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“Are you absolutely certain that you are up to the task, my student?”
Twilight wandered down the long corridor beside her friend, her mentor, her idol, frown perched carefully on her lips as they walked. The massive columns cast long shadows over them in the evening light, and the darkness was so deep that it almost swallowed them as they passed from one sunny patch to another.
“It's nothing that I can't handle, Princess Celestia,” Twilight answered calmly, though her heartbeat betrayed her feelings. Her wings were clamped tightly to her side as they traversed the long halls to the old library, the castle echoing as they passed a pair of silently saluting guards.
“You know that I worry about you,” Celestia magically opened the huge carved oaken double doors leading into the expansive library, and Twilight took in a deep breath through her nostrils. She loved the scent of old and new books alike. She took a moment longer to linger in the doorway, glancing back to the shadows behind them before pressing onward to follow the princess. The guards took their place in front of the library doors before they swung closed, neither of them looking at the princess or Twilight.
“This is going to be a monumental undertaking, my student,” Celestia said quietly as they explored the library, torch scones along the walls magically lighting up as they passed them. “No other pony in existence has dared to venture into the realms of chaos, not since...” she trailed off, and Twilight noted the strange look in her eyes that lasted for only a moment, and was gone when she blinked.
“I'm determined,” Twilight nodded seriously. “I've been practicing for the last three months straight.”
“Your magical capacity was never called into doubt,” Celestia said with a small smile, gently placing one alabaster wing over her student as they paused, and looking her square in the eyes. “But this no test, my little pony. This is old magic – older than even myself and Luna. And archaic magic, as it were, usually turns out to be the most dangerous kind. This is no simple undertaking.”
“I-I understand, princess...” Twilight bowed her head, and Celestia nodded as they reached an empty wall. “I'm prepared for whatever is next.”
“Very well,” Celestia drew herself up to her full height, golden glow alighting atop her horn. “Twilight Sparkle, stand back.”
Twilight blinked, taking a couple of cautious steps backwards. Celestia simply stood before the empty stone wall for a moment, a cold draft tickling the back of Twilight's mane.
The stone wall slowly, gradually shimmered with an aura that Twilight had not even detected, each brick ever so gently pulling inward until they began to roll away, revealing a small dark room. Twilight stood in awe at the hidden room; she had been in the library dozens, perhaps hundreds of times and had never once detected a glamoured room, nor even suspected that Princess Celestia would want or need such a thing.
Celestia stood aside and nodded to Twilight, who felt her heart suddenly jump into her throat. She took a tentative step forward, mind abuzz with questions as she took a sheepish step into the room, lighting up the darkness with a flick of her horn.
Inside was nothing more than a collection of dust and a small, worn book sitting atop a wooden pedastal.
“... Is-is this it?” Twilight glanced back to her tutor in confusion. “All of this – the letter, the pomp and circumstance, the secrets; all of this for one little book?”
“This is it,” Celestia answered quietly as Twilight carefully lifted up the dirty old leather bound book in one hoof. “The one and only book that was ever written by the god of chaos himself.”
“Discord wrote this?” Twilight stared down at the small book in her hoof.
“And so begins your mission.” Celestia magically resealed the barrier over the hidden room as they exited. “Perhaps within this ancient tome you can discover where Discord has disappeared to.”
“I never knew that Discord wrote... well, anything,” Twilight rolled the book over in her hoof, inspecting it. It appeared to be no more than, well, a dirty old book. It was undecorated in any way, plain and ordinary in all respects, aside from a few worn pages sticking out from the side. “This hardly seems like something that Discord would keep.” Twilight started to pry open the book to check inside, but was swiftly stopped by Celestia with a strong hoof.
“Not here,” she could have sworn that she heard a hint of panic in Celestia's voice.
“What?” Twilight blinked in confusion once again. “Princess? What's wrong?”
“Twilight,” Celestia drew her closer to one of the bookshelves, her voice lowered. “You fail to understand; this is no ordinary book or diary. This is the journal of Discord. The only record that he ever kept. It holds strong magic; if you can decipher his language, perhaps it may become easier to read. But do not open this book, under any circumstances, around anypony else. Have I made myself perfectly clear, Twilight Sparkle?”
Twilight clamped her mouth shut and nodded swiftly, now with even more questions than she had before.
“Good,” Celestia said with a hint of relief as she reopened the library doors, leading Twilight out. “I wish you the best of luck, my student. You have proven yourself exceptionally capable in the past. We can only hope that you can do better than I ever could. I have faith in you, Twilight.”
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I have faith in you, Twilight.
Twilight stared down at the small book on her writing desk with a frown, thinking.
Just what in Tartarus had happened?
Celestia was never so secretive about anything, at least not with Twilight. The mysterious letter she had received regarding Discord's disappearance still sat open on her desk, and she rolled it up and closed her eyes, contemplating. She took a deep breath, bracing herself as she took another look out the window at the moonlit night, her thoughts heavy. Spike was already asleep in his bed, probably snoring away. Twilight briefly considered simply leaving the mysteriously plain book until morning, but shook herself away from that thought.
I have faith in you, Twilight.
She began casting a defensive barrier over the room, newfound determination growing in her chest. There was no way that she would let down the princess, even if it did concern the god of chaos. Twilight's horn lit up as she cast yet another scanning spell over the potentially dangerous peculiar journal, and found nothing once again. She took a long, deep breath, and finally opened it with one hoof, ready to magically shield herself should something terrible occur.
Nothing happened.
Twilight let out a quiet, shaky laugh, mentally scolding herself. She had gone through all the trouble of preparing for something cataclysmic that Discord might have boobytrapped his book with, and nothing at all had happened. She shook her head and brushed the mane from her face, poring over the strange symbols. They certainly weren't written in Equish, nor was the ink sprawling like spiderwebs over the pages in any other type of recorded language that Twilight had ever seen.
Each page began with a small line, almost like a trail from the top of the page winding downward and branching off into multiple paths, swirling and twirling this way and that but always connected to one another, no matter the distance. She was a little surprised by the graceful form of the language, and found herself trailing her hoof up and down over the inky paths, occasionally tilting her head to follow the hypnotically winding and twisting letters. She held the book in her hooves, turning it around again and again to follow the writing. It was almost beginning to give her a headache.
Twilight let out an uneven breath, her head suddenly feeling very heavy. She closed her eyes and took in a sharp breath through her teeth, shaking her head to ward off the feeling.
Then the darkness consumed her.
Twilight jumped in shock, clearly no longer in her writing room. For a terrible moment she was afraid that simply reading Discord's book had caused her to go blind, and a small whimper escaped her lips before she violently shook her head again, casting a simple light spell to illuminate the dark.
She sorely wished that she hadn't.
Twilight stood on the edge of a chasm stretching downward into eternity, with sparkling lights far off in the distance that made her feel as if she were looking down into stars. They all twinkled warmly, and there was one particular star far in the distance that was much larger than the others, almost as if it were beckoning her toward it. If there was a far wall to the chasm, she couldn't even see it. Her breath caught in her chest as she stood atop the small stone, the same runic letters that had been written in the book in her hoof copied all over the rock she balanced on. Twilight struggled to keep calm, attempting a teleportation spell that would bring her home.
Nothing happened.
“Okay,” her voice came out feeling muffled by the darkness surrounding her. “Okay. I can fix this. I can fix this. Just stay calm, Twilight. Keep a level head.”
Resisting the urge to scream in frustration and rising terror, Twilight took in her surroundings, forcing herself to focus on logically escaping the situation. She was standing on top of a rock floating in the middle of an abyss with nothing more than a few loose pebbles and Discord's book. She could not teleport home, or anywhere else for that matter, although magic did still seem to function, which meant that she still had a chance. She sent up a couple of hopeful magical flares, instead revealing that wherever she was appeared to have no ceiling, but many, many identical floating stones of varying sizes slowly drifting through the sky. Twilight frowned, telikinetically lifting one of the pebbles and dropping it off the edge, tilting her head and listening closely for the sound of it hitting the ground.
Surprisingly, it came much sooner than Twilight expected, almost as soon as she dropped it.
She peered over the edge of the rocky chasm, kicking another pebble off the edge and watching it fall this time.
The rock fell.
Horizontally.
Twilight stared as the rock landed on the chasm's wall a short distance away, and her brain seemed to reject what had just happened.
“Okay,” she shook her head, thinking. “Okay. So, there appears to be a gravity shift in place,” Twilight mused aloud, bracing herself once again. “Celestia help me this is the stupidest thing I've ever done.”
Twilight took a step back, ruffled her wings, and jumped.
For a long moment, the whole world seemed to hang before her, the gaping maw of the abyss directly below her widening up as she fell. Her heart felt as if it just stopped for a single beat, and she threw out her wings in panic as she fell.
Then gravity reversed itself, and she found herself on her back on the rocky wall as if it were a floor.
Twilight let out a winded gasp, pushing herself to stand and magically lighting up the area. It was almost as if she had simply jumped from the stone onto a rocky plain of sorts, little blue vegetation that she hadn't noticed before growing here and there amongst the rocks.
“Right,” she stood with determination, brow furrowed as she clutched the book in one hoof, flipping through it again. “Just going to pretend that never happened. Did he leave anything legible in here...?”
“Probably not. Try going forward, you might meet someone that can read that for you.”
“Thanks,” Twilight answered distractedly, rifling through the pages. “Maybe I can-”
She jerked her head up, staring about for the source of the voice. She saw nothing but the twinkling stars above her.
“H-hello?” Twilight peered around. “Is-is somepony there?”
“Well,” the voice answered as one of the stars twinkled almost like a wink. “Not somepony, exactly.”
Then another star winked. Then another. Then another. Before she knew it several of the stars were coming together almost like a set of many eyes, and Twilight cast another little light from her horn toward the stars.
Crawling out of the darkness came a gigantic spider the size of a cart horse. The bottom half had easily the sharpest looking appendages that Twilight had ever seen, clicking and clacking as it walked, the stars twinkling in it's eight eyes as it brushed aside the magical light, sending it spiraling away into the dark. Twilight backpedaled away and reached deep for the magic, a scream erupting from her throat.
“Oh, my,” the starry eyed spider with a pony's face in it's belly spoke softly as a gout of fire went searing just by its hairy head. It had a pair of mandibles that clicked as it spoke, like bones smacking together. “Does this mean that you don't want my help?”
“What-what in Tartarus are you?” Twilight froze as it spoke again, ready to go on the offensive at any moment.
“Jumpy little thing, aren't you?” the creature smiled quietly, standing several feet over her as it rubbed its forelegs together in what she severely hoped wasn't a hungry manner. “It's been quite a long time since we've had visitors, I do hope you aren't too frightened to continue along your journey.”
Twilight stared at the monster, her brain feeling as if it had just shut down.
“You-you aren't going to eat me?” she felt the magic ebb away from her.
“Only if you're into that,” the spider winked with one starry eye. “But you're here on business, are you not?”
“I... I am,” Twilight shifted awkwardly at the bizarre circumstances. “I am Twilight Sparkle, here on behalf of Princess Celestia to find what happened to Discord.”
“Ah, royal decree then?” the spider with a face in its belly guessed, standing up a little straighter. “Now, what oh what has the god of chaos gotten himself into this time, I wonder?”
“Do you know where we are?” Twilight asked uneasily, keeping her distance. “I-I read this book of Discord's, and I wound up here...”
“Did you now...” the spider approached, wiping a bit of slaver from its face.
“It-it's not important,” Twilight hid the book beneath one of her wings, suddenly back away once again and keeping her horn pointed toward the behemoth. “I can find my own way out.”
“... Suit yourself,” the spider shrugged suddenly, turning away. “I'm sure you don't need any assistance navigating this place. Good luck finding your way through the Cipher on your own then.”
“W-wait,” Twilight stared after it as it slowly faded away into the shadows. “What are you talking about? What is the Cipher? Hey!”
But the creature had already dissipated into the darkness, leaving her standing alone. Twilight suddenly felt as if the once warming glow of the stars were suddenly watching her, and she took in a deep breath before setting off toward the biggest light in the distance.
And so began her quest to unravel the Cipher.
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