Tuesday, exactly 10 o'clock. I've modified the spell for greater power and believe that this configuration of runes will lead to success. Should this journal survive my lifetime one way or the other, I have noted every configuration in the back. Should this experiment somehow kill me, which I don't believe it will, it is to assume that the last noted configuration is successful. Actually, it'll be deadly, so don't try it, whoever you are. Commencing runes layout nine, test one. Doing science in the dark of night always makes me feel nervous. I hope for the best.
Actually, it was a sunny Tuesday morning as the unicorn Twilight Sparkle wrote down those lines in her research journal, down in the lab below her library, though the Sun's blessed warmth obviously couldn't reach her in the basement. Also, she had several lifeguards in place, including, but not limited to, emergency magic dampening spells granted to her by the Princess herself and a simple machine which requested her attention every ten minutes and called for help should she fail to respond.
Pre-test addendum: Still hearing disembodied voice, still not caring. Dark, stormy nights just feel wonderfully spooky for science.
Tell the story yourself then!
O-kay, if you wish. Voice just told me to narrate my own story, as I currently am. I'm not sure to whom I'm supposed to talk, but I'll just assume they're as bodiless as who originally talked to them.
"Well then. I'm not sure why exactly I'm doing this, but whatever. Hello everypony, or... whatever you are. We are currently in my laboratory, you know, the one with all the spooky machines and unnecessary depth below the surface. I will dim the lights so that there is less interference with my magic, as well as less chance of disturbing the product. Also, it's more of a dramatic experience. I like it that way. Said Twilight, I guess?"
You know what, just do your thing, I'll take it. Twilight shrugged and went to work, checking the alignment one last time and snuffing out the runes that held the others in a deactivated state for safety. Finally, she renewed the timer on her life alert system and began to pour magic into the writing on the floor before her. The runes that had before been glimmering in a light blue tone, slightly darker than what covered her friend Rainbow Dash, lit up brighter and brighter, lifting images of themselves off the ground, which momentarily stayed still in the air, then began to turn, twist and interconnect. They began to swap and exchange parts of themselves until eventually, they formed an image of two ponies holding hooves as if they were hoofbumping, one an exact duplicate of the other.
Twilight groaned and attempted to dig her hooves into the ground, which obviously was a silly attempt given the wooden floor. Still, she let nothing break her concentration as her horn kept glowing even brighter than what was drawn into the air before her, giving off enough light to blind a pony if she were to stare long enough. Few knew about the fact that runes could even be used in spellcasting. Twilight considered those silly and uneducated. Surely, most everyday magic was done spontaneously with just a flash of the horn, and yes, when overcharged, there could be some serious power within even a simple levitation spell, but to unlock the real power of the world, good preparation was needed. Ancient tomes had to be undusted and carefully read as one misdrawn rune could spell disaster for the caster and anything around her. She wasn't concerned, of course. Nothing could happen if she reserved enough power to tame whatever could go wrong, and she had unlimited amounts of magical power at her disposal. At least, she liked to think she did.
As time went on and on, she refused to abandon her attempt. This configuration was going to work, she knew it. Twilight Sparkle was too concentrated to open her eyes, but magical resonance told her something was actually happening. The floating outlines of ponies began to come together, merging as one, before separating completely. The Magic Flow had an interesting personality, a high need to show off being one of its quirks. Those results were new and filled her heart with glee. If she had gotten so far, it was only a matter of time...
And everything went black.
When she woke up, Twilight wasn't confused or disappointed or anything. She knew that every good spell had to finish with a bang and placing cushions, be they in physical form or as spells, behind her was a method for wussies. If the blast wasn't enough to knock her out, allowing her to skip a few minutes for the spell to take effect without any following consequences, such as brain concussion or anything, like it were a plain plot device, then the spell simply hadn't been strong enough. Still, for five minutes or so after every cast, she regret her own stubbornness greatly. Rubbing her head with a hoof, she rose back up, taking in her surroundings. Everything looked as normal, with the blinky light no one knew what it did here and the occasional beep there. Without further investigating, she sprinted over to the magic monitor. The graph showed a heavy increase in energy not too long ago, her loss of consciousness apparently just short enough to give her enough time to respond to the life alert, which started beeping and blinking in that very moment until she hit the red button on it with an extended foreleg. After that, it showed a rapid decrease, as would have to be expected when the magic source was lying on the floor unconscious. However, the decrease wasn't nearly as quickly as it should be when the magic just flew into nowhere. Instead, it fell at a slow pace, capping at about twice what a regular unicorn emitted when idle. Granted, she wasn't a regular unicorn, but what was recorded on that sheet of paper was above even her value, especially considering she had been knocked out.
"Hello?" asked an unknown voice the source of which she couldn't see. She whirled around, where in the twilight behind her, a black unicorn stared at her with wide green eyes, a color she recognised as the inversion of her own. If it had holes and wings, it could be mistaken for a Changeling.
Twilight jumped on the spot in glee before leaping over to where her duplicate was standing. "Ohmygosh, it worked!"
The shadow cocked an eyebrow as Twilight had jumped into an affectionate hug, "What exactly worked?"
"I found and improved an ancient spell. Now I've split off my shadow and, well, you're it."
"And what am I supposed to do now? I think I understand... thanks for sharing your memories."
Twilight stepped back, hesitating a moment in an attempt to find the proper words. "Well, the reason your kind was created in the first place was kinda that Starswirl wanted somepony to help him with the home chores."
"So you've taken the freedom of creating sentient life for a purpose, one you could easily execute yourself, worse even?"
"Oh, please. You're nothing more than a copy of my mind in a fancy vessel. In fact, the spell is very temporary. When the Sun rises tomorrow, you'll be gone and out. So who wants to get cleaning?"
"I think I'll prefer to do something else," Shadow Twilight said before storming out of the basement and through the library's open door.
Twilight stayed back, dumbfounded. "Nooo! You broke the rules! We first have to get to work, only then are you allowed to develop self-conscious thoughts and slip out! Damn youuuu! Oh well, I suppose I might as well go after her. Gotta catch her and whatnot. I like having a shadow. I wonder what her name should be. I mean, she's just me, inverted or something. Wouldn't that mean she's a stallion? Nah. That's not part of my shadow. Hm. Dusk Shine? Nah. Dusk Shadow? Meh, let's just go with Shadow Twilight, as uncreative as that may be."
Instead of going right after her, Twilight decided to stay for a moment and log her recent discoveries. She levitated the journal back off the floor and onto a writing podium.
Configuration nine successful. I have created a copy of myself to do the chores for me. However, Shadow Twilight has refused that duty, and instead run off. I guess I shouldn't have made it sentient. Such beings make for terrible household slaves. Should've learned it the first time around with Spike. I wonder where he is right now. Maybe at Rarity's. He's always there for some reason, even when she's out. Well, I don't have time to worry about that, I have to find my duplicate before she does... whatever evil it is she's up to. Such ponies are always doing bad things. Note for future generations: This configuration works, but leave out any self-aware parts of your mind when replicating it. Alright. Researcher TS out.
Running through Ponyville just fast enough so that it looked authentic, Twilight came across Sugarcube Corner by complete coincidence and absolutely not because she was hungry after skipping breakfast or anything. Just as she approached the house, Pinkie Pie came out of it.
"Pinkie! Thank goodness you're alright. Listen, there's something that looks just like my shade running around and who knows what she's up to!"
It didn't seem like the earth pony understood what Twilight was talking about, as she at first just stared at her, then briefly giggled, followed by a serious expression, though she was still smiling. "Uh, you mean, like the one that visited me five minutes ago?"
"What? What did she do? Uh, Pinkie, could it be that you don't have a shadow either?"
"Yeah! But look, she made me a friend out of it!" Pinkie happily exclaimed before stepping past Twilight and allowing a very special somepony to come out. In principle, she looked like a pitch black Pinkie, which was an interesting thought on its own, with her eye color inverted in the same style as Shadow Twilight's was. And like the original, she was constantly smiling and bouncing and doing all the happy things Twilight didn't have time for. She didn't speak, but the unicorn didn't mind that. She was far too busy combining facts, anyway. If that one Shadow Twilight was running around in all of her self-awareness, and she had every attribute that Twilight had, then she obviously also had her magic. And apparently, she had found a way to quickly create more duplicates. If it was that quick, it meant that little power was required, which meant that any mature unicorn could perform it, so they would soon have to face an army of ruthless clones looking for their destiny if they didn't find their source as soon as possible. And that shouldn't happen, because it'd mean having to give them land to settle on, and Twilight just couldn't allow the prospect of being a shadowless mare for life. On the other hoof, the spell would fade and return her image soon, but that still took too much time for her. She wanted to do something and she wanted it done now. But in order to freely move through Ponyville, she had to find a way to keep the current clone occupied. She thought about simply leaving her be, but when she remembered what even the good Pinkie Pie did in her time, she decided it was probably best to tie both instances of her together to keep each other in check. Ponyville had only recently recovered from Pinkie's last super duper awesome idea.
"Hey! Wanna hear the super duper awesome things we'll do?" Well. At least, if they were together, two Pinkies couldn't do more harm than one alone.
"I'd love to, but I'm kinda busy right now. Take care of yourself and don't ever take your eyes off of that shadowmare," Twilight explained before storming off.
"Okie dokie! But you just gotta come to..." Pinkie tried to call after her, but before she could finish, Twilight was out of earshot.
"Howdy! What kin Ah do fer ye?"
"Not bad. Great Applejack imitation, Rainbow, but seriously, erm, do you still have your shadow?" Twilight called up to a low floating cloud upon which Rainbow Dash had been holding a nap before being brutally woken up.
"Uh, yeah, why shouldn't I? Did you mess up a spell or something?"
"Why does everypony always think I screw up my magic? Seriously, that'd be plot device number one, right besides 'Princess Celestia told me to get experience in dating', if my life were to get written about. You know, nevermind, just hold on to it."
"Well, did she?" Rainbow sceptically asked, uncaring about what the unicorn deemed important. With her awesomeness backing her up, she could begin and end any topic whenever she liked.
"That's none of your business... uhm, got time on Friday?"
"I guess, why?"
"I'll explain later. For now, we have to catch those shadow ponies before they can wreak havoc."
Rainbow Dash clearly had no idea what Twilight was saying. In order to understand her better, she slipped off the cloud and softly landed on the ground, breaking her fall with a single flap of her wings. "Whazza talking 'bout?"
"Shadow ponies, I created Shadow Twilight to help me out with stuff, but she ran off and apparently, she can create more of her sort because she also has magic like me, which is quite a lot. We gotta find and eliminate her before things get bad!"
"I'd love to, but one question, Twilight."
"Uh, go ahead," Twilight said with a puzzled look on her face.
"Does it have to be during naptime? I mean, maybe they aren't that bad, just cause Shadow Twilight's going through an existential crisis, has your talent and can create endless offspring doesn't mean she's gonna do something evil, does it?" Dash gave an overdrawn yawn for effect.
"Ugh, fine! I'll do it myself then. Just- if somepony shady approaches you, don't let them steal your shadow. In fact, I think you're best off just not coming down to the ground at all, they can't reach you up there."
"Wasn't about to. Have fun, call me when y'all need me, all that stuff." Rainbow Dash said before going back up to her favorite cloud, rolling herself up like a cat, but letting part of her tail drop off the edge.
Researcher TS, Tuesday, I don't even know when, mental log. Shadow Twilight still on the loose. She has already visited Pinkie Pie, but she's fine and keeping her own clone busy, so that's one threat neutralised. Or... well, judging by that avalanche of yellow rubber ducks that just flowed through the streets before magically disappearing, they can't be that much worse than Pinkie on her own. Rainbow Dash is informed and well. I have to plan a route. If I remember correctly, Rarity's closest, followed by Fluttershy and Applejack respectively. When all five are informed, we can begin planning our future actions, given I don't run into her before that. I hope we won't have to use the Elements. I'd prefer not having to explain THAT to Princess Celestia. No, we'll just handle it like every other crisis in Ponyville. Mass panic, then one of us six stands up and solves everything, done. Worse problem: I'm hungry. Perhaps I'll be able to get some apples from Applejack. I don't get how she can afford to give away so many of her products to friends... anyway. TS out. Log entry terminated.
With her emergency plan made, Twilight set off to assist Rarity in whatever horrendous situation Shadow Twilight had put her in. Perhaps she was tied face down into a pit filled with living snake images. Or she was strung over a fire on a slowly turning spit, both fire and spit made of darkness. Or maybe she was forced to sew socks, which was a crime against fashion by itself in her eyes, using the worst possible color combinations. Or she had to read every single story in Lyra's conspiracy theorist magazine claiming that there was a sentient species dominant on another planet and that they regularly visited Equestria. Or... or Twilight should just stop making up scenarios and go see what danger Rarity actually was in.
Arriving at Carousel Boutique, Twilight was relieved to hear a scream coming from inside. Not that she wanted to hear her friends in pain, though with Rarity, she could take a bit, but finally she had proof that Shadow Twilight was, in fact, evil. She sped up, bursting through the door. "Don't worry Rarity, hold her down and we'll have this over with!"
Upon spotting her, Shadow Twilight emitted a quiet hiss and threw herself down to the ground. Surprisingly, she didn't impact as expected, but rather melted into it until she had barely any depth left at all, scurrying across the floor and out through the closed window with an amazing speed, Rarity's shadow escaping with her in the same manner.
"Ngh, nevermind. Are you alright?"
"Why, alright? Is alright even still a valid word in such a situation? This is horrible!" Rarity complained.
"Oh, finally somepony at her senses. Okay, now we just have to find Shadow Twilight before she and your shade can awaken any more shadows, which will... hardly be possible. Darn it."
Rarity didn't seem like she noticed much of Twilight, instead running from one mannequine to the other, momentarily pulling off dresses and laying them down onto her own figure before putting them back where they belonged. "Oh, this is just worse than any imaginable thing! How am I supposed to work if I can't take my shadow into consideration? Still, I guess it's for a good cause."
"Yeah, I... what?" After a moment of consideration, Twilight decided that, most likely, whatever Rarity was going on about wasn't going to help. "You know what, just hang on, I'm sure I'll find the solution soon," she said before storming off.
They have taken Rarity. That's bad. Twice as many potential shadows now. I have to get to Fluttershy's quick before they get her, though she's probably too weak to really carry ponies, even as a shadow version. Now that I think about it, it'll probably do her a favor, seeing as she's literally afraid of her own shadow. Ponyville's looking calm right now. Shadow Twilight uses the memories I gave her to pick out important targets. So that means... if they had all six of us, couldn't they use the Elements of Harmony? Ooooh dear, that'd spell the final cataclysm. I must get to her before that can happen. Celestia would probably prevent them from getting to the Elements, but since she has my magic, they might be able to mask their looks.
"Hey Twilight. May I ask what you're so angry about?" a soft voice suddenly asked from behind.
"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be hiding out in your cottage, terrified of whatever just visited you until I come in, lengthily explain what has happened yet another time, then storm off as you try to explain they're actually not that bad. And you just broke the pattern!"
Fluttershy shrank together, her eyes welling up with tears. "Okay, I'll just go then," she whispered.
Twilight groaned. "No, it's alright. Now that you're here, tell me, do you still have your shadow? Oh, of course you don't, gah."
Upon hearing that Twilight wasn't mad, Fluttershy slowly grew back to normal size. "Uh, I guess not... sorry."
"Great. Now they have wings. It's okay, I just have to... oh, Fluttershy, what do I do?"
Twilight felt a gentle hoof on her shoulder, trying to comfort her after she had sunken to the ground in desperation. "If you ask me, did you try to ask what they want?"
"I don't have to, I already know it! Shadow Twilight's in an existential crisis and has a band of shadow ponies following her already, they're gonna wreak havoc. What else?"
"That's not what she said..."
"Yeah well, she lied. Villains do that!" Fluttershy squeaked and jumped back a bit from the sudden outburst. "Ugh, fine. What am I doing wrong? I know, I gotta set up an ambush instead of chasing after her. The only problem is that I have no idea what she's after. Guess I might as well go look after Applejack. No offense, but she could probably talk you all into voluntarily giving her another soldier, but not Applejack. I'm sure she'll put up a fight, and I'll save her!"
"Actually, Twilight..." Fluttershy tried to intercept her rushed train of thought.
"Not to disrespect your opinion, 'Shy, but I'm kinda busy right now. Go to safety, together with Rarity or what do I know... the animals! If she hijacks a few bears or worse, we'll have no chance! Exactly, make sure she can't get to your animals! The less shadows, the better."
"Uh, okay. If you want me to, I guess I can do that. But please, don't get yourself into something you can't get out of. If she's a copy of you, why would she be evil?"
"I have no idea! I just know that she is and I have to stop her, so if we could stop wasting time, it'd be much appreciated."
Researcher TS, mental log, Tuesday, sometime past midday. Arriving at Sweet Apple Acres. So far, everything is looking normal. Uh, hello? Spike? Do you read? Great, the link's not working. I'll have to recalibrate my dragon again. That's always so much work... though I can just ask Rarity to help me, she knows how to push his buttons. No sign of shadow ponies. Perhaps I've finally gotten ahead of her. Though right now, I'd be content with any limb. I think I can hear Applejack working. TS out.
Through the tree lines, Twilight could quickly spot the earth pony bucking apples as she always did. Sometimes, she wondered if Applejack really did anything else at all. The orchard never seemed to run out of apples to buck, even though Applejack harvested incredible amounts of fruit every day. But something looked odd about the whole picture. She moved through the lines, fluidly dodging trees like the shadow she didn't have anymore, until she stood next to her target.
"Applejack! You're fine, great."
"Uh, yah? Why shouldn't I?"
Twilight let the scenery momentarily distract her. The Sun was high, beaming down upon everything below, the endless fields belonging to the local farmers, the various houses in the middles of said fields, each with a very unique style, but all radiating cozy charm. In the distance, Canterlot stood, unfazed by whatever catastrophe was about to unfold in Ponyville. Surely, nothing bad could result from this picture of serenity. She shook her head clear. Evil was about and the seconds she needed so direly to stop it were constantly slipping away. "Because... I assumed you'd put up a fight against Shadow Twilight and she'd do horrible things to you! Because villains do that!"
"So that's what that was?" Applejack asked with a tone far too calm for Twilight's liking.
"That's what what was?" Twilight inquired.
"Ye, tha' strange pony, all black, tha' jus' showed up an'..."
"Don't you tell me she talked you into giving up yours too," Twilight interrupted. If they had the other five, it was only a matter of time until they would steal Rainbow Dash's, and then, with the power of the six friends combined, they would do... something evil.
"Um, how do Ah say this..." In the end, Applejack gave up on finding the proper words and instead just pointed through the orchard, where, a bit in the distance, a black earth pony still wearing her trusted stetson was trotting up to another tree to buck. Her method was unorthodox, though. Apparently, shadow ponies had difficulty interacting with real objects, so when she delivered the kick, only the tree's shadow shook, its apples dropping down to its base. A few seconds later, the real apples realised the break in logic, and quickly followed their images into the buckets. "Don' ask me how tha' works, but Ah get ta keep her 'til she's needed, so Ah think tha's a win-win."
"Until she's needed? To storm Canterlot, of course. That's what they planned all along! They'll sneak in, disguised as us, and then suddenly, there's a knife in Princess Celestia's back. I knew it!" Twilight said, walking up and down while her expression gradually became more and more insane.
Knowing what could result when the unicorn got her head into things, Applejack tried to calm her, "Whoa there nelly, calm down. She told me she'd jus'..."
"No time to listen to her lies! I know what she's planning and now it's just a matter of preventing it. Okay, who else would she claim? Force... Big Macintosh! Applejack, where is he? I gotta protect him... besides, there's still a little something he deserves for last night."
"He went outta town t'day an' won't return 'til tomorrow, y'all know that. Honestly, Twilight, Ah'm a bit concerned..."
Twilight completely ignored every part of Applejack's statement she didn't want to hear, "Great, that's somepony less. But she'll need an army to back her up as soon as Princess Celestia is assassinated... so she'll need more unicorns to convert all of Ponyville! That's it, I just gotta round up everypony here with a horn and Equestria will be safe. Thanks for the help, AJ. Everything's clear now."
"You're welcome, Ah guess," Applejack said, watching Twilight dash off to get Dash's help. She looked at her clone, who just looked back and shrugged, both of them unsure what had happened. "She'll get out of it sometime, Ah guess. Pray to Celestia she doesn't do anythin' bad in the meantime. How is anythin' supposed to work without her?"
Tuesday, Researcher TS, one PM. I've finally made it back to my journal. My theory that everypony in this town is crazy is proven right yet again. But not me! I'll prove it to them all that Shadow Twilight is evil, no matter what she told them. Celestia grant me strength... alright. Part one. If I was evil, who would I recruit next? Dash is still both safe and unwilling to help. I have to admit, there are too many ponies here. I have no idea whom she could strike next, and with everypony I fail to guess before she arrives, she gets another minion. But I'm not giving up. Nothing can stop me. I'm gonna bring the whole plan down on their heads, and they won't even notice. All I need is time. Wait... I'll have to warn the Princess. How could I forget that? But I still haven't found Spike. That's bad. Bah, I don't need her. Eventually, I'll run into her, and when I have Shadow Twilight, everything else will fall into place. Which brings me to the first question. How will I catch a predator? I don't know... none of my machines or any of the spells I know can help me. Celestia, give me a sign! What was that? I will investigate the noise upstairs and report back. Researcher TS out.
Twilight shut the journal, heading back up to the library's main room, though she couldn't resist letting her head hang low. She felt terribly outmatched by a foe she had created herself, which, though incredibly common as a plot in the kind of literature she didn't even want to read, but did anyway, she hadn't expected to happen at all. Just how could things have gone so wrong? She thought she had doublechecked every rune, and doublechecked her doublechecking. As she arrived on top of the stairs and pushed the door open, the noise was revealed to apparently have been somepony knocking to announce the letter they had brought. Protocol would require her to first open the door and fail to spot anypony, then discover the piece of paper on the ground. However, since she could clearly see it already, she didn't quite see why she should. She levitated it over, sitting down at the table to read it as it unfolded itself. It turned out to be a simple note written by magic, though the pitch black ink was a detail that drew her attention. Before reading it, she reconsidered and took it down into the basement so that she could write it into her log.
Researcher's log, TS, Tuesday afternoon. I have discovered a note left by somepony, which I'll rewrite into this journal for completion. It looks like something Pinkie Pie would write, but it's far too clean for a non-unicorn to have written it. It reads: 'You're invited to Pinkie's supertastic You Only Live Once party! Make sure to come to the field outside of Ponyville to the north by six PM or you'll miss it, and we'll miss you, and everypony would be sad!'. That's all there is. I guess it's obvious that Pinkie DID write it, but, really, a party? When Ponyville is facing disaster, she parties? I guess that's what she does. Note to self: Repeat psychological investigation on her. I suspect her joyless past has led to some kind of complex, causing an unending desire to party no matter the circumstances. However, there are more pressing matters at hoof. I guess I could attend, then I could... *Insert gasp noise here* I could watch everypony at the same time! Shadow Twilight'd have no chance! But still, there are other things I have to attend right now, though I think I will go there later. I will research if I made any mistakes with the runes. TS out.
Twilight sighed and turned back to where there had once been glowing runes on the floor. They had faded out by now, leaving behind only faint lines in the dust, losing more and more essence every time Twilight's breath or idle magic waves hit them. It didn't matter, she had redrawn unpowered versions into the journal. She quickly opened the matching page and laid it down next to the formation of symbols.
"Let's see. Start from the base. Here we have Focus, binding the raw energy around me and specifying a place. Below it is Equine, defining a target for Focus. To the left of that, Light, which is inverted by the Void beneath it, creating Shadow. So we have an unformed spell applying to the shadow of the user. To define the spell, I drew Power next to Focus, since I'll be using overcharged runes, as well as Life. Then, left from Focus, there is Mind, with Self below it just for safety. Defining Mind, or simply put, below it, Earth, combined with Fire to create Metal, which is then combined with Light to create Mirror. That'll create a mirror image of the user's mind through her shadow. Alright. Now, to the right of everything, there is Control, amplified by Self below it, granting me the power to command said image. So what went wrong? Wait... there's another rune. I remember. Target... yes, I meant for that, that's why it's besides Control, but... Celestia, tell me I didn't..."
TS signing in again. I have discovered the mistake. And I couldn't be more embarassed. I meant to put a Target to the right of Control, weakened by a Loss below it, but I misdrew that, creating Power instead. Consequently, since Self isn't amplified, she'll listen to herself more than to me. That still doesn't explain why she's evil, though. There's only Mind here, no Fate or perhaps an inverted Good. That's strange. But I have an idea. If I bracket the Control section, draw Loss beneath it, then add Power to that, and then recast the spell, I think it should fry her mind, causing her to fall into a state of suggestion where she'll obey any order. Note to self: Always bind the finished spell through Rule, defined by One and Two. Always Two.
TS. There appears to be some bad interaction between Self and Power Loss. I'm not sure if the spell took effect. In a few seconds, I'll be out for about six hours. Maybe the magic will torrent off my body faster. I can only hope that Shadow Twilight won't corrupt the party while I'm out. I-
Nopony could know what Twilight meant to write in that last sentence, as past the first word there was nothing but a line of ink created in an attempt to keep writing when she had lost consciousness.
Some hours later, she awoke with a feeling of clumsiness, though that wore off quickly when she applied the number one magic for sleepy heads, a potion most revered in every part of Equestria. Sipping from the cup, she opened up her journal to note the latest status before leaving.
Tuesday, some time in the evening, TS back. I've recovered. I estimate about everypony in Ponyville to be out in the fields right now. To get more victims, Shadow Twilight'll have to come there as well, which is when I'll catch her.
Later, Twilight trotted out of Ponyville, heading to her destination. She could see and hear it from far away already, which she wasn't sure she liked. If it hadn't been an emergency, she would have preferred to just stay at home. Before she could even inspect her surroundings closer, Pinkie Pie jumped out of the crowd and drew her in. It felt as disorientating as crashing into deep water and Twilight was even a bit breathless at the overwhelming feelings that came with being literally surrounded by ponies at every angle. She tried to speak up, but Pinkie silenced her and brought her to the podium in the middle of everything, where some ponies were waiting for her. Up there, each with a wide grin on their faces, were Vinyl Scratch, the rest of the Elements of Harmony's bearers, but also a shadow version of everypony present, including her own. Without wasting time, Twilight pounced her duplicate, fixating her to the ground.
"What the hay are you doing?" an unspecified number of ponies around her gasped.
"Pinning her down so you can tie her up and bring her back to the lab! It's been long enough, but finally, your plans are over. You made a good effort, but you shouldn't have... invited me... to the party... wait, what exactly is going on here?" Twilight asked, stepping off of Shadow Twilight.
Without making a sound, she rose to her hooves or whatever equivalent she had. "When I ran away, I had very clear goals. Shadows are forced to mimic you almost all the time, yet you produce light to drive us out. Darkness is not a place of fear, it is serene. It's a bit like your world during twilight. I wanted to show everypony how they underappreciate us while also giving their shadows a bit of a time out. But I didn't know how. So in my confusion, I ran into Pinkie, who quickly gave me the idea of arranging a rave party, because everypony loves those. So since then, I've been going around, organising and creating help, and now it is time for the final stage, to free them all. But I'll need your help. Can you trust me?"
"What do you have in mind?"
Shadow Twilight stepped to the side, revealing a small set of runes. "Self Mirror Focus Equine Target Power. I see. You've been using a simpler version to create them with you as a template. So you're suggesting... a dualcast?"
"I believe that that will make it powerful enough to affect everypony around here. Imagine! Every shadow will be released and we'll have heck of a party!"
"Or I've helped you create an army."
"That'll fade at dawn because I can't imbue them with a duration longer than mine," Shadow Twilight shrugged. "I'm over it. Let's get this going the main course!" She offered Twilight a hoof, with which they could link their casts.
Twilight was still concerned, but she threw her caution to the wind and grabbed the hoof before her. Once in a lifetime, she just wanted to have some fun. "You betcha!" she called, summoning her magic to keep tact with her other self.
"Arrrright everypony, get your hooves ready, this is about to go down! Get ready to freak out!" Vinyl Scratch incited the masses as a globe of violet magic steadily grew behind her. The light emitted by it was so bright it could be seen from Canterlot, blurring out the stars even there. Ponies started to get nervous, but right then, Vinyl started to crack up the beat, forcing them to bring that energy into partying instead. The bubble finally enveloped the entire crowd before it blinked, shrunk back into a seed, then burst out like a sonic rainboom. When everypony recovered from the flash, cheers rose from everywhere as they saw it had worked as intended.
Deep into the night, Ponyville kept rocking out, dancing with each other and their shadows, no difference made from the origin of the individual. Some had gone home, but most of the ponies had just fallen asleep on the spot, depleted of energy, their ears ringing and limb tired, none of which mattered to them after what an awesome time they'd been through. Just for fun, Rainbow Dash and her personal Shadowbolt had performed a sonic rainboom above them, bringing the masses to awe with a ring of not just rainbow colors and darkness, but the most beautiful color mixture anypony had ever witnessed. Her shadow's influence had imbued it with prismatic essence, making it linger and illuminate the crowd below with beams of every color jumping to the ground from it following the beat of the music. Overall, it had been plain awesome.
Few were disturbed as the morning sun rose over Ponyville, too busy recovering side to side with their duplicate. Only some stirred slightly as the pony they'd been leaning on was removed, molding into shape down below their owners. Exactly one unicorn was awake to witness the process, enjoying the fresh air with a started letter at her hooves. She would never admit it, but she was glad to have erred.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Yesterday was an adventure for me too big to recount here, so I'll summarise it for Your convenience.
I've learned that, when dealing with unknown terrain, sometimes...
You have to triple check your runes and always add Rule, defined by Two. That's about it. Thank You for entrusting me with the ancient art of runes. I have learned much from them.
Your faithful student
Twilight Sparkle.
While Twilight Sparkle was silently lying on a wooden podium on a field outside of Ponyville, back in the basement of her library, a certain book laid open while the wind spell she had put over the basement to allow a steady flow of air occasionally flipped a page or two...
Welcome to A Brief Listing of Runes! On the following pages, you will be introduced to the usage and dangers of casting with runes, followed by a complete list of all known runes.
While regular, purely horn-based magic can create miracles already, using runes allows a unicorn to surpass the power of even those spells, even if their own magical power is not exceptional. However, the raw strength these pictograms provide can easily lash back, causing serious damage to the user or their environment. Thus, when runecasting, ALWAYS proof every single one or else bad things will happen. Consult an expert if you find yourself even slightly unsure if you have created your desired configuration. Abandon casting as soon as you begin to feel uncomfortable or unsure. Never cast unsupervised.
Now that you have read the safety instructions, we can proceed to instruct you how to use runes.
Many ponies think that runecasting is an ancient art performed in reclusion where a single misdrawn line can decide between ruling and ending the world, as if it were some kind of witchcraft. They are correct in that there is greatness held within for any skilled caster to unlock, but there is nothing evil about runecasting per se. Neither is it ritualistic or anything the likes. In fact, runes are used daily, though in weakened form. Whenever a unicorn evokes magic, they use rune configurations 'saved' within their brain for quick casting.
When physically drawn, runes can be empowered for greater effect. The effect of runes depends on their interactions with each other which is based on their physical position relative to each other. To make runes interact, you must draw lines between them, or else they will act on their own. This also allows for compact configurations when using spells with many runes. Starswirl the Bearded is said to have once successfully used 255 runes in a single spell. (Editor's note: Princess Celestia's personal student, Twilight Sparkle, recently used 256 runes at once. Asked to comment, she said, "I just wanted to beat Starswirl.")
A rune drawn below another will apply its effect to that rune directly. For instance, Light above Void will have Void apply to Light itself and invert it to Shadow. Logically, that means that a rune placed above any number of others will accept the final effect of them into itself, based on the lining. Information as to how to make the spell resolve your way is available further down.
A horizontal line will cause the resolved final product of the runes on the right to apply to the ones on the left. It is important to know the difference between horizontal and vertical lines. As an example, putting Void beneath Light will cause it to invert and become Shadow, but on the right, it will do nothing since Void does not have any right-effects on its own.
To summarise, vertical lines combine, horizontal lines apply. While you may come to think from that definition that diagonal lines do both based on how they're orientated, they do not. Diagonal lines will act like a horizontal one if they're travelling a farther distance to the side than up and the other way around for vertical, so you should avoid making them altogether.
Now, you may ask yourself in what order runes will resolve. Simple. All runes in a horizontal line, starting at the bottom, will resolve before those above them, going from left to right. Then, they will move up one line, and repeat. It is important that you remember this procedure, as strange as it may sound. First, the rune on the left will resolve any combinations coming from the ones below it, THEN the one right of it will do the same and apply its final effect to the first rune. This order can be affected, however. Void can be drawn to move a rune's effect further to the left and thus to higher priority without having to draw diagonal lines, as it will take on the exact effects of any rune drawn beneath it. As another method, groups of runes can be circled in lines to make this group resolve as the very first. Should multiple circles be within one configuration, they will resolve following normal priority. Circles within circles will obviously take effect first during the resolving of the outer circle.
Using the method of circling runes, it becomes easy to apply effects to groups of runes or the spell as a whole. For instance, drawing a circle around your entire configuration and then adding three Rules with One, Two, and Three beneath them respectively to the right of it will cause your spell to obey the Three Laws, if necessary. When casting spells which will result in something able to act on its own, you should always circle it and add this cluster.
Following is an alphabetical list of all 29 basic runes known to ponykind to this day. Instructions on how to draw every one can be found in the following pages.
Air: Elemental rune. Represents air.
Change: No effect on its own. Can be applied to many other runes to make them change what they represent, rather than just applying it.
Control: Defines who or what controls eventual products. Usually combined with Self to allow the user to fully control their creation, though Target also works to give it autonomy.
Earth: Elemental rune, represents earth as a substance or the world itself.
East: One of the four directional runes. Adds direction where necessary, for instance, it can be used together with Teleportation, which is created by Place above Change, to make you go eastward. Combining this with other directional runes will create the average of them all together as a result.
Equine: Commonly combined to Focus to make the spell affect ponies.
Fate: Takes control away and instead makes what is meant to be happen. Not fully researched yet. Be careful with it.
Fire: Elemental rune, represents fire itself, but also inspiration. Can be combined with Earth to create Metal.
Good: When inserted into spells that create autonomous beings, causes it to have a pure mind.
Harmony: Recently discovered by T.S.. Greatly amplifies the power of certain runes or the whole spell, however, it will only take effect if the spell has balanced benefits and drawbacks.
Knowledge: Allows implanting knowledge directly into memory or erasing it when combined with Void.
Life: Brings your result to life. Often applied directly to Focus, as that'll ensure its effect hits the whole spell. High energy cost.
Light: It's light, what did you expect?
Loss: Weakens rune above it. If combined with Power, it will instead cause a loss of whatever it is applied to. No own effect. NEVER apply to Life.
Focus: The most basic rune. Every spell has this as a centerpiece to allow you to bind the world's energy. It also defines the orientation of all runes included in this spell for directional purposes, which means that lines going into the direction of its arrow will always act as 'up'. It can also be included as a normal component, granting increased rune effect in exchange for smaller range.
Mind: Allows the creation of spells that affect the mind of targets or the user.
Numbers: Zero, One, Two, Three, and so forth. To create Ten or above, draw them from top to bottom. Example: One above Three will create Thirteen.
North: One of the four directional runes.
Place: Represents current location.
Power: Strengthens the rune it is combined with. Can also be applied to Focus by drawing it to the right of it, granting more power to every rune in the configuration.
Random: Randomises effect of rune above it.
Rule: Accesses predefined rules. The most common ones are: One: Must never harm or allow harm to come to an equine being. Two: Must always follow direct orders given by equine being, except if such an order would break the first rule. Three: Must always protect own existence, except if an action required to do so would conflict with the first or second rule. Thirty-four: No exceptions. Sixty-Three: Causes result to be attracted to its own gender. A full list of all 100 rules is available in the addendum.
Self: Causes effects to apply directly to the spellcaster.
South: One of the four directional runes.
Target: When applied to other runes, causes those to affect the result. May also be combined with Focus to make the spell fire with aim instead of applying to predefined target.
Travel: Adds a basic one mile distance to a spell. Can be weakened with Loss or strengthened with Power to halven or double the distance. Most commonly used sufficiently weakened down with Teleportation.
Void: No effect. Can take on the effect of any runes that are combined with or applied to it or combine with other runes to invert them.
Water: Elemental rune. Represents water.
West: One of the four directional runes.
