Chapter VIII
The Broken Swordsman
A feeling of dread hung over the guild and Crimson didn’t catch a wink of sleep last night due to his rival only sleeping a room away. Even the company of the indigo haired scholar couldn’t quell his anxiety. The next morning, he and Twilight were enjoying their breakfast as they heard foot steps on the stairs. Soon the white mage and her three compatriots came down and sat across from the red mage.
“So Ivory, to what do I owe the pleasure?” He asked as he put his coffee down. “Last I heard you and the Saints were over in Griffonia.”
“True, but things were getting boring after we took out the reigning drug lord and his entire syndicate.” Ace stated as Sunny brought them each a cup of coffee. “Thanks Sunny.”
“So we decided to try our luck back in Equestria and we just so happen to hear that you were stationed in an S rank zone.” The black winged man said.
“What our captain means to say is, can we join your guild?” Bandit asked. Crimson grew a wide grin and sat back.
“I’ll do it if Ivory admits that I’m better than her.” Before the building could explode with magic the front door to the guild opened and the group of mages gasped. Ivy’s arms and legs were covered in bandages and was being supported by the blue haired flyer who had his right arm and left wing wrapped.
“What the hell happened?” Rouge asked as she approached her boyfriend.
“Ask him.” Ivy said as she glared at the blue flyer. Crimson took Ivy and lead her towards their med bay where they had a few healing pods. “Thanks boss.” She said as she sighed in relief.
“Mind telling me what happened?” He asked as he looked at Cobalt. The flyer hung his head in shame.
“I can’t use my sword.”
“What? I don’t think they heard that!” Ivy yelled in frustration.
“I can’t use my sword!” Cobalt yelled.
“What do you mean?” Crimson said in confusion. The flyer unhitched his sword from his belt and tried to pull the blade from the sheath.
“It won’t come out and when I tried I got hit with magic backlash.” He said as he held up his bandaged arm. Crimson took the handle of the sword and pulled it out with ease.
“Really now?” He said as he saw that the blade was still broken. “You still haven’t fixed this yet?”
“You know that these weapons don’t get repaired like normal ones.” Cobalt said with a sigh. The flyer then noticed the other four agents. “When did you guys get here?”
“We got in yesterday around noon.” Bandit stated. Crimson pulled the blade out again and ran his hand over the metal he felt a small pulse come from the blade.
“Cobalt come with me. Rouge look over Ivy here.” The Changeling nodded and summoned her medical bag. Crimson lead Cobalt up to the meeting room and locked the door behind him. Crimson summoned a spell book and sat down with the sword in front of him. Twilight, Ivory and the rest of her squad were off to the side and watched.
“I hate this part.” Crimson said as he cut his hand on the broken edge. The man closed his eyes and the sword was wrapped in dark red magic and the sword started to shake. A ball of magic then came from the blade and levitated before the group.
“What?” The ball said in an aggravated tone.
“Been a while Warren.” Crimson said. “Cobalt here tell me that you’ve been difficult with-”
“I refuse to be wielded by one who is so weak willed!” The ball then formed the torso of a man wearing a red mask. His hair was long a and silver and he shared the same markings on is skin as the sword.
“Who are you calling weak?” Cobalt yelled.
“The one who lost so pitifully to that silver haired woman.” Cobalt remembered how he was barely able to scratch Ivory when they fought. “Not to mention that you’ve taken your eye off the ball.”
“What are you talking about?”
“See? You don’t remember!”
“Remember what?”
“I suppose that Azure didn’t mean that much to you then if you’ve forgotten her so easily.” Cobalt’s eyes were filled with rage and he glared at the spirit with pure hatred. “Remember now?” Warren stated. Cobalt was gritting his teeth and wished that the sword would catch on fire. “Consider our partnership over.” The spirit then went back inside the sword.
Cobalt tried to grab the sword but was hit with a magic blast. The man grunted and stormed out of the room as Crimson picked up the lade and sighed.
“What was that about?” Twilight asked.
“It’s complicated.” Crimson sighed. “Since Cobalt lost to Ivory, Warren thinks that Cobalt is weak willed,” Twilight gulped. “and it looks like he’s right.”
“How can you say that?” The scholar said in a shocked tone. Crimson pulled out the sword and showed the broken blade.
“Soul edge’s aren’t like normal weapons. Their strength is only determined by the user’s will and spirit. If one is broken, it means that the user has lost confidence in themselves.” Ivory shrugged at the comment. “The only person who can fix this is Cobalt.”
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The blue flier stormed out of the guild and made his way into the small town. The man kicked a rock in frustration and sat down on a park bench. He reached inside his shirt and pulled out a small locket. It was round and silver. He opened the lock and a small jingle started playing. He looked at the picture of a small girl. The name Azure was written on the other side of the lid. Under the name was ‘July, 13’ scraped into the metal. The man held it in his hand and waited for the chime to end. Before closing it and putting it back inside his shirt.
“Hey Cobalt!” A voice called out.
“What?” He said in a rough tone. The man turned to see the orange winged girl with a surprised look on her face. “Oh, sorry Scootaloo. Didn’t see ya there.”
“You okay?” She asked as the man stood up.
“Yeah, just a rough morning.” He said as he took a deep breath. “So what’s up?” The man asked.
“I did everything on that schedule you gave me.” She said as she held out the paper.
“Okay, how often?”
“Everyday since you gave it to me.”
“Okay, show me what ya got kid.” Scootaloo nodded and did fifty push-ups before rolling on her back and used her wings to lift her back off the ground. She did that twenty times before flapping her wings and hovered for a few moments before falling down.
“Darn it!” She said in frustration.
“Not bad, technique is a bit off but, other than that no problems.” He said with a smile. The man then summoned what looked like leggings and one of those skin tight athletic shirts. “Question, how much do you weigh?”
“Um, about one-hundred and eight pounds.”
“Okay and how old are you?”
“Twelve. Thirteen next month. Why?” Cobalt tapped the clothing and Scootaloo saw a bright gem on the front. “What is that anyway?”
“This is training gear that will help you build up more muscle.” He gave the girl the suit and the two wen to Sugar Cube corner so Scootaloo could get changed in the bathroom. She came back out with the long sleeve shirt on under her orange T-shirt and shorts. The man then heard a growl come from her stomach. The young flier blushed and rubbed her head.
“Sorry, I don’t usually eat breakfast.”
“What? That’s crazy! You need your strength especially for training.” He said as the two grabbed a seat and Pinkie walked over to them.
“Hey guys! What can I get ya?”
“Um, I guess a bagel.” Scootaloo said. “With jam?”
“You got it!” The girl said as she zoomed off to the kitchen and returned a minute later with the girl’s order and a cup of coffee for the blue haired man.
“Hey Cobalt can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“How can you do magic?” The young flier asked as her food arrived. “I mean I know that people with wings can control the weather and all, but I’ve never met someone with wings who can use magic like Twilight or Rarity.” Cobalt thought about how he could answer the question in a way so she could understand.
“Okay, so you know that everyone has magic in them right?” The girl gave a nod. “Mages can project it outwards into spells like Crimson, Twilight and Rarity. People like you, Rainbow Dash and myself express it in our ability to control the weather. AJ, Mac and Caramel have a strong connection to the earth and elements.”
“I already knew that.” Scootaloo said in a bored tone. “So how are you able to shoot lightning from your finger tips?” Cobalt sighed and scratched his chin.
“It matters how you manifest it.”
“Manifest it?”
“Okay, lets say that magic is like music. Theoretically anyone can learn how to do it given enough time and practice. However in order to use spells, there needs to be certain requirements.” Scootaloo leaned in closer to listen. “People like you, AJ and myself need a regulator.”
“What’s a regulator?”
“You’ve heard an electric guitar play before right?” Scootaloo gave a nod. “Good. Hearing an electric guitar that’s unplugged from an amplifier isn’t too exciting. However, when you plug it into an amp it makes sweet, sweet music.” Scootaloo processed the info and scratched her head.
“So what you’re saying is, that you need an amplifier to use magic?”
“Bingo.”
“What is it?” Cobalt sighed at the question.
“It was my sword, but in the event that I can’t use it I have this.” Cobalt rolled up his sleeve to show a bright blue gem on a wrist band. “This acts as a mini regulator. Granted it makes me use up way more magic than I need to.”
“What about Twilight and Crimson? Don’t they need regulators too?”
“No, mages have a natural regulators they inherent from their parents which determines the amount of magic they can use.” Scootaloo’s eyes widened.
“So I can use magic too?”
“Well, it depends. Is either your mom or dad a mage?”
“No.”
“Okay, no problem there. Magic can skip generations form time to time. What about grandparents or other family?” Cobalt asked as he sipped his coffee.
“Not that I know of.” The girl scratched her head and thought. “I think I remember my mom saying that our family have always been flyers.”
“Oh.” Cobalt said as he scratched his neck. “Then probably not.” Scootaloo looked at him in confusion.
“Why? You just said that all someone needs is a regulator.” The girl said in a firm tone.
“True, but the regulator needs someone’s magic to be a certain level in order for it to work.” Scootaloo had a confused look on her face. “Okay, lets look at Crimson. Both of his parents were extremely powerful mages with two types of inherent magic.”
“Inherent magic?”
“It’s a special magic that only members of his family can use. That being said, he is very powerful with spells. Ivy is similar, only that she choses to use a regulator.”
“Why?”
“While she can use magic without it, it’s not as strong as Crimson’s. So she uses it to give herself a power boost.” Scootaloo nodded. “Ivy’s father, Silver Streak belonged to the Dragon Slayer Dynasty. They are easily in the top ten most powerful families, magic wise. Her mother Fern was a Druid, but Fern’s father was a flyer with no magical abilities, so Fern’s magic wasn’t as strong as it could have been if her mother married someone who could use magic.”
“So what about Ivy?”
“Thankfully, Ivy’s Dragon Slayer nature compensates for her weak Druid powers and that power far exceeds the requirement for a regulator.” He said with a sigh. “I on the other hand need one because my mother was an average mage and my dad was flier.” The man finished. “In order to use my magic at full power I need to use my sword.”
“So I can never do magic?” The girl said with a sigh.
“Not exactly. We do have non-mage members.”
“How does that work?”
“While they themselves are not magical, their weapons are enchanted. Do you know Bandit?” The girl shook her head. “Tall guy, brown hat, brown coat, usually has two pistols by his side and a rifle on his back.”
“Sounds like something out of a western movie.”
“Well, he is from the West, but more importantly he has very little magical energy. He can’t even levitate an egg. Any kind of spell he uses has to come from his guns that act as his regulators and shoot compressed bits of his magic that he can either draw up from within himself or use magical bullets that he’s stored different types of spells in.” The girl had a confused look on her face. “Are you understanding any of this?”
“Yeah, sort of.” The man paid for their food and drinks and the two left. “So now that I have this thing on, what now?” Scootaloo asked as she looked at the odd training gear.
“Okay, what this does is add weight.” Cobalt then pulled out a what looked like a small digital watch. “I’ll start you off on a five pound increase.” The man gave Scootaloo the watch and it seemed to meld with the odd clothing. She looked at the watch face and saw +5lb displayed on the face. She felt tingling over her body and immediately felt heavier.
“Whoa!”
“You see, this watch uses gravity magic to make your body heavier. Once you get used to five then crank it up to ten then add five to that and so on.” The girl jumped and felt the weight. “Not so easy starting out, but you should get use to it soon enough.”
“Scootaloo?” The two heard a female voice say. The flyers looked over to see a woman with bright red wings and long, light purple hair. She was dressed in a purple polo shirt and tan pants. The woman saw her daughter with the man and hurried over to them.
“Hi mom.” The girl said with a smile.
“Hello dear. Who’s this?” She asked as her dark brown eyes focused on the young man.
“This is Cobalt. The guy who’s teaching me how to fly. I told you about him last week.” The young girl said in an annoyed tone. The older woman face palmed and sighed.
“Oh I’m so sorry.” She said as she stuck her hand out. “My name is Gale Whirl.”
“Cobalt Striker.” He said as he shook her hand. The woman only looked like she was in her late twenties, early thirties at the most. “I hope you don’t mind me teaching your daughter a few things about flying.”
“Of course not. I just wasn’t expecting you to be so young.” She said with a smile. The woman then looked down at Scootaloo. “Come on dear, we have to visit your grandparents.”
“Ugh, do we have to?”
“Yes, they’re family and family members like visitors every once in a while.” Scootaloo blew a razz-berry at the words. Cobalt frowned at the girl.
“Your mother’s right Scootaloo. Ain’t nothing more important in this world than family.” He said in a strong tone. Scootaloo said goodbye and the two flew off into the sky.