A Timely Experiment

James awoke with a start in the chair, sitting straight up and looking around for a few moments before groaning in pain as all the information he had gathered now rushed to him in a frenzy. Another problem along with it was by going to sleep his body had relaxed and released the spell that held the ambient magic at bay and the ringing in his ears now sounded like a gong being repeatedly struck. He held off the striking pain for a few moments before shifting his hands to his ears and putting a protection on his ears to deal with one source of it as his hands glowed a deep black. Thankfully he had used this before and so it came easier but the feeling of something slightly shifting inside of him had him slightly worried he let it go.

Celestia spoke up hesitantly at the sight of his magical aura as Luna came out of her trance “James, it is good to see that you are alright from the journey. Perhaps you can-.” She stopped however as James took one hand off his ears and held it out to her asking for silence with the motion. The sheer concentration in his gaze could melt a hole through steel as he made sure to categorize and separate the information he had gained on magic as well as some bits of information on the peoples lives for some reason. He then ran down what the new abilities he had gained as well and found that he had an autobiographical memory as well as complete knowledge on tactics and warfare. He smiled a bit as his eyes softened and then shifted to look at the Princess on the bed. He then motioned for Celestia to continue as his smile was more apologetic for interrupting her.

Celestia nodded and then continued saying “Perhaps you can experiment with what you have learned in the training yard for our soldiers. Since it is close to night, we can tell the guard it is off limits and cloak it so no one will know of you being there.” James nodded, accepting the offer and shifting his hands to the arm rests of the chair and slowly stood up wondering how he should start off and as well as if he needed to say the chants for the spells or if he could cast them without a chant. He sighed and shrugged off the question before reaching his full standing height and chuckled.

Go ahead and lead the way to the training ground if you don’t mind... I honestly want to give this a bit of a try since it is new and I may be able to experiment a bit.”

“Excellent. Then please follow us James.” Luna had spoken as she stood up off the bed and then stopped looking down at her nightgown and sighing before her the tip of her horn lit up a deep navy blue and her clothes seemed to shift into a full set of black jeans that accentuated her flanks and a grey shirt that seemed to contain her bust quite well. As that thought ran through his mind he wondered if he was acclimating to quickly before shuddering as he wondered if he would be in their form before the week was out.

Celestia and Luna now walked to the door and so James followed behind them, smiling a bit as he heard the guards in the shadows but noted that they didn’t make a single move against him with the Princesses around. They walked down the Lunar hallways he had dubbed them and then reached a point that seemed to be split with two stairways, one leading from the Lunar hallway and the Solar hallways and both led to a single staircase. Down that single stairway it let to an arch that had a light red motif on the wall around it and led out into what must be the training yard. The trio walked down the staircase and into the training yard allowing James to get a good look at it.

Out in the yard the ground was hard and slightly compact, here and there were spots of dried blood and training dummies against the far wall and in a square of wood with what seemed to be markings on it. James raised an eyebrow at that before shrugging it off as he held back the new information from the spellcasters trying to decipher the runes before he even had a true chance to think. Along the walls were some targets that seemed to be for arrows but the angle from them looked strange as they were pointed at a downward angle. James thought of the possibility of other fliers being in the world as that would make the most logical sense but then again with there being magic it skewed things. He instead simply let it rest as the three of them reached the square and stepped into it as James felt almost a wave sort of wash over him before it disappeared as quickly as it came.

After they stood about twenty yards from the Target dummy James got a better look at it, spotting spots of burns and areas where the wood seemed to have suddenly contracted as if it was flashfrozen. The one thing that seemed untouched was the head of the Dummy however which was slightly intriguing. Luna finally spoke up as James was finishing his inspection of the Dummy saying “Now since we have entered the Square the Protection runes set into the wood should make sure to hold back whatever you can throw. However allow me to help you feel the magic within you and around you please.” She then walked over to the young man and gently grabbed his hands, her own feeling like they were velvet to James and she was surprised at the coarse areas around the base of his fingers and near the tip of his index fingers and thumbs.

James was a bit surprised at the soft feeling and felt his cheeks gently heat up from the contact before a new sense of warmth seemed to be coming from his hands. He tilted his head at it and began to inspect it internally, trying to get a grasp on it before it melded into his chest and seemed to unlock something that had been resting inside of him. His own magic had awoken from the poke and at feeling the atmosphere around them also tried to slowly absorb some of the surrounding magic to help out its growth in a new environment. Luna felt the awakening and let out a small yelp of surprise as a bit of her magic was sucked into James.

James for his own part blushed even harder as the noise she made could have been used as a weapon of mass destruction for how cute it was. He actually felt his heart skip a beat before he could regain his focus and shivered, trying to get his mind to calm down even while he held onto her hands. After a few more moments he removed his hands from Luna’s saying with a light smile and a somewhat embarrassed tone “Thank you L-Luna… I um… I imagine I should not tell anyone what you did right?”

Luna seemed to be in a bit of stupor until hearing James speak and then her face quickly flushed into a deep indigo as the blue and red fought for which dominant color her face should be at the moment. She then fervently nodded and whispered “I am using all of my Royal Power to make it so. Should I find you have told someone I will make sure you are imprisoned with no food at all for several days.” James felt his eyebrows shoot up in surprise from hearing this but simply nodded before then noticing the slight smirk the Celestia was wearing.

James pointed to Celestia and said with an almost pleading tone as he didn’t want to lose any sort of time to research “Alright but please don’t hold me accountable for anything that my come from her?” Luna turned and then narrowed her gaze before making a few motions with her hands which seemed to be slicing something and then hiding it away. The older sister gasped and gained an angered look ubt simply nodded and then turned her head away. James then smiled in relief as Luna turned toward him and nodded.

“My Sister shall keep quiet on what she has seen tonight. So there shall be no worry on that end…. But let us get to the reason we came out here shall we?” She then raised her left arm and motioned to the Dummy as she shifted to her right and allowed James a clear vantage of view of the object. He then nodded and went through the list of spells, shields, chants, curses and unholy hexes before choosing a simple one that one of the people had used to light their candles.

He held up his hand toward the Dummy and snapped his fingers saying with a tentative tone “Flickum Bicus” hoping to simply see a small part of it begin to smoke from a flame. However the three were unprepared for when the Dummy was set ablaze in a circle of fire, reaching nearly ten feet in height before dying down just as quickly as the wood was now burned beyond belief. James eyes were the size of dinner plates as he stared at the dummy and could feel the Princesses looking at him with both curiosity and a bit of unease. He then looked over to them and said as he rubbed the back of his head “That…. That was supposed to make a small flame…. S-sorry about that.” Thankfully the Square had a height limit it seemed as it didn’t allow the flame to go beyond a certain point and saved all of them the sort of questions that would be hard to answer at the moment.

The sisters meanwhile were just looking between him and the target dummy before finally choosing to rest their gaze on James. He blushed as they both took a few steps back and began to speak between each other, quiet enough that he couldn’t pick up on it.

“Sister if that was meant to just light a candle I would hate to see what he could do with something meant for Combat” Celestia stated as she used her hand to cover some of her muzzle so her lips couldn’t be read.

“But Sister if he could harness that sort of Magic just think about what would happen if he had true control. Remember that he told you he comes from a world without magic and thus would have no way to actually train or learn about it” Luna shot back as she did the same as her sister so that way their conversation would stay private between the two. “Should he learn and control his abilities then he could be the greatest asset we have ever had. As well as somepony who could understand the responsibility of having such power to talk about rather than simply us alone.”

Celestia pondered over this for a few moments and then sighed before nodding as she stepped back and then looked over to the young man standing there with a raised eyebrow. They both then walked back over to him and Luna smiled wide while Celestia simply held a small smile on her lips as James asked hesitantly “So ... am I forgiven? I honestly didn’t mean to make such a big flame I promise.” He smiled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck before watching them both nod.

Luna then spoke up saying with a bit of mischief in her eyes “We do forgive you James. In fact we want to see if you would mind doing a few more spells before we ended this. Is that alright?” James felt his eyebrows threaten to leap off his face hearing that but nodded quickly as he was curious about what he could honestly do and with the sort of power the magic he possessed had. As he turned back to the dummy he wondered what spell he should use next while perusing the spells he now had in his mind. He concentrated and made a waving motion with his hand, and as his hand shifted over the dummy in his view and past the Dummy no longer stood there. It was gone as if it had never stood there before.

James smiled wide as he said “Well good to know that one isn’t going to be an issue I suppose. Now what else should…” He stopped as he noted that both of the Princesses jaws were practically in the floor as from their perspective and senses the statue that had stood was nowhere to be found with its magical signature.

Celestia groaned softly and facepalmed saying “If this is something thats not an issue I am truly beginning to believe we have made a mistake”

Author's Note

In case anyone is wondering, he is going to be quite literally the most powerful thing in the world. But there is also a handicap about it as will be told later. Enjoy all