Twilight Sparkle and the Winds of Magic

by JoJo the Archivist

Chapter Two: Hysh, The Wind of Light

Author's Note:

I want to apologize for the lack of chapters between this and the prologue. I moved into a new place, had several technical hiccups and the dreaded writer's block had reared its ugly head in my general direction. I think that now since I have a little more control over things in my new abode. the chapters should be more and more frequent.

Chapter One: Hysh, The Wind of Light

Within the hallowed depths of the Everfree Forest, a ritual was taking place. Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Magic and her close friend, Spike the Dragon had set up an ornate summoning circle. What Lord Ryder had said to her resonated with the young alicorn and filled her with dread. The fact that this passive-aggressive invader has the potential to atomize an entire city with little to no effort was something to heed with absolute caution, so Twilight knew that she couldn't stop him herself but enlist a power magician from another time or another world. After she took a hard look at her grimoire, she funneled as much of the surrounding magic from the forest as she could. The circle in the soil illuminated a light lavender, sparks flew as the enchanted lines erupted with a bright column of energy.

"Umm... Twilight?" said Spike who had noticed a shape inside of the pillar of light. "Do you see what I see?" She squinted as she could see the discernible shape of some kind of hominid. As the light cleared, it was apparent that this was a stranger, similar to the Val'kyr with the slender facial features and narrow piercing eyes, but the tone of his skin would indicate that he was alive. His ornate blue robe would indicate this visitor was a royal and his blue helmet with the silver hornpiece covering the helm's brow would suggest that this prince was headed to war. Twilight also noticed the noble clutched a staff in one hand and a sword in the other; needless to say he would get rowdy if backed into a corner.

"Where am I?" the creature asked himself unaware of the purple alicorn and her dragon companion. "What manner of warp infested madness is this? Could this be the work of Malekith?" he mused as Spike looked over at an equally confused Twilight, giving a shrug in confusion. Twlight fought her initial worries and went over to introduce herself to the tall stranger, Spike could only look on in suspense.

"Brave visitor..." the Princess called out to the Elven Prince, who reacted in shock as he looked over to find the source of the voice was a diminutive equine. The nicely dressed stranger stepped back in surprise and pointed his blade at Twilight. The creature called out, "Stay back, Foul Daemon of the Warp!" Twilight jumped back trying not to get too close to his sword. "I am Teclis, Supreme Loremaster of Hoeth! And I am well equipped to banish creatures like you back into the Wastes of Chaos!" Twilight looked nervous and wasn't sure how to defuse the issue of a lost and confused High Elf. "Lord Teclis..." She tried to calm him, "...I was the one who summoned you here. So you don't have to worry about any 'daemons' of Chaos because my friends and I already tamed a chaos spirit." Teclis lowered his sword and kneeled down to the equine princess. "You said you tamed a Chaos Spirit? If you're able to put a dangerous beast in a position like that, you must be one of the most powerful beings in the universe."

"Tamed?! What makes you think I'm tamed?" said a smarmy dismbodied voice. The Loremaster looked to see that the tree had poofed into some kind of chimeric creature with missmatched limbs. This being looked like it crawled out of Clan Moulder's monster labs, but all the limbs had no stitches or sutures, he was a natural hodgepodge. Teclis pointed his staff at the spirit calling out, "NET OF AMYNTOK!" the staff glowed bright as a net made from light materialized around the being of chaos, his serpentine body pinned under the magical rope.

"That would be Discord, the afformentioned spirit of chaos." said Twilight as the three walked over to the ensnared draconequus. "You really should have thought twice before eavesdropping on a high class mage, Discord." the entity groaned. "Spoilsport. I only popped over because I thought you had a nasty run in with one of those overpowered mall goths." He looked at Teclis for a second, "But I don't think I've seen someone like you before."

The Elf raised his staff and freed Discord from his prison. "If you must know, my arrival here is that of a mystery as well. Maybe our enigmatic hostess can fill in the blanks for us?" he looked over at Twilight so she can explain why the Asurian Archmage found himself in Equestria. "Tell me, Pony. Why would you drag me from my home of Ulthuan as I was in the middle of preparing my brother's troops to do battle against the Dark Elves? I assume this isn't part of your pre-entry magic exams?" Twilight felt the gravity of her actions weigh heavy on her heart as Teclis was a soldier and he was cut off from his twin brother Tyrion who was about to engage Malekith's forces in a daring counterattack to protect their island nation.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship." she introduced herself, ushering a look of confusion on Teclis as it is quite crazy to maintain rule over a method of social behavior. "I called you here not on a whim or a failed attempt at a Magic Kindergarten experiment... I am here because I need your help. We have been invaded by a race of Archmages that have billions of years in experience and are emotionally cold to the pleas of our citizens." Teclis scoffed, "And why is that a problem? You have a being of chaos that can render such a threat useless." Discord looked at him. "I think I can vouch for Twilight Sparkle and say that their experience in the arcane arts is leagues ahead of my expertise. Their leader nearly atomized me the second I sneezed in his direction." The High Elf raised an eyebrow.

Twilight sighed, "If we could just focus for a moment, I wanted to add that they are crafty manipulators. They've won over the populace with their promises of keeping each other safe..." Teclis stood up and started walking away, "I've heard enough." Twilight was shocked. "Wait a minute! I'm not finished." The Loremaster rolled his eyes as she galloped towards him, he looked her in the eyes, kneeling over to her "I think I made it perfectly clear when I said 'I heard enough'." Twilight was stunned by the callousness of the Asurian Abductee, "H-how can you be so cruel?" she tried to maintain her composure and not cry. Teclis fired back, "I could ask the same of you. You just damned my brother and his finest soldiers to death and indentured servitude."

Discord stepped in to speak for Twilight but Teclis wasn't hearing any of it, so he raised his staff and dropped another Net of Amyntok on the draconequus. "AH! No fair! How did you-- Oh wait! Your spell needed to cool down. You elves are so predictible." The Loremaster was confused by the creature's terminology but wanted to proceed on his way. "I suppose if neither of you will help me, I should bring myself back to Ulthuan." he raised his staff to the sky and attempted to channel the magic from the air to preform a high level teleportation spell that would bring him back to his realm. The staff's orb was shining bright from all the magic it collected and his concentration was focused on warping back to his brother to finish the battle. As his staff hit the summoning circle, he experienced a powerful magical backlash that threw him back onto the ground. As tall and imposing Teclis was, this was a side of him only his brother would see. Teclis was a sickly child who suffered from weak lungs and a frail body, the force of being hit with such a surge of dark magic was enough to send him into a coughing fit, spewing blood from his mouth.

Twilight, despite being hurt by some of the High Elf's words rushed over to the prince. "Teclis! Are you alright?" The coughing fit prevented him from speaking as his mouth was filled with the metallic tang of blood. "Oh no... I can't let him die!" Discord replied, "After what he said to you? I think the rotter should die." Twilight's horn glowed as she scanned his body to reverse any damage. "He is right though, If Ryder's influence wasn't so great... I could have brought an entire army over. I could have brought Tyrion and his soldiers to help us." Teclis's cough was quieting as the magical discharge subsided in his body, he could hear the two talking more clearly. "I'm not upset because he was mean or cruel... but the fact that he was right. None of us are equipped to take down Ryder and his crew, I'm just not powerful enough to stand up to him, let alone remove all this magical feedback."

Teclis remembered that it takes steady concentration to preform a spell to its greatest effect. "Miss Sparkle?" he said to her as Twilight, Discord and Spike focused on him. "Can you forgive a daft fool for not listening? In my haste to return home, I forgot to factor in for excess magic. It's funny how my thousand years of learning, I forgot all that." Twilight wiped her eyes and said, "It's fine... We all do crazy things in the heat of the moment." Teclis noticed his chest was clear and his body was revitalized. "And you had to waste your hard earned pools of magic to keep me alive." Twilight shook her head and replied, "It's fine. I should have explained that I only had enough power to bring you back, if I wanted to bring Tyrion here as well, I would needed to taken out the source of all this excess magic."

Teclis got back up on his feet, "I can tell you want to do this without arousing any suspicion from these invaders, so I will help you gather and control the necessary amount of magic as thanks for giving me a temporary fix for my cough. But I have sensed that fighting will be inevitable, so the moment Tyrion arrives I will teach you how to control the winds of magic." Twilight asked, "What are the winds of magic? Are they some kind of special macguffin?" Teclis responded, "The winds of magic are the product of chaos, however it isn't necessarily a bad thing as your mismatched friend is any reason to talk because magic in itself is tamed chaos. Elves like myself are able to see the winds of magic, I see that your skies are filled with a stream of rainbows in the sky that fade from view." Spike interjected, "Not to be rude, sir but I think that's Rainbow Dash flying around."

And just as he said that, Rainbow Dash landed in front of the group. "Hey, Twilight! We were worried about you! I thought the crowd would have torn you to pieces after what Ryder was saying." Twilight said, "No. I had set up a portal which sent me one of the strongest magicians in the multiverse. This is Teclis, High Loremaster of Hoeth." Teclis simply nodded at the tiny pegasus. "You should have told me that! I could have cleared the clouds in the sky." The Prince said, "I think that it would take more than clear skies to bring over and amass an army to fight your capital's captors. You might need to do something about this excess dark magic floating about." Rainbow nodded, "Now that you mention it, I haven't been able to fly as fast since those losers crashed in Canterlot. Their cruddy aura must be messing up things for everypony here." Teclis asked, "Discord, do you have any idea on where this shroud of dark magic is coming from?" Discord looked around, "It's hard to say really, those Val'kyr are doing a good job of covering everything up with their own bodies. I might be able to isolate what's causing this dark shroud, but taking it out would be too hard for me to do alone. Twilight is at her most powerful when she and her friends unite, that's how they were able to defeat me."

Teclis gave it some thought... maybe friendship has a deeper meaning here than back in the Old World. The power that a large collective of ponies can amass is comparable to the Vortex back on Ulthuan. "Then it's settled. Twilight, gather your friends. We'll need to pull in enough untainted magic to funnel in the winds of dhar that shroud your fair city. We'll need to act fast because if your invaders are as old as they claim they are, they'll be able to sense when their power is being drained." Twilight answered back, "I'll go get Applejack! She should be at Sweet Apple Acres!" she took off and flew over to Ponyville. Discord said, "I'll meet up with Fluttershy and let her know the news." he poofed out of their sight. Spike realized, "Wait a minute! Rarity! I'm supposed to meet her in five minutes! Can you drop me off on your way to Pinkie Pie's place, Dash?" Rainbow sighed and said, "Hold on tight, because in a situation like this, I can't afford the whole luxury of waiting for you to get on." she flicked her tail in his face, telling him to hang on. Teclis said nothing as the group went their separate ways; only to break the silence with, "I didn't tell them what time to meet up with me."