It starts off simply, as these things often do. It starts with an idea. An idea and a question. It only gets worse from there.

Twilight Sparkle leads an eventful life, as much as she wishes it were otherwise. She’d like nothing more than to spend her days curled up in her library with a cup of tea, passing the time in quiet study. Perhaps an occasional trip to the market or a picnic with her friends, but certainly no epic quests or standoffs with ancient evils.

But Twilight Sparkle leads an eventful life. Fate has decided it must fall to her to resolve millenium-old spats between alicorns and fight off would-be tyrants. Fate is a jerk.

The latest in a long string of such events was the recent battle against the self-stylized Lord Tirek, who sought to drain all ponies of their magic and rule Equestria. It was truly her greatest and most hard-fought accomplishment to date, but it had been a close thing. Victory only came when she and her friends discovered a new power derived from their friendship, and only after the explosive demise of her beloved library. Fate really was a jerk. Granted, she’d been declared the Princess of Friendship and given a crystal palace to live in, but there truly would be no more quiet days in the library for Twilight.

It’s been a hectic few days for Twilight, what with the aerial laser battle, settling in to her new role as ruler friendship, and all of the subsequent paperwork. It turns out that a giant crystalline tree castle growing in town violates some zoning regulations. It’s a good thing Twilight likes paperwork.

It’s during a break from said paperwork that the next trouble starts. An idea and a question. That’s what sets the whole chain of events in motion.

Twilight sits at her crystal table in her crystal study in her crystal castle filling out forms. She’s been at it for hours and decides it’s time for a snack. Princesses are allowed snacks when they want and not just at predesignated snack times, she decides. She stands up and stretches, working the kinks out of her joints. She sets out for the kitchen, which is a good deal farther away than it was in her old home, may it rest in peace.

Oh, that Tirek! His crimes against literature are completely unforgi- Twilight catches herself before the memory of her library and all of her books literally going up in smoke leads her thoughts in ways she’d rather they didn’t. Instead, she lets her mind wander.

What is point of an entirely crystal structure? Why have doors in every room if everypony can just see through them anyway? What was the exact composition of the crystal that allowed it to grow from the ground so rapidly? It warranted later testing. Would her book collection be safer here… once she built it back up, of course. She doubted even Tirek could detonate an entire castle such as this one, even with all his stolen power. Oh, now she was thinking of Tirek again.

Twilight arrives in the kitchen and looks over the refrigerator. This is one place where see-through doors are an advantage: see what’s in the fridge without having to open it. She continue to mull things over. Why did he have to absorb power from ponies? Why couldn’t Tirek have taken his power from something else? Oh, yes, perfect, some of the leftover cheesecake was still in there. She’ll have to fly a few extra laps around the castle later to work it off, but that will be fine. Wouldn’t want to get too “large”, after all.

Her mind made up, Twilight steps forward and grasps the refrigerator handle in her magic, pulls it open, ...and stops.

Why couldn’t Tirek have taken his power from something else?

The question repeats itself in her head. Why did Tirek only steal magic from ponies in particular? She knows it wasn’t because that was the only magic he could drain. He’d stolen Discord’s magic, after all. It wasn’t because that was the only source of magic to be found. Equestria is infused with the stuff. Magic is ingrained in every animal, tree, flower, rock, the very land itself. Even abstract concepts like love and friendship. There’s magic in everything.

So why did Tirek only absorb magic from ponies? The only answer Twilight can up with is that it was out of spite. Even abstaining from more magical creatures like ponies, someone who can siphon the essence from world around it could potentially become the most powerful being in the world, just from absorbing the ambient nature of the world around them. Someone or somepony. This thought terrifies her, both because of the realization that Tirek could have beaten her easily if he’d really wanted to, and because of the realization that she could do the same.

Tirek wasn’t the only one who’d absorbed the magic of others that day. Twilight had held the combined might of herself, Princess Cadence, Princess Luna, and Princess Celestia. True, she hadn’t actively drained them herself. They had bestowed their magic on her themselves; a gift and a responsibility. But proof it was possible all the same. Twilight was capable of absorbing, holding, and wielding foreign magic that day. And it felt good. Though, now that she thought about it, why hadn’t she grown larger like Tirek had when he absorbed magic? Regardless, if she could do it before, she can do it again.

Twilight’s mind races at the possibilities until a voice breaks her out of her reverie.

“Twilight, are you gonna stand there all day?” Spike asks from behind her. He’s sitting at the table eating the last slice of cheesecake. “I hope you didn’t want this. You were just kinda standing there looking at it, all spaced out. You didn’t say anything when I took it, so I figured it was okay, but now you’ve let all the cold air out of the fridge.”

Twilight doesn’t say anything as she dashes out of the room. She’s already gone by the time the refrigerator door slams shut.

“Okay! Nice talking to you!” Spike calls after her.

Twilight doesn’t stop until she’s in her new laboratory. She calls it her lab, but the only thing that really makes it so is the name. All of her testing equipment was regrettably lost with the library. It’s fortunate then, that this experiment requires no equipment; just her horn and a test subject. Why does the experiment need to be done in the lab, then, if there’s nothing in there? Because that’s where experimentation is done.

It should be a simple enough experiment. Find a subject and attempt to siphon off a portion of its magic. A subject...She looks around. Hmm, maybe an empty lab isn’t the best place for this after all. It’s hard to test when there’s nothing test on.

Not willing to waste any more precious time with walking, Twilight teleports herself outside. The castle sits near the edge of a lake and she finds herself amongst the reeds at the water’s edge. She gains her bearings and looks around. There are plenty of potential test subjects here, but what to choose?

Best to start small. Twilight reaches down with her magic a plucks a single blade of grass. Can’t get much smaller than that. She sits down on her haunches and places the grass in her forehoof. She concentrates on the grass and lights her horn, but she lets it fade when she realizes she isn’t sure what she should be doing. How does one siphon magic?

Twilight ponders on this for several minutes, feeling at the grass this way and that with her own magic. She thinks back to that day, the moment she accepted the magic from the other princesses. What did it feel like? Not a very scientific question, but this is rather unscientific territory she’s wandered into. It felt like… a tunnel. Like a bridge connecting the core of her very being to that of the others. It was a warm, comforting feeling, being so intimately connected with another, having somepony bear themself so completely that she could touch their very essence. It was nothing short of visceral.

Touching on that memory, Twilight is able to find that core within herself once again. That wasn’t so hard. It’s basically just her regular magic, except… slightly not. Reaching out with her magic, is something Twilight has a good deal of experience in, and reaching out from this new core of her being is hardly any different. She extends her essence to the blade of grass, engulfing it. She pokes around and into the grass, seeking something similar.

She’s about to give up when she finds it. Deep inside the grass, she finds the core of its magical essence. She actually touched on it several times, but it was so small, she overlooked it. But now that she’s found it, she reaches her own essence into the grass’s and experimentally connects the two. She feels the bridge form between them, a string of magic tied to both ends. Gently, she pulls on the string. All too suddenly, she feels a slight hiccup in her essence and the connection crumbles.

Twilight wonders what went wrong. Everything seemed to be going well. She reaches back into herself and instantly finds her essence. Now that she’s found it, she can call it up as easily as her magic. They’re two sides of the same coin anyway.

She reaches with her essence back into the grass. But this time, she can’t find the grass’ essence. She can vaguely feel where it was, but rather than the energy she’s expecting, it feels more like an empty, inert space. Did she…? She must have.

With that tentative first test, Twilight Sparkle successfully learned how to drain the magic and essence from another living thing. And it was so easy, she hadn’t even realized she’d done it at first. Granted, she only knew what to feel for from having experienced it herself on behalf of the princesses, but she deserved some credit, thank you very much.

So that’s it? That’s all there is to it? It hardly felt like anything. She can’t even feel a quantifiable change in her magic level. Further testing is necessary. The scientific method requires it.

So Twilight picks another blade of grass and tries again. She reaches into it, forms the thread between them, and pulls. This time she’s paying closer attention, and she definitely feels the slightly flutter in her magic in the moment she absorbs the grass’s magic.

She tries it again.

And again.

And yet again.

Eventually, Twilight has a pile of grass clippings she’s siphoned and the satisfaction that she knows what she’s doing. She takes the pile in her magic and inspects each blade. None look the worse for wear. No physical damage... other than having been plucked, of course. The only difference is the empty place where their essence used to reside.

Satisfied that absorbing the magic doesn’t actually harm the subject in any way, Twilight decides it’s time to move on to other subjects. No animals, of course. Wouldn’t want to risk hurting something that can think.

First up is a rock. Its core is slightly different than the grass’s but she finds it quickly enough and absorbs it. It has more essence than the grass, but it’s somehow less… essence-y. That description will never do when it comes time to record her observations. She’ll have to come up with a word for it later, but for now, it feels less “essence-y”. It’s probably due to being an inanimate object.

Next, Twilight moves on to the reeds by the lake. They’re much like the individual blades of grass, just with more magic in them. She starts out one at a time, before deciding to try two at once. That quickly leads to three, then four, then entire swaths of reeds. The magic essence she drains from a cluster of several dozen reeds is enough to make a noticeable shift in her own levels. This encourages her.

Next she tries the water of the lake. She assumes that it, being inanimate like the rock, will net less magic, but not so. The magic is fluid and alive with magic, if not in the traditional sense. Of course! Why didn’t she realize it sooner? Water has tremendous healing and life-giving power! All life depends on water! So obviously it would have great amounts of magic essense in it! She pokes her into essence into the water’s like a straw and drinks it up.

She moves on to entire trees. Their magic is even greater than all of the reeds. She can feel her magic growing with each tree she absorbs. Individually, they aren’t much. Barely a drop in her ocean. But there are so many drops. Each one, she tells herself, will be the last one.

But then there’s always another tree right next it and she tells herself, “Just one more.”

She doesn’t notice as the trees begin to look slightly smaller to her. Or that her horn juts out slightly farther in front of her.

Faster and faster she goes, making her away around the edge of Ponyville, absorbing the magic of multiple trees at a time, clumps of them. She begins to notice huge spikes in the amount of magic she’s getting from each and belatedly realizes its from the assorted bird or squirrel or other critter that happens to be living in the trees she’s draining.

She catches sight of one squirrel drop out of tree after being drained. It looks slightly dazed –from the fall, obviously– but otherwise unharmed. Twilight finds this encouraging. She begins actively seeking out these critters. One squirrel is worth twenty trees! Trees? THey look more like shrubs! And after each one, she tells herself, “Just one more.”

Twilight continues making her way around the town –were the houses always this small?– draining the essence from whatever plants and small critters she sees. Funny how the critters are starting to look like small ponies. She moves about with speed and precision, and yet everything seems to be in a haze. She could swear she hears small voices calling to her. But that’s silly. Squirrels and chipmunks and little blue birds with rainbow plumage can’t talk. She drains them too. And after every one, she tells herself, “Just one more.”

Oh, look at this. Some foal must have left a toy model of Ponyville out her in this field. Twilight doesn’t want to crush it, so she travels in the other direction. She sees a glimmering castle in the distance. Is that Canterlot? She decided she should go visit Princess Celestia and report on her extremely scientific findings. She gallops across the open field toward Canterlot, draining the land around her without even having to think about it.

Her progress is momentarily slowed when a pair of insects buzz in her face, one pink and one dark blue. Twilight swats at them. They sting her back. She has to see Princess Celestia. She drains the insects too.

And after she does, she thinks to herself, “Just one more.”