This fic is now Canceled.
Ch. 1
Magic
BY: cleverpun
The six ponies disembarked from the train, still visibly fatigued from their epic battle with the Corrosive Creature of the Caustic Caverns and its army of acidic assistants.
They all were too tired to say much. The big talk and the small had run its course on the train ride. A few farewells were exchanged and that was it.
Twilight waved goodbye to each of her friends as they all headed home. Spike was already fast asleep on her back as she left the train station. Twilight yawned loudly. After the grand adventure they had just been through, his convenient sleeping arrangements were more than a little enviable.
The walk to the library was uneventful; Twilight's hooves began to drag a little near the end, but the moonlight made it easy to see. She was at her door in no time at all. She dumped her bag on the floor, then went right upstairs and tucked Spike in. Normally her toothbrush, floss, and mouthwash would’ve been her next stop, but her bed drowned out every other thought. She made a mental note to admonish herself for skipping them later, and a separate mental note to add “self-admonishment” to her checklist tomorrow.
She let out another yawn and slipped under her covers, the smooth blankets so warm and comfortable. After spending all day obliterating poisonous monsters, perhaps anything would’ve been. Then they had to stop by Canterlot to put the Elements back in their vault. She hadn’t been able to sleep on the train, but the long day was finally over. Now she could let herself sink into the mattress and wait for sleep to take her.
Except, it didn’t.
The minutes slowly ticked by, and Twilight didn’t feel herself getting any closer to slumber.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
After fifteen minutes of fruitlessly laying there, Twilight flung her sheets aside. She lurched out of bed and went to get a glass of water. As she walked out of her kitchen she saw a shelf of books and a thought occurred to her.
Hmm…my brain must be processing all the things that happened on our trip. I just need to calm it down with some light reading.
She began to scan the shelves for a suitably boring book. She passed over several dictionaries and textbooks for being too interesting, and rejected a book on calculus for being too exciting. After a few minutes she found the perfect tome: Elementary Magic for the Educated Equestrian. It was a beginner’s guide to magic, published forever ago, designed to help self-learners who knew next-to-nothing about the delicate art of using their spark to manipulate the world around them. It was outdated, antiquated, and far below her skills. It was perfect.
She took it to one of the desks—didn’t want to wake up Spike after all—and opened it up to a random chapter.
Levitating Large Objects. Twilight laughed to herself a little as she remembered her own experiences with that particular subject. She began to read. The book's delivery reminded her in every way of one of her professors from her classes ages ago. Attempting to attend to the page was exactly like trying to stay awake in the face of his bland, never-ending drone of a voice. The blocky font even evoked his accent. The memory was so strong her eyelids immediately began to droop. She instinctively reached for a better read, as she had done during so many of his lectures.
Her hoof groping for a nonexistent bookbag and its copy of a more exciting textbook caused a thought to flit into her mind.
Why am I wasting my time with this when there’re so many spells I don’t know?
Well that was a silly notion. She just wanted to fall asleep, after all. Despite the initial dismissal, and against her better judgment, Twilight found herself growing attached to the idea. Something about it agreed with her, inexplicably. She went up to her room and grabbed her copy of Advanced-Level Magic: 3rd ed.
The purple pony knew she shouldn’t—she really should get to sleep—but as she cleared a space for the book and began reading, it just felt right. Twilight was the element of magic, after all! It was only proper that she know as many spells as possible.
And so she read, the night ticking on in the background.
Spike awoke to the sound of something sizzling in a pan and pulled off his covers to the smell of eggs and bacon and…sausage? Oh my!
He rolled out of his basket and went downstairs. Sure enough, there was a flurry of activity in the kitchen. There were also a bunch of books scattered across the floor.
Weird, Twilight usually is super strict about keeping those organized. Just as he finished thinking it, he stepped into the kitchen and saw a dozen pans, spatulas, knives, forks, spice jars, and other things floating about, making breakfast of their own volition, each surrounded by a lilac aura.
“Uhh…Twilight?”
“Over here, Spike!” Twilight was sitting at the kitchen table, a fork, plate, glass of juice, and three books all floating around her. The fork and knife were cutting up her omelet, then feeding it to her as her eyes darted from page to page.
Spike ducked under the cloud of kitchen supplies floating around and walked up to Twilight. “Okay, I give up. What’s going on?”
“Nothing, just practicing my multi-object levitation spells.” She didn’t look up from her book.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you do this many things at a time!”
“Yeah, I ran across the guide for it about three books ago and I—done!” she happily announced mid-sentence, tossing aside Complex Cantrips and Incantations: 5th ed. and summoning another thick volume from the stack behind her.
“Three books ago? Twilight, how long have you been awake?”
“All night. It’s not a big deal, though; I used a rejuvenation spell on myself after I figured it out a few hours ago.”
The various utensils stopped shoving food into Twilight’s mouth, and she got up from the table and walked into the foyer. She didn’t bother to look up from her book but navigated the piles of paper perfectly regardless.
“Twilight, shouldn’t you—”
“Don’t worry, Spike, there’s plenty left for you. I’ve got to get back to these. So many spells I still don’t know…” She trailed off, Spike’s concern already forgotten.
The studious student sat down in the center of a circular pile of various papers and books and continued reading.
Spike shrugged and left her there. Can’t be that big of a deal, he thought to himself. Just another one of her cram sessions, and, boy, those eggs smell good!
Spike finished breakfast at his usual indulgent pace, savoring every bite. Once he had stuffed himself on the unusually large breakfast Twilight had made, he went to see how she was doing. Her focused nature had gotten her in trouble before, so it couldn’t hurt to check on—
Hmm, was that pile of books that small when I left her here?
“Twilight, are you alright?”
“Yes, Spike, I’m fine.” She actually bothered to look up from her books for a moment. “But you know, I’ve been thinking.”
“About what?”
“All the great wizards and sorceresses and spellcasters have a nice big epithet to go along with their name.”
“A what?”
“You know, a surname, a bonus title; Starswirl the Bearded, Clover the Clever, Daybreak the Mighty. I realized, after all the things I’ve done, all the spells I’ve learned, I deserve one too.”
“Uhm, ok…like what?”
“How about Twilight Sparkle the Amazing? Or Brilliant? Or Brilliantly Amazing and Powerful. And Great! Yeah, Twilight Sparkle the Brilliant, Powerful and Great. Maybe something a little longer—can’t sell myself short.”
“Twilight, you’re great and powerful and all, but last time we were practicing you only knew twenty-seven spells, give or take. I mean, you’ve done great things and all, but—”
“Oh, Spike, weren’t you listening? I’ve been up all night learning new spells. Sure some are less useful than others, but now I know one-hundred-and-fifteen of them!”
“What!?”
“They’ve just all been so easy, Spike. It’s not like before where I had to practice, study, and be careful…now, I just read about it, and after a few tries it happens. I’m even more of a magical prodigy than I thought I was! Twilight Sparkle the Brilliant and Powerful!” She went back to reading. “Oooh, maybe I should add a new adjective for every fifty spells I learn? If I hurry, by lunch I could be Twilight Sparkle the Brilliant and Powerful and Beautiful and Amazing…”
Spike slowly backed away, inching towards the door.
“Well, gee that’s, uh, interesting, Twilight, but I just remembered I needed to ask somepony something about, I dunno, something.”
“Okey doke, have fun! I’ll be here if you need me.”
Spike made it out of the door and quickly slammed it behind him.
Okay, something is definitely wrong with Twilight. I better go find somepony to help, before this gets serious…
Not sure who that somepony should be, he thought for a moment, then ran off into town.
Nice plot, and did Discord use his powers to bestow common sense? Seems legit.
I do Like this ^_^
tracking just to know what will you do with Pinkie.
Hmm... I gotta say, this looks quite interesting. Definitely gonna keep track of this!
let me get this..So discord "amplified" her elements? in a chaotic way ,huh
interesting
Great fic, but shouldn't this have an "alternate universe" tag?
1282609
Pinkie isn't until a few chapters in, look up "mania" if you're impatient though
1284344
Not really, it's a hypothetical that takes place sometime after season 2. I guess Ch. 0 takes place in season 2 episode 2, but it's not deviating from the the show in any, just filling a gap.
Ohhhh dear...
...watching this.
I can't wait for the others.
huh. I while back, I had this exact same Idea.
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nah, it's cool. you've done this a lot better then I ever would.
One of these magical virus's!?
Again!?
I better break out Rule Breaker just in case. . .
The Corrosive Creature of the Caustic Caverns?
I recommend a Jakobs shotgun. Or possibly a Maliwan SMG. Those are always good.
Nice, I like the first chapter. Will read the rest when I have time.
Looking good and all, I'm gonna read more of this. But... bacon and sausages. Really? I think you might want to go for something a little bit less carnivore there
No, there is no such thing as vegetarian bacon. Bacon is made from pork and is therefore meat, and if you ever try to insinuate that something as horrendous as vegetarian bacon even exists, I will tear off your d*** and proceed to feed it to you while Prince Blueblood repeatedly sodomizes you.
So decrees Silver, High Priest of the Cult of Bacon
Congrats on the feature boxing.
And brilliant formatting.
"Spike awoke to the sound of something sizzling in a pan and pulled off his covers to the smell of eggs and bacon and…sausage? "
Yeah you lost me. And don't say it's vegetarian or whatever, because if ponies are herbivores (BTW, they are) they wouldn't have even imagined making something like that. Humans made vegetarian "meat" products because vegetarians didn't want to eat mean, but it is incredibly complicated to do so. They'd have no reason to make a vegetarian version of something they never even had in the first place.
2049596
Vegetarian bacon is just tofu marinated in spices then deep fried, it's actually fairly easy to make. "Hay bacon" is a pretty common fandom construct, as well.
They have cattle, and dragons are carnivorous (mebbe?), so I don't find it a stretch to include bacon in the narrative. Even if they didn't base it on actual bacon, it's easier to call it that than "fried spice tofu." It also adds verisimilitude.
2051940
It doesn't add verisimilitude because of pony dietary concerns; it adds verisimilitude because my audience is mostly omnivorous humans (I assume).
Related: Why does everyone keep complaining about the bacon, but not the omelet?
OH GOD SO MUCH ALLITERATION. Also, I like how everyone is complaining about the bacon, yet nobody mentions the sausage. And as the author clearly stated, only the bacon was vegetarian. That means Twilight is a sick sick pony.
Ooh. Fun story. It's been forever since you've posted this first chapter, but if I might give some critique on this chapter: it's interesting, well-written, but the sentences are mostly really short, especially at the beginning. It makes the chapter get off to a stilted start that reads kind of like 'this happened, this happened, this happened.' Especially because of the events you were telling us about, it kinda needed a bit more expansion to really set the scene.
Anyway, onwards I go to chapter 2!
2388740
Yeah, originally there was a longer scene, but my editors correctly pointed out that it was too short to mean anything, so I cut it down to what it is now. I considered cutting it further but I dunno, Im still mulling over ways to smooth out the first few paragraphs.
I have seen strict vegetarians eat bacon. meat bacon is awesome to everyone.
They were hay bacon strips obviously
But more on topic this sounds like a very interesting idea for a story. I can't wait to read on.
Oh my… Am I turning her into TRIXIE?!
You clever draconequus you.
2070212 Yeah I was wondering about that.
Here is a great song to listen to while you read this!
(Open in a separate tab!)
1944882
by its defenition meatless bacon is impossible.
but there is "cardboard sprayed with week old bacon extract"
nothing against vegetarians, it just tastes terrible