Chapter 1
"And the award for Master Magician goes to..."
Trixie held her breath, adjusted her starry hat, and put on her best show-smile. She was already trotting forward when the announcer finished.
"Sassy Stars!"
The breath she had caught in her throat and the world seemed to slow down as the cheers drowned out everything else. She lost again, for the third year straight ever since she started. Each year she made a pilgrimage to Las Pegasus just to show off her skills, and each year she took a hit straight to her pride and bit-purse. So she left. The good ponies of Las Pegasus didn't need to see anyone crying to ruin their fun, after all.
That was three months ago. "My dear Starlight, I write to you now to inform you that I will be extending my vacation from Ponyville," she stopped at this, a finely edged quill held aloft in her magical grasp. She rehearsed it in her head all morning, but putting her thoughts to paper was proving much harder than she thought. A stray tear fell from her cheek as she continued. "Indefinitely. I do trust that I will return to Ponyville and you one day, hopefully soon. But..."
Another tear fell now, and a small trickle of black ink stained the paper she wrote upon. Balling up the missive in a fit, she threw the offending note out of her caravans window as she broke down into another tear-filled fit of hysterics.
That night at Las Pegasus she had lost more than just an award show for magicians. When she left the city in a daze, the joy that was her work left her too. Now it was merely an action she could perform, dazzling to some but horribly empty to her now. It was all so empty to her now. Even her wagon was less inviting and warm, less so with the approach of winter. But it still could make her money, still feed herself. In the hopes of rediscovering her passion, she abandoned her normal circuit and charted new paths through towns and village she had never visited. But even that wasn't enough.
And now, she worked her trade in the far off borders of YakYakistan, trading a day of parlor tricks for some food, pocket change, and a warmer bed than what her caravan could afford her. The proprietor of the inn was a polite if dour Yak lady, more concerned with the running of her business than anything else. But when the day came to play her tricks on the surly clientele, she noticed something odd. On the very top of the cabinets, covered in cobwebs and dust long settled, she found a book. Thickly bound and old, the only reason she even noticed it was the characteristic Golden Horseshoe of the old Unicorn tribe. Such markers indicated things of worth, at least to the magically inclined. So, in exchange for the rest of the week (the Yak woman was in no mood to be talked down to or settle for anything less) Trixie would take the book. After all, no Yak could read it, nor summon the magic available to a learned Unicorn.
The rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully, the magician scraping in a hoof-full of bits in tips, just enough to afford a decent meal in this desolate frontier town. Still, that book could be worth a small fortune to the right buyer! The Royal Canterlot library might not even have a copy of this book! Trixie stole away into her small caravan that night, giddy for the first time in months. Lighting a candle, she gingerly set the tome down onto her writing desk and blew the dust away.
-------------------------------------
"Let's see now..." The title text had been unacceptably faded, it's gold threaded script barely discernible against the thick coverwork. Nothing she couldn't handle however. A minor alchemical cantrip quickly restored the aged book's fibers to brand new, peeling away ages of wear and grime into a insubstantial ball she idly tossed out of the window. "Mord, Emmut, Queue, and Starswirl: Eighth Edition. Catalogue of Primal, Evocation, Alchemical, and Summoning Magicks."
Trixie gasped so hard the candle was almost snuffed out in her surprise. "THE EIGHTH EDITION!" This lost work was practically legendary. The combined learning of four brilliant magicians from each corner of the world. Mord, the long dead Onyx Dragonlord, who supposedly discovered the deep lore of the earth. Emmut, a figure lost to history who had been a pioneer of wordless magic. Queue, a Changeling renegade who dabbled in alchemy and Shapeshifting so much he supposedly became an ageless golem of gold and jewels... At least before he fell prey to tomb raiders in the great Palomino Desert. And of course, Star Swirl the Bearded, who taught magic to Celestia and Luna and banished countless threats to Equestria.
What laid before Trixie was beyond a small fortune in gold bits. It was quite literally, priceless. The Great, Powerful, and soon to be Obscenely Wealthy Trixie balked at the revelation. "Ah..Haha...HAHAHAH! YES!" This would not only put her on the map, this would allow her to buy every cartography company in Equestria! Her luck had finally turned around!
HMYGOSHWHATSHOULDIBUYFIRST!?" Already enthralled by the fabulous riches such a find would bring to her, she idled through the pages barely paying attention to the text, flitting between the long worn words and incantations between the aged sheets. But then a troubling thought occurred. What if it was a fake? "No... No this has to be real!" Brutish yaks wouldn't be capable of so fine a deception, but the thought nagged at her. She couldn't risk returning this find for vast sums of gold only for it to be found a forgery! She would be hunted down for theft and fraud and probably jailed in a very deep and cold dungeon, where only the most hardened of criminals go.
Obviously, she couldn't have that. But how to prove it? Magical theory wasn't exactly a difficult science to Trixie, especially when her close friend Starlight taught her the mechanics of spell work to aid her profession. One of the most interesting things about arcane lore was the indelible Pioneer's Mark, left on each and every spell ever discovered or designed. It came and affected every spell cast in some way, or commonly the caster. Some spells were colored consistently, regardless of the wielder's own magical aura. Others affected the environment in some way, like the distinctive lightning crack and slight burn left behind in a teleportation spell.
Sometimes it was a peculiar taste, or sense left behind by the original discoverer of such spell. Still others had increasingly strange Marks, which demanded more than simple flourishes and words. The famous "Alicorn Aegis" was a shield spell of such strength it could banish hurricanes or invasions, supposedly lost to history until the Changeling Invasion of Canterlot. And again used to defend the Crystal Empire from the natural weather of the Frozen North. Even on the other side of Equestria that day, Trixie felt that Mark in particular. A powerful sense of belonging and devotion, that faded just as quickly as it came to her...
Which brought to mind a way to determine the authenticity of the work. Star Swirl's spells were uniquely tuned to him, his own aura tinged into the very mechanics of each spell he fashioned. Being something of a famed trickster himself, his own Mark was familiar to her. Any spell he discovered would therefore bear his Mark... Trixie resumed her search through the book, trying to find the first spell inscribed with his name and techniques.
After flicking through a dozen chapters dealing with all sorts of branches and spell families, she finally found one written expressly by Starswirl, his trademark flowing quill script already recognizable to Trixie after years of studying his arcane notes and formula. “Let’s see now… Unseen Servant? No, doesn’t look very advanced. Or impressive as a mere cantrip. Something bigger…” More spells sped by in her rush. The stylized image of a barely visible spear before a unicorn mage caught her eye. “Spectral armament? Now we are getting somewhere. Still not quite what I am looking for though.”
Then finally, a runic icon she did not recognize on another stylized book, this one seeming to radiate lines of power. “Mordenkainen’s Dimensional Arcane Codex?” That’s odd. She didn’t recognize the name. Starswirl had a habit of naming the spells he discovered after himself, but just as often relegated the name of the original discoverer to the spells he logged. But Mordenkainen certainly wasn’t a Pony name, at least not any brand of Equestrian she knew of. But it looked impressive.
“Alright then, let’s see…. Reagents, casting dimensions, warnings, uses. Basic salt, silver dusts, hexagrammatic warding to seal… Wow this is a bit more complicated than I thought!” But it was worth it. It might cost her the last of her silver stores, but it had to be worth it. It just had to be…