The Future of Magic

The future of magic

Chapter 8: Rage

Aquaris and Afina were walking through the halls of Canterlot Castle, they were on their way to the front gates to meet up with the element bearers, Afina quickened pace and took flight, flying low since they were inside.

As the two made it outside Afina flew higher and landed on the roof of a covered walkway, Aquaris tossed a pair of binoculars to her shortly after her landing. "see them Afina?" Aquaris yelled up to the drake.

"Not yet… wait… no no, just a few pedestrians, man it's like trying to find a certain color jawbreaker in a mountain of different colored jaw breakers." Afina said as she scanned the city streets with the binoculars.

"Ok… keep watch; I'm going to give these design plans to Celestia… to think she had builder teams at the ready…waiting for my designs." Aquaris said as he turned and went inside.

Afina kept scanning the city, after a while she just got bored. She set down the binoculars and pulled glass sphere out of her bag, she held it up and let the sphere collect the sunlight, after a few seconds she lowered it down and gazed into it. She saw Terra, in a black void produced by the ball. She poked her claw on the continent of promethia and it zoomed in, she poked again on the southern region, and again on the town of Terrivale.

She pressed again and sighed as she saw Rarius, he was busy working on something peculiar, it appeared to be a form of white dress for a dragon her size, it had some differences to compensate for wings, shorter legs, and the tail. Afina closed her eyes and whispered.

"You shouldn't have Rarius… it's too much… how could I repay you?" Afina sat there for maybe five minutes before she decided to hop down from the roof and into the Terrace garden below. Afina stretched her legs and yawned; she curled up in the sun and decided to take a nap.

Over to Aquaris

"…and finally, after a week of testing, and re-forging it, the Hallow-ite Armor was done." Aquaris said as a projection of a suit of armor disappeared in front of him and Shining Armor.

"Impressive, so it's lighter weight and more durable than the suit I'm wearing?"

"Yeah… then again you aren't wearing a full body suit like the average guard on Terra, so it wouldn't offer as much if a blacksmith were to redesign the armor for pony use."

"True."

"Hey Armor, quick and odd question. Did Cadence have something bad to her happen in the past she doesn't want to remember?"

"Yeah… I'll explain shortly but why ask?"

"Well she walked into my room to talk to Afina; who was playing a game where the enemies' weaponry use a bright green coloration to the rounds the guns fire. Seeing those bright green rounds seemed to make her stare off into space."

"oh boy… it wasn't too long ago that Cadence and I got married, the wedding itself was going smoothly at first, but then odd things started happening. Cadence began changing certain decorative details, and also was acting overall different, the day Twily and her friends arrived, and everything went black… I heard voices, my own and every pony else's but I couldn't move I felt weak, after what I guess was the ceremony practice, I felt light headed."

"How so…"

"Like the very life of me was being sucked out of me through a straw… after a while I could see again, I saw Cadence her mane was a mess, and her fur was dirty… after a moment I realized I was in a changeling's mental grasp the entire time. Cadence told me to bring the anti-Changeling barrier back up, but I didn't have any strength left to cast the spell..."

"I see… it seems basically… exactly like what happened to Versian and Armera… but opposite gender, and Metamorph disguised as Versian used a silent siphon spell to harvest emotion off of Armera and many others. Also Versian wasn't scared for life… the changeling lord and prince of romance don't get along very well… but at least they aren't at each other's throats." Aquaris said as he opened the doors to the throne room.

"Alright… I'm going to go find Cadence; I'll see you later I guess."

Celestia was sitting at the throne reading over a scroll twice the average length; he could see a gold silk ribbon hanging from the back of the parchment. "Ah… Aquaris, I was wondering if you had any questions for me."

"sorry princess… no questions, I came to drop off this… they are designs for a star-gate chamber, the room is mostly for look since the gate powers itself… but it does seem to fit the rest of the castle so I thought you'd like to see them." Aquaris said as he tossed a deep royal blue scroll into the air and sent it up to Celestia.

"Thank you Aquaris… I shall review them and have my architect work on this post haste… also I want to ask you if it would be alright if you demonstrated some of your abilities later in the dinner? like your polymorphing, also I believe Twilight would love seeing how good you are in a dance."

Aquaris blushed lightly but nodded, "I'm sure she will, I hope Armor won't kill me for dancing with his little sister."

"I'd think he would if he found out what you did with her yesterday." Celestia playfully stuck her tongue out as Aquaris turned red as a tomato and began sweating a river. "don't worry Aquaris… I won't tell him."

"Thank you… and I'm holding you to that." Aquaris said as he turned to the door and was about to leave.

"Oh and Aquaris... do you mind if you meet with Luna and I in the library after the dinner? We wish to discuss some things involving Terra."

"Yes Princess… no if you will excuse me, I have to check up on Afina… she is been keeping look out for the element bearers."

"You are excused Aquaris." Aquaris gives a light nod in response and left.

Aquaris closed the throne room doors behind him and nodded to the guard patrol passing by the doors. They nodded back as two guards broke off from the patrol to take place for the tired guards at either side of the throne room doors. Aquaris popped his neck and pulled out his earphones, and played "Inner Universe" by Origa on his song list.

Back to Afina

Afina lied on her back, staring at the clouds and the slightly orange sky. On her chest was her dragon plush, its silver cloth skin shining in the afternoon light like Afina's. Afina sighed in a surreal tone as she tightened her hug on the toy.

"Honestly, why did Auntie change the celebration to pony Ville…? They don't deserve it, especially since Rarity ruined my image there" Afina turned her head to see a white, blond mane unicorn walking into the garden she ducked her head behind the statue base she was resting against but kept listening. "But no… she said that Elements needed a good festival versus what happened last year… so what doesn't mean you change it from las-Pegasus back to pony Ville." The colt said as he kept forward.

"What a weirdo… Aquaris talks to himself all the time in his studies… but this guy is bitching to himself… heh heh… I need to write that one down." Afina thought, "Who is his aunt too… he isn't an Alicorn so he can't be royalty, could he?" Afina kept listening in on the colt but heard nothing for a moment but he started talking to someone.

"Good evening… Major Viktor…"

"And to you too Blueblood … does our agreement still stand?" A voice said from nowhere, Afina looked from behind the statue to see no pony else but that lone colt but she did see a small glowing sphere which produced the voice.

"Yes… now you promised me that position correct?" The one known as Blueblood replied to the ball of light.

"Oh yes… with all the perks and insurances included, hell even someone to do the work for you, if you so desire… as long as you hold up your part of the deal that is."

Afina kept listening in on the conversation she lowered herself to prevent being noticed.

"I will… now when will you and your army being arriving?"

"In due time is all I can say… as soon as the first domino falls, the plan will be executed." The voice said in response, "I have to go sadly I will contact you again in a month or two when my army is ready through the same method, just don't lose your horn."

"I will not Viktor… now go along; I know you must be incredibly busy." The voice didn't reply after that comment but the light disappeared, Afina pulled out her bag a personnel identifier, (an old one from Armera) and Searched the profile of this 'Major' Viktor, the search resulted in nothing, the only human Terran, with the last name of Viktor was a now deceased mining company CEO, who died when he did not offer the location of his hidden metal stores to Confederate 'pillagers'.

Afina turned off and put the device away into her bag; she crouched down and snuck off, avoiding Blueblood's attention.

After a few minutes, Afina began walking normally again, she muttered to herself quietly and kept on forward. As she kept walking she turned to see Twilight and Rarity walking up past the front gates, Afina scanned behind them for the others but saw no pony else.

Afina was about to spread her wings to fly down before her wings were grabbed by magic, she hissed in pain as they were tugged, she turned to see Blueblood approaching, his horn glowing with the same energy as the energy holding onto her wings, she struggled and squirmed in his magical grasp.

"Strange… I didn't know Auntie Celestia allowed pests into the castle, or were you here stealing something Dragon."

"What… I'm no thief… I am a welcomed Gue-… oof!" Afina was thrown into a wall hard shaking a vase on a nearby pedestal, but not knocking it over. She held the side where she impacted into the stone wall.

"Don't lie to me… Now, what did you steal?!"

"Nothing… now leave me alo- oof…" Afina was kicked in the stomach hard; she gasped for air and tried to get on her claws, only to be knocked back down. Afina felt as the straps of her bag were undone and then pulled off.

She saw as its contents were shaken out, he seemed like he was looking for something precise but couldn't find it. He then came upon her crystal sphere; he picked it up and examined its clear smooth surface. As it shined in the lone beam of sunlight it began producing the image of what Afina was originally viewing.

"Sweet Celestia, What is that thing… You… Dragon what is this object, and who or what is the creature produced by this thing?" Afina didn't answer in English but in Dragon tongue, leaving blueblood to think she was talking in gibberish. "Answer me you whelp!" Blueblood commanded as he threw the crystal sphere at her chest, Afina gasped for air again and was out of breath.

She coughed and gasped desperately for as if she was choking. Blueblood, grunted as he searched through the rest of the stuff from her bag, a canteen full of water, a few bags of various gemstones cut into this chips, a pair of bracelets and a choker big enough to fit around the drake's neck, the crystal sphere, a thin silver grey block with dark grey glass screen with multiple colored buttons on the front face, a few other loose items, and a small silver dragon plushy.

He picked up the plush and examining it, a small pink tongue stuck out at him from the black string mouth, two blue glass sapphires as the eyes gazed at him.

He looked down to see Afina wide eyed staring at him and the doll "put her down…" Afina muttered in a begging tone. "Please… put her down…" Blueblood smirked as he looked back at the plush. He used his magic to grab the waist and chest of the plush.

Afina's pupils shrunk to tiny specks and her eyes pooled with tears. The now two halves of the doll hung limply from Blueblood's magic, bits of the cotton stuffing falling to the ground from where the pieces were together.

"Ho- How co-cou- could you?" Afina muttered as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Because I'm a prince… and what are you goanna do about it, you little whelp?" Blueblood replied with a smug grin plastered on his face.

Over to Aquaris

Aquaris, Rarity, Spike, and Twilight walked through the lower gardens of the palace, chatting idly.

"Hey Aquaris… odd Question, but how many human dragon relationships happen on a yearly basis?" Spike asked as he readjusted himself on Twilight's back.

"Plenty… it's common to see a male dragon maybe Afina's size with a women, every once in a blue-moon you see a dragoness same size with a man… why ask?"

"No reason, just curious."

"Tell me then, Spike is it possible to see dragons with ponies? Given they don't have a treasure horde big enough to make them the size of a two story mansion."

"I uh… umm"

"On a yearly basis, maybe two marriages on average each year, dragons in Equestria that are small in size stay distant from society." Twilight said as they walked inside and made their way up to the floor Afina was supposed to be on. "Can humans and dragons have foals…? I mean children?"

"yeah… depending on the mother will decide the species that will be born, maybe a dragon with human like eyes, and the ability to use magic through horns like yourselves could… or humans with dragon traits, like dragon wings instead of feathery wings on the cloud striders, slit pupils instead of round ones, umm oh and a rage form."

"Rage form?"

"When dragons are extremely mad or provoked, they temporally increase it size, gain incredible physical powers, and are in a blinding rage until the dragon calms down, or passes out from exhaustion. You don't want to be on the business end of the claws of a rage filled dragon." Aquaris explained as they noticed a trio of gashes in an ivory pillar.

The floor was also scratched with claw marks; a few pots were also knocked over and shattered about the floor.

"That's strange… this hall was fine earlier." Aquaris looked around and saw that gash marks continued down the hallway, he then noticed Afina's bag, its contents were scattered about the floor, and the most troubling thing was the remnants of a ripped stuffed dragon plush. "Rarity… when you have a moment, could you patch this up, Afina will need it when I find her."

He got up after filling Afina's bag with what was supposed to be in it and slung it over his shoulder, "Twilight… would you find your brother, given the gash marks… we might need a few guards." Twilight nodded and ran off the way they came from, Aquaris on the other hand followed the gashes and claw marks.

Minutes passed before the path of destruction was more noticeable, various artworks shattered about the floor, he also noticed blood, Aquaris dipped his fingertips in it and tasted it, he quickly spit it out and stood up, "Dragon blood… dammit."

"ahhhh… get away from me you monster!" Aquaris heard outside and went into a dead sprint, he pulled his staff from his belt and extended it.

Outside in the courtyard,Aquaris collected into a group of guards as they watched the carriage sized dragon chasing after a posh white unicorn, "Aquaris what exactly is happening?" Aquaris turned to see Celestia, a pair of guards wearing a different set of armor following right behind her.

"Well… the colt running for his life down in the courtyard pushed Afina beyond her breaking point. She is in her rage form… ironic that I explained what rage form is to Twilight before finding that Afina had gotten into her own rage." Afina roared as she breathed fire at them and used her tail to knock down to a few guards.

"oh dear… if you can stop her from killing my nephew that would be nice, also maybe prevent the palace from collapsing on itself." Celestia commented as Aquaris charged out into the court yard and created a large chain of energy.

All the guards watched as the human jumped on the dragons back and wrapped the chain around its neck.

"AFINA! YOU HAVE TO CALM DOWN…UGH… AFINA!" Aquaris yelled as Afina began kicking her hind legs into the air, trying to shake him off. Aquaris tightened the chain and extended it, Afina noticed this and grabbed the chain with her claw, with some quick movements she was spinning Aquaris around like a toy with her end of the chain.

"Aquaris!" Twilight yelled to the human screaming deeply as he was spun.

"SOME… PONY… USE A… HEAVY… IMPACT… SPELL… ON…HER… HEAD… NOW!" Aquaris yelled each time he passed by, Twilight charged her horn and shot the spell, as it impacted Afina slowed down her spinning until Aquaris was on the ground, he got up and looked forward to see Afina face to face with him, he noticed the scales under her eyes darkened and wet.

A few guards were slowly walking over to Afina, a whole lot of their own magical chains ready, Aquaris held up his hand telling them to stop, he put his other hand on her cheek and closed his eyes, a soft glow emanated from his palm, slowly Afina shrank down to her original size and was out cold snoring a little. In Aquaris's other hand was a sphere glowing lightly.

Celestia felt the amount of energy in that sphere, that much power could cause some damage, it was filled with rage, and sadness. Celestia turned to see Blueblood regaining his composure, she walked over to him.

"Ah Auntie, can you see the amount of damage that dragon caused… the party is tonight and I doubt this will be fixed quickly enough." Celestia simply stared in silence at her nephew.

An hour later

Outside in the halls in front of the throne room, Rarity was examining the remains of Afina's doll, Afina was sleeping in Aquaris's lap, exhausted from using her rage form, Twilight was reading through more of Aquaris's journal, the pages were all about experiments failed and successful, what caught her eye was the success of focused summoning.

Focused summoning allows the caster to take an emotion to create an entity to fight alongside them, each emotion offers different elemental attributes, for example anger is fire, sadness is water, joy is light, happiness is wind, ect.

Of course the summoned is only as strong as the summoner and its appearance is based on the summoner's imagination and what its elemental alignment is. For example, dark summons would often have chains restricting most of their movement, but have a lot of armor and ranged attacks at their disposal.

Twilight noticed under this was a sketching of a creature bound by chains; its overall appearance was fearsome, even as a sketching. A foot note dubbed it.

Anima, the dark summon was created by nocturne's fear. It uses attacks based of its own pain and suffering, casting it upon its targets, resulting in instantaneous death or immense pain, these were tested on summoned beasts.

Twilight looked up to see Aquaris rubbing some sort of cream on Afina's cuts and bruises, she cooed lightly in her sleep. She also noticed the variety of bottles full of various powders and liquids. And what appeared a mortar and pestle.

"Aquaris… what is all this?"

"Alchemy learned it from an old friend, who lives in ever-light forest back on Terra." Aquaris said as he put down an empty bowl, remnants of the cream still in it. "Bit of blue mountain flower petals, some wheat seed milled into a pulp, makes a great healing cream." Aquaris said as he began to put up the bottles, receiving a nod from Twilight.

"Hmm… how I'm going to fix this? I forgot to pack my spare sewing kit with me, didn't think I would need it." Rarity sighed and put down the halves. "Can't believe Blueblood did that… he is immature yes… but this is just Foal-ish, ripping a doll of some-pony smaller than him."

"I agree… I just hope he doesn't get away with this, even as a royal, you have to be given punishment for your actions." Aquaris commented as he zipped his bag shut.

"He won't Aquaris…" the three of them turned to see Princess Luna walking up to them, her mane was a mess.

"Oh Princess Luna… you look like you rolled out of bed."

"Because I did… Afina's little rage form shook my tower enough to wake me… not that I'm mad or anything, but I can't get back to sleep." Aquaris rubbed the back of his head to this, lightly chuckling.

"How'd you know she had a rage form?"

"I was watching from my tower, the funniest bit was when she grabbed that chain you made and slung you around like a planet orbiting it's star, except the planet was a hundred and ninety pounds worth of screaming human." Aquaris merely face palmed, "there is no need to be embarrassed Aquaris… how is she doing?"

"Fine… thanks for asking… mostly bruises and shallow cuts… nothing a simple healing cream can't fix… I noticed your fur is a bit darker than before…"

"Depending on my moon's position will result in my fur a different shade of blue… full moon will be a more royal blue and new moons are more of a deep navy blue." Luna replied as she opened the doors and walked through closing them behind her.

"Rarius…" Afina mumbled in her sleep, before snoring again. Aquaris chuckled lightly before a moved her and set her head lightly on a pillow he pulled from his bag. He pulled out the sphere made of Afina's energy and examined it.

"so what did you do to make that?"

"I used a spell I discovered from metamorph to siphon off emotions, I pulled all her rage and anger she had created then and made this, it is powerful, if in the wrong hands who know how to use it, then it will cause ill things to happen." Aquaris put the sphere away as the doors opened; Blueblood was the first to walk out followed by Luna and Celestia.

He turned to Aquaris and sneered at him, "you'd better keep that thing on a leash, almost killed me… also if I had my way, I'd have that thing hung." Blueblood said with a venomous tone.

Aquaris stood up and walked over to him "One she is my little sister… two, no one hurts my family or threatens them, even he is a stuck up, spoiled brat that believes he is a prince, and three." Aquaris stated before he punched Blueblood in the face. "That was for hurting and threatening her."

Blueblood receded and held a hoof to his nose. There were mixed reactions from everypony. Aquaris turned away from Blueblood.

"Aquaris… actually there is no need to explain, Guards escort Blueblood to his room, and make sure he stays there."

"yes your highness." Two guards said as they began the trek to Blueblood's room.

"I'm not mad Aquaris… but warn us next time you decide to do that."

"No need to… I got my message out that my Family is there for him to dictate and control." Aquaris replied as he checked Afina. Who was still sound asleep, "Now I believe it's time we should all get ready for this dinner." Aquaris picked up Afina who stirred in her sleep.

"I agree, Twilight… Rarity, your rooms are ready… so why don't you all go along and prepare." Celestia said as she began to head to the halls leading to her tower, Luna left shortly afterwards to her own tower.

"well shall we get going?" Aquaris asked as he levitated Afina on to his back and carried her in the direction to their rooms, Twilight, spike, and Rarity following suite.

Aquaris's room, ten minutes before guests arrival

Afina sat calmly on the bed, her scales polished, her jewelry on, and a simple but beautiful silk dress on. She heard the door open and see Rarity walked in, her dress was more elegant and detailed, bit much for Afina's standards though.

"Afina dear, are you alright?" Rarity asked noticing Afina's crabby attitude.

"I'm fine Rarity… just a tad bit upset at that snob… ripping my doll like that."

"Well I think this might perk you up, had to have a maid bring me a sewing kit." Rarity pulled from behind her, Afina's plush. In the center was some slightly noticeable stitching.

"Thank you Rarity… you cannot begin to believe how important she is to me." Afina said as grabbed the doll as Rarity dropped it above her claws. She tightly hugged it and nuzzled the much smaller head.

"how so?"

"My human mother made this for me when I was still a hatchling; she told me it was to help me sleep…. I had nightmares when I was young, guess since my body wasn't use to gems when I needed meats and dairy for my beginning diet." Afina said as she put the doll down next to her and pulled out a bangle, as it slipped onto her wrist the crystal on it glowed and created a wafer thin glass like shield on her arm.

"wow… that's beautiful where in equestrian did you get that?"

"thanks, it was a gift I received last mid-winter from Amera… it was supposed to be a guard issued magic amplifier, but it never worked and turned into a fashion sense."

"Understandable… hey, Aquaris mentioned earlier that you were his little sister…"

"Adopted… if anything Aquaris hatched me, oddly though the first ones I saw were Aquaris's parents… who immediately I counted as my parent… Aquaris was a little short till he hit puberty, then he shot up like a rocket." Rarity nodded as Aquaris walked out of the bathroom, he was wearing a formal mages jacket, long black pants, his hair was combed down, and he had the smell of mint.

"alright you two… you can converse later, lets fetch Twi and spike then get down to the grand hall… I have a feeling that the other guests are arriving." Aquaris said as he helped Afina off the bed and straightened her dress with a few telekinetic tugs.

Twilight and spike were already leaving their room when the trio arrived at the room's door. With a few nods and exchange of words, the group made their way downstairs to the grand hall.

"well… fingers crossed I give a good impression, and I hope that Dress Twilight is wearing will shift with her… also… I hope Afina stays calm… and with luck won't be constantly eyed by guards as she is there."