//------------------------------// // Chapter VI: The Codex Tenebrarum // Story: Sunset Over Equestria // by Vict0r1994 //------------------------------// Was the glass of wine really the cause of the death, how the authorities suspected? Could Lightningrose have lied to her last night about the hoofsteps in Celestia's bedroom, and was it true that she had poisoned the wine? Those were questions which haunted Twilight's mind when she got back to the funeral and even after she got in bed, but Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy's discovery about Trixie's "undercover work" for Goldengem gave her more confidence in her theory, and helped her sleep over the night. After all, the maid couldn't gain anything from Celestia's death, even if she were careful enough not to be discovered, while the duke could get limitless power over Equestria out of it… And now his secret deal with Trixie, which happens to be a pretty powerful magician? Twilight had no doubt anymore. The facts were already pieced together in her mind, but this last piece of news just inspired her the confidence she needed. The last blurry thing were the hoofprints erasing spells, which she vaguely remembered about from a book she red a long time ago, so she had to go to the library first thing in the morning to make some research. It was all clear for Twilight, all clear except for this last detail. She was so nervous that she could barely wait for spike to wake up and help her, but she needed an assistant if she wanted to be efficient, so she kept slowly pacing around the room from sunrise until her little dragon friend would be awake. She did also fear the fact that without solid empirical evidence, the authorities might discard her theory without considering motives and probabilities as factors, especially now that Goldengem was the new ruler, and evidence was really hard to come by in this case. After a long morning for the magenta mare, she and spike finally headed to the library. "Come on Spike, we need to hurry. We've got lots of research to do!" "Yay…" Replied the baby dragon without the slightest hint of sharing Twilight's enthusiasm, underlining his sleepy and passive attitude by letting out a yawn afterwards. "Spike, focus! We've got a tight morning schedule, and we should check our equipment in the next two minutes of walking. Let's see now: Parchments?" Spike yawned again for even more time, and then added a long and seemingly bored "Checked" "Quills?" "Checked" "Ink?" "Checked" "Now that should be all for taking notes. Now about further planning in case we have to spend some time looking for information elsewhere and thereby modify our daily, weekly and monthly schedules. Do we have the schedules?" "Oh, for Celestia's sake Twilight! Why do I have to carry a soccer field's worth of meters in parchments all over the palace? I just want to…" And just before he could finish his sentence, the little dragon closed his eyes and fell on the floor snoring. "Spike! Come on! We're going back! We need to be prepared for anything, and right now we'll have to delay the whole daily schedule by approximately 3 minutes for going back and taking the schedules with us!" The little dragon immediately jumped back on his feet after Twilight yelled at him, but he knew how eager Twilight used to be when she had to put her theories to the test, especially concerning such an important matter, so he didn't get mad at her, and simply replied with a "Great. Just great!" After a thrilling research, at least from her perspective, Twilight didn't manage to find a way to reverse a hoofprint erasing spell. On the other hand, she found out that the spell was pretty hard to perform, so there aren't a lot of unicorns who would be able to do it, but Trixie was probably one of those who could. Her friends joined her and Spike after breakfast, as they were all welcome to stay in Canterlot for three more days according to the invitation, and there weren't really much things to do now that the whole city was mourning Celestia. "I still can't believe you persuaded Rainbow Dash to come help us with our work, guys!" exclaimed Twilight with surprise and enthusiasm. "Hey, it's not like I became an egghead! The Wonderbolts are nowhere to be found, and it was either this or helping the royal air forces maintain a boring mourning rain over the city… So what do we do?" answered the blue-coated Pegasus. "Well, you could start by reading those books!" said Twilight while pointing to a pretty tall pile. "Or by helping Spike get down the books in the rare spells section which is up there and hard for him to rea…" Twilight didn't even finish the sentence, and a thunder like beam of light got all the books in that section down, along with Spike's ladder unfortunately, but the rainbow-like coloured beam had turned backwards and caught the baby dragon before he could hit the ground. "You mean those books? No problem amiga!" Said Rainbow Dash after pointing to the fallen books. "Yeah, Ah think she meant getting those books, not hitting everypony 'round 'ya with'em." Pointed Applejack sarcastically when she got out of a big pile. "Calm down everypony! This is FUN!" said Pinkie Pie while bouncing up and down through the books. "ooooh. Hey look, a spooky book with yellow pages and creepy letters!" added the pink mare while bringing a very big book with thick covers which made a huge cloud of dust when Pinkie dropped it on the floor. "cough cough Hey, I cough cough didn't observe this earlier. Where did you find it Rainbow Dash?" asked Twilight curiously. "I think it was cough cough hidden in that locked drawer on the top shelf, hidden by the rest of the books." Replied Rainbow Dash. "Locked drawer? I'm sorry dear, but all I can see up there is a hole." Pointed Rarity in her distinctive calm and elegant manner. "That's because my cool flight made the door break and fly with the books! By the way, nice catch AJ!" After these words, everypony turned to see an Applejack who also got a wooden door and a lock out of the pile. "Thanks, Dash, but Ah think 'ya should be more careful next'ime. 'Ya may get the 'hole shelf down." Replied the orange Earth pony in a humorous tone. "What can I say? One of the disadvantages which comes with a super-cool high speed… You draw in objects like a Tornado! Are you okay A.J?" said Rainbow Dash in a boastful manner at first, but continued by expressing concern for her friend. "It's o'right! Nothin' but a pile'o'books hit me in the end!" "Guys, I think Rainbow Dash just made a huge discovery! This book seems to be written in an older unspoken form of Equestrian, and the table of contents says there is a reverse-spell for magical hoofprint erasing from page 369 to 375!" realized Twilight, but before she could search for it, the librarian, an old White Earth Pony with a burgundy mane, interrupted them. "Stop! You can't read that book! That's the Codex Tenebrarum, an encyclopedia of dark magic written by a group of sorcerers supporting Nightmare Moon during the Equestrian Civil War. There is only one copy of this book remained in the whole of Equestria, and there is a reason why it is hidden!" said the librarian while taking the book off their hoofs. "The law strictly forbids any use of this book without princess Celestia's approval, and now, without king Goldengem's approval! The magic inside is so powerful and dark that it could rip off the all the love and goodness from a not-too-skilled unicorn who tries to use it! The legend says all those who did without the proper magical abilities turned into soulless carriers of evil and doom, pretty much like Nightmare Moon, which could kill entire legions of changelings because of the hatred and lack of love they emanated!" "That sounds scary, Twi! Maybe we should just look in the other… dozens of books for your spell!" Said Spike while trembling and cowering behind the Magenta mare. "Cut it out Spike! It's just a legend! There's nothing to be afraid of!" Twilight told Spike in a warm register. "Yeah. That's what you said about Pinkie's twitchy tail as well, and remember what trouble that got us in?" asked the baby dragon with serious concern. Twilight didn't answer this second question, which was probably rhetorical, although it made a pretty good point, and in turn spoke to the librarian. "So this is a copy of the famous Codex Tenebrarum? The real Codex Tenebrarum? The one that was lost during the magical battle of Hastlings during the 1066th day of the civil war, when Nightmare Moon's Unicorn legions planned to use the dark magic to envelop the whole Celestial army in a magical shield which would tighten up until every celestial unicorn was crushed to pieces, but their plan was stopped by a huge rampaging dragon? They had to stay atop of a mountain in order to see the whole battlefield, but because the cover of the book was encrusted with precious stones and they were close to the Dragonlands, a huge dragon attacked them and stole the book, and it has never been seen afterwards… There really is a copy of that ancient magic encyclopedia?" Said Twilight excitedly, impressing all the ponies around her, including the librarian. "Well, I see you are quite familiar with our history… Yes, that Codex Tenebrarum, and if you are so well documented about it, you should know it is way too dangerous to use. Come here with the king's approval, and then we'll talk!" replied the librarian coldly while turning her back and leaving back to her desk with the book. "But Goldengem would neva' give'us'is approval!" shouted Applejack from behind. "Not my problem!" answered the librarian in the same cold register. "Look, I have a theory regarding Celestia's murder which involves Goldengem, and that book might be our only chance to prove it. It is for the good of all Equestria to find the truth! Would you like to live under the rule of a murderer?" said Twilight bitterly. "Pretty Please! I'll invite you to our justice-serving party as a special guest if you help us!" added Pinkie Pie while widening her pleading eyes in front of the white-coated mare. "Murderer? I've never considered that, and it sounds important, but I just can't. If I were to be caught, or if you lose your soul because of it… It is simply too dangerous!" "Please! I can handle it! I am the element of magic. And it is just a harmless spell which shows magically erased hoofprints!" "Nothing in that book is harmless! There is indeed a spell which shows erased hoofprints from what I remember, but this is not its sole purpose. It undoes all good magic ever performed in the target area, and it also blocks further uses of good magic in the zone. Moreover, if not controlled well, the target area could immediately extend to the size of the whole palace or downtown Canterlot!" "How I said, I can control it. I am the element of magic and the fate of Equestria might rest on this spell!" "And how comes you red this forbidden book? I thought you said nopony could read it without the ruler's approval!" pointed Rainbow Dash to the rest of her friends. "Well that's true, but as the Royal Librarian, I stumbled across that book two decades ago, not much time after I started working here, and I asked Princess Celestia for permission to read it. Besides, it's not like I could go around and try the magic with my Earth Pony invisible horn…" The six mares laughed at the librarian's joke, but as there seemed to be no way of obtaining the book peacefully, Twilight checked for any guards nearby, crossed her eyes with Rarity, and after a quick tilt of her head, she froze the old mare into place, while Rarity used her magic to levitate the book in front of Twilight and open it at the right page. "We're sorry this had to happen darling, but Equestria is not going to save itself without our help, and besides, your mane looks dazzling in that purple aura!" Said Rarity letting an innocent chuckle in the end. "WHAT? All the 7 pages are… missing!" observed Twilight immediately. "How is that possible? Ah thought that'rawer was locked! Ah even'ave the broken lock here!" "Maybe the lock was already broken when Dashie passed by… Maybe this is why the door broke up so easily…" Said Fluttershy quietly. "Yeah. Great ahdea Fluttershy! The assassin must've stolen both of'em spells to destroy the possibility of bein' discovered!" Concluded Applejack. "When's the last time you checked the lock darling?" asked Rarity while hovering the book opened where the broken pages were in front of the white-coated earth pony. "It's impossible! I do it weekly, and it was ok just a day before the assassinate!" "A day before you say? Well, this doesn't infirm Fluttershy's hypothesis… There's no need for this force field anymore. I'm sorry we had to do it, but I have to ask you two more questions before we let you go." "Fine, what is it?" "First, don't you remember the spell yourself, or know somepony who red the book recently and might remember it?" "No. I am the pony who red it most recently, and the spell needs a one page-long old equestrian incantation in order to be performed. Nopony but Celestia or maybe Luna could know it." "Luna, you say… We needed to talk to her anyway. Ok, and second, could anypony steal the time spell before the library was closed? This is very important since the assassin wouldn't have stolen it an hour after the death of Celestia if she could do it earlier." "No, since the time spell was on that shelf facing my desk directly. I would've noticed anypony trying to steal it while I was here. Now, would you please release me!" "Of Course. Sorry for your trouble! Come on guys, we have to find princess Luna urgently!" "Yes, she knew all those nasty things about this so called duke's rule, and now she could help us with the spell too. Race you to her royal apartment A.J!"