A/N: WOOT! The Hacker Pwny has just hit 100,765 words total! Can you believe that? One hundred thousand words!
I was still gathering magic. I've been meditating, for what? Three hours? Eventually, I became tired of tired of just sitting there, and stood up. Twilight's eyes were glued in a book about mental spells, one that she got from the royal archives not that long ago. She slammed the book, making me jump. I looked at her, she had glasses on... when did she put on glasses? She walked over to me, and said,
"I am now fully qualified to be your teacher!" I facehoofed at this. The glasses were overkill, and has she been getting a teacher's degree or something? I hope she can teach me something about meta spells. I said,
"Okay, now, let's actually learn something." Twilight nodded.
I breathed heavily. My vision was spinning. I've been practicing magic for many hours now. I'm exhausted, but I won't give up.
"Another, Twilight," I said. We were right outside her house. Patches of grass were burnt from my bad aiming. No, I wasn't shooting magic bolts. I was redirecting Twilight's. She told me that if I put magic in my hooves, and use the mental slow-down spell, I have just enough time to hit back the bolts. I've been doing other things involving magic, but none of them have really been spells. Just redirecting magic in my body to do various things. I can manage to use the meta spell a small amount, but not very good. I only have a little better reaction time, and better reflexes. I was covered in cuts and burns from training, despite how much Twilight tried not to hurt me.
"I think we're good for today. The sun's going down, and you've used up all your magic. You can't even stand still," Twilight said. True, I felt drained and tired. But that won't stop me.
"Just a few more minutes. I'd rather be in pain now than dead later." Twilight thought about her options. She tries to convince me again,
"You don't have much raw magic, actually, I don't know what you have. It doesn't feel like magic, and that might be the reason you're able to do all these so quickly. You've done more in an afternoon, than I have in a week. But, more training isn't going to help. Over exhausting yourself won't do anything."
"Just one attempt, I can do it this tiiiiii..." I lost control and fell to the ground. My vision faded to black quickly. I lost conscience soon after. Twilight stood over me, her horn glowing purple. She quietly said to me,
"Sorry for the sleep spell, but this is getting dangerous. You need a good night's sleep." My ear twitched at hearing that. I quickly woke up, and stood up.
"Don't. Ever. Do. That," I said with a tone of anger.
"Bu-but how!? You can't just get up from a spell like that!"
"I refuse to give up. I can be awake for days and be fine. As long as I'm standing, I want you to train me. No one can stop meeeeee..." I fell to the ground and fell asleep again. Twilight's horn was glowing bright than last, but the magic quickly dispersed.
"Just needed a larger dose of the sleep spell. I hope I didn't overdo it, a sleep spell of that power would put most ponies in a coma." That was the last thing I heard before all the noise drained out. Wait, no. Just no. I'm not giving up. I can't sleep now. I opened my eyes and wrapped a hood around Twilight's leg.
"I won't sleep. Not at a time like this. More training."
"How did you do that!? How can you be so determined? Anypony else would've quit a long time ago." I shakily stood up. The ground felt wobbly, but I stood firm.
"I-I'm different. Don't compare me to anypony else ever again."
"Okay okay, we'll try again. Get ready." Twilight trotted away. Once she was a few yards away, she started to gather magic in her horn. I focused the little remaining energy to my hooves and mind. A magic bolt shot out from her horn, and time slowed down. The bolt floated closer and closer, and I readied my hooves. My hooves emitted a soft green light. The bolt was inches away. I put both fore hooves around it, twisted my arms, and redirected it into the ground. My hooves would be on fire if they weren't made out of nails. Well, they aren't made of nails, but they're close enough. But there were many failed attempts at this counter-attack, and because of those I'm covered in scratches and burns. Every cut stung.
"Another one..." Was the last thing I said before I lost all feeling in my limbs and crashed into the ground. I really need to stop overexerting myself. With a drained feeling in my horn, I passed out on the burnt grass.
9 hours later.
“Ughhhh,” I moaned. My eyes fluttered open, to be met with a wooden ceiling.
"Hey, I've been wanting to see you, bro," said a female right next to me. I also felt something warm in bed with me. I looked to my left, and saw Vinyl laying down next to me. Her moderately-hued purple eyes shone in the light coming from the window. Wait... purple eyes? I don't remember her having purple eyes. Meh, at this point, I don't give a fuck.
"How'd you get in here?" I asked Vinyl rather coldly.
"How 'bout, 'hello'?"
"Superficial greetings don't mean anything." Vinyl put a hoof over my mouth.
"Shh, you talk too much." Vinyl then brought me closer. Wait, something's off here. Vinyl wouldn't know where I am, and her personality and dialect seems off. What she first said, the 'Hey, I've been waiting for you, bro' thing felt forced, like she's trying too hard to be herself. And what she said next, 'How 'bout, 'hello'?' made her sound like someone else, like she was trying to switch personalities and was way off. And the last thing she said, the 'shh' thing, was even more off. Whoever this pseudo-Vinyl is, she's trying very hard to dynamically adjust her personality to fit what I know. Like she's listening to my emotional output, and fixing what she thinks might reveal her. I rolled out of bed, and stumbled away from the imposter as fast as I could. Once I was across from the room, I said,
"Stop it with the Vinyl impression. I'm no fool. You may be able to fool everypony else, but not me." But whoever was pretending to be Vinyl was persistent,
"What are you talking about, man?"
"Let's see, the only race I know of that can dynamically adjust their personality based on emotion, and change their bodies to be anything, would be the changelings. But, I will admit, you're pretty good at acting like Vinyl. So good, in fact, that you can only be the queen herself, Queen Chrysalis. Now, drop the act. I see right through this thin shroud of lies." Queen Chrysalis turned into her regular form, and jumped out of the bed. She stood on the floor, her green eyes piercing mine. She was clearly mad that I found out it was her so quickly.
"I know your secret, and I'm here to taste this new kind of love you have. While I never liked human emotion, you're different. And I like that. Now, just lie down, and it won't hurt a bit," she said. She was predictable, and I had to show that.
"Over my dead body." We both said in unison,
"It may just come to that." Chrysalis growled at me. Then she said,
"How did you know I was going to say that?"
"You're too predictable, like everypony else here. And you're not getting anything from me."
"We'll see about that." She then hissed at me and held me up with magic. With as much directional magic flow I could learn in an afternoon, I dispelled her hold on me. It wasn't easy, but I can manipulate magic flow enough for it to cancel out other magic. Actually, she wasn't even holding onto me that much. And even then, I used way too much magic for this dispel spell to be practical. There was no way I could fight her, I need to run. I spun around and dashed off, jumping down the stairs. I rolled once I hit the bottom, so the force of impact would be directed forward, instead of on my legs. Chrysalis was persistent, she flew at me as I ran. Where the hell is Twilight? I can’t fight her on my own. I bet she’s weakened, given how she isn’t being empowered by love, and she doesn’t have an army right now. I ran throughout the house, with Chrysalis bumping into walls as she gave chase. I was in Twilight’s tree, but I didn’t see anyone else. I bashed through the door, watching a calm morning rise. Ponies were casually trotting around, until they saw Chrysalis. Then they ran away in fear. Okay, I guess no one will help me.
“Don’t you dare touch him!” Said a female voice, which I identified as Rarity. Then Rarity did a flying kick to Chrysalis’ face. After that, Rarity trotted over to me. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Look out!” I yelled as Chrysalis pounced on us. I rolled away, while Rarity did the same. Fighting Chrysalis isn’t something I think I can do. I still feel sore after passing out from using all my magic. At least I have Rarity on my side, but where is the rest of the Mane Six? Grr, I don’t know. Chrysalis disguised herself as me. Appearntly, her straigity is have Rarity attack me. Rarity looked at both of us, worried that if she attacked, she might hit the real me. Chrysalis said,
“Attack her! She’s the imposter!”
“No wait, just attack both of us. This way, you have a hundred percent chance of getting Chrysalis,” I said. It’s an unorthodox strategy, but it will work. Rarity did what I said, unsure of who was who, and slammed into both of us. Except I knew what she was going to attack with, like I said, these ponies are predictable. Knowing her martial art skills, she was going to do something that simple rolling would dodge. So, I did just that. She narrowly avoided me. Chrysalis turned normal as she got up from the attack. She then growled and turned into Rarity. They brawled, and they were covered in a thick cloud of dust like those found in old cartoons. Once the cloud subsided, I couldn't tell who was who. The same trick again, Chrysalis? Really?
“Don’t attack us both, I just washed my hair!” One of the Raritys said. Knowing Rarity, she would want me to attack both of them, even if her hair would be messed up, because she wouldn’t want me to get hurt. If she really was that concerned, she wouldn't have joined the fight. I charged at the one who talked, and slammed into her. Chrysalis shot backwards, and revealed herself.
“How do you always know it’s me?” Chrysalis asked.
“Trade secret,” I responded. These simple illusions won’t pass my perceptiveness.Chrysalis charged up her horn, and fired a green beam of magic at me. Uh oh, I only trained with bolts, not beams. Think, think, think... I got it! The beams must work like lasers, just reflect them. I called the magic though my mind, then to my hooves. The beam slowly trudged toward me as time slowed. I held my hooves out in front of me, and angled them so that when the beam would hit, it would be redirected back at Chrysalis. I felt a lot of heat as the beam made contact, but it still reflected. I used so much magic to keep the magic pressure up, a continuous stream of magic is a lot harder then bursts of it. Chrysalis hit herself with the beam, but I couldn’t hold it any longer and I got hit, also. It only dealt minor damage, Chrysalis got hit with the blunt of the attack.
“I’ll be back. You won’t live to regret fighting me,” Chrysalis said as she vanished in a poof of smoke and green fire. Rarity rushed over to me, and said,
“Are you okay? Neon? Is anything injured?” There was a burn mark on my chest, but otherwise, I was fine.
“Yeah, I’m good. Still, I wonder what Chrysalis wanted with me...” I said.