Nightmirror

by MostBrainWhyYes

The Ancient Book

A purple unicorn mare. That's all I was, all I will ever be. I like books, like, like like books. Religiously. Sometimes I just get so lost in their depths I lose track of time. I forget my friends and responsibilities, til-

"Twilight! Don't forget about today!" I stretch and yawn mouth opening some I bring my hoof to my mouth.

"Thank you Spike, I haven't forgotten, today we-"

"-Not we!"

"Oh? Oh yes that's right. You have a date~ today~" I giggle and boop Spike who then proceeds to get flustered.

"A-anyways, you should probably put that book down if you want to make it on time, the girls will be meeting up at the train station any minute!"

"O-oh my! I must have lost track of time" Looking to the book and the clock, and to the coffee Spike knowingly holds for me. I immediately take a sip while standing, levitate a bookmark into my book as I float it back to my nightstand all in one motion.

"Thank you Spike!" A peck on the cheek. I levitate my saddlebags on as I reach the door.
"Oh, and have fun on your date!"

"Mhm!" Spike nods getting ready, looking in the mirror about to talk to himself.

"Not literally on your date though-"

"-Sheesh Twilight do you have to make it awkward?" I giggle at his expense.

"Take care~"

"You too!"

The door swiftly but carefully closes behind me, why slam the door, why not I have magic I can fix it, its polite maybe others are busy and the sound would interrupt them, right. I gallop off to the train station, coffee in tow- floating as I take sips every chance I can. I turn around the corner nearly out of breath but suddenly the rejuvenating magic of friendship fills me with a new energy and my fatigue is washed away. Unless that's the coffee.

"Girls!"

"Twilight!" They all say. We greet and hug, smile and laugh.

"Uhh so Twilight, what are we doing today anyways? I just got here before you and the girls didn't have time to tell me." Dash asks, floating with her wings lightly flapping.

Excitement and happiness wash over me as I recollect nerdily. "Today we are going to a newly discovered archaeological dig in the Unicorn Range near Vanhoover!" I beam.

Dash looks patient but annoyed but loving. Sort of like she is going along to keep my nerdy self happy, the element of loyalty. "Heheh yeah that's just like you Twilight."

"Oh don't be that way, it'll be exciting! Remember those Daring Do books? She spent alot of time in spooky places too!"

"Yeah, that's true." Dash grins. I wonder what she is up to, she is thinking of something.

"Ya'll might wanna get on the train before she takes off without us!" Applejack reminds us.

"Oh you are right thank you Applejack!" Suddenly there is a piercing whine. AJ looks over to Rarity unamused.

"Spike isn't here, who else would take my luggage! Oh the equinity!" A skinny bellhop attempts to carry her one massive suitcase and breaks his back under the weight.

"Don't worry Rarity! I can handle it!" I float it simply and squeeze it through the doorway with some effort.

"Oh you are such a darling. I don't know what I would do without you!" I beam, I sure do love my friends. We leave to Vanhoover. Near Vanhoover, rather.

I excitedly sit on the cart and peer out the window. Fall is coming soon, the summer just ending, the leaves on the trees we pass moving out of Ponyville lightly tipped with shades of yellow orange or red. The sights can be so relaxing. Hills roll by, the trees change to evergreens as we near the mountains. Rocky protrusions can be seen with moss on them. Some little critters watch as we go by and I hear a pleasant sigh from Fluttershy. The magic of friendship reinvigorates me. Or its the coffee, I look down at the mug and its empty except for a drop which refuses to leave the corner. It'd be a trouble to reach in for Spike to clean the corner, and why waste good coffee! Floating the last drips into my muzzle, the train suddenly stops at the destination and I almost fall off my seat! I hear Rarity gasp and pout, something about filing. I look up and beam!

"We're here girls!"

"Weeeeee!" Pinkie bounces or rolls out, not quite sure which.

"Maybe there are cute critters near the ruins." Fluttershy says.

"I can't wait to see the ruins of Azatrot!" I quickly trot off the Train before hearing a cough that could only be Rarity subtly getting my attention. I look at her and she gestures to her massive suitcase.

"Oh right, Spike's not here eheh. I wonder how his date will go with Ms Cheerilee." I float the massive suitcase off the train squeezing it through the relatively tight hole of the train.

"Thank you darling, I am forever in your debt." Rarity generously replies, I beam.

"Oh Rarity, its no problem at all!" Dash zooms over looking nervou-cited as Pinkie might say. Its more subtle for Dash though, but still patently obvious she has been thinking about those Daring Do type mysteries that may await us. I keep smiling.

"I love you Dash!" She blushes n pats the back of her head.

"Drank your coffee too quickly this morning, eh Twi?"

"Certainly!" Giggle. The girls have a laugh too. "Alright, letsa go!"

Time flies by when you are anticipating all the soon-to-be nerdy discoveries, the caffeine slowly wearing off as I approach, but not the magic of friendship. That never wears off.

"We are here!" Some of the girls speak but I can't hear them over the sound of my inner nerdy rants. "- And that's why you don't trust the narrator in those types of books!" Oops, maybe it wasn't an inner nerdy rant. Pinkie bounces off down a mystery chute, likely used to access underground reservoir water in ancient times.

"Pinkie!" Everypony gasps. The remainder of caffeine about to leave my system I wasn't worried, Pinkie is Pinkie and she will be fine regardless. I open my mouth to speak as the girls run off in pursuit of her, as I notice something mysterious suddenly with a magical sense. I cannot turn away from my curiosities, in fact I tend to forget whatever I was doing as I- walk down a hallway towards the sensation. I don't remember the hallway being there- oh look a book! Its on a pedestal so it likely is significant for the ancient ponies who used to live here. I cautiously scan it with my magic and do not detect anything, but the sense of mystery still pervades. I wonder if its a mechanical mechanism that triggers a magical mechanism I may be subconsciously detecting via natural magic. It'd explain why I do not feel anything in my scans.

And that's why I brought paper! I can scan the pages of this ancient book and print copies with magic using an inkwell! I float out the materials needed from my saddlebags. But I need to be very cautious. I need to use my telekinesis technique I attempted to develop for this very sorta situation! I carefully do a split version of telekinesis so there is an equal and opposite force caused on the book allowing it to remain perfectly stable and still cautious change the pages. Its initially simple, but the pages likely being fragile I will have to apply it in a way that changes angles and opens like a hinge at the same time, and if its super fragile even apply a force to gently lower the pages. And another section of telekinesis just in case its a highly balanced platform the book is resting on and might trigger a lever from a minor imbalance. I am great at multitasking however and I can take as much time as I need printing.

I could read it at the same time.

The title of the book is The Lost Mundane. That confuses me, what significant book could be mundane? I very cautiously turn the page, the caffeine fully out of my system. I have no chance of messing this up.

This note into the mundane needs to be made. That is what this book is for. There has been lost 'obvious' ancient magics in history, and as such I fear this could be compromised for there is much low hanging fruit. In old times there were writings about how ponies could master properties of the material realm simultaneously rewriting the fabrics of reality and nopony even is capable of doing such today, the knowledge has been permanently sealed out and lost. So it is my duty, to take note of the dream realm. Great discoveries have been made within such. Earth ponies can do geomancy and aura control. Pegasi can change the very atmosphere and humidity based on mood or desire. Unicorns can move in strange ways. Its just how life is. We currently seek to solve the pegasi mood problems as some quite nasty weathers can dampen our crops quite readily despite the ease of geomancy. The unicorns just disappear whenever they want to avoid floods tornados hurricanes monsoons or heat waves. And the heat waves can be so bad, the sky literally opens up allowing the full brunt of the sun's rays to harm us, ponies even being set ablaze, just for a unicorn to casually revive them with an earth pony. The earth pony stabilizes the body to allow the unicorn to reel their soul back into their body, the earth pony and unicorn can heal the body. The earth ponies via singing, the unicorns via manipulation of the essence of their bodies. But not all are so readily saved. A pegasi fetching water last week we thought had drowned, but upon immediate inspection we could discern she was electrocuted from an underwater thundercloud conducting electricity more powerfully and rapidly than could happen in the air.

But this is not the mundanity I wish to speak about. That is entirely trivial in comparison. My co-workers think I am mad to foresee such problems with the dream realm. Considering how devastatingly frequent disasters and unexpected occurrences happen and how quickly to succumb to madness or ambition the unicorns can be, I fear this realm is not going to last long. There are things very ominous within the dream realm. Most ponies do not notice it because they are too happy to frolic and forget their worries. Nopony wants to admit the potential disaster, everypony wishes to escape. It is their joy, and they think my pointing out the obvious is what threatens them. I suppose it might give an ambitious unicorn ideas however, so I did thusly stifle myself. I suppose a broken clock is right twice a day.

The realm is highly volatile. Most do not know it because they are like a metal moth to a magnetic flame. One shift in emotion could send you spiraling through galaxies into an entirely foreign realm. But because of the nature of the realm and the simplicity of most ponies' desires, there is a memory loss tied to the realm, which is another threat and reason to continue with this topic. Thus I shall write.

I did a non-bias spell, a neutral emotion spell in order to properly study the realm. What I found shook me to my core. Eyes everywhere in every way. Even the eyes were made out of eyes. They were all shifting their pupils widening and shrinking, their colors changing, them all blinking in a pattern similar to a sin wave function if it were originating at the point of my view. My perspective was as a disembodied observer, but I could see in all directions and feel and hear in all directions via magical senses. I felt a chilling emptiness of the void sucking me dry of magical energy leaving me cold and electric, much like a superconductor. Aeons of worthless information flowed through me. It was worthless because the alien intelligence that was bestowed upon me was so subjective and cynical. I quickly forgot who I was- even doubting my existence. But I had cast many spells in preparation. As soon as I was to be lost, a light flashed within me restoring my lucidity. Now I could focus on the task at hoof. I moved in the direction of wanting to know, but found only anguish and desire, envy. Wishing. It was like a hell. Another spell of mine triggered to alter my mindstate and increase my lucidity yet again. This time I chose to access the feeling of knowing the true nature of the realm.

"What the f-"

"-Twilight! Twilight where are you!" Huh?

"I'm over here girls!"

"Twilight! We were looking all over for you!" Pinkie bounces in.

"Pinkie? Everypony was looking for you!" She has the audacity to giggle.

"No silly, I am pretty sure they were looking for you."

"Okayy, Pinkie when you find them let them know I am transcribing an ancient book I found."

"Hmmm, how do I find them?" She holds a hoof to her chin.

"Pinkie, what do you mean?"

"The exit for this room isn't where I came in." Oh my god she is right theres no doorway behind her.

"Okay okay, let me think. I will do a detection spell to find the exit and them, there must have been a trap door switch walking down the path or something. It's going to be fine."

"Are you okay Twilight? You don't look well. Kind of pale."

"Me? No, pffa! No I am fine don't worry about me." She is worrying about me. "Ahem I do need to concentrate though to figure a way out, so if you could please." Pinkie approaches and gives a warm hug filling me with the magic of friendship again and rubs my head.

"Twilight you don't need to worry, we will be here for you, all your friends are always there for you and we always make it through the tough times!"

"Mmmm thank you Pinkie, I needed that."

"Okey dokey loki, I'll give you some space now to think."

"Thank you.." That was quite worrying what is in this book, many dilemmas. But I am in a dilemma right now myself. "Just in case I do not get another opportunity to record this book I am going to do so now before attempting to leave." There might also be a hint about leaving from the book as well considering this was a lone operator so this passage's workings wouldn't be common knowledge. Pinkie nods. I quickly print out a copy of the book using a pattern detection spell on top of my other spells. The process takes a few minutes and I neatly put the copy in my saddlebags and close the book carefully, even removing dust particles from between the pages to be extra cautious and to treat the book with respect.

"Okay Pinkie now I will work on finding a way out... Pinkie?" She isn't behind me where she was. This is getting spooky, I need to get out. I cast a locator spell specifying an exit in my mind, combined with a pathing spell. The pathing spell lights up parts of the wall and air as if space is...distorted. I attempt to walk where it suggests, to no avail, pushing my hoof into a hole in the wall, I hold my breath. I can't make it through. But if space is distorted, it must've been an ancient spell to do such a thing rather than an active transformation magic, they permanently changed space here is why I couldn't detect it. But then how did I get in here? How did Pinkie escape? Is she still right here with me, but space is folded in a way so I cannot tell? Well, if magic could distort space permanently it may be an alternate matter construct, or it was physically twisted somehow.

"I think I know a way out." I speak to no one in particular. My horn lights up bright and I grit my teeth at the strain and recast my spell along with a magical sensory acquisition spell to make myself know the path without visually seeing it. The way its warped, I can find pathing to teleport out without accidentally stuffing myself into a wall or coming out with permanent damages proportional to the distortion. I need to test which manner is proper however. I teleport a perfectly normal piece of parchment in one manner I theorized, but not before placing a detection spell on it so I can teleport it back to measure its damages if any. I pant heavily as I begin my tests thanks to the drain of the powerful detection spells combo is placing on me.

"Ha ah ah oh mmmmmm oh ah ah ah" I pant.

Thirty-seven sheets of parchment later, and I found the proper pattern. I test it multiple times. So exhausted, before I do that, I think I will take a little nap.