//------------------------------// // Chapter 22: The queen wants to test the warrior // Story: Gusty the Great book 1- The beginning // by Dianabel //------------------------------// Despite being day, inside the monastery was almost completely dark. From what Gusty could see, there weren´t any scary statues or scenery, unlike Grogar´s castle, yet ironically, it felt scarier. Maybe because of the phantasmagorical aura that the darkness, silence, and ruin-like appearance gave to the monastery. Gusty didn´t have any evidence but she could feel that something terrible took place in this monastery, most likely Grogar being the perpetrator. Fizzy, Galaxy, Celestia and Luna observed how Glory and Lancer illuminated their horns. A very small smile grew in Gusty´s face. Knowing what others didn´t know stressed her a lot, but at that moment she felt grateful and proud for knowing that little spell. “Woow.” The unicorns in awe said in chorus. “How did you do that?” Celestia asked them. “You just have to think of having a light on.” Glory explained. “Ok!” Fizzy exclaimed excited. She sat on the floor and closed her eyes, laying her hoof on her temple. “Light come out! Light come out!” “Yeah… That´s not how you´re supposed to do it.” Lancer told her. “But she said if I thought about having a light on-” “Thinking. Not reciting it.” Lancer emphasized. “If you talk, you´ll get distracted by your voice and thus the light won´t come out.” “But you´re talking and the light is still on.” Galaxy pointed out. Glory chuckled. “That´s what practice is for.” She replied. “Do you know how to do that mama?” Celestia asked Gusty. “Well…” she giggled as she looked away. “A little.” “Show us! Show us!” Luna begged. “Uh.. Right now?” Gusty asked. “No. Save it for Majesty” Glory suggested. “Wait.” Gusty stopped walking. “I´m going to have to do a magic demonstration for Majesty?” she asked horrified. “Well, d´uh!” Lancer replied sarcastically. “We need to know what your level of magic is.” Glory explained to Gusty. “Well, I only know that spell, so it´s not great. I think that´s enough information, right?” “But in order to improve we need to know where to begin. Besides, you don´t have to only show off spells, in fact Majesty won´t mind about them as much as she will with your wind magic.” Gusty widened her eyes and bit her lip. As much as she would want to run away, there was no turning back now. “Alright...” she agreed fearful as she continued walking. “Don´t worry mama.” Celestia put her hoof on her foreleg. “We know you can do it.” Gusty smiled sadly at her daughters. “Where are they? They should be here by now.” Majesty wondered as she paced around nervously on the dining room. She was not the only unicorn in the room. There were several others, Buttons being no exception. She tapped her hooves nervously on the table, worried about Fizzy and Gusty. “I see you´re waiting for Gusty to return as well.” a younger unicorn than her told her. “Not only her but my friend as well. Oh, you know Gusty?” she asked surprised. Then, she scoffed. “What a silly question, of course you do.” “Yes. But not everypony in here has talked to her. I am one of the lucky ones!” he giggled nervously. “I´m the one who brought her to Majesty in fact.” “Of all the unicorns, you´re the one I´d least expect you to work for Majesty. You´re so young.” “I´m not doing any risky stuff but yes, I work for her.” “And now I´m going to as well! We should start knowing our names. I´m Buttons, and you?” “Clover.” he shook his hoof with hers. “Huh, this is the first time a pony has received me well.” he thought to himself. Some knocks on the door got their attention, as well as Majesty´s. “Come in!” Majesty commanded. She sighed in relief when she saw Lancer and Glory with Gusty. She walked to them. Buttons´ ears perked up in excitement when she saw Gusty and Fizzy and ran to hug them both, Clover following behind. “I was worried about you.” she told them. “Who is she?” Luna asked confused. “She´s mama´s other friend.” Gusty replied. “Buttons.” “And him?” Celestia pointed at Clover. Gusty raised an eyebrow confused, as she didn´t see Clover at first. But once she saw him, her eyebrows raised in surprise. “Oh Clover! It´s been long.” “Yeah and I wish it had been longer!” he said with a smile. But the smile quickly vanished when and Gusty looking down in embarrassment he noticed everypony glaring at him. “I didn´t it mean it like that.” he apologized, very ashamed of his words. “It´s ok, I know you didn´t.” Gusty reassured him, although she was aloof. “At least you´re not mad at me.” she smiled. As they were talking Majesty arrived, every unicorn bowed. “My queen.” Lancer said. Fizzy and Galaxy imitated them. Celestia and Luna, however, stared at Majesty, who raised an eyebrow at them. Immediately, Gusty noticed that gesture “You´re supposed to bow when you see her.” she whispered to them. “Oh!” the two fillies exclaimed in chorus. As they bowed, they continuously watched their mother, checking if they were doing it correctly. “Like this?” Celestia asked. Gusty winked an eye in approval. “Salute her.” Gusty added. “Uh… Hi.” Celestia said to Majesty. Gusty clenched her teeth. “Not like that. You have to say my queen.” “Oh! Hi my queen.” Celestia repeated. Gusty massaged her forehead. However, Majesty didn´t take it as lack of respect. Just as a child´s ignorance that she was somewhat amused with, which showed through her smirk. “Well, aren´t you a funny one, huh? Whenever you see me you only have to say `my queen´ not hi.” she explained to Celestia. “Oh, ok. Sorry my queen.” Celestia apologized. “There´s no need to apologize. Your mother´s done far worse thing and she´s here with us. But she still has to prove her worth to me.” “Why? Don´t you trust our mama?” Luna asked curious and not maliciously. “My. That´s a little rude to say to a queen, isn´t it?” Majesty teased her. “It´s not that I don´t trust her, I know she has no choice but to follow me because if she doesn´t she´ll end up dead. I´m pretty sure she has so much potential but I want to make sure of it.” Luna felt intimidated by Majesty´s smirk, so she walked backwards. There was something about Majesty that made the young filly trust distrust her. Nevertheless, if she was going to reward her mother for her servitude, then there was nothing to lose in trusting her. “Now, if it´s ok with your fillies, maybe you should start showing your magic abilities to us, will you?” Majesty said to Gusty. Gusty gulped. “As you wish, your royal highness.” “Follow me.” “Good luck Gusty!” Fizzy exclaimed, fully confident that she would slay the test. Galaxy and Buttons smiled at her. Celestia and Luna shared worried looks. “Stop here.” Majesty ordered Gusty once they were in front of the stand. Gusty nodded. Majesty stood up on the stand. As she did, Gusty noticed all the unicorns slowly surrounding her, which unsettled her. “Begin.” Majesty said. “Where do I begin?” “Wherever you want. How many spells do you know?” “Um…. One?” Gusty heard some whispers from the crowd. She saw the faces of disapproval that some unicorns wore in their faces. Luna and Celestia glared at the unicorns. Buttons, Fizzy and Galaxy bit their lips. “Silence!” Majesty stamped her hoof on the stamp to command order. “Then do that spell you know to do.” Majesty´s voice mad Gusty direct her look towards her. “Ok…” Gusty said insecure. She closed her eyes. She breathed slowly before beginning her spell. She tried to focus as much as she could, closing her eyes. However, she didn´t hear any sound of magic coming from her horn. She opened her eyes, hoping that what she thought what was happening was in her head. However, it was very real. She wasn´t able to make light come from her horn. She closed her eyes and try again, but it ended up in failure. She looked at her friends and daughters for reassurance. They were worried as well. Gusty sighed. “I´m sorry, I can´t.” “Yes, you can. Just focus on lighting your horn and forget that we are here.” Gusty nodded and did as told. This time, it worked. However, the light was constantly flickering until it turned off completely. She gave Majesty a worried look. “I don´t understand when Clover taught me that spell it worked but-” “I only asked you to light your horn.” Majesty elevated her hoof to quiet her. “And you did as told. Now that we finished with the spell, we can go with the most important part: your wind magic.” Gusty froze. “I… I don´t think that´s a good idea.” she said as her breath fastened. “Then why are you here for?” Majesty asked her angry. “Need I to remind you that´s the only reason you´re here? You´re called Wind Warrior for a reason.” “It´s just… I have no control over my magic. What if I destroy the monastery? What if I hurt any of you?” “Do as I tell you.” Majesty told her coldly. Gusty shook her head. “Do it!” “With all respect my queen.” Glory interfered. “Maybe we need to give her more time until she feels ready.” “And how much time will that be? We can´t afford to lose time Glory. You know that! We need to begin her training as soon as possible.” “But you can´t force her either.” Fizzy agreed with Glory. Galaxy and Buttons nodded in agreement, Celestia and Luna with more energy. “Maybe you will be the one who ends up flying this time!” Everypony gasped. Galaxy, Celestia and Luna stared at her surprised. “Oh boy…” Buttons muttered. “Be careful with how you speak to me!” Majesty said to Fizzy angry. “Ok, ok. That sounded very disrespectful. But what I mean is that you can´t force her if she´s not comfortable right now.” “Exactly!” Celestia stamped her hoof. “Mama´s power is something she´s very sensitive about. Imagine having been shamed for your magic and suddenly now somepony´s forcing you to use it. How would you feel?” After Majesty heard Celestia speak, she cooled down a little. However, she wasn´t still convinced. As they were arguing, Gusty took the chance to run away to somewhere she could be alone. “Mama!” Luna exclaimed as she ran after her mother. “But she´s our only hope to defeat Grogar. She won´t survive if she doesn´t use her wind magic. It´s the key!” “But these things take time.” Galaxy pointed out. “You can´t expect her to be so willing to do it. Maybe we could give her a day at least?” Majesty raised her eyebrow. “Well, she has to train anyway so we aren´t losing that much time.” Clover argued as he shrugged. Galaxy supressed a giggle when Clover did that. He blushed a little. Majesty sighed. “Fine. Gusty, you don´t-” She widened her eyes when she didn´t see her anymore. “Where is she?” Celestia noticed that Gusty wasn´t the only one missing. Luna was too. “Mama? Lulu?” “She ran away didn´t she?” Buttons said sarcastically. “Yup.” Fizzy agreed. “Divide in groups. Search throughout the whole monastery.” Majesty ordered everypony calmly. “I´ll come with you.” Seeing that Celestia was nervous, Buttons laid a recomforting hoof on her shoulder. “It´s ok. We´ll find them.” “I know we will! I´m just worried about mama. This will be something very difficult for her, you know?” “I can imagine.” Celestia noticed that Buttons stared at her for some time, which made her a little uncomfortable. “What? What is it?” she asked nervous. “You look exactly like your mother, you know that?” Celestia smiled. Gusty was sitting in the floor of a dark room, feeling a bit better yet guilty. She knew she had to show her wind magic if she wanted Majesty to protect her but she was scared of losing control and harming her or one of her followers. Her wind magic was something that sometimes she wished that wasn´t her talent. But at the same time, it gave her good memories. She smiled at her phoenix feather necklace. “Mama?” Gusty turned around and saw Luna. “Are you ok?” she asked as she walked to her. “Well…” she hugged her knees. “Not really.” “You are afraid of using your wind magic, right?” Gusty nodded. “It´s just unsettling. Like your sister pointed out, you´re used to everypony judging you for your magic and suddenly it´s the total opposite. And it´s awful to have everypony believing in you when you believe that your magic only brings disgrace.” “But it wasn´t always like that. You sang us lullabies playing the melodies with the wind and we played with your breezes. But after that day… You stopped.” “Because when your father was around, I had a cover for my magic. Whenever anypony saw breezes or melodies in the wind, they would think it was a pegasus doing that, not a unicorn. And after what happened, I became more conscious of the magic restrictions. I didn´t want you to lose me like I lost your father.” Luna hugged Gusty. “You didn´t have to sacrifice what made you happy for us, mama.” “Lulu. You and your sister are a million times more worth than my magic. I didn´t sacrifice anything because you two are what bring me happiness.” Luna smiled at Gusty. “And before dad, were you like this?” “Well, when I was with my family it was a bit different because in that time I didn´t have the cover that your dad gave me. But when nopony nor troggle was around, I practiced my wind with magaga. I even did some demonstrations for my parents as well.” “But then the plague happened…” Gusty nodded. “And until dad came you had nopony that admired your magic. That must have been very hard for you.” “There was somepony, actually. Well, not a pony. A sheep.” “A sheep?” “Yes, but I met her once. After that time, I never saw her again.” “Can you tell me what happened?” “Ok. It happened one year or two after my family died and long before the master brought your father into his house. Like everyday, I was having trouble doing my chores, but something unexpected would bring me some joy…”