The Tragic Story of Twilight Sparkle, or Twilight

by A Fistful of Apples

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Apple Bloom

The night before Hearth's Warming Eve. Technically not an important day, but since Hearth's Warming Eve had become important in itself, Hearth's Warming Eve Eve was becoming important by association. Given this, and her recent success in mingling with the Canterlot elite, Rarity was swamped with last minute orders. Ponies wanted clothes for themselves, to look their best for the holidays. Others were ordering last minute gifts. Regardless, it was a lot of work, and it was times like this that Rarity was glad that Twilight had removed the need for sleep as a time constraint.

"Rarity!" called Sweetie Belle. She dragged the last syllable out in one long annoying whine, and Rarity couldn't help but exhale slowly in irritation. That was the problem with nopony needing sleep. It was three in the morning, and while Rarity could get more work done, it also meant Sweetie Belle had no bedtime.

"You said I could help," she continued. Rarity's ears folded back. She had said that, but she figured Sweetie would have forgotten by now. Of course, she'd also said that when she wasn't in a rush.

"I'm sorry Sweetie," said Rarity, working three sewing machines at once. It used to be she could only manage such finesse on one of her particularly good days. Recently, it seemed like every day was a good day. Probably a side effect of always being alert and never needing to sleep. "But I'm afraid this work is much too delicate for somepony as... inexperienced in the art of dressmaking as you to help with."

"But you promised!"

"I remember quite well what I said, and I did not promise you," said Rarity. Rarity sighed slowly, trying to stay calm and focused. "Why don't you go see what your friends are up to?"

"Mon and Dad said I shouldn't go out at night unless it was straight here or straight back home. They said it was too dark."

"When did they say this?" asked Rarity.

"I dunno. A couple of months ago?"

Rarity nodded to herself. "They've put up lights since then. It's perfectly safe, so long as you stay on the roads and don't dawdle."

Sweetie Belle looked sceptical for a moment before brightening up. "Okay, I'll try and visit Apple Bloom!" she said.

Rarity smiled and nodded, happy to have the filly out of her mane. It wasn't long before Sweetie excitedly opened the door and slammed it shut behind her, humming to herself as she went.

Rarity tapped the earpiece in her ear to turn it on. Then she tapped it three more times, to connect it to a specific pony.

"Applejack," she asked, uncertain. She always felt like she was crazy, using the thing. "Can you hear me?"

There was a moment before she heard back.

"Rarity?" came Applejack's voice from what seemed like inside her head. "Yeah I can hear ya. What's going on?"

"Sweetie Belle's heading your way to meet with Apple Bloom. She'll most likely arrive in about ten minutes. I hope you don't mind, but I simply couldn't have her hanging around here when I'm so busy."

Right as she finished speaking one of the stitches snagged on the fabric and Rarity had to stop to fix it. It didn't take but a moment.

"Alright then," said Applejack. Rarity could hear low grunts which made her think Applejack was probably busy kicking trees or something brutish like that. Though there was a faint whistling as well. Perhaps it was windy outside. "I don't know how much fun she'll have here, Apple Bloom's been holed up in their clubhouse since winter break started. Says she's workin' on some project for Twilight or something. I dunno. She's kind of hard to keep up with sometimes. Like Twilight."

"Apple Bloom is like that?" asked Rarity. "I didn't know she was so gifted in school."

"She wasn't." Another one of those grunts. "But she's taken to Twilight's learnin' like a fish takes to water. I don't know if it's that Twilight's a better teacher, or if Apple Bloom's just more interested now, or maybe there were problems in Cheerilee's class I never knew about. Don't see a reason to ask about it really."

Rarity nodded out of reflex. She suddenly felt silly, nodding when no one could see her. She did have to get back to work however.

"Well, thank you for keeping an eye on Sweetie Belle," said Rarity, hoping to end the conversation. "I'm quite swamped with last minute orders, so I'm afraid I have to get back to it."

"Alright," said Applejack. "I suppose you would like Sweetie Belle to stay over here for a while?"

"At least for a few hours. Until eight in the morning. Preferably ten."

"Ten it is," said Applejack. Rarity smiled, then felt silly again.

"Talk to you later darling," said Rarity before tapping her earpiece and turning it off. She hoped that didn't seem rude.

Sweetie Belle arrived at Sweet Apple Acres only a bit disappointed. She did want to help Rarity, but she had to admit, she hadn't seen Apple Bloom all winter break and she was excited at the idea of hanging out with her. When she arrived, she noticed something odd. The snow was piled up about two inches from the ground in town, but the snow just stopped right when she got to Sweet Apple Acres. It was also noticeably warmer, though Sweetie found herself still cold and so wrapped her scarf tighter around herself.

As she made her way to the barn, Sweetie noticed an orange blur flying around kicking out clouds. It took her a moment to realise what it was.

"Applejack!" she called out. She'd expected to have to call out again, but Applejack heard her the first time and flew down, as if she was expecting visitors in the middle of the night. Maybe she was?

"Hey Sweetie Belle," said Applejack as she landed. "Thought you might be coming over. I know Apple Bloom's in yall's clubhouse. Don't know what she's doing, though I don't think she'd mind company."

"Great!" said Sweetie Belle. She was about to head over when she decided to ask a question.

"Why is there no snow on your farm?"

Applejack chuckled lightly, and Sweetie realised she was nervous for some reason. Her wings clamped tightly to her sides like Scootaloo's sometimes did when she was nervous.

"Well, honestly...," she began, rubbing the back of her head. "Apple Bloom made this machine ya see, to raise the temperature around the farm to prevent any of the plants from being damaged by frost. I thought it was a good idea, but realised if the clouds didn't snow they'd rain instead, and I didn't want our farm to get flooded. So I've been kicking away the clouds the weather team sends over every morning. Gotten into a few arguments with them before, but Rainbow Dash gets them to leave me alone now. Most of the time anyway." She chuckled again. "I don't think this is strictly legal. It's like keeping my farm in fall while everywhere else is winter, but it doesn't look to be hurtin' anypony, and I haven't gotten any complaints from high up yet. So uh, try to keep it under your hat, if you know what I mean."

"Apple Bloom made it?" asked Sweetie. She hadn't heard of anything like that from Apple Bloom before school ended for winter break. And she didn't think Twilight mentioned how to make a thing like that. She doubted Scootaloo came up with it.

"Yep," said Applejack. "A bit after your schoolin' stopped. She was kinda pushy about it, now that I think on it. Really wanted it to be used. But like I said, I thought it was a good idea so I didn't argue with her or anything."

Sweetie found her interest waning and so said her goodbyes to Applejack before trotting off towards the clubhouse.

When she got there, she almost didn't recognise it. The clearing around it was bigger. It looked like somepony had cut down some trees around it. It was also bigger, what looked like extra rooms neatly added to the sides of the clubhouse and supported with long stilts. There was light coming from inside, and some kind of metal pipe coming out of one of the walls and going down into the ground. Like a storm drain, except it wasn't.

Carefully, Sweetie Belle climbed up and entered the tree house. The outside was different. The inside was even more so. She barely recognised the place.

It looked more like Twilight's workshop than the Cutie Mark Crusader's clubhouse. But that wasn't really it. It looked more like what Twilight's workshop would look like, if Twilight had gone crazy. Where Twilight had her tools and projects neatly arranged and ordered, everything well built, Apple Bloom had things scattered all over the place. There were a few items lying around in pristine condition, which only made them look even more odd put up against what looked like garbage. It was much warmer inside, really hot in fact, and Sweetie wanted to take off her scarf but couldn't see a place to put it where it wouldn't get dirty. On the far side of the wall was a huge machine of some kind, which Apple Bloom was currently burying herself in, working.

"Apple Bloom?" asked Sweetie, a bit scared despite herself. Apple Bloom didn't even look up from whatever she was doing. Her bow was ripped in places, and stained with things Sweetie Belle couldn't guess at. Her mane and tail were both frazzled, and Sweetie had the distinct impression Apple Bloom hadn't had a bath in forever. Did Applejack know?

"Hi Sweetie," said Apple Bloom after a moment. She seemed completely uninterested in Sweetie being there.

"Uh, are you okay?" It was all Sweetie could think to say. Her hopes of having a fun time playing with her friend had ended. Now she just wanted to understand what was happening.

"Not really," said Apple Bloom. That answer surprised Sweetie.

"What's wrong? Maybe I can help?"

"You can't." She didn't sound disappointed, or worried. The tone of her voice was like if she was naming something off a shopping list. Uninterested.

"What's wrong?" Sweetie Belle repeated.

Apple Bloom didn't take her eyes off what she was doing as she replied, "I'm trying to get this to work. It's a machine to turn me into an Alicorn."

"Is that possible?" asked Sweetie.

"Twilight gave my sister wings. Made her into a Pegasus. It's possible. But I can't figure out how. I've been working on it for two weeks now."

"Applejack said you made a thing to keep the farm warm," said Sweetie, feeling like she was losing her ability to speak. It didn't sound like she was talking to her friend.

"I got sidetracked. I got sidetracked a lot." She waved a small hoof in the general direction of the neat looking items. "I'm more focused now that I'm closer. But I just can't get it. I've managed to give myself wings and a horn. But I can't sustain the change. I always turn back, and I don't understand why. But every test increases the duration I stay changed, so I think I'll get it eventually." She suddenly stopped tinkering. She looked over at Sweetie Belle. "Maybe if I had somepony else. You're a Unicorn. Maybe you can help."

Sweetie took a step back and her ears folded. She didn't like the sound of that. She didn't like the sound of any of this.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked quietly.

"I'm suffering from Hyperclarity," said Apple Bloom as she turned around. Her face was almost entirely coated in what looked like red and black ink. "I thought I could build this faster, do it before having to go over things at school, if I could focus more and just think quicker. So I stopped taking survival pills and made something to purify the air in this room. It's so pure, I don't think it can get any more than it is here, or close to the Sphere of Fixed Stars. It's still on. If you stay here, you'll start suffering from it too."

Sweetie really wanted to leave and go tell Applejack, but was too scared to move. A part of her knew that if she didn't something bad would happen. She might get hurt, or Apple Bloom would hurt herself. Maybe she was already hurt.

"I realised I'd be wasting a lot of time if I had to start sleeping again, so I devoted some time to learning how those pills work, and designing new ones that wouldn't fix Hyperclarity. In fact, I made them exasperate the problem and hopefully prevent me from going crazy. It wasn't difficult, Applejack has the ingredients and I know how the body works, for the most part. You know our minds are made of Air and Fire? And our brains, our brains are mostly those two too. If you take in more Air, it'll push out the Water and Earth, which weigh down the mind. With my modified survival pills I made it so my brain never takes in anymore Air past a certain point." She blinked a few times, her eyes shiny. They seemed to almost bulge out of her head, but not quite. "Never mind, that's not important. I don't want to get sidetracked. Why don't you come help me Sweetie? Maybe I just don't know enough about Unicorns to make myself one?"

The tone of her voice sounded suspicious. Everything she'd said sounded suspicious. Apple Bloom was her friend, but right now she wasn't acting anything like how Apple Bloom should. She sounded more like a murderer in one of those mystery novels Rarity liked. Apple Bloom probably wouldn't murder her though. Or would she? She wasn't herself. Sweetie Bell had had enough. She turned around sharply and ran through the door, forgetting that she was in a tree house and running straight off the edge. When she landed she felt the wind knocked out of her. It was cold, and as she took gasping breathes the air felt thick with water, like it was more humid than it really was. Her head started hurting, throbbing more with each breath. She looked behind her, and up, and didn't see Apple Bloom trying to follow her. She ran.

She couldn't find Applejack, not on the farm or in the sky. She ran into the barn and looked for Big Mac or Granny Smith, but they weren't there either.

So she ran back to Rarity's as fast as she could. She wishes she could teleport. Things would be so much faster that way.

Rarity was still inside, still working on her dresses. By the time Sweetie got there, she was crying. Rarity took one look at her and her face immediately went from irritated to worried, and as Sweetie ran up to her and buried her face in her sister's side she already felt better.

"Sweetie what's wrong!" said Rarity. The whirring of sewing machines stopped and she put her hooves around her sister. "What happened?"

"Apple Bloom," was all Sweetie could say. Her head and stomach hurt and she suddenly didn't want to do anything but cry. But she knew she had to tell somepony what had happened.

"What about Apple Bloom?" asked Rarity. Her voice sounded gentle, yet authoritative.

"She's... sick," said Sweetie, trying to stop herself from crying anymore. "She needs help, or she's gonna hurt somepony. Or hurt herself."

"She's sick?" asked Rarity. "Why didn't you tell Applejack? If she's just sick it shouldn't be anything to worry about."

"I couldn't find Applejack and no!" She yelled out "no," suddenly feeling frustrated. "She's got Hyperclarity."

"I don't know what that is," said Rarity, in a tone that suggested Sweetie might be making it up.

"Do you know where Twilight is? I'm sure Twilight could help her."

Rarity continued to hold Sweetie close as she said, "I think she's in Maressachusettes. Let me try contacting her."

"So what do you think?" asked Star Swirl. It was interesting. She did look like a female version of Starswirld the Bearded. Female and younger. Perhaps attractive was the word. Did her parents name her that because they somehow knew, or was it just her coat and mane colour? Or just complete coincidence?

Twilight blinked those thoughts away and looked back down at the plans.

"I think it's a good start," she said.

"Just a good start?"

"You have to admit you don't know as much about this as I do. It's impressive you've gotten this far on your own, but there are several problems."

She seemed a bit put out. "It looks like nopony knows as much about anything as you do." She wasn't quite irritated, but she was getting close. Twilight would have to be more careful how she worded things.

"First, if you did this, ponies would be subject to near twenty-two thousand times the standard force downward towards the centre of the universe. Ponies would turn into paste on the way up. You're trying to treat what's experienced as a constant, but there's relative motion to consider. While the charge of the Xi lines isn't changing, the amount of force against them is, like putting a moving wall in the way of the ship. It'd also accelerate too fast and you don't account for the air. It'll burn up on the way, the materials aren't strong enough, and in most cases even if they were, the ponies inside will cook. And finally the Celestial Spheres are in the way. That's a literal wall to account for."

"Damnit," said Star Swirl. She put a hoof to her head and Twilight knew she felt stupid for not realising herself what Twilight had just told her. Well, she wasn't an engineer, she was an astronomer, but Twilight figured telling her that would annoy her.

She pressed on the bridge of her muzzle for a moment and took a deep breath.

"Well," she began, "that's why I asked you here. Sorry, it's been a long day. And you know, Hearth's Warming Eve is tomorrow and I was planning to go to Canterlot for it, but those plans fell through... anyway. I was hoping to have this meeting wrapped up before the sun rises, so if you had any suggestions on how to improve things?" She gestured to her plan. Twilight took a moment to think about it.

"First I'd say you're method of getting up there is backwards. I don't see any way of pushing yourself up there without killing everypony inside." A few ideas came to her. "Okay, maybe I can think of some ways to do it but it'd be less efficient. Instead, what you want to do is pull the ship up. Remember there are Xi lines directing terrestrial matter 'down.' So you have roads, they're just going the wrong way. There are Xi lines all over too, everywhere, moving in all directions, they're just too weak to pull you anywhere. So I'd suggest focusing your attention in that area. Either change the Charge of certain lines, or change the Frequency of others that happen to be going the way you want so they pull your ship correctly. Maybe a combination, or perhaps you could try some kind of sustained propulsion combined with Xi manipulation. This would solve two of your problems. Another idea would be to make sure to line everything in Fire-Gold, to rarefy the Air around the ship allowing for an increase in speed without burning up.

The last problem's much more difficult to get around, because there's no getting around it. Your ship would have to either be able to break through the first Celestial Sphere, or maybe you could set it up so it can hang on the bottom and cut a hole through. The problem with both is it's rather thick, about three feet deep, and it's Crystal, particularly hard. Celestial Matter can break through it much easier than Terrestrial Matter, but we don't have any of that."

Twilight suddenly had another idea.

"The Moon is imbedded in the first Sphere, so maybe you could try going up to the bottom of the moon, carve out some of it, and use that material to build another ship and get through the Sphere and make a proper landing. There would be some serious physics calculations to make in order to pull this off, but now that I think about it this might be your best bet. Just keep in mind how Celestial Matter moves, and try to remember to always try to work with Xi lines, not against them."

"How did Princess Celestia do it?" asked Star Swirl suddenly.

"What?"

"Princess Celestia banished Luna to the moon right? That's how the story went? Maybe she could do it to a group of us if we asked, or we could mimic her method?"

Twilight shook her head. "Nightmare Moon wasn't banished to the moon, she was banished in the moon. Her essence was joined in the moon. Think like how a Lich can bind a piece of herself into, say, a cup. Nightmare Moon had her entire self bound to the Moon. It's not useful here, unless you want to be mostly unaware of yourself for a thousand years."

"I'd rather not," said Star Swirl. She looked a bit pale.

Twilight was about to speak further when she felt a light buzz in her ear. She tapped hear earpiece to turn it on, at the same time mentally asking who it was. Perhaps she could figure out some way build an identification feature into the earpiece itself later.

"Yes, Rarity?"

If Rarity was surprised Twilight knew who was calling, she didn't show it.

"Terribly sorry to bother you," Rarity began, "but Sweetie Belle is insistent that Apple Bloom needs your help. She says she's suffering from something called Hyperclarity and you can stop it?"

"That's impossible," said Twilight, almost to herself. She checked with Mephistopheles and found that yes, it was happening, but as he answered Rarity continued, sounding relieved.

"Yes, I had hoped it was all just Sweetie overreacting. She's very upset."

"Sorry, I was just thinking out loud. It's possible. Wait a moment, I'll be there in about fifteen seconds."

She turned her earpiece off.

"What was that?" Star Swirl asked. She didn't have the look of somepony who thought Twilight had gone crazy. She was genuinely curious, and Twilight was further endeared to the Astronomer for that.

"I built these small devices that fit into your ear and let you talk to people over vast distances. That was one of my friends. I'm afraid something of an emergency's come up. I'll have to leave immediately. I hope I was enough of a help."

"No, you were great," said Star Swirl. "Thank you for your time."

Twilight gave a quick smile and closed her eyes, teleporting herself into Rarity's Boutique.

When Twilight arrived she didn't hear any gasps of surprise, which she'd come to see as normal when teleporting long distances. She wasn't sure anymore if she liked it or not.

Sweetie was lying on the ground, her eyes red. She had her left forehoof pressed to hear head, so Twilight asked if she had a headache and learned that she did.

"What exactly is going on?" she asked, looking directly at Sweetie. Rarity just looked on, her expression changing from calm to worried.

Twilight listened as Sweetie explained what had happened. When she was done, she took a few moments to ask Mephistopheles to help fill in the gaps, and figure out how much of a problem this really was.

"Her changes to your survival pills are mitigating the worst of it, but at the present rate she'll start to suffer irreparable damage to her mind in about three weeks. If stopped before then she'll suffer from Obsessive Compulsive symptoms of varying degrees and severity, depending on how soon she is stopped."

"If there are no objections, I think I'll handle this with Applejack. Wait here."

Rarity and Sweetie both nodded, and Twilight teleported to Sweet Apple Acres.

The first thing she noticed was there was no snow. It was winter, but it wasn't cold enough for snow, albeit, it was still cold. A quick check with Mephistopheles revealed the answer.

Apple Bloom was getting ahead of herself, trying to teach herself things that Twilight hadn't gotten into yet. One of the first things she did was try to figure out if there's a way to change one type of atoms into another. There isn't, and so she started thinking about purifying things, remembered her old Air Cooling machine, and got locked into thinking about making the climate warmer. After lots of trial and error she realised she could increase the temperature slightly by collecting the Water in the air, like a reversed version of Ditzy Doo's Electrum Light. The range was much higher, and much more specific, but in her "clubhouse" Apple Bloom had a device built to draw in water from a certain radius. It was like a magnet, drawing in more water the closer it was, so it was most definitely very hot in the clubhouse.

It didn't take her long to find Applejack, who had finished kicking clouds and was now raising yet another barn. Twilight briefly wondered why she needed them all when her apple sales were down.

"Howdy Twilight," said Applejack as she walked up. "Thought you were in Maressachusettes."

"I was," said Twilight.

"Get back early then? Too busy for a proper visit at the moment, but if you'd like you can help me here with my work?" Twilight was flattered Applejack would so easily offer to let Twilight join, but had to push those thoughts aside.

"Have you seen Apple Bloom lately?"

"Nope," said Applejack. "Got herself holed up in her clubhouse. Sweetie Belle came over not too long ago, she's probably still with her."

"She's not. You never saw her come back to eat? Or to bathe?"

"She doesn't need to eat, Twilight. And young ponies sometimes go a while without showering, it's not something I'm gonna get on her for. I'm not Rarity. And how do you know Sweetie's not with Apple Bloom? What's with the twenty questions?"

Twilight was suddenly at a loss for what to say. She didn't want to worry Applejack. Technically this was about as serious as Apple Bloom spraining a leg. She'd hurt for a while, but she wasn't going to die unless she never got treatment. Slowly, she tried to explain what had happened, talking about how Sweetie couldn't find Applejack or any of Apple Bloom's family, (as it turned out, Big Mac and Granny Smith were in town selling cakes for Hearth's Warming Eve) and ran to Rarity.

When Twilight was done, Applejack didn't say anything. She looked like she didn't hear Twilight, but Twilight knew she had. Twilight kept speaking.

"This isn't that serious. I just need you to come with me and we can try to talk her down. If we can't get her to, we'll have to subdue her and pull her out of that room. She'll have a headache and act a bit strange for a few days, nothing that bad."

"It's my fault," said Applejack suddenly. Her wings fell from her sides, something Twilight knew took either emotional or physical exhaustion, or a conscious effort to make happen. She asked and found the reason to be emotional. "If I hadn't asked for these wings, Apple Bloom would have never had the idea to do anything like this."

"You don't know that," said Twilight. "She might have gotten interested in the idea anyway."

"No," said Applejack. She was looking at the ground, her eyes glancing left and right. "Unlike Big Macintosh or me, she'd never complained about being an Earth Pony, or not being some other Type. I put that idea in her head when I came home with wings."

"It's not a big deal Applejack. She'll be fine. This isn't a big disaster, she's not in any serious danger, and if somepony's to blame, it's me for not teaching her well."

Applejack's wings lifted up and stood by her sides again. She looked up and looked Twilight in the eyes.

"You're right," she said. She hoped she wasn't right about shouldering blame. "I shouldn't be getting so worked up about this. I'm still gettin' flak from Granny for my wings, and I guess I still feel guilty about it."

"I could remove them," said Twilight. Applejack's eyes widened a fraction.

"No," she said. "I'd feel worse about that, like I was running away from my convictions. I don't think I did anything wrong. Besides, they're dead useful on the farm. You were right, I can just move clouds where I want them and not have to worry if the Weather Team gets it wrong, which they do all the time. They complain sometimes, but nopony's called the guards on me so far."

"So you'll come with me to help talk down Apple Bloom?"

"I was gonna do that anyway, I was just busy feeling sorry for myself. Let's go."

Twilight followed Applejack as she flew above, teleporting in short jumps to keep up. She didn't want to go directly there and be forced to wait for Applejack. When they arrived, Applejack landed in front of the door and Twilight teleported next to her.

Twilight could feel it already, how hot it was inside. She hoped this wouldn't be too difficult. They opened the door.

It was more or less what Twilight expected. Everything showed that most of the time, Apple Bloom was too narrowly focused on one thing to care about being neat, but sometimes she had decided something else was worth focusing on. These things stood out, and a quick check determined what she'd produced in the short time she'd been suffering.

Besides the machine making it warmer, there was a machine to turn apples into other types of apples, a machine that could purify salt-water extremely quickly, and a machine to force Zap-Apples to ripen. These were all things she built in the process of trying to teach herself something.

Currently, Apple Bloom was tinkering on the largest machine, what she intended as a machine to turn ponies into Alicorns. Twilight checked with Mephistopheles to see where she was with it, and found it was working on incorrect principles. She was trying to enact change like she did with the apples, re-arranging atoms and meridians to turn one into an Alicorn. But a living thing like a pony was a dynamic system, constantly changing, and she wasn't accounting for that. The body would try to "fix" itself after a while, and all she could do is make that while last longer.

"I want you to keep me up to speed on what Apple Bloom is thinking once we start talking to her," she said inwardly to Mephistopheles. "I don't want to have to resort to force, so I need to stay ahead of her thought process."

Mephistopheles nodded.

"Apple Bloom?" asked Applejack, tentatively. Apple Bloom didn't stop what she was doing, but she did reply.

"Hi Applejack," she said. "And Twilight. Maybe you can help me? I wanted to study Sweetie Belle but she left and I can't leave this room."

"She's switched focus," said Mephistopheles. "She's more interested in getting your assistance as a test subject than working on her device." A second later Apple Bloom's eyes darted to Applejack's wings. "She's seen Applejack. She's thinking about how Applejack is the product of a successful change in pony type. She's switched focus again, she doesn't care about you, she wishes to study Applejack."

"Can you help me Applejack?" she said. "You've been given wings, and they're permanent. I'd like to know how that works."

Twilight put a hoof in front of Applejack's face to prevent her from speaking at the moment. Instead, Twilight spoke.

"I can tell you how it works, and what's wrong with your machine now, if you like."

Apple Bloom's eyes darted to her.

"Her focus is back to you," said Mephistopheles. "She's forgotten Applejack is there."

"Tell me," she said. "I can't figure it out, it's extremely frustrating."

"I bet," said Twilight. "I'll only tell you if you come with us outside, and you take another survival pill. A normal one. You're suffering from Hyperclarity."

"I know," said Apple Bloom. "It's helping me learn. I've figured out so much already. I just need to figure this out."

"You can't stay this way. You're modified survival pills aren't as good as you think they are. You'll suffer permanent damage if you don't stop."

Apple Bloom's eyes suddenly narrowed.

"She thought for a moment that you're right, and they're not good enough. She decided to ask you how to fix them, and began thinking about what could be wrong. She decided she put too much focus on inhibiting the Liver, and she's promoting imbalance that way. She realised if she doesn't do that, she'll obviously have a harder time switching focuses and might get lost in something irrelevant. She realised it's odd that you would know if her pills are ineffective, as you haven't looked at them. She switched focus and wondered how you did this. She switched focus and wonders how you know anything that you know. Everything I just mentioned took her fourty-six milliseconds to think through, and her current thoughts are on how you've come to know all the things that you've come to know, but specifics are going by too fast for coherent speech to convey." He said all that extremely quickly, quicker than any pony could probably do naturally. But Twilight understood.

This was an unexpected development, one that Twilight hadn't seen coming at all. She had to put an end to that line of thought as soon as possible, and the only way she could think to do it was to give Apple Bloom what she wanted.

"Remember that ponies are alive, and apples aren't," said Twilight quickly. Apple Bloom blinked, and Mephistopheles began speaking.

"She's changed focus. She's thinking about what that means. She's realised that -"

"I don't need to know this," said Twilight in her head, cutting him off. "I just need to know that she didn't figure out you exist, or even suspect anything like you exists."

"She ran through several possibilities, and yes, some of them are rather close. At the moment she's not thinking about that however."

As soon as Mephistopheles stopped speaking Apple Bloom blinked, and turned around, burying herself in the machine once more. Twilight looked and Applejack and motioned for her to join her at the side. They moved over, hopefully out of earshot of Apple Bloom, though most likely Apple Bloom had forgotten they even existed.

"This is going to be harder than I thought," said Twilight. "I think we're just going to have to grab her and drag her out."

"Do we really have to? I haven't said anything to her. I'm sure she'd listen to me."

"She doesn't know you're here anymore. And we have a time limit. If we stay in here too long we'll start acting like her. It'll be worse for us actually. So whatever we do it has to be fast."

It had been only two minutes or so, and already Twilight could feel a lightness in her head that she was associating with the onset of Hyperclarity. She didn't know exactly what it felt like, but she figured it was a safe assumption. Applejack was probably fine, for now. She was a Pegasus after all, and they had a far higher tolerance for purer Air than Unicorns and Earth Ponies.

"Maybe you better explain to me exactly what's wrong with her, because I don't think I really understand it. How could she forget I'm here? She was just talking to me."

"Not a lot to say really," said Twilight. "Which is good, since I don't have much time to explain it. Short story shorter. She's trying to focus on only one thing, which is building that machine. But she gets distracted easily and ends up focusing on other things. Her focus is so narrow she excludes everything that isn't part of whatever her focus is, which is why she doesn't remember we're here anymore. Her symptoms aren't typical of Hyperclarity because she's taking survival pills. If we stay here too long we'll end up focussed on one thing with a complete inability to get distracted or acknowledge anything else. And after a while we'll die from it." Twilight blinked, suddenly aware she was rambling and hadn't meant to speak that much about it. It really was happening.

"I have to get out of here. Pegasi are resistant to it, you can stay here longer than I can. If you can't convince her to leave this room in...." she asked Mephistopheles to give her a likely timeframe. "an hour," she continued, amazed Applejack was that resistant, "subdue her by force and drag her out. Any longer than that and you'll start feeling the effects. I'll time you, if you take longer than that I'll teleport you both out myself."

Without saying another word, she closed her eyes and teleported herself right outside the clubhouse, on the ground. Her head began hurting, and the air around her felt heavy. She blinked a few times, feeling like there was something pressing on her eyes, but there was nothing there.

She probably should have just teleported them out anyway right then. But it'd be better if Apple Bloom did it herself. If she was forced out, she might turn violent, and if she was unwilling, she'd probably have a harder time recovering. It was the same reason she couldn't just turn off the machine that purified the air, or leave the door open. Apple Bloom wouldn't just let something so passive happen. Hopefully Applejack could convince her to leave before Twilight had to resort to anything aggressive.

Twilight left so fast, and Applejack had no real clue what to do about Apple Bloom. She still didn't really get what was happening, even though Twilight must have explained it a bunch of times. But Applejack knew Apple Bloom, and this was an Apple Bloom problem first.

"Apple Bloom!" said Applejack, projecting authority into her voice. Apple Bloom didn't look over.

"Hi Applejack," was all she said, the same way she'd said it before.

Applejack really wasn't good at these mind games, so she tried the first thing that came to her.

"Apple Bloom, the answer to making whatever it is you're making is outside. You should, uh, go out there."

Apple Bloom did stop what she was doing and looked over.

"You're lying," said Apple Bloom, and while it was true that accusation still hurt Applejack. It wasn't something she was used to hearing.

"No," said Applejack, trying to sound reasonable. "Twilight's out there, and she can tell you everything you want to know."

"You could help me Applejack. If you let me study you."

"Sure," said Applejack. "I'll help you with whatever you need. Just, let's go outside and we can do that."

"I can't go outside."

"Why not?"

"I'll get stupider. It's much better in here."

"You remember what Twilight said about you staying in here? That you'll be hurt?"

She blinked, slow. It was unnerving.

"Yeah," she said.

"That doesn't worry you? You don't believe her? You don't believe me?"

"I thought about it for a moment, and I realised if she's correct I won't suffer permanent harm for another two weeks."

Applejack didn't know if that was true, but it didn't matter if it was or not. This wasn't working, she had to try something else.

"Why do you need to finish that machine?" she asked.

"So I can make myself into an Alicorn."

"You never complained about your type before. Is it because of me? Did I put that idea into your head, that you wanted to be an Alicorn."

"I don't really care about that," she said. That surprised Applejack. "I'm fine being an Earth Pony."

"Then why do you want to make yourself into an Alicorn?" asked Applejack. She was genuinely curious now.

"It would mean I understood everything I'd wanted to learn about. Twilight said I could learn it in about two years, but if I can figure this out now I'll have learned it in less than eight months. I'd be one of the smartest ponies in the world, and I could do so many things to help you and Big Mac and Granny on the farm, and other ponies too all over the world."

Applejack was surprised again, but then, that answer made sense. It was why she wasn't easily tempted by Twilight's offer to just tell her the answers. She wanted to figure it out herself so she could be sure she knew it. A part of her also felt relieved. If Apple Bloom really didn't care about being something other than an Earth Pony, then Applejack's decision really hadn't caused any problems.

"So you want to know things?" asked Applejack.

"Yeah."

"You could do that without hurting yourself."

"It's a very minor risk."

"Not to me. Not to your family, or your friends. You scared Sweetie Belle. She's worried about you. Twilight's worried. We all are."

"Sweetie Belle got it in her head I was going to hurt her and because that's what she was thinking about when Hyperclarity set in, she couldn't shake that thought. It's not the same thing as worry for my safety."

"She's not suffering now, and she's worried. I'm okay, and I'm worried about you. Twilight's not in here, but she's worried. But forget about that. Just look at me. It would make me feel a lot better if you would come out with me. You don't have to do this to be smart. You can do it the old fashioned way. Nopony will be mad at you for this. If you come with me, I'll just be glad you're safe. If you don't, I couldn't just stand around and watch you do this to yourself, even if you think it's not a big deal."

"You're going to force me to leave if I don't agree to it on my own," she said. It wasn't a question.

Applejack looked down at the ground, ashamed for some reason.

"Yeah. That's the plan."

"Okay," said Apple Bloom.

"Okay what? You'll come with me?"

"Yeah," she said.

Applejack wanted to ask what she'd said to change her mind, but didn't want to jinx it. She turned around, opened the door, and gestured for Apple Bloom to leave. Apple Bloom did. As soon as Applejack followed and closed the door, Applejack felt as if she was pulled by some strange force, and then saw she was on the ground. She felt slightly dizzy, and then realised Twilight had brought them both down.

She looked at Apple Bloom, who didn't look so good. She was gasping for air, like she was choking.

"Is she alright?" asked Applejack, worried.

"She'll be fine," said Twilight. "She's not used to the air here, so it probably feels like she's breathing into a shower head or something."

Apple Bloom nodded her head, her face looking red as she continued to cough and sputter.

Applejack moved forward to try and clean some of the grime off Apple Bloom, but it wasn't working very well. All she seemed to manage is make her own hooves dirty. She smiled though, as something caught her eye.

"Looks like you got yer cutie mark," said Applejack, tapping Apple Bloom on her back to get her attention. Apple Bloom looked behind her, at her flank. She saw it, but didn't smile. It was a single small apple, like one of Applejack's apples, with a thin circle drawn around it and a larger wrench behind the whole thing.

"Oh," was all she said.

"You're not excited?" asked Twilight.

"I thought it'd be more special. Or that I'd notice. I don't know when I got it. And Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo still don't have theirs. We wanted to get them together, in the same thing."

"That was unlikely to happen," said Twilight.

"Yeah," responded Apple Bloom. "My head hurts. Real bad."

"I could help with that," said Twilight. "At least a little. Most of it I can't help with. I'm sure you know that. You're going to just have to bare with it for a while."

Apple Bloom nodded. She was a lot calmer this way. A lot less like a child. Applejack didn't like it.

Apple Bloom led the way back to the barn, and Twilight fell back next to Applejack and spoke in a low voice.

"I'm going to go back and take the air purifier machine. I'd also recommend you stop making it warmer here. You'll be bound to get in trouble eventually."

"If you say so Twilight," said Applejack, referring to the machine. She didn't know where it was or exactly what it did. It didn't even make sense that air could make you sick. "But I think I'll keep the temperature the way it is. I ain't hurting nopony. If ponies want to come and bother me, I'll deal with it then."

"If that's what you want," said Twilight. She then closed her eyes, and in a literal flash, she disappeared. Applejack quickened her pace and caught up with Apple Bloom, who was pressing very hard on the side of her head with one of her hooves.

"I'll tuck you into bed when we get home," said Applejack.

"I'm not sleepy."

"Don't matter. You're sick. I don't know what it is you're sick with, but bed rest never hurt."

"Okay."

Twilight just held her breath as she deactivated the machine and teleported it back to her own workshop. Spike was nowhere to be found, and checking informed her that he was just upstairs, dusting, completely unaware anything had happened. She set it aside. She had an idea of where it could go and be of some use, but she couldn't just take it over without sending a message first.

She tapped her earpiece to contact Rarity. A few moments passed.

"Yes?" came Rarity's voice.

"Apple Bloom's fine now. You can tell Sweetie there's nothing to worry about and her friend will be back to her old self in about two weeks. Just in time for the end of winter break."

"What marvellous news!" said Rarity, sounding pleased. "I was really worried when I found out Sweetie wasn't overreacting."

"Sweetie Belle might also like to know Apple Bloom has found her Cutie Mark."

"Has she?" said Rarity. "I'd expected her to the last of the three. But no matter, I'm sure Sweetie Belle will be delighted to hear it." Twilight could hear a faint high-pitched voice in the background, probably Sweetie Belle asking why she would be delighted.

"Anyway, I know you have a lot of work to finish up on, so I'll let you get to it." Twilight tapped her earpiece without waiting for a reply.

There was a problem she would have to think over, and she'd have to do it quickly. What did Apple Bloom figure out about where Twilight got her knowledge, and was it close enough that it could endanger her plans?

Comments

[DavidPony]

another interesting chapter

[abrachoo]

I love it when this story updates. It just keeps getting better and better.

[Valikdu]

...so, it has been more than half a year ago since I read this.

Now I need to re-read everything.
Challenge accepted.