Ungrounded

by Lucien Chance


Chapter 13: The Secret World

Lucien awoke the next morning to a pounding head and aching ribs. He coughed, hard. He was sure that a few ribs had been either cracked or broken. He stretched his arms and legs out to check that they were still intact. They were, of course. He just had to make sure. After a moment of faint trepidation, he felt to see if his mana stores will still present. He felt the raw energy inside him ignite, and it left him smiling.

He was laying in a soft, large bed. He stretched out his senses briefly and checked to see if anyone else was in the room with him. There were no flames of energy besides his own, but there were traces of it leading all around his bed. There were several spots on chairs and the floor that held a greater concentration. Those were spots where energy lingered for longer, as if someone sat down for sometime. "Looks like seven beings stayed the night in the room with me. Gee, I wonder who that could have been?" But he still did wonder where they went.

He chuckled, but it transformed into a cough almost immediately. "I am seriously neglecting my own personal health. Why I didn't feel this bad yesterday?"

With a groan, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and got up in one swift motion. His head spun for a few moments before clearing. He walked over to a small door on the left and went through. As he had expected, the door led to a grand-ish bathroom. Grand-ish because, despite the fact that it was the single most amazingly decorated bathroom he had ever seen, it was still pony-sized.

He walked up to the sink and turned on the faucets. He splashed cold water in his face and met his eyes in the mirror before him. "I need to shave . . ." he thought idly. Then, on a bit of an impulse, he conjured up a razor and did just that. Afterwards, he took a shower and hand-washed his clothes in a little basin off to the side. Upon putting them back on, he felt like a new man.

He mended his probably broken ribs with a quick, but costly, healing spell.

That fight with Bronze Gear didn't go so smooth as he had expected. And it wasn't just because he didn't have access to magic. He knew that he needed more experience with his weapon.

So he decided to take advantage of the fact that he was awake early in Canterlot, and find his way to the libraries that Twilight had told him about when they were relating stories. He exited what he supposed to be his guest bedroom in the Canterlot Castle Towers and started his long walk down the open staircase.

After ten minutes of walking, fuming from the impossibly long walk. "What is the point of making a tower so freakin' tall?! What is the purpose of building something this massive and putting one room in it?! Bad architect, bad!"

He sighed and put a hand to his face. "There has to be a quicker way down this, and I don't think Equestria's developed elevators yet."

An idea popped into his mind. It wasn't his best idea, but it would allow him to reach the ground without walking down all those damned stairs!

Without a second thought, he turned left and vaulted over the side of the railing.

The wind whipped around his clothing and brought tears to his eyes. Of course, he had fallen from greater distances in his long years, but going from this high is still a rush.

He gathered mana in his palms quickly. It pooled up and little green droplets of energy fell and dissipated into the air. His descent slowed greatly until he was practically hovering. He eased up on the flow to his hands and floated down gently.

He landed right on his feet without any complications and continued walking. After a few steps, he fell to one knee as the strain of expending so much mana after using that healing spell hit his mind in full force. Once the feeling had subsided, he looked around at the ponies that had bore witness to his epic and graceful landing. His face turned red as he stood back up. "Uh . . . don't try that at home . . .?" he tried.

The three or four ponies just responded by shaking their heads and moving on with their business. "Right . . ."

He chose a random, important-looking building and walked off in that direction. According to Twilight, the library was at the top floor of the building she stayed at while underneath the Princess' tutelage. Well, that palace he was making for seemed pretty likely to hold a library and living quarters.

He made it there it about ten minutes, give or take. His excuse being that his legs hurt from the fight yesterday, and that palace was a lot farther away than he thought it to be.

The ornate doors stood to be around seven times his height, and stylized with various celestial images. The sides of it were obviously made of gold. Solid gold. Vanity, ponies is thy name.

He pushed the heavy-looking doors open with aid from his magic, just a shove of energy, and stepped in to look around. The first thing he noticed was that the place was huge. The entryway was almost like the Taj Mahal. It stretched back into the building much further than he gave it credit for when looking at it on the outside. The second thing he noticed was that the walls were lined with ponies sitting on chairs. And they were all staring at him.

He stood stock-still for a moment, bearing the full force of their awkward stares. His face began to grow hot, and he felt as if he was interrupting something important. Not wanting to be the odd one out, he strode down the hall as fast as his legs would allow, while not running. "Running would only make it worse," he concluded.

He made it to the end of the hallway and took an immediate right through a pair of slightly-larger-than-average sized doors. His hand grabbed at the handle frantically, and he opened it up, jumped through, then spun around and closed it. His hands rested on the ornate handles for a moment longer before he turned and put his back to the door.

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He always hated being the center of attention like that. Then, the sound of plates clinking together brought him out of his thoughts. He stared straight ahead at the two ponies that were sharing the room he was in.

And the two alicorns stared right back at him. "Hello, Lucien," Celestia greeted.

"Uh, hi... Princesses?" This was so far out of left-field he didn't really know how to react.

"Would you like to join us for tea?" Celestia inquired politely.

"Sure, I guess," he said, then he sat down on an empty cushion. "So, how's it going?" he asked.

Celesia smiled at his informality. She rolled her eyes in mock-annoyance, then said, "Oh, those nobles are such a pain to deal with sometimes. Just earlier today one of them had the nerve to request your immediate arrest." She chuckled lightly.

Lucien, however, was immediately alarmed. "And you denied it, right?"

"Of course."

A moment of silence pervaded the room. Luna sipped at her tea, and Lucien fidgeted in his cushion. "If you don't mind me asking, what were his grounds?"

"It was a lot of screaming, but I was able to make out 'rainbow,' and 'cabbages.'"

"Oh. So that's what happened to that one cabbage vendor."

He laughed, trying to cover up his undoubtedly surprised expression. "Cabbages?"

Celestia raised an eyebrow, but didn't press the matter further, saying only, "Yes, cabbages."

Teacups were sipped from.

The faint ticking of a clock could be made out.

Lucien began to feel uncomfortable.

"Princess," Lucien started, but Celestia held up a hoof.

"When we aren't in the company of others, just 'Celestia' will do."

"Right, Celestia." It felt strange to him to address royalty in such a manner. "I was wondering if you could give me directions to the castle's library. Twilight mentioned it to me once and I'm curious about it."

"Of course. Guard!" she shouted towards the door.

Immediately a bleach white stallion wearing golden armor rushed into the room. "Your Highness!" he saluted.

"Take Lucien here to the library in which Twilight Sparkle used to spend so much time in. The one with the floor-to-ceiling windows." Celestia ordered, then smiled at Lucien warmly. "Before you go, I just wanted to thank you personally for what you did yesterday. Taking on Bronze like that must have been difficult. I apologize for both my lack of appearance and my guard's until after you subdued her. And I would also like to inform you that we have our brightest minds trying to track down the pony that left the note at Bronze's house. If you wish to check their progress just ask a guard to take you to the Detective Building." She nodded to the guard and he opened the door for Lucien.

"You're welcome, Princess. It was fascinating to see Bronze's machine in action, even if it did cause some damage." He started to walk out, but then rounded back. "And, if you don't mind me asking, what happened to the bomb that was set off?"

Her ears moved backward a bit, and her smiling face morphed to one of confusion. "I'm sorry?"

Lucien raised an eyebrow. "The bomb that neutralized our magic?"

"I'm afraid we didn't find anything of the sort when we examined the area. There was a large crater in the middle of the grass . . ." her eyes darted about rapidly as she thought of the implications. "It can't be possible. There is no conceivable way something capable of so much destruction could have escaped us." Her eyes met Lucien's again.

"I will go and speak with the Detective Force right away. An item—no, a weapon—as dangerous as that must not be allowed duplication." She paused for a moment and regained her composure. "We will work on it. Thank you for the information, Lucien. Farewell for now."

As Lucien and the guard were walking out, Lucien could just make Celestia's voice calling to a secretary, "Suspend Day Court for the time being. There are more pressing matters at hoof currently."


The two arrived at the library after a few short minutes of walking. Lucien pestered the guard pony slightly along the way.

"Hey."

...

"How ya doing?"

...

"Nice weather we're having, huh?"

...

"Are we there yet?"

The sound of a hoof connecting with a face could be heard from miles away.

The pony stomped off after dumping Lucien at the feet of a grand building with pillars in the front and vaulted windows on the sides. It was multi-leveled, probably stretching up at least four stories. In short, a damn good library.

Lucien walked up to the front and tugged open the large doors with a little effort. His first sight was that of books. Many, many books stretching to the back wall. He moved forward rapidly and looked up. He was correct about the four stories. From his point on the ground he could see each individual tier of bookcases up to the ceiling.

It reminded him of his first times in his mentor's unrealistically large "home" library. The amount of time he spent in there was immeasurable, as was his appetite for learning. Literally every book he got his tiny hands on was read in record-breaking speed. The concept of magic was very new to him at the time and each aspect of it fascinated him.

He could still see himself as that young boy, even many years later, drawn in to that secret world he had been invited to. Draco was more of a father to him than the one who had brought him into the world. "I can't even remember my father's face."

Lucien's expression fell for a moment and he was sharply pulled out of his reverie. The thought—the concept, even—of forgetting such an important fact stunned him. The worst part, so he thought, was that he could still recall his mother's face, if only slightly. "Kind blue eyes, tight lips, rounded nose, auburn hair."

His nerves were steadied by a bit when he recalled her features.

"Enough of this. I have a library to get to." He took off in a search for anything related to swordplay. He had always been better at learning by the book instead of example.

He had read for about an hour, or so he thought, when he heard his name called from down below. He stood up and walked to the center balcony then looked down. The girls were there, along with Spike. Each was looking in a different direction. Then, to his amusement, a librarian popped out of nowhere and shushed them.

He called out, "Hey girls," softly, then waved an arm as they looked up. He still had the book he had been reading in his other hand. He pointed out the stairs and motioned for them to join him. They understood and trotted off towards the stairwell he had come up.

Twilight was the first to reach him. "I'm glad to see you're awake Lucien!" she said in a loud whisper.

"Glad to be awake, Twilight. How did I get in that tower anyway?"

Applejack cut in. "The Princess suggested ya take one of the spare guest towers. We all spent the night there after carrying you up."

"You carried me up?"

Her ears folded back. "After reading that note in Bronze Gear's house you just kinda... passed out. We got you to the tower and gave the note to the Princess. Ah guess we'll hear 'bout that later."

He nodded, taking in the information. "That note... the spade... and what did it say? Something about sending out blueprints?" He banished the thoughts from his mind and refocused on the ponies in front of him.

"Well, I've just been here reading for the past hour or so. My fight with Bronze didn't go as well as I had anticipated, as if I anticipated it at all. So now I'm studying up with any swordplay books I can find."

The group, excluding a certain purple unicorn, chuckled. "What?" Lucien asked.

"You're just like Twilight," giggled Pinkie Pie.

Lucien laughed softly. "Yeah, I guess I do seem like her now, huh?"

Twilight blushed and her eyes met the ground, but she had a little smile on her face. "I'm not like that!" she retaliated.

Everyone stopped laughing and gave her a look of sheer unamusement.

"Maybe just a little."

Their laughter rang through the library until the librarian shushed them again.


They talked for some time after that. Meaningless things, mostly. Just normal-people talk, as Lucien liked calling it. He had forgotten about the events of last night entirely. The conversation slowed down a bit after Applejack finished a story, one involving a penguin and a jar of mayonnaise. They had gone silent, unsure of what to say next. Luckily, Twilight filled in the gap.

"Hey, Spike?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"Would you mind taking the girls to Doughnut Joe's? I'll meet you all there later," she said, but Lucien felt he could discern the reason behind it.

"Sure Twilight. C'mon girls!" Spike got up and started to walk away with the five mares in tow.

Lucien and Twilight watched the group until they walked out the door of the library and then went back to sit down. Lucien plunked down in his chair and winced as it groaned loudly. "So," he started, "what do you want to know?"

She blinked. "How did you—"

"Magic," he cut her off expertly while wiggling his fingers in a mysterious fashion.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Well, I wanted to ask you a few more questions about the world you came from. Earth, you called it?"

"She's still on this?" he thought with slight confusion. "I'll give you a rundown, I guess." He took a deep breath. "The world I came from isn't entirely different from the one you have here. Magic isn't exactly 'readily available' to the public, so we developed industry and technology instead. We evolved from wooden tools in the Ancient Times to iron tools many years later, then industry developed and we switched to steel. Now we have guns and bombs and other weapons of mass destruction, and the world will degrade back to the time of wooden tools.

"Of course, that won't happen for a while still, but not too long after my time. Nowadays, our technology and science have given us abilities that we wouldn't have dreamt of no less than 100 years ago. The ability to move at hundreds of miles-per-hour, to fly without wings, to talk to people halfway across the world with a push of a button," he sighed and put a hand to his forehead. "And of course, what would a developing world be without its share of wars?

"The book of war, one that we have been writing since one monkey slapped another, has grown so much since the past, nobody's even sure of how thick it would be now. Wars began when one person wanted something another person had. Or if somebody disagreed with another's point of view. Clashes of sword and spear, gunfights... bombings... all of it designed so one person could outright destroy the other. It's grown alongside our technology, and it will lead us to our eventual destruction. Of that, I'm sure." He paused after his long speech. "Why does humanity have to be so stupid? I'm not afraid of admitting our faults, but just why?"

"What about magic on your world?" asked Twilight, her eyes focused on him intently.

"Magic has been around for as long as we magicians can remember. The Egyptians, a race of people that lived in the sand and believed in the gods, were the first to really utilize it. People would be inducted into a secret society called the House of Life and they would be taught how to use magic and follow the path of the gods. That's also the time that the first monsters and demons came about." Lucien sighed. "If you look at any city now, you can trace its roots back to ancient Egypt. That's how influential their empire was.

"But you probably want to hear about modern-day magic and magicians such as myself, correct?"

She nodded.

"Right, right. Had to set the scene before giving you the story, yeah? Magic is steadily becoming more popular nowadays. The House of Life was the largest society of magicians that ever existed, as far as I know, and it's beginning to make a comeback, I believe. Even so, some people like me just keep to themselves for the most part. Magicians played huge roles in wars in the last 200 years or so, and now they're taking an even more active role.

"There's still fair amount of people on my planet that don't see beyond what's in front of their eyes. They see their jobs and families and life in general. That's good. That's what keep them safe." He paused, and looked down. "They don't know what's truly out there." He shook his head. "I pity them, but envy them at the same time. Those ordinary, lucky bastards that don't have to constantly deal with 'mythical' creatures hunting you down."

"Even in the cities?"

He nodded. "Especially in the cities. That's where it's usually the safest."

"Why can't they see them?"

"Well, it's not that they can't see them. Because they definitely can. It's just a problem of believing it. Seeing is believing, Twilight, but sometimes you have to believe to see. That's the thought that guided me through many encounters with the impossible." He sighed. "Some of what I've seen," his voice broke for a moment, "I wouldn't wish it on anybody. Monsters... we grew up being told they weren't real. But look at it now, every myth, every legend, every fable, even every government conspiracy, all true. And as we were threatened, we combined forces in factions.

"It started out slowly, naturally. After the second World War, not everybody was all that trusting. Our species had almost been wiped out by no threat other than ourselves. Magicians that were alone and fresh out of the war were picked off by monsters and a group of mage-killers who called themselves Hunters. We were hunted down almost to extinction. Then, slowly, alliances were formed. Our rates of survival went up, and factions formed.

"There are three major ones today," he counted them off on his fingers while he spoke them, "the House of Life, the Company of Magicians, and the Tribune of Magic, and 'Big Brother' Trireme Council." He shook his head.

"You don't like them?"

"Not a single one of the three, well, four I guess, but that last one isn't really a faction."

"Then what is it?"

"A group of a few elders and their assorted underlings that acts as a sort of principal of the factions, making sure nobody oversteps the line into some more dangerous things. They're usually pretty useless, considering how the factions generally keep in line because they're too afraid to experiment with things that are more... out there... but they give big assignments occasionally, and they pay well."

"What about the others?"

"The Tribune is a group that based their mannerisms and 'beliefs' off of old systems. They are the oldest faction in existence now, originating somewhere in the late 1950s. They have all these councils and tribunes and nothing ever gets done with all the politics flying around now. Not to mention they have a 'High Order' of some ten people that have a massive superiority complex.

"The Company is, in my opinion, the worst of the three. They're the most modern, having formed just at the turn of the 21st Century. They're the puppetmasters, the corporate manipulators, the greedy. They're the ones that want the wealth and power by any means necessary. It's disgusting, what they do to others. Unfortunately, that's the one that I've had the most history with, but we can talk about that some other time.

"The last group is the House. They took their name from the old House of Life that I told you about in Egypt. And, just like the original House, they defend humanity from demons and monsters and whatnot. Their soldiers are sophisticated, but not as much as the Company's are. I find them to be tolerable, at the most. The biggest qualm I have with them is that they're ridiculous workaholics, which is fine and all in the world we live it, but sometimes it leads them to make... morally questionable decisions."

Twilight paused a moment, lost in thought. "Where do you stand?"

"What?"

"You said there are three factions. While you don't like any of them, you have to be in one in order to survive, right?"

"Well," he started, "not exactly. I'm a freelance magician, meaning I'm unaligned. My mentor, Draco, was a member of the Tribune who got out when things began to calm down a bit. Later on he awoke me, then taught me what he knew." His eyes met the floor briefly. "I don't know where he is now." He smiled and looked back up. "Probably off fighting some demons somewhere in Italy, I guess. He was one powerful old man, alright."

He began to slip off into his memories when Twilight asked him another question. "So then how did you get here?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, here." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I was... trying to summon a demon...?"

"You what?!" Twilight exclaimed, before being shushed by the librarian a third time.

"Well, I needed power to fuel a spell, so I made a summoning circle. About three quarters of the way in, my stupid cat jumped on one of the symbols and smudged it. It changed the spell so much it transported me to Equestria instead of transporting a demon to my circle."

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?!" Twilight asked in a furious whisper.

"Yeah, I know, but believe me," he held up a hand, "I would have handled it." He closed his fist and it crackled with green energy that faded quickly.

"Ugh..." She trailed off staring at his hand, then suddenly perked up again. "Can I analyze your magic?"

"Excuse me?"

"Your magic... can I analyze it?"

"Uh, sure." He held up a green hand, unsure of what to do.

"Oh, please." Twilight reached across the table they were sitting at and grabbed his hand. She touched her horn to it and Lucien felt a slight tugging sensation at the back of his mind. "So right now I'm borrowing a bit of your mana to analyze how your body processes it.

The tip of her horn started to glow green. As time went on, the green spread down further down her horn, eventually reaching her forehead. It looked to Lucien like the loading bar on a computer.

"Fascinating," she said after she pulled her head back. "Your magic is similar to the natural forces here on Equis." She noticed Lucien's confused expression, then added, "this planet."

She created a small ball of mana in front of her, solidifying it slowly. "It behaves so freely, I can tell there's so much to be done with it." The ball hardened until it was completely solid. "You can manipulate it so easily, you can do almost anything with it."

"Wait, you don't have as much magical freedom here?"

She regarded him with her large violet eyes. "No. Our magic conforms to rules just like those of physics and the like. It's very strict, what we can and can't do. But this," she looked back to the ball and picked it up in her hoof, "has almost limitless usage."

"But that also leaves many possibilities for error," Lucien interjected. "A single mistake on what you want a spell to perform can cause its results to become... unpredictable. Hell, I'm only here now because of a single smudged symbol, one of at least thirty that I drew as part of that summoning."

"Wow. That's pretty severe."

Lucien shrugged. "That's what comes with power like this. Gotta use it right, or not at all."

Twilight blinked, unable to imagine refusing to use magic. "Well, thanks for the information Lucien," she said, sensing he was done talking. "It was great hearing about your world for a change; and your magic fascinates me." She yawned and looked out the wide window across the floor of the library.

The light outside was slowly fading, and she could barely make out the orange glow of the sunset from the other side of the sky. A few low-hanging clouds were scattered through the horizon, offset against the mountainous background behind it.

"Has all that time passed already? It felt like minutes." Lucien said, gazing out the window with Twilight. "We should probably head back to the towers." He began to walk towards the stairs but froze and turned. "Wait, where are the rest of you staying? I know that you slept in my room last night, but I just chalked that up to my unconsciousness."

Twilight's grinned sheepishly. "Well, we didn't really make arrangements for us to sleep somewhere after last night. I didn't expect to be staying overnight in Canterlot when we first got here, because of... Bronze." She looked away and her ears folded back.

"Twilight, is something wrong?"

"I..." she glanced at his face. "I feel guilty about what happened last night."

"Twilight-"

"No, Lucien. I'm responsible for what happened with her. Once you got past all the crazy rambling, Bronze had a point, along with a reason to be angry. She felt replaced and forgotten, like the Princess brushed her aside. If I had never come along, or found a way to keep her in the Castle-"

"Twilight, stop." Lucien said forcefully. "You can't blame something like that on yourself. There is something wrong in Bronze Gear's mind. She would have snapped eventually no matter what. And all her talk about the new 'Age of Machine' just proves my point."

"But-"

"No buts. She is crazy and it's just a coincidence that she snapped and struck out at you. This is all on her."

Lucien pointed towards the stairs and Twilight turned around slowly. She started to walk off to them, head held low. Lucien felt a slight ache in his heart. He caught up quickly and put a hand on the back of her neck. She turned her head to face him. He opened up his arms and she took the opportunity to give him a big hug.

After a few moments, she pulled back, eyes tinged red and damp. "It scared me, what she did."

"Hmm?"

She stared right into his eyes. "She nullified my magic. Yours too. That was a terrifying experience, even if it didn't last very long." She shivered slightly, thinking of the emptiness it left, and then pushed away from him, beginning to walk again. "Magic is my life. It's my special talent, it's what I was born to do, it's my element. I was helpless to do anything, and the others were affected by it too. I love them, but I doubt they felt it anywhere near as acutely as the two of us did. We, who are tied closely to that energy." She broke off.

"Having my power snuffed that easily was... something else. I understand what you are saying. I practically grew up with magic, and it's never deserted me before. I felt useless, almost. But I had to fight to protect you seven. You're the only things in my crazy life that are keeping me grounded." He sighed. They were almost out the door.

"I'm not sure if I even want to go back to Earth." He opened the door for her and they walked out into the twilight, each feeling a new bond tie a knot around them. Not one of love, but of kindred mages.