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The squeal of brakes and hiss of steam rang through the air as our train came to a stop at the station in Canterlot. After dealing with the lingering anxiety of what the royal summit was really for amongst ourselves, we were finally here.

The public story was largely about the diarchy feeling a need to look over everything in search of new paths of prosperity. There was a touch of trepidation alongside relief of getting this over with after this week ended. In reality, the top ranking military leaders of Equestria and the Crystal Empire were meeting to learn about and prepare for what was to come.

Most of it was not directly or immediately involving the Bearers, Spike and myself but due to our own involvement later on, Twilight's own status as a princess of Equestria notwithstanding, we needed to be present. Nothing was likely to happen right away, as this whole summit was meant as a preemptive strategic planning event at it's core. A time to draw up some general plans and options. Get a firm grasp of forces, logistics, current and upcoming research that might be of note. I already knew a lot of it was going to be not unlike a board meeting of executives over paperwork with a militaristic bent.

As we made our way through the station, it wasn't long before a certain fashionista had to let out her excitement yet again. She'd spent more than half the train ride either giggling quietly as she looked out the window or making comments to one of us about it. I suspected she'd actually talked more than Pinkie during the trip.

"Oh, I simply cannot wait to tour the city today!" Rarity chimed, she was the most eager to be in the city by far, "I do hope Fancy Pants will be free for lunch like he was hoping. I simply adore the little cafe he intends us to meet at. The idea he suggested regarding a fashion show to drum up additional funds to update and rebuild the Trottingham hospital was simply marvelous! And he asked me for input!"

As Rarity squee'd to herself, the rest of us just chuckled or shook our heads with a smile. It'd been all she talked about for days since she got the letter from Fancy Pants. I'd not had a chance to meet him yet, but the more I heard from Rarity about him, biased as she was, the more I had the impression the wealthy noble was spending more than merely coincidental time around her. Being one of the ponies I was familiar with from prior knowledge, I hoped it eventually went somewhere for the two of them.

"Just remember Rarity, we need to get to the palace first to meet with the princesses. They're expecting us." Twilight poked Rarity in the shoulder with a hoof teasingly, "You can run off to chase your favorite stallion afterwards."

For her part, Rarity gasped with a dramatic, mortified look that barely contained her true excitement, "Oh heavens no, Twilight! A lady does not 'chase' a stallion. I merely wish to discuss some very important practical matters for the coming charity event. If for some reason he were to express interest in something more personal with me, I will approach it then..."

Twilight grinned slyly, waiting. It wouldn't take long.

A brief moment longer, Rarity couldn't hold it back and her glee bubbled out again, "Oh, I do hope he tries seeking some more specifically personal engagements. He is every bit the refined gentlecolt I could ever hope for."

"Heh, and we're all hopin' it works out for ya, Rares. Ah know all of us think he's a swell stallion for ya." Applejack nudged her unicorn friend as she walked ahead towards the carriage with her luggage and saddlebags on her back.

"Tell me Rarity," I began, catching her eye as she looked up at me as I adjusted Twilight's and my own bags slung over my shoulder and against my back, Twilight had saddlebags full of books, "Did you ever try anything bold to get his attention as I suggested a while ago? You know I don't like to pry much and I was just wondering if it helped."

The beaming smile and look of satisfaction on her face went well with her words, "Oh I most certainly put your suggestion to good use! It took a bit of planning on my part, but during one of his visits to my boutique I essentially expressed to him in a very delicate and very refined manner that wouldn't appear too forward that I was quite interested in spending a lot more time together than we had been at the time. Oh that smile he gave me just made me melt so badly I nearly dragged him straight up to my bedroom to...." Rarity froze as a massive blush spread across her features, her mouth working silently as she tried to recover herself.

With a chuckle, I gave her shoulder a light poke with my magic, "My dear Lady of Generosity, we'll pretend we heard nothing."

The rest of the girls shared a few giggles as Rarity tossed her head lightly and wore a sheepish grin as she opted to hold her tongue, instead giving a weak laugh as her blush continued. We arrived at the carriage and began loading our luggage before climbing inside shortly after.

Once we were all settled and seated, it was Fluttershy that first spoke up as the carriage departed for the palace, sounding unusually eager, "Vojin, I want to thank you again. I really do appreciate you asking Princess Celestia if I could spend time in the Royal Gardens to visit the animals there. It means so much to me that you went out of your way to ask. I do hope the animals there won't run away this time."

I smiled and shook my head gently, "Seriously Fluttershy, you don't have to thank me so much. I just figured I'd ask since it's a simple matter really. I know the city isn't the most fun place for you. It's just fortunate Celestia was happy to oblige. Remember what I told you to try this time?"

"Oh yes. I'll try really, really hard to be extra quiet. I was so excited to meet them all before I completely forgot they might be scared. I got so carried away that I turned into such a scary meanie." Fluttershy said softly, a mournful expression on her face, "I hope trying to meditate under a tree will work. I just know if they give me a chance we can be friends."

With a slight nod, I smirked, "At the very least, you'll be able to listen. You know how to handle frightened animals more than I do, but at least meditation will keep you calm and let you appreciate them a bit more from a distance until they do adjust to you. I'll even see if Celestia or Luna will stop by the gardens after they finish talking to Twilight and I. The animals might be too adjusted to only seeing them and the groundskeepers."

"Ok, sappy romantic stuff and cuddly animals aside, you still up for checking out that sports convention, AJ? I totally gotta check out that new wing training machine from Cloudsdale." Rainbow Dash jumped in loud as ever and a smirk on her face.

"Heh, Ah'm with ya, Rainbow. Been a while since Ah checked out mah applebuckin' power with those fancy machines for measurin' yer strength. Think yer up fer some of the events?" Applejack returned.

"Oh hay yeah! We're totally gonna rock em all!" Dash cheered, "Soon as you suggested competing in some of the mixed tribe contests together, I just knew we were gonna be unstoppable!"

As they settled into some, slightly, quieter conversation about the events they were going to sign up for, Twilight turned to Pinkie, "How about you, Pinkie? Did you have any plans in the city today?"

Pinkie grinned wide as usual, "Oh I'm all set to spend a little time with Joe and Gustave. Mulia wasn't feeling well and couldn't visit this time, but the three of us promised to make a copy of any ideas we come up with together. We still haven't decided if we wanted to make a joint entry to the next baking competition, but meeting together has given all four of us lots of new ideas to try!"

The two of them settled into their own conversation about surprisingly deep confectionary science as my eyes slid closed, my arm still around Twilight since we settled in, thumb brushing through the short fur of her foreleg. I sighed inwardly in mild annoyance at the small headache I had. They happened once in a while for years now and it seemed today was one of those lucky days. My mind drifted along as the carriage made it's way through the streets of the capitol, taking in the sounds in and around our vehicle, a small smile on my face at the atmosphere of close friends enjoying each other's company.

***

With our various bags turned over to the castle staff to be delivered to our rooms, we made our way to the throne room. It still amused me to see the occasional looks of surprise on members of the Royal Guard or staff ponies that hadn't seen me before. I had to wonder if that was something I'd always be dealing with. Not anything to worry about in the end when most ponies were too pleasant to be anything but polite after the initial surprise.

We stopped in front of the great doors of the throne room, one of the Guard on duty moving to announce us just inside the doors. It seemed they weren't busy with important matters with local upper class ponies this time.

"Your highnesses. Princess Twilight has arrived with her friends and her stallion. Will you receive them now?"

Luna's voice rang out, "Thank you, Guardspony. We will be most pleased to receive them now."

Once the two Guards opened the doors for us, we entered the expansive throne room. I couldn't stop the smirk from escaping when I felt Twilight's resistance to just wanting to sprint up to the dias and hug her mentor tight, practically floating on her hooves already at the thought of getting to go into some advanced magic soon when the princesses shared what they had learned from studying the previous scans of Twilight and I.

Celestia and Luna were all smiles themselves as we approached, Celestia's voice ringing clear as her day, "Welcome, all of you. Thank you for coming up for this important summit. I trust the train ride was pleasant?"

Being at the head of our group, Twilight was the one to answer in the slightly official setting we were currently in, "It was pleasantly uneventful, Princess. Have you and Princess Luna been well?"

Both rulers smiled a bit more at that, Celestia continuing with a nod of her head, "We have. Well girls, and you Spike, you are welcome to enjoy our fair city for the day. The Royal Summit will begin tomorrow. We would also like to invite all of you to join us for dinner this evening, so please remember return in time. Princess Twilight. Vojin. If the two you will please follow my sister and I, we can attend to our findings regarding the two of you and your present condition."

After some short goodbyes, the girls headed out into the city with Fluttershy making her way towards the Royal Gardens. Spike headed for Twilight's old room that all three of us would be staying in for the week. He had a few things to research for Twilight and things to unpack before enjoying a midday nap. Twilight and I waited briefly before the princesses began to lead us out of the throne room and off towards their private magic laboratory.

It wasn't long before the four of us were once again in their lab. Once the door was shut, Twilight wasted no time in throwing away all pretence and threw her forelegs around Celestia's neck, hugging her tight for a long moment, which Celestia readily returned with a faint giggle. Luna latched onto me about the same time and I shared a hug with her in kind.

"Now that we've had some more pleasant greetings, Celestia and I will get right to what we have learned in the past month. As we explain, might I ask the two of you to step upon the platform once more? We wish to take a few more readings to compare against, on the off chance of any drift." Luna said softly, a hoof indicating the broad stone platform covered in ancient runes and surrounded by six colorful crystal spires.

As Twilight and I moved into place and the royals sisters did the same, Celestia began in a mild tone, "Much of what we have learned about your link has followed well with our initial impressions and theories. Twilight, you will be rather intrigued to hear you and Vojin finally answered the untestable Synchronous Souls postulation that Starswirl never answered. The two of you have in fact traded a piece of your souls. It is too soon to say for certain, but through careful study of what happened, we should finally have an answer. And a functional spell."

Twilight effectively squee'd while dancing on her hooves, drawing a chuckle from me as she started gushing, "Oh gosh! Nopony has ever dared any meaningful tests before and now we can complete the theory with a practical development?! Oh I can't wait to look at the data you and Luna have!"

She practically vibrated with excitement, even after I reminded her to hold still for the magical scans. There was no hope of slowing her words right away though, thinking out loud about the complex mechanics behind soul magic. I was pleasantly surprised at understanding even close to half of what she was saying. My studies had years to go but the overall concepts in most magical applications were making their way across my mind now.

After a several minutes, I was asked to step off the platform so they could review Twilight individually. Celestia giggled a couple times as the two of them enjoyed the chat, the spells currently being used were fairly straightforward and not strenuous.

Once they finished with the in-depth scans of Twilight a bit more than ten minutes later, the sisters needed a few more minutes to review everything, leaving Twilight and I to ourselves for a bit.

"So how big is the Synchronous Souls theory, anyway? As I haven't gotten near soul magic yet, I haven't heard about it." I asked her quietly, nudging her lightly in amusement at how excited she was.

"Oh you have no idea how important and major a discovery it is to likely have a functional spell based on that theory! It has never been tested because nopony ever dared! Any meaningful understandings would have been too risky for any mage to attempt because it would have required risking the souls and lives of two ponies at the same time. Any and all options beside that have been tried and evaluated hundreds, if not thousands of times." Twilight was all bright smiles, though her voice had an edge of seriousness, "The only real findings left to make would have required trial and error. That has always meant it was too risky to attempt and Celestia even made it law after one relatively minor close call that any unicorn making the attempt would not just face serious charges, but their research would be systematically destroyed and their magic permanently dampened to basic cantrips. It was widely accepted as an unsolvable hypothesis ever since. And now there's an answer to be found and I get to be one of the first to learn all about it! Heehee!"

I could only laugh lightly at her enthusiasm.

The two of us soon fell into discussion about it and other aspects of soul magic. Twilight went easy on me, helping me keep up with additional explanations as required for the parts I needed it and the time passed quickly before the royal sisters finished their review.

Celestia smiled as she watched us briefly before speaking, Twilight and I giving her our attention, "Luna and I will likely spend months or even years in some more fringe details that seem promising. The link the two of you share is fascinating and potentially has some very interesting and unexpected influences beyond just your ability to share your magic with one another. Twilight, I am happy to tell you all indications are you will experience no long term problems from the link. Vojin, we'd like to do some other tests between the two of you before running the same scans on you. There are some anomalies from your unique human aspects we need to spend a bit more time on to read properly. First though, Twilight, if you would step back up on the platform. We'd like to have the two of you test your magic sharing with us first, just in case anything unexpected takes place."

"Of course. Oh I can't wait to see how the magic sharing functions! I've been dying to try it since you told us about it. I know why you told us not to attempt it until we returned to you but it was hard to keep from trying it and gathering data in my own lab. I'm ready when you are, Vojin." Twilight said with a bright smile, immensely eager for more learning.

I nodded, having already heard the anticipated process and what I needed to do, "Alright, Twilight. Let's see how getting you all powered up works..."

With a moment's pause, my hands raised as they began to glow white with my natural aura. Carefully aligning the concepts in my mind, I began the transfer process, feeling my magic sort of attach to Twilight and begin flowing towards her. After several moments, I stumbled slightly at a burst of disorientation and saw Twilight experience much the same as the glow around my hands dimmed substantially.

It was supposed to be quick to initiate and that proved rather true. The lurching sensation of something somehow squeezing out of my whole body at the same time in a single direction was a very odd feeling.

"Well that should be it." I said while glancing to one side and attempting to levitate a piece of paper, finding my aura refused to stretch out to it, let alone accomplish the simple action, "And apart from maintaining the flow to Twilight, my ability to lift a piece of paper appears greatly hindered. I am otherwise without magic right now."

Celestia and Luna both smirked before Celestia turned to Twilight, levitating a small glass orb between them, "Alright Twilight, for now I want you to run the most basic test and try to move this orb while I hold it still. Don't be afraid to use everything you can, just like I had you do as a filly when you were studying first studying with me."

Twilight grinned, her horn igniting.

The golden aura of Celestia's magic began to compete with Twilight's deep pink. I watched with interest as the glow of both their horns slowly began to intensify. It wasn't long before the billowing fields around their horns were three times larger and both of them seemed to be exceptionally focused.

A glance at Luna showed a wide-eyed, rather impressed expression as she maintained the monitoring spells to study the magics at work. Neither she nor I made a sound, not wanting to disturb the focus of either alicorn. My eyes widened as the orb began twitching in the air for several seconds before Twilight finally gave in, panting as her aura faded from her horn and the orb.

"Twilight, I must say I am very impressed." Celestia began with a proud smile, she seemed as calmly serene as before, "Another time, we can experiment with other methods of evaluating power levels, but for now I can honestly say during empowerment from Vojin, your magic nearly rivals me for raw power. How do you feel?"

She was still panting slightly, giving her mentor a broad grin, "A little exhausted from the effort, but I don't feel much real magical drain. I know you're monitoring things, but I think it also enhanced my reserve capacity as well. Nothing feels unusual other than the increase in power."

Celestia nodded, turning to me briefly, "Vojin, if you could please start pulling your magic back. Well my faithful student, provided Luna's monitoring picked up nothing hidden, you are welcome to explore this new capacity to your heart's content. I expect to hear all about it as you do your research into how exactly your magic is enhanced. You can step back down once Vojin's magic returns to him."

Twilight grinned brightly at me, not even needing our link to feel her excitement pouring off of her. I figured I might as well get into the discussion I expected would be coming immediately after we were done here, giving a short laugh and a lopsided grin, "Alright Twilight, you don't even have to ask. Since I need magic far less day to day, I'll be happy to let you borrow my magic whenever. Just don't keep it all day, hmm?"

She gave me an adorable expression of glee again, "Thank you. Have I told you I love you today?"

That got a chuckle and a bigger grin, "A few times but I always like hearing it more. No need to butter me up now."

Another cute giggle escaped her about the same time as I felt my magic stop flowing. The feeling of something being empty then fully restored coming to mind. Twilight spoke up before I did.

"It think that's it. Vojin has his magic back again."

Luna nodded, "Indeed. I no longer detect the flow of magic either. A most fascinating process to observe. I will be sure to provide you with a spell crystal with a copy of the results, Twilight Sparkle."

"Alright then. Twilight, if you will step down from the platform so Vojin may take your place?" Celestia intoned, the two of us switching places, "I am quite interested to see the results upon you, Vojin. Several aspects of your magic have been rather unique. Twilight, please share your magic with Vojin once Luna is ready."

It only took a few moments before she indicated for Twilight to begin, a bright and eager smile on her face, "Ok Vojin, here we go!"

Being on the other side of the magic transfer was intriguing, my eyes sliding shut to focus more on the sensations I was getting. I felt larger, even though I knew there would be no size changing effect. I did feel a curious sensation of pressure begin near my root chakra at the base of my spine and a momentary squeezing around my feet. Pony chakras were located quite differently and had only marginal practical effect from what I'd learned so I would have to ask Twilight later if she felt something similar.

Hearing Twilight gasp pulled me out of contemplation though, noting but otherwise ignoring the strange twitch at the top and to one side of my scalp, opening my eyes to look at her curiously, "Is something wrong Twilight?"

She had the strangest expression of shock on her face and when I noticed similar expressions on both Celestia and Luna, I grew confused. After reaching up to scratch the back of my head and feeling something very odd on the side of my head, I started to appreciate their expressions of shock as I gained one of my own.

Both hands began feeling around the top of my head. It was hard to process the fact I was feeling what could only be pony ears on top of my head, that apparently were just as mobile as might be expected, and my human ears nowhere to be found. That was before even trying to process what was probably a unicorn's horn sticking out of my head now. As one hand came down to look at it, I noticed my skin was now covered in a rich, stormy light gray fur tinged with a slight bit of purple.

My voice finally working again, all I could manage was a blunt phrase, "Well that's bloody different. I've become an anthropomorphic unicorn..."

Twilight giggled slightly, Luna simply wore an amused grin. Celestia was trying to school her face back to calmness and stop showing so much surprise.

I brought a hand to my face and suddenly went cross-eyed looking at the end of my very own muzzle. As I brought my gaze to my feet, I discovered where the squeezing feeling had come from. My feet had apparently become a pair of hooves with no shoes on, my leg structure adjusted to suit. A hand went to the small of my back at the other odd sensation and felt a bulge that could only be one thing. After making said assumption and fishing it out of the back of my pants, I found myself holding my own full tail of white. A quick check found my hair was now also white and growing quite naturally further down my neck than a human as well. Idly, I realized that explained some of why my magic aura was pure white, now that I'd seen my mane and tail.

Blinking, I turned my eyes back to the three ladies before me as another thought crossed my mind, "Um...excuse me a second. I need to do a guy thing..."

I faced away from them and pulled the waistband of my pants away, holding my shirt against my stomach as I checked a specific part of my anatomy, "Now that is really bloody different..."

As I turned back around, all three were blushing to varying degrees Luna was snickering quietly with only a faint blush. Celestia looked like her feathers were ruffled and she was trying to regain her composure while blushing the brightest. Twilight's expression made me chuckle with her intrigued look and raised eyebrow.

"Hey now Twilight, I know that look. We can try for kinky later. Or do you not mind sharing that kind of subject with Celestia and Luna now?" I quipped at her with a devious smirk, watching her blush go from moderate to all the way past tomato impression in less than a second as she gave an adorably embarrassed squeak and hid behind her hooves as she sank to the floor in a puddle. Oh, the things that can fly out of your mouth when in the middle of a lack of knowing what was going on in the first place. My eyes turned to Celestia and Luna, "Ok...I'm not sure exactly what happened but I'm strangely comfortable with this. I might feel a bit weird later but I'm alright for now. Everything feels as natural and comfortable as it was before the magic boost. Any idea what just took place?"

It took another few long moments before voices were found. I was entertained to no end when the ever-composed Celestia tried to speak and her voice was much higher in pitch for a moment before she cleared her throat and spoke normally, "It...appears the effect on you of sharing magic is much more...dramatic than it is for Twilight. I honestly need to study the results to tell you how it could occur in much detail. If nothing feels uncomfortable though, it should be otherwise safe. It is just a general theory based upon what I already know, but I believe this is likely connected to part of your soul coming from Twilight. Beyond that, I could hardly hazard a guess without time to study Luna's readings. I have never seen anything quite like this before."

"I fear this is highly entertaining, my friend. We anticipated a few unpredictable effects when Twilight shared her magic with you but we hardly expected something so dramatic. Truly, if everything feels quite natural then all should be well as might be expected for such an unusual event." Luna added, her voice laced with mirth.

"Ok then...uh...," I paused, the question forming in my head and causing me burning curiosity as I grinned deviously again, "Well ladies, I'm not usually the type to do this but this is a rather unique opportunity... Do I make for an attractive stallion?"

Luna immediately burst into laughter, Celestia began blushing again as her wings seemed to sit uncomfortably, and Twilight was staring at me with a look halfway between 'I can't believe you just said that' and 'soon as we can, I'm locking us behind the bedroom door' which only made my grin wider.

Once her laughter died down, Luna gave me a teasing smirk before looking at her sister, "You know, Tia, I haven't seen you this flustered since Gentle Strength first returned your fancy..."

Celestia was quick to give her sister a sharp look that just screamed 'don't you dare' before grinding out her words, "That was over 1500 years ago, Lulu. Is now really the right time to talk about that?"

Twilight just whined as she tried to hide further under her hooves while still staring intently at me. I had some sympathy for her, caught in the midst of a very strange situation, with her hearing about something secret and potentially image-changing about her lifelong mentor and seeming so caught by me she wanted to drag me off somewhere private. Luna seemed to just take it all in stride, not even interrupting her maintaining the monitoring spells she was holding up.

Another thought crossed my mind and I tried wiggling my ears. It took a little trial and error before I had them sorted out for the most part, finding myself able to move them around fairly easily. After a quick range of motion, a silly joke came to mind and I started moving them around in random patterns while wearing a stupid grin before schooling my expression. Just waiting for the obvious question.

Eventually, Celestia eyed me curiously and cleared her throat, my ears perking in her direction was a weird sensation, "Um, Vojin...what are you doing with your ears?"

"I don't get cable here so I was trying to tune in NCIS." I said almost deadpan.

Luna just looked confused. Celestia blinked before letting out a quiet sigh of slight exasperation but not quite catching it. Twilight groaned as she got the antennae reference reasonably well. I'd explained television, cable service and receiver antennae on Earth to her before.

"Alright, enough! I understand this is exceptionally fascinating and more than a little amusing but we do have something of a schedule today and only so much time before Luna and I must attend a special day court session later to help make up for the week of the Royal Summit where it shall be otherwise cancelled. I wish we had more time but there is still much to get done before lunch." Celestia huffed a bit, giving a bit of needed levity to the situation.

I grinned back at her, "Alright, alright. Not exactly a normal experience for me and I guess not for any of you either. I assume you want to try the same basic strength test like you did with Twilight?"

The solar alicorn nodded, "That is correct. Let's see how much raw strength you can exert."

Celestia levitated the small glass orb between us and I called up my magic with my hands extended a little in front of myself with the palms forward. I watched my aura begin interacting against the gold of hers around the orb and began to push at it.

There was no give. Slowly drawing more magic up, I kept pushing harder. Still no give. I calmed my mind as I pushed myself to greater focus and the aura around my hands grew larger and brighter. I tried different directions with no effect on the orb's position at all. There was a small hit to my pride that the aura of Celestia's horn hardly changed in contrast to Twilight's attempt.

Feeling a little frustration as I neared the end of what I felt was in my capacity to draw upon, a thought came to me and decided to try for two directions at once. In my mind, I bisected the orb evenly and began pulling the orb in half. A sudden crack and my magic faded in surprise as half the orb shot off to my right while the other half remained motionless. A flick of my eyes noticed the suddenly mobile half caught in a deep blue aura in a field of deep blue haze. Apparently it had been caught by Luna's protective field.

I was shocked that I just seemingly outperformed Celestia. Something told me that couldn't possibly be right. The look on her face was also not the kind of shock I'd have expected. In the back of my mind, I was also chastising myself for neglecting to include location intention on the directional force. Forgetting that and having a piece shoot off that way was such a rookie mistake when levitation, properly used, could negate inertia with ease.

After a long moment of stunned silence, Celestia looked to her sister, "Luna...did...did you get a reading on what just happened like I believe just happened...?"

Luna closed her eyes as her horn pulsed a bit brighter once, her eyes turned back to her sister after a moment, "I did."

Twilight was finally standing again, looking at me in amazed wonder with her mouth hanging open.

Looking back at me after some contemplation, Celestia spoke again as she levitated a new glass orb between us, "Vojin, I want you to try again. We want to confirm something. I would like you to try pulling the orb in three directions this time. I will explain after that."

Not knowing what to say, I simply called up my magic again as I pondered how she knew I pulled in different directions. Clearing my mind of the confusion about what happened, I matched Celestia's magical hold on the orb again.

Once the two of us seemed to be close to the same output of magic as before the previous orb split, I changed my focus to pull the orb in three directions this time. Once I established the mental form of the intention, I pulled as hard as I could.

A loud crack ensued and two pieces of glass orb shot off to each side with the one I'd been trying to send straight up remaining frozen in place. The realization of making the same stupid rookie mistake twice in short succession hardly had time to register before other things overtook it.

There was another uncomfortable stunned silence as Celestia levitated the three pieces of glass off to a table with her eyes on the floor. Eventually, her eyes rose to mine, "Vojin, taking into account the ratio of magical empowerment in effect, you are not nearly as strong as we had thought. We had theorized in the interim that your remarkable surge when you leapt from the library balcony to catch Twilight was possibly a result of you being overcharged from arriving in our world and your body absorbing an unusually ready amount of magic rather suddenly. Luna and I keeping you and Twilight stable as the flux ran it's course likely served to enhance the effect. It seems you are naturally carrying above average magical power but nowhere near the rare magical strength Twilight wielded as a unicorn."

That was a bit disappointing to hear but did nothing to answer the stunned reactions. I quirked a brow at Celestia, "Ok, a bit of a let down but I can live with that. Still get to use magic. That's hardly what has all three of you stunned, is it?"

Twilight was the one that spoke up this time, "No, it isn't Vojin. Y-you...you shouldn't be able to magically function... You just did something completely impossible for a single caster..."

"What Twilight means is you seem to have the ability to cast multiple spells simultaneously. Even the same spell. I am sure you are aware of the mechanics of spells that dictate each must be performed independently and separately. That not only is it impossible to cast two different spells at the same time due to constraints of power flow but no spell can be cast twice without ending the first attempt. And even for different spells cast in succession, the power required to succeed grows almost logarithmically with each additional spell cast. Effectively limiting even those as powerful as myself and Luna to only being able to go so far in multiple spells at once." Celestia said, pausing for a moment of thought, "You seem to be naturally able to accomplish what an exceedingly few number of unicorns are only able to do in teams. Presently in all of Equestria, there are only eleven unicorns working in highly specialized teams that have trained over ten years at a minimum that would be able to do what you just did."

I frowned, mulling that over as I scoured my mind why that stuck out at me. Then I blinked, my ears slowly lowering as I remembered what those eleven unicorns did and why their abilities were so rare, and so prized.

My voice was a little tense, starting to understand just how serious things were. It went against a LOT of extremely well tested magical principles and fundamental mechanics. Finally turning my eyes to Celestia again, my ears were flattened against my skull, "...You're... Are you telling me I'm a natural spellweaver? That doesn't even make sense..."

"I am, Vojin. I believe you understand for yourself how many fundamental laws of magic you are violating. This is going to cause an uproar once it is presented. In the entirety of my long life, nor in the time before, have I ever known or heard of a single instance where a being was naturally casting from three distinctly separate locations. It has always, always been one point of origin for a being's magic. Even the various human mages that found their way to our world in the distant past were bound by this." Celestia's voice was both grave and awed, "Twilight related some of your world's interpretations on fundamental physical laws in the past and how ingrained they are for you, so perhaps it is easiest to grasp by comparing it to disproving an established law of physics. It is not exactly a bad thing, but it will cause a great deal of upset. Not even Starswirl the Bearded, with his incredible penchant for questioning assumed ultimate truths ever even considered this being possible. Until this moment, no entity of any kind has had more than a single magical conduit."

A lot of things had happened in a very short span already and here I was being floored to a whole new level. I went to rub my head and jammed a finger against my horn, feeling slightly reassured by the sudden mild pain and the disorienting sensation of bumping into my own head spike.

To be a naturally born spellweaver was far beyond just being unheard of. It was as impossible as things could get. Even my dimensional hop was explainable, despite the difficulty.

The four weaver teams that travelled Equestria had trained together for a bare minimum of a decade and had to remain incredibly tight groups that practically shared each other's minds in order to mix their spells smoothly for the most complex effects, such as healing.

The various complexities of performing even modest healing spells required either vast amounts of power, something only the ruling princesses had and Twilight was fairly close to, or unicorns thinking closely enough together that they could mutually anticipate many subtle differences in the middle of a spellweave. The talent and capacity to do so was exceedingly rare. It was how some of the worst injuries became more than survivable but could be fully recovered from. Limbs regrown. Permanent conditions healed, even if from a family line or birth defect. They could even be cleared so utterly that it changed heredity ever after. And that was just the impossibilities of medical application like all four weaver teams presently active specialized in. It was why grievous medical issues were so rare in Equestria. There were no teams of four alive, only groups of three for more than a thousand years. Working only for the crown, not even nobles had any sway over weavers due to selfishness of any kind being incompatible with the demands of their talents. They were considered untouchable by status alone and the Princesses gave them what little they ever asked for in exchange for their prized services.

It wasn't hard to understand naturally being able to multicast like I apparently could left me with the potential to surpass all other weavers throughout history because I wasn't trying to think like or anticipate anyone but myself. There hadn't been any in many centuries, but there was a time some weaver teams even numbered four members and created artifacts to rival the legendary Alicorn Amulet. I had no particular magical specialization, let alone anything deep. I was as generally acclimated to magic as Twilight was.

At one point, I'd learned the Princesses themselves were individually quite capable of crafting artifacts but it took so much intense preparation and left them so heavily drained of their magic that it was entirely untenable for them to do without extremely serious reasons. The limits of magic flow were directly at odds with spellweaving. It required true simultaneous casting that knew when and where to function over the course. And even the weaver teams, in groups of three, could usually handle only two spells at time while their remaining counterpart held a balancing connector spell to prevent the inevitable drift and keep them all safe from backlash. For healing, it worked quite well. Anatomy was well-documented.

A natural spellweaver with no particular constraints would be capable of untold miracles.

I took a slightly shaky breath and steadied myself, deciding I would just have to leave the rather mindbending topic alone for now, "Ok...so we had that happen. I think I'd like to just put it aside for right now and come back to it when we're not all totally floored by the thought. It's not like the ability is going to vanish overnight or anything. We need to finish what we came here for."

Another pause, then finally Celestia nodded, "You are right. Come to think of it, I'm going to have to pass an edict or two because of you now, once the knowledge becomes openly known as I'd like it to be. There is time to worry over it later though. Twilight, can you withdraw your magic please? It should take approximately the same time as Vojin withdrawing his own."

The weighty atmosphere left us all quiet as we waited the short amount of time it took.

Whatever guided fate seemed to be having a field day with me, however. I looked my arm, blinking in confusion at seeing the purple-tinged gray fur still present and still lacking toes when I looked down. The rest was assumed.

I raised a brow again, noting the feeling of my ears splayed sideways, "Uh...am I stuck like this?"

"Hmm...I am unsure just yet. Do your spells offer any insight, Luna?" Celestia asked her sister.

"One moment and I will check." Luna returned, her eyes closing again to a pulse of her horn, opening them again after several long seconds, "My friend, I believe if you focus yourself you should be able to alter the magic involved to your usual human appearance and back as you see fit. Perhaps you will require some practice, but I believe you have had the capacity for this ever since experiencing the magical flux when you first arrived in our world."

"Just need to focus, huh? I think I have an idea what you mean. Let's give it a shot..." I said before a slow calming breath and closing my eyes. I focused on my human aspects that changed, my feet and ears in particular. There was a subtle sense of magic slightly different from what I was seeking in my mind and gradually I gained a sense of self, willfully reshaping the magic back to what said 'human' in my head. My success made itself known when I felt a slight breeze brush across my skin differently from how it was moments before with fur. It seemed to require somewhat intensive focus, but intentionally shifting back seemed to take little more than ten seconds for the magic to adapt under direction. I didn't need to see the tatters I felt around my feet to understand I'd need to throw out my shoes though. Glad I also brought the pair that Rarity made me recently.

I almost laughed at the slight pout on Twilight's face, managing to just give her a wide knowing grin and watching her avert her eyes as a blush crossed her features once again.

Strangely, Celestia seemed to sigh about something before she spoke, "It's good to see you figured that out so readily. The last thing Luna and I need to do is run the same scanning spells we cast earlier on Twilight, in addition to a few extra. There are some anomalies we need to take a look at. Then review it all and how things compare with what we have already learned so we can share the results and what it means."

"Whenever you're ready then, Celestia." I told her, glancing to Luna with a small grin, "I suppose we'll have a chance to finally do some stargazing tonight after dinner Luna. I've intentionally been dodging Twilight giving me astronomy lessons so you can tell me anything you like and it'll be the first time I learn it. I hope you appreciate how much it drove her crazy."

There was a rather odd flash across her features at that but I couldn't place it before it vanished.

"I look forward to teaching you much about my beloved night, my friend. Please relax, these spells will take some time to run their course." Luna said quietly, even her voice carrying something that seemed off.

I didn't ponder it much, considering the tremendous amount of stuff we'd already uncovered. Partly, I was almost assuming there was another crazy thing coming. They'd mentioned anomalies and after all the other stuff, I wondered what else could happen. Heck, I still needed to ask about why I was able to heal so quickly.

The two of them ran through the various spells they needed to cast. Twilight wore a small smile and held my gaze with a look of satisfaction and happiness. I could only return it in full, feeling no need to speak as I lost myself in her eyes for a while.

Eventually, the royal sisters finished and went over to a table to look over various papers and spell crystals full of their readings. Twilight and I eventually settled on one of the broad stone steps leading to the platform. It had taken almost thirty minutes and a surprise soul scanning spell I wasn't expecting.

Giving Twilight a nuzzle as an arm slipped around her back, I spoke softly, "What did you want to do after lunch, Purple Angel? Tour the city a bit? Maybe even just go back to our room and look into where that look you were giving me came from?"

She blushed as I teased her, giggling faintly, "I think I'd like to spend some time in the city while we have a chance, as much fun as the second option sounds. We can make up for lost time when we go to bed tonight. Celestia said we won't need to do much during the summit for most of it, just that there are lots of things we need to listen to and be aware of. I think we could get away with being a little tired..."

I chuckled and kissed her cheek, "We'll have to avoid spoiling dinner, but I'd like to try Donut Joe's while we can. Once you get back into full swing with your duties again, we probably won't have time to come up here again for a while if it isn't official. And I don't mind being a bit tired. I don't mind the thought one bit..."

Twilight and I chatted and snuggled each other for a while. After what seemed an unusually long time, Celestia and Luna came back over to us. Their somber expressions seemed to run counter to the way things had been going earlier.

Luna was first to speak, sounding almost hesitant to start talking for some reason, "My friend, we...have finished our review and comparison of the results. If you're ready, we'll tell you what we have learned."

I nodded and the two of them began telling Twilight and I about what they had discovered from all the readings they had taken.

Celestia started talking about my capacity for healing was equal to an alicorn because of my carrying a piece of Twilight's soul. It was also largely responsible for my unexpected unicorn form that appeared earlier.

My ability for natural ability for spellweaving was incredible, a still to be studied permanent effect of the magic flux. I somehow channeled magic equally through my hands, and when in that state, from my horn as well. That was something I'd certainly need time to get used to. They were expecting me to work hard to develop the ability, knowing it could be a great boon for Equestria. Understandably, they weren't very enthusiastic right then.

Then they started explaining that despite everything indicating I was also unlikely to experience any long term side effects from the flux or link, there was one problem. The alicorn strength that came with Twilight's soul piece was spreading because I lacked anything to keep it in check.

For her end, Twilight had already fully assimilated what I had shared with her. It wasn't a problem and the only remaining effect was our link. It wasn't the same for me.

Due to the sheer amount of magic an alicorn naturally channeled through their own body via their soul, the physical body needed the capacity to handle that much ambient internal magical power. Celestia explained the mechanics involved and how my own soul was slowly giving more space to the part of Twilight I had picked up. By itself it wouldn't be an issue, but what came with it was.

The more of my soul that was adapted into the part from Twilight, the more alicorn-level energy was going to channel through naturally. The problem came from my body being a regular mortal one and while I seemed to have a higher than usual capacity for channeling magic, eventually it would be simply too much for me to handle. Somewhere along the way, Twilight gasped and started to shake as tears began to well up in her eyes. I simply listened.

They told me they couldn't undo the problem. It was a lot like pouring a cup of water in a lake, then trying to get that cup of water back out two months later. The biggest problem wasn't even dispersal, but directly resulting from the extreme risk that removing anything but that cup of water could destroy the lake. Twilight kept staring at me as she trembled silently, a hoof over her mouth. I kept listening, hearing every word even over the rushing noise.

Apparently, based on what happened after the Timber wolf attack, my spirit might remain tied to Twilight's and stay with her. There was a small comfort in that, understanding on some level I wouldn't leave her alone entirely.

Having calculated everything out to the best they were able, Luna said so long as I kept regularly draining my magical reserves, it would minimize the rate of progression. Thankfully, there would be no notable effects until the last few days when my limit was reached and the energy flow would start to overwhelm me. That was the point my body would effectively burn itself out of physical integrity and turn to uncontrolled energetic mist that would dissipate soon after. Made me think it was a lot like too much electricity through a gauge of wire too small for it. It was a lot of fancy words and jargon as I listened.

Finally, I spoke softly when they seemed done, "So how long do you think it will take?"

Luna's voice sounded pained as she looked at me, "From today, assuming you keep draining a fair amount of magic every day? It will give you a little less than two years, my friend."

I heaved a sigh, trying to deny it all on many levels, my eyes landing on Celestia, "I'm kinda denying it right now and what I know of dealing with stuff like this, that never works out well. I need to hear the simple words that sum it all up. I can't start facing it until I hear it out loud, so please just say it."

Twilight buried her face in my neck, drawing shuddery breaths just short of totally breaking down and clinging tightly to me, my arm around her pulling her closer in turn. Both of us dreading what we knew came next.

Celestia simply nodded, closing her eyes sadly as she turned her head to one side for a long moment before looking back to me again, her soft voice steady but full of sadness, "I am so very sorry it has turned out like this. Were anything else wrong, I could see at least a chance of figuring something out." She paused again before taking a slow breath and letting it out.

"For all intents and purposes Vojin, you are dying."

And with those words left my ability to deny it as Twilight finally fell apart against me.

My eyes drifted down to gaze blankly at the floor by my sock-covered feet as I felt the not-quite-perfect life and what little stability I'd been building suddenly shatter around me like so many pieces of glass.