"Couldn't we just go through the front door, I mean, I'm a princess, I'm allowed to bring anypony I want to the Castle." Twilight said through the Localized Hivemind as she watched the night guards walk by on their routes, oblivious to the mare in the bushes.
"That wouldn't be fun! You can't deny that you're excited!" Aurora's energetic voice said within Twilight's head. Aurora herself was currently standing on top of a reproduction of the statue of Discord within the Canterlot Gardens.
"I'm only excited because you distributed your own energy and excitement through the Localized Hivemind."
Midnight, hiding in the water of a fountain, spotted her opening and shot out of the water quietly, dashing right under a guard. One glance at Midnight would tell anypony that she had disguised herself as a hatch-ling version of herself, making movement quicker and harder to notice. Midnight jumped as she approached the castle walls and landed on the wall before running up it, Midnight was actually having fun with the passive ability of Changeling Magic to walk on walls. It wasn't long before she was approaching a window that lead into the hall that held the library. After looking around, Midnight used her Changeling Magic to disguise herself as a filly version of her main disguise, the one she used while in Manehattan. After only about three seconds, Midnight had an opening and jumped through the window. "I'm in." she said, moving soundlessly through the halls to find the library.
Aurora looked across the gardens to see that the guard's were in position for her plans, she smiled. Taking a small step back, while still balancing on the head of the statue, she shot forward. Aurora landed on the back of the first guard, then she jumped to the top of another statue, then to the head of a different guard, and repeated this process of jumping on a guard then something else until she was standing quietly on the back of the last guard. Three... Two... One. right when Aurora finished mentally counting, a guard spotted her.
"Halt!" the guard yelled as he took flight.
Aurora smiled as she jumped off the guard bellow her and landed on the flying Bat-Pony. The energetic filly started jumping from one flying guard to the next until she was right next to an all-ready open window, where she jumped in. "I'm in as well." she said as she shot through the castle halls.
Scootaloo watched Aurora's display of acrobatic talent with a smile. That filly sure knows how to stir up the local guard, and out-race them at the same time. she thought as she looked at her Lunar Sword. The weapon was glowing with Lunar Magic, even though she doubted she'd need it, as she stared at her name, engraved in red along the blade, the thought of how she could impress Aurora, the filly had been jokingly teasing Scootaloo about her inability to fly. Scootaloo had found herself actually laughing at the jokes instead of feeling insecure or saddened, but now she really wanted to do something that'd impress Aurora, and that meant doing something more daredevil than what she had done in the past. Scootaloo brought her sword close to her and closed her eyes. "Give me strength... mother of the Night." she said quietly, then she sheathed her sword and pulled out her, now transportable, scooter from her saddle bags. The orange filly examined her surroundings, an act made easier by the passive effects of the Lunar Magic that was in her from being a Child of the Night. The statues were of multiple different ponies, some were of Pegasi with outspread wings, some of Unicorns with their head at an angle from bowing, some were of Earth-Ponies on their hind legs in a stance as if they were about to charge, and in the center of it all... was the statue of Discord with his dragon body twisting in a spiral, but Scootaloo didn't see a garden of statues, she saw an obstacle course. She prepared herself as she unfolded her scooter and got on, then she shot off. Scootaloo forced her scooter off the ground enough to hit the first statue; turning the Unicorn's head, body, and horn into a ramp; she hit a Pegasus statue next with the Pegasus in a battle stance, balancing on two wheels, she used the wings for a different ramp. After almost eight statues, each used in a different way, Scootaloo was coming towards the Discord Statue. Her scooter hit the statue at an angle and she began spiraling from the base to the head, where she launched off and headed for the window Aurora had gone through. Her scooter's wings snapped out as she was in the air and she spun the scooter, avoiding an oncoming Lunar Guard and easily getting through the window. "Twi and Dash are the only ones left." she said.
Rainbow Dash smiled after seeing Scootaloo, Midnight, and Aurora's display of talent, as well as leaving the guards greatly disorganized. Reaching into herself as she'd been taught, Rainbow pulled at the Pegasus magic within her. A small air current began forming around her wings as clouds began forming along the gardens, each one striking with silent lightning. Rainbow smiled as she flew on-top of one of the clouds and made them move in erratic patterns, often striking guards and disorienting them. Rainbow continued weaving a large and very bizarre storm of rain, snow, lightning, tornadoes, wind, and hail as she jump from one cloud to another. Soon, the Bat-pony guards shot into the air to start working on clearing the random and uncontrollable storm. "Hey!" Rainbow Dash called out after landing in front of the window her friends had gone through, though she was several yards from the window itself. The guards turned around to face her, only to see her become in-cased in a tornado that spread upward until it was right bellow the window. While most of the guards saw only the tornado as it vanished, the ones closer could swear that they had seen a cyan and rainbow colored blur enter the window. "All-right Twilight, your turn." Rainbow said.
"I think I'll just teleport." Twilight said, not sure what to think after seeing the rest of her friends enter in their own spacial way.
"Oh no you don't, I challenge you to do something better than me." Rainbow let some of her competitiveness seep into the Localized Hivemind. This changed Twilight's mind instantly.
"You're on."
Twilight was quick to come up with something to do. Channeling her Lunar Magic, she created several clones of her self. "All-right, all of you use Changeling Magic to become Changeling nymphs of a hive with a color scheme that'd match me closely." she commanded. Twenty flashes of green briefly blinded her and; standing in place of her clones; were several Changelings with violet eyes, lavender wings and saddle carapaces, dark lavender carapaces, and sapphire manes and tails. "Stage an invasion, don't hurt the guards, but keep them distracted." Twilight commanded. The clones all nodded and shot into the air, the guards were shocked. Twilight could practically taste the guards' confusion, it seemed to taste similar to orange juice, which she didn't like nor dislike. Twilight channeled some Changeling Magic and went up in green flames, when they died down, she looked like a normal Bat-Pony in Lunar Armor with a sword in her mouth. Twilight took flight and started flying around, pretending to attack her clones, even though she wasn't and they recognized her. It wasn't long before Twilight was sword and sword with one of her clones right in-front of the window. "Kick me into the window." she whispered.
"Yes creator." the clone whispered back before spinning around and delivering a strong kick, sending Twilight flying through the window, though she soon caught herself. Twilight waited for about ten seconds before disabling the spells she'd cast. "Beat that Dash!" Twilight said as she sent the memories of her plan through the Localized Hivemind for everypony to see.
Only five minutes later, the group was in the Castle library. The library was huge, though it still paled in comparison to the library at Twilight's castle, which seemed to take up the equivalent of three Ponyvilles and would if it weren't for the fact that the entire castle's inside was under the influence of a dimensional displacement spell.
"Okay so let's see" Midnight pulled out the letter from the Nightmare Tribe's home "'in the purple legend's favorite section' I'm sure that's talking about you Twilight."
"Then we should head to the Changeling section." Twilight said as she lead her friends to the section in question.
As expected, the Changeling section was full of books about Changelings, with some even marked to be specifically for Changelings. 'look for her mark, the mark of the first' Twilight looked through the sections as she tried to decipher that part of the clue. After only a few minutes, she stopped. "I think this is it." Twilight pulled down the book and levitated it between her and her friends, then she opened it to a bookmarked page.
After the battle that claimed four-hundred ponies and Changelings, Queen Lightning Bug of the Yellow Hive signed a deal with Equestria, promising to protect Equestria for as long as Equestria protected them. This was enough for Celestia, but not enough for the Hive Queen. As per Changeling culture, Lightning insisted on giving Celestia a gift for her willingness to aid against the Storm Hive's attack. Celestia eventually agreed and request only two things, the True Metamorphosis Spell (a Changeling spell, one that's forbidden in most hives, that can turn anypony into a Changeling with or without their permission. The spell is irreversible.) and the Advanced Disguise Spell (a spell that allows a Changeling to take on a disguise that goes as deep as the blood and makes it nearly impossible to tell that the disguised Changeling is a Changeling at all. This spell is also unaffected by Changeling reveal spells of the normal variety.). Even though her hive forbid the use of the spell, as per custom, Lightning Bug gave Celestia the spells and never asked why she wanted them.
"Are they saying that Clestia might have used these spells on somepony?" Twilight asked after finishing reading the section.
"I think so." Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight just nodded. '-all you know will be shattered' Twilight couldn't help but think of that statement once more, it had left an impact on her. 'within those of disharmony, lies the second, the tomb of darkness, hidden past the eyes' After a minute, Twilight found the section on Discord's reign and started looking.
"So where could it be?" Aurora asked, she was currently flying several feet above the group.
"Hmm 'past the eyes'... as in past the mortal limits of sight." Rainbow Dash said as she fazed into the Spiritual Plane.
The Spiritual Plane of the library had shelves made of pony bones, black books with spikes on the spines, and a doorway that hadn't been there before. After her friends entered, Rainbow Dash entered the door to find a room with flowing Unicorn and
Alicorn blood as the walls, the Unicorn blood was yellow. The floor seemed to mostly be made of black stone with a magic binding circle exactly like the one back at the ruins of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, in the center. The floor bellow the circle and runes was a slightly dark blue color, to show the eight runes that were painted in the blood of their respective races. On a bone pedestal was a thick black book that had black mist surrounding it and a blood red rune on the front.
"That's a tomb on forbidden Magic." Twilight said in shock as she lifted it up with her magic and flipped to the front, revealing a letter from Spirit.
Hey again. The spells I'm wanting all of you to learn are as follows.
Black Magic
-the Crystal Blade Spell
-the Crystal Shield Spell
-the Crystal Shard Spell
-the Crystal Field Spell
Dark Magic
-the Temporal Age Spell (did you know that the age spell is actually Dark Magic?)
-the Spacial Warp Spell
Necromancy
-The Skeletal Armor spell
Nightmare Magic
-the Dream Manipulation Spell
-the Shadow Walker Spell
-The Fear Spell (this is basically a spell version of Fluttershy and Nightshy's stare)
These are all combat spells for a reason and all of you are to learn them.
Magic lesson (the truth)
-All pony magics can be performed by all ponies. When a Unicorn/Dracorn uses magic, they channel it through their horns. For a Pegasus/Bat-Pony to use Unicorn or other Magics, they channel it through their wings (this requires twice as much focus). When an Earth-Pony/Nightmare uses any of the pony magics, they channel it through their hoofs (This splits concentration into one to four sections. The more hoofs used, the strong the magic will be, but the harder it'll be top concentrate.) one hoof is equal to about as much power as a filly just learning to control their magic, while all four hoofs are equal to the power of a fully grown pony. Alicorns can do any or a combination of these.
-their are exceptions to the points of magic channeling for some magics in some races. Races that have a base magic (so really all races) generally have the default passive effects of each with Unicorns, Alicorns, Changelings, and Dracorns being able to access the active parts. Also, I've researched further into the active form of Pegasus Magic and it turns out that any Pegasus with good focus can do it as well, though it'll take more practice.
*Your next target is actually a contact I have in the Friendship Rainbow Kingdom. She is nicknamed "The Five Bladed Bat" (It was something different a while back, but that doesn't matter) (just leave a blank note to her on the counter of the hospital desk and she'll get it, then she'll set up when you should meet. Expect a reply from her within four hours of placing the note on the counter. DON'T STAY AT THE HOSPITAL AND WAIT FOR HER) After her, there is "Night Wind" (not her real name. Find her at the fourth abandoned house on the left going opposite the door of the Castle.)
signed
Spirit Fire
Twilight shivered at the concept of using so many forbidden magics. "Okay girls, we've got a lot to do and I don't know how long it'll take." Twilight said as she flipped to the first page.