Twilight entered her library at around three-o'-clock in the afternoon, keeping her cloak draped over her withers despite its recent battering.  She took a deep breath and sat down, feeling the fatigue of the day catch up to her and make her want to just sit back and relax for a minute.  Her mind was still abuzz with activity, however, and she couldn't stop recounting the fiery flight that she had taken.  Since she had no intention of sleeping, she simply sat up and stared at the wall for a few minutes, losing herself in thought.  Eventually, she levitated her book up into her lap and flipped it open, looking down at the glowing words that must have been waiting on her the whole time.

"While I do agree that you've certainly earned a rest, I think it's time for us to take the next step in your education, Twilight Sparkle.  If you don't mind, bring me down to your basement with the wax so I can instruct you on the procedure."

Without hesitation, Twilight stood up and trotted toward her staircase, noticing on the way that Spike was rummaging around in the kitchen.  She poked her head inside and greeted the dragon, spotting a small potted plant on the kitchen table and realizing very quickly that it was the single flower from outside.

"Hey, Spike.  Did you bring that in here?"

"Hmm?  Oh, yeah I did.  It's kinda pretty, don't you think?"

"Yeah I guess it is.  Do you know what kind of flower it is?"

"No, but I figured I'd ask Daisy sometime tonight if I could...  By the way, did you just get home?"

"Yeah I did.  Just rummaging around for some things is all."

"Have you even gone to bed in the past few days?"

"I haven't slept in well over a week, Spike.  I don't need to anymore."  Twilight instinctively played with the cover of her book, wanting to get downstairs but not wanting to be rude to the dragon since he hadn't done anything to deserve a snap... yet.  She looked down amid the conversation and found a new line of text waiting below the first short paragraph, giving it a read in anticipation for a scolding of some sort.

"Solanum dulcamara.  Otherwise known as the Nightshade flower.  Beautiful isn't it?  Despite the fact that it's poisonous to you.  Funny though, they don't usually grow too far outside of the forest."

"It was growing just out back for a while...  Guess a seed got blown out here or something."

"Where it came from doesn't matter.  All things that grow are sure to decay, just instruct your dragon not to eat it."

"Please tell me you're not talking to that book..."  Spike washed his hands off in the sink as he spoke, presumably to clean up from the "gardening".

"Mmn, I know what that flower is.  It's called nightshade and you shouldn't eat it.  It's poisonous."  Spike could tell that Twilight's thinking was a little distracted by the way she truncated her sentences.

"I wasn't going to eat it, Twilight...  It's a flower.  Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm just saying, is all.  It's poisonous so wash your hands if you touch it.  Otherwise thank you for bringing it in, it really is pretty.  Anyway, I have to get downstairs now and start an experiment.  If you need anything just yell for me!"

"Well can I have like ten bits to go get some food?  There hasn't been anything to eat in this library for days."

"Oh... Sure... Just uhm, go get them off of my desk upstairs; I think I've got a coin purse up there someplace.  I'm sure you'll find it."  Twilight finished up her sentence just as she started trotting downstairs, shutting the door behind her and figuring that Spike would be able to fend for himself.  The dragon, though somewhat offended by the lack of attention paid, had started to get used to it.  Bitterly, he moved upstairs and into Twilight's room to search for the coins; at least he could get something to eat this time.

Twilight, meanwhile, hadn't any time to waste.  She slammed her book down on the center table in her basement and went about reading for any kind of procedure.  Her curiosity had always been her biggest downfall, but this time she toiled with powers that could very well destroy her.  She knew this, but didn't let the threat stop her; especially since the promise of a new kind of power was just so very tempting.

She sat down at the island in her basement, setting her book down and unsealing and moving the slabs of wax to give herself some workspace.  

"Alright, Iago.  What do I need to do in order to make this happen?"  With this, she opened the book and skimmed over it, gathering her answer as it scrawled across the page.

"The only thing you'll need to go out and get to infuse the crystals is pure water and very fertile soil.  Both should be simple, given your abilities."

"I could just go take some topsoil from Sweet Apple Acres...  I think Applejack is plowing their fields today anyway, so it should be perfect."

"Indeed, and you could probably purify water yourself considering your control over it.  There is enough clean air around you for you to bring down into a dense enough concentration to infuse the crystals, and fire should be almost instinctual by now."

"I'll be back with the soil then.  Oh, wait...  I need some wicks for the candles.  I'll just stop by Rarity's shop and pick up some thread or something...  This should be done by today though, Iago.  I'll be quick."

"I'm not going anywhere, and neither are these crystals.  Time stops in the void, so they'll be brand new for when you return.  Do hurry back; I anticipate this ritual, Twilight Sparkle and I promise that it will be very rewarding."

Twilight silently acknowledged the instructions and immediately left, dropping her cloak off in the corner and (while not worrying at all about her appearance) taking off into the emerging daylight.  The streets were bustling with ponies on their afternoon schedules, though many paused to comprehend Twilight's presence.  She paid it no mind, however, and kept on her mission toward the Carousel Boutique.  The unicorn wasn't quite used to going for days on end without sleep, but her body seemed to be blocking out any kind of fatigue.  Her pace was still brisk and confident, though she felt much lighter, almost numb save for the various pressure differences caused by her trotting.

Eventually the boutique came into view and Twilight happily cantered over to the building.  She took a peek inside and spotted a nearly abandoned shop, with only two ponies inside whose shapes Twilight could barely make out.  She opened the door and stepped inside, noticing that the place wasn't quite as brightly lit as usual, and approached the near-silhouettes of Rarity and Fluttershy.  

"Hey there you two, why is it so dark in here?"

"Twilight?  Oh, I haven't seen you in weeks!  What have you been up to?"  Rarity seemed to be fitting the clearly uncomfortable pegasus for some new dress or other.  

"Well, you know...  Just... Studying and all that.  The usual."  Twilight hesitated to lie to Rarity, but knew that if she just came out and told her that she'd made friends with a book and was learning how to create fire with her mind that she'd just worry.

"Of course, the usual, but usually you don't sequester yourself in the library for so long without stopping by.  I was honestly getting a little worried."  Rarity left Fluttershy's side, moving over to a large window and throwing the velvety curtains open to let in the sunlight.  "Oh, and to answer your question: the light was getting in my eyes from the window so I thought maybe closing up the curtains would give me a new perspe--"  Rarity turned to look Twilight in the eye mid sentence and completely lost her place.  The sight of the lavender unicorn left her absolutely speechless.  

Fluttershy turned to follow Rarity's gaze after her eyes had adjusted to the light and seemed to follow the same expression, although she did interject with a timid "Oh... Oh my..."

"What's the matter?"  Twilight hadn't looked into a legitimate mirror in well over a week (little did she know that her reflection in the magical pool from the Everfree Forest had been severely altered to her will), so she wasn't quite aware of her ghastly state.  Twilight's eyes had sunken back to the point where she seemed almost dead, her complexion had suffered from the lack of sleep or food, leaving her coat coarse and dull, and her body had lost almost all of its weight from the absence of any kind of nutrition in her diet for the past two weeks.  She was a walking corpse.

"Good heavens, Twilight!  What in Equestria have you been eating?  You're skin and bones!  You look simply dreadful!"

Twilight hadn't had any reason to think about what she looked like considering how great she felt, so this was all news to her.  "What?  I feel just fine."  

Fluttershy, without saying a word, simply brought over a mirror for the unicorn to look into.  What peered back didn't seem at all like Twilight's former self.  She could see the outline of her skull just beneath her skin, and the vivid purple of her mane and coat had faded to a grayish lilac.  Her stomach sank, and Twilight felt as if she were looking at her own body at a wake, but she needed to play it off like nothing was wrong.

"Oh!  Right...  It's been so long since I'd thought about it.  I'm actually a little sick right now and haven't really had much of an appetite."

"Is there anything we could do for you?"  Fluttershy chimed in in her usual motherly tone.  Twilight's condition immediately sparked a slew of possible diagnoses in the pegasus's thoughts.

"Well I just came over here to see if I could get some cotton or wool thread that might work for a candle wick.  I just got some new, uhm, aromatherapy candles that are supposed to help with this specific condition.  I just need to put a wick in them."

Rarity didn't even hesitate, almost instantly producing some stiff thread that she had stored close by.  "Here, this should work just fine.  It's wound a little too tightly and was made a little too thick to be anything but quilting thread, and even then only decorative.  Take as much as you need, it should burn slowly enough to work."

"You seem to know a lot about that..."

"Believe it or not I had a phase where I made candles.  It really was good fun, but I never really found myself able to express that artistic side of myself as much as with dressmaking.  I don't have any legitimate wicks, but that should work just fine.  Oh, do feel better, darling.  I'd hate for you to have to look this way for the rest of your life."

"Well, thank you so much, Rarity.  I'll be sure I rest up and... such."

"If you need anything, Twilight, don't hesitate to send Spike over and ask me.  You know we're always here for you."  Fluttershy kept her distance from Twilight as she spoke, and Rarity tried to sneakily cover her muzzle up with some loose silk, so Twilight could tell they bought her little "illness" ruse.  She simply nodded and gave a weak smile, then turned to leave with her thread.  

Twilight took the back roads back toward the library that time, staying away from public to avoid the embarrassing stares.  The stop was quick, only giving Twilight enough time to drop off the thread and grab a large jar for the soil as well as to say hello to Spike.  The dragon had brought back several large paper bags of various groceries since Twilight had left and was in the process of putting them away.  Twilight found herself avoiding his attention more and more, almost being annoyed by his presence.  She felt awful that she'd think such things about Spike, her best friend since his birth and "Number One Assistant", but lately he'd been so obnoxious.  She didn't think her behavior was strange at all, and never questioned it, resolving to abandon the psychological journal (which she hadn't written in for some time) and to focus all of her efforts on her new education.  

The unicorn left through the back door once more, keeping to the perimeter of Ponyville on her journey.  This time, however, she avoided the citizens not for the imminent criticism, but for their ignorance.  Twilight knew that none of them would understand even if she explained to them exactly what was happening, so she simply chose to avoid contact with such... lesser beings.  Her walk was in a contemptible trance, drowning her surroundings out and running over hypothetical situations where she was forced to interact with somepony who would judge her intensely.  Every single scenario caused her to scoff and mimic the conversation in the real world: a spectacle that would look very strange from the outside had anyone been there to see it.

Sweet Apple Acres came into Twilight's view slowly but surely, and it certainly looked different when approaching from the orchard side.  She could see that, at this point in the day, Applejack and Big Macintosh had plowed most of the field and turned over the earth, giving Twilight exactly what she would want.  She snuck forward, looking around for any sign of the farmers.  Nothing was moving in the patch of farmland where she was, so she simply used her jar to scoop the dirt up gently, trying not to impact it too much.  With a satisfactory amount, the unicorn turned around to head home, but caught Applejack standing right behind her.

"Twilight!  I thought that was you, but...  wull gosh, you've certainly uhm...  Lost some weight."  Applejack was worried about offending Twilight, but had come over to investigate the sighting of a "suspicious pony" on her property.

Twilight's heart skipped a beat; the earth pony could be fairly stealthy if left to her own devices apparently.  "Oh!  Just... just getting this... jar of dirt!"  Twilight had to force a bit of a grin as she held the jar up for Applejack to see.  She really didn't have any explanation ready, so her mind was racing to try and find something logical.  

"Y'needed some dirt?  Uhm... Why?"  Applejack looked over the sickly unicorn, not wanting to comment on her current state, but feeling like she really ought to say something out of concern for her friend's health.

"Well... As you can see, I'm not exactly feeling my best.  I just needed some dirt for a, uhm, mud treatment that's supposed to help.  I didn't need much, just this jar here."

"That's all well and good, but why'd you come all the way out here to Sweet Apple Acres?  Ain't ya got dirt in your back yard?"

"It needs to be farm soil...  It's... better that way?"  Twilight adjusted the weight on her hooves over and over again, unwittingly giving off an air of nervousness that the humble mare could easily pick up on.

"Listen, Twilight...  If you need to talk about somethin' you know I'm here for you, right?  You sure don't seem yourself... and if somepony had asked me I'd never'a thought I'd catch somepony as smart as you stealin' dirt from little ol' me.  You sure everything's alright?"

Twilight paused; having been reminded of her friendship caused her to step back and look at how she was acting.  It really was antisocial, and it wasn't healthy at all, but the circumstances seemed to justify her actions, at least as far as she could see.  "Applejack, I promise everything's going to be okay.  I'm just a little sick, so if you don't mind I'll need to be getting home so I can rest up.  Thank you for your concern though, it's honestly very appreciated."

"If you insist, Sugar Cube.  Don't let me stop ya."  Applejack could tell that Twilight was withholding something, but she simply decided to keep her nose in her own business.  The earth pony stepped aside and waved Twilight off, to which she promptly trotted back toward her library.  Applejack couldn't help herself from worrying, but she felt that she really should stay out of it, all things considered.  To her, Twilight was a smart pony who sometimes got her priorities wrong, but it hadn't ever hurt her before, so why should it now?

Twilight rolled the jar over with her telekinesis as she trotted back to the library, again taking the back roads to avoid unwanted attention.  Such a simple thing, yet she knew it would be important.  Things that she had taken for granted in the past: water, candles, quills, flowers, the dirt outside... all of it had the power to create or destroy, and Twilight had begun to see that now.  She cherished everything she saw, because she could potentially use it to benefit herself, or crush her enemies.  

The sun had moved most of the way across the sky by the time Twilight's errands were complete, hovering barely above the peaks of the mountains behind Canterlot and slowly lowering itself toward the night-time darkness.  Twilight hurried into her basement once more, making sure to lock the door on the way down.  The soft glow of the dusk sun cast a very eery light around the room, leaving the corners dark and the table and island as the only things to have any kind of light cast on them, soft as it was.  Twilight slowly trotted down the stairs, listening to the clop, clop, clop of her hooves echo off the walls, but otherwise it was completely silent in the basement.  She reached the desk and opened her book, setting aside her jar of dirt, and fetching a beaker from her various lab equipment.  She used the nearby sink to fill it with water, and heated it with her magic.

The water boiled in almost no time, considering the magical flames could conjure almost any temperature in the blink of an eye, but she easily captured every bit of the water vapor in a magical bubble and kept the purified, distilled liquid separate from everything else.  She set the "bubble" down onto her table and opened up her book, skimming the pages for the rest of the procedure with eagerness that she hadn't felt since she was a filly.

"Very good, Twilight Sparkle.  Now we get to infuse the crystals with their various elemental components.  Close me up, and reopen me, I'll give you enough of the salts for one element, so infuse them all with the same one, and I'll repeat it for each one following."

Twilight followed the directions and closed the cover of the book, simultaneously opening her jar of soil and removing it.  The mass of earth levitated free from the jar and took position next to Twilight's head and she returned her concentration to the book.  She flipped it open to find a fraction of the crystals sitting on the pages, just above the next set of instructions.

"Now, mix the crystals with the soil and press down on the mass as hard as you can.  Apply pressure in every direction and compress it until they begin to fuse.  Do not look directly at them or you may go blind, but you'll know when everything's finished.  Be sure not to drop them, also, for that would be just... embarrassing."

Twilight smirked at the last entry and brought the crystals and soil together.  She followed her directions to the letter, mixing the soil and crystals together as best as she could and keeping them from separating at all.  She looked into the mass, noticing immediately that the crystals seemed to absorb the color from the dirt, slowly staining their glassy outsides brown.  Once she was satisfied with the shape of the mass, she compressed it; gritting her teeth and shutting her eyes tight to drown out any other distractions in order to keep her concentration.  The mass grew smaller and smaller, and she could only feel the change in size through the magic that she applied to it.  She felt the whole thing push back against her, but she wouldn't give in and continued to compress it.  Finally, the mass seemed to collapse, and she could see (even through closed eyes) a very bright flash of light, nearly hurting to be so close to.  She opened her eyes after this had happened to see only the crystals floating before her.  The soil was entirely gone, and the crystals had taken on its color, each one shining with its own internal brown light and giving off a very obvious magical signature.  She looked down to her book and saw a space on the left-most page where she assumed she should place the newly infused crystals.  On the other page displayed a review.

"Very good, Twilight Sparkle!  Look at those, while you have the chance, aren't they marvelous?  These are the truest essence of elemental magic, holding the might of an earthquake within such a small package.  Beautiful things they are, and all a result of your creation and manipulation.  Be proud, Twilight Sparkle, and continue.  Water and air are the same process, so move on to those next."

Twilight closed the book on her new earth salts, opening it once more to receive a fresh batch of plain ones in their place.  She lifted them into the air carefully and mixed them with the purified water, immediately compressing the mass as best she could.  Since water cannot be truly compressed, however, Twilight simply struggled against a constantly growing counter-pressure, to which she responded with more force.  Her nose started to bleed a little, a very familiar feeling to her, but she ignored it as always, watching the mass grow smaller and smaller as the crystals absorbed the water into themselves.  Once more, the mass collapsed, bringing with it a blinding flash of light and leaving behind several large crystals as blue as the sky and shining like sunlight through a pond.  Each one seemed to almost be made of water, though not nearly as calm as a simple puddle; it was as if each one contained a raging tsunami within itself.  

She followed the same process, placing the new crystals into the book and removing the plain ones to infuse with air, this time used to the amount of energy it would take and able to control herself better.  Air infused very quickly, and left behind a set of crystals that held within them a gale of wind.  These glowed pure white and seemed far more restless than the other set.  She'd begun to notice a pattern here.  

Finally, she removed her fourth set of crystals, looking them over and merging them into a loose ball.  She focused on the things and ignited them with a fire that was nearly as intense as the one she used in the forest.  The room lit up with orange light, casting away all of the shadows as she stared into this inferno, watching the crystals soak up the surrounding color like a sponge.  She applied a pressure to the ball of flame, but continued to pour energy into it, burning them until the flame was nearly white hot.  Like the others, however, the flames collapsed inward, and fused with the salts to leave behind a beautiful, ruby colored shell with a glowing, dancing orange light pouring out from within them.  Each crystal held a small, formless fire inside of it, and projected the brightest light of each element so far.  They were absolutely gorgeous, and dangerously powerful at the same time.

Twilight places these final crystals into the book and closes it, opening it back up to see, to her surprise, one final pile of salts.  She pulls them up and looks down to see if there's some kind of mistake, but instead finds a small explanation waiting for her.

"There are, indeed, five elements, Twilight Sparkle.  The first four are tangible, beautiful, creative, and destructive.  Earth, Air, Water, and Fire.  The final one, Spirit, is a bit tougher to work with, but it has been the object of my study for the longest time.  You have one more set of crystals to infuse before the ritual can begin.  Are you prepared for this?"

"Am I prepared?  I marched into the Everfree Forest and gathered these damned things up.  I went through the worst horrors of my life, faced insects that could rip me in half, nearly died several times for you, and you're asking me if I'm prepared?  I'm honestly offended, Iago!"  Twilight felt a small tinge of anger well up inside of her at this last-minute discovery, and irrationally let it go.  The book, however, responded with a very calm tone, and very even writing.

"Twilight Sparkle, I understand all of that, and it is certainly much appreciated, but this will be different.  Once these crystals are infused, you'll place them in candles and we'll begin the ritual.  Once that's over, everything will have changed.  I offer you this chance to turn back, to go replace me in the Everfree Forest and to forget I was ever here.  Otherwise, if you continue, there will be no turning back...  Ever."

Twilight actually had to think about this for a while.  Iago seemed to address her as an equal, and was offering her a chance to abandon all of her work.  She knew that he wouldn't do that unless it was very serious, so the gravity of the statements had hit right to her heart.  From her options, however, she decided that the power, the glory, and the knowledge would be worth any risk... any sacrifice.  "Iago...  I'm willing to accept whatever challenges you can throw at me.  What do I need to do to infuse these with the fifth element?"

"Cut your wrists."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Cut your wrists and infuse them with the blood.  To my knowledge that's the only way to do it without sacrificing a living creature and toying with the dark arts."

"R-Really?"  The mention of more pain brought out some hesitation in Twilight, so she simply waited for the text to respond to her just in case it was a cruel joke of some sort.

"Really.  After that, we'll need to be quick about the rest of the ritual.  So if you'd like to prepare some of the mundane tasks ahead of time, you're welcome to do so."

"O-okay...  What exactly do I need to do?"  

"Move this table aside and leave yourself a large, open space.  You'll need it.  Draw this symbol:

In melted wax, with the top-most point directed to the north.  After you infuse the final set of crystals, you will make large votive candles out of them, placing one on each point of the star.  Earth is to be set on the southwest point, Fire on the southeast.  Air on the northwest, Water on the northeast, and finally, Spirit on the north.  Have this seating ready before you infuse the final set of crystals with spirit, for you'll need to be quick about the ritual lest you bleed to death in the middle of the incantation."

Twilight gulped back her aversion to the subject and started about her task, taking all the time that she needed to get the angles on the star absolutely perfect.  Even going so far as to hammer a tether into the very center in order to get a perfect circle.  The resulting chalk outline was so exact that it may have been done by a machine, and meticulously measured to be exactly what she needed it to be.  She got to work covering the chalk lines with some of the beeswax that she had collected, trying to evenly distribute it around so that the thickness of the lines was completely uniform.  

Once she was finished, the unicorn stepped back and admired her work.  Everything was absolutely perfect, though she knew that her life would be at risk the instant she started the ritual, so it was a little bittersweet.  She turned back to her book, analyzing the remainder of her wax and deciding to form it into something resembling a cheese wheel.  She had to soften the wax a little bit, but it wasn't difficult at all to manipulate it telekinetically.  Either she was getting better with her magic, or the wax responded better to magic than most other mundane things.  She sectioned the wax into five large chunks, turning back to the book and asking if she should create the other candles before she started on the Spirit crystals.

"Since you can control the flow of heat, setting the candles won't take particularly long... but if you feel safer having the first four ready before you move on, I don't blame you.  Feel free to do so, but just remember that I'll be there to guide you every step of the way, and I have full faith that you'll be alright... if not far, far better for it.  Just make sure the salts are evenly distributed in the wax when you set the candles."

Twilight gave a nervous nod and shut the book, reopening it and removing each of the sets of elemental salts.  She moved all of them into her field of view, along with a large chunk of wax for each one and keeping them carefully separated.  She glanced around for the thread that Rarity had given her, finding it on the corner of the table where she had left it.  For some reason, she expected it to have been upstairs, or some other place inconvenient... maybe it was just hopefulness to avoid her upcoming self-harm.  She tried her telekinesis to snip the thread, finding (after some trial and error) that she could indeed create a barrier thin enough to have an edge which cut cleanly through the thread, leaving five long strings awaiting their use in the candles.  

She heated all of the wax at once, capturing the salts in the resulting globs of liquid and mixing them with a telekinetic churning.  After she was satisfied with their mixing, she formed each one into a cylinder, pulling the wicks through and then drawing all of the heat from it with her mind.  The process worked surprisingly well, leaving the unicorn with four massive, nearly identical candles.  

As the moment approached, Twilight could feel her heartbeat start to race.  Unfortunately for her, this was the most alive she had felt in weeks, and it took paralyzing fear to bring that out.  She wasn't quite sure what she was afraid of, either.  Pain was trivial after the incident with the "Terror Bramble", and the concept of her own death had come close before.  Something was different though, and she couldn't quite put her hoof on it.  She used that fear, however, to drive herself forward and to tackle her goal.  For all she knew, Iago held the secrets to immortality and infinite power.  If he didn't, she'd help him find them.

Twilight finished everything that she needed in preparation for the ritual, all except her last set of crystals.  She opened her tome to reveal, once again, the fifth pile of salts sitting on the page and waiting for their elemental treatment.  It took some time for the unicorn to work up the nerve, but she finally sat back and held her two front legs out, trying to materialize a barrier thin enough to cut.  The fear continued to ruin her concentration, however, so she just couldn't keep it sharp enough.  She dropped her concentration and looked down at her hooves.  Her forelegs were extremely thin, and she seemed to be shaking as she sat; if she didn't know any better, she'd think that she was already dead and just being held together with a magical force.  

Twilight tilted her head up and glanced around the room, finding her table full of "medical" tools off in the corner of her vision.  She stood up and walked over to it, telekinetically pulling the drawer open with all of her various utensils for dissections.  She removed a single, clean, extremely sharp scalpel from the drawer and held it up.  Even her telekinesis was shaky at this point, making her worry that she might do too much damage if she tried it that way.  Twilight gave a deep sigh and stepped back toward the desk, sitting right across from the open book and taking the scalpel in her mouth; she looked down one last time at her wrists.  The unicorn brought her left foreleg up and pressed the edge of the blade just behind her hoof, dragging it back diagonally toward her knee and wincing all the while.  The pain was more of a dull ache than a sharp sensation, giving her the impression that she had given herself some nerve damage.  She looked down at the wound: it hadn't started bleeding yet, only sat there as a large red fissure in her foreleg.  The fissure eventually welled up with blood, seeming to fill with the crimson liquid in the same direction as she had dragged the scalpel across it, eventually pouring down toward her knee and dripping off onto the floor.  She rotated the scalpel and moved onto her other wrist, performing the same incision and then dropping the blade onto the floor.  

Somehow the clang reached her ears with more of an intensity than she expected.  She did her best to capture all of the blood as it fell from her forelegs, bringing it up into a floating mass in front of her.  She had only sat there for about a minute, but it was the longest minute of her life.  She was so paranoid that any second she could die from the blood loss, and so was meticulously monitoring her body and what few signals of health it sent to her.  Once she was satisfied that she had collected enough blood (with a few tears mixed in from the fear and pain), she brought the crystals up and mixed them together.  The salts seemed far more keen to absorb the blood than they did with the other elements, simply soaking it up and not requiring too much extra pressure from her.  The flash wasn't quite as brilliant, however, and she simply looked off to the side rather than shutting her eyes entirely.  At the end of the infusion, she sat with a large pile of beautiful crystals floating in front of her: each one seemed to shimmer dark red, but glow with an indigo light that stemmed from the center.  She found herself nearly hypnotized by their majesty, but was broken away by the sound of dripping blood on the concrete floor beneath her.  

She quickly melted the wax and set the candle, keeping her forelegs elevated to try and limit the amount of blood that she was losing.  For a minute she tried a pair of tourniquets made from the remaining thread, but was convinced that it would only limit her during the ritual and cause more damage than benefit.  After some very quick consideration, Twilight just brought the candles over and placed them in order, sitting down in the small pentagon at the center of her symbol, and lighting each of the candles at the same time with the fire magic that she had spent so long learning.  She levitated the book in front of her, but it instructed her to lay it in the small space separated from her by a line, so she set it there where she could read.  Everything was set up exactly as Iago had ordered, and each of the candles burned with a light that mimicked their elements' color, with the indigo one sitting right in Twilight's view.  The unicorn looked back down to her book and gathered how to continue.  The only thing that scrawled across the page was, identifiably, an incantation.  Twilight started her recitation of the small poem, and thus sealed a chapter of her life that would forever stain her being.

"I call upon earth; release the body whom you have taken into thyself,

I call upon air; return to the lungs of the one you've left behind,

I call upon water; flow once more through the veins of the deceased,

I call upon fire; ignite once more the flames of knowledge within the fallen."

The elemental candles each burst into flame as she called their names, with the fire following along the line of the star toward the next candle of the order.  One by one they all lit ablaze, casting a smoke into the air that took on the pale representative color of their elements.  The room became somewhat hazy, and very hot, but Twilight continued vigilantly.  

"Finally, I call upon spirit.  Come down from the afterlife, and rejoin the living once more!"  

With this, all four lines leading from each element into the spirit candle ignited, leaving each of the five votive candles ablaze with a bright, intense flame.  Twilight looked down from the book and saw that her small pentagon area for herself to sit in was slowly filling with her blood.  The wounds seemed to bleed to excess with this ritual, so she resolved to hurry and finish it.

"To ye who walks the astral planes,

Heed this call and hear thy name,

A mortal hails thee from this earth,

Through her, through me, have rebirth!"

Drip, drip, drip; Twilight's blood continued to flow and hit the ground, pooling around her and slowly draining away her strength.  Spots began to form at the periphery of her vision, and she started to feel light in the head.

"Cursed to breathe the soil in sorrow,

Ne'er to see another morrow,

Leave thine shadow walk behind,

The veil of death though shalt unbind."

The unicorn continued with as much fervor as she could possibly muster.  Her breathing slowed, but she managed to control it just enough to continue her speech unhindered.

"Reject the chains of Death's embrace,

Stretch with skin and don thy face,

Learn thy steps and see thy shape,

Adorn your soul with vessel and fate!"

Twilight looked down, nearly finished with the incantation, but feeling like she would nearly pass out.  Sitting in the fiery pit of blood and burning wax was taxing her concentration.  She knew she couldn't fail or she would die down there in her basement, so she pushed on: forcing herself to complete the incantation and bring Iago out of his prison.

"In my flesh thou shalt have life,

Through my spirit laid on the knife,

I fill thee with breath for years since paid,

Rise, my master, by the blade!"

The final word escaped Twilight's lips and her environment immediately responded.  Gravity seemed to cease, causing her to float into the air.  She hadn't the strength to hold herself, so her body naturally took the fetal position and let her glance around to watch the reaction.  The book floated before her as well, but took a bearing back toward the indigo candle and lowered itself into the flame.  Twilight watched through the inverted dripping of her blood from floor to ceiling as the pages that she had turned to for guidance all this time ignited and slowly burned away.  The fire around her changed to violet, along with most of the smoke surrounding her.  The whole ordeal seemed to have a calming effect on the unicorn, or perhaps that was the blood loss, but she could feel every single muscle go limp.  

Just as time seemed to stand still, a ghostly figure rose out of the smoke from the Spirit candle.  The smoke itself seemed to glow with a pale silver light and take the shape of some kind of animal.  Twilight was feeling a little woozy and couldn't quite make it out, but it definitely reflected a large grin as it wafted toward her.  The unicorn's breathing had slowed down nearly to a stop, so the figure reached its clawed hands out and rested them on her shoulders.  "Breathe, Twilight Sparkle."  It spoke in a whispering, echoing voice that seemed to originate inside of her head, and her body twitched in response.  

She actually lost control of her own body at that point, letting her eyes close and nearly passing out from the loss of vital blood pressure, but she knew that her limbs were stretching from the half-numb feel.  Her body splayed out in the air and her head tilted back, finally ending in a deep, gasping breath.  She couldn't quite see it, but she inhaled all of the smoke from around her, sending every single particle into her body in a swirling mass that she could feel permeate her veins from the inside.  As soon as the last of the smoke entered her lungs, Twilight opened her eyes and yelled.  The scream was thick and primal, stemming entirely from emotions that had been suppressed, hidden, or otherwise ignored.  The entire capacity of her lungs escaped through her mouth in this scream, and tears rolled down her cheeks, though she couldn't identify why, nor could she close her eyes and wipe them away.  At the apex of her scream, an invisible barrier expanded from her chest, moving outward in a sphere and pushing everything away.  The fires around her extinguished, and all of the blood that had left her body was vaporized and mixed into the air so finely that she couldn't even see it anymore.  Papers were thrown and her table was upturned.  The scalpel flew away and embedded itself in the wall just beneath the window (now, the sun had finally set, leaving the last rays of light reaching up over the mountains before their eventual disappearance).  The entire room had been hit by what seemed like a hurricane.

Twilight dropped down to the ground and took several deep, noisy breaths, glancing around with what seemed like a new filter on her eyes.  Though the light of day had died out, she seemed to observe things clearly (if not differently), and see everything as its most basic entity.  She slowed her breathing down to a relaxed state, but still heard a kind of heaving breath, though it was coming from inside her mind.  She silently questioned what the breathing was, and to her surprise it responded in a rasping, ancient, and rather sinister voice:

"Oh...  It is just wonderful to be back."