Preparation (15)
Preparation
"Well, now that we've had our fun tormenting the princesses, you all get to practicing again. I'm gonna do some egghead stuff."
"Right, those books you stole from the insufferable Twilight Sparkle. Oh, how I would have liked to see the look on her face." Trixie stated.
While only unicorns are capable of conscious magic, various other races have passive magic abilities. The earth ponies have magic that aids in healing and growth, both of plants, animals, and other ponies as well. Pegasi and griffins are able to manipulate weather phenomena, cockatri are able to petrify with a stare. These are all examples of passive magic. Dragon breath is also a form of magic, although not passive, also does not require a conscious effort and is as natural as breathing. This separates the three types of magic into Channeled, passive, and active. Channeled being unicorn spells, passive being walking on clouds, and active being manipulating clouds into rain or lightning. I read aloud.
"You don't say?" Gilda looked at me sarcastically.
"Hey, it may be common sense to you, but to someone from another reality, this is all new." Not exactly a lie, as I had never dealt with it first hand.
Conscious magic requires a focus. Unicorns have their horns, which act as a focal point for their magic, stemming from their souls. Each horn is attuned perfectly to the unicorn it belongs to, and as such, no other creature with magical prowess is able to use a horn that is not their own for a focus. However, in the circumstance of a unicorn having a broken horn, in the past, flawless gemstones cut to a point were used as a replacement.
"Ah ha, now, there's something interesting. Hmm, I wonder if it's possible for non unicorns to use magic if they have a focus?"
I took out a small gemstone that had been shaped, then focused on it. It seemed to shimmer slightly, then it passed.
"As I thought, non unicorns just don't have enough oomph to make anything happen. I wonder if my human form could? No point worrying about it now."
"Hey Gilda, remember when that pegasus thought I was going to eat him? He told me to rot in Tartarus. What did he mean by that?" I asked.
"Beats me. Probably the pony equivalent of go to hell." Gilda replied.
"If you must know, Tartarus is the underworld. It serves as a prison for all the most evil creatures in the world after they die, and is guarded by Cerberus to make sure none of them get out." Trixie said with a know it all tone. Gilda looked at me strangely.
"Cerberus, as in, the three headed hound Cerberus?" Trixie nodded.
"Yes, that one. If you are an alien, how did you know?" She asked.
"Well, Gilda, remember when I told you about Hades, why I named my sword that?"
"Yeah........."
"Well, in Greek mythos, Hades is the underworld, guarded by Cerberus, and Tartarus is a prison within Hades. When anyone dies, if they were good, they'd go to a beautiful garden within, if they were bad, they'd go somewhere in the rest of Hades, be it the lake of fire, river of blood, bone pillars, or a hundred other horrors. And if they were REALLY bad, they'd go to Tartarus. I think the Greek mythology of my world, at least the underworld part of it, is based on your world." I explained.
"Which means?" Gilda didn't get it.
"All the legends of pegasi, unicorns, cockatri, basilisks, manticores, Cerberus, it all matches this world exactly. My dimension doesn't have any of those things, so where'd we get the legends?"
"You got them from here......" Trixie suddenly caught on. "Which means that our worlds were connected at one point, and if you came here, they are once again."
"Okay Trix, I want you to cast an illusion on me. Now, before, when I gave you examples, they were pretty far fetched, and would only work on a pretty stupid opponent. Suddenly being hungry and food where a bottomless chasm used to be isn't very convincing. I want you to cast an illusion on me. I'll know it's an illusion, so I'll be expecting it. If you can fool me, you'll have succeeded in that aspect of your training. Remember, subtlety. I have to think it's real."
Her horn glowed, my vision flickered, and nothing happened.
"Um, Trix? You gonna do this or wha.... oh you clever devil. Good, that's the first thing. Don't just change something, have the illusion mimic real life and THEN change something. Now, let's see if you can make the change believable."
The illusionary Trixie smiled at my praises, then ran over to me, snatching my sword. darting away with it. She held it in her mouth, bringing it up.
"Oh ha ha, very funny. I know it's still there." I said, reaching for it. Of course I couldn't feel it on my back. "Good, you remembered to kill the sense of touch as well. You've definitely improved this past week."
She smiled with the blade in her mouth, before swinging it at me. It missed by a wide margin. Then she said,
"You're dead." I pondered what she meant. My vision flickered again, and I saw her standing there, holding my sword in her mouth, holding it up with magic.
"Wait, what?" I was totally confused.
"You said you knew it was an illusion. So I showed you exactly what was actually happening. That way, I didn't actually use an illusion, but you thought I did. Because of it, you let your guard down...."
"And you managed to steal my sword. You cocky little....... No, that's not the right emotion. I'm impressed. You got me. If you had been trying to kill me, I'd be dead right now. You passed." As I spoke, she floated the sword back to me.
"Using levitation on a magic resistant object, in conjunction with a full world illusion, that must take a lot out of you. I'm surprised you pulled it off. So tell me, how does success taste? Better than false praise from endless bragging?" I just had to bring that back up. Yes, I am an ass.
"Definitely."
"Well, it's good to see how much you've improved in your illusions."
"Well, it IS my special talent after all." She replied, putting a hoof to her own chest.
"Yep, 2 weeks of practical use instead of just flair, and you're already a 6 times what you were." I smiled, she smiled back.
"Ok, so, training is over for today. Newbloods, get up here!" I shouted to down below, noticing that the two of them had returned. The diamond dogs we had in our company had figured out how to climb, which while a little unnerving, also made our lives easier.
"Alright, well, I can't just go around with generic names anymore, so you're Etch," I said pointing to the high voiced one, "and you're Growl." I said pointing to the normally silent one. "Don't ask why, they sound cool and they match you perfectly. Anyways, did you get what I asked?" They nodded, showing me several pieces of leather which they 'borrowed' from a nearby town in the jungle, Wethoof, along with some thick thread and needles.
"Okay, so who here knows how to sew? Nobody? Ah crap. This is gonna be harder than I thought."
After explaining the basic sewing method, corkscrewing the thread through the two pieces, then going back on the opposite angle, Gilda cut the pieces and fitted them on me, leaving room for my wings and such. After the cross harness was made, a makeshift saddle with straps for Trixie's hooves were added. That way, she'd be able to ride around on my back, and even if I pulled aerial maneuvers, she wouldn't fall off. There were also four more, one in front and one behind where each of her front hooves would be, with latches on them. These would be used to carry four quivers of arrows. Hades, instead of being placed on my back along it's length, was instead put on my lower back, behind the saddle, perpendicular to my body. This made it easier to draw, and it wouldn't get in the way of the saddle.
"Are you sure about this Grif?" Gilda asked.
"Sure about what?"
"Letting Trixie ride you. I mean, being mounted is kind of humiliating. Makes you feel.... like an animal I guess." She replied.
"Really, I don't know, it's actually kind of comfortable if you ask me. It just feels, right I guess. Where I'm from, humans ride on horses. Being on the other side of that doesn't really seem to bother me." I said innocently. I didn't really understand, but having Trixie on my back, feeling something there, actually felt good. Am I a freak or something? Scratch that, I know for a fact that I am.
"Ok, so, since you've mastered illusion, it's time for actual combat. Once you've got that, we'll roll them together. I'm going to fly around, pulling off moves and whatever. I want you to use your magic to send these arrows into the painted targets as we pass by. I'll call out targets as I see them. Think of it like a clock. Where I'm facing is 12 o'clock. If I say target at 6, then you know it's directly behind us. I'f I say 3 o'clock high, it's on the right and above. If I fly and focus on keeping us alive while calling out targets for you to hit, that let's you focus on hitting them. If we can master this, then that'll be the next step done. Given that we're in a world of ponies, mounted combat is pretty much unheard of. If we storm somewhere with you riding me, it'll confuse the hell out of everyone."
"Um, okaaaaaaay." She wasn't too thrilled. Whenever I flew her anywhere, she always had her eyes closed.
"Listen, you're going to have to get over your fear of heights. Okay, so maybe you're not afraid of heights since we're in this tree house, but flying. If you're secured by this saddle, you won't fall off, and with practice, you'll get rid of the disorientation. Besides the latched quivers, there's also two pouches in front of you. One has explosives, and the other, knockout gas. We can use them to bombard an area if we need to. Trust me. You won't fall. How many times have you ridden on my back before, without the harness, and you never fell off? You'll be fine."
With my encouragement, she climbed on top, putting her hooves in the stirrups, tightening them with her magic. She carefully drew three arrows and held them close as I took off.
"2 o'clock low!" I shouted. Trixie, rather than using a bow, flung and arrow with her magic. It went wide, missing the target.
"8 o'clock mid!" This time, the arrow struck the tree with the target, but it was too low.
"12 o'clock low!" I lowered my head, going into a dive, giving her full view of the target. Since it was straight ahead, when she loosed her arrow, it struck the target, just on the outermost ring.
"I did it!" She squealed. I turned straight up, going into a climb, my eyes scanning around for a target.
"Above!" I yelled, Trixie having sweat appear on her brow. She sent a fourth arrow, which she had removed mid flight, at the target, striking it just outside the bulls eye. She would have jumped for joy if she wasn't strapped in. I landed, and she let herself off. As she got unstrapped, she fell over dizzy.
"Okay, so, you can hit targets we're looking right at, but you have a hard time hitting ones that pass to either side. Still, not bad for your first tries, and your first time with mounted combat." Looking at her, her pupils were dilated, and she was shaking with nervousness and excitement.
"Oh ho, so, Trix just got a taste of adrenaline! Feels good don't it?"
"YES! OH MY GOD! YES!" She yelled. "Do you feel like that every time you fly?" She asked.
"Pretty much. And now you know why everything with wings LOVES flying." Well, except Fluttershy.
"It's like, fear, excitement, joy, nervousness, all mixed into one!" Trix was jumping around.
"Oh, just wait till you throw rage into the mix. Having all that plus being pissed off, and you have how I killed a dragon. Remember, it's one thing to have this feeling, it's another entirely to control it and know how to use it. Being able to keep in control while going out of control like that, if that makes any sense." Trixie just nodded.
"As for the dizziness, you'll get over it the more we do it. One more thing, I'm thinking of a bit of a different strategy. Do you think you can hold all the arrows I've got on me?" I asked.
"Well, if I have them all going the same direction, then it's easy. Having them go in different directions is what's difficult." She explained.
"Good, hop on. We're going to go find another target."
After flying around for a bit, we spotted a manticore in the underbrush. I hovered above, quietly telling her that the target was directly below. She used her magic to pick up all 400 or so arrows I had on me, suspending them above. Instead of grabbing each one, she just took hold of the whole area in a magic field. It took more energy to do, but less concentration. She could only do it for a moment however, as she was no Twilight Sparkle, and taking too long would cause her to pass out from the strain. A moment was all we needed. Flying overhead, she spotted the target. I swooped past it, making it look up at me, as Trix let ALL the arrows go sailing towards it in a massive bombardment. It was a tough target, but that many arrows just ripped it to bits. I flew back down after, inspecting the carcass. Trixie looked exhausted, so I went around picking up all the arrows she had let go. Some were broken, but most were intact as they were made for guards and thus durable. After I collected all 380 intact arrows, I drew Hades, and lopped off the manticore tail. I carried it back to camp.
"What you got there Grif?" Gilda asked, looking at the carapace I held. I dropped Trixie onto the ground, and Etch put her in bed.
"Manticore tail. With this, we can collect the poison, and coat our arrows with it before we fire them. It'll make them a lot more effective, because instead of needing a kill shot, even a scratch will be lethal, or at least incapacitate. I'm not sure how their venom works, but from what I know of scorpions, it's deadly. I should probably read that potion making book."
'Hmm, posion joke, winter weed, phoenix ash mixed in, what's that measurement? Titration? I always hated that in school. Gaaah! This is too complicated!'
"Hey, Etch, Growl! Get over here. You've got a new job. Figure this apothecary crap out! And while you're at it, get on the chemistry too. This shit takes up way too much space in my head damnit!" The two diamond dogs just looked at me strangely.
"What makes you think we'd be good at it?" They asked in unison.
"Well, let's see, all the chem weapons we have were made by your kind, so you've got to have at least some talent with it, more than me anyways. I've got way too much to think about to be adding potion making to the list. You said Wethoof is thatta way? I think I can head there and pick up some glass vials and junk. If not, then we'll pick some up at the Volcano. All that lava around they've got to have glass blowing facilities."
"Well well, our infallible leader doesn't like science class." Gilda mocked.
"Hey, biology was fine. If any of you get shrapnel lodged in you, I can double as a surgeon, and I know about bacterial cultures and stuff. It's chemistry and physics that are just ridiculously complicated. It's a pain in the ass."
"Looks like you're not so much of an egghead after all." She laughed.
"Yeah yeah, so anyways, Trixie still isn't up. She's been sleeping a lot lately, probably since I've been working her to the bone with training her magic. That doesn't explain though why she looks like shit lately." Trix leaned her head over the bed and vomited a little on the floor.
"Oh crap, she's burning up!" I said, putting my claw on her head. I ran over to the book I had on the jungle, flipping through it.
Visitors to the Feline Jungle may contract jungle fever. It usually comes from tainted water running west from the Black Marsh. Things living in the marsh are immune to it from having been around it for a long period of time. Once you catch it, you cannot catch it again as you become immune, but while under it's effects, sufferers experience nausea, dizziness, inability to focus, raised temperature, cold sweat, increased heart rate, and finally, death. Simple antibiotics work well in combating the disease, and it is of the utmost importance that the afflicted receives treatment as soon as possible.
As I read the passage, everyone's eyes went wide and their pupils shrank. Death? Sure, we had seen death, but we hadn't been stricken by it ourselves, something I intended to keep that way.
"Not good, she's been acting like this for three days already! I thought she was just tuckered out. If she's started vomiting then she's already in the onset of the illness. Wethoof is that way right?" I asked the dogs. They nodded.
"Good, everyone pack up, we're going to bring her there to try and find a doctor. I'll need all of you to come with for safety. We're criminals, but maybe they haven't heard of us yet. If they won't help, we'll have to steal the antibiotics. It's just basic penicillin. Given where we are, they should have a large supply. Let's go!"
Gilda strapped Trixie onto me, grabbing one dog under each of her arms. She wasn't just about to be mounted by them, especially given that she hates them. We flew off as fast as we could towards the town, in hopes of saving the sickly and fading Trixie.
No! Don't die! Well well. Also, if you didn't know, Wethoof is the town from Rust's 'The ballad of Echo the Diamond Dog.' He's officially agreed to have this crossover thing, and was really cool about it. I'm sending him my chapters before I publish them to make sure they'll fit. Also, before I publish my next one, he'll have to come out with a few more. I'm gonna try to release my chapter containing Griffin's side of the story at the same time that he releases his with Echo's so it fits better.
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Nice. Very nice. Trixie better not die, im kinda hoping for a three way romance betweein grif, gilda and trix :P
....hey who doesnt think threesome couples are cool.
Glad to hear the stories will cross, and I hope you and Rust can stamp something out. If it's not soon, well, good things come in time. Keep up the good work, 'muff said.
Aaaaawwwww yeaaaah, crossover time between two of my favorite fanfics!
Better prepare my self for all the epic that's about to happen!
379907 I find it mildly strange no hate just not prefered
my comment crossover.... *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* core malfunction brain overload excese awesome core overload
If you pull this off, it'll be the first inter-story crossover that I've seen. I wonder if Echo will join Griffin, seeing as they have very similar plans. On that note, I wonder how they will each react to finding another Human- Griffin isn't exactly being secretive, and Echo is a sharp listener and a smart thinker.
379911 I C WHAT YOU DID THERE (with your username and pic, good show by the way)
fuckyes. two of my favorite stories are crossing.
380075
Glad to find another fan of the show. Are you watching the new episode tonight?
380184 I have it set up to record, but i might if i get done with homework
380238
Well, I'm an idiot. It's tomorrow, not tonight.
380469 I usually just end up watching them on saturdays, my mom is making me do obscene amounts of homework, because i didn't do anything on spanish for 3 weeks, and ended up with a D.
380476
I feel you're pain. Spanish, ungh, I hated that class.
380524 Your :P
>Wethoof
I see what you did there, and I applaud it.
A crossover between two of my favorite stories. Really can't wait to see how that turns out. Will just be for a few chapters or the rest of your stories?
Sweet this crossover should be awsome
ZOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG a Echo and Griffin crossover. BUCKING FANTASGREAT
OH GOD YES.
ALL MY YES.
Both my favourite HiE fics (my favourite fics in general for that matter) making a crossover with each other and going parallel.
Btw have you guys spoken about how you both saw each others world. Rust probably had sort of idea how his world would look but didn't really tell it in his story, but you already did that.
Oh a crossover, me gusta
I like Trixie... don't let her die please
For once Trixie is pretty cool she should live mmk.
380184 "The Mentalist"?
Crossover with "The Ballad of Echo the Diamond Dog". (Head explodes, then explodes AGAIN... Then explodes several more times, just for good measure!)
Great chapter.
Have I mentioned that I love this story? Because I love this story.
YESSSS. MOAR!!!
Please make Grif meet Echo
WOOT!!
Crossover time :D
and
Nuuuu trixie u gonna be ok D:
TeeHee!! Wethoof.
griff: how are we gona force her to eat it?
doc: eat? shove it up the ass!
griff: sssooo.... what your waiting for?
doc: im not going dig in dirt!
griff: gilda?
gilda:''...''
griff: gil- aww crap hey gr-- you got to be kidding me!! hey doc--
oke i got a few options...
XDXDXD
eeyup
big mac approves of this
I love your work Mr Blackwing, but that one thing you got wrong has just been so annoying that I have to state it. Hades is not and was never the name for the actual underworld in Greek mythology, you probably already knew that, as it is known as Hades' domain or household as well as several other names none of which are Hades. Hades is the god of the greek underworld, I am sorry if that sounded too critical.
Heh Jungle Fever
First I find an excellent story that's 100 chapters, then I find out I need to read another story to understand it properly... Well, goodby grades, it was nice knowing yu, but I have more important things to worry about.
Personally I felt like he figured out the answer to what was wrong with Trixie rather quickly... maybe a bit more of a description of thinking it over and then trying to find it in the book. It seemed to travel pretty quickly from "holy crap she's sick! what is it?" to "Right this is what it is, here's what we have to do"
So, Equestria is Elysium and Tartarus is right next to it...
2007580 Holy anal cakes your'e right...
Guess I'll have to read his fic, now too.
This is the one and only oc story that I've ever been this impressed with. Author, did you have co writers or are you just amazing?
2337180 Am I missing something? What is he right about?
Aha, crossover time!
So if I'm about to die I say:
I may be leaving... But fuck logic I'm god *heals self and flys away*
I agree! You certainly have some kind of saddle/being ridden fetish!
Oh, cool! A collab story! I'll definitely have to chase the other one down
Hehe, it's just Trixies luck to contract a fatal disease while traveling around with a group of bandits and criminals.
Its irony in fact!
--Dear Celestia, can pigs fly?
Little fun fact I Remembered while re-reading this. Cerberus can be roughly translated to spotted. Which means Hades, god of the underworld, named his three headed hell hound "Spot."
I am not sure how compatible hooves would be with stirrups.
Yeah, probably a bit too good, IRL accurately shooting arrows from horseback take years and years of practice, but Trixe has telekinesis so she has an advantage.
Ive been meaning to read The ballad of Echo the Diamond Dog