Twilights Mane Passion

by Darkonshadows

16

As they sat down for a late lunch at the café, Tress felt oddly detached watching as Twilight, Zecora and Barb interact with each other. They were so busy with their conversation that they didn’t know that Tress currently felt uneasy. She did agree to help Twilight solve problems; Tress thought it would be mostly doing chores if they were lucky to not have Sparkle family level problems pop up constantly. At least she knew their hair care related ventures would go well, as with animal related problems with Fluttershy’s help. That was not the main thing on her mind.

Tress was actually staring at the thing she hadn’t bother to really inquire about for nearly two whole years, in those years she had learned a lot about Twilight. Her friends favorite colors were green and blue, she had a an attraction to hair that was innocent in nature so far, grapes were her favorite fruit and Tress heard the story of Barbs hatching because Fluttershy had once inquired about it. Of the things Twilight couldn’t do, she can’t safely make any food other then pudding when it came to cooking and had trouble controlling her magic in some instances. Twilight once caused an explosion trying to make a daisy sandwich.

“Smart?” Tress said watching as the little pixie pony was watching Barb like a hawk. Said pixie suddenly jerked and turned around to look up at Tress with her two mismatched colored eyes.

Before Smart could ask what it was Tress needed, a waiter came up to take their orders. Tress ordered a large salad and some tasty vinaigrette she liked to go with it, with a side of tomato soup and bread sticks. Twilight being a bit of a plain pony ordered a deluxe daisy sandwich and hay fries. Barb went with lasagna with sliced zucchini and carrots. Zecora took a while to order as it was the first time she ever got to sit down in a restaurant in Ponyville. Once they ordered their drinks the three continued their conversation leaving Tress and Smart to converse.

“Well now that that is over with, what did you need Tress? You know we’ll always be here to hear what’s on your mind.” This was the thing that was supposed to run Ponyville’s library, Smart the pixie pony thing that had problems dissociating herself from Twilight Sparkle.

“I…” Trailing off, Tress tried to think of a good question to ask Smart. The other three at the table were too busy enjoying themselves and she didn’t want to interrupt them. Twilight looked happy. “Why has Twilight never created a pony sized version of you?”

“Oh, that. Well you see it’s actually impossible to create a bigger version of me, even with the enchantments we used to make this work. Our enchantment is only viable on a smaller scale where we can easily contain everything. Not only would it be a waste of energy, but a waste of our time trying for something bigger. Something like that would barely last ten minutes, use up tons of energy and then the enchantments would burn out.” Smart flittered her way to Tress taking on the average Twilight lecture mode tone. It happened when Twilight was going into specifics about whatever magical field she dabbled in over the last two years. “Enchantments are a tricky subject; they can only be placed on objects and surfaces. They can’t be placed directly on things that are alive or, much to our disgust that someone actually tried it, a dead body. For example the enchanted comic book that ended up with you here is what an enchantment can be placed upon. Blank books are usually used for written enchantments that do various things and some can take years to design alone. We still can’t explain how you came here with us or why it left us horribly tired and drained coming out, that was definitely not a design of the enchantments emplaced on it. We’re so glad that you’re still our friend after we dragged you from your world because we were too selfish to let go.”

Tress felt a flush of warmth run through her chest at the sentiment that a part of Twilight worried about her feelings. She sometimes had nightmares of being trapped in Mane-iac’s body with someone else in control yet she was the one who felt all the pain for whatever injuries happened to her. She sometimes wondered if Twilight took over Radiance’s body by entering the comic, the idea sounded like a horror story waiting to happen.

“Tell me, did you always look like this little pixie thing?” Well Tress really did want to know how she was pulled out of a comic book, but she thought better about asking too many questions about it and they still had time until the food came. She took a sip of her lemonade. “How did you eventually get to be what you are now?”

“Not really, it took us an entire year of study to have us gain some operational ability. We still looked like the Smarty Pants doll we started enchanting back then. This body was very simple back then, just animated and given memories.” So basically Smart was saying she could only move around and react based on memories that Twilight fed her at that time. “We spent a lot of time cuddling up to Barb and she was so little back then. Now she’s half our age, at least mentally and she’s going to actually start aging physically at a normal rate soon. We didn’t have to worry about giving me fire protection enchantments early on, but we eventually added them while figuring out how to apply the solar energy absorbing enchantment that has since kept this body powered. Before we were being powered by sunlight we used more than half our magic daily just to make us run for eight hours alone. It was around a year before we met you that we added the ability to talk and we have been somewhat regretting that decision ever since. Well it’s more to the point of the other me that might actually have regrets.”

Tress wondered when their food would get here, she heard her name said and she suddenly turned to Twilight.

“Huh? Did you say something?” She was hoping Twilight wasn’t upset with her for not paying attention to them.

“I just wanted to know if you wouldn’t mind letting Zecora stay with us for a few days. You own part of the house too, so you should have a say in it. Barb and I already agreed that she could stay. I really want to have a sleepover with our new friend here.” There was a hopeful look on Twilights face; she wanted Tress to say yes.

“I don’t mind at all.” There was a hint of glee in Tress’s voice; Twilight had just made her happy by including her in the decision instead of assuming she’d be okay with it. Turning back to Smart, Tress decided to continue the discussion. “So what about you’re appearance, you didn’t mention how that came about. Also could you try to distinguish yourself from Twilight a bit more? It’s a bit confusing.”

“I’ll try, but I am essentially Twilight Sparkle even though I know this body or form is not her. My appearance had to be created through a magical compression of my physical core, which being the Smarty Pants doll that already had several enchantments on it. It was that enchantment that altered me to appear as if I were a tiny pony instead of a plush toy. It’s like how I move my mouth, but that’s not where my voice is actually coming from, I work a sound enchantment to generate sound waves that gives me the ability to speak. It was a real work in progress for Twilight to alter the shape of this body. I at one point actually looked exactly like a five inch high Twilight and we decided that it would get confusing so we tried for an earth pony form. Eventually we decided that I needed to be able to fly since I couldn’t keep up with a fast moving Barb once she started learning to walk, thus I was given a wing spell modified into an enchantment based form. The wing spell gives the target it’s used on wings, usually the easily shredded made from morning dew and gossamer butterfly shaped kind. Turning it into an enchantment had different results and thus here I am with dragonfly wings and happen to be the five inch tall talking pixie pony you see before you. Despite all this, I’m still not really a living being.” With a flourish Smart bowed to Tress.

“Okay why couldn’t she just make another energy holding enchantment?” It seemed easy enough to Tress.

“You can’t put two nearly identical enchantments on a single object or let them even stay near each other for too long, it could cause the enchantments to destabilize or explode violently. There’s a reason enchantments are the most dangerous to the pony creating them and patience really is a virtue when it comes to mastering this magical art. I wasn’t made a pixie pony in a day, because that would just be plain silly.” Smart saw the food coming and turned to Tress. “Looks like your meal is coming now, I’ll be quiet so you can eat.”

“So you can only take in sunlight to power yourself? What about changing your intake to food? This is actually getting pretty interesting; don’t stop now on my account.” As she said this, Tress smiled at the salad, soup and a basket of bread sticks that was placed before her by the waiter. “Thank you.”

“For every four steps taken, I’d have to consume three times the amount food a normal pony would eat for breakfast, I’d be eating like a parasprite and I’m already close enough to one in resemblance as it is. Exceptionally powerful enchantments require a lot of energy and are usually one shot performances, like the ones on the enchanted comic book since it actually makes a really good reference point. It is probably fed enough energy over the course of a week to a month until it becomes functional.” Pausing, Smart tried to recollect anything else that Tress might have wanted to hear on the subject, the pretty light blue haired mare just started eating while patiently waiting for her to continue. “Just because I can’t have two of the same enchantments on me, it does not mean I can’t have a refined version of them or even upgrade the enchantment that’s already there. Though making an upgrade and or better enchantments happens to be a long arduous process, not to mention the added time for the installation process of a better one if an enchantment has to be removed. We were surprised we even got so far with this enchanted toy, but a lot of love and time was put into me. It was hard enough figuring out how to get me to cast spells.”

“I was wondering about that since you don’t need a horn. How does it work exactly?” Tress had politely swallowed the food in her mouth before asking this, next time she’d remember to ask them to leave off the croutons. She had seen the little pixie performing some minor magic spells that Twilight was capable of. It was to be noted by Tress that Smart’s spells were all scaled down though still effective to a degree. “Also why did you have to fly around heavier objects several times to levitate them?”

“My entire body is a magical focal point so no need for a horn. How it works exactly is a trade secret and I don’t actually want to share that one, it’s one of the most unique enchantments Twilight invented and we’ll leave it at that. As for the levitation thing, bigger objects require me grab them from all around so I do it to expand the surface area that my levitation field affects. Imagine me wrapping a magical lasso around it manually since I can’t just throw it at the object and immediately snare it.” It was a rather strange sight to Smart when saw a deep blush suddenly permeating Tress’s face. “Why are you blushing like that, was it something I said?”

“Yes, you just made me realize that there are some things about Miss Mare-velous from my world that I wished I didn’t just think of right then.” Tress decided to quickly change the subject, especially before Smart could ask what she was talking about. The idea that came to her mind at the mention of a magical lasso and knowing a mare that mentally controlled one personally, it wasn’t exactly something Tress wished she had thought of as being a possibility. “How’s the sandwich Twilight?”

“What? Sorry something was on my mind.” Something was off about the way Twilight was sending Tress nervous glances and her voice was oddly sad. Tress pointed a hoof at her sandwich while she sipped some soup, when Twilight was finished swallowing a bite she decided to respond. “Oh, you want to know about my sandwich? It’s good, but the hay fries here are the best I’ve ever had.”

“Care to share some please?” Giving her friend a cheerful smile, Tress titled her head causing her hair to flow from the right side of her face. She made her ears lay back, bit her lower lip and went into big eyes mode.

“Of course, just please stop looking at me like that. It's making me feel funny.” Shyly Twilight pushed the basket of hay fries in Tress’s direction with a hoof. After tasting them Tress agreed that they were really good.

All too soon, they all finished their meals.

“I find this meal to have been quite delicious; I hope the food was at least somewhat nutritious.” Zecora enjoyed her order of a fresh roasted vegetable variety platter and she shared some hay fries with Barb. “Now I hope you aren’t offended, but I would like to share a dessert here that is recommended.”

“Please mom, can we get something with ice cream?” Barb asked looking to Twilight pleadingly.

“I’m with them; I’ve still got a bit of room in my hollow leg.” Added Tress who then turned to hail their waiter, he immediately pulled out the dessert menu and hoofed it to Twilight.

“May I suggest the baked sweet apple dumpling? We use Sweet Apple Acres brand of apples baked in a resplendent pecan streusel; it is then topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup.” The stallion waiter received a nod from Twilight. “I’ll bring your check as well.”

Author's Note:

"She sometimes wondered if Twilight took over Radiance’s body by entering the comic, the idea sounded like a horror story waiting to happen."

Someone take a hint from that and please write it. It's a pretty good idea.

Comments

[ScopeEva]

You know, you're moving into awfully murky territory with Smart. You keep saying that she's not really alive but so far you've given her the ability to be self sufficient in physical terms being powered by sun light, the ability to retain separate and distinct memories (though not stated directly), she clearly has the ability to perform tasks autonomously with creative problem solving skills to boot and certainly seems to experience some measure of emotion with an apparent female gender identity.
I really don't know what more she would need before being considered 'alive' by some standard if not the biological one.

[Ghrathryn]

3891004 I wouldn't say that she's alive as a biological entity, but certainly up at the level of a pretty high tech AI or VI where the line between sentient and non-sentient blurs or breaks off. The reasoning is that she's like a D&D phylactery or Harry Potter horcrux in that she actually contains part of Twi's soul to animate her.

[PinkAndYellow1025]

3896546

or Harry Potter horcrux

Except, you know... Not evil (I hope).

[Rainbow Prime]

3986664
The horcrux in and of itself isn't evil. If they were, Harry Potter would have been evil, as he was a horcrux, which was why he had to die, and how he could come back after he did die.

[King of Kings]

3891004
You know,

makes the same case that you do. However, as you will find, it is ruled that while Data isn't technically alive, he's also not a piece of property.