Chapter 44 - Stare Too Long into the Abyss
I woke up to the one thing that is almost universally despised by all beings throughout the universe; a Monday morning. Today my lessons with Twilight resumed again. My trip to Canterlot had somewhat thrown off her schedule, so I was not entirely certain what I would be learning about today. Though, in light of her discovery yesterday, I was certain the subject of rifts and portals would soon come up.
Forcing myself out of my warm and comfortable bed, I opened the curtains and made the bed up. I can’t help it; I am just one of those ponies that needs everything to be clean, neat and tidy. I then popped to the bathroom down the hall and brushed my teeth. Trotting downstairs, I found Applejack on the stove. This was unusual in itself, typically Granny Smith made breakfast and most of the other meals.
“Mornin’ ‘Jack. Where’s Granny?” I asked as I attempted to shake the cobwebs. I received a yawn in reply.
“Oh, mornin’ Blade Star. Granny’s still in bed, come down with somethin’ awful. Big Mac’s gone into town to fetch Nurse Redheart.” That set alarm bells ringing.
“Nothin’ too serious is it?” I asked, a hint of worry in my voice. I did have some training with St John’s after all.
“Oh no don’t you worry, Bones,” AJ replied. “She just gets somethin’ in her system every now and then. Redheart gives her some medicine and she’s back on her hooves before you can say Zap Apples.” Even though we weren’t related, I did worry about the kind old mare. She was getting on in years now. But as Applejack said, she usually bounced back.
“Well, that’s good to hear,” I replied. I helped myself to an apple fritter on the table. “Ah’m headin’ out to Twilight’s; got some more magic lessons this week. She’s kinda annoyed since that trip threw her schedule out the window. Ah should be back for lunch.” I then headed out the kitchen door and set off for Ponyville.
Now, I knew for a fact that Ponyville was famous for its strange happenings. Over the past few years this small little hamlet had been the centre of an attempted coup, transformed into the chaos capital of the world, encased in a magical bubble, overrun by clones and had been reconstructed to be made entirely out of gems. So you can understand why the large shield around Golden Oaks Library didn’t really faze me.
The entire building was encased in a large purple shield. Presumably this was Twilight’s doing. The only unicorn I knew to be able to accomplish such a feat was Captain Shining Armour. The other possible candidates were all either in Canterlot, the Crystal Empire, or in the case of Discord, Celestia knows where. I realised that since his last visit in my previous magic lesson, the joker Draconequus had left me and my family alone. A trend I hoped would continue.
Walking up to the large bubble, I considered how to gain access. Perhaps I should try the simplest approach. I began to hammer on the surface of the construct with my hooves.
“Twilight! It’s me, open up!” I called loudly.
The front door to the library opened and said alicorn came out. When she saw me, her horn quickly flared and the shield partially opened, forming a sort of doorway. As I passed though the arch, I felt a spell of some variety activate and pass through me. As soon as I was through, the gap in the field immediately sealed itself shut again and I found myself hauled inside by Twilight’s telekinesis. Only when she had slammed the door behind us and double locked it, did she release me.
“What the hay, Twilight? You could have just said ‘come in,’” I said irritably.
“Sorry, Blade Star,” She answered sheepishly. “But we can’t be too careful today. The subject of our lesson is for your ears only. I had to be sure nopony could eavesdrop on us and I needed to be sure you weren’t an imposter.” Well, that explained the shield and the previously unknown spell.
“What’s so dicey then that you have to go all Royal Wedding on me then?” I asked. Twilight fixed me with a hard stare and looked me in the eye.
“Dark magic.”
Inside my mind my inner brony began chanting ‘yes yes yes yes yes yes’. While the various spells I had been studying these past weeks were extremely interesting and often incredibly useful, they weren’t exactly, well cool, as Dash would put it. It is an accepted fact that the bad guys always get the coolest toys, and magic was no exception. Nightmare Moon had the ability to move quickly and silently in her shadow form, Chrysalis had her mind control skills, and Sombra’s ability to bring to life somepony’s worst fears was even more impressive, never mind his own shadow form and ability to summon crystals.
All in all, skills that made great party pieces. Of course, there was the small matter of the corruptive nature of such spells. I now understood why Twilight felt such a strong need for security. She was evidently placing great faith in me by teaching this.
This turn of events also explained her unusual behaviour yesterday. The books were all on dark magic. That certainly explained the magic locks that could only be opened by four ponies in all of Equestria. This was something they certainly didn’t even teach at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.
“I asked the princesses if I could teach you some of the basics,” Twilight went on. “They agreed that it would be in your interests to learn how to defend yourself against dark magic. Since you know a fair bit about restricted magic already from that show, Celestia agreed the risk was low. But I still want you to Pinkie Promise not to discuss what you hear or see here today with anypony.” A wise precaution.
“Alright Twilight. Ah Pinkie Promise not to tell anypony what you teach me here today. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” I made the various motions, this time not jabbing myself in the eye. Twilight smiled and nodded.
“Good, then we can get started,” she said.
The first part of Twilight’s lecture, which I shall refer to as ‘Defence against the Dark Arts’, was a basic introduction and covered roughly what I knew already. Dark magic was significantly more powerful than regular magic, even on par with chaos magic. However, it could be dispelled with enough effort and energy. In the cosmic balance, the two were in a perfect harmony, thus neither light nor dark was ever able to fully trump the other. The biggest danger with using dark magic was that it had an inevitable corrupting effect. A practitioner could very easily lose themselves in their newfound power. The old saying on the subject of power and corruption never rang truer. Any such use then, had to be brief and limited.
As for fighting or reversing dark magic, that was something usually left up to royalty, who possessed the necessary magical reserves. However, it was possible for a unicorn such as myself to resist some of the effects. Hypnosis, which was the first step in a mind control spell for example, could be negated by an awareness of being hypnotised. If the target suspected it, the spell would almost instantly degrade and fail. A hypnosis spell also required willingness to an extent. So, by keeping up my guard, I could reduce the effect and prevent the spell from progressing to the actual control level.
A similar defence could be used for spells such as Sombra’s unique ability. The need and willingness to face your fears could override this spell. By facing up to it, rather than attempting to hide, the spell had nothing to work with and would shut down.
The more advanced forms however, such as transfiguration, were all but impossible for a unicorn to defend against. In that case, my best bet was to fire one of my own spells, any spell would do, in an attempt to get out of range. Toe to toe, it would be like a BB gun against a freight train.
We then began to practice such defensive technique. Twilight would use low level dark magic and alicorn magic, which itself incorporated elements of dark magic, and I would attempt to defend myself.
“Alright Blade Star, are you ready?” Twilight called from across the library floor. I nodded, bracing myself for the oncoming storm. “Okay, first spell will be hypnosis. Bring yourself out of the trance and fire a stun spell back at me.” Again, I nodded. With that, Twilight fired a green tinted blast of magic. The spell seemed to home in on me. As soon as it drew near the spell split into two parts and flew straight at my eyes. I shut my eyes both as a reflex and in an effort to protect myself from the spell. It did little good. In that final second, I tried to focus my mind, I had to remember that I was being hypnotised.
I opened my eyes; nothing had changed. I was still in the library, I felt, well, normal and after briefly glancing in the mirror my eyes weren’t all weird and swirly. Had something gone wrong? I’d seen this done before, both by Discord using his chaos magic and Chrysalis, neither of them tallied with what was happening now.
“Twilight, I think something’s gone wrong. The spell hasn’t kicked in,” I said. “You sure you did it right?” I was quickly cut off by Twilight, who rapped a hoof on the floor before speaking.
“Blade Star, be quiet.” And with that, I shut my mouth and kept it shut.
Hang on.
Why was I still being quiet? Why did I feel compelled not to say anything unless Twilight asked me to? It was strange. I wasn’t ‘under’ as they put it. I was aware of what was happening; I wasn’t drooling and after another check in the mirror, my eyes were still fine. So what the hay was wrong? I decided that I had better go splash some water on my face. I wanted to ask Twilight, but I remembered that she had asked me not to speak. So, I just headed for the stairs. Twilight banged her hoof again.
“Blade Star, stay where you are.” Instantly, I stopped dead in my tracks. What the hay was happening? My thinking process was becoming more and more laboured. Finally though, far in the back of my mind, an alarm bell, very quietly began to ring out. Something was off, very off. Then it hit me.
Hypnosis! That’s what this was. Twilight’s spell had worked, she’d put me under; that’s why I couldn’t think clearly. And the longer I was like this, the less control I would have. Almost instantly, my mind cleared and dozens of alarm bells began to ring. I quickly turned to the alicorn and fired a burst in her direction. Of course, it was only a minor stun spell and did her no harm. Twilight smiled as I regained my remaining faculties.
“Well done, Blade Star. You got out of that in less than five minutes,” she said, a hint of pride in her voice. “Although I suppose that could be attributed to the fact that you knew that I was going to hypnotise you.”
“That was just plain weird, Twilight,” I replied. “Ah was hypnotised, but ah didn’t feel it, not until a few moments before ah broke the spell.” Twilight smiled.
“That’s the point, Blade Star. Hypnosis is designed to go unnoticed by its victim. The key is picking up on what is happening and questioning yourself.”
“So what now then?” I asked.
“Now you try to hypnotise somepony. You need to fully understand how the spell works in order to properly counter it.” I nodded in understanding. “The key thing you need to do when forming the spell is to weave in a trigger; something that will activate the hypnosis. It can be a phrase, a gesture, or even tactile contact. But it must be specific.”
“So what trigger did you use?” I asked.
“Did you notice how I tapped my hoof on the floor before speaking?” I nodded in understanding. An idea for a trigger quickly came to me.
“Okay Twilight, ah have a trigger. Who am ah hypnotising?”
“Spike!” Twilight called. Her dragon assistant waddled into the main part of the library.
“Erm, yes Twilight?” He said uneasily.
“We need your help with something as part of Blade Star’s magic training,” she said.
“But, I thought you told me you were working on dark magic today, no way am I getting involved with that stuff.” Twilight sighed.
“Spike, I promise you it’s perfectly safe. I’d never let anything bad happen to you. There are more sapphires in it for you too,” she offered. Faced with his Achilles heel, Spike quickly agreed. “Okay Blade Star, do it.” And so, feeling somewhat sorry for the unfortunate Spike, I hit him with a hypnosis spell.
Unlike my own experience of hypnosis, Spike’s eyes briefly changed to swirling green orbs. I guess the spell prevents the target from noticing. Twilight instructed me to have Spike perform a few basic tasks. I switched my voice to a slight Irish tint, as specified in my spell.
“Spike, would you kindly…”
After bringing Spike out of the minor trance, Twilight promptly hoofed over the gems she had promised him and left him in peace. We decided not to mention the fact that I had made him sing one of the many secret love songs he had written for Rarity.
Twilight refused to even consider subjecting me to the mentally damaging ‘fear spell’ that had been Sombra’s forte. However, she did include it as part of the lesson. While the effect it had had on both her and Spike during the siege of the Crystal Empire had been upsetting, it was not too bad. Her concern was that, as I came from a less pleasant world, the spell might unearth some traumatic fears and bring them out. She did not want to traumatise her own magic student.
And of course, the counter to such an attack was not really something you could teach. The spell effectively forced its target to face themselves and their own perceived flaws and fears; there is no worse opponent. Accepting our own flaws and facing our own fears was something that we had to do alone. Sombra’s style of magic however, was on the agenda.
“Right, now Blade Star. You remember the shadow magic King Sombra used?” I nodded, thinking back to Season Three. “That is high level dark magic, not even I could pull it off as a unicorn.”
“So how are you going to teach me to control it then if I can’t use it?” Twilight went down into her basement, quickly she returned with the sealed box she had taken from Zecora’s. With a quick burst of alicorn magic, she opened it. Inside was a very dangerous piece of jewellery. It was a silver necklace with a shining red ruby in its centre. Carved into it, was a pony’s head, with a horn and wings; the Alicorn Amulet.
“I presume you know what this is?” She asked, holding up the dangerous artifact.
“The Alicorn Amulet,” I answered. “You confiscated it from Trixie the last time she was here.” Twilight smiled and nodded.
“Good. Put it on.”
What?
“What?” I asked dumbfounded.
“Put the amulet on, Blade Star,” Twilight repeated. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Princess Twilight, with all due respect,” I said, still hoping I had misheard her. “HAVE YOU GONE COMPLETELY INSANE?!” I promptly covered my mouth with a hoof and splayed my ears.
“Don’t worry, Blade Star. You’ll be perfectly safe,” She reassured me.
“Perfectly safe? If ah put that thing ‘round my neck, only ah can get it off. And with the amulet’s power, ah won’t want to. How is that ‘perfectly safe’?” I demanded.
“You’re with an alicorn, Blade Star. This thing might be able to beat a unicorn, but it’s still no match for an actual alicorn.” She seemed remarkably sure of herself. I began to turn the idea over in my head.
“Twilight are you really sure you’ll be able to keep a lid on this?” I asked finally. My teacher sighed in irritation.
“Oh, for the love of Pete!” With that, she put the amulet around my neck and locked it on.
I had expected something to happen, anything really; the amulet to glow, menacing clouds forming in the sky, lightning, maybe ominous cackling. But there was nothing, I didn’t even feel any different; in spite of the fact I now had magical potential on par with an alicorn.
“Right, let’s get started,” she said.
For the next half hour or so, I practiced using and countering spells I would usually not even be able to consider casting. I’d say the best part of the whole lesson was the transfiguration session. All told I probably turned a good two dozen books into a variety of human objects for Twilight to study. It was just all so fantastically easy and simple, no harder to perform than a basic levitation. Just for the fun of it, I teleported myself all over the library as I worked. Then of course there was the shadow magic itself. I must say, turning myself into a non-corporeal being was an interesting experience.
Of course, at the back of my mind, I was worried about what this amulet was quietly doing to my psyche; I’d always considered myself megalophobic and the idea of ‘unlimited power’ around my neck gave me pause. Still, I kept on performing various high level spells.
Finally though, came the test. Unbeknownst to me, this was the true purpose of the whole exercise.
“Okay Blade Star,” Twilight said. “You can take the amulet off now. Time to be a normal unicorn again.” I’d been preparing for this since we began; I was certainly determined not to be taken in as Trixie had been. Nevertheless, when Twilight said we were done, I encountered a problem.
I didn’t want to give up the amulet.
I mean, I’d proved I could use it responsibly after all, hadn’t I? My eyes hadn’t turned red, I hadn’t bought a cheap black cape and I certainly had no desire to take over Ponyville. Who knows, the amulet may very well be the key to opening the rift in the Everfree and getting my family home. Hay, it may even allow me to stabilise the rift; make a permanent link between my old world and Equestria.
“Erm actually Twilight, do you mind if ah just borrow it for a while?” I asked hopefully. Twilight quickly caught on.
“No Blade Star, you don’t want to borrow it. Remember what the amulet does to ponies who use it for too long.” She kept her voice even and calm, also flaring her horn in a veiled threat. “The amulet is trying to draw you in, make you addicted to the power it grants. You need to be able to resist this kind of dark magic.”
I found myself in two minds. On the one hand, there was nothing wrong with me; I wasn’t showing signs of corruption as far as I could tell. But on the other hand, this amulet was dangerous and needed to be kept under lock and key, not around my neck.
“Twilight, please,” I said. “Just let me see if ah can open the rift in the Everfree with this. Ah’ll give it back then ah swear.”
Blade Star, look at your eyes and tell me that the amulet isn’t corrupting you.” She placed a mirror in front of me. To my horror, my eyes had, instead of turning red, taken on a frightening look similar to Sombra. Strange purple magic oozed from my eyes, which were now green with red irises instead of white and with brown irises and a twisted grin formed on my muzzle. The frighteningly evil looking visage snapped me out of the horseapples I had been spewing. Crying out in surprise, I unlatched the amulet and threw it on the floor. As my breathing calmed, Twilight placed a hoof on my shoulder.
“Well done Blade Star,” She said, hugging me. I was still a little shaken by what I saw.
“What the hay happened to my eyes just now?” I asked.
“It’s the effect of dark magic; it did the same thing to your horn too. You looked a lot like King Sombra actually.” I hadn’t noticed any change in my horn. Then again, as soon as I’d seen the grin and the look in my eyes I’d removed the amulet, breaking the spell. “It’s actually a very low level spell, mainly cosmetic; a side effect really of higher level magic. Though it can be created just for cosmetic effect too. A lot of ponies use spells like it for Nightmare Night. I figured it might snap you out of it.” A thought occurred to me.
“Hey, maybe ah could go as Sombra this year,” I said. “My coat is about the right colour, and if that dark magic spell is really low level then ah should be alright to use it for one night.” I began planning. I’d need a large red robe, some armour for my hooves and chest, as well as a crown. Twilight suddenly started.
“Oh shoot! I was supposed to pick up my costume today as well. Blade Star, do you mind if we cut this lesson short?” She asked, her ears already drooping at the prospect. I replied that I didn’t mind. After this particularly taxing lesson, I was more than happy to head home early. Plus, I now knew what I wanted to go as for Nightmare Night.
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On the subject of sanity, it acts like a straight line to infinity. No matter which side your on, it will always appear to curve inward putting you in the circle.
I really should have been studying for an exam. Why am I reading this story?
On a side note, this is a very fitting ad for the end of the chapter.
i.imgur.com/NAJ0b8k.png
4574532
Fate is a funny thing.
When she said he had to make a trigger for the spell, I was hoping, begging for that reference. When got to the word Irish, I lost it.
he did better then I would sad to say given that power I'd of been like
4576012 As if I could have used anything else. I still remember my rage and horror when this happened.
4579073 I'm not sure how I would react. I hope I'd have been able to mimic my character. But after all, did Blade Star really overcome it, or was it just the shock of what he saw in the mirror?
4579229
Two questions.
1.) Do you know the name of the character you play as in Bioshock?
2.) Is it strange that I like Atlas, but hate Frank Fontaine?
4579484 Answers :
1) Jack
2) No, that's the whole point of the story. Fontaine was kind of like Al Capone, and after he was put out of business by Ryan, he used the character of Atlas to get people behind him. Clever little sociopath really.
Though as a Brit, my grandfather taught me never to trust an Irishman.
4579757
It was really fucked up that Fontaine set Jack up to kill his own father.
You can't trust an Irishman? Ya know, we're not all bad.
4580217 I know that.
But my grandfather and my father who lived through The Troubles. I didn't live too far away from the TV centre in Birmingham that was bombed by the PIRA. It's hard to erase so much distrust.
Still, I hope it will be this generation that breaks the chain particularly with our beliefs in Love and Tolerance. No need to open up old wounds
An interesting story. It's enjoyable, but I kind of get a weird vibe from it. It's good, maybe not great. I have no idea where I'm going here. Sorry, rambling a touch.
4589620 The weird vibe is probably just me.
4579757 I got the harry potter refrence
Using a "low level" dark magic spell for a cosmetic effect would be like saying "oh, I'll just take a SMALL snort of cocaine for the night." Insanely stupid and risky. Why not just use a normal illusion spell?
Also: big missing unanswered question: What makes Dark magic Dark? And why is it "corrupting?"
5430136 It's "corruption" in the style of CoC *winks*.
I wonder what the alicorn amulet would do to someone not of equine origin?
It's chapters like this that make me want some sort of amulet of greater power, even with the corrupting factor. To keep myself from falling into greed, I must remind myself that true power comes from within.
Awesome chapters so far.
And thanks for the welcome wagon.