//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: The Mages Journey // by LunarLocket //------------------------------// “So Lotus told me that you two would teach me to give massages so that I could work here, correct?” Connor asked. “Of course dear! Just follow me to the massage room of the spa.” Aloe said calmly as she gestured to Lotus and they both began walking towards a backroom of the spa. They walked into the room and Connor took a look around. The door was directly in the center of the room. It smelled a lot like mint. There was a single massage table in the entire room. The rest of the space was taken up by various oils and various bottles of scents used for aromatherapy. The room had no windows but was lit by scented candles that Connor assumed was what gave the room its minty smell. “Why is there only one table in here?” Connor asked, very confused. “Well dear there are only two of us here, so one of us works the desk and the other attends to guests.” Lotus explained. “Well that makes sense.” “Any other questions before we get started?” “Just one. Who will I be learning on?” “Well, me of course.” Lotus said with a devilish smile. “What do you mean you?! I want to be the first one to get a massage from him!” Aloe yelled. “I was the first to find him so I want to be the first to get a massage from him!” As the twins began to argue Connor saw this as his opportunity to think for a moment about what he had just gotten into. While he did want a job to help support himself and not take advantage of Twilight’s kindness, what he did not want was a pony that seemed to be all too interested in him. It seemed that this obsession was shared by her twin as well, even though he had only just met her. ‘Is this really worth it? Should I just run away and avoid the two of them until they forget about me? No, I need to help Twilight with money and support myself here. Even if it means... this.’ Connor shuddered slightly and began to return his focus to the two ponies arguing in front of him. “Well I say we let him decide who he wants to give the massage to!” “Fine!” They both turned to him with fire burning in their eyes that seemed hot enough to melt stone. Connor wasn’t sure who he should pick. I mean, there were so many options to consider. Who could hurt him more, for instance. “Well?!” They asked in unison. “I’ll go with Lotus.” He said hesitantly. “I told you he’d pick me!” She sneered in Aloe’s face. “Fine, jerk. Get on the table.” Aloe said with a glare. Lotus gave a smirk that seemed to scream ‘I won’ at Aloe and climbed up onto the table and laid down. Connor looked expectantly at Aloe who at the moment seemed to be trying to melt a hole in the back of Lotus’ skull with nothing but pure anger. “So where do I start?” Connor asked hesitantly, as if this simple question would cause Aloe’s anger to be turned on him. Instead, she looked at him and her hateful gaze turned to a smile. “Well first, you ask where the client needs the massage. You wouldn’t want to massage a pony’s back who really wants a neck massage, and so on. Then, after that, you ask if they would like any kind of aromatherapy to increase their experience. Next, you apply a small amount of oil to your... what are those called?” “Hands.” “Okay, you apply a small amount of oil to your hands to prevent hurting your client’s skin during the massage. Then you massage the area that they requested in a way that will get rid of their aches and pains.” “That’s it?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. “What were you expecting? A lecture on magical theory?” She responded sarcastically. “Now, get started.” She said as she gestured towards Lotus. “All right.” He said as he walked over to Lotus. “Where would you like your massage?” He asked reluctantly. “Well my lower back has been hurting a bit lately.” she said with a small wiggle of her rump. The second that Lotus did that he could almost feel the pure hatred emanating from Aloe. He wasn’t sure if it was jealousy, sibling rivalry, or some strange mix of both. Either way, he was thoroughly scared. ‘Remember, I’m doing this for Twilight.’ He thought to himself. “Would you like any aromatherapy?” He asked, thinking through what he needed to do. “Some mint incense would be nice.” ‘Strange request, considering that the room already smells very strongly of it, but whatever.’ He turned to Aloe. “Where is the mint incense?” He asked sheepishly. She walked over to the shelf on the right side of the room and gestured to the bottom shelf and pulled a small box out. Connor thanked her and grabbed a stick of incense and lit it using the flame from one of the candles and placed the stick in the incense holder then walked over to Lotus and placed his hands on her hindquarters. She gave a small shudder that made Connor feel even more reluctant. He looked to Aloe. “What do I do now?” He questioned. “Well,” She said, moving him out of the way and placing her hooves where his hands were. “you apply pressure on the spot just enough to where it feels like you can push the knots out of their muscles and move your hooves, er, hands, in small circular motions. now you try” Connor walked back to Lotus and began massaging her lower back the way that Aloe showed him using his palms. Lotus gave a small sigh and he continued massaging. He decided to try something he saw people do back where he was from and used his fingers to massage a small, spread out area across her back. “That feels amazing Connor. What are you doing dear?” She said in a very mellow tone. “Just using my fingers.” He responded politely. “I knew I made the right choice bringing you here. This feels better than any hoof massage I have ever received. Business will be through the roof when you start working here.” This made Connor feel fantastic and horrified at the same time. For one, he had a job! On the other hand though, his employers were these two. Connor shuddered at the thought of what working for them would be like then brought his focus back to the task at hand. After about a half an hour he stopped the massage. “So, how did I do?” He asked. She looked up, her eyes half-lidded from sheer ecstasy. “That was probably the best massage I have ever received in my life. Your hands are so much softer than hooves. Are you sure that you didn’t do this where you’re from?” She asked lazily. “Nope. This is the first massage I have ever given that wasn’t me trying to get the aches out of my own neck.” “Well you definitely have the job. You start tomorrow. Just come in tomorrow around noon and we’ll get you started.” “Thanks Aloe. Thanks Lotus.” Connor paused for a moment. “Wait, didn’t you say that you had to have one of you working the front desk at all times?” “Yes dear, to watch for customers and take payments.” “Why hasn’t Aloe been there then? What if a customer came in?” “We didn’t plan you coming in here today or anything!” Aloe said nervously. Connor gave her a very creeped out look. Lotus shot her a very different look. A look that screamed “Are you fucking kidding me?”. “I should probably be going.” Connor said, still thoroughly creeped out. Neither of the twins said a word as he walked out the front door. The second that the door shut he heard an argument start. He decided it was for the best to ignore it. He looked up and saw it was close to a couple hours until sunset and began to walk towards the library. He looked around with a small sense of joy knowing that for the first time since he got here, he accomplished something. He turned around the last corner he needed to and walked towards the library feeling slightly worn out from his day of searching for a job. He opened the door to see Twilight sitting in one of the library’s chairs, thoroughly absorbed in a book. “Hey twi!” He said gleefully. Twilight let out a small eep before falling out of her seat and onto the floor. She looked up at Connor with a mix of embarrassment and glee. “Welcome home Connor!” She said with a big smile. “How did your job search go?” “Not too well.” He said with a small frown. “I mean, I searched all day and only got one job!” He laughed with his frown turning back to a smile. Twilight giggled at his joke. “Where are you going to be working?” She asked. “The spa. I got a job as a masseur. I start work tomorrow.” This seemed to surprise Twilight. She looked at him with a somewhat skeptical look on her face. “You’re joking right?” “Not in the slightest. Why?” “Well, I can see you as a lot of things. But a masseur? That’s not one of them.” “I can understand that. But the owners seem to like me, and they showed me how to give a massage so I’m not completely clueless.” He said with a smile. This got a small giggle from Twilight. “Well, I guess I’ll have to get a massage from you sometime to see if that’s true.” She said with a mischievous grin on her face. “But before that, I have a question for you.” “Ask away.” “Do you think that you could teach me that magic you do? I’ve never seen any unicorn that uses it. I’d like to be the first to learn it.” “Absolutely! would you like to start right now? I can start you off with the basics.” From Twilight’s view “Absolutely! would you like to start right now? I can start you off with the basics.” Upon hearing this she filled with such an amount of glee and pure happiness that could only be provided by being the first to learn a skill in her entire world. As a scholar, this was probably one of the high points of her entire life. From Connor’s view Twilight seemed to be staring into space with a grin that seemed to be stuck on her face. He wondered for a moment if he had said something that triggered a flashback. Perhaps a medical condition of some kind? He waved his hand in front of her face a few times to break her out of her joy induced trance. “Hey Twilight, you alright?” “Huh? Oh sorry, I just got really excited.” She said with a small blush forming in her cheeks. “It’s fine. Let’s head out back and set up those wards.” “Gladly” She said as they walked out together and set up the wards they used while sparring around the backyard. After they finished Twilight walked over to Connor. “So where do we start?” She said excitedly. “Ok, first lesson is fire. In my way of using magic, there are two types of fire. There is arcane fire, which draws solely on magic power, they come out looking somewhat light blue and are for generic uses and can be used in fighting. Then there are the flames of emotion. The flames of emotion draw on something you are feeling to make your arcane flames much stronger, however, if the feeling you try to draw on is weak at the time, it can make your flames weaker. We will start by making arcane fire. Arcane fire is created by taking the magic power in your body and willing it to become sparks in your hand, or in your case, horn. You then take these sparks of magic and will them to become much hotter and burn bigger and brighter. Once they do this they will collect and form arcane fire.” He demonstrated by holding up his hand and showing Twilight the blue sparks slowly leaking out of his hands then suddenly growing bigger and brighter and bursting into a light blue flame. Twilight looked in amazement at his hand and the fire it held. Connor looked at her and smiled. She looked somewhat like a curious child seeing fire for the first time. Yet somehow, different. As though behind that childlike curiosity she was also analyzing and processing information with a mind far better than he gave her credit for. He liked that about her. His train of thought was interrupted when Twilight spoke. “I think I get it. I’m ready to try now.” “All right. Good luck.”  Connor said as he stepped back to watch her. She slowed down her breathing as though she was meditating and shut her eyes. She began to clench her eyelids shut even tighter as she began to focus. A small blue spark of magical energy sparked from her horn then died out. She took another deep breath and focused again. She let loose a small cluster of sparks which then began to glow brightly and formed together. Once they all formed into a small cluster, they burst into a small, light blue flame at the tip of her horn. She looked up and squealed with delight at her success. “I did it!” She squealed happily when suddenly her flame turned yellow. “AAHHH! What did I do?!” She cried as her flame suddenly turned black as night. Connor gave a small laugh as he looked at her. “Well Twilight you remember how I mentioned the flames of emotion?” “Yes but what does that have to do with my flame changing color?!” She asked, still too panicked to see the connection. “Well you still haven't learned to separate your emotions from your casting yet. The yellow flames were the flames of happiness and the black flames were the flames of fear, which by the way you are still casting.” He said calmly. Twilight looked up at her horn and, sure enough, there was a midnight black flame sitting atop it. She stopped the flow of magic and the flame went out as she turned to Connor. “That was really cool and really scary at the same time.” She said with a nervous smile. “The funny thing is that we spent almost 2 hours out here talking about magic fire and all I’ve managed to teach you is how to make the flame.” Connor said with mock disappointment. Then an idea popped into his head and a mischievous grin spread across his face. “It’s a crying shame that it’s getting late. Looks like I won’t be able to teach you how to actually cast the flame until tomorrow!” He said as he walked back into the library. From Twilight’s view Twilight had just learned how to make arcane fire and Connor was going to make her wait until tomorrow to actually USE IT?! That wasn’t fair at all! She was about to say something about it when the door closed. She began to run after him and just as she got inside she heard the door to Connor’s room close. Infuriated, she stomped up the stairs and threw open his door. “Do you mind? I have my first day of work tomorrow, I need sleep.” Connor said, suppressing his laughter at taunting twilight with the information that she so desperately craved. “But I still haven’t learned how to use it! What good is a magic that all I know how to do is use the starter?! That’s like knowing how to put a telekinetic grip on something but not knowing how to move it once it’s there! It’s a start but overall it’s useless!” “Oh no! I feel the cold hands of sleep taking me! Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh.” Connor began to snore. “UGH!!! You are so mean!” Twilight said, accepting defeat and walking to her own room. Connor snickered one last time before rolling over to go to sleep for real. He did have work after all. Plus he’d be teaching Twilight new magic.  Tomorrow was a big day indeed.