Out of the City (Re-Mastered)
Outside in the Canterlot castle courtyard, Rowan sat at a small table. In front of him, on a platter, laid a sandwich, which the castle servants had brought to him, under Luna's orders, of course. Being famished as he was, Rowan greedily took a bite out of the sandwich.
Right now, a couple of princess Luna's attendants were making a saddle-bag for him for when he made the trip to Ponyville with Shining Armor. And along with that, they were supposedly gathering things that the princess thought were necessary for Rowan to take with him.
A while ago, after being led outside, Shining Armor had told Rowan to wait there while he returned home and prepared his things for the trip. Rowan was happy to get a moment alone since the trial, without having any pony giving him weird looks. In the meantime, Rowan filled his empty stomach with anything edible.
He looked down at the sandwich as he chewed it, "Yum. So that's what hay tastes like." But he stopped to consider it, "Well, I guess that's either because I'm starving or my taste buds were changed with the rest of my body." He shrugged. Either way, it still tasted good and that's all that he cared about. Heck, the hay almost tasted like meat, which Rowan could not help but wonder why. Magic, maybe?
As he continued to eat, Rowan eyed the Liber Tenebrarum sitting on the table. Just looking at the big, black tome, he started to wonder what other spells were in it. There could've been hundreds of different magic tricks in that thick book, so how was he supposed to know which one could get him back home? Princess Luna probably didn't know, since she was sending him to Ponyville to study shadow magic in the first place.
Rowan just sighed inwardly, I'll get to that when it comes up. Hopefully it'll be easier to find it than I think it is.
As Rowan gobbled down the rest of his hay sandwich, he heard hoof steps trotting up to him from behind. He turned to see Princess Luna there, accompanied with one of her attendants.
Luna wore a smile, despite it being later into the day than she usually stayed awake for. Coming to Rowan's trial had thrown off her sleep schedule, but seeing a happy colt free and about, rather than behind bars, made up for sleep deprivation. "Rowan, have you finished eating?"
"Yes, Princess Luna." He replied.
She nodded, "Good. Your train will be leaving soon and we've packed some items for your learning in Shadow Magic, as well as a couple of things for when you arrive in Ponyville." She looked over at her attendant, "If you will."
The attendant made her way up to him with a brown saddle bag in her mouth. Rowan stood up from his stool and the attendant placed the bag on his back. It wasn't too heavy, but its weight indicated that it was filled with several things. He looked at the bags and smiled as he saw they were decorated with a silver crescent on each pouch flap, made specially for him.
He looked back at Luna, grinning, "Wow. Thanks for everything."
Luna smiled, "Your welcome, Rowan. Unfortunately, I won't have time to tell you what is in your saddle bags. The train will be leaving very soon, and I don't want you to be late. I have already sent a message to the mayor of Ponyville, requesting that she find a place for you to stay, so she should be waiting at the station when you arrive."
As if on que, Shining Armor trotted over to them, carrying his own saddle bag. He glanced at Rowan and the colt's own bags, "Are you ready?"
"Oh, just a second." Rowan quickly grabbed the Liber Tenebrarum off of the table with his mouth and stuck it in his saddle bag. Once he did, he replied, "Okay. Now I'm ready."
"Good. We need to leave for the station now if we're going to catch the train. Let's go." Shining turned and trotted away from the castle, Rowan following close behind him. But as he left the castle grounds, Rowan looked back over his shoulder to see Luna and her attendant waving goodbye. He stopped and waved back with a smile, and quickly ran to catch up with Shining Armor.
As they made their way to the station, many ponies walking down the street saw them pass by. Seeing the captain of the royal guard walking the streets wasn't much to be surprised by for Canterlot nobility. But when they spotted the colt that had been led through the streets by armed guards for a trial with the Princess just hours before, walking around without a care, several ponies took notice. Many looked at him with uncertainty, others scowled at him, and there were the occasional few that completely ignored them.
Rowan sighed as a noble he passed quickly turned his head away in a humph, I guess it's not as bad as them calling me a liar.
They reached the station, where the train waited for its passengers to board. Although, surprisingly for Shining, waiting in front of the train was Princess Cadence.
"Cadence, what are you doing here?" Shining Armor asked.
She simply smiled, "I came to see you both off. What's wrong with that?"
The captain smiled warmly as he made his way up to her, "Nothing at all."
The married couple both embraced each other as they said their goodbyes. Meanwhile, Rowan made his way onto the train. Suddenly, the train whistle blew, signaling for the passengers to board. Cadence and Shining Armor broke away from each other, as it was time to go.
"I'll be back soon." And with that the captain and Rowan boarded the train.
the two of them walked into one of the train cars. Luckily, it was empty, so Rowan wouldn't have to worry about anypony giving him any less than savory looks during the trip.
Rowan took a seat on one of the benches, shrugging off his saddle bag onto the seat. Shining Armor sat on one of the other benches by a window, where he waved goodbye to his wife outside. The train whistle blew three times and started to chug out of the station.
Rowan looked out his window to see Canterlot slowly crawl past. Onward to Ponyville, I guess. He thought sheepishly. The train chugged through the gate to Canterlot and out into the open land of Equestria.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Celestia looked down from the balcony of her tower, the tallest of the castle. She watched the train Rowan and Shining Armor had boarded as it left Canterlot. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Luna suddenly fly up onto the balcony, lighting down next to her.
Celestia turned towards her sister, "Luna?"
"Yes, sister?"
"Can you answer me something? Why did you send Rowan to Ponyville when he could have stayed here at the castle. If you had wanted him to be isolated from everypony else, our guards could have protected him just fine. I suspect you had an alternate reason for sending him away."
"Oh, 'Tia. I don't believe shadow magic alone will get him home. So I sent him to Ponyville so that he could combine his magic to the most powerful kind of magic," She looked out on the horizon, watching the train disappear in the distance, "The Magic of Friendship."
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Rowan sat on his bench as he leafed through his saddle bags. He already knew that he had the Liber Tenebrarum, but the Princess had packed other things for him. There were things like quills and parchment, but there was also a pretty large bag of gold coins inside as well. But what surprised him the most was another book she had packed for him, titled, Beginning spells for Gifted Unicorns.
He turned to the front page of the book to find a piece of parchment wedged into the binding. Opening it up, Rowan found it was a note from the princess.
Rowan read it to himself, "This book will help you to identify the spells within the book of shadows. The spells for shadow magic may be different compared to regular magic, but only slightly. Remember, you can't use the spells from this book, but no other unicorn can use the spells from the Liber Tenebrarum.
Use it well,
Princess Luna"
Rowan looked at the first spell in the book. It was labeled Levitation spell. Rowan looked down at his hooves, his former hands, and sighed, "I guess now would be just as good of a time as any to learn how to levitate things. It's already hard enough to pick things up without fingers."
He read the spell, finding he felt something very similar to the feeling he got from reading the Liber Tenebrarum while he read it, and then he picked up the Liber Tenebrarum. He began to quickly skim through it for a spell that was similar to the levitation spell.
As he flipped to page 10, he found it. Reading through it, he found that it was almost exactly like the spell from the other book. He finished reading the simple spell, before nodding in readiness, "Okay. Time to test it out."
He focused on the Liber Tenebrarum as he used the spell. As he did, there was the familiar glow coming from his horn as it shone with black mist. The same mist started to envelope the book, completely covering it.
As easily as Rowan could have picked up a piece of paper, the book levitated up off of the seat, suspending itself a foot above the seat. Immensely satisfied with himself, Rowan focused his magic a tiny bit more and the book moved through the air with ease. Back home, Rowan had always been a fan of unicorn magic back on earth, but he had never realized how amazing it was just to use simple telekinesis. He was lifting a book through the air with his mind! How awesome was that?
His eye wandered down to the many things in his saddle bags. "Time to try it with more than one thing."
Just as he did with the book, Rowan levitated all of the quills, parchment, and the book of beginning spells out of his saddle bags, suspending them up into the air. Needless to say, Rowan found It was more difficult with multiple targets, because he had to keep track of all of the items that he was holding. But eventually he was able to get them all to fly in different directions at once, all while keeping focused on each of them.
Even though he was occupied with the organized chaos of the flying objects, Rowan noticed that Shining Armor was giving him a curious look.
"What?" Rowan questioned his traveling companion.
The captain smirked, "You seem to be enjoying yourself quite a bit. From that look on your face, I'd say you've never used magic like this before."
Rowan began to grow tired from controlling so many things at once, so he started putting everything back into his saddle bags, "Well, I've actually never used magic at all. Back in my world, magic is only part of fiction and fantasies."
Shining Armor raised an eyebrow, "Really?" He thought to himself, "So your world doesn't have magic... I've never thought of a life without magic. It seems a bit difficult. But Earth and Pegasi ponies handle just fine without magic, so it can't be all that bad."
Rowan smiled, "Well, it actually isn't that difficult. I got along in life without magic just fine, but that was when I had still had hands."
Shining raised an eyebrow, "Um... Hands?"
"Well, um... Yeah." Rowan rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Truth be told, I wasn't even a pony before I came to Equestria. I'm actually a human, from the human world.
The captain was taken aback, mouth dropped open, "Basically, you're telling me you turned into a pony when you came to Equestria? What the hay is a human anyways?"
"Oh, um..." Rowan scratched his head in thought. He wasn't sure how to explain what a human was to Shining, who he doubted had seen anything like one, "It's sort of like a sentient, hairless monkey, though without a tail."
"Really?..." Shining gave him a skeptical look, "Hm, tell me more about your world."
And so throughout the majority of the train ride, Rowan told Shining Armor about his life back in his world. He talked about his family, his hobbies, and the technology that existed there (Though he did stay away from the My Little Pony show. He wasn't sure how the captain would react when he found out hundreds of thousands of people were watching him on TV). With every topic Rowan explained, Shining's expression turned from one of skepticism to one of pure disbelief, much to Rowan's amusement.
After explaining quite a few things from his life, Rowan was halted from proceeding by the captain as he stuck a hoof out to cut him off, "Automobiles, computers, internet? And all this weird stuff without a single but of magic... No offense, but I'd rather stay in Equestria. Your world just sounds too wild."
Says the guy who lives in the same world as a god of chaos, dragons, hydras, etc. Rowan grinned, "Well, I'm going to read the Liber Tenebrarum some more. Tell me when we get there." With that Rowan levitated the book out of his saddle bag and started skimming through it for anything of interest.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Shining Armor stared at Rowan as the grey unicorn became lost within the pages of the Liber Tenebrarum. He puzzled at the strange life that this colt supposedly had. It was almost too unbelievable to... well, believe. But Shining had noted that Rowan had never skipped a beat through his explanation, which meant he was either a skilled liar, or he was telling the truth. And with the captain's knowledge about this colt, he assumed it was the latter of the two that applied.
Although, as Shining snuck a glance at Rowan, he noticed the colt was surprisingly calm. If he was telling the truth about everything, then he was taking everything in Equestria fairly well. Being randomly brought into Equestria from his world must have been hard for the young colt to adjust to, yet he seemed to deal with it just fine. Maybe too fine...
The captain began to wonder why Rowan was even transported to Equestria anyways. Why would somebody this young be taken from their home like that? Was he here for a greater purpose than anyone could comprehend?... Not likely.
Man, Shining, you've been reading too many of Spike's old comic books. Shaking his head, Shining Armor looked out the window at the passing scenery of the countryside.
He looked up at the sun. It was low and beginning to set, meaning that they would be arriving in Ponyville within an hour or two. The captain smiled to himself at the thought of seeing his little sister, Twilie, again. He hadn't seen her since his wedding with Cadence, but even then, it hadn't been an entirely happy reception, what with the changeling disaster.
Shining's smile died away as he recalled the changelings' invasion of Canterlot. He shuddered at the memory of their appearance during his wedding. Their magic was evil, black magic... like Rowan's magic. Shining Armor grimaced, No. I shouldn't be comparing Rowan to the changelings. He's nothing like them, at least from what I've seen. I can't go judging a pony because of their magic... but I can't help but see the similarities between the changelings' magic and Rowan's... What if- No, I can't judge him yet. I don't know him fully, so I don't have anything to base judgement off of. But if I see anything that connects Rowan to the changelings, then...
... Then what? Deal away with him and tell Princess Luna I got rid of her first and only student? Hopefully not, but hopefully Rowan has nothing to do with the changelings, for our sakes.
Shining Armor juggled with his thoughts throughout the rest of the trip, still confused as to how he was supposed to think of his travelling companion. But after an hour or so, Ponyville came into sight.
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I'm gonna be an arse for saying this, but that's not how magic works.
Not only are Shadow Magic and the Magic of a Friendship two entirely different types of magic, but they're also on opposite sides of the spectrum.
As stated in the story, Shadow Magic is a type of black magic, whereas the Magic of Friendship is a type of white magic, dark + light magic = does not work! They're incompatible!
Correction: The changelings did not use any black magic at all throughout the Canterlot invasion. Their transformations were purely innate ability, even the fact that Shining looked so weird was only due to the fact that Chrysalis was draining his love, using her changeling abilities. The only magic the Changelings used during the Canterlot invasion, was Chrysalis' beam attack on Celestia.
What similarities? There are no similarities between the two at all!
4635767 or they work like matter and antimatter. If so, the violent explosion of reality rupturing could be shaped into a dimensional tunnel.
in the city
I can just picture Twilight!!