Forbidden Spells 101

Twilight walked out of the post office with a skip to her steps. Finally the book she had in order had come in! She looked back at her saddle bags and her smile grew just a little wider. Sure the book might have been on the forbidden list but Celestia had tasked her with learning all about magic and if the magic of friendship was included then surely forbidden magic was included as well. All she had to do was make sure the library was locked up and Spike was out of the house, both of which were easy enough. The magical lock she installed and making sure she kept study of the book strictly to the basement would take care of the first. And sending Spike off to Rarity’s would take care of the second for as long as she needed.

She waved to Applejack who was working her stall as she walked by. With a hum of her horn she pulled out a list and marked off “Check the post office to see if the order has arrived” and went on to the next item on the list “Pick up your order of magic supplies at ‘Magical supplies and More’”. Considering this was mostly an earth pony town the store mainly had more More than magical supplies but it was the only place that took shipments of said material. Of course she could have it sent straight to the library but bulk shipments to stores were much quicker than to her home since she did shop in bulk. Honestly she probably bought the vast majority of the magical supplies in the town she thought. She filed that thought away so she didn't dwell on it. They probably expanded the magical section just because of her patronage. At least it was covered by the crown.

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle as she walked down the road towards the magic shop. She was just so excited and who could blame her? A brand new book on magic all to herself. Who could resist that? Well who could resist that if instead of books it was something that they liked as much as she liked books. She was shaken from her deep thoughts as she walked face first into a door. “Ow!” With a yelp she fell onto her rump. She rubbed her smarting nose with a fore hoof and once her sight wasn’t blurry with tears she looked up to find that she was at the store already. She let out a sigh and stood up. “You really need to pay more attention while you’re walking Twilight even if you’re thinking about a book.” She said to herself as she opened the door and went inside.

“Welcome to Ma- oh Twilight? It's good to see you!” A green stallion waved from across the counter. “Your shipment came in just this morning. We have it all documented and you paid before hoof so if you wanted to take it home today you’re more than welcome. Though with how much you got I’d understand if you want to take it home in batches instead of all at once.”

Twilight waved back. “Good morning Silver Wave.” She walked up to the counter and pulled out another list. “Taking it all now won’t be a problem assuming you have everything I ordered.” She waves the list at him.

“Yes, yes it's all there. I checked it myself.” He lets out a laugh and hops off his chair while motioning to Twilight to follow him. “I learned well enough last time to check it twice so you don't have to worry about your list.” As he led her through the store she glanced over at his other wares idly. It was all fairly standard day to day stuff. Shampoo’s, snacks, cleaners and other mundane stuff. In the corner she saw their small offering of magical supplies. Its sad offering was why she had to put in special orders for most of the things she needed because even if they did have what she wanted they would have nowhere near enough of it.

Twilight’s excitement deflates a little. “B-but my list!” She waves it again at him to emphasize its importance that seemed to be escaping him.

He lets out another belly laugh while leading her out the back door. “You’re more than welcome to double check if you want.” There’s a row of wrapped up pallet’s. He walks past the first couple before stopping before one with Twilight’s cutie mark on it.

Twilight see’s her cutie and nods. With a sad sigh she puts her list back into her saddle bags. “Fine, I’ll just go over it later. I’m kinda in a hurry today anyway. I’m all good to go right?” Her horn flares and the entire pallet is enveloped in a magenta aura that matches the one around her horn.

“Yeah you’re all clear to go. Same time next month?”

A flash of her horn and a bag of bits is lifted out of her saddle bags and deposited into Silver’s fore hoof. “Yup. Here's payment for next month so same time, same place.” She gives Silver a wave before walking back to the library with the pallet floating behind her. The walk to the libray was quick.

In order to fit everything into the library she had to unwrap the pallet and levitate everything in separately. Sure it took a while but she wasn’t just going to leave it all outside. Besides the thought of organizing it all almost made her forget about the new book in her bags. Almost. Most of the chalk went to her desk, bottom drawer on the right. Her paper went into the cupboard next to the desk filling the top and bottom shelf. The various reagents went almost everywhere. The kitchen, the bathroom, her bedroom and her desk was restocked with various things. Once she was done stocking the rest of the house she was left with a little bit of everything leftover. Pulling out her supply list she compared its contents to the things she put away. She nodded once while magicing up the extra supplies. She was about to head down to the basement until she remembered Spike should still be home. “Spike! I think Rarity needed help at the boutique today so you can go over and help if you want!”

There was a crash up stairs before a purple blur sped past her “GotitTwilightthanksalot!” The door to the library shut with a loud bang. A gust of wind blew through the library as it tried to chase the blur only to hit the door and disperse.

Twilight shook her head and smiled while locking the front entrance door with a special magical matrix scanning lock. Everyone attuned to it would be able to open the door while everypony else would find it locked. Perfect for what she wanted. As her excitement started to bubble up again she whistled a tune while heading into the basement. It was off key but that didn’t bother her. Not that it would have bothered her anyway but today it really didn't bother her. She set the extra materials onto the table in the corner while setting the book onto the pedestal. She ran a hoof over the cover and suppressed a shudder. “Keep calm Twilight.” She thought to herself. “Don't lose it now that you’re so close.” ‘Advanced Magical Arts for the Truly Gifted’ read the cover of the book. Slowly she opened with a hoof. She always used her hoof to open a new book because it felt more intimate, felt like she knew the book better, like she was putting care into it. With the book open she got to reading.

While the table of contents excited her the rest of the start of the book was standard affair. A Foreword written by somepony who’s name she didn’t recognize and a fairly standard warning about practicing magic that was standard in all magic books containing spells. The warning went over how learning new magics was always dangerous and to take every precaution necessary including having a buddy with you in case the worst happens. She rolled her eye’s. “These things always blow the danger out of proportion. Horrific death and dismemberment?” She flipped back to the table of contents for a moment. “Yeah, I don't think so.” Seeing what was contained in the book she was having trouble seeing just why this book was forbidden if all of it's spells were so tame.

She flipped to the first spell in the book. ‘Eternal Watering’ it read. It looked like it would keep plants watered for quite a while. No spell could last forever so the name was a bit misleading but it should last for quite a while. Maybe two casts a year would keep all the plants watered in the library. She chuckled as she thought how happy Spike would be to lose one of his chores. “A good place to start.” She thought with a chuckle. Looking at the instructions her eyes widened just a bit. For such a simple effect it sure looked complicated. Sure the effect lasted a while but she just figured it would take a lot of energy, not such a complex rune equation. A shiver ran down her spine at the thought. “Oh this is going to be so much fun!”

From her supplies she grabbed a piece of chalk with her magic while studying the runic equation she was going to have to draw. She didn't recognize all of the runes but from the brief reading it looked like it should do what it said. The unknown rune's must be the reason it lasted so long. Quickly she made a note to research those runes for future applications before she set to work. The basic setup of the runic equation was quite a common one. It consisted of three circles, one big one with a smaller one inside of it and a smaller one inside of that one. This part was so practiced that she could do it with her eye’s closed which she almost did since her attention was on studying the runes she was going to have to draw between said circles. She walked over to the circle while levitating the book closer and put it on the floor. Leaning down to get a closer look at the runes she started the slow process of duplicating them from the picture to her own circle on the floor. The outer circle had the most runes but it was actually the easiest since it consisted of simple common runes. She skipped the next ring since it had the runes she didn't recognize and went to the innermost circle. This one was different from the other two since it was made up of the rules that dictated what the circle could do like regulating how much energy it could take, how fast it could take it, how many it could take it from, where it put said energy and so on. As she wrote them down she recognized most of it and could read it as ‘drains magic from those in the circle at a modest rate to power the runes contained within the circle’. Well that’s how she would explain it to a laypony at least.

Having finished those two parts she reviewed what she had written down so far. After triple checking it she was satisfied with her work. Right as she was about to start the next part her stomach grumbled. Tempting as it was to just push through her hunger and finish past experience convinced her to put her work on hold to get something to eat. The last thing she needed was Spike walking in on her having passed out from hunger again. Setting the chalk down next to the book she made her way up stairs and to the kitchen. She opened the fridge and was contemplating what would be quick and easy until she saw a bowl with a note on it. ‘Twilight I know you’re probably going to just eat some junk if i didn't make you something so here is a salad. We have your favorite dressing too so don't forget it - Spike’.

Twilight couldn’t help but smile at the thoughtfulness of her friend. Looking a bit farther in the back she found the dressing and set the both on the table. Once a generous helping of salad dressing was drizzled on to the top of the salad she dug in. While eating the salad her mind kept going back to the rune equation in her basement. Some of the parts of it were obvious about how it worked but it was worded strangely. Definitely a sign this was written before the standerizatoin of runic magics. Hopefully they worked the way they should since besides being worded weirdly they basically said the same thing a standard rune equation would said.

She was so deep in thought that she didn't even realize she was putting an empty fork into her mouth and chewing nothing. A blush crossed her face and she was thankful that Spike wasn’t home to see it happening. The little dragon hardly needed another embarrassing story to hold over her head. Twilight tossed the bowl and fork into the sink to soak and headed back down into the basement. Picking up her chalk she did a quick check over what was already done before continuing. The middle strip of runes took her the longest as she had to go slow on the unknown runes. They were incredibly complex considering when she read the rest of the rune sentence it seemed like some simple runes would have worked just as well. After painfully slow writing she stood up completely on her hooves and let out a grunt of satisfaction as her back popped. She did a quick glance at the diagram in the book and compared it to hers on the floor. Not seeing any differences she set the book back on the pedestal and grabbed a scroll. She could at least leave Spike a note so he would know where to find her if something went wrong. ‘Spike I’m in the basement testing a new spell. Come home in roughly an hour to check on me please as I may require your assistance with the clean up - Twilight’.

Satisfied with the note she lit her horn and it disappeared in a puff of greenish smoke. Safety precautions now taken care of she stepped into the middle of the circle and started to pour magic into the circle to jump start its effect. As the runes started to glow she felt its magic starting to reach out for a target to affect. With some effort she guided the magical tendrils to the plants upstairs. The effort left her panting. “T-this shouldn’t be taking this much energy.” Now that she thought about it the circle was still draining energy when it should have already stopped with it's task completed. She would have been more worried if she wasn’t feeling so tired. Her eyelids were starting to droop and a large yawn escaped her mouth. “I need to… I need to stop this before…” Twilight fell face first on to the ground unconscious. The circle kept glowing for several minutes afterwards before dimming, leaving the unicorn slumped over in the middle of the circle. The room darkened as the candles started to burn themselves out.