The Collapse

by Lightwavers

Chapter 12

“We’ve been walking for a while now.”

“Yes, Rainbow, we have,” Twilight said.

“Hey, I’m just saying—”

“Um, maybe we can talk about what a draconequues is? It sounds interesting, but I’ve never heard about it before,” Fluttershy said, gently inserting herself between Rainbow Dash and Twilight.

“Yes, excellent idea Fluttershy. That er, thing, was quite alarming. It only seems prudent that we should know as much about it as possible.”

Rarity was still acting as if she was in the middle of the Grand Galloping Gala. You had to hand it to her; she was dedicated. Meanwhile, even Lyra was nodding at the suggestion that they learn more about the strange creature that had accosted them. Not that Twilight had any objections. She just thought it would be best to let the professor tell them what he knew on his own time.

“Very well,” Radiance said, focusing only on where he was walking. “I have to warn you, though: I don’t know much about him myself. I only found a footnote about him in a book. He’s also on one of the stained-glass windows in the palace, though most ponies think it’s just a piece of art. He was apparently in control of Equestria for a thousand years, and is the extremely powerful embodiment of chaos itself. And that’s pretty much it.”

“That’s it? The dude controls your entire country for a thousand bucking years and that’s all you know?” Gilda said, glaring at the professor. He didn’t notice.

“Keep in mind that he is chaos. Even if we had records of what he did, it seems unlikely that he would repeat himself,” Radiance said, then continued with a sigh, “Still, I am just making excuses. I have no idea why he was purged from the records. Maybe his reign was so terrible that the Princess wanted no mention of him left.”

“Okay then...meanwhile, for some reason, all the unicorns in this group pretty much can’t use magic. Got a plan to fix that, or…?” Rainbow Dash said.

It was a pretty astonishing coincidence, at least at first. All three of the unicorns that wanted to investigate the Everfree lacked their magic. But if you looked at the circumstances that led to it happening, things made a lot more sense. Lyra and Rarity were from a small village, and had only come to Canterlot for the express purpose of rebuilding their magic systems. And Twilight herself probably wouldn’t have come if she hadn’t been doing the same. Going without magic did a lot to foster sympathy for those who were drained of theirs, perhaps permanently.

“Yes. When we get to the edge of the Everfree, we’re going to set up camp. We’re going to gather as much data as possible while they get their spells restored,” Radiance said. His dedication to not reacting to the conversation going on around him was impressive. His ears hadn’t even twitched.

“Isn’t that...stupid?” Rainbow Dash said.

“Yep. It is,” Gilda agreed.

“I have something on me that will make the addition of three unicorns unnecessary. And if the Everfree can get through it, they wouldn’t make a difference.”

“Is that the thing Discord pulled out of your saddlebags?”Rainbow Dash said, pausing in her step for a few seconds to speak and then trotting to catch back up. “Because he took it away really easily.”

Twilight had been wondering what that package was as well, but no one had asked about it until now.

“I know. I wasn’t prepared. I am now,” Radiance said.

Out of things to say, the group lapsed into silence. The building cold made everyone shiver, but it was still bearable. Twilight looked ahead at the Canterlot mountain in the distance. It hadn’t visibly moved since they’d started their trek. She sighed. This would take a while. Maybe she should’ve...no, she’d decided this was the best option. Granted, they were all terrible, but at least this one might solve something. If she could rein in Rainbow Dash long enough to keep the Everfree from noticing everyone and deciding to eat them.

---

The Everfree forest spread out before them, a tangled mass of trees that looked like they’d been there for hundreds of years and thick black vines. A thick carpet of undergrowth assured Twilight that any movement would require a lot of magic. Its appearance, together with the ridiculous amount of area it took up, made the idea of actually doing something about it seem insane.

“Is it...warmer?” Lyra said, pawing at the ground.

At least she was talking again. She’d been oddly silent for most of the trip, only chatting a little with Rarity. She’d had a brooding face on the rest of the time, and Twilight knew brooding faces. You couldn’t go to the most prestigious magic school in Equestria without some stress.

“Yeah, feel the grass. It’s almost edible,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Ugh. I don’t know how you ponies force yourselves to eat this,” Gilda replied, shredding her claws through the soft green blades.

Twilight lit up her horn, allowing her to sense the ambient magic. She might not be able to cast spells, but detecting relative amounts of magic in an area was a built-in ability all unicorns had, like drawing on magic and storing it, or the Seven Basic Patterns.

She bit back a gasp at what she sensed. In front of her, the Everfree blazed with a green glow so intense it masked anything that might be inside it. And the magic seemed to be contained, somehow, swirling about in what almost seemed like parts of a larger pattern that she couldn’t figure out. But some of it leaked through the edge of the forest, suffusing the air in a level of magic that Twilight hadn’t thought possible.

“I guess we should set up camp then. I’m ready for a good nap, and all you unicorns can fix your spells and stuff. And after that, maybe one of you could wrangle a cloud for me? I hate sleeping on the ground,” Rainbow Dash said, directing a pleading look at the three unicorns.

“Sorry Rainbow, unicorn magic is really bad at affecting stuff below a certain density. That’s why you guys are the weather workers, not us,” Twilight replied, momentarily derailing her train of thought.

“Well, what if you used a lot of magic? You guys have magic stones, right? The Everfree looks pretty magic; just get it from that.”

Twilight didn’t manage to hold her gasp back this time. “Rainbow Dash, you’re a genius!”

“Of course I am. So you’ll do it?”

“No, not that. One second, I’ll be right back!” Twilight said, galloping toward the Everfree.

Of course; it was obvious once someone pointed it out. When a bunch of magic accumulated in a small enough area, it condensed into solid magic. That was standard magical theory, though the last recorded time some pony had managed to do so had been several hundred years ago. Now these pure sources of magic were sought after for use in experiments, standard spells, or even magical duels. But when someone wove a golem spell into a piece of solid magic, it had a rare chance of not exploding into a chaos seed and instead becoming a Domain.

Twilight skidded to a halt right outside the edge of the Everfree, ignoring the shouts behind her. Domains were a piece of advanced magical theory. No one had recorded proof of the existence of a Domain. All accounts of them were legends. But if they really were just advanced golem spells tied up inside of a piece of solid magic, she should be able to connect to them.

She drew magic through her horn and spun a thread of magic into a ‘siphon’ string, then shunted all her power through it and flung it at the Everfree. She couldn’t do anything more complex, what with not being able to use spells, but hopefully…

It connected.

Movement. Absorption. Depletion. Movement…

Concepts swirled around in her mind, nuanced and fully fleshed out ideas that stunned her with how vivid they were.

Stop! she tried.

...Depletion. Absorption. Movement…

Why are you doing this? she sent, magnifying the thought with all the magic she could spare.

A pause. She felt the connection twist, and then the enormous consciousness was focusing on her. She froze, terrified.

Spellkey?

Spellkey? Why did...oh. Oh! It asking for the spellkey that would allow her to control it. All their problems could be solved if she could get this question right.

The square root of two… No, it wouldn’t be like that. The ponies that had made the Everfree would have wanted to make sure it didn’t go out of control, wouldn’t they? Then again...maybe they wanted the Everfree to do this.

What are you trying to do? she sent, stalling for time.

Guest access granted. Goals: 1. maintain a stable level of magic. 2. stay below 20,000 aesaethers of magic. 3. gather magic.

That was...surprisingly helpful. Something must have gone wrong with its ability to detect how much magic it had. Or maybe twenty thousand aesaethers was less than it had. There were no real standards used to measure magic in current use. Or maybe...well, she could be standing here forever if she just kept speculating without any data. On the chance that the creators hoped someone would be able to easily shut off their creation, Twilight sent the spellkey that was bound with almost every basic to mid-level spellbook’s collection.

It took all of two seconds for her to realize her mistake.

The forest didn’t respond to her attempt, but she felt its mind pressing down on her. Thick streams of magic flowed toward her. She did not stand around to see what they were meant to do and forced her trembling legs into a gallop.

Its mind was completely alien. There would be no reasoning with it. The only ways to make it stop would be to guess its spellkey or, as Rainbow Dash so eloquently put it, “find what made it tick.”

She stopped when she reached her group. They had apparently decided to just let her go, but were now turned to her with expressions of concern. Even professor Radiance had raised an eyebrow.

“Oh dear. What happened to you? You look terrified!” Fluttershy said.

Twilight swallowed back her fear. “It’s a long story,” she said shakily.

“Well? We have time.” Rainbow Dash nudged her shoulder. “C’mon, it’ll be fine. No one will judge you for recognizing my genius.”

“Alright,” Twilight said, taking a deep breath. “There are these things called Domains...”