//------------------------------//
// Chapter 14. Lab Rat Days, Part 5 
// Story: Meta Gamer in Equestria: The Blight of Bane. 
// by reflective vagrant 
//------------------------------//

I gave one solitary thump to the book in front of me.   With a huff I finally gave up, lifting my head up to look across the table at Starlight.
"Even with my new edge, this stuff is still like a tech manuel for brain surgery."
"Are you at least able to understand more of it than before?"  Moon Beam asked from her spot right next to Starlight.
I rubbed my temples and gave her a nod.  "I'm able to put most of the separate sentences together now.  I also managed to almost get the gist of one section before it flipped itself upside down and lost me."
"Then that will be noted in Discord's favor for breaking into the vault and harassing you in your cell last night,"  Tempest called from the other side of the room, which had just finished being cleared of furniture or other breakables to act as a demonstration area.  "It doesn't justify the means, but now that it happened we may as well use it."
Starlight fought hard and just managed to keep a straight face, while Sharp Sentry curled up a smile and gently bit his lip.
Tempest came up to me.  "Now tell me again how this new magic of yours works?  Zero spells?"
Happy for an excuse to finally stop looking at the book, I turned towards her.
"They're called cantrips, which are considered 'level' zero spells,"  I clarified,  "Most spells in the game require the caster to fuel them with a limited stockpile of energy, are..."  I glanced over at the book.  "Are definitely more complex as you grow in level and have to be manually memorized."
I gave a shiver and continued.
"The wand had a pretty complex one in it, but the bulk of the technical stuff was in the wand.  I just had to invoke a little bit of what was inside and it would have done the rest pretty much for me.  But it caused my mind to access something I didn't realize was in there, the cantrips."
I got up and went over to the demonstration area, seeing an assortment of items I had requested.  "Sweet, you got them all.  Wait... the stem with thorns is missing."
"Sorry, Moss.  The guards saw Scraps messing with it and they took it from him before I came."
I saw the diamond dog resting on the sofa on the far end of the still furnished side of the study, snoring.
"Probably for the best.  It's a bit of a scary one."
I turned to the bowl of water sitting at the table.
"OK.  Cantrips aren't spells that are learned, but rather are infused into a person.  They become a part of the caster.  They are still spells, but they don't require any significant amount of energy to cast.  It's no more taxing than them moving their hand around and only slightly more complex once it's a part of them."
I lifted my hand and waved it at the water in a gesture that almost looked like I was asking it to move.  I wasn't entirely sure if I should trust the new part of my mind I was accessing, but I tried anyway.
I stepped back a little when I saw the water rising out of the bowl to form a crude and lumpy, pillar of water standing up in the bowl.
All three ponies came up with looks of surprise on their faces.  Starlight then lit up her horn and levitated her notepad over to her.
"You looked surprised,"  Tempest called to me.
I nodded.  "The part of my mind saying I can do it isn't even a day old, but I spent the rest of my life before that being conditioned to think I wasn't supposed to be able to do this kind of thing.  First time doing it on my own, on purpose to boot, is kind of surprising."
I shook my head and approached the small pillar of water again.
"Some spells only require one component, like a gesture."  I focused on the pillar, put my hand out and performed a grasping motion, freezing the pillar solid.
I then went and brought over a candle stick from the study table.  "Most require multiple components, such as a gesture and a magic word."
I snapped my fingers and spoke the incantation "Barada."
On cue, the candlestick lit up.  I repeated the process to snuff it out again while Starlight took notes.
"Other spells require special materials to help focus the magic in the right manner."
I barely grabbed hold of a firefly carcass at the table, making a point to not move it at all, touched the frozen pillar in the bowl and spoke, "Lumos," making the frozen pillar light up with a soft white light.
"Beautiful,"  Moon Beam softly called.
Tempest nodded but didn't smile.  She looked up at me coldly and asked, "and military applications?  I'm guessing that's what the dummy is for."
I looked down in shame.  "Yep, there's some combat worthy cantrips in here."  I knocked lightly on my head.
I looked over to the dummy, thrust my hand out aggressively and threw an equally aggressive, "Gelu!" out with it.  As I did this, a bit of white fluff shot out from my hand, coating the dummy and causing frost to form around the straw pony.
"Aggressive and cold,"  Tempest noted,  "And you could do this all day?"
I lifted my arms in an unsure manner.  "In theory, maybe?  I'd probably get tired after a while, but it definitely isn't a one and done if that's what you're asking."
She gave no indication of response, and simply asked, "Any more?" as blandly as I'd come to expect from her.
I nodded and stepped back, putting my hand out and drawing a pentagram in the air, followed by the word "Tutela!"  The symbol appeared for a moment, following close to me as I moved.  It faded a few seconds later.
"And what was that?"
"It's called blade ward.  It is supposed to help a person by mitigating damage.  It isn't perfect, as it only works against weapons and a few other minor things, and doesn't last long, but if you know you're about to get hit bad and can't avoid it, this can cushion it to where you aren't as badly hurt."	
Tempest was quiet for a moment as Starlight continued scribbling on her notes.  Finally, Tempest asked, "It doesn't seem to have all that much substance.   Can I see it again?"
I nodded and repeated the process.
When she saw it, she moved a little ways around me, then suddenly turned around and lifted both back hooves in the air towards me.
"Oh shit!" Was all that I could get out before she did exactly what I knew she was going to do.
I landed hard on the sofa across the room, waking up Scraps and being in immense pain.
"Huh.  I could definitely feel the extra resistance.  I like it."
"Tempest!"  Starlight and Moon Beam both yelled, though Moon Beam seemed to yell unusually loud.







For the next several hours, we swapped more notes than I could ever care to recall about the cantrips.
As Starlight recharged my amulet for the ump-teenth time, princess Twilight came in.  Fluttershy and the owl that was bound to me and had been staying at her place followed close behind.
"What are you doing here?"  I asked it bitterly via our mental link that reactivated after he got close enough to me.
"Bringing you good news, or bad."  It answered back plainly.  "It depends on how you want to look at it."
The princess stepped forward and greeted the ponies with a grin.  "The committee ruled in our favor!"  She winced for a brief moment before going right back to her grin. "Well, mostly.  The committee was apparently so fed up with chancellor Neighsay that they not only shot down his claim that you were violating the terms, Starlight, but actually expanded them in our favor."
The princess jumped a giddy jump.  "Oh I'm so excited!  We still can't teach him any of our spells, but we are allowed to do any thing else, so long as we have somepony certified in magical theory attending the lessons with you to double check the methods you use while you teach!"
Moon Beam smiled.  "I guess I'm pulling double duty then."
I looked at her weird.  "I thought ponies had to have a horn to do magic."
She looked at me blankly, then rolled her eyes.  "To perform it, yes.  To be certified in magical theory?  That just takes study.  It's an encouraged elective in the basic Dream Walker training program and there are several mandatory semesters of it in the advanced program."
I thought about that for a moment, and somehow the way she said it seemed off.  I used the high quality good luck charm I had from that morning to re analyze what she said.  The result said what she said seemed legitimate, but it also seemed... practiced.   I didn't really know what to make of it.
I looked back at the owl and blandly asked, "So what is that doing here?"
Fluttershy gave me a cold glare.
I swallowed a lump in my throat and shifted my tone to a more neutral one.  "Allow me to rephrase.   So what is he doing here?"
"He's your new tutor."  Moon Beam chimed in.  "Apparently before you were sent here, he knew the one that made these spell books for us and he is going to help us help you understand what the author was meaning."
Under the cautiously warm gaze of Fluttershy, I kept my attitude towards the bird in check.
"I guess we're throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks at this point.  May as well try it."
"Then let me put the record straight before we begin."  The bird flew to the study table while clarifying to me in my mind.  "As much as I know I need to help, and will do so, I can't deny that I detest having to do this.  I feel that if mortals were meant to wield magic, they'd be born with organs to do it, like with the unicorns."
I chewed on his words for a moment, but then they hit home with something I recalled that just rang out too perfectly.
"If they were meant to do it, they'd be born with the organs to do so?"  I rhetorically called out loud while looking at the bird opening the spell book with his beak.
"What?" Tempest asked in irritated confusion.
I looked back at her and tapped my temple a few times.  "Mental link, we're talking."
After that I looked at Fluttershy with a grin.
"I have a message for you to take to the school foals."
She saw my grin and eased up on her glare, but also looked at me with confusion.  "What is it?"
"They once asked what was my owl's name, but he didn't have one.  I have one for him now and I want you to tell them for me, when you can?"
She perked up.  "What is it!?"
"I'm naming him after an owl in a... a play that has a similar grumpy personality.  Archimedes."
Everypony except Tempest and Scraps, who were leaving, seemed to light up at this news.