That made no sense. Everything that was once alive had some sort of magic left. But there was no mistake. There was no trace of life left in my eyes.
Just then, I heard the front door open.
"Twilight!" I called, running over to her as best as I could. "I'm blind!"
"Yeah," she said, absently. "That explains so well how you found me so fast."
Then she looked me in the face.
Evidently she did not like what she saw.
"We have to get back to the hospital, immediately!" she said, frantically, rushing to pack up her things.
"No, Twilight."
"What?"
"They're gone."
"What do you mean? The doctors might be able to fix this! If this just happened today---"
"No, they can't. My eyes have less life than these books do."
"What do you mean?"
"I figured out the spell you gave me. I can see these books from the life they once had. My eyes..."
"...oh, no."
"But what happened? Why did I go blind? Did learning the spell cause this?"
"I don't know, but if you say your eyes are completely drained of magic..."
"Then what?"
"Did you see any of your own magic when you cast that spell?"
"Yes, when I looked into that mirror in the bathroom."
"Describe it to me."
"Well, I could tell immediately why my wings weren't working. My magic started from my core, but was just flowing in random directions. It wasn't focused at all."
"It's just as I feared. You should stay as still as possible. Rest. Just until you have control of your magic. I know what happened to your eyes."
"What?"
"All life, all activity, uses magic as the fuel. That is why you are able to see things that were once living. Your magic is erratic, not focused properly on anything in your body. You overexerted your eyes today. Normally, that would only result in eye strain. All the energy used would come from your core, your font of magic. With no magic to draw from.."
"It drained all the life instead."
A heavy weight descended on my chest. If only I had just stuck to my old plan, this never would have happened. Why did I have to be so...curious about everything?
Twilight looked down at me sadly. I couldn't see her face, exactly, but I felt her emotion all the same. "I'm sorry. If only I had been here..."
"No, it's not your fault. If it was anypony's fault, it was my own. I should have seen the signs."
"No, it's not your fault, either. I don't want you to blame yourself unnecessarily. Nopony is taking the blame. All we can do is pick up the pieces and move on. We need to get a control of your magic before something worse happens. Most ponies' bodies regulate their magic automatically. It appears that you are stuck manually applying it. Which will be difficult to do. Very difficult. Spells like that are some of the highest level...wait. How did you master that Magic Sight spell so fast? That was a pretty advanced spell. Even I don't use it that often!"
"Well, like you said, it was designed for unicorns."
"That doesn't explain a thing!" Twilight said, exasperated. "If anything, that should make it harder!"
"That's what I thought at first, too. But then, after I had read through the whole thing, I realized that the book was making it look a lot harder than it really was. The only parts that a unicorn was required for was all for show, anyway. It appears a lot of unicorns like to show off."
"And a lot of pegasi, too," muttered Twilight, obviously thinking of Rainbow Dash. It couldn't possibly be me, right?
"So when I condensed it all in my mind, it really was quite a simple spell. Still kind of hard, though. It took me about four hours to get it right."
"I see. It takes most skilled unicorns about a month."
"But I know why now. It was written to look like other unicorn spells, when it was actually an innate ability of most ponies. It was such a convoluted explanation. I'm not surprised it took them that long."
"And now you can use it like regular sight?"
"Well, not really. I've managed about thirty minutes straight, though. Last time was five minutes, so..."
"So yes, you can. At that rate, you would be able to keep it up for...about five hours tomorrow."
"...I think so. But it's not like regular seeing at all. I can't see anything if it's inorganic. Like metal. Or stone. And I can see through things. It's really rather annoying when you try to reach through a wall to grab something."
"But you can manage."
"I guess."
"Then I think it'll be just fine for you to go to school tomorrow."
Wait, WHAT!
"But what about the whole 'exerting myself too much' that you were talking about?"
"That's why we are going to spend the rest of tonight practicing control."
"But--"
"No buts. You need to be safe as soon as possible. I don't want any surprises in the morning if I find you've been running in your sleep. Besides, it'll look too odd if you aren't in school tomorrow."
"Fine."
It actually wasn't too bad, and it was pretty interesting. Especially because I would gain flight, but the actual process was far cooler than I expected. It was one thing to see the magic around me. Pretty cool, but even better when I could actually influence it.
By the end of forty-five minutes, I could get my magic to form into the approximation of a pony. The core was still in the same spot, but the magic that emanated from it was now controllable.
Moving with it was another matter. It would, of course, naturally move with me, but retaining concentration while walking was hard. And it was disappointing that while my wings now provided a small lift, I still could not fly. I thought back to when I was in the forest. Did that crater, or whatever caused it, do something to my magic? Wait a minute...
"Twilight? Did you find anything out about the crater I was in?"
Twilight sighed. "No, I didn't. All I found was some residual chaos magic, and that permeates the Everfree. Everything has residual chaos magic in there."
"But this had more than usual."
"Not enough to mean anything."
We resumed practice. Well, it was mostly me. Twilight was there to monitor me, and for moral support. She was also using Magic Sight, but for a lot less of a duration.
Maybe I should show her the easy way, sometime.
I eventually gained passable control, even when running, and Twilight was satisfied enough that she allowed me to sleep. Even if I lost control during sleep, there was no way I could be drained in so little time. My eyes were used extensively, and If I was correct, did not have any magic to run on since I came to in the crater.
I walked up to the spare room Twilight had given me, and laid down in my bed.
Who am I, really?
Short answer, Sidereus. But was that really my name? It was just a word I remembered.
It didn't even sound like a name.
Then what should I be called?
I don't really know anything. About me. About my past. I'm a blank record.
A blank record.
Blank Record