Spirit of the Arcane

by DuskIsGolden

008. Heart of Darkness

008. Heart of Darkness

Twilight felt her heart sink—this was horrible news, and she sat on her haunches at the thought of what could happen to her. Celestia and Luna exchanged glances and Luna walked over to her sister’s loyal student.

“Twilight Sparkle, if there is no other way to save Trixie’s soul, then…” Celestia sighed, seeing no other solution as well to the problem and got up and stood next to her sister.

“My sister is right, Twilight. If there is no other way to save Trixie’s soul, you must learn a bit of the magic yourself and go into Soulrend to amend Trixie’s soul of the deeds it has done upon itself,” Twilight nodded and replied,

“But Princess… what if I fail?” Celestia sighed and answered,

“You and your friends bear the Elements of Harmony; you have defeated both Nightmare Moon and Discord.” Twilight nodded again, stating,

“But neither of them knew Arcane magic,”Celestia felt her heart sink. After all, it was the truth, no matter how hard it hurt to think about.

“Twilight Sparkle, we have complete and utter faith that you will not fail,” Luna finally said after a few seconds of silence. “if you ever did fail, then the Courts wouldn’t have chosen you,”

Twilight let the thought sink in and she shuddered. Amongst all of her doubts, that was the truest of them all. If you ever did fail, then the Courts wouldn’t have chosen you, the thought echoed in her mind and she looked up.

“Where do I begin?” Celestia glanced at her sister, who nodded as if it were protocol to do so, and slowly trotted off to find the royal Libraries deep underneath Canterlot. There would be the ancient books of the Arcane magic and its deathly secrets. Several moments passed and Luna was carrying a small stack of books—generally thin—and she placed them at Twilight’s hooves, saying,

“These are the books of the basic spells of the Arcane, read through them thoroughly, Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight nodded, and when she was about to ask if she had to undergo the spell the other ponies had to go through, Luna shook her head.

“An Element of Harmony’s soul and body should be prepared. After all, aren’t you the Element of Magic?” Luna gave a reassuring smile and Twilight smiled dimly back. More truths were told. In the moments following, Twilight put the books in her saddlebag, said her goodbyes, and requested that a chariot take her back to Ponyville. But before Twilight left, she heard Luna yell,

“In the meantime, Twilight Sparkle, my sister and I will prepare a spell to protect your soul from being tainted by the Arcane!” and at that, the heavy doors closed, leaving a promise hanging in the air that neither the Princesses nor Twilight sure it would work.

* * *

-Ponyville-

-The Library-

Trixie paced back and forth, thinking and cursing to herself. This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening, this can’t be happening! She kept thinking, shutting her eyes tightly. What if I were dreaming? Her thought was interrupted by a ripple in the air around her. The sun seemed to fade and the air staled immensely. Death’s stench replaced the usual freshness of the Library.

“Clever, aren’t you?” a voice rippled from somewhere inside the room, “thinking you can employ one of the Elements of Harmony to save you?” Trixie narrowed her eyes and focused on the ripple. She had become well-acquainted with the presence of Ignatius.

“How can you still be here!?” she cried out, anger filling her voice. Ignatius’ rippling voice finally stopped and a deformed version of him stood before her.

“Why, do you doubt my existence?” Trixie glared strongly at the form and yelled in reply,

“You shouldn’t exist! I-I killed you, didn’t I?” the form of Ignatius gave a briefly dark grin. It nearly seemed to deform the very fabric of the Library.

“Maybe you did,” he declared darkly, “but what of my soul, do you ask?” Trixie sighed, still glaring. The doubt crossed her mind. The Harbinger of Fire was correct—what of his soul did she not destroy?

“Di- Didn’t I- I- I thought…” Trixie trailed off, her eyes wide now. She realized that when she blinked to bring Ignatius into the fight, she hadn’t destroyed is soul—she only managed to sever it from his body, and his soul was lounging around in her limited-space world. She stared at the ground.

“I thought I told you,” the grin on Ignatius’ face returned, “that you wouldn’t win.” The last few words hung in the air like an ACME anvil, waiting to fall. Ignatius soon slithered off into the space in between the world and Trixie tried to blink after him, but before she could reach the Phase, another spell broke her concentration, slamming her back against the wall. She tried again and again, only to have the same result happen. She finally collapsed and sobbed.

The sobs weren’t for failing to win, but the sobs were for the failing belief that she could be saved.

Twilight opened the door and was shocked to see Trixie’s body huddled in a corner of the library, blood splattered where she had been slammed against the bookshelves.

“Trixie?” Twilight inquired lightly, setting her saddlebag down and walking over to the blue mare, “what happened to you?” Trixie looked up, her eyes glazed but yet concentrated and said, barely audible,

“Ig… Ignatius was here…” Twilight blinked dumbly, sitting on her haunches.

“Who?” Trixie glared for a moment and then realized that Twilight wouldn’t know who she was referring to. She said again,

“Ignatius… was here, Twilight…” Twilight narrowed her eyes. Circles were one thing she hated, circular conversation being one of them.

“Yes, but who is Ignatius?” Trixie closed her eyes briefly.

“The Harbinger of Fire,” Trixie muttered. Twilight nodded slowly, processing the name. She looked around the bookshelves, whispering the name to herself.

“The Harbinger of Fire, The Harbinger of Fire… I’ve heard it—briefly—before, but I wouldn’t expect this Ignatius or whoever to be that…” she continued looking and plucked a book from the shelf, reading the title to herself,

“The Harbinger of Fire by Dr. Lockett Hooves,”she opened the book and sat on her haunches. As the book lay open in mid-air, Twilight read to herself,

“The Harbinger of Fire is a title given to the lead assassin of the Arcane Courts; few ever make it to get to that point of skill and ability, and rarely ever do Earth ponies ever get the chance-“ Twilight looked up, her face contorted into a mass of confusion. But that’s impossible, she said to herself, there’s no way that an Earth Pony can learn the arcane magic themselves! Twilight shook her head and looked back at Trixie.

“Trixie, is this Ignatius an Earth Pony?” Twilight mentioned and Trixie looked back at her, shaking.

“Yes,” the small whimper barely escaped Trixie’s lips and Twilight looked back at the book, the next line or two reading,

“And when an Earth Pony does get the chance, their natural strength grants them an unusual ability after pushing to learn the magic. Most of them have an inlaid Fire Ruby endowed with the power of an Alicorn to help them,” Twilight blinked a few times and reread the sentence to herself. But who would do such a thing? Surely the Arcane Courts wouldn’t have a leader like Ignatius now… or would they? She thought as she set the book down and helped Trixie up to her hooves and led her to comfortable place to rest.

“I went to Canterlot to ask if there was a way to save your soul,” Twilight mentioned as Trixie weakly climbed into the bed, clearly exhausted. Yet at the mention of being saved, Trixie gave off a faint smile. She quickly fell asleep and Twilight walked back into the Library and grabbed a couple of the books Luna had given her. The title was unreadable, but the text inside looked as new as any other book Twilight had seen. She started to read through the first few pages, occasionally getting up to practice the spell.

* * *

Comments

[The Midnight Stalker]

hello I'm glad to see you're still alive. I was wondering when you'd get around to updating this.

[DuskIsGolden]

1883261 Hey! Haha sorry about that... I've been meaning to update this for awhile, but I kept forgetting T_T. And I think I'll start reaaaallllyyy cracking down on planning what goes on from here on out with this. I feel like it's losing steam just a bit. I'll try to be a little more constant!!

[The Midnight Stalker]

No pressure. I haven't updated my stuff in 2 months so ya don't worry

[Arcane Spirit]

I'm Arcane Spirit, and this is my favourite title in the Citadel FimFiction.