As Mark slowly faded out of the confines of his mind and slowly awoke into consciousness, his mana was currently doing a check on his vitals. "Everything seems to be in order. The heart's still pumping blood, the lungs are letting air flow, and his bones aren't that broken. Besides slight bruises and some off-coloration to his limbs, everything seems to be in working order." His flowing form shined a bright green before returning to his brilliant hues. He crackled a little bit before creating a small chair and table and began floating towards them.
"Well...now that that's out of the way, I guess it's time to get down to business." The fire making up his form pulsed blue and red before a little screen appeared on the table.
"Ahh the trusty Dell. Best thing I can use for this job of mine." The laptop opened without any evidence of the fire even touching it. The Dell desktop opened up and a blue hue was evident on the fire. The clacking off keys made itself apparent before a brilliant galaxy wallpaper appeared. The mouse on the screen moved towards the Windows Explorer button and clicked on it. The usual setup was apparent, but there was one major difference. Instead of the regular documents and folders, there were two main sections, which were named the Body and the Mind. The mouse hovered over the mind document and clicked on it.
"Let's see her. Memories...Desires...Frustrations...Obsessions.....Oh! I didn't even know that Love was in here! I should check this thing out more often. Ahh. Here it is." The mana clicked on a document called Pathways. Instead of folders a hologram appeared in front of the mana. It showed many various red and blue lines inside of a human body.
"Hmmm....Now that I'm finally awake and not stuck in that damned place again I can finally do my job. Let's see...connect this there...move that here aaannnnddd.....Done!" The pathways had all re-arranged themselves until there was only one blue line. It connected from the left side of its body to the human's head. It pulsed every now and again signifying the use of magic.
"Alright. Now all that's left is up to him. He's got to learn to control the pathways himself if he's to have any hope of mastering magic, but first I have to check something." The cursor exited out of Windows Explorer and moved towards the lower right-hand side of the screen. There stood an update message that stated to watch it immediately. Curious the mana made the cursor click on it. The screen turned black. for a long while, and the mana had started to believe that a magic virus had overtaken his ability to control and monitor some aspects of Mark's nature. He was about to close the laptop until a fire appeared onscreen. It was a natural fire ,of course, and it seemed to be illuminating something behind it, but it was too blurred out by the camera. Then ,as if the camera had heard of his complaints, the video had refocused on what was behind it.
There stood four things. a person, a computer, a chair, and a desk. The man looked well into his forties. He was wearing a black coat and some goggles on his head. If the mana hadn't known any better, he would've said that this man looked almost like Renald. His mouth then began to move.
Hello there. This is Renald Groughf. I am the world's premier magic researcher and am only known to a select group of friends and other individuals. The governments of the world do not know about me since I like to keep my research from exiting into the public eye. Most likely the worst possible scenario would be that the government would likely try to make some technology to artificially awaken the global populace's magical capabilities which is kind of bad, considering what magic can actually do. Magic does exist naturally, but only 1/10000th percent of people on Earth can use it. Anyway you, the mana, are probably wondering what to do or what the heck you are. Allow me to elaborate. Your job is to regulate and manage the magic that is coursing through the person that you are inhabiting. If you fail this then you will most likely die along with this person in a glorious magical explosion. Don't worry about it though. It's pretty easy to do. After that then I suggest you come find me at the Science Center of Iowa. Just ask for Mr. Jev and the administration will do the rest. Anyway, do your best! I'll be waiting here for you.
As the man faded into bleakness, and the fire died onscreen, the mana sighed. It was just the same video he saw when he first awoke in that dame place. He could still remember the steel cage suspended above the black pit. An endless fall below and there was only a rusty chain holding it all together. He tried to get out many a time, but he would still be stuck in that same place unable to do the job that was assigned to it, like the obedient automaton that he was. He was finally thankful when Rainbow Dash had done something so drastic that she broke the cage and gave the mana a semi-physical form. 'Boy!", he thought, "What a surprise it was when the bottomless pit was actually just a really dark floor." He had a few laughs after that thought and clicked on the X at the top right corner of the video screen. He then proceeded to click on the internet explorer icon.
"Alright! Now that my work is done, I think I deserve a little me time. It's unfortunate that there won't be any new material, but I have to make do with what I've got." Website after website popped up over the period of approximately two hours he was on there. On them, he re-watched some memories of Mark's involving good times with his family, 'friends', and ...other things.........Don't be like that. It was perfectly reasonable for a 15 year old child to start a bad LARP team. What were you thinking that he did? Afterwards, mana shut down his browser, turned off the laptop, and dismissed everything away.
"Research is fun and all, but it is hardly fun when you already know about the memories that you're researching. I wish I was outside. That way I could actually find out about new things. Waaaiiiitttt.....I need to check on something." The fire crackled a bit and bid into existence a ring of stone. On it were many runes and figures as well as a movable ring inlaid into the other ring.
"No! This is not what I want. Sure it would be pretty cool to travel through a stargate, but I need something far more reliable." The fire crackled once again before the stone circles vanished, and in its place appeared a door. There was nothing really special about the door besides the numerous glowing veins that ran all along the sides of it. Seemingly satisfied, the mana reached towards the door ,with a wisp of his flame, and opened it. On the other side stood the tranquil calm of a forest at daytime. It floated through the doorway and shut the door behind him.
"Hmmm...", he thought, "This is odd." His form was now a light silhouette of a human instead of the formless fire he once was. It was slightly disconcerting, but he was getting used to it pretty quickly. "This must've happened because of my overwhelming desire to be able to interact with the physical world on a much grander scale than mere magic signatures and sources......Whelp, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth." He looked back towards the door and cast a simple invisibility spell over it. Instead of the near limitless energy that he was used to he was drawing upon his own energy instead of the imagination that he was used to. "Huh.", he thought, "Guess I'm going to have to be careful with how much energy I use. I don't have a limitless supply after all."
No creatures ever disturbed him as he went through the forest. The mana theorized that it was either because he was back in the Everfree forest or all the creatures that ever saw him were disturbed by his ethereal form floating slightly above the ground.. The mana stopped, floated downwards until his feet had touched the ground, and started to move his limbs in the manner that was normal to any being that had a physical form as he began going forward again. "It would be best to appear as normal as possible to attract any natural wildlife.", he thought, "Otherwise, what would be the fun of just walking through the forest without anything happening at all?"
He continued like this for a bit until he reached a road going through some rocky hillsides. On this path was a small timberwolf picking up nearby twigs and leaves and sticking them to its body. The mana slowly came to a stop until it rested right in front of the timberwolf. It leaned down unto its 'knees' and stared right at its head. "I wonder if it can even see me." As if the timberwolf had heard the mana's inner thoughts, it looked straight up into his face.
The timberwolf dropped its sticks and began to slowly walk away. "I guess that answers that question." As the mana slowly walked towards it, the timberwolf began to back away faster and faster until it turned around and ran down the path, yipping all the way. "Aww, now I won't be able to study that pile of sticks and leaves. Who knows what kind of magic is keeping this construct alive?"
The mana turned towards where the dog had left and began walking. "I might as well follow it. It's the first thing I've seen here and I don't want to wait around for another creature to come. It would likely take hours." With that final thought, the mana went along the path. It went along this for a while, seeing many unique flora. It did stop for a while to take some samples of some poison joke before it went along its way. The only interesting thing it came along was when the path was interrupted by a raging river.
It appeared that there was a bridge many years ago here, but it looked like it had long rotted away and been swept by the river. It didn't really matter to him though. He could just float on over, but as he started to do so, he noticed something. On the opposite bank, sat a black shape. It looked like it was a predator, but it was pretty small. It could've been an offspring of some dangerous animals here. Curious, the mana decided to float on over to inspect. As he floated closer he started to make out more and more details of the creature.
There sitting in a bush was a creature that was so infamous, that ponies nightmares were always filled with the fear and danger of these creatures. The once plentiful species had suffered many casualties and was on the brink of extinction. At least to the current knowledge of ponies. They were known by many names. Tricksters, Impersonators, Vile Bugs, but the most well known name would have to be Changelings. Now coming upon one someone would either have to be rather lucky or unlucky. To the mana it was a once in a lifetime experience. This was his first meeting between a capable thinking species. Unfortunately he was on a rather fixed time limit since his doorway could only last for so long, so he did the next best thing. He tagged it. It was a small spell that only tacked and monitored this creature's location and state. "It certainly wouldn't be good if this thing got lost or died on me.", he thought. Suddenly an influx of information flowed into ,what the mana would call, its mind. "It's dying."
Saddened by the thought of losing such an awesome research project, he quickly looked up what could probably heal this creature. "Hmmm....let's see. Changeling feed on the energy from emotions. Whether by personal preference or not, love seemed to be its most favored food, but how do I give it love energy? That's the question." As the mana pondered this question the changeling chose this instant to wake up. Its breath was taken in shuddering gasps, green blood poured from its mouth, and when it tried to move its wings it found them to be partially cut. It tried to move its legs, but the mana had prevented it by putting a hand on its shoulder.
The changeling looked up to find the mana sitting there. It didn't see his whole form though. It only saw the blurry outline of him. "What the heck are you?" The mana was surprised to see that it could talk at all given its injuries and his knowledge of changelings. "Guess that minor changelings are not simple drones after all." he thought. He was trying to think up of a response when it came to him.
"....A friend." he stated. The changeling seemed to be wary of him for a while, before it sighed and relaxed. "Alright." This was the last thing it said before it faded back into unconsciousness. The mana decided to do something risky since it couldn't really give it love energy right now. White mist formed around the mana and began to steadily pour into the changeling. Its bones cracked into place, the blood pouring from its mouth stopped flowing, and its breathing stopped becoming so erratic. When the cracking of bones stopped, the mana interrupted his magical flow. "This is the best I can do for now. With its bones set back in place and some of its profuse bleeding stopped, it should be able to survive for a few more weeks. If it gets any worse I'll just get to it at a better time, but for now it would be best for me to save up on some energy. Otherwise I won't have enough in case of an emergency"
The mana got up and walked away, but only after he had maneuvered some bushes to hide his research project from local predators. He then continued onwards along the path until he came upon another interesting feature. Along the path ,far from the river, was a tiny abandoned village. Its houses and farms were overgrown with ivy and some of the houses had caved in over the time that it was here. The mana was hoping for some sort of journal or scroll of some sort to have survived the passage of time, but nothing of the sort was ever seen. No works of literature was found in that village. Saddened, the mana continued along the path leaving the decrepit village behind.
He continued along the path until he reached an old stone fortress. "The Castle of The Two Sisters. That must mean I'm in the Everfree forest, but how did I even get here?" The mana floated onwards towards the castle but was stopped shortly as he spotted a fissure along the ground. He stopped only because he saw a white glow coming from inside the cave as well as what he remembered was inside it. "If my memory is correct, than there should be the glowing tree of harmony down there. I might as well get down there and study it. If I'm quick, I can get back in time before Mark gets to sleep. He is probably expecting me after all." The mana floated down the stairs at the side of the crevice and continued onwards into the cave.
The glow intensified until he reached the very end of the cave. Sitting there, was the Tree of Harmony. All sorts of things ran through the mana's mind, but one thing stood out above all the rest. "I MUST STUDY IT!!" The mana raced towards the tree and started to inspect everything about it. Every insignificant leaf and branch was not left untouched. He felt sad though when he wasn't able to get a sample from the tree. All that resulted was the branch hitting him in the face multiple times. He then decided to investigate one of the Elements. The moment he touched the Element of Laughter, a shockwave hit him in the face and propelled him into the side of the cave.
" NO MORE!!!! I demand that you cease and desist the altercations that you are forcing upon my form! If you do not I will harm you severely." The mana's whispy form was blown back by the feminine voice. He did not think of his impending doom though. "Huh....So the Tree of Harmony is an actual sapient being. That's cool to know. I should probably apologize. When I was tugging and pulling on it , that was probably the equivalent of pinching, pulling and twisting someone's arms off."
"Hey there. Sorry for all the trouble I caused by my intense investigations. That probably hurt you a bit." The trees branches vibrated and swayed as if they were in a maelstrom.
"Geee, you think? I do accept your apology, but I really want to know who made you. They are going to get a serious kick in their face for making something with a so little concept of manners." Confusion and some anger got into the mana as he retorted. "I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. I was not made by anyone." The trees branches immediately stopped moving.
"Are you sure? You're not from that miserable brother of mine or those four old codgers?"
"I'm pretty sure I would remember something as important as who had made me." The tree was silent and still for a moment before its branches were a flurry of activity. "You're a NEW one! Hah! That's a lot to believe. I've seen a lot of things in my day, but this is just amazing. It's not everyday that a new form just walks up to your doorstep, so I'm going to have to call that brother of mine as well as those codgers to make sure your story checks out. You better hope it does, otherwise I am going to make your whole being get absorbed back into your 'parent' so you will cease to exist." All of this was said with the happiest of tones. You can then understand that the mana was sort of freaked out by the crystal tree. Unfortunately he could not run away from the tree since it had put an immobilization spell on him. He was forced to watch the actions of the Tree of Harmony.
The first thing the mana noticed was that all of the branches of the tree were moving. All of them were gripping the closest branches and pulling upwards. Branch after branch was added to the twisted mound of crystal until they all stopped at one point. Then the spots where the Elements of Harmony were represented started to glow. Each glow travelled in a spiral up the branches until each met up with each other at the single focal point. Suddenly, a rumble began in everything. It vibrated every part of the mana's form. The mana looked all around for the source until it finally noticed the change in the tree. Its crystalline look had all but vanished. The only part that was a crystal was the branches that were closest to the focal point, but even those branches were going to be like that for long.
Almost immediately after the mana had noticed the very sudden change in the tree's appearance, a rainbow wave shot out of the tree and into the roof of the cave above. The wave travelled all along the ground in a gigantic circular wave. It even shot up into the sky at certain points by travelling along some of the Everfree forest's trees. The mana watched the ripple as it travelled through the forest until he could no longer see any of it. He looked back towards the tree only to find that it had completely turned to wood. No longer did the crystalline glow emanate from its limbs. Now the only light left was the light of the setting sun. That was until a faint glow started to appear in front of him. A soft yellow light was beginning to appear at the base of the tree. As time went on it grew in brilliance until the mana could make out the form of an alicorn. The form was almost the size of the mana, if not an inch shorter. It slowly approached him and sat down on its haunches.
"You don't have to be silent. It is going to take a while before the rest of them get here. In the meantime I might as well introduce myself. I am Harmony. I represent all things that are good and just. Who are you?"
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In a distant land ,buried underneath a mountain, lays a massive titan. He once roamed around forming mountains, valleys, and some of the continents that Eques now has today. Now he slumbers underneath the tallest and widest mountain in all of Eques, Mt. Kagekiyo. He was put to sleep there by a group of travelling mages, but that is the past. Currently this massive titan is waking up. His scheduled rise and shine was supposed to be around a million years from now, so most beings would be scared of this titan's power if he were to wake up early. Thankfully, his spirit was the only thing awoken. His body still rested soundly under the mountain. What woke him up was long past and he was still a little groggy. It was really lucky for him to have felt this particular mana wave. Otherwise he would have not known who to thank for waking him up.
"I guess Harmony needs us again. I wonder if its for council or just to reign in her brother again. Hopefully she doesn't hate me for being late. My magic is not as it used to be." And with those final words, the mana of the titan vanished leaving behind an empty body. Silence reigned under the mountain until a snore emanated from the beast. The residences on the mountain could have sworn that the whole mountain rumbled that day.
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At the bottom of a trench, deep under the ocean, a tiny land flourished. The golden cities of Ἀτλαντὶς lied there silent, filled to the brim with corpses. Once it was an amazing acropolis on top of the world. Then it all changed when an Elemental ran rampant through its city. It was taken down by some local warriors, but even then it decided to leave a little parting gift. An explosion took most of the city, and the seaside swallowed the rest. Nowadays, it is inhabited by many creatures of the sea. All of them live under the rule of Queen Namazu. She led everyfish there with a gentle fin and a firm tail. Unfortunately that does not stop the attacks of the many carnivores that feast upon her kingdom. Thankfully all her subjects are granted with a portion of their Queen's magic. They are then able to defend themselves. Unfortunately there is troubling news. The Queen's spies have led everyone to believe that a truce between the Kua and the Kraken were to be held in a few weeks. Everyfish was on edge. It was only made worse by the rainbow wave that had flowed through the water. Every single fish was scared if this was a surprise magical attack from the Kua. Thankfully their fears were put to rest by their Queen. Inside her throne room she told the league of criers to spread the word. In the seaweed parchments she gave to them, she stated that it was a message from an old friend of hers. When the criers left, she asked every noblefish and guardian to leave. She stated that the reason being that she wanted some time alone to think of a strategy against the impending war. Everyfish accepted this and left the throne room to the Queen.
"I had hoped that you would call me. I had hoped that you would offer some help for my kingdom. I would have thought that your very nature would help us in this time of dire need. All I get though is the request to come there onto the land. *sigh* I'm going to yell at her so bad, it's going to make my lungs bleed." With that thought, the mana of the fish separated from the body. Instructions were left inside of it to go about as it normally would according to its personal experiences and memories and that she would only be gone for a little while. The 'Queen' was left to her own devices. As the 'Queen' let everyone in to discuss her new strategy, the mana only hoped that her body would do well without her inside of it.
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High in the stratosphere, there lay a layer of thin clouds that can never be destroyed or moved. In it a single creature lays, biding its time until its strength has returned. Its one goal in life was to live free and blow hard. This creature was the first and last of its kind. His name was Byakko. It was stopped long ago when the very windigoes he had created, revolted against him to pursue their own desires. He vowed to one day track down those that had trapped him and trap them in the same way that they had done to him only 100 times longer. His scheming was interrupted when he noticed the brilliant rainbow light that travelled past him and further into the sky. He knew of only one person that could've done this.
"So Harmony....after all this time...heh....This is a welcome reprise from the monotonous sky. I guess I should probably go now. She is expecting me after all." The creature laid its head down and expelled its mana. He left what remained of his body and sped towards the earth below. What was left inside the cage of clouds went into its favorite form of entertainment. Hibernation.
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In a realm of fire and lava lay a stone so hot, it was said to burn everything within a fifty meter radius. The stone held a pile of ashes that was once the biggest and most powerful phoenix of all time. The only drawback of this specific phoenix's incredible power and size was its recovery from death. Thus you can understand why the mana was so bored of sitting there and waiting for a millennium to pass so it would be able to roam the lands once again. Thankfully, she had some busy work by protecting the ashes. Dragons and the like that could survive this heat would be able to break this rock and try to consume the ashes. Thus they would gain the phoenix's power. This would be stopped by the mana, though. Time and time again they would come to steal her powers, but the terrors were far and in between, so you can understand that the mana was bored most of the time. Thankfully for her, this was changed however when the rainbow wave passed through the rock and magma towards the stone. When it reached the mana, she cried in jubilation.
"YAAAAAAAAYYY!!! I can finally have some action again. Maybe Harmony could even be my sparring partner this time. I certainly need practice. However I do wonder why she is doing this. The others would surely hear her message." The mana's pondering was stopped after a certain thought entered her head. "She might need help. Her idiotic brother might be trying to kill her again. If that's the case I have to get there right the Tartarus now!!!" And without further delay, the mana of the phoenix left her stone and flew away in a blazing inferno.
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The last being that was able to receive this message was one in multiple states. Specifically it was the mana inside of a circlet stored under heavy security in the Canterlot Vaults. When it reacted its first thought was, "Huh...I guess I must tell the master this." The mana left the circlet in a black haze and teleported to its masters lair. When the wave reached out to all the pieces of the black mana, they all followed the same course of action, so you can probably understand the frustration that Discord had when all of its previous pieces of his existence teleported inside his personal hammer space.
"*sigh* What are you all doing here? Can't you see I'm busy?" The collective mana could not ,in fact, see that he was busy since all they saw was their master bouncing a miniature moon against the starry ceiling of his hut. However, what he really was doing was seeing how much he could mess up his little replica of the night sky by doing little changes here and there. "But master it's important...your sister--" The moon ball stopped in its place and shattered. The starry ceiling of his hut exploded into supernovas. The furniture all got scared expressions and hid in one corner of the room. The floating isles outside his house all stopped floating freely and space and crumbled to dust.
"Sister's come calling eh?" Discord said in a calm eerie tone. "Well... I should get going, but before I do I want all of you to return to your rightful places. I don't want you to sit around after all." All the dark mana vanished from the hammer space to return to their rightful places to cause more widespread chaos in the name of their master and savior. After all.....when species mess up who would teach them their lessons. When they all left, Discord was left all alone in the macabre atmosphere that his habitat had become.
"Well sister...it's been a while...I hope this is not another trap of yours to capture me...Everyone knows that the last time you went against me it was not a very pretty battle.I should probably be wary of sister's call, but something tells me that this is not a matter concerning.....our nature." With a creepy smile Discord snapped his fingers and teleported to The Castle of The Two Sisters, leaving behind an empty void as the magic that kept this place alive, soon vanished. All that was left was one picture of Discord and Fluttershy, but that too soon cracked and vanished.