Tale of a Trickster: Harmonius Magic

Tale of a Trickster

Harmonius Magic

Chapter One

Ω

Differences

Ω

Stalemate awakens with his face in something soft, and fluffy. He lightly groans, before rolling over, and promptly falling onto the carpet.

"Oof!" Stalemate coughs out as his lungs empty themselves from the sudden impact.

He slowly gets up, and looks around the room. He immediately notices his staff and cape in the corner of the room right behind a small, wooden bookshelf. He inspects more of the room, noticing the royal looking doors and furniture, even featuring a work desk for, perhaps, writing. Stalemate hears a giggle come from behind him, due to which he turns in said direction. His eyes lock with Janil's who is currently squinting from her small cracks and laughs.

"What's gotten you so happy?" Stalemate asks, to which he is answered by Janil's pointing, aimed directly at his face.

Stalemate reaches up and touches his face; nothing seems to be wrong, that is, until he feels right where his nose is. He pulls his hand away, noticing the white, almost cream-like substance that went along with it.

"Really, Janil?" Stalemate groans; she pranked him yet again.

"Where did you get this, anyway?"

Janil laughs. "Oh, just the royal kitchen."

Stalemate face-palms, and momentarily forgets which hand he does so with, leaving his forehead also smeared over with white frosting.

This sends Janil off the deep end; she holds her chest and falls over from the laughter. Luckily, her head lands right on a pillow, saving her from a rather painful experience.

Stalemate groans before noticing another door, which leads into some sort of bathing room. He walks toward the door, and into the room. He takes notice of the calm, plain, and white atmosphere of the bathroom. He turns to his left and looks at himself in the mirror, before looking at a type of bowl below it.

"Strange... What could this do?" He turns one of the gear-like pieces of metal, and water comes out. Stalemate stares, bewildered at how such a thing works without magic.

"No matter, just accept it and move on," Stalemate tells himself before he rinses off his face.

After using a light wind generated magically to dry his face, he returns to the bedroom; in which Janil is still laughing, but for another reason. An equine was indeed there, that was in golden armor. Janil, being herself, makes funny faces at the guard, trying to get him to express anything, but the guard simply stares at her. It then speaks in a sort of language Stalemate cannot comprehend, before leaving the room.

"Oh, wow! That was a blast!" Janil exclaims, giggling while she does so.

"Yes, I am sure it was enjoyable, but why did that guard come in here? What does it want?" Stalemate asks, hoping for once Janil may actually be useful for information.

"Pretty sure it said something about cheese and hot sauce, if that means anything," Janil answers with an innocent look.

"I am going to assume that is not the case, most likely he is going to have us meet whoever they are-" Stalemate doesn't finish, due to a pony walking in.

It nods to Janil, before it sets a tray onto the work desk holding a cheese pizza, as well as optional toppings, including hot sauce.

"Wait... You can speak their language?" Stalemate asks Janil.

"Nope, it was just a hunch," She replies before running over to the pizza, and digging in.

Stalemate looks at her with confusion, before walking over to grab his own slice.

"I sincerely hope we can figure this out soon..." Stalemate prays, confused about where he is, and what these ponies are doing.

Ω

"Your highness," A gold-clad pony states to Celestia while walking in. "They are awake, now would be a good time."

Celestia nods. "Thank you."

She turns to a guard standing next to her, "Please go get the translator, I am ready to speak to our new guests."

The guard nods before trotting off to get the pony Celestia requested.

"Now, please take me to their room, I wish to introduce myself as soon as possible," She asks another set of two royal guards.

They look at each other, then back at her. "Are you sure you don't want to wait for the translator, your highness?"

She nods. "Introductions aren't solely about words."

She stands from her throne, and regally treads down the red carpet with her two assigned guards in tow. She is as ready as ever to find out what these people are doing here.

Ω

Stalemate and Janil finish their last slices, shortly before Stalemate wipes his mouth with a Napkin, then dissipates it through acidic magic.

Stalemate sighs. "Well, time to wait, I suppose."

He then hears Janil's voice all the way across the room. "Well, if you would say this is a wait, then sure!"

Stalemate turns around and faces an equine of white coat, and rainbow hued mane. He stares at the vibrant chest-plate and golden crown atop her head, shortly before doing a short bow.

He returns to eye-level to find the regal pony walking over to the door, and opening it. From that opening, another pony steps through; His mane an almost fiery color and shape. His coat is red, and a horn sits atop his head. His hazel eyes lock onto Stalemate, and he smiles. He turns to Celestia and speaks.

"I suppose we should begin by getting them to speak, so I can know which language they use." He states to the princess in his calm tone.

"That will be less difficult than you think, Psyon. That tall, presumably female one is rather talkative." Celestia answers, pointing her hoof at Janil.

She points at Celestia. "Hey! It's rude to point!"

Stalemate face-palms for the second time this morning. "Janil, you are pointing at her, too."

"I never said I was polite, but shouldn't a princess be?" Janil replies.

Psyon pays attention to their conversation, but he ends up with a blank look at the end.

Celestia looks at him. "What's wrong?"

"I... Don't know this language. It sounds like a mix between Draconian and Gryphonian, yet I cannot get my mind to find what they are saying," He replies, still trying to see if he is just missing something

"I am terribly sorry, your highness."

Celestia smiles. "No need to apologize, even the tiny tidbit about those two languages is helping us get closer to understanding them."

Psyon Blaze smiles, before stating, "I will try to research into this, I have never actually heard of a species of their build before."

"Then I will let you get right to that," Celestia says, dismissing the unicorn. He leaves with a light clip clop, and heads down the hall to the castle library.

Stalemate, meanwhile, is starting to get annoyed by the language barrier. He wishes to know what they speak about.

He sighs. "I don't even understand this place, there's sentient ponies, they speak a different language, I am probably far from my own home..."

"Oh, calm down, you wuss," Janil quips, "I'm sure Gardus is in even bigger doodoo than we are in, they did send him to the dungeon, after all."

"Wait, what?! Why did they do that?" Stalemate asks Janil.

"Oh, they saw how he had dark magic and stuff, so they said he was dangerous and took him down," Janil relays from her memory.

"Oh boy, Karithe would be quite angry at these ponies for deciding that all dark magic is evil," Stalemate remarks, "Looks like we will have to convince them to bust him out, when we can."

"We don't need to convince them, we can just get him out ourselves," Janil states.

Stalemate looks at her. "Look, I don't want to become enemies with these people quite yet, Janil. They could help us find our way back home."

"Okie dokie, but my idea is still there, Stale," Janil finishes, proceeding to jump on the bed in a childish manner.

Celestia stills stays in the room, observing the two new creatures messing about. A guard walks into the room, and watches as well.

"Your highness," The royal guard says, "Was the translation successful?"

Celestia sighs. "Not quite, however, I do have another idea. While Psyon searches the library for any clues as to what these creatures are, I would like you to lead a couple warriors to find somepony, or even somebody, that could translate these creatures' words into ours."

The guard salutes. "Yes, your highness!"

The guard, and Celestia walk out, as Stalemate speaks to Janil.

"No, I am serious, call me that again and you might wake up one morning with just a hilt left of one of your katanas," Stalemate warns Janil.

She laughs. "Then I would just kill you with the other katana."

Stalemate simply stops talking, and turns away, before he looks at the writing desk. A stack of papers, a quill, and a pot of ink sit upon it. Stalemate gets an idea, while sitting down.

If I am to be stuck here, I can at least report this to Karithe for, perhaps, further study...

Stalemate pulls out one of the sheets of papers, and dips the quill in the ink, before beginning to write.

"In The Land of Ponies

A Documentary by Stalemate, Student of Karrathius A'Stath

"For a wizard who has explored most of the world of Theros, I have never seen something quite as bizarre as this. A land of talking ponies, whom use magic, have multiple sub-species, and have, presumably, a monarchy.

"After a rather traumatizing encounter with the Phase Reaver, it has brought my allies, Janil, Gardus, and myself to this land of ponies. They have given us hospitality despite our language barrier and physical differences, so we will assume they are friendly for now. There appear to be unicorns, normal ponies, and pegasi, as well as one with both a horn and wings whom appears to be their leader.

"These equines use magic if they have horns, and fly if they have wings, respectively. As well as assuming the horned pegasus can do both, and the normal ones can't do neither.-"

Stalemate finishes writing after he runs out of information to place onto the paper, so he sets it down to let the ink dry, and walks up to the front door. He opens it and looks around, noticing a long hall of windows, a small portion of them tinted to show the white horned pegasus, and another horned pegasus defeating a strange creature of jumbled species.

"How strange," Stalemate tells himself as he views the panes. He loses himself quite a bit, trying to decipher what the story behind it is. He doesn't even notice the group of two royal guards approaching him.

The guard taps him on the shoulder, causing Stalemate to whirl around, and look at them. They nod their heads back toward the inside of the room, but Stalemate makes his own silent argument, pointing a finger toward the tinted glass. The guards look at the glass, and chatter a bit between themselves.

They appear unsure... Maybe they need confirmation from their leader? Stalemate deciphers mentally.

The guards stop messing about and look back at Stalemate. They point their hooves toward the throne room, and Stalemate acknowledges them, before following.

The guards lead him through a short hallway of many, many pillars, before they open a door of radiant gold; revealing their leader upon her throne, whom is searching through multiple letters, occasionally looking at the sky.

She is waiting for something. Stalemate presumes, not talking aloud, for it would be pointless.

The guards call out to the princess, and she turns her attention to Stalemate and the guards.

"Your highness, he wishes to view the tinted windows in the Hall of Historic Remembrance," The guard states.

She nods with a blank expression. "Let him. He is a guest at my castle, though if you feel he would require supervision, you may have a guard accompany him."

The guard salutes, "Very well, your highness."

He then turns to Stalemate, whom performs a bow, before turning, and walking out.

The guard follows him out, and continues to do so as he walks down the hall, and observes the limited amount of paintings on the glass.

Very, VERY few of the panes are painted on, with around twenty of them blank, and barren of any tale other than that of the pony who made it. Stalemate ignores the emptiness of the hall and concentrates upon the paintings already there.

The guard sighs. Why do I get the feeling that this is going to be more than just the hall?

About three hours later...

The guard has been accompanying Stalemate everywhere, from the royal kitchen, where he taste tested the food, and gave it a sign with it's claw by holding one of it's largest ones straight up, which apparently means approval. Next, they arrived at the ball room, where dancing and large, but private ceremonies are held. Stalemate wasn't impressed. The magical training room is about as large as this, and much more protected.

They then moved on to the in-castle barracks, where a small portion of the royal guard sleep in vanity, whilst still being close to their highness's aid in the case of attack. The second to last place was the garden, where Stalemate observed the wildlife with what appeared to be mild interest. He looks at birds with an eyebrow raised, and pets a squirrel that felt it was safe to stay out. He wasn't at home with nature, but he wasn't completely foreign to it either.

Finally, they returned to the hall of panes, where they walked down and head back to their room.

Just as they reach the door; a large, white unicorn walks in the way, and starts speaking miles in what appeared to be a very snobby "accent". Stalemate looks at the guard, who just rolls his eyes, and speaks toward the unicorn, before he moves him aside and opens the door to let Stalemate in. The unicorn runs off to the throne room, and Stalemate enters his own.

"Well, that was interesting," Stalemate says as he enters to see Janil faffing about as per usual.

"Enjoy your adventure? Did you go to the kitchen?" Janil asks.

Stalemate nods. "I also went to the ballroom, the garden, and the sleeping quarters for some of the royal guard."

Janil smiles, before getting a confused look on her face.

"Wait, so you watched royal guards while they sleep? Isn't that what stalkers do? No! Wait, they use blink, too bad I didn't upgrade it."

Stalemate blinks. "Wait... What? No, I didn't watch them sleep."

"Then why did you just blink?" Janil interrogates.

"Because, it is what all living beings like us need to do to keep our eyes clean." Stalemate answers simply.

Janil smirks, before stating, "How do I know you are telling the truth?"

Stalemate looks to her, and frowns, before just walking back to his desk to write something down.

"Aha! I knew it! Stalemate is a stalker, Stalemate is a stalker!" Janil starts to chant.

Stalemate holds out his hand, and uses air magic to knock her over onto the bed.

"Shut up!" He yells, furious, "Why can't you just be quiet and logical for one minute? Huh? Do you lack mental function?"

Janil stares at him with a blank expression. "Maybe?" She says, unsure of what to say.

This uncertainty leads Stalemate to relax, before sighing, and face-palming.

"Look, just please leave me alone, I am not in the best shape at the moment," Stalemate tells her, before returning to his desk.

Stalemate picks up the quill and just starts writing, before a crash, and a bang is heard, shortly before yelling of sorts.

Janil, and Stalemate notices it immediately, and jumps up, ready for action.

"Yeah! Finally some action!" Janil yells, before they both run out the door, their equipment in hand.

They charge down the hall, and into the throne room, to see the ruler being turned into some sort of orb by another horned pegasus, however it is much more evil looking than the ruler. It speaks in it's language that Stalemate cannot understand, before cackling loudly, and turning into mist and flying out, while the orb floats out and below the horizon.

"Oh dear..." Stalemate says, noticing the massive hole in the wall, and two injured soldiers.

He walks up to the two guards, whom are continually going through muscle spasms, and have obvious burns on their coat.

"Electric shocks, I should be able to fix this," Stalemate says, before siphoning the electricity out of them, preventing further damage but not healing it. Stalemate shoots the electricity out of the hole in the building and sighs-

The Return of Nightmare Moon is imminent, and Stalemate is perfectly on time to see it.