//------------------------------// // Chapter 1, Cleaning House // Story: The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 11 -- A Wing and a Prayer // by shysage //------------------------------// Hi, its me, Princess Twilight. I remember it was a stormy night. It was soon after the material for Volume 5 of Princess Celestia's Commentaries drew to a close. That roughly half a year was such fun, so many amazing times, but I think we were all bushed. Life slowed down for us after that. I love reading, and it seems the only time I can sit down and read is later in the evening. Whether it is a good history book, a mystery thriller, or some deep magical tome, I really relish sitting down in the Library at the quiet end of the day, and immersing myself in a good read. Don't tell anypony, but, when I can, I stay up hours past midnight reading. Well, I actually had time to do that now. I was in the Library, trying to read that night. It must have been a big storm. The Castle usually muffles the thunder, but that night it was loud. I guess the Weather Works in Cloudsdale decided this storm was too big to tone down, I don't know. I'm no weather expert! For hours, it seemed, the crashes kept coming, preceded by the occasional burst of light from the lightning that actually made it this far into the Castle. Overall, it made it very hard to read. I was starting a newly released book by one of my favorite mystery writers. I would actually get into the story, then a loud crash and the following rumble would jolt me out of it. After about the fourth time that happened, I gave up. I love this series, and I decided to wait until the thunder didn't prevent me from getting into my new book! I used my magic to put the book carefully back on the shelf with the rest of that series. I thought through a few options to try and decide what to do next. It was still early in the evening, well for me anyway. I looked around the Library, and let out a deep sigh of contentment. So many books, and a huge desk too! I quickly noticed though, that my desk was a mess, and the push for organization in me started to complain. That was an easy choice; it looked like a lot of work. That task could wait until another day as well. Maybe tomorrow, Spike and I might... But my eye did catch a large, bright velvet red box on one of the book shelves next to my desk. Walking over to it, I remembered what it was. Evidently Princess Celestia had a trusted Unicorn (Mildred, the master of details) clean up the restricted magical archives in the Canterlot Library. This very nice red box contained odds and ends, tell-tale slips of paper, some of which were very old. They were magical fragments. Princess Celestia had wisely cautioned the Unicorn to NOT throw away ANYTHING with writing on it. What scraps she found, she was to put in this box. Princess Celestia decided that I was probably the best pony to go through these scraps, and decide which to keep and which to dispose of. We had already talked; I said I would do any disposing that needed to be done. A courier delivered this box the week before. I used my magic to pull the box down and carry it over to one of the reading tables near my desk. My desk was way too cluttered, but I needed my garbage pail for this task. Well, my garbage pail is really an old water bucket, now sporting a number of small holes and cracks. It was one of the few items that survived the explosion at my old Tree-house Library. Some days, I really miss that place, the memories it held... Well, this old bucket and a few other items (my hair brush for one) are the only things that I have left. I just sighed, realizing that. Well, I looked around at my new Library, and sighed again. So many books, and so many more empty shelves! The top of this box easily slipped off, and I used my magic to tip the box so I could explore what was inside. It looked like a bunch of random notes and such. I knew better! Magic is like my second language, and some of the spells I might find in here could be very old. "This should be a lot of fun!" I thought as I smiled. I had the Library all to myself, and so I carefully dumped the magical fragments out onto the table. There were 51 total, of all shapes and sizes. Using my magic, I carefully sorted them all into four groups, where each group held similar sized fragments. The largest piece was pretty big, so I laid it down flat, and put the pile of the rest of the largest pieces on top of it. Twenty very small fragments, and I went through them carefully, one at a time. Most contained very little, if any magical content, usually very little writing even. These smallest scraps were quickly all sitting in the bottom of my garbage pail. Just a little fire, then a little water, and they were gone, disposed of forever. Moving to the next pile of smaller fragments, 15 of them, I began reading through them, one at a time. I found more writing, but very little magical content. Those spells that I did find were of very basic magic. And I found one piece of paper... 2 tins ground oats 1 dash pepper 4 fresh Daffodils, crushed small etc. It was a recipe! It looked like the paper was very old, but the recipe... I am not a cook, so I didn't know anything about what I might be looking at. But I knew who in town would be able to make heads or tails out of this. Well, I knew a few amazing ponies actually. I set this magical scrap that was really a recipe on my desk, and decided to ask Applejack about it the next time she came by. The other fourteen small slips of paper were next put in my garbage pail, and quickly disposed of as well. A little fire, then a little water, and they were gone forever. The third group of fragments were larger in size; there were ten of them. Maybe half of them actually contained any magic, and I set those aside, and handled the others first. One of the others was clearly just a list of names. Another slip looked to me like it was written in old pony, and yes, it was very old, but almost unreadable. These two went back into the beautiful red box. Princess Celestia would need to look at them and decide if they were important or not. Some ponies here in Ponyville could actually read old pony now, but I wanted to let Princess Celestia decide how to take care of them. The remaining pieces of paper in this group were mostly magic, but clearly of such a basic nature. So far, this had taken only maybe half an hour. It was still thundering loudly outside, but honestly, I was actually enjoying what I was doing, and I didn't mind. Ok, this left eight scraps from group 3. I had some fun at this point. It is very easy to use my magic to start paper on fire. But it is much more challenging to mix different elements and also control motion, all at the same time. I had devised this simple, but fun exercise a few months ago, and now was the perfect time to, well, exercise my magic! I would lift up a scrap, move it over next to the garbage pail, some distance above it, then drop it in. While it was moving down towards the pail, I would touch it with a little fire, and it would quickly burn up. Before it passed the rim of the pail, I would sprinkle it briefly with just enough water... This took a lot of concentration! But if I did everything just right, absolutely nothing fell into my garbage pail! I don't know... My Twin, Equestria Girls Twilight Sparkle, she tried to explain video games to me once. I rewarded her with a mostly blank stare. But this was a lot of fun! Too soon, it seemed, those eight scraps were also disposed of and gone. Group 4 was made up of the larger pieces of paper that remained, five of them to be exact. I had to very carefully review these fragments, and some held a lot of writing! This part took a while. Two of these fragments were not magical. One scrap was a part of a page from a diary, somepony was evidently having a bad day. Another looked like part of someponies' attempt at writing a story. It was hard to tell how well the story worked, I only had a piece of it. This left three magical fragments, well, fairly large magical fragments. One of the three magical scraps contained the same basic spell written over and over. I guess somepony was trying to memorize that spell. Another magical scrap was clearly a piece of a page from one of the magic tomes in the Library. I carefully placed this page fragment back into the pretty red box as well. I suspected that Princess Celestia would have Pinkie Pie use her Pinkie Sense to pinpoint the book it belonged to, and then have that book repaired. The last scrap was magical history, and detailed part of the development of a basic wind spell through maybe the first hundred years after its discovery. This fragment was obviously a translation from old pony, but still made very interesting reading. But it was also a copy. Somepony had transcribed this from a book, maybe even translated it from old pony, I don't know. It was hoof-written. It was interesting, but only a part of a much larger work. While the development of the spell over time was intriguing to me, the magic itself held little value. There was no reason to keep it. But I did make a mental note to visit the Library and look for a complete work like this next time I was in Canterlot. So, I had the four last, fairly good sized magical fragments. Completely ignoring the thunder continuing in the background, I used my magic to carefully wad each fragment up into a little ball, then I arranged them in a line and in order, smallest to largest, there on the reading table. And I decided to make my magical exercise a little more challenging. Starting from where I sat next to the reading table, I would use my magic to throw each little ball, each wad, towards the pail. Then at just the right time, I would cast a fire spell to burn it up completely in flight. Soon after, I would use a water spell to fully douse what little remained, before it made it into the garbage pail. I started with the smallest one, supposing it would be the easiest. This proved to be a mistake. Well, this first attempt didn't go so well. After I magically threw it, the smallest wad caught fire easily enough, but it was still burning as it neared the pail. I was not ready for this, and I guess I froze waiting for the fire to consume the wad of paper. It even missed the pail, and fell on the rug, still smouldering. I stared at it in disbelief briefly. My faculties returned, and I quickly doused it with water, then sloshed it into the pail. Only a small singed spot on the rug resulted. I resisted the urge to move the garbage pail to cover that spot... Hopefully learning from my mistake, I moved closer, added more fire to the mix, and the next three exercises worked flawlessly. None of them missed, and adding more fire quickly consumed the paper, and a little water was all that made its way into the pail. Well, that was really fun! My Twin Twilight called us 'magic geeks' once. Maybe this is what she meant. I sighed. That fun task was done. I had to think if there was anything else I could do. Maybe I would just head to bed a little early. It was still stormy, so I would not try reading again. I didn't think sleeping would be much easier... I saw a bright flash race through the Library, followed by a loud crash of thunder. I wasn't worried, but that flash illuminated... the one magical fragment I had not yet looked at; it was a large piece of paper, still laying on the reading table. I guess I wasn't done yet after all. A quick shudder of fear washed over me. Then I relaxed, and smiled. "Easy girl, you like mystery novels, but this isn't one of them!" I said this calmly to myself. "It's just another piece of paper, lets take care of it." I walked over, and used my magic to pick this last magical fragment up from the table, and bring it near so I could better see "what dark secrets this paper held." I thought this to myself, then I laughed loudly. Seriously... It was a complete piece of paper, no rips or tears or missing pieces. It did not look like a page out of some magical tome (no page number). All the writing was just on one side. I decided this was good; that meant half as much work. I smiled, then yawned deeply at that thought. I guess I was going to bed after this. I was tired. I laid the paper back on the reading table where the light was better, and started inspecting the side with the writing. It was not written in old pony, but it looked old. Some splotches of messed up letters sprinkled the page, but it seemed otherwise fairly readable. I also noted a thick block of magic text filling roughly the center of the page. I smiled. I like magic! And to actually find an old spell... In surely scribed ink, and large, flowing letters, the text on this page began... UNICORN SAGES! COME TEST YOUR PROWESS! I won't lie, I was hooked! Immediately! A magical test! I was a Unicorn, fairly well versed in magic (and modest too). This should be fun! It was still thunderously stormy outside, but I didn't even pay attention to that. The text continued, using still flowing, but somewhat smaller letters. THE MAGICAL ARRAY THAT FOLLOWS IS ONLY FOR UNICORNS MOST ADVANCED IN THE MAGIC ARTS. FOR ALMOST A MILLENIA, THIS MAGICAL BOND HAS BEEN UNBROKEN. SHOULD YOU POSSESS THE ABILITY, THE TALENT, NAY, THE POWER, YOU CAN BE THE FIRST TO DO SO! I... I just had to give it a try... But before doing anything, I stopped myself. "Twilight, girl, just give it your best shot. Don't kid yourself, there are other, more powerful Unicorns in Equestria. Just enjoy the test." I sighed, and took a few deep breaths. And I thought in passing that maybe Princess Celestia had put this in here, just to test me! And I didn't ever want to let her down! Like I said before, magic is like a second language to me. The glyphs, the arcane letters, the strange, bazarre symbols, the subtle nuances marked by sometimes the smallest of strokes... Careful inspection revealed that the central portion of this page contained one continuous magical spell, start to finish, covering maybe 20 lines, with nothing but constant symbols, letters, strokes... I could not really analyze it a portion at a time. There was no portion. This test would be hard! Well, the first line was shorter, but directly above the magical text, and using the same sized symbols, well letters. The first few words were not magic, but I didn't recognize them. I tried to sound them out and say them anyway. The next word looked like FAMTUM. I thought a minute, then corrected it and said "Phantom Alicorn". I smiled briefly; that information would not be widely known. Then I finished reading that first sentence. Well, I sounded out what strange, bazaar language it might have been. The magical text was next. Like I said, I was hooked. And, on top of that, actually casting the magic, running it through my magical symbols part of my brain, that is often the easiest way for me to carefully analyze magic. This is usually safe. Many magical spells will not activate unless you actually somehow intentionalize a target, what or who you cast the spell on. You can point, look, or just think, with some magic. I saw no harm in simply working through the spell as a result. (I had been wrong about this before -- this thought fluttered fleetingly through my thoughts...) I took a deep breath, and started mentally casting this spell. I had not even finished the first line when I was so deeply drawn into the details of the spell. It was so deeply, well, nested, and agonizingly interlocked... I couldn't stop, or I knew I would lose my train of thought, and would have to start over. My magic brain was surely in overload, carrying actions on maybe a few dozen symbols simultaneously... I kept going. I think I was barely breathing; I didn't really have any mental bandwidth left for much else besides casting and analyzing that spell. Well, I am not even sure how much analyzing I was even doing. It was all I could do to keep the symbols of the spell organized, energized, connected... I kept scanning. Some of the apex points in the spell made me gasp, but I just didn't have time to respond to anything else. I was just so... I had my hands full keeping all these magical... Towards the end, my casting even slowed way down, to a crawl. I would scan forward a number of symbols, then have to stop, and ripple the affects of the added magical action to the rest of the magic. It became agonizingly slow. But again, I didn't give up. I knew that, if I did, I would need to start over. And even now, I still barely sensed that I didn't want to do that! And, you also need to know that there were a few missing or marred symbols as I cast this, and I had to, instantaneously, on the fly, make my best guess as to what the symbol was supposed to be, based on the few dozen or so magical actions already in progress, activate the new one, and then quickly move on... I felt like my brain was going to explode... I knew it was many minutes later when I finally reached the last line, which quickly tied everything together, brought the many magical actions to closure, and concluded the many magical, well, threads, that this spell appeared to weave together... I gasped for breath... I did a quick mental check to make sure I had not left any magical actions hanging (which would probably ruin the effect of the magic), and realized I did not... I began thinking to my self that I had never ever even seen a magical spell so complex... I was brought back to reality by a HUGE blast of lightning that briefly lit up the Library like it was daytime. It was very bright; I could tell it was very close, and I tensed up waiting for the loud crash of thunder. The sound of thunder never came... Still trying to catch my breath from actually casting that spell, I smiled, then relaxed. It was only at that point that I could stand back, and try to assess my magical performance with that spell, that test. It made no difference to me if anypony else said I passed or failed. I was very pleased with my ability to hold the many details of so complex a spell in my head, and for what must have been 10 minutes or more as I worked through casting it. And I learned a lot about the magical structure of complex spells just by evaluating this one. Nopony needed to grade me. This magical exercise had shown me a lot about myself. Like I said, I was pleased with myself. I had learned a lot. That was very valuable to me. Test or no, I was soon smiling broadly. That was very fun! With my magic, I was also still holding the piece of paper that held that spell, a test from somepony or other, probably buried deep in the past. It was at that point that I realized, remembered, that there was more writing at the bottom of this piece of paper, below that sold block of over 10 minutes worth of continuous, complex magic. The letters below the magic were not large, they were the same size as the magical symbols, but some blank distance below the spell, towards the bottom of the page. I started reading. IF YOU SHOULD SUCCEED IN CASTING THIS COMPLEX SPELL, YOU MUST FIND ME IMMEDIATELY! REST ASSURED I WILL MAKE YOU RICH BEYOND YOUR WILDEST, MOST SPECTACULAR DREAMS! AND BE SURE THAT EVEN A WING AND A PRAYER WON'T BE ABLE TO STOP WHAT THIS SPELL ACCOMPLISHES! "Bah, who would make such a claim" I said loudly to myself after reading such... fluff... I didn't give it another thought. This test had already proved very valuable to me. Amazing friends, all the books I want... I really didn't need anything. Well, maybe one thing, but certainly not more bits... The name of the pony who made such a grandiose offer, and had authored so complex and inter-twined a spell, was written very small at the bottom of this page. I had to bring the paper much closer to even be able to read it. I gasped... DARK MELVAIN ...What this vile Unicorn had done to Equestria's Princesses... What this vile Unicorn had done to Equestria's ponies, killing hundreds, maybe thousands... for over a millennia... What this vile Unicorn had done to my amazing friends and I, playing cat and mouse with us for hours, confident he could easily kill us... I was IMMEDIATELY outraged... With my magic, I threw the paper harshly to the floor. Well, it just wafted down slowly, back and forth, until it finally fell to rest, face up on the floor. That wasn't enough. Using my magic, I quickly picked it back up again, then wadded this full piece of paper up into as small a ball as I could. I threw it the long distance into the garbage pail next to my desk, and added a BUNCH of fire at just the right time, which quickly incinerated the paper as it flew towards the pail. I sprinkled it with water at the last minute, and all that was left was a few smouldering drops of water that slopped harmlessly on the outside of the pail, then slowly trailed down the side a little. "Of all the nerve..." I said out loud... I was angry... ... The lightning had stopped... The thunder had stopped... It was dead quiet inside the Library... ... I tried to calm down... ... ...only to be filled with a growing dread... ... ...I had made this same mistake before... ... ...only this time, true friendship probably wasn't the answer... ... ...or was it? ... ... ... But I surely knew one thing... ... Thanks to my simple test... ... ...Someponies's nightmare had probably just begun...