Old information is nice. You need it to refresh the ole noggin every so often, no? But you hunger for something more--something new. You flip back to the table of contents and search for that something, finding it in one fateful heading: “The Blackheart Forest”. You flip through for the corresponding page number and read from the top.
And how could one ever hope to talk of ethereal magic and not mention this one? The Blackheart Forest, (also known as The Forest of the Black Heart) is the ironic heart of it all--the very center of everything ethereal.
Etherium is (theoretically) but an endless void and string of parallel universes, correct? It’s borders stretch on infinitely, but what lies at the center? A location. A physical one right here in the equine homeland.
The Blackheart Forest is a grove of dead trees veiled in pitch and looked down upon by a forever purple sky. In it’s center lies the beating Black Beart--a cross dimensional midpoint for all things in the multiverse. Existing in it’s own plane of reality, The Forest of the Black Heart is not only a gateway to other dimensions, but a focal point from which all ethereal energy is harvested. Without the Black Heart, ethereal magic would be no more.
The journey to The Blackheart Forest is a dangerous journey indeed. Down from the slopes of the mountain that Canterlot rests upon, the River Neighagra must be fjorded, the Foal Mountains must be hiked, and the forest of Hollow Shades must be reached. Hollow Shades is a village occupied by batponies and batponies alone, for their forest canopies shield out the Sun, allowing for eternal shade. Only a native from this village can lead one to The Forest of the Black Heart, which rests somewhere deeper within the dark woods. And only at the center of that smaller grove can a pony come face to face with the lifeblood of it all: the great Black Heart itself.
There was a time when ponies of all sorts would travel far and wide on a pilgrimage to see the Black Heart. To study it, to the pray… It was not a tourist attraction, but a holy relic worth seeing. In the times of now, the Black Heart is but a myth, and the only thing Equestria knows it will find in the Forest of Hollow Shades are rare fruits like mangoes and lychee. There were always those few who would try to harness the heart’s power--to cultivate it’s energy for their own. None so far have successfully done this, but if it ever were to be achieved, the boons it yields would be more than enormous. The pony who could do this would become The Lord of the Void.
>Read further about harvesting the power of the Black Heart