Last Mage deleted scenes 2
Rejected idea 1
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For a long time I was going to have Jacob's ancestor be freed by Trixie and then have him introduce himself before transforming her and knocking her out or killing her. I discarded the killing idea in favor of him going to remove her horn but let her live out of some sort of twisted gratitude for her helping him. I changed my mind at the last minute and had Trixie run back to Jacob instead.
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Deleted Scene 1
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This bit I deleted because I didn't really like. This took place just after Jacob and Rainbow Dash find the first Arthur and Merlin painting.
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An intercom speaker on the one of the walls crackled then someone informed us that someone would be along in a moment to collect us and escort us to the rest of our group so long as we remained in this room, and then it became silent again. Rainbow Dash now flew over to the intercom speaker and tapped it a few times with a hoof.
"Who was that, and what is this?"
"Another communication device. That one is meant to make announcements in buildings.
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Deleted scene 2
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I didn't think this bit was really needed, so I got rid of it. It took place right before Jacob and the girls got a lift back to Canterlot.
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He said that he'd be carrying an extra passenger too, a bird-lion-thing.
"A bird-lion? You mean a Griffon?"
"Whatever. I keep half-expecting the Boogie Man to step out of the woods with all this mythical stuff turning out to be real!" He chuckled nervously and then leaned closer. "You've been here longer than any of us, right? You haven't seen a Boogie Man, have you?"
"Nope. I did get attacked by some evil zombie-ponies running around in those woods a few days ago, though." I said, pointing at Everfree. "Though from what a local to those woods told me they only go out hunting once a year." The soldier gave me a look that said he was wondering if I was joking or not. "Anyway, where is this Griffon?"
"In a medical tent. When it showed up it was being attacked by another of its kind. We shot the heck out of it until it died, but the Griffon-thing was pretty beat up."
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Deleted scene 3
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I wanted to do a bit where he practiced with the new staff, but I didn't like how it turned out and cut it. This took place after his mother distracted the fangirl with the camera.
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I walked away from them and kept walking until I was behind the palace and away from nearly everyone. I say nearly because the military groups had done an excellent job setting up a loose perimeter around all of Canterlot. I made sure to face away from them and then held my staff in both hands out in front of me and took a deep breath. Let's try earth-walls first. That had been something I'd struggled with from my first attempt at it against the guards in the sparring area. Unlike every other time I'd used my wand, the staff glowed like a living horn had and almost instantly the ground responded. A mound of earth erupted up in front of me creating a small hill and a cloud of dirt. I stared at it in amazement. It was not a wall, which in my mind meant that I had failed, but I was astounded at the ease at which it happened. A mere thought and up it came. I barely had to focus at all. I was reminded of the first time I had used Celestia's magic. But always as it had been before I needed to work on my concentration. For just a fraction of a second I had pictured a hill rising out of the ground if I had made a mental error and up the hill came instead of just a wall. Let's try something that I'm good at: Telekinetic power. I focused on a stone that I saw sitting by itself on the ground nearby and willed it into the air. It rose to the height I wanted it to, again with barely a thought. I brought it around me and to my front as easily as counting to three and then made it spin around in place. I then pictured it splitting in half and pulling apart a tug-o-war match with a cookie. It came apart, still spinning. Small bits of it that had not stayed as part of the whole dropped and fell to the ground. These I picked up as well while still spinning the two rock pieces. The smaller bits I did not spin, but focused on keeping them still while still maintaining the speed of the others. This strained my mind but I continued anyway until my head started to hurt, then I dropped the smaller pieces and launched the two larger out into the distance. They flew so far so quickly that soon I lost sight of them. Output would be up, she said. Well then I have to wonder how far those are going to go before they hit the ground again. This was a decent warm-up but I'd need to try something much more difficult in order to truly test the staff out. Tossing a few rocks (or technically one rock) wasn't really much, and other than the strain from dividing my attention on several things at once (which only tested my mental abilities) I had not really done anything yet.
One of the guards on duty walked over to me while I was deciding what to do and looked at the mound of dirt I'd created.
"What were you trying to do?" He asked.
"I was trying to create a wall of dirt." He looked at the mound again.
"I don't mean to be a smart ass when I say this, but it looks like you need more practice."
"Yeah, no kidding." I replied. "Moving dirt in specific shapes has never been my strong point. Except for that one time when I made a tunnel underground, and I nearly drowned myself doing that."
"Can you fly?" He asked randomly. I shrugged. "How about making a barrier?"
"Only once, and it wasn't really a barrier so much as a redirection." The soldier looked around and then picked up a few of the small stones that I had not thrown. Without warning he threw one at me and hit my shoulder. "Ow! What'd you do that for?!" He threw another and I caught it in a hand and threw it back. And missed. Horribly. He looked at the result of my throw.
"
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Deleted scene 4
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This one took place when Jacob was practicing with his staff behind the palace. The five agents were going to at first be people looking to learn magic that lacked it themselves, and then I changed my mind and gave them magic, but a dark kind. In then end I didn't feel like following that either.
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and she knelt down before me briefly and then stood again. The others that had not followed did the same from where they had been standing as well.
"So you do use magic." She said simply.
"Yes. Obviously. Can I help you with something?"
"Yes. Teach us how to use your magic as well." I raised an eyebrow.
"Teach you?" She nodded. The others that had come with her now also approached me until they stood side by side with her. All of them save for one were also in their fifties. The other was still older than me, but seemed to be about thirty rather than fifty. There were five of them total.
"We are all that remains from three families of magic-users from Earth. There was a time when we numbered in the hundreds, but during the persecutions of the Dark Ages and then later during the Salem Witch hunts we were nearly destroyed. But the times are different in the world now, and those that have special abilities are welcomed rather than shunned. You've become a beacon of hope for those like us or those that wish to be like us. Teach us your magic, and we will share ours with you." Other Humans that use magic? Is this an elaborate joke, or do they use Voodoo? Either way, the magic I use cannot really be taught. Either you have a horn, or you do not.
"And what magic is it that you use? Voodoo?" The woman laughed scornfully.
"Voodo. Voodoo is a joke. No. What we use is Necromancy. We raise and control the dead to do our bidding." I took a few steps back from them. I wanted nothing to do with that. "You need not feel intimidated by us. We are not your enemies. On the contrary, we could be valuable allies."
"The magic that I possess cannot be taught. Either you have it or you don't."
"I find that hard to believe given that the rumors state that there is a girl in Canterlot proper that supposedly did not possess magical abilities until she met you." She smirked.
"Yes, a rumor. Supposedly Chuck Norris can hear you scream in space. Do you believe that too?" She frowned.
"Do not mock me! You may have more raw talent than we do, but I have more experience than you, and there are three of us to your one."
"Are you threatening me?" I gripped my staff tighter. "Wait, three? But there's-" The other two pulled their sunglasses and hats off. I stared. They had no eyes, and their heads were of bone.
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Rejected idea 2
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I had originally intended at the scene where Golden Rosa and Jacob talked for a bit to end with her saying that she was only teasing and bust up laughing at him, but decided that it would be more fun if I did not have that be the case.
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Deleted scene 5
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I had thought about being lazy and jumping from one section of the city to another so as to move time along faster and avoid giving Jacob more screen time, as it were, so as to focus more on the happenings to the other characters as the Dragons began to approach, but I didn't really like it and cut it out. Ironically enough, I wound up doing it anyway, but on a much larger scale, and with less involvement of of the main six.
I must admit that every time I've tried to write a large-scale battle it comes out kind of weak (at least in my opinion) at the end. I think this fic is my...let's see...SF, TOLFTD (x2)...HTSK...I guess the fourth or fifth time.
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The Pegasi stood at the ready as they were loaded up with a number of varied rockets that they'd made in the days previous. It was mostly their own civilians helped with this since all of the guards were in the process of being outfitted. In other places outside the outer buildings of the city a number of Earth ponies stood at makeshift wooden and copper silos aiming other farther-flying rockets and awaiting the signal that had been decided the day before to begin lightning fuses. It was unlikely that these rockets would really kill anything, but their purpose was aimed more at forcing the Dragons to the ground by destroying their wings and then aiming at them more directly to finish them off.
Rainbow Dash would not be taking part in direct conflict, rather she would be flying from one location to another delivering messages where there had not been enough walkie talkies to go around. She was not happy about this, but saw the need for it and only grumbled rather than voicing any actual complaints. If the Dragons broke through the perimeter that had been set up then she had permission from Celestia to engage them, but only then.
Applejack assisted by standing next to one of the silos that had been set up on the palace balcony.
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Deleted scene 6
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This would have happened after Twilight woke up in the city duty the battle. After stopping to think there was not really any reason other than my own amusement to make her try to drive a jeep.
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Instead she began trying to imitate what she had seen the Humans do many times over the last two days: start a car. Using her magic she opened one of the doors and hopped up onto the Driver's seat and then crouched down to look at the pedals on the floor. The one on the right made it go forward...and they inserted a silvery thing into the side of this wheely-thing.... she looked at the side of the steering column and was relieved to see that a key was already inserted into it. She turned it, again using her magic- and then stopped. She remembered that there had been something else that needed to be done in order to make it move, but she couldn't remember what.
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Rejected idea 3
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Twilight, in the 6'th deleted scene talks to a dying soldier that gives her a laptop. The laptop is connected to Earth and Twilight explains the situation and begs for more help.
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Deleted scene 7
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I cut this out because it just didn't feel right. To be honest after going about halfway through the battle chapter I felt like it was missing something or perhaps I was making a mistake somewhere, but I'm not sure where that mistake actually was.
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I looked up at the fight still going on above the city. It didn't feel right to just leave them to die. Luna followed my gaze.
“It is probably too late for them, Jacob. If they could have retreated, they would have done so much sooner.”
“It isn't right.” I said.
“None of this is. Come.” I was about to turn away when a loud booming sound came from the same direction and a multicolored ring burst outward from the cloud of figures still in the sky and swept over of us.
“Rainbow Dash is up there!!!” I yelled, and started back the way I'd come. I did not need to however, as a streak of rainbow color came our direction and flew past us, heading right for the palace. I turned again and ran to follow it, and then found myself standing in a room and running for a wall. I slid to a stop and looked around. I was in the palace again. I looked at Luna who rolled her eyes.
“I can teleport, remember? I saw no point in running the whole way when we could get there so much faster.” I felt stupid for a moment and then thanked her, as did the others, who were tired.
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Deleted scene 8
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I had considered doing a tiny bit of self-insertion at the end, but decided against it.
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“And now for Jacob himself!” The maker said, sighing in sadness at what he had wrought. So many good things had occurred in the end (most of them not written), and yet so many lives had been lost to get the worlds where it were now. ”Alternate Universe or not, my perception of Reality or not, what right do I have to do these things? And where will Jacob's feet take him now?
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