The Watch

by Light Angle

7) An Ounce of Intelligence

Chapter 7: An Ounce of Intelligence

Twilight began hyperventilating at the sound of the impossible voice in her head.

“Rani?” she questioned, hoping she was imagining things.

‘Yes’ Rani replied. Twilight could almost hear the smirk behind those words. ‘We just went through this. I thought you were supposed to be smart. Honestly you are embarrassing both of us.’

‘Don’t lump me in with you.’ Twilight thought.

‘Well, you have realized that you can communicate with me without the world hearing. Good to see some of my intellect did pass to you.’ Rani retorted before continuing, ‘Although, conversely I am getting tired of reminding you of the fact that we are one and the same.’

Twilight’s eye twitched as she bit the inside of her lip. ”As I said before, I’m not YOU!” Twilight shouted aloud.

‘Never mind…wait I cannot see what you can I can only hear what you say or think.’ Rani paused ‘Is anyone actually starring at us?’

“No.” Twilight replied curtly. “Nopony else is around.”

‘Is the location we are currently in always this empty?’ Rani asked.

‘No this is the market. It’s usually very lively here.’ Twilight shuttered at the realization she had just come to. ‘Whatever Trixie’s up to must be worse than I thought.’ With that thought Twilight was able to shift her panic about her personal situation to a realization that she needed to keep the town safe.

‘Rani,’ Twilight thought calmly, so much so that even Rani was a little unnerved. ‘I’ll deal with your existence and how this is happening away from the watch later. Protecting Ponyville comes first.’

‘As I said before, how do you intend to accomplish this feat?’ Rani questioned recovering from Twilight’s sudden burst of seriousness.

As Twilight mulled over Rani’s words something occurred to her. It was something that she should have worked out sooner.

‘You never had any friends or close companions back before you sealed yourself away, did you?’ she questioned.

‘Friends,’ Rani spat. ‘Friends are irrelevant. The only use other have is to be stepping stones toward my achievements. ‘

‘I figured you’d say something like that’ Twilight smiled, continuing on ‘I used to think something similar, that my studies were more important than other relationships with other ponies.’

‘Am I to assume something changed?’ Rani mused.

‘Princess Celestia put me in a position where making friends was a necessity.’ Twilight explained.

‘You know you seem devoted to this princess to rather dangerous degree.’ Rani noted.

Twilight blushed. ‘I’ll admit it did start out as an order.’ Twilight took a deep breath; she now felt more in control. ‘However, the more ponies I got to know, the more I realized that friendship is a powerful force. One that can overcome things a single pony can’t alone.’

‘Still’ Rani scoffed ‘None of your precious friends are here now.’

‘True’ Twilight nodded. ‘But I have everything I’ve learned from them stored in my very large brain.’

‘Which of your friends has a way to stop a clearly over powered madwoman?’ Rani questioned.

‘In a way, I have help from all of them.’ Twilight replied with a smile.

Rani let out a deadpan ‘What.’

‘The most important thing I’ve realized just from living in Ponyville is that things almost never go according to plain.’ Twilight started.

‘It seems like you would have issues with that.’ Rani sharply cut in.

‘Heh, yes’ Twilight laughed. ‘But over time I’ve learned how to improvise.’

‘What’ Rani stated coldly.

‘I’m going to stay calm and confront Trixie.’ Twilight explained. ‘I’m going to analyze the situation and apply whatever method will give me an advantage. ‘

Rani’s next words came with more interested tone than her previous statements. ‘Once again you go back to sounding like a being with an ounce of intelligence.’

Twilight’s response to this obvious was to close her eyes and take another deep breath. This was followed by narrowing her eyes and reaching out her magic. She quickly picked up on a strong steady pulse of dark magic. She headed toward the epicenter of that magic without a second thought.

Author's Note:

Finally. So as you can see it took me several years to realize that the best solution is the simplest one. How can Twilight fix this: The Power of Friendship. Its not that I was trying to avoid the obvious even. I was writing the draft and it just clicked one day.
I seriously didn't think of it earlier