The Princess sisters of the sun and the moon had always been incredibly powerful beings, the combined power of their years upon the planet, their power tied into the celestial bodies connected to their name. At times of great duress each could call upon the spiritual energies held within the sun and the moon to augment their own abilities. Combined with the powerful tool of friendship, namely the elements of harmony, the pair were a nigh unstoppable force. Even then there were magics that rivaled their own, that of the darkness of their own hearts, that of the powerful wielder of Chaos, the draconequus Discord, the now banished but ever powerful unicorn Sombra.
To such an end, through her own wisdom and that of her elders passed unto her upon her conception, Celestia, the God-Princess set about to transfer the power of the elements of harmony to a set of six very close and greatly talented friends, while this would lower her own individual power, it would ensure that her beloved nation of Equestria would remain safe from the pitfalls of those creatures that might wish to do it harm.
There are however, far darker, far stranger, and far more ancient magics, creatures far removed from the knowledge of Celestia, Luna, or even Discord. While perhaps not set against the destruction of the pony empire, or the creatures who roam it's lands. These ancient creatures, and their magics are often greatly removed from the logical embrace of this plane of existence. Flitting in between the world of the ponies and others, outside of the realm of time, yet governed by it all the same. Whatever dark objective the creatures may have, it might only spell insanity and chaos far beyond the reaches of Discord. Whatever powers those long forgotten magics hold, their usage would only lead to a shattering chain of events that might rend the very fabric of space and time, splicing together different worlds, different beings, histories, realities. In time, the use of such a spell would only cause the end of multiple planes of existence. One must simply hope that no being would ever stumble upon how to cast such a spell.
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Twilight Sparkle trotted rather merrily down the ornate hallway, a single book floating in front of her, attention refined to a pinpoint as she focuses on the large text. The grunts of a small dragon a bit off behind her, Spike following as best he can, gritting his draconic teeth as he does his best to pull a wagon piled high with thick texts of various subjects.
With an absent minded call of "Hurry along Spike! You don't want to fall behind. After all we have a lot of studying to get through today!" Twilight turns, moving into a spacious study hall, one of many in the Canterlot libraries archives.
With an groan of rebuttal Spike responds, "Uggghhhh… Twilight, remind me again why we had to come up to Canterlot for books when we live in a library?"
"Like I said," her voice continuing with the same detachment as the unicorn sat down at a nearby table, "I'm looking into what may have caused a few of the recent odd surges of magical energy out of the Everfree forest. I've already read through everything at our house back in ponyville so we had to come up here to look through what they have here."
With a grin the purple pony floated a small collection of the scholarly works onto the table in front of her, smiling down at them, her smile reminiscent of a starved fat man at a chinese buffet as she, again idly, calls over to her companion of a dragon, "Spike would you be a dear and fetch the second load for me?"
With a grumble of discontent the purple and green dragon exits the room, mumbling something along the lines of "There better be diamond coated donuts at the end of this." before trudging off to fetch the second heavy set of tomes.
With a little giggle Twilight spread the series of books out in front of her, grinning as she passed over each increasingly lengthy and cryptic title. "Surge Protection: How a Rubber Can Help" "The Energies of Magic Vol. III" "Magic in the Pre-Superplanar State" "Laboratory Applications of Sub-Planar Anarchic Magical Interference in the Fourth State of Post-Induction Supersaturated Withdrawal Surges"
Looking down at all of these thousand page doorstoppers, Twilight noticed something odd, a book she hadn't remembered putting into the cart. A small book, nearly the size of a small pocket journal, or even a diary. She almost never bothered with books of that size, they were rarely anything other than whimsical tutorials for ill-educated plebeians, or snooty journals of ancient and long dead ponies whom had little idea of what they were talking about. Even beyond that, the small journal lacked even a title. It was bound in a tight leather, once a dark brown but seemingly warn down by use, now cracked and creased with age.
The small unicorn paused, the odd book held her attention, it didn't seem like something Spike would be interested in, she knew that she hadn't pulled it off of the shelves, and the likelihood of it simply falling into the cart was highly unlikely, especially since they didn't load the books onto it till pulling it to this room. Then where in Celestia's name had it come from?
Forgoing the rest of the eclectic collection, Twilight levitated the journal over to her, pushing the rest of the books away as she set the small leather-bound item in front of her. An odd feeling came over her, the air felt heavier, not damp but like it had more weight. Nervous for seemingly no reason she slowly turned the cover over, a strange title page greeting her. A series of lines, thin, straight, where the title of the book might go, almost seeming to shift and turn in her vision, a simply incorrectness radiating away from them.
The mare let out a gasp, shaking her head, rubbing her eyes as she looked back down at the text, blinking in surprise as she looked back down at it, the simple title, "Applications of Magical Flux" staring back at her. After muttering to herself about 'poor lighting' and 'maybe actually taking Rainbow Dash up on that offer to get out of the books for a change.'
The small book held her rapt, in fact Twilight barely even acknowledge Spike coming in with the second, third, and eventually fourth load of books. The amount of time passing should have seemed odd to her, she was only finished with about half of the small journal, barely over a 100 pages long, and yet hours had gone by.
It was, of course, heavily detailed, featuring heavily noted margins, complex diagrams, spells of the most arcane and ancient nature. In short the young mare was completely engrossed in the strange book. Nothing could tear her from it's quickly turning pages.
However as she read, the room slowly began to darken, the air slowly felt heavier and heavier, a soberness filled the room, everything began to appear sharper, more defined, less real as Twilight study the text closer and closer, being drawn further and further into it's enchanted pages.
An electrical feeling began to enter the room, filling the space with a concentrated sense of energy, the very air Twilight was breathing seemed to be almost supercharged with magic. The Unicorn had a vacant look on her face, almost seeming to look beyond the book, beyond the table and the room and Canterlot, staring off far into the distance at some far off object, a goal, a final solution to every problem of the world.
Twilights lips moved quickly, slowly mouthing the words printed on the pages as they rapidly turned. Her eyes vacant, pupils moved to pinpricks as the words upon the journal tumble out of her mouth, speaking loudly, feminine voice calling out a strange and ethereal chant as the unicorns horn alighted, it's soft glow spreading slightly through the room, barely moving past the notebook as the chant increased in speed, growing faster and faster. Twilights eyes widening as she stared down vacantly at the sheets of paper, the pages turning rapidly, flittering in the slight wind they create as her mouth moves of it's own volition, the light from her horn getting brighter and brighter as the room itself became crosshatched, darker, Twilights vision shifted, focused only on the text in front of her, ignoring everything else as suddenly, everything went blank.
