Arrival 6: Six Laws of Magic
The week following Midnight’s trip to the Sky Harbor was mostly dull in comparison. The classes were as easy as ever, although the ex-human could almost swear that Mrs. Note observed him closer than it was strictly necessary on a few occasions… but that could have been his imagination.
One thing that his prior education allowed him for was having a lot of free time, that he finally decided to use for reading magic oriented books from the library. Midnight’s second magic class was coming up fast and he wanted to catch up on anything that he thought was important… that pretty much meant everything so he had a hard time deciding.
The fact that the librarian got annoyed at him for long wandering and staring at the book covers and titles was an insignificant thing in his opinion…
The side effect of his sudden deeper interest in magic was that he spent that week mostly in his room, laying on the bed and reading whatever grabbed his fancy from the four thin books he grabbed about basic magical theory.
That of course lead to Dandelion being annoyed with him and Trixi pestering him more about magic. Midnight remembered that he kind of promised her help with connecting to her magic, so on Thursday he landed in her room, that she had just for herself.
It was pretty much an exact copy of his and Dandelion’s room, but the most significant difference was a framed picture on one of the nightstands. It was apparent that it was a picture of Trixi with her parents. But for him the most attention catching things were the few spots on the picture and the frame looked charred.
“Midnight…” Trixi said from his left sounding annoyed.
“Sorry, I just couldn't help but look at the picture.”
The blue coated filly looked uncertain for a moment, unconsciously biting her lower lip.
“You’re, all right?” Midnight asked looking at the blue filly.
“Trixi will be fine. Let’s get started, tell Trixi what you did that got you your magic...” Her tone might have been normal, but her posture indicated her sadness.
“I’m not really sure what to tell you, but ok.”
What followed was two hours of awkward almost-lesson that could have gone better. In the end Trixi was frustrated as was Midnight but at least he tried not to show it. The blue filly made little progress when the matron called and end to their impromptu lesson, when she came to usher them to beds.
When the Friday morning came, Midnight noticed that Trixi was trying to avoid him and had a bit reddened and puffy eyes. Surprisingly, that bothered him more than he cared to admit…
Sunday breakfast was a subdued affair due to the heavy clouds hanging in the sky. Luckily the rain didn’t start until the unicorn’s from the orphanage were a few steps away from school.
In the main hall they were welcomed with the sight of Magister Heartfire.
“Welcome, welcome. Due to the awful weather we will have class inside today. First class in classroom one and so on.”
With the directions given, they went into their indicated classrooms. Midnight glanced to his right and saw Trixi still avoiding his gaze. “Lesson for the next time, don't ask about the picture…”
When they reached their classroom and got comfortable on the pillows arranged in a circle in the middle of it, they had to wait for almost quarter of an hour before the last of their year’s unicorn arrived and behind him Magister Heartfire.
“Good morning class. Today you will still be trying to get in contact with your magic, at least most of you.” On his last words he sent a brilliant smile in Midnight’s direction. “Midnight, you will have to wait a bit.”
The white coated colt just nodded, expecting something like that. As on his first lesson he had to wait for the next half an hour before his teacher moved towards him. In his mind he repeated the questions he wanted to ask, that he came up with during the last week.
“Well Midnight now that rest of your classmates are occupied, when can move on towards more interesting things. But first show me your magic.” The orange coated stallion said as he sat in front of the white coated colt.
Midnight took in a breath and closed his eyes. Faster than on his first time he located the comforting coldness and reached for it. When he opened his eyes his horn was covered with a bright blue aura mixed with black.
“Very good, now let it go and let’s shape it to be something useful.” Heartfire said standing up and going to the teacher's desk where his saddlebag laid. After a short while he returned with a pamphlet levitated in his red magical aura. “Now this here, will help me teach you how to cast your first spell.”
Eagerly Midnight took the pamphlet into his hooves and spread it before him, his questions forgotten for now. He leaned forward and started to read not even waiting for Heartfire to say anything.
“A Light Spell?” Midnight asked looking up after his brief read and saw the adult unicorn’s amused look, he blushed slightly.
“It’s one of the simpler ones that requires no advanced knowledge or attunement.”
“Attunement?” The ex-human asked instantly.
“Most of the advanced spells fall into some element Midnight. Like fire, water, ice and so on. Some elements are rather bizarre or hard to understand like wood. What matters is that Light Spell is classified as what we call Mystical Magic, which is just manipulating pure magical energy. For us some elements are easier to manipulate or even instinctual depending on your special talent. Mine for example as you guessed on our last lesson is fire or at least it’s fire related.” Heartfire spoke steadily looking at the white colt. “On that note the feel of your magic can give you clues as to what element will be easiest for you to use.”
Midnight sat there thinking about what he heard. “So ice or earth magic right?”
“Now then, if you read the pamphlet and not just skipped it to the fancy pictures…” The older unicorn grinned. “As it said the pamphlet, the simplest method to perform this spell is understanding what it is that you want your magic to do. Some spells like this one can be cast in multiple ways, you just have to pick your own. I for example always think about how a fire lights it’s surroundings.”
A thoughtful frown made its way to Midnight’s muzzle, he couldn’t really believe it was that easy. For a moment he was stuck in uncertainty, until he decided to just have a go at it. First on his mind was just imagining a lightbulb, but he decided to consider Heartfire’s previous words about different elements. If he was going to do it, he might as well experiment a bit.
He closed his eyes again and pulled.
“You might want to tone it down Midnight…” The older unicorns voice reached him as did the grumblings of the rest of his class.
Curious, Midnight opened his eyes and saw that the whole classroom was flooded with a cold blue light that surprisingly was strong enough to force the orange coated adult unicorn to look away.
With a blink the light was gone.
“Uhm… what just happened?” Midnight tried to process what was going on… beside the fact that he cast his first spell.
“I must say I’m surprised. That was way beyond my expectations.” Heartfire said with a deep, thoughtful frown on his muzzle. “What did you think about when you cast the spell?”
“Well, I thought about what you said about the elements and the feel of one's magic. So I focused on how the light reflected on freshly fallen snow… I mean it sometimes is so bright that it can be blinding so…” Midnight stopped talking when he once more saw the calculating look in his teacher's eyes and a sly smirk on his lips.
“Impressive Midnight. But it means you will have to work on something else if you keep casting this spell that way. Cast it again but use less magic, try imagining less light reflecting from the snow like on a cloudy day.”
And so it went for the next hour, with Midnight regulating the flow of his magic and discovering how much of it was just the right amount. Then it was time to try and focus it into a more tight beam and not just allowing the spell to light up everything around him.
“That’s enough of that for now Midnight.” Heartfire said from the other side of the room, where he was observing another of Midnight’s classmates produce a deep green glow around her horn. He handed the other filly the same pamphlet and moved towards him again. “We still have more than a few hours of time, so why don’t you take an hour of break? Or are you tired and need more time?”
Midnight thought about that closing his eyes and trying to gauge how he felt… how his magic felt. Cold and heavy, it felt the same as at the beginning. He frowned. “I don’t really feel any different, maybe a bit exhausted mentally but nothing more…”
“An hour should be fine Mr. Heartfire.”
“Well then off you go.”
And with that Midnight stood up and left, glancing behind him to see what was Trixi up to. Few sparks were dancing around her horn but nothing more, he turned around and went not noticing the glares that rest of his class sent his way.
With the next hour free Midnight decided to head towards library having nothing more interesting to do. It was a good thing that it was always open on Sundays when the magic classes took place.
For the next hour it was only him and the librarian, with Midnight browsing through the few magazines written with younger ponies in mind, including their bimonthly school paper. If he was to be honest with himself the first time he truly took notice of the dates... it was here. Somehow for the first three weeks he was too busy taking in everything around him, to pay extra attention to something that in the beginning he thought of as rather important. Everypony around him thinking that he knew the date and thus not talking to him about it also factored into that.
Still, when he first took one of the newest magazines into his hooves and saw the date he was stumped. Printed in bold numbers 982 made his head ache. After some quick math he moaned pitifully then and there drawing a few concerned looks.
However after accepting where he landed, stretching that acceptance to when he landed in Equestria wasn’t that difficult.
When Midnight’s one hour break was over he jumped off the chair at one of the tables in the library, put down the magazine he was mindlessly browsing on its shelf and headed back to the classroom.
He was somewhat surprised when he noticed one other filly managing a weak, yellow glow around her horn. Heartfire spotted him and walked towards him after giving some advice to the filly.
“Well then Midnight, after some thought I’ve decided to give you a test.” When he heard those words Midnight almost had a panic attack with his eyes widening. “Don’t worry it’s not the kind of test you’re thinking about.”
A sigh escaped the white colt and he smiled sheepishly.
“So what kind of a test is it then?” The ex-human asked with curiosity obvious in his voice.
“Rather simple really, just channel your magic into your horn and then touch this.” With his hooves Heartfire laid a and almost see-through, crystal marble before him. It was highly polished, with light dancing in its centre as it reflected in it.
“Ok.” With that and a bit disappointed look Midnight did what the older unicorn asked. When his horn made contact with the marble, he felt cold spreading through him begging at his horn. He jerked back when he felt a pulling sensation and fatigue joined the cold. A gasp escaped him as he felt as if he run a few lapses around the school at full gallop. “What… was... that?!”
Midnight looked at the marble in equal awe in distaste. It was now deep blue with motes of light blue swirling inside it alongside spots of utter blackness that swallowed the light blue motes like miniature black holes. The constant motion inside the marble was almost hypnotizing.
“That Midnight is what’s called a Mana Crystal and one that’s meant to be used by adult, advanced mages.” Heartifie levitated the marble with his magic and studied it closely. “Quite useful as a one time, backup source of energy and in this case as a testing device to measure your magical potential. The fact that you filled it to the brim, even if you exhausted yourself… now that’s something.”
Midnight went over what Heartfire said before he frowned.
“Sir, you said yourself that we shouldn’t overexert our magic. Wasn’t this kind of dangerous for me?” A bit of accusation seeped into Midnight’s voice.
“After your display with the Light Spell, I was mostly certain that you would manage this without any major issues.” Heartfire said still staring at the marble and frowning. “It’s quite heavier… But never mind that, back to our lesson. Seeing as you’re low on magic and I planned on teaching you today only the Light Spell, well…. it's theory time. Do you have any question before I start the lecture?”
Midnight, now at least breathing normally, sat a bit straighter.
“Well I stumbled upon something called the Rules of Magic. And I was wondering about them, as they're very generic sometimes.” Midnight said tapping his right hoof on his chin in a thinking pose.
“Ah very good. I was going to cover them anyway today.” The fire mage sat down, but not before looking around the class gauging the progress of rest of the class. “There are Six Rules of Magic, they are old laws written down just after the Reign of Discord by the Princess and the unicorn archmages of old.”
Midnight got himself comfortable feeling that a longer talk was coming.
“The first one: kill not with magic. I think it’s rather obvious. The second rule: disturb not, that which shouldn’t be disturbed. This one mostly is supposed to stop anypony from meddling with time or things such as the dead. Things that should NOT be disturbed.” Heartfire’s voice took on a decidedly darker tone. “Through history unicorn mages tried to study both of those things and while some of their works were harmless, even revolutionary and closely monitored by the Princess, majority of those tries ended very unpleasantly.”
The orange coated unicorn took a breath, cleared his throat and continued after making sure he didn't scare his young student.
“The third rule: seek not Divinity through magic. Again, a few very unpleasant breaches of the law happened through history. The most recent was Silverhorn the Greedy a few centuries back. After his failed attempt Baltimare had to be rebuild from scratch.”
Midnight sat there and listened with wide eyes. “Is he trying to scare me? If I was a true six year old I would have nightmares after this I'm sure… Maybe he’s not that good of a teacher after all.“
“Anyway, the fourth rule: create not, that which shouldn't exist. At it’s heart the rule mainly applies to Chaos Magic it’s a… weird branch of magic to say it lightly and highly dangerous. The fifth rule: influence not others with thy magic. I think that this one is quite clear. That leaves us with the sixth rule: fear not but, use not the Dark Arts.” Heartfire paused after that looking for words as he looked down at the white coated unicorn colt.
“This one is rather odd I have to say. However I do understand it’s purpose even if most just ignore the first part of it nowadays. It’s possible that one’s special talent can be related to Dark Magic… because why not? A great many things influence our special talents so it’s possible, although very rare I suppose as I have not heard about such case in the last sixty years. So the rule itself is just to remind us to be open minded in those rare cases.”
The adult unicorn remained silent for the next few minutes giving his younger charge time to digest the information.
“The Sixth Law didn't really live up to it’s expectations now did it... “ For some reason Midnight’s thoughts drifted towards certain imprisoned Princess when Heartfire started explaining the last law, or maybe it was just the tone of disapproval of his teacher when he talked about it.
After that followed a more boring lecture about different basic elements and a short introduction to magical formulas. It turned out that Midnight was now faced with learning more than a hundred new signs that were the basis of Equestrian Runes used in writing down the spells. He almost wished that he was anything other than unicorn at that moment… he hated learning something by heart especially in such a dull, unimaginative manner.
“It’s just a matter of repetition and experience Midnight. Be aware that there are more than a thousand known runes devised by unicorn mages and who knows how many were lost or just forgotten.” At hearing Heartfire saying that Midnight groaned, but dutifully returned to reading the book he was given by the orange coated unicorn.
“No pain no gain, huh?” Midnight snorted when that thought came up.
And so went the last hours of the class, with his nose buried in a book about basic runes as Heartfire made him promise to memorize the first twenty signs for their next lesson.
When the group returned from school and after eating dinner, Midnight dragged himself to his room. Dandelion was of course waiting for him.
“Hey Mid! Just so you know, Trixi’s birthday is in two weeks.” Dandelion’s voice and announcement made the white coated colt blink.
“Huh?” A second or two later it clicked. “No way! So soon?”
“Soon... It’s maybe a bit too much to call it that, but yeah.” The earth pony colt send an amused look towards his roommate.
“Wait, in two weeks? Isn’t Nightmare Night also in two weeks?”
“Yup.” Dandelion nodded. “Have you thought about your disguise yet?”
“Not really… I’m not sure how I can even make or get one.” Midnight said as he settled his saddlebags near the nightstand and jumped onto his bed.
“Well, Mrs. Rose can put you something together as long as it’s nothing complicated. Or you can buy one for those weekly pocket money you gathered. I spend my on sweets so I will probably just ask Mrs. Rose. That reminds me...” The earth pony colt said and dived into his nightstand drawer, getting out a lollipop that immediately landed in his mouth.
Midnight forced himself not to facehoof.
“Whatever, I’ll just read some more.” With that Midnight took out and opened the book about runes… that was promptly closed by a light brown hoof. “Hey!” Not to mention that he was also dragged out of their room by said light brown hoof.
“Oh come on! It’s been days since we all played hide and seek.” Dandelion said as he dragged his friend toward the twins' room.
Sensing that resistance was futile the ex-human just sighed in defeat.
“Alright, alright…”
What followed was a relaxing afternoon filled with games, that even Trixi, Brass Bit and Orion were dragged into.
The large, white pony glanced once more over the night cityscape of Canterlot from her balcony. The moon was raised a few hours ago and now she had nothing else to do but ponder about her past and future.
Without a thought she enveloped a small marble in her golden magic and brought it before her. She was quite surprised when it was brought before her during the Day Court. Luckily no nobles were there when one of her Magisters brought it.
She frowned when she looked at it with the night sky as the background, so similar, so cold… and so unnaturally heavy, now that the magic inside it has awakened.
“Names do have power after all…” She whispered in thought.
The golden magic crushed the marble to a fine dust that glittered like stars as it fell. Celestia turned around and headed towards her ornate desk. She had letters to write and plans to adjust.
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Awesome chapter! I wonder if Midnight we'll meet Sunset or Twilight?
This was a good chapter, I wander why Celestia seem to be so unhappy of Midnight Blackmane magic potential to the point of destroying the power crystal out of frustration, and yet she seemed so nice to him the first time she met him not even pushing to know the truth about him or the fact the he knew about Nightmare Moon.
great chapter! I'm really looking forward to the next update but don't feel like you have to rush.
Liked the new chapter, Thanks for Writing!
So his magical talent is ice and black magic?
Nice chapter, good work.
Great chapter, but you might want to just run it through some form of spell checker. You seem to have missed off the ends of several words, such as the E on Orange
Someponys not going to be very happy very soon
7025507 Finally got around to fixing those, thanks for spotting them
found this one.
Baltimare had to be rebuild from scratch [rebuilt ]
Well Celestia plays some serious favorites when it comes to the rules of magic, seeing as Twilight has undeniably broken at least half of them...
1. Twilight has done some serious bashing on timberwolves, changelings, etc. where it wouldn't be too surprising if something had died.
2. Twilight sneaks into a restricted section of the Royal Library and casts a time travel spell, generating a time loop.
3. This is more Celestia than Twilight but... yeah, it's quite clear this was breached.
4. She creates an orange frog. Accident or no, it seems about as wrong as simply having the capacity for dark magic.
5. "Want it, need it" spell. 'Nuff said.
6. Twilight uses dark magic in the Crystal Empire. Justifiable circumstances, but still breaks the law. Definitely hypocritical with how Celestia's acting about Midnight.
I think it would flow better kf that you put get or even make one instead of that
7583859
The law might be more of a relative-weight per-case basis than black and white legality, especially that last example of yours. I think it'll be stupid to punish a saviour, and will definitely not be a popular decision.
Portraying this in a story is a grand task no author had ever get right, but aside from that, yes Celestia is biased because she kinda have to. Not that I like or condone her behaviour it, but at least I can understand it given how she is almost like a second mother to her at times.