//------------------------------// // Chapter 06: Magic Lesson // Story: Walking on Frozen Paws // by Saysy //------------------------------// Nothing happens. Luna is just sitting on her throne, waiting for someone to enter and it had been three hours already since Luna started night court. You would think that a princess would have been swarmed already with nobles and possible suitors, but no! Nothing! The only people nearby were four guards, two positioned in front of the staircase leading up to the throne and the other two positioned next to the entrance. A seneschal on Luna’s right side, who I didn’t know existed until three hours ago. She has grey fur; not original, I know, I already saw a few ponies sporting gray fur. However, unique about her was that she had bat-like wings, slit eyes and small fangs in her mouth. Did I forget something? Ah yes, her mane was a dusky pink almost purple. The only people I didn’t talk about were Luna and myself. She was sitting on her throne and I laid on a pillow next to her. ‘Bored,’ I thought what felt like the second time in one second. As I first entered the room I was stunned by the sheer beauty and serenity. The room practically demanded you to be rooted in your place. Luckily for me I was seated on Luna’s back, meaning I moved forward while stunned. I only was paralyzed for seven seconds, but in these seconds, we already passed half the way to the thrones. The thrones were stationed on two pedestals; one was made from white marble with a golden son emblem in the center. The other one looked like it was made from obsidian with an amethyst gem in the center shaped like a crescent moon. One can reach them through a set of stairs that were one at the beginning and split into two sets half way up. The stairs and the pedestals were also made from the same material as the thrones, which gave the stairs a slight ‘yin and yang’ vibe. Behind the thrones is a big glass window displaying the night on the left and the sun on the right. Some would say, “But Jordan, how can you be bored when there is a throne room to explore?” To that question my answer would be, “I did, but after an hour and a half the novelty of the room subsided.” And now I was sitting here next to Luna. ‘Bored.’ *Sigh* I looked up to Luna who also had a bored expression on her face. “This is… unacceptable!” Luna stated, getting a little bit angry at the end. “Your Highness, I know that you’re not happy with the attendance levels in your court, but the nobility expects the Lunar throne to be occupied in the night.” I was surprised by her seneschal speaking out against her, but Luna didn’t seem to care. Or they already had this discussion. “Oh, come on, Silver Stream, you find it boring as well. Every night, you’re standing here--or, in my case, sitting--and nothing happens.” Silver Stream looked like she wanted to say something, but Luna already seemed to know what she wanted to say. “Lady Money Hoard doesn’t count! I threw her out only one minute after she started to talk about her proposal. And she was the only petitioner in the last three months.” “I know that this sounds discouraging, but–” Silver didn’t proceed any further, Luna not letting her finish her sentence. “No! I have finally had enough of that farce. Get me if they want to speak with me, but until somepony shows up I shall do something productive.” Underlining her statement, Luna jumped up and trotted down the stairs. ‘Should I follow her?’ I asked myself, but that question was almost answered immediately. “Glacies!” Hopefully whatever she planned wasn’t as boring as the last three hours. I quickly stood at attention and before flitting over to her as fast as I could. Luna didn’t make it easy for me to catch up as she trotted out of the throne room in fast strides. I finally caught up to her as she started her ascend to her chambers. Trotting into her room she let herself fall on one of the big cushions that she levitated out of a closet near her bed. She proceeded with levitating a smaller pillow right in front of her and indicated me to sit on it. Then she levitated a wooden bowl in between us, filling it with water which was provided by a sapphire with runes engraved on it, which by usage glowed blue. After the glow subsided I could swear that it looked smaller than before. In the end I had one bowl filled with water right in front of me. “Glacies,” she addressed me and I looked up to her, seeing her lighting her horn before her eyes were bathed in a glow similar to her horn. “Can you put one paw into the bowl.” I do as she said and dip my paw inside the water. I didn’t have the time to get my paw out, because almost immediately the water freezes over, starting at my paw and going outward from there. It only took a second before my paw was encased in an ice prison. I desperately tried to get the bowl of me with no success. “As I thought,” Luna said. I held my paw with the bowl on it up and pointed with my other one on it. “Oh, one moment.” Her horn lit up and a moment later the ice went back to its liquid aggregate state. I swiftly withdraw my paw before it could turn the water back to ice. “No need to be so hasty, my magic power is greater than yours,” she said with a lecturing tone. She must have read my face right, because she swiftly gave an explanation. To my displeasure, her voice still had the lecture tone to it. “You see, when there are two magical signatures with opposed intentions on an object, the signature with more magical power behind it will overpower the other and the object moves to the will of the superior power. Or, in this case my magic holds the water in its liquid form, because it is stronger than yours. “Two factors determine how strong a caster’s magic power is: The size of his or her magic core and how much one can output at once. Both can be trained in one way or another. The core strength and capacity are mostly trained by constant spell usage or physical labor. The output is a little bit harder to train, because it has a higher chance to damage the user’s magic system and on rare occasions it can damage the core, too. As the core is trained through constant spellcasting, the output gets stronger by rapidly casting spells one after another or by spells with higher needs of magic than the caster can output at ones. Understood?” <> I said with a nod. Who would have thought that reading fantasy novels would be helpful one day. “Okay. From what I saw, your magic core is a little smaller than the average untrained adult unicorn. However, that will change as you get older and your core will most likely grow by one-third or a half its current size. Your output is on par with a captain in my sister’s or I’s royal guard and it will probably be bigger too when you reach adulthood. That is without training and you’ll be trained by none other than myself, so you’ll probably be stronger than most arcane mages. Oh, I can’t wait!” After the last part, she practically exploded from happiness, snatching me from my pillow and holding me in her hooves. Shortly after she realized what she did, she let me fall on the pillow. “Sorry, it feels nice to have a goal again. After centuries of sitting on the throne every night hearing about the nobles complaining over something or somepony, no one coming to your court and other things, you’d be surprised how a little bit excitement can bring so much joy.” Luna ended her sentence with a little melancholy in her voice. It seemed that she is more like an outdoor person or pony than someone who likes to be in an office all day. Someone like me, who, against his will, got thrown into the wild. Further thoughts were interrupted by Luna, who by now seemed to be back in her lecture mode. “Okay, Glacies, we know how strong you are, but the fact remains that you freeze water when you touch it. From the test a few minutes ago, I could see that your magic is constantly coating you and gets stronger when you make contact with an object, freezing it. Luckily, the floor can’t be frozen, and ponies’ cores defend them against outer magic attacks. Unluckily, you need to train yourself to only freeze something on commend. But first, let us see if you can deactivate your passive magic.” Levitating the bowl to the side, Luna proceeded with gathering magic in her horn. Soon, a dark blue sphere of the size of a ping pong ball was forming on the tip of her horn. “This will help locating your core,” Luna clarified, right before the ball was send between my eyes where it evaporates into little sparkles. Shortly after I felt a little burning in my head which was slowly traveling down my neck passing by my heart and hips, before It stopped, and my whole tail was engulfed in prickles. “Find your core?” I nodded. “Good. Before we start working on your passive ability, we will see if you can change the direction of your magic flow. We start with a few meditative exercises to feel where your magic ley lines are.” The exercises were mostly the same bag as on earth, though they were converted so quadruped people could do them without a problem. Funny, that when I first tried to do it like a human, it hurt. After Luna saw that I don’t have a clue how to meditate, she showed me how ponies do it and it was a lot more comfortable. We would have been a little bit more successful with my training if it wasn’t so boring to sit in the same position for an hour or two. Nevertheless, in the end I could feel my ley lines and it felt like a second heartbeat in sync with my heart, which made locating it much harder. Other than that, I felt a gnawing hunger forming in my stomach, ending our training session with a loud sound impossible to ignore. “Okay, Glacies, training is on hold for today. We can go eat after I lower my moon,” Luna said, trottinging over to her balcony and stepping outside. Lowering the moon looked a lot like raising it, only in reverse. It still looked beautiful though. On the other tower parallel to us, Celestia raised her sun, painting the sky in the typical orange announcing a nice summer day. Not long after, Luna and I entered the dining room. What surprised me--or rather, what surprised Luna--was that we were faster than Celestia, entering the room three minutes before her. Though we had cleared some of our differences yesterday, I couldn’t help but to be a little bit intimidated by her presence. Thankfully, Philomena was here too. Walking over to her, I was greeted by a friendly hello, which I returned. Finally, someone I can talk to and get some of my questions answered. <> I asked. <> <> She looked a little bit confused by my question before her confusion vanished and turned to one of understanding. <> <> I asked out loud, meanwhile thinking how childish it sounds. <> <> I asked with a little bit of worry showing in my voice and on my face. For a human, free will is a must and hearing this, it sounds like they aren’t allowed to perform work unrelated to their special talent. <> She finished, making it clear that ponies’ work isn’t chosen by their cutie marks. The food arrived shortly after our conversation about cutie marks ended. Though I was a little bit surprised. Looking up to Luna I voiced my confusion. <> The question wasn’t answered by Luna, but surprisingly by Philomena. <> <> I felt a little bit down, but I still ate my fruits. And then I encountered my worst enemy the last few days: Water. A bowl with water was stationed in front of me and I realized that I didn’t feel thirsty. Which surprised me now that I think about it, though, my mouth felt a bit dry. I slowly lowered my head to drink… Nothing. The water stayed water. I took a few more gulps, before I was satisfied. Later I realized that I drank out of a bowl meant for animals, but at the moment I wondered why I could drink without turning it into ice. ‘Time to test a theory!’ Lifting my paw into the water… it turned to ice. Lowering down to drink… it stayed frozen. ‘There goes my theory of ice turning back to water when I want to drink. Wait a second!’ <> I asked her, wondering how she gets meat, because she looks like a predatory bird to me. And I think that she would be sick if she didn’t eat meat sometimes. <> Came the simple reply, making me feel a little bit dumb and slightly embarrassed that I didn’t think of it myself. <> I asked, thinking that they wouldn’t let them run free. <> <> <> I nodded, satisfied with her answers. <> And with one simple question my thoughts went into overdrive. ‘Can I hunt? How do I hunt? Can I kill a living being for food?‘ My thoughts were interrupted by a wing hitting my back. <> <> I slowly said. <> she commanded, extending her wings to take flight. I followed the second time she called. 3rd POV, Dining room Celestia and Luna looked dumbstruck at the pair leaving the room having seen the display between the fox and the avian. “Sometimes, I think they are as smart as we are,” Celestia commented, turning towards her sister. Luna just nodded. The room was bathed in silence for five minutes until Celestia spoke up again. “So, sister, I heard that you canceled you court this night,” she said a bit surprised but not accusingly. “I just wanted to do something worth doing instead of sitting on a throne without a petitioner. They still can visit, but I will not be waiting for them on the throne,” Luna stated making it clear, that she won’t change her mind. Shortly after, Luna went to bed and Celestia prepared for morning court.