All across the great, sprawling city of Canterlot, ponies were holding celebrations big and small of all kinds. Most of them were attending the public festival being held in Canterlot Courts, the grand entry plaza that stretched before the castle itself. The occasion itself was Fond of Fall Festival, where ponies and donkeys of all ages had gathered to bid farewell to summer, be thankful of its blessings, and usher in a new round of cooler temperatures and, to the chagrin of some of the adults, the return of pumpkin flavored everything.
The noises were loud, cheers and laughter rising up from all over the city. Some who had decided not to partake in the public spectacle were holding their own private parties in their own homes, the air filled with the smells of roasting vegetables, baking bread, and candies of all kinds. To the surprise of absolutely nopony, one of the loudest sources of the auditory violations was Pinkie Pie, who had come up with Twilight Sparkle from Ponyville to attend the huge party, and was running around with a seemingly infinite supply of energy handing out noise makers, party favors, and in some cases, very mild fireworks.
She seemingly did not notice that Twilight had slipped away from her company yet again for the third time today, and had instead retreated to the nearby Canterlot Library, just inside the castle proper. Twilight didn't get up here all that often, and adored the opportunity to seek through rare books. In fact the library was nearly deserted save for a couple of teenagers in the back aisles smoking haygrass, whom she unceremoniously, and quite literally, threw out. Her horn lit, and the young brats were thrown out of the double doors with all the force of a crashing wave.
Twilight shook her head, wondering how anypony could be so disrespectful in a place of such great reverence, and began pulling out book after book from the shelves. Each one was carefully put back when she finished reading its spined inscription, but none of them seemed to catch her fancy. That was, at least, until she turned the corner to an even more isolated corner of the library, and swept away dust from long abandoned book jackets. It was here that she found what she didn't even know she was looking for.
The Collected Research Papers of Starswirl the Bearded v.IV
Twilight gave an excitable cry of delight, and clapped her hooves together. The party outside was almost forgotten all at once, and the egghead settled down to the nearest table and cautiously cracked open the worn binding.
Outside, the Fall Festival was in full swing, and only becoming more rambunctious. The 5k Trot For Charity was winding down, and the last few panting stragglers were roundng their final laps around the entirety of Canterlot Castle, with onlookers cheering them on. Garbage bins were overflowing with paper plates and the residue of the picnic lunch provided so graciously by volunteers from the Canterlot Retirement Village, most of whom had spent long hours over the past few days making sandwiches and potato salads.
Most importantly, however, in context to our story, was the band. A local group, Situation Starlight, was just beginning to pound away on drums and shred away on guitars. This was the new, primary sound that carried over all the other sounds as the volume controls, most of which only went up to 5, were cranked up to 8.
In the library, Twilight had only been reading for half an hour or so, and frowned in irritation as the sounds of the band overlapped the sounds of the festival and rang in her ears like a JeNeighvah's Witness that just would not go away. She turned her attention back on the book, trying to narrow her focus and concentration, but it did no good. She turned the page in irritation, and her eyes widened. By a purely fantastical coincidence, a delightfully appropriate answer was staring her in the face.
Chapter 2: The Magical Diagonistics, Inner Workings, and Cultural Consequences of Starswirls Silence Spell
It was fate.
Twilight glanced outside again. If only she could just... turn down the volume a bit. She turned back to the book. It was an amateur spell, simple enough, and she lit up her horn with a flare of magic at once, once she'd memorized the procedure. She got up from the wooden bench, made her way to the window, and closed her eyes. With a grunt of concentration, she summoned the silence spell, increased the range to affect a 1 mile radius, which would not affect the entirety of Canterlot but merely the surrounding area enough for her to read a chapter or two, and let loose upon the unsuspecting crowds down below. Her customary traditional recitation, always sounding a little silly with these old timey spells, was as follows.
With too much noise my thoughts to drown,
Let silence rein, and turn it down!
Not a verbal announcement, but rather a thought process. She didn't want to do anything significant, just lower the volume a bit.
As it turned out, however, something felt very wrong. Almost as soon as she had unleashed the spell, which should not have been all that exhausting, the magical drain on her energy reserves was picking up speed, draining her strength alarmingly fast. The wind was picking up, books were being knocked off the tables and papers were being strewn about. Down below, gusts of wind caused several ponies to suddenly have to chase the souvenier caps they'd bought at the gift stand. But most alarmingly of all, every bit of color was draining out of the world.
As if some divine entity had suddenly decided to turn the tint controls of the world counterclockwise, bright colors lapsed into faded, washed out hues. Even that bleached effect lasted only a few moments, as the faded colors turned to black and white and gray a moment after that. Twilight Sparkle could not hear any cries of surprise or terror from down below, in fact, she could not hear anything at all.
Attempting to speak, her vocal cords seemed frozen with shock, for no words would come out. She rushed back to the book in a haste. Modern spells these days were primarily thought driven, but back in the olden days of Starswirl, many times vocal recitations were necessary. This did not last particularly long nor was it particularly effective, especially in duels of magic, where violent fights would often take place over who would go first, as speaking the spell aloud gave the counter attacker plenty of time to prepare their rebuttal.
But if there were no words...
Twilight glanced down at the book, and saw that the wind had skipped several pages forward. Starswirl's Silence Spell ended with a disclaimer.
This spell is meant to be used on small groups only. Testing is non-conclusive on groups of 5 or more. Under no circumstances should this spell be used on large crowds, pending further investigation and safety permits.
Twilight swallowed hard. They probably should have put that at the front.
Already fearing what she was going to see, she raced out of the colorless library, noting with dim terror that her hooves made not a single sound on the hard tiled floor of Canterlot Castle's lobby, and burst out the front doors. Before her, in all directions, ponies were clutching their throats and gesturing elaborately to their friends. Small children were crying, though they could not be heard. The entire world was black and white.
No... wait... that wasn't quite right. This section of town was black and white. She'd only cast the spell to go a couple of miles, so perhaps... she spread her wings, and rocketed straight up off the ground like Rainbow Dash had once taught her to do. She soared higher and higher above the rooftops of the tallest buildings, and slowly circled like a ballerina frozen in place on a music box.
Up here she could see for miles and miles. Not a single drop of color existed anywhere, as if it had never existed at all.
Author's Note
This story is undergoing final changes and revisions so please bear with me while I get back in writing mode and fix the little stupid things.
