After Hearths Warming Eve days seemed to pass by in a flash. What with my training, learning new spells, along with Discord and I teaching Rainbow about her new body which she adapted to surprisingly quickly. When Rainbow and I turned up to help with Winter Wrap Up everyone who hadn’t known about Rainbow’s transformation, but after explaining it was so she could learn how to fight monsters almost everyone acted as if nothing changed. The only exception was of course Spoiled Rich, but when Rainbow and I reminded her that Princess Celesta had also been turned humanoid she glared at me and left leaving.
A week after spring started Discord, Rainbow and I were standing in the middle of my training room. As always I was in my Summoner’s Robes and Rainbow was wearing a training gi that looked a lot like Piccolo’s only sky blue with fingerless gloves and normal brown boots. The rest of our friends had come to watch along with the CMC and were sitting on a few benches Discord had set off to the side.
“Alright Rainbow it’s time to start your training.” I said. “Now I’ve been thinking a lot about how we’re going to do this and after doing a little experimenting I decided on the main fighting style I’m going to teach you.”
“So whose form are you going to use? Master Yi our Wukong?” Rainbow asked.
“Both Wukong and Master Yi will teach you Wuju.” I said.
“You mean you in those forms right?” Rainbow chuckled nervously.
Discord smiled. “Remember when Thrin said that the original Champions can influence him? In this case while he’s in those form’s I’ll be putting Thrin to ‘sleep’ so the original Champion can come out and play. Don’t worry I’ll be right here to make sure nothing goes wrong. Besides Master Yi and Wukong are good guys remember?”
“That and I can only ‘use’ Wuju. I’m not a master nor do I truly know how it works. This is the only way ‘I’ can teach you. And don’t worry Discord and I made sure nothing would go wrong.” I said.
In a flash Pinkie was right next to us and for some reason her eyes were pin pricks and she was twitching. “Ya-don’t-worry-Rainbow-but-this means-I-need-to-make-a-‘Welcome-to-Equestria’-party-for-them!-But-would-that-count-considering-they’re-part-of-Thrin?-Oh-who-cares-you’re-going-to-learn-something-all-but-lost-to-time!-Just-remember-Rainbow-to-do-your-best!-Now-if-you-exuse-me-I’ve-got-something-I-need-to-do!” With that Pinkie appeared back at the bench slumped down and fell asleep.
“…Note to self, don’t give Pinkie caffeine.” Discord said as he looked at the snack buffet he’d set up. It was full of a wide variety of snacks before but now it was buried under every kind of snake imaginable. Discord then looked at Pinkie and smiled. “Perhaps I should ask her if she wants to be my apprentice! If she can do this with a little coffee then what could she do with Chaos Magic!”
“That would be interesting to see but for now let’s focus on the task at hand.” I said. “Are you ready Rainbow?”
Rainbow stood to her full height. “Let’s do this!”
“CHAMPION TRANSFORMATION. MASTER YI!”
‘I’ stood there motionless for a moment before looking directly at Rainbow and when ‘I’ spoke it wasn’t me, it was the real Master Yi. “Well then young one. It is time to start your training. First I want you to show me what you can do. Now come at me!”
*Time Skip Two Weeks*
Rainbow’s training had gone as smoothly as one could hope and out of all the training weapons I’d gathered the Claws were the ones she’d taken to the most. Turns out Rainbow was a natural born Final Fantasy-esq Monk. Who would of guessed? During the time Rainbow returned to her home and I offered to use another Crystal on Celestia but much to my surprise she’d come to enjoy her new form and didn’t want to change it. According to Luna a few of the chefs were giving her some extra sweets now and Luna was making sure she and Celestia did some intense training to make sure Celestia didn’t gain any extra weight and learn new tricks in their free time in case they needed to fight off some of the stronger monsters from Bestiary or the two evil Displaced.
During that time Discord left to do his job and he didn’t know when he would return. Meanwhile I’d focused most of my free time into making the prototypes for the Warp Gate work and making sure my calculations were correct. Two days before I met Orgran I turned into Taliyah the Stoneweaver to create a stone arch in one of the ground floor labs.
Next I turned into Ryze to place the correct runes before repeating the process behind my home. Once I was ready to test the arches I left to find Twilight. Once Twilight and I were standing next to the second Gate. “Just to double check what you need me to do. I just stand here and wait to see if anything comes through?” Twilight asked.
“Correct. First I’m going to throw this head of lettuce though the Gate. If it makes it through I want you to throw it back with this note attached to it.” I explained and handed Twilight a folded piece of paper and a roll of tape.
Opening it up Twilight looked at it confused. “You are here by invited to Duelist Kingdom.” She read out. “What does that mean?”
“It’s a reference to the first story arc of a show I watched on Earth.” I explained. “I was feeling a little nostalgic when I decided to use that as the not for this test.”
“Fair enough.” Twilight said.
“Anyway the lettuce is the first test. The second will be one of the Minions, and you’ll give it this note.” I said.
“Gerry was here. Ash is a loser… Is that a reference too?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.
I nodded. “Season one of a different show. Now if both the first two tests succeed then I’ll come through. It may be too much to ask but my hope is that the Gate will work first try. ”
“How long have you been working on the blueprints?” Twilight asked.
“I started three days after Arashi and I saved Harukaze’s eggs and used knowledge from a few of the Champions who use magic while making the blueprints and Discord helped when he returned. Turns out Ryze already knew a few runes that if used together could be used to warp crates and the like far distances. It took almost a month and a half but in the end I managed to alter a few runes that can be used for the Warp Gate, and I’ve checked and rechecked it since finishing the blueprints before I even made the arch.”
Twilight gave a slightly strained smiled at Discords name. “Well if you’ve spent this long and if Discord helped then I’m sure it’ll work.”
“Alright I’ll go to the first arch and throw the lettuce through.” Twilight nodded as I walked to the first arch. Once I was there I gently tossed the lettuce though and waited. Soon the lettuce came back with the note.
Then I created a red Caster Minion and sent it through. Then I sighed, I wasn’t lying when I told White Gem and Spell Weaver that the Minions could only be used for combat because at the time that was true. I’d stumbled across how to alter their functions by complete accident one week after I told them that but changing their function made them unstable if they’re working for more than five minutes and changing their forms was still impossible. Soon the Minion came back and handed me the note before disappearing. “Well here goes…everything.” I muttered before walking through the arch. I was surrounded by colors that slowly shifted and swirled. I continued to walk for a few more moments before exiting the second arch and saw Twilight whose grin went from ear to ear.
“IT WORKS! THRIN IT WORKS!” Twilight cheered. “We have to notify the Princesses immediately!”
“Not quite Twilight. There’s one last test. A stress test.” I said. “We need to know how many people can go through the portal at one time, but even if that fails we’ll still let the Princesses know about the success.”
Twilight nodded as I went back through the Gate. Turning around I made as many Minions as I could while still having room to walk around. After the first Minion went through I increased each group by one. Once the last group of ten Minions went through I canceled the first batch and created more to continue with the test. I stopped once twenty of them went through at once, dismissed the Minions and walked through to join Twilight a wide smile on my face. “Twenty at once on your first prototype. I have to admit I don’t know if I should be impressed by your level of preparation or worried that you put more work into this than I put into my projects.” Twilight said grinning herself.
“It’s thanks to all the sleepless nights.” I replied turning off the Gate. “But with these results I’d say it was worth it!”
Once Twilight and I reached Ponyville we went to find Spike. Spike was now half as tall as me after I suggested adding meat to his diet due to most of the dragons I knew of being carnivorous so he was now called a ‘young’ dragon instead of ‘baby’ and he was still growing. When Spike heard the news he couldn’t write the message fast enough and not even five minutes after he sent the letter we got a reply telling us to gather our friends and get to Canterlot as soon as we could.
Once we arrive at the Train station we saw Blueblood and Shining Armor waiting for us and they rushed us to the Castle. Once we arrived at the castle Blueblood and Shining Armor led the others to the side to stand by White Gem and Spell Weaver while I continued and stopped just before the thrones.
“Welcome all.” Celestia started. “We have called for all of you for a monuments and historic occasion.”
“Thrin within the time you’ve been in Equestria you’ve made many difficult choices have done many impressive achievements. Such as choosing to become stone to be in this time period, even if I personally don’t approve of said choice, saving Ponyville from monsters, discovering the Warlock Bolarc, befriending the Harpy Harukaze and warning us about Dhoulmagus. Saving the kraken Khalamari and now creating a Warp Gate.” Luna continued. “But these achievements alone would not make you an Arch-Mage. You’ve shown great patience dealing with those who do not show respect and when dealing with your own projects.”
(And yet my patience is thin when working on two of my main projects… I wonder if Orgran could help me with those.” I thought
“And now you’ve show you are capable with teaching younger minds as you’ve demonstrated with young Rainbow Dash who is learning a martial art all but lost to time.”
“Thrin by the power vested in my as Princess of Equestria and with the approval of my sister Princess Luna, Headmaster White Gem, my nephew Prince Blueblood, and the rest of the council, I am pleased to say that you have passed every test that you face on your path and are now instated as the first Arch-Mage since Luna’s and my old mentor Starswirl the Bearded. Congratulations!”
“Thank you Princess. I will do my best to not disappoint anyone, nor will I abuse my new title.” I said with a low bow.
Luna passed me a folder full of papers. “This holds all you need to know about being an Arch-Mage. The information inside is for your eyes only Thrin, so be sure not to let anyone see it.”
I immediately put the folder in my Storage Cube. “I will go over it as soon as I get home.”
“See that you do, and know that you’ll have to meet the leaders of the other kingdoms soon.” Luna said. “Make sure you’re prepared as it is possible for you to lose this title if enough of the other leaders think you unworthy before one year is up.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” I said.
“Good. I wish we could talk more but Celestia and I will be very busy for a while due to the uproar many will have with your new station.” Luna said before smirking. “So be ready to be swarmed… is what I would be saying if we didn’t set up a press conference in three hours. This is when we’ll publicly announce your new station.”
I took a deep breath. “Let’s just get this over with.”