A Journey into Alchemy

Chapters

The Train Ride
Blinding Black Curtains
Fillydelphia Dreamin'
Preface

The Train Ride

Chapter 1 - The Train Ride

Trees rushed passed the windows of the passenger train that was gliding down the tracks. The sky was as blue as it ever had been, and the temperature was agreeable to pretty much everypony. The scenery between Canterlot and Ponyville was near legendary, and some ponies took this very train ride, just to enjoy the sights.

A young, lavender unicorn sat in her seat on the train, a book hovering in a gentle purple magical aura in front of her. She paid no attention to the scenery outside the window, no matter how beautiful it was; she had seen it more times than she could possibly count in the past few years. Instead, she was reading from the very last book in her own library about the topic she was traveling to Canterlot to study. Twilight Sparkle was always a pony with a plan or a goal in mind. Usually when she wanted or needed to study something, her own library home, the Golden Oaks library, had a large enough collection to fuel her efforts. But when she decided to take it upon herself to study the ley lines that run underneath the world, as well as make up the very borders of the realm, she found that her own collection was failing her.

This current book she was reading was the very last book on the subject, but it was very small, and it did not contain the information she needed. It turns out that no pony nor griffon knows much about the ley lines. For being something so powerful as to break up the world, no one has thought to put much study into them. Twilight decided that maybe the Canterlot Royal Library would hold the information she sought. It had been a slow time around Ponyville; summer had set in and there had been no big, immediate threats to its inhabitants – or any of the ponies in Equestria for that matter – that required the attention of the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Twilight concluded that she was to take a vacation; at least, that’s what she told her friends. In reality, she was using this “vacation” to travel to Canterlot on sabbatical.

When the princesses heard of this, they were delighted to take Twilight for however long she may need to stay to do her work. Almost the very next day, Twilight now finds herself on the Canterlot Express, traveling towards the grand capital of Equestria. The trip was a fairly long one, and Twilight had only the one book to keep her attention for the four hour train ride. She had just finished it already though, only an hour and a half into the trip.

Twilight slid the book into her saddlebags that rested at her hooves on the floor of the train, heaving an annoyed sigh. While she hadn’t expected much of it, she was still disappointed that the book she just finished had provided her with only an hour and a half of information on the ley lines that was already pretty much common knowledge to anyone who lived anywhere ever. She let her head rest in a hoof as she stared out the window at the passing landscape. She considered sleeping the rest of the way there, but it was nine-thirty in the morning, and she was as awake as she could possibly be. This trip never seemed to get any quicker, no matter how many times she might have taken it in her life. She looked around the train cabin that she sat in; it held six separate seats for six ponies, but because she was the Princess’s personal student, she got a whole cabin to herself. Though, the train wasn’t particularly crowded anyways, so she probably would have gotten one anyways.

To pass the time, she pulled out a notepad and began to write out some formulas for spells she had been working on as well. Twilight was actually Equestria’s lead expert on the creation of new magical spells. Some ponies were born with a massive amount of raw power, but no book smarts to put that magic to use in different kinds of spells. Some were born with the ability to comprehend spells and remember them as if it were second nature, but just didn’t have the magical strength within them to become powerful casters. These two kinds of ponies are both rare. Equestria’s greatest mages are few and far between, because they possess both of these abilities, which allowed them to climb the ranks in the princesses’ ranks of mages. Twilight Sparkle, on the other hand, was even rarer, in that she took her understanding of magical writings to new levels, allowing her to create new magical spells. But, she was also the single most powerful unicorn the land had seen since ancient times. She often found herself casting spells that had never been thought of or written down by any mage off the top of her head because a situation called for it. She was even better than both princesses at this, though obviously the Alicorns held much, much more power than she ever could wield in her mere mortal body.

The spells she had been working on were ones that would allow for the creation of teleportation circles that linked together and allowed ponies to travel any amount of distance, simply by stepping into the circle and saying a certain passphrase. Teleportation was one of Twilight’s strong suites; ever since she was a filly, teleportation was almost as natural as levitation for her. Sometimes she wished she could just teleport to Canterlot, but even that distance was a little too much for her to pull off without tiring. This was her answer to that, she decided that morning as she climbed onto the train and dreading the ride.

She sat and quietly scribbled runes on the scroll in front of her, matching them up in pairs and triplets and occasionally quadruplets, and then connecting the pairs via lines on the paper. She would scribble out runes when she decided they were wrong or wouldn’t work, change the connections between pairs, and rearrange the symbols into different alignments. Occasionally she would rest the scroll down on the vacant seat next to her, and would syphon magic into the scroll and through the runes, feeling how they reacted. Either she would be content and move on to the next step, or she would grunt agitatedly and rework the whole section. One of the maids in the car, a young unicorn herself, stopped by to check on Twilight in her cabin. Before she was able to ask Twilight if she wanted a drink, she noticed that she was doodling magical runes on the scroll.

“M-miss? Why are you writing runes on that scroll?” She asked, bewildered. She didn’t recognize many of the runes written down, but she had been a good student throughout school.

Without looking up or even pausing from her work, Twilight responded, “I’m just working on a spell that will allow any pony to teleport any distance by stepping into a magical circle and using a passphrase.” She didn’t once look up at the maid.

“Wow! You must be amazing to be creating spells like that! W-would you like something to drink?”

“Orange juice, please.” She replied politely. She was very good at being polite when ignoring others during her work; Spike had gotten on to her many times for being rude when interrupted and had to break herself of the shameful habit.

“One orange juice, coming right up!” The light yellow coated pony trotted away to take the order. Twilight’s eyes continued to study the runes laid out in front of her, making the magical connections in her head, her horn flashing bouts of light occasionally, to check if the matrices work together. About two hours later, and a few glasses of orange juice ordered unconsciously, Twilight wiped her brow in fake exertion and lifted the scroll she had been working on in front of her, grinning at her work.

“If I could work like this every day, I might get more of my projects done!” She said to no one in particular, rolling up the scroll and sliding it in a scroll case to show to the princess or somepony else later. She looked out the window and could see Canterlot coming into view. They were at the base of the mountain, but it would still take another thirty minutes before they arrived at the station in Canterlot; the train slowed down a lot going up the large mountain.

Twilight finished off her most recent glass of orange juice and turned her attention to the research she would be doing when she got to Canterlot. She had never really been all that curious about the ley lines to be honest, until she read that one particular book that said no one knew much about them. When something mentions unfound knowledge, it’s enough to make the mare giddy with excitement, and this was no exception. After binge reading probably three or four books in one night on the subject and concluding that the lack of knowledge was indeed there, she decided to go to Canterlot. Furthermore, if she can’t learn anymore there, she planned on actually traveling to the ley lines to study them personally. She had almost hoped she wouldn’t find anything, because she loved to be the foremost expert on a subject, like she was with spell creation. If what she had been reading was right, the ley lines are pure, arcane, magical energy barriers that pretty much prevent any sort of passage. No one truly knows what lies beyond them, if anything indeed DOES lie beyond them. Twilight had an idea to may be able to tap into the ley lines and use their supposed infinite energy to fuel non-unicorn powered magical devices all around the realm.

Just the thought of it all made Twilight wiggle in her seat in excitement. Before she knew it, the train had pulled into the station, and she could hear the magically powered speaker system on the train call out, “We have reached the Royal Canterlot Train Station. Those boarding the train should please wait for those exiting before stepping on.”

Twilight grabbed her carry on and her suitcase and exited the train into the sprawling, busy streets of Canterlot proper. The train station sat right in the heart of the city on the main strip, where the University of Canterlot was, along with several large business buildings, the Arcane Sciences Guild, and many, many shops. All of the buildings in Canterlot were stylized after the castle, so many of the buildings were gothic and regal, with large, useless spires stretching high into the sky, and large arches acting as the entrances to many public buildings. The majesty of the castle, though, dominated the whole city. Even from the main square, any pony could see the intricate and beautiful architecture, with its spiraling towers and moon and sun themed styling. You could see it from every part of the city (which was required by law; you are not allowed to build a structure that significantly hinders the view of the castle), and its sight acted as the inspiration for many artists, builders, and ponies in all walks of life.

Twilight always found herself astounded by the beauty of Canterlot no matter how many times she visited, even though she was born and raised in the city. She stood with her stuff hovering by her for a few seconds, taking in the familiar sights and sounds. A smile spread across her face as she trotted off down the street towards the castle. The sights, sounds, and smells of different shops and restaurants and bakeries and cafes bombarded her senses, almost making her feel light headed. The feeling was a good one though, and she was excited to get to spend some time here again. Though the days before her moving to Ponyville were very lonely in retrospect, they were still some great times in her life. While she attended the university, she would spend most of her days in a café or in a club of some sort, reading and studying to the beat of some nice, smooth jazz and the smells of lattés being brewed. Even though Canterlot was the capital, and the princesses lived here, Canterlot was still a fairly cool, rainy city. The flora and fauna of the region needed cooler climates with lots of rain. That was Twilight’s favorite weather, and it made for a very cozy time in her university days.

As Twilight passed many ponies she would wave at a few that she knew, and they would wave back. All of the ponies in the Arcane Sciences Guild knew her by face, so ponies would stop and talk to her, even if she had never seen them in her lives. But, she had to break those conversations short, for she had a mission she was on. Thirty minutes of walking and distractions later found her at the entrance to Canterlot Castle. She stood and stared up and took in the grandeur of the mighty fortress and home to the living Goddesses, and also essentially her home as a filly. She slowly walked passed the guards who didn’t even give her a second look, through the massive portcullis, and into the castle courtyard. It was packed to the brim with many plants that aren’t native to the area, tirelessly kept prim and cared for by the many castle landscapers. Statues of ponies long dead but not forgotten lined the pathway towards the throne room where Celestia lead the day court.

Twilight walked the length of the courtyard and into the throne room where she found Celestia sitting on her throne as she usually does, looking a tad bit bored as a noble sat and regurgitated some babble about something even Twilight thought was boring at the princess. As Twilight stepped into the massive room, the princess spotted her, and gave her a smile. She nodded towards Twilight, and then went back to listening to the noble, whose name was Granite Quarrysmith if Twilight remembered right. Twilight sat down and looked at the throne room while waiting. It was very long and very tall, and it almost looked like a church. Banners of the iconic two sisters orbiting the half-sun/half-moon lines the walls, and the scene was captured in all its glory in a large, stained glass window that sat behind Celestia. In the daytime, sun shone brightly through the window and all of the Celestia theme elements were brought out. But, in the glow of the moonlight, the dim lighting caused the dark, Luna themed glass to have a beautiful, peaceful glow as well. The whole thing seemed teemed in magic, and it was a wonderful thing.

Celestia’s sweet voice carried easily throughout the hall, revealing a certain air of authority that even Twilight still thought of as awe-inspiring. “Lord Quarrysmith, I understand your concerns, but you must believe when I say that the most recent peace dealings with the Diamond Dogs in the north will not cut into any profits that your mining and quarrying may get. The Diamond Dogs have no resources that we need, thanks to your family and its work. Now, I have some matters to attend to with my student, if you will please excuse us.” Celestia smiled at the pony who dared not argue with her, and he bowed before taking his leave, not stopping to look at Twilight. Twilight smiled back at her mentor as she trotted forward, the clopping of her hooves echoing throughout the throne room.

“Princess Celestia, it’s so good to see you again!” Twilight said cheerily to her monarch and teacher – and in many ways, her mother-figure – stopping at the base of the raised throne platform.

“Twilight, it’s also such a pleasure to see you in person as well! I can’t tell you how excited I was when you told me of your planned sabbatical to Canterlot! I already have your room prepared for you whenever you wish to bed down for the night. I also have your favorite reading spot in the royal library prepared with lots of pillows and a precast mage light candle for when you want to get to your research.” The princess motioned for Twilight to come to her.

Twilight climbed up the stairs, and leaned in to meet Celestia’s cheek in a sweet nuzzle, knowing she was very privileged to be one of the very few ponies to ever get to greet Celestia with a mutual cheek nuzzle. “That’s too kind of you, Princess. I really do appreciate you having me for an indefinite amount of time, though. I promise I won’t be too much of a bother.”

“Oh, think nothing of it, Twilight. To be honest, it’s about time somepony decided to take it upon themselves to study the ley lines. When Luna and I first stopped Discord’s rule and brought the warring tribes together to form Equestria, we were much too concerned with keeping the country together to research it, and there were always more important magical things to study. After Luna’s banishment, I never saw the ley lines as something I needed to worry about. But, I’m sure with your wonderful abilities, that you’ll bring the knowledge to the minds of the public.” Celestia smiled down at Twilight and laid a hoof on her shoulder, causing the lavender mare to blush lightly under her fur, averting her gaze from the Princess.

“Hehe, well, I’d sure love to be the first to do so, if I can’t find what I’m looking for in the royal library.” Twilight looked off into the throne room, thinking for a moment, before saying, “I promise I won’t let you down though, Princess. And if I think about the ley lines is true, I may have a way of harnessing their power and using it to fuel magical devices all around Equestria! I’ve been devising a plan to be able to capture and transfer magical energy through a gem-based system that could spread all across the nation! I haven’t been able to test anything yet, but I think I should be able to make it work on a small scale.”

“That’s an awfully big plan you have there, Twilight. The thought of bringing an infinite supply of magic to the masses and bringing to Equestria a new technological revolution is enough to make even me very excited. It’ll be hard, but if anypony can do it, I believe you would be the one.”

Twilight blushed even harder, not having prepared for so much praise from her mentor. She nodded though, using the princess’s confidence in her to fuel her drive. Suddenly, a thought popped in her head, “Oh, Princess! On the way over here, I designed a spell that might allow ponies to create teleportation circles that allow any pony to travel any sort of distance in an instant with just the use of a certain phrase or word!” Twilight magically reached into her saddlebag and brought out the scroll with the spell on it, unfurling it and showing it to Celestia. “You’ll see that it requires an insane amount of magical energy for it to function, but when I tested the matrices on the way over here, it should function nigh perfectly. If we can manage to harness the power of the ley lines, we could have teleportation lines that lead all over the entire country, allowing ponies to traveling anywhere, anytime, instantaneously!” To Twilight’s surprise, she saw Celestia’s face turn to one of amazement.

“Twilight Sparkle…” she said softly, her eyes quickly darting over the spell on the scroll, “You never cease to amaze me. You wrote this on the way over here?”

“Y-yes, Princess.” Twilight said, now a little shyly.

“This spell is incredible! Your ability to just write spells off the top of your head is more impressive than I think you know, Twilight. If you can manage to figure out a way to harness the ley lines, this spell right here could completely revolutionize Equestria as we know it.”

“Really? Do you really think it would help that much? To revolutionize the whole country?”

“Yes, I do. If you don’t mind, I’m going to keep this scroll and work on this myself in my spare time.”

“Of course! I’d love for you to, and to check my work on anything I might have missed.”

“I’m going to close day court early today, so I’m going to leave you to get moved in and go the library as I’m sure you’re excited to do.” She chuckled lightly, looking at one of her guards and nodding, to which he trotted to the guards at the entrance to let them know of the early closing. “If you need me, I will be in my quarters.”

“Thank you, Princess!” Twilight waved to her teacher, “I promise I won’t let you down!” She trotted off and into one of the private doors leading out of the throne room. The door contained a staircase that once Twilight reached the top of, opened into a very long hallway. At the far right end was a large, white and gold door that led to Celestia’s tower. To the far left, was a black and blue themed door that led to Luna’s. Along the hallway were a few private bedrooms for ponies like Twilight, who were very close to the Princesses. Her friends, the Elements of Harmony, were also allowed to stay in these bedrooms if they wished. Twilight levitated her luggage next to her effortlessly, trotting up to her usual room that Celestia reserved for her when she stayed. Her magic also reached out to the door and she let herself inside, revealing a very large suite with many of the same luxuries that the princesses themselves enjoyed in their own private chambers.

As Twilight entered the room, to her left was a heavy stone brick wall, and to her right was a large, open sitting area with a faux-leather couch and loveseat, a dark wooden coffee table, a very soft and luxuries rug, as well as a magically burning fireplace that could be turned on and off by the occupant. The sitting room lead directly into a small sort of meeting or dining room with a long table and six chairs around it. Against the far wall behind the table and chairs was a decently large window with thick curtains and blackout Ponetian blinds. Then there was a small corner that turned to the left, revealing the biggest bed Twilight has yet to see anywhere. It was a four poster, pillow-top super king with dark blue silk sheets, and a lamb’s wool comforter adorned with the Royal Sister’s crest. On the wall to the left was a door that lead to the nicest master bathroom Twilight had ever seen with a massive walk in closet that could house a pony if need be. Twilight lowered her suitcase on the cedar chest that sat at the end of the bed and leapt onto the bed, letting out a long sigh as the soft bed eased the aches from the train ride over.

After what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a couple minutes, Twilight slowly rolled out of bed, stretching out and yawning, deciding that she might as well get to work with her research. She still had a large portion of the day left to spend studying before she could allow herself to relax in this heavenly room. Plus, she could maybe even bring some books with her if she felt the need. While the Royal Canterlot Library was public, it did not permit anyone to take any books out of the library. However, many years ago, Celestia permitted Twilight the permission to do so, so that she may not spend two days in the library without ever leaving. Without even unpacking, Twilight left her room, and started towards the library.

Luckily for her, the library wasn’t too far from the private quarters of the Princesses. In fact, Twilight new a secret passageway that wasn’t used anymore that she could take to quickly access the library directly. Twilight walked down the hallway towards Celestia’s room a little ways, then knocked on one of the walls. When she found the hollow spot, she focused and teleported herself to the other side of the stone wall, finding herself in a long, dimly lit hallway that seemed to stretch on for quite a ways. Twilight walked for about five minutes until she reached a dead end, and teleported again to the other side, finding herself in a rarely traveled part of the library. The Royal Canterlot Library was one of the most beautiful rooms Twilight has ever seen in her whole life. The ceilings were high enough on all levels that pegasi could comfortably fly around with ease, and the hundreds, maybe even thousands, of bookcases made up hallways and passages that could wind up being well over a hundred feet in length. The huge stained glass windows that lined the walls on both far ends of the library stretched from the floor to the ceiling provided an extravagant amount of natural light throughout the whole library, and the same was true for the lower section of the library as well. The upper section had no windows, though, as the tombs and volumes contained there could be damaged if touched by sunlight. It was kept very dark, and only a very dim light by the light of a unicorn horn would be allowed up there.

Twilight was very familiar with this library, though. She knew exactly where to look for the books she would need for her research. She made her way up some stairs to the top, dark section of the library. Instead of the grand, very well lit library that was the other two levels, the cases were adorned instead with the dimmest of mage light candles, providing just enough light so one could see where they were going. There were some lunar guards at the top of the staircase, but they didn’t even bat an eye as Twilight passed them and into the private section of the library. Instead of using her horn for lighting, Twilight had a spell that would give her dark vision for as long as she could focus on the spell, which she cast immediately as she passed the guards. Suddenly, the mage lights became as bright to her as any ordinary candle, giving the upper level of the library a warmer, homier feel. This spell is typically what caused most of Twilight’s exhaustion from a long study session, for the constant flow of magic to her eyes was enough to wear out even her after a period of time.

Twilight made her way to the “magical anomaly” section of this dark place, finding it after a couple minutes of searching. Twilight’s eyes scanned the rows and rows of books. This wasn’t a particularly large section relative to others, but it still held a very impressive amount of books. This part of the library wasn’t alphabetically organized, so Twilight kept looking for mention of books that might contain knowledge on the ley lines. She found a few books that mentioned it directly in the name, and a few more that might have some sort of information on them. She took a stack of about seven books with her and retreated to the spot Celestia had prepared for her. It was in the very back of the library, with silence wards placed around it so that no sound would disturb studying. There was a single mage light candle that hovered above the large amount of pillows set there by a maid that provided Twilight with all the light she needed to start her research.

She sat the books down on a small table and huddled down in a pillow, getting herself comfortable and letting out a deep sigh before opening up the first book and starting her research. The first book was directly related to the ley lines, and contained a little bit of information on them she hadn’t learned before in her library. It held a little bit of information on just how much magic they held. From almost twenty miles away from the ley lines, the research team was picking up readings on magical devices that maxed it out easily. When they still tried to get closer, their machine broke. The unicorns of the group were physically feeling the effects of the wall from about fifteen miles away. By ten miles, they had to turn around because the immense magical output was starting to make them light headed. They were never able to actually see the lines, though, so they couldn’t report what they looked like.

Twilight didn’t read the whole book. She was really good – perhaps the best – at skimming books and still getting all the relevant information from them. That book only took her about an hour. The next one about twenty minutes, as she decided it didn’t have any new information. She started to become a little bit flustered as book after book was failing her and not giving her any new information that she hadn’t previously had. After she cleared the books that specifically mentioned the ley lines in their titles, she moved on to the books that she thought might contain some information on them in a particular chapter. As she’d hoped, all the ones she picked out did in fact mention them at some point. But, she still wasn’t learning anything new. As she closed the last book, she guessed that she’d been reading for probably two and a half to three hours at this point, meaning it was probably around four or five o’clock. She stretched and yawned, covering her mouth to try and prevent her grunts from echoing before she remembered she was under a silence ward. After she realized that sound couldn’t get out either, she realized that this place could be a bit spooky if someone wanted to take her out or something.

Twilight shivered at the silly though and got up to take the books back to the shelf. She wasn’t feeling too tired yet, even though the spell she cast had been going for quite a while. After this next round, she’d probably take some books with her back to her room to study before bed. The great thing about this trip is that she could stay up all night if she wanted and sleep in as late as she wanted tomorrow. This research was the only responsibility that she had right now, and that was a good feeling for her. On her second trip, she acquired five more books, all about the ley lines. To Twilight’s frustration, after around a thousand pages and several hours later, she found herself both extremely frustrated, but also curious as to how the authors of those books all managed to spend over a hundred pages saying the same thing over and over again.

Twilight closed the last book and growled in frustration, collapsing into her pillow bed she had created. It was probably getting pretty late now, and she was starting to feel the effects of the darkvision potion draining her energy now. She decided that it was time to take some books back to her room with her. She returned the books to the bookshelf and started to look for some to take back. She found several more that she had missed, but then her eyes caught the title of a book that piqued her interest. It wasn’t related to the ley lines; instead, the title read, “List of Alchemical Spells.” The reason this caught her attention, however, is because as far as Twilight knew, alchemy was the creation of potions. She had never known of alchemy to have spells involved with it. It could very well just be spells for the quick creation of potions, but this was in the magical anomaly section?... She grabbed the book in her magic and pulled it from the shelf. The book was extremely old; it looked like it could have been close to a thousand years old, maybe even older. But, as she opened the decrepit cover, the words inside were perfectly preserved. What lie inside the book, however, shocked Twilight. The book was filled with what looked like spell matrices… but something about them was off. Usually with spells, the symbols would usually stand for a spell, but this appeared similar to an equation that needed to be balanced.

Twilight stared at the book in total shock. This was… a new form of magic? She looked at the runes on the page, and understood what some of them meant. She saw element symbols for water, earth, fire, and air, and different combinations of the four, as well as some symbols she wasn’t sure of. After a few minutes of attempting to decipher the book, she decided to take it with her to her room. With that book and the few more books on the ley lines that she found, she’d have plenty to read for the night. Twilight picked up the books in her magic and headed for the exit. The same two night guards were standing ever tall as twilight passed then, and they said not a word as she carried out the books in her magic grasp. She made her way down the stairs and into the middle level of the library. The room that was once bright and well lit from all the natural lighting was now fairly dark, with some normal mage light candles keeping it well lit enough to see fine still.

She returned to the part of the library and found the hollow spot in the wall, teleporting to find the secret passage when she was sure no pony was looking. Once again she made the trip down the hallway and back to her suite, now bringing with her several very old books, and one extremely old book. She set them down on her bed and sat down on the bed for a moment, rubbing her eyes. Before getting back to studying, the tired mare decided a nice shower would do her well before hitting the books. It always helped both relax her, yet wake her up a little bit. She grabbed her shampoo and conditioner from her bags and walked into the very fancy bathroom. The shower was also a very large tub, and the tub was half the size of her bathroom back home in Ponyville. A smile went across her face as she turned on the water in the tub, letting it warm up as she went to the mirror. She looked herself over in the mirror, still well groomed from that morning. She always liked to spruce up a little more than normal when visiting Canterlot for really any reason.

As the steam started to come from the bath, she set her mane and coat products on the side and stepped into the small puddle of very warm water that had pooled in the tub. She sighs as the warm water soaks into the fur of her ankles, and turns the shower on. The hot shower and the relaxing feeling of lathering her mane and tail with her hooves leaves her feeling extremely relaxed after she finished with her shower. She dried off with her magic, leaving her mane and tail feeling soft as the bed sheets she would sleep in that night. With a quick few teleports, Twilight also found herself with a nice, hot latte from the kitchen to make the next few hours much more relaxing than a chore.

Twilight took a sip of her latte and sat it on the nightstand, turning off all the mage lights in her suite, save the one next to her on the night stand. As she cracked open the first book on ley lines, the book on alchemy came to the forefront of her mind, but she pushed it back. She wanted to finish the other books before she got distracted by something else. It was the least she could do, since this was why she was actually here. But, a whole new branch of magic…

The hours seemed to pass slower than normal as Twilight kept forcing herself to stay on task and not stray to the other book. It was difficult – especially with the fact that the books were winding up the same that all the rest were; all the same information. It was all speculations that ponies have been making for hundreds of years, and long, drawn out conclusions based on evidence that no one, save for that one book, has yet to provide. Around half past eleven and a latte, Twilight found herself at the end of the last of her research books, with the old, magical tome sitting in front of her. It was so enticing that she almost felt bad about reading it. The book seemed too old, its secrets so ancient and almost… forbidden. Surely Celestia knew about this form of magic; surely she knew of this book's existence. But then, why has she never said anything about it... unless she didn’t know? This new magic could lead to so many great things that ponykind has never even considered until now. It could be up to Twilight to rediscover old secrets, just as she was going to do with the ley lines!

As Twilight’s thoughts turned towards the near future and the many different things she could be doing very soon, she opened the book in front of her and started to read.

Author's Note

I hope you enjoyed the first full chapter! Please, leave a comment and let me know how you liked it; comments are my favorite things, much more than likes!

Blinding Black Curtains

Now with all of those formalities out of the way, let's get to why you opened this book. You want to learn how to use Alchemy, I'll bet. Before I tell you anything, there's something you need to know. It's so important, the rest of the text in this book won't appear until you read this message in full twice.

Alchemy is one of the most dangerous forces in the world. A young, powerless pony can cause destruction on a scale that not myself or even the princesses can do, just because they pulled the wrong string. But, they won't be able to control that destruction to any sort of degree if they're not sure of what they're doing anyways. But more importantly than destruction, is the impact on the lives of ponies around you. Alchemy is a very non-selfish magic; it takes and it gives in equal amounts, always. But it is very, very easy to let alchemy control you and become very selfish. That is why this book can only have come into your possession by a trusted teacher. Alchemy is not for the masses, and it never will be.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "What even is alchemy? What does it do? Why is it so dangerous? Why should I learn it?" Alchemy is a form of magic that doesn't draw upon the magic within you, but it draws upon the energy stored within all matter. It allows its user to create things from existing matter and energy, and even convert that matter into different matter. Changing iron into steel, granite into marble, and so on. There are no limits with alchemy; but, if you don't have the self control to limit yourself, you should not be allowed to learn this magic. If this magic fell into the hands of evil, it could all but crush society. But it has the ability to bring about more positive changes in pony, gryphon, zebra, and any other society that is benefits even still manage to outweigh the costs.

When you learn alchemy, you are learning how to alter physical reality directly. It can create, and it can destroy; but, it can only do so when equality is maintained. Most of this book will be learning about the balance of the universe, and how everything seeks to achieve equality. Without an understanding here, you may go on to cause great harm to yourself, or worse yet, the ponies around you. I have learned first hand what alchemy can do in the hands of an ignorant mind, and it worse than anything else I have experienced.

Now, the first part of this chapter, we will be looking at some similarities between arcane magic and alchemy, and studying the makeup of alchemy and why it's different but similar...

Two days have passed since Twilight has arrived in Canterlot. For her, it has been two of the best days she’s had in a very, very long time -- aside from the lack of information from her research, at least. After her first night, she stayed up until about two in the morning studying in the book about alchemy. She found herself too tired to finish the very large book – which was about 1200 pages long: big for even her – so she put it away and decided to read on it for several days. The next day, she woke up at about eleven in the morning! She found herself more rested than she had been in months, and ready to tackle the day.

The day was spent with a nice brunch with coffee, and several hours on and off in the dark, private section of the Canterlot library. The unicorn was finding her work was already stagnating, for she could not find any more information on the ley lines. She went through so many books, but none of them had any new information. That whole day was spent in and out of that section of the library, with her off time being spent catching up with Celestia over tea, or just chatting while they sat in the throne room, waiting for ponies to come to day court.

Celestia was sure to let Twilight know that she could stay for as long as she needed or even wanted to. But, at the same time, she knew Twilight wasn’t the kind of pony to sit and do nothing when she had something to get done, and it was looking more and more like she was going to need to be the one to go and check on the ley lines herself. She was going to allow herself one more day after this one to see what else she could find. That night she was in the library until about two in the morning before returning to her bedroom, showering, and going straight to sleep.

On her third day, she only spent until about seven-thirty in the library before returning to her bedroom, after picking up a cup of coffee. She was pretty sure that her body had a physical addiction to caffeine at this point, making it where she even went to sleep with a cup of coffee sometimes.

She cast a spell to preserve the heat of her coffee while she took a quick shower. After the shower, she flopped in the massive king sized bed, sighing loudly to herself. She was going to need to prepare for a possibly very long journey, including materials to take, people to take, where she was going to go, methods she planned on using to study the ley lines… All these things were spinning in her head, but she decided to not worry about it at the moment. She would take tonight off and read some more of that alchemy book, then ask the princess for her opinion on how she should plan her research expedition.

She rearranged her pillows and sat up in the bed, pulling the book of alchemy out of the drawer in her nightstand. Looking at the cover, she wondered where this book had come from. It was written in a very archaic dialect of Equestrian that might have looked like a whole new language to ponies unfamiliar. Some of the language in the book was broken, too, which told her that this might even be a translated copy of the book. If that were the case, then she assumed that this alchemy was not actually originally a pony creation. That thought made her curious whether or not she would even be able to use alchemy herself were she to try… Should she try? The book doesn’t really explain much about alchemy itself, and really the spells in the book are really only accompanied with explanations to what they do.

Twilight cracked open the massive tome to the spot where she left off: transmutation. The first few chapters were about things that arcane magic could already do, which left her wondering just how different alchemy even was from normal unicorn magic. But, the first paragraph of this chapter had made her realize just how different it really was.

“Transmutation acts as the base, most fundamental part of what makes alchemy the great wonder that is. The magic is crucial if one is to progress further in this art. Transmutation is the act of taking one material and completely changing it into something else. For instance, one can turn stone into gold, given that there is enough stone...”

Twilight coughed as some of her coffee went down the wrong hole, and she almost spilled her cup on herself and the bed and book. She set the cup aside and reread those last two sentences several times. Changing one material into another… That was something that arcane magic can NOT do. All of a sudden, Twilight was getting very excited about studying, and she started to read further. The rest of the chapter was different equations that outlined turning one substance into another entirely. It detailed several, including one type of stone to another, one type of metal to another, water directly into ice, air into water, dirt and sand into stone, and many others. By the time she was halfway through with the chapter, she was getting very anxious to actually try some of these out herself to see if this magic was even for real.

She gave in and took the book with her to the floor. She laid the book on a rug and used her normal magic to extract a single stone slab from the floor under the rug. This way, if she were to mess it up, it at least wouldn’t be noticeable. She set the slab down in front of her and looked at the book. The first spell she wanted to try was to change the stone into a different type of stone completely. The floor of the castle was created from polished metamorphic slate. She would start small, and keep it in the same rock classification, and turn it into marble, a metamorphosed limestone. She looked at the spell in the book again, guessing that the symbols she saw worked in much the same way that arcane symbols did. She memorized the patterns on the page, then looked at the slab in front of her. She focused on that slab entirely, then brought the image of the alchemic symbols into her head. Since this wasn’t arcane magic, she didn’t need to draw upon her own magic. She just needed to balance that equation in her head. She focused on the formula for marble, then focused on the slab in front of her and added its properties into the equation in her head. She noticed her hooves start to glow with power, and she reached out and touched the slab.

After she initiated the spell in her hooves, the rest seemed to almost come naturally to her. When she touched the slab, the magic in her hooves reached out instantaneously and encompassed it and it glowed white for a second. When the light dissipated, the slate slab that she had been looking at was now a pristine white color. Twilight’s face went through several different emotions in rapid succession. First, was a look of almost horror, the second one of surprise, and the last and the one that stuck, joy. She squealed, clapping her hooves together and walking around the piece of marble that now rested on the floor like a dog might walk around and examine a bone. She leaned down to look at the tile, and touched it. It looked like marble, and it felt like marble. Though she noticed that this marble tile was smaller than the original. Maybe marble was worth more than slate, so it didn’t output the same amount when the equation was balanced?

After that one successful attempt, Twilight had more questions pop in her head than she’d ever had before. This felt the same as when she was a filly, still working out how to do simple arcane magic that all unicorns can do. And what was the first thing she would do when she was a filly when she did something cool? She would try to replicate it, of course! Twilight went through the same process that she did before, but in reverse. Instead of starting with slate and going to marble, she changed the equation in her head to go from marble to slate. Her hooves started to glow, and when she touched the marble tile, it changed back into its original form, with just as much material as there had been originally.

Twilight went back to the book and looked for something else to try. She changed the slate into a few more different types of rocks, all with varying degrees of worth. Sometimes the slate got larger, and sometimes it would shrink, depending on the value of the stone it was turning into. Once she had read and practiced this some more, the question of what exactly decided value came to mind, and filed that under “Look into later” in her head.

She went back to the first chapters of the book and experimented with changing the stone from its different forms. She then went through a few more trials, where she turned the stone into a fine sand, then back to the full stone. She almost turned it to its liquid form, before realizing that dumping a load of magma on the floor of the castle was probably a bad idea. She then assumed from that, that turning it into a gas would be a really bad idea. Another chapter let her change the slate into a different shape. She turned it into a small statue of herself, then into a small knife, then a coaster, then ball, and then final back into the slab that it originally was.

Twilight was beginning to grow more confident in this new ability of hers. She flipped back to the transmutation page of the book, looking for something interesting. She saw something that caught her eye; turning stone into water. If this were possible, she thought, then it could make living in the desert such an easy thing for ponies! They could just turn the sand directly into water! In her excitement, she merely glanced over the equation, finding it to be mostly the same as the other one… mostly. She failed to notice one very, very crucial difference in the equation.

Not realizing her mistake, Twilight focused on the magical equation in her mind, letting the runes almost physically appear in front of her. She once again focused on the slate tile in front of her, but when her hooves started to glow and she touched them to the slab, something catastrophic happened.

In the span of a second, the failed spell that Twilight tried to cast spread out over a vast majority of her room in the direction of the door. There was a blinding white light for less than half a second. After the light appeared, a large portion of the stone that made up the castle had a violent reaction to itself, and then the explosion happened. A loud boom shook existence, and it threw Twilight violently against the wall behind her. The whole middle section of Canterlot Castle exploded outwards: stone tore through stone, wood, glass, and metal. The sound of the castle crumbling down then followed, though Twilight could hardly tell.

She heard two massive crashes that shook the floor she stood on, which was thankfully still holding strong. The second sound she noticed after the crashes was the screams of many, many ponies. Some were screams of shock, some of horror, some of pain, and some of death. All in Canterlot castle, stone fell on top of ponies, splattered them against walls, buried them in inescapable traps, and sometimes even sliced them up. Others had their bones splintered in hundreds of places by the force of the explosion’s shockwave, or blown out of a window and onto the ground anywhere from five feet to one hundred feet in the air.

In about five seconds, all was still, save for the screaming of ponies in the background. Twilight groaned as she struggled to open her eyes. When she managed to pry them open, they were just met with a veil of dust that made them burn even more. She forced herself to her hooves, standing wobbly in the mess of what used to be a bedroom. She looked around the room, trying to focus through the choking cloud of dust that now filled the air. From what she could tell, there was a massive hole in her bedroom that seemed to expand outwards in a relative cone shape from where she was sitting with the book. The damage only got worse the further out, due to the massive amounts of energy released in such a large area.

From what Twilight could tell, the servants’ quarters were almost completely obliterated. From her vantage point on the outcropping of stone in her room, she looked down into a huge crater of stone below her, her legs shaking from physical shock, mental shock, and emotional shock all at once. She felt like she wanted to purge her stomach right there, but something prevented her. She looked up from the mess of stone and bodies, seeing where the kitchens had been. There was a huge fire raging in the middle, with several ponies probably burning in it, unable to escape from the stone. And something that struck probably the biggest personal blow to her heart, was that the Royal Library was compromised; stone had blown in the stained glass windows and broken into the main area. One of the towers had fallen straight into it and had collapsed the upper levels that she had spent so much time in the last few days – the area that held the most valuable and important knowledge that the library had to offer – had fallen in on itself and millions of ancient books spilled and mixed into the main area.

Twilight sank to her haunches, tears welling up in her eyes and spilling down her face as she stared in utter disgust as the destruction and suffering she had just wrought, from one simple spell. Many ponies were dead, the Castle of the Royal Sisters was completely destroyed beyond repair… ‘Oh no, Celestia!’ Twilight’s thoughts jumped to her mentor, as well as Princess Luna. She looked around, and saw their towers seemed to still be standing. Where were they two, she wondered? It’s been at least a minute since the explosion, and he hasn’t seen them-

Suddenly, over by Twilight’s bed, a magical aura was streaming from her saddlebags. Celestia was calling the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony to Canterlot, in case of an attack! Celestia didn’t know what had just happened, and suspected the worst. Just as Twilight thought about it, Celestia appeared next to her in a flash of light. The larger pony breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Twilight sitting mostly unscathed.

“Oh Twilight, I can’t tell you how relieved I am to see you alive and well right now. An explosion that big had to have been caused by a being of immense power… I’ve called the Elements to Canterlot as soon as possible. But right now, we need to get down there and help any ponies that might still be alive.” Celestia turned to the unicorn, to find that Twilight wasn’t looking at her. “Twilight, are you okay dear? I know this is an awful thing, but we must-”

“I-I… I caused it…” Twilight’s words were weak and quiet, and beyond all the chaos that was erupting around them, Celestia couldn’t quite hear her.

“Speak up, Twilight. I can’t hear you.”

“I said… I caused the explosion.”

Celestia gave Twilight a look that rested somewhere between “I don’t believe you” and “You had better explain yourself.”

“I-I was testing some magic from that book about some new magic called alchemy…” Celestia jumped back, her eyes going to pinpoints as her brain processed what was just said.

“A-alchemy… That explains why the wards on the castle… Y-you used alchemy?” Those three words were directed at Twilight with a hint of emotion that Twilight had never felt from her teacher before, especially towards herself: hatred. The next thing she said caused Twilight to flinch and jump, due to the magically enhanced Royal Canterlot Voice being used.

“YOU USED ALCHEMY?!” Her voice shook the very floor that they stood on, and it served to shake Twilight from the daze she had gone in. All of the emotions and thoughts flooded into her head. Celestia’s eyes burned with so much hatred that Twilight could almost physically feel it… Nope, that was heat she felt. Celestia’s eyes turned pure white, and her normally pink and blue mane changed into that which resembled the flames of a sun, with only a little bit less brightness of the real thing.

“P-princess Celestia, please…” Twilight pulled for words and that’s all she could come up with. She started to step backwards as the raging alicorn princess slowly started to ease her way towards Twilight, the heat picking up slowly.

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE, YOU HAVE COMMITTED ONE OF THE HEAVIEST CRIMES IN EQUESTRIAN LAW. NOT ONLY HAVE YOU PROBABLY CAUSED THE DEATH OF DOZENS OF PONIES, BUT YOU USED THE FORBIDDEN ALCHEMY, AND IN THE CASTLE OF THE TWO SISTERS NONETHELESS.”

Twilight shrank back, her eyes going wide. She had a feeling that she was in the biggest trouble. This was so much more than missing an assignment, or failing to not be fully groomed when Celestia made a surprise stop at her library, or some other stupid, trivial thing that Twilight thought would get her in trouble. No, this was a crime on magnitude with something that could land a pony in Tartarus for the rest of their days.

“COME QUIETLY TWILIGHT SPARKLE AND YOU WILL NOT BE IMMEDIATELY HARMED. YOU ARE TO BE DETAINED AND PUT UNDER CLOSE WATCH WHILE MY SISTER AND I DETERMINE YOUR PUNISHMENT FOR THIS ACT. YOU HAD BETTER HOPE IT BE ONLY A LIFETIME OF IMPRISONMENT.”

“B-but I didn’t know! I didn’t know! P-princess, please hear me out, I didn’t know that alchemy was forbidden or that it would cause this, or I never would have even taken the book off the shelves!” Twilight had tears flowing down her face, and the air around her was becoming uncomfortably warm from the seething princess that stood in front of her. She didn’t want to go to prison, or be put to death. She didn’t want her teacher and mother figure to hate her for the rest of her life. She didn’t want to have to repent for sins that she didn’t mean to commit. Twilight’s brain switched into a more primal mode of survival. As the situation grew in intensity, along with the alicorn’s emotions, as did her want to just leave and not be around this anymore. She was sobbing violently as her mentor closed in. The flames that acted as Celestia’s mane struck out at Twilight on their own, causing the unicorn to call out in pain as part of the fur on her left foreleg was singed off by the unbelievable heat.

“TWILIGHT, YOU OF ALL PONIES SHOULD KNOW BETTER THAN TO GO DABBLING IN MAGIC THAT YOU KNOW NOTHING OF. ALCHEMY HAS BEEN BANNED IN EQUESTRIA SINCE BEFORE LUNA’S BANISHMENT, AND FOR GOOD REASON. EVEN THE LOWEST OF UNICORNS CAN CAUSE DESTRUCTION ON THIS LEVEL, AND BE THE REASON THAT MANY PONIES LOSE THEIR LIFE. I TRUSTED YOU MORE THAN ANY OTHER PONY BESIDES MY SISTER, SO MUCH THAT I LET YOU STUDY UNATTENDED IN THE FORBIDDEN SECTION OF THE CANTERLOT LIBRARY, AND YOU REPAY MY TRUST WITH THIS?!” The final part of that was screamed, and when the sun goddess, transformed into a being of pure fire and hatred, screamed in the Royal Canterlot voice, it was one of the most horrifying things anypony could ever experience. It was with this traumatic exposure that Twilight went into full panic mode.

Her mind went from appeasing the angry goddess and mourning her own stupid actions, and immediately to surviving. She did a single take around the room, marking items that she was going to take with her on her impromptu journey. In the span of about two seconds, Twilight teleported over to her saddle bag and slipped them hastily on, teleported over to the book of alchemy that was still lying face open on the floor, unscathed by the explosion, and slid it in her saddlebags. She then teleported out of the room to the courtyard of Canterlot Castle. Princess Celestia was so blinded by rage that she wasn’t thinking quickly enough, which allowed Twilight the time she needed to get away safely.

When Twilight reached the courtyard, she looked to the castle and saw exactly what she had done to the once majestic structure: two of the castle’s four towers had fallen inwards – one on the library area, and the other into the central garden – and then the portcullis that lead into the hallway, to the throne room, had also collapsed in on itself. The bodies of several guards were splattered there, causing Twilight’s stomach to retch inside of her. All of the guards along the outer wall of the castle were too stunned and shocked to even notice Twilight’s appearance, let alone move to do something about it.

She couldn’t stay and stare at the castle long, though, and Twilight teleported with only her saddle bags back to the train station. She stood in front of several shocked ponies, and found that many ponies were screaming and running away from the castle. Smoke raised high into the night air, illuminated against the still somewhat lit sky. Twilight then realized why else it had taken the princess so long to act; she was in the middle of lowering the sun, and had to stop midway. She hoped, for her sake and those of any other pony that might cross her that night, that Luna would be able to calm her sister into a rational state. Twilight turned back to the train, realizing she could not take the train back to Ponyville. It would be much too slow, and it could easily be tracked and intercepted by the Royal Guard, or by Celestia herself.

Another teleport found her at the front gates of the city, which were always open. The guards stationed there looked confused and worried, staring dumbfounded towards the chaotic scene in the distance. One of the guards heard the teleportation pop and pointed right at Twilight as she appeared.

“Halt! State your name and your business within Canterl-“ Before he finished his sentence, Twilight was gone in a flash, just as she had appeared. She kept teleporting, and teleporting, and teleporting. She knew that she probably had just enough magic stored in her body to make it home to Ponyville, but it would leave her absolutely exhausted. She needed to not teleport after Ponyville anyways: teleportation could be tracked by the princesses and some of the upper mages in the military. As she popped in and out of reality down the Canterlot mountain and into the fields and forests that dotted the way to Ponyville, her mind was calculating the most efficient method of getting away before she could be found.

Once she reached Ponyville, she would go straight to her library and pick up anything else she might need to take with her. She needed to let Spike know that she would be leaving for a very long time, and to tell her friends not to worry about her. She would need some parchment and quills, as well as some ink. She needed a bedroll. She needed a cloak. She needed the book in her saddlebags. And she needed a few potions she had stored for emergencies, because this was certainly an emergency. Most of all, she needed something that she would not be able to collect at her stop in Ponyville; some hope for the near or distant future.

The miles passed by much quicker than they had by train, and the four hour trip was becoming a thirty minute trip. Twilight could probably have gone the whole length in a single spell, but that would have sapped her energy much worse than this. With this, she wouldn’t drop from exhaustion as soon as she got to her destination, unable to do anything. If she did it in increments like she was, she could focus and harden herself to push on longer than she should be able to.

Her mind worked out what Celestia would do when she was finished with the search and rescue mission in the castle. Would she immediately come after Twilight on her own? Would she send the entire Equestrian army after her? Would she blow up her library and threaten to kill Spike if she didn’t turn herself in? So many thoughts were come to the forefront of her mind, and it was driving her to teleport quicker and quicker. She needed to be as far away from Canterlot as she could possibly be, and she needed to be that far as quickly as possible.

After thirty minutes of straight teleporting, Twilight found herself standing in the middle of the Sweet Apple Acre orchards, panting heavily and trying to keep from falling over from exhaustion. She closed her eyes and braced herself, and then one more teleport and she was standing in front of the Golden Oaks Library – that was a precise and practiced teleport. She quickly undid the locks on the door with her magic instead of reaching for a key and slipped inside her home, collapsing to the floor in a heap, trying to catch her breath.

After the minute that she took to be able to speak again through panting, she stood up and called out, “Spike, please come here! It’s urgent!” in as urgent of a voice as she could possibly muster. She rushed over to her desk in the main library area and threw some quills and blank scrolls and some ink vials into her saddlebag. Then she rushed for the kitchen and opened her potion cabinet, pulling out a vial that actually glowed yellow in the darkness of the lightless kitchen. She popped the cork off of the potion and chugged it. A chill ran down her body as every last bit of the potion was downed and all of a sudden, Twilight didn’t feel like she was about to pass out from overexertion any more. While energy potions weren’t safe to drink very often, this one should be enough to get Twilight out of Ponyville and away from whatever threat was sure to follow her.

Spike groggily poked his head around the kitchen entrance, “T-Twilight? Why are you home? Why are you drinking that energy potion? Why are you yelling at ten at night? Why a-“

“Spike, I need you to know something.” Twilight walked over to Spike and placed her hooves on the dragon’s shoulders, looking him square in the eye. The baby dragon could feel the weight of what she was about to say – or, maybe he could just see the tear stains on her cheeks, and the now freshly welling tears in her eyes. “I have… done something terrible. I made the biggest mistake of my life, and I need to run away for a long time.”

Spike gave her a look that said, ‘I don’t believe you and you’re overreacting.’ Before he could actually say anything, Twilight placed a hoof on his lips. “Spike… I just blew up half of Canterlot castle and probably was the cause of the deaths of maybe a hundred ponies. P-Princess Celestia was angrier than I’ve ever seen her – more than I’ve ever seen anypony before. I’m not going to ask you to hide me, I just want you to know that I’m leaving for probably a very long time.” Twilight was failing to fight back the tears in her eyes, and she could see them welling in Spike’s as well. She fell into the dragon, her hooves wrapping around him in a tight embrace, and he obliged with a hug in return. After a few seconds, Twilight broke the hug. “I need my bedroll.”

“I’ll get it for you.” He said simply, not bothering to question Twilight any further on what happened, and hurried off upstairs to grab it. Twilight composed herself and grabbed a couple more potions from her cabinet, throwing them into the saddlebag as well. By the time she retrieved her cloak from the coat closet, Spike returned with the bedroll. She took it and strapped it to her back, but Spike also handed something else to her. He opened his claws and handed her a small gem with a string tied around it in a necklace fashion. The gem was a blueish-green color and seemed to glow very faintly with magical power.

“T-this is my prized gem. It’s not very big, but this is one of the rarest gems in the whole world. I was saving it to give to Rarity, but I think you need it much more than her, Twilight. It will watch over you and keep you safe wherever you may go…” The tears in Twilight’s eyes welled even more than they had in the hug. Her smiled was both forced and natural, and she took the necklace and put it around her neck. The new weight against her chest was comforting.

“T-thank you, Spike. Thank you so much. I love you like a brother; I want you to know that.” She hugged him once more and slipped on her cloak, then put her saddlebags on over it. After she was sure everything was in line, she walked to the door. Spike stood in the middle of the library, tears quietly flowing down his cheeks as he waved goodbye to her. She waved back, then gave him a reassuring smile and pulled the hood of the cloak over her head. “One last thing: my friends were called to Canterlot. When they come back, don’t tell them what just happened. Don’t tell them I stopped by. Don’t tell them you saw me. Just pretend you were asleep and didn’t wake up when I came by to grab my stuff. And finally, don’t look which way I’m going. I love you, Spike…” She pulled the door closed behind her and made straight for the Everfree Forest… almost.

The sun had long since dipped below the horizon at this point, and Twilight knew she needed to use the boost of the energy potion to make as much time as possible while it was still dark. Instead of heading straight for the Everfree Forest, she teleported a few times west out of town, before running the whole length of Ponyville back the other way. That might throw them off her trail for a little bit when they started looking for her. She then made way straight towards the dark line of trees on the eastern side of Ponyville.

It wasn’t long before she found herself shrouded by the canopy of trees in the edge of the Everfree, dodging trunks and leaping over roots with the help of her darkvision spell that she decided to cast. She was deep enough in the forest that she couldn’t see the edge, but not so deep she couldn’t escape if something nasty wanted to do her harm. Her legs pounded the ground and she kept her mind on her breathing, knowing if it wandered too much that it would probably put herself in some sort of trouble. So for the time she would just focus on where she was going.

After about twenty minutes, Twilight made a sharp cut to go deeper into the forest. She went about a mile deeper and made a quick stop. She caught her breath and drank some water from the waterskin she always kept in her saddlebags. It wouldn’t do well to overexert herself now when she was just beginning. After a ten minute break, she began her trek again. But, this time, she started teleporting again. Now she was deep enough in the Everfree that any sort of magical trace would be difficult, if not impossible, to pick up without standing right on top of it. She would teleport a ways, then run for a ways. She kept her bearing by the moon that she could see just barely through the canopy. The moon and sun always rose directly in the east and sat directly in the west. The moon was just off its zenith, telling twilight it should be near twelve at night.

She debated resting for just a while, but the more distance she put between herself and whatever or whoever was following her, the better off she would be in the long run. Also, stopping in the Everfree was dangerous business, and she could find herself not waking up at all if the wrong creature decided she looked like a tasty purple treat while she slept. Hours rushed by and the buzz of the energy potion began to wear off as Twilight pounded on through the forest, making better time than she should have been able to without aid of that potion. With her current course, she was headed directly for what in her opinion was the best place to get lost and not found: Zebrica. Zebrica was the second largest of the nations, behind only the Gryphon Kingdoms of the North. It was a huge, hilly and mountainous landscape of thick jungle and foliage. The Zebra lived and thrived within its deep, dark depths, using the jungle’s mystery to harness their own form of alchemy – the alchemy of potion-making.

Twilight knew that once she crossed international lines, even if friendly ones, the Equestrian military would not be able to cross over until the Zebran government gave them the military access. In a more effective system, allies would have military access anyways. But, it wasn’t very often that one nation or the other had fugitives running from their government, and both parties had an agreement that rash military movement across borders could be taken the wrong way if caught off guard.

But, Twilight still had a very large amount of ground to cover, be it by hoof or magic, before she would reach Zebra territory. At about four in the morning, the borrowed time had worn off and Twilight was now draining energy from her own reserves. She didn’t have much left, and a wrong move could prove fatal were she to be caught because she was too tired to run. She picked a spot about a thousand yards from the entrance of the Everfree in a very remote area between Ponyville and Fillydelphia to make camp. She didn’t build a fire or anything. She just cleared a spot in the dirt, rolled her bedroll out, and lay down to hopefully get a few hours of unattested sleep.

Author's Note

Now, before you say anything, babe, I know what it is. You're gon' tell me, "But sug', we're just movin' waay too fast in this relationship, what with you blowing up Canterlot and all that jazz. I don't know if I'm ready for this kind of commitment..."

But, babycakes, you gotta' know that I'm in this for the long haul; I'm in this for you. Just bear with me, and I promise I'll take ya' to great places. Buckle up and enjoy the ride, because this relationship is just gettin' started.

Fillydelphia Dreamin'

Now that we’ve learned the basics of alchemy, it’s time to learn a few spells. As I’ve preached many times already throughout this book, even the lowliest transmutations can go horribly wrong at the worst of times, and cause great harm or even death to another pony. Many of the conversion spells that I will teach you can be used to either help or harm ponies.

Many of the spells we will learn later on, like converting matter directly into kinetic energy, can be effective as a means for attacking someone. The use of alchemy in self-defense is banned in Equestria, though, and for good reason. It’s hard to just harm a pony with alchemy. Most spells used for attacking include those that turn things into matter and make them explode. More advanced spells that allow for turning things into energy and using them as projectiles are even more deadly, because matter holds so much energy in it.

I beg of you to never use this magic when defending yourself. You always want to take the path that won’t lead to death, no matter who is attacking you.

Now that I’ve ranted at you yet again over the dangers of alchemy, let’s get started with the first spell you’ll do: turning one type of stone into another type of stone…

The sun was well over the horizon now, and Twilight Sparkle was well on her way to Fillydelphia. She was absolutely exhausted, and wanted nothing more than to just keel over and go to sleep forever. Any adrenaline she had last night, and any leftover buzz from that energy potion was completely gone, leaving her feeling like a husk of a pony. She was hurting all over. But, the physical pain wasn’t the worst pain she was feeling.

After she woke up, she first wondered why she was in the middle of a forest. It had taken her a few seconds to realize that the previous day hadn’t just been a dream. She cried for what felt like forever, but was probably only about thirty minutes. After she dried her eyes for the last time, it left her feeling hollow. She had killed probably around a hundred ponies, maybe more. She had never killed anything before in her life, except maybe a bug or two. But she had killed ponies. Ponies with families, dreams, hopes, lives, feelings. One hundred lifetimes of experiences, snuffed out with one stupid decision.

Twilight had strongly considered turning herself in. She was probably the most wanted criminal in all of Equus, and rightfully so. She had gotten dangerously close to doing so, but then an image flashed across her brain: the sight of Celestia. Twilight had never seen Celestia so angry before. She had never seen anything so angry before. Celestia had reminded Twilight of when Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon, but this was so much more horrifying, because for one she had never seen Celestia even halfway upset about anything, let alone furious, and two, because every single ounce of that anger was directed directly towards her.

The image of Celestia was too much for Twilight. She thought that going back and seeing Celestia furious and disappointed with her might be even worse than the regret of not turning herself in. But, Twilight had a mission; she needed to get to the ley lines, and she needed to do it as soon as possible. She thought that maybe if she could get to Zebrica before the guard caught her and got lost in the jungle quickly enough, they wouldn’t ever be able to find her again. It was a stretch, but it was possible. Then, when they forgot about her, she could research the ley lines and work on her infinite magical energy source for Equestria, and when she finished that, she could bring it back and maybe she wouldn’t be so much of a villain.

Twilight’s days as a heroine were now over. She never really cared much for being the heroine and being universally loved by all ponies. As long as she had her friends and her library, she could be happy. But now, she only worried about not being despised by all. She needed to make up for her blunder, even if it killed her. She had convinced herself that if she turned herself in, she would only be able to answer for her sins, and not actually make up for them. So, after spending an hour crying and debating with herself, Twilight ran as fast as she could have with what energy she had left, which wound up being more of a light trot.

She guessed that if she moved all day and most of the night, she should be able to reach Fillydelphia in three days. And from Fillydelphia, it was only about a day to the Equestria/Zebrica border. She had to hope and pray that the Equestrian military wouldn’t find her in that time. If they did, she wasn’t sure she could defend herself against even just a small group of them. She could try teleporting, but that would wear her out and leave signs for mages to pick up. She was running on the basis that she didn’t think they knew which way she could have gone. It wouldn’t have taken them long to decide that her trick in Ponyville leading west out of the city was just that: trick. But that didn’t necessarily mean that they would be able to easily pick up her trail. Because she moved through the Everfree, they would have a very hard time tracking her magical steps.

Twilight was lucky that at least the first half of her route to Fillydelphia would be medium foliage, providing a decent enough canopy to prevent her being spotted immediately by any fliers they sent out. But Fillydelphia sat in the plains, a good twenty miles from any sort of dense foliage. She would have to make the trek across that stretch of land at night to prevent being seen.

As Twilight trotted through the trees, all she could do to pass the time was plan and fret over what had happened. She didn’t let herself fret, so she planned. She knew the geography of Equestria very, very well, so she planned for every step of her route what she would do if she encountered any soldiers, including how to deal with unicorn mages, pegasi fliers, and earth pony soldiers. But after several hours of walking and trotting, Twilight could think of nothing else to occupy her brain with, and she needed to keep her mind off of the previous day. She needed a book now more than anything…

Which reminded her: she did have a book.

Twilight pulled the book from her saddlebags and leveled it in front of her to where she could still watch where she was going. She was more than skilled enough at reading and walking for this to not slow her down. As she opened the book to the page that she had been on, though, she was reminded that last time she opened the book, she blew up a castle. She went to put it away, but she had to think about what she was doing. Could she really blame alchemy for her mistake? Celestia was mad that Twilight had used alchemy at all, but was it really the magic’s fault? Twilight had learned that all magic was neutral; even the magic of friendship was considered neutral. The only evil and good in magic was the ponies that used it. Even dark magics could be used for the greater good in a way that didn’t inflict harm on anything, except maybe the user itself.

All of this, combined with Twilight’s will to never let something like that happen again, made her want to study alchemy harder. She wanted to learn what had happened and why the spell went off like it did. And besides – since she had little energy left herself, if she needed to get out of a situation, she could use the extra help. So Twilight cracked the book open again, right to where she left off, and she read.

Twilight was starting to experience several different emotions after not seeing a single soul for a whole day. She was starting to feel a little lonely with no one else to talk to about the situation she was in. But, she was also feeling relieved, because she didn’t want to bring any of her drama to other ponies. Surprisingly though, the day felt somewhat relaxing. The whole day was spent reading and walking, which were two things she enjoyed quite a bit. So, she got this whole time to herself.

She wasn’t reading very fast, so that she didn’t blow through the book in a day and have nothing else to do. She also didn’t want to get too distracted from running, listening, and making sure she was always safe from discovery. When she had bedded down that night around midnight or so, she had figured that she had gone at least twenty miles today. That was a good distance for a day, and now she could go to sleep at a decent hour and hopefully get some rest. Before bedding up, she realized she hadn’t actually eaten anything since she left, which was a very bad thing, because she needed to keep her energy up.

Twilight couldn’t recall any instances of a pony ever actually starving to death in the open, though. While it wasn’t something ponies LIKED to do because it was considered… primitive, it was still something that kept a pony alive when there was no other food source readily available. Twilight let out a sigh and leaned her head down to munch on some grass by her bedroll. Nopony would ever openly admit to grazing, but it was something Twilight felt was necessary. Were she to go look for flowers or berries that weren’t poisonous, she might have wasted valuable time. And to Twilight, time was the most valuable thing she had right now, and she wasn’t going to waste it to save her pride. Luckily, grass is actually pretty good for ponies, and she managed to ignore the taste enough to fill her belly. When she was full enough, she laid her head down on her bedroll and went to bed.

The next day, Twilight woke up around seven o’clock and felt much better than the day before. Her body was starting to settle into the running away mode, so she wasn’t hurting as much, and she felt fairly rested. She could probably use a good portion of her magic again, too, since she did used little the day before. After rolling up her bedroll and munching on some more grass, she was up and at it again in fifteen minutes.

Her second full day of running wasn’t really much different from the first. Twilight read some more and covered more ground than the day before. The only hitch was when a group of timberwolves decided that Twilight would be a good meal for them. They were sorely mistaken. After immobilizing them with her arcane magic, Twilight had decided to try out an alchemy spell she had been memorizing all day. She formed the formula in her head, focused on the power in her hooves, and she released it, creating an explosion just large enough to blow one of the timberwolves to splinters. The others eyed her from their stasised forms, wanting to get away but not being able to break from the unicorn’s powerful magic. Twilight didn’t want to cold-bloodedly (cold-woodedly?) murder all of these timberwolves. They were just animals, and they would have gladly eaten her up had she let them, but her time spent with Fluttershy had made her feel bad for thinking of any living creature as a mindless beast that deserved death.

…But then again, killing one timberwolf wasn’t going to hurt anybody, right? After the other one had exploded all over the forest, Twilight let go of her stasis spell and all of the other timberwolves were very quick to get away from her as quick as possible. Twilight breathed a relieved sigh at that situation going about as well as she could have asked for. The alchemic spell that she cast was one that created matter into energy, creating an explosion. It was an immensely dangerous spell were it to go wrong. Release too much energy, and you could end up blowing up a crater in the world, as well as blowing yourself up. But, in small, contained uses like Twilight had done, it is an effective spell when last measures are needed.

Happy with herself for accomplishing that and for probably making sure the local timberwolf packs would leave her be for the rest of her journey, she continued onwards. Besides that encounter, the rest of the day was pretty much like the last. She read a lot, walked a lot, and not much else happened. Around eight o’clock, Twilight reached the edge of the Everfree Forest. It was twilight out, and the natural light from the sky was fading away. Twilight sighed as she laid down for a small rest, knowing this is when she would need to make her trek across the plains to Fillydelphia. It would take all night and would put her there around seven or eight in the morning.

She stopped and rested up for about thirty minutes, drinking from her waterskin that she refilled herself using alchemy to convert some stone into water the proper way this time. She realized what she had done wrong before, and she triple checked her work before actually using the spell. It did exactly as she wanted, but she focused too hard the first time and forgot to actually place the flask under the rock, so all of the water simply fell to the ground. She had also stumbled across some flowers that she knew were edible on her journey, so she had picked a bunch and put them in her saddlebag for when she would have time to eat them.

Twilight sat at the edge of the forest, looking south along the ever-stretching plains that made up the space between the Everfree and Fillydelphia. She heaved a sigh, trying her hardest to just enjoy the view. The sun was setting in the west, and was already just below the horizon. The sky to the west was a deep orange color, and it slowly faded into a dark blue, dotted with the beginnings of the stars. Over the Everfree Forest were streaks of clouds, not quite thick enough to block the view, but just enough to be seen. The pegasi never let lone strings of clouds go like that, but not much could be done over the Everfree.

The silhouettes of the rolling hills that seemed to stretch on into infinity before Twilight were barely visible in the low lighting, and they were slowly fading into darkness the longer she waited there. Her mane blew slightly in the night air, the chilliness of it causing her to shiver and pull the cloak on her back tighter around her barrel and head. The twilight had only lasted for about twenty or so minutes, but it was worth the wait to watch the day slip silently into the night. Twilight could see the moon slowly rising from the east, and thought about Princess Luna and Princess Celestia standing on the balconies in their spared towers, performing their duties even as half of their castle lay in ruins behind them.

Twilight blinked the tears from her eyes and shook her head, standing up and taking a sip from her waterskin. She had a very long night ahead of her, and she intended to make very good time, trying to get to Fillydelphia as early in the morning as possible.

As Twilight trotted through the rolling fields, she kept her view mostly to the sky. Not because she was looking for pegasi, because she knew they wouldn’t waste their time looking for her in the dark. Rather, she was watching the sky, looking for certain constellations and all the different streaks of color. Even miles from her home, this sky was still the same sky she saw there, and the moon was the same.

Though she tried to keep her mind completely clear of many thoughts outside the beauty of the masterfully woven artwork above her, her mind kept turning back to Spike. What was the baby dragon going to do now that she wasn’t there? Would he take over the library in her absence? Would he move in with Rarity, or one of her other friends? She hoped with all of her heart that she hadn’t made a big mistake in stopping to see her best friend before leaving. If Celestia were desperate enough, could she pry the thoughts and memories from a dragon, albeit a very young one? Would she pry the memories from Spike? He had done nothing wrong at all. Celestia couldn’t possibly expect him to turn Twilight in the moment he saw her and warn the princess about her quick visit. But, Celestia seemed uncharacteristically mad when Twilight had left her.

That thought had kept playing in Twilight’s mind over and over; was there some other answer behind Celestia’s blind rage besides the obvious? She couldn’t decide whether that was enough for Celestia to have that sort of hatred in her. From what Twilight could recall, the princess hadn’t even gotten that mad when Nightmare Moon took over Luna’s mind, turning her into a murderous villain who sought to imbalance the day and night cycle. Why did Celestia have such hatred towards alchemy specifically? Twilight was reconsidering her idea to use this time to study the ley lines, and instead focus on trying to learn more about alchemy. The problem, though was that the book she had gave little information except spells. What she needed was a book that could detail the history of the magic for her, and its relation with Equestria, and why specifically it was banned and forgotten for near a millennium.

Twilight was using the lowlight spell so that she wouldn’t stumble upon something she didn’t want to. The grassy fields she was crossing were for the most part featureless and uninteresting. But, they had a beauty to them that one couldn’t get when anywhere else. Mainly, it was the unbroken view of the sky from horizon to horizon that made them a nice place to be. Twilight could have sworn she could see the glow of Fillydelphia from where she was, but she wasn’t really quite sure. Since she left the hillside of the Everfree, she hadn’t really been paying attention to the miles she traveled, because that would just make the hours seem to roll on and on longer than they actually needed to. From the moon’s position in the sky, she guessed it was probably three in the morning. Fillydelphia was about twenty miles from the edge of the forest. She hadn’t been running much, because of the lowlight spell, so she was probably moving an average of one and a half to two miles an hour, and she had been walking for about six hours, meaning she was probably about half-way there.

Even after the fair night of sleep she had the night before, Twilight was feeling weary with fatigue. She debated holding off leaving Fillydelphia for a day, and getting a hotel room to sleep in under a different name. Honestly, the guard wouldn’t expect that, as they would probably be expecting her to keep going on. But, just in case they had the city on watch for any new and suspicious looking ponies, she needed to minimize the amount of time that she spent anywhere near civilization.

So she spent the rest of the night walking and trotting. She could rest once she got to Zebrica. Hopefully, Celestia wasn’t sure where she was going. It was a stretch, because Celestia was probably the smartest pony alive. Even if she did know where Twilight was going, hopefully she wasn’t thinking far enough in advance to ask for military access. As long as they had to wait, she could get into the jungle, find a nice hole to bed down in, and just rest. It was what she wanted right now more than anything.

Twilight tried to distract herself for the rest of the way. She went over spells in her head, both alchemical and arcane. She constructed and studied escape routes from Fillydelphia, she contemplated what she would do once she got to the ley lines, and she even wrote new spells in her head, though she knew she wouldn’t be able to try them out anytime soon. The moon slowly made its arc through the sky as she trekked across the dark hills. As she crested one hill, she could see across the others, and when she descended, everything became dark again.

Finally, the hours slowly wounded down, and with her darkvision, she could see the glowing of Fillydelphia off in the distance. She picked up her pace in excitement, somewhat forgetting that she was so tired. She clicked off her darkvision spell as the light from the sun slowly started to brighten the landscape around her, and she started up a small trot. She was probably forty-five minutes away from Fillydelphia. She was so close, and then she wouldn’t be far from the Zebrican border.

The sun was just peaking over the horizon when Twilight finally walked into the streets of Fillydelphia. She still had half a mind to go and get herself a hotel room and sleep forever. But she was sure that guards everywhere would know her face. She needed to lay low, get some supplies, and leave. First on her list was some more scrolls, and some ink. She was only able to get two scrolls back in Ponyville, and the vial of ink she got wouldn’t last with as much writing that she planned on doing.

Twilight knew Fillydelphia well enough. She’d been here several times for various different reasons. Once she was in the city proper, she went straight for the quill and scroll shop. It took her about ten minutes to get there, and to her chagrin, the store was closed until about nine. It was probably about seven at this point. Twilight cursed under her breath, wondering what she was going to do. She considered teleporting inside and just leaving the money for what she took, but she was sure that most buildings here in Fillydelphia had alarms for magic tampering, including teleportation detection. Breaking and entering and borderline thievery wasn’t necessarily something she would normally ever consider, but she was a desperate pony.

She eventually decided against it and went down the street to a general store that was open at all hours. She walked in, and the pony at the counter looked like she was about to pass out. She didn’t say anything as Twilight walked into the store and down the aisles. She grabbed the quills, scrolls, and ink she needed. She also grabbed some potions, just in case. None of this stuff was of the quality she usually preferred, since this was just a general store, but it would do. She also bought something cold to drink, because the staying up all night and walking was starting to catch up with her. The mare behind the counter hardly even comprehended what was going on as she rang up Twilight’s stuff.

Twilight walked out of the store with all her new supplies tucked into her now very tightly packed saddlebags, and took a swig from the soda she bought. She was still pretty far west in the city, so she would have to travel the whole length pretty much to get to the side she needed. It would be unsafe to go that whole way now, especially with so few ponies out so she’d be easy to spot. But, walking around the whole city would take longer, and time was still the most important thing right now.

The city of Fillydelphia wasn’t quite like Manehattan in size. It didn’t have an obscene amount of skyscrapers, and it wasn’t super busy at all times of the day. Most of the city was just sprawling commercial districts with lots of restaurants, shops, and things like that. It was honestly a very homey feeling, even to a pony like Twilight who was coming from a tiny town like Ponyville. She walked for forty or fifty minutes, and the number of ponies she was meeting on the street was slowly growing. She saw pony-driven carts taking others to different places, she was seeing lots of business ponies on their way to work, and she saw lots of foals playing around in the streets.

Luckily, she wasn’t seeing any Royal Guard or police ponies. She kept glancing up into the sky, checking for any flying guards, but saw none. Twilight was beginning to wonder if she was even being looked for at all. She was almost to the edge of town, when Twilight felt something weird flow through her body. She instinctually did a magical scan of herself, and at the same time went to teleport. Both of these things told her that what she felt was a teleportation block being cast on her. She could dispel it, but it would take either forcing the pony who cast it to go away, or about five minutes. She didn’t have five minutes.

A few seconds after the teleportation block, Twilight found herself surrounded by ponies in gold armor, many of them unicorns. They all teleported in around her, and had their horns ready, spells glowing at the tips.

“Alright, Miss Sparkle. Just to come with us quietly, and we won’t have to hurt you,” one of the guards said, taking a step forward. He was a large unicorn, and Twilight could feel the magical power he contained flowing from his horn. This was probably the head unicorn of the Royal Mage unit. Luckily for Twilight, he still couldn’t beat her in a one on one fight if it came to that. Luckily for him, there were about fifteen mages standing around her.

Twilight didn’t say anything. She thought she had thought of everything on her way here, but getting teleportation blocked was not something she thought in the repertoire of the Royal Guard. She was going to have to fight if she wanted to get out of this situation. She could use alchemy, but she wasn’t going to. Killing some of the guard is something she wanted to avoid if at all possible, and alchemy is not as… soft, as arcane magic can be.

Twilight formulated her plan quickly, doing a quick take around to making sure she had all her bases covered. She looked at the head guard and sighed, lowering her head. She could see him smile and he dissipated his spell, as did the others. “Good girl, now don’t you try anything—“

Before he finished his sentence, Twilight let loose a shockwave of energy.

All of the guards were caught off guard and flew backwards. Twilight made a break for it, running through the guards and towards the edge of the city. They quickly recovered and retaliated by flinging magic bolts in her direction. She raised a barrier behind her that should be able to block most of the spells these ponies could throw at her. With the edge of the city in sight, Twilight rushed towards it as fast as she could, but she quickly found herself face down in concrete and her side exploded in pain.

One of the pegasi fliers had tackled her and was standing over her, “You’re not going anywhere, Sparkle! Celestia warned us how dangerous you could be! We will use deadly force if we have to!”

“C-Celestia gave you permission to use deadly force?”

“Not specifically, but she said by any means necessary. If you die by some accident, we won’t be penalized.” Twilight’s brain was thinking at a thousand thoughts a minute. She needed to be away from these ponies. The mages were already caught back up and surrounding them.

“If I’m so dangerous, why are you standing on TOP of me?” With the word top, she used the same spell she just did and flung the pegasus off of her. In a quick movement, she stood up, fired off three shots of magic at the leader and the two ponies to his right, and ran again. The shots hit their mark, and the ponies were temporarily paralyzed for several minutes. The exact same spell missed her by inches, and several others flew passed her. She quickly turned around and erected another barrier. She looked up and saw several pegasi hovering, waiting for the right moment to strike. If she paralyzed them, they might die if they impacted the ground wrong. She needed to disable their ability to fly, though.

They threw spells at her shield, and they fizzled out as they hit it. Twilight knew they were throwing paralyzation spells, like she had been. Her barrier weakened the more hits it took, and she was still not out of the city. She raised a second barrier behind her other, and dropped the other. Instead of dissipating, the shots were redirected back towards their owners. Many of them were able to duck in time, but a few of the unicorns were hit directly and fell motionless to the ground. She then dropped the barrier and made a break for a side street.

A pegasus was flying straight at her from behind. Instead of a spell, Twilight stopped a second before the guard reached her, and reared her legs back and bucked her right in the chest. The pegasus screamed out and fell to the ground, probably with a broken rib or two. Twilight’s legs ached, but she kept running.

As she was about to turn back towards the outside of town, a unicorn appeared in front of her. It was the leader, and he looked pissed. So pissed, in fact, that the spell he was preparing in his horn felt liked a spell that would actually Kill Twilight if she let it hit her.

Twilight acted quickly and lowered her head, charging straight at him. He wasn’t expecting that, and Twilight’s horn connected with his throat, right where his jaw met his neck. His eyes went wide and he coughed, the spell on his horn sputtering just as his air now was. Twilight pulled her horn from him and went to run. But, as her face met his, she felt a pang of guilt. He was going to kill her just then, but she still felt bad. She couldn’t stop though. One of the pegasi saw this and went to tell the others.

The head guard had gotten through her paralysis spell quicker than she’d hoped, and the others were starting to recover from their weaker versions of the spell. Twilight finally managed to reach the end of the city, but instead of one, this time she found herself confronted with nine unicorns. They all had the same spell that the head guard was going to use charged in their horns, and it was pointed right at her. She froze.

One of them stepped forward, “Twilight Sparkle. Leave now, or we will be forced to stop you by any means possible.”

“I-I… I can’t…” she said, tears forming in her eyes. She couldn’t go back; she couldn’t face what she left behind.

“Then I’m afraid that this is the end of the line for you.” All of the unicorns reared their heads back, and Twilight panicked. The head guard wasn’t dead yet, so the spell hadn’t gone away yet. He was fighting to keep it going, even as he lay dying, probably being tended to by a pegasus guard. Twilight reared back, and her hooves glowed white with magical energy. As they contacted the ground, the whiteness spread out as fast as light, and suddenly the nine guards were no more. The area in front of Twilight erupted in a massive explosion, disintegrating the guards in front of her, and blowing any pegasi out of the air. She stood her ground in the force of the explosion, and started running as soon as it was over. The pegasi got up, but did not dare follow her without magical backup.

About half a mile from Fillydelphia, Twilight felt the block on her teleportation cease. She immediately started to teleport towards the Zebrican boarder, not caring if they followed her. She had used a lot of energy not getting captured, and she was burning even more now teleporting out instead of running. There was probably thirty miles from Fillydelphia to the edge of the boarder. Twilight was traveling a mile at a time with each teleport, so within five minutes she found herself standing at the edge of a forest. It didn’t start out thick, but the further she went in, the thicker the vegetation got. She was now in the homeland of the Zebras, and she had just killed ten unicorns, one with her own horn. If she wasn’t sure they were looking for her before, now she was one-hundred percent certain of it. She didn’t teleport for fear of winding up in the middle of a tree, so she just ran as fast as she could.

Back in Fillydelphia, the body of the guard captain lay on a stretcher in a hospital nearby. He wasn’t quite dead yet, but he has long since lost consciousness. He was probably not going to make it. The guards that remained had already sent word to Celestia of Twilight’s escape, and of the death of the nine guard ponies. It would take half a day of straight flying to reach her. Twilight had at least a full day to find a spot in the forest to lie low and rest. But for now, she just ran.

One hour of running later, and she had no energy to go anywhere. Twilight laid against a tree, her chest heaving to catch some air, and she was crying. She sobbed loudly, and beat her already sore hoof against the ground. She hadn’t wanted to kill any more ponies. These weren’t even accidents; she had actually killed them. It was self-defense, but was it really worth it? Were those ten lives really worth her own at this point? The urge to quit was building in her more than ever. She was becoming a horrible pony, and horrible ponies didn’t deserve to get away with bad things.

She was deep enough in the forest now that the guard wouldn’t be able to find her, or at least not easily. She dug herself a small hole at the base of the tree, lying down inside it and covering her head with her cloak’s hood. It was only about eight or eight-thirty in the morning, but Twilight couldn’t go any further. She picked this spot, because it was at this point that her legs gave out on her, causing her to faceplant very hard into the ground. Her body ached, her mind ached, and her soul ached. The best thing should could do for herself at this point would to be just sleep. Sleep wouldn’t bring dead ponies back to life, but it would at least make her feel better.

So, Twilight laid her head on her bedroll, not even caring to spread it out. As the world was waking up and coming back to life, Twilight was falling asleep.

Author's Note

This is the first chapter edited by my two new editors, Mr Madden and Key_Blitz! So thank you very much to both of them for helping this chapter be better than it would have been!

We're getting close to the meat of the story. For now, I hope you enjoyed fighting and magic and a few explosions and some feels and shit.

Preface

This book on the magic of alchemy was researched and written by myself to provide students of magic a safe and easy introduction into the arts of alchemy. I have spent many years researching this topic, and in turn have learned of many of its mysteries, including the great danger that this power might wield. Alchemy is separate from arcane magic in that it allows its user to use existing material to create new material. It is also unique, because any pony, griffon, zebra, Minotaur, or any being that possesses magical ability of any sort can use alchemy. It is not limited by biology to only a few. Alchemy functions sort of how arcane magic works, but it doesn’t call directly on the innate magical ability of the user, but rather the building blocks of matter and energy that make up the world around us.

In this book, I will provide for you the beginnings of a journey into an art form that holds many wonders that were previously though impossible before its rediscovery. Were alchemy to be used by the wrong person, it could cause much grief for many. But, if it is used with respect and love, it can also provide all those who inhabit Equus with opportunities beyond our wildest dreams. I personally know very much how alchemy can harm others. I have suffered through my own ignorance, and have thankfully come out alive to bring my knowledge and wisdom to others, so that they may not make the mistakes that I have.

Let this preface serve as a way to show my own excitement that you will read this and come out the other end a changed individual, able to wield power to help those around you. But let it also warn you to follow all of the instructions provided EXACTLY, lest a tragic accident happen. With all of that stuff finally out of the way, I would finally like to welcome you, to a Journey into Alchemy.

Author's Note

The preface. Proceed straight to chapter 1.