Corruption is Magic

Walking into my office I close the door and slide down to the floor not caring about the looks I get. That power… what the heck was that? The old Lord of this manor was formidable and beat my flank but… that was something else entirely. “My dear, you look as if you could flop over and perish.” Alexander chuckles walking over to me followed by Nile.

“The… Viscountess had some choice words with me. She threatened to…” I stop short of saying what she would do but one glance up the others seem to get the message. “... well she threatened me if I upset the status quo. Normally I would explain why things need to change in a logical manner but… she had so much power coming off her. It’s nothing like I have ever seen before.” I shakily say, shivering at the thought of how much power she holds in her.

“Ah, she’s one to show her cards then.” Alexander happily says with a small chuckle as he strokes his chin in thought. “I would have thought a person in that status would hold her cards to her chest.”

“Alexander…” I say lamely getting his attention on me again. “I don’t know if we should mess with her.”

“So you’re quitting?” He asks me with his usual smile. There’s that question again… why does he keep asking me that?

“I don’t want to but… I’m the Element of magic. Celestia told me many times that a pony… a person like me is hard to come by every Century. If even I am dwarfed by her magical might… I don’t want you all to get hurt following my foalish dreams and aspirations.”

“So you are quitting.” Alexander says, an air of cockyness in his tone making me grind my teeth.

“So what if I am? It’s better than seeing those I care about get hurt or worse die!” I angrily say feeling my emotions flare.

“You say that as if they didn’t weigh those possibilities before joining you.” Alexander says crouching down to look at me at eye level, looking to the others in the room I see reassuring looks and in Gaurt’s case a confident smirk. “You may be right on being the Element of magic but you don’t know all of magic I’d wager since based on the letter you only know of select aspects.” Looking back at Alexander I tilt my head, feeling my anger sputter out into confusion. Certain Aspects?

“What do you mean Certain Aspects?”

“Tell me Twilight. Did your world have Corruption magic in it?” Alexander asks but as I think about the question I come to the answer quickly.

“No.”

“Alright, and how widespread is Dark magic?”

“Not very. The only prominent users are far and inbetween.” I say not seeing his point.

“Alright and how about Chaos magic?”

“Only Discord has that.” I say getting a nod from Alexander who smirks widely.

“Now list all the other forms of magic you know of.”

“Well… there is Unicorn magic, earth pony mag-”

“No no, All that is base magic, neutral magic. Think of it as a magic that every being has but has no consciousness, no drive to it to spur it further than what is required or intended by the user.” Alexander says waving his hand with chuckles as he speaks. “What I mean is there is magic you know of that has aspects to it. Dark magic uses anger and negativity to fuel spells along with the user's normal magic which helps empower them. Magic Like that?”

“The power of friendship?” I sheepishly ask, causing Alexander and Gaurt to facepalm. Alright, not that… Wait, magic with aspects, I think I read about this once. “No wait… Harmony would be one wouldn’t it? I mean it’s often depicted as a conscious force of nature but it also was a kind of magic my friends and I utilized through the Elements of Harmony.” Hearing this Alexander lowers his hand from his face and nods with a smile on his face.

“That’s right, now can you think of any more?” Well if that’s right then… Love, The magic of love caused the Changeling Invasion to get repealed in Canterlot.

“Love?”

“Correct, any more?”

“Uh… I’m sorry. I don’t know any more.” I say getting a diminished smile from Alexander as if he is saddened by hearing this. Did… did I not do good?

“It seems that your world is woefully under informed on magic as a whole… or there is much hidden even from you, Twilight.” Alexander quietly says. “I’ll have to fix this error it seems, so that you know that this mountain you face isn’t as insurmountable as you feel.” Getting up from his crouched position He offers me a hand which I look at for a few seconds before taking it.

“So please sit down and we will get these ones out of here. Paperwork can wait.” Alexander says tossing a look at everyone present.

“But tomorrow is the-”

“Ah ah ah.” Alexander cuts me off, giving me a stern look. “Did the Viscountess not threaten to hurt you if you upset the status quo?”

“Yes but we have already done so.”

“Yes, but obviously not enough to draw her ire. Let’s prepare beforehand so that when we make more changes we are better prepared.” Alexander says, pushing my back with his hands towards my desk. Pushing me into my chair he turns to the others who are filing out of the room and shoos them away and closes the door behind them.

“Okay. Now, please pull out paper and take notes. This will need to be remembered, my Dear.” Alexander says as he snaps his fingers and suddenly glasses appear on his face. Following his instructions I quickly pull out a quill and paper. “Now there are more aspects to magic than you know. Now magic is formed into many pairs with mutually exclusive wellsprings, that a person can nurture. That is unless it is Base magic, it is the jumping off point and though still nurture-able it has no counterpart like the rest… well that has been discovered.”

“You mentioned pairs with exclusive wellsprings… what do you mean?” I ask, to which Alexander stops in place and goes silent for a bit before snapping his fingers making an illusion of five different slider switch looking things that are horizontal.

“This is the best way to imagine it. So each of these bars are a Pair, to each side is a kind of magic wellspring. Everyone starts in the middle like they are right now. Now for some certain magic will be easier to go one way or another but with enough work they can go just as far as everyone else's. However, you can’t have a Wellspring of each kind of magic that makes a Pair.” Writing all the information down I reach the end of my first page and quickly grab more paper.

“Then what are these Pairs?”

“That’s an excellent question my Dear. However that is also where I’m a tad bit confused. So, to start off with there is Chaos with the opposite being Harmony.”

“Seems pretty obvious… where is the confusion?”

“The confusion is with the later ones. The next magic is Dark and its opposite is Light.”

“Wait, Light?” I asked, recoiling from confusion. I’ve never heard of light magic… it seems almost as if it should be part of Harmony.

“Light magic is tranquility, peace, and happiness. Like how Dark is Negativity, anger, and war.” Alexander says as he moves the second bar slider left and right to emphasize his words. Does… this mean the Dark magic in me influenced my thoughts?

“Now then…” Alexander says, snapping me back to his lesson. “The next one is one you might recognise part of. Corruption, its counterpart is Purity.” Purity? I mentally recoil hearing the other magic I hadn’t ever heard of that has a positive sound to it. Why haven’t I learned of all this? The more… bad sounding ones I can look past… did Celestia not know… or did she hide these from me and if so why? “Purity is the opposite of Corruption but both do the same kind of Concept but in different views. Both are closely tied to one's Body and soul, Corruption is where your body is a temple of desire and lust thus resulting is a Corrupt soul, or that’s how those who practice Purity describe it. Purity unlike Corruption sees their body and soul as a sacred temple and that you are a chaste treasure.” Nodding, I write down what he says. “Now the next pair is Hate and Love. These two are self explanatory, you use your hate for people as fuel and an enhancement to your spells and you let hate grip you. While Love be it romantic or other acts as a fuel and enhancement.”

“That explains my experience with Love magic.” I say happily as I think about my Brother’s wedding.

“This brings us to the last pair known so far.”

“You say that as if magical Pairs are still being discovered.” I say getting a nod from Alexander who takes off his glasses and looks at me.

“They are… though it’s tricky. We don’t know if there are new ones to find, we just have to assume there are but we have yet to discover them. The absence of evidence of new magical pairs doesn’t discount the possibility of them existing, as just a few centuries ago the magic of Chaos was finally uncovered. We knew before then that Harmony… or more commonly known as Order existed but no one knew what the opposite was.” They didn’t know what chaos was? Wait… could that mean… “Something on your mind Dear?” Alexander says, snapping my back out of my thoughts.

“Sorry, just thinking about what you taught me so far. So, what magical wellsprings do you have?”

“Ah, I have mixed my wellsprings like you have but if separated I’d have Order, Corruption, Dark, a bit of Hate, and Kindness.” Hearing his casual listing of the aspects he has I feel unsure how to feel.

“That’s an interesting spread of aspects.”

“These can fluctuate as you go through life.” Alexander chuckles with a wave of his hand. “I used to be Order, Corruption, Dark, full Hate, and Cruelty. That changed however… Gomra changed that. My Cruelty wellspring dried up and I eventually delved into Kindness when Gelfree happened. Don’t think however that just because a person has an aspect doesn’t mean they can’t show emotions and things that make up other aspects on occasions. These aren’t the end all be all for what makes a person. Just what wellsprings are formed based on daily relation. We will touch on each aspect in an hour, I need to prepare some things. Recess time.”