I awoke before nightfall in my tower cell and true to Gilded's word, there was a new bed and some planters inside. Gilded sat beside me on the bed as Princess Celestia and a few of her royal guards watched me, ready for an attack.
"Oh hey, the everfree should be clear now... unless something went wrong of course, but even if it didn't, Gilded and I still need to go and look for the epicenter of the forest and stop it from contaminating the forest again." I said, quickly sitting up on the bed.
She looked unfazed, "Fluttershy told me you were using a type of lightning magic."
"Yes, divination. I learned some spells from there when I was still young." I replied, unknowing what she was asking.
"How many schools of magic do you know, exactly?" She asked as a white-furred pony got some parchment and a quill.
"I have mastered theurgy, and I'm competent with divination, pyromancy, necromancy—"
"Necromancy? You actually are a necromancer?" She asked, alarmed.
I tried to find a reasonable response, "I... I dabbled." I shrugged.
What wizard doesn't wonder about his opposite school of magic. Turns out necromancy, like theurgy, can be used to heal someone, but instead of using the magic to cast a healing spell, a necromancy must use their magic to steal the life essence from someone else. Doing this enough will of course, lead to death. Once they're dead though, just reanimate them into a ghoul or skeleton.
"Ok, your life magic, pyro... fire magic, lightning magic, necromancy." She paused in thought. "We already know about the shadow magic and harmony magic. Are there any other types of magic you know?" Celestia asked me, exasperated.
"I have spent my entire life studying magic, and I fully intend to spend the rest of my life doing the same." I said with determination.
"That's not what I asked, Sugar Hoof." She said through gritted teeth.
There are a few types of schools that simply aren't taught anymore, for whatever reason. Schools with no teachers, and only a few ancient textbooks written in a dead language for their entire legacy. I knew of them, but even from my experiments and research, I would barely classify myself as an apprentice of these magics.
I did know one school, it's mostly worthless, as are it's brother and sister schools.
"Earth magic, a purely decorative school, I assure you." I explained, remembering my time stealing things for the headmaster.
She put her hooves on her head. "Why have you never mentioned any of these schools before?"
"I never thought that it was important, I am a life wizard, a theurgist. Life magic is what I do, the other schools have their place, but I will always be a life wizard first." I said.
With one eye covered by her hoof, she looked at me in annoyance. "The same treants who attacked Appleloosa were the ones responsible for imprisoning, then freeing, you and numerous others from slavery south of Equestria. You set it all up to make yourself look innocent."
I looked down in both shame and remembrance, all my treants were still there in the desert, waiting for me to return from my trip to Griffonstone.
"Yes, both instances were of my doing." I said, ashamed.
"The two mares you freed mentioned a few thousand there, is this true?"
The order I gave them, to produce more treants, I planned to build a city out in the desert where I'd be safe to do my research.
"While I'm away, You must continue to create treants, dig the cavern deeper and further, I intend to build an underground empire, and I'll need many treants to carry this out."
"My magic is imbued into the farms and the caverns, stop making treants when you stop being able to feed them all."
It then occurred to me that my magic hasn't stopped growing for a few days now, even now my life magic grew stronger by the very second... my farms are getting stronger...
I covered my face with my right front hoof, alerting Princess Celestia.
My farms grow in magical strength as I grow in magical strength... he won't stop making treants until he runs out of food to sustain them... he'll never run out of food... oh what have I done?
"1.6 billion treants worldwide, and the number grows by the second." Overseer Elm said to Lord Birch with a smile.
"Wonderful news!" Shouted out Lord Birch with a great smile, knowing that he was doing good by following the master's orders. "No complications with the planetary elevator, I take it?"
"None that were not expected, with the ability to travel below the ocean floor, the mage's guild have started setting up elevators, decreasing travel time."
"Marvelous, all according to the master's plan." Birch said, slumping back into his smaller throne seated beside his master's own.
"There is another thing we would like to inform you of." Elm said, significantly less enthused. "Even with the teleporters, treants are having to travel vast distances to get their next meal, so the mage's guild have come up with a solution." Elm opened the door to the make-shift throne room.
A treant in a dark green robe entered carrying a vial of liquid similar to what was thrown into the planet's inner core.
"Using the same method we used to corrupt the inner core, we believe we can make new farm land the same way the master did." Elm said.
Birch thought of their solution for a moment and liked what he had heard. "Begin creating new farms with this method, we shall try it, if the entire planet is too be under King Sugar Hoof's control, we'll need to keep hollowing out the planet for more land to make more treants. We cannot disappoint the master in this regard."
The mage's guild member nodded and left to begin experimenting with her farmland solution.
"Now, what's this I hear of new prisoners?" Birch asked.
"As we dug further into Equestria, we came across multiple species underground."
"As is to be expected," Birch replied, "We are growing rapidly, and with our population as low as it is, we cannot guard every pathway." He said before mumbling under his breath, "As if we needed more reason to keep making treants."
"As per the master's orders, we've been giving them three meals a day and bathing them once a day, but some of us feel as though they could prove more useful to the master." Elm explained with a slightly frightened smile.
"The master's word is law, have you forgotten?" Birch snapped.
"No, of course not! King Sugar Hoof cannot be wrong, we merely think that this way of thinking should not belong solely to us." Elm finished, causing Birch to rise from his seat and approach Elm.
Pulling out multiple books from his robe, he began displaying pages with notes from the prisoners. talking canines with a penchant for mining, shapeshifting insectoids, and large worm creatures were being carefully contained by use of magic in the many prisons the treants had built.
"They've all been interrogated, and have no idea who Sugar Hoof even is, some even speak ill of the master." Elm said sadly, causing Birch to grimace.
"We cannot expect the rest of the world to be as wise as us. They have not seen the master, they know not the power of his magic, they've not tasted of his art!"
"Yes, let's give them a taste of his magic! That's what we're saying." Elm clicked his wooden claws together as he spoke. "Mild mind control should be enough... we can inject some fruits with his magical signature and force feed them to the prisoners. The mage's guild theorizes that after enough of the master's magical signature is ingested, it will induce changes to the prisoner's mentality."
"By eating the master's magic as we do, they'd come to know him as we do." Birch realized what Elm was getting at.
"Indeed, it may cause changes to their genetic makeup, but they will be far happier living their life in service to the master as we do." Elm said, putting his books back into his robe.
"Very well, begin the experiment, all shall hail to the king!" Birch shouted.
Elm left to inform the mage's guild that they have the go-ahead.