Author's Notes:

Okay so this is how I originally wrote the scene where Twilight absorbs the magic blocking ring. I didn't plan it, the idea just came to me and I love it too much to just throw it away. I decided it was a bit too silly for this rather grimdark story so I'm putting it here instead as a nod to one of my favorite pony parody vids on YouTube.

Enjoy!

"Um, Twilight," Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow, "why don't you just... you know... use those tendrils to break it off or something?"

Twilight blinked and looked at her horn.

Can I do that?

With no specific thought in mind other than removing the band, she tried pulling from that strange power source at her core and the tendrils responded. Rather than removing the metal band, the tendrils wrapped around her horn and receded back into her head, pulling her horn and the ring with them.

Twilight's eye widened in panic as she felt the innate connection to her wellspring of magic completely vanish.

"R-Rainbow," she whispered, "m-my horn... is - is it still there?"

"Uh... well..." Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck nervously, looking anywhere but at Twilight, "not... really? You kinda pulled it into your head... and also that weird ring too."

"Out."

Rainbow tilted her head in confusion, "What are you-"

"Get it out."

"Twi-"

"Get it out. Get it out! GETITOUTGETITOUTGETITOUTGET-"

Two things happened that neither Rainbow nor Twilight were prepared for. In the middle of her panic attack, Twilight began hacking loudly and after a few seconds, the horn ring shot out of her mouth and hit the wall near Rainbow Dash who yelped took off in to the air in surprise.

A split second after that, several large tendrils shot out of Twilight's forehead, coiling themselves into a massive black and red drill that began spinning rapidly as it fired in Rainbow Dash's direction. Instinct drove Rainbow to snap her wings shut and hit the ground, just as the drill drove itself deep into the wall above her.

"Sweet Celestia, Twilight!"

"Oh, ponyfeathers! I'm so sorry, Rainbow Dash!" Twilight cried, frantically trying to pull her now gargantuan horn drill out of the wall, "I can't" - she grunted - "I can't pull it free!"

"You need to calm down, Twi," Rainbow Dash instructed crawling out from under the giant drill, "the tendrils should do the rest."

"Alright," Twilight answered, taking a shaky breath, "alright... okay... I can do this."

She inhaled and exhaled deeply a few times and was relieved to see the drill shrink and pull itself out of the wall, tendrils uncoiling themselves as they receded and shaped themselves back into Twilight's familiar lavender horn.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief and gave Rainbow Dash a grateful - if awkward - smile.

"Thanks for that, Dash," she said, chuckling sheepishly, "I don't... really know what happened there."

"Ah, don't worry about it, Twi," Rainbow Dash responded, flapping her wings to get out the debris from the wall.

"Seriously though," Rainbow continued raising an eyebrow at Twilight, "a giant drill?"