Interview with an Unexpected Mage

by musicluvr1974

Chapter 9: Consultation

As Twilight and Spike arrived back at Books and Branches Palace, Spike suddenly bent double, groaned sharply, and belched out a gout of green flame that resolved itself into a scroll bearing the Royal Solar Seal. The dragonling held it up. "Letter from Celestia, Twilight--looks pretty official." Spike slit the seal in two with a deft swipe of his index talon, then unrolled it and began to read.

"My Faithful Student,

An emergency has arisen that may have nationwide consequences. Please gather the other Bearers and the helper of whom Luna has told me, Jason Clavoli the human, and meet us in the medical wing of Canterlot Castle as quickly as is ponily possible.

Your loving teacher and sister,

HRH Princess Celestia"

"I never knew she could read minds," Spike said, astonished. "I mean, here we were about to write to her about letting Jason visit Canterlot with us, and she sends us a letter before we even had a chance to compose ours?! Whoa...!"

"This time it isn't a social call, Spike--she said it was an emergency! Didn't you pay attention to what you were reading?!" Twilight grimaced. "Never mind--we'll deal with it later. Right now we've got to find the rest of the girls and get back to Appleloosa to let Jason out! Let's go!" Spike hopped onto her back and clenched his knees onto her barrel as she charged up a teleport spell and focused on a mental picture of the Apples' house at Sweet Apple Acres. One violet-and-pink flash later, Twilight and Spike stood on the front porch. Looking around, Twilight spotted an orange spot in a distant grove of apple trees.

"Doing it this way is going to take too long! Celestia said it was urgent...!" Wait a minute--we're telepathic now, she suddenly thought. A grin broke briefly onto her face, then she focused on sending a message to all five of her friends simultaneously. Girls! I just got a letter from Celestia! She needs us in Canterlot ASAP!! A few seconds later, there were five simultaneous flashes, and her five friends were standing before her in a rough semicircle.

"We need to get Jason from Appleloosa, too," she informed them. "Celestia specifically asked that he come with us in her letter."

Applejack sighed. "Silver Star and Cousin Braeburn ain't gonna be any too pleased with us... but they'll do it. Gather 'round, y'all..." Applejack and Twilight touched their horns together, powering up the teleport spell they needed as the others threw their magical "weight" behind enhancing it. As it burst, the six alicorns vanished in a rainbow flash.

---

"Celestia said in her letter for us to meet her and Luna in the medical wing of the castle," mused Twilight as they walked down Appleloosa's main street together once more. "I wonder why?"

"We'll probably find out once we get there," said Applejack. She raised a hoof and knocked on the hoosegow's door. A sleepy-looking deputy answered her knock. "Yah, whuzzit...?" he mumbled--then caught sight of the six alicorns gathered on the office's front porch. His eyes widened as if he'd been blasted by a Crystal Empire gust. "Yer Highnesses...!!" He bowed. "To whut do we owe the honor?"

"Necessity," Twilight responded grimly. "By decree of the Octarchy, we are here to claim custody of one of your prisoners. Due to a royal emergency, there isn't time to explain. Please bring to us the prisoner currently housed in Cell 3A, if you would. This letter should be proof enough to allow you to legally remand him into our custody for the remaining duration of his sentence." She levitated Celestia's letter out of her saddlebag and allowed the deputy to skim it quickly.

"Of course, yer Highnesses," the deputy said, bowing again. "Right this way..." He led them to Cell 3A, unlocking the door with a simple wrought-iron key.

Twilight ignited her horn's magic field, and cancelled the inversion spell on the door herself, with a burst of pink light. "Jason!" she called. She looked into the cell to see him prone on the bunk, asleep--but as he heard Twilight's voice, he opened his eyes and sat up, blinking.

"H'lo, your Highness," he yawned. "Still a bit early for another Q&A session, isn't it?"

"That's not why we're here," she told him. "Celestia needs to see us. All of us, you included, as close to immediately as we can manage."

"What's going on?" He rose from the bunk and hurried across the room to the sink to rinse his face in an effort to wake up more fully.

"We don't know much yet. I'd rather tell you on the way, anyway. Come on!" She headbutted his shins away from the sink.

"Ahh! All right, if it's this urgent, somepony must be about to die or something...!" He followed after the seven of them, trying to rub encrusted tears off the corners of his eyes with his fingers. Once they had gathered in the street below the sheriff's office, Twilight was about to charge up her teleport spell once more when she was interrupted by the sound of somepony clearing his throat.

"'Scuse me, yer Highness, but could I ask ya a favor? Leave Princess Celestia's letter here, so's I don't git in trouble with Sheriff Star in th' mornin'? I'll still let him know where y'all went with the prisoner, but it'd be nice ta have some proof." The deputy held out a hoof for the letter, not daring to look the Bearer of Magic in the eye.

Twilight's pink TK field all but slapped him in the face with the letter, she was in such a tearing hurry. One magenta flash later, and the only evidence anypony had visited was the open doors, a cloud of dust billowing where the visitors had been, and a fading echo of "Sorry...!" drifting on the nighttime breeze. Now where the hay are they goin' s' fast? An' at this hour of the night, too...? the deputy wondered, left gazing at the scene in bewilderment.

---

As they reappeared in the throne room of Canterlot Castle, Jason voiced a similar question to Twilight. She responded, "Celestia said it was a national emergency, and that we were to meet her in the medical wing. That's all I know right now." She turned down the hall she remembered from monthly health checkups as a filly, leading the seven others behind her to a pair of double doors at the end of the hallway. As they came close, the doors were suddenly swathed in a dark-blue glow and opened to reveal Princess Luna standing there.

"Ah, Bearers. Thou art here, and Jason Clavoli as well. Good. Walk with me, an thou wouldst." Luna turned and led them to a circle of chairs in a secluded alcove close to the door to a suite of examining rooms on the far side of the room from the entryway. Once all those present, pony, human, and dragon alike had found appropriate seating, Luna spoke.

"My sister and I have this night shared a... disturbing, nay, e'en frightening vision. The Soul-Drinker is abroad in Canterlot and "up to his old tricks," I believe is the modern way to put it. He hath attacked an innocent pony who was merely minding his own business, and left him in such a state as e'en my sister and I have not observed in tens of millennia at the least." She rose from her chair, spreading her wings to parachute lightly onto the floor as her listeners stood to their feet and hooves as well. "Celestia sits at the poor unfortunate's bedside e'en now. Come. See for thine own selves what ill work our ancient enemy wreaks."

The Lunar Princess led the eight of them down the hall to one of the recovery rooms, where Celestia sat at the bedside of a tan unicorn. The poor stallion was in a coma, his eyes apparently glazed with a white film that left his pupils and irises looking gray and indistinct. A heart monitor at the other side of the bed chirped sluggishly, emitting one beep perhaps every ten to fifteen seconds.

"Hello, girls... and Spike and Jason." Celestia greeted them softly, not wanting to disturb the unicorn's recovery. "Luna told you what has happened?" She received answering nods from all around. "Yet this isn't even close to the most diabolical crime Tirek committed tonight. Look." A flare of golden magic, gentle as a shaft of sunlight falling on a rug, swept the blanket and sheet aside to reveal... the stallion's complete lack of a cutie mark.

"Prin--Celestia?" Twilight exclaimed softly, catching herself. "Isn't he a little old not to have his special talent yet? Adult ponies without them are extremely rare," she explained to Jason.

"Indeed he would be... if that were what had happened. But, my fellow alicorns, dragon, and human, something much worse has befallen poor Rare Find here.

"We have grounds to believe that this stallion does not have his cutie mark any longer... because Tirek ate it." Gasps went up from four of the ponies there, the dragon, and the human--all of the Bearers but Twilight and Pinkie, in fact.

"Well, duh! What else would you expect from somepony called the "Soul-Drinker?" Pinkie looked around at the others. "Geez, all of you sure are slow on the uptake tonight...!"

"Given the historical records of his first two (1) appearances on Equis, I can't say I'm at all surprised," Twilight put in grimly. "I could make a pretty good guess, but just for the sake of completeness, Celestia, what was the doctors' diagnosis of his condition?"

"Severe Magical Exhaustion," (2) Celestia replied, with a sorrowful look. "The doctors estimate that Tirek only left Rare Find with enough magic to stop him from dying outright. Obviously, he's approaching this like a farmer would a perennial food plant--'harvest,' then leave enough in place so the 'fruit can grow back,' as it were."

Twilight snorted, nodding once, firmly. "It figures...!" She threw her forehooves into the air, frustratedly. "First Discord, then the rest of his family, not to mention the changelings--and now this?! Why is it that every cosmically powerful being on the block seems to view Equestria as their own personal buffet?!" she cried. "I'm getting a little tired of it!"

"Not every cosmically powerful being, Twilight," Jason wrapped a comforting arm around her withers. "There's still the Maker on our side, as long as we stay on His." He smiled at her, then grew sober. "After this, though, I might have to ramp up the pace of how quickly I share with you Terra's discoveries in this area. With your permission, your Highnesses?" He looked around at the eight alicorns standing around him, who nodded acceptance of his offer. "Thank you. I'll do my best to help you. Now, Twilight, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, I need to ask you a question."

The three of them looked back at him curiously. "Why only us?" Celestia asked.

Jason shrugged. "From what I've seen as a Watcher, it just seems to me that you three are the most mathematically skilled ponies here at the moment. As for the question--in the other timeline, it seemed to me that with Discord as a partner, it took Tirek about one or two weeks to gain enough power to come after your counterparts. How long do you estimate he'll take going at this by himself?"

"His power increases on an exponential curve with each pony he drains," Celestia replied. "The stronger he becomes, the more we are all in danger."

"But doing it one pony at a time until he gains strength enough to drain crowds..." Twilight mused to herself, doing calculations in her head. "It should take him at least two months, if not even longer."

"Forsooth," Luna scowled. "'T'will be the unalloyed mercy of the Maker and Harmony Themselves if it doth take e'en that long."

"In that case, I might have to teach you essential defenses first," Jason said.

"Not yet, if you please," Celestia told him. "First, I would like to see if anything can be done for poor Rare Find here. It would seem to me that the most expedient method of aiding him would be a magic transfusion." All the Bearers stepped forward at this, but Celestia raised a forehoof. "Twilight?" she said softly, separating her former student from her friends with a wing.

"Me?" Twilight's eyes widened. "But... but... Princess Celestia, you always told me I was supposed to keep it a secret...."

Celestia smiled. "Given the nature of the emergency--and the nature of the present company--I think the time has come for widening the circle of those in on your secret, Twilight." She stepped over to the wall and levitated over an apparatus that looked to Jason like two metal cones connected by a clear tube. She placed one of the cones over Twilight's horn and the other over Rare Find's. "Go ahead, Twilight. But keep the pace of your transfer slow at first, so Find's font can handle the refill.--Too quickly, and his system may go into shock," she explained to the others.

Twilight charged her horn and a stream of purplish-magenta energy made the cone she was wearing glow softly. The glow filled the tube with a gentle white light, which began slowly to surround the cone on Rare Find's horn. As Twilight worked, Celestia explained to the others, "As this generation's destined Bearer of the Element of Magic, Twilight possesses a font predicted to someday become larger than any pony's now living. (3) I counseled her to keep the fact a secret between herself, me, and the doctors I commissioned to watch after her health when she was a filly, in order that any ponies or other sapients loyal to Nightmare Moon would not hear of her potential and attempt to subvert her loyalties to Equestria or foalnap her for ransom or some other dark purpose." She looked solemn. "This is, of course, supposed to remain between us in this room, you understand." Jason, Spike and the other five alicorns nodded, while a mournful expression crossed Luna's face.

"I'm sorry we caused you so much trouble, big sister," Luna said to Celestia with tears beginning to prick at the corners of her eyes. "Had I known what that--witch would be capable of, I ne'er would have agreed with her arguments a millennium agone."

"It's history now, Lulu," Celestia murmured, moving alongside Luna to embrace her in a wing-hug. "We forgave you a long time ago." She wiped the tears from Luna's eyes with a primary pinion and nuzzled her gently.

"I thank thee, sister," Luna said, sighing. "The regret shalt always remain with me, however. The pain remindeth me ne'er to fall to such deception again." She stiffened suddenly, pointing with her horntip. "Hark! Rare Find returneth to us!"

It was true. Twilight had channeled enough magic into the unicorn's system that his eyelids were fluttering, and he began to murmur under his breath like somepony dreaming.

"Is he friend, or is he foe, the pony wonders?... Lord Tirek... reclaim... should... mine long ago... Those eyes...! Twin coals, like two suns hanging in a black sky... Give me what I want!! MINE...! No--no... too powerful...! Yes, Lord Tirek...! Overpowered me... Need it... Cutie Mark... mine... lost... forever?? Can't be, it just can't..." Tears began to flow from under his eyelids, spilling down his cheeks to wet the pillow under his head.

"Rest, my little pony," Celestia said, drawing the sheet and blanket back over Rare Find's body, which had begun to quiver--whether from sobs or a drop in temperature, Jason couldn't know. "You shall be recompensed for this loss. On my honor as a Princess of Equestria, I promise you this." She turned to face the others, steel glinting in her expression. "We must locate Tirek before he manages to do more damage."

"Excuse me, your Highness, but locate him and do what? Anyone you send after him would just be another course at his buffet, don't you see?" Jason gestured at Rare Find's still-prone form. "What would Equestria do if one or more of you ends up like him? And what good would it do? You'd just be making yourselves deathly ill to no point and purpose!" He stared the solar princess in the eye, pleading. "I have to teach you how to protect yourselves from him before you meet! Please, Celestia! You need to approach this in a way that makes sense for everyone--all of Equus, not just Rare Find or the rest of your subjects! You agreed to let me help, remember? Give me the chance!"

"I see your point, Jason, but we cannot allow this monster to roam unchecked, doing as he wishes among our subjects," Celestia told the human. "We must find some way to contain the damage he may even now be doing among our little ponies."

"I know, your Highness, but the way to accomplish that is not to send unprotected ponies out to confront the Soul-Drinker--that just plays right into his hands. We need to start defensive classes for every unicorn, pegasus and earth pony you can reach with the offer, preferably before Tirek sucks them into comas like he did with Rare Find here; after all, Twilight may have a pretty big font, but it surely isn't infinite, is it?" Jason looked at Celestia somberly.

"No--" Celestia replied, moving close to Jason and leaning down to whisper into his ear, "at least, not yet." She looked back at him as an expression of impish delight flickered briefly across the background of her eyes. He blinked in surprise, opening his mouth to say something, but Celestia hushed him, putting a hoof to her lips in a surprisingly parallel gesture to that of the Terran equivalent. He nodded. Celestia obviously wanted this factoid about Twilight's future capacity kept secret from even her former student, though Jason couldn't imagine why.

"These lessons seem an excellent notion to me, sister," Luna put in. "If Tirek's dire weapon canst be warded against, should we not give such a shield to as many ponies as we may? It may make the difference betwixt victory on the one pair of hooves, and shameful defeat 'pon the other," she urged.

"Agreed, Luna," Celestia said after a moment. "As the two most senior members of the Equestrian Octarchy, we shall hereby decree in open court at the first opportunity that the human, Jason Clavoli, is henceforth not only pardoned, but given the official post of PhysioArcanic Training Instructor, (4) to be assumed immediately upon public decree and continued for the duration of the current crisis."

Though Celestia did not declare this pronouncement in the Royal Canterlot Voice, every being consciously present felt its power. The Diarchs of the Sun and Moon had spoken, and woe be to anycritter--pony, dragon, minotaur, or demon--who tried to deny their Royal Highnesses' official will.

Pinkie Pie leaped into the air, gasping. "Ohmygosh omigosh omigosh omigosh!! Do you realize what this means?! We've just been given even more to celebrate! I've got so much to do...!" With a sproing and a whoosh, she took off out the nearest window. The rest of the girls and Jason stared after her for a moment, then shook their heads bemusedly, turning back to Celestia and Luna.

Jason bowed. "Thank you, your Highnesses. I'm honored to accept, unofficially." He chuckled. "The official part obviously comes later...!" He looked around at the seven alicorns who remained standing in the hospital room. "So, is it agreeable to everypony if we start the first training sessions, say, a week or so after Pinkie gets through with whatever she's planning, just to give me time to get settled in to Ponyville?"

"Keep in mind, we are facing a crisis situation," Celestia told him soberly. "I shall work with Ponyville's fire marshal to see which public building in town can hold as many ponies as wish to attend your defense classes."

"Celestia, why not let me handle that end of it?" asked Twilight. "I'm more familiar with Ponyville and its bureaucratic workings than you are. With Applejack and Rarity's help, we can probably secure a place for the classes within a day or two at the most." She barely suppressed a squeal at the thought of the geometry she'd get to study.

Celestia smiled fondly. "Certainly, Princess Twilight. I shall be glad to let you handle the part of this burden you handle best. In the meantime," she continued, turning to Jason, "why don't you and the others stay here in the palace with us? I'll have our seneschal find you a guest room until after I raise the sun tomorrow morning--you can't have slept very well in Appleloosa's prison."

"I appreciate the kind and generous offer, your Highness," replied Jason, bowing to Celestia. "I'll certainly accept--on one condition."

"What is that?" Celestia asked, confusion crossing her face for a moment.

"Simple: that you make the announcement where Appleloosa is capable of hearing it. I need them to see the reason we're doing this, because otherwise it may look like you're playing favorites, and the ponies of Appleloosa are very justice-conscious. At a time like this, the last thing you need is anypony accusing you of tyranny."

"Very well. Appleloosa does possess television and radio capabilities by now, doesn't it?" Rainbow nodded to Celestia. "Good! Then I shall make my announcement at the same press conference which announces your pardon. That should be sufficient. Shall we go?" The members of the Octarchy (except for Pinkie), Spike, and Jason turned and left Rare Find's hospital room, proceeding back down the hallways to the throne room.

Author's Note:

(1) Rescue at Midnight Castle and the incident Celestia narrated from the book in the show.

(2) The concepts of unicorn fonts and Magical Exhaustion are gratefully borrowed from CyborgSamurai's story The Powers of Harmony. In my opinion, it's the absolute best story on this site (sadly also unfinished, due to the author's health problems forcing him to make college a priority)! When you're through here, go read it!

(3) As detailed here, and here.

(4) Based on this.

Enjoy!

Comments

[musicluvr1974]

5216879 Blasphemous? Pretty strong assessment. Mind telling me why? Because if it's just denominational differences, I can live with that. Otherwise...

[musicluvr1974]

5216752
5216774
5216856

I was told conflict drives a story, and this was the obstacle I thought made the most sense this early in the story. Besides, Silver Star explained why they couldn't just pardon him. Should I edit to make that a little clearer?