Ch 2 - The Mage's Tower
Swirly and I left the little hedge circle through a doorway cut into it and when I passed through, it felt like I had stepped into Wonderland. Of course, I was floating at the time, but the point still stands.
Dozens of unicorns of all sorts of colors and shapes were casting spells all over the barren dirt that surrounded the tower. The ground was torn up in some places, mildly disturbed in others, and completely untouched in a select few areas closer to the massive spire.
Lightning flashed, arcane fire raged, and waves of ice splashed across the ground. Some ponies were rapidly shifting from one form to another while others were forming wings made of fire or ice.
I looked skyward to see a few ponies hopping from cloud to cloud while blasting the air in front of them to bring new platforms into being.
The landscape was positively alive with magic, but all of it paled in comparison to the towering… well, tower at the center of it all. The thing must’ve been eight or even nine stories tall and it was topped by a massive crystalline sphere that hovered in place.
My face scrunched up in confusion for a moment.
“Wait a moment.”
I pointed at the aforementioned cloud hoppers.
“Weren’t you saying something about how it’s impossible to create something from nothing?”
Swirly turned his head to look at them.
“Yes, it is, which is why you are confusing. However, they’re using a spell called Reverse Forecast which draws nearby moisture from the air and forms a cloud with it.”
He frowned before continuing.
“Honestly, of all the things to fixate upon, you choose them?”
I shrugged.
“Eh, the big shiny rock on top of your tower looks neat I guess, but the cloud hoppers just… jumped out at me.”
I snickered as Swirly frowned.
“Please refrain from puns in my presence, Typhon.”
I rolled my eyes as I responded.
“Oh fine, but only cause you said please.”
We were halfway to the tower when a bolt of lightning arced directly over me. My eyes shot wide open and I dropped to the ground as I started frantically searching my surroundings for the culprit.
“What the hell was that?!”
My screech tipped Swirly’s hat off to the side, but he corrected it before responding with a raised eyebrow.
“What?”
I snapped my gaze to him.
“That lightning bolt! Didn’t ya see it?”
“Oh, apologies, but we are safe from the outside experiments.”
My face contorted into a scowl as I stepped closer to him.
“Outside? We are outside!”
Swirly maintained a blank expression as he raised a hoof.
“Outside the shields; didn’t you notice the corridor of wards?”
I cringed back and scratched the back of my head.
“Uh.”
A quick glance around revealed that there was, in fact, a hallway made entirely out of spell repelling wards.
“Heh heh, eh, no.”
Swirly rolled his eyes.
“Of course, you didn’t.”
After that little incident, I decided to walk the rest of the way. It took us a couple of minutes to reach the metal doors and I actually managed to keep my mouth shut while doing so, yay me! The handle sprouted a dark blue aura before the door swung open.
“Oh, fancy.”
What I assumed was the reception room had an ocean blue carpet with moving images of fish. I stared at the animated creatures for a moment before noticing my companion staring at me.
“What’s up Swirly?”
Swirly snorted.
“My name is not Swirly, but I must admit that your astonishment is undeserved.”
I tilted my head.
“Why should it be? Ya got a real neat carpet!”
He scowled at me before pointing at the wall of very official-looking papers… at least I thought they looked official.
“You find a simple illusion more interesting than our accolades and discoveries? Honestly, the ward work of the path we took to get here safely was more difficult than this little trinket.”
I blinked at him before pointing at the carpet as I spoke.
“You made that?”
He sighed.
“Yes.”
“Neat.”
Swirly took a deep breath before continuing.
“Let’s get this over with.”
Swirly began his no doubt arduous journey to… somewhere upstairs. I shrugged before popping a glass of chocolate milk into existence and followed. For all of two seconds. The quiet clops of Swirly and my dainty slurps were interrupted by an ear-splitting screech.
“WHAT?!”
I grabbed my ears, took them off, and glared at the source of the noise.
I think I said ‘Do you mind?’
But considering the fact I couldn’t hear anything, it’s anybody’s guess.
The mare at the desk started speaking again while waving her hooves around. Several moments passed before I judged her quiet enough to put my ears back on.
“I mean, really, it's written directly into the fundamental laws of reality!”
I shrugged.
“Then I guess it’s a good thing that I can’t read.”
Swirly froze with his hoof hovering over the first step of the staircase. His head, with all the grace of a pair of giant mill stones, turned towards me.
“You. Can’t. Read.”
His eye was twitching now, and all I could do was shrug before I slithered over to him.
“Nope!”
He sighed.
“Great.”
“Guess that means you get to teach me!”
My smile grew as I saw the horrified look on his face.
“No, just no.”
“Well, I’m not letting you study me until I can read what you write! I mean, I can't have you bad mouthing me in your reports after all.”
He scowled at me.
“I’m not doing that.”
He bolted up the stairs while I zipped up after him and shot through the smooth stone corridor to follow.
“No no no no, I am not doing that!”
He probably thought his muttering was unintelligible but my ears are really good while they’re actually attached to my head.
We reached a door with a four-leaf clover and the great pony wizard pounded on the door. A muffled voice called from behind the door.
“All right, all right, calm down, I’ll be out in a moment.”
A couple of seconds later, during which Swirly continually punched the door, a mare ripped it open with her magic. She was a deep violet and had a deep ocean blue mane. She scowled at Swirly before asking.
“Was that really necessary?”
To which Swirly responded with a stream of words that melted together as they scrambled out of his mouth.
“You teach him how to read and I’ll remove your ban on the pyromancy section, goodbye, and good luck.”
After he finished, a pony-shaped cloud of dust replaced him.
“Bye, Swirly!”
My waving claw went unnoticed as my new friend turned a corner. With a twist, I faced my newest companion.
She was staring at me with an eyebrow cocked and a mouth half-open. I stuck a hand out, ready to shake.
“Hello, my name’s Typhon! May I ask yours?”
She shook her head before reaching a hoof out to meet my paw.
“Name’s Clover.”
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clover seems to be either a mastermind who is after the secrets of chaos magic or a person who could be typhons genuin freind
11262954
At this point, to me, it looks more like she used pyromancy to accidently burn down something important. :)
A Chaos God learns to knowing to read. Shortly after inventing other languages?
11262954
En mi headcanon Clover es un rango que Starswirl inventó porque recordar nombres está por debajo de él.
Why is every singel Pony with exception on Celestia, so far a psychological mess?
I love this description of clover the clever. Beautiful!!
Oh this is gonna be fun.