Paths to Power: not-so-humble beginnings

by FelSpite

Chapter 10

And a good day it was. Sunset had long forgotten the days when the magic was yet unfamiliar in her life and thus new and more exciting than ever after. Being reminded of that felt good. Strange, perhaps, but good for sure. She spent at least three hours just learning about the book itself, before having to give up for now. Some hidden test it may not be, but there was simply way too much to learn in one sitting. Heh, forget one sitting - she wasn't really sure how long would it take for her... especially considering that her knowledge of the new magic was sorely lacking.

So, here she was - lying with a magical stylus in her hand, calculating her first 'proper' spell as a human. She briefly wondered if this new knowledge could help with her eventual ascension, but could only chuckle at the stray thought. It was a long way to the top ... and falling in the canyon midways surely didn't help her. She checked her notes once again. 'Seems fine'

"Testing spark, try twenty three" she spoke taking a rod in her second hand once again. 'Pull the mana... yes ... skipping conversion ... now to shape it .." Yellow orb winked into existence at the end of the rod, only to fizzle out with a cracking sound half a second later. "Well, negative result still counts as a progress here, I guess. Let's redo the shaping part..." She quickly erased some of her writings with a stylus back side, starting them again. It surely was way more convenient than pen, not to mention outdated crap like quills.

"There you are. And I wondered where did those pillows from the couch go"

Sunset looked up to see Lightning Dust, who just entered the training room and stood in the doorway grinning. Being startled more than enough during her older studies had helped her with a few nice habits. Though while getting rid of typical 'being startled' reaction was easy enough, learning not to speak her mind to others was more difficult. A few stern lectures from Celestia helped to set her up to the right direction. Just being indifferent to most, especially when they needed something from her was enough for them to leave her alone. Luckily, her new allies were much better company anyways, as she doubted than any of them would just take 'no' for an answer. Except maybe Gilda, but in her opinion the latter was just the best combination of carefree, tact and indifference and have never bothered or distracted her so far.

"Well, Crash said to restrict using a spell to this room, and I definitely do not want neither walking back and forth nor lying on the floor."

"And what spell would that be?" Asked Dust with a visible interest.

"Spark" Answered Sunset with a slight annoyance "Just basics so far"

Dust shrugged "It makes sense to start with easier ones. Only took me three days to learn, unlike the rest of them. Oh, and why is your spellbook that big?"

"You have one too?"

"Duh" Dust moved closer taking a better look at the tome. "Nothing that fancy, but whatever works, I'd say. Makes some sense for you to have a bigger and better version or something like that" She grinned to her own joke.

"And what do you mean by that?" questioned Sunset.

"Well, if we are using Gilda's terminology, than according to Crash I'm best suited as a magical warrior or something and you are more of a 'squishy wizard type'. So it would make sense to follow the stereotype closer ... you just need some staff and a stupid hat with a robe for full set" She laughed heartily.

Sunset glared back "Not everyone wants to be a brute, you know!"

"Most who say that actually do, you know? Like nerds and other losers. They just never want to put any effort in it, that's for sure" Dust continued undeterred. "I'm about to start my morning routine. Join me for once, you would feel completely different!"

"Don't mind if I do." Grumbled Sunset as she stood up.

"Great! We should start with a small warm-up of breathing and stretching exercises!"

Wait a moment. Was she really goaded into it that easily? No matter, even if she had no desire to really focus on any physical activities, keeping fit was important enough. So why not?

***

Forty minutes of training and a shower later as she was sitting on the couch in her bathrobe while being not so sure of it anymore. Heck yeah, she felt different. "Should my body really ache that much?" A rhetorical question, sure, but she had to say it.

"A proper athlete would say that if you do not feel pain after exercises than you are doing it wrong." Answered Dust with a grin "Though in your case, I would just blame negligence. It's rather typical these days to be honest. First, people tend to mostly ignore their body fitness till they are around thirty or so, only to wonder later where did all their health problems come from." She shrugged. "I mean, unlike them we do have a magical bullshit to fix that kind of idiocy, but why not simply keep yourself in a good shape if you can?"

That was hard to argue with. Most problems could, and often should be fixed by magic, but with her situation in mind she had one very big reason not to become reliant on magic entirely. Being helpless was not an experience she would like to repeat any time soon.

"I'll add some exercises into my schedule, I think" She concluded to the Jock's clear approval. "Still, I have to figure out this spell today and Crash said that I can ask you for pointers..." She left her phrase open, waiting for Dust's reaction.

"Sure, no problem. I'll just grab my book so we can compare our final notes and go from there."

"Really?" Wondered Sunset aloud as Dust went to the stairs "I'd took you for one to explain it on the basis how it should feel and surely not the 'bookish' type."

"Nah, our magic does not work like that." answered Dust with a bored tone, while she went up "Unless we would be sorcerers of the same school or bloodline, that is. Crash had to explain it to me like three times in detail, but I got it in the end."

That was also interesting. Was it another test of her capabilities as a student, or had he just seen no reason to bother with such details yet another time, knowing that she would likely ask Dust herself? Was it some kind of 'nudging' into the necessity of teamwork, likes of which Celestia tried to use with her, or something else entirely?

Meanwhile, as she considered these possibilities and her possible response, Dust has supposedly taken her book and closed the door before going down.

"Among other stuff, the Spark is also overcomplicated in the theoretical part to help you learn other spells after. But at least we are learning with a greater emphasis on practice."

"What's the difference?"

"As Crash said, these rods are kinda costly to give them to an average student, so many either learn from rare examples provided by teacher or with a much greater emphasis on theory and personal trial and error. In the extreme cases learning even such a simple spell may take two or three months and it is considered acceptable."

"That's weird" muttered Sunset absentmindedly, paying more attention to the book that Dust brought. It was much smaller than hers, closer to a typical schoolbook. Dust took a similar looking stylus and proceeded to search for something on the pages that appeared blank from the unicorn's perspective.

"Found it! Check it out."

Sunset looked on the blank page for a few seconds more before finally connecting the dots. "Do you have a protection on your writings to hide them from others?"

"Ah, yeah. Sorry, I tend to forget about it. I'll fix it, just a moment" Dust took the book back and closed her eyes, visibly concentrating on something. Blue glow that was barely visible at first slowly spread from her bracers to her hands, before enveloping the book. A few seconds later, a text appeared on the opened page.

"Annnd done!" Exclaimed Dust proudly.

Sunset still watched at it nonplussed. "Considering how atrocious your handwriting is, I don't think that it would help us much."

"Hey! It's not that bad!" Dust tried to retort at first, before conceding "Well, maybe you need to get a bit familiar with it first... So, why won't you reveal your own notes?"

"Apparently, it doesn't work this way" said Sunset "It's specifically mentioned in my book that revealing it's contents to others is not a trivial matter, and I had no time to look for details yet."

Dust sighed. "That's magic for you. 'Kay, let's go through it step by step..."

Two hours, forty two spent charges and three pizzas later they were actually finished. Sunset looked at the orb of 'Spark' with a proud grin before shooting it to the wall. Aiming the spell was more like shooting with some ranged weapon rather than using any magic, which definitely felt unusual and got her some issues, hitting herself once included. One spell obviously didn't represent this new magic a whole, but the new experience was welcomed by her.

She wondered if the efficiency of her current teamwork was just a flick of the moment, caused by a fact that she was just starting her studies and if in the near future Dust would just hold her back like the other unicorn students in Equestria. It seemed rather likely, but for some reason she felt sad about it...

"So, I think we're done with it" Said Dust offering her one of the two remaining pizza slices. "Some other spells you were wanting to try today?"

"Yeah. Crash mentioned 'Warmth' and 'hard shield' as other basics for me." At least Dust wasn't envious - a welcomed development in her eyes.

"Well I have no idea about this 'Warmth', but shields are not that difficult. They come in three main variations - soft, hard and thaumatic" Dust grinned "May sound a bit silly, but it makes some sense in the end. You are supposed to use them in layers - first come soft shields that are supposed to block energy attacks, like magic rays, fireballs and stuff. Hard shields come after and should block bullets and direct weapon hits. And thaumatic shields are to be used against very specific shit like mind control. Crash said that there are a lot of them and most of the time you won't them unless you really know what you are ..." A Phone ringed with an annoying tone, interrupting her. "Fuck! Do they really have.." With clear annoyance she slowly took it and hesitated a few more seconds before answering.

"Yes, mom"

"..."

"No, everything's fine"

"... ... ..."

"Yes, I do remember"

"... ... ... ... ..."

Dust frowned. "Mom, do we really have.."

"... ... ... ... ... ... ..."

"Yes, I understand, but.."

"... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ungrateful ..."

At that point Dust just took the phone from her ear and closed the microphone with her other hand, while reducing the sound of the speaker.

"Hate them" She said to Sunset as if it explained everything "Plain and simple." She sighed and stood up. "See you in the school, I guess"

"Good luck"

"Thanks, I'll need it"

As Dust left, Sunset considered her options. Without further help there wasn't much that she could do here outside of doing 'Spark' a few more times, but there was no real need and she felt tired enough with the repetitions of the spell. Perhaps it was time to learn more about the book? Yeah, and the couch is surely more comfortable. She stood up and stretched.

Back in her filly days she often wondered if her being raised in an orphanage was good or bad. Nowadays she was definitely in the 'Good' camp. Less problems, less distractions, less responsibility, less bother in general. And looking at Dust's example, she definitely saw that there was no guarantee of worthwhile positive sides to having a family.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why isn't there a Flash Sentry tag?

[FelSpite]

He's not even mentioned in the story so far, much less appeared. And unless some of my plans change with a flow of the story (which is unlikely in this case) he may not appear at all. So why should there be his tag? After all, Sunset in this story has never dated Flash or even considered him as potential boyfriend

In case If/when other character would appear in the story and have a significant importance for the plot they may get a tag. Adding it before feels like a misinformation to me.