Prisoner

by Silent Breeze

Chapter 6

The morning and day gone by pretty fast, Celestia spending most of it with her favorite student, listening to her latest findings in the fields of magic, having breakfast with her and even reading a couple of books about magic and theories of it's origin. The lavender mare often asked on her mentor's thoughts about the subject, but she always replied vaguely, letting her student guess on her own. It wouldn't be as interesting if Celestia simply told her everything after all, and while her student's brain yearned for more knowledge, the unicorn understood that. Perhaps these questions were to test how much her teacher was willing to tell her? The white alicorn never thought much about it; it never bothered her enough to find out.

But as time passed by, the alicorn finally noticed it. Twilight was anxious. She often tapped her hoof near the book while reading it and her focus was very thin on the book. She was back in her thoughts about something that worried her. It was a habit that the lavender mare had for a long while and Celestia was always meaning to tell her about it, but she just couldn't find a way to tell her without being too blunt. She didn't want to hurt Twilight's feelings, after all. Instead, she raised her hoof and put it gently on the unicorn's shoulder.

The lavender mare flinched, as she slowly turned her head to her teacher, wearing a fake smile.
"What is it, princess?" She said, her voice was shaking a bit. There was little doubt left in Celestia but she decided to ask regardless, just to make sure.

"Do you want to ask for something, my faithful student?" She nailed it with the question, her pupil wincing and for a second her eyes darting away from the sun princess.

"Is it really that obvious?" She was smart. The unicorn always knew when lying to her mentor would be a bad idea, and remembering what the princess said before, it would be pointless to hide it either way. Instead of answering her, Celestia simply nodded lightly when she say her faithful student direct her eyes back at her. The alicorn already knew what was her request and simply waited for her to word it.
"I... wanted to ask.... about this.. mage." She briefly thought about calling him a pony, but she had no evidence of that yet.

"You would like to see him?" Her mentor asked calmly, smiling to her student to reassure her that nothing bad would happen to her.

"That too..." That had surprised the princess somewhat, but she kept her smile and awaited Twilight's question.
"Well... From what I read so far... There has been a ban on fire magic at least five hundred years ago... around the same time this... mage came along. Were those events connected or... just coincidental?" This time she genuinely was surprised, not hiding it. She had thought her pupil would figure that out on her own, had she honestly not thought about it?... She was looking up to her mentor, her eyes showing her impatience, like she wanted to know more... Was that it? She wanted her mentor to tell her everything? She smiled when the thought crossed her mind, but it had only lasted for a few moments before she took on a serious expression, looking back at her student.

"Those events were connected, my faithful student. But there was also another reason behind it." She said before allowing herself to smile again. Twilight's expression changed to confusion, Celestia could see her pupil longing for a better explanation, but she wouldn't get one anytime soon. Her teacher simply stood up and moved towards the door, looking back to see Twilight accepting her answer with an annoyed yet quiet sigh, getting off her chair and following. As they walked down the halls of the castle, the princess couldn't shake off the feeling of anxiety. The first pony to ever see him in such a long time would be no less then her most faithful student, a mare of great magical potential and a close friend of hers.

Twilight, on the other hoof, was actually getting a little excited. She could learn more from this being, pony or not, and maybe ask about what it was like in the past. Hardly any history books dated that far back and those that did were a bit fuzzy on the details about it, not to mention her mentor never wanted to talk about the past much. Oh, and maybe she could ask him about magic! She was pretty sure it was a male at least, the sun princess did refer to the mage as he, so it was only logical. But anyway, she could ask him about his magic, and...

She noticed by then they were going down the staircase, a little confused. Once on the first floor, she hurried a little to walk beside the princess's front legs.
"Um, where are we exactly going, princess? Where is he?" Celestia simply smiled to her, looking ahead instead, prompting Twilight to do the same. The unicorn obliged, and saw those double doors again. One of the few doors she never entered. The deep blue double doors with a fine wooden frame and beautiful, even if a bit chaotic, carvings. The carvings seemed to mirror off of each door. She couldn't quite find the pattern behind it before they were enveloped in a soft yellow aura, opening them inward to reveal the room's interior.

At first glance the room looked empty, save for the torches hanging on each side of the room. The walls were painted dark blue, a white streak going near the floor. Looking at the floor, she noticed some strange runes. She learned about magical runes and symbols they create early on in her school for gifted unicorns, but these looked almost old enough for the spell's meaning to go over her head. Almost.

"A... teleportation symbol? Can't we teleport the normal way?" Twilight asked, looking up to her mentor with a confused expression. Runes were hardly used these days, considering how far magic has advanced over the years. They still had some practical use for those studying magic, but that was about it. She followed the runic pattern, noting how it was going in a rather large circle, taking up almost the entire room! In the middle of the pattern there was a rather large circle with a giant 'x' in the middle. She guessed it was where they needed to stand.

"I'm afraid not, Twilight. It is too far for me to remember it each visit." She heard the princess next to her, taking a look at her. Her teacher was nervous, Twilight could tell without any doubt, but was what confused her. Why would her mentor be nervous? She also felt that something was off in her excuse. Celestia slowly walked towards the middle of the symbol, her student shortly follow suit. The alicorn's horn began to glow again, the runes slowly filling in with a light yellow colour and starting to glow. Twilight observed them in action, trying to understand a little better how they worked, considering she never used them at all. After some time they started to light up and glow, the intensity a little blinding. The last thing she remembered seeing was the doors closing shut before the light became too bright, closing her eyes.

There was no real sound, and when Twilight tried to take a peek of what was happening, there was only a light glow seen, but not coming from the runes. She then opened both eyes completely, taking in their new location. It looked like some sort of cavern, a rough oval shape and spacious, with one exit that was shrouded with darkness. Several stalactites could be seen closer to the darkness of the exit, while the space they were in seemed cleaned out and illuminated lightly by two large blue crystals standing between them, on the opposite wall of each other. They were standing on an elevated stone platform with the same runic symbol, while the rest of the floor seemed like solid rock. She also noticed that the temperature had gone up considerably from that of the room back in the castle.

"Where... are we?" She asked, looking around the cavern.
"Wow, is there a way to lower the heat a bit?" She asked almost right after, feeling herself beginning to sweat. The princess simply shook her head before looking at Twilight with a serious expression.

"Now listen carefully, Twilight. I won't be able to accompany you to him, but he's fairly close, you can't miss him. I will have to teleport back, but do not worry; a unicorn of your power can use this symbol to go back by yourself. When you will be done, simply stand in the middle and channel your magic into it non-stop and it will bring you back. As for why I can't stay or what is this place, you can ask him, I'm sure he will oblige and answer." Twilight felt like her mother was giving her instructions on how to get to school, but she listened regardless.

"But, isn't he-" She tried to ask before a yellow aura surrounded her, gently pulling her up and setting her down near the platform.

"He is not violent, no. You have nothing to worry about, my faithful student. I would not leave you alone in a place that wouldn't be safe for you. You have my word on that." Celestia said with a smile, her horn glowing as an aura surrounded it, lighting up the runes once again. Twilight really wanted her mentor to stay, but she knew at this rate that would be impossible, so she just sat down and watched her mentor become consumed with the light before it became too bright and she was forced to cover her eyes with her front leg. After the light suddenly dropped in intensity, she knew she was on her own from here on out.

The unicorn turned around and slowly walked towards the dark exit from the light. She didn't feel at all safe, but she had to believe her mentor, plus her curiosity was starting to catch up to her again. The princess did say that this being would answer some of her questions, so maybe he wasn't all that bad. Maybe he changed while staying here? She knew only of one way to find out. She reached the exit, or rather entrance as she thought about it more, sweating quite a bit at this point. It really was a mystery to her why it was so hot in this cave, it was winter after all. Was there some magic involved? Oh, perhaps this mage was using his fire magic to keep it hot! She cut her own train of thought when she noticed another entrance with a faint glow coming from it.

It was the only other source of light she saw in this dark cave. Perhaps this pony had a way to move the light around, maybe his crystal was smaller and he could carry it? How did the crystals actually worked? She was a bit surprised why that question didn't come to her mind sooner, but she simply shook her head. She was nervous, that's it. Just a little nervous. Or a lot. Whatever, she was close to finally seeing this being, and she couldn't back out now. She couldn't tell what was between her and that entrance so she decided to take the safe route and simply follow along the wall, brushing her mane and tail lightly against it to keep track of where it is.

While walking in complete darkness, the lavender mare tried to calm herself by thinking of what she would ask this mage. Although, first she definitely needed to check what species he was. After that, she would need to ask his name, she felt a bit awkward to refer to him as.... well, just him. Or mage, felt a bit too generalized. Anyway, what would be next... Maybe some general questions? She wanted to test the waters first, so to say. Check how willing he was to co-operate. She believed her teacher that he wouldn't cause her any harm, but that didn't mean he'd be willing to work with her. Besides, maybe he could share some knowledge on how did those crystals-

Twilight felt her mane and tail slip off of the wall. She tried to use her tail to find the wall, but soon found it impossible to do so. She looked back, noticing how completely pointless that action was and gave her zero help. If only she had a light source of her own, this woul-

...

She facehoofed herself, rather hard. She couldn't believe she could forget something so basic, and yet, here she was, walking through the darkness. She felt the urge to lay down and cover her snout with her hooves, but she needed to move on. Reaching for her magic, the horn started to glow, surrounded by a purple aura. Soon, the area around her illuminated from the glow, letting her look around a little. She finally saw that the walls were close by, and she stood in front of another entrance to, no doubt, another spacious section of this cavern. She slowly made her way towards the wall and kept walking alongside it, still feeling safer by following it, even with her own light. It didn't take her long to come close to the far, now close by, second light source, letting her magic rest and canceling her illumination spell. She took a couple more steps to the entrance and looked inside of it. She had been expecting a lot of things, and she couldn't say she didn't see this coming, but it didn't stop her from being shocked.

Close to the centre of the room a black alicorn was laying on his legs. His head was laying on the hard rock, seemingly ignoring the rock's uncomfortable formation. His mane and tail were pure blue fire, illuminating the small section he was laying it perfectly. His cutie mark was hard to see from her point, but she definitely saw something orange on his flank before something else caught her attention entirely. His eyes. They were half open and those red eyes stared directly at hers. When did he open them? She didn't notice it. She started to sweat a bit more while the alicorn raised his head from the ground, their eyes still locked. But just then she saw something, as well as experienced a familiar feeling. She saw a spark in his eyes. They opened a bit more after it, still looking at her, but for some reason she didn't feel her eyes locked anymore and quickly looked somewhere else, like the ground. That is, until she heard his cold, calm voice.

"You have the spark to light a fire..."

Comments

[Silent Breeze]

I actually almost lost 1/3 of this chapter, just because I was sleepy and retarded. Good thing I had the final version saved on another file. Also, the facehoof moment? I kinda headdesked, because that's my own realization kicking in there. Ah well, decided to leave it in. Just pretend she was very nervous and forgot, everyone. Ok? Ok.

Enjoy! Comments are appreciated, as always.

[Deathpony]

cant wait for the next chapter

[jmj]

What was that you told me about cliff hangers? Lol. Starving for the next chapter. I need to know more about this guy.

[Silent Breeze]

593014 I'm glad you're enjoying the story, hopefully I'll get the next chapter done sooner.

594480 Ey!
Ey.
I almost lost a part of the fic and I was sleepy as all hell. I simply didn't feel like continuing.