All the Shining Stars

Chapters

A Daring Escape
A Shocking Discovery
An Adequate Performance
An Unfortunate Encounter

A Daring Escape

Chapter 1

A Daring Escape

I was in a chariot of fire. The white-hot flames licked at the golden gilding with ravenous tongues. The chariot itself was blindingly iridescent, but that didn’t stop me from staring straight ahead at the great Golden Gates with a wild grin spread across my face. Everypony around me was cowering before the sight of me and I loved it. I was more than just powerful.

I was a god.

As I dismounted from the chariot, I searched my mind for the proper spell to break down the Golden Gates, not an easy task. Well, a difficult task for an earth pony, that is. I decided on the most threatening one, a simple blend of earth and fire. As I levitated some stones out from the nearby cliff, I blasted some flames at them, enveloping them in a blaze. The mix of the two elements created a searing hot chunk of rock the size of three gryphons.

“Oh, this will do just nicely.” I said with a wicked glint in my eye. I hurled the burning rock as hard as I could. The men behind the Gates braced for impact, I was laughing maniacally.

The stamp of a hoof on the rough wood of my desk brought me back out of my dream world.

“What do you think you are doing, apprentice!?” The old bearded unicorn stallion was enraged.
“You are supposed to be studying the spells for the ultimate test that you obviously care nothing about, don’t you remember?” he said with a thwack of his hoof on the back of my head. The vein in his forehead was bulging.
“Sorry, Master Starswirl, I-”
“I don’t want to hear it!” the wizard shouted with another stamp of his hoof. “Get back to your studies! I should be ashamed to have you as one of my oh-so-important proteges,” he huffed, trotting back down the long spiral staircase.

I could tell he wasn’t truly angry at me. After all, I was the most successful trainee since Arctic Frost. It was too bad he was dead. I chuckle to myself at the irony of his perish. Killed from frostbite and exposure. When the rescue team had found him, we was but an icicle; even his mane was as frozen as the glacier he had made the mistake of sheltering in. I remember at one point I wanted to blast him with a heat wave to warm him up and revive him in my desperation. He was my only friend.

I shake myself out of distraction once more. I had to study and get my techniques down before sunrise tomorrow. ‘You know what,’ I thought to myself, closing my spellbooks and packing my various scrolls away. ‘I deserve a break. I’ve been studying for the past...’ I pause to look out my window at the sun. ‘Fourteen hours.’ Just as I am about to slide down the railing in my usual dramatic fashion, I realise that Old Swirly probably wouldn’t be too pleased with my escaping of the confines of Canterlot’s spires. Tapping my hoof to my chin, I start devising an escape plan. It is then that I remember that I had a book of utility spells. I fling the spellbook out of the saddlebags on my bed and it lands on the oak desk on the other side of the room. The cover of the book is emblazoned with various symbols. I flip through the pages to the table of contents, finding a wide range of useful spells. Gem finding, wall-phasing, fish baiting- Aha! Slowfall. I examine the spell, and it appears quite easy, even to the point where it could be cast in a total panic.

I close the spellbook after a thorough study of the combination of runes, confident that I could pull off the spell. Taking the stance that the book illustrated, I focused on a mind’s image of a feather, lightly falling to the ground. My horn glew with ethereal energy, casting a subtle pale-yellow light around the room. A flash of light coursed across my body and I felt a thousand times lighter than usual. Mounting the desk, I took an experimental leap to the floor of my room, and sure enough, it took me thrice as long to reach the floor, and there was little impact. Grinning at my fast success of the spell, I cast it one more time, just as to make sure I got the full duration out of it for the drift to the ground far below. I took one glance out the window and consecutively stumbled back, woozy from what I was thinking of doing. I liked the view of everything, but I was never one for heights. Shaking my head, I focused on the task at hand. I had to get out of here or I would go just as crazy as Old Swirly. After taking a deep breath, I drew back a few steps and galloped full-speed towards the window.

Just after taking my leap, I heard the door open. It was Morning Star.
“Hey, Storm Runner, I was just wondering, do you have any-” She looked up just as I pounced out the window and she let out a horrified scream.
“STORM RUNNER!”
“See ya later!” I said, touching my hoof to my forehead in a salute.
Morning Star galloped straight over to the window and saw I was falling much slower than usual.
“Oh, Starswirl is going to kill you!” She said angrily as she backed away from the window.
“Give Swirly my best regards! I’m going out for the night!” I said to myself, laughing lightheartedly at my farewell to the other, more studious unicorn.

I took a moment to look at my surroundings. I had taken an air balloon around the city before, but this was an entirely different experience. It felt as if I was in zero-gravity. I do some flips and tricks, floating down past the towers of Canterlot Castle. I even get a laugh as I drift pass a kissing couple that were by their window. They took a moment to stop and stare at what must have been a dream or something. It was a feeling of freedom. One that I never got when I was stuck inside that stuffy room way in the top of one of the student towers of the castle.

As the ground came into view, I looked for a suitable landing spot. However, I suddenly got the feeling that I gained a few pounds. My face scrunched in confusion.
“That’s weird, I thought you gain weight over a longer period of time...” Then I got a few more pounds heavier. Then a few more. Then a few more.

My eyes widened at the thought of what was happening. The spell was wearing off after all the time wasted floating around aimlessly. I scanned back and forth frantically, trying to find an emergency mattress stand or a random chariot filled with pillows. But then I was out of time. I was plummeting down what was probably the remaining twenty or so feet to the ground. I simply prayed that I wouldn’t break any bones.

I take a heavy landing on what felt like a stall of some sort. I wonder for a moment if it was the emergency mattress store I was hoping for, but that was only until I felt my body plunged into leafy greens. The stall fell apart as I made my crash landing, wood and cloth flying.
“MY CABBAGES!” The startled stall keeper yelled. His mouth was agape, but then he found me put on an enraged expression.
“You’ve ruined my cabbages!” He said, picking one up in his hoof, a slight tear forming in the corner of his eye.
“Look, I can explain, I’m an apprentice of-”
“I wouldn’t care if you were Nightmare Moon herself descending upon me!”
I scramble to my hooves and attempt to awkwardly back out of this situation.
“Look, I’m sorry, I can pay for this!”
“But look what you’ve done to my beautiful greenery!” He said, angrily chucking one at me. Now I start to run.
“Come back here, you murderer!” He shouts at me, throwing his products at me furiously. I think back to the spellbook. There was a wall-phasing spell that I could vaguely remember. I hastily cast a guess as to what the spell was, and sure enough, I ran straight through the wall I was about to run into.

Right into the living room of a family of four.

The mare in the corner was about to yell something at me, but then I heard a thunderous roar.
“STORM RUNNER, WHAT HAVE YOU GOTTEN YOURSELF INTO NOW!?”
I wince at the all too familiar voice of my mentor, helped by the fact that it was probably being broadcast all over the city. I give a deep sigh, apologizing to the family for any surprise I might have caused them and focused on the mental image of my room in the spire. My horn glows with the golden veil once again and I teleport away in a flash of light.

I feel my stomach drop for an instant, the cause of which being the teleportation, and appear once again in my stuffy stone room. Starswirl the Bearded was standing in front of my desk, glaring straight at me. He simply shook his head, levitated the spellbook and a couple scrolls over to me, and lifted me over to my desk. Trotting out and closing the door behind him so hard it nearly came off the hinges, I sat, defeated from my worthless attempt at a night on the town. And so I resumed my studies. “Page 394...” I muttered to myself, shuffling through the pages of the ancient book.

A Shocking Discovery

Chapter 2

A Shocking Discovery

I have no idea why, but I was running. I had to keep running. Why was I running? I had to press on. They were nearly right behind me; I could hear the clattering of hoofs on the cobblestones of the sewer. Suddenly, there was a dead end. No, not a dead end, a row of bars. With enough energy, I could probably force the bars. I focused hard on the bars and my horn started to spark with magic, but it wouldn’t stick. The clattering of the guards’ hooves were getting near. I needed to make my final stand here. I turned around just as they rounded the corner.

I could barely get a proper spell going, my mind was too scattered. It was almost too late. They were just rounding the corner. Electricity suddenly started coursing through my mane and tail. My eyes turned stark white, glowing with pure energy. Now it was definitely too late.
“No, stay away! Please!” I tried to shout to the guards, holding up my hooves to keep them back.

It was way too late.

I shuddered slightly, but then there was a deafening boom and I suddenly burst with shimmering waves of lightning. The three guards’ eyes widened for the split second that they were still alive. I could only watch as they disintegrated into piles of ash and a few leftover bones. The tunnel around me was smashed into piles of smoking, charred rubble, and there was a nearly spherical chamber left from where I was standing previously.

Floating down from my magical outburst, I started to weep openly over the unfortunate deaths of these three guards. These three innocent ponies. I had just killed three other ponies. After a few minutes, I managed to pick myself up and move on, but their deaths would stick in my mind the greatest.

I bolted upright from my bed and I felt strange. Looking down at the damp spots on my bed and pillow, I realised that I had been sweating profusely. I was also a tad nauseous. Ruffling my blue and purple mane a bit, I managed to roll out of bed, hitting the floor with a dull thud. I didn’t even bother to get up, I was still a little bleary from waking up and I would most likely fall down again if I tried. Glancing out the window, I took note of the time. Wait... The test was at 5:00 sharp.
It was about 7:30.

Disregarding my stability, I managed to stumble down the stairs a bit, but then I remembered that I should probably bring my lucky charm. I pulled myself back up the stairs and opened my door, just managing to fall inside. I sat there for a moment and then levitated my charm over. It was a stone of a deep blue hue in the shape of a bolt of lightning. Whenever I looked into it, it appeared almost as if it was swirling with magical energy. It reminded me of my father. After all, he was the one who had given it to me.

Finally ready to go, I remembered the Slowfall spell and decided to have a bit of fun by coasting down the stairs. My horn started to glow, and I flashed white for a moment as I soon felt weightless once again. I took a few steps back, then galloped straight towards the spiral staircase just outside my door, then leaped. A smile grew on my face as I floated easily down the stairs. It wasn’t often that we got many freedoms from the rigorous apprenticeship to Starswirl. I guess it was excusable in some senses, seeing as that each of Old Swirly’s hand-picked students were prophesied to become some of the greatest, most powerful unicorns in history.

Approaching the end of the staircase, I felt the weight setting in again. I sighed as I remembered what this meant. I tumbled down the rest of the stairs, bruising myself up quite a bit, right into breakfast. The table surrounded by my fellow students was a few meters in front of me, and its occupants had stopped talking to look over and stare at me. They slowly started to turn back to their meals, but they were completely silent. I pulled myself to my hooves and trotted over to the table, trying to find the most empty seat available. I found a suitable one and started to move towards it, but Morning Star got up and blocked my path.

“You know, Master Starswirl is pretty angry with you right now. You might want to go talk with him before you eat anything.”

“No thanks, I’m actually kind of hungry right now.” I tried to push my way past her, but she held firm and looked me straight in the eyes.

“You don’t understand-” She moved closer to whisper something in my ear. “He said there was something important he needed to talk to you about. Something involving your parents.”
I stood there, dumbstruck for a moment.

“O-Okay, that actually sounds pretty serious, I should go discuss that with him immediately.” I mouthed a quick thank you to her before galloping straight to Starswirl’s office.

I flung open the door with a quick manipulation spell, slamming against the wall unexpectedly. I peered inside to see papers floating down to the ground and a very, very startled Starswirl.

“Don’t... ever... do that... again...” He said between gasping breaths.

“Heh, sorry Swirly, I guess I’m just excited. I came as soon as Morning Star told me. I thought both my parents were dead.

“Well, we haven’t confirmed anything yet, but...” He flipped through a wooden box on the edge of his desk. He finally found what he was looking for. “We received a letter earlier this morning.”

“Okay, so? What does it have to do with my parents?” I said, my heart pounding in my throat.

“Well this is a very confusing letter. It says-”

“Oh get to the chase already!”

“As you wish. This letter is from your parents, Storm Runner.”
My mouth hung open. I didn’t know exactly what to say. I nearly thought I was about to faint, but I caught myself and closed my mouth manually. It wouldn’t stay shut.

“It’s... from my parents? But they’re dead! A dead pony can’t send a letter! …It’s illegal.”

“Well, take a look for yourself.” He turned the letter over and pushed it towards me. Sure enough, the envelope had my parents names on it in careful handwriting.

Cloud Runner and Spark Blitz.

I stared at the envelope, mouth gaping again. However happy I was, I still had one sneaking suspicion I couldn’t shake off.

“Hey, are you sure this isn’t a fake?”

“That’s exactly what I was about to say to you before you so eagerly interrupted me. It says it’s from your parents, but we can’t be entirely sure that this isn’t some joke that a couple young, foolish colts played on you.”
He had a good point. How could we possibly know if this was the real deal or not?

“Can I read the letter?” I asked cautiously.

“Of course you can. It is addressed to you, anyways.”

“Right.”
I ripped open the top of the envelope, exposing a roughly folded piece of parchment inside. As I slid it out of the envelope, I could hardly hold in my excitement and my hooves started shaking. Starswirl just raised an eyebrow at me.

“Are you going to read the letter or not?”

“Sorry, it’s just that if this really from my presumably dead parents, this could mean that they’re actually alive...”
I unfolded the letter slowly, taking care not to rip it in the slightest.

I gazed at the letter, with my name printed at the top of the paper.

“Dear Storm Runner,” I read out loud. “Our precious child, you have come so far to be where you are right now. We are very proud of you. You need to realize, however, that your power does have its bounds. You must remember not to stretch yourself too far, lest dangerous consequences occur. Come meet us in Gryphus, we will teach you of your full extent.”

I read the letter again. And again. And again. I read it until I had it memorized. I opened my mouth to speak to Starswirl, but he cut in before me.

“I know what you’re about to ask, and no, you can’t just go unknowingly on an adventure of which you don’t know what the outcome could be.”

“But I need to get to Gryphus! My parents could be there!”

“Yes, and a party of bandits could also be waiting just outside the city. It’s just not worth the risk.”

“Yes, it actually is worth the risk! You know I’m the best student since Arctic Frost! I could easily handle myself against some petty thieves! Please Master Starswirl, if these really are my parents, I need to see them...”
He gazed at me with a sad look in his eyes.

“Yes, I know. If I got any clue that my parents were still alive, I would do anything to get them back. Regardless, I need you to stay here at the castle until we can further investigate this mysterious letter. This will be my final say on the matter, no arguments.”

“Okay, Starswirl...” I said, ultimately defeated.

I trotted, head slumped, out the door only to see Morning Star quickly trotting off back towards the table. Curious, I caught up to her.

“Hey, Morning Star, by any chance, were you eavesdropping on us?” I said with my ears perked.

She sighed. “Okay, fine. I was. I’m sorry, I just get curious is all. Listen, I only heard the end of your conversation, and I’ve decided that-” She looks around to make sure nopony was listening in. “I want to help you escape from the school.” She said with an excited grin on her face. She looked at me expectantly, waiting for a response.

“Are you serious?” I questioned with my head cocked to one side.

“Of course I am!”

“But I barely even know you.”

“So? I’d be glad to help you out, especially in a situation as important to somepony as this!”

“So you’re really being sincere...?”

“Yes.” She said resolutely, nodding her head once in emphasis.
She was surprised for a moment as I threw my front legs around her in a hug.

“Oh, thank you so much! You have no idea how important this is to me. This could mean that my parents are still alive...”
Morning Star just smiled back at my joy and gently pulled out of the hug.

“Okay, I think I have a plan as well. Meet me in the library study after sundown, we’ll discuss it then.

“Gotcha! I’ll be there. And really, thank you Morning Star. I’m glad I at least have somepony on my side.”

An Adequate Performance

Chapter 3

An Adequate Performance

I was wielding a massive sword about three full paces long. It was black -- some kind of obsidian-like metal -- and crackling with electricity. I was cutting through guards left and right, but there was only one thought in my mind: I had to rescue her. I whipped my sword back and forth, a bestial flare in my eyes. There was nothing more important than rescuing her right now. I was nearly halfway up the tower now, but how much longer did I really have?

This thought only served to increase my focused rage and I moved with such speed and finesse that the guards started to fall back. My pitch black sword leaving behind jagged streaks of blue must have been intimidating. I could tell that they were broken; the look in their eyes said they wanted to run. I stopped for a moment so as to let them pull back while they had the chance. There had been enough bloodshed today. They, of course, did the smart thing and ran. Except for one.

“Stay back! I swear, I’ll... I’ll...” The guard said with a wavering voice.
“You’ll what?”
“I’ll cut you to ribbons! I was the best swordsman in my class!” He emphasised this by waving his sword pitifully at me.
“Look, don’t make me kill you. Just let me pass and you can live, I just want the prisoner being held here.”
“I can’t let you do that! I was tasked specifically with keeping the prisoner safe.”
I could tell he was going to remain where he stood. I sighed and simply levitated him up and over me.
“Go. Leave my sight before I change my mind.” This seemed to make his decision for him as he slowly stepped backwards down the hallway. I stepped up to the door, breathing out a slight “Finally...” and opened it. To my surprise, though...

The prisoner was gone.

I woke up to the sound of a door shutting loudly.
“If you won’t accept my son as one of your apprentices, then you must be blind to talent!” Shouted an enraged blue unicorn at the aforementioned door.
“The nerve of that ‘All-Powerful Wizard.’ All-Powerful my hoof...” He grumbled to himself.
I shook the drowsiness out of me and trotted up to him.
“Excuse me, were you trying to register your son in this school?”
“Why yes! However could you tell?” He said sarcastically. “That Starswirl wouldn’t know talent if it bit him in the rear!”
“How talented exactly is this son of yours?” I questioned, curiosity getting the best of me.
“Oh you wouldn’t believe some of the stuff he can do! He can move nearly an entire ton of rock! He’s been training all his life for this day.”
“You know, I’ll let you in on a secret: This school doesn’t really teach you much more than you could just study on your own. Although, I do have an alternate idea.”
“Hmm? What do you mean by ‘an alternate idea?’”
“Well, me and one of my fellow trainees were planning on heading out to Gryphus. We heard there was an old unicorn that knew way more advanced forms of magic. Would you possibly consider letting your son come along with us?” He was shaking his head doubtfully before I even finished.
“No, that sounds a bit risky. All the way to Gryphus? That could be dangerous! Not to mention how long he would be away from home!”
“Well could I at least talk to your son and get his verdict?”
“Well, I see no harm in letting you talk to him, but I can’t guarantee that I’ll let him go. He’s just outside the school right now.”
“What’s his name?”
“His full name is Hesther, but I’ve heard his friends just call him Harry for short.”
“That’s a strange name. What made you choose it?”
“Well, he actually arrived on my wife and I’s doorstep one night with a note on top of him, reading ‘Hestia.’ We assumed that was his name, but we thought it was a bit too feminine and so we changed it to Hesther.”
“Huh, strange. Well anyways, thanks!” I said to him, trotting over to the large front doors.

The doors opened up to show an amber colored unicorn sitting on the ground; waiting for the results, no doubt. He had a short orange mane and tail that flared out at the ends and was accented with some yellow on the tips. His cutie mark was two crossed logs on fire surrounded by some stones.

“Hey, are you Hesther?” I said to him. He looked up, but as he moved, his mane seemed to flicker with a faint fire of its own.
“Yeah, that’s my name. Why? Who are you? Are you with the school?” He said excitedly in one breath.
“Okay, okay, okay. Slow down. My name is Storm Runner, and I’m not one of the staff, but I guess I am with the school. I’m one of the apprentices.”
“So what’s going on? Was I accepted?”
I almost felt bad to be the one telling him. I remember how excited I was to hear that I was accepted into the school.
“Well... I might as well tell you the truth. You weren’t accepted into the school-” His eyes cast downward. “But, to be honest, you really don’t need this school. You don’t learn much more out of it than you could in a normal school. Regardless, I have a better idea.”
“Yeah? What is it?” He was excited again. I smiled a bit at his enthusiasm before responding.
“Well, I can’t really tell you everything right now, but come back again by nightfall and I’ll let you in the doors here. We’ll go to the library and then let you in on all the details then. Okay?”
He nodded earnestly to show he understood.
“Great. Remember, meet here at nightfall.”
“Okay, gotcha... Storm Runner was it?”
“Yeah. And Hesther?”
“Oh, that’s such a formal name. Just call me Harry.”
“Alright, Harry. I’ll see you later.” I said, giving him a quick salute before turning to head back inside. The doors opened and Harry’s dad emerged with a sullen expression on his face.
“Come along Harry, we have some things to discuss. You... weren’t accepted into the school-”
“Yeah, I know dad,” Harry interrupted. “Storm Runner here filled me in on that already.” His father looked like he just had an enormous weight lifted off his shoulders.
“Oh. Okay, good. Thanks, Storm Runner.”
“No problem. It was a pleasure meeting your son. You take care now!” I said, waving to them as they trotted away.

Currently, it was only midday, so there was still plenty of time before the meetup. It was then that I remembered the test. I stood for a moment before rushing off to Starswirl’s office to see if I could still take it...

“Okay, Storm Runner, any day now.” Starswirl was standing off to the right of the elemental circle. I was tasked with making an “adequate display” of each of the four elements and an extra spell of my choice. Grinning, I decided that I had made the old stallion wait long enough.
“Alright, alright, hold your horses, I’m getting to it.”
I had decided already that I was going to make a show of it and combine all four of the elements to create something spectacular.

I took a deep breath, preparing for the strain that was about to come on. My horn started to glow with the same pale-yellow aura that I was so familiar with and I drew some water from the south side of the circle. I focused on a combination of a swirling orb of energy and the bone chilling cold of the glaciers far north. As I focused on my spell, the water came floating around me, forming a perfect, hollow sphere. After that, it slowly turned to ice from top to bottom, encasing me in a shell. At this point, I was hovering from the amount of ethereal and static energy being created from the spell.

Grinning slightly at my easy success of the first part of the spell, I started the next part. I focused on the east side of the circle and created some fire out of the heat emanating from it. I took the fire and focused on swirling it around the sphere in a heated wind; just fast enough so it didn’t melt the ice as it hung in the air, and just slow enough so it didn’t just dissipate. I was luckily safe inside my case of ice, so the fire wouldn’t harm me.

Now comes the more difficult parts. I had observed the rocks on the west side of the circle beforehand, and they were too large for what I was about to demonstrate. I had decided to just smash them apart into smaller pieces. I had to focus hard on doing this along with maintaining both the fire and ice as well. I considered myself good at multitasking, but when it came to magic, it got a bit difficult at times. A few of the large boulders were enveloped in my aura and levitated out of the ground. They subsequently smashed on the ground and shattered into slightly smaller chunks. This was definitely one of the hard parts of this demonstration. I repeatedly smashed the rocks into smaller and smaller pieces until each was about the size of an orange.

I was already thanking Celestia that that had gone through without a hitch. Now it would get a bit easier. I just had to swirl them around with the fire, which would be good because I already had swirling in my mind. They flew one by one into the heated blaze around me until they were a storm of probably-lethal stones.

Now came the hardest part. I considered myself especially experienced with lightning, considering I was named after something lightning related. Heck, my cutie mark was a lightning bolt surrounded by a rock, a drop of water, and a spark of fire anyways. Despite all that, this was going to be very tasking on my mind.

Lighting was a strange element. It was associated with both fire and air, but it was very hard to just conjure out of nothing, like normal fire. It also wasn’t naturally available all the time unless you had a pegasus and a storm cloud with you 24/7, so redirection was out of the question. However, I had taken note that all the static generated from the heavy magic around me could probably suffice, it would just need a bit of tweaking. A separated electron here, a connected proton there. I focused hard on making a simple starter. After that, it would catch on to the rest. My mind was starting to hurt at this point.

Finally, I got it. Electricity sparked up in the air around me and took hold of the remainder of the static. Soon, it attached to the rocks surrounding my protective ball of ice and short lighting was sparking off in all different directions. It was truly a magnificent display of magic, even for my own skill level.

I opened my eyes for a moment to see how Old Swirly was holding up and he had smartly put up a protective bubble around him. He doesn’t get impressed very often, but when he did, you could tell quite obviously. He looked pretty impressed.

Satisfied that I had done my part, I went on to my extra spells to end the demo. I cast a protective bubble around myself and used the wall-phasing spell that I had learned from the spellbook the other day. I stepped out of the ice ball and luckily I was protected from the other elements on the way out. While doing all this, my mind was racing, trying to keep up with all the magic I was handling at once. I tried to look as impressive as possible to maybe score some extra points with the sole judge, but I think I had already aced the test anyways.

I walked over and stood next to Starswirl, and then just let all of it fall. The ice bubble shattered on the ground, the rocks, still charged with electrical energy, hit the ground, still sizzling, and to top it all off, I made a big fiery explosion for the icing on the cake. I instantly sat down, an intense migraine coming on from all of the simultaneous magic that I had to focus on.

“So... How did I do?” I asked with a grin on my face, despite the intense pain I was experiencing now. The old stallion had to manually shut his jaw, much like I did when I heard about the letter from my parents.

“You did... adequately. You may remain under my apprenticeship for another five years.” It was so like old Swirly to act unimpressed. I knew that I had just blown his socks off though.
I just smiled back and said, “Thank you, Master Starswirl. Always a pleasure studying under you,” and began the walk back to the grounds. On my way, however, I took notice of a familiar mare galloping back as well.
‘Was that Morning Star again? She sure does like eavesdropping on me. Or... eaveswatching...? Spying. That’s a better word for it.’ I thought to myself. ‘I’ll just ask her about it at the meeting.’

Once I returned to the castle, I just stumbled -- nearly falling asleep -- up the stairs to my room. Once I got in, I just shut the door and windows, plopped down on the bed and took a nice nap, content with the whole day’s happenings.

An Unfortunate Encounter

Chapter 4

An Unfortunate Encounter

As I awoke, I nearly had to force myself to get up and go down the long staircase. I was still exhausted from the test. It was only until I reached the bottom of the stairs that I realized I hadn’t had any dreams. I would be glad if they were gone, but the true cause was probably just pure fatigue pushing me to a state past dreaming. Those dreams I kept having were almost starting to scare me. A lot of them were just about ruthless power and malice. I may be a bit cynical at times, but I wasn’t evil.

Stumbling down the dimly torch-lit hallway to the library, I remembered I was supposed to let Harry in from the front. There were enchantments put on it at night that were essentially a super-powered lock. Once I got to the door, I opened it a bit, just to see that he hadn’t bailed on us. Sure enough, sitting against the wall in a rough linen cloak was Harry.

“Psst! Harry! Quickly, get in here before anypony sees you.” I whisper, beckoning for him to come inside. Harry snuck over to the door and entered the main hall.

“Alright, we have to get to the library now. Just follow me.” I started trotting back down the hall. I turned around to check that he was following me, only to find that he was standing open-mouthed at the room. Hasn’t he even seen the inside of the school yet? Facehoofing, I tug on his cloak a bit with a manipulation spell to get him moving. This seems to get his focus again.

“Sorry, it’s just... I never actually got the chance to come in here. Everything looks so... magical, you could say.”

“Alright, but remember, we have a job to complete here.”

“Okay, got it. Time to focus on the task at hand.”

With that sorted out, we finally walked down the hall and turned into the Great Library. It was called the Great Library because it had the largest collection of books in all of Equestria, and probably the whole of the known world. It was a giant, vaulted chamber with nearly four floors of bookshelves covered in all sorts of magical tomes, scrolls, and spellbooks. There were so many that you could find stacks of books lying on the floor here, or a pile of scrolls there, too.

At the back of the room stood a clearly impatient Morning Star.

“Where have you been? I’ve been sitting here for nearly an hour!”

“Sorry, I took a nap and I guess I slept in a bit.” I said scratching the back of my head absentmindedly.

“Well, as long as you’re here. And who’s that? I haven’t seen him at the school. Is he new? Why is he here?”

“Relax, this is Harry, I met him and his father yesterday.”
I went about explaining the whole incident with waking up and meeting his father, finding out that Harry hadn’t been accepted into the school, telling Harry about their plan, and ending with meeting him at the front gate. Morning Star looked a little relieved.

“Well as long as he doesn’t put us at risk, he can come along.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Harry spoke up. “I won’t slow you down at all. I can also set up a pretty good campsite.”

“Okay, fair enough. Now, I think It’s time I explain the plan to you two.” She had a brilliant glint in her eye. Flipping open her saddlebags that had been set on the table, she takes out an unrolls a map of Canterlot and the surrounding area. Upon closer inspection, it had patrol routes with carefully scribbled times attached to each them.

“I did some thorough snooping through the guards quarters and I found some patrol routes. We’re going to have to plan around these if we’re going to get out of here.”

“Why can’t we just walk out? Wouldn’t they have to let us?” Harry questioned.

“Well, since me and Storm are students, we’re technically supposed to remain on the grounds at all times. That wouldn’t fly well with the guards at the gate. And besides, getting out the ninja way would be much more fun.” She said this with an added grin.

“Okay, I can’t argue with that.”

“Well, have you figured something out? We can’t go out without a solid plan.” I said, bringing us back on topic.

“Why, yes, in fact I have. You see, there is a gap in the patrols right here-” She points her hoof to a street just a few blocks away from the school. “and if we could get through there, we would be free to go through this gate-” She again points to the map at a secondary gate on the side of the walls. “that surprisingly enough, isn’t guarded at night. They really need to fix that...”

“Well let’s hope they don’t fix it tonight. How are we going to get through the gate though? Wouldn’t they still lock it?” I said.

“Remember that wall-phasing spell you learned?”

“Oh yeah, that spell.”

“If you could teach it to us, we could get out the gate that way.”
Harry looked confused.

“Wait, if you know a wall-phasing spell, why couldn’t we just phase through the walls themselves?

“Well pretty much everywhere else on the wall has guards, and the spell only works on thin walls, or in this case, thin gates.” I explained to him.

“Okay, that makes a bit more sense. Well, I’m ready when you two are.”

“Ready!” I said, confident that we could pull this off.

“Just one moment, let me get a couple things...” Morning Star said as she levitated a couple books into her saddlebags.

“Alright, we’ll meet you by the front doors.”
Me and Harry bolted for the doors in our excitement.

A few minutes later, Morning Star emerged from the library. Her bags appeared to have been stuffed with books.

“Why are you bringing so many books?” I asked her.

“Well, you never know when one might need some reading material.” She teetered a bit, off balance from all the “reading material.”

“Here, let me help you with those.” I started to levitate some of the books out of her saddlebags to put them into mine, but she began pulling one of them back.

“N-no, no, not that one...” She said, blushing slightly. “Here, you can take these ones instead.” She brought out a couple of replacement books and put the one she had taken from me back into her bags.

“Ooookaaay... Fine with me.” I said, shrugging it off. It was probably some embarrassing romance novel or something.

“Alright, Now I’m ready.” She looked a bit more stable now.

We all walked to the doors, making sure to check that there wasn’t anypony watching us. Cracking open the door ever so slightly, I scanned the front courtyard; Still no guards.

“Okay, we’re going to need to stay silent from here on until we get out of the city. We can’t risk getting caught.” I cautioned them. They nodded in approval, ready to get going. I opened the door further, just enough so we could slip out. We stepped out into the crisp night air. It was a chilly night, but a clear one nonetheless. The moon was a full one, shining brightly in the sky. I took a moment so as to appraise Celestia’s work. Taking a deep breath, I snuck towards the courtyard, Morning Star and Harry following closely behind.

“I think you should take point, Morning Star, you are the one with the patrol routes, after all.” I whispered back to her.

“Good idea. You two follow my lead.” We both nodded our affirmation.

Continuing along the agreed path, we had next to no trouble. Morning Star’s mane got caught in a bush at one point, but that was fixed in seconds. We had finally reached the alleyway where there weren’t any guards posted and had decided to take a quick break and make sure we knew the rest of the trail. Morning Star had her map out again.

“Okay, it looks like we’re in the clear. If we can just make it to the gate without being noticed, then we should be out in a matter of minutes.” She said in a hushed tone.

“Sounds like a plan. Let’s go,” I said, getting back up. Just as we were preparing to set out again, we heard something.

“...And so I said, ‘Why don’t you just go ahead and do it, then?’ And of course he said that he couldn’t because he was ‘busy.’ That doesn’t make up for anything!”

“What makes you so sure he wasn’t busy? He might have something important going on.”

“So you’re saying that you believe him? I don’t accept on bit of it!”
Morning Star looked at my sidelong with a worried expression. There were two guards on the street just next to us.

“Well, I’ll just stay out of this then.” The guards continued talking. “I can tell that you probably have some grudge with him.”

“Alright, suit yourself.” He took a moment and looked up at the moon. “Hey, we should get headed to the auxiliary gate. It’s almost time for our shift.”

“I hear you on that one. Cap’n can get pretty rough.”

“Psh, you haven’t seen the half of it.”

The guards walked on, continuing to chat, but there was only one thing we were concerned about.

“He said auxiliary gate. Do you think he means the side gate?” I said nervously.

“I think he might have. Let’s hope for the best though. If there are guards posted there, then there’s a big chance we could be spotted.” Morning Star had a worried look in her eyes and both knew our chances of escaping had decreased drastically.

“Well, we can’t just stop here. Let’s keep going.” Harry said determinedly. “There has to be another way.
Morning Star turned towards him. “I went and checked all the walls myself, there’s no other way out unless you both fancy getting caught.”

“Well don’t either of you know some sort of cloaking spell? Long range teleportation? Anything? You two are students of Starswirl the Bearded for Celestia’s sake!” It was obvious he was frustrated with the situation.

“Well I guess there is one thing.” Morning Star recalled.

“What is it?”

“We did learn a couple offensive spells, one of which is a stunning spell. If me and Storm Runner could hit the guards, we could still escape without having to harm anypony.”

“I’m not sure how well that would work out, Starry,” She raised her eyebrow a bit at my nickname for her. “my eyesight isn’t all that good, and I never got any glasses. I’m not sure I’d be able to hit the guard. And besides, what if there’s more than two guards?”
Harry stamped his hoof in frustration, getting a “Shhh!” from Morning Star. “Well can’t you just teach me the spell or something?”

“No, I’m afraid not. We can’t risk getting caught from firing off the spell without hitting any guards.”

“Well Storm, can’t you just borrow Starry’s-” Morning Star sighs at that name again. “Can’t you just borrow her glasses or something?”

“You know, there’s a reason I have glasses in the first place. My vision is probably just as bad if not worse than his.”

“Well can’t you at least just try to hit the guard, Storm?”

“I can give it my all, but I can’t guarantee that I’ll hit him.”

“Well, we have to try.” Harry said, Placing his hoof on my shoulder. I nodded in agreement.

“Well then, what are we waiting for? Let’s go stun some guards.” Morning Star said with a grin on her face. I smiled a bit; she seemed to almost be having fun with this.

The three of us snuck out of the alley, Starry taking point, Harry in the middle, and me bringing up the rear. We couldn’t see the gate just yet, but we were close according to the map. We took it slowly down the street, sticking close to the alleys and keeping a lookout for any more patrols that might be passing by. As soon as we reached the next crossroads, the gate was within view, and sure enough, there were guards sitting atop it.

Luckily, there seemed to be only two; the two that passed by us when we were in the alley. I gave a brief sigh of relief and then realised that this probably wasn’t the best idea. I couldn’t aim worth anything with my eyesight, especially at this range. We were about three hundred feet away from the gate, and we couldn’t really risk getting any closer because there weren’t any buildings to cover us. Morning Star gave some hoof signals, but neither me nor Harry could understand her. She gave an exasperated eye-roll and whispered to us.

“I’m going to go to the other side of the street and take cover so both of us can see our targets better. I’ll take the one on the right, you take the one on the left. Fire on my signal. Got it?” I nodded. “Good.”
She kept low to the ground as she slowly made her way to the other side of the street. She seemed to have a bit more experience with sneaking than I thought. She kept with the shadows well to make sure she wasn’t seen. Once she was close to the other side of the street, she tucked in her head and shoulder and did a graceful roll to the other building.

Once she was in place, she checked to make sure I was ready. I nodded again and her horn started to glow faintly with a light red aura. She raised her hoof, signalling for me to get my spell ready. My horn, too, started to light up with its same pale yellow light and I kept an eye on Starry, getting ready for the signal. She motioned once. I squinted hard at our targets. Twice. Our horns started to glow more brightly. Three times. A golden beam of light shot out of my horn and a rose red beam out of Morning Star’s. Her spell hit the target first, the guard instantly slumping the ground, spear clattering to the cobblestones.

My spell... didn’t do as well. It went flying past the other guards head, giving him a good scare, but not the stun I was hoping for. I fired off another one, hoping that I could hit him on the second go, but I missed. It was too late. He alerted the other guards.

“SOUND THE ALARMS! WE’RE UNDER ATTA-” Was all he could get out before Morning Star blasted him in the side with her spell.

“Wow. That was some aim, Storm Runner.”

“Hey, I told you my aim sucked!”

“Well, we can’t just stand around. No doubt some guards heard that.”
Sure enough, there were already some guards galloping to the origin of the alarm.

“Now you’ve done it Storm.” Morning Star said.

“Hey, we can still get out of here! We just need to get past some of these guards.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Harry said, bolting for the gates.

Just as we were about to get our spells ready, three guards slammed to the ground in front of us. Morning Star had the reflexes to blast one of them with a stun, but then the guards put up defensive barriers.

“Stop right there, criminal scum!” One of the guards said enthusiastically. “We’ve got you surrounded!” He was right. As we glanced behind us, we saw there were five other guards, each with their own defensive spell put up preemptively. We were trapped.

“Excuse me, but could you move? We have somewhere to be.” I said without emotion.

“The only place you need to be is in the stocks. You’re coming with us.” One of the guards said, reaching for me. His hoof hit another barrier, this one coming from me.

“I said move.” I shut my eyes in frustration.

“Ha! You don’t scare me. Now come quietly or I’ll be forced to lock you.”

“That wasn’t a suggestion.” I said, my voice taking on a slightly deeper tone. I opened my eyes, but they were glowing pure white. The guard flinched back a bit.

“A-Alright... Don’t say I didn’t warn you!” He prepared the spell, but as soon as he fired it, it fizzled into static once it got near me.

“Oh, well that’s not very nice.” I said, an evil grin growing on my face. Morning Star elbowed me.

“What are you doing? We’ve been caught, don’t try and resist. It’ll just make things worse.” I shoved her away.

“Don’t touch me!” I growled at her.

“Storm Runner?” She said with a worried tone.

“Now, move.” I said, once again turning to the guards. They said nothing in reply and just readied their spears.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to play with sharp objects?” I said, levitating their spears straight out of their own spells, hurling them over the wall. They just stared at me, shocked.

“Oh, staring is rude, don’t you know?” My mouth curled into a cruel smile. My horn glew with energy and a lightning bolt screeched from the sizzling field around me, hitting one of the guards dead on. He flew backwards, slamming against the wall, giving a crack of his skull against the stones. One of the other guards went to check on him. I turned to look at my companions.

“You two might want to run before you get hurt,” I said with a comically evil tone. All they did was stare at me before they ran for the doors. Morning Star helped Harry phase through before doing so herself. I took that as the go ahead.

“Oh, I hope you don’t expect me to... what was it... come quietly?” I said.
Then I blacked out.