Soul In the Sword

Chapter Three: Wake Up Call

I groaned as I felt consciousness returning to me. My head throbbed with a rather intense migraine, and I felt like I had run a marathon. I could faintly hear someone saying something in the background, but between my massive headache and just having woken up, I couldn't tell what was being said.

I tried to sit up, slowly rising from the ground and crossing my legs. A white hoof placed itself on my leg as I looked to see who was talking to me.

"Celestia?"

Celestia sighed in relief as she saw that I was well enough to sit up and speak, the tenseness in her body practically melting away.

"Oh thank goodness! I don't know what that was, but I'm so sorry I couldn't help. Are you...alright?"

I looked down to the sword that I assumed had landed near me when whatever was happening to me had stopped.

That's odd...I can still feel the emotions coming from the sword like I'm holding it.

"I...I think so. My head hurts, but it's already feeling better."

She smiled softly at me, then glared down at the sword near me.

"I do not know what happened, and it hurts me to have to do this to my deceased daughter's sword, but I don't want anything like this happening again."

My eyes widened as I realized what she was likely planning to do.

Does she want to...destroy the sword?! But what about Sunlight?!

"I'll have to store this somewhere sa-"

"No!" I interrupted her as I reached for the sword that was out of my arm's reach.

My left hand glowed a bright red and the same glow surrounded the sword, and it flew to me, the grip landing perfectly in my hand. I could only stare at the sword that practically rocketed through the air to me.

Did I...do that? Was that magic?!

A sharp burning started to cover my arm, causing me to fall back and yell in pain.

"Liam!"

I rolled on the ground in distress as the burning pain increased into searing agony. I must have third degree burns after something this painful! I could feel Celestia trying to pull the sword from my grip with her magic, but the sword refused to leave my hand. I was screaming in pain.

Oh god, make it stop!

I felt a calming presence in my head. I couldn't hear what was being said, but I could feel the emotions behind them. It was conveying a feeling of 'You are safe. Do not worry.'

After what felt like an eternity, the pain started to recede. I opened my eyes to look at what I thought would be a burned husk of an arm.

What the...

I could only stare in amazement at what happened to my arm. There was no pain anymore, and the arm didn't look too different from before. There was only one major change to it. The giant phoenix tattoo that now covered most of my arm was beautiful. Colored in various shades of red, with each individual feather lined with gold ink. It was...breathtaking.

I looked up to see Celestia's reaction, and she was as stunned and shocked as I was. Her eyes were glued to my arm with a look of awe spread across her face.

"Liam...what is that? What happened?"

I looked back down to the tattoo, and felt warmth spread through my body as I realized who did this.

"A gift. This is a gift from Sunlight Spirals."

Her eyes locked with mine as her face shifted into concern and just a hint of anger.

"What do you mean? Sunlight is..."

She chocked back a sob as she maintained eye contact.

"Sunlight is long dead! How could she have done that to you!?"

I looked down to the sword, and felt reassurance. Like everything would be just fine if I told her the truth.

"Sunlight isn't dead."

I wasn't able to see that darkened glare that she gave me as I said that, but her next words were loud and clear, spoken with absolute authority.

"Explain."

I raised the sword up to get a better look at it, watching as the little light that there was reflected off of its surfaces like stars.

"She's...her soul is trapped in her sword. When the sword knocked me out, I woke in a world of white. She was standing there, with a coat of bright red, a mane of orange, and golden eyes."

Celestia's glare vanished, replaced with a look of shock.

"That is...how she looked..."

She looked down at the cave floor in sadness.

"What else happened? There has to be more to this. How did this happen to her!?"

I could feel more emotions from the sword. Seems Sunlight wants me to tell Celestia exactly what happened.

"Sunlight fell into a trap. She said that those reponsible spoke of using her power against you. That by destroying her body and chaining her soul to her weapon, they thought they would be able to force her magic to obey them."

The alabaster princess' eyes glistened with tears as her face changed into one of pure fury.

"Who did this!? I will destroy them! Tell me!"

I looked at her, and saw the anger, the fury, and the desperation in her eyes. She wanted someone to pay for this.

"Sunlight already killed them."

Her expression didn't change much, but there was a hint of confusion now.

"How!? It would be impossible for her to access her magic and attack them without...a direct link."

As she spoke those last few words, her eyes widened in realization.

"They...tried to pick up the sword in their magic, didn't they?"

I nodded, feeling pride emanating from the sword. Proud of herself, or for Celestia figuring it out, I couldn't tell.

"They all tried to pick up the sword at the same time to try and 'subjugate' her magic, as she put it. Her magic was more than enough to overpower them, and she incinerated them where they stood. I can't imagine it was pleasant."

Celestia snorted and looked away, mumbling under her breath. It almost sounded like she said 'Good.'

She looked back at me with a much gentler gaze than before, seeming almost happy with the small smile on her face.

"Well, there isn't really anything I can do if they are that long dead, I suppose. I'm glad that Sunlight brought them to justice."

Looking down at my left hand, the sword still held in it, Celestia hummed softly as she appeared to be thinking.

"Liam...I can tell from your reaction earlier that your world either doesn't have magic, or if it does, it works very different from ours. Would I be correct in that assumption?"

I looked down to my new tattoo, tracing my eyes over the golden outline and trailing down to the phoenix tail that rested in the center of the back of my hand.

"No...we don't have anything like this where I'm from. This is beyond abnormal for me..."

Humming again, she looked into my eyes and took a small step forward.

"Liam, this might sound a tad odd, but would you...mind if I scanned you for magic?"

I quirked an eyebrow and looked over to the white princess as she was looking into my eyes with a serious expression on her face.

"Uh, sure. I don't know what you will find though, humans don't...we don't have magic."

I looked down at those last few words, not quite believing what I was saying.

If that's the case...what did I do to the sword? What else could it have been? That wasn't Celestia's magic, and it definitely wasn't Sunlight either...

"It shouldn't take more than moment or two, and you might feel a slight tingle, but it won't hurt."

I looked at Celestia as her horn started to glow and a golden light covered my body, almost pulsing in its motion.

"Fire when ready," I chuckled as the odd feeling continued to wash over my body for a moment before Celestia's eyes shot open she fell backwards in shock and surprise. At least, that's what I assumed it was, based on the expression on her face.

"Celestia! Are you okay!?" I ran over to help her up when she tried to get back on her hooves, her legs unsteady and wobbling.

"That's...that's not possible..." She panted as she looked at me in confusion, her eyebrows scrunched in confusion, exertion, and exhaustion.

I can't tell if that's a good thing or not. Oh god, I hope I'm not about to die or explode or something else that would be detrimental to my health!

"Your mana pool...It's immense in size! It is close to rivaling my own! There's...no way..."

Her legs seemed to have steadied themselves as she looked into my eyes with a combination of shock and wonder on her face.

"Uh...Celestia, I don't know what that means. I don't know anything about magic."

She sat down, and patted the space next to her in an inviting gesture. I sat next to her as she put her wing over my back again.

"What that means is simple, Liam. You may not have magic on your world, but you are without a doubt a creature with immense magical potential. I've only seen a magic pool this size a few times in my long life. It doesn't seem possible for something to have a natural mana reserve of that size with no practice."

My eyes widened as she continued her explanation.

That's...there's no way! I'm just a regular guy, there's no way that I could...

I cut off that line of thinking.

What if she's right though? What if...what if she is telling the truth? What if I really can do magic?

"A creature's mana pool, or magical reserve, grows with both age and use. It's like any other muscle, it must be exercised and used repeatedly to gain size, strength, and control. Liam, I am thousands of years old, and I've spent a lot of that time in combat. I pushed myself to my magical limits almost everyday for centuries. Trust me when I say that a creature that is brand new to magic such as you should have a very small magical reserve, but you..."

Her eyes widened as she seemed to realize something.

"You...shouldn't be possible. That would make you somepony with magical potential that is only seen once in several millennia! The only ponies with anywhere near this level of magical potential in the last thousand years would be Starswirl the Bearded, Sunlight Spirals, my current student, and..."

Her expression fell as if she was thinking of something sad and painful.

"And one other..."

I placed my hand on her wither, rubbing it softly to try and comfort her. This was clearly a painful memory. Could it be...another situation similar to Sunlight?

"Are you alright, Celestia?"

She smiled sadly at me as she leaned closer to me, seeming to enjoy the impromptu shoulder rub.

"I'm...I'll be fine. Just sad memories of a student that I failed..."

I looked down a the sword still in my grip.

"Is it...Sunlight?"

She softly shook her head, looking towards the ground.

"No, just...I've only had a few students through the years, and I seem to have failed most of them..."

I reached my arm further and drew her into a soft hug. Her expression changed to one of mild surprise, though she relaxed a moment later and leaned into the hug, gripping me tighter with her wing.

"I'm sure that you did your best, Celestia. I know Sunlight doesn't feel like you've failed her." I said as a rush of feelings from the sword confirmed what I said.

"You might have lived a long life, but you aren't infallible. Everyone makes mistakes. It's part of being huma-"

I rolled my eyes as I quickly corrected myself.

"It's part of being alive. No one is perfect and we can only live and learn from those mistakes."

Celestia was staring at me with a look of surprise. Without warning, she hugged me with both of her fore hooves and gripped me tightly, crying softly.

"Thank...you. It means a lot that...somepony can understand and not...not judge me."

She held me as she cried softly, sniffling every so often as she shook slightly.

I heard a noise from the entrance of the cave.

Oh god, is it more of those timberwolves?!

Voices that sounded like young girls echoed around us, and while I didn't think they would attack us, I wasn't willing to take the chance. I slowly shifted out of the now slack hug, as Celestia had heard the voices too and had loosened her grip. I gripped the sword tightly as I waited for the voices to reach us, and then...deal with the situation accordingly.

I glared at the cave entrance, only to see a small purple unicorn poke her head into the cave entrance.

Her eyes widened as she saw who was sitting next to me. "Princess?"

I shot up from my bed, panting. Frantically, I looked around my room inside the Ponyville library, trying to find the powerful source of magic that I felt just moments before, waking me up from my slumber.

I sighed softly as I levitated the star covered bed sheets off of myself and stepped off of the bed, landing on all four of my purple hooves.

"Was that just a dream?"

I looked over to the corner of the room to see my number one assistant sleeping comfortably in his small bed, a small smile on his face as he mumbled in his sleep.

"Mmmm, Rarity. Give me another hug..."

I chuckled softly. Seems even in his dreams, he's pining for the white unicorn fashionista's affections. Spike had developed a bit of a crush on her since the day we first arrived in Ponyville a little over a week ago. I smiled as I thought back to that day. To the day I met my friends. The day we discovered that we are the wielders of the Elements of Harmony, and the day we saved Princess Luna from her darker side, Nightmare Moon. Her reunion with Princess Celestia was heartwarming. I wiped away a happy tear at the memory and let my horn glow with its usual purple aura, trying to feel out where the strong surge of magic came from.

"Oh no..." I softly whispered to myself as I realized just where the magic was coming from. The same place that we had traveled through to stop Nightmare Moon. The Everfree Forest.

That's not good. I better go gather the girls and investigate.

I giggled and softly clopped my hooves together in excitement.

"I've never felt that kind of magic before. Maybe it's an undiscovered magical artifact or something else that I could study! This could be the discovery of a lifetime!"

I said that last part a bit louder than I intended, and Spike turned in his bed, groaning softly. I waited a moment to see if I had woken him up before he settled back in, a smile on his face again.

"Oh yeah Rarity, just like that..."

I quirked a brow at the baby dragon and slowly walked towards the door to our shared room, more than a little confused about what Spike was saying in his sleep.

What the hay kind of dreams is he having?

I stood at the entrance of the Everfree Forest, waiting for the girls to arrive. I had to wake them up to give them the news that they were needed, and they were none too pleased. Except for Pinkie Pie, but Pinkie is just...Pinkie. That mare could find a way to be happy in any situation.

They needed some time to prepare, so I agreed to meet each of them at the entrance of the forest so that we could find the magical anomaly together. I had sat down next to a tree stump that had been cut down some time before Spike and I first arrived here, with my Element of Magic sitting on my head.

Where are they? They should have been here by now. Wait...is that...

A blue blur with a rainbow contrail was shooting towards me at a rather past pace. It landed roughly near me, kicking up a cloud of dust from the dry ground. I closed my eyes and put my hooves in front of my face to protect me from the dust.

I failed. "Ah...ahchoo!"

I sneezed and looked at the dissipating cloud to see who was the cause of that dust cloud, though I was already pretty sure of who it was.

"Rainbow Dash!"

She looked like she hadn't slept a wink, her rainbow mane messier than usual with dark bags under her eyes and her Element of Loyalty around her neck. The red lightning bolt seemingly symbolizing its wielder's impatience. Rainbow did not look like a happy pony.

"What? I came like you wanted me to. It's not my fault I'm too tired to care about my landing. After all, somepony decided she needed my awesome self here for...whatever the hay you want to do."

I groaned at the cranky mare's response before looking down the road for any sign of the others.

"Rainbow, did you see any of the other girls on your way here?"

Rainbow's eyebrow rose as she gave me an annoyed look.

"Nah, I was too busy trying to fly over here, since you told me that you needed us here as soon as possible. I didn't really pay attention."

Sighing again, I looked at Rainbow again.

Note to self, don't wake Rainbow up at night. She gets cranky.

I looked back at the road, spotting two ponies walking down the road towards us.

"Applejack! Pinkie! Over here!" I called as I waved my hoof, trying to get their attention.

Seems like they already noticed us though, since they were heading right for us.

"Well howdy, Twilight! Not that ah mind bein' woken up early, but mind explainin' exactly wut's goin' on? This is a little earlier than ah'd like."

Applejack yawned, and then smiled. Her Element of Honesty hung from her neck, the orange apple in the middle shining softly in the moonlight.

"Yeah! It was really hard to sneak out of the house without making any noise, because I could have woken up the Cake's foals and then I would have gotten into trouble, and then-"

An orange hoof over Pinkie's muzzle quickly quieted her, though she was still trying to talk as though she hadn't even noticed the hoof holding her mouth shut.

"Mmmmph! Mmm! Mmmhmph!"

"Pinkie, we get it. It's early an' we had ta be quiet, can ya please keep it down?"

Pinkie stopped after hearing AJ's slightly annoyed question, her ears flattening to her head and nodding frantically, causing her Element of Laughter to shake with her frantic movements. The baby blue balloon bouncing beautifully in the bountiful blackness of the night.

Heh...alliteration.

"Thank ya, Pinkie."

Applejack let go of Pinkie's muzzle, revealing a sheepish smile on the hyperactive mare's face.

"Sorry, AJ. I'm just so excited to go on another adventure with my bestest friends in the whole wide world! I felt like I was a super spy, having to be extra sneaky to get out without being detected!" Pinkie bounced around as she said this, her excitement plain for the world to see.

At least she's being quieter than she was before...

Rainbow smirked, looking at Pinkie with an amused expression.

"Pinkie, with the way you pop out of nowhere, I didn't think you would even need to try sneaking."

Pinkie opened her mouth to respond when a voice in the distance spoke first.

"Darlings! There you all are!"

I quickly turned my head to see the new arrivals. A white unicorn and a yellow pegasus were slowly walking down the path to the forest. The white unicorn was wearing a pair of brown saddlebags that had her cutie mark of a trio of blue diamonds emblazoned on it.

"Rarity! Fluttershy! I'm glad that you both could make it!"

"Of course, darling! I'm sorry it took so long for me to get ready, but I simply cannot go into some place like that dreadful forest without looking my best."

Fluttershy waved softly from behind Rarity, hiding behind her pink curtain of a mane.

"Um...hello everypony..."

She was smiling softly as she greeted us. I smiled and looked at the assembled ponies, feeling a warmth spreading in my chest.

These are...my friends.

"Alright, now that everpony is here, I can explain what happened."

I looked at Fluttershy's Element of Kindness, noticing the pink butterfly glistening in the light. Rarity though...

"Wait...Rarity, where is your element?"

Rarity looked surprised for a moment before opening her saddlebags with her magic and levitating her Element of Generosity from inside. A sheepish smile on her face, she put on the necklace holding the purple diamond.

"Oh my, I had almost forgotten! Thank you for reminding me, Twilight."

Okay, good. Everpony is here, and everypony has their Element of Harmony. I really hope we don't need to use these, but...

I shrugged off that line of thinking with a quick shake of my head.

"Okay, now that everypony is here and ready, I'll hopefully be able to explain without any further interruptions."

Rarity had the decency to look embarrassed at that.

"I woke up when I felt a large surge of magic coming from the Everfree Forest. I tried to scan its magical signature, but the only thing I could be sure of was that it was massive in power and felt unlike anything I've ever felt before. This seems to be a new kind of magic."

The wide eyes in the group was evidence that even if they didn't know much about magic, they understood how serious this was. Rainbow Dash just looked bored though, and waved dismissively.

"Oh come on, egghead. How bad could it be? If it's some kind of monster, we can just kick its sorry flank back to where it came from!"

I shook my head at her flippant behavior and leveled a serious look at her.

"Rainbow, I've been studying under Princess Celestia for a long time. I know more about magic than almost any other unicorn, let alone one my age. Not only is it my talent, it's my passion too. For me to not know what this is..."

I looked down as a slight feeling of dread welled up.

"This could be serious. This is something that Princess Celestia might be able to do, given the amount of mana required for such a spell, but I'm unsure if even she could do this."

Rainbow's eyes widened as the implication finally set in.

"Whoa..."

"Yes Rainbow. Whoa. This is a serious issue and we need to treat it as such."

The prismatic mare looked down and sighed.

"Alright, Twi. I'm sorry I wasn't taking this seriously. So what's the plan then?"

I looked to my friends and thought for a moment.

"I...I guess the first step would be finding the source of the anomaly. We need to go into the forest to do that."

A muffled 'eep' came from the timid pegasus.

"Do we...have to? The Everfree Forest isn't safe, even during the day...who knows what could happen to us..."

I smiled softly and trotted over to Fluttershy, placing a hoof on her withers.

"It's okay, Fluttershy. Between my magic and the Elements of Harmony, we shouldn't need to worry."

She looked up at me and smile softly, her expression calming greatly.

"Um...alright. I...I trust you girls..."

"Come on, let's go already! We're wasting time!"

I leveled a look at the blue pegasus.

"Rainbow, I just emphasized how serious this is. We can't rush into this."

She rolled her eyes and gestured to the forest.

"I get it, okay? I'm not an idiot. I believe you, we need to take this seriously, but we can't figure this out if we just sit here all night!"

I looked at the foreboding forest, and gulped. This might be more dangerous than I first thought.

"Alright...let's get going then."

We all entered the dark forest, hoping that nothing would try to make a meal out of us.

So far, so good. We haven't seen anything else alive on our way to the magical anomaly.

Maybe this will be easier than I thought.

We had entered a small meadow that was in the middle of the forest, feeling out of place even for these woods.

"Okay, girls! The strange magic originated from here! Spread out and look around and tell me if you see anything out of place, doesn't matter how big or small."

I got a chorus of acknowledgements from my friends as they went to look through the clearing.

Okay, first things first. I need to see if I can identify just what that magic was. It should be a lot easier now that I'm this close to it.

My horn glowed as I felt for a clearer picture of just what this strange magic is.

That's...odd. It's fading much faster than it should be. It's almost like its decaying at an accelerated rate to try and...

My eyes snapped open as I gasped.

"I was right! This was intentional!"

I heard a stomping of hooves rushing to get to me as my friends quickly approached.

"Twi! Wut happened!?"

"This magic is...whoever cast this spell was a master of their craft. Not only would it take an immense amount of mana to generate a spell of this size and power, but it's being forced to decay faster than it should! There should be a massive amount of ambient mana leftover from such a strong casting, but there isn't! The only way that could happen is if the caster intended to cover their tracks to avoid being found!"

I looked over to my four friends as my eyes widened further.

"This isn't good, girls..."

Wait...four friends?

"Girls...where is Fluttershy?"

Everypony's eyes widened in shock and scanned the clearing in an attempt to find the yellow pegasus pony.

"Ah don't see her! Rainbow, can ya try to get above the trees to-"

Applejack was just off by a loud scream that was coming from deeper into the forest.

"Fluttershy!" we all yelled at once and charged to where the scream came from.

She hadn't strayed far from the clearing. We found her quickly, but something was wrong. She was sitting down with her forehooves over her mouth and tears running down her face.

"Fluttershy! Are you alright!?"

Rainbow Dash ran ahead of us to check on her fillyhood friend and crouched next to her. Fluttershy didn't respond, though we could see that she was shaking as we approached her.

"Fluttershy?"

Rainbow tried again. Fluttershy didn't say anything, but she used a hoof to point behind Rainbow as she shook from a sob.

Turning towards where she was pointing, I couldn't help but feel bile rising in my throat as I gazed upon what spooked Fluttershy so badly. A manticore corpse was laying there, with rotten chunks laying near the body. It was mangled, with bone showing on numerous parts of the body. The head was mauled badly, though we could see the expression of fear that had been frozen on its face as it died.

Oh no...how did I not see that sooner?

The smell hit my nose like the Friendship Express. The stench of rotting meat and...something else filled my nose as I gagged. The others didn't fare much better, gagging and retching. Pinkie' face turned a shade of green that I didn't think was possible as she ran to a nearby bush and...expelled the contents of her stomach.

"She...she didn't...who could do this to another living creature..."

Fluttershy sobbed openly, hugging Rainbow Dash as the blue pegasus tried to hide the sight of the body from her friend by using her body.

"It's okay, Fluttershy. I bet that whatever cast that spell did this too. I'm gonna..."

Rainbow shook in anger as she glanced towards the mutilated and rotting corpse.

"I'm gonna kick its flank!"

I could only stare as Fluttershy suddenly stopped crying, and stood up. The look in her eyes would have been scary on anypony else, but on her...

Fluttershy looked ready to actually hurt something.

"Whatever did this...I won't let them do this again!"

Fluttershy actually raised her voice with her proclamation and the rest of us shared a similar look, determined to stop whatever cast this spell and started killing the wildlife in such a brutal fashion.

I felt another surge of magic coming from somewhere else in the forest as Rarity looked to me with fear in her eyes

"Twilight. You felt that too, right darling?"

I stared at the direction the surge came from and understood her fear.

That was...that wasn't even a casting! That was a projection of their power, a way to throw your own magical weight around to try and intimidate an opponent. It's a pretty common tactic for unicorns in battle, but...

I started shaking slightly as I started to realize just how in over my head I was.

That one surge was stronger than anything I could do! After that massive spell, whatever cast it should be too tired to project a magical aura of that size...

I gulped as I looked to my friends, unnerved by my reaction to what I felt.

"What kind of monster are we chasing..."

We had started moving closer to the source of the second magical surge after I had spent several minutes rooted to the spot, too scared to move. It had been Pinkie who snapped me out of my state, hugging me and telling me that I could believe in my friends.

'We can do it together,' huh?

I looked back at my friends and smiled softly. Despite the fear, I knew I was in the best hooves possible.

That's right...we can do this! Together!

"So Twilight, what was so scary about that second surge?"

I looked beside me to see Rainbow Dash walking beside me, a surprisingly serious look on her face as she stared straight ahead, ears swiveling back and forth to try and detect anything that might be watching us. I couldn't help but shiver as I remembered that overwhelming power.

"That surge was stronger than anything I could do right now. Maybe in a decade or two of magical study, maybe I could match that strength. To make it worse, that wasn't even a spell that I felt. It was pure projection."

"So uh...what exactly does that mean?"

A look of confusion briefly passed over her face before returning to the serious face that she was wearing since we found Fluttershy and that...that body.

"The best comparison I can think of would be...if a pegasus spread their wings in an attempt to look bigger. Its like posturing, trying to scare your opponent, but it's a bit different for unicorns. We project our power outwards in an attempt to scare an opponent off with pure magical power. It's not trying to make ourselves look bigger, it's showing just how much bigger than them we are."

Rainbow looked at me in shock as she realized what I was trying to get across to her.

"It's...that strong?"

I nodded softly as I kept walking, not wanting to stop and give any potential predators a chance to strike.

"And what's weirder, that second magic surge felt nothing like the first...wait...it couldn't be..."

I stopped for a moment at the realization and then continued walking after the shock of the idea wore off. My horn glowed as I tried to analyze the second surge of magic, only to have a third surge happen. The sudden feeling made me wince and almost stop trying to analyze the second surge, but...

This surge is the same as the second, but...it doesn't match the first one! Does that mean that there is more than one of them?!

I picked up the pace as I tried to get to the source of these new surges as soon as I could, no longer concerned about the second source of magic being the same one as the first. I picked up a second source of magic though, and it felt...very familiar. Was that...

"No! Princess Celestia!"

I took off in a dead sprint as I realized that whatever this thing was, my mentor and teacher seemed to be trying to stop it. I had faith in her, but I didn't want to risk her getting hurt. I could hear my friends shouting for me as I ran ahead.

She's too important to me...to all of us!

Another surge of magic matching the weaker of the two unknown magic sources could be felt, though this one felt more like a spell being cast. The energy was bright and warm, feeling almost like fire in the air. The sound of screaming could be heard up ahead as the entrance of a cave could be seen in the distance.

There!

I ran as fast as I could towards the cave, but it was still several minutes before I reached the entrance. I could hear voices inside. One sounded male, but...definitely unfamiliar, and...didn't sound hostile. The other was...Princess Celestia crying? My friends had almost caught up to me, calling for me to slow down, but I barely registered them as I looked at the cave entrance with worry.

I slowly entered the cave, turning a small corner and poking my head around it to see the inside of the cave. Something was inside it, sitting down with crossed back legs. Its blue eyes were glaring at me in...fear?

What is that?

My attention was drawn from the unknown creature and my eyes widened as I looked to the familiar form of my teacher sitting behind the creature and looking towards the entrance with a stern gaze that softened when I called out.

"Princess?"

Author's Note

Third chapter done a lot faster than I thought it would. Jeez, 5.7k words in a day, that's a new record for me by far.

As usual, if you see any errors or glaring problems, comment below! Any constructive criticism is welcome, and I hope you all enjoy!