Enchanted

by The Whiskey Spirit

Ch 2: Prison Break (Revised)

Aurick gasped as consciousness was suddenly returned to him, shooting up from his prone position. Eyes wide, and trace amounts of fear making his heart beat fast, he swiftly made to take in his surroundings and determine if there were any threats about.

What he saw was a small room, mostly barren, barring an empty desk, chair, and a bed. The last of which he was sitting on. It was brightly lit and was seemingly clean. In fact, it looked rather nice, giving off a strangely regal sense to the design. The part that gave him pause, however, was the entrance to this room.

A transparent material had replaced one of the walls in the room, a similarly transparent door upon it. Blinking in mild confusion, Aurick tentatively stood from his position on the bed, only to find that he was in the nude, baring a seemingly make shift undergarment that was placed upon him. A fact that concerned him greatly. He felt powerless like this.

His clothes and jewelry were powerful pieces that he had spent large sums of money on. Numerous enchantments were placed within them to make his survival all but assured so long as he wore them. Now, for the first time in a long time, he was lacking them, and it distressed him to no end.

Of course, he didn’t let it show upon his face. No. He had long since become familiar with how a calm demeanor could help in numerous situations, no matter how you may feel within. To the uninitiated, it would appear that there was no one watching him, but he knew better than to assume as much. He knew of numerous spells that could be used to keep an eye on him without his knowledge. Sure, he couldn’t cast them himself, but that was besides the point.

He would not allow weakness to show upon his face. He had to appear that he was confidant. In control. Else anyone with a modicum of perception would be able to use his insecurities against him. He would not allow such a thing to happen.

As such, his face was a perfected calm as he disregarded his lack of clothing and approached the transparent wall. Rapping his knuckles against it, he was quick to identify it as glass, though it seemed to be quite thick. No doubt a number of materials were used to reinforce it, meaning breaking through would be difficult. Stepping towards the door, he was unsurprised to find it locked tight.

Letting out a long breath from his nose, the elf pressed a hand to the door and pulled on his magic. Unsurprisingly, it failed to come to him. The room was held within an anti magic field, meaning that any spell he attempted to cast would be absorbed before he could even begin.

It was clear to him that he was a prisoner of some sort, but as to why… he could not discern. He took a moment to reflect on what he remembered before awakening within this room, a hand reaching up to idly scratch at his chin. A slight frown crossed his face as he felt the stubble there, but he had no time to ponder what to do with the beard to come.

Searching through his mind for the memories took a few moments, as they did not want to make themselves known so easily. He assumed it was due to some head trauma he received during the inbetween, but he couldn’t be sure. He was no medicine man, after all. Eventually, he managed to remember what had happened, and when he did his eyes narrowed in annoyance.

He had been taking the time to set up a teleportation circle within one of the rooms. A project that had been taking him the better part of a year to accomplish. He had long since informed his companions that he was not to be disturbed while he was working on it, lest something terrible happened.

One such companion must have become mentaly deficient, as that was exactly what they had done. He could not remember who it was, exactly, but someone had slammed the door open, distracting him during one of the more dangerous parts of the process. His lack of focus was fatal to the enchantment, but instead of fizzling out, or exploding like most normal enchantments would do, it did something else.

He was unsure if it was because of the amount of power within it, or the way he had set it up, or the fact that he was almost done that was the cause. It didn’t matter in the end, as the enchantment decided to simply cast the spell he was forcing into it, and he had no say in the matter. In fact, as he was magically connected to it, it had started to forcibly drain mana from him to cast the spell.

After that, it got fuzzy.

He distinctly remembered pain. Searing hot pain, in fact. He had to take a moment to look down at himself, as he distinctly remembered feeling his skin cooking, though it seemed he had no residual damage from the experience. Nor were his limbs broken, as he also remembered such things.

Either the pain was a mental effect or he had been healed from it. He could not determine what the truth was, but he presumed the former. He doubted he would have been healed if he had also been taken prisoner. Then again, it would be difficult to question a prisoner that was barely clinging to life.

Shaking his head, he decided to stop thinking of such things. It was not conducive to the situation. Answers would come in time, or they might not. Either way, they were not useful to him.

Casting his gaze back towards the locked door, he allowed a frown to cross his features. His tongue trailed his teeth pleased that he found a metal replacement still in his gums. What he was about to do was going to be a bit painful, but it would be worth it to be out of this cell. Even with how nice it was.

He wasn’t a fan of being a prisoner, and he liked being at another person’s mercy even less. So it was with a determined glare at the door that he reached into his mouth and grabbed his metal tooth. A small grunt of effort escaped him as he pulled on it until, with a small spray of blood, he yanked it from his mouth. His other hand came up to rub his jaw in a soothing manner, even as he spat blood onto the floor.

Wiping away what blood remained on his lips, he pressed the dripping tooth to the door and activated the enchantment within. A soft click filled the air, and Aurick allowed himself a small smile as he placed a hand on the handle. With ease, he was able to open the door. Satisfied, he opened his mouth and painfully inserted the tooth back into place before moving on, wiping his blood off on the strange undergarments he wore.

Looking out at the area beyond his cell, he silently thanked whatever god that watched over him. While spells were ineffective within an antimagic field, enchantments were still viable. A fact that his captors no doubt knew, having taken all his stuff. It was the main reason he got that tooth enchanted.

Everyone always took the obvious, but why would you take a man’s tooth?

The area he was in now was a well lit hall, and he could clearly see similar cells further down. Though they seemed to be empty. Not that he particularly cared to check, a set of stairs led up behind him, and he had no doubt that was the exit. His goal was to find his clothes and to discover where he was. After that, he would attempt to return home. He had someone to chew out after all.

Pulling on his magic he was pleased to find the field did not extend beyond the cells themselves, and as such, he was swift to cast an invisibility spell on himself. Satisfied that he would not be spotted, the elf ascended the stairs, preparing himself for whatever awaited him above.

~-~

He stared into the room in shock.

Aurick had anticipated many things, not all of them pleasant, but what he ended up finding was not within his calculations. He had walked for a short time, scouring the rooms close to his place of holding in an effort to find any hints as to where his stuff was when he came across an unusual sight.

One of these rooms was a small office of sorts. It seemed to have been in disuse, if the layer of dust was anything to go by. A maid, however, was within, doing their best to clean. At least, he could only assume it was a maid, based on the clothing it wore.

What greeted him was no humanoid figure, in fact, it wasn’t even bipedal. The being that occupied the room, oblivious to his presence was an… equine. He wasn’t entirely sure what kind though, as its proportions were alien to him. What stuck out to him, however, was the horn atop its head. As such, he would hesitantly call it a unicorn for now, despite it looking nothing like the unicorns he was used to.

On top of the bizarre proportions of this… unicorn, the colours were a stark difference as well. While normal unicorns were typically coloured in some form of greyscale, generally leaning towards the lighter end of the scale, this unicorn was coloured as though it were drawn by a child.

A pastel purple coat was paired with a bright pink mane and tail. They were styled in a way that reminded him of some of the nobles in Jarak. He didn’t particularly care for it.

What he did care for was the fact that he heard it humming, and if he was hearing right… yes, it was singing too. It was quiet, likely being done under its breath, but it was speaking. That meant that he could potentially speak to it.

Ask questions.

Taking a deep breath, he loudly shut the door, startling the unicorn. The duster dropped from its grip, falling to the floor as it starred in his direction with wide eyes.

“H-hello?” It called out in common, a fact that pleased Aurick. There would be no translation spell needed. Nodding to himself, he pressed a hand on the door behind him and cast a spell. The door magically locked, just before he encompassed the room in a soundproofing spell. The act made him drop his invisibility, revealing himself to the unicorn before him.

The unicorn in question screamed in shock falling back on its haunches as it desperately kicked its legs. The act was enough to help it clamber away from him, but it certainly wasn’t elegant in any sense of the word.

“So long as you answer my questions, I will not harm you.” He told it firmly, his gaze locked with its. “Do you understand?” The creature did not respond immediately, choosing instead to stare back at him with wide eyes. The fear was clear to him, but he did not particularly care at the moment. Not until he had his things back at least. A couple seconds had passed, and Aurick had crossed his arms, ready to say something further when the unicorn responded.

“I-I understand.” It said hesitantly with a clearly femenine voice. “Just, please, don't eat me.” Eat it? Her? Why would he do that? Doesn’t matter, it was speaking, and that was all that mattered. She would answer his questions.

“Where are my things?” He asked stepping closer towards the cowering unicorn, who’s eyes went wide at his approach.

“I don’t know!” It desperately answered, attempting to crawl further away, but her back was to the wall.

“Where do prisoner’s belongings go?”

“Please. I don’t know!” She cried out, and he knew she was telling the truth. That didn’t mean he had to like it, however.

“Where are we?”

“C-Canterlot Castle.” Was the response he received, and it made him angle his mouth in thought. He had never heard of a Canterlot Castle, though it wasn’t unlikely that he hadn’t heard of it, depending how far he had been teleported.

“What country?” Was the next question he asked, taking another step closer.

“Equestria!” Once more, it was a name he didn’t recognize. This was far less likely, as he had done some research on all known countries, kingdoms, and other such governments in the world. Perhaps it was a new one? Not unheard of, though unlikely, though it couldn’t hurt to question further.

“And what of Equestria’s neighbors?”

“Uh... “ The unicorn looked away, a bead of sweat trailing down her face as she scrunched her muzzle in thought. “There’s the griffin empire… and the, uh…” As she trailed off Aurick took a deep breath. A thought coming upon him.

“Are we on the Material Plane?” The question seemed to cut off her line of thinking, and she looked at him with a hint of confusion.

“What’s the Material Plane?” A claw wrapped itself firmly around his heart as he heard that, fear trailing down his spine as it held him in its vice grip.

“Have you heard of Jarak?” She shook her head. “Ardenia? Estom? Va’el?” Each name he listed became more distressed than the last, and none were recognized by the unicorn before him. “This can’t be.” He muttered to himself as he lifted a hand to his head. He was starting to feel dizzy, and he knew he was panicking.

He moved past the unicorn on the ground and sat down at the desk, a small cloud of dust shooting up around him. He didn’t mind it, though, his mind too focused on other things.

He barely even registered when the unicorn hesitantly scooted past him and made her way towards the door. He did, however, notice that her horn lit and he felt the locking spell fade away on the door. He didn’t bother to stop her as she swiftly fled the room, no doubt to alert the guards of the castle.

He was too shaken to care about it. He simply couldn’t believe what his mind was telling him, but looking at the evidence, he couldn’t refute it. The powerful spell that caused his predicament, the… strange appearance of one of the locals, as well as a lack of knowledge about geography. Either he was in a very remote part of the world… or he was no longer on his own plane of existence.

His mind, of course, leaned towards the latter. It was improbable, but not impossible. He had even met a person who had managed to cross the space between realms. It is a very difficult thing to accomplish, but certainly not impossible. He couldn’t help but fear that the powerful teleportation spell misfiring, along with a vast majority of his magical reserves powering it further was enough to tear through that space and send him through.

~-~

Princess Celestia was having a wonderful day. She had just finished up day court, and was pleased that the ponies who petitioned her judgment were polite and accepted her decisions. Even the nobles she had to speak with earlier in the day were in a much better mood than normal. Everything was shaping up to be one of the best days she has had in years.

Of course, this all changed when a guard approached her.

“Princess!” He called out, fear tingeing his voice. She turned to give him her attention as he neared. “T-the prisoner escaped.” He informed her hesitantly, seemingly sheepish about the guards failure to contain their prisoner.

“How? That room had been sealed tightly and covered with an antimagic field. Did he still have some form of enchanted item on him?” She asked calmly, whatever disappointment she held being expertly concealed.

“We are unsure. We found blood in the cell, so he might have had one hidden inside himself.” Celestia nodded at that. If this were true, then this creature was clever. A dangerous trait when held by enemies. She had hoped he would prove to be a neutral party, but this certainly didn’t help his case. She could only hope it was a misunderstanding that fueled his actions, instead of malicious intent.

“A maid also seemed to have an encounter with him.” The guard continued, regaining her attention.

“What happened?” She demanded, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“She claimed it asked her a number of questions before becoming distressed and sitting down in one of the unused offices. I have set a number of guards to keep an eye on this office, but he has not left.”

“Are you certain he is still in there?” Celestia asked. If he was capable of escaping the cell, he could certainly have a couple tricks more up his sleeve.

“We are. A trained mage is with the group at the door and is running a continuous detection spell upon the room. If he leaves, we’ll know about it.” Celestia nodded in acknowledgement. Her ponies had done good. They already knew not to engage what could potentially be a dangerous foe. That was her job, and she had to hope that things could be resolved peacefully. He had done no harm to her ponies as of yet, so she had a good feeling about it. Still, it never hurt to be careful.

“Lead me to him.”

Comments

[Gnarl]

Wow... that was quick.

[Warrior Kitten]

9392610
Indeed. A bit fast-paced.

[Shadowsciver]

Needa more time to establish character thoughts

[Prismmirror]

Refreshingly fast-paced. Intelligent main-character who is educated in magic comes to a logical conclusion. Shows typical signs of grief. No need for 3k words of exposition with the character (who likely also comes from a world with multiple sapient races) focusing on the petty details of where he's arrived.

[Empty]

While I will agree that the story is fast-paced (and not just a little bit), what is odd to me is the character's personality. According to the description this is an elven mage, an experienced enchanter at that (performing a powerful enough experiment to cause a planar junction). This would suggest advanced age and experience. Aurick's reactions and vocabulary do not suggest this. He seems more akin to a human mage in his mid 30s to me. Nothing about his mannerisms seem elven in nature. His actions don't suggest the wisdom I would expect from a possibly many centuries year old elf. I'm going to continue a bit further but so far I'm a bit put off.

[HoneyBadgerr]

9416435
I agree. I was sitting here trying to wrap my head around why this sounded... off, then I read your comment. You hit the nail on the head.

[Timeless Lord Slayer]

9416435 It does sound a little off, yes. However, one thing to remember is that for all we know at this point in the story, Aurick is a prodigy (likely among prodigies if he can cause planar junction), plus, while it's typically true elves live long, that also means they age slowly. For all we know, he could a 200 year old prodigy and considered a young adult. Different elves in different universes and multiverses have different nuances.

Or, perhaps he is of a weak mind, at least somewhat, and he had a harrowing day before this incident that was already straining his mind, and the incident broke him.

This isn't to say I don't agree with you, though, I just feel like judgement should be reserved until at least the fifth chapter in stories.

[orp]

"Where am I??"
"In a closet."
"What's the name of the planet?"
"Depends on the language."
"..."
"Ask stupid questions, get stupid answers, buddy."
"I’ve been sent to Horse World because my friend’s a fucking retard!"
"Birds of a feather, I see."

[The Dark Bro]

9416435
Shit, you should be a carpenter if you can hit all nails on the head like that.

[FridayPie]

9532480
Well, he didn't catch Twilight Snarkle, just a terrified maid.

[shirotora]

A little on the fast side, but not unrealistically so. Two things to point out. First, him having the Rings of Home Invasion is way too Deus ex. I would recommend having a ring of telekinesis that he uses to manipulate the tumblers in the lock, and the just cast the invisibility spell himself after leaving the cell.

Second, why does he just assume the little horses can even speak, much less speak the same language? It would be best to have him overhear a conversation before grabbing the maid.

[Greenhorn]

Pretty good so far.