Slight of Hand
“In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.”
-Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The last thing Azalie wanted to do was talk to her father. Most days that would have been different, but then, today wasn't like most days.
Her father, Davos Bestandeel, was a master of his craft not because he was the most powerful of mages, but because he possessed the one trait that made the difference between good enchanters and great enchanters. Above all else, her father was a patient man. But even her father had his share of sensitive subjects, and Azalie was particularly adept at finding them.
All it took was one mere utterance of her secret studies into the dark artes to send her father into an uproar about corruption and taint-not that Azalie had told him she was actually studying black magic. She'd only asked why its research was banned despite the obvious gain mankind could reap from such studies.
"Urgh! It was just hypothetical anyway!" the mage fumed to the empty alleyway, her frustration bubbling over as she relived the argument in her memories. "Well, as far as he knew..."
And now Grey, that slippery bastard, wanted her to essentially steal one of her father's most prized possessions. A journal he'd been keeping since he was her age. It went without saying the journal was more of a large tome at this point and contained his private thoughts and narratives on his greatest discoveries and studies. What Grey could possibly want with it was beyond her, but then, most of the peddler's motivations seemed to be.
Azalie fumed until her frustration fizzled out with a resigned sigh, and without ceremony let the matter slide as she made the still crowded main streets, stowing her troubles away from the prying eyes of strangers.
The shiftless masses showed no outward signs of distress, going about their daily errands with the same monotonous motions as ever. But there was a tenseness in the air, one that set Azalie on edge. Just hearing Grey confirm the rumors she'd heard filled her with a nervousness that saw her to the gates of the Academy in record time.
Despite her haste, she couldn't help but find a sense of comfort in being nearly home.
Built by the founders of the Circle of Sagecraft, the Academy was a marvel of architecture given life by magic. Its many wings formed an immense pentagram with looming black towers at connecting junctures.
As the oldest building in the city, one could say Midrassis had grown to its current prominence due to the Academy's influence, and Azalie could feel great power hiding within its walls; power yet untapped and just waiting for an ambitious mage to find it. Just one more item on her 'to do' list. But for now, her new 'friends' would have to take priority over ambiguous mysteries beyond her current reach.
The real question at the fore was how to handle the colorful creatures beyond the current situation. At the moment only a tenuous agreement kept them from gallivanting across Soulis to gods know where in search of this 'Twilight', who could be half way across the continent for all they knew. What she needed was time. Time enough to study these ponies and their ways before filing the discovery of the three new races and, by default, securing her place in history.
Before that could happen though, she needed to keep others from stealing them away from her by fulfilling her obligation to Grey. The thought of becoming the peddlers lackey made her feel like vomiting, but in the end, it would all be worth it. At least, she hoped it would.
Azalie was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't even register a fully outfitted Archon standing in her path until she ran straight into him.
"Ow! Hey, watch where you're going!" Azalie growled, in too much of a sour mood to admit the collision was likely her fault, at least until she realized who she was being rude to. "Oh! I'm terribly sorry. I didn't see you there, sir."
Garbed in a battle robe of banded steel plates the war mage stared at her impassively for a moment before replying in an even tone. "An easy feat when starring at the ground so intently, Miss Bestandeel."
As much as Azalie loved for her reputation to preceded her, she couldn't help but feel slightly disturbed at being recognized by someone she'd never met.
"Yeah, my apologies, but I'm in a hurry, so if you could just let me pass-"
"I'm afraid I cannot let you go at the moment," the Archon interrupted with a firm tone that brooked no argument. "The Headmaster is in a private council within the Hall of Communing, and I am to let no one enter until his meeting is over."
"Is that so...?" Azalie said absently with a knowing smile, adding mentally, 'And just after an emergency guild masters meeting. Just who could the old man be talking to in there?'
The Archon's lips twitched into a frown momentarily before reverting back to his mask of ambivalence. "Indeed."
"Well, that's certainly a worthy task for an Archon of such... uh, grand stature!" Azalie laughed nervously at the irritated look that came to his face, and began to make a mental list of her options. She could either take a detour and loose a little time, or she could sneak into the Hall of Communing and maybe hear something she wasn't suppose to.
She didn't even think twice.
"So, I'll just leave you to it then." With a mock salute Azalie turned on her heel and made her way back down the curved hallway.
When she was out of sight she ducked behind one of the many pillar supported archways lining the hallway and began digging through her pockets. After a few seconds of rummaging she produced a simple silver chain attached to a small sapphire pendant inscribed with spell sigils of her own design.
With a cautious glance around to insure she was alone Azalie began a low chant under her breath. The words themselves were gibberish. Just none-sense rhymes to focus her thoughts on the coming ritual.
She chanted for all of a minute until even her voice faded from her thoughts, only to be replaced by an increasingly complex series of geometric shapes and glyphs. If one could look into her mind, they would find the shapes matched those engraved on her pendant, only laid over each other into one complete pattern.
They were the fruit of her studies into a hybrid school of both thaumaturgy and artifacing, using both static and fluid spellcraft to create a stronger overall spell weave. She could have written an entire thesis on its potential applications but found the edge it gave her over her peers too enticing to give up. At least, not until she mastered its uses and cut down the ritual time it took to actually cast a spell.
When she was certain the sigils were perfect Azalie released her mental hold on the image and began feeding it with her will.
The change in the air around her was immediately noticeable. Sounds became dull to the point where she could barely even hear herself breathing, and for an instant the world shimmered before becoming a dull mix of greys, devoid of color in the eyes of her magically altered senses.
Then the nausea came.
"By the gods, I'll never get used to this," Azalie tried to say, but no sound came from her lips.
Her enchantment pulled the wearer's physical body half way between the material realm and what lay beyond. The Void wasn't a plane one could normally survive, but as long as her amulet stayed firmly around her neck its effects would only be limited to a sense of vertigo and slight forgetfulness... At least, in theory.
She didn't, however, predict how cold it would make her feel. A shiver ran down her spine but was quickly suppressed as she focused on her goal, fighting against the fog that descended over her mind.
Slowly, and with great care, she made her way back to the Hall of Communing, careful not to look away from the ground at her feet for fear of vomiting. Not even her amulet would be able to conceal that.
It didn't take her long to reach the wide arches of her destination and soundlessly sidestep around the Archon standing guard, who she made a few obscene gestures at before slipping through.
A familiar jolt of excitement coursed through her as she passed the threshold. It always did when she was doing something she wasn't suppose to.
Rebellion, she thought, was always a welcome change of pace.
Meanwhile, in Grey's store, Rarity was in the middle of a crisis.
"Just what could you possibly be thinking, putting these ragged things in your house?!" She cried, referring to the ghastly set of worn curtains adorning the only window of Grey's second story office.
Rarity didn't know what to think about humans. According to Princess Celestia they could be friendly or dangerious depending on the individual, and Discord's assertion that they were one of the most chaotic creatures he'd ever witnessed seemed to substantiate the statement. But from what she'd seen of their sense of decorum she did know they were in desperate need of her expertise, and being the generous soul she was, quickly set about doing what she could for Grey's rundown office.
A pair of lounging chairs and even a couch floated through the air as she manipulated a broom and dust pan, sweeping up large piles of dust that had accumulated under the furniture. Rarity felt her horn strain as she tried to lift the desk as well. She found the reason for the added weight glaring at her over a pair of thin rimed glasses with his hands planted firmly on the desk.
"Miss Rarity?" Grey asked, visibly fighting against rising frustration, "I'm kind of busy here, and while I'm grateful for your efforts, please stop."
"Whatever for, dear? This place is absolutely filthy." She blew a puff of dust up from the table to prove her point, causing Grey to wave the floating cloud out of his face. "What are you busy with anyway? If you don't mind of course."
"Figuring how much profit I could make from selling you and your friends, so stop pestering me," he said with forced smile, but Rarity saw through the bluff. She owned a business of her own after all, and if she had to guess, he was balancing his checkbook. A task that could make even the most patient pony an angry mess of frustration, so she forgave him his temper.
When Grey saw how she didn't react to his threat, he sighed in resignation and set his quill down. "Don't your friends need your help downstairs. They mentioned something about coming up with a plan, and I'm sure they could use your eye for detail."
Rarity huffed in response. "Very well, I'll leave you to your work, but the minute my friends and I finalize our plan I'll be back to fix this mess." As she made her way down the stairs she could hear him swear under his breath and return to writing.
In the living room her friends had occupied various spaces not meant for siting in response to the countless piles of curious objects piled up all over the floor.
"So how long we plannin' on stayin' here," Applejack asked from her spot on a stack of floor mats, "Ah know we agreed ta stay put until Azalie gets some idea about Twilight's whereabouts, but how long's that gonna take? She could be anywhere."
Rainbow Dash groaned loudly from her perch on a stack of books piled nearly to the ceiling. "And why are we waiting at all? Let's just get out there and find her ourselves!" She shot a look over at Discord and frowned. "Can't you just, you know, find out where she is with your powers or something?"
The draconequus rolled his eyes but didn't move so as not to jostle Fluttershy, who was using his tail as a makeshift futon. "Of course not, my colorful rube of a friend-"
"A what now?" Dash asked, thoroughly confused, but Discord kept going without missing a beat.
"-That would require more power than I currently possess."
Discords statement only confused Dash even further. "But... You're Discord! I thought you could do anything!"
"Au contraire, I can do almost anything... when I possess my full power, which is in Equestria. I guess the great and powerful Celestia didn't tell you about how balance is maintained in your home of rainbows and kitten smiles."
For the life of her Rarity couldn't remember a time when Opalescence smiled.
When nopony answered him, Discord shook his head with a wry smile. "I thought so. Then let me be the one to enlighten you, but first a question. What do you believe makes up existence?" This time he didn't wait for an answer. "It's balance. Light and dark. Good and evil. Earth and sky. Chaos and, blegh... order. It's the reason why every idea expressed by mortals has a polar opposite. It's also the reason I'm a little short in the power department."
Applejack shifted uncomfortably on her floor mats. "Uh, Ah'm not sure we follow ya."
"Ah'm sure ya don't." Discord joked, mimicking her accent and earning himself a look from Fluttershy that said, 'be nice'. "It means that, for the time being, you shouldn't rely on old Discord to pull your flanks out of the fire."
"But that means finding Twilight's gonna take like forever!" Rainbow Dash complained.
In response Discord flashed a knowing smirk. "Not necessarily, my lovable philistine." Again, Dash wasn't quite sure if she'd just been insulted or not. "I believe a few of my old, uh... what do you call those again?"
"Acquaintance?" Fluttershy suggested hopefully.
"Frienemies! That's it-frienemies. They're so much more interesting than plain old acquaintances, because you never really know where they stand. Anyway, as I was saying, there are a few angles I could work, if you'll allow me."
Curious about his proposal, Rarity spoke up. "And why would we need to allow it? You've never deemed to ask us for permission to do anything before."
"Oh it's nothing really. Just a minor stipulation to my conditional freedom," Discord said with a hint of sarcasm. When the surrounding ponies remained silent in anticipation, he groaned in exasperation and began to explain. "I am bound by means of magical contract to not take direct action in this world unless given permission by my 'guardian'."
He turned his head around to look at Fluttershy. "Well? Will you allow it?"
Fluttershy squeaked at the sudden incredulous stares aimed at her from around the room. "Yes, p-please do. That is, if you don't mind," she whispered almost too quietly for the rest to hear.
"Excellent! Ta-ta then."
With a snap of his claw Discord was gone, replaced by a comfy looking couch for Fluttershy, who flinched as he vanished out from under her.
After a few seconds of silence, Rarity noticed something very off about the unnatural pause. "I'm sorry if this is a bit off topic girls, but... where is Pinkie?"
Immediately after the words left her mouth a loud crash issued from down the hall.
"That better have not been anything expensive!" Grey shouted from upstairs, "Unless Azalie's picking up the tab, if so then please make sure it's expensive!"
Rarity cringed at the thought of having to tell their only friend in the city that she was going to have to pay for damages after doing them the kindness of finding them shelter. She looked around to find similar expressions on her friend's faces.
"I'll go check on her. Just to make sure she doesn't cause our benefactor too much trouble," she said with a nervous laugh. "Continue the planning without me. I'll be just a minute."
Moving into the narrow hallway that ran the center of the building's first floor, Rarity felt something was terribly off, but she couldn't quite put her hoof on it. It was something that should've been obvious, but the more she focused on it the more vague the feeling of wrongness got.
It wasn't until she was rounding the doorway into the storefront that it finally hit her. Where was the rest of the noise? Pinkie Pie was never this quiet, and certainly wouldn't have become suddenly silent after breaking something. No shouted apologies, or even an exclamation of surprise.
If Rarity had been paying attention to her surroundings instead of thinking over the weird vibes she was getting, she might have noticed the storefront candles had been extinguished, leaving the room eerily dark in the waning hours of the day.
"Pinkie dear?" she called out shakily as the creepiness of the situation began to set in. "You can come out now... We need you to make plans for the, uh, homecoming party after we return to Equestria."
A voice that sounded like Pinkie's made muffled noises of excitement from somewhere in the darkness, but still there was no movement. Rarity took a step back only to bump into something that wasn't there a moment ago.
In an instant the darkness became absolute as a bag was forced down over her head, the draw strings sinching tight as she attempted to scream for the others just down the hall.
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I am sooo evil to end this on a cliffhanger!
3639810
A cliffhanger is evil when you update once a week. For you, this is a hanging offense. Pun intended.
Didnt read it anyway
Either the name of this new chapter was intentional or you forgot the 'e' in Sleight.
I think you missed a "him"
3640117
Thanks for the catch. Missing pronouns are an intolerable offense.
3639997
It's an intentional play on words that refers to Azalie's implied gestures at the Archon.
Don't these ponies read adventure stories? This is gonna get even more complicated for them.
I stumbled upon this story today while searching for something new to read and thought I'd give it a chance - not particularly fond of Human/Pony crossovers (or at least the way they are usually handled), but this seemed different enough to warrant a look. And I'm glad I did - because this turned out to be a most interesting and captivating story, and I found myself breezing through all the available chapters in one sitting (which means that I am now left lamenting the lack of "moar!")
Your writing style itself is good and easy to digest, while being plenty descriptive and artful enough to fuel the mental imagery - the flow of your writing is simply 'comfortable' to digest. The premise of your story has easily peaked my interest as well - I'm something of a sucker for world-building and establishing histories of whole universes and settings, and as such I find myself highly intrigued with the history of these two worlds - I'm looking towards the time when we learn more of the past and Celestia's tale gets expanded upon, and how it's going to play in to the future events, now that the wheel of fate seems to be turning again.
For what reason was humanity created? (Obviously implied to be Epona's work, but I doubt she did it for the heck of it). Why and what caused the realm to be consumed by dark magic, to the point where the ponies were forced to pull back and cut contact, plunging the hole behind them? Who was Yuelith ... Epona, or Celestia herself? Seeing that Discord implied it was Celestia's decision to ultimately pull away for lack of power to stand up against the darkness, I have a feeling we are talking about Celestia here. All the stuff about her being the sun goddess and having holy fire attributed to her also seems to fit Celestia. Hmm, speaking of which, the thousand-year thing keeps being mentioned pretty often ... was it perhaps the battle between Luna and Celestia that forced her hand(hoof?)?
It seems like whatever dimension Equestria resides in needs at least one 'deity' present to keep itself together, and seeing that Discord was sealed at the time, perhaps Celestia had no other choice but to simply go back and hold it together on her own, with Luna now being indisposed and all? How would humans view her potential return, if that was in the cards now? Would she be in a position to help? Heck, does the darkness have a chance of spilling over to Equestria? Twilight might have well punched a hole with her little test ... But I digress, point is - I find your world-building to be very interesting and I'm quite eager to learn more.
Then there is the fantasy setting itself, and I am glad you took the route - most human/MLP crossovers tend towards real-world crossovers or future Earth crossovers, and most of those are horribly bland and repetitive. Not to mention tend to read more like "Fuck yeah, I'm human, and I'm awesome!" with all the 'depth' that entails, and mostly tend to feature casts that act like a drunken collection of interstellar rednecks that I find wanting to strangle myself ten minutes in, never mind wanting to relate to as the same species.
You, however, have a knack for creating interesting OCs that are easy to care for and be intrigued by. People that actually have depth and interesting personalities, from the shady peddler to the ambitious upstart mage to the broody and determined Morenth - all are well written OCs with their distinct personalities and depth that exceeds that of a shallow puddle and I find myself looking towards the roles they will all have to play.
Morenth more than the others, perhaps - for being the 'main' OC he seems quite well suited for carrying that burden in a story, and I'm looking towards whatever shenanigans he and Twilight get up to during their journey - and from that future exempt, I imagine their journey isn't going to be a short one. Who knows when the gang is even going to find Twilight ... or whether she will even want to leave when actually given the choice, given the difference she knows she can make - knowing that already she has saved hundreds of lives with her talents, and that she could likely save hundreds, if not thousands, more.
I also like your characterization of Twilight - ultimately friendly but snarky when given the chance, perfectly willing to help but somewhat easy to irritate ... which she quickly bounces back from. Rather true to her portrayal in the show, I find. I'll also commend you on not making her a quivering mess when presented with violence and having to fight - I have seen plenty of fanfics that have done just that, and those I find bordering unreadable - I suppose it's not something we get to see often in the show, but whenever there has been fighting, be it from facing Nightmare to the changeling Army, Twilight has never shied away or been particularly disturbed by it, nor for having to partake herself. If anything her default disposition in a fight has always been shown to be tending towards aggressive, and her participation towards proactive.
In that, I believe you have kept her quite true to her in-show self as well. Naturally stepping forth and doing what has to be done, up to and including blasting her enemies with a purple lazor. Of course she has never killed, or purposefully tried to inflict the sort of damage she unleashed on the undead hordes - which makes her stomach churning at the destruction she wrought very much an understandable reaction - but by simply having her step up and fight as best she can, I believe you have kept her in character pretty well. I'm looking towards how her time in this world is going to change her - or how long it will take her to start researching or inventing some strictly combat oriented magic.
I somewhat doubt she ever put too much thought in to that - obviously she knows how to apply her 'normal' skillset if she wants to do some damage, but I imagine she never put much thought in to developing spells optimized, both in efficiency and purpose, towards inflicting harm to another being. Now, if things keep going the way they have, it may well be a prudent direction to ponder, and if Twilight is anything, it's prudent.
I must admit there is one thing that confuses me slightly though, namely - why did Celestia send all of Twilight's friends along with Discord to find her? The way I see it, assuming she can't simply send Luna or Cadence or something, why not just send Discord himself? I can't imagine the five ponies adding much to their efforts, and frankly are only going to slow Discord down as he is forced to play their chaperone, instead of simply being able to slither off and do his own thing.
Granted, there is always the chance he might derail himself in to 'off-topic' territory, and that the five make it easier to keep him focused on the job, but I imagine she still could have applied some magical strictures on him ... and again, he could have moved faster on his own, even with the occasional shenanigan on the side.
That aside, this has been a great read and I thank you for taking the time to write it. Eagerly looking towards the next chapter.
3650750
Wow! That is by far the largest comment I've seen on Fimfiction in a hot minute.
I'm elated to hear you're enjoying the story so far and hope you'll stay for the long haul.
Now, I don't like giving too much away, but if you're wondering why Celestia sent the rest of the elements with Discord, the answer is very simple; he can't be trusted. To be sure, Celestia has been shown to have an almost unshakable faith in the Elements of Harmony even in the show, but that may only be a secondary factor to Discord's history of untrustworthiness. A history that may or may not reach back farther than the show in this story. Needless to say, this and other factors will be explored as the world view comes farther into focus. You know what they say about those who don't learn from history...
Also, I couldn't agree more about human OCs in a lot of HIE stories. They tend to highlight either humanities virtues or vices in a very stilted perspective that either has them portrayed as over the top heroes with no faults, or as absolute train wrecks who's only role seems to be glorifying ponykind as the race we should have been.
Now don't get me wrong. There are a lot of great human themed MLP fics. In fact, most of my favorite stories are HIE. That's just the trend I've noticed over the years.
Anyway, I'm glad you've enjoyed the read so far, and I hope not to disappoint in future chapters.
Cheers!
i've finally caught up
i must say i nearly never read humans-related fics, for the reasons told below, but this story is really good!
the only problem is that my sheeping instinct is curently shooting in my ears "morenthXtwilight" sorry for that
i'm waiting for more (though you shouldn't press, with real life and all)
my sides... ...oh dear god my sides.
that better have not been anything expensive. unless Azalie's picking up the tab, if so then please make sure it's expensive.
and as for the cliffhanger, something tells me grey is going to jump in and act soon.
Very enjoyable traditional semi-dark fantasy fare.
I quite enjoy your writing with the only pervading flaw being typos of the sort a spellchecker would not pick up: missing apostrophies, verb and noun versions of words switched (advice/advise), and incorrect sayings (it's hide nor hair, not height nor hair... this might be an intentional pun but in the chapter title the term should be sleight of hand, not slight).
The only story issue you have is a relatively common one of explaining too much about the Equestrian side of things (history, workings of magic), setting yourself up for canon, fanon, and headcanon conflicts.
Wow, I didn't even know this updated. I only saw it due to browsing through my 'all favs' list. Must of been a glitch. And the story itself, nice little tension there at the end. Wonder who's pony napping them?
rara no
what happen