Return of the Lord

Twilight watched as Reldo knocked on the door in front of them. It was late evening by now, and the air had begun to cool. Twilight was apprehensive about the coming encounter, for she was eager to learn about the magic in this place, as she should be, for magic is her special talent.

A voice answered from within the round building, "Hello, may I help you?"

As this was said, the door was opened a small amount, and a face peered out from behind the gap. Once, it had recognised the visitor outside as Reldo, the face broke into a large smile.

"Ah! Reldo! It is always good to meet a friend, please come in!"

"Thank you Audbury, but I also have a guest with me," Reldo replied, gesturing to the purple unicorn beside him, "I believe we have much to discuss."

Audbury removed some glasses from a pocket in his robe, before fixing them onto his face and rubbing his eyes. He then opened the door fully, and leant forwards slightly with his hands on his hips, squinting and examining the aforementioned unicorn. Twilight suddenly wished she was very small, as it felt like the whole world seemed to be judging her at that point, and she began to shuffle nervously.

"Interesting, where did you acquire such a specimen?" Audbury asked, clearly not yet aware that the unicorn was sentient.

Reldo laughed a bit, before replying, "Well, she was found at the digsite unconscious, but once I took her back to the library we had a discussion about-"

"It can speak?" Audbury's eyes were wide with curiosity, he had never before heard of a speaking unicorn.

"Um, yes, my name is... um..." This speech was followed by an incoherent mumble, as Twilight had seemingly changed her mind about speaking up halfway through her sentence, but she soon realised she had just made things more awkward. Reldo was looking at her, expectantly, whilst Audbury seemed rather intrigued. Twilight also noticed another figure had crept up and was standing just inside the building.

Twilight pulled herself together quickly though, and standing up straight introduced herself.

"I mean, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I come from Equestria." Twilight looked expectantly at the men's faces, trying to judge their reaction, but was slightly dismayed when she realised that these creatures seemed to be much less expressive of their emotions than ponies.

"Interesting, well, I'm not an expert on geography, or animals, but you certainly are quite special." Audbury seemed satisfied, before he opened the door, gesturing for them to come in. Sedridor has also retreated into the house and was now sitting down on a chair, sipping some tea he had bought from a stall by the eastern gate.

Reldo and Twilight followed in, with Reldo closing the door behind them. He then turned and spoke to them again.

"You see, that's not all. Equestria is an entirely different realm, one I haven't heard about anywhere - it isn't mentioned in any books or scrolls in the library, not even once!" This caught the attention of both the magi, especially Sedridor, who was known to have an interest in realm physics.

"You mean that, somehow, this being has arrived from another realm to which we have no direct pathway? She has, seemingly, managed to make her own portal here without the aid of any elder artefacts?" Sedridor was leaning forwards, an elbow leant on the table was supporting his head, and he was most curious.

"It would appear that way," Reldo replied, eager to hear Sedridor's reply, and Twilight too was also listening eagerly.

Sedridor appeared to be engaged in deep thought for a long time, but then at last he answered,

"I know of no magic that could do this." He seemed to be frowning slightly, and indeed both Reldo and Twilight seemed to physically be disheartened, Twilight especially, now with the knowledge that these two could offer to her no help on her homewards journey.

"There is another thing that I think you should see," Reldo said to the two wizards, who turned back to Reldo with intrigue.

"Um, yes, I heard you two are masters of magic?" Twilight asked the two, cutting Reldo off, and catching both Reldo and the magi by surprise. Both Audbury and Sedridor found it a little amusing too, but at last Sedridor answered her.

"Now, I wouldn't say we are masters by a long way, but both of us are skilled in the arts of magic. In fact, Audbury sells magic equipment and supplies in this very shop! But why did you ask?" Sedridor Inquired.

"Twilight can perform magic without the use of runes." Reldo suddenly said, cutting in. The two wizards looked at him for a second, before bursting into laughter.

After a few seconds, they had pulled themselves back together and Audbury responded to Reldo and a very angry looking Twilight,

"Oh Reldo, that was a pretty good joke I must say, but I'm afraid that it was too obvious - such things are impossible. Sure, creatures like Greater Demons can use magic, but this is magic that is central to their being and their connection to abyssal energies. Even if Twilight could perform innate magic, it would be very limited."

Audbury suddenly let out a surprised yelp as he fell off his chair. He got up and dusted himself off, before turning around with an angry glare. This was soon wiped off his face however, and replaced with astonishment, for his chair was levitating, encased in a purple glow. Looking behind, he also saw that Twilight's horn was glowing with the same soft purple light.

"How remarkable!" Sedridor exclaimed, "Please Twilight, sit down and let us discuss this magic further."

Twilight put down Audbury's chair, and she and Reldo took a place at the table.

"Is levitation the only magic you can perform? And what kind of energy source do you use to power your magic?" Sedridor began questioning her, and he got out a notebook to start writing down answers. Audbury, meanwhile, although interested, was still quite annoyed at being removed from his chair.

"Well, where I come from all unicorns can use magic. Most unicorns can only use limited amounts of magic depending on their special talent, like a musician can use it to play her instrument finely, and they have more precise telekinesis than other ponies. My special talent, however, is magic, and this allows me to perform vast amounts of spells. I am also quite good at telekinesis and teleportation. As far as we know, the power for this magic comes from our horns, and does not seem to wear out, although it can exhaust the user. The other species of pony, Pegasi and Earth Ponies, also have some innate magic, but this cannot be harnessed and used consciously." Twilight stopped speaking, and looked around, expecting to see bored faces as she might have seen if she were back in Equestria, but found that everyone was still thoroughly interested.

"That is strange, what are these special talents you speak of? And what kind of spells can you cast?" Sedridor asked, and Twilight, overjoyed to be able to discuss magic, began to talk once more.

"Well, all ponies have a special talent, which is one thing they are good at. This is normally discovered by them by the time they are adolescents, and when they do discover it a mark on their flanks, a cutie mark, appears. These are magical also, and I know of several ponies who have conducted much research into them. As I said previously, the extent of a unicorn's magic is limited by this special talent, but I can learn several different spells, such as being able to grow moustaches on other ponies, and I once even travelled in time, but that was a rather frightful experience."

"These marks seem very interesting, but is that all your magic can do?" Sedridor was asking out of curiosity, but unfortunately it seemed Twilight found it a little insulting.

"What do you mean 'All it can do'?" Twilight pressed, quite annoyed that the magi seemed to think of her magic as rather trivial.

"No battle magic? Utility spells for smithing or farming?" Sedridor queried, as in his opinion Twilight's magic, although intriguing, seemed to be rather useless and trivial to him at the moment.

Twilight however, was dumbstruck. "Wha..What do you mean by Battle Magic?" she asked, quite horrified and hoping she had misheard. Magic had been her hobby, her love, since she was a young filly. In her eyes it was a useful tool, but also a companion, something that made her her. The thought of someone using magic for violence repulsed her, and although she knew she should have been prepared for it after the horrific sight she saw earlier, it had still hit her hard.

"Wait, your realm has no magic to use in combat?" Sedridor seemed to be on the edge of disbelief. Without applications in combat, in seemed to him as if the unicorn's magic was more of a novelty.

"Well, in times of dire need there are several artefacts known as the Elements of Harmony which are able to banish evil or imprison it in stone, but as far as I know there are no personal spells for use in combat. In fact, I had never even though of using magic to attack thins, but why would you need to?" Twilight asked.

"Well, for fighting! Magic is common practice in adventurers who wish to harness the power of the elements to annihilate their foes or to fight each other. It takes a lot of training to master magic, but it is very powerful" Sedridor responded.

"You use magic to kill?" Twilight had risen from her chair and seemed to be hyperventilating. Reldo and the wizards took action, trying to calm her down, worried she had gone into panic.

No! No! Why would anything want to kill another being? And they use magic? How can magic even be used to kill? I don't understand, Celestia help me...

Twilight was scared. She knew predators killed, and she found it shocking, but now she learnt that these creatures seem to kill each other, and she was terrified. How could something as beautiful as magic be corrupted into something so vile it could be used to kill?

"What are the elements you mentioned?" Twilight shouted this almost, backing away from the three animals. She had heard him mention them and was terrified. The elements could only be used for harmonious purposes to her knowledge, and she was horrified that they had been used to harm others.

"Yes, the four elements of Air, Water, Earth and Fire. We channel their energy using the clarity of mind, the strength of body, the power of chaos, and through the blessing of death." Audbury had answered her, and Twilight had only gotten more panicked.

Chaos? Are they in league with Discord? I have to escape from here...

...but I don't know how.

Twilight seemed to stop panicking, much to the relief of the three men. She was partly relieved that the elements mentioned were not the elements of harmony, but that still didn't remove the fact that they used magic to hurt people.

"Twilight, we're not going to harm you. I know that travelling to a new realm must be hard for you, but you're going to have to trust us!" Reldo said to Twilight. He was the first human Twilight had spoken to on arrival to Gielinor, and being a librarian, she trusted him more than the others.

I'm going to need their help if I ever want to return back home to Equestria, if I ever want to see my friends again, but how could I bring myself to trust a creature that can kill?

At last, Twilight, after looking to the three men, seemed to completely calm down.

"I'm, um, sorry, I'm just a little shaken, that's all. You see, where I come from, violence just dosen't really... ...happen." Twilight spoke to them, her head lowered a little.

"That does sound most odd. I must say, I probably couldn't imagine a world without violence." Sedridor replied. He was crouching, trying to get down to Twilight's level, although she wasn't that small.

At last the four returned to the table, and Twilight suddenly realised something. She had the opportunity now to learn about exotic alien magic. And she had questions.