"Since the dawn of time, the world has been rocked by the strife of ponies and other races. The return of Harmony, caused by Twilight Sparkle and five others, led to the creation of the Harmonic Age..."
– Encyclopedia Orosirianica, 7th Ed., 25 O.A.
Sitting in the throne room of the Crystal Castle, Princess Celestia braced for herself for the conversation to come. The recent... "development" with Sunset Shimmer had given her a few more days to think, but she still wasn't sure how her former student would take the news. The Formatorium needed Twilight more than she could ever have known. The last four thousand years of Equestrian history came down to this point, and Princess Celestia, for the first time in centuries, felt nervous. "Welcome back, Twilight."
"Thank you. Lemme tell ya, I had a great time, but no more surprises for a LOOOOONG while, please!"
"Yes. About that. I have something important to tell you." Celestia shuffled her wings for a second. "In fact, it's one of the most important things you'll ever hear."
Twilight gasped. "Did the Changelings return to Equestria? Or is Discord ruining everything again? Or is this a princess test? Am I doing well? What if I don't pass!?" Predictably, she began babbling and hyperventilating.
"Twilight! Calm down. You are no longer my student. For the sake of Equestria's future, it is vitally important that you know what I'm about to tell you."
Twilight tried to slow her breathing. "Okay, okay, I'm calm. Go."
Celestia began, "Ten millennia ago, in the late Rhyacian Empire–"
"Wait," Twilight broke in. "The ACTUAL Rhyacian Empire? I thought it was a legend!"
"No, it was very much real, although it was crumbling in my time. There was only one pony who recognized this: Midnight Sun. She saw the dwindling days empire had, and the lasting darkness that lay beyond its fall. To end this darkness, she brought all the most powerful unicorns in Equestria to Canterlot to create the Formatorium."
"Hold on a sec," Twilight interrupted again. "Midnight Sun was real?"
"She taught me mind magic. Midnight Sun planned to use mind magic to speed the creation of what she called the 'Orosirian Empire' by shaping the minds of the ponies of the world through a list of spells called ‘the Plan’ that was calculated to bring about the creation of a new empire. Midnight Sun divided the Formatorium into two groups. The first of these two groups was the Heroes. They were charged with protecting the Plan from existential threats, and were originally made up of Clover the Clever, Star Swirl the Bearded and, at his insistence, the other Pillars of Equestria, Luna, me, and nearly any other pony you've heard legends of. This is the group I would like you to join."
"Wow. This is a lot of information. A new empire? Isn't that... what you rule, Princess Celestia?"
"A pony could say that, but our world is still fragmented, and there are wastelands beyond Equestria. It was Midnight Sun's hope to unite all ponies as one again."
"Wow... where do I fit into all of this?"
"You've actually been performing Hero duties for the last 30 moons. In fact, you and your friends initiated the Harmonic Age. I've been training you for this for most of your life, and now that you are not my student, you deserve to know of the task at hoof."
Twilight felt used. She felt anger rushing through her. "You're telling me that this entire time, you've been grooming me to be your attack dog or something? Y'know what? No. I'm gonna need a bit to digest this. I'll meet you in Canterlot." She turned and galloped out of the throne room.
Twilight paced the floor at the Golden Oak Library, muttering to herself, weighing her anger at Celestia against .
"Princess Celestia is using me. But how do I know it wasn't actually this Formatorium that was training me? And she wants me to safeguard the future of ponykind." She made her decision and teleported herself to Canterlot.
"Okay, I'll join your secret society," Twilight announced. "I'm a little peeved that most of my life has been a training program for a group I've never known about, but I'm also honored that I was chosen in the first place."
"You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that, Twilight. Equestria needs you more than you can know."
"I have a question, though. You said the Formatorium has two groups. You talked about the Heroes, but what's the other one?"
De Magia Mentis - A Brief History and Exposition of Mind Magic (published 17 O.A.)
In the days of the Rhyacian Empire, it was thought that psychology had been researched to the depth of every field that could be studied, except one: the effects of magic on thought or, to put it simply, mind control.
Admittedly, this seems to be a rather massive oversight on the part of the researchers of the University of Arcania Psychology Department in Ponyville, but, at that time, nopony had any idea where to start. Pony minds seemed to be completely impervious to the magic of unicorns and, as such, many scientists deemed the use of magic on minds to be impossible and abandoned the study altogether.
This was the state of things until c. 950 R.A., when a young unicorn named Midnight Sun was accepted at UA, Ponyville. There, she discovered a way to access the mind of a pony through the body, rather than focusing directly on a pony's brain. Immediately, a new division within the psychology department was created to pursue this breakthrough. It was around this time that the entire Mind Magic Division disappeared, along with every tome and document related to the study of mind magic, except for one book on the basics of the field written at almost the very end of the Rhyacian Age. Its contents are partially recounted below.
(Excerpted from Mind Magic: An Introduction, published c.960 R.A.)
What, exactly, is mind magic? At its heart, mind magic is the combination of two great fields: the study of mind spell creation and the study of mind spell effects. While these two fields are tightly intertwined, the author will endeavor to untangle them in this limited space.
At this point in time, psychology has been developed to the point of mathematical precision. The actions and reactions of cities and regions of ponies can be predicted with near 100% certainty. It is through this extensive development of the field of psychology that mind magic can exist in a controllable form in the first place.
Before one can venture into the details of spell creation, one must first know how a mind spell works.
When a mind spell is cast, the magical energy of the spell is absorbed by the nerve endings of the pony being affected by the spell. The nervous system then channels the energy directly into the brain of the pony, where it can then slightly alter the subject's thought process.
The study of spell creation, then, is the study of altering ponies' minds such that the mathematics of psychology produce the desired outcome.
This is where the study of spell effects comes in. The term "spell effects" refers to the prediction of the reactions of a population affected by a mind spell, including how the number affected changes the reaction and whether the affected ponies accept or reject the spell's effects.
With an extensive knowledge of this field and the magical ability to execute these spells, one can hope to influence entire nations and empires.
With the awesome power of this knowledge, there come two fundamental limitations: 1) the smaller the target group of a spell, the less likely they are to accept the effects of the spell and 2) the larger the target group, the more powerful the spell caster must be. In the absence of either, mind magic is nearly useless.
This pamphlet comprised the sum total of the lost knowledge of the Second Formatorium for over 2500 years. This information is, of course, public record now.
"The First Formatorium was created in Equestrian pre-history, about 500 years before the first Hearthswarming..."
- Encyclopedia Orosirianica, 7th Ed., 25 O.A.
Gusty appeared suddenly near the mouth of the cave in the Everfree Forest. He'd gone to everypony he could, all the dozens of friends he'd made in his travels across Equestria, and asked them to gather in this corner, far from the reaches of the Empire's terror.
He had no idea if anypony would show. It seemed an unfair expectation, asking a pony to stand against the hellish goat and his monsters. As he stepped into the cave, though, he heard activity inside, and he knew his call had been answered.
Slowly, he made his way to one raised end of the cavern, where he cleared his throat to address his guests.
"I've called you all together today because our livelihood is dying."
A quiet rumble of agreement went through the gathering.
"Grogar's onslaught against ponykind continues. Every day is another field destroyed, another village sacked, more families murdered and more ponies on the run. We can't go on like this. We need a way to fight back. A way to change Equestria for the better."
"But what can we do against that goat and his monsters?" a lone voice called in askance.
"We have to unite and put our power together. At least, the best of us have to. Living in our disparate settlements isn't working. He'll just bleed us to death."
"So, an army?"
"Sort of. We need a way to show ponies that it's possible to fight back. To change how they think about these threats.
"We need a Formatorium."
