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// 23 Lost in the Pages 
// Story: Alternate Beginnings: Year Three 
// by Doug Graves 
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Princess Celestia's expression hardens and magic flares as she realizes the predicament in front of her. In an instant she has Rainbow Dash incapacitated, yet there is still agonizing pain in her unseeing eyes. She needs to find the tear, and fast, the rapidly leaking magic tormenting the pegasus, writhing even in her unconsciousness. The mare's foal, Scootaloo, is strapped to a table, looking towards her dam with anguish in her eyes, though she seems to be unharmed physically. One guard is moving towards Scootaloo, to remove the foal from her restraints, while another guard moves towards Sunset Shimmer, spear draw. The unicorn has wisely chosen to lay down next to a two thirds charged mana battery, holding her hooves to the sides.

The guard slaps a nullifier on the unicorn's horn, but it does nothing to silence her screaming, "CELESTIA DAMN IT! YOU'VE RUINED IT!! YOU-" before she is silenced, her mouth continuing to form words.

Her spell cast, Princess Celestia ignores Sunset Shimmer, instead watching the illumination of the thaumic resonator. The blue aura around Rainbow Dash is ragged, one section where faint trails of color are moving away from the pegasus' body and dissipating into nothing. She studies it for a moment longer before saying, "Flash! Fly to Canterlot Memorial, alert them of an impending emergency, thaumic leakage. Go!" He snaps a salute before taking wing, flying off into the night.

Princess Celestia exhales as she casts, a brilliant blue aura overlapping the light around Rainbow Dash. The leakage slows, crawling to a halt. Rainbow's body stops thrashing against her restraints as movement from the side catches Princess Celestia's eye. She glances over; Sunset Shimmer is frantically waving her hoof, her mouth continuing to move. Princess Celestia gives her a hard look as the glow around Sunset's mouth fades, the unicorn yelling, "-ase! I can help her, you need to trust me! I know what needs to be done!"

Princess Celestia shakes her head, the glow around Sunset Shimmer's mouth reappearing and the unicorn silenced once again. Princess Celestia shakes her head, "No, Sunset Shimmer, you have inflicted enough damage this night. Spear and Meadow, take Sunset Shimmer to the dungeon, and await my further orders." Rage flashes over Sunset's face as she struggles against the two guards.

Princess Celestia turns back to Rainbow Dash as the earth pony and pegasus escort Sunset Shimmer out of the room. The unicorn continues resisting, able to knock the guards to the side for a moment before they rush her again. She tries again, attempting to push the guards back and forth as she glares at Celestia. The Princess inspects Rainbow Dash, ignoring the unicorn for the moment; the leakage has stopped, but there is still a microscopic leak between the barrier she made and the pegasus' natural boundaries. The unicorn doctors will need to see her as soon as possible, and she can't risk a teleport. Scootaloo appears to be doing better, a worried look on the foal's face as she moves past the one third charged battery, holding a hoof up to her dam and trying to-

Wait, one third charge? Where did the other-

An explosion from the hallway outside the room nearly breaks Princess Celestia's concentration; she sighs, focusing on keeping the aura surrounding Rainbow Dash intact; hopefully her guards are competent enough to subdue one nullified unicorn, even if she is one of her more powerful students. She levitates Rainbow Dash, quickly flying outside and towards Canterlot Memorial.

A team of unicorns are mustering outside, watching with glowing eyes as Princess Celestia flies over, a still frozen Rainbow Dash encased in a blue aura. Princess Celestia sets Rainbow Dash on the waiting gurney, saying, "Doctors, Rainbow Dash is unconscious in a level two stasis, two minutes and ten seconds remaining from when I stop talking. She is still leaking thaums at an alarming rate; I have a class three shield, extremely fine grade, and a class two detector running, keeping the magic intact and visible. You'll need to recreate the shield and contain the released magic as best you can. I am needed elsewhere, and will drop my spells as soon as I take flight. Keep her safe!"

Princess Celestia turns, one of the doctors starting a timer spell and another creating a green aura surrounding the blue aura around Rainbow Dash. Satisfied, the alicorn turns, taking a few steps, lifting off into the air before cancelling her spells and teleporting back to the castle.

Princess Celestia arrives in a burnt hallway, two stunned guards on either side of her. She quickly scans, noting that the guards are alive but unconscious; by the looks of it, from a sleep spell. The burn marks on the surrounding walls form an outline of where they were standing when the blast went off; however, there are no marks on their armor, and Princess Celestia notes one of Rarity's anger essences on the front. She smiles, glancing down at the destroyed inhibitor before adopting a stern expression, scanning again and teleporting to her throne room.

Princess Celestia yells, "Stop!" as Sunset Shimmer places a black book behind her, stepping up to the horseshoe shaped magic mirror Princess Celestia had placed in her throne room for safe keeping. The unicorn is wearing saddlebags that look to be packed full, a large brown book with a sun cutie mark peeking out of one of them.

Sunset turns, "Princess Celestia! Why did you keep this magic from me? You know that I can hoof it, that I can prove how powerful I am by using it!

Princess Celestia retorts, two guards coming to her sides, "Sunset Shimmer, my student, you could be powerful. I thought I saw altruism and hope in you, but it was nothing but ambition. You need to come with me, we can fix-"

Sunset cuts her off, telekinetically throwing the black book towards Princess Celestia, the alicorn blocking it with a shield, "You think that I'm selfish? That journal shows that what I intended, that what I was doing would eclipse the power of an Alicorn Princess! I could rule here with that kind of power, and you are the one being selfish, denying me my rightful place by your side!" Sunset opens her journal with her magic, flipping through the pages and displaying her notes on the spell, "I deserve to stand beside you as an alicorn. Make me a Princess!"

Celestia glares, "No. Sunset, you do not know all that it takes to become a Princess. I have tried to teach you, but you have thrown away all my lessons and instead walked a path of your own creation. You have not put forth the effort to learn the lessons that are truly important, and you show that even now through your actions." Princess Celestia rears to her full height, spreading her wings, "Sunset Shimmer, you are banished from the castle. You may stay in Canterlot, but you are no longer my student. I hope one day we will be able to reconcile this, and perhaps you will be able to return."

Sunset glares back at Celestia, "No; we'll never reconcile this because you don't recognize the power that is inherent in these spells, that you have decreed too dark to research because you are afraid of the outcome! Is that what you really want? For me to come begging back, your faithful student once again?" Sunset spits on the floor, turning again towards the mirror.

Princess Celestia settles back down on her hooves, wings returning to her sides, "Sunset, do not go through with this. The guards will escort you out of the castle, we will fix what happened to Rainbow Dash."

Sunset Shimmer shakes her head, "I don't think so. Tell Rainbow Dash, 'twenty percent'. She'll know what it means," and steps into the mirror, the shimmering surface rippling as her body passes through. The clock tower outside strikes midnight as the guards rush forward. One of them tentatively puts a hoof to the solid surface as Princess Celestia shakes her head. The portal to the mirror universe is now closed, and will be for another thirty moons.

Princess Celestia looks at the guards still inspecting the mirror. "Do not bother," she says, "Return to your posts, tell the others to stand down. Bring me news of Rainbow Dash as soon as you can; she is at Canterlot Memorial Hospital." The guards bow before exiting the throne room, closing the doors behind them.

Now alone, Princess Celestia picks up the journal laying crumpled on the ground, several sheets bent from the impact. She flips through the pages towards the beginning; so far, it looks to be ways to modify Tirek's spell, the abomination against harmony that sapped ponies of their magical power, the dark magic that earned the centaur his banishment to Tartarus. She gets to the front page, labeled:


Research Notes - A Manifesto
Sunset Shimmer


'To whomever may find this journal - please, deliver this journal to Princess Celestia, and no pony else. Read no further, for I wish for no pony besides myself to be condemned with banishment to Tartarus.

To Princess Celestia, and whatever pony is stupid and foalish enough to continue reading despite my warning:'

The page ends, Princess Celestia turning to the next page of the journal. She notices at this point the enchantment laid on the pages; to her own eyes, the pages appear normal. But in the reflection of her gilded shoes, or if she took her hoof off the journal for a moment, the words dissolve into the page, new letters appearing that detail a remarkably boring life, filled with resentment over the Princess 'forcing' her to do tedious tasks like go to parties and hang out with other ponies.

Princess Celestia places her hoof back on the journal, the manifesto continuing,

'When I first heard of Tirek's spell, the dark magic capable of draining other ponies of their magic, I knew there had to be applications other than that born of a selfishness to become more powerful. However, you, Princess Celestia, decreed that no pony should have access to the magic, presumably to prevent a second Tirek from rising and attempting to accomplish what the first did not. I also assumed that you had taken safeguards to insure that this did not happen again, though what form I could not identify. At first I assumed you didn't even bother to protect the spell itself, though our encounter after my trip to the Dark Magic section of the archives proved otherwise. I was sure you knew, but you allowed to me continue regardless. I thought that if I came to you, asking for help or assistance you would discourage me, or worse, banish me for the simple crime of thinking that I could better all of ponykind through this avenue of research. Maybe you would prove me wrong, but I could not take that chance. I think the very fact that you are reading this justifies my fear of involving you.

My goal was simple; I wanted to create a spell that would permanently boost the power of one pony. If it could be done without harming another pony, either short term or long term, perfect. If the magic must come from another pony, then it should be a willing donor. My research showed the latter to be the case, and that is where I proceeded.

As to the spell in question, all of my work is theoretical; in my research I never attempted casting the spell, even without a target. The spell itself, at least my final creation, is highly modular. The most basic version, the one that Tirek used, drains one pony of all but the barest minimum of magic needed to sustain life. The caster provides the first burst of magic, and the spell uses most of the magic drained to continue draining - a self-sustaining process, at least until the target runs out of magic. The caster gains the remaining portion of that magic, either as reserves for more powerful spells and drains, or to boost physical attributes such as speed, size, or strength.

The first variable I worked on removed the single target limitation, allowing the spell to drain multiple targets at once. This was more for curiosity, as it would be one of the easier changes to make, as well as giving me needed practice at modifying the spell on a theoretical level. The change would barely impact the efficacy of the spell compared to using the single target, and the time saving makes it a much more efficient choice. On a single pony, or especially one whose power is near the limit of what one is able to drain, it is worth using the single target version.

The second variable I tried changing was the duration the power is 'borrowed'. You see, the drain is not permanent; as long as the target is living, the magic drained wants to return. It will be a slow process, taking months, but one's body and magical core cannot store magic that is not its own, at least not permanently. A small amount leaks, and the drained target will slowly regain their strength. Theoretically, even if the target is deceased, the spell will still leak, but to no particular location. Ultimately I was unable to modify the spell satisfactorily in the general sense. This limitation is, however, able to overcome, but only in a very specific circumstance.

The third variable I attempted changing was the source of the magic; in other words, the direction of the flow of magic. It is possible to use Tirek's spell to empty one's self of magic, again to the barest minimum to sustain life, and empower another pony with that magic. The recipient must be ready for drastic outcomes: possibly uncoordinated or uncontrolled releases of magic as they literally no longer know their own power. This version should also be readily reversible, at least once the recipient of the magic has recharged whatever they expended; it may even be possible to boost a non-unicorn or alicorn, but one may have difficulty returning the magic. Theoretically it should work without doing so; this version also suffers from the same limitation as the regular spell, letting the donor recharge their magic on their own as their magic is slowly released from the recipient. However, because the magic is given willingly, there is nearly no magic lost, the recipient gaining nearly the full power of the donor.

Donating magic, however, was not an option as neither pony in question is a unicorn, and the transfer needed to be permanent. Withdrawing magic from one pony and donating it to a second at a later time is not an option, as the 'stolen' magic immediately integrates with the caster's. The only way to keep the magic from returning is to trick the recipient's magical core into thinking that the infusion of magic is, in fact, their own magic. However, like no two ponies have the same experiences, no two ponies share a magical core. Even identical twins are different enough to get separate, if remarkably related, cutie marks, and the magical core recognizes this and would eventually reject the offending magic.

However, there exist, to my knowledge, three exceptions to this rule. Because of their unique sire, the magical cores of the mares of Herd Apple are nearly identical to those of their foals, though whether they will share a cutie mark is unknown but doubtful, as cutie marks form from experiences as well as magical potential. Should my calculations be correct, then Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo will be the first of three experiments to transfer a portion of the dam's magic to the foal. It is ultimately unclear what will happen to the dam's magic; it is possible that she will recover all of her potential over time. The more likely scenario is that the drained magic will never recover, leaving the net amount of magic between the two ponies the same. Regardless of the ultimate outcome, either is acceptable for Rainbow Dash, as long as the boost for Scootaloo is noticeable and permanent.

The last variable I attempted to change, purely to know how dangerous the spell could be, and knowing that the results could land me banishment to Tartarus, is whether or not the spell can continue to drain past the minimum needed to sustain life. The answer should be evident to you, Princess, as I have destroyed all my notes on the matter.

Your student, now and ever,
Sunset Shimmer'

Princess Celestia rises, a tear forming in her eye as she looks at the horseshoe shaped mirror. She whispers, "Oh Sunset, how could we have misjudged each other so?" She turns, walking outside the throne room, passing a depiction of Nightmare Moon's banishment and saying to herself, "Another of the biggest mistakes of my life."