I decided to leave practice alone and just walk in the forest for the next couple of hours. I was walking along my normal running path through the woods and letting my mind wander, but after a time my thoughts kept falling on Rain Dance. I remembered when her family moved in three years ago. The first time I saw her I nearly fell on my face, she was stunning to say the least.
Her long flowing red mane, her coffee brown coat, and her wings look amazing, especially the way every feather seemed to glisten in the sunlight. Each movement she made was precise and graceful. Like me she was out of place, she being from the only pegasus family in town and me being from the only unicorn family in town. She rarely was around in public manly staying to the outskirts of town like the forest or her home outside of town.
I trotted along in silence listening to the sounds of the forest and stringing these thoughts along in my head. I couldn't get my mind straight so I decided to head home and rest until my noon job at the bar started. I walked back toward the hollow tree to put away my sword and head home. I stopped short of the clearing. I could hear something. Neither the normal sounds of the wood nor the snarl of a wolf. I could hear music. Soft sweat music with a distinct sadness to it.
I looked into the clearing and at the tree perched on top was. Rain Dance! The first thing that passed through my mind was if she would be scared or mad at me for what she saw. I found myself listening to the music she was playing. The sound was wonderful almost mystifying. Hypnotic even. I sat there and listened to her song the sadness behind it almost making me tearful. I wanted so desperately to say something to apologize for earlier but I found myself just listening to the music. After a while the song ended and I almost wanted to ask her to play more but I stopped before I could and chose for a different approach. “That was beautiful Rain Dance.”
She stopped and looked at me a confused almost scared look on her face. She sunk back almost terrified of me. I looked at her “Listen I’m sorry for what you saw if that’s what scared you.” She looked up her expression lightening just a bit but she still tried to hide herself from me.
“Can I come up there?” she looked around and then back to me and shook her head yes.
“But how can you?” Her voice, the voice of an angel, sounded no less majestic and sweat under a frightful squeak. I looked up at her and grinned focusing all my concentration into this one spell. I had tried this spell once before but it still taxed me to my limits to complete the spell. I heard a loud POP and a gut wrenching feeling of sickness as I cast it.
After I blinked the stars out of my eyes and my head stopped hurting from the over taxing of my power I noticed I was sitting in a tree shoulder to shoulder with Rain Dance. “Wow it worked I wasn't expecting it to work.” I looked at her. Her head was down and she was trying to look away from me. I ended up doing the same. “Look I’m sorry for what you saw back there, that was just my practice session. I’m sorry it scared you.”
I looked at her tenderly and smiled she looked up but still not at me “It wasn’t the sword training that scared me it w-was your eyes.” I brought out my sword slowly as not to scare the mare next to me and looked at my reflection in the blade. My face stared back at me, my eyes with split and elongated pupils like that of a dragon. I normally hid them by wearing my dark shaded goggles but I had left them at home that day.
Brandy, Miss Dust, and Pinkie hadn't said anything because they have seen me like this before. Miss Dust Had said they looked different but kind and Pinkie had asked hundreds of questions almost all of which I didn't have answers to and Brandy had just shrugged and said ‘It isn't the strangest thing I've seen. Trust me’.
I looked at her than back at the blade. I sheathed the blade and looked at her “Sorry if you are scared I can get some goggles if you want.” She looked up and shook her head.
“No there's no reason to I'm not scared now it was just frightening to see you with them at first.” I blushed and looked at my hooves.
“Ok. Thank you.” I looked back up staring into the forest. Deciding it was best to change the subject I decided to bring up the first thing to come to mind. “So what was that you were playing?” She blushed and set her violin in her lap.
“Just something I wrote. It’s not very good.”
“It was wonderful Rain Dance.”
“Thank you.” She said blushing.
“I know we've talked before and all but I would like to make your earlier fright up to you.” I said lifting the bottle of drink out of my bag with my magic and holding It in front of us. “It’s pomegranate I hope you like pomegranate.”
“I love pomegranate Dragon Fire thank you.”
I opened the bottle and slipped some glasses out of my bags giving one to her. Opening the bottle I could smell the sweat juice inside and I poured some into each glass and placed the bottle back in my bags. I sipped my drink and looked at the trees.
“How did you find me?” Her words snapped me back to reality I looked at her.
“What do you mean?” She looked at me with a confused look on her face.
“How did you find me? I got lost and found this clearing and stopped to rest on this tree. So how did you find me out here?”
I looked at her and laughed. She stared, her expression turning from one of confusion to anger “Don’t do that!” I stopped and looked at her with a massive grin still on my face
“I’m sorry I laughed but the funny thing is you think you’re lost but I come up here every day. This tree is my hiding place.”
“What?”
“The tree is hollow with a hole in the bottom. It’s hidden by the roots. When I was young while I was exploring the forest I stumbled across this tree and soon it became my place to escape. I found the clearing near here and when I got my sword I started using this place as a training ground. I can show you the hole and the inside of the tree if you don’t believe me.” I jumped from the tree and Rain Dance yelped in surprise.
I landed at the bottom on all fours perfectly unharmed even with the twenty foot drop that the tree was. I slinked under the roots of the tree and left Rain Dance at the top with her mouth hanging open. I crawled to the hole and climbed in. The tree house was wide enough to hold at least two full grown ponies if they were standing side by side. I had done some custom work to the tree. I had constructed a small stair case leading to the top of the tree. The stair case was old but sturdy enough to hold my weight. At the top I had created a hatch that had covered with sticks and leaves over the years, but it was still easy enough to open.
The hatch opened up right behind the branch that Rain Dance was sitting on. She turned at the sound of the hatch opening. “Hi. Come in wont you.”
“What? How? Where did you go?”
“Into the tree like I told you” I held out my hoof “Do you want to come in or sit out in the cold?” She looked at my outstretched hoof then at me then gingerly she took the hoof and I pulled her into the hatch. “Watch your step the stairs are kind of small.” As she stepped onto the stairs behind me I pulled the hatch shut. “Welcome to my home away from home” I gave a wave to the inside of the tree. Hanging from the top were two hammocks that I sometimes slept in if it started storming before I got home, the walls and floor were still covered in the drawings me and Inky did as kids. In some places I had hung ropes with lanterns at the ends. Though the lanterns had long run out of oil I still had a way to light them. “Don’t freak out. Ok?”
When she nodded I started to focus. My horn glowed and the lamps and my horn were enveloped in the black aura of my magic. I thought about what I was trying to conjure and one word followed “Bál.” The lamps lit with a deep orange flame that sprung to life as if to embrace the spoken word. I dropped my magic hold on the lamps and let them hang with the new flames at their wicks. I looked at Rain Dance. Her mouth was agape and she was staring at me “You should shut your mouth or you might catch flies in there.”
She closed her mouth and looked at me strangely “What was that?”
“A word of power. They originate from dragons that used them to cast spells. The words themselves are used by a number of spell casting beings other than dragons, like zebras or unicorns. They are powerful and allow us to do things with magic we can’t do normally.”
After Rain Dance shook off her initial bewilderment she looked at me with a questioning look. “How did you know that word and cast that spell?”
I looked back at her and replied with the slightest smirk on my face. “I’m not just an adapt sword fighter I also spend most of my time studying magic, mostly defensive spells with some attack and conjuration spells. But after my studies took my deeper into the ways of magic, I sought to make the spells I cast stronger, soon my search led me to the collected works of Star Swirl the Bearded. He had done an extended research into the ancient dragon magi that once ruled over all of Equestria. They disappeared long before recorded history but left there magic behind and Star Swirl was intent on mastering the use of it. I found his full research notes on the language as well as a translation guide.”
She looked at me and swallowed. “That sounds like dangerous and unknown territory to mess around with.”
“Not at all, Star Swirl died before completing a master spell using the words of power that could change destiny it’s self but he did leave substantial knowledge on how to control the spells.”
“I spell that can change destiny?”
“Yes but unfortunately the spell was lost upon his death and was never found.”
She looked at me with curiosity shining in her eyes “So what was that word you just used?”
I looked to her and smiled glad to know she was not only keeping up but that she was excepting this. I was afraid she would have thought it strange. “The word is ‘Bál’ meaning ‘fire’ to use the word you must visualize that witch is being cast.” I looked away from her. “Let me show you what I mean.” My magic flared to life once again, my mind wondered to thoughts of chilly nights and the cold of the snow that I ran through in the winter months. “Svell!” The climate in the tree became that of a freezer and Rain Dance shivered. “It’s ok come here.” I rapped a foreleg around her and she stopped shivering.
“H-How?”
“The power affects what is around me but not what I am in contact with.”
She stared at the inside of the tree, frost was already starting to form on the walls. I saw what she was doing and gave her a shake. “Don’t worry I've enchanted the tree its resistant to fire, ice, and the like so the frost will melt soon.
She breathed a sigh of relief already it was starting to warm up again. “So what about your sword? How were you able to do that with your hooves?”
“Oh that, well you see, the sword belonged to my father. He was able to wield it because it has a special enchantment on it that allows a pony to wield it in there hooves, without having to levitate it or grip it in their mouths, the magic works on contact. A long time ago my father when he was still adventuring met a zebra shaman that gave the sword to him.”
She gave me a nod to show that she was listening. “The shaman told my father that a spirit came and told him my father was coming and to build him the sword. The shaman told my dad that only ponies of his bloodline could use the sword. So when I turned thirteen my mother gave it to me and told me about my father. I have been training with the sword ever since.”
“And where is your father now?”
“Gone, my mother told me that he died in the griffon war when I was too young to remember. So training with the sword is the only way I can feel close to him.”
A tear made its way into my eye. “I’m sorry to hear that dragon fire you must miss him.”
I wiped the tear from my eye “I do.”
We sat down on the floor to rest, until I remembered something. “So enough sob stories and reminiscing.”