When he awoke proper, the multi-blue alicorn wasn't so shaken. He felt tired, really. The previous time he'd entered a magical trance, he'd come out feeling refreshed and alert. Now, Quantum just felt groggy and fairly pissed. He decided to lay still, staring at the ceiling above him. So, I was a slave, there was less shock and surprise since his epiphany immediately after the trance, I didn't have a name. My 'master' died, and I lived alone in my burned village for a year.
And then there were the final moments; My death, he thought, Doesn't sound as strange as I thought. He remembered, clearly, the feeling of steel at his neck, and the brief sensation of blood trickling down his clammy skin. A pleasant thought, the faux-foal mused. Even so, Quantum remembered there were certain moments of happiness in his first life. With surprising clarity, he remembered some other slaves owned by the despicable spartan, and worryingly, many were girls. Yeesh, I guess I didn't have the worst ride of all, he paused his thoughts, ...bad phrasing.
The alicorn's eyes drew towards his accessories, again. There was certainly more than meets the eye with the ring and chain. They'd been on the altar of his resident temple, just sitting there. How were they there? And, what exactly are they? Quantum scrutinized the jewelry, hoof held above his head. He narrowed his eyes briefly, before sighing and letting the hoof drop. Well, I supposed it's nothing to worry about, he mused, I'll just find out what they are later on. I'm sure the princess knows what they are. His mind, again, switched to another topic.
Speaking of the princess... Quantum was fully aware that at this stage, it seemed Celestia was the only one he could talk to. For one, she knew not only his secret, but the foal suspected that she knew more than the celestial goddess let on. That didn't really surprise him, though. Though he wasn't sure how long she'd lived exactly, Quantum was sure she'd been around for a long time, and you don't live that long without keeping secrets.
Still though, I suppose that flashback did have some use, The multi-blue admitted, I guess I have an innate knowledge of Ancient Greece; it's language, culture and norms, The information was as easily accessible as his basic motor functions, Neat. During his time as Bryan Herring, the ex-human studied Ancient Greece and Rome as a subject at school, so he'd always been interested in their cultures, and the chances were, he'd lived as both a Greek and a Roman more than once. Which, is still bloody strange to think about.
Setting aside his thoughts on his old lives for a brief moment, Quantum noted with mild relief that he had nothing planned for the day (i mean, i'm a foal, why would i have something planned) and so could relax in the relative peace and quiet of the Herring Manor. I might try using my wings a bit, actually, he thought, I haven't really been able to make much use of them yet. With that, Quantum clambered out of bed, onto the floor, and made his way downstairs, the smell of breakfast permeating the house, and setting the foal's stomach rumbling.
Being able to sense magic is like listening to sounds. There are some ponies who can hear lower frequencies than some, yet can't hear higher frequency noises. There are ponies who can hear higher and lower frequency noises than the norm, and there are some ponies who can only hear noises within the 'normal' range that everypony can hear. Magic works the same way, but, with key differences. There are categories of spells that all ponies can feel; for example, if an earth pony, a pegasus and a unicorn were to stand in a field while another unicorn cast a spell to, say, make the grass blue, then all three ponies in the field would feel a sensation not too dissimilar to a paint brush being run across their hooves.
The sensation, or, the side-effect of the magic differs from spell to spell. The bottom line is, that all three common types of pony can feel magic, at different degrees. To refer to the example again, the brushing sensation would feel weaker depending on the species of pony. An earth pony would feel as though the sensation barely touched them, while a pegasus would feel as though someone had run a dry brush across them, and finally, a unicorn would feel as though someone had moved a wet brush across them. There are exceptions to this rule, for example, if magic is used directly onto another pony, then the effect varies depending on the spell.
If one were to focus on unicorns, the most magical of the pony breeds, the unicorn's magic reserves, or their "strength", determines the effective range of magic that a unicorn can feel. The larger the pony's reserves, the more magic it can feel, and the further it can feel it from. The Sparkle family, having bred powerful mages for generations, have always been attuned to magic, its flow, and thus have been able to feel even the finest, and highest 'frequency' magic, and from large distances away, too. Some say, Equus' most powerful unicorn, Starswirl the Bearded, was able to feel magic around him from miles away. The concept of magic frequency can be hard to get around, but once it is understood, ponies often ask the same question.
What about alicorns?
The answer isn't as complicated as one would usually expect. If one were to compare and unicorn with average reserves to an alicorn, then it would be like comparing a turtle to a bat. One that cannot hear, and one that sees through sound. While this isn't to say an alicorn can't see, they are just particularly responsive to literally all kinds of magic. Certain magic, like the type used by Princess Celestia to move the sun, isn't felt by the majority of ponies. This can be put down to two reasons. One; the frequency of the magic is leagues higher than most unicorns can feel or respond to. Two; when the magic is used, Celestia intentionally makes the magic difficult to feel, and, unless all other unicorns were to do that to their spells (which is a complicated technique on it's own), then it wouldn't be too much of an understatement to say that alicorns have the capacity to feel all magic within a thousand mile radius.
Of course, feeling all that magic, all at once would turn anypony insane. Therefore, it isn't so much as a 'they always feel magic' to 'they could feel all that magic', as an alicorn instinctively learns how to sense vast quantities of magic, but will obviously prefer to shorten their 'listening range.' Unless the magic is particularly of high frequency or potency, then an alicorn should only feel magic within a certain range that they decide.
Which, brings us to the newest Princess, Cadence. Despite having set her listening range to just within the grounds of the Mi Amore property, she felt herself get blasted awake at midnight, by a magic she'd felt only once before. The wave of harmless (at least, to her) magic had simply brought a single name to the forefront of her thoughts; Quantum.
As she tumbled out of her bed, in rather unladylike fashion, the princess of love had to fight the overwhelming urge to fly straight from her room, to the tiny blue alicorn's there and then. Fortunately, rationality kicked in at just the right moment, and the pink alicorn quickly realized that even if she did go to see her adoptive little brother, she wouldn't be of any help to him. As her mentor, and senior alicorn, had told her, the Herrings and the Sparkle family, the blue alicorn would be in a magic trance on a regular basis.
It worried her.
Cadence wasn't slow; no, she knew Celestia was withholding information from her and the others regarding Quantum. She'd seen the looks, the reactions, and the interactions between Quantum and the Sun Princess on the day of the Time Mage's birthday. It was like the two were having a conversation; trying to be discreet about it though they were. Needless to say, Quantum was a foal, and so it should be impossible for him to have a conversation; let alone one to make Equestria's ruler gasp for pity's sake.
But that, the conversation, the interaction, Tartarus, even the trances, could've been ignored because honestly? That's not what worried me.
Cadence was the princess of love; so she had a sort of, sixth sense for romantic happenings. Really, it was a wonderful feeling to see two ponies that were perfect for each other, and guide them together. She hadn't been wrong once with her pairings, and she never would be. The reason for that was because there were ways of her knowing who went with who; little strands that bound ponies together; their relationships, who they'd be best suited for, and, in incredibly rare situations, soulmates. Now there was a downside to such an ability; it partly ruined the mystery of her future romantic life, but great power comes at a cost, after all. If Cadenza were to focus on seeing those strands, she would see a red ribbon seemingly protruding from her chest, and flowing like water into the chest of one Shining Armour. The red ribbon represented soulmates, and yes, while incredibly rare, it wasn't such a surprise to see one for an alicorn, Though, Shining is still young... which makes it kinda very weird, She thought with a visible grimace.
The ribbon between her and the Sparkle male was fresh, new and looked like it had just been woven, had the thing been a physical object. It made her slightly (only slightly, dammit!) giddy to see how the white unicorn would sweep her of her hooves.
Clambering back into bed while remembering the reason she fell out in the first place, Cadence thought deeply about Celestia, her mentor, Quantum, her self-proclaimed little brother...
And the glowing red ribbon that connected them.
The pieces of her internal jigsaw fell into place; things started to make sense.
God damn it, Thump. Flutter. Thump. Fuck. Flutter. Crash. Thump. This. Flutter. Crash. Thump. Snap. Shit.
Quantum fell out of the air, again, for what must've been the 12th time in a row. His parents, Hegese and Bow, watched with mild amusment (and some worry) as their son repeatedly climbed the sofa in the living room, and proceeded to jump off with a flutter of his wings, only to plant straight into the floor. Thump. The foal sighed, Honestly, why can't this be easy, like walking was? Grumbling some more, the multi-blue alicorn picked himself up off of the floor, and trotted towards the sofa. A crimson hoof halted him. Mum?
As if answering to the tilt of his head, Hegese chuckled. While she was surprised at her son trying to learn how to fly at such a young age, she wasn't one to stand in the way of his curiosity. With her goal in mind, the peagsus mother trotted over to her son, determined to teach him the joys of flight.
"Come now, Quantum," she cooed in his ear, picking him up with one leg, "You musn't flap your wings so hard; you'll just fall like a big stone if you do." Keeping him hooked under a foreleg, the crimson mare unfurled her wings and gave a mighty flap, and her hooves rose from the floor. "You see," she began, giving another strong wing beat to keep her suspended in the air, "my wings are tilting oh so slightly, aren't they?" The alicorn noted with awe at how easily his mother remained airborne, and the very, very slight movements of her wings. He'd been doing it all wrong. Hegese extended her forelegs, and gripped the barrel of her son's body in a pincer like grip, though facing her. "Look at my wings, see?" She continued her lesson, "Pegasi can feel the air currents, and adjust their wings accordingly. Focus, honey, really focus. I know you're a smart pony."
Deciding to not look too far into her final comment, Quantum analysed his mother's wing movements and concentrated on the tips of his wings. I can feel it, he thought, The air being moved by mum's wings, I can feel it! He didn't mean the feeling of a fan on his face, no, he could feel the streams of air, shifting, moving, and with them, his extended wings.
"Excellent! Now you've got the movements, focus on the gentle flapping, it's natural now!" Bow called from behind him, and Quantum obeyed. He gave one flap of his wings, as much power as he could muster, and felt weightless. The multi-blue alicorn grinned, I got it now. Quantum's wingbeats became rythmic, perfect timing and grace. If one were paying enough attention, they would notice his flapping and the ticking of a clock were completely in sync.
Nopony did, though.
Feeling confident, the colt shifted his weight left, and tilted slightly. He repeated the movement right, and then left, and then right again. Back and forth he would tilt, enjoying the feeling of flight. With each movement, his confidence increased more and more. Feeling maybe a bit too confident, Quantum forced all of his weight to the left, and attempted to roll in the air.
It was about halfway when he realised his mother wasn't holding him anymore.
Bollocks.
Thump.
To say that Celestia was bored would the understatement of a lifetime. And alicorns have long lives.
Day court was never really a pleasurable experience. Ponies would come with simple problems, ones that, really, wouldn't require much thought to solve. Problem with crops not growing? Buy some fertiliser. No, of course not, if crops aren't growing well enough then it must be something to do with my sun, she grumbled internally, But asking the weather team for their area to not cloud their land for a period of time is too much to ask; isn't it. Hooves reached for her temples, and the deity sighed silently. Celestia loved her ponies, she honestly truly did. But could the more headache-inducing issues not wait until later in the day? Honestly.
The goddess of the sun was surprisingly, not a morning pony. If the world didn't depend on her guiding of the celestial body every morning, then really she'd probably sleep in to the afternoon.
But no, there she sat, on a throne of gold and a cushion of purple velvet. A strained smile on her face as the third pony complained about rabbits in their garden. You live in Canterlot, why don't you have a fence?! Celestia wasn't stupid by any means; she knew that there were less than desirable ponies in her city, all of them undoubtedly willing to snoop and peep into another pony's home.
And no, none of the ponies complaining about rabbits had a fence.
Of course, the day hadn't started well for Celestia, either. How could it? The shockwave of magic from the Herring household would've magically crippled any normal pony's magic senses for the day had they felt it. At that point, Celestia had wanted nothing more than to bolt down to Quantum and make sure he was okay.
But of course, that would only hurt her.
Quantum didn't know her yet, though she supposed a part of him did. He'd mentioned it before, hadn't he? The other Quantum. Her Quantum. Probably. She didn't know really, and she wouldn't for a good twenty more years.
Waiting was hard; but she was used to it.
Always waiting.
She woke; a tremor of magic rousing her again. This was the second time such a strong, familiar magic riled her. How unfair; she won't get to sleep again for another few months or so. Honestly; her time was almost up, too. Can't ponies just be a bit more considerate of her plight?
Oh, right. They've probably forgotten about who she is. The wonderful sphere in-front of her eyes seemingly stared back at her, and for the umpteenth time, she considered the planet called home in her head.
Equus was a beautiful place; filled with many a species; pony, zebra, griffon, even changeling. All lives were special, important, and deserved the chance to soar and experience life to its fullest, or how they wanted to live. Clean water, rich soil, prospering cities and-
itshouldbeoursshehashadhertimetoolonggiveittousthesunmustfall
Ah. The voice. Grown from a seed implanted in her mind by a greater evil. A voice that had caused her nothing but trouble, pain, and nigh a thousand years of isolation.
Luna was lonely; her sister struggling under the pressure of a single rule (in her moments of clarity, she could feel the loneliness and guilt Tia felt), her corrupted lover encased in stone (his madness was, well, maddening, but beneath it she could still feel him), and his brother, oh, his brother, in the middle of a tempest that was still building.
theycannotsaveyoutheywillnotiwontallowityouaremineforever
Luna grimaced; the Nightmare was still present, still linked to the Mind, and, for all that she could do (nothingyouarepowerlessiwillbefree), it was getting stronger. The great evil, wiped from the books by stolen magic, magic belonging to the rightful overseer of The Flow, festered below Equus happy exterior; ready to reemerge.
Luna could feel the turning point.
Twenty more years.
i will be free.