Chapters Intro - The Memory Stones
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“You may look through my library, but please be careful young one, some of the items in there will try to harm you.” echoed through your head as you entered the simple oak door in the headmaster’s study, entering a grand library that seemed to go on forever.
It's been four hours since the Headmaster had given you permission to enter his library, and you still haven't seen every book that he holds, the reason you were in here to begin with was the simple fact that you were looking up on ways to combine two different types of magic, something few have tried, and only the princess had succeeded. You felt that you would be the first, the first normal pony to do the impossible, but in order to do that, you needed information, and that's where this place comes in. As you are searching the tomes of magic theory and scrolls upon scrolls of spells that came from nearly some odd two hundred to fifteen thousand years ago, you find a dark oak door, slightly ajar, and a plaque on it that reads ‘Room of Memories’, you don't remember this room ever being in the school, then again, it is in the headmaster’s personal library, it's bound to have an unknown room or two. Curiosity getting the better of your judgment you slowly enter the room, there, floating in the center of the fairly large circular room, was the purest diamond you've ever seen, surrounding that diamond was a ring of gold inlaid with gems and runes you've never seen before, with only a few you recognize, there was a light that filtered through a small window above you, making a spiral of blue, red, yellow, green, and purple, in different places upon this colorful spiral were what looked like stars and little crystal orbs, each of these orbs were showing a different place, you found Equis easily, but the other places were new to you. Perhaps it was something the headmaster was studying, or even knew about? Either way the next thing to catch your eye was a row of pure white crystals, about twenty of them in a line, with twenty more about a hoof above them, there was one that stood out though, one that was lavender mixed with a soft pink, it gave off a motherly feel, as if it was softly calling to you, touching it makes it light up, and a projection of two mares came to rest in front of you.
“Hello again my old friend, it's been sometime since you last activated the memory stones, so just a quick reminder, the memories start on the top row going from left to right, the first three and the last two are not from your perspective, as you were either too busy or not old enough to make them…" the mare informed you, before rubbing her arm as if she was nervous. "It hurts to relive memories, but you didn't wish to forget your family… this is how you wanted it… I hope that you won't need these crystals Issac, and that you can let go of the past, but until then, I hope you stay safe." The lavender mare said, she looked a lot like Princess Twilight, only a lot younger, that's when the other mare, a butter yellow pegasus spoke up.
"It's nice to see that you've come back to review your memories, even if most of us are gone, i still miss you my little ice weaver, and i know that you won't be able to view these memories forever… but i hope that this will inspire newer generations of 'card callers' as you liked to call them, i hope that you will find a student or two to pass on your knowledge on the magical art of card calling…" that got your attention, the headmaster knowing a different kind of magic that if it goes by it's name, requires a certain kind of card, you were pulled from your thoughts on the subject when she spoke up again. "I hope you never forget us… but I can't wait to see you again in the next life… now peer into the past my little ice weaver, look and let memories flow through time and space to find where you've been, and what you've done." She said before the light from the crystal dies and the projections slowly fade away.
This gave you a conflicting judgement, as the headmaster had never talked about his past or how he knew the princess when asked, this was the moment to learn about his past, about him, but that would be an invasion of privacy, you couldn't do that, but this also could hold the answers you were looking for, not just for your magic problem, but for all of the unanswered questions he left you with. So with curiosity outweighing judgment once more, you look upon the forty white crystals and touch the first one on the top left, as soon as both hands are on it, you begin to feel weightless, almost as if you're floating off of the floor, and then a rush of speed, you feel as if you were launched by a sonic rainboom, light fills your eyes quickly, as you shut them you hear the sound of something roaring, and was that laughter? The feeling of speed suddenly stops and you crack an eye open to see a bedroom, it looked pretty normal, a bed, a writer's station, a closet, and what seems to be a door to the bathroom. The laughter was coming from downstairs, so with some caution you walked out of the room and found your way down towards the laughter, the scene that played out in front of you was a confusing one to say the least, at least until you say something that made you gasp, turning the corner you say beings much like the headmaster all laughing with animals that looked strange, as you were pretty sure that cat was on fire! You heard a sigh to your right as you approached the three beings, glancing in that direction, you saw something that shocked you to your very core: it was the headmaster but he was much younger.
Author's Note
Hello my little night terrors, i'm back with a new story, now both stories will be updated slowly, as i don't have much time to write them, but not to worry, i'm still working on the stories and new chapters will be out soon.
Until then my little night terrors, stay terrifying!
Memory One: The beginning of a new life
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“Man… three years and were still getting crowded by wizards and witches thanking us for defeating Malistaire, I really hope that this all blows over soon, I mean, we just dealt the final blow, nothing special about that…” I think as I put on my signature ashen cloth set that's been with me since near the start of my adventures.
My clothes were all a certain color scheme, snow white with icy blue accents for my signature school: Ice. The robes were form fitting but slightly loose, allowing a great range of movement, the shoes were slightly large, but otherwise a perfect fit, the pants were probably the tightest out of the entire set, but still just loose and flexible enough to feel comfortable, while the hood was probably my favorite, small enough that i can see past it and is easily retractable, but big enough that it covered my head well, only letting my lower jaw and mouth be seen easily, not many know that this is my signature set, as I've never pulled my hood down in public, not with these clothes.
“Oy Iceweaver! Get that cold heart of yours down here!” I heard from downstairs as laughter rose up with it.
I gained a small smile at that voice: our main Theurgist, Brianna Jadedreamer, our healer and my childhood friend, was calling me down, she's a sweet girl, but one should never piss her off, as she's also a well renown Pyromancer in our small group, it helps that her familiar is a Fire Cat and her hair is flame orange.
“I'm coming Bri, hold your broomsticks.” I call back down as I see my familiar waking up, she gives a small growl mixed with a yawn.
“Must we be awake at such an ungodly hour Issac?” she asked through our mental link, I just snicker at the thought.
“Sorry Nova, but today’s one of the few days we don't have any interviews or fans pounding down our door. We can finally do something we want to.” I tell her as she shakes herself awake and starts to hover next to me.
Nova is a dragon, who belongs to the school of Balance, so she can definitely help in a tight spot, she's a smoke grey color with her underside, horns and wing membranes being ice blue, we've been together ever since I saved her from an illegal trading ring we found and destroyed, Bri was the first to attack the first seller, we decided to follow her lead and freed all of the familiars from captivity, that was the first time we saw her mad.
“It is!?” she asked before flying over to the calendar on the wall next to the door, next thing I saw was her flying loops while laughing happily. “It is! Oh finally no interviews or parades or anything public! We can finally relax!” she calls out as she lands on my head and looks down into my eyes.
“I know, I know… now, how about we go see what Brianna wants before we head off to see the headmaster, then we can go to the pet pavilion so you can get some races in.” I say as I dust off my robes before heading towards the door to my room.
“Fine… but only if i can get some Gummycats afterwards!” she says climbing down to my shoulder, I laugh a bit at her love of Gummycats.
“Sure, we can get some Gummycats after the races.” I tell her as we head down the stairs.
Rounding the corner I see my friends, no, family sitting in the dining/kitchen area having a good time, Bri and her Firecat, ‘King’ Alexander were laughing at something, probably one of Angel’s jokes, he's always able to make us laugh. Angel Deathcaller, our Necromancer who’s also a powerful Conjurer who dabbles with Shadow spells, his familiar being a Dark Sprite named ‘Empress’ Luna, he deals with the dead and other types of creatures, he was once one of Malistaire’s top generals while he was trying to take over the Spiral until he met me and Brianna, we defeated him and his most powerful minions, we were able to snap him out of the trance he was placed under and recruited him as our third member, he helped us pick off Malistaire’s army and got us to Malistaire himself, which lead us to defeating him and becoming heroes throughout the Spiral.
“Okay, that was funny, but I still think you placed it there with magic last second.” I heard coming from the room just before I entered, that belonged to Kimberly SpellSong, our Diviner, or a ‘Storm-mage’ who also dabbles in the arts of Celestial magic.
That got my attention as Kim pulls out a whoopee cushion from underneath her, I chuckle a bit before announcing myself to the others.
“Hey guys, I seemed to have missed a classic prank, anyways, how is everyone?” I ask as I get their attention, they smile when they see what I'm wearing.
“We’re doing good, so you decided to wear the original outfit huh? It looks nice after all these years of wear and tear that happened to it.” Kim replied before giving me a once over. “Could use some different colors, but it's still you darling.” she said, smiling a bit as I chuckled.
You see Kim wanted to be a fashion designer when she was younger, her mom would help her with that dream while her brother taught her everything she needed to know about magic. A similar life if you think about it, me and Brianna had that kind of life too, only with different dreams and our father instead of any siblings, Kim didn't like talking about her father, now don't get me wrong, he was a great man, but he died when she was five, so it hurt her a lot. Anyways, back on track.
“Right, but no changing the colors, you know I take pride in showing what school I was first in.” I say turning around and showing off my school’s symbol on the back in pitch black.
“You always did take pride in being a Thaumaturge, even if you also studied to be a Theurgist too.” Angel commented as Luna floated onto his shoulder.
“Well we needed all of the healing spells we could get, so why not?” I say shrugging before going to sit in the empty seat. “So, what did you need me down here for Bri? It sounded important.” I say looking at the witch across from me, her forest green clothes with the bright orange accents made her stand out just enough.
She smiled sweetly, her golden eyes sparkling with amusement, which seemed to brighten against her raven black, shoulder length hair. “I was wondering if you wanted to go with me to the library right now, I found out about a few new spells that combine two different types of magic schools. I'm pretty sure I saw one that combined Life with Ice and one that combines Fire with Life, so I wanted to see if you were up for a little experimentation?” She said, gaining our attention, everyone was silent once she told us what she wanted to do.
“That… sound completely stupid, dangerous, and most of all like something could go completely wrong.” I say as I slowly get up from my seat, with each word the spark in her eyes slowly died, the other two looked at me in surprise, that was until I slammed my hands onto the table while smiling like a lunatic. “Let's do it!” I say as I look into her eyes, the spark coming back full force before she smiles and rushes up to her room, the others breathed a sigh of relief.
“You scared us for a second there mate, I thought you were about to degrade her for real.” Angel said as Luna shook herself from the coldness in my voice.
“Oh come on man, you know I could never do that to Brianna, we grew up together, we know more about the other than we know about ourselves.” I say as I get up, Nova curls around the back of my neck to hold herself steady.
“While true Isaac, you even gave me the impression that you were actually going to scold her for looking into mixed school spells.” She says nuzzling my cheek, I just chuckled lightly and brought up my hood before exiting our house and into the peaceful setting of Unicorn Way.
Now as much as I love where we decided to place our house, the main pavilion of Wizard City is the place to be, it's probably the most jam-packed place in the Spiral you'll ever be in, witches and wizards come here from all across the Spiral to attend Ravenwood Academy and learn about both their schools and themselves, especially for the School of Death, as it had been found and repaired by Bri and I, anyways, it's always a welcoming sight to see new faces running past as to get somewhere important, of course there's a lot of us, but when you know where you're going, it can be easy to navigate around in the streets, it helps when most of them know where to go too, so coming from a light jog in Unicorn way to a bustling walk in the pavilion came natural to me. Now our first stop was Headmaster Ambrose’s workplace/home, as earlier in the week I had received a letter from him detailing that he had something for me to pick up, and that it looked important. Coming up to the stone walls that line the mansion I could easily see through the open double doors about ten witches and wizards inside all with certain papers, one looked like he was from a very rich family and was practically shoving the others out of the way just to talk to the Headmaster. That's when I came through the door and right up to the Headmaster.
“Greetings Headmaster, you wished to see me about an important package that arrived?” I calmly said, gaining everyone’s attention, even the rich snob.
“How dare you just barge in here and demand that the Headmaster is required to see you!” the rich twat next to me screamed out before aiming a punch at me, to which I easily caught.
“Ah, young Issac, it's good to see you again, yes… now where did I place that box… maybe Gamma has seen it, why don't you go talk to her.” he informed me before looking back at the papers in front of him.
“Of course Headmaster, and I wish you luck on finding room for all of the new students that will be attending Ravenwood Academy. I know that I'll be happy to see all of the new students.” I say bowing my head before heading off to the side door, to the tower and Gamma’s usual reading spot.
“Hoo! Greetings Issac, I take it you're here for the package that was sent here?” a voice called out as I entered the tower.
“That I am Gamma, do you happen to know where it is?” I asked the snow grey owl who took a small box from under her perch and flew over to me.
“Here you go Issac.” she said as she dropped it into my waiting hands.
“Thank you Gamma, now if you excuse me I have places I need to go to and people I need to see, have a wonderful afternoon.” I comment making my way past the beautiful projection of the Spiral and out the door on the other side.
“You too Issac. Hoo!” I heard Gamma call before the door shut.
I quickly made my way over to the library and saw Brianna with King Alexander waiting at the entrance, they immediately saw me.
“There you are Issy! I've been waiting for nearly half an hour!” she said as I came up the steps.
“Sorry about that Bri, I had to make a quick stop by the Headmaster's place to pick something up, I was hoping to be quicker about it, but there some new witches and wizards trying to apply to R.A.” I replied before we entered the library, which was just as busy as the other places, except the pet pavilion.
New students were going throughout the library and checking out books, we always had this feeling of serine calm here, even with all of the activity around us, it was probably the calm and collected aura of Harold Argleston, the librarian, he helps witches and wizards with what they needed, whether it was books for school or treasure cards for a last minute spell. The old dog was the best when it came to remembering things, kind of like the exact opposite of the headmaster, but just as respected. We quickly walked up to the side where reserved books are placed and Bri quickly took out a void black book.
“Here it is, now let's just magi-check and leave.” she says pulling out her staff and tapping the crystal above the books slot, the gem glowed green, meaning that it was checked out. “Alright let's go.” she commented before walking out the door.
It took us a little bit longer to go back to Unicorn Way and find Diego, the resident duelmaster, at his normal charge, helping new witches and wizards with dueling and how to combine spells with others. Now that i think of it, he was one of the few biped unicorns I've ever met, but he was still a nice guy, even taught me how to work with more than one person while fighting enemies. We quickly went into the arena and found the Grizzleheim area to be empty, we quickly filled it's slot before anyone else could and went in to practice the new spells.
“Okay, so what spell should we try first?” I ask as we enter the center of the area, it was beautiful here, I always loved dueling here, as it helped me keep my cool with the tranquil sounds of the area.
“How about we look at the ones that combine Life with another school, as we’re both Theurgists.” she suggested and I nodded, it would be nice to have some new healing spells in case another big bad shows up to take over the Spiral. “Okay, let's have a look in the book.” she remarks opening the book and flipping through the pages.
She was about halfway through the book before we found the first primary Life spell, it seemed to combine the ‘Fire Cat’ and ‘Sprite’ spells making a healing flame that lasted four rounds, healing 60 hp up front with an extra 390 hp over time, and it cost five pips.
“Expensive, but a good mid-battle healing spell to have.” I comment as she looks on how to cast it properly.
“True, and thanks to me being able to use both schools, I should be able to pull this off properly.” she remarks before i prepare a spell.
“Then you're in luck Bri, i'm going to summon an old friend, he'll help you test that new spell you want to learn.” I say before pulling out an ice blue colored card and adding mana to it, since I didn't have pips to channel my mana I had to use twice as much to activate it.
The spell was one of the lower tier spells we had, but it helped in a bind when we aren't all together, so using six mana i summon up the minion spell ‘Ice Guardian’ and had him placed on one side of the dueling circle, she quickly thanked me and entered the other side, it was then that the duel circle activated and began the duel.
Ice Guardian goes first.‘Ice blade’ on itself.
Brianna’s turn.‘Spirit Armor’ on herself.
Ice Guardian's turn‘Ice Trap’ on Brianna Jadedreamer.
Brianna’s turn
Ice Guardian’s turn
Brianna’s turn‘Spirit Armor’ on herself.
Ice Guardian's turn‘Snow Shark’ on Brianna Jadedreamer.Ice Trap activates +30% - Ice Blade activates +40% - Spirit Armor activates -400 / destroyed - Spirit Armor activates -390 /// Snow Shark deals 0 damage
Brianna’s turn
Ice Guardian’s turn‘Ice Cat’ on Brianna Jadedreamer.Spirit Armor activates -10 - Ice resistance activates /// Ice Cat deals 81 damage
Brianna’s turn
Ice Guardian’s turn‘Ice Trap’ on Brianna Jadedreamer.
Brianna’s turn.
Ice Guardian’s turn‘Ice Blade’ on itself.
Brianna’s turn
Ice Guardian’s turn‘Snow Shark’ on Brianna Jadedreamer.Ice Blade activates +30% - Ice Trap activates +40% - Ice Resistance activates /// Snow Shark deals 663 damage
Brianna’s turn‘Sprite’s Flame’ Sprite’s Flames heals 60 Hp /// Sprite’s Flame activates - heals 98 Hp
Watching her cast that spell was definitely something, it had pure white flame on a small pedestal surrounded by five Sprites, they then started to fly around the fire it then shot up and enveloped her, it then got rid of any scratches or cuts she had and those that it didn't were glowing white. She then destroyed my Ice Guardian and ended the duel, her injuries were completely gone and she was now holding three new cards that were green and red, showing the flame and the pedestal on the card.
“Well done Bri! You cast it perfectly!” i call out as the circle fades, she just smiles as she tries to catch her breath.
“I didn't think it'd be that powerful, sure it's a healing spell… but the amount of magic in that spell took a lot of me, like my energy was converted into my health.” she says walking over to me, and i could see a small layer of sweat on her brow.
“It's okay, that was your first time casting a duel school spell, it's bound to be more powerful than both schools individually.” I comment as I help her sit down on a rock before looking through the book.
“Yeah, I guess that's true, but it just… felt different from my usual healing spells.” she says getting me to look over at her in concern.
“Different how?” I ask, lowering the book a bit, she seems to think back at when she used the spell.
“Well, my usual healing spell feels like a soft cool breeze passing through me, like it's comforting me, that spell though, it felt like it was as if the breeze was trying to contain a solar flare, a barely did it's job. Like I could feel the breeze, but it was almost overpowered by the heat I felt.” she explains making me look down at the book in worry, if a healing spell mixed with fire was like a solar flare going through her, what was one mixed with ice going to feel like?
“It's okay, just try to get used to the feeling, unless you want to save it for something really important.” I say smiling at her a little bit before looking back at the book.
“Yeah… that'd be nice…” she comments before i find a spell that combines the Balance spell ‘Sandstorm’ and the Myth spell ‘Dimension Shift’.
It was a trade spell, so it was a Myth primary, as Sandstorm is a damage spell, it cost 5 pips and seemed to be a reverse damage spell, making the caster send damage against whoever cast the damaging spell in the first place, and it had one that targeted all allies if i could master this one, now the reason this spell caught me attention was because i was planning to dabble in both Myth and Balance, as i was also planning to practice the other schools too, to be a true wizard of balance. But this was something that would be difficult, and it could easily fail.
“You found a spell you wanted to try yet Issy?” Brianna asks, bringing me back to the real world.
“Yeah, I think I've got one that i'd like to try, but it's going to be difficult.” I say as I motion for Nova to come with me.
“Do you need me to cast anything?” she asks about getting up from her rock.
“No, this spell won't require any minion to go up against, so i'll be fine.” I say as I enter the center of the arena. “But just as a precaution, can you head into the stands? I don't want you to be caught up in this if I do cast it right.” i say looking back at her, she just nods and heads up the stairs that lead from the arena towards the stands as i prepare the spell.
“I had basic teachings in both schools, so I should be able to cast it.” I think as I channel my mana into performing the spell.
I had cast the spell perfectly, and it looked awesome, swirling through the entire arena floor was a brown and greenish yellow… that was until it started to swirl faster and I could feel a pull, confused I attempted to stop the spell, but it didn't work, that got me to panic, trying to reverse the spell I started looking through the book, I didn't notice the vortex behind me until it was wide enough to have me walk into it normally, I felt the tugging sensation become stronger until I was off my feet flying through the air with Nova flying past me and into the vortex, i dropped the book upon my feet leaving the ground, but the last thing i saw was Brianna’s crying out something before a bright flash of light enveloped my vision and then darkness…
Author's Note
And the first memory is out!
View Online
The Decision and The Second Stone: Kindness Abound
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You suddenly felt yourself back in your body as the memory ends, you quickly let go of the crystal and fall backwards, you notice the clock above the door that you didn't see before. It read 3:38pm, that meant you spent an hour upon first entering the room to see that memory, but what you saw through the Headmaster’s eyes… it was as wondrous as it was confusing… but it was the end that gave you shivers, looking at the door, you see that it was still closed, the spiral image was still moving slowly, in the same colors as when you first saw it, and nothing else seemed out of place, and so you contemplated on whether or not you should look into the other crystals, on one side, it could show you how the Headmaster became who he is today, on the other side… you could come out of this seeing something you really wish you didn't… deciding on a coin toss, heads being leaving now and never returning to this room and tails being staying and continue looking through the memories, you got up and gave it a flip and let it hit the floor. Upon picking up the coin, you could see the six pointed star that was tails facing up towards you. The decision made for you, you turn towards the crystals once more and place your hands upon the next one in line, the same floating and rushing feeling spreads throughout your body as the world around fades away and darkness surrounds you as you enter the next memory.
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It was a wonderful morning today and I had already fed all of my animals, including Angel Bunny, even though he did make a small fuss, I was able to convince him to eat. It was about noon and me and the girls were about to start a picnic out near Ponyville Pond, which was such a lovely spot. I usually went there to relax after a long day and simply enjoy the calm sounds that came from the area.
“Hello darling, how are you today?” I heard a classy voice coming from my left ask, turning from my reminiscing I saw Rarity, one of my best friends walking towards me.
“Good evening Rarity, i'm doing fine, thank you, how are you today?” I say as she starts to place down the blanket with her magic.
“Oh i'm fine darling, just a bit busy with the new dresses that are being ordered from my new store in Manehattan is all, nothing I can't handle.” she says before sitting down on the blanket.
“Oh that's wonderful Rarity, I do hope that you'll take a break if it becomes too much for you.” I say as I take a spot on the blanket.
“Don't you worry darling, i'm perfectly fine as of now, but do come by on Sunday, we haven't had a spa trip in a while.” she replies, to which I nod in agreement, it had been a few weeks since our last spa trip together.
“I will.” I replied shortly just as Applejack and Rainbow Dash got here, both were smiling while carrying a small box each.
“Hey y’all!” AJ says before she sits on one of the corners of the blanket.
“Hey guys, whatcha' talking about?” Dash asks as she claims the spot next to me.
“Oh just life as usual darling, nothing too important.” Rarity responds as she sets the food and drinks on the blanket.
“Oh, okay.” was all Dash responded with before taking a soda and cracking it open.
“Well, here comes Pinkie, Spike and Twilight.” Rarity said, waving the three of our friends over, they were all carrying something with them as they sat down.
“Hey girls, sorry if we’re a little late, we were a bit busy getting everything ready.” Twilight said as she and Spike took their spots and Pinkie took hers.
“Oh it's quite alright darling, you've come just on time, and I think I say this for everypony when I say that we know how confusing that castle can get.” Rarity commented waving her worries away, and with that we chatted away about our days and if anything new happened.
We were about to pack up when both Twilight’s and Rarity’s horns lit up brightly with magic, both of them didn't seem to expect this as what they were holding suddenly teleported in surprise. It was then that Pinkie started twitching like crazy, it was only when she stopped twitching that their horns stopped glowing.
“Oh boy, that was a big doozy.” Pinkie said, shaking her head a bit, mostly to clear the dizziness she felt.
“I think it was more than that Pinkie, whatever happened, it was powerful enough to attract our magic to it, like an amplifier.” Twilight said placing a hand soft on her horn.
“So it made your magic stronger?” Dash asked, looking between Rarity and Twilight.
“Kind of, more like our magic reacted to it, and by doing so, put more magic into whatever spell we were casting at the time.” she explained clearly, so that everyone understood. “Pinkie, did any of your twitching make sense to you?” she asked the pink mare who had a thinking cap on her head.
“Not much of it, it was too fast for even me to interpret it, but I got small parts… like tomorrow, close friend, surprise and something falling, what it's supposed to mean I don't know, I couldn’t read more than that from how quickly everything started twitching.” she replied looking confused, before shrugging her shoulders.
“Okay, so something is going to fall tomorrow, it's going to impact one of us, and it's going to be a surprise, well everypony, try to keep a lookout, and Pinkie, if you have any more twitches, come tell me what they mean, this could be another threat to Equestria.” Twilight said as she brought the group together.
“Right.” everypony, including me said before we started packing up.
It was around seven at night when I was walking home from Twilight’s as I needed a few books to take care of a few new animals I found injured near the Everfree, plus I had to do a quick shopping trip to resupply some of the animals food. As I was walking down the dirt path that made its way to my home and the Everfree, I noticed something in the sky, it was dim at first, but then the brown and greenish yellow vortex began to become clearer. I noticed that it was near my house so I started to fly towards it, to make sure my animals were safe from whatever was happening. It was when I got to the bridge in front of my house did the vortex change and two small figures flew out towards the portal and crashed ten feet away from me, leaving a small crater, the weird thing was that there was frost covering the ground around the crater, Harry came outside to investigate before seeing me.
“Harry, can you take these inside? I need to see what happened.” I asked, holding up a couple of bags, he nodded and took them from me before walking back inside.
I quickly hovered over to the crater to see what had impacted into the ground, my wing beats clearing away the strange light blue smoke away, I saw two figures wrapped up in what seemed to be some sort of robes, and by the look of the first figure was a dragon, probably younger than Spike, its scales were smokey grey and ice blue, while the second figure looked like a pony, it had a silvery-light blue mane with slightly dark tan fur, or rather, skin as I felt the second being, I noticed a unicorn horn in its small hands like it was something of great value, must have come from its mother or father, but who would cut off a unicorn’s horn? No, getting back on track, the small dragon opened up its eyes and spotted both me and the small being, then started growling at me, it seemed to be protecting the small being, to which I slowly lowered myself to the ground inside the crater.
“Hello little dragon… can you tell me your name?” I ask in a small voice, which makes the dragon stop growling and look at me in interest.
“How do you know the Tension language?” the dragon asked, the pitch making it female.
“I don't, I can just speak to and understand animals very well.” I reply sitting on my hooves, she seems to be very protective of the second being.
“Oh… okay then… where are we?” she asked, she curled her tail around the second figure.
“Well, you landed in front of my cottage, which is in Ponyville, which is a village in Equestria.” I reply, making her fins fold down, but then grasp her head in pain. “Oh my! What's wrong?” I ask as I hold her gently.
“I… I can't remember where I'm from… only my name, what I am… and who he is…” she replied before looking over to the second being swaddled in the robes.
“Well it's pretty late, how about you come inside and get some rest while I make sure nothing too bad happened to either of you.” I said, picking up the second being and the robes he was wrapped in and brought him up to my chest.
“Yeah… that would be nice.” the dragon said as I slowly walked from the crater to my front door.
“Angel, can you open the door please? My arms are full.” I ask as I get to the door, which swings open almost immediately and I step inside.
My home was mostly quiet because most of the animals were asleep, only the nocturnal animals and those that were woken up by the impact were around.
“Thank you Angel Bunny.” I say as the door closes, I bring them over to the couch and slowly lower them onto the couch. “Now, can you tell me your names?” I ask the dragon who looks up to me and then the small colt next to her.
“I'm Nova… Nova Wingbeat, this is my friend and partner, Issac Iceweaver.” she replied curling up onto the colt who snuggled into the dragon’s embrace.
“Well Nova, I'm Fluttershy Breeze, it's nice to meet you, now, you go ahead and get some rest, I think we all need it.” I say before entering the kitchen, those two were definitely something Twilight would want to see.
“Oh… but what will happen to them, I guess they don't need to be seen immediately… yeah… they can stay inside for now, just have to confirm their preferred diets.” I thought as I made a small dinner for me before bed, when I finished eating I noticed that the dragon and colt were both fast asleep.
With them both asleep and me getting tired I quickly but quietly made my way upstairs and changed into my PJs and went to sleep. There had been no noise throughout the night and until I had come down, it was only when I started making breakfast for me and my guests that the colt started crying, I quickly floated over and scooped up the small colt, he looked up at me in his improvised blanket and I saw his icy blue eyes, they sparkled in the morning light, like the sun hitting a lake at just a certain angle that made it shimmer.
“Hello little Iceweaver, it's okay, nopony’s going to hurt you here, i've got you.” I softly said while cradling him, he seemed to calm down a bit, but I could still see fear in his eyes, so I began to hum a small lullaby, it calmed him down enough that he started to calm down completely.
I brought him into the kitchen and placed him on the table, I decided to look at his teeth, which he didn't have many of, but those that he did have suggested that he was an omnivore, a being able to eat just about anything. Which I didn't mind, I had many omnivore and carnivore animals in my care, so with that in mind, I prepared a small smoothie of sorts for his breakfast, while I had a salad. It took him a bit, but I was able to get him to eat, and Nova had something from the robes that were still laying on the couch. I quickly cleaned him up and walked him back to Nova, who quickly curled around Issac.
“What to do with the two of you.” I think as I run through the possibilities, but I was quickly pulled from my decision by a knock at the door, the peephole showed Twilight and the girls.
“Oh dear…” I said as I quickly turned my back towards the door and looked at the dragon and colt. “I need you two to stay quiet in my room, as there's ponies outside who might do something bad if they saw you, especially if one of them saw you.” I quietly said to Nova, who saw the fear in my eyes and nodded seriously before I got them in the robes and brought them up to my room and closed the blinds.
“Fluttershy, are you home? Pinkie started to twitch again and it was another doozy, saying something about a dragon near your house.” Twilight said as she knocked on the door again, I quickly collected myself and opened my door, smiling a bit.
“Hey girls, sorry for not answering earlier, Angel was being a bit more grumpy than usual today, but I was able to calm him down, anyways, what's going on? I heard you say that Pinkie had another doozy, but nothing after that.” I say as I look at the girls they all seemed nervous but relieved.
“Pinkie said that there was going to be a dragon here, and we got worried darling.” Rarity said as she fanned herself a bit.
“Oh, well there's no dragon here that I know of, unless it was in the backyard, I did just start feeding the rest of my animals after all.” I replied looking back, they saw two of the bags out near the kitchen.
“Well can we look in your backyard to see if anything is missing?” Twilight asked, I simply nodded my head.
“As long as you don't disturb the animals, the birds take a little longer to wake up.” I said before fluttering back to the bags before handing out today’s breakfast.
“Of course, we won't disturb them.” she said before going back around to my backyard.
AJ stayed a little longer before following everypony else, I took a small sigh of relief as they were no longer in sight, I then began to feed my animals, I took my time, humming a little tune that popped into my head. I knew from that point on I had to keep Issac and Nova safe, but I also knew that they needed to interact with the ponies of Ponyville, but how could I get them to do that without Pinkie finding out. That would be impossible, but I think I could find a way around that.
“I can do this… it's just like taking care of my animals, just a bit harder.” I thought as I finished feeding the animals that were inside and started heading outside to feed the others.
The girls were still looking through my backyard as I came out with some worms and seeds, I quickly but efficiently fed all of the birds before I came down to the ground and noticed that Nova was watching me and the girls discreetly through the blinds.
“Did you find anything girls?” I ask, bringing their attention to me.
“No, nothing that would indicate a dragon, maybe it was just passing by.” Twilight said before looking at Pinkie, who just shrugged.
“I guess we were worried over nothing dear, sorry for our interruption.” Rarity said before waving goodbye.
“It’s okay girls, it was nice to have a small break from routine today.” I said as we walked around my house and they started to depart, AJ stayed a bit before turning towards me.
“Ah know you're hiding something inside sugarcube, so what ain’t ya tellin’ us.” she said once everypony else was out of earshot, I quickly sighed, I knew this would happen, there was no getting past Applejack on this.
“Just some new animals that I haven't seen before, I didn't want Twilight to freak out and start running tests on them, they came in last night and were slightly injured, I started treating them this morning just after I woke up.” I explained without giving Nova or Issac away to her, it seemed to have worked because she nodded in understanding.
“Yeah, Twi can get right crazy when it comes tah sometin' she don't know, so that was a good call on your part Shy… but, if ya need any help, come an talk tah me, okay?” she asked while looking into my eyes, it was as if she was staring into my soul.
“Of course, but I might be coming over soon, my supply of apples are a bit low.” I respond with a nod, she nods back and walks off.
“See ya soon sugarcube.” she calls back before going out of earshot.
“Oh thank Celestia she didn’t see through that.” I whispered as soon as she was gone, I quickly went inside and upstairs to my room.
I entered to see Nova sitting on the edge of the bed with Issac playing with the unicorn horn that was in his hands when he slept. I gently closed the door, but Nova was looking at me with a small look of confusion.
“Who were those people you were talking to?” she asked as I sat on the bed next to Issac, who looked up to me in wonder.
“Those were some friends of mine, the blue one with wings was Rainbow Dash, the orange one was Applejack, the white one was Rarity Belle the very pink one was Pinkie Pie and the lavender one was Twilight Sparkle, they somehow knew you were here, but I was able to make sure they didn't find out about you. I don't want them to know about you, either of you… not yet.” I say as I pick up Issac and let him play with my hair, Nova nods as she curls up next to me.
“Thank you for taking us in Fluttershy.” she said, placing her head in my lap.
“It's no problem Nova… now, how about we do something in the backyard, I can teach the two of you all about my animal friends.” I say wrapping Issac lightly in the robes.
“Sure, let's go, I kinda want to see this place.” she replied as she glided down the stairs after I opened the door.
I giggled a little bit before heading down the stairs, I knew this was going to be one of the best days of my life…
Author's Note
Hello my lovely little terrors, chapter three is out and yes, i'm putting Equestria into season 4
Now as always, stay terrifying my little night terrors!
<<>>
The memory fades out, this time you gently come back to reality, and looking at the crystal that was before you, you never had thought that the Headmaster was that old, most stallions didn't last a hundred years, none of them lasted to be a hundred and ten, so for the Headmaster to be over two hundred was a shock. You were deep in thought about what else you would learn about the Headmaster through these memory crystals when you felt a hand on your shoulder, making you freeze.
“I thought you were in here for a bit too long, young one.” you hear the wise, elderly voice of the Headmaster say behind you, making you gulp in fear.
“S-sorry Headmaster, I was looking for w-what I needed when I found this room… curiosity got the b-better of me and I had to explore… as for the crystals, I o-only looked through the first two, n-no more.” you say without moving, the hand on your shoulder lifts, letting you turn around.
The Headmaster is looking at you with almost a prideful glee in his eyes, as if he had been waiting for somepony to do this, what really caught you off guard was that he started to chuckle, he then gave into a small laugh, you looked at him confused, until he stops laughing and looks at you with joy.
“Young one, I have been waiting for someone to find this room, why do you think I've let everyone who's asked into my personal library?” he asked leaning forward on the walking cane, an eyebrow raised at you as if he knew you had the answer.
“It couldn't be a coincidence that he let everypony into his library just for the heck of it… there had to be a reason, because if anypony else found this room, then there’d be whispers, and in this place, whispers go from one place to everywhere, every hall, class, room, and dorm, unless…” you think before your eyes go wide at the answer as your head shoots up to look at the Headmaster, a curious look met you.
“It was a test… you were testing everypony that came in, if they found this room, then they passed… but that's not all is it, only a certain somepony could find this door, see the Spiral and the crystals, otherwise they’d walk right past the door without even see it.” you say as the answer falls from your lips, the scenario becoming more clear as you thought about it, the headmaster simply clapped his hands at the answer.
“Congrats young one, you are correct, this very room is heavily enchanted to have only a certain individual see both the room and what's past the door, and yes this was a test, one that you alone have passed. So congrats young one, you've earned a special spot in the magic community.” the Headmaster replied before walking over to a small alcove you didn't notice before and pulled out a small box and two card holders, one was significantly smaller than the other.
“What are those Headmaster?” you ask as he brings them over to you.
“Well, this deck holder is yours, until you can find a bigger one to hold more cards in it.” he explained handing over the smaller deck holder to you, you take it carefully before the Headmaster buckles the second one around his waist, you quickly follow his example. “Now, as for this box, well, it's to help us determine what school you belong to.” he replied, getting you to look at the box curiously.
The Headmaster walked over to the Spiral and opened the box, ten small crystals came flying out and began hovering over each of the crystal orbs that held images.
“Now i'm sure you're curious as to what these places are, so I will tell you, this is the realm of the origin of Life, also known by many generations as MooShu, home of the Samoorai. It is here that those who learn the art of Life are most powerful, and the best Theurgists come from here, this place is one of the three Spirit School locations.” he started to explain as he pointed to the orb that had a green crystal floating above it, you nodded and let him continue. “Over here we have the first of the three Elemental School locations, the home of Marleybone, those who are strong Diviners come from here.” he said pointing to an orb with a purple crystal floating above the orb.
“That just looks like Manehattan.” you say getting him to look at the orb again before chuckling.
“I suppose it does, doesn't it, but sadly, Manehattan is here in Equestria, not on the other side of the universe.” he replied before continuing on with his lecture. “Now here we have Polaris, those who are like me, and are Thaumaturges are strongest here, as it's the coldest place you may find in the Spiral, this is the second location for the Elemental Schools.” he continued, pointing to the light blue crystal with an image of a frozen wasteland was seen in the orb.
“That just looks like the Frozen North, are you sure these aren't just showing different places in Equestria?” you ask the Headmaster, he chuckles a bit before smiling a sad smile.
“Yes, I am quite sure that these places exist, I've been to them myself on a grand quest, i'm sure you know of it from the first memory crystal.” he says before motioning to the first crystal that you peered into.
“Something about defeating somepony named Malistaire, right?” you ask as you look from the crystal to the headmaster, who nods his head gravely.
“I will tell you that story later, but for now, we must continue, onto the final location of the Elemental Schools, we have Dragonspyre, this place was once a haunted forest, but after a tragic event with the Dragon Titan who ruled over it, it turned into an area of fire and lava, those who are Pyromancers are strongest in this area.” he says pointing towards the red crystal that was above a red and black temple with the image of a dragon on top of it. “This doesn't look like anything from Equestria or the Dragon Lands, now does it.” he said glancing over at me, making me study the orb in question, it certainly didn't.
“It doesn't, so that’s definitely a different place.” you say before the Headmaster nods and points to another orb, this one having a black crystal above it.
“That is Khrysalis , and no, not the Changeling Queen who was imprisoned in stone, this place is the second location of the Spirit Schools, it's also where Necromancers are at their best, for the magic there is riddled with the souls of the dead.” he explains as you see a dark forest with a large graveyard.
“That place looks really creepy, do I have to go there?” you ask as you look away from the dark scene towards the Headmaster, who is currently wearing a small frown.
“No, you do not, and be lucky you do not, for unless you are a Necromancer, or plan to try the Death arts, you will be avoiding that place.” he said with a cold tone, indicating that he had some bad memories of that place.
“Of course Headmaster.” you say quickly before you notice the other crystals that were closest to you, one a light brown and the other a greenish yellow. “What are these places Headmaster?” you ask pointing to the two orbs, bringing him out of his dark reminiscing.
“Ah, yes, those are the Krokotopia and Azteca, the locations of the Balance and the final Spirit School respectively, Krokotopia is a vast desert with great pyramids and ancient magic, those who are Sorcerers come from here, and are arguably the most powerful, as it is the center-point of the schools of Spirit and Elemental.” he explains, pointing to the brown crystal first then moving towards the yellowish crystal. “Now while the area of Azteca is still fairly new to the Spiral locations, it's inhabitants are not, as within this place roam the oldest known beings to the Spiral, the Aztecosaurs, it is here that the first Conjurers were born, and magic of Myth was first introduce to the rest of the spiral.” he said looking at the lush grass and intricate buildings, but that was before you notice the other four crystals not hovering above any of the orbs.
“Headmaster, what about those four crystals on the edge of the Spiral, do they belong to anyplace?” you ask, getting the Headmaster to look at the gold, silver, dark grey and light grey crystals.
“Ah yes, those four schools, no, they do not belong to any specific place, as they are the oldest forms of magic out there in the Spiral, if any of these four were to react to you, then you will find a brand of magic that can surpass even the current princess in ability and power.” he explained, as we watched the four crystals float around the spiral.
“What are they for them to have that much power?” you ask, he chuckles before pointing to them one by one.
“In order, they are Sun, Moon, Star and Shadow, the first signs of magic came from these four, as for light to exist, shadows must be there to balance the light, the schools of Storm, Life and Death come from the Stars, Fire, Myth and Life came from the Sun, and Ice, Death and Myth come from the Moon.” he explains, it boggled your mind that there was such a deep connection between these schools of magic that tie them all together.
“Wait, but what about Balance, surely it ties into the schools somehow.” you comment, you see the Headmaster chuckle a little before pulling out an intricate staff from his robes, how he was able to fit it in them, you had no idea.
“I believe it would be better to show you what I mean, rather than explain it.” he replied waving the staff through the air, it shimmered before two interlocking triangles were within a circle that was within a square.
You could see that between the square a circle were four of the same symbols, which looked like a black spiral, on the edges of the circle, where the biggest of the two triangles touched, there were three different symbols, on the top left corner there was a storm cloud with a bolt of lightning, across from it was a flame, while on the last corner at the bottom center was a snowflake. There on the lines of the larger triangle were three more symbols, which were at the points of the smaller triangle, at the top, between the flame and storm cloud was a green leaf, between the flame and the snowflake was an eye within a triangle, and between the storm cloud and the snowflake was a skull, in the small sections between the two triangles, a sun, crescent moon, and a star was there, and finally, in the center of the smaller triangle was a set of even scales.
“These are the schools of magic we ‘Card Callers’ use, as you can see each of them are connected to another in some way, while the school of balance helps keep them from destroying each other.” he said before waving away the image, it took you a moment before you looked back at the image of the Spiral, and the crystals floating there.
“So how do we find out what school I am Headmaster?” you ask as you look at the crystals in turn.
“Well that's easy young one, just touch the diamond, and let your magic flow, the crystals will glow if they respond to your magic.” he replied guiding you to the large diamond in the center, you place a hand upon it and close your eyes, letting your natural magic flow into the gem.
You can hear the Headmaster moving around and collecting gems, you hear him say something about your magic being interesting before the sounds stopped.
“You may open your eyes, young one.” you hear him say, upon doing so, you take your hands off of the diamond to look at the Headmaster, he's holding the box in his hands again, you could see that two of the crystals were missing from it.
“Congratulations young one, you're able to learn two different schools of magic, Ice and Storm.” he said holding up two glowing crystals in his other hand.
You were shocked that it was a combination of those two, especially since you were sure that you’d only have one, the Headmaster then let the crystals spin softly in a circle above his hand.
“Now tell me young one, which school would you like to start with? As the one you choose will let you gain spells as you gain experience, while you must work hard for the other one.” he asked, bringing his hand closer to you.
It would be a tough choice, but you knew the choice would be worth it, you could choose Ice, which would probably be the easiest to master, or you could choose Storm, which can deal a lot of damage to your enemies, and that could help when the next villain or anything requiring the elements happened.
“I think I'll choose Ice Headmaster.” you say choosing the light blue crystal, the Headmaster nodded happily before putting the crystals away and stashing the box back into the small alcove.
“Very well, now I believe you had some friends to get to, shouldn't keep them waiting young one.” he says before ushering you out of the room and through the library, before you leave the Headmaster’s office, he calls out to you. “Please stop by after your classes tomorrow so we can begin your lessons in card calling young Thaumaturge.” he said , you quickly nod your head and step out, going through the halls and back to your dorm, hoping that your friends, who were all in the same dorm as you, didn't ask any questions about where you've been.
As you open the door to your dorm room, you see three of your friends sitting on the couch take notice of you, they wave.
“Hey mate, how was the search?” your hyppogrif friend asked as you walked towards them.
“Long and no results, interesting finds, but no results, now if you excuse me, i'm tired and my feet are very sore.” you say before walking past them and going to your room.
You begin to think about what the Headmaster will teach you as a ‘card caller’, and how it will affect you educationally, hopefully nothing bad will happen, but you didn't want to tempt fate…
Author's Note
Hello my little night terrors! Another chapter for your viewing pleasure and i'm sorry about not updating my stories as quickly as id hoped, i'm a bit busy as of right now and story writing isn't always able to make it into my schedule, but i will continue to bring more of both this story & Nature and Ponies as soon as i can, but know that they are still getting typed.
Until next time my little night terrors, stay safe and stay terrifying!
