//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Unexpected Change // Story: A Lost Hero // by Emerald Byte //------------------------------// Chapter 6: Unexpected Change Kald took a calming breath and entered the library with an eager Twilight Sparkle, who was smiling and giggling uncontrollably at the possible knowledge she was going to gain from this. Twilight shut the door behind them both and giddily started picking some books off the shelves and arranging some things around the room. “Umm, so how does magic work exactly?” Twilight turned to face Kald with a broad smile across her face, “Well from how you described your nanobots, the way to control magic is fairly similar.” Twilight trotted to the center of the room and with what appeared to be no effort at all, began to levitate many items and making them move in intricate patterns and formations, “You need to feel the magic flow through you and then focus it in your horn, and direct it to what you're trying to do. Imagine what you want to happen and then use the magic within you to make it happen.” Kald looked on in amazement at how much Twilight could do with very little effort. All the items drifted back to their original places as Twilight ended her example, “Ok now you try, we will start simple,” she pointed to a blank scroll with her hoof, “Try to pick that up.” Kald looked at the paper then back to Twilight before he closed his eyes and tried to focus on moving the paper, but try as he might he couldn't seem to make anything happen, not even a spark of magic. Twilight placed a hoof under her chin in thought, “Maybe we started too fast. Let’s just try meditating and get you to try and feel your magic. Now just sit and clear you mind,” Kald sat and mimicked Twilight, closing his eyes and trying to clear his mind. Kald wasn’t feeling anything though, he fidgeted in his sitting position trying to search for any indicator of a feeling of magic. “Stop that,” Twilight said interrupting his thoughts, “You can’t force this, just try to relax and the magic should come to you. The more you try to force it the harder this will be.” Taking her advice Kald took a deep breath and closed his eyes again trying to clear out all the thoughts swirling around inside his head, he sat motionless and lost track of time as he listened to the sound of birds singing outside the open window, and the low murmur of ponies outside going about their day. Try as he might though Kald could not keep the thoughts of his destroyed home from creeping back into his mind, the images of the ashen wasteland and the memories of his wife he had recently reclaimed only to discover she was gone. Kald could feel tears coming to his eyes, losing his focus he stood up and wiped his eyes with a foreleg, “I’m sorry Twilight i'm not sure this is going to work.” Twilight put a hoof on his shoulder, “It’s ok Kald. I can't even begin to understand your pain but lets try again, but this time see if your emotions can lead you to that magic spark. I know you can do it, now show me that confidence and conviction from when your fought Teresia” Kald shook his head with a slight smirk and sat back down and began to concentrate on the feelings dwelling inside him. Once Kald and let his emotions flow he began to feel a tingling sensation within him, but he could never manage to manifest the feeling into anything, and with a sigh decided to give it a rest. Twilight saw the disappointment in his eyes, “His green eyes that’s it, that might cheer him up,” she thought as she cleared her throat to get Kald’s attention, “Kald why don't we do something you're used too to lighten things up, show me more of your powers. With you memory back I'm sure you have some more tricks up your sleeve.” Kald brightened up at the idea, he hadn’t even tried using his powers since he got back, a good bit of fighting practice with the moves he remembered would be relaxing indeed, “Sounds good lets get this started.” Kald smirked as he took a more comfortable stance and tried to feel the surge of power he had grown to expect, but it never came. Kald looked to Twilight with fear in his eyes, “It’s not working. My powers. I can't feel them,” in a state of panic he quickly tried to stand up on his two hind legs only to fall over as he stared at his hooves wondering why he couldn’t use his powers. Twilight galloped over to his side, “Kald you need to calm down,” unsure if her words were reaching him she watched as his eyes darted around in fear as he was losing himself in his own fears and insecurity. Twilight reached out a hoof to Kald to try and calm him, only to see his confidence fading. “Why,... why won't anything work. My powers won't work. What am I now? I am even more lost now than before,” Kald kept mumbling to himself, delving deeper into his despair. Twilight back up a little and took a deep breath, “Kald! Snap out of it!” As Twilights words echoed from her yell, Kald came back to reality and quickly picked himself up and calmed down, “I’m sorry Twilight. I didn't mean to lose it like that.” Twilight released a sigh of relief at the return of her friend, “It’s ok Kald. Now lets get back to magic practice.” *********** Weeks had gone by with Kald diligently training under Twilight with some input from Rarity, but in the end it seemed there were no results. No matter how hard Kald tried it seemed that he never made any progress in becoming more adept with magic, and there wasn’t any new developments in his own powers either. Kald had tried many different attempts at magic all that should have been easy, trying to move a scroll or levitate a feather but all with no success, he couldn't even get his horn to glow with an aura. Many attempts to draw out his powers went unrewarded as nothing seemed to feel right anymore and except for his eyes it seemed that his nanobots and his powers were gone. The more Kald tried to practice the more he fell into his sadness as it seemed he had become even more of an outcast that he was before, not only was he a unicorn that couldn't use magic, he wasn't even a real Equine to begin with, he was a human that no longer had a home and was now something foreign. As time went on Kald took to secluding himself in his home. His friends were worried but try as they may Kald would never open his door and would always turn away anyone who came. Twilight and the others grew more worrisome since Kald’s seclusion became worse, to where he didn’t even leave his home to get food or anything else for that matter. Worried about what to do Twilight sent a letter to Celestia explaining the situation, but instead of the advice she had been expecting from the princess Twilight only received grave news that there was something was amiss that required her attention. Despite their best efforts it didn’t seem anypony could get through to Kald, he even turned Rainbow Dash away who he had seemed to get along with the best. Twilight also made sure they didn't infringe on Kald by either flying into his house or using magic to get in, which she had to stop Rainbow from doing more than a few times, but under the circumstances she just figured that it would only make things worse. *********** Kald sat alone at home, eating what little he had if he even felt like eating but most of his time was taken up being lost inside his own mind of self doubt and despair. Kald had noticed it had been a few days since anyone had come by to check on him, he was unsure if they finally got his message or just stopped caring, either way it didn't matter to him, this wasn't his home and he didn't belong here or anywhere anymore. As he was beginning to go nestle back onto his couch with the picture of his wife he heard a knock at the door, “Go away. I don’t want visitors,” but from the other side of the door came a familiar voice that he didn't expect to hear. “Kald please let me in,” came Luna’s voice from behind the door much to Kald’s surprise, but even so he just wanted to be alone. Fed up with waiting Luna teleported herself into the house spooking Kald and making him fall off his couch, “Get a hold of yourself. How can you remain here when others are in danger?” Kald got up rubbing the spot on his head he hit on his way down to the floor, “What danger what are you talking about?” Luna snorted at his remark, “Have you not noticed that nopony has come by to check on you for a few days now?” With a distant look in his eyes Kald, turned his attention back to the picture“I thought that, they just finally got the message and stopped caring.” “That is not the case Kald, everyone still cares but Discord has returned. It is taking everything we have to try and stop him but he has hidden the elements of harmony and without them we cannot stop him,” Kald placed the picture down and turned to Luna it seemed as if her words never reached him. Kald unlocked and opened his front door, “What can I do? I can't use magic or my powers, I am useless. So please be on your way,” Kald could hear the clopping of her hooves as she began her walk to the door but, all of a sudden he soon found himself in an unexpected hug. Luna’s voice was soft as she spoke, “I don’t know what happened to the overly confident, brash, brave, and loyal human I had seen before, and I don't know what you're going through. But i'm sorry for everything Kald. I’m sorry for how I treated you, and for how I didn't trust you. I am sorry for everything that I have put you through,” and with that Luna departed taking flight as she exited the door. Kald stood shocked at what he had just heard. From the tone of her voice he knew this was no trick and that she was really sincere and for the first time in a long while he looked at what was outside. What he saw was a broken ponyville with buildings floating and upside down and the land torn apart, and he hadn’t even noticed. That ended now, Kald looked back to his picture focusing on Lita’s face and the beautiful smile that complimented the blue eyes she had, he remembered well how she always smiled and laughed with him, always encouraging him and being amazed at what he did and deep down Kald knew that Lita would never want to see him being depressed. So with a final glance he shut his door and looked at the broken sections of floating land beneath him. Kald reached for a pocket on his jacket but dismissed his idea of using the booster pack, knowing it wouldn't fit his pony body, a problem he would have to fix later. “The old fashioned way it is then,” he thought as he quickly found a route, and began to nimbly leap from one platform to another in a slow descent to the ground, taking notice that it seemed he had grown more accustomed to his new body than he had realized. *********** Discord laughed as Twilight and the others stood before him trying hard to lay a hoof on him but with no luck, “Bah ha ha. You really thought you could even touch me without your precious elements?” Rainbow swooped in fast trying to land a punch on him from behind only to ram into Applejack who was trying a similar aggressive approach from the front as he disappeared. Discord appeared again floating over them all simply on nothing, “Now Rainbow Dash did you really think that would work? Ha! I’m so glad that somepony was distraught enough to bring me back to Equestria, but I wonder who it was.” Twilight stamped a hoof in rage, “You will never find out!” she yelled as a magic bolt shot at Discord which he easily dodged. Reappearing behind Rarity, and then disappearing and popping up again behind Twilight, “I grow tired of this, but I have an idea for a little game, and it could even reward you your elements but i doubt you win. Bah ha ha ha!” Rainbow snorted and took an aggressive stance, “O yea! Bring it on!” Discord grew a wicked smile across his face, “Very well then. To redeem the elements that you seek, first yourselves you must defeat. Ha ha, have fun,” he said as he took a seat in a chair he had constructed a little ways away. “Wait a minute you,” Rainbow said as she began to dart off only to be cut off by a pegasus that looked exactly like her but had a dark grey coat and a mane with shades of black with eyes that were black and menacing, “What the?” As she looked back it seemed they all had a dark doppelganger in their path. They all began to struggle in the fight with their opponents, as the all quickly learned that fighting yourself was no easy task. Discord laughed as he was enjoying watching the ponies with their struggle taking in the show he had laid out before himself. As Rainbow and Twilight took some hard hits from their counterparts, Discord stood up and started applause for his creations, only to be cut short by a sudden headbutt to his side. Discord scrambled to get up and turn around, “Now really, who headbutts anymore?” to his surprise he say before him a dark green unicorn with glasses and sporting a jacket, “And who might you be?” His answer came from an excited Rainbow Dash, “Kald! Nice of you to join us!” with a mocking tone to her words Kald smiled at the familiar gesture and appreciated it. Discord appeared next to Kald making him jump back from surprise, “Kald eh? I don’t believe we have met.” Kald took a defensive stance, “We haven't but don't worry that won't matter soon enough,” the arrogance in his voice seemed to strike a nerve with Discord, “Is that so? We shall see.” Kald felt a tingle all around him as Discord attempted to use his magic, Kald darted forward and lunged at Discord who disappeared, “Odd. My magic didn't affect you much.” Amidst the fighting a thought dawned to Twilight, “Of course. There must still be human traits in him that must suppress his magic and give him a little more resistance to magic, but that gives him an advantage against Discord.” Kald smirked at the realization that although his magic resistance wasn't what it was when he was human at least some of it stayed with him. Kald turned to the others, “I see yall are having trouble. Sorry I was late to the party.” Pinkie was having trouble with her hoof to hoof fight with her dark double, “You mean there was a party and nopony told me!” Kald chuckled at how even when in a stressful situation Pinkie was still able to be Pinkie. And with that thought he shouted back to them, “Hey, if they are hard to fight cause they know how you fight. Then don't fight how you would, fight like each other would,” with his words of wisdom said Kald took off after Discord only to be rammed in the side by the dark Rainbow Dash, who was quickly tackled by the real Rainbow in an Applejack kind of style, “Hey, leave them to us you get Discord.” Kald nodded and took off after Discord again, jumping and kicking only for him to dodge every blow. With his frustration building up Kald began to yell, “Hold still!” but Discord just laughed at his attempts. With rage building Kald charged at Discord missing once again but quickly flipping back around to charge again this time his horn glowing with a green aura. Twilight caught a glimpse of Kald’s glowing horn before he tried to kick Discord again but missing and turning in the air to try and slam his hooves down on Discord who had appeared under him. Discord appeared again with a smug smile and his hands behind his back with a cloud of dust behind him, “Such futile efforts, and you aren't even using magic.” Discord turned around to see the dust cloud clearing, “Really you're so boring. What a let-...” he stopped mid sentence at what he saw when the dust had cleared. Kald stood up and stared back at Discord as he clenched his fists and looked down at his hands seeing the familiar site again, “Looks like I can fight for real now. No more fooling around,” stepping forward with the legs he was used too and brought his arms up and activated his energy manipulator rings feeling the familiar sensation of the energy control. Discord stood speechless with his mouth hanging open, “What are you?” he said as the human figure of Kald stepped towards him with a green emerald gem in his forehead. Kald took the booster pack disc from his pocket and threw it into the air with it unfolding and coming down to rest on his back, as he set his sites on Discord he had the most confident smile he had ever known spread across his face, “I’m a human. So prepare to meet your match!” Kald quickly shot forward with the help of his booster pack and within an instance had placed a rotating ring around Discord and then planted his feet to quickly shoot back and leave another. Kald had quickly surrounded Discord with four rings trapping him and suppressing his magic so he could not escape. With a panicked expression Discord tried to leave the rings but was unable to teleport out or force himself to freedom, “What is this? This doesn't make any sense.” Kald laughed as he began to charge up an impact bullet, “Aren’t you a fan of not making sense?” Discord couldn’t help but laugh at the irony at what was happening to him, “Very well human. But I will be back count on it.” Kald stared him down not showing any sign of fear, “Bring it on anytime,” as he took an offensive stance and threw his fist forward, “Impact Bullet!” the attack made contact with Discord knocking him out of his ring cage. Kald was surprised to see Discord turn to stone as he fell to the ground, but took comfort in his victory. The pony doppelgangers dissipated leaving their respective elements on the ground where they stood. Kald walked over seeing these fabled objects for the first time, “So these are those elements of harmony huh.” “Indeed they are Kald,” said Luna as she and Celestia landed next to them, “Glad to see your better.” Kald locked gazes with Luna, “Well I would have never made it if I didn’t get some help.” Celestia looked at her sister with an approving smile, “You have done well sister. I’m glad you’re learning.” “So that’s what happened to that gem,” Rarity butted in looking at Kald’s forehead. With this the others turned their attention to Kald to study the once again human. “Seems your back to normal there champ,” Rainbow said nudging Kald in the side, and then taping the gem in his forehead, “Well mostly anyway.” Kald noticed the town returning to normal and watched the princesses gather up the Discord statue and the elements, “We will take these back to Canterlot,” Celestia stated preparing to take flight with Luna. But before she left she turned back to Kald, “It seems you have more to learn about,” and as she said that the gem in Kald’s forehead gave off a flash and when it dimmed there stood Kald the unicorn stallion once again as the princesses took flight to Canterlot. With his smaller frame his booster pack slid off his back and hit the ground having it compact down to it’s small disk form, Kald picked up with his mouth and placed it in one of his pockets taking a mental note of a new design that just came to mind. Twilight clapped her hooves and giggled, “How fascinating! Kald, I saw your horn glow, you used magic and transformed back to human form. This is so interesting, I would never had imagined you would have the power to shift between your human and pony forms,” Kald blushed at the sudden amazement but was equally as surprised himself. With his friends by his side and with the crisis averted they began to walk back to the library to celebrate Kald’s return and enjoy eachothers company. Kald also saw the energy in Twilights stride as he was sure she was ready to continue Kald’s training, and Kald was up to the challenge with a renewed vigor. *********** As the little celebration died down Rarity and Applejack departed to return to their homes and begin work again along with Fluttershy who left to go check on her animals. Rainbow was busy catching up with Kald about all of the awesome stuff she had done since he went into seclusion, and Kald was more than happy to hear about it all. Twilight was reading up on a book about magic for beginners which Kald knew must be for his soon to come lessons. Eventually it came down to Kald being left alone with Twilight in the library, and since the day was still young Twilight decided it was time to start on Kald’s magic lessons once again. With a new perspective on magic Kald learned more control with his magic and could easily make his magic flow into his horn, but as for control that was a different matter. Kald couldn’t levitate or really control his magic at all, the required grace and gentle touch just wasn’t really something he was good at. “Let’s take a break,” Kald suggested after trying many exhausting attempts at controlling his magic. Sitting down Kald looked to his forelegs and began to think about his powers, since the fight with Discord he was much more comfortable in this body than he ever realized and now was time to test a theory he had. Kald closed his eyes and began to concentrate on feeling his on energy within him trying to activate the manipulator rings, he could feel the presence of his nanobots as they began to respond. Twilight saw Kald deep in concentration even though he had asked for a break, “What are you doing? I thought you were taking a break.” Kald’s concentration deepened and Twilight could see what appeared to be green sparks trailing over his legs. Kald soon felt the familiar rush of his energy as it flowed through him and as he opened his eyes he saw that he had managed to have one energy ring around each leg near the hoof, “Well it’s not perfect but about half will have to do.” Twilight clapped her hooves excitedly at his success, “Kald this is great your learning to use your powers with your new body.” They shared a laugh at the little personal victory Kald was having and decided to turn the magic studies to his transformation for now. “Come on Kald you can do it. Just try to think of the way felt when fighting Discord and let your magic flow through you,” Twilight encouraged. Kald relaxed and let the rings fade away as he concentrated on feeling his magic gather in his horn and start to slowly flow through him, it felt as if he was being enveloped in a slight buzz of electricity as the tingling sensation spread throughout his body. Kald kept the image of his human form in mind and before long there was a surge of magic that rushed through him, as he quickly stood up and the sensation dissipated he turned to Twilight and raised his hands into sight, and was proud to be in his human form again but this time on purpose. “This is fascinating. It seems that the magic changes your clothes into your coat and adapts the color as well, except it seems your jacket simply changes to fit your form. This is so exciting,” the lavender mare said excitedly. Twilight used her magic to take notes on a scroll that was on a desk across the room, which seemed to give Kald a strange sense of happiness as Twilight caught him smiling as the quill jotted down a few things. “Ok why don’t we see how long you can maintain your transformation. It seems the gem in your forehead is kind of like your horn, except it stores your magic so your human body isn’t damaged from it, i'm impressed at how your human body has been adapted to the magic since the equine spell. If you concentrate you should be able to feel the magic that keeps you in your human form. You should be able to feel the tug of magic in your body as it tries to retreat back but in order to maintain your transformation you need to find a balance of not overloading it to where it backfires but at the same time not letting it fade.” Twilight levitated a stopwatch over to where she could see it and started keeping time. Kald could feel his magic just like Twilight said but it was faint and fleeting. Kald focused on holding on to the magic that was already there while trying to tap into the magic stored in the gem in his forehead, he could feel the magic slipping out of his control and tried to frantically get magic from the gem, forcing an unwanted surge of magic to blast through him knocking him back into the wall in his pony from. “Oww. That's hard,” he groaned rubbing the back of his head with a forehoof. “Well you made good progress you held your human form for twelve minutes,” she proclaimed as she took notes on his time. “Only twelve? Man this is gonna be harder than I thought to get this under control,” he said with a sigh as he picked himself up ready to try again. As he felt the magic flow through him as he transformed again, Kald tried to focus on the amount of magic that was used and tried to keep a constant flow in order to maintain his form. Kald managed to maintain a small steady trickle of magic from his gem in order to maintain the magic flow in his body but he could still feel it slipping away. Try as he might Kald could not keep the form for much longer and soon the magic retreated and he was left standing on all four hooves once again. “Wow, seventeen minutes this time,” Twilight said with confidence. Kald sighed and sat down a little exhausted, “Yea but it’s not enough. I wonder how long I will ever be able to keep it up at one time.” Twilight thought for a moment, “Well considering that you get more proficient with the transformation to where it becomes easier, you might be able to eventually hold it indefinitely with a smaller requirement on the spell with practice and your natural magic regeneration. As long as you don't overtax your body of course.” Kald hugged the lavender mare and thanked her with deep sincerity at this fantastic news. “Well why don’t we end practice early today. I think you earned it.” “Thank you for everything Twilight. I did have some changes I wanted to make to my booster pack that I could get started on,” Kald said as he left the library with new found happiness. As he arrived at his home and laid the booster pack disk on a table that would soon become a workbench Kald decided to sit on his couch and relax a bit. He turned and looked at Lita in his picture and smiled, because even though his world and old life were gone he had his friends here to help him through it and he wasn’t much of a human anymore since he now had magic, but what really matters is the life he has now and those he wants to protect. Kald got up and walked to a window and stared up at the beautiful sky and thought to himself, “This world almost feels natural to me already,” as he turned his attention back to the project at hand he left to get his tools and get started.