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The Skirmish1,659 words
Emerald Star1,881 words

Emerald Star

Emerald Star's journey home took considerably longer than she would have liked, night had fallen. She had to stay off the road and was forced to hide inside numerous bushes and behind a couple of buildings to prevent anyone seeing what she was carrying. In fact, she wasn't supposed to be away from her home village at all. Her master had inflicted upon her a state of confinement so as to give her more time to study her magic, to learn "why before how". Emerald Star knew perfectly well why she wanted to do her magic, because magic was amazing. like, create a hammer out of pure energy or slice a portal to go from point A to point B in mere seconds, that kind of amazing. Sitting around all day reading books was not going to get her very far on its own, she just HAD to go out and practice, preferably in a field, far off from anybody else, that way if a spell goes wrong nobody gets hurt. At least, that's what she hoped. Emerald never expected her poultry attempt at a portal would summon something, let alone cause it such pain. She had to get it home and try to heal it, maybe communicate with it. As she traveled, she could swear that her passenger was getting steadily heavier.

Once she got outside her own home, a three storied house with a tower built onto the side, she magicked her bedroom window open and levitated herself inside, along with her patient. Finally inside she cast a muffling spell on her door and locked her window. With a slight flare of her horn the numerous candles in the room lit up, casting the room in a warm glow. Emerald set her patient onto the floor, not wanting to get its blood on her bed sheets. she places the small glowing ball, along with its spikes onto the bedside table. no longer concentrating on a levitation spell, she could think straight and had a proper look at the, thing, lying on her floor. To her surprise it had gained a pair of legs and part of an arm. Upon closer inspection she could see its arm slowly growing, taking shape. Curiosity taking over, she gently nudged its other arm with her nose only to be met with slight pain. The arm was covered in metal, maybe armour, like the village militia? Emerald cast an illumination spell, causing her horn to light up and looked back at the damaged arm, to see that all the inner workings were also metal, some of them gently sparking with electricity. Curious.

In a bid to try and help this metal being, Emerald tried a healing spell to try and speed up the being's reconstruction, but to no avail. Due to the creature being made out of metal, as well as having an anatomy she was unfamiliar with, the spell would have done little anyway. Emerald tried giving the creature a shot of electricity. The result only made its limbs slightly convulse. Many more possible remedies formed in her mind but before she could try any a voice called out from below the floor.

"EMERALD STAR, GET DOWN HERE!"
Surprised, Emerald let out a quiet "eep" and lept away from her patient. She scrambled for the doors handle, and exited the room, locking the door behind her. Feigning a calm demeanor she descended the tower's stairs a couple of flights and walked into her masters office. Inside was an ornate desk, topped with a mixture of strange magical implements and behind that desk was a male pony, wearing a stark white robe. He also had a particularly grumpy look on his face.

"You called, Master?" says Emerald, trying to keep her voice straight.

"If you think i cannot hear what you're doing just because you muffled the door, you're sorely mistaken." Said the Master, while indicating Emerald to stool on the opposite side of his desk with a wave of his hoof. Emerald immediately drops her facade and plonks down onto the stool.

"How'd you know?" she asks.

The Master's face changes to that of a knowing smile, unable to not take satisfaction in besting his apprentice, as usual.
"You neglected to muffle the floor. A pony with hooves of your size should know better. plus, i saw you levitating up the tower." He lets out a brief chuckle. "its a good thing I've not taught you the Shroud spell yet."

Emerald smacks a hoof to her head. "The floor, of course." before she could say more, the Master's face changes again, to a much sterner look and he locks eye contact with her.

"so, what spell could be so fascinating that you just had to ignore my orders to go out to practice it." he asks.

Emerald shifts uncomfortably on the stool. "erm, just a simple, Portal spell." he voice peters out near the end.

"Evidently it worked" Says the Master. Emerald gives him a puzzled look. "Judging by the thing you were carrying up the tower with you." He sniffs the air. "Something metallic."

Emerald stutters "Oh, er, yeah. I wanted some scrap metal to practice my... Transmutation spells."

The master gives her an unbelieving look. "Uh huh, sure. you disobeyed orders to get some scrap, through a portal even though the smithy is five minutes away."

Emerald tries, and fails, to look serious. "Yup."

The Master looks her in the eye, unconvinced. after what felt like an hour he breaks contact and says "tomorrow, if i don't see any decent Transmutation results, you're going to be washing the dishes, manually, for the next month, AND i will have you removed from the bakers cupcake subscription." Before Emerald could respond, the Master dismisses her with a wave of his hoof.

Trying to remain calm, Emerald makes her way back upstairs. She unlocks her bedroom door and enters the room, immediately hitting the floor with a muffling spell. To her surprise she's met with the sight of the creature, now fully formed, hopefully. Strangely it had also reformed some clothes around it's body. A Deep red robe with a large white triangle on the side. Emerald was particularly impressed with the golden accessories found along the arms and on the chest. The creature remained motionless but she could see some lights growing steadily brighter inside of it's neck and wrists.

Emerald checked her bedside table, looking for the glowing orb and spikes, only to find that they were gone. The window was also open. Worried, she goes over to the window and pokes her head out. All she can see is the dark of night and a couple of lights in a few buildings. Suddenly she hears a voice from above her. "Hello."
Emerald jumps and smacks her head on the top of the window frame, letting out a cry of pain. she retreats back inside, tripping over her patient and falling onto the floor. She looks through watering eyes at the window to see a pale blue light, with yellow tipped spikes float slowly in after her.

"Sorry about that" it says, its light gently pulsing with each syllable. "Don't worry, i mean you no harm."

Emerald rubs the top of her head with a hoof and asks "what are you?"

With a spin of its spines, the orb replies "I am a Ghost, child of the Traveler and companion to that Guardian." the Ghost nods at the body on the floor.

Emerald's eyes widen. "A Ghost? You mean like a spirit of the dead?"

"I suppose so, though not in the way you expect"

Emerald decides to leave that line of questioning alone for the time being and motions towards the body. "so this thing here is a Guardian?"

"indeed"

Slightly miffed by the short answer, Emerald presses on. "What's it guarding?"

"The Light and the last of his species." says the Ghost, a hint of pride in its voice.

Before Emerald could ask anymore questions the Guardian let out a groaning sound. Her sensitive pony ears could hear a whirring sound start up inside him. The Ghost flies down and hovers next to the Guardians head and says "well its about time, you're not normally this slow."

Emerald moves to the other side of the room to watch from a distance. The Guardian groans again, moving an arm and placing a hand on its head. Slowly it sits up and looks around the room. A strange, almost metallic voice comes out of it's mouth, not that Emerald could see it under the helmet. "Ghost, where are we and what is that, thing, over there?"

The Ghost looks towards Emerald and replies "A species of Equine I've not seen before."

Emerald pipes up with "I'm a Unicorn actually."

The Guardian does a double take. "Ghost, i swear it just spoke."

The Ghost looks back at the Guardian. "I have no idea where we are and yes it did, but does that seem any stranger than what we've already seen in the Darkness?"

The Guardian stands up and says, "A little. I understand what you mean though." He dusts off his robe and steps towards the curious, if a little scared, pony. "Hello, my name is Crux-18 and i don't suppose you could direct us back home?"

Emerald takes a step back. "Well err, yes, I suppose. Only, i can't do it right now."

Crux crosses his arms, tilts his head and says "Oh?"

Emerald lets out a nervous laugh. "I'm not supposed to do experimental magic so close to home and I dare not try it again so soon after being told off."

Ghost flies over to Crux and floats just above his shoulder and asks "What about your master, can he do portal magic?"

Emerald looks right at the Ghost. "yes but he wouldn't be able to give you a portal back home. Only i know where my destination was and i kinda picked it at random."

Crux lets out an annoyed "urgh" and slumps a little.

Ghost drops down to Emeralds eye level, about half a meter. "So when can you make us a portal?" it asks.

Emerald glances at a clock on her wall. "In the morning. I have to get up to get bread from the baker, it'll be a good excuse to go back to the field you arrived in and i'll make you a portal home."

"Why not tonight?" asks Crux.

"The Master will have put up alarm spells by now and if we try to leave he'll catch us." Emerald lets out a yawn. "Plus i'm tired and i need to recharge my magic. Portals take a lot out of me."

Crux uncrosses his arms. "Very well." He looks at Emeralds bookcase. "can we read some of your books while we wait?"

Emerald climbs onto her bed and looks at Crux with mild surprise. "Certainly, but wouldn't you rather sleep?"

Crux looks back at her and says "don't need to."

Emerald, too tired to ask more questions, rests her head on her pillow. She watches the Guardian and his Ghost for a while as they browse her books and scrolls. She closes her eyes, feeling the magic of her enchanted pillow and falls alseep.

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