//------------------------------// // The Price of Power // Story: The Sun and the Clover // by BG9 //------------------------------// "You can maintain your power through Curse. It's sort of an offshoot of life magic whereby instead of making a pact with another body, you force someone to make a pact with you." Coloratura said "Sometimes this can result in the target losing a limb or an organ, but most often is maintained through taking of life. IE you kill someone and absorb their mana." "That's horrific." "That's just the start of it. These contracts are no small matter. Death is not an opt out of them. So they are essentially slaves for all of time to the person who enacted the contract. Not even their soul can find rest. However it is a double edged sword. Most often times, if someone uses curses they too often they will go mad." "That's pretty dark." "We have a gift. And many don't want to give that up. Curses are of course outlawed by the Magic Council and people who get caught will often face life imprisonment, but it doesn't stop people from doing it, especially when they become elderly and have a harder time maintaining their power. The most common offenders are the elderly since the ability the exchange mana wanes with age." The two of them stood in silence, collecting the required reading and heading back to the streets. Coloratura looks up at the sun then back at the school. "Why don't you head back up to the school to meet with Sunset, Anon. I'll get your alchemy supplies." "You're sure?" "Absolutely." "Thanks Coloratura. I owe you one." "Don't mention it." Anon made his way back to the school and to Kindness House, his brain functioning with the precision of a GPS. Kindness House was quite similar looking to Generosity House with a few important differences: the stone used to make it was a light yellow color and the castle banners were emblazoned with three pink butterflies rather than a single diamond. Not only that, but the stain glass windows all had multi-colored panes and depicted beautiful designs. One was especially striking: it illustrated Sunset Shimmer, a yellow halo above her head and what appeared to be angel wings. A sun poked through the top of the window, it's rays casting light to the thorns at the bottom of the illustration. It was absolutely magnificent. "It's so tacky isn't it?" Anon nearly jumped out of his skin. Sunset had made her way next to him completely undetected. "Sunset!" Anon said, clutching his chest "You nearly gave me a heart attack." "Oh! Sorry! I didn't mean to startle you like that!" "It's alright. So how did you get your own stain glass window anyway?" Sunset smiled to herself, looking at the pane of glass. "I saved the school from a near catastrophe. During my second year here, a disgruntled student planted a large amount of thorn root and added a magic spell to make it grow to incredible sizes. The thing about thorn root is that not only does it carry a deadly muscle toxin on it's thorns, but it's also incredibly demanding in terms of nutritional need. Having a small garden can completely deplete the soil for a few miles. If allowed to keep going, the thorn root would've caused massive damage not only to the ground, but it would weaken the earth to the point of collapse." Sunset pointed to the angel wings, running her finger down the various grooves in the window until it reached the bottom "Using my magic I was able to destroy the thorn root and breathe life back into the soil. Even for someone with my power it was a tremendous effort. The ground was so depleted that the soil was a bare white color and had developed large cracks. It took nearly all my power to reverse the damage." "That's incredible Sunset. Solar magic is amazing." "It really is. I'm very thankful for this gift." she said "I'm glad you could make it here. Let me show you around." Anon followed Sunny through the two massive black iron doors and into the house. It was quite the comfy area. The inside was lit all sorts of colors thanks to all the multi-colored windows surrounding it, like some sort of kaleidoscope. The floor was nothing but red carpet and various couches and lie about the house. Sunset let him up two stories and down a few doors to her room. Sunset's room was just as comfy. There were only two beds in this room and the walls were a pale yellow. At the end was a wood desk and a window with red silk curtains. "I'm going to teach you some of the basics of magic." she stated "How to thread you mana through objects and how to make your mana appear more normal to onlookers. You have a wand correct?" He nodded, reaching into his robe and taking out one of the wands Coloratura gave him. Sunny examined it, a little smile forming on her face. "You friend certainly seems to have a flair too her." "Flair?" "You wand." she said "It's a redwood with X-type circuits and, from what I can tell, a silver heartstring." "Can you say that again in plain English?" "Oh right. I forget I'm speaking to a newcomer. The wood determines the type of enhancement it'll have. Redwood, all things considered, was a good choice. Redwood will give your mana a bolder and more robust enhancement. Meaning it will be much easier for you to utilize what is dormant within you. However it's the rest that makes me laugh. X-Type circuits are most commonly used for a high degree of mana control, often used in artistic magic. While a silver heartstring is often used to give shape to what's in a persons mind, conjuration specifically. But it's a bit of a wildcard heartstring." "Can you explain this whole thing to me? Coloratura ran me through the basics but didn't go in depth with it." "Absolutely. You'll need to know this in order to thread magic." she said "I already told you about wood composition, and to name every wood and it's quality on magic would take hours, however there are much few strains of the other components." Sunset took out her wand and began writing in light on the air "Circuits fall under two umbrellas: orthodox and unorthodox." Sunset points to the divots in the wand "You see how the indents follow a pretty straightforward pattern? You have an orthodox circuit. This lends a great deal of control to your mana at the expense of some potency, or raw power. Unorthodox is exactly the way it sounds, a random mishmash of circuits. This gives you little control to the point where, if you're not skilled in threading, the entire wand will explode in your face, like a gun with a clogged barrel. However it gives you a greater increase in potency and can have some unpredictable qualities depending on the circuit type." Sunset writes all this information down a beautiful, sparkly light and starts to pace back and forth "You got all that?" "Yeah. It's quite a lot though. I have no guarantee I'll remember all that." "Don't worry. You've got the entire week to get the basics down. After that information will be given at a much slower and more digestible pace." "I had no idea magic was such a technical field of study." "You don't even know the half of it." Sunny points back to the writing "Anyway, next is the type of circuit with which there are four: A-type, U-type, X-type and Y-type and each can help in a particular brand of magic. A-types are most constantly used for offensive magic as A-type circuits allow the shortest, most straight forward path for mana to travel through. U-types are almost exclusively used for lab-based science. The circuit travels down one end and up the other. This makes them ideal for mixing, siphoning, exchanging, and isolating. You can get quite creative in how you use it. X-Type is a rather interesting type. It functions like that of a U type only the in and out cross one another. Take a look." Sunset points to the wand's circuits. Sure enough, they intersected multiple times, making an X, no doubt the source of it's name. "I get it. And the other ones make a similar pattern according to their name?" "Right, or at least vaguely similar. These are only the most common of types." she said "X-Types are special brands of wand, essentially combining the streamlined nature of an A-type with the versatility of a U-type. Which should be just perfect for a beginner while we learn where your talents lie." Sunset cleared the light in the air and began to write again. "Finally is the Y-type. Y-types expand further on the X-type but in a different fashion. They are often used by people who are gifted with a condition called Diamanaectasis. Essentially what it means is someone is born with two different types of mana. And they can use the Y-circuits to combine the mana into something incredibly strong and potent." "There are different mana types?" "Yes. But we can go over that later. For now let's teach you to thread magic. This is, bar none, one of the most important skills you can learn as a mage. Especially if we want to preserve Clover's legacy." Sunset handed him the wand back, walking behind him and placing her hands on his shoulders. Her soft, warm skin filled his stomach with butterflies. "Alright I'm going to aggravate your mana by transferring some of my own into your body. Since your power is dormant, this will help tease it out. Just for a quick FYI, mana does not like to be mixed with other mana and without practice on mana assimilation, it can cause you to get a condition called mana sickness. I'll be teaching you this skill as well further down the line." "You're not going to make me sick are you Sunset?" She giggled "Of course not. It won't take too much to get your mana aggravated. Certainly far below what it would require to make you sick. Now hold still and relax. This won't hurt a bit." Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sunset glow a warm yellow color much like that of a campfire. His brief calm was quickly interrupted with what felt like a lightning strike on his back and his vision going completely dark. Where was he? Who was he? What was he doing just seconds before this? He blinked open his eyes to find he was in a field, a pretty girl sitting beside him. She had long red-gold hair that seemed so familiar but he just couldn't place it. The girl wore what seemed to be priest robes and looked quite distraught. "Why won't you just give it a rest Clover!?" the woman yelled at him "Can't you see that this is the end!? If you try this you will die! What makes you think you're any different than any of the other mages who tried before you!?" The woman began to shed tears "Why are you so stubborn? Why can't you see how this will kill you in the end?" Anon began to speak. However the voice and even the words were not his own. "Because I will do anything to protect this world. Even if it costs me my life." His vision went black and the scene changed. He was in some kind of lab. The walls looked as though they belonged to a tree. Again, the yellow-red haired woman was present along with another woman with dark blue hair. "You really are a genius Clover." the yellow-red haired woman said "I never would've thought that about making pacts with non-sentient objects. Just think of how much power and strength the sun would hold! And, as a female the sun, will only enhance my latent abilities further." Anon spoke again, but the words and the voice were not his own. In fact it sounded as if it belonged to a female. "Exactly. As the sun represents femininity, the moon represents masculinity. So this means that only females can inherent the magic crest from here on out." "Right. And the price shouldn't be too steep. Which is surprising. You'd think it would be bigger." "If my calculations are correct, and let's face it, they're never wrong, you shouldn't be too damaged by the end of it. And if I use life stitching, I can heal you like new." The blue hair woman chimed in "What about me though? If the moon represents masculinity how will I form a pact with it?" Your voice chuckled "Anyone can. But since the moon has a masculine nature it just won't enhance your abilities. Unlike Celestia though, you'll be able to pass down your crest to any heir you like." The scene changed once more, this time to a horrific sight. Anon could feel tears streaming down his face as he saw the what was before him. Celestia was in the center of a large circle, the entire right half of her body burned charcoal black. "Celestia! Celestia please say something!" Celestia begins to cry and shake violently, writhing in agony. "I-it hurts!" she screamed "I thought you said the cost wouldn't be great!" She let out the most blood curdling, bone chilling scream and like that, Anon was back in Sunset's room. He turned around to her shaking. "Sunset... are you alright?" Sunset steadied herself "Sorry..." she said weakly "I accidentally triggered the memories of your magic crest." Anon looked down. So that was the price Coloratura was talking about. No doubt Celestia was Sunset's ancestor. "Are you burned as well?" he asked Sunset turned around, pulling down her robe to reveal her bare back. It was entirely burnt black. "But that isn't the worst of it." she sighed "My family paid a terrible price for this power: every male child we conceive miscarries and every husband the heir of the family takes dies within the span of five years. To make matters worse, the burns go deeper than skin. My very soul was burned. That's why my skin can never be healed." Anon's eyes go wide and his teeth clench "Sunset... I'm so sorry." "Don't be. It was a new field of study after all. There was no way to predict how steep the price would be. This is why life magic is a very difficult study to engage in. If you are not one hundred-percent right in your calculation, it will cost you dearly. There's no way they could've known." "I'll remember that." Sunset takes a deep breath "Ok let's try this one more time. I'll be sure not to trigger any memories this time." She pulls her robe back up, putting her hands back on Anon's shoulders "Here we go." Sunset's body glowed once again. This time he could feel what was almost like pressure rising withing his body. "Ok. Now try to push that energy through your wand." Anon lifted his wand in front of him and, to his surprise, the power flowed through it with almost no resistance. His mana was a very pretty light green color. "Good work. I want you to practice that this week. You're dismissed." "Sunset are you alright?" "I'll be ok. I just need a little time alone is all." He nods "Alright. Thanks for the lesson." And with that Anon exited the room, leaving Sunset alone with her despair.