Study
Twilight made her way through the courtyard toward the gazebo at its center. The large, open-air area felt a lot like a park with its lush plants, ample lighting, and generously spaced benches. Guests were always welcome to visit the gardens, and the palace staff came here frequently to unwind during breaks. Considering how late it was though, Twilight was fairly confident that everypony had already gone home for the evening . The gardener had finished his chores, all the guests were either attending some sort of social function or had retired to their quarters for the night, and most of the palace staff who frequented the yard during their breaks were busy elsewhere. In fact, the only signs of life in the garden came from the assembly of small animals that scurried and hid as Twilight moved forward. They poked their heads out from behind the trees and bushes only to see what she was up to.
The curious stares of the palace’s menagerie went largely unnoticed however, as Twilight was still engrossed in the pages of the tome she carried in front of her. A pair of birds fled from their place on the gazebo’s railing as the oblivious mare trotted up the steps and approached the table. She sat down absently at one of the pavilion’s two picnic tables, placing the book in front of her and leaning in to study more intently.
“Theory and Application,” Twilight read aloud, a habit she had acquired somewhere during her lengthy academic career. “To begin to understand the mechanics behind even the most basic of summoning spells, one must first understand the basics of runic channeling. - Runic channeling?” She repeated the phrase, genuinely surprised to have come across an entire subject related to magic she had never heard of before. With a quick shake of her head, she continued reading.
“Runic channeling is an advanced form of inscription. While not a form of magic in itself, runic channeling provides a way for a unicorn to focus and channel his or her magic to greater effect than one could hope to be reached alone. Once the appropriate runes have been carefully inscribed, one simply needs to cast the trigger spell to set the runes in motion. - Oh, I get it! It’s kind of like when I scribed that scroll of Cloudwalking for Rarity so she could visit Rainbow Dash without having to learn the spell first.” The practice wasn’t common, but it was a faster alternative to learning a spell when time would not permit.
“There are five parts to any runic seal. First, the seal must begin with a set of basic runes designed to react to the trigger spell and set the magic in motion. The second set of runes denote which of the seven schools of magic the desired effect emanates from: Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Evocation, Transmutation, Illusion, and Enchantment. The third and fourth sets of runes identify the spell being cast and set any variable effects, respectively. The fifth and final part consists of a single rune: the Keystone. The Keystone binds and syncs all others together so that they work toward their common goal in harmony. All five parts of the seal are critical, and a single mistake can result in complete failure or unexpected and potentially dangerous results.”
The next dozen or so pages went over each of the basic runes, and a few of the more complex ones, as examples. Twilight spent time carefully studying each one, even using her quill to practice tracing them on a sheet of scratch parchment. She paid extra attention to the Trigger and Keystone runes. Once she felt proficient enough to draw them effectively from the diagrams provided, she moved on.
“Simply copying the runes in the proper order is not sufficient. In order to scribe a seal, a unicorn’s very essence must become one with the words on the page. An infusion of unicorn magic into iron gall ink provides the magical energy needed to channel the trigger spell through the runes to complete the spell when it is cast. A simple transmutation spell is provided on the following pages to infuse a single vial of ink with enough magical energy to scribe most seals.” Twilight flipped the page and studied the directions there carefully. The spell was simple enough. It was no more difficult than turning an apple into an orange and she had pulled that off without any difficulty. Once she got her aim right, anyway.
She reached in her saddle bag and pulled out an unopened vial of ink. With little effort, she surrounded the vial with her magic, and brought the transmutation spell to life. The blackish-brown color of the ink was soon replaced by a dark violet color which shimmered with a faint luminescence. The unicorn took it in hoof and held it up, admiring her work before turning back to the book once more.
Finally, she came back to the subject of summoning. “Oooh!” she cooed as she read the title of the next section, “History and Development!” Not only did she get to study the whats and how-tos of summoning magic, she also got to study the whos, whens, and whys as well. “The roots of runic summoning can be traced farther back than the founding of Equestria. The Mages of the Unicorn Kingdom used runic seals to summon great aerial creatures to fight the warriors of the Pegasi Tribe during the great war that led up to the deep winter before the first Hearth’s Warming. Throughout the ages, numerous unicorns have devoted themselves to the discovery of the secrets of runic magic...” Twilight’s eyes glazed over as she recognized some of the names from her studies of early unicorn history: Spellshield the Vigilant, Shatterspell the Zealot, and Clover the Clever to name a few. “I’ll have to come back to this later. It’s not all the time you find prime research materials about Clover the Clever, straight from her mentor!”
As much as she looked forward to learning more about the history and theory of summoning magic, Twilight was even more eager to try it. She flipped to the first pages that gave specific examples of what particular runes could be combined to summon various creatures from the edges of reality. There were stories of the ancient mages summoning dragons and wyverns, chimeras and hydras to battle the Pegasus and Earth tribes, but such knowledge wasn’t likely to be the subject of a simple book. Such powerful magicks would undoubtedly be closely guarded in the Starswirl the Bearded Wing, not a part of the general archive. What the book contained were smaller, more common creatures. The spells varied in their complexity and thus the skill one needed to cast them.
The simplest of spells only used the minimum number of runes to cast: a single, novice-level trigger spell, one school, the simplest of spell runes, no variables, and of course the Keystone. They even included notes that particularly skilled mages could train themselves to summon such creatures without the use of a runic seal, with enough practice. A frown quickly formed at the corners of Twilight’s muzzle as she flipped through the pages. “Rabbits? … Doves? … A cockatiel?!” She threw up her hooves in frustration. “It sounds more like a bad magic act from Las Pegasus than an ‘Advanced Guide to Conjuration, Teleportation, and Summoning.’ Especially not one written by Starswirl the Bearded.” She flipped a few pages before thrusting an accusatory hoof at the illustration on the page. “The most challenging creature in the beginner’s section is a parasprite, for crying out loud!”
She skipped over a couple of sections to look over the more advanced spells the book had to offer, and was immediately overwhelmed. There she found decidedly more complex spells: advanced trigger spells, specialized sub-school runes, several runes to denote the spells, and a dozen or more variables to select ranging from size and strength to gender and physical appearance. “These are too dangerous! Timberwolves? Manticores? … A cockatrice?!” Twilight felt a little nauseous at the thought of what any one of those creatures would be capable of if they were loose on the streets of Canterlot.
Admittedly intimidated by the more advanced examples, she turned back to look at the spells of “moderate difficulty.” The spell triggers were of apprentice level. Most required only the basic Conjuration rune. The spells were simple, and all had a limited number of variables to choose from. The creatures available to summon were all fairly harmless too. Pixies, Sprites, Fairies, and other harmless, if perhaps a little mischievous, fey lined the middle pages she had overlooked at first.
Twilight skimmed through each of the entries, considering which of the many options she should try. “Pixies. Hmm...” Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof as she considered the worst that could happen. “Best I recall, Pixies can be a real hoof full. And they like to break things.” She paled at the thought of one going on a rampage through the halls of the palace. “Most of those artifacts are worth more than I make in a year!” She shook the thought from her head, quickly dismissing the idea and turning the page to move on to the next one.
“What about a fairy?” Again she considered the thought. “Wait, no... fairies are powerful magical creatures. I have no idea how my magic will react with hers; there could be a violent reaction for all I know!” Twilight shuddered at the thought of some of the more serious potential side-effects, which ranged from the unlikely to the absurd, up to and including the creation of a bizarre pony-fairy fusion. “Even if our magics didn’t react, every fairy I’ve ever read about was very strong-willed. I know I wouldn’t be too happy if somepony just plucked me out of my place in the universe for no apparent reason, and I’m not so sure I could convince her to see my side of things...”
She began turning pages quicker and quicker. “No... Too strong. Too crazy. Too scandalous... No... No... No, No, No!” Twilight clenched her eyes shut and shuddered before letting out a frustrated cry. “GAHHH!...” Her face hit the page in front of her with an audible *THUD*
“Ohh,” she mumbled as she reluctantly lifted her head, “maybe I’ve been at it too long... Maybe it’s time to go home.” She started to gather her supplies in her magic, as something on the page she had just faceplanted onto caught her eye. “Huh?” She leaned closer to read what she had almost overlooked.
“As embodiments of the elements of nature, an elemental sprite’s behaviour is closely related to the nature of the element they represent. Some sprites are brash, and quick-tempered, while others are slow to anger and long enduring. Some are capable of swift destruction, while others spread the life and vigor of the natural world...” All thoughts of leaving were gone now as Twilight skipped a couple paragraphs ahead to look at one of the elements in greater detail.
“Nature-magic!” she beamed. “Of course!” She looked around the garden at the various plants. Trees, bushes, and shrubs as well as flowers and greenery were everywhere. The royal gardener was good at what he did, but all the skill in the world couldn’t compete with nature itself. “If I can figure out this summoning spell and convince the sprite to give the garden a little boost...” She was practically as giddy as a foal at the mere thought. “Oh, won’t Princess Celestia be surprised?”
“It’s decided then!” she announced to the animals of the garden as she magically grabbed a blank piece of parchment, her quill, and the vial of soulbound ink in her magic. She sat them all before her in a precise and practiced order before she moved the book closer, placed a hoof on the first line of the spell she had decided to cast, then dipped the end of her quill into the shimmering purple essence and held the nib over the page, preparing to scribe the first of the trigger runes.
“I’m going to summon a Water Sprite!”