Camaraderie is Sorcery

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 2:9.1 - The College of Eyes

Author's Note:

Translations

Chapter 2:9.1 – The College of Eyes

Where there were sorceresses, they tended to congregate, both to exchange ideas and for mutual protection from non-mages, even if they rarely trusted each other. Within Celestia’s lands, the greatest mages resided in Cant’r Laht. In the Kingdom of Los Pegasus, they assembled in Applewood Tower. In the Duchy of Balte-Maer, the place that mages congregated was the College of Eyes.

The College of Eyes was located in the southwest of the duchy, near the mountains that demarcated the boundary between Duchess Seaspray’s territory and the Broken Lands. The college was a sprawling collection of towers and halls separated from the surrounding forest by a high stone wall. For leagues in every direction there were no pony settlements apart from the tiny towns built by the college itself for their hired guardians to live. Ponies were too afraid to settle near the college, for its resident sorceresses had no regard for how their experiments would affect their surroundings, and whole sections of the forest bore the scars of this lack of care. Some even suspected the fire swamps of the southeast were a result of the college’s experiments, but it was all hearsay.

On this night, as winter crept ever closer, the leaders of the College of Eyes met in the Tower of Inner Sight. Around the teardrop-shaped table sat nine ponies, archmagister Mendetheles at the head. In front of the each of the college’s magisters sat a letter, magically duplicated from the original in front of Mendetheles. The cause for concern was that it bore the seal of Celestia, who had no formal power here, but was still recognized as the most powerful living sorceress.

“Does she think she can get away with ordering us about?” the cantankerous, old (nearly two centuries) sorcerer Cascadia demanded, “She is the Matriarch of Sorceresses in Cant’r Laht, not the College of Eyes.”

“She demanded nothing of us. Her letter only informs us that her apprentice will be arriving here on the morrow, and that she will be offering us aid,” a younger sorceress by the name of Summer Blossom pointed out.

“A disguised order. I’ve half a mind to say we reject it,” another sorceress, an earth pony named Willowick, said, “Celestia is no longer as powerful as she once was; we mages have suspected this for centuries. She may have signed as ‘Guardian of Sun and Moon’ and ‘Keeper of Day and Night,’ but rumor has it that the great alicorn sorceress no longer raises or lowers the moon, leaving that task to her sister Luna instead.”

“Even if rumor is true, she is still able to raise and lower the sun, and who among us can claim that ability?” Mendetheles pointed out, “She is far more powerful than any of us, maybe even all of us put together. It would not do to provoke her without reason.”

“Her apprentice, Twilight Sparkle, is also quite adept at sorcery,” Rion, a sorcerer added, “She learns and improves her magic rapidly and may already be near to us in magical potential.”

“Are you afraid of her, Rion?” Willowick mocked.

“Not at all,” Rion replied, “But allowing her to enter the college could be a good opportunity to learn more about her, to study her abilities and the potential threat she may pose.”

“I too think that we should allow her entry to the college,” a sorceress named Brienne spoke up, “The letter claims she and her companions are seeking the soul of Discord, and that they possess something to which it is vulnerable.”

“Discord,” Cascadia scoffed, spittle falling into his beard as he did so, “A story to cover up that Celestia lost control of the sun again at the beginning of this year.”

“How then would you explain the massive surge of chaos magic that engulfed the Equestry Valley at the same time?” the sorcerer Torbald asked, and Cascadia looked away grouchily, “Or the sudden surge we all sensed here within the College? Whether Celestia’s story is true or not is inconsequential. We’ve had a week to find the source of the chaos magic and are no closer than when we started. Perhaps outside help is what we need to get to the bottom of this.”

“Celestia made it clear in her letter that she considers this Discord soul to be a threat to Equestria, not just her own lands. She has gone to great lengths for this cause in the past,” Sanctum Summit, a peculiarly religious sorceress, said, “How might Twilight Sparkle react if we were to refuse her entry? When her mentor was refused entry to Cant’r Laht, she slaughtered half the mages in the city.”

“I’ve heard arguments for and against allowing Twilight Sparkle and her companions to enter the college from everypony apart from one,” Mendetheles said, “Scalai, what is your opinion?”

All eyes turned to look at the blind sorceress. Little did they know, she was blind no more, her eyesight restored a week ago when a strange power had surged through her, a power she’d quickly contained and masked. She still wore her ornate blindfold, so that they would not know and would not see her new eyes, their yellow sclera and red irises a clear giveaway that she was no longer what she seemed. Throughout the entire council she had been thinking, but made the point of waiting and appearing contemplative before speaking.

“Let her enter, but keep a close eye on her. She cannot be allowed to learn any of our secrets, but we may be able to learn some of hers,” Scalai said, and Mendetheles nodded, “Perhaps she may even find what she is seeking, if it is still here to be found. If not, then we can send her on her way, with us possessing a greater knowledge of a probable future adversary.” Or, for me, a current adversary.

***

Greed (Charity) – Bitter Leaf
Treachery (Allegiance) – unnamed White Procession soldier
Cruelty (Compassion) – unknown
Deceit (Trustworthiness) – unknown
Dourness (Mirth) – unknown
??? (Sorcery) – unknown
Unknown seventh piece – unknown

Twilight Sparkle reviewed the list she’d written up as the Brave Companions approached the gates to the College of Eyes. After the events in Grunstead, she was more convinced that the pieces of Discord’s soul represented “anti-Elements” (as she had taken to calling them) that were direct opposites of the Elements of Harmony. She’d tried to compile a list naming these anti-Elements and line them up with their counterparts and ponies (or centaurs) they’d possessed, but was stuck on the last two. The seventh piece was a complete mystery, since there were only six Elements of Harmony, but it also seemed more likely to exist after she’d discovered the Treachery shard roughly equated the Greed shard in size (however you measured soul fragments). The anti-Element to Sorcery gave her pause as well, since she had no idea what its opposite could be. It wasn’t like the other Elements, which represented virtues, and thus had easily deducible vices. A pony with a complete lack of sorcery would just be an average pony, so she had to be missing something.

Twilight didn’t know if this was the beginning of a trend or merely a fluke, but the ponies possessed by Discord’s soul shards seemed to be Awakening faster. Only a few days had passed between the Brave Companions’ return to Ponieville from Cant’r Laht and the sorceress sensing another fragment. Their target had, without a doubt, been somewhere in the College of Eyes. Whether they were still here was unknown, since they’d very quickly managed to hide their power, a necessity in a place packed with sorceresses who could also sense it. It troubled Twilight that they might be facing a fellow sorceress, a pony who would have not just Discord’s chaos magic, but also more conventional sorcery.

The Brave Companions were being escorted to the College of Eyes by the non-magical guards employed by the sorceresses there. This squad had met them the moment they crossed into the college’s territory and refused to let any of the Brave Companions leave their sight. Open eyes were emblazoned on their tabards, and one of them carried a banner with the same symbol, held aloft to mark their progress for observers at the college. Ream and Baldavin, Twilight’s guards, had had to stay behind at a border outpost; although they’d protested, the guardians of the college had made it clear that none of them would be allowed to proceed if they didn’t comply. No soldiers were permitted here but the college’s guardians. Spike had stayed behind with them, better able to send and receive letters from Celestia outside of the college’s zone of control, where they might be able to intercept the messages.

The forest gave way to a large clearing formed by years of gathering firewood and constructing the college’s buildings. The College of Eyes itself stood a little way away yet, a gravel path leading directly to its gates. An imposing stone wall surrounded the college, many towers set into it. Everywhere that there was space on the stone, eyes had been carved, giving the appearance of being gazed down upon as you approached. The Tower of Inner Sight soared above the wall, its stones arranged near the top into the shape of a massive eye, the only major stone structure in the college besides the wall. Peaked tiled roofs of the other, more conventional college buildings also poked over the wall in some places.

Another massive stone eye was built into the wall over the college’s gate, and beneath it stood nine ponies: the magisters of the College of Eyes. All of them were wearing extravagant robes where the theme was repeated again. Eyes were stitched into them or incorporated as part of the design. Stoles embroidered with eyes, whole robes where the eyes were arranged in a repeating pattern—the eyes were everywhere, many of them with gems for pupils. One of the magisters was blindfolded, but eyes were embroidered on the blindfold over her own, presumably nonfunctional, eyes.

“Welcome, Twilight Sparkle, apprentice of Celestia, and welcome also to the rest of the Brave Companions. I am Mendetheles, Archmagister of the College of Eyes,” one of the sorceresses introduced herself, “Before you enter the college, there are certain rules you must agree to.”

“We don’t have time for this. Somepony here has been possessed by Discord,” Rainbow Dash protested, which earned more than a few frowns and a “hmph” from Cascadia, “They’ve already had a week to strengthen their power; there’s no telling how strong they are by now. Every second counts!”

“The College of Eyes is not Cant’r Laht, the wildlands of the Equestry Valley, or a Hunters’ keep. This is our home, not yours, and we determine the rules here,” Mendetheles said with a frown, “You will not set a hoof within the College of Eyes until we allow it, unless you want to meet a quick and painful death.”

“My apologies,” Twilight said, trying to soothe some ruffled feathers, “But Rainbow Dash is right. Time is of the essence if we are to catch whoever has been possessed and extract Discord’s soul before they become too powerful to stop.”

“Low on manners and short on courtesy, just like Celestia. Very well, I shall strive to be brief,” Mendetheles sighed, “Firstly, you will be accompanied at all times while you are here, with Magister Summer Blossom to be the first to escort you. Secondly, you must all stay together. Thirdly, no flying. Honestly, the second and third follow from the first, as would any other restrictions you can think of. You must stay in sight of your escort at all times; fail to do so, and you will be expelled from the college. I don’t care if you think that Discord is going to destroy Equestria; if you fail to follow the rules set out for you, then we will deal with it ourselves. Understood?”

“Understood,” Twilight acknowledged, and glanced at Rainbow Dash to make sure she’d comply with the third rule.

“Summer Blossom, take our guests to where the chaos magic was first detected,” Mendetheles ordered.

***

The place where the possessed pony had Awakened didn’t look very impressive. Then again, neither had the apartment in Onon’r Laht, or the village of Grunstead. The Brave Companions and Summer Blossom were standing in a typical hallway in one of the many buildings in the college. A week had passed since the Awakening, so the lingering magic was incredibly faint, easily overpowered by the magical signatures of the sorceresses that had investigated the scene since then.

“This isn’t a private room,” Rarity commented, “Nopony saw anything strange here?”

“It was the middle of the night,” Summer Blossom reminded her, “Most ponies were asleep.”

“That could help us, actually,” Twilight Sparkle said as she gave up trying to gain any information from the incredibly nonsensical patterns of the chaos magic, “It narrows down our suspects if we know who was awake. Why would anypony have a reason to be here so long after sunset?”

“I don’t know how things work in Cant’r Laht, but the mages of the College of Eyes have freedom,” Summer Blossom said, “We don’t dictate where ponies must be and when, except for aspirants. There are several sorceresses who prefer to work at night, or simply wander the grounds.”

“Who are these sorceresses who are usually out and about at night?” Twilight asked.

The magister gave a deep sigh. Apparently, this Cant’r Laht sorceress had completely failed to grasp her previous statement. The sorceresses of the College of Eyes valued their privacy. They hadn’t been fond of the magisters and their appointed inquisitors trying to determine who had been out the night of the Awakening, and they would be less so toward these outsiders, most of them not even mages. Still, it might be necessary to put this matter to rest once and for all. Summer Blossom had been one of the magisters in favor of allowing the Brave Companions to come here, but so far, they’d not done anything differently from the college’s own investigators. She was beginning to question whether they would be more of a help than a nuisance to the College of Eyes. If they failed at their task, it couldn’t be the college’s fault, though. If I must take them to the Twins, then I must.

“Come with me,” Summer Blossom ordered, swiftly turning and trotting back the way she’d led them.

The Brave Companions followed the magister in loose formation. So, the rumors are true; they are just a random collection of ponies, no well-ordered and disciplined cadre. Could they really just be six friends that fate decided to cast as the Brave Companions? Lost in thought, Summer Blossom led them down to the hall’s exit and out onto the college grounds. Despite the Brave Companions’ presence causing many sorceresses to shut themselves up inside with shuttered windows to keep prying eyes away from their experiments, a few still chose to practice their sorcery in the brisk, late-autumn air. One sorceress was running an apprentice through a ritual but bade him pause as she spotted the Brave Companions, and erected a screen of fog to block their view. For a place that incorporated eyes wherever possible, the ponies here sure didn’t like to be watched, at least by outsiders.

“Where are y’ takin’ us?” Applejack asked as the group seemed to weave an aimless path around the college’s buildings.

“We are going to meet ponies who can tell you who was out and about on the night we detected the chaos surge,” Summer Blossom said as she led them into another building.

Like several of the college buildings, there was a round tower built into one of the corners, though nowhere near as tall or as grand as the Tower of Inner Sight. Summer Blossom led them up the spiral staircase. They reached the top floor of the building, but not the top floor of the tower. To reach that, they had to exit the tower and ascend a ramp to a low-topped doorway.

“Brave Companions all, may I introduce to you Amaelia the Seeker and Amaury the Recorder, the Twins of the Tower,” Summer Blossom said as they climbed into the top floor of the tower.

The circular room was large enough to fit more than twice as many ponies as were currently crammed into it comfortably, had it been empty, but it was far from empty. The center of the room was dominated by a massive topographical map of Equestria covered in wooden miniatures of ponies, some of them recognizable to Twilight as important figures on the continent. Curving along a section of the wall were many crystal balls, all of them active and showing a different locale. A unicorn mare with brown coat speckled by white spots watched them intently, causing the views to shift as she probed the crystal balls with her magic. Nearby sat a unicorn stallion whose coat was the exact opposite of his sister’s (apart from the temporary ink stains on his muzzle), carefully jotting down lines in a massive book, accompanied by a stack of similarly imposing tomes. The twins’ workspace took up the majority of the room, minimal furniture and personal belongings shoved against the walls, hammocks taking the place of beds to save space. The Brave Companions had to follow Summer Blossom single-file through the narrow corridor.

“Riza has just left the Hall of Attunement,” Amaelia announced as she watched her crystal balls, and Amaury scratched something down, “And now she’s entered the Hall of Orbs.”

“No doubt to ‘study’ with Virecenno,” Amaury said as he scootched over to the map table after scratching down another line.

The outer edge of the table was a ring covered in more detailed models of locations across Equestria. Balte-Maer, Manehattan, and Trotstagor rolled past the Brave Companions as Amaury rotated the ring until a miniature of the College of Eyes was situated directly in front of him. He carefully picked up a model of a sorceress from one of the college’s buildings and deposited it on another. Twilight couldn’t help but notice that miniatures of the Brave Companions (as well as Summer Blossom) were situated atop the building they were currently in. The Brave Companions’ miniatures were still somewhat crude and unpainted, and an in-progress model of Ponieville not yet on the outer ring sat near Amaury’s workstation.

Neither of the twins seemed to have noticed the entrance of the new ponies or Summer Blossom’s introduction of them. The magister cleared her throat to try to get their attention.

“Oh, visitors,” Amaury said as he looked up from his map.

“I told you they were coming here,” Amaelia said, not taking her eyes off her crystal balls.

“You said they were coming here,” Amaury said, pointing to the miniature of the building they were in, followed by pointing to the tower, “Not that they were coming here.”

“Don’t be a wisea-” Amaelia started to say, until Summer Blossom interrupted her by clearing her throat more loudly than before, “Yes, Magister, what is it you and the Brave Companions need?”

“They wish to know who was in the Hall of Whispers a week ago, the night of the chaos magic surge,” Summer Blossom said.

“Let’s see here,” Amaury said as he examined the book in front of him before grabbing a thread hanging from it and using it to flip several pages back, “I knew you’d want to check again, so I bookmarked it.”

The guests squeezed around the map table and past Amaelia to get close enough to read. Still, there was only enough room for the magister, Twilight, and Pinkamena to look over Amaury’s shoulders. Rainbow Dash prepared to fly over the map table to take a look, but the pained look that crossed Amaury’s face at the thought of his precious miniatures being knocked around by the beats of her wings made her reconsider.

“Here you can see that the chaos surge occurred at Second Bell, Thirty-Third Glass, Fiftieth Mark,” Amaury explained as he pointed to a random line, which seemed utter nonsense to Twilight until she spotted the marked hourglass nearby, which flipped automatically as the sand ran out, sending a marble rolling down a track to join others already there, “At the time, seven sorceresses were in the Hall of Whispers—busy night—and they’d all left by Second Bell, Forty-First Glass, Sixth Mark.”

“Did anyone leave in a hurry, as if they were fleeing the scene?” Rainbow Dash called past all the ponies in front of her.

Amaury turned back to examine his ledger. The writing was small and cramped, and it looked like even he had some trouble reading it. Amaury leaned in close to read, his muzzle practically touching the page as his eyes darted across it. That explains the ink stains.

“Yes,” the sorcerer said after examining the pertinent portion of the page, “It only took Grey Cloak one glass and twenty-two marks to travel to the Hall of Enlightenment and Brienne one glass and eleven marks to travel to the Hall of Mastery.”

“One of them may be our target. We should investigate them,” Twilight Sparkle said.

“Brienne is a magister; if it were her, the rest of us would know,” Summer Blossom protested.

“Maybe, or she may just be able to hide it,” Twilight said, “We should investigate them both to be sure. Where are they currently?”

“Brienne is in the Hall of Attunement and Grey Cloak is in the Tower of Inner Sight,” Amaury said as he turned to his miniature college.

“I will take you to the tower,” Summer Blossom said firmly.

“King Hadish is on the move,” Amaelia reported as the Brave Companions began to back out of the room.

“Noted,” Amaury said as he flipped his book back to the page he’d been on before and rotated the map to Manehattan.

***

Though few ponies now remembered it, the Tower of Inner Sight was located where another, more modest tower, had stood long ago. This tower had been home to a single, solitary wizard. The nearby peasantry’s belief that the College of Eyes had caused the fire-swamps to the southeast weren’t entirely based in fiction; it had been the work of this wizard. Other mages had been drawn to him, to learn from him, and soon he was solitary no more. Eventually, to house the growing number of mages, the tower had been replaced with a far larger version, later known as the Tower of Inner Sight. Even after the initial wizard’s death, sorceresses and sorcerers had continued to gather here, eventually forming the College of Eyes.

Technically, only sorceresses of the College of Eyes were allowed in the Tower of Inner Sight, with not even the college’s guardians permitted, but Summer Blossom would rather take the Brave Companions here than to examine another magister. Only if there were no other options would she let them examine another member of the council that ruled the college. So, they entered the tower in search of Grey Cloak. There were many floors and rooms in the tower, and they weren’t arranged in any sensible way, so it could take some time to find the sorcerer they were searching for.

They had barely begun their search when all seven ponies were suddenly teleported. There had been no warning and no sign of the pony who’d done this to them, but they were definitely somewhere else now. Their surroundings appeared to be the rotunda on the lowest floor of the Tower of Inner Sight, though slightly changed. For example, the hallways to the exits led to blank walls instead of doors. The walls also had a strange pattern that simultaneously seemed to bend toward and away from the viewer. In place of torches, luminescent mushrooms growing on the ceiling provided light.

“What is this place?” Pinkamena asked, looking around in amazement.

“A pocket dimension, maybe?” Summer Blossom said, as at a loss as everypony else.

“A-a what?” Fluttershy asked, not liking the sound of that.

“A fragmentary region of space parallel to our own dimension. They are usually unstable, but some powerful sorceresses have managed to harness small ones to use as ‘pockets’ for storing items, or as a place to find seclusion. In a way, Tartatus is an extremely large pocket dimension, though large pockets of parallel space are usually called shadow realms,” Twilight explained, but her explanation just seemed to make Fluttershy more anxious, “Not to worry, we are not in a pocket dimension. So far as I can tell, we are somewhere under the College of Eyes.”

“Under?” Summer Blossom said, “There is nothing like this beneath the college.”

Giant glowing letters appeared in the air at the center of the room, accompanied by the sound of a gong: The Tower Below. Apparently, that was the name of this place. Whether the sudden arrival of the title was just part of this strange realm or a message from its master was unknown. It faded away as the Brave Companions all moved to the side where it was readable.

“D’ y’ think our Discord-possessed quarry is t’ blame for this?” Applejack asked.

“Oh, I would count on it,” Twilight said, “This entire place is permeated with chaos magic. Be on your guard, everypony. If they brought us here, this may be a trap.”

“I’d count on that, too,” Rainbow Dash said before trotting off toward a doorway through which stairs could be seen, “If this is a tower, that means we can climb it, maybe even return to the surface.”

Climbing the tower seemed to be a much more difficult task than the Hunter had anticipated. The stairs seemed simple at first, but quickly devolved into a maze where the steps never seemed to lead where you thought they would. They branched and weaved across the walls at peculiar angles to each other. Eventually, the pegasi gave up on trying to climb them and just flew through the maze, though there was a strangeness to space even there. The others weren’t able to join them, and had to weave their way through until finally they arrived at a door out of the stairway.

Dodging pony-sized snails that languidly roamed the halls, they reached the exterior wall of the tower. Windows looked out onto a massive cavern lit by glowing moss and mushrooms. Rainbow Dash opened a window and craned her neck out to get a better look at the Tower Below, before hopping out for a flight to the top. As soon as she left the tower, her wings seemed futile in their flapping and she shot upwards, out of control. A few seconds later, she returned to sight, flying upside-down.

“From out here, it looks just like the Tower of Inner Sight,” Rainbow Dash reported, “Except the entire tower is upside-down.”

“Who would be able to build something like this?” Summer Blossom pondered, somewhat introspectively.

“Somepony with a seventh of Discord’s power and a week of time,” Twilight answered, “If they are here, they are likely at the top—or bottom, rather—of the tower. We need to get to them.”

“I can fly on down,” Rainbow Dash offered, but Twilight shook her head.

“We need to stay together,” she said, “I know we already found the shard with the anti-Element to your own, but there is still a mystery shard out there that may require all of us, and we do not know if this is it or not yet. Besides, splitting up is how Discord got to us when we first met him.”

“Fine,” Rainbow Dash said as she flew awkwardly back through the window and fell to the floor, “How tall is the Tower of Inner Sight?”

“Thirty-three floors,” Summer Blossom answered.

“Well, even after our escapade with the stairs, we’re only on the second floor,” Rainbow said, “We’ve got a lot of chaos to wade through to reach the top.”

***

Time being in flux around the Tower Below, it was difficult to tell how long exactly it took the Brave Companions and the magister to reach the top of the tower. It couldn’t have been more than a few hours, yet sometimes it felt like days had elapsed, or only minutes since they’d arrived, the past passage of time just as unstable as the future. Eventually, they did manage to make it through the vast maze of bafflingly strange rooms to the large chamber at the tower’s top.

Initially, the room seemed to be empty, apart from some giant mushroom around the room that seemed to be able to walk around, had they not been asleep currently. It was Pinkamena who pointed out on the ceiling a high-backed chair, a variant of the seat of the college’s archmagister. A pony was seated in it and looked up/down as the ponies she’d trapped here noticed her. Giving a leap, she fell from ceiling to floor, her robes billowing as she drifted down gracefully. She was the sorceress who’d been blindfolded when the Brave Companions had arrived, but her blindfold was now draped around her neck. Her eyes were wide open, red and yellow like Discord’s, and multi-colored, multi-patterned mist drifted from the edges.

“Scalai!” Summer Blossom called out in surprise, assuming a combative stance.

“Chaos,” Scalai said simply, looking to Twilight Sparkle.

“Yes, what about it?” Twilight asked when she realized the possessed pony was waiting for a response.

“The anti-Element you were looking for that is the opposite to your own,” Scalai replied in a measure tone, as if giving a lecture, “Sorcery is the imposition of order upon chaos, shaping magical energy for a premeditated purpose. Chaos magic is the refusal to impose that order, to allow magical energy, even if directed, to do what it will, not what you will. Chaos is the anti-Element to your Element of Sorcery. It is the anti-Element you have found.”

“Get her!” Rainbow Dash yelled, tossing smoke bombs and traps at the rogue sorceress.

With a wave of her hoof, Scalai deflected the attacks, chaos magic surging as wickedly sharp crystals rose from the floor. Rainbow Dash had snuck Applejack some of her Hunter arsenal, and the farmer attacked from another direction. One of the traps got through, snagging one of Scalai’s hindlegs and anchoring it to the floor, but she easily broke free with the help of some savage fanged fish. Twilight Sparkle shot a lightning bolt at the ceiling above the possessed magister, causing chunks to fall toward her. Scalai jumped back even as flowers and grass began to spring up beneath her hooves.

“Can you restrain her?” Twilight Sparkle asked, looking to Summer Blossom.

“Scalai? Maybe, but not for long,” Summer Blossom admitted. They were both magisters, but Scalai had been one for much longer and knew many things that she did not. She also had this new well of chaos magic from Discord, that she no longer doubted.

“It will have to do,” Twilight said, “Kressel, leya nof ita rei senaray’r kalar!^[1]”

The crystal on the ground in front of them seemed to want to resist at first, but gradually rose into a pony-ish shape. The new crystal soldier charged off after Scalai, giving them some breathing room. Scalai had summoned a multicolored flock of crows who began to harass the Brave Companions, trying to peck them to death. Summer Blossom erected a shield around the group while Rainbow Dash tended to the birds with her sword.

“Mrinessen’r torrisal![^[2]” Twilight incanted as Scalai shattered the crystal guardian with a prod from a parasol.

Ice began to cover Scalai, but she broke free with a burst of fire and temporary wings, momentarily becoming a phoenix reborn. A storm of paper animals flew toward the Brave Companions, igniting at the last instant. Summer Blossom sent a flurry of snow into the storm of flaming paper, and only ash drifted down harmlessly.

“Marit’r dorentai’i!^[3]” Summer Blossom called out, and the smell of brine surrounded her.

An anchor materialized above Scalai, engulfed in sea water. She slid to the side as the anchor fell, but the chain attached to it wrapped around her, immobilizing her. The salty water that had accompanied the anchor also submerged the sorceress, and tried to hold the parts of her not held by the chain still. Twilight ran up to the rogue magister and drew the prepared crystal from her saddlebags.

“Elf ikrin tur rei siss, hy Ye broci noya,^[4]” she said, focused on Scalai.

Scalai’s eyes began to glow, and the soul of Discord began to flow out of her. Gradually, the light in her eyes dimmed as the light in the gem increased. So focused were they on their task that Summer Blossom didn’t notice chinks forming in her chain and Twilight didn’t notice the cracks forming in the floor under her hooves.

“Twilight!” Fluttershy yelled as the floor under Twilight suddenly broke apart violently. Her spell ceased, but she managed to catch the gem containing part of Discord’s soul as she fell through to the next floor of the tower. Summer Blossom was thrown back as her spell exploded outward, Scalai freeing herself. Rainbow Dash tried to attack the sorceress, but suddenly found her wings reversed and crashed to the ground.

Scalai looked down on Twilight, the light in her eyes still there. She focused, and the light in one eye went out entirely while the other blazed like a star. Stairs appeared leading up to her, and Twilight started to ascend, but they began to move, faster and faster, keeping her on the floor below. Risking a teleportation, she ended up above Scalai. With Rainbow Dash out of commission for the moment, Fluttershy summoned the bravery to swoop in and slow Twilight’s fall.

No sooner had she set Twilight down than the druidess was turned into a tree (which she probably wouldn’t have minded had it been voluntary). Twilight ducked around her now-wooden friend, dodging a couple of flying slippers, and charged Scalai. As she neared the possessed sorceress, a pit opened in front of her and she jumped over it. While she flew through the air on a collision course with Scalai, she pulled the Element of Sorcery from her saddlebags. As she crashed into the other sorceress, she forcefully placed the circlet on her head. Instantly, the room became less chaotic, Rainbow Dash regaining her wings and Fluttershy her pony form among the changes.

“Elf ikrin tur rei siss, hy Ye broci noya!” Twilight yelled as she pinned down the stunned magister with own not-considerable strength alone.

The fragment of Discord’s soul resumed flowing into the jewel Twilight still had with her. This time she was able to complete the process, and the gem glowed brightly as Scalai fell unconscious.

With the source of the chaos magic now contained, the Tower Below began to return to normal. All eight ponies fell to the ceiling as gravity was restored to normal, Rainbow Dash ducking through the hole Twilight had made earlier to catch Applejack. Disturbing sounds came from what was now above as the tower began to crumble, succumbing to the fact that it was architecturally impossible. A bright flash of light engulfed the group as the tower began to fall and they were teleported away.

“Is everypony okay?” Twilight asked.

Summer Blossom slowly got up and looked around as the Brave Companions confirmed they were fine. They were back in the Tower of Inner Sight, a few stunned members of the college watching the ponies who’d suddenly appeared. Summer Blossom hadn’t been the one to teleport them, and Scalai was still unconscious, meaning that Twilight Sparkle had been the one to transport all eight of them at least the height of the tower in the blink of an eye. She hadn’t become magister by being ignorant; she knew exactly the kind of magical energy that was required to make a jump like that. Yet, even after that teleportation and all the spells she’d used during the battle with Scalai and the ascension of the Tower Below, Twilight Sparkle didn’t seem to be low on magical reserves at all. She must have as great a magical potential as any of the magisters, or even the archmagister herself. Celestia’s apprentice is far more powerful than we ever realized, even without the Elements of Harmony. We must pay close attention to her, for she could be a dangerous foe someday. Or a powerful ally.

Comments

[nos2342]

another sorceress, an earth pony named Willowick??? Did I misunderstand. I thought you had to be a unicorn to be a sorcerer?!?

[Snowdrifter]

9909440
I suspect the various cabals of sorceresses would put as quick an end to an Earth Pone using sorcery as a Tru Faith mob would the average unicorn.

See, sorcery is not unicorn magic, it relies on external runes. What would shock and offend the unicorn sorceresses would be a literate Earth Pone who had learned runes and had enough magic to empower them.

[kitsune119]

For being a big cheese mage with added choas powers she went down easy, kinda disappointed