//------------------------------// // The Dangers of Anger // Story: Purity Corruption // by TheBlox //------------------------------// The following morning, Altruise woke up in the pile of pillows and slowly lifted her head with her eyes half-open. Her vision was still slightly blurry from just waking up. She looked around her before rubbing her eyes with her hooves and then put her hooves back down to her sides and blinked a few times, and her vision came back seeing Drake sitting at the table reading through a book. “What’re you doing?” She asked in a groggy mumble, followed by a yawn and a stretch. “Looking over some basics in the levitation book.” Drake replied, “Planning some things for your training today.” “Oh, okay.” Altruise climbed off of the pile of pillows and trotted over to the table. “I’m hungry.” She exclaimed. Drake pushed the basket of food toward her and went back to reading. “Everything in the basket is yours, Altruise, just fish out whatever you want when you want it.” “Oh. Okay.” Altruise opened the cookie bag and pulled out a chocolate chip cookie, and bit into it. She chewed and swallowed, and pushed the cookie bag over to Drake. The pegasus looked at the bag in front of him, and then over to Altruise puzzled. “Have you never had a cookie before?” She asked, hinting that he should try one. “I have, but that was a very long time ago.” Drake replied. “Come on, try one. They’re good.” Altruise continued to tempt the pegasus into eating something other than coconuts. “I’d rather not.” The stubborn pegasus pushed the bag of cookies back to Altruise, “They’re your cookies.” “One cookie.” The filly pushed the bag back to him, giggling as if this was turning into some game to her. Drake let out a grunt and reached into the cookie bag and pulled one out. “If I take a bite of this cookie, will you be happy?” Altruise nodded, awaiting his reaction. Drake sighed and brought the cookie closer to his mouth, and took a small bite out of it. He chewed and swallowed it, and looked back at the filly. “Well?” She asked, anticipating an interesting response. “I can’t understand how you can eat something this delicious.” Drake declared, his oxymoron sentence suddenly confusing the filly. She raised an eyebrow and looked at him funny. “What?” She was trying to figure out how that made any sense. Then she caught Drake taking another bite out of the cookie. “Okay, it’s good.” Drake answered more specifically, chewing his second bite of the cookie. “Hah. See?” Altruise teased, biting into her own cookie. “I tooold you they were good.” She spoke in muffles with crumbs spewing from her lips. Drake finished the rest of the cookie in one last bite, chewed and swallowed, then picked up his book and closed it, holding it to his side. “Okay, so are you ready to practice your magic today?” “Oh, yes.” Altruise replied excitedly, “What are you going to teach me today?” “Nothing too specific.” Drake exclaimed heading out the door, gesturing Altruise to follow him. “I want to see what you can currently do and work our way up from there.” * * * * * The two ponies went further into the forest to more of a clearing where she could practice easier. There were fewer trees in this area. Drake pointed to a tree that stood alone. “Cast a spell on that tree.” He ordered. “Um… What kind of spell should I try?” Altruise questioned the pegasus. “Doesn’t matter, do whatever you want. I want to see what you are able to do.” Drake stood where he was to watch her. The filly nodded to his request and trotted over to the tree in the middle of the wide field of grass. She took a deep breath, and focused her magic on the coconuts in the top of the tree. “Focus…” She said to herself, trying to remain calm in the way Celestia taught her. Carefully she plucked the coconuts from the tree and levitated them to the ground. She was happy that nothing went wrong like yesterday when she tried levitating the quill. The filly turned to the pegasus to see how he thought she was doing, though he didn’t look too impressed. “The Princess really watered you down.” Drake pointed out. “You told me you were able to summon storms and whatnot.” “That would always happen against my will.” Altruise explained, feeling a bit upset that he didn’t like her little magic trick. “So why’s it not happening now?” Drake asked. “Because… I don’t know how I did it before. It would just happen.” The unicorn was having a hard time explaining herself, and she began to dislike the way Drake was teaching her. “Sure you know how.” The pegasus exclaimed, “If you’ve done it before, you can do it again; even if it happened subconsciously. Okay, let’s review…” Drake tried to get to the bottom of her situation. “Explain to me how Princess Celestia tried to teach you.” Altruise thought back to her training with the Princess and explained the best she could. “Her training was mostly about calming my mind. Before I wasn’t able to turn my unicorn magic off at all, and bad things just kept happening.” “Okay, I want to try something.” Drake suggested, “Levitate a coconut. Don’t do anything specific, just let it float into the air.” “Um… Okay.” Altruise shrugged and turned back around to the palm tree. She lifted one of the coconuts off of the ground and held it suspended in the air. “You mean like thi-AH!!” Suddenly Drake quickly flew up to her from behind without her aware of it, and he quickly and unexpectedly nudged her shoulders with his front hooves, startling her. Her mane stood on end, and the coconut she was levitated exploded with a crackle of lightning. “W-what j-just happened?!” Altruise panicked from the loud exploding coconut, and she lost her footing as she moved backwards, tripping over her own hooves, landing on her flank in the grass. She quickly turned to look up at Drake who was standing next to her with a smirk. “I screwed up the spell when you bumped me.” The filly complained feeling ashamed of her magic. “Why’d you do that??” “Screwed up?” Drake corrected, “I think that was progress.” “But… How is destroying something progress??” Altruise couldn’t understand how this was accomplishing anything. “You see, Altruise, you have more power than you know. You’re hiding most of it by trying so hard not to cast something big with Celestia’s ‘calming your mind’ method.” “But… That’s the only way I can control my magic, otherwise I do something I don’t want to do.” “You call that control?” Drake chuckled, “Looks like it has control over you. You’re not setting free what wants to escape. You’re holding a hungry tiger in a cage without feeding it.” Altruise kind of understood what he meant, but she really didn’t like where he was going with this. She didn’t want another recap of what happened on the school playground. She tried questioning his metaphor. “Yeah but if I set the tiger free, he’ll be all furious and do something terrible…” “So feed it when you let it go.” Drake explained, “If you’re going to learn how to cast big spells, you need to know exactly what’s going on in your mind while it’s happening. If you try to conceal it while it’s active, it’s going to rebel against you so it doesn’t get sent back into its cage, and it’s going to do everything you don’t want it to so it can keep it that way. That is why you couldn’t turn off your magic before; you tried too hard to stop what didn’t want to be stopped. You understand?” “Kind of…” Altruise scratched her head with her hooves thinking of all these metaphors and explanations. “Think of it like a word stuck in your head.” Drake went further into detail. “When I tell you not to think of the word Tinder, what do you think of?” Altruise thought about this to herself, and tried his method of training. She tried not to think about the word Tinder, but because she knew she wasn’t supposed to think about it, it kept popping back into her head every time she tried changing her mind’s subject. “What are you thinking about?” Drake asked. “Uh… Tinder.” Altruise admitted, suddenly understanding his explanation a lot more clearly. “Hah, you see?” The pegasus snickered, “Well since you can’t stop thinking about the word Tinder, use the word. Let it flow in your head exactly how you want to use it.” After Altruise got the idea that she could use the word Tinder if she really wanted to, she began to understand. If she tried to avoid thinking about the word, it would become natural that she would automatically think about the word, for the sole reason that she wasn’t supposed to. “It’s like a mind game.” Drake explained. “Okay, pick up another coconut. Let’s try again.” He suggested, gesturing his hoof to a coconut in the ground. Altruise didn’t question and did as she was told. With her levitation magic, she picked up the coconut. “Now, try something different.” The pegasus instructed, “Think about the things that happen that you don’t normally want to happen when you do a spell.” When he told her this, Altruise began to think of the possible things that could go wrong. Her horn began to spark menacingly, and the coconut suddenly caught fire. She panicked. “Wh-why are you telling me to do it like this, it isn’t working—” “Don’t let this throw you off.” Drake interrupted, acknowledging that this was going to happen. “Now, think… Why is the coconut on fire?” “I-I don’t know.” Altruise was slouching, fearing her magic. Her panicking state was rising, and she began to realize that she couldn’t turn off her magic. Everything she was taught before to avoid was all coming back. “I can’t stop! My magic won’t stop!” “It’s because you’re letting it overpower you.” Drake explained, “Feel in your mind why the fire is there, and why it won’t stop. Control the fire, don’t extinguish it.” Altruise nodded even though this just sounded like it was going to go nowhere. She focused on the fire that was currently out of control, and instead of trying to stop it, she allowed the flame to occur. The ripples in the flame slowed down, and she focused on wanting the fire to act according to her will. In a few moments, the flame was no longer rippling like a wildfire, and the coconut instead began to have a more even burn like a gentle candle light. Realizing that she could make the fire do this, she felt more at ease, and she was able to put out the flame with sudden simplicity. “Good.” Drake put his hoof on her shoulder. “Now that’s how you control magic.” The unicorn smiled, and started playing around with this new teaching method, turning the flame on the coconut on and off like a switch. “You see, you have no reason to fear your magic.” Drake exclaimed, “If you can make your unintentional spells become intentional, there’s no telling what you’d be able to do over time with practice. It may take some time to fully train you. Nothing big happens over night, but I can tell that someday you’ll become a very powerful unicorn.” Altruise put the coconut down on the ground, and turned to the pegasus. Looking up at the stallion, she sat on her flank and smiled with sudden obedience. That very moment when she used her fire magic on the coconut made her realize that her overpowering magic was a part of her life, and she didn’t want it to go to waste. “I don’t want to be afraid of my magic any more.” Altruise committed obediently, “Your training is clearly working.” Drake smiled with a proud tone in his voice, “Let’s get back to studying then, shall we?” Altruise nodded, and the two of them went back to where they left off with her training. “What now?” “Hmm…” Drake flipped the book open to a bookmarked page, and reviewed a bit. Scanning a few of the pages, he stopped and shut the book, holding it on his side under his wing once again. “Let’s try some target practice shall we?” The filly raised a brow, “Target practice?” A grin, and Drake flew off back to the shack, leaving Altruise here to wait. Waiting patiently, Drake flew back with a few wood planks in his grip. Puzzled, Altruise stepped toward the pegasus who hovered just above the ground above her. “What are those for?” Altruise wondered. Drake smirked, and flew off at a good distance from her, and shoved a few of the boards into the ground in different locations. “Targets.” He simply replied as he filled the grass field with them. Once the wooden targets were all in place, Drake flew back to Altruise and landed next to her. “Alright, we’ll practice your levitation toss. Pick up a pebble.” Altruise nodded, and picked up a small stone from the ground, and she looked back at Drake, waiting for him to direct her what to do next. “Now without moving from that spot, try throwing the stone at one of the targets. See if you can hit it.” “Well okay.” Altruise shrugged, and focused on a board target closer to her. With a twitch, she hurled the stone through the air; the stone landed in the grass before it even reached the target. Rolling her eyes with a grunt, she picked up another stone, and with another attempt, she tossed it at the same target, but again the stone didn’t reach very far and landed in the grass. “How am I supposed to throw something that far?” “Keep practicing.” Drake suggested, “What you’re doing is you’re trying to toss the stone with a throwing motion of your spell. Don’t throw it, launch it.” “Launch it?” “Yes, a spell used to toss objects great distances. With a thrust of the spell, you can toss something much greater distances.” With a shrug, Altruise tried again, and lifted a stone. Making grunting sound, she threw the stone again, a little further this time, but it still didn’t even reach the target. “Uuugh what am I doing wrong?” “Don’t focus on throwing the stone at the target.” Drake suggested, “Focus on the target; aim, and don’t just throw, launch.” “Yeah, launch, right.” She squinted, “How do I launch something? I haven’t been taught that lesson.” “You um… Uh how did my father explain it…” Drake scratched his chin, “Hold the stone in place, while pushing a great force of magic on one side, then release the stone, and the pushing force of magic will launch it.” “Er… Kay?” Altruise rolled her eyes and levitated another stone. Holding it in place, she tried thrusting the back of the stone with a second expanding aura. Sparks began to emerge from the stone that she was forcing weighted magic against one side. “Kayy, I think I got it… and um… Release—!!!” Releasing the stone, the pebble flung through the air like a bullet; it missed every single target and went practically in a straight line. It struck a tree with a loud clunk, and the coconuts in the tree all fell to the ground on impact. “Hmm, you missed.” Drake shrugged, “Well, that was still impressed for a first try—” “THAT WAS AWESOME!” Altruise interrupted with enthusiasm. “Uh, er…” Drake cleared his throat, “Em, yes, good job.” Altruise immediately picked up another stone and tried again. “Okay, hold in place… Force some magic on one side…” She stuck her tongue out as she concentrated, “And um… Aim…” She squinted her eyes, focusing, “And release!” The stone launched with a spark of thunder, and clashed into her target with a loud thud. The stone ricocheted off the board and flung into the air, and the target fell backwards to the ground. “Bulls-eye!” “Huh.” The pegasus went wide-eyed, “Well… You’re a fast learner—OUCH!!” The stone fell from the sky and landed on his head with a hollow clunk. Rubbing his head with a grunt, he winced. “Um… Nice shot.” “Oh, you okay?” “Fine. Keep practicing.” Altruise nodded and lifted another stone, forcing magic behind it to prepare for another launch. “I can’t wait to get home and show mom and dad this new tri—…” The filly caught herself in mid sentence, and fully lost concentration. Her eyes stared blankly into space, and she dropped all focus. “Mom… Dad…” She whispered to herself, as images of Nebulous began to burn in her memories. A frown slowly formed on her face, and her horn began to spark of menacing electrical magic. “Altruise? You okay?” The pegasus questioned her in a concerned manner. The stone that she was holding in place began to make a humming noise, and it sparked and crackled. The stone itself began to glow red hot, and with a loud grunt, Altruise launched the stone at the furthest target on the field; an explosive sonic boom echoed through the air as it launched, and the pebble traveled through the air in a straight line glowing of red fire, and it struck the target directly in the center. The target exploded into hundreds of tiny pieces of bits of flaming wood and ashes that all slowly descended back into the ground like an extinguishing camp fire. Drake was dumbfounded and wide-eyed. Altruise on the other hand, was frowning with gritted teeth, and she felt a heavy burn in the back of her head. Her horn was still sparking of electrical energy. “Okay, now THAT was pretty awesome.” Drake declared, clapping his hooves together, and noticed her lack of enthusiasm. Clapping his hooves slower to a stop, he put them back into the grass. Her eyes were still fixed on the target of burning charred wood. “Hmh, what’s gotten into you all of a sudden?” Frowning, Altruise turned to the pegasus; tears of anger streamed down her cheeks, and electrical sparks constantly emerged from her horn. “I’ve been feeling something.” Altruise exclaimed in an angry voice, “And I don’t like it.” “Hmm, and what’s that?” The pegasus wondered. “Drake, when your parents were killed… Did you ever have this… feeling in your heart, like you’re responsible? Like you have to do something to make yourself feel better?” “You mean revenge?” Drake replied, wincing at her. “Yes, I have. But vengeance can lead a pony in the wrong direction.” “Are you just saying that because you’re trying to forget what happened? Or are you saying that because you’re too scared to go after your parents’ murderer?” Drake’s eyes widened; the words coming from this filly were very deep. He cleared his throat, and was about to say something, but didn’t. “I want to kill him.” Altruise said with a cold, monotone voice. * * * * *