The Equestrian Scrolls - Ponykiin

by Midnight Leaf

Chapter 1: Hitting the Books

Twilight galloped up the hill, mind racing through all the different scenarios that could occur when she reached the top. Maybe he (or she) is hostile, or maybe he/she is some sort of super-powerful magician with a spell gone wrong, or maybe he/she's an alien pony from- She pulled the emergency brake on her train of thought before she got too carried away. Hold on a sec, Twilight; you're starting to think like Pinkie Pie. Most likely what she saw was some pony looking at the crater, or something like that... Either way, I've got to take a look at who, or what, Pinkie saw. Within moments, Twilight reached the lip of the impact site.

By Twilight's calculations, the crater appeared to be about 26 feet in diameter. The deepest part, the center, looked approximately 5 feet deep, when compared to the lip of the crater. As her gaze shifted to look at what was inside the crater, Twilight's jaw dropped. Inside the crater was close to 20 books; each had one of five strange symbols adorned on the cover, and somehow, all of the books were in perfect condition. Surrounded by these strange tomes was a jet black male unicorn. A white mane, streaked with a single light blue stripe, was scattered in tendrils across his neck. A tail of the same colors was barely visible; the mud-caked appendage was half buried under the dirt. As Twilight cautiously crept closer, she could see that the strange stallion had splashes of dirt across his body, and that no trace of a cutie mark could be seen. His chest rose and fell very slowly, rhythmically pushing a lean, muscled stomach up and down – a clear sign that he was still alive.

"How in Celestia's name did you manage to get here?" Twilight asked the unconscious pony, head cocked to the side in puzzlement. And who, or more specifically, what are you?

After a few moments, Twilight's friends reached the lip of the crater, and saw her studying the black pony. Immediately, Pinkie took the lead, bouncing down to Twilight and saying (in her usual spunky attitude) "See? I told you there was a pony up here, didn't I?"

After a few moments of staring at the contents of the crater, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy made their way over to where Twilight and Pinkie were standing, heads swiveling around to try and take note of every little detail.

"Twi, who is that?" Applejack asked, voice full of awe as her gaze settled on the stallion in the center of the crater.

"I...I have no idea, but after an impact like that…I’m not sure if he’s even still alive."

Rainbow Dash promptly walked up to the unconscious pony and started jabbing his stomach with her hoof. “HEY, CAN YOU HEAR ME? HELLOO-! Hey!” She was abruptly silenced by Applejack, who had yanked her back by the tail.

“Rainbow, just what do ya think you’re doin’?” Applejack said after she spit out the rainbow-colored tail.

“Well he can’t be that hurt! I mean, look at him! There isn’t a single scratch on his body! I’ve gotten hurt worse in my sleep!” The cyan pegasus scoffed.

Applejack rolled her eyes in response, then turned to Pinkie Pie, who was busy discussing who the jet black stallion could be. “OOH! Maybe he’s one of Luna’s stars that got kicked out of the sky by other, meaner stars who liked to pick on him, and he’s to sad to wake up, and-“

Applejack held up a hoof to stop Pinkie’s barrage. “Pinkie, sugarcube, maybe you should go and find somepony that could help.” She paused, pondering the wisdom of her next statement. “…and then, did you forget that he’s…new in town?”

The pink pony’s eyes suddenly grew to the size of saucers, and with a giant gasp, she darted off to find somepony to help, then to plan a party for the new pony in town. Much to her friends’ surprise, Pinkie was back within a minute, a very surprised pony from the hospital staff clinging to her back. She promptly bucked him onto the ground, and then zipped away again, undoubtedly to start on party prep.

“Uuugh…what happened?” The tan-colored doctor said as he picked himself up off the ground.

“Pinkie Pie.” The five mares replied in unison.

“That explains a lot.” He groaned, and then began to take a look at his surroundings – only for his eyes to end up locking onto the jet black stallion in the center of the crater. “Who’s that?!” he exclaimed as he rushed over to the unconscious pony.

“That’s just it…we don’t know.” Twilight replied with an apologetic smile. “All we know is that he hasn't moved since we…found him like this.”

The doctor carefully placed his ear to the pony’s mouth, listening for breathing. After a few moments, he straightened up and sighed. “Well, he’s alive, but I can’t properly diagnose his condition without the proper equipment. I need to take this stallion to the hospital.”

“Girls…look…” Fluttershy whispered, pointing her hoof at the sky. The group turned around to see the beginnings of the meteor shower, bright yellow lights flashing across the sky in less than a second. “The meteor shower’s starting.”

"If only we could stay and enjoy it." Twilight sighed as she turned away from the night sky's display. "Come on, girls, let's get this pony to the hospital."

Nomulus' consciousness surfaced to the sound of two people discussing something. They were talking quite loudly; just loud enough that his slumbering mind had decided it was too much to sleep through. Intending to tell the two loudmouths off, Nomulus got up and opened his eyes; or rather, he tried to. As soon as he tried to put his body weight on them, his limbs failed him, dropping his immensely sore body back onto the bed. Nomulus experienced something similar with his eyes as well; they slammed shut after a painful white light shone directly through his pupils, driving the spike of his migraine deeper into his skull. The Dragonborn was forced to just rest there, his entire body now throbbing with renewed pain. He heard the two people that had awoken him rush over to his bed and start firing a rapid-fire barrage of questions; they sounded muffled, as if they were trying speaking through layers of cotton. Nomulus decided to ignore them, employing the massive amount of concentration that comes with learning to focus Thu'um to take all of the pain and stuff it in a mental box. Eventually, the throbbing in his body was mentally herded into a corral located located at the back of his mind, and Nomulus was able to form coherent thoughts for the first time since awakening. His body still ached, but the force that kept it at the forefront of his mind had been pushed into the box as well.

With his mind now wrested from the pain's control, Nomulus tried to come up with scenarios of what had happened. Maybe that whole ordeal with the portal was a dream, he mused, but pushed away the thought just as quickly as it had popped up. No, the pain was too real; how sore I am now attests to that. Something must have gone wrong with the portal; maybe Alduin knew my plan, and sabotaged it? If the feeling of pain that was trapped in his mental box didn't have such a significant hold over his body, Nomulus would have wrinkled his face in a thoughtful frown. Either way, someone must have found me; from the sound of this place, it seems that I'm getting tended to in some sort of hall. That, or I’m in one very fancy healer's tent. I should be up and about sooner or later; then I can sort out this whole mess, and figure out what in Nocturnal's name happened to me. Until then...guess I'm stuck in bed.

It was about 5:00 PM, about a week after the meteor shower. The bright white lights of the hospital illuminated its equally white-washed halls and rooms. In one such hallway, Twilight Sparkle and a pink-maned, white earth pony were discussing the 'new arrival'.

"How is he?" Twilight asked Nurse Redheart for the eighth time that week, both mares' gaze set on the strange black pony through a hospital window.

"It appears he tried to get up a few hours ago; our two nurses in the room couldn't say for sure, though." The earth pony replied. "All I can guess is that he tried to push himself up, but overestimated his strength and collapsed back onto the bed."

"Has he said or done anything that might give us a clue to who he is?"

"No, he hasn't said anything. He just lies there, and doesn't say or respond to anything we say." the nurse's face was set in a puzzled frown. "I can't say for sure, but I think until he's fully recovered from...whatever injured him, we're not going to hear a peep from that stallion."

Twilight sighed. "I can't help but wonder how he got here; logic tells me he got here via that large ball of…energy, but how would he survive such a large amount of force when he hit? I mean, the impact made a five foot deep crater!"

"Maybe it's some sort of weird spell; from your description of what happened, that bright light could be some sort of magical shield that protected him from the worst of the crash."

"Maybe...I just know that the stallion in there can explain."

Nurse Redheart let out a soft laugh. "Either way, you're going to have to be patient. It's not looking like he's waking up anytime soon."

"I suppose so." Twilight sighed once again. "Well, there's nothing to be accomplished by staring at him. I might as well head back to the library." She went to leave, and was accompanied by Nurse Redheart to the front door of the hospital. Before she pushed open the doors, Twilight turned back and asked, "You'll let me know if anything happens?"

"Of course, Twilight."

She nodded in acknowledgement and pushed open the doors, headed for her library.

As soon as the door to her library swung open, Twilight was calling for Spike. "Spiiike! Where are you?"

"Right here, Twi." the short purple dragon replied, walking up to Twilight with a ladle in one claw and a cookbook in the other. "I made some dinner, you-"

"That's great, Spike, but could you cut the small talk for later? I need to know where I put those books from the crater."

"They're still in your room, where you had them last week." Spike replied. "Now, did you want some-" He was interrupted by a POP, and sighed in defeat. Twilight had teleported to her bedroom, leaving the young dragon with nothing to do but eat alone, then go to bed.

As Twilight popped back into existence, she immediately rushed to her desk, levitating some parchment, ink, and a quill to the right side. To the left, she had placed five of the original twenty strange books from the crater, each with one of the five symbols she had discovered on the books' covers. She hadn't had a chance to truly study the five mysterious tomes ever since discovering them with the strange pony. Her previous week had been completely booked, and Twilight hadn't planned any "change around the schedule" time in her calendar, so the books had remained untouched on her bedside table. However, now that her crazy week was over, it was time to settle down and do what Twilight did best: study through the night.

To begin, Twilight selected a purple tome, its cover adorned with what looked like an upside-down, square U symbol. Inside the 'U' was a small swirl. As she opened the tome, faint purple beams of energy floated out, dissipating in the air once they traveled a few feet from the book.

That's strange... Twilight made a quick note on her parchment, then continued with her study, turning her eyes onto the book's pages. To her surprise, all that was on them were various images depicting what seemed like...stages of a ritual of some sort. Eagerly flipping though the pages, Twilight soon had the images of this ritual imprinted in her memory.

That's when everything started to go wrong.

After finishing the last page (which depicted a wolf emerging from some sort of vortex) and closing the book, Twilight looked up from her notes to discover that the strange purple tome was falling apart. Piece by piece, the book was slowly crumbling away, the surprisingly informative knowledge within crumbling with it.

"Oh nononononononoNONONONONONO!" Twilight shrieked as the fallen pieces turned to ashes, desperately trying to hold the book together. "This can't be HAPPENING!!!!" However, despite her efforts, the book dissolved into nothing but a pile of ashes, the knowledge within lost.

Twilight sat there, staring at the pile of ashes for a good minute, jaw dropped in disbelief. ......What just happened? What did I do wrong? Was there some sort of fail-safe spell I didn't notice? Frantically searching her memories, the young mare tried to come up with something she did that would've caused the book to be destroyed. As far as I know, just reading the book made it dissolve like that!

Despite her best efforts, the purple unicorn couldn't come up with any logical reason the book would have crumbled into dust and ashes. Maybe the Princess would know... No, I can't tell her that I destroyed one of the precious books that arrived with that black sta- Twilight gasped as something occurred to her. That's it! The pony from the crater! He'll know! But another realization drowned the fires of her hope. He's in the hospital, and still won't talk. I'm not finding answers there anytime soon.

Once again, the purple unicorn scoured her brain, this time searching for something that could give her a clue as to what the book was. This time, she located something completely new and alien pressing at her thoughts, begging for recognition. Curiosity piqued, Twilight accessed the knowledge, feeling the images from the tome flood into her consciousness and compound into a single, fluid understanding of...she wasn't sure. Upon further self-examination, it appeared that she possessed the knowledge of a brand new spell; one that not only seemed different when compared to her usual magics, but felt different as well. It was like the knowledge was connected to an entirely different section of her mind; an entirely different well of power that Twilight had never noticed (or maybe never had). Intending to see just what this new spell did, Twilight turned her focus back to the physical world...and screamed.

Floating just above her left hoof was a swirling ball of purple and black energy. In its center was what looked like a dark purple black hole; surrounding it was an aura of spiraling, lighter colored energy. The sphere was in constant motion, swirling its own dark energy lines into the center and recreating them around the border at the same time.

After overcoming her initial shock and letting her scream die out, Twilight sat and stared at the purple sphere in her hoof. …what is this thing? Is this the product of that strange spell? Still staring at the vortex, she accessed the part of her brain where the arcane knowledge was located. To her surprise, it seemed that the spell hadn’t truly activated yet; in fact, it felt more like calling it forth had taken off the safety, and gotten the spell ready to fire. Intrigued once more, fright forgotten, Twilight called forth the knowledge once more. Immediately, she felt a previously untapped reservoir of energy begin to drain, the power flowing directly to…her left hoof.

Snapping her focus back to the physical world, Twilight discovered that the vortex in her hoof was now swelled up – its center was about 1.5 times bigger, as well as the aura surrounding it. The energy particles poured into the center even faster than before; it looked like the sphere was ready to burst, and was simply waiting for Twilight’s permission. Even more curious than before, she decided to let it do so; the unicorn found the trigger mechanism woven into the spell and flipped it, unconsciously flicking her left hoof towards the wall as she did so. Almost immediately after she released the energy, Twilight saw the ball of flowing energy burst into the air and dissipate, fragments fleeing into the air and disappearing. Then, to her surprise, a mysterious purple portal appeared seemingly out of nowhere, the awning purple gap of energy spinning particles around it for a few seconds before dissipating just as quickly.

However, it didn’t disappear without something coming through.

A few seconds after the portal closed, Twilight began to see streaks of blue lightning form out of nowhere, moving towards where the portal used to be. The unicorn was entranced by the sight; she couldn’t tear her eyes away as the condensed electricity formed into the legs, torso, back, and head of a timber wolf. As soon as the shape was finished, the electricity wove itself together to complete the wolf’s body, combining the streaks of energy and giving its entire body a purple sheen. Every section of the beast was purple; its eyes were the only exception. Instead of the default purple, the woven energy had colored the beady orbs a blood-red.

Pushed forward by her ever-growing curiosity, Twilight moved closer to the timber wolf, trying to get a closer look at what this…conjuration was. As she crept closer, a whirlwind of thoughts swept through her consciousness. What is this? How did a purple timber wolf suddenly form from that blue lightning? What exactly did that spell do?!

Within moments, Twilight came within five feet of the beast. Then it did something that would always give her chills when she looked back to that one moment: it turned its head and stared at her, right in the eye. The wolf’s murderous red eyes bored into her skull, and a clear message transferred itself to Twilight’s cranium: Who would you like me to …deal with, mistress? The wolf bared gleaming purple teeth in a snarl, as if to assert its lethality.

All Twilight could do was stare at the conjured beast in a mix of fear, awe, and confusion as she tried to process what was going on. How in Equestria did a living purple timber wolf get in my room? Was this what that spell did? It teleported a purple timber wolf into my room?! What the hay is going on here?!?!

Much to her surprise, the wolf replied telekinetically. You cast a conjuration spell, calling me forth from the plains of Oblivion. While I am here, your spell commands me to protect you, and to tear out the throats of any who would oppose you. Twilight fought the urge to gag as she fought back an assault of graphic images. …Let me tell you just…one thing. Once again, the wolf bared its teeth in a bone-chilling snarl. I may have to serve you, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like it. I assure you that if I had a choice in the matter, your throat would be in my jaws at this very moment.

Twilight felt as though she was going to collapse as the pieces clicked together in her mind, and stumbled back a few steps, feeling a very strong urge to puke. That spell took a timber wolf…a living being from its home, brought it here, and chained it to my will? On top of that, its whole purpose in being here is to kill other living things?!

All Twilight could do was stand there, trying to figure out what to do as her mind went into lockdown. In return, the timber wolf just stood there, staring at her with its accusing, glaring red orbs. After a few minutes, however, Twilight noticed something different about the lupine.

It was disappearing. It started slowly at first, but little by little, the lightning that had originally made up the timber wolf was returning to its former appearance and dissipating into the air, leaving the small section of the beast’s body that it made up empty. Gradually the process gained speed, and soon, the wolf was completely static again as its body was halfway evaporated. After about a minute, the purple timber wolf, and the energy that had formed it, had disappeared, leaving no trace of its previous existence.

Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long with this chapter, everypony. My work and school schedule haven't exactly given me many chances to write, and the call of Borderlands 2 has been way too strong for when I have a couple of hours to myself.