//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: The Witch Of Ponyville // by Grey Ghost //------------------------------// “This is just a low level spell,” I commented, letting the fire dance on my fingers. It had been a few days since the whole thing with Celestia and things had calmed down. I didn’t apologize, much to Twilight’s annoyance, but I didn’t aggravate the situation either. Didn’t want to end up as the town bitch... Y’know... that last bit sounded a lot better in my head... Anyway, Twilight and I were comparing magics, and no, I don’t spell it ‘magick’, that’s just stupid. “May I?” Twilight asked, holding her hand out. Her horn shimmered a bit, causing the flame to grow a little. “Not too much, I don’t want my shop burning down,” I reminded her, allowing the flame to float above my palm. The heat felt nice, though I imagine if anyone else were to try this it would horribly burn their hand. Heh, magicless chumps those guys are. “I’m being careful,” Twilight insisted, before casting an ice spell to put out the flame... and frost over my hand. “Really, Twilight?” I asked, rather annoyed. Thawing out my hand with another quick fire spell, I flexed the freed appendage this way and that, making sure she didn’t cause any permanent damage. “Sorry!” she said, her ears splaying back with a whimper. “Hey, relax, no biggie Twi,” I said, rolling my eyes. “So, hit me with the next test, I’m on a roll!” “We’ll try mixing the magic later,” Twilight said shaking her head. I was hoping she’d suggest that, I don’t want to be turned inside out by a wayward spell or something. “Maybe a little telekinesis spell?” I asked, levitating a potion and taking a sip of it. Hmm... strawberry... damn, it was supposed to be peach. Ah well, I’ll brew up another batch later. “It’s amazing how similar our magics are,” Twilight said, looking like a kid at Halloween. She’s rather adorable really. “I wonder if our worlds crossed paths before?” “It was probably around the time the elves were invading,” I said, petting Kaz’s head. “Elves? I thought humans were the only race on Earth?” Twilight asked, already getting her scroll out. Where the hell does she keep those? Vector trap? “The Elves were the first race to connect their world to ours. They tried to invade over two thousand years ago. Atlantis, the most powerful nation at the time, managed to hold them off. It proved too much though and their greatest magic user gathered up most of our world’s magic and sealed off the Elves’ world. Not only did we lose so much of our magic, Atlantis was lost in the process.” “That’s rather tragic,” Twilight said, looking like she was going to start to cry. God, ponies have the emotional fortitude of toddlers, it’s kinda annoying. “We managed,” I waved her off. “So what next?” Twilight was about to answer when the door was flung open. In rushed a little orange pegasus with purple hair. Behind said pegasus followed a yellow... crap what are the the third group of ponies called?... Earth! Yeah thats it. A little yellow earth pony with a big pink bow in her red hair, and they were followed cautiously by a little light gray unicorn with pink and purple hair. “Um... sorry about the door,” the unicorn said sheepishly, “We should have knocked...” “Bah!” I said, waving my hand dismissively, “No harm done.” I look them all over, they didn’t look more than eight or so. “So did you girls want to buy something? I do have some things I could sell to you.” Most of the more harmless stuff really, some prank potions, luck charms, things like that. “Actually,” the pegasus spoke up, “We were looking for Rainbow Dash. We were gonna ask her how she got her cutie mark!” She pumped her fist, buzzing her wings excitedly. “Sorry to disappoint, but she’s not here,” I said, watching as the news caused the little pegasus to deflate. “Though, what in the world is a cutie mark?” That just sounds lame, though I’m not going to tell them that, I’m not insensitive. “You don’t know?!” the girls gasped as one. “A cutie mark is what tells the world what a pony is good at!” the earth pony said, holding up her left hand, “Though... we don’t have ours yet,” “Thats why we want to talk to Rainbow Dash! Maybe how she got her cutie mark will help us figure out how to get ours!” the pegasus added with a grin. “Well I could tell you how I got mine,” Twilight said, holding up a hand, showing off the tattoo... or what I had thought were tattoos, anyway. “Well... I guess we can hear it,” the pegasus said, nodding her head. To make a long story short, Twilight was a little girl, or filly, trying to get into a big fancy school. To pass the entrance exam she had to try to hatch a dragon egg. She almost failed until she saw a weird rainbow explosion in the sky that made her magic go nuts and hatch the egg. It caught Celestia’s attention and she made Twilight her personal student. What? You thought I was gonna copy her story verbatim? Ain’t nobody got time for that. “And thats how I got my cutie mark,” Twilight said with a smile. She turned to me after a moment. “I don’t suppose humans have anything similar do they?” I shared a glance with Kaz, debating if I wanted to be truthful. You know what, I think I will. They don’t need to know the whole story... “Actually we do, at least magic users do,” I started, taking my hat off and putting it on the counter. I reached up, removing the necklace I wore, usually hidden by my dress. It was a simple rope necklace with two feathers at the front, one white and one multicolored like a rainbow. “Those are just feathers,” the pegasus said, looking at them with a pout. “I’ll have you know, these very feathers are what told me what magic I excel at,” I said with a huff. “Really?” the earth pony asked, tilting her head, “What do they mean?” “Well, the ceremony changes depending on the culture, but in the west we have a feather test. Now, in order for a mage to teach their apprentice, they need to know how their magic works. So, the teacher will have their student pour some of their magic into a feather. Said magic can do a lot of things to that feather, and that tells the teacher what schools of magic their student is geared toward. See,” I held up the white feather, “This is the original feather and this is the duplicate feather my magic created. The duplication means I’m good at conjuration magic while each of the different colors represent an element I can control.” I demonstrate, summoning up a small fireball. “Well, that’s not really a story,” the pegasus said with a roll of her eyes. “Alright alright,” I said, replacing the necklace around my neck and the hat on my head, “I’ll tell you the story.” I cleared my throat, leaning back in my seat, “It was at least two decades ago...” I want to start out by telling you all, my mother isn’t my birth mother, well in a way she is but to keep it simple, she adopted me. Our first few days together weren’t all that great, I was stubborn and defiant, while she was firm and unrelenting. It didn’t help that... I was going through some changes at the time. The only thing that kept us together was her promise to teach me magic. “What are we doing now?” I asked, my arms crossed, a pout on my face, “Is this another one of your tricks?” “No,” Mother replied, sounding rather frustrated. “We’re going to your training, Terra.” She led us upstairs, toward a room I hadn’t entered. Standing at the door was Rave, a friend of mother’s, a fellow witch who had decided to help with my training. “So, you ready to start the magic kid?” Rave asked with a smirk. She was weird, tan skinned with green hair that I suspect she was born with. “Don’t call me kid,” I glared at her, causing her to laugh. “Well too bad, you are one now,” she teased, sticking her tongue out. “Now come on, I have it all set up.” She turned, pushing the door open, gesturing for me to head inside. I headed in and looked around. It had the look of one of those mad scientist labs you see in movies. “This way,” Mother instructed, leading me over to a small table. I looked at the lone feather sitting on it, raising my eyebrow. “That’s a feather, the hell am I supposed to do with that?” I asked, taking a seat on the chair. “You are going to channel your magic into it, and from there, we’ll know how your magic works,” Mother explained, taking a seat next to me. “Go on, you should know by now how to call up your magic.” I sighed, giving the feather a stare before holding my hands out. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to focus. It took me some time but soon I pulled up my magic. Feeling it dance on my fingers, I pushed it out into the feather with a gasp. You have to understand, when you use magic, not just summon it up, you give up a part of yourself. After all, magic is our life force, so I wasn’t really prepared for it. “Thats enough, Terra,” Mother said after a moment, breaking me out of it. I swayed a little, falling out of the chair. I didn’t hit the floor, instead landing in Mother’s arms. “I got you,” she said, holding me close. “I did it, right?” I asked, barely able to keep my eyes open. “Yes you did,” she said, holding up my feather, plus the duplicate, “We can worry about that later, for now though you need rest.” “You’re now officially a witchling, congratulations,” Rave said with a smirk, “You’ll be turning idiots into newts in no time!” “Groovy...” I muttered before passing out, feeling rather proud of myself. “Groovy?” the pegasus asked with a raised eyebrow. “It was the early 80’s, all the stuff from the 70’s was still dying out,” I said with a shrug, “I was a child of the times.” “I have a question,” the unicorn asked, raising her hand. Heh, she’s adorable. “You don’t have to raise your hand sweetheart, you can just ask,” I give her a smile, which she returned. “Um... I was just wondering if you could teach anypony to use your magic?” Well, that threw me for a loop. I mean, it wasn’t like most humans couldn’t learn. “I suppose I could teach you, if thats what you were going to ask,” I said, looking at her. She nodded a little, making me smile, “Well then I’d be happy to take you on as my apprentice, though I need to know your name first.” “Oh um... I’m Sweetie Belle,” she said with a smile. “Wait, Terra, you can’t be serious,” Twilight said, looking rather uncomfortable. What crawled up her ass? “Twilight, I’m almost a hundred years old, I’m about ready for an apprentice,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “You’re a hundred years old!?” Twilight burst out, while all the fillies gasped. “Yer almost as old as Granny Smith!” the earth pony exclaimed, her eyes full of respect. “Actually I’m 99, I’ll be turning 100 this year. Though you shouldn’t be too surprised, god knows how old my mother is. I ask and she just laughs.” I hate it when she does that, so damn annoying. “Terra, that kind of magic is forbidden! You could get into a lot of trouble teaching them to use it!” Twilight pointed out, needing to harsh our mellow. “Thats why you’re going to send your princess a letter on the matter,” I say, catching her off guard, “I don’t want to be deported or worse, so on my behalf, I would like you to send a letter to your princess about allowing me to practice my magic and teach others how to use it.” She blinked, processing my request, “I’ll write her a letter but I can’t promise anything.” She got up, shaking her head. “I should get back to the library, I’ll see you later Terra,” Twilight gave a little wave before walking out of the shop. “We have to get going too!” the pegasus exclaimed. She rushed out the door, the earth pony following after her. “Goodbye Ms. Terra,” Sweetie Belle said, heading out after her friends. “You all be safe!” I call, waving them all off. You know... those kids remind me of my own... I shook my head, sighing a little. I really hope she doesn’t hate me, though I wouldn’t blame her, what kind of mother just leaves their child to go have an adventure?