Day of admission in the magical school, and along with that, the date then one certain lavender filly discovered her special talent, turned out to be very tedious. And while suppressing the Etherial Resonance was simple enough and fast, but Ley-lines still suffered massive damage, and I had to mend them. Repeating the routine, albeit a very complicated action, a few million times - it is very tiring, even for the Goddess. And when I finished with my duties, I began doing work that must be done by other gods, who simply don't care about this world (like Discord), or they just can't do anything (for example, my mother, Erebia).
In particular, I ran along the border between the living world and the world of the dead, patched some holes in the Veil and sent back to the Shimmering Void few abominations, trying to get out from that place (nothing really serious this time, but sometimes really horrific monsters trying to break out), gently wiped the residual memories of the mortals who is about to reincarnate, once again straightened the shifting flows of spiritual energy around the Huffington, and ruthlessly destroyed a swarm of nightmares, which tried to break free from the Card of Dreams. Next, I have restricted my computational capabilities, narrowing my perception to the natural possibilities of my avatar, and thereby has reduced the consumption of the limited reserves of energy of faith. And, since in this world I have no believers, its replenishment becomes a pretty difficult task.
And then, I returned to my mortal body, only to detect that in an hour the dawn will begin. Hm-m-m... Only now I realized that my body is indestructible, which means, I can try one of the varieties of magic, which had previously been too dangerous for me, so I was restricted by theoretical stydies only. Igniting my horn, I said a very strange phrase:
"Shift, the Magician of Chaos!!! Yay!!!"
When the Chaos Magic reacted to my clumsy attempt to use it, as expected, namely, in a completely unexpected way, I gave up.
So, the rest of the night I was meditating and looking at the Stars (and these guys, in turn, stared at me, and, I could have sworn, was laughing at me!). And then beam of blinding light, aiming to burn my retina, hit me right in the eye. This is Princess Celestia finally sent her blessings to this world, and raised our artificial star. Without blinking, I admired the magnificent sight, looking directly into the glorious sunrise.
Uttering something between a yawn and a moan full of pleasure, I stretched over and, moved into a sitting position. Okay, time to get up, freshen up and go for biological fuel for my mortal vessel. Still stretching, I cast a cleaning spell, causing a magical Apocalypse for the great civilizations of intelligent micro-organisms, living on my fur (I'll never experiment with the Chaos Magic again). Then I teleported to myself a set of horn care, and began gently polishing it. What?! Horn is the most important part of the alicorn! In addition, quite sensitive. If you know what I mean...
Finishing with polishing my horn, I slipped out of my room. It is natural, that servants, that worked in the mansion, already not sleeping, and scurried about their business. When I left my chamber, they bowed and voiced a greeting, and I politely answered them, at the same time trying to determine if my "parents" in the mansion. The answer came — Yes, they're here.
My "parents"... Ponies whom I must respect and love... Well, I suppose, I have some love and respect for them, somewhere in the depths of my dark soul. So, as I mentioned earlier, my parents are aristocrats. A couple of Pegasi which descended from the higher military ranks of Pegasopolis who was granted nobility when Equestria was founded. Of course they are both purebred Pegasi and their ancestors was also a Pegasus. So the daughter-unicorn is sort of a shame, in their understanding. However, when during a regular medical examination, doctor voiced the size of my magic well, "parents" marveled at the discovery of new opportunities and agreed that I definitely might be useful. The birth of a strong mage in the noble family raises their prestige to the skiesand. And provides an excellent opportunity for dynastic marriages with the noble families of unicorns. And honestly, for Pegasi tribalist who worship their tribe about the same way as I worship tjhe alicorn (Yes, I'm belive in the greatness of alicorn race, superior race of this world!) they are completely normal pony. And for the aristocrats, they are also quite tolerable.
But enough about the unfortunate hornless ponies, the story is not about them, but about me. Making sure that no one can see me, I yawned and trotted towards the kitchen. Well, I have a growing body that will not be satiated by Holy spirit alone. Well it could be sustained by it, but it is too inefficient.
For a pony I have rather strange tastes in food. If anything, I love meat. At the moment, I expressed my love for hefty ham, the size of a third of me. In the process, my belly has acquired some resemblance to a ball.
But back to business. In this moment I need to wait until the start of classes. Or if to say easier — how to spend four hours of time, because now is only six in the morning, and I must go to school then it will be ten. Hmm... what to do... should I call Nocturne?
I shook my head, trying to understand exactly, what gave me that "brilliant" idea to summon the Spirit of Revenge, just to kill my time? However, the funny thoughts running in my head. But the question of what I shall do, is still relevant.
I Could tease the Reaper, by stealing souls from him and granting them second chances... but without my divine abilities, psychopomp quite able to resist me, and a meaningless consumption of power of faith sickens me. Or, maybe, I should brighten up the loneliness of Discord, projecting in his head lectures and villainous monologues, causing almost physical suffering to the God of Chaos... Or, should I destroy the fates of a couple of dozen mortals, and enjoy their suffering?
I should meditate right now.
I should meditate right now! So, I'm going to sit right here, on the floor, and meditate just like in the old days.
And so time passed, and I, again, had breakfast and my parents wished me good luck, and demanded to make friends with "student of Princess Celestia", then in the company of butler I was sent to school.
Here's the strange thing, in all of my past lives I never went to a magical school. When I was an alicorn filly, the magical Apocalypse happened, so devastating that compared to this nuclear war will seem as simple fireworks. So I was homeschooled, into deep safe Vault. In the role of a regular pony, my life itself were slipping into one of three scenarios: "The Dark Lady" (but it was really long time ago, in the days of alicorn dominion, so I was quickly eliminatedby the group of paladins from Seelie Court), "Minion of the Dark Lord" (the most striking cases of this, when I was Pegasi and a General of the King Sombra, or archmage of little Wuna in the days when she summoned my younger sister, Nocturne, went nuts and decided, that her sister must certainly be killed) or "Caster in the hero team, that is rushing for the next Dark Lord" (my most "favorite" role, life full of suffering and hardship included).
Wherefore, for the chance to finally get a normal childhood, I'm ready to kill. Yeah, being just a carefree filly, for the first time in three thousand years, since I Ascended, beeing aware of myself, and therefore be confident, that this time everything will go right. To make friends, loved ones. And, perhaps, create Unity with another God or Goddes of Magic...
So, magical school. At the start all students were gathered in the Assembly hall, where She-Whose-Flank-Shines-Brighter-Than-The-Sun, was giving a speech about the power of friendship, love, and other things that doesn't exist. To justify little Tia, I can only say, that she was quite sincere, and really belived in that she saying. And this sincerity, coupled with pretty powerful projecting empathy and the glimpses of the divine power, that sleeps inside of Solar demigoddess, has find a way to the heart of everyone who listened. Including my heart, and, judging by the contented rumbling of the Archmage, the words of the Princess, or rather the divine power encased in them, were quite tasty.
As for the Celestia... she truly loves her ponies and her ponies pay her back with a sincere faith and love. And thin, lightweight, and imperceptible threads of divine energy, drawn from the colts and fillies, intertwine into the flow, that making reality itself shiwer. The flow of power, that fills her with divine might, might that she never will be able to realize. The power to change the reality only by an effort of will or mere words. Like me, like Discord, like other Gods and strongest of demigods.
I was looking at this idyll, and suddenly I felt sadness, because that all this will end one day.
"Do pony experiences regret from the fact that we're going to turn it all into the fire, ashes and grave dust?" rustling whisper of a Mare sounded in my head.
Oh, no... So, let me introduce another part of my mind.
Archmage — something, that well-bred mares will never show to anyone. A tangle of dark emotions, dark desires, anger, animalistic instincts that are the reason for themselves. And an endless hatred for all the world. The presence of this aspect of my essence, from the very beginning resulted in a lot of trouble. For example, to the fact that I am the Dark Goddess, as much as I tried to deny it. Or to... whatever. Still no one, never would be able to prove it... And no one will never listen to Discord. The Archmage was born out of unforeseen complications in process of my Ascendance (or rather due to the fact, that shortly before my Ascension I was quite successfully sacrificed).
"It must be that way, Archmage. Perhaps Shift will put a little more effort, and will turn this world into true paradise?" there was another voice, softer, and with that purring notes, but not too different from the previous voices.
The Spark is my Light Aspect. Dreams, love, desire to help others, and other usless tfings that Celestia describe as Magic of Friendship. All of the above, that part of me radiates with the intensity of the damaged nuclear reactor. Spark originated from a powerful crisis of identity, and the fact that my niece, along with her older sister, grabbed the Elements of Harmony (if ponies knew what it is actually, they have thrown this stuff away, and that actually that Celestia done when she found out their true nature) at any convenient occasion, and did not conceal this. Overall, The Spark is the total amount of all idiale, that belongs to pony that I was before I Ascended and reclaimed my goodhood.
Luckily for me, both of my aspects, usually are busy, fighting each other, somewhere in my subconscious. And because of that dominant part of personality is, without a doubt, me. And, I can do that:
"SHUT UP, YOU DAMNED GHOSTS!" I have formed a clear idea inside my head, silencing both my Aspects, and abruptly calming down.
But, Celestia's speech finally ended, ponies with their applause honestly tried to crush the marble slabs that covered the floorsl, and foals finally went to their classes. Worshiping of Celestia came to an end, and now is the time for sermons in my glory!
How the first lesson in the school of magic looked like? It's very simple. Delighted kids were transported to their classes and teachers have began explaining how truly important magic is. From multiple remote classes, where normal preache... teachers were, tiny streams of energy of faith started to flow in my direction. In the class where I was, sources of faith was only inside the teacher, Twilight Sparkle and strange unicorn filly, at the other end of the class. The rest of the foals, listening to the boring speech of the mare that would be teaching us, after ten minutes, lost all enthusiasm and started to do their own business. With a heavy sigh I started meditate again while trying not to close my eyes.
Almost everything that has a beginning has an end. Mortals, The Stars, the boring lesson. And finally multicolored wave of foals rushed into the corridors of the ancient building, outside, to sun, to wind, to freedom! Not having the slightest desire, to push through the crowd of ponies, I picked up my saddlebags and just teleported (judging by a new portion of the faith, teacher noticed it and was very surprised) to the Park located near the school, where all the foals spend their breaks. Sitting under the tree I have fished out of saddlebags book about the Magic of Life authored by "Bloodweawer" (one of the disguises used by my older sister, known to the world as Chrysalis the Giver of Life). After that I started reading, with the corner of my eye watching how foals, were trying to destroy the Park. That is when I was found by Twilight Sparkle. Little one was obviously languishing from the lack of communication. Embarrassed pony timidly approached me (Oh, Eternal Light, cuteness of this filly has exceeded all my expectations! I want to take her home with me. Now!) and and politely asked whether it was possible to join me. Gently I closed the book, after memorizing the page where I stopped, put it in the bag, and then focused all of my attention to Twilight.
"I don't mind," I replied. "What would you like to do?"
In the end, I had to think about possible games that can awake spark of interest in Twilight, because the whole day staring at a book that's not something I want to do (I have dona that for centuries, after all). As a result, me and Twilight played with the stones. Sounds boring? But in that way I learned to control magic in my foalhood. And look what I've become in the end! Anyway, it was one of the most popular exercises for the alicorn foals.
The trick is that two alicorn (in this case unicorn and alicorn trying to lock like unicorn) raise a small stone with the help of their telekinesis. Each participant must encircle about half of the stone in his telekinetic field. At this point everything simple, telekinesis fields are not in conflict, and the stone still (or not) hanging in the air. And then each player try to control the movement of the stone. And here starts the funny thing, because in order to move the stone, you need to overpower the opponent's control over his magic, to repel his telekinetic field from a stone' and to envelop it with your own magic. The opponent does the same.
This exercise is suitable for adults magicians too. What can I say, I practiced with stones (of which there were several dozens), even when I was in the rank of Archmage. Oh, it's a really funny, especially when players accidentally slip into the magical resonance. When horns start pleasantly warm and excitingly vibrate, something funny may happen (and certainly would happen if one of the participants is mare in heat). And if you create crystals that may explode, if you repel enemy magical field too fast... Or if you are competing with the demon-lord, who in the case of your loss will say that "Your soul is mine!"...
Of course, as always when I competeing with mages, I wasn't serious with Twilight. And she, once managed to understand the trick, even managed to push my magic and win the game a few times. Amazing speed of learning!
Foals looking at how two unicorn filly's, with the concentrated expressions on their muzzles, using their magic to fight for control over the stone, and began trying to do the same. And then this craze has been noticed by the teacher, they asked a few probing questions, found that this idea came from me, passed the information to higher authorities with amazing speed, the gears of the universe began to spin and I earned the unflattering attention of Princess Celestia. Cool Shift! Keep going!