Forgotten Magics

TravelsBy Lunarguard12 and OneIncessantWriter

The following morning Star got up early and got his things ready. He looked around the room. He was going to be leaving today, and while the room certainly not a Canterlot luxury suite, not even close, but it had that feeling of home the Canterlot inns had lost for years.  Star rolled out of his bed and stretched, his back cracking several times in response. 'Ahhh, much better.' He thought. He looked to Storm, who he was sharing a room with this time, and found that the pegasus was so big he almost couldn't fit on the bed. Star opened his stash portal to see what he would need to acquire before the group departed for Baltimare. He listed off what he had while silently pulling them out of his stash. 'Ok, got food for a couple days, but that was for me and the guys, so we will have to get some more beforehoof. Got some rope, a couple tents, might need to get a few more of those too.' He frowned at that last part, but shook his head and went on with his morning routine.

Star reached in and pulled out a golden locket; he stared at it for a little while before depositing it back into his stash portal with a sigh, and then continued to check his supplies. Ten minutes later he finished, and found he would need to get at least some more food and a couple of tents just in case the weather didn't hold in their travels. Shortly after his assessment Storm stirred, got up, and stretched much like Star, the only exception being Storm's cracks were much louder.

"Morning." Storm said while stretching.

"Morning.” Star said in kind. “I went over our supplies, we’re going to need some food, and possibly some tents before we leave; did you see anything while flying a couple days ago?"

"Food will be easy. A market opens up around ten to eleven. The tents though, I'm not sure." Storm replied, walking in a few circles to warm up his muscles.

"Well, it's not a big loss if we don't get the tents, I could just magic shelters up if the need arises. Do you mind getting Rig and Berry up?  I want an early start, and you know Rig would sleep all day if he could." Star said, the corners of his mouth twitching up.

Storm nodded, leaving the room. A few minutes later Star looked in a mirror, and saw that his tattoos were still visible. 'Oh, better put that vanity spell back on.' He quickly cast his spell and left the room, heading downstairs to get some breakfast. Then he heard a thump, followed by muffled cursing, come from Rig and Berry’s room. 'Rig must not have gotten up when he was asked.' Star thought.  Then he heard a muffled argument from behind the door.  'Yep, Definitely didn't want to get up.'

Upon reaching the ground floor, Star could smell breakfast and tried to guess what it was. After a few sniffs he determined. 'Oatmeal, along with toast and pancakes. Sounds like we'll be eating well. ‘Star entered the dining area to see all the food he had thought he would see, plus a little more.

"Morning." A soft pink pegasus mare said to Star as he entered. Star nodded a bit in response.

"Good morning; did you make all this food?" Star asked the mare.

"Not alone, and you're welcome to start eating if you want, more can be brought out." The mare replied, blushing for a reason that Star couldn't possibly understand.

"Don't mind if I do." Star said as he levitated a plate to himself and picked out some strawberry pancakes, along with a few pieces of buttered toast, walking to a table to start eating. Not long after Rig came down, his white mane a complete mess. Berry was a few paces behind, already full of energy, walking along with Storm next to him. Rig looked at the food set out for guests, got a coffee, and sat down. While Rig only got a coffee Berry piled so much food on his plate it was almost overflowing. Storm picked out two pancakes and a glass of fruit juice. Rig was the first to make it to Star's table, and he gave Star an icy stare. Star didn't flinch.

"You're an ass, you know that right." Rig said.

"Would you have gotten up on your own?" Star responded, completely serious.

"....."

"I didn't think so."

Berry and Storm got to the table shortly after Rig, and the four of them talked about their travel plans over breakfast. After they all finished breakfast it was decided that they should get the supplies they needed before they get Twilight and her friends. With that, they set out to get the supplies.

**********

Several hours later Star had everything they needed, including the tents that they got from a store named Tents and Such, which all four of them found really strange, but none of them complained. 'Now all we need to do is get Twilight and her friends, then we can go.' Star thought to himself as they headed for the library. Upon arrival the four of them heard a commotion from inside the library. Star approached the door and could hear what sounded like a struggle from inside. Star knocked on the door and Twilight answered "Oh, hi Star; What did you come here for?"

"We came to get you. We can leave whenever you're ready we got our stuff together." Star replied.

"Oh, I was trying to figure out what books I should bring with me." Twilight said as she opened up her door more. Star looked in to see several stacks of books all throughout the library main floor.

"Wow. Um, maybe I can help with that a little." Star said as he levitated some of the books over to himself.

"They are all categorized, if you need to find anything.” Twilight stated. Star skimmed over several books at once, looking for anything that could be helpful, most of the books being useless. After several minutes of skimming Star had set aside six books that could possibly be a help.

"Ok, these six are the only ones that could possibly help us." Star said, levitating them over to Twilight, who read the covers.

"Herb lore 101, Medical Magic volumes one through three, The Almanac of Wildlife, and Advanced Foreign Language Guide?" At the last one Twilight looked to Star.

"What? I could use a brush up on my linguistics." Star said, smiling. Twilight shrugged and put the books in her bag, which she was about to put on when Star commented, "That won't be necessary, we have a better way of transporting things."

"How so?" Twilight asked.

"Do you remember when I pulled out that jade orb for Luna?" He replied, a smirk evident on his face.

"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask how you did that." Twilight said.

“I, well, created a space that I can store all my things in." Star said.

"How do you just make space; that doesn't seem possible?" Twilight asked skeptically.

"Can we not get into the details? We would be leaving three days from now if I tried explaining it right this second." Star said, to exhausted to explain the magic involved.

"Can you promise that none of the books will get damaged?" Twilight asked.

"In the many years I have been using it, nothing has come out worse than it went in." Star replied. Twilight nodded and looked to her bags, again unsure of the magical storage, but she trusted Star. Star opened his Stash portal and tossed her bags into them. "Don't worry about your bags getting crushed, technically there is no bottom or gravity in there."

"Then how do you pick the things back out?" Twilight asked, cocking her eyebrow at him.

"They kinda just come to me. I may have made the space, but I don't understand all the rules of it yet. Now, shall we get the others?"

"Yeah, let's head to Sugarcube Corner first. Rainbow probably isn't up yet."

**********

The five of them made it to Sugarcube Corner to find the twins waiting at the front door. Pinkie's bags were filled to the brim with party supplies, while Pinkamina didn't tell them what she had. Star had offered to them to store their things in his stash portal. Pinkie gladly accepted, while Pinkamina said she would prefer to keep her things on her person. After picking up the sisters, the group headed for Rainbow's cloud home. Storm had to fly up and get Rainbow, who was still asleep, like Twilight said. After Rainbow had gotten her things together they made their way to the road they would take them to Baltimare.

"Ok, the trip is going to be about a week long since we will be traveling by hoof. Everypony ready?" Star asked, glancing at each pony.

"I'm ready to go." Twilight said.

"Yep I'm totally ready too." Pinkie chirped.

"Me three." Berry said right after Pinkie.

Rig grunted, and Pinkamina shrugged. "As ready as I'll ever be."

Storm nodded and Rainbow flapped her wings a few times, and then exclaimed "This is going to be so awesome!"

**********

"UUUUGH, I'M SO BORED!" Rainbow groaned. Four days of travel had gone by uneventfully and Rainbow had burned through the adrenaline from the excitement of a new journey on the third day. She had then started to complain on and off.

"Go do some tricks then, but stay in sight and be careful. If you crash, it would take some time to get to you." Twilight said.

"Yeah, yeah." Rainbow said dismissively as she took off, leaving a prismatic trail in her wake. Twilight sighed as she watched Rainbow Dash do her tricks at a less than reasonable distance from the group. Twilight and Star were leading the group along the road, and the trip had started off a little bumpy with Pinkamina and Rig almost trading blows over an argument that Twilight couldn't remember. Storm, even though he had the wings to fly, walked along with the group. Pinkie and Berry were talking among one another, and Twilight wasn’t really listening. The last time those two talked all she heard was them talking about sweets.

"She doesn't know how lucky we are." Star said, suddenly very serious.

Twilight looked to Star, who had made the comment. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"Well the weathers been holding for starters, and we also haven't run into anypony else." Star said, his eyes downcast.

"I can understand the weather since it is allowed to act on its own in between cities, but why would running into somepony else be a problem?" Twilight asked in a tone approaching morbid curiosity. She wanted to know why Star was so serious about the topic.

"Because sometimes, ponies don't have the nicest intentions." Star replied, speeding up a bit to avoid the others gazes.

"What do you mean by that?" Twilight said. Trying, and failing, to catch up to Star.

"Well mostly bandits, and I can tell that you don't quite believe that there are bandits." Star said, keeping up his pace.

"No, I don't, and why would there be bandits?" Twilight asked in exasperation. She was getting tired of him dodging her questions.

"Ponyville is too small to attract attention to it, so bandits wouldn't bother you, and since you were born and raised in Canterlot, were crime is nonexistent due to the princesses, you’ve probably never met any criminals." Twilight's face grew serious as she absorbed that information. After a few minutes of though she commented on the statement.

"Have you ever fought anypony?"

"Yes actually, when you travel like I do you definitely have your share of fights."  Twilight took that information in, but before she could ask her next question Rainbow had come back.

"Thanks for letting me fly a little. My wings were starting to get stiff." Rainbow said. Twilight only nodded, still thinking about what Star had said.

"Did I interrupt something?" Rainbow asked, looking from Twilight to Star.

"Nothing important at least. Did you see anything while you were up there?" Star said, his serious tone masked by a smile.

"Not really. Some forest on the horizon, and a river to the north, but not anything a map couldn't tell you."

"Ok, well we should be there in three days if the weather holds out." Star responded with a nod, turning back towards the road.

"Sweet, let’s keep this pace up then." Rainbow said.  With that, they continued on their way.

**********

That night the group of eight ponies decided to sleep under the stars, since the weather looked like it would be clear for their entire trip. Well after they were all asleep, ten ponies covered in black cloth to hide their features were slowly crawling towards the camp. Cobalt motioned for the others to take their positions. 'This has to go off without a hitch, or I'm a dead pony.' He thought to himself, as the ponies that came with him went to where they were told. Cobalt motioned for them to proceed. Four of the ponies moved closer, drawing out specialized blades fashioned to fit along the top foreleg and to extend and retract so earth ponies and unicorns could walk with it on. The four got into position, and then extended their blades, ready to strike. Just before they struck, Rig jumped up and bashed the one over him with a resounding crack to the head shouting

"Surprise Motherfucker!"  With that shout Star got up, and the one that was over him stood motionless "Nothing like a good temporary paralysis glyph to get the job done." He said. The one standing over Storm had his blade ready and swung for Storm's head, only for the blade to be stopped by a wing. Storm opened his eyes and easily tossed the offending pony to his side as he got up. By this time Twilight and the girls were up and backing away from the fighting, watching as three of the four took on their adversaries with practiced ease. The one cloaked pony that had not been dealt with sunk his blade into Berry's bedroll, and Twilight gasped. The cloaked pony, however, could not pull his blade out and Berry appeared from the shadows and knocked the stuck pony out.

Cobalt knew right away that stealth was out of the question now. "Attack!" He yelled as he and the other five who didn't sneak into the camp charged the group. Cobalt immediately went for Star, charging his horn on the way. 'I can't win in a straight up fight, so I'll have to stall until one of the others can help. The five that charged with Cobalt split to go after separate targets, three went for Storm, finding him to be the biggest threat and hoping to overpower him with numbers, while one went to Rig and the other went to Berry.

Star looked out among the attacking ponies and quickly took stock of the situation. 'Ten enemies, four neutralized, three of them pegsai, one unicorn, I'm his target, all others earth ponies, three on Storm, one for Berry, and one for Rig. Probability of any injury in group, minimal.' After Star surveyed the scene before him he moved to intercept the unicorn. 'Just need to repel them, no need to kill anyone.' Star and Cobalt headed straight for one another, and Star was the first one to fire a spell. A clear orb of energy sped toward Cobalt and he quickly put up a shield to block. The orb did not shatter or dissipate when it struck, rather it ricocheted off, and sped back towards Star, who caught the orb and absorbed the magic, immediately firing another projectile that tapered into a point. Cobalt kept his shield up, assuming it would block this attack too. He was wrong. The projectile passed right through with almost no resistance and hit Cobalt in the head.

'He was lucky I wasn't trying to kill him.' Star thought to himself as he looked to his other friends. Rig was messing with the pony he was fighting, without knocking him out, even though he had several chances in the short amount of time Star had been watching him. Berry was sitting on top of the one he was fighting, watching Storm fight his three. While Star was watching Storm, ready to help just in case, the pony Berry had initially knocked out shakily came to, and removed his stuck blade from himself, leaving it in the ground and moved towards the pony that was stuck on the glyph. Quickly rubbing out a section of the glyph, releasing the paralyzed pony.

"Get the others, I'm going to try and kill the big one before we go. Don't forget Cobalt, he can't be left here under any circumstances." With that he crept his way towards where Storm was fighting, pulling out a concealed knife. Star was watching as Storm blocked another one of the retractable blades with his wings. 'He's lucky his skeleton is stronger than steel.' He thought to himself, then Star caught a glint of silver from behind Storm 'Oh shit!'

"Storm, behind you!" Star yelled, hoping that his friend would be fast enough to move out of the way. The creeping pony was a pegasus however, and used his wings to get a little more speed. 'I can't make it, and I don't have enough time to cast anything.' The cloaked pegasus was closing, knife gleaming, but before he could attack, a cyan blur intercepted him.

"No, you don't." Rainbow said as she knocked the other pegasus away. He landed hard, then got up and decided to help get the others. Storm still had three ponies in front of him, and he was having trouble getting an upper hand. Star was about to help when Pinkamina jumped in with the one of the retractable blades attached to her foreleg, and parried one of the attackers blades from Storm "Need a little help?" She asked with a wicked grin on her face. Storm nodded and the two fought off the cloaked ponies

The pony that the cloaked pegasus had released had two other ponies draped across his back. He lifted his head and shouted, "We got the others, and then we're pulling out! Move!" He quickly retreated with the three fighting Storm and Pinkamina, who had disengaged and retreated as well. The one Rig was fighting retreated in turn causing Rig to yell.

"Come on! Fight me, you almost had me!" Star shook his head at Rig's comment, and then watched as the group faded into the dark of the night. Twilight and Pinkie moved back into the camp after the fighting had stopped. Twilight looked around the camp and found Pinkamina, who was looking over the blade she had picked up while the others were fixing up the camp. Twilight walked over to Star, who was taking to Storm. "They saw what I really look like I don't think they'll really care." She heard Star say.

"What are you talking about?" Twilight asked as she got closer. When she stopped walking she could see that Storms wings were slightly bloodied. She guessed that was from blocking the blades. which she still had no idea how he was doing that.

"Hey Twilight! I'm trying to tell Storm to fix his wings, but he doesn't want to scare anypony, so he won't do it."

Twilight looked to Storm "Why would we be scared of you? You're the one who told us about those ponies following us."

Storm stood quiet for a moment before saying "Bring the others, they should see this at the same time so there is no confusion." Twilight nodded and called over Pinkamina, Rainbow, and Pinkie. Storm sighed as he focused and raised his wings; in a quick flap they changed back to his leathery draconic wings again, and grew his fangs back as well. He opened his eyes to find all of the mares besides Pinkamina looking at him with looks of wonder.

“That. Is. So. Awesome!" Rainbow Dash said, moving to get a closer look at Storm's wings, Pinkie following her; the two poked and prodded his wings while asking Storm questions faster than he could answer. Twilight, seeing as Storm probably wasn't going to be answering her questions with Rainbow and Pinkie bombarding him with theirs she looked to Star and asked "Is he a kirin?"

"A what?" Star stated.

"A kirin. You know, half pony, half dragon." Twilight said.

“I guess that would be a yes.” Star replied.

“Wow, I've never met one.” Twilight didn't know what else to say at the time, and left it at that, listening to the conversation between Storm, Rainbow, and Pinkie to see what she could find out about Storm. After Rainbow and Pinkie stopped their questions Twilight had found out Storm could eat gems, but only did so once in a while, his skeleton was significantly stronger than a normal ponies due to his dragon heritage, he could breathe fire, though it was unpleasant to do so and he didn't like to unless he had to, and that he could manipulate a little magic, also a trait of his draconic heritage.

"Ok, you all should get some sleep. I'll keep first watch." Star said to everyone. Twilight stayed put while the rest of them went to bed. Twilight walked over to Star.

"Want some company for a little while?" She asked, her tone almost seeming to plead him. He visibly tensed at the request.

"Of course, but make sure you get some sleep. I'm pretty sure Rainbow wouldn't be happy with you if you slowed us down." Star said, still a little tense from the request. Twilight just sat in companionable silence with Star for a few minutes, before going to bed. As Star watched Twilight leave, he thought to himself. 'It's been months. Why are ponies coming after us now?' He sat there with his unspoken and unanswered question for what seemed like years, until he one of his friends to take the watch for him.

**********

Cobalt woke to a table and a plate of food in front of him. 'What the?' As he got up he realized where he was, when he did he nearly fell back down in fright. He was in his lord’s mansion. "Calm down, and eat Cobalt." Cobalt snapped his head around. He instantly wished he didn't. His lord was at the other end of the table, covered in shadows, again looking at him with those cold, light less eyes. Those eyes. "Come now Cobalt; eat your food before it gets cold." Cobalt took in what was on the plate in front of him, and finally started to calm down. As he did he took in the wonderful smell of roasted cauliflower, drizzled with a sauce that smelled of pineapple. Cobalt looked to His lord again and he nodded. Cobalt started to eat, picking up a fork and a sharp serrated knife in his telekinesis to cut into the tough roasted cauliflower. Part way through the meal, Cobalt heard his lord speak. His words chilled Cobalt to the bone.

"Enjoying your food?" Cobalt looked to his lord, who hadn't even touched his food. Cobalt swallowed what he was chewing and nodded.

"Good, now to get to the matter at hoof." Cobalt's stomach felt like it had turned to lead. "You failed me again Cobalt." With those words several ghostly green ethereal chains looped around Cobalt, restricting his every movement.

"Please milord; forgive me." Cobalt screamed, tears welling up in his eyes.

"It's too late for forgiveness Cobalt." With the finishing of that statement the knife that Cobalt was using was wrapped in a ghostly green glow. It raised slowly to Cobalt's eye level. Cobalt started to struggle against the chains as the knife moved sluggishly towards his eye. "Don't struggle Cobalt-" Another chain whipped around Cobalt's throat and his horn, keeping his head still "- that will only make it more painful to you." The knife continued its slow advance. Cobalt fought even harder, but couldn't move his head an inch. He closed his eyes so he wouldn't see the knife moving towards him, but his eye lids were forced open to look at the knife. The knife stopped less than a quarter of an inch away from Cobalt's eye. "Ah, I almost forgot the music." Cobalt stared at his lord as he moved to a record player, and started it up. A soft classical piece began to play. "Now; where were we?"

Out in the hallway screams could be heard for several minutes before everything went silent. The door opened and the maids waiting outside moved in the clear the room of the mess. After they had left Shadow Stalker entered and asked the unicorn sitting at the end of the table. "Why did you use your magic this time Pyrrhic? Usually you like making them hurt themselves."

"I felt like causing the pain this time Shadow, no other reason than that." Pyrrhic replied, coming out of the shadows to reveal his ivory coat and golden mane. His omnipresent green eyes once again scanned the room. "Not that I didn't think about it. I felt if I tried to force him, he would break free. Unicorns are much harder to control than pegasi or earth ponies."

Shadow walked over to him, and brushed up along Pyrrhic's flank, "Now, since that is over, how about we move to the bedroom?"

Pyrrhic shook with anticipation. "Yes, why don't we." He replied, already feeling the adrenaline run through him as the two walked out of the room, heading for Pyrrhic's chambers.