The Weary Traveler

by The Psychopath

No cause for alarm

"What do you mean they haven't said anything yet?!" the griffin king screamed at the top of his lungs.

He jumped out of his nest and paced about anxiously and nervously gnawing on his claws. His room was too small and dirty to be a throne room. Not much was even present, save for a large opening in the wall where he could fly out into the cold mountain air outside. His clawed feet kicked straw and hay everywhere in the room while his advisors stood around, waiting for his 'tantrum' to end.

"We haven't received anything from the ponies about the giant circle floating above..." The griffin put a claw to their chin. "Canlot? Cantinelot? Cantore..."

"Canterlot," the second corrected.

The first snapped his 'fingers' and pointed to her. "That's it. Canterlot."

The king glared at them, his white feathers fluffing up sporadically. "What, was the place destroyed?" The two advisors shook their heads in response to the question. "Then what? I it blocking everyone there? Can no messages leave or enter?" The king stared at the two for a moment and narrowed his aqua green eyes. "Wh...What is-What is this? What are you doing?" He imitated the two's wing movements mockingly. "What are you doing with your wings? What is this? A shrug?"

The first tugged at his green feathers. "Well, there's nothing much else I can say. We haven't sent anyone there to check on the--OW!"

The griffin king had plucked a small rock from his nets and threw it at the advisor. "THEN SEND SOMEONE, YOU DOLTS!" He pointed and ordered them. "Prepare the army, if you have to. I don't want ANY chances left to...uh...chance..." He dragged a claw across his face and avoided the gaze of the advisors. "I really should have thought that through. Detracts from the weight of the situation." There was a long pause before the advisors left the room, leaving the king to marinate within his self-made 'awkwardness'. "Well...I'm never going to live that one down," he said to himself with a smile.

---

Applejack was still looking over the multilayer farms, the traveler approached the princess and tilted his head slightly.

"The dragons are likely to declare war on me, and by proxy you," he specified. "after I evaporated that one adult." His tentacled fumbled about beneath the layers of its similars.

"What?!" the present party screamed together.

"Yes. You'll have to defuse it or I'll have to be more thorough in my plans."

"More thorough how?" Rarity asked.

The traveler tapped the ground a few times with one of his hoofs. "Multiple possibilities. The first is that you successfully defuse the situation," he explained. The ponies nodded in agreement to it being the best course. "That's the path of less resistance."

Fluttershy chimed in. "Less? Don't you mean 'least'?"

"No. That's them not caring." He shrugged. "Other outcomes are a brief skirmish with the angered parties acting on their own."

"And the worst outcome is all out war," Celestia spoke somberly.

"Yes, in which case I will destroy the dragons, and Equestria will assimilate whatever is left over into its citizenry."

"Wh-what?!" Twilight was shocked and stumbled upon her words, her mouth unable to formulate coherent sentences.

Celestia and Luna, however, were not pleased, and they showed it.

"That's quite a lot of weight you've put upon our shoulders," Luna said. "You've brought more than 'gifts'," she spat.

"Yes," the traveler answered plainly. "Sure."

Luna was taken aback, disgusted by the pony's casual attitude to the situation. "How can you act so CASUALLY to such a thing? Saying that you're going to destroy an entire people?"

The traveler's eyes locked onto Luna's face, disturbing her momentarily. "Because I work for the betterment of ponykind and anyone who wants to follow us."

"But you speak like killing thousands is no big deal!"

Celestia stepped forward, head held high. "I agree with my sister. This is not just some 'game' and--"

"Of course it's not!" the traveler interjected angrily. His sudden change in tone surprised the sisters. It was more agressive, but not outright angry.

"Then why do you act like so many deaths mean nothing?!" the white alicorn shouted. "Please! Explain to us so we can understand. We don't want to have a fight with you AND with others!"

The cephalopony cackled. "I have the blood of trillions on my hooves. Maybe quadrillions" He pointed accusingly at everyone present. "Can YOU say the same?" He pointed to Fluttershy. "YOU, who cares for animals. There are always those who slip through the cracks that you cannot save, and they perish."

The mare's eyes started to water in response, and Rainbow Dash hopped in to console her. "That's REALLY mean!" she stated. "I don't think you want to sta--"

"And yet, through their deaths, you've learned how to protect the others from the same fate. The one death, although tragic, has helped save hundreds afterwards, no?" he added.

"I..." Fluttershy wiped her eyes and make a nasty gurgling snort. "It's true. Even though I haven't saved quite a few of my friends, I learned what they had and have saved more afterwards."

Rainbow looked at her friend with a pity face."Fluttershy..." she spoke softly.

"I've killed many. I've seen many get killed, and every time I learn a little more about how to approach a situation." He scratched his head with a hoof. "That's why I took a 'restraint' amplifier ring and improved upon it." He fumbled about his tentacles and pulled out a small silver ring with red and green stripes bursting through the surface. "I would have had it teleported from my ship, but I took with me before we went to the auditorium." He turned and looked to the ponies. "Any unicorn or alicorn want to try this? Preferably one who knows restraint magic?"

"I'll try," Twilight suggested. "But how do I wear it?"

"Twilight, are you sure?" Rarity protested. "We still don't know of his intentions!"

"Well...with this, we'll know if he means us direct harm." Twilight stood in place, letting the cephalopony wrap the rings around her horn and cause her some minor discomfort. She squinted and inhaled deeply through her teeth.

"Are you okay, Twilight?" Celestia asked.

Twilight nodded and relaxed her body. "Yeah. It's just...It felt weird, like I ate seven lemons all at once."

Pinkie gasped. "The ultimate sour challenge!" she whispered below her breath.

The traveler stepped to the side and looked to the sisters. "Can you two wrap yourselves in a bubble of magic?"

"Should we interweave them?" Luna asked.

The traveler shook his head. "This is a simpler version of the ring, and the enhancement will not work if you interweave your magic."

"Can it face us if we put all our magic strength in the bubbles?" Celestia queried.

"No."

"...Very well then."

The two sisters flew a few feet off the ground and, with a gentle shine from their horns, wrapped themselves in a bubble of either blue or white.

The traveler stretched out his hoof in response. "Go ahead, Twilight Sparkle. Give it a try. Chain them, or constrict them, or use any other movement impairing spells you can think of."

"But...I don't want to hurt them," Twilight whined.

"Twilight Sparkle," Luna spoke with a commanding tone. "You will not hurt us. Now cast the spell."

"But I--"

"CAST IT!"

"OKAY! No need to yell."

The lavender alicorn's horn glowed with a bright light that, once reaching the ring, exploded into a blinding flash of light. Massive chains came into existence and wrapped around the orbs and rooting themselves deep into the ground. The bubbles were straining under the pressure cast by the spell until they eventually ceded, wrapped the alicorn sisters into a cocoon-like state, and pinned them to the ground.

"Woah," Rarity noted. "That was...stupendous." She bolted to the cephalopony, glitter in her eyes. "Do you have anything that improves fashion making?"

"Yes."

Rarity's face was almost engulfed by a smile, and she slowly backed away, leaving the traveler to walk towards Twilight and remove the ring during its usage and break the magic.

Twilight squeaked in surprise at the sudden loss of strength in her spell. "Ow." She massaged her horn. "That was...wow. Where did the magic come from?"

"It's your magic, and that of the world around," the traveler explained.

Dusting herself off, Celestia rejoined the group filled with her own questions. "But wouldn't that drain the world of magic?"

Before the traveler could answer, Twilight practically threw herself to her teacher's hooves. "I'm so sorry about that, Princess! I didn't mean to!"

There was a brief moment where Twilight went on a tangent, trying to apologize and justify her apology while Celestia tried to interrupt her until Celestia finally raised her voice high enough for the panicking pony to notice.

"Are you done stressing out, Twilight Sparkle?" the traveler asked.

"Y-yes..." The mare smiled sheepishly and rubbed her foreleg, her face red from embarrassment.

"I don't even remember where I was...Oh right." The cephalopony waved a hoof in the air slowly and had his tentacles follow with different patterns. "Magic is something inherent to this world, although there were Equestrias where magic didn't exist. They used..." He glared at the three alicorns then blinked his five eyes. "Something else."

"I take it we don't want ta know what that 'other' thing is," Applejack said.

"Lost interest in the model?"

The mare shook her head. "Ah seen it plenty 'nough. Now how about explainin' more?" She gestured to the cephalopony to hurry along.

"Well, the world has magic inherent to it, and ponies, specifically unicorns, can take that magic in and change it into their own form of it." He pointed to the alicorns. "And alicorns have the largest 'containers' of magic and the strongest converters amongst ponykind."

"And that's why we can't use too much magic before the world replenishes itself," Twilight interjected.

"Wrong," the traveler quipped.

"What? That's how magic has always worked," Celestia explained. "We've never had any...new discoveries."

"Because you always looked without rather than within." The group looked at their own bodies then at each other, confusion still abound. The traveler sighed. "Our bodies produce magic naturally. When we take in magic from the outside, it's because our own bodies have a depletion in magic and need quick replenishment, but when you use spells, the magic is sent back out replenishing the natural balance and ADDING to it. Thus, ensuring that future generations have enough to survive on."

"Like breathing!" Twilight shouted joyfully. "M-minus the last part."

"Yes. This is the principal that this ring works on, along with compression, but that's tech that I need to teach." He looked at the ring and smiled. "The ring pulls in magic from the surrounding area, adds to its circuits through compression, then only activates when the natural magic of a unicorn's horn becomes active during spell casting. It then boosts the magic by adding its compressed magic into the horn and amplifying the spells." He frowned and tucked the ring back into his tentacles. "Although, it does have a certain strain on the user..." He shrugged then resumed speaking. "There's much more than just this ring, and with it, you could control the dragons if they declare war on you."

Comments

[LostArchivist]

That explanation is confusing, to be honest.

[The Psychopath]

8821832
Confusing as in I worded it poorly or confusing as in you just not understanding?

[LostArchivist]

8821845
The mechanism behind it does not seem fully described; it reads like how I'd write something designed to hint at the answer, rather than say it.

Basically, Traveler seems to have left out his conclusion sentence summing up what it actually does. At least to me.
He talks about how ponies use magic, and says that it won't use up all the world's magic, but doesn't seem to say just how it actually does that.

[The Psychopath]

8821867
Ah. So it's me wording it poorly. Let me see if I have the time to fix that before going to bed.

[The Psychopath]

8821867
There. Added more near the end.

[Paladin Redflare]

Moar pls? Thanks.