//------------------------------// // Chapter Two: Crimes Against Celestia’s Law // Story: Astral Travels for Beginners // by Rainb0w Dashie //------------------------------// Twilight stepped into her main bedchamber and dropped her bags by the door. She had taken the earliest train out of Manehattan, so it was late morning by the time she had arrived to her castle, but she still had a lingering fatigue that hung off her body.  Her night was restless, plagued by wandering thoughts of what she had experienced, but now that she was home, she just wanted to push those thoughts out of her head and return to her normal princessly duties.  First and foremost, of course, was unpacking her bags.  She levitated her coat brushes and clothes into her various dressers scattered around the room, emptying her overnight bags rather quickly until all that remained were the two leather-bound books that she had stuffed to the very bottom hours prior.  She gazed at them through the zippered opening of the bags and contemplated heavily wether or not she should take them to the library or just throw them away. She picked them up in her magic and held them far away from her as if they were some foul-smelling detritus and hovered them over her refuse bin. Gazing at their covers however, she was reminded of why she had even bought them in the first place.  She wasn’t able to think much about it in the book-store, but the possibility of holding a forbidden arcane subject in her magic, the slight fleeting chance of being able to explore such a taboo study, stirred up a sort of naughty feeling inside of her. She wouldn’t begin to deny that she had spent her entire life as Celestia’s pupil wanting to study the forbidden magics. All forms of magic intrigued her, being the element of magic after all, but she also wasn’t one to disobey her mentor. So when she discovered that she was forbidden from studying them, let alone being in the same room as these illicit materials, whilst under threat of extreme punishment if she ever were to; she pushed those desires to the back of her mind where they lay dormant for years. With them before her now though, she couldn’t help but feel like a disobedient filly who, after repeated warnings, had snuck her way into her parent’s bedroom and then stumbled upon something she wasn't ever supposed to know existed.  She wasn’t about to begin to try to understand what she had experienced in the hotel room, but simply put she had a taste of something forbidden and she wanted to explore it more. The shopkeeper was right. It wasn’t a fantasy. It wasn't make believe. It was real, and it worked, and her scientific curiosity was beginning to kindle inside of her head.  But before she could even begin thinking about the scientific process a second thought blazed to the forefront of her mind. She was a princess, and she served Equestria. If these texts really were of the forbidden magics then they either needed to be destroyed or sent to Celestia herself to be disposed of properly. She brought the books over to her writing podium, lit a candle en lieu of opening the shades, and began to write a letter.  “Dear Princess Celestia.” She read aloud as she wrote. “While helping Rarity set up her Manehattan boutique I discovered a publication at one of the local booksellers that gave the impression of detailing specific techniques for the average pony to perform forbidden Astral Magic. After reviewing the text myself I found conclusive evidence that it was in fact an exposure of forbidden magical abilities and thus am sending it to you for your disposal. Yours Truly Princess Twilight Sparkle” She looked over her letter, scanning it for accuracy, and was about to call her dragon assistant into her bedchamber to send the items off when another thought quickly hit her.  “Wait!” She exclaimed mentally to herself.  She couldn’t send that letter, it was an admission of a crime. And not some low-level one like stealing an apple or whatever petty crimes that Equestrians committed. This was technically high treason, on the same level of invading Canterlot and trying to overthrow Equestria. The kind of things ponies got turned to stone or sent to Tartarus for. Or worse, she thought on. She’d heard rumors of unicorns throughout history having their horns ground to the nub for high-level magical crimes.  But she had to send it. As a princess she had a fiduciary duty to Equestria, and more importantly Celestia. So naturally that would overshadow any punishment she would receive for her runaway scientific curiosity. It was her duty as a princess to report any and all malfeasance; even if it was her own… But she couldn’t send it! She wasn’t about to get herself punished capitally for something that wasn’t really her fault. How was she supposed to know this stuff was legit? She didn’t knowingly commit a crime. She didn’t purposefully access forbidden information… Well, she did. But only because the shop keeper had taken advantage of her innate sense of curiosity. Would Celestia really punish her for that?  She had no way of knowing because she’d never deliberately disobeyed Celerstia before. She always followed her word to the letter; but now because of her inquisitiveness she had run afoul of it.  Twilight realized she has been pacing the room for some time as she turned over all the thoughts in her head. They sat heavy in her mind like cement in a mixer. She couldn’t bring herself to send the letter to Celestia. She couldn’t even look through more of the book without feeling like she was letting Celestia down. Thoughts of guilt replaced her bright curiosity from moments before, and as she looked back at her writing desk she swallowed hard.  She knew she had to do what was right and turn herself in to Celestia. She blinked away a welling wave of tears as she gethered the energy to willfully surrender herself over to her mentor, hoping that Celestia would find some share of mercy for her. Maybe all the good she had done over the years for Equestria would be enough to balance out the weight of her sins. Would Celestia’s Justice be blind?   She started re-writing her letter, frantically spilling her heart through her quill, but stopped briefly, and beheld the flame of the candle on her podium which was flickering wildly from all of her frenzied movements.  She watched it’s flame, frenetic and flashing, soon grow calm as her movements ceased. She gazed at the tiny, still fire that sat atop the wick and her thoughts flashed back to what she saw in the hotel room. The flame of the candle, the shadows on the wall, the buzzing in her ears, her body sleeping at the desk; all the while a brand new thought was forming.  “I used it… and it worked.” she said aloud to herself, the thought forming into a realization.  It had worked, without her magic. Just as the shopkeeper said it would. Following further down that same line of thinking, she concluded that she in fact didn’t use any forbidden magic at all, and therefore could legally experiment with the book before her as much as she wanted; as long as she was safe about it, as long as she didn’t ever use any of of her magic. Maybe she could make a case of it and present her findings to Celestia, argue that lower-level ascended alicorns could use these techniques with safe-guards in place.  Or, her thoughts coming in more rapidly as the guilt fell away from her, what if the book was a trap? Something designed to ensnare curious unicorns to unwittingly partake in forbidden magic without them even knowing? Hell, it almost worked on Twilight and she was a princess for pony’s sake.  She was a princess after all. She wasn’t a unicorn anymore. She wasn’t Celestia’s student anymore. She was technically part ruler, so it was her duty to protect equestria from possible threats such as this. She no longer had to pass-the-buck to Celestia every single time a threat emerged. She had agency now. She had autonomy in her decisions. As far as she was concerned, She’d have to comb through something such as this to find any and all possible crimes against Celestia’s law. It seemed obvious now as her fiduciary duty stared her right in the face. Twilight crumpled up the letters to Celestia in her magic and threw them into her refuse bin, wondering to herself how she could have ever gotten so worked up like that. But it was hard, she thought, to think past a kind of fear like that, especially one that has been instilled in her for her entire life.  She opened the book to find most of the pages fused together, forgetting in her panic that she had ruined the book in her first readthrough of it. Flipping the fused mass over to the next readable page came the unfortunate realization that her drool had soaked all the way through to the ‘Advanced Techniques’ section of the book.  Advance technique 1: The Wormhole Method step 1 While in a dark room, stare at the flame of a candle or other small light source until you have the vision of flame/light engraved into your vision; this will serve as a focal point for you to focus all of your will and intent into. Those skilled in visualization can skip this step by simply envisioning a focal point. For even more advanced projections, during this step visualize the color of the specific vibration you are trying to achieve (For more information, refer to the previous section on Vibratory Colors)  Step 2 Get into a seated or meditative position, whichever one is more comfortable for the caster, as long as the back is kept straight to keep the caster's chakras in alignment, and close your eyes. Follow the focal point in your vision as it begins to wander and wait for it to settle. The point it settles on will determine the location of your Third Eye, or in other words, the spot you will be projecting through. step 3 Begin to move closer to your focal point, simply by envisioning you are getting closer or by repeating a mantra to yourself such as "I'm getting closer".  As your focal point begins to come closer it will start to spin, a rule of hoof to keep in mind is that a clockwise spin means you are moving forward and a counter-clockwise spin means you are moving away. If you have achieved a clockwise spin you are now inside of your focal point, or ‘the wormhole' as some projectors call it. Imagine you are following a ball of light through the wormhole and you're trying to keep it in sight. This ball of light is the exit of the wormhole. Focus all of your intent on following this ball of light. step 4 Eventually, with enough practice, you will reach the opening of the wormhole and exit into what projectors call "the star field", which is essentially a large open space where you'll begin to see stars flying by, quickly or slowly, depending on the speed at which you are traveling.  You might see a face or two come into your vision and look at you and then move out of the way, this is because you are now in the Astral, however you are not in a stable place yet. It is very important that you don't stop and look at the faces or the stars as they go by. Otherwise you might get stopped there and get stuck in the star field.  The goal here is to maintain focus and move past the start field. If successful, eventually the speed will decrease and you'll be able to stop and move around as you please; you are now in a stable projection.  *** “Twilight?”  spike said shaking the alicorn awake “Why are you sleeping on the floor?”