Mi Amore woke up first to the signs of dawn. Everything was blurry. She heard a stiff sniff to her left, and looked over at the royal adviser-cum-foalsitter, Kibitz. She let out a yawn, and he turned around.
“So, one of you troublemakers is awake, then.” He said with a cross tone in his voice, his walrus mustache blustering over his mouth.
“What...what happened? We were somewhere in the mountain path last night.”
“An apple farmer from Ponyville found you there. What were you doing out of the palace? What were you even doing that far outside of Canterlot, even?”
“I—we—we wanted to find something to help my brother with casting his magic! You know what happens when he tries!” Kibitz raised a bushy white eyebrow, and fixed his glasses' position on his muzzle.
“You were attacked out there. The night is not a time for free-roaming. Seldom does any pony have business to be out when the sun is down. Especially foals. I don't care if you can take care of yourselves according to your brother. You know the Princess' stance on this. It would make your dead mother turn in her grave to know that you were sharing the soil next to her.
“Don't ever cause her this kind of worry again.” Mi Amore looked down toward the bedsheets.
“But...what if my brother never gets to use magic at all? What kind of alicorn would he be to never be able to wield the power he might have?” Kibitz raised a hoof. He exhaled from his mouth, a deep sigh that animated his mustache again.
“That, my dear, is a problem you should leave to Celestia.”
Mi Amore looked cross with the old unicorn, “On top of everything else she does?!”
“Mi Amore Cadenza,” Kibitz looked ready to lose his temper, but changed his mind as he saw her coil back against the pillow of the bed. “You and Prizmat have not even started schooling yet, so don't go trumpeting to me that you can take part of what Celestia believes is her responsibility. Please. Just focus on today, which will see you into one of the finer primary magic schools of Canterlot. If they can't teach him how to control his power, then I'll believe she'll have given him up to be a lost cause.”
Mi Amore nodded. “Okay.” She looked to her right, and didn't see anyone there. “Where is my brother, anyway?”
“Being told off by Celestia. You probably don't remember everything that happened last night, but he used the Dravanian Mediation when you were attacked.”
Mi Amore bit into her lower lip slightly. “We...we both did.”
“Really? That farmer said he only saw Prizmat do it.” Kibitz stroked his mustache with a hoof, then checked his pocket watch. “Hrm...well, don't tell the Princess. I won't.”
Mi Amore lit up. “Thank you!”
“It's bad enough having to berate the two of you for nearly getting killed in the wild. Go on, let's get you to him.” Mi Amore tried to get out of bed, but flopped onto the floor. She shook her head. Her sight still remained blurry. Kibitz walked over to her. “What is it?”
“I dunno. Everything's still fuzzy.” Kibitz grunted. More nonsense.
“Alright then. I'll just have to walk you there, won't I?”
Celestia's stare when angry was almost as bad as looking directly at the sun itself. Prizmat De Cadenza knew better than to meet it, only to acknowledge that it was bearing down.
“You know what you've done, don't you?” He nodded. “Do you have any idea how afraid I've been finding out that you two were gone?!”
“You can't possibly have been more scared than I was. Or her.”
“I do know.” Celestia's gaze felt to Prizmat like being stuck out in the high noon of summer. She had hoped that, being the more calculating and dangerous of the two, that Prizmat would have more sense than he did. “You were at death's door yourself! Do you think that I am somehow more stupid than you?! You're still just a foal! Don't give me that impression that you think that we are all a law unto ourselves! We also have rules to obey! I had better not catch wind of this kind of recklessness again, or so help me, you will be kept in the dungeons for the rest of your life!” Prizmat nodded, not meeting her eyes.
“I had you two checked up last night to see if you were hurt, and so far the worst of it is that your sister has been turned so nearsighted that she's practically blind!”
“That...might have been my fault. I don't remember too well after I was hurt.”
“You're not injured however. Don't even begin to tell me why. I already know.” Prizmat grimaced. Of course she knew. She watches everywhere she can. She was bound to see us get rid of that monster...
The fire in Celestia's stare faded, but she didn't look any softer for it. Prizmat couldn't get why she didn't like him. Did everypony favor his sister, Mi Amore? Did nopony ever really like him? What was he doing wrong?
“You're going to be tested for entrance at a magic school today. You and Cadence both. I hope that this will help you actually get a grip on your power, which for the past four years has been difficult to put up with. I don't like assigning the guards to clean up after your attempts to write using levitation.”
“I'm sorry.” Celestia's nose flared for a moment.
“If only that were credible. I know you're still a foal, but even foals know when they mean it.”
A deep clearing of a wizened throat brought Celestia's attention up to look at Kibitz and Mi Amore. Prizmat also turned his head.
“I'm...are you okay?” Prizmat asked.
“No, cause I can't see! Everything looks like colors instead! How am I supposed to pass my test?”
“With glasses.” Kibitz gave Mi Amore a dry answer. Celestia walked up to her, and conjured a pair of glasses that looked rather large and round onto her face. They tilted over, lopsided. “Oh, did you have to give her those?”
“Doctor's prescription.” Celestia gave Kibitz a wry grin, trying to stifle a giggle.
“I think you're just messing around, Princess.” Kibitz conjured a fastening strap onto the glasses, and fitted the strap behind Mi Amore's ears. “There. They should stay put with that.”
“Thank you, Kibitz and Celestia!” Prizmat sidled behind Kibitz and walked out of the throne room, toward the palace doors. He moved in such a silence that Celestia didn't notice he had left where he was sitting until he was near the exit.
“Where do you think you're going?!” Celestia called out to Prizmat.
“Not getting held up anymore. Come on, sister. We've got things to do.”
“Don't we need an escort? What if someone tries to do something to us on the way there?” Mi Amore asked her brother. Prizmat sighed.
“I was already of the impression that we were going to be escorted there anyway. I don't think we should be wasting time, do you?” Mi Amore trotted after Prizmat. He didn't care that Celestia was looking at him with the same withering sternness as earlier. They both left the palace, and went out to the main street of Canterlot's inner city.
They did have an escort of four unicorns to meet, which also had twenty unicorn foals with them as well as one earth pony.
“Ah, I was beginning to wonder if you were going to remember that your entrance test is today.” Prizmat looked back at the palace, and shrugged.
“We got held up. Sorry.” The teacher that spoke to the two alicorns looked confused. “Not an excuse, Celestia did keep us for a while.”
“Oh. Well, let's get moving. You two get into the line over here.” The teacher ushered them into the middle of the line, where a white foal with blue mane was in front of them, chatting rather excitedly to an off-orange one with a cream-colored snout and green mane. He pointed out a box of collectible playing cards that was near the top of the orange foal's bag.
“I can't believe that you've got those, too! We need to find some time to meet up, maybe over at your house!”
“I'm...” The orange colt rubbed one foreleg on the other, “I'm an orphan.”
“You are? Oh, maybe the other way around, then? That you could visit me?”
“I'll have to ask the matron about it, but maybe...yeah.”
“I'm--” The white colt was cut off by a call from one of the escorting teachers.
“Alright now! Let's get moving, okay?”
“I'm Shining Armor.” The white colt said to the orange one when they felt they had a free moment in the line waiting to take their test.
“I'm Gaffer. It's what the matron always calls me.”
“Why?” Shining Armor asked, thinking it was a weird name to have, even for an orphan.
“I'm not really sure. She says I'm weird. So...” Gaffer turned to Prizmat and Mi Amore, “What's their story?”
“They came out of the palace, didn't they? I think they're—wait! They're alicorns! They are royalty! This would be a really good place to learn from if they are going to get enrolled here!” Gaffer looked uncomfortably at Prizmat, who was meeting his gaze with deep amethyst eyes.
“What?” Prizmat asked Gaffer.
“I...I feel like I know you from somewhere...and it scares me.” Prizmat cocked his head at an upward angle, still keeping both eyes on Gaffer. Gaffer trembled. He wasn't sure what he had felt, but the sensation carried a twinge of anger in it, despite Prizmat's otherwise expressionless face.
“Your matron's right. You are weird.” Gaffer looked away.
“I'm sorry.” One of the teachers that was judging for the entrance exam walked up to Shining Armor, and told him that he was next.
“I say that a lot. I say it enough to know when it is and isn't meant.” Gaffer looked back up at Prizmat, who was now sitting next to him on the waiting bench. Gaffer had meant to recoil, but didn't. He continued to stare into Prizmat's eyes, which felt like a realm of agony to look into. He couldn't look away, however. He felt anger again, and could tell now where it was coming from. The alicorn foal just next to him.
Gaffer gave an unsteady swallow and then asked, “And?”
“You didn't mean it. I've said it enough that the words feel hollow and without purpose, even when I have meant it. Celestia insists on treating me like rubbish, like I'm not even a foal. She says she knows things about me that would have you fleeing from this place in terror.”
“But the Princess wouldn't disrespect another royal, would she?” Another surge of anger in that mask of a face. Gaffer cringed.
“Wouldn't she? I'm supposed to still be too young to care for myself, and yet she treats me like I'm not even that. She thinks that I'm something dangerous. She's sent me here to learn to control the danger that she thinks I am.”
“Maybe she's right? I mean...when a unicorn's sent to a magic school, isn't it because they're competent enough at it to be dangerous?” Gaffer flinched, expecting more of that quiet viciousness from Prizmat. Nothing. He covered his face with his hooves.
“That's not fear I smell, is it?” Gaffer shook his head, his face still covered, but his eyes bulged wide. I do know him. I've heard those words before. But...how? “You're afraid of something. Is it me? It would be a shame if you answered me and I found out you were lying.”
“No.” Gaffer lowered his hooves. The filly of the pair was gone for her test, but Shining Armor looked at the two of them, in a mix of intrigue and mutual fright. Gaffer sighed, and tried to sum up what little courage he felt he had to finish his answer with. “I'm afraid that I actually do know you. You've said two things that I feel like I've heard once before...”
“Then what is my name?” Gaffer gulped again. He was shaking, not even knowing why the name he uttered came out. Only that it did. Only that the ripple of power that speaking it had become palpable even to the teacher that lead Mi Amore back out of the room. Shining Armor watched her shudder at the sound.
“Aliesair Kallig.” Prizmat looked confused.
“I'm sorry? You're wrong there. I'm-”
“Prizmat De Cadenza? You're next, dear.” He got up off of the stool, and trotted with purpose into the classroom. Shining Armor walked up to Gaffer, and looked slightly amazed.
“You said that name? How did you even manage to not get punished for it?”
“Why? Is it like a swear?” Shining Armor rubbed his lower jaw.
“Well, no. But it's a name that's been put on taboo by the Princess for four years. She keeps reminding everyone on the scryer screens that saying that name is a bad thing to do.”
“Does it have to do with...well, him?” Gaffer nodded toward the classroom. They both felt energy radiating from it. Indistinct shouting in Prizmat's voice could be heard through the door.
Mi Amore gasped, and let out a squeaky “Oh, no!”
“I...I didn't notice anything about him.” BANG. CRACK. GRUMBLE. BOOM. Sounds of thunder emanated from the classroom, and yet the light inside was fading out. A jet of black lightning blasted the window of the door off, and the three foals screamed, covering their faces.
Where it had struck, near the top of the wall, now dark crystals began to grow, exuding an atmosphere of tainted malevolence from them. Gaffer backed away from the formation, watching as it had been creeping toward him. The three foals nodded between each other and ran for the entrance of the magic school, leaving Prizmat and his latest failure to use magic behind.
“Now, seeing as your sister refused to take the test after finding out that this is what it is, I have to ask you. Do you think that dragons deserve to be respected as lives of their own?” Prizmat glared at the teachers assigned to judge his entrance out of the corner of one eye, the other peripherally focused on the faintly golden egg set on top of an adult-sized cart.
“I do. But, if this is the requirement for my entrance, then I'll take the responsibility of hatching and caring for it.” He shut his eyes, and put his focus upon hatching the egg.
No. He heard a voice. I won't come out for someone like you.
“Do it. Hatch. I need to learn how to control my magic.”
Why? You're one of us. You're too young to raise a sibling. You don't even actually care about me. You're only interested in tapping into your power.
“Hatch, damn you!” The aura of Prizmat's spell began to turn black, and sparked with electricity.
“Make him stop. He's doing it wrong.” Prizmat opened his eyes. The irises had changed to a molten orange color, and the whites had become a radiant poisonous green, and even emanated energy of the same color.
“No! I'm going to do this!”
It's an evil power. You shouldn't learn to control that. I heard your name. I know who you are.
“I am Prizmat De Cadenza! Not this Kallig person that I've been called!” The first few jets of black lightning struck the teacher's desk, the student rows, a scryer screen in the top right corner of the classroom, and the back wall of the room. The teachers looked around in fright, as the growing crystals suffocated the lights inside the room, causing it to grow dim. “Now hatch!”
A fifth bolt careened behind him, blasting the window of the door out, and he heard some foals scream. Several more started to fire towards the egg, but bounced off of its shell. Ricocheting off into random directions, the teachers had to duck out of the way, before one of them picked up a heavy book with a levitation spell and smacked Prizmat across the face with it, knocking him out.
“No wonder the Princess warned us to be careful with him. He channels hatred at such a young age.” The stallion that wielded the book spoke first.
“What kind of life has he been leading up in the palace?” Another stallion asked the first.
“I don't know, Mile Scroll. I just hope that it isn't anyone's fault.”
“He said that he was called Kallig? Oh, no. I should have known better than to let that go...” The mare that had ushered the students in looked down at Prizmat, feeling remorse for the colt. The stallion called Mile Scroll picked Prizmat up off of the ground.
“It's going to be very difficult. However, this mess might be salvageable. Classroom and all. We can't admit him after this...stunning display of black magic...but we can perhaps assign a tutor specifically for him.”
“It wouldn't be worth it.” The oldest of the four teachers, at first difficult to tell whether a mare or a stallion except for her voice, ambled over to the other three. “To give him control over his darkness before learning how to use the light would be ill-suited to any of our staff's curriculum. We are, for the most part, experienced in teaching the young ones only the basics of magic, so that they would not be for want of performing the elementary spells of unicorn society.”
“Principal Yaga, Does that mean...?” The eldery mare nodded.
“We cannot teach him. His power is too great to even begin to safely wield. He bears enough control over it while in his instincts of anger, but I shudder to think of how wrong his magic goes when he is not feeling that way. It's too bad to lose any opportunity over something so severe.”
“Then why can't we-” Yaga raised one of her hooves.
“I have already expressed why. He bears control over his magic while he is feeling hatred or rage. If this is true, we have even less reason to admit him: he may be dragon-blooded.” The other teachers looked at Yaga's assuming deduction with wide-eyed fear.
Mile Scroll was the first to recover from the shock. "But...there haven't been any dragon-blooded ponies since the Sealing of Apsu in Alexmanedria! Weren't they all condemned to his prison with him?!"
"Celestia knows." Yaga sagely replied. "Let's take the foals back to their homes."
Author's Note
Notes? Sure, have some Dr. Weird.
"IT BEGIIIIIINS!"
God, I've stayed up almost all night, hacking my lungs out off and on, to write this. I need to go to bed, and I'm going to have either an exhausting afternoon tomorrow, or more time to get into my second chapter. That all depends on my level of company acquired after 4 PM.
That, and I've been (slowly) reading "The Chase", which has me intrigued even if I don't feel very fond of it.
Dragon-blooded. Celestia thought. Well. It comes as very little surprise to me. He did get more of it than Mi Amore. She's practically a pony compared to him. Though---how? Every time I look at him, I keep getting reminded of my old assistant when I was learning magic. The same attitude. The same temper. The same need.
No. I can't give that to him. His father was a dangerous man to trust. Now the only vestiges of the Crystal Empire are the children of Allustria Cadenza. I've learned my lesson with trusting dragons to know the difference between good and evil. I thought he knew. I thought I had done everything to teach him the difference. Perhaps little Mi Amore is right. Perhaps we should stop the practice of magically forced hatching.
Celestia continued to look at Prizmat, actually sorry of her past treatment of him on one side of her. The other side felt vindicated that history does repeat itself. He would not be allowed to use magic. Ever.
Her and Kibitz continued to look between each other, worried that the method used to subdue him might have been too harsh. They both heard a cough, and looked over at the colt, who's eyes were open. They looked normal again. He tapped his head gently with one hoof, and checked his muzzle for if it had been broken. He felt nothing wrong, but where he had been struck still hurt.
"Ow."
"I'm not going to ask you what happened this time." Celestia began.
"That's fine. I'm pretty aware of what I had been doing. I-"
Celestia put a hoof over his mouth. "You were more aware of what you were feeling than what you were doing." She looked into his eyes, but he tried to keep looking away---afraid of what would happen if he met them. Nothing happened. "Prizmat De Cadenza. Look at me. Do I look as beside myself with you as I had been this morning?"
"No. And that's worse. I can't tell if you're going to get mad while my guard is down." She wanted to smile. No...that's a little too sudden of a change for him.
"I promise I'm not going to lose my temper this time. Prizmat. Did you know that you're a part-dragon?" He felt more afraid at this Celestia than the one that he had grown up with.
"Yes. I've known since last night. I didn't want to acknowledge it, but...but that egg did! It said it wasn't going to hatch for me! How am I supposed to learn how to use magic if I can't be trained to use it without getting angry first?"
Celestia sat on the bed next to Prizmat. "I've been thinking about that for years. For now, I'm just going to work with this: don't use magic. I still want you to be educated, though. So I'm going to have you sent to a regular primary school." Celestia turned towards the black-colored foal. "Did you know your sister's got her Cutie Mark now?"
"When did this happen?" Kibitz cleared his throat, checking his watch.
"In a moment, Kibitz." She turned back to Prizmat. "She said it appeared after she berated the teachers for having their test be to hatch a dragon. She said it was cruel to them, to raise them like a pet---like family for years, even---and then let them go when we can't house them any longer. I had one, once. He was a challenge, too---a black dragon."
"Did you have to let him go?" At this, Celestia did smile. Wistful nostalgia played across her face.
"Yes. But not because he had outgrown my home. He had grown a sense of adventure. He wanted to see all of the world, from Ley Wall to Ley Wall." She got up off the bed, and walked towards the bedroom door. "From Concordia, to the City of Gold, to Neighpon. When I look at you, I miss him. I...I even regret what he became."
"Is the world a bad place?"
"No. Let's just say that Discord's imprisoned in stone for many reasons, personal and not."
Gaffer watched the other foals playing together in one of the sitting rooms of the orphanage. He was different from the others. Ever since he had met Prizmat earlier that day, he could feel a wall of isolation between himself and the others that wasn't there before. He looked over his cards, one of the first sets of Hocuspocus: The Get-Together that had been released. He was mulling over which of the three decks he had that he wanted to take, and how he would ask the matron for permission to visit the otherwise well-to-do family that Shining Armor was part of.
Unable to decide, and more of a want to show them off before some baby foal could somehow sneak them into their slobbery mouth, he packed all three decks into his bag, each into a box that he had labeled with a spell that only he could identify them with. He sighed, and walked over to the matron's office. The door was shut. He knocked on it a few times, hoping she was inside.
"Mum?" No answer. He knocked again. "Mum, are you outside?"
"Yes." Gaffer jumped. He landed beside the doorway, while an earth pony mare with a satchel of papers and a unicorn mare opened the door and walked inside. "Give me another five, Gaffer, and I'll be with you then, alright?"
"Yes, Mum."
"He's a brilliant-" The doors shut. Gaffer sat next to them, waiting for his chance to ask the matron about if he could visit one of the other families. He heard a tap on the window next to him. He looked over, wondering who was throwing rocks against it. Instead he saw a brown pegasus colt with a blue mane that was cropped into a short, thick mohawk just outside it.
"Ah! What are you---hang on." Gaffer tried to find the window latch, opening it to let the pegasus in. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd found a family already!"
"Yeah, but I wanted to tell you who that unicorn that came inside with the Mom is! That's one of the school teachers for the school I'm going to be going to! Maybe the Mom's going to enroll you there!"
"Um...Bit? That's not who you think it is. Besides, I'm going to a public school." The pegasus cocked his head slightly, apparently not as crestfallen as Gaffer felt.
"Aw. Well, who knows? There's only one academy in Canterlot, so we'll end up there."
"Yeh. Someday. Bit, I dunno if I want to forget about you, though."
"You don't have to. It's not like I can't visit here, is it?" Gaffer poked at a floorboard.
"Mum doesn't want visitors unless they're on business."
Bit scrunched his snout up. "She's being a snoot isn't she? I never had a problem with making friends outside of here."
"Yeah, well, you're not me! I've got magic, and you can fly! She can't really stop you from flying off to do whatever you please, but there's an anti-magic zone she has someone come out to put around the place so me and the other unicorns can't do that!"
"Are you implying you want to get out?" Bit turned around toward the window.
"Eh, no? I'm just saying that my...well...maybe I don't have any friends except you."
Bit grinned. "If she can't stop me getting out, she can't stop me getting in." Gaffer looked worried. Some of the other pegasi foals were watching the conversation. They were old enough to understand what they were taking about, but looked as if they'd walked in on it halfway through.
"Bit, you'll give the little ones ideas. That's bound to raise Mum's standards of security."
Bit sighed. "Fine. I won't say anymore while we're being watched. Just, uh...stay up a little later, alright? I know where our room is." He flew back out the window, and Gaffer closed it. He looked over at the foals, a morose attempt to intimidate them playing across his face.
"Bug off." They went back down the stairs, and into the sitting room that they were playing in earlier. The doors to the matron's office opened.
"No, I must say that it was a good idea at the time. However...dragons. Ugh, there's one extra job I don't want to deal with. Wish they'd put up a standard test like the public magic schools. Well, good day, then. I've got my enrollment documents to fill out to get this little one in at Gemstone Cut Primary."
Gaffer tried not to let himself look uncomfortable, or groan. Gemstone Cut. Great. Like I'll fit in with the rich kids...
"Come on then, Gaffer. What did you want to ask me?"
"Can I visit someone outside the orphanage?" The matron rubbed her chin.
"Mm...is it another foal?"
"Yes."
"Got parents?" She stopped looking like she was considering it.
"Yes."
"Ah. See if you can find out if they're willing to take you in, then. Don't do it yourself---just ask them if they'd like to. Leave the formalities of it to me if they say yes. Otherwise? Knock yourself out as long as you don't try coming back in at night." Gaffer nodded.
"Thanks, Mum."
"Why, certainly. I'm hard pressed enough with fifteen other foals!" Gaffer grinned as he walked away, though the matron didn't see him smiling.
"Wait, we're going where tomorrow?" Prizmat looked up at Kibitz, and then between the old stallion and his sister.
"Gemstone Cut Primary. Celestia's got different secondary schools for each of you in mind. One that's more magically oriented for Mi Amore, while you will be staying in the public system."
"I bet we have different teachers and subjects to learn even when in the same school, too." Prizmat's ears flattened against his head. A grumpy expression stuck onto his face.
"Is that really a problem?"
"I dunno yet." Prizmat shrugged.
"Well then, stop making the sour faces of stallions my age. It's the old's job to be crusty brass. Celestia thinks you'll make other acquaintances there, anyway." Prizmat's eyes made contact not with Kibitz's, but with his mustache instead, watching it move as he spoke.
That mustache...so mesmerizing that I can't stop thinking about making fun of it... Kibitz cleared his throat.
"Also, I'll have you know, that 'Wilford Brimley' is a stupid name that I reserve Celestia to have the right to call me." Both Mi Amore and Prizmat giggled. "Do you think I enjoy chasing her around when she becomes a cake-destroying missile with a super-sense for every single pastry within 30 miles of Canterlot?!" The two foals fell off of their seats, laughing next to each other. Kibitz grumbled. "Honestly, I think that's why I gave up trying for today. Someone has to hold the reins in this place when she does this nonsense."
"I'm glad you could come over!" Shining Armor stepped aside to let Gaffer in.
"I'm glad I could, too. I kind of wanted to have some more time to talk. Just that, eh, thing that happened at the magic school-"
"I know. That was crazy. I didn't think he was capable of black magic that powerful. My parents are a little disappointed that I didn't pass, but they're going to enroll me in Gemstone Cut. I can learn how to do magic there." Gaffer looked up from his bag. He's...he's going there?! My day just got so much better!
"I already know some. I can levitate small things, and do some other nifty utilities for organizing things." Shining Armor watched as the three boxes in Gaffer's bag lifted out, surrounded by a pale blue aura. "I've got these marked so only I can tell them apart. I know which of these decks is which at first glance even when no pony else does."
"Huh...that could be useful. Could you teach me that spell sometime?"
"It'll have to wait until you can control your casting."
"Aw. Alright. Hey!" Shining Armor darted halfway up the stairs of his home. "Let's go to my room! I have my cards in there, and some other things that I've collected, too!" Gaffer followed Shining Armor upstairs, looking at the photos on the wall as he went up. Gaffer judged that Shining Armor was well-loved by his parents, something rather rare in unicorn families.
Not like the life that I had been pushed out of. Gaffer shook what little memory he kept of his mother out of his head, and continued up the stairs.
"What kept you?"
Gaffer looked back outside Shining Armor's bedroom for a moment. "Oh, the pictures."
Shining Armor blushed. "My birthday last year. They keep putting the newest ones up on the wall by the stairs." Shining Armor went back to looking around inside of a trunk where he kept several boxes of varying size. Gaffer looked around at the room. A foal-sized fluglehorn was on Shining Armor's bed. An assortment of stones sat distributed between adventure books on a low shelf. One that caught his eye was opal-colored, and had a faintly glowing symbol shaped like a staff carved on the inside of it, even though the surface was uninterrupted and smooth.
"Hey, Shining Armor?" He looked up from his digging into his collection of game boxes, and walked next to Gaffer to see what it was. "What's this supposed to be?"
"Oh. I have weird dreams about a different world when I sleep with one of those. That one...that one belongs to a healer called Eclipse. I dunno why, but it feels like we were friends in that world. It confuses me, so I don't do it much. That dark purple one is his, too." Shining Armor pointed out a different one, that was shaped like a roughly cut teardrop, with a symbol of a shooting star inside of it. Gaffer picked it up, and felt a warmth come from it.
"Are they supposed to radiate heat?"
"What?" Shining Armor had the stone placed in his hoof by Gaffer. It didn't feel warm to him. "I'd been wondering about it, because I feel that from some of them, but not all of them. I don't from these two. I do feel it from that one, though." He pointed at a turquoise-colored one with a shield inside of it. "Maybe it's because they belonged to ones who got them."
"That'd be interesting to find out when we're better at magic." Gaffer looked at all the different game boxes around the trunk. "So, what were you looking for?"
"Oh, that's right...I forgot my parents put the Coltari in Dad's parlor. They want me to practice at using that." He pointed at the fluglehorn. "I haven't done anything with it yet."
"Why not?" Gaffer asked.
"I don't know if I'm supposed to be a musician. They think I am, though."
"What do you think you are?" Shining Armor closed his eyes. He looked upset, and pointed at the turquoise stone.
"Every dream I have with that one, I hear my name being spoken. As if...as if I was actually there. So...and I'm not even sure what it means yet...I think I'm supposed to be a protector. I mean, it'd be nice to have some other things to do with my time, but I don't think I'm meant to be a musician."
"Fake it?" Gaffer suggested. "We're only just going to be starting in school tomorrow."
Shining Armor picked up the fluglehorn, and started to blow in it. The first try was one that let out a muted hwoohf. Hwoohf. He kept trying to make a clear horn-like sound from it, and it would always end up quiet, or---on the off-chance that he'd made it loud enough---sounding like a deflating balloon. He didn't hear his dad enter. Only Gaffer noticed the stallion watching.
"Son? Don't try to blow it with your lips shut. That might-" HWOOONK! "-There you go! That's how you use a horn!" Shining Armor set the fluglehorn down.
"Dad?" His father smiled.
"You've forgotten about the books over there." Shining Armor looked at the thin books that were set on top of his pillow. "If you want to practice, you have to know what you're doing."
"I was wondering, though...could I join the royal guard someday?"
"I don't see why you couldn't." His father picked up one of the books on Shining Armor's bed, and sat next to him. "But you're still a bit young to be thinking about that. Don't let it go, though. Just go for it when you get the chance to."
Kallig. The first time it was said in a million years sent a ripple of power that vibrated throughout the cosmos. Katara Fazrek knew what it meant. He was reborn. The heretic had returned to the universe, somewhere. His "Gift" lead to the unification of Orion, of the Set and the An. No longer was there an Empire. No more faces of avarice and control, masquerading as Light and Darkness. At least, not out in the open. We that call ourselves the true Set have been waiting for this. The chance to finally avenge our de-fanged order. The chance to kill him.
The second and third times the name was said were more detectable. Katara knew generally where to hunt for him. Katara wasn't going to alert the others yet. Maybe they too had felt it, and were also planning to act. Or---if they knew that Katara was already on the way---planning to watch. To wait and see whether or not their suspicions were right.
