The Sword in the Stone: Courage to be King

by Flutters Is Shy

11 -An End To Free Travels

"Wha... but he... that can't," Twilight sputtered, one of her eyes twitching erratically.

Arthur flinched as Guinevere pushed at his side, putting him a few steps farther away from Twilight than he had been. It was sweet that she was still trying to protect him, but he was the one with the sword, he was supposed to protect others... The warmth of her at his side was pleasant, anyway.

"Is something the matter, Twilight?" the alabaster white alicorn asked from Arthurs other side.

"He can't be Starswirl," Twilight reasserted, thrusting a hoof out to point at Merlin. "Starswirl the bearded died over a thousand years ago-"

"Starswirl the Maestro, Twilight," Celestia rebuked her, "Starswirl the bearded was his son. The Starswirl you know of was the second in his line-"

"Starswirl was a unicorn!!!" Twilight belted out. "So his parents had to be ponies, which on average only live about one hundred and twenty years before death, which he," She shook a hoof at Merlin, who upon noticing them all standing in the doorway had stopped whatever music he had been making in shock. It was quite a shift, the sudden silence aside from Twilights ranting sending a wave of goosebumps across his skin. " -although being a prime specimen of an elderly unicorn, is not over a thousand years old, no matter how you look at him!"

"Why thank you my dear," Merlin stated, light sparking to his horn as he adjusted the fallen instruments into a semblance of order. "I dare say I don't feel a day over nine hundred!~"

"Nor do you look it,~" Celestia playfully teased, causing Twilight to let out a grunt of frustration.

"Oh stop Tia, you're likely to make my poor heart stop again."

"T-tia?!!?" Twilight ground out in an almost animistic snarl.

"Yes, Tia," Merlin explained, "Celestia, Celes...'Tia'. It's a nickname. Used between close friends-"

"The closer the better, hmm?" Celestia hummed, watching as Twilight turned a deeper purple.

"Well, uh... yes. Which is rather odd seeing as most nicknames don't really have the name 'Nick' in them. Odd. Anyway, what are you... doing here?" he asked sheepishly as Twilight continued to glare at him. "Weren't you... eh... getting food?"

"YES! I WAS!" She yelped at Merlin, splaying her ears back. "And then we came back and you weren't there! Why did you leave? You can't be up and about with your leg like it-" she stopped, staring at said leg. "Where's your cast?"

"Oh, that old thing?" Merlin muttered. "I didn't need it anymore. Don't really know what happened to it..."

---

"Hyah! Hah! Hoo!" he grunted, swinging his trusty sword to and fro. The white blade wobbled in the sun, warding off errant dragons and evil bandits.

"Worry not, I shall take care of this fiend!" he called out as he swung his sword.

"Whatcha doin, Pipthqueak?"

Pipsqueak stopped, his trusty blade lowering to his side. "Oh, hi Twist. I found this in the road and nopony wanted it. So I just been pretending it was a sword..." Pipsqueak trailed off, scratching at his leg.

"...Wanna come over and help me tetht my latetht batch of peppermint?" Twist asked, smiling widely at the young colt.

"Would I?!!?" he replied, casting the plaster mold aside...

---

"Yes, we might never know what happened to that blasted leg prison," Merlin mused as Twilight was looking around the room in surprise.

"What was that? What was with the wavy air, and the 'biddly biddly biddly' sounds?" she questioned in a frenzy.

"Oh, that was just a cut-away my dear. Perfectly normal, nothing to worry about... Usually it was Surprise making those happen though... quite odd..."

"What... you can't... that doesn't... Pinkie Pie isn't even here, how can stuff like this happen??!?" she screeched.

"Twilight," Celestia cationed, as Guinevere hummed to herself -miming the act of throwing something towards Twilights horn-. "Calm down. This temperament doesn't become you, and you will only make things worse for yourself if you continue in this fashion."

"But, but he-" she stopped, " You! Leg cast. Where is. Now. Leg. How... How is better. Tell me!!!"

"Twilight!" Celestia snapped, drawing the lavender tinged alicorns attention, "Calm. Down. Starswirl was always a quick healer-"

"He is not Starswirl," Twilight snapped at her mentor, instantly realizing what she had done and shrinking in on herself. "I... I'm so sorry Princess, I don't know what came over me-"

"It's quite alright Twilight," she replied, leveling a smile at her as Merlin and Arthur watched on in amusement. Guinevere seemed to be off in her own little world, so little attention she was paying to the current conversation. "For one so... 'new' to being an alicorn, you will come to know quite a bit about magical and dimensional fluctuations. Especially pertaining to how they affect those of our kind."

Twilights head snapped over to stare openly at Celestia. "Di...mensional? As in pertaining to the multiverse theory? That theoretical nonsense the tabloids have been pushing for years?" she scoffed, "I mean, of course there's some merit to the subject, theoretically, but there's been no documented evidence for it actually existing. If it was real, you would know, right? And if you knew about something that could very well impact our entire society, of course you'd tell us about something like that, right?"

Celestia met Twilights rant with silence, as the look on Twilights face fell ever more towards one of comprehension.

"You mean... he-" she pointed at Merlin, " -and them-" a hoof flung towards Arthur and Guinevere, "They're..."

Twilight suddenly sat down, drawing in a long breath of air as she settled a hoof on her chest. This was slowly followed by a deep breath out, her outstretched hoof tracing it as it went.

"Okay. I think I'm better now. What were you saying regarding how certain magical forces would affect alicorns?"

Celestia let out a small laugh at Twilights rapid turnaround, "As you will no doubt learn for yourself in due time, we as ascended find certain currents of magic affecting us more deeply than others of the three races. Case in point, you appear to have a reaction wherein you find yourself more stressed, due to your exposure of another worlds cornerstone."

She fixed Merlin with a glare, "And don't think you'll get off scot-free either, you KNOW how I feel about this subject," she half snarled, causing Merlin to take a half step back. "You know what could happen-"

"Given a five year time span, yes," Merlin quickly cut her off. "I highly doubt it will take young War-Arth-PEN," he choked out, stumbling over the multitude of Arthurs names, "-young Pen here five whole years to gain a little courage. I was figuring more of a weekend, maybe a month. Just a little vacation, little time away from all the compulsion for him to change everything he was, give him some breathing room..."

"And for what possible reason did you decide to bring a cornerstone across anyway? I know you don't need an outside source to cross between the now and then," she continued, prompting him to reply.

She didn't need to know about his reliance on a certain bedknob.

"Well, as it so happens it's actually... attached to the lad..." Merlin explained, quailing before her suddenly furious gaze.

"You brought over a conjoined cornerstone?" she hissed, suddenly throwing a hoof over to point at Guinevere, "And what, is she from an entirely different world, with three elemental crystals she's safeguarding for a hero to come and retrieve so they can save the world from an ambiguous shadowy evil that has no more motivation than 'graaahhh I'm eval'?" she stopped, letting out a huff of air.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure she's a squirrel with the intelligence of a pony," he replied, before a wide grin cracked across his face, "Good job with the reference though, I'd forgotten how good it feels to have somepony to bounce those off of."

"A... A squirrel," Celestia stopped, half glaring at Hazel. "You turned... you know what? Whatever. I'm not gonna fix your mistakes. I'm not going to stress about all of the stupid stuff you've done. Can she at least speak, or did you just leave her as is in the vain hopes that she'd figure it out on her own?" she asked with a knowing smirk.

Merlin let out a sheepish cough, "I'll admit I hadn't given it much thought as of yet. The lass has quite firmly latched onto young Arth-PEN, I figured I'd teach him how to perform the rites to turn her into a familiar in time. If she stuck around, which it does indeed seem she might just be doing that for the foreseeable future."

"I know a translation spell!" Twilight belted out enthusiastically, putting herself right in front of Hazel before either Merlin or Celestia could voice their concerns. She quickly charged magic to her horn for the spell, ignoring Merlin's sputtered protests. What did the Starswirl fake know anyway? She was the alicorn of magic, she'd read over all of the real Starswirls notes and spells, and most every other book she could get her hooves on. She knew what she was doing.

Right?

Merlin didn't seem to think so, the way he frantically tried to cut off her spell before she hurt either of his two charges. He was unsuccessful in his efforts, unable to even make it a single step before Twilight let her spell loose. Right at Hazel. The magenta tinged bolt of mana collided with her chest, sending her a full half step backwards. The spell continued to arc over her body, acting like electricity as it fizzled and popped between the individual hairs covering her body.

She stood silently in place, shaking from the ordeal. Arthur slowly approached, leaning up against her side to hopefully lessen the anger the was undoubtedly brewing just beneath her furry surface.

"Are you-" he started, before he was cut off by a horrifying roar from the diminutive squirrel turned pony.

"STUPID PURPLE MEAN HORSE!!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, causing the ears of all present to splay backwards in surprise (maybe even a little fear, as well.).

A moment of silence followed her outburst, before Merlin spoke up in a chastising tone.

"Well, I dare say we can be sure your... er.. 'translation' spell worked, even if you did skip over twenty steps to make it so you wouldn't hurt the target," Merlin stated flippantly.

"You!??!" Hazel choked out, a wide look of utter surprise stamped across her face, "You talk-ed? Weird-old-not-squirrel talks? Why talk not before?"

They all stood silently and stared at her for a few seconds before Celestia let out a peal of laughter. She fell upon the ground, continuing to release streams of trickling guffaws as she vented her levity. It took her almost an entire minute to calm down, her laughter dying down as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Apologies, young one. My mirth is not at your expense, simply at the name you have bestown upon my friend," she explained at Hazels questioning, incredulous glance.

"White bird horse and not-squirrel are friends?" she asked, a contemplative look flashing across her face as she looked back and forth between the two. "...Mates?"

Arthur blushed as Twilight tried to stammer out a strangled refusal. Celestia fixed her with a tired glance, before letting out a low sigh.

"No, not mates."

Hazel looked towards Twilight for a couple seconds questioningly, then shook her head with a laugh.

"Whats so funny?" Twilight snapped haughtily.

Hazel froze, staring at Twilight disbelievingly for another few seconds before she simply turned back towards Arthur, snubbing her.

"Can... you talk too, yes?" she asked hopefully.

"Yeah, I can," Arthur assured her, "Are you... okay? The magic looked like it hurt..."

"Not hurt!" she crowed, puffing out her chest, "Nothing hurt me! Me strong! Make good mate~" she crooned as she leaned further into Arthurs side. Twilight instantly tore them apart with her magic, hovering them off the ground a good distance from each other. Celestia shot her a disapproving glare at her frenzied action, but she didn't say anything. Hazel flailed in place, hissing violently at Twilight as she tried to break free.

"Now just... none of that!" Twilight let out desperately, "What would your parents say if they saw you acting like this?"

Hazel stopped her struggles, glaring at Twilight through her pink tinged magical aura. "Say me strong. Scare many big others than me. Fight well, live well. Be good mate, make strong offspring. Live well. They dead though, so more likely not say anything. Dead things don't say nothing. If did, could scare anything. Now let go," she hissed out, resuming her flailing, "you hurt mate-to-be, I kill you!"

Twilight paused, running the young mares words through her head. "Mate-to-be?" she asked hesitantly as Arthur cringed in his own bubble.

"Yes. Mate-to-be will be my mate. That is why he is mate-to-be."

Twilight looked back and forth from the smug fillies nodding, to Arthur who it looked like was trying to hide behind himself. Behind his tail, anyway. "Did you ask him if he... wanted to be your mate?" Twilight ground out, attempting to put an end to her foolishness. This was a topic that only adults should even be considering, even if she used to be a squirrel she should know better, she thought.

Hazel stared at her as if she had grown another head, then shot a glance at Arthur, before returning her gaze to Twilight.

"Why wouldn't he?"

Author's Note:

I rather like the idea of Celestia's voice actress drawling out the line 'graaaah I'm evil'.

Okay, so I've been hit by SEVERE writers block. As you can see how I basically just stopped this chapter kinda short. I've kept you guys waiting for too dang long anyway, so I might as well give you what I HAVE managed to write up. Tried to unlodge my writers block by writing up a chapter for my other story Megamane, but I think my update thing is still broken. I got like 5 people viewing it, and only one comment.

...GO READ MY OTHER STUFF

My apologies, turns out I'm just a sub-par writer.

Moongaze14 asks; Question, why did Merlin decided to sire Starswirl with Celestia? He seems to be the type of guy who wouldn't be involved with his students, especially those he taught from childhood. Also, is there any reason why Merlin decided to leave Equestria?

My dear boy, there are just some instances where mead should not be introduced. Suffice to say, I was quite mortified over my actions, even if my student took them in stride. Didn't even know she had those kinds of feelings for me, fancy that. As to why I left... my boy, have you ever been sitting in one place for far too long, and felt a desperate need to move, to continue on, as only you must? Well that lad, is what being a wizard is like. All the time. One has to keep moving, can never stop. After all, the opposite of magic is stagnancy.

Sora2455 says; So, Merlin.... where you born a pony or a human?

I am a wizard, my lad.

Comments

[SPudRum]

Wasn't this chapter already posted?

[Flutters Is Shy]

6962852

Yes, it's been reposted. I've been experiencing some problems regarding chapter pages that were made last year, so I'm copy pasting them over to new pages I just made today.

Hope this doesn't cause too much confusion...

[More Dakka]

6962852
6962865

Good to hear I'm not going nutty just yet.

[ArcaneVisions]

Oh god I'm I'm seeing double.

[Kenshinryuu]

Merlin knocked up Celestia....

[Derpys Muffin Dealer]

Aww... Tia didn't humorously bop twilight on the head to set her straight

[jaroslav]

Why is Twilight wondering how he healed his leg? In Equestria unicorn doctors probably know lot of healing spells. Also Twilight wouldn't behave like that.