that question in the scholarly way, “ Rainbow mimicked, “can you find the book I was reading about a week ago?” “Oh, the one on Equestrian history?” “Yeah, that’s the one. Ancient Equestrian History.” Twilight lit up her horn and brought the book over. “Okay,” said Rainbow, “find the section after the first war with Discord about the Crystal Empire, and there should be a little star thingy next to the paragraph about Sombra’s defeat.” “Asterisk.” “Whatever. There’s a little reference in the back of the book that really cleared things up for me.” Twilight flipped to the appropriate spot in the appendix and read the entry, her eyes widening, greedily taking in the new information. “This is amazing!” she exclaimed. “It says here that there were two special armies of pegasi and earth ponies who engaged Sombra’s armies in a battle of magic!” How did I miss this? she asked herself. “It even gives two distinct pictures of the devices used to give the armies magical abilities…” Twilight brought over Rainbow’s device and compared it to the pictures. “And yours matches the pegasi’s device perfectly!” Twilight dropped the book on the ground. “Do you know what this means?” she asked, staring at Rainbow. “Yeah, it means I descended from a really awesome pegasus who could control magic without a horn like I can! It just makes my family that much more awesome!” Rainbow boasted, flipping her mane out. “Yeah, okay… But seriously, your great-great-great-grandfather was apart of the Royal Second Army from Canterlot.” The confused pegasus just stared at her, not following. “Which means that Princess Celestia should know everything about this.” “Oh,” Rainbow finally realized. “That’ll come in handy. But, please, Twi… let’s keep things under wraps for right now.” “Why?” “Well, I kinda like being able to use magic, and if it turns out that Celestia wants that thing back, well, I’d kinda miss being able to use it.” “Hmm, I guess it would be okay for a while, as long as you don’t use any dangerous spells,” Twilight warned. “Yeah… We wouldn’t want any of that now, would we?” Rainbow rubbed her hooves together mischieviously. Twilight ignored Dash’s sinister grin and picked up the device to scrutinize it closely. “I still don’t know how this works, though.” “Here,” said Rainbow, taking the device from her, “let me show you.” She pointed at a button on the underside of the device. “See this? When it’s attached to the belt or the strap at the front of the uniform, the button is pressed down. You can’t see anything right now, but if you get the lights…” Twilight flipped off the lights to reveal a large, cyan-blue circle on the floor beneath the pegasus with a whole bunch of shapes in it. The circle was more commonly known to unicorns as a spell circle. This one was big enough to hold two pegasi wingtip-to-wingtip with room to spare. The device glowed blue as Rainbow channeled magic through it and picked up the lopsided book that now lay on the floor and neatly put it back on the table. “It’s pretty cool, huh? I was fiddling with it after I went to bed one night, and accidentally pressed that button and it displayed the spell circle on the ceiling.” “Hold on… what did you just call it?” Twilight asked. Rainbow facehoofed. “Seriously, Twi, of all the ponies, I thought you’d know what it was. You use it in some of your spells, for pony’s sake.” “I know what a spell circle is, Rainbow. I am the Princess of Magic, you know. I just didn’t know that you knew what it was.” Rainbow lit the room in a soft blue glow and trotted over to bookshelf. She selected a book, turned to a page, and showed it to the studious alicorn. “Tell me that that one doesn’t look like mine,” Rainbow deadpanned. “It is pretty similar,” Twilight said, taking the book from Rainbow’s magical grasp into her own. She rounded on the gloating pegasus. “When, exactly, did you have time to do this much research?” She glared with searching eyes. The lavender light cast an eerie glow around her figure. “Um, well,... You see… I’ve, uh... had some off time from the Wonderbolts after I found this and I was able to find out what I needed thanks to Spike.” The alicorn’s expression didn’t change. Rainbow sighed again. “Okay, I borrowed a couple magic books from your library and I’ve been trying to memorize the spells.” “Uh huh, sure,” said Twilight sarcastically, “all twelve books I had on beginner spells!” She looked like she was about to erupt into fire again. Rainbow rubbed the back of her head. “I thought you wouldn’t notice. Besides, you’re always focused on the more advanced ones, like the one you knocked me out with! That really hurt. I still have a bruise on my wing where I landed on it!” “Okay...” Twilight broke into Rainbow’s ramble. “First off, you’re changing the subject, and secondly, I’ve warned you guys countless times not to disturb me when I'm trying out a new spell, and…” BOOM!!!!! An explosion shook the great oak tree from its crown to its roots, accompanied by a bright flash of dark purple light. Both ponies’ magic was cut off and they were thrown to the floor, unconscious.