Light pours in from the windows at the side of the lab. Sitting at the desk with his hoofs over his head is Acid Flask. He looks at his magic horn enhancer sitting on the table. The dim light blue crystal glowing ever so slightly. Acid mind runs with hundreds of diffrent ways to try and improve his collar. His eyes dart around the room as they try and find something to stick on. Rejecting idea after idea as they come to mind.
He groans as he rubs his face with his hoofs before leaning back into his chair and looking up at the white ceiling of the school. A strand of blue hair falls in front of his eye. He pushes it back up into his spiky hair as the door opens.
Acid turns to see Celestia holding the door open while finishing up talking to a teacher. "Thanks, I'll see what I can do," Celestia replies with a smile as she walks into the room. Acid's heart drops at her smile. Her kind smiles that always seemed to radeat happiness. A smile only a mother could really have. His heart rate skyrockets as his breath picks up a bit.
She never failed to make him nervous for no reason. Was it her smile, or how nice she was to everypony. Maybe it was her status as princess. Whatever it was it always caused Acid to get slightly squirmy when she first walks into a room with him in it.
"How is my favorite science pony doing?" Celestia asks, sitting down next to Acid.
"I-it's good," Acid tries to smile, but just causes it to look creepy, even on a little pony like him. Celestia raises an eyebrow at the remark. Acid tries to keep the smile on, but his ears flop down as his lips quiver. He looks down before frowning. "I'm all out of ideas." Celestia sighs as her smile shrinks a bit.
"Acid, do you know about the Mare on the moon?" Celestia asks, extending a wing around Acid's small body. He jumps a bit from the touch before relaxing and letting himself be pulled into her hug.
"Not really," Acid replies, nuzzling into Celestia's body. His heart raises as his face turns red, if you can believe it can get any more red. "All I know is it's a bedtime story." He looks up at Celestia. She smiles back down as she shakes her head.
"It's more than just a bedtime story. It's a wonderfully crafted story over thousands of years," Celestia says as her horn lights up. The air around them turns dark blue as the curtains are drawn down. The room gets dark, all accept the glow of Celestia's horn.
Celestia closes her eyes as her horn glows brighter as two little magic orbs appear in front of Acid. The two orbs form into two mares, both alicorns. "There were once two sisters who ruled together in harmony over Equestria," Celestia says as the two mares run around each other and laugh. A small planet forming in the center of the two.
Acid looks up at Celestia before asking, "Did they rule before you?" Celestia knobs yes before continuing on the story.
"But as the two got older, the heart of the younger sister got cold with power. She started shunning out her sister and the rest of the world," One of the mare's turns black as darkness spreads around her. The other slowly starts to walk away from the darkness.
"Why?" Acid asks innocently. Celestia laughs to herself before explaining.
"The younger sister hated how much her sister's sun was getting more attention than her night," The white mare started to glow yellow as a few more ponies appeared around the mare. They were cheering and smiling as the shadow casted fell over the other mare now sitting in the dark.
"She used dark magic to make herself more powerful and tried to take down her sister, but it failed." The two mares started to fly around the room shooting each other with laser beams. The white one finally hits the black, causing her to disappear.
"She now resides on the moon," Acid finishes the story. The shades are pulled back as the magic fades away. The light blinded Acid to the point where he covered his eyes. "But what does that have to do with my problem?"
Celestia chuckles to herself as she stands up. Acid sliding off her body and landing onto the ground with both hoofs. "Power comes to those who are wise enough to have patience." Celestia says. Acid tilts his head in confusion. Celestia sighs before simplifying it again to his problem. "Good things come to those who are know when to wait,"
"Oohh.." Acid says, the light bulb going off in his head. "I don't get it, but I'll figure it out," Acid says, hopping back onto the chair. Celestia rolls her eyes as she walks to the door.
"I'll be back in a half hour to see how your progress is coming along," Celestia says, opening the door and looking back at Acid sitting and staring intently at his magic enhancer. Celestia chuckles to herself as she closes the door behind her.
(Time Skip)
Acid looks at a sliver collar sitting on the table. He sighs as his head runs like a turtle trying to run through mud. He watches as a spring slowly rolls down the table. Acid looks between the spring and the collar.
The gears in his head finally start to turn, brushing off the cob webs as his smile returns. His eyes slowly widening as his brain rushes with math problems and schematics of possible short teleportation devices.
"Paper!" Acid yells as he gets off the chair. "I need paper!" Acid runs over to the cupboard and opens the door before using his magic to grab the paper. He flinches slightly as he flots the paper over to the table. He runs back and grabs a pencil in his mouth on instinct.
He jumps onto the seat, causing it to almost tip over. He grabs onto the back of the chair for dear life as it rocks back into place. Acid sighs before turning to start scribbling down a concept of a collar with a crystal inside of it with a small spring on the side. Acid's smile slightly fades as his eyes dart around the room in thought.
"How am I going to get around the magic storage problem? A crystal that size can't hold that much, nor could it possibly create a safe enough force." Acid speaks aloud to himself as he leans back into his chair. His eyes darting around the room as he thinks.
The door slightly opens, Acid unaware of it keeps thinking. Twilight's head pokes into the room. She looks around to see Celestia was not there. She was about to leave when Acid spoke up in his train of thought.
"Maybe if I use the spring as a conductor of magic from the space around it, then I would not need such a big crystal, or one at all." Acid says, scribbling down an idea. Twilight quietly walks into the room and closes the door.
"No no.. that would still be too big to be worn as even a necklace," Acid speaks to himself. Twilight grabs a chair with her magic and climbs onto it next to Acid. Acid is too focused on his scribels to notice Twilight. She looks over his very bad shorthoof.
"You could use a small crystal connected to a synthesized spring that has an absorb spell to maximus magic intake," Twilight chimes in. Acid screams, his voice cracking into a high F# that would make Bradsher Hooves impressed. His pencil going flying out of sheer panic.
"W-when d-d-did you g-get here!" Acid asks, visibly trying to move away from Twilight.
"A few seconds ago." Twilight looks at Acid with a dead pained look, but in her mind she was laughing at Acid's reaction. "I was looking for Celestia when I found you here,"
"Aren't you the new student of Celestia?" Acid asks, relaxing a bit. Knowing that Twilight wouldn't hurt him. Twilight nodes yes before turning back at the paper on the table.
"As I said, you can put a small crystal here," Twilight says, pointing to a part of the collar inside of it. "Place a spring around the crystal that has an absorption spell on it to maximus magic intake and output," Twilight's horn lights up as it grabs the pencil off the ground and flots it to her.
She flips the paper over and starts drawing a schematic on the back to show Acid her idea. Acid watches as Twilight draws a necklace resembling the one Celestia wears around her neck.
"Wouldn't the spell slowly wear off?" Acid asks.
"Not if you do it correctly," Twilight says, dropping the pencil before sitting back and looking at her work. Acid scratches his chin as he thinks over the idea.
"I could then not only fit a bigger spring and crystal, but I could put a computer chip with a teleportation spell," Acid says, grabbing the pencil in his magic and stars drawing over Twilight's schematics.
"Why would you need a computer chip?" Twilight asks.
"I'm designing it for non-unicorns, kind of like me," Acid explained. "I need the chip with the spell so they can cast the spell," Acid drops the pencil and hops off his chair, leaving Twilight still slightly confused.
"But those chips are only used in simple machines to store simple information," Twilight replies as Acid goes through the cabinets to find the needed components.
"They can also be used to hold the information of spells," Acid starts explaining as he gets back onto his chair. Dumping the collection of materials onto the desk. "I found that out when I was messing around with one during class,"
"Ooohhh.." Twilight says, a light bulb clicking. "That's what you were doing a few months ago?" Acid nods yes as he starts putting together a simple creation. He plugs two wires into the chip as Twilight floats over some apples for testing.
"A little help with the.." Acid was interrupted when Twilight pointed her horn at the chip. She shuts her eyes and grunts as she grits her teeth. Purple magic spurting out from her horn and into the chip. She sighs and slumps back into her chair as the chip glows purple in response.
"That should give it a good one-hundred feet of teleportation," Twilight replied with a smile.
"Can I ask you something," Acid says as he wraps a green crystal in a metal rod, bending it into a spring-like shape.
"Sure,"
"Why are you helping me?" Acid places the crystal down and starts connecting wires to the spring. Twilight looks at Acid confusingly. "I mean, why help somepony that can't even do magic?" Acid asks, looking into Twilight's eyes.
"Well.. um.." Twilight looks away as she tries to wrap her brain around a possible answer. "I think it's because I've seen what you can do. Ponies should not be so quick to judge." Twilight turns back to Acid, who is now working on placing a metal ring around the apple that is connected to weirs that lead back to the chip.
"Like I did," Twilight thinks to herself.
"Like Moondancer, she is quiet, but she gets pretty talkative when you get to know her." Twilight explans, "You should know, you two were friends.." She trails off before asking. "What even happened to you two?" Acid looks back at her in slight confusion, but knowing full well what she meant. "Why does she hate you so much?"
Acid sighs and sits back into his chair as he thinks of an answer. His eyes wandered around the room for an exit to the conversation. Twilight watches on intently as Acid thinks of a reason.
"I think it might be just because I'm different," Acid lies as he looks back at Twilight. Twilight's brow raises in slit confusion as she sees right through the lie.
"Why would she go on rants about you if it was that simple?" Acid sighs and lowers his head to his chest in shame.
"I ghosted her on accident a few times and now she hates me for it," Acid explained.
"Did you tell her?" Twilight asks as Acid goes back to his little contraption.
"I tried, but she wouldn't listen, said I was a liar just like the other stallions," Acid pushes a button as the metal ring around the apple lights up green. The apple is consumed by the green glow before it starts to float. The two watch with smiles growing on their faces before the apple explodes into their faces.
Acid turns off the device as Twilight licks the apple off of her. "At least it tastes good," She remarks. Acid chuckles as he wiped off the apple from him.
"Would it be ok if we stayed like this?" Acid asks, looking into Twilight's eyes with a smile. She smiles back and nods yes.
"I would like to call you my friend," The two hug it out before going back to making their contraption.
"Maybe the chip was programed wrong,"
"Or the magic output was too much for the device,"
"The spring could have overloaded," The two go back and forth as Celestia watches from the door in silence. She smiles to herself as she watches the two talke and bicker about what the problem is.
"I wish you were here sister, just to see how far ponies have come," Celestia thinks as she sighs in sadness. She snaps out of it when she sees Acid splatting apple juice onto Twilight from their new failed experiment. Twilight laughs and grabs some apple juice and splashes it onto Acid. The two laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Celestia smiles before leaving the two alone.