Fullmetal Pony

by Leoshi

3.3: The Day Of

As Twilight closed the bedroom door behind her, she couldn't stop herself from also kicking her wastebin. The clang she expected was muffled, so she looked down and saw the various wads of paper inside had absorbed most of the sound. Yet another thing that hadn't gone as she wanted today. Scowling, she glared at the wastebin for several seconds before she relented and threw herself on her bed.

Again. They were arguing again. Barely two days into Shining Armor's leave time, and their mother had shoo'd her out of the kitchen like so many other times across the years. Why did her mother even bother with asking for privacy? Did she think that she was somehow sparing her daughter the unpleasantness of the arguments? It wasn't as though they were very discreet. Twilight could probably count how many times they had come to a disagreement.

How did it start? She pressed her head into a pillow as she thought. Mom often talked fondly of him when he was away in Canterlot, which only frustrated her more when they argued every time he came to visit. It was over silly things, too. Even the last visit had them tensing up over her and her brother playing too loudly. For that matter, Twilight was being just as loud and rowdy as Shining Armor - why had he been the only one to get in trouble?

Oh, wait. Twilight had an answer back then. I was smaller. Well, that's just silly. Shining Armor didn't deserve to be put on the spot like that. Not then, and certainly not before. And hadn't Mom been a little short-tempered with him while they were waiting for the train later that week? All he had done was make her feel better about the accident with the pillow. Or the floor. It didn't matter which.

"You just need more time," he had said. And their mother had asked him not to say such things. Why did she feel the need to fight with him so much?

Twilight's face burned against her pillow. Her forelegs had begun to ache, and realized that she had been squeezing her comforter against herself. She relaxed her hold on it and lifted her head. Her eyes naturally drifted to the desk set near her bookshelf. If only finding answers to problems within her family was as easy as studying alchemy. At least she understood alchemy to a degree. Wouldn't it be nice if things were that simple?

Her mother and brother had begun to experience friction around the time he had announced he was enlisting. His motivation was to carry on the good work of their dad, and that was enough for Twilight to accept it. Granted, she still worried about him. Was all this arguing somehow their mom's way of showing worry? That somehow making the idea of joining the royal guard seem like a mistake would help keep the family together? Twilight didn't have an answer. It was, yet again, another puzzle she couldn't solve. She gave an aggravated huff.

All matter is subject to balance.

Well, her family was most definitely imbalanced.

She spared another moment just to breathe. This was going nowhere. Maybe some reading would calm her down.

Twilight rose from her bed and moved to her desk. As she moved, she reached out with her magic to grip a recent addition to her collection. Days of Deism: Misconceptions in Magic was supposed to be about the common misunderstandings that many new unicorns went through, written as cautionary tales. It was a book that she hadn't read much of yet, simply because it focused almost entirely on the failures of others. Maybe they were interesting, maybe not - either way, it seemed like a good choice for a day when nothing had gone right.

She sat down and opened the book to its contents. Her eyes scanned the list of chapter titles and the different parts therein. A couple stood out to her, but didn't really interest her enough to skip ahead, so she turned to the preface and started reading aloud.

"The purpose of this book is to explore the missteps, mistakes, and missed opportunities of those who came before you. They, like you, were gifted with incredible gifts and wanted to see what they could do to change the world. Through their choices and actions, however, many lessons were learned that ultimately changed themselves. Unfortunately, it's been made clear that these lessons, unlike the mistakes, are not so common."

Blegh. What purpose was there in making magic seem so bad? Even she knew that it was a delicate craft, something to be practiced and respected. Just because others were too eager with their magic didn't mean it was altogether dangerous. It's not the magic, she argued, it's the one casting it. And what was the deal with the alliteration? She stuck her tongue out at the page and went on.

"We who have compiled these stories know very well that not every pony who has magic is prone to be careless with it. It's our hope, then, that these stories will serve as the lessons that were learned by those who were. Treat these lessons as you would a cautionary tale-" Ah. There it was, clear as day. "-and you will avoid the danger of overconfidence. We encourage you to practice and improve with your magic. Just don't do anything that will end up as another story in this book! Signed, the professors Willy Whisker, Coco Milk, and Sir E. Brum."

Twilight paused. Was that a pseudonym? She giggled despite herself.

For a few minutes, she read through the opening stories without really absorbing anything there. Many of the stories were kept short, making efforts to show the mistakes instead of getting to know the ones making them. It became clear that the names of the ponies involved had been changed, apparently to protect their identity. Either that, or one-word names were more popular before she was born than she realized.

She soon came across one tale that made her pause. It also had a seen-from-a-mile-away lesson about control, but she saw some hints that related to her current alchemy puzzle about ley lines. As she read on, she couldn't help but relate to the alchemist in the story, who also grappled with frustration and aggravation, only this one chose to wander the streets at night and eventually break into an archive. Twilight herself wasn't that desperate, but she sympathized all the same.

More curious than upset now, she read the story again. It didn't go into detail about what specific problem the alchemist found, but it was implied that he was trying to find a way to equalize a year-long project of his by using the innate power of other races. He evidently had the same surprise that Twilight did when he learned about the possibility of alchemy having access to raw magic itself. That knowledge challenged all that he knew and eventually drove him to recklessness. He skipped meals, spent money he didn't earn on materials he didn't need, and was so lost in his confusion that he began to lash out at his friends and family.

That was where Twilight's sympathy ended. She could relate to some of that, but her own experience with friends didn't really permit her to have any to begin with. She always had some studying to catch up on, so never really bothered with making friends. Besides, Shining Armor was usually exhausting enough.

Still, Twilight couldn't quite tear herself away from the story. She went over it a third time, unable to shake the feeling that it was more familiar than it had any right to be. She related to some of what the pony had to go through, but that was it, wasn't it? This wasn't a study book after all, so she shouldn't need to worry about sympathy for someone before her time. But if that were true, then why was she spending so much time on it? It wasn't even a very long story...

All matter is subject to balance.

It hit her. The pony was trying to verify the notion that alchemy was drawing on magic independently, and was doing so by trying to find an equalizing force between the races of ponies. That was something she remembered reading. It was from a long time ago, maybe back from when Twilight first started studying alchemy, and she hadn't paid much attention to it. Now, though, it burned in her mind like a beacon in a valley.

The three tribes who came to settle Equestria. The promise of unity as they set aside their quarrels. The power of Harmony they found as a result.

In a second, Twilight had snapped her head up to her shelf and focused on the spines of all her books. A weathered one near the top was wrapped in her magic and pulled down, wobbling in the air as she fought for control. She had it open before it even reached her desk.

Excitement coursed through her as she scanned the index. She muttered the word "Harmony" to herself while she searched, and then again when she turned to the correct page, nearly tearing the paper inside as she did. The pages in this book were not nearly as marked as her other study materials, which made it harder for her to find the passage she sought. She instinctively reached out for a highlighter, but stopped herself. There would be time for notations later.

And then she found it. "There," she breathed. The word was part of its own heading: ELEMENTS AND REPRESENTATION OF HARMONY.

It was perfect. The chapter went into detail about the different abilities of unicorn, pegasus, and earth ponies alike, including what allowed each of them to perform alchemy in their own ways. It wasn't that alchemy was drawing on magic power from ley lines in the world. There was still a median, a power that stood between the two that was so easily accessible, it made up nearly all of the known culture in Equestria. And it wasn't even a single power, but a group. A unified force.

The chapter followed that notion even further by exploring the nature of such a unified force. Apparently there was a kind of magic that dictated all others, in a similar way to her original thought of ley lines providing the raw power. This unification, this 'Harmony' as the book called it, seemed to be the cornerstone on which their society was built. She didn't focus too much on that, though. Instead, she followed the information down until it reached the end of the chapter. Much like her other study materials, this one told a lot about the what and not too much about the how.

Except now it didn't bother her. Now, she had the piece to her puzzle. And now, finally, she could complete it.

Twilight rearranged the materials on her desk until she had what she needed. Everything she kept involved the innate powers of the pony races, while the books and scrolls involving ley lines were gently set aside. Almost in a trance, she went through one study book after another, easily finding the passages inside that added to and confirmed her latest find. It was little surprise when The Life and Times of Stinkin' Rich was among the oldest to be referenced.

It all began to make sense. The underlying theme she had sensed throughout her study sessions involved this power of Harmony. Evidently, it was easier to grasp than any raw energy would have been, with a greater application in alchemy than just one pony's efforts alone. That was how the famous alchemists came to boast such talent: they had tapped into a pool of power beyond their own. It also explained, once and for all, how alchemy was available to more than just unicorns. It was all based on this unity.

In fact, Twilight realized, the concept of unity went beyond alchemy. The brief mention about society had been right: Equestria as a whole seemed to be built on the virtue of unity. There was even a war fought in its name.

She paused.

A war of unity? That couldn't be right. That contradicted itself...didn't it?

Twilight glanced toward her dresser near her door. Resting on top of it was her brother's training helmet. Shining Armor had said something about the conflict earlier, about how it had been a different time. She didn't know too many details about the Unification War beyond what the newspapers had posted when it ended, but she remembered the name quite clearly. Now, though, it bothered her. A war by definition was the absence of unity, so how could one be fought with such a name? Would Shining Armor need to be put in harm's way for such a contradiction? And more importantly, if unity and harmony were such good things, why had her father been killed for it?

After all, that had caused all of this friction in her own family now.

Twilight couldn't understand it. What part of unity in their society demanded a conflict bad enough to cost lives? Even Princess Luna had been involved, and it would be wrong to think that the Princess of their nation didn't represent harmony as a whole. Shining Armor had said that he could provide an answer, but even that was an answer he didn't have much faith in. If only Twilight could ask her personally, then maybe she could find out how to correct the disconnect between her bother and mother. It probably wouldn't be easy, but she felt that no price was too high to help heal her broken little family.

All matter is subject to-

Then again, even if she could get an audience with royalty, it might not mean anything. Her brother had complained about 'getting an answer, but not the answer' earlier, so for all Twilight knew, the Princess and any instructors could be running off a biased script. Something to settle fears while keeping pride in the nation. Twilight was not interested in getting another puzzle if the pieces were going to be missing again.

A moment later, Twilight realized the solution. Forget broken puzzles or stories with parts cut out. Why not go to the source? It wasn't that she couldn't speak to the Princess on the matter. Rather, she didn't need to.

Balance!

She flipped to a blank page in her notebook and began theorizing. If she could somehow access the power of Harmony and study it, she could stand to learn more whole facts than any one-sided instructor could teach. As a unicorn, Twilight's own magical ability, weak though it was, should have a simpler time of it than others. And assuming this Harmony was something tangible - well, as tangible as magic gets - then maybe she could simply cast it like a spell to help ease the tension in her family. That, however, would be for much later. All she was focusing on was finding what the three tribes had found back in the days of yore.

It only took a couple minutes before she had a possibility. It was easier than she had thought, too. If her knowledge of alchemy thus far was accurate, then she could craft a transmutation circle that would, for lack of a better term, reveal some of this Harmony. It would be like peeking behind a curtain at a play to see the stage props hidden behind. She set her quill down and studied her proposed array.

She no longer worried about speaking with a Princess or chasing leads through books. This was what she could do. This was what she understood. When this was done, she would have her answers, and one of them was bound to tell her how to balance her little family. For once, she didn't check her work. Twilight was confident she had it all correct. But more than that, she was too upset to care.

"Harmony, huh," she muttered. That war took her father from her. It caused an imbalance in her family. That imbalance was causing all of the conflict between her mother and brother. So if she learned why there was a war in the first place, she could work out a way to stop the war in her own family. "Let's see what kind of 'harmony' Dad had to die for."

With a sense of conviction, Twilight finally pulled out a sheet of paper from a stack near her shelf. She was careful with her quill as she drew her array again, taking extra time to broaden the outer boundary. With the more advanced algorithms she needed, the circle ended up touching the edges of the paper. But she didn't try to redo her work - hours of practice with basic circles had paid off weeks ago.

She didn't hesitate when it was done. Moving to the floor, she sparked her horn and calmly touched her hooves to the edge of the circle. Remembering her own mistakes, she kept the magic to a steady minimum. The familiar feeling of warmth trailed down from the base of her horn, touching her neck, her forelegs, and finally the floor. The entire circle began to glow, gently at first, then as bright as a lantern. Twilight had to squint her eyes against the glare, but wouldn't allow herself to close them entirely. She had to see.

Seconds ticked by. A new feeling began to grow at the top of her neck. Small, almost ticklish pinpricks that seemed to reach through her and into her thoughts. She tried to focus on the feeling, but it slipped away from her. In its place, something similar to an excited buzz remained, enough to make the hairs of her coat stand.

The bright glow of the circle remained steady. Are you there? she wondered.

To her surprise, the tingling feeling came back, further along her neck than before. This time, it remained long enough for her to focus on it. The feeling wasn't bad, but neither was it good. It felt almost...curious, like her. Hopeful, Twilight allowed more of her magic to flow into the circle, which of course made the lines glow even brighter. A slight breeze began to play with her mane, and the tingling grew marginally stronger.

She knew it was silly, but it made her feel better to imagine that she was speaking to the feeling on her neck. I want to know. About Harmony, about balance. I want to bring my family back together.

Another pinprick appeared at the base of her horn, just as light as the first. A third began between her withers, two on her sides, and still more at different spots of her legs and back. Each one vanished as quickly as it came, leaving behind more buzzing sensations. But the one on her neck remained, graduating from a ticklish feeling to something like a massage. It was almost comforting.

With another small push of her magic, Twilight saw the first change. The bright glow of the transmutation circle began to waver as though it were filtered through water, starting where her hooves touched and carrying through each line. If there was a pattern to the movement, she didn't see it. As the rippling continued, the sheer white glow softened to more yellow tones and the breeze on her face grew warmer. She smiled at the sensation. This definitely felt like harmony to her.

Tell me. Please. I want to know everything.

In her mind's eye, she pictured what she wanted. She pictured her mother giving her brother a long hug as they both smiled. She pictured her brother giving a proud grin as he wore a guard's armor. She pictured all of them together at a train station, eagerly awaiting the mare he had told them about. That was the kind of harmony she really wanted: a union for those she loved, just enough to make things the way they were supposed to be.

Twilight pushed again and let her magic flow freely.

The sensation on her neck grew stronger. The light expanded further until it graced the ceiling. A low vibration caused her teeth to chatter. Her horn, awash in the soft violet of her magic, began to itch as power went through it. The warmth, wind, and shine before her brought tears to her eyes. Above all, a reaction had finally begun: thin strands of electricity that didn't arc to her hooves but instead crawled like vines up thin air. Movement to Twilight's sides told her that similar strands were appearing near the walls of her room.

Her smile faltered. That wasn't supposed to happen. The boundaries of her transmutation circle...

A sharp pain tore through her neck. The shock of it made her head jerk downward, which broke her concentration and prompted her to rub her neck. She realized too late that doing so meant she had removed her hooves from the paper. A broken connection in alchemy usually meant the transmutation would dwindle and fail. But when she shook off the pain and looked, the light and strands of power remained as they were.

Twilight slowly straightened to her full height. Why hadn't the energy begun to dissipate? All of her studies said that a loss of power would result in the alchemic reaction slowing down until it stopped entirely. Yet despite having no connection to her magic, this one...

She recognized the itch on her horn. Her magic was still being accessed without her control.

Alarmed, Twilight took another step back from the circle. Her back hoof landed where one of the strands of electricity was crawling up. The power instantly wrapped itself around her hind leg, sending a mild shock through her system. As it did, the power coursing through her horn increased without her willing it. She wasted a few seconds trying to physically stop her horn's corona of magic and to pull away from the strand around her leg. Neither worked.

What's going on? she thought. Why is this happening? I'm outside the bound of—

Several nearby strands of power snapped toward her. Each contact was like a knife through her coat, and she cried out in shock. The strands of power spread like plant roots across the surface of her body wherever they could reach. In her panic, Twilight tried to push herself away, only to back into the dresser next to her bedroom door. All of the strands connected to her stretched as she moved, never letting her go. All the while, the energy being drawn through her horn grew more and more active. A sharp spike of pain went through her head and made her vision fray at the edges.

She turned, blindly reached for the dresser, and tried to pull herself toward her door. The strands holding her snapped taut, pulling her back around and toppling the furniture down to the floor. The edge of the dresser caught her by the shoulder, dislocated her foreleg, and trapped her beneath it. A broad pain shot along her entire leg at the contact, and the helmet of her brother's armor went flying, but she didn't notice any of it. The only thought in her mind was the desire to get away from this reaction.

A pair of surges went through her barrel, stronger than any of the strands of electricity, stronger than even the dresser falling on her. The force of it tore a scream from her, and she instinctively pressed her free foreleg across one spot on her back in defense against an invisible attacker. She shook her head in a desperate bid to cut off her own magic. It failed - the magic continued to be drawn from her, stronger by the second, and stronger still for every new strand of power that found its way to her.

Twilight forced one eye open. Her entire room was darkened as a small vortex of what seemed to be unfiltered magic swirled in midair above her transmutation circle. The rippling light of the circle's lines had taken on a new form, now similar to an aurora. Symbols resembling stars flew outward from the glow and went on their own paths in the air. Some of them contacted either a wall or something in her room, leaving arcane burns where they touched. The few that actually came to her simply phased through her, and she felt a deadening chill as each one passed through.

But in her eye, she saw the result of her work. The vortex of magic seemed to stare back at her, and the energy within passed through her as easily as the symbols...except this one left more excited buzzing that reached down to the depths of her soul. As the pandemonium continued around her, she opened her other eye and took in the sight fully. A small part of her held on to the panic, but the rest seemed to pause and consider what it was she was seeing. Was it a vortex? Or could it something else? Could that be the curtain she wanted to pull back?

"Twily!" came a shout from behind. Her brother had come running. A loud bang followed as he forced his way into the room, stopping just short of where the alchemy's boundary ended. "Twilight!"

Her mother was right on his heels. "What are you—" she began, then gasped. "What is this?"

Shining Armor stepped into the field of alchemy. "Twilight, hang on!"

Twilight heard only pieces of it. Her eyes were fixed on the magic in the center of the room. The longer she stared, the clearer she could make out the different truths hidden inside. She no longer noticed the weight on her foreleg, the searing heat of her horn, the way her vision tunneled, or the stabbing pain as more and more strands of power latched themselves to her prone form. Unfiltered knowledge was just beyond the edge of the magic, she just knew it.

The magic spun, widened, and blinked.

In that instant, a change occurred within Twilight Sparkle. Much like the curtain she wanted to swing back, something in her mind seemed to open wide. But rather than the inner workings she had hoped to see, she experienced an overwhelming flood of information, the likes of which instantly made her understand and question everything she had learned so far. Information she had known was suddenly backed up by fact, information she had doubted was proven true, and information she had believed in was suddenly impossible. The flood of knowledge swept across her mind, overtaking all of her senses and making time seem to slow. She didn't know it at the time, but she had achieved what many alchemists had failed to do, and it would be years before she even had a name for it.

A voice in her mind seemed to shout, but she wasn't sure if it was her own voice. It ranted over and over, and soon became the only other thing she was aware of. HARMONY IS BALANCE IS DANGER IS REALITY ALL THINGS IN MATTER MUST BE BALANCED NO GAIN WITH NO LOSS ONLY HARMONY IS BALANCE IS DANGER IS REALITY—

She barely felt a shifting weight as her brother violently shoved the dresser off of her foreleg. —MUST BE BALANCED MAINTAIN THE BALANCE WHO ARE YOU HARMONY IS BALANCE IS DANGER IS REALITY NO GAIN WITH NO LOSS YOU ALL WANT MORE BUT MUST ACCEPT THE LOSS WITH HARMONY IS BALANCE IS—

A blur of white came into her vision as Shining Armor rounded on her. What was he screaming about? It was so difficult to see or hear. —BALANCE FOR ONE IS BALANCE FOR ALL FOR YOU WHO ARE YOU—

Shining Armor flared his magic and enveloped her body in his telekinesis. He wasted no time in throwing her out of the alchemy's event horizon. Her mind continued to scream as her body slid across the carpet and out the door. —HAVE YOU COME TO TEACH ME HAVE YOU COME TO FREE ME HAVE YOU COME TO SAVE ME WHO ARE YOU HAVE YOU COME TO BALANCE IS DANGER IS REALITY IS HARMONY IS BALANCE IS DANGER TO REALITY—

She realized too late that it hadn't been one voice. It had been several. Voices of all kinds. Millions of them. As soon as she began to count each one, they all silenced. Her body had been thrown clear of the alchemy's reaction.

Twilight's senses swam. She saw her bedroom from the hallway. She saw the swirling light that swallowed other light. She saw symbols lazily floating and burning through the air. She saw the vortex in the center seem to turn away. Finally, she saw the strands of power, longer than ever and bending toward her brother.

"Oh, Twilight..." her mother began. How long had she been there? "You, you..."

Her brother gave a scream of his own. "Ghn-rahh!! Mom, get her to—"

"Shining Armor! Get out of there! Get out—"

Shining Armor flinched and grunted as dozens of strands laid claim to his body. He struggled against their grasp and moved back to the door. His horn was still alight in his own magic, and the glow of it intensified to an alarming brightness. Twilight, still reeling, absently thought about her own horn and how it no longer burned so bad. In fact, she couldn't feel any magic being drawn from her, and she briefly hoped that her brother wasn't dealing with the same...

"Mom, no! Don't touch it- agh!! S-stay back!"

"Get out of there! Hurry!"

"I-I can't get...close enough!"

Why were they both being so loud? Twilight's eyes rolled around as she tried to straighten out her own mind. She was lying on her left side, facing the door to her own room. Her mother was at the door's frame, and she was looking desperately inside. Shining Armor was struggling to take steps toward her while sharing the same desperate look on his face. That look sped up Twilight's sensory recovery. Her family was in a panic. There was danger here.

"Shining Armor!"

"N-no! Mom! Twilight!"

The thought blazed through her mind. They are in danger.

Twilight fully took in the situation and shared in their panic. She tried to talk but her voice had gone scratchy and weak. How much had she been screaming? She pushed herself up to stand tall, but only got halfway up before she lost her balance and fell to her side again. A strange warmth spread along her stomach when she fell. Dots of red flecked the floor where she lay.

Velvet leaned away from the door and bent low to her. "Twilight!" she shouted. Her lips trembled with more to say, but nothing came out. She turned her head to face the room again. Her teeth clenched.

Twilight didn't stay still. She crawled along with her good legs, inching forward until she reached the door frame. Brother needs to get out, she thought. Get out, Shining Armor. Get away from there.

At the transmutation circle, a sudden burst of light shot out and utterly consumed the vortex of magic. The winds that had been blowing inside were reversed, as well as the remaining magical symbols. They were also claimed by the new light, leaving behind thin smoke and a sharp smell of burnt ozone. It wasn't long before the strands of energy were whipping to the light as well, with the ones attached to Shining Armor starting to pull him back. He looked over his shoulder at the reaction.

Balance, Twilight's mind supplied. Balance is harmony. Harmony is balance. Nothing can be gained unless something can be lost. Gain and loss is balance. Balance is harmony. Balance is danger. Harmony is danger. Nothing can be gained unless—

Shining Armor looked forward again. Pieces of his body were missing.

Velvet shrieked. Shining Armor reached out for them. The strand of power that wrapped around his offered foreleg vanished, taking the leg with it. His eyes narrowed as he went into shock. He stared at the empty space where his limb once was, then looked back to his mother and sister.

The strands that latched to his torso tugged, and he was pulled off his hooves. He hung in midair for a moment as the light behind him brightened even further. His body was cast in shadows against the light, with the shape of him growing smaller and smaller as each strand was called back. Twilight was able to see his face, illuminated by the light of his horn's magic. His expression was one of absolute terror. He had his mouth open, but he either went unheard beneath the cries of their mother, or else he was incapable of making a sound.

Then the light behind him flared brighter than ever, blinding them, stunning them. Twilight was forced to close her eyes against it. As she did, she was just barely able to make out the sounds of those millions of voices. They were faint, distant, like from the end of a cavern, with another voice - Shining Armor's voice - adding to their chorus.

Comments

[badninja]

Wow, well that explains a lot.

[WeldedSteel09]

Shining Armor is gone. Next will be Velvet.

[Der Kaiser]

she witnessed truth and paid the toll

[AyeNowWai]

So I noticed that Celestia still hasn't been mentioned. Unless I just forgot again. But if I didn't, then I would guess that either Luna sent her to the sun with the harmony, or something else happened that still caused Celestia to not be present.

[Alondro]

7833586 She didn't see me, silly. I was still behind the curtain pulling the levers!

[Animatorsnake]

I've seen the anime so I wonder exactly how close is the story connected with the anime; was Twilight speaking to the voices of the dead or their world's version of God?

Another thing I can see is that, her first attempt at speaking to "Harmony" was gaining knowledge, even though what she wanted in turn was for her family to be together which was something it couldn't grant or understood. Since knowledge is something she wanted, it was what she was given, though I'm not certain what she learned - did she learn the secrets behind alchemy, magic, and Harmony, or was she granted knowledge for everything? - I guess the second attempt involves her sacrificing a limb or two for her brother's soul... though I wonder how that will work?

[Animatorsnake]

7861235
If this story is in any way inspired by the animated ponified opening of FMA:B Op4, then Celestia is either banished or faked her death to avoid suspicion from Luna/Nightmare Moon and those she works with.

[Leoshi]

10164743

was Twilight speaking to the voices of the dead or their world's version of God?

The dead. I wanted to show the voices of the millions of souls that were originally sacrificed using the same magic she accidentally tapped into. Similar, but not exact, to the transmutation that claimed Xerxes in the English dub.

did she learn the secrets behind alchemy, magic, and Harmony, or was she granted knowledge for everything?

Just alchemy at first, like in the anime. Her wish to 'understand everything about Harmony' created a link between alchemy (from FMA:B) and harmony (the magic force in MLP), tying them to one another in a way that she would eventually realize later in the story. Using this link and considering the transmutation she used, her wish to know everything was granted in that realm of knowledge. The secrets of alchemy were hers; next came how to apply them and challenging the philosophies of those around her.

I guess the second attempt involves her sacrificing a limb or two for her brother's soul...

Honestly? I just followed the anime's example. One leg for one sibling's soul.