Twilight shuffled through the long corridors of the Canterlot library. She went there to obtain a few intellectual books to read while Spike was gone for the weekend, but so far she hadn’t had any luck. It was cold and silent in the library. The sun was quickly descending. She knew she had to find her books and leave quickly. No books stood out to her, but she couldn’t leave empty-handed. She began to creep into the back corners of the library, hoping to find some old dusty tome that could spark her interest. Out of the corner of her eye, she spots what was surely the book she had been looking for. Twilight’s horn started to glow in a dull light and the book slid out from its slit in the tall bookcase. It was old, she could tell that right away. It had a dusty brown leather cover on it, with no words on its spine at all. It looked as if it were ready to fall apart.
“I’ve never seen this before,” she whispered to herself.
She looked at the front of the ancient book, searching for the title. What she found was cryptic. It was written in some language she couldn’t even begin to understand. It wasn’t in any language ponies had ever spoken. At least, she didn’t think it was.
“Libri Silenti Inconcessus Veneficus,” She said slowly, trying to understand it, “what the hay does that mean?”
She motioned to put it back onto the shelf-- what use was a book she couldn’t even read? When she tried to levitate it back up to its spot, she paused. She couldn’t just put it back. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her, and with a sigh and a shake of her head, she slid the book into her bag. Twilight left the great hall of books and began weaving her way through the palace towards the exit. She needed to get home quickly so the sun didn’t set on her, and that’s exactly what she intended to do. Stepping out into the cold evening air, she shivered. She began her walk home as she tugged her cloak around herself and the hood over her head with her teeth. The walk home was long and tiring-- the wind blew in Twilight’s face the entire time. All the while, she couldn’t help but look back at her satchel every few minutes to check if the book was still there. Why was she getting so worked up over a book? Yes, it did belong to the Canterlot library, but it’s not as if it would just fall out of her backpack. She dismissed her worrying as just a nervous side effect of the walk home. Before long, she had arrived back at her library in the tree. Sighing with relief, she opened the door and stepped inside, letting the warmth soak into her fur and mane as she stripped off her cloak. Not only was she happy to get out of the cold wind, she was excited to have her new book home. Carefully, she slid the book out of her pack using magic. It took her a few minutes to decide where to set it but finally, she carefully laid it down on her desk.
I can read it tomorrow. It’s not like it’s that important. I won’t even understand it.
Twilight slid under the covers atop her bed and laid her head on the pillow. She closes her eyes, ready for sleep to overtake her. She lays there for five minutes, then another five, then another, and another. She rolls over in her bed, filled with anxiety.
I can’t stop thinking about that flipping book!
Slowly, she dropped out of bed and advanced towards the dusty cover. She examined the front for a second before placing a hoof on the edge of the bound covers, and then flipped it open to the first page. Just as she expected, the pages were unintelligible. Twilight growled in disappointment but continued to flip through the book. There were a lot of pictures in it; she began examining them more closely. Intrigued by the drawings, she flipped back to the beginning and began inspecting every figure she came across. The sketches portrayed various pony anatomies and other various things along those lines. As she turned the pages, the images got more and more disturbing. They began to show ponies being killed and harvested for their organs. Twilight quickly shut the book in disgust; she couldn’t stand it anymore.
Bleck! That’s so weird.
Sighing, she moved back over to her bed and got comfortable again. She still couldn’t get the disturbing book out of her mind, but she eventually drifted to sleep.
~~~~~~~~~
The next morning was filled with annoyance. No matter how much Twilight tried to keep her mind off the book, she couldn’t. She tried going over her checklists, studying magic-- anything to distract herself. She didn’t know why she couldn’t stop thinking about that stupid book. She spent every moment coming up with reasons to go read it. Just a peek couldn’t hurt, she convinced herself. She quickly went over to the tome and cracked it open, studying the images furiously. At first she found the objects of study inside the book disturbing and taboo, but after a bit of reading, she began to grow used to them. In fact some of the ideas inside the book were downright genius. Why didn’t anypony in Equestria do some of these things? She couldn’t believe what she had just thought. The things detailed inside this ancient scripture were the darkest of the dark, magic that should never be cast, and experiments that should never be tested. But for some reason, she couldn’t help but read on. Page by page, her mind became filled with all of the monstrosities inside the book. Soon the whole day had passed and she was right in the middle of the literature. Twilight’s eyelids began to become heavy, but the information held inside of the codex was insurmountably enticing. She couldn’t stop reading. She flipped page after page well into the morning before she finally fell asleep with the book open at her desk.
~~~~~~~~~
When she woke up, the process began again. She started reading page after page, tearing apart every diagram and instructional image she could get a hold of. In her frenzied reading, she had forgotten that Spike would be coming back that day. She was surprised when he walked in the front door, although she didn’t show it as she was too immersed in her book to show any emotion.
“Hey Twi!” Spike said, happy to be home after a long weekend away.
“Hello Spike,” Twilight responded in a sort of monotone.
“Is something wrong?” he said worried.
“No, I just got this new book. It’s quite interesting; there are a few spells detailed in here about controlling the minds of small rodents!” Twilight said with a smile, excited to have someone with whom she could express her fondness of the book.
“That’s…interesting, Twi,” he said, his voice shuddering.
Spike was rather frightened that Twilight had taken such a liking to a book that contained such a devious spell in it. Spike’s response didn’t sit well with her and it elicited a frown. She went back to reading her book, partially ignoring Spike.
“Do you mind if I take a look at that book?” Spike said. He wanted to see inside it for himself, to see what kind of horrors lay within. He had already seen the cover and couldn’t understand any of it, but the book itself set upon him an aura of uneasiness.
“Actually, I do mind,” she said grumpily.
“Sorry I asked,” Spike said as he walked away and began to get re-situated in their home.
Who does he think he is, asking to see the book like that? It’s my book, nobody else's. Why should allow anybody else to look at it? Besides, nobody else could understand the processes detailed in this relic. It’s a source of wonderful knowledge, knowledge that nobody else could ever understand.
Twilight began reading again, grumbling the whole time. By the end of the night, she had finished reading the entire book from front to back. She was unsatisfied; she needed more. Just looking at the pictures wasn’t enough; she had to read the details. She tried her hardest to decipher the cryptic tongue, but to no avail. Frustrated, she ascended the stairs to the bedroom. Spike was already asleep. She retired to bed to do the same and sleep quickly came. Her dreams that night were filled with horror. There were evil creatures hiding in every corner of the world, untold atrocities ready to feed upon the pure and kind just for enjoyment. Twilight jerked awake. She couldn’t stand it. The book detailed various processes that could better the world, but the population’s hubris would never let her do anything that was detailed in those pages. Her mind was made up; she would have to do it in secret so as to not attract attention from any unwanted inquisitors. Tomorrow would be the day.
~~~~~~~~~
Spike awoke to Twilight shaking him.
“Get up Spike; we have some important business to take care of.”
“What time is it, Twilight?” he asks groggily.
“I don’t know, sometime around two in the morning.”
“Two in the morning?!” he says in shock.
“It doesn’t matter, Spike. We have work to do,” she said, annoyed at his unwillingness to get up.
Grumbling, he got out of his small bed. Twilight was already downstairs. Spike slowly made his way down into the library and was surprised to see four cages stacked against the wall, all with various rats in them, even weirder than that though were the various chalk markings lining the floor. This disturbed Spike; he had never seen anything quite like this.
“Um, Twi, what are we doing?” Spike asked shakily.
“Magic of course,” she said matter-of-factly as she walked over to the topmost cage. Unhooking the metal door and sliding her hoof in, she grasped one of the rats and pulled it out, trying her hardest to hold onto it as it squirmed in her hoof. Spike’s face curled in disgust as she snapped the rat’s neck with magic.
“Oh god, Twilight, that’s disgusting! Why did you do that!” he said, repulsed.
Twilight shoots him a quick look of anger and he doesn’t say another word. She set the rodent’s corpse down in the middle of all the strange markings. Her horn slowly began to glow brightly as she started to work magic. She closed her eyes, concentrating, and the bright aura surrounding her horn began to darken a bit, yet it glowed just as bright as ever. Spike slowly backed closer to the wall, wanting to get as far away from Twilight as possible. Soon her eyes whipped open. Both of her eyes were a bright white; her pupils were gone. She let out a sigh of relief and joy.
“Spike! It’s working!” she exclaimed.
“W-what is?” Just as he asked, the previously dead rat’s body sprang to life, its fur standing on end as if it had just been shocked. Spike looked at it in disbelief.
“Look Spike, I can control it,” she said quietly, almost whispering. She then broke into a laugh. “Spike, I’ve done it!”
Spike stared in disbelief. The rat scurried around the room, sniffing at the floor randomly. It then looked at Spike and dashed over to his foot, nipping him on the toes. Spike jumped in pain as the rat’s teeth sank into his flesh.
“Ouch!”
“Spike, imagine all the possibilities!” Spike continued to stare in disbelief, with a look of disgust on his face.
“It seems a little…taboo, don’t you think?”
The smile on Twilight’s face faded and she ended the spell. The little creature’s body went limp and fell to the floor once more.
“I knew you wouldn’t understand.” She stomped up the stairs, leaving everything where it was. “Clean up that mess,” she said angrily. Spike picked up the dead rat from the floor and threw it in the trash. He couldn’t believe what had just happened. He looked up the stairs, hoping Twilight would come back down and apologize, but no such thing happened and he began to clean up the strange mess she had left him with.
~~~~~~~~~
Two days passed without any more strange occurrences. Twilight seemed relatively normal. She wasn’t overly mean nor overly nice. She did spend a lot of time in her room, however. Spike didn’t know what she was doing but he hoped for her sake it wasn’t anything even remotely related to the events that had come to pass the night before. He almost thought things would be back to normal. He was wrong. It was late in the night when Twilight came down the stairs after a long day in her bedroom and then dropped a shovel down in front of Spike.
“Come with me,” she said nonchalantly. He obeyed and followed Twilight out the front door. They walked quickly through the streets of Ponyville. It seemed like a completely different place at night. Nobody was outside and it just had an eerie feel about it. Spike looked about the town, wondering where they were headed. Twilight stops abruptly in front of him. They were in Ponyville’s graveyard. Twilight walked over to a grave and pointed down at it.
“Dig it up,” she said uncaringly.
“What? Dig it up?” Spike said in a whisper, trying not to yell.
“Yes dig it up. I need it to perform some magic.”
“What kind of magic are you practicing, Twilight?!”
“That’s none of your business! Now dig it up!” She raised her voice, although still whispered.
“None of my business?!” he said, throwing the shovel to the ground. “I refuse to help you then! It’s all of my business if I’m going to be helping you perform some strange forbidden magic. That’s what’s in that book, isn’t it Twilight? Dark magic.”
“It’s merely a means to an end Spike. Don’t you see the possibilities? So much could be done with this magic, if only you could open your eyes!” She said almost yelling. They stood there staring at each other, neither of them giving up their argument. Finally, Twilight broke the silence.
“Besides Spike, aren’t you my assistant? You promised to help me no matter what.”
Spike couldn’t look her in the eyes anymore. He stared at the ground for a bit, rolling around what was happening in his head. He glanced up at her. She was still staring directly at him and he sighed.
“Fine.”
He shoved the spade into the ground and began to transfer the dirt from the grave. Scoop after scoop, he slowly made his way towards the coffin lying in the ground. Finally, he hit wood and began to brush the dust off the buried container. He looked up at Twilight with a look of sorrow, but her expression did not change, so he went back to work, prying the lid off the box. The wood splintered and snapped as the top popped off. The corpse inside was relatively fresh; Twilight had picked it out specifically for that purpose. Grimacing, he picked up the limp form and flung it out of the hole.
“Careful,” Twilight said, annoyed.
Spike shot her a look as he climbed out of the hole. It was done, or so he thought. Spike seemed to be wrong about everything this week.
“Dig these ones up too,” she said, pointing to three other graves.
“What?! You expect me to dig up more?” he asked, disgusted and annoyed.
“Yes, now get it done.”
Spike grumbled as he walked over to the other plots. He didn’t want to continue but he didn’t dare disobey Twilight. He slowly began to dig up each burial mound one by one. Soon, the pile of bodies grew to four and it was becoming early in the morning. Spike sighed with relief as he finished and Twilight picked the bodies up with magic. He followed her home without saying a word. There was nothing that could be said between the two of them after the events that had occurred. Spike was disgusted with both himself and with her. When they got home, Twilight went into her study and locked the door. She had begun to prepare the bodies for the coming days and to make sure they didn’t rot from disuse. Spike didn’t see her all night. The next night, Twilight came out of her room with bags under her eyes. She was carrying the dead ponies with her, all of them prepared. Spike’s face grew to one of disgust. Something bad was going to happen again. Slowly, she set the bodies down in a line and began to create marks on the floor around the bodies. Spike noticed the markings were in the same language as the one that was on the front of the book. He didn’t like where this was going, but Twilight didn’t acknowledge him at all. He asked her what she was doing, but she ignored his questions. Without giving Spike a warning, her horn began to glow again and a bolt of electricity shot out of it, striking the lines on the floor. The markings began to swell up as they caught on fire. However, this was no ordinary fire. The flames were bright green and waving up higher than any natural fire could have in that environment. Also, it didn’t spread at all. The fire stayed on the markings; the wood and corpses remained untouched as the flames licked their forms. A grin formed on Twilight’s face as her objective grew nearer to success. The flames slowly engulfed the bodies as the magic began to work. Suddenly, the fire went out and all was still. Twilight frowned. Had it not worked? Did she do something wrong? As if answering her, the dead began to rise from the floor. Her grin returned and Spike twisted away in disgust. What the hay was wrong with Twilight? Why was she doing these things? Spike looked over to his former best friend with a look of shock on his face. Twilight’s frown quickly returned as if she had realized something, and she ended the spell. The forms fell limp to the floor. She trotted up to the bedroom and told Spike not to worry about the mess. He obliged and collapsed at the foot of the staircase. He didn’t know what to do but soon he drifted off.
~~~~~~~~~
Spike woke up to Twilight sitting at her desk in the library staring at him.
“What time is it…” he asks slowly.
“Late.”
“Oh,” is all he could muster as he got up to his feet. Twilight stood up also. Before he could realize it, she began to work magic again and an aura quickly engulfed him and lifted him off the floor.
“Twilight, what are you doing?!” he yelled.
“I’m sorry it has to end like this. You really were my best friend, but the enlightenment of the masses takes sacrifice,” she says mournfully, yet unfaltering.
“Wha--” Spike was cut off as his head snapped to the side, his neck breaking in two. It was done. Spike was dead. Twilight didn’t know how to feel. Did she even feel anything anymore? Did feelings just get in the way of progress? Abolish all emotions and you are left with raw productive capability. With a sigh, Twilight began the ritual, the ritual that would change the world. Her horn began to glow, bright blue at first, but it slowly changed to a dark green as she worked the long forgotten magic she had learned from the book. Spike’s body lifted off the floor as if it were possessed by some strange being. The room went dark but Twilight didn’t stop. There was no stopping now. The house shook violently over and over. Books were falling out of their place on the shelves. A long, thin, grey sliver exited Spike’s mouth. It was slightly clear, as if made of mist. Slowly, it began to wrap around itself, condensing down to the size of a marble. Then, with a slight pop, the grey sliver disappeared and the building returned to normal. Twilight was panting from the exertion that the magic had required of her. Sweat matted in her fur, but her exhaustion didn’t stop her from running over to the window. She stood on her hind legs and peered out the glass frame towards the graveyard up the hill. At first she didn’t think it would work, but suddenly a silhouette formed at the top of the hill. Then another, another, and another. A smile grew on Twilight’s face as the spell took effect. It had worked, just as she had planned, and she couldn’t help but break out into a laugh as the dark figures descended the hill to do her bidding. She had succeeded, and now all of Equestria would know enlightenment.
