//------------------------------// // Help // Story: New Magic // by Mercury Zero //------------------------------// New Magic Chapter 2: Help Twilight Sparkle stared intently at the photograph of the golden plaque, as if her concentration alone would be enough to decipher the engravings that have, so far, managed to perplex her peers. That is, if she could be said to have any peers. The young lavender alicorn had just finished making the biggest splash the academic world had ever seen by solving a long standing magical puzzle on the power of friendship. The puzzle was first presented by Star Swirl the Bearded over a thousand years prior, and it had stumped even the most brilliant unicorns of Equestria for all that time. Now, thanks to Twilight Sparkle, the solution existed, and it promised to finally unlock the hidden secrets of the most ancient and potent magical artifacts ever known to pony kind: the Elements of Harmony themselves. This was hardly her first achievement, too. Twilight Sparkle has made history again, and again in her short life. She had been Princess Celestia's personal protege since she was a small foal, and since then she had managed to save Equestria multiple times. Once, she even reunited Princess Celestia with her long lost sister, Luna. She battled a mighty hydra, stood her ground against an earth trembling ursa minor, and even played bouncy ball with Cerberus himself at the fiery gates of Tartarus. For her achievements, she was given the sacred honor of becoming a royal princess of Equestria. Celestia herself had bestowed young Twilight with the position, and it was the first time in the history of Celestia's reign that two such honors were bestowed in a single generation. Her head was still spinning from her coronation the day prior. She could almost still hear the heavenly voices of a flag baring choir walking behind her. The princess Twilight cometh. Behold. Behold. The ponies that came to see her had spilled out into the streets. The enormous cheering crowd had looked like a sea of pastel dots from her position on the balcony of the royal palace. Twilight had never felt so loved in her life. But, yesterday was yesterday! Today, there was studying to be done! "Spike, can you believe it?" Twilight shouted excitedly. Her horn came alive with a soft violet glow, and a copy of the Equestrian Daily levitated from its place on her reading desk. It came to a rest not far from the the nose of her baby dragon assistant. Spike studied the newspaper for a moment. "Yeah, no kidding. It's official now. Princess Twilight Sparkle." He enunciated Twilight's new official name and title, relishing the novelty of it all. "This is gonna take a lot of getting used to." "No, not that!" Twilight rebuffed. "This!" She pointed to the article below the one about the coronation entitled 'Canterlot Archaeological Announces Ruins Near Ponyville,' which rested just below the main, front page article about the coronation. Spike looked up at Twilight, and Twilight stared right back at him. He wondered for a moment if she was going to actually make him read the newspaper that she was dangling in front of his face. With a roll of his eyes he finally conceded and leaned in to start reading the article. Twilight obliviously pulled the article away from Spike's face. "It's the biggest archaeological find in history. History, Spike!" She was speaking at a faster tempo than usual. Spike could tell that meant she was excited, or stressed. "Can't they both be important?" the exasperated baby dragon asked. Twilight rolled up the newspaper in her magical field, and started walking with it back to her reading desk with a soft sigh. "Of course they can, and I know I should be taking more time to get used to being a princess, Spike, but this is really important too. The Royal Canterlot Archaeological Society has announced the discovery of the most astonishing ruins ever before seen. They're even claiming to have proof of some form of new magic." Spike seemed confused. "What's the big deal about that? Didn't you just invent some new magic this week?" Twilight was as patient as she could be with her younger assistant, and explained, "That was a new spell, Spike. This is new magic. Can you imagine what it would be like if we'd never seen pegasus cloud walking before, and we just now found evidence of it in some newly unearthed ruin?" Spike conceded, "Oh that does sound like a big deal then." "It is! It's such a big deal that the professors from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns is directly overseeing the investigation of the artifacts." Twilight bristled with pride mentioning her old alma mater. "I'm certain they're going to let me participate in the study." Spike gave a concerned frown. "Are you sure you don't just want to let them handle it? Shouldn't you focus on doing princess stuff?" Twilight gave a slightly annoyed moan, "This is 'princess stuff' Spike. Using my skill with magic to help the kingdom is what I'm supposed to do. It's what Luna, Cadance, and Celestia do. Now let's pack a lunch, Spike. My meeting is on the other side of Ponyville, and it might take a while." Spike was skeptical. It seemed like Twilight just wanted to get to study this new magic before anyone else, but he wasn't about to argue about princess stuff. It seemed too complicated to him anyway. "You got it!" he announced, and started running off to the kitchen, before coming to a halt with a perplexed blink and asking, "What meeting?" *** "Could this be used as some kind of a weapon?" asked a gruff sounding forest green colored pony, with a cutie mark of a soldier's helmet. Spelunky turned to his colleague with a furrowed brow. She was a baby blue unicorn with a fiery red mane, and a microscope cutie mark. She responded, "We're ... not quite sure." "Not quite sure?" cried the forest green pony derisively, provoking mumbles of discussion from the other dozen or so ponies in the room. Princess Celestia and her captain of the guard, Shining Armor, remained silent, however. Shining Armor cautiously reached his hoof into the conic shower of beams shooting up from the small black rectangle, no bigger than a small book. As he reached inside, he could see his hoof blocking the beams, casting a shadow on the high ceilings of the Canterlot palace war room. He felt no pain. He felt nothing. It was just an illusion, like these citizens had claimed. His drew his hoof toward a fluttering yellow butterfly that had been dancing playfully within the beam ever since the artifact was activated. "Please, be calm, my little ponies," came Celestia's melodic voice. "Spelunky and Crystal are scientists, and scientists are ever reluctant to to concede that they know anything for certain." Celestia's words rang in Spelunky's head. She was right. Doubt is one of the most intrinsic ingredients of a good scientific mind, but if those words were about doubt, why were they making him think about faith? He couldn't help but turn to stare at her. It was an expression that Celestia had seen before. Shining Armor gasped as the illusory butterfly landed gently on his pastern. He jerked his foreleg back out of the beam, "It touched me!" Crystal bit her lip slightly. She knew it would be very rude to break out laughing, no matter how much she wanted to. She cleared her throat to mask the giggle that was threatening to rise up in her throat. "It'll do that, yeah. The butterfly is able to touch you, it even feels like it has some weight, but it doesn't have any solid form. If you push on it with enough force, perhaps enough to crack a walnut, then it will make the illusion box stop working until we replace some damaged parts." An ocean blue unicorn, perhaps the oldest pony in the room, save the princess, approached the large meeting table that supported the ebony artifact. She squinted at it. "If I may examine the artifact, your majesty?" Celestia acquiesced with a nod. The unicorn sorceress's horn glowed, and a blue field enveloped the butterfly as it fluttered. The butterfly passed through it as though it wasn't there, provoking the sorceress's eyes to widen, and creating another cascade of mumbles throughout the room. "I suggest we seize these ruins in the name of the crown!" a young yellow bureaucrat called out haughtily. Celestia's serene expression remained unchanged. "Minister, I'll not hear such suggestions. Though it is clear these ruins are very unique, and bear the close scrutiny of the crown, I shall not intrude upon the rule of law." Spelunky felt a small shiver. Though it was evident that the princess was only looking out for the good of the kingdom, he couldn't help but feel that she was defending him personally. The rights to excavate a historical discovery go to the pony that discovers it, if the land does not already have an owner. Spelunky had quickly sold his stake in exchange for a small fortune and a percentage of the proceeds extracted from the site, as was common practice for someone without the means to pay for a full scale excavation. The minister knew not to press his luck. "Yes, your majesty." Spelunky worked up the courage to speak. His voice shaking. "I uh ... I chose to give the rights to first study the artifacts to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns in your honor, Princess Celestia." Celestia smiled a soft and peaceful grin, and responded with a tempered giggle, "That was very kind of you, Spelunky. You have my thanks." She gave the slightest of bows in Spelunky's direction. Spelunky had no idea what he was feeling now. He could feel his heart beating and his cheeks flushing. Crystal glanced at Spelunky, then rolled her eyes. "This is just one of the artifacts we've found, but it's the only one we've had any real success with. There have been moving photographs which conjure markings in the same unknown language we keep seeing all over the structure. In fact--" Crystal reached for the artifact, causing everyone but Celestia to take a step back, as if somehow Crystal's abrupt actions would cause the artifact to leap from the table and bite them all. She tapped the artifact gently with a hoof, and the butterfly morphed into dozens of flat, rectangular, translucent blue chips of glass, in a coplanar arrangement. Each glass rectangle bore a symbol, except for one flat, long bar across the bottom. The plane of the illusory glass was slightly angled toward Crystal. Casually, she started tapping on the glass chips. They seemed too small to be used by hooves, but with patience, she managed. With each tap, the tapped rectangular chip would light up a brilliant cyan, and the symbol on its surface would materialize in the light beam above. After she finished her strange sequence of taps, she pressed a final rectangle, and the illusion morphed again, revealing dozens of planes, each of which scrolled slowly with reams and reams of text. Each plane pointed toward Crystal, but they were translucent and the characters could be seen from the other side as well; the mirror images of them, at least. "This thing is full of these characters. They appear to be some kind of alphabet, with twenty-six letters, with each letter having two forms." Crystal was perfectly at ease despite being in a room with some of the Equestrian government's most powerful ponies, so it's no surprise that she needed to be reminded that she was slipping into lecture mode. Spelunky gave her a gentle shoulder nudge. "Oh. Yeah so there's that," she said, concluding what was sure to become a lengthy rant. For the first time since they had assembled in the war room, Celestia stood up. She walked gracefully toward Spelunky. Spelunky had heard rumors that Celestia was nearly twice as tall as a normal pony, and he had even seen photographs in the paper, but he never truly believed it until that moment when she stood in front of him. "I ask that you allow me to keep this one." Spelunky had no idea if that was an order or a request, and he wasn't interested in finding out. "That was always my intention, your majesty," he said with a gulp. The dignitaries mumbled amongst themselves as two guards approached the small black rectangle. Crystal approached and helped them dispel the beams of light, rendering the device inert before they sealed it away. Celestia addressed Spelunky once more. "You've done me a great kindness by bringing this to my attention, my little pony. The artifact will be safe in the royal library. You have my thanks."