//------------------------------// // I Am Twilight Sparkle // Story: Memoirs in Ink and Blood // by Corah Il Cappo //------------------------------// I needed more. The great libraries of Canterlot no longer satisfied me. For all the knowledge they contained, my craving was still not sated. I needed to dig deeper. So with that, I set out to visit our neighbors to the north, the Griffons. They had their own libraries, ones filled to bursting with ancient scrolls and tomes, which were in turn brimming with spells and magicks. Considering the attitude of the creatures which kept them, they were sure to be a bit more warlike than those in Canterlot. I nearly trembled at the thought. Needless to say, they were not too excited by my arrival. That was alright. Before my hooves even touched down on their soil their palace had been laid to waste. The streets were awash with ichor within seconds of my arrival. I crushed them the same way I had crushed anthills as a filly. It all seemed so easy. The remaining few who resisted me did not last. Those who were smart turned and fled. The rest died in the streets, their flesh burned and blackened. Their resistance amounted to nothing more than corpses for me to walk over. It was like the bursting of a bomb. All at once fiery and loud followed by a deafening silence. The only sound now was the sound of my hooves clip clopping across the overturned cobblestones that had once been a street. Once inside the empty shell of a palace the same silence remained. It was practically palpable as I strode through the desolate halls. Despite their reputation as a bloodthirsty and savage race, the griffon's architecture was decidedly more opulent than I had anticipated. Long winding staircases lead to halls beneath the earth, trimmed with marble and gilded with gold leaf that twinkled in the torchlight. In my past, I would have stood slackjawed with awe at the splendor of the glistening corridors. Now however, I realized the ultimate futility of such works of mortal glory. They rose; some for eons, others for decades. Some were hewn from stone, some forged in iron. Some were crafted by hoof, others by machine. One thing however united them all. All of them were destined to crumble and fade. The same was true of the mortal races. Despite how significant they felt they were, most of them passed on from this life, destined only to be mourned and forgotten. The only ones with any real value were the immortal races. Alicorns, Dragons, Draconequi, and the like. They were the ones who shaped history. They were the ones who molded nations. They were the ones who shifted the very earth to their every whim. Yet, despite their power, so many of them lived unfulfilled. Celestia had the power to hurl the sun through the heavens, and yet preferred to muddle about with letter writing. Discord once threw all of Equestria into a chaotic anarchy, and yet was tamed by a pony afraid of her own shadow. The dragons could burn entire cities to ash and cinder, yet instead they holed themselves up in the mountains with their hoard. Then there was me. I was a goddess who refused to conform to the shameful legacy of lethargy that preceded me. I had chosen my path in this world, and I would forge that path as one would forge a sword; through fire, hammering, and crushing. Either the world would submit to me, or I would force it to bow. There were those who would seek to stop me of course. Namely Discord, and any who still followed him. The last time he and I had exchanged blows, he had fought me to the verge of defeat. I felt weak. Passive. Broken. I had resolved to never feel that way again. If he still wielded more power than I did, then I needed to become stronger. I needed to study true war magic. The musty smell of well worn books soon swirled in my nostrils as I descended ever deeper into the cavernous depths. This was a scent I knew well. I was near a library, and a well stocked one at that. In an instant, my horn had ignited, casting a brilliant pale purple glow over all the room. Out of the darkness I saw them. Rows upon rows of dusty tomes and tattered scrolls, surely filled to the brim with new magic. I extended my magic throughout the halls, as every last scrap of paper was overtaken by my mind, levitating them off of the shelves and into the air around me. I read them, and what I discovered within was best described as gruesome at best. There were spells of frost, fire, steel, and stone. Spells that could reduce mountains to pebbles, or a once vibrant valley into a desolate haze. There were spells to smite empires, crumble nations, and set the sky itself ablaze with fire and ash. With these spells I could blight the nations, poison the earth, and desecrate Equinity. These were not spells of war. They were spells of annihilation. Suddenly it dawned on me. I knew now why Celestia had locked these tomes so far from herself. These were powers beyond even the gods. This was beyond Equestria. Beyond Equinity. Beyond the gates of Tartarus. Beyond...everything. These were things that nopony was ever meant to know. Things that should shatter the minds of those who read them, written in strange eldritch tongues of days long past. Words seemed to leap off the page and burrow deep into the very fibers of the mind, nestling themselves deep within and just waiting to be awakened with a thought. They were vile things. Things which should have reduced me to a mess, gibbering and blathering on the stone floor as my mind was torn asunder. These were things that would drive anypony to the brink of madness. But I was not anypony. Not anymore. I am she who is beyond divinity. I am Twilight Sparkle.