Chapter 6 - Progress
Starlight set down her coffee as slow hoofsteps approached the dining room. She raised an eyebrow as Twilight entered the room, the alicorn's fur and feathers in disarray. "No offense, Twilight, but you look awful."
"I had a nightmare and had trouble falling back to sleep after that," said Twilight as she took a seat at the table.
"Didn't Princess Luna help you with it?"
"She did. That's why I had trouble afterward. She gave me too many things to think about."
Spike emerged from the kitchen, an apron around his waist. "Your usual tea, Twilight?"
Twilight shook her head. "No, I'll have some coffee, please. Black."
"Wow, you really must've had a rough night," said Spike. "One black coffee coming up."
"What happened?" Starlight asked as Spike headed back into the kitchen.
Twilight explained her dream. Starlight did her best not to giggle when she learned it was over that A-minus. "But it made me realize that we could indeed have seen different writing in that document in the Archives because it happened before," Twilight concluded.
"That's a bit of a stretch, isn't it?" said Starlight. "I know you're upset over that grade, but don't you think this--"
Twilight banged a fore-hoof on the table. "I know what I read! I know I got every reference right. The only way this could've happened is if the text changed between when I read it and my teacher read it. It wasn't even a huge change. It was a very minor fact that wasn't even a deciding factor on the historical event that was the subject of the paper."
"Well, okay, but you said Princess Luna told you something that upset you?"
Twilight told her about the private journal.
Starlight smiled. "There you go, problem solved! Once we have that, we--"
"Didn't you hear a word I said?" Twilight cried. "I can't pry into Celestia's private life without a good reason."
"And protecting Canterlot from something potentially dangerous isn't enough?"
"It's not harming anything or anypony at the moment, and I have Rainbow Dash on her way to the Griffon Kingdom."
Spike emerged from the kitchen with a tray. Twilight smiled and plucked the steaming mug of coffee from it with her magic. "Thank you, Spike."
Starlight rested her head on a fore-hoof and smirked. "Come on, Twilight, admit it. You're burning with curiosity about Celestia's private life."
"I am not, and neither should you."
Starlight spread her fore-hooves. "All I want to know is if the rumors about Princess Celestia being a cake-a-holic are true."
Twilight face-hoofed. "You're impossible."
"Hey, I wish I could pack away the treats like she does and not have it go right to my flanks. I guess immortality has its fringe-benefits."
The castle suddenly shook from the force of a dragonling belch in the kitchen, which lighted the room bright green for a moment. Spike coughed a few times before emerging holding a thick book with a golden cover, the image of Celestia's cutie mark embossed upon it. "This arrived for you, Twilight," Spike said in a raspy voice, still coughing up green-tinged smoke.
"Oo, shiny!" Starlight said, snatching it from Spike in her magic.
"Wait, Starlight, stop!" said Twilight.
Starlight rolled her eyes as she levitated the book over the table. "Will you relax? See, I'm not opening the book. I'm ... um ..." She trailed off and frowned.
Twilight took it in her own magic and tugged it from Starlight's grip. "This needs to be handled with the utmost respect and care."
"Well, yes, but--"
"No buts." Twilight very gently set the book down in the center of the table. "For now, this remains our last resort. I want to hear what Rainbow Dash was able to find out."
Starlight stared at the book and lighted her horn. "You may want to reconsider that."
"What are you doing?" Twilight demanded. "Do I need to shield this book from you? Stop acting like a little filly and--"
"There's mind-magic in this book."
Twilight's mouth fell open. "Wh-what?"
Spike hopped into a chair. "Are you serious, Starlight?"
"I'm dead serious," said Starlight. "It's faint, but it's definitely there, likely imbued into the pages."
"But how can you even detect that?" Twilight said.
The glow around Starlight's horn faded. "While it may be a dubious distinction, I don't think there's another unicorn in Equestria with the same knowledge of mind control magic as me. You know that stew of spells I used on the others recently? I'm detecting a similar resonance, just far more subtle."
Spike turned to Twilight. "Could that be what Princess Luna was worried about? She said her sister was acting weird. What if her own journals are doing it?"
"Oh, heavens," Twilight cried. "That could be why she's acting like this. If she's fallen under the sway of some evil spell that--"
"Whoa, wait," said Starlight, waving a hoof. "I didn't necessarily mean it that way."
"But what else could it possibly be?"
Starlight smiled. "Well, now, the only way to find out is to actually read the book."
Her horn glowed, and the front cover started to open. Twilight frowned, and a quick burst of her own magic slammed it shut.
Starlight sighed. "Twilight, really--"
"Unless you can prove to me that this thing is an immediate danger to us--"
"No, it's not," Starlight said reluctantly. "It's not radiating mind-magic. Whatever the effect is, it's more subtle than that."
"Then we can wait."
Starlight leaned her head on a hoof again. "Fine, whatever."
A smirk spread across Rainbow Dash's muzzle as she rocketed upward, her wings a blur as she shot high into the skies above the Griffon Kingdom. She risked a glance behind her, and her eyes widened when she saw the sly smile of Gilda as the griffon seemed to be catching up almost too easily.
Rainbow suddenly executed a snap-turn, the force of which scorched the air in her wake. "Think fast!" she bellowed as she barreled straight for her friend.
"Gaah!" Gilda cried before doing a quick barrel roll to get out of the way.
Rainbow giggled as she left a corkscrew rainbow trail in her wake.
"Oh, you little stinker!" Gilda cried before diving after her friend.
Rainbow grinned. She started a tight curve around the spire of a recently restored castle and glanced behind her. "Er, huh? Where'd she--"
"SURPRISE!"
"WHOA!"
Gilda had zipped around the same spire the other way. Rainbow did a sharp ninety-degree turn and felt the tip of her tail brush Gilda's flank.
Gilda flew on for a few seconds before stopping and hovering. She turned towards Rainbow and laughed. "You always did fall for that trick!"
Rainbow hovered and chuckled. "Yeah, I guess you got me there. Wanna call it a draw this time?"
"Fine by me. You're a much better sport about this sort of thing than you used to be."
Rainbow flew at a more sedate pace towards her friend. "Yeah, well, let's just say being in the Wonderbolts has taught me a few things."
Gilda lightly punched Rainbow in the shoulder. "Yeah, congrats and all that."
Rainbow smiled and rubbed her shoulder. Even a light tap by a full-grown griffon was enough to leave a bruise. She looked towards the ground. The place seemed completely transformed. Where rundown streets and ramshackle houses had been before now stood wide avenues and neat, spacious homes built specifically for a proud species of avians. "I'm not the only one who deserves congrats. Wow, you guys have done a lot with the place since Pinkie and I were here last."
Gilda puffed out her chest a bit and smiled. "Thanks. It's a lot of hard work, but that's what griffons used to be about. We're sorta rediscovering our past, you know?"
"Speaking of which, that's kinda why I'm here."
"Aw, and here I thought it was just to visit an old friend. Guess when you become famous, you forget the little people."
Rainbow snorted and bopped her fore-hoof against Gilda's shoulder. "Oh, stop it, you big goof. But, yeah, I should visit more often."
Gilda chuckled and waved a claw. "It's okay. Let's head back down to the ground and we can talk."
"Race ya!" Rainbow cried before speeding off.
"Saw that coming," Gilda said with a smirk as she took off.
After landing at the same time and engaging in a brief debate over who won, Gilda said, "So lay it on me. What's up?"
Rainbow considered pulling out the scroll that Twilight had given her, but she didn't want to put her friend to sleep. "Twilight wanted to know if you knew anything about some sorta incident that happened between griffons and ponies twenty years ago."
Gilda snorted. "Who me? I was only a chick at the time."
"Yeah, but what about your parents? You ever hear stories from them?"
"Like what kind?"
"About maybe some sort of war brewing?"
Gilda's face slowly turned thoughtful. "Well, not sure how useful this'll be, but my father started to rant about ponies getting too big for their britches or some nonsense like that."
Rainbow gave her a surprised look. "Really? Why?"
"I think Equestria had an embassy here back then. At least they had some sorta envoy, not that you can find a single griffon who remembers their name. But war?" She laughed. "You gotta be kidding me. We were starting on the skids back then. How could we have made war on Equestria? Celestia would've rolled over us by herself."
"But that's really weird," said Rainbow. "Twilight was sure Princess Celestia was worried about war breaking out. The egghead is almost never wrong about stuff like that."
Gilda shrugged. "Dunno what to tell you. Maybe there coulda been some griffon hotheads at the time. We do have a warrior culture, and despite the big downturn we took, there were always those among us who wouldn't let us forget that."
"You don't have any sort of records or--"
Gilda laughed harder. "You really are a card today, aren't you? You saw the place when you and Pinkie showed up. You think we'd care about something like maintaining records?"
"Yeah, good point," said Rainbow. "I just didn't want to go back empty-hooved to Twilight. She's counting on me to figure this out."
"Yeah, about that," said Gilda. "What's the deal? Something must be up."
"It is, but I'm not sure how much I can tell you."
Gilda smirked. "Now you really got me interested. Okay, fair enough. But if you do have something, let me know. I want to help if I can. Least I can do to repay you guys for your help."
"You got it, Gilda."
Rainbow was eager enough to tell Twilight what she had learned that she took a more direct route home aided by a well-placed sonic rainboom. Thus she got into Ponyville by late afternoon.
Twilight paced slowly as she listened. "So that's all you were able to find out?"
"Yeah, I wish I had more for you," said Rainbow.
"And you're sure of the accuracy of this information?"
"Well, as accurate as Gilda's memory is, and she's pretty sharp."
Twilight stopped and sighed. "Well, thank you, it was worth a shot."
"We did learn one thing," said Starlight as she stepped forward. "We learned that this whole griffon war may be a red herring."
"I don't think so," said Twilight. "Maybe it didn't happen as Cadance remembers it, but something did happen, and I feel it's still connected to all this."
"In either case, you got what you wanted," said Starlight. "Now can we read the book?"
Rainbow tilted her head. "What book?"
Twilight waved a hoof. "It doesn't matter, it--"
Starlight grinned. "Princess Celestia's secret diary."
Rainbow gasped. "No way!"
Twilight whirled around. "Starlight!"
"That is so cool!" said Rainbow.
Twilight face-hoofed. "No, it isn't."
"Hey, can you let me know if you find out if she's as much of a cake-a-holic as ponies say she is?"
"She's not a cake-a-holic!" Twilight yelled. "She eats no more or less cake than the next pony! I should know, I was her student! Satisfied?!"
"Um, okay," said Rainbow. "Jeez, Twi, calm down."
Starlight smirked. "Yeah, have a piece of cake, Twilight."
Rainbow giggled.
Twilight frowned and marched up to Starlight. "Now listen to me. We are going to read that book, but we are going to do this in an orderly -- and most of all, respectful -- manner. No jokes, no fooling around. Do I make myself clear?"
"As crystal," said Starlight.
"All right. I moved the book to the library. Let's go."
They headed off, and Rainbow grinned and hovered behind them, only to have the library doors slammed in her face. "Hey!" she called out to no avail.
Inside, Twilight turned her head towards the door long enough to cast a silence shield on it. "I've swept the room with a powerful detection spell earlier."
Starlight stepped up to the table, her eyes on the book. "To detect what?"
"Any sort of magic that might serve as surveillance."
"Ah, right, yeah," said Starlight with a roll of her eyes. "While you're at it, check for invisible changeling ninjas and parasprite commandos."
Twilight frowned. "What did I say about no jokes?"
"Don't you think you're being just a weensy bit paranoid?"
"I don't want to take any chances," said Twilight. "There could be very sensitive material in this journal, especially if it does contain the truth about what really happened during that period of time. Now, you said there was mind-magic in it?"
"Yes. I can still detect it."
"Do we need to shield ourselves somehow?" said Twilight. "Is there some sort of enchantment on it that will attempt to control our minds?"
"It's not like that," said Starlight. "While the basis of the magic is similar to my spells, it's not designed for direct control."
Twilight stepped alongside Starlight and took a deep breath as she reached out with her magic and took hold of the front cover. "All right. Here goes ..."
Twilight soon realized that some of her fears about the book were justified. Celestia had not told a dry tale of her day to day actions. She spoke from the heart in much of what she wrote, injecting the prose with her fears, her insecurities, and her doubts. At odd moments, worry over what would happen when Luna returned consumed her.
Twilight finally had to turn away from the book, uttering a shaky sigh as her eyes threatened to well up. She knew logically that Celestia was not some infallible goddess, but it soon became clear that her heart believed otherwise, and it took only the first few entries to utterly shatter the illusion.
Starlight stepped up to her and draped a fore-leg around Twilight's barrel. "I'm sorry."
Twilight shook her head. "I know it's stupid. Celestia never claimed to have all the answers. There isn't even anything terrible happening. Just day to day worries about her ponies."
"Yeah, but she has a lot of them to worry about," said Starlight softly. "And I have to admit, it's the mundaneness that has me a little suspicious."
"What do you mean?"
Starlight turned back towards the book. "Well, like you said, there's nothing really special happening. I know we're only a little ways in, but I would have expected this period to be a little more, I don't know, dramatic."
"What about the mind magic?" said Twilight. "Is that in play here?"
Starlight's horn glowed. "It's here. It's woven into the pages in a rather complicated fashion. I've never seen anything quite like it."
"Could it be masking something in the text?" Twilight said. "Like the way that name changed the other day, or the reference in my report?"
Starlight frowned. "But why would it result in seeing something different? I'm not getting the connection yet. We need to read on and perhaps find a pattern."
Twilight sighed. "I was afraid you would say that. All right, let's continue ..."
A gentle knock sounded at the door.
Twilight looked up from her reading. She glanced at the window and saw it was nighttime. "How long have we been at this?"
Starlight nursed a headache with her hoof. "Too long."
"Twilight?" came Spike's voice.
Twilight nudged open the door enough for him to enter. "Sorry, Spike, we lost track of time."
"I was wondering if you wanted any dinner."
"Yes, please. Could you bring it to us?"
Starlight sighed. "Can't we go to the dining hall? I really could use a break."
"I know, but I think I found something." She turned back to Spike. "Dinner for two, please."
"Coming right up!" said Spike before he dashed away.
"So what did you find?" Starlight asked.
Twilight nudged the door shut. "Something is not adding up about her style of prose."
"Come again?"
"Everypony who's a writer develops a distinct style," said Twilight. "Everything from word choice, to sentence structure, to length of time spent on a given subject, and it's that last one that is wildly fluctuating."
Starlight stepped up to the book. "Show me."
Twilight flipped through the book. "Here. She spent two pages on a crisis that made her concerned Discord was about to slip free of his prison. But right before this--" She flipped the pages. "--she spent six pages on a very mundane, and frankly very boring and repetitive discussion of court politics."
Starlight examined the pages. Her horn glowed. She flipped the pages back and forth between the two entries. "In this longer section, the mind magic is stronger."
Twilight's pupils shrank slightly. "Really? What does it mean?"
Starlight looked thoughtful. "I'm not sure yet, other than I'm becoming increasingly convinced we can't trust what we're reading."
Twilight gasped. "Are you saying the text has been altered?"
"Not quite." Starlight sighed. "I know, this is frustrating for you, but I'm not sure how to describe what I'm seeing."
"If there is a spell here, can't you break it?"
Starlight turned to her teacher. "How much experience do you have with mind control spells, Twilight?"
Twilight blushed slightly. "Other than the, uh, incident with the want-it-need-it spell? Not much. I got soured on the subject after that. Sombra's dark magic was more corruption than control."
"Mind control spells of this complexity can't be broken unless I can see the entire structure," said Starlight. "If I just lash out at the spell, I could accidentally incinerate the book."
"So what do we do?"
Starlight smiled. "We have to be smarter than the spell. We have to trick it into revealing itself, and I have an idea how." Starlight turned away. "Twilight, go read the next four entries. Memorize their length and where they start and end. Let me know when you're done."
While Twilight read, Spike arrived with dinner. Starlight took the tray and set it on a nearby table. She started to munch on some celery as she waited.
Twilight finally lifted her head and turned around. "There, done."
Starlight stepped up to the book. "What page did you end at?"
"End at?" said Twilight. "One forty seven."
Starlight finished her celery and flipped the book to that page. "Go eat something while I read those same entries."
Twilight nodded and headed away.
Starlight started reading the entries in reverse, all the while her magical senses tracing the intricate weave of the mind magic. To say she was impressed with this level of mastery was an understatement. Back in her "evil" days, she would have killed for this level of skill. She lifted her head. "All right, done. Here's what I just read."
Twilight started munching on some broccoli.
Starlight paused to switch the order back to first-to-last in her head. "Three pages on a trade treaty with the minotaurs. Two pages on receiving a Zebrican representative--"
Twilight blinked and stopped munching.
"--five pages on reviewing new curricula at the School for Advanced Unicorn Magic. Four pages on reviewing new economics legislation."
"That's not right!" Twilight said.
Starlight started to smile. "Oh?"
"You got two reversed. It was five pages on the Zebrican and two pages on the curricula."
Starlight flipped to the overlapping region. Words crawled about on the pages like confused ants, and the threads of the spell stood out in sharp relief. Her lips curled into a sly smile as her horn blazed. "Gotcha."
Twilight nearly choked on her food. "Wait! What are you--!"
Starlight let loose with her spell, and the pages of the book glowed blinding white. In a panic, Twilight galloped over to her, but by then the spell was done, and the glow had subsided. Twilight's mouth fell open, and her pupils shrank to near pinpricks as her horrified eyes fell on utterly blank pages. "Wh-what did you do to the book?!"
"Revealed the lie," Starlight said. She flipped the book first forward and then back. Now there were two pages apiece on the Zebrican and the curricula, and in between were three blank pages.
Twilight yanked the book into her grip and quickly re-read the Zebrican section. "This is not what I read!" Twilight cried. "I mean, yes, the gist of it is there, but the version I read had much more detail, but ... most it was ..." She trailed off.
"Rather pointless and unnecessary?" said Starlight. "Minor facts that were not really important to the subject at hoof? Just like the reference that got you that A-minus?"
Twilight set the book down. "Explain to me what just happened, please."
"Simple," said Starlight. "You know how the mind can sort of fill in the blanks? Like the old trick of removing all the vowels of a sentence but you can still read it?"
"Yes, I'm familiar with that."
"This is the same principle. Somepony excised information from this journal, then used a mind magic spell to fool our brains into filling in the blanks. It takes the form of causing your head to extend the previous entry. Since it relies on your own mind, everypony reads something slightly different, but because the additional information is so trivial, nopony really notices or cares about the discrepancy." She grinned. "Except young egghead unicorns like you. I have to admit, I'll really impressed with this."
Twilight flipped through the book. More blank pages appeared. "I don't believe this," she murmured.
"I had to confuse the spell," said Starlight with a hint of pride in her voice. "I read the pages backwards, so the spell back-filled instead of forward-filled. When you corrected me, it briefly short-circuited the spell. It was struggling to compensate when I zapped it."
Twilight's eyes widened. "And if this spell was on the residency manifest in the archives--"
"--then I suspect Mr. Night Moonshine is the next-to-last resident of that building," said Starlight.
"And that explains why I didn't detect it!" Twilight said. "I was looking for alteration magic, not mind magic!"
"But I didn't excise all the magic in this book," said Starlight. "When I stripped away the mind magic, I found something else underneath it. It's not something I've ever seen before."
Twilight looked down, and her horn glowed. "I have," she said in a low voice. "It's dark magic."
Starlight recoiled. "What?? H-how would you know?"
"Because I know how to do some dark magic."
Starlight gaped. "You do?!"
Twilight turned towards her. "Celestia taught me some. I needed it to deal with Sombra and the Crystal Empire."
"Whoa, wait!" said Starlight in a quavering voice. "You're telling me that Princess Celestia knows dark magic?"
Twilight sighed. "I know where you're going with this."
"It only proves what I've been saying all along. She's behind this big cover-up. Who knows how many documents this has been done to!"
"But if there is this big cover-up, why even bother to restrict access to the Archives to everypony?"
Starlight shook her head. "No, Twilight, Princess Celestia was not trying to restrict access to everypony, because everypony can't detect or undo the magic. You can. She was trying to keep you away from it because she knew you could find a way around it."
"But I saw this dark magic only after you stripped away the mind magic!"
Starlight fell into a decent imitation of Celestia's voice. "Oh, Starlight! Go back to your friendship lessons, Starlight! Don't worry your little unicorn head about this pesky magic stuff!"
Twilight frowned. "You've made your point."
"My question is, why even use dark magic if all you want to do is erase some text?" said Starlight. "Doesn't that seem like overkill to you?"
Twilight considered. "I have an idea, but ..." She took a deep breath. "Whatever was removed, whatever was covered up, other ponies would have remembered it regardless of whether anypony had written it down. Unless ... you extended the effect to them as well."
Starlight's eyes widened. "You don't mean that not only were written records erased, but ponies' minds as well?!"
"Yes."
"But you could accomplish the same thing without dark magic," Starlight declared. "You just need a more powerful mind magic spell."
"That's the thing about dark magic, Starlight," said Twilight in a subdued voice. "It's terrible, yes, but it's also expedient. Whoever did this -- and yes, I'm still holding out hope it wasn't Celestia -- they specifically harnessed dark magic to corrupt the information rather than excise it. It would be easier, and most of all, it would allow it to be retrieved later."
Starlight frowned. "Likely after everypony who could've remembered is conveniently dead from old age. Like I said, immortality has its perks."
Twilight turned away. "Let's have some dinner. I'm really famished now."
"So am I," said Starlight as she followed. "But then what?"
"Then I'm going to make an attempt to strip the dark magic from the book in hopes that it will reveal the missing information."
Starlight glanced towards the moon glowing in one of the widows. "Twilight, it's late, maybe you should hold off until tomorrow."
"I don't expect complete success," said Twilight as she stepped up to the book. "It could take days to properly reverse the spell, but if I can loosen it enough, I can get a clue as to what's been hidden from us."
"I have to admit, this is a bit chilling," said Starlight as she followed. "Not just that dark magic has been used to erase history, but that you're going to use the very same thing against it."
"I don't like it either," said Twilight in a solemn voice. "Dark magic ... calls to you. It tempts you. It wants to consume you. That's how Sombra became both so powerful and so utterly evil."
Starlight shivered. She didn't want to think about what would have happened had she gained access to it before she had reformed.
Twilight looked down at the book and lifted a hoof towards Starlight. "A little room, please, and be quiet. I need to concentrate."
Starlight stepped back. Twilight took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
Starlight swallowed as her fur seemed to stand on end, as if the room had become electrified. She shivered as an icy wind blew around her and ruffled Twilight's mane. The wind rose to a howl, and Twilight's eyes snapped open.
Starlight stumbled back a step. Twilight's eyes glowed bright green.
A black ichor bubbled from Twilight's horn, and a beam of inky darkness blasted from it and onto the book, enveloping it in the same slimy substance that coated Twilight's horn. Starlight's heart hammered. She didn't know whether to be impressed or terrified.
Then the lights started to dim. She chose terrified.
"Hello, Twilight, it's so good to see you again."
Despite steeling herself for it, the dulcet tones still sent a shiver through her. The words came from everywhere and nowhere, trying to worm their way into her subconscious. This time the "voice" had been that of her sweet mother, and just as warm and inviting as the real thing.
Twilight floated in a void, and she fought the urge to extend her wings. No flight here, only existence and power.
"Yes, you want that power, don't you, Twilight? Please, take it."
Twilight extended her magical touch into the pool of dark magic, manifesting as a vast lake of ichor. She shivered as it made contact with her psyche, yet it was anything but cold. It filled her with a comfortable warmth, wrapped around her like a soft blanket.
"That's it, Twilight. Never feel cold again. Never feel powerless again."
Twilight took a deep breath. Yes, she knew she would never feel cold again. That was the problem. She would never again understand -- or care -- how her actions could be seen as cold to others. The concept would become completely foreign to her. Twilight thus took only what she needed.
"Aw, come on, Twily!" came her brother's voice. "You can take more than that! You can handle it!"
Twilight turned her back on the voice, at least in a metaphysical sense. Up, down, left, right had no meaning here. She willed a hole to open in the dark magic realm, and it obeyed. The book appeared before her, its dark magic spell like a writhing serpent coiled amongst the pages of the book. Twilight concentrated, then sent her magic into the book.
The serpent shuddered and fought, and Twilight trembled with the effort. She had not taken anywhere near the amount of magic she needed to accomplish this task.
"Twilight, you don't give yourself enough credit," came the concerned voice of Cadance. "You can do this. You can take all the power you want."
"For that's what you want, isn't it, my former student?" said Celestia's voice. "To fix everything in one fell magical swoop."
Twilight paused to steady herself. She did need more power, but it would be on her terms. She opened herself as a conduit rather than a capacitor, sending the power out of her as fast as it came in.
To her relief, the voices fell to mutterings, allowing her to better focus on the task at hoof. She sent more power into the book, against the serpent, and still it fought. She opened her magical senses and gasped when she saw the entirety of this metaphorical creature. She saw its coils extending into books, scrolls, notes, MINDS ...
Twilight gasped. The true scope of this was monstrous.
"And yet you could do it, Twilight," said the voice of Luna. "You could break it here and now."
That would mean taking in a vast amount of dark magic and mixing it with her own, which she refused to do. But there was something that she could do.
The dark magic spell was powerful, but not perfect. It was so vast that it had weaknesses that could be exploited. Even this simple rattling of the serpent's cage was enough for her to see glimpses of the missing history, yet all she was getting were distantly related pieces she could not put together into a cohesive whole.
She readied an indexing spell.
She admitted to feeling a certain sense of irony that a spell she had perfected to better organize her library would be used in such a context. Dark magic frothed and boiled as she waited for the right moment. When she spotted an opening, she let loose the spell. The effect was almost instantaneous, and a name struck her with such force that she went tumbling head over hooves through the void ...
"Twilight!" Starlight cried when the alicorn slumped to the floor.
The darkness, the cold, and the ichor had evaporated the instant Twilight broke contact with the book. Starlight galloped around the side of the table, but Twilight was already stirring. "I-I'm all right," she said in a weak voice.
"You don't look all right."
Twilight slowly pushed herself to her hooves. "That's the most dark magic I ever channeled in one go."
"Um, just promise me you're not going to go all Nightmare Twilight on me or something," Starlight said warily.
Twilight chuckled weakly. "I'm not, don't worry."
Starlight looked at the book. "I'm sorry, but it didn't work, the pages are still blank."
"I know," said Twilight as she stepped up to it. "I was right, this spell is too powerful to unravel in one go, and it is affecting ponies' minds. But I was able to gain a glimpse at a critical part of the missing information."
"What did you see?"
"A name," said Twilight. "It's not one I recognize, but it's the key to the whole thing."
"What name is that?" Starlight asked.
"Sunset Shimmer."
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I hope it is your intention as a writer to portray both Jenny and Starlight Glimmer as intensely annoying, because if so you have succeeded.
Dun dun dunnnnnnnn
7866745
With Jenny is was intentional and is meant as a consequence of a character flaw (this was sort of implied by the title of the chapter).
With Starlight Glimmer I had not intended that, so if you could go into more detail about what you found annoying about her, I'd appreciate it.
' Do you undrestnad '
"What did you see?"
"A name," said Twilight. "It's not one I recognize, but it's the key to the whole thing."
"What name is that?" Starlight asked.
"Sunset Shimmer."
Equestria Girls universe is alive in this story?
So in this story Sunset never stole Twilight's crown?
May I recommend a "Alternate Universe" tag?
Wait how could she not recognize Sunset Shimmer?! Did Equestria Girls not happen in this universe or did something happen to Twilight's mind? This next week is going to be a long one that's for sure wait for the answers.
7866832
I honestly don't know whether an AU tag is warranted. This is not so much alternate universe as not including Equestria Girls in the backplot but still having Sunset Shimmer around. My last story assumed no Equestria Girls universe and it didn't have an AU tag on it (and no one questioned it). I had considered putting that tag on it, but thought it would set up too much expectation in the mind of the reader that I was really going off the rails.
So I guess I'll wait for comments from more readers before deciding whether to add the tag. Thanks for the feedback.
7866875
Fixed. Thanks!
7866882 i dont think you need an alt universe tag it could be possible reason why twi wasnt in friendship games, legend of everfree or mentioned in s7 i think celestia found aboutt twi in the human world or somepony else did and cast the same spell on twilight the same that was done to everypony else.......hmm i....thought of something was it sara that has the streak of red hair im....thinking....sarah + red hair streak of hair....= sunset shimmer? if so.....man.......that could raise some intresting questions could it be possible that who or what made the mind spell affected another reality and the bulding with the portal is indirectly sucking in equestrian magic trying to reasert its self the way i see it its more and more likely that discords is somehow involed who else can be powerful enough to affect minds and change a reality also the hair colors seem a lot like the equestria girls colors like girl with flowing orgage hair adagio ....purple hair sci twi pink hair pinkie pie the guy with green hair timber spruce.......coincidence?
7866836
Equestria Girls did not happen in this universe, much like what I did in my last story. As much as a love Equestria Girls, I always felt like it was shoe-horned into the general canon. It also makes it much harder to do a story like this with Equestria coming into contact with the "real" Earth.
7866876
I would just put it in a note that Equestria Girls is not canon for this story. Unfortunately Sunset Shimmer is tied heavily to the Equestria Girls universe and it needs to be explained why she isn't there. Hopefully you will do this when you give Sunset's backstory for this story.
Edit, you where responding to me while I was throwing in my two cents.
7866876
It's ok. I just never saw the Equestria Girls world as the only one in the multiverse. Even the comics depict Starswirl building more than one mirror portal that led to other words.
Anyways great story so far.
I absolutely love Starlight in this. Was not expecting Sunset to show up, it will be interesting to see the two play off each other (Assuming you actually plan to have her as a character)
o.0....! Interesting...
Delicious. You write a great Starlight. Yes, she's annoying, but in a good way. It's the character and it accomplishes something without just being annoying for the fun of it. She's driving things forward, and Twilight finds herself reluctantly steering that drive. Plus a lot of neat spellcraft.
This is taking a turn for the dark and I love it.
7866943 Heh. Had you put an EqG tag on this story I'd never touched it, which would have been a shame.
Sunset Shimmer has been used by many authors without the EqG connection - her pony character is interesting enough as it is, especially when you want to add some mystery and suspense.
Curiouser and curiouser. A dark magic spell covering up some kind of major historical event? Altering the minds and memories of a great many ponies? Whatever is going on, it's pretty damn sinister!
I eagerly await each new update; this story is very interesting!
7866745
Not sure how Starlight is annoying here, she seems well-written to me.
7866876
Thank you for this explanation, it saved me a little angst. Nice to know you aren't going all EqG on us.
I'm really not sold on Celestia using Dark Magic for a mega-coverup.
Not unless there was truly no other choice, and that THIS Sunset had done something so devastatingly dangerous the entire fate of the world was at stake if it was remembered.
Interesting. I wonder what has Laura so unsure about watching over Jenny. It sounds like something bad happened a long time ago with them. In any case I'm very curious to see what that may be. I also like the added depth that's constantly being added to this family, because now there's more complexity added to Harold and his family history.
Then there's Equestria. Whatever happened had to have been either very bad, or Celestia thought the knowledge of what truly happened would not go over well with the common populous if she resorted to using dark magic to help cover this thing up. Not to mention that with Sunset Shimmer added into the mix just adds more questions to this mystery.
Nice development and I look forward to the next update.
~ Super-Brony12
Seriously. It would be like
pre02.deviantart.net/fc18/th/pre/f/2015/188/8/e/mlp_comic__party_pooped_alternate_ending_by_didj-d90du4l.jpg
Shimmy!!!! This story is looking incredibly promising, full of plot twists and cursing and comedy.
Sunset Shimmer!
I like it when author are including her in the lore without having her live in Plotholetown.
I guess we now know who sabotaging Sarah's research?
Conspiracy Theory 1:. Sunset summer found/made a portal to another world (Earth) that either didn't have magic or had latent ambient magic. She being power hungry, started to make a self sustaining spell that would ponify all or a select few of them (humans) then she would bring them back to Equestria and overthrow Celestia.
Celestia found out and stopped her, but was unable to stop the spell or disable the portal, so she sealed the tower and erased the event from the history. Where Sunset is, only the Author knows.
7869025 that is an interesting theory. We can guess where Sunset Shimmer is, but how did she get to Earth? And when?
7867155
Thank you, I'm glad my portrayal of Starlight is coming across well.
7867277
I haven't played Plague Inc., but I have watched lets-play videos of it on YouTube. Someone should TOTALLY do a ponification virus.
7867500
Starlight was tough to nail down at first. Her personality sort of drifted in sixth season, more like a depending-on-the-writer sort of thing. So I decided to make her about 60% what she was during her "evil" phase and 40% how she was portrayed afterward. As for the spellcraft, I'm glad you liked it, as I LOVED writing it.
7867512
While I won't rule out ever writing an Equestria Girls story, I just don't have any inspiration for one at the moment. And, yes, I decided to put Sunset in this so that I could explore her as a pony character rather than a human character.
7869025
Unless I missed something along the way (I have yet to watch EqG: Legend of Everfree, though I may give that a look-see tonight), we're not given a whole lot about Sunset's background beyond that she was Celestia's student, so I figured this was an opportunity I could take advantage of.
7869728 I don't remember anything else, we don't even have precise dates for when she was a student and when she fled trough the mirror.
And I don't remember any well established canon either. So yes, she also have that fun thing called mystery surrounding her.
I have just binged this story up to this point and I have to say, best story I have read in a long time. I am actively invested in every aspect of the plot, and it just drives me to want more!
My only wonder is how long it's going to take to get everyone ponified. I'm not trying to rush the story but do the changes accelerate? Just a question I've had nagging me. I really want to see the explosion of "HOLY BUCK! WE ARE TURNING INTO HORSES!" real soon. I'm always hyped for those points in a slow transformation fic.
Keep writing bro, so far it's a gr8 b8 m8 I r8 888/8
Hmm, I must commend your use of Starlight as a character - I really like what you are doing with her, which is saying something considering that, in general, she is one of the very few things I genuinely dislike about the canon show and consider her shoehorning into the plot (and how her character has been presented in general) a stunning display of poor writing.
But you have put her to excellent use - it feels like she is the character through which you can effectively push the plot forward without having Twilight herself acting uncharacteristically confrontational or defiant, and it all feels natural as result. Indeed, considering Twilight's nigh-worship of Celestia (and props for this being acknowledged in-story), usually it would take something much more to rouse Twilight to act against Celestia of her own volition. Left to her own devices and without Celestia doing something blatantly wrong, Twilight likely wouldn't move her plot for a long time to come.
But Starlight is like this little proverbial devil on Twilight's shoulder, who openly voices all the doubts and concerns which Twilight herself has but pushes herself not to think about, like this little irritating itch which doesn't allow itself to be forgotten and ignored, who just pushes, pushes, pushes until you can no longer credibly pretend it isn't there and the only course left is to scratch it. Amusingly enough, her pushing Twilight to early action may well be what helps avert a disaster in the end, depending on how things unfold.
And now you really have me curious about what happened all those years ago - what the hell did Sunset (or Celestia?) do that made her think it a good idea to erase the whole world's (from the looks of it) memories of those years? Did Sunset tear an unstable rift between Worlds? But then, why would Celestia go to such drastic lengths to hide it? Was Celestia at fault there? But even then ... what could possibly be so awful about it to necessitate the brainwashing of an entire world's populace to hide it? The rift by itself isn't that big of a deal ...
Either way, it feels like Celestia will have to do some serious groveling before this is over before her fellow princesses. Even if this knowledge somehow turns out to be so horrible and evil that the populace at large being in possession of it spontaneously combusts the world or something, blatantly lying to the face of her fellow rulers and actively trying to sabotage their efforts to learn the truth isn't easily excusable - as has been pointed out, the other Princesses aren't Celestia's subordinates and this sort of thing breeds mistrust and resentment in the long term, which is only harmful for the government and may hinder the expedient future solving of similar cases.
Because if Celestia truly thinks that what she did can be justified - that using dark magic to erase memories of a large populace was genuinely the best of bad options available to her to solve whatever issue needed solving that prompted all this ... then surely the other Princesses would understand it. Which would surely be preferable to the suspicion and mistrust that blatantly stonewalling them would cause - they aren't stupid after all, Celestia must realize they know she is hiding things from them and hindering them.
This is doubly true when Celestia herself doesn't seem capable of actually dealing with the breach. You'd think involving Twilight (by all accounts a more intuitively brilliant mage than Celestia herself) and Luna (who likely has her own extensive and specific knowledge to draw from) would be an especially good idea when trying to tackle magical phenomena not quite withing her own ability to comprehend and deal with. But no ... secrets, lies and deception is where it's at, while the (presumable) time-bomb that is the rift continues to exist right beneath their hooves.
So ... yeah, I'm really looking towards seeing what the whole deal is, because as of right now I have very little inclination to not dislike Celestia - she's using very dubious means to suppress knowledge even from individuals she arguably has no right to obstruct, and whatever is the problem seems to only be a problem because has chosen, as always, to sit on it and keep quiet until it will, inevitably, blow up in everyone's faces - in which case it would likely be others (Twilight and co being the usual suspects) trying to scramble to fix her inadequacies before the world goes tits-up.
But yeah - good stuff so far, can't wait to read more of it!
An excellent start. I'm having a hard time telling the human sisters apart, but other than that you have provided a quickly and deeply engaging story hook. Hopefully future chapters will be of a similar quality.
7871152
Thank you for your kind words. At some point, things will start to accelerate. There are specific reasons for why things are starting out slow at first that will emerge as the story progresses. Sorry I can't be more specific than that, but I don't want to give away any spoilers
7871444
Thank you for this detailed comment. It helps to know not just that the story is enjoyable but what makes it so.
I knew when I started this story I was taking a big chance including Starlight Glimmer, as the fanbase seems to either love her or hate her. But where I was placing this right after season six, there was no way I could relegate her to a bit part, so I took the plunge and included her as a major driving force.
Another challenge was the portrayal of Celestia. Not a lot I can say here without spoiling the plot, but suffice it to say I am trying to stick to how she is portrayed in the show (since Tyrantlestia/Xenolestia depictions are usually not my thing) but make her a bit more fallible than she's typically shown to be.
Incidentally, this story should have the "Alternate Universe" tag.
7871444
Perhaps Princess Celestia thought the same thing about Sunset Shimmer, who was a brilliant mage herself.
And thus the Dewey Decimal System was born!
7872713
Aye, take as long as you need to. The longer the transformation, the better the impact. The story is so good, I just can't wait.
This is only the second story I've jumped into that was unfinished so I'm just being greedy
I'm with you on the no spoilers. Rares wouldn't approve...
7873246
But IS it Alternate Universe... or has Twilight herself forgotten too, having her memories altered to forget?
I wonder...
7876654
No, it's pretty much definitely alternate universes. You have Twilight's universe, and the human universe, and they couldn't just be different parts of the same (euclidean) universe, since they were completely isolated from each other in causality.
I wonder if Sunset is trying to ponify humanity because she's lonely...
I wish I had more to say, but the mystery of this chapter is just so cool
.
Also I have a wild theory Equestrian ponies were created by the virus.
7901034 i've been stating that theory since chapter one
Huh.......E...Q...G...FOR THE WIN!!!!!!!!
*Celestia's
Twilight stop being a celestia loving slave because this is just bull
7983281
Sorry for being rude, but that's utter and total bullcrap. I mean, if you delve into the lore really deep, you see all sorts of weird shit that doesn't make that seem possible. It would alter several story arcs in such a way that it may not affect the show itself, but someone will notice. I certainly haven't delved that far, but I have a friend.