//------------------------------// // 7: The Second Day // Story: The Reiter Pony War // by ASDeckard //------------------------------// Twilight had woken up rather early, at just about noon. While she would normally consider that waking late in the extreme, Luna had made it clear that she was expecting everyone to get their sleep schedule around for their night based training. She had tried to wake Rainbow twice now; the first attempt ended with some vague mumbling, while the second attempt a few minutes later received a very curt 'go away.' Fine. If I could I would continue sleeping in too, but I have too much to think about. With nothing better to do Twilight flew into Canterlot Proper for a mid day breakfast, before flying to the Canterlot Library. I need to know more about the potential issues non-unicorn magic users face. Twilight very quickly ran into a bit of a problem however; as far as the recorded history of Equestrian Magic was concerned, Pegasus and Earth Pony casters simply didn't exist. Luna told me herself and Celestia were apprenticed to Star Swirl well before they were to become Alicorns. Some record of their time must exist somewhere... Twilight had already read every scrap of information on Star Swirls life, and his studies and postulations of magic theory, and even knew the major sources by heart; none mentioned any of his apprentices other than Celestia, and she was only mentioned in books written in post-republic era's. That's when Twilight started realizing something; the magic that Star Swirl had cast to bind the Republic together, and gift Luna and Celestia with their great Alicorn powers was the transition between the Republic and the Equestrian Empire. Star Swirl had to know them before the transition; he would have never trusted the future of our entire nation to strangers. Twilight moved to the 'forbidden' wing of the Canterlot Library. It wasn't actually truly forbidden, more just heavily restricted. Twilight was given access years ago after annoying Celestia with enough questions on Equestria's ancient history she had decided to let Twilight discover the answers on her own. She had read most of even this remote section of the library, so she knew exactly what she was looking for; the book Imperium Occupare Sol et Luna. The basic translation was 'Empire Of The Sun And Moon,' but the more literal translation was akin to 'Empire Which Controls The Sun And Moon,' which was—in Twilight's opinion—a very accurate description. It was the oldest book to detail the Equestrian Empires history that still existed, written about two hundred years after the Empire was founded while it's early days were still fresh. It was mostly about the brutal unification wars that Celestia had waged to bring the southern lands together after the Republic had dissolved. It didn't take Twilight long to find the section she was looking for; it detailed the ceremony that crowned Celestia ruler of all ponies. There was no date given, and it read more like a folk tale than a first hoof account, likely because it was written so long after the event had taken place. Later in the book was another chapter, this time detailing Luna's ascension. Still no date was given, but it was mentioned to be a significant time after Celestia, to the extent that Celestia's rule had mostly stabilized locally, and during this ceremony Celestia named their empire after the two of them, and their respective gifts. This was also the time Celestia gave up the monicker queen, commanding all ponies to refer to both herself and her sister as princesses. At least that's how Twilight translated the text; it was difficult as the original language was long dead, and did not translate into modern Equestrian one-to-one, with words instead combining and changing each others meaning significantly in strange ways. Twilight was still able to find what she was looking for; upon their ascensions both Celestia and Luna had used their new found powers that very first day as part of their ceremonies, to raise their respective celestial body. Both Celestia and Luna had total—or at least significant—mastery of their magic from day one of being Alicorns. Twilight knew just how difficult it was to learn how to fly after having suddenly sprouted wings in her late teens; and if she was translating the book properly it looked like Celestia and Luna were even older when they become Alicorns, and yet both could use difficult magic the very first day they had grown horns. They must have been powerful mages before... Luna has to be right. Twilight's realization was reinforced as she re-read Celestia's chapter again; Celestia didn't fly, at all, during her ascension celebration, or ritual or however this translates. Celestia didn't know how to fly, because she was just an Earth Pony before, but both her and Luna had great experience with magic. Up to this point Twilight's main question was 'is it possible Luna was right.' Now that she had evidence that it really was true, a much more difficult question came to mind; what do I do about this? So Luna was right; you don't need a horn to cast magic. How much harder will it be? Will Rainbow even want to become a mage? If she doesn't want to become a mage, will she be able to completely block out her natural talent, or will she be forced to try and master it anyway? Oh, what if she really could be as strong as I am? Is it fair to her that I keep this opportunity from her? And how will I ever forgive myself if I don't tell her, and she gets hurt because she was unable to defend herself? But if I tell her she may end up hurting herself anyway! WHY DID LUNA GIVE ME THIS RESPONSIBILITY?! Twilight had to work hard to control her breathing and focus her mind. I can't make this choice for her, it's not fair to either of us, but I can't explain to her everything, because if she knows about this the choice will have already been made... And if I do tell her, will I explain everything, that any pony can learn this, or do I... lie and tell her she's special, like Luna...? Well, that's not really a lie; she is special because of all the power she holds. I can't tell her everything, because if I do she may be tempted to tell Fluttershy that she can cast spells too, and Fluttershy would have to be trained too, and she may not want to spend so much time training. At least Rainbow is already committed to a full time training regime; I know she'd see it through, even if she didn't want to. "Ugh!", Twilight shouted, angrily putting Imperium Occupare Sol et Luna back on the shelf were it belonged. "I need to talk to Rainbow about this before we're busy tonight." Twilight flew back into Canterlot, and ordered a quick sandwich for herself and two for Rainbow. Twilight was in the library for far longer than she realized; the sun was just setting, and dark clouds were moving in from the west. Please don't rain. Please don't rain. Please don't rain. I like my coat not covered in mud, thank you. Rainbow was somehow still asleep when Twilight flew back into the room. "For the love of Celestia!" Twilight shouted, setting the food on the table before jumping onto the bed. "You've been asleep for over seventeen hours!" "And I'll sleep for another..." Rainbow rolled away from Twilight, and tried to cover her head with a pillow. Twilight ripped the pillow away and tossed it to the far side of the bed. "No. There's something I would like to talk to you above before practice today, which is probably only an hour away! Up, now." When Rainbow did nothing more than moan, Twilight began telekinetically pulling the pillows out of Rainbow's makeshift 'nest,' and stacking them neatly on the opisite side of the bed. After a minute of this Rainbow was out of pillows, laying spread haphazardly on the empty bed. Releasing a massive sigh Rainbow finally stood up and gently hovered off of the bed. "Ok Twi, what?!" "How do you feel about magic?" Twilight asked abruptly. "Magic? Why would I care?" Rainbow still looked rather sleepy, but she was standing and looking back with her eyes reasonably focused. "Just because you can't use it doesn't mean it doesn't effect you." "Well... I don't know. I never really thought about it until last night." Rainbow gave a loose shrug. "Ok, so what do you think about it?" Twilight asked with a little hop. "This is important; I need to know, but I don't know how much I can tell you without making the choice for you." "...? Ok Twi, you're starting to lose me." "I need to know how committed you'll be." "Ok, committed to what?" "That... telling you would defeat the purpose of asking you." "Yea, you lost me." Rainbow had discovered the sandwich's Twilight had placed on the table. "I hate alfalfa..." "That one's mine; the two blue berry and jam's are for you." "Oh, thanks Twilight! How did you know?" "Well Rainbow, I've only known you five years now. My magic is strong indeed." The confused look Rainbow gave as she began stuffing her muzzle let Twilight know she hadn't understood the joke. "It doesn't mater," Twilight said, gently shaking her head. "What I'm trying to ask is... what are you willing to do to protect yourself from magic users?" "Well," Rainbow struggled to say before swallowing, "—that's really good—I'm not sure. A lot, I guess." "So, a lot? Like training to master a technique for months, and still needing to be careful and focus even well after the war is over, a lot?" Twilight really wasn't sure how much more she could say. "Yea, I guess." "Why?" "What do you mean, why?" Rainbow bit back, sounding very defensive. Her rapid shift in tone caught Twilight a bit off guard. Rainbow took the opportunity to bite back into her sandwich. "Why are you willing to sacrifice so much?" "Well, duh," Rainbow spat, "I can already counter other Pegasi and even Griffons in the air, and I can even match most Earth Ponies on the ground if I really need to, but I can do nothing about Unicorns! Twilight," Rainbow had set down what was left of her first sandwich; the last of her long sleep firmly driven from her face, "last night, on the field when we were sparing and you pined me down with magic... that really sucked. If it was anypony but you I likely would have had a panic attack!" "Really? You were scared?" Something in Rainbow snapped. "Of course I'm bucking scared! Think about it Twi, I'm one of the strongest and I am the fastest pony in all of Equestria, and now I'm going to have several mouths of real military training to back up my instincts; I beat a militarily trained Griffon in single combat for Celestia's sake! And do you know what that means? NOTHING! All of my talent, and all of Luna's training and you, or any Unicorn comparable to you, can still pin me to the ground, slit my throat, or just turn me into a fine cyan paste with a thought!" "Actually, your fur is cerulean, not cyan—" "THAT'S NOT THE BUCKING POINT TWILIGHT! There's nothing I can do, but hope I catch them off guard! All of my strength, and all of my speed, and my only hope is to club them in the back of the head while they're not looking! That sucks! Twilight... if I didn't have you here, to protect me from them, I probably would have left the moment I learned just what Unicorns are capable of. I considered leaving anyway, but I can't leave you here alone, and I trust you to keep us safe from what I can't deal with myself." "Rainbow that's... I never thought of it that way. Luna says that she's going to teach you tactics to make the fight more fair." "Sure Twilight, to make it a little more fair to try and fight a creature that can pull my legs off as easily as if I was a insect? That sounds so fair." "Well, it's not that unfair for venomous spiders; do you remember last summer, when I was bitten by that widow spider!" "Yea Twilight, and you're still doing fine, and the spider is gone." "No he's not; I gave him to Fluttershy and she said sh—" "AND how long would the spider have lived if you wanted him dead, like the Reiter Ponies want us dead? You wouldn't even need magic... I don't want to talk about this anymore, Twilight. What's the point." Rainbow picked up the remaining half of her fist sandwich and turned away from Twilight. "I'm sorry Rainbow; I let the conversation wonder off topic. What would you give to be able to match even the strongest Unicorns, and possibly even me?" "We can start with my front right leg," Rainbow stated mater-of-fact, turning back towards Twilight and extending said limb, as she took a bite of her sandwich. "That's not quite what I'm asking you to sacrifice. Would you be willing to train every bit as hard as we already are, and studying under my guidance? I can't promise it will be exiting, although it will be dangerous, and if Luna's right potentially life threatening." Rainbow frowned as Twilight spoke, but she gave a slow firm nod. "Ok, well I guess I'm willing to commit the time to teach you," Twilight began, "and take responsibility for... anypony you hurt... Are you sure about this, Rainbow? I could give you some time to think." Rainbow finished her food, and took a moment to stare at the floor. "I'm sure, Twi. I don't want to be at any-ponies mercy, ever. What did you have in mind?" "One last time, you are sure? There's no going back from here." "I'm sure, Twilight. I trust you." Twilight took her time explaining to Rainbow almost everything Luna had told her. She explained that Luna and Celestia were both able to become powerful casters before having a horn, and that Rainbow also had the potential to do so. Twilight left out the part about any pony theoretically being able to cast spells, as Rainbow would not benefit from this knowledge, and it could put a lot of ponies at risk and give her an unnecessary burden to bear. "So, Luna was a Pegasi?" was the first question Rainbow asked when Twilight's explanation ended. "Yes, and like you she had a massive internal power source. You just need to learn how to access it, and control it." "Ok, so what's the big deal? How is that dangerous?" "You might go power mad, like Sombra, or you may just randomly explode one day, or you might hurt somepony if you lose control, or you could hurt yourself, and even if we practice you will never have very good fine control, and your magic will be inherently unstable making it much more likely for spells to misfire, and—" "Ok, Twi; I get it. So, were do we begin?" Rainbow looked a lot more exited than Twilight had imagined. Part of Twilight had honestly expected Rainbow to be disastrously board by all of this, although there was still plenty of time for her to get board later. "Well, Rainbow... I don't actually know. The last time a Pegasi was trained in the arcane arts was, to my knowledge, when Luna was trained by Star Swirl nearly two and a half thousand years ago. I've been looking for any references to their time together, but I've been unable to find much. I'm sure Luna can help us some time later, maybe even tonight." "Ok, way to get me all exited then tell me to wait Twi," Rainbow said with a wry grin, "and don't doubt yourself, Twilight; I'm sure you'll figure something out. Until then is there anything I shouldn't be doing?" "Well, Luna said the moment you knew what power you could potentially wield, you would never be able to let it go, so I guess if we wait long enough your mind should be able to make the connections on it's own. Basically you just need to gain conscious control over your instinctual magic that you already cast, and then we go from there." "Ok?" "I'm sorry Rainbow, but at least we know what we're going to do now, even if we don't know how yet. Tomorrow before practice I'll get back to the library and try and dig up some information on how to cast without a horn. I've never seen anything on it before, but I'm sure there must be something." A firm three knock pattern echoed through the door. "Well, I guess it's time. Thanks for telling me this Twilight, and I'm sure you'll make a great teacher, as soon as, you know, you figure out how to start teaching me." Rainbow turned to answer the door, even though they both knew what it was for. Twilight grabbed her own sandwich off the table and quickly started nibbling it away. As Rainbow returned from the door she put on a gentle smile and gave a quick nod, picking up her second sandwich as the two friends prepared to fly into the dark night. ⁂ Luna issued the same challenge she had the first night, and her students once again scattered in their own directions. Rainbow Dash and Rapidfire once again competed in a circling contest about mid way up the Areion Peak, but unlike last time Rainbow paced herself a bit better, coming up on lapping Rapidfire for the thirteenth time just as Luna raised the moon directly overhead, signaling her students to return. Even though she hadn't pushed herself to near death like she had the first time, Rainbow didn't need to fake exhaustion when Luna asked them to hover in place. She managed to drag herself into the air, and held her hooves off the ground for a moment, but her wings simply refused to hold her up for more than a few flaps at a time. "Very good," Luna told her exhausted students. "If any among you find your endurance rising to levels were you can no longer exhaust yourself in a mere two hours, I expect you to begin earlier in the night, before we meet. Eventually you will all need more time, and we will begin to go for longer, but not for awhile. "Today, as you are still getting used to operating on low energy, I will begin training your minds instead of training your bodies. Our game of strategy I introduced you to last night will help you master the tactics and techniques you will need to compete with opponents who can afford to use more of their energy than you, but tonight we will talk about how you will deal with your most dangerous opponents; magic users." Rainbow felt the fur on the back of her neck stand up, as she dreaded what Luna was going to say next. Rainbow had never had a proper phobia before, but she wasn't sure if she would call her new found fear of magic a phobia or not. Is being afraid of a being who can rend you limb from limb with a thought and flicker of energy a phobia, or is that just smart? "You are lucky," Luna continued, "that the worlds only four Alicorns, two of which stand before you now, are all firmly on our side. This means any powerful mages the enemy has will be ground bound, and slow to move and react to your presence, but you simply can not face them head on. I would like to give you an example, for those that do not yet respect the gravity of your disadvantage. "I wish for all of you, except for Twilight, to try and attack me." Luna turned and glided a good distance away from her students, before landing and turning to face them. "I will not move from this spot, and all you need to do to win is touch me. Go." Luna sat, with a calm expression on her face. The small Griffon, Procyon, glanced at the other students, a smile spread across his beak. "I'll go first," he crooned. He turned back to Luna, and launched himself at her, using what strength he had left in his legs to shove himself forward into a low glide. He didn't even make it half way to Luna before he froze, fixed in place mid-air. "Foolish," Luna whispered, "It's going to take all of you to have even a slim chance." Her eyes unfocused for a moment, before a small boulder came flying in from her right, glowing in the same midnight blue aura as the frozen Griffon. Luna levitated the rock directly in front of the Griffons face; it was about the same size as his head. "This is what would happen if we were in a true battle, Procyon." As Luna's words came to their conclusion, the rock was torn in half, and one half was then ground to dust. Luna then placed the remaining half of the rock, flat side down, on Procyon's head. "That looks good on you; you should wear rocks more often." Some of the students giggled, and Rapidfire broke into a full laugh, rolling on the ground, but Rainbow could see nothing even remotely funny about the Procyon's predicament. Rainbow looked at Twilight; she was siting far to the right, a calm neutral expression on her face as she watched Luna, but when she turned to look back at Rainbow her expression shifted to concern. Is it that obvious? she thought to herself; I guess the days of Rainbow fearless Dash are over. The other students had begun moving forward, some flanking around both sides as they approached, but all were moving far too slowly to have any real chance. If I could fly maybe I could get around behind her quickly enough, but it will take too long on hoof to circle around without getting too close; by the time I'm ready I'll be the last one left, and all Luna will have to do is turn around and I'm done. Hay, maybe she won't even need to turn around to trap me... what am I going to do? As it turns out, nothing; she hadn't even moved from her sitting position when Luna's telekinetic touch gripped down around her, pinning her in place with a cold, completely immovable force. "I am not disappointed in any of you," Luna began, as she levitated all of her students into a lose semi-circle a few feet in front of her. To Rainbow's rising horror she did not release them. "None of you have any experience in fighting truly powerful magic users. Maybe you once got into a brawl with a Unicorn and tasted a little of it, and those of you with a military background will have trained with and against Unicorns, but none of you have faced a being like myself or Twilight, or of Sombra's apprentices. Your first step is to understand and recognize how vulnerable you are." As Luna spoke, Rainbow didn't hear a single word; she was too busy trying to control her rising panic. Why is she doing this? Luna, let me go! Oh, Celestia, I can't even speak! Calm down, Luna would never hurt you, but why won't she let you go! I understand, Luna, I know have exposed we really are! Twilight, do something! Stopping stuff like this is why you're here! The weight of Luna's magic was far more stiff than Twilight's was, and while Twilight's magic grip was just strong enough to prevent Rainbow from moving Luna's grip squeezed tightly even though Rainbow was making no attempt to move. While Twilight's touch was warm, Luna's was unbearably cold and distant in the still night air. As Rainbow felt her body break into a cold sweat as her limbs grew cool and numb, she began to feel a somewhat familiar, and yet strangely alien sensation growing in her chest. She could feel a warmth spreading through her ribcage. It felt a lot like when she was pushing her flying hard to preform a Sonic Rainboom, or when she was climbing into the sky as fast as she could; but she wasn't even moving, let alone flying, making the sensation feel weirdly out of place. She normally wouldn't have thought much of it, but she clung to the sensation like a drowning filly would cling to anything to keep her head above water. It did nothing to stop her rising panic as her heart thundered in her chest. For a time that's all she thought it was; just her heart working to move her blood as she freaked out, but the sensation continued to grow and began spreading through her, chasing the cold out of her legs. Rainbow started to think back to what Twilight had said just a few hours ago; that despite being a Pegasus she had a massive reserve of magic power in her; she just needed to learn how to control it. She pushed on the warmth in her legs, and it moved! Since she had never felt the warmth anywhere but in her chest before, it felt strange having it spread through all of her, so she began trying to pull it back into her chest, so at least something would feel normal as she sat there, trapped. As the warmth was focused and compressed back into her chest, she felt the heat grow in intensity. As the heat built, it threatened to sear her fur; she could actually feel the hot air rising from her chest under her muzzle. It's not just the sensation of heat, it's actually really heating me up! What is happening? The temperature in her chest, especially now that it was contrasted by the chilling cold that returned to her legs, was becoming unbearable, so she started shifting the temperature into her wings intending to use their large surface area as radiators, and because her wings had a much higher temperature tolerance than any other part of her. As Rainbow felt Luna's telekinesis squeeze around her she had panicked, and flared her wings to her side. They were still pinned there, feathers spread wide in an attempt to take off, shimmering with Luna's dark midnight blue magic. As she began dumping the surging heat into her wings, the glow began to shift to a slightly lighter blue hue. Rainbow still wasn't sure what was really happening, but the slight change in the magic's color, a subtle hint that Luna's spell was not completely impenetrable after all, flooded her with excitement. Even as the excitement mixed with her still visceral terror, she felt more heat radiate from her chest and she continued to shove it into her wings as fast as it would come. That's not just heat, she realized, it's power! As she dumped more and more power into her wings, the color shifted to a sap green, and she found her wings had become mobile again. As she flexed her wings, and spread them out in front of her still trapped face to look at, Luna abandoned her speech to stare at Rainbow. Suddenly Luna's horn flared blue and the color of the glow surrounding Rainbow's wings shifted back to a muted cyan. She could still move her wings, but they felt as if they were under water as the magic squeezed in around them. No, I will be free! Rainbow tried to shout, for the first time not just taking what power her fear pushed to the surface but activily trying to drag up as much as she could from wherever it was hiding in her. Luna abandoned the rest of her students, letting them collapse to the ground, as she shifted her full focus onto Rainbow, and as her horn flared brighter, the glow over Rainbows wings shifted back to a dark blue, locking them in place, even as the power within them continued to build. Rainbow Dash's fear began to shift to anger; anger that Luna would fight so hard to trap her against her will, anger that Twilight would stand by and do nothing to stop her, but mostly anger that there was nothing she could do, that she wasn't strong enough. I will not lose! The heat in her wings had grown so intense she began to worry that she might set her feathers on fire, and the massive weight Luna was putting on her wings threatened to grind her fragile bones to dust. She began letting the power build across the rest of her, and found that Luna's hold was growing weaker; she could finally force her eyes closed against the blinding light of Luna's immense magic. "I will win!" She couldn't hold the power back any longer. She wrapped her wings around her midriff, tensing for a moment before throwing her wings outward and releasing her hold on the power. There was a thunderous crack as the heat fled her body, shooting out in every direction. A moment later the ground slammed into her legs and she collapsed onto the warm dirt. I thought we were in a grassy field? She managed to force her eyes open; Luna stood crouched, furiously blinking her eyes as they began to water. The rest of the students had backed away from their struggle, but most were still close enough to be partially blinded by the flash. Rainbow was laying in a small circle of dirt left behind as her power had burnt away the grass. Forcing herself to stand, Rainbow slowly approached Luna; her eyes were still unable to focus, and a small trickle of blood ran from the corner of her left eye. Rainbow calmly walked up to Luna's right side, and gently placed a hoof on the Princesses side. "It looks like I've won," Rainbow declared. Luna turned her head to look down at Rainbow, her eyes finally able to partially focus. "What?" she shouted, a confused look spreading across her features. "I win!" Rainbow shouted into her ear, patting her on the side again. A smile slowly spread across the wounded princesses face. "It seams you have," she shouted back.