Chapters Prologue: Notes of a Knowledge Seeker
Entry Number 371:
It's been awhile since I've done one of these... although I have been busy experimenting with the dark arts again, very dangerous business that magic is. But back to why I'm making this entry, Discord the Ruler of Equestria mistook his power for what it was not and like many before him underestimated the sisters of the sun and moon. Like every other time the power of their foe has been too great for their soldiers to handle they brought in those mysterious gems that they call The Elements of Harmony . It was over before he knew it, in a flash he was turned to a statue... I have no idea why but I guess it's just how it goes, some are sent to Tartarus and others have their fates worse off by having their punishment something related to who they are. But in this case that could have been anything with Discord being the Lord of Chaos . Although I do admit that his fate is quite ironic in more ways than one.
On a side note I don't know why so many think that they can straight up challenge the beings that have defeated so many before them, maybe they think they might be the lucky ones that finally defeat the sisters and their pony empire but either way they are all fools for doing so. As for me I am content to stay here in my hiding place recording my thoughts, and doing my magical research.
Entry Number 457:
Well, that is a change of pace and probably the last true fight these ponies will get for a long time to come. The Sister of the Moon challenged her Sister of the Sun for reasons unknown to me. But nonetheless the sisters are fighting now and it doesn't seem like it's going to stop any time in the near future.
Other than that I have figured out that Necromancy, or otherwise known as the magic of the dead is not the best dark magic to learn... it seems to want to corrupt you just as the flesh on the bones of the dead you raise. Although it would be interesting to find a worthy specimen to see what this corruption does to one's body and soul, let alone mind.
Entry Number 462:
It seems that the Sister of the Moon has stopped the sun from rising in the east, this has thrown the entirety of Equestria into darkness. Not that I'm complaining quite on the contrary, the light of the sun always burned my eyes and makes it hard to work with some dark magics.
On another note it seems that a shadow is more than just you being projected on the ground by the light. I have found a way with some very complex magic -that I will not go into detail for if someone finds these notes and or steals them from me, they will not be able to use the magic I have spent decades perfecting- to turn my shadow into a perfect copy of me, although it can't use magic and only had the physical attributes of me it is still a great discovery nonetheless. I will be studying this to see if I can improve on this spell any further, who knows I might be able to get it to use magic.
Entry Number 483:
This War -if you can call it that- between the Sister of the Sun and Moon has been going on for longer than I thought it would. The Pony Empire has fallen into a sort of civil war state and the blood shed has just began. It seems that what started out just a stupid fight between sisters has caught headway with the people and the infighting has become out of control. Although the Sister of the Moon does not seem to be trying to stop, quite on the contrary it seems she welcomes her new found army and is using it to try and overthrow her sister.
My research has been met with a metaphorical brick wall once again. It seems that to fully alter my shadow into another me that is capable of it's own thought as well as using magic needs a large assortment of animation spells as well as a means to give it coherent thought. So I guess it's time to try and find another project to work on, luckily for me I found a suitable subject to experiment with the necromancy mentioned in Entry Number 457. I think his name was Sombra... yes I think that was it.
Entry Number 484:
It seems that my choice of test subjects was fairly misplaced, he keeps rambling on about being a king and losing his empire to the sisters. I have not heard of this event but from the looks of it, if they used the elements on him like he said he was not hit by the full power of them. Though he is severely weakened and is unable to use most of his magic at this time. Sadly I can not see use of him in my experiments, for he is not of sound body, mind, or soul so any data i get would be unrecognizable of any change.
Furthermore this means I need to find another project to work on yet again. Only time will tell -which I have a lot of it seems- whether or not I find something to work on that interests me.
Entry Number 498:
I was going through a tomb up in the Yakyakistan mountains just last week when I came across a personal study of some kind. There were many books in there and most of them reeked of magic, but the most interesting part of all was that a good few had a hint of dark magic. It will take me some time to decipher these texts but that does not bother me in the least.
When I got back I found out that this so called King Sombra was still in my abode. I asked him why he didn't leave and he just replied. "I have nowhere else to go, I am a king without a people to rule and a mage without his magic, so I see no reason to try." This only confirmed that he has either given up on life or will soon fall into the pit called revenge. He continued to talk and asked me why I hide away in this dark place even though I am easily just as powerful as he was in his prime, I only answered with the truth. "Power? You have it all wrong I have no power. Power is a concept that describes the difference between the strong and the weak, and I recognize that everyone is strong but weak in their own rights. I only have what has been given to me, what I make with my own two paws and the knowledge that I have collected. So why should I go out and forsake all my knowledge for something as dumb as exerting my so called Power?"
Entry Number 513:
The texts I have deciphered have a very interesting type of magic that i would love to work with but I have no idea where to begin. It looks like a way to tap into the natural magic running through the world to power your spells, which in return makes it to where you are only limited to what your magic output is. Many have theorized that this is how Discord and the sisters use their magic but there is only one way to find out, and hopefully I will have my chance soon enough.
Entry Number 517:
As always I have run into a metaphorical wall, and it seems I will not be able to go any further into the texts that I have deciphered. A good number of them came out to be random bits and pieces of a multitude of spells and that leave a great deal missing on how to use any of them, and sadly this includes the magic I mentioned in Entry Number 513. I do not know who wrote these but it seems they were just as cautious a I, they have gained my respect of their ability to keep their magic a secret even though they are long since dead.
Other than my research Sombra left about three and a half days ago. Although not entirely unwelcome his type of magic was one I would've liked to look into.
Entry Number 530:
Well it seems like the so called War is over between the sisters. although I have not dared to go out and find the results like I usually do when it comes to this stuff, it seems that the sister of the sun has won this battle.
My work is now under way on a very interesting type of magic that my friend Star Swirl was working on, he left it to me to finish after his death and I completely forgot about it. I found the papers on it stuffed in my desk... time to see if I'm missing anything else that i might have been working on these past few decades.
Entry Number 539:
Well yesterday was one of those days I wonder if I should be grateful nothing bad happened, or preparing for this hole thing to turn around and get me killed.
As usual I was working on one of my projects -luckily it was not one of my dark magic ones- and I heard a knocking at my front door. I usually don't get visitors unless I bring them here myself and the only one that would go to such lengths to visit was Star Swirl, and he is dead now. I was surprised and I'll admit scared to find it was none other than the sister of the sun herself standing in my doorway when I opened it to see who it was. I welcomed her inside -not like I could turn her away- and lead her to my fireplace where she then took a seat. After she got settled in and warmed up from the cold of the snowy mountain she had to go through to get here, I got straight to the point and asked why she was here.
She told me she was here for some of Star Swirl's research and after she found a bit of info on me in his study in her old castle she figured I would have it. I told her that I did have some of his research and I would have to go get it from my study down the hall. She nodded and I went on my way to find what she came her for if only to get her out of my fur before it became a problem. After a while of looking around to find the papers she wanted in my study, I returned to find her half asleep. As much as it bugged me to have her stay in my home longer than what was necessary it was almost night time and the cold would only get worse from this point forward till morn. I then gave her the papers and told her that I will let her stay the night as long as she does not leave this room without permission, to which she agreed and promptly fell asleep where she lie. The next morning she thanked me for my kindness and left out the front door with a small smile on her muzzle and the papers she asked for and said that she would come back to visit some time when she had the chance.
Entry Number 557:
Star Swirl left me a lot of research and other spells he was working on but one particular spell has caught my eye. From the way it was made it seems like he was making some type of portal or teleportation spell, although it also has some components that seems to be meant for bending something. It is incomplete at the moment but from the notes that came with the diagram for the spell I should be able to finish it, or at least I hope I will.
Entry Number 563:
I have completed the spell that I mentioned in Entry Number 557 and I will be testing it tomorrow. I don't know what will happen when I use this spell but the protection spells I have in place should be enough to stop anything from going wrong... I hope.
I also got a visit from the sister of the sun this week and she seemed interested in getting me to take take the place of Star Swirl as the courts magic expert. I told her I would think on this offer and to come back next week for her answer, hopefully by then I will be done with this spell and have made my decision.
Twilight let out a yawn as she finished up reading the last paragraph of the book she found. She was sitting in Princess Celestia's personal study as she usually does when she visits Canterlot and has a bit of free time to herself. Twilight looked at the clock hanging above the small fireplace to check the time only to discover it was now 10pm and she had spent the last four hours in here. Then closing the book and taking a good long look at the plain deep sky-blue cover that had only one word on it. The word in question was Cerulean It seemed to be a name of some kind but she has not heard of it, nor has she ever seen this particular book in Celestia's study before. Twilight then got up and walked back over to the bookshelf and place it where she got it from.
"This pony -or whatever he is- seemed to know a lot about what was going on back then. That and what happened to him? From the look of his last entry he was testing a spell of some kind. Hmm... I'm going to have to ask Celestia about this book, but at the same time it's getting rather late." Twilight stood there for a while debating on whether she should do that tonight or wait till in the morning until her train of thought was interrupted by another yawn. "I'll go and see her in the morning I need some sleep or pretty soon I won't be able to think straight, let alone be able to hold a full blown conversation."
Twilight then tidied up what little mess she made and turned off the light's before she left the study. She moved down the halls of the Canterlot Castle to find the comfort of her own bed, and all the while as she walked down those hallways to her guest room one thought was tingling in the back of her brain... he knew Star Swirl the Bearded.
Author's Note
Hey I hope you enjoyed this first chapter, I have no editor or proofreader so it takes a while to see if I got it all the way it should be so if you see anything i might have missed please point it out if you can.
That being said I have a lot of thinking to do for this story so catch you later.
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Chapter 1: Knowledge of the Knowledge seeker
Chapter 1: Knowledge of the Knowledge seeker
As the sun shined in between the curtains of the window, it shone onto a empty bed where Twilight would have been sleeping. Well that is if she wasn’t at the desk on the other side of the room with her head planted among half scribbled on papers.
A little after the sun was fully raised a small purple dragon opened the door and walked over to the desk where Twilight was asleep. Putting his clawed hand on her shoulder and shaking her lightly, to try to wake the sleeping unicorn “Comeon Twilight you need to wake up… we were supposed to eat breakfast with the Princesses.”
Lifting her head up off the desk twilight looked around the room and then down at the purple dragon. “Hehe… sorry about that Spike must have dozed off in the middle of writing.” getting up out of the chair and following Spike out of the room she used her magic to correct her mane.
“Its alright Twilight, although what were you up for most of the night doing anyways?” the dragon wondered as he led the unicorn down the hall towards the dining room.
The look in unicorns eyes was all the dragon needed to know its was either research or about some book she found. Frowning, Twilight found herself explaining in depth about the book she found last night in Princes Celestia’s personal library.
After a full rundown about what she could find out about the book, or in this case what she couldn’t find out. In about ten minutes they arrived at the overly decorated golden doors to the dining room where the Princesses were waiting for them.
As the doors swung open and Spike and Twilight walked in they found the Princesses already finished their breakfast/dinner and were enjoying some tea.
Switching her attention from her conversation with Luna, Celestia turned to welcome the newcomers. “Hello Twilight and Spike glad you could make it, tea?”
Taking a seat across from the two sisters twilight faced diarchy of the sun. “yes please, and sorry I’m late I didn’t get much sleep last night.” the unicorn stated blushing a bit.
“We can tell, although you have me curious to why you didn’t sleep last night.” Luna pondered looking the purple unicorn over and seeing the bags under her eyes. “It's not like you to be late for something like this seeing to how you always get worked up over your schedule.”
“Well I kinda got caught up in researching something last night, although I found absolutely nothing about it in any of the history books let alone any of the magic books.” sighing twilight took a sip from her recently poured cup of tea.
“That does sound interesting, pretell what were you researching?” Celestia asked with her usual smile as she sipped her own tea.
After hearing that name Celestia’s face scrunched up as she mused about what her student said. After a bit she spoke up putting down her tea and giving Twilight her full attention. “Ah well, there would be nothing in any books about him.”
Twilight just stared at Celestia with a slight frown “what do you mean there is nothing in any of the books about him? And just who is he anyways?”
Searching for the right words to say Celestia settled on the truth of what she knew. “A very powerful mage from a long long time ago, he prefered to stay out of the way of everyone and was content to just spend all his time practicing the magical arts. He was as you put it a isolationist, and went to very great lengths to not be known to many.” pausing for a second to take a sip of her tea that was held aloft in her golden aurora she spared a sideways glance at Luna. “Other than the basics I don’t even know much about him, and even Starswirl who worked with him on occasion knew very little i’ll be it more than me.”
Taking a second to contemplate what Princess Celestia said felt unsure of what to think of what little info they had of this Cerulean. On one hoof he kept to himself and never caused any problems, on the other hoof he was a powerful mage that used dark magic.
Luna looking between the two and then at spike decided to put her own words in on the matter. “Ok well that explains that, so how about we get you two something to eat now shall we?”
And with that Luna called over one of the chefs and ordered Twilight some food as they carried on with more normal conversations. After eating and Luna calling it a day she decided to take her leave for some well deserved sleep. After Luna was gone Celestia and Twilight talked for a bit longer before Celestia took her own leave to handle day court.
“So you ready to catch the train back to ponyville twilight?” spike asked after Celestia left.
Looking out the window from across the table Twilight turned to spike to address his question. “Yeah lets go don’t want to be late for the train too.” as they walked out of the dining room and into the main she couldn’t get her mind off the mystery that was Cerulean.
Chapter 2: The Arrival
In a flash a black portal that seemed to suck in all the light around it opened in the middle of the Royal Canterlot Archives. With a thundering boom a black figure is thrown out of the portal and into one of the bookshelves, making it and its contents consisting of mostly books and other documents fall on top of the figure. The force of the impact and the fall of one of the bookshelves caused other shelves to fall as well leaving the room a complete mess. With another flash the portal was gone and the room left in relative silence other than a book or pile of papers falling from their once secure positions.
Princess Celestia was currently in her personal study as she looked over some budgeting issues about a plan to renovate one of the schools that a noble presented in court. Currently the budget was set for one point eight million bits, but that wasn’t why she was reviewing the plan.
While initially looking over the paperwork it looked fine, until she noticed the people that would be doing the renovation was connected to a supplying company that the noble owned. Seeing this she decided to take it under consideration and review the plan further, and now she is glad she did.
The construction company was known for cutting corners on supplies for building and pocketing what was left of the budgeted money, which they also seem so solely buy from the nobles supply company. Coming to the conclusion of the noble setting up jobs for them the construction company makes sure they buy only from the noble, Celestia decides to rewrite the current plan into something more agreeable. After a bit of changing here and there she finally gets it to where she can happily fund the renovation of the school while also making sure it's done right.
Setting down the paperwork and getting out of her chair at the desk, Celestia walked over to the armchair and took a seat as a maid poured her a cup of tea. Lifting the tea in her golden magic, she took as sip and let her mind wonder about what her student Twilight brought to her attention this morning. After a bit there was a knock at the door which stirred from her train of thought, turning to the door she told whoever was on the other side to enter.
As the door opened she was greeted with one of her Sergeants in the guard named Thunder Struck. “Ma’am, we would like to inform you of a breach in the wards around the Royal Archives.” from the looks of the guard it would seem that it wasn’t some noble trying to get into classified documents like usual. “We have also closed off all exits and are awaiting for further instructions.”
Setting down her tea and getting to her hooves Celestia began walking out of the room and towards the archives. “Very well Sergeant Thunder, brief me on the situation as of now.” With that the Sergeant began to explain what he knew of the situation as of now as they walked to the Archives.
Groaning and pushing his way out from underneath a overturned bookshelf Cerulean looked around the mess of a room he was in. “That was… well unexpected… I don’t know whether to call the spell a failure or a success.”
After a moving to a place in the room that didn’t look like it was getting ready to collapse on him, he took a better look of the room he was in. Seeing mostly old paperwork with the word classified on them and books with names he doesn’t remember ever owning, Cerulean started to get slightly worried. “This isn’t my home is it? And from the looks of it this isn’t a place I should be. I’m starting to feel like I should consider the spell more of a failure at this point…”
Just then some noises from outside the room on the other side of the door could be heard. It sounded like the clanking of metal and hooves trotting across the floor hurriedly.
Getting the feeling he really shouldn’t be here Cerulean started to charge up his return home spell, one which he doesn’t use often for it was overly complicated and drains him of almost all his magic. But seeing the situation he was in, it was better than getting caught by whoever was on the other side of that door. In a flash he was gone zipped away by his spell to where his home should be, well in this case should would be the key word.
In another flash he was right back in the same room, thrown into one of the bookshelves which promptly fell on top of him. Groaning as he tried to pull himself out from under a shelf for the second time, he felt a pain go through his front right leg causing him to collapse. “Oh… this can’t be good.” was all he got out before the door opened and he was face to face with Princess of the Sun herself.
Cerulean's sight began to blur as the effects of using so much magic on a complex spell hit him full force. Unable to stay awake the last thing he saw was of Celestia giving orders as a couple of guards walked towards him.
Arriving at the Archives fully briefed on the situation, Celestia approached the Captain in charge. “Valiant, any further developments?”
Valiant turned away from a guard he was ordering to take position next to the door. Glancing at the door to the archives and then to Celestia he shook his head as he addressed the Princess. “No Ma’am, nothing of as of now although we heard some movement coming from inside a while ago.” turning to the door once again they started towards it.
“Very well let us go and see who decided to sneak into the archives this time.” Celestia stated as she followed him to the door.
Suddenly what sounded like one of the bookshelves falling over came from inside and Celestia took that as her cue to open the door. Greeting her as the door swung open was a mess of a room with bookshelves tipped over with books and papers all over the floor. But that wasn’t what caught her attention, no it was the huge Panther as big as she was with blue runes all over his body that was laying there in a pile underneath a bookshelf.
Quickly moving to action Celestia ordered the guards to pull him out from under the bookshelf and take him to one of the guest rooms near her own. Then telling Sergeant Thunder to run and get the on duty hospital staff right away.
Chapter 3: YOU WHAT!?
It was currently ten o'clock at night and about two hour since their guest had arrived, and Celestia was currently in her office reviewing the guard report while Luna paced a line into the carpet. Furrowing her eyebrows in annoyance her sisters constant pacing Celestia set down the papers in her telekinetic grasp and looked at her sister.
Hearing Celestia set down the papers Luna stopped her pacing and met her sisters gaze. After a brief pause Luna took a set on the arm chair on the other side of her sister’s desk. Sighing and taking the report into her own magic field, Luna voiced her concerns. “It doesn’t feel quite right Tia, we talk of him and he suddenly appear? Completely by chance?”
Nodding in agreement Celestia slumped slightly in her chair. “I understand that but we both know that magic works in uncertain way when being influenced by outside forces, for all we know the Tree of Harmony could be involved or even Discord.” taking a moment to let her words sink, in celestia closed her eyes letting out a frustrated sigh, before continuing. “The guards did a magic analisis on Cerulean after the doctors cleared him, and it seems he had substantial traces of a unknown transportation spell as well as a recently cast teleportation spell.”
Luna nodded her head at this while scanning over the report before she noticed something. “It says that they could not quite figure out how he got into the Royal Archives. They think it has something to do with the transportation spell they found traces of, but can not confirm since very few can cast that type of magic.”
Shaking her head Celestia got up from her seat at her desk and made her way over to the couch next to the coffee table. “Well either way we still have the problem of a very big predator staying inside the castle, and that is making the guard on edge. We need to do something with him or there might be problems arise, especially from the nobles, and I can only vouch for him so much before there starts to be problems.” Sitting down Celestia waited till the maid was done pouring her a cup of tea before picking it up in her magic and taking a sip.
Getting up and moving to sit next to her sister, Luna looked over some treats the maid set down on the table from her cart. Picking out a éclair to snack on from the pile she nodded at the maid before turning her attention back to her sister. “Well why not get Twilight and the other bearers involved? They can just banish him if things get out of hand.”
Raising an eyebrow Celestia just continued to stare at Luna. “Really?”
“What? What’s wrong with getting them involved?”
“You do know that Twilight will try to study him, and then ask him to teach her everything he knows. Rainbow will try to fight him and end up getting herself hurt. Fluttershy will hide behind Applejack, while said pony would be waiting for him to make one wrong move. Pinky Pie would try to throw him a thousand years worth of missed birthday parties like she did you. And Rarity will probably faint in some dramatic way saying something like ‘blue on black? It’s so tacky the horror’.” Taking a sip of her tea Celestia shook her head slowly. “No I would like to keep them out of this for as long as I can. Like I told you and Twilight before, he is an isolationist he prefers to be by himself and away from the troubles of others. So throwing them at him would be counterproductive.”
Finishing off her éclair Luna poured a cup of tea for herself. “Oh… well I see what you mean. We still need to do something though, what about sending him back home?”
Diverting her eyes and taking a bit of a longer sip than usual from her tea, Celestia was content on staring at the ceiling.
Luna frowned slightly at her sisters act of avoiding the subject before pressing the matter. “Tia what did u do?”
“I umm… kinda built the Canterlot Castle on his home?” Celestia responded in a low voice knowing she messed up.
“YOU WHAT!?”
Waking up and rolling over Cerulean felt a sharp pain go through his front right leg as he tried to move it. Opening his eyes he could see that his leg was wrapped in bandages and that he was currently laying in a large bed. “Well this is a surprise given Celestia’s past discretions with threats, I would have thought I wouldn’t be waking up at all let alone in a huge bed.”
Looking around the room he could see it was pretty empty other than a dresser and a writing table with a bookshelf next to it. Seeing that there was no guards or chains on him, Cerulean decided the best option was to keep it that way and stay put for now so not to cause any trouble. “Well at least it could be worse, like ending up in Tartarus or even worse than that being used as a living magic source for dark magic rituals like the Diamond Dog mages used to do.”
“Still though how did my return spell not work? It is meant to send me tight into my living room, also the guard armor didn’t look the same” Thinking on it for a second Cerulean came to a conclusion. “No sense in worrying about it for now, I’ll get my answers as soon as Princess Celestia calls for a audience.”
Seeing nothing better to do Cerulean decided to settled back down into the bed to try to get some rest, and maybe a bit more of his magic back before whatever was to come. Drifting off to sleep while thinking about possible spells that might get him out of this mess or maybe even bringing up the Princesses previous offer, he was suddenly awoken from his sleep.
“YOU WHAT!?”
Author's Note
Oh hey... look a chapter... see I still write... kinda?
Sorry about the late update, finally got my pc back on Monday and then i got caught up into a game i haven't played in months. Then add in how it normally takes 4ish days to write since i do all the editing and stuff myself.
But yeah i hope you like the chapter and I'll catch you on the next update... whenever that will be.