Twilight's Nightmare

by Nightsclaw

CH 42 Princess of Books!

---

Twilight was in heaven, so many books, magazines and periodicals surrounded her. A simple Notice-Me-Not spell was all it had taken to get the run of the place. None of the humans even reacted to her as she levitated a small flock of books with her.

They did not have even a single magical protection on any of the books. It was almost as if they did not really care about keeping the impressive collection safe. It would be easy for somepony to steal a book or two unnoticed.

A crowd of humans gathered around some of those computers. The impressive devices could never replace the practicality and ease of use of the tried and tested tomes. She shook her head, easily jumping over the living obstructions.

Her hooves thumped into the far-too-thin carpet, only one of them looked around. The girl had the faintest whisper of magic on her. Not even enough to lift a single scroll let alone allow her to breach the extremely potent obscurement vailing Twilight.

Twilight ignored her and trailed her eyes along the spines of the nearby books. “Oh, Advanced Mathematics for Physics.” Now that sounded like a book she wanted to read. It floated in the air before her, joining the flock of knowledge in her aura.

Oh, if only she could spare the time, she would love to curl up and enjoy these books properly. No, she could only really spare the time to copy all the books she might need.

A simple spell rune traced in the carpet and she had prepared her base of operations for the trip. Tapping the circle with her horn, she poured power into it. It flowed through her body like liquid, leaving a chill behind. She would need to be careful not to spend her magic too freely, so there was no teleporting around just to save time today.

The combined Notice-Me-Not and Avoid-Me spell circle would give her all the peace she would need.

“Now, where to start?”

---

Twilight placed her fifth finished fiction book down. Who knew the answer to everything was forty-two? It's a shame they never worked out what the question was. Her magic had done wonders creating copies and consuming them, depositing the book in her Golden Oaks library.

Now, what book should I read next? The silence was deafening, only the distant sound of traffic reached her ears. The whole library was empty. There was not a single human around, and the light outside seemed different. Her thestral magic was proving too comfortable. It only took a moment before the magic receded from her eyes, letting her see the dark of night. At some point, she must have subconsciously adapted her eyes to be able to read despite the poor light for day aligned eyes.

“Night is not going to be happy… I hope she managed to play nice with Sunset and the girls.” Twilight looked at the stack of a few hundred books still in the to-process pile. Stealing was wrong, but she was only borrowing them, and this was a library after all…

With a twist of magic, all three hundred and ninety-eight books vanished from this plane of existence. Each was deposited safely in a new extra-dimensional pocket that she labelled Human World Literature.

She headed out only detouring a dozen times to add a few more shelves of books to her stash. They probably would not mind too much. She paused, raising the latest books she was taking in her aura. It was still the same magenta as always, and yet something seemed darker about it. She looked around the alien library, so clearly made for non-pony forms. There was no guilt or doubt about simply taking what she wanted.

There could be no influence from Night, Nova or any of the others. Here, free from her body, it was only herself, only the flawed creation Celestia had stitched together. She raised her foreleg, glad that it was the same uniform black as the rest of her form in her current state. This was the real her. This represented what she chose to be. Beautiful arcane symbols and mathematical equations danced in the abyssal depths of her body.

Her magic reached out, claiming all the books in her aura. Each and every tome, magazine and newspaper floated from its home. One simple twist of magic and all this knowledge could be hers.

Her horn blazed, and the once packed library was now nothing but empty shelves, just like the start of reshelving day. Her eyes roved the now barren depository of knowledge. The chill within deepened but it was nothing compared to the eager happiness that rose in her. So many new things to read, she would even need to add a new library to her castle if she stored them there. Now why didn’t I just do that to start with? I could have processed more libraries in the same time.

What would the humans think of the lone mound of books she left behind within the spell circle? Would it become a mystery for the ages or just a suspected prank?

She walked out of the defiled library, unable to keep the smile off her muzzle. She could read her new books when she got home. There was enough information to help with many of her research projects and most importantly restore Candice’s ruined body.

Was a library still a library if it had no books?

---

Twilight alighted and approached the statue, the soft grass so refreshing compared to the compressed carpet she had to endure all day.

There was no sign of any of the girls, but there was an addition to the statue. A bit of tape held a note written in Canterlot style short hoof.

Ponyville in trouble, went back, see you soon. Night.

The note held her gaze for a moment. She flipped it over, hoping for more. She needed more information, how could she decide what to do with just that? Anger at the overly brief note and panic that her friends needed her drove her forward.

Static energy clawed at her. Her morphic form rippled as a violent force hurled her back. A hiss of pain escaped her as magical flux continued to destabilise her wellsprings.

Like this, she was made up of nothing but magic and magic was her domain. She concentrated, easily stabilizing the vibration in her wellsprings with a simple effort of will.

“That should not happen.” Twilight stared at the portal. Its surface had repelled her and tried to disrupt the magic that made up her form. If she had been a ghost or a common spell effect the discordant harmonics it introduced would have crippled or destroyed her.

Her eyes narrowed balefully as she examined the hostile spell work. Whatever it was kept her from those that needed her. The mundane world faded to nothingness, magic spilt into the world to replace it. Lines, circles, abstract geometrics all danced around the intricate spell runes interlaced and anchoring the portal here.

The effect that obstructed her was certainly cleverly concealed. Somepony had expertly woven it into the base functions of the portal. Starswirl’s work was as easy to recognise as it was potent. This side of the portal would stop any spirits, ghosts or other disembodied souls from passing through.

This part of the magic had not just faded with age. It had degraded with heavy use. Tens or hundreds of spirits must have batted themselves against this magic, desperate to get back to the magic rich world of Equestria rather than fading into nonexistence.

Now, this certainly painted some things in a different light. Why was this needed? Who, or what, was banished to this world? How many did he or Celestia declare monsters that ended up executed this way? How many managed to adapt and find shelter in this world’s meager magical field.

She needed to get home, but could not merely overpower the security feature on the portal. Without her body and with all the magic she had been a little too free using, she was already down a significant portion of her magic reserves. Now there were many ways she could get more magic, even here, if it came to that. Anything with life could be drained to gain some magic, but the creatures of this world would offer only lean pickings, but there were a few exceptional specimens.

Twilight paused examining her thought, why had she even considered ripping magic from her friends? She would never turn on the girls here, or Sunset, would she? Yes, they were the most potent sources of magic in this world, but that was not only a despicable act, it was a betrayal of her friendship.

Even as she recoiled and her disgust churned what made up her currently nebulous form, the most efficient ways to achieve just that with minimal waste presented themselves to her. Every passage in restricted books, every foe she had fought and battled, their evil sorceries all lay bare to her in a chain of deduction that led to such elegantly crafted yet despicable feet of spellcraft.

She turned the spell runes in her mind’s eyes. Their perfection enthralled her.

Her hoof rested against her chest as she inhaled. The air escaped her porous form before she could complete Cadance’s calming ritual. Feeling the gasses ooze thought her torso was just not the same as a deep cleaning exhalation.

Her hoof moved away as she stared at it. The enthralling perfection of her new creation danced within her visible soul, that evil tool claiming its place amongst every spell she knew. A part of her forevermore.

Now how was she going to get past this obstruction?

She browsed her dimensional pockets pulling a few travel editions of her normal reference tomes. There had to be a way past this.

She looked at the book resting on the grass, the one she had just pulled from an extra-dimensional space. Twilight facehooved. She returned the book to her storage, closed her eyes and simply willed herself to return to her bastion.

---

Patchwork flesh enshrouded her as the golden threads holding her together itched. The small irritations took far too many seconds to fade from her attention, like the feeling of the tongue in her mouth when Pinkie kept talking about it.

The comforting scent of old books and fresh ink announced she was home. She was back in her library. Grey's quills still scratched away, adding to the comforting normality.

What did it matter that she had casually invented a new piece of dark magic. It had proudly been an intellectual exercise that she had not cast, nor would she, she hoped. Her now solid hoof pressed to her chest and she breathed in deeply. Floral and spice scents spoke of decollate infused teas. She breathed out the long exhalation taking her worries with them.

She opened her eyes past her extended forelimb that should have been part of Grey. Dreams stood with a tea service floating in her silver aura.

Dreams smiled warmly, but the bags under her eyes and the droop of her wings spoke of fatigue and bad news.

“What happened?”

---

Comments

[Gazer]

Uh-oh. Twilight is turning into Starlight.

[Argentyros]

Well, that's disconcerting. A bit of bleed through from Night it would seem. Possibly something to do with switching roles between who was in charge of the body and who was the untethered spirit? At least she stopped the worse of her two impulses.

[DarkGred]

oh, Twilight...

[Nachtschwalbe]

That's uhhh... That's something...

Mostly unsettling...

Does her time not inhabiting her body do that to her? Strip her of her morals? Is this an id-ego-superego-situation?

[Nightsclaw]

10681493
There once was a pony called Twilight. She was the best magic student. In an epic feet of spellcraft, she split her soul, a fate that no mortal could survive for long. Celestia took pieces for each of the growing soul fragments and recreated for her needs an approximation of the original Twilight. Of the fragments, she thought them destroyed,

Nova ended up trapped where all the letter overs were sealed in Twilight's Soul. Grey hid herself using Celestia's own mind magic to hide behind but leaving her trapped.

Nova had no contract at all with the outside world since she was trapped until Twilight started talking (Other than a brief instance when Twilight went all fire pony in the episode.)

Grey on the other hoof could see and pay attention to everything and anything Twilight sensed. Yes, Grey has a connection to Little Star, the interesting question is why. There are clues in the story you have read so far and more coming later.

Thank you very much for your interest.

[Cander]

10682530
Yes, there is more coming. We run into delays sometimes since personal life gets in the way. Hoping to keep on schedule more often though.