//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Crystals 
// Story: The Unity Pact Side Stories: The Teacher And The Pupil 
// by Truthseeker 
//------------------------------//



Luna teleported into her chambers with Chris resting his hand on her back as usual. Over their past four months of daily tutoring sessions, they had developed a steady habit of what to do and where to meet and so forth. Chris didn't need any instructions, he had learned the patterns easily. He removed his hand from Luna and walked over to the large circle carved into on the floor. He stepped into the practicing circle and picked up the large bowl in the center. The bowl was his cue for what Luna wanted him to practice on any given day. Sometimes it was a heavy iron cube that he had to maneuver around using only the blunted edges of his portals, sometimes it was a long length of twine that he had to tie into different knots with his portals and sometimes it was a small number of rubber balls that he had to juggle with his portals. The balls were very difficult. He had to hold the bowl in both hands and toss the balls into the air then catch each one with an individual portal. Every ball had to stay moving with its own portal. He was then to slowly collect the balls together into a single portal, one-by-one, then slowly disperse them out again. The task was arduous and repetitive, but Chris was proud to acknowledge that he had mastered practicing with five balls simultaneously.

The balls were in the bowl today, seven of them, two more than he had ever done before.

Chris groaned but said not a word. He sighed then tossed the contents of the bowl into the air and began whipping portals into existence.

Luna smiled at his dedication and trotted over to her desk,
"I hope I have not missed the armorer..." her vocalized thought was interrupted by a knock on her door.

Without missing a beat, Chris' left hand streaked out and created two portals: one on the outside of the door and one on the inside. The Earth Pony stallion on the other side of the door gazed into the room with huge eyes. He was carrying a large burlap sack in his mouth and looked back and forth, obviously unsure, as Luna rose to her hooves aghast.

"Christopher! This is not your room! What if I had been indecent?" she berated him.

Chris shrugged, never breaking his concentration on the flying spheres,
"It's not like you guys wear clothes to cover your privates. What's the big deal?" his line was delivered without a single misstep and without taking his eyes off his work, "And if you're worried about being indecent, does that mean that you have a habit of being indecent when I'm in the room?"

Luna's eyes bulged,
"That is not what I meant and that is inappropriate!"

Chris shrugged still maintaining concentration on the balls and portals,
"Hey, you're the one who was concerned about being indecent. I was just voicing a concern."

Luna had to restrain herself from stomping her forehooves in frustration,
"Nevermind. Bring the armor in please." she said to the nervous looking Earth Pony.

The nervous stallion quickly deposited the sack on the floor and retreated down the hallway at a brisk trot. Luna levitated the sack in her magic and trotted toward her pillows on the floor in front of the fireplace. She levitated the pillows and cushions onto the bed to clear space then emptied the sack onto the floor with a series of metallic clangs. Chris closed the portals on the door with a thought and continued juggling the balls.

*          *          *

Nearly an hour later Chris was tired and decided to take a break. He formed his portals up and linked them to one exit portal so that the balls entered their own individual portals and departed through only a single one. He then extinguished all the portals the made one under the balls and the other over the bowl. The balls fell into the bowl and Chris let all of his portals go.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he stretched his back and looked over to his mentor. Luna had a suite of armor laid out on the stone floor and was looking over it intently. She had a box of dozens of crystals sitting to one side of her and a sheaf of paper and quill and ink to the other. Her horn was lit up and the quill was writing furiously as she mumbled quietly to herself. She didn't move a single muscle as she focused on her work and she didn't look up when Chris stopped his practice so he decided to play a little prank on her. 

He subtly created a tiny one of his safe portals a quarter of an inch behind her left hip and then created a second tiny one just above her ink vial, then crossed his arms and settle back to wait. He didn't have to wait for long. Luna raised the pointed quill and dipped it into the the ink vial. As soon as she did, she flinched and flicked her tail as if warding off a pesky insect. Her quill pulled nothing but air but she was entirely too preoccupied to notice and so returned to writing with an empty quill. 

Chris hid his snicker as she continued writing nothing on the paper. Soon enough she went to dip the quill again, still not noticing the lack of words on her parchment. She shuddered as the tip of the quill sharply poked her backside a second time. She flicked her tail again and began lightly grumbling about, 'flies biting the royal flank'. Chris had to bite his lip to keep from laughing, but Luna was still oblivious. She briefly glanced to the parchment and noticed the lack of words. She frowned and grumbled some more then jabbed the quill harshly into the ink vial. The effect was instantaneous. She let out a loud, high-pitched squeak and leapt to her hooves. Chris let the portals go as quickly as he could, hoping she hadn't seen them.

Forcing his expression into innocence, Chris asked,
"Is something wrong Luna?"

Luna rubbed her left forehoof against her left 'cheek',
"There seems to be a biting fly within the royal chambers." she peered intently around the room, ears swiveling in tile with here eyes, "Do you see it? I cannot espy the accursed thing." her eyes lit up quickly as an idea occurred to her, "Aha! Mine pet shall consume the foul, accursed pest! Persephone!"

The echidna snuffled her way out from beneath the mounds of pillows and carefully climbed down off the plush bed. She waddled over to Luna and stared up at the Alicorn Princess with curious little beady eyes.

Chris knelt down and light petted the little echidna,
"Don't bother with trying to catch the fly." Chris said, "There is no fly."

Luna's expression changed to puzzlement,
"Twas not you who bit my flank."

Chris shrugged as he stood back up,
"It was and it wasn't." he claimed enigmatically.

Luna lowered her head and took a step toward Chris, but the clever man had more for her,
"In all honesty you were just as responsible as I."

The statement halted Luna in her tracks,
"Prithee, you insinuate I bit my own... bum?"

Chris chuckled quietly,
"There was no biting involved, but there was a bit of poking." he crossed his arms smugly, "Didn't you notice exactly what you were doing when you felt the prick?"

Luna's eyes briefly shifted to the floor in thought before she suddenly looked up at Chris,
"My... my inkwell. You put a portal in my inkwell."

Chris nodded and rocked back and forth on his heels shaking his head and chuckling,
"Took you long enough."

Luna rolled her eyes and trotted back to the armor laid out on the floor. She laid back down and levitated Persephone over between her forelegs. The little echidna snuggled down against Luna's legs and seemed quite content to stay put.

Meanwhile Chris was curious,
"So what are you working on over there?"

"Crystal matrices and what enchantments should go into the armor for the Community Welfare Guardians." she looked up solemnly, "I have a debt to pay and this is the first part."

Chris plopped down right next to her,
"I was wondering when we would get to crystals. I've been curious about them even since we found that box of Communication Crystals when we raided the Unicorn Guards." 

Luna pondered her pupil's sudden interest. Crystals and crystal matrices were certainly something she had planned to teach him and the sudden sparking interest was a good sign. She decided to indulge her pupil.

"In order for you to understand crystals, you also have to be completely teachable. There are not all that many Unicorns who study crystals. Most Unicorns have it in their minds that an ordinary spell can accomplish whatever ends they require. Under most normal circumstances their thought is correct. There are limits to what a crystal can be enchanted to do, limited by the Nouns and Verbs of the enchanter. Crystals can be enchanted by any species, but they are rarely used since an enchantment requires very precise working of the crystal itself. The crystal must be cut in such a manner as to allow directed flow of Thamaturgic Energy through it. It is a time consuming practice which fell out of use when the Crystal Empire vanished. The only artisans capable of properly cutting enchantment crystals were the Crystal Ponies. Fortunately there was an abundance of crystals here in Equestria when the empire vanished. We had no means to make more crystals, not for lack of materials, but from lack of experience and know-how. Celestia and I never took the time to learn the skill. The skill is of vital importance. A single misplaced , incomplete, or flawed cut can lead to disaster. The Crystal Ponies have a way to determine the usability of a crystal, but it is not known to us. Our Ponies made valiant attempts to reproduce the cuts to manufacture crystals to hold enchantments, but after a horrible accident which left eight Ponies dead and twenty-three injured we ordered an end to the attempts. Because we had a fixed number of usable crystals, our Ponies developed skills for removing enchantments and replacing the old ones with new ones."

"Now that the Crystal Empire has returned they are shipping hundreds of crystals to us for enchantment. We pay a discounted price for the crystals because we dig out the crystals from the cavern underneath Canterlot and ship them to the Crystal Empire. The Crystal Ponies cut the crystals and ship them back and Equestria has the highest saturation of enchantment crystals in the world." Luna paused and looked to Chris, "Do you understand so far?"

Chris nodded,
"Yeah, it's easy enough to follow. Does the size and shape of the crystal matter when enchanting?"

Luna nodded,
"The size and shape do matter... to a point. A larger crystal can have more angles and facets cut into it and the more circular a crystal is, the more of those it can have as well. A mostly spherical crystal which is approximately the size of a bowling ball is going to be the best suited for a larger number of enchantments. A mostly spherical crystal which is the size of a marble is going to be the best suited for a smaller number of enchantments. A spar of crystal as long as a Unicorn's horn would only have one or maybe two enchantments, depending on how it is cut."

Chris scratched his jaw directly beneath his left ear,
"So what kinds of enchantments can be put onto a crystal?"

"Anything," Luna said casually, "Any Noun and Verb or any magical ability the enchanter wishes to imbue."

Chris' mind began spinning with possibilities. Dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions of possibilities began blinking into existence as he engaged his creativity. He blinked and shook his head after a moment, he needed more specifics first.

"So I could enchant a crystal spar to make portals like I do?" he asked, ideas of a 'portal gun' at the very forefront of his thoughts.

"Yes and no. You can enchant a spar to open a portal, but it would be set to only open the portal from the location the spar was at when cast, to a single destination. It would also require the user to spend a portion of their Thamaturgic Energy in order to do so." Luna explained.

Chris' mind latched onto an insane idea, bit he needed to know more,
"What size would the portal be... ooooorrrrr... could the same thing be done with teleportation?"

Luna smiled,
"Yes Christopher, I can show you how to enchant spars so others can use your safe portals."

Chris waved his hands wildly,
"No! No, what I want is..." his brain worked furiously and his eyes zigzagged from side to side as the specifics formed before his very eyes, "How many towns, cities, and villages are in Equestria?" he suddenly asked.

Luna was taken aback by his seemingly random question,
"I am not entirely certain... why do you ask?"

Chris' expression turned manic,
"What if..." he trailed off as he began to pace, "The shipments for New Humansville have to be flown in by Pegasi, right?"

Luna cocked her head to the side,
"That is the normal way, though we are expanding the railroad to New Humansville to make it more efficient..."

Chris slashed the air with his left hand,
"Forget the railroad, fuck the railroad, this is a thousand times better. What if you could send the entire shipment from here to New Humansville," he snapped his fingers, "INSTANTLY." he began pacing, animatedly motioning with his hands as he spoke, "Put all the cargo in one single location then have a Unicorn activate a crystal spar which instantly teleports it to a predetermined location in New Humansville. Someplace that has been designated specifically for cargo to be received..."

Luna's eyes glittered,
"Twould save hours and hours of flying, but the Unicorns would be drained severely."

Chris waved his hands dismissively,
"The more they use their magic, the stronger it becomes, right? After a while they could do two, three, even four per day..." Chris' eyes lit up with excitement, "That's it! THAT'S IT!" he leapt into the air with an ecstatic whoop, "That's how New Humansville will draw in money! We create a series of... platforms for cargo. Each platform will have a specific crystal spar which will instantaneously teleport the cargo from New Humansville to... to ANYWHERE!"

Chris stopped pacing and turned to Luna,
"Need a shipment of fabric to go from Canterlot to Las Pegasus? Stick it on the sending platform in Canterlot. Send it to New Humansville with a quick spell through the crystal spar. It arrives on the receiving platform in New Humansville with instructions. It gets moved to the sending platform and gets teleported to Las Pegasus in less than an hour! Hahahahaha!"

Luna's eyes glistened in the light as she listened to her pupil,
"Need to send relief aid to a city or town that has recently suffered a calamity? Teleport Pads! Need to send Guards to reinforce a town that is about to be attacked? Teleport Pads!" Chris danced around in a circle, "It's perfect!" he suddenly stopped and stood stock still, "My boon!" he turned and ran for the door, "CELESTIA! I'M CALLING IN MY BOON!"