Midnight looked in the mirror, turning her head from side to side and looking at her mane.
"Maybe I could make it a different color..." She considered. She stuck out her tongue and focused, her mane darkening a few shades almost to black.
"Ugh. No. That makes me look too sad." She released the spell, and it popped back to its usual color. She focused the spell in the other direction, and her mane brightened to a red-violet, closer to Sunset's mane color.
"Now I look like a clown." Midnight canceled the spell entirely. "Why is it that nothing goes well with purple?"
"You could try pink," Sunset suggested, from where she was reading through a book Cadance had given her. "You've already got a pink streak in your mane. You could just use that as a base."
"It's magenta, not pink. I checked with the pantone color book." Midnight tried to imagine what she'd look like with a pink mane. "And I don't think it'd look good."
"You could try a different style instead," Sunset said. "I mean I barely do anything with my mane."
"Mine doesn't curl up like yours, Mom. It just hangs all flat." Midnight sighed. "Do you think Cadance would let me borrow her hair spray?"
"If you told her you wanted a makeover she'd probably get so excited you'd end up spending all day forced to try on new dresses and makeup." Sunset snorted. "So if you want to ask her, be my guest."
"...There are spells that I can use instead, right?" Twilight asked.
"Sort of. They don't work as well." Sunset looked up. "Why do you want a new look so badly?"
"The foals at school keep thinking I'm Twilight Sparkle," Midnight huffed. "When we graduated magic kindergarten the teacher even gave me the wrong diploma!"
Sunset closed the book she'd been reading and stood up, walking over to give Midnight a quick hug. "That was an honest mistake, squirt. And if it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure she'd had a few drinks before the ceremony. She probably saw at least six lavender fillies."
"But she didn't get anypony else mixed up," Midnight mumbled.
"Maybe, but that's her loss. Years from now she's going to look back and think 'I should have treated Midnight better, because now she's rich and famous and the second-strongest unicorn in all of Equestria.'"
"Only second-strongest?" Midnight asked.
"Well, I'm still going to be around," Sunset grinned, poking her chest. "So you're going to have to work really hard if you want to have a chance at taking that title."
"Celestia did say that she was personally sponsoring me as a student for her school for gifted unicorns," Midnight said.
"Following in my hoofsteps," Sunset nodded. "Most students have to go through a bunch of exams just to get in. Of course, you've already been studying with her and me, so she can vouch for your talents. Means you don't have to sit around in line with the rest of them just to prove yourself."
"I could totally pass them if I wanted, though." Midnight was mostly trying to reassure herself.
"You'd pass them with flying colors," Sunset smiled. "That's why you don't have to bother with them. Most of the tests are really easy. They're just trying to weed out the students who don't belong."
"Like what? Unicorns who don't know anything about magic?"
"As an example? There's assigned reading, and questions based on that. If they didn't do the reading, it means they aren't serious enough about learning."
"Assigned reading?" Midnight stuck her tongue out.
"What, are you afraid of a little light reading?" Sunset teased. "I thought the glasses were helping with that."
"They do," Midnight said. "They help a lot. I don't get headaches when I use them. It's just that... if I have to read something, it isn't as fun as when I pick out a book for myself. Plus a lot of spellbooks are really hard to understand."
"That's because a lot of the books you borrow from me when you think I won't notice aren't written for fillies," Sunset said. "They're hundreds of years old and written back before inventions like algebra or the printing press or modern grammar."
"Grammar?"
"That's why thou find that thine books are so hard for thee to read," Sunset said, trying to emphasize ye olden wordings. "Pretty sure I butchered that. I'm awful with Olde Equestrian."
"Why hasn't anypony rewritten them to make more sense, then?" Midnight asked.
"They did. They'd be the books fillies your age are actually supposed to read. The ones you said were too easy and simple." Sunset smirked. "The old books sometimes have notes or spells that aren't reproduced in modern works, which is why I study them. It takes a lot more patience, though, because their spell formulas are based on old compass and straightedge constructions instead of modern runic formulas and geometry."
"What does that mean?"
"Without getting into the real details, they used geometric principles to get exact measurements and constructions. Like, you can draw a hexagon, right? A shape with six sides?"
Midnight nodded.
"There's a way to draw a perfect, exact hexagon using only simple tools. And you know how important hexagons are in spell construction. So a lot of these books, instead of printing a spell diagram - because this was before the printing press, remember - explain how to construct a perfect copy of a spell diagram using only the simple tools they'd have available at the time."
"That sounds really, really boring," Midnight said.
"Good thing you don't have to worry about that until you become a grad student," Sunset laughed.
Twilight Sparkle stared at the page in front of her. It contained the final question of the exam. She wasn't staring at it because she didn't know what to write in the space given. Quite the opposite - she'd answered it in seconds, expecting to find a more difficult problem on the next page.
But there wasn't a next page.
She glanced up at the clock. The proctor had told them that they had three hours to take the test, but only one had passed so far. The other students were hunkered down, still scribbling answers on their own exams.
Something was clearly wrong. If she'd finished this early, it meant that she had either missed questions or else she'd missed some vital part of the test. Twilight checked all the pages of the test, then her eyes went wide as she realized what she'd missed, and she flipped a page over to reveal...
Nothing. They were only printed on one side. And the numbers of the questions matched from page to page. She wasn't missing any questions after all.
Given that she had eliminated that possibility, that left only two explanations, both of them terrifying.
First, the questions could have included tricks that would only be apparent in a very careful reading. With only two hours left, she would have to start at a significant disadvantage if she had to answer all of the questions again just to make sure she'd examined all possible answers and dissecting the wording of the assessment.
Second, and this was almost too terrifying to consider, the other foals might simply be smarter than she was. If you asked a dull filly what color the sky was, they'd say blue. A smart one would tell you that the sky was blue, black, gray, orange, and a large variety of other colors depending on meteorological conditions and the time of day.
Given those possibilities, Twilight had to hope that it was the former rather than the latter. If she was really too stupid to understand all of the nuances around a given question, she wouldn't have any hope of answering it, but if it was just a matter of how the question was worded, she'd be able to correct that mistake.
She flipped back to the first question and got to work, making notes for herself in the margins as she re-read the test.
"Hey, Citrus Zing, can you take a look at this?" End Bell looked up from the tests he was grading and back at his colleague.
"Let me guess, one of the applicants tried writing Star Swirl the Bearded for every answer again," Citrus said, as he trotted over from his desk. "I have no idea how that rumor got started, but it's almost as amusing as the time a student taped a fifty-bit note to the test to try and get a better grade."
"No, no. It's a bit strange," End Bell said. He tapped the test he was looking at. "You took theoretical thaumatic physics, right?"
"Well, I don't like to brag, but I do have a PhD," Citrus said. He leaned in to look. "Ah, I see you gave this to one of the grad students, and they answered the question using relativistic equations instead of just adding vectors. It is more exact that way, though it only matters in large ritual spells where there's enough magic to actually warp space-time. I know this because, and I'm not sure if you knew this, I have a PhD."
"That's what I thought," End Bell muttered. "Is this right?"
"Yes, though..." Citrus narrowed his eyes. "I don't recognize this part. It looks like this student tried to rationalize the complex part of the equation using a negative eigenvector... Which grad student filled this out? I've never seen this technique, and I have a PhD."
"It wasn't a grad student."
"We'll be dividing the applicant pool into three groups," the proctor said, looking at a list in her hooves.
After the test, they'd taken a break for lunch while the staff graded the results. Twilight looked up from where she was sitting with her parents.
"Please come forward when your name is called," the proctor said, and started reading off a list of names. "Trixie Lulamoon. Sunburst. Lemon Hearts..."
"What do you think the groups mean?" Twilight whispered.
"They're probably divided based on how well they did on the test," her mother said. "So that means whichever group you're in must be the really high achievers." She smiled and booped Twilight's nose, making the filly blush.
"Mom, stop it." Twilight said.
"Twilight Sparkle," the proctor said. Twilight jumped to her hooves, looking around, then trotted quickly to the front of the room, standing next to the blue-coated filly she'd gone to magic kindergarten with.
"Good luck, honey!" Night Light said as she left.
"All of you, please go with Peach Brandy," the proctor said, pointing to a pink mare off to the side of the room. "She'll be taking you to the practical portion of the exam."
Twilight nodded and followed the rest as Peach Brandy led them out of the common room.
"Well, this must be a big day for you colts and fillies," Peach said, happily. "Big group this time, too! Usually we don't get quite so many at the high end of the bell curve."
"You mean... we did okay on the tests?" Twilight ventured.
"Of course," the blue filly in front of her huffed, her head held high. "They were nothing for an intelligent and well-educated filly like me."
"Now, you're all basically going to be doing the practical exams alone," Peach Brandy said. "Part of the test involves learning a spell on the spot and demonstrating it, so please don't discuss the test after you've taken it. Otherwise others will get an unfair advantage."
Twilight nodded.
"Just don't be nervous. Given your test scores, you've all got the theory part of it down, so you just need to show that you know the practical basics that you got in magic kindergarten."
Peach took them through a corridor towards the classrooms. Twilight could picture it on the map of the school she'd memorized. After getting badly lost in Canterlot castle, she'd developed a habit of making sure she studied a map of every place she was planning to go.
"Classroom 2-A, Classroom 2-B..." she muttered under her breath, naming the rooms as they passed to keep herself calm.
"You'll all be waiting in here," Peach Brandy said, opening the door to one of the smaller classrooms. "Feel free to sit anywhere. If your parents were able to come to your entrance exams, they'll be invited to come to your test."
Twilight looked around the room, then picked a seat near the door. She wasn't sure if she wanted to get it over with so she could be done with it, or if she wanted to hide in the room and never face the possibility of failure.
"Just don't get too comfortable," Peach warned. "I'm going to let them know that you're all ready for your practical exams, and then I'll come back and get one of you."
She left the room, and Twilight was alone. Somewhat alone. There were almost a dozen fillies and colts in the room, but she sure felt alone.
Sunset watched as Midnight twirled around the room, her horn lit up and her hooves just barely glowing.
"See?" Midnight said, smiling. "I figured out that I can use the floor polishing spell the maids use to reduce friction between my hooves and the ground so I can slide around!"
"It reminds me of ice skating," Sunset said, smiling. "And you came up with that on your own?"
"Basically," Midnight said. "In dance class they make everypony wear these slippery socks to keep our hooves from scraping the floor. When the teacher's not looking, sometimes we see how far we can slide."
"And you used this spell to slide even further?" Sunset asked, smirking.
"I might have made a few mistakes with how much power to use at first," Midnight admitted. "I sort of broke a mirror when I couldn't stop myself."
"That's bad luck, you know," Sunset said.
"But you broke a mirror when you made me. Does that mean I'm bad luck?"
"No, it means all the luck got sucked right out and went in here!" Sunset grabbed her and pulled her close, ruffling her mane with her hoof.
"Mooom!"
"Sunburst and Twilight Sparkle, if you'd come with me?" Peach said.
"I thought we were going to be called one at a time?" Sunburst asked. He stopped to let Twilight go first as they walked to the door.
"I got a note from the chair that you were to report to room one, and a second room would be opened for Miss Sparkle's exam," Peach said. She shrugged. "They never do things the same way twice around here. I should be used to it at this point. Maybe they saw we had a big group and they wanted to get the tests done more quickly."
"Y-yeah..." Twilight muttered. What if they were just going to tell her that she wasn't really qualified? Getting special attention never meant anything good. Was she a problem student? What if they saw how messy her hornwriting was and made her go back to magic kindergarten because they couldn't read anything she wrote?
Peach opened the door for her, and she walked inside, already sweating and nervous.
"Well, I guess I could teach you one of my favorite spells, but you have to promise to use it responsibly," Sunset said. "And don't tell Celestia you learned it from me."
"What is it? Is it combat magic?" Midnight asked, eagerly. "You could teach me how to fight monsters and then we could do it together!"
"No, it's even better," Sunset said. "This spell is simple, but extremely versatile, and I use it almost every day." She set a jug of water and two cups between her and Midnight. "Taste the water."
Midnight lifted the cup to her lips and sipped. It just tasted like normal water, with a slight mineral tang that meant it came from the local mountain springs.
"It's just water," Midnight shrugged.
Sunset lowered her horn to the cup and cast a quick spell, the water flashing for a moment with the cyan color of her magic. "Try it now."
Midnight tilted her head and sipped again, her eyes going wide. "Apple juice?" She sniffed at the cup. "But it doesn't smell like apple juice."
"I used a spell to change the flavor. You can make anything taste like anything else. It's the only way to get through some of the really awful dinners that Celestia has, like that thing with the vegetables in a jelly mold."
Midnight shuddered at that. "Ew. That stuff is so gross!"
"It's a lot better when it tastes like fruit instead of carrots and peas," Sunset said. "Now, just copy what I'm doing..."
"Well, initially I tried using the algebraic equations," Twilight said, trying to keep her stammer under control. "B-but I wasn't sure that the answer would be what the test really wanted, because the algebraic equations are only accurate in an idealized euclidean plane."
"So you used the relativistic equations instead?" Citrus Zing asked, taking notes.
"Yes," Twilight said. "They're more accurate, even if in most cases using standard reference frames they only differ by a small amount."
"I see. And can you explain why you used a negative energy flow to remove the complex part of the equation and rationalize it?" Citrus Zing asked.
"It's obviously a negative flow," Twilight said, frowning. "If it was positive, the limit of the equation would tend towards infinity."
"But it implies that the sum of all real numbers is a negative number!" Citrus Zing retorted.
"I had a proof of that, but it wouldn't fit into the margins," Twilight whispered, blushing. "Do you have a chalkboard?"
Midnight took a sip of her water and gagged.
"I did it wrong!" She gasped, spitting it out. "It tastes like lemon juice!"
"That's closer," Sunset said. "At least it's a fruit. And better than making it taste like vomit."
"Why is it so hard? It looks like an easy spell," Midnight said.
"It is an easy spell," Sunset agreed. "But it's also very sensitive, mostly because it's simple. You could make a much more robust spell that makes everything taste like cake, for example, but it wouldn't be able to make things taste like apple pie. This spell is a lot simpler, but more of it relies on intent and concentration. You have to apply your will to it instead of just letting the magic do its own thing."
"So you have to... make it work?"
"Something like that," Sunset agreed. "Some spells are a science, but this one is more of an art. Most illusion spells are the same way."
"Okay, so I just have to focus, and make the spell work..." Midnight whispered, closing her eyes.
"Citrus, this is supposed to be a practical exam," End Bell whispered.
"Hold on, let me just finish writing this down," Citrus muttered. "I need to run this by the Dean of Invisible Runes to see if-"
"I think," End Bell said, clearing his throat and speaking more loudly. "That fully satisfies all the questions we had regarding the irregularities on the test."
"Hm?" Citrus asked, blinking. "Yes, right." He finished his notes.
"Miss Sparkle, are you ready for the practical exam?" End Bell asked. She nodded. "Excellent. First, please create a simple illusion, if you can. The one from the required reading will be sufficient."
Twilight focused, her horn flickering. It felt like her magic was fighting her, like the energy was being pulled elsewhere. She frowned and closed her eyes, forming the spell. She didn't need that much power to get the illusion going.
A point of light appeared in front of her. Then a second point. The two were joined in a line. A parallel line appeared, and more lines joined the two, forming a square. The square extended into a cube.
"Lovely work," End Bell nodded. "Not the fastest I've seen the illusion put together, but very precise."
Twilight let the spell go, the magic immediately flowing away, like water being drained away. Something was wrong.
"Midnight, are you okay?" Sunset asked. The aura around Midnight's horn flickered and waned.
"I don't know," Midnight admitted. Her aura suddenly stabilized, and the spell she'd been trying to cast collapsed.
"Let's stop for a minute," Sunset said, standing up. She raised Midnight's head and looked into her eyes. "Your pupils look fine." She looked closely at Midnight's horn. "And I don't see any cracks or blemishes on your horn. Did you hit your head lately?"
"No," Midnight said. "Dance class has been helping a lot with that. I'm not as clumsy as I used to be."
"Then it must be something else. Just lift your cup with telekinesis so I can examine your magical flow."
Midnight nodded and held it up, the cup wobbling slowing in her unsure grip. Sunset started casting diagnostic spells, trying to track down what was wrong.
"I don't see anything wrong with your leylines. The magic has to be going somewhere. Magic doesn't just vanish." She frowned. "There has to be something else..." Sunset cast another spell. "It's being drawn right from your wellspring. I can't tell where it's going. I've never even seen anything like this."
"M-my magic is going away?" Midnight asked, dropping the cup.
"We just have to figure this out," Sunset said, trying to sound reassuring. "It might be nothing."
Twilight felt the pressure pulling her magic away suddenly stop, and she sighed, relieved. She'd need all the magic she could get for this next test.
"Go ahead and light the candle, Miss Sparkle," End Bell said. Twilight looked up into the seats. Her mother waved down to her, and Twilight smiled slightly. She could do this. Even if she wasn't usually allowed to play with fire, heat and light were the most basic forms that magical energy degraded to - it was why miscast spells often ended in explosions.
Twilight focused magic around the candle and just let it collapse inwards. There was a flash of light, and a tower of flame for a moment before leaving a stump of a candle sitting in a pool of molten wax. It was, however, lit.
"Ah, yes. I suppose that meets the requirements," End Bell muttered.
"I just don't know what's wrong," Sunset hissed. Celestia looked at the closed door and then back to Sunset.
"The most important thing right now is for you to remain calm," Princess Celestia said. "No matter what's happening, Midnight needs you to be strong for her. Maybe it's nothing, or maybe it's something serious, and either way she'll feel better if you're there for her."
Sunset's ears folded back. "I know."
"Come on, we'll solve this mystery," Celestia said, smiling slightly. "She might just be a little under the weather."
"That's evocation, illusion, conjuration-" End Bell muttered, flipping through the pages.
"Good work banishing the demon before it could do any harm," Citrus Zing noted.
"You have no idea how often that happens around here," End Bell sighed. "We're not testing transmutation. Not after the one applicant turned himself into a newt. Divination next?"
"What, with the cards with the stars and wavy lines and such?" Citrus asked. "That's a bit old-fashioned, don't you think? I didn't even have to do that, and I have a PhD."
"It's a traditional test. Tradition is important."
"Now just stay still, Midnight," Celestia said, as her golden magic gently probed the filly. "My spell confirms your findings, Sunset. Her leylines feel normal. Nothing damaged or blown out."
"What about..." Sunset leaned in to whisper. "Horn rot?"
"Sunset, horn rot is just a myth," Celestia snorted. "Horn rot isn't real, and it certainly doesn't happen when you... spend time with yourself."
Sunset blushed. "R-right."
"Am I sick? Is it a monster, or a curse, or a curse monster?" Midnight asked, getting more and more upset as her mind conjured up worse fates for herself.
"I know of no monster that could or would do something like this," Celestia said. "And there's no dark magic that could indicate a curse. If anything, it feels like spells are being cast, but the magic isn't going into your leylines, but instead it's finding some other exit."
"A couple of wavy lines. Circle. Star. That one is wavy lines again but you switched it for a square when I wasn't looking," Twilight said, her eyes closed.
"Er... yes. Those are all correct," Citrus Zing said. "Next we will.. we will..." He looked over his testing packet. "What do we have left?" He whispered.
"We've got that one test," End Bell muttered.
"What one test?" Citrus asked.
"You know. That one." He leaned in. "With the egg."
"But that's impossible, even for me," Citrus hissed. "And I have a PhD."
"She doesn't know that," End Bell said. "It'll let us see how much magical power she really has. The results have been all over the place in terms of overall strength."
"Alright, alright. I'll get the stupid egg."
"Are you sure this is wise?" Sunset asked, as she drew a line across Midnight's snout with red paint. "I've never even heard of drawing a divination circle onto a pony."
"It's an old technique," Celestia admitted, as she touched up runes near the base of Midnight's left forehoof. "Before more advanced diagnostic spells were invented, doctors would use chained divination spells. The idea was that they could get an idea of what treatments would work for the patient by looking into the future and doing whatever would help them, even if they didn't understand how or why it worked."
"Really?" Midnight asked. "So it'll tell you how to help me?"
"It's sort of a last resort," Celestia said. "It won't tell us what's wrong with you. It might tell us you need warm tomato soup and to sleep on a bed made of pegasus down, but it won't tell us why the soup will help, or why the bed can't be made of clouds."
"But you'll feel better," Sunset assured her. "We can figure out why later."
Twilight looked at the egg, then back at the professors. The egg was almost as big as she was, and she had no idea what she was even supposed to do with it.
"Just try to hatch it," End Bell said. "All it requires is a significant burst of magical energy. You don't need to form it into a spell, just direct it at the egg."
"O-okay," Twilight said, unsure. She started pulling at the magic inside her. She was going to need every last scrap of her power if she wanted to have a chance at this.
Midnight gasped, almost falling over. She could feel her magic being drained away, with such sudden force that it was making her shake.
"I-it's happening again!" Midnight said, starting to go pale.
"Celestia!" Sunset yelled, holding Midnight up. The filly looked like she was going to faint.
"It's like all of her magic is..." Celestia frowned. "Why does this seem familiar?"
"Am I going to die?" Midnight whispered.
"No, no," Sunset said, holding Midnight up. "Of course not. You're going to be fine. Just stay calm, and we'll figure this out."
"B-but I'm not even a real pony," Midnight said. "I'm a magical thing a-a construct, right? If all my magic goes away, I'll vanish!"
"You're not going to vanish, Midnight," Sunset said, pulling her into a tight hug. "I won't let you."
Twilight strained, her horn sputtering. She needed more power, and the last bits of her magic were fighting her, trying to hang on to where they'd gotten stuck. She could feel something inside her stretching, and she wasn't sure what was going to happen. All it would take was one, small-
An explosion of sound and color shattered the sky.
The bottom seemed to drop out of Twilight's wellspring. She'd thought she'd found the limit of her power, but she had been wrong.
Sunset was thrown back as a powerful aura overtook Midnight, blazing around her with almost impossible strength.
"What's happening?!" Sunset yelled. A bolt of blue lightning shot over her head and slammed into the wall. A chair across the room suddenly popped like a bubble, leaving a large teak-paneled frog in its place that hopped out of the window.
"It's a magical flare!" Celestia said. "I can suppress it, I just need a moment to contain the magical energy."
The castle shook, and something roared. Celestia turned to the window. Halfway across the castle grounds, a dragon's head poked out of the top of one of the towers of her school.
"There's another flare coming from that direction," Celestia said. "They must be related."
"You think?!" Sunset yelled. "Whatever's over there must be what was draining Midnight's magic! You go deal with that! I can't fly, and teleporting through that much random magical interference is impossible!"
"But-" Celestia looked at Midnight.
"You said I needed to be strong and I needed to be there for her, right? So just let me take care of her."
Celestia hesitated, then nodded. She stepped to the window and launched herself into the air, aiming for the source of magic burning within her school. Sunset watched her go, then turned to Midnight cautiously.
"Midnight, I don't know if you can hear me, but I promise you'll be okay. I'm going to make this okay." Sunset stepped closer. She could feel the magic pushing against hers, like walking into the wind. It was strong enough that the pressure against her own natural aura was actually starting to force her back.
"You have to stay calm," Sunset said. "I know it's scary." She forced herself closer. She'd only felt an overwhelming aura of power like this once before, from Celestia. Her instincts were screaming for her to run away, but Sunset didn't get to playing around with the laws of nature by doing what her instincts told her. Midnight's life was at stake and that meant it was time to do something impossible and stupid.
Sunset pulled Midnight's aura into her own, draining the excess, dangerous magic away.
"Come on..." Sunset gasped, as Midnight's magic fought against her. It was like trying to swallow liquid fire, the foreign magic tearing through her leylines, the force threatening to rip her body apart.
"You aren't going to beat me," Sunset growled. The aura around Midnight started to dim, the gap between their powers widening. The flare hit Sunset's wellspring like a punch to her chest, making her heart seize for a moment. She coughed at the abrupt pain.
"M-mom?" Midnight asked, weakly.
The flare cut out, the magical burst petering out. Midnight dropped to the floor. Sunset backed up, stumbling into a wall and sliding back, her legs shaking too much to support her body.
"Mom?" Midnight asked again, concerned.
Sunset coughed, a tongue of flame erupting from her breath, the excess magic turning to fire as soon as it left her body. She tried to answer Midnight, but couldn't catch her breath. She looked down at her hooves with wide eyes. Her leylines were visible to plain sight, glowing like cyan veins of light just under her skin.
"Just-" She coughed, the flame weaker this time. "Just give me a moment. I'm okay."
"What happened?" Midnight asked, still afraid.
"You had a magical flare. Celestia went to figure out why." Sunset took a deep breath, which dissolved into painful coughs, her chest tight. "Looks like between the two of us we managed to do it."
Midnight stood up and stared walking closer, looking up at her mother. "B-but are you really okay? Did I hurt you?"
"What, with a little magical flare like that?" Sunset smiled weakly. "Don't be silly." The leylines on her body finally started to die down, and Sunset could feel the pain fading as the extra magic was forced into submission. "See? Right as rain."
"A-am I going to be okay? I won't vanish?" Midnight asked.
"Better than that," Sunset smiled. She pointed at Midnight's flank.
"I got my cutie mark!" Twilight gasped, hopping in a circle and looking at the six-pointed star on her flank. Her sense of euphoria lasted for another ten seconds before she realized where she was and what had just happened.
Celestia waited patiently while Twilight looked around at the destruction she'd caused. The hole in the roof, broken windows, burn marks littering the room. At least her parents weren't houseplants anymore.
"I-I guess I'm in a lot of trouble," Twilight whispered.
"For something outside of your control?" Celestia smiled. "No, of course not. You know, the kind of power you displayed is something I've only come to expect once a generation."
"Really?" Twilight asked.
"And this answers quite a few questions I was asking myself earlier today. If your parents will allow it, would you come with me for a moment? I think I'd like to..." She paused, considering the best way to put it. "I'd like to prove a hypothesis."
"I can't believe it!" Midnight said. "I really have a cutie mark... that means I'm really a pony after all!"
"I could have told you that years ago," Sunset laughed. "Of course you're a real pony." She hugged Midnight, trying not to lean on her. Her legs still felt like they were full of jelly, and her back hurt like crazy. She'd probably come close to blowing out all of her chakras.
"But this proves it," Midnight said. "What do you think it means?"
"Well, a six-pointed star is an old symbol that represents magic's six branches. Evocation, Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Transmutation, and Illusion." Sunset smiled. "If I had to guess, I'd say you have a talent for magic."
"Really?" Midnight grinned widely.
"And if that's a big surprise to you, maybe you need stronger glasses," Sunset smirked, booping Midnight's nose.
"So, it looks like my guess was correct after all," Celestia said, as she walked into the room. From the doorway, instead of the balcony. "I see you have things well in hoof here."
"Well, I am an expert in dealing with magical disasters," Sunset said. "Seeing as how I'm usually the one causing them."
"I was afraid you wouldn't be able to disjunct the flare," Celestia admitted. "I underestimated you."
"Disjunction..." Sunset muttered. "That... would probably have been a good idea. I sort of wish I'd thought of it."
"You didn't use a Disjunction spell? Then how did you get Midnight's flare under control?" Princess Celestia looked confused, surprised enough by the answer that her expression managed to sneak past her usual mask.
"I just sort of... took the extra magic into myself. I figured it would be easier for me to get it under control than for her to do it."
"That was extremely dangerous," Celestia scolded. "You could have been killed! Taking the magic of another pony into your body... especially a flare..." She shook her head.
"I managed," Sunset countered. "So what was causing all the trouble?"
"H-hello," Twilight Sparkle said, coming out from where she'd been hiding behind Celestia.
"Of course," Sunset groaned. "Of course." She buried her face in her hooves. "Why didn't I see that coming?"
"I forgot about it myself," Celestia admitted. "It isn't common knowledge, especially since unicorn twins are so rare."
"Twins?" Midnight asked. "But we're not twins! I have a cutie mark and she doesn't!" Midnight grinned and showed it off.
Twilight's jaw dropped, the other filly turning to display her own flank. With the same cutie mark.
Midnight's expression fell, and she turned to Sunset.
"It really does explain everything," Sunset sighed. "Identical unicorn twins sometimes share a pool of magic."
"Twilight Sparkle was going through the entrance examinations for my school for gifted unicorns," Celestia continued. "She was using more magic more often than she ever has before. Because you were trying to learn a spell at the same time she was, both of you ended up fighting over the remaining magical pool once your reserves had gotten low enough."
"And the biggest sign that you share a pool of magic is the identical cutie marks," Sunset said. "They're tied directly to your magic. Same cutie mark, same magical source."
"But which one of us got it first?" Midnight asked. "Does she have my cutie mark, or am I stuck with her cutie mark?!"
"Shining Armor has a six-pointed star in his cutie mark, so it must be mine," Twilight said. "That means yours is just a cheap copy because you stole my magic!"
"I got mine first!" Midnight yelled. "I'm not just a copy of you! I'm a real pony! It's just a symbol for magic!"
"Girls," Celestia gently interrupted. "You're taking this the wrong way. Neither of you is a copy or a double. Twilight didn't steal anything from you, and you didn't steal anything from her."
"But if we share a magic pool it means I can't even cast spells right because she can use it all up!" Midnight protested.
"It's my magic to use," Twilight huffed.
"You aren't rivals, and you shouldn't look at this as a curse," Celestia said. "You two share a wonderful, magical bond that most ponies will never be able to understand. This will allow you to achieve more, not less, especially with the right training."
"But..." Midnight whimpered. "It means I only have, like, half as much magic as before."
"It's more like... you have your magic, and Twilight has her magic, and then they got put together," Sunset said. "It's not that you have half as much magic as you thought, it's that you have twice as much magic as you would without Twilight." She looked to Celestia for confirmation.
"That's right, Sunset," Celestia smiled. "In fact, this would have been noticed much sooner, but you both have so much more magic than the average pony that you simply never noticed before."
"S-so there's special training we have to get?" Twilight asked. "I don't remember anything about magic from twins being special in any books that I read."
"There aren't many teachers that would know how to help you," Celestia said. "But I think I can be of some assistance. I'd like to invite you, both of you, to become my personal students."
Sunset looked away, her eyes going wide.
"Sunset," Celestia said, gently. "You've already exceeded every expectation I've had for you. You don't need me as a personal tutor anymore. You've shown me that you've grown as a pony, and you've continued to grow even in places where I've failed to teach you."
"So I'm... done?" Sunset asked, her voice fragile.
"Nopony is ever done learning. I believe Cadance mentioned in passing that she had some personal lessons that she wanted to coach you on."
"But I mean..." Sunset hesitated. "I just..."
"You didn't fail, Sunset. You graduated, and I'm going to be very interested to see where you go from here."
"I just... need a little while," Sunset said, closing her eyes.
Celestia nodded. "When you're ready, talk to me."
Sunset nodded tersely, then vanished in a flare of crimson light. Celestia sighed as she felt the castle's wards shatter, again. It seemed like she couldn't go a week without having to repair the magical defenses.
"I'm not going to play along with you," Twilight whispered.
"That's fine," Midnight said. "I'll show you that I'm way better at magic than you are."
"Come along, girls," Celestia said. "I'd like to talk to your mother about boarding arrangements, Twilight, and I think it would be best to leave your mother alone for a bit, Midnight."
"Is she mad at me?" Midnight asked.
"No," Celestia said, leaning down to nuzzle her for a moment. "She's just... dealing with a big change. More than one of them. You're growing up, and so is she."
"What was the big rainbow thing in the sky?" Twilight asked.
"A very good question," Celestia smiled. "I think I'll have to investigate that myself. I'm not quite sure what it was."
"I bet it was aliens," Midnight said.
"No way," Twilight scoffed. "It was probably a part of the flare's magic going back in time and causing its own genesis! Predestination paradox!"
"Or it could have been a secret pegasus weather weapon!" Midnight gasped. "With hypnotizing rainbows!"
"That's stupid," Twilight snorted, as they walked back towards the school. "Pegasus doomsday devices always have lightning, not rainbows."
I do hope the two of them get along soon, other wise the princess may need to take a very long vacation/break after luna get back, "hey sister here u go u in charge I going to be else where for the next 1000 year oh and good luck dealing with my students"
I'm not sure how to feel about the timeskip, there are small things that start to ruin this story for me a bit.
I don't like the idea that they share a manapool.
I think I stop here, I didn't really manaed to get back into it and it's not only how the relationship is proceeding anymore, maybe after a break I want to read it again.
Of course that's the conclusion Twilight would have. It's just perfect!
Great story btw.
''
I recall dabbling in String Theory, and the reiman-zeta function came up.
Did Citrus mention that he have a PhD ? because he have a PhD, just so you know.
This plus the Princess Platinum's secret golems need to be written about, even if it's a silly one shot!
Great chapter! At this point they are like almost seven? Also, it sucks that Midnight has to ask if her mom is angry at her for her achievements...
oh twilight you under estimate the power of rainbows
8970167
Rainbow Dash is influenced by Midnight Sparkle to make a Doomsday Machine to be powered by rainbows. just to be petty.
Such an excellent chapter. 'I have a PhD', 'pegasus doomsday devices' , ...
I thought you were going for 'sunset becomes an alicorn due to the surge' for a moment there. :)
8970161
I can see what you mean and I will join you if midnight is a 7th element. I don't like odd numbered elements it kinda ruins the harmony aspect of the name
My ribs shall never be the same...
We all knew it was coming, but it was the result that kept the tension rising. Seeing the two working hard as we waited to see how the Sonic Rainboom would affect them was something. The idea of them sharing a mana pool is interesting and it'll be something to see how it affects them both as they draw from it. Now that it's helped them learn Midnight is not a copy or the like, maybe it can help them learn Midnight's true origins. And gotta wonder how Sunset's gonna handle graduating when she put so much of her identity in being Celestia's student.
8970242
How does having seven ruin the harmony? Being odd doesn't mean that. Seven colors to a rainbow, seven being the most lucky/magical number, etc. If anything, having seven should make harmony even more powerful.
8970263
its mostly because of the fact that the two sisters had control of the elements if one has 3 and the other has 4 it just doesnt sit right with me
8970270
Well, that would have been for Celestia and Luna. Those who took them after are not them. Suggesting that seems like that harmony and friendship should be fixed, never evolving or growing.
8970289
i see what you mean but its mostly a personal thing
8970161
I agree that the timeskip was kind of jarring. The last chapters really built up the drama between Sunset and Celestia and the budding friendship between Sunset and Cadance, and now it feels like that whole plotline got tossed aside before it had any resolution. It'll probably come up again, too, but that only makes me wonder more why nothing changed after Sunset's outburst in front of the whole Canterlot nobility.
The shared manapool actually seems pretty logical to me, although I'm half convinced that Celestia pulled the whole "unicorn twins" explanation out of her dock just so she can continue to not tell Sunset the truth about the mirror.
And finally... Celestia continuing to complete miss any signs of ponies not getting along. It's kind of her thing, isn't it?
And once again, Celestia screws up with Sunset. And doesn't seem to understand just how much Twilight and Midnight dislike each other. Ugh. Can't she do anything right?
8970325
That too, I also thought the relationship happened to fast or at least I didn't really saw/felt how it actually happened.
To me it was just Sunset not really wanting it, in one chapter more or less accepting Cadance which kind of happened out of nowhere too, then one drunk night and they are probably together now.
I think the story maybe change it's focus to fast, at first it was Midnight and Twilight, then suddenly Cadance.
Then like you said Celestia pulls of some crap and it's back to the relationship.
Then it suddenly feels like Midnight and Twilight are just some characters there instead of the main chars which I think they were supposed to be.
I think I'm not sure what I'm supposed to think here, at first she was magical or a former human, then it looked like she was from Equestria girls, then they suddenly have a connection and I'm not sure why, because I believe Twilight had nothing to do with Sunset messing with the mirror in that certain moment?
I think I'm not sure why that should suddenly be the chase.
8970242
Well I hope that it will turn out alright for you in the end and thanks for letting me know that I'm not the only one who thinks something is a bit off at the moment. Be proud of the downvote, I'm never really sure when a downvote is justified and when not.
I saw some topics for that or huge conversations about downvotes, but I'm usually getting them for comment where I can only laugh and think what I did this time.
I'm a little surprised that there wasn't any treatment of the title debacle, and I'm expecting some significant emotional fallout from this as well.
Sunset's clearing feeling disposable right now, and Celestia is ... what letting her in hopes of pushing her to connect more with Cadence or something?
On the other hand, there's the magic infusion.
8970168
More relevant to real-world physics, the Casimir effect is a measurable realization of this seemingly-paradoxical result, as explained here. In short, a filly in magic kindergarten just discovered the Riemann-zeta function and the Casimir effect. This makes me very happy.
I actually like Kudzuhaiku's explanation for unicorn magic here.
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/404988/3/amplitude-adjustment/chapter-3
"“After some extensive testing, with Twilight Sparkle organizing said tests, we were able to determine that unicorns operate on radio frequencies and we were even able to make preliminary measurements."
It's two broadcasters on the same channel, since they're functionally identical in terms of magic.
Well it is a bit of a nitpicking but:
The sum of real numbers is supposed to be zero, because of the negative/positive numbers.
The sum of all natural numbers is -1/12.
I suggest you to change it to "natural numbers" in the chapter, it would make more (less) sense that way, more math comedy.
(Especially because -1/12 is not a natural number, but every "sane" way you compute it, you either get infinity or -1/12 for the sum)
I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be Midnight.
Anyway, I agree that the timeskip and shared mana pool were strange decisions. For the timeskip, I was really expecting a bit more resolution to the Sunset/Celestia thing, though it is in-character to just have both of them with hard to ignore the issue. The mana pool thing though definitely seems strange. I thought Midnight was just EG Twilight with a memory wipe, so having a shared pool like that seems strange.
That being said I'm still enjoying the story, keep it up!
Why I have a feeling Sunset doesn't want to leave her status as 'Celestia's student'? Maybe she want to be by Celestia's side more than anypony else?
Back pain after grounding Faust knows how much magic? Why Sunset, either that's a Chekov's Gun or a Red Herring. Dunno which, though.
I can imagine what those "lessons" with Cadence entail. Probability beds, covers and candles
That's the best reasoning ever
Twin magic is strange but interesting
Yeah, I can see pegasus doomsday devices always having lightning.
It goes right along with how unicorn doomsday devices aren’t supposed to work.
That last part is totally true, by the way. I read it in a magazine.
It does feel like the whole "ennobling Sunset" plot line and all of its emotional fallout got dropped without any kind of satisfying resolution, but this was still a fascinating chapter. Though hopefully being forced to spend time together regularly will help the two Twilights get along more, and possibly crack Celestia's serene facade.
As for Sunset, I'm honestly surprised that wasn't enough for wings. I feel like she's on the knife's edge at this point, in a number of ways. I just hope this isn't the past Celestia says to her on the subject. At least she has Cadence to confide in.
Also, interesting to see enchantment and necromancy missing from those schools of magic. We've certainly seen the former...
8971837
Maybe that was not her destiny? Otherwise, front-line soldiers would have ascended every now and then. (and Sunset has been in the life-and-death situation more than one occasion during her Monster Hunting activities) Her destiny lies elsewhere and according to the canon, it is supposed to be on the other side of the mirror. Not to mention she still haven't embraced Friendship yet.
8972616
I like to think that Sunset is one of those Rare individuals who have No Destiny. Not in the sense that her lack of destiny means she would pass through her life unremarked, but in the sense that her Every Action lies beyond the weaving of fate, and the consequences of those actions cause that many more ripples to cascade outward from her and alter the destinies of those she interacts with. She can literally be anything she wants to be if the right circumstances come about to catalyze with her actions.
+=Wonder Twins Powers, activate!
Form of... Explosion!
Shape of... Detonation!
"... And over there, students, from this tower balcony, you can see Ponyville, right on the shore of Everfree Lake. Can any of you tell us how it was made?"
Best. Conversation. Ever.
I also like the fact that you brought advanced math and relativity into it. While it may be magic, it still has some sort of laws, and it makes sense that it would be studied and categorized in such a way. (Wizards are scientists, to quote Meep.)
Side note: There's a book called The Clockwork Rocket (I think the series might be called Orthogonal) that talks about a very interesting spacetime that allows for infinite energy creation, among other things. It's fiction, but the math is real. I find it a neat example of how math is a constant, despite what weirdness might happen to what passes for physics.
9000073
But... Does he have a PhD? It was't clear, and I'd want to know for sure.
And now, Sunset's studenthood has ended. Not because of anything SHE did, but because Celestia has a new toy to play with. Poor Sunset. Will Celestia never learn?
Did he get better?
9265419
Eh Celestia probably fixed it.
Darn I was really hoping she would ascend when she took in all of that magic.
9360742
I was expecting the same thing.
Oh my, how meta.
He really likes his PhD, doesn't he?
Humans: Hey! Stop hogging the hot water!
Twi#1 and Twi#2: Hey! Stop hogging the magic! I have to the the practical test too, you know.
8971837
It is possible that enchantment could be fall under conjeration or illusion magic schools and perhaps both have classes in it. Necromancy on the other hand is a forbidden spell on the golem branch of the alchemy tree under the conjugation school of magic.
I think that’s supposed to be Midnight talking.
9360742
I also thought that was where it was going.