“Well we didn’t really bring much water... Maybe about two days’ worth in this heat.” Celestia said, hours later, as they walked. The spire had gotten a little closer, but they had walked a few miles at least.

“Look, do you see that on the horizon?” Twilight asked, shielding her eyes with one hand and pointing with the other.

“It looks like... green.” Luna said.

“I’ll take a look.” Dawn said, launching into the air and hovering a good deal up.

“There should be binoculars in here... Ah, here we go. Dawn! Catch!” Twilight said, digging through the pack a moment and using a spell to propel the thing up towards the hovering woman. She caught them, gave Twilight a thumbs up and looking through them.

“It looks like a treeline, and not some desert trees either!” She called down.

“Come on down then, there might be somewhere to refill our water!” Luna called. Dawn did as she was asked and returned the binoculars.

“Before you ask, do you really think I’d pass a sightseeing chance in a place I’ve never been?” Twilight said when Celestia gave her a look.

“What else do you have in there?” She asked.

“I have an archaic map, a compass that doesn’t work, a bunch of sample flasks and containers and a bunch of journals.” Twilight answered.

“Glad to see one of us likes to be prepared.” Dawn said.

“Indeed. I give it about another three hours until we reach the treeline. If this place has a normal night and day cycle, it should be getting about dark when we get there. For something so dangerous, this is incredibly boring...” Luna said.

“Wait, what’s an Archaic map?” Dawn asked.

“Well, it’s like a normal map. The only difference is that it records what you see in real time.” Twilight replied.

“So it’ll fill out wherever we go?” Dawn summarized.

“Yes, but it’s difficult to read if you didn’t cast the spell to make it so, it warps proportions a lot so telling distances is awkward.” Twilight answered, pulling the thing out and showing it. The thing looked like a large line with a circle at one end. As they were walking, the line inched forward ever so slightly.

“That’s cool.” Dawn said.

“I didn’t know you had one of those, the spell fell out of practice long ago and the only blank maps are lost.” Celestia said.

“I found it in the restricted section about a year ago, the pages were scattered but I pieced it together.” Twilight explained.

“What kind of other things have you learned that I don’t know about?” Celestia asked.

“I don’t know, probably a lot. I spent a whole year restoring, piecing together the pages of and learning from ancient and destroyed texts. I didn’t exactly like all of it, some if it was incredibly dark and dangerous...” Twilight answered.

“Some things were destroyed for a reason... I trust your judgement on what you released, learned from and kept secret.” Celestia said.

“I actually put one up in flames again after I figured out what it was... You don’t want to know, either.” Twilight said, shivering at the thought of it.

“Oh that one... I remember ripping the pages out of it and ripping those in half three times before scattering them about the restricted area.” Luna said, shivering as well.

“If it disturbs the both of you that much then I certainly don’t want to know...” Celestia said.

“Anyways, you said you learned about plenty of dark magics. I invented at least half of them, what sort of things can you do?” Luna asked.

“I read and learned everything from the big unnamed tome of black magic, the one with a moon engraved into the cover. There was a book on witchcraft that was actually not the slightest bit evil, an assortment of scattered scrolls... Oh, there was this one that had nothing on the cover at all. It was full of weaponized magic and dark magic. There was a warning inside of the cover explaining that they weren’t to be used even to defend oneself in times of peace.” Twilight explained, stopping to think.

“I know the tome and the book of witchcraft, you’ll have to tell me what was on the scrolls... But that last book is dangerous, Twilight. That was the magic Celestia and I developed very early in our lives, when Equestria was full of war. It may be a good thing you learned it here, though, if it is as dangerous as Ryu said.” Luna said.

“Those were dark times...” Celestia said lowly.

“Don’t worry, I don’t think I’d even want to use them unless we were dying.” Twilight said.

“I think we would have to use them in that situation as well...” Celestia agreed.

“Let’s hope you don’t, then. I’ve got this sinking feeling in my gut...” Twilight said softly.

“Why is that?” Dawn asked.

“Wasn’t the treeline between us and the spire five minutes ago?” Twilight said, pointing to where the spire seemed to have crept up on them. Its shadow was over them before they stopped.

“That... Shouldn’t be here... Perhaps the treeline was a mirage?” Luna suggested.

“That would be logical... but if we all saw the same thing...” Celestia started.

“This world is strange and ever changing, at least according to you and Ryu. I wouldn’t put it past it to mess with our minds.” Dawn said, looking up at the massive dark thing. They started walking towards it, but Twilight’s step faltered and she nearly fell over.

“What’s wrong?” Celestia asked, catching her.

“I-I... I don’t know... Just... All of a sudden my entire body started hurting... Agh, my head hurts so much...” Twilight said in a mish-mash way, holding her head. She dropped to her knees after a moment and yelled out, as if in pain. Celestia was rushing to help her back up and find out what was wrong, but they all gaped in awe as what looked like stubs or joints slowly protruded from the girl’s back. They stopped growing after a certain point, but it seemed as if nearly half of of wing frame had formed. There was blood oozing slowly from where the things protruded, the red staining her shirt above it.

“T-Twilight?... Twilight?!” Celestia called, horrified.

“It’s alright sister, she just passed out. Let’s get into this spire thing and see if there’s any way we can find out what’s wrong in there.” Luna said, putting a hand on her sister’s shoulder.

“A-Alright...” Celestia said after a moment, picking the girl up bridal style and quickly walking towards the hulking structure.

“Come on sis, if she’s any bit like me besides looks she’s fine.” Dawn said, catching up to Celestia.

“I... I guess you’re right... It’s just... This place is so dangerous... If there’s anything wrong with her it could cost her life or ours... And if anything happens to us here, it happens back in our world.

They made their way closer to the spire and found that the extreme heat the desert had been giving off was now a strange chill. Twilight moved in her unconscious state, making a grumbling noise.

“It appears she is stirring. We should perhaps wait until she wakes up before we enter.” Luna suggested.

“Alright.” Celestia said, setting the girl down against the wall of the spire. The odd half-formed frames on her back twitched oddly before her eyes opened a few moments later.

“What... What was that?” She asked, putting a hand to her head.

“We don’t really know... We’ve reached the spire, though.” Dawn said. Twilight turned around to see the structure she was leaning on was in fact the spire. She also noticed her new appendages.

“That’s... new...” She said after a few moments.

“We’ll try and figure out what’s wrong when we get to the top.” Celestia said, pulling the girl to her feet.

“Um... Alright... I guess... They hurt, though, and I can feel them...” Twilight said, swaying a bit on her feet.

“Well, if they are what I think they are, they’re only partially formed. If they continue forming how they have, you might be in for a lot of pain. Try moving them.” Luna said.

Twilight nodded and concentrated. It was a few moments, but the things twitched a few times.

“It doesn’t look like most of the muscles and ligaments have formed yet, We’ll figure out what’s causing this if we can, but first let’s get to the top of this thing.” Celestia said, finding a small entrance nearly hidden by perspective.

“Can you walk alright? You seem a bit woozy...” Dawn asked.

“Oh, you know... Suddenly what might be wing frames burst out of my back in the single most painful thing I’ve ever experienced.” Twilight said sarcastically, stumbling a bit as she took another step.

“Well don’t be an ass about it and let me help you.” Celestia said with a light laugh, throwing the girl’s arm over her shoulder. They made their way up the spiraling ramp that was the interior of the spire. They assumed there would be many floors, but as they trudged up the thing for more than ten minutes straight they realized the top was probably the only floor.

They finally reached the massive doors after fifteen minutes and found it unlocked and practically open already.

“The material this thing is made of looks like obsidian, yet these hinges are smashed apart...” Dawn said, examining the door.

“It’s not obsidian... Do you feel that?” Luna said, putting a hand on the wall.

“It’s solidified magical energy...” Twilight said.

“It is...” Celestia agreed.

“Well then that gives me even more reason to worry about the fact that these pure solidified magical energy hinges are smashed to dust.” Dawn said.

“I don’t think I want to find whatever did it...” Luna said.

“I’m going to have to agree with you on that one... Let’s check inside, though... I have a feeling this door wasn’t broken into; but out of.” Celestia said.

“I can walk on my own now...” Twilight said when Celestia helped her back to her feet from where she had sat down against the wall. Celestia nodded and they cautiously made their way into the room. It was relatively clean, save a few demolished pieces of furniture. There was something carved into the wall between two gilded doors. Celestia, Luna and Dawn looked at it with concern.

“This prison can’t hold me any longer... My mark on this place has been carved. This world will go mad, and every other world with it.” Twilight shakily read, as if she barely understood it. The other three were surprised by this.

“Twilight, you can read these glyphs?” Celestia asked.

“Barely... I don’t remember any books on them though...” Twilight replied.

“This language died off thousands of years ago... At least, for the most part. It’s a verbal representation of a very specific type of magical power only known to people like us.” Luna said.

“So you ARE getting wings... cool.” Dawn said, poking at the maimed frame on Twilight’s back.

”That really hurts you know...” Twilight grumbled.

“Are you tired?” Celestia asked.

“More like exhausted... If you didn’t notice, the sun fell faster than we thought it would...” Twilight said, pointing to a window where the starless sky could be seen.

“But it was at least an hour until nightfall when we entered the spire...” Luna said.

“Perhaps we were going up that ramp longer than we thought... Or the days are slightly shorter...” Dawn said with a shrug. “Now, back to the crisis at hand, Twilight understands the ancient tongue.” She continued.

“What does the message mean exactly?” Twilight asked.

“There is one like us, kind of like DIscord, but instead of chaos he was enveloped in madness. He was paranoid and cruel, closer to evil than any villainous creature you’ve seen before.” Celestia explained.

“What was his name?” Twilight asked.

“Nobody knows. Everyone called him Asura, though we know that’s not his real name. We only knew him for a short time before he was consumed by madness and we destroyed him.” Luna replied.

“And I can read the language he used, why?” Twilight asked.

“Not completely sure, but perhaps you’re starting to becoming nearly as powerful as we are. That’s the only thing I can think of.” Celestia answered.

“And if you’re growing wings, that only adds to it.” Dawn piped in.

“I guess it does.” Celestia agreed.

“Sister, you do recognize these doors... Right?” Luna said from where she stood with a hand on one of the two large doors in which the message was carved between. It had a lunar eclipse carved into it. Dawn walked over to it and she apparently recognized it too.

The door Celestia and Twilight were in front of was identical except for the carving. It was a solar eclipse.

“Why, it’s our chambers. From the old castle. I need to see what this place really is.” Celestia said and her hands started glowing with her brilliant magic. She quickly, almost faster than the other three could follow, drew a string of glyphs in the air. When she finished she gained a look of deep concentration.

“This isn’t any normal material... It’s pure solidified dark magical energy.” She started. She gasped when she looked at Twilight. “And an amount of that energy is slowly being siphoned off by small pockets of the same energy in varying places in your body...” She continued to Twilight.

“That... That would explain why this change happened when we got close to the spire...” Luna said.

“I’ve used this spell to examine you before, Twilight, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen these pockets of energy...” Celestia said.

“Maybe entering this world with us somehow unlocked the potential for this change to happen... But that potential would have to had been there in the first place.” Dawn said. The three looked at her.

“Alright... Me understanding an ancient language, an excruciatingly painful transformation that will probably be slow going and even more painful... And some ultimate evil at the end of an assumed epic quest... All of that I can handle... That’s probably because I’m exhausted and can barely think straight...” Twilight started, putting a hand over her face as she leaned against a wall.

“I’ll probably freak out tomorrow morning, but that can wait until I can sleep. Celestia, if this is your old chambers I’m stealing your bed.” She continued after a few moments. She proceeded to push open the doors and walk in. Celestia laughed softly and followed her.

Author's Note

so this chapter was written across the span of about a month or two, so excuse me if it jumps around a bit.
especially at the end...
The end I just wrote in a bout of sleep deprived boredom...