Foreign

The cool breeze of an autumn dawn twirled and danced its way through the trees of the Everfree. The soft welcoming light peeled back the darkness of the old day as it brought forth a new one. The ponies of Ponyville were starting to stir. Near the edge of the thriving village stood a castle of known renown within which slept the pride of Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Within the peaceful atmosphere dwelled a strange and foreign magic. To the average unicorn it would have felt like any other kind of magic native to the land. There was, however, one object located in the castle itself that knew better. It was there in the room with the great round table that the map was activated, furious at the unwelcomed magic.

An hour passed before the slumbering alicorn awoke. Tired yet refreshed and eager to start the day, Twilight started her usual morning routine. She had a fixed plan for the day as she had for every other day. Today was mostly to be spent in her library. Most of her friends were gone for a week or two save for one. Twilight herself debated about taking a trip thinking that it had been a while since last she visited her brother and sister-in-law in the Crystal Empire, or her own parents for that matter.

The high rush of energetic magic and a not so subtle boom stole Twilight from her thoughts. She rushed down to where she had heard the source and found herself standing outside the doors to the map room. Or at the very least where the two great doors were for they had been ripped off the walls and were lying down before her.  The map room itself was in utter chaos. The table was letting lose high amounts of magic in no organized fashion. One bolt of highly concentrated energy almost hit Twilight before she was able to put up a shield. Twilight knew she needed to act fast but simply did not know what to do. It didn’t help that she also didn’t know the cause of what was making the map acting erratic.  Twilight decided that she needed to get close to the map to see if she could either divert or diminish the magic the map was giving off.

Pushing off with her back hooves Twilight jumped into the air and took wing. She barely avoided another bolt as she started diving towards the center of the entire ruckus. Two more bolts hit Twilight’s shield as she neared the table. Once she got to the table a third shot reflected off the wall and tore through her shield hitting her back which caused her to stumble and fall in a fit of agony. She tried to stand back up but shakenly fell back down. Watching the continual rampage of the map her blood turned cold at the thought of what might happen if she couldn't stop it. Twilight used the concern for the town to focus her magic and reached out toward the map.  The moment Twilight made contact with the map’s magic the map sent overwhelming magic to course through Twilight’s body. Twilight started to breathe heavily in shock as she realized that she had no more control over her body. She watched in what felt like an out of body experience as her head slowly tilted upwards. Her horn started to glow as a spell that Twilight did not call upon activated.

The room was filled with a bright flash as the spell spread in all directions. Twilight watched as part of the air seemed to contort and bend before finally being burned away in some form of black looking magic. Finally the map ceased its rampage and deactivated. All that remained was a slight draft that flowed through the room.  After the spell was released Twilight found herself expended. She half wondered if she would pass out from exhaustion. After a few minutes passed Twilight became more stable. Twilight turned her attention to the map itself. In all her years in Equestria she had never known any sort of magic to behave erratically by itself as she had seen the map do.

Twilight tried and succeeded to stand back up, though on very shaky hooves.  She cautiously tried to activate the map again to see if it would reveal any sort of answers yet she had no luck. The map was basically dead, drained of all its magic. She went over the scene in her head, trying to piece together any sort of clues that could lead to a conclusion of what happen. Through her analysis she could only think of one clue, the air that was burned away. She limped her way to where she had seen the strange occurrence. Every step brought about labored breathes through gritted teeth due to the pain from her back where the had third bolt hit.

Once she reached the spot at the edge of the room she reached out with her magic. What she found was something she never would have expected. In the air she could feel a strange magic. It was very subtle, though with her powers and her knowledge of magic itself she could just make it out. The very feel of it sent shudders down her spine though she did not know why. Something about the magic just felt… wrong. It seemed out of place with the land of Equestria itself.  She tried to reason that it may have just been magic from a faraway land that she never visited, but the theory just wouldn’t stick to her. If it was from a faraway land how did it end up her? Why did the map react so harshly against it? Why did it feel like it was completely foreign and even hostile compared to the magic around her?

Twilight was at a lost. For once she just did not have any theories about what this magic was, nor did she have a lead. In pain and at a loss of thought Twilight did the only thing she thought she could do at the moment. She hobbled into the next room, took out a pen and some parchment, and started to write about the events that had transpired this morning.