//------------------------------// // The Beginning // Story: Broken Magic: A Botched Summon // by hccpu //------------------------------// With his back against the willow and safely out of view of any who might pass by, the mage sought council from his trusted adviser. “Utnapanapishtim, why does it feel like a wrestled with an enraged bull?" Utim's voice echoed in the back of his mind slightly distorted by the darkness it came from as always. "I know that you have been warned that the Howling halls are no place for any mortal to be." With a touch of accusation lining his inner thoughts, "You said that only prolonged exposure would result in any noticeable fallout. It was no more than 30 seconds." "Be glad you are incapable of processing time properly there. It was more like a decade, relatively speaking." No longer angry but still upset, "Another decade of supposed life lived without a trace of aging. How am I to ever know my true age anymore?" "Well if you were to ask friends you are still 19 with 3 years of life left. But between you and me you are more like 279." While moving to scratch his head at the extra decade of life he noticed what appeared to be a rune. He examined his palm to find it covered in runes that marked him as the familiar of Oren, and that his hand was off colored and aged surrounding the cut across the center of his hand. With slight concern he asked, "Ignoring the redundancy of getting a boost to my magical abilities... from myself, what happened to my hand?" "I can only imagine it is an infection from the void." Now with true concern he laughed to himself, "Fantastic, I only know of one who can cure it and he happens to live about impossible away from where I currently am." "It is not impossible." Still laughing away, "I am bound here by familiar contract. There are only to ways to void a familiar contract: the death of the familiar or the death of the summoner, I am both." "That contract is not as binding as you think. You cannot void a contract by signing a different newer one." He knew it was the truth but he did not know where Utim was going with this so responded with a joke, "What would you recommend then? Cutting off my hand?" He would be willing to amputate as well but Utim told him it would be unnecessary. "It should be no different from stripping ink off of paper just be sure that the runes find the original owner." The idea of searching the entire planet for a single creature that he has never met was daunting. "I don't have that kind of time! Wait, how much time do I have?" "Seven days at best." Before he would consider giving up, inspiration struck. "I've got it. This just requires even more depressing glimpses into the past and future." The joy with which he would remind himself that he could not fight fate was lost on him. Without waiting for further council he had already projected himself to the future. It was not even an hour into the future when he had learned of several things that could be of use. He told himself that he had bleed in the places he visited making them easy to find and that he was to be subjected to a large scale man-hunt by nearly everything living here. Apparently there were no perks to the ruins and they decided he should be a battle-mage. It was a quick minuet of giving important news as always, this was just a shortcut and he would have learned it all, apparently within the hour, regardless of if he did this or not. The past was uneventful but he got to see that one of the creatures that lived here was a pegasus. Once his mandatory minuet to the past was up he prepared to leave. He audibly said to himself with a smile at his new found hope. "When tracking a creature, one of the simplest ways is to follow the blood trail. The nearest should be over that way on one of the hills." /– –/ Rainbow Dash flew along with Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle at the request of Pinkie Pie. Apple Jack and Rarity were too busy to join them and Fluttershy did not want to risk meeting it. “Pinkie you know we already checked here again, twice. Why would it be any different now." Dash grumbled from being interrupted during a nap. "Because my Pinkie sense told me that somepony is going to move furniture from out there, silly." Pinkie responded with a giggle while bouncing along. "And how does that mean that, that thing will be there. "Still upset at the prospect of wasted nap time. Twilight seemed just as happy as Pinkie Pie, "I planned on triple checking to make sure we didn't miss anything when we double checked anyway." "Ugh, you can't be serious" Rainbow knew full well she was serious but the thought of repeating a task for a third time was just ridiculous. "Anypony with eyes can see it will be different this time." Pinkie said while bouncing backwards to face her two friends. "That’s the spirit Pinkie." Twilight clearly agreed with the trip. "And how can you know that they aren't just taking the tables for routine maintenance." "Hey, your right. It just came to take the table to get it fixed. I should thank it." With that Pinkie hurried on ahead. "What are you-" Twilight stopped when she saw Pinkie run up to the same figure they saw a day ago, clad in the same black robes, standing in front of the remains of the blood. While Twilight was flabbergasted Rainbow Dash tackled it. After all the royal guard were out looking for it to see if they should be concerned. She flipped it over to see it better while holding it down. Its face was flatter than a pony's and it had a short black beard and a black mane tied up like Apple Jack. The hood on its robes was up and the black robes themselves were tattered and held up with a simple piece of rope. It looked young enough and it had an infected gash with writing on its hand but it didn't seem all that dangerous so she simply got off of its chest. "I am afraid the person you are looking for is not home at the moment, may I take a message?" Rainbow Dash backed up a bit "Wha-" "It can talk!" "Can you be sure to tell him thanks for fixing that table." While they were all distracted by Pinkie Pie's comment it got up. "Welcome home!" It appeared to smile at that before walking over to a tree and beckoned for them to follow. It rubbed its strange fore hooves on its throat, ears, and then eyes in a fluid motion. It then placed them on the tree. "The boss has given me permission to answer some questions for you. And before we begin I shall answer the question that you are all thinking: No there are no job openings available at the moment. So who wants to go first?" Rainbow and Twilight were a bit to stunned by the echoy voice tainted with darkness coming from the mouth-less tree to answer promptly and Pinkie would have taken the opportunity to ask first regardless. "What is it like being a tree?" "I am not a tree, just attached to it." "That’s too bad, a friend of mine wants to be one so I thought that maybe she could hear all about it from a tree's perspective." Twilight had recovered and fired away all the questions of relevance should could think of. "Is it dangerous? What is it doing here? What was it doing in the throne room? How was it in six places at once? What kind of creature is it?" "Oren, could be dangerous to those that he considers an enemy and was looking for answers on how to leave. He thinks he might follow the blood. He was not in six places at once and they were all just random places. The human calls himself a magician-wizard." Ignoring the last answer, “Wait does that mean he plans on going back to the throne room?!” “I would imagine so, unless he learns that there is nothing to be gained by going there.” Rainbow Dash asked a question while Twilight seemed to mumble something about a letter to the Princess. "What is wrong with its hand?” “Another side effect from his Broken Magic." Twilight had rejoined the conversation and asked a question that had already been answered. “It can use magic? ...What do you mean it is broken?” “Yes and he is the one who thinks it is broken.” “Why?” She could not see why someone would call their own magic broken. “Ask him.” At which point Twilight and Rainbow started to notice that something was strange. Twilight voiced both of their concerns. "...Why isn't he answering these questions?" "He is currently busy." They noticed that the creature and Pinkie Pie were no where to be seen. "...Doing what?" which was followed by an explosion when they went towards its location they saw the creature called Oren a good distance back from Pinkie where he lay on the ground groaning. They were both long since out of earshot. "It looks like I am needed. The name is Utnapanapishtim, thanks for caring." They both hurried over to Pinkie Pie to see if she was alright when they heard "Sors salutis et virtutis michinunc contraria, est affectus et defectus, semper in angaria" They went over to question it about its actions but where he lay the picnic table now stood. "Hey! He didn't fix the table at all." Rainbow Dash asked, “Pinkie what was that explosion just now.” “It wanted to show me a trick where the scribbles on his hoof glowed. Then he pulled them into the air with his other hoof but when he tried to show them to me they all went BANG. He really needs to work on that trick.” She looked as happy as ever and not worried about what whatever it was trying to do. Rainbow and Twilight decided it was best to get word to the Princess in case it tried something similar in her court. /– –/ He held his arm up to look at how the infection and runes both had spread all over his arm stopping at his elbow. "Well that could have gone better. Still I learned a great deal. How much did that knowledge cost me?" "93 hours remain." After getting up he replied, "Really that cost me three of my days. What a scam." “Thanks for fixing the table.” He could not help but respond out-loud with a look of confusion on his face. “What are you talking about?” /* Fate is against me in health and virtue, driven on and weighted down, always enslaved */ /*+2 classy if you know where I got it from*/