Canterlot Ruins

The first thing I noticed as I stepped out of the door to the castle, was the devastation of the courtyard. Impaled and frozen corpses, warbeasts, guards, and rifleponies lay on the ground. Craters indented into the ground, spread out across the area. The only intact frozen bodies were that of Pinkamena Diane Pie, and Spike Sparkle. Pinkamena's condition could be debated, however. Her head lay a few feet away, buried in ice and snow.

However, I could see the glint of something yellow. It was slightly buried in the snow, but nonetheless was interesting. A pair of yellow tinted shades lie buried beneath a few inches of snow, a singular quarter of the lens sticking out. Decidedly, I picked them up and wiped them off. They were in good shape. The shades were magically enchanted to grow or shrink to fit anyone who wore them, as well as pick up on your vision problems. Perhaps I could use these to get more accurate shots in. I placed them on my face, noticing the tinting was a one way thing.

Interesting. Perhaps, before I leave, I should grab some things from the archives to study later? I decided to go back inside of the castle, and after some more winding long hallways, tall staircases, and steep ramps, I made my way to the archives. The archives took a large portion of the castle, there is even a basement. I assumed many of the dark magics could be stored there. It would be ideal to find some books in there on magic. I thought, for a moment, what about rune magics? Rune magics were considered dark magic, even if the spell contained harmonic particles. They were extremely fabled and legendary magics, that any race or type of pony could use. Even griffons, who did not have magical power, have been recorded to use such magic.

I silently thanked Twilight that she had all those books on myths and ancient magics. If she didn't have them, I wouldn't have bothered to pick up those glasses or even come here.

Nonetheless, I carried on through the archives. This place was protected by a shitload of magical wards, so no snow could get inside of this room and ruin the books. If I tried to burn anything, or do anything to the books, nothing would happen. The wards were too strong, probably set in place by Celestia and Luna themselves. Not that I would want to destroy anything, though.

Anyway, after some extensive searching, I had found nothing but some basic magic books and Equestrian history. I kept a few choice history books, and then this next event would teach me that there were wards in here.

I walked up to the trapdoor, looking down at it for a moment. I blinked, and then took a quick look around before stuffing the history books into my overflowing leathery bag. I pulled out a knife, and began to stab the trapdoor. The door quickly dulled my knife, and soon I put it away. No point in losing a valuable weapon. I pulled out my more slim switchblade, and after some trial and error, I successfully picked the lock. I put my switchblade away. Without those glasses, I couldn't have possibly picked the lock. My perception wouldn't have allowed such a thing.

Soon after some musing, I flung the trapdoor open and plunged myself inside, landing on the stone floor with a thud. I took out my lighter, and as I flicked it, the flame died.

"Dammit. Magical ward bullshit." I mumbled to myself.

If anything, this would be really difficult. Especially without any sort of li-

Suddenly, as I started forward, torches flickered to life on the wall behind me. The room lit up with a faint glow, and I moved forward more. The room was filled to the brim with bookshelves and stacked books, lecterns, lanterns, and tables. Old candles dripped as a blue flame spouted forth from their wicks. As all of this happened, I stumbled upon a rune magic section. There was five volumes here. The basics, the advanced, the master's, the grand-master's, and the unspeakable. The last volume filled me with intrigue. The unspeakable? Perhaps necromancy and other forms of dark magics? Maybe chronomancy or the Harmonic Theory? Maybe the Chaos Theory too.

Either way, I stuffed my bag with these last five books. I took a quick look around before I left. I found some severed unicorn horns and pony skulls. A few sketches and strange equations were marked down on a page near these items. A strange gland of some sort was floating in a jar. A few putty body parts were laid out on the table too, covering a unicorn anatomy diagram. I had the strangest feeling to take the unicorn horns. Maybe something in one of my books talks about that?

I opened the basic rune magic book, flipping to the fifth page. A few diagrams of that gland and a unicorn horn were on the page. In cursive, details on the first rune were written. It required a unicorn horn. The rune would bind magic to the horn, and this would be the base for a magic wand. This could also be done with a stick, but unicorn horns could channel magic even easier. Alicorn horns would take zero effort. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything but the severed horns on hand. I grabbed two of the nine on the table. Once I removed these, I uncovered an elaborate rune. Someone else was studying this before me. But what pony would want to learn rune magic, if they themselves were unicorns. You can't just pop into this section of the archives as anything other than a very special unicorn or an alicorn. Hell, there was even a sign up there stating that.

But, I honestly didn't give a fuck. I was going to survive if it meant I would be hung. And most importantly, I was going to goddamn learn

necromancy so I could give these ponies their lives back. I wrongfully took them, and I wouldn't rest until they were alive once again.

Now, it was time to leave. I should really get to a market and sell my items, that would be an ideal thing to do. I need bits, or else I can't buy any ammo or black-market items. Surely this palace would have so many rich ponies that they leave coins around? Nope. Nothing. Nada. Besides that, I began my trek to exit this place. I found myself walking beside a wall, looking down. I tripped up on some books, landing so that my face pointed towards the entrance to a strange green-glowing area.

I pushed myself to my aching feet, and stepped inside with my new rifle in hand.

What I saw shocked me to my core.

The large circular room had six tanks of green goo against the back walls. Inside of one was the body of Twilight Sparkle, or what was left of her.

The other five tanks of strange glowing goo were empty. Plaques of exquisite gold were placed onto pillars with a slant, the plaques placed on that slant. The best I could think of in the moment was that all the other bodies couldn't be uncovered, and Applejack was just giblets and red frozen gunk. The pony in the tank, though, was at peace. Hundreds of I.Vs, cords, wires, and metal covered her body. Most notably, where the lower half of the body usually was, there was a metal box of sorts. If I was able to detect magic back then, this room would have been red warning signs. Black magic was in the air here.

The books in my bag lit up, hundreds of strange symbols and runes were scattered across the floor and tanks. The entrance had deep purple runes set into it. After this examination, I ran up to the singular filled tank. I tapped on the glass, seeing that the pony's left eye slightly cracked open.

Maybe she wasn't dead? (Heh, I was really stupid back then. Of fucking course she's alive if her eye opened.)

I tapped on the glass again, seeing the right eye do the same as the left eye. This time, I lightly banged on the glass. The pony inside stirred, their eyes going wide as they saw me. Soon, the runes lit up and the pony passed out again. How is this possible? I killed her! I was confused, how could Twilight have possibly survived that kind of blast? Wait... What about those diagrams?

I put my rifle back against my spine, slipping the rifle sling onto my shoulder and under my arm. I then started sprinting, and found myself back at the table. I cleared it off, finding some more diagrams and papers. This all made sense. The clay body parts, the runes, the horn and the skull. Whoever this was, they had been commissioned to bring Princess Sparkle back to life. And it appeared they succeeded. I pored over some notes, finding that all of the runes in there are meant to keep her asleep. If she is to wake up for a long period of time before everything is properly fixed, she would die.

But, the latest note was cut off. It stated that Twilight Sparkle was fully ready to be revived, but she would have trouble walking like a biped. Wait. The note said biped? Did they give her weird robot legs or some shit like that? I would find this question out soon. The note then stated that an evacuation was called. A hastily scribbled description of how to deactivate the runes was on the next page, which I proceeded to grab.

The note stated that the only way to deactivate any of the runes, was to disrupt it with a magical conductor, or a wand of some sorts. There was a very specific way to deactivate them all, as doing it in the wrong order would cause gas to fill into the room and the exit to block off. Damn, this pony was really determined to make sure no one could do anything to Twilight. Probably for the best.

The order would be easy to follow, so I decided to do this quickly. I rushed back to the room, and ran over to the full tank. I did the sequence, and watched as the glass shattered, and everything did as said in the note. The goo was drained, the I.Vs detached, and all other implements fell off. Twilight was lowered slowly onto the floor by a magical aura. Twilight blinked her eyes open, and they once again went wide.

She spoke with no haste in mind, her brain trying to catch up with what happened. "S-spike? Is that you?"

I replied casually, "No lady, my name's Peyton. I'm also the person who killed you, sadly, and once again the person who revived you. Currently, the land of Equestria is plagued by an eternal blizzard, the sun and moon move by themselves, and everypony who didn't get to a safe place is frozen. You are in a hidden room in the Restricted Section of the Canterlot Archives."

That was information overload. She looked dizzy, and then passed out. Well. That's an excellent start. I spoke again, "Oh dear. That wasn't supposed to happen..."

She would be out for a while, so I sat down and waited. This was going to be a long day, I could tell that.