• Published 8th Aug 2017
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The Collapse - Lightwavers



The Princess is gone, eternal night has fallen, and the Everfree is expanding. What will Twilight do?

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Chapter 13

“So now we know it has to be destroyed.” Rainbow Dash cracked her neck.

“Not necessarily. We could also find the spellkey,” Twilight said, then muttered, “it’s not like I’ve told you that twelve times already.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing...”

They were still trying to set up the first tents that would let Twilight and the other two unicorns get their spells back, but judging the rate at which the Everfree expanded was hard. At first it would seem to be moving slower than a snail, then it would suddenly accelerate to a walking pace for an hour, then it would go back. They’d already had to tear down the tents and start putting them back up three times. At least Rarity seemed to have endless amounts of fabric in her saddlebags so they could patch them up after the frequent moves.

“So how exactly will we go about finding the center? Of course, the middle of the forest is an obvious choice, but even I know how the Everfree can change apparent distance, and that’s without it trying to, ahem, gobble us up,” Rarity said, threading a needle through a piece of fabric using only her hooves. How she was managing to do it, Twilight had no idea.

“Magic, probably,” Rainbow Dash said.

Gilda snorted.

“Conventional spells won’t work, Rainbow,” Twilight said, wishing she had her magic if only so that she could write down a list in her notebook. Lists were calming. “The Everfree would just absorb any spells with a different magical signature.”

“So don’t use a magical signature.”

“You can’t just not use a magical signature! It’s based on how you build every thought template you cast a spell from. The only things that don’t have a spell signature are the Seven Basic Patterns, and you can’t do anything complex with them,” Twilight said, exasperated. If you don’t know magic, it’s better to just say silent then offer any ‘helpful’ suggestions because of how utterly ridiculous they sounded to someone who does know magic and—

“What about runes then?” Rarity said.

Twilight opened her mouth to explain why exactly runes would not work and how just because she was a unicorn that did not mean she had a right to pretend she knew magic, then realized that she had a point and closed her jaws with an audible clack.

“That could work...” Radiance said slowly, a small thoughtful frown spreading across his face. “Unfortunately, I don’t know enough about runes to really do anything that complicated.”

Twilight stared at him. “You’re a professor! You’ve demonstrated magic in your class over and over. How—”

“I am a theoretical magician, not a practical one. And besides, my knowledge lies in the domain of unicorn magic.”

“But you’re an earth—”

“Ahem. I believe I can handle this,” Rarity said, marching toward them with her head up.

“You know how to use runes? Why? How?” Twilight said, feeling her mouth drop open.

“Well, as you can probably guess, my magic isn’t the strongest around. I often need some assistance to be able to keep up with my workload. Just a few runes in my boutique are often a tremendous help.”

Twilight shook her head. She supposed that with everything else that was happening, a fashionista knowing high-level runes wasn’t that high on the ‘surprising’ scale. “Alright, then. So you’ll be in charge of the tracking spell. Make it search for the largest concentration of magic there is.”

Rarity cleared her throat. “As you no doubt know, runes need a certain level of precision to work as intended. I will need to use levitation, a sheet of metal, and something to inscribe it with.”

“Of course. Right then, all non-unicorns, find those items for Rarity. Professor, I guess you can start the runes, or at least think about them so you can help Rarity when she’s done. The rest of us will be having to do a lot of meditation,” Twilight said.

Behind her, a tent collapsed.

“...After those are done.”


The mass of magical commands in front of Twilight was too complex to understand all at once. To make a thought template, you needed to focus on separate sections and worry about integration later. She could hold a lot of thoughts in her head at once, but even she wasn’t able to do something as taxing and just plain monotonous as a levitation thought template differently from the normal way. All the pieces of her template would theoretically fit together with no problems, but it would just take one wrong strand to unravel the whole thing. Maybe she should check it over again…

No. She was going to finish this. With a thought, she pulled at a single strand of magic. With the obstruction removed, the template collapsed into itself. Twilight looked it over. It seemed okay. She forced some magic into the template and gave it the relevant coordinates. Her hoof rose into the air apparently of its own accord, surrounded by a purple glow that was much fainter than she remembered.

Success!

Twilight established a connection with the template and sort of...pulled it inside of her horn. She was never sure what exactly happened when she made a new thought pattern, but she would now be able to levitate objects to her heart’s content. Even without her normal library of spells, that felt good. And she could just use that spellbook in her saddlebags if she wanted to use a basic spell.

She got up, shaking stiff limbs and stretching, then slowly walked out of the tent. The moon still shone overhead, giving everything a silvery glow. She was starting to get used to it, occasional stumble and unclear details notwithstanding.

Around a small campfire sat Radiance, Lyra, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Gilda. Rarity was holding a flat circle of metal in her levitation field while talking to Lyra, Rainbow and Fluttershy were having a surprisingly sedate looking chat, and—Twilight blinked, then rubbed her eyes—yes, her professor was talking to Gilda.

Rainbow Dash noticed her first.

“What took you so long?” she said, breaking off her conversation with Fluttershy, who looked startled at the sudden increase in volume.

“I—well, I wanted to make sure I did it right—” Twilight began.

“Whatever, you’re done now. C’mere and get some nice Everfree leaves. They’re surprisingly good,” Rainbow said, beckoning to her with a hoof.

Twilight did so and snatched the plate Fluttershy offered to her, greedily devouring the roots and leaves on it. She barely even registered that it was made of a patchwork of fabrics. No doubt Rarity’s work.

“You would not believe the trouble we had getting something for Gilda to eat,” Rainbow whispered once Twilight slowed down.

She looked at the griffon. Sure enough, she was eating chunks of...something. She turned away before she inadvertently picked up more details.

“So, Rarity,” she said, desperately trying to think about anything other than Gilda’s meal, “you, uh, get that thing done? The thing with the runes?”

“The tracking spell? Why, yes I did. As a matter of fact, I have it right here,” Rarity said, the teal glow of her magic lifting the metal plate into the air. “And I can confirm that it does work.”

“That’s good. Now we’ll need to prepare some shield spells—”

Good? Good does not begin to cover it, darling. There must be a level of appreciation for my work. You have no idea how many times I had to remake this. It was a lot,” she hissed.

Rarity’s mane did look a bit frazzled, which for her was probably the equivalent of rolling around in mud, so Twilight didn’t argue.

At least something was going right. They had a tracking spell that was apparently working, though Twilight would have to—respectfully—test it before they actually went into the forest. Maybe runic shields would work just as well.

But it wasn’t time to theorize. She was included in a group of ponies—and a griffon—that, for once, she hadn’t managed to completely alienate. It was a good feeling.