Court Magician

by Moonlit Novel

Chapter Eight: Realization

Author's Notes:

Thanks to Deadinlight for beta-reading and helping me edit

Well it certainly has been a while, I am writing two totally different stories at the same time, I finally broke my writer's block for one and now I am having a small one for this one... Sorry guys, but I will try to keep writing this story as long as I can

Chapter Eight: Realization

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“Ne’er give a Tenebrosus Magus any power, if you e’er spare them, they will abuse said power and use it for their own aims” ~The Tenebrosus Magus: What Drives Them, By Royal Script, Royal Researcher

~ ~ ~

After about a month Shadow Eyes seemed to be stronger, she knew more spells than she knew what to do with. It still hurt that Princess Celestia had ordered her to keep practicing magic she only truly learned out of necessity for survival, but did she blame the princess?

These were the thoughts running through her head as she made her way to a little village along the coast of Equestria, with her was several guardsponies, ponies whom she did not ask for, nor want. She was on her way to the village to hear what the mayor of said village wanted from the crown, and it apparently was her job to hear the mayor out and give a report and her opinion on whether the crown should offer its aid or weigh in on the town’s request and Shadow Eyes was determined to show she could be trusted, and hopefully she could be trusted without an escort. Little did she know it wasn’t to watch her, it was to protect her, there were some unsavory forces that were unhappy with her change in allegiance, even if she had never been an evil pony in the first place.

“Court Magician, we will be arriving in Trottendale shortly” said a guardspony pegasus, he appeared to be white and his cutie mark was blurred by the enchantments of his armor. Shadow Eyes nodded keeping her displeasure at being called by her title off her face, it reminded her too much of when she had been called Tenebrosus Magus instead of her name when she had been on the run.

“Thank you, you never introduced yourself, mister?”

“Private Coltsfeather, Ma’am!” said the guardspony puffing up his chest as if he were proud to be a private, which would make sense the guard was still considered a widely noble organization.

“Well, Private, if I may have a few minutes to get dressed, I’ll be out shortly” said the mare and the stallion nodded before stepping out of the room and Shadow Eyes, with her magic, look forlornly at the outfit that was customary for the Court Magician to wear. How she hated clothes with a passion, she hated them as a foal and she hated them even more now, they always seemed to make her itch.

‘That is it, when I get a chance, I am going to ask Princess Celestia if I can change the uniform for the Court Magician, even if it is more a ceremonial position, when there is no conflict, no reason I should be uncomfortable in the outfit’ she thought with little understanding as to what a Court Magician was supposed to do, outside of what she had been told so far. There had not been one in centuries and Celestia did not realize that it was not a subject taught in her school anymore…

- - -

The form-fitting outfit on Shadow Eyes’ body made her twitch every so often as it rubbed her on sensitive spots on her back and forelegs causing them to itch like crazy, the cape kept getting caught on snags and under hoof making her stumble, much to what she wrongly assumed the hidden enjoyment of the guardsponies with her as they kept a straight face even as she stumbled several times, a few times into the guardsponies themselves.

“Are you alright, Ma’am?” asked Private Coltfeather and Shadow Eyes blushed in embarrassment as she righted herself, it would not due for her to seem drunk, when all it was her tripping on her own hooves.

“I’m fine!” she said firmly as if challenging the stallion to argue with her. When he didn’t she felt sheepish but said nothing...

- - -

“Court Magician? Are you pulling my leg? I haven’t heard of it” said the Mayor of Trottensdale, a rather chubby pinto earth pony stallion whose attitude left much to be desired, Shadow Eyes narrowed her unseeing eyes as she noticed with her magic a scroll with the official seal laid open on the desk.

“Private Coltfeather!” she said suddenly, she figured if they were going to be there, she would make use of them.

“Yes ma’am?” he said standing at a crisp salute after being called out.

“Would you be a dear and read that letter with the official seal and let me know if that was the letter that Princess Celestia said she would be sending ahead of us to inform the mayor of his important visitor” said the mare and with a fresh salute the pegasus trotted over and picked up the letter and began to read it.

“Now see here! That is a private correspondence!” said the Mayor and Shadow Eyes chuckled darkly.

“If it was, it wouldn’t carry the royal seal upon the wax, no, I think you were hoping that you could fluster me so I would return failing at my first assignment and causing the princess herself to come here taking time away from more important matters” said Shadow Eyes feeling confident, however she knew it hinged on the letter being the one Celestia had sent to introduce Shadow Eyes to the mayor.

“It is the introduction letter, ma’am” said the private and Shadow Eyes smirked.

“Who are you to decide whether my issue is worthy of the crown’s intervention or not! You hold no authority here, and by order of the Mayor of Trottensdale, I order you guardsponies to arrest this mare for reading a private letter.” the guard did not move. “Did you not hear me? She committed a crime!” said the Stallion all but shrieking and Shadow Eyes giggled.

“I outrank you, mayor, besides what you did was impede royal business, which is a much more serious crime, and me doing what I did was well within my rights, Princess Celestia would never use the royal mail carriers to deliver a personal letter, least ways to a fat unimportant stallion such as you, I am sure the princesses has much better tastes than you” said Shadow Eyes harshly, she was unamused by the stallion’s behavior.

“How dare you!?” shouted the stallion as he stood up and tried to look threatening forgetting about the guardsponies in his anger.

“Oh sit your fat ass down, I don’t have time for your theatrics. You wanted the princesses here for something, what was it? Or shall I tell the princesses that you only wanted to waste their valuable time” snapped Shadow Eyes…

- - -

“He just wanted to bask in your glory, Princess Celestia” said Shadow Eyes as she gave her report to the Solar Triarch and Celestia looked troubled.

“Why would he have made such a thing sound so urgent?” she asked surely there was more to this than was being said.

“If there was more, he certainly didn’t tell me, in fact he seemed dead set on pretending that he didn’t know I was coming, even with the letter you sent sitting open on his desk.” said Shadow Eyes calmly though on the inside she was worried, what if all of the places she was sent were like that?

“Thank you, Shadow Eyes, you’ve given me a lot to think about, you are dismissed” said the princess with a smile and a wave of her hoof. Shadow Eyes bowed and turned to leave when the princess spoke up, “Be sure to give my congratulations to Rich Quick, I heard he managed a heist that no other pony had succeed in before, and let him know if he returns the royal jewels soon, I won’t have him arrested”

- - -

Shadow Eyes made her way to the dorm in which she and Rich Quick were staying for the moment, as she needed to move out soon, as she was no longer a student, part of her wanted to move back to Manehattan, but… Something was calling for her to stay in Canterlot a little longer…

“Hey, Love, I see you are back, what’s new?” asked the stallion and Shadow Eyes turned to him, a glare on her face.

“You know better than to steal from the crown, Rich!” said Shadow Eyes heatedly and Rich stopped mid-stride in shock, he had not expected her to find out so quickly.

“W-what are you talking about?” asked Rich Quick hoping to avoid confrontation when Shadow Eyes got right up in his face and glared at him.

“Celestia knows you stole the royal jewels you crazy stallion!” she snapped at him and Rich Quick paled before he grinned.

“I guess I should have known the princess would have a tracking spell on it, so tell me, when should I expect the guard to be knocking at our door?” asked Rich Quick and Shadow Eyes nearly snapped at him but took a deep breath and relaxed.

“You should be more worried about me, rather than the Guard. However Princess Celestia said she would give you some time before she sends the Guard, to return the royal jewels to her” said Shadow Eyes calmly but with a voice full of anger making Rich Quick back away nervously before he remembered that Shadow Eyes was not likely to hurt him.

“You know I am just following my cutie mark, you can't blame me for stealing, neither can Celestia” argued the stallion and Shadow Eyes huffed and walked away with her nose in the air…

- - -

At a quiet little bar a little ways away from the adult dormitories of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns a stallion sat at the bar with a mare who was in a uniform for the Equestrian Strategic Information Service.

“You can't tell me I don't have the skill to join you, nopony else could have done what I did, the castle guard was tripping over themselves and they still couldn't capture me!” said the pony in front of the ESIS agent and the agent frowned.

“The princess still knew who had done it, that does not speak well of your skill” said the agent and the pony shrugged and produced the royal jewels and placed them on the bar between them.

“I scanned them, they have a locator spell on them, one that I could have easily removed, but saw no need when I was going to be returning them not too long after seeing you today” said the pony and the agent frowned again, trying to find a good reason to deny the pony in front of her a place in ESIS as the pony in front of her could just ask Princess Celestia to find out why he had been denied a job, perks of dating the Court Magician. Finding none the agent groaned angrily.

“I will talk to my bosses, Princess Celestia included, as much as I hate to admit, you are skilled, and from what we have on you, you aren't opposed to killing to get your mission done. I may not like how close you are to the pony you want to help us keep an eye on, but none can deny your skill. You held your own against the Court Magician in the past and our files say you haven't been idle since you started dating her. You will have my recommendation”

“Thank you” said Rich Quick as he got up off the stool he had been sitting on and started to walk out before turning to the agent, “regardless of who you send to watch her, she will know she's being watched, you know this as well as anypony, so why not make it somepony who is already in her life, just something to think about” he said calmly before stepping out the door and out into the quiet streets of Canterlot…

- - -

As Rich Quick entered the dormitory quietly entering the student apartment where upon entering the main foyer of the apartment he saw Shadow Eyes waiting up for him.

“Where the Tartarus have you been? It's damn near midnight!” snapped Shadow Eyes as there were tears on her cheeks, she had been crying. Noticing the tear stained cheeks of his marefriend, Rich Quick was quick to swallow his own anger.

“What’s wrong, Shay? Why’d you stay up? You have work tomorrow!”said Rich Quick worriedly and Shadow Eyes glared at him with her clouded eyes.

“Answer the damned question, Rich Quick! Are you seeing somepony else?” Rich Quick took a step back before shaking his head angrily.

“How can you think that? What kind of heartless pony do you think I am? I was meeting with an ESIS agent, Cypher 0183, I was attempting to get a job with them” said Rich Quick and Shadow Eyes snapped.

“You want to work for the same group that Silver Hoof worked for!? How could you!?” and Rich Quick struggled to take a calming breath, it would not do for them to get into a shouting match.

“I can’t keep still, you know what happened the last time you went off on a mission for the princesses, I went and stole the royal jewels! I need a job where I can follow my cutie mark and not be breaking the law” said the stallion relatively calmly though one could tell he was close to yelling himself.

“But the ESIS! Couldn’t you have found work in anything else?” asked Shadow Eyes and Rich Quick sighed and took a step towards her only for her to step away from him tears in her eyes.

“There is nothing else, the crooks here that steal from the poor have the protection of the law on their side, and only ESIS has the means and the stones to make them pay without getting arrested for their trouble.” said Rich Quick and Shadow Eyes choked back a sob as part of her wanted to yell at the stallion in front of her, there had to be something else he could do! But then… Shadow Eyes sighed as she focused on her flank where her cutie mark seemed to glow with magic allowing her to see it in living color. Her cutie mark reminded her that she was following it, shouldn’t her coltfriend follow his?

Author's Note:

Well more emotional turmoil for Shay. I hope it doesn't scar too bad