• Published 9th Oct 2012
  • 1,434 Views, 38 Comments

Old Stories, Older Curses - KillerSteel



Watch how a day gone bad can become something far, far worse.

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Chapter 6: Just Out Of Reach

The sound of scratching filled the tower, a hoof grating against the ground. Stone, marked with red, began to bear a peculiar symbol, an arcane circle drawn so hard into the platform that it looked like a natural formation. The lavender unicorn with red stripes continued scratching the design into the ground, making repeated checks to the book beside her.

It has to be perfect, nothing less.

The three-circle design, drawn like a tunnel, sat complete as the hoof was drawn away, setting about drawing the symbols.

Omega, Alpha, Tybre, Epsilon, Sibnis, Ulth...

She read off every symbol and drew as such, every drawing perfectly shaped, perfectly made. A single mistake could put everypony in the castle in danger, and the unicorn would be at the center of it.

... Trith, Epsilon, Alpha, Fuse, Dithis. That should do it for the outer circle... that'll seek out any spirits who are inherently connected to what I place in the circle.

A nod came from the unicorn, the relieved tension allowing her to swallow for the first time in minutes; it was amazing just how painful a dry throat could be...

Next, the inner circle... binding. Spell equations relating to telekinesis.

Eyes scanned the designs in the book, blinking in shock; this wasn't telekinesis...

'Chain Bind'? I haven't heard of that spell before...

She set about drawing the complex equation into the circle, hoping all the symbols would fit. Yestercentury's unicorn magic was strange; was it just more inefficient, or did the equations dynamically change over the years?

... Done. Now the final circle, vision.

She looked back to the book and flipped the page with her magic, careful not to get her red stripes on the book; it would take a while for the cuts to heal.

There it is, Mage Foresight. Strange name, but at least it's to the point.

She nodded and set about writing the equation into the inner circle, remembering orientation with the outer symbols. Perfection was a must here, and thankfully, the librarian was always perfect.

She hoped...

Alright... done. Now I just need something of Rainbow's...

She looked around, realizing she never brought anything with her, "Well, the Princess did say call her for anything I needed..."

She turned to make her way out, only to come face to face with a rather immaculate golden necklace. No, really, it was immaculate... perfectly polished, the design was smooth... was it made from a single piece of gold?

Wait, focus.

"Twilight Sparkle?" A voice asked from above, and the librarian looked up into her mentor's eyes.

"Oh, uh... Princess, there's something I need."

"Besides a doctor? What did you do to yourself?"

"I uh... tried to find a proper artery that wouldn't hurt when I cut it open... it took a few tries, but I'm fine now," Twilight shook her head, looking over the cuts on her left leg; she'd torn it to ribbons in her search for that painless artery...

"I shall call for a medic then."

"No, wait! I'm fine... I need the blood anyway, they'll heal over. There's something else I need."

"And what would that be, my student?" Celestia stepped back, looking over at the arcane circle in the ground. A Soulseeker ritual... good first choice, the blood made a good binder.

"I need something of Rainbow's. Something she held very close to her."

"Would the Element of Loyalty do?"

"It's worth a shot... but if you could also get something from her cloud house, I think that may help as well."

"Anything in particular?"

"Rainbow was a Wonderbolts fanatic through and through... so she probably held something from them very close. A signed photo, or a poster maybe?" Twilight rubbed the back of her neck, her mane smearing with blood. Her vision blurred a bit as another heart beat sent out a short spurt of blood onto her neck; maybe the cuts were a bit bigger than she thought, "Maybe that medic would be good..."

"I shall send one down then, and retrieve the items from Rainbow Dash's home."

"Ok, t-thanks, Princess Celestia... I'm gonna get to work on a second ritual," Twilight meekly smiled as the Princess turned and left, passing through the huge double doors.


Celestia sighed, the nausea now hitting her full force; even as a simple circle of blood on the ground, the feeling was unmistakable. Necromancy never had a good effect on her stomach, though she never really understood why. The research put towards the field was what scared her most, but the practice was banned across Equestria, and the field itself slipped into history's fold.

The only ones who truly knew about necromancy now were her, Luna, and Twilight, along with a single shadow that she'd prefer to leave locked in its cell. Even bringing the field back out through her student caused her stress; she promised she wouldn't take the field further than what was necessary, but the basis of that magic had a tendency to reach into one's spirit...

Celestia cast her worries aside with a quick shake of her head; Twilight promised, and she wouldn't dare break that. The main hall came into view as she passed a final threshold, the room filled with the red light of sunset; it would almost be time for Luna to take over. She looked over the hall, two Guard saluting her; Thunder units? Didn't the Knights usually guard the hall?

"Gentlecolts," Celestia spoke with her usual level tone, a light smile gracing her lips.

"Princess," The two mares replied in unison. Celestia's brow furrowed for a moment in confusion; these Guards did have a tendency to look similar... and contain a majority of stallions.

"Why are Thunders guarding the main hall?"

"Captain Armor took a Knight detachment over to Manehatten, something about a disturbance there, ma'am."

"That so? Why didn't he tell me?"

"He informed Princess Luna, ma'am. He said there wasn't a lot of time, so he left soon after with about forty soldiers."

"Forty? What could he possibly need that many soldiers for?"

"Security, he said."

"I'll be sure to have a discussion with him about 'subtlety'. I have a request for the Guard."

The two soldiers lowered their salutes and set their spears on their backs, "Anything, Princess."

"I'd like one medic from the Magic Corps and one of our royal doctors be sent to the Archive Tower. Faster is better, ladies."

"Of course, Princess," The two quickly snapped back into a salute.

"Dismissed."

The two guards took to the skies and rocketed off through the hall; even inside, the Thunders were impressive flyers. Lieutenant Striker did a good job with training his soldiers... hopefully, news of this death wouldn't spread further than Twilight's circle of friends; having him hear about it would just create ripples in the ranks, the stallion tended to be emotionally unstable as is. The Princess walked down the steps and stretched out her wings; she never got many chances to simply fly somewhere, and a trip to Ponyville would give her some good exercise. The front doors cast open with a push of her magic, and a single flap of her wings set her soaring over the courtyard of the castle.

Marble walls stretched up into the dimming sky as the Princess rose up over the yard, several soldiers on the battlements saluting her as she flew past. Powerful wings sent her along in long glides over the side of the mountain, the valley rolling away in a smooth river of green. It seemed strange to the alicorn as she made her way towards her destination; Equestria just suffered the death of a very important pony... yet no one was the wiser, no one seemed to mind, not even the land itself changed or shifted in response.

Well, it seemed kind of crazy for the land itself to shift in response to a death, but everything seemed to move on as it usually did. The world was oblivious to losing one of its most critical lives, and it carried on turning... every time she'd lost someone in the military, or close to her, the world simply carried on. She eventually learned to do the same, just by watching the world from her balcony; Death was, in the big picture, ineffectual... nopony ever remembered the bad things, or the pain of those who passed on. Many pursued numerous fields of magic to bring their loved ones back, of course, but they all learned to let go as well.

Necromancy was one of those fields, and certainly the most dangerous. The capability to drag a soul through the veil? A very powerful binding magic was required, as well as extremely sharp perception, and even then, the caster was at the mercy of the spirit as to whether the spell would be a success or not. The world slowly scrolled by under the gliding alicorn as memories passed through her mind.

Many were grainy, aged, drawing themselves through her mind like ancient pictures. Visions of her and Starswirl working away in a dark library, the light from their horns and a single candle allowing them to perceive years of written knowledge. Clover the Clever performing alchemical experiments under the castle... goodness, that was a rather loud explosion when she tried making medicine.

Good memories... well, except for that one accident. Clover spent a week cleaning up the dungeon after that particular mix-up! Celestia chuckled at the memory, ending with a melancholy sigh. Of course she wanted those two back, she wanted everypony back... those that fell in the war, those that fell due to a simple mistake in a lab, and ponies simply taken by Time itself.

Moving on was the hardest lesson to learn, but it had kept her strong for all these years. Being immortal could be hard when the pony didn't have the right mind set.

She shook her head, setting her mind back on her task, and touched down at Rainbow's house. The clouds here seemed puffier than those in Canterlot... that was another experience she hadn't had for hundreds of years: sleeping on a cloud. Perhaps her royal duties would slacken enough to afford a nap above Canterlot, or maybe just spend a night outside...

A nasty cold would likely follow that... A grimace crossed Celestia's face as she made her way to the door, looking over the house. Well, it couldn't really be called a house up close, it looked more like a fortress... Cloudsdale's architecture shined through in white pillars supporting the open-walled house's ceiling, though certain rooms definitely were blocked off by clouds. Posters and pictures were spread all over the living room, as well as an unfinished breakfast; work must have called her in early that day...

The Princess wandered about the house, looking over the pictures; most, if not all, were pictures of the Wonderbolts, several of which had the Captain's face circled in red marker. Walking closer to one of the pictures, she saw something strange... that was a circle, wasn't it?

Hmmm...

That is indeed a circle. Strange... ah, it blends in with her mane! That's why. Funny, looked like something else for a moment. Celestia raised her brow as the realization hit her. Perhaps she wanted to be Captain of the Wonderbolts some day?

More wandering about the house revealed little besides how much of a mess a single pegasus could make. The answer to that? Quite a mess indeed. It looked like her bed chamber while she was still learning telekinesis... such a long time ago, that was. Food was spread all over the place; must have been enchanted by residual magic from the furniture, though some of it was stuck to the ceiling.

She had quite a love for sandwiches.

"You'd think Rainbow Dash would eat a little better," Celestia mumbled to herself, deciding to head back to the living room; intruding in the household of another was quite rude, though her curiosity had to at least be half-satiated, "I'm sure she'll haunt me for this."

Looking over the pictures again, she found what she was looking for; a shot of Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts after the Best Young Flyer's Competition. She looked so happy then...

She turned and pulled one of the posters off the wall and looked both articles over; both bore autographs from Captain Spitfire. Nodding to herself, she walked to the door and headed outside. Sunset had fallen to twilight during her flight.

"Luna's probably waiting for me," she sighed; another slumber awaited her. Perhaps she could stay up and assist Twilight with her work? A flap of her wings sent the alicorn towards the shadowy town of Canterlot, a tiny blue light shining from the top. Quite impressive how Luna had improved over the last year and a half; her magical skill had only sharpened during her banishment, likely under Nightmare's guidance, but what truly impressed Celestia was the sheer volume of magic her sister contained. The light generated from her horn must have been blinding most of Canterlot for it to be seen all the way from Ponyville... even if the city was three hundred feet up the side of a mountain, the central tower of the Castle had a clear view of the valley. Quite impressive worksstallionship from the time of King Goldenline.

"Huk!" Celestia threw a hoof over her mouth as her stomach suddenly flipped; what was with this powerful nausea!? Has Twilight already cast a ritual?!

The threat of vomiting passed as a violent burp, causing a thick blush on her white cheeks, thankfully covering up the green, "Excuse me..." she said to the air. Even when alone, it was polite. The rest of Celestia's flight consisted of random bowel turnovers, burps, and one case where she had to stop on the mountain to vomit. Every inch of distance covered created more of a disturbance in her stomach; that was definitely a ritual being cast, she never ate anything bad that day!

Curse that magic...! She thought as another burp broke its way through her clenched jaws. Wiping her lips with a quick swipe of her leg, she continued her journey back to the castle, the trek becoming more difficult as she got closer.

By the time she got back to the castle, she'd suffered another vomit attack, and several more rude burps. Her throat was getting sore from all the apologies for her gas... had Luna not been there, she would have collapsed!

"Sister, are you alright!? What's wrong!?" The blue alicorn asked, panicked.

"I-It's alright, Luna... just a bit sick from t-the ritual occurring downstairs," another burp passed through, and Celestia fell to her flank, "I'd forgotten why I sealed away that magic..."

"It... causes you severe nausea?" Luna raised her eyebrow, "And what magic dost thou speak of, Sister?"

"N-... Necromancy."

"Necromancy? You mean that field of magic discovered over four thousand years ago?"

"One and the same... ohhhh," Celestia grasped her stomach, mouth twisting in sickened agony, "Get me a bucket please..."

As she released her lunch, a bucket teleported in just in time to save the balcony from a rather vile green stain. Luna stepped back as the stream continued flowing, blocking her eyes from the rather undignified display, "Goodness, Tia, thou must hold back on thy eating habits..."

"We try, Luna... this magic has never had a very good effect on us," Celestia took a deep breath, confused by her fallback to the old tongue; she'd had a thousand years to get used to the new dialect! She really was sick!

"Sister, thou must go to bed. We shall handle the setting of the sun tonight."

"I've... business to take care of, but thank you, little sister. Good night," Celestia covered another burp with her hoof before getting up and stumbling over to the door. She looked like a Canterlot corner drunkard who'd just won the lottery!

"G-Good night, Sister," Luna blinked, staring at the receding tail of her elder sister; Twilight's capabilities in magic truly have improved if her necromancy was capable of affecting Celestia from here!

Her eyes turned back to the horizon as she returned to her duty of setting the Sun, her horn letting off a radiant blue light. The roofs of a hundred households below shone with the sheer output of magic from the alicorn as she pulled the Moon up above the mountains of the East. Her task complete, she gazed out across the valley, mulling over the day's news about the fallen pegasus.

How are we to compete against any threats like Discord now? Me and Tia could gather up enough power to replace Loyalty, possibly... but it wouldn't be worth much. We'd likely exhaust ourselves, and Twilight may suffer adverse effects from having the combined power of two alicorns coursing through her along with the rest of the Elements. We only pray Twilight can bring her back...


Two seer spells and three rituals... nothing.

Twilight sighed, looking at the platform before her; arcane spell circles covered every inch of it. She couldn't even see what was in the other world, let alone the spirit she wanted to see! There were forty rituals, thirty five seer spells, twenty soulseekers, and five spiritual ascension spells, every single one requiring massive amounts of channeling and effort to make them work! And every one she'd tried thus far came up a dud!

Every single one!

Twilight swayed slightly, exhaustion conquering her muscles inch by forsaken inch, and her eyes fell back on the blood circle she drew as her first ritual; she could still use that if the Princess came back soon...

Her mind ran over the results of the other five spells; the only real effect she got was from one of the rituals... she could hear the clinking of metal, and saw shadows of... something connected to the walls, but everything vanished after her horn started feeding back with the huge amount of power she was throwing through it. The stabbing pain broke her focus, and then it was all gone... she hadn't been able to get that far since.

Maybe she was just exhausted? Used too much magic with that spell, so the other two rituals wouldn't work? It was possible...

C'mon, Celestia... I'm running out of gas here she thought, her jaw hanging slack. She pushed it back up and locked her teeth together, now realizing she'd lost feeling in her mouth and the base of her tail. Were these effects part of the spell as well? No wonder the field was banned!

A tap on her shoulder took the librarian by surprise, and she spun around, nearly crumpling on her left foreleg; her mentor stared back at her, rather taken aback by the sudden jump.

"Twilight? Are you alright?" She mouthed, no sound coming to her student; great, now she's deaf?!

Twilight nodded, then poked her ear, rubbing against it. Her ear popped and the gentle breeze from the door created sound in the world once more, "Yeah, now I am."

"So, how fares your efforts?"

"Nothing'th come up yet... I got clothe, I think with one richual, but it needed thuth a mathive output of magic that I couldn't handle it fah more than a few thecondth."

"I see... Necromancy does require quite a bit of power, you are bending Nature after all."

"I gueth tho," Twilight sighed, flinging her bad leg over to rub the back of her neck; hopefully she'd get feeling back in it soon.

"Did something happen to your tongue?"

"Can't feel it."

"Ah. I retrieved your requested items, though I suggest you take a break, Twilight."

"Why? I have to find Rainbow Dath!"

"I know, and I'd be more than happy t-" Celestia held down a belch; cursed residual magic, "-to help you, but there is a severe risk to using these spells."

"I don't care! I need to find her!"

"Calm yourself, my student. You will find her... it just takes time," Celestia shook her head with a sigh; it took a lot of time... and time wasn't what they had. She laid the poster and photo next to Twilight, "Here. I chose the items that seemed to have the most significance to your friend. They both bear autographs from Captain Spitfire of the Wonderbolts."

"Perfect! Rainbow Dath loveth her!" Twilight meekly smiled, part of it sagging; she really should take a break...

"Excellent, though I am taking you out of here for twenty minutes so you may relax. Overuse of your magic could endanger your horn."

"Or my life... I did thtudy medithine, Printheth."

"Follow me. Luna's taken over for guiding the Moon, so we can go over some volumes in the Archives."

"I can thtudy with you?"

"I'd like to see what you've learned over your studies."

"Yay!" Twilight bounced around like a filly on Hearth's Warming Day, and led the way out of the tower. Celestia giggled to herself; she hadn't seen such enthusiasm since Twilight's entrance exam! She quickly followed her student out of the tower, throwing one last look to the ritual area. The clinking of chains sounded off in her ears, shadows moving about the room, and she returned to her march back to the main hall, her smile fading away with each clank of metal.


Oh, what tricks can I show the Princess!? What've I learned, ummm... I've honed my telekinesis, successfully created a permanent mustache on Spike and Pinkie, I can change the color of things... what else? Flares, fireworks, a bit of offensive magic... I hope she doesn't expect anything too spectacular.

Twilight stopped bouncing at the top of the stairs to the tower, finally getting feeling back into her leg. She sent a few sparks through her horn, seeing the purple stars fall to the ground, and nodded in approval of the lack of stabbing pain in her forehead. She walked down the steps into the main hall, tongue stuck out in concentration; she had to be careful not to mess up her walk, since her leg still felt a little numb...

"Theeere we go..." Twilight sighed as she set down on the floor. Turning, her eyes locked with her mentor's at the top of the steps, the blackened mural still casting angelic light down around the regal alicorn. Great... stage fright...

"Alright, Twilight, how about we start simple? Show me one of the easier spells you learned, and we'll walk up from there. Maybe I'll have a few things to show you as well," Celestia put on a warm smile; even she could still get excited over some things, and seeing how much Twilight had progressed in her studies was certainly a fun subject!

"Oh... ok. Um... levitation is probably as easy as it gets, sooo... ah, I know!"

Twilight shut her eyes and sat down. Her face started to show strain as small bolts of lightning jumped from the tip of her horn to her mane, sparks of power increasing their frequency exponentially as the seconds passed. A furiously bright purple ball appeared at the end of her horn, becoming brighter as more power flowed into it. Twilight pushed forward, casting the ball into the air, and after a few moments, it exploded into a multitude of colors.

"Oh my!" Celestia raised her brow as the sparks from the firework coallesced into a face. Not just a face, an actual three dimensional model! A model of Spike... "T-That's quite impressive!"

Twilight clopped her hooves together in foalish glee, a giant smile on her face.

"Where did you learn to do that, Twilight? I've never seen such accuracy!"

"Well, it started- hey, I've got feeling in my tongue back!" Twilight just added volume to her smile with the realization, keeping her eyes on her mentor, "It started back when this travelling magician came to town, showing off a bunch of tricks. I thought it was cool how she could create fireworks with her horn, so I started studying that field for an hour every week. I started with typical fireworks, all explodey and stuff... wow, explodey," she seemed bothered by the use of the term, but carried on, "And I kept on making them. About two months later after I got genesis down, I started adding new spells to the mix."

"Such as telekinesis?"

"Yeah, that was the first spell I added! I started using telekinesis to try and catch the sparks, but they kept slipping through my grasp."

"So I guess you added more power to the genesis spell, allowing the sparks to come in a higher density?"

"Exactly! With bigger sparks, as well as more of them, I started trying to guide the sparks as they fell to the ground, but it was pretty hard just grabbing them and creating a shape."

Twilight blinked, expecting her teacher to come up with an answer to what she did. Celestia blinked back, confused as to why her student stopped, "Twilight?"

"Um... j-just wondering if you... knew what I did."

"No, I'm honestly interested in your answer. Carry on."

"Alright! Ahem, as I was saying, it was difficult to catch the sparks, so I used the cloud generated by my telekinesis spell to draw 'paths' for the sparks to fall through. It started as simple shapes, like squares in the air, or straight-edged numbers. I took it further by adding curves. Fireworks are pretty useful since I can make math equations in the air, though before, all I could do was the simple '2 plus 2 equals 4' equation."

"Very interesting, Twilight... but how did you figure out three dimensional art?"

"Thaaat took me a year to figure out. The basic mechanic lies in casting three different telekinesis spells at the same time."

"What?"

"Yeah, three spells. It takes a lot of power, but I've used levitation all my life. Telekinesis has a pretty strong base in levitation... so I just kinda felt it out."

"Three spells at the same time sounds... I've no idea, honestly. The most I've done is two at the same time."

"Really?" Twilight's brow shot to the ceiling in shock; she outdid the PRINCESS?!

"I'm not joking. I may have a lot of power, but my focus in the magicks is lesser than my sister, but three spells at the same time is incredible, Twilight!"

Poor Twilight almost fell apart right there, her eyes welling up with tears of pure joy, "Y-You really mean that!?"

"I don't see why I'd lie about such a thing, Twilight. Few ponies have achieved this level of mastery over a single spell, so doing it with levitation in such an advanced way... why, it's historical."

Twilight sniffed and wiped her eyes, heart practically jumping out of her chest with pride, "T-Thank you, Princess...!"

Celestia smiled; what she said wasn't a lie. It really did take a lot of focus to control multiple spells at the same time. Her focus limited her multicasting to two spells, but her power allowed those spells to vary greatly in strength. What else did she have to show off? "Shall we move on to something a little more advanced?"

"There is a spell I do know, but it takes a lot of power... I dunno if it's safe to cast it."

"Fair enough, Twilight. Explain it to me."

"Uhhh... well, it's a spell developed for offensive purposes."

"Offensive purposes?"

"Well, um... I was doing some reading in the Archives around when the last Gala ended, and I found a spell I thought was interesting. When I cast it, I... um..."

"You...?"

"... Blew myself up..."

"You exploded."

"Exploded, conflagrated, combusted. I created fire."

"You what!?" Celestia furrowed her brow, shocked.

"W-Wh-"

"Twilight, that's military grade magic! Somepony not part of the Guard using that is a federal crime!"

"Huh!?"

"What book was it?"

"I-I don't remember! I was just looking through the Archives!"

Celestia grit her teeth together, trying to bring herself back under control as Twilight laid down on the ground, ears drooped, "I'm sorry, Twilight... it's just, that kind of magic is very dangerous... you could have destroyed a lot of material, as well as injure yourself."

"I-I'm sorry..." Twilight sniffed, her pride vanishing as quickly as it had come. Celestia came down the steps and sat down beside her student, placing a hoof on her shoulder.

"I shouldn't have raised my voice like that, but-"

"No... no, y-you're right. I did hurt myself with that spell... b-but I've been practicing with smaller volumes of magic, trying to keep it under control..." Twilight shivered as her shoulder was rubbed, eyes moving away from Celestia.

"Well, if you can do it safely... start small. Use as little magic as possible, I do wish to see this."

"Really...?"

"Yes, but after this demonstration, you must never cast such a spell again unless it is in the defense of your country."

"Right."

Twilight gulped and rose to her hooves, sitting down next to her teacher. She squinted her eyes, looking up at her horn as it started to shine again. Purple stars sprayed off in random intervals from her horn as waves of magic moved up to the tip and compressed into a ball, her tip quickly becoming hot. With a hiss of an exhale from her, the tip of the horn ignited, and a small trail of flame creeped up into the air.

"I... I did it...!" A smile crossed the librarian's lips as she stared up at the little fireball.

"Well done, Twilight. It takes a lot of focus to weave the elements... how big did you make it when you first cast it?"

"Well, I put my usual amount of effort into the spell. It never said how much to use, so I just... put in what felt appropriate. It blew up though, so I guess I used too much."

"At least nothing burned, right?"

"Heavens no! I'd never want to harm a book! So much written knowledge in that library, and I was responsible for it all if any of those books were destroyed!"

"So nothing burned?"

"Not a thing," Twilight said with a nod.

"Good, good. How're you feeling now?"

"... Great, actually. I've got feeling in all my muscles now."

"Well then, maybe it's time we looked for Rainbow Dash again."

"Right!" Twilight charged up the steps, her legs filled with renewed strength. Celestia followed slowly behind, careful to balance herself so her nausea didn't cause another attack on her digestive system; strange how frail her body could be when exposed to the right emotions...

By the time the Princess arrived at the tower, her student had already assembled the correct materials and placed her hoof on the circle. A wave of nausea hit her like a runaway train, and she fell to her knees, gagging. Magic shot up from the circle, enveloping Twilight in an ever-strengthening flood of power, the walls curving further upwards. As the spell reached its apex, Celestia caught a view of the aurora borealis at the peak of the tower, and then everything fell to darkness.

Bm bm...

... A heart beat? Celestia blinked, looking around. They were still in the tower, but all the light had been sucked away by something. She moved to get back up, but her stomach did so many backflips she lost count, falling back onto her belly. "T-Twilight..."

Her words fell on deaf ears, as the unicorn was in a completely different world.



Chains. Chains littered the tower, extending all over the place... ever shelf, every book, every single brick in the walls had some kind of chain connected to it, and they all extended up into the top of the tower. Was this the next plain? Was Twilight dead!?

A quick swat across the face confirmed that she wasn't dead, and that slapping herself in the face hurt quite a bit. She rubbed her burning cheek while looking around, staring at the innumerable golden and silver chains adorning the tower. Why were all these here? And where did they all go? Were they even tangible, could they be touched? She blinked, unable to comprehend all of it; this was a whole other plain of reality! Something normal ponies couldn't perceive, something even the greatest mages in history had difficulty reaching!

She'd crossed the veil, and kept her life tied to her home... she'd taken the first step to finding her friend. What did the book say about the blood ritual, though? Looking to her side, she just found the drawing of her blood circle, but that didn't surprise her...

The size of it did! It extended to fill the entire floor of the platform, and it even pushed outward to the books! How'd it get so big?! She stumbled backwards onto her flank, completely taken aback; why'd it get so huge? Was it containment, a shield that protected her from the demons in this world? Her eyes flew about the walls, unsure of what to look for; what did a demon look like, anyway?! Was it just a pony? Or was it like the stories?

Nothing jumped at her though, nothing... other-worldly, anyway. Just the clanging of chains kept her company in that quiet tower. Finding that she was safe for the moment, she allowed herself to more closely inspect the chains connected to the books. Weird... they're all rusty. Well, not really all rusty, but some links are completely covered in oxidized iron. Where do all these chains go, anyway?

Twilight looked back up, shielding her eyes; the ceiling looked like the Sun! Since when did the castle lose its roof!? Pulling her eyes off the star above, cursing the temporary blindness as she blinked, she settled on inspecting one of the chains. They were all connected to every book, but some chains had aged more than others, at least they looked like they did. Sparks of gold shined through the cracks of rust on some of the chains, the books connected to them having titles related to research materials.

Through The Time Stream, By Star Swirl The Bearded? Oh, yeah, this was one of the books I studied when I was in school! It was all about Temporal Theory and the concept of time travel. Wonder what it'd be like now to read it?

Twilight smiled to herself, staring at the ancient spine; newer copies had been made, obviously, such critical research material being lost to the ages would be a dire hit against the scientific community, but this one had to be the original book... a book written by a legendary mage. Maybe some footnotes and old scrawlings hadn't been translated over to a newer book?

Her smile grew as interest conquered logic, and she reached towards the chain to move it away...

No, focus! This isn't the time for reading when I'm so close to finding her! Just wish the book was still here so I knew what to look for...

Her eyes quested over the numerous books and shelves again, searching for anything that could give her a hint. High up in the tower, just under the star she cursed so heavily for nearly blinding her, hung a disconnected chain... a sky blue chain, "Is that hers? Did the book even say anything about these weird chains? One of the circles' spells was a 'Chain Bind'... maybe?"

She reached up towards it, but it was much too far out of her reach. She instinctively focused magic into her horn for a teleport, but nothing came; did magic not work in this world? She clenched her teeth and tried a few more times, each failure setting off more warning lights. Great, now I don't have a weapon in case something does come after me!

Her brow fell as she stared at the blue chain, taunting with its gentle clinks as it sat out of her reach. Her eyes moved to the chains beside her, and a rather simple thought came into being.

I'll just climb up! Hopefully I can do it...

She reached out to the chain with both hooves, but as soon as she made contact, the notion that this plan would go perfectly was readily fired out the window by Pinkie's Party Cannon, along with her as she suddenly lurched into the air, pulled along by the chain like some frantic fisher tearing a shark from the Drake Ocean. The blue chain flew by and smacked her in the back, tearing the unicorn off the golden chain.

The ivory walls of the Archive tower left her sight a second later, revealing the wide expanse of the valley below. Her eyes widened as seemingly millions of chains stretched and flew about the landscape, attached to random points, places, buildings and even ponies. The chain currently trying to tear the spine from her body was firmly attached to... something in Ponyville, a white cube in the distance.

"Woah!! W-Wa- i-it's not possible for a pony to move this fast!" She screamed at the air; unless you were born a Pegasus, no living pony could survive moving at this speed! They'd be torn to pieces faster than somepony could say 'farewell'! "Rrgh, let me go!"

The wind carried away her demand before it could arrive anywhere useful as she continued careening towards her home town. She dropped quite quickly towards a massive white building, though anything identifying was torn away by the blur of the wind and the sound of a hurricane. Fortunately, her body fell straight through the roof of the building.

Unfortunately, she slammed into a floor about half a second later, crushing her flat against it. Twilight groaned and pulled her paper-thin body up off the floor, wobbling a bit as she looked over herself.

"Ahhhhh!!!! Wh-What happened to me!?" She screamed, flailing her flat limbs around, an action that looked more into a graceful dance than a panicked whipping of limbs as her mind imploded. This screaming and flailing continued for a few minutes before her body puffed back out, though the mind-paralyzing confusion shined through in her face.

"Ok... note to self: never grab another chain again!" She quickly nodded with her vocal mental note, worried of what other shape she might become should she slam into a mountain or some other structure. She might even turn into another pony if she slammed into somepony! Her mind spun into a number of scary, yet humorous images of becoming a duplicate of her friends; could the country really take two Pinkies?

Her train of thought was interrupted by... chittering? Or was it chewing? Scraping, definitely. She looked around for the source of the chittering, taking a few steps into the middle of the room.

"Wait, th-this is a morgue..." the wind heard her say as her eyes quested, settling on a single door with a blue chain sticking out of it. Not a single other chain protruded from the morgue, setting a weight of sadness on her heart; not a soul remained in that morgue, she knew as much.

Wait... a chain is always connected to a soul. If that's Rainbow's...!

The unicorn immediately ran for the door marked 'CI-47', the chittering noise growing as she came closer; the sound was readily ignored, all prospect of fear thrown aside as the hope of seeing her friend again swelled inside her. She grabbed for the door and pulled...

Her hoof passed right through the handle.

"What the?" She tried again, missing the handle, then again. The same swipe repeated about twenty times, each yielding the same damning result. Her growing frustration was quelled slightly as she tried her magic, but she couldn't even begin to generate the needed power for her levitation spell.

"Why does a stupid door have to be in the way!?" She stomped the ground in anger, staring at the defiant door; how dare it separate her from her goal! She couldn't grab the handle, she couldn't open the stupid door with her magic... all she could do was sit there and think, trying to melt a head-sized hole in it with her eyes. If her horn couldn't generate the heat, maybe her glare could?

"Why can't I grab the handle?" She asked herself, looking down at her leg. Nothing seemed to be missing from the appendage; in fact, it was rather well-groomed. Maybe all that sprinting wind-blasted her coat and stuck it to her skin? Casting the image of herself exercising from her mind, she tried grabbing for the handle again, moving slowly enough to analyze her every movement.

Sure enough, her hoof passed right through it, the handle not even disturbing her flesh. It's like she wasn't even there!

"So I can't touch it, alright. Maybe I can do this instead?"

Twilight leaned forward, pressing her horn against the door. Like her hoof, the horn passed through as if it were air, and the head behind it quickly followed. The chittering became much louder as she saw the source of the noise, or at least part of it; eight small, black eyes stared back at her, two serrated pincers clacking together in annoyance.

Suffice to say, Twilight really didn't like bugs.

A righteous scream and shove against the door proved ineffective for getting her away from the freaky, beady eyes, so she simply resorted to jumping through the ceiling. Through that, she saw way more corpses than anyone ever should.

"Get it away get it away get it away get it away!!!" She screeched as she ran to the door of the morgue, panting in a frenzy of terror, "Wh-What was that!?"

The damned chittering continued, just in case the eyes weren't enough to give Twilight a heart attack. She got her panic under control and grit her teeth, staring at the door; Rainbow's in there, why is a bug stopping her?

"It's just a ghost, Twilight... c'mon, grow a spine. You need to do this!" She bit her lip and moved forward, hooves dragging silently across the white tiles to the door. The chittering grew as she came closer, as if the thing could hear her approach, and it was not happy about it.

"Just a ghost... just a ghost. Just a ghost. Focus!" She mumbled, forcing herself to the door. On her last step to the door, she threw her head in and stared the beady eyes full on, "You don't scare me!"

The pincers simply snapped out at her, a quick duck being the difference between losing her hair and losing an eye. The... roach-like bug quickly devoured the pieces of mane it cut off, wings buzzing in glee. She took the chance to inspect the body in front of her, only to find something far worse...

Rainbow Dash hovered above her corpse, held down by the bug under her, and many of the chains had scratches and chunks torn off; this thing was eating her chains!

"Oh no you don't! I'm not letting you take my friend away!" Twilight quickly lashed out at the insect, putting a hoof right in one of its tiny eyes. It crunched under her force, but it didn't relent, snapping back out at her neck. Pulling one of the chains into its path, she saved her neck from getting a manecut, and got to work with destroying the bug.

"C'mon, Rainbow, wake up! An i-icky bug is on you! Rainbow!!" Twilight shouted, yanking on the bug, but the grip of its numerous legs around its victim's body was too strong. Another snap forced Twilight down into another cell, feeling a bit of her mane get lost to the snap. Her determination only grew with every second that passed, and she quickly bolted back up and started beating on the eyes.

One by one, they crushed into a sickly ichor that spilled out through Rainbow's corpse, but neither side stopped in their attacks. A snap of the pincers was followed by the crack of a hoof against the insect's face, but the unicorn felt her strength beginning to fade. She attacked more and more, but the bug just wouldn't let go, like a vulture defending its cadaver to the last...

"Get off her! Get off! Get your disgusting body off her now!!" Another crack of the hoof, the beating continuing until, eventually, she started to feel numb. The numbness was followed by a slight burn in her chest, but she ignored it all, hitting the bug on her dead friend's soul until she could hit no more.

But the spell had other plans, as she felt something emerge from her back. The only sight she got when she turned around was something purple coming out of her back, followed by a sudden yank... and then she was off.

The spirit realm hadn't heard such a scream for another in years...

"Rainbow Daaaaaash!!!!"

Author's Note:

AT LAST, it's done! Holy crap, this took a while! Hope I didn't keep anyone waiting too long, and consider this my start in writing again!