They chased the Trolls through the forest and through the night, the naturally superior speed of the ponies keeping them right on the heels of their fleeing foe. But with the night wearing on and turning to early morning, the ponies were rapidly tiring. Miles had passed under their hooves and fallen Trolls littered the forest floor behind them, tucked back in quiet glens and laid low amongst the roots of the trees. Rainbow’s squadron cut in and out through the canopy, dropping down on hapless Trolls that had strayed too far from the group in their haste to escape. All sixteen Pegasi would overwhelm a single Troll, allowing no chance to even resist. Cor was a wraith, the whispers of death flying from his bow to strike down Trolls even from the ranks of those who had managed to stick together. The shrieks of fear that the Trolls let out at the sight of his feathered shafts appearing in their comrades were a stark contrast to the howls they’d voiced in battle.
Zacon ran ahead of them all, seemingly tireless as he picked out Troll after Troll and closed on it relentlessly. None escaped him once he had them in his sights. A few stopped to face him, either giving up hope of escape or else too exhausted to run any farther. They fared no better than those caught by the Axe while in stride. Jason led a small group of Unicorns, giving instructions as he ran, directing them in ways to use their telekinesis to trip up a particular Troll. He pointed out roots that could be lifted under their feet or branches that could be swung down to catch them. When a Troll was knocked down, he and his team would surround it and finish it off swiftly. Once they had become accustomed to the method, he directed them to get in closer and use their own spears and swords for the same purpose, holding the weapons much farther from themselves than they would normally. In this way, scores of Trolls had fallen to their harassing maneuvers by the time the sun began to rise.
As Private Turner ran behind Corporal Big Mac’s huge frame, he marveled at their success. His confidence had been surfing on wild waters this past week or so. His experience at the river had shaken whatever courage he’d shown before. No matter what he’d imagined that he’d be forced to face when he’d said goodbye to Ditzy, he wasn’t prepared for the horror of that battle. Now the river felt like a nightmare fading behind him. The Trolls, seemingly unstoppable as they swept out of the water and into their lines, were now running in fear from the very same ponies. And he was a part of that. He felt pride in that night’s victory, though he only assisted in slaying a few Trolls himself, because he was contributing to the effort to reclaim their land and bring peace back to Equestria.
He was so caught up in those thoughts that he nearly ran into Big Mac when the larger stallion came to a stop in front of him. The rest of their team staggered to a halt around him, peering ahead to see why they had stopped.
“What’s our hold up lads?” Private Breezy asked in a whisper while panting to catch his breath.
Big Mac pointed with a hoof toward a thick stand of trees up ahead. The shadows still clung to the forest floor in great swaths, the morning sun not yet piercing the canopy. Cor stood a little farther ahead of them, crouched low with his bow trained on one shadow in particular, his hoof pointing back at them in warning. Turner looked closer and the shadow moved. He started in surprise when he realized that dozens of beady eyes were staring murderously back at him out of the darkness. The line of Trolls was holding their positions at the edge of the natural barrier of thick trunks, spears bristling out from clawed hands.
“Back off,” Cor whispered to the ponies behind him, motioning with his hoof as well.
Big Mac nodded, even though Cor couldn’t see him, and began directing the others to retreat slowly. They did so, drawing back until they could not see their foe any longer. Then they turned and trotted away at a faster pace.
“What are we leaving the Lieutenant like that for?” Private Caramel asked urgently. “Shouldn’t we wait up for him?”
“He can take care of himself,” Private Heartstrings muttered back unconcernedly.
Big Mac gave a wordless nod and they continued until they were met by the rest of their squad. Sergeant Blitz waved them in anxiously and asked if they’d seen any of the others on their way back. Big Mac informed him that Cor was covering their retreat.
“As long as he knows when to cover himself out,” Blitz grumbled darkly. “The others should be back by now though.”
“We’re at the right spot, aren’t we?” Lyra asked.
Blitz glowered at her and she resisted the urge to quip again. Hooves pounded toward them shortly after, announcing Second Squad moments before they burst into view. Sergeant Waters and Lieutenant Watch conversed hurriedly with Blitz, hardly coming to a stop before speaking. The others gathered around in breathless silence.
“Where are the other Lieutenants? Cor and Jason and Zacon?” Long Watch asked.
“Cor’s out that way, should be along in his own time,” Blitz replied, pointing. “Your guess is as good as mine on Zacon. I thought Jason was with you though.”
“He was,” Waters confirmed. “But we didn’t see him after those Trolls decided to stand and fight.”
“Did we lose anypony?” Long Watch asked.
“No. Corporal Pristine noticed them in time to warn the rest. But it was a close thing. We would have run straight into them if he hadn’t shouted it out.”
“How did they manage to hide in plain sight anyway?” Blitz asked in frustration. “They were bold as brass last night!”
“Mud on their fur,” Cor said, trotting into their midst. “They must have wised up to how we can keep track of them so easily in these woods, so they started camouflaging themselves with mud. We won’t be able to count on that advantage anymore.”
“Our list of advantages is growing thin,” Long Watch observed dryly.
“It is,” Cor admitted. “But we’ve made good use of them. And we’ll keep doing what we can with what we have.”
“And what is it that we have now?” Blitz asked.
“We’ve given them a good hounding and now we have them holding another static position. We’ll have ample time to prepare for our next move.”
They waited another few minutes for the others and soon they had all found their way back together. First, Zacon and Rainbow’s squadron came trotting in on the ground, Zacon thoroughly caked in gore but smiling wickedly while the Pegasi shuffled weary wings. A few stragglers from Second Squad caught up to them, panting and shaken, but unharmed. Jason and Twilight were the last to arrive. Once they had determined that everyone was accounted for, they all moved out to relocate their camp again. After settling the camp in a secluded vale east of the Trolls and Long Watch led a few scouts to keep track of enemy movement, the ponies allowed themselves to rest at last.
The morning eased itself toward noon and the sun shone down into the forest. Though muted still by the haze that hung in the sky, the curtains of light that cut through the canopy to brighten swaths of grassy trails were warm and welcome after the shadows of the long night. The sun was lingering at its zenith when the camp stirred back into action. The officers convened to form their new strategy and the group quickly moved to enact it. That strategy consisted simply of maintaining an intimidating proximity to the Trolls and striking at any weak points they could reach. This meant any Trolls that left the safety of the main encampment, such as sentries or scouts. Even though Zacon had expressed dissatisfaction with those targets in their first raid, he was open to them at the present time since he felt they had achieved the necessary damage through surprise, and lacking that advantage now, could only expect to wear down their opponent until conditions changed again.
When Zacon left with First Squad to relieve Long Watch’s group and set up more permanent sentry positions on the Trolls, Cor took some of the Unicorns of Second Squad aside to train them in archery. He presented them with a pair of ash bows he’d made the night before and allowed them to use his arrows. He talked through the mechanics of archery while two Unicorns at a time took turns firing at designated tree targets. The twang and hiss of the arrows, the thud of their impact, and the sound of Cor’s voice drifted through the quiet camp. Long Watch and his small team were sleeping away the scant remainder of the morning and Rainbow’s squadron joined them. Rainbow herself had gone up into the clouds and brought down a few wisps that she fashioned into a pillowy bed and lay herself down in it a few feet above the canopy of the trees.
With everypony otherwise occupied, Twilight had no trouble cornering Jason. He saw her coming and resigned to his fate.
“We have time now,” she said bluntly.
“Yes. And I suppose I can try to teach you healing magic. But it will take quite a bit of explaining, I’m afraid.”
Twilight sat down, obviously getting comfortable and not in the least deterred by Jason’s hesitation. She fixed him with a stern but fully attentive stare. He took a few seconds to prepare himself before he began.
“My people are bound to an Oath. It is a sacred vow, given by our ancestors to the power of the Light. It is a spiritual connection, a direct link to the Light itself. Do you remember when Cor and I were shouting out in the battle and you repeated what we said? Evet San Boulindin?” He waited for her to nod and went on. “Those words translate to ‘For the Oath’. Every Elf is bound to the Oath and the service of the Light. And for our service, the Light grants us power. But to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever learned Light magic. They have always been granted it by swearing to the service of the Light.”
“So I need to swear to serve the Light in order to use Light magic?” Twilight asked in clarification. “That’s it?”
“What do you mean ‘that’s it’?” Jason exclaimed in shock and disbelief. “It’s the driving force in the life of every Elf that draws breath. It’s the very purpose behind the existence of my race! Every beat of my heart, every second I live, every action I make; it is all for the Light! I have taken thousands of lives in the Light’s name and I would take a hundred thousand more!”
He finished with a snarl of anger and stood breathing heavily, having worked himself up gradually until he was on the edge of rage. It took him a second to realize that he’d been advancing menacingly and that Twilight was now reeling backwards with genuine fear etched across her face. He closed his eyes tightly as he tried to calm himself down.
“I’m sorry,” he said, still not opening his eyes. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper, especially not at you. It’s a…sensitive subject. There have been civil wars, questions of loyalty, political turmoil. I really don’t want to go into it.”
He didn’t open his eyes until she spoke.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” she said softly. “I only meant that swearing an oath is a small price to pay for the power to save the lives of my fellow ponies.”
Jason shook his head. “It seems that way on the surface. But the Oath is binding in our very spirits, our souls. The very day our race came into being, we were sworn to it. It should not be taken on as a means to an end.”
“Not even if it is to save lives? Not even if I believe that the cause you would champion is a cause I would follow as well?”
Jason grimaced as he sought the words to express the monumental violation to his identity this conversation represented. Not only did she sound as if she would bind herself to the Oath if he offered it to her, but she seemed to believe it wouldn’t require her to reevaluate her entire life in the process. He cast about for anything he knew of in Equestrian society that could compare. Then he found it.
“Let me try to explain it this way. Say I wanted a Cutie Mark and asked you how to get one,” he began.
Twilight glanced at his flank with a raised eyebrow. “You’ve got one already.”
Jason put his hoof to his face slowly. “I know that. But…I meant…” He took a deep breath before trying again. “Okay, so let’s say Spike wanted to get a Cutie Mark. What would you tell him?”
Twilight was taken aback.
“Well, um…” She rubbed her chin with a hoof and paced a short distance away to think. “I don’t think it’s possible for a Dragon to get a Cutie Mark, so I suppose I’d have to explain that it probably wouldn’t happen. I would be thrilled to see it happen, of course, especially to document it. But I don’t know. I think it would be a tough conversation since he tends to get his hopes up for things and doesn’t take being let down very well.”
“What if he didn’t accept that it wouldn’t happen?” Jason pressed.
“I’m not sure. I’d have to find a way to get him to realize that Cutie Marks are, to the knowledge of anyone in Equestria, exclusive to…ponies…”
Twilight’s eyes widened and she stared back at Jason. He figured she’d finally made the connection. What he wasn’t ready for were the tears she had to wipe away. He was about to say something more but she turned away from him.
“So I can’t. I can’t use Light magic. I can’t heal ponies.” She nearly collapsed as a visible wave of sobs overcame her. Her hind legs did give out and she fell to her haunches, her forelegs trembling but still holding her up. “I can’t do anything with my mana except kill.”
She bowed her head and cried quietly while Jason stood behind her in silence. He watched as her shoulders shook and the ground was marked by gleaming tears that darkened the dirt or caught the sun’s rays like diamonds in the grass.
“Not necessarily,” he said after a long pause.
She sniffed once and her ears perked up slightly.
“I never said you couldn’t,” he went on. “Like you said, you don’t know if it is possible for a Dragon to get a Cutie Mark. Just the same, I don’t know that you can’t use Light magic. Elves have the innate connection to the Light through the Oath, but other races can gain the ability to call on Light magic. That, too, requires a serious commitment, such that those who chose that path devote their entire lives to it, serving as a priest at a temple or as a Paladin that seeks out dark creatures.”
She looked at him with pleading eyes and wiped at the tears that still clung to her muzzle.
“The problem is, I don’t know what it would take for you to gain access to the power of the Light. I can’t give it to you. I don’t know if swearing to the Oath would be enough. I don’t know if you actually need to do anything at all! No one I know has ever been able to call on the Light unless they were undeniably in the service of the Light, but I…I just don’t know.”
Jason’s shoulders slumped defeatedly. With an effort, Twilight stood up again.
“How can I find out?” she asked. “How should I try?”
Jason sighed. “I’ll try to explain it, to lay out the differences between what I’ve already taught and what you’re asking for now.”
Twilight dried her eyes as Jason gathered his thoughts and took a deep breath to begin.
“Each discipline of magic is like a lens through which mana is focused,” he said. “When a mage uses Nature magic, their mana aligns with the raw elements that make up the world and everything in it. The mana becomes interwoven in the very fabric of reality, allowing them to exert direct control over its form. If you attempted to use Nature magic to produce a healing effect, as Cor did, you would be required to know what must be done at an elemental level to repair the damage. Muscles would need to be grown back together, ligaments reattached, skin healed over, bones re-fused and you’d need to trigger and drive those actions with mana at every stage. The more complex the injury, the harder it is to repair. I can tell you that what Cor did was near the limits of his ability. If the limb hadn’t been so cleanly severed, he might not have been able to save the limb or even the life of the pony at all.”
Twilight nodded in understanding when Jason paused, silently willing him to go on.
“The discipline of Light magic is very different,” Jason said with a huge sigh. “Instead of aligning their mana to physical elements, a mage allows their mana to be guided by an outside force. Namely, the Light, as it acts on the recipient of the spell. Most effects of Light magic are healing, protection and purification. It can be used as a weapon, but most of its combat applications are exclusively against beings directly opposed to the Light. Healing with Light magic restores the subject at the most fundamental level. It touches the spirit as much as it touches the body and it does so without any input from the mage other than the will to heal. Light magic acts almost of its own accord. It draws the necessary mana from the mage, assuming the mage is strong enough to sustain the effort, and does what must be done to enact the effect.”
“In essence, the caster needs only to know that the injury is present to heal it with Light magic. Nature requires much more practical knowledge from the caster to be effective. As for calling up the power, I can’t even begin to describe how it’s done. It’s like breathing for me. I think of what needs to be done and ask that it happen. If I have the mana for it, then it happens. At least so long as I keep in mind that I am only a bearer of the power and that it is not mine to make demands of.”
Jason drew his sword and extended his foreleg. With a quick swipe, a shallow cut appeared, blood trickling down to his hoof. He held the wound out to Twilight.
“Will it to be healed,” he instructed. “Call on the Light to grant the ability to do so.”
“Light, grant me the power to…” she began, speaking as if reciting an incantation.
“No,” Jason interrupted. “It isn’t in the words, it’s in the heart. You can ask silently and be heard just as clearly. Try again, but don’t speak it. Feel it.”
Twilight gave him an unconvinced look but moved past it quickly. She fixed the cut with an intense gaze. As seconds passed and nothing seemed to be happening, Jason lowered his foreleg.
“No!” Twilight shouted, apparently much louder than she’d meant to because she looked around hurriedly and lowered her voice. “No. I’m not ready to give up. Maybe if I have contact with the target I’ll have a close enough connection to will that specific effect…?”
Jason acquiesced and she placed a hoof over the cut this time. They both stared at the blood that continued to seep down his hoof and drip into the grass between them. Twilight’s muzzle scrunched up in concentration and effort. She bowed her head, pressing against Jason’s foreleg with her hoof. Her lips moved with silent words and her whole body tensed up.
“Twilight,” Jason said gently.
“I can do this,” she said through clenched teeth.
“This isn’t something that can be forced,” he said, shaking his head and lowering his foreleg again. “Using Light magic is almost effortless if it happens at all.”
Jason passed his other hoof over the wound and it vanished under a soft white glow. Twilight watched it forlornly.
“I really wanted to be able to do this,” she said.
“Believe me, I wanted you to be able as well,” Jason grimaced. “I wanted to be able to teach you more than just killing too. But I can accept that I can’t do that. What you can accept is that you’ll need someone else to teach you. As I said, Cor knows healing through Nature magic. It might be more difficult to master, but I’ve got a feeling you won’t let that stop you.”
Twilight tried to smile at the encouragement, but couldn’t quite manage it. Jason put a hoof on her shoulder.
“Healing is the noblest art one can learn, but I’ve found that preemptive measures are more effective. Killing is a hideous act, but often, far too often it seems, it is the only way to protect those we care about. If we don’t give the enemy the chance to harm our friends, they will not need healing. If you’re still willing, I think I’m ready to try to teach you my Time Warping technique.”
Twilight stared off into the distance, lost in thought for a minute. Jason waited patiently.
“I’d like that. But…not now. I need to at least begin learning healing first. Just to feel accomplished about something again.”
“I understand,” he said.
She walked off, making her way toward Cor.
~*~*~
Cor walked between the two Unicorns taking their turns with the bows, speaking to them as much as to the others waiting behind him.
“Archery is about precision, not accuracy. It’s better to know where you’ll hit consistently than to get close each time. Draw to the same length, hold the bow beside you at the same height and angle, and remember that feeling. Always use that draw and you’ll always know where the arrow will end up. Don’t try to adjust your hold and draw to hit the target. Adjust your aim. If you hit to the right, aim to the left. If you hit low, aim high. Never draw farther to shoot farther. Only adjust the elevation.”
He signaled for another pair of Unicorns to take a turn and they shuffled up to the firing line while the first two drew back with a bit of chagrin. Neither of them had been able to improve much more on their turn.
But at least they’re hitting the correct trees now, Cor mused with an internal grin.
“Try holding the bow closer to your eye level,” he instructed. “Like this.”
He drew his own bow back so that the string was resting against his cheek where the arrow was nocked. The Unicorn, Private Blue Moon, nodded and held the bow closer.
“Now, don’t look along the length of the arrow. Look from where it is nocked directly to the target. Line up the arm of the bow between them and make sure the bow is close to perpendicular to the ground.”
Blue Moon adjusted himself and took aim. He released and the arrow sailed away, striking high up amongst the lower leaves. He frowned in frustration.
“No, that’s fine Private,” Cor said. “You had it lined up perfectly. Now we’ll see if we can get the range. Do you remember where on the arm you lined up the shot?”
“I think so,” he replied, drawing another arrow and taking aim again.
“This time, line it up exactly the same, find that spot and aim lower by as much as you missed by.”
Blue Moon did so, released, and hit near the roots, but missed less than his first shot.
“See the difference between how much you adjusted your aim and how much your shot changed?” Cor asked.
Blue Moon nodded.
“There’s a lot of geometry behind it all, but we’re eyeballing it out here,” Cor assured him. “You over-adjusted that time. So this time, shift it back higher, but not nearly as far as before.”
Blue Moon’s next shot hit the top edge of the target. He smiled widely at Cor and Cor grinned back, sharing his success. The others had been paying close attention and they whispered and nodded to each other, more optimistic at their own chances now.
“Your next task is to shoot the same shot, repeatedly, until it becomes automatic. When you can hit that mark on the first three shots in a row of your practice turn, you’ll be ready to move on to hitting multiple ranges. Everyone else, pay attention. You will all be expected to master this skill.”
He let them continue again, stepping back to watch. He glanced over at Jason and Twilight, hoping the raised voices he’d heard earlier weren’t a bad sign. He found Twilight making her way over to him. He read quickly that she wasn’t very happy about whatever she and Jason had discussed. She also seemed intent on engaging him next. He braced himself accordingly.
“I need your help, Cor,” she began after a steadying breath.
“Certainly,” he replied, waiting.
“You know about Jason teaching me magic, right?”
“He mentioned it, yes.”
“Well, he doesn’t know how to teach me healing magic.” She fixed him with pleading eyes. “And I need to learn healing magic.”
Cor was silent for a moment, making some mental connections as fast as he could.
“I take it you’re interested in what you saw me do for Private Jet Set? That would be a difficult skill to teach.”
“Difficult isn’t impossible,” she said bitterly.
“No, it’s not. But healing is a complex process that requires intense concentration and control. I know you’ve been working with elemental spells for combat purposes. But that amounts to throwing energy at your target. Healing requires you to put something back in order instead of knocking it out.”
“So, get started showing me.” Twilight let a nip of demand enter her voice and she winced. “Sorry. But please, killing is too easy. The difficulty of healing has to be worth it.”
He nodded in understanding. “We’ll start out with the basics.”
Cor pulled a leaf off of a nearby tree and held it between them. He carefully tore a section off, following the veins.
“The makeup of plants is simple enough. You understand their biology enough to know how their cells connect, right?” When she nodded, he went on. “Then you know that their rigid structure breaks much more cleanly than other creatures’ cells. This leaf is very orderly in its structure and this tear follows mostly along the cells’ walls, leaving the cells themselves mostly intact. All you’ll need to do is facilitate their rejoining.”
He put the leaf aside. “But first, you need to understand how to do that. Magic, fueled by mana, is nearly limitless in its possibilities. The only real limits are the caster’s will, imagination and perception. You obviously have a will strong enough for this technique, just from what I’ve seen. You don’t need a whole lot of imagination to come up with healing effects. The challenge here is perception. You’ll be affecting change on a miniscule scale. That isn’t easy without the proper tools. Fortunately, mana is just the tool you need.”
“You’ve channeled your mana before, ignited it with the desired effects and projected it outward. But for this, you must saturate the target with mana so that you can physically interact with every part at the most basic level. Starting out, you might need to practice just feeling the target, becoming acquainted with the sensation of reaching into something on that level.”
“I’ve done that already, I think,” Twilight said. “Jason taught me to use telekinesis without my Unicorn magic. I had to reach out to the object and wrap it in my mana before I could lift it.”
“That’s more or less correct,” Cor agreed. “But I think you’ll find that this requires you to go a bit deeper. Surrounding an object isn’t the same as saturating it with mana. You need to reach into it and fill it with energy. Be aware of your mana as it does so, feeling it as it flows.”
He gestured for her to try it on the leaf. Twilight concentrated on the leaf and Cor felt her mana taking hold. It twisted across the surface briefly until it managed to find entry. Cor probed lightly into what she was doing and considered offering a suggestion, but decided against it. In his experience, he felt that failing at least once, to see the effects of failure, was an important part of learning any skill. Twilight wormed her mana into the leaf and paused. She tilted her head curiously and then attempted to shift her mana again.
All at once, the leaf was torn apart by the mana’s movement. Twilight let out a yelp and lost concentration on her mana. The eviscerated leaf fragments drifted to the ground and lay still, leaking their green, pulpy chlorophyllic juice. Cor considered the leaf neutrally and looked at Twilight expectantly. She had covered her mouth with a hoof and was staring in horror at the leaf, glancing at Cor occasionally. Cor kept his expression intentionally nonchalant and nudged the leaf with his hoof.
“Yep, it’s dead,” he said bluntly.
Twilight’s shock turned to confusion.
“What you did obviously didn’t work. You failed, and nothing will change the results of that attempt. All that’s left now is to figure out why and learn from it,” Cor went on, not pulling punches. He grabbed another leaf.
“I think I tried to hold onto it too hard,” Twilight reflected, her voice still shaking slightly from her distress. “I shifted one part of my mana and it all tried to move. The leaf was caught up in it and…”
Cor rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “You’re thinking of it too much like telekinesis. Let’s see if we can get around that snag completely. This time, you won’t hold it at all,” he said, laying the leaf in the grass. “Let the ground hold it for you. All you need to do is reach into it with mana.”
“But I’m not sure I’m doing that right either,” she pleaded. “And now I can’t get the image out of my head of what would have happened if I’d messed up like this on a living pony!”
Cor narrowed his eyes at her inquisitively. “Does that frighten you? It should, but you also need to be able to acknowledge it and move forward. That leaf was once very much alive and you killed it. You are interested in saving the lives of other ponies because healing is preferable to killing. But that inevitably means that their lives will rest on your shoulders. Sometimes, you might fail, and they might die. We cannot let it hold us back if we are to be of use as healers to those who are not yet lost.”
Twilight gulped and nodded apprehensively.
“Still, death is a part of life,” Cor went on, more lightly. “Where lives are concerned, this leaf gave of itself for the cause of illustrating a lesson for you; one that will hopefully allow you to bring healing to the injured. A noble sacrifice to be sure.”
He gave her a tiny smirk, but she didn’t seem to share in his morbid humor. He continued in a more serious tone.
“You tried too hard to push inside. Instead, you need to think of it like cloth absorbing water; the energy being soaked up by the leaf.”
Twilight gathered herself before concentrating on the leaf again.
Cor nodded as he felt her probing more carefully. “Don’t treat your mana like a solid, touching the leaf as if with an appendage. It can be a liquid, flowing through the air, wrapping around and flowing into anything you will it to. You aren’t grabbing it at all. There is no grip, just a presence.”
Twilight visibly relaxed, and Cor almost immediately felt her mana seeping into the leaf more easily. She looked up at him with a pleased smile.
“During my first lesson with Jason, I struggled to make my mana act on an object until I managed to fully realize the nature of the connection,” she said. “After that, it was easy to make the connection again. This was a different kind of connection, but it came so easily once I figured out what that difference was. The mana inside of me isn’t pushing on me, nor is it confined to any part of me. It flows throughout my body as if every part of me is a vessel for it. Physical boundaries don’t apply. The energy moves freely. Once I could visualize that, I just let the same thing happen again, but through the parts of the leaf.”
She beamed at him and Cor nodded in approval.
“You pick this stuff up quickly,” he said, almost enviously. “Now, we’ll concentrate on the sensory extension you’ll need to develop in order to manipulate a target on the necessary levels.”
He walked her through the process of reaching out with mana to feel the differences in objects and helped Twilight grow more accustomed to interacting with objects using mana’s grip-like force and deeper saturation simultaneously. She struggled at first to identify the sensations her mana was conveying to her, but with repeated trials, she began to detect the subtle touch at the edge of her awareness. After that success, Cor let her experiment further on her own, checking in on her occasionally. He returned to his archery instruction, which had gone on in a steady rotation in his absence. Twilight spent an hour layering her mana over any object nearby and was generally pleased with her ability to control it in all mediums.
Rainbow and her squadron roused themselves and took to short scouting trips to make sure their position was still secure and relaying messages to and from the sentries near the Troll encampment. Evening was closing in when Rainbow swooped down and called for Jason and Cor. The rest of her flight landed as the two Lieutenants trotted over. Rainbow directed their attention to an unfamiliar Pegasus wearing an Air Corps uniform that her fliers were escorting in. He saluted sharply though his expression was more eager than stern.
“Private Martin Trottow reporting,” he said. “I’ve been directed to gather a report from your position to coordinate with the main body of the Army. Specifically, Princess Luna awaits information on the location of the enemy, sir.”
He finished relaying what must have been his commanding officer’s words nearly verbatim and waited expectantly.
“I’ll see about writing up a quick report for you,” Cor nodded. “I’ll be just a moment.”
He turned to find something on which to write the report. Jason took interest in the messenger while Cor was busy. The stallion was young and lean, with an off-white coat and pale blue mane. He was both calm and excited at the same time, seeming to be eager for something to happen and entirely content to be exactly where he was.
“The Army is on the move, I take it?” Jason commented.
“Yes sir,” Private Trottow replied enthusiastically. “I was told they will be reaching the river this evening and waiting on me to deliver this report before they can proceed.”
“Then we’ll get you underway as soon as possible,” Jason assured him, glancing at Cor.
The other Lieutenant was scribbling madly with one of Twilight’s quills as he walked back toward them. Cor finished, punctuating the last sentence with finality and passed the parchment to the Pegasus.
“Thank you, sir,” Trottow said with a salute and tucked the parchment into his satchel. “I’m also supposed to inform you that I’ve been assigned as the official liaison between your detachment and the main body of the Army.”
“We’ll be sure to keep an eye out for you, Private,” Cor acknowledged.
With one more salute, the messenger took off and flew south. When he was gone, Cor called out across the camp for everypony to gather up.
“The Army is making its move, so we need to make sure we’ve done our jobs by the time they get here,” he said. “Second Squad will be going on the offensive with me before sundown. We’re just probing their lines this time, so no direct engagement. Rainbow’s squadron will be covering us in case we get in too deep.”
The others nodded all around, grim-faced and solemn. Cor dismissed them to prepare and took Private Blue Moon and Corporal Black Marble aside to talk over their mission, since they’d shown the most affinity for the bow. A quick meal was shared and armor was donned. With a few hushed words before departing, all but a couple sentries marched out of the camp toward their next battle.