Paths to Power: not-so-humble beginnings

by FelSpite

Chapter 6

Sunset closed the browser on the library's computer and leaned back on her chair sighing. In the two weeks following her decision to take Crash's offer Sunset had some progress on multiple fronts, but still it wasn't much to be proud of. First of all, now she was able to reliably perform the two most simple spells of telekinesis and light, even if it still baffled her to even view telekinesis as a spell and not an inherent ability. Sure, comparing to her prowess as a unicorn it could be viewed as laughable and doing magic with these bracers instead of her horn still felt weird and unnatural, but it was something to begin with.

Crash himself remained being an enigma, as they barely interacted outside of her rather short magical training at the evenings, but for now she was mostly okay with it. After all, it's not like she needed to befriend him now or anything like that. His lessons were a good change, compared to her previous experiences so far: there was nothing unrelated to magic, no distractions of any kind, he gave clear, precise, straight to the point instructions and explained everything in detail if asked, instead of leaving her to 'guess it by herself'. And in those few cases when he offered no detailed explanation, he explained why and at which point they would theoretically adress it in the future. The differences in their respective basic magic aside, he seemed to be really interested in the possible influence of her emotions on the 'process of spellcasting itself'. As he added, they were still needing a better version of the focus, so for now he recommended a neutral and detached approach 'to establish a better baseline'. Finally, he promised to finish a first non-prototype version of her focus by Friday 'bare unforeseen circumstances' and she was looking forward to it.

It wasn't easy to just wait, but now she had most of her confidence back and it helped. Her new company wasn't bad either. Sure, she would prefer getting better at magic to most of their hangouts, but at least it was fun enough and she intended eventually getting a better grasp on what her 'companions' actually wanted and believed.

At School her association with griffins has become a rather common knowledge, even if she wasn't a formal member yet. It had an interesting side effect of teachers getting more strict with her, both in regards to her interaction with other students and for possible cheating at various tests. Ha, as if she ever needed that for something that easy. Sure, she had to put on hold if not completely abandon her plans in regards to that annoying group of girls and those few that she viewed as possible minions before were pushed away by the changes. But as Gilda would say if she would know about it 'And nothing of value was lost'. Sunset still planned to go for Fall Formal this year though, to prove a point to herself if nothing else.

At her spare time she renewed her search in regards to this world's magic using the internet in the school's library, using the explanations from Crash as pointers. But so far her research has been proven mostly fruitless, as all that she could find aside from works of fiction (usually really bad ones) and some weird cartoons were some ancient eastern breathing exercises and meditation techniques. And even if she could use some meditation occasionally..

A vibration from her phone confirmed that Dust's training should be over for quite some time already, and it was time to leave. She stretched and stood up, groaning. After a second thought, perhaps some of those other exercises could be useful too...

***

Only eight minutes later they were driving back to home, with some rock playing on radio, Dust humming to the beat and herself not even trying to hide a clear boredom from her face.

"Hey, Dust"

"Huh?" Questioned driver, while lowering the sound a bit.

"Why do you even need that training in the first place?"

"Cause it's fun, duh. And other electives do suck"

"Hm... Aren't we supposed to pick electives starting from the next year? And isn't it too easy to be fun with your magic?"

"Normally yes, but if you want for PE to be your only elective - than you have to take it right from the start. And I do use spells to make myself weaker and slower. What's the fun of beating the others at it otherwise?"

"Well, that's useful I suppose" And it surely was. Sunset made a mental note to directly ask about such kind of magic later. Could be useful in many ways. "Why doesn't Gilda join you then, instead of leaving school earlier? I'm sure, she doesn't want other electives later as well"

Lighting Dust visibly cringed before answering. "It's about a bad blood between her and Dash. Gilda said that they were rather close before as kids, but once she moved to CHS herself it really didn't turn out that well. So, considering both their tempers and pride, a prolonged meeting between them could turn to a fight really easy and Dash never missed a single training so far."

"Sounds reasonable to me" remarked Sunset. She maintained a pause a bit longer to collect her thoughts before continuing. "Can we just skip the school tomorrow? I'm bored out of my mind lately, and me taking you up to your word on the subject of riding skill training or magical showcase seems awesome!"

"Nah. I mean, I'm game as promised, just not on Thursday. Cranky is one of those stupid teachers that always make fuss if you skip their lessons on the matter of principle. Is Friday good for ya?"

"Sure" Sunset grinned. "I'd look forward to it"

***

As they arrived to the mansion, the first thing that catched their eye was rather big van with a griffin's logo on it, standing right outside of the mansions garage. In front of it's open hood stood Wrench, clearly doing some sort of check-up.
"Looks like Crash is going to Manehattan again." mentioned Lighting Dust as she parked their car.

"Does it happen often?"

"Well, up to your appearance he usually was away each Tuesday. It's some sort of business involving medicine as far as I know"

As she and Dust moved to the house proper, they greeted the mechanic to which he responded without even looking in their direction. Someone else could possibly find it rude, but Sunset only cared about the formalities so far as they were in her favor.

This time the TV-set of the house and it's powerful audio system showcased the joy of pirate life and booze. It was kind of catchy, if really loud, but Crash that was sitting in the chair of the living room somehow noticed their presence nonetheless, before turning the TV off. It wasn't the first time he done it, and that was a definitely useful skill to have.

"It's a rather unfortunate that I really should be going right now. I've finished your bracers about two hours ago " He said in his usual calm tone while gesturing to the box on the table. "For now I would strongly recommend to abstain from any use of magic in the next 24 hours and to wear them all the time that you won't be sleeping. Keeping them in the box for the night should help with a few minor issues that I wasn't able to fix this time."

Sunset's smile, that she displayed after hearing these words was one of the rarest moments when she wasn't hiding her emotions while experiencing a real happiness. "T-thanks. I'm.. grateful."

Crash nodded. "I'll return on the Saturdays morning, before the party starts. Feel free to relax as you see fit, but our proper training and study starts in the second half of the Sunday, so expect you to be ready for it."

"I will" She replied without hesitation.

"Good. See you later then" And with those words he picked up his briefcase from the table and nonchalantly walked out of the house.

"Is he often that aloof?" She asked Dust that stood on her right that whole time.

"Meh, he just doesn't really care about formalities and appearances, unless it's crucial to our plans. I surely can roll with it any time."

'A bit weird, but who cares, really.' Thought Sunset 'Now what else was important here? Right, that party thing'

"What is that party all about?" She asked Dust while moving to the fridge to pick herself some cider. "Aside from introducing me to the griffins proper, that is"

Lighting Dust followed her and picked a bottle herself. "There are few minor things aside of that, but you shouldn't really think about it. I'll tell ya if it comes up."

Sunset shrugged."Whatever. Any particular plans for the evening?"

"Well, I still need about four hours for my training and a decent shower right after, but then we can watch that newest horror flick. Gilda should be online right now, if you're interested."

"Sounds good enough for me."

Author's Note:

Delayed mostly by my laziness and a few RL issues a 6th chapter is finally here!

Btw, , if someone would point me towards a decent free spellchecker (preferably without registration or any other associated garbage) that would accept text in a chunks of 1000+ words (the more the better) it would be really appreciated.