Chapters The Failing Light Prequel
Studying under Starswirl was a dream come true for any student of magic, one that only a few ever realized. Imagine my surprise, then, at learning that there another that was another already assisting him, but that this other was Earth Pony named Turner rather than a Unicorn capable of applying the master's teachings.
Although somewhat more excitable than I was accustomed to, I quickly learned that Turner had a brilliant mind and was able to help my new master in developing and applying theories that even the most experienced Unicorn would have a hard time following. Despite having no innate ability to influence the world directly through magic, even the master could not keep up with Turner when discussing and projecting theories about the influence of magic on the physical world although it must be said that with Starswirl it was often hard to tell; he had a tendency to let us discover what he already knew rather than simply giving us the answers to our questions.
The research we had been recruited for was the study of a new application of magic, one that had long been viewed as taboo; the alteration of the flow of time. Starswirl said that he had spent half his life learning, the other half teaching, and now that he had taught all he could to those who listened and learned all he could from those who didn't, he wished to return to the quite of research and the peace of contemplation.
Time had always been considered unapproachable via the manipulations of the unicorn, no matter how powerful; even today it's study is all but heresy. Starswirl was determined to test the limits however, if only for his own satisfaction as he retired from the role he had assumed in his youth. In truth, rumors had long been passed around that he had experimented with time magic when he was younger, but of this he said little. During my time with him I got the impression that he hoped this research would keep him busy until his dying day, and in a way I suppose it did.
We set up a modest shelter in a living tree as was not uncommon in those days, but far enough away from everypony so as to be sure that no misguided spells or failed castings could not wreck havoc on any unsuspecting passerby. The nearest town was the Royal Castle itself, a little over a day’s travel through a wild and largely untracked section of the Everfree Forest. The location was chosen to prevent casual visitors, we were told, but also because the forest provided much for our table and the site was conveniently close to the Royal Sister's famously large library.
The chosen tree was manipulated to grow and flow as desired, providing us with a small but comfortable two-story shelter to work in. The first 'floor' was a circular area perhaps 20 paces wide where spells could be cast and contained by reflective wall panels, a feature known at the time as a practitioners arena. The second level was not above the first, but rather a set of ledges overlooking the arena. These were reached by a pair of staircases set into the sides and were just wide enough to accommodate sleeping quarters and a private study. The master did not believe in wasting space, or at least not inside a tree.
The first few months of study were for me tremendously boring. I was very much a practical practitioner; at that point I could build a number of intricate devices and manipulate them in the highest degree, but all the master and Turner wanted to do was discuss theory and complete horribly long sessions of calculations... I confess, it was all beyond me.
To keep me occupied while their theories were developed and explored, or perhaps to nudge me in the right direction, I was asked to review the material that had been brought in from the castle and a number other places to aid in our research. This proved to be most interesting. I know not by who or even where most of the scrolls and books came from but they spoke of strange new ways to control the flow of magic, of how to contain and direct it, and a few even discussed ways to manipulate magic itself for greater effect: all things that hadn't even been hinted at in the martial I'd studied in school.
Several of the pieces in the collection even discussed dark magic, which is to say castings and spells designed with the explicit intent of hurting other ponies or altering their free will. While the master thought me mature enough to study such material with scholarly detachment, he did direct me to store these scrolls and books in a hidden compartment behind the walls of the arena as a precaution against visitors. As it turns out we never had any in our remote little tree, but such caution was not groundless: In later years I am told a couple of the scrolls in that collection passed into the wrong hooves and caused quite a disturbance before they could be recovered.
But before all that, time passed as it always had; weeks and months slowly went by for us, me happily compiling indexes and cross-referencing spells while they endlessly babbled on. Then one afternoon a silence disturbed my re-re-reading of one of the more cryptic scrolls, a work discussing transformational magic which didn't seem to have been written by a pony. Disturbed by the sudden lack of activity below I decided to venture into the arena and see what they were stuck on; several times before I had been able to provide inspiration, if not solutions, to their problems. This time something rather different awaited me.
When I reached the arena both were studying a complicated string of symbols and figures spread out across a long slate set into the wall. The symbols meant little to me, but I distinctly remember that Starswirll contemplated them with a slight frown while Turner had a glimmer in his eyes. It was explained that they believed their calculations showed the flow of time could be briefly interrupted by tucking a spell within a spell that canceled the first one out, and somehow causing both to take place at the same time on the same subject; doing so would create a magical void that should cause time to act erratically as reality tried to stabilize. The problem, they explained, was how to cast such an incantation?
They had initially tried to make their theory work assuming two ponies were casting the spells, but the variance in strength and origin seemed to suggest that a perfectly paired casting was next to impossible. This led to the exploration of having a single caster involved, which addressed the initial problem, but only created a even more difficult one; a talented manipulator may be able to control several spells at once, but it is impossible to cast two spells at the same time: you'd need more than one horn!
Had I known the ultimate effect of my entering into that conversation I often wonder if I would have gone down those stairs. You see, in my research I had come upon a reference to a curious property which certain types of crystals were known to have; it seemed, or so the source insisted, that a spell cast at such a crystal would be absorbed into the stone rather than reflected off it as magic often is from shiny surfaces. This is why, even today, gems and crystals are usually mined instead of being simply pulled from the ground by a Unicorn: accidentally reflected spells can be very dangerous.
I mentioned all of this to the others and the conversation turned to what happened to the spell that was absorbed and lost, and with growing excitement we came to the conclusion that the casting had to go 'somewhere' rather that cease to exist, and that if it was 'somewhere' then surely it could be brought back... and being able to store and recall a spell would surely be as good as casting two at once; one could simply cast two spells into a stone and let them out together! The very next day we set out to find the crystal cave the scroll mentioned and collect a few samples.
Curiously, the cave which held the unusual gems was rather close to our research lab. I have often wondered if this was sheer coincidence or if the master had known all along and simply allowed me to discover the relevant material on my own... Regardless, the cave was beautiful. It went deep but the main chamber had a high skylight which cast an off-blue light into the cavern, reflecting duly off an oblong mirror pool and gently lighting the cave with a soft glow. Growing out of the center of the pool the crystals stretched as if reaching for the sky, looking for all the world like frozen smoke curling around some ancient tree growing in the water. Adding to the beauty of the place, the crystals seemed somehow alive with little flickers and sparks of golden light trapped within.
For myself the sight was deeply moving, and for Starswirl as well I suspect. Turner instantly launched into a examination of the pool and the crystals, trying to determine the source of the flickers and expounding various other details, completely missing the beauty of the place. Eventually Starswirl joined him and I followed shortly after, although the stillness of that underground pool with its flickering crystals has never left me.
After some careful scrutiny from the edge of the pool we noted a particular crystal that had cracked at some point in the past, leaving a small section perhaps 3 hands long sitting atop the structure that extended out of the water. Taking advantage of this and being ever so careful to prevent our castings from being reflected, the master and I managed to reach out through our horns and grasp the upper part of the crystal and draw it towards the edge of the pool for closer examination.
We quickly confirmed the curious property that had been mentioned in the scroll; while moving the stone towards our place on the shore we both momentarily lost our grip on it when the gold flecks flickered brightly. In terms anypony can understand, it was as if a stone held tightly had suddenly ceased to be affected by our touch and fallen right through our hooves... It was a most curious and impossible sensation, but luckily it did not last more than an instant and we were able to retrieve the stone without dropping it into the pool.
The Failing Light Prequel
Once we returned to the lab with our prize a new type of research began, and this time it was I rather than Turner who was married to the project. How could a rock absorb magic? Where could it go? Was it a physical property, or perhaps was the stone occupied by something which actively resisted our manipulations? Was it cursed, or perhaps somehow living itself? These and many other questions passed through our minds in those early days.
We eventually confirmed the early observation that the flickering golden flecks signaled when the stone would absorb a casting, but as to what caused the flickering we were never able to determine. After several absorbed castings I noticed that the flickers occurred more often however, which lead to the discovery that the castings truly were being absorbed, that they were being held within the crystal rather than snuffed out of existence.
To demonstrate this to the master and Turner was a simple matter: I created a cloud of dull gray smoke that flowed in a ring drifting about the crystal. When the flecks flickered the ring seemed to be torn apart and drawn into the gem, reappearing trapped within the stone. Of some concern was that the ring seemed to be fractured within the stone as if it had somehow been cracked, but it was there none the less. We experimented with this several times and managed to trap several other visual spells within the crystal, but were unable to find a way to extract them.
After several weeks we returned to the cave to gather a few more crystals as the original was now dark with trapped spells and flickered so often it was no longer easy to interpret the effect of a casting. Luck was with us as this turned out to reveal the secret of the crystals: While examining one of the new smaller samples with the master and comparing it to the murky flickering of the original stone, I happened to rest one on the other; the result was the sudden and instant release of all the castings the old stone had absorbed up to that point, throwing me across the room and upturning the workbench while filling the arena with gloriously misplaced rings of smoke.
We quickly surmised that the ensnared castings were released when one crystal came into contact with another, and after some experimentation we were able to determine that the casting was actually released through the crystal that didn't hold any magic rather than from the one that had absorbed the spell. This presented some problems, mainly in that it was very difficult to know where a casting was going to be directed upon release, but none the less we had discovered a way to harness the stones potential and were quite excited.
Such a discovery, that a spell could be held and released at will, was truly a revelation worthy of Starswirl's reputation. Curiously, he never presented it to any scholastic circles that I was aware of; I think he had reservations about how such information could be used or misused by those less cautious that himself, or perhaps he better understood the unpredictable nature the crystals than I did.
Despite such reservations on the master's part, Turner was quite taken with the phenomenon as was I and we all began studying it in detail. Turner approached the crystals with logic and observation while I studied them through experimentation and manipulation, and the master through insight and careful prodding. After a few days we discovered quite by accident that certain materials could be used to connect the gems with the same effect as bringing them into direct contact, and that they could be made to absorb a casting by placing a reflective surface behind them which seemed to make the flecks glow indefinitely. From this Turner and the master developed a hypothesis that the release was triggered by magic flowing from one stone to the other and they quickly set out to determine what this magic signal was and how it worked, leaving me to study the effect from a more practical standpoint.
Having always been fascinated by complicated mechanical devices, the possibilities our discovery presented were almost beyond imagination and I could have happily explored them for the rest of my life. The only problem that remained unaddressed as I saw it was how to control and direct the release of the ensnared castings; releasing them through primitive means was so sudden and undirected it was impossible to predict what would happen even knowing the effect the original casting should have... A casting intended to change the color of a bottle of ink could be thrown in the caster's face for example, or out the window, and who could say what effect that would have?
It was only after I had the idea of creating an array of smaller crystals to direct and focus the release of the ensnared castings that we started to make real progress towards our original goal. The device was elegantly simple in its design, consisting of the original large crystal, a collection of copper tubes and soft canvas bands, a handful of crystal fragments, and a few wooden supports to keep the whole thing upright.
The main crystal was tightly wrapped about the top and bottom with several layers of canvas, which was then held in place by a pair of copper bands. These copper bands were connected by a copper tube from which 8 smaller tubes snaked out to support 8 small crystals arrayed at the corners of a cube, forming a cage of sorts. The smaller crystals were supported by the copper bands, and while empty didn't trigger any magical disasters... With the swinging of a lever, however, a small copper plate was pressed against the side of the main crystal connecting it to all of smaller crystals at the same time, causing the ensnared castings to be released through the smaller crystals and, because of the array they were in, the spell was pushed and pulled into the center of the cage rather than sent flying in random directions.
The first spell we tested the device with was one of Starswirls, a simple shimmering spray of silver light often used to light a dark area. Though many tens of years have passed since that day I will never forget the exhilaration of seeing that spray of silver light suddenly reappear within the device of my design, contained and directed as neatly as you'd like, looking for all the world like some kind of magical lantern.
The Failing Light Prequel
With a functional way to contain and direct castings discovered, Turner and the master began their research into what kind of spell to use in the battle against time leaving to me the job of refining the design and performing minor experiments with it to learn as much as I could about the effect the crystals.
In many ways these were the brightest moments of my life. We had achieved so much together: we had created something completely new and unknown to the rest of the world, and there was still so much more we could learn from it. I spent many happy days tinkering with the design, making storm clouds and sunsets appear within the cube, and even working on a few side projects using fragments of the crystals we had brought back.
We eventually reconvened in the arena to perform the first true test of the device with a spell that could theoretically cause a small gap in the flow of time. As the master explained it, the casting created a bubble in reality that held everything within it exactly as it was, and when 'popped' by the counter-casting that occurred at the same instant it should create a tiny gap in reality and snap the present as we observe it into some other present. It didn't sound like a very safe experiment to me, but I had come to trust Turner and certainly the master's judgment.
That said, neither of them could venture even a cautious prediction as to the what the spell actually did; it was one thing to determine how to cast a spell through theory, but as it was a two part spell it could not be performed by any unicorn to observe the results... Only through the holding ability of the crystals could the casting be completed and unleashed.
We decided the best approach was to place a candle within the cage and allow it to burn half way down before releasing the spell, the idea being that if it worked we would have a way to tell how much of a time gap had been created by observing how much of the candle returned or vanished. Without any idea how much of an effect the casting would have at any strength, the master spent several days in contemplation before preparing for the first test. To the uninitiated it may seem like our caution was exaggerated, but understand that an experiment like this could go horribly wrong and have completely unknown consequences... Caution was the rule we planned to live by.
As luck would have it, the first experiment went as well as could be hoped for; when the crystal released the master's spell the candle suddenly sprang back into existence, although interestingly it was no longer lit. While the master and I sighed with relief and started recording notes and taking measurements, Turner stared at the candle in baffled silence.
After several long minutes he said dully that what we had seen here didn't make sense. While he had contributed to the theory that drove the event and knew it as well and any of us, he observed that all the melted wax from the original candle had remained in place where it had fallen outside the cage. About 1/3 of the candle had been returned and was now standing tall where the stub had been, but the wax that had melted from the original candle had remained in place on the bench. This caught the master off guard and sent him into deep contemplation.
I ventured the observation that the wax was outside the cage and therefore it was not affected by the casting, and to this Turner voiced the obvious question: if the pool of wax was from the candle we had seen melt, and that candle was no longer entirely melted, where had the wax that now made up the candle in the cage come from?
Over the next couple weeks we performed the experiment several times going both forwards and backwards, always with the same results; if the pool of wax was outside the cage the candle simply snapped back into existence. If the wax was allowed to pool within the cage however, it was reduced when the candle was reformed, as was to be expected, but this only made the our observations even more confused... It seemed we had succeeded in creating a way to interrupt the flow of time, but in a curiously localized fashion which utterly broke the laws of physics that Turner held so dear. No matter how he approached the problem, it remained that the effects of the castings had no influence outside the area upon which they were cast, regardless of the effect the object inside the cage had on the outside world.
This may not seem like a particularly significant observation given what we had accomplished, but consider what would happen if Turner or I were to crawl within the cage for a period of time, and the machine was triggered after we had removed ourselves from it. Would we be confronted with another us, drawn into existence from nothing? What would happen if you met yourself? What would happen if it was switched on after the original had ceased to exist? Such problems occupied the mind of the master and perhaps even that of Turner for a long time as they tried to reason it out. As for myself, I was less troubled by such matters and glad for the quiet that settled about the tree as I worked on several smaller projects to pass the time.
One of them that turned out to be particularly useful was a small pendant that could increase the strength of the wearers spells. As you may remember, I mentioned a scroll discussing transformational magic earlier; by this time I had read it enough times to recite the entire thing from memory... It was so cryptically written that it almost felt like the author wanted to hide the subject from the reader, but the information was there for those who truly understood magic and part of the document discussed ways to increase a spells strength. Among other things the scroll indicated that, hypothetically, by casting the same spell several times and timing it such that the separate castings would reach their target at the same time a caster could increase the effect of the spell without having to be a stronger practitioner. While this hadn't been useful for our initial problem of casting two spells at once, it did inspired me to research the idea in case we needed to strengthen our device at some future point.
Using a few of the crystal fragments left over from the cage I carefully crafted a small framework of silver to hold two of them, cut such that one fit slightly inside the other without being in direct contact. I then rounded off a tiny fragment and inserted it between the two in a small insulated cavity such that it could slide back and forth, always in contact with either one crystal or the other but never both. The idea was that when a spell was cast into the pendent, the two crystals would absorb it and one would immediately release it due to being in contact with the fragment, only to have it absorbed again by the other crystal which would then release it back to the first along with the casting it had absorbed originally as the fragment was pushed from one to the other by the release... With the fragment bouncing back and forth the spell was doubled and tripled and quadrupled, and so on, for as long as the spell was applied. When the spell was cut off the outer crystal would emit the casting outward and break the cycle, unleashing an exponentially more powerful rendition of the original spell. In effect, it allowed the wearer to cast a spell a hundred times, or a thousand, or more, all in the space of a heartbeat.
I built the device as an amusement, as something to pass the time while the big brains discussed our findings and tried to integrate them into their formulas and theories. The master turned out to be very impressed with the device, even venturing a few ideas of his own on how similar devices could be made and used. I was of course happy to build anything he wished, although I fear that original amulet survived our disaster and eventually found its way into the wrong hooves... Still, it had been constructed in good faith and served us well while we had it.
The Failing Light Prequel
Now we draw near to the event that made possible this telling, an occurrence that is barely remembered today but at the time caused the whole land to shake with fear. You see, as our research into the flow of time and its manipulation continued there was inevitably going to be an experiment in which we participated more directly. The enigma of what would happen if the casting was released on a pony was to a great mystery to be left unanswered. The master was initially against such an experiment fearing the consequences it could have, but after half a year of zapping apples and plants back into flowers and seeds, larger questions began to loom despite any such reservations.
During the last few seasons that we spent together we often studied separately as we each excelled in quite different areas; while I studied the crystals and Turner developed new theories to confuse me, the master worked on refining the two part spell that drove our invention. After several moons I noticed his attention seemed to have shifted to developing a new spell rather than refining the old one, and although he was careful to keep his work separate from ours I believe he was working on a way to simulated everything needed to perform a time alteration so we didn't have to build a larger physical device. I never learned if he completed the spell or not, but it certainly kept him busy through the summer and into the fall.
By that time Turner had overcome his initial dismay and was wholly committed to the study time and magic, developing a grand new theory to explain it all in terms of physics and science. He tried to simplify it for me several times so I could appreciate it, explaining that time did not flow straight from one instant to another but rather as a river does over rocky rapids, in waves and ripples... He suggested that the reason time seems so constant and linear to us was that we weigh heavy upon it, always affecting the future as we do, and thus we tend to experience it from the lower regions rather than those more prone to change. All above and around us flows a whole tangled mess of time he said, past and future all sloshing together in a wibbly-wobbly ball of timie-wimie stuff as we rocks set and shift its course from the depth.
The original device we had designed allowed a section of our time to connect with a section of previous time, but only that section was affected hence the localized effects. We weren't so much 'changing' time as reaching into our own future or past to cause an event that we could appreciate in the present... And from there his theory got more complicated than I can relate, no matter how elegant the analogy.
One of the more interesting ideas that sprang from this new theory was the thought that it might be possible to create a device which, rather than break the flow of time and force a new piece into its place, would break the device and perhaps it's user from the present and place it and them somewhere and somewhen else. As I have already mentioned, the master initially discouraged such research, but after a some lengthy theoretical discussions he seemed at least partially convinced that it was possible while I was perhaps less so.
I had not been idle while such theories and spells were developed and tested mind you, I had by then built a number of unique tools and devices to aid in our studies. One of particular note was to aid Turner in our research; building on an idea the master had suggested, I designed a device which would allow him to make use of a few simple spells which would otherwise be barred from an Earth Pony.
The tool consisted of a handful of simple castings contained within small crystal fragments, built into a housing of wood and copper. When one of the fragments was 'activated' by a switch on the outside of the device, the fragment was put into contact with two other fragments, one of which would return the casting to the original fragment and another slightly larger one which released a 'copy' of the spell in whichever direction the tool was pointed. The idea with it was to give Turner some means with which to cast a spell into a crystal for experimentation without having to interrupt his or our research, and he put it to very good use.
I must admit I was convinced to attempt to design the new time manipulation device only because I saw how excited Turner was at the prospect and how happy the 'wand' and the other small devices made him; at the time I was not at all convinced it was possible to scale our earlier design up as he wanted. As it turned out it was possible, but the project took close to a year to complete. While the wand and all the other devices were certainly as complicated as they were useful, the new manipulation machine was my masterpiece.
In order to break such a device from the flow of time the device itself had to be inside the crystalline cage rather than simply connected to it, which meant that the cage had to be large enough to contain all the inner workings of the machine and have room a pony or two as well... Which in turn meant many more crystals, and bigger ones for that matter, had to be gathered and mounted at very precise locations to ensure that the cage was perfectly balanced to prevent the casting from emerging unevenly.
I relied on Turner and the master to calculate the exact locations and angles for the crystals while working out the speed of the released castings to calculate how long each connection should be. In this machine more so than any other it was absolutely crucial that the casting be delivered evenly and at the same instant to all parts of the device; who could say what would happen were half of the machine were to try to shift while the other half still remained fixed in the present?
Eventually the machine was finished, and eventually the day came that we were ready to test it. Using our smaller devices we had developed a fairly comprehensive understanding of how strong a casting had to be in order to have the desired effect on the subject, but as ever we were extremely cautious of new developments. The first casting seemed to work flawlessly; the master injected his spell and when he lowered the lever from a safe distance the device seemed to shimmer slightly before suddenly vanishing with a rush of displaced air.
While the master and Turner waited expectantly for it to reappear, I must admit to being rather nervous. I had been carefully observing the device for any signs of trouble and seen none, but there was no way of knowing if the experiment had been a complete success until it returned to us. There was plenty of time for doubts to occur, to wonder if each binding had been checked enough times, if each crystal was aligned correctly...
After several minutes and exactly as intended, there was a slight whooshing sound and the machine shimmered back into existence before us. It is hard to put into words my sense of relief or their elation at the theory's success, but for a brief moment that summer we truly were the masters of time.
The Failing Light Prequel
And then the moment passed.
Without warning the master stood tall and blasted out a monstrously powerful shielding spell, creating an impenetrable golden barrier between the outside world and the arena in our little tree. Turner and I were caught completely off guard; at that time I had never experienced such a powerful casting before and had certainly not expected one to come from our aged mentor.
Standing near the doorway was a creature neither of us recognized, seeming for all the world to be a jumbled collection of parts from perhaps a dozen different animals. The general shape was that of a large legged snake or perhaps one of the thin lengthy dragons spoken of in several scrolls from the far east, but the eyes were somehow wrong, somehow far to intelligent.
Realizing that it had been discovered, it turned from the barrier and into the growing silence said something to the effect of 'surely you wouldn't mind showing me the door as it seems I've happened by without an invitation?' Despite the polite comment there was malice in it's voice and the master demanded to know who the creature was and from whence it came in a deep threatening voice, to which it laughed and said that it was lost but well on it's way to being found. And with that, it vanished from our sight with a pop and a bit of confetti, never to be seen again.
I am sure by now you have guessed who the creature was, although I am told that until just a few years ago he lay all but forgotten in the gardens of Canterlot. Discord is the name he is know by in modern times, but how he came to be in Equestria, let alone in our arena, I do not know. I fear our experiments may have had something to do with it, although I dearly hope that's not the case given what was to follow.
Though his mind was closed to those who did not know him, it was clear to me that Starswirl was more worried that he chose to share with the creature lingering unseen. I had the distinct impression that he would have spent the rest of his life holding that shield in place had he been able to, and apparently Discord came to the same conclusion; seeing that we intended to hold him and that the master was strong enough to do so even without my help, he set about freeing himself the only way he could: through chaos.
As we three stood there trying to unravel his identity and decide how to proceed, Discord cast upon our newly completed machine and realigned the crystalline cage so that it's fragments pointed outwards rather than inwards. Seeing what he was about to do I lunged towards the device to repair the damage or disable the device, but it was already too late: the lever dropped and time consumed me.
At first there was no color or light, no sound or sensation of up or down and yet every moment was filled with jarring impacts. The darkness was slowly replaced with a mire of muted colors and sensations, thoughts came in fits and bursts as if my mind was flickering on and off; parts of me seemed to stretch out forever while others seemed to shrink into nothingness as I sought them. My horn hummed and rattled my skull and I felt the spark of my life extend through the ages and into the gap between the day and the night. The place in my mind where I could touch the ember of magic within seemed to flare into a raging flame, burning what few thoughts I had out of my mind before I could even begin to understand what was happening.
It was a tumbling, crushing, searing fall, and then it ended.
Epilogue
I felt something crunch beneath me and opened my eyes to an impossibly brilliant light; blinded and scrambling to my hooves, sure I was being attacked, I frantically tried to remember where I was and how I'd gotten there as I fought to clear my vision and defend myself... Only to discover to my relief that it was naught but the morning sun that assaulted me.
That, and rich scent of the forest that had appeared around me.
The Failing Light Prequel
Chapter 1 - The Beginning
My name is Render Starfall, and according to history I died some 1132 years ago with the failure of Starswirl the Bearded's final experiment. The truth is somewhat more interesting, although I suppose if you're to understand any of it I'd better start from the beginning…
When I was young I lived with my parents on our farm, working hard and learning about nature and the world around me. I was quick to take up hobbies, curious about everything, and, to my parents frustration, always sought out the new and unusual rather than the tried and true. I could go on and on about the lessons I learned as a colt and how they came back to me during later events, but it wasn't until I started attending school that this story really begins.
See, I joined classes later than most; I was needed on the farm, it was only when my father was able to hire a helping hoof that I was allowed to attend. Perhaps due to this I was an outcast there; being the new colt while everypony knew everypony else certainly did not ease me into the social ranks. At first I was picked on and teased a bit, but after standing up for myself and winning a few playground scuffles I was largely left alone. Thus while my classmates gossiped and discussed the latest trends between lessons, I was left on the outside.
I was not on the outside looking in, however; I was captivated by the amazing new world around me: the lights, the books, the machines, the magic... I was fascinated, and being the curious type I had to know how it all worked. Many a happy afternoon was spent in the small library, learning about magic and history and many, many other things.
As I grew my studies became more focused. While anything new could grab my attention, my greatest interest lay in mechanical devices. What a incredible concept, even today I remember my excitement reading and learning about them for the first time. While any unicorn can use his or her magic to manipulate the world around them, with skill and practice it is possible to build a device that can function without the continuous application of magic on the makers part. Such devices were rare at that time, the most common and familiar being the town's clock, but even at an early age I knew they could do so much more. Not everypony could build such devices however, in order to construct even the simplest a pony had to have a nimble mind and a very delicate touch. Being a unicorn gave me some advantages in that regard, but if I ever wanted to build something of my own rather than just appreciate the work of others I would have to develop very precise control over my abilities...
This is, of course, a difficult point to explain to non-magic types so perhaps an analogy would serve best? Imagine asking an earth pony to tie a complicated knot in a thin cord while wearing boots; the poor pony would know how to tie the knot in their head, know what motions to go through with their hooves, but because of the boots and the size of the string he or she would be unable to even pick up the cord let alone do anything with it. This is how it is when using magic on small parts and pieces of a larger device; you can read what you need to do and learn the motions required, but actually being able to accomplish fine manipulations is a entirely different matter.
Although all unicorns develop the ability to manipulate their surroundings at an early age, as the objects we attempt to manipulate become smaller the task becomes ever so much more challenging. Most never progress beyond being able to hold basic tools and everyday objects like books and quills, and indeed most have no need for more precise control that that. This is why many of the machines that existed at that time were so large and bulky; it's not easy for anypony to make fine devices, then as now.
Fortunately, I had few distractions from such studies. It took several years of dedicated study and practice to be able to control my abilities to the point that I could stack tiny pebbles on top of each other forming a small pattern floating above the floor, and another year or so to learn how to hold that pattern together and remove the pebbles one by one without dropping any. Had I been in a larger school I am certain less primitive instruments would have been used in my quest for precision, but being a small farming town the stones were all that was available and in the end they proved to be adequate.
By the time I entered my 5th year of school I was developing something of a reputation. Actually, I was developing two; one with my teacher who was ever encouraging of my dedication and interest in such a difficult if unusual subject, and reinforcing my reputation among my fellow students for being slightly weird. Regardless, it was generally accepted that I was the most precise practitioner of magic in the schoolhouse although little acclaim went along with such recognition.
It wasn't until the end of my 6th and final year of schooling that something special happened. I never found out exactly how the connection was made, but one day while I was contently studying a scroll from the far east discussing machines powered by water, I had a visitor; Star Swirl of Elm, known by most simply as Starswirl the Bearded.
Even then he was widely acclaimed as the greatest manipulator Equestria had ever seen; in his youth he had been deeply detached and lost in the ways of magic, going as far as developing his own incantations and spells when none existed to suit his purpose... While any unicorn could theoretically invent a new spell if they were brave enough to risk a failed casting, Starswirl literally invented thousands, many of which are taught even to this day. Legend has it he attended the princesses when they were young, teaching them to be wise and strong rulers over our beautiful land although of course such was impossible; he'd have be over 300 years old if that were the case.
Though perhaps not quite that old, when he came to me he was long into his twilight years, his flowing brown beard long since gone to gray. Although his mind was as sharp as it had ever been, he was no longer as precise in his castings as he once was. This, of course, was exactly why he came for me; word of my dedication and precision had reached him through some channel, and as fate would have it he was about to embark on a new branch of research that would require someone like me to assist him. As he stood before me that day and asked if I would study under him I felt as a pebble might before a mountain.
Naturally, I said yes.
