Wielder of the Orb: Third Time's the Charm

by TheMajorTechie

IT BEGINS... AGAIN.

Author's Note:

Let's get this started, eh?

Nightshade jumped at the sound of hoofsteps approaching her bedroom door. Whirling around, the mare lifted up The Orb in defense, her horn's aura softly glowing around the artifact.

---

Hold on, y'all probably have no idea what's going on. I mean, neither do I at this point given how long it's been and the fact that I just threw out everything to start from scratch again, but still. Let's have a little bit of history, shall we?"

In this universe, long before the rise of the Princesses, or heck, even the ponies themselves, all magic in the world was held within a single unit. This "unit" can take whatever form it may be perceived as by its user, or "wielder". This could be anything from a wand to a spellbook, to even a good ol' glass ball of knock-you-out-with-sheer-weight... of which is its current form, and what Nightshade calls the "Orb".

Nopony knows where it came from. Nopony really knows what it even is, or why the heck it decided to randomly show up in a thrift store while Nightshade was looking for parts for her bicycle.

So that brings us back to our current predicament. Nightshade has less control over the Orb than a Pichu does over its electricity, but by Celestia's flaming mane, she's gonna use it.

---

"S-stand back!" she stammered, trembling as the door slowly creaked open. She mentally prepared herself for whatever was about to intrude on her, raising the Orb higher in the air for the optimal whacking position.

Opening an eye, she saw the dark silhouette of an alicorn.

Lightning Rod stepped out of the shadow of the hallway, yawning as he plucked the prosthetic horn off his head.

"Hey, Shady," he mumbled, wandering into the room, "'Sup?"

Nightshade let out a sigh, lowering the Orb. "Not much," she smiled at her roommate, "I was just studying."

"Hm? Studying for what?"

Nightshade lifted up her copy of Magical Spells and Incantations for Dummies.

"...Oh."

"Yeah," the mare joked as she gave Lightning Rod a playful kick, "Maybe that artificial horn of yours that you've been working on will let you try these out!"

"Hey!" Lightning Rod retorted, tapping the dark spiral of metal hanging from his hoof, "I can already pull off basic levitation with this! Once I can get it to work as well as a real horn, I'll be able to bring unicorn spellcasting to both Pegasi and Earth Ponies like me!"

"And I'll stick with your stomping hooves while I wait for you to make fix your big ol' Pegasus jetpack. 'Kay?" Nightshade chuckled.

"Just let go of both those projects, please," Lightning Rod snorted, rolling his eyes. "They both failed spectacularly, and all I got out of them were your laughs."

Shifting in her seat, Nightshade regained her composure, clearing her throat. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that," she grinned, "You know how I am this time of day."

"Potentially toxic like your namesake?"

Nightshade blew a raspberry at her roommate.

"Kidding," Lightning chuckled, ruffling Nightshade's mane much to her bemusement.

"Anyways, lemme read now. 'Kay?"

"Sure."

Lightning Rod hopped onto Nightshade's bed, humming a quiet tune to himself as he lay down.

Nightshade flipped a page, her eyes widening. "Oh?" she mumbled, "Ooh..."

"Hm?" Lightning hummed, "What is it, Shady? Something interesting come up?"

The mare leaned closer to the page before turning to her friend. "Nevermind," she dismissed, "Thought it was something that it wasn't."

"What did you think it was?"

"Spell for channeling energy into magical artifacts."

"Oh."

"Yup."

The conversation died down as Nightshade returned to her studying. The sound of her bed creaking pierced the room as Lightning rolled off, wandering to his side of the room to fetch his tools. He glanced back at his roommate.

"Shady," he began, "do you even know if that thing is a magical artifact at all?"

"Nope," Nightshade shook her head, "But I can feel it. Like, y'know that feeling you get when you suddenly jolt up from bed in the middle of the night, thinking that you just died but you're actually not dead because it was just a weird shot of adrenaline that your body just decided to splurt out in you?"

"Um... yeah, I guess, but that's a bit... oddly specific?" Lightning chuckled nervously.

Nightshade shrugged, returning to her book. She paused, glancing back up at the Orb.

Nothing happened.

"Hey," Lightning Rod called from the other side of the room, "I'm gonna go out and buy some things. You want me to get anything for you?"

"I'm good," Nightshade replied, still reading. "Though now that I think of it, something to drink would be nice."

---

A low rumble emanated from beyond the window. Nightshade stirred in her sleep, shifting her cheek to the next page.

The rumble grew louder.

Groaning, the mare lifted her head, squinting in the light of her desk lamp as she stared towards the window.

A dim face stared back at her. Rubbing her eyes with a frown, Nightshade took another look. The face was gone, as was the rumbling sound. Instead, the sound was replaced with a much more ominous whoosh as a flash of dark magic lit up the room behind her.

"Wha--hey!" Nightshade hollered, lighting her own horn and grabbing the Orb, "What's going on?!"

The shadowy claw that emerged from her desk shrank back, almost as if surprised by the mare's outburst. Moments later, it lashed out again, grabbing fruitlessly at the air as Nightshade backed away.

"Uh... back off!" she yelled again, swinging the Orb in front of her, "I have a heavy glass ball and I'm not afraid to use it!"

The claw seemed to follow the Orb's motion, swaying back and forth with each swing from Nightshade. Another flash of light caught her eyes as a second claw emerged from beside her, straining against the wall for the Orb.

Grunting at her exertion, Nightshade cast a spell she'd learnt only days ago. Immediately, the claws began to shrivel away as the magic forming them was channelled instead into creating a small crystal.

As the second claw faded into nothingness, Nightshade collapsed onto the floor, unconscious.

Comments

[Luxter77]

That cliffhanger tho

I feel like I should read the other stories, but it will spoil the drama, should I?

[TheMajorTechie]

9451930
More along the lines of cringing yourself to death, but go ahead. When I started writing this story I vowed to throw out the old plot of both previous stories simply due to how much they made me cringe when I looked back on them.