The Ascension Code

Twilight had sometimes wondered about the door at the back of the Starswirl Wing of the Canterlot Archives. It was carved of heavy, rich mahogany, and covered in rune-work, the likes of which Twilight had never seen. It was also locked. Always. This in itself was not strange, because Celestia wasn't the sort of Princess who let random ponies wander through the halls and check out ancient tomes of dangerous magic. That said, Twilight Sparkle was not a random pony. She was Celestia's personal student, who had access to all the restricted areas of the library, even the sections dealing with time spells, age spells, all the really powerful, dangerous stuff.

What could possibly be through that door that even she didn't know about? The mystery was tantalizing.

After the last major threat took place in Canterlot, Twilight had been furiously reading up on magic and magical practice, so as to be better prepared for future incidents. It was thanks to this new study that she was prepared, at last, to open the lock of the door at the back of the Canterlot Library. Now, the reader must not be surprised at this blatant example of breaking and entering. Twilight Sparkle was, for all intents and purposes, a good student and a pure-hearted mare. She wouldn't normally resort to such a tactic, but this situation was... different.

Her first avenue of inquiry, Princess Celestia, was no longer an option.

"Princess, can you tell me what the deal is with that locked door in the archives?" The unicorn had asked one day, fully innocent and trusting. Her teacher had never lied to Twilight, no matter how painful the truth could be.

"It's just a janitor's closet, Twilight." Celestia had replied, and the young mare was frankly, quite shocked. Either Celestia didn't know, or she was lying, because there was no way that a fancy mahogany door with glowing blue runes was just a closet.

"I... I..." Don't think that's the truth, Twilight wanted to say, but she couldn't spit out the words. She began to think that maybe if she phrased it differently, the words would be easier to say, but as the unicorn mulled over new combinations, she began to forget what she'd been so worried about.

"That is to say... What was I saying?" Twilight finally muttered, confused, and irked that she didn't know what she was irked about.

"I haven't the foggiest, Twilight." Celestia replied, and her neutral expression conveyed a subdued amusement, like this was just a cute quirk of her unicorn student, and maybe it was. The solar regent simply changed the subject, and conversation proceeded as usual, never mind Twilight's subconscious and disturbing fear that she'd forgotten something.

It wasn't until a week later that Twilight re-discovered the door, and the memory came back, foggy and incomplete. Twilight was aching to give her mentor a second chance, and wrote herself a note this time, just in case. After all, Twilight was a busy mare. It was entirely possible that she'd just gotten confused... Right?

The second time she asked the question, Celestia repeated the same answer, and got the same confused responses. When she left the office, Twilight found her note, and her eyes focused on the second words in the margin: possible befuddlement spell. She immediately cast an anti-mind-magic spell that triggered the remnants of her foggy memories, and as they flooded back, Twilight gave a sorrowful sigh. If Celestia used a a befuddlement charm, it meant that she had intentionally hidden the room from her student. It also meant that Celestia had lied, the biggest betrayal of Sparkle's young life.

This meant that as much as Twilight hated it, the sun princess could not be trusted.

After that, Twilight lost track of the door. It was an odd thing to lose track of, because it was quite distinctive, and had already prompted two trips to Celestia's office. That said, the door was simply nowhere to be found. Twilight recalled that her mentor had called the door a janitor's closet, so she methodically went through, and checked every closet in the archives, to no avail. Finally, at her wit's end, Twilight devised her own version of the mage-sight spell, and used it to seek out places of high enchantment.

In a library full of ancient and magical books, that was easier said than done.

Finally, after hours of arcane work, Twilight discovered the location she was looking for.

"A 'Notice-Me-Not' ward." Twilight muttered, impressed with the genius of it. The Notice-Me-Not was a mild befuddlement spell that kept anyone but the caster from noticing a certain pony, or object. It was intended to force the observer to ignore the object in question, as if it weren't really there. This particular version was alicorn-strength, obviously put in place by Celestia herself.

"No doubt, to keep me from remembering it even exists..." Twilight muttered. She did not ponder the fact that a unicorn's homebrewed mage-sight spell could see past the ward of a literal demi-goddess. Once Twilight Sparkle focused in on a mystery, there was nothing that could dissuade her. After assuring herself that there were no alarm spells, or traps on the major enchantment, the unicorn entered into the heart of the spell with a flick of her horn.

One of the things that made this unicorn so unique, was her special talent. It was not, as so many believed, the vague amorphous concept of 'magic', or even her element of harmony, friendship. Twilight Sparkle's special talent, was the ability to examine, and manipulate magical matrices. That is to say: she hacked magic.

Now most unicorns know how to dispel an enchantment. It's one of the first lessons learned in magic kindergarten. The actual spell used, involves simply overriding the original spell by brute force. That couldn't work on this door, because despite how talented she was, Twilight Sparkle was still little more than a unicorn with wing, despite her princess of friendship status. She could never hope to brute-force override an Alicorn spell, nor did she wish to. If she destroyed Celestia's enchantment, she would certainly alert the princess to her tampering. Instead, Twilight simply added her own magical signature to that of the caster's (Celestia), effectively making her an exception to the spell's effect. She could easily remove it later, and planned to. For the moment, it was as good as a dispulsion, and she could now see the door in front of her, clearly.

Twilight examined the runes before her with a mild amusement. It was a stupidly simple locking ward, but due to the runes, it was carved into the wood itself, so as not to be dispelled without the key to unlock it. Any unicorn could unlock this door if they wished, except for the simple fact that rune-work was a forgotten art-form. Fortunately, Twilight had read up on it, just for this occasion. After she determined the proper signature to trigger the unlock-sequence, she was in. Easy as cupcakes, or so Pinkie might say.

What she found, was a room full of books, and in Twilight's mind, she'd hit the jackpot. It took a full twenty seconds to calm her breathing, and stop squealing like Rarity at a dress sale, before she could even begin to peruse the bookshelves and their contents. Many of the books, while old and academically interesting, were relatively mundane.

For example, Twilight found it hard to believe that Celestia put a first edition of The Life and Times of Puddinghead behind a locked runic door with a befuddlement enchantment. It was certainly old, and fragile, but that was nothing she couldn't handle with a simple preservation spell. After examining each book, and realizing that they were all similarly harmless, the unicorn found herself a bit disappointed. Sure, Celestia might have kept these books in here for the simple fact that they were too fragile for the general public, but that didn't explain why she lied about it to Twilight. After all, Celestia understood her student well enough to know that she would never, ever, harm a book. Surely, the princess could trust her with this, of all things?

Just as she was about to slump down in defeat, Twilight Sparkle had a realization. If Celestia had used the befuddlement spell outside, couldn't she have used one inside, as well? With a burst of her horn, Twilight called up the mage-sight spell, and examined the room, like she had earlier. To her satisfaction, she immediately sighted a hidden bookcase towards the back of the room. This one was simply invisible, and inset with the wall, so that no-one would trip over it. that enchantment, Twilight dispelled, as it would be easy to replace later.

When she saw what had been hidden, her eyes practically jumped out of her head. It was an entire shelf of journals, never before seen by civilian eye. Twilight trotted over to Starswirl the Bearded's fifth journal. She'd read the printed copy, of course, but the original version was supposed to be lost to the sands of time! Celestia had it all along?

After checking to make sure that the preservation spell was intact, Twilight flipped open the book, and began reading. Starswirl's Fifth was one of her favorite books of magic. It was the book that spoke of the magic of friendship, and limited though his knowledge of it was, it had given Twilight a lot of joy over the years, since she'd moved to Ponyville.

Very quickly, Twilight realized that this wasn't the same book she remembered. Apparently, this was a book about dark magic, a field which had never been written about, much less by Starswirl, of all ponies. The unicorn frowned, before putting the book in her saddlebags. This required further examination at home. Twilight also grabbed one of the other Starswirl books with a name she didn't recognize, and placed it in her bag as well, before replacing the invisibility spell on the bookcase and trotting out from the room. Once outside, she removed her exception from the outer ward, and went along her merry way.

With a message to the princess, Twilight informed her mentor that she was heading back to Ponyville. Her Number One Assistant dragon missed his pony friends, and was dying to get home. Also, Twilight didn't think she could handle a goodbye in pony, because she wasn't sure she could lie to Celestia about the books, and all the secrecy that had come between them lately. For the unicorn prodigy, it was like watching an idol crumble before her very eyes. Out of all the ponies to suppress knowledge, Twilight had never suspected Celestia would - that was just the stuff of conspiracy theories, right?

It was the real reason she snuck into that room, and stole these books. She had to get to the bottom of this, and clear Celestia's good name. Surely these books were censored for a reason. (The fact that Twilight felt utterly betrayed by her mentor's lack of trust might have also factored into her decision.)

When they finally approached Ponyville on the train, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. She was out from under the shadow of Canterlot, with its sun and looming princess, and had finally gotten around to examining the books more closely. The journal was both clinical and personal, it seemed, and Twilight found it quite different than Starswirl's usual works. If this was the mage's fifth journal, Twilight wondered where the book on friendship magic had come from. Were the modern reprints simply misnumbered? Obviously, Celestia hid this book for a reason - dark magic was notoriously dangerous, and the only modern pony who still used it was Luna, and that was known to only a select few. And even then, while technically classed as dark magic due to her influence of dreams, it was part of her special talent, and quite benign in comparison.

Glancing over the other book, Twilight found that it was titled Art of Ascension, and it passed all the authentication tests that Twilight knew by heart. It matched Starswirl's handwriting, tone, and personality, and the subject matter seemed to be the only thing unique about it. It was about Alicorns, and more specifically, about how Luna and Celestia had ascended to their current nigh-immortal states.

"Twilight! I have something incoming!" Spike exclaimed from the adjacent seat, and he burped, out a scroll, which was immediately caught and opened by the purple mare's telekinesis.

Dear L.S.B.F.F.
Cadance and I have discovered something... interesting, here at the castle. We've unlocked a huge library, a library that might be even bigger than the one in Canterlot. That's not the weird part though - but I'm not certain I can tell you about it on paper. You'll just have to come see for yourself. Enclosed are two tickets for you and Spike.

Love ya, Little Sis,
Shining Armor

"Seems like our return trip to Ponyville will just be a stopover..." Twilight sighed.

"What? Were you called back to Canterlot?" Spike asked sympathetically.

"No, it's nothing serious." Twilight explained. "My brother just wants us to come take a look at something in the Empire. I hope you aren't too upset about missing Pinkie's Autumn Equinox Party."

"Nah, it's okay. Besides," Spike grinned. "I love the Crystal Empire."

"Only because they treat you like a prince and stuff you with crystals." Twilight giggled.

"Exactly! After all that assistant work, I'm tired out, and ready for Spike Time." The dragon smirked.

"I feel awful for leaving without letting our friends know we've been delayed though..." Twilight mused.

"Just use the dragonfire port at the Royal Guard Outpost to send a letter." Spike suggested.

"Spike! That's an official military channel!" Twilight whisper-gasped, as if someone in the next-seat-over would hear her.

"So? You're an official princess sending a report to the elements of harmony. Even if it's weird, it's probably legal, and the chances of getting caught are -"

"One in two-hundred," Twilight completed the sentence. "Even lower if we mark the envelope as being for the elements' eyes only..."

"I mean, we could also just post it from the empire when we get there, but it takes hours for us to arrive, and who knows how long it'll take the regular postal service to come all the way to Ponyville?"

Twilight couldn't deny that Spike made a very compelling argument...

After a moment of deliberation, she decided to write the letter, and in a matter of minutes, Spike had sent it to the outpost in Ponyville, where a top pegasus flier would presumably have it rushed straight to Sugar Cube Corner - that place where the highest concentration of element bearers could be found at any given time. From the pegasus, to Pinkie Pie, and from Pinkie to Rainbow Dash, and so on, until every member of Twilight's inner circle had seen the letter.

The young princess couldn't have explained her trip in detail, because she trusted the girls with her life, but wasn't sure she trusted Celestia not to manipulate them. She was currently on her way to the one place where there were ponies she could trust with anything: Her Brother and Sister-in-law.