Author's Notes:

Chapter, Post, Done.

What? You want more...hmmm, maybe later. Have fun in the meantime.

Thanks for keeping me from writing like a five-year-old, Regreme, editor and proofreder]

Also, feedback and comments welcome for improvement

Within the castle of Equestria’s capital, the royal infirmary has seen a great deal of unusual cases over the past two weeks. From guards being nearly killed by assailants wielding magic the likes of which nopony had ever seen before, to housing an even stranger creature from another world after he had rampaged through the royal throne room. On this day, said infirmary was host to the same foreign creature known as Samuel Reed, the wire conduit.

The conduit’s room was quiet, aside from the rhythmic beeps of the machines that monitored his vitals. He lay as still as a rock, unconscious to the world around him after an attempt to, theoretically, gain new powers from an experiment. Beside him sat a purple unicorn by the name of Twilight Sparkle. Once she had alerted the guards of the incident in her lab, she rushed alongside the stretcher that carried the conduit to the infirmary. All the while, she cried profusely over her inability to help as the medical staff worked to assess the conduit’s condition.

Twilight remained by Sam’s bedside after the medical staff had done all they could, however little that was with such a foreign biology. She wailed and prayed to whatever deity watched over humans to let her friend be okay. Every once in awhile, a doctor or nurse would come to check their current patient’s status. Twilight hardly acknowledged them, even when they bade her a greeting or farewell.

Once the news had traveled throughout the castle, both Pinkie Pie and Rarity rushed to their friend’s side to comfort her and hopefully cheer their unicorn friend up. Though, upon seeing Twilight and Sam in their respective conditions, both their moods soured further, and all they could offer was their emotional support before leaving again. Even the princesses of the sun and moon had taken what time they could to come and check up on both the occupants of the room, but could offer little more than what Twilight’s friends had already given. The gestures fell short of the unicorn’s ears however, as all she could think about was that the incident was all her fault.

So here she sat, hours later. Twilight had already cried herself out, as evident by the twin streaks of wet and matted fur that ran down her cheeks from puffy, bloodshot eyes. Every time she looked up at Sam’s face, her eyes stung with regret and she grimaced while looking away once more. Twilight couldn’t help that even though her friend seemed to be peacefully asleep, images of what took place back in her lab freshly haunted her memory like an open wound. Twilight choked back a sob as she thought about how she should have ran the variables one more time, or at the very least, not let her curiosity win out over her concern for her friend’s safety. Those thoughts of hindsights did little to hide the truth in her mind. This was her fault.

“Ugh.”

Just as the poor unicorn delved deeper into her dark pit of sorrow, the groan beside her woke her from her stupor. Her breathing hitched as she raised her head to watch the conduit slowly lean up against the infirmary bed.

“Alright, next time, I need a mattress for that landing,” Sam said, scratching the back of his head before becoming aware of the shocked looking unicorn beside him, “Sparks, what’s wrong? You look like someone who just watched Spiderman 3.”

Before Sam could react, Twilight already had her forelegs wrapped tightly around Sam’s midsection, clinging to him as if he would disappear if she ever let go. The subtle sounds of sobbing could be heard as fresh tears stained Sam’s shirt.

“I’m sorry! I thought you were dead! And then you wouldn’t wake up! And, and-”

Twilight’s words failed her as she continued to blubber against the conduit’s front. The whole thing happened so fast that the only thing that Sam could think to do was hug her back and try to comfort her.

“Hey, hey. Sparks, calm down,” Sam said as calmly as he could.

To his surprise, Twilight pushed him away. Her expression, even though lined with tears, was one of pure outrage.

“Calm down?!” Twilight’s voice hitched, “I watched you writhing in pain! You collapsed and were unresponsive! Nopony knew if you were even going to wake up again! I was worried for you, and you want me to calm down?!”

Then she did the unexpected and actually hit Sam squarely in the chest with a firm hoof. Although the strike made Sam grunt, it wasn’t anything hard enough to really hurt, but the point was made. Twilight’s temper burned out quickly after that first strike, like a candle that got doused in cold water, and she returned to hugging Sam for dear life and sobbing some more. Sam was too stunned to react the entire time, but once he had a chance to process it all, he sighed heavily.

“I’m sorry, Twilight,” Sam whispered, noticing one of Twilight’s ears twitch at the mention of her name, “I didn’t mean to make you, and probably everyone else, worry like that… This is also gonna suck, but I was kinda sort of hoping that this wouldn’t happen.”

This got the unicorn’s attention and made her push away again from Sam to look at him both hesitantly and curiously.

Sam sighed heavily again and looked away to the other side of the room, “You remember when I said that blast cores are pretty much concentrated chucks of ray field energy? Well, even conduits aren’t meant to take in that much power all at once. Luckily, since conduits are evolutionary by nature, our bodies evolve with the energy we take in. Though with that much energy, it takes time. Basically, conduits have to essentially reboot like a computer after an upgrade like that.”
Beside him, Sam heard the unicorn’s shocked gasp as she more than likely was piecing together what the wire conduit was saying. Unable to take not knowing what Twilight looked like to be thinking, Sam reluctantly turned back around to face her. A mixture of shock, outrage, pity, and relief fought for dominance over Twilight’s expression, yet she remained silent for Sam to finish talking.

“When Natie and Lu took their blast cores, they were out for a good couple of hours until they recovered and could show off what new tricks they got. Which I’m guessing happened to me too, even though that wire wasn’t exactly a blast core.”

“...but why?” Twilight cut in, “Why didn’t you tell me this could happen?”

Sam looked away in shame and scratched the back of his head again, “Because I didn’t want to worry you.”

Sam yelped as he received another jab in the side by the unicorn. He quickly turned to see her wipe away a couple tears, but her eyes still remained watery as she tried to look annoyed with him.

“Well, you did a horrible job at that,” Twilight joked while trying not to choke up.

Sam smiled as he swallowed the lump in his throat that was starting to form, “Yeah, screwed up that one.”

“Promise me you won’t do it again,” Twilight half whispered.

“Hmm, I don’t know. My calendar is pretty full on promises I already gotta make,” Sam’s cheeky comment earned him another light-hearted jab, “but... I guess I can bump a few of those to next month to squeeze this one in there.”

After apologies were shared, Twilight went to go inform a nurse about Sam’s condition. Although, she first had to persuade the conduit to remain in bed over his insistence of being fine. After Twilight left, Sam flung the covers off of himself and swung his legs over the side of the bed. Not like anyone was here to stop him now. Plus, the smell of antiseptic was starting to make him ansty. Getting up, he did a few stretches and was greeted with a few satisfying pops from his stiff joints. Sam was just about to flex his powers when the door to his room opened to two ponies.

“Sam, I thought I told you to stay in bed,” Twilight said in exasperation.

Sam smirked and said as he turned away to stretched a bit more, “I did, but you never said for how long.”

The sound of a hoof meeting one’s face was heard and gave Sam a small smile of satisfaction. The other pony, with a light azure coat and wavy, baby-blue mane and tail and a nurse’s cap perched on her head, lightly giggled at the scene before stepping forward.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Reed, but Miss Sparkle is right. You shouldn’t be out of bed just yet, however well you may feel,” the nurse chided

Sam looked at her with a mocking pout.

“None of that now,” the nurse said, and she motioned for the conduit to get back on the bed, “Please, at least have a seat so I can give you an evaluation. I promise nothing invasive, and then you may get back up again.”

Sam conceded, if only so he could get out of there faster. Though as the nurse worked, their room was visited once more by Twilight’s friends bursting in with both concerned and relieved expressions. Both of them ran up to Sam and gave him a hug, even against the nurse’s insistence. Rarity was the first to let go and pulled a tissue from the box beside Sam’s bed with her magic to herself, daintily dabbing at the tears on her face before it could ruin her makeup.

“Oh, Mr. Reed. When we heard the news, Pinkie and I just had to galloped here as fast as we could,” Rarity said as she blew her nose noisily into the tissue before grabbing another, “Everypony was absolutely distraught from the incident.”

As Rarity swooned, to which Sam thought was a bit overdramatic, Pinkie was still trying to crush the life out of the conduit with her abnormally strong hug. Sam looked to Twilight for help, but all he got back was a look that said ‘you got yourself into this’. Carefully freeing one of his arms from Pinkie’s grasp, he stroked her mane a few times and put on his trademark smirk.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Sam chuckled, “Just gotta make sure I don’t grow another arm somewhere weird. Plus, if I did kick the bucket, at least Lu wouldn’t be able to collect on that bet about who would go out first.”

It seemed that no one was laughing at Sam’s morbid joke though, and he nervously chuckled to himself. That also included the pink party pony below him who lifted her head to look him in the eye with one of the most unhappy expressions he had ever seen on her. It was enough to even make Sam feel ashamed of his dark humor.

“Please don’t joke about that, Sammy. That wasn’t very funny,” Pinkie said somberly.

After a moment of consideration, Sam used his free arm to softly stroke Pinkie’s mane. Tilting his head down, he laid his chin just above her forehead with a frown.

“Ok,” Sam replied, “I promise not to make any more jokes about the afterlife.”

Then, just like that, the pink pony zipped out from under Sam and was already at the door with a wide enough smile to split her cheeks. Not a trace of sadness was left on her face as she waved to Sam and the others.

“Okie-Dokie-Lokie! I’m going to get Sammy a secret ‘Glad you’re recovering just fine’ gift! B-R-B!” she called out before bouncing away cheerfully.

Everyone else in the room just stared at the empty doorframe, unsure of what just happened. After a moment, Rarity softly cleared her throat and made her way to the door as well.

“I must say,” Rarity chimed in, “it was very good to see you are still yourself after that awful ordeal, but I must take my leave as well. Please do not worry us like that again, or Pinkie and I will be even more cross with you. Goodnight, Twilight. Sam.”

With a reserved nod to both her friend and the conduit, Rarity also left. As the rest of the occupants were gathering their senses, the nurse suggested that she at least finish her exam before anything else happened to interrupt. Sam and Twilight agreed heartily and let the nurse finish within just another half hour. After which, since there was no signs of any negative symptoms, the nurse got to work on the conduit’s discharge papers with no more incidents.

Once they were all done there, Sam and Twilight were met with a quartet of guards to lead them back to Twilight’s lab at Sam’s suggestion. He was feeling very eager to try out whatever new power he just got, even if he wasn’t quite sure what it was yet. On the way there, Sam kept noticing that the purple unicorn was staring at him any time she thought he wasn’t looking.

“...What is it, Sparks?” Sam finally asked after being stared at for the twentieth time by the purple unicorn since they left the infirmary.

Twilight turned away, but gathered her courage to finally speak up, “Are you sure you’re okay? I mean, absolutely sure? No headache, pain, or anything out of the ordinary?”

Sam groaned as he expected this kind of question.

“Yes, Sparks. For the n-th time. I’m sure I’m completely fine,” Sam said tiredly while checking his body over once more, “No extra arms, no unusual pain, and no, I do not feel like I need to lie down.”

“But you were passed out for over three hours. What if there was more to that thaumium than we originally thought? What if there is just a delay and we haven’t seen what effects could take place in the future?” Twilight started to panic.

“Sparks, I’m good,” Sam sighed and slumped his shoulders, “I mean, other than being a little bit hungry. Which reminds me; We getting that platter up to the lab as usual?”

When Twilight nodded, Sam grunted in appreciation. He never did like working on an empty stomach.

“Sweet. Oh, hey, look at that. Your lab. Welp, let’s get started, yeah? I so want to see what kind of power that thaumium gave me,” though before he entered through the heavy oak doors, Sam turned his head over his shoulder and smirked, “Also, I appreciate you you keeping an eye on me since we left. Though, I didn’t know you liked checking me out that much.”

The purple unicorn blushed and nearly tripped over her own hooves. She tried to talk, but everything she tried to say came out like as a sputtering mess of confusion. The wire conduit couldn’t help but snicker at the cute little display. This got Twilight to see through Sam’s teasing, and she harrumphed before pushing past him into her lab. She immediately got to work on collecting everything she would need to document Sam’s possible changes and new ability while Sam played with some device he found on one of the tables.

“Give me that!” Twilight snatched the device out of the air with her magic when Sam tossed it up and carefully placed it on another table across the room.

Sam was about to fall into a haze of boredom, when Twilight’s whirlwind of retrieving items came to a stop. An area was cleared in the far left corner, set aside for a table, her notes, extra quills and parchment, and a few different devices that Sam recognized as stuff that analyzed different energies and the like that Twilight had used before. Sam smiled at how easily the unicorn could slip into her habits after the incident without so much as a moment of hesitation. Once she was done, she looked at Sam expectantly.

“Since you’re so anxious to try out whatever it is you got from the thaumium, how about you test it out before dinner arrives?” an over eager Twilight said, before pausing and remembering the last time she let her curiosity drive her, “At least, so long as you’re feeling up to it.”

Sam chuckled at Twilight’s antics, “Don’t you mean ‘so you can document the results’?”

The little tease got the unicorn to brighten up a bit. It wasn’t much, but it seemed to have the right effect on the both of them. Sam casually strolled across the room to the empty spot that Twilight pointed out for him.

In his mind, he was trying to figure out exactly what it was that felt different to him about his powers. He definitely knew there was something new, but it just didn’t seem to jump out at him. Twilight scooped up her quill and parchment while Sam took a deep breath. Closing his eyes to concentrate, Sam reached inward, probing for what he knew was there but having no idea of what it was. It was just like the first time he properly wielded his abilities. The sensation of pins and needles all over his body took over, and soon, he was able to feel the change. The pins and needles were gone, and now, he could feel a ball of warm heat in the center of his chest. From there, the energy drifted to the left side of his body, out through his left arm, and all the way down to his fingertips. Once he felt that, he had called upon this new ability fully, he opened his eyes again to see something unexpected. Sam couldn’t help but be impressed by the new ability. The pale golden threads of the new wire emerged from Sam fingers and were unlike anything he’d ever seen.

“What’s it like?” Twilight asked with a burning curiosity.

Sam played with the new wires for a moment. Stretching them, spinning them, and crisscrossing them around each other. Like before, it was unlike anything he had ever used before. The pale light they gave off was like that of the thaumium he absorbed to gain this new power. Yet, it wasn’t quite the same brightness or hue as thaumium itself.

As he manipulated the wires some more, he dictated to Twilight his thoughts, “They’re lighter, almost weightless. I can feel them in a way... there is a slight humming coming from them, like it’s got a mind of its own. Wait, no... more like it’s alive in a way, more responsive. At least, when you compare it to my other spool.”

The sound of quill on parchment froze as Twilight cocked her head to side. Sam saw this and thought for a moment on how best to describe this. With a snap of his fingers, his face lit up with realization.

“Well, you see,” Sam began as a new set of wires emerged from Sam’s other hand, looking like the wires he usually used, “It’s like I have two spools of wire inside of me now. Not literally, but you get the picture. One is my old wire, pretty sure you know what I can use it for by now. Though this new one, it feels like it’s got this energy about it, unlike the old. Plus, you can see how clearly different they are just by looking at them.”

Sam banished the old wires and continued to mess around with the new ones. Spinning them into all kinds of shapes and patterns just to further test them out.

“Fascinating,” Twilight whispered under her breath as she scratched out her notes as quickly as possible.

She was about to reach out for one of her pieces of equipment to keep going when Sam pulled off a trick. Swiftly bending the pale, glowing wires around themselves, Sam put a couple strands between both his hands. From there, the wires followed his commands to spin around until they took on the shape of a hollow sphere with the threads spiraling around the outside from one hand to the other. The shape was pretty neat to look at, until Sam saw the wire flash brighter for a split second, and an orb of light began condensing itself into the sphere.

*BANG*

Sam would have liked to have known what that flash of light was, or why exactly the room he was in looked like it was a blurry, upside-down version of itself. He also would have liked to have known why both his face and back were hurting and why there was loud ringing in his ears. He was confused about a few more things, but his attention was suddenly occupied by the strange purple misshapen blob in front of him.

He blinked a few times, and as his body regenerated, he was able to figure out that the purple blob was none other than Twilight Sparkle looking very worriedly at him from upside-down. Behind her was the lab with dust, debris, and two very uncertain guards hanging in the background also upside-down. In front of him, Twilight kept moving her mouth, but the words that came out sounded like they were coming from underwater.

“WHAT?!” Sam blurted out, suddenly realizing that he too sounded like he was underwater.

As more of his body regenerated, his eardrums popped, and he was able to hear the world again.

“-YOU OKAY?!” Twilight screamed into his face.

Sam covered his ears, but the damage was done. Sam figured that the little unicorn would do well in opera if the whole ‘princess’ prized pupil’ thing didn’t work out.

“Ow, no need to shout, ya know?” Sam said as he slowly uncovered his ears.

Twilight sighed in relief with a hoof over her chest. Then she looked straight down over top of the conduit and slammed her hoof down next to his head. It was at this point that Sam realized that the world wasn’t upside-down, but he was. Though more accurately, he was propped up against the wall at an odd angle that made the world look upside-down.

Twilight huffed as she continued to shout in his face, “No, I think I do if I’m to get it through your thick skull of yours! What were you thinking?! Are you intentionally trying to get yourself killed, or do you just not care?!”

Sam pushed himself back up both to put a stop to the strain on his neck and to see Twilight eye to eye, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know that was going to happen! Though just to make sure, did I just blow myself up?”

Sam watched as Twilight tried to hold back the tears that were starting to pour down her face and the barely restrained anger in her eyes. Sam bit the inside of his cheek and looked away after further upsetting the unicorn. She sat there and silently sobbed until Sam pressed his fingers into her mane and scratched the sweet spot behind her ear.

“Sparks, I’m sorry,” Sam softly spoke, “I seriously didn’t mean for that to happen. Frankly, I don’t exactly know what did happen. I do know that I am sure that I’m perfectly fine now, and I don’t want to see you to crying anymore, at least not today.”

Twilight sniffled as she looked into Sam’s smiling face. With a bit more encouragement from Sam, Twilight was able to get herself under control. Sam helped by quickly getting up and fetching one of the paper towel rolls across the room for his unicorn friend. Twilight thanked him and got to work on drying her wet-furred face and blowing her nose a few times.

“Better?” Sam asked, and once he received a nod, turned to the two guards awaiting at the door, “Nothing to see here folks. Just your everyday conduit and unicorn having a moment.”

Twilight jabbed him in side for that comment. The guards glanced over the both of them once more before turning to leave, though not before one of them coughed to get their attention.

“If there are any more incidents, please do not hesitate to call for our assistance. The guard would miss having such lively company around the castle,” he said and shut the doors to the lab behind him.

Once they were gone, Twilight and Sam stood up together and got to work on cleaning up the lab of the blown away debris. Twilight was in the middle of turning a table back up when she noticed something on the ground. Behind the table was a piece of debris that looked like a blackened string. Yet, it looked too rigid and bent in odd ways that it couldn’t be made of any kind of normal string.

“Hey, Sparks. What do you got there?” Sam asked from behind her.

Twilight jumped at the sudden appearance of the conduit behind her and tried to calm her pounding heart with deep breaths. On the other hand, Sam was busy studying the piece of string that Twilight had uncovered earlier. Like her, he thought it looked too odd to really be string. He furrowed his brow as he tried to find the right words to describe it, but nothing came. When he went to pick it up he was given an almost static-like shock as the piece of burnt out wire disintegrated into dust. It was quite surprising once he realized exactly what the stuff was, and raised even more questions on how it came to be.

“No!” Twilight yelped as she attempted to recover what little of the dust there was with futile scrapes of her hooves, “I wanted to know what that stuff was!”

“It was my new wire,” Sam answered, causing Twilight to look at the conduit questioningly.

“But, how do you know that?” Twilight asked, forgetting the dust on the floor.

“I felt it,” Sam replied, looking at his empty palm, “Just before it upped and poofed, I know I felt it.”

Sam flexed his hand open and closed a few times in front of his face. From curiosity, to wonder, to straight up excitement, Sam slowly gained a devilish grin as thoughts raced through his mind.

“Oh, man!” He shouted and jumped to his feet, fist pumping into the air, “I can make explosions with just wire! Hell fuckin’ yes!”

Twilight wasn’t quite on the same level of excitement as Sam, yet she was still curious. She went about the room to see if she could find any more remnants of Sam’s wire if he were to be believed, but perked up when she caught the conduit mumbling to himself under his breath.

“Maybe if I twist it this way, or maybe it was because I used three strands,” Sam muttered while toying with another set of his new wire.

“Sam!” Twilight screeched, “Stop trying to blow yourself up!”

Sam halted his messing around and tried to play innocent, which Twilight was having none of. She marched right up to the conduit and glared at him with the intensity that could have rivaled ol’ Cappy.

“I wasn’t trying to blow myself up,” Sam half lied, “You know the saying about experimentation. It goes, uh, ‘always repeat the results’, right?”

“That’s ‘any successful experiment is gauged on its reproducibility’, and I would appreciate it if you didn’t try to do that again!” Twilight huffed.

Sam sighed, “Ok, ok. Just thought I’d try and figure out how I did it in the first place. It was so weird. I was just messing around, making some shapes, and then there was this little orb of light in the center. Then, boom.”

While Sam was explaining all this, Twilight was listening intently. For some reason, she just knew that this all sounded very familiar. Her brain worked even harder as it moved the pieces of the puzzle into place. Suddenly, her face lit up with an idea.

“Sam,” Twilight interrupted the conduit’s musing, “Can you show me exactly what shape you were making with the new wire?”

Sam blinked twice at the unusual request and shrugged. He called on the new wire again, but before he could do anything with it, Twilight interrupted again.

Twilight stomped her hooves and shouted, “Not with the new wire! Can you just make it out of the ordinary stuff?”

“Killjoy,” Sam muttered with slight smirk.

He followed Twilight’s instructions and recreated the sphere he made with some regular wire. Once done, he tossed the thing to Twilight, who immediately dropped it when she forgot she couldn’t get a steady grip on it with her magic. Fumbling around with her hooves got her nowhere, so Sam politely offered to pick it back up and show it off. Twilight stood transfixed on the sphere in Sam’s grasp. Her mind raced to figure out what it was about the sphere that fit into the larger picture. Then, it clicked. She snatched up a piece of parchment and quill and drew at a feverish pace.

“Sam, this is a spell matrix!” she cried out as she continued to draw and label on her parchment.

“Wait, what?” Sam asked.

Twilight put the finishing touches onto her parchment and practically shoved it into Sam’s face. Taking a moment to look at the drawing closely, Sam was able to see that she had drawn his sphere. All around it were labels and runes that he had no idea on where to begin to understand their meanings, but the excited unicorn looked up at him expectantly.

“Sparks, I don’t know what the hell this means,” Sam pushed the levitating parchment away from his face.

Twilight’s head flew back and forth between Sam and her drawing so fast that Sam was afraid she’d spin her head clean off. Unfortunately, he would not be the first to bear witness to such a ridiculous scene, as Twilight finally settled her gaze on him with slack-jawed bafflement.

“Don’t you see it, Sam? You created a spell matrix! Albeit, an unstable one, but a spell matrix nonetheless,” Twilight declared, exhilaration in her eyes, “You just casted a spell through your wire like a unicorn using their horn!”

Sam gasped in surprise upon understanding what the purple unicorn was saying. He looked down at his hands, a smile slowly growing on his face as Twilight’s words settled in.

Sam shouted out, pointing to the sky as he declared, “I’m a motherfuckin’ wizard! Take that, Criss Angel, you eyeliner wearing hipster!”

Although she wouldn’t have put it in those exact words, Twilight was pleased to see the wire conduit just as excited over the discovery as she was. She watched as the conduit spouted more nonsense that was sure to be more humorous if she knew the references, but there was just one more thing she had to get in before he decided to try and make another, larger, and unstable ‘force amplification field’ spell.

“Sam, listen to me,” Twilight flagged down the hyped up conduit, “I know this is exciting-”

“That’s an understatement.”

“Which is why I believe that we should work to see just how much power your new ability holds. Without blowing up my lab!” Twilight reminded after seeing Sam just about to summon more wires, “If you would let me, I can teach you how to wield magic and the corresponding spell matrices to use it properly.”

Sam made it look like he was taking his time to think about it, but in his mind, his decision was already made. He gave Twilight one of his signature smirks and offered his hand to shake.

“Sparks, you’ve got yourself a deal,” Sam said confidently.

Twilight let Sam grasp her outstretched hoof to seal their pact and gave the eager conduit her best smile. Hours passed in the blink of an eye, and the two were working feverishly into the night. In that time, Sam learned all the basics of magic and its theories in a swift crash course on the subject, under the mentorship of Twilight.

The unicorn had at first insisted that they start from the very beginning, which Sam soon found out that it would be days, if not weeks, before they would make any real developments with his new ability. Luckily, he was able to convince Twilight that they should skip all the boring history lectures and such and move on to the practical application.

He certainly didn’t threaten to experiment with his new ability on his own until he stopped exploding should they have started with said lectures, and he certainly didn’t imply that he would try out said ability in public for everyone to see. Sure, it was underhanded. Plus, Sam would have never done something that reckless around innocent civilians to begin with, but Twilight wasn’t about to take the chance.

So, after hours of practice and refinement, Sam was feeling tired, but pleased with all his progress. His outstretched hand, palm out, was pointed directly in front of him. From his palm, the pale golden wires stretched out and were woven into the pattern of a circle with a triangle inside it. The most basic levitation matrix taught to any unicorn foal. In front of Sam’s hand was a book, but it was suspended in mid air about four inches in front of his palm and enveloped in the same pale golden light as the thaumium wire.

“This is incredible, Sam!” Twilight squealed, “I never would have imagined that I’d be the first pony to see a new form of magic being developed in front of my very eyes!”

Sam smiled as he pulled his arm toward his body, the book never once leaving its position in front of the wire matrix. It was like it was magnetized to that position, and no matter how much Sam shook his arm, the book never flew away. Another interesting fact about this experience was that the book was practically weightless in the aura of the wire matrix. It wasn’t like the book was heavy to begin with, but it was different than if he were to pick the book up normally or even with his normal set of wires. Normally, he would be able to feel the weight of an object, even through his wires, yet with the thaumium wire spun into a levitation matrix, it was like lifting a thin coloring book.

“It is strange though,” Twilight said, chewing on the feathered tip of her quill in thought, “I’ve never seen a levitation spell act like this before.”

Sam shrugged, “Who cares, I’m practically my world’s first real magician! Smoke and mirrors not included.”

“I’ll have to run some more tests, but…” Twilight had to pause as she felt a yawn overtake her, “I think we better get to bed.”

“Ah, come on, Sparks. You want to stop now?” Sam said, fighting off his own yawn due to the late hour, “You gotta at least teach me something else, say like a magic missile?”

In all the trial and many errors of Sam’s practice to learn how to use his new ability, Twilight wanted to keep the damage to the castle to a minimum, which meant that she was only willing to teach Sam two spells for the day. The simple levitation spell and illumination spell. This left Sam a little disappointed. He was hoping to learn something a little more than just a pocket light and another way to pick things up and put them down, yet Twilight insisted that they start with those or she would not teach him at all.

Twilight groaned, “Sam, there’s no such thing as magic missile. There’s Galient Spear’s ‘condensed magical aura wave’ combat spell, or colloquially known as the spell blast.”

Sam cut the unicorn off before she could drone on, “Does that spell make it so that the magical energy is transformed into physical force?”

“Well, yes, but-” Twilight answered.

With his free hand, Sam snapped his fingers and pointed at the unicorn with a smirk, “Magic missile!”

Twilight sighed, knowing there was no arguing with Sam on the point, “Anyways, even if that spell is the easiest combat spell to learn, it is still way too advanced to teach to a novice. Even if you’ve managed to learn the basics in such a short time. I promise though, when we have time, I will teach you everything I can.”

That was a depressing thought for Sam. He knew that he would have to eventually leave this world. He wanted, and needed, to go home, but at the same time, he has come to like this world as well as the ponies he could call ‘friends’. Maybe if Twilight’s TD gate was a two-way portal, he could bring his friends from Memphis here one day. Though he also had to remind himself that his first priority was to make it home and make sure his friends were safe. Then, take down the DUP with his friends and show the world just how big of assholes those guys really are. Visits to Equestria would just have to wait, but maybe one day, it would happen.

“All right, Sparks,” Sam said, letting out a massive yawn, “Guess we’ll call it quits for the day.”

Twilight nodded in agreement, “Good. Now, can you put that book down, without slamming it against the wall this time?”

Sam chuckled, having remembered his later attempts at practicing the levitation spell. At first, when his matrix wasn’t made correctly, the wire he used burnt out like a light filament and sometimes hit him with a shockwave of energy. Twilight explained that spells that are cast wrong by unicorns had a similar effect to the latter, to a lesser degree, if the energy did not just dissipate into the ambient magic field surrounding them. She theorized that since Sam’s ‘magic’ was attuned to a ‘different frequency’, it did not mix as subtly with the ambient field.

Then, there was the experience when Sam figured out that by ‘crushing’ the levitation matrix while he had something in its grasp that the wire also burnt out, but at the same time, sent the held object flying in the direction it was pointed in. Almost like a magical railgun. It was funny for Sam the first time seeing the look on Twilight’s face when he accidently pulled that trick off when he was levitating a glass beaker and blasted it against the wall. It wasn’t quite as fun once she started lecturing him on the consequences in the misuse of magic though.

Sam directed the levitating book over a desk, still hovering in front of his palm and willed the magical grasp to let go. Funnily enough, doing this did not burn out the wire like it normally would. Even the illumination spell, after a certain amount of time, caused the matrix to burn out and he would have to make a new one. In any case, that just meant that he could save that wire for later use.

With everything else being stored away, Sam and Twilight sagged tiredly toward the door to catch some well deserved rest. That is, until a commotion from just beyond the doorway made them perk up in curiosity. It sounded like a couple of the guards were arguing back and forth, and before either the unicorn or conduit could go for the door to find out the problem, the door suddenly swung open. The pegasus guard that barged in was anything but calm. He wore a nervous and gloomy look.

“Sir, excuse me,” Twilight grabbed the guard’s attention between his pants to catch his breath, “but... what’s going on? Is there trouble?”

Having caught his breath sufficiently, the guard snapped to attention but still carried a sullen look on his face. The tension grew thicker as Twilight and Sam watched and waited for him to speak, neither of them feeling very tired now waiting in anticipation. Sam clenched his fists, assuming that the conduit power wielding assailants from before had decided to make another move. If they did, he wasn’t about to let the guards stop him from hunting them down and beating the answer out of them on where they even got their powers and gear.

“Miss Twilight Sparkle, corporal Silver Whistle reporting. I’m sorry, but I was told to inform you directly,” The guard swallowed against the nervous tremor in his voice, “It is about your friend, the one named Pinkie Pie…”

Whatever the guard said afterwards, Twilight did not catch it. In her mind was a maelstrom of worrying thoughts for her pink friend and what happened to her. It was enough to make her dizzy and need to sit down before she passed out.