//------------------------------//
// Deep Magic, An Equestrian Guide to Nightmare Night Costumes 
// Story: Opus 
// by Ninjeneer 
//------------------------------//

Deep Magic, An Equestrian Guide to Nightmare Night Costumes
By: Travis Kingsley
Edited by: Eric Pellegrino

In the days before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna ruled Equestria; The early years of the earth when their parents, the King and Queen ruled a noble rule.  The magics of the earth were fresh from their beginning, and sorcery lived along side magic in harmony.  In this time there existed a tribe of ponies who, with much diligence, befriended the deep magics, and inherited their powers. This tribe was known simply as the Guardians, for the clan served to protect the King and Queen from any threat that should surface. For in this early time, there were many creatures known today only as legend, neigh, some even lost to the darkness of time itself, and completely forgotten except to mythology.
This tribe, the Guardians, vanquished many dreaded foe who threatened to wreak havoc on the peaceful citizens of Equestria. The Guardians were identified by a single marking on their flanks, a Mark of Rites as it was called, and they pertained to their specialty in the deep magics. Some were dark magic, some light magic, some were even what we would call forbidden magics, but the one I am telling you of today is that of the elemental magics.
In this section of elemental Guardians there existed some ponies who could conjure up the ancient elements and the elements would obey their every whim. Others could bend the elements around them to their will. And still others could draw on the dark elements and void anything they willed. Many great warriors came from the Elemental section of the Guardian tribe, but not all Guardians were great warriors, and indeed many were resigned to remedial tasks such as baking for the not-so-skilled fire ponies, and so on.  But today our concern is not of the chef-ponies, but one particular pony, with wood bending abilities (though not very strong) who very much wanted to be great.
This pony tried everything she could think of to sharpen her abilities, but after years of training she was only able to bend small branches and shrubberies...Then one day, a great plant-warrior pony known as Shere (pronounced as the word share) Woodbender came across this humble pony while she was training and took pity on her, and indeed was honored by her courage and willpower. He watched her in secret for many weeks along with some of his most trusted kinsmen. They all admired her for her stout heart, but none would dare say that she had great ability, for she did not. Instead, these great woodbenders, led by Shere, would devise a plan to help this pony, and perhaps encourage her.  They could tell that her heart was weary from her lack of success and so they wished to help her.  “Since she has great heart, and much training, but little ability” they thought “let us make her bending easier for her, so that she may excel at is as much as she can and perhaps lighten the load on her burdened spirit.” So they took wooden planks, and thinned them.  Making them lightweight and easy to move.  They presented them to the pony, who could indeed control them quite easily, but quickly saw that there was no great and noble application for them, and again became downhearted.
Shere was saddened by this, and set out to see the King and Queen, who could perhaps help devise a use for the thinned wood, and indeed they did. As it would be, they were searching for something other than stone to keep written record on, something that would be easy to transport by most any pony, even if they had no magic.  The King and Queen were delighted to have the thin wood for records, named it “paper,” and quickly developed ink and quills for writing on it. When Shere returned, he found that the pony had embraced this bending, despite thinking it nonsensical, and had been training in the art of bending paper. She could even sheer paper from the fallen trees, and could do so quickly and easily, creating them so thin that you could roll them up into a scroll.
Shere reported this to the King and Queen, who summoned the pony, and asked her if she would be their head scribe, and teach the other ponies to control this paper in such a skillful manner as she did.  She agreed, and they have her the honored title of Paperhoof. Though ponies often had titles, no other pony had such an honor in all of Equestria as being titled by the King and Queen themselves.  And this pony was quickly raised to greatness as the best scribe to ever serve in the royal house.  She also devised many other uses for paper. In fact, she was rumored to make paper “birds” that could soar on the winds, and even to make paper catch fire.
This pony, who had a lowly start, had risen to fame and honor due to her own hard work, and the help of a few faithful friends. Or so the legend goes....

“Awesome!” Thought Ditzy as she closed the dusty book of ancient Equestrian history and legends “maybe now I can prove to the town that I’m not stupid!  This would make a great costume and everypony would know that I am well read and stop calling me stupid names like ‘Derpy’....gahhh!!! But hmmm....what kind of costume would I even make? after all, it doesn’t give a description of Shere OR Paperhoof in this legend... Paperhoof...? PaperHOOF!!!! I can wrap my hooves in paper to symbolize the name ‘Paperhoof’ and thereby show everypony once and for all that I am well read, creative, ingenious, and NOT ‘Derpy’....stupid eye...” she faded off with some sadness in her voice. “Anyway...” she said, and started gathering supplies for her costume.  A costume of legendary stature! Tape, scissors, and of course PAPER! she had everything she needed, and had quickly wrapped her hooves in paper.  “But it’s not a very obvious costume” she thought.  “You can barely tell I even HAVE a costume on. What can I do?..”  And then the idea hit her.  Paperhoof was a Squire, and Squires wore hats to signify their position!  “I’ll make a paper hat as well, and TRUELY be the traditional Paperhoof, Squire!  Well muffins and macintosh this is working out better than I expected!  I’m really going all out on this!  Nopony will be able to deny my knowledge now!”  She quickly finished her costume, and not a moment too soon for it was already dark outside, and the festivities had begun to commence.
She quickly trotted outside, and headed toward the town square and the main festival when she heard a voice.  “Hey, there goes Derpy dressed as a paper bag!  Haha!  She’s sooo....Derpy!”  Her heart sank a little, but she didn’t stop to correct the young colt who had spoken, but did shoot him an angry glance as she passed.  “Bad idea...” she sighed as her eye started acting up again.  “Of all the times...” she trailed off in thought, scolding herself for being so stupid, but quickly forgot her worries as she arrived at the town square.
“But now for some fun!”  She thought “I’ve needed this for ages! Delivering mail can be so stressful, and with the ponies in town teasing me too...Seriously!? Ponies can be so critical sometimes!  Oh look!  Apple bobbing! That looks like fun!” she thought, and trotted quickly to the bucket full of brightly colored fruit.  “Hi Applejack!” she said cheerily.
Howdy Miss D!” said AJ “nice...costume?”
“Thanks!” said Ditzy, oblivious of Applejack’s misconception. “How much for an apple?”
“One bit! See if you can get a good ‘un!”
“Thanks!” Ditzy said, tossing a coin to applejack.
She walked over to the bucket full of brightly colored apples. Red or green, take your pick! She leaned over the bucket, straining, looking for the perfect apple, which didn’t help with her eye any. But there it was! The biggest, brightest red delicious she had ever seen!
She leaned forward, bracing herself and taking careful aim. Which was all the more tedious given her eyesight.  “One swift motion Dee, that’s all you need.  Grab that apple!” she thought, psyching herself up. Ready....Aim.... [THUNDERCLAP] A huge peal of thunder out of nowhere just as she launched at her perfect prize. She would have stopped if she could have, but it was too late, she was already lunging forward.  With the sudden surprise of the thunderclap, and the aid of a frightened pony behind her, she dove face-first into the tub, and instead of grabbing the apple her mouth tightened around something else, something odd feeling. But she had no time to think and only gasped up out of the water, choking with the mouthful of water and gasping for air, her eye twitching from the sudden surprise and stress of it all. As she sat there catching her breath she noticed what was in her mouth, caught in her teeth unwillingly “A plug?”  She puzzled “oh great...” as the water started to swirl and drain.  “Great...”  She thought “just great...  My costume is ruined, I look like a retard and I’m soaking wet...And I didn’t even get that apple!  So much for having a nice, fun night... and so much for proving I’m not retarded, in fact, this is JUST the opposite...” a tear forming in her eye.
"Haha, look at Derpy! She's such a weirdo" She heard somepony say. Everyone was laughing. Even AJ let out a little snicker.
“[THUNDERCLAP] all of this!  I’m going home!!!” she yelled, dashing off.  Her soaking costume peeling off her as she ran, tears streaming down her face.  She rushed inside, locked the door, and collapsed onto her bed. Her pillow quickly stained with tears as she buried her face deep in it. “I just want them to like me!”  She screamed “is that too much to ask? I just want to fit in, to be normal...why can’t they like me!!!... Maybe I’d be better off gone....Maybe I’d be....maybe I should just....should just....” she sobbed, soon fading into a dark and restless slumber.  She clutched her tear-soaked pillow tightly, her only friend in the world, giving in to the embrace of darkness, and weeping in her restless sleep...

...Ditzy tossed and turned all night. She was restless as dark dreams filled her mind. Dark thoughts filled and clouded her mind as she woke during the early morning hours. The sky had started to become light, but the sun had not yet peeked over the hills.  She rolled over, and stared out the window, watching the sunrise and feeling it’s beams strike her as it rose over the hills lighting all of Equestria with its glory. But there was no warmth, not for her...
After hours of lying there empty minded, she finally managed to drag herself out of bed. Her eyes were hollow and lifeless, her normal bubbly personality gone, a mere shell of a pony remained. It wasn’t like her, she didn’t even go into work. She couldn’t bring herself to leave the house, to face those who had mocked her the day before.


Hours later she finally set out from the house taking flight as fast as her wings would allow, not even knowing where she was going or why.  She just wanted to get away from everything, far away. She headed away from the city, out into the country, settling down in an open field far from any spying eyes. She wandered slowly with her head hung and her eyes downcast. She had no destination in mind, well perhaps one...but she tried not to even think about it.  Her mind raced behind her foggy eyes. Was she really meant to live like this? Surrounded by shame with no friends?
The ground wasn’t to her liking anymore so she took off and found a nice looking cloud nearby. She settled down on it and continued her questions into the deep and dark parts of her own mind. She couldn’t even believe what she was thinking about. Was she really supposed to go on like this? And more importantly how could she go on like this? She could move again, but that hadn’t helped that last 4 times. Or she could...end it all right now.
A tear fell as she thought about it. “Would anypony miss me? Would anypony even notice?” She thought “well the post office would but only because they’d have to find a new currier.”  She had no special stallion in her life, no friends, and few acquaintances even. “No...no one really would miss me” she concluded. That thought was haunting, and yet freeing at the same time. She laid her head forward on the cloud and watched the grass sway in the breeze below. She began to cry again. Watching as her gentle but steady stream fell out of sight toward the ground. “Like rain from a grey cloud” she thought “how fitting for me...”
This thought only made her cry more. She was breaking down. Losing it. And she couldn’t take it anymore. The pain of rejection was more intense than any physical pain she had ever felt “or ever could” she thought, and with that, she took flight. First flying only away from Ponyville and further into the country, but she soon began to climb. “Let the wind blow away my tears and all memories of my existence” she thought, and took off in a powerful climb. She climbed, higher and higher until her wings could carry her no more. The air was thin but her spirit was thinner still. The air was cold, but her heart was colder. “Fuck everyone” she screamed, closing her eyes and her wings...

And she fell...


TO BE CONTINUED