//------------------------------//
// 3- The History of the Blood Mage 
// Story: Twilight's Prison 
// by Vale Decem 
//------------------------------//

	
~3~




Blood Stone followed Luna out into the street, trying to keep up with his short legs. "A what mage?" He called out to her, stopping in front of the Princess to demand an explanation.

"Hush, little foal." She told him, covering his mouth with her wings. "We will explain in time, but thou must wait until thy arrives at our lodging for the night. Thou never knows who is listening"

She removed her wings, folded them gracefully, and continued walking along the dim street without checking if he was still following. Blood Stone sighed and begrudgingly walked behind her. Though the princess's general disinterest towards him was a bit disheartening, he had nowhere else to go. Blood Stone had no known relatives, his parents were gone, and while it did provide shelter and an occasional meal, the orphanage had been far to overcrowded- not to mention boring. There was not a lot to do other than sit around. The other foals did play games, but he was rarely invited, and when he was they teased him.

Still, he was left alone for the most part, which might be better than "Equestria's savior" as Luna had called him. Her words scared him. He was definitely not savior material, and did not want to be- but Luna was a princess, so surely she would be doing most of the saving. He was probably just here to help a bit.  

"Yeah, just to help," He said quietly to himself.

The thought gave him a bit of reassurance as he followed the Princess. She led him down streets that he had never been on before, and they were actually clean and semi-lit. With his scruffy mane and dirty appearance, he felt out of place among the clean shops and houses. Eventually, Luna stopped a nice looking hotel and opened the door for the colt, letting him inside first. Inside the lobby was the biggest room Blood had ever seen. Everything was so clean and there was plenty of space for a pony to walk on the polished marble floors. He  took one step off the welcome mat and proceeded to accidentally slide along the slick floor. He was stopped by the bell-hop, who gently put a hoof to stop the colt.

"Woah there," The stallion said, bending down to see the colt better, "Are you OK, buddy?"

Though the act was small, it was very meaningful in Blood Stone's eyes. "T-Thank you," He stammered.

"Anytime, little guy," The bell-hop said warmly. "Now let me lead me to your room, Princess."





Blood Stone gasped as he was introduced to one of the largest beds he had encountered, imagining how many of the foals at the orphanage could have fit on it.

"Is this all m-mine?" He asked in awe.

"Well, unless thou has anypony else coming, We believe it is." Luna joked, winking at Blood. "Now to business. Blood mages use an old magic, that was banned, up until today. Celestia gave thy special permission for the good of Equestria- but, unfortunately, she was was too busy with other matters to retrieve thou."

"B-but-?" Blood Stone started to ask, but was interrupted by Luna holding a torn and yellowed page to his face.

"We know thy has questions, but this will speed up the explanation." She stated, passing the page to Blood Stone.

He stared at it for a bit and then flushed and turned to Luna.

"Well? What art thou waiting for?" She inquired.

"I-I can't.. um... Well, I can't-"

"Say no more," Luna said gently. She walked over to his bed and sat next to him, "We will read it for you."




"The Personal Journal of Starswirl the Bearded- Entry 507

'It is the Fifty-third day of my travels across Equestria, and today I encountered an unusual unicorn. His magic signature was larger that average and attracted my attention, but upon asking him, he informed me that he was actually unable to preform anything more than simple telekinesis. I did test the unicorn's magic, and reached the same conclusion. For some unknown reason, his magic was not flowing through his horn correctly and instead was being channeled somewhere else. Quite unusual, as his family was relatively good at magic, though did not have half as large magic signatures. I have run a simple blood test to ensure that the stallion was otherwise fine. When activating a spell to test his iron level of blood, all of the iron condensed to quickly and proceeded to explode. Either I casted the spell with too much magic, which is quite impossible, or much less was needed. His situation is quite curious, and I plan to investigate more once I return to Canterlot. I could be on the verge of discovering a new magic.'"





"Princess," Blood said quietly, "It's a nice passage, but I don't see how it helps."

"The stallion that Starswirl met went on to become the first blood mage. When his blood was drawn into certain symbols, he was able to create his own magic. His descendants are also able to use this blood magic. Fortunately, thy are his great-great-great," Luna said, repeating 'greats' for quite a bit, taking a deep breath before finishing, "grandson. Which make you able to use this blood magic as well."

"But P-Princess, I thought Tirek took all magic from ponies."

"Yes and no. Yes, he took the magic that would be used by thou's horn. But no, he did not remove it from your blood. Back in the days I was banished, Celestia looked for ways to remove the magic used by blood mages- to easily stop them. However, it was impossible for the pony to survive the removal. It was decided to just ban it."

"But why would she want to remove it in the first place?"

"Unfortunately, Blood, mages back then did... very bad things. It was easy to cast very evil spells with blood magic and it was almost untraceable. Celestia got rid of it to stop its evil."





(From an old flier)

Blood Magic or using blood to create magic is hereby banned from Equestria.

Any pony found practicing Blood magic, or similar forms, are to be punished by death.

A reward of 100 bits will be given to anypony who catches a blood mage in the act of using blood magic.

At the bottom of the worn flier was Celestia's signature (which had been copied by magic onto all of the fliers), and the insignia of Equestria. A shimmering sun- Celestia's cutie mark.