//------------------------------// // Court Wizard // Story: Luna's Dawn // by GreySkiesAhead //------------------------------// Shining Dawn awoke just before dusk the next evening. Judging from the smell of hearty vegetable stew wafting through the air, his roommates were just having dinner. He trudged sleepily downstairs, hoping to talk to them before they went to bed. Starfall was just setting the large pot of stew on the table when he came downstairs. “Hey you, good morning.” she said, giving him a friendly smile. “I think ‘good night’ is more appropriate for me from now on. That smells excellent; would you mind if I had some for breakfast?” Shining Dawn said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. The dark red unicorn chuckled a bit, levitating three bowls over to the table along with the accompanying silverware. “That was the intent. We should start eating breakfast and dinner together since we won’t be seeing each other as much anymore.” Dawn nodded in agreement. Just then a light blue, blindfolded, unicorn mare with a black mane walked in from the living room. “Hey, good morning Dawn, or should I say good night?” The mare said. “We’ve decided on ‘good night’, Farsight.” Dawn cocked his head at the envelope on her telekinetic grip, “what do you have there?” “It came for you earlier today. It has Princess Luna’s official seal on it and everything. Wow, come to think of it you’re probably one of the first ponies to receive a letter with that seal on it in a thousand years; I only recognized it from history books.” The mare passed the envelope over to Dawn. Even when he accepted the letter Farsight’s horn kept its minty green glow. The unicorn was almost certainly viewing this scene with her divinations rather than her eyes. Dawn shuttered to think about having to cast so many scrying spells every day just to function normally but Farsight considered the practice invaluable. He opened the letter and began to read: Young wizard, As we discussed earlier I’ve taken the liberty to select some spells that will allow you to serve more effectively as my court wizard. Though first you should master transmute rocks to mud and sequester as you’ve begun to study them already and learning sequester will make learning other high-level spells easier. After that please learn these spells in the order I have presented them. Once you feel you have mastered them I will prepare for you a test, and then a list of five further spells for you to learn. -Luna Dawn frowned; three of the five spells on this list were conjurations. Magical aptitude aside, Dawn was actually a pretty lousy conjurer. It seemed like Luna wasn’t asking him to learn spells that would make him a more effective court wizard, she was instead acting like a mentor eliminating a student’s weakness. Was that what Luna meant to do? Mentor him? That would certainly be an honor. Based on how she’d helped him last night she was, unsurprisingly, a much more powerful and knowledgeable spell caster than him. “Wow, it’s almost like she knows how lousy you are at conjuring.” Farsight said, interrupting his thoughts. He didn’t look up from the letter, “Didn’t your mother ever tell you it’s impolite to scry other ponies’ mail, Farsight?” “Yeah, whatever, what’s the point of unseen eyes if you don’t abuse them from time to time? Anyways, it looks more like she’s guiding your studies than anything else. Is that what this court wizard gig is? An apprenticeship?” Farsight asked. Curiosity piqued, Starfall trotted over to read the letter, and Dawn passed it to her so she wouldn’t have to read over his shoulder. “It’s not like she needs someone to cast spells for her. Maybe… maybe the whole ‘court wizard’ thing is a holdover from the unicorn royalty? Back when royals weren't necessarily potent spell casters a court wizard could’ve come in handy. The alicorns could have simply kept the practice so they could tutor promising unicorns.” Starfall theorized. Dawn did not like the prospect of not actually being useful to the princess. Noticing his distress, Starfall nuzzled him apologetically, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to-“ “No, your point is fair. I appreciate the input.” Dawn returned the gesture absently, lost in thought. Princess Celestia’s personal protégé, Twilight Sparkle, wasn't Celestia’s court wizard. Although she’d been Celestia’s student since she came to the academy, and was a mare besides, so maybe the pretension wasn’t necessary. …Pretension… The more he thought about this, the less he liked it. He’d wait till after court, but he definitely wanted to bring this up with the princess tonight. Dawn made an effort to finish his breakfast quickly and still talk to his roommates a bit before he went to work. Both of them had found work with the Royal Guard since the three of them graduated the academy three months ago, Starfall as a palace guard and Farsight as a crime scene inspector. Starfall was already on daily patrols at the palace but Farsight was still finishing up her training. Dawn felt a twinge of sympathy for anypony who committed a crime in Canterlot; it was hard to hide anything from a diviner of her skill level. Dawn grabbed a cup of coffee before he left and bid his roommates goodnight, court didn’t start for just under an hour but he wanted to grab some post-unification history books about his position. Luna was at court early when Dawn walked in with his third cup of coffee of the night. “Good night, princess,” he said as he took the seat next to her. It was a purple and gold high-back chain adorned with scrolls, open books, and stargazing equipment engraved into its arm-rests and into a crest at the top. Dawn recognized it as the court wizard’s chair from his studies, and made himself comfortable. From what Luna told him last night, the Night Court did not get many visitors. “Good night, young wizard we trust you are now accommodated with sleeping during the day?” Luna asked politely. Dawn nodded, taking a sip of his coffee, “Yes, princess, though I still need to cast a darkness spell over my bed to sleep properly.” Luna laughed at this, “You may as well get used to that; we must still cast that spell each day to sleep as well.” “Do you know what kind of petitioners we can expect tonight, Princess?” Dawn asked. Luna frowned; “None, most likely, duchess di Bray was actually our first petitioner since our return.” Well bugger; he could probably ask her about this whole apprenticeship thing now. He’d wait a bit, though; just to be sure there wouldn’t be any petitioners tonight. He wouldn’t want this discussion interrupted, for sure. In the meantime, Shining Dawn had something to keep him busy. He levitated a rather large rock out of one of his saddlebacks, and unceremoniously dropped it to the floor with a thud. He caught Luna’s wry smirk out of the corner of his eye. “Nice rock,” she sounded amused. “I call him Tim,” Shining Dawn said, opening his copy of Advanced Transmutation. “And no, Tim is a bad rock, sorry to say he’s condemned, in fact.” Shining Dawn opened the book to the page with transmute rock to mud and began reading diligently. After a few minutes, he attempted to cast the spell, and failed as he expected, but had a better idea of what he needed to work on. He alternated between reading for twenty or so minutes, and then trying to cast the spell. After about an hour and a half, Luna spoke up, “Would it help if thou saw the spell cast first-hand?” she offered helpfully. Dawn jumped slightly, forgetting Luna was even there. His reaction made her laugh at his expense, and he found, despite his embarrassment, he enjoyed making Luna laugh. After he regained his composure, he replied, “Yes, Princess, that would be very helpful.” He passed the rock over to her, and she took it in her telekinetic grip. Once Luna had custody of Tim, he prepared a divination that would enable him to better observe Luna’s casting. He saw her focus, draw on the magical energy necessary for the spell, and cast, all with deliberate slowness, so he could see every step clearly. The rock was itself one moment, and then a spot of mud on the floor the next. Satisfied with her casting of transmute rock to mud, the princess then cast transmute mud to rock, and levitated the reconstituted stone back to Dawn. “Thank you, princess,” Dawn said, appreciatively, “that was quite helpful.” Luna nodded, and returned to reading. Her demonstration had been quite insightful; he noticed how she avoided some of the mistakes he himself had been making. Dawn made a few more attempts at the spell, steadily getting closer to success, before he decided to re-start their conversation with the tried-and-true method of talking about the weather. “The stars sure are pretty tonight; like somepony speckled a slab of onyx with diamonds.” Luna smiled wryly, “Somepony?” Dawn chided himself. That probably sounded like overly-coy flirting to her, you dolt. Well, if he was going to be coy, he might as well commit to it. He did his best to put on a mischievous smile, “Yes, princess, somepony did a particularly stunning job on the skies tonight. I just wish I could express my gratitude to them in person.” Luna actually she giggled a little bit, he’d never heard that before. It made her seem more like a normal pony, actually, just an impossibly beautiful, unfathomably powerful, and immortal one. He’d been very nervous about talking to Luna about the usefulness of his position earlier, but now he was sure he could talk to her about it without any problems. He was fairly sure he could talk comfortably with Luna about anything. Still smiling, he asked, “Princess, I was wondering, given that you do set the moon and stars in the sky every night, what do you even need a court wizard for?” Luna considered this for a moment, “Nopony else by our sister and ourselves knows the spell any longer, but raising the moon and bringing night involves a spell called nightfall, it’s a high-level evocation spell, actually, and as such I am an evocation specialist. And if I specialize in a school of magic, what else must that mean about me?” “You must have an opposition school; an area of knowledge you neglected to focus on your specialty.” Dawn answered; he was starting to understand what the princess was implying. “Right, and my opposition school is, in fact, abjuration,” Now it all made sense. The court wizard wasn’t some useless relic from a bygone age; they cast the spells the Sisters simply couldn’t cast because of their opposed schools. “Essentially, if we have a unicorn at our side whom excels where we are weak, then we effectively have no true weaknesses.” Luna finished. Along with the pride he felt for being given such an important position, he also felt anxious to meet what was expected of him. “I understand now, princess, thank you. I hope I did not seem ungrateful.” Luna waved her hoof dismissively, “You are our 56th court wizard, your 55 predecessors had similar fears. Now try that spell again and make sure you catalyze the transmutive forces like I showed you earlier.” After a few more attempts and one more demonstration by the princess, Dawn was sure he had it. He focused, drew in the necessary spell energy, and cast. Sure enough, the rock was reduced to a puddle of mud on the courtroom floor. Dawn and Luna beamed with pride. “Excellent job, my little pony, and not a moment too soon; court is adjourned.” Luna picked up the mud with her Telekenisis and transmuted it back into stone, before tossing it out a nearby window. A surprised yelp was heard from outside, followed by a pompous protest, “Who dares throw a rock at Equestria’s prince? Show yourselves, criminal scum!” The princess and the unicorn exchanged shocked glances, but the two of them quickly descended into stifled laughter. “Oh my, that would be prince Blueblood. Take my hoof, won’t you? I can use dimension door to get us to the dining hall for lunch before he gets here.” Dawn obliged, wrapping a fore hoof in the princess’ before she cast her spell. There was a silvery-blue flash and the next moment they were at their destination. Luna made a delicate, satisfied ah sound before she let go of Dawn’s hoof and trotted to a seat at the end of the long, oaken table. “Thank you, princess, I will see you after lunch in the study, I suppose.” He turned to leave, but was interrupted. “Nonsense, come, sit, eat with us. As you said there are no decent dining establishments open at this hour. All the night staff are allowed lunch in the cafeteria nearby, but you might as well eat here.” Dawn smiled, pleasantly surprised, and trotted over to a seat next to the princess. “Thank you, your highness, I’d love to.”