TWO WEEKS EARLIER
Twilight looked out the window of her humble little house. It never failed. Every morning she would inevitably look at the old library which used to be her home in what seemed to be another life. A burning smell snapped her out of her nostalgia. She ran to the stove and flipped the pancakes she was cooking, which had unfortunately begun to burn on one side.
"Morning Twi!" said Spike, walking in from his bedroom and yawning. Spike was really starting to show his transition from baby dragon to young adolescent dragon. He was twice Twilight's height, and tiny green winglets had begun to sprout from his shoulders. His voice had dropped quite a bit recently.
Spike looked at the stove and held his nose. "More of your signature charcoal-flavored pancakes this morning?"
Twilight groaned. "If you don't like my breakfasts you could try cooking it yourself. Try doing it by breathing fire instead of using the stove."
"Why would I do that?"
"Because then you'd spend a few minutes without making any snarky comments."
Twilight floated the pancakes and some scrambled eggs over to the dinner table, and pulled a couple of chairs.
"Hey Twi..." Spike nudged Twilight in the side. "did you know that you don't have to cook gems?"
"You know as well as I do that I can't afford to feed you gems every day. Besides, YOU'RE not the one having a birthday today."
Spike smiled warmly. "Awwww. I was just about to wish you a happy birthday, honest!"
"I believe you, Spike." Twilight kissed him on the forehead. "Now eat your damn charcoal-flavored pancakes."
-
In a small room near Canterlot Castle, Twilight levitated a piece of chalk and spelled out the name Starswirl on the blackboard.
"Does anyone who this is?" she asked her Magic Kindergarten class.
The little unicorns all stared at her blankly. One started to telekinetically pick his own nose.
"Really?" gasped Twilight. "Starswirl the Bearded! He's probably the most important wizard in the history of Equestria! Back when Equestria was first founded, he developed magical techniques for the unicorns that allowed them to work together with Earth ponies to farm the land, and to help the Pegasi more efficiently control the weather."
Blank stares.
"The pegasi could create tornados to bring water up into the clouds for rain, but with a little magical spark to start the air swirling, they could do it with half as much wingpower. Meanwhile other unicorns who had trained in detection magic honed their skills to locate the richest soil and pools of groundwater."
None of the unicorns were listening to Twilight, but she continued anyway. "The interesting thing about this is that, while Starswirl's magic spells were designed for specific practical purposes, the overall goal was completely different. Three races who had been at each others' throats for generations, at last working together towards a common goal. Like pieces of a puzzle coming together, you can see the whole picture. His ultimate magic spell was one of genuine friendship. Friendship, you see, is magic."
Twilight smiled brightly and emitted a noise that can only be described as a squee.
One filly raised her hoof.
"Yes, Stardust?"
"What's the spell that blows things up?"
Twilight facehoofed.
-
The Friendship Express came to a halt at Ponyville station. Twilight got off with the other passengers, sighing to herself.
Another birthday. She wondered which birthday it was exactly that she began to think more about getting older than about the party. She remembered so many years ago, wearing that yellow party dress, dancing like a maniac in the middle of a bunch of snooty stuck-up Canterlot ponies, just not giving a buck what anyone thought. Those days seemed long gone.
Twilight was supposed to meet Spike at the library to help him look up some information about, well, something. Twilight forgot what it was because it was an obvious ruse to set up a surprise Birthday party for her. She resolved to act as surprised as possible. Twilight opened the door to the library and walked into a darkened room, pretending not to hear the ponies shuffling around. Three. Two. One.
"Surprise!"
Unsurprisingly, when the light came on Twilight had a face full of Pinkie Pie. "Isn't it so awesome! I think there's even more ponies here than there were last year, and there were a lot of ponies here last year and I was like WHOA are we all gonna fit in here? But then we did, and we do this year too! And the Cakes baked you a cake and the cake that the Cakes baked is going to be the most delicious thing ever but I couldn't resist it so I ate it and they had to bake you another one which might not be quite as good as the first one because they were a little tired, but I'm sure it's great anyway 'cause they don't make bad cakes and UH OH, TWITCHY TAIL! TWITCH-A-TWITCH!"
Everypony in the room dived for cover.
"Gotcha!" giggled Pinkie, a mischevious grin on her face.
Sighs of relief echoed through the library as they all retreated from their hiding places.
"So where's this cake anyways?" asked Twilight, a second before it landed on her head seemingly out of nowhere. "PINKIEEEEEE!"
-
Ten minutes later, Twilight was still in the bathroom, trying to get icing out of her mane. She was particularly annoyed at some gray icing that just wouldn't come out of one strand. Suddenly, she became aware that it was not gray icing she was looking at, but gray hair. Her first one.
"Guess I'm officially old starting today." Twilight sighed, blowing the hair away from her face.
She walked back into the main room of the library. The usual DJ that Rarity and Pinkie Pie hired for occasions was there, playing some very loud techno music which Twilight imagined didn't play in libraries very often. Some ponies were dancing, some were talking. Applejack and Rainbow Dash hoof-wrestling at a table. Rarity and Fluttershy having a conversation about the dresses they wore to the party. Pinkie Pie was bouncing in place to the beat of the song by herself, eyes closed, gigantic smile on her face. Twilight had no idea what it was that kept Pinkie Pie so happy and energetic all the time.
A feeling of depression that had been welling up under the surface all day was dangerously close to coming out. She had one day been Princess Celestia's student. She had such a bright future ahead of her, phenomenal magic powers, and an amazing grasp of many different scientific fields. Combining magic and chemistry together she could have even been a famous mage or inventor. Maybe some nerdy pony in the future would dress up as Twilight the Purple for Nightmare Night.
But at some point she just lost some spark, some drive to push herself to greatness. How did she end up becoming the most overqualified Magic Kindergarten teacher in Equestria? Temporarily forgetting where she was, she dropped her head.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash were having yet another hoof-wrestling match when they both saw Twilight. They immediately stopped and walked toward her.
"What's the matter, sugarcube?" asked Applejack.
"You feeling old or something?" asked Rainbow Dash. Applejack shot an annoyed a glance at Rainbow, who had already realized her own faux pas.
"Something like that." sighed Twilight. "Sorry, didn't mean to bring anyone down with me. It's a party. Let's have fun!"
Applejack patted Twilight on the back. "Ah do believe the karaoke's about to start. Do y'all wanna duet with me?"
Rainbow Dash reared up and flapped her wings. "Hey, nobody's singing before me!"
"So..." Twilight started, hoping she could finish figuring out something conversational to say while she was talking. "How's your new job been treating you two?"
Applejack chuckled to herself. "Aw shucks, ah don't wanna sound like a showoff or nothin'..."
"But I do!" Interrupted Rainbow Dash. "We're the best in the business! The ultimate team! No criminal punk is safe when team Appledash is on patrol!"
Applejack rolled her eyes. "Appledash? You know ah don't like that name. But anyway, ah'll let you know, the latest drug bust we co-ordinated got us three arrests and 16 pounds of pure uncut Crystal Spark."
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Wow. Just curious. How much money is that worth?"
"How much you got on you?" said Rainbow Dash.
Applejack shot her a stern look.
"Oh come on, AJ" laughed Rainbow. "I'm just horsing around. But seriously, 16 pounds has about 30,000 bits street value, give or take a couple thousand."
"Wow" said Twilight. "Why are they producing it in Ponyville so much? I thought this was a nice quiet place."
"Location." said Applejack. "Ah reckon Ponyville's the perfect place to set up shop. We got most of the raw materials naturally, and we're right between Canterlot and Manehattan. You'd be surprised how many o' them hoity-toity ponies up there are addicted to the stuff." she paused a second. "Ah don't mean Hoity Toity himself."
Twilight contemplated some of the mathematical figures in her head. She knew the primary ingredients were Sapphire and Jade crystals, all which were plentiful in the areas surrounding Ponyville. With the right magic spell to fuse them together, and with the populations of Manehattan and Canterlot as the primary markets...
"Twi! Why don't you just go ahead and ask us?" said Rainbow Dash, putting her hoof on Twilight's shoulder.
"Huh?" said Twilight, suddenly wondering how much of her thoughts her face had betrayed.
"You know you wanna come along with team Appledash on one of our patrols, see how we take care of business!"
"Oh, I don't know..." said Twilight. "Would I just be in your way?"
"Ah'll let you in on a secret, sugarcube." Applejack smiled. "99% of the job ain't nothin' like in yer adventure books. Lots of sitting around watchin' ponies. And we ain't even the ones chasin' down the bad ponies. We just point the royal guards in the right direction."
Rainbow Dash jumped in the air and hovered excitedly. "Three days from now we're gonna kick one of the biggest Crystal producers in Ponyville right in flank!" she air-kicked for emphasis. "You gotta come with us and see the action!"
"Oh I don't know." said Twilight. She attempted to change the subject. "So, AJ, how's the farm?"
Applejack smiled proudly. "Applebloom is provin' to be one heck of an applebucker. Maybe even better than ah was back in mah prime."
Twilight nodded. "Nice to know it's in good hooves."
-
The day after, Twilight was back to work. The Friendship Express train took its daily path up the mountain to Canterlot. Twilight yawned, looking out the window to the towers of Canterlot. Twilight was slightly aware that she was breathing faster than normal. Canterlot was getting blurry and out of focus. The train went dark as it entered a tunnel. Suddenly Twilight's heart rate increased. She shifted uncomfortably in place at the sudden unexpected feeling. The darkness of the tunnel seemed to be closing in around her. Her horn began to glow faintly on its own and sweat was breaking out all over. She tried to reach for the window to open it to let some air in but at that moment the train emerged from the tunnel and the blast of light overwhelmed her vision. She screamed and fell backwards, her vision pure white, gasping for air until she lost consciousness. She could faintly hear the sound of concerned ponies around her.
-
"Twilight Sparkle?" said the doctor. "Do you understand what I just told you?"
She was staring at the doctor's mane, everything else in the world completely out of focus. She felt dizzy and disoriented, and thought she heard a ringing in her ears. But she had heard every word.
"Yes," she said, staring blankly. "I'm suffering from horn rot."
The doctor chose his words carefully. "It's very important that you fully understand the extent of your illness. I'm not sure if you've..."
"Yes, I understand." still blank, still staring at the doctor's mane. "If I had caught it earlier I could have had my horn amputated to extend my life at the cost of my magic ability. But the infection has already spread to my brain. With good treatment I could live two years, but the last eight months or so my brain will have deteriorated significantly. It's just... well... your mane. It looks like a muffin."
The doctor gave her a confused look.