//------------------------------//
// Chapter VI 
// Story: An Unexpected Guest 
// by PropsValroa 
//------------------------------//

Cali nodded, "That makes a lot of sense. I think that Runes are a decent too to use in small areas however, having the power of magic from your mind or...horn rather is much more useful I would imagine." she said and then proceeded to go back to reading. She took out another book about the runes and proceeded to read, absorbing the information but also practicing drawing more types of runes on the tablets, however taking careful steps as for nothing to go out of control or to not make mistakes. 

Blu shrugged, "There's levels to it of course, what you can draw on a tablet is only so much. But they can become so much more when you know what you're doing. That seeker for instance, that is all runes. You'd be hard pressed to find a unicorn or even alicorn that could enchant a gemstone like that with spells."

"So much more indeed, however that will come with time, and practice." she said and continued reading and practicing on. Though she gave more books to him to study from and input spells into his 'computer' if he wanted. Though eventually there came a point where she closed the book and said, "I think that's enough rune studying for today...we could go study something else. There are plenty of magics in here to learn from, what would you like to learn next?"

Blu paused where he was and thought for a moment before he shrugged, "I guess I could give it time to recompile for a bit while I learn something more directly useful. I am a bit defenseless without my constructs at the moment."

He looked around a bit before turning back to Scar, "You know of anything the ponies out there might consider forbidden? They can't exactly defend against things they refuse to understand."

Cali simply laughed at the question, almost a cackle. "Why of course there is!" she stood up from the chair and said, "The most forbidden thing that I could think of, would probably be dark magic, necromancy, blood magic, or powerful mind control. King Sombra himself was a very powerful user of dark magic...he probably invented many of the spells and abilities that are written within some of these books here. So, pick your poison of the forbidden things and we'll...take a look." it was something that she had looked into before, although in the past she was more focused on robbing and making money rather than bettering herself. Now in a better mindset, she has other plans. 

Blu shuddered as she listed off the darker magics, "No no, nothing like that... I'd like to keep my soul uncurdled thank you very much." He thought for a bit until he remembered something. "A bit of a national secret, from before Princess Sparkle was Princess Sparkle. I found some old letters between her and Princess Celestia that explained why she was so interested in caring for me. She thought I was related to a pair of researchers who had been dabbling in forbidden magic. She referred to it as anti-magic, a compound that negated magic around it, and could dispel any magic used against it. Now that would be a powerful tool against Princess Sparkle."

Cali rose an eyebrow at that and put her hand to her chin in a thinking way for a moment, thinking about that for a few moments before sitting back down and saying. "Now that you mention it I had an idea for such a thing a long time ago. If such a compound exists, which if very likely does...imagine putting that inside of a mold of a unicorn's horn and forming that into a wearable 'tool' that you could put on someone's horn to stop them from using magic at all. I'd call it a horn inhibitor." she said in a rather deep thought as she got another idea as she grinned.

"Or using runes to generate such an anti-magic field. Like a grenade or a device triggered when there is movement in a certain area. I don't know if this place has anything related to that, it's a very specific thing that we'll have to look for." 

Blu looked thoughtful, "Hmm, I've heard of magic dampening rings, they use them when imprisoning unicorns as well as, to a lesser extent, keeping unicorn foals from hurting themselves with their own magic. If we could find the spell that they use to enchant the rings, we could break out the component of the spell that nullifies magic. Though I get the feeling the rings work more by disrupting the spell formation rather than nullifying the magic."

He looked a bit more excited as he closed up the briefcase, "Nonetheless, any research is far more effective when it is motivated by a singular problem to solve. Already I can think of a few rune combinations that could work, maybe engraved in a shield or woven into a garment, once the database compiles we could test some. But in the meantime we could see what other routes there are to find in this library."

"Perhaps we could break into such a prison and...steal some of those rings at some point and then somehow identify the spells used to make it or figure out how they are made in the first place." she nodded and walked through the sections, thinking. Her hands behind her back. "Your ideas of a shield or woven into a garment remind me of...barrier and shield magic. I am capable of such things but it's electrical in nature rather than magical..." she stopped infront of a section that seemed to be exactly that. "Perhaps we should look into that."

Blu nodded, "I don't think we'll need to steal the rings, there should be examples of them in here as I've no doubt powerful mages like the ones who built this would have had magical enemies to subdue. Barrier and shields are certainly a good idea nonetheless, being able to withstand her attacks will be critical, especially if we want to set down runes."

"Definitely. If we fighting her, we need to deny her any opportunity to gain an advantage. That goes for her friends too." Cali used her levitation magic to take the chair and table over to where they are now. She sets them down and pulls out the first book and begins reading it. Smirking, it was easier than Rune magic for sure, at least for her. When she was done with the first book, she handed it over to him, wondering how he might go about learning it.

As Blu read through the spells in the book, if Scar were watching, upon learning a spell he would immediately try to modify the spell, switching out or modifying components or even switching some components out for runes. In general, when Blu cast a spell it was very different from most unicorns. Usually a unicorn cast a spell quickly, building up the magic in their horn and then casting it directly. Blu however charged up the magic more slowly, the spell components forming in a ring around his horn as they were powered, then they remained so long as he maintained the spell. Doing it that way took longer to cast the spell, but he could hold the spell active longer as well as change out components as he cast the spell instead of needing to hold the whole spell in his head as he cast it.

With enough practice he would be able to even change out components while the spell was active, taking a magic shield and turning it briefly into a wall of fire and back as he swapped in the fire rune at a key location.

Every now and then Cali had glanced up at him, observing him for a few moments. Unlike Blu however, she was reading more. She hadn't been practicing just yet. After a few more books, which she had given to Blu she had set hers down and walked out. Being in her normal 'human' form meant that she had no horn of course. If Blu was watching she'd stand roughly in the center of the room.

Around her would form a blue spherical shield. She closed her eyes, changing the shield's shape to various geometric shapes such as cubes, pyramids, octahedrons, dodecahedrons. She seemed to experiment with the thickness and intensity of the shield itself. Doing a slight spin and watching how the shield / barrier around her spun and slowed own. She was gaining a liking to this. It was non-electrical in nature meaning that it was impossible to tamper with by striking it with electricity. She then experimented upon hardening the shields with electricity, a sort of red shimmering effect going over it  almost like an enchantment. 

"I can already tell you, that right there is a massive improvement. Now these shields are pretty much unbreakable but, I have yet to master such magic..." the shield vanished as she sat back down with a poofing sound.

Blu looked over at Cali's comment, "I suppose, with a magic pool as deep as yours, it's easy to make very powerful shields as you don't need to worry about how much it drains your magic. Not everyone has that advantage." There was a bit of edge to his voice as he spoke, and he quickly returned to his studies. It would be clear that he was focused on refined and efficient spells.

Cali simply smirked at that and continued to read. "Wasn't always like that. I sort of grew it more as I practiced more I suppose. Although there should be a way to make it even deeper...so to speak. But as for now, we will finish these." she said, continuing her studies. Every now and then she practiced more in depth and complicated shielding spells. Giving the books she read to Blu, and then making sure they went back to the right spot.

Blu shrugged, "I suppose my own reserves have grown as I've practiced, but most unicorns I've talked to seem to believe that, like musculature, there is an upper limit for most standard unicorns. Alicorns are exempt from that and even the least magically inclined is many times more able than the strongest unicorn. You seem to share in that deep pool, so you may be an even match for Princess Sparkle, though I don't think she's ever run out of magic."

Blu focused on directed shields rather than full surrounding ones, which cut the cost to about 1/5, or would allow him to make a shield five times stronger on one side.

"You know, with a large enough gem to power it, you could, theoretically, work these shields into a construct, have a remote shield that stays up while you cast other spells, because the main downside of most shields is that you can't attack while casting the shield." 

Cali nodded to that. "As I am from another universe practically, my magic may not entirely be within the confines of this one. In other universes there were others, such as my...enemies that almost killed me in several occasions. They had access to something called "strings"...strings that connect all magic points within a reality so to speak and they could pull on them, cut them to cause extreme pain. They had no real other magic other than healing and re-growth. I am not sure if that...string magic exists here..." she replies.

She pulled out a few of the diamonds and opal gems she had stolen a few nights ago. "Think these would work?"

Blu shook his head, "At least so far as I've understood the magic lessons, there is a field of magic, like the magnetic field, that everyone draws on to feed their magic. The stronger you are the more magic you can draw from the field, and it is returned as you expend it. I wouldn't be surprised if your magic draws from another source than the field, I believe that alicorns also have access to some alternate well of power, otherwise they can simply pull the grid far more than any of the rest of us without the aid of artifacts."

He looked like an idea struck him, "You know, if something can pull on the field, theoretically something could push on it as well, make it harder for those around to pull on it. That would be half of the anti-magic problem, if we could somehow push the field away we could create a zone where no magic could be cast, or at least it would be significantly harder to draw magic in that area. It wouldn't stop a cast spell though, nor drain magic brought into the area."

Blu shook his head, "At least so far as I've understood the magic lessons, there is a field of magic, like the magnetic field, that everyone draws on to feed their magic. The stronger you are the more magic you can draw from the field, and it is returned as you expend it. I wouldn't be surprised if your magic draws from another source than the field, I believe that alicorns also have access to some alternate well of power, otherwise they can simply pull the grid far more than any of the rest of us without the aid of artifacts."

He looked like an idea struck him, "You know, if something can pull on the field, theoretically something could push on it as well, make it harder for those around to pull on it. That would be half of the anti-magic problem, if we could somehow push the field away we could create a zone where no magic could be cast, or at least it would be significantly harder to draw magic in that area. It wouldn't stop a cast spell though, nor drain magic brought into the area."

She smirked upon that idea. "Why draw magic to a certain area...if your not draining it into a device or some way to transfer ambient magic into your own 'well of power'?" she asks as she watched him sort out the gems that she had given him. "If my enemies were to somehow locate me in Equestria, I would be interested in finding a way to manipulate the...strings themselves or to stop them from affecting me in any way. So that way I could get rid of them without a single scratch... their names are the Huntsman and Bayonet..." she said with visible rage in her eyes.

"The Huntsman can take upon mostly any form...usually a humanoid person with a TV as their head. They were also known as 'The Snarl', an...embodiment of rage. I know nothing of which their origin is though it was alluded to me that they are controlled by another entity or in cohorts with someone else. They are beyond the general multiverse and can generally travel anywhere. They have extreme luck and usually find ways to negate my attacks on them almost miraculously. Can somehow go through my shields...avoid my attacks with ease. I somehow pissed them off in another world and they followed me through other worlds...with the intent on killing me.' she pauses, taking a moment to think about that and to take a breathe. 

"And the other, is different. Of all things he is a transformer. He is extremely irritable, violent, and prone to extreme violence. He resembled an older style classic car, and transforms into a mechanical dragonfly. After I killed him, he somehow rebuilt himself into a much more powerful version of himself, taking upon the form of a Dodge Challenger Hellcat sort of car. He can manipulate the strings. The last I saw of him, the Huntsman embedded his essence into him, basically merging the 2. But with pure luck and help from friends...one such friend I never saw again after I killed off the enemies in a massive blast of magic and then...fleeing the dimension using some sort of transponder technology." it was quite the tale, really. She had been through so much. But a part of her enjoyed the battles, as much as she hated it.

Some of the gems appear to have exceptional clarity, worth a lot after all. While others were of decent-ish but not really all that great. 

Blu had a decent amount of skepticism on his face in regards to Cali's story, but simply shrugged at the end. "I can't say I've seen anyone even close to that description, nor heard of any like that here. I would think that something so advanced would stand out rather prominently in this sort of world, so I doubt you have anything to fear. Still, I can only defend against magic I know, and formulate counters to attacks that follow rules I understand. If they're attacking you outside of the field or even extra dimensionally as it appears they are, you'll need extra dimensional defenses to counter them, which I think is a bit beyond even what these accomplished mages were capable of."

He pointed out the extra clear gems, "I'll be able to do some pretty impressive things with these as I'll be able to get runes inside them." He pointed to the less clear ones, "I'll only be able to carve the exteriors of these, so they're no more useful than ordinary stones."

Cali had petty much expected that sort of a response. "For dimensional means I am only able to do...portals into other dimensions by gathering up all of my energy to create a portal with it. It is extremely costly and leaves me with little to no magic after I do that. It is dangerous. But like with the technological element of it that I was able to construct with the aid of others, there is no telling where you will end up with it. My friend Gina, had a great deal of dimensional and spacial magic however even they were able to counter-act her magic...she had her ear-drums blown out...by a cannon more or less...and then after we left I never saw her again...I hope she got that fixed and I hope she's alright..." she said, showing visible distress at that. She looked saddened by it and just simply nodded to what he said about the gems. 

Blu was a bit surprised by this sudden compassion/remorse on the part of Cali, "That doesn't sound very Element of Greed of you." He shook his head, "Jokes aside, I... I can understand what it's like to lose someone close to you. I'm twice an orphan, my second father went missing not long before I came here, he wasn't the best father, but he did his best."

He sighed, "You know, I'd be surprised if there wasn't studies here into portals and the like. I mean we're both proof of other worlds and other universes and the possibility of transport between them. Maybe we'd be able to get a stable, directed portal built with enough effort. How about we look into that once we're done here?"

Cali nodded in agreement, she definitely understood what he had been through. "Definitely. If I can find Gina again somehow...that would be great. I am not at all sure where she could have ended up but...she's smart and she'll find a way to fix her hearing problem, wherever she learned her magic from...she could walk through walls, phase in and out of dimensions and stuff.. And yes I am sure there is, however if the portals we could learn / create here are able to do such things, why wouldn't it become more...mainstream?" she said, slowly taking upon more of a different tone / look. 

Blu looked confused, "Are you saying there would be more portals in the world if the research exists here? Or are you asking if we make a portal that more portals might be made?" He shrugged, "To the first, there are a few scattered evidences of portals having existed, including the one in the Crystal Empire. As to the second... personally, I don't want to leave. There's nothing back home for me but humanity. There are beings who genuinely care about me here. I'm not the successor to some megacorp here, I'm free to do whatever, be whatever I want to be. So if we were to make a portal to get you somewhere, I'd be sure to close it behind you, keep anything else from getting through. If that's your concern that is."

Cali rose an eyebrow as she sat back down into the chair and sighed. "That is the problem. We have no way of possibly knowing where my friend could have ended up at. Maybe she ended up somewhere here for all we know, or maybe she ended up back on our Earth where we were from...either way, she's smart and will figure something out I hope. There is just no way of knowing, and there is also no way of going back to...where we were before to retrace our steps..." she sighed. "There are infinite realities out there, I am sure of it...and that just makes it harder." Cali sighed.