The Third Choice

The Third Choice

Chapter 4: You have a horn, I don't.

By UltimaReborn

It was mostly silent on our way to the train that would take us to Poneyville. Well except for the times when Pinkie would start babbling about something she saw. Which was about every five minutes. Five minutes passed and, seeing as she had seen nothing of interest, Pinkie began to talk about what had transpired in the throne room. I chuckled, remembering how Princess Luna had still looked shocked when we left, and Celestia had barely been containing her laughter at her younger sister's reaction.

As we boarded the train, I noticed that several ponies were staring at me. Some looked frightened, others looked curious. I ignored them. They'd never seen a human before so of course they would be wondering what I was. As we took our seats, Twilight interrupted my thoughts with a question.

“Uh, Tristen can I-” she began.

“Call me Anima.” I interrupted her.

“What? But you said-” she began again.

“I know. But Anima is a name I’ve used in the past. Plus it just sounds better.” I explained.

“Okay. Anima can I ask you some questions?” she inquired.

“What about?” I queried back.

“About your magic.” she said.

“What would you like to know?”

“Well... could you teach me some? You're bound to know how to do things that I've never even heard of!” she said, now sounding excited.

“I'm afraid that I can't.” I said.

“Why? What's wrong?” she asked me, obviously ready to break out the puppy, or in this case pony, eyes.

“Because mine is different than your run-of-the-mill unicorn magic. It works on different principles.” I explained to her.

“How so?” she asked, now sounding interested again.

“Well for one, I don't have a horn. You do. I focus magic through my hands and you through your horn.” I replied.

“So? That shouldn't be a problem.”

“Well it is. Your horn is meant to channel magic. My hands aren't. And when I do use it it feels like someone took a two by four and hit my across the fingers. I shape my magic using words. My Invocations are actually instructions for the power. Unlike unicorns I can't shape the magic internally with my mind. I channel it into the area and then the Invocation tells it what to do.” I told her.

“Oh...” she said, sounding slightly perplexed.

“Plus while your magic works using natural forces, mine circumvents several laws of nature to function. Bending reality when it's in use and fixing the damage when I'm not.” I elaborated further. “Though, theoretically, if I was a unicorn then my power would function in much the same way as yours. I do have a relatively good grasp of magical theory that you may find helpful.” I told her.

“Oh, really? Well we'll just have to find out how much you know when we get back to Poneyville, Mr.I-know-things-about-magic-I-can't-even-use.” she said teasingly thought stumbling a bit at the name.

“That's really the best name you could come up with?” I asked with a smile.

“Shut up.”

“Okay fine.” I answered still smiling.