This Spell's Disaster
Stark trotted down the hallway to the palace library. It was one of the very first things his Madre, Twilight, had shown him when she had brought him to the Crystal Empire for the first time. And every time thereafter. He knew the way by heart. In fact, he could even find his way there with his eyes closed.
Which would be handy since the way wasn't particularly well-lit at night. And night did come early to the Frozen North.
Even in the nearly twenty years since it's reappearance, the Crystal Empire had changed little. There were arguments on both sides regarding the matter. After all, the poor citizens who reappeared with it were thrust forward a thousand years into the future. The technological marvels of modern time Equestria would boggle their minds if they were exposed too quickly.
Others however, particularly historians of Equestria, wanted to preserve the Empire as a pristine relic of the past. A compromise was struck with the integration of minimal technology for the sake of inter-equestrian travel and diplomatic communications. The tourism industry was certainly a boon for the blossoming commerce of the region.
"They could at least update the lighting." Stark mumbled in the dark passageway. It mattered little. After the predicted number of steps he arrived at the door to the castle archives.
His meager candle did nothing to help the sign's readability. But he already knew what it said. He pushed the door open and sat at the nearest reading table. He wasn't tired in the least. Stark was never one much for sleep. He was more of a night owl. An apt label, as he remembered many a nights staying up and reading with Owlowiscious.
He slipped of his bag and set it on the floor beside his chair. He took the old book that Celestia had given him and opened it to the first page again, taking out the notes he had taken on separate slips of paper. He was actually making good progress toward a working cipher for the code in which the book was written. It was very similar in style to one of the code he was working on earlier that week in class.
Stark had a momentary rush of adrenaline. Tomorrow was Monday. He would be absent from class. The anxiety passed. It was nearly the end of June. Last week was the final days of class. It was summer vacation now. The 'vacation' never meant much to Stark though. Twilight was sure to have him fitted with all manner of academic chores.
"Every day is an opportunity for a learning experience." He recited aloud, mimicking his Madre. He became very self-aware in that moment. Here he was, arguably on a 'vacation'. And the first thing he does with some spare time alone? Research in a library. He cursed under his breath. "She ruined me for life." He groaned, before resuming his work.
The spell on the first page could be any combination of evocations. It would be impossible to use as a decipherable reference. But the next few pages seemed to be a collection of letters, judging by the formatting. But the symbology of the heading was confusing. They were mostly all addressed to the same pony.
If I could figure out their name...
The greeting was unique as well. It wasn't 'Dear somepony,'. He tried transposing different words. Hello? Greetings? Salutations? No. None of them fit the pattern. The permutation of 'most dear'? Dearest? Dearest! Dearest fit. It wasn't much, but it was a start. "Dear Mare," Stark grinned. It seemed old Starswirl the Bearded was writing to a lady friend.
He rewrote the greeting on a separate paper and flipped the page back. He set to work transposing the symbols, assigning them to modern letters.
"Damn, I need to remember that D and R together are one letter in the Pre-Classical Equestrian alphabet." With that in mind, he was able to work out the primary cipher. Using it, it translated the page into gibberish.
To the untrained eye.
The mess on his piece of paper served as guide for the secondary cipher. He was on a roll now. His pen flew across the page, writing out the final translation. He could feel his heart racing. He would be the first in a millennium to know the final spell that Starswirl the Bearded ever recorded! He couldn't wait to rub it in everypony's face.
"There. It's finished." He said, looking at the final draft. He couldn't know for sure though. Evocation spells like this were never real words. They were spelled out phonetically for the caster to make very precise non-words. After all, one couldn't be having spells cast by accident with idle conversation. He sounded out each word individually to make sure he had the pronunciation correct. Then he read the spell all together to see if it actually did anything.
Nothing. He double checked his work.
"Damn it! That D R combination." He went back and made the corrections, updating the primary and secondary ciphers. He put the rest of his notes, the old ciphers and headings into his bag. Confident now, he re-read the spell, focusing his magic will into each word. At the apex of the spell, the sudden shift from the dark library to blinding white light left him reeling. It was seared into his retinas, even as he clenched his eyes.
The light faded, but he'd lost his night vision. He squinted into the room. He didn't summon any monsters, and the library wasn't on fire. All he'd managed to do was temporarily blind himself.
"What kind of stupid spell was that?" He complained as he rubbed his eyes. "Like, how do I even show that off?" He groaned as he regained his balance. He had manage to blow out the candle when the spell completed. He called light to his horn. It was brighter than a candle anyway.
The candle and the holder were both missing. In fact, everything at the table was missing. Even worse, the walls of the library were no longer a pretty, azure blue. They had been scorched black. He gulped at the thought of having to explain that to Shining and Cadence.
The door to the library flew open. A cloaked pony dashed inside and closed the door behind him. His eyes immediately landed on Stark, his horn still lighting the room. Without a word, the mysterious pony dove across the room faster than Stark could have prepared for, tackling him to the floor. He put a hoof to Stark's mouth, stifling his scream.
"Put it out!" Came the feminine voice, albeit in a hushed hiss as she held him still on the floor behind the table. He obeyed, fearing for his life, extinguishing the light. Not a moment later, a crystal guard came by, checking inside the library with his torch. The flickering light of the burning stick did nothing to reveal them and he closed the door, moving on down the hallway in his patrol. Once she was sure he was gone, the mystery mare took her weight off of Stark, but still kept his mouth covered as she spoke.
"I am not your enemy." She said in an urgent whisper. "I'm going to let go now. But you need to promise not to scream or we'll both be dead ponies. Do you understand?" He nodded. "Okay. We need to get out of here! But first I need to rescue my sister. Will you help me?"
"Wait, rescue?" Stark gasped. "From what? From who?"
"Sombra." She said.
The spell brought back King Sombra.
Stark felt the color leave his face as an icy chill ran up his spine. This was bad. This was very very bad! He'd only ever heard about King Sombra from his Madre and a few reluctant citizens of the empire. All accounts were horrific nightmare fuel. And he brought him back with a careless incantation. His parents had warned him against such rash actions. If he was unlucky enough to survive this night, he'd have to face their wrath too. It was his fault the king was back. Of course he had to help fix this.
"Of course I'll help!" He said. She took his hoof, pulling him along.
"This way. We need to avoid detection. He's grown too powerful. We can't take him on in a direct confrontation." She said.
"What about Shining and Cadence? Are they okay?" He asked.
"I don't know." She said. "They may be in the dungeon as well."
"Dungeon?"
"Yes. Under the castle." She explained. "That's where we're headed. Now keep quiet." Stark followed her through the dark halls. She moved in near-silence. He tried his best to keep his hooves from making too much noise as well. He squinted into the dark, trying his best to keep up with her. She was nearly invisible in her black cloak, except for the white fur of her exposed face. "There, just up ahead." She pointed across the way as they reached the bottom of the stairs. Two guards were illuminated by the light of a pair of torches on the wall. They wore armor blacker than ink, and were most definitely NOT the palace guards he was used to seeing. "I need you to go run past them" She whispered.
"But they'll see me." He whispered back.
"Yes. That's the point. When they turn their attention to you, I'll take them out." She said.
"Are- are you sure?"
"I promise." She said.
Stark took a deep breath. His mind was racing. He was never one to trust strangers. Even less, to act on impulse like this. But there was just something about her. Everything in his mind was screaming that all of this was crazy, and to just get out of there, just run.
Just run
He ran. He ran down the hallway, past the two guards. They turned to give chase. Stark looked over his shoulder as a billowing shade leaped from the shadows upon them each. He stopped running and turned back as she snapped the neck of the second guard.
"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, he's... they're-" Stark felt his stomach flip at the sight of them on the ground.
"Hey, come on. Don't fall apart on me." She said.
"I just- I've never seen..." He stuttered. She pushed them into the shadows, out of sight.
"Well, now you've seen one. But there's going to be a whole lot more if we fail. So I need you to focus, okay?" She said. He nodded. She ducked into the prisoner block hallway, checking the cells. "She's here!" She called out to Stark. "Quick, put those out!" She pointed at the sconces on the wall. He extinguished the flames. In the dark he heard the iron bars creak open. She and the second set of hooves moved toward him. "Follow us." She said.
.....
The well-timed traversal of the castle led to their eventual escape out into the open of the empire grounds. The entire region had been transformed into jagged black precipices. It was a nightmarish landscape. Stark quietly prayed that indeed this was all just a bad dream. The the spell he'd cast had merely knocked him unconscious. He wished that he would just awaken with a bad caster's headache.
He wished it so very much.
The sky was devoid of light. The aurora of a happy empire was gone. They ran silently through the dark streets. Hidden from view, they witnessed the endless chains of crystal ponies, shackled in a horrific parade to pony-knows-where. At the edge of the empire they arrived at the southern border. The Empire Train Station was destroyed. It was completely gone. Even the tracks had been wretched from the ground, clear to the horizon. There was naught but a dirt path to follow, out into the cold wilderness.
"We've reached the edge of the empire." His rescuer said. "But I had only brought enough garments for myself and my sister." She motioned to the other pony, completely covered in a black robe of her own, shivering beside her. "Have you anything to wear into the cold?" He was about to say no, but remembered that he indeed have something to wear.
"I can't believe this." He mumbled to himself. At the bottom of the bag, he dug out his Madre's Nightmare Night costume. It looked ridiculous, but it would keep him from the wind and cold. They stepped over the threshold of the empire, into the cold of the Frozen North, following the dirt path south into Equestria.
"He did WHAT?" Cadence screamed.
"Your Highness," The guard backed away, "Young Starswirl went to the library last night. He wasn't in there or his room this morning. It seems that he's disappeared." He said. The guard behind him brought a few items forward. A book and a few slips of paper. "Theses were all we found."
"FIND HIM!" She commanded. "If Princess Twilight finds out that her son is missing, she'll tear all of Equestria apart looking for him. Starting with us!" She yelled. The fear she was trying to instill in the guards was genuine. She'd seen first hoof what the lavender mare was capable of, laying waste to an entire region in the clash with Tirek. No sooner had he left did the trumpets blare outside, sounding the arrival of a very important pony. They barely had time to finish the bar before Celestia burst through the doors.
"Forgive my sudden arrival, but I come on a most urgent matter. Is young Starswirl here? I need to speak with him right away! There was something I needed to tell him." She asked.
"I'm sorry Princess Celestia. But I'm afraid we're having a bit of a crisis ourselves. Starswirl went missing sometime last night." Shining said. Celestia had held back her tears up to that point, but she no longer had the will to keep back the floodgates. She wept openly now, tears running down her cheeks as she put her hoof to the nearby window.
"Tia! Auntie! What is it? What's wrong?" Cadence ran over to her. Celestia sobbed against the glass. Her legs gave out as she collapsed against the window. Her tears wet the pane as she slid down, inconsolable. Cadence was aghast. She'd never, EVER seen Celestia like this. She was always so stoic and composed. Even when the fate of the world was at stake, lives hanging in the balance, she was calm and sure.
"Cadie! What's going on? What's wrong?" Shining said, joining her side. Cadence's face was whiter than his. Her eyes were wide with horror.
"I have no idea." She gasped. "I've never seen her like this. It's like the end times or something!" Celestia bawled out on the hard floor, her crown fell from her head, clattering across the floor. Between heaving sobs she was only able to get out two words. The stained glass of the ancient windows rattled with her desperate cry.
"HE'S GONE!"
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Please keep theory/spoiler comments to a minimum.
4590239
I see what you're doing.
I will keep my theories, spoilers, opinions, plot holes, and story ideas to myself. We all know I suck at them anyway
4590239
I officially dub you as The Genius Overlord.
Alternate realities or time travel.
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
Oh my god he ( gets neck snapped).
4591350 Don't worry. I promise that scene is as dark as it will ever get. The rest is... less so.
4591358 I know, it was a joke from the chapter and your comments to keep the theories to a minimum.
4591393 *snaps your neck*
mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw6152-Neck_snap.gif
4590305 You suck at plot holes? ewwwwwwwww
And this is where shit gets interesting.
4590239 And I may be wrong about this, but that's a pretty obvious set up there son.
4591438 Be that as it may,
i.imgur.com/kMErH6G.jpg
Let's just enjoy the ride.
4591413 i.imgur.com/hguuo.jpg
I defy other authors' fics to have comment sections as interesting as mine.
4591505 oh I have full plans on enjoying it, just saying.
I must say I'm with 4591438, that was a pretty obvious setup right there, but it's an obvious setup for what looks to be one heck of a fun ride, like the initial hill of a rollercoaster.
Now this is mostly just genre savvy, but
(spoiler tag deployed for all those that don't wish to embark upon the speculation train)
, and what I'd guess is a burgeoning romance between Stark and Celestia which shall likely be revealed from the ciphered letter sent to "Dearest".
It would seem that Starswirl's "final spellbook" contained the spell to send him back more than 1000 years to the time of Sombra's reign—damn you impossible circular time loops. Gauging from the familiar cypher used, it would seem that the book was written by Stark himself (though the use of the archaic 'dr' may come to be important) and left in the care of Celestia to be delivered to his younger-future self at the appropriate time, thereby avoiding an open time travel paradox (although the initial paradox of how the loop could have originally started is still left eerily open) by intentionally sending himself back.
We seem to have met a young Celestia and Luna (pure speculation but I'd call it a better than average guess) and so we shall see their journey to ascension, which should be a lot of fun
Sorry for spilling this black ink on your comments, but asking me not to speculate on something like this would be like asking Twilight not to make a checklist
. I can't wait for more you wonderful shakespearian strongman.
4590239 Thanks for the warning this time.