//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: A Wizard Prepares // Story: Solid Script Equestria // by Garnet Naturea //------------------------------// The girls were trying over and over again to get me to tell them to what I talked to the princesses about in private on the way back to town, but I remained tight lipped and kept my mouth shut till we got back to the train station in town. Walking out, our group walks down to the main street to the town hall, me and Sonbāsutā wanting to talk to the mayor before anything. There were a few ponies out who look to our increased group with curiosity and quite a few were surprised by my new look. I notice that Pinkie had disappeared at some point, probably to get Sonbāsutā, Echo and Emeralds party ready. Arriving at the town hall, our group walks in and I ask the receptionist for when the mayor has a second. Not five minutes later, a tan coated and grey haired mare with glasses walk out with the scroll sent from Luna earlier. It was dark out already, so she was probably getting things finished for the night. She waves me and Sonbāsutā into her office, Echo following us in too. “So the princess sent me a letter earlier about you opening a wizards guild here in Ponyville? What does that mean exactly?” Mayor Mare asks, Sonbāsutā and Echo being surprised and curious as well. I explain to them how a guild works and what we would be doing. After showing her my eyes when activiated to show my magic, she took out a deed for a large open area that has been unused for a while, just outside of town and on the edge of the forest and hands it to me. “Very well. In truth, I have been worried about the Everfree lately as, according to Zecora, the beasts of the forest have been getting restless lately. This deed is for the area outside of town where you can make the guild hall. I assume the tests you mention will be ready by the time it is finished and ready to open?” She says and I nod to her. She smiles and gets up from her desk. “Very well, I look forward to seeing what you a wizards guild can do for this town. I may come by some time to check on how it works.” I smile and shake her hand. “Thank you Mayor Mare. I promise you won’t be disappointed.” Me and my friends leave the office and find Emerald and Twilight are the only ones still waiting in the main lobby. I guess the others left to either go home or to stop by Sugar Cube Corner. I smile and motion for us to leave. I have a lot of work to do. *** Two Weeks And Five Days Later... *** I sigh as I land after practicing Wind Magic, using it like Erigor and casting Storm Mail. After the somewhat unorthodox party for Sonbā, Echo and Emerald, I set it up so Sonbāsutā and Echo would be staying with me, Twilight and Spike on the couch and her own basket until the guild hall is done and Emerald would be staying with Rarity. The next day, I woke up early and used Arc of Embodiment to create some sheets of paper for me to use for the contract sheets, member info sheets and personality test sheets so I can decide the members magic as well as for making posters for once the guild is ready. It wasn’t very easy as I wanted it to be a surprise for the others, so I ended up flying to the Castle of the Two Sisters to work on it in secret. It took a couple of days to get the sheets and questionnaires just right, then I just used a duplication spell from one of Twilights spell books to make about a hundred copies of each. After that, I chose to use the ruins of the castle as my own practice grounds for the new types of magic. So far some of the only magic spells I haven’t tried were Fairy Law and Fairy Glitter, Giants Magic, Takeover Magic, certain Dark Magic spells and Seith Magic, the last one because I cannot bare to just take someponies soul to use as a tool. Thankfully, I was able to use three different styles of Maker Magic to make ice, iron and wooden targets for me to practice against. While the others were all sorts of curious about what I was doing, I managed to lose them time and again using all sorts of combinations of different magic. Like using Illusion Magic to get a head start and running to the forest using High Speed. Or when I used Phasing magic to exit the boutique after my sizing with Rarity then using an invisiblity spell to just walk to the castle. Luckily, most of the animals and monsters of the forest leave the castle alone due to some large source of harmony magic beneath the castle, which the forest seems to give a large amount of respect and distance. I checked the watch Emerald gave me a couple days ago and saw it was around noon and I had to go back to town to eat lunch with Sonbāsutā and Echo before going to see some sort of parade that is going on today. Me and the former king have been hanging out a lot as of late. Maybe it was just our similar past but I really like the stallion and his Exeed partner. When I am not working on stuff for the guild or practicing my magic, I have been introducing the two of them to the incredible new technology from the last thousand years. So far, Echo has really been awestruck about all the different sorts of music that has been invented so I have been letting her borrow my phone to listen to stuff whenever I don’t need it. I activate my wind magic again and fly myself over to the edge of town behind Fluttershys cottage before touching down. Almost immediately a couple of Fluttershys animal friends like Mr.Patrick the mouse and Harry the bear come by and greet me. “Miss Justine, there you are. I was wondering when you would be finished your training session.” Mr.Patrick says as he climbs to my shoulder. I learned thanks to my Animal Soul magic I can understand them like Fluttershy. Even though I haven’t practiced my Takeover spells, I can sense that coming in contact with the animals I can use their powers, like using a bears arm like Elfman. Somehow I knew I could trust these animals, so they are the only ones I have told what I have been doing at the castle, and they even offered to come with for protection if some monsters come by. I told them they didn’t need to and I could handle myself. “You said it. So when are you planning to teach the others how to use magic again?” Harry asks as we walk to the front of the cottage. I just sigh to the bear. “I told you Harry. I can’t teach anypony magic until the guild is done and they are members. Even if I do trust and know the others, I don’t know them well enough to choose which magic would be best for each of them.” I tell him. He just sighs but nods. “However,” they look to me, “just from talking to Fluttershy, I can think of two different types of magic she can use, and I am having trouble choosing which to teach her. Maybe you and the others can help me and her decide later.” I tell them, the two mammals nodding before Mr.Patrick jumps off my shoulder and into Harry’s paws. I wave to the two animals and head to Sugar Cube Corner. I see quite a few ponies around, prepping for the parade that is going on. I even see the CMC, who I met during Sonbā’s party after they were curious on what I was. They’re pretty sweet kids, but they seem to have as much accidental destructive force as Gildarts. Just in the past few days I had to help them clean up after they tried to get their Cutie Marks in Bee Wrangling. Honey is not easy to get out of fur I learned. I past them as they were setting up a golden apple float and I saw a trio of other fillies walking up to them. I recognize two as Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, a couple of bullies I have seen walking around town like they own the place, but next to them was someone I didn’t recognize. She has darker tan fur with freckles and a two toned redish mane. She was wearing a pair of kids jeans and a plain green t-shirt. I had a bad feeling she was another of Diamonds crew so I walk up to talk to them. I over hear then CMC telling ‘Babs’ how she does get to go in this float, only for her to push them out of the way and try to jack it! Oh no ya don’t! Before she can even move the float, I stand in front of it and look through the windshield at her. She looks a little sheepish as she has been caught. I frown at her. “Out here. NOW.” I tell her, leaving no room for argument. She nods and gets out of the float and walks to me as I look down on her. “You want to explain to me why you just tried to steal the CMCs float young mare?” I ask her with my arms crossed. She flinches and looks around, trying to find a way out. “Lex? What’s goin on?” I turn and see AJ walking up with a trio of balloons in her hands. Before we can react, Babs turns and tries to run. “Babs?” “Oh no you don’t!” I place my right fist on my open left palm and focus, an icy blue spell matrix appearing. “Ice Make Prison!” I slam my hands on the ground and the ice follows the filly before rising up and creating a cage made of ice. She looks around in panic as I walk up with a glare. “You are not getting away, young filly.” “Lex?! What are you doing?!” AJ asks upset at me and I see the CMC coming with her. “AJ, this little filly has been hanging out with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and just tries to steal the CMCs float from them. As far as I can tell, we have ourselves a little bully and up and coming criminal.” I tell her, AJ looking shocked and Babs flinching and looking away. “Babs, is this true?” AJ asks. The filly just looks away. I sigh and destroy the cage, but hold onto her arm, pulling her to AJ. “I take it you know this filly, so I will leave her for you to deal with. I’m late for my lunch with Sonbā and Echo.” I say annoyed, before turning and walking away. I can barely hear AJ as she starts to scold the earth pony filly. I may have been a little harsh, but I have been practicing my magic all morning and I am tired and hungry. I walk past a few shocked looking ponies and make it to Sugar Cube Corner. “Hey Lex!” Echo flies over to me and leads me to the table Sonbā was sitting at, reading his book. “Hey guys, sorry I’m late, had to take care of some stuff first.” I apologize to the duo, sitting down. “Don’t worry about it Lex. I can tell you have been working hard lately. I imagine getting all the paperwork and tests ready for the guild would be exhausting.” Sonbā says. I just nod to him as Pinkie comes by and takes our orders. We all eat together and enjoy each other’s company and the food provided. “So, how are you liking things in the modern age you two?” I ask, taking a bite of my grilled cheese. “I admit, it is rather overwhelming. Before I was amazed by the idea of a carriage, now there are things like trains? Ha! This is going to take a while to get used to.” He says, taking a sip of some orange juice. Echo just nods with a smile as she eats a cupcake, her cheeks being full. I laugh at the look on her face, earning a frosted pout from the feline, making me laugh more. “Lex? There was something I was wondering about.” I turn to Sonbā with a raised brow. “Back in the castle when you were staring down the princess, I noticed you summoned some kind of screen behind you. After that I got a bit of a headache and then these weird stances have been on my mind. What was it you did?” He asks. Oh crap! I forgot about that. I think for a minute, before getting an idea. I smile and rise from my seat, taking out my bag of bits and whistle for Pinkie, the mare appearing a second later. I pay for the food and motion for the duo to follow me. They both raise a brow then shrug, leaving the place with me. “What I used in the castle was a spell for transferring some info to you.” I tell Sonbā as we walk away from the crowd that is outside. As we get a good distance away, I got to talk again, but get interrupted. “Hey Lex, Sonbā, Echo!” We turn and see Spike walking up to us. “Oh, hey Spike. What’s up?” I ask. “Nothing much. The parade is going on as planned but I am kind of bored. So I wanted to check and see what you guys were up to.” He says. I look to the little drake and decide, screw it. “Well, me and these two were about to head to the old castle ruins. I wanted to show them something and maybe teach them a thing or two. Wanna come with?” I ask. Spike gets an excited smile on his face and nods rapidly. I just chuckle and use my Wind magic to float in the air, the trio looking in surprise. I quickly pick the smaller drake up by the waist and put him on my back. “Hold on, we are going in fast.” Echo gets the idea and extends her wings and picks up Sonbā. We fly in silence for a couple of minutes before arriving at the ‘ruins’. Though, that would be an inaccurate description. As I have been using it as my practice grounds for the last little while, I fixed the place up a bit to reflect this. The holes and missing parts of the building were replaced with wooden and iron supports, there was a wooden dummy range on the outside courtyard as well as some iron target area on the other side for some of my stronger spells that would destroy the wooden dummies. All over the area were scorch marks and other evidence of my practising like some uneven cobblestone and dirt and some broken dummies in a pile on the side of the building. Unseen to the naked eye, I have also placed several enchantments to make sure I don’t end up destroying the area outside of the castle. I really don’t want to end up destroying part of the forest and getting attacked by a manticore or something. Unfortunately my enchantments don’t work very well against Crash Magic, as seen by the disassembled boulder on the other side of the gorge. We land on the outside of the front door and I put Spike down, the trio looking to the upgraded and repaired castle in awe. I walk past the door and to the iron targeting range, the dragon, Exeed and unicorn following me and looking around the area at all the upgrades. After a minute we arrive at the range and I look back to the group, all of them stopping and looking to me. “Sonbāsutā, can you head over to one of the marked areas and get into the stance I transferred to you?” I request the unicorn. He nods and goes to one of the marked spots I set for practicing ranged magic. He gets into a familiar stance. He bends his knees and crouched with his fists raised. I walk up to him and make little adjustments to his stance, slightly widening his legs and straightening his back a little. I then take a similar stance right next to him. “Ok, I want you to place your fist on your open palm and focus on your magic into going through your hands instead of your horn.” I tell him, taking the next stance he needs to do. He nods and follows my instructions. I can sense his magic activating without his horn lighting up, but what happened next was different than what I was expecting. Unlike what I was expecting, him creating the icy blue and cerulean spell matrix for Ice Maker Magic, his matrix was royal purple and royal blue, a different energy being released instead of the cold air of ice. He sees this and jumps in shock, the matrix stopping before anything can happen. I look to him in shock. I was sure I transferred knowledge of Ice Maker Magic, but it looks like I just gave him knowledge on Maker Magic itself. He looks to his hands then to me in shock. “What was that?” He asks. I see the other two from my peripheral looking curious as well. “I am not a hundred percent sure. I thought I transferred the knowledge of how to use Ice Maker magic, but it looks like I transferred just Maker Magic to you. Since you tried to use the magic without a specific element in mind, it tried to connect to one you were most familiar with. Just from the colours of the matrix, it isn’t wood, water, iron, memory or ice.” I look him in the eye. “You have a new type of Maker Magic.” Sonbāsutā looks to his hands again, then gains a determined expression and gets back into the stance. “What can make with this magic?” He asks. I think for less than a second. “That is really up to you. Maker Magic allows for flexibility and versatility, so it really is only limited by your imagination. That said, try this.” I say before getting into the stance and casting. “Ice Make Shield!” I cast the spell and a large barrier of ice appear before us, covering us both. I slowly go over the hand movements again and he nods. He tries and I see his eyes widen a bit after the spell matrix appears. He casts and makes a smaller shield made entirely of purple crystals like what covered Echo when I found her that only covers him. The three of us look to him in shock, but for different reasons between me and the duo. The two of them because he just used Fiore style magic, me because he just made a new type of Maker Magic. Crystal Maker Magic! “Sweet Mother, that was a rush!” Sonbā says with a smile. He turns to me then to the other two and see our shocked expressions as his shield falls to pieces. “That was awesome!” Spike and Echo say together, running up with excited smiles. I put a hand on my chin and think for a minute. “Looks like I won’t be the only one who will be using this place for training.” My eyes widen as I get an idea. “Hey Sonbā,” he looks back at me, “I think I can help you practice your magic, and set this place up to make this place a proper training hall for when the guild is ready. You can use your magic to make things like weights or to help me repair some spots around the castle.” I turn to the other two. “And if you want, you two can help by making the posters I plan on spreading around the major cities once the guild is done. Afterwards, you two can help us in setting the area up for things like exercise equipment.” The trio all think for a moment before they all nod to me. “Sounds like a plan. I really want to learn the limits of this magic so using it to make things like weight will be a good way for me to practice control.” Sonbā says. “Plus I have really been wanting to make some stuff for the guild so me and Spike can work on the posters and maybe decorate the training hall later. Right Spike?” Echo says and asks, the drake beside her nodding and holding up his claws for a high five. The four of us get together and do a group high five. “Then let’s get to work.” After I say that, I take the drake and Exeed into one of the rooms I have been using to make the paper work and show them the poster paper and other craft items they can use. Once they start, I head back and show Sonbā some areas around the castle that could stand to be repaired. He nods and begins to practice his magic with filling some of the holes I haven’t gotten to. As the three of them get to work themselves, I walk outside by the front entrance and think for a minute. This place can make a great training hall, but I don’t want some of the younger members to have to walk through the Everfree every time they want to practice. I think for a moment before getting an idea. A teleportation spell circle. It can work like an enchantment because of the need for runes but a little more complex. I think for a minute before deciding to set it so only those with the Fairy Tail emblem can access it and teleport here. I take out my sword and begin to write the spell, making sure to check Archive a couple times as I write it to make sure I got it right. Once done, I take a breath and step back. That was harder than I though it would be. I turn as I hear a pair or claws and paws walking into the room and see Spike and Echo carrying a poster in their claws/paws. I check my watch and see I have been working on the spell for nearly an hour! “Whoa. I didn’t realize I was working on this spell for this long.” I mumble to myself before walking to the two smaller creature and looking at their poster. What I see makes my eyes widen. The paper they used was the same shade of blue as my hair with a red Fairy Tail symbol in the top center. Beneath it is a blank spot for me to write a message on it and around the border are what looks like lighter blue flames. I see that they ended up using a bit of glitter I summoned and made the flames sparkle in the light. I look to the two creatures in shock. “You guys...” I begin, the duo looking a little nervous. “This is awesome!” I say taking the poster in hand. “The design is simple and effective and the flames for the borders are perfectly eye catching! Thanks for leaving this spot for me to write a message. I have the perfect one in mind.” I praise, the duo blushing in embarrassment, but smile none the less. I take out a sharpie I made before hand and begin to write my message. ’The town of Ponyville is proud to announce the opening of the brand new Fairy Tail Wizards Guild! If you have a job that needs doing, a contract that need fulfilling or a group of misfits that need to be dealt with, come down to take a look. If you want to join the guild and become an official member and Fairy Tail Wizard, feel free to come by as well.’ As I finish writing the message I show the others and they both nod with the message. I smile and hear a pair of hooves walking by and see Sonbā, a little tired, but looking fulfilled. I show him the poster and his jaw drops. I smile and open my own personal pocket dimension from my Requip magic for later. I nod to the others and we head back to what used to be the main throne room. From there, I practice Maker Magic with Sonbā, making things like dumbbells with the weights being crystals and the bars iron and making wooden dummies for hand-to-hand combat spells. After making what we could with our Maker Magic, I use Arc of Embodiment and make a few more things, like the benches for the equipment, a water fountain that I connected to a stream outside and enchanted with a purification spell and a couple of those large weight balls. After I make it all, the four of us work to move them around and set the place up like a gym. Turns out, Echo and Spike are stronger than they look. Makes sense for Echo since the Exeeds of Fairy Tail can carry their partners with seemingly no trouble. Except for Happy when he is carrying Lucy. That always gets me. Once done, I check my watch and see we can stay for maybe another hour or so before we should head back to town so I direct the others back to the magical range to teach Sonbā the basics of making ranged constructs with his magic. After an hour, Sonbā can use his Maker Magic to make Lances and also two crystal sabres for himself. Once we finished, Sonbā looks a little exhausted from magical strain, but he still has a smile on his face. I use Wings and let Spike climb up again as Echo picks up her partner. Our group flies over the forest and to town, touching down outside of Fluttershys cottage again. I see that most of the animals are getting ready to end the day so most just greet us with chirps or squeaks. Though one little robin named Red flies over to us. “Hey Lex! What were you and the others doing?” He asks as he lands on my shoulder. “Nothing much. Just setting things up in the training ground for when the guild is ready.” I tell him, and I see the others looking at me confused. “One of my magical abilities allows me to understand animals like Fluttershy.” I explain to them, the trio nodding. I look back to Red. “Anyways, we have to head down to town hall so I’ll talk to you later Red.” After that he flies off and our group heads to town hall to show the mayor the poster for the guild. I remember something and take out one of the posters I brought with me. “Hey Spike? Do you have a scroll so I can send a message to the princesses?” I ask him. Spike nods and takes out a scroll, handing it to me. Dear Princesses Luna and Celestia, I am writing to you right now to ask another request for the guild, if it isn’t a problem. Spike and Echo have made some really great posters for the guild and I humbly request that you can see if you and can have them set up on some of the job boards in the major cities around Equestria a couple days before the guild is done. Also, if you can set it up, I would like to talk with the managers of the post businesses around the cities to see if I can set it up so ponies and other creatures can make requests for the guild at the post offices so they don’t have to travel to Ponyville just to make a request. I know it may be asking a lot, but I thank you for at least listening to my request. I passed by the guild and could see it will still be a while before it is finished, so I believe getting all these things set up before hand will be more beneficial in the long run. Again thank you for your time, and I hope to hear from either of you again soon. Sincerely yours, Alexandria Justine. I hand the Scroll to Spike before grabbing the poster from my pocket dimension and using a duplication spell on it for him to send. He nods and torches them both, our group continuing on towards town hall afterwards. Our group arrives and I see that Mayor Mare is just coming out of her office with a cup of coffee. She sees us and smiles, waving us in. Our group goes in and I show her the poster, the mare looking amazed by the design. She nods and says I can set them up around town just before the guild is ready. I thank her and give her a copy to put up in the lobby of the building when the time comes. After leaving the building our group gets to the library where we see Twilight reading on the couch. No surprise there. “There you guys are. I was wondering what you were all up to.” She says, putting her book away. Before anything can happen, Spike’s cheeks puff up again and he burps a scroll out. Before Twilight can grab it, I do and begin to read through it. Dear Lex, I thank you for sending us a copy of the poster you intend to use for the guild. If you can send us about one hundred copies, I can have some of my messengers put them up around the main towns and cities like Manehatten, Cloudsdale and send some to the Crystal Empire. I see that it may take a while for them to be made so we can wait. Also regarding your request about the post offices, I should be able to set up a couple meetings between you and the officials in charge in the coming days. It will be up to you however, to convince them of the idea. Lastly, we have just begun a massive background check here in Canterlot after we learned that many buisnesses have reported massive losses in bits over the last few days. Unfortunately, because of this, we will not be able to look for employees for the guild, so that is up to you as well. I have faith you can do it however. The fact you held enough determation to face down the likes of Sombra will help guide you in doing what is needed for the guild. Sincerely yours, Princesses Celestia and Luna. I sigh as I finish reading the letter. This was going to be harder than I thought. I guess I could write up some job postings for the guilds four main jobs and have ask the princesses to set up audiences or something. Yeah, that’ll work. I also beater head to Rarity’s to get some travel and business clothes. But first things first. I quickly roll up the scroll and place it in my purse before taking out the poster and using the same duplication spell on it, making a hundred copies. I then take out a scroll and ask the princesses about setting up audiences after I send them a job posting to go with the posters. I make a rough draft of what the job postings will look like and request that someone more experienced in making them rework it so it looks more professional. I roll up the scroll and place the Fairy Tail seal on it before handing everything to Spike and nodding at him. He nods back and takes a deep breath before letting loose a stream of fire, sending the items to Canterlot. “What was that about?” Twilight asks. I just sigh and hand her the letter and one of the poster copies. She looks to the poster in shock before reading though the letter. She cringes a bit, seeing my predicament. She then seems to get an idea before pulling out a blank list of hers. “Want some help?” She says and I can’t help but chuckle. Maybe the five of us can make this less insane. “Sure, I have some tests I want to experiment with for the guild, and I could use some people to try them out.” I say and she nods. I look to the gathered creatures in front of me. Two unicorns, a drake and an Exeed. Talk about an odd group of friends.