//------------------------------// // Chapter 22 // Story: Trickster Priest // by Fresnor //------------------------------// Sweet Apple Acres was usually the most tranquil part of Ponyville when it wasn't interrupted by the sound of hooves on wood. With both of the older the Apple siblings off in town it was odd to hear the sound ringing through the trees. Near the Crusader clubhouse the three fillies for the day together while accompanied by both Spike and Xellos. While Applebloom and Xellos were occupied with their own things, Sweetie Belle was watching Spike and Scootaloo facing off against each other. While Spike was wielding a wooden sword, Scootaloo was empty-hoofed which was the source of the sound echoing out as she punched at the blade whenever it came close. The two sparring were nowhere near the most professional at what they were doing so quite often blows were able to sneak by their defenses. That is exactly what happened to end their current session as Spike's sword was only clipped by the pegasus' hoof and was deflected only slightly and continued until it solidly landed on her wing. “Yeow! Watch it Spike, that one really hurt!” Spike ran a claw through his head spines in embarrassment while Sweetie Belle came over to look over her friends wing. “Sorry about that, Scoots. I still have trouble controlling myself when I swing. I either swing all out and hit too hard or pull my swing and barely even touch if it's not dodged.” At hearing his last word Scootaloo's eyes widen as she rolls away from Sweetie Belle, much to her annoyance. “Hold still! You're starting to bruise and I don't want to find out what happens if I mess up a healing spell.” Rubbing the back of her head the pegasus shoots a glare over at the reclining monster. “Sorry about that, but the past week I've had to deal with him telling me to dodge at random times before knocking me into trees.” Xellos, for his part, just ignored the filly as he flipped through a stack of pictures he had taken recently. Chuckling at one of Rainbow Dash snuggling up with her new pet he stashed them away in his bag. “Sounds to me like you still need more lessons in that if it's not instinctive yet when you're about to be hit. Maybe I should start using golems to motivate you more.” The young filly's pupils shrank at mention of his newest idea as she backed away slightly. “Oh look at the time I forgot I have a thing today, gottagobye!” The three other younglings rolled their eyes at her excuse as she bolted away from the area, knocking into Applebloom as she raced by. The earth pony filly let out a shout of annoyance as the stack of wooden chunks she was working on were knocked out of her hooves and onto the ground in front of her. Glaring at the retreating pegasus for a moment she turned to pick up the things she dropped just to freeze in shock as her eyes widened in fear. Throwing up her forelegs across her face she was soon peppered with sharp splinters as the chunks of wood exploded into pieces that scattered around the area. “Applebloom! Are you all right?!” Sweetie Belle rushed over to look over her bleeding form as the yellow filly waved her off a bit before she sat up again with a wince. “I'm all right, but it took me forever to carve those and now their gone.” She pouted at the remains of her work as Xellos walked over to one of the largest pieces which he picked up and examined. “Well now this sure is interesting. I can't remember the last time I've seen work this detailed, and you did all of this yourself?” At the filly's nod he looked closer at the piece of the perfectly engraved rune that was on the piece of wood in his hand. Picking up another piece he found a second rune and he assumed the others were much the same. Digging through his bag he pulled out a small enchanted jewelers lens and held it up to his eye for a better look. “Hmm, there's the problem. You must have been charging these with magic while you were carving them so when they came into contact like that they discharged everything. You need special tools that don't channel magic what you do the engravings so that doesn't happen. Wood isn't the best material for this either.” Applebloom's ears perk up at hearing his but doesn't otherwise move while Sweetie Belle heals her light wounds. “Really? What should I be using then? All I had were some spare nails that I found in the barn.” Seeing an opportunity, Xellos pulls out a diamond-tipped white ceramic fountain pen and a inkwell full of ink mixed with powdered silver. Along with those he pulled out a stack of thin ceramic cards and set them all on the blanket he was seated on. “Ceramic is odd in that it doesn't hold magic well and doesn't channel it in a focused form as a result. Of course diamonds are the opposite as they can hold any kind of magic but since it can be used to cut through almost anything it is the perfect thing for carving as long as you don't touch it. Silver is also good for that so scratching a silver-infused ink into another object makes it much easier for the spell to be more permanent.” The farm filly look at one of the ceramic cards before pressing on it with her hoof and frowning at how easily it shattered. “How are these going to be of any use though? If wood was bad then I don't see how these will last any longer.” Without prompting the marshmallow unicorn also added in her two bits causing the farm filly to shoot a glare at her. “Not to mention that I've seen her writing skills. Ms. Cheerilee can barely read what she writes.” Looking at the shattered card for a moment the monster digs deep into his bag once again and pulls out a scroll and a crystal orb before setting them both down with the latter on the former after unrolling it. Intoning a couple words he causes the orb to start spinning in place before at floats of the ground slightly and fires off a beam of light in opposite directions, causing Spike to dodge to the side as he was in the path of one of them. Xellos then adjusts the scroll so that the image drawn on it is aligned with the light before removing the orb and replacing it with a gem. “Those are just the secret behind it all and it's been lost since this technique is something unicorns were always too full of themselves to use. While they use gems for enchanting, their style of it isn't as long lasting a majority of the time.” Setting down a gem in the center of the circle, he pulls out another, finished, card and places it atop the gem before placing his hands on either side of the circle on the scroll. Channeling his magic, the array began to glow before the entire center gave off a flash leaving the gem alone without the card. “Wow, what happened to the card?” Xellos passed Sweetie Belle the gem and watched as she held it up to the sun to look through it. She gasped as she noticed the designed carved into the center of it before showing it to Applebloom. Taking it in her own hoof she gazed into it in shock before she passed it back to the monster. “That is amazing! Do you think that you can teach me how to do that? Twilight's books don't have anything like this and what they do have only works for unicorns. Everything I had was all just me guessing and hoping it worked.” Xellos was surprised that she had gotten as far as she had with that little information and wondered how far she would get with his help. It didn't hurt either that he would be tweaking Princess Sunbutt's nose yet again by reintroducing an old branch of magic again. “Why, of course. I wouldn't be showing this to you if I didn't intend to show you how to do it. Of course you had better be prepared as mistakes can have some, unintended consequences.” Flicking the gem into another nearby clearing he gave a mischievous grin as it exploded, showering the area with dirt and leaving the young filly gulping in trepidation. <><><><><><><> Applebloom sighed as she glared at the gemstone in front of her as it spouted flames into the air. She had only wanted to create a stone that gave of heat for the winter but instead it started on fire and wouldn't stop until all the magic in it was drained while burning out the enchantment. “This is impossible. Every time I think I got it something else always goes wrong and it seems to be getting worse.” With a sigh she flopped down next to her latest mistake and poked at it with a stick in disappointment. Before she could get to deep into her funk though her attention was pulled away by the sight of Rainbow Dash flying all over the place doing random common tasks while posing occasionally. “What the hay is up with her now?” “Oh she's just panicking as her other friends hide behind a mask and show her up when she tries to save ponies. Just the usual craziness in Ponyville.” The filly raises a skeptical eyebrow at Xellos as he appears from nowhere before shaking her head. “Does that include my sister Applejack? Because that sure sounds rather dishonest and she wouldn't do something like that.” Xellos' eyes follow the pegasus as she flies around before she vanishes somewhere else in town. “Oh, she's part of this all right, no matter how much I dislike this plan of theirs. It's so close to lying and so many things could go wrong.” Applebloom looks confused at his words as she looks at the gem that had finally burned itself out. “But don't you lie all the time? I mean some of the things you say are just so far out there at times.” The monster just smirks as he taps his nose with his finger. “Let me let you on a little secret. I never lie, at least not in that way. The truth is just so much more fun and if others think I'm lying because I make it sound so incredible then it's all on them.” Applebloom wasn't sure if she should believe him or not especially as she remembered some of his claims. “Well you said you were evil but you have been helping me and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders as well as my sister and her friends. If you were really evil then you wouldn't be helping us like that.” As Xellos started to chuckle Applebloom was feeling a bit creeped out as an odd sensation went through her body. When the feeling left she found herself sweating and gasping as the monster reclined backwards into the air. “That's an easy one, because it's so fun! Just because I'm evil doesn't mean I don't know how to have any fun. If you're thinking I'm supposed to be like all those other creatures that you think of as evil just remember, I'm evil, not stupid. Everything I do is all part of my master plan.” The filly looked a bit worry but looking upon his smiling face she didn't feel threatened at all despite his words. “Rrright, whatever you say. Anyways maybe you can help me with what I'm doing wrong with this enchanting stuff. Every time I try something keeps going wrong no matter what I do.” Xellos looks over the burnt out gem and gives Applebloom a few more pointers as she tries to push the confusing thoughts out of her mind. <><><><><><><> Princess Celestia was bored out of her mind after another day in court. After sending the latest in the long line of nobles away she sighed at how inane their requests had been getting. Suddenly a wisp of green smoke flew in through the window bringing her mood up in excitement. As the scroll appeared in front of her she quickly grabbed it in her magic and began reading it. She chuckled at the lesson her student and her friends had learned when she paused as a stack of objects fell from the scroll. Finding that they were a bunch of photos her eyebrow rose as she flicked through them. Her smile fell as she flicked through them until it eventually became a frown as she got to the last one. Looking out the window she let out a sigh as she set the photos aside, the top one being of Xellos posing in front of the unmasking of Mare-Do-Well. “What am I going to do with that student of mine.”