Magus Magesterim

by Blackhorn_The_Faithless


Scars

Generally speaking, the hospital wing in Ponyville Castle was the most advanced in Equestria. Machines that only Twilight's handmaidens and nursing staff knew how to use made up the majority of the equipment, whereas magical medical remedies had been mostly left as they were. This being because, even though Twilight had studied them extensively, she hadn't figured out a way to make 'a better healing spell' yet.

It was in one of the pristinely white beds that Fade had slept for the past seven days, only briefly waking up now and then in a horrible fever, to be coaxed back to sleep again by Twilight. On the fourth day, three visitors had arrived at Ponyville Castle, and greeted with a royal welcome, for all but about fifteen seconds, before Twilight's urgency had seen them all rush to the medical wing. The magic sickness Fade was experiencing was extreme in its intensity, and had him hovering on the edge of total mental breakdown several times during his weeklong pseudo coma, but he never went over the edge.

When he finally woke up however, it wasn't his mentor or even her mentor watching over him. It was somepony else. Somepony he hadn't seen in a year or so.

"Momma?" He asked blearily, his head aching, "Is that you?"

The pony whose head had been on the bed stirred and looked up at him, then smiled.

"Hey there kiddo," His mother answered softly, reaching up to stroke his head gently, "You okay? You gave us a bit of a scare there."

Fade's mother was, for lack of a better term, a plain mare. She didn't do anything with her mane or style her tail, and she never wore make up. She also didn't have a horn to cast magic with. Nope, his mother was a good honest earth pony who'd worked on a rutabaga farm all her life. Her farm. She shared fade's green coat, but had a brown mane that fell over one eye constantly if it was left to its own devices. Like she had it now, she generally kept it in a strict ponytail to keep it out of her face when she was working.

"What happened?" he asked with a yawn, "Where's the Princess? is she okay?"

His mother couldn't help it, she laughed and hugged her son to her chest.

"Oh Fade, she's fine... She's the Princess of Magic, she's tougher and stronger than all of us. You should know that by now~"

He winced, but welcomed the hug through the pain in his head, hugging her back gingerly. His whole body was starting to hurt, and he was hungry. So very, very hungry.

"But there was a monster..." he said quietly, screwing his eyes shut painfully, "It hit her, and she hit the wall and stuff..."

"I assure you my loyal apprentice, I'm quite alright."

Fade didn't need to look up to know Twilight had entered the room, and hearing her voice made him feel infinitely better about what he'd done.

"You, on the other hoof, are still recovering from your misadventure with magical backlash, and the demon."

"Demon?"

"Yes child, a Demon. You were meant to be in bed, asleep. I even dismissed my guards. I suppose I must teach you about them now, seeing as you've seen one, and sent it... somewhere else. But first I must ask, how did you do what you did?"

"That is what we would like to know as well."

The second set of voices did make the mother-son pair look up and around, looking at the new voices. Two other princesses held the air in suspense, both as regal as each other.

Princess Celestia, Tall and proud and startlingly white, dominated the space around her with a kind sort of light. She was in full regalia, golden shoes, crown and solid gold, gem encrusted neck brace. Her rainbow mane and tail waved in an invisible breeze, as it always had, even when she wasn't moving. Beside her stood her sister, Princess Luna. Luna had grown in six hundred years, almost as tall as Celestia was now, only shorter by a bit. Her deep blue coat mirrored the night sky's beauty, and her mane and tail moved on an ethereal wind like her sister's, but was an exact replica of her beautiful night sky. Upon her rump was a crescent moon on a dark background of splattered blue.

Both of them were impressively beautiful, and many would have bowed in their presence. However, Fade's mother did not.

"You ought to teach your student better Princess," His mother demanded angrily, "To summon demons within the castle walls! Where poor Fade could get in as well! We're lucky all he has is a scar and magic sickness! He could be dead right now!"

Twilight flinched, and actually looked a little ashamed. Celestia, however, merely raised a brow.

"I'm certain, Raze Lundry, that Princess Twilight was taking every precaution she could to prevent such things happening. Fade is an exceptionally talented mage, if our information is to be believed, and Twilight has never had reason to lie to me before."

"She was in the practice room," he said, his voice suddenly sounding very small inamongst the three Princesses and his mother, "It's warded... I just... I'm allowed in so... And what scar?"

A silence fell over the quartet of mares in the room as they all looked at Fade. The little colt suddenly felt a pit of dread form in his stomach, twisting his gut into painful knots. It was Luna who finally acted, drawing upon her deep blue magic to form a magic mirror before Fade as his mother backed away. It was then that the damage was made rather clear.

On the left side of his face was a long, hideous scar stretching from the upper limits of his maneline down to the upper limits of his cheek. It stretched down across his eye, but it hadn't touched the eyeball itself, and that was a miracle in and of itself.

"Your eye was a little mangled, but the eye is a simple enough thing to repair if you know what you're doing," Twilight said softly, "I even managed to keep it the same colour as your other one. But... the scar was made by a Demon's claw, and there was little I could do but heal it as best I could. Even with my advances... Demons have strange effects on ponies."

"It shouldn't have been in the castle at all," his mother grumbled quietly, but all of the Princesses let it go.

"I'm afraid you'll never be rid of the scar my loyal apprentice, but you should be proud," Twilight continued, a bit more warmly this time, "You not only survived an encounter with a demon, but you banished it too, on your own. I didn't even have to lend you power."

Fade could barely even breathe at this point, looking at the jagged scar on his face, and then he fainted.

**)~(**

"Dear Twilight," Luna began, now locked in Twilight's study with her sister and Twilight herself, "Forgive me, but I must question you for a moment. You swear by your Princesshood that this one is the next Element of Magic, but how can you be so certain?"

Twilight had been pacing the whole time they'd been locked in her study, and Luna and Celestia sat before her desk. Celestia had been quiet since they'd entered, and Luna had been the first to speak. Twilight replied quickly.

"I may have been lying slightly about Fade's achievements earlier," She said, "It wasn't simply a banishment, that wasn't what it was."

"Then what was it?" Luna shot back, "What's so special about him?"

Twilight stopped pacing, and looked at Luna seriously.

"He opened a rift. A rift between dimensions Luna. Tartarus, he didn't just open one, he tore open the walls between worlds, and shoved the demon through. It's simply not possible for a colt of his age."

"He's too young to have achieved that level of power," Celestia said quietly, "You remember our lessons in magic do you not sister?"

Light dawned in Luna's eyes as she figured out what her sister was saying.

"A pony doesn't reach full potential until they hit a certain age," Luna continued the lesson, "Their ability to control magic, and their ability to handle more magic grows with age, and stops at a certain point."

"Save for Alicorns such as ourselves, yes," Twilight said with a nod, "Our magical limit is slightly more flexible, mine especially. It's a fact I've been trying to study for centuries to figure it out. The only times I've been able to find in terms of magical flux at this magnitude is when the element of magic came around. Once six hundred and one years ago, when I took up the challenge to hatch Spike, and twice before then. One of those times was your own ascension I believe Celestia."

Celestia didn't speak.

"Now this? Believe it or not, this was the biggest surge I've observed recorded. Pillars of light, that's one thing. Making a dragon grow? That's another. But tearing a hole in space itself? That's not just magical discharge of the massive degree, for a pony his age, it should have killed him. Destroyed him perhaps. But he not only survived, it was only with a scratch. His grasp of magical and mental exercises is progressing at a rapid pace, and now I have to teach him about Demons, and dark magicks. I only hope he doesn't turn out like my first student."

"And if he does?" Celestia asked faintly, looking at her student with pained eyes. Twilight paused, but answered with a steel in her voice that was icy cold, and harder than diamonds.

"I'll kill him myself. There's nopony else who's strong enough."