Chapter 1: Vague silence

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!!!" An overly happy purple alicorn squirmed and nearly danced squeeing the whole way up the road actually testing the patience of her older brother who looked down at her with an almost disapproving stare.

"Twily...you should not have just strong hooved your way into being able to join this expedition. I dont mean to be be rude or anything but there are plenty of other ponies who could have done this and are just as excited as you to unearth this discovery"

Twilight's smile flickered. She was so utterly excited about it but still felt a little guilty, her brother was right, even Celestia had cautioned her against just ordering people to let her in on the excavation. Though her mind churned with thoughts, why not let her in on it. She had read every book about Starswirl the Bearded as well as two libraries worth of archaeology and excavations. She was more than worthy and qualified to do the job. To her it was not that big of a deal, she didn't replace anypony or kick anypony from the mission. She just used her authority to push herself into the event. It was quickly countered by her brother then overruled by Celestia who even though disapproved for some odd reason that was beyond Twilight, still she allowed her to go with the first team under the condition that Shining Armor went with her.

Normally her mind would be ablaze with trying to figure out the reasons behind Celestia's caution and her brother's disapproval. But she did not at all care at the moment, She was off to see the first new discovery of Starswirl the Bearded's magical research sites in 700 years. There was utterly no record of the place and was only found when an earth pony lumberjack fell through an old roof and when he finally woke from being knocked out cold he saw only the crest of Star swirl the bearded high up on a supporting beam and the skeltons of at least five ponies all surrounding a single object, a mirror about 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide, made of something like obsidian and darkness the implications from the first report was that it was something that Starswirl the Bearded attempted to seal away or let be forgotten by all of ponykind.

"Ah!! Shiny! we are here" Twilight giggled like a maniac running ahead of Shining armor and the small caravan and even the napping Spike who snorted awake at the sound of Twilight's glee. He just mumbled and rolled back over in the carriage he was riding in. "Come on Shiny its right there...oh gosh just like the letters said..."

She came closer to the opening of the cave, her horn glowed pushing aside the reverse glamour charm that made the area seem unimportant and boring, then the second charm that inspired fear and worry, then the last one that made the small cave look like a dead end. The surrounding area had been cleared of trees and a small base camp had already been set up in anticipation to the royal guards who escorted the official team that would lead the excavation.

"Twily wait...dont go in just yet at least let everyone set up...The earth pony who discovered the place even said there were still active traps inside." Twilight held back her urge to ignore him and the urge to whine about it. He was right, but that only made her even more eager. Never before had Starswirl the bearded left traps anywhere. Whatever was here was of considerable importance. Not to mention the spells that hid the cave had to have been cast by Starswirl the Bearded himself.  It was all downright overwhelming for her and Shining Armor knew it.

"At least wait until everything is set up and the professionals clear the traps." He offered a small smile to his sister trying to get her to agree and guilt her into agreeing with brotherly love.

"awww...ok Shiny...but tell them to hurry...this is the greatest discovery in like...forever!"

Shining Armor looked behind him and noticed half the ponies who had come to study the ruins were just as excited and setting up as fast as possible. The only difference between them and Twilight was the guards were not afraid to stop non princesses as per their orders. It was up to Shining Armor to keep his sister from running in ahead of everypony.

One full painstaking hour had passed as everypony got their gear set up and two royal guards made a quick sweep of the inside of the cave removing three traps. One of the guards came out a little shaken with a singed mane. "Sir! its clear and safe for the excavation to begin.

Shining armor nodded as Twilight and a dozen other ponies rushed in spike napping on the back of one wall eyed gray pegasus who was hired to help carry general gear. Happily everyone who could fit piled into the cave. The charms to keep people away were carefully peeled back as everypony entered happily. But all stood in awe of the object in the center of the room. The mirror looked like it was made by pouring melted obsidian into a cast. An odd and otherworldly glow beamed from it as what almost sounded like whispers echoed lightly. Great spines of black and red seemed to have been raised directly from either side of the mirror. Before the mirror were the skeletons of a few ponies and one badly burned book.

Twilight stepped forward like a doctor before a gravely ill noble ready to work miracles. Her magic flared and the book lifted without shedding even a single spec of ash. Opening before her and the other researchers eagerly crouched in suspense and awe, the book left only disappointed ponies. All the pages were stripped of their words by fire. The pages flipped carefully until it came to one spread page that was burned badly but in blood a single statement was written. *some powers are not worth studying*

Twilight's eyes widened. She noticed the hoofwriting, this message was written by none other than Starswirl the bearded himself. The book had nothing else in it, so with all the care in the world the book was excessively carefully placed into a magic suspension box where it would be utterly preserved. All items about the cave were quickly being studied and looked over leaving the most obviously important for last.

A spooky consensus was starting to from among all the researchers and even Twilight herself. All the extensive damage to the cave and everything around it had been done on purpose. Judging by the extent of magical based damage done to the area it was a safe guess that Star swirl the bearded himself. However, there was something else odd about the room. The burn marks were at just above horn level for Twilight yet there was an entirely additional set of magical burns all at a downward angle. Calculating the angle and the distance she figured the source was strangely a good three feet above the others, about the same level as a pegasus would hover. But Pegasus's did not shoot magical fire nor would they have been here in some sort of magical research area where it was clearly dangerous. All the skeletons on the ground before the mirror were unicorns. The only other thing she could think of was an alicorn but she was uncertain about it, both Luna and Celestia could not have been a participating party. it was just a few inches too tall for Celestia and a few inches too short for Luna had she been flying. Unless there was some other Alicorn up and around with Starswirl the Bearded then this was even more of a mystery.

Looking about excitedly but not quite sure as to why she was so excited, Derpy looked about in the small area around the mirror. Something about the object made her shiver in fear but never the less she was drawn towards it. Spike on her back woke up with a yawn and looked down at something very faded on the ground. Hopping down from his mobile bed made Derpy stop and sit down next to the dragon.

"Hey...twilight...theres something written here...whats....Shalidor?"

The mirror behind him lit up with a deathly sanguine glow and slowly Spike began to lift into the air. Shouting and squirming he flailed about drawing everypony's attention as Twilight lunged forward hugging her hooves around him as slowly he was being drawn towards the mirror.

"SOMEPONY DO SOMETHING!!!" her horn blared a harsh magical twinkle as it lit up brightly. She was desperately panicking and trying to make whatever it was holding spike to let him go. looking back at the ground trying to figure out if whatever Spike had just interacted with triggered something she could reverse but sadly all she saw was small faded runes she couldn't understand. Quite suddenly there was a cold pain in her left hind hoof. She looked down at her hoof and saw that it was merging into the mirror. As others stopped and stared in fear Derpy heroically bit onto Twilight's tail and flapping with all her might tried to pull her away from the mirror. quickly joined by Shining armor and two of the royal guard they struggled in vain as twilight was pulled further and further in with spike.

Her face plastered with fear and pain as the mirror swallowed her up, pain shot through her body like lightning and fire. Derpy's grip on her tail slipped and the last thing she saw was her brother's face before there was total darkness accompanied by grave pain. Suddenly there was light and a lot of heat. She hit the ground hard, her whole body screamed in pain as she weakly stood. Spike was draped over her back out cold still smoldering. She could not imagine what she looked like as she looked about the place.

The room she was in looked like the illustrations of Tartarus she had seen in her books. "H...hello?....anypony here?..."

A heavy boom sounded as a door bashed down and a figure fell through it with a blade lodged through its neck. Her first guess was some malformed Centar. But a second look it almost appeared to be Sunset Shimmer after she took in the powers of Twilight's crown, only this creature was clearly male and lacked the wings that Sunset Shimmer had. Another figure came in. Head to toe clad in dark armor She could not tell if the figure was male or female, but she was sure it was much like the boys and girls she had found through the other mirror she had gone into. A human.

Seeing this did not look to be a particularly friendly human judging by how it just outright murdered the creature that it had just thrown through the door, Twilight decided to remain quiet and hide. The figure was clearly powerful as it did not seem to slow a single step as it marched up the nearby stairs. Twilight followed at a bit of a distance as quietly as possible flinching and hiding as another body flew back her way. Missing its head the creature the human shaped being had just killed just flopped about and rag dolled down the stairs twitching and spasming lightly.  "oh spike....what did we get ourselves into?" She took a single step forward and suddenly the area pulsed with energy  and crackled  as a massive light shot out and everything went dark.

"I got the sidgil stone, that is one more gateway closed..." The voice sounded feminine but sturdy and powerful. It reminded Twilight of Celestia.

"Good work...you saved another small town...Im sure the guild will be ever so happy...but  of course you would have to actually show up at the guild in order to be appreciated master wizard..."

"well you can tell the arch mage I am busy I am dealing with like ten other things at the moment I am sure that the king of worms will not destroy the world in the next few hours...and I have no doubt that its important but....what is that?...."

Twilight was so badly hurt, bashed and burned she could not even open her eyes. She could only vaguely hear their dulled voices as she lay there injured.

"I think its....a horse...no too small...pony maybe?"

"Fool ever heard of a purple horse?....and its got wings....and...well I am no professional but I think that's a horn...a purple winged unicorn...now THAT...I can bring home to the guild...and hey a...matching...purple...um....lizard?...oh well lets get these suckers back up to the guild... I will deal with it after I deal with Mannimarco."

The next few hours were more of the same half consciousness before Twilight finally joined Spike in a long injured sleep waking only for a moment to see what looked to be a lid closing down on a coffin of some sort and a magical circle forming, Then nothing. Complete and utter darkness. Twilight's freshly awaken consciousness was very quickly and very sternly being suppressed by powerful magic, The last thing she could feel  was Spike at her side which was at least a little reassuring.

Her last fading thoughts were of her friends, her brother , her teacher. "h...help me"

Darkness claimed her.