Author's Note

It has been a while hasn't it? I've had plenty of medical issues and other various problems involving finances. I am fine medically however, so please excuse my lack of posting any new chapters. Happy holidays guys and Happy New Year, I'm not done yet!

The Last Day

As I'm walking through the halls with Obsidian, I think back to what Luna said to me last we met.

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"You have learned how to use basic shadow magic while creating your own type as well. I heard you did well with your martial training using both your sword and unarmed skills, while coupled with magic at some points, to overwhelm your trainers. Now you will have one final task to complete before you leave, though I'm sure Obsidian will help you with it. Go with her to the library in this castle, I hope you brought my gift!" Luna says with a stern look before slithering away into the night.

What a weird tsundere-like Princess.

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I glance down at The Spellviewer in my hand quickly, then return to looking forward. I am greeted by the sight of a guard in front of an ornate glass door that has "Library" engraved across the door. The guard nods at me before opening the door as Obsidian walks in with a dull look. As I walk in I hear the guard mutter something about a "date with Luna". I just grin at the memory of the other night. Obsidian and I find a nice spot close to a window overlooking the statue garden and sit down. Unfortunately the chairs aren't adjusted to my size, so I simply make it larger with a quick spell before realizing it took a lot out of me.

Great.. Must be made out of that magic resistant metal. Whatever, I feel fine. Now, onto why we are here.

"So, what is my last task? I want to start mastering shadow magic as soon as possible." I say with a yawn, resting my head on my arm.

"Luna has informed me that you have learned a lot, but your shadow magic must be watched closely. Echo is your mentor for that type of magic, while I will continue to teach you advanced techniques and provide trials for you to face." Obsidian states in an anxious tone.

Well then... Teases me with a new magic and then says I need to wait. Typical power management, though I don't blame them considering I apparently gave them both a run for their money.

"Didn't answer my question... What's the task?" I reply, obviously dejected.

"Your new task is to look through The Spellviewer and find a new type of magic to learn. There aren't many unsafe magics in that book, so you should be fine with picking whatever suits your alignments." replies Obsidian, tapping the book with her hoof along with flashing me a quick grin.

"Really? A new magic type? Already? Wow, they must think I have the brainpower of a god." I reply with a somewhat overwhelmed tone.

"Yep! You need to be versatile in magic use or else you're wasting your potential. Have you even looked in this book before as yourself? I know I revealed spells using my magical essence." Obsidian asks, opening the book gently.

"No, now that I think about it. I assumed that it just showed possible uses of magic... I thought that if I had the willpower to make it happen, it just would. Then again I suppose it would show me how to use some other kinds that I never would have thought of." I reply with a bit of disappointment towards myself.

"Alright, enough self-deprivation, activate the book and get to looking. I'll be here to answer any questions I can about the various magics you will be looking at." Obsidian states with a disapproving tone.

Right.. Time to learn from my mistakes. Let's see here...

I feed some of my magical essence into the book and watch it flip pages until it lands on basic air magic. Simple spells such as making gusts of wind, creating small barriers and other various easy techniques.

"Huh, stuff I learned long ago." I say while proving my point and using air magic to turn the pages without moving my finger more than a millimeter. "I assume the new stuff is later on, who would've thought that a book about magic would be so boring."

"You have Zecora, Rarity and I to thank for that. Without Rarity grooming your magical essence limit, Zecora teaching you the basics and my intense training, you wouldn't be where you are. Be glad you are from another world and that the Princesses gave you so many opportunities. You aren't the first from another world, just the first of your kind." Obsidian replies with some bitterness.

Another ominous statement made by Obsidian. What's new...

I gradually get to the end of the recommended magic types given to me and finally find a few interesting pages.

Found some new ideas...Full-Body Shapeshifting? I dunno, I don't want to change my whole body if anything. I'd probably end up as a mouse forever somehow, but maybe someday I'll try it out. Negative energy? Looks like it has some... Random chance to explode. Yeah, no. Wait, what's that? Does that say... Blue Magic?

"Obsidian, what's this type of magic here?" I say eagerly, pointing at the page that details Blue Magic.

Obsidian glances over the page and exhales out of her nose with a slight chuckle before replying."Oh, that. Some pony by the name of Lazul Luminar didn't like how long it took to set up shapeshifting and the limited versatility of it. I remember him telling me he'd go off and make his own magic, I guess that idiot finally did something. Seems like it's temporary shapeshifting of certain body parts to gain the abilities they would naturally have."

"Wait, what do you mean naturally have? Like a lizard spitting venom or something? Blue Magic is something that was made up on my world. It was something about taking the abilities from enemies and using them as your own." I ask, thinking back on how animals on my world worked.

"Kind of, though in this world everything is powered by the natural magic in a creature. When a hydra spits water as an attack or a large snake shoots acid at you, it's actually a kind of naturalistic magic. I suppose that through my influence on Lazul and his interest in a better form of shapeshifting, he created this. It's kind of clever, but it seems like he couldn't completely master it according to these records." Obsidian answers, pointing down at the last paragraph.

'Unfortunately, I cannot make any further progress without damaging my own body. I curse the alignments I was assigned at birth, and have no way to perform the rituals needed to gain the ones I desire. The ability to copy the abilities of other creatures is required by taking their spells. One must also be able to control energy efficiently and have the ability to change their physical form if required. Dark, Air and Earth. Three alignments are needed to make this magic I've created work! So much time and thought put into something I cannot even use, how blatantly frustrating! Not only that, but in order to copy a spell from a creature, you need to know when they are casting the spell! Using a spell just to know when is simple enough, but compounded with every other required spell, it's almost impossible! It's as if this world looked upon me and dashed my hopes and dreams purposefully. I suppose I'll settle for teaching air magic to the mages of the future. Perhaps one day some creature can use my theorized magic, hopefully for good intentions.'

"What a coincidence... Lazul my friend, you have given me something I want to learn!" I say with a grin, inspecting the rest of the page.

"Are you serious? You chose this? Jeez, you are one stubborn being. Alright, I'll give you some time. Tell me when you're done studying and want to attempt this technique." Obsidian says while yawning and putting her head down.

Scanning over the pages, I learn that the spells required are the problem. The entries explain that as the mage casting the spell as a whole, you must cast multiple smaller spells in succession. One that would allow one to detect the use of magic, another to analyze the structure of their spell, a third one to capture or copy their spell and finally one to release said spell. The book also goes on to say that copying natural spells cast by animal-like beings can also be copied by adding temporary shapeshifting. An example of this is showing a dragon head being formed as well as the organs required to use a fire-breathing spell.

Seems as if this will take quite a bit of energy out of me, though I can probably find a few shortcuts. I can after all see magical essence, so that should remove the need for that one detection spell. A magical analyze spell is simple enough, but how do I hold the structure or copy of the spell? There's nothing listed here but... I assume you store it in your mind with a spell for easy access? Hmm.... Shapeshifting is going to need to be practiced heavily due to the fact that I can't even imagine turning my body into something else. Believing you can do a spell is one of the main needed attributes to cast the spell in general. Hopefully the analyzing spell can help with just casting it for me.

"Alright, I'm ready!" I say quite loudly.

Obsidian jumps with a start and groans. "You barely took more than a minute or two to look over the pages! Either you're a prodigy or a fool... Or both."

"Yeah, I get it. Let's go!" I say before teleporting us both away to the training room with a snap of my fingers.

Her lack of a surprised expression isn't unexpected. She starts to cast a spell, evident by the deep green that I've become oh so familiar with.

"Alright, so I believe you can see me charging up some sort of spell correct? If so, just use a simple analyzing spell and let it do the work. Don't forget to give it a separate command to store the information though!" Obsidian asks and then advises.

That should be easy enough to do.

I was wrong. After casting the analyzing spell, It did capture what kind of spell was being cast, what the commands were and what alignments it used. It however did not instantly cast the spell, nor keep it anywhere specifically. The instant I gained the knowledge, I lost it in the many other memories of my mind.

After a moment or two of confusion being plastered on my face, Obsidian ceases the casting before speaking. "I assume you didn't have a way to access the spell information correct? The command can only do so much. Making it stay in the forefront of your mind will take many weeks of practice, but maybe you can think of an alternative. After all, you are very imaginative."

A place to store magical information...

I glance around the room, thinking of anything that would be useful in containing magical information.

I could... Make the spell write it on the wall? No, no.... Engrave it in my skin as a tattoo? Nah, would probably do nothing.

I finally rest my eyes on something that has been staring me in the face this whole time. A bag on the floor, full of gems.

"Obsidian, I'd like to try again." I say with some confidence behind my words.

"Alright, look closely! This time, I will actually cast the spell after a few seconds." she replies with a knowing and gleeful smile.

She builds up magical essence in her body which is once again visible to my eyes. I gaze upon the spell and add a new command to the analyzing spell I cast before. This time, it goes by perfectly. The gem in my hand absorbs the information, stored as a number. I simply think the number while feeding the gem magic and watch as her spell takes effect. I watch as bark begins to grow on my hands and creak along my forearm. Tendrils of vines lash out at her from my hand as I thrust it forward. Obsidian gives a really surprised look as her own tendrils come out from her hoof and envelop mine. After a brief moment of useless struggling, the vines power subside and retract into their owners. My arm turns back to normal and I stare in amazement at how my body changed, and how easily it did so.

"I guess that guy just really wasn't fit to use Blue Magic. It suits me quite well, considering I don't feel drained at all. It's almost like it was.. Natural." I say, almost confused at how quickly I mastered Blue Magic.

"Perhaps, that is your talent. You do seem a bit more versatile than others. Such adaptability might be the reason why you so easily copied my spell... You used that gem correct? How did you keep the information?" Obsidian asks, inspecting the gem closely.

Laying the gem in my hand and displaying it, I let her inspect it even closer before replying. "I simply made it keep the information from that spell and have it be called upon when I think a certain thought while feeding it magical essence. The number 'one' is what I assigned to that spell you did, though I had no idea what it was. I suppose I'll have to learn a spell that will categorize and name the spell in the future, but this WAS just a test run."

"Wait, so you're telling me that, on the fly, you made a spell that not only stores information in a viable magical construct but ALSO made it to where you can recast the spell you copied into the gem? Buck, you're one clever being Devan. Pardon my prench." Obsidian says with a dropped jaw.

"I mean, thanks? It was just a quick thought I had... Like I said, it's not perfect. I don't have a perfect memory. Let's say I have over one-hundred spells stored, there's no way I could have each memorized. But, if I have each one given a name and categorized... I can most likely at least remember most of them." I say, lost in thought of the solution to this issue.

"It's been a while since I've seen such a promising apprentice.. Brings sap to my eyes." Obsidian says half-heartedly, brushing her hoof along her eye.

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. I'm soooo amazing. Can we keep going? I need to test the spell's commands." I say in a hurry, grabbing a new gem to start with.

Gearing up for another day of trial and error, I watch as Obsidian starts to charge another spell.

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I watch as the bark recedes back into me. After ten gems of testing, and ten more to fuel my magical essence, I feel exhausted completely. Obsidian isn't visibly tired, but her spells intensities have decreased over time. The gem I now hold has passed the test for my idea of the best organization of spells to store.

I need a better gem... But, this will work. Sorted by Attack, Defense, Utility and Miscellaneous. The vine spell she used was automatically put under 'Attack' and was given the number 'one'. When I thought of the section 'Attack', the small list of numbers with attached names. Number one underneath that section was a move I half-hardheartedly named 'Vine Lash'. It took me ten gems to think of something so simple? Good thing you can alter gems after their first enchantment, at least for simple memory holding. Now I just need to find the perfect gem for such a task. I wish I would have found such an amazing magic technique before I enchanted that cloak! Ah well, i'll find a good gem eventually. I can use this one until then, though it will never hold close to as much as a cut diamond.

Obsidian yawns loudly and walks past me before patting me on the back. "You did well. Almost mastered a new spell and even found a great way to enhance it. I'm sure good old Luminar would be happy with what you've done. Take what you learned, get some rest, and return to Ponyville. Echo will look over your training every week involving Dark Magic, while I will show you wonderful creatures that you might want to steal spells from. Other than that, I was told to tell you to enjoy friendship... And maybe more than that." Obsidian says coyly, winking with a knowing look.

I simply blush slightly with embarrassment underneath her gaze and do as she says.

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Waking up the next morning after another night at the bar in Canterlot, I find myself dehydrated as anyone would be after drinking. I get dressed quickly, yawn and enter the hallways that would lose many a new guest. Fortunately I spent plenty of time here the past few days, and I see a common sight in these halls at this time of the morning. A Princess is walking through the halls, seemingly with conviction and purpose. Celestia walks towards me with a smile and a small patrol of guards before stopping in front of me.

"Hello Devan. How was your last night before you leave?" Celestia asks with the typical regal tone.

I look behind her at the guards, some of which I met the night before, and give them a wink before walking up to her. I get my face almost uncomfortably close to hers and put my left hand on her cheek and another on her long neck. Stroking her neck gently, I whisper in her ear loud enough to for the guards to hear as well. "It would've been so much better with you there Celly."

A tense note rings through the air as the guards shift anxiously and Celestia dons a very confusing face. A small blush appears on it and she clears her throat. "Yes well, I'm sure your foalfriend wouldn't appreciate such words. Though if you ever need my company... Don't be afraid to ask." Celestia replies as she passes me, bumping me gently with her butt teasingly.

I grin at my success at flustering her and give a thumbs up to the guards, each of which look at me like I'm the craziest being in the world. I shrug and follow behind her.

"So, what are the plans for you today?" I ask with a chipper tone.

"I have some meetings today, as well as a ride through the city. The usual, as one would say." replies Celestia in an almost bored tone.

"Being a ruler is so tough, huh? Well, I would love to accompany you on such endeavors but that honestly sounds sickeningly boring. See ya later cake inhaler!" I say with a boorish tone before flitting away with a bit of magic.

Arriving at my destination, I see that Luna is still in bed. I poke her mane gently, wondering how it can look so corporeal. My finger slips through with ease, almost getting enveloped in the swirling darkness that is her mane. I pull it out and shrug before scratching behind her ear gently, which earns me an interesting 'cooing' noise from her. I smile at such a cute sight, and when finished admiring her reaction, I think of the bark pony I've grown to care for dearly and poof away. Strangely enough I end up outside in the garden, with Obsidian staring at the statue of Discord. I stand directly next to her and look up at the statue myself, looking over the features in more detail. It's as scary as the show implies that he is. The mix of so many creatures does cause a chill to go up my spine, mostly because I know he will return.

"So, like this statue? Think he's hot?" I say jokingly.

"No! No... I heard so many bad things about Discord. I know this is him as well, though I feel strange looking at him. Like something isn't right." reponds Obsidian in a very ominous tone. "It's probably my imagination, the elements of harmony put him away. There's no way he would come back, even after one-thousand years."

I nod at her hesitantly before looking back up at the statue one last time before returning to Ponyville.

"Yeah, there's no way he'd ever come back." I say with a bit of dread.