Storm of the Century

by Cavalier753

Chapter Five: Mysterious Stranger

So we stepped inside. I knew we should have just turned around and left, lived our lives as we planned. But no, for better or worse, Aurelia and I went in.

The room we had entered was not what I had expected. After walking up all those steps, we had just entered the one room I thought I would never be in. We were inside Princess Celestia's room.

The room was quite large. Unsurprisingly, Princess Celestia was a very neat pony. There were priceless paintings of all sorts of images adorning her walls, ranging from depictions of Equestria, to portraits of the Princess herself. Her bed was directly opposite the doors we had come in through. The thing was huge, its bedding matched the Princess' hair, and it was immaculate. Beside it sat a little wooden nightstand, the color of Chestnut. Atop it sat a candle, and a very large book. From a distance, the cover looked simply brown with gold corners. To the bed's immediate left was another door. I could only assume this door led to a bathroom or closet, as the door was closed. The door to the right of the bed was also closed, so I did not know what was behind door number two either.

The right wall was missing, and in its place was the biggest window I had seen. Through that window you could see the entire city below, and if you looked further, You could see so many things. There were lakes, mountains, valleys, fields, forests, and I even spotted a little town. In the center of the “wall” was a set of glass doors, so that one might step out onto the marble balcony.

The left wall was the holder of Princess Celestia's sitting area. A pair of very regal looking velvet couches sat diagonally to each other, joined at the arm rests by a small circular wooden table. In front of the two couches stood a much wider table, bearing a few opened books, as if someone was in the middle of reading them, but then just up and left. Curious. There was even a half-filled cup of tea sitting beside them. Behind and to both sides of the velvet upholstered couch were quite a few bookcases filled with all sorts of books, most of which I had never even heard of, and which most certainly not stocked in the library at the Academy.

I immediately wanted to go see what it was that I assumed Princess Celestia was in the middle of reading before she had been interrupted by something, but as I took a step towards the table, Aurelia put her left hoof in front of me, firmly keeping me in place.

“Hang on, I don't trust this,” she whispered to me, cautiously eying the room for any hidden dangers.

“Oh come on Aurelia,” I started, gently pushing her hoof back her way, “This is the Princess' room. I doubt there's anything here that could harm us.”

“And how do you know? Have you been in the Princess of the Sun's room before?”

“Well, obviously not...”

“Then how would you know if it's safe or not? Sure, the rest of the castle was undefended by magic, but Celestia's room is a whole different thing altogether.”

“Okay, okay, give me second. Would you be happy if I scanned for any possible enchantments? Would that make you feel better?”

“Immensely.”

I sighed in exasperation, but proceeded to conjure the spell for mystical detection to mind. I was still tired from my expenditure of magic earlier and my billion-something step climb, but a simple detection spell wouldn't be too difficult. After the few necessary preparations and performing the spell itself, I learned something interesting, and just a bit unnerving. There were no magical defenses or traps to speak of, but I had sensed something in the room, and it was radiating a lot of magic. It had a bigger aura than if you put five of Equestria's strongest unicorns together. While I was very intrigued by this discovery, I admit that I was scared of what this new discovery might be. Could it be the reason for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's disappearances? Could it soon be the reason for our disappearances? I didn't know the answer, but as is expected in these kinds of situations of a fledgeling magician, I couldn't simply leave it alone, but how would I get Aurelia on board with investigating? She most certainly would want to turn around and leave the moment I told her there was something in the room with us, but I didn't want to lie to her for my own benefit, especially not when it could endanger her.

“Well?” she spoke up next to me, awaiting the answer on whether or not my spell detected anything.

“Huh?” I asked lamely. What can I say? I have a way with words.

“The spell, dummy. Did it work? Did you find anything?”

“Eeyup.”

“Well, what was it? Traps?”

“No, not traps.”

“Okay seriously, are you going to tell me or not?” Aurelia asked, losing her patience.

“I... don't know. It wasn't a trap, or defenses, or anything of the like. But before I tell you, you have to promise not to get excited.”

“Oh, for the love of Luna, just tell me already!”

“I think I just found a possible explanation for our missing Princesses.”

Aurelia just stood there with her jaw on the floor. For a second I thought she was just going to stand there with her mouth agape, but she soon spoke up.

“You can't be serious. You're not serious, are you? PLEASE tell me you're not serious.”

“I'm not serious.”

“Thank Celestia.”

“Actually, that wasn't true. I'm absolutely serious.”

“Damn it.”

“I want to investigate it. Pleeaaaase Aurelia? Please? I promise not to get into trouble, I swear!” I felt like a kid,asking his mommy if he could go play with the bigger colts on the playground. Not that I ever GOT to do that, on account of being imprisoned at a school my whole life, but still, I knew the feeling.

“Maelstrom, you shouldn't. What if you got hurt? What if whatever you sensed really is the reason the Princesses disappeared? What if it makes you disappear too? I couldn't bear it if something happened to you. And what about the guards? Wouldn't they have already tried to search for what made the Sisters vanish? They would have already found something important before now.”

Jeez, all those were really good reasons. But that last bit about the guards bothered me.

“There's a few things wrong with that last statement though, love. First, the guards didn't have magic to search with, on account of no unicorns in the guard anymore. Secondly, even if they did happen to use magic, they most likely would have searched immediately after Celestia and Luna disappeared. What if whatever this thing is, was just hiding itself to avoid being found? It could have let its guard down, allowing me the chance to find it. Aurelia, please. I know this is important. I just need to find out. Please. I wouldn't ask if I didn't think it was necessary.”

I knew that had gotten to her. Aurelia always had a certain weakness for logic. If it made sense, it was acceptable. She also didn't want to reign me in, not after I had just escaped from captivity. I probably didn't help my own case when I mentioned the bit about this presence possibly hiding, which would suggest a level of intelligence, and in turn, danger, but it was too late to take it back.

Aurelia bit her lower lip, thinking about what do choose. She looked around at the room a little bit, until her gaze settled on me. “Okay, fine. Let's go.”

“Yes! Thank you!” I exclaimed, pulling her in for a smooch on the lips. That definitely put a smile on her face, which was a win in my book. “So. Shall we?”

I stepped into the center of the room, where I felt the strongest magical connection to the strange presence, and where I felt the ebb and flow of mana pass around completely. I scanned my surroundings, checking for anything out of the ordinary that might happen. I decided that to get to the bottom of this, I would have to be direct. At least, that's what I thought, since I knew hardly any magic besides the most basic spells that somepony could learn at the Academy. I sent out another pulse in an attempt to pin-point the location of what was causing the magical disturbance. The magical “ping” I sent out, told me the location of myself (quite obvious), Aurelia, standing exactly two and a half hooves to my right, and the magical aura I had sensed. Which was right above me.

I looked up in anticipation, and seeing something that caught me off guard. It was a bright, golden wisp of magical energy, simply hovering about a hoof from my horn. I instinctively took a step backwards, putting just a little bit of extra space between myself and the foreign object.

“What, what is it?” Aurelia asked, taking a step closer to me, curious as to why I had started backing away.

“Are you serious? Look at that!” I exclaimed, pointing at the hovering sphere of magic.

“What? I don't see anything,” Aurelia said, glancing back and forth at the spot I was pointing at, and myself.

“Oh, come on! It's right there! Don't you see the floating golden ball of energy, right there?” I said, emphasizing the location of the mysterious sphere with a few quick jabs of my hoof.

“I don't know what you're talking about, Maelstrom. Are you feeling alright?: She asked, the worry evident in her voice. “I think you might have over-strained yourself with all the magic today.”

“No, I'm fine.” I said, brushing aside her concern. “I'm more worried about you. How can you not see the big, glowing, floating ball of pure magic hovering right there?”

“Maelstrom, there's nothing there but the air,” Aurelia said, taking another step towards me.

“But that's not possible! It's right there, how can you not see it?” I said, turning my gaze back to the shining aura of magic. As I re-focused my attention back on the magical anomaly, I suddenly felt the strangest sensation that it was... aware. That it knew where it was, and who was here. It was the most curious sensation, as if I could just tell what the orb was thinking, which was absurd, because it wasn't possible for magical orbs to think.

It was while I was contemplating this that I felt another strange sensation. My mind became flooded with the sensation of another presence, but not in the same sense as my magical pulse-finder. It was if the other presence was in my very mind. Oh no, was this strange ball of energy attempting to take over my mind? I panicked, lashing out with all my mental training that comes with learning magic. To my dismay, the new presence in my mind tossed aside my attack like a rag-doll, and keeping my consciousness in one place, metaphorically speaking. I feared that now was my end, that this entity was about to crush my mind and possibly kill me or reduce me to an insane, gibbering lunatic, due to the loss of my mind. I was about to accept that now was my end, until I remembered... her.

Aurelia. When this entity that she couldn't even see was through with me, what would happen to her? I hoped it would simply leave her alone, but that wasn't a risk I was willing to take. I don't know what really triggered the next thing I did, but I think it had to do with my need to protect Aurelia. I channeled all my magic, rage and fury into my mental strength and lashed out again at the strange presence. Somehow, I knew that I had surprised it with my attack, because it lessened its grip as the entity deflected the much stronger attack I had sent its way. I was grieved that my attack had done little to stop it, and I expected it to quickly crush me, but I was surprised. Why? Because as soon as it was done deflecting my attack, it loosened its metaphorical grip on my sub-conscious, but its presence could still be felt on the fore-front of my mind, as if it was waiting for something. Just then, I realized what for. It was waiting for me.

I didn't know exactly what to do, so I did the first thing that came to mind, literally.

Who are you? I asked aloud in my mind, although directed at the entity which had taken up a part of my head.. The entity did not respond, at least, not for awhile. I stood there, waiting for a response that I wasn't altogether sure would arrive, until after what seemed like an hour, I received a message. I was the sound of laughter. But it wasn't happy, hedonistic laughter that I was more familiar with. No. It was the kind of laughter that inspired a sense of foreboding darkness, as if the voice making the laughter wasn't happy at all, but was merely laughing at a dark joke that only the one remembering it would comprehend. After two short bursts of this dark laughter, a voice with no sound spoke in my mind's eye.

Did you miss me, my little pony? Which a short pause followed. I missed you.

The voice that spoke in my mind gave me a sense of familiarity, as if I should recognize it, even though I had never heard it before in my life. It was the most curious thing I had ever experienced. It sounded old, weathered by many millennium of life. It sounded strong, but also a bit erratic.

I had never heard anything like it before. So I asked again.

Who are you? I posed the question, waiting for another response as I had received previously, hoping for something a tad less cryptic. I was slightly disappointed.

You already know me, although you have not met me, the mysterious voice answered. Everyone knows me, whether they have met me or not. You are one of the latter.

That doesn't answer my question, I shot back.

You want a straight-forward answer then, but I don't always give straight-forward answers.

Why not? I asked, unknowingly letting a bit of my frustration seep into the question.

Because then, how would you grow if I gave you all the answers?

It would be helpful, at least.

You will be disappointed then. I will leave your mind alone. But know this. I will return at a later date. You have not heard the last of my words.

But you didn't answer my question! I shouted at the strange entity, as I felt its presence slip from the corners of my mind, leaving me feeling, oddly enough, rather empty. I contemplated what the voice had said, about my knowing it, yet not knowing it at the same time. How it didn't always give straight-forward answers. No kidding, I thought. Those were the most cryptic things I had heard since my last philosophy class.

As I regained my normal senses, I realized that I was lying on my side, on the floor. How did I get down here? I looked up and around, trying to get my bearings. Yep, I was definitely on the floor and- oh look, there's Aurelia. Why does she look so concerned? I rolled over onto my fore-hooves, still a bit at odds with my body after focusing on what was going on in my head for as long as I did.

“Oh, thank Celestia you're alright!” Aurelia exclaimed, releasing a breath she had undoubtedly been holding in. “I was so worried something might have happened to you! You were going on about some ball of energy that was floating; which there was no sphere of energy, by the way, and then you suddenly collapsed with no warning! I was afraid that all that strain from your over-use of magic had killed you, but I checked for a pulse and I felt a steady heart beat. But I tried waking you up repeatedly, and you just wouldn't wake, until now. Maelstrom, what happened?”

“Slow down there missy. Start over. I collapsed?” I said, bringing myself back to all fours.

“Yes!” Aurelia exclaimed, helping me back to my hooves. “You just fell over. I didn't know what to make of it, other than exhaustion. I'll ask again; what happened that made you pass out like that?”

“I- I don't rightly know,” I said, shaking my head of its sudden dizziness. That wasn't technically true, but it wasn't technically false either. I did have the notion that I had spoke to a mysterious, cryptic entity, but I wasn't sure if that was quite true. I decided I would just try to make sense of it later. I looked up to where I had seen, or thought I had seen, the hovering golden aura of pure, magical energy. It was gone. Now I really did wonder if I had simply imagined the whole thing, but I wasn't so sure. Thinking about it right now, however, simply made the dizziness came back, so I decided I would try to make sense of it later.

“Well, at least you're okay,” Aurelia said, nuzzling my neck. I returned her affection and slowly turned to face the shelves of books.

“Well, I can't sense whatever it was that I had before. Do you want to check these out?” I asked, gesturing to the large bookshelves, filled with all sorts of information.

“Wouldn't hurt, I suppose,” Aurelia answered shrugging.

I flicked my tail in anticipation, wondering what sort of knowledge I might be able to garner from the Princess' own private collection. I clopped over to the amalgamation of books, wondering where to begin. So, I started at the beginning. The “A” section. Every bookshelf was alphabetically organized, from the left to the right, making book-finding that much easier. I studied the different assortments of information, looking for something that I knew I wanted. Aha! Perfect! I had just found what I believed I was looking for.

I used my telekinesis to pull the book off its respective shelf, turning it to its cover so I might read it. On the red velvet cover, finely stitched writing over a golden symbol of an opened book with words flowing off the page, read “Spells and Incantations for the Unicorn Master, written by Starswirl the Bearded.” I had heard of Starswirl previously, due to the fact I had read another of his books, “Anthology of the Trans-mundane” a lengthy read about the different aspects and the nature of magic, and all the different types of spells one might cast, and how one might best understand the intricacies of how said spells worked. This book was obviously in the banned section of the library. This, however, was much better. I had a feeling that this book was exactly what I was looking for, and sure enough, it was. Inside “Spells and Incantations for the Unicorn Master,” was a huge collection of spells that were fit for a very powerful unicorn, and contained all sorts of knowledge on each one, including how much mana on average it would drain from you, the level of expertise that was recommended for each separate spell, and more efficient ways to cast them, for those with a much smaller mana pool. The very content of spells within the tome varied greatly as well. It ranged from powerful elemental magic, such as massive fireballs or chilling blasts of ice to freeze an opponent solid, all the way to projecting magical copies of one-self, to trick others into thinking you were in one place, when in actuality you were in a completely different place altogether.

In short, this book was everything I needed to advance my studies in the Arcane Arts. Yes, most of the spells in here required a level of training much greater than my own, but I would get to those when it was time. I didn't intend to over-step my limits. I wasn't stupid, after all. I soon discovered two more books by Starswirl, entitled “Strengthening Your Barriers: A Mind's Best Defense,” which was fairly obvious as to what the subject matter was, and another called “Beasts and their Weaknesses,” which detailed every creature known to Pony-kind, and how best to defeat them. Each creature's page suggested separate ways to deal with something, depending on whether you were a unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony. Unfortunately, the book contained no information on the Unassailable, since this book was written centuries ago, although it was still very accurate, possibly missing only one or two creatures that had recently been discovered, such as parasprites, for instance.

I turned to see what Aurelia was doing, and she had in fact grabbed a couple books as well. Later, when I asked her what they were about, she told me that one was about weather-pegasi throughout the ages, and the other was a book about wing fencing, which was like normal fencing for pegasi, except for the fact they used long, curved blades that strapped onto their wings, and basically acted as extensions of the wings. Very sharp, painful extensions meant for combat. But extensions nonetheless. When I asked her why she had picked that particular book out, she merely stated that it was “always nice to be prepared for anything.”

After we had packed up our “borrowed” books, in our saddlebags- what? The Princess certainly wouldn't be missing them. She had disappeared to who-knows-where, so she wouldn't be in any particular position to use them. Besides, she had probably already memorized each and every one cover to cover. They would do us a lot more good than her. I feel like I'm making up excuses though. I didn't look at it as stealing, but that was just me, I guess. Anyway, as I was saying. When we had finished packing the books up, I turned my attention to the two doors on opposite sides of Celestia's bed.

A quick look through the left door merely revealed that its contents was a rather lavish bathroom. It was very nice, with white and gold enameled tiling, all different assortments of soaps and expensive shampoos, and a huge bathtub. And when I say huge, I mean huuuuuge! I could probably fit twenty ponies in it, and still have room for a manticore. Overall, it was a very nice bathroom. The other room contained what I thought it might, considering the other contained a rather fancy bathroom. Behind door number two, was a large quantity of regal garments, primarily consisting of a lot of golden shoes, necklaces, and the occasional fancy robe or dress. Aurelia was fascinated by the walk-in closet, and begged me to let her try on some of the clothes, despite the fact that they were designed for an Alicorn Princess, who was much bigger than her. I made it a point to let her know this, to which she groaned in disappointment.

As we exited the closet, I couldn't help but notice what was lying on the Princess' nightstand. It was a brown book, with the image of a golden Unicorn with cyan eyes.

I was drawn to this book like a moth to the flame. It intrigued me, as it had obviously warranted the Princess' interest, since it was sitting all alone upon her nightstand. I levitated the book up to eye level. It had no title on the cover, but the front page did. It was simply called: “Legends of Equestria.” What I found particularly interesting about it was that it had a crimson-colored bookmark sticking out of the top, nestled about half-way between the pages. I was about to open it up and read what the Princess was reading, but I was interrupted before I got the chance.

“Hey, you two! What do you think you're doing in the Princess' chambers?!” A white stallion called from the open doorway, clad in the golden armor of the Royal Guard, the helmet bearing the signature blue plume. He must have noticed my glowing horn, and the fact I was levitating the book before me, because he then shouted, “Unicorn! Thief! Stop right there, criminal scum! You've violated the law!” and charged directly at Aurelia and I. I panicked, and did the first, and most dangerous thing I could do.

I quickly drew upon all my reserves of energy, and teleported Aurelia and myself as far as equinely possible from that room.

Comments

[Brony1997]

Great chapter. I demand another.

[Golly4Ever]

Damnit! I was really getting into this one!

On hiatus for 8+ years...

Well, if it's not going to be continued or finished, can I at least know the outline of what was going to happen in the story and/or how it was planned to end? Where is the author now?