The Secret Mentor

It has been a few months since the Nightmare Moon incident. Twilight is slowly getting used to life in Ponyville. It is a lot different than her life back in Canterlot. Back there she would just read and study all day nearly every day. Here though she also had to leave some time for her friends. She enjoyed spending time with them, but her studies and training with Dark where still more important to her. So often she would be found in her library reading a book or sometimes asleep during the day.

Twilight’s training had been going very well. She learned a lot of new spells. Many of those spells where dangerous, especially the ones that included something like fire and lightning. Nevertheless the unicorn still wanted to learn every spell Dark could teach her no matter what the risk. Like they had agreed many years ago, she would not use the magic Dark had taught her in the real world without his permission.

The purple unicorn had awoken about ten minutes ago, and was heading down stairs to get some breakfast. She could smell pancakes. Apparently Spike was already up and making breakfast for both of them.

After a moment, she heard a familiar voice in her head: “Good morning, Twilight.”

“Good morning, Dark.”

“Do you have any particular plans for today, my student?”

“Not that I know of, why?”

“Well, there is one thing I forgot to mention during our training. But I will mention it after breakfast, once you are more awake than you are now.”

Twilight mentally nodded and went into the kitchen. She saw that Spike had already made breakfast, and the table was set for both of them.

“Good morning, Twi!”

“Good morning, Spike.”

“You OK, Twilight? When I woke up you were talking in your sleep. Something about fire spells.”

“I’m fine, Spike. I was just dreaming about some spells.”

“Oh, OK then. Anyway, here’s breakfast!”

“Thanks Spike.”

Twilight finished breakfast quite quickly. She thanked Spike for the pancakes and told him that she will go upstairs and study.

When she got to her room, with a little excitement in her voice, she asked: “OK, Dark, what did you want to tell me?”

“I trust you remember our agreement that you are not allowed to use the spells I’ve taught you outside your dreams?”

Twilight nodded.

“Well for today you have my permission. I want you to practice some of those spells in real life.”

Twilight eyes lit up from excitement: “Really!? YES! Thank you, Dark! When do we begin?”

“Meet me at the edge of the Everfree forest. Come as soon as you can. I’ll be waiting for you there.”

The unicorn mentally nodded: “Understood.”

She quickly dashed out of her room and ran downstairs, so quickly that she didn`t even notice Spike on her way out.

Spike saw Twilight in a hurry and asked her: “Whoa, Twilight, what’s the hurry? I thought you didn’t have any plans for today.”

Those words brought Twilight back to reality. Thinking quickly she answered: “I just remembered I promised to meet Zecora today. So I’ll be in the Everfree forest in case anypony needs me.”

Twilight tried to put up an innocent smile, but it wasn’t very believable. Spike knew something wasn’t right. Twilight never forgets any meetings with anypony, but he decided not to ask her.

“Well, OK then. See you later, Twi. I’ll look after the library while you’re gone.”

“Thanks Spike, bye!”

With that Twilight ran out of the library in the direction of the Everfree forest. While she ran, she heard a few ponies call her name, but paid no attention to them. Her goal was the Everfree and nothing was going to stop her.

After a few minutes of running, she reached the side of the forest. The unicorn couldn’t see Dark anywhere. She entered the forest walked for about a minute.

After a moment she heard a familiar voice from behind her: “Hello, Twilight.”

Twilight turned around and saw Dark. After a few seconds she answered: “Good day, Dark. So I will be using my new offensive spells here?”

Dark smiled to that question: “Eager as always I see. Yes, you will be using some of the spells I’ve taught you. But it will be under my supervision. Now follow me.”

He walked passed Twilight deeper into the forest. Twilight obediently walked right behind him. They didn’t say a word to each other while walking. After about fifteen minutes of walking, Dark stopped.

“We have arrived.”

Twilight was slightly confused: “Arrived where?”

“You will test some of your spells here.” Darks horn glowed and after a second a pony manikin appeared in front of them.

“I trust you remember the offensive fire spells. Destroy that manikin with one of the spells.”

“What?” Twilight was more confused than ever, “I never destroyed anything in my dreams. I usually just cast the spells into the sky.”

“Yes, but I wish to see how powerful your spells are against a target. Now, I repeat, try to destroy that manikin, Twilight.”

Twilight, still confused and uncertain, tried to remember one of the fire spells that Dark had taught her. The first spell that came to mind was a simple ball of fire. She had made a fire ball so many times before that casting it would be easy. Her horn glowed with her violet aura, but slightly more dark than usual, and with minimal effort there was a fire ball in front of her, the size of a ponies head. Twilight threw the ball at the manikin. Once the fire ball reached the target, it shattered the manikin in to many pieces.

Twilight’s mouth hung open. She didn’t expect that her magic could ever be that strong.

“Most impressive.”

“That was amazing! I never thought that I could do something like that! How strong are these spells?”

“Some of them are very strong. I reckon that you could easily kill an ursa minor with some of the spells I’ve taught you. And note that you just used one of the simplest and least harmful spells.” He finished with his usual smile.

Twilight was still surprised at the display of her own power. And to think that she used a spell that was considered “less harmful” than the rest. A smile crept onto Twilight's face, similar to the one that Dark usually has. Just the thought about the ability to do something like that made her feel stronger than ever. She wanted to learn more.

Her smile didn’t fade while she asked: “What else will we be doing today?”

“Well… There is no longer a point to practice on manikins. You can easily take care of them. So I propose we move on, how about a real target?”

The purple unicorns smile faded: “What do you mean?”

“A real target, as in a live one. Hmmm… How about a timber wolf? Think you could handle one or two of those?”

“I… I… Don’t know. I’ve never faced one before.”

“I will summon two timber wolfs for you to fight. I want to see how you will handle yourself in a real fight. Ready?”

Twilight didn’t even get the chance to give an answer because as soon as Dark finished, his horn glowed his usual dark aura and he disappeared. For a few seconds there was just silence all around Twilight. She couldn’t hear anything, but suddenly growls from behind made her turn around. There through the trees she could see a large timber wolf approaching.

While she was still trying to fully understand what had happened, the wolf had gotten very close to her. The unicorn immediately came back to reality and just out of pure instinct teleported a few feet to the side before the wolf could jump on her. While the wolf was in midair another growl came from behind her. Without turning around she knew what was already right behind her.

This time Twilight put up a shield all around herself. The wolf coming from behind her smashed into the barrier and landed on the ground. It didn`t take long for him to recover though. Twilight was still in the shield and now two timber wolfs were circling around her.

She had to think fast. Twilight put down the shield and the wolves immediately both jumped at her. But Twilight put down the shield precisely at the moment when one wolf was in front of her and the other behind her. So when she teleported a few feet further away, the wolves hit each other in midair. This gave the unicorn the perfect chance to cast the same spell she used on the manikin. In a second there was a fire ball the same size as before above her horn. She threw it and hit one of the wolves in the back. The blast was so strong that the wolf was smashed into pieces and the other wolf flew a few feet back.

When she destroyed the wolf an unnatural smile appeared on her face. She didn’t even notice her own smile. The other wolf finally got up but was badly injured from the blast. Its leg was clearly broken and there was some kind of blood like fluid dripping from its chest. But it didn’t want to retreat, the wolf tried to run and attack the unicorn but he was very slow. While the wolf was trying to attack, Twilight had already lifted a nearby bolder with her magic. Just like the fire ball she threw it at the wolf and once it hit the target, the wolf was no more. Its pieces were scattered all around the area.

When the battle was over Twilight let out a sigh. She didn’t think that she could actually kill an animal. Now looking at the debris from the wolves, she felt bad for killing them, but she also felt good. The adrenaline from the fighting, the thrill, it was exciting.

She heard somepony teleport behind her. When she turned around she saw Dark with his usual smile.

“Very, very well done! I honestly expected that I would have to interfere at some point. But once again you have exceeded my expectations.”

Suddenly she felt angry at Dark and yelled: “What was that?! You just left me alone with two timber wolfs and disappeared! I’ve never faced anything in direct combat! I could have died!”

“I seem to remember you handling a certain ursa minor a few weeks back quite easily.”

“But… I… That…”

Dark chuckled slightly: “Calm down my student. Did I not tell you that I would be supervising? If anything bad had happened I would have immediately interfered. I can’t allow my student and friend to be harmed can I?”

Twilight was still slightly annoyed, but after Dark mentioned she was not only his student but also a friend, she couldn’t stay angry at him for long.

“Alright Dark. But please give me a little warning next time.”

A few moments of silence passed when Twilight finally asked: “So what now? More timber wolfs?”

“No, that is enough for today. You did very good, amazing even at some points!”

A faint blush appeared on Twilights cheeks at the praise: “Thank you, Dark. But it’s all thanks to your training. I wouldn’t be able to do half of what I can do if it wasn’t for you.”

After another awkward moment of silence she asked: “So can I go? I am not very fond of these woods.”

“Of course! You are free to go. Oh, and there will be no training tonight either, you earned your rest tonight. Enjoy it. Our next lessons will get progressively more and more challenging.”

She nodded: “Understood. I will see you tomorrow then, farewell Dark!”

“Farewell Twilight.”

A few seconds later his horn glowed its usual color and Dark disappeared. Twilight turned around and started walking to the exit of the forest. The whole way home she was preoccupied with her own thoughts. What did Dark mean by more challenging lessons? Would she learning new spells? Would she be facing stronger animals or creatures? But somehow the fact about the lessons becoming even harder only excited her. Twilight wanted to learn every spell Dark could teach her after all.

While lost in her thoughts she didn’t notice that she had already left the forest. The sun was still shining so she was only in the forest for a couple of hours. The walk to the library was uneventful, some ponies said hi to her, but she paid them no attention, still lost in her own thoughts.

When she arrived at the library Spike was reading a book. He immediately noticed her.

“Oh, hey Twilight! I see you’re back from Zecoras. How did it go?”

“It was… fine. We talked about some herbs and plants that she found in the forest. You probably wouldn’t find that interesting. I won’t bore you with the details.”

To Spike Twilight seemed a little nervous, but he decided not to ask her why. If something was wrong she would probably tell him.

“Well, OK then. Got anything else planned?”

She shook her head: “No, for real this time. If you need me I’ll be in my room.”

Twilight went up the stairs that led to her room. When she entered the first thing she noticed was her bed. Suddenly she felt a little tired from the adventure in the forest so a nap seemed like a good idea at the moment. Without second thought Twilight climbed on to her bed and in about a minute she was already asleep. The last thoughts before falling asleep were her lessons with Dark and what would await her in the near future. Honestly she couldn’t wait to see what would the future bring.