New Light

It was around 6 in the morning ; Starswril was walking alone at the fields he would usually gather the group of ponies who would help him raise the astral objects. It was cold, and he wasn’t covered; but he couldn’t feel the low temperature around him, as his heart pumped rapidly from the adrenaline slowly raising in his body. He wasn’t stressed, not really; he was the best sorcerer of all time, and took great pride in that title. He felt more excited actually; the day has come for maybe the most important work of his life, why wouldn’t he be, after all? It’s only natural, he thought. He was carrying a bag on his back, containing the object of interest of the day.

He suddenly heard the characteristic sound of teleportation behind him, not once, not twice, but multiple times: he knew who it was , and worry began raising in his mind again. He turned so he can face his most faithful students, with Kindtalker in the front, seemingly leading the rest of the group. She was wearing a red robe similar to her mentor’s in style, but less precise in its knotting; she did it herself, and she wasn’t really all that good in making clothes as she was in magic.

“Right, everypony is here?”, he asked, taking his role as the mentor. Everypony there silently nodded, as Starswril continued “You all know how important today is, not just to ponies, but to the world, and to the study of magic in general. I will accept no disobeying today, only discipline, precision, and concentration.” He took the crystal out of the bag and placed it on the ground, with everyone’s eyes locked on it.

He turned to Kindtalker, who took the hint and continued, as she walked slowly around the rest of the group:

“The artefact I all talked to you about is now ready to be used; everypony here knows what’s it’s all about, right? Just in case, I will explain it to you again:

Our goal today is not to give that thing power, but to teach it of some sort; me and Starswril think that if a magical power or ability is concentrated enough, it can retain its properties well enough to be used in a permanent way.

To do so, you have to try to channel Lunar and Solar magic at the same time, try to create it so that you concentrate the same amount of mana for each type of magic. We’ll take the time to do it so everypony can catch up to everypony else, and we direct it at the artefact. Now, if any of you guys begin feeling tired or sick right now, you can leave; if you feel dizzy in the middle of the experiment, we WILL call it off immediately. We don’t know what the hell we’re actually dealing with, but hey, where is the fun if we knew?”

Everypony listened and nodded to the briefing; Starswril was delighted to see his students’ loyalty as nobody left despite having the occasion to. Now is not the time for that, he finally told himself, and spoke again:

“Now that you know the difficulties waiting for us, let us begin”. As he said that, his horn glowed bright white, and began muttering magical incantations in ancient ponish; as he went on, small letters began appearing on the ground, seemingly being written at an incredible speed. These letters quickly formed a circle around the crystal, followed by a perfect octagon with its edges connected to the circle. Lines began going out of theses edges, and met in the center of the geometrical form, also happening to be the crystal.

As they met, a dozen of triangles appeared around all of that, each for one pony of the group; understanding that, each pony took place in one, after infusing it with their own magic to increase its power: the conjuration circle was now complete, and everyone in place.

They all looked at Starswril, who was silently staring at the result of the spell he just casted. After making sure it turned out as he wanted, he raised his head, and with a stomp of his hoof who shook the entire cliff, the séance has begun as each unicorn present charged their hornes with their auras. In the beginning , these auras would follow the usual scheme, meaning that their color matches the one of the user’s eye. But it slowly evolved as their aura began morphing and splitting in two: a dark blue one, and a shining golden one. The processes was difficult, and demanded a lot of concentration; each pony there already used these types of magic before, but not to such precision. Each pony took their own time to complete the process: 1 or 2 minutes in average, with Kindtalker and her master topping the rest, doing it in mere seconds.

When they were all ready, they looked again at their teacher, who silently nodded, as they all directed their horns towards the crystal, and each shot a ray of energy directly at the center of the conjuration circle. As they made contact, a sudden shockwave almost made them fly back, but they were fortunately ready for it: the process has finally begun.

It’s been nearly five minutes since the ritual began for the ponies, and nothing happened until then; Kindtalker began wondering: is it… working? Are we even doing anything at all? I felt this thing absorb my power the last time… is it because we’re a lot more, and the struggle is kind of shared?

She raised her eyes without really breaking her concentration, to verify if she was the only one feeling that way. At first glance, the other ponies seemed fine as well; each one kept their posture since the beginning , seemingly determined to make this work. She was relieved, thinking that maybe this was going to work neatly after all, right?

That thought was quickly cut out however, as she noticed something dripping from one of the other ponies’ chin: upon close inspection, that pony – a male one – was sweating, and not just a little bit; his muscles around his mouth seemed contracted, sign that he was gritting his teeth strongly. She slowly glanced at some others, and most of them shared the same symptom; even though, they seemed determined enough to carry on, even if she couldn’t see their eyes.

Her full attention went back to the crystal, as she noticed: it began glowing faintingly, which she wanted to believe was a good sign of all of this finally coming to fruition. The environment around them began shaking a little bit, as the crystal slowly began floating in the air, and that’s when it began going wrong.

Is that thing… absorbing more and more of my mana? she thought to herself, just as she noticed that she was also slowly dragged towards the middle of it all; she didn’t have to move her eyes to know that the same thing was beginning to happen to everypony else, as she began hearing grunts of struggling and even pain from the rest of the group, as Starswril’s voice echoed in what will be known as a Royal Voice:

“IF ANY OF YOU WISH US TO STOP, SAY IT IMMEDIATELY; I WILL RISK NOPONY’S LIFE TODAY”.

That intervention stopped every whining coming from anyone, but it doesn’t mean that they weren’t in pain; Kindtalker knew that, as the magical rays became thinner and thinner from everypony. No… this isn’t right!, she thought to herself; she was hesitating to telepathically reach out to Starswril to call it off, when a loud scream from one of the female ponies rushed it.

‘Starswril! We need to call it off, NOW!’, she told him, and a slow, almost sad nod of his head from the real world agreed. She said to the:

“Alright everypony, stop it now! It’s enough, or you’re going to get killed!”

She waited, and was surprised to hear no response; she couldn’t see anypony else’s face now, as the light became brighter and almost blinded her, but a small feeling made her understand what happened as she became dizzier and dizzier, almost in a state of trance. If she began experiencing it now, then the others must already be out; basically passed out, but still standing on their hooves.

She then looked again at her master, who would soon cut the ritual, by making the circle disappear around them; it was then that it struck her: a small sound that seemingly no one else captured, not even her mentor. The sound was coming from the artefact causing all their problems right now.

What the hell? That sounds like a heartbeat!

As soon as she realized this, time seemed to stop around her, or at least everypony’s but her movements became excessively slow; she felt like a contact was being slowly made for some reason between her and the crystal. She didn’t know how she understood that; she just felt it, a primitive, undecisive call to her being was being made, like a newborn trying to catch the attention of an elder.

Thoughts began racing through Kindtalker’s mind: was the object cursed without their knowledge? If not, is it alive, is it sentient? These theories didn’t feel right to her; and to find an answer, she had no choice but to give in even more. So she concentrated even more and gave in with all her might and being, ready to establish contact, when all of it suddenly made sense to her: their group wasn’t failing, they had made everything necessary, but one condition for them to succeed wasn’t met.

The crystal wasn’t alive, she thought. Not yet.

“Alright everypony, stop it now! It’s enough, or you’re going to get killed!”

That was the truth which the ponies had to accept, much to Starswril’s dismay; the failed miserably, and he had to cut the circle before anyone was indeed hurt. He noticed his disciple looking at him, waiting to do what he must; he didn’t feel any doubt and had to stop everything right at that moment.

But he simply wasn’t fast enough, as a shockwave suddenly send everyone flying back, including the old sorcerer. He was stunned for a moment, and couldn’t comprehend his surroundings, as his ears were ringing from the sock, and dust was sent into his eyes, blinding him. That was only temporary, as the extreme heat around him made him go back to his senses, and he could only open one eye to witness what was unfolding.

The conjuration did not disappear; it simply shrinked to the only pony still standing who was trying to handle the situation alone. Starswril’s pupils shrunk in horror as Kindtalker was now the only pony giving power to the crystal, giving place to consequences; her coat was already up in flames, leaving her naked body take the shock of the magical transfer that was occurring. Parts of her body began to crumble like rocks, and from her mouth saliva was dripping like a raging dog looking at its prey. Her eyes did not flatter though, as she gave a look of extreme – almost mad- determination; being only in her presence was overwhelming, as one would witness her full might.

That wasn’t what was on Starswril’s mind, however; as soon as he came to his spirits, he rushed to try and cut her off from the contact, but almost immediately after a small part of his body entered the circle, he was pushed back by an invisible force, almost knocking him out. He did not abandon though, and as soon as he hit the ground, used his remaining strength to push himself in the airs, forming around his horn a powerful rope of magical energy, stabilizing himself midair, and sent it towards the crystal and try to cut it from his student. His ray was met again with the same invisible forcefield, but his magical power proved too much for it, as it breached it , seemingly giving him the advantage.

However, as soon as contact was made, his spell was absorbed by the artefact at an abnormal speed; its capabilities were much faster, and much more frightening, than before. Baffled by the result, Starswril reached the ground, but twisted one of his hooved upon landing; the electrical feeling caused by the pain did not stop him, and he tried casting many spells, without any result: an attractive spell, a teleportation spell, nothing could break the contact between his student and the object. With each failure, without even realizing it, his shouting became stronger , and tears began forming in his eyes: this is all my fault. This feeling of powerlessness, of guilt , began consuming him slowly, as his strength decreased slowly.

The ground began shaking and cracking, not only around them , but it spread on hundreds of meters in the neighboring areas, waking up the ponies living around these place, in terror of what was happening. Animals in the near woods hid, frightened, may they be prey or predator.

And then it suddenly all stopped, as a ray of pure energy, seemingly from the crystal, shot up to the sky and caused such an explosion in the airs, that the closest trees were blown away; the ponies responsible for that would be dead, if not for a shield of energy protecting them from the blast. Starswril could do nothing, but watch; he did not understand what was truly happening, but neither did he really care, as he rushed to where now lied Kindtalker. The rest of the group began waking up from their trance, and witnessing the body of their friend laying in a pool of her own blood, they ran to her as well.

Starswril slowly leaned close to her, trying his best to hold his emotion back – and failing to do so. The sight of his student was hard to bear: parts of her body were fuming and cremated from the intense heat she was in the middle of. Her horn cracked and seemed on the verge of crumbling, as a light green light was trying to make its way out. Her lips seemed dry, as if she didn’t drink in weeks. There was no bleeding, or at least, the blood evaporated. Her eyes were wide open, and were fixing the sky above them; despite her state, she was very much conscient.

Silence came upon the group, as no one knew how to break it – or rather, no one dared to. Some of the group followed her gaze, looking at the intense light above them in the sky, while others were trying to try a way to fix her. Starswril was neither of these; with great sadness, and yet with the bravery of keeping his composure, he spoke:

“… what madness pushed you to do such a thing, Kindtalker? Do you even have a sense of sanity?!”

His remark was stern, almost cruel, but just; they all knew how dangerous it all was, especially her, as she repeated it to the others before the ritual even began. He was met with a characteristic chuckle from her, and she painfully started talking:

“Yeah… that wasn’t the brightest thing to do, isn’t…” She looked in pain each syllable she muttered, but without losing her small smile. “If it can reassure you… we did it… we succeeded…”

Now everyone’s attention was drawn to the wounded unicorn, as she continued: “Guys… it wasn’t just a stupid crystal we had… it was somehow of a heart…” she coughed as she muttered these words, with bits of bloods accompanying it. “It spoke to me… we just didn’t go far enough; for a heart to truly beat, it needs life…”

As she spoke these words, the light previously in the sky was slowly making its way back to the earth; two small shadowy silhouettes were distinguishable from far away, though no one truly knew what it was . At that point, everyone was looking at it, except Kindtalker and Starswril, looking at each other in the eyes.

“What are talking about? A heart? That’s imposs-”

“Oh shut up, old guy… Are you going to tell me there’s something impossible with magic anymore?”

She then painfully lifted herself up, as the small green light in her horn was slowly fading away. She leened closer to her master’s face, who didn’t have anything to say, and could only look in shock and disbelief , as the life from his daughter-in-soul slowly slipped away from her. Their eyes still locked, she finally said:

“Listen… I don’t regret this, and this was my choice… I know if you had the occasion to do anything, you would have preferred to take my place; but the thing didn’t want anypony but me… so I had to do it…” She slowly patted him on his back, and finally said: “I’m not gonna die… who ever said that? I don’t wanna die… so I’m not going to, you know…? I mean…” She took her last breath, and finally added: “… it’s all… neat right now…”

She stayed still, but Starswril could see it: he could see between his tears that the life from his student’s eyes was gone, yet they were still open. Her horn stopped glowing, and yet she kept staring at him, with her characteristic smile.

At that moment, thousands of thoughts began rushing through Starswril’s mind: it was overwhelming, like he never felt. Emotions started flooding his heart, going from guilt, sadness, to rage. He was blinded by emotion at that moment, and did not notice himself scream at the top of his lungs upon the loss of his most precious protégée. Yet everything was soundless; in his world, there was only him, and his screaming. He did not have to restrain himself; he didn’t care. The only thing that he knew is the cost of his doings; the consequences of his failure dawned upon him.

Suddenly, his world was disrupted by a distinct sound of crying, but its nature is what woke him up; it wasn’t one of his other students, whom presence he almost forgot, neither was it his own.

A… foal?

Giving more attention, he could hear two distinct cries: an older one, and a younger. He slightly turned around, and to his surprise, where the crystal used to be, floated two figures. He could feel a warm feeling, unlike the blazing one from earlier, coming from where the silhouettes were, and as they came closer to where he was, he thought:

No… you aren’t really gone, are you? From life comes life once more…

One of the students made a blanket appear from thin air, next to Kindtalker’s body, where the two figures finally landed. They were ponies; their life was the result of Kindtalker’s own. One of them was white, with a light pink mane, and the other was blue, with a lighter blue mane; both of them had a horn. Starswril didn’t need to look at them any longer, as he fell, next to them: in his mind, he knew what his student had done, and what she meant by them succeeding. His mind began blacking out more and more, accompanied by the alicorn sisters’ cries; he could not hear the familiar voice around him, telling him to sleep, as he fell into unconsciousness.