Twilight slowly but surely managed to lose the very track on the time. She had been thinking on and on about Rarity’s condition. She had been working so hard that she had completely forgotten just at what time the next shot of magic needed to be given to keep the mare knocked out. That happened to have been the greatest of problems for the mare.
“So they are actually fused straight into her back, now that’s going to make quite the bit of complications,” she mumbled to herself after having used her magic as some sort of x-ray. The two vertebrae on which the crystal had tangled themselves became clearly visible to Twilight. At that point could she could only imagine the physical stress.
“But that means, they are tapped right into her nerve center!” the mare then exclaimed. In an instant did she wrote it down in her notebook and gulped deep. Twilight had expected anything and perhaps almost everything to happen. But the one thing she didn't expect, was the fact she had just uncovered. Everything she had thought about suddenly laid in nothing but shambles. Her four hooves brought her back to the single chair.
Her body dropped itself almost abruptly into it before she rapidly shook her head from side to side. She just couldn't believe the facts as they were presented to her. No tome in the entire arsenal that she knew was powerful enough to actually cause such a thing to happen. Nothing that she knew was even capable of doing something like that.
It was then that it hit her. Almost as if it came straight out of the blue, it managed to hit her right in the head. Her hoof was slapped upon the forehead before a yelp of pain and a groan of annoyance left her. Suddenly began everything to make sense. “It’s how they used to build things in the ancient days!” she spoke up to herself.
It seemed to have been rather absurd that such things were used for construction, but their purpose really was that. “They just aren't supposed to be spoken on unicorns, that’s the whole trouble with it.” Then Twilight recalled the image of the pony that wore the dress in the spellbook. That one little detail that was so easily missed, became the biggest suspect.
The image was recalled with almost every bit of power that Twilight had in her mind before it drove back before her eyes. That one little image she had warned Rarity about dazed back before her eyes. And those same eyes looked for the one thing that would have made the biggest difference. The image was blurry for certain, but the detail she was looking for was there. Or perhaps better said, wasn't there.
“It’s never supposed to be cast upon a unicorn! Only earth ponies used to walk around with those things. How else could they have created such amazing architectural features in the ancient times?” It all made sense all of the sudden. The book itself was a book of smiting with gems and seemed to have come from the ancient times.
“How couldn't I have seen this any sooner?!” yelled Twilight to herself as she stood back up from her chair. “But every spell, must have a counter spell of some sort, right?” It was a wishful idea for certain, weren't it for the fact that a lot was left unknown about magic from the ancient times. It was a field of expertise few knew about and Twilight didn't happen to be the one for it. The challenge she thought would have been easy, suddenly got a lot harder. Not to mention the fact that it also became a lot more dangerous.
Twilight’s attention was then focused upon one of the lower claws. Her horn calmly charged itself up once more. The magical aura gently coated the pieces of the claw itself before peeling them back to see just how they worked. A small arcane shield appeared underneath the hooves of Twilight. It brought her up to the height she had to be. She wanted to conduct an experiment.
Her eyes looked at each and every single shard of crystal near the end. Everything was in the perfect harmony with one another. At least from the looks of it. No space was wasted. With every bend, they just shrunk or expanded to some degree. The sheer flexibility of the things was something never to have been expected from a material like crystal or diamond.
Sadly that also meant the little fact that they were just about the hardest material that could be found in Equestria. Cutting through it with a saw certainly wouldn't have helped nor would lasers have done the job.
Removing the arms was something that proved to become the biggest difficulty for Twilight. Something she perhaps never would have been able to do on her own, or with the help of someone. A deep sigh went through her mouth. The eyes continued to focus upon the claw instead of anything else. Despite the horror, it had still sparked the interest of the mare.
They were just a beauty to look at in her eyes. Twilight could see just how powerful the things actually were. The sheer amount of physical force behind them and the ability to actually get a hold on something was amazing.
---
There just happened to have been one little problem for the mulberry mare. The ever so little fact that Rarity herself had come out from her sleep. She still laid still on the table and not a motion was made within her body or the arms. But the thing that did start to go and ramble on, was her mind. All of the thoughts of the things that Twilight could have done to her rushed themselves through the narrowed channels.
Fear struck in her heart once again. The horrors became a little bit too realistic for her liking. Something about the facts as they were, didn't seem to add up in her mind. Of course it were just anomalies caused by something else in her mind. Though that little fact never seemed to have been able to stop her. A frightful unicorn could make odd jumps.
Which was especially true for Rarity herself. With the feelings coming back to her body, including the arms, she felt the magic of Twilight tucking itself against one of them. Highly annoying as it was, it was also frightful. The sheer danger of one of the claws actually snapping would have felt to her as breaking a hoof.
Painful to say the least. That was something she wanted to prevent at all cost. And no matter the cost itself. Slowly but surely had one of the arms managed to undo itself from the levitational field it was place in and silently moved its way towards the back of Twilight’s head.
The other unicorn was still working eagerly on the other arm’s claw. She didn't notice that threat that was coming her way. It was only when her eyes focused themselves upon an odd reflection in the diamonds and crystals themselves that her eyes suddenly went wide.
“Oh no,” she managed to speak up before time slowed itself down to a crawl. Seconds became like minutes while a beating heart could easily be heard in her mind.