Blank Canvas

by Canvas Stories

Chapter 2, My Quest

Blank Canvas

Chapter 2, My Quest

The whole house went silent. Several seconds passed before I finally raised my head and broke the silence.

“What's wrong, didn’t the princess inform you, Miss Sparkle?” I questioned.

“I don’t think so.” she said with a bit of confusion in her voice. “Spike, did we get a letter from the Princess a while ago?”

“Yeah, we got one saying that she was sending him here, but that was over a month ago.” said Spike, from atop the stairs.

“About a month sounds right.” I thought to myself.

“A month is a long time to get from Canterlot to Ponyville.” said Applejack.

“Well, I came from Applewood.”

“You don’t seem to act like you're from Applewood.” said Twilight.

“Well that’s a bit of a generalisation.”

“I wasn’t living there for very long, I was only there for some research.” I said.

“Well, why did Celestia send you to me? Oh, does she want you to learn the magic of friendship?” She asked, with some enthusiastic flare in her voice.

“Not to my knowledge, all I know is that she sent me here to learn magic from you.”

Twilight sat down, brought a hoof up to her chin, and looked up at the ceiling, obviously now deep in thought. After a few seconds, she turned back to me.

“Why did she send you to me? Celestia’s the most powerful pony in all of Equestria.” She asked.

“I’m not sure. After I showed her my talent with magic, she said that you would be a better teacher for me.” I responded.

“Speaking of which, I’m curious about your level of skill in the arcane arts. I had to study like crazy for Princess Celestia to take me under her wing.”

“I guess I can show you something.” I said, as I thought of a spell to showcase.

“She probably just wants to know how much magical energy I have in total.”

I took my stance for a heavy levitation spell, took a deep breath, and focused. I became aware of the magical essence flowing throughout my body. I retracted it to my horn, and it started to glow a dark gray. I started to imagine how the library looked from the outside. With the image in my mind, I started trying to lift it. I felt my magic leave my horn, as it quickly gathered more from my body to replenish it. I felt my magical aura grip the house, and I lifted. I grunted, feeling like I, myself, were physically lifting a heavy object. Twilight looked around to see what I was doing and saw nothing.

“What are you doing?” She asked while looking around.

“Look outside!” I managed to get out through clenched teeth while still trying to concentrate.

With a perplexed look on her face, she walked to the door and opened it. She was taken aback, after seeing her house floating a couple dozen feet off the ground. She noticed that her house was surrounded by the same gray aura that my horn emitted.

“By Celestia, are you doing this?” She asked, in awe.

All of her friends ran to the door to see. A minor headache quickly came as I started to slowly bring the house back to the ground. They kept on staring, even after the house touched the ground. Twilight slowly turned to me as I sat on the floor, trying to recover.

“How- *pant* how was that?” I questioned, still trying to catch my breath.

“That’s... certainly some power you have there, where exactly did you come from?” Twilight asked me.

“To answer your question… well, let me tell you my story. My origin is still a mystery to me. I remember waking up far north, in a cave, during the middle of winter. I was so cold and scared. It was snowing so heavily that I couldn’t see five hoof-lengths in front of me. I would have died if not for a certain white-coated foal that brought a rescue team to me. I didn’t catch his name, but he was a unicorn, with a dark colored mane. Why I was there, and anything before then is still a mystery to me. After that, I woke up in the hospital and went on a quest to learn about the arcane art, in the hopes of becoming a very powerful unicorn. But if I could ever meet that pony that saved me, then I would try to repay my debt as best as I could.”

“Why did you go to the Princess then?” Twilight asked, interested in my story.

“Well, I have been studying and learning magic for about ten years now, and as you saw outside, I thought it was enough to impress the Princess.”

“Did you show her what you’ve shown me?” She asked, confused as to why Celestia didn’t take me as her apprentice.

“No, I levitated something bigger,” I said, taking a prideful stance.

“What was it?”

“Her whole dining and resting tower.”

Twilight’s mouth fell open.

“Wow! The whole thing?”

“Yup, the whole thing. But I will admit, it ended in a horrible nosebleed, and a migraine that lasted the rest of the day.”

“Why do you need my help? Your magic is already stronger than mine.”

“While I do have a lot of magical energy in general, there are a lot of spells I have trouble with, even things as simple as teleporting,” I said, a bit humiliated that I couldn’t do something as simple as a teleportation spell.

My horn lit up as I got ready to cast the spell. Resulting in an unpleasant explosion, directed straight towards my face.

“Wait, you have been taught under many different teachers, and none of them could help you with this?” She said, with a look of disbelief on her face.

“They trained me on how to use my magic smoothly, and helped me with some spells, but they all just said that the next one would help me with that.” I said, blushing a bit from the embarrassment.

“Ah, now I understand why she sent you to me, I know more spells than anypony!” She threw her arms up into the air with enthusiasm.

“So, will you teach me?” I asked.

“Sure, I would love to be your mentor!” She ran up and hugged me.

“I won't let you down, Princess Sparkle.” I said, hugging back. I quickly let go of her, jumping back.

“Please, just Twilight.” she said with a giggle.

“Alright, Twilight, what are you gonna teach me first?” I asked with an enthusiastic grin, obviously excited for the events to follow.

“Wow, easy there, partner.” Said Applejack.

“Yeah, Canvas. We are doing something else today, which involves your presence in Sugarcube Corner.” Twilight said.

“Wait, what?” I questioned as the pink pony started to push me from behind.

“You're going to love, love, LOVE IT!” She said with a shriek.

We walked a good five or six blocks before we got to the building they referred to as “Sugarcube Corner”. It looked like a giant gingerbread house, leading me to assume that it sold candy. They told me to wait outside for a couple minutes. I heard them mumbling a bit before they called me to come in.

“Surprise!” Roared dozens of voices as I stepped inside.

“Welcome to Ponyville, Canvey!” The pink pony blurted out.

“A party...for me? Uh… thank you!”

By: Canvas Stories

Edited by: Potato Pride and Blue_Thunder