//------------------------------// // Chapter 57: Crystal Magic // Story: The First Steps of the Rest of Your Life // by Rhino //------------------------------// ***Saturday Day 48, afternoon*** I relax on the bed of one of the guest rooms as I look through the crystal magic book from the library. The others and I hadn’t so much as ‘claimed’ rooms as each of us had dropped our saddlebags in a random room then gone and done what we wanted. I decided I had enough excitement for one day and thus here I am. “Given it’s primarily earth pony population, the Crystal Empire’s crystal magic is a rarely known subject. Its basis lies in a small portion of the already small unicorn section of the population. These unicorns didn’t attempt to create new magic, but instead created a new component of it. The basis of crystal magic is this component and its uses.” Below this paragraph is a sketch of a rune. While mostly crystalline in shape, it has several intricacies that make it one of the most memorable ones I’ve ever seen. I guess with the Empire existing 1000 years ago, runic magic was more commonplace… I spend a few more minutes reading up on the rune and some of its applications until a knocking at the door catches my attention. One of my joints pops as I stretch and make my way to open the door. The knocker is revealed to be none other than my favorite pegasus. I step back and let her in as I ask, “So, I take it everything went well then?” She nods, “Oh yes, his parents were very happy to have their little lamb back. All of them are relaxing in the eastern fields now.” I smile as I shut the door, “Good.” Fluttershy notices the book on the bed, “Oh, were you working on something?” I nod as I settle back down on the nest of pillows I had been lounging on, “Learned a new interesting rune due to our little excursion to the library. I was just about to do a little magical experimenting with it. Care to join me?” I gesture to some not yet occupied pillows on the pile. She lets out a cute yawn before giggling, “I’d love to.” She joins me as I bring the book back up. I ready my magic as I explain, “This rune is actually well documented so I really only need to perform a basic test just to see the effect under minimal specification.” I scribe a blank circle in the air in front of us, filling in the new rune as the core and three other runes for containment measures. “Let’s see what it does.” The circle glows brighter as I let my magic flow into it. At first nothing happens, but after a moment, a small speck of green is seen hovering just in front of the circle’s core. As the seconds pass, the speck grows until it can be recognized as a green colored crystal. Unlike the crystals around the Empire, which grew out of the ground, this one being free-floating, is instead a starburst-like shape. I let the magic flow until the construct is about the size of a pony’s head. I levitate the crystal in front of us, its shape now resembling a pure crystalline sea urchin. Fluttershy’s eyes shimmer as she gazes on the creation. She lets out a quiet exclamation, “Wow…” I slowly spin the many pointed crystal and watch as light dances around the room reflected from its faces. “Indeed…” I slowly release my magic in order to set it down, but find that even after I release my hold on it, the crystal remains floating in space. “What the…?” The yellow pegasus looks from my non-glowing horn to the still-levitating experiment. “But how is it… how can it do that?” She backs away slightly from the star-like crystal. I nudge the spikey ball out of position with a hoof only to see it return to its place. “I wonder if it has to do with exactly what it is…” I place the book between myself and Fluttershy and point to the explanation section, “This crystal is literally made of crystallized magic of the pony or ponies who cast the spell that make it. It is my magic in solid form.” I hum in thought as I look back at the still floating construct. “Umm,” I look over at my marefriend as she points to a hoofnote on the page, “it says that anything created from a user’s magic is linked to them just as their magic is. The object can thus be directed just as the user would any normal part of their magic, with the exception of its defined shape.” I skim the passage she just read out to me as I nuzzle her, “Good catch.” I try a few movements and find that the book is correct; I don’t hold the crystal in my magic to move it, but simply will it to move as I do with my own magical energy. I move it around the room a little more before I get curious and try to see what happens if I reach into the crystal and release what keeps it in its shape. As soon as I do this, the crystal glows lightly and begins to disintegrate starting at its outer edges and working inward. In about a single second, no trace of the crystal remains as I feel the magic it was formed from return to me. “Hmm, this certainly does have many possibilities…I wonder…” I mutter as I pull out a piece of paper with an unfinished circle on it. Fluttershy looks at how much more complex this circle is compared to the one I had just cast. “What spell is this?” I look from the spell book to the prototype spell and back again as I answer, “It’s something I’ve been working on since we all came back from Canterlot after the… incident there with Atom.” I take a quill out of my bag and start making careful additions to the circle. “I was close to completing this, but I needed a core rune. This ‘crystallization’ rune should do the trick quite nicely.” I start forming the circle in the air in front of us parallel to the floor. My smile that I had been wearing fades as I complete the circle and begin powering it slowly. The yellow mare notices my falling expression, “Rhino… what kind of spell is this?” A shape begins to form as I say without looking at her, “A spell… for being prepared.” I cut off my magic flow to the circle and look at the product. A green crystal dagger. The blade is approximately three hooflengths long and is similar in appearance to chipped flint. The hilt is simple and looks comfortable for both hoof and mouth wielding if it is needed, with a crystal orb at its end. The cross-guard joining the blade and hilt angles slightly towards the blade as it reaches outwards. I smile lightly as I look over the tool before I release its form as I had done to the test crystal. I feel a small shivering from my side as I look to see Fluttershy staring with wide eyes. “W-w-why would you make that?” My heart pangs at the small trace of fear in her voice. I try to explain, “Defence, for both myself and you.” I let out a sigh. “There were three major fights that happened in the Atom incident. For all three fights, my friends and I fought our hardest. However, while they took to the offense, I always stayed in back and helped where I could. I was support, I lent a push where it was needed and made some blows of my own, but in the end, I felt as if I was simply sitting on the sidelines while my friends gave their all.” I look down at the now finished spell, before putting it back in my bag, now in its own place in my completed spells book. “I know that it was all of us working together that let us win where we did, but they won’t always be around. I needed a direct means to protect what is important to me. I needed to be able to fight my own battles.” I turn and look her in the eyes. “I pray that I never need to use them in a serious fight, but having this tool to win is better than the consequences of the alternative.” Her eyes are no longer full of fear, it is still there, but now there is sadness as well. “Rhino…” she begins softly, “I understand what you are trying to do.” She scoots closer. “I still worry, and I still want you to be careful. I don’t want you to become something you are not.” She brightens up as she smiles and boops me on the nose. “Besides, you aren’t alone. I’ll keep you safe, you keep me safe. That alright with you?” I settle further into the pillow nest to sleep as I bring her closer to me, muttering as I become drowsy, “Sounds perfect to me.” ***The following morning*** Our whole group marches through the fresh powder of the morning snow as we make our way back to the train station. After yesterday’s events, waking up to a bright morning – and a bit of teasing from the guys as to what happened when they found me and Fluttershy asleep together, teasing which I put a quick stop to with some nice buzzkilling specific honesty that nothing happened- got us all to quite the positive start. We had passed the barrier edge not too long ago- “I do so wish it was permanent.” -and Rarity is already lamenting the loss of our crystal appearances. “Did you see how my mane just absolutely sparkled?” She flicks her mane and does a small pout. Applejack looks over to the fashionista, “But... good things are better when they're a rarity.” She winks at the pun. Rarity coos as Hydro looks back at Blue and Volt and narrows his eyes at them. “I blame you two for her picking up that habit.” The two pun ponies in question simply look away while the pegasus remarks to Volt, “Now now, is her learning to toss a pun really a reason to be cold to us?” They gesture at the frozen plains around us. Hydro stops suddenly as he grins, “Oh you ain’t seen anything cold yet.” He hefts a hooffull of snow from the ground and tosses it up and down in his hoof. “But I’m willing to teach you.” Blue quickly takes off as Hydro chases him, both stallions laughing as they run ahead of the rest of us. Rainbow huffs as she looks over to Applejack, “Heh, stallions.” The farm pony shrugs as she too grins, “Well, some of em anyway.” Out of the corner of my eye I see Twilight give Volt a light tug of magic to allow them both to fall behind the group. I barely hear Twilight as she remarks to Volt, “Speaking of which… I didn’t get a chance to talk to you this morning and of course I didn't get to talk to you last night since I was too ashamed to show my face. I just wanted to apologize for what happened. I tend to overreact sometimes and things got out of hoof quickly. If you don't want to be together anymore, then well… I can just add it to the pile of my growing failures.” I keep my head turned enough to see the stallion sigh then pulls her close to him, "You are not a failure to me. The reason I got upset was because I thought you considered me a failure and that was why you intervened. I tend to lose a lot before I win, but even when I lose faith in myself I had hoped you would always think of me as a success. You, Twilight Sparkle, made me feel like the biggest success in the world. That is why it hurt to see you act like that about me.” Twilight’s voice goes quieter, but I can still make out what she says, “Volt, I absolutely consider you a success. You handled the situation with my brother far better than I did. I was just afraid something would happen to you after on top of my most recent test failure. I hate when bad things stack up and sometimes I just can't take the pressure.” She pauses. “So do you completely forgive me?” Volt puts hoof up to his chin "Perhaps on one condition.” He grins. “We don't make this a repeat performance with your parents." They both laugh together and continue walking. The rest of the trip is uneventful as Twilight, Armor, and Cadence discuss her test results and what to expect from her mentor. No pony else really speaks until we all arrive at the train and start boarding. I look over to see Armor approaching Volt as the other ponies get onboard and I load the luggage. The white stallion rubs the back of his head as he looks to the sea-green one, “Hey, so I never got the chance to apologize for my actions last night.” The electric pony shrugs it off, “Hey, it’s alright, I figure she can’t possibly do worse than this, so it should all go smoothly with the family now.” Shining nods, “I hope so, for your sake.” He pats Volt on the back hard enough to almost knock him over. “Take care of her for me.” Volt gives a small salute, “You got it.”