//------------------------------// // To Ascend // Story: A Bridge Between Brothers // by Rammy //------------------------------// ബഐബഐബഐ Twilight ബഐബഐബഐ This looks like the dream realm... Was that all that that the spell does?! All that for this how can being able to enter dreams going to help us? The ponies of Ponyville were brainwashed not suffering from bad dreams! “Well it seems you have managed to figure out the spell.” I spun around to see H.K. smiling down at me. "Welcome Bearer of Tzirüstele Atülāja to the Astral Plane." "You had me go all the trouble the past month just to learn how to use dream magic!? How is that going to help?!! I could have had Luna teach me!" H.K. snickered, shaking his head. "No, this is not the realm of dreams, Twilight. This is the Astral Plane... The dream realm has no set look it always looks like whatever the dreamer mentally projects. You really have to learn to not jump so quickly to conclusions Twilight." "Oh.." I mouthed. "So what is the Astral Plane?" "Nothing you need to know about at this point." H.K. waved my questioned off. What is with this guy and being so dismissive?! "The only thing you need to know about the Astral Plane right now is that it will make it easier for the spell you cast to work." "Easier for the spell to work!? That spell was vile! And a face to face meeting was so not worth the cost." "The spell vile?" H.K. questioned, his face scrunched up in confusion. "I don't think so. Though I suppose it could seem that way but its merely a test of the..." "This isn't a time for a test!" I snapped, not caring that I had cut off H.K. "Sure Spike is doing a bit better but there still the war looming and I don't see how making mindless carbon copies ponies out of my friends and their love ones suppose to help! It's evil! Evil! I was willing to bare the cost alone to help Spike and Equestria, but THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE TO BARE IT!" H.K. facehooved, shaking his head. "When I warned there was a cost... one that you may not be able to bare... that wasn't it." "Then what was it!?" "You will see soon enough." "Must you do that?!" I ground out, frustrated as his continual dodging of my questions with excuses and sly wording. "Do what?" "Be infuriatingly vague and mysterious about everything." I growled. H.K. sighed heavily, suddenly looking very old. "Yeah, I know... I prefer being blunt..." "Then why are you doing it!?" "Because I'm trying to ease you into what the world is really like. The world outside of Equestria is less... utopian. Plus I doubt you would have cast the spell if I told you the cost... especially if you managed to cast it before I died, which you have..." "I am not a foal H.K." I grumbled, rubbing my forehead to try and get my headache to go away. "Please have enough respect..." H.K. raised a hoof to cut me off. "By both dragon and Alicorn standards you are merely a child and will be for decades to come." "I am not a dragon nor an alicorn." "And yet, not only are you raising a dragon, Twilight, you are also trying to prevent a war with them. To dragons you have to prove yourself worthy not by words, but by actions... if you hope to find a way, if you hope to earn their respect you have to earn it on your own hooves without me coddling you along..." "Now, as I was trying to say, the spell is a test of the heart Twilight..." "H.K., your body, its fading away!" I screamed out, interrupting him. His body was becoming translucent before my very eyes. I had no idea how fast he was vanishing or how long he had been. I also had no idea how long it would be before he would disappear completely as I wasn't sure if time was moving at the same rate here as in Equestria. "Yeah, I know..." H.K. whispered sadly, "My soul is fading away because I am dying... when I fade completely away here..." "But you didn't die the last time you thought... are you sure this isn't just you being pulled away from this plane and back to Equestria?" I hoped for the later if only to get more time to ask questions! WHY DOES HE DO THIS!? "Last time it was because of very lucky intervention... this time... I made sure there wouldn't be..." H.K. chuckled. My mouth gaped in shock. I couldn't believe that he would be happy that he was dying! "Twilight time is running short but there is one thing you must do above anything else the moment you leave this place. You must burn the journal completely and scatter its ashes, to the far reaches of Equestria if you can. You don't want anypony to ever attempt to cast that spell, ever." "But the spell it..." I began completely flabbergasted that H.K. wanted me to destroy a book much less what has to be the most historically valuable book that Starswirl the Bearded ever wrote. Also if I had a chance of reversing whatever happen to the ponies of Ponyville I needed the original spell. "The ponies..." "Nothing happened to the ponies of Ponyville just your perception of them." H.K. cut me off, much to my annoyance. "How can you possibly know that!?" "Because the spell was created by me not Starswirl." H.K. grumbled. "Just, please, do what I ask. I had that journal hidden for a very good reason. The risk of another pony suffering the same fate as Starswirl the Bearded is too high!" "The same fate as Starswirl the Bearded..." I echoed. I had always wondered about his fate. I had merely thought it was lost because of the chaos that occurred shortly afterward with Discord but now... H.K. sighed, looking off at nothing in the distance. If I didn't know better it looked like he was remembering something that he regretted. "The spell is soul magic..." "Soul magic!!?" I roared readying my horn to knock H.K. out. Forget that he was dying I was going to kill him right now. Soul magic was the only class of magic that still carried the penalty of death for even the most minor of usage. If Princesses Celestia or Luna heard that I had cast it, even though I wasn't aware, I would be lucky to only be banished to Tartarus. It wasn't me over reacting like with the want it need it spell either. Soul magic was that bad. "YOU HAD ME CAST A TYPE OF SPELL THAT EVEN A INSANE DARK MAGIC USER WOULDN'T TOUCH! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA..." My anger vanished to be replaced instantly by cold terror as H.K.'s fiery mane flared up like an actual flame. I could feel his rage pressing down on me, choking me. A archaic wind blew around us. When he finally spoke he sounded terrifyingly like a demon from the depths of Tartarus. "Do not presume to lecture me Miss I will do anything for Spike! I know the dangers of soul magic far more then anyone alive!" As fast as H.K.s transformed he turned back. I took some time to get my heart rate and breathed down. Everytime I think he have top his previous terrifying visage he surpasses it. "The Elements protected you from the negative effects of the first half of the spell. Normally what you thought happened to the ponies of Ponyville would have become your fate if you didn't figured out the response to the first half fast enough. Sadly, Starswirl... he didn't have the Elements nor did he understand harmony in the same way as you have. In the end he became a happy nondescript pony in every way: nondescript cutiemark, nondescript magic ability, nondescript voice, etc. The effect was total, all the way to his soul, and as you already know, soul magic is irreversible... He became unremarkable because being remarkable and different wasn't orderly. You can't be different and be orderly, blagh." "Oh, wow, that makes me feel so much better..." I snarked before breaking down into sobs. To think that my hero had succumbed to a fate like that. It was just horrible. "I suggest that you talk with Oathbreaker to get the full story... Sadly, we don't have any more time as the spell has finally begun its work. Soon you will ascend into an alicorn..." "What!?" How would becoming an alicorn help? And who said I wanted to be an alicorn?! "I am not one to mince my words... nor flab my gums just because I can. I know you can piece it together otherwise you would have never figure out the puzzle to get the journal much less the spell." "But I don't under..." My words faded as an orb of magic flew out of my chest and started to circle around me. Wait what is going on!? My panic rose as more joined the first and I was lifted up and away from H.K. who only smiled at me, oddly sadly. It was then I realized something, something awful. Magic couldn't make something out of nothing even soul magic you needed some sort of template especially with soul magic and a change on this level would... I stared at H.K. in horror. NOOOOOO! I have to stop this now! The magic, however was soon was too bright for me to see anything anymore I also didn't have a clue how to stop it. What have I done?! "Be a better sibling then I... Sister Twilight..." H.K. whispered out as I was lost sight of him in the bright, swirling magic.