Canterlot Nights

by Pony Sigma

Spellstruck

Twilight had been awake since long before sunrise. Actually, she had been awake all night, studying for her next lesson with the Princess. Though Celestia had told her to rest, as the magic she would learn needed focus, that had only stirred the unicorn into an overnight fervor of research. Because she didn't know what the lesson would be around, she had studied everything. Now, surrounded by stacks of detailed notes, she finally felt ready for the lesson. With a quick flash of magic, she shuffled the spellbooks strewn across the floor of her room into alphabetical order and pushed them into a corner of the room in a neat pile.

Fighting sleep, she stood up and, yawning, looked towards the window; the sun was still low in the sky, but the day was already bright. She turned to the clock hanging over a small bookshelf. There was still some time before she was set to meet with the Princess, but it was infinitely better, she reasoned, to be early than to be—she shuddered at the thought—late. Twilight ran through the last of her notes in her head, then left her room for Celestia's study.

~~~

Celestia was in the midst of reviewing a letter when her guard called from outside the door. It was an application from a young Cloudsdale pegasus to join the Wonderbolts. Normally, such a request would be redirected to the stunt team's captain, but the letter's enthusiasm had caught the Princess's interest. The pegasus, a mare named Spitfire, had won the last Young Fliers Competition, and Celestia suspected she would make a very good trick flier.

The princess neatly folded the letter away and invited Twilight into the room. The filly entered, giving a respectful bow and then skipping cheerfully inside.

“Good morning, Princess!”

“Good morning, Twilight,” Celestia greeted her, “It's a bit early, isn't it?”

Twilight's expression turned to concern. “Is that a problem?” She looked around anxiously. “I only wanted to be on time. Dedicated students are always on time!”

The Princess laughed. “That's quite all right.” She closed the door with magic and moved to stand in front of Twilight, who sat down and looked towards Celestia, eager to begin the lesson. A few moments passed, and she yawned, unable to stop herself.

“Twilight, have you slept?” the Princess asked, reproachfully.

“Um.. not really...” Twilight replied with an embarrassed laugh, “But I am ready! I've studied!” She hopped up to her hooves. “I can do it! I'm ready!”

Celestia raised a hoof for Twilight to be calm. The little unicorn sat back down and grinned up at her.

“Let's get started. Today, I want you to practice a shielding spell, as illustrated here,” -a scroll fluttered from a shelf to land in front of Twilight- “It's a fairly complex spell, so we're going to start small. What do you think?”

Twilight scanned the page, growing more nervous with every line. This was completely unfamiliar; nothing like this had appeared in any of her books. The stylized diagram showed a unicorn pony rearing back and casting a spell that formed a dish-shaped shield of magical energy that deflected another spell off its surface. She swallowed.

“I...I can do this.”

“What are the components of this spell?” Celestia asked. Twilight thought for a moment.

“It's a stabilized field of magic condensed into a physical object...so there's the energy needed to hold the spell, and the force required to shape it.”

“Correct! Now then-”

But Twilight had already attempted the spell. Sparks fell from her horn as a patchy sheet of magic formed above her head, ever-shifting holes riddling its translucent purple surface. Celestia smiled and tapped it with a gold-shod hoof. The spell disintegrated, falling away into glittering dust.

“Try again, but try to put more energy into a smaller space,” she advised. Twilight nodded, then began a second attempt, scrunching up her eyes in concentration. This time, the disk of magic was smaller, but solid. It cast a pink glow on the floor, turning the gold-and-purple rug orange and brown. When Celestia tried to break it, the shield shattered like thin glass into shards that faded away as they separated. Twilight growled in frustration.

“Too brittle!”

“Why do you think that is?” Celestia prompted as Twilight stared at the instruction scroll. She felt exhausted; this spell took more energy than any one she'd worked on recently, and the sleepless night wasn't helping things at all.

“The spell was too solid. It needs to have some elasticity to prevent breaking...” Twilight concluded, stifling a yawn. She prepared to cast the spell again, but was interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Princess Celestia,” the guard called, “Prince Blueblood requests an audience.”

Annoyance momentarily showed on Celestia's face, but she quickly resumed her typical calm.

“Please wait here a minute, Twilight. I'll be right back,” she told the filly, and stepped outside the door to talk with an angry-looking teenage unicorn.

Twilight saw the opportunity this gave her. For a moment, she considered the risk of practicing this spell without the Princess's supervision, but that argument quickly faded from her mind. She so wanted to impress Celestia, and what better way than to pull off the shield spell perfectly? The unicorn listened briefly to the conversation in the hall, hearing Blueblood's irate tones answered by Celestia's serene ones. Deciding she would have enough time for at least a few attempts at the spell, she took a last look at the paper and again focused her energy on her horn. She struggled to recall and align all the elements of the spell, her normally flawless memory dulled by her tired mind. A glowing shield appeared for an instant and then sparked out of existence. Twilight looked up, grinning. That was the proper result! Now, she just needed to strengthen it and hold the spell...

Encouraged by this success, she again poured energy into the spell, emphasizing the stability of the shield. It seemed to be working: a purple dome filled her field of vision...then the spell broke off, Twilight's energy exhausted. Gasping, she looked around-- and realized she was floating. The shield hadn't faded! Instead, it formed a tight bubble around the young unicorn. Twilight stretched out a hoof, and the edge gave slightly under the pressure, but didn't break. She was trapped! The unicorn tried to take a breath to steady herself, but the interior of the shield was devoid of air; she had forgotten to balance it!

No! No! Twilight scrabbled at the bubble frantically. I'm going to suffocate! In her panic, a ball of energy shot from her horn and rebounded against the glowing shield, smashing back into her leg. She convulsed at the pain, trying to find a way to escape, but her strength and breath were rapidly running out. Even if she had enough energy, her panicked and confused mind could think of no spells that would help. The bubble began to shrink in on her. She thrashed wildly against the enclosing spell...and then a burst of light filled her fading vision.

~~~

The little filly hung limp and gasping in a golden cloud of Celestia's magic. The pegasus guard at the door stared in awe as the Princess slowly lowered the unicorn to the ground.

“Slipstream,” she ordered, turning to him, “find me a doctor.”

“Yes, Princess.” The guard saluted her and ran off down the corridor. The Princess lifted Twilight with her magic, gently draping the unconscious filly across her neck. From the corridor, Prince Blueblood looked at the scene with unconcealed disdain.

“The little fool...” he spat.

“Enough,” Celestia commanded in the sternest tones the unicorn prince had ever heard her use. He blinked up at his aunt.

“Blueblood, you are dismissed. We will continue this conversation at a later date,” she said, and turned away without another word, following in the direction Slipstream had gone.

“Wha-” Twilight panted, waking for a moment.

“Be calm, Twilight. You're safe,” the Princess said. Twilight slipped back into darkness as a unicorn hurried down the hall to them.

~~~

Twilight woke to find herself in a bed, a bandage around her hind leg. She struggled to think why, then remembered the nearly-catastrophic spell. She could hear low voices: one the Princess's and the other belonging to an unfamiliar pony. Figuring she was in the palace infirmary, she opened her eyes to see Celestia speaking with a white-maned old blue unicorn. The room was dark, and she could see little else.

“Somehow, she managed to create a mostly stable vacuum within a shielding spell,” the unicorn was saying. “Mostly stable; given another moment, the outside air pressure would have caused it to collapse in on her. Thank the Sun—quite literally” at this he gave a reverent nod to Celestia, “that the spell was broken before that happened.”

“Yes, ” Celestia said softly. Twilight could hear—guilt?—in her voice. “Though if I had not been so near...”

“Let us not concern ourselves with what might have been,” the old unicorn interrupted. Twilight had never heard anypony speak on such equal terms with the Princess. She tried to lift herself up to see better.

“Ah! You're awake. How are you feeling, my dear?” the old unicorn said kindly, turning his attention to Twilight. The filly considered this.

“Tired,” she responded truthfully.

“Yes, I would expect so.” The unicorn stepped away from the Princess and towards Twilight. His cutie mark was in the shape of an hourglass. “You've overexerted your magical energy, little one. It was unwise to attempt such a spell alone and on such little sleep.”

“I'm sorry...” Twilight began, but was cut off by Celestia. The Princess nuzzled Twilight softly.

“Not now, Twilight. We will discuss this later. For the moment, what is important is that you are safe.”

“Indeed,” the old unicorn agreed. “You must rest, child.” His horn glowed blue, and the lights in the room dimmed further. Twilight fell asleep instantly, unable to stay awake any longer.

~~~

The old unicorn and the Princess left the room and the sleeping filly without another sound.

“She has immense power, Celestia,” the unicorn said once they were outside. “I assume that is why you decided to train her personally?”

The Princess nodded. “She has much potential. Possibly even enough...” she trailed off.

“The Elements haven't been used in nearly one thousand years. She could very well be the one to reawaken them.”

“I can only hope that you are right.”

Comments

[Pony Sigma]

Another chapter! Sorry about the title; it was the only thing I could think of.
I'm pretty proud of this one. It's an idea I had in my head since I started this story.
I'd love to know what you think!

[Pony Sigma]

552671

Hm? How? (I'm not shipping, if that's what you mean)

[Celestias Paladin]

552766
Why would you think me saying it is biblical as me commenting on shipping?

[Pony Sigma]

552856

Oh, sorry, it's just that I've heard it used as a euphemism for sexual. I couldn't immediately think of a story that fit this chapter, beyond basic be-careful-with-power themes.

[Celestias Paladin]

552867
*grumbles* stupid idiots morons ruining another perfectly good word.

Since I reviewed the second chapter, think "In the Beginning..." and go from there for a couple verses.

[Pony Sigma]

552916
-duh-
I think my inbox got screwed up, I thought I got that comment on ch 4. That makes a lot more sense. Sorry for the trouble. I'll look at my messages more closely. It must be the mobile format.
Yup, I was going for a world-genesis story with Faust's character as the creator. It just came to mind. I really like those types of stories. I didn't really intend any Jesus in the appearance of the Princesses, but I guess that's an unavoidable conclusion for demigods in mythology.

[Celestias Paladin]

552973
I figured it was Lauren Faust's Alicorn self, nice to know that I'm not the only one to use her as a god. So she gave her only begotten daughters... and so on? Well if you are going to rip of a creation story why not Genesis? Even with the creativity I have put into mine, I still bring in aspects of the Bible.

[Anquietas]

Very nice chapter.

[rabbitfaster]

Yessir, everything just got reallly reallly real.

fantastic short chapter.

[Mlpfimguy]

The story was really good. I would have like the story to have been a bit longer but overall the pacing was good as well.

As good and cute as the story was I had noticed a few spelling mistakes such as 'Twilight a paused to take a sip of her tea' but nothing too bad or distracting. Great job and i'll be reading more of your stuff now.

[nomore]

Are you going to write anymore? I really loved the story. Please write more!!!!