The Terror of Death- Lessons
Ponyville
By the time that Twilight had woken up this morning, there were… quite a lot of things that she was trying to wrap her head around. Everything from her newfound Avatar awakening just only yesterday to all the things that were going on in the Crystal Empire. Everything that she learned the other day from Radiant and Cadence was still fresh and buzzing in her head to the point that she wasn’t able to get much sleep when she came back home. Not only that, but by the time that she was home, Ponyville was still recovering from the battle with Trixie.
Even things seemed a little more out of place when she was trying to eat breakfast. Spike had told her that while she was in the empire, some of her friends decided to take the Cutie Mark Crusaders out on a camping trip. Not to mention the fact that Pinkie was babysitting for the cakes again and Fluttershy was watching over her Winona, Opalescence and Tank during her friends camping trip.
Of course, even though her friends said that they were wanting to help her out while she was away… It was sort of cruelly ironic that they weren’t here to help her while she was back home. Still, that didn’t stop her from wanting to do one thing while she was home. “Spike, I’m going out for a few minutes. Can you make sure that everything is cleaned up by the time I’m back?”
The baby dragon, at first, only nodded his head. But after a moment, he felt the need to ask her something. “Okay, but where are you going? The market’s closed today.”
“I know that. It’s always closed on sundays,” She replied back. “But I’m not going to the market. I’m going to the hospital.”
“Wait, why the-?” It only took a mere second for Spike to realize why Twilight would go there. But when he realized it, he felt a little uncomfortable with where Twilight was going with this. “Are you sure about this, Twilight? I mean… she almost wrecked Ponyville and tried to kill you-”
“Spike, you know that Trixie could not control herself when that happened,” Twilight told him, “Besides, if anything, she did not want for anypony to get hurt or anything to get destroyed. All she wanted was to prove that she could be better than me… She was ego driven.”
“If you say so…” Spike told her in response, before picking up some of the things that were lying on the ground and putting them away. Though, it was as he was putting away a book on ‘Wildlife in the Everfree’ that he soon said something else. Just as Twilight was about to walk out the door. “But, I’ll only believe that when I see her do something to help other ponies instead of the other way around. Hay, we’ve had two incidents so far where she had caused trouble and instead of accepting responsibility the first time, she disappeared in a puff of smoke.”
He was right about that… but Twilight really didn’t think that Trixie would try to dash out of the hospital in order to avoid seeing her. Especially in the condition that she was in. But, that would be for her to find out. “I always give ponies a second chance… and I am willing to do the same for Trixie.”
Closing the door behind her, Twilight began to make her way over to the Ponyville Hospital. Instead of just using a teleportation spell though, the unicorn decided to just simply walk over to the hospital. There was nothing going on right now where it would force her to try and rush things, plus the walk allowed for her to try and clear her mind a little. Put it at ease. Allow for herself to focus on the only thing that she was going to do right now and not let herself get sidetracked by anything else.
When she finally arrived at the hospital and stepped through, one of the main caretakers, Nurse Redheart, was rather surprised to see her. “M-ms. Sparkle! I-i really did not expect to see you here.”
Twilight herself, just smiled as she looked at the earth pony. “It’s good to see you as well, Nurse Redheart. I… wanted to ask you something regarding one of the patients that was brought in here the other day.”
For a moment, Redheart paused… before snapping back to her senses as she looked back at the unicorn. “Y-you mean Ms. Lulamoon?” She asked, a worried expression being on her face.
“Is something wrong?” Twilight calmly asked. “She’s okay, isn’t she?”
“Yeah, she is… but after that incident… well, Doctor Stable thinks it’s going to be almost impossible for her to fully recover,” The earth pony told her, having Twilight follow her over to the room where Trixie was staying at. “Whatever it was that took control of her put a massive strain on her mana. Like too much for a normal unicorn to handle… She may be able to recover physically, but… it’s unlikely that she’ll be able to do magic for a very long time.”
What Twilight heard… shocked her. All of this… and now, the chance for Trixie to use the one thing she wanted to outclass her in, was severely damaged. “H-how long?”
“Months… perhaps even years… It varies depending on how much magic they were using at the time this happened” Redheart told her as she looked back at her. “It’s a miracle that her horn is still intact though. If her horn actually shattered when this took place, she would not be able to wield magic ever again.”
That… lead to Twilight thinking something. “But… is there a chance that she can fully recover?” Redheart sighed for a moment, before looking back at her as she placed the clipboard away. Unsure of what to tell the unicorn as she watched Trixie just lie there on the hospital bed. Bandaged and still breathing as her pulse was being tracked by a small monitor nearby.
“She can recover… but it’s very unlikely that she’ll be back to her normal self ever again,” The nurse told her, before looking back at her and saying something else. “What’s worse is that when some of the other staff were trying to find anything that belonged to her, we learned that the wagon she would live in was destroyed. Meaning that she would have nowhere to go after she’s released from the hospital…”
It was in that moment that Twilight soon… thought of something. “Ms. Redheart… I want to be able to help her. Would it be okay for her to stay with me while she recovers? I wouldn’t want for her to be on her own while she’s still recovering, so can I let her stay with me?”
“A-are you sure?” Nurse Redheart was personally not prepared to hear that from Twilight at all. Her hat even almost fell off her face upon hearing that. “I mean… I’m not against the idea, but-”
“I want to help give Trixie a second chance and help her be herself again…” Twilight replied back to the nurse that was working there, taking a moment to pause and catch her breath before finishing her sentence. “I feel like what happened the other day and what happened to Trixie was my fault too… so I want to be able to shoulder some of the responsibility and help her anyway I can.”
That… lead to Nurse Redheart thinking things over for a moment, shortly before giving Twilight a temporary reply. “Let me ask Doctor Stable about it and see if he’s okay with it. Could you wait here for a few moments please?” The unicorn nodded her head as the nurse trotted down the hallway to look for her supervisor as Twilight waited on a bench outside of Trixie’s hospital room.
She only had to wait a couple of moments though before Nurse Redheart came back. “The doctor’s all for it. He just would like for you to give us some more time and make sure that Trixie wakes up first.”
“Thank you very much,” Twilight replied back, sounding relieved. “Can you let me know if there are any changes with her condition?”
“Absolutely.” The earth pony told her in response, proceeding to thank the unicorn for stopping by and checking in on her as Twilight began to make the trek back to Ponyville. But… it was as she was coming back that she decided to do something… different.
Instead of coming back home to settle down, she came back to the library to grab her saddle bag and the book that she acquired shortly after awakening Gorre, before making her way to a booth at the far end of town by the tracks. “One ticket to the crystal empire please…”
Crystal Empire- Barracks
After having to help BlackRose when she tripped over her own sword and slid across the floor of the castle like she was on an ice skating rink, Haseo was able to guide the two of them over to where the training area was. For a moment, it looked like a simple arena surrounded by stands. But it was as they were there that the Adept Rogue told them that the concept for the training yard was based on the Arena in the .hack//GU games, where there were holographic screens around the battlefield that were powered by magic and other mechanics to treat any sparring session like it was a real duel in The World.
“So, what do you guys think?” He asked both of his friends. “I haven’t had the chance to test this out yet, but from what I heard with Ironwings and her brother, it seems like it’s working quite well with the guards during training exercises.”
“I guess it’s cool.” Kite said, looking at it passively. BlackRose herself was jumping up and down, squealing with excitement.
“Cool!? It’s awesome! I’ve never seen anything like this before!”
“Glad you like it, Tess,” Haseo chuckled. “Back during the games where Haseo is from, the Arena is the only place in The World where PvP is allowed. In fact, some of the guilds are specifically for Arena competition. Yet, this is only used so far for Guard Training.”
“Seems like overkill.” Kite’s head sunk forward as he crossed his arms. He examined the arena once more, scrutinizing each and every detail. “A waste, if you’d ask me, but I doubt that matters.”
“Wow, you’re even more pessimistic, man!” BlackRose teased, elbowing Kite in his side. He was unaffected by that, however, and remained stoic.
“It’s how I’m coping with this seizure inducing world. There’s nothing to do, and I’ve nearly gone mad with sitting around and listening to the royal pains about friendship and love or whatever… I already miss home.” Kite grumbled, a sombre look adorning his features.
“Hey, I miss it too… Though, I’m trying to make the most of things,” Haseo sighed, before looking back at Kite and moving his fingers for a second to where it looked like a screen popped up in front of him. “Right now though, would you or BlackRose like to go first when it comes to sparring? And I’ll not do my Job Extend to switch classes because I want it to be a fair fight.”
“Always thought that was BS…” Kite remarked, but was barely heard by BlackRose as she shouted.
“I’ll go first! I’m ready to show you what I’ve got!” BlackRose grinned, stepping forward and resting her blade on her shoulder.
“Alright then,” Haseo said, summoning his twin blades and changing his appearance to reflect the armor of his second job class. “Though… let’s be clear on some things. First, you can’t use items.”
“I don’t have anything in my inventory…” BlackRose replied after looking at her menu, a bit shocked.
“Alright…” Haseo said, surprised that she was able to bring out a menu before redirecting his focus on the matter at hand. “Secondly, we can do either best of three matches or just one round. Which do you prefer?”
“One round, no second chances!” BlackRose grinned excitedly, twirling her giant sword. “We fight till…?”
“Fight til the end?” Haseo finished her sentence, twirling his two blades and held onto them backwards, before setting up the parameters for the arena as he looked back at her. “Alright, all set-”
“Wait, I asked when do we stop!? How do we know who won!?” BlackRose shouted, getting nervous about hurting Haseo.
Around then was when Haseo looked up above the arena at one of the screens on the top. Showing what looked like two lifebars, one for Haseo and one for BlackRose. Both of them were colored a gradient green with a bit of red at the end of the bars. “How about whoever gets their opponents health into the red first? Sounds simple right?”
“Alright, it’s time to duel!”
“Wrong franchise, Tess!” Kite called out, unenthused. Haseo just chuckled for a moment, before looking back at his opponent and waiting to see what BlackRose would do first. She charged forward, holding up her blade for a downward strike. Seeing this, he went forward as well, but easily was able to dodge to the right once she brought down her blade and allowing the Adept Rogue a chance to hit her with his twin blades. Striking the right side of her chest as he turned back to her to see if BlackRose was going to counter somehow.
“Gyah! Take it easy, jerk!” BlackRose hissed in pain, stumbling away from Haseo and holding the spot he hit her. Looking at her health, Haseo noticed he took out almost half of her health with that single graze.
“Wait… aren’t you suppose to have some kind of armor or something? I didn’t give you a big gash at all, it was just a couple of cuts.” The Adept Rogue asked her, before looking back at BlackRose’s armor choice. “Oh… right. I almost forgot about that.”
“I’m also level three!” Blackrose hissed, waving her sword around in a huff.
That… had Haseo blink for a moment. “Wait… seriously? I thought you guys would be higher than that…” He blinked again, looking rather surprised as he looked to Kite now.
Kite just shrugged. “What level were you when you arrived?” He inquired with a raised brow.
“One… and before I was frozen in ice, I was close to fifty… However, right now, it feels like I’ve been away at the controls for too long and I’m trying to relearn a lot of things,” He said, before asking his friend something. “What level were you when you arrived… if you don’t mind me asking.”
“One. I’ve been training but there isn’t a lot to fight out in the cold, especially when Shining and Cadenza don’t seem to trust us. Kite’s not much better, he’s just been lazing about.” BlackRose said, to which Kite gave an uncaring shrug. “The only thing I’ve killed was a Bearbug by mistake-”
“Bugbear.” Kite corrected.
“Bugbear by mistake, and with an escort of guards.” BlackRose finished.
“Well, I was going to suggest to Shining Armor to put up a quest board of some kind… that way ponies and other individuals like us can take on assignments and gain experience from them. Besides… with the fact that AIDA is out there in Equestria and a lot of this world is almost like The World, it’s more than likely that there may be monsters outside the Crystal Empire that you can hunt.” Haseo suggested. “So… instead of me trying to take you down… how about we try something else… Try and hit me… as hard as you can.”
“Um… okay.” BlackRose replied, gripping her blade tighter. “So, um… are you going to block or do I have to actually hit you, because I’m not into hitting friends, even if that friend took a chunk out of my side!” She babbled almost coherently.
“I’m not blocking. I just want to see what kind of abilities you can do.” Haseo said. “After that… maybe you can let Kite have a go instead.”
“Alrighty! Here I come!” BlackRose sprinted forward, swinging wildly and without focus. Haseo… originally thought that this attack wouldn’t really do a lot of damage. However, the closer and closer she was getting to him, the more and more he began to realize that it wasn’t entirely a good idea to underestimate what she was doing. And when her blade hit, it hit hard.
Hard enough that when the blade actually landed and struck the upper half of his body, a quarter of his health bar dropped as he was thrown backward from the impact.
“A-a-are you okay, Ryou!?” BlackRose gasped, dropping her sword and rushing to Haseo’s side.
“Yeah… I’m f-fine,” He coughed, getting up and looking back at his friend. “For someone who’s level three, that was a pretty strong hit.”
“Really…?” BlackRose looked back at her sword.
Kite stepped into the arena. “You could’ve looked at the weapon’s stats to see how much damage it’d do… Would’ve saved you the pain. She’s a low level with a high level weapon, which could explain her lack of skill with the weapon if that indeed if how skill translates.”
“Maybe another day, we can help her gain some more experience so her skill and the skill of the weapon match out?” Haseo suggested, while also using some of the interface with the mission to call off the match and declaring it a draw right now. “I mean… it’s possible, right?”
“Have you ever gained experience without killing?” Kite asked all of a sudden, a sullen look on his face. “I mean, training doesn’t exactly help, now does it?”
“Remember when I mentioned that I was going to have them set up a quest board?” Haseo asked him in response. “I mean… you are right on the training part… but if we’re treating this like The World, then the best way for her to gain experience and for her to know how to fight is to, in fact, fight monsters, right? It’s just an idea…”
“Just don’t be an escort to her…” Kite grumbled, massaging his forehead. “Damn it, I already have another headache…”
Haseo, for a moment, seemed a bit concerned for Kite as he felt the pain from BlackRose’s attack subside. Before thinking of something else to change the topic now. “So… are you still up for that duel or do you want to wait a little and let that headache subside?”
“I’ll be fine, it’s just a headache. But hey, I’m sure you can get your rest later, lil’ man.” Kite tease, a genuine smirk forming on his lips. A smile Haseo hadn’t seen since they arrived, one filled with a playfulness only his friend could conjure up, or BlackRose’s attempted imitation.
“Alright, if you say so,” He replied back, smirking in response and letting BlackRose leave the arena first. After she stepped out, the arena began to change around them and reset. Having the two opponents be both Kite and Haseo as both of their levels were currently scaled at level 25.
Just as the fight was about to get started… BlackRose soon had a… unexpected guest show up right next to her. “Good afternoon,” Looking up, she saw both Shining Armor and Princess Cadence as the princess was directly talking to her. “Would you mind if we join you?”
“Not at all. Haseo’s just about to show Kite what-for! Lazy butt over there hasn’t fought a thing since we arrived.” BlackRose stated.
“Oh really? Well, given the kind of power that he showed when Haseo destroyed Sombra… this may be interesting to watch.” Shining Armor commented as both of them sat down. “Of course, I don’t think Haseo will be using that… well… what was it called again?”
“You mean his avatar, honey?”
“Yes, that… He probably won’t be using something like that for just a simple duel.” Shining Armor replied back to Cadence’s comment as they watched Haseo get out his twin blades and hold them firmly in his hands.
“I doubt Kite would use his… well you wouldn’t know what that is.” BlackRose added as she watched Kite unsheath his own dual blades.
To which, Cadence noticed something… despite the fact that Haseo had access to the weapons and skills of four other classes, it appeared that he was sticking with the weapons and the skills of the twin blade. The same class as his friend and current foe. So seeing two opponents clash with the same kind of skills and abilities would be rather interesting to watch.
But the one thing that Shining was taking into account was that unlike with Haseo… nopony knew what kind of powers Kite here had at his disposal. Something that they were going to find out about really soon.
“You ready, Seabus?” Haseo asked, grinning as he held his blades in reverse and took up a fighting stance.
“Yeah, I guess.” Kite replied. He then began to slowly walk towards Haseo, twirling one of his blades in his hand effortlessly. “Are you, Ryou?”
“Just as ready as you are.” Haseo said confidently. But in that split moment Kite was already in front of him, thrusting his blades into Haseo’s chest before kicking him away, and a devious grin formed on Kite’s face. In response to getting knocked back, Haseo flipped around, landing on his feet and charging back at his opponent. Attacking from all angles in hopes that he will be able to land a hit, but Kite easily blocked both attacks.
“Twin Blade vs. Twin Blade. But you can’t beat the original~” Kite chuckled, smile ever widening with excitement, before headbutting Haseo.
As the Adept Rogue was finding a way to fight back, that was when Shining soon turned his head and looked towards BlackRose. “What does your friend mean by that?”
“What do you know about Haseo and us?” BlackRose inquired.
“Well, Haseo explained the job class system to us and it’s the same system we are implementing with many of the ponies that are here… but aside from that and how he originally came here, not a lot,” Cadence added on to what her husband was saying. “We didn’t have much time to talk on the subject given that Celestia was coming over and we had the incident with Twilight back in Ponyville…”
“Well then I’ll explain it like this. Haseo’s job class is a second generation class, while Kite’s is one of the originals, as am I.” BlackRose explained. “But he probably meant that he’s the first series’ protagonist while Haseo is the second series’.”
“So… you mean that Haseo… would not exactly have all the same skills and strengths as your friend?” Shining asked, raising an eyebrow as he tried to wrap his head around all of this.
“Adept Rogues are jacks of all trades, yet master of none. Kite and I are masters of one trade.” BlackRose elaborated. “Haseo’s great at multiple, but I’m sure if he tried to use all of his classes at once it’d be overtaxing. Here he’s just trying to make it easier on Kite and I… I don’t think it’s working out for him.”
Shining himself, put a hoof to his chin and began to ponder what she said. “Well, in a way, that does make sense… Because I would think that if you have access to multiple classes, you have a limited number of skills to specialize in since your list of skills is spread out between all three… So only sticking to one of them is like only half of all the abilities in your arsenal.”
“More likely a quarter…” Cadence corrected her husband. “He has four different jobs, but he’s only using one. So it would be limiting himself to one-fourth of what he can do. That and he’s not using Skeith either.”
“Skeith wouldn’t exactly work. Let’s just say that no matter what, Skeith would be Kite’s bitch, even at level one.” BlackRose chuckled. “Seabus is an ass that way with video games.”
At one point in the match, Kite looked to be gaining an edge in the fight as he was pushing Haseo back into a corner. That is… until Haseo dodged one of his attacks and proceeded to charge at his opponent and say two words “Ghost Falcon!”
In that instant, Haseo unleashed a string of strikes against Kite and ended it with a somersault kick that knocked the Twin Blade into the air. Even though it was a strong attack and got Haseo out of a corner… it didn’t quite do enough damage to have Kite back off. Which surprised him… because of three things. First, it barely took a single attack from him to put BlackRose’s health at half… yet with Kite, a single hit only took away a small chunk of health. Second, the skill that he just performed was a high level attack that would do a fair amount of damage to an opponent… but Kite just shrugged it off as if it did not affect him at all.
Lastly though… was how Kite retaliated for what Haseo just did. His weapons embedded themselves into Haseo’s skull, draining his HP by a substantial amount, and Kite didn’t seem to want to take them out as he walked away casually. Leaving the Adept Rogue shocked as he was trying to get back up after an attack like that… but found that his health was much lower than he originally thought it would be at.
“You okay buddy? Did I hit something important? I wondered if crits were determined by headshots… Guess I was wrong.” Kite mocked, grinning like a madman. “Oh man I feel alive, this has picked up my spirits by spades!”
“What the hell!?” BlackRose gaped. “How’s he not out of the fight already! He should be a level… one…” BlackRose then looked at the two’s levels and noticed something. “What the… he’s at max level for the match!? How!?”
For that moment… Haseo paused, asking Kite to stop for a moment before looking back at her. “The arena scaled the levels of the combatants to where they are both 25… so the only possible reason would be that Kite was over that level threshold.”
“How’s that possible!?” BlackRose stared at Kite in utter disbelief. Kite just shrugged, while both Shining and Cadence were rather shocked by how somepony that they only had met for a couple of days was able to get the upper hand on Haseo.
“My only guess… would be that you were somehow over level 25 before you two somehow came here…” Haseo suggested, before taking a deep breath. “The only way we would know is that we look at Kite’s current level once the match is over-”
“It’s twenty eight.” Kite cut in. “I looked at it not long after we arrived. I though Tess would be upset that she was the weakest of the three of us.”
“Hey! You’re not wrong…” BlackRose grumbled, pouting all the while as she crossed her arms and slouched. All while Cadence was patting her on the shoulder and trying to comfort her.
“Maybe we should continue this once the match is over though…” Haseo pointed out, looking up to show that he still had a quarter of his health left while Kite had about seventy percent. That and his health wasn’t exactly in the red… and right now, that was not the case.
“I concur, monami.” Kite took the conversation as an opportunity to retrieve his matching blades.
Haseo himself, noticed him eyeing his blades as he tried to prevent him from grabbing them. Going as far as throwing one of his own blades to try and knock Kite’s away. However, all that did was allow for Kite to use the Adept Rogue’s own weapon against him as he pulled it out of the ground and threw it back. Forcing Haseo to focus on trying to catch it and have him not pay attention to Kite being able to successfully retrieve both of his weapons.
And then the unthinkable happened. He threw both blades with the skill of an expert knife thrower into Haseo’s most sacred place. “Oh, so that’s where crit’s happen. Good to know.”
At that, Haseo fell backward as he tried to properly stand. Even though he was in pain for a minute as he looked back at his friend. Not even paying attention to the fact that both Shining Armor and Cadence were staring at Kite with wide eyes… while BlackRose was laughing her ass off.
Though, it was as the arena was saying that Kite was declared the winner and when Haseo was giving Kite his weapons back that he tried… to make the best of it. “Can I be the first to say… That was a rather dick move?”
“What can I say? I fight dirty. I’m sorry though, man. It wasn’t exactly the friendliest move. I got carried away.” Kite said, moving his blades away from his person. Haseo also put his weapons away, giving Kite a quick pat on the back and a hug as a way to congratulate him on his victory as they walked back over to where BlackRose was waiting for them.
“Seriously, Kite, that was brutal! Reminds me when you bet fifty bucks with your brother if you beat him, and then chose the cheapest character!” BlackRose cackled, holding her stomach.
Haseo remembered those days too, shortly before looking back at both of them. “Well… if I haven’t said it already, I’m saying it now. I’m glad that both of you guys are here. I’ve missed hanging out with you two.”
“You might miss something else that’s supposed to hang-” BlackRose began, pointing down shortly before Kite elbowed her. “We missed you too!” All Haseo could do was roll his eyes and chuckle at that. It had been forever since he had seen his friends… and it felt great to have both of them back-.
“AWW, THIS COMRADERY AMONGST FRIENDS IS THE MOST MANLY I’VE SEEN IN MY LIFE!!!!”
And now reality began to set back in again as Haseo facepalmed himself. “God dammit Hoofstrong…”
Much later…
When Twilight found herself trotting off the train once again and stepping hoof into the Crystal Empire, she was beginning to think that somehow the Empire was a place where she would always be pulled back to no matter how far away somepony tries to get away. Like a pair of magnets… just with one of them being the Crystal empire and standing still while the other one was her and she was finding herself always getting pulled back here. Of course, in Twilight’s mind… that wasn’t entirely a bad thing. She did not get the chance to look around the Empire when she was here the last time. Only just the castle and some of the places outside of it.
Now though, as she was trotting through the streets, the unicorn was seeing some ponies wearing strange looking armor and some were carrying weapons. Others were hammering away with metals at the forge, creating potions through what looked like alchemy and also trading with other ponies. Though, she was also able to overhear some of the ponies nearby what looked like a bulletin board speak to one another.
“Hey, look at this… the Crystal Guard wants a team to be able to map out some of the territory around the empire and slay some Diamond Dire Wolves. You think we can do it?” A crystal pegasus with a leather like armor set asked his colleagues.
“Diamond Dire Wolves? You mean the savage variant of Diamond Wolves that attack lone ponies on sight?” A crystal unicorn mare, wearing a robe and carrying a staff responded back. “According to the legends, there were dens of them in the Crystal Mountains.”
“That would be the first place to look then. Let’s go!” A crystal pony stallion with a giant broadsword on his back declared before all three of them went towards the gates of the empire, after they pressed a hoof on the board and what looked like a holographic box emerged in front of them, the words ‘Quest Accepted’ in the center of it.
“Was the Empire already like this when I was here the last time? I mean… when it was freed from Sombra, the city was recovering. Now though… everything’s thriving on it’s own-” As she was processing this though, the mare accidentally walked straight into somepony else that was carrying a stack of books with their magic. And upon bumping into them, both ponies fell on the floor and the stack of books that the other was carrying soon hit Twilight. Making her realize what happened as she turned to face the pony she accidentally walked into. “O-oh my gosh! I’m so sorry! A-are you okay?”
“Y-yeah I guess…” She heard the unicorn stallion speak up, using his magic to put his glasses back on before casting a spell to reorganize the books he dropped before looking at Twilight again. “Though, it was kind of my fault too since I didn’t see you. My apologies…”
Of course, that was also when Twilight realized that the only book that she brought… was in the stack of the books that this stallion had. “I-it’s fine… Though, I think my book is in your stack.”
The stallion, in response, raised an eyebrow before looking back at her and realizing the one oddity that was in his small collection as he gave it back to her. “Oh, my apologies again… man, I’m only here for a few days from Canterlot and living her hasn’t really been easy.”
As Twilight herself got her book back, the unicorn herself now was a little surprised to hear the stallion tell her that. “You were in Canterlot? What brought you here mister… I’m sorry, but what’s your name?”
As the two of them began to speak, both unicorns now began to walk towards the center of the city and close to where the castle was. And along the way, the stallion began to answer Twilight’s questions. Starting with her most recent one. “Sunburst. My name is Sunburst. And originally, I was accepted into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. After I graduated, I worked as a scribe in Canterlot, but since the return of the Crystal Empire, Celestia insisted that I would be able to have more opportunities here working for Shining Armor and Princess Cadence-”
That last part of the stallion’s statement… had Twilight’s brain slide to a screeching halt. “Wait, you work for my brother?”
When Sunburst heard that, the stallion almost tripped on the small stairwell that lead up to the doors of the castle. Caught off guard by the question. “Hold up… brother?”
“I… don’t believe he told you, but I’m his sister,” Twilight explained, before extending a hoof for the stallion to shake. “Twilight Sparkle…”
Again… Sunburst was caught off guard by that revelation. “Wait… You mean the Twilight? As in Celestia’s student and the Element of Magic?” All Twilight could do was nod her head as Sunburst soon grabbed her outstretched hoof with his and began to shake it. “It’s an honor to meet one of the elements of harmony. I keep hearing about your endeavours all the time around Canterlot, but I never thought I would be able to meet you in person one day.”
Of course, a few seconds after originally saying that, Sunburst let go of the hoofshake and began to reposition the glasses on his forehead. “So… Ms. Sparkle… what brings you to the empire? Have you come to see Cadence or your brother by any chance?”
However, The unicorn mare’s answer for him… was one that he didn’t really think that he would hear her say. “Actually, I came by to see Haseo. Would you happen to know where I can find him?” Sunburst personally had to take a moment to wrap his head around what she just asked, before having to recompose himself and turn to face Twilight.
“Um… I think he would be somewhere around the castle… other then that, I don’t know,” He unfortunately told her, before asking a follow up question. “Why did you want to see him?”
“Well, he happened to help me out when something happened in Ponyville the other day, but there were a few questions that I have yet to ask him that have been on my mind,” The mare replied back. “So I thought instead of having them linger in there and irritate me to the point of insanity, I thought I would come to the empire so I can ask for some answers.”
“I see… well, I can go look for him if you like,” Sunburst offered to her as he began to trot up the stairs. “I was going to bring these books over to my personal study, but I can go look for him after I drop these off-.”
“Would you like for me to help you with that, then?” He heard Twilight ask, something that he personally did not expect to hear from her. “I mean… it’s the least I can do to help you so you can look for Haseo-”
“Somepony called my name?” At that moment, both ponies turned around to see the person that Twilight was looking for at the top of the stairs, caught off guard by the fact that they found who they were looking for so easily. But to Haseo, the thing that he was surprised about was the fact that Twilight was there. “Twilight? I thought you went back to Ponyville yesterday-”
“And I came back today,” The unicorn told him in response. “There were some things that I wanted to ask you about the other day that I didn’t get the chance to say. Are you… busy at all?”
The Adept Rogue, in response, shook his head and looked back at the unicorn. “No actually. All I was doing earlier was testing the arena that we had set up for the guards, but I’m not doing anything particular right now.” Sunburst himself saw that he wasn’t particularly needed now that Twilight found who she was looking for. So the unicorn stallion decided to be on his way and return back to his chambers so he can leave the two of them alone and allow for them to speak to each other freely.
“Well, to be honest… Earlier today, I visited the Ponyville Hospital to see how Trixie was recovering after she was afflicted with AIDA,” Twilight started off as she gave Haseo a short, but detailed summary of what she learned. “AIDA almost depleted her of all her mana… not making her able to use magic at all for the next few months. Hearing that… just made me think about how I now have Gorre, but I want to do more to help others so that the same thing doesn’t happen to them.”
That… had Haseo think a little to himself, scratching his chin before noticing the book she was holding with her magic. “Twilight… may I please have a look at that?”
“S-sure…” She said, levitating the book over to him as he held it in one of his hands. Though, she was caught off guard when a small box of light emerged from his fingers as he inspected it.
But, what he soon found out was something that even surprised him. “Holy-.”
“W-what? Is something wrong?” Twilight nervously asked him.
“No, it’s just that this isn’t an ordinary book Twilight. It’s a grimoire,” He told her, before asking a question that seemed way out of left field. Even to her understanding. “Spell books that are used as weapons by those of the Shadow Warlock class. These books contain different spells for attacking enemies and supporting allies just within the text of these pages.”
Then… came a random question that she wasn’t expecting at all. “What level are you?”
“E-excuse me?” Twilight stammered. “Haseo, w-what are you talking about?”
That had the Adept Rogue sigh for a moment, before looking back at her. “Think about it like this… Have you fought against creatures or monsters? Completed errands or assignments from your teacher? Fought any bad guys?”
“Y-yeah, all of those things! But why-?”
“Well, in the Crystal Empire, all of those previous feats and experiences actually are suppose to help you progress… Think of it like a role playing game,” The Adept Rogue explained to her. “You pick your character, complete assignments and the more that you level up, the stronger that you become. That’s the system that is implemented here in the Empire… As for your grimoire here… after inspecting it, I found out that this is a ‘Magic Hosei’. A grimoire that requires somepony to be level 15 to use…”
Then came something that Twilight did not expect… Haseo used the same technique earlier when it came to inspecting the grimoire… on herself. And the results of that surprised her. “What in the name of-?!”
“Hunh… let’s see… level 20… Class: Undefined. That’s weird… Species: Unicorn. Occupation(s): Element of Magic, Celestia’s student, Bookworm at the Ponyville Library, Egghead-?”
“Okay, okay, okay!” Twilight spoke up, backing up and breaking Haseo out of his concentration. “Please… don’t do anything like that again unless you asked me first.”
“S-sorry, I was kind of getting carried away,” He apologized to her. “In my mind… I was thinking that the best way in order to prepare you for when we actually train with your avatar is to see how strong you are with your skills of magic. Because if you somehow found this grimoire… I think that as a shadow warlock, you can be pretty strong.”
That had Twilight blink for a moment, before asking something. “Doesn’t it depend less on how powerful the magic is and more on the user? I mean, somepony who’s an apprentice might have good spells, but they can still be beaten by a grand magus.” That was a rather valid point. And one that Haseo was now thinking about for a bit before answering it.
“True, but I don’t think Ponykind is familiar with the kind of magic that a shadow warlock or harvest cleric,” He replied back as he gave the book back to the unicorn. “For one thing, they normally cast spells by reciting the words off the top of their head or in the pages of a grimoire. As for ponies, it seems like it just comes to them naturally.”
Hearing that was definitely something that Twilight did not expect… but it was also something that she was actually a bit curious about and wanted to learn more. “So… how do you become a shadow warlock? Because… I found this book just after awakening Gorre. I think it’s trying to tell me to learn the knowledge that’s inside of it. So with that in mind, how do I become one?”
Haseo could only chuckle a little bit as he looked back at the unicorn. “Well, for that… you’ve come to the right place.”
???
The world all around her felt cold and damp as she opened her eyes. Finding herself in a deep frozen cave, closed off from the rest of the world outside… but unsure as to why or what happened that caused her to be down here. All that she could remember was her name… and the fact that she was running. To help her-.
“Agh!” The mare screamed, feeling a severe pain shoot through her left shoulder as she weakly tried to stand. But the pain in her shoulder grew stronger with each step that she took. Almost as if something was wanting to take form from it. But before she could do anything about it, her hooves and body were covered in a warm cyan glow. Symbols emerging across her body as she looked up at what was in front of her.
“W-wha-?” She asked, sounding confused for a moment… before saying something as she was shivering. “You… brought me back?” It was silent across the cavern, but something told her that her question, along with a few other things were explained to her briefly.
But… she had one question for the being that stood before her. “W-who are you?”
In response… It only said one thing. “Corbenik”