Ace of Fatesby Awkward ElipsisChaptersChapter 0 (Prologue/Teaser)Chapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 0 (Prologue/Teaser)"Ryan! Hurry up if you want to see a magic trick!" My grandfather called from out on the front porch. "I'm coming grandpa! Hold on!" I rushed down the stairs. "Ryan! Don't go too fast down the stairs or else you'll fall-" My mom's voice cut off as I slipped and rolled down the stairs and my back met the wall. "Ow~." I rolled on to my side. I looked up to see my mom. "I warned you didn't I?" She picked me up. "Yeah." Rubbed my sore back as I went out the front door to see my grandpa sitting in his rocking chair. "Fall down the stair again huh?" He cracked a wrinkly grin. "Yeah." I repeated myself, dejectedly. "Want to see that magic trick now?" I instantly cheered up at the thought of seeing another of grandpa's magic tricks. I got into a chair as grandpa got up and sat across from me on the other side of the table. Grandpa pulled out a deck of cards and placed it on the table. He pretended to pull up his sleeves even though he was wearing a T-shirt. He picked up the deck and began to shuffle it. He did so all with a smile on his face. Once he stopped shuffling it, he fanned the cards out. "Pick a card." He simply stated. I reached out and slowly picked out a card and looked at it. While I looked at my card grandpa split the rest of the deck into three. "Now show me it." I turned the card and showed it to him. "Ah, the ace of spades. Now place it back, anywhere." I took the ace and laid it down with the others. "Okay then, I'll just give the cards a cut." He said as he split the deck of cards in half and proceeded to expertly shuffle the deck. "So now you're card is somewhere inside this deck." I nodded my head. "I'm just going to make some more piles." He began flipping the cards face-up one by one. I watch as I saw the ace of spades pass by in a flash. grandpa continued until the entire 52 cards were split into five different piles. He then picked the cards back up into a single deck again. "Now then," He split the deck and showed me a card. "This is your card." I looked at the five of clubs sadly. "No." "Oh. Well it doesn't matter," He put the two halves together again. "Cause this deck is now set to spell out your card. It was the king of hearts, right?" He started to place a card as he spelled out king of hearts. "K-I-N-G-" "Grandpa! My card was the ace of spades remember?" I corrected his mistake. "Was it?" Grandpa made a questioning look. "Well I must be getting old then." He replaced the cards on top of the deck. "Let's just restart then shall we?" He started to place the cards down again. "Wait a minute, I'm missing a card." He looked at me. "Ah, there it is." He pointed at me. More specifically the left side of my face. I curiously reach up to my ear and felt a card sitting snugly on my ear. "How did you do that?" I held the ace of spades up and looked it up and down. My grandpa just gave me his iconic wrinkly grin. "Magic." He waved his hands and wiggled all his fingers. "There's a little in each of us." He poked me in the center of my chest. I felt a heating sensation run through my chest, up my arm and into my hand. I saw an orange sparkle at the end of my finger. Before I knew it the top corner of the ace in my hand burst into flames. I quickly dropped the card and it landed on the table. "Wha- What just happened?!" I started to panic. "Mo-" I was about to yell if it weren't for my grandpa covering my mouth with his hand and shushing me quiet. "Now calm down Ryan. It's alright. Everything is okay." He let go of me. I glanced at the tiny pile of ash that used to be a card slowly disappearing in the breeze. "Now listen closely and listen well okay?" I nodded. "You mustn't show or tell anyone about what just happened. Okay?" I nodded. "But what was that? Why did the card get caught on fire?" I spewed out questions. "Hush!" I stopped talking. "There is something special about our family. Your mother doesn't know it, but I do. I can't tell you all the answers, but I can tell you this." He pointed at what was left of the ace card. "What you just did there was real magic. No effects, no tricks, real magic, Ryan." I just stared silently as my mind processed this outrageous information. But the evidence was there. What else would that orange light and the card suddenly bursting into flames be? I didn't know what else to do so I just did as my grandfather said. I would hide it. "Grandpa, Ryan. Dinner's ready!" I heard my mom call from inside the house." "Okay." Grandpa replied and looked me in the eyes, then smiled and ruffled my dark brown hair. "Let's go in and eat shall we?" He stood up and opened the front door. "M'kay!" I ran inside and into the kitchen. <> <> <> "And that's my story to you." I leaned back in my chair and looked at the confused face of the interviewer across the table. "My grandpa is mostly what got me so invested in magic." "Pardon me," The woman collected herself. "Is that your way of saying that it is because of your dead grandfather's influence that got you to become a magician?" "MMMmmm, if you want to take it like that." I started to balance the chair on its two back legs. "Then sure." The lady just looked at me with half-lidded eyes then wrote something down in her notebook. "Do you have anymore questions?" I put the chair onto four legs and leaned forward onto the table with my fingers intertwined. "Yes, actually, there's been a rumor that you have been having sexual relations with-" Her baseless question was interrupted by Janna knocking and opening the door. "Ronan, it's almost time for the show." She emotionlessly ordered. "This interview is over." "Wow, really?" I looked at my wrist to look at the time on the watch. "Hey!" The interviewer woman exclaimed, looking at her empty wrist. "That's my watch." "Oh~, so that's why. I thought something was off." I gave her a friendly smile. "Here." I grabbed the watch between my index and my thumb and flung it off towards the woman. The watch instantly slowed and began floating towards her arm and attached itself to her wrist. "Well, got to go." I walked to the open door where Janna was patiently waiting. "But how-" "No. You already know." I turned around and as Janna, rudely closed the door I stuck out my index fiinger and a small orange flame sprouted at the end. "Magic." "Must you always be so showy and dramatic for everything you do Ryan?" Janna sighed as she checked her Ipad. "I'm an entertainer right? Then I got to entertain my audience." I walked beside her through the backstage as she lead me to the stage. "So how many people here tonight?" "Sold out once again." She tapped the screen of her tablet. "After this you have an autograph signing." "Awesome. Then after that we can head back to the hotel right?" We reached the backstage area and I prepared for my entrance onto the stage. "Well then, its a good night to make some magic." I looked to Janna as she gave me the green light. "Right Grandpa?" <> <> <> "Wooooo." I swung open the door and dragged myself to the closest cushioned couch as Janna walked in with her eyes still on her tablet. " Home at last." "So, on with business." She proceeded to walk through the room and down the hall. "Oh come on Janna. We just got back from shows across the country." I moaned in mock agony. "I just want to rest." I stuffed my face into a pillow. My phone rang and I reluctantly grabbed it and hit the speaker phone option. "'Ello." "Come to the office." I heard Janna's voice. "Ughh, why. Don't tell me you got a surprise for me." "Just get your magic ass over here already." I grinned. "There's the Janna I met from college." I heard an exhausted sigh as Janna hung up the phone. I lifted myself up to a sitting position and sighed. I got up and stretched my arms as I turned down the hall. Walking down the carpeted hallway I looked at the various plaques and pictures I had. There was a plaque for Entertainer of the Year. I had beaten even the Four Horsemen; that was the real accomplishment. Though I can't say if I did it fairly. I knew, from a very young age, that I had real magic. Not just some parlor tricks or slight-of-hands. Real magic. Like the stuff on Harry Potter. Actually, it's not like Harry Potter. More along the line of "I can summon fire from my hands" rather than a swish and flick of a wand and saying the magic words. Honestly comparing it to that, how I use magic is way cooler. Anyway, I'm not entirely sure that the Four Horsemen would have real magic or are just really really good at what they do. The way they present their shows are spectacular and quite original. I really liked their last show with "stealing a bunch of bank money". I bet that angered a few people. I saw my office's door open and peered in to find Janna at my computer. My office was quite the sight ,being that I live in a penthouse. My office had what usual offices did, a desk, comfy couches, a coffee table, and a great view of the city through windows that took up an entire wall. I walked in and walked over to my desk. As I approached Janna moved to the side as she left my computer at my email. "I've gotten rid of most of the junk mail for you. There's an email from the Four Horsemen inviting you to their next show. They are stating that it's their big finale." "Sweet, are we able to make time for it?" I began scrolling through my now filtered email. While skimming through I noticed one that looked different than the rest. "Hmm?" I read the title aloud. "Government Notice. " The time stamp said I had received it while I was across the country. "Janna you know what this is?" She leaned over as I clicked open the email. "Ah, you don't have to worry about that. I talked to them about moving the appointment back until you had returned. It's scheduled for tomorrow." She tapped her tablet and another window opened on my computer screen showing my monthly planner." I've scheduled it for next Monday." "Alright," There goes my morning of watching TV, "so what's a government official want with me?" "Do you remember the interview where you gave the story about your grandfather?" Janna strided over to a couch and sat down. "Which one?" With Janna no longer watching my computer screen I opened my browser and decided to check out what's new on Youtube. "The one where he told you not to tell any one about you having 'real magic'?" "Ah, that woman. She had a very nice watch for a new caster. But why would that bring any commotion? It's not like they'll actually believe me." I scrolled through what Youtube would think I'd like to watch next and spotted a video titled: Ronan's Magic Proven Real? "Rumors have been going on and theories that you actually do have real magic." "Yeah," and you know it's true." I showed this off by quickly levitating a ball-point pen in the air and flying it around. "Yes, I do. However the repercussions of a person with the power of psychokinesis, teleportation, and especially pyrokinesis are immense. And it seems to have finally attracted the attention of some people in government." "Then we'll just bluff." I was watching the video of a man showing one of my acts and explaining how m magic tricks could not have been faked; muted of course. It was very obvious that he was biased towards me and had even said that this was a video in response to another video critiquing how my magic was fake. Though since my magic was in fact real, There was a bit more facts and footage supporting the side of real magic. "I'll just show them the tools of my trade. Like the lighter in the sleeve or just simple misdirection and glass wires. It's not like this is the first time we've had to-" I paused as the intercom on my desk alerted me to beeped. As I was about to talk to whoever it was Janna stopped me. "I'll handle it," and forwarded it to her earpiece. "Hello? No this is Ronan's Manager. No ma'am, you need to have an appointment. Ma'am, ma'am. Alright I'll be right there." "Who is it?" I was now twirling the pen with my fingers. "Just a visitor, I'll tell them they need to make an appointment." She got up and left the room. I decided to play with some cards so I pulled open a drawer and took out a deck of cards. I began shuffling the cards each time getting more and more complex. I had gotten to the point where I was flipping the cards between my hands. However a sudden wind came out of nowhere and blew the cards all over my desk and some on the floor. I looked behind me and all around. Where had that breeze come from? "Hmm, weird." I sat up and began collecting the cards. Then I noticed how the cards on the desk were all face-down, except for the four ace cards. I reached out and picked up the closest one. The ace of spades. While staring at the card my thoughts were interrupted by shout out in the living room and a lot of stomping. Before I could even stand up I could see four military-equiped men barge into my office guns aimed at me. Instinctively, slowly, raised my hands in the air. A woman, whom from how she was dressed and how she walked in with two more armed men, was their higher up. She wore an armor vest just like the rest of the men but dress for more agility rather than protection. The only weapon she had on her from what I could see was a pistol at her hip. "Close those hands Ronan. Wouldn't want you using any 'magic'." She said with quite a commanding voice. "Apprehend him." She ordered. Two of the men cautiously approached me with handcuffs. "Make sure his hand are where we can see them." With their guns pointed at me, the two men moved my hands together and handcuffed me. "So care to tell me why I'm being arrested ma'am?" I asked as the two men stood next to me; most likely ready to subdue me if I struggle. "There has been evidence as well as numerous accusations to your possession of 'real magic'. Thus in response you are to be questioned. Then a verdict will be given to you." Most likely they wanted to investigate my powers; the origins and implications. Wait is Janna alright? "What of my manager?" "She is being brought in to questioning as well. As your manager, if you are guilty to having magic then she is most likely an accomplice." She surprisingly answered my question. This however did not make anything easier. "Fine, let's get going then. It won't get me anything good by struggling." I beamed a friendly smile. However as I was expecting to be escorted out of the office, the two men next to me grab my arms. The two men whispered at the same time. Both of their voices layered with another. "Oh I beg to differ, Mr. Ace. You should struggle." As they finished saying this they both lifted me and flung me backwards. Everything moved as if in slow-motion as I saw the professional face of the woman break. My back breaking through the glass windows. The cold air outside surrounded me as I caught a glance of one the men's face. He had a bold red pupil and solid yellow corneas. The moment passed and before I could even think about his eyes i was falling through the air with my hands cuffed. "Shit, shit, shit." I struggled with my hands to get free, but they were tightly clamped. I'm a magician, not an escape artist. I can't even teleport out of these cuffs. Soon enough a mischievous laughter seeming to come from everywhere around me. "Having a relaxing time?" The voice said seemingly amused. "The fuck?!" "Seems you need help. Allow me to provide you with a soft landing." My mind was still spinning from being thrown out of the window. But I was able to glance down at my destination only to see a portal just rip into existence, as if someone just used their hand and tore into the air. I saw an unrealistically clear sky through the portal. Odd considering that it was currently in the middle of the night. I couldn't stop myself as I fell through the portal and into the clear sky. Instantly i noticed the temperature difference as it changed from chilling cold to warm summer day. The next thing I noticed, was that I was slowing down. I looked back to the portal and the side of the hotel as it closed by itself, revealing the forest behind it. The portal had spit me out upwards. "Well shit." I stated with a sigh as gravity began working again. On the way towards the ground however I noticed some very solid clouds. How do I know? I hit a few on the way. I would fall on them and they would seem to pop slowing my descent. That however was not enough as I reached the treeline at a relatively fast speed. Enough to break some branches and hurt like hell. Since I had just gotten back from across the country, I was still in a button-down shirt with a plain t-shirt underneath, black slacks, and dress shoes. Well, no dress shoes anymore. kicked those off as soon as I got home. But I guess that didn't matter now that the branches probably tore through both my shirts. Soon enough I landed on... something. I had had my eyes closed and was turned back-to-ground through the treeline, so I don't know what I had landed on. It did provide a softer landing than the trees did. "Oooowww." I groaned from the ache all over my body. "Will you GET OFF OF TRIXIE?!" A feminine voice below me yelled at me and shoved me. My hands were still handcuffed together in front of me, thus I ended up face to dirt on the ground as the sound of the woman I had landed on got up. I stretched my neck up to see the woman. "Sorry," I saw a blue horse in a star filled cap pick up a witch hat, ",madam, blue... horse thing?" She seemed to turn her attention to me from her hat as I spoke. "WHORSE? How DARE you address Trixie Lulamoon in such a way." She placed her hat on her head and struck a pose. After staying in that pose for quite some time, almost a minute it felt like, she took a good look at me and smirked. "You, you're just like that other monkey." My vision started to blur as the rest of the pain started to register. I felt my whole body be rolled over onto my back. "Though you seem to be male. Unlike her's." I felt my entire body suddenly lifted into the air, causing pain to burst throughout my body. "No matter. Now that I have you, Trixie is no longer second to that mare!" The blue horse huffed as I started to black out. Author's Note January 18,2016 This is a story idea I've had for a long time. Of course I'll be working on my other story. But I'd like to see how this idea does. Chapter 1I awoke standing on what seemed to be nothing, empty black void in all directions. I could still see myself, clothes and body. "Hello?" All I heard was myself and silence. "Huh, I was totally expecting an echo." Out of nowhere an echo rebounded my voice. "Surprising." I stood there just wondering if something was going to happen. After enough waiting there for who knows how long I got really bored. "Ugh, please just something happen!" Then something did happen, a blinding light came out of nowhere. "Gah! My eyes." I protected my eyes from the rays of light. "Warn me ahead of time jeez." Then a voice seemed to speak directly into my mind. "Six paths shall lead together. Their fate entwined by destiny." The voice seemed to be many at the same time. Like more than four people speaking in complete sync. It was headache ensuing. "The first will seek with their heart. Aid the Six the first shall desire." The voices continued on. "Through disorder and deception they shall persist. Far north the second shall descend, through knowledge and shadows will they be sent." By now I was very confused, though quite interesting. It was like prophecy and I enjoy listening to those type of things, so I kept quiet. "The third whom follows that which corrupts. Southwards they will hunt, a pack they will find. The fourth shall come by another's hand, driven by curiosity. But only thereafter one who seeks power, is returned to keep." The voices continued to speak a prophecy. "The tale will continue once the four converge. The secret to stop the one who feeds on nothing. Will then be revealed. "The voices puttered out as they finished their prophecy. "Cool." With the voices done the light was fading as well. "Wait! Can you repeat that?!" The light vanished leaving me in the black void I was in before. "Well. . . Now what?" I was answered as I felt whatever I was standing on disappear and I fell forward. "Wa-?" I was launched downwards belly-first. My face was greeted very fast with wood. Which hurt, by the way. I sat upright touching my nose; it thankfully wasn't broken. However my nose seemed to be the only thing aching as the rest of my body seemed to feel much better than before. Someone, most likely that blue horse from earlier, had bandaged my entire body. My chest was in full view, but thankfully my slacks were still on. I looked around to see that I was alone in a metal cage, inside a moving wagon. My hands were still handcuffed, but I did notice a metal band on my right wrist. “That’s new.” It was pretty thick, like a half inch thick. Tight too, it was almost constricting my wrist. Very uncomfortable if you didn’t understand that yet. Looking around there was a poster on a wall with the blue horse striking a pose and in large words arching over "The Great and Powerful Trixie". On another wall was a map of some sorts. It didn't look like any place on Earth I knew. There were plenty of places marked on the map with blue pins. But one small area on the map seemed to be repeatedly circled. Looking closer a word was written in red. A place called "Ponyville". Is she a pony? Not a horse? What was the difference? Actually, I’m just thankful they at least write in English. There was a Polaroid photo pinned near "Ponyville" with a picture of a purple pony surrounded by others. A pink one with gravity-defying hair, an orange one with a cowboy hat, a yellow one with wings, a blue one that also had wings but rainbow hair, and a white one with a horn. Oh, and a large purple and green lizard and a brown hair girl. “Wait, girl?” I took a closer look at the picture and indeed saw a brown, short haired girl. Compared to the ponies she towered over them. Then again, he couldn’t really say if she was tall . . . he couldn’t compare her to anyone. She wore a pair of blue jeans and a sports shirt. There were some notes scribbled onto pieces of paper attached to different locations on the map. “Fillydelphia, Manehattan, Canterlot, Baltimare, Neighagra Falls. Wow the puns are real. “Looking around the wagon I saw a desk, drawers, a single bed, a closet, and a chest. Pretty much all wooden. The cage was in the back corner of the wooden wagon, with the closet being in the other back corner. Beside the closet was the drawer with a mirror and an assortment of things laid out from cosmetics and flyers. The bed was on the cage side, but in the front end of the wagon with the pillows closer to the front. The chest was beside that on the far front wall, with my shirts on it! Oh thank god, she didn't throw it away. The door was on the closet side with windows on the back wall and near the bed. I could easily just levitate it over, so I focused with my hand open at my shirts. But as the familiar feeling of magic running down my right arm reached the metal band the feeling stopped. The feeling, with nowhere to go the power went haywire. My right arm looked as if it were being cooked. However most of it seemed to have bounced back and hit me with a recoil as the feeling in my arm subsided. It hit me in the head akin to as if my entire body was congested while at the same time being motion sick. "Fuck. Uuuuuugh." I fell on my side in the cage rubbing my aching head. It took some time and rubbing before my head was clear of whatever happened. I picked myself up and leaned against a corner of the cage. Thinking about it more, that poster of the blue horned pony, unicorn? Unicorn, reminded me of older advertisements for magicians. With the words magnificent, mysterious, great, and powerful used to advertise the magician's magic tricks. Wow, I must really be bored to be noticing something like this. I stretched out my legs in front of me only to be stopped halfway and leaned my head on the side of the cage. “So much for stretching.” I said under my breath. Sitting down scrunched up for a while really does create a pain in your back. Add in just sitting not able to do pretty much anything else. I tried using magic through my other hand and found that the magic did work instead of backfiring. The brace must be some kind of anti-magic thing. That means magic must be commonplace here. I wouldn’t doubt it too, I guess. I mean I did see a unicorn, right? I turned my head towards the door as it squeaked open. The blue unicorn from before strode in, a towel lifted itself and went to wipe its sweat. At the same time its star-spangled hat and cape flew over to a nearby coatrack. The unicorn released a heavy sigh and laid down on the bed, legs under its body. With the towel hanging from its neck it shuffled through some letters floating in what I could only think was magic. I hadn’t noticed the letters when it walked in. It murmured as it looked through the letters. Soon enough it put down the letters without opening them and took out a red bag. Looked like velvet, classy. She pour the contents out onto the bed and began counting them. “Only 10 bits? Tch, that’s even less than last week.” It snarled. “Ever since that show in Ponyville, everything has been going wrong.” Feminine voice, probably female… Maybe? I’ll just go with it for the time being. The unicorn placed the bits into the pouch and looked over at me. “But maybe you will change things for me.” She stood up and hopped off the bed and walked over to the cage. “Can you speak? Ape?” “Yes I can speak. Nothing’s stopping me from talking like a sore throat.” I replied sarcastically. “And second, if you think I’m going to be some show animal, you can throw that idea out that proverbial window.” She huffed. Was that a huff? I don’t know. “You have quite the mouth. It wasn’t until the other ape knew about my past did she start spitting.” She retorted. Oh I think I’ve seen enough of you today Oh Great and Powerful Tixie!” I paused at each adjective. She squinted at me suspiciously. “How did you know my name?” “You’re kidding right? Pretty much all the posters you have up here are of yourself.” I moved to sit with my legs crossed and leaned my head on my arm. “I can tell that you’re narcissistic, you preform magic shows, and that you how a grudge on someone in ‘Ponyville’.” I could tell that I was on point since she scrunched up her muzzle. “Well, at least you seem to have a calmer head compared to Sparkle’s Ape.” She calmed herself. “That animal acts before thinking.” She huffed. “Seeing as you seem to be, not like her, Trixie thinks you deserve to know where we are going.” “That’d, actually be nice.” What was with the third-person speak? “After you fell upon Trixie, Trixie mended you up seeing that you were injured. And she can’t be having you die before we get to Ponyville.” She paused. “Did you get that?” I rolled my eyes and simply nodded. Let’s not anger her, I need information more than I need a pissed off …pony. “Excellent. Trixie plans to show that Twilight Sparkle! And her band of friends. That Trixie is not second rate to her.” “And why’s that?” I asked. “Because Trixie has you, just as Sparkle has a female ape.” “Human.” “What?” “What that female and I am. We’re humans. Homo sapiens?” I was sorta getting tired of her calling me an ape “You look like apes.” “We evolved from a common ancestor. And I do have a name. Ronan.” “…Ronan, the Human?” Better than ape at least. I shrugged. “We will go to Ponyville, where Sparkle is and show her that you are with me.” She puffed out her chest. But her moment was ruined by a yawn. She quickly squatted and covered her mouth. That was adorable. “Tired?” I smirked. Trixie answered with a silent pout. “Trixie must get her beauty rest. She must be ready to travel to the next town over.” She turned to step outside the room. “Can you at least remove the cuff? It doesn’t really have the other half to actually restrain me.” I showed off the band around my wrist. “It is an anti-magic cuff. Trixie must take precautions, she doesn’t know if you can use magic like the female ap- human.” “Well I can’t use magic, can you take it off?” I pulled on the wrist band with no avail. “No.” Damn. “Then can I at least get something more ‘harmless’ to do?” Trixie took a long look at me her eyes dashing over to the other side of the wagon from me. A shelf filled with books, some lay scattered on the top and some that couldn’t fit in the shelf stacked on the floor. “You have Trixie’s permission to read a few ‘harmless’ books.” She mocked my use of the word from before. I looked at the distance between me and the shelf. “Little help?” “Trixie is sorry, but she must go wash herself before she sleeps.” She stepped outside. “Good luck with that Ronan the Human.” She finished closing the door. Ugh, smartass. I looked over to the books. Now how can I do this… I flexed my wrist band free arm. Chapter 2So, still in a cage, not much has changed. We've started travelling after Trixie woke up. A side note, do you know how much your body aches from sleeping in a metal cage that's too small for you? Very, and I wasn't even able to stretch that day. The only upside is that the shaking from Trixie's 'house', knocked a few books my way. Lucky break huh? Time-wise, it's been about two days since I had first met Trixie. Since then she and I have gotten, 'acquainted'. No not in that way, yesterday she tried to train me. "You should be grateful that Trixie is allowing you this time outside." Trixie sat down right outside the carriage. Which I cannot understand how it looks so small from the outside, and how big it was inside. "Honestly I am thankful," I took the time to stretch, "getting out and stretching feels so good." I felt the satisfying pops of my aching joints. "So what's the catch for letting me out?" "You are going to show me what you can do, so Trixie can see how you compare to Sparkle's human." She floated a bunch of juggling balls out of the carriage. "Well, I'll be inhibited with this," I waved my right hand, "on." Trixie's reaction to this was to throw the balls in my direction. I managed to catch one both another flew off to the right and another hit my shoulder. "Trixie is not an idiot. She knows you humans can use magic through both of your front hooves." "Arms, they're called arms. Please tell me there aren't only ponies here." "Of course not." She stated, "now you can at least use telekinesis?." I gave her a deadpan look as I floated the ball that hit me in the shoulder and tossed the one I caught to my left side and made them orbit each other. Honestly telekinesis was not the first magic I learned. Though it was the easiest to learn. All it took was channeling the magic through my hands and envisioning hands on the object. "Good enough for basic telekinesis." Trixie said looking unimpressed. An idea popped in my head. I imagined a third hand near Trixie's ear and moved it ever so close just enough for it to irritate her. Her ears flicked at the hand, but I quickly moved the hand away so she wouldn't hit it. She looked around to see what it was that touched her then proceeded to rub her ear with her front hoof. "Can you do anything else?" "Maybe." I continued to spin the balls in the air. "Care, to show?" "Maybe." Messing with people is fun. Wait I wonder how Elise is doing? Hold on, how will they react to me falling off? Out the corner of my eye I saw a light and moved out of the way of a magic beam. However dodging it meant falling backwards on my ass. "Hey!" "You were slow. I thought you needed some incentive." Her horn's glow stopping from firing the beam. "So far your performance has been lackluster compared to Twilight's human. Ouch, now that's an attack against my pride. Fine let's see. "I hope these balls aren't your only ones." Keeping the two balls spinning I sped them up and called a little more magic through my left arm. Imagining the balls igniting. The balls in turned ignited and created a ring of fire. "Fire magic. Adequate, at most." I pouted, disappointed at her reaction. She is pushing buttons here. I envisioned a burst of smoke and it happened. Rather immediately and violently. Causing it to cover both of us in smoke. "Smokescreen, "Trixie coughed, "good, you know magic she does not." Recognition finally. "You will need to learn the magic that the other human knows to however, or else she'll out shine you. And I- Trixie!" She messed up. So the third-person speak is not her usual speak? "Trixie can't have Twilight's human be better than you. You'll need to read and learn from chapters one through three." She tossed me a rather heavy book titled 'An Introduction to Magic. 14th Ed.' Below the title written in smaller font, 'Manehatten adaptation for non-ponies. "Make sure you practice those and I'll see your progress tomorrow." "You aren't going to help?" I raised an eyebrow. "I am busy and must go over my next performance. I learned by myself." "Thanks Teach." Well, not like this is different from before. I had taught myself how to channel that feeling, which I found out was magic, out across my entire body and even use it to cast magic. I walked inside the carriage. Upon walking inside I was lifted and put into the cage before I could react. "Come on, I promise not to use fire inside." "Ah, thanks for reminding me." A bubble popped into existence around the cage. “Wouldn't want to buy another carriage.” She closed the carriage door as she left. I sighed and opened to book to the first chapter. I muttered the words as I read through. I found that the first chapter did really apply to me as it was all about the principles of magic and how unicorn horns are able to channel magic. Seeing as I know nothing about magic before this. This could actually answer a few questions I had about magic. Magic, it is everywhere and flows in everything. Plants, animals, rocks, and ponies. Magic has been here from the very beginning and will be here when we aren’t. All three races of ponies have magic that run through them. However magic affects the three in different ways. Man, feels like I'm in high school science class again. While earth ponies may not seem to have magic, they in fact do. While earth ponies do not have wings like pegasi or horns like unicorns. Magic instead spreads through their body causing earth ponies to have higher strength, endurance, stamina, and tenacity. This also causes earth ponies to have a higher affinity to the growth of plants and care taking of animals. Overall, magic allows earth ponies to be excellent farmers and jobs involving manual labor. Pegasus ponies are more visually affected by magic in their bodies. Magic causes pegasi to have more light, agile, and faster bodies which allow for easy flight. The additional affect along with flight allows for pegasi to control and predict the weather and the side effect to walk and touch clouds. Whereas it takes a magic spell from a unicorn to allow an earth pony or unicorn to touch clouds. The third and final race of ponies are unicorns. Physically unicorns are similar to pegasi, usually have small builds but are not as fast. The lack in physical ability, unicorns have a higher affinity to the use of magic. This is possible due to the horn located slightly above a pony's forehead. This horn is made up of a form of sturdy cartilage. Through the use of spells, unicorns are able to share and learn different forms of magic. Magic spells come in an assortment of levels and forms as well of different fields. This book however will only cover the basic spells that are expected of an adult unicorn. Keep in mind that the stereotypes mentioned in the passages before are not always true and that there are unicorn ponies that can have high physical capabilities and skinny earth ponies. Wow that is an informative book, this is meant for young unicorns? Education here is so different. A large bump caused me to jump and hit my head on the top of the cage. "Ow." It seems as though Trixie had started pulling the carriage while I was focused on reading. Welp back to reading. I flipped the page which just happened to be a table of contents. Chapter 1: Simple Telekinesis, Chapter 2: Barrier Projection. "Don't know how to do that, why not?" I continued reading. Barriers are an essential skill for every magic user. They serve as the first and final defense against a magic assault and even physical. Barriers are one of the very few forms of magic that do not require any cast runes to use. While there are specialties to barriers to counter different attacks, this chapter will go over the basic method to form and stabilize a standard barrier. The forming a standard barrier requires little amount of concentration. In order to form a barrier, channel the magic through your horn, concentrate and condense the magic in a dome. Once the magic has started forming use Star Swirl's Magic condensation method to harden the barrier. Depending on the quality of work done during your use of Star Swirl's method will determine the strength of the barrier. The next step is maintaining and strengthening the barrier after its formation. Once the barrier is set, channel a constant stream of magic into the barrier. This should cause the barrier to visibly condense and its transparency should decrease. Later in this book we will be going over how to create different types and shapes of barriers. Uh, what is the Star Swirl method? Is that some sort of formula like science? It refers to it like it’s common sense. I don’t know it but it won’t be a problem right? I faced my left hand palm side up. I started channeling magic to my palm and imagined a dome on the palm of my hand. Sure enough a miniature silver dome manifested on my palm with ease. "Wh- That was easy!" I imagined the dome floating up and forming into a sphere, and it did just that. I reached out my right hand and touched it. It felt hard and cold, like a metal plate. That's... disappointing? I was expecting it to- As the thought crossed my mind the dome warmed up, visibly brighten, and sent a fuzzy feeling through my hand. It changes properties according to what I think. Is it really that easy? I flipped down until I found a passage about how to make a specialized barrier. The next step to barriers is adjusting its properties. This can make your barrier more resistant to different elements or physical attacks. In order to do this you must understand the different attribute spell runes from chapter 10. Using the right runes in conjunction with the method to form a barrier will cause the barrier to gain resistance to the attribute you cast upon it. That sounds a lot more difficult than what I just did. I decided to test out if I actually did create a ‘specialized barrier’. I created a basic barrier on the bottom of the cage and imagined a small beam of fire shooting at it. A tendril of fire sprouted from my finger and hit the barrier. It lasted a few seconds then the barrier popped and the fire beam hit the bottom of the cage. Five seconds. I then formed another barrier while thinking that it would be fire resistant. Another barrier reappeared on the bottom of the cage. Like the one before this barrier was brighter than an ordinary barrier. I repeated and after ten seconds the barrier popped. So it can last about double the amount of time compared to a basic barrier. This is interesting and all, but where’s the juicy magics? I flipped through the book seeing only the basics, beam magic, shielding, etc. I wanna shoot ice shards or a fireball. Closing the book I looked over to the assortment of other books in Trixie’s collection. From what I saw they were mainly only about showmanship and enhancing the visual quality of spells. There looked to only be two books that showed any promised on advanced magic, one titled “Magic Algorithms: Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns Edition 24.” And the other was “An In-depth Study on the Properties of Unicorn Magic.” Both were out of reach. Fine, I could try coming up with my own advanced magic. It’s not that hard right? Brainstorming time go! I had thought about a fireball and ice shards before, but when visualizing a ball of fire coming out of my hand the feeling didn’t flow outwards. Confused I tried imagining the fire beam again and the same laser came out perfectly fine. Testing out other things showed progress as I made a beam of magic, a beam of ice, and a beam of electricity. But no matter how I imagined it I couldn’t form a ball of fire. It had worked when I lit the balls on fire, but I can’t make a ball of fire from nothing? Do I have to light something on fire first? Instead of running my head into a wall, I decided to sharpen the one magic I couldn’t perfect before. Matter acceleration. Now it sounds plain and simple. Basically it’s just using telekinesis to speed up an already moving object. But that much concentration actually required a lot of my own magic to use. I couldn’t use it before in my shows cause of how exhausted it would leave me afterwards. That sucked too, my plan was to use it on cards and slice things using cards like Gambit. Cool and another magic trick to freshen up my act. But now that I was in this world, I haven’t been as magically exhausted as I usually would. Even after using all that magic. Maybe this world is just more magic-filled than Earth? So I decided to practice this. I levitated a pack of cards that Trixie had laying around inside the carriage and inspected the cards. Fanning the cards out, I could see that they all shared a common pearl white with gold borders theme. The King was a white pony with multi-colored hair, interestingly enough she adorns a very long horn and a set of what looks to be bird wings. The Queen looked to be another pony with a horn and wings, but this time it was pink with a purple, pink, and cream hair color. Next the Jack seemed to be different. This pony had a horn too, but also a stockier build than the others and was wearing a red cadet uniform. It had shades of blue in its hair and was white-bodied. Flipping through the rest of the cards, cards 10 through 2, and they were just a series of ponies in gold armor with blue mohawks. However, the Ace of this deck was actually a set of six ponies of varying colors with that human girl. All of them were huddled together for what looks to be a group photo. Now that I think about it, they looked to be the same group from the polaroid photo on Trixie’s map. Are they important or something? Maybe they worship those with both attributes? I left the topic for another time, I could just ask Trixie. Time to get to business. First was the control. I grabbed a random card and flicked it out of the cage. The card glanced off the ground and slid to a halt. Next was a card enhanced with matter acceleration. I picked another card and imagined it speeding up. Flicking the card afterwards, it flew faster and ricocheted off the ground and onto Trixie’s desk. It wasn’t that much faster than before. Let test something else. For the next hour I experimented with different ways of speeding up the card. What I found out was fascinating about the way magic works. When I had just pictured in my head that the card ‘speeds up’ the card indeed would speed up. However if I gave a more specific instruction then the effect could be changed. I imagined the card going about 30 miles per hour(48 kilometers per hour) and the effect was staggering. The card flew out fast enough to dent the card. Not to mention getting it to fling off into a random direction. Hope Trixie won’t miss that. Then I tried something more complex. I thought about the card leaving my hand and instantly stopping in midair. Then I pictured it shooting upwards at about 10 miles an hour. When I flicked the card, it did just as I had imagined. I would have liked to test more things out but when I heard a sound coming from outside the carriage door I had to get the cards back into her chest. The moment I thought that the remaining cards in my hand and the cards laying about the inside of the carriage sparkled blue and popped out of existence. The next thing I knew another spark soon followed by Trixie’s chest of props and the pack of cards, back inside their box, plopped back to where I had got them. “Alright, Trixie has procured enough supplies to last the three days we need to arrive in Ponyville.” She walked inside with bags of bread, fruit, and vegetables. She slid out a cooler and organized her groceries. “We will be leaving now. The sooner we arrive at Ponyville the better.” “You really have a vendetta against that purple pony huh?” Trixie was silent for a moment before muttering something under her breath. “What was that?” “Nothing.” She closed the cooler harder than it needed to be. She stared at me. ”Want out of that cage?” I was taken back by this question. Why the sudden change of wanting to keep me in the cage? I was skeptic, but that wasn’t going to keep me from getting out of this cramped box. “Hell yeah.”
Chapter 0 (Prologue/Teaser)"Ryan! Hurry up if you want to see a magic trick!" My grandfather called from out on the front porch. "I'm coming grandpa! Hold on!" I rushed down the stairs. "Ryan! Don't go too fast down the stairs or else you'll fall-" My mom's voice cut off as I slipped and rolled down the stairs and my back met the wall. "Ow~." I rolled on to my side. I looked up to see my mom. "I warned you didn't I?" She picked me up. "Yeah." Rubbed my sore back as I went out the front door to see my grandpa sitting in his rocking chair. "Fall down the stair again huh?" He cracked a wrinkly grin. "Yeah." I repeated myself, dejectedly. "Want to see that magic trick now?" I instantly cheered up at the thought of seeing another of grandpa's magic tricks. I got into a chair as grandpa got up and sat across from me on the other side of the table. Grandpa pulled out a deck of cards and placed it on the table. He pretended to pull up his sleeves even though he was wearing a T-shirt. He picked up the deck and began to shuffle it. He did so all with a smile on his face. Once he stopped shuffling it, he fanned the cards out. "Pick a card." He simply stated. I reached out and slowly picked out a card and looked at it. While I looked at my card grandpa split the rest of the deck into three. "Now show me it." I turned the card and showed it to him. "Ah, the ace of spades. Now place it back, anywhere." I took the ace and laid it down with the others. "Okay then, I'll just give the cards a cut." He said as he split the deck of cards in half and proceeded to expertly shuffle the deck. "So now you're card is somewhere inside this deck." I nodded my head. "I'm just going to make some more piles." He began flipping the cards face-up one by one. I watch as I saw the ace of spades pass by in a flash. grandpa continued until the entire 52 cards were split into five different piles. He then picked the cards back up into a single deck again. "Now then," He split the deck and showed me a card. "This is your card." I looked at the five of clubs sadly. "No." "Oh. Well it doesn't matter," He put the two halves together again. "Cause this deck is now set to spell out your card. It was the king of hearts, right?" He started to place a card as he spelled out king of hearts. "K-I-N-G-" "Grandpa! My card was the ace of spades remember?" I corrected his mistake. "Was it?" Grandpa made a questioning look. "Well I must be getting old then." He replaced the cards on top of the deck. "Let's just restart then shall we?" He started to place the cards down again. "Wait a minute, I'm missing a card." He looked at me. "Ah, there it is." He pointed at me. More specifically the left side of my face. I curiously reach up to my ear and felt a card sitting snugly on my ear. "How did you do that?" I held the ace of spades up and looked it up and down. My grandpa just gave me his iconic wrinkly grin. "Magic." He waved his hands and wiggled all his fingers. "There's a little in each of us." He poked me in the center of my chest. I felt a heating sensation run through my chest, up my arm and into my hand. I saw an orange sparkle at the end of my finger. Before I knew it the top corner of the ace in my hand burst into flames. I quickly dropped the card and it landed on the table. "Wha- What just happened?!" I started to panic. "Mo-" I was about to yell if it weren't for my grandpa covering my mouth with his hand and shushing me quiet. "Now calm down Ryan. It's alright. Everything is okay." He let go of me. I glanced at the tiny pile of ash that used to be a card slowly disappearing in the breeze. "Now listen closely and listen well okay?" I nodded. "You mustn't show or tell anyone about what just happened. Okay?" I nodded. "But what was that? Why did the card get caught on fire?" I spewed out questions. "Hush!" I stopped talking. "There is something special about our family. Your mother doesn't know it, but I do. I can't tell you all the answers, but I can tell you this." He pointed at what was left of the ace card. "What you just did there was real magic. No effects, no tricks, real magic, Ryan." I just stared silently as my mind processed this outrageous information. But the evidence was there. What else would that orange light and the card suddenly bursting into flames be? I didn't know what else to do so I just did as my grandfather said. I would hide it. "Grandpa, Ryan. Dinner's ready!" I heard my mom call from inside the house." "Okay." Grandpa replied and looked me in the eyes, then smiled and ruffled my dark brown hair. "Let's go in and eat shall we?" He stood up and opened the front door. "M'kay!" I ran inside and into the kitchen. <> <> <> "And that's my story to you." I leaned back in my chair and looked at the confused face of the interviewer across the table. "My grandpa is mostly what got me so invested in magic." "Pardon me," The woman collected herself. "Is that your way of saying that it is because of your dead grandfather's influence that got you to become a magician?" "MMMmmm, if you want to take it like that." I started to balance the chair on its two back legs. "Then sure." The lady just looked at me with half-lidded eyes then wrote something down in her notebook. "Do you have anymore questions?" I put the chair onto four legs and leaned forward onto the table with my fingers intertwined. "Yes, actually, there's been a rumor that you have been having sexual relations with-" Her baseless question was interrupted by Janna knocking and opening the door. "Ronan, it's almost time for the show." She emotionlessly ordered. "This interview is over." "Wow, really?" I looked at my wrist to look at the time on the watch. "Hey!" The interviewer woman exclaimed, looking at her empty wrist. "That's my watch." "Oh~, so that's why. I thought something was off." I gave her a friendly smile. "Here." I grabbed the watch between my index and my thumb and flung it off towards the woman. The watch instantly slowed and began floating towards her arm and attached itself to her wrist. "Well, got to go." I walked to the open door where Janna was patiently waiting. "But how-" "No. You already know." I turned around and as Janna, rudely closed the door I stuck out my index fiinger and a small orange flame sprouted at the end. "Magic." "Must you always be so showy and dramatic for everything you do Ryan?" Janna sighed as she checked her Ipad. "I'm an entertainer right? Then I got to entertain my audience." I walked beside her through the backstage as she lead me to the stage. "So how many people here tonight?" "Sold out once again." She tapped the screen of her tablet. "After this you have an autograph signing." "Awesome. Then after that we can head back to the hotel right?" We reached the backstage area and I prepared for my entrance onto the stage. "Well then, its a good night to make some magic." I looked to Janna as she gave me the green light. "Right Grandpa?" <> <> <> "Wooooo." I swung open the door and dragged myself to the closest cushioned couch as Janna walked in with her eyes still on her tablet. " Home at last." "So, on with business." She proceeded to walk through the room and down the hall. "Oh come on Janna. We just got back from shows across the country." I moaned in mock agony. "I just want to rest." I stuffed my face into a pillow. My phone rang and I reluctantly grabbed it and hit the speaker phone option. "'Ello." "Come to the office." I heard Janna's voice. "Ughh, why. Don't tell me you got a surprise for me." "Just get your magic ass over here already." I grinned. "There's the Janna I met from college." I heard an exhausted sigh as Janna hung up the phone. I lifted myself up to a sitting position and sighed. I got up and stretched my arms as I turned down the hall. Walking down the carpeted hallway I looked at the various plaques and pictures I had. There was a plaque for Entertainer of the Year. I had beaten even the Four Horsemen; that was the real accomplishment. Though I can't say if I did it fairly. I knew, from a very young age, that I had real magic. Not just some parlor tricks or slight-of-hands. Real magic. Like the stuff on Harry Potter. Actually, it's not like Harry Potter. More along the line of "I can summon fire from my hands" rather than a swish and flick of a wand and saying the magic words. Honestly comparing it to that, how I use magic is way cooler. Anyway, I'm not entirely sure that the Four Horsemen would have real magic or are just really really good at what they do. The way they present their shows are spectacular and quite original. I really liked their last show with "stealing a bunch of bank money". I bet that angered a few people. I saw my office's door open and peered in to find Janna at my computer. My office was quite the sight ,being that I live in a penthouse. My office had what usual offices did, a desk, comfy couches, a coffee table, and a great view of the city through windows that took up an entire wall. I walked in and walked over to my desk. As I approached Janna moved to the side as she left my computer at my email. "I've gotten rid of most of the junk mail for you. There's an email from the Four Horsemen inviting you to their next show. They are stating that it's their big finale." "Sweet, are we able to make time for it?" I began scrolling through my now filtered email. While skimming through I noticed one that looked different than the rest. "Hmm?" I read the title aloud. "Government Notice. " The time stamp said I had received it while I was across the country. "Janna you know what this is?" She leaned over as I clicked open the email. "Ah, you don't have to worry about that. I talked to them about moving the appointment back until you had returned. It's scheduled for tomorrow." She tapped her tablet and another window opened on my computer screen showing my monthly planner." I've scheduled it for next Monday." "Alright," There goes my morning of watching TV, "so what's a government official want with me?" "Do you remember the interview where you gave the story about your grandfather?" Janna strided over to a couch and sat down. "Which one?" With Janna no longer watching my computer screen I opened my browser and decided to check out what's new on Youtube. "The one where he told you not to tell any one about you having 'real magic'?" "Ah, that woman. She had a very nice watch for a new caster. But why would that bring any commotion? It's not like they'll actually believe me." I scrolled through what Youtube would think I'd like to watch next and spotted a video titled: Ronan's Magic Proven Real? "Rumors have been going on and theories that you actually do have real magic." "Yeah," and you know it's true." I showed this off by quickly levitating a ball-point pen in the air and flying it around. "Yes, I do. However the repercussions of a person with the power of psychokinesis, teleportation, and especially pyrokinesis are immense. And it seems to have finally attracted the attention of some people in government." "Then we'll just bluff." I was watching the video of a man showing one of my acts and explaining how m magic tricks could not have been faked; muted of course. It was very obvious that he was biased towards me and had even said that this was a video in response to another video critiquing how my magic was fake. Though since my magic was in fact real, There was a bit more facts and footage supporting the side of real magic. "I'll just show them the tools of my trade. Like the lighter in the sleeve or just simple misdirection and glass wires. It's not like this is the first time we've had to-" I paused as the intercom on my desk alerted me to beeped. As I was about to talk to whoever it was Janna stopped me. "I'll handle it," and forwarded it to her earpiece. "Hello? No this is Ronan's Manager. No ma'am, you need to have an appointment. Ma'am, ma'am. Alright I'll be right there." "Who is it?" I was now twirling the pen with my fingers. "Just a visitor, I'll tell them they need to make an appointment." She got up and left the room. I decided to play with some cards so I pulled open a drawer and took out a deck of cards. I began shuffling the cards each time getting more and more complex. I had gotten to the point where I was flipping the cards between my hands. However a sudden wind came out of nowhere and blew the cards all over my desk and some on the floor. I looked behind me and all around. Where had that breeze come from? "Hmm, weird." I sat up and began collecting the cards. Then I noticed how the cards on the desk were all face-down, except for the four ace cards. I reached out and picked up the closest one. The ace of spades. While staring at the card my thoughts were interrupted by shout out in the living room and a lot of stomping. Before I could even stand up I could see four military-equiped men barge into my office guns aimed at me. Instinctively, slowly, raised my hands in the air. A woman, whom from how she was dressed and how she walked in with two more armed men, was their higher up. She wore an armor vest just like the rest of the men but dress for more agility rather than protection. The only weapon she had on her from what I could see was a pistol at her hip. "Close those hands Ronan. Wouldn't want you using any 'magic'." She said with quite a commanding voice. "Apprehend him." She ordered. Two of the men cautiously approached me with handcuffs. "Make sure his hand are where we can see them." With their guns pointed at me, the two men moved my hands together and handcuffed me. "So care to tell me why I'm being arrested ma'am?" I asked as the two men stood next to me; most likely ready to subdue me if I struggle. "There has been evidence as well as numerous accusations to your possession of 'real magic'. Thus in response you are to be questioned. Then a verdict will be given to you." Most likely they wanted to investigate my powers; the origins and implications. Wait is Janna alright? "What of my manager?" "She is being brought in to questioning as well. As your manager, if you are guilty to having magic then she is most likely an accomplice." She surprisingly answered my question. This however did not make anything easier. "Fine, let's get going then. It won't get me anything good by struggling." I beamed a friendly smile. However as I was expecting to be escorted out of the office, the two men next to me grab my arms. The two men whispered at the same time. Both of their voices layered with another. "Oh I beg to differ, Mr. Ace. You should struggle." As they finished saying this they both lifted me and flung me backwards. Everything moved as if in slow-motion as I saw the professional face of the woman break. My back breaking through the glass windows. The cold air outside surrounded me as I caught a glance of one the men's face. He had a bold red pupil and solid yellow corneas. The moment passed and before I could even think about his eyes i was falling through the air with my hands cuffed. "Shit, shit, shit." I struggled with my hands to get free, but they were tightly clamped. I'm a magician, not an escape artist. I can't even teleport out of these cuffs. Soon enough a mischievous laughter seeming to come from everywhere around me. "Having a relaxing time?" The voice said seemingly amused. "The fuck?!" "Seems you need help. Allow me to provide you with a soft landing." My mind was still spinning from being thrown out of the window. But I was able to glance down at my destination only to see a portal just rip into existence, as if someone just used their hand and tore into the air. I saw an unrealistically clear sky through the portal. Odd considering that it was currently in the middle of the night. I couldn't stop myself as I fell through the portal and into the clear sky. Instantly i noticed the temperature difference as it changed from chilling cold to warm summer day. The next thing I noticed, was that I was slowing down. I looked back to the portal and the side of the hotel as it closed by itself, revealing the forest behind it. The portal had spit me out upwards. "Well shit." I stated with a sigh as gravity began working again. On the way towards the ground however I noticed some very solid clouds. How do I know? I hit a few on the way. I would fall on them and they would seem to pop slowing my descent. That however was not enough as I reached the treeline at a relatively fast speed. Enough to break some branches and hurt like hell. Since I had just gotten back from across the country, I was still in a button-down shirt with a plain t-shirt underneath, black slacks, and dress shoes. Well, no dress shoes anymore. kicked those off as soon as I got home. But I guess that didn't matter now that the branches probably tore through both my shirts. Soon enough I landed on... something. I had had my eyes closed and was turned back-to-ground through the treeline, so I don't know what I had landed on. It did provide a softer landing than the trees did. "Oooowww." I groaned from the ache all over my body. "Will you GET OFF OF TRIXIE?!" A feminine voice below me yelled at me and shoved me. My hands were still handcuffed together in front of me, thus I ended up face to dirt on the ground as the sound of the woman I had landed on got up. I stretched my neck up to see the woman. "Sorry," I saw a blue horse in a star filled cap pick up a witch hat, ",madam, blue... horse thing?" She seemed to turn her attention to me from her hat as I spoke. "WHORSE? How DARE you address Trixie Lulamoon in such a way." She placed her hat on her head and struck a pose. After staying in that pose for quite some time, almost a minute it felt like, she took a good look at me and smirked. "You, you're just like that other monkey." My vision started to blur as the rest of the pain started to register. I felt my whole body be rolled over onto my back. "Though you seem to be male. Unlike her's." I felt my entire body suddenly lifted into the air, causing pain to burst throughout my body. "No matter. Now that I have you, Trixie is no longer second to that mare!" The blue horse huffed as I started to black out. Author's Note January 18,2016 This is a story idea I've had for a long time. Of course I'll be working on my other story. But I'd like to see how this idea does.
Chapter 1I awoke standing on what seemed to be nothing, empty black void in all directions. I could still see myself, clothes and body. "Hello?" All I heard was myself and silence. "Huh, I was totally expecting an echo." Out of nowhere an echo rebounded my voice. "Surprising." I stood there just wondering if something was going to happen. After enough waiting there for who knows how long I got really bored. "Ugh, please just something happen!" Then something did happen, a blinding light came out of nowhere. "Gah! My eyes." I protected my eyes from the rays of light. "Warn me ahead of time jeez." Then a voice seemed to speak directly into my mind. "Six paths shall lead together. Their fate entwined by destiny." The voice seemed to be many at the same time. Like more than four people speaking in complete sync. It was headache ensuing. "The first will seek with their heart. Aid the Six the first shall desire." The voices continued on. "Through disorder and deception they shall persist. Far north the second shall descend, through knowledge and shadows will they be sent." By now I was very confused, though quite interesting. It was like prophecy and I enjoy listening to those type of things, so I kept quiet. "The third whom follows that which corrupts. Southwards they will hunt, a pack they will find. The fourth shall come by another's hand, driven by curiosity. But only thereafter one who seeks power, is returned to keep." The voices continued to speak a prophecy. "The tale will continue once the four converge. The secret to stop the one who feeds on nothing. Will then be revealed. "The voices puttered out as they finished their prophecy. "Cool." With the voices done the light was fading as well. "Wait! Can you repeat that?!" The light vanished leaving me in the black void I was in before. "Well. . . Now what?" I was answered as I felt whatever I was standing on disappear and I fell forward. "Wa-?" I was launched downwards belly-first. My face was greeted very fast with wood. Which hurt, by the way. I sat upright touching my nose; it thankfully wasn't broken. However my nose seemed to be the only thing aching as the rest of my body seemed to feel much better than before. Someone, most likely that blue horse from earlier, had bandaged my entire body. My chest was in full view, but thankfully my slacks were still on. I looked around to see that I was alone in a metal cage, inside a moving wagon. My hands were still handcuffed, but I did notice a metal band on my right wrist. “That’s new.” It was pretty thick, like a half inch thick. Tight too, it was almost constricting my wrist. Very uncomfortable if you didn’t understand that yet. Looking around there was a poster on a wall with the blue horse striking a pose and in large words arching over "The Great and Powerful Trixie". On another wall was a map of some sorts. It didn't look like any place on Earth I knew. There were plenty of places marked on the map with blue pins. But one small area on the map seemed to be repeatedly circled. Looking closer a word was written in red. A place called "Ponyville". Is she a pony? Not a horse? What was the difference? Actually, I’m just thankful they at least write in English. There was a Polaroid photo pinned near "Ponyville" with a picture of a purple pony surrounded by others. A pink one with gravity-defying hair, an orange one with a cowboy hat, a yellow one with wings, a blue one that also had wings but rainbow hair, and a white one with a horn. Oh, and a large purple and green lizard and a brown hair girl. “Wait, girl?” I took a closer look at the picture and indeed saw a brown, short haired girl. Compared to the ponies she towered over them. Then again, he couldn’t really say if she was tall . . . he couldn’t compare her to anyone. She wore a pair of blue jeans and a sports shirt. There were some notes scribbled onto pieces of paper attached to different locations on the map. “Fillydelphia, Manehattan, Canterlot, Baltimare, Neighagra Falls. Wow the puns are real. “Looking around the wagon I saw a desk, drawers, a single bed, a closet, and a chest. Pretty much all wooden. The cage was in the back corner of the wooden wagon, with the closet being in the other back corner. Beside the closet was the drawer with a mirror and an assortment of things laid out from cosmetics and flyers. The bed was on the cage side, but in the front end of the wagon with the pillows closer to the front. The chest was beside that on the far front wall, with my shirts on it! Oh thank god, she didn't throw it away. The door was on the closet side with windows on the back wall and near the bed. I could easily just levitate it over, so I focused with my hand open at my shirts. But as the familiar feeling of magic running down my right arm reached the metal band the feeling stopped. The feeling, with nowhere to go the power went haywire. My right arm looked as if it were being cooked. However most of it seemed to have bounced back and hit me with a recoil as the feeling in my arm subsided. It hit me in the head akin to as if my entire body was congested while at the same time being motion sick. "Fuck. Uuuuuugh." I fell on my side in the cage rubbing my aching head. It took some time and rubbing before my head was clear of whatever happened. I picked myself up and leaned against a corner of the cage. Thinking about it more, that poster of the blue horned pony, unicorn? Unicorn, reminded me of older advertisements for magicians. With the words magnificent, mysterious, great, and powerful used to advertise the magician's magic tricks. Wow, I must really be bored to be noticing something like this. I stretched out my legs in front of me only to be stopped halfway and leaned my head on the side of the cage. “So much for stretching.” I said under my breath. Sitting down scrunched up for a while really does create a pain in your back. Add in just sitting not able to do pretty much anything else. I tried using magic through my other hand and found that the magic did work instead of backfiring. The brace must be some kind of anti-magic thing. That means magic must be commonplace here. I wouldn’t doubt it too, I guess. I mean I did see a unicorn, right? I turned my head towards the door as it squeaked open. The blue unicorn from before strode in, a towel lifted itself and went to wipe its sweat. At the same time its star-spangled hat and cape flew over to a nearby coatrack. The unicorn released a heavy sigh and laid down on the bed, legs under its body. With the towel hanging from its neck it shuffled through some letters floating in what I could only think was magic. I hadn’t noticed the letters when it walked in. It murmured as it looked through the letters. Soon enough it put down the letters without opening them and took out a red bag. Looked like velvet, classy. She pour the contents out onto the bed and began counting them. “Only 10 bits? Tch, that’s even less than last week.” It snarled. “Ever since that show in Ponyville, everything has been going wrong.” Feminine voice, probably female… Maybe? I’ll just go with it for the time being. The unicorn placed the bits into the pouch and looked over at me. “But maybe you will change things for me.” She stood up and hopped off the bed and walked over to the cage. “Can you speak? Ape?” “Yes I can speak. Nothing’s stopping me from talking like a sore throat.” I replied sarcastically. “And second, if you think I’m going to be some show animal, you can throw that idea out that proverbial window.” She huffed. Was that a huff? I don’t know. “You have quite the mouth. It wasn’t until the other ape knew about my past did she start spitting.” She retorted. Oh I think I’ve seen enough of you today Oh Great and Powerful Tixie!” I paused at each adjective. She squinted at me suspiciously. “How did you know my name?” “You’re kidding right? Pretty much all the posters you have up here are of yourself.” I moved to sit with my legs crossed and leaned my head on my arm. “I can tell that you’re narcissistic, you preform magic shows, and that you how a grudge on someone in ‘Ponyville’.” I could tell that I was on point since she scrunched up her muzzle. “Well, at least you seem to have a calmer head compared to Sparkle’s Ape.” She calmed herself. “That animal acts before thinking.” She huffed. “Seeing as you seem to be, not like her, Trixie thinks you deserve to know where we are going.” “That’d, actually be nice.” What was with the third-person speak? “After you fell upon Trixie, Trixie mended you up seeing that you were injured. And she can’t be having you die before we get to Ponyville.” She paused. “Did you get that?” I rolled my eyes and simply nodded. Let’s not anger her, I need information more than I need a pissed off …pony. “Excellent. Trixie plans to show that Twilight Sparkle! And her band of friends. That Trixie is not second rate to her.” “And why’s that?” I asked. “Because Trixie has you, just as Sparkle has a female ape.” “Human.” “What?” “What that female and I am. We’re humans. Homo sapiens?” I was sorta getting tired of her calling me an ape “You look like apes.” “We evolved from a common ancestor. And I do have a name. Ronan.” “…Ronan, the Human?” Better than ape at least. I shrugged. “We will go to Ponyville, where Sparkle is and show her that you are with me.” She puffed out her chest. But her moment was ruined by a yawn. She quickly squatted and covered her mouth. That was adorable. “Tired?” I smirked. Trixie answered with a silent pout. “Trixie must get her beauty rest. She must be ready to travel to the next town over.” She turned to step outside the room. “Can you at least remove the cuff? It doesn’t really have the other half to actually restrain me.” I showed off the band around my wrist. “It is an anti-magic cuff. Trixie must take precautions, she doesn’t know if you can use magic like the female ap- human.” “Well I can’t use magic, can you take it off?” I pulled on the wrist band with no avail. “No.” Damn. “Then can I at least get something more ‘harmless’ to do?” Trixie took a long look at me her eyes dashing over to the other side of the wagon from me. A shelf filled with books, some lay scattered on the top and some that couldn’t fit in the shelf stacked on the floor. “You have Trixie’s permission to read a few ‘harmless’ books.” She mocked my use of the word from before. I looked at the distance between me and the shelf. “Little help?” “Trixie is sorry, but she must go wash herself before she sleeps.” She stepped outside. “Good luck with that Ronan the Human.” She finished closing the door. Ugh, smartass. I looked over to the books. Now how can I do this… I flexed my wrist band free arm.
Chapter 2So, still in a cage, not much has changed. We've started travelling after Trixie woke up. A side note, do you know how much your body aches from sleeping in a metal cage that's too small for you? Very, and I wasn't even able to stretch that day. The only upside is that the shaking from Trixie's 'house', knocked a few books my way. Lucky break huh? Time-wise, it's been about two days since I had first met Trixie. Since then she and I have gotten, 'acquainted'. No not in that way, yesterday she tried to train me. "You should be grateful that Trixie is allowing you this time outside." Trixie sat down right outside the carriage. Which I cannot understand how it looks so small from the outside, and how big it was inside. "Honestly I am thankful," I took the time to stretch, "getting out and stretching feels so good." I felt the satisfying pops of my aching joints. "So what's the catch for letting me out?" "You are going to show me what you can do, so Trixie can see how you compare to Sparkle's human." She floated a bunch of juggling balls out of the carriage. "Well, I'll be inhibited with this," I waved my right hand, "on." Trixie's reaction to this was to throw the balls in my direction. I managed to catch one both another flew off to the right and another hit my shoulder. "Trixie is not an idiot. She knows you humans can use magic through both of your front hooves." "Arms, they're called arms. Please tell me there aren't only ponies here." "Of course not." She stated, "now you can at least use telekinesis?." I gave her a deadpan look as I floated the ball that hit me in the shoulder and tossed the one I caught to my left side and made them orbit each other. Honestly telekinesis was not the first magic I learned. Though it was the easiest to learn. All it took was channeling the magic through my hands and envisioning hands on the object. "Good enough for basic telekinesis." Trixie said looking unimpressed. An idea popped in my head. I imagined a third hand near Trixie's ear and moved it ever so close just enough for it to irritate her. Her ears flicked at the hand, but I quickly moved the hand away so she wouldn't hit it. She looked around to see what it was that touched her then proceeded to rub her ear with her front hoof. "Can you do anything else?" "Maybe." I continued to spin the balls in the air. "Care, to show?" "Maybe." Messing with people is fun. Wait I wonder how Elise is doing? Hold on, how will they react to me falling off? Out the corner of my eye I saw a light and moved out of the way of a magic beam. However dodging it meant falling backwards on my ass. "Hey!" "You were slow. I thought you needed some incentive." Her horn's glow stopping from firing the beam. "So far your performance has been lackluster compared to Twilight's human. Ouch, now that's an attack against my pride. Fine let's see. "I hope these balls aren't your only ones." Keeping the two balls spinning I sped them up and called a little more magic through my left arm. Imagining the balls igniting. The balls in turned ignited and created a ring of fire. "Fire magic. Adequate, at most." I pouted, disappointed at her reaction. She is pushing buttons here. I envisioned a burst of smoke and it happened. Rather immediately and violently. Causing it to cover both of us in smoke. "Smokescreen, "Trixie coughed, "good, you know magic she does not." Recognition finally. "You will need to learn the magic that the other human knows to however, or else she'll out shine you. And I- Trixie!" She messed up. So the third-person speak is not her usual speak? "Trixie can't have Twilight's human be better than you. You'll need to read and learn from chapters one through three." She tossed me a rather heavy book titled 'An Introduction to Magic. 14th Ed.' Below the title written in smaller font, 'Manehatten adaptation for non-ponies. "Make sure you practice those and I'll see your progress tomorrow." "You aren't going to help?" I raised an eyebrow. "I am busy and must go over my next performance. I learned by myself." "Thanks Teach." Well, not like this is different from before. I had taught myself how to channel that feeling, which I found out was magic, out across my entire body and even use it to cast magic. I walked inside the carriage. Upon walking inside I was lifted and put into the cage before I could react. "Come on, I promise not to use fire inside." "Ah, thanks for reminding me." A bubble popped into existence around the cage. “Wouldn't want to buy another carriage.” She closed the carriage door as she left. I sighed and opened to book to the first chapter. I muttered the words as I read through. I found that the first chapter did really apply to me as it was all about the principles of magic and how unicorn horns are able to channel magic. Seeing as I know nothing about magic before this. This could actually answer a few questions I had about magic. Magic, it is everywhere and flows in everything. Plants, animals, rocks, and ponies. Magic has been here from the very beginning and will be here when we aren’t. All three races of ponies have magic that run through them. However magic affects the three in different ways. Man, feels like I'm in high school science class again. While earth ponies may not seem to have magic, they in fact do. While earth ponies do not have wings like pegasi or horns like unicorns. Magic instead spreads through their body causing earth ponies to have higher strength, endurance, stamina, and tenacity. This also causes earth ponies to have a higher affinity to the growth of plants and care taking of animals. Overall, magic allows earth ponies to be excellent farmers and jobs involving manual labor. Pegasus ponies are more visually affected by magic in their bodies. Magic causes pegasi to have more light, agile, and faster bodies which allow for easy flight. The additional affect along with flight allows for pegasi to control and predict the weather and the side effect to walk and touch clouds. Whereas it takes a magic spell from a unicorn to allow an earth pony or unicorn to touch clouds. The third and final race of ponies are unicorns. Physically unicorns are similar to pegasi, usually have small builds but are not as fast. The lack in physical ability, unicorns have a higher affinity to the use of magic. This is possible due to the horn located slightly above a pony's forehead. This horn is made up of a form of sturdy cartilage. Through the use of spells, unicorns are able to share and learn different forms of magic. Magic spells come in an assortment of levels and forms as well of different fields. This book however will only cover the basic spells that are expected of an adult unicorn. Keep in mind that the stereotypes mentioned in the passages before are not always true and that there are unicorn ponies that can have high physical capabilities and skinny earth ponies. Wow that is an informative book, this is meant for young unicorns? Education here is so different. A large bump caused me to jump and hit my head on the top of the cage. "Ow." It seems as though Trixie had started pulling the carriage while I was focused on reading. Welp back to reading. I flipped the page which just happened to be a table of contents. Chapter 1: Simple Telekinesis, Chapter 2: Barrier Projection. "Don't know how to do that, why not?" I continued reading. Barriers are an essential skill for every magic user. They serve as the first and final defense against a magic assault and even physical. Barriers are one of the very few forms of magic that do not require any cast runes to use. While there are specialties to barriers to counter different attacks, this chapter will go over the basic method to form and stabilize a standard barrier. The forming a standard barrier requires little amount of concentration. In order to form a barrier, channel the magic through your horn, concentrate and condense the magic in a dome. Once the magic has started forming use Star Swirl's Magic condensation method to harden the barrier. Depending on the quality of work done during your use of Star Swirl's method will determine the strength of the barrier. The next step is maintaining and strengthening the barrier after its formation. Once the barrier is set, channel a constant stream of magic into the barrier. This should cause the barrier to visibly condense and its transparency should decrease. Later in this book we will be going over how to create different types and shapes of barriers. Uh, what is the Star Swirl method? Is that some sort of formula like science? It refers to it like it’s common sense. I don’t know it but it won’t be a problem right? I faced my left hand palm side up. I started channeling magic to my palm and imagined a dome on the palm of my hand. Sure enough a miniature silver dome manifested on my palm with ease. "Wh- That was easy!" I imagined the dome floating up and forming into a sphere, and it did just that. I reached out my right hand and touched it. It felt hard and cold, like a metal plate. That's... disappointing? I was expecting it to- As the thought crossed my mind the dome warmed up, visibly brighten, and sent a fuzzy feeling through my hand. It changes properties according to what I think. Is it really that easy? I flipped down until I found a passage about how to make a specialized barrier. The next step to barriers is adjusting its properties. This can make your barrier more resistant to different elements or physical attacks. In order to do this you must understand the different attribute spell runes from chapter 10. Using the right runes in conjunction with the method to form a barrier will cause the barrier to gain resistance to the attribute you cast upon it. That sounds a lot more difficult than what I just did. I decided to test out if I actually did create a ‘specialized barrier’. I created a basic barrier on the bottom of the cage and imagined a small beam of fire shooting at it. A tendril of fire sprouted from my finger and hit the barrier. It lasted a few seconds then the barrier popped and the fire beam hit the bottom of the cage. Five seconds. I then formed another barrier while thinking that it would be fire resistant. Another barrier reappeared on the bottom of the cage. Like the one before this barrier was brighter than an ordinary barrier. I repeated and after ten seconds the barrier popped. So it can last about double the amount of time compared to a basic barrier. This is interesting and all, but where’s the juicy magics? I flipped through the book seeing only the basics, beam magic, shielding, etc. I wanna shoot ice shards or a fireball. Closing the book I looked over to the assortment of other books in Trixie’s collection. From what I saw they were mainly only about showmanship and enhancing the visual quality of spells. There looked to only be two books that showed any promised on advanced magic, one titled “Magic Algorithms: Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns Edition 24.” And the other was “An In-depth Study on the Properties of Unicorn Magic.” Both were out of reach. Fine, I could try coming up with my own advanced magic. It’s not that hard right? Brainstorming time go! I had thought about a fireball and ice shards before, but when visualizing a ball of fire coming out of my hand the feeling didn’t flow outwards. Confused I tried imagining the fire beam again and the same laser came out perfectly fine. Testing out other things showed progress as I made a beam of magic, a beam of ice, and a beam of electricity. But no matter how I imagined it I couldn’t form a ball of fire. It had worked when I lit the balls on fire, but I can’t make a ball of fire from nothing? Do I have to light something on fire first? Instead of running my head into a wall, I decided to sharpen the one magic I couldn’t perfect before. Matter acceleration. Now it sounds plain and simple. Basically it’s just using telekinesis to speed up an already moving object. But that much concentration actually required a lot of my own magic to use. I couldn’t use it before in my shows cause of how exhausted it would leave me afterwards. That sucked too, my plan was to use it on cards and slice things using cards like Gambit. Cool and another magic trick to freshen up my act. But now that I was in this world, I haven’t been as magically exhausted as I usually would. Even after using all that magic. Maybe this world is just more magic-filled than Earth? So I decided to practice this. I levitated a pack of cards that Trixie had laying around inside the carriage and inspected the cards. Fanning the cards out, I could see that they all shared a common pearl white with gold borders theme. The King was a white pony with multi-colored hair, interestingly enough she adorns a very long horn and a set of what looks to be bird wings. The Queen looked to be another pony with a horn and wings, but this time it was pink with a purple, pink, and cream hair color. Next the Jack seemed to be different. This pony had a horn too, but also a stockier build than the others and was wearing a red cadet uniform. It had shades of blue in its hair and was white-bodied. Flipping through the rest of the cards, cards 10 through 2, and they were just a series of ponies in gold armor with blue mohawks. However, the Ace of this deck was actually a set of six ponies of varying colors with that human girl. All of them were huddled together for what looks to be a group photo. Now that I think about it, they looked to be the same group from the polaroid photo on Trixie’s map. Are they important or something? Maybe they worship those with both attributes? I left the topic for another time, I could just ask Trixie. Time to get to business. First was the control. I grabbed a random card and flicked it out of the cage. The card glanced off the ground and slid to a halt. Next was a card enhanced with matter acceleration. I picked another card and imagined it speeding up. Flicking the card afterwards, it flew faster and ricocheted off the ground and onto Trixie’s desk. It wasn’t that much faster than before. Let test something else. For the next hour I experimented with different ways of speeding up the card. What I found out was fascinating about the way magic works. When I had just pictured in my head that the card ‘speeds up’ the card indeed would speed up. However if I gave a more specific instruction then the effect could be changed. I imagined the card going about 30 miles per hour(48 kilometers per hour) and the effect was staggering. The card flew out fast enough to dent the card. Not to mention getting it to fling off into a random direction. Hope Trixie won’t miss that. Then I tried something more complex. I thought about the card leaving my hand and instantly stopping in midair. Then I pictured it shooting upwards at about 10 miles an hour. When I flicked the card, it did just as I had imagined. I would have liked to test more things out but when I heard a sound coming from outside the carriage door I had to get the cards back into her chest. The moment I thought that the remaining cards in my hand and the cards laying about the inside of the carriage sparkled blue and popped out of existence. The next thing I knew another spark soon followed by Trixie’s chest of props and the pack of cards, back inside their box, plopped back to where I had got them. “Alright, Trixie has procured enough supplies to last the three days we need to arrive in Ponyville.” She walked inside with bags of bread, fruit, and vegetables. She slid out a cooler and organized her groceries. “We will be leaving now. The sooner we arrive at Ponyville the better.” “You really have a vendetta against that purple pony huh?” Trixie was silent for a moment before muttering something under her breath. “What was that?” “Nothing.” She closed the cooler harder than it needed to be. She stared at me. ”Want out of that cage?” I was taken back by this question. Why the sudden change of wanting to keep me in the cage? I was skeptic, but that wasn’t going to keep me from getting out of this cramped box. “Hell yeah.”
