Story chapter one
As Twilight investigated the restricted part of the Canterlot Archive, she noticed a small door. Its frame was level with the wall and made of polished brass. Everything implied that it was just another room of the Archive. Yet, as she watched, something didn't feel right. Studying it intently, she couldn't quite put a hoof on it. It just seemed like a door that didn't want to be opened. She knew how weird that sounded, yet it was the closest approximation to that feeling. Reaching out with her magic, she felt a magical barrier protecting the door. Shattering it easily, the door opened to a small room with a staircase leading below the earth. Curious of what was the meaning of such protection, she descended into darkness. Lighting her horn, she arrived to an underground chamber with a stone altar in the middle. On it were 9 books, each chained to a pedestal, each radiating magic that was slowly swirling around the room, illuminating it with soft red light. Stepping closer, she was able to see the titles:
Chaos, Hatred, Rage, Love, Magic, Serenity, Oblivion, Apathy and Harmony.
The books spoke to her, guiding her closer, tempting her to free them, to read them, to learn... Trying to unlock the chains with her magic as she was opposed with an unknown force. As soon as the spell formed in her mind, the mental construct shattered completely, denying her any progress. Focusing even more, she tried to force the chains apart. Yet as she failed, she realised the chains were somehow resisting her. During her struggle against the chains, magical charge was slowly building up in the air as a residue to the failed spells. As the power of it had no outlet, it started flowing about the outer wall of the chamber. Oblivious to the torrent of energy surrounding her, she finally looked around the room. On a slightly smaller pedestal, there was a small, blood red sphere with a strange impurity - particles that formed a glowing eye, watching her. It was laying on an ancient-looking scroll, as the paper already started decaying. Straightening it, she carefully read the writing.
Behold the eye of power. Cast this spell and thou shall gain of its might.
But be careful, for if She knows, she shall destroy thee,
for this piece is long forbidden, but not forgotten.
She was shocked. "Who knew Celestia was hiding things in a public library!" She thought. Then she remembered - she was in restricted area, sector 7c, the home to most ancient and powerful books and scrolls. Slowly recovering, she immediately left, intent on telling Celestia. The moment she left the chamber though, she had forgotten what she was doing. Turning around to see where did she come from, she only saw an empty wall. Slightly confused, she left the archives strolling casually through the castle corridors. Focused on observing the art on the walls, she soon arrived to her room. clearing out her saddlebags, she discovered a scroll and a small red sphere... As her look wandered over the items though, her eyes glazed over and her magic slowly took them and pushed them to the bottom of a chest of clothes. After a few minutes of standing stone-still she had regained her bearings and, wondering what had she been doing for the past few minutes, slowly moved towards her bed.
It was a long day after all...
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There was a bright light. There was also a sound. It closely matched a thunderclap, if you were to stand directly under the lightning. Needless to say, it was loud. Very much so.
As the explosion of power started to spread all over nearby lands, Celestia awoke from her slumber. She was puzzled - to wake her, something serious had to happen. She did not question herself what it was for long, for the wall of sound and Force hit her. She was thrown off her bed and into the wall. She was shaken, yet not quite stirred. With little consideration, she cast protection spells around her castle. Then, she started to think about what could it be. Her mental scan of the surrounding area showed nothing out of ordinary, but she was able to determine the center of that wave of power. "Ponyville. Heh. For how often trouble sees to come to that town, I really shouldn't be surprised anymore."
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But let's take a look at what happened a couple of days earlier.
It was a typical weekend - for Twilight of course, that meant magical experimenting.
Having discovered a mysterious scroll and spell, she, of course, set on discovering its secrets. Strong magical barrier was in place in case anything dangerous happened, so Twilight was anxious to begin. Already checked and double-checked the main parts of the mysterious spell, she started preparing for the casting. Since this particular spell required a runic circle, it took her better part of the morning preparing it.
"Spike!", she yelled. "Bring me more chalk please! I already used almost all of it!"
"Yeah, yeah." Spike replied, running down the basement stairs. "Coming. But next time please tell me in advance that you are going to use that much. I already had to go buy more!"
With an eyeroll she quipped back "Sorry Spike, but I really didn't know I needed a runic circle. This thing is rare enough even in very advance spells."
"Why exactly do you even need it? He passed her the chalk. "And why is this spell so special? What does it even do?"
"Oh, I don't actually know. This is exactly why I am casting it under a barrier." Twilight answered. "But from what i managed to decrypt from the scroll, it lets me draw magic from a small predetermined area around myself. Just imagine how much easier spellcasting would be if I had a power reserve ready to use! Now stand back please. I'm not finished just yet."
Spike, who had already started inspecting the mesmerizing patterns from up close, slowly answered: "These sure are beautiful. Almost as much...as Rarity...." Drooling at the thought of Her beauty, he quickly jumped away as he caught up with what Twilight was saying.
"Now, now, Casanova," Twilight teased. "You can go see her when we're done here. And also, I'm done." Stepping exactly in the centre of the circle, she deeply inhaled as the runes started to glow bright red. Power began to flow as she focused the spell. "Damn! This is going to be hard!", she panted and exhaled hard. Seeing the requisite was above expectation, she realised the need to extend the ritual as to gather sufficent energy. Relaxing and letting power flow through her, she could feel the spell activating. Red glow suffused the runes embedded onto the flooring. Ground shook and strong winds howled into existence in the room as the spell redirected massive amount of magic, forming numerous faintly visible spell matrices suspended above the runes.
"Wow, Twilight! Are you sure this is safe?" Spike cried, struggling to avoid being crushed against the wall.
Incredibly giddy, Twilight replied: "Not really, but I have to finish this" She giggled. "I just have to. I...I can't stop such an opportunity. History is being written, right here, right now! ."
"But... But you could hurt yourself!" He yelled.
"Highly unlikely, Spike. This spell is not aggressively directed. If it were, then i'd worry. But it is not. The only way for it to hurt anyone would be if i lost control... so no. Now shush, let me finish."
Channeling even more power to the spell, she could feel a magical charge in the air. It condensed around her body, forming a bright teal aura. It lifted her form from the ground. Her eyes glowed white. The moment the spell touched her coat, it dissipated into the unicorn's body. All while the spell neared completion, the light seeped around the room. During this, she had received a feeling one could best describe as the 'sixth sense'. She was completely aware of all sorrounding life... she could feel the grass, the old life of the big oak... Even maggots and worms. At last, when the feeling of power ended along with her spell, it left Twilight to fall back to the ground in a moment of orgasmic delight.
Slowly rising from the ground, Twilight felt incredibly tired - as if she was drained of her power. "Phew!" She smiled, breathed hard and fell back to the floor. "I Really did not expect it to be so draining..."
Just as Spike excavated himself from the pile of books that fell from the shelves, he saw Twilight fall to the ground. "Twilight! Are you okay?" Spike's voice was filled with worry as he saw her jaw hit the floor.
"I'm fine, Spike... I'm just tired. I need... some..." With that, she slumped onto the runes and snored gently.
"Oooookay... You sure?" Seeing the lack of response, he snickered and left to spend a beautiful afternoon in the Carousel Boutique.
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As the night fell, a strange storm appeared. Weather ponies still awake were stricken with fear - they didn't know of anything other than pegasi changing the weather, and this storm came out of nowhere!
Even later that night, the sky turned dark purple with swirls of black flowing through it - not bright enough to wake anypony but more than enough to get even the most ignorant observers questioning their reality. The weirdest part was, it didn't last much more than a minute. After a thorough consideration they assumed it was their eyes playing tricks on them. Which they also were. The reality was much more horrendous. What they had seen was the true nature of the space beyond their sky. Of course adapted slightly, for their brain could not comprehend the image it was receiving from the eyes. But they paid it no heed. After all, it had been a long day.
Anypony who would have walked throughout the town at that moment, would have realized that something was wrong. The shadows were too dark, the magic spheres gently lighting the main streets were a bit too bright.
Alas, there was no one to notice.
Those who would do anything around the walls could discover that structural integrity wasn't what it used to be. Some not careful enough might even discover the means of other dimensions.
Dark thing shifted behind the tears in reality that randomly appeared through the surrounding area. Even a trained eye couldn't notice the thousands of things that weren't the same - the colours of magic slightly off; the fine, cool sand over the usually clean streets of Ponyville. Some might even notice the stars and the Moon shining just a bit too strong. But of course, that would be impossible to most, as ignorance paired with common sense can make for unnoticed passage of some rather unbeliveable events.
Those few who did notice any oddities were either too tired to logically think about the happenstance or simply thought it the doing of the upcoming storm. They didn't know how wrong they were.
The very fabric of existence was shifting around Ponyville. Inside its library, basement rather, things were... wrong. Yes, that would be the correct word. Books were shifting on their ledges with a mind of their own and the ground was gently rumbling and grumbling. A gentle breeze was blowing, pushing around dried leaves, which weren't there moments ago. The light travelling throughout the room was distorted as by a hot summer day. The room was lit by nonexistent moonlight and magic practically dripped from the air within the boundaries of the Runic circle.
It swirled and glowed gently, slowly sweeping towards sleeping Twilight, condensing on her body. Running through her coat, it was soaking directly into her, filling her up. When a threshold was reached, Power erupted. At first in small amounts, yet as nothing was holding it back it began to roll away from the unicorn.
Outside, the storm had formed a giant vortex focused above the town. Swirling faster and faster, a flash like a gigantic bolt of lightning erupted from the clouds.
Another one... And another one. Each and every one was focused purely above the ritual in progress. Power was released and bound anew. A particular crystal ball cracked with the discharge of energy. And in a particular unicorn it all came to a rest.
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A deep rumble shook the library and awoke the pony, who immediately jumped on her hooves and panicked as the floor turned to liquid beneath her hooves momentarily. She ran away from the sound in confusion, but hit an invisible wall before she could leave the circle. Disoriented and confused from the sudden onset of different sensations, she picked herself up and, quivering from the shock of what has happened, considered her situation. Somehow, she had to find out what had happened while she was unconscious. Still panicked and groggy she had not even noticed the hurricane of power howling from within. With a few repetitions of breathing exercises, she reasessed her surroundings. Headache? A close encounter with her, luckily still functioning, barrier. Grogginess? Must be sleeping on cold, hard floor. After a quick wake-up call by har bladder and an even quicker again by the barrier she realised something truly astounding - she was sustaining the spell!
"It seems the circle condensed enough magic for me to sustain a barrier without even realising it... fascinating," That said, she canceled the spell.
When she stepped outside the protected are of the circle though, the ground seemed to melt from her as she warped to her desired location - her bedroom.
Thinking fast, she shook the shock away as she realised energy was practically oozing from her. Seeing as it was still flowing away, the next challenge was stopping it, and that... was a bit of a problem. Sure, playing with such spells wasn't easy. Sure, she could handle immense amounts of energy. But never before had she been unable to feel the flow of her own magic. Never before had she been required to forcefully cut herself from her lifeline if for the sake of everything near herself. Stray thoughts could be a real hassle when they came true in a blink of an eye. Truly, a problem this would be had she never experienced a magical overflow like that. Usually, she would just cut off the spell from the source of magic deep inside her, but at times like this, it felt like there was something that was resisting her attempts of cutting off the magic. It was a strange feeling. Normal unicorns never had to deal with such power. None had been able to summon it. It was like coming out of a warm bath. Wish to get out is there, but your limbs seem to go weak and your body becomes heavy as you try to rise. It was like that, only with magic. An abysmally accurate comparison, and yet.
Little did she know the strains of the Mighty. Alas, after some time she finally succeeded.[this will be expanded]
She wondered what was happening though - was that an aftereffect of yesterday's spell? To detect the effects of her spell, she thought idly of testing its supposed effect on the mysterious crystal she had found.
It certainly didn't look like much, just a sphere of crimson crystal, but Twilight knew that it had power. It was one of not many things that remained from the world before Equestria. It was an object so ancient, that the powers of creation itself had touched it. She didn't know HOW she knew it, yet... She did.
When she had made the decision, she calmed down. "I hope the artifact won't do anything unexpected", she murmured.
She walked towards the certain place in the library, two paces from the mirror, then three to the right, and cast an opening spell. There, hovering in the air, a rectangular shape had appeared, formed of the meticolously shaped cuts between dimensions. The secret doors to the pocket dimension she had created for just such an occasion had opened.
It was her old hiding place. Used anytime she had anything or anyone to hide, it had helped her on many occasions, including the time she was nearly found with her blowup doll of Starswirl the Bearded. That alone saved her from many awkward moments, as if she didn't have enough of those already. Currently anyhow, it was used as a storage for any magical item she liked and didn't want Celestia or others know about it.
Luckily, magic couldn't leak through dimensions, or the large amount of magical items there would be discovered by just about anyone with a sense for magic.
Once she got inside though, she froze. Every little thing in that room usually had a magical aura - she usually didn't even need to turn on the light to see around the room. But this time... This time was different. The air was buzzing with power, and it was nearly too bright to see around. Every item in that room always shone with a bright color, the color of its magic. As she touched the crystal, she could feel the vast amount of the power stored within. Compared to what it was usually, this was... How to put it... Usually it felt like a wall, tall and strong, with no end on either side. But now, now it was a tsunami. High and wide, a tremendous power pushing forward relentlessly.
Even for an unicorn, one who was used to handling high-energy spells, that was too much. Her mind was washed away in the strong current of magic, and after a while finally settling in the depths of her soul. Under the strain of such an intense torrent of magic, her skin started glowing and her coat began smoldering. With a violent scream she gave in. In a burst of white light were washed away the thoughts, the inhibitions that made that little studious unicorn who she once was. Now, unable to determine right from wrong she could only rely on what had she done before and what others do. Shaking from a pain of nearly dying, she fell down. And before even her body struck the floor, the Twilight all loved and adored was no more. Gone was the kindness of forgiving a friend. Gone was the the drive for telling truth for the sake of it. What stayed, was utter contempt and disgust at the memories of her as she was, as she wanted to be, all until now. Now, she had changed. She was given another chance to strive for her true potential! Such an opportunity will not go to waste. She would finally get the power she deserves! But, as her intellect most certainly wasn't gone, she knew. If she suddenly started acting different, strange, everyone would notice. And she didn't want them to notice. So the path to power will have to be long, but oh so rewarding in the end. "With this spell, ahh the possibilities... that was actually a great idea! I could gather the power of more artifacts like this one, it will make my work even easier!"
Coming out of her inner monologue, she opened her eyes, noticing she still laid on the floor of her vault. Rising slowly, not to overexert herself, she noticed two halves of the once perfect sphere. She noticed that the formerly clear crystal now appeared cracked and foggy, no longer shining with internal power. That was explainable. She had absorbed its power, claimed it for herself to use only. Her increasingly annoying headache confirmed that, as massive power transfers tended to put a lot of strain on one's mind. Looking around, she could still see the rest of the items glow with their inner power. One by one, she took them in her hoof, shivering every time, as the new streams of magic flowed into her body. It certainly was an unpleasant experience, that's for sure. But presented with a much safer option of storing all the power contained within those items, she took to it immediately. Having finished that arduous task, she finally slipped a glance towards herself in the mirror on the opposite wall. And what she saw, shocked her to the core. Her coat darkened to such a degree, it was nearly black. Her eyes were...bright, almost as if she was blind. They almost glowed, the almost white colour overpowering the former purple. Perhaps the most noticeable was that her mane now had a silvery-white streak aside the normal magenta one.
"Nonononono now everyone will know something is wrong!"
"Calm down Twilight, deep breaths.~ You can handle this...just say it was a failed spell or something..."
"I CAN'T DEAL WITH THIS NOW!"
When she had moved her vision into the magic spectrum, she emananted magic like a lighthouse. Her aura was several times the usual size and almost overpowering if one looked at it. Auras have a specific attribute you see, they are as close to the physical representation of one's soul as one could get. And to see the soul itself... it was truly a magnificent sight to behold. Gazing into the soul, you see the most beautiful sight, the magic of life, the song of nature. Seeing what drives any and all creatures to live, to survive, to create and more, that leaves anyone breathless. Each and every body of a living being has an aura, a weak radiation of magic from the body, usually showing the magical saturation of an individual. But only a few of the most skilled spellcasters were strong enough to see one. Twilight, luckily, was one of those. Aside that, she had known before that for a unicorn, she was far above average already. And her magical lighthouse had only brightened as of now. This spell, even though it drained most of that power, had more than returned what was taken from her. Thinking quickly, she noted the fact that no one was yet notified or had noticed anything happening... Probably. She would have to be more careful in the future.
Quickly restoring the magical fallout of her yesterdays' spell to its original state, she had returned the basement to its usual appearance. Casting a quick spell on herself, she looked almost like before she had changed. One problem will be hiding the eyes. Those can almost never be changed with illusion magic as they are the most notable feature in relations with other ponies. I might just say it's an aftereffect of yesterday's spell. That sounds convincing enough. She will have to research further into what had actually happened to her body later, for now, she had a plan to piece together.
Once she started moving though, she noticed that even the barest motions of her body emit bright arcs of pure magic. Even if ponies usually didn't see them, they could still feel and perhaps even recognise the aerial discharge. After some thinking, she concluded if her body had absorbed enough power to saturate her body with it to such a level, some casting will be required to lessen the effects of her greatened magic reserve.
Hmmmm, do i know any book about containment spells...? Aha! hmmmm Nonono, this one can be easily broken by mistake...inefficient...too visible...hmmmm perhaps this one... damn. the side effects... solid magic crystal deposition inside body? augh! although... why not? well i guess i could then just... scratch them out? hmm it's not even tested fully yet... but i like it. I think this will be the one i will use.
She suddenly got an idea: "the Alicorn amulet! It already grants a massive amount of power but there must always be more, holding the spell together! If i absorbed its power, i would be strong enough to even challenge Celestia! I could finally realise my wish."(the wish being knowing EVERYTHING about magic) s
She immediately started preparing for a trip to Canterlot. There, the amulet was safely stored in the royal treasury.
Twilight suddenly stopped - she would have to convince the Princess to allow her the access.
Immediately, a plan formed. Celestia would grab any opportunity to render the amulet of its power! She will only have to convince her that she should do it. But that won't be such a problem. Twilight had many reasons to study the amulet.
