When Two Worlds Meet

by Darkness 1

The 'Forbidden Spells'

As they all walked in, the doors to the castle, shut themselves tightly, Rainbow Dash tried to open them, but they would not budge. From outside, Princess Cadence, yelled through the doors: " Are you all okay?"

Darkness replied, " We're fine, but until we figure what's going in here, I'm afraid, we will be out of contact for a while until this is under control. In the meantime, contact Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna, and tell them to keep the populace calm, and I am asking you to do the same here, the last thing any of us need right now, is complete and total panic. If everything ends up not going to plan, you princesses will have to finish the job if we fail, call it a secondary back-up plan."

Princess Cadence replied, " I understand..I will contact the Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna, and tell them what you have asked of us. And Darkness....all of you...good luck in there, and may the sun and stars watch over you all and guide you all in your time of need, may they guide us all..."

Darkness only said, " You too." And with that Darkness nodded his head, to the others and they all followed Darkness down the hallway that lead into the main chamber.

As they continued to walk, their steps began to feel heavier, the air grew thicker to breathe, and a chill was rising, and Snowshy said, " Darkness, do you feel something in the air? Something is very wrong here, it's like something doesn't want us here."

Darkness shook his head, " I know, I feel it too, but its not a spirit, that's for certain, no, it's almost like something has been..."

Before Darkness could finish his thought, the entire area, was suddenly surrounded in darkness, and the air grew very cold, and the ground began to feel like it was moving beneath all their hooves. Darkness froze in his tracks, and held out a hoof to bar the others from taking another step.

Rainbow Dash said, " Hey! What gives?!"

Darkness said, " Do not move, I know what this is, trust me."

Twilight and Snowshy both asked, " What is this? And how do you know what's going on here?"

Darkness said, " I do not know what's going here, and neither do any of you. But I do know what this is though, a 'Forbidden Spell', has been cast in the entire inside of the castle, and one of the more horrible ones, I might add."

Snowshy said, " A 'Forbidden Spell'? I don't think you ever told me about those, is there more than one?"

Darkness said gravely, " Unfortunately, yes, there are 14 'Forbidden Spells', each them are devastating in their own right, and some are...well, are things that you would only want to happen to you in your darkest, scariest nightmares, and the one that has been cast in here, happens to be one of those."

Twilight said with concern, " Darkness, I know it might be a lot to ask, but for all of our well-being, could you tell us what each them are and what each 'Forbidden Spell does? And could you tell us more about the one we are currently in?"

Darkness said with a sigh, " I was afraid you was going to ask that... Alright, I'll tell you, besides, there's no telling if this is the only 'Forbidden Spell that's been cast in here. This might take thirty minutes or so to explain but, It might be a good idea for you all to know them and to know how to deal with them, in case I'm not around, or in the area. Okay, as I said, there are 14 'Forbidden Spells' , they are named this, for the utter destruction, and death they all cause, one of these spells was invented, 10 of them were found, and three of them were given to a race older than the sorcerer ponies, as a gift from the gods of Equestria. The race I talk about are now only known as the ancient ones, a race that is 500,000 years older than the sorcerer pony race, they had a very deep understanding of this planet, and everything they did and built, was in complete harmony with nature. They were the original protectors of this planet, after they had only existed for 250,000 years, the gods of Equestria, saw the ancient ones fit to possess extraordinary, and rather immense power, they gave the ancient ones three powers, and they are known as 'Planetary Wrath Forbidden Spells', one was called, 'Acidic Agony', this spell would turn the entire world into one giant acid pool, disintegrating any land or living thing that remains. Another one was called, "The Storm Of Cleansing', this spell called upon, the power and wrath of the wind, rain, and lighting, and tear anything and everything apart, and turning the entire planet into a giant lighting storm, the likes you have never seen, and then submerge any and all land under trillions of gallons of water. And the other one was called "Planetary Clash', it called upon the forces of gravity, and would bring several, if not, many small planets within the area, and pull them into this planet's atmosphere, colliding it all with this planet, turning everything into small rocks and dust."

Darkness continued, " Now, you might be asking, why would the gods give such frightening powers to those such as the ancient ones? The answer was simple, to have and use these powers as a last resort to prevent any great evil force from using this planet for the wrong reasons, so the gods gave the ancient ones these powers to take out those evils that cannot be defeated any other way and were only to be used as a last resort. Thankfully, the ancient ones were strong enough to ward off any evil force, so these spells, were hidden away in their most protected temples. However, the ancient ones, had a fascination with these spells, and wanted to make their own, that would target one thing or area at a time, they invented something unicorns now call 'magic'. The ancient ones were the first ones to discover and make some of the most useful spells that a lot of unicorns still use today, everything from simple levitation to age spells, they were the ones that made it possible. Anyways, the ancient ones downfall, came at the invention of one spell that they called, 'Soul Flame', right off, they knew it was not a spell to be commonly used and they classified it as a 'Forbidden Spell'. This spell first cast a normal flame and then called upon the souls of the dead, and combined it with the flame, creating the 'Soul Flame', a purple flame, that when used against somepony, would cause, unhealable, permanent damage, starting by damaging the inside of the pony, and then the outside. Once the damage has been inflicted by this terrible flame, it cannot be healed by any magic or medicine, it is a very agonizing and slow death. But I'm getting off track, as the ancient ones cast this spell, and successfully merged the souls of the dead with the flame, and were about to use it on dummy targets they had made, the spell ended up being more powerful than they could hold together, and spell went ballistic, and blew up in a gigantic explosion, that engulfed their entire city, and then created a giant hole where the city had once been, except for their library, which was on the outskirts of the city. My guess is what had happened, is when the casters could no longer handle the spell, it exploded from all the magic, and went back where the souls had come from, thus the explosion made the hole needed for the souls to return to their rightful resting place, which is deep in the crust of this planet, where the souls of the dead find their eternal rest."

Darkness took a breath, and continued, " Any survivors, were either burning or falling to their death, thus marked the end of the entire race known as the ancient ones. However, there is a rather scary twist to all this, I once found the site of that very hole, and went to the bottom, and what I found shocked me: the ancient ones have been transformed something you've all encountered, the changelings. The way this happened is rather a simple answer though, as I continued to research the bottom of that hole, it was all there, I found the truth, and I knew that what my mother told me through her diary was true, I found the ash remains of the buildings of the city of the ancient ones, the outlines of them, anyways, I knew if I tried to touch them, they would only fall apart, I found ash remains of the ancient ones, and I found harsh writing on the walls all around me that told the story of what happened afterward. The survivors, that had survived the fall, continued to burn, but seeing as the soul flame, was no ordinary flame, after about an hour of burning, it changed the survivors, not just their bodies, but their minds, their insides, their way of thinking, all their memories were wiped clean, their personalities before...were gone...the flame changed.....everything, Those that somehow miraculously survived all this, began to realize they were no longer who they used to be, some ancient ones had horns, others only had wings, at first. Alicorns in that age, was a nothing more than a fillies dream. The survivors, knew and could feel the changes, they all had wings and horns, but they no longer could go outside, without the sun and the air of the surface causing damage to them, so they began to adapt to life underground, therefore, it was 400 years after the soul flame experiment went wrong, it gave birth to a whole new race altogether, and their first ruler came up with the name, when they discovered their new powers, the changelings. To this day, they are the only race that I know of that can shape shift into anypony with little to no effort, and their way of food, is also not a surprise, like I said, the flame changed everything about the survivors, including what they could eat, they no longer could eat what any other pony eats, it kills them, they can only feed on love. Before I could research any more, the entire hive down there, must've heard my steps, and began to awaken, and began to swarm at me, so I got out of there as fast as I could, as soon as I was miles away from the hole, the changelings turned around and went back, it would seem they have adapted that they can come to the surface, but not for long, but I do not know how long they can stay on the surface, I still don't know, but anyways, that's the soul flame."

Darkness paused for a moment, and then continued, " Now, as i said, there were ten of these 'Forbidden Spells', that were found, by the ancient ones as well, and the spells were embedded into precious giant gems, and very old rocks, in the form of rune symbols, which the ancient ones deciphered,and then they apparently destroyed the rocks, and gems, but they never used these spells, but hid them away in bottom of their library, all wrote down in scrolls where my kind found them. Anyways, one was called 'Power Storm', it sounds like 'The Storm Of Cleansing', but its not, it draws upon the pure power of the pony that uses it, and comes out in the form as pure energy, or purple lightening, I believe if I'm correct, Darkness Night used this spell in the form, by turning the entire sky into a purple lightening storm, but he had the power to do so, usually, it can only be cast from one's hoof, in a wide area, about as big as Canterlot, Ponyville, and the Everfree Forest combined for about maybe ten minutes, before it burns up the caster, but Darkness Night is an exception to that rule, he could've used it as long as possibly an hour or so. Then there is one that was called, 'The Meteors Of Sadness', again, it sounds familiar to 'Planetary Clash', but unlike that one, this spell only used many large meteors that would be sent down to a target and cause a massive explosion and shock waves upon impact, again, this was a spell Darkness was attempting to use, but he was defeated before he could finish the incantation words, or summoning words. Now, I know what you're thinking, but some of these spells, that were found, can only be used by using and saying the language of the ancient ones, words of power, for the spell to work, Darkness Night, if I'm correct, was trying to use two of these 'Forbidden Spells at once, but was interrupted as he was saying the words to the second one, and only managed to finish the words of the first one. The next one was called, 'Army Of The Dead', this is pretty simple to explain, any fallen warrior or anypony that is already dead, would be brought back from the grave to obey the commands of who had awoken them, usually it was to fight in a massive war that would wipe out their enemies, because well, you can't usually kill something's that's already dead, unless, you have somepony with a holy sword, but there was only one such sword, and that one was lost in a battle long before any war ever happened."

Darkness said, " Whew, this is a lot of explaining, but it needs to be done, now, the one we are in is called, 'The Corridor Of Nightmares', as the name implies, it's a nightmare, only this one becomes very much real, only a pony of high power can use this one, and does not require any words, but does require a big blue crystal to trap a soul and power within it, in order for this spell to work. It usually was only used in a small area, but it can be used for entire floors and buildings, it all depends on the size of the crystal, in our case, the crystal has to pretty big, to cover this entire room. It's a torture spell, executioners, and interrogators, loved using this spell, in ancient times, for confessions, or for a slow, paranoid death. It takes away all light of the area, and blinding the victim with pure darkness, it turns the air to a northern chill, and makes breathing a challenge, and if you don't know the layout of the floor of the area you are in, one wrong step, and the victim, falls into another dimension, known as the netherworld, that harbors monsters that tear apart the victim, limb from limb, slowly, one at a time, a rather agonizing slow, death, if you ask me. Whoever cast this in here, did not want any pony, like us, snooping around, looking for answers. The next one is called, 'The Fires Of Anger', this one is another simple one to explain, it calls upon the power of the pony again, but manifests in the form of fire, that be used to turn the entire surface of a planet, and put it completely on fire, that cannot be put out, and this spell can also make any core of any planet, and turn it into a lava pit, which can be used to make a planet explode from the inside out, there is no survivors to this one, anything that still lives is killed by the sub-zero temperatures of space. The next is a strange one, it is called, 'The Swords Of Justice', this one is probably, one of the more better ones, this spells requires the words of the ancient ones, but only a pony of a pure heart, can use it, or it will kill the caster. It calls upon the magic from within the caster, and turns it into the form of gigantic swords that rain down from the sky, unfortunately, it kills anything that the swords come into contact with, this spell usually wipes out all living things on a planet or several, but it does not destroy planets, just the life on them. The next one is very powerful and devastating and has never been used, ever. This one is called, 'Galactic Destroyer', as the name says, it has the power to destroy galaxies instantly, however, only the 'chosen one', can use this spell, the sheer force and power, would disintegrate any other caster, it calls upon the sheer will of the caster, of the 'chosen one', and compresses an entire galaxy into itself, creates a black hole, and then destroys everything, by having it all explode, and then everything that's left, gets sucked into the black hole, and then closes the black hole, a very nasty spell, but shockingly, I found out, that I happen to be the 'chosen one' of power, that can pull this spell off, but so can Darkness Night, my cutie mark is proof of this, it matches the symbol that is in my mother's diary, she knew of this one, and found the symbol of the 'chosen one' in one of the scrolls the ancient ones wrote down."

Darkness took another breath, and said, " Okay, it's taking a little longer than expected to explain, but I'm almost there, I got three more to go. Alright, the next one is called, 'The Tornado Of Revenge', as the name says, it can only be used by one that has vengeance or revenge in their hearts, but they must also have a strong will for the spell to be successful. It calls a huge tornado to tear apart anything in its path, sadly, this was the spell Darkness Night used to tear the town of the Crystal Empire into the sorry state it is in today. The next one is called, 'Time Compression', this one is extremely bad, because it throws all timelines, the past, present, and future, and brings them altogether, and then compresses then all, and turns them all into nothingness, where nothing lives, ever, this can affect galaxies, the last time it was used, it killed the caster in process, and compressed the caster as well. The good thing is, if the caster dies, everything returns to normal, but the caster can never come back, and they are stuck in a world that exists, but then doesn't exist. It is known as 'The World That Never Existed', there's not much info on that world, because all those that attempt to go there cannot come back, it is a one way trip, nothing lives there, except those foolish enough to go there, or got sent there. It was usually a spell used in ancient times, as a way to imprison criminals and villains by sending them there, it's use was stopped, because rulers later found a much better way to deal with evildoers, and thus was the knowledge of the spell hidden away, but it was first written down, by the ancient ones, on a small scroll, along with all their other scrolls at the bottom of their library. Now, I know I mentioned that the 'Planetary Wrath Spells' were hidden away in the ancient ones temples, but they also kept a written copy of those spells in their library as well, so just to make that clear to you all. Anyways, the last one, is one that really nopony, not even the ancient ones know much about, everypony has been to afraid to use it, seeing as the other 'Forbidden Spells', were bad enough, so only the name was written down in the ancient ones scrolls and a warning about the final 'Forbidden Spell'. It is known as 'Portal Summon', now, it sounds like a simple definition of this spell, but even I do not know what this one does, nor would I want to know, the other 'Forbidden Spells', are bad enough. Of course, it doesn't mean to say, I didn't try to do research on it, but there is literally no info on this spell, just the name and the warning the ancient ones wrote down. If I remember correctly, I did get the chance to read that scroll, my mother stole it from the great library of the sorcerer ponies, and infused it, in her diary, all the ancient ones wrote down, was, 'DO NOT SUMMON THIS SPELL, THIS IS NOT TO BE USED OR TAMPERED WITH, IF YE VALUE THY LIFE, FORGET YOU SAW THIS SCROLL.' That was their warning, whatever they knew about this spell, they refused to write it down, that knowledge went with them, when they wiped themselves out by accident, which makes no sense, why they wouldn't write it down, they wrote down all the others, just not this one, and this has been a complete mystery that many generations of ponies have tired to solve, but to no avail."

Twilight said, " I am so sorry, Darkness, I know we are pressed for time, but I just thought it would be important for all of us to know what to do, should we encounter this sort of thing again, and how to deal with them, but it sounds like only five of them, can be stopped."

Darkness replied, " Unfortunately, you're right, I forgot to mention, that if any of the other spells are used, there's no stopping them, unless you can manage to kill the caster before they finish casting the spell, that would be the only way, but with some of them, it would already be too late by that time."

Snowshy was the one who spoke this time, " Brother, you said something about a big blue crystal, that is needed for, 'The Corridor Of Nightmares', right? So we need to be looking for a big, shiny, blue crystal, and then what do we do once we find it?"

Darkness said, " Ah, yes, I did mention that, once we find it, all we need to do is to physically destroy it, not with magic though, no, we will need to simply throw it at a window, it will shatter the crystal, and well, the window in the process, but it will dispel the entire area we are in by the spell, and the room will return to normal."

Snowshy said, " Thank you, I suppose we better get looking then, but I think somepony that knows their way around here, should lead, sorry, Darkness, but this is your first time in the Crystal Castle."

Darkness said, " Again, you're right." Darkness turned around and addressed the group, and said, " Does anypony now the entire layout of this floor of this castle? If so, step forward, and lead the way."

Applejack stepped forward, and said, " I know that way, everypony follow me! We'll find that crystal thingy." Applejack then turned around and asked Darkness, " Do you have any ideas where the crystal might be?'

Darkness said, " I have a couple, but I think we should try to look in the throne room first."

Applejack said, " Sounds like a plan, let's go then, it might be best if everypony follows in a straight line, so that way nopony gets lost or falls off."

Everypony agreed and Rarity said, " Sound advice Applejack, let's get going then." Nothing else was said, as everypony followed Applejack, one step at a time, as they slowly made their way to the throne room.