"I just don't get it, Spike. The elements flew back, why won't they work?" Twilight said.

The Golden Oaks Library had been a major meeting spot as of late, with Twilight's friends meeting here seemingly everyday in order to get the elements to work. No matter what they tried, and they tried a lot of things, the elements would not activate for them. Pretending as if they were stopping Nightmare Moon again, reinforcing their friendship by hanging out, they even asked Princess Celestia and Princess Luna for advice, but nothing worked. This of course, has been a great source of stress to Twilight, and when she stresses, things get messy. Not messy like she gets belligerent, messy as in the the library gets messy. Books are slung about haphazardly, food is eaten quickly and sloppily, leading to spills, not to mention her frantic nature in regards to studying, making it near impossible to sweep or mop in the library. Which has of course, led to the second occupant of the library being stressed too.

"Y'know, You could just ask Sugar Hoof about it." Spike offered with a roll of his eyes as he went about cleaning up the table from breakfast.

"We've been over this, Spike, Sugar Hoof is evil." Twilight stated matter-of-factly. "He destroyed the tree of harmony, stole the elements from us, and somehow managed to weasel his way into becoming a prince."

"He seemed to regret doing it, though."

"Yeah, like that fixes it." Twilight said.

"I'm just saying, he held on to the elements longer than you did, and he was able to use all of the elements on his own, only Princess Celestia has ever done that, and it led to her sister being banished for a thousand years. He might be willing to help." Spike argued.

"Orrrr, he did this on purpose so he can weaken Equestria and take over, which one sounds more likely?" Twilight said with annoyance.

"Wouldn't he have just kept the elements if that was the case?" Countered Spike.

Tempest, Greg, and I were in one of the experiment rooms, I was there to work, the other two, with questions. I was unfortunately quite busy after that, 'I'll think about slavery' garbage, but the other two seemed determined to stall my work.

"I'm sorry, say again?" I asked as I tossed a golden ring down a stone chute in the room.

"I think what Greg was trying to say is, we're curious as to how you managed to get all these treants to blindly obey you." Tempest said, attempting to sound clear-headed while walking on eggshells, left over from her time under the storm king most like?

"I conjured them, of course." I said as I gathered up another gold ingot and began melting it down. "Well, I conjured twenty of them, now I just feed them mostly."

Tempest stood shocked, and Greg stood confused as they waited for me to continue.

"I didn't actually intend for this many treants to be created, it was my own mistake, a mistake I... feel I can no longer fix." Regret filled my voice, "Some creatures broke into my home, I got rid of them, but I needed someone to guard my home since I would have to leave on occasion. I figured if I forced a little magic into a few trees and gave it some power, it would defend my home, and I was right, I suppose."

"Where did you learn how to give life to trees?" Tempest asked.

"The spell I used on those twenty was my own spell, a little thing I worked on to help when gathering reagents, mainly. Over time though, my mindless minions became smarter, and they only grew smarter as time went on. The next day I had thirty thousand treants, my twenty reproduced at an alarming rate." I answered, turning away from the molten gold and looking at the floor in shame.

"But the few I've spoken with only ever speak praises about you, they all love you." Greg said.

"I know, that's a part of the reason I didn't try to destroy them all immediately after I realized I had made a mistake. Do you know how many minions or thralls a wizard like me can have at any one time?" I asked rhetorically.

"As many as you want?" Greg asked with uncertainty in his tone.

"One. A life wizard can only have one thrall, if they summon another one, the first thrall dies. The maximum number of thralls that can be summoned is three, according to the records back at the university, and even then, that's only for master conjurors." I spoke quickly, growing excited to speak about one of my favorite hobbies. "Something about—" I caught myself before I could tell them I wasn't really from their world and lied instead, "Well, I don't know why, but somehow, I, a master theurgist, managed to summon and manage billions of thralls at one time, something I doubt even the combined strength of every conjuration wizard put together could do on their best day!" I stopped and calmed myself down before turning back to the forge and preparing the molten gold for forging.

"You're too proud of them?" Tempest asked.

"Not pride, well, not entirely." I began pounding the gold into a ring shape with a hammer I was holding in my magic. "Research purposes too, this is uncharted territory as far as I know, an entire army, not even from a conjuror, War times would be drastically different. Why send your own soldiers, guards, or citizens to die, when you can summon a few trillion thralls to fight for you?"

Both Tempest and Greg shared a look, "Every decision you've made seems to focus more on magical research and personal comfort," Tempest stated, I could tell she wasn't asking, she was telling, "You never wanted political power, did you?"

The pounding of the hammer stopped and my head lowered. It was silent for a few seconds before I gave them my answer.

"No... I'm a wizard, a good one, too. I spent decades of my life perfecting my craft, I've gotten so good at it, I could make a career off of my skill in life magic alone. I'm no king... or prince... or master."

"Then why not just get rid of your treants, live a quiet life instead?" Greg asked, moving closer to me.

"There are billions of them now, multiple billions in fact. Last night, I think Birch mentioned I have three billion." I said, leading to both Tempest and Greg looking a bit sick.

"THREE BILLION!? YOUR THRALLS OUTNUMBER THE ENTIRE PLANET'S POPULATION!" Tempest yelled.

"I know, I know, I'm working on a way to fix it." I said, rubbing my ears.

"Is that what you're working on now?" Greg asked hopefully, gesturing to the golden horn ring I was forging.

"No, that's for the shadow magic infecting my brain."

I heard a loud sound where Tempest was standing and when I looked over to her, I saw her with a hoof on her face and sitting down.

Author's Note

Hey, tell me what you think of the story so far. Anything you think I'm doing good on, anything you think I'm doing bad on, anything I could improve on?

I'm a bit shy so even If I don't reply to a comment, know that I read and value every single one I get