Strength of the Mind

by RamCard

Rating: teen
Tags:
Length: 1266

The study is soundproof and nopony can hear inside or out. An olive glow encases a tome as a whisper emanates from the unicorn inside..."Here we go."

The study is soundproof and nopony can hear inside or out. An olive glow encases a tome as a whisper emanates from the unicorn inside…"Here we go."

This story details the events between chapter 9 and chapter 10 of my other story Strength of Bonds.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-01-28 04:50:03 UTC

3 Days of Hell

After the door closed I stopped dead in my tracks.

“Finally able to test the limits of my magic. How far could I go with this?”

I thought to myself. First I pulled a rather thick tome off the shelves and sat at the desk. The book was entitled “Basics of Magical Manipulation”. The first few spells in the book were easy enough to learn rudimentary constructs and object manipulation. However as the olive glow wrapped around each object I found several things odd.

First was that the feeling of the magic on the object felt like my old hands, as if I still had them. Secondly was the fact that as I progressed my magical aura was getting more and more olive, as if the use of the force increased its power like working a muscle. The pages on the left of the tome became thinner I proceeded to retrieve another titled “Advanced Unicorn Magic LV1”. This tome contained spells such as teleportation and elemental manipulation. First wanting to test the teleportation spell I looked over the process to perform the spell.

Have a clear mental picture of your destination.

Build up a significant amount of magical energy

Have stalwart concentration and focus.

Release the energy in a bubble around yourself to cast the spell.

“Seems straightforward”

I thought excitedly as I began to gather a mental image for where I wanted to go. I pictured the balcony of the library and began to form an olive bubble around myself. “POP”

I was gone and standing on the balcony of the library with nothing but Luna’s moon glowing beautifully in the night sky.

I thought “Your beauty brought me here, and hopefully by your light I can find a way home,” as I began to picture the study I was just in and with another soft: “POP” I was back but felt relatively exhausted. Two jumps felt like my limit and I was very distraught at the thought but remembered the muscle comparison I made and shrugged it off. Below the teleportation spell were a few portal spells. My heart leapt as I frantically read through the spells but stopped at one that I found odd.

“Charm based portal spell, interesting,”

I thought as I began to read

“This spell requires that a trinket token or charm be used in tandem with a pony’s magic that is naturally in tune with the object,“ this sent waves of realization through my mind. This was the spell Luna used to bring us here, sitting in front of me.

Reading further into the passage my heart went from in my throat with happiness to the pits of my stomach,

” this spell can only pull the object linked to the user’s natural magic towards the user. The only limit to the distance the spell can cover is the user’s magic supply." Disappointed I went back to looking at the tome from before again. I began to read down the pages.

“Fire, water, earth, wind, and electricity” I read down the list of elements mentally going over the description of each, only to come to stop at water.

“Flowing, yet powerful water can be a great force for both protection and destruction.” At the end of that I looked down into the subsection underneath the description.

“Ice: a more rigid form of the element water: seen as a cold or unforgiving element, those who have an affinity for this element tend to be very logical, and have something to defend as well as something they rather die defending than lose.”  Looking down to the requirements to cast this element I felt a little unsure and decided to try one of the elements.

“Electricity, let’s try this,” I thought looking over this elements requirements.

Run your magic up and down your horn to form a type of Van de Graaff generator.

Allow the charge to build to a point to where you can feel heat in the tip of your horn.

Release a small trail of magic and let the electricity discharge.

I began to let my magic run the length of my horn and within a minute I felt a heat at the top of my horn. I sent out a small line of magic towards the coat rack near the door and a thunderous boom rocked my core as the small discharge set the rack ablaze.

“Crap! Crap! Crap!” I thought out loud as smoke began to fill the study. Desperate I tried to conjure a small water spell and only managed to produce enough to quell the blaze the rack had become. Coughing and exhausted I opened the one window in the study to air out the smoke.

“Well that could have gone better,”

I thought annoyed with myself. Yet I pressed onward to try the other elements unfortunately I didn't get very good results with fire or wind. The best I could manage with fire was a small set of embers and the best I could provide for “Wind” was a very slight breeze. Frustrated I grabbed another book, this one titled “Transfiguration and Anamorphic Spells.” With this in hand I wondered if this might help me return my friends to their human forms. That is until I saw the warnings

“Using any of the contained spells on living creatures is dangerous and may prove fatal to the recipient.” Shrugging it off I began to read down the first three spells one caught my eye, a simple transformation spell for small objects. I began to ponder changing the apple on my desk into a pear or an orange just to test my limits. As I focused my magic on the fruit I began to notice pain emanating from the base of my horn. Feeling this grow and grow as the spell progressed I decided to stop and return to the elemental tome.

My eyes falling again to the ice subsection I decided to try it. Focusing my power once more I felt light warmth forming in my horn, as if my magic was in tune with this particular type of spell. This however was followed by a very significant change in the temperature of the study. Realizing I wasn't focusing on directing the cold onto anything. Turning to my desk I focused the cold onto my glass of water. My heart started beating faster and faster as I watched frost cover the glass and the water slowly solidifying. However my magic would not have it as it flickered out leaving me exhausted. Collapsing onto the ground I dragged myself to the desk as I began to document my findings for my teacher.

“Over the course of my research I have discovered several things regarding my magical capabilities. Firstly I have discovered my limit for teleportation. I am able to cover a moderate distance as well as make one return trip however leaving me utterly exhausted. Moving on I have also discovered an inability to perform any mid to high level spells outside of two categories one being teleportation. The other high level spell that I am able to perform is any form of cryomancy. I do not know if this will strike you as odd or not but using those types of spells felt right. Finally I have regretfully discovered the spell used to bring my friends and myself here and wish to confirm that the spell is indeed one way,”

With my notes finished I placed the quill down and looked at the clock…