Chapter 5 - Magic lessons, and a recurring enemy. -Annabeth
As the day went by, my impression of it being the best day ever was growing. First I wake up to find my leg almost completely healed, then I get to fly in a hot-air balloon, walk on clouds, see an awesome pegasus house, built with complex and modernized Greek architecture, then I get to see Percy, happy and healthy, flying like a pro, only to head off and finish the day by learning about magic with not just one, but two of the four Princesses of Equestria: Twilight Sparkle and Celestia Everfree. Then, I get to see a third princess, Luna Everfree, compete against Percy and Rainbow Dash, only to see them all tear through the sound barrier and light spectrum at the same time.
Celestia had suggested betting on the outcome, putting down ten bits on Luna's victory, Twilight putting fifteen bits on Rainbow's victory via Sonic Rainboom, and I ended up calling the shots, putting down twenty-five bits on Luna winning, Percy and Rainbow tied for second, and all of them breaking through the barriers. As we walked back to the library, a bag containing a grand total of seventy-five bits attached to my saddlebags, I couldn't help but wonder exactly how I had guessed the outcome of the race so accurately. Was it a latent power I had? It was getting dark, and I had actually seen Luna raise the moon, just as Celestia was setting the sun. Maybe getting stuck in Equestria wasn't so bad, after all. Percy said that we had all the time in the world, and I was eager to discover my magical powers. Twilight even said that I reminded her of herself, with a fascination for magic, reading, and general learning. Celestia and Luna had bade us farewell before flying off to Canterlot. She had also left Twilight a quick warning:
"Expect an invitation to Canterlot soon. I am gathering a group of royal figures to attend a small summit, and I wish for you and all seven of your friends to join us."
Everypony went their separate ways for the night, Percy and Scootaloo flying off with Rainbow Dash to her cloud house, Applejack and her sister Applebloom to their farm, Twilight, Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and I to the Princess of Magic's library, my temporary home until my dream house was built. I had told Percy that his entire body would thank him the next morning, especially his wings, but he shrugged and flew off anyway. Typical Percy.
Rarity was about to make her leave with Sweetie Belle, before the filly reminded her of her weekend assignment.
"I have to stay with Twilight all weekend and bring her to school on Monday."
And with that, Rarity bid us farewell for the night, with the excuse of having to design a scabbard for Riptide.
"Just remember, Rarity: Percy is no fan of gems, so don't go overboard on making the thing sparkly." I reminded her.
"But of course, Annabeth dear. I have this wonderful idea, only a couple sapphires, a steel casing, gold thread, and bronze foil! I promise you he'll love it!." replied the white unicorn, with a convinced look on her face, and she was gone.
"Well, we'd better get some sleep. We have all day tomorrow to learn about magic, and Celestia will probably send for us by Tuesday." said Twilight before trotting off upstairs, Sweetie Belle in tow.
The night went almost smoothly. Usually demigods have all kinds of weird dreams, nightmares, mostly. Tonight, I momentarily found myself somewhere else. I was sitting at a large round table, Percy at my left, Twilight at my right. All of Twilight's other friends were there too, as well as Princesses Luna, Celestia, and a pony I could only guess was Princess Cadence, judging by her horn and neatly tucked wings. Other figures sat at the table as well, but I did not recognize them, one was a large, serpentine creature with bits of all sorts of animals for pieces, such as a lion's paw, a dragon's tail, a goat horn, a deer antler, and other parts I could not identify. The five others resembled one another, but I couldn't tell what they were. They looked like ponies, but at the same time they also looked like bugs. The vision faded as quickly as it came.
I woke up the next morning well-rested and ready to learn, despite the weird dream, so I made my way to Twilight's kitchen, where Spike was whistling a lighthearted tune while making breakfast. Hearing my hoofsteps, he turned around, and said:
"Good morning, Annabeth! Sleep well?"
"Better than I have in weeks. What are you making?" I asked.
"Pancakes, with some potato hashbrowns on the side. Twilight's been up for a few minutes now, probably reading something with Sweetie Belle. I'll call you all down when it's ready." said the dragon. I nodded and went upstairs, where I found Twilight brushing her hair, Sweetie Belle curled up in a ball on the bed.
"Sorry, Twilight, am I interrupting something?" I asked.
"Not at all, Annabeth! Sweetie is still sleeping, but food will probably wake her up. I can't wake her in any other way. Wonder how Rarity does it?" she replied. "Anyway, we'd better get started on your magic lessons."
Instantly, the sleeping filly's ears perked up, and she bounced onto the floor, an excited look on her face.
"Well, looks like you figured out how to wake her up." I mused, as we headed down to the library proper. Breakfast was good, Spike had every reason to be proud of himself. Our magic lessons began without much effort, and the first thing I wanted to learn was to manipulate my surroundings.
"Okay, the first thing you need to do is focus on the object you want to move, take this book for example." said Twilight. "Then, picture the book in your head, only floating in the air, a few hooves above the table."
"Okay, but hooves? I'm not exactly familiar with your measurement terms." I said.
"One hoof is six inches." clarified Twilight, hoping I'd understand.
"Okay, an inch, I understand. Back home, we measure in feet, and one foot is twelve inches, not six. So two hooves is a foot." I conclude.
Returning my focus towards the book, I picture it, just as Twilight said.
"To make the magic happen, you need to channel your magic through your horn. To do this, all you need to do is will for it. The more willpower you put into the spell, the more effective it will be. Once you get the hang of it, most magic is based purely on willpower, and you hardly have to use your imagination on easier spells."
Concentrating hard, I feel a spark rise to my horn, a strange, tingly feeling. After a few seconds, a silvery aura envelops both my horn and the book, and the book began rise into the air. Tightening my focus, I picture the book opening, and flipping a few pages, and the real book did so. Magically setting the book down, I look for something else to try my magic on. My attention is instantly drawn to my beloved laptop, resting on Twilight's desk, plugged in to recharge. With magic, I delicately open the lid, and press a few keys, bringing up the blueprints to myself and Percy's future home. I let go of the flow of magic, lightly tired, and look towards Twilight. The alicorn had a big smile on her face.
"You seem to have a talent for magic, Annabeth. It took me days to be able to even flip one page of a book. Then again I was just a filly back then, maybe... six? Seven years old?" she said.
"Weird... I was about that age when I found out I was a demigod. I had run away from home because my stepmom was so intolerant, and my dad couldn't do anything about it."
"What did you do when you ran off?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"I did my best to survive, monsters were always after me, so I kept running. It wasn't long before I ran into other demigods. Thalia and Luke, they were both older than me, and had experience in fighting monsters. They were on their way to some kind of safe haven, when Grover, the satyr Percy spoke to back at Rainbow's yesterday, intercepted us and had us brought to Camp Half-Blood. That last stretch was frantic, but we almost all made it in once piece."
"Almost? What happened?" asked Twilight.
"Just as we crossed the magical border, the monsters pounced on Thalia. The only way we could save her was to turn her into a pine tree. By doing this, we reinforced the camp's borders, a kind of monster-repelling force field, if you will. A few years later, after Percy, Grover, and I came back from our first quest together, Luke betrayed us, he almost killed Percy, and he poisoned Thalia's tree. A few months down the road we set out on another quest, this time to retrieve the Golden Fleece, so we could save Thalia's tree, and even further power the camp's borders. It took a while, but we succeeded. The Fleece had much more of an effect on healing the tree than we thought, though. Not only did it cure the tree, it cured Thalia, who we found sitting next to the tree a few hours later. She looked a little older, but she had hardly aged compared to the rest of us. While nearly seven years had gone by, she looked like she aged about two."
"And what became of her afterwards?" pressed Twilight, eager to know, and apparently oblivious to the levitating objects above her head, despite my horn glowing.
"Thalia came with Percy and I on a little recruitment drive the next winter, where two demigod kids, a brother and a sister, had been spotted by Grover. According to Grover, the two were very powerful, and had already attracted a monster's attention. As it happens, a manticore, named Thorn, had assumed a position in the school's staff under disguise, and had been observing the demigods to see if they'd make good recruits for the Titan Army. That operation was a win-loss for us, while we succeeded in getting the two to camp, thanks to Apollo and Artemis, as well as the Hunters of Artemis, I was captured. Artemis, goddess of the moon and of the hunt, had actually come looking for me, only to be captured by the Titan Atlas as well."
I paused to catch my breath, still holding a cluster of books and moving them about in the air.
"Atlas had been holding the weight of the sky for centuries, before dropping it on Luke as part of a ruse to pin me down. I still believed there was good in Luke, that something was brainwashing him, and then he tricked me into taking the weight of the sky for him. Artemis rescued me from that, and Percy did it too, before tricking Atlas into taking it back."
"Wow, Percy really is something, isn't he? No wonder you like him." squeaked Sweetie Belle.
My face felt a little warmer than usual just then, and I set the book I had been toying with on the table before my embarrassment would cause me to drop it on somepony.
"Anyway, in the end, the three of us went to Olympus, on the day before Thalia's sixteenth birthday, and the gods thanked us for our help. Artemis offered Thalia to join the Hunt, after having lost her favorite lieutenant in the small battle in Atlas's domain. Thalia accepted, and thus never really turned sixteen. She wanted to avoid that, because a Great Prophecy had been made about a child of the Big Three turning sixteen who would make a choice that could save or destroy Olympus. Thalia was a daughter of Zeus, who along with Hades and Poseidon, formed the Big Three. Percy was next in line in turning sixteen as a child of the Big Three, because he's a son of Poseidon. The prophecy read specifically: “
“A half-blood of the eldest gods
Shall reach sixteen against all odds
And see the world in endless sleep
The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap
A single choice shall end his days
Olympus to preserve or raze”
I shuddered at the memory of the Prophecy, which gave me nightmares since I was seven.
"The two demigod kids we rescued were actually children of Hades, Nico and Bianca di Angelo. Bianca joined the Hunters prior to the quest to rescue me and Artemis, but died along the way. As I understand it now, Thalia leads the Hunters of Artemis in the goddess' absence, and her brother, Jason, leads my former expedition."
"So did Percy make the choice? What was it?" asked Twilight.
"At the end of the Titan War, Kronos, the leader of the Titans, had taken over Luke's body. On the day of Percy's sixteenth birthday, Kronos faltered, giving Luke an opening to beg us for help. He wanted Percy to give him my knife. That was the choice Percy had to make. In the end, Percy gave him the knife, and Luke used it to kill himself, something he had to do to put a stop to Kronos." I shuddered at the memory of Luke's dying expression.
"Anyway, I suggest we take a break for the day. In case you haven't noticed, Twilight, I've been levitating all sorts of stuff around the room while I was talking. Who knows? Maybe Celestia will send us her message soon..."
I interrupted myself as I remembered last night’s dream.
"Are you alright? You just blanked out for a few seconds. What happened?" asked Twilight, the sound of worry heavy in her voice.
I told them about the dream, also explaining about demigods and their tendency for nightmares, and Twilight's expression darkened.
"What you saw was probably the meeting of sorts that Celestia mentioned last night. The six creatures you didn't recognize were Discord, the newly-reformed Lord of Chaos, thanks to Fluttershy, and five of the six Changeling Queens. I'm going to guess that the one missing was Queen Chrysalis, the head of the only Changeling hive to show open hostility towards Equestria. I visited the other hives shortly after my coronation, and they all deeply regret their colleague's actions. What you saw was perhaps even a War Council of an alliance between Equestria and the Changelings, to take on and destroy Chrysalis' hive."
I shook my head, still dazed by the vision. I could see the future, kinda like Rachel could, and that freaked me out. Rachel was a nice girl, sure, but she was also the host of the Oracle of Delphi, the spirit of prophecies. That meant she would randomly sprout some creepy kind of poem whenever something important was going to happen, only to snap out of it with no memory of the past few minutes whatsoever. On the other hoof, if I could use these visions to help our cause, whatever cause it would be, it'd help guarantee our victory. Twilight mentioned these changelings, but I had no idea what they were. Percy probably knew something. I'd need to have a little chat with Seaweed Brain when he came back.
"How about we take our minds off these more troubling matters for now with a little test to measure your ability with levitation magic?" proposed Twilight.
I nodded in agreement, and waited for her to set me up. Boy, was I surprised. All at once, every book in the library flew off the shelves, and landed in a neat-ish pile. I mean neat-ish because of the way the books are placed, so that they aren't open or prone to damage, but still in a big, disorganized pile. Then, something rose from a drawer behind the reception desk: a stack of gold platelets, each with some words engraved on them. The platelets flew each in their own direction, before lodging themselves at the base of each shelf, magically bolting themselves in.
"Those plaques indicate each category of books. Your assignment is to, with your levitation magic, organize each and every book according to their subject, which is given away by it's title, and in the case of less-clear titles, embroidered in gold on the spine." said Twilight, a spark of challenge in her eyes.
Immediately, I got to work. I started by levitating every book and arranging them in a vast circle, before bringing books one by one to my attention, all the while holding the other books in place. The books I looked at came in all sorts of subjects: Magic, geography, history, science, and entertainment just to name a few. A host of these books were also for leisure reading, such as a whole collection called Daring Do. The titles and cover arts reminded me a lot of my dad's old Indiana Jones movie collection, and the cover of the newest-looking one, titled Daring Do and the Ring of Destiny even had a familiar face on the cover. Stopping the aerial ballet of the books, while still maintaining them in the air, I bring the book to Twilight, and ask:
"Isn't that Rainbow Dash?"
"Sure is. We met the author, Ms. A.K.Yearling, a few days before you got here. Turns out she writes all of her stories first-hand. As in: she is Daring Do. We helped her out when she was captured by a few baddies, and helped her recover an ancient artifact. As a reward, she sent both me and Rainbow an early copy of the book. It's actually supposed to come out in three days. Anyway I already blazed through it, and every single bit she wrote actually happened. She even stars Rainbow as her sidekick, hence the cover. Anyway, shouldn't you be concentrating on your task? I can tell you're doing great just by manipulating all these books the way you do." said Twilight.
"Thanks for the compliment. It's nothing, really, I've always been good at multitasking." I said, before returning to the books. I arranged all thirty-two Daring books in a neat row, going by the numbers on the spines, and set them aside before resuming my task. As I went, I also set aside two or three books on magic, geography and history, for me to read later.
After about an hour, I finally had the books arranged in rows in front and above me, ready to place them in their respective shelves. Apparently Daring's books had a shelf of their own. I finally let go of the flow of magic, my horn feeling a little sore, and turn to Twilight for my evaluation.
"You've done a wonderful job, Annabeth. I believe I’ll give you top score. And my library hasn’t looked this clean in months!” exclaimed the lavender alicorn.
“Thanks.” I said, a warm twinge on my face. It wasn’t every day that a Princess would congratulate you on your efforts. The clock strikes twelve noon, and Spike called out from the kitchen:
“Lunch’s on, everypony! Daisy sandwiches for all!”
Lunch went by peacefully, and the dull ache in my horn eased away as we started drilling Sweetie Belle in the arts of magic. She had learned much from watching Twilight teaching me, but she struggled with her power, having a hard time lifting even a single book. She also proved to be somewhat clumsy, so I had to put my precious laptop away, for fear of watching a stray book crash into it.
By dinnertime, however, Sweetie was able to maneuver five or six tomes with ease, but struggled in moving them individually. Guess she wasn’t a trained multitasker like I was. Then again the organized mind that was my own was probably a gift from Mom, because most Athena demigods aren’t quite so ADHD as others. Dyslexia was still a problem though. Gods was that ever annoying. Spike treated us to a nice, all-vegetarian feast. Meat wasn’t my favourite, but I was probably gonna miss it after a few weeks. I could only imagine what Percy was gonna say when he realized the same thing. Rarity came by later in the evening, carrying a present box big enough to fit Riptide, and a few other things. I toss the white unicorn a quizzical glance, and she said:
“It’s Percy’s sword, it’s new scabbard, and a few other little things he might like. Not to worry: only a few gems were used, sapphires and emeralds, the lot of them. I’m certain he’ll like it. I also came by to fetch Sweetie Belle. As I take it, you’ll be seeing her again in class tomorrow, but in the meantime, she has to prepare her written part at home. Thanks for watching her, girls, I really appreciate it.”
Sweetie Belle trotted over to her sister, and turning to us, she said:
“I had a lot of fun spending the weekend with you guys. Annabeth, could you come to school with Twilight for my class? I can’t decide which one of you two I’d rather take, so I’ll take both of you with me!”
I smiled softly, and replied:
“Of course I’ll be there. You run along with Rarity now, there’s a big day ahead of you tomorrow.” and the filly was out the door.
“Oh, and say hello to Percy for me, will you?” added the white mare, “Good night, everypony.” she said and hurried after Sweetie Belle.
A few dozen minutes passed by quietly, as both Twilight and I had been reading books on magic. Some of the spells listed in the books looked super-complicated, while others seemed relatively easy. I made a personal note to try them out later. Just then, someone knocked on the door, and Twilight hurried over to open up. It was Percy, who despite the smile on his face, I could tell he was in a lot of pain. Serves him right for disregarding my warning. Nevertheless, I ran up to him and wrapped him in a warm hug.
As much as Seaweed Brain could tick me off at times, I couldn’t help but love him more each time. I could feel his shoulders clench when I hugged him, but I held on all the tighter. Looking up to him, all I could see was the smile on his face.
“Hey.” he said.
“Hey.” I responded. “Rarity says “Hi.” and she also brought you a present. It’s on the table.” I point to the box the white unicorn had left for him. I smiled when I heard him grunt in pain as he stiffly walked over to the table.
“I told you, your body would make you pay for the rough time you gave it yesterday. You pushed yourself too hard, and now you’re paying the price.” I prodded him.
“Yeah, well how would I know that my pony body has I-don’t-know-how-many extra muscles I’ve never used before? I thought my wings would be sore, but that’s all. Not every single cell in my body.” said Percy. “Besides, I can probably put a stop to the soreness by sitting in a pond for a few hours.” he shook his head and opened the package. Inside was a gem-studded bronze scabbard, Riptide sheathed in it, and what appeared to be a scale mail shirt that could fit a pony like Percy, with holes in the back for his wings. The mail was also studded with sapphires. All in all, it looked stunning, and effective too. The gems glowed with an inward light, indicating that they were probably enchanted.
With my help, Percy slips the mail shirt on, followed by the scabbard. Now he looked like the warrior he had been back during the Titan war. Carefully twisting his neck behind him, he grabs onto Riptide with his teeth and tugs it out of the scabbard. After flailing his head about, swinging the sword to and fro, he positions it, and Riptide slides back into its sheath.
“This is pretty sweet. The scale mail is actually really flexible, so it doesn’t impair my movements, and the scabbard is in just the right spot, so it’s not in the way, but it’s not out of reach either. If ever I’ll need to fight, this’ll come in handy for sure.” he said, obviously impressed with Rarity’s work.
“Well, time for fighting might just be on it’s way.” said Twilight. Percy turned to her, a quizzical look on his face.
“What do you mean?”
I told him about last night’s dream. He obviously took it more seriously than Twilight first had. Being a demigod, he had these kinds of dreams too. As I finished my tale, he paused for a second, thinking.
“Well I had a dream like that last night too. Only I wasn’t in a meeting room with all of you, but in some kind of hive. I’m guessing I was in the changeling throne room, listening in on Queen Chrysalis’ own war council. She mentioned getting revenge on her colleagues for leaving her in the dust, and punishing the ponies who dared defy her back in Canterlot, a few years ago. To be honest I didn’t know there was multiple changeling hives.” explained Percy.
“Only Chrysalis made herself known with the attack on Canterlot. However the other Queens made themselves known to us a few months after the attack, with official apologies to Canterlot for Chrysalis’ behaviour. They even agreed to give us a tour of their hives, which was a fascinating trip by the way. They wanted us to learn as much as possible about changelings for us to reassure our subjects. Only the changelings from Chrysalis’ hive have shown open hostility towards ponies, at the risk of ruining the peaceful reputation of the entire changeling race. Changelings are actually known to live peacefully with ponies. Many towns actually have both races living side by side, with little to no friction between them.”
Twilight paused to think for a second, and continued:
“I’ve personally met a changeling from Chrysalis’ hive who, after the attack on Canterlot, tried to redeem himself. He had been found in the small town of Whitetail Meadows, and nursed to health by a disguised changeling from another hive. I learned from this changeling that Chrysalis actually exerted a form of mind control on her subjects to force them to obey her. Of course some of her subjects wholeheartedly followed her, but not all. Zevan was one of those changelings, until he realized the wrong in her actions. Ever since he was treated and welcomed in Whitetail Meadows, Zevan preferred his self-made pony identity, Whirring Cogs. He even fell in love and married a pony there. From what I hear they’re both happy as can be. Last I saw them they were caring for their newborn foal.”
“So Chrysalis has been forcing her subjects to do her bidding? Talk about plain evil." said Percy.
"I agree. But let's not keep worrying about this subject for much longer. I'm guessing Scootaloo wants you to go to her class with Rainbow tomorrow, Percy?" asked Twilight. Percy nodded in agreement. "Then I suggest we get some sleep, because all three of us are going there tomorrow. Good night, both of you." she added, before trotting off upstairs.
It was just me and Percy, standing there with an awkward silence. I quickly try to break the silence and turn to him.
"Unless you want to fly your sore old flank back to Rainbow's place, you should could come sleep with me." I said. All subtleties were off, either he was there, and I'd have a nice, warm, giant teddy bear for the night, or he'd fly off and get zero pity from me in the morning. All he did was nod, and he followed me to the guest room. The bed was plenty big enough, and the two of us were too tired from the day to try naughty things. Besides, I was planning on saving that for after the our wedding, if there ever was one. That night, dreams never found me.
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"...I'd have a nice, warm, giant teddy bear..."
My reaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvT-hWOt63w (0:33)
This fic is gay.
Bad anibeth bad
!
Well I guess Riordan can't exactly include innuendos into the books. They probably still happened behind the scenes though, after all, they are at an age where it can occur.