Magic Effect

by iheartfornax

Chapter 1

The Great and Powerful Trixie trotted back to her wagon, away from the strange and terrible-looking ruins deep in the forest, brushing aside her things on the open stage to make way for the scroll. It's length spilled from the planks and onto the ground, and even in the bright light of her lanterns, the paper and black text upon it seemed under a shadow, the words difficult to read. The Great and Powerful Trixie smiled. This was the scroll she had read about--the magic spell that had been eradicated from knowledge for its forbidden power.

It was the spell worthy only for the Great and Powerful Trixie. What the spell actually did escaped her, but it didn't matter what it did. She would master it, and she would show them all. That accursed Twilight Sparkle and all the plebeians of that hic town would remember her name forever. The Great and Powerful Trixie would be known throughout Equestria as only second to the Princess-Godess herself. Ponies everywhere would speak her name in hushed reverence at her memory, or jubilant celebration at her arrival.

Luckily for The Great and Powerful Trixie, the pony language didn't change much over the centuries. Despite its age it remained intact and legible; the strange paper's magical preservation had kept it safe in the bog waters of the Everfree Forest where she had found it and where she beheld it now.

The Great and Powerful Trixie decided that she should try it out now, removing any chance that the scroll might fail in front of her adoring fans. There was power in these words; her voice deepened considerably as they escaped her lips. Her horn shined even brighter in the night of the Everfree forest.

---

Celestia awoke. She had a sense of dread the likes of which she hadn't felt since her sister rose up against her more than a millennia ago. Rushing over to her mirror it flashed here and there rapidly, from ponyville to Appleloosa, through the Everfree Forest until she found the source of this great disturbance: Trixie. She looked closer at the scroll in the center of the growing whirlwind.

Her mind reeled at the sight of it. Memories long suppressed and regrettably retained flooded her thoughts. This was a relic of the Time Before--back when all of Equestria hadn't been peaceful, ages and ages ago, when the unicorns of the land had been powerful beyond imagining.

Back when there wasn't a need for her willful suppression of magic. Back before the infection.

The boastful pony had succumbed to anger and thoughts of revenge. She had found the last surviving copy of the scroll, with the incantations meant to empower the reader. Trixie was far, far out of her league here.

"Guards!" She called as she galloped to the door. Two dark-grey unicorns clad in gold armor slammed open the door, on full alert from the uncharacteristically dire tone of her voice.

"Come with me, prepare to jump!" They nodded gravely and motioned over two pegasus guards to join them next to her. They knew what this meant: their day had finally come. All the training, the psychological conditioning, the mental and physical hazards they had volunteered themselves to suffer through for honor of protecting their Princess-Goddess. It had been generations since her Royal Guard had been more than just for show, but now the time had come to pony up. Their hearts raced within their chests, their straight faces hiding the eager smiles just beneath at the thought of what lay on the other side of the white flash of light.

---

The wind swirled about her, picking up leaves, branches, and speed as she spoke. The wagon trembled and shook, her beautiful curtains flapped wildly, and her small camp was soon swirling all about her. Adrenaline coursed through her veins at the sight of her own power. The scroll held its place in front of her when the wagon picked up and joined the hurricane of debris forming around her.

Harsh, sharp shadows blanketed the forest in front of her in contrast to dazzlingly white in a flash.

"Trixie! Stop!" she thought she heard behind her. But her thoughts and eyes were darting quickly between the dark words on the paper and the dark spot forming in the air near her.

The sight shocked Celestia and her guards when they blinked into existence just outside the tempest of wreckage. It was working despite only one pony reading it! She had to save her before it was too late.

"Stop her." She quietly commanded. Her guards gave each other a slight nod before dashing to each side of Trixie's whirlwind. They danced around trees, occasionally using them for cover from the larger pieces swirling about. The storm kept the pegasus ponies from flight, and they kept low to the ground. There, in the center of it all, Trixie's horn glowed brighter and brighter with each passing second. Celestia made her way through, using her magic to deflect the debris.

One of the unicorns bounded through the wall of wind and reached Trixie, but the spot had grown too large. He looked at it for a moment before screaming.

"It's...It's empty! It's all empty! So much NOTHING!" His hooves dug into the ground while he stared and tried to escape, but his quivering mass soon joined the rest of the wreckage. The second lunged to tackle her, but misjudged his timing and was caught by the wagon.

Celestia and her pegasus guards reached her in the eye of the hurricane and stomped the scroll to the ground. But Trixie continued chanting, and Celestia could hear the deep guttural voice grinding within her throat now that she had come close. The princess looked at her and saw it was too late for the poor pony. The recursive magic had already begun and would not free her until the spell was complete.

The world was going white. The Great and Powerful Trixie couldn't stop herself now. Her mouth spoke on it's own. She could feel herself getting weak. No, this was more than weak. She was getting weary, as if somewhere deep inside her very life was being sucked away. The scroll disappeared, and in it's place Princess Celestia appeared. She looked right at her, her face seemed sad and, even worse, disappointed. Trixie could feel her voice getting hoarse. She knew it was too late. She had made a terrible mistake.

Celestia looked into Trixie's glowing eyes. Around this quiet place the storm raged. She stood next to her and wrapped a wing around the small pony. She could feel Trixie's body getting thinner beside hers. Tears dripped from the pony's eyes, her expression still fixed in an unblinking, forward stare. Her voice was little more than wheezes now, her head lowering slightly as her muscles twitched around her brittle bones to keep her upright. Celestia pulled her close and held her up during her final moments.

"Oh, Trixie, I'm so sorry..."

---

Rarity's focus broke for a moment as she sewed late into the night. The seam had meandered far to the right of her marked lines.

"Oh dear, just look what I've done! I never should have taken an order that large," She sighed. "Perhaps I should--"

The world blinked. She looked around her shop for a moment before rubbing her eyes. Something felt wrong. Very wrong indeed. Maybe she had worked through too many late nights. This was the last large order she would put off until the very last moment, she promised herself.

"Applejack? Applejack!" A small voice asked, silhouetted by the light in the hall. Applejack turned in her bed, rubbing her eyes.

"Huh?" She spotted Applebloom at the door. "What's all the fuss about, sugar-cube?"

"Ah had a nightmare." Her large eyes glinted the moonlight in the dim room and Applejack could see her lower lip raised to a sad face.

"Ah reckon' you'll want to sleep with me then. Well, come on." She replied wearily.

Twilight awoke suddenly. Something felt wrong. She looked around her darkened library, but the only sound she heard was Spike's light snoring. For a moment she had felt cold, chilled to the bone, but only for a split second. She wondered if it even happened.

"Spike? Spike, wake up!" She whispered loudly. He mumbled something about his mommy and rolled over in his bed. "Come on, Spike. Something is wrong, I just know it!"

He sat up begrudgingly. "What is it, Twilight?"

"Did you...feel anything just now?"

"Just you waking me up..."

"Oh, ok...Nevermind then, guess it was just a nightmare."

"Ok Twilight." Spike laid back down and pulled the blankets over his head. Twilight remained awake for a long time, wondering what that terrible feeling meant, if she had just dreamed it.

Celestia sat on her throne for a long time, deep in thought. She moved to her mirror and looked through Equestria, checking to see if anypony had noticed anything. Her kingdom seemed to be taking its normal morning routine, business as usual everywhere she looked. Except for her guard's padded cell. In the corner a small fort of pillows and blankets shook slightly from the pony within. He continued to mutter and ramble in his madness about "the void" and "the nothingness beyond." Nurses cared for him day and night deep within her castle, sworn to secrecy. This was the first pony in thousands of years to actually go mad, and its implications of this situation should never be spread.

She looked up at the last glinting stars in the early morning sky. Soon some of the unicorn ponies would notice what was out of place, and it was only a matter of time until her favorite student discovered what had happened. She was always very diligent and often times single-minded. She had uncovered the old tomes of prophesy and had taken the learning of esoteric knowledge well. If anyone could be trusted with the truth, it was Twilight Sparkle and her friends.

They had a thousand years to figure it out anyway.

---

The Illusive man took another drag, and the smoke had a slight blue tinge from his glowing eyes in the darkness. He tapped the console on his chair, bringing up a hologram of the pastel-colored planet. No one had ever visited that planet before, at least no member of any of the space-faring races. Well, discounting the probe they had sent. What had returned, though, was something beyond anyone's wildest dreams, even for the man who saw the dark underbelly of the galaxy and things no other man could imagine.

Here was something beyond biotics, some source of unknown power and potential. Something the humans could use, or exploit, in their war against fate. On a planet that could easily support human colonization, no less. The flora and fauna were of the same chemical make-up of Earth's biosphere, save for the one dominant species. The ground, however, contained unimaginable amounts of raw materials seemingly sparse in the rest of the galaxy: rare metals, diamonds and isotopes galore, and (when it would come down to it) labor from the inhabitants.

The planetary system was the strangest by far: instead of planets orbiting a star, it seemed that, in this system at least, the star revolved around a planet. At first his scientists had thought it to be a frame-of-reference mistake, but the probe they sent confirmed their original observations that this system defied conventional physics. No star charts of maps of any kind had noted this system's existence, which at first would be understandable given it's location beyond citadel space, but no one else had noticed it either. No other races were concerned about this deviation from the laws of the universe, this treasure trove of resources, no word from any of Cerberus' spy networks about it whatsoever. It was as if it just appeared out of nowhere.

Another tap on his console summoned a gentle female voice. "Yes, Tim? What can I do for you?"

"Get me a science team and a diplomat, on the double. A sociologist too."

"Yes, sir. Right away."

He stared at the planetary display while his secretary went to work, thinking of all the plans he had in store for this untapped potential contained on this pastel-colored rock.

"Finders, keepers."

Comments

[Loyal2Luna]

Oh noes. The Illusive Man is coming for us.
Somebody call Shepard! Please.... anybody

[food food food]

Commander Shepard

[D-Bence35]

2278 At least Cerberus isn't the Reapers.

134258
wait I'm confused.. is this Mass Effect ''Cannon'' or Mass Effect 2 ''Cannon''?

[Seth Gartham]

Oh Gawd, Tim? The Illusive Man? Tim.. >.< *groans* what a lame pun. lol. Still decent reading though.

[Galaxy Knight]

You had me at Mass Effect crossover. Now let's see if you can keep me.

[Bettylynn26]

Why isn't the story finished? At least this site tells you if the story's are incomplete, that is one thing I can't stand is reading a unfinished story.