Normal

For the first time in his life that he could remember, Star Strider felt normal. It was as though the years of strife and grief that tormented him went quiet. They left him alone to his thoughts. It felt peaceful, yet wrong. Somehow, a part of him was missing. His thoughts were interrupted by Starlight checking in through his bedroom door.

“Star Strider? Are you feeling alright? It’s been a few… well it’s been a few. I wanted to make sure you’re doing okay.”

He rose from his sheets and drew back the curtain with his hoof. The sun was rising, or was it setting?

“How long have I been in here?”

“Well, and please don’t panic yourself, you’ve been here for about… three days. I kept checking on you, but you were out cold until last night. But even then, you weren’t anywhere close to comprehensible. I did what I could to sedate you and it seemed to work. How are you feeling?” He took a deep breath and turned to her.

“I feel… I feel as though how I imagine everypony feels normally. Nothing troubles my mind. It is quite an odd sensation. But overall, I feel fine.” Starlight furrowed her brow at his mention of nopony feeling troubled.

“Well, I’m glad you’re feeling so calm. Are you feeling up to teaching a class tomorrow? It would be a Q&A sort of lecture with students. No pressure at all thought I understand if you’re still recovering.”

“I shall be just alright to teach your class tomorrow. Shall I prepare something in particular? Or just let the imagination of the young ones guide the discussion? Perhaps a demonstration?” He reached out a hoof and pointed it towards his saddlebag. A faint blue aura surrounded it, shook the bag, and then shattered. Star Strider looked perplexed as he tried again. The same result came. He stared at his hoof with his face puzzled. What happened to my magic? It is so frail? How? Starlight cleared her throat as he lost himself in thought.

“Well, whatever you feel would be good for them, and yourself, I think will be just fine. But get some more rest, I don’t know how recovered you are yet. I’ll be close.” She turned and started to leave, taking one last look at the stallion who still had his eyes hooked on his hoof.

What in the world happened to me?

Luna lowered the moon to make way for her sister’s glory to fill the sky. She sat back on her bed as her eyes drooped. Bags hung under them as a testament to her restless nights. The guard under her sheets stirred at her movement and the bright rays casting onto his face. He awoke and looked at Luna, who appeared a lot less beautiful than he remembered last night. He almost mistook her for another pony entirely.

“Good morning, your majesty. How did the night treat you?” She hardly noticed him as he spoke, her eyes wandering to the far cliffs across the valley.

“Hm? Oh, fine. You best be going. Needing sleep and all that.” The guard scrambled to return his armor to his frame, bowing to the princess as he walked out of her room. She closed the door behind him, turned her back to it, and sank down to the floor. Tears poured from her face as she hugged her legs close to her chest.

“What am I?” She asked to an empty room. She buried her head in her arms as she cried silently in her room.

It had been five days since she and Star Strider had shared their kiss in the river. Five days since Luna’s heart shattered. In that time, she had bedded a guard almost every hour of the night, trying to forget about the love that she lost. She gained no pleasure nor ecstasy from her flings through the night. Nothing calmed her heart strings or softened the tears that tore down her face daily.

Her crying was interrupted by a large lion’s paw resting on her shoulder. A snaky voice filled the room next to her crying.

“Oh, Luna. What pony could ever make you cry?” She looked up through bleary eyes to see Discord standing in front of her. She wiped away her tears, narrowing her eyes at him.

“What is it this time?” The master of chaos retracted his paw, and she caught the look of seriousness on his face.

“I swear, I am here on good measure this time. I have some unfortunate news regarding your old master and our new and powerful friend.”

Luna and Celestia stood next to Discord as he recounted his watching to the pair.

“Starswirl was able to separate the Lichen from the old pony’s avatar. The form slowly dissolved; my guess would be back to its owner. But when he separated the beast, it shot out quicker than lightning to grab your old master. I tried to do what I could, but my chaos magic again did nothing to the thing. It swallowed him up and completely absorbed into him.” He held up his other hand to project an image of a tall and lanky unicorn with a long black robe, red bells sewn into the hem and wizard’s cap to match. The face of the unicorn was Starswirl’s but twisted in a vile and cruel smile, his beard blackened with red energy coursing through. His horn crackling with a silver outline and black highlights. Luna and Celestia shared a look of deep concern.

“That looks very similar to my sister and mine’s evil counterparts.”

“Yes, Nightmare Moon and Dawn Breaker.” Luna finished her sister’s explanation. Discord nodded to them and closed his hand.

“The next thing I figured to do was to close any portals nearby and get out of there to warn you. I don’t think it got through anything, but we could never be too sure.”

Celestia paced the floor as she did often when nervous. “With Star Strider’s training and spell protecting the legions, and hopefully that monster still trapped inside, we may have time to figure out what to do. I’ll send word to Star Strider immediately and try to see what he suggests. Discord, you have already done so much, but would you do us the honor of watching him in your dimension and letting us know if he escapes? It is imperative we respond the moment he breaks.”

Discord saluted and walked off into a pillar, teleporting back. Luna turned to her older sister.

“What of me, sister. What shall I do?”

“Luna, I know what happened between you two was… hard, but someone needs to stay with Star Strider right now. Twilight will need to return to ponyville to lock down the everfree forest. Could you shoulder the burden of staying with Star Strider now?” Luna was silent for a moment. She turned the thought over in her head time and time again. This could be a chance to make things right. I can’t believe this is what I’m worried about on the brink of disaster. She shook her head clear.

“Yes. I’ll be just fine. I’ll make leave for ponyville at once.”

Star Strider stood on a stage in front of two hundred or so creatures from across the world. Every one of them had their eyes trained on his every move, his every word. Starlight and Twilight had done their fair share of exciting the students for the so called ‘master of magic’ to arrive.

“Good morning students. My name is Star Strider. Though I am sure your teachers prepared you for today, I would like you all to guide this conversation. I know not what I can offer you, so I figure best to let the young minds of today shape their own learning.”

Immediately as he stopped speaking, a hoof, no paw. Or was it a hand? It shot up from about the third row back. A hippogriff sat with a big grin on her face. “Ah, yes, you there miss—”

“Silver Stream. I just cannot BELIEVE you are here! This is so awesome! Okay okay so my first question is about my own magic. Or I guess the magic you made and then we used! Okay so like, how did you make transformation magic? Or did you even make it? And why can’t more ponies use it or just normal magic? And can you transform right now?”

Star Strider raised his front hooves and smiled. “Whoa there, I suggest we take it one at a time. To answer your first question, I’m not very well-versed in hippogriff transformation magic. I only heard brief synopsis of the orb your queen holds. But in regard to transformation magic at large, I was hardly the first to experiment with it and came nowhere close to perfecting it. The most I ever learned was transforming dirt to sand. Transformation magic is extremely difficult and require a sufficient conduit to transfer matter between and store the leftovers. This would be my guess as to what your orb is.”

Another hand shot up, this one from a brown griffin in the front row.

“Gilda, sir, not really a student here but I wanted to sit in and ask my own questions. Did you ever fight the griffins? You’re really old right? You came from the pony villages that weren’t friendly to other species yet right?”

Star Strider shifted in place as he thought back to his time at the village. Where he expected painful memories, he was met with indifference. What? This is what drove me for so long, how can I not care? How do I know I am not caring?

“I never fought the griffins, though I am sure many villages had their fair fights with them. My village bordered the ancient dragon lands. We were the subjects of many raids and pillages.”

An orange claw came up next. A dragon.

“So, you killed a dragon before?”

The whole room was silent. Star Strider stared at the young dragonet that so boldly asked. After a few moments, he sighed and spoke.

“Yes.”

The room shifted in discomfort. Starlight stepped forward from her watching position and cleared her throat.

“Okay Students, I think we either get the questions back to an appropriate subject, or we call this little session quits. So, does anyone have a question about magic? Or maybe Mr. Strider here can give a demonstration? He is the only living earth pony who can use magic! Wouldn’t that be exciting to see?” The class mumbled in agreement. Starlight nodded to Star Strider as he bowed his head in a gesture of gratitude.

Star Strider sat back and closed his eyes. He moved his hooves in a motion that traced the outline of an image only he could see. His hooftips began to glow as a small orb appeared above him. The class began ‘ooing’ in wonder. What they failed to notice was the beads of sweat trailing down Star Strider’s brow. He shook as he tried to hold one of the smallest spells to conjure a guiding light. He had never struggled this hard even when he began training all those millennia ago. He broke his concentration, causing the small orb to shatter into a bunch of flakes. The class didn’t seem to notice his failure as they all clapped and stamped, assuming that was the spell he was going for. He looked to Starlight with a concerned face and stood to begin leaving. Starlight took the hint and went center stage.

“Thank you Mr. Strider! Let’s give it up for him again! You’re all dismissed for an early day. Remember your test booklets and don’t forget to study for your preliminary!” The class rushed off, all of them swapping their opinions and experiences of what they had just seen and heard. Starlight caught up with Star Strider as he crossed the water bridge towards the castle.

“What happened back there? I thought you were super powerful, how come the mage light spell shattered?” Star Strider shook his head.

“I do not know. For the first time in my life, I feel normal. Apparently that comes with the side effect of actually being normal. Whatever happened to me, it took my magic along with most of my emotion. I felt so indifferent when that dragonet asked me about my village. That used to be the one memory that haunted me. Now, it could be compared to a sunny day. The last time I felt this way…” He trailed off as he looked to the sky, hearing the wingbeats of the unicorns towing a chariot. They landed a few yards from where the two of them stood, as princess Luna descended out. She kept making eye contact with Star Strider and shot between him and Starlight. As she approached, she bowed to both of them.

“Pardon my intrusion. Star Strider, I need to speak with you.”

“Princess Luna—”

“Please. This is urgent.”

“Very well, Luna. If you’ve come to recompence the former night, it is alright. I understand. I have no more qualms of it.”

Luna shifted uncomfortably, darting her eyes across the room and back to Star Strider. “No— it’s not, I mean I… This is official Canterlot business. And it’s not good.”

Author's Note

Sorry for such a delayed upload, I'm starting another semester at college at settling in. My updates may come later as I haven't had time to write ahead, but luckily I have almost 40 chapters anyway so I can give those out slowly. Hopefully you all are enjoying!