Pride comes before a Fall

"You can't be serious?"

"Oh I'm deadly serious."

"No, Trixie refuses. Trixie isn't about to debase herself for your entertainment."

"Hey your entire career is about entertainment and this is for your benefit! Besides you owe me remember?"

"I don't know..."

"Come on Trixie, please."

"Okay, fine. What do you want Trixie to do?"

"Come with me..."

Trixie's leg had healed quite quickly thanks to Carbon. His potions and tonics able to accelerate her body's natural healing ability, even if they did taste absolutely foul. Her back was still causing some issues, having been more seriously damaged but Trixie didn't really care. She was grateful to be finally up and about again. She and Carbon were outside where Trixie discovered that whilst Carbon had an interest in herbs and plants, that did not extend to gardening. The outside of the house was unkempt, a stack of firewood was underneath the kitchen window and there was the dirt path Trixie saw earlier, but aside from that no work had been done on the outside.

"Trixie thinks maybe you need a lawnmower."

"You're talking in third person again."

"Sorry, sorry force of habit."

Carbon shrugged "Well it's true that given the nature of this forest I'd only have to do it once but honestly I don't see the point. I don't entertain guests, present company aside, so who am I cleaning it up for?"

"I guess..."

"So shall we begin?"

"Explain again what it is we are doing out here."

He cocked an eyebrow "Were you not paying attention?"

"Trix-I was but just run it past me again, this all seems very confusing." she said rubbing the back of her head.

"Well you remember how you told me about your...difficulties."

"Yes, I remember."

"Well this," Carbon took a seat in the long grass. "Is going to help you out. From what I've seen you have some skill with magic at least. So whilst we're waiting for your back to heal, I'm going to help you strengthen your magical ability."

"Why?"

"Well you keep calling yourself the Great and Powerful Trixie, but you're all style and very little substance." Trixie pulled a face causing Carbon to laugh, "I'm going to see if I can't help curb that bad attitude of yours. Also I see some potential, you did well to keep up with me and I've been doing difficult magic for a lot longer than you have. I reckon a bit of tutoring and you could become an exceptional magician."

"Really do y-I mean... and how exactly do you propose to do that?" Trixie quickly masking her minor lapse, once again taking on her usual condescending tone.

"Simple. Practice, practice and more practice." He reached into his coat pocket, "The reward for doing well is another one of these." He placed a shiny red apple on the grass. "I figured if you're going to be working hard with your magic it wouldn't be fair for me to sit back and relax, so I'll prepare one of these every couple of days." His eyes narrowed, "Just remember though, as with respect, you have to earn it."

Trixie eyed the apple hungrily, since she'd insisted on helping with the cooking, the qualities of their meals had improved. The food was still terrible though. Suddenly submissive she asked "What would you have me do?"

Carbon waved his hoof dismissively, "Nothing just yet, I've felt how strong your magic is, right now though I need to see how much you know about the subject."

"About magic?"

"Well yes."

"I'm a unicorn, I know everything about magic!"

"Really? Do you know the rules of magic?"

"The what-"

"Or how it is unicorns can use magic?"

"Well, yes because of our horns." she said bluntly.

Carbon facehoofed "Oh dear... right Trixie sit here." He patted on the grass next to him, quickly returning the apple to his pocket. "Who taught you about magic?"

"I was taught by a unicorn at school, back in Fillydelphia."

"What exactly did they teach you?"

"Well she showed us how to lift things, how to stop our magic from going off unexpectedly as it often would for younger unicorns. She also taught us how to write with our horns."

"Is that all?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there is a LOT more to magic than what you described, it seems what you were taught was the basis for magical control but not necessarily on casting. I'll wager you know nothing of magical theory."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Exactly my point. You know how to lift objects but not it seems, why you can, I'm guessing you went to a public school." Trixie nodded. "I thought so, their curriculum always tended to be a little vague. Alright well let's start from the beginning; Why Unicorns can use magic." Trixie tried to speak up but Carbon raised a hoof signalling her to be quiet, "It's true that unicorns can use magic because of our horns but what exactly is our horn? Does it produce the magic? It's true for example Princess Celestia has a larger horn than usual, is that why she's more powerful than normal unicorns? Absolutely not." Carbon shuffled about a little to get more comfortable. "Size doesn't matter, it how you use it that counts. Oh now stop it!" He said noticing Trixie trying to stifle a giggle, "Can we please be academic about this?"

Trixie cleared her throat "Sorry."

"Apology accepted now, the first thing you should know about magic. Unicorns don't make it, we wield it and to a certain degree we can control it." He gestured to the wide open spaces "Magic is everywhere, it permeates the fabric of reality. Every creature uses magic in one way or another. Bees for example. They, by all rights and reasons shouldn't be able to fly. It should be physically impossible and yet they can. The same applies for pegasi. It is true that they are typically a lot lighter than the likes of us but that doesn't explain why they can walk on clouds. They'd have to be lighter than air but if you've ever had a pegasus crash into you, you know that isn't the case."

Trixie nodded her head thoughtfully, she'd seen pegasi crash before, it was hardly a pretty sight. "In truth all three pony races use magic, though the other two have magic which is more passive. Earth ponies tend to be a lot more muscular and much better at cultivating crops than unicorns or pegasi for example. Think how much effort must have gone into making that one apple and yet Earth ponies can produce thousands of them by themselves and to a much higher quality than anything a unicorn could grow, even if we followed their farming advice. Pegasi have a more noticeable magical ability but as with the Earth ponies it's a latent ability beyond their control, namely cloud-walking and weather manipulation. Then we come to unicorns."  He lightly tapped on his horn, a few small sparks fizzed from the tip. "Unlike pegasi and earth ponies, we can control when and how we use magic, such is the purpose of our horns but I get the feeling you knew that already." He looked over at Trixie who gave a quick nod to show she was still listening. "Now for the interesting part..." He stood up and walked towards a tree several feet away. Trixie eyed him curiously. Carbon took in a deep breath and enveloped the entire tree in his aura, a bright blue glow cutting through the amber hues of the forest. "Okay Trixie," he called towards the seated unicorn. "This is what we're going to be doing first, I want you to watch this because in a few moments I want you to try the same thing. I've already seen how pwerful your magic is, now we're going to see just how skilled you are at using it."

With a flick of his horn the tree stiffened, the soil parted and the ground groaned as the roots of the tree, undisturbed for years started to rise to the surface. The branches rustled and golden leaves began to cascade downwards. With an audible grunt Carbon raised his head slowly and the tree was lifted free, held in the air by the encompassing magic. Taking a quick breath he closed his eyes as he began to focus. Trixie watched in awe as the branches were snapped away. The bark of the tree began to crack and splinter before slowly the magical aura pulled it away, peeling it as easily as one would a banana. Carbon set aside the branches and the strips of bark into two seperate piles before turning his attention back to the trunk, devoid of bark the pale white wood was revealed. Trixie gasped as several bolts of magic shot out from Carbon's horn colliding with the tree trunk leaving it seemingly unscathed. The effects of the bolts were only seen when the tree was broken apart into logs, which Carbon dutifully piled up next to the rest of the firewood in front of the house. Finally he released the spell and turned to face Trixie whose jaw was hanging wide open. Smiling he sat back down next to her.

"Trixie, you can close you're mouth anytime now." he said giving her a playful nudge.

"That was, how did you-"

"I take it you're impressed."

Trixie took a minute to compose herself. Frowning slightly as she realised that here he was. Yet another unicorn, it would seem, that could best her in both power and skill had entered her life. And once again she was about to make a fool of herself.

"Can you explain what you did? I know I saw it but I want to see it from your perspective."

He nodded slowly "Okay if that makes it easier, the first part was your run-of-the-mill levitation spell, I just gave it a little more 'oomph' than normal. Then I bent and flexed the aura to compress and twist the branches until they snapped off. Using the gaps in the bark they had left for leverage I slid my aura underneath the bark and pulled it away. Finally I fired of a couple of magical bolts to slice the tree up before stacking them over there. Is that sufficient enough of an explanation?"

"Yes, that was...very concise."

"Now is there any of that, that you wouldn't be able to do?"

She looked up thoughtfully, "The magical bolts at the end I suppose, Trixie has never seen or used such a spell."

"Ah yes I'm not surprised, they don't tend to teach that spell any more. It's combat magic."

"Combat magic?"

"As in magic for fighting yes. I learnt the spell because I used to travel a lot and there are a lot of fearsome beasts out there, it's for my own protection. Of course it has other uses as I've just demonstrated." He walked over to a smaller tree, giving a slight kick. He walked around it several times nodding slowly. "Yep this one should be perfect. Okay Trixie your turn, let's start with the easy bit. Can you try and pull this tree up?"

"Really? It's not as big as the one you did."

"Well like I've already said I've had a lot of practise doing this sort of thing, besides it's always important to start small."

Trixie pawed the ground nervously, ever since Carbon had beaten her in that game of tug of war Trixie had become hesistant to use magic in front of him again.

Well here goes.

Her horn illuminated and the tree became covered in a radiant pink.

Okay just like he did. Now LIFT!

Trixie's magic pulled on the tree as hard as was possible, Trixie's eyes slammed shut in concentration. It seemed however that no matter how hard she pulled it didn't give. After several minutes Trixie released the spell and started panting.

"I. Can't. Can't do it, not, not strong enough."

"Yes you are, you just made one tiny mistake."

Trixie breathed deeply and looked up at Carbon, "What do you mean?"

"Tell me Trixie, when you tried to lift the tree did you try lifting the trunk?"

She pointed an angry hoof at him accusingly "Well yes that's what you did!"

He smiled, "I thought so, I should have mentioned you have to lift the WHOLE tree at once, that's branches and roots, everything."

"What difference does it make?"

"Just trust me."

"Fine." she closed her eyes and once again focused her magic, this time taking in Carbon's advice to lift the tree, even the parts she couldn't see. She almost lost control of the spell in surprise when she felt it. The tree quivered and shook and Trixie heard that familiar groaning noise, the tree was rising. She slowly opened one eye and gasped, shocked to see the tree floating several feet above the ground. Unfortunately this caused her concentration to slip and the tree fell to the ground with a loud thud, causing her to jump back in surprise.

"See, I told you, lift the whole tree, makes it much easier." He looked over to the fallen tree, "Can you remember the next part?"

Trixie's horn flared once more, picking up the tree "Of course, Trixie isn't stupid, behold!" Her face scrunched up tightly, the tree whined and groaned as the branches began to flex and shake. The air soon filled with a chorus of snaps as the branches broke away. Trixie gasped as she felt a sudden strain, quickly she placed the tree and the branches back down.

"What, what happened?" She shot a glance over to Carbon "You! Did you interfere with Trixie's work again!" She said clearly fuming. Carbon replied, much to her annoyance with a loud, throaty laugh. Wiping a tear that trickled down his face away he spoke.

"Always quick to blame others, you really don't know that much about magic do you?" He ducked as Trixie threw a branch at him in frustration, when she missed this caused him to laugh even more. "Crazy mare, you nearly took my head off!" Before she had a chance to launch more branches Carbon summoned a shield which encased him in a bubble, like his aura this too was a light blue. Another branch bounced harmlessly off it. "Now, maybe you'll let me explain, lifting a single object is pretty easy, never mind it's size. The difficulty you had was that you were trying to lift too many objects at once, namely all of the branches which when you broke them off of the main tree became independant objects."

"And you had no hoof in my spell breaking apart?" Trixie said, still fuming but no longer preparing projectiles to throw at him.

"Nope, you couldn't mentally handle the strain of holding all those objects in the air at once, too many things to focus on. That's why I was quick to deposit them in a pile rather than hold them during the entire process."

Trixie silently cursed herself, she already knew this so how could she so easily forget? She'd already experienced this type of difficulty doing juggling acts and card tricks. She remembered the time she almost fainted trying to manipulate an entire deck of fifty-two cards on stage. Having to account for so many different objects at once spread her magic thin, especially when they were pushed apart. She scowled and flicked her head to the side, adopting her usual pose, "Alright, Trixie will believe you. Be thankful, Trixie isn't usually the type to forgive so easily." She shot a piercing glance at Carbon, just because he didn't do anything didn't mean she wasn't mad at him. Reminding her of her shortcomings was not something that would put Trixie in a good mood.

He smirked "Carbon will keep that in mind."

Trixie's scowl deepened. "Don't mock Tr- I mean, don't mock me, you know I can't help it when I talk like that."

He didn't respond, instead Carbon shrugged and turned around to head back into the house much to Trixie's chagrin.

"Where are you going?! Tri- I'm not finished yet."

He nodded as he walked, "True but you've already overexerted yourself once today, I think that's a sign to take a break, oh and since technically you didn't pass I think this is mine." He levitated the apple out of his pocket and held it to his lips, a small grin appearing as he heard Trixie whimper in dismay. Slowly he returned it to his pocket, "Just kidding, come on we'll resume this after lunch." He held open the door and waved Trixie over, "It wouldn't be fair to take the apple since you haven't had a chance to earn it yet, come on you're cooking." Trixie walked over to the door, still pouting. As she pushed her way past Carbon she hissed at him.

"That was a mean trick..."

***

Trixie floated two bowls onto the table, having quickly whipped up a stew and joined Carbon who was sat licking his lips in anticipation. There were still those awful mushrooms in it but the taste wasn't so bad watered down. For the majority the two unicorns ate their meal in silence. She spun the spoon idly around the bowl, thinking back to her supposed lesson. Carbon had already taught her a neat trick even if was very simple. She began to think of how best to incorporate it into her act, maybe she could levitate something really big. Before her mind began to wander too far with ideas of a 'sword in the stone' style contest she could host, Trixie found a question forming in the back of her mind, something seemed really odd about this stallion. At first Trixie merely thought he was just quirky, he'd apparently been in these woods for a while and she wasn't surprised if maybe the boredom or loneliness had had an affect on him.

Maybe that's why he was so willing to put up with me...

"Carbon?"

The blue stallion looked up at her from his bowl of soup, his spoon hanging from his mouth.

"Why are you doing this?"

He placed the spoon down on the table, dabbing at the sides of his mouth with a hankerchief.

"Doing what Trixie?"

"You told me, when I first asked you why you were helping me you told me you were just being a gentlecolt but now you're training me in magic? What's your angle?"

"Are you suggesting I have an ulterior motive?" He looked down, slightly hurt by the accusation.

"I'm sorry it's just that, well, in my business ponies who help me usually do it to get something in return."

He nodded "I see, well maybe I can qualm some of those doubts of yours. First of all, I've been in this forest for years. I'm to the best of my knowledge it's only inhabitant. No animals live here with me because the forest doesn't have the food to provide for them and no ponies come in here because they are frightened of this place. All of the food we've eaten, all of the food I've eaten since I've been here has come directly from these woods. Unfortunately due to the nature of this forest, the food doesn't regrow without some magical assistance. I've had to spread further out for food everyday, fortunately as time went on my magic grew in strength as I practised more. Now I can grow the food needed to support me relatively easily. Wait now I'm going off topic..."

He tapped his chin thoughfully, "Oh yes back to your concerns, if I were to ever ask anything of you Trixie it's to keep me company until your back heals, that's all. I can only imagine what 'favours' some ponies might have asked of you. So know this, I'm not going to ask of you to do anything you don't want to do, if I recall the only reason you cooked is because you insisted on it." He ate another spoonful of stew and smiled, "To be honest this is vast improvement over anything I usually cook. Now for what I think is a big concern for you, what with me being a stallion." He fidgeted uneasily,

"Let's just say if I tried anything my wife would never forgive me."

Trixie's grip on her spoon lessened and it fell to the floor, "You're married!?"

"Yes, would you like to see her? You've been sleeping next to her for some time now." Before Trixie could voice her disbelief and downright confusion, Carbon teleported in a picture frame which had been beside the bed, "Here she is, my beautiful Crescendo." He looked at the photo tears threatening to fall and stain his cheeks, "She was a performer, just like you wouldn't you know. A singer, wowed thousands with her beautiful voice." Carbon leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes "I remember visiting her shows, it was where I first saw her. Couldn't believe my luck when I ran into her again, I was just a simple assistant to the librarian in the Canterlot archives, a part time job to pay the bills whilst I went through Celestia's magical academy. It turned out she was to perform at one of the galas and wanted some books on singing." He wiped his eyes, dispelling the rogue tears and laughed a few times "Being the lovestruck fool, I stuttered out that she didn't need them. Imagine my surprise when I found her hanging around the library again, apparently she thought it was an excellent place to escape from her 'admirers'. Eventually we got to talking and became very good friends. It took me a month to finally build up the courage to ask her on a date."

"Touching..." Trixie whispered.

He passed the photo over to Trixie, "This was taken four years after we were married. On a day trip to Canterlot gardens, it's my favourite photo."

Trixie looked at the photograph, it looked slightly worn, it certainly looked older than a few years. She saw Carbon in the picture wearing a tuxedo. Beside him was a unicorn mare, she had a long flowing mane and was nuzzling up to Carbon affectionately. "This is, surprising."

Carbon choked and let out a small laugh. "Is it really so unusual? I know I might not be as handsome as some of the highbreed Canterlot Elite but I think I did more than okay."

"It's not that which surprises me."

"Oh?"

"It's the fact that you left her to come here, why would you do that?"

He smiled but looked down, his eyes filling with a sense of longing "Ah, well right there Trixie is one of the greatest regrets of my life, I know I never should have left."

"Why don't you go back."

He sighed "I wish I could, but I'm bound to this forest."

"How do you mean."

"My mission is simple and yet complex all at once. Princess Celestia knows of this forest, she summoned me and told me that I was to research it. I'm duty bound to remain here until I crack the mysteries of this place. I know she'll wait though, she'll wait forever if she has to."

"Just you?"

"Yep, just me. See my cutie mark?" He stood up and gestured to the strange shape on his flank. It was a red sphere covered in small lumps, three ovals surrounded it with two smaller white dots on each oval.

"You know I've been curious about that too, what is it?"

"That Trixie, is an atom."

"An atom?"

"Yes, an atom, one of the fundamental building blocks of reality."

"I don't understand."

"Well I'll admit the subject is a little tricky, to put it simply remember how I said magic permeates the fabric of reality?"

She nodded as she recalled there discussion only a short while before.

"This is the shape of a piece of that fabric. This is quite simply a pictoral representation of an atom of carbon, now isn't that a nice coincidence."

"So what does it mean? What exactly is your special talent."

"Understanding."

"Care to explain?"

"I understand how things work, much easier than other ponies.It's why I was best suited to look into the Amber Grove, I was and hopefully still am the finest analyst in Canterlot. It's why magic and potion brewing come so easily to me, because I understand them. Whereas other unicorns became crushed under the weight of the theory in their studies for me it just clicked." He sat back down. "I can look at something, analyze it and understand how it works at it's basest level. Not that I always have the ability to replicate what I analyze mind you."

"That's impressive if it's true, so how does the erm atom, was it? How does that fit into understanding?"

"It's a representation of the building block of reality, it also represents my love of chemistry, what you'll probably know as the science involved in potions. The atom represents how I see things, at their basest element."

"I see," she looked down at her own cutie mark, a moon and a wand. "Mine just because I like to perform magic and like doing it."

"Would you mind if I took a look?" Trixie shrugged and reluctantly lifted up he flank so he could see. Carbon proceeded to affix his red glasses to his snout, before squinting at Trixie's cutie mark. Moments of silence passed before Trixie resumed sitting. "See it's nothing that spectacular..." Carbon pulled his glasses away and pocketed them.

"I wouldn't say that, your cutie mark actually says a lot about you, for instance." He closed his eyes in thought and began to picture the cutie mark before he began again. "The wand indeed represents magical ability, though as you've said it's more of a performance art which is why you have the wand, which is a prop. The large hollow star on top shows your feeling of self importance, how you consider yourself to be a star whose above others even with nothing to back it up. The crescent moon is much more interesting, in that it's actually a waxing moon, astronomically speaking a crescent moon is the other way around. A waxing moon is a good representation of you because it shows your potential to grow, just as a waxing moon will 'grow' into a full moon. Also have you noticed it isn't a solid moon? It appears to like a gas cloud, full of stars. It represents your desire to be great, to join the many great stars of the past along with the insecurities that come with it." He looked at Trixie, who was staring intently at her reflection in the bowl of soup. Her mind struggling to comprehend what she was being told. This stallion hardly knew anything about her, yet he could read her like an open book.

"Judging from what you've told me about your past Trixie I can conclude this, you have two cutie marks, not one."

She looked up from the bowl in shock. How could she have two? She had one plain as day, had he been lying this whole time if he didn't even understand that. Ponies could only get one cutie mark couldn't they?

"I sense some confusion, sorry, maybe I should rephrase that, you have a cutie mark of two halves. Two cutie marks that together form the one you have. Your special talent is magic, make no mistake. That much is fixed as both halves are both representative of magical ability. Given that you're a unicorn this is unsurprising." He looked down at his bowl, contemplated something for a moment before bringing the rim to his lips and noisily slurping down the contents, wiping his mouth with his hankerchief afterwards. "Sorry it was going to go cold, now back to your cutie mark. It's as split as you are, both parts show a desire to be recognized, the wand represents your ego, that believes it's already important as it is fake. It takes precedent over the moon which is why it overlaps it. The moon represents your dream and that you have the potential to reach it." He picked his bowl up and levitated it over to the sink, before walking to the door.

"If you ask me it's one of the most spectacular cutie marks I've ever seen, your special talent Trixie isn't just magic." Trixie looked at him as he walked through into the living room.

"Your special talent is to become special."

Author's Note: And that's Chapter Two out of the way, so what did you think? Is my character a Mary-Sue? I don't like to think he is but now I've explained him in enough detail maybe I can start with the adventure part of this adventure! Besides there's a lot more to this stallion than it would appear. What will Trixie and Carbon do next? Stick around to find out, hopefully I'll be able to find more time to do the next chapter, can't believe it's been a month since I posted the first one. Oh well, enjoy!

~TheSecretBrony

P.S He's such a nice guy isn't he, considering most of his personality is based on my own this is suprising. Most people just think I'm a- well, I'm not going to say it because foals might be reading, anyway rate, comment, whatever. Until next time.