//------------------------------// // 6: The Wacked-Out Truth // Story: Ten Years Later // by MrAlbum321 //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle sighed. "Well, nothing else to do except go back to sleep, I guess," she said to Spike. "You sure?" Spike said. "The spell could affect you again." Twilight sighed. "Well, yes, but I need rest," she said. "Yesterday was a rough day, and the cleanup tomorrow will take all week. I'll need my strength for that." "But what if Luna or Celestia wants to talk to you about this?" Spike asked. "Ragnarock is no joke." "It's also an old pony's tale," Twilight countered. "So was Nightmare Moon!" Spike exclaimed. "Who says Ragnarock isn't real?" "There was a record of Nightmare Moon's return, Spike," she said with emphasis. "Empirical and clear evidence of her existence. I looked into Ragnarock a long time ago and found nothing about it. I almost got laughed out of the Royal Canterlot Library when I asked for books on the subject. Either someone erased the books of any mention of it - which I doubt - or there IS no record of it." Twilight yawned and blew out the candle, slipping back into her bed. "Besides, I'm exhausted," she muttered as she settled back into the covers. "The only thing that will get me out of this bed is an emergency, or one of the Princesses themselves knocking at my-" An urgent banging came from the direction of Twilight's balcony. Twilight tensed, a vein pulsing on her forehead. "Spike... please go to the balcony and tell me that whoever is up there isn't who I think it is," Twilight asked. Spike took a look up there. "It is," Spike answered. He opened the door. Both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna rushed through the now-open balcony door past Spike to Twilight's bedside. Celestia turned on the main light in the library and turned Twilight around to face her. Twilight blinked at the sudden intrusion and the bright light now in her eyes. She barely made out the outline of Celestia above her. "P-Princess Celestia? Wha-" "It's beginning to affect her," Celestia said. "Do we have everything?" Luna ran downstairs into the basement. She levitated a variety of equipment from there into the main room and began to rearrange it into a strange configuration that Twilight had never seen before. "What in- Princess Celestia, what's going on?!" Twilight asked. Twilight’s eyelids became heavy against her will. "Take a look at yourself in the mirror," Celestia said. Worried and curious, Twilight sat up. A typhoon of dizziness hit her balance, making her collapse back onto the bed. She tried to breathe, but for some reason she could barely gather the wind for a whisper. She began to shiver, which exhausted her. "What... is... happening... to... me?!..." Celestia levitated a small, nearby mirror in front of Twilight. Twilight's reflection showed something that scared and confused Twilight. "Star-Swirl The Bearded never wrote or spoke in Ancient Equinian," Celestia said. "Only alicorns spoke it, and Luna and I are the last of our kind. Somehow, a book of alicorn magic ended up in your library. While you are very talented at magic, Twilight Sparkle, alicorn magic is far too advanced for any unicorn, because alicorns have far greater magical capacity than even the most powerful unicorn. The spells you cast this past month will drain you of your life, unless we can dispell them." Twilight's reflection showed her purple coat slowly draining of color. At the areas where the color had vanished, her skin withered, the hair falling away like cobwebs in a stiff breeze. She tried to mutter something, but her throat and jaw refused to move, or to utter a sound. Her world went fuzzy as her head rolled back. She barely heard Celestia scream her name at her; it seemed so far away. Time seemed to slow down, relaxing Twilight and soothing her mind. How panicked she had been merely a few seconds ago! But now, in the dark silence, she settled down for the night's sleep which Celestia so rudely interrupted. Twilight began to hear the dull thud of her heartbeat. What an ugly sound! she thought. If only it went away, I could get some rest! Twilight noticed something, then. A tiny, indigo light appeared somewhere in the distance. Well, that's odd! she thought. I wonder what it is? Twilight began to walk towards the light. As she walked, her heartbeat increased in volume, giving her a headache. Grumbling about being inconvenienced, she pressed on. Then, she heard a voice say this to her: "Think of your friends." "What friends?" Twilight asked the voice. "I don't recall having any friends. Did I have friends?" Her heartbeat pounded against her eardrums, forcing the headache to intrude upon her consciousness. “Stop it!” she exclaimed. “I just want to sleep!” The heartbeat continued to thud. “It’s that light, isn’t it?” Twilight said. “I’ll show it, I’ll walk right up to it and tell it to make it quiet again!” Twilight followed through on her spoken intent, and ran towards the light. As she approached, she was relieved to find the sound of the heartbeat quieting. It faded to a near-whisper as she approached the source, the light growing brighter with every step. Twilight then came upon a massive stable door. The stable itself looked to stretch forever in Twilight’s eyes. The light beamed above the stable door. Twilight tried to see what device it was that created the light, when the light jumped from the top of the door to the ground in front of Twilight. She had to avert her eyes from the blinding glare. “Oh, goodness!” a voice exclaimed. “I’m sorry, let me fix that!” The light dimmed to a shimmering glow. Twilight opened her eyes again, to find a unicorn pulsating with indigo light in front of her. “So YOU’RE the one who made that sound!” Twilight said. “I’m glad I found you!” “Really?” the indigo unicorn said. “Why is that?” “Because you can stop the sound!” Twilight said. “It was so loud, I couldn’t sleep!” The indigo unicorn looked aside, her expression thoughtful. Twilight looked confused. “You can stop the sound, right? So I can sleep?” she asked. The unicorn turned back to Twilight. “Well… I’m here to save your life,” she said at length. Twilight was even more confused. “But I’m fine! See?” Twilight placed her hoof on herself. “I’m solid, whole and healthy!” “You, right here, are not the life that I am here to save,” the indigo unicorn said, which threw Twilight’s mind for a loop. “Here, let me show you.” The indigo unicorn began to cast a spell. She glowed again with intense indigo light, which was focused on her horn. Twilight had to look away. “You have to see this!” the indigo unicorn shouted. “You must see this!” Twilight felt afraid. She shuddered, and turned to stare straight into the light. It filled her vision, her eyes surrounded by the indigo color. The indigo gave way to white, then yellow-white, then yellow-white-mixed-with-white-and-rainbow-color. Her heartbeat thundered again, but this time she felt glad somehow to hear something familiar. She began to breathe easier. She heard some familiar, muffled voices: “Thank God! It worked!” “The Element is keeping her alive for now, but we need her notes! I know her, she always keeps her notes!” “Here, Celestia! These were what she wrote-“ There was the sound of a paper snatched out of a pair of hands. The brief silence felt intense. Wait, so I tried to cast Alicorn magic? Twilight thought. So, maybe I should just finish the spells while I still have some strength! That would save them the trouble and solve the problem, right? She didn’t hear a response. She didn’t expect one. She closed her eyes, grunted, and managed to sit up. The dizziness hit again, but she kept herself upright. She opened her eyes, and closed them again before the room made her heave. Her dinner came out of her stomach onto the bedsheets. Twilight felt their worried glances aimed her way, so she decided to say something: “So… were… my… trans… la… tions… cor… rect…?” “Well…” she heard Celestia say, “the first spell was correct… in a way. It was actually a delayed prankster spell, designed to make the victim, in this case you, do something ironically tragic. Looks like it has already cast. Thankfully, it wasn’t too intense, or you wouldn’t be speaking to us now.” “The second spell is some kind of beacon,” Luna said, “but what you ended up casting was a highly specific beacon, one designed to guide across multiple planes of reality. This is probably what is hurting you the most right now.” Twilight shuddered. A beacon spell… I can handle that, she thought. She called upon the reserves of her strength, and thought of her friends. My only hope is to have them in my thoughts now, she thought. The light that was already shining from the tiara on her head shone with greater intensity, surprising everyone in the room. She levitated off the bed, her eyes glowing with previously untapped power. Twilight screamed, blasting the floor in front of her with a ray of indigo light. A strange construct wove itself together from the ethereal energies of the indigo ray. The magical structure that formed was a small pedestal, a book materializing from the thick air falling on top of it. The book opened to a random page to show seven large spaces, all blank. Twilight fell back onto the bed, her Element of Harmony returning to its previous glow. Twilight’s body shivered, her forelegs and hindlegs cramped, her thoughts a jumbled mess, her breathing and heartbeat erratic, her mind content. That… was a relief… now… I can… rest…. Twilight fell asleep.