New Light

Everything seemed to go silent as Kindtalker tried to process the information she just heard; but she didn’t have the time as she noticed a bright white light flashing next to her, sign of a teleportation. She knew the signature aura of her master as she understood he didn’t want to do anything there anymore for the time being; she did get angry each time he would do that, but she kept quiet: everypony around her was tired to death, they didn’t need that anger right now.

She silently stared at the place her master was moments ago, just next to her; her first thought was: what has gotten into him? It wasn’t clear – no, rather it didn’t make sense. Why would he suddenly decide to tell her something he didn’t want just minutes ago? She continued to think as she grabbed a small bit of grass to chew on during her reflection; she would always do that whenever she had the occasion, even though she doesn’t realize it until she notices the grass paste unpleasantly formed in her mouth. Her reflections would end after that point.

Starswril wasn’t always clear; he considered Kindtalker as a daughter, but every parent has to keep secrets after all. Right? She knew he wasn’t the kind of pony who would form friendships with anypony he sees across the street – in fact she doesn’t think he really has any friends other than herself, and Clover the Clever, who was far away right now. But even to her, his magical experiences were kept as secret as possible, until the experience itself began, but she didn’t see it as a lack of confidence in her, but rather as a safety measure, so these don’t fall until the control of unwanted forces.

But this was a first; and she didn’t know what to make of it. She then realized that it might actually be really simple: it might just be really dangerous, and Starswril knows it, to the point where he has to prepare her for the upcoming events. Was it too much thinking? Perhaps, she thought; but she’ll make sure he’ll keep his word now.

After chewing for some seconds and spitting the dreaded paste in her mouth, she turned to see the previously emotionless pony with his blank eyes know turning his eyes left and right until his gaze met the one other pony who was conscious other than Kindtalker. She could see them, but their details didn’t matter to her – not that they were far or that they were invisible, she just didn’t care enough about how they look; she only cared about the way their muscles twitch, and their now white eyes.

Every unicorn who had to go through this process looked now the same to her; she didn’t have any eyesight problem, it was on the contrary excellent. But after witnessing so many different ponies having to go through this? Might as well putting mannequins to customize freely; she knew it would look like one who had done it anyway.

The know conscious pony began to suddenly sob and cry, not as intensely as during the ritual, but it was as heartbreaking to hear ; sorrow, sadness… and regret. Just like how a foal cries when they’re scolded by their parents for some mistake, Kindtalker could hear the honest cries of somepony she didn’t know, regretting the decision he just made; was it because he lost his magic? Was it the pain that somehow made its way back to his organism? Or maybe was it that, despite doing what he felt was the right thing to do, for every living pony – heck, every living thing on this planet- , he felt torn to shreds, contemplating the injustice of the situation. Not all of them are ready for it, after all.

But her thoughts were soon directed at the two unconscious ponies; somepony had to take care of them, might as well be her. She approached them, they were quiet close to each other; and though she didn’t register any detail of their body, she could tell they were both females silently sleeping on the ground. The one on her left didn’t look to have any problems other than an unnatural position that hurt Kindtalker’s neck just by looking at her. Gosh, let me fix that; how can she breath like that?

It was really the one on the right that was upsetting her; needless to say, she never really got used to this kind of sight, it wasn’t really common either, maybe occurring once or twice a month. She slowly lifted the pony sleeping in the blanket she conjured like a sleeping bag, as a dark green aura was glowing around her horn.

She thought for a bit before the floating pony seemed to flash, and after a fraction of a second she appeared again on the ground, the blanket nowhere to be seen, and now without an ounce of bodily fluids on her. The blanket itself was a magical temporary invocation; she just made it disappear to regain the tiny bit of magical energy she used to make it appear, adding it to another small amount to perform the cleaning spell.

While I’m at it, let’s find a place for these two to sleep. A quill and a small scroll appeared in front of her, being teleported from somewhere in the castle; she began to write the same usual message when she had to deal with unconscious ponies she didn’t know: teleporting them to a friend’s tavern, asking him to let them sleep as a way to thank them for their achievement. They would find their way home afterwards, she always thought. Going through that process, she then turned away, finally being able to go home on her own.

Tomorrow is another day.

It was 08:23 in the morning, and the Sun was finally up in the sky by that time of the year; it was the middle of winter, the days were getting shorter, and the nights longer. Starswril liked a good night of sleep before raising the Sun, so it bothered him whenever he had to do it after a short night because he studied all night: he would feel less competent than usual in these conditions; that morning was one of these infuriating ones. He would always teleport back to his office after completing the task, but in this kind of morning, he would walk to it, too tired to do any spell for the moment.

As he arrived to his office he already found the door open; this would usually surprise and upset him, but not this time, as he expected that to happen this time. He entered slowly and greeted Kindtalker with a simple nod of his head, noticing the two cups of coffee put on the desk. She returned the silent greeting the same way, as he sat down next to her and took the coffee to his lips; it was burning hot, but at least, it woke him up. The room grew silent, only filled with the noises of drinking and the small sound of cups being put on the table then levitated again. During all of that Kindtalker eyed her teacher, as he kept drinking looking at whatever could be found on the wall in front of him.

“Let’s cut the crap already; what did you want to talk about?”, she said, not wanting to sound mean but impatient.

Her question was greeted by more silence; Starswril didn’t really mind his student’s familiarity, he was just collecting his thoughts while finishing his coffee. After drinking the last drop, he finally looked at her, and spoke:

“Well good day to you too, Kindtalker; I’m happy you’re finally here”

“I was here before you, you know that, right?”, she answered, raising an elbow and crossing her hooves. “You may be tired, but neither of us have all the day, right? So, let’s talk.”

As she said that, a flying object came crashing to the table, resulting in both glasses falling near to the ground before being caught be Starswril’s levitation spell, despite the fact that he was caught by surprise. He immediately began looking at his disciple with daggers in his eyes, until he noticed the crystal from the day before being taken out of the rag it was hidden in by Kindtalker’s hasty hooves.

The solid she was manipulating was chaotic in its form; it wasn’t a perfect cube or a perfect pyramid, nor was it a smooth sphere. One would usually describe it as just spikes of weird, colorless crystal being held together by a fragile microscopic structure, the kind you would expect to find in any cavern you choose to mine in – or have an unfortunate meeting with diamond dogs. However , one would also notice the change of color the crystal was experiencing as Kindtalker held it in her aura as she levitated it: as if adopting that aura’s taint .

Without letting him time to speak, she continued:

“This, right here. What the hec- the hell is it, tell me”, she said, rubbing it with her hoof. “I can definitely sense something’s fishy with it, or else you wouldn’t hide it. When I was lifting it, my magic felt weird; I felt weird, like a part of me went to the crystal, and then came back, magically, no pun intended. I mean, that’s what happened, right?” She held it closer to his face before adding: “What the heck is this, and how did you get your old hooves on something so… weird? … and what do you intend to do with it?”

Her look was frenetic and her breath ragging, and as she looked at her master looking for answer, she could see his amused , worried, and understanding look; it was a complex expression to read, one would display when not knowing what to really answer.

He thought a bit about it; he was beginning to regret that promise that he made to her and thought about trying to convince her to forget about all of it, and putting these words under the responsibility of his tired state back then. Who am I kidding? I’m too deep in this mess, she’ll never let it go.

“Well, you asked for it, young one; prepare yourself for a lot, and I mean a lot of exposition”, he said as he looked at the crystal, which was losing its color now that he was free of Kindtalker’s levitation spell. “Before you I had another great student of magic; she was a lot more polite, though. She learned every word I ever wrote on any sheet of paper, and tried to add her own touch to it. You’re kind of different, you know that? You follow your instinct a lot more…”

“Yeah, get to the point already!”

“Alright, fine! You already met her, it was Clover the Clever; she really made me proud, you know? She founded Equestria back with her two friends, Smart Cookie and Private Pansy. She’s earned my trust that day, so I stopped treating her like a apprentice, and set her off as an accomplished student. From that day, she wanders to other lands to try to rally them to our new Equestria; and from time to time, she sends me something she might think is magical, like a giant pot, a manticore’s tooth, or-“

“A magical crystal which can suck up your soul? Wow, you must have been harsh to her when she was learning”, interrupted him Kindtalker, sticking out her tongue. Starswril ignored her and continued.

“This magical artefact is more complex than that; if I had to guess, I would say it might be a really ancient object; dating from way before us ponies, possibly even from the alicornes’ age”, he answered, now beginning to inspect the object in a more tactile way, as if his words fascinated him too, as if he was learning that as the same time he said it.

“She came back with it four years ago; I remember what she said: ‘ When I found this, it was like whenever I tried to do anything magical to it: levitate it , blast it, heck, even teleport it, this thing would try to keep that power to itself, but fortunately, it never could really. I don’t know what this thing is, but you need to be careful with it; I think that if you put a lot of thought to it, you would be able to imbue it with any kind of magic, like the ones you already use for your dimensional experiments. I just suspect this to a lot more efficient’ ”

Starswril went silent for a small moment, looking as his student seemed to drink every word that was coming out of his mouth, and putting a lot of thought to it: for now she’s stopped her usual playful demeanor to replace it with a lot more serious and expert one: a talented and powerful mage’s attention. They were looking at each one, each expecting somepony would take the initiative to talk; she broke the silence:

“Soooo… it was trying to adapt, that’s what you mean? Take the magical ability I was using on it to keep it for itself?” She thought a bit about it, then stared at the crystal. “It looks like those minerals you can find in some cracks and caves, what is it called again? … Quartz! Yes, that’s it; that thing can store a bit of energy, right? Sooo is this like magical quartz?”

“Well I don’t know about its true nature, but if you want to call it that, I won’t object. Might as well simplify things by calling it that”, he answered, yawning.

Kindtalker listened carefully, still examining the said object. It wasn’t mythical, no legends – that she knew, and she knew a lot- talk about anything like that. Sure, there are a lot of crystals, but they’re shaped perfectly and all, not like this thing. She thought a little bit more about it: who knows what kind of wonders exist out there.She continued:

“So if I understand, its primary task isn’t to hold raw power, but properties, right? Gosh, this could be really dangerous if used poorly…” She looked at him, then added: “I’m pretty sure I know what you want to use it for, but I want you to say it.”

Her look was insisting and put an unexpected pression on Starswril. If she knows it, why do I even need to reexplain?

“Clover didn’t really have any use for these kind of artefacts; she’s more about magic of friendship and whatnot”, he said , slightly shaking his head. “But the second I heard her explanation, I knew just what its purpose must be. And if I succeed...”

“Wait wait wait; I’ve got a word in this, right?”, interrupted him his student. She looked at the tapestry on the wall just next to them, dominating the desk. On it could be seen many stars with their name written in ponish , as well as two dominating astral bodies: a giant white flaming orb, as well as a smaller and rockier blue one. “If you intent on using the crystal to rise the Sun and Moon, let me tell you that I really doubt it’s going to work.”

Seeing the interrogatory look of her master, she continued: “Look at us; each time we need five random unicorns to help you with that mission: we’ll have to refill that same thing with the same amount of power each time, right? Nothing would really change!”

“Magic isn’t always about raw power. Me and five random unicorns can move the Sun and Moon, using not raw power, but the special magic proper to each celestial body. Why do they lose their magic? Well, what if it’s not a question of “power”, but a question of “order”? What if we’re simply not supposed to use these types of magic, to the point that magic kind of punishes the ones who do use it by taking their magic away?”

Kindtalker looked at him stunned, preparing herself to point how impossibly silly that sounds; but she was interrupted again: “now before you say anything, I thought it was stupid too; magic, deciding like a sentient creature? I thought it was boringly implausible... then I nearly stopped myself , you know why? This is magic we’re talking about! Not even me can pretend to know the extent of its effects on us living creatures. This entire planet is magical; why would my theory be so impossible?”

He closed his eyes as he finished these last words. Commission between unicorns and members of the two other pony species could sometimes be heard in the streets, at any time of the day for any possible reasons. Some ponies tried to make unicorns feel guilty and calling them “privileged” was considered soft now, as new racially insulting terms could be heard more and more often: the lasting fire from the conflict between the three pony tribes before their union years ago lasted. And yet a lot of us sacrifice their magic for the good of all ponykind; but nopony mentions that… what a great bunch of assholes.

After some seconds of slow breathing, he opened his eyes again, witnessing now his student in the middle of her thoughts; he could almost see the mechanical part racing in her brain as she thinks about it from every angle she can think of, may it be in terms of safety, efficiency, then difficulty. She was methodical at being against his will sometimes, he quietly joked to himself.

“What about Clover? Isn’t she around to help you?”, she finally said, curious. He shrugged a bit, hating that the answer was negative.

“She’s more concerned about the magic of friendship, or so she calls it. She’s travelling from land to land to also try to teach that to every race she encounters; I swear one day everypony will only have that in their mouths, and true magic will disappear…” Kindtalker was about to answer to that when he interrupted her, adding: “And you can’t help me, I’m sorry. I don’t know how dangerous the experiment may be, and you have to be there for your little baby filly… what’s her name again?”

“Don’t try to turn this discussion around so I talk about my family, and you’d be a great fool if you think that I’m about to listen to whatever orders you try to give me! “, she suddenly snapped, taking Starswril by surprise. She looked at him, panting, then added : “Sorry for yelling, but come on! I accepted the fact that I couldn’t help you with rising the sun and such, but this? This is so important to you, you can’t tell me to back down!”

“But what if someone happens to you?”, said her master while rising his voice. “If something happens to you, it’s on me! Do you understand that I’m not ready to deal with that, if something happens to you?”

Both went quiet that moment, panting while staring in each other’s eyes, scanning their soul; it was quiet an awkward moment for them both, but they expected it to happen at some point. It was heavy, because Starswril did consider asking her for help: she was talented, thought quick about dangerous situations, and handled her magic brilliantly, even better than Clover, but he didn’t tell her yet. He wanted to ask; but the thought that the experiment might go wrong, especially considering the topic at hoof, weighted on his thoughts – he was ready to die if he has to, but he didn’t want to get her involved.

Kindtalker seemed to read her master’s mind, as she leaned slowly towards him, patting him gently on the hoof, saying:

“From the day I became your personal student, I accepted every possibly dangerous situation I could be put in. It wasn’t easy in the beginning, I mean, every morning I misspelled a word to you counted as a dangerous situation to me… but I learned to suck it up, because I didn’t want to disappoint you – and that changed me, made me a risk taker.

I’m not saying this as an excuse to get away from my little family- who would be ready to throw their lives away for that kind of crap? I know I’m not , because you know why? This shit IS going to succeed; it’s time I finally helped you for everything you’ve done for me.”

Starswril stayed silent after she said that, so she added: “ Plus, you didn’t expect me to work all that hard to get where I am just so you tell me ‘nah it’s too dangerous, back off’; you would be fricking wrong you know.”

He looked up at her again, with a stoic face; not that he couldn’t feel anything at that moment, but he just knew that there must be a time where even he wouldn’t be able to prohibit her from doing what she really wanted. He finally sighed in surrender, saying: “Okay, fine… you know you can be a pain in the butt, right? I was just worried about your safety , but if you’re willing to fall with me, so be it…” He smiled a bit when he saw her eyes almost shining after that, her smile covering half of her face; but she quickly regained her composure, sitting once again on the chair, and finally saying with a serious tone:

“All right; when is it due?”

“One week from now; prepare yourself. I’ve already done all the preparations for the experiment”, he answered. He finally added, giving her a small list, containing names. “Get the ponies of the paper, and explain the situation to them; you should know most of them, right? We will need help.”