Live for Another Day

by Ek Vitki

Chapter 3 - To Draw from the Source

I speak to you, my journal.

So there it was, the thing I, and all other living things, dread the most. Time had caught up with me, the thread ended. I felt betrayed and disappointed, was that really it?

I died today, and my blood seeped out onto the battlefield, moistening the earth and nourishing it.

I came back.

The sword was pulled clean from my body, and I stood up again.

The hole filled itself in, and I could breath. Part of me wishes that had never happened. Part of me wants it to end, to die the Varyag’s death, to see Hilde again.

I know very well that no weapon can kill me, but all the same I was stunned. It has been two thousand years since I left home, two thousand since Discord brought us to our knees.

I felt my fetch stir, speaking for the first time since my long journey began, someone has found this book. Someone spoke to my raven.

You have much to read, child.

I hope you are human.

A pair of dextrous fingers set down the quill, capping the ink pot and closing the book.

---

After enjoying a filling breakfast and mixing up an ointment to help with Spike’s shedding, Twilight collapsed into her reading chair. With a whisk of her horn, she hovered the old journal into her hooves, picking up where she had last left off.

She flicked through the pages, finding her bookmark.

This place is devoid of magic. Durandal has no leylines or springs, nothing at all. I can barely feel my cords back to the other worlds, and I fear I may not be able to leave.

Now that I think of it, I wonder if my home journal still updates from here? It should, in theory, but in this dead place I can’t be too sure. I wonder what happened to it...

That is all for now, I suppose. This place is static, not much I can do until I channel enough fuel from home to walk out of here.

“Leylines?” Twilight pulled her face away from the pages. “Why would he need leylines? You can’t use leylines in magic, right?”

She stroked her chin with a hoof before deciding to hop off her chair in search of a particular book. The hunt did not take long, thanks to her immaculate system of organization. Before she could say ‘leylines,’ she sat back down at her desk with a book on the very subject.

Twlight flipped through the pages, coming upon a passage concerning the theoretical use of leylines in magical practice.

...Starswirl the Bearded was reported to have been able to tap leylines for their magical energies, where he discovered his methods and how he actually did it, is still a hot topic of debate amongst scholars and magicians alike. With a leyline’s incredible output of power, a magician is capable of potentially matching even the princesses in power...

“Oh my.” Twilight murmured, a thousand questions rushing through her head.

Should I tell the princesses about this book?

She gasped.

Do they use them? Are they only as powerful as unicorns, but they figured out how to use the leylines?

“Jumping to conclusions Twilight!” she sighed, wiping a hoof across her forehead. “Maybe I should just keep this to myself...”

The unicorn turned back to the journal in search of more on the subject of leylines. She flipped through the next couple of pages of the journal, only to find a largely printed glyph that was not too different than the one that she had seen upon first finding the book.

“This again?” She moved her head around, practically orbiting the rune. “Maybe this has something to do with the leylines?”

The text surrounding the symbol was a long, unbreaking paragraph of the illegible runic alphabet. She reached out hesitantly, knowing that what she was about to do just might end up going awry.

The librarian’s hoof gently tapped the symbol, flying away immediately after contact. She slammed her eyes shut and bit her lip, waiting for some loud sound or horrifying sight.

Nothing happened.

“Phew! I guess it’s ju--” Twilight was interrupted by a pillar of icy-blue light erupting violently from the glyph. It smacked into the ceiling, then exploded outward, temporarily blinding the unicorn. She tumbled out of her chair, rubbing her eyes in a panic. As quick as the light came, it was gone.

Twilight stumbled to her feet, swaying where she stood. As she regained her balance, what she saw made her eyes as wide as saucers. Permeating the air around her were thousands of the little runes, glowing in a rainbow of colors. Motes of light scattered and floated like dust, while each rune pulsed like a star.

Her jaw hung loosely as she beheld the sight, drinking in the colors and the humming that seemed to fill the air. She reached out to touch one of the runes, but it zoomed off, coalescing with hundreds of others into a whirlpool of light forming in the center of the room. From this chromatic eddy was born a sphere. On this sphere rose continents and oceans, a miniature globe evolving before her eyes. It was Equestria.

It was the world.

What remained of the symbols spiraled around the globe, positioning themselves over specific spots on the landmasses and oceans, some changing colors while others morphed into other symbols entirely.

The light show ended, with the globe remaining static in the air. Twilight sat where she was and stared dumbly at the thing.

“Ok, I need to approach this scientifically. I have no idea what this is and I must be careful.”

The unicorn whisked magic up through her body, into her horn. She reached out to the globe with her telekinetic touch, probing the construct with her mind. She grasped one of the runes, and her mind was suddenly inundated with images of a redwood forest, the trees alive with vibrant and powerful energies. The librarian recoiled at the sudden intensity of the magic, intrigued and at the same time frightened.

The images disintegrated, leaving the stunned unicorn sitting on the floor with stars in her eyes.

“What in Equestria was that?” she groaned, rubbing her temples.

Though they were gone from her sight, the trees stuck in her mind. The forest floor felt rich and supple beneath her hooves, though they never stepped on that soil. It all felt so alive, as if every inch of the woods were crawling and breathing to the rhythm of the cycle.

It was so full of energy.

Could that be one of those springs?

Tentatively, Twilight reached out with her magic, prodding and pinching that same rune. Once more, the sensorial rush rammed into her, but she was prepared. The impact was dulled by readiness, making the sprawling redwood forest in front of her all the more vivid and delicious to her eyes.

Twilight could feel it, it was everywhere! The tang of life itself permeated everything like water in a sponge. The pure power coursing through the woods was similar to what she had within her very horn, yet it had a strange, incomplete flavor. The first thing that came to her mind was a chocolate chip cookie, but without the chocolate chips.

The energies around her swarmed in like insects. Her presence in this pseudo-environment was like a flame, drawing in the motes of life. Twilight felt her skin tingle with the sensation of magic beating down like a light drizzle.

The unicorn felt herself get hot, the energy building within her core.

This shouldn’t be happening, a unicorn’s horn contains and channels magic, not her body...

Awe darkened to concern as she drank in more of the life magic. Twilight wasn’t aware of it, but her body was shaking as veiny green mycelia erupted on her skin and twisted through her fur, glowing with the power of the forest.

Twilight’s mind reeled, desperately trying to claw its way out of the forest and away from the energy. With a cry, the visions tore away, releasing her from their grip. She flew back from the globe, smacking into a bookcase. Tome after tome toppled down onto her head, earning her a headache for her efforts. Slowly, the unicorn’s eyes opened, revealing yet another reason to groan.

The portion of the floor where Twilight had sat just moments before was coated in a thick weave of bramble and vines. Greenery grew seamlessly out of the floorboards as if it were rich soil.

“Huh?! But... I didn’t...” Twilight sputtered.

The air still tingle with the familiar flavor of life magic. The librarian stared at the mass of plants, her eyes widening in realization.

“Starswirl was right... I channeled that energy from outside my body, and I’m not even tired! All that power with no effort... oh my.” She clasped a hoof to her mouth, wrestling with the implications of such an impressive amount of power at her disposal, with little strain to wield it.

But why was this energy so specific? Energy is energy, there aren’t any types of it. Well, I thought there weren’t. I need to tell Celestia about this.

The unicorn eyed the brambly clump in the middle of the room, figuring that clean up can wait until after she sends her letter.

Sighing at the mass of plant life, Twilight hovered a quill and paper over from her desk and began furiously writing her letter to the princess.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I, your faithful student, have made an incredible discovery! In the depths of the Royal Canterlot Archives, I have found the journal of what appears to be an ancient unicorn that history has forgotten! Or, I think he’s a unicorn, mentioned these things called ‘Humans,’ and how he hoped that whomever was reading the journal was one.

The book itself is a strange magical artifact. When I found it, the pages were completely devoid of any writing. However, upon blowing through the pages, a single glyph from an unknown written language appears. Blowing on this glyph ‘activates’ the book, so to speak, revealing its contents.

The writing itself was in that unknown language, but upon coming into contact with a page of my notes, the letters, both on the notes and in the book, seemed to animate and translate into legible Equestrian.

The writing turned out to be a list of names, I am assuming of all things that ever lived. I found my name, all the names from the apple family, I even found you, Princess Luna, and even Discord! I am absolutely puzzled as to why or how this list came into being, I will study it further.

After the list, I discovered journal entries, which is how I came to the conclusion of what exactly to call the book. The author, who may not be a unicorn, spoke of these otherworldly places he has traveled, such as ‘Durandal’ and ‘Volrun.’ I have never heard of such places, and the way he put it implied that they were not within the same world. You wouldn’t happen to know of these places, would you?

Lastly, I have discovered something truly incredible! Within his entries, the author mentions the ability to channel energy OUTSIDE of one’s horn! Starswirl the Bearded spoke of this in one of his essays, but everypony laughed at him! While I was going through the entry, I found a page that had that same unknown glyph from before, surrounded by illegible text. I touched the glyph, and everything exploded in light! Before me then formed a model of the entire world, with runic symbols over various locations, it was like a map! I reached out with my magic to touch one, so I could see the weave of the spell, and I saw a forest, with tall trees, millions of them!

That’s not all, this forest was full of energy! It felt like life itself was filling the air, filling my horn! Before I knew it, the energy was within me, I took it from outside and channeled it through my horn! Now there’s a bush in my room...

Starswirl was right, you can channel outside energy! I didn’t even feel fatigued in the least when it happened, too! I could have nearly unlimited power...

This may be dangerous.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

Rolling up the scroll, Twilight called for a tired and grumpy Spike. He hobbled into the room, switching from an irate glare to pure confusion at the sudden appearance of a bush in the middle of her room. With a shrug, he grasped the letter with two fingers, and blew it away into nothingness.

Spike turned to leave, but was stopped cold by a loud belch. Within the fiery burp materialized a response from the princess, which Twilight eagerly snatched up.

I must see you at once. Prepare for my arrival.

Princess Celestia.

---

I feel like this could have been better, but I'm just too tired and lazy, I write this while my pre-readers run through my main story, so you won't get grade A quality here. I just wanna tell a story, not write a New York Times best seller, you know? As long as you enjoy it, what do I care? You're all great readers, keep it up my people.

Comments

[Soviet Fluttershy]

Can't wait to read the next chapterdl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Lyra_dealwithit.png

[Konics]

nice. I cant wait to read more.......I .......want......MORE........please

[Low-quality memes]

The plot thickens to the point of salsa.

[Lone Wolf]

Looking forward to the next chapter.

[Atropony]

This is so awesome! I can't wait to read more, it really grabs the imagination.
Is the Author Scandinavian by any chance? I noticed he wrote "By Odins Left Eye" Odin being the all father of Norse mythology. (Though you probably already knew this)

[Thunder--Clash]

When you come back from the dead dear author please finish this story

[Ariel Schnee]

6780671

Same here author.