Silver Bane

by FLUTTERxxDASH

Chapter Two, Working Through The Ranks

Twilight began to awake, slowly the light faded into vision as the blurriness of sleep rested for the night again, she could hear a beeping noise and the sound of hoofsteps on what sounded like marble, she mumbled and then tried to get some more sleep, "Wait what," she bolted upright shocking some ponies who were passing her bed, "hehe, sorry"

"No, no, its quite alright dear, how are you feeling, may I take a look at your bandages," Twilight now looked at her body, across her abdomen was rapped cloth, she nodded as a response and sat on the edge of her bed to let the doctor take a look, as he was removing the wrapping he introduced himself, "My name is Heart med, I am the lead medic for Queen Moon, wait a tick, this isn't right, you were injured yesterday, at least enough to need a few weeks in bandages," upon inspection the Doctor noticed that all the Cuts and bruises from yesterday had healed, "this should not be possible"

Suddenly a large Alicorn strode into the room, "It is possible I'm afraid, your looking straight at it, there is no denying it, I can explain it if you want, she uses her magic to heal herself constantly much like an Alicorn does but not on as great a level, are you conscious of this Twilight"

Twilight blushed slightly, "Not really but I do know how to do it, since I went to mount bail I have had some............ some side effects, like yesterday with my Mana pool, it keeps growing and I don't know what to do with it"

" I asked yesterday but there are two things bothering me Twilight, first I asked about a tutor, you couldn't have been without one to enter into Mount Bail territory and then there is your name, what is your last name"

Again Luna noticed Twilight wince when she was talking about a tutor, "Well I did have a tutor, he died though while saving me, I began to fall when I slipped off the edge of the mountain and he did a replacement spell on me falling himself, as for my last name, I am an orphan, I don't have one"

"What was your Tutors name"

"I did not know it for many years, I got familiar with the name ' The Master' but just days before he died he told me his name, Nightlight Sparkle," A tear fell from Twilights face as she suppressed a sob.

Luna went wide eyed with shock and then exhaled, "Nightlight Sparkle, it must be fate,.......... Twilight what would you say if you joined my army and trained directly under me," this caused all in the area to stop what they were doing and listen in on the conversation.

"I would be grateful, but being in the army seems a bit"

"Don't worry, you will be taught to control your Mana Pool and you wont have any responsibilities of a normal lackey of the army, you will only answer to me"

The Doctor looked shocked as he spoke in a hurried tone, "But my Queen, she is so young to hold the title of.." he was cut off by her glaring.

Confused by what the look on Luna's face toward the doctor meant she decided to ignore it, "So I would become your apprentice"

Stopping looking at the Doctor Luna turned and smiled at Twilight, "yep, I would teach you more magic than you could shake a stick at, first though follow me"

"Riiight~" Twilight got up and removed the rest of the bandaging before she rapped her torn up purple robe around her, she followed her Queen to where ever she was being taken.

Serra Quill was in a relatively peaceful afternoon in her office, after yesterday the Queen came back with a mare who was assuredly the one responsible for the two explosions albeit not her fault, just another morning in the duties of a seneschal, her doors opened as Said Queen and Said Mare entered, "Hello my Queen, what may I help you with today"

"Shh, you with the sarcastic voice"

"your fault for scaring me yesterday"

"What, really, scaring you, damn I did a fine job, you don't scare easy"

"Oh shut your face"

Twilight was baffled, "you do know your speaking to a Queen right"

"What this old fart, we've been friends since I was but a foal, she took me in as an orphan"

Luna rolled her eyes, " anyway, Twilight, this is Serra, usually she is only like this when we are alone due to formalities between the royals but she knows that you are being treated like a guest of common relations, meaning I don't give a buck how she acts towards me same as she wont be surprised if you called me Luna"

"Riiiight~"

"Anyway, I want to discuss you becoming my apprentice"

The seneschal in the room did a double take upon what she just heard, "WHAT!! wait..wait..wait.. you mean to say you wanna make her the.." Luna made the eyes again, "Fine, I'll just shut up then"

"Twilight, can I ask, how many spell routes had you mastered under the tutelage of Nightlight," Luna took a seat at the table across from Serra and then insinuated Twilight to sit on the seat next to her.

Twilight sat down before going into detail, "well I was taught all Teleportation magic, transformation magic, Alteration magic, Enchanting, Summoning magic, all of the light path has been covered but the darker path of magic The Master only taught me a little, Destruction magic I learned partly and Assassin magic like Scent proofing and Invisibility was taught to me, apart from that Master didn't do much from that, he said he would not teach me anything above a class A magic that could harm another Pony," Luna face looked stoic but her mouth was curled into a smile as she faced Serra who looked quite dumbfounded.

Luna turned back to Twilight, "That is a lot more than I thought you would have been taught and you even have some Dark magic spells, quite amazing, now I think I should tell you about how my army ranking system works, for this I will have Serra hear draw a diagram on that whiteboard," snapping Serra out of her stupor the mare began to trot over to the board and scribble down the ranks, "Now this will be kind of boring but If I am to teach you, you will have to know the army you are entering, it doesn't matter if you don't remember it all because there will be quite an intake in this session," Nodding at Serra her seneschal began the explanation.

"Okay here is the Ranking system Lunas army runs by," she pointed to a board that read~

"Quite confusing at first I know, first off their is the basic four ranks, one through three is the trainees and then you have rank four that commands the trainees, above them is the berrith. The Berrith move the army and oversee projects that the basic ranks do, their is three to each section, the sections are, Crafting, ground, navel, air, magic, and there is a sixth one but they have no berriths, they cannot be used due to their lack of skill in that section. Next we have the abbadon, The abbadon are the ones who train the Berrith to do a better job and watch them, near the end of the Abbadons career they choose Two of the three Berriths to replace them to oversee the next set of Berriths due to usually one of the Berriths usually leaving rank to make a family, their is only Two Abbadons per section. Lastly in the common ranks we have the Asteroth, these are the top of the normal part of the army, they plan and command how the army should move and what projects they work on, they only report to the six pillars and the queen at the moment, So how does it look so far"

"Confusing but I'm keeping up, I think," Twilight was focusing on taking in all the information.

"Now for the more advanced section of the army, there are six ponies elected to become Pillars, a Pillar is a pony who outclass' all in their field of work and gains that title, these titles are Lucifer, Strongest of the six, commander of the Unicorns, Leviathan, Commander of the Navel army, Mammon, Commander of the Earth ponies, Asmodeus, Commander of the smiting guild, Belphagor, Second strongest and right hoof to Lucifer, and Beezlebub, Commander of the Assassins. That is the Six pillars," Serra was about to carry on as Luna interrupted her.

"Lastly there is one more rank, the highest given to an officer of the army, Nemesis, this is my left hoof of god and my right hoof of the devil, this pony out ranks all apart from myself and is the leader of the six Pillars, quick and adept on the field, enormousness ability to adapt, in their own ethnic background they have to be unique and very different, almost like that of an Alicorn they cannot be weak, finally they study directly under my tutelage and train to be the most lethal weapon Equine has," As soon as she stopped she saw Twilight realize what she was saying, not only that but a slight bit of fear was thrown in there as well.

Twilight struggled to speak, "You.......y..y..you cant mean me, I-I cant be the Nemesis, I don't know any true attacking spells and I haven't had a fight with a pony in my life"

"If I know Nightlight he made you at least try to go against something dangerous even with defensive spells,"

"No he never.... wait you knew master?"

"Its no surpirse he was the last Nemesis"

"WHAT!" Twilight began to hyperventilate as shock after shock hit her.

Serra rushed over to her with a paper bag, "Breathe in and out in this, C'mon, breathe Twilight, breathe," Slowly Twilight calmed down.

"Okay so Master was the Nemesis, that means what then?"

Luna thought for a second, "Well it could mean a variety of things, he only left his position due to thinking he wasn't good enough for the role any more what was pish posh, it could mean he was grooming you to become the Nemesis, that would be why he took you to Mount Bail, you as I would presume had quite little Mana reserves and struggled to do magic before I guess," Twilight nodded, "Well the reason he never taught you higher than class A or dark magic was that they take a ridiculous amount of magic to cast, meaning if your Mana pool emptied whilst casting you would die, this way visiting the mountain unlocked your........your.... whats the word.... you could say faucet and turned it on but without the training he was going to give you atop of Mount Bail it seems your pool went out of control and still is until I train you, apart from that, I would guess he was just plainly teaching you magic, now which would you choose, there really is only one path, its either become the Nemesis or wait to explode into tiny iddy bitty pieces, your choice," A sinister grin came across Luna's face as Serra rolled her eyes.

"So what do I have to do then as a Nemesis"

"The Nemesis"

"Whatever, so what do I do then?"

"Nothing, you just relax and learn under my wing, train here in the castle and give it a few years you will be the most powerful unicorn this world has seen, Come now lets get to training"

Twilight stood up facing her new tutor, "Already, its only been like an hour since I woke up and around a minute since I agreed to become your Apprentice officially"

"It isn't official yet," Serra interjected.

Luna turned around, "Ah, yeah we have to do that thingy"

Twilight looked confused, "What thingy"

Serra facehooved, "Y'know you might be our Queen but your a bit dizzy in the head sometimes, the thingy," she moved her hooves up and down in a doctor evil fashion whilst saying thingy as best as he could, "is the official announcement of the future Nemesis and Apprentice of the Queen"

Twilight reared up, "All fancy n'shit"

Serra blurted out a laugh as well as did Luna, "YEAH, HA, HAHA, all fancy and shit, awww Twilight I can see this being a ............ colorful relationship"

All three mares left the room and headed to the training facilities near Lunas personal quarters leaving one person left in the room.

"The new Nemesis Eh, this is gunna be big," the voice snickered and lurked back off into the darkness.