"It's...", the colt stammered frowning. The word he wanted to say stuck in his throat. "It's..."

The older pony stepped out of the water, deliberately keeping his flank hidden again. He grinned and a red aura appeared around his horn as he cast a spell, instantly drying his now clean coat.

"My name is..!"

The young pony couldn't force himself to say his own name, no matter how hard he tried. The word stuck in his throat.

No... he couldn't even THINK his name. There clearly was something wrong here, his now official mentor watched him wrestling with the words, smiling almost as to mock the colt. "Come on. Don't be shy. Just tell me again - I promise I won't forget it this time..."

The colt opened his mouth to speak up, however he failed to bring his name out. "What is going on here!?" He started panicking. How could he have forgotten his own name?

"... unlike you just did."

This sentence hit hard. Harder than the colt could describe. But it also gave away why he couldn't remember. The colt looked at his mentor. "You did this!", he cried out with a mix of fear and amazement.

The accused stallion merely raised a foreleg and pointed his hoof upwards, mumbing something inaudible. An orb of light, not much bigger than an eyeball appeared in his hoof, hovering barely above it.

"Listen carefully boy, since I will only tell you the following once: To cast magic you require the following things: A connection to the primal energies, willpower to cast the desired spell, a sense of self for the emotions to fuel the necessary magic and lastly the most important: The knowledge to shape it into the desired form. Magic is more than just a few tricks, once you know how to use it correctly."

As he spoke the orb began to stretch out - covering parts of the stallions body, forming something almost similar to a white mantle. "Names have power, more than other ponies realize. I deprived you of yours, because it is the main basis for our sense of self."

"But how... WHEN did you do it?For what purpose? Will I have live without a name to call me myself? An unnamed pony like you?", the colt asked in confusion and earned an amused expression.

"Now regretting it?", the older pony asked and made the orb disappeared with a rotating motion of his hoof.

The colt didn't hesitate at replying with a stubborn: "NO! NEVER!"

"Merely making shure you'll accept everything I am going to do from now on without any huge questions, but I'm glad you are taking it so well. Many would fall into despair from losing a part of themselves, it would have been a real shame if you were to chicken out after all the time you invested chasing me.", the stallion stated and checked his cloak with a frown. "Maybe another color?", he seemingly asked himself in thoughts and ignited his horn.

His cloak changed colors, shifting from white to yellow. "No". Then from yellow to red. "No". Then to green, then to a bunch of other colors until he settled on a pitch-black not unlike like his mane with a short: "This will do."

"How...?", the colt wanted to ask again, but was shut up again as his teacher said to him: "Don't fear. I will give your name back to you soon enough, there are merely a few suspicions I want to confirm. How about you think about giving me one until then?"

And with that said, the stallion looked in the sky looking directly in the sun and scowled. "Oh my... so late already? It should be dawn already... I really need to hurry now or the ponies will start noticing that something is up."

The stallions ignited his horn yet again. "How about a little change of scenery?" Not giving the colt time for a reply he started casting the spell.

With a sound like shattering glass they teleported away.

Taking quick gasps the colt was able to control the unpleasant stimulation his stomach gave him. He clutched the region with his left arm, but of course it didn't went away.

They had reappeared on a giant meadow, but the colt felt like puking when they poped into existence on a field full of grass, a few sunflowers and.... white stones?

There really were a lot of overgrown whiteish stones here and there. Their existence felt out of place as they contrasted the seemingly untouched field.

A hoof touched his back and the feeling ebbed away as instantly as the touch ended. He saw his 'master' walking away from him, his gaze hefted on a big pile of white rubble. "No, not big - GIGANTIC", noted the colt as he caught up with the older stallion.

"It's less decayed, that I thought.", the stallion said more to himself, than to the young pony - still staring at the mountain of stones.

"Where are we?", the colt asked and looked around. This whole place seemed like no-man's-land as far as he could tell. Nopony was here in a long time.

"A place that no normal pony can find. Infact you are the first one to see it, since it's destruction."

"So you are implying you are no normal pony then? What did happen to this place and more important why do you know this all?"

The colt saw the face of his master harden. He looked distressed, seemingly ringing with himself to give a sufficient answer. They reached the hill of stones and the older pony stopped, taking a deep breath.

"I am without a doubt not somepony who you could call 'normal'.", was the answer he gave, his eyes still not leaving the pile of whitish rumble.

"Oh is this actually going somewhere this time? I need to get more out of him, before he changes his mind again.", the colt decided and... couldn't move again?

The familiar feeling of beeing glued to the ground indeed was present - not a single muscle wanted to respond to his will. It was as if the other pony was able to read his thoughts. "What kind of magic is this anyway?"

Questions over questions piled up again.

"Not so hasty boy. I'm not done explaining yet. You wanted to know more, right? You'll get to learn much more today than you can handle at your age."

With a short flicker of his horn the stallion teleported to the top of the hill of stones, throning far above his pupil he directed his horn to the sun.

Magical energy began crackling around the stallion, it was as if he stood under electricity. One white spark shot into his horn, quickly followed by a few others, charging his horn with more and more power.

The young pony watched in awe as waves of magical energy washed over him. His hair stood on end, making him look almost like a scared cat, as he started to felt colder second by second. He shivered internally.

One final strike of lightning connected and with it several events were set in motion.

The air was vibrating.

Strong wind started howling around the field, blowing the stallions long black mane wildly around. Then, as if pulled by an allpowerful magnet, the sun began slowly descended downwards. As it was nearing the horizon, it's counterpart the moon rose up to take it's rightful place in the sky instead, bestowing it's pale shine to the world.

"But this shouldn't be possible!", shouted the colt, yet his voice was drowned by the wind. He fell onto his knees, feeling dazed... almost feeble as he watched turning day into night.

Not once in his life did him came the thought, that one single unicorn was able to control the celestial bodies. In the orphanage other ponies began to avoid him, after he tried a simple levitation spell once. At first he didn't understood why they reacted that way. He never tried to harm anypony, but now? Now, he felt what the others probably felt when they watched him using magic - Fear! Fear from somepony more powerful.

Despite the warning he had revieved, the colt now started having concerns about the whole ordeal. Concerns about him beeing not able to keep up... and the power he would gain, if were able to.

"NO! I would never give into..."

His thoughts were disrupted, when he noticed the look the towering pony gave him from above. Blue eyes, devoid of any kind of feelings met his yet again. The stallion stepped forwards and started sliding downwards, stopping right in front of his 'pupil'.

"You also should know -", the nameless pony stated, narrowing his eyes. " - it would be really easy for me to kill you."

The stallion inched slowly closer, his horn still flickering with a little magic. The colt gulped and tensed as he saw the older ponies hoof moving.

'Zap'

Falling onto his butt, the young pony realized his body was freed from the shackles again.

"So. I think that's enough for today, right Star Swirl?"

There was strong knocking on the door and Star Swirl dropped his writing feather out of his telekinetic grip. It fell on the floor, spilling a bit of ink on the wooden planks.

"Star Swirl. OI! Star Swirl! OPEN UP! We have problems", Rockhoof's rough voice yelled to him from outside his private study.

The knocking continued, getting more violent with each intervall.

Star Swirl the Bearded glanced at the door. He saw it bending, but still holding perfectly up against the brute force that Rockhoof used to hammer at the barrier between them. Star Swirl knew, if the whole room wasn't enchanted to be Rockhoof-proof, then the mentioned Rockhoof would have easily crushed the door and/or the wall... again.

Starswirl who hated disruptions while working sighed. He wanted to document about the spell he almost finished experimenting on, already considering it one of his greatest breakthroughs he would ever have. His attention shifted to the little transparent crystal he currently clutched in his hoof.

"The sentient library. An object capable of storing spells, knowledge and most important: magic.", he smiled, ignoring Rockhoofs yells.

"Let's see if it works."

He placed the crystal on his desk, next to his personal spell book. His magic pulled out a curved dagger from under his mantle. The old pony mentally prepared for a few seconds, scratching his grey white beard.

"From one to another, another to one. A mark of one's destiny singled out alone, fulfilled."

His words were chosen with one purpose in mind. His Master had taught him the power of words in this world. The power of names in particular.

"If you learn the name you can describe something, if you can describe something you can understand it and once you can understand it you will be able to control it.", were the last piece of advice he got from him, right before he left. Leaving the natural balance of Equestria in his hoofs... until he passed that responsibility to the two Alicorn sisters, still leaving him and the other pillars with other important tasks.

With this thought in mind he cut into his wrist. It burned more than he expected, but at least the cut was deep enough. Blood immediately started flowing out of the wound onto the stone. A few drops fell on his book, but Star Swirl didn't care about any stains on it. Like almost every of his belongings this book was enchanted against any kind of deterioration. Nothing, not even time itself couldn't destroy his book. Nothing, except four certain ponies.

The bloodsoaked crystal was shining in a bright red, drinking the blood he provided. It started floating and Star Swirl used that time to patch his wound.

He wasn't even hearing the noise Rockhoof was making anymore, his focus was completely on his spell. It had to succeed, he had spent years gathering the information needed, but time wasn't on his side.

The pony he gave a name many, many years ago would reach his goal faster than he his. He couldn't let that happen.

Starswirl watched in horror as the stone fell to the ground, regaining his clear state.

"A complete and utter failure, yet again.", the bearded pony sighed and threw the gem at the door, unlocking it. Rockhoof fell in his room with a paniced look in the eyes. Strongly panting he yelled:" We have problem!"

"HEY! Just because I don't feel pain, it doesn't mean you can throw me, have some respect towards your masterpiece!", it 'yelled' at him with it's high female 'voice'.

"SILENCE!", hissed back mentall. He had to deal with Rockhoof now, his frustration towards the spell would have to come later. He would finish the spell of ascension at all costs.

Still panting, Rockhoof could only mutter: "Stygian."

Author's Note

Today this story reached it's 1st year on Fimfiction.

Yay?

I am dissapointed in the infrequent updates, since I would have other stories to tell, but can't bring myself to write something different, when I already have a pretty long project unfinished.

I'm also debating to change the rating from M to T, since the blood and death seems pretty harmless compared to other stories. Your thoughts?