As we made our way through the library to the basement, I quickly came to realize the place was significantly bigger than I had originally guessed. Twilight’s basement—or ‘laboratory’, as she referred to it—was huge, and had many interesting, complex-looking machines and technological contraptions scattered about. Along the back wall were several cabinets and shelves with flasks, beakers and other miscellaneous alchemical objects.

“This place is amazing!” I called out as I ran up to a random machine, eying the many buttons, knobs and doodads adorning it. “Is this all yours?” I looked back to Twilight expectantly.

“Let’s just say that being the Princess’s personal protege has its perks—lots of research funding and a large allowance being one of them,” she replied as she walked across the room to a small machine situated next to a chair. “Take a seat here, please,” she said as she gestured to the spot next to her.

I trotted over to her and sat down. Twilight then placed a very strange-looking helmet on my head; it was fairly large and looked as though it were made out of copper or brass. It had quite a few lights on it, as well as several large buttons and dials. She detached a small ring from the back of it with her magic and placed it around my horn. It felt really weird, and I found myself shifting uncomfortably as the metal scraped against it.

Twilight must have taken notice of my discomfort, judging by the sympathetic expression on her face. “Sorry if it’s a bit uncomfortable, but this ring is probably the most important part. It sends the readings of your magic back to the helmet and into the machine.”

I shook my head. “It’s alright, I’m just not used to having my horn touched. So it felt a little weird when you put it on there, that’s all...” I replied, looking up to the ring on my horn. “So, what does all of this do?”

“This device is a Uniwatt Calculator; it is used to calculate a unicorn’s uniwattage, or magical power, if you will,” she said, and she began adjusting various dials and knobs on my new headgear. “This will give us a good idea just how strong your magic is.”

I turned to look at her, but she promptly repositioned my head to face forward again.

“Hold still for a moment while I adjust these, please.”

“Sorry... I was just curious. But, um, this ‘uniwattage’ measurement... what exactly does that mean? What does it stand for? Other than how powerful somepony’s magic is...”

Twilight paused for a moment. “...Well, generally speaking, the higher a unicorn’s measurement is, the more advanced the spells they can potentially cast are. And it also tells us how easily they can cast less advanced spells, of course,” she said, before going back to tinkering with the device on my head.

I looked back up to my horn with a disappointed frown. “My magical ability is very limited; in fact, outside of the ones I use for my painting, I only know a few actual spells,” I said, gesturing to my horn. “All I can really do is levitate light objects, teleport, and do a few other, minor—”

“Wait... you can teleport?!” Twilight interjected, taken aback. “But that's an extremely advanced spell! Not to mention ridiculously rare to even get your hooves on!” 

I shrank down in my seat. “Well... I can, but then, at the same time, I really can’t,” I replied, looking back up to her with an uneasy look. “I can’t really pinpoint exactly where I’m going to end up, when I use it. I... had an accident when I was a filly. I teleported into the leg of a chair. The doctors said I was very lucky it missed my vital organs...”

Shifting my position, I gestured to a faint, yet large scar on my side and back.

“They had to saw it off before they could remove it...” I fell silent, nauseated by the mere memory of that horrific experience, and smiled grimly. ”It wasn’t pretty. Since then I have avoided using it except for the most dire situations, and even then I’m hesitant...” 

Twilight looked at me, perplexed. “But how did you learn it? How did you even GET it?!” she asked, great confusion and concern evident in her voice.

“I found it—well, okay, I stole it from the Manehattan Library when I was a filly.” I smiled sheepishly and tapped my forehooves together.

Twilight shot me a large frown. “While I commend you for your interest in magic at such an early age, I can’t really condone stealing—especially not from a library. I mean, I am a librarian after all,” she said matter-of-factly. The she gave me an inquiring look. “Where is the scroll now?”

I quickly shook my head. “Oh, don’t worry, I secretly returned it.”

Twilight let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. Teleportation scrolls are extremely rare, and very valuable.” Twilight paused for a moment, staring off into nowhere before looking back down to me. “They are also generally very well guarded... How exactly did you get ahold of one, anyway?” she asked quizzically.

“It was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time,” I said with a small shrug. “I was browsing a collection of spell scrolls just outside the library’s security vault after school one day, daydreaming about what it would be like to be able to use magic, when somepony wheeling a cart of scrolls and being escorted by four royal guards approached. As she opened the vault to go inside, her cart bumped the edge of the door and several scrolls fell off. One just so happened to roll right up to me and bump into my hoof. They didn’t seem to notice, because they were too busy scrambling to pick up the ones nearby. So I just brushed the scroll behind me while they picked up the rest. Once they were all inside, I picked it up and ran home.”

Twilight stared at me, wide-eyed and slack-jawed for several long moments, before suddenly bursting into hysterical laughter.

I shrank down into my seat again. “Um, what’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing! Nothing’s wrong at all! It’s not like, despite being the princess’s personal student, I still had to wait sixteen months, fill out hours’ worth of paperwork, and pay a ridiculous security deposit just to get my hooves on one!” She leaned in close to me with a flustered look and a twisted smile. “While somepony else just had one magically fall into their hooves!”

I shrank further into my seat with a small whimper. “I-I... I’m sorry...”

Twilight blinked a few times, then pulled away and recomposed herself. “I’m sorry, it’s just... It was very difficult for me to obtain a scroll when I wanted to study one—to the extent that I despaired of ever being granted the privilege—but that’s no reason for me to blame you for your amazing stroke of luck,” she said apologetically, before bringing a hoof to her chin. “Okay, so now that you had the spell, how did you learn to cast it? Very few unicorns have the magical aptitude to cast such an advanced spell.”

“I, um, taught myself. The idea of being able to teleport was beyond awesome, so, every night, I secretly practiced... and practiced... and practiced. I think it was around... four? Maybe five months later? I finally managed to move myself, though it was only by a few hooves distance. But now that I had managed to successfully cast the spell once, I pushed myself harder and practiced even more.” I slowly looked away, and my ears fell back. “Shortly after that was when I had my... accident. Mother made me promise never to use that spell again. Though I actually did still use it, albeit only on a small hoof-full of occasions... only when I had no other choice.”

“I’m... shocked!” Twilight commented, visibly taken aback. “To teach yourself such an advanced spell... Sure, it may have taken you several months longer than it would have with proper guidance, but you still learned it and were able to cast it... as a filly no less!” She turned to the helmet she had placed on me, seeming lost in thought.

“Now I’m really curious about your magic’s uniwattage,” she finally said, levitating a small hoofstool from across the room and setting it down in front of me. “So let’s give this a try and find out!” Twilight flicked a switch on the machine that was sitting on the floor, then levitated a small quill from a nearby desk over to the stool.

I eyed the quill for a moment, before looking back to her. “So, what exactly do you want me to do? And, um... will this hurt?” I asked reluctantly, dubiously eyeing the machine on the floor.

Twilight let out a small laugh, dismissing my concerns with a wave of her hoof.

“No, of course not!” Twilight reassured me. ”All this machine does is measure the flow of magic from your horn; you won’t feel a thing.” She gestured to the quill. “All I need you to do is levitate that quill and hold it afloat for me while I chart down the numbers the calculator gives me.”

I nodded to her, then resolutely looked back to the quill. “Okay. Well, here goes...”

Focusing my magic, it wasn’t long before I managed to lift the small, feathered quill. Immediately the helmet on my head came alive with flashing lights, beeps, and other strange noises. A few seconds later, the machine on the floor started making a humming noise as well.

Twilight turned to me with a reassuring smile. “See, that wasn’t so bad, now was it? Now just hold that while I write down these...” Twilight’s expression fell as she cocked her neck back, giving the device a puzzled look. “That can’t be right...” She reached over and tapped a hoof on one of the meters of the device a few times.

My ears fell back as I looked over to her. “Is, um... something wrong?” I asked quizzically.

Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof. “It says your uniwattage is only 26.”

“Is that, um... bad?” I asked sheepishly.

She shook her head in response. “No, it isn’t a matter of good or bad, just whether the number is high or low,” she said, turning back to me with a concerned look, “and yours is extremely low.”

I looked away slowly, frowning slightly. “Oh...” I said in mild disappointment, before looking back to her. “So, what’s normal then? And what's yours?”

“Well, the average unicorn, levitating a trivial object, idles at approximately 180-240 uniwatts,” she replied with a nervous smile.

“And what about you?” I asked, looking at her expectantly.

Twilight laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of her neck with a forehoof. “I idle at, oh... 640 to 680, maybe?” She said hesitantly, trailing off into a nervous laugh.

My eyes went wide, forcing me to blink a few times afterwards.

“Wow, that’s really high, isn’t it?” I asked as I looked to her horn in awe.

“Well, I have been studying magic almost my whole life, and my special talent is magic...” she replied with a small blush. “I really don’t mean to brag...”

I shook my head dismissively. “No, I didn’t think you were bragging, Twilight. You’re right: you are the element of magic, so I would assume your magic would be quite powerful.” 

Twilight paused for a moment, glancing between me and the calculator on the floor a few times. “That gives me an idea!” she exclaimed, and trotted over to a large cabinet in the back corner of the room before looking back to me. “What’s the heaviest object you can lift? About how many pounds, would you estimate?”

“Well, um, it varies, really. My magic isn’t very reliable,” I replied, reflecting on my memories. “I think the heaviest object I ever lifted was around... sixty? Maybe seventy pounds? I’ve tried heavier things, yes... but those attempts would either fail miserably, or turn out very badly for the object in question, if I ended up trying too hard.”

Twilight nodded before, with a loud groan, she levitated a massive-looking metal object from the bottom of the cabinet. She slowly walked over to me and placed the large weight on the floor in front of me with an audible thud.

“I’m... going to venture to guess... you probably can’t lift this thing,” she commented exhaustedly, wiping some sweat from her forehead. “It’s a five hundred pound weight.”

I looked at Twilight as if she were crazy. “Are you joking?” I laughed, looking down to the weight. “Of course not! Tartarus would freeze over the day I managed to move that.” I punctuated my statement by kicking the weight with a rear hoof. The impact resulting with a loud thud sound.

Twilight covered a small laugh. “Alright, because something isn’t right,” she replied, levitating her clipboard over to herself. “If you really idle at 26 uniwatts, it should be theoretically impossible for you to even come close to casting a teleportation spell—or anything else really—yet I trust that you aren’t lying to me. So, I suspect there’s some underlying factor here that we aren’t seeing at the moment.”

She gestured to the weight. “I want you to try to lift that with all your might, while I record the numbers the calculator gives,” she instructed, turning to me expectantly.

“I’m, um... not sure if that’s a good idea, Twilight,” I replied hesitantly, shifting uncomfortably in my seat. “Besides, I don’t think it’s safe; you do remember what happened during Winter Wrap Up, right?”

Twilight nodded slowly a few times. “Yes, I do. Don’t worry, I promise I won’t let anything bad happen to you,” she declared with a reassuring smile. “And if anything bad did happen, I can easily teleport us from here to the hospital in just a few seconds’ time!”

I turned to her with a look of reluctance. “I’ve never tried to levitate something I couldn’t hope to lift for very long,” I said nervously to Twilight, before turning back to the weight. “Things tend to just burst into flames if I try too hard, and then, obviously, I would immediately stop. I’ve certainly never considered trying to push past that point before...”

“Oh please, it’s a giant chunk of magically tempered metal, Prism!” she said with a laugh, tapping it a few times with a forehoof. “I’m pretty sure you don’t have to worry about it catching fire.” 

I brought a hoof to my chin, brooding over it for a few moments. “Well... okay, I’ll do it, but if something bad does happen to me, I’m telling Fluttershy it was your fault...” I replied with a small laugh of my own.

“I’ll be sure to stop you if I think things are getting too dangerous, then,” she said with a wink before reaching down and switching on the machine again. “Okay, now remember: don’t hold back. Go ahead whenever you’re ready.”

I reluctantly turned back to the large metal weight on the floor in front of me. In any other situation, I would’ve deemed what I was about to do beyond crazy. I mean, intentionally trying to destroy something? Why would I ever do something like that?

A long sigh escaped me as I tried to relax. After a few moments, I focused my magic to my horn, and then aimed it at the weight. As was to be expected, my first attempt to budge the massive objects failed.

Well... here goes nothing.

I clenched my jaw hard while I focused intently on the metal object, summoning up every ounce of willpower I could muster. Thoughts began to race through my mind, habitually cautioning me to stop, telling me that something was going to catch fire or be destroyed... I pushed those thoughts aside and closed my eyes, focusing harder.

Moments later, Twilight began to rattle off numbers. I could hear the disbelief in her voice. “600... 800... 1200... Luna’s moon... 2300!” At this point her voice lost any trace of confusion or concern, all of it being replaced by sheer excitement. “3700! Prism, this is amazing!”

After a few more seconds, I felt a sudden, sharp, pin-prick-like sensation running through my head, as if a tiny needle had passed through it, and I winced. I let out a sharp whine as I fell forward out of my seat and landed to my rear knees and forehooves. The pain was becoming unbearable... I couldn’t take it anymore; I had to stop, or risk something happening to me again. I quickly released my magical hold on the weight and began to gasp for air, having held my breath without even realizing it. I suddenly began to cough, albeit not from the stress of using my magic but due to something else entirely.

...Smoke.

My ears perked up and my eyes shot open as I came to an obvious conclusion: Where there’s smoke, there’s... I looked over to the metal weight to find that it had been disfigured into a red-hot lump of near-molten metal. Worst of all, the floor around it had begun to catch fire.

“FIRE!” I called out in a panic. I threw the testing helmet off my head and scooted away from the growing flames before turning to my unicorn friend. “TWILIGHT!” I called to her, but she didn’t seem to respond. She stood frozen, fixated on the machine.

“Prism? What’s—WHOA!” a familiar voice called out from the staircase.

Without a moments hesitation, Spike disappeared back up the stairs. Within seconds, he returned with a large, red fire extinguisher. Jumping down the last few steps of the staircase, he performed a small tumble and immediately began to hose down the blaze that surrounded the heated chunk of metal. Once he had the flames under control, he turned the nozzle on the cause of the fire itself. Loud hissing and cracking sounds echoed through the room as he persisted in trying to cool the glowing metal. Several long seconds later he stopped, took a few steps back, and examined the mess.

“What the heck happened?!” he yelled, throwing out his arms and turning to Twilight.

She still seemed catatonic, however, failing to even acknowledge Spike’s presence and staring, unbroken, at the instruments before her.

“Twilight, what are you doing?!” He quickly darted over to the mare, and poked her in the side several times with the nozzle of the fire extinguisher. He furrowed his brow when this still didn’t produce a reaction, and finally took a deep breath. “SNAP OUT OF IT!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, right into her ear.

This, at last, prompted an impressive jump and a loud scream from the transfixed unicorn. She landed on her haunches with a thud, and turned to Spike with a bewildered, clueless expression.

“Huh, what?” she replied hazily as she scratched the back of her neck. 

Spike gave her a flat look, before pointing a claw to the disaster area in the center of the room.

“Were you trying to burn down the library?” he asked with a look of disapproval. “What happened down here?”

Twilight turned to where Spike was pointing and let out another little scream of surprise. She jumped to her hooves and trotted over to the charred, foam-covered mess, examining it closely. Several seconds later, she looked at me with a perplexed expression but still said nothing.

My ears fell back, and I nervously tapped my forehooves together. “I’m sorry...” I stammered. ”Had I know that this would happen, I never would have—”

“This is incredible!” Twilight exclaimed suddenly, ignoring my heartfelt apology and trotting up to me. “Do you have any idea what this means?!” she said with a large grin.

I nervously looked from side to side, and then to the mutilated floor. “I, um... owe you a new floor?” I replied hesitantly.

Twilight quickly shook her head, before grabbing my hoof in her own and dragging me across the room to the calculator lying on the floor. She closely pointed a hoof to a meter on the device.

“Look!” she exclaimed with great excitement.

After staring at her for a moment longer, I leaned in close to the device and examined the instrument in question. The tiny numbers of the scale beneath it ranged from zero, on the far left, all the way up to ten thousand on the right. Then I noticed the meter’s needle: it seemed to be stuck, frozen in place just past the ten thousand mark. I scratched my head with a hoof before looking back to Twilight.

“You broke it!” she said enthusiastically. “The calculator couldn’t even measure your wattage!”

I shrank down and took a few steps back. “I’m so sorry! I can replace it if—”

“Never mind that!” she quickly interjected, before gesturing back down to the calculator. “Prism! If we could harness this kind of power, and somehow focus it, the possibilities are nearly endless!” She trotted up to me and learned in close to my face. “Theoretical spells, once deemed impossible, could now be possible!” she gushed, leaning in even closer to me. “Long-distance teleportation, mass teleportation, long-distance time travel, indefinite shapeshifting, permanent material transmuta—”

I took a step back and gently covered her muzzle with a hoof, hushing her. “Twilight, calm down,” I replied with a look of concern. “Look, I understand you’re very excited about all of those things, but...” I took my hoof from her muzzle and began nervously pawing at the floor with it, staring at my own fidgeting with downcast eyes. “I just want to understand my magic, and be able to use it like a normal unicorn, for everyday things...” I looked back up to her weakly, trying to make her understand. “I want to control it, not ‘harness’ or ‘focus’ it...”

Twilight just stared at me with her mouth hung open.

My ears fell back, and I turned away. “I’m sorry to disappoint you...”

Twilight shook herself, breaking her trance. “No, I’m sorry,” she said earnestly, ”I, uh, got a little carried away, and failed to take into account your own goals and wishes...” She levitated her clipboard up to eye-level and glanced over it. “I’ve just never seen numbers like this before...”

She looked to the now-deformed lump that was once the neat, rectangular metal weight, and trotted up to it.

“Wow... You really did a number on this thing,” she said whilst tapping it with a forehoof. “I didn’t think it was magically possible to destroy this thing... I mean, sure, I could temporarily shapeshift it into something else, maybe, but to produce enough energy and heat to physically alter it... Incredible.”

Twilight paused, looking deep in thought for a several long moments before turning to me. “Your magic works... in an interesting way,” she said flatly. “It raises slowly to a certain point, and then, beyond that, it just surges wildly; completely out of control, rising in uniwattage at a ridiculous rate...”

She began pacing back and forth across the room. I absentmindedly followed her erratic movements with my eyes, until it started to make me feel a bit dizzy and I had to stop.

“To control it,” Twilight mused, ”we need to somehow prevent that dramatic surge, or at the very least smooth it out somehow...”

“I wouldn’t have a clue how to do that,” I said sadly. “I don’t even know why it happens to begin with...”

Twilight abruptly stopped and turned to me, which startled me a little.

“Well, let’s figure this out. I think I understand, more or less, how your magic currently functions...” She took a moment to collect her thoughts, and then pointed to my chest. “Imagine yourself as a big, pressurized water tank. When you try to use a simple spell,” she explained, gesturing to the feathered quill from before, ”it’s like opening the valve to the tank a tiny crack, just enough to let some of the water escape. However...” She pointed her forehoof to the heap of cooling metal now. “When you attempt to lift a really heavy object, or try to cast a more advanced spell like teleportation, it’s like you’re struggling to open the valve enough to meet the demands—only to have it suddenly open all the way, with all of the water shooting out as fast as it possibly can.”

“Wow...” I murmured, staring blankly at the ruined weight. It hadn’t been reduced to its current state by jets of water, of course—quite the opposite, in fact—but I understood the analogy she was making.

Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof for a moment before continuing. “Looking at it that way: yes, technically, your magic is really powerful, but it is also extremely limited. It’s just so condensed and bottled up that when you try to really use it, you end up expending all of that energy at an alarming rate. As opposed to, say, your average unicorn, whose magic flows freely and can be slowly tapped into, without ever using more than is needed.”

“That makes perfect sense,” I commented, gesturing a hoof to the feather quill. “It would explain why I can easily levitate small objects, yet have to strain myself to use my magic for anything more than that, and why it can be so painful and taxing for me when I do. It’s because I’m using all of my reserves at once, right?”

Twilight nodded. “That’s exactly what's happening.”

I considered this for a moment, furrowing my brow, but then it hit me, and my expression swiftly changed into one of surprise. “Wait... You concluded all of that... just from this?” I said, indicating the smoldering remains of the metal weight with a nod of my head. “You really are amazing, Twilight...”

The other unicorn faintly blushed, scratching the back of her neck with a hoof. “Well, to be fair, I was watching the meter pretty closely. So when the surge began, I saw it all happen, and monitored its progress,” she said humbly, and quickly recomposed herself. “Anyway, there’s still some more testing to be done! I have a pretty good idea how to go about these further experiments, now that we have the central issue pinpointed...”

* * * * * * * * * *

The next several hours were spent doing all kinds of strange and interesting tests. Even though Twilight explained them all to me, some of them still didn’t really make much sense, since she tended to use a lot magic terminology I had never heard before. I trusted that she knew what she was doing though, so I just went along with everything, even the parts I didn’t understand.

Eventually, her experiments landed us in the uppermost section of the library; the observatory, as she called it. Unlike the laboratory far below, this room was very large and open, easily taking up the majority of the upper half of the building. The decor was also very different. Namely, there was paper everywhere—and I mean everywhere! Documents, notes, maps, graphs, and star charts could be found littering literally every corner. Most of the graphs and charts were positioned on fold-up stands, but the bulk of this vast archive was either resting in stacks, or simply scattered around, that most spacious of storage locations: the floor.

Lastly, the most notable features of the room—ignoring, for a moment, the fact that its paper content could probably run the Manehattan Times for a week— were a number of bookcases along the walls, as well as three large, very-complex-looking telescopes, the most prominent of which was located on a ledge with a small stairwell leading up to it.

Once I had managed to shake the shock of the room’s appearance from my system, Twilight had us do a few quick tests up here, as well. After we had finished, she finally seemed satisfied with the wealth of information she had gathered so far.

“Perfect!” Twilight exclaimed, as she put down her clipboard on a nearby stack of papers. “That should be enough raw data for now... I’ll go over it all later, and see if I can figure out a way to manage your magic’s sudden surging.”

“I really cannot thank you enough, Twilight,” I said, flashing her a grateful smile. “Going through all this trouble for me...”

She turned back to me and shook her head, even though she was grinning. “Don’t mention it, Prism, really... I mean, I’m getting all this fascinating data out of it, and I’m not even entirely sure yet if I can prevent any further, um, incidents...” Her grin faded, only to be replaced by a look of concern. “Speaking of which, I was thinking about what happened at Rarity’s place earlier... I wanted to address this last, because of a theory I had after we measured your uniwattage...”

My ears perked up and I looked to her with alarm. “About what? Is it bad?” I asked softly.

Twilight shook her head dismissively. “No, nothing like that, I just wanted to make sure it would be safe first,” she reassured me, before summoning a large tome from a far-away bookcase over to herself and opening it. “Remember what I said about healing magic?”

“That it can be very dangerous, or even fatal, if it isn’t performed correctly?”

Twilight nodded. “Right, which is why I wanted to gather more information before I tried any healing magic on you,” she replied, while reading over a page in the open book. “But first I would like to do a quick, exploratory investigation of your body’s leylines...” She closed the book in her magic and laid it down on the desk across the room.

I watched the tome’s descent, before turning back to Twilight and tilting my head, looking at her, puzzled.

“...Exploratory investigation?” I asked hesitantly. “Will it, um... hurt?”

Twilight offered me a nervous smile. “I, uh... I’d like to say ‘no’, but given what you told me about the incident at Rarity’s, I can’t be entirely sure whether it will or not,” she replied with a hint of concern. “Anyways, there’s not much to it, really. Just sit down, and I’ll touch my horn to yours and follow the primary leyline of magic to see what I can find.”

I looked at her with an expression of reluctance for a moment, before nodding slowly. “Um, okay...”

Twilight walked right up to me and slowly leaned in, resting the tip of her horn on mine before closing her eyes. The sensation of her horn pressed up against mine was really weird... Before today I’ve only ever had my horn touched on a small hoof-full of occasions. But before I could give it any more thought, Twilight's horn lit up with a soft, purple glow, and a slight tingling sensation began to slowly work its way down my horn. It felt somewhat similar to having a nerve pinched, only it didn’t hurt; it just felt strange.

My eyes fell from Twilight’s horn down to her face after a few moments. She was just mere inches away from me...

You know, now that I get a good look at her... Twilight is really pretty, in that bookish sort of way, isn’t she?

I felt myself beginning to blush slightly, and quickly pushed the thought out of my head.

“Wow...” Twilight suddenly whispered, slowly and under her breath.

“S-Something wrong?” I asked her quizzically, with a hint of concern in my voice.

“I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s so...beautiful,” she mused, pausing for a moment to explain. “You see, a pony’s ley lines are where their magic flows through them. For unicorns, this magic manifests in shades of the same color they project it in. So mine would appear purple, and yours... well...”

“Is prismatic?”

Twilight hummed in agreeance. “The further I go, the more colorful it gets... This is truly amazing, Prism.” She fell silent for several moments before continuing. “I can see many of your other leylines as well, branching off from this one, but they all look almost... dead,” she said hesitantly, sounding almost disturbed. “That leaves only one to follow: the one that originates directly from your horn.”

A few more moments of silence went by, but then Twilight suddenly let out a sharp gasp.

“What’s wrong!?” I asked her with great concern.

“I-I... I don’t know!” she stammered, seeming utterly perturbed. “I don’t even know how to describe what I am looking at right now...” Her brow furrowed, and she looked like she was deep in thought.

“Twilight?” I prompted, getting a little anxious.

“It’s...an anomaly of... light,” she finally answered, “Pure, bright, white light, surrounded by streams of flowing colors...” Twilight fell silent once more before continuing. “...Could this be where your magic is condensing?” It sounded like she was thinking aloud to herself. “I’m going to try to—”

I felt a sudden sting of pain flare up in my chest for a split second, right as Twilight cut off into a loud, obvious cry of pain. She pulled herself away from me and fell to the floor, covering her forehead with both hooves and wincing audibly.

“Twilight!” I called out, getting up and crawling over to her. “Are you okay? What happened?!” I reached out a hoof towards her as she slowly sat back up, still pressing a hoof to her forehead.

“Yes... I’m fine,” she groaned softly, as she began rubbing her head. “Well, what I was going to try was to get a closer look at that anomaly, and possibly find out what’s causing your magic to condense like that. But the moment I cast a new spell intended to analyze it... Well, it was almost like it attacked me.”

She got to her hooves and visibly shook herself. “A massive surge of your magic took hold of my own magic’s stream and instantly followed it up and out, into me.” She looked up to her horn and rubbed it with a small smile. “And it hurt!”

“I, um, felt a sudden, sharp pain in my chest, too, right as you got hurt,” I added matter-of-factly.

Twilight hummed as she stared off into nowhere for a moment or two. “Taking an educated guess as to what happened, I would have say it was probably one of three things,” she said as she began to pace back and forth. “It either: absorbed my magic, whilst simultaneously trying to follow it to its source; repelled my magic, sending it back to where it came from; which was obviously me, or it actually conjoined with my magic and amplified the spell, sending an overload of feedback...” Twilight abruptly stopped in place. “Prism, was Rarity hurt in any way, when she was trying to treat your cut?” she asked quizzically.

I slowly shook my head. “Actually, no. She didn’t even realize what was happening until Fluttershy yelled for her to stop,” I said, slowly getting to my hooves.

Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof. “Hmm, but... was Rarity physically touching you when she cast that spell?” she asked, looking at me expectantly.

I thought about it, but finally shook my head once more. “No, she was standing several hooves away—at least two meters, if I had to guess.”

Twilight closed her eyes and nodded. “Well, I know how we can rule out the first two hypotheses,” she said, and took a deep breath. “SPIKE!” she bellowed, calling out for the baby dragon.

After several long seconds with no reply, she frowned. “Hmm, he must be asleep,” she mused, before trotting up to the door leading to the stairwell. “Sorry, I need to go get something. I’ll be right back.”

“Alright,” I called back to her, before taking another good look around the room.

This place really is amazing. Twilight is amazing... I really don’t think she gives herself enough credit.

I trotted up the small stairwell to the largest telescope by the window, and casually examined the area around it. A small journal of notes was laying next to the massive instrument, on the window sill. I reached down and flipped open the book to a random page, which contained all kinds of technical drawings and makeshift graphs, as well as quite a number of scientific terms I had never even heard of before.

She really is a genius, isn’t she?

I closed the book and trotted back down into the center of the room to wait for Twilight to return. But the longer I waited, the more I found my mind drifting to all the things the day after this one had in store for me.

That trip to the spa with the girls is tomorrow... I wonder what that will be like? Rarity talks so highly of the place, and all of the comfort and relaxation it brings her... So, a relaxing spa visit with my two best friends?

I smiled to myself at that fact, and I began pacing in circles, still deep in thought.

Yes, I like the sound of that. And best of all, I’ll get to spend some more time with Fluttershy! I’ll admit, I’m a little disappointed I didn’t really get a chance to talk to her today...

A large smile crept across my face as my thoughts shifted to my dinner date, later in the day.

And then there's dinner with Big Macintosh, tomorrow night, too! Oh, I’m so excited! I never would have imagined I’d meet such an amazing stallion... If things go well, maybe he could even become my very special somepony!

I couldn’t help myself: I stopped in place and let out a very fillyish squeal of excitement as my mind lingered on that prospect for a few moments; it was just so perfect!

“Sorry that took so long. I couldn’t find one!” Twilight suddenly called out to me, entering through the doorway and sauntering into the room.

I snapped out of my daze and turned back to her. “Oh, it’s fine, don’t worry. I was just thinking,” I assured her as I trotted up to her. “So... what did you have to find, exactly, and what did you have in mind?” I asked, looking up to the object she was levitating.

Twilight cleared her throat. “Well... the only way to be sure that your magic indeed amplifies the spell and doesn’t just absorb or repel the magic, is to recreate the scenario with physical contact.”

My eyes widened when I realized what she was levitating.

A scalpel...

“W-What do you mean?” I stammered, slowly taking a step back.

Twilight returned with a nervous smile. “To recreate the scenario... we would need to try a healing spell on an actual cut, so...” she trailed off and lowered the scalpel, keeping it close to herself, “We need to make a small incision and then attempt to heal it, while my horn is touching you.”

I slowly started backing away. “S-Surely there is another way... r-right?” I stumbled on my words as I shrank down to the floor.

Twilight let out a soft sigh, followed by a sympathetic look. “Look, I know it’s a lot to ask of you, and that it sounds kind of scary, but trust me, this is the easiest and fastest way to be sure,“ she reassured me while slowly walking up to me. “I promise it will just be a small cut. Judging from the tests we’ve performed so far, your magic shouldn’t react to it much.”

I looked to the floor, lost in thought for several long seconds. I wasn’t good with blood or cuts, even though I knew it wouldn’t be serious, of course. And despite my hesitation, I was confident that if there was anypony who could help me come to a better understanding of how to use my magic, it was Twilight Sparkle; I believed she knew what she was doing.

“...Okay,” I replied weakly, looking up to her, “I’ll do it... but, um, please, just try to be fast?”

Twilight gave me a warm smile. “Thank you for trusting me,” she said, before gesturing to my right foreleg. “The least dangerous and most painless location for a cut of this nature would be on your forelegs, I think.” She levitated the scalpel closer to me. “Now, hold out your leg, and I’ll try to make this as quick as possible,” she instructed as she walked right up to me.

Slowly, reluctantly, I extended my right foreleg for her. She examined it for a brief moment, before quickly sliding the blade of the scalpel across my coat, nicking the tender underlying skin. I felt a sharp pain, although it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I looked to my foreleg to see a small cut, slowly bleeding red crimson from within.

Twilight quickly leaned in again, without hesitation, and pressed her horn up against my foreleg just above the incision. It soon began to glow. “Here we go,” she said with moderate enthusiasm, and her horn’s glow was quickly amplified.

As her horn lit up, I felt a familiar tingling sensation in my foreleg that I had also experienced during Rarity’s spell, and, sure enough, the same sharp sensation in my chest. The pain shot through my body like jolts of electricity, along a very focused path across my chest, up my foreleg, and straight to Twilight’s spell’s focal point. I let out yelp and winced when the skin around area of focus was covered by a stinging, throbbing sensation.

“There it is!” I hissed through clenched teeth. Twilight appeared to be unaffected, focusing intently on her magic. After a second or two I had to pull away my foreleg from her.

“Stop!” I yelled out to her through another whine of pain.

Twilight immediately broke off her spell, took a step back, and examined the patch of skin. Her eyes slowly widened, and her jaw went slack with horror. “Oh no, I’m so sorry!” she cried, before turning away in panic, desperately searching the room for something.

I looked down to the cut on my foreleg and was caught completely off-guard by what I saw. The small cut was now a gaping wound, and bleeding profusely. Large streams of red gushed down my clean, white coat, like a bucket of red paint spilled onto a fresh canvas.

It’s just like last time... it’’s bleeding far worse than it should...

I waited, watching passively as the blood reached the tip of my hoof and began dripping onto the floor. After a few more moments, it came.

“Twilight, wait!” I called out to the panicked mare, as I felt the equally familiar sensation of my magic building up around the wound. “I can feel it... It’s just like before...”

Twilight whipped around to face me and covered her muzzle with a forehoof when she looked down to my leg, looking absolutely mortified. “I’m so sorry!” she said again, ”We have to get you to—”

“No, look!” I pointed to the cut with my other hoof.

I felt the anticipated soothing sensation take effect. The blood on my foreleg quickly began to disappear; it looked almost as if it was being sucked back into my body. In the end all that was left was the gash itself, which also slowly began to close, leaving behind only an unblemished patch of pristine white.

“It’s just like before,” I said as I brought my foreleg to my face and looked it over. “This is exactly what happened with Rarity, Twilight.”

Several seconds went by without any response.

“...Twilight?” I repeated, looking over to the mare.

She stood there, slack-jawed, staring at my foreleg for a few moments longer before walking over to me and taking it into her hooves to examine the location she had originally cut.

“When I first met you, that night, had you told me these were the sort of findings I would come across when studying your magic, I would have probably laughed in your face...” she said, looking up to me slowly. “I knew your magic was foreign, unknown and uncharted, yes. But this... this is absolutely perplexing. Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I would have never believed it.”

I tilted my head, looking at her confused.

Twilight let out a short, sheepish laugh. “Erm, allow me to explain what happened, exactly, or at least what I saw,” Twilight stated, taking a step back and clearing her throat.

“We were right—about the amplification, that is—but first, let me explain a little more about healing magic.” Twilight walked away for a moment before beginning to pace. “You see, healing magic works by using the magic of both the ponies involved, actually. The caster of the spell interacts with the passive magic in the host’s body, encouraging it to begin the natural healing process, only at a very rapid pace. This is because it is aided by additional magical energy supplied by the caster.”

Twilight turned to me momentarily, and gestured a hoof to my foreleg.

“This is yet another reason why this type of magic can be so dangerous: should something go wrong, severe tissue damage or hemorrhaging can take place,” she pointed out, before returning to her pacing about the room. “At first, that’s what I thought had happened; that I had made a mistake and caused the spell to further injure you. Fatally, by the looks of it...”

Twilight levitated the same book she had been reading earlier toward her again, and swiftly flipped through its pages.

“But when the actual healing took place, I recognized the effects it had on your body. The spell was working correctly, but it was behaving as though it were a significantly more advanced healing spell than I had actually cast,” she informed me as she continued perusing the pages of her book. “As far as the intense bleeding goes: the spell is supposed to promote blood flow to the wound, to be used in the healing process. All that blood is used to create new tissue, to be exact.”

Twilight covered her muzzle with a forehoof, and looked to me with a concerned expression.

“It was only supposed to draw out a small amount, but since your magic surges so powerfully, it ended up forcing excess amounts of blood to the wound, which, as I’m sure you noticed, made the wound a lot worse and caused it to bleed profusely.” Twilight turned another page, pausing for several seconds before continuing. “The noticeable delay before the actual healing took place was due to the fact that the spell had to transmute all of that extra blood into tissue. This is also why the blood on the exterior of the wound, and even further down your leg, vanished: it was fusing with your skin and being used to close the wound.” Twilight looked to the floor around my hooves and grimaced; there was still a large pool of blood remaining.

“Though unfortunately, the blood that was no longer in contact with your body was not affected, since it had no tissue to fuse with,” she said flatly.

I looked down to the floor with an embarrassed, nervous, and slightly queasy smile. “Maybe I should, uh... clean this up?”

Twilight stifled a small giggle. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll get it later. I don’t have anything up here to properly clean it with, at the moment.” Twilight gestured for me to come over to her.

I nodded, carefully avoiding the pool of scarlet liquid. “Still, I’m sorry about the mess,” I added sheepishly.

“Sometimes science can get a little messy,” she said enthusiastically and with a quick wink. “What we have learned today is more than worth having to clean up a bit of a mess.”

Twilight magically retrieved her clipboard and quill from the stack of papers she had rested them on earlier, and began to furiously scribble notes.

“I have a fairly good idea, now, not only of how powerful your magic is, but also why it functions in such a bizarre way.” Twilight looked up to me with a warm smile. “Thank you, Prism. You helped me venture into unknown regions of magic and science tonight. I will need to document all of this data. As far as I know, we know more about albino ponies’ magic than anypony else in the world right now!”

Twilight’s smile got even wider, although she hesitated for a few seconds before she asked: “...Um, sometime in the future, would you mind maybe assisting me with a presentation? I would really like to present these finding to the University of Applied Sciences and Magical Theory in Canterlot eventually—with your permission, of course.”

I covered a laugh before nodding. “I would actually very much like that,” I replied, looking down to the floor with a faint smile. “Someday, there might be another unicorn like me... If this information can spare them even half of the frustration, hardship and soul-searching I’ve had to endure, when I was trying to understand myself and my magic as a filly, then, for their sake, I’m willing to give it every ounce of effort I can muster.”

“That’s very noble of you,” Twilight said with an appreciative nod. She returned the papers she was still holding up in her magic to her desk.

“No, it’s not about being noble or anything like that,” I replied, shaking my head dismissively. “I don’t mean to sound dramatic, but...” I scratched the back of my neck with a forehoof. ”I’ve been through a lot because of my magic. I just don’t want anypony else to have to deal with that, growing up. I mean, you remember what I was like before I met you and the rest of the girls...”

Twilight simply nodded.

“Even now I still have a lot to—” I was promptly cut off by a low rumble from the pit of my stomach. There was a long moment of awkward silence, and then I shrank down, sheepishly blushing and letting out a small squee. “I, um... haven’t eaten anything since lunch,” I said with an embarrassed laugh. “Using all that magic probably didn’t help either.”

Twilight followed with a laugh of her own. “It has gotten pretty late, hasn’t it?” she said, glancing at a clock on a far wall. “Wow... um, yeah. Now that I think about it, I haven’t eaten anything either.”

I looked to the clock Twilight had turned to; it was almost ten in the evening.

Twilight trotted past me and gestured for me to follow. “Let’s go find something to eat,” she said, before disappearing out of the room.

I quickly trotted after her.

* * * * * * * * * *

As we made our way down to the kitchen, Twilight informed me that Spike normally prepared her meals for her, so we would have to settle for something simple this time, since she didn’t really know how to cook. She listed a few options of dishes she could make, and we quickly agreed on some daisy-and-daffodil sandwiches.

Famished as we were, the two of us still managed to have something resembling a conversation in between bites, and eventually the subject turned to our favorite books, and the different types of novels out there. I quickly decided that now would be a good time to do some... research.

“So, um, Twilight... speaking of, uh, different genres... I was wondering if maybe...” I trailed off into indistinct whispering for a moment, fidgeting with my forehooves on the kitchen table. “...wondering if maybe you could, you know, recommend any good, uh, romance novels to me?”

Twilight gave me a confused look, quickly followed by a laugh. “You’re asking the wrong pony for romantic reading material, I’m afraid; I haven’t really read any of those types of books from here. In fact, I hardly even pay much attention to their titles during reshelving.” Twilight paused for a moment. “Though now that I think about it, there is this one series Rarity speaks highly of... Oh! And there’s a few books Fluttershy has been reading recently. Those are all probably good.”

Romance books that Rarity recommends? Well, I can’t go wrong there. And novels that Fluttershy has been reading? I wonder what kind of stories she likes?

I looked up to Twilight and nodded. “Alright, I’ll take a book of the series Rarity recommends and one of the books that Fluttershy has been reading.”

Twilight beamed me a large smile. “That’s great! I’m glad to hear you’re interested in reading,” she said with great enthusiasm, as she got up from her seat at the table and trotted over to the next room. “Should you be interested in other genres, I might have some wonderful recommendations, too,” she added before disappearing.

I quickly got up from my seat and followed her.

The two of us returned to the lobby of the library. Twilight trotted up to a specific section and closely examined the many rows of books. Eventually, she picked out a black one and held it out before me with her magic. Its cover featured a pair of hooves holding an apple.

I narrowed my eyes as I closely read the text on the cover out loud. “Dusk. The number 1 Manehattan Times best seller, by Stephonii Mare,” I said. My expression brightened. “Well, that sounds promising!”

Twilight shrugged. “Rarity seemed quite enamored with it, so it can’t be that bad.” She searched the shelves for a moment before procuring a second book, and levitated it over to me.

“Artisan’s Dream, by Jerri Mound,” I said, tilting my head.

“That’s the book Fluttershy has most recently returned. I have no idea what it’s about, but she was acting pretty strange when she was checking it out and bringing it back,” Twilight said with a small look of concern.

“Well, now I’m really curious, so I’ll, uh, take that one too, I guess,” I said with a small shrug.

Twilight nodded and trotted over to the reception desk in the corner of the room. She opened both books and punched a card on the inside of each, before looking back to me. “These will be due back in a week from today. Don’t forget!” she said as her aura snatched up the novels and placed them into a small paper bag. “There. This should make it easier for you to carry.”

I covered a small laugh. “Thank you, and don’t worry. I won’t forget.” I looked out a window and noticed it was getting pretty dark outside. “Speaking of today: it’s getting really late... I should probably head back home.”

“And I should get started on documenting all that data,” Twilight said matter-of-factly. “Thanks again, by the way.”

I beamed her a warm smile. “Oh no, thank you. I hope you learn more once you’ve had time to go over everything.”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, I’ll see what I can do about finding potential ways to help you with your magic, but it will take some time.”

“I would really appreciate it, Twilight,” I said earnestly, before turning and trotting over to the exit of the Library. I stopped at the door and looked over my shoulder. ”You really are a wonderful friend. The other girls are all very lucky to know somepony like you.”

Twilight let out a sheepish laugh, and there was a small hint of a blush on those purple cheeks. “Um, thanks,” she said softly, but she quickly composed herself again. “I’m lucky to know them—and now you, too.”

I beamed Twilight a gigantic smile at her words. Then I hastily trotted back to her desk and retrieved the bag of books I almost forgot. “Haff uh goo’nught, Twi’wight,” I called back to her in muffled speech as I trotted, once again, for the door.

Twilight let out a hearty laugh. “You too, Prism!”