The Adventure of the Apex Legion

by DeffBwade

Chapter 14: Dissolution of Magic Part 1

Previously on The Adventures of the Apex Legion

"I'm no longer gonna let fear hold me back from protecting this world, as well as my friends. Plus, if this whole thing was a TV show, it would make a sick anime."

"Right now..." I said as I turned my hoof invisible, "...I need to get a grasp on my harmony magic."

A disturbance in the wind to my left. I stepped back to dodge the bottle.

A swinging rope to my right. I caught the bottle in my hoof.

A whistling noise from right behind me. I tilted my head a bit to the side and then held my hoof out to catch the bottle as it swung back towards me.

I smiled as I didn't hear anything else. I managed to dodge all of the bottles.

It's all about focus.

My whole body was now invisible. Just like the Wraith from Dead by Daylight, whenever I move swiftly you can notice the slight shimmer of my body if you payed close attention. According to Starswirl, the magic around my body is like the fire on a lit match that seems to lag a bit behind as you wave the match back and forth rapidly.

Otherwise, if I stood still or moved slowly, it would be like I wasn't even there.

Seven or eight.

That's how many times I can blink (what I'm calling my teleports since the farthest I was able to go with each one is around four meters) in a row before exhausting myself.

Needless to say, Starswirl was impressed. For the average unicorn, teleportation took a lot out of them, especially if they did it either rapidly or over long distances.

I guess it was because of the short distance I was able to blink that I can do it rapidly.

Maintaining a strong shield wasn't so hard to do now. Again, it was all about focus.

Discord even tried to test out my shield's strength by shooting a few lasers at it. At least I know now that my shield isn't indestructible, but at least very strong, for every laser formed a small crack on my shield, until it finally broke down, leaving me exhausted.

Needless to say, he got scolded the hell out of them by the princesses, and even Starswirl.

Thank you and fuck you, Discord.

Up to four trees stood no chance to my venom strike (I'm calling it that because I gave up on coming up with a creative name). I know now that that power is what exhausts me the fastest, which makes sense.

I'm not exactly One Punch Man.

I smiled as I was catching my breath.

I became dejected at the though of the Element of Magic. I still have yet to find the so called spark in order to unlock what I like to refer to as "perfect harmony."

During my training, I asked Starswirl about it and he said pretty much the same answer that Princess Celestia gave. That it will just come to me and that I have to be patient.

I also need to take into account that the Tree of Harmony said to follow my heart.

What did it mean by that exactly? Does it mean to pretty much do what's right?

I know I said that I'm not impatient, but...holy shit. Cryptic much?

---

The Adventure of the Apex Legion

Written by DeffBwade

Chapter 14: Dissolution of Magic Part 1

---

That is actually the most beautiful thing I have ever laid my eyes on.

I know, right?

CRASH

Aside from all the lightning strikes, but at least we're at a safe distance.

What my classmates and I are looking at right now is supposedly some kind of weather factory located in a city called Cloudsdale, which is more or less a pegasus capital due to it being in the sky.

I'm not even gonna ask how that's possible. Oh god. I wonder where there...bathroom waste...goes to.

Ew. Thanks for putting that question into my head.

Normally I would question why there's factory for weather (I mean, how the fuck does that even work?), but then again...different world, different rules of nature. And also magic.

Hmm. Maybe that's the answer to pegasi's...waste. Magic.

Imagine the brain aneurysm that I had when I learned in my first few weeks in this world that the weather isn't the work of Mother Nature, but rather they pegasi themselves actually control it. They even have schedules for whether the day is gonna be sunny, rainy, cloudy, storming, snowing, etc. I guess you can say that the schedule is this world's weather forecast.

"Tada! The pegasus weather factory!" Professor Dash said as she pointed towards said factory.

It really was a beautiful sight. There were even rainbow waterfalls! You hear me?! Rainbow! Waterfalls!

You think it's palatable?

Hope so. Maybe. I bet it taste like Skittles.

As Rhett and Link once said: Skittle Milk! Call someone right now!

Skim Milk. Stick your dick in it.

I said Skittle Milk, not-

Don't care. Ha ha funny. Moving on.

"Every drop of rain or flake of snow from Cloudsdale comes from there!" Professor Dash continued, getting a bunch of 'woahs' in reply, only for her to turn to face us and see what really got our attention: the view down below, "Hey! The cool stuff's over here!"

I, however, was too much of a pussy to look down. In fact, I standing, with my hooves wobbling a bit, as close to the center of cloud we were on as I could. Yes, you heard right. We literally standing on a cloud.

You'd think that it would cool as shit to be standing on a cloud, but think about it. It's not like I'm sitting in an airplane where there's solid ground, but rather it's liquid given a vapor form. Although, this cloud does feel like a solid platform, but still. Not to mention that we're high, high up. The only thing that gives me some sort of relief is that I'm a pegasus, which is the reason this cloud feels solid (or more like cotton candy) to me. Sadly, I can't say the same for the ones who can't fly. Fortunately, Counselor Starlight had a solution for the non-pegasi.

"Wow! I've never stood on a cloud before," Ocellus exclaimed with amazement as she hopped up and down, as well as Sandbar.

"You can't normally, but for our trip I cast a spell that let's us walk like pegasi," Counselor Starlight said as her horn continued to glow.

"The wonders of magic. So cool. And I should know. I have it."

Ocellus noticed my slightly distressed state and walked over to me, a bit of concern written on her face.

"Are you alright Legion?" she asked.

"Yeah, just...never been up this high up before," I said with a bit of a chuckle, "It's just making me a little nervous."

Ocellus looked around for bit to make sure nobody was listening before whispering to me, "But...didn't you once say that humans fly above the clouds everyday?"

"Well...yeah, but that's while they were in the planes that I told you about," I whispered back, "And I already told you that humans don't have wings to fly nor are able to stand on clouds. And there isn't any magic to make it so."

After I told my friends about my human origins all that time ago, they, of course, were naturally curious about my species. Out of all of them, though, Ocellus, being the smart cookie that she is, was the most curious and asked quite a lot of questions.

Not that I mind, of course. I like it whenever Ocellus is around. I mean, I feel the same with the others, but with Ocellus? Well...how do I explain it? I guess she just brings a smile to my face with her innocent nature, her thirst for knowledge, and just her whole personality. And did I mention that she's just so darn cute?

I think two or three times. Yeah.

It's weird though. In all my life, I've never really referred to a girl as cute before. At least...I don't think I have. I guess the reason being that I would get teased for it, as my friends did when I accidently called Ocellus cute out loud. Hmm. It's whatever.

"Hey Yona! Check out this view!" Gallus called to Yona, who was currently clutching onto the leg of another pegasus, before he put on a smirk, "Unless you're too scared."

"Damn bro. Why you gotta do her like that?"

"Yona not scared," Yona said with confidence as she got up...before she fell through the cloud, "YAH! NOW YONA SCARED!"

"Holy shit!"

We all ran to the hole and looked through it with panicked expressions as we saw the figure of Yona get more and more smaller as she continued to fall.

ISN'T SOMEONE GONNA DO SOMETHING?!

I immediately glanced over to Counselor Starlight. She's smart! She must know what to do! How about she, I don't know, cast a spell?!

Counselor's horn began to glow its usual aura...before it fizzled out, causing her to gasp with an even more panicked expression.

"Ah shit."

The panic started to go over 9000 when all of the other non-pegasi, or at least those that can't fly, started to fall through the cloud. I knew this was a bad idea!

"Come on! We gotta catch them!" Professor Dash said.

"No shit Sherlock!"

We all then practically divebombed towards my classmates and grabbed each of them one by one. Professor Dash grabbing Counselor Starlight, Smolder grabbing Sandbar, Silverstream grabbing some random guy, some random girl grabbing another random girl, and finally, Gallus, Ocellus, and I grabbing Yona right before she could hit the ground. She was literally about a foot and a half away from making impact.

"Gotcha!" Gallus said.

"It's okay Yona," Ocellus reassured, "You like flying, remember?"

"Flying. Not falling," Yona said with a pout and crossed hooves before she started to kiss the ground as everybody else landed.

"Holy. Fucking. Shit."

And this is why I'm not interested in skydiving. The adrenaline I would get sounds invigorating, but what if my parachute fails and I end up breaking into a million pieces and staining the ground red? Oh jeez, the mere thought of it is absolutely horrifying.

And yes. I can be highly paranoid guy, so sue me.

"I don't understand. It's like my spell stopped working," Counselor Starlight said, "That's...never happened before."

We all exchanged worried glances at that. If there's one thing that I learned during my time here, it's that unicorn magic can't just stop...insert finger snap sound effect here...just like that. At least not without any outside interruptions. At the very least, a unicorn can be completely drained of energy and not be able to cast any spells. But Counselor Starlight seemed perfectly healthy and energized, so what could've caused her horn to lose its juice like a man only shooting a few squirts of-

---

Throughout the rest of the afternoon, I was able to see that Counselor Starlight wasn't the only one unable to perform spells. Every unicorn that I've seen hasn't been able to perform even the simplest of unicorn spells. For example, when I was walking through the library, I saw Citrine Spark struggling to use levitation, which I learned is a spell that an eight year old could learn, to organize the books. Obviously, I offered to help her since I was still able to fly.

But yeah, whenever I saw a unicorn try to perform a spell, it would just fizzle out. Like a garden hose spraying only a few squirts of water before failing completely.

There. I was family friendly that time. You happy?

Anyway, my friends and I were now walking through the hallways of the school. They too have noticed spells failing around Ponyville. Surprisingly, Ocellus and Silverstream were still able to transform, so that's one thing to be relieved about.

"It's weird," Gallus said, "I've read enough books on ponies to know that unicorn magic doesn't just...stop working."

"You? Reading books?" Smolder said jokingly, "And about pony magic, no less?"

Gallus's response was to give a small glare at the dragoness.

Smolder does have a point though. Since when does Gallus willingly read?

Since school started, I guess?

"Heh. You are right though, Gallus," I said, "And then there's another thing. Why is unicorn magic failing while Ocellus and Silverstream can still use their magic?"

"Beats me," Sandbar shrugged.

"Can Legion still do magic?" Yona asked.

That made me pause.

"Huh. I'm not sure," I said. I looked around to see if anyone was watching. Seeing no one, I focused on my harmony magic and managed to turn myself completely invisible. Yahtzee, "Huh," I said before blinking up into the air and then spreading my wings out, "I guess I can."

"I still find that pretty cool," Gallus said with a bit of awe.

Yeah, I showed off my powers to my friends. In private, of course. I mean, who am I to deny them a little show?

...

Yeah, that...that didn't sound as suggestive in my head.

And besides, I don't want any prying eyes to see what I'm capable. Specifically, Headmare Twilight. Not that I have anything bad against her, it's just that I don't want her seeing me use harmony magic and then have one of her...Twilight moments.

I can just imagine it.

---

"B-but...you're a pegasus! You shouldn't be able to do that!" Headmare Twilight said as she frantically took out dozens and dozens of papers and quills, brought out at least ten chalkboards, and was staring at me with the curiosity and excitement of a child in a candy store filled with candies unknown to them, "How are you performing magic like a unicorn?! When did this start to happen?! And for how long?! I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS! OH PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ANSWER ALL OF THEM!!!"

---

Okay. I may have exaggerated a bit, but you get the idea.

"Maybe it's because Legion isn't a unicorn?" Ocellus questioned.

"Or maybe he's immune to his magic being stolen!" Silverstream suggested.

"That actually doesn't sound very farfetched."

"The real question is why. Why are unicorn spells failing?" I asked as finally made it to our dorm rooms and I began to close the hallway door once we were all in.

Could it be an outside factor? Is someone or something responsible for this? Is there a special season that prevents unicorns from using magic for some reason? No. Counselor Starlight said that this has never happened before. Maybe the world just had enough of this shit and decided to say fuck you to-

POP

"GAH!" we all screamed as a popping sound made us jump and I ended up falling backwards onto the ground. The others looked down at me, asking me if I was alright, "Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine."

"Hahahaha!" laughed a familiar voice belonging to a certain draconequus that was now hovering above us.

"Hello to you too Discord," I said with a deadpan expression.

"Hehe. Oh hilarious!" Discord said as he continued to chuckle, "Turns out you were right. Humans can be quite...chaotic...when it comes to pranking each other. Even more so than Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie."

"I knew I never should've told you about human pranks," I said as I looked at the string connected to the door and the firecracker (a small one mind you) that was now burnt out on the ground.

This was the prank he did in case you were curious.

How the fuck did none of us notice the string?

"Haha very funny," Smolder said sarcastically, "What do you want Discord?"

"Why Smolder, you wound me," Discord said as he pretended to be hurt by Smolder's question, his talon poised over his heart and everything, "Can't a guy just stop by and say hello to his dear friends?"

"I mean...you can," I said, "But you don't do that."

"And no offense or anything..." Gallus said, "...but we've never really acquainted enough for me to consider you a friend."

"Do you guys at least consider him an acquaintance?" I said, to which they either nodded or shrugged.

"Good enough for me!" Discord said happily.

"No, but seriously Discord, you usually aren't around unless it's something importante," I said.

"Oh, alright alright. You've caught me," he said, "So you know how unicorn spells have been failing lately?"

"Yeah, I mean, it happened earlier during our trip to Cloudsdale with Counselor Starlight," I responded, "Sandbar and Yona ended up falling through clouds."

"Yona no wish to sit on cloud anymore," Yona said with a shake of her head.

"Any who. It has to do with a little message Mr. the Bearded sent to Celly and Lulu," Discord said before he snapped his fingers, summoned a scroll, and then put on some oversized glasses, "According to our wizard friend, magic has been disappearing all over Equestria."

We all gasped at this.

"I know, right?" Discord said before he continued, "On day one of what I like to call the 'Retirement of Magic,' unicorn magic and spells will fail. On day two, creatures will lose their magical abilities. And finally, on day three, magical artifacts will stop working. And when the sun sets on the third day, all magic will be gone. Forever!"

Once again, we all gasped.

"Forever?!" I asked.

"Forever!" Discord said dramatically as he threw away the glasses. And I can't help but swear that I heard the sound of thunder. Scratch that. That did happen. It's Discord.

"B-b-but you said that unicorn magic and spells should be failing right now!" I exclaimed before shrouding (a word that refers to me turning invisible in case you have a small brain like me; screw it, I'm calling it that from now on) myself, "But as you can see, my magic still works perfectly fine!"

"Hmm. That is a bit strange," he said as he stroked his chin, "Perhaps it's because you're not a unicorn?"

"That's what I thought," Ocellus said.

"Well, regardless, Twilight and her friends have already determined who's behind this," Discord reassured us, "Right now, they're preparing to take a little road trip to visit my...ex-friend...Tirek!"

"Tirek?!" we all asked at once.

"You mean the centaur that is capable of eating magic? The centaur that came to Equestria with his brother Scorpan to steal Equestria's magic, only to be betrayed by Scorpan due to him appreciating Equestria's ways? That Tirek?" Gallus asked, to which we all glanced at him, making him sigh out of annoyance, "I've been studying okay?! Finals are coming up."

Yeah, you heard right. Tirek is a centaur (although his upper half is supposedly more demonic looking rather than humanoid) that can suck the magic out of any creature. Wait, does he actually eat the magic to fill his stomach, or does he just absorb it like a sponge absorbs water? Eh, it's whatever. To put it bluntly, Tirek desired power. The more magic he eats, the bigger and more powerful he becomes. Simple as that.

As Gallus stated, Tirek's brother, Scorpan, grew to like Equestria, so he ended up betraying Tirek. While Scorpan moved back to his homeland to live a happy life, Tirek was imprisoned in a place called Tartarus. It's more or less like the Tartarus known to Greek mythology, but just without the concept of torment and suffering. I'll be honest, I at first thought that Tartarus was just another word for Hell when I first learned about it.

"It would make sense that he would be responsible for all the magic disappearing," I said, "But if that's the case, then shouldn't I go with Headmare Twilight and the other professors?"

Wait, I thought you didn't want any to know about your powers.

First of all, it's not that I'm never gonna show anyone my powers. I meant that I wasn't ready to reveal them yet. Second of all, that doesn't matter right now. This is big, like really big! I trained to properly use my powers so I can protect this world. So why would I not go with-

"Oh no no no no no," Discord shook his head, "No."

"Um...what?" I asked with confusion.

"Well, Celly and Lulu figured you would want to help out, so they asked me to tell you that it would be wise if you stayed here," he explained.

"W-what? But I still have my magic!" I emphasized my point blinking into the air and hovering at eye level with Discord, "Why should I stay here when I could be helping out?"

"Uh...you know...reasons," he responded.

"Wow, that was a terrible answer," I heard Smolder mutter.

"What reasons?" I said, starting to get a little irritated.

"U-um, reasons that I can't explain and are completely irrelevant to the story?" he said with a slightly nervous smile.

"Discord!" I yelled sternly.

"Oh alright alright!" Discord finally budged, "The princesses don't want you to join Twilight and her friends because...because they don't think you ready yet due to you not fully mastering your powers."

"..."

"Now I know you're not happy with that explanation, not that I blame you or anything, but let me explain even further," Discord explained.

"That's it? Yeah, that makes sense," I said almost nonchalantly.

"Celly and Lulu said that..." Discord said before his his eyes bulged as he realized what I just said, "Wait, what?"

"If the princesses say that I'm not ready, then I'm not ready," I shrugged.

Silence was all Discord's response before he said, "I'll say again...what?!"

"So pony won't object?" Yona asked.

"You're just gonna accept it...just like that?" Gallus asked with a snap of his talons.

"Doesn't make sense, dude," Sandbar said, everyone else nodding and murmuring in agreement.

"Sandbar, we've known each for almost a year. You know as well as I do that nothing I say or do makes sense," I deadpanned, "Like a pegasus trying to tan in the snowy regions of Yakyakistan. Or an earth pony trying not to get wet in Seaquestria."

Yo, is water wet?

"W-what?" Sandbar asked.

"Exactly," he responded with a smile before I turned back to Discord, "But for real, though, I agree with the princesses. After all, I've only been training for a few weeks. It's like the military. You don't become an elite soldier after just a few weeks of training."

I'm also a task guy. I just do what I'm told without question. Within good reason, of course.

On a serious note, while I may be fine on the outside, I was stressed out on the inside. It's been weeks. Weeks. And I still haven't got the slightest clue how to activate the Element of Magic. To so called "spark" has never appeared to me.

I'll be honest, there are times where I think the "spark" is just...never gonna come.

But...I suppose I just gotta be patient. As I've been doing for the past few weeks.

And to answer your earlier question: no, water is not wet. Google actually states that "wet" is officially defined as covered or saturated with water or another liquid. No joke. Look it up.

---

The next day, my friends and I, as well as every other student, all gathered around in the main lobby where official announcements are...well...announced. Seated at the front podium was a familiar pinkish pegasus filly. Cozy Glow.

Believe it or not, but Cozy Glow is actually Headmare Twilight's assistant. At the school, of course. Not like the type of assistant that Spike is. I guess the reasoning behind Cozy's position is due to her proficiency in just the overall concept of friendship. Impressive. Especially that she was at first terrible at friendship, at least from what I've heard.

"I wonder where Counselor Starlight is," I thought as I looked around the room, trying to find the lilac unicorn.

From what I've heard, while Twilight and the rest of the teachers are away, Counselor Starlight is in charge and Cozy glow is here to assist her.

"Good morning friendship students!" Cozy proclaimed, drawing our attention, "I know we're all sad Professor Sparkle is away, but don't worry. Because she left me in charge to do things just the way she would!"

Or not.

"Uh, I thought Starlight Glimmer was gonna be temporary headmare," Gallus pointed out.

"She was, but she left me this note," Cozy said before she started to read said note, "'I have to go. Twilight needs my help. I know the school is in good hooves with you Cozy.' Isn't that sweet? We won't let Starlight down, will we?"

While the other students answered with a bunch of "no's" or whatnot, my friends and I just gave glances to each other, a bit of suspicion in our eyes.

"It's just kind of weird, isn't it?" Smolder asked, voicing our thoughts.

"I don't know what you mean," Cozy shrugged.

"Like, why did she change our mind? Why Starlight write a note instead of saying goodbye to us herself? It doesn't make any sense," Smolder explained, to which the other students started to feel unsure as well.

"It does seem a bit of character for Counselor Starlight to do that."

"Oh Smolder," Cozy giggled, "You forget. We're not scheming dragons, we're ponies. Sounds like some creature needs to do a little extra friendship homework," Cozy said with a wink and a hoof boop on Smolder's nose.

Everyone (of course with the exception of my friends and I) started to laugh, and I could Smolder was starting to get pissed, if the growl and the smoke puffing from her nostrils were any indication.

"Damn Cozy. I see you still haven't learned your lesson about non-ponies having disadvantages in friendship. No offense or anything, but how are you the top student in this school? Sigh. Relax Legion, she's just a kid. A kid who's apparently now in charge of an entire school. Oh boy."

"Yak not pony either!" Yona proclaimed, "If Smolder get homework, Yona get homework."

"Me too!" Ocellus proclaimed.

"I'm in," Sandbar said.

"Yeah! Homework party!" Silverstream cheered before she and others looked at Gallus and I.

"Fine," Gallus said with a heavy sigh.

I don't wanna have extra homework as well. Sigh. But you're doing this for your friends. You're doing this for your friends. You're doing this for your friends. Fuck me, loyalty can be a curse from time to time.

"Alright," I sighed.

You're actually voluntarily accepting to do extra homework. All because you want to be there for your friends.

Yeah. I really have changed, haven't I? I don't even remember the last time I swore in another language.

That's because your friends are aware that you do that.

Yeah, but they're lenient about it.

"What loyalty," Cozy admired, "Professor Rainbow Dash would be so proud. You are such good friends. You all are! And I'm grateful because it'll be awfully hard running a whole school alone. Can I count on each of you to help me?"

Everybody voiced their thoughts that they would.

As for my friends and I, we still found the whole "Starlight just taking off" thing to be suspicious. Like I said before, it's out of her character to do that. She wouldn't just leave a note, no. She would actually tell us herself that she's leaving. And I don't know if it's just me, but I'm pretty sure Counselor Starlight wouldn't leave someone as young as Cozy Glow to run the whole school. Hell, Headmare Twilight wouldn't do that. Probably.

Cozy may be nice and responsible and all, but as I just said, she's young. A literal 10 year old. Or is she 12? I don't know. Somewhere around that spectrum.

I actually thought she's an 8 year old.

Regardless, I still find it suspicious. But I suppose I can't really do or say anything right now. And neither could my friends. All we could do is see what happens.

I mean, it's not like Cozy is gonna do something like, I don't know, blow up the school or something like that.

Author's Note:

Finally made some artwork to show what Apex Legion (or rather me) looks like!

The mane and tail are not exactly what I imagined them to be, but it's close enough. And besides, it was my first time making my pony oc based on a base vector.

Comments

[ARandomLonelyDude]

"Cozy will not create a dictatorship." -Big Brother, 1984

[SethFilms]

I mean, it's not like Cozy is gonna do something like, I don't know, blow up the school or something like that.

yes.

also the montage song is on repeat now. I have the game on PS5 but never played it yet.

keep up the story!!!~

[MaverickTSU]

Well, this chapter was quite interesting, and I wonder what could happen next in this story, nice job dude.