Chapter 1: As if it were alive.

For nearly a century, something had been calling out, broadcasting its voice over the land of Equestria and further still. But few unicorns born into this world are able to hear its voice. So it had traveled. In the hands of antique merchants, collectors, historians and over time it had eventually come to be part of a dragons considerable hoard. Then, as the dragon traveled the world, it came to rest in a mountain that overlooked an Equestrian town known as Ponyville.

As luck, or fate, would have it, there was one particularly gifted unicorn residing in Ponyville. One that, for the past month, had been hearing the voice. And as the voice slowly became aware that it could be heard, it grew louder, beckoning for her to come seek it out, rescue it from its dark, uninhabited resting place. She tried to ignore it, but it soon became impossible to put to the back of her mind. It began to have a negative effect her life, her friends were commenting on how distant she was being, her studies just weren't happening. Instead she would just stare at whatever book she had open for an hour or two and then close it, hoping she would be able to do something the next day.

To make matters all the more irritating, the language the voice spoke in was foreign to her. While she thought she may know what language it was, that did not change the fact that she could not understand a word of it.

When she woke up this morning, it was no different.

'Adsum.'
Twilight's eyes snapped open and she shot up, and then, with a frustrated grunt, fell back down again. Why won't it leave me alone!

'Venite ad me invenient me.'
"I CAN'T UNDERSTAND YOU!" Twilight screamed and rolled off of her bed. ...I'm yelling at my own imagination... I must be losing my mind.
Her scream had inadvertently caused her assistant, Spike, to jump out of bed and frantically glance to and fro. "Wha- Twilight, what is it? are you okay!"

She groaned. "I'm fine, Spike. I've just been having a hard time getting a good nights sleep for a while now."

Morning routine went about as usual. Bed made, breakfast eaten, coffee inhaled. Soon she was ready to go about her daily comings and goings. With a visit to the market, an order form for the latest set of encyclopedias and lunch with friends on the agenda.

"Oh deary me, Twilight. You look dreadful." The bags under Twilight's eyes were easily noticed by Rarity. "Are you having trouble sleeping?"

With her obligations for the day having been completely sorted, Twilight had found herself seated at a park bench with five of her friends. She had been able to keep up as act until three of them had to leave with things to do. two of her friends; Applejack and Rarity, lingered. Both weren't the least bit ignorant to her sleep deprived condition.

For a moment Twilight considered insisting all was fine. But she quite obviously was not, and it would be best for her to be truthful. "Actually, yes.. For almost a week now." She had to prop a hoof under her chin to stop her face from greeting the table. "I have been hearing this voice, inside my head. It wakes me up every hour and I can't for the life of me figure out what it is."

"Hearin' voices? Ain't a good thing so far as I know, Twi." Applejack chimed in, looking worriedly onto Twilight from across the table. "What are they sayin'?"

Giving up on keeping her head upright, she removed the hoof under her chin and face-planted the wood. "Like I said, I can't figure it out. It's in a completely different language. I sent a letter to Celestia on the second day, but she couldn't figure out what would be leaving foreign voices in my head either. If it were in a language I could understand, it would be easier to figure out what was wrong with me." Tiredly, she sighed. "Perhaps it is all in my imagination."

'falsum'

Leave me alone! Twilight softly headbutt the table, desperately hoping it would somehow help.
"You really are starting to worry me, Twilight." Rarity said. She slid a hoof underneath Twilight's forehead, preventing any possible harm. "You must have missed something, if even Celestia herself couldn't help."

'Venite ad me'
Twilight said "Yeah, maybe." And forced a smile for Rarity and Applejack.

If Celestia couldn't help, it must be her imagination. It was all in her head, so she would have to fight it with her mind.

Unfortunately, passing another two days without any hint of the voice receding put her off.

Eventually, she could not act as if the voice was of her own imagination anymore. She had to at least attempt to locate the source of the phantom whispers that were now starting to block out everything else around her. She had to go find it before this incessant voice drove her up the wall, so to speak.

She picked a few items out and loaded them into a hot air balloon, and called for her assistant to follow.

Along with the illegible lines, there had also been an almost physical force pulling her towards the ever present whispers. She had some idea of where she would have to go to find the source of the voice for some time now, but truth be told she was hoping she could just ignore it, wait it out until eventually it went away. That was not the case.

Twilight had spent all of half an hour in the suspended basket, following the voice. It had led her in a familiar direction, soon she had arrived at the top of a mountain in front of a large, cold and very dark cave. With her young dragon companion at her side.

Twilight had been here once before. When it had been occupied by a full grown dragon that had intended on spending its one hundred year hibernation here, and along with her friends, she had to convince it to move somewhere else lest the smoke it huffed out while it slept blanketed Equestria in total darkness.

"I don't see why you needed to bring all these," The baby dragon strained as he pulled behind himself a cart, stacked high with books. "or why we're even here to begin with."

Twilight said nothing, instead she focused on the voice, and though she was reluctant to once again set a hoof inside of the cave.

"Twilight? Hey, answer me already!"

She blinked twice and glanced over to him. "Huh? Oh.. Sorry Spike, I'm just a little distracted... right.." Twilight never finished the sentence, she was far too distracted by the vast mountains of gold and jewelery that seemingly bring light to the pitch black cave on naught but their own mere existence.
Sure, she had seen it before. But the last time she was here, she was far to preoccupied with the dragon to fully appreciate the considerable quantity of valuables in his hoard. Or of the very cave for that matter. Finding something that could very well be as small as one of the coins that made up one of the numerous grand piles could prove near impossible.

"Oh wow!" Spike eyed the gemstones, salivating as he hungrily sized them up in his mind. "Twilight, do you mind if I-"
"No. Absolutely not. When we leave, not one gem will be out of place, okay Spike?" Twilight gave him a stare that seemed to shout 'Don't you dare'.

With a sigh, Spike dropped a gem that he had picked out, drooped is shoulders and begrudgingly followed after his purple companion, dragging the cart of books. "Why exactly ARE we here, Twilight?" Spike, unable to tame his curiosity, continued to set his gaze on as many gemstones as he could see.

"I'm not quite sure yet, Spike. But I feel like I'm getting close." Twilight, poked and prodded through the treasures. Not a single piece of gold or jewelry seemed to catch her eye, not even in the slightest. Nothing at all warranted her interest at all. That is, until she heard it again.
'Adsum'

A whisper. Difficult to interpret exactly where, but she was certain it came from within the cave. Twilight was definitely on the right track. From pile to pile, Twilight waded through the treasures is pursuit of the voice. It was slight, but she could feel it when she grew closer. It's so close. I just wish I knew what I was looking for...

While she fiddled with two impressive looking amulets, Twilight felt another, stronger pull from the invisible force. One of the mountains of gold and glistening jewels nearby held what she was looking for, and it desperately wanted her to find it.

Twilight dug through the mound and with her magic she withdrew from within the heap and held aloft, three books. Three incredibly old looking books.
'arctissima'

"One of these, it has to be one of these." Twilight set the books down and opened each, hoping something inside the pages may clue her in on which one had been calling to her. She did not need to look for very long.
While two of the books, though old, were perfectly legible, written in the language that ponies use in this day and age and contained old nursery rhymes and stories for children. One of them was written in the language that Twilight was certain she had been hearing for the last week, but she could not for the life of her translate without the right information. Information that she should have back at the library. For now though, a cursory inspection would have to do.

First few pages make up the index, She turned to what was apparently the first chapter Two paragraphs written out as one would write a descriptive or informative section... These look like instructions, Twilight turned the page, and her eyes, which were half shut, flew completely open. Illustrations that show two unicorns putting the information into practical use, by Celestia! She jumped to her hooves and finished the sentence aloud. "This is a spell book!"

Spike wasn't at all impressed with their find"And what makes it any different from all the other spell books you have back home?" he asked.

"This isn't just any old spell book, Spike." She practically shoved the book into his face "Look at how old it is!"

"...You have plenty of old spell books back home too, Twilight." He pushed the book out of his face, wearing a very bored expression laced with mild irritation.

She huffed. "That's not what I meant, look at the language it's written in."

"Okay, fine." Spike attempted to read the text. It may as well have been written in hieroglyphs. "I give up. What's so special about it?"

"It's a dead language, that's what's so special about it. Nopony uses it anymore. There could be age old magic spells in here, or secrets, or forgotten methods of shaping, weaving and casting spells!"

"Or it could be a really old first edition of 'My little spell caster'. And be all about how to make seeds grow, or small things float." Spike stepped around her and looked at the other two books that had been left open. "These books look just as old as that one does, and I can read them."

"Obviously this book has been well looked after.." She shut the book and held it aloft beside her "We need to get back to the library so I can properly translate this."

"Why do you get to take something and not me?"

Twilight lifted the pile of books out of the cart and set them down where she had found the spell book. "I'm not taking it, I'm trading for it." She had filled the cart with all of the extra copies of books that she had, knowing that if whatever she was looking for was in here, she could not in good conscience just take it without leaving something else in its place. She put the spell book in the cart and with Spike in tow, she made her way back out to the hot air balloon.

On her arriving back home, Twilight had wasted not even a second gathering together all of the things needed to translate the book.

"This is amazing!" Twilight had three things resting on the table in front of her. The spell book, a book on the dead language the spell book was written in, and a piece of paper that she had been using to write down the words she had managed to translate. Piles of scrunched and discarded pieces of paper littered the floor in her immediate area.

"What's it say?" Spike leaned over her shoulder, wondering what the fuss was all about.

"I'm not sure yet, I'm having a hard time translating this." She put a line through the last word she had written, and made another attempt at the translation.

Spike was perplexed. "You're excited because it's hard?"

She shook her head. "No, because this language is fascinating. In our language we only have three cases; Subjective, objective and possessive. This has six prominent cases; Nominative, Vocative,

Accusative, Genitive, Dative and Ablative. It's quite complex."

"...What?" Spike said.

"Just... It has many different ways of using a word, and each of these ways could change the context of the word entirely." She attempted to explain, though Spike was still young and had much to learn about his own language, let alone a dead one.

He slowly nodded. "Right.. Well let me know if you need anything." he said. He then made for the door, deciding he would find life a little less confusing away from home for the moment. Perhaps Rarity would like assistance with something.

With Spike no longer a distraction, Twilight was free to return to translating the first line of the first page. It was daunting how many alien words filled the page. She scrolled across the writings, wondering how she would manage this. A head on approach seemed as good as any.

I'm pretty sure that says 'secrata', meaning secret... 'Revelare'... 'Revelare secrata', reveal secret maybe? She added these two words to the sentence fragment she had already translated. 'Ego, Revelare secrata, fuerunt duo'... It is still incomplete but I think I'm getting a basic idea.
Returning her attention to the spell book, she picked the next word to translate. And then the next, and then the next. Eventually, she had a complete sentence. "'Ego tantum me revelare secrata electi fuerunt duo'. Which I am fairly certain reads; 'I will only reveal my secrets to two that have been chosen'...

That made little sense at all.

"It is written as if the book were a living entity... And why would it need two ponies?" She asked aloud to herself. Curious, she pushed aside everything else and brought the spell book forward. Twilight turned past the page that had the illustration of the two unicorns, there were more illustrations that she guessed must continue on from the first. But after that, the book was completely blank.

"Impossible!" She flicked over another page, nothing. She used her magic to speed through the rest of the pages, nothing at all. Just aged paper with not even a blot of ink to add any contrast to any of them.
I will only reveal my secrets to two that have been chosen...

Twilight turned back to the pages that weren't empty. There was no way to be certain, but it would seem that this first spell would unlock the contents of the book. But to do it, you need two unicorns... But not just any two unicorns... Chosen unicorns... How could she tell if a unicorn had been chosen? Unless...

This book called to me, and as far as I can tell, only me. If that means I'm 'chosen', then that would mean I'll need to find another unicorn that can hear the book... 'hear the book'? That sounds ridiculous.

Many problems came out of this. For one, the unicorns Twilight knows personally have all shown no signs that they have been distracted by something like she had. And as for the ones she didn't know, well she could hardly gallop around town shoving the book in their faces asking then if they could hear it, she'd quickly find herself in a padded cell and constricting white jacket.

All that could be done for the moment, was to translate the steps needed to be taken to perform the unlocking spell. She would need more ink and paper.

Two days after Twilight had found and translated (to the best of her ability) the spell book, she had stepped back into her normal routine. Conversation with her friends was back to normal, now that she was no longer distant and distracted. She was able to return to her studies without them ending with zero results. And the voice no longer bothered her. It was still present, but it no longer called to her, it just remained in the back of her mind, as if the only reason it was there at all was to make sure Twilight did not forget that it existed.

It was quite irritating, however, that she was unable to do anything else with the book by herself. Twilight had fully translated the opening spell, but despite her efforts, she could not perform it solo. Would she have believed she could enlist the aid of any other unicorn, she would have done so by now. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The book clearly stated (if she had translated it correctly) that only two 'chosen' unicorns can perform the spell to reveal the rest of the book.

Twilight had decided to stay in this afternoon, and catch up on the study that she had missed for the few days before she had been able to put a stop to the voices, and the two days she had spent checking and rechecking her translations. A quarter of the way into a book on magical history, which she had meant to have finished over four days ago, she was pulled from her immersion by a knock at the door

Probably Pinkie Pie telling me about the party she's throwing this weekend... again.
With a small sigh, she stood, marked her place in the book, and trot over to the door. Fully expecting it to be one of her friends, she had not really been paying attention to which one it was when she had pulled open the door. When her guest had let out a short, shocked gasp followed with a soft but easily audible 'You', Twilight, whom had been paying scant attention to the azure mare standing on her doorstep, could hardly believe her ears when she eventually processed the familiar voice. Her undivided attention had been won.
"...Trixie? What on earth are you doing here?"

–

End of Chapter 1.