Twilight sat cold and still, leafing through the pages of the obviously magical book and taking wonder at each one.  Every subject that she thought she might want to learn about, as well as many sub-topics within the specifics showed up before her.  She paused with her hoof hovering over the page on one subject: Telekinesis.  Beneath the title sat a short introduction that captivated the unicorn's attention.

"The art of telekinesis is one as old as magic itself.  The most basic, and often most coveted ability, to move an object with one's mind, has both baffled and intrigued magic users for ages.  Perhaps the most common mistake in the use of telekinesis is the notion that one must use a direct magical connection via the horn.  This is not true, however, as telekinesis isn't quite so esoteric as other magics.  This idea is in fact a lie that was fabricated to keep any and all magical abilities (even the simplest and most basic of such) isolated to the unicorn population, while indeed, all of ponykind has been touched by the ethereal light that is magic.  The horn simply allows one to concentrate this touch, and bring it forth as a tangible thing.  In order to practice true telekinesis, you mustn't channel magical energy through your horn, but attempt to use the power of your will directly.  Your body is a conduit, but the horn limits the whole body's effectiveness by training you to only concentrate on a single portion of it.  The pages of this book have been enchanted, and so offer a connection to the user's will, giving an effortless telekinetic bond.  The real effort comes from lifting unbound objects, but to facilitate strength, I should suggest that you try your hoof at lifting this book without touching it or channeling magical energy."

Twilight, baffled as she was, dropped the book on the desk and sat staring at it for a second.  She wasn't sure if the book was talking to her through some kind of destiny-bound text, or was just written so that it seemed almost like an instructor.  At this point she wasn't sure whether or not she should discount any possible notion since the book had already expressed plenty of astounding abilities.  She glanced around over her shoulder, not seeing anypony there to sneak up on her, not hearing any ghostly voices, and not feeling any deathly chill, so she decided to just give the exercise a try.  Twilight stared at the book, thinking to herself that she would lift it up with some kind of invisible arm and bring it up to her eye level.  Nothing happened.  She held out both of her hooves this time, slowly dragging them upward and watching for any response from the tome.  This time the cover fluttered, bringing a few pages into an intangible updraft, but not lifting the book.  The unicorn gritted her teeth and focused all of her will, though most of it went to not reflexively lifting the book with her horn.  She watched the thing shift on the desk, moving more than it was earlier, and slowly but surely rising off the table.  Twilight allowed a proud grin to sneak across her face, moving her two hooves down to "support" the heavy thing and help it rise even though it was several feet in front of her.  She looked up and away from the book to be sure she really wasn't using any magic; neither the object itself nor her horn projected the usual lavender colored aura, and she certainly didn't feel the familiar warmth of a spell being cast.  

The book hovered well over a foot and a half off of the desk, and Twilight couldn't help but stand from her chair to continue holding it in place.  She never would have thought that telekinesis could be possible without the aid of magic, let alone this simple.  The feeling was magnificent, though very different from the direct use of magic.  Twilight felt weightless, while magical energy usually weighed her down.  She wasn't draining anything, nor struggling to really do it, just standing in pure concentration and holding what felt like a leash wrapped around the book, dangling it above the desk and moving it in whatever way she wanted.  Twilight gave a big grin and reveled in her accomplishment, minor as it was, losing her focus on the environment around her.  Smaller objects around her hooves began to quiver, but Twilight didn't notice them.  The unicorn simply called the book over to her, slowly floating it in front of her face and opening it with the flick of a wrist.  The first page that she opened to read very simply:  "Well done."

"Bored?"  Spike's voice penetrated Twilight's thoughts and broke her concentration, sending the book down to slam on the desk, as well as scattering all of the other small objects that managed to inch their way toward her.  Twilight cringed as the loud bang resounded through the mostly quiet room; it sounded to her like somepony had just fired off a cannon, though it honestly wasn't all that loud from a casual standpoint.  

"No, Spike...  I was trying to lift this without using my horn or touching it."  Twilight compulsively reached forward and lined the edges of the book up with her desk once more.

"Can unicorns do that?"

"It was working great until you barged in."

"Sorry, Twilight..."  

Twilight sighed and sat back in her chair.  "No, don't worry about it...  C'mere though, I want you to see this; it's actually pretty cool."

Spike complied and walked over to Twilight's side, watching the book as she prepared herself to perform her new trick.  The unicorn repeated her earlier gestures by focusing on the book, lifting it slightly off of the table and slowly gaining altitude.  Spike glanced back at Twilight's horn a few times, being sure there wasn't any aura of magic, and stood otherwise in awe at the spectacle.  "I had no idea you could do that, Twilight."

"Me either."  Twilight's responses were kept relatively short as she tried to keep her concentration on the book, but she managed to throw in some chopped up details.  "The book taught me how to do it.  Pretty nifty huh?"

"Very.  What else can the book do?"

"Seems like...  Just about anything, really.  I'll need to read more of it."  Twilight lightly set the book down on her desk, cover closed, and walked up to it.  She beckoned Spike over to demonstrate its unusual ability to open and close without being touched, independent of the concentration needed for that telekinesis that she just showed him.  "Watch this."  She waved her hoof over the cover of the book, opening it and flipping through several pages.  Spike was still a little naive of various magics, but from what Twilight had showed him he knew that she shouldn't be able to do that without using her horn, nor while so distracted.  

"That's really weird, Twi.  You sure you wanna keep messing with this thing without telling the Princess?"

"I'm positive, Spike.  We can't bother the princess with this yet.  I'll just read a little more of it, see what it can do, but otherwise it might just be a magnet or something silly like that.  While I have you here, why don't you try it?  I wanna know if there's any connection between just me or if you can open it too."

Spike, glanced at the book and then back to Twilight; he really didn't want to go near it.  His "bad vibe" was still bugging him, but the unicorn seemed to insist with only the use of her eyes.  He gave a sigh and stepped over to the book, waving his claws over it in the same manner as Twilight, but watched in both relief and disappointment as nothing happened.  The book stayed perfectly still, so he tried it again: nothing.  He looked over his shoulder at the unicorn and shrugged, reaching down to grab the book and try to open it physically.  The odd thing was that he couldn't open it, hard as he tried; the thing seemed to be closed so tightly that he couldn't even bend the cover as he was trying to wrench it open.  Twilight reached her hoof out and gently rested it on the dragon's shoulder, signalling for him to stop.  She took the tome from him with her hooves, looking at it for any sign of scratches or other possible damage that Spike could have caused, but couldn't find anything at all.

"Sorry, Twilight..."  

"No, no it's okay.  The book is fine, and it might just work only for me anyhow..."

"If you found it in the woods how could it possible only work for you?"

"I dunno...  It did say something about a 'binding' or something like that...  Either way it still works just fine for me, I'll need to examine it a little more."  Twilight demonstrated the functionality of her power by levitating the thing back over to her desk; once again not accompanied by the purple aura that her magic usually casts.  

"The more you tell me about this book the more I think you should get rid of it, Twilight..."

"I can't just 'get rid of it', Spike."  Twilight sent an indignant look over to the dragon as she walked past him up to the desk.  "This is a very interesting piece of literature...  Most of the books about magic in Celestia's library just talk about specific spells and how to do them.  Sometimes entire volumes are dedicated to a single spell, or even a part of a spell.  This book seems to decode and explain the very essence of magic itself, do you have any idea what that means?"

"Uhm... no."

"That means that every single spell, trick, wonderment, or phenomenon in the entire world can be explained from out of this book if I read it for long enough.  Everything, Spike... This 'book', if you can even call it that anymore, is the Magnum Opus of all magic, maybe of all things."

"I think you're exaggerating a little bit, Twilight...  So far the only thing you've done with it is learn how to make it float, and you could do that anyway."

"That's only because you don't know what I know, Spike.  Here, I'll show you."  Twilight reached out for the book and paused as she was struck with a thought.  She laid her forelegs in a relaxed position by her sides and opened the tome with her mind only (though this did take a few attempts).  Spike looked down onto the pages of the book and seemed to scan over it meticulously, taking in every single word on the page.

"What language is this?  I can't read it..."  Spike looked down at the enigmatic script before him, appearing to his eyes as the wedged pattern that Twilight first saw within the book.

"What do you mean?  It's in plain English, though some of the words are a little weirdly written..."

"That's not it at all, Twilight...  Living with you my whole life hasn't exactly been a detriment to my vocabulary...  I mean it's not even in English, it looks like someone just dipped a rock in ink and smacked it against the pages or something."

"You really see it like that?"

"Yeah...  do you really see it in English?"

"Yes I do...  Look here,"  Twilight said as she directed the dragon's attention to the page with her outstretched hoof.  The unicorn pointed the tip of it at the very top of the random page that she had opened the book to, "The In-Depth Guide to Elemental Magics."

"Say again?"

"Ugh... 'The In-Depth Guide to Elemental Magics.' Spike...  Didn't you hear me?"

"No I didn't...  It sounded like you mumbled some made-up language...  Are you sure you're feeling okay, Twilight?"

"I'm feeling fine, Spike...  How many times do I have to tell you that?"  

"I'd believe you a little more if you actually ate something...  You've been up here studying this thing all day."

Twilight looked out her window and saw that the sun was mere hours away from cresting the mountains around Canterlot.  If she had to estimate, she'd say it was around 4-o'-clock in the afternoon.  She had completely lost track of time, and yet still wasn't hungry or tired at all.  "I'm fine, Spike.  I'm just not hungry is all."

"If you say so...  I'm going to go start making some dinner, and I'll leave some out for you if you want it later."

"I'm sure I will, Spike, thank you."

"You're welcome, just please take care of yourself, Twilight.  I'm really starting to worry about you."

Twilight just waved the dragon off after casting him a light eye-roll.  In truth she was starting to worry about herself too; logically she should have been hungry, but she still felt like she had just eaten from last night.  She looked down at the open book and scanned over the lettering.  Sure enough, it still read "The In-Depth Guide to Elemental Magics" clear as day.  The meaning of the title didn't really strike meaning to her when she was showing Spike, though, so she decided to give the passage a good skimming.  

Earth, Fire, Water, and Air.  The four elements that lesser ponies are allowed to observe, and the four most powerful forces on the planet.  Magic is as old as time itself, and thus, so are these four basic elements.  It only makes sense that they would go together, does it not?  All you need to harness, nay, to dominate these elements resides in your willpower, mediated with the accompanying text of course.  Should you find yourself curious about the fifth element, however, you should suppress that curiosity.  One such as yourself is not worthy of its power, nor would you even know what to do with it or how to handle it...  Yet.