//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 - The Magical (not edited) // Story: I am Living Lava? // by Shadow of doubt //------------------------------// "That's good Flare, keep visualizing it," Twilight said, as she kept a respectable distance away from Mark, a notepad and quill held still in her magic as she observed Mark levitating a rock. Normally this would be an easy feat for most unicorns, however, Mark's unusual nature effects even the most basic of magic. Suddenly the rock Mark was levitating cracked, the loud noise reverberating throughout the courtyard. Said courtyard had a few bystanders watching Twilight as she taught magic, they were at the edge of the courtyard. Most were students of Celestia's school for gifted unicorns, most would wonder why they were here but Twilight had gained a very popular status in that social environment as the teachers always remind students and pretty much anypony who will listen, that they taught the Princess Twilight Sparkle, of course though, they only visit if lunch break was in effect, they wouldn't dare ditch a lesson as the school is notoriously strict on punishments. "Another failure," Mark's enthusiasm was initially high but after repeated failures, even the allure of real magic felt dull. Although Mark managed to put most of his identity issues away, he had more or less accepted that as of this moment his body is female, and after convincing himself that being a pony made of magma shouldn't have gender assignments he got over it and decided to focus on the now. "Twilight, how much control do I need to have before you'll deem me safe enough to interact with ponykind?" Mark asked brushing of the layer of dust from her coat while eying some of the snickering unicorn students. "Well, you obviously need more training but you've already made great strides, the fact that the ground around us isn't glass and the fact that dust can even accumulate on your coat is already amazing considering that a week ago you were melting steel that was near you," Twilight recounted leaning to the left in order to see if the students had passed on, Seeing that they were still there, she motioned with her hoof for them to move along, they rolled there eyes before turning to leave chatting on the way. "You shouldn't feel that bad Flare, they are around twenty times your age," Twilight remarked as she eyed the vacating students before focusing back on her own. She is still a little conflicted with Flare being her student, as Flare has an uncanny resemblance to Celestia, in body shape only, she managed to measure Flare's height and was shocked to find that it was the same as Celestia's right down to the millimeter and it didn't just stop at her height almost everything was spot on, the only real difference that she could find was that Flares horn was slightly curved and had an extra five inches, which would indicate a larger mana pool. "You really can't hear them, can you Twilight," Mark said, aside from the obvious abilities he gained with his new body he found that his regular senses had been enhanced by a large degree, so much so that if he were to focus he could hear a heartbeat from sixty meters away. Twilight responded with a nervous laugh, "Well, no, but I'm sure they didn't mean it," Twilight responded after looking at the leaving students. "Anyway, you should take a break, we'll start a new exercise once you've rested up," Twilight said as she fidgeted on the ground before she got up using her wings in the process that ended up blowing dust everywhere. "Ahem," Mark gave her a cold stare before he got up and made his way to the edge of the court, Twilight followed behind a little timidly. "So... What is this new exercise you've thought up?" Mark Questioned, his golden eyes narrowed on Twilight, as he focused on hearing her heart rate. "W-Well, Unicorns, or in your case, Alicorns have a large amount of mana and a domain, For myself, I have an enormous amount of mana for a Unicorn however for an Alicorn side I'm actually a little on the low side. Unfortunately, there isn't a large subject group for tests... But back to the main point, To allow a pony to get a feeling for controlling large amounts of magic they first need to control smaller amounts, basic principles, in order for those that are gifted with large mana pools to learn they must first exhaust themselves." Twilight shuffled her wings a little after she finished speaking the drop in temperature was quite high as they left the training courtyard, every time Mark had failed and crushed a rock he melted the rock or rather pebbles he was levitating into a puddle of goo. Mark stopped in order to process what Twilight dumped on him, it is pretty simple but, He realized he's never really felt magically exhausted before, even after his meltdown. He was still rather confused about how that came about as well, as he when he thought back to what happened he never reacted violently to stress before. "I see, well thanks for the training I'll see you in an hour or two," Mark responded as they reached a side entrance to the castle, the extravagant detail and frivolous use of gold grated on Mark's nerves a little but he couldn't dispute the craftsmanship. Twilight nodded before saying goodbye, another thing that grated Mark's nerves Twilight refused to call him by Rose, Mark doesn't know why ponies have such a hard time saying his other name, Discord calls him rose all the time. Mark turned without saying another word and trotted down the hallway to the guest suite of the castle, at the very least he has his own walkway now, the maids gave him obsidian shoes to ware so he wouldn't burn through anymore carpet, however, they still haven't replaced the carpet so he still has his little footpath of burned carpet to follow back to his room. After an hour of sitting down and relaxing, Mark bored of doing nothing and sick of talking to ponies that hate him, but have to tolerate him at Celestia's behest, decided to see if Discord would be up for a chat. Getting up from his Phoenix down pillow, over to his obsidian dressing table, fit with a reflective polished obsidian slab acting as a mirror, "Discord, Discord, Discord" Mark repeated into the mirror, as that's one way to ask if he can grace people with his presence. Looking around Mark couldn't find anything so, he assumed Discord was busy with something, only to turn around into a grinning face. "Rose, old buddy old pal, what can little old me do for you?" Discord said with a cheshire grin on his face, slithering around Mark before disappearing with a poof only to appear lying down on the Phoenix down pillow. "Hey Discord, can't a friend just call someone else to have a chat?" Mark asked, before walking back to discord, before motioning him to scooch over, before sitting next to him. "How nice, so what can Little old Discord help you with then? a dramatic breakup? Advanced Particle Physics? Pr-" Discord explained each whilst changing his voice and outfit to match his answers, Mark interrupted his tangent before it could go on too long. "Actually, I was just wondering what you were doing. As I've been practicing magic control all week long, and as the last time, I saw you, was when I was introduced to Twilight, I thought it would be good to catch up," Mark said as he turned his head to look at Discord. Mark did a double take when he saw Discords eyes, they were of course replaced with penguins of all things, but that was just Discord being himself. "That's actually, not what I expected, Rose I'm discord, I am unexpected, what you just asked, I never thought I'd hear that," Discord said, his head down a little lower, and the penguins glued to his face slid off before waddling away. "Well, I don't know what Twilight's definition of friendship is, but between you and me, she is a terrible friend, well, from what I've seen," Mark whispered to discord, shifting his firey wings into a more comfortable position. "Whatever do you mean Rose, Princess Twilight is the 'Princess' of Friendship, how could she ever be a terrible friend?" Discord asked Mark, voice laced with sarcasm. Mark turned to face Discord better, "Well, from what I saw when you decided to pop in on our little meeting, she treated you like you were her worst enemy, Now I know she said you used to be a villain and all that but because she and her friends befriended you, you decided to stop doing the villain things." Mark readjusted his posture on his side of the pillow, before continuing. "Look, I'm going to be blunt, she treats you like a chore, like how I would treat someone if I had to be polite to them but really didn't want to be around, Kinda how I think of Celestia, she actively tried to get you to leave and had a scowl on her face the whole time, even said stuff about you when you weren't there," Mark explained, only to find that discord was in his chair in a thinking position. "Well, you make a good point, but Fluttershy is really my friend, I know that. She acts a bit like you, just less... energetic," Discord continued before floating over to Mark. "Here I came over, thinking I'd give you advice, instead, here I am getting it... It's nice having you as a friend, Thank you, Rose, you've given me a lot to think about." Discord said before disappearing, no confetti or sound, he was just gone. "Well, that was... nice, I was hoping to continue our chat, but I guess that was a lot for him," Mark said absentmindedly. Mark got up from his pillow and walked to his door to go back and meet Twilight, he did say he wouldn't be too long. As Mark opened his door with magic, he heard the sound of hooves running down the hall, quickly turning his head out the door, he spotted Twilight running from his door, before disappearing with a pop. "Fuck," Mark exclaimed as he looked into the now empty hallway.