Chapter 29: Ürēslas Ūtethsürituls (Twilight Falls)

Ironic that the best place to hide a hoard is darkness, a place where neither dragon nor thief can see. ~ Unknown

Twilight groaned, cutting off the flow of mana from her horn to the series of geometric shapes painted onto the floor beneath her. She carefully made her way to a nearby chair and slumped onto it, wiping a bet of sweat from her forehead. The ritual she had been attempting was proving to be more difficult than she had previously calculated. Which made no sense as according to book she had 'borrowed' from the Secret Canterlot Archives even a barely 'marked' foal should have been able to actuate. And it wasn't like she was trying to modify her soul; all she was after was to be able examine the metaphysical attributes of her soul... Nothing dark, dangerous or disgusting...

I won't use blood unlike... She shivered as the memory of 'Spike' slashing his own wrists replayed in her mind. That was a path she was never going to go down...Yet Even though there were times, moments that it was tempting, so tempting... soon...

Sighing in frustration Twilight pulled said book to her, slowly flipping through the pages hoping to there was something that she missed that could explain her failure. But after double checking from front to back three times all she could ascertain was that she had done everything as prescribed. The only thing she could think of was that given she was an alicorn and not merely a unicorn, like the the book and thus the ritual circle was made for, there was the possibility that more of her horn was needed for the circle to be able overcome her soul's natural resistance to mana manipulation. It shouldn't be a problem, as long as she didn't shave beyond the keratein coating of her horn.

She was just about to rise to get the tool needed to shave her horn when the chair beneath her suddenly disappeared causing her to stumble forward. As she carefully steadied herself, she realized that she was no long inside her lab but in the hallway just outside her lab. She blinked, trying to figure out why. It didn't seem like it... Was it possible that she triggered one of the fail safes? But how?

"Ma'am."

Twilight nearly jumped at the sound of the voice. Schooling her face, she turned to come face to face with Captain Wild Spark and Private Wing Blade, both of whom were standing side by side and at attention. She raised an eyebrow at the sight. It was a bit weird, inappropriate actually. A private and captain should not be standing side by side at attention. At least not alone... Unless... Was there something going on? Something bad, or was this another one of Rainbow's Dash ill-conceived pranks? It wouldn't be the first time that the prank happy pegasus had disguised herself as one of her guards. And given that there were two ponies it meant that Pinkie Pie could be on it this time. "Captain, Private."

The private saluted while the captain merely nodded in response to her greeting. Twilight took another moment to look over the two guards before deciding she didn't want to know. But as she stepped back towards her lab the captain stepped in tandem with her.

"Not going to let me get back to work?" Twilight flatly questioned when the captain once again stepped with her.

"That is correct, Ma'am. Not until you've had a proper meal..."

"Fine." Twilight sighed with a slight eye roll.

"... and a minimum of eight hours' bed rest."

"All right." She now grumbled, trying and failing to not grit her teeth. Fool...

"It will be delightful, I'm sure." The traitorous captain Wild Spark finished with slight upturn of the side of his mouth. However Private Wing Blade was only barely able to maintain any professional decorum with a hastily covered laughing snort.

I must not banish them and then throw them in a dungeon in the place that I banish them to. I must notbanish them and then throw them in a dungeon in the place that I not banish them to... Twilight repeated to herself as she most assuredly did not stomp away. Stupid, annoying preventive measures!

Her laboratory, along with the library, were now sealed, a ward blocking her from entrance by any means both physical or magical. She would only be allowed back in after leaving the castle to eat a full meal from either one of the restaurants or food stalls before returning and getting at least eight hours of sleep. The ward was designed and put into place to prevent incidents similar to the 'want it need it' and 'next Tuesday' time travel loop or worse from happening over and over. (After Spike had been... dragonnapped the stress and guilt lead to her neuroses spiraling out of control leading to a sharp increase in said incidents.) The only ones that could countermand that particular order was either Princess Celestia or Princess Luna or the unanimous agreement from of all the other bearers.

Twilight thought of contacting the princesses NO! but that meant questions and questions could easily lead to Luna finding out she had been having troubles sleeping due to nightmares... And she knew that her friends would agree with the captain and then also contact both Princesses... If she wanted she could bypass the ward (it was possible with a bit of work) but that meant that the bearers and the princesses would be definitely be notified and she would be right back where she did not want to be. She was stuck. She was going to have to do as the sla-captain 'requested.'

She hissed as she opened the doors of her castle, the brightness of day cruelly stabbing at her eyes. Reflexively she started forming a mental letter to Princess Celestia about dimming her sun just a bit before quickly discarding it. She knew that if she sent anything that remotely could be considered plea, threat, or complaint about the sun she would only get another prewritten form letter. She had not forgotten when Spike had found the stash that Princess Celestia had kept under her throne's cushion. The checky drake had not stop smirking (and snorting whenever she glared at him) for nearly two weeks.

Fighting, the thankfully already lessening, if only slowly, pain, she judged from the location of her ire that it was close to noon. A bit too late in the day for Sugarcube Corner, which was was all well and good as she was not really in the mood for the one-two punch of diabetes that was their goods and Pinkie Pie. Never mind how relentless Pinkie Pie would be to turn her frown upside down. That left the Hay Burger as the only real option left as she wanted to get food quickly as the quicker she ate the quicker she could get to sleep and thus back to work.

Thankfully, even though it was midday, the cold winter weather kept most ponies off the street or in too big of a hurry to get to their destination and the warmth within that she didn't have to deal with too many curious looks or concerned murmurings. Furthering her relief, when she got to The Hay Burger there was only a single pony in line. She waited then quickly gave her order of a hayburger with sweet potato fries only to quickly double it when her stomach growled loudly. (She could always take anything remaining home to eat while she worked.)

Twilight paid and took her meal only to turn and nearly dropped her meal in surprise. Right in front of her sitting in a booth lazily munching down a single hay fry was Applejack.

"Applejack!? Why are you here?!"

"Ah'm on lunch break." AJ spoke before popping another hay fry into mouth and gesturing for Twilight to join her.

Twilight raised an eyebrow as she sat down across from AJ. With Hearth's Warming less than a week away there is no way that the post had slowed down enough for AJ to be off the clock much less eating out in the middle of the day. Never mind AJ usually took a sack lunch to work. One because she preferred home cooking whenever possible and two to to save as much money as she could so as to help keep Sweet Apple Acres afloat. (The farm had yet to recover financially after the dual loss of Granny Smith and zap apple harvests.) Thankfully AJ was able to get a winter seasonal job at the Ponyville Post which seemed to be enough to counter the deficit. "Did something happen at the post?"

AJ let out a grumbling sigh, "One of the temp ponies got hurt (an' no it wasn' Derpy) an' Parcel Post said Ah can pick up a few more hours tah cover but only if Ah git for an hour or two an' have 'real' lunch."

Twilight gave AJ a silent 'ah' in understanding before biting into one of her hayburgers.

"Ah'm a mite surprise tah see yah here las' Ah heard you an' Spike were headin' up to the Crystal" SlaVEs...

"What?!" Twilight nearly shouted in shock, rubbing a hoof in her ear. There was no way that AJ said what she thought she heard.

AJ stared at her, concern etched on her muzzle. "You okay sugercube?"

"I'm fine." Twilight squeaked out, looking straight at AJ knowing that looking away would definitely give away the lie.

"It's just Yah do look like yah bed ain't seen hind nor hair of yah for quite a few nights..."

'Don't grieve alone, Twilight.' The words of dragoness suddenly echoed in her mind.

She won't understand...

They won't understand...

"You won't understand..."

AJ sighed heavily, her gaze shifting down and away. "Sugarcube yah know ah don' like lyin' and ah really hate it when friends lie..."

Twilight sighed. Of all the friends she just had to run into it had to be the pony lie detector. Maybe if she gave enough of the truth she could forestall an intervention... "It's just a new magic spell that is proving to be more difficult than I had calculated..."

"Ah," AJ nodded in assumed understanding. "An' yah activated the 'time out' didn' yah?"

Twilight growled in annoyance as she hangrily took out her frustration at being caught out on the rest of her hayburger.

"Twi, Ah won't ask, not just yet, Ah will give yah a couple of days tah figure it out before Ah start pressin' for the full truth, but until then yah be needin' some rest. The last thing ah think any pony would wan' is a case of bake bads with yah magickin'."

Twilight grumbled as she sulkily ate a fry. It seemed like everypony was conspiring against her...

Twilight breathed deeply as she relit the last of frankincense candles that now surrounded the ritual circle. As much as the addition of the candles would make it seem that she was about to preform magic of the darkest kind straight from the pages of a comic book the low light from the candles was easier on her taxed and tired eyes and the scent helped calm her nerves without making her sleepy (unfortunately lavender which would made everything a bit less cliched would have made her fall asleep).

"My, my, my..." Twilight's blood ran cold as she slowly looked around only to see a pair of red orbs blazing in the darkness beyond the candlelight. "A week and you still can't even get the simplest of soul ritual to work?"

As Šizra stepped out and into the candle light the fear that had gripped her was temporarily overwhelmed by rage. Even though it never worked before she attacked him with everything that she could muster. Her eyes twitched as the visage of Šizra rippled like the surface of a pond disturbed by a pebble as her mana beam passed through him as if he wasn't there. Of course... Just once she wished her addled mind would conjure a Šizra apparition with some substance. If only so she could get her hooves around his smug neck and strangle him for the world.

The manifestation idlily glanced down where Twilight beam had harmlessly passed through it before looking back up, giving her a sneering smile. "Oh, you slaves are so amusing..."

Slaves... Šizra had never- without any warning 'Šizra' rushed her, and to her shock, grabbed her by the neck and painfully lifted her up into the air.

"It's no wonder you failed to stopped me." Šizra whispered in her ear as he started to squeeze.

Now Twilight really panicked as she wildly fought with all her being both magic and body desperate to get out of Šizra's grip. But she couldn't get any leverage to pull his paw off and nothing else she did seemed to get him to let go either. If anything, it seemed to only make Šizra more angry and cause him to squeeze even harder. She had been in many fights but never before she had never felt so terrified. And unlike all those other times this she knew she was going to die. Her strength was already rapidly dissipating and Šizra was showing no signs that he was going to let go...

Everything had nearly faded to darkness when suddenly the grip around her neck disappeared. She could only moan weakly as she fell onto the floor in a crumbled heap. The sudden release allowed her to finally breath and her lungs worked overtime to get oxygen back into her.

"How? You- You're just an apparition, a-a figment of my mind!" Twilight finally managed to sputter out past painful gulps of air.

"Hoping for a rescue from your precious little princess of the night?" She shivered in fear as Šizra was paradoxically gentle as he lifted her head up forcing her to look at him in the eyes.

"No, this is no nightmare, slave." Šizra darkly chuckled before letting go of her and walking back into the darkness. All that she could see of him was his glowing red eyes when he finished with a, "This is real."

And with that, just as fast as he had arrived, Šizra had seemingly vanished. Twilight panted as she fearfully gazed about hoping that Šizra was truly gone. Her fear was quick to returned in full force at the sound approaching hoofsteps. She shook hard as she frantically looked around desperately trying to ascertain how she could escape when a familiar figure stepped out into the light.

"Shining Armor!" Twilight cried out in relieved to see her B.B.B.F.F. "Thank Celestia you are here! Šizra..."

"How can you be a L.S.B.B.F.F. if you couldn't even protect my little brother?" Shining Armor sneered out, walking up to her to accent the last three words with a hoof to her chest.

"What? But I..."

"We trusted you to keep him safe."

Twilight snapped her neck to the side so fast that it nearly hurt. "Dad? Mom?"

"You promised!" Her mother shouted before breaking into sobs.

"Mom? I..."

"We have no daughter." Night Light growled out, cutting off Twilight before gently leading the now inconsolable Twilight Velvet away.

"Wait!"

"Yah low down no good varmint!"

"Applejack?" Twilight mind spun, trying to keep up from rapid fire mood whiplashing. First her brother, then her parents, and now AJ?

"Of all the worst friends one could have you are THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. FRIEND!"

"But..." Twilight tried to retort Rarity only to suddenly find Fluttershy hovering right in her face, the pegasus' eyes blazing in fury.

"Never, ever, ever, ever, ever! That's four 'evers'." Pinkie shouted out, bouncing up and down popping in and out of Twilight sight so fast that she dizzily stumbled back. "That's like... forever!"

"You left your friend Spike hanging!"

"No, I-"

"Forever!"

"Please!" Twilight whimpered out but her plea fell on deaf ears as there was suddenly no one there but the soul crushing darkness that now pressed against her, "Don't leave me..."

Twilight swayed a bit, blinking and groaning as she struggled to focus. A headache pounded her skull with every beat of her heart. She knew that what she was experiencing was caused by the combination of lack of sleep coupled with the very heavy use of very difficult magic the past week. But she was sooo close, too close as all she need to do was make sure...

SSmassh the CrssSSsytalll TreEeEE

'HE MADE THE ELEMENTS! THE CASTLE! THE MAP!'

By their nature gems could be quite hard they were also very brittle and thus susceptible to shattering with the right blow. Twilight had calculated earlier that a rock the size of Tom traveling at least two hundred hooves per second should be suffi- No, not enough... Yes, it was better to shatter not merely break the Tree. She probably only had one chance before whatever defenses that were enchanted upon the Tree could activate.

DooOOoo it...

Twilight lit her horn with mana but then hesitated, suddenly not sure if this was the right move.

'SOMEPONY DO SOMETHING!'

RrrememberRRrr hHHeeEe maAAaAde it.

'HE MADE THE ELEMENTS! THE CASTLE! THE MAP!'

ItsSss hisSS fAulLTt.

He must go

He must go

DoN't Let hiM sSstOop YoUuU

'Please don't let this backfire on us...'

Twilight choked backed sob as the memory of Spike's nervous muttering when they had taken an unconscious Šizra prisoner. What she was about to do was far riskier...

'SOMEPONY DO SOMETHING!'

'How can you be a LSBBF if you could even my little brother?'

'We have no daughter.'

Twilight hesitation ended as she saw a vision of Šizra taking the element of kindness from the tree. In a sudden fury, she gritted her teeth forcing even more mana through her horn. Loud scrapping sounds filled the cave before several large jagged rocks speared out of the ground and into the Tree of Harmony.

Yyyyyeeesssss...

Twilight mood was oddly apathetic as the Tree of Harmony give a mighty crack before it and the elements embedded in its branches shattered into thousands of pieces. Not that she really had any chance for her to truly have much of a reaction to what she had just done as the pain from the headache that she had been suffering the past few days suddenly spiked. It was so great that it nearly brought her to her knees. Her vision faded in and out as the pieces of the tree rained around her the sounds of the falling crystals oddly missing over a high pitched yet muffed ringing in her ears.

She did not know how long she half stood there panting hard as the ringing and pain slowly faded away, but as soon as she felt well enough she slowly turned and limped away. She had never used as such an extreme amount of mana all at once before and she could tell. Everything ached. But at least this was not the first time she had suffered from mana exhaustion; all she would need was a cold compress and a lie down. Yes, a cold compress and a nap, and then the next phase of his plan could begin. Enslaving the Crystal po-Slaves...

Unbeknownst to Twilight or anyone else, six faint lights shimmered into the air before a shadowy figure stepped out of the shadows of the now darkened cave. The figure came to a standstill in the midst of the shattered remains of the Tree of Harmony. It shook its head as it watched the slowly retreating Twilight.