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Prologue: The Corruption of Twilight Sparkle1,057 words
Chapter 1: Where's Twilight?1,066 words

Chapter 1: Where's Twilight?

On a normal morning, the kitchen of the Friendship Castle would be ringing with laughter and the sounds of a joyous breakfast. Today, however, the kitchen was completely silent. Meanwhile, in a normally silent library, the sounds of a panicked baby dragon rebounded off the walls. “What do you mean she’s gone? Twilight wouldn’t leave us like that!”

Starlight shoved her hoof in Spike’s mouth. “I just said that she must have been foalnapped. My core picked up an unfamiliar magic, and I bet the source of it is what took Twilight.”

“Unfamiliar Magic? What did it feel like?”

“It felt like insects were crawling across my body. It was really uncomfortable.”

Spike grew pale. “Dark Magic. That can’t be good.” He quickly pulled out a roll of paper and a quill pen to take down a letter. After some quick writing, he sealed the scroll and sent it on its way.

Starlight, however, was not about to let his last comment go. “Dark Magic? Who uses that?”

Spike sighed. “The only ones we ever came across were Nightmare Moon and King Sombra, but Nightmare Moon was purified and Sombra’s dead.”

“Well, I can still analyze the spell. Let’s drop by Twilight’s room before we go to round up the girls. We may need all the help we can get.”

Stepping into Twilight’s room, Starlight’s horn began to glow. Suddenly, before Spike’s eyes, several spell matrices appeared in the air. Starlight stepped forward in front of the first layout, which glowed red as she approached. Stopping, she levitated over a quill and scroll from Twilight’s desk and began to write down notes and observations. After finishing her observations, she moved to the next set, which glowed black. Finally, after observing one further black matrix and two that were Twilight’s distinctive purple, Starlight rolled up the scroll and walked back to the door. Spike scratched his head. “What was that?”

Starlight grinned. “That was a little something I cooked up when I was stalking Twilight. By combining the Analysis spell with minor illusions, I can make a detailed setup of the spell matrices used in any event. It’s significantly improves on the standard Analysis as used by the Guards because it gives the full matrix instead of just identifying the base spell and type of magic.”

Starlight’s eyes gleamed as she started to discuss one of her favorite topics: spell mechanics. “All spells have two components, the technical portion and the intrinsic portion. When a spell is cast, part of the power is derived from the cutie mark, creating a distinctive portion of the weave that is unique to each caster. For example, if Rarity casts any spell at all, her special talent adds a specific marker that powers up certain spells. I used this concept to develop a specific tool for the fights with Twilight during the time travel incident.”

Starlight began to smile as she continued to speak. “Through testing, I learned that removing the intrinsic part of the spell makes it collapse. So, if Rarity used telekinesis and I neutralized her particular intrinsic data, the spell collapses in on itself and does nothing, since it is missing a key part holding it together. Using this, I developed a bubble that, when touched, would automatically distort the intrinsic portion, destroying the spell from inside itself.”

Spike’s eyes slowly glazed over while Starlight continued to drone on. Eventually, he felt her hoof shaking his shoulder. “Spike? Are you paying attention?”

Shaking his head, he responded. “Not really, but basically, you know who cast what and what those did?”

Starlight nodded the affirmative. “Now, we can use illusions to determine what happened in this room.”

Starlight’s horn began to glow as two illusionary representations took their places. One was an illusion of Twilight, standing next to her bed. The other was just the standard unicorn body shape. “I don’t know who the other person is, so this representation will have to do for now.”

The illusions went into motion as Starlight began to theorize. “As best as I can figure, Twilight immediately put up a shield. Our mystery stallion used a shieldbreaker spell to destroy her shield and leave her vulnerable.”

Spike interrupted Starlight. “How do you know it’s a stallion?”

Groaning, Starlight said, “You should have been paying attention. The elements that make up the intrinsic part of the spell are gender, cutie mark, magic color and maximum possible magic reserves. Using that, I determined our culprit is a stallion.”

Starlight returned to her explanation. “After the shieldbreaker, the stallion cast a spell I can’t identify on Twilight. My best guess, based off of other evidence I’ll cover later, is that it was some sort of corrupting spell designed to force her into a state of Dark Magic Corruption.”

“Over here, the next spell cast has something mildly disturbing. This spell matrix shows that Twilight moved here.” The illusion walked to where the third black matrix was.

“Standing right there, Twilight used a Dark spell. And not just any spell, but Energy Drain specifically. It only works while the user is in physical contact with the target, and then absorbs energy from them. Since there is no corpse in this room, the victim must have recognized one of the symptoms and broken contact. Even if he did, by the time he realized what was happening she had probably drained about a third of his magic reserves, leaving him severely unprepared for fighting someone as powerful as Twilight.”

“After that, Twilight teleported herself and her mysterious visitor away. No idea where, but with her range they probably teleported straight out of Ponyville. Wherever she ends up going with this guy, it is going to end poorly. We need to gather our friends so we can save Twilight.”

Spike nodded in affirmation. “If we’re rounding up the others, it might be best to start with Applejack. She’s the one most likely to remain calm.”

Starlight replied, “Good idea. Applejack should also be able to help keep the other girls calm when we get to them. Come on!”

Spike hopped on Starlight’s back, and then she turned and set off at a gallop. Within minutes, they were out the door and headed to Sweet Apple Acres.

Author's Note:

This chapter may be a bit rough. I didn't plan this story much, so I am kind of coming up with it off the top of my head. Feel free to let me know what I can fix up!

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Comment posted by James-Plasma deleted Jun 13th, 2016

Blue Note

Blue Note #2 · Jun 4th, 2016 · · ·

Next chapter will come out next week. No chapter this week.

James-Plasma

James-Plasma #3 · Jun 13th, 2016 · · ·

7275471 Hi, Here is A Private Message I Just sent to you today Celebrating the 2 Year Anniversary of KingSpartax37's Pony OC Twivine Sparkle...http://www.fimfiction.net/manage_user/messages/9021748

James-Plasma

James-Plasma #4 · Jun 20th, 2016 · · ·

7275471 Hi, Here is A Private Message I Just Sent to you Today Celebrating The Release of Equestria Girls 4: Legend of Everfree and Equestria Girls 4's Return of Princess Twilight Sparkle to the EG films in Fall 2016...http://www.fimfiction.net/manage_user/messages/9088295

James-Plasma