Darkness looms in the Everfree Forest. The time for Sombra's spell is almost at hoof. Will unicorn magic be enough to stop him from taking over all of Equestria, or will they have to search for a different magic?
Twilight is now an alicorn and is looking to settle back down into her "normal" life with her friends.
Uh-huh, Right.
One rainy day, a flight practice indoors reveals a young filly sleeping in Twilight's home. But she's another ALICORN?
What part does this new alicorn play in the battle to free Equestria from an ancient spell, and why does she look like a darker version of Twilight?
[picture is from deviantart. Only temporary art. Looking for permanent.]
Twilight looked gloomily out of her window and sighed. The pegasi had scheduled a big rainstorm and she had failed to invite anypony over to keep her company. Spike was busy with his chores downstairs and the old library seemed about as dismal as the Everfree Forest. Twilight wrapped her tail around herself and laid on her bed. Usually she would have something to do, especially now that she was an alicorn. One would think that there would at least be an advanced book of spells that she could be working on--heck, maybe even a Daring Do book, but, no, she had read and re-read those books--but, sadly, it seemed fate was not looking well upon her.
Spike came up the stairs. “Hey, Twilight, I’m finished downstairs is there anything else...” He trailed off. “Uh, Twilight, are you alright?”
“I don’t know, Spike.” Twilight looked at him. “It’s just… for the first time in my life, I have nothing to do. I never, ever thought I’d be saying this, but… I’m bored.” Her ears and wings drooped.
“Really?” asked Spike. “But I thought you had the whole week planned out!”
“Well, I did,” Twilight said, getting off her bed and trotting over to her calendar. “But when Rainbow announced the rainstorm yesterday, I was so busy with that Duplication Spell that I hardly had time for anything else, let alone apologizing for hitting her with it after she scared me.” She sighed. “At least there weren’t any side effects, or none that we know of yet.” Her ears flattened as she thought about that.
“Well, you were kinda busy yesterday, so I can’t say I blame you.”
They both stood there, listening to the rain until Spike’s face lit up with an idea. “I got it!” he said with a smile.
“What? Got what?” Twilight asked him with a confused look.
“Well,” began Spike hesitantly, “you spend so much time on your magic spells, but now that you’re a princess, I haven’t seen you so much as notice your wings.” Spike paused. “Well, except at night time that is.”
Twilight glared at him.
Spike put his hands up in defense. “Hey, I’m just saying that, maybe if you practice, they’ll get easier to handle.” Twilight hesitantly unclasped her wings from her flanks and looked at them uncertainly. “Come on,” encouraged Spike, “I’m sure you have at least ONE book on flying in this library.”
Twilight broke from her anticipation and smiled at Spike. “You’re right, Spike. I could do with a change of focus.” She walked over to him and nuzzled him. “What would I do without my number-one assistant?”
She and Spike trotted downstairs to look for a book on flight. “Hmm,” Spike muttered to himself, “where was that book Scootaloo is always reading?” He stroked his chin for a second before he snapped his fingers and scurried up a ladder. “Hey Twilight! I found something.”
Twilight stuck her head out from behind a bookshelf. “Really?”
“Yeah! This is the book that Scootaloo reads all the time.” Twilight magically levitated the book over to her and read the cover. Flight Tips for Young Pegasi
“Well, I guess there’s a beginning for everything.” She took the book over to her special reading spot by her bay window and settled down in the pillows to read the book. Shortly thereafter, Spike came over to Twilight with a short stack of books.
“Here,” he said, sitting them down, “these are all the books you have on flying.” He produced another, smaller volume from behind his back. “I even brought over the anatomy book on unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies.” He proudly placed it on top of the pile.
Twilight’s ears pulled down to match her smile. “Thanks, Spike.”
He retired to the loft and, out of genuine curiosity, watched Twilight as she became thoroughly engrossed in her book. He saw Twilight stretch her wings out fully and slowly test each one, stretching and flexing each muscle to get the feel of them. Then she pulled out the anatomy book and scrutinized every page on pegasus wings to learn exactly how they functioned. In no time at all, she attempted her first time hovering.
It wasn’t pretty.
She closed her eyes with a nervous sigh and double-checked the angle of her wings. Then, cautiously, she began to flap.
The first few times she failed to get the angle right and only hovered for a second each time. After a stubborn groan, she tried again. Spike watched nervously as more and more space grew between Twilight and the floor. Curious to see how she had progressed, Twilight opened her eyes and did the one thing she probably should not have done. She looked down.
Instantly, panic set in, and she lost all concentration on her wings and went plummeting towards the floor. Spike cringed as she hit the floor.
THUD!
He rushed down to see her getting back up on all four hooves, rubbing her nose. “Twilight, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Spike,” she said, still rubbing her nose. “I just landed in the wrong position.” Before Spike could start laughing, he heard a knock on the door of the library.
“I’ll get it, Twi.” He walked over to the door and opened it, and standing just in the dry spot was none other than Rainbow Dash herself.
“Hey Spike,” she said casually, “I was on my way home from training with Fleetfoot and Spitfire and, uh—thought I’d stop by. Also,” she said, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck, “your house is a lot closer than mine and I was getting kinda soaked.” Spike chuckled and led the slightly soaked pegasus inside.
Twilight had once again returned to her pile of books and was viciously attacking the fourth one in the pile, completely unaware of her guest.
Rainbow took one look at Twilight and shook her head, Egghead, she thought to herself jokingly. If it’s not a novel, it’s a spell book; and if it’s not a spell book, she paused before finishing, I’m not gonna’ go there.
“Hey, Twilight!” She spoke up but received no answer. Twilight continued to slip away into her book.
“Uh, Twilight?” Still nothing.
The pegasus looked around and saw the alicorn’s inkwells perfectly lined up on her desk. An evil smirk spread across her face and she “accidentally” nudged one into the other, creating a sharp clink sound, immediately snapping Twilight out of her trance.
“Oh, hi, Rainbow Dash,” she said after freaking out for a second. “What brings you over here?”
Rainbow Dash watched Twilight casually wander over to her inkwells and realign them.
“Oh, well, ya’ know, I was flying back from practice and I thought I could take a short detour before heading home.” She walked over to the book Twilight had recently set down, “So, whatcha’ readin’?” Rainbow read the title. Advanced Flying Techniques.
Rainbow Dash set the book down and looked at Twilight with a raised eyebrow. “Really?”
“What?” Twilight asked innocently.
“I mean this.” She pointed a hoof at the stack of books. “You’re trying to learn to fly by reading?”
“Um, yeah,” Twilight answered, unsure of the response she was going to get.
Rainbow facehoofed. “Of course you would,” she muttered, half to herself and half to Twilight. “Look Twi,” she said, “flying isn’t something you can learn from books.” A big grin swept across her face. “It’s something pegasuses--”
“Pegasi,” Twilight corrected.
“Whatever. Pegasi with experience teach the other ones.”
“But where would I find an experienced pegasus to teach me?” asked Twilight as she placed a hoof on her chest in mock sarcasm.
“Hey,” Rainbow said, “I’m not so busy that I can’t take time out for my friends. I’m not the Element of Loyalty for nothing, ya know.”
Twilight chuckled as Rainbow flipped her mane in pride. “So, you tried hovering yet?”
“Well, um...” Twilight began.
“Yeah,” Spike interrupted, “and she was awesome! Well, except for the fact that she landed rough.”
“Rough?” Dash asked.
“Okay, she crashed.”
“Okay Spike,” Twilight said, her horn glowing purple, “I think you have some books to organize upstairs.”
“No, I don’t,” protested Spike. “I just finished less than an hour ago.” He turned around to point at a large pile of books upstairs in the loft. He turned back to glare at Twilight before heading upstairs. Rainbow Dash could hardly hold back a laugh as Spike moped off in defeat.
“You looked down, didn’t you?” Dash asked after regaining her composure.
“Huh?” Twilight looked surprised.
“You looked down before you landed rough.” Rainbow emphasized the last two words.
“How’d you know?” exclaimed Twilight.
“It’s one of the first mistakes all pegasus… pegasi make. Even I did it. Fortunately, Fluttershy and I had clouds to break our fall. By the way yours sounds, you weren’t so lucky.”
“No really. Ya think?” said Twilight, the sarcasm dripping from her voice.
“Well,” Dash said, “the first thing we need to do is to teach you how to land properly. Next I can get you comfortable with hovering, and once we get those down, then we can work on moving around in the air.”
“Okay,” said the eager alicorn, “let’s get started.”
Rainbow then started explaining, in detail, the position to land in, the tuck-and-roll method, and a few other concepts. Soon enough, though, the newly trained alicorn was ready for her second attempt at hovering.
“All right,” Rainbow said, “let’s double-check everything: wings, open and parallel to the floor.”
“Check.”
“Shoulders relaxed and easy to move.”
“Check.”
“Mind alert.”
“Check.”
“Eyes, OPEN.”
Twilight gave a little smirk before answering, “Check.”
“Alright,” said Rainbow Dash. “When you start flapping, start out gentle, like I showed you. Not hard--that’s only useful for a quick ascent, which is only needed in an emergency or when you’re showing off to your friends.” Some of her cockiness came back into the teacher’s voice.
Twilight, now confident in her new trainer, began gently flapping her wings just hard enough to get her airborne.
“Good,” said Dash. “Maybe, ever so slightly, add a little more power.”
Twilight beat a little harder, now evening her altitude with Rainbow’s. “Good, keep it steady.” Then after a few seconds of hovering, Dash asked, her eyes glimmering in anticipation, “So how’s the view up here?”
The alicorn looked around. “Well, now that I can actually look without plummeting to my death, it’s... very nice. I can see why flying is such a big deal to you, Rainbow. I feel so... free.”
“Exactly!” the pegasus exclaimed with an aerial loop. “It’s AWESOME up here! Oh Celestia, once we get you movin’ around…” Rainbow by now was doing barrel-rolls and somersaults and other acrobatic maneuvers like crazy as she finished, “I’ll teach you the really cool stuff.”
“Thanks Rainbow, but I think for now... aaahh!” Twilight turned her head to see Rainbow hurtling towards her.
In the middle of a barrel-roll and, due to her inability to move in the air, she couldn’t do anything to prevent the inevitable collision. The next instant, there was a tangle of hooves and wings and they both plummeted to the floor. Luckily, Twilight was able to conjure a small, purple bubble shield around them both before impacting the floor; unluckily, a hole appeared in the floor from the force of the shield landing on it.
Rainbow shook the confusion out of her head and stood back up as Twilight moved them out of the crater made in her floor and dissolved the shield.
“Wow, that magic does come in handy!” Rainbow looked down at the hole in the floor and her face flushed in embarrassment. “Yeah, sorry about that;” she started rubbing the back of her neck again, “I don’t know what came over me. It’s just that, the Wonderbolts are so strict that I haven’t exactly had a friend to just fly with, especially with my weather job being first priority.”
“It’s okay, Rainbow.” said Twilight, putting a hoof on her shoulder. “Everypony sometimes acts like a filly when they’re having fun.” A crimson color mingled with her amethyst cheeks. “Even me.”
“Thanks, Twi.” Rainbow appreciated her understanding. She tried to offer to help fix the floor, but Twilight wouldn’t hear of it.
“No, Rainbow, as I said for the twentieth time.” That pony was so determined sometimes.
“All right, then.” Rainbow finally accepted her defeat. She turned to walk towards the door intending to go home, but then she brightened.
“Hey Twi, Pinkie’s throwing a party tomorrow night and we’re all going to be there, as is your favorite mixer, Vinyl Scratch.” She looked around nervously for Spike as she beckoned Twilight closer in secrecy. “It’s going to be one of those parties.”
Twilight grew a knowing smirk. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Twilight could already hear Pinkie’s house reverberating with the beat from Vinyl Scratch’s favorite mix. She was pretty sure that all her friends were there—with the exception of Rarity, who had an order to fill tonight—and they would just be chillin’ until the whole gang got together later tonight.
Knowing Rainbow, she’d already be tipsy from Applejack’s special batch of hard cider and maybe a few shots of coconut rum. One never could tell at most of these parties just whether or not she was fully paying attention. Thanks to being a pegasus, all that alcohol would pass through her system in less than two hours. Unless she drank something really strong, she normally didn’t have a hangover. Now Fluttershy, on the other hoof, was AMAZING! A couple of years ago she had drank eight full shots of pure, hard liquor, and it had barely fazed her.
Now granted, Twilight thought as she reached the door, she had been a lot more “cuddly” than normal afterward, but it wasn’t anything to be concerned about.
She took a deep breath before knocking, knowing full well the welcome she would receive.
A pink pony popped up (seemingly out of nowhere) as the door opened.
“Twilight, you made it!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, hopping up and down in seemingly endless energy.
Twilight rolled her eyes and answered, “Oh, Pinkie, you know I'd never miss one of your parties.” She brought her voice down to a whisper as she added, “Especially these ones.”
They exchanged a knowing glance as Pinkie closed the door and hopped back with Twilight to the kitchen. “So Twilight, what do you want to drink?” asked Pinkie.
Before Twilight could reply, the party pony broke off into one of her long and endless rambles.
“I bought enough stuff for you favorite drink, but then I thought to myself, ‘She might not want to start on that right away,’ so I bought some lighter stuff, ya know, to warm you up to the really heavy stuff…”
“Pinkie.”
“... And then I thought about it again, and realized, ya know what would go good with all this stuff? Quartz Cupcakes! So I went down to the Cakes’ place and they said that I could make some of them on my own because…”
“Pinkie.”
“.. They were a little too busy with other orders, not to mention their cute little twins, so I went back and tried to make some cupcakes, ‘cause you know I’m good at that, when I found out that the Cakes didn’t have any quartz crystals, and you know you can’t make Quartz cupcakes without quartz crystals, and—”
“PINKIE!!” Twilight erupted in frustration, shaking the kitchen a bit.
“Yes, Twilight?” Pinkie innocently asked.
Twilight sighed. Finally, it was somewhat quiet. “Some of Applejack’s cider would do just fine for now, thank you.”
“Okie-dokie-lokie,” said Pinkie as she trotted off to get some from her cellar.
Twilight returned to the main room to find her other friends. Fluttershy was just off to the side like she normally was, quietly sipping on AJ’s cider. Lyra and Bon-Bon seemed to have had one too many drinks; they were a little too preoccupied on the dance floor. Derpy was trying her best to dance to the catchy beat, but always seemed to stumble around.
Mixed in with a few other stallions and mares “getting on the floor,” Twilight noticed Rainbow and AJ not far from the dance floor.
Rainbow Dash was, not surprisingly, surrounded by eleven shot glasses of her favorite drink: coconut rum. However, Applejack was smart. She had been sipping on only her second mug of cider while she listened to Rainbow Dash’s latest story.
Dash had some kind of territorial instinct when she was drunk. She always lined up her shot glasses in a curve, cutting off her part of the table from anypony else. As she moved through her stories, the shot glasses somehow would act as a gauge of how long her stories were. At each “chapter” of the story, she would pause and toss back a shot of rum, then continue on with her story.
Currently, Twilight observed that there were only two shots left. This story was almost over. She approached behind Rainbow Dash quietly to hear the end of the story.
“And we went shmack!” said the pegasus loudly, slapping the table. “And we fell down to the ground and Twi, she casted as spell so that we wouldn’t gets hurt.”
Now since she already knew the rest of the story, Twilight observed her surroundings and noticed the one shot of rum left on the table. Under normal circumstances, she would have ignored it, but if one were to closely scrutinize it, it almost looked as if it was surrounded by a faint, blue glow.
A magic spell? Twilight thought. Who would be casting a spell over here, especially on Rainbow’s precious shot glasses?
She looked around but found no one even looking this direction, except for Fluttershy, but she was a pegasu…
She broke off mid-thought to see Rainbow pick up the last shot glass, drain the contents, and slam it back down on the table, all without the use of her hooves!
Twilight’s eyes grew wide in wonder and confusion. Her mouth agape, all she could do was stare at Rainbow Dash. The pegasus had just performed a levitation spell without a unicorn’s horn and she was drunk!
A pink blur broke her train of thought as it popped into view. “Here’s your drink, Twilight,” Pinkie said in her party tone.
“I’m sorry, Pinkie,” Twilight said, “but I’m gonna have a talk with Rainbow, and I need to be sober to do so.”
“Oh,” Pinkie said dejectedly. “Then what’ll I do with your favorite drink ingredients? They’re gonna go to waste!”
“Tell you what, Pinkie,” Twilight said, bringing her full focus back on her, “you run those things over to my house tomorrow, and sometime next week we’ll have a slumber party at my place and we can use them then.”
Pinkie perked back up immediately. “Awwww, SWEET! I love Twilight slumber-parties. They’re even better than mine!”
She disappeared to Celestia-knows-where before Twilight could say anything more. She decided to wait for Rainbow to sober up before asking her about her magic.
-----------------------
A couple of hours later, Rainbow woke from her nap and had to shake her head to clear the fog out. Damn, she thought, the side effects of drinking are really getting to me tonight. She looked around with somewhat clearer vision.
Vinyl was playing a slow, steady beat while whoever was left in the room mumbled to each other in a drunken stupor. Many of the ponies had left. In fact, Lyra and Bon-Bon were flirting with a none-too-sober Derpy as Pinkie escorted them out.
Applejack and Twilight were off to the side talking quietly. More often than not, Twilight shot a glance over to Rainbow with a raised eyebrow when AJ had said something “interesting” to her. Finally seeing that Rainbow was awake, (groggy, but awake) Twilight thanked the cowpony and trotted over to her position on Pinkie’s couch.
“Hey, Rainbow Dash. We were wondering when you’d wake up again.”
Rainbow rubbed her eyes groggily, “Oh, hey, Twi. Yeah, sorry. I think that rum hit me harder than usual.”
Only after a few seconds of silence (and a great many yawns by Rainbow, who was still trying to wake up) did Rainbow notice that Twilight was considering her strangely.
“What?” Dash asked, shooting Twilight a look.
“Oh, nothing,” said Twilight, shaking her head. “You just look so disoriented, that’s all.”
Rainbow sighed. “Yeah, I have a slight headache.” She rubbed behind her temples, watching Twilight grow a smirk.
“Well, you’re lucky that you don’t use magic.” Twilight saw Rainbow’s figure visibly flinch at her statement. “I over-used it one time and woke up the next day with what felt almost like a migraine.”
“Yeah…” Rainbow laughed nervously. “Lucky me.”
Twilight turned to go, but stopped. An idea had popped into her head about how to confront Rainbow about her “magic.”
“Hey, Rainbow,” she said, turning back to her friend, who had just started to relax, “I ran into something today and I was wondering if, later on tonight, you could help me figure it out.”
“Pfft! Why would I know anything about if Miss Egghead with all her books couldn’t figure out what it was?”
Twilight rubbed the back of her neck like Rainbow would, trying to think of an excuse. “Uhh, call it a hunch?” She hoped it would be enough to persuade her friend.
Rainbow eyed her friend suspiciously before shrugging her shoulders. “I guess it couldn’t hurt, if it’s that important.”
Twilight sighed inwardly. She’d taken the bait.
They turned their attention to the door as somepony knocked lightly on it. Pinkie was immediately at the door and opened it. “Hi, Rarity!” She greeted Rarity with the same energy that she had Twilight.
“I certainly hope that I didn’t inconvenience any of you. I had an order for Prince Blueblood that I simply had to fill.” Rarity turned to Pinkie Pie and told her that she would simply love some sparkling wine.
Rarity didn’t drink the Apple Family’s cider after one experience, during which she almost made out with Rainbow, who had also been drinking too much. Rarity shivered in disgust with herself. She hadn’t remembered the night, thank Celestia, but what her friends had told her was sickening enough.
Pinkie immediately returned with her drink and went to go sit next to Fluttershy.
-----------------------
An hour later, the latest mix finished, accompanied by applause from the six friends. Vinyl tried to bow, but nearly fell from lack of balance. It was clear she was a little drunk as she slurred her “You’re welcome,” in response to Pinkie’s “Thanks,” and started her trek next door to her house.
The friends stared at the now quiet and empty house and began to break up.
“Well, I’d love to stay with y’all,” said Applejack, standing up, “but Ah need to start on the trees tomorrow mornin’ and Ah can’t be snoozin’ out in the orchard. As it is, I’m gonna have one doozy of a headache in the mornin’.” She rubbed her head, already starting to slur her words.
“I’m inclined to agree,” said Rarity with a quiet hiccup. “I simply must get some rest before tomorrow.”
Fluttershy only nodded as she finished up her last bit of AJ’s special cider and set it next to the nine other mugs marking her place at the table.
“Well, I guess that’s our cue, Rainbow,” said Twilight, standing up from the table.
“Ooohh! You’re going over to Twi’s, Rainbow? I hope you have fun!” Pinkie exclaimed.
Rainbow was about to thank Pinkie and walk out, when the full meaning of that phrase hit her.
“Ewww, Pinkie you’re so gross!” Dash saw Twilight blush furiously. “I’m just going over to Twi’s place to inspect something!” Dash shot a questioning glance at Twilight just as a small giggle escaped Pinkie’s mouth.
This time, it was Rainbow’s turn to turn crimson. Pinkie could no longer hold back her laughter and instead began rolling on the floor, holding her sides. The two mares, now extremely uncomfortable, looked around at their other friends, who were also stifling snickers.
“It’s okay, guys,” Fluttershy said with a sweet smile, “we know Pinkie was only joking.”
“Yeah. Uh-huh. A joke. I knew that,” said Rainbow with an uneasy glance at Pinkie, who still laughing uncontrollably. She whispered to Twilight, “That wasn’t what you wanted me over for, right?”
“NO!” said Twilight in shock. “Of course not! You’re my friend and I would never embarrass you like that.”
“Oh, well, that’s good.” Dash smirked. “Although, if you really wanted to—”
“RAINBOW!” Twilight stepped back in shock again, and was about to retort with a few choice words when she realized that Rainbow had played the joke against her. The pegasus had now joined in Pinkie’s laughter, cackling loudly at her joke.
“I’m sorry,” Dash stammered after trying to catch her breath, “it was staring me in the face and I had to say it.” She burst back into laughter
Like an immature filly, thought Twilight. She smiled despite her anger. Okay, maybe it was a little funny. These were her closest friends, after all. She could bare Rainbow’s little joke, though she swore to herself that Rainbow would pay.
After everypony had settled back down, Pinkie graciously escorted her friends to the door and pulled them all into a group hug, making their eyes bug out and leaving everypony gasping for air. Finally, they all said their goodnights and departed home.
Rainbow and Twilight entered the large, oak library after a short walk from Sugarcube Corner. The door closed magically behind them, effectively shutting out the chilly night air. “Make yourself comfortable, Dash.” Twilight turned toward the kitchen door. “Would you care for something to take that headache away?”
Rainbow just nodded before finding her normal cloud-bag and flopped into it. She shifted, allowing the clouds to conform to her figure. The cold night air had done her some good, but now that she was back in the warmth of a building, the pounding in her head greeted her once again.
Twilight soon returned bringing a tea cup with black liquid in it. Rainbow eyed it tentatively, unsure of what it was. Twilight rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Look, it may not smell or look very good, but I guarantee It’ll help with your headache.”
Rainbow only shrugged and thought, If it would get rid of this damn sledgehammer in my head, I’ll gladly drink it. She wrapped a hoof around the handle and eyed it once more before taking a cautious sip… and spat it out seconds afterward. “What in Celestia’s name is this?!” she asked, still spitting several times.
“It’s called coffee,” said Twilight, “and it’s really good for getting rid of hangovers. I should know. Last year, when cider season rolled around and we got drunk that night, I drank three cups to get rid of the nasty headache I got the next morning.”
“Oh, yeah, I remember,” said Rainbow, suppressing a giggle. “That was the night I tried to make out with Rarity; she’s actually pretty hot for somepony who has to be perfect everywhere.”
“Yes, well, I found out that there’s only one drawback to the drink.”
Dash again eyed the black liquid. “And that would be?”
“The seed from which the drink is made contains a substance most commonly known as caffeine. This is a form of stimulant which, given the subject…”
“English, Egghead!” Rainbow huffed in annoyance.
Twilight blushed slightly. “Oh, sorry. In simpler terms, caffeine make the pony really hyper. But a note from me to you: don’t ever give Pinkie Pie any of it. She had a cup and she was literally bouncing off the walls. It normally takes me two or three cups to even get half that hyper.”
Rainbow was giggling uncontrollably. “I can only imagine the chaos she caused.” Twilight just sighed into her hoof. “So how exactly do you expect me to drink this?”
“I just usually gulp it down,” explained Twilight. “You can taste less of the bitterness, which technically is good. Theoretically, the more bitter it is, the stronger the coffee, and the more potent the effects.”
Rainbow sighed and looked at the cup before tossing it back and hastily gagging down its contents. “Ugh...” Dash groaned. “I don’t care how effective it is, it tastes horrible.” She continued to rub her temples in annoyance.
“You know,” Twilight began, “I can make you forget that headache with a minor distraction.”
“I'd like to see you try.”
Twilight said nothing but instead brought out a small, circular object from underneath her left wing and set it down on the table.
Rainbow’s eyes widened in shock, flaring her own wings to look for her own device, but to no avail. It was staring at her from the table. “Wh… where’d you find that?!” she finally managed to stutter.
“While you were sleeping off your rum, I went to investigate the causes of a mysterious levitation spell cast on your last shot glass,” she said pointedly. “And I found this,” she pointed to the device, “underneath your chair.”
Rainbow glanced around nervously, fiddling with her wings. She had been caught and she knew it. “It was you, wasn’t it?” Twilight asked.
Rainbow sighed, acknowledging her defeat. “Yeah, it was me,” she admitted, but then added quickly, “but you can’t tell anypony! Please?”
“Why not? Yeah, it’s different, but why wouldn’t you want anypony to know?”
“Because it would ruin the reputation I built for myself. I can’t have ponies knowing that Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria, does magic, because they’ll think that I’m turning into an egghead like you!”
“Well, you already like reading, so I’d say that’s pretty accurate.”
“Exactly!” Dash looked up with a pleading expression. “Please Twi, just don’t tell anypony.”
Twilight sighed. “Fine, I won’t tell. Pinkie Promise.” She cringed, half-expecting Pinkie or her voice to pop out of nowhere.
Rainbow knocked Twilight over in the biggest hug she had ever give to anypony. “Thanks, Twi.” Twilight unconsciously snuggled into the hug before she’d realized what she had done.
“Uhh… Rainbow?” she asked cautiously.
“Huh?”
“You can let go now.”
“Oh, sorry.” Rainbow go up off of Twilight and backed up slightly. An awkward pause ensued as both ponies tried to (unsuccessfully) avoid embarrassment.
“So...” Twilight finally broke the silence and asked, “Where exactly did you find this?”
“Well, I went back to Cloudsdale to visit my parents and I found my great-great-great-grandfather’s uniform in my dad’s closet. It looked like part of the belt buckle, but when I took the uniform out of the closet, it fell off. Dad let me keep the uniform, seeing that I liked it so much. Plus, it was kinda a family heirloom.”
“Could I see sometime?” Twilight asked eagerly.
“Yeah, sure. Probably tomorrow.”
“So how exactly does it work?”
“Well, to answer that question in the scholarly way, “ Rainbow mimicked, “can you find the book I was reading about a week ago?”
“Oh, the one on Equestrian history?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. Ancient Equestrian History.”
Twilight lit up her horn and brought the book over.
“Okay,” said Rainbow, “find the section after the first war with Discord about the Crystal Empire, and there should be a little star thingy next to the paragraph about Sombra’s defeat.”
“Asterisk.”
“Whatever. There’s a little reference in the back of the book that really cleared things up for me.”
Twilight flipped to the appropriate spot in the appendix and read the entry, her eyes widening, greedily taking in the new information.
“This is amazing!” she exclaimed. “It says here that there were two special armies of pegasi and earth ponies who engaged Sombra’s armies in a battle of magic!” How did I miss this? she asked herself. “It even gives two distinct pictures of the devices used to give the armies magical abilities…”
Twilight brought over Rainbow’s device and compared it to the pictures. “And yours matches the pegasi’s device perfectly!” Twilight dropped the book on the ground. “Do you know what this means?” she asked, staring at Rainbow.
“Yeah, it means I descended from a really awesome pegasus who could control magic without a horn like I can! It just makes my family that much more awesome!” Rainbow boasted, flipping her mane out.
“Yeah, okay… But seriously, your great-great-great-grandfather was apart of the Royal Second Army from Canterlot.” The confused pegasus just stared at her, not following. “Which means that Princess Celestia should know everything about this.”
“Oh,” Rainbow finally realized. “That’ll come in handy. But, please, Twi… let’s keep things under wraps for right now.”
“Why?”
“Well, I kinda like being able to use magic, and if it turns out that Celestia wants that thing back, well, I’d kinda miss being able to use it.”
“Hmm, I guess it would be okay for a while, as long as you don’t use any dangerous spells,” Twilight warned.
“Yeah… We wouldn’t want any of that now, would we?” Rainbow rubbed her hooves together mischieviously.
Twilight ignored Dash’s sinister grin and picked up the device to scrutinize it closely. “I still don’t know how this works, though.”
“Here,” said Rainbow, taking the device from her, “let me show you.” She pointed at a button on the underside of the device. “See this? When it’s attached to the belt or the strap at the front of the uniform, the button is pressed down. You can’t see anything right now, but if you get the lights…”
Twilight flipped off the lights to reveal a large, cyan-blue circle on the floor beneath the pegasus with a whole bunch of shapes in it. The circle was more commonly known to unicorns as a spell circle. This one was big enough to hold two pegasi wingtip-to-wingtip with room to spare.
The device glowed blue as Rainbow channeled magic through it and picked up the lopsided book that now lay on the floor and neatly put it back on the table. “It’s pretty cool, huh? I was fiddling with it after I went to bed one night, and accidentally pressed that button and it displayed the spell circle on the ceiling.”
“Hold on… what did you just call it?” Twilight asked.
Rainbow facehoofed. “Seriously, Twi, of all the ponies, I thought you’d know what it was. You use it in some of your spells, for pony’s sake.”
“I know what a spell circle is, Rainbow. I am the Princess of Magic, you know. I just didn’t know that you knew what it was.”
Rainbow lit the room in a soft blue glow and trotted over to bookshelf. She selected a book, turned to a page, and showed it to the studious alicorn. “Tell me that that one doesn’t look like mine,” Rainbow deadpanned.
“It is pretty similar,” Twilight said, taking the book from Rainbow’s magical grasp into her own. She rounded on the gloating pegasus. “When, exactly, did you have time to do this much research?” She glared with searching eyes. The lavender light cast an eerie glow around her figure.
“Um, well,... You see… I’ve, uh... had some off time from the Wonderbolts after I found this and I was able to find out what I needed thanks to Spike.” The alicorn’s expression didn’t change. Rainbow sighed again. “Okay, I borrowed a couple magic books from your library and I’ve been trying to memorize the spells.”
“Uh huh, sure,” said Twilight sarcastically, “all twelve books I had on beginner spells!” She looked like she was about to erupt into fire again.
Rainbow rubbed the back of her head. “I thought you wouldn’t notice. Besides, you’re always focused on the more advanced ones, like the one you knocked me out with! That really hurt. I still have a bruise on my wing where I landed on it!”
“Okay...” Twilight broke into Rainbow’s ramble. “First off, you’re changing the subject, and secondly, I’ve warned you guys countless times not to disturb me when I'm trying out a new spell, and…”
BOOM!!!!!
An explosion shook the great oak tree from its crown to its roots, accompanied by a bright flash of dark purple light. Both ponies’ magic was cut off and they were thrown to the floor, unconscious.
