The indefinitive properties of magicby nagaChaptersA perplexing conundrumWhat lurks insideAn... odd reunionA perplexing conundrumBooks, they contain all things that ponies have learned, if somepony thought it they wrote it in a book. This is the philosophy of a one Twilight Sparkle. If its worth writing about its worth reading. And so this day as most was spent in the library looking through the antiquated tomes of ponies whose names have long since faded from the memories of the world. Their only legacy living on in the pages of the books and other such documents they left behind. In fact, one could even say that in these pages they live on eternally. Their thoughts and dreams carried through time to be picked up by another who than passes the proverbial torch to the next and so on until eventually it is realized. For better or worse. And there she sat, the mare who currently held the torch of many a magus, snoring. "Twilight!" Called a voice from afar jarring the mare from her sleep. "Matter is made of several key elements that....." She sat up with a start. "Oh, its morning. Guess I fell asleep reading again." A small dragon rounded the shelf nearest to the purple mare. "Twilight, you need to start setting a cut off time for reading." Spike said gathering papers from the floor and stacking them in a stack on the desk carefully avoiding the puddle of drool. "Its not like I have a problem, I can stop reading anytime I want.... Okay maybe you have a point. Anyhow what time is it." "Noon, I only came back to let you know I'm heading out for a few days. I'm taking a trip with the girls to go camping, they said something about cutie mark crusader lumberjacks? Don't worry I'll keep an eye on them." "Oh." Twilight said wiping the edge of her mouth with her sleeve. "Do you want me to tag along?" "Nah," Spike said dismissively "figure I could use some time away, anyhow I cant imagine you being any good at camping." "Hey! I know a few things about camping." She said defensively. Spike smiled smugly, "Let me guess, you read it in a book." "Hmpf, I'll have you know I had several camping trips with Cadence as a foal." "Realy? Where?" "..... the royal garden." she said with a defeated look before perking back up, "Anyhow I hope you guys have a great time." "Sure thing twilight." Spike said smiling. "Don't burn the place down while I'm away ok?" he said walking away. "Hey! I'm an adult!" She called after him. "Whatever you say Twilight, whatever you say." Twilight humphed as he walked away, "Stupid spike, I put that fire out... eventually. Anyway, what was I doing? Ah right! I was looking through these old books Celestia asked me to catalog for her." She said picking up a box she had beside her. The cardboard holding the books however decided it was done and in an instant the entirety of the box spilled out onto the ground sending stray papers everywhere. "Ah shit." She said kneeling down and began gathering the papers together. As she stacked the books according to size she spotted in the corner of her eye a small leather bound journal. Normally this wouldn't be anything special, however this journals age seemed to far exceed the age of the other books and documents she was sifting through. "Hmm, how did you get in here little one?" she said picking up the small tome turning over in her hands. The leather seemed to lack any moisture and was nearly brittle to the touch, any text imprinted on it was long gone. The journal was sealed by a long continuous ribbon fixed in place with a wax seal. The crest upon the wax was a sun and moon orbiting each other, the symbol of the princess. "And the plot thickens." Twilight said sitting back in the chair. Quickly casting a small cleaning spell she removed all traces of her spontaneous nap before placing the book upon the desk. Carefully she examined the seal and ribbon, upon immediate inspection the seal was far more recent than the book itself. Quickly she cast a detection spell upon the unassuming tome. She didn't think that the princess would be so careless as to send her a cursed book without alerting her but after years as the student to one of the most powerful beings in existence she tended to stray on the safe side. Her search came up empty however that left the question, why was it sealed? Now even though she did tend to favor caution, she was still a scholar. Careful she broke the seal careful to keep the wax in tact if it came to pass that it had some magical property she was yet unaware of. The book stayed just as it was, no monster or dark force leaped from it and devoured her soul. "Well, so far so good." Careful she peeled back the cover to find a plain white sheet of paper obviously inserted sitting on top of the first page, it read as such. My dearest Twilight, I happened to find this old book among, of all things, some old census records. It is written in what I presume to be Latin of which I am shamefully rusty. As I have little time to devote to such things I figured that you would be best suited to handle this. Your Loving teacher, Celestia. "Huh, I guess I'd better get started than the princess is counting on me." She said cracking her neck before putting the note to the side and leaning in to read the text. To her surprise the text seemed to be almost printed with only the occasional slip up, in fact she had seen some printed material that had less legible text than was written here. Sure enough however it was written in Latin which only further peaked her interest. And so for the next few hours she sat there pen in hand scribbling notes onto a piece of paper reading the small journal. The first part of the book listed the thoughts of a mage that was referenced only as 'O'. It listed his research into the fundamental laws of magic, the person narrating the book was obviously obsessed with something referred to as 'the prime magic'. Apparently it was a source of magic so ancient that it was said to have shaped magic as it is known today. It went on to list several theories as to how it could exists and to what extent it influenced the governing laws of magic. However as the journal continued on the once neat handwriting started to become more difficult to understand eventually reaching a point about two thirds into the book where the author simply scribbled random lines. The text also began to drift from the realm of reality becoming more and more vague. On one page a single word was repeated, 'reborn'. After the page where the author began to scribble illegibly it simply stopped. All pages that came after that were blank, save for one. On it was written in the original neat handwriting. I can no longer stay here, my mind is breaking. I fear that if i stay amongst civilization I will do something horrid. Whilst I am still lucid I will leave this place and seal myself away, I will throw this journal into a magical rift. You who are reading this, if you seek my knowledge come to this place with this journal. It will guide you. After the text ended there was written a series of numbers in a fashion that seemed like coordinates. Twilight sat back in her chair stupefied, she had come across her fair share of ancient tomes, but none had ever had such content. The most impactful thing that she had ever found was a book listing the accomplishments of a long dead monarch, all of which turned out to be romanticized nonsense written by someone obviously trying to cover up the failures of the monarch. She sat there for a good few minutes contemplating the implications of what she had just found. After a good seven minutes she stood up with fire in her heart. She had made probably the greatest discovery of her life, elements of harmony aside. She would be damned if she let this chance slip through her grasp. She quickly acquired a geographic map of both modern Equestria and Equestria from a time she estimated to be close to the age of the book. After a few calculations to factor in geographic shifts she eventually came to rest upon a part of what was known as the Equestrian badlands. Her resolve firm she quickly gathered the necessary gear for the region which included a cloth to cover her face arms and hands as well as a pair of goggles to shield her eyes, after suiting up and gathering a set of reagents for a long range teleportation spell she readied herself book in hand an muttered a short phrase. A familiar shifting feeling gathered in her stomach as she released the energy building up within her. For a few seconds the world around her devolved into shifting colors as her feet left the ground before reforming in a new pattern. The landscape before her shifted into view, like a camera focusing. It came forth as a sea of sand, golden and pure with the frequent jagged rock formation jutting from the ground like spires, looking around she found herself in a circle of the stones. Wind stung at her face as she pulled the shawl she was wearing closer as she chanted a small spell. A purple haze clouded her vision for a moment as she focused her mana into her eyes, as she did slowly the world began to change. The rock formations began to glow a faint blue before revealing arcane scribbles upon their surface. Each one had hundreds of thousands of spells woven into them with precision she recognized. Quickly she erected a barrier to shut out the wind so she could work in peace. As the barrier snapped into place the wind that had previously battered her ceased. Removing the improvised turban from her face she removed her goggles hanging them around her neck, as she looked around a thought occurred to her. "Perhaps I should have informed Celestia of what I found before teleporting out here. Oh well, Spike was out and her castle has a barrier to prevent teleportation spells from working within Canterlot. I'm sure she'll understand, after all something this monumental isn't exactly back-burner material now is it?" She said reassuring herself. "Actually I'll bet she'll be glad of me for taking the initiative on this. Oh well we best not be to hasty, now where is that journal?" She concluded as she rummaged around through her satchel, after a few seconds her hand brushed against the familiar leather surface and she quickly pulled it out. "There you ar..." But before she could finish he sentence the obelisks suddenly began to hum in a deem baritone that shook her to her core. She felt her barrier fall but strangely the wind did not resume, instead blue sparks began to leap from the obelisks to the book which immediately burst into flame. Letting out a yelp she dropped the book, however the blue flame consuming the book gave off no heat. As the book smoldered away the obelisks began to send out more sparks, this time to each other. As more and more sparks flew the hum grew louder, to the point she had to cover her ears. A wind picked up again, but this time it swirled around the mare turning up the sand she was standing on revealing a stone dais covered in the same arcane symbols as the obelisks. Closing her eyes she crouched down trying to cover her face as she was pelted with granules of flying sand. Than just as suddenly as it started it ceased. Slowly Twilight stood up opening her eyes, the first thing she saw was that she was no longer in the circle of obelisks. Instead she stood in a large dome shaped circular room. The room was barren of anything save for a stone coffin that stood in the center of the room. Looking around she saw that there were no spiderwebs, in fact there was no dust at all. Hell the place looked cleaner than her house. The glow from before had left, in fact there were no inscribed magics in the room. Slowly she inspected the room finding naught but a small arch of stone that led looked more for decoration than use. "Great." Twilight said, "Now I'm trapped in a tomb. Wait... I can teleport..... what in Taurus am I worried about?" "Yes what are you worried about?" a voice from behind her said. Jumping what must have been nearly three feet into the air she spun around with a shriek. Behind her stood a terrified stallion his eyes wide and hands in front of his face. "Ahhhhh!" he screamed as he cowered from her. Blinking she looked at him more closely, his coat was a smokey color with small tufts sticking up here and there, his mane was an unkempt mess of brown curly hair matted into knots. He was wearing a long black robe that hung down to his feet where the ends were but tatters, evidence of dry rot. "Who are you?" she asked pointedly. taking a step back from the disheveled stallion. As she did he ceased his cowering and looked up, realizing she wasn't trying to hurt him he corrected his posture standing to an unimpressive height that just barely exceeded her own. "Me? Who are you? And why are you here?" "Oh, sorry. My name is Twilight Sparkle, I followed a journal to a circle of obelisks and was transported here. Sorry if I startled you but this was a bit unexpected for me as well." She said with an apologetic smile. For a moment the stallion starred at her with a puzzled look before suddenly smiling. "Ahhh! My journal! I forgot I even made that thing!!! Welcome my name is Oroberos Et'luxa Bel'Avici, and this is my prison." he said holding his arms our spinning in place with a look of utter glee on his face. "Wait, prison!?! And wait, you wrote that? It looked old enough to bee at least a hundred years old and you barely look a day over twenty!" She said. And it was true, the stallion looked to be as if not younger that Twilight herself. The stallion paused and turned back to her. "A Hundred? No no no no no, I've been here far longer than that! I lost count around five thousand six hundred and eighty four. In fact I dare to say its been twice that amount of time." he said nonchalantly. Twilight's jaw nearly hit the floor. " Five thousand! H-how! What, who are you?!?" she sputtered. He looked at her with a puzzled expression. "I told you my name is Orob.." "Yes I heard you but... ok hold on. You are 'O' from the journal?" "Yes, that was the name I used. Actually now that I think about it please use that name instead of my real one. Much easier to pronounce... and remember. I had to write it down when I first came here so I didn't forget it." Twilight stared at him in disbelief for a moment before letting out a breath. "Whatever," she said. "I've seen weirder. But going back to what you said, this is a prison?" "Yup." he said. "Great." Twilight sighed. "Now how do we get out of here." "That's easy! You go out the door!" He said smiling as he pointed to the archway to nowhere. As he did the stone behind it shimmered. "Simply walk up to it and think of a door and it will make it appear! The prison is only meant to keep me in, I didn't want anypony eltce to get caught inside! See before I left for here I destroyed all the doors I knew of! So I cant leave here without somepony's help!" Twilight looked at him dumbfounded. "So you imprisoned yourself here? OK, I read the journal but to be fair toward the end it got a little... mixed up. All I got from it was that you felt unsafe and decided to come here." The stallion's smile faded a bit at this. "Ah, well you see. In my time I was a potent magi. During that time I sought what I thought to be the origin of magic. What I found nearly consumed me, as so I locked myself here as to keep myself from becoming something terrible." Twilight looked at him and patted him on the shoulder with a smile. "Well it seems your worries weren't needed. You seem sane enough to me!" At this his smile vanished completely. "No, not entirely. This is what is left of me, I am not the same pony I once was. In fact aside from that information and my name I remember nothing about who or what I was. In fact I barely remember my time in here. Now that I think about it the only real concrete memory I have is when you popped into the room." The two of them stood there for a moment in silence, unsure of what to say. However after a bit he broke the silence, "Oh well, anyhow I'm sorry that you came here for naught but at least it was fun! Now lets get you home!" He said taking her by the hand and dragging her to the arch, as they approached the wall shifted and shimmered before settling upon a wooden door. Her door! "Wow!" she said approaching it. "I never thought of using translocation magic like this. It's incredible!" "Relay?" he said. "Well thanks than, coming from a mage like you that means a lot!" Now it was her turn to look at him. "How did you know I was a mage?" "Oh, I sent my journal through a rift to find the strongest and most stable magic source it could find. That journal was old when I tossed it in! Anyhow I guess this is goodbye, the teleport was a one time deal. Once you leave you can never return sadly. But what is life but a series of random encounters. It was a pleasure to meet you miss Sparkle!" he said with a bow that looked doubly ridiculous given his stat of attire. After a chuckle at his expense she stopped, "Wait aren't you coming with me?" He looked at her surprised, "Well, I don't know! The thought never occurred to me. I guess it might be nice to see the world again... Only if you want me to of course. I don't want to be any bother. I locked myself in here for a reason." Twilight was take aback, this stallion had consigned himself to a life of imprisonment to keep from becoming a monster. Even long after his madness had faded he still remained strong in his conviction to stay. No pony who would go to such lengths to keep the world safe could be truly bad. If the god of chaos could be reformed than why should somepony like him stay locked away for a crime he never committed. Firmly she grabbed his hand, a look of determination in her eyes as she turned and opened the door pushing it open and dragging him with her into her living room. What lurks inside"Welcome, to casa de Twilight!" she exclaimed doing a small spin her arms outstretched. "The perfect combination between house, library, laboratory and tree!" Beaming from ear to ear she turned back to face her newfound companion. However something seemed off, his face was frozen in one of surprise. In fact his whole body was frozen in the position she let go of his hand in. A loud slam threw him into motion as he turned to face the door they had come through as it shut closed. Tuning back his face was one of pure terror as he looked into her eyes tears welling up inside them. "What have you done? I was supposed to stay there, it kept me safe.. it kept everyone safe! Now I'm out!" he said with in a steadily rising voice. "Oh god, the voices!!!!" he yelled clutching his head screaming. Twilight stood there silently watching as the pony before her began to convulse, screaming and tearing at his head with his nails. Snapping to her senses she rushed over to him attempting to stay his hands. "What's wrong are you?..." was all she got out before a wave of force drove her across the room into a bookshelf. The collision forced the air from her lungs as stars rushed across her vision. Falling to the ground several books in the shelf toppled around her some landing on her, gasping she pushed herself up to one knee looking up to her horror to see the pony she was just talking to begin to emit and energy so dark it made the magic Sombra used look grey. Tendrils of onyx smoke rose from his body slithering across the floor and crawling along his body, wherever the smoke touched the floor began to turn to ash. Slowly the energy began to creep along the floor rising to the wall as it began to consume his body. Suddenly a flash of light engulfed the room with a loud boom. The smell of singed wood and fabric wafted across Twilight as she shielded her eyes, as the light faded she took her arm away from her face as she stood up fully blinking several times as she did. Looking around the room she saw that the entire room was almost completely charred, books were reduced to smoldering ash, the furnishings were piles of black charcoal still aflame in areas. Even the glass was melted and coated in ash, in fact the only area unaffected by the flame was an area starting just a few inches in front of her and part of the bookcase behind her. Looking to where the blast originated she saw none other than her mentor Celestia. She shone with the radiant energy of her magic as her multicolored hair flowing in a more turbulent fashion than normal her white robes draped across her body. "P-princess?" she stammered taking a few tentative steps forward. The goddess turned sharply an expression of surprise on her face. "Twilight? What are you doing here?!? I sensed something foul emanating here. What on earth is going on!" The princess demanded. "I'm sorry! I was just looking at the journal you sent and it led me to him and... wait where is O?" "O?" "Yes, i found him in the badlands and when i brought him here he suddenly started screaming and emitting this dark energy." The princess looked at her with a mixture of surprise, relief and dread. "So, that's what I sensed. I'm sorry but I smote the source with everything I have. I doubt he survived. But perhaps that is for the..." her thought was interrupted by a shifting behind her. Turning quickly she looked toward the source. On the floor lay the slightly burned body of O, the places where the dark energy had emanated from were covered in hideous burns. However the places that had not yet been touched were unscathed in the same manner as Twilight. "Impossible!" the princess exclaimed. "No creature that could emit a magic as foul as that could be pure enough to be unscathed by my magic. What in the world is this thing. Twilight," she said tuning to face the mare. "What exactly did he say before.. this." Twilight still slightly shell shocked starred blankly for a moment before responding. "Um, I think he said something about not being safe anymore and the voices?" Celestia furrowed her brow, "curious-er and curious-er. You said that the journal I sent you led you there?" "Yes mam." "Do you still have it?" "No mam, it was destroyed when I was teleported to the chamber he was in. I think it was a pocket dimension, he said it was a one time thing. I have some notes if you want to see them!" she exclaimed. Celestia nodded, "Yes, however i think we need to address the more pressing issue here." she said looking back at the unconscious stallion. "This is not the place, I will take us to my personal lab." she announced before flicking her wrist. The teleportation spell she performed was instant and far more precise than the one Twilight used as they were instantly transported to a large room with a cobble stone floor stumbling from the abruptness of the spell Twilight righted herself and looked around finding herself in a familiar setting of instruments of various sizes and shapes. She knew instantly where they were as this place was where she spent a majority of her childhood experimenting and practicing with Celestia. The room had scarcely changed from when she had last been in it which came as little surprise to her. After all she learned her teacher was extraordinarily well organized, a habit she had failed to pick up. Looking to Celestia she saw her lowering O's body onto a stone table securing him with straps of warding. "Princess?" she said approaching her mentor. "Are the straps necessary? I mean he survived the cleansing light, surely that means hes not evil?" The Princess nodded her head in acknowledgment. "Yes, that spell can only harm those whose hearts are corrupt. However that magic emanated most certainly from him, if it had not he would be unscathed. And as you can see that is not the case, we must be cautious." she said securing the final strap. Silently Twilight conceded the point and watched as her mentor gathered up a set of crystals from a nearby table. "Princess, what exactly are you going to do?" Twilight asked cautiously. Celestia sighed and gave her pupil a faint smile. "I'm not going to do anything to harm him, I'm going to try and seal whatever it was that came from him. However that would only be temporary, I have learned through experience that sealing something never truly stops it. I plan on taking samples to see if I can determine what exactly it was that came from him and see if I can somehow expel it. Now give me a hand, I need you to stabilize the crystals as the energy goes into them." Twilight instantly lit up taking a place by her teachers side. "Right!" she exclaimed happily. Turning back to O Celestia gathered herself before extending her hands over him and closing her eyes, energy began to flow from her like before except this time it was slow and methodical. The light flowed into O's chest and his body tensed for a moment before returning to its limp state. After a few seconds Celestia spoke, "As I thought, the corruption is not in his heart. At least, not entirely. It's odd though, it originates from his heart but does not consume it. It seems as thought the corruption was held at bay by something, I believe that the chamber held it in place. When he was removed from it the corruption began to spread again." "Oh." Twilight said hanging her head. She had caused him to go through this, had she left him there, or better yet never gone he would never have gone through this. "Fret not Twilight." Celestia said looking to her. "It's not your fault, in fact that place did nothing but stop it from spreading. It was still in him, now that hes out there is hope for removing it. The journal, did it say who sealed him?" This cheered her up a bit, "Yes, it said he was sealing himself off because he felt something was wrong." Turning back to the stallion on the table she looked down at him, "It seems he recognized, at least on some level what was happening. He must be some mage to construct something like that while fighting off the corruption. Still looking at his manna stream it seems rather weak, its slightly above normal but it seems he relied more on precision than raw power." A few minutes passed before Celestia spoke again. "Twilight, ready the five largest crystals now." "Yes mam," she responded gathering her power levitating five decently sized crystals in a circle opening tuning them to receive energy. Celestia's hands moved in a series of quick arcane gestures her face tightened with effort. Slowly a trickle of the dark energy rose from O's chest his entire body convulsing against the straps as his face contorted with pain, however he remained unconscious. The dark energy rose in a slow stream extending from his body before Celestia's magic cut the stream off from the source surrounding the tendril as it condensed into a small orb. The energy stream quickly retreated back inside his body as Celestia quickly moved the small black orb to float in the middle of the crystals. Releasing her control over the orb the energy shot into the crystals the instant her magic ceased to surround it. The crystals sucked up the energy turning a hideously dark shade of black so deep it hurt to stare at. Putting the crystals aside into a small box that was on the cart with the crystals designed to contain specimens like this she closed the lid and flipped the latch shut activating the sealing spell etched into the box. Looking to Celestia Twilight was shock to see her mentors face scrunched up in effort beads of sweat dripping from her forehead running down the side of her neck. Quickly Celestia recited an incantation in a language Twilight had heard on sparse occasions before. The dead language of Alicorns. This shocked Twilight even further, as a filly she had asked Celestia to teach her the language and she had refused saying that the words themselves contained such power that even a slight mispronunciation could result in catastrophic consequences. Finishing the incantation a small glow emanated from O's body before he once again slumped against the stone limp. Her task complete Celestia dropped her hands to the table and leaned heavily upon it panting. "Princess! Are you ok?!?" Twilight said reaching toward her mentor grabbing her shoulder. Smiling faintly Celestia put her hand gently atop Twilight's. "Yes, I'm just a bit spent. I underestimated the strength necessary to restrain the corruption, it fought back with strength I have only felt on scarce occasions. I had to use that incantation to seal it or my strength would have given out and the corruption could have reemerged." She said looking back to the stallion on her table. "My little pony, just what happened to you?" An... odd reunionTwilight sighed looking at the remains of her living room, it was clear that the furniture was beyond repair and the books were not much better. Fortunately most of her reference material was in the main library, however loosing so many of her precious personal reading books was disheartening. She had read all of them but still. With a sigh she began to clear away the debris starting with the largest pieces. Once she had gathered all of the large things together she cast a simple spell to send them to the dump. A thought occurred to her that it was quite disturbing how often she used that spell. Getting back to work she gathered all of the ruined books and sent them after the furnishings, followed by the soot she swept up using wind magic. Finally she turned to the walls and floor that had been scorched, the advantage to living in a living tree was that any damage was easily repaired with a controlled growth spell. After the room was returned to its original state she went downstairs and began teleporting the spare furniture she kept in storage to the main room. Another thought about how odd it was that she would be so accustomed to things like this that she had spare furnishings crossed her mind before being shoved aside. Her work complete she took a seat giving a long exasperated sigh. "I wonder if he's awak..." was all she got out before a shimmer appeared before her. Reaching out with her mind she opened the telepathic communication. "Twilight?" A familiar commanding voice asked. "Hello Princess! I was just thinking about calling you up. How is he?" A long silence filled the air. "About that..." Twilight felt her stomach drop. "I-is he...?" "What? Oh, no no no. He's alive, a little to mush so as it seems. I think that when I sealed the corruption away I took a portion of his memory with it. Apparently he thinks he's a member of a group of rebels and that I'm his enemy? I honestly have no idea what he's talking about. I think it would be best if you came back and talked to him, you have a way with ponies after all." Twilight was slightly taken aback by the last part, she had never really though of herself as a social person, but in the last few years she had to admit she had become rather skilled at talking to others. "O-of course, I'll get on the train." "No need, I'll teleport you. Hold on." Celestia said the connection intensifying slightly before vanishing along with the room she was in. Suddenly finding herself in the throne room of the Canterlot castle she noticed that she was no longer sitting upon anything and fell to her rump rather suddenly. "There, oh. I didn't realize that you were sitting... Are you ok?" The princess said leaning down offering a white furred hand. Grabbing her hand Twilight pulled herself to her feet. "Fine, a bit sore but fine." As she looked around the room she was surprised to find a large grouping of guards standing about in different areas, some even tending to minor injuries. "What happened?" Celestia looked around the room before looking back to Twilight. "When he awoke he apparently thought he had been captured by his enemies and broke out attempting to flee. Fortunately nopony was seriously hurt and I subdued him rather easily. Still his skills in combat are extraordinary, he fended off at least a dozen guards at once whilst fleeing." Twilight took note of this, casting spells while being still was difficult enough but to cast while running required almost unmanageable levels of concentration. "So where is he now?" Celestia turned and beckoned to follow, "Come, I had to put him in a cell to keep him from making another break." Twilight followed the Princess up a set of narrow stone stairs into a tower, reaching the top she saw O chained to a wall by the neck with chains designed to neutralize magic. "Well, if isn't the mighty god that brought me down. You must know that I will never talk, so you and your traitor there can just go ahead and kill me. And as for you Starshine, I would never have thought my own apprentice would be a traitor." he said opening his eyes. To Twilight's surprise she found that his eyes were no longer blue but instead a chromatic silver. Shaking her head she spoke. "I believe you have me mistaken for another, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I am not a traitor. I think we need to explain some things." His face which had before been one of betrayal now fell into one of confusion. "You aren't Starshine? But your aura is... no....... you aren't her. I can see now, the differences but still. To have such a similar aura you would have to be a direct relation, and she has no immediate family. Who are you?" Twilight cringed as she realized what she would say next would most likely wound him, "Had, she had no previous relations. I doubt that she's still alive, this isn't the time you are thinking it is." Over the next few minutes she explained the circumstances under which she found him. "And so we brought you here, Celestia sealed away the corruption but we still don't know what exactly it is." She finished. He nodded his face dreadfully serious closing his eyes. "So... the revolution?" "I'm afraid I've never heard of it before." Twilight said looking to the Princess. Celestia spoke up at this. "I have been alive for well over three thousand years and I myself have never heard of any rebellions of significance nor seen any." He smiled in a kind of sad way "Hah, we weren't even worth a mention. Heh.... he he ha... Ha Ha HA HA HAHAHA!" he began to laugh. Twilight watched horrified unable to bring herself to speak. Finally calming down a bit he wiped his face with the sleeve of the ragged robes he wore. "Sorry, it's just... life has that way of doing exactly what you never expect. Even if our rebellion failed, I can clearly see by the way you two talk that times have changed. And your aura means that at least Star survived long enough to have a family." At this he stood up, "Well, no use living in the past. What happens now?" Twilight who was still stunned by his sudden outburst stayed silent, Celestia spoke up however. "The corruption does present a significant threat not only to you but to the safety of those around you. This unfortunately means I cannot allow you to do as you please, as so I have decided to let my apprentice here take care of you until a cure can be devised. Should another incident occur she should be able to handle it, I will continue to research the source of this corruption with the notes she gathered from your journal before it was destroyed. I hope you understand." She said snapping her fingers. As soon as she did the manacle around his neck fell to the ground. Smiling he nodded, "I understand, were I in the same position as you I would act similarly. It is strange to speak on even ground with an alicorn... however the experience is pleasing if for no other reason than the fact it is possible." Celestia smiled, "I am happy that you are. Now Twilight, I apologize for not bringing this up until now but would this be favorable to you?" Twilight quickly regained her composure. "O-of course Princess, my house has plenty of space." "Twilight that's not what she meant." O said, "She meant is it okay keeping somepony as dangerous as me under your roof. However I doubt she would have said it so plainly." At this the both of them turned to face him before Celestia stammered. "M-more or less?" "It is fine, you may speak plainly to me. I would actually prefer it rather than being treated with undue privilege." he said smiling. This time Twilight spoke up, "Of course I'm fine with you living with me! I've been though WAAAAY worse things than that. I even already moved my spare furniture into the living room!" For a moment the room was silent before O spoke up. "I realize that times have changed drastically but is that normal?" "No, no is not." Celestia said her hand on her face. As they began to make their way down the stairs O spoke up again. "Um, I forgot to mention. Can one of you show me how to get out of here. I'm blind."
A perplexing conundrumBooks, they contain all things that ponies have learned, if somepony thought it they wrote it in a book. This is the philosophy of a one Twilight Sparkle. If its worth writing about its worth reading. And so this day as most was spent in the library looking through the antiquated tomes of ponies whose names have long since faded from the memories of the world. Their only legacy living on in the pages of the books and other such documents they left behind. In fact, one could even say that in these pages they live on eternally. Their thoughts and dreams carried through time to be picked up by another who than passes the proverbial torch to the next and so on until eventually it is realized. For better or worse. And there she sat, the mare who currently held the torch of many a magus, snoring. "Twilight!" Called a voice from afar jarring the mare from her sleep. "Matter is made of several key elements that....." She sat up with a start. "Oh, its morning. Guess I fell asleep reading again." A small dragon rounded the shelf nearest to the purple mare. "Twilight, you need to start setting a cut off time for reading." Spike said gathering papers from the floor and stacking them in a stack on the desk carefully avoiding the puddle of drool. "Its not like I have a problem, I can stop reading anytime I want.... Okay maybe you have a point. Anyhow what time is it." "Noon, I only came back to let you know I'm heading out for a few days. I'm taking a trip with the girls to go camping, they said something about cutie mark crusader lumberjacks? Don't worry I'll keep an eye on them." "Oh." Twilight said wiping the edge of her mouth with her sleeve. "Do you want me to tag along?" "Nah," Spike said dismissively "figure I could use some time away, anyhow I cant imagine you being any good at camping." "Hey! I know a few things about camping." She said defensively. Spike smiled smugly, "Let me guess, you read it in a book." "Hmpf, I'll have you know I had several camping trips with Cadence as a foal." "Realy? Where?" "..... the royal garden." she said with a defeated look before perking back up, "Anyhow I hope you guys have a great time." "Sure thing twilight." Spike said smiling. "Don't burn the place down while I'm away ok?" he said walking away. "Hey! I'm an adult!" She called after him. "Whatever you say Twilight, whatever you say." Twilight humphed as he walked away, "Stupid spike, I put that fire out... eventually. Anyway, what was I doing? Ah right! I was looking through these old books Celestia asked me to catalog for her." She said picking up a box she had beside her. The cardboard holding the books however decided it was done and in an instant the entirety of the box spilled out onto the ground sending stray papers everywhere. "Ah shit." She said kneeling down and began gathering the papers together. As she stacked the books according to size she spotted in the corner of her eye a small leather bound journal. Normally this wouldn't be anything special, however this journals age seemed to far exceed the age of the other books and documents she was sifting through. "Hmm, how did you get in here little one?" she said picking up the small tome turning over in her hands. The leather seemed to lack any moisture and was nearly brittle to the touch, any text imprinted on it was long gone. The journal was sealed by a long continuous ribbon fixed in place with a wax seal. The crest upon the wax was a sun and moon orbiting each other, the symbol of the princess. "And the plot thickens." Twilight said sitting back in the chair. Quickly casting a small cleaning spell she removed all traces of her spontaneous nap before placing the book upon the desk. Carefully she examined the seal and ribbon, upon immediate inspection the seal was far more recent than the book itself. Quickly she cast a detection spell upon the unassuming tome. She didn't think that the princess would be so careless as to send her a cursed book without alerting her but after years as the student to one of the most powerful beings in existence she tended to stray on the safe side. Her search came up empty however that left the question, why was it sealed? Now even though she did tend to favor caution, she was still a scholar. Careful she broke the seal careful to keep the wax in tact if it came to pass that it had some magical property she was yet unaware of. The book stayed just as it was, no monster or dark force leaped from it and devoured her soul. "Well, so far so good." Careful she peeled back the cover to find a plain white sheet of paper obviously inserted sitting on top of the first page, it read as such. My dearest Twilight, I happened to find this old book among, of all things, some old census records. It is written in what I presume to be Latin of which I am shamefully rusty. As I have little time to devote to such things I figured that you would be best suited to handle this. Your Loving teacher, Celestia. "Huh, I guess I'd better get started than the princess is counting on me." She said cracking her neck before putting the note to the side and leaning in to read the text. To her surprise the text seemed to be almost printed with only the occasional slip up, in fact she had seen some printed material that had less legible text than was written here. Sure enough however it was written in Latin which only further peaked her interest. And so for the next few hours she sat there pen in hand scribbling notes onto a piece of paper reading the small journal. The first part of the book listed the thoughts of a mage that was referenced only as 'O'. It listed his research into the fundamental laws of magic, the person narrating the book was obviously obsessed with something referred to as 'the prime magic'. Apparently it was a source of magic so ancient that it was said to have shaped magic as it is known today. It went on to list several theories as to how it could exists and to what extent it influenced the governing laws of magic. However as the journal continued on the once neat handwriting started to become more difficult to understand eventually reaching a point about two thirds into the book where the author simply scribbled random lines. The text also began to drift from the realm of reality becoming more and more vague. On one page a single word was repeated, 'reborn'. After the page where the author began to scribble illegibly it simply stopped. All pages that came after that were blank, save for one. On it was written in the original neat handwriting. I can no longer stay here, my mind is breaking. I fear that if i stay amongst civilization I will do something horrid. Whilst I am still lucid I will leave this place and seal myself away, I will throw this journal into a magical rift. You who are reading this, if you seek my knowledge come to this place with this journal. It will guide you. After the text ended there was written a series of numbers in a fashion that seemed like coordinates. Twilight sat back in her chair stupefied, she had come across her fair share of ancient tomes, but none had ever had such content. The most impactful thing that she had ever found was a book listing the accomplishments of a long dead monarch, all of which turned out to be romanticized nonsense written by someone obviously trying to cover up the failures of the monarch. She sat there for a good few minutes contemplating the implications of what she had just found. After a good seven minutes she stood up with fire in her heart. She had made probably the greatest discovery of her life, elements of harmony aside. She would be damned if she let this chance slip through her grasp. She quickly acquired a geographic map of both modern Equestria and Equestria from a time she estimated to be close to the age of the book. After a few calculations to factor in geographic shifts she eventually came to rest upon a part of what was known as the Equestrian badlands. Her resolve firm she quickly gathered the necessary gear for the region which included a cloth to cover her face arms and hands as well as a pair of goggles to shield her eyes, after suiting up and gathering a set of reagents for a long range teleportation spell she readied herself book in hand an muttered a short phrase. A familiar shifting feeling gathered in her stomach as she released the energy building up within her. For a few seconds the world around her devolved into shifting colors as her feet left the ground before reforming in a new pattern. The landscape before her shifted into view, like a camera focusing. It came forth as a sea of sand, golden and pure with the frequent jagged rock formation jutting from the ground like spires, looking around she found herself in a circle of the stones. Wind stung at her face as she pulled the shawl she was wearing closer as she chanted a small spell. A purple haze clouded her vision for a moment as she focused her mana into her eyes, as she did slowly the world began to change. The rock formations began to glow a faint blue before revealing arcane scribbles upon their surface. Each one had hundreds of thousands of spells woven into them with precision she recognized. Quickly she erected a barrier to shut out the wind so she could work in peace. As the barrier snapped into place the wind that had previously battered her ceased. Removing the improvised turban from her face she removed her goggles hanging them around her neck, as she looked around a thought occurred to her. "Perhaps I should have informed Celestia of what I found before teleporting out here. Oh well, Spike was out and her castle has a barrier to prevent teleportation spells from working within Canterlot. I'm sure she'll understand, after all something this monumental isn't exactly back-burner material now is it?" She said reassuring herself. "Actually I'll bet she'll be glad of me for taking the initiative on this. Oh well we best not be to hasty, now where is that journal?" She concluded as she rummaged around through her satchel, after a few seconds her hand brushed against the familiar leather surface and she quickly pulled it out. "There you ar..." But before she could finish he sentence the obelisks suddenly began to hum in a deem baritone that shook her to her core. She felt her barrier fall but strangely the wind did not resume, instead blue sparks began to leap from the obelisks to the book which immediately burst into flame. Letting out a yelp she dropped the book, however the blue flame consuming the book gave off no heat. As the book smoldered away the obelisks began to send out more sparks, this time to each other. As more and more sparks flew the hum grew louder, to the point she had to cover her ears. A wind picked up again, but this time it swirled around the mare turning up the sand she was standing on revealing a stone dais covered in the same arcane symbols as the obelisks. Closing her eyes she crouched down trying to cover her face as she was pelted with granules of flying sand. Than just as suddenly as it started it ceased. Slowly Twilight stood up opening her eyes, the first thing she saw was that she was no longer in the circle of obelisks. Instead she stood in a large dome shaped circular room. The room was barren of anything save for a stone coffin that stood in the center of the room. Looking around she saw that there were no spiderwebs, in fact there was no dust at all. Hell the place looked cleaner than her house. The glow from before had left, in fact there were no inscribed magics in the room. Slowly she inspected the room finding naught but a small arch of stone that led looked more for decoration than use. "Great." Twilight said, "Now I'm trapped in a tomb. Wait... I can teleport..... what in Taurus am I worried about?" "Yes what are you worried about?" a voice from behind her said. Jumping what must have been nearly three feet into the air she spun around with a shriek. Behind her stood a terrified stallion his eyes wide and hands in front of his face. "Ahhhhh!" he screamed as he cowered from her. Blinking she looked at him more closely, his coat was a smokey color with small tufts sticking up here and there, his mane was an unkempt mess of brown curly hair matted into knots. He was wearing a long black robe that hung down to his feet where the ends were but tatters, evidence of dry rot. "Who are you?" she asked pointedly. taking a step back from the disheveled stallion. As she did he ceased his cowering and looked up, realizing she wasn't trying to hurt him he corrected his posture standing to an unimpressive height that just barely exceeded her own. "Me? Who are you? And why are you here?" "Oh, sorry. My name is Twilight Sparkle, I followed a journal to a circle of obelisks and was transported here. Sorry if I startled you but this was a bit unexpected for me as well." She said with an apologetic smile. For a moment the stallion starred at her with a puzzled look before suddenly smiling. "Ahhh! My journal! I forgot I even made that thing!!! Welcome my name is Oroberos Et'luxa Bel'Avici, and this is my prison." he said holding his arms our spinning in place with a look of utter glee on his face. "Wait, prison!?! And wait, you wrote that? It looked old enough to bee at least a hundred years old and you barely look a day over twenty!" She said. And it was true, the stallion looked to be as if not younger that Twilight herself. The stallion paused and turned back to her. "A Hundred? No no no no no, I've been here far longer than that! I lost count around five thousand six hundred and eighty four. In fact I dare to say its been twice that amount of time." he said nonchalantly. Twilight's jaw nearly hit the floor. " Five thousand! H-how! What, who are you?!?" she sputtered. He looked at her with a puzzled expression. "I told you my name is Orob.." "Yes I heard you but... ok hold on. You are 'O' from the journal?" "Yes, that was the name I used. Actually now that I think about it please use that name instead of my real one. Much easier to pronounce... and remember. I had to write it down when I first came here so I didn't forget it." Twilight stared at him in disbelief for a moment before letting out a breath. "Whatever," she said. "I've seen weirder. But going back to what you said, this is a prison?" "Yup." he said. "Great." Twilight sighed. "Now how do we get out of here." "That's easy! You go out the door!" He said smiling as he pointed to the archway to nowhere. As he did the stone behind it shimmered. "Simply walk up to it and think of a door and it will make it appear! The prison is only meant to keep me in, I didn't want anypony eltce to get caught inside! See before I left for here I destroyed all the doors I knew of! So I cant leave here without somepony's help!" Twilight looked at him dumbfounded. "So you imprisoned yourself here? OK, I read the journal but to be fair toward the end it got a little... mixed up. All I got from it was that you felt unsafe and decided to come here." The stallion's smile faded a bit at this. "Ah, well you see. In my time I was a potent magi. During that time I sought what I thought to be the origin of magic. What I found nearly consumed me, as so I locked myself here as to keep myself from becoming something terrible." Twilight looked at him and patted him on the shoulder with a smile. "Well it seems your worries weren't needed. You seem sane enough to me!" At this his smile vanished completely. "No, not entirely. This is what is left of me, I am not the same pony I once was. In fact aside from that information and my name I remember nothing about who or what I was. In fact I barely remember my time in here. Now that I think about it the only real concrete memory I have is when you popped into the room." The two of them stood there for a moment in silence, unsure of what to say. However after a bit he broke the silence, "Oh well, anyhow I'm sorry that you came here for naught but at least it was fun! Now lets get you home!" He said taking her by the hand and dragging her to the arch, as they approached the wall shifted and shimmered before settling upon a wooden door. Her door! "Wow!" she said approaching it. "I never thought of using translocation magic like this. It's incredible!" "Relay?" he said. "Well thanks than, coming from a mage like you that means a lot!" Now it was her turn to look at him. "How did you know I was a mage?" "Oh, I sent my journal through a rift to find the strongest and most stable magic source it could find. That journal was old when I tossed it in! Anyhow I guess this is goodbye, the teleport was a one time deal. Once you leave you can never return sadly. But what is life but a series of random encounters. It was a pleasure to meet you miss Sparkle!" he said with a bow that looked doubly ridiculous given his stat of attire. After a chuckle at his expense she stopped, "Wait aren't you coming with me?" He looked at her surprised, "Well, I don't know! The thought never occurred to me. I guess it might be nice to see the world again... Only if you want me to of course. I don't want to be any bother. I locked myself in here for a reason." Twilight was take aback, this stallion had consigned himself to a life of imprisonment to keep from becoming a monster. Even long after his madness had faded he still remained strong in his conviction to stay. No pony who would go to such lengths to keep the world safe could be truly bad. If the god of chaos could be reformed than why should somepony like him stay locked away for a crime he never committed. Firmly she grabbed his hand, a look of determination in her eyes as she turned and opened the door pushing it open and dragging him with her into her living room.
What lurks inside"Welcome, to casa de Twilight!" she exclaimed doing a small spin her arms outstretched. "The perfect combination between house, library, laboratory and tree!" Beaming from ear to ear she turned back to face her newfound companion. However something seemed off, his face was frozen in one of surprise. In fact his whole body was frozen in the position she let go of his hand in. A loud slam threw him into motion as he turned to face the door they had come through as it shut closed. Tuning back his face was one of pure terror as he looked into her eyes tears welling up inside them. "What have you done? I was supposed to stay there, it kept me safe.. it kept everyone safe! Now I'm out!" he said with in a steadily rising voice. "Oh god, the voices!!!!" he yelled clutching his head screaming. Twilight stood there silently watching as the pony before her began to convulse, screaming and tearing at his head with his nails. Snapping to her senses she rushed over to him attempting to stay his hands. "What's wrong are you?..." was all she got out before a wave of force drove her across the room into a bookshelf. The collision forced the air from her lungs as stars rushed across her vision. Falling to the ground several books in the shelf toppled around her some landing on her, gasping she pushed herself up to one knee looking up to her horror to see the pony she was just talking to begin to emit and energy so dark it made the magic Sombra used look grey. Tendrils of onyx smoke rose from his body slithering across the floor and crawling along his body, wherever the smoke touched the floor began to turn to ash. Slowly the energy began to creep along the floor rising to the wall as it began to consume his body. Suddenly a flash of light engulfed the room with a loud boom. The smell of singed wood and fabric wafted across Twilight as she shielded her eyes, as the light faded she took her arm away from her face as she stood up fully blinking several times as she did. Looking around the room she saw that the entire room was almost completely charred, books were reduced to smoldering ash, the furnishings were piles of black charcoal still aflame in areas. Even the glass was melted and coated in ash, in fact the only area unaffected by the flame was an area starting just a few inches in front of her and part of the bookcase behind her. Looking to where the blast originated she saw none other than her mentor Celestia. She shone with the radiant energy of her magic as her multicolored hair flowing in a more turbulent fashion than normal her white robes draped across her body. "P-princess?" she stammered taking a few tentative steps forward. The goddess turned sharply an expression of surprise on her face. "Twilight? What are you doing here?!? I sensed something foul emanating here. What on earth is going on!" The princess demanded. "I'm sorry! I was just looking at the journal you sent and it led me to him and... wait where is O?" "O?" "Yes, i found him in the badlands and when i brought him here he suddenly started screaming and emitting this dark energy." The princess looked at her with a mixture of surprise, relief and dread. "So, that's what I sensed. I'm sorry but I smote the source with everything I have. I doubt he survived. But perhaps that is for the..." her thought was interrupted by a shifting behind her. Turning quickly she looked toward the source. On the floor lay the slightly burned body of O, the places where the dark energy had emanated from were covered in hideous burns. However the places that had not yet been touched were unscathed in the same manner as Twilight. "Impossible!" the princess exclaimed. "No creature that could emit a magic as foul as that could be pure enough to be unscathed by my magic. What in the world is this thing. Twilight," she said tuning to face the mare. "What exactly did he say before.. this." Twilight still slightly shell shocked starred blankly for a moment before responding. "Um, I think he said something about not being safe anymore and the voices?" Celestia furrowed her brow, "curious-er and curious-er. You said that the journal I sent you led you there?" "Yes mam." "Do you still have it?" "No mam, it was destroyed when I was teleported to the chamber he was in. I think it was a pocket dimension, he said it was a one time thing. I have some notes if you want to see them!" she exclaimed. Celestia nodded, "Yes, however i think we need to address the more pressing issue here." she said looking back at the unconscious stallion. "This is not the place, I will take us to my personal lab." she announced before flicking her wrist. The teleportation spell she performed was instant and far more precise than the one Twilight used as they were instantly transported to a large room with a cobble stone floor stumbling from the abruptness of the spell Twilight righted herself and looked around finding herself in a familiar setting of instruments of various sizes and shapes. She knew instantly where they were as this place was where she spent a majority of her childhood experimenting and practicing with Celestia. The room had scarcely changed from when she had last been in it which came as little surprise to her. After all she learned her teacher was extraordinarily well organized, a habit she had failed to pick up. Looking to Celestia she saw her lowering O's body onto a stone table securing him with straps of warding. "Princess?" she said approaching her mentor. "Are the straps necessary? I mean he survived the cleansing light, surely that means hes not evil?" The Princess nodded her head in acknowledgment. "Yes, that spell can only harm those whose hearts are corrupt. However that magic emanated most certainly from him, if it had not he would be unscathed. And as you can see that is not the case, we must be cautious." she said securing the final strap. Silently Twilight conceded the point and watched as her mentor gathered up a set of crystals from a nearby table. "Princess, what exactly are you going to do?" Twilight asked cautiously. Celestia sighed and gave her pupil a faint smile. "I'm not going to do anything to harm him, I'm going to try and seal whatever it was that came from him. However that would only be temporary, I have learned through experience that sealing something never truly stops it. I plan on taking samples to see if I can determine what exactly it was that came from him and see if I can somehow expel it. Now give me a hand, I need you to stabilize the crystals as the energy goes into them." Twilight instantly lit up taking a place by her teachers side. "Right!" she exclaimed happily. Turning back to O Celestia gathered herself before extending her hands over him and closing her eyes, energy began to flow from her like before except this time it was slow and methodical. The light flowed into O's chest and his body tensed for a moment before returning to its limp state. After a few seconds Celestia spoke, "As I thought, the corruption is not in his heart. At least, not entirely. It's odd though, it originates from his heart but does not consume it. It seems as thought the corruption was held at bay by something, I believe that the chamber held it in place. When he was removed from it the corruption began to spread again." "Oh." Twilight said hanging her head. She had caused him to go through this, had she left him there, or better yet never gone he would never have gone through this. "Fret not Twilight." Celestia said looking to her. "It's not your fault, in fact that place did nothing but stop it from spreading. It was still in him, now that hes out there is hope for removing it. The journal, did it say who sealed him?" This cheered her up a bit, "Yes, it said he was sealing himself off because he felt something was wrong." Turning back to the stallion on the table she looked down at him, "It seems he recognized, at least on some level what was happening. He must be some mage to construct something like that while fighting off the corruption. Still looking at his manna stream it seems rather weak, its slightly above normal but it seems he relied more on precision than raw power." A few minutes passed before Celestia spoke again. "Twilight, ready the five largest crystals now." "Yes mam," she responded gathering her power levitating five decently sized crystals in a circle opening tuning them to receive energy. Celestia's hands moved in a series of quick arcane gestures her face tightened with effort. Slowly a trickle of the dark energy rose from O's chest his entire body convulsing against the straps as his face contorted with pain, however he remained unconscious. The dark energy rose in a slow stream extending from his body before Celestia's magic cut the stream off from the source surrounding the tendril as it condensed into a small orb. The energy stream quickly retreated back inside his body as Celestia quickly moved the small black orb to float in the middle of the crystals. Releasing her control over the orb the energy shot into the crystals the instant her magic ceased to surround it. The crystals sucked up the energy turning a hideously dark shade of black so deep it hurt to stare at. Putting the crystals aside into a small box that was on the cart with the crystals designed to contain specimens like this she closed the lid and flipped the latch shut activating the sealing spell etched into the box. Looking to Celestia Twilight was shock to see her mentors face scrunched up in effort beads of sweat dripping from her forehead running down the side of her neck. Quickly Celestia recited an incantation in a language Twilight had heard on sparse occasions before. The dead language of Alicorns. This shocked Twilight even further, as a filly she had asked Celestia to teach her the language and she had refused saying that the words themselves contained such power that even a slight mispronunciation could result in catastrophic consequences. Finishing the incantation a small glow emanated from O's body before he once again slumped against the stone limp. Her task complete Celestia dropped her hands to the table and leaned heavily upon it panting. "Princess! Are you ok?!?" Twilight said reaching toward her mentor grabbing her shoulder. Smiling faintly Celestia put her hand gently atop Twilight's. "Yes, I'm just a bit spent. I underestimated the strength necessary to restrain the corruption, it fought back with strength I have only felt on scarce occasions. I had to use that incantation to seal it or my strength would have given out and the corruption could have reemerged." She said looking back to the stallion on her table. "My little pony, just what happened to you?"
An... odd reunionTwilight sighed looking at the remains of her living room, it was clear that the furniture was beyond repair and the books were not much better. Fortunately most of her reference material was in the main library, however loosing so many of her precious personal reading books was disheartening. She had read all of them but still. With a sigh she began to clear away the debris starting with the largest pieces. Once she had gathered all of the large things together she cast a simple spell to send them to the dump. A thought occurred to her that it was quite disturbing how often she used that spell. Getting back to work she gathered all of the ruined books and sent them after the furnishings, followed by the soot she swept up using wind magic. Finally she turned to the walls and floor that had been scorched, the advantage to living in a living tree was that any damage was easily repaired with a controlled growth spell. After the room was returned to its original state she went downstairs and began teleporting the spare furniture she kept in storage to the main room. Another thought about how odd it was that she would be so accustomed to things like this that she had spare furnishings crossed her mind before being shoved aside. Her work complete she took a seat giving a long exasperated sigh. "I wonder if he's awak..." was all she got out before a shimmer appeared before her. Reaching out with her mind she opened the telepathic communication. "Twilight?" A familiar commanding voice asked. "Hello Princess! I was just thinking about calling you up. How is he?" A long silence filled the air. "About that..." Twilight felt her stomach drop. "I-is he...?" "What? Oh, no no no. He's alive, a little to mush so as it seems. I think that when I sealed the corruption away I took a portion of his memory with it. Apparently he thinks he's a member of a group of rebels and that I'm his enemy? I honestly have no idea what he's talking about. I think it would be best if you came back and talked to him, you have a way with ponies after all." Twilight was slightly taken aback by the last part, she had never really though of herself as a social person, but in the last few years she had to admit she had become rather skilled at talking to others. "O-of course, I'll get on the train." "No need, I'll teleport you. Hold on." Celestia said the connection intensifying slightly before vanishing along with the room she was in. Suddenly finding herself in the throne room of the Canterlot castle she noticed that she was no longer sitting upon anything and fell to her rump rather suddenly. "There, oh. I didn't realize that you were sitting... Are you ok?" The princess said leaning down offering a white furred hand. Grabbing her hand Twilight pulled herself to her feet. "Fine, a bit sore but fine." As she looked around the room she was surprised to find a large grouping of guards standing about in different areas, some even tending to minor injuries. "What happened?" Celestia looked around the room before looking back to Twilight. "When he awoke he apparently thought he had been captured by his enemies and broke out attempting to flee. Fortunately nopony was seriously hurt and I subdued him rather easily. Still his skills in combat are extraordinary, he fended off at least a dozen guards at once whilst fleeing." Twilight took note of this, casting spells while being still was difficult enough but to cast while running required almost unmanageable levels of concentration. "So where is he now?" Celestia turned and beckoned to follow, "Come, I had to put him in a cell to keep him from making another break." Twilight followed the Princess up a set of narrow stone stairs into a tower, reaching the top she saw O chained to a wall by the neck with chains designed to neutralize magic. "Well, if isn't the mighty god that brought me down. You must know that I will never talk, so you and your traitor there can just go ahead and kill me. And as for you Starshine, I would never have thought my own apprentice would be a traitor." he said opening his eyes. To Twilight's surprise she found that his eyes were no longer blue but instead a chromatic silver. Shaking her head she spoke. "I believe you have me mistaken for another, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I am not a traitor. I think we need to explain some things." His face which had before been one of betrayal now fell into one of confusion. "You aren't Starshine? But your aura is... no....... you aren't her. I can see now, the differences but still. To have such a similar aura you would have to be a direct relation, and she has no immediate family. Who are you?" Twilight cringed as she realized what she would say next would most likely wound him, "Had, she had no previous relations. I doubt that she's still alive, this isn't the time you are thinking it is." Over the next few minutes she explained the circumstances under which she found him. "And so we brought you here, Celestia sealed away the corruption but we still don't know what exactly it is." She finished. He nodded his face dreadfully serious closing his eyes. "So... the revolution?" "I'm afraid I've never heard of it before." Twilight said looking to the Princess. Celestia spoke up at this. "I have been alive for well over three thousand years and I myself have never heard of any rebellions of significance nor seen any." He smiled in a kind of sad way "Hah, we weren't even worth a mention. Heh.... he he ha... Ha Ha HA HA HAHAHA!" he began to laugh. Twilight watched horrified unable to bring herself to speak. Finally calming down a bit he wiped his face with the sleeve of the ragged robes he wore. "Sorry, it's just... life has that way of doing exactly what you never expect. Even if our rebellion failed, I can clearly see by the way you two talk that times have changed. And your aura means that at least Star survived long enough to have a family." At this he stood up, "Well, no use living in the past. What happens now?" Twilight who was still stunned by his sudden outburst stayed silent, Celestia spoke up however. "The corruption does present a significant threat not only to you but to the safety of those around you. This unfortunately means I cannot allow you to do as you please, as so I have decided to let my apprentice here take care of you until a cure can be devised. Should another incident occur she should be able to handle it, I will continue to research the source of this corruption with the notes she gathered from your journal before it was destroyed. I hope you understand." She said snapping her fingers. As soon as she did the manacle around his neck fell to the ground. Smiling he nodded, "I understand, were I in the same position as you I would act similarly. It is strange to speak on even ground with an alicorn... however the experience is pleasing if for no other reason than the fact it is possible." Celestia smiled, "I am happy that you are. Now Twilight, I apologize for not bringing this up until now but would this be favorable to you?" Twilight quickly regained her composure. "O-of course Princess, my house has plenty of space." "Twilight that's not what she meant." O said, "She meant is it okay keeping somepony as dangerous as me under your roof. However I doubt she would have said it so plainly." At this the both of them turned to face him before Celestia stammered. "M-more or less?" "It is fine, you may speak plainly to me. I would actually prefer it rather than being treated with undue privilege." he said smiling. This time Twilight spoke up, "Of course I'm fine with you living with me! I've been though WAAAAY worse things than that. I even already moved my spare furniture into the living room!" For a moment the room was silent before O spoke up. "I realize that times have changed drastically but is that normal?" "No, no is not." Celestia said her hand on her face. As they began to make their way down the stairs O spoke up again. "Um, I forgot to mention. Can one of you show me how to get out of here. I'm blind."
