Chapter 1: Catch that Pony
The air was filled with the sound of busy ponies. It was the height day, and ponies were swarming to the market district, exchanges were flying around like-
“OOOOOHF... I'm so sorry ma'am, I wasn't paying attention,”
“That's all right, I guess I wasn't really looking either,” as the mare picked herself off the ground, she got a good look at the colt who ran into her. He was tombstone gray, with a jet-black mane and tail, deep emerald eyes, and... noticeably short, like her height short. Yet, everything else told her that he was indefinitely a fully grown earth-pony stallion. She couldn't tell if it was just her, but she was getting a strange vibe from him.
She finally realized they've been staring at each other for over a minute, “Anyway, it's okay, I wasn't really looking either,” this seemed to break the colt out of his trance as well,
“And again, my apologies miss,” he started walking off breaking the awkward moment between them, at this point she noticed a thick black stripe running from his mane all the way down to his tail, and his cutie mark was an open book with a neon blue fountain coming from it- wait a moment,
He didn't get too far when a pink earth-pony jumped out in front of him and held her hoof out, “Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie and that was Twilight that you just bumped into and I've never seen you before so you must be new in town so whats your name?” she ended her babel with a perky smile with her hoof still held out.
“H-hi, I'm S-” as he made contact with Pinkie's hoof he was greeted with a shock so powerful, that his skeleton was flashing through his body.
After five whole seconds, he flew backwards about two feet, landing on his bottom, “Oops, I guess I had it on 'show your skeleton' level,” she said, as she turned the notch down on the hoof buzzer until it said 'surprising shock' instead.
She looked up just in time to notice a ball of black energy heading toward her, just barely able to react to it with a sloppy dodge-jump to the side.
When she recovered, she noticed a black aura covered book floating in front of the earth-pony she just pranked- wait a minute, a book magically floating in front of an earth-pony? “I would like an immediate, and quite heartfelt apology from you, or next time I won't miss,” he growled, but his anger quickly turned into confusion as he noticed that Pinkie's look wasn't fear, but pure astonishment, he quickly looked over to see Twilight completely saucer-eyed and mouth totally agape.
“Hay Pinkie, what's the crowd for- what the buck?!” Rainbow Dash flew in, only to be greeted by the same strange sight that the small crowd was staring at.
Some strange force told the earth-pony to look down, only to notice his levitating book as well. In an instant, he closed the book and stuffed it in his saddlebag, “well, I'd best be going,” he said nervously, turned tail and galloped off in the opposite direction,
“Twilight?”
“Yes Rainbow?”
“What did I just see?”
“An earth-pony using magic... and he's getting away... don't just stand there you two, we gotta' catch that pony!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.
Without any hesitation, Dash took flight and started chasing the strange colt, Twilight and Pinkie weren’t too far behind. The rest of the crowd started to awkwardly dispersed, muttering to each other.
Well, well, this pegesus is quite fast, the strange colt thought to himself as he was racing down the streets, and if I'm correct, she'll do a dive to try and catch me, his prediction was dead on as Dash started the subtle motions indicating a dive maneuver, well rainbow mare, you'll see that I'm not exactly an easy catch, he snickered as he pulled his book from his bag and started channeling a spell,
Dash committed to the dive, but something was wrong, over half way through the dive the colt disappeared in a big flash. Unable to recover she face-planted into the road bringing her to a dead, and quite cartoon cliché, stop, “OOOOOOOWWWWW,” was the only noise she could make as she picked herself up and spit the dirt out of her mouth.
“Rainbow, are you okay?” Twilight asked as her and Pinkie caught up with their
friend,
“Yeah, just have a splitting headache now,” she replied rubbing her head, “what just happened?” she asked as Pinkie helped her off the ground
“Well, by the feel of it, he telaported,”
“Wait, what do you mean by the feel of it?” came Rainbow's sudden and strangely sharp question,
“Well, um,” Twilight stuttered, startled by Rainbow's sudden frustration, “when a unicorn telaports, a small disturbance is created in the planets magnetic field, creating a sort of energy rift you can say,”
Rainbow, being her, barely understood a word she said and ended up cocking her head to the side, netting a sigh from Twilight, “Simply put-”
“Hey Rarity! Hey Fluttershy!” Pinkie yelled out cutting Twilight completely off and bringing in their other friends,
“Why hello darling, may I ask what happened to dear Rainbow? there's a noticeable lump on her head,”
“Yeah, I was just a little curious too... if you don't mind that is,”
Before Pinkie could go on some rambling spiel, Twilight butted in, “To put this simply, we were chasing this strange pony, but he telaported right as Rainbow was about to catch him and, well, this it what you see here,” she pointed her hoof to the scene of Fluttershy inspecting Rainbow's head,
“Curious, what exactly made this pony you were chasing 'weird?'”
“He an earth-pony,” was Twilight's flat reply,
“Owe!” Rainbow blurted as Fluttershy fumbled,
Rarity stepped back, eye's like moons, mouth agape,
“Exactly, now I have sort-of a plan, but I'll need all of you for it to work,”
Twilight's friends were off in their designated positions leaving her all by her lonesome, “All right magical earth-pony time to find out where your hiding,” she said as she channeled her magic. Her eye's suddenly lit up, allowing her vision to dull out the background until everything was simple shades of gray, and the buildings were simplistic shapes. But, as the background was dulling out, a strange white grid of energy started forming. The grid was pretty uniform, except for the out of place rift near where Rainbow crashed, “Aha! There you are- wait,” something caught her eye, This isn't a rift, she thought to herself, this is a rip, a rip in dimentions, as if he went through a small wormhole, fascinating! Just the idea of a pony doing this filled her mind with questions. She followed the rip for about three blocks before she got that strange vibe again, “He's close, I can feel it,” she muttered to herself, slowly creeping through the ally where the vibe was coming from.
Her vision suddenly started going haywire, jammer spell, she canceled her vision spell just in time to see a tombstone flank disappearing around the corner on the other end of the ally, “oh no you don't!” she yelled out channeling for a telaport.
This put her right next to the colt, literally running out of the telaport, “Well your the persistent little one are you!” yelled the colt
“Your an unexplained phenomenon! All I want to do is ask you some questions!” Twilight yelled back,
“Sorry, but I'm not gonna' answer those 'questions'!” he yelled for a final time before grabbing his book and started channeling for a telaport,
Twilight was ready this time with the vision spell, as soon as he disappeared she teleported in suit following the rift. When she got there though, he wasn't there, no vibe, no nothing, then it hit her, he doubled back, as soon as the thought ran across her mind she teleported back to her origin point,
As soon as she got there though, she saw the earth-pony in the distance. She responded with a teleport putting her right back with him, surprising the colt,
He teleported again, Twilight following him in near sync, this time though, he hit a dead end. The ally they were in was blocked off by a tall fence, “All right strange earth-pony, end of the line,” she said with confidence, because across the street her friends were guarding the gate to the park,
“That's... only... what you think,” the colt panted, the use of magic combined with the running obviously tiring him out, but he still started channeling a spell, this time though it wasn't a teleport. No, instead his body started phasing, splitting into two ponies, then four, then eight, multiplying until he it 32.
Twilight stammered back beyond amazed at what she was seeing, “but, how-” was the only thing she got out before she heard
“CHARRRRGE!” all the colt clones were galloping out of the ally, Twilight just having enough time to turn around and run away, it was too late though as one of the colts was gaining on her. She screamed as she thought she was going to be trampled by this heard but, as the colt clone made contact it just disappeared, fizzled away, like it was nothing.
She turned around and sat there as a couple more hit her and disappeared, these aren’t clones, they're shadow copies!
The other four at the gate were all trying to process that a heard of colt clones were heading toward them, all of them completely floored by what they were seeing. The trance was broken as soon as all clones started to channel magic, and in a bid flash, nothing happened, “Uh Rainbow,” Fluttershy tugged on her friend's leg getting her attention,
“Yes, Flutters?”
“I counted twenty-seven, there was only twenty-six after the flash,” the words triggered a response from Dash, as she looked behind her to see the colt running across the park,
“Ah, HELL NO!” she cried as she took off at rainboom level speed.
She was catching up to him fast, and before she knew it, she made contact, knocking the book away and digging a near three-hundred foot long trench while in the process of stopping. Dash got up a bit dazed, but okay, the colt on the other hand looked like he conked out, “Bawhahahahaha, not so tough are ya',” Dash's laughter though was suddenly cut short as a hoof made contact with her face, the force greater than her hitting the ground at 20+ mph, “you can preen my feathers now Mommy,” was the last thing she said before hitting the ground with a big *THUD*,
“Hmph! Amateurs,” the colt jeered as dusted himself off , “EEEEYOOOOWW!” his right foreleg was broken, most likely from impact.
As he pick himself off the ground, he balanced himself on his three good legs, “Wait, where's my book?” he frantically hobbled around, looking for his precious cargo,
This was abruptly cut short when a lasso found its way around the colt's legs, and cinched up before he could react, “YAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH,” his leg obviously not taking it well,
“Haha, gotcha' ya little rascal,” cheered Applejack as she ran up and started to hog-tie him,
“Thank Faust you got here when you did Applejack,” said Twilight as she and the rest of the gang caught up with their friend, “we've been trying to catch this pony for a while now,”
“Ah, it's nuthin' sugarcube, I was wonderin' why there was a heard of the exact same pony myself- hey, stop yer moanin' and whinin' it don't hurt that bad,” she scolded the tide-up colt,
“My... leg is... broken... rope... not... helping,”
“Applejack,” Fluttershy butted in, “his right foreleg is all swollen, I think he's telling the truth,”
“Ah, well I'm sorry sugarcube, I had no clue you were already hurt,” Applejack apologized as she hastily untied the colt,
The colt responded with another painful groan as rope loosened its grip, and as she took it away, Twilight walked up with his book, “Hey, that's mine!”
“Nope, not until you answer my questions,” Twilight bit back at the colt, her magical grip firmly on the book. “First of all,” she started, “what's your name?”
“You can call me Pageheart,” he growled,
“Okay, 'Pageheart', how are you able to use magic while being an earth-pony-”
“I am NOT an earth-pony!” he fired, catching all the ponies off guard,
“Ok-kay...” Twilight stuttered, gathering her thoughts again, “then what are you?”
“Oh dear Faust, isn't it obvious?!” all the ponies shook their heads, “the stripe, the magical book, I'm a bucking warlock!”
“Excuse me Pageheart, but what is a warlock? aside from the obvious,” Twilight carefully questioned,
“But... I... Okay, where am I, 'cause this ain't Warlynnsburg, and whats the date?”
“Well to answer your first question: you're in Ponyville, and I've never heard of a 'Warlynnsburg', second: It's August, 6, 2010, uhh Pageheart?”
The look on Pageheart's face was pure astonishment to say the least, as if his mind was trying to process the information, “I'M 1,200 YEARS IN THE FUTURE?!” was the only sensible thing that came out of his mouth.
The Unicorn and the Warlock
Chapter 2: The Painful Truth
“But I don't understand, how is this possible?” Pageheart was just lying there, leg broken, book-less, and hopelessly confused, “How did I end up 1,200 years in the future?”
“I don't fully understand the situation either, Pageheart-”
“YOU'RE GONNA' PAY FOR HURTING MY DASHIE!” Pinkie screamed at the top of her lungs and started charging at Pageheart.
“Pinkie no!” just in time, Applejack tackled Pinkie, pinning her to the ground,
“Let me go, got to kill friend hurting asshole,”
“Sorry sugarcube, can't do that, poor Pageheart hear is already hurt as is, and I suspect Twi want's him alive,” Applejack tried to explain to her friend, but to no avail, Pinkie was to enraged to hear any reason, “Can somepony help she's a real hoof-full,” Applejack was now struggling to keep Pinkie down,
“Pinkie, you can calm down now,” a familiar voice came from above, instantaneously causing a the rage to vanish,
“Dashie!,” she squealed overpowering Applejack finally, and tackle-hugging Dash,
“Pinkie... I... can't... breath,”
“Anyway,” Twilight took over again while Pinkie was cooing over Dash,
“Um, Twilight,” Fluttershy tapped on her friend's shoulder,
“What?” Twilight snapped,
Fluttershy cowered back at the harshness, but still pointed a hoof towards the gate where the locals were starting to gather, no doubt curious about what just happened,
“Uh-oh, how about we take this conversation somewhere private,” Twilight stated looking towards Pageheart,
“Fine with me,” he answered noticing the attention he inevitably brought with that stunt he pulled,
“All right, girls!” she called getting all their attention, “Were getting some unwanted attention, let's head to the library,”
“Phew, that was close,” Twilight sighed as she opened the door,
“Personally I'm surprised that they fell for that,” Pageheart chimed in, being towed in by Twilight's magic, “honestly, 'magical experiment gone wrong', kinda' cliché if you ask me,”
“Well, cliches work sometimes, and we needed to get out of there fast,”
“That, I cant argue with,”
“Anyway, A.J. Rarity, could you get the spare bed ready, I'd like to put Pageheart down sooner than later,”
“On it,” Applejack said, as she an Rarity trotted upstairs to the bedroom,
“Fluttershy, My first aid kit is in the bathroom, could you grab it, we're gonna' need to patch up Page's leg,”
“Can do,” answered Fluttershy, following the first two,
“And Rainbow, you can lay on my bed, that shot to the head probably didn't do you any favors,” Twilight finally directed,
“Thanks, my head's killing me,” as Pinkie and Dash walked by the other two, Pinkie gave Pageheart a nasty look and growl to go with it,
Twilight followed the last two upstairs, carefully levitating Pageheart behind her. When she entered her apartment the spare bed was out, and Rainbow was crawling up on her bed, hooves rubbing her temples,
“Damn, now this a dream house,” Pageheart was in awe, the apartment was covered in bookshelves, crammed with everything from fantasy stories to astrology books, “Wish I coulda' lived in the library of Pageheart Palace,”
“Wait, Pageheart Palace?” Twilight questioned, catching the oddball statement,
“Uh, did I say that?” Pageheart quickly responded, realizing what he just said,
He was interrupted, and inadvertently saved by the yawn of a small purple dragon, walking up to Twilight, “Hey Twilight, whats going on-” he was cut off by the sight of the colt floating beside her, “dang Twilight, I knew you were looking for a coltfriend but I didn't expect you to drag one in,”
Twilight was taken completely off guard by this, “He's not my colt-friend, he's a strange phenomenon, and I need to talk Celestia about it,”
“Strange phenomenon? Twilight, what could possibly be so weird about a strangely short earth-pony, with a black stripe on his back-”
“Excuse me sir,” Pageheart piped up, “for your information, I am not an earth-pony, and if Miss Twilight would put me down and give me my book I would be be more than happy to show you what I really am,”
“How can I trust that your not gonna' do anything funny,” said Twilight, obviously unwilling,
“Well for one, my leg is broken, two: I'm beyond tired, three: If what you said about directly contacting Celestia is true, then I'm not gonna' screw up my chances of setting things strait,” was his flat reply,
Spike just stood there, stunned, completely blown away by the fact that he just saw an earth-pony- er warlock- er a pony that isn't a unicorn using magic, how is this possible?
Pageheart was on the spare bed while Fluttershy was tending to his leg, Twilight was writing a letter to Celestia, and Dash, Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity were having a nice little conversation amongst themselves,
“Spike,” Twilight's voice finally broke him out of his trance, “I would like to send this letter to the princess,” she requested levitating a scroll in front of him. He grabbed it and whisked it away with his fire-breath, “good, now to go study that book,”
Twilight walked over to her desk where the tomb was sitting, surly there had to be some secret to this, how is it possible that he can channel magic through this thing? She thought to herself as she slowly opened it. What she saw immediately paralyzed her, they weren't just written spells, no, they were mathematical equations, magic in logic form, “no, how is this even possible? Starswirl the Bearded was the one who discovered that magic could be put in logic form,”
“Um, who's 'Starswirl the Bearded?'” Pageheart's jolted Twilight back into reality, turning around only to realize that he was sitting right behind her,
“Wait, but your leg,”
“All patched up, your Pansy friend did a damn good job too,” he replied,
“Pansy? Kinda' mean to say about the pony who just helped you,” Twilight noticed the wince Pageheart made at the sudden aggression,
“What do you mean unkind? For a pony of your intellect, you should know that Pansy, is the term for pegasi who aren't a part of the ruff-and-tumble rabble, nothing more,” Pageheart snapped back, showing some frustration
“I have no clue what dictionary you got that description from, because from all the ones I read 'Pansy' is a derogatory term for a pony who is timid and unassertive,” Twilight was all fired up now, she wasn't going to let some crazy magical earth-pony call her friend that, even if it was true to an extent.
“Um, Twilight,”
“The Inkheart Equestrian Dictionary, the most common one read,”
“Twilight can I just say-”
“Bullshit! the Inkheart Dictionary doesn't say that!”
“TWILIGHT!” Fluttershy's unnaturally loud tone surprised everypony,
“Yes Fluttershy?” Twilight, stunned by Fluttershy's burst,
Realizing that eveypony was looking at her, she went back to her quiet cowering state, “Um, Pageheart is actually right, it's a very obscure fact that in the olden days pegasi like me were called Pansy's as a descriptive term, not an insult,”
“Yeah but the term was eventually knocked after... well you get it,” Dash chimed in, then rolled back over still rubbing her head,
“Why, thank you Miss Fluttershy, I knew I wasn't wrong,” Pageheart was grateful to finally hear some sense,
“Oh dear Celestia-” A loud and quite fiery belch interrupted Twilight, completely changing the subject in her mind, “Finally,”
Dear Twilight Sparkle:
I am sending air chariots to you immediately. I must see this Warlock, because if your right, we may have a strange situation on out hooves.
I apologize for this letter being brief, but what I may need to explain to you is a long kept secret, that is better said face-to-face.
-Princess Celestia
The Throne room doors swung open as the Elements, accompanied by the Warlock, stepped in, “Guards!” Celestia spoke, “We would like some privacy,” the guards obediently marched out of the throne room and shut the doors behind them.
Celestia was accompanied by a somewhat messy just-rolled-out-of-bed Luna who was quietly brushing her hair, “Greetings all, I would like to apologize for this sudden, and quite late, meeting but what Twilight told me in her letter was quite... astonishing,” she spoke as the Elements all bowed in their greetings, Pageheart managing a fairly decent bow even with one good leg, “Now, on to business. Twilight, would you present to me this warlock,”
“Of course Princess Celestia,” Twilight agreed, guiding the hobbling Pageheart to the front, “This is Pageheart, possibly one of the strangest phenomenons I've ever run across,”
“Wait, did you say... Pageheart?”
“Why, yes” Celestia's sudden inquiry threw Twilight off a little,
The two princess looked at each other for a long minute, both with astonished looks in their eyes. “Do you think...” Celestia finally spoke up,
“No, that's impossible...” Luna replied,
“All right, I have a great many questions for you Pageheart, but I must first see tangible proof you are really a warlock,” Celestia turned facing the warlock in question,
“Gladly your highness,” Pageheart said as he turned profile to show off his black stripe, while Twilight handed him his book and stepped back. As Pageheart concentrated and the book started to float, something else happened that the others just noticed, his stripe started glowing dimly and the bristly fur started slowly rising.
Pageheart looked at the princess who looked like she had just seen a ghost, and Luna was no better, “No, this can't be, your kind all perished at the Battle of Warlynnsburg 1,200 years ago,”
Pageheart dropped his book and nearly fell over at the statement, “excuse me... What?!”
“All the warlocks perished by the hooves of the purist 1,200 years ago, there... there should be none left,” a barley visible tear fell from Celestia's face,
“But, that means... that means, Amberweight, Fieldwalker, Starry Night, Columnrise, Lightning, F-Father, M-Mother... and... and... SILVER!” Pageheart broke down crying, his sobbing echoing through the large room. All the sudden a warm body embraced Pageheart, startling him.
When he opened his eyes, he saw a purple body tightly locked onto his, “but... but, why?” he barely managed through his sobbing,
“Yeah, Twilight were all jus' a little curious,” Applejack piped up finally,
“He just had the ultimate tragedy dropped on him,” her tone was surprisingly irritated, “He was just told that all of his kind are extinct, non-existent, GONE! And you don't feel the slightest terrible for him. Think about it, all of his friends and family are gone, he'll never see another warlock, another pony from his time for that matter, again.”
“Pageheart, I know how it feels to not have anypony there for you, so just let it all out, I'll be your shoulder to cry on, I'll be... your friend,” Twilight kept her grip tight on Pageheart,
“Th-thank you, Miss Twilight,”
“Please Pageheart, just call me Twilight,”
“And you -sniffle- you can call me Page,”
Celestia excused everypony to her personal chambers,
As they all relaxed in comfortable lounge chairs, augmented by the wavering smell of incense, a recently calmed down Page was telling them everything about the warlocks, how their existence was purely an accident by a group of explorers that found some strange artifact 1,400 years ago.
He explained their culture, how they were organized into 6 clans, based off of the lead explorers of the original Warlynn 30: Thunderback, Needlenose, Iron Hoof, Stonemane, Medowgaze, and Pageheart, wait?
“Excuse me Page, sorry to interrupt but, isn't having your clan name as your actual name kinda' redundant?” Twilight inquired,
“Well that's because his real name is Stardancer,” Celestia answered, getting a look from everyone,
“Wait, how did you?”
“Simple as putting two and two together: Your a warlock, you were able to name off five of the last clan leaders, the sixth you referenced as 'father' which the only one you didn't mention by name was Songstorm, meaning you are Stardancer Pageheart the son of Songstorm Pageheart, Duke of Clan Pageheart, and you are Prince Pageheart,” The reply was quite a shocker,
“Okay then, different question, why do you go by Pageheart if your real name is Stardancer?” Twilight asked
Page took another moment to collect his thoughts, “One: Princess Celesia is correct, my real name is Stardancer. Two: the reason I go under the name of Pageheart, is due to the fact that not one other of my clan, or any warlock for that matter, is alive. It is stated by the Warlynn Doctrine that I am allowed to take the name of my clan as if its my own, and until another warlock is found or born, I will be forever known as Pageheart,”
“Wow, that's extremely honorable, to give up one's personal identity to represent a group as a whole,” Rarity said purely amazed by Page's devotion.
Pinkie stood up, walked over to Page, and pulled him into a big hug, “I'm so sorry I miss-judged you, I thought you were just a big meanie for hurting Dashie but your just a confused and hurt pony that has nopony to turn to, well you can have me to turn to too, you can be my friend,” everypony was a bit shocked about Pinkie's change of heart,
“Excuse me, but are you all this embracing?”
The Elements looked at each other, smiles slowly, but surely, appearing on their faces, “Yup,” was Twilight's simple reply, “Group Hug!” at that, eveypony came together to hug Page, “Were all your friends, because we know how important friendship really is. It's... It's Magic.”
“Quite the cute moment wouldn't you say Luna?”
“I'd say,” Luna replied channeling a spell, which made a semi transparent copy of the group, “and I'm in the mood to paint something.”
