Purple Batteries

by Xutiepops

See Magic

In the depths of the book ridden cavern that Twilight called her home, that she also called a study, lied something ... new. A pony thinking, a purple one. Yet she didn't think of physics or electricity circuits like she was supposed to be thinking of. No, she was thinking of something new. She thought of her childhood.

Not something this reader did often. She usually just turned a blind eye to her old past a bury it deep below. Math told her fine answers, words told her fine meanings, and physics told her fine laws of the world. But memories, those told her mismatches and 'I think's. But for some reason, she found herself lost in them.

She sat in an unfinished corridor, taking the free day to actually finish it. As she got distracted by a theory on the Madam Future -as she was usually referred to-, she got lost in her thoughts as a child.

The corridor was thinner than the others, as it was one of the later added ones, but it wasn't open or roomy. It was small and anything but cozy. It was eerie. Whichever way you looked lied endless books, when you looked up you saw the open ceiling until you got to the top of the study itself, which only made many sick. Endless wherever you looked. It reminded her a lot of her childhood.

She sighed. Her child hood wasn't traumatizing, though, it led to one of the main reasons why she was hated now.

It led to the pink mare who told her fortune. Just a few weeks before she started her research over myths -which she had no interest in at the time- her fortune came true.

The pink mare was wild and invasive. She asked personal questions and gave you a prediction that had nothing to do with them. She was loud and instead of a bell that rang when the door opened, it was just a series of pots and pans banging against each other. She always peered over the table until her nose touched yours. She always crouched over to give her crystal ball a creepy feel, then revealed later that the crystal ball didn't work.

She had a wild pink mane, and bright blue eyes. Every pony could see she wasn't meant to type on a typewriter, she was meant for something more, something more fun. And typing on a typewriter all day was not fun, you could ask Twilight herself.

She definitely wasn't a pony who could sit still, ruling out any jobs that resembled anything close to monitoring steam usage. She definitely couldn't wait around, so that ruled out baking, even if she claimed to enjoy it. She definitely couldn't examine and nitpick small details about something, no jeweler.

She didn't and couldn't fit any job that was in nearby Canterlot! The best she could do was a performer and even that had strict rules and patters. Yet, she could see the mare enjoying the risk and wonder, would I get enough bits for tonight?

So of course, the mare opened up a fortune tellers shop. Welcome to all, betting drunkards, passer byers, little fillies and push over parents. All walked in daily, giving the mare her fee and her fun she needed, seeing into a new ponies life every second probably excited her. Asking those invasive questions to get proud lies she saw through, or queasy truths. Twilight could imagine how much excitement the mare got from it. She soon came to say she knew every pony, even saying she witnesses a ponies fore coming in her dreams. Yet she only said it to a few, does that mean ponies took her seriously? No.

Twilight couldn't remember her name, or much about her abode. Or what she wore even. She simply remembered her own fortune and her looks. So, Twilight always called her cotton candy. That was her first name before her fortunes came true, then she became the Madam Future.

Her fortune however, was that in her time of desperate need, a doctor would come up asking a suggestion -how you asked a suggestion, she had no idea. She said, "Take him up on the offer, then maybe I'll see you do magic."

Then she was dragged away, leaving the girls parents angry and the filly confused.

Twilight could only imagine the scene.

The bustling pots and pans as she entered, the pink mare leering over the counter with a fluffy hot pink mane. She leered over a crystal ball, and after a few hair twitches or blinks or hoof raises, she'd nod and mutter a 'uuuuuh-huuuh'. She was pulled away from her attention once Twilight's mother had clearer her throat.

"Oh! Sorry!" The mare pushed the crystal ball off the table, Twilight surrounded it in a magenta aura before it crashed to the floor. The pink mare only smirked. "My dreams told me you were powerful, purple one. What's your name? Nevermind, I will be told it soon enough, when the time is right. Gotta let some things happen when needed, ya know? Hopefully I still remember you by then!"

Her mother sneered and rolled her eyes -she thought all this was bogus since only unicorns could get close to what she claimed was 'magic'. "The fortune?"

"Oh yes! Though, I'm gonna need you two to step outside. I need this little one alone for it to work, she's a doozy!" The pink mare bounced out of her seat and pushed the adults outside. They simply rolled their eyes and agreed. The mare pushed a chair underneath Twilight, forcing her to fall on it and watch the pink one do her 'magic'.

Twilight could almost feel as if she was there, but with a metal shell on her back and big purple eyes, pleading for guidance. That's when her memory faltered and she couldn't remember the rest.

"I'll tell you, Twilight. I never thought I'd see you again," the mare rustled around in a chest. The chest was painted to look as if a purple cloth with gold, string-like ends was draped over it. She threw out a ladder, an iron, an anvil, a flower pot with a blooming tulip, and a neat pen before she pulled out a crystal ball with its base painted light purple. A shell of dark gray sat over one side of the crystal ball.

Twilight looked for the ladder and anvil, her mind getting the best of her, though she never found it, even in the hazy memory. She turned back to the pink mare who had enchanting blue eyes and an infectious smile.

Her face suddenly turned serious and cold, she turned the gray side to Twilight and the lights dimmed, a light blue fog poured into the room as a light only illuminated their faces and the table. The mare swirled her hooves around the ball, hearing hummings and buzzing to silence and muffled sobs. The noises from the days before itched at her heart canister as she heard them. Finally it stopped on silence and the hoof swirling stopped. The mares eyes flicked to Twilight and sat in stone, then she heard her fortune. Though, this time it was completely new and something she had never heard from the mares voice.

"Twilight, my dear friend," her expression turned to one of sympathy. "Save yourself and give up already," she said coldly and Twilight stared at her, mouth open in shock. "That... that is what they told me as a filly when they declared I was cursed. T-Twilight-" she stammered nervously, tears escaping her eyes. "I can't save myself, it's to late for that ... can you please ... do it for me?"

The image and whole scene dissipated into the nothingness that was unfinished corridor.

Around two and a half years ago, her body was dying to a disease science hadn't named. A doctor -a mysterious one at that- offered her something. She didn't even hear the offer, she just agreed. Later she woke up with a metal shell on her back and a happy dragon. That was her fortune. Not whatever she just heard out of her lonely desperation.

Even if it only gave her a few years, she was still grateful for it. A few years and she was allowed to live the happiest years of her life. Even if the metal on her back and metal inside her made her sick, she ignored it and fell in love with what she learned.

One year left.

Make it count.

She sighed and got up, shaking off the memories of the loud, annoying piece of cotton candy. But when she turned the corner and heard a giggle, she turned in all directions to see who was there, spying on her.

"Who's there?" Twilight asked, her eyes darting everywhere. After about two minutes of doing that, she shook it off as nothing and went back to turn another corner, only to see a fluffy piece of hot pink disappear around another corner. She chased around the corner and to a dead end, nothing in sight. She shook her head and decided she either needed sleep or her battery was malfunctioning.

Once she turned back around she saw a book laid out in front of her, it wasn't there before, she would've tripped on it if it was. She swallowed and looked to the page it was open to.

It was a picture of bent, weak trees that were jagged at all turns. They stretched up to the summer sky, but with no leaves. In the sky were dark clouds that loomed over it, casting a huge shadow over the already dark woods. Inside thicker trees that had creepy, menacing shaped that resembled faces came yellow eyes staring back at her. She shivered as she looked deeper in the picture and saw more eyes from bushes, she could faintly see a pony and she grabbed a book and seal it shut from fear.

She left the book and ran down another long corridor of books and boxes. On the verge of tears, she ran into the safety that was the big room with her writing cabinet. She ran over to the window and sat in the safety that was the sunlight.

The wall she sat against was commonly referred to as 'the back wall'. While the book-box wall that held the door was the north wall, making hers the south. On the east wall were bookshelves that wrapped half way down the south wall. The west and north walls were made of books and boxes. The south wall was special. It was book and just blunt wall, a rarity in the study. It held a window, and next to that window was her writing cabinet, and on the other side, in the corner, was an end table that had a beat up, used pen and ink holder on it next to a lamp. The ceiling didn't exist, so when you looked up you only saw the towering bookshelves that covered the walls. It usually made ponies either fall backwards, or make them sick.

In the middle of all of this was the wooden table. That was currently under a pile of books, the legs wobbling under the struggle. She rolled her eyes and covered the books in the same magenta aura that covered her horn. As half of the books got on the shelf, her back of metal beeped and her magic failed, dropping books to the ground with a thud.

"Spike will get it up later," she mumbled, then took a look at all the books that sat at the base of the shelves. She snorted and turned back to the window with a smile. Good luck with that, she thought as her body froze.

She turned back to her precious table and saw one book still open. As she slowly approached it, it seemed only her and the book existed. As everything fled out of existence, her heart fell at the page the book was open to.

A horrifying picture of the creepy woods. Where yellow eyes stared back at her, where trees resembled faces and other were sick, weak sticks. Where the grass was dead and the trail seemed long and endless. Where you could faintly see a pony in the background.

She shook her head and closed the book with a smile. She had found copies of books all the time. Just a coincidence.

That solid logic started faltering into a complete lie as she saw the same book opened to the same page five more times before she got to the towers floor. She raced up the stairs, past all the creepy in-betweens and completely flew by the towers in one fell swoop. Once she got up to the kingdom and didn't see Spike in his little cave she worried.

"S-Spike!" She yelled and didn't get an answer, which gave her two options. Either he fell asleep somewhere -highly plausible actually-, or he wasn't here at all. She panicked and looked underneath each of the lids of each book house, even if he couldn't fit.

Smaller books, cloths, a cupcake pendant, a bit, a set of inks, and multiple empty book houses before she was finished. She swallowed as she traveled down the stairs and had to look in the in-betweens. She was actually starting to believe Spike on his crazy ghost-witch coven idea he had as she looked down every in-between.

She saw cobwebs, towers of dust, darkness, and emptiness before she found the darkest one. As she looked down them, with her mind running the way it was, she could almost see a creature form itself at the end of the in-betweens. It had poofy, curly hair, and a bright smile. As she dashed by it, it seemed to repeat like a flipbook animation, waving at her. Though more ghost-like or animation like. As if sloppily drawn in ink, begging to exist in some form. That's when she let out a nervous whimper and looked down one creepy in-between and didn't see a creepy, smiling thing.

She saw a sleeping dragon, sucking on his thumb. Purple scales blending into the darkness and green scales shining bright. She wanted to hug him and not be alone, but he was asleep, could she really be that mean? She was fixing to turn away when she heard a snicker. She ran over to Spike and shook him away with such speed that it was done faster than you could even say done.

"SPIKE!" She yelled and he jumped away with a scream.

"Ah! What!?" He asked in a worried tone that showed he didn't care about his sleep... wait for it. "I was asleep, a pretty nice dream too."

"I-I think you're right, this place is haunted!" Twilight screamed and hugged him tightly, he was fixing to make fun of her, but once he felt that she was trembling, he simply disregarded it. Then took her idea into effect, Twilight rarely made rash findings, so something weird was happening, and she needed him to help her decipher it and come up with a reasonable explanation.

"What do you mean?" He pulled away from her, only for her to grab him again and dash up to the kingdom. She sighed in relief once she was at the top of the stairs. "Why up here?"

"I was seeing some weird things on the bottom two floors so I only assumed this floor didn't have ghost witches," Twilight said nervously. She couldn't hear what she was saying, otherwise she would've debunked all she was saying with a simple, 'ghosts don't exist, Spike'.

Then, he remembered his strange encounters with Rarity and kept his mouth shut. She was kind of ghost-like, wasn't she? Now he was getting scared.

"W-what were you seeing?" Spike said nervously, letting her fear consume him. She turned to check every corner, thankful for the kingdoms lack of tall walls or corridors. "I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation."

"There's nothing reasonable!" She yelled nervously and tapped her hooves to the ground in her own state of nervousness. "Seeing and hearing strange things is one thing and could be cast of as lack of sleep or malfunction," she explained, pacing now and already making an indent in the floor. "But seeing the same book, open to the same page, in my plain view of sight seven times isn't!"

The floor was now to her knees and she was at the top of one of the bookshelves on the towers.

"A-and seeing her in for a straight line of images isn't just my head, there are definitely ghosts here! And it doesn't help that it can read minds!"

Spike started thinking of her words and let his fear set in. "W-w-what? That's impossible! Like some pony's pulling a trick on you, b-but I was asleep the whole time."

Being reminded of his sleep, she was about to question his sleeping spot as he deemed it the creepiest in-between before her mind ran to the answers many mythological studying ponies like her would believe and have. Her eyes sparkled and she started grabbing and looking through books on the shelves until she found the one she needed. It was a big, white one with an image of a dragon breathing fire on it. She flipped open the book to page fifty eight.

She showed him the page and he skimmed over it quickly. "The mistress of the future?" Spike asked as Twilight pulled the book to herself for her to examine.

"A pony whose playing a trick, knows exactly where I'm going to look, sounds like her! She was crazy and wild, so no wonder she'd have fun playing a harmless trick, and she's psychic! It makes sense! Plus, I was thinking about my time with her and my fortune before she showed up!" Twilight explained happily, though she saw not even Spike was buying it. She wasn't buying it much herself. She dropped the book with a sigh.

"I mean, one she's a myth," Spike started. "And two, she's psychic, not a teleporting ghost. Besides, ghosts have a lot more sense and have a lot more proof over a mare you simply 'thought about'.

Twilight sighed. "You're right, just because I'm scared doesn't mean I can forget reason," though she knew she saw hot pink. She knew it, and ghosts didn't have color. Plus, she made things appear out of thin air! Ghosts probably had some secret method to do that. She didn't touch half of the books either. Yeah, Spike was right. It was just harmless ghosts that she would debunk as nonexistent in a couple of days.

And that's what she did. After nothing happened for the couple of days after holing up in her cave with Spike getting her every need, she said she was just being silly and that she should think smarter about things.

Though, she did pick up the book that scared her. She flipped through the pages and read up about the Everfree Forest, as it was called.

It said it worked differently then the rest of Equestria. Everything grew jagged and unnatural, no matter what ponies did. After a while, the forest even pushed ponies away. Now, all that's welcome there are the darkest and scariest creatures like cockatrices and manticores.

It said that plants grew on their own, animals took care of themselves, and clouds moved without pony intervention. Of course, many would find this unnatural, but if any pony was smart, they would know that time didn't start where ponies took care of animals, they didn't grow plants, and clouds didn't depend on ponies. Meaning that the only scary thing about the Everfree forest were its inhabitants, not the forests 'unnatural' ways. And how it pushed ponies out, it seemed more enchanted than 'unnatural'.

But then again, if a simple siren or Pegasus who flew fast was scary and unnatural, then it would be expected of ponies to think the Everfree was.

Twilight rolled her eyes at the book and cast it aside, there was no point in a place that held dangerous creatures anyways. If it was a threat, then maybe it'd have a point, or if it contained unknown creatures. The Everfree clearly wasn't impossible to live in if each creature inside it was known. Twilight cursed herself for even taking interest in it. Only a foal would find the Everfree scary.

---

After Twilight lazily flipped the pages of a book over electricity she groaned and slammed her head on the desk, alerting Spike who was dusting a shelf off.

"Bored?" He asked numbly. He didn't even have to ask what was wrong, the second he saw the title of the book, he knew she wouldn't make it past the first chapter. "Why do you hate electricity anyways?"

Twilight groaned and pushed the book away from her, trying to fight the urge to go outside and enjoy the sunny day. She rolled her eyes at that want. The only point in going outside was air and she didn't need that, so why did she want to go? "Because it's basic and then complex, as everything is. Theories and hypothesis make everything so much more difficult and since my understanding of electricity is so small I have to learn the basics but they're so painfully easy!" Twilight slammed her head on the table as she finally breathed.

Spike got an idea and jumped down from the ladder he was on. He pushed it over to another bookshelf and climbed it, he grabbed a book a jumped down. He smiled as he ran over to Twilight and slammed the book down in front of her.

She lazily looked up, her interest getting the best of her. Once she saw the cover, she felt sick and pushed it away, acting like she wasn't interested.

"Spike," she said and sat up, know eyeing the book and finally seeing that it really was. "I told you, I'm not going to do myths anymore! I have to do something with my year! And making another ten notebooks to compile into a text book is not something I want to do."

It was true, she didn't want her life to be a telescope and a few books that discovered nothing. She didn't like making the book anyways, she just did because Celestia pushed her to. She looked at the book Spike put down in front of her and sighed. She used her magic to put it back on the shelf.

"I don't want to do something pointless with my year," she whispered in the dark room.

"It isn't pointless if it makes you happy!" Spike snapped, Twilight turned and he growled at her. She could see the anger and fire in his eyes. Really a dragon. "Who cares if you don't discover something? Your life is yours, not theirs! Who cares if you make something for the future that no one cares about because it gets so renovated that you don't even exist? At least if you studied what you enjoy, your life is worth something."

He growled, his claws bit into a book he was meant to place back. Twilight saw his claws dig through the cover and pages, she saw that his teeth were much sharper than they were last week.

"Your life would be worth something to you," he growled and stormed off. Twilight sat in silence, thinking of how he would survive without her.

Surely making him mad wouldn't help, Twilight thought as she looked up at the book he had offered her. He seemed so determined and confident she would try to read it and give up electricity. Just for her to ruin it and start a fight. And Twilight and Spike never fought, they were both smart enough to avoid it and find common ground and make compromises. Even if Spike adored his own interests more than anything, he was still a smart dragon. Well, when it came to common sense, at least.

Spike was her dragon, her assistant, and most of all, her best friend. He loved comic books and gems, he loved helping her and she loved everything he did for her. But the one thing he tried to do that he actually really cared about, she took it away.

Your life would be worth something to you.

She tried to fight it. And she won. No, she wouldn't study something for her. She was the princesses student for a reason, she couldn't go and do what she wanted. She got an easy life, she didn't need to squander it with her foolish ideas. She raised and pulled the book over electricity back to her.

She got through the first five chapters before going to bed, she didn't hear from Spike for the rest of the evening.

---

Spike growled and stirred in his sleep. He couldn't sleep, not after how mean he was to Twilight.

Every day she got closer and closer to deaths door and he couldn't care to be the least bit sympathetic? All he did was growl and make her feel guilty. Even if she didn't succumb to it. Even if he trusted what he said was the truth, he didn't need to tell her that way. He really didn't.

He sat up and stared at the book caves entrance once he heard hoof steps. He climbed out and saw a glimpse of purple at the doorway, traveling down to the towers. A smile made its way on his face as he jumped and dodged his kingdom, chasing after her.

"Twilight! Wait up!" Spike yelled as he jumped down the steps, still only seeing a glimpse of purple walk down to the labyrinth. "Twilight!"

He ran past the book shelves, barely caring to turn and look into each of them. He saw white out of the corner of his eye and ignored it, he always saw something that wasn't there once he ran down the towers halls. He turned the corner and saw bright blue eyes stare at him from the bottom of the steps.

His heart froze and he stared at her, again, too scared to speak. Even if her eyes told him he could, he still didn't. He saw his reflection in the ruby around her neck. Once she noticed him looking at it she only giggled, still inaudible.

Blush covered his face, "W-what's so funny?" He asked and she just stared at him. She didn't disappear, but she let the question hang in the air and let silence flood the situation. Again, she looked back and forth, this time, less panicked.

"W-w-what are you looking for? I can help," he offered and tried to take a step forward. She only took a step back and vigorously shook her head. He stared in confusion, but obeyed her orders.

They stood in the silence for a while, he finally got tired and sat down, she did the same and smiled.

"Do you like the silence?" He asked and she shook her head.

The words 'I hate it' appeared in blue mist in front of her. Clearly her magic, as her horn was illuminated in the same color. He, again, stared in confusion at this strange mare.

"Then why are you here?" He asked, desperation flooding his voice as he wanted an answer. She seemed caught off-guard and pointed at him. Red just flooded his cheeks. She held a small smile at his reaction.

"W-why? You could have any stallion you wanted," he crossed his arms and looked away, trying to act like it didn't make him extremely happy.

She thought for a second and then shook her head. The sentences, 'I couldn't. They would be enchanted, besides, you make me feel like I'm not alone,' formed in the air in light blue mist.

"Probably a dragon thing," he actually believed it, but at the same time he didn't. If a dragon wanted something, they got it. So surely if a dragon wanted free of her enchanting, he could just say so and he'd be free. Though he didn't want to believe that she only saw him because he was a dragon. She shook her head, debunking his suspicions of dragons.

Her eyes looked up at him and they were so pleading and big. She wanted something and yet, she didn't do anything to show him what. He only smiled.

"What is it?" He asked happily and she shook her head and started crying again. His heart plummeted at the sight. He shot to his feet and raced down to her. The second he stood in front of her, she started fading away. "Y-you're okay," he said happily as his claws cupped her face. She nodded and smiled, leaning into his hand as she disappeared.

He only sighed and trekked back to his cave. It seemed like all he did was make her cry. As he saw the kingdom, remembered the event with Twilight, and remembered her crying face, he only growled and cursed the dragon he was. He didn't want to be this. He didn't want to hurt anyone.

Especially not her.

---

The next days for Twilight weren't easy. Spike slept so often, avoided her, and was awake so little, that she never saw him. One of those days she sat in her circular room, staring up at the ceiling as the battery box beeped non-stop. Her eyes just weighed down further and further, the humming and beeping drowned out and she realized she was finally dying.

For some reason, a smile appeared on her face. All the stress and hatred would fade away if she gave up. But, she just couldn't bring herself to move.

As she fell asleep a pink hoof pushed her onto her stomach, and plugged her in. Blue, piercing eyes stared at the sleeping alicorn and they softened.

"I can't wait to see you, I'll be all like," the mare gasped and just giggled weakly. Suddenly, tears sprung to her eyes and she collapsed to Twilight. "Don't die before you get to us. Please, Twilight." The mare nuzzled into Twilight's neck, feeling the cold breeze from the vent. She rolled over onto her back and looked at the endless ceiling, the humming sending her to sleep as well.

The mare laughed weakly, "Then I would never get to see you do magic."

Comments

[DualKitsune]

This is good but I would rework the order please.