An unexpected visit

The feast in front of you looks amazing. Everything is intricately decorated and it looks absolutely beautiful. The taste however... apparently minotaurs take more after bulls than humans in their eating habits. So they eat pretty much the same things Twilight and the other ponies eat.

You however can't eat hay or daisies. It would mess up your stomach and probably make you very sick. The only things you eat are the things that you can actually eat without messing up yourself. The bread, which seems like it's made in the sixteen hundreds, doesn't taste too bad, only a few chunks here and there which are hard enough to crack your teeth.

You've had quite enough of the food and get straight to the point.

"How do you know about humans?" The question is directed toward the King but Viridiana answers.

"I will explain if you wish, but it is a long story." She says calmly.

She pauses for a while so that you can make up your mind, and you nod to her to continue.

"The reason we know of humans has got to do with the very creation of our kingdom. They played a significant, but covert, part in its creation. There is no record of how they got here but when they did it triggered a war unlike any other. That was over five thousand years ago. Have you ever heard or read of 'The Great War of the Midnight Sun'?

"That is the war between humans and minotaurs. It all started..."

Viridiana told all about the war, how the humans had come with incredible technology. How they had used crystals as a power source and had machines that could destroy entire cities in a single blow.

These humans also had a dark skin colour with light-blue tattoos all over them. At a certain point they brought massive crystals with them, through the portal they created, which shone almost as bright as the sun, therefore the name 'The Great War of the Midnight Sun'.

The things Viridiana says stirs your memories more than anything had until now. You know who these humans must have been. There's no other explanation. Atlantians.

"I know who these humans were." You say,interrupting the Mage, feeling you have to share this information of your memories.

"They must have been Atlantians. I remember stories from where I come from, with humans being described the same way you describe them, but I also remember that they're just a legend, a myth, a story, nothing more than that." You frown a bit as your mind hits another wall blocking your access to other parts of your memories.

Viridiana continues her story after your short interruption, warning you that if you'd do that again she'd punish you severely. She speaks about how all the clans got together and formed a pact to be able to defeat the overwhelming force of the humans. They combined their magick and taught each other what spells they knew.

Eventually they were able to push the humans back through the portal, but one of the crystals had remained. The ponies had found this crystal about a thousand years later and put it to good use. This is how the crystal empire was founded. The crystal's power was used for good instead of evil, so the minotaurs didn't object to let the ponies have something that could 'potentially' be used for mass destruction.

After the war the minotaurs had decided to create a kingdom out of their combined land to be able to fend off any foolish enough to ever try and take over their land again. Viridiana finishes her story leaving you to think about a lot of things. You can remember certain very specific things about 'home', but only things that are unrelated to yourself.

"There is however one aspect left untold." The King says now that Viridiana has finished her story.

"This is something I have not told before, to anyone." The king pauses as he readies himself to share his untold story.

"My father, who was King before me had passed on his memories to me before he died. Although the memories weren't only his, but also the memories of my grandfather, and of his grandfather and so on. The memories date back to the war and there is something interesting that had happened at the time.

"A human who had come through the portal had secretly left the army to confront the minotaurs from a different angle. She almost got herself killed in the process but she was lucky that it was my ancestor, who was a leader at the time, had found her before his legion had.

"He took her to a secret lair and they started talking. She was a human who didn't want to fight, but rather make friends. At first my ancestor thought she was playing a trick on him, but she had given him the secret of how to disable their machines with magick. All they had to do was hit a button on the vehicle and it would shut down. It would literally drop to the ground like a brick.

"After some time she got hit by magick because she tried to go out only to be met by minotaurs who didn't know she was my ancestor's friend. Her body reacted explosively and unleashed her own magic placing all the surrounding minotaurs in stasis. She didn't know what happened and she panicked. This in turn made her very dangerous.

"She had a tremendous amount of uncontrolled magic and she was running around the country, placing countless minotaurs and humans alike in stasis. She took out more soldiers than the whole human army had, without her ever wanting to do so. There are no stories of this incident as it was all linked to the main war, but to stop her was the hardest thing my ancestor had ever had to do.

"During the time he had spent with her he had grown to love her. They even had a child in the time of the war, but now he had to destroy her. There was no other option. So he had given the child all his memories and asked one of his sisters to take care of him.

"He then went on a suicide mission to save his lover from further grief and his kingdom from any more deaths. It was the greatest story ever to be concealed from the world." The king sighs and slumps in his chair.

"This was the reason that a human was not to learn magick ever. We had no idea how a human would react, or the environment for that matter."

You think about his story for a few moments before realizing...

"So you are part human?" You ask surprised.

"Yes I am. Because of this I have never been touched by magick, nor have I tried using it. It is also why I wear this armour. It blocks any and all magick, this way my magick can never be activated. But since you have already been 'activated' and not freaked out I want to take full advantage and carefully observe what the consequences are!" He was saying with a voice too happy for such a big, horned, creature.

"Your training will begin once you arrive back in Ponyville. You can leave tomorrow at dawn." The king says looking at his guests who are getting up from their seats.

"I have a better idea than walking back." Twilight squeals happily. "I can teleport us back! But only if I have a magic booster. Your highness..." Twilight starts as she takes a bow. "Who are your most capable magicians?"

"Well, Viridiana is definitely the most capable, and then there's Aurora. She's also very strong, although not quite at the same level as Viridiana. Why do you ask?"

"I need a magic boost to perform such a long distance teleport. How much power can you provide Viridiana?" Twilight looks to the minotaur towering over her.

"I have enough power for what you want to do. We will not need Aurora's aid for this." Viridiana says with a determined smirk.

"Then if it is all the same to you, we can go back to Ponyville immediately." Twilight looks at the king, and than at you.

"I'm fine with it." You say with a smug look on your face.

"OF COURSE you can go back now. The sooner you start with your lessons the better!" The king laughs as he gives a wave of dismissal, letting you know that it is time to leave.

Twilight has set up the incantation circle and is now starting on her long-distance teleportation spell, with Viridiana feeding her some extra magic every now and then.

After some time of concentrating the air starts to wave a little. With a loud crack and a bright flash a rift in space opens up.

"I thought you were going to teleport us". You state, stunned by the tear in the fabric of space.

"We are. Just step through here and you'll be back in Ponyville." Twilight nudges you toward the softly pulsating portal.

"Why not just teleport us like you usually do?" You ask her with nervousness making your voice crack.

"That only works short-range, this rift is for long-distance teleportation. The magic required for short-range teleportation grows exponentially the further you try to teleport. This spell will always use just as much magic, which is more than I can currently manage by myself." Twilight nudges you further toward the portal.

Suddenly you feel two hands, yes Hands, on your back which push you right into the portal. The feeling of transportation through the broken fabric of space is difficult to describe. It's like jumping into a freezing whirlpool and then being tossed into a washing machine at sixty degrees Celsius.

Once it stops you realize you had closed your eyes and now you slowly open them. In front of you is the library, upside down. You hang in mid-air for a few more seconds before hitting the ground head-first.

A few seconds later Twilight lands on top of you with a thump, also upside down. You quickly roll away from the spot, taking Twilight with you, just in time to see the minotaur gracefully stepping out of thin air onto her feet, right at the place you were just lying.

"Not used to long-distance teleportation?" Viridiana half-asks as she walks toward the library.

"First time actually." You grunt as you pushing Twilight off of yourself, allowing yourself to get up.

You help Twilight up onto her hooves and quickly notice how exhausted she is from the incantation.

"C'mon let me help you get inside." You carefully place your arm around her to keep her from buckling to the floor from her exhaustion.

Once inside the library you guide Twilight to her room and carefully place her on her bed, you'll let her rest until dinner, than you'll wake her again, to see if she's replenished some of her energy.

You walk back down the stairs to stand face-to-face with the minotaur, who's about the same height as you.

"All you have learned until now about magick you must forget." Viridiana starts, she's definitely not going to waste a single moment in educating you in the arts of magick.

"Just let all the knowledge flow away from your mind." She talks with such a calming voice which makes you feel relaxed and lets you focus on forgetting.

You slowly let all your past knowledge of magick float from the deepest crevices of your mind and away into the nothingness of the void. The feeling is completely alien to you but you let it all pass as you relax even more. Without even realizing you have your eyes closed and you are sitting on the ground, cross legged, across from your Master.

"I will now teach you how to properly disperse your magick, without affecting the environment or anything else." You can hear Viridiana speak and you understands what she says, but it feels like you aren't in the binds of your body any more, as if you are floating above yourself, watching all that is happening.

"I sense you are already in the correct phase of conciousness. Now look at your body and see where your magick is located." You open your eyes. What you see is indeed what you felt, but it still shocks you to see that you are, indeed, floating over your own and Viridiana's body.

You look over to your Master and see that she too has an ethereal form floating over herself. It isn't like anything you've seen before. You can't actually 'see' anything, but you can 'sense' everything which than forms an image in your mind, somewhat like the eyes do, but now you're using your, let's call it your, sixth sense.

You now focus on your own body and quickly find what Viridiana was talking about. In your stomach area you 'see' a large pool of energy, slowly but surely filling you up to the edge of your capacity. You now understand exactly why you have to release some of it, before you overfill and potentially explode.

"Now, guide some of that energy to your current 'body'." You try to do as she says, but somehow you can't manage to control it. You remember forgetting all you learned about magick and its control which makes you now incapable of doing what your master is asking of you.

"Think of it as an extension of yourself, like a third arm, but now reaching out to your consciousness and staying there." You follow her advice and try to extend your magick toward yourself as if stretching your arm.

Surprisingly you feel the energy slowly floating toward you and out of your body, once it is completely removed form your body it attaches itself to your ethereal form. You move it around a bit until you find a nice spot to temporarily put it, until you know what to do with it.

"Now I want you to do the same thing with this energy as you did with your memories, you must open the void and let all that excess energy just flow into that place, but be careful to not let yourself get pulled into there." Viridiana's tone was one with severe caution in it and it makes you feel kind of scared.

But you do as she says and you try to let the energy just flow away. Something is different this time though, instead of feeling it slip away into nothingness you feel it dispersing to your surroundings instead of a tear in the ethereal plane of magick and energy.

"Focus human, you mustn't let it go. You must force it to go into the void. Magick is alive, unlike memories, and it does not want to be put into nothingness, it will fight back. Magick by itself is volatile and can mess with anything it touches. You must force it and not let it wander around in this plane of existence."

You once again focus on the magick which is still trying to get away, now that it 'knows' that you will force it into the void. You grab hold onto the magick and guide it back to yourself, before opening up a portal to the void and forcing the magick through it. But before you close the portal again you can't help but sense a fragment of that godforsaken plane. This is exactly what should never happen.

Your mind gets attacked by infinite wisdom. You suddenly know the colours of the wind, the smell of 'X', you even know what happens when an unstoppable object slams into an unmovable object. You know the infinite possibilities of paradoxes and you can remember all of your past lives, each one of them.

"FOCUS!" Suddenly booms through your head as you are brought back to reality by your Master. All that you knew just seconds before was now gone. Everything put back into the nothingness of infinity. Into the Void.

"As I said, Never Ever go into that forsaken place. Not even with an anchor like me, it is not worth it." You feel yourself being pulled back into your body and you can see normally again.

"This is how you destroy excess energy. I will teach you how to master this ability without having to go into your ethereal state. It will take a lot of practice, but it is necessary for not only your own safety but also for that of others." Just as Viridiana finishes her sentence you hear the tell-tale sound of hooves clopping on wood, as Twilight descends from the stairs.

Apparently the time spent in the Void doesn't match up with the normal flow of time. Viridiana says that you have been in 'Limbo' for almost three hours, and that is has taken her substantial effort to pull you out again.

Now that you know what time it is you begin to feel hungry, and you decide to start preparing dinner for the three of you. Remembering that Spike is staying at Rarity's place. You also haven't told anyone in the village yet that you've returned.

You head to the kitchen and start on the preparations, grabbing the vegetables and spices necessary for a nice hot meal at the end of the day.

A.N.:

I apologize for not updating for so long, but I'm seriously having inspiration troubles. I seem to have been kicked from the plane of inspiration and I can barely even see in my head what's happening in the story.

I will try to write as much as possible, but it will be irregular.

I rewrote this chapter about five or six times.

I hope it's still good enough.

Brohoof to all /)

And remember, Enjoy reading.

Yours Faithfully,

ThePorqupine.