//------------------------------// // Prologue - One in a Million // Story: Tales of a Wing Mage // by ThatPonyWithASword //------------------------------// Prologue - One in a million I'm Shadow Light, a black alicorn with a spiky red mane. My father is Discord, my mother is Princess Twilight Sparkle... Gotcha! Okay, let's try this again. I'm actually Arcane Flight, a rarity amongst pegasi. You see, I can't fly, which would be debilitating for most pegasi, but lucky for me, I was born with an abnormal amount of non-pegasi magic, instead, I had Unicorn magic, seeing as both my parents are unicorns, which gave me the slightest control over magic. I discovered this and got my cutie mark, a feather with a blue magical aura around it, on my tenth birthday. It was an awesome afair, with jumping castles, a clown, a custom made cake of the Wonderbolts and my parents even got the great and powerful Trixie to perform some magic tricks. I was so excited that I practically ripped the first present open... without using my hooves or teeth.. yeah, I might have freaked out just a tiny bit. Hey, only one colt ended up in hospital and I had all the reason to freak out. So after that, my parents took me to the hostpital to have me examined. Five diffirent scans, most of which were extremely expensive mind you, and about a dozen spells, all of which felt really, really weird, later, the doctor came to the conclusion that I had no pegasus magic in me whatsoever, instead I only have unicorn magic. He said that, with intense training, I could channel that magic through my wings seeing as they were already magic channels usually used to afford flight. So, the week after my birthday my parents signed me up to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns (and now pegasi, which some colts graffit'd on the sound at my graduation). They accepted me, saying that I was the first pegasus at the school in almost five hundred years and that I would be an excellent addition to the school. The teachers weren't sure about how to teach me to use my magic, until they got Princess SparkleĀ herself to try and teach me, and it worked! She was the best mentor a guy could ask for, she wasn't overly stiff or stern, but rather friendly and encouraging, and boy did she know magic. We would spend hours practicing my magic, enhancing my levitation, learning new spells and reading the books she gave me. I kept on learning new things until I was seventeen when I graduated from the school as the first Pegasus in a long time. After I graduated, I kept on with my studies, going to Canterlot University and further studied metallurgy and advanced levitation. After I graduated I found a small blacksmith shop and got an apprenticeship there helping Mr. Steel with his projects and I learned much about blacksmithing and jewling alike. One night I saw an ad for a magic contest in Canterlot castle itself, apparently it was more of a recruitment thing for the newly formed Aruara guard, a unicorn only section of the equestrian military. I decide to at least try, I had nothing to lose. ________________________________________________________________ This is nerve racking, sure I was the princess' student for a couple of years, but I couldn't help but be nervous. This is the Araura guard after all, The Princesses themselves were the judges for Pete's sake! The competition was simple, there were three targets that you should destroy with a simple magic bolt and you had to destroy a fourth with a spell of your choosing. There were two other unicorns in front of me, a burly green stallion who looked way too confident and a small white mare with a shocking blue mane and purple shades. As always, i was the only Pegasus there, though I did see a zebra some way behind me. The other two's turns go by way too quickly and before I now it, it's my turn. I step up on the stage where the targets are and wait for them to tell me to start. Celestia nods and I turn to the targets. I breath deeply, concentrating, I shoot three bolts at once, destroying the first the targets. For the last oneI decide to show off, with a kick off my legs,I shoot into the air, used my wrongsto roll and spot a spiraling beam of magic towards the target. I land on my hooves, turn around and see Celestia and Luna with almost dumbfounded looks on their faces while twilight had a knowing smirk on her face. The celestial diarchs quickly regain their composure. I bow to the princesses and let out a sigh of relief as I walk of the stage and wait for everypony to finish and the princesses to finish discussing. It was an hour later that they finally started calling names and telling the ponies what they think. Seeing as I was relatively far back in the line, it took some time for my name to be called. I walked up to the stage again, seemingly more nervous this time, and bowed to the princesses. Luna spoke first, "You are certainly a rarity in this day and age, and thus we have decided that you would be an excellent addition to the guard, be at the castle gates Saturday morning at six o'clock." I squealed inwardly as I once again bowed and mumbled a thanks to the princesses before walking off stage. I was given a gate pass as I left. Outside, I sat down on a bench for a while, watching more ponies walk out periodically. Apparently the zebra got in too,'that will be interesting, a Pegasus and a zebra in a supposedly all unicorn section of the guard' I thought tomyself as I got up from the bench after no-one else came out of the building. I walked home with a wide grin on my face.