It’s time to start my project. Project build a world I call it.
I raised my left hand and said “Power of the Creator.” I felt a weight come down on me, one that was surprisingly absent before. Guess I never noticed that the planet didn’t have an atmosphere (So that’s why my ocean boiled away).
I flew into space and looked around. The debris of the moon was still there. All that remained of the moon was a ring of dust and mile wide rocks wrapped around the planet, the remnants of a body that humanity once looked to for its beauty. I raised my right hand and said “Power of the destroyer.” The cloud of stone started to glow orange. When I was satisfied with the molten glob I clenched my right hand into a fist and caused the cloud to collapse in on itself. I pulled the glowing planetoid to me and commanded that it remain with the planet. I cooled the new moon and began attacking it with telekinetic strikes (the moon just isn't the same if it isn't all beat up) and gave it a gentle push to start it on its orbit.
- Journal of Kokusho
Day 7
-Sanctum-
Twilight was in a panic again, the mare’s heart raced and her eyes darted back and forth. She wasn’t looking for anything, but the sheer ridiculousness of what Princess Luna had just said to her made her question the validity of her situation.
“What do you mean by I died? ” Twilight fumed.
“It is exactly as I said, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna responded calmly.
She chuckled awkwardly at Luna. In her mind it wouldn't be to far fetched for a crew of camera wielding ponies to leap out of the curtains at any moment. The images of her nightmare flashed through her mind, causing her to cringe. “Well, no offense princess, but I’m right here. There’s no way that I died.”
Luna sighed and stared out at Canterlot. “Spike sent us a letter after you foolishly ran off alone. My sister and I rushed to the safe and prepared to send the Elements directly to Spike.” The princess of the night bit her lower lip and looked down at the young mare beside her. Twilight was like a daughter to Celestia and like another sister to Luna. “However, shortly after we prepared them the Element of Magic’s gem drained of all energy and fell dormant.”
“I don’t understand. What does that have to do with me dying?” Twilight was shaking her head; half of it was her trying to make heads or tails of the situation, while the other half was her denying even the slightest possibility of her death.
“As I’m sure you know Twilight, Celestia lost her connection with the elements which is why they were powerless stones when you and your friends first found them,” The lunar princess said. “Other than losing their connections with their chosen wielders, the only time the elements fall dormant are when a current wielder dies.”
“Neither myself, nor my sister could sense your magical presence. You were gone!” Luna yelled forcefully. Her gaze had hardened at Twilight. Luna’s teal eyes drilled into the young mare, causing Twilight to backpedal away from the window. “My sister was on the verge of tears, and then suddenly your element came back to life and shone just as bright as before!” She stomped a hoof, the sound of cracking marble filled the room. A pregnant silence sat between the two mares as Luna ground her hoof into the crumbled stone of her floor. The alicorn’s horn began to glow with silver wisps of light as she fashioned her spell. She violently threw back her head, whipping her extravagant teal mane away from her face and releasing the gathered energy.
Immediately, Twilight noticed two things wrong: First, was that Luna’s room became much darker, as if the sun had been lowered, though it was nowhere near time for the arrival of the night. Second, all of the sounds of the outside world had been silenced; she could hear neither the chirping of the birds in the royal garden, nor the activities of the guard ponies. Twilight’s horn tingled from the power of Luna’s magic and the sensation of cold water splashing against her coat spread across her entire body. The young mare started to step away from her princess, as beads of cool sweat to trickled down the side of her head . Luna was behaving irrationally, Twilight could only guess at what Luna was going to do.
Luna took a step towards Twilight. The princess held her head low and her eyes were alight with magical power. “When the element of magic returned to life, I felt something else come with it, a dark presence,” she informed as she glared at Twilight. Continuing her menacing approach, she raised her head and looked down at the shaking unicorn. “At first I thought that perhaps a shade had taken hold of your corpse”- The Princess of the Night was now towering over her subject. Using her powerful forelegs, Luna shoved Twilight over and pinned the mare on the floor. Twilight could only whimper as the forceful hooves of the alicorn held her firm. -“but now that you stand before me, I can feel what afflicts you. Death’s Essence. Twilight,that dark power must be purged from you. I pray that I am not too late.” Luna lowered her horn until it was mere inches above Twilight’s heaving chest. A single spark of silvery magic arched from the princess’s horn like lightning to metal rod, soon the single spark turned into a raging stream of lightning like magic.
“B-but princess, I’ve never heard of-,” A searing lance of pain shot through Twilight’s chest, causing the mare to instinctively arch her back and shriek like a primal beast. The magic felt like it was flaying every nerve ending in her body at the same time. It was as if somepony had placed the sun inside of her bosom and the glowing sphere was trying to burn its way through her flesh to freedom. Her eye’s rolled back in her head as pained tears soaked her muzzle. Her senses were so oversaturated that if it were not for the torn and ragged feeling in her throat she wouldn’t have even known that she was screaming.
A dark smoky aura started to rise from Twilight’s coat as Luna continued to feed magic into her exorcism spell. The air in her chambers was quickly starting to smell of ozone from all of the magical discharge, but Luna couldn’t stop, she had to save Twilight. Tears welled up in the alicorn’s eyes as she watched her sister’s beloved student and her friend writhing on her floor in unbelievable pain. The more dark aura that rose from the young mare’s body, the more effort Luna had to put into drawing it out, at this rate what little magic she had left wouldn’t be enough to finish the spell. Twilight’s body went rigid and she stopped reacting to the pain of the spell altogether, suddenly her body started to twitch and jerk erratically. Luna’s eye’s widened in horror as the mare began to seize up from the trauma of the exorcism. If she didn’t finish the spell soon Twilight’s life would be in danger.
It was now or never. Luna pulled back with all of her magical strength. The dark aura embedded itself deeper into Twilight’s soul and refused to budge. The unicorn’s eyes migrated from the roof of her skull and locked gazes with the Goddess of the Night. Slowly, Twilight’s irises started to shift from their natural dark purple color to a sinister, bloodthirsty shade of crimson.
The possessed mare released a gut wrenching roar. What forced its way out of Twilight’s throat sounded as if it came from everywhere and nowhere at once, thousands of voices seemed to mesh with that of the unicorn’s, forming an eerie cacophony of sound with barely any semblance to a voice.
“Pain!” Twilight cried out in countless wailing voices. “Escape!”
Faster than Luna could react, Twilight smashed her hooves into the alicorn’s right fetlock, shattering the princess’s foreleg like it was made of cheap plywood. Luna buckled from the sudden pain and attempted to clutch at her bloody, broken limb, but before she could nurse her injury Twilight had brought her hind legs to bear right beneath the blue alicorn’s chest. She lashed out, her movements as precise as a machine. Her hooves impacted Luna’s rib-cage with the force of a speeding locomotive; an audible, fleshy crunch reverberated off the walls of Luna’s room and a wave of force threw pictures off of the walls and toppled curios.
From Luna’s perspective the world slowed to a crawl. Splintered wood, blood droplets, and glass all hung nigh motionless in the air as her body careened through several cabinets and a wooden door before finally slamming into her black marble bathtub. The princess rose shakily on three hooves, she dry heaved as the pain from all of her injuries started to set in. A sharp marble spike was lodged in her shoulder, and life essence dripped from the mare’s nose. It took nearly everything she had to drag herself out from the ruins of her bathroom.
Twilight, still consumed by the collective desire to escape, was viciously stomping around the room and slamming her hooves against the walls in an attempt to free herself from Luna’s extra dimensional prison. The princess hobbled back into the main chamber of her bedroom, crushing glass and loose stone as she walked. The sounds of her approach caused the feral mare to snap her head towards Luna and focus all of her attention on the pony that caused her pain. Twilight ducked low and glared at her friend, her eyes were filled to the brim with bloodlust. Luna looked deep into the young mare’s gaze and saw the intent to kill as plain as day, but there was also something else, she sensed a symphony of conflicting emotions from the possessed mare’s face. Twilight’s body trembled like a panicked animal and her pupils were dilated from the adrenaline coursing through her veins.
Suddenly, the unicorn pounced at Luna, but she was prepared this time. With but a thought, her attacker was caught mid-jump and suspended several feet above the floor. Her quarry writhed in her telekinetic grip. Luna narrowed her eyes and sneered as she used her magic to cut the blood flow to her quarry’s brain. Within seconds the thrashing stopped and Twilight’s eyes started drift to the back of her head, her irises returned to their normal color and the mare went limp in Luna’s magical grasp.
Gently, the princess rested the unicorn’s body on her bed and sighed. Using her magic, Luna ripped the marble spike from her shoulder then focused her last reserves of magic on her injuries. Bones snapped back into place and cemented themselves together and flesh rewove itself until nary a wound could be seen on her body. Luna rubbed a hoof across her face to wipe away the dried blood from under her nose, at the same time she released her encapsulation spell, bringing her room back into the normal flow of Equestrian space-time. With her final ounce of strength Luna slid over to the bed and collapsed onto the fluffy mattress next to Twilight.
-Sanctum-
The morning sunlight rolled into Princess Luna’s room at a snail’s pace. Slowly, the resting form of Twilight was bathed in the warm rays of Celestia’s sun, causing the mare to toss and turn. The unicorn weakly slid out of bed. Groaning the entire time, she walked over to what she assume was a sink, not once did she actually look around at the destruction surrounding her hooves. All Twilight knew was that she hadn’t had a headache this bad since the morning after the Grand Galloping Gala. Never try to drink Celestia under the table. She said to herself as she ran a cool stream of water from the faucet. She dipped her hooves in and savored the icy feeling against her skin. She gently splashed her face a few times to stimulate her mental faculties. Her vision started to clear and the pounding in the back of her skull subsided, for the first time since she’d been awake she actually looked around. The scene threatened to knock her out. What the hay happened to Princess Luna’s room?
The mare was trying to formulate the answer, but right as the gears in her head started to turn she heard voices through the wall, directly outside of Luna’s room. If her ears were working properly both Celestia and Luna were outside of the room, as well as a stallion with a scratchy voice. Twilight trotted carefully to the wall, making sure her hooves didn’t crush any marble or glass and alert the ponies that she was eavesdropping on. The princesses’ voices were coming through the wall behind Luna’s bathroom mirror. She pressed her ear against the mirror and listened in.
“So, i-it’s inside my faithful student…” She heard Celestia say in a distraught tone. Twilight could hear the metal clanking of her teachers golden horseshoes against the white marble floors of the castle hallway. It sounded as if the princess huffed and stomped around for a little before calming down.
“I’m afraid so sister,” Luna said. “I tried my best the Death Essence from Twilight, but after a week of symbiosis, it’s fully merged with her. I’m certain that she’d die if we removed it.” Twilight could make out the weak rattle of Luna’s chest regalia as the alicorn dipped her head.
“Truly, I curse the name Unicornelius,” Celestia seethed. She spat at the name. Twilight couldn’t remember a time when Celestia’s hate of another was audible in her speech. The unicorn couldn’t even remember a time when she thought Celestia hated anypony; Celestia had spoken of Discord, Chrysalis, Nightmare Moon, and even Sombra with not a hint of malice in her voice. “Had he not created that abominable magic Twilight would not be in this predicament.”
Wait, there’s something wrong with me? Twilight thought. She raised a hoof to her chest and gently pressed down on the soft fur. Something is inside of me, and whatever it is it obviously isn’t nice. Luna’s words resonated in her mind. Whatever had bonded with her was apparently a part of her for life now. She had almost fallen into her own thoughts, but luckily she caught the name Unicornelious before spacing out.
Where have I heard that name? Unicornelious…Ah ha! I read a report he wrote with theories about where a pony’s energy goes after death. It was interesting theory-craft and well thought out, but if I recall correctly, he was one of the Grand Magi before Luna was consumed by the nightmare, so why does Celestia hate him? Twilight now had at least a little information. Hmm. Death Essence, Unicornelious, I bet I could find something about him in the restricted sections of the archives! Her eyes brightened at the thought of all knowledge she would get to pour through during her quest for answers. Even though she was far from out of the fire, Twilight could feel her mood beginning to improve. Twilight gathered her magic and prepared to teleport. My magic feels…different. Note to self, see if this Death essence has any effect on unicorn magic. With her mental note in place, she winked out of existence.
-Sanctum-
“I can’t say that I fully understand your plight princess.” The Night Guard Stallion shrugged.
“Which brings me to my question”- he looked at Celestia, then back to Luna. -“exactly what can the Luna Adeptorum do in all of this? We could be out securing Equestria’s borders against the coming threats, surely one mare isn’t worth the full attention of your private forces milady.”
“Nox Dux Grim Stride,” Luna said, looking down at the stallion. “That one mare happens to be one of the Elements of Harmony, our last line of defense against the encroaching evil. She is also a larger threat than anything else out there and our greatest chance of survival.”
“Luna, his question still stands. I would be lying if I said that I saw the reasoning behind summoning Grim Stride here. What are you planning sister?” Celestia narrowed her eyes at her sibling.
“Something you won’t like,” Luna confessed with a sad chuckle.
Celestia had reacted exactly as Luna expected. It took a little longer than she wanted, but after she revealed most of her plan Celestia agreed that it was in fact Equestria’s best chance at weathering the upcoming storm. Reluctantly, Celestia gave her sister permission to set her plans into action. With her sister behind her plan, and Grim Stride accepting his new task the trio separated.
“I believe in Twilight, she’ll overcome this hurdle and return to use as the same mare.” Celestia’s words echoed in the back of Luna’s mind as she trotted over to her bed. Her mind jumped from one idea to the next as she tried to think of ways to break the news to Twilight. Sweeping her gaze across the jumbled up black sheets, the night princess noticed the absence of a certain lump that should be there, resting peacefully. She trotted around the room and searched for clues as to Twilight’s whereabouts until finally entering the bathroom. She quickly scanned the room and whipped around, writing the place off as lacking any evidence. Mid turn she caught sight of something on the mirror, Luna stopped on a dime and ran over to the reflective glass and stared intently. It was faint, but Luna could see it clear as day, the warm, fading mark of a pony’s ear was temporarily tattooed onto the mirrors surface.
“This complicates things,” the alicorn muttered as she rushed out of her room.
-Sanctum-
Twilight reappeared inside the Starswirl section of the Royal Archives. The place was exactly as she remembered it. Rows upon rows of shelved tomes dotted the large circular room, scrolls littered the floor were some Magi had obviously gotten a bit too enthusiastic about his research. The young mare giggled to herself at the thought the pony scrambling out of the library when his duties called. She knew the feeling of getting overly excited over learning something new. The stench of paper old as Canterlot itself filled her nostrils, causing her to shudder.
The hairs on her back stood on end, this was just like when she crept into the archives for that time spell. She literally worried herself crazy over that and in her clouded judgment she unnecessarily infiltrated the library. It just started to occur to her exactly how much knowledge was held in this room. Almost everything Starswirl the Bearded had ever written would be right here. Smacking herself with a hoof, Twilight continued to trot through the vast archives in search of her goal. Despite how much she wanted to dive nose first into the books surrounding her, she was on a mission.
She traversed the archives based solely on memory. The part she was looking for was well hidden, and out of the way, but it looked normal. The truth is that Twilight only knew where she was headed because of her old curiosity. As a young filly she had heard Celestia offhandedly mention Luna’s Sanctum. In her reverie the sun goddess had accidently let the little book worm filly know that it was hidden in the Royal archives. There were books in there not meant for the eyes of anypony other than the princesses, but whatever was in there could shed some light on her situation, and maybe tell her what was going on.
Twilight trotted casually towards plain looking bookshelf. She stared up at the towering structure and its tomes, books of all colors and ages adorned its shelves. Taking a look around to make sure no pony was watching, Twilight pulled down on a red book. The bookcase stuttered and shook violently before slowly sliding to the side and revealing a large, black wooden door with a light blue crescent moon symbol on it. Dust puffed out from behind the sliding bookcase, coating Twilight in a thin layer of gray grime. Immediately she could tell something was off, the last time she saw this door, the concentration of magic protecting it was enough to nearly fry her brain just from laying eyes on it. Now she sat there staring at the entrance to the unknown with no ill effects.
Perhaps back then I was just more sensitive to powerful magic because I myself wasn’t very skilled…Even though she told herself that, her mind kept drifting to the Celestia’s magic failing to hold on to their tea cups and both princesses taxed postures. She thought back on the creature, Kokusho, he called himself. Could he have something to do with this?
She pressed a hoof against the dark door and pushed as hard as she could, to her surprise she fell straight through the black threshold. While it was a relief that gaining entrance wasn’t difficult, it also confirmed her fears. Luna was able to maintain this spell throughout her entire exile to the moon. For it to be down now… Twilight bit her lip to her fight back her tears. Oh princess why didn’t you tell me? She sniffled a few times as the thought of the burden both Luna and Celestia must be carrying at the moment. She turned towards her goal and steeled her resolve, desperate to continue. Perhaps she could find a way to help the princesses while she looked for answers. Before her was a deep, seemingly unending staircase, the mare sighed. Honestly, it was starting to get old, castles with secret staircases that went down forever. She gathered her magic and began to levitate herself. She shot a lavender ball of energy down the passage to make sure it was a straight away, with the path confirmed as straight and unobstructed she used her telekinesis to toss herself down the passage far faster than she could have ever hoped to run.
“Yeah! WOOWHO!” She yelled like an excited filly as she flew through the passageway after her purple beacon. The runes on the walls slowly came to life around her, as if the stone itself was invigorated by the presence of the mare. Feeling comfortable in her control, she threw in a few stunts for good measure. Soon the mare was twisting and spinning through the air like a certain rainbow maned pegasus she knew. And just like a certain pegasus she abruptly crashed into a bookcase, bring her giggling to halt. “OWOWOWOW.” She said as she dug herself out of a mountain of old books.
With her body free of its text blanket, she was free to get her bearings. The room was massive, but it didn’t look like a library. Sure the wall she crashed on had a bookshelf, but out from there the chamber had an elegant dais with hundreds of ancient runes carved on it, a long formal looking table, and rows upon rows of glass cases exhibiting artifacts that Twilight had never seen in any book. Her horn burned as she walked past the oddities, their power was obvious to the mare so she left them alone, regardless of how curious she was. She stepped on to the dais and noticed that the runes on the device matched the runes she had been seeing on the walls.
A small spark of purple energy jumped from her hooves to the dais, causing a few of the runes to glow. Twilight looked down curiously at the phenomenon. Focusing on the runes she let some of her power trickle into the platform. Runes flared to life all around her and the chamber's lighting slowly began activating, the more of herself she put into the dais, the more the chamber seemed to reciprocate. Soon the chamber could maintain power without her constantly feeding it magic. The feeling was strange, it was like having a second body. Instinctually she called several books over to her with the magic of the Sanctum.
She looked over the covers of the books she had gathered, one was simply labeled "Notes", with the name Unicornelius. The color of the tomes pages and the layer of filth on it reinforced exactly how long it has been since anypony was in this place. The next book was simply a black bound hoof book, and the final one had the words Instrumenta Deos hoof written across the cover. Twilight sat Instumenta Deos off to the side and instead dove straight into Unicornelious’ notes. What was in this book was likely of the most relevance to her. She started to skim over Unicornelious's notes in search of anything useful.
---
I can’t live like this anymore, why Luna? Can you not see that this strife is tearing me apart? My wife and daughter were taken from me far too early. All I want is to see them again. I have the power, the knowledge, and soon the means, but the Moon has forbidden me from creating the spell that will allow me to be reunited with my precious Lily Petal and Rose Bud.
---
Luna caught me trying to use the spell and sentenced me to life in the dungeon, the cow. But I still hold no ill will towards her, how can one whose family is just as immortal as them ever hope to feel the pain of loss. I have never seen her with a special somepony, and she has no foals, all she has is Celestia. I pity her. She thinks she has stopped me, but foolishly she allowed me to keep my notebook.
---
Everything has been prepared and my runes are all hidden under the straw in my cell, all my spell requires to work now is a single soul that will act as a catalyst. So excuse me while I go get one.
---
Twilight cringed as she turned the page, burgundy stains that the mare knew were dried blood dotted the page and obscured the text.
---
It’s beautiful, the ultimate spell. I shall call it, Death Essence. Finally it’s complete, I’m the first pony create a spell that will allow one to transcend the barriers between life and death. Once I take this magic into myself, it will allow me to interact with the souls of dead ponies. I’ll be able to see my family again.
---
She flipped through a large section of blank pages, until she came to the next entry.
---
What have I done? I was just defending myself and I killed a pony, but that isn’t what has me so scared. After he…expired, I saw his soul! When I tried to interact with the spirit went inside of me! For a moment I could hear him cry out in fear. It was as if my mind were on fire for a split second, but it quickly dissipated. After I "ate" his soul, I felt stronger, faster, and more alert. I looked in a mirror and I looked like I was ten years younger. The entire situation left me hungry for more, I fear that if this empty feeling inside of me continues grow that I may soon hunger for another soul.
---
Lily Petal... Oh sweet Celestia, please somepony help me! I’ve killed so many but I need more…The voices won’t stop and I can barely tell who I am anymore. It was just too much, every soul I took made me better... More than a normal pony. Now Equestria’s entire army is after me, even the Luna Adeptorum, but it’s ok I have a friend now, I forged him in the fires of Izalith. He helps a lot, by binding it to the Death Essence I have learned that I can access the talents of those poor ponies I hurt…so I guess they aren’t really gone.
---
I think I’ve reached some sort of equilibrium. I’m no longer hungry, and the voices have stopped. I can feel it, where ever souls are supposed to go they no longer do it on their own when I'm around. My presence ruins the natural cycle of life and death. If I don’t absorb them with the Death Essence they sort of just fade away, every time I see it happen it just feels wrong. But where do they go…I must know.
---
This will be my last entry, I have my answers. I now the extent of my folly. I apologize for what I’ve done, but an apology will never be enough to atone for wrongs i've committed. I tossed my friend down a chasm, I hope the blasted hole leads to Tartarus. I’ve turned myself in, the guards will be here any moment. One hundred thousand, five hundred and fifteen ponies died by my hooves. Knowing Luna, my time left on this earth won’t be long enough to apologize to the families of those that I’ve hurt. So I apologize for not getting to apologize.
Twilight’s stomach curled up into knots. She was harboring an abomination of dark magic inside of her. Unicornelious was crazy, selfish and reckless, but at heart he was a hurt stallion who was desperate to see his family again. But that thing he created drove him to sickening feats, and now, it was a part of Twilight forever.
“I’m a monster...” Twilight dropped all of the books on the ground rested on her belly. She shamefully covered her face with her hooves and tried to hide herself from the world as she sobbed into her fore hooves.
The cold metal of a horseshoe pressed gently into the bawling mare’s shoulder. The unicorn looked up with bloodshot eyes and locked stares with the gentle blue of Luna’s gaze. “And a monster might be the only thing that can protect Equestria right now,” she said reassuringly.
Twilight stood up unsteadily and wiped the tears from her face. “I'm going to be here for more than I week aren't I?” she joked.
“I’ll send Spike a letter for you.”