Azil

"Get up Sparkle, you're getting transferred," came the growling voice of one of her cell's guards. She was sitting on her haunches in a cage, her front legs raised high above her head and chained by the hoof to the bars on the ceiling. On her muzzle was strapped a leather harness to keep her trap shut, the buckles and leather strings bound tight. Her eyes fluttered open, a dry wheeze escaping her snout and her ears barely registering the guard's statement or the heavy groaning of the iron door to her cell opening. She slowly looked to her right, her lawyer trotting in with several other guards and a well-dressed, uniform wearing colt she recognized immediately as the warden.

"Well well Twilight..." The Warden began, glaring at her from between the bars as he slowly walked around its outer perimeter. The dehorned unicorn followed him with her eyes, her irises gleaming and the whites of those once majestic orbs a sickly, bloodshot red. "Am I sure glad your stay with us was a relatively short one. I had you pegged for a psychopath the moment I laid eyes on you, and keeping those kinds of ponies under wraps is more of an annoyance than its worth in the bits we're getting paid to keep you here." He spat on the ground before her, the lavender mare shaking in her chains with a furious look in her eyes, her lips pushing against the harness of her muzzle as they curled into a snarl.

The Warden chuckled, standing back as the retrieval team opened her cage and began the process of removing her and prepping her for transit. Hooves were unchained and cuffed, other chains fitted around her legs and being bound together so she could walk but not run. All the while his stupid, old voice continued to rattle her ears and brain. "You'll be interested to know," He said with a taunting fashion, a spring in his step as he pranced around her "That your good pal Rainbow Dash is getting released from the hospital today. It was touch and go there for awhile but after four weeks...well it looks like she's gonna pull through."

Twilight thrashed in her bondings, the guards letting out a series of shouts as several hooves punched and kicked at her, shoving her to the floor. A stamp on her head drove a yelp from the broken unicorn, the Warden grinning ear to ear as he leaned down closely to whisper to her "It's just too bad all of what you did wasn't worth it...the evidence they'll never find, the reputations that'll be tarnished forever, the real truth behind what happened at the factory staying buried...and you, getting marched to your death without ever knowing just how screwed you were from the very beginning."

She looked up at him, her eyes widening and a confused scowl crossing her visage. What was he talking about...? What evidence? What truth? She tried to open her mouth, her fur pressing tightly against the harness as she could only manage a protesting whimper. "Heh...don't worry about the details kiddo," The Warden said, watching the unicorn being dragged backwards through the cell door "Let's just say...you've been doomed for a long...long time."

~~~

Twilight shifted uncomfortably in her seat, her breath shaky and her form shivering. The bodies surrounding her could still be seen out of the corner of her eye, and she dared not give any of them a moment of her time or a glancing of her vision. The air was cold, brittle even. Her breath escaped her in a whisp-like vapor as a deadly chill settled on the air. Her terrified trance was suddenly broken however as the scratching of chalk on the chalkboard brought her back to reality. The elderly teacher grumbled quietly under his breath as he quickly wrote two words on the board: Forbidden Magic and Multi-to-Alternate-Verse Theory.

"Now then," He began, his voice hoarse like he had sand in his throat "Who can tell me the four fundamentally forbidden schools of magic that unicorns are prohibited from practicing, studying, or even thinking about for an extended length of time?" He turned to face the 'class', and while Twilight would have expected him to look straight at her, his eyes wandered across the rest of the decomposing graveyard that littered the various desks in the room. "Somepony...? Come on we covered this earlier on in the semester didn't we?"

An awkward silence fell across the room, Twilight's ears perking as she could have sworn she heard a chair or something creak behind her. She was too terrified to move, too terrified to speak. What was going on here?! Who was this colt, why were there dead children in his classroom?! How could he be so calm in a sea of decaying flesh and-

"Sparkle, since you seemed to want to show up nearly late," The teacher said with gruff annoyance, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his snout "Perhaps you feel confident enough to answer. Come now, name the schools." Twilight could only manage a whimper, shaking in her fur as the teacher's gaze bore into hers. After a few silent moments the teacher merely shook his head and sighed "Look everypony, I know Hearth's Warming break was a little longer this year than usual, but that doesn't give any of you the excuse to grow lax on your studies...but since this material is going to be on the final exam let's review it one more time." Twilight's ear twitched, the emphasis he put into the word 'one' was...it was different. Something was sticking out that she couldn't quite place.

"There are four schools of forbidden magic that unicorns are extremely prohibited from practicing, and they're as follows." Once again, the same feeling hit Twilight like someone had gently splashed a sprinkling of water on her face. Four? What about four...what about one? "Time..." He began, writing it on the chalkboard "Planes...Battle...and Celestial." He hovered the chalk before the board as he turned to face the class again "Four schools, and two extreme sentences for dabbling in any one or a combination of them, they being immediate de-horning without trial, or your simple capital punishment...a death by firing squad." Two, but why was it so important? Twilight furrowed her brow, the chill still lingering on her damp fur but a low fire starting to burn in her soul. What was going on?

"Time," he said again, pointing the chalk to the first word "The manipulation, or otherwise tampering with in any form or measure. This includes your basic time-traveling spell to aging spells and any other forms of magic that do with the manipulation of past, present, or future events." He tapped the chalk against 'Time' very firmly as she drew out his next words in a careful, concise manner. "If one were to manipulate time incorrectly, you could very easily create a paradox that would lead to a creation of impossibilities and structural weaknesses in the very fabric of reality. Very serious, irreparable damage would be the only resulting cause of tampering with the timeways." He waved his hoof about, the chalk doing a spin "Say a bird died from a falling stone, right? You feel bad, so you go back in time to save the bird before the stone hits it. There's now a bird that's alive in a timeline where it should have otherwise been dead, and you might think at first 'oh what's the harm in that professor?', well now say that bird ends up accidentally flying into the face of a colt trying to drive one of the outbound Manehatten trains. He panics, and in his flurry of trying to swat the feathered beast out of his face knocks the control rod into full throttle and plows into the station, killing two hundred and forty eight ponies in the process as what's depicted here." He holds up a newspaper clipping from behind his desk, indicating the grisly seen posted underneath the headline: "Horrific Train Massacre, Traced Time Magic Suspected as Cause." "The mare in question, after tracing the events back to the magical discharge she let off channeling that spell, was sentenced and shot to death within two days."

Twilight blinked, tilting her head slightly. The numbers 'One', 'Four', and 'Two' thudding in the back of her brain as she listened to the lecture. The teacher went on, pointing his chalk towards the second school "Planes, or more commonly referred to as 'Planes-walking'. It's a known fact that Equestria, our reality, is only one of several different instances of existence. There's the Realm of Tartarus, Realm of Nightmares, Realm of Discord, and several other notable planes in page three hundred and twenty four in your textbooks. Accessing, attempting to contact, or any sort of interacting with these planes is strictly prohibited...as the creatures of these realms could do a considerable amount of lethal, catastrophic damage should they be let loose or find their way onto our own plane."

A sudden noise caused the lavender mare to jump in her seat, her ears perking and bolting to the left as a raspy, throaty groan slowly wound its way into her ears. She couldn't look, the unicorn frozen to the spot as something shifted next to her. A disgusting series of squelching and slapping noises filled the air before the teacher shook his head "We'll get to that Buzzle Bee, don't interrupt. Now then," He pointed his chalk to the third and fourth words "Battle is simple enough, any form or variance of Battle magic is against the law. Unicorns may employ defensive magic to safeguard their lives and of those around them, but never should any lethal or harmful magic be a part of your arsenal. This is reserved for the training and employment of the Equestrian Guard and her many branches of military service so that we can defend the borders and not have to worry about our country's ponies blowing each other to smithereens over menial nonsense, as described in an excerpt from 'The Ponies Vs. Whitetail', where a mare was blown to pieces after a dispute over a tray of baked goods." The chalk hovered to the last word, the squelching getting louder and starting to rise up from behind Twilight and to her right as well. Still she refused to look, her breath short and shaky and her tiny little heart thudding like a hummingbird's wings. Every inch of her was screaming at her to run, to flee...but still she could not move. She felt like she needed to hear this...she was here for a reason.

"Celestial, or 'Princessial Magic', is reserved solely for the monarchs of our kingdom. I am of course referring to Queen Celestia and Princess Luna," The teacher said with a tone of 'obviously' laced within his words "The magics that pertain to moving the celestial bodies of the sun and moon, as well as other aspects of nature too delicate and unstable for the Pegasai to control belong to the monarchs and the monarchs ONLY." He grumbled at the last bit, his voice strained as he said roughly "It's because of this magic that the balance of nature in Equestria remains the way it always ought to be: Stable. Without it, we'd be at the mercy of Mother Nature and believe me...she is not a mare you'd want to let have the reigns of our world."

He took a breath, pausing to pull a bottle of water out from behind his desk. As he uncapped it and took a drink, Twilight couldn't help but let her eyes slowly move to the left. A sliver of moment caught her eye and her vision snapped back forward, a chorus of slow movement and scraping echoing around behind her. She remembered Spike often mentioning dark and impossible creatures at some of the ghost stories he'd try and tell other ponies around the campfire during their nature outings back home, but more often than not ending up scaring only himself. What had he called them again...?

After his few gulps of water and a satisfied sigh, the teacher set the bottle back behind his desk and nodded "There's your recap, and it'll be the last one I give on this material so for the Queen's sake please jot these down in your notes, it WILL be on the exam!" He cleared his throat "Now then, onto the topic for today which will hopefully answer your question in turn Buzzle Bee: Multi-to-Alternate-Verse Theory." He looked around the class, the noises and clattering of movement growing louder and louder "Anyone care to take a stab at what it might be?"

Twilight continued to stare at the words on the chalkboard, her mind racing as the clattering grew louder around her. She could have sworn a couple of desks just turned over. "Feeling sleepy today are we? Fair enough, it's only the first couple of days back so I'll let it slide, for now..." He pointed to the word 'Alternate' first, moving right along with the lesson. "Multi-To-Alternate-Verse theory is merely a summary of two theories put together, but with a catch. It is derived from what is called the 'Many-Worlds Interpretation which theorizes that any and all possible histories, as well as futures exist as other 'worlds' or 'realities'. The best way to summarize it is by providing an example." He reached behind his desk and produced an apple, placing it on the desk and motioning to it "Say I eat this apple, right? Well, according to the Many-Worlds Interpretation, there is a universe or plane of reality in which I did not eat this apple. The universe in which I did 'not' eat this apple is now known as an 'Alternate Universe'."

The chalk slides over to the word 'Multi', his throat clearing "Now, think bigger. On a much larger scale, the collection of these universes is called the 'Multiverse'. There are several arguements and cross theories that say the scale stops here, but many experts say that the realm of ponies spells out only one multiverse. We're not sure what lies beyond our stars or our reality...other worlds, other creatures, other universes or galaxies or sequences of time, but it is believed that there are an infinite number of alternate universes and multiverses that exist for them as well. The complete collection of the entirety of reality, on this plane or otherwise which consists of all multiverses and dimensions is being labeled currently as 'The Omniverse'." He wrote 'Omniverse' below the first two, looking towards the class as the chalk moved from top to bottom in the list and reviewed "Alternate Universes, comprised within a Multiverse of our reality, within an Omniverse of all of creation and reality. Now, remember the catch I mentioned earlier? Well, one mad unicorn once believed that if one could harness the magics of 'Time' and 'Plane', that it would be possible to tear a multi-dimensional hole through the fabric of reality and to travel through all of time, space, and existence. To go anywhere, to any universe and any time, to the far corners of everything and nothing."

The teacher narrowed his eyes, placing the piece of chalk down on his desk as his voice grew low and sinister "This...is...NONSENSE. It is absolutely, one hundred percent a mere theory that has been deemed a complete impossibility by Queen Celestia herself. The amount of magic that it would take to even attempt such a feat would be more than every single unicorn that's ever lived, living, or will ever live could muster with their combined strength. Even if they were all living at once it would take at least a million times their power to even dare approach the idea. We teach and push this subject because while the theory has not been technically disproved, the ability to prove it is a sheer impossibility and a warning to those who could ever dare to dabble in such a deadly craft." He straightened up, fidgeting with his glasses as he sighed "That's all for today, don't forget your homework which you'll need to-"

His words were lost in a sudden cracking sound to her right, the mare unable to resist the urge to look any longer. The dead fillies had moved, some of them still stuck in their desks but all of them were reaching for her. Dead flesh and bone dropped from several of them as they shambled towards her at a very sluggish rate, her eyes darting this way and that as she found herself nearly surrounded. The crack she had heard had come from the tiny mare to her left, whose neck had snapped whilst trying to turn her head to face her. Twilight's heart nearly burst from her chest as a thunderous groan echoed out from above her. Looking up, her irises shrunk to mere pinpricks as she beheld a massive puddle of black goo on the ceiling, tendrils of the muck growing rapidly outwards like vines. Out of the thick darkness a hoof extended, followed by another. It gripped the edges of the puddle as if trying to pull itself free of the thick liquid. Slowly but surely, the familiar flowing mane and eyeless visage of the Deathlestia seeped through the ceiling. It opened its mouth in a terrifying screech as the teacher clear his throat one last time and turned towards the board, an eraser hovering in his magic aura. He started to erase the words written as he said simply "Class dismissed."

By the time he had finished his statement, Twilight was already flying out of the door, the Deathlestia falling into the classroom and landing with a loud crash into the desks. The undead fillies turned to make their way after her, but by the time they had all faced the entryway, the Deathlestia was already gone, the door torn off its hinges and smothered in the black goop it left trailing in its wake.