Infernal Passions

Twilight sighed as she set down another book from the collection. Book sorting day was one of her favorites, but this was another level of enjoyment. A gentle breeze flitted through the crumbling walls of the Castle of the Two Sisters, drifting lazily into the grand library.

A few weeks ago, Twilight had been given sole rulership of Equestria - and with it - a premortem inheritance consisting of this castle and all its contents. Most other things that mattered to the royal succession had been passed at abdication, but this castle - having been built by Celestia and Luna's orders during a tumultuous time from which few paper records survived - had, by de facto right, become the sole property of the sisters and not the position of ruler of Equestria.

That matter had been resolved when the two sisters had willingly given it to Twilight. With the Tree of Harmony now rooted in the central courtyard, Twilight felt it best to order some rebuilding done on the rather decrepit keep. It had once been glorious - much as she had seen through the use of Zecora's potion and the view into the world in which Nightmare Moon ruled from a well-maintained version of the structure - and Twilight wished it to return to that state.

Working towards that end, Twilight now sorted through the contents of the castle - obviously having started in the library for her own personal enjoyment. Rebuilding the castle would be no mean feat, but it would be vastly easier than when she had just been Princess of Friendship. Then she had the budget of a minor lordling, but now she had Equestria behind her all the way.

Taking up the next book in her perusal of the library, Twilight began reading. Of course, it was written in an old dialect of some form of Ancient Equestrian, which made understanding it that much more difficult, but it seemed straightforward enough.

"Insitructionnen di quore ut Surrumomum..." Twilight paused, working her way through translating the text as she went. "Instructions on the art of Summoning? Summoning what?" She read on, tenderly flipping the pages over one by one as an automatic transcribing spell transferred the content from the disintegrating book to a new, less rustic looking volume. The spell wouldn't translate, and all the spelling mistakes the author had made would be transferred over without fail, but it would allow for more careful study later.

"Tikal est uned iv surrumoe esen valumennik di caulest!" Twilight read and then pressed her lips into a fine line while tapping a hoof against her chin. "Caulest... caulest..." The word was unfamiliar to her, as was much of the line. It could be a misspelling - perhaps several in a string - but the rest of the line wasn't helping her towards understanding what it meant by inference.

Sure, Twilight knew that 'surrmoe' was likely a variant spelling of 'surrumomii' or one of its conjugations - in other words, it dealt with summoning - but beyond she could get very little. 'Something it is done something summoned something something can't something.' It really wasn't a very easy line to translate and she'd have to look into it later. Possibly with a proper scholar of such dialects with her.

Returning to the remaining lines, Twilight passed over the neat hoofwriting that scrawled its way across the page. "Tsi quesi minen surrumomii, nichesaste unedem igreditate. Solusasem, fillerem fe iqueri aricanni." Twilight nodded, picking out a few choice words from the bunch.

"Requires... a philter of liquor? No... ichor? Ink! A philter of ink... aricanni?" Twilight paused, looking over the writing a few more times. "Magical ink? Hmmm..." Twilight took a breath in, looking back over the page. "First phrase indiscernible at current time." She muttered as she jotted down the same words on a notepad. "Next phrases... If you want to summon... them? Summon them, you will need certain ingredients. Particularly, a philter of magical ink."

Reading on, Twilight noted the other ingredients listed for the summoning in a form of Equestrian she was far more familiar with. If Twilight was to guess, the book she was transcribing was likely older than the princesses - if it were possible. The forms of the words were many times even older than the somewhat recognizable Ancient Equestrian forms she had studied at various points. Was she looking at an older dialect? Possibly the theorized 'proto-Equestrian'‽ It sent a shiver of excitement through her as she read out the strange characters with the hesitant slowness of a foal.

Slowly, the passage took shape. The ritual for summoning 'them' - whoever 'them' was - was taking shape. It required a hefty amount of supplies - some of which were given name Twilight didn't recognize on first reading. What she also didn't understand was the use of certain verb forms that referred to an unspecified third person - the summoned by what Twilight could tell.

The question if whoever it was was referred to in that indiscernible first phrase, Twilight was unsure - as with many things about the summoning process. Was 'caulest' the clue, or perhaps 'valumennik'? Twilight couldn't be sure. What she could be sure of was that the whole process of translating and combing through the tome was greatly exciting! So much knowledge to be gained!

Turning the page she paused. The next two pages were covered in drawings. On the left page was a picture showing a skull of what looked like a melding of a goat and a pony with black, tendrils of hair that hung loosely and disorderly across the textured bone. There was no text on the page to help Twilight understand what she was looking at - and she was almost happy for it.

The page on the right had what appeared to be a spell circle. Intricate, yet oh so simple in its design. Its median was an upside down star while the focus was a typical circle. If it were just that, Twilight would've assumed it to be an elementary spell for beginners to learn the subtle art of invocations through the use of spell circles. The runes, though, proved any such theory wrong.

They were old, far older than even those on the standing stones that had released the Pillars. These were primordial sigils of power, and - if texts close to the period in which this spell was likely crafted were to be believed - likely were the spelling of a name. It was the best way to summon something, and still was. Calling somepony's name usually made them pay attention, and making their name a part of the spell would make the arrival almost compulsory.

Twilight mulled this over, letting her spell transcribe the rest of the tome in the background. The fact that this book was in this library meant there had to be a reason behind it - Celestia and Luna weren't exactly avid readers of fiction a thousand years ago. This book had been placed in the most secure library in all the lands of Equestria. It was either considered to be of such historic importance that it needed to be preserved when it was first placed in the library or was thought a danger.

Considering everything that Twilight had seen, it seemed the possibility of it being dangerous was greater than the theory of it having historical significance - though the fact it was written in a form of the language that was either dead or dying outside of academic circles did lend the smallest amount of chance that historic importance was on the table. The tome was an enigma, and Twilight was itching to solve it.

Twilight licked her lips as she etched out the last chalk line. After many hours of work, Twilight had successfully set up the ritual in addition to a litany of fail safes and security measures. Through the use of wards and a few of her own spell circles, Twilight had made it so that the circle was in a sort of magical one-way mirror. Twilight could affect things inside with her magic, but couldn't be touched herself by any known forms magic on the inside.

There were also a variety of restraining charms set out, including a rudimentary circle of salt that - though steeped in superstition and so of dubious efficacy - was at least good for the nerves and anything that might get summon via the spell that was equally as superstitious as those ponies who had first conjectured its usefulness.

Also snails. If she summoned snails, that ring would certainly keep her safe.

It was a complex maze of safety nets and shields that should be more than enough to keep Twilight safe. Twilight herself wasn't so sure about the whole thing. Sure, she had used the highest level safety measures against not only demons and devils but extra-dimensional horrors, spacial aberrations, kaiju, and immense shifts in luminosity and temperature - in addition to a little number Twilight had cooked up herself that provided an SPF rating of five hundred thousand as well as stopping in excess of five hundred rads.

Whether she was prepared was entirely up to when you decided she was 'prepared'. For many, such an elaborate set up was enough to call the alicorn 'prepared', while for others it was a few sheets of lead, tons of concrete, battalions of guards, and camera displays away from the mark - possibly a few red shirts as well, but that depended on how cinematic one wanted to be with their preparations.

Another school of though would say that Twilight hadn't prepared enough because she was still going through with the casting of the unknown spell.

Stepping behind the final protective ring of chalk, Twilight nodded to herself before turning to the copied version of the tome. It was strange seeing such a perfect rendition of the old book written down on such new paper - though as time went on her library was progressively getting more and more full of such books. It did her heart good to see such ancient knowledge being preserved so effectively - truly the inner librarian had never left the princess.

Reading over the last line of the spell's directions, Twilight looked back to the innermost spell circle, licking her lips as her horn flared to life in thrashing bands of arcane power. The room began to crackle with the power the alicorn harnessed as she stared down the summoning sigil.

Slowly, the intricately drawn designs began to pulsate with life as more and more magic was pushed into them. Twilight furrowed her brow in concentration, pouring all the more power into the spell as she prepared herself for the worst whilst desperately hoping for the best.

A moment later, the room was consumed in a blinding flash of light as the spell reached its zenith and fired off with a thunder crack of power. Twilight winced away, thankful for the light shielding though wishing she had put a noise dampening spell in the mix.

As the light dimmed enough to let the light shielding spell fade, Twilight found herself staring towards something she had not expected despite all of her preparations. There, standing in the middle of the summoning ritual, a bold as day, was a creature. Not just any creature, though, but a creature that was very much like a pony - yet very much not like one.

Twilight gulped down her anxiety, the fear of the unknown now very present inside of her. She could only hope that the price of knowledge wasn't too high.

"Celestia help me..."