Emerald Secrets (Closed: SteelEagle)

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                           


Twilight soon found herself being picked up and manipulated by the slightly bigger, slightly stronger Swift Squall. She squirmed briefly and then stopped. As embarrassing as it was it was more so to struggle and fail, so she just allowed it to happen. And allowed him to reveal his deeply held excitement for he and Fire to start a family. No doubt they'd be the most spoiled and loved fillies since Flurry Heart herself. Say what you will about him but Swift Squall was likely near-perfect father material, from his strong code of morality and responsibility to capability to support his children through any task. Mostly, she was just happy he let her down.  "Yes, well. Thank you for putting me down, hehe!" She said as she hopped off, gaining some ground between them as she regained her regal composure.

 

He responded to her concerns and she did indeed start looking around his laboratory. He mostly dismissed her concern- but she didn't think she did a good enough job detailing exactly what she was saying. "You do teach them...if you need to teach non-unicorns magical theorems and how to use them after manipulating their auric signatures to that of a unicorn, allowing them to use unicorn magic in theory. Look at most of this material? This room is a wonder, but the actual equipment is mechanically...boring. It is elementary in comparison to even the basic laboratory we know he used to have. Same with the educational material in the previous room."

 

Of course that was only half true and she knew it. While a lot of this equipment was dismissed out of hoof by her well-trained eyes, she knew it had to mask something greater. Indeed, this entire room was far too grand and well-kept to be a remedial laboratory writ large. So she went to work, looking for what her instinct was telling her. Those pipes, they mattered. She could see liquids being moved around, but where? And what liquids were they? She followed them where she could and made a few leaps of logic.

 

Eventually she came to a station with cabinets underneath. She opened them gingerly and then looked inside- and saw multiple pipes leading into the station from below. A handle was currently in a position that she assumed meant off. She licked her lips and then grasped the handle with her teeth. She pulled back and after a few moments of straining the handle turned in the opposite direction. She flew back and hit her rump as the liquids started to flow into the station, filling several beakers. "Ah-hah! I knew it. There had to be something hidden," she said triumphantly. 

 

She could see the colors and her mind raced. She was starting to piece together the dark purpose of this facility, but she needed it to be confirmed. She tried to climb up but ailed, her back legs kicking hopelessly against the air as she tried to left herself up. She fell down with a soft plop. She got up and rubbed it, sighing as she realized she needed more help. She'd leave the question of how long they were going to be changed to rest since she did not know the answer just yet.
"Here we go. I'm not big enough. Could you pour the red chemical into the blue chemical, then the resultant mixture into the white vial?"

[Ciraxis]

"....Uuuuuhhhh, yeah..." Swift answered, still embarrassed about his earlier outburst. But not enough to stop the next question.

"Did you.....toyed with similar idea Sparkle? I mean...you an Aunt already....correct? Surely that had to make you ponder...." unicorn started but soon shook his head. "Sorry....I guess it's too ponysonal to ask such things."

 

What Twilight said would explain this rooms purpose...well a part of it's purpose. But still something didn't added up....

 

"Alright, but Why?!" Squall asked a question that certainly bothered both of them. "You don't have to be an unicorn to practice alchemy. Just....just to see if he could? Science I guess, but from practical standpoint this is nonsense. Even if you alter earth pony signature to such way that would allow them to use sorcery, their output would never match natural born unicorn doing the same. It's like using chocolate hammer, the results - or the math in this case - just doesn't add up. If this is what Mycus was doing, then this room alone is an overkill. At least security wise..."

 

Swift watched as mini-Sparkle tried to ineffectually reach the alchemy table. And failed. Squall was thankful that his helm was masking his face completely - that way he didn't had to explain his amused expression.

"Suuure. Of us, I am the one equiped to handle any unpleasant vapors....." noblepony mused while following alicorn's instructions.

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                                   
 

 

Twilight was silent for a while as she processed how to phrase what she thought was happening without freaking anycreature out as much as the realization was starting to freak her out. In the end, she decided to just run him through the facts and the theory. Doing so in a clinical fashion would hopefully provide her the strength she would need to confront the terrifying theory that she harbored.

"Consider. What do we know of him? A brilliant chemist who craved immortality and knew the alchemical secrets of Equestrian magic better than anypony else," she started out with what they knew of their query. And most importantly, what was happening in front of them as he was mixing.
"So you want immortality. What beings have immortality? Only one is known to exist. Alicorns. Alicorns are the accumulation of the magical energies of multiple species of pony," she started simply. There was a lot more to it, but it worked in the aggregate.

"Which begs the question. You want immortality, you need the magic of an alicorn. But you can't simply take the magical essence of an Equestrian and smash them together. An adult pony's aura is too set, non-malleable. So you change the adult," she said, waving at the both of them.
"Of course, you can't just use the aura of a foal. Unless they have an auric spark, you'd have the magic but couldn't combine them. You need that auric spark between species in order to combine anything...in theory," she continued as the mixture turned white. That seemed accurate. Proto-Alicorn magical matter, if in such a disabused state. She took a deep breath.
"Unlike a unicorn's absolute maximum potential power or ease of use, an auric spark can be taught. Biologically, teaching a pony magic actually creates that spark," she said as she started looking into the classroom. "You don't need to make them masters of the arcane arts. You just need them to have a spark."

 

She walked back as the mixture darkened from white to....something lesser, finding a chair nearby and jumping on it like an excited cat.
"So you want immortality. You need the magic of an alicorn to try and do so, and you need the magical elements of multiple species of pony with a magical spark, which is living in foals. And you need all three species to have that spark!" She began excitedly before her mood suddenly shifted into a darker, more somber form. She looked away and then jumped down, trying not to stare at the pipes.

"What we're seeing...ponies turned into foals. Educated in magic, enough to create that spark. And then..." she pointed at the vials, at the pipes below them, all around the sense of magic sparking around them like augurs of a twisted fate, "their magic. We're seeing...their magic. It was extracted from them somehow. And what we're seeing here? The attempted mixture..." she took it, put a stopper at the top, and put it in her saddlebag. It was the key to solving the future problems they'd be encountering of course, but she wasn't happy about it.
"I'm...we should move on," she said hurriedly, trotting ahead of her ally as she answered both the unspoken implication and his question about her foalhood all in one.
 

[Ciraxis]

Squall caught up quick on what was Twilight was implying. His face expression behind the mask became a grim frown as Princess continued with her explanation. Somehow, Mycus's sudden case of death by poisoning by the hoof of his apprentice stopped being so tragic.

 

For a moment, Sparkle looked like she was going to freak out, but she held herself together - for now. Swift meanwhile, was previously exposed to his own share of horrors - both as the sellsword and as agent of EPIC - so noblepony was less shaken up by the inequine alchemical experiments, although he was uneasy all the same.

"....." Swift put his hoof on distressed mare's shoulder, in a reassuring gesture "Steel your heart Sparkle. We have to get to the bottom of this." he advised, before allowing the purple pony to move forward.

Stallion looked at the room over his shoulder. After what Twilight had said, he had an urge to scour this place with fire - but this wasn't his call to make from the moment he invited the Princess for this trip. Perhaps later, when they stop the region from exploding.....

 

Leaving the laboratory behind, Squall caught up to Sparkle. They were in a very long corridor - one lengthy enough that they couldn't see the end of it. Perhaps he can uplift his companion's mood by making her brain-cells work a little?

"....Extracting magic is a one thing....." unicorn started "Both Tirek and that friend of yours, Starlight Glimmer, showed that it is possible - even if their methods were quite different. What puzzles me is how Thrice-blessed knew it's the alicorn magical essence that what he needs. Roam's record show that there were none alive in his time period - so how could he come to such conclusion? Could he calculate this up? Or did the records were wrong?" he questioned. Perhaps the next room will get them some more answers.

 

But 'the next room' didn't seemed any closer. This was odd. By his estimate they had to walk along a mile - and yet there was no sign of door of any kind, or the corridor's end for that matter. Noblepony turned around....

 

To see that the passage stretches endlessly into the other way too. The lab they explored moments before was nowhere in sight. There was only one explanation for this.

"We walked into yet another trap Sparkle. First spell that manipulated time, now magic that stretches or bends space...." Swift guessed.

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                           

 

 

"The old records are certainly wrong," Twilight said as she followed the slightly larger colt. It was strange looking up to somepony anymore but she wasn't too vexed by it. This body of hers could not contain the same strength of magic as before but she was still vastly powerful and had all her knowledge. She was certain they could get through this. As they walked down the long, long corridor, she spoke. "Alicorns have existed since before Equestria. When the three tribes found this land, it is true that they went some time before they were contacted by the alicorns. Or made contact: The legends, and the history, are vague on that. But it certainly happened before his time. What was not widely known at the time was that alicorns are functionally immortal beings. That could have been something he discovered on his own through the study of records we no longer have. What is important..." she rambled on, half to keep herself calm, before the realization of the situation hit him and then her.

 

Another trap. Frustrating! Her horn lit up.

"Hmm...okay, I know this spell. It is an illusionary-transformative dilation of space spell. Essentially, we have simply trapped ourselves in this illusion, and through our understanding of it, made it real," she took a deep gulp. "It doesn't just appear to be infinite in either direction anymore. As far as we are concerned, it is infinite in either direction. Interesting...probably used to trap those with specific magical essences and power remaining. A safety measure. Not part of his design to extract it, but to safeguard what lies further in. We're stuck here regardless of action, forever. Very clever..." she ended as she sat down, pondering a solution.

 

Sadly for Thrice-Blessed, magic had advanced after his death. This spell required a change in their own definition of what space was, their own orientation. Once they shattered that barrier, the illusionary-transformative effects of the spell would fall apart.

"I'm going to reverse gravity in five, four, three, two, one and..." she said as she stood on all fours and started casting her spell. It took her a few moments of straining as her little body exerted all it could for every fleeting nanosecond until her eyes lit up white and the spell was complete.

 

A moment later she fell, luckily landing on all fours. After dusting herself off, she smiled and started trotting forward.

"In a few seconds we'll see ourselves making progress...and there we go!" She said as the end of the long hallway appeared and soon the magical trap in total dissipated. Luckily for Twi she didn't look up, where the bones of explorers and do-gooders from before the sealing of this facility were trapped eternally above them- their aether bound to the position where they starved to death, lost in a deadly illusion.

She reached the door and opened it.
"This should be his inner study and, if I had to guess, where the meat of his work was done..."

[Ciraxis]

"Immortal huh?" Squall mused before giving Sparkle a look-over. She was still missing her wings at the moment, but they will come back - sooner or later.

"So ravages of time have nothing of you? I guess Celestia and Luna aren't 'retiring' permanently then. Sure, they may be out of spotlight for century or three, but at some point they will want to be involved again. It will be at least five of you then." noblestallion shared some of his thought with his companion.

"And Mycus's records have to be older then those of Crystal Empire. If we save at least some of them from aeather decay..."

 

Of course the magical trap they found themselves in derailed his train of thought. What Sparkle described sounded dangerous......

"So....clap you hooves if you believe huh? If effect is so powerful, why aren't it used in modern magecraft?" he asked. The way she spoke about the magic, as if it was mere annoyance instead of danger put him at ease, allowing to indulge himself in curiosity.

 

The moment Sparkle finished her countdown, Squall jumped into the air, making triple-and-half somersault, landing on the 'floor' gracefully. Swift knew that Twilight was powerful, but it seemed that casting that spell required some effort from her.

"......I know you regaining you strength by the minute, but is it alright to strain yourself so much? Don't want to see you drying yourself....to the bone." Swift said as he glanced upward at the skeletal remains. Hmmm, this place was sealed until they got inside. Over curious students perhaps? Either way, better to not bring this to Sparkle's attention, if her near-freak out in previous room was any indication.

 

As Twilight opened the door and was about to pass the study threshold, Squall's leg barred her path.

"Hold it Twilight. We both can agree, that of us two...." swordpony beat his armored chest for emphasis. "..I am the less squishy one at the moment. Let me go first."

With that said, Squall entered the Mycus's study, without waiting for Princess confirmation.

 

The first thing Squall noticed was darkness... and dust. Lot's and lot's of long undisturbed dust. This place wasn't protected in same way that rest of facility was. Could it mean that it won't suffer from the same aether decay as the rest of it?

Pondering over this had to wait, because the second and third thing that Squall noticed - respectively - was circular railing and books. Massive, massive MASSIVE amount of books.

Noblepony carefully walked towards the railing, igniting two of his spellsabers to illuminate the place at least a little. The tome filled shelves that lined the walls confirmed that the whole place was circular.

This wasn't really a study...well perhaps it WAS - but it if was the case then it was combined with the largest underground library Squall has ever seen. Stallion sent one of his blades flying into the darkness, lighting the way, before it came back to him like a boomerang. Yup, the room was really big.

"......Around two hundred and twenty meters across....that means that circuit equals around three hundred and eighty...." he calculated aloud before looking over the railing.

"At least three floors below and...." a quick glance up..."...three more above. That makes seven minimum. If we assume that high of each floor is the same as this one...." another quick calculation.

"That's more the 42 million books...if not more. That's bigger then Bibliothèque de l'Prance......Sparkle?" Squall stopped and turned around, after hearing the sounds of utter GLEE coming from the filly-sized Princess.

"Oh right, Princess of Bookworms. You ARE in your element, huh?" swordstallion deadpanned.

 

[SteelEagle]

                                                                                          


"In time, perhaps. Though when they transferred over their power of the cosmos over to me, it was a near total subjugation of their aetheric connection to me. Essentially, they are still alicorns and still tremendously powerful, but I am in control of their own unique magic. So if they do choose to return, it would have to be a unique capacity. Aether is tricky like that. You can take and modulate and you may give it away, but once given, it cannot truly be returned. I doubt Luna and Celestia will ever have the chance to raise the moon and sun again, even if we all wanted them to. As for what else they offer..." She smiled. "I'm imperfect. I could always use more help, but I don't expect to hear from them for a while. Celestia has spent a very long millenium and more running a country alone and Luna spent much of that time consumed by a force of hate and bitterness. If any two creatures deserve and likely value a break, it is they," she said with a nod. 

 

Why wasn't this magic used more in modern magical theory? And should she be straining herself? She nodded. "Consider this. An illusion is a lie. The most powerful illusions, such as this, are simply lies that our subconscious comes to believe as truth, which alters our reality. The faultlines are numerous. Anything other than a top of the line illusion will fail to be perceived as anything more than that to most ponies, as our aetheric connection and auras have developed various protective measures. It goes by many names but the technical one is aetheric subliminal shielding, which protects us from illusions and many memetic transumtation effects.
And that has nothing to do with a critical eye blowing apart an illusion, or even a laypony realizing something is not right. And even the best illusions can be undone by altering facets of the accepted reality. Gravity, time, identity, age, material construction, pathing, geography- so many things can be changed by any number of spells that fundamentally alter the basic underlying reality of your perception that even advanced illusions can be countered by rather basic spell work. This means most illusions are either meant for extremely short durations or as stagecraft, where there is an implicit agreement to suspend disbelief," she rambled enthusiastically. As they made their way into the next room, she responded to his final question. "As for straining myself, I'm quite alright. If you don't work a muscle, you lose a-"

 

This was one heck of a library. She trotted forward as he spoke and investigated, looking around at the different sections. It was hard to not be excited. The overwhelming majority of these books seemed to be in good condition as well. The scholar in her was so very excited. How rare was it to find a single shelf of well preserved books after this long? To find a library this absolutely massive- and 42 million books was certainly the definition of massive- wasn't just rare, it was patently unheard of. She could do nothing but giggle! "Oh, you bet! We'll have to mark this for retrieval. Think about all the-" she started as she opened up a few books excitedly, reading from them quickly until something felt off. She turned to face him, only to be met by a rolling bank of fog. She tried to find him but to no avail, and couldn't hear him if he was speaking.

 

They were trapped, but by what?

"Squall?"

 

"Unstable magic brings unstable results. What is at the beginning of the end, the start of eternity, at the end of time and space, was in the middle of yesterday but is nowhere in tomorrow?" Came a soft voice, a feminine voice, as it echoed across the library. 

[Ciraxis]

"They wont?" Squall expressed surprise at the fact that neither Luna and Celestia wouldn't probably be able to take their old jobs ever again.

"That's...sad actually. Like hearing rainbow wouldn't contain color green anymore. I knew that those were their talents, but I came to believe it just required pure magical muscle - after all Celestia did her sister job for so long with no issue.....and I read unicorns used to control both before sister shown up. Although their control wasn't perfect....with moon having...phases?

And something called....eclipse....?" Squall mused. He understood both phenomenons theoretically , but they were hard to imagine without seeing with his own eyes.

 

The conversation moved back to aspects of arcane. Squall started to understand why Sparkle had founded School of Friendship, and why she taught there. Twilight was always ready to give comprehensive answer about magic...provided one was willing to listen.

"And what if some-pony would find a way to slip past aetheric shielding? Some texts I ran into claimed are ways to do that...although it requires old ritual magic, and spell modified for an individual. Like locks from mane, or hoof fillings.....And besides, you don't have to affect everypony - only key players. To vanquish an army using illusions you don't go for a corporal, you go straight to the general, making him do wrong decision with his altered perception." noblpony mused....."And since illusions are basically lies...if somepony really want to believe that lie, wouldn't it be harder for them to break it's hold? A return of loved one who passed away, getting your dream job, receiving present you always wanted etc....." Swift inquired further.

 

When Twilight mentioned what they should do about books, he nodded in agreement. He could do that. After all TEMPEST performed transport services too and....

 

The apprentice of magical mist made him abandon that line of thought.

"Sparkle?" he asked, but with no response. It appears that illusions could be used like that too....a visual equivalent of the white noise. Who needs subtlety, when you just can obscure everything, making somepony fall into a hole and break his or her neck?

Knowing this, Squall drew his weapons, ready to counterattack, but rooting himself to the spot. Wrong move on his part, and he would loop Princess head off, instead of that of would-be assailant.

When the voice came, swordstallion could only groan in annoyance.

"The most unstable thing here is my patience. What's with the old ruins and riddles?! An desperate, post mortem presentation of how smart somepony was?" he complained, his mind shifting to memories of his tomb raiding days. He wasn't proud of it, but he certainly was good at that job. Didn't left the ruins in question a piles of rubble, unlike Pathfinder. On the other hoof, he didn't ponder over the riddle at all. After all, he already knew the answer. "It's 'E' , as in the letter. Now can we move along, or can I at least see Twilight back?" Squall asked, hoping that the voice was done, and not readying herself to bring an 'A Game' riddle wise.