“Well, I certainly hope there’s more than two. How limited is your detection radius?” Celestia just gives me the kind of a look a teacher gives a student when they ask an absurd question.

“Uh…. what? I can only detect out to 30ft but it moves with me. Can we circle back to that more than two?”

“We didn’t just leave all of Aurora's children down there to die or be converted, Ignis. It’s not a large number, but we were able to bring 10 of them with us. They’re under orders to only use a disguise if their life is in imminent danger or under direct orders from a superior. Even then they need to create their identities themselves, no duplicating existing ponies allowed.”

“Wow, that's surprisingly competent. Good move sunbutt.”

“First of all, almost every action I take is competent. Secondly, if you ever call me that again I will turn you into glass.” She gives me a smug smirk.

“Brutal. Hey, since no one else is out here and we have seemingly nothing to talk about….why don’t you give me a little lesson on magic?” I ask her with my eyes shifted to the side, nervously.

She has a look of deep contemplation as she shifts her lips left and right, tilting her head. “Very well. That book you read likely stated that the runic alphabet contains 40 letters, that is incorrect. There are a near infinite number of characters, but with the core 40 you can cast around 95% of all magic.”

“But how do you use spells that require multiple runes? The book didn’t really cover that…”

“Well for us it is quite simple. You see the spiraling line that goes up my horn?” I give her a small nod. “Each solid section of horn between the lines represents a different layer for us. I could cast a spell that requires 21 runes for example, but someone like Rarity could only do 7. This is where you are likely going to have the bulk of your struggles. You’re already an irregularity to our known magic fundamentals, you’re the only non-unicorn, besides alicorns of course, that can perform magic. Even I'm unsure how you’ll overcome this multi-rune problem, though.”

“But I thought pegasi and even earth ponies could all use magic?”

She shakes her head at me, “No. They can use mana, but only when mana is shaped through a rune or incantation can it be called magic and they are simply incapable. Also, don’t misunderstand. I said unicorns can utilize as many runes as they have layers, but it’s not quite so simple. For every layer they add the amount of mana needed for the spell is exponentially increased. They also need to have an increased mastery of moving the mana, even if Rarity had the mana to perform a 7-rune spell it’s unlikely she has the ability to force the mana through all of the layers.”

“How can you hold the mental image of multiple runes at once while moving the mana through them?”

“That’s another advantage the horn gives us, once a rune is applied to a layer it can be maintained with no effort or attention. When we’re born the connection to our horn is intuitively ingrained into us.”

“So basically you’re all a bunch of cheaters.” I summarize with an annoyed look on my face.

“It’s not the first time I’ve heard that. Would you like to give a multi-rune spell a try?” She summons a piece of paper and draws 3 runes on it. “You’ll want to set them up in this order, but keep in mind the mana needs to go through all of them in an instant. Using 1 rune and rapidly morphing it will never be fast enough to satisfy the spell, it’ll collapse before you get the next rune ready. Once you’re able to perform this spell I’ll teach you the meanings of each rune and how the meaning can change if used with another rune.”

She thinks to herself that if she’s lucky he’ll never overcome this wall, but Celestia acknowledges it’ll likely only take him a couple of months.

After 30 minutes or so of me failing the alicorn eventually stops giggling at my frustration and summons a book to read. I’ve managed to perform two runes, but the problem I’m running into isn’t even the ability to maintain the shape of 3 runes. The problem is that I’m forcing the mana through the layers in my head and then sending it straight to my hand, but the amount of time it takes for the spell to travel down is too long and the shape of the mana collapses. It was so easy with just 1 rune for the light spell that I didn’t even think this was a potential issue.

6 hours later. 4:40AM.

I’ve given up on multiple runes. I need to put all my focus on figuring out how to shape the mana in my hand instead of my head. It took everything I had and even made my break out in a sweat but I was able to maintain 3 runes at once. The time it takes for the mana to traverse down to my hands once shaped is simply too long. It’ll never be possible. I spent a couple of hours trying to eject the mana from anywhere else, and although it seems like the mouth can work it caused me a great amount of pain.

2 hours later. 6:40AM

The sun rises and Celestia walks over to me and watches as my face wrinkle from pure strain as I continue to attempt brute forcing this spell. But, it finally hits me, I think I know how I can do this. I imagine circles in my forearm. Then I divide up the outer edge of each circle and imprint all 40 characters into its own box along the edge. It’s easy for me to do this because I drew a physical representation of the design on a piece of paper in front of me.

With this I can theoretically recreate a unicorn horn, but with slight differences. I can’t just embed the rune into each circle and let it stick, but I can imagine a notch on the top of my forearm. Then I picture each wheel turning until each wheel is rotated in such a way that the correct runes are lined up together in sync on the notch. Now I just need to imagine each circle has a screen in the center of it. This is an imaginary magical item in my head, and I’m really not sure why this works but for some reason assigning everything to a fixed place like this makes it much easier on my concentration. The screen on the first wheel displays the rune aligned to the notch, then the 2nd and 3rd wheels also light up in the middle with their own screens. Now all 3 runes are sitting on this magic item inside my forearm. As I turn the wheel I watch the rune on the screen change to match.

Once I play with it enough I turn the wheels so that the runes fall into the correct characters in the correct order for the spell Celestia wants me to cast. Once that’s done I open my eyes and jump up onto my feet. The actions are done so quickly that Celly jumps back a little in surprise. I turn and look her straight into the eyes, “I’ve done it.”

She looks left then right and sees nothing different. “Are you sure you’ve done it? Because to everypony else out here it looked like you were trying to give yourself a hernia.”

I point the palm of my hand at her and she steps to the side. “Woah there Ignis, don’t point that thing at any of us. Aim it towards the ground away from camp, you don’t even know what the spell is!”

“So, what’s the spell?” I cock up an eyebrow as I stare at her.

“Well I’m not going to ruin the surprise now, you’ve apparently done it so just cast the spell and find out for yourself.”

I close my eyes and re-picture the magic item. It takes a few seconds but it reappears. I turn each wheel again to the correct runes. Next I put my attention on the core of my mana in my chest and with as much force as possible I ram the mana down my arm into the palm of my hand. I watch the mana go through all 3 rings and then gasp in surprise as the mana shifts from its typical blue color into a bright red and orange. Opening my eyes I watch as a line of fire jets out from the palm of my hand and impacts the ground several feet away with a loud crash.

I quickly shift my hand from a flat palm into a finger gun and yell out “Fire Bolt!” as I point my finger a few feet to the left of the Equestrian version of the spell. After the dust and smoke clears it seems as though the damage to the ground and the size of the scorch mark for MY fire bolt is more than the Equestrian version. That could be because I was so surprised by the result of the spell that the mental image of the magic machine shattered. I’ll need to work on a way to use that method while keeping my eyes open. I can’t exactly run around fighting while blind.

I turn to my right and look back at Celestia only to find that Luna has joined us now as well. Luna looks quite proud but Celestia looks like she’s currently knee deep in Vietnam flashbacks.
Before I can comment on Celestia's condition Luna walks further up to me. “I can’t believe you managed it! When Tia told me she had sent you on an impossible path I prepared a speech to bring up your spirits, but to think you’ve casted a triple rune spell after 1 night is truly outstanding! You know if you wanted to make that spell equivalent to the one you fired afterwards you would just need to add this rune to the end of the formula. This rune is a static rune, no matter where you place it in a formula or what you combine it with it will always mean “Strengthen.” Why not try adding a few and see what happens?” She projects an image of a rune into the air with her horn.

I decide to instantly try and adapt this new information to the configuration. I add 3 more wheels into my mental image and start turning them to set the rune, but after the 4th wheel is turned I instantly feel a wave of fatigue. Pushing on I turn the 5th wheel only to watch as the first wheel begins to blur and I’m unable to make out the image of the rune that’s displayed in the center of the wheel. At the same time I fall on my ass and struggle to catch my breath. Why did it suddenly sap so much energy from me….?

“Very interesting, so was it the 5th rune or the 6th?” Luna’s head pops into the edge of my upper vision as she questions me.

I look directly up into her eyes and after a moment of silence I reply. “It was the 5th one. The 4th one actually caused me to feel quite fatigued but the 5th one is when everything fell apart and I got knocked on my ass.”

She giggles a bit and offers me an explanation when I give her a questioning look. “I intentionally didn’t tell you, but that strengthen rune adds a 10 times multiplier to the mana cost. If you add 2 it becomes 100 times more costly. For those of us with horns we don’t have to concentrate on maintaining the shape of the rune but for you it seems like that rune also ended up increasing the mental power needed to maintain it times 100. If that’s the case then I’m impressed you’re even conscious.” Lifting her head and turning to look at Celestia she continues. “Sister, would you please quit acting like Ignis just murdered your bird? You’re overreacting.”

Sure enough I look over and she still has that astonished look on her face as she stares at the scorch marks on the ground. I stand up and walk over to the stunned alicorn and throw my arm around the back of her neck. “So, you sent me down an impossible path, huh? Was that supposed to be payback for the incompetent comment? Did you truly wish to watch me struggle for an indefinite amount of time? Luna is right though you should gather your thoughts and prepare to depart. The guards are already just about done tearing down camp.”

An hour or so passes and Luna and I wave goodbye to the guard formation as they continue on their march back to Equestria. The two of us then look at each other and after a quick nod we begin walking in the opposite direction, back towards the colosseum. I glance at my 15ft of movement speed and fight the urge to hiss in pain with every step. Our progress is going to be quite slow with the way I’m shuffling forward with my half shattered body.

After two hours of stop and go walking Luna finally lets out a frustrated “Ugh!” I sheepishly look down at the ground in embarrassment, knowing I’m the sole reason for our unreasonably slow pace. “Just climb on, Ignis. We’ll get to our camping spot much quicker and it’ll allow us for more resting time.”

“Absolutely not. You’re already carrying the firewood and a majority of our supplies. I refuse to make you carry everything including my own body. It goes against my pride and everything I stand for if I am to burden you like that.”

“That’s sweet and I appreciate the sentiment, but Ignis forcing me to walk at this agonizing pace in the hot desert sun is much more of a burden than me just flying ahead while carrying you. Please just climb on. I insist.” She bends all 4 legs and lowers herself while staring at me with a pleading look.

“Please forgive me.” I quietly mutter out loud before throwing one leg over her and sitting down on her back.

She stands back up to her full height and spreads her wings, forcing my legs back. As my legs get pushed back it causes my upper half to lean forward. I wrap my arms around her neck and after asking me if I’m secure, she takes off.

We don’t want to be spotted from afar during our approach so Luna rockets through the air just a foot or so above the ground. As my hair whips around from the wind I can’t help but look at the princess and remember the last two days. It feels like ever since we escaped she’s been more…. physical? The wing blanket, the hug, and now insisting we travel like this. It’s nothing concerning and it’s a very small change in behavior, but still interesting. I can’t help but wonder what happened or what thought she had during the event that led to this. I can’t say I dislike it though, and right as I finish that thought my eyelids get heavy and I fall asleep.

Exhaustion Level: 3. Hit Points: 63/63. Movement Speed: 15ft.

I wake up to the sounds of a crackling fire and the sun setting in the distance. Looking over I spot Luna meditating with her horn lit. It seems like she’s preparing herself to raise the moon soon. Without opening her eyes she calls out to me, “You know, if you were truly considerate of me you’d have kept me company during the flight instead of falling asleep. Now if I want our sleep schedules to match I need to stay up all night. Good news though, we won’t need to move at all tomorrow. I was able to get us into position.”

I sit up and offer her a sympathetic look, “Unfortunately the plan is to infiltrate the hive at night tomorrow, so I’ll need to maintain this sleep schedule so I’m wide awake during the op.”

She points her nose up to the sky and makes a very undignified “hmph” noise. “Then as your princess, no, your goddess I demand you entertain me so that I may more easily stay awake.”

I can’t help but to chuckle at her silliness, “Of course, Your Grace. This lowly knight will do his very best. You know so much about my mother and her Moonblade and my relationship with her, so how about I give you a few stories involving my father?”

As I near the end of my sentence her horn glows bright and I watch as the night sky slowly spreads across the sky. Once Luna is done she lowers her head from her pouting pose and opens her eyes, giving me a soft smile. “I think I would enjoy that.”

Author's Note

That is a supremely silly title, but I couldn't think of a better one.

Next chapter will likely contain more of this slow paced slice of life, dialogue heavy content, but assuming I don't come up with some random shit on the spot (Which I usually do, this entire magic system was made up on the spot so I wouldn't be surprised if I've left some giant plot hole in it's functionality that's vulnerable to exploitation) we should get a small chunk of the infiltration next chapter.

Seriously though, I hope I did a decent enough job with this magic system. The best he can do right now is seemingly weaker than a cantrip, but there's plenty of room to grow and I can think a few different applications that are quite interesting. But, it was all seriously cooked up in like 45 minutes so I wouldn't be surprised if I've overlooked something critical and left an inconsistency or something somewhere.

Thanks for reading!