What Lies Within

Twilight sat on the grass at the picnic, concentrating on a cup she had in front of her. Carefully, she began to feed magic into the task of lifting the cup. It was surrounded by a magical glow, then slowly lifted off of the saucer it was resting on, wobbling in the air. Twilight was about to take a sip of the tea contained within when her horn abruptly flared again. Steaming tea splashed all over her, and she let out a small yelp of pain.

"You too, darling?" Twilight looked up from her mess to see Rarity standing before her. Twilight blinked at her a few times, then snickered. Rarity seemed to be finding a way to look embarrassed and indignant at the same time.

"What happened to your mane?" Twilight giggled. Indeed, Rarity's usually pristine and styled mane was a tangled mess. Small strands stuck out everywhere and she was constantly pushing them out of her eyes.

"Only the most positively horrible thing!" Rarity wailed. "I went this morning to pick up my styling equipment, but my magic was all over the place! I couldn't even levitate a curling iron! Now I'm forced to use my hooves for everything. Can you imagine, trying to style a mane with only your hooves? It is simply tragic! Twilight, are you even listening?" Twilight was listening, but with an increasingly detached expression.

Your magic is acting up also?" Twilight pondered.

"Well what in heaven's name did you think I was just ranting about?" Rarity snapped.

"Rarity, this could be worse than I thought." Twilight said, and glanced around at the large amount of ponies who had showed up for Pinkie's Picnic Party Palooza. "If everyone is having problems with their magic, that could be a sign of something terrible coming! We need to ask other ponies if they have noticed anything off."

"Why don't you ask the Royal Guard!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, knocking both unicorns over with her sudden presence.

"Pinkie, the Guard is in Canterlot." Twilight sighed, picking herself up.

"Someone needs to tell them that." Pinkie pointed to the sky.

Sure enough, a small contingent of Guards and a small coach were descending from the mid-morning sky, heading in the direction of the park where the picnic was being held.

"Rainbow Dash! Applejack! Fluttershy! Visitors!" Pinkie squealed, then bounced away.

"What in tarnation is the Royal Guard doing here?" Applejack wondered aloud, and Twilight felt the gaze of her friends rest upon her.

"I don't know anything about this." She said, "Maybe the magic is off in Canterlot too?"

"And the Princesses need us Elements of Harmony to go on another awesome quest to save Equestria!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, doing a loop-de-loop in the air above Rarity's head and further tangling her mane.

"That's quite an assumption to make, Rainbow." Rarity scoffed and futilely attempted to fix her mane. "They probably just need Twilight's help on a spell of some kind."

"Yeah." Fluttershy whispered from her hiding spot behind Rainbow Dash. "No scary adventures today, please."

The Guard slowly circled the area from above before landing, using their vantage point to search for suspicious or threatening ponies before they swooped to a spotless landing in the park. The leading pony, a dark grey stallion with a blue mane and a cutie mark resembling a spear and shield approached Twilight stiffly.

"Miss Twilight Sparkle." He spoke in a gruff and formal voice. "Princess Celestia sends her dearest regards and warmest greetings to you, and regrets her inability to be present at this time."

"Thank you very much, sir...?"

The stallion's demeanor brightened slightly at Twilight's politeness, and he spoke in a more relaxed tone. "If you please Miss Sparkle, my name is Silver Spear."

"Thank you Silver Spear, but why are you here?"

The brightness faded from the stallion. "We have been sent for two purposes. The first is to be sure that you receive and understand the implications of this missive. The second, is to ensure your safety on the carrying out of the task within." At his words, another Guardpony grabbed a sealed letter from his saddlebag and handed it to Twilight.

"I wonder why Celestia didn't just send this message through Spike?" Twilight pondered aloud.

"Maybe it's because it's...dangerous." Fluttershy said, eying the Guardponies nervously.

Using her magic to unseal and unroll the scroll, Twilight's eyes scanned the letter. It started off as all of Celestia's letters did, and Twilight was about to simply skim through it's contents when she noticed the words printed after the greeting. She began to read aloud: My dearest student, I need you to take up the Elements of Harmony once again.

Rainbow Dash cried out in triumph. "See! I told you guys the Princess needed our awesomeness again!"

"Oh, yay." Fluttershy sighed softly.

"Would you let me finish reading, Rainbow?" Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Sorry."

"Alright, now, once again..."

You and you friends are needed to find and document a new sort of magic was has been felt originating near Ponyville. This is an important and possibly dangerous task, which is why I have sent this patrol of Royal Guards to help you find the source of this magic.

"Wait, Celestia is sending us on an adventure just to document something? Way uncool! That's not even a real adventure! That's like, an egghead adventure!"

"Are yah done there, Rainbow? Twilight ain't finished with the letter just yet."

Rainbow dash settled to the ground with Applejack's reprimand. "Worst adventure ever." She grumbled.

The location of this magic is only approximate, but it most likely is coming from...

"The Everfree forest?"

"By my hide, what do you think you're doing?"

The little filly froze at the sound of her mother's voice, and turned her head warily.

"Going outside?" She squeaked. Her mother's silence was almost more painful than yelling.

Finally, a sigh came from the mare.

"You know what I said about that before, it's too dangerous for you out there." Sapphire Weaver gently nudged her child back within the section of the tunnel that they called home. "The other ponies don't understand your special qualities like I do."

The brick red filly huffed disappointingly, kicking at the rocks on the cave floor. "But Midnight Aria was gonna meet me, and we were gonna go play together by the spring..."

The mare could hear the loneliness in her daughter's voice, and felt her will begin to cave. She knew that Midnight Aria was a good pony and that the others wouldn't attack her daughter if she went with her, and that the spring was far enough away from the main caverns that there would be no other problems with the local ponies. Even with those assurances, she was still nervous about her child. Something could happen to her or she could get hurt or...

"I don't want to hear that you went anywhere else, okay?" Sapphire Weaver's heart filled with warmth at the rare smile that filled the little filly's face.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" She bounced in circles around her mother as she laughed gleefully, then zipped off down the tunnels to find her friend.

Sapphire Weaver giggled, remembering the days when she was that energetic. Re-entering the cavern she called home, she settled down at a certain stone that hung on the wall. It was carved with a name, a date, an effigy of a painfully familiar steel-grey unicorn stallion, and the words "Killed in Action".

"Oh, Steel Horn, you would be so proud of her. She's just as adventurous as you were."

"Come on! The spring is this way!" Midnight Aria called, jumping down the piled rocks to the lower caverns. The sound of trickling water was growing greater by the second, and she couldn't wait to take a drink of the cool, clear liquid.

"I’m coming! Boy, is it hot down here." The brick red filly said and wiped sweat from her brow as she trotted along, following the sound of Aria's voice through the caverns. The twisting tunnels and branching caves were unfamiliar to her, but Midnight Aria seemed to know just where everything was. Lost in thought, the filly didn't see the end of the path just in front of her, and stepped off into open air. "Waaaah!"

Unable to regain her balance, she tumbled down the steep rocks, colliding with Aria on the way down. Dust rose from the old stones as the two bounced down the steep path, their groans and yelps echoing off of the cavern walls. Eventually they came to a rest at the bottom of the stone hill, all a tangle of hooves and limbs.

"Owwww." Midnight Aria complained, "Watch your step next time!"

"Sorry." Feeling as if she had ruined her only chance at knowing a pony who didn't hate her, the filly ducked her head and waited for the inevitable hatred.

"It's a good thing we've got this water to wash off with. And boy, am I thirsty!" Surprised, the filly followed Aira to the spring, only a short distance away after their 'shortcut' down the rocks.

"You aren't... Mad at me? You still wanna hang out with me?"

Midnight Aria turned to face the younger filly with a confused look. "Well duh. Just because you tripped on a rock doesn't mean I'm just gonna not hang out with you anymore. I mean, that would be a sucky thing for a best friend to do"

"Wait, we're, uh, 'best friends'?"

"Uh huh. Why, do you not wanna be best friends?"

"Oh, no no! Uh, I mean yes! I mean-"

Aria's laugh echoed around the cavern. "You silly filly! I gotcha, though. Best friends, you and me!"

The little filly turned redder than usual. "I've never had a best friend. I, uh, actually don't think I've ever heard of one..."

"Well, there's a first time for everything!" Aria chirped, and promptly splashed her best friend with a spray of water.

"Hey!" The now soaked filly yelled, and ran to splash her back. Soon they had entered an all out splash war, using magic and their hooves to soak one another until both collapsed in giggling, dripping heaps.

"You're the best best friend ever, Aria."

"Oh don't get all mushy on me now, we still gotta walk all the way back home."

The sun had reached the point in its arc where the long shadows had formed and the sky was showing signs of the reds and pinks that would signal its setting. After the Royal Guard had arrived Twilight and the other Elements, along with the guardponies, had gone back to the library to clear up the situation in peace and privacy. As the day had worn on though, all ponies involved had become more frustrated than anything else.

"So, let me get this straight." Twilight said wearily. "You are here to protect us on this quest to find and document an ancient power which is not only of an unknown power but also of an unknown location, except for the fact that it has a possibility of being somewhere in the Everfree forest. The same Everfree forest that just so happens to be one of the most dangerous places in Equestria that we know of. Did I get that right?"

"Well, yes. But I think you have a very negative outlook on this situation Miss Sparkle." Silver Spear sighed.

"Negative outlook? Negative outlook!" Twilight raged, stamping her hoof in frustration. "Where in this conversation is there a positive outlook! Why did Celestia ever send such a crazy idea out here? What could she have been thinking?" Groaning in frustration and pain, Twilight settled with glaring at Silver Spear through the haze that her migraine seemed to be causing.

"I’m not sure, Twilight." Spike shook his head, then widened his eyes as an idea struck him. "Maybe it's a test, like solving the problem at the Crystal Empire? Maybe Celestia wants to see if you can figure this out on your own?"

"Yes, maybe it's just a little test for us to solve. Or maybe she left some other information in there?" Rarity picked up the letter with her magic and began to read the letter for what Twilight felt was the umpteenth time.

"No! That's all there is to the letter, everypony! If this is a test though, I have to say I'm feeling pretty stumped. I don't have any details at all about this 'strange power'. It could be anything! And aside from that, how do we even find it?"

"If I may interject, Miss Sparkle." Silver Spear motioned for a grey and orange unicorn to stand beside him. "I have had my magic expert working on that since we arrived and discovered the predicament that we are in." Silver Spear continued. The grey and orange unicorn snapped a salute to Silver Spear, then bowed his head to Twilight. "Star Gazer, brief Miss Sparkle and her companions on your findings so far."

"Well, I am sure that you are familiar with the nature of a simple finding spell." Star Gazer began.

"Is that that spell that Rarity uses to find those gems and things?" Pinkie asked. "Because I don't know how that will help us to find this magic whozit-whatzit. Unless the magicky thingy is made of gems, of course!"

"Uh, valid question. I guess." Star Gazer furrowed his brow as he tried to find a good explanation for how the spell worked that this pony would understand. "Uh, well all magic works because of current of magical energy that exist between and throughout all things. Influencing these current is how all ponies work their respective magics, and the magic is different depending on how the influence occurs. For example, take the levitation spell. It works by-"

"Blah blah blah blah magical sciency stuff. It just works, OK?" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Honestly, you eggheads speak, like, a different language or something."

"Well then." Star Gazer huffed, offended. "I have been working on a spell that would allow the caster to be able to discern the location of a certain magic, as long as the influence of the magic is in fact discernible."

"Well aren't you a perfect plot device. I mean really, we need to get going already! All this exposition is getting boooring." Pinkie sighed dramatically.

"Uh, say what now?" Applejack asked, confused.

"I have no idea." Fluttershy whispered.

Silence held for a long while as Pinkie sat staring contently at the far wall, entirely oblivious to the gaze of every pony in the room resting heavily on her.

"Aaanyways." Twilight pulled the confused gazes of the ponies back to her. "This spell is only useful if the magic is discernible, so we're back to square one."

"Actually, I think you'll find that whatever magic this may be is actually quite apparent." Star Gazer smiled grimly. "I assume that you are currently experiencing a strange and persistent migraine, accompanied by a loss of control of certain spells?"

"Yes, both me and Rarity. Are you trying to say that whatever magic we are looking for is causing this?" Twilight asked incredulously.

"I am saying that it is our best and only option at this point in time." Star Gazer confirmed. "These headaches have been afflicting Canterlot ponies as well, but it seems to be stronger here. That could mean that this power is causing them, and would allow the spell to trace it from that influence. The only question left is, what do we do when we find this anomaly? And what could it be?"

"If it can affect ponies at as wide of a radius as this, it's no doubt powerful." Twilight pondered, then grabbed her head as another wave of pain hit. "And really annoying." She added.

"Well whatever it is, it'll be no match for the Elements of Harmony!" Rainbow Dash cried, standing triumphantly and stamping her hoof. "This thing is going DOWN!"

"We actually haven't even confirmed if it is something we are going to even need to fight." Twilight said. "It could just be that somepony accidentally activated an ancient artifact or spell of some kind. It would be good to be prepared for anything though."

"Man, you guys are no fun at all." Rainbow grumbled, sitting back down dejectedly.

"How about I explain this spell to you, Miss Sparkle," Star Gazer said, yawning. "And we can set out tomorrow on our search."

The sun was already setting, and a long day of arguing had worn everypony out. Star Gazer and Twilight discussed the workings of the spell as her friends left the library for their own homes. It seemed to all involved that this 'quest' would turn out to be quite uneventful, to the chagrin of a certain colorful pegasus. Fate, it seems, is always ready to prove ponies wrong.

"Get up, you freak!"

Midnight Aria groaned from under the stallion who had tackled her to the ground. She could barely see her friend cowering a few paces away, but she knew exactly what was happening. She worked hard to suppress a growl of frustration. They had almost made it home.

"Can't take it anymore, demon? What are you gonna do, huh?"

"Leave her alone!" Midnight Aria cried from underneath the bigger pony, but he put a hoof over her mouth.

The little red filly in the center of a crowd of jeering faces seemed to be trying to simply disappear. Her trembling only strengthened the insults coming from the other ponies.

"Monster!" A mare behind her yelled, and threw a stone squarely at her head. The filly dodged in time, but another rock landed against her flank, leaving a long gash on her side.

"The beast bleeds!" A dusty purple pegasus screamed in dark satisfaction, and kicked another stone at the defenseless child. Soon rocks were being thrown from every direction, and the filly could not evade them all. Her vision narrowed to a tunnel as a particularly heavy stone collided with her head, and she stumbled to the ground.

"Please! Stop!" Midnight Aria screeched beneath her captor, but the others paid no heed to her muffled pleads.

All the little red filly could feel was pain. Pain from the rocks, pain from the ponies' jeers, and pain from her heart. She didn't know what she had done to deserve this, but she brought her battered wings up over her head in a last effort to protect herself from the barrage of stones and shouts.

"Murderer!" a stallion raged, as he prepared to lob a final rock at the bruised and battered child's head, but the rock suddenly disappeared from his hoof. The crowd parted as a single black unicorn stallion pushed his way through, and came to stand beside the broken filly, his steely glare freezing the mob in place. He then turned to glare down at the filly he stood above, and she returned his gaze with a stare that expected nothing from him except more condemnation.

Midnight Aria's horn suddenly burst forth light, blinding the stallion holding her down and allowing her to dash forward to the filly's side. The unicorn didn't move as Midnight Aria tried to help her friend to her hooves.

"What are you doing?" A voice yelled from the crowd. "That thing is a demon!" Other voices joined in, yelling until it seemed that their anger would boil over again. The unicorn whipped around to the source of the voice, and his dark black eyes betrayed no emotion. An unnerved silence fell over the ponies.

"You." The voice of the unicorn was harsh, deep, and commanding, and the ponies swiftly parted to reveal the mare who had shouted before. She was the one who now seemed to be attempting to disappear.

"You would kill a child. A child who has done absolutely nothing to any of you, here or absent." His voice was filling with seething rage with each word he spoke, until it felt as if his words were tearing right into the mob of ponies as their stones had done to their victim only moments ago. "You have the gall, the audacity, to stone a mere child to death. To death, all for the sake of a Fate that may or may not be?"

"The Shamans have never been wrong!" The mare defended weakly, then immediately wished she hadn't spoken as the unicorn's eyes seem to glow in hatred.

"Then did they predict your death for this day?" He growled softly, before a flickering dark black void surrounded his horn. The mare barely had time to scream before the magic enveloped her body, raising her from the ground. She writhed in the spell's embrace, before the magic tightened around her, holding her still. With a roar, the unicorn's horn flared again, and Midnight Aria ducked her head away as a sickly crack resounded around the cavern.

The only sound now was the thud of the mare's broken body impacting the floor.

The unicorn's menacing glare shifted to the stunned ponies, their jaws agape as what had just occurred sank in. Some began to back away slowly, while others whimpered softly to themselves.

"Well, cowards. RUN!" The unicorn lunged forward, and what had once been a mob was now a screaming mass of ponies all struggling to get away the fastest. Soon, the only ones left were Midnight Aria, the strange unicorn, and the battered and bleeding filly.

"Are... Are you okay?" Midnight Aria whispered to her bruised friend.

"Ill... be fine. Thanks to... you, mister." She groaned, getting shakily to her feet. Leaning on Aria for support, she walked slowly over to the body of the mare. Aria turned her head away, unable to look at the corpse, but her friend glared intently at it.

"I do not require thanks, child." The unicorn shook his head. "I could not in good conscious let them assault you."

"What you did with your magic..." The filly trailed off, her attention captured by the contorted mare.

"I am sorry that you had to see that." He sighed. "The only language those ponies speak is death, it was the only way to stop their rage." The filly turned her gaze intently upon him.

"No, you saved my life. And she deserved it. I'm not afraid of magic." The unicorn turned, surprised, and returned the filly's stare.

"I probably wouldn't have ever been in that situation if I could use magic like you can."

There was something cold within the filly's voice, and Midnight Aria closed her eyes to steel herself for what was to be said. The darkness within her eyelids was brightened by the 'light' of the magic she sensed flooding out of her friend. It had been ever increasing, and was one of the reasons that Sapphire Weaver had never allowed her child to learn magic. Aria had always felt bad for her friend for her lack of even basic spell knowledge, but she also felt as if learning magic would only take her one step closer to...

The young Shaman took a deep breath. She couldn't afford such thoughts. Her reading was wrong, it had to be, it was the only way. Aria had already caused enough damage in her friend's life, a pain that she would never be able to make up for no matter how hard she tried. Besides, it would be good for her friend to learn to stand up for herself.

"Do you think... do you think that you could teach me?"

Silence. Once again the little filly felt as if the lack of sound was more powerful than shouting, and she felt her ears start to droop.

"Yes." Her ears zipped upright as the words reached them, and she looked up at the black unicorn in near-disbelief.

"Really?" She gasped, and her eyes lit up.

"First, there is one rule of all magic that you should know." The grave tone of the stallion sobered the filly, but she listened intently.

"It is incredibly dangerous. Spells are the use of the power within oneself to alter the very world around the caster.  To cast one requires both extensive knowledge, planning out the specific spell, and using the correct amount of energy. All of these steps are equally important. Without knowledge of a spell, a deadly miscast could occur. Without planning of the spell, you could make an error while casting it and catastrophically destroy the spell. If you use the wrong amount of energy, you could cast a spell too powerful for you to control."

"So, the spell just could get away from you?" The red filly asked.

"No. Casting a spell that is too powerful for the caster would either strain the caster until no magic is left within them, simply exhausting them, or for a spell that is far beyond the caster's strength it would consume them entirely."

Both fillies gulped. "Oh."

"That is why it is important to be careful when using magic. It is a powerful and still mostly mysterious force, and it can prove to be deadly." The unicorn's dark eyes drifted back to the corpse of his victim. "Even if it is not meant to be."

The little filly nodded, then frowned slightly. "Mister, if I'm gonna be learning magic from you, can I know your name?"

"Of course." The unicorn smiled slightly. "I am Deimos. What may I call you, little one?"

Aria felt her friend stiffen. Her name had always been a touchy subject. "Uhm. My name is..." Midnight Aria winced in sympathy for her friend, and wondered what she would say. "...Marra. My name is Marra."

Slightly surprised, Aria turned to her friend. The look on her face showed that she had indeed just made that name up. While Aria wasn't that thrilled about dishonesty, she had to admit that Marra sounded like a pretty interesting name. Besides, it wasn't like her name was a life or death matter.

"Well then, Marra, I get the feeling that you might have a very worried parent. It is becoming quite late." Marra's eyes widened in worry.

"Oh no!" As she looked herself over, she found that she looked about as bruised and battered as she felt. "Mom's gonna never let me outside again!

Deimos chuckled slightly. "I could speak to her if you wish. I may be able to calm her down."

"You've never met Sapphire Weaver, have you?" Midnight Aria asked sceptically, and she and Deimos chuckled. They had already begun walking when they realized that Marra wasn't following.

"Marra? You all right?" Aria asked, and walked back to her friend. She hadn't moved and was simply staring at the ground.

"Why did this even happen?" Marra looked up to see Aria with a confused look. "Why does my mom have to worry so much about me simply going outside? Why do we have to explain to her why I'm all bruised up, and why am I all bruised up anyways? Why do the other ponies hate me?" She kicked at the ground dejectedly as Aria came up beside her.

"I dunno for sure, but I think that their jealous." Aria said.

"Jealous? Why the hay would they be jealous of me?" Marra snapped.

"Well, not everyone gets to be an alicorn you know." Aria explained, "You're different from them, and that's a good thing. They just don't understand that."

"Sure, being a completely useless 'hybrid' is a really good thing." Marra rolled her eyes.

"Hush, you! I'm just trying to help."

"I know, sorry. I just don't understand how any of this makes sense."

"In which case, standing here and bickering will not help anything." Deimos nudged the two fillies forward. "Come. We are in danger if those ponies decide to return here."

Aria took the lead, due to her being the only one who knew they way back, and they walked in silence the entire way. Never once did they look back at the cold, agony filled eyes of the nameless corpse behind them.