> The Future of Magic > by Aquaris96 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Equestria's newest arrival > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The future of magic Chapter 1: Equestria's newest arrival This is my first fanfic guys, so go easy on me... I do not own my little pony or any of the references in this story. Enjoy (^_^) now revised The summer sun celebration. A time for fun and enjoyment, for all of the ponies it is a favorite amongst all of equestria, an equal to hearths warming day. The elements of harmony, bearers of ancient form of magic that could defeat the dark forces and bring light to the world, were attending this celebration and why not. They were the ones in charge of having it set up. The young lavender unicorn Twilight Sparkle enjoyed her punch with her friends, the celebration had gone off without a single problem, no dark creatures, no changelings, no gods of chaos that want to ruin the party. "What's wrong, darling?" Rarity asked Twilight, concerned. "Nothing, Rarity, I'm just glad that the celebration's going on without any trouble. I just wish my parents and my BBBFF could make it, but they're away on important business from Princess Luna." "Oh?" Rarity inquired, curiously. "Yeah. They sent a letter. It was about a disturbance on one of our faraway moons. Also Shining Armor wrote to me and said he had to stay with Cadence in the Crystal Empire." "Apparently they have to elect a new heir. Important political issues and all." Hours later, it was nighttime and it was the ending parts of the festival, princess Luna had shown up to make her now more wanted appearance and Celestia was about to give a closing speech and then conclude the festival over. "My little ponies, I say that thanks to the help of Twilight sparkle and her friends this celebration wouldn't have been possible. It is unfortunate that we have to end the festivity but everything has to end eventually." Celestia said to the crowd, as she continued the speech, up in the sky a small dot flash appeared. Luna looked up and let her horn glow to see what it was, a large object roughly the size of a cart was falling at an incredibly high speed, it was pointed right towards her and Celestia. "sister… forgive me for pushing you." Luna whispered to herself as she ran into Celestia knocking both out the pods path. "Luna what is your problem? you know you're going give your speech too why would yo-…" Celestia was cut off as the pod slammed into the stage, Dust was in the air, splinters from the wooden stage flew everywhere, the guards that were there for obvious reasons rushed onto the stage, some of the Pegasus attempted to clear the dust via some heavy wing flapping. When the Dust cleared the princesses were getting back on their hooves and the guards were assessing the situation. Twilight and the other elements were making their way through the crowd. Fluttershy was being dragged along by Dash. "Stand back Twilight… whatever this thing is, I will not let it harm any pony." Celestia said as she and Luna approached the crater. In the crater was a large object, it was bulky and silver in color, small reinforced windows on its sides and front, on its bottom was a charred dome-like shield. A ring of foam like material lied about three feet away, small bits of smoke escape the holes of the foam. Celestia and Luna walked over the foam ring and into the crater. Twilight got closer too, getting passed the guards and next to Celestia. The Guards were all at the ready, horns pointed at the pod, Pegasus guards ready to strike, and earth pony guards ready to hold anything that comes out of the pod down. Most of the towns ponies were backing up, not sure what to say about the pod. "sister look at this… who or what ever made this had to know Equestrian writing for It has warning labels and some code name written in in-formal writing." Luna said pointing with a hoof at the code number the pod had. She had of recent finally mastered modern speech and only used her more formal old Equestrian speech in her night courts. Celestia approached the label and noticed one above a small handle it was partially in the main plating of the pod, using her magic Celestia lifted the handle and the front of the pod hissed as smoke escaped the gap made between the door and the hull. As Twilight got closer the pod door lifted and the smoke dispersed a tall figure with no fur except on the top of its head, it wore clothing over most of its body and instead of having hooves it had a pair of hands like a monkey, over its eyes it had a pair of goggles deep royal blue lenses with a silver colored material as the straps, around its neck was what surprised Twilight and Celestia the most, a necklace made of silver chain, and gemstones, it was of a blue diamond four sided star with a teal background. "it looks… like my cutie mark…" Twilight said with confusion and concern in her voice. A being they don't know what is, has a necklace similar to her cutie mark. As she got closer to the creature it stirred in its sleep and causing a smaller creature in its lap to yawn… "(Yawn)… wow, that may have been the best nap I've had in weeks…(sniff-sniff)." The creature that spoke was a small dragon about spikes in size but stood on all fours, by its voice it was female, her body was covered in a silver skin with a pale yellow underbelly, her eyes were pale baby blue and on her head were hundreds of tiny spines that were drooping as if they were faking a hair style. Spike looked at her in curiosity. She walked out of the pod and was tackled by one of the guards, "hey get off… you'll regret it if you don't!" she said as her mouth created blue sparks. Celestia saw this and walked up to them. "Iron back, as much as I enjoy that you are protecting us, I'd rather not get on the bad side of this dragon here, which may or may not be a threat." The guard looked down at her then back at Celestia, he was hesitant but got off the dragon. "I've got my eye on you." He said as he backed up and let her stand. When she looked up at Celestia and around the area, then gasped and stepped back, "by Solaris… where am I?" she said concerned and scared. She looked back up to Celestia and backed up a bit, she wasn't used to unknown aliens." "Calm down little one, I'm not going to hurt you, now who are you?" Celestia said as she lowered her head to eye level the dragons "Well… my names Afina Aritinon… well kind of… I'm not officially related to the family but I was basically adopted into it." She scratched her head with her right hind leg and rubbed her growling stomach. Celestia giggled a bit, this Afina seemed to be shy but has a voice of confidence, and maybe she only talks to creatures she knows. "I see that you are hungry yes?" Celestia asked as she looked at the guards giving a stern look saying not to attack. she looked back down to Afina to receive a nod "Well what do you eat?" "Well… fish, chicken, beef, gemstones, pork, some sweets, and also if I'm desperate some vegetables." The young dragon said as she smiled showing massive fangs and sharp teeth. "Ok... Well meats are rather one thing we don't offer… gems, are not really something I can offer at the moment but there are still plenty left over pastries if you want some." Celestia said to her as Afina looked over at the buffet table in the distance covered in various pastries. "Do you mind?" she said as she looked up at Celestia and received a nod from her. She walked down off the stage and into the crowd that seemed to part as she got close to anypony. When she passed Rarity, she noticed an inquisitive look from her, was it the earrings or the small bracelet on her arm. "Princess Celestia, not to going against your order, but your just letting some dragon species that doesn't look anything like any of the recorded breeds, go and get something to eat." Iron back said to her, bowing as he did so. "Iron back as I do admire your concern, but I sense… she her peacefulness, I believe she would only attack if provoked." Celestia said as Afina ate a slice of apple pie. Iron back was silent and looked at the large pod, he walked to the front and saw the other being, and it was asleep. He looked the creature up and down, he sneered as he used his magic to pull the other creature out of the pod and onto the stage "What about this one princess?" Celestia walked up to the creature and looked at it, aside from the cutie mark styled necklace, it seemed odd. Iron back poked him and he stirred in his sleep. Afina came back as iron back kept poking him, "I wouldn't do that if I were you, he tends to throw a hard punch if you kee… never mind" Afina said as she saw the human punch Iron back square in the face. The other unicorn guards pointed their horns at him. Celestia stopped them as Iron back fell onto his side. The creature sat up. He scratched his nose looking down at the ground while doing so. "ohh… by Solaris what happened?" he said in a voice similar to Shining Armor's, but different to an extent. He looked up to see the horn pointed in his face. He looked around to see armored Unicorns horns all pointed towards him. "uh… Afina what happened and where are we?" he said as he began sweating from stress of either getting poked in the eye or Solaris knows what. "Beats me Aquaris… maybe she might be of better help." Afina pointed a claw to Celestia. He stood up and got a gasp from the crowd off the stage. He heard mixed comments of fear, interest, and concern. He looked at them, seeing the large various equine shaped creatures. "Strange I thought this species of creature sentient or not was extinct. Apparently not…" he thought to himself as he looked at the bout as tall as him white Alicorn. Her snout was rounder than the guards and she was more slender. He could tell this one was female; she was about his height except for her two hand long horn. Her main and tail seemed to be of various pale colors and on her hear behind her horn was a crown. "Who are you?" Celestia said walking up to him. "Well, my name is Aquaris Aritinon, 2nd born of Nova and Apollo Aritinon, Bearer of the element of Arcane and apprentice to prince Solaris one of the two princes that are part of the council for protecting the rights and live of magical beings. Celestia nodded and noticed the guards ready to strike if need be, she also noticed that Aquaris's gloved hands were clutched nervously. Iron back got up from his quick knockout, he sneered and chargsed his horn, and he shot a rather powerful spell at Aquaris without warning. Aquaris closed his eyes and produced a shield around himself. The spell impacted and just cracked the shield. Most of the ponies gasped, some were just surprised this thing knew magic. Out of instinct he turn and shot a teal bolt of energy at Iron back, when it hit, Iron backs legs stiffened up and locked, he fell over not able to move. Some of the guards charged their horns but Celestia stopped them. "Sorry about that… it was self-defense…" Aquaris said as he turned to Celestia, she nodded and stepped closer to him, "what are you?" "Well I am a human, to be more precise a terran… even more precise is that I'm a mage. Now may I ask who and what are you?" Aquaris asked as he looked at Celestia and then to the group of other equines, one of them, which was all pink in fur color, seemed to be restraining herself. "I am princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria. I and like all the others here I am a pony" she said as she received a bow from Aquaris. The guards loosened up to this, seeing that he respects their princess… but still remained vigilant to his actions. "And this is my younger sister and other co-ruler, Princess Luna." Luna walked up and held out a front hoof, Celestia wasn't all into the hoof kiss thing but Luna was, then again she had been more into the old fashioned things except for the gaming console devices she had. Aquaris did so by lightly kissing the silver hoof slipper Luna wore. "You may rise Aquaris" Celestia said to him, followed by him standing up. "You seem used to us even though you never see our kind before… or have you?" Luna asked as Aquaris scratched his head. "Well no I haven't but I'm so used to other species from other worlds, it's no different to me if I find a race of ponies that possess magical capabilities." Celestia nodded and looked over his shoulder to see all of the town's ponies with concerned faces. She walked past him and spoke. "It is ok every pony, this human means us all no harm… welcome him as you would any pony else." Most was silence but one light teal in color unicorn spoke out, "I WAS RIGHT… ALL THIS TIME I WAS RIGHT… HA HA!" she said in a giddy tone. Celestia seemed to ignore it as if it was normal, "Now Aquaris, I want you to meet the bearers of Harmony, they will help get used to your time staying here in Equestria and my student Twilight sparkle will learn from you on what I'm presuming a different spell pallet. "yes… and also I'm guessing they are these elements of harmony", he pointed at Twilight and the others. Celestia nodded and then nodded to Twilight who of which stepped forth. "I'm twilight sparkle, this is spike my number one and one of my two assistants." She said holding out a hoof, "Well pleasure to meet you Twilight, (grabs her hoof and shakes hands/hooves) like wise to you spike. Now who may you be?" he said walking up to Rarity, "Well I am Rarity darling; I must admit you will be an interesting creature to design new clothes for." She said head brimming with ideas for new clothing for Aquaris. "well I'll hold you to that, if it happens my friend would love to meet you and compare designs." He said as he was tackled by a pink blur. Hi I'm pinkie pie, I'm going to throw you a "welcome to ponyville" party" she said bouncing on top of Aquarises chest. "That's… great… pinkie… oof… but… it's… to enjoy it… if… can you get off!" he said as she stopped bouncing and stepped off of him "thank you, and thank you for making me feel welcome. But there is a crucial factor missing… I have no house to have you host it in." "Well I can help with that Aquaris, nearby Twilights home is a perfect spot for you to build "Well thank you princess also I don't need to build it. After I'm introduced to you three I'll show you what I mean" "Well I'm Applejack sugar cube", she said holding out a hoof "It's a pleasure… you seem like you can give a hard kick with the muscle you have on your legs." Aquaris said noticing how thick her legs were "well I can, I live and work at the apple orchard just outside of town so of course all the hard work has its rewards." She said as she flexed her hind legs, Aquaris noticed her cutie mark. "Wait a second what's with the tattoo?" he said pointing at her flank. "What you don't have a cutie mark?" "Well I have a crest but not that." He said showing the necklace hanging around his neck "strange it looks like Twilight's" Applejack said as Aquaris turned around to see Twilight's flank showing her mark "Weird, prince Solaris said that everyone's crest was individual to their talents, such being mine of magic and arcane, and yours looks just like mine, and AJ's here looks like my friend Jackie's crest" "Well it could be individual to your kind, but in a mass of different species, some may look a lot or exactly alike", Celestia said as she looked at both Aquaris's crest and Twilight's cutie mark. "Well lets set aside that for later shall we, now you are?" he asked looking up at the flying cyan Pegasus, "I'm Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria." Rainbow dash stated as she flew down to him. "And an ego so large that Equestria's next ten generations shall remember." Everypony started laughing, except for Dash who just crossed her front legs; remark. After a few minutes Aquaris walked up to the last one, and your name?" "I -… I'm Flu-… Fluttershy…" she said quietly as she hid most of her face behind her bright pink mane. "There is no need to be scared, you're too adorable for anything to want to harm you, so when you meet someone new don't be frightened." Aquaris said to here in this reassuring tone as she looked at him and cheered up. "Wow that's the fastest I've seen Fluttershy open up to anypony" Rarity said as Fluttershy joined the rest of the group. "Well I have a way with people and gaining their trust" Aquaris said as he examined his pod and pulled out a few bags, one back pack, three duffel bags, and a bag full of crystals. He then made then stood back and focused his energy on the pod making it glow tealish blue, it lifted off of the ground and started shrinking in size, everypony watched as it became the size of an apple and floated into one of the bags, and next Aquaris focused it on the stage and repaired the crater the pod made. "So, you don't even need a horn for your magic." "Magic in study is said that in order to cast it you need bones filled with arcane power, such as your horns and humans arms" Aquaris lifted one of his bags up and small chirping could be heard from the bag he put the pod in, seconds afterwards a small phoenix hatchling popped its head out of the bag "so that's where you've been hiding blaze." He said as held one hand out in front of the phoenix and it hoped onto his hand it chirped as it flapped its wings and nibbled on its wing feathers. "It's so cute." Fluttershy said as she walked up to Aquaris and looked very inventively at the hatchling. "He looks like pewee Twilight." "She actually, blaze could fit the name of male or female." Blaze chirped as Aquaris had pulled out a small cube of some sort of meat for blaze it was reddish and had white marbling to it. As blaze chewed at the cube of meat Aquaris picked up his other bags "so Celestia where is it I will be staying?" "Ah yes… this way Aquaris also I'm curious on how you can build a house within seconds. (turns around and walked towards a rather large tree with light illuminating from it) this way Aquaris." The guards were about to follow but a look from Celestia told them to wait Over by that open plot of land she mentioned Aquaris had pulled out two metal canisters with the words saying "spray paint" on the side, he tossed on to Afina who started spraying what appeared to be more of a piece of art work of white lines in the grass. As it was finished Aquaris stood in front of the group. He closed his eyes and started glowing teal, the lines of the drawing on the ground glowed a brilliant teal. A two story house formed. After about ten minutes most of the unicorns and the princesses were jaw dropped at what he just did. "Wow I've never heard of a teleport spell that could move entire houses," Twilight said as she had a spark of excitement in her eyes. "it is not a object teleport spell, I teleport an area of objects reason why my hammock and my back porch with awning are here." Aquaris said as he the group saw the hanging bed made of interloping ropes. "What was that you and Afina drew?" "A rune, special drawings that help channel magic to a large area if large enough then my tutor could literally teleport this entire town if somehow possible he could move the entire planet to a new location,. "Now if you wish I can make us all some tea and you can ask your questions" Aquaris offered as he picked his bags up and carried them to the house. As he entered the nine of them followed to end up in a rather spacious living room, it had two couches with a small glass coffee table in between them, and on the wall in front of them was a black glass panel with small lights on the bottom right corner. Looking down to the cabinet under it they group noticed a thin tall black box with the etching of an X on the side and the numbers seven-twenty under it. Luna walked closer to the box, a small green X appeared on the front and the black panel lit up it showed a black background with mist flowing on the bottom, a silver symbol depicting a dragon was on the left and the words "Elder scrolls V Skyrim" a deep drum started playing in a heartbeat like rhythm stopping for a second every-so often, "oh you turned my Xbox on… (skyrim theme plays) "Xbox?" "One of the many innovations of human entertainment, (turns Xbox off and changes Input to the DLX player) us humans have a need to technologically evolve, entertainment, food production, medical care, all sorts of other stuff. Most recent release of technology was the New Star gate" Aquaris said sitting down on one of the couches and using his telekinesis to levitate a tray with nine full tea cups, some biscuits, a small bowl of sugar and a jar of honey. Everypony made there cups, Aquaris was surprised how these pegasi and earth ponies did stuff without magic or hands. "So Aquaris, who are these confederates you mentioned before?" "Well they are also humans, but they don't have magical augmentations like humans of Terra, they despise magical creatures of the galaxy, seeing magic as an unnatural plague that needs to be wiped out." He paused and siped his tea, "They would kill any magical being they find, I was lucky to hide my magical abilities from their scanners, they accused me of being a magic supporter and well… Here I am." He said with a sigh as Celestia saw his sadness in his heart. "They… they destroyed one colony meant for refugees of a mysterious virus… no one was spared. Men, Women… even children, babies even. All of them… gone "What do you mean… gone?" Luna asked as she shuffled on the couch "I'll show you, he put his hands on his head and pulled a string of pure light out of his head, he dropped it into a small water filled bowl it grew in size so all of them could look into the image forming. (Flash back) A bright flash happened and all of them were in the memory as if they were there, the smell of ash clung to the air. The sky darkend by smoke from destroyed buildings, Celestia looked around seeing Aquaris and seven other humans walking with him. The streets of haven colony were full of corpses, men and women lay on the ground with bullet holes in their bodies, Aquaris walked down the street over rubble covered vehicles and trash from spilt containers, the others followed his memory self being careful not to disturb the bodies even though they were just an illusions of the memory to his left were his friends and to his right were the princes of the Terran's "brother… why, even the confederates couldn't stop this low?" one of the two princes said, his hair was like Luna's not as long but still depicting space. "I don't know Nocturne, but the memories of these people say otherwise." Aquaris turned to the solar prince, Solaris crouched down and picked up a small wooden box, opening it, a small tune played, "I remember giving this box to a small couple who had a kid… the box was mine when I was young...(closes the music box)" Celestia noticed that the one Solaris held was almost identical to the one he held and played the same song. "Please Aquaris no more…(memory closes)…I can't handle… that much death." Celestia said tearing up, "I'm sorry princess, if we knew that they were planning that… we could've stopped them before they could eradicate." Celestia Wraped her wings around Aquaris and cried into his shoulder. Everypony was startled at this as he held here with his own embrace. "Aqauris, you said they were there because of a virus… what kind?" Twilight asked as she wiped her face of tears she had from the memory. "A virus that made death better than It looks… it infests you, slows your bodies decomposing rate to a crawl and makes you a slave to your own body… you lost your will, you served under the command of an unknown source… you'd wish you were dead, heck even some of the infested managed to break from their mental prison for a second or two before the infection locked them back up, but just enough time to beg for soldiers to kill them as their bodies tried to kill the soldiers…" Aquaris said as let Celestia cry into his shoulder, "It's ok… I and the coalition of magic, we'll defend this world from them. You, and all of your subjects, will be safe… from them. I promise you this." Aquaris said as he let a hand go through her mane, "(sniffles) you mean it?" "Yes by the oath of Solaris, I will not let the confederates hurt or kill a single pony, dragon or living creature of this world." Celestia smiled and leaned close to him lightly kissing his fore head. After she kissed him Aquaris felt dizzy and passed out from some sort of spell she put on him, the last words he heard were "Thank you". > Family visits > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The future of magic Chapter 2: family visits The sun rose over the horizon, bringing light to ponyville and most of Equestria, the princesses have returned back to Canterlot, and any other pony had to go do their daily errands and chores. Twilight was reading books she had borrowed from Aquaris, leaving a note to tell him both that she had borrowed them and also asking if she could ask some questions at about one o'clock pm. Most ponies aside from the elements and a handful of them were still concerned about this foreign creature, it was new to them, yes they've seen some weird stuff like the chaos discord's return had caused, and the nightmare moon incident. But they knew that it was written either of them would return from their imprisonments but a new alien from another world was a whole different story. Aquaris woke up with probably the worst headache in the history of magi's. "By Solaris how much whiskey did I drink last night?" Aquaris sat up and rubbed his head, "I really need to lay off the drinks… wait… oh yeah the ponies and the spell that made me fall… asleep…" Aquaris wobbled his way upstairs to his shower and quickly took one, after drying off and using his magic to pull any remaining water off he quickly dressed into a pair of blue colored cargo pants a black under shirt with a symbol of a half sun and half-moon. And a magically enchanted jacket, made to keep him cool in the middle of the summer. He went down stairs for a cup of coffee when he noticed the note on the table; he picked it up and read it. "Dear Aquaris, Princess Celestia knocked you out for two reasons. 1. Was to see if you weren't dangerous, you would've woken up chained and in the Canterlot dungeons if you were, and 2. We kind of wanted to know how your kind lives, yeah the princess is kinda odd that way but I digress. I also borrowed some books from your study to read in detail about your kind's history and culture. P.s if you possibly can will you head to my library to answer some questions and begin telling me stuff about your kind if the books don't supply enough, Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle." He flipped over the note to see one from Celestia mentioning something of her guard being all right and sorry for attacking him without even seeing if he was safe. Aquaris looked at the note in detail, "well I guess I do have something to do today." Aquaris mumbled to himself as he went upstairs to grab his bag, some notepads, and his phoenix feather quill from Solaris's pet phoenix as a gift when Aquaris became Solaris's protégé. A special inkwell with a near infinite supply of ink only found from squiddles, a rare space squid that is extremely adorable and contains removable ink glands ergo which never runs out of ink. And also his book with blank pages for new alien bio entries. "There we go… Afina wake up you lazy dragon," Aquaris said as he picked up the sleeping Drake in a generously large basket at the foot of his bed. "What is it Aquaris… I'm really tired and I don't want to do any chores right now." Afina whined as Aquaris put her down. "Fine you can rest a bit more but if you need me I'm going out." Aquaris said grabbing his bag and walking to the door leading downstairs. "Don't get lost Aquaris." Afina said curling up in her basket. Aquaris opened the door to be greeted by the bright sunlight, he got a view of the surroundings, the village was composed of small buildings with brick walls and straw roofs, it reminded him of home aside from the straw roofs and brick walls, it was a metal material designed to look like bricks and the roofs were smooth tiles of a lightweight stone. He sighed and slung his bag over his shoulder, "I wonder if there are something good to eat for breakfast? We'll see" Aquaris said to himself as he pulled out of his pocket a phone like device, the 'hailer' allowed him to talk with friends, check the time, and take pictures, and is his near fifteen thousand song playlist. 'The clock read 11:02 AM' he set off to the town for some breakfast before heading to Twilights. In the town square, Aquaris wandered for roughly thirty minutes, none of the ponies helped him and he couldn't blame them, to them he was an alien and vice versa, only he was used to aliens. As he walked along the streets he got the feeling that he was being followed, as he kept walking he decided to pop his earphones into his ears and listen to his tunes from the 'twenty first century'. As Aquaris kept moving through the town Aquaris came across probably what he believed is the largest gingerbread house possible, he could smell the strong scent of baked goods and pastries and let his nose guide him. He knew it was a shop since both the door was unlocked and there was bell for the door when customers walked in. "Just a moment, I'll be right there. Aquaris heard the voice from the back say after he pulled his earphones out. A mare with darkish blue fur color and poufy pink mane walked out from the door behind the counter, "May I help yo-… oh you're that… human was it?" she said a bit nervous, she walked up to the counter and waited for his order of wanted pastries. "Yes… let's see, I'll take two of those bagels, and also… ah some muffins too please." He said as he pulled out a small silk bag full of his universal credits, he had seen the currency these ponies used and polymorphed the credits into them. "ok that'll be about fifteen bits." She said putting the requested food into a bag, Aquaris placed the gold coins onto a counter and grabbed his purchase. "Thank you and have a nice day." She said both in relief that this alien wasn't dangerous and actually paid with bits and not some other currency and just because it was her daily norm to say it. Aquaris walked outside of the shop to see a dark magenta collored mare, her mane was light pink and it seemed that she was a teacher due to the younger ponies following her, Aquaris shrugged it off and decided to head to his next destination, the town library. "I still can't believe the pastry shop is literally half way across town, granted it's the same with terra-vale but still… now that I think about it, the shop placement is quite similar to home…" Aquaris said to himself closing his eyes in deep thought not seeing who he was walking into. He fell onto his back dropping the bag but thankfully it didn't open, when he looked up he saw that it was Applejack. "Sorry about Applejack… didn't see yah, was thinking a bit to much." Aquaris said as he stood up, he brushed his pants off and sighed. "What's the matter sugar cube?" she asked him as she readjusted her saddle bags. "Oh nothing, just this town reminds me of my own home, a bit different but so close… either way, what are up to, I need to kill time before one and I have nothing better to do, but explore." Aquaris said as he popped his shoulder joint. "Well if you don't mind I have an issue of my own, the cart I normally bring apples into town with lost one of its wheel, and I just need some pony to hold it up for me while I fix the axel and put the new wheel on." She said looking past him, "I was going to see if big mac could help but he is nowhere to be found." "Well it's better than just sitting and doing nothing so why not." He said as he gestured her to lead the way. Over and about an hour later at the pony Ville library, Twilight was reading through the books she borrowed, and spike was stacking and sorting books (like that wasn't surprising at all.) Twilight finished the chapter on human's historical factors, and now into its scientific chapters, first one was of anatomy. As she read she found that humans like Aquaris, their bone structure is infused with small crystals that channel magic, I different bread had lumps on their shoulder blades with the same infusion, and one classification lacked the crystals, but seemed to have a different variation infused in their muscles and heart while their skeleton was made of more dense and sturdy compounds. "Wow these humans are so interesting… huh" Twilight said as a pigeon pecked at the window, a small letter on its back, Spike opened the window to let the pigeon in and took the letter. The pigeon flew over to peewee's seed bowl after his burden of paper was gone. Spike handed the letter to Twilight and went back to working on the books he was storing. Twilight removed the letters seal and read it. {Dear Twilight,we do apologiese for not coming to the summer sun Celebration yesterday, but we had business from the princess and we couldn't have let her down, she has requested us that the matter was solved, so We decided to have a little late summer sun get together, Shinning and cadence will be Arriving when we do, we'll be in ponyville at about one thirty, see you soon, Your mother.} "wah… spike, can you finish cleaning up, oh no oh no… she said running upstairs and into her room to freshen up completely forgetting that she had invited Aquaris and asked him to arrive thirty minutes before her parents did. Spike just sighed and put the last book onto the shelf; luckily he had already cleaned up and was finishing with the books. When Twilight came back down Spike was heading out the door, earlier she told him he could go to Rarity's after cleaning up. Twilight sighed but then here the door open when she walked into the kitchen, she looked at the clock thinking "they couldn't be here already?" her thoughts were put to rest as she heard the voice of Aquaris and not her parents or brother. She looked at the clock to see it was 1:20 PM. Twilight sighed and looked over the counter, he was wearing a different set of clothes but had a pair of wires connecting from his pocket to his ears, he lips moved as if they were singing but he spoke nothing. He looked over to Twilight and headed over to her pulling his earphones in the process, "hey Twilight… sorry if I'm late, I had to help out Applejack and was introduced to her big brother… wow for a species with no hands he easily beat me at arm wrestling, also they kind of invited me for lunch." He scratched the back of his head as he laughed a bit. Twilight looked at the time and saw that the ten minutes she had to get anything done have had passed already, "Aquaris listen can we do this some other time, I have import-…" twilight stopped as she heard a hoof tapping the front door, she thought fast and magically picked Aquaris up. "Whoa hey Twilight what's the whoa… ooff…" he was tossed into a closet and had the door closed in his face. "Sorry Aquaris I'll explain later. Just keep quiet, she whispered into the closet before heading to the front door. When Twilight opened she was greeted by her parents. "Hello Twilight, we've seen each other since the wedding I've almost forgotten your voice." Twilight's mother jokingly said to Twilight as she hugged her. "well Armor and Cadence insisted on brining lunch here so it'll be a while, ever since the honeymoon, Armor and Cadence both learned to cook, I see no need since of personal chefs but some skill you learn to do if you visit family is better than nothing, I'm just curious who in Celestia's name they asked for the use of their kitchen." Twilight's dad said after receiving his hug from his daughter and sitting down on one of the couches. The entire time Aquaris was watching through a special spell he had learned a year ago, he sighed and lied back on the pillows in the closet, he pulled out a puzzle cube which shifted to give him at least four hours' worth of puzzles to solve, He began solving. About three puzzles and ten minutes later, another knock was heard from the door, Aquaris sat up and re-activated his spell, he saw a white coated colt with a blue main and tail, and he had a stocky build and had a cutie mark similar to Twilight's except in a shield. "her brother" he said in a whispery tone, next was another alicorn, she was a brighter pink than Aquaris's friend blinx's standards of 'real men wear pink motto', her mane and tail were composed of various colors you would see on valentine's day cards, and her cutie mark was of similar shape and design to his brother-in-law's except the heart was blue and was simple while his brother's was more detailed and was contained in a diamond shape. Aquaris noticed she too had a tiara and hoof slippers but with light blue diamond studs. "Are all alicorns royal? Then again they can fly and perform magic similar to the rare archon class that the all princes are back home… damn this planet is almost like a mirror." Aquaris thought to himself as he kept looking. After their greetings to each other, Aquaris was bored; he kept solving puzzles until the door was knocked on again, when Twilight opened the door Aquaris got that feeling that he was being stalked again. "Hey Twilight, have you happened to see that Aquaris fellow, I want to ask him so many things but he seems to have disappeared." The light teal unicorn known as Lyra heartstring asked to Twilight. "No Lyra and also my family is here and we have a lot to catch up about so if you don't mind." Twilight closed the door but before it closed Lyra said a dead giveaway. "oh come on do you have any idea, I've been wanting to meet him all of last night and today, and you met him first and are probably going to ask him a load of questions that I want to ask as well." She said as the door fully closed. "Who's this Aquaris she spoke of?" Cadence asked as Twilight sat back down, she said after reading the Letter she had received from aunt Celestia after the festival they missed was finished. "Oh… he just some colt that moved from stallion-grad, he is quite nice and is the pony who owns the house that was built nearby, even has a Dragon companion named Afina." She said only telling half the truth. "Strange last time I checked that Lyra had this addiction to finding about something she called humans, why would she be so curious on this Aquaris pony she and you mentioned?" Aquaris began to sweat nervously, he even had the comical anime style large sweat drop on the back of his head, this lie was falling apart faster than a chocobo runs when it's golden and on caffeine. He leaned back onto the back wall and bumped it, not loudly but it did nock another pillow and a stack of sheets on his head, and also a rather dusty book. The book wasn't a problem, the dust was. Aquaris couldn't prevent breathing in one speck of it, and he was about to sneeze. As he breathed in he sucked up more dust and couldn't hold it. He sneezed, rather loudly too, he swore mentally to himself and thought a way out of this mess; he shrunk himself and hid in the sheets. Twilight was mentally sweating as Armor approached the closet door, the sneeze had startled them all but Armor's reaction was a bit more Aggressive. When he opened the closet she mentally sighed as Aquaris was gone. Armor opened the closet door to find the source of the sneeze, but saw something of Interest, Aquaris's hailer. He magically picked it up and closed the closet door, Aquaris grew back and mentally swore again. Twilight saw the hailer and knew it had to be Aquaris's it was one something she knew she didn't have and two, the device was meant for creatures with fingers to use. Armor studied it but then set it down. "So Twi this Aquaris… what does he does?" "That was one of the things I was going to ask him myself…" Twilight said as she went to the kitchen to refill the teapot they had on the table between them. Aquaris was mentally thinking of a way out of this, then it dawned on him, he could teleport. He face palmed and used his magic to open a rift outside near his house; he then focused his energy and teleported outside to his front lawn. He gave a sigh of relief. "Ok time to say hello, and also get my hailer back." Aquaris straightened his clothes out and began walking up to the library. When he got to the door, he could hear laughing, he peered through his seer's spell and saw them playing something similar to charades, and he chuckled to himself as he watched not noticing that pinkie was pulling her party cannon into his house. Aquaris sighed and decided to go for it, "nothing ventured, nothing gained… hopefully nut a bruised gut and black eye." Aquaris knocked and backed up, Twilight opened it and was shocked. "What are you doing here; my parents believe you're a pony?" Twilight whispered to him, luckily he was out of eyesight from the other ponies. "Well I'm sorry but I don't have my shape shifting spell adjusted yet, and I'd rather have them know I'm human, also I need my hailer back." Aquaris said in the same quite tone, Twilight sighed and mentally contemplated what would happen. "Ok… (sigh), I'm so in trouble for this…" she turned around and walked inside. "Who is it Twilight?" Cadence asked as she bit into one of the apples they brought with them for lunch. "It's Aquaris, he… is bit different from what I told you he was… he is well… not a pony." Twilight said innocently. "What is he a changeling?!" Armor said charging his horn with a rather powerful attack. "No… and please don't hurt him… (Sigh)… Aquaris come in." Aquaris walked into the house and sighed, "Hello…" Aquaris sighed as he looked up. When he looked up, he saw dropped jaws and wide eyes, except for Twilight. "What are you? And are you Aquaris?" Cadence asked, shocked that Aquaris wasn't a pony but some tall creature with barely any fur and light tan skin. "I am, and I am a human… trust me, I would've done the same if I were in Twilight's hooves at the moment". Aquaris said as he scratched the back of his head. Cadence looked at him in curiosity, she got up and approached him, and Aquaris began sweating especially he got a 'don't you even put a finger on her look'. From Twilight's older brother she looked him up and down, she then noticed his head features. The necklace was similar to Twilight's cutie mark, but had an extra shape and different color; his hair was teal with a light aqua blue highlight. His hairstyle was similar to Twilight's but the hair behind his head was more split and not brushed but more combed. His outfit was odd, his cloak was black but had small blue and sea foam green details, his undershirt was also black but the white emblem on it, the shape seemed to be what aunt Celestia and aunt Luna had designed as a flag/ banner for the merged solar/lunar empire, but they never went through with it due to other matters that would change the fate of Equestria for the better. She noticed one more thing of immense interest, attached to his belt was a small book, a lone string of magic connected his belt and the book. "Do you mind?" Cadence asked looking at the book and lightly tugging on it with her magic. "Oh uh… sure be careful though that tome has some incomplete spells, if cast they usually do the opposite of what it is supposed to do." Aquaris warned as the string disappeared and fell into Cadence's magical Grasp. When she opened it she noticed that the first handful of pages were mostly notes and drawings of various spells and effects, two that caught her eye were the emotion magnate spell and self and target polymorphing spells, the notes next to them was more of a story of how they came to be. "Entry one, Metamorph was successful at capturing the palace and Promethia for at least an hour before Versian and Armera used that spell to send them flying, after capture and interrogation, he explained he only did it to divert guard attention to the capital so he and his brood could make a new hive with the abandoned crystal mines inside the regions of the elysian woodlands.' All is forgiven with him, currently his brood and himself enjoy the gift of the mines and an extra twenty or so arches of land to use for their hive cluster'." "Entry two, three weeks after the wedding and Changeling issue, Solaris assigned me the task of learning the abilities of Metamorph and his brood. then figure out how to produce spells out of them, Metamorph arrived an hour after I received the letter and we began conversation over how he can perform self-mutation into other forms/ species." Cadence kept reading. She sat back down on the couch while Aquaris conversed with Twilight and her parents, who at first were tense of the alien but eased up as he explained himself, Armor also began reading the written entries in the book. "Entry three... Metamorph explained that he controls his brood like how a democratic empire controls its army, with multiple commanders, in this case 'brood mothers' as he dubbed them. Metamorph demonstrated, that his underlings were better at mutation than he and his brood mothers could, only because they were genderless and only 'pure mated' changelings have genders, going to back to what I said of them being genderless, polymorphism is very picky on how it works, because the person you want to change into is the same gender or sex as your own. It can't work with the opposite gender/sex due to issue of changing reproductive organs being halfway changed, and other structures… also if you're a human using this spell, trying to become stone skin ,sky strider, or Archonian will result in just looking like the person and not having his/hers powers and abilities." "Umm… Aquaris if may interrupt, but who are these sky striders and Archonian you mentioned in these notes?" Cadence asked before looking back down at the book "Well… see them as the equivalent to a Pegasus in abilities, while Archonian is like you Celestia and Luna when it comes to abilities. They just don't have wings protruding out of the sides or horns from their foreheads". Aquaris said before continuing, "I myself am a arcanian, basically a unicorn in pony standards minus the horn, stone skins are like earth ponies but have the ability to temporally lift over eight times their weight." Cadence nodded and went back to reading the entries. "Entry four, the polymorphing spell is complete, with the added ability to do it to yourself or others, simply picture what form you want you or your target to change into, be warned dead or inanimate objects can't be changed back, but can be enchanted to wear, so the wearer can be polymorphed with an specially applied effect. 'The reason this one is short is because I promised Afina I'd convince Rarerius to make her a dress for her human form" Cadence and Armor looked up at Aquaris who was telling a story to Twilight and her parents of how his home world was like and noticed the pictures in the book on the next page of him and who she was guessing were Aquaris's friends all looked like various aliens, she also noticed that there was another picture it showed a lone human, female by the looks, she was slender and had a silver dress on, her eyes were reddish and dragon like a small note at the bottom, "Afina Enjoys her human form and the dress really well… and Rarius has no clue that it was her and still doesn't know." "Entry five… man I'm going to need more tea if I keep writing these at twelve in the morning… I digress, progress on Metamorph's emotional siphon ability is under way, I learned that changeling's absorb emotion like a sponge in water when feeding directly and indirectly off of multiple hosts such with; Armera's love for her fiancé, my parents love for a soon to be son-in-law, my brotherly love for him, and even Solaris's love for his noble prince of a nephew. This sponge ability is with all breeds of changeling not just his own. When the host's emotion is absorbed into the changeling, it converts that emotion into pure energy, which it can use for casting its own arsenal of magic and abilities, in his battle with Solaris. Solaris was over powered by Metamorph, unknowingly Metamorph metaphorically squeezed the sponge dry, the only reason why he won is cause of that, problematically for Meta, his magical defenses were down due to the lack of reserve energy and that's how versian and Armera beat him. 'Side note: tell Solaris that detail of how he lost to Meta.' " Cadence and Armor looked at each other after that entry. Was it true? Did Chrysalis do the same thing that this Metamorph did; it also explains plenty more how Chrysalis did manage to overpower Aunt Celestia. Also who is this Solaris? Cadence flipped to a random page and found something of great interest, the page had drawings and a photo bookmarking the page, the page itself was on some magic shield spell, the photo grabbed her attention more. It showed a few humans, one was Aquaris but the others were a mystery, one of them was in a combination of a white dress and guard armor, her hair was a deep blue she was standing in the center of the group. The other one in the center of the group was wearing a uniform of some sort, his hair style well-kept and was similarly patterned like Cadence's, except it was more on the red and a dark pink. On Aquaris's shoulder was small phoenix and next to his left leg was a dog sized silver dragon. In the background showed like it was the after party for a wedding, a massive cake meant for at least fifty or more guests stood in the distance, hanging from the ceiling were tapestry with the same symbol on Aquaris's shirt on them, on the back of the picture was some small note. After two weeks of developing the pictures arrived, when the honey moons over we'll stop by and have lunch. Love yah little brother, Sterling Armera. P.S Versian sends his thanks for discovering that Metamorph was here and how you help beat him in the long run. Cadence put the picture back and closed it, setting it down in the table in the process. Aquaris noticed this and re-attached his book to his belt. Aquaris reached for his hailer and turned it on; the sides popped out and became screens. He sighed as he scrolled through the photo album on his hailer; he then noticed he had received a message on his Hailer. "We'll be in touch soon." Is all what it said? Aquaris got up and stretched his legs, "if you don't mind I have to go, Afina probably has lunch made and I don't want to interfere any longer with your Family get together Twilight, I'll see you tomorrow." Aquaris walked out his bag following behind him via levitation. He walked his way down the cobblestone path heading back home; Afina was outside napping in a hammock tied between two posts. A bowl with a small amount of crystals in it sat next to her in the hammock. "Afina wake up, I'm going to start dinner, your favorite crystal spiced chocobo fillet." Aquaris said as he lightly shook the hammock, she woke up and looked at him. "Good evening Aquaris, enjoy your Date with Twilight?" Afina said playfully as she pawed his blushing cheek, her forked tongue playfully poked out. "Afina, how many times do I have to tell you, to stop teasing me about that every time I hang out with anything female aside from you?" Aquaris said as he picked up her bowl and helped her hop out of the hammock. "mmm… Dozens, maybe more." She said as she stretched her legs and walked beside him as they made their way to the door, Aquaris unlocked the door and went in, Afina right behind him, it was pitch black inside, the curtains pulled over the windows, and the lights off. Aquaris stepped into the living room area, what came next was a surprise. "OK three… two… one… SURPRISE!" > A dragons Tears > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The future of magic Chapter 3: a dragon's tears Aquaris and Afina were temporarily blind as the lights came on and the curtains pulled open, they had just walked inside to be greeted by a surprise party. When Aquaris regained his vision, he saw decorations, food, and various ponies invited to the party. "Hey Aqua, how do you like my Decorations for your 'Welcome-To-Equestria-Party'?" Pinkie said as she walked up to him. He looked behind her to see Rarity, Aj, Dash, Fluttershy, and also some of the other town's ponies. He looked back down to pinkie, "great, but I must ask, how'd you get in my house?" "It's a secret" She said in her bubbly tone. Making Aquaris have a troubled look, she used a hoof to push Aquaris closer to the group of ponies. "Hello again Aquaris, after from what I guessed in measurements, I made you something that will fit perfectly. Also I made something for you too Afina" Rarity said as she levitated a wrapped up set of clothes to them. Aquaris un-wrapped it to find a pair of dark gray cargo pants, along the lengths of the legs were streams of various hues of blue, the shirt that matched was black with his crest on the front, while the symbol for the terrans was on the left shoulder. When Afina unraveled the wrapped up gift she received, it was a set of tail bracelets, each could be either slid or clipped on. "Let me Afina." Aquaris said as he picked the up and slid the bracelets down her tail until they were in there tight, each equally spaced apart, each equally beautiful. "Thanks Rarity I really appreciate this, how much will cost?" Aquaris asked as he felt the soft fabric that made-up the shirt and pants. "None Darling, it's my and spike's gift to you as a warm welcome here." Rarity said as she looked over to spike who was enjoying one of Pinkie's cupcakes. "Ah, my little spikey wikey, always wanting to help and assist me, he even provided publicity to ponies in Canterlot and that spread up to Cloudsdale. Ive done requests from Spitfire, Princess Luna, and even photo finish." Aquaris bumped Afina lightly and whispered into her earhole, Afina blushed a bright red remembering her nickname she got when she was on Terra. Afina shook her head and looked up, she saw how spike acted when he was talking to Rarity, she giggled when he misspoke an attempted to correct himself. She then was about to walk over to the small buffet offered for guests but she was halted when she had a flashback. Her face scrunched up and she seemed to be on the verge of tears, Aquaris, mind if I step out for a second?" Afina asked as Aquaris looked down. Seeing a face he's seen plenty of times. Aquaris nodded and stepped aside letting her walk out the door, outside Afina made her way to the nearest bush, she crawled in it and burst into tears. She cried for ten minutes before uttering something in her original dragon tongue. "why Rarius?" she whimpered, "why must It be where 'ever I go I see you or someone like you, Rarius… come to me… comfort me, (sniffle)… Rarius… will I ever see you again?" Afina said in a sniffle. "Excuse me but who is Rarius?" Afina looked up to see Cadence and Armor. "How'd you understand me… only a handful of people know what I say?" Afina said as she wiped a tear from her eye. "Call it a mare's intuition, now who is this Rarius?" Cadence said quietly as she looked up, checking that no pony was around. Afina grabbed the necklace and clicked the side, it split apart to show a small picture in it, Cadence looked closely to see another human, he was holding Afina, he had in general a different look than Aquaris, kind of like rarity to an extent but more masculine and obviously human. "That's Rarius." Afina said quietly to Cadence as she looked away, "its taboo for me to love a human when born of the flight I was born in." Afina said as she hung her head down. "Flight?" "Dragons on terra are separated into flights, by dragon law I'm restricted to only mate and copulate with silver scaled dragons like myself, because of my flight, someone I know, someone who looks kind of like and also acts kind of like you, is fighting for the removal of said law." Afina said as she scratched her head. Cadence nodded and decided to see what Afina fully looked like, when she pulled her out via magic she saw probably the most beautiful dragon on both pony and dragon standards, her body wasn't scaly like a dragons but smooth and shiny, it seem to sheen in the sunlight, her thousands of tiny white spines acted like a well-kept mane, on the sides of her head were six ivory thorns, three on each side, the top two having golden rings piercing them, her figure was slender, her chest was broad, and her eyes, they shined like crystals any male dragon or colt could stare in them for hours. Afina blushed as she noticed Cadence basically inspecting her. "Sorry, but how is it a dragoness like yourself, un-wed?" Afina blushes and turns Away, "like I said I love Rarius, it may be taboo but the heart wants what the heart wants, I just hope the Versian removes the law so I don't die for it… sigh… I would die in a heartbeat to save his life, but I wouldn't die to be with him for a moment just to run and potentially never come back." Afina said saddened as she turned and walked her way back to Aquaris's. "Wait… what if you expressed your love to him on this world?" cadence asked as she followed the drake, shining Armor following in suite after the two. "Well it could work, but if my birth parents hear even a whisper or rumor of it, then they would pursue me, even off Terra." Afina said as she sighed knowing well of the dangers. "What is the punishment?" "For males, they will be forced to mate with the strongest female they know personally till exhausted to death. Females since you want to get the most pure eggs out of a female I am,.. forced to mate and lay eggs till I die from lack of rest…" Afina said as she shivered in fear at the mere mentioning of it. "It's instestual… for both genders" Cadence and Armor both gasped. She simply loving a human would have her forced to mate with her own father… talk about Taboo on a federal scale. "I'm sorry, but I must go, everyone at the party will be wondering where I am if I stay away too long." Afina started walking up to the door of Aquaris's place. "Honey… lets go talk to Aquaris; we need to see if we can help her." Cadence said quietly to Armor. "But cadi, can we eve-…" Armor was cut off by Cadence using her magic to close his mouth "yes we can, we may have just met her, but I am the princess of love, and if I find a soul who wants to love some pony, or someone in this case but is forced to not do so by law, then it is my duty to fight against that law, with whoever this Prince Versian is." Cadence said loud enough to where Afina heard it. Back inside Armor and Cadence saw Aquaris, and the others saw this battle take place on a projection on the wall. "So let me get this straight, these monsters the size of castles destroy these cities, and the only real weapon against them are machines that rival in size?" Spike asked as he watched the battle of the movie, a bowl of popcorn in his lap. "Yeah, the kaiju get bigger than that, they adapt to fight the jaeger units, and new jaeger are built to fight the adaptations. "Seems rather barbaric to me." Rarity said as she drank her tea "Well it's war, you'd think that the humans in the movie would give up after enough jaeger losses or civilian casualties, but they don't, you could say it's a human's will to survive." Aquaris said as he used his telekinesis to pick up some of the popcorn and nibbled on the floating ball of it. "oh here's my favorite part." On the screen the kaiju fell with machine standing tall, inside one of the pilots spoke, 'let's check for a pulse' outside the machine armed it's plasma cannon and rained a barrage of the energy based rounds into the carcass of the kaiju, after it was nothing but a ribcage the same pilot spoke again. 'no pulse' he smirked as the cannon disarmed. "Aquaris can we speak to you?" Cadence asked catching most of the ponies off guard, Aquaris turned his head around to see them, "Sure one second," Aquaris gets up and heads into a room he gestures them to follow, inside the room was a small conservatory, four chairs sat around a glass top table. "So what is this about?" Aquaris said as he opened a small cupboard and pulled out three glass bottles with a red label around its center. "It's about Afina; she mentioned something of a law about being with some Rarius." Cadence asked as she sat in the chair as best she could. Armor did as well. "well it is true what she said about the law, most of the other dragon flight's fight against this law but most silver scales are arrogant and believe they are the most dominate breed of dragon and don't heed their words." Aquaris said as he got out a ring like object and pulled the lids off the bottle heads. "Want a coke; it'll keep your mind cool." Aquaris put the bottles on the table and sat across form them. Cadence picks up the bottle and sips its contents, "mmm… it's quite sweet… thank you." Cadence set the bottle down and sighed, "so first off, to you who is Rarius?" "He is one of my best friends, Rarius and I've been through all lot with the others of my inner circle… godlike beings wanting to control Terra, a lot in general… Afina for the longest time has been helping him and his boutique, when was told about that law, she was crying for at least two days, I tried to have her eat but she wouldn't even look at any food I gave her." Aquaris sighed and took a swing from his coke bottle. "when she finally calmed down I got her back into her routine, I lessened her chores and did them myself, even tried to make her like her old cheery self." "Wait in your journal you mentioned about being able to polymorph her into a human." Armor said giving a simple solution that might or might not work "yes I did, but she is still a dragon, if there was rumor of a young unknown women that laid dragon eggs that ended up hatching into silver dragons, then not only is both her and Rarius's lives at risk, but so are the hatchlings. Aquaris opened his hand and a scroll appeared in it, he opened it and rolled it out on the table. On it was a list of rules and punishments of Afina's flight. "by no circumstances shall you; marry, mate with, or even have attractions to non-dragons, penalty for doing so will lead to forced mating with birth parents till death from exhaustion." Cadence looked down seeing the rest of the list, some rules worked well with said punishment, but the rule on same sex relationships was a bit much. "Wow, even when Equestria was in its forming of a country the laws weren't this bad or restricting." Armor said as he remembered the history books he held interest in. "Yeah… any other dragon flight is better than this; they could mate with whoever or whatever they wanted or even with someone of the same sex." Aquaris crossed his arms, "to me I think the Idea of it is just a pile of hell-bug shtako I tell you, I find it bad that they still hold her under their law even though she has a citizen ship, saying she Is a legal non-human terran. " Aquaris said irked. "I understand but what do you mean when you say shtako?" Armor said as he drank his coke to be half full (not half empty). "Well 'shtako' is just one of many words that a certain alien species use to swear, I use it versus the English/ equestrian versions. " Aquaris said as he scratched the back of his head. Armor rolled his eyes, cadence was still looking over the list, she gasped and pushed the scroll away. Aquaris looked at the last rule on the list, it read. "if a female bears eggs of a human male, then she will be buried alive, clawless, toothless, and with her eggs." Aquaris was silent as he read the law; Cadence was upset about how brutal the punishment was, just by bearing the children of a human. "Listen if you want to fight this against the silver flight then I'm beside you as well as Versian, but we have to wait till I can get a way home." Aquaris said as he got up and went through the door. Aquaris went upstairs; all the ponies at the party were still watching the movie or eating the snacks offered, all but one. When Aquaris opened the door to his and Afina's room he saw her crying on the bed, Rarity trying her best to comfort her. "Aquaris… tell me when we get home; I want to see him again… I don't care if they want to do what the law says I love him and I want to tell him I do…" Afina sobbed as she wiped her eyes of the tears, Rarity looked up at Aquaris, a look of true concern plastered on her face. "Calm down dear, you'll see him again, I promise you that…" Rarity used her hoof to rub Afina's sprawled out hair back in order. Aquaris decided to get the one thing that had always comforted her in the past, a stuffed dragon doll, Aquaris sat on the bed rubbed Afina's arm before having the doll placed in her grasp, as if by instinct she held it close to her chest, it lightly squeaked as she hugged it. "I want to go home Aquaris… I just want to go home." Afina muttered quietly in her sobs. "Don't worry Afina, I'll get you home or by Solaris I will die trying." Aquaris said as he kissed her forehead and went out of the room, he gestured Rarity to follow. "What are you going to do Aquaris?" Rarity asked as Aquaris closed the door "What I always do… find a way to fix this, first I need her to eat something." Aquaris said as he began walking down the stairs Rarity following in suite, "you seem to remind her of him Rarity, I don't blame you but at the same time, you seem to calm her down as well for the same reason." They snuck passed the others and into the kitchen. "What are you going to make her?" Rarity asked as Aquaris opened the refrigerator and debated what to pull out. "Given how sad and how much she Is crying, she can't eat something that will fill her too much." "Well I was originally planning a spice Chocobo for dinner, but I need something she can easily keep down… maybe some of my home made sushi." Aquaris pulled from the fridge two different fish halves, a bag of shrimp, and a bit of clustered crab legs, he went to the counter and placed the dead marine animals on a cutting board. He pulled out a fillet and cutting knife and began sharpening them. "Anything we could help with Aquaris?" Aquaris turned to see that Rarity had gotten the others, "yeah… if you can help with what I'm preparing for Afina and for dinner in general." Aquaris skinned the first fish half and pulled a plier like tool and deboned. "Fluttershy can you see if you calm her down so she can eat… we might as well clean up the party décor," Aquaris said as Fluttershy nodded and went upstairs. "I'll do it Aqua." Pinkie bounced happily as she went to clean up the decorations. Aquaris chuckled at her bubbly attitude, and began working on the other fish, "Rarity can you fill that kettle with water and get it heated up?" Rarity did so and placed the kettle on the electric stove Aquaris pressed a few buttons to start the kettle, he also placed a pot full of water and started to heat up that water for rice. After about roughly twelve minutes Aquaris had prepared a plate of various sushi for Afina, while a whole plethora of sushi waited for Aquaris and the others, "Aquaris… no offense but we don't really eat mea-…" Rainbow said as she was cut off by Aquaris. "Fish is a meat that even vegetarians on terra will eat, it's soft and falls easily apart, also sushi is quite good, if you don't want any sushi ill mix up a quick salad." Aquaris said cutting off dash as he took the plate and a cup of tea upstairs, "Rarity don't use the same tea leaves I used in Afina's tea glass, that mix will knock you out cold within an instant, use the other box labeled spiced apple. Aquaris opened the door and saw Afina still upset but not as badly, "wow shy, you did a good job she is much calmer now." Aquaris sat on the bed and shook her lightly; she looked up, her normal baby blue eyes bloodshot from her crying. "Here Afina, eat this." Aquaris said as he levitated the piece of sushi in front of her maw. She shook her head keeping her mouth shut, "Afina if you don't eat I'll have to force you and I don't want to do that. If you want me to get us home, then you have to be patient and a part of that is keeping yourself fed." Afina finally gave up and opened her mouth, accepting the raw fish and rice. "good girl… sigh… Afina I promise you that I'll get you home, I'll help you express your love to Rarius, and ill defend you from those laws." Aquaris whispered in her earhole as she ate the rest of the sushi. He put the tea cup in front of her face and tilted it as Afina put her lips to it, she drank the sleep aid and within a mere few seconds passed out from the tea leaves knockout properties. After tucking her into his bed he closed the door as he exited and went downstairs, in the dining room Cadence and Armor were talking with rest of the mane of the mane six. "So how is the Crystal Kingdom without that mean old sombra?" Dash asked them. "It's been good, but you have to carry around any cold weather clothing every time you want to go on patrol outside the city." Armor replied "Well isn't the inside feel like an average spring in ponyville?" "Yeah but the stuff his meant to hold heat in and absorb more if possible, so it gets real warm real fast when you wear it in the dome." Armor said as he noticed Aquaris walk in. "Thanks for waiting on me…" Aquaris went to a cabinet pulling out nine plates and small dipping bowls, he set the table and filled each dipping bowl with soy sauce, he pulled out chopsticks for himself (he preferred eating sushi the original way. For dash, shy, pinkie, and AJ he used some forks and used magic to attach them to their hoofs. Cadence stared at this and decided to spark an idea in Aquaris's mind "Why don't you turn them into humans, temporally that is?" She was right and Aquaris could easily one up on that. "well I can… also I know how to enchant things so I can easily just make an item such as jewelry as a perfect way to change them into humans, without wasting time to caste the polymorph spell, for ill do it normally but tomorrow I need to find enough gold and the appropriate gems to make necklaces to polymorph you ponies at your own will whenever and wherever you want." Aquaris said as he stood up and opened his hands. The room flashed bright and dimmed down quickly, all of them were human including spike, Rarity, Cadence, and Armor. "wow, that's impressive…" everyone said looking themselves and eachother over, Aquaris looked at each of them but when he looked at Cadence his nose bled. "Umm Aquaris… your bleeding…" Fluttershy said as she handed him a napkin. Aquaris blushed and took the napkin and put it to his face, "sorry… that usually doesn't happen… my apologies Cadence." Aquaris said before he pinched his nose to stop the bleeding. When Aquaris mentioned the apology was for her she immediately blushed red, Armor sneered a bit but then realized that it couldn't be helped. "Well let's eat." Pinkie said as she took a yellow tail on a rice patty and bit into it, all the humanized ponies gasped aside from pinkie, "wow it's pretty good." They all then realized, with this new form may have come new taste buds as well. Aquaris sighed and made a plate and used his chopsticks to eat, surprisingly Rarity was the next to try this. "Well, it's not a five star restaurant good… but it is still quite delicious." Rarity said after downing the bite, on queue the others tried and to Aquaris's satisfaction they liked it. During their meal they chatted, Aquaris told of some of his life to them and even showed them some of the happier bits, one of them showed he and his friends on the beach. Flash back Aquaris, sat in the shade of an umbrella, the hot sun too much for his taste, in his hand was a book titled, The tenno, space ninja's or magic ninja's?. "Yo Aquaris, check me out!" a voice said in the distance, a guy bit taller than Aquaris came into view, he was surfing, to be precise he was performing a handstand on his surf board, his short rainbow hair darkened by the salt water, a pair of red flight goggles over his eyes "Carful blitz, one slip up and Jack's going to have to fish you out." Aquaris said as he put the book down and looked at the view, he saw Afina building a massive sand fort, Rarius was tanning on a lounge chair, two other humans were at opposite sides of a table paddles in their hands, they passed a small ball between each other over a short net. Aquaris turned his head and watched as his other friend, was resting in the shade of a palm tree. A chocolate furred bunny resting in his lap, "Leon, how much longer you going to be a rock in the shade, we came here to have some fun and you've sat there roughly thirty minutes." Aquaris said over to Leon. "Sorry Aquaris… heh heh… I might take a quick swim… c'mon moa." "Bunneary!" the small bunny known as angle' Moa hopped after Leon. "Wait that bunny can talk?" Armor asked outside of the flashback. "yeah, Angle' Moa or Moa for short is a bunneary, she can speak only her name but if she ingested a vocalizer stone, she can speak normal human speech". Aquaris closed the memory and put it at future point and played it. It was sunset the waters were calm, the sun red on the horizon, the seagulls chirped as they glided in the sea breeze. In front of Aquaris were Afina and Rarius, they sat next to each other the others sitting beside Aquaris. "What a good day to have a day at the beach, right Afina?" Rarius asked as he looked down at the young dragon, "Yeah… it was… (Sigh)," Afina said as she looked down. "What's wrong?" "Nothing… it's nothing…" Rarius picked her up and had her in his lap, "go on tell me, I won't laugh." "(Sigh)… well I thought you and I would share that pikalu fruit I got you…" Afina said as light blush on her face, near unnoticeable by the light. "Yeah… sorry, blitz talked to fast for me to say no… I think I got something better though, and I know you'll enjoy it." Rarius smiled and changed the way that he held her, "close your eyes." Afina did so. Rarius leaned in an kissed her smooth silver forehead, all of them in the memory cheered, including Aquaris. Blitz could be heard teasing them after he pulled away, "hey Rarius!, Afina! You think you're goanna make a clutch of eggs when you get home?!" Blizt said as he flew over them in circles, "hey that was only to make up for what you did Blitz, also I think Afina wouldn't be ready for a clutch yet until she finds a mate." Rarius yelled as he attempted to hit Blitz with magic bolts. Memory end due to force close "Why is she in love with him? Afina that is." Rarity asked as Aquaris's eyes stopped glowing. "it was love at first sight, he was in charge of decorating the summer solstice festival that Afina and I were to supervise… she was jaw dropped at how handsome Rarius was and immediately was head over heels for him" Aquaris said as he picked up the plates and placed them In a hydrifuge. (A spacey-er dishwasher… it's sounds funny) "How'd she figure out she couldn't well?" Fluttershy asked as she moved a loose strand of hair into place. "A week after the memory you saw… a photo-shoot happened for Rarius Dragon scale dresses. Afina attended for she donated scales for the dresses." "Wait but, she has no scales…" "She dose, but the lines that make scales noticeable are very easy to miss" Aquaris added as he put the left over quarter plate of sushi into the fridge. "After the shoot, they stopped at a small shop for some more interesting materials specifically fabricated for dragons to wear it, preventing irritation of scales and destruction of the fabric as they rub against each other… either way Rarius told her wait outside, he was going to make her something to surprise her and didn't want her to see what he had bought." Aquaris gestured them to enter the now cleaned up living room, he sat down in a recliner and continued, "She waited, two fully grown silver dragons approached her, her birth parents. Her mother Ember strike and her father… Mobius. They threatened her with death if she chose to stay with Rarius, after a while of arguing her own Father breathed fire at her, most dragons can't take the heat of other dragon's fire, the burn healed quickly after she shed the burnt scales, either way after that she ran off. Rarius ran outside to see her flying off and the dragons staring at him." "Sorry to interrupt but, why is it that they fear humans and Dragons being together?" "When a dragon kin is born, they will normally look like a normal human or dragon but, contain higher intelligence, can earn a crest, it varies on the mated pair, and it could lead to any of the three basic human variations. I don't see any negative effects, the chances of bad stuff happening is as equal as any normal human birth, so I don't see why in the name of oblivion they see it banned from their flight." Aquaris said slightly irritated. "I see… Spike you feeling alright little buddy?" Armor asked as he noticed spike held his stomach, "not really, I think princess Celestia's sending a- (burp)… letter" a spurt of green flames came from the human dragons' mouth and a rolled up parchment materialized, a small seal held it wrapped, the seal was different it was golden but had a different emblem on it, Cadence noticed it as the one Aquaris had on his shirt. "It's for you Aquaris, I think so any way." Cadence said as spike opened it. "Well it is, and it's written in a different way." He cleared his throat. "dear Aquaris, if you received this message and reply to it, we'd be most grateful and relived, the spell used it to send this to Afina didn't work so we sent it to the nearest Dragon closest to your Arcane signature so if the dragon complies we have a way of communication, it will take some time for a friend of ours to contact you, since she can't seem to find you with ease. Note when she dose contact you it will only be for a short period due to her busy schedule, until then every week send a letter to use telling us of you and Afina's status and also on where you are and what is the local population like. I look forward to hear from you soon, Prince Solaris." Spike said as he read through the letter. "Well that's good… I wonder if I can have him deliver something of great use to us all to me when I write back to him…" Aquaris got up and held out his hand for the letter, spike complied and handed him the letter, "Rarity I sense your concern for Afina, if wish to stay here to check on her you can and you can use the guest room." Rarity simply nodded in response. "Well I have to go home, Angel is probably wondering where I am and he gets cranky If I don't feed him around this time." Fluttershy said before realizing she was still human, "um… Aquaris?" "Oh yeah sorry…" in a bright flash every pony was back to normal within seconds. "All of you come by tomorrow if you can to pick up the items I will have enchanted for a self-controlled human form, I'll see if Twilight can mail you both yours." Aquaris said as he started up the stairs. "Oh yeah pinkie… thanks for the party, it meant a lot to us both… I just Afina would've been able to enjoy it." "No problem Aqua, it's what I do." Pinkie said before she made her way out, knowing she has things to do as well. When Aquaris was out of sight from the stairwell the others left aside from Rarity, she debated over to stay and keep watch of Afina, or go home? "I don't have any requests for anything, so I could stay… but will sweetie handle… wait she is sleeping over with Applebloom." Rarity thought to herself putting a hoof to her snout. "What the hay I'll stay besides, Aquaris was right, aside from Fluttershy she seems relatively calm with me, poor thing she must have been through more than Aquaris has ever been." Rarity made her way upstairs, the guest room was open and the bed was made, she passed it and made her way to Aquaris's room, when she closed the door behind her she noticed that Afina was still asleep, "Afina?" she walked closer to and used a hoof to shake her, instead it was squished as if it was pillows. Rarity pulled the covers away to show that it was some pillows and her stuffed dragon plush. "AFINA!?" Rarity was searching the room all over for her; she noticed that blaze was chirping on her perch. From being friends with Fluttershy for so long you pick up how to understand birds. "She left; she also took the dragon stone." Blaze chirped as she pointed a wing at the open window. Aquaris walked in a cup of steaming coffee in his hand. "What happened?" Aquaris walked in hearing both Rarity's yell and Blaze's Chirping "Afina ran… I don't know why… if she's run into the Everfree forest we have to find her fast." Rarity said receiving a nod from Aquaris, "Blaze what did you see?" Aquaris put an index finger to her chest which glowed for a brief second. "She got up in tears, muttered something I couldn't understand, took that dragon crystal, also that sapphire sphere, and flew out the window." Blaze said as her chirps were turned to eligible English words. "Alright thanks Blaze… Rarity can you get the others? I might need some help" Aquaris said as he went to his closest and pulled out a combat staff. Rarity nodded and made her way out Aquaris following just behind her. outside Rarity went to go get the others, while Aquaris went to get Twilight. "Twilight… I need some help… Twilight." Aquaris said as he knocked on the door with his staff. He heard a clicking sound and noticed Twilight was rubbing her eyes looking Down at Aquaris, "sorry to wake you but I need help Afina's gone missing and I need some pony who knows the forest as a guide." "Why'd she go missing?" Twilight asked a bit confused. "Let me in and I'll explain it while we wait for Rarity to get the others." Aquaris heared a click on the door as it opened. He looked up and smiled "I see you learned the 'Arcane lock' spell already." "Yeah it was easy, saves time too, problem is spike can't lock the door or get in without me now." She said as she made her was down the ladder leading from the upper floor. "There is a way to make a permanent arcane key which unlocks the locks you made as long as you made the key." Aquaris said as he closed the door behind him after stepping in. "alright it started maybe ten minutes after I left." Five minutes late "Ok… well I don't know what to say but… she really loves him that much?" "yeah… she catches him under mistletoe a lot when he had are midwinter's eve party… but this is only the second time she's ran off like this the first time was from being teased because she loved a human by other dragons of different flights." Aquaris scratched his head and sighed. "After that she was more… how should I put this, active in a sexual manner… I got her the dragon crystal to relive those urges and even bought her various gem spheres to… add variety" "Ok… bit odd but I can see the point… who teased her?" "Some older females who were mated with humans, they teased her about being a virgin… listen I'd rather not talk about this personal in my family…" Aquaris said turning his head away. "Sorry… curiosity got the best of me… oh Rarity did you get the girls?" Rairty walked in with the others waiting outside "Almost Darling, Fluttershy probably might know where to start and she is one the way to the forest… I hope Afina's ok..." "I do too Rarity…Alright let's go…" Aquaris got up, staff in hand and determination in his eyes. They set off For EverFree forest. > Spa trip to Euphoria > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The future of magic Chapter 4: A spa trip to euphoria The mane 6 and Aquaris kept walking on the dirt trail a small sphere of light floated in front of them, lighting the area up, a trail of claw prints was paralel to the the path. Every so often they would call for her to no aval, suddenly they heared a scream. "Afina!" Aquaris yelled as he charged forward a battle stance ready, staff tightly gripped. "Aquaris wait!" Twilight yelled as she chased after him, the others following fast after them. When they caught up they saw Aquaris defending himself from a manticore, Afina soaked with water tighlty held in it's tails grip. It Struck at the sheild Aquaris produced, it dropped quickly and Aquaris dished out a varity of attacks upon it, "let her go you monster!" Aquaris yelled as he stood back and shot a rivers worth of water at the manticore with tremendous foce. It rarwed as the blast of Water pushed it back… it didn't stop there Aquaris came Again and focused on the plated Scorpion tail. Aquaris landed on it's back and charged up his staff, he slammed the tip into the back of it and realesed a shockwave through out it's body. It rawred again as it fell onto it's stomach. "Aquaris wait don't try to…" Fluttershy yelled as Aquaris used his magic to uncurl the manticore's tail, "Aquaris it wont work, he's too strong… on the back of his neck use that spell you used a moment ago, their neck is more solid a dirrect impact like that will only put it to sleep." Aquaris nodded and did so it rawred again before passing out its tail loosening a bit. "wow, you took him out singal handedly… I thought you as an egghead like Twilight but, you got some style." Dash said Aquaris climbed off the sleeping manticore. "thanks dash, in dire situations of any kind, humans get this adrenaline rush and go all out… also various insticnts for me it was an older siblings goal to keep youngers one safe even though she is eighteen in dragon years." Aquaris put his staff on his back and pulled Afina out of it's grasp "Thanks Aquaris, for not killing him… but he normally doesn't attack anyone, especially dragons." "You have to teach me how to do that, the book I borrowed isn't on combat spells." Twilight said as she gawked at the sonic quake spell. "I will… but I need time, and I need to make sure Afina is safe and sound, I may be holding her but one the dragon crystal isn't here nor is her sapphire orb… they were rather hard to find and tricky to configure." Aquaris replied as he put Afina on his back, allowing himself to carry her more easily. "Aquaris… I'm sorry…" Afina mumbled in her sleep. "What does this crystal look like?" Rarity asked as Twilight created another light sphere, mostly out of sheer luck attempting at it. "like this" Aquaris opened his hand showing a projection of the crystal, "it naturally glows so it won't be too hard to find, the gem orbs ,magically attempt to keep close to the dragon crystal so if we find the crystal we find the orb." Dash took flight seeing if she could see it from above the tree line; all of them split up while Aquaris set Afina down and produced a small shield over her. And started in a direction the others didn't. Minutes later Aquaris was staring at the entrance of a massive cave, he could hear all sorts of various creatures inside, he was about to go in until "Aquaris I think we found it!" Aquaris heard Twilight yell from a distance "Alright on my way." Aquaris replied as he sprinted in the direction of the voice When Aquaris came into a clearing he saw a massive pond, the others had made their way to Twilight and were staring in awe at the glowing waters caused by the crystal's presence, the dragon crystal sat on a boulder in the center of the pool, the orb rolling around it. Aquaris sat on a nearby stump and undid his boots, he also removed his socks and left the socks siting just outside the mouth of his foot wear. Aquaris focus his energy into his feet and took a step onto the pool, instead of going in the water his foot stopped at the surface, when he put his weight on it, he didn't fall in, he stood on it as if it was solid. Dash poked a hoof at the water seeing it react normally to her. "The water walking spell, easy to cast but tricky to keep active, as long as I stay focused I can walk on the water's surface." Aquaris said as he slowly made his way to the boulder, each step only made a small ripple, otherwise the pond was still. As Aquaris reached the center of the pond he picked up the crystal and the orb. "Aquaris look out!" AJ yelled as Aquaris was hit squarely in the face with a magic bolt "Argh… huh the crystal." Aquaris said regaining his stance and focus on the water, as the crystal was pulled to the source of the attack. Aquaris grabbed it with his own magic causing it to shake back and forth between him and the one hiding in the shadows. "let go, this crystal is meant for my draconic little sister!" Aquaris yelled as he pulled harder on it. "and I need it for a show assistant, I hypnotized and sent that manticore to get her away from it, when I saw what It could do I knew I could use it well." A familiar voice said from the shadows "besides, it seems kind of selfish that she uses it just so she has some pony to talk to." The pull on the crystal tensed up. For three minutes the two argued as they played tug of war with the crystal, Fluttershy had gone back and picked up Afina, when she returned Aquaris was about to grab the crystal with his hand, he then used his other hand to pull the other pony who was pulling on the crystal, a light blue unicorn flew over Aquaris and into the water, she was wearing a light purple wizard cap and cape. She was now soaking wet for obvious reasons. "Trixie! How many times are you going to try to rebuild this broken career?" Twilight said as she walked up to the edge of the pond. "Remember that Celestia offered that position of being her court unicorn but you denied it for this." "I don't care about that, I want to fulfill my dream and with that crystal I could be legendary." Trixie said as she stood up in the pond. Water dripping from her fur, Aquaris noticed she was quite dirty even with that short dip in the pond, her eyes looked tired; in general she looked in pretty bad shape. "Listen… Trixie, I have many reasons why you shouldn't even try to use this… reason number one is that the crystal basically spawns an exact copy of you as a dragon and the opposite gender, two the created dragon is primed and ready to mate." Aquaris said as he pocketed the crystal, "so if you put on a show with that crystal you'll be accused of public indecency." All of the ponies' jaws dropped, a crystal designed to produce a non-relationship sex partner. "Aquaris… we can talk about that later… right now can you maybe get Trixie to have some sense knocked into her." Aquaris nodded and stepped into the water, he waded over to the now backing up Trixie, he put a hand turned her head and focused his energy, "see what would happen if you had the stone," Trixie stood in a crowd of ponies, watching a future self of her with the crystal, the crowd applauded as the light blue drake appeared before her eyes. After a few tricks involving the dragon, he smirked and tackled her, and began mating with her, the crowd gasped and fled, the Trixie on the stage was in tears as the dragon kept at its sole purpose of creation. The Trixie that was of the now fled crowd watched as each time that drake thrusted, her career was shattered piece by piece. The illusion ended with Trixie's eyes wide and her pupils small, "keep that thing away from me…" she muttered gesturing about the crystal. Aquaris backed up as he lowered his hand, "Twilight… I think ill take that offer if it's still open." Trixie said as she walked out of the pond. "Aquaris what did you show her?" "what would've happened, Twilight… I used a spell to see into the future of an alternate reality were she took the crystal and kept it." Aquaris stepped out of the pond as well, "ill wipe that bit of memory from her mind and make it to where I convinced her with other reasons… c'mon lets go before some wild beasts come and try to get us." Aquaris put his hand again to her head, erasing what she just saw and putting a new one in it's place. Hours later the group made it back to ponyville, Trixie went with Twilight to her library convinced and finally wanting to get somewhere in life aside from this shattered career as a show pony, the others split off aside from Rarity who was following Aquaris who was carrying the sleeping Drake. "so that crystal… dose it-…" "Yeah… I bought it so she can calm her urges during heat season… but I realized that Trixie said Afina was talking to the crystal's creation, she is truly saving her first for Rarius…" Aquaris said as he pulled the crystal from his pocket. "When did she start her first season?" "about three years ago when she was twelve in dragon years… she was sweating and wouldn't stay still, when the last days came by she was panting heavily but still didn't mate, every two months is a heat season for virgin dragons, after she mates once it's every four months." Aquaris said as he opened the front door to his house. He set Afina on the couch and felt her head for any temperature change, "will she be alright?" "yeah… she will be… listen you can go to bed, ill make sure she doesn't go anywhere" Aquaris sat on the couch and put her head in his lap, she slept peacefully. Rartiy walked up stairs to the guest room, she lied on the bed and closed her eyes, "hopefully she'll recover from this… hopefully" she thought as she fell asleep Midnight Afina in her dreams was wondering through the forest, it was morning and a low mist hung in the air, "where am I?" Afina said as she kept walking her voice echoed through the cluster of trees. "you are in the grotto of dreams young Afina" an ethereal voice said from the mist, Princess Luna walked out of the mist, but something was different, a dark blue aura outlined her sleek form. "how are you here?" "I can see and be in other's dreams… and also in a sense toy with them a bit… for example." Her horn glowed for a second, a moment later Afina collapsed panting in short breathes… "like make you experience an orgasm without any form of physical interaction." Luna giggled as Afina regained her composer with a blush going along her snout. "Please don't do that again…" she said turning her head away blushing hard, "Sorry but given your situation I thought it would help, you still are a virgin, I just made you experience one. Is all." Said as she gestured Afina to follow. As they walked Afina noticed various portals of all sorts of dreams, some good, some bad, some full of love, and some full of just some of the most wrong things she's seen. "Here is my sister's dream… I've always wondered why she dreamed of cake." Afina looked at the portal seeing Celestia on a massive mountain sized cake, it made her taste buds water as she stared at it. "Come along Afina." Afina shook her head of the thoughts of cake and kept following Luna. Eventually Luna stopped in front of a different portal, Afina stopped to see the dream she is actually dreaming, she is resting in the arms of Rarius, a smug grin on her face as she was held by him. "I must admit you look adorable asleep in this dream… matter of fact that is how you are here, when your dream self falls asleep you enter the dream grotto" Luna explained as she turned to Afina "Great it's inception… never liked that movie… music was good but the idea of a drug that allows stealing memories from someone possible, is just weird." Afina said as she shook her head as it hung down. "Listen… umm can I get out of here, I just feel a little uncomfortable when I can see everypony's dreams especially the private ones…" Afina said as she looked up at Luna. "Well it is almost sunrise, although it doesn't seem like it we've been here for about five hours." Luna said as Afina's jaw dropped, "Also don't worry about what I did to you earlier, I'm pretty sure you didn't leak any juices out… I think." Afina blushed a deep red as Luna brought that up." Either way Afina it is good to meet you in a more one on one without Aquaris, we'll be meeting soon in the real world I can feel it." The world faded away and so did Luna. That morning in Canterlot castle Princess Luna awoke as it was time to lower the moon for her sister to raise it, it was one of the week's where she has a daytime schedule, as she walked down stairs stopping as a patrol of tuckered out night guards passed by, they saluted her before the continued on with their walk back to their barracks. Luna slowly made her way to the smaller personal dining hall where small dinner parties and princesses ate when they didn't need to eat with about fifty nobles and diplomats. Inside was a note form Celestia, requesting to head to the private gardens for breakfast. Upon arrival she understands why. Celestia and Discord former enemy to a lot of ponies sat across the table as they enjoyed breakfast, ever since Fluttershy reformed him, he went on an interdiemsional vacation, and he was now telling what he's seen. "It's been to long Discord when we were actually friendly to each other." Celestia commented as she sipped her tea. "Indeed, I believe when you and Luna were just fillies, and I was my whelp of a draconaquise." Discord replied before they noticed Luna had walked in and sat down, "ah if it isn't young Luna, oh here I got yah something form this odd fellow, says this little guy fits a pony like you with a love for the night like a stocking." Discord pulled a decent sized present out of nowhere and set it down, as Luna unwrapped he present, a small fox like creature pulled itself out of the box, it's fur was the same as Luna's, a white crescent moon pattern over its left eye. "Oh it's adorable!" Luna picked up the small fox like creature with her magic. It nuzzled her face as it was pulled closer. "And it's so sweet." Discord had a smile on his face as he pulled out another one and passed it to Celestia, when she unwrapped it, Celestia was surprised to find that its contents were, aside from packing peanuts was a few large bottles of red wine labeled 'solar eclipse merlot'. "Thank you Discord… where'd you get this?" "On another world called Terra as they put it, it was inhabited by these humans… so odd they were, barely any fur for mammals, they knew magic, but what surprised me is how more advance they were." "Well we know what these humans are, one almost crushed Celestia and I. What advancements do they have though?" Luna added as her new pet played with her mane. "too much to explain it and so little time to do so in, besides I have to do my part in keeping the forces of nature in equalization." He stood up and stretched, "every pony needs a little chaos to keep all this peace and order in check after all." Discord made his exit via teleportation leaving the sisters to discuss with one another. "I do appreciate his self-control on how much chaos he causes… plenty tolerable and sometimes quite funny." Luna giggled as she turned back to see the small pet of hers now asleep on her back. "I agree Lulu… either way some other news, Cadence and Shining Armor have almost gotten the new crystal princess, into her state of mind she'll need for governing the crystal ponies… oh yes, Twilight sent me a letter this morning, she has learned some of Aquaris' spells but also tells me that he has a journal of unfinished spells that he has with him all the time." Celestia set the letter in front of table showing what she meant. "They are supposed to meet up today to practice study each other's spells." "Which reminds me, you know that other young dragon, Afina?" "Yes" "well last night I was talking to her via her dream and I realized she has had an emotional breakdown, from what is saw from her memory Cadence knows more and I shall ask her when she returns to Canterlot." Luna said as she used her magic to pick up a spoon to eat a grapefruit half. Celestia put a hoof to her snout pondering for a moment, the noise of a portal opening was heard, behind them a creature almost like Discord walked out of it, it's body feathery, it's head was bird like, it had a dragons left wing and a insect's right one, it left leg was of minotaur it's right was a canine, both its arms were also canine, but one had a sharp bone poking out the elbow of it. "Whoa… it worked." The creature holds up a small vial of blood, judging by its voice and composer it was a female, she pockets the vial before checking around her, "oh hello, I am looking for Aquaris Aritinon." It spoke in a sly voice. "Who are you?" Celestia asked completely ignoring the other beings question, her horn glowing "I am Nemesis a Chimera that is also the goddess of Mischief, I'm not going to hurt anyone so, can you please not point that at me, I sense the amount of power you can generate and I do not like it." Nemesis spoke as she stretched her tail. Celestia lowered her stance a bit; she also noticed that its tail was tipped with a silver bell ball, and she had a bag on her side with no form of connection between her and it. "Ok… why are you here?" "Well I was supposed to teleport to Aquaris and give him this." She held out a small ring like object, it looked like it was supposed to be bigger, but was shrunken to easily carry, "but Instead I was taken here, say do you know where I can find him?" "I was going to send him a letter of request to come here, so he could find a way to get home." Celestia added. "well, this ring is a transportable version of a star-gate, a device capable of opening a rift and allowing anyone or anything to go into it and reach a new destination on the other side, pretty cool huh?" Nemesis said she tossed it in the air over her head and catching it behind her head. "Well yes… wait it's a way for him to go home?" "Not just, it is a door to many worlds, by simply punching the right code in, the gate will take you the gate of that world. You could go to each other's worlds any time you want." Nemesis added before noticing the tiara on both Celestia's and Luna's heads. "I'm guessing you're royalty?" "yes… why do you ask?" "I am a very busy goddess so I can't stay long, if you can hold onto this and give it to him, I can be on my way to my job." Nemesis tossed the star-gate towards Celestia. "ok… what do we say, Somepony named Nemesis teleported from nowhere and gave us miniature Star-gate?" Luna said as she finished her grapefruit. "yes that would work perfectly… now, au revoir I have to go and torment some people with CHOCLATE RAIN!" she said in a deep tone as she poofed into nothing. Luna's eyes went wide as she realized something, "she did seem a lot like…" "Discord…" Celestia finished after realizing it too. Over in ponyville "Forty eight… forty nine… fifty…" Aquaris counted as he did pushups in the middle of the living room Afina was sipping at a glass of Lon-Lon milk as she watched recorded shows, she had cheered up a lot thanks to Luna, but she still was a tad bit sad. Rarity walked down the steps her hair in a mess due to her normal morning routine stuff at the boutique, "morning Rarity, sleep well?" Afina asked as before sipping her milk again. "good darling… how are you feeling?" "better than last night… sorry about causing so much trouble last night…" Afina held her head down in apology, "no need to dear… you were in love with somepony you wanted to be with for the rest of your life, I promised last night too, ill make sure you'll see him again and be able to love him as you want to." Rarity said cheering the young dragoness up immensely. Rarity turned around to see a shirtless Aquaris doing sit-ups, his body shined with sweat as he did his workout. "Liking the view Rarity?" Aquaris teased as he continued his sit ups, Rarity said nothing but blushed, that's when she felt something tugging on her mane, when she turned to look at it, it was already groomed in her usual style. There you go, now you don't need to hide as you make your way home to clean your mane up." Aquaris finished his sit ups and used a small towel to wipe his face off of the sweat. "Thanks Aquaris… if you don't mind I have to go, I'm meeting with Fluttershy at the spa today and I need to get some breakfast and make sure Sweetiebelle is home." Rarity turned and made her way to the door, "Go one ahead, I don't mind, tell shy I said hi and also thank her for helping me last night, what she told me about the manticore helped." Aquaris stood up and stretched his sore arms before telekinetically picking up a buttered corn muffin and bit into it. "Will do Aquaris" Rarity closed the door behind her and set off to home. "Aquaris don't mind me asking much but, when do you plan on working on a way home?" Afina asked as she finished her milk "I was reading on stable long distance portals, you ran off and I forgot about going back to it… but I did learn that if we had a Star-gate, we can easily dial in are way home." Aquaris said as he sat down and scratched behind her side spikes. "From what I read from that letter from Solaris, he said someone would come to give me something to help us… I hope it is a star-gate or something to teleport us…" Afina stretched her wings, "well if we can maybe we can head to that spa… I need a wing massage and I think something therapeutic would help." Afina hinted as she went to clean the glass that had her milk in. "Ok… we'll head to the spa and see what they offer, but after we're heading to Twilight's for the rest of the day." Aquaris went to grab his bag and shirt. "C'mon Afina, the sooner we get there the longer we can be there." Aquaris opened the door to let her through and locked it behind them. Five minutes of walking later Aquaris went to the side of the door to see prices while Afina sat in the shade of a nearby umbrella of a patio that was owned by the restaurant next door. "Let's see, standard treatment twenty bits, dragons is thirty… hmm, premium." Aquaris looked the list. "Rare offer on onetime use VIP passes… premium treatment and more. One hundred and twenty bits per pony, gryphon, or dragon… wow that is a great deal given the premium is massage, mud bath, seaweed wrap, sauna treatment, hoof/claw care for mare/dragonesses, and finally free drinks while in the spa tub." Aquaris spoke as he read with Afina in earshot. "So what are we getting Aquaris?" "The onetime VIP passes, we have plenty of bits and I can convert more from the credits we have if need be." Aquaris opened the door letting her in before going in himself. "Welcome, I'm Lotus." "And I'm Aloe." Aquaris's jaw dropped, "Twins… by Solaris why is it somany spas are run by siblings?." Aquaris thought a s the Twins introduced themselves he shook his head out his train of thought and pulled out a bag full of bits. "yes, I would two of those VIP passes, dose it cover hu-…" Aquaris said as the guest bell rang. Aquaris looked behind him to see Rarity and Fluttershy. "Ah Ms. Rarity, Ms. Fluttershy right on time… your usual will ready momentarily." "Excellent oh hello Aquaris, didn't know you wanted a spa trip yourself, could've asked you and Afina to come along too if I knew." Rarity said as Afina and Aquaris were handed unlimited use VIP passes. "Wait what?" Aquaris said as he noticed the passes were different and he didn't pay the price for them. "Ms. Rarity is the main contributor to this spa, her other five main friends and yourself are given VIP passes, it was her real gift to you for giving her more than enough Idea's for her masterpieces of clothing." Aloe said as she pushed and Afina to their massages. Aquaris noticed the spa staff was mostly mares aside from a handful of colts who were servicing some guests, some were cleaning, and two were at the bar making mixed drinks. (Upgrading :D) "Since you are requesting the VIP treatment, Lotus and I will be servicing you. Now for yourself Mr., Aquaris, I see you have spare clothes, there is a changing room over there you can use, and Ms. Afina follow me and I'll start with your massage." Aloe guided Afina to her Massage room while Lotus waited for Aquaris. "so tell me, I've noticed that you and Aloe have the same cutie mark." Aquaris said as he began changing clothes. "Yeah… we are almost pure Twins minus are fur and mane colors… it's the first real occurrence of two of the same Cutie marks." Lotus answered as Aquaris slipped on a pair of Dark blue/ Aqua blue swim trunks and tightened it. Put his other Clothes in his bag and walked out of the changing room. "Ok Mr. Aquaris follow me to your Massage room, what would like a bit of music, scented candles, or maybe a book?" Lotus Asked as they entered the small cube room with a massage bed in the center, various cabinets went around the sides, plenty of space between them of course. Aquaris lied down on the bed and closed his eyes waiting for Lotus to work her magic with her hooves. As time passed Aquaris was in bliss as she got all his pressure points and sore spots, she even managed to relax the pulled muscle in his right leg. "Oh by Solaris Lotus… I haven't had a good massage like this since I was on Terra…. Ahhh so much better" Aquaris said, lotus giggled as she thought to herself, keeping her massage mostly on his in pain pressure points. "He is so complementary and quite attractive even if he is different… I might enjoy giving his 'second massage' later." Lotus thought as she kept at it, a smile crept on her face as she was close to finishing his shoulders. Minutes later Aquaris and Afina relaxed in the sauna, the steam filled their pores as both relaxed on the wooden benches along the walls, across the room, both Aloe and lotus sat next each other, whispering about their two new customers. "I say Mr. Aquaris first, he looks like he'll be a whole lot of fun. " Lotus whispered, both out of sight since of the thick amounts of steam, "then Ms. Afina what do you say about her?" "Something simple, she told me in different words that her cherry is still fresh and not popped, she is saving for some human like Mr. Aquaris" Aloe added as she craned her neck a bit. "Hmm… maybe vibration therapy?" Lotus giggled as leaned over and put more water on the hot coals in the center of the room. After roughly ten minutes of detoxing, Afina and Aquaris and Afina got their other treatments, while Afina had her claws and spines filed, polished to shine like a mirror, and sharpened, Aquaris sat in the Jacuzzi, he wrote into his book with his phoenix quill and the infinite quick drying ink bottle, after he heard Afina gasp after Aloe filled a soft spot on her tail spine. He chuckled to himself and set the book down as he relaxed into the Jacuzzi, he noticed one wasn't on, the water was still, probably cold, and like the one he was in, not chlorinated. He pondered for a moment and had idea popped in into his head, he scanned around the spa to see a massive fish tank, the fish in large wooden water filled buckets as the tank was cleaned. He used his magic to lift on of the buckets over to the colder tub and dumped them in there, he repeated going unnoticed by the Twins or anypony for that matter. "I know darling, he is such a gental colt… and little Afina so cute but you have to admit that she is a hassle, so young and full of energy, but she dose do her share of work." Aquaris lowered himself in the hottub the bubbles hiding him, he cast a spell to hear what they said perfectly. "she dosen't seem that bad Rarity, what do you mean though of her share?" "when you were in the kitchen getting more tea, Aquaris explained that she works. Aquaris pays her an alloance to for her hard work, but she dosen't buy anything… aside from maybe a few sweets." Rarity added as they stepped into the tub not sitting on Aquaris but also not notticeing him. "huh? Who's book is this?" Rairty picked up the book and opened it. Aquaris facepalmed as he relized he was writing in his book. "what's written in it?" Fluttershy scooted closer to Rarity, her left back leg almost hitting Aquaris's side. "it's mostly entries on spells... oh this is Aquaris's." Rarity answered flipping through the pages noticing mentionings of Afina and his friends… oh my... caught under the misltoe." Fluttershy looked at the page seeing Aquaris with Afina, both blushing immensly in the picture. Aquaris was wearing a santa cap while Afina wore a pair of reindeer antlers, in the background was a large tree adorned with decorations. They flipped through the pages, curiosity pushing them on. As they kept on they saw, more pictures, some normal, Some incredibly funny. "oh my… is that?" "yes I think it is dear." Both Rarity stared at the picture, it wasn't funny or normal. It showed six humans, Afina, a creature compoised of various animals like discord and a large insect like creature, it had six legs each with a thin flap of skin between them, it was all boney and utterly grotesque. The sub note read. " Metmorph looks good on camera, maybe that film company looking for a good actor for their horror movie would consider him as the perfect one." "hmmm…" Rarity flipped to the very back to find a sort of index, one was list of various people, she searched for Metamorph and flipped to the page of him. "King Metamorph… lord of the changling brood of the Elysian woods, his existance was unkown but the threat of his brood was minimal. During the wedding of Prince Versian and a Sterling Amera, he took the place of Versian and siphoned of fthe love from most of the guests and the ability to syphon love allows him to cast powerful as mass recall, bile surge, and mass paraliyz." Rarity and shy looked at eachother, feeling a sense of dejavu with this. "when I discovered that Versian was being replace by this Changling I confronted him… only to be pushed through about twelve floors, into the old abbandoned crystal mines under the palace, honestly to this day I still wonder why no one noticed me. I located versian asleep in the caverns the real one. After escaping and interupting the wedding ceramony, he chnaged to original shape and called his minions, Solaris directly engaged him and magic beam dual, due to the amount of energyMetamorph abosrbed he quickly beat Solaris, but also drained his energy reserves dry. When Amera and Versian disposed of him via shockwave that was formed from the love for eachother." Rarity and Fluttershy were surprised, was it sheer coincidence or was this fake. "Hi Rarity, Hi Fluttershy… mind if I join you?" Above the water a certain teal unicorn was at the steps of the tub. "Not at all Lyra, come in, this feels great." Lyra stepped into the tub, Aquaris shifted to a semi comfortable position under the water so they don't bump him and blow his cover. "how is it going dear?" "Great… but I want to talk to that human; I want to ask him so many questions." "He has a name you know, it's Aquaris." Rarity added, disliking how she addresses him as just a human. "He was here, but I haven't seen him, matter of fact his book is here." Lyra was wide eyed, Aquaris mentally sweated as Lyra was begging to read it, luckily for him Afina's treatment was done and she was climbing the steps of the tub. "Hey Rarity… Fluttershy and you are?" Afina climbed into the tub, she sat on Aquaris's hand before he could move, she kept quiet about it, knowing Aquaris's past and spying antics. "I'm Lyra heartstrings, are you the dragon that lives with that human? What's he like? Is he nice? Is he cool? Is he a good lover? Is he-, "Afina cut her off, with a claw to her snout? "Lyra please clam down… and don't ask her that personal of stuff or she won't answer any questions, go before she decides to burn you." Rarity added as Afina let go of Lyra's snout, without a word she left the hot tub and went to the other one, with the fish occupants. "sorry about that Afina… how are you feeling?" Fluttershy asked, more comfortable with the drake than Aquaris. "I'm better, Princess Luna and I talked when I was in some sort of dream world, wow boy… I didn't know she could do what she did either… it calmed my heat down a bunch though" Afina said a small smile on her face and a blush across her face. "Oh Afina you naughty dragoness… say where is Aquaris, his book is here but he isn't… did he go to the bar or something?" Rarity asked as she showed Aquaris's book and other stuff. "That's the funny thing, he's right here… he tends to meditate under water while keeping a water breathing spell active. Afina moved a bit and used her tail to help him sit up on the bench in the tub. "Cough*… wow… roughly ten minutes… of being under there… ugh" Aquaris coughed up, as a pair of gills on the sides of his neck closed and disappeared "Were you spying on us?" "Me? No… I was in a meditative state; if I was physically touched then I would awaken from that state." Aquaris answered as he noticed his book and magically picked it up with his other stuff. "Ok… you know Aquaris Twilight came by to see if you were here, she said she has something urgent for you." Fluttershy said as she brushed her mane with her hoof. "Ok… Afina you can stay and have the rest of your treatments, I'll go see what Twilight wants." Aquaris got out of the tub. As he stepped down he noticed that Lyra was covered in fish that were held onto her by a firm grip of their maws. "Oops… Those may have been carnivorous fish" Aquaris thought as he went to a changing room. Five minutes later Aquaris was changed and on his way out, he told the Twins he needed to be somewhere and to finish Afina's treatments, they simply bowed and told him to have a nice day before going over to give Afina her next treatment. Stepping outside, he put his sunglasses on and set off to Twilights. > Study sessions > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lemon warning… if you are eighteen or older then go ahead at your own risk, if not then I am not held accountable for any punishment or humility of reading a Mlp clop scene. You have been warned. Aquaris XXX Twilight Disclaimer: any lemon scenes will be written by an author who is a professional in this matter, any innuendos, and lemons will be handled by him. The future of magic Chapter 5: Study sessions Aquaris walked his way to Twilights'; the midday sun dominated the sky, barely any clouds, a cool breeze from the north, and all of the ponies seemed used to him. Some waved with their hooves, some said hello. "you know, this towns quite nice, once the ponies are used to you then it's perfect… just like home… sigh… keep strong Aquaris, the sooner I get home, the sooner I can tell my friends and family I'm safe, and the sooner I can come back here when I can." Aquaris's thoughts were interrupted as his stomach rumbled. He surveys the area to see a small restaurant, "perfect!" he said to himself as he made his way to it. "Welcome… oh you're the human I've heard about, please right this way." The hostess said as she grabbed a menu and lead Aquaris to a table, "a waiter will be with you shortly." She said setting down the menu. "Thank you." Aquaris replied to her as he sat down, he opened the menu to see what was good. "Hmm… granted this entire planets population is of herbivorous sentient life form… hey that Celestial salad sounds good, I wonder if it's like a Caesar one?" Aquaris thought as he browsed the menu. He flipped over to see a list of drinks. Mostly café drinks like various teas, and coffee. "Can I take your order?" Aquaris looked up to see a Pegasus mare, a note pad and pen held like she had fingers. Aquaris's pupils shrunk, "uh… sir?" "I'll just have the Celestial salad… sweet tea for my drink… how are you holding that?" Aquaris said staring at her hooves, wondering how she held the notepad and pen. "Ok… I'll be back with your drink, and your food will be out soon after." She said trotting off, Aquaris sighed and reached forward grabbing bread roll from the basket on the table, he used a butter knife to spread a nice amount of butter on it before biting in to it. His waitress came back and set down his Tea and went to her other assigned Tables. As Aquaris pondered on the non-existent fingers that his waitress used, he didn't notice that his food was already on the table, After finally escaping his train of thought, he began eating, again he noticed no silverware, but he did remember his conjure fork spell, quickly putting his hand in the form of holding a fork, one made of pure energy formed in it, he began eating his Salad. It was good and tasted like a Caesar salad, but the only difference was that there were daisies in it. "Well it isn't bad… quite good matter of fact… if I knew there were daisies on it, I would've asked for none, meh doesn't matter, there aren't a whole lot and I can just push them aside." Aquaris kept eating, it was quite a big bowl of it, but Salad alone isn't too filling so it's understandable why there is a lot. After maybe five minutes of eating, he finished the bowl. The waitress came by again to drop off the bill for the lunch and pick up the bowl. He paid the bill and set off. He looked at his hailer's clock and decided to go a bit slower on his way to Twilight's. Enjoy the today's good weather, and maybe see if he could make some friends after his studies with Twilight. "Hey Aqua, how's it going, I was wondering… (Gibberish)…" Aquaris turned to see pinkie pie, he was confused as tried to understand what she said, how can someone or somepony talk so fast? "so can you tell me why it is your first name, Huh (X6 in rapid succession)?" Aquaris mind was boggled. "Umm… can you say what you need help with… slower this time." Aquaris asked, trying get to Twilight's as soon as he can. "oki doki… I was wondering why your first name is Dusk-shine?" pinkie asked, Aquaris's jaw dropped in surprise that she knew his actual first name. "How'd you?" "I found this letter on the ground, it was to a 'Dusk-shine Aquaris Arintinon' the seal on it looks like Shining Armor's cutie mark, but a little different." She held out a scroll like the seal from last night, its seal was like she said like Amor's but had distinct differences. "I'll take that pinkie… also the reason why I call myself Aquaris versus… Dusk-shine, was because it was too long, it seemed like I had four parts to my name… also when I was young and in novice school, most of students teased me because it's a typical named for Shale-walkers, from what I've read on this planet, Shale-walkers are the equivalent of crystal ponies." Aquaris explained, as he placed the letter in his bag. "Why be ashamed of it?" "I'm not ashamed of my real first name… it still is my first name, just everyone calls me Aquaris." Aquaris said as he looked down and kicked a rock. (I will still be addressing him as Aquaris if you want and for the rest of this chapter, if you ask enough to change his name, I'll do so.) "well sorry if I have to go Pinkie but I have to meet with Twilight… I'll see you around k?" Aquaris said turning around and began walking. "Ok bye Aqua!" Pinkie yelled As Aquaris picked up speed, he looked at his hailer's clock, he put his hand out in front of him and casted the 'ice sheet' spell, he also used a spell to make energy based ice skates. As the ice sheet was made, he skated over it, it melted shortly afterwards. Over in golden oaks library Twilight was pulling out a box of empty scrolls and another of full inkwells, she had a tea kettle on the stove, and a large plate of crackers on the ataman, Spike on the other hand was sorting some new books they received. "What are some of those books on anyway?" Twilight asked as she went to the kitchen. "Umm… a how to on potion making, a guide on space rift opening, and some various fiction novels." Spike said as he put the books on the shelves in their new rightful places, or until Twilight wants them re-organized. In the kitchen, Twilight turned off the stove, and took the whistling kettle off of it, she filled the teapot with the steaming water and placed powdered tea leaves into the water. Taking the tea, and some cups to the living room, somepony knocked on the door. "Door's unlocked!" Twilight yelled before the door opened and Aquaris walked in, his boots covered in shaved, melting ice. "Hey Aquaris… why are your boots wet now?" she looked down to see his boots leaving wet spots on the rug. "Sorry… one sec." he walked, but his first steps took his boots off. "There… how's it going Twi?" Aquaris asked as he set his bag down on the couch. Sitting down shortly afterwards with a groan from the couch. "I'm alright… listening sorry about yesterday… my parents were working on the night you came here, they wanted to make up for it." Twilight apologized as she joined him on the couch; she blew on her hot tea as Aquaris made his cup. "It's alright, all water under the bridge, besides your parents remind me of my own,… going on tangent here, but Lyra… what's with her?" "Oh yeah… until you showed up, she had been reading, writing, and studying on humans." She put her tea down, eating a cracker real quick before continuing, "little is known about humans, and she wants to find more about them… problem is that any information on humans aside from you is unreliable, fake, or outdated." "I see… well, I'm a bit scared what she would do to get my attention for answering her questions… or start asking for some… odder things." Aquaris added as Twilight nodded, she pulled out a few books and a pair of scrolls from Celestia. Aquaris pulled out his own equipment. "I was thinking we start with Celestia's letters, they mention that you might want to read through it too." She passed the letters too Aquaris before opening a book on Adapt spells for Magi. "To my most faithful student, just recently this morning I had received a curious object from a creature that proclaims she knows Aquaris, she says this object will allow a two way connection between Aquaris's world and our own, plus any other world we wish to visit. When the time Arrised that Aquaris wished to go home, you are to assist him on how to operate this device. Your tutor and aunt, Princess Celestia." "Curious… I'm wondering who this creature is?" Aquaris set the letter down and put a hand to his chin. "So am I… also this one was Addressed to you." Twilight handed the other letter and Aquaris read it. "Dear Aquaris, Twilight as you know is rather busy… seeing you as equally smart as she is, as a request I'm asking you to tell me in the earliest suitable time for yourself what and how this ring like object work, in appearance it looks like this (imagine the star gate from SG1), hope you are well in this new world, Sincerely Princess Celestia." Aquaris immodestly knew what to do as he saw the picture, he grabbed his ink well, quill and some parchment, twilight watched as he wrote the letter in response he turned to Twilight, letting go of the quill, instead of falling on its side, it continued writing. "Twilight… you mind if we start studying… this quill writes slower than you think, I told it what to write, so it'll do its own thing." Aquaris said as he drank his now cooled tea. Hours later, roughly four Aquaris and Twilight had at least a book of notes on each other's species. The notes were on mostly cultures, religious points of view, technology, magic, and even diets. "So aside from being able to use magic, you rely on technology for the tasks magic couldn't do?" Twilight asked as she added another page to her stack of papers. "Twilight I'm going over to Pinkie's she said last night to come over to fix some new gemstone cupcakes she thought of." Spike said as he walked past the two book worms to the door. "Bye spike… now back to what I asked." "Yes… tasks like certain forms of surgery, or space travel." Aquaris replied "with luck, Equestria could get a technological upgrade, but most machinery doesn't change ones way of life that drastically. We may have machines for every task, but a day of hard work is better than just getting paid for no work." Twilight nodded as she flipped to the next page of Aquaris's encyclopedia of humans. It started the chapter of human anatomy, she was silent but realized Aquaris was now opening the book of anatmony of her own kind. "Ok… both you and I have probably been loathing this, let's just get this over with." Twilight said as they began reading and writing on the Anatomy, Aquaris was writing up diagrams on all systems of both male and female Ponies, he created smaller side ones to show the structures of Pegasus and unicorns. Twilight on the other hoof, she only had female humans done as Aquaris worked diligently, they were done well too, he had every blood vessel or connecting nerve done to a 'T'. All bodily systems done, even had notes on the varying species, like the sensitivity of a unicorn's horn and a Pegasus's wings. After three minutes Aquaris had finished his pages on pony anatomy, and decided to read on ahead. Twilight was still stuck on drawing up human male anatomy, to be more precise, reproductive organs. It was only one small system but still. "Hey Twi, you doing alright, you've been staring at that page for almost five minutes." Aquaris asked, as he leaned over to see where she was staring. "oh… well… I could help." "What do you mean?" "Well I could finish the sketch for you, after that how about we take a break; i want to test something if you're up for a series of small experiments." "What do you have in mind?" "I'll explain after I finish this." Aquaris took his quill and finished human male Anatomy for her, he checked over to his self-writing quill that had finished the letter, he sealed it with his own stamp and went over to set in a small basket for scrolls to be sent to Celestia. Aquaris walked over to Twilight and gestured her outside. When Twilight closed the door behind her, it was late afternoon. "so what are you planning on doing?" "Well first off, is Trixie alright?" "Yeah, she set off to Canterlot, first thing in the morning." "Good… I'm still sorry for what I had to show her… now back to what our experiment is… what I'm going to do is what I did to the others last night before Afina ran off." Aquaris put his hand to Twilight's head, just under her horn, his hand glowed the teal it always did and Twilight felt energy surge through her body. A bright light came from nowhere, after it died down; Twilight was now looking at Aquaris at eye level. "What did you cast?" instead of directly answering, Aquaris conjured a mirror from thin air. Twilight gasped at what she saw. Instead of fine fur she had skin, her eyes and hair were the same, on her neck hung her cutie mark turned into a crest, her outfit was like Aquaris's outfit, when he arrived in Equestria, with added differences. Instead of pants, she had a dark violet skirt that went halfway down her forelegs, instead of a thick jacket, she wore a thinner variant with violet details, and her undershirt was a simple violet t-shirt. "Wow… is this that polymorph spell spike mentioned?" "Yeah… I got an idea, hand me your crest, and I'll see if I can try something." Aquaris said as twilight removed the necklace that was her crest; shortly after taking it off she turned back into a pony. Aquaris held the necklace in the air via magic and put his glowing hand to it and focused his energy. As it glowed Twilight noticed that Aquaris concentrating hard, the necklace shook as it filled with energy, eventually it stopped glowing, he handed her the necklace back, it felt warm to the touch when it sat on her hoof, with a quick nod from Aquaris, she reluctantly put it on, the necklace pulsed energy through her body, it felt almost similar on how Aquaris's energy felt when he polymorphed her. Within a bright flash she was turned human again. "You know Aquaris, Lyra would by kill for this… the power to do this…" "I've realized… but she'd be asking me so many questions, it would be near impossible to shut her up long enough to teach her the spell or even let me answer one." Aquaris responded, remembering how many questions she asked Afina before she forced closed Lyra's mouth. "Say… how is it that I'm able to stand properly, and move without difficulty? I've only been like this for three minutes…" Twilight asked as she walked around. "polymorphing doesn't just change your species, or your look… it also teaches your muscles to act like the same species or person slash pony." Aquaris got into a ready stance and ran forward a few steps, he back flipped and transformed, when the flash died down, he was a pony himself. His fur was all teal, his crest had become his cutie mark, and his mane was a darker teal with a light aqua blue highlight, a horn protruded from his forehead. "Nice… you look a bit like me when I messed up on a spell I was testing." "Let me guess… gender swap?" "Yeah… Dash was for some reason eager to be my test subject on this one and when I casted it… I don't know why but it backfired and hit me." "Yeah… careful on those spells… They tend to backfire… can we go off tangent or I might have forgotten about the experiment… it's to see how effective each other's spells in each other's species forms." "Let's go inside… I got some way we can practice this." Twilight opened the door and walked inside, Aquaris couldn't help but stare at the sway she had when she stepped. "I can't help not to say this Aquaris… but you look quite handsome as a pony." "Well ironic since your quite cute... as human that is… he he…" Aquaris stammered in response, he rubbed the back of his head with a hoof. Twilight giggled at his shyness when he said that. Opening a box in the corner, there were large feathers for practicing levitation magic, books on basic unicorn spells and more. "To use any magic through your horn, focus your mind through it… to levitate object… treat your target object(s) like you would with your version of levitation spell." Twilight said as she leaned in the box to grab some of the stray objects, Aquaris looked at book on the table and closed his eyes, his horn glowed as the book was surrounded with his aura, it lifted into the air, Aquaris smirked and tried it on another book. "Sweet, I can still pick up multiple objects… hmm." Aquaris looked over to Twilight; she was still leaning over the rim of the box, flipping through a book to see if she knew which one it was, after A while he stared, it took him a second to realize he was staring at her rather… well-endowed rear end. "keep calm Aquaris… dammit I can't stop staring, I wonder… no, bad Aquaris." Aquaris thought as he mentally fought his lusts. "C'mon man, look what's in front of you… you want it." "No… now shut up!" "Not until you say you want it… just a little lift on the skirt and a few pulls to the side on whatever's under and you can go to town." "Sounds good and easy but there are more thing to it than that… now shut up inner lust, besides I could remove you, you know I can too." "Fine, fine… don't come crying to me when you miss your chance though." Twilight sat up normally as Aquaris finished his inner argument; Aquaris sighed quietly as Twilight stood up and walked over to him. In his pony form, she was less than double his height, and Aquaris was at least as tall as Armor in this form, in his normal form he would just be a tad bit taller than Twilight. "Ok Aquaris… how do I use magic like you do?" "Like casting with your horn, you focus your mind, but you have to use it on your hands or on your target of choice." Twilight pointed her hand at a feather and closed her eyes; her hand glowed with the violet aura of her magic… the feather wobbled as it was picked up, surrounded by the same aura. "Not bad… of course it seems to have caught on fire too." Aquaris added as he watched the feather burn. "ahh… how?" Twilight said as she opened her eyes to see the burning feather. A blue ring surrounded the feather, the ring turned into a blue sphere, the fire died out as the oxygen inside was used up. "Don't worry it happens… you'll learn not to cast two spells in time… but overall you did good… try some more while I do the same. Hours later It was roughly nine o' clock, Aquaris was wondering if Afina just went to the house. "What's the matter Aquaris, you seem bugged about something?" Twilight asked as she read in Aquaris's journal, she flipped to the page to find his notes on how humans react to certain forms of low level magic, one of them was the effects of a warming spell on the back muscles. "the spell acts like hot stones, it relives muscle tension and will cause to release all acid in the muscles… quite enjoyable if you have someone capable of doing it." Twilight put a finger to her lip, "hey Aquaris my back feels a bit sore… could you rub my back for me?" "Huh… oh sure… lie down on your stomach, and take off that jacket." Aquaris said as he turned back to normal, he put his fingers together and popped them. Twilight set Aquaris's book on the table next to the couch, she took off and set her over jacket next to the book before she stretched herself across the couch, face down. Aquaris sat on the couch, so both his knees were on either side of her waist; he put his hands onto her back and began his massage. It wasn't Lotus's style of massage, but it still was good. "Oh Aquaris… that feels great… ohhh…" Twilight moaned as Aquaris kept up his massage, "one second Aquaris… close your eyes please." Aquaris closed his eyes as Twilight sat up a bit so she could remove her undershirt, she noticed that she was wearing more under the shirt, a silken black bra covered her breasts. "Hmm… ah that's how it works." Twilight said as she unclipped her bra (it was a front hook), she looked down and examined the breasts, "is this how humans feed their young? Why are they so big, I'm not pregnant… am i?" "Hey Twilight… I was wondering if you could finish whatever you're doing… I don't want to fall asleep from keeping my eyes shut." Aquaris asked as he crossed his arms. Twilight slipped from under him and sat up facing him. "Hey Aquaris… what's with these? Oh you can open your eyes now." Twilight asked as she held up her breasts. "What are with wha-… oh those, ummm… well in comparison to your kind… they are like a mare's teats." Aquaris said as a blush was one his face, "Well I understand that… but why are they larger… mine normally are flat against my stomach…" Aquaris couldn't help but stare at the orange sized breasts… he was a fan of her size and did prefer them over larger ones. "Maybe there is milk in them." Twilight squeezed her breasts lightly, instead of milk coming out at the tips; moans came from Twilight's mouth. Aquaris blushed harder as she moaned "Keep calm Aquaris…. By Solaris, it's damn near impossible to fight it… oh god if she sees me erect it could really make this awkward…" Aquaris thought as he mentally prevented from having extra blood flowing to his flaccid member. "Oh… oh my… umm, Aquaris?" Twlight said as she looked down blushing at the tent made by Aquaris hard member. Aquaris grabbed a nearby couch pillow and covered his crotch, "sorry Twi… I usually can control this type of issue." Aquaris turned his head away in embarrassment. Twlight blushed harder when she realized when she read about female human breasts in the Anatomy earlier. "Human mammary glands are surrounded by fat cells and sensitive nerves, aside from feeding newborn baby humans; it is also a form of fetish for most male humans and various sizes can attract various crowds." Twilight thought over the paragraph segment in her head, her blush growing brighter she then sweated as naughty thoughts of Aquaris doing all sorts of things to her breasts. "Umm… Aquaris… do you mind… if you." Aquaris looked up to see Twilight blushing and pointing at her breasts, "do you mind if we do a certain experiment?" Aquaris blushed at the mere thought of it, his mind raced with lustful thoughts. "Sorry I as-… GAH!" Twlight was surprised when Aquaris lightly grabbed her breasts, rolling his thumbs over her nipples. Twilight moaned as Aquaris played with her breasts, he squeezed lightly to not cause any pain, but with enough to give her pleasure. Twilight moaned louder as Aquaris rubbed and teased her breasts the best way he knew from natural instinct. "You like this TwI?" Twilight nodded in moans as Aquaris lightly pinched her nipples, perking them up. "Then you'll love this." Aquaris stopped rubbing her left breast and licked her nipple, rolling it and playing with it with his tongue. Twlight gasped as his warm saliva coated her erect nipples, she shuddered as Aquaris took it in his mouth and sucked on it, applying even more pleasure. "Oh Celestia… keep going Aquaris… haaa, ohhh" Twilight moaned as Aquaris switched breasts, lightly kneading the one not being suckled. After a while Aquaris stopped getting a sigh of irritation from Twilight. "Why'd you stop?" "Because I think we should take this to the bedroom, I'm not sure Spike would want to see two humans on the couch 'Experimenting' like this." Aquaris was right spike had left before Aquaris had polymorphed her. A short transition later and they were in the bedroom, Aquaris and Twilight sat on the bed, after a moment of silence and nothing Aquaris broke the ice and leaned forward, kissing Twilight on the lips. Twilight was surprised at this, but she slowly melted into it, after a few minutes, they were frenching. Their tongues rolled and wrestled each other for dominance; Aquaris was slowly bringing his arms down her sides, closer to her skirt. Twilight on the other hand was unconsciously, slipping her hand into his pants. They parted lips and came to realization of what they were doing; looking into each other's eyes they saw the lust, the want, and the desire for each other. "Aquaris, maybe we shoul-… no, let's do this… we got this far, why stop the experiment before preparations are finished?" Twilight giggled as Aquaris smirked, "Well… it wouldn't make sense to have only a hypothesis and no conclusion; I'm always one for making sure my reports are complete." Aquaris said as he stripped, first his jacket and shirt to show his well carved chest, no abs or pecks were shown, but he was still thin and fit. Aquaris crawled up to Twilight and kissed her neck, licking and nibbling it. All of what he did was natural to him for some reason, as he went farther down, past her breasts, Twilight grew anxious. Aquaris undid the thin belt that served no real purpose and proceeded to remove her skirt, after removal, Aquaris smirked as he saw the black lace thong that the skirt hid, with a short hesitation he removed it, fully stripping Twilight of any clothing and letting the sweet scent of arousal escape her wanting hole. Twilight blushed as Aquaris breathed in her scent, after a few seconds he licked her entrance. Twilight moaned as this new feeling coursed through her body, she looked down at him, noticing how nervous he was, his licks were slow, but steady. Aquaris stopped and stuck his tongue into her folds, he thrusted his tongue in and out, getting cries of ecstasy in response, he felt Twilight put her hands on his heads, rubbing her fingers through his locks, Aquaris pulled his tongue out and licked at her clit, the small pearl sent more pleasure through Twilight's body than she could handle, she wrapped her legs Around Aquaris's neck screaming his name. "Aquaris… ahh… I feel strange…" Twilight said as she felt her loins tingle. "Then I'm doing well." Aquaris said as he buried his face in her folds, he felt her lips throb and pulse as she got closer to her climax; Aquaris used his fingers to spread her lips and closed his eyes, savoring the taste of Twilight's juices. "Aquaris… SOMETHINGS, COMING U-…AHHHHHHHH!" Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs, she tightly squeezed Aquaris's head with her legs; Aquaris opened his mouth as Twilight's juices erupted from Twilight's loins. After a few minutes Aquaris pulled Away, his face covered in her sweet nectar, "Mmm… sweeter than a honeysuckle." Aquaris said as he licked around his lips, in attempt to lick up all her juices. Twilight looked Aquaris, the fact he was licking off and savoring the juices came from her, made her blush even more. "I think it's time you returned the favor." Aquaris looked up at her, a sly smile spread across his face. Twilight grew nervous As Aquaris undid his belt; Twilight grew nervous as he pulled off his pants and boxers, his member stood erect. Twilight stared at it as Aquaris knee walked his way to her, she gulped as she saw its length and thickness, at least eight inches long and was quite thick. Twilight crawled up to him and felt the tip touch her nose, she took a deep breath and grabbed his stiff rod, she stroked him lightly with short pumps, receiving light moans from Him. Twilight stroked faster, receiving more moans From Aquaris, shortly afterwards she decided to lick his tip, Aquaris groaned as she took the tip in her mouth, swirling her tongue around it, sucking at it in the process, "by Solaris… Twilight… take more in, oh yes…" Aquaris let his tongue hang out from his mouth; he pushed forward lightly, pushing more of his shaft into her mouth. After five minutes, Twilight was sucking him down to the hilt, bobbing her head back and forth; Aquaris was in bliss, he felt his dick throb as he reached his climax, his pre climatic fluid squirted into her mouth. Twilight was savoring the taste of the slightly salty fluid, she put her hand under his sack and played with his nuts, lightly squeezing the loose sensitive skin, "Twilight… I'm close… a little mo- OH SOLARIS PRESERVE MEEE!" Aquaris yelled as she deep throated him, His member throbbed violently as it shot thick bursts of cum into Twilight's mouth, getting A gasp of Surprise from her as she pulled back, the thick strands shot onto her chest and face. After a few minutes of cleaning off, Twilght was lying on her back, Aquaris on all fours right above her, his tip leveled with her entrance. He rubbed his tip against her puffed up lips, teasing her. "Aquaris… don't rub me like that… put it in!" Twilight commanded as she used her magic to push him forward, his tip pushed into her wanting hole. Aquaris gasped on how her entrance squeezed his tip, he looked down to Twilight to get a nod of approval before shifting forward, Time seemed to slow as more and more entered her, after what felt like ages, Aquaris hilted. Twilight was cringing as she adjusted to accommodate this new object inside her human body. "Ready Twi?" Aquaris asked as he pulled almost all the way out, his tip still in. "Yes… be slow at first please." With that Aquaris thrusted back in, Aquaris and Twilight moaned as the pleasure coursed through each other's bodies, slowly but surely he picked up speed, getting more moans from her, as he thrusted forward each time, he went a little faster and harder, till eventually she was panting from each thrust, not having enough time to speak or moan in between them. Minutes passed as Aquaris pounded into Twilight at his max speed, her held her tightly, a slapping sound was made each time he hilted, before quickly pulling back out, Twilight's insides squeezed and tugged on him with each thrust, closer and closer their climax's became, after A while Twilight was on all fours, while Aquaris was on his knees, going doggy style. Twilight was in bliss, a look of pure bliss on her face. As Aquaris thrusted, she felt her walls tighten around his shaft more and more, she felt her pleasure rising, eventually she couldn't handle it. "AQUARIS… IM GOING TO C-...AHHH!" Twilight yelled as her walls squeezed Aquaris's dick like a vice, milking him for his warm creamy liquid. "by Solaris I'm going to… oh yes… ohhhhhh." Aquaris stopped thrusting from how tight she was and groaned as he hit his own limits and climaxed as well, covering her wall with his seed. luckily for him, he used a spell prior to this to prevent any unwanted pregnancies, it simply did was kill any newly made and currently existing sperm cells for a whole day, only proven via the creator of the spell performing his own field test with a women under the spell that made sure she would get pregnant by making clones of already released eggs, if the desired number of fertilized eggs were reached, any eggs not fertilized and extra fertilized ones will be disintegrated. After minutes of panting, Aquaris pulled out, Twilight flopping onto the bed, his sterile seed leaking out of her parted lips. "That was… Amazing Aquaris... my books, never said it would be this good." Twilgiht said as she rolled onto her back looking down at the puddled mixture of their juices. This only made her hornier, she looked over at Aquaris, he was still on his knees, his dick flaccid and coated in the same mixture, without hesitation she crawled over to him and began to suck on him, cleaning his dick off and initiating round two. > Experimental aftermath > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The future of magic Chapter 6: Experimental aftermath In the far reaches of space, at the star known simply as Sol, a still living planet orbited the star, grey cities of towers of metal and steel replaced the once green landmasses of the world, in the new captital what once called America, a massive spire stood, the main capital building of the confederate leaders. "Good… good, our plan will be set in motion then?" A man asked as he puffed out a cloud of cigar smoke. He was thin and tall, he wore a black uniform with various medals pinned on his chest. He was looking at a monitor, showing a larger man, his skin was darker, his left eye bore a scar of Terran pole arm blade. "Yes sir, I also want to add that, thanks to the Intel from our spy in the Terran sympathizer's high council, he has enough deuterium to burn that planet till it's rid of those magical scourges… to think two thousand years ago, our ancestors were told about these things, and only saw them as fairy tales." The man on the monitor said. "Excellent…" The 'arm chair general' coughed as he spoke," soon we will strike a blow so hard that it'll tell all the magical beings that we are unstoppable, that no world is safe." The man spoke as he laughed a bit. "Professor Omer… you sent a message to me earlier about some interesting findings on Terra… explain." The man pressed a button on his desk; another monitor appeared and turned on. A thin pale man was shown, and he had one eye completely prosthetic, his right cheek was metal and dull, he had this Germanic accent to his voice as he spoke "Yes sir… my findings show that Terra is in a form of what I've dubbed, an Arcane well." He looked down to check his notes, "This well produces near infinite amounts of magical energy, prolonged exposure shows that the cells collect this radiation, turning the exposed slowly into a magical being if they have constant exposure." "Go on…" The general said as he knocked some ash off of his cigar. "It is quite dangerous for us since, that it acts rather fast and could turn a solider into a class five magical being within a week's time." Omer spoke as he put his notes down and looked back up at the camera. "Have you found a way to avoid this?" "Yes… are inhibitors can create fields around them while active, if we make a large enough one, we could build our base within its protective bubble?" "Excellent, begin working on the designs… Dismissed!" Omer nodded on his side of the screen, the screen turned off and retracted back into its hiding place. "Commander Scorn, I need you to contact our spy. Tell him he can start the preparations for operation rolling ember… also tell him to see If we can keep the boy alive a little longer, he may be an asset to us." The general said as he turned to the other still active monitor. "Yes sir… Scorn out." The other monitor turned off and retracted, leaving the man alone in his office. "Soon… soon the flame of this so called magic… will be finally put out." The man smirked as he looked out the window of his office, seeing the city built for this glorious Confederacy. He put the cigar to his lips and breathed in… he held it in before finally puffing out a trio of smoke rings. He turned around placing the cigar in an ash tray, he sat back down at his desk and looked at the paperwork in front of him, the sheet on top was the schematics for mysterious machine, and its name was simply 'Devourer' "Soon my most glorious creation shall be built, and soon… we shall end this war." Golden oaks library bedroom Both Aquaris and Twilight were panting, sweat on their bodies, clothing strewn across the room, they had gone a second round with Twilight's human form. Both of the exhausted from their "experiments" "That was, amazing Aquaris… much better than what my books said it would be like…" Twilight said in pants, her entire body still shivering from excitement. "For a first time… that was, by Celestia I can't explain it." "Same… I've read up to how to pleasure women in a lot of ways… but I did what came natural, half of what I did I didn't even know." Aquaris responded as he lied down next to Twilight, she hugged him from the side her left hand rubbing his chest. "You know Twilight… I say this experiment… ended well" Aquaris chuckled as he pulled the bed sheets to cover them both. "Same… next time I'm on top." Twilight giggled and kissed him before snuggling up to him and closing her eyes. "Whatever you say Twi… but… yawn… but that's when we plan to do it again…" Aquaris said as he drifted into his sleep. Over on the other side of the door to the bedroom, a certain young purple dragon hatchling watched through the door's keyhole. "Why did I just watch Twilight and Aquaris do that… let alone why'd I keep watching?" spike asked himself as he stepped away from the keyhole, he climbed down the ladder hearing some pony knock at the door, spike opened the door to see Rarity and Afina. "Oh Rarity, to what do I owe the pleasure? Come in" spike asked, completely forgetting what he just witnessed. "Thank you spike… I was wondering if you could get Aquaris, he said he supposed to be here." "Actually… uhh..." "I'm a little tired but what do you need Rarity? Aquaris said as he walked out of the bedroom, a towel wrapped around him, Twilight followed suite, still in her human form. Afina and Rarity were both jaw dropped, not because Aquaris slept with her, but how similar they look to each other, it's like they could be siblings. "What's the matter catbug got your toungue?" Afina smirked and asked, "hope you had protection Aquaris" Aquaris was jaw dropped and growled in irritation. Afina laughed after she dodged an arcane sphere thrown at her. "im kidding man… ha ha… the look on your face was priceless… "Afina said as she giggled a bit. "Done yet?" "Almost…" Afina said as she wiped a tear of joy from her eye, "ok go on…" "Ok… well I have some great new Afina, two tid-bits." "What you goanna be a fath-.." Afina was cut off when an arcane sphere hit her squarely in the face, she rubbed her snout covered in arcane dust as Aquaris continued "no… we have a way home, and I read a letter I received from Amera, you can be with Rarius… also your birth parents disowned you." Aquaris didn't have time to react as he was tackled by Afina, she nuzzled him. "Oh you can't believe how much that means to me Aquaris, if you weren't my brother I would French you." Afina replied in joy as she kept nuzzling him. After a moment Afina realized that Aquaris was just wearing a towel. "Sorry…" Afina got off of him and allowed him to stand back up. She began rubbing the back of her head with her claws in embarrassment "It's not a problem… Afina, we'll be heading to Canterlot tomorrow, head to the house and get some rest... when you get up next morning start packing your stuff." Afina nodded and jumped from the upstairs balcony to the first floor, "Twilight… in the morning can you write a letter to Celestia I will be arriving roughly at one o'clock Pm." "Ok… Aquaris you will stay for the rest of the night?" Twilight asked as she held his arm "Of course, I am not the guy who would one night stand, even though this was my first, I'll spend some time with you in the morning then leave to pack and get ready to go to Canterlot... also, let's not mention this to Armor… he'd have my hide if he found out I slept with his younger sister." "I won't… or will I…" Twilight said with a lustful tone in her voice. "Can you two lovebirds wait till we leave!?" Spike asked as he followed Rarity who was heading to the door. Afina rolled her eyes at the two and made her way out. "Night Aquaris." "Night Afina... listen are you ok?" "I'm fine Aquaris, thanks to the Twins… also, knowing that we are going home and the laws have been lifted, it re-vigor's me." Afina said before she walked out and closed the door. "Well… Aquaris, up for a round three?" Twilight smiled as her hand rubbed up his chest. Aquaris chuckled nervously as he was pulled into the bedroom. Outside Afina walked her way to the house, he silver scales shimmered in the moonlight, the earrings on her horns swayed in her strides; she hummed the melody of 'Dreams of an Absolution'. It was quite, aside from her humming, a cool breeze came from the north occasional crickets chirps heard in the distance. Afina kept on humming till she had this odd feeling she was being followed, she looked around to no one or no pony. She kept walking looking behind her constantly, till she bumped into something. When she looked forward to what or who she bumped into, she noticed it was a large creature, larger than Celestia was. "oh… what have we here, a young dragoness." The creature said as Afina looked up, the creature seemed draconic with various different animal parts here and there. "wha… what are you?" "I am Discord, lord of Chaos and no longer a threat to pony kind; I keep the harmony by adding the spice in life, the pizazz if you would call it." Discord said in response to Afina as he sat down in the air, a chair materialized under him, it seemed to be made of marshmallow. Afina gasped in surprise as she was lifted up, she looked down to see she was on a stool roughly the same height as the chair; this one was made with chocolate as the wood and cotton candy as the cushion. "What is your name?" discord asked as put his claws like he was holding a glass, Chocolate milk began forming from nowhere, without a glass, after the amount of milk was the same to the amount of an average glass, glass formed around the milk. "A-… Afina." Afina didn't know what to say, this Discord looked funny, but something about his presence was a bit unhinging, she watched his actions and also what he did. He could spawn various items some that follow the laws of magic, she gave a curious glance at his left claw he pulled out a small bag, dumping its contents out she noticed they were pebbles. She watched as they gained color and size, after a few moments it was a handful of small gems. Afina drooled at the gems; she could smell the aroma of the stones, her favorite flavors of lime, cherry, blue raspberry, orange, and lemon, Also known in the same order as pale emeralds, rubies, sapphires, pure amber, and yellow topaz. "Wow… those are my favorite." Afina stared at the pile of gems, her eyes sparkled. "Ah, you like… here." He held out the handful for her, Afina picked up half the pile and began eating at the gems. "These are amazing… I haven't had these high quality gems since I lived in Promethium." "Promethium, Hmm I never heard of the place… is it a town in a different country?" Discord asked as Afina ate at the pile of gems. "It was the city I was hatched in… and lived in for most of my life." Afina replied as she picked up a larger sapphire and put it in her maw before wrapping her tongue around it. "It's not on this world… it's on Terra." Afina picked up and inspected a sapphire before popping it into her maw. "go on." "The reason why I'm here is from some nasty empire of these non- magical humans who fear all magical creatures, I don't know why precisely, but they captured us and dropped us here… fortunately for us, my older brother Aquaris has a way of getting us home and creating a two way connection between this world, and ours. "Interesting… oh and look at the time, I have to be going." Discord said as he pulled out an oversized pocket watch, the arms were bent and the numbers were all backwards. "Sorry that this conversation was ended so shorty, but I have some mischief to cause in Manhattan." Discord snapped his claws, making both the chair and stool vanish, Afina fell onto her feet the pile of gems still in her claw's grasp. "I guess bye… thanks for the gems…" Discord put the pocket watch away somewhere and pulled out a doorknob, he twisted it and opened a door that wasn't there. He walked in closing the door after him; the knob fell to the ground and just sat there. Afina just stared at the knob for it to do something, but nothing happened. She sighed and began walking her way to the house. "Even though I just met him a moment ago… he already reminds me of 'her', oh why you weird Chimera… why do you seem so much like him?" she asked no one particular as she pulled out a Arcane key from an unknown place and unlocked the door. Inside she went to the kitchen as she licked the gem dust off her claws. She opened the Fridge and grabbed a chilled bottle of water. She went up to the bedroom and removed her jewelry before walking into and curling up in her basket, Afina noticed something was glowing and that was the Dragon stone, it's crystal glowing in the moonlight coming through the window. Her heat had been a real pain, her emotions have dived and risen, the worst part was trying to figure out how to keep sane, the Twins earlier used massaging tools on her pressure points, and they temporarily doused the fire of her lust. Afina sighed and looked down between her hind legs, the large scales that kept her privates hidden out of sight, "come on Afina you're better than this." "But you want it… you need it, those twins and their little trick by massaging all your pressure points with vibration devices were smart, but we need this!" Afina's thought of lust said to her "No! I will resist longer, I want him to be my first, not the crystal drake!" Afina yelled at the other silver Dragon in her mind. "C'mon touch it, part those scales and claw yourself till you Climax!"Lust said as she went behind Afina and grabbed her claw. "NO!" Afina yelled out loud as she pulled her claw Away from her Lust, the entity dispersed into a cloud of gray smoke, Blaze woke up and turned to Afina, her feathers puffed up due to being surprised. Blaze chirped at Afina in annoyance and flew over to the bathroom to preen her feathers back in place. "Sorry Blaze…" Afina said before sighing and noticing she was lying on her back, her other claw close to her larger scales. She blushed, "No Afina… I want to wait… for Rarius" Afina got up and decided to quickly take a bath before heading to bed. As the tub filled with warm water, Afina grabbed a towel and her scale cleaner, when she turned the tap off and stepped into the hot water, she felt much better already, the hot water caressed her silk like skin, unlike most dragons, she was born with a rare trait called silk skin, her scales are really fine and small, making her scales seem like a young human's skin. As she sat in the hot water, she grabbed a sponge and doused it in scale cleaner; she hummed as she scrubbed herself with the soapy sponge. Minutes after getting out and drying off, Afina went back to her basket and curled up in it, as she closed her eyes to sleep, she wondered what everyone on Terra was doing. Did they know she and Aquaris were safe? As Afina thought this, she slowly drifted off into a deep sleep, of her love… her only love. Over in Canterlot palace Princess Celestia looked over at the letter from Aquaris, the notes on this mysterious ring that was supposedly a portal. It said of a door to almost anywhere, and the only way to activate it, was to dial in runic symbols in the correct order. "The gate itself is made of a material known as morphic, an amorphous solid, capable of changing shape when heated or cooled correctly, it can effectively transfer energy and open a rift in space with ease." Celestia sighed and set down the letter, she lifted the ring closer to her and looked at it, it was covered and runes, scientific curiosity got the better of her and she heated it. As her magic warmed the morphic, the ring expanded and grew. After three minutes of heating the ring. It was twice the size of her bed; the runes were evenly spaced apart from one another, Celestia examined the now full size gate, there were twenty six unique runes and about ten runes that were representing zero through nine. "sister, I was wondering if you ha-…" Luna said as she walked in, tripping over the stargate that was now on the floor, Celsetia was reading over the bottom half of the letter, reading what each rune meant. Her pet sleeping on her back, "Sister… is this that ring that creature gave you earlier in the morning?" "Yes Lulu… it is… I'm still trying to understand how this works. How does it get power, and how can it do something we've tried in the past and we both suffered because of it?" Celestia asked as she lifted up the ring and shrunk it with a cooling spell, after it shrunk down to its pocket able size, Celestia set it on her bed side table. "I do not now Tia… but going a little on tangent, I was browsing through some of our subject's dreams, I found that your students were different than normal." Celestia raised an eye to this, seeing the smirk on the moon princess's face. "After a brief moment of thought, I check what where she was… I think this image will explain better than I could." Luna created a picture of where Twilight was, and what she was doing in her sleep. Celestia's jaw dropped and her wings flipped open, a loose feather falling slowly to the floor, she saw the now human Twilight wearing a necklace of her own cutie mark, she was in the arms of Aquaris, both under the covers, a smirk of satisfaction on both their faces. Looked over at Luna, then back at the image, after a moment she went out of her trance and Realized Luna was talking to her. "Sister, you've been staring at that for at least twenty minutes, and you seem to be a tad turned on from this, given your wings." Luna said in a giggle filled tone, a hoof over her mouth. "well, I'm happy for Twilight she found somepony… or someone in this case, but im concerned for Aquaris if Armor finds out." "If Armor finds out what?" both of the sisters turned around to See Cadence, luckily Armor wasn't there. "Oh Cadence what a surprise… I really need to get a lock for that door…" Celestia responded as she tried to hide the projection of Aquaris and Twilight from the younger Princess. She was plenty old and had probably had plenty of 'sessions' Armor… but it was mostly so to lower the chances of the captain of the guard from finding out that his little sister slept with an alien in the same form of said alien. "Again, what can Armor can't know?" The pink Alicorn stared at the two older princesses, after a few minutes of Silence, Celestia gave in to her niece, one thing Cadance had was determination, and if she couldn't get something, she would get it, one way or another… within the legal and moral boundaries of course. Celestia and Luna were locked in a staring contest, Cadance's, "Tell me glare." Was rivaling their own, Cadance was always a bold one even as a filly, she was so bold that she would even stare at the sun to get what she wanted, good thing she wanted very little. "Well… ok fine, but don't tell Armor, and don't think differently of him." Celestia nodded to Luna to move the image, in front of Cadance, she gasped as she saw Aquaris and Twilight like this, they had moved a bit in their sleep, their chests were pressing against each other, Aquaris held her tightly as Twilight was doing the same, nuzzling his neck. Cadence had to admit, they made a cute couple. "I see your point on why Armor shouldn't find out… but why did they do it in the first place?" "I don't know Cadence… I'll ask him tomorrow when he arrives; I believe he'll be here around dinner time." Celestia responded as Luna closed the projection. As the three princesses conversed about Aquaris and Twilight, and also other various things. Celestia and Luna wondered the naughty things the two bookworms did to each other, but pushed those thoughts aside to prevent getting turned on themselves, even princesses have fantasies. "What happens if he finds out?" "Memory charms?" "That might work, but also might cause more problems." Cadence said as got looks from both of her aunts. "What?" "I realized you didn't seem too surprised by Twilight as a human… Also how does he know how to change ones shape?" "Well… it's hard to explain it… but in summary, he learned from apparently a different breed of changeling." "How different." "Well they lived in massive hives mostly underground; the workers can mutate themselves into permanent structures for various uses, they can absorb emotions, preferably love and use it to bolster their power, but don't need to survive off of it… to reproduce, the leader of the hive has hatchers or "brood mothers"… given the leaders gender." Cadence tried her best remember what exactly Aquaris's notes had. Celestia and Luna nodded, "these sound interesting, quite different from Chrysalis." "oh I haven't even gotten into the events that led to the notes on those changelings, apparently Aquaris has an older sister named Sterling Amara… who is now wed some man named, prince Versian." Cadence picked up the glass of tea sitting next to her and sipped at it before continuing, "the events of the wedding were similar to my own, aside from reverse genders… even the duel between that other Prince and the Changeling king." "I see… hmmm, I never asked you this… but what happened in those caves, and when did Chrysalis put you there?" Celestia said as she looked at her niece, a minute after the question was asked she seem to look distressed. "it happened after the invitations were sent out… when you called Armor to your chambers to ask him when the rehearsal should be… I was swarmed… they dragged me to those caves." Cadence said in a shivery tone, she seemed to go a bit pale and her eyes darkened. "Please, I'd rather keep it to myself…" Celestia and Luna nodded and went to different topics, as time passed and the three conversed on various happenings their daily activities. Eventually Cadence and Luna left, leaving the Solar princess to have some time to read more of Aquaris's notes on the gates, before heading to bed. Over in the far parts of Everfree forest, farther than even than the old kingdom, dim lights were shining on the ground, as one would draw closer, they'd sense an odd presence as they walked into the field of an inhibitor. If you were magical it would block you from using any magic, no matter what you were or how powerful you were. "Johnny… tell that one with the Daxian… how you pissed it off when you confused its eggs with chicken ones." A solider said to the other solider across the campfire, a flask of an unknown brand of booze in his hand. "Alright Tom, listen guys… so I was making breakfast for the guys in my old squad, I decided that some eggs and bacon would be good, so I head out to see if I can find some eggs… after maybe five minutes I found what I thought was a chickens nest… after getting the eggs, I headed back to camp, not knowing I was being followed by the Daxian female… when I got back to camp and started cooking the eggs, the little prick latched onto me… after some struggling I pulled it off… only for it to howl and more of the little bastards swarmed, their light high pitch squeaks made it funny, since they lacked any real attacks." Johnny said before biting into a piece of cow rib they brought with them when they were assigned to this mission. There were ten of them, one captain, two combat engineers, three heavy troopers, a sniper, a field medic, and a hover trooper. There were more squad members, but they stayed with the ship and the pilots to set up a small depot. This small group was assigned to locate any form of settlement and if one is found, scan the populace for magic signatures. "Man… it was still odd how we got here… and why did command send us here? " "Well… from what I heard… the commander has a plan, and this planet is critical for it… but what gets me is the sheer amount of deuterium we brought… combined with some plasmatic charges and this entire forest and maybe even more, may just be incinerated." One of the combat engineers said as she grabbed a rib off the plate and bit into it, tearing off a sizable chunk of well-seasoned and slowly cooked pork. "Whatever the case, this world should burn, the arcane scanner is going off the charts… energy is fluctuating, especially during the day, we had to modify the solar panels so they didn't overload." The other engineer took a swig of soda before continuing, "I'll tell yah what, during the day… that sunlight felt weird… not like the one on earth." "I agree… but can I say this… there are rumors." "Of what?" "Stars made of magic, linked to an immortal being… that's what some of the guys of force one say, that's how Terra's Twin princes are still alive." "Bull… now how can a man live for twenty generations?" the captain said before he tossed aside a bare rib. "I don't know… and I don't care, they are just rumors." As the soldiers conversed and ate, many pairs of eyes stared at them, pale baby blue, compound and insect like, the soldiers stopped as they felt like they were being watched "Captain… do you feel like-…" "Were being watched? "Yeah… whoevers out there… show yourselves!" The captain yelled as the soldiers picked up their rifles. Pointing into the brush. The changelings smirked as they received telepathic calls from their mother. "Attack!" the drones hissed as they leaped out of the bushes, the soldiers shot at them as they poured from the darkness, screeches were heard as they were hit, but their numbers were to be reckoned with. As time passed the troopers were pushed back, their rifle barrels red hot from all the firing, they were panicking, the drones weren't dyeing and there were at least seventy of them, they began running from them, shooting behind them blindly as in hopes to hit them, to no avail… in desperation the sprinted east, not knowing of the town at least nine hours of pure adrenal flowing from the on suit tanks into their systems. > Canterlot > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The future of magic Chapter 7: Canterlot In the command ship of the confederacy strike team Scorn It was a dark room with one light, a table and two chairs, a lone captain sat the table, a bottle of water next to him. The door to the room opened and closed, the one who walked in was the lova-… dreaded Commander Scorn. "Captain Mengsk… I have read your report on the ground on that world… you lost your entire squad." Scorn said as he sat down at the table, he pulled out a box and a revolver, the captain tensed up , but his worries disappeared when Scorn began taking the old pistol apart. "Yes sir… we were swarmed… by god knows what." The captain said as Scorn opened the box and pulled out various gun cleaning tools. "I see…did you locate any settlements or any Intel?" "No sir… we failed to obtain any Intel, we couldn't and we lost all of that equipment." Scorn cleaned the pistols' barrel with A industrial pipe cleaner as he heard this. "Shame… you know Mensgk… I'm a little disappointed in you and your squad… I gave you simple mission; locate a settlement, scan it for any magic, and respond to command." Scorn started putting the pistol together. "Sir… I'm sorry… I'll try better; send me back down there… I promise… I won't do it Again." Scorn just sat there silent as he fitted the parts back into place, Scorn pulled out a box of pistol rounds and loaded the gun. "I know." Scorn put a round in the gun and cocked it, the captain gulped and closed his eyes, the gun was shot. The captain fell to the floor in pain as he held his hand to his stomach, he sat on the floor, blood pooling next to him. Scorn looked down at him, he put his pistol away and pulled out his communicator. "Yes… alright then, were heading out… send a cleanup team to the debriefing room, Mengsk has gotten a bit sloppy." Scorn put another bullet in the gun and pointed at Mengsk. "NOOO-…" Scorn smirked and holstered the pistol; he pulled out his flask of whisky and drank on the way out. After a short trip to the command bridge, the on deck crew members were staring at him. "what am I a monster now?" Scorn said as he put his flask back in his pocket. "I ain't no monster…. If anyone would like to challenge that then go right ahead." Scorn pulled his pistol out, now fully loaded and pointed at one of the crewmen at the life-support controls. "Any challengers?" No one stepped forward, or spoke up; they knew of Scorn's mercilessness and didn't want to see it firsthand. "No? Then back to work all of you!" Scorn commanded as he holstered his pistol, he walked up to the helm irritated; the crew sat down at their consoles and began working, only taking glimpses at their commander. Scorn walked through the door behind the helm's men's console; he took a swig from his flask before sitting down at his desk. The office was quite nice and filled with many luxuries; the chair he sat in was made of dragon skin, all of the furniture's wooden pieces were mahogany. Scorn pressed a button on his desk which lowered many screens from the ceiling, only one of them lit up. "Ah Commander Scorn… so good of you to join us… I was just discussing with council men, Jerald and Ackerman of you mission… any news?" "Yes… I do, General Malcolm… we have set up a warp beacon near the fourth planet from the sun, we have constructed a on surface storage unit for the operation… but unfortunately we cannot seem to locate civilization on this planet from orbit, and the recon team I sent down was, unfortunately… wiped out, no survivors and no bodies." "I see, do you at least know what happened to them?" "No sir, I grieve their deaths and I take a drink to honor them." Scorn said as he took a swig of a fine whisky from the minibar under his desk. "And we do too… now I am happy to say that our spy has done well and secured double the amount of needed deuterium… if the first fire wave doesn't wipe them out, then the next will." "Is that activist any curious on our spy's true identity, or why he wants a large shipment of deuterium transferred to SR3-88?" "No… and thank god for that… also Scorn… I'm assigning you to oversee the final stages of project devourer, you and your ship will head to our shipyard on mars; I'll send you the briefings shortly on where to take our new ship and how it is to be treated… impress me enough scorn and I'll see to it that you'll be drinking your fine Terran whisky on the beaches of Arcadia in your retirement." The general said to Scorn, receiving a smirk from the commander. "Alright then… send me the briefings and then leave me to my reading." "As you wish commander." Scorn turned to his computer screen; the briefings were received and opened, the screen the general was on, turned off and lifted up with the other two back into the ceiling. "Alright… operation Devourer… let's see what you have for me." Scorn said as he read his briefing. The door opened, two guards walked in, a changing drone being pulled by chains, its wings pulled off and its horn sawn off. "Sir, it hasn't been answering questions, even Dr. Drax's methods didn't get a response, as a matter of fact it was still awake when the session was over." One of the guards said, it was hard to tell which from their helmets. "I see… stand aside then." The guards nodded and walked to the wall, tightening the chains that held the changeling, it hissed under its muzzle. "Not talkative eh, little wretch? You and your kind caused some problems for us… one of which put the operation back at least a month… now answer my question now. You have fifteen seconds to comply… NOW TELL ME WHERE THE PLANETS POPULATION IS!?" Scorn said as hit the drone, knocking off its muzzle; Scorn drew his gun and pointed it at the drone. All it did was hiss at him and spit at his boots; Scorn simply frowned and cocked the pistol. "Shame…" Scorn pulled the Trigger and the gun fired all was heard was changeling's Death shriek. Aquaris awoke as the train whistle blew, he yawned and stretched as he sat up. Earleir that day they had bought train tickets to canterlot , he had bought private tickets for Afina and himself, they had a private cabin for four, the car they were in fit four of these cabins, if they wanted to, they can head one car back and eat at the on car restaurant. Aquaris pulled a bottle of water out of his bag and took a swig; he turned to his left to see Afina sleeping peacefully on the bench across from his. (Imagine the private cabins in the harry potter movies) He smiled and grabbed Afina's bag, he opened the bag and pulled out Afina's stuffed Dragon plush and put it to her, Afina snuggled it close to her chest and smiled in her sleep, Aquaris chuckled a bit to him before getting up and leaving the cabin to go grab some lunch. As he changed cars and entered the restaurant he was greeted by the Pegasus at the bar, he got some looks of the other ponies in the car but they didn't stare long. "What can I do for you?" the Pegasus asked as he cleaned the bar counter. "Hmm… ill have the potato soup… to drink; I'll have some water with lemon." "Okay… do you want anything extra in the soup? We have chives, various cheeses, sour cream, buttercups, or whatever you like." "Um… I'll have chives, cheddar cheese, sour cream, and if possible some garlic added to the soup." "Alright, your soup will be out shortly." The Pegasus said as he walked to the back of the cabin which leads to the next car which was a kitchen car. Aquaris nodded, he sighed and pulled his journal from his pocket and a pen. He clicked the pen and wrote on a blank page. As he wrote, he didn't notice the door from the private cabins opened a deep yellowish orange Pegasus walked in, her left wing broken and casted. She walked up to the bar and sat a few seats down from Aquaris, she looked over at Aquaris, she saw his hands, lightly holding the pen as he wrote. "Here you are sir… do you need anything else?" The Pegasus bartender said as he put the bowl of potato soup in front of Aquaris. "Umm… no, I'm good thanks." The bartended walked up to the orange Pegasus, Aquaris looked over and examined her key features, he noticed her mane was like fire, a deep orange with a lighter hue outlining it, her fur was the same lighter hue. She noticed this and turned to him. "Can I help you?" she asked as she turned to him. "I'm just curious why you're not flying to wherever you need to go." Aquaris commented, not knowing of the cast on the side he didn't see. "If you must know… I had an accident which caused my wing to break… the doctor said I can't fly for a few weeks." She said as she turned to show the cast. "Never mind that… what are you exactly?" "I'm a human, one many different types." "Ok… how many types?" "Ten… at the least, to answer on what human I am, I'm a Magi… Human's equivalent to unicorns." He pointed his hand at a salt shaker next to her and picked it up magically; he pulled it over to him and added some salt to his soup. "Are there ones like pegasi?" "Yeah… but we call them cloud striders, they have the ability to create energy wings from their backs." Aquaris finished his soup and pushed it aside, "where are my manners… I'm Aquaris Arintinon… at your service." Aquaris said before he used a knife to spread some butter on the bread roll that came with the soup. "Hmm… well I'm Spitfire, captain of the wonder bolts." She said as she held out a hoof. "Pleasures all mine." Aquaris said as he shook hands/hoofs with her. "Oh and this little drake is Afina." Spitfire turned around to the see smooth silver dragoness walk into the car, she was caring a plush dragon in her claws. "Oh she's so cute." Spitfire said as Afina rubbed the sleep from her eyes with her spare claw, she sat at the bar counter between them. "She's with me bartender… give her a glass of milk." Aquaris said as he paid for his lunch and Afina's milk. The bartender nodded and went to the back again. "How are you doing Afina?" "Good… I had another one." "They're getting worse?" Afina nodded as Aquaris lightly hugged her "What is?" "Afina has been getting nightmares… real bad ones… this has happened before where she gets them at random, and they get worse and worse each time, for example one night may be a dream, next might be a nightmare, then back to normal dreams for some long period of time before the next nightmare." The Bartender came back and set the glass down; Afina picked it up and sipped gingerly at it. "Usually if she drinks milk or something similar, then her nightmares seem to be less intense, given that they are bad already… I shudder at how worse they can get." Aquaris said as Afina set her glass down, the bartender coming back shortly afterwards. "We'll be arriving in Canterlot in about ten minutes; I suggest you finish your conversation and head to your seats or cabins." The bartender said as he took Afina's empty milk glass. "we will… Afina, head back to the cabin and check on our stuff real quick… Spitfire, do you mind if you show me that broken wing?" "uhh… sure, what are you going to do?" she replied as she turned so her cast covered wing was in front of him. "You'll see." Aquaris said as he put his hands lightly to her wing, his hands emitted an odd purplish haze, Spitfire felt the broken wing go numb and the pain go away, the glow from Aquaris's hands changed again to a bright green. From the other side of the car, you could hear bones popping and clicking back into place. After a minute of no pops, Aquaris pulled his hands back. "ok… let's get this cast off." Aquaris lit his hands with blue flames and touched the cast, the cast burned away, not burning Spitfire or the train car's furniture. Receiving a nod from Aquaris She spread out her wings; she felt no pain as she lightly and slowly flapped them, she also noticed that her wing was given some new color and had deep red feathers at the tips; she turned to see the other wing had this as well. "Wow… but why, you hardly know me, we only talked for at least fifteen minutes." Spitfire asked as she folded her wings back up. "Just because I don't know you that well, doesn't mean I can't do a good deed." Spitfire nodded and looked at her wings. "I do recommend not flying for at least two more days, just to make sure the bone is strong enough." Aquaris got up and patted her shoulder before heading to the door. "Thanks Aquaris… I don't know what to say." "That's all you need to say, see yah around." Aquaris said as he left the car. A smirk on Spitfires face as she followed suite to her private cabin. As Aquaris entered the cabin, Afina was pulling down her bag, it was a simple bag similar to a ponies saddle bag, but had more pouches, and even a place to have her headphone wire to come through. Aquaris pulled his two bags down, one was duffel bag full of some clothes, toiletries, and some of his hammer space crystals, holding some larger things for Afina, the other bag was holding Aquaris's books, study supplies, and Blaze for some reason. "Stop hiding in there Blaze… silly little phoenix." Aquaris commented as Blaze fluttered onto Aquaris's shoulder. As the train drew to a stop, Aquaris and Afina were already at the door to get off the train, the two nodded to each other and got off as they felt the train stop. Aquaris put his goggles on and let the transition lenses help him see, it was a cloudless day, it was noon and the sun was bright. He help put Afina's sunglasses on before they made their way to the castle. They got stared at by the some of the ponies, but not too many. "Wow this place is booming…. So many things to buy and do." Afina said as she saw all the stores and stands. "Control yourself Afina, you can shop till you drop tomorrow, right now we need to get the castle, and from what I remember in the letter, we have a formal dinner party tomorrow as well" Aquaris said as he readjusted his bag on his shoulders. "Good thing that the beach house had my spare formal attire in the closet." Afina commented as she stretched her wings quickly and tucked them away. She looked forward to see the castle, its ivory towers stood tall in the distance, it was like the one in Promethium but it had its differences, the Promethium had two more towers and its color was a more of a subtle grey. "I'm curious where we'll be housed?" "I think the letter said, from left to right the first tower." Aquaris said as they got closer to the castle gates, he pulled out the letter to prove that he had an invitation from Celestia. Two guards halted them, before the got even ten feet from the gate, Aquaris showed the letter to them they scanned the letter thoroughly. After five minutes they nodded to each other and allowed them through. Afina stared in awe at the beautiful garden before her; she looked left and right but stared in one certain direction Afina simply pointed instead of speaking. Aquaris turned his head to see Armor and Cadence walking through the castle lower gardens, not knowing he was there. Aquaris ran up to them, hearing there conversation. "As long as blue blood doesn't ruin this Dinner then it should go off without a problem." Armor said to Cadence as they walked along. "Huh… oh Aquaris, " "Hey Armor… Princess… as you know I'm here for setting up the way to my home, since it is a two way link between worlds, you'll be able to visit my world, vice versa with yours." Aquaris said as Afina caught up to him. "Well… will you and Afina be attending the dinner tonight; I presume Celestia will have the chef add something special to both your dishes." Cadence commented as she gestured the two to walk with her and Armor. "Yes... well when is the dinner? "In three hours, just enough time for you to meet with Celestia; have your room arranged, and then some R&R before you have to freshen up." Armor commented as the group entered the halls of the palace. Aquaris and Afina looked at either side of the halls, adorned with fixtures or artwork. "Some of this stuff is at least as old as Aunt Celestia... at least two thousand years, maybe even older than that." "Intriguing… she has good taste; some of this stuff reminds me of Terra, especially this little device here." Aquaris said as he pointed at what appeared to be a bronze sphere, it exterior lined with many hair thin lines and runes. "It's ancient Technology, if given the right type of energy, the shell will open and reveal the objects true identity, such has a simple Solar system chart, to more advanced stuff like a pocket star fabricator." "Pocket Stars…" "They emit light, efficiently at that… when made a pocket star can last about three years without being replaced, all you need is the working device and maybe three liters of hydrogen gas." Aquaris said as Afina walked on ahead of them. "I see… wait, if it's old tech than ho-…" "There were races preceding our own races, they disappeared but their incredible useful tech was remained of them, we used reverse engineering to build some of the tech Terra has today, such as mobile space platforms, used to dock and restock or construct ships… or the F.A.T.S.O.L. drive, allowing ships to move as fast a light can, FTL was a little far-fetched." Aquaris said as he continued walking along, Armor and Cadence following suite. "FATSOL… odd name for whatever it is." "Abbreviation for, 'Fast as the speed of light'… Light itself moves at least a little over three million miles per hour, Scientists had also to figure out how to prevent crew members on board these ships from spontaneously exploding due to the exposure to so much GeForce… they created Zero -G Armor. By using special alloys… it can nullify the effects of the GeForces the crew would be exposed to, and it looks like simple crewman's uniform." Aquaris added as they passed by a whole group of various palace staff, on their way to the dining hall to prepare it for the dinner. After about twenty minutes, they reached the throne room; The guards at either side of the massive doorway nodded to Armor before they pulled them open, the group walked into the expansive room, Aquaris looked at either wall, seeing the stained glass windows depicting Twilight and the others, above the throne itself, was one of Celestia and Luna. As they approached the throne Aquaris lowered his gaze to See the princess of the sun sitting at it, a Scroll floated in front of her, her eyes moved left and right as she read whatever was on it. "Aquaris, and young Afina… I am glad to see you made it safely." Celestia said as she put the scroll away and walked down the steps of the thrown, down to the group's level. "Thank you princess… I presume you've had a nice day so far?" Aquaris commented as he gave a slight bow, Afina doing the same. "Indeed I have… thank you for asking; now if you'll follow me, I'll show you where you'll be staying, and asking what I need you to do on the way." Celestia walked passed them, using her wing to get Aquaris and Afina to follow. The two followed for roughly twelve minutes till the trio made it to a pair of oak doors, Aquaris opened the door to allow the two females through before him, after they went through he entered the room. "Wow… what a view!" Afina said as she walked onto the balcony, offering an amazing view of the city… Aquaris chuckled lightly as he looked around the room; he noticed that the room had a decent number of bookshelves, a nice desk with a window in the concave ceiling, allowing both sunlight and moonlight through and onto the desktop. There was a bed, it was a queen size, its sheets silken sheets and the blanket was made of deep red wool. At the base of the bed was a massive pillow, within seconds of seeing it, Afina took flight and flew to the top of the room, swan diving into the pillow. Both Celestia and Aquaris laughed as the drake was covered in feathers from the pillow, she looked a lot like a wyvern like that. I'll have a maid come by to fix that later… on another note Aquaris… I want to let you know this dinner is not really for my representation… it's for you to give the other guests a good opinion on humans." Celestia said as she turned to Aquaris. "I see… what do they think this dinner is then… since I doubt you told them of an alien I attending the dinner." Aquaris commented as he brushed some of the pillow feathers off the bed and put his bag on it. He opened it up and pulled out his clothes as Celestia continued. "no… not yet, you are our guest of honor… even if the others don't know of you being so… when you and Afina enter, there will be some silence and confusion, make your way to me and the Elements and you should be fine." Celestia commented as she helped Afina clean off the plumage. "Thanks princess…" Afina said as the feathers were pulled off of her, she sighed as she stretched her wings and shook, more loose plumage fell off. Aquaris finished emptying his clothing bag and began to empty his other bag, Blaze fluttered out of it again and landed on Celestia's horn, thinking it was a perch. Aquaris chuckled lightly as Blaze preened her feathers, chirping lightly as she did so. Aquaris pulled out a small crystal and activated it, a few things came flying out that were caught in Aquaris's magic grasp. One was a small box, similar in design to the console back At Aquaris's house. One was flat screen plasma of decent size, and the last thing was a glass dome, inside contained a yellow crystal… at the base of the dome was a metal ring that had twenty five sockets of the exact shape and size. "Oh boy… I can finish my game of Xcom." Afina said as she began setting up the console, Aquaris chuckled and turned to Celestia, with a bit of Telekinesis Blaze was perched on his shoulder. "well princess… I don't want to keep you busy… but one question… where will Twilight's room be?" Aquaris asked as he got a curious glance and smirk from the princess. "about two rooms down… also when this castle was built, the walls were insulated to allow more heat to stay in and to be quite soundproof… just a tid-bit of information you'd like to know if you get any ideas… either way, I shall see you both at dinner." Celestia said as she left the room. "I thinks she's onto you Aquaris." Afina said as she turned on the console and put the disk into it. "I think so too… I'm not worried about her though, she seemed supportive… as a matter of fact I'm more worried about her older brother's wrath." Aquaris commented as he checked this bedchambers bathroom, it seemed modern in a sense which gave Aquaris an odd question. "Still use candles and self-powered plows… but have more technically advanced plumbing and ovens….?" Aquaris thought as he closed the bathroom door behind him. Afina was in the zone, it was the third in game month and she was ready for the 'Mutons', with an alien containment facility and the first three alien interrogations done, after this mission she knew she can start researching plasma weapons. As she started the abduction mission in Moscow, she had her claws crossed for a good map seed. She swore mentally as she saw the map was her most hated one, it was three buildings, one was a small bakery of sorts, the building next to it was and office complex and behind the first building was a meat storage unit. She always had trouble with this, especially with 'Floaters'. Outside the room, Princess Cadence walked down the hall, she was going to talk to Afina and had even brought a few snacks along with her. When she opened the door, she was surprised at what she saw, Afina holding this odd 'M' shaped device in her claws, Afina smirked as a loud roar noise came from the speakers of the T.V. Cadence walked closer to see what was happening, it looked like a sort of battle, one side were all humans wearing bluish armor, while on the other side was a few different creatures, there were two large bulky ones wearing sickly green armor another one seemed to lay on the ground nearby. She noticed the other creatures were different, one had no legs and hovered over the ground with jets of fire from its back, the other creature was like a human, but was unusually tall and all forms of creepy when it came to how thin it was. "C'mon stun him… YES!" Afina said as one of the soldiers got almost point blank and electrocuted one of the bulky creatures, it fell limp to the ground like the other one, but seemed to glow a very dim blue. Cadence looked at the drake and tapped her shoulder lightly with a hoof. "oh hi Cadence… I was wondering what you were doing when we kind of just left you in the throne room… sorry about that." "it's no issue… besides gave Armor and I a chance to finish what we were talking about… never mind that though… what is this?" Cadence asked as she sat on the pillow next to Afina, a burst of ivory feathers puffing out behind them. "it's called XCOM, Enemy Unknown… it's a game, very old one at that, it takes place on an alternate earth in year two thousand fifteen, aliens attack earth and the player of the game is in charge of the first and only line of defense." Afina said as she had her heavy trooper fire its rocket at the cluster of three 'Thin Men'. "Next is the 'Floaters' and the 'Muton'." Afina mumbled as the words "Alien's turn" showed in red letters on the screen. Cadence watched as the aliens fired light greenish plasma bolts at the soldiers, all that color did was bring back bad memories. Flash back It dark… the only light was produced by the sphere of light from Cadnece's horn, she slowly and cautiously walked through the expansive caverns of this depleted mine. The place smelt like decayed wood, dirt, and something else. As she went over some rusted metal mine-cart track, she heard light clicking noises, almost insect like, with hesitation she pressed on forward. She gaged as the other smell grew stronger, it smelt horrible. She heard more clicking noises; they were louder than before… Cadence tripped on something and turned to see it. She was gasped when she saw it was an egg, a rather large one it expanded and shrunk as if it was breathing. She walked back and found another, and another… she turned around and covered mouth with a hoof, there were hundreds… each of them pulsing, their slime like shells shined in the magical light. Cadence backed up, she didn't know where but she wanted away from those eggs, that is when she heard… that laugh. It was maniacal… and sounded female, Cadence saw in the dimness of this chamber a figure, it was hard to tell but it seemed like it had insect like wings, it's shape was of an average Alicorn… but majorly different. She changed spells to a night vision one, she regretted it immediately. There were hundreds… maybe thousands of small black figures, each of them with their bulbous teal-ish eyes looked at the larger one. "My children… within three days we will have Canterlot… and all of you will be able to feed… also there is a guest down here… I don't know where she is, but whoever can find her, she's theirs." She said loud enough for the horde to hear. Cadence began backing up into the tunnel she came out of… she stopped when she bumped something. "weellllll… weellll… well… what do we have here? Oh the princess of Love princess Cadence… HE HE HE… it's so wonderful for you to arrive, it'll be easier for me to obtain your form." Cadence was pushed forward into the light of a green crystal the larger creature from before approached her, Cadences eyes went wide when she noticed the holes on its legs and horn, it's eyes were lizard like and green in color. Cadence had heard about changelings… now she was face to face with one, to be precise a queen. "Cadence… CADENCE! Snap out of it… you're starting to scare me." Afina said as she snapped a claw In front of her face, Cadence shook her head lightly and turned to look at Afina, she looked behind her to see Aquaris was sitting on the bed, writing in his book. "you seem to just blank out, I noticed when you didn't react to the Chrysalides on the Terror site mission. "Sorry Afina… just… thinking…" Cadence said as she got up and left, leaving a confused Afina and Aquaris. > Rage > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The future of magic Chapter 8: Rage Aquaris and Afina were walking through the halls of Canterlot Castle, they were on their way to the front gates to meet up with the element bearers, Afina quickened pace and took flight, flying low since they were inside. As the two made it outside Afina flew higher and landed on the roof of a covered walkway, Aquaris tossed a pair of binoculars to her shortly after her landing. "see them Afina?" Aquaris yelled up to the drake. "Not yet… wait… no no, just a few pedestrians, man it's like trying to find a certain color jawbreaker in a mountain of different colored jaw breakers." Afina said as she scanned the city streets with the binoculars. "Ok… keep watch; I'm going to give these design plans to Celestia… to think she had builder teams at the ready…waiting for my designs." Aquaris said as he turned and went inside. Afina kept scanning the city, after a while she just got bored. She set down the binoculars and pulled glass sphere out of her bag, she held it up and let the sphere collect the sunlight, after a few seconds she lowered it down and gazed into it. She saw Terra, in a black void produced by the ball. She poked her claw on the continent of promethia and it zoomed in, she poked again on the southern region, and again on the town of Terrivale. She pressed again and sighed as she saw Rarius, he was busy working on something peculiar, it appeared to be a form of white dress for a dragon her size, it had some differences to compensate for wings, shorter legs, and the tail. Afina closed her eyes and whispered. "You shouldn't have Rarius… it's too much… how could I repay you?" Afina sat there for maybe five minutes before she decided to hop down from the roof and into the Terrace garden below. Afina stretched her legs and yawned; she curled up in the sun and decided to take a nap. Over to Aquaris "…and finally, after a week of testing, and re-forging it, the Hallow-ite Armor was done." Aquaris said as a projection of a suit of armor disappeared in front of him and Shining Armor. "Impressive, so it's lighter weight and more durable than the suit I'm wearing?" "Yeah… then again you aren't wearing a full body suit like the average guard on Terra, so it wouldn't offer as much if a blacksmith were to redesign the armor for pony use." "True." "Hey Armor, quick and odd question. Did Cadence have something bad to her happen in the past she doesn't want to remember?" "Yeah… I'll explain shortly but why ask?" "Well she walked into my room to talk to Afina; who was playing a game where the enemies' weaponry use a bright green coloration to the rounds the guns fire. Seeing those bright green rounds seemed to make her stare off into space." "oh boy… it wasn't too long ago that Cadence and I got married, the wedding itself was going smoothly at first, but then odd things started happening. Cadence began changing certain decorative details, and also was acting overall different, the day Twily and her friends arrived, and everything went black… I heard voices, my own and every pony else's but I couldn't move I felt weak, after what I guess was the ceremony practice, I felt light headed." "How so…" "Like the very life of me was being sucked out of me through a straw… after a while I could see again, I saw Cadence her mane was a mess, and her fur was dirty… after a moment I realized I was in a changeling's mental grasp the entire time. Cadence told me to bring the anti-Changeling barrier back up, but I didn't have any strength left to cast the spell..." "I see… it seems basically… exactly like what happened to Versian and Armera… but opposite gender, and Metamorph disguised as Versian used a silent siphon spell to harvest emotion off of Armera and many others. Also Versian wasn't scared for life… the changeling lord and prince of romance don't get along very well… but at least they aren't at each other's throats." Aquaris said as he opened the doors to the throne room. "Alright… I'm going to go find Cadence; I'll see you later I guess." Celestia was sitting at the throne reading over a scroll twice the average length; he could see a gold silk ribbon hanging from the back of the parchment. "Ah… Aquaris, I was wondering if you had any questions for me." "sorry princess… no questions, I came to drop off this… they are designs for a star-gate chamber, the room is mostly for look since the gate powers itself… but it does seem to fit the rest of the castle so I thought you'd like to see them." Aquaris said as he tossed a deep royal blue scroll into the air and sent it up to Celestia. "Thank you Aquaris… I shall review them and have my architect work on this post haste… also I want to ask you if it would be alright if you demonstrated some of your abilities later in the dinner? like your polymorphing, also I believe Twilight would love seeing how good you are in a dance." Aquaris blushed lightly but nodded, "I'm sure she will, I hope Armor won't kill me for dancing with his little sister." "I'd think he would if he found out what you did with her yesterday." Celestia playfully stuck her tongue out as Aquaris turned red as a tomato and began sweating a river. "don't worry Aquaris… I won't tell him." "Thank you… and I'm holding you to that." Aquaris said as he turned to the door and was about to leave. "Oh and Aquaris... do you mind if you meet with Luna and I in the library after the dinner? We wish to discuss some things involving Terra." "Yes Princess… no if you will excuse me, I have to check up on Afina… she is been keeping look out for the element bearers." "You are excused Aquaris." Aquaris gives a light nod in response and left. Aquaris closed the throne room doors behind him and nodded to the guard patrol passing by the doors. They nodded back as two guards broke off from the patrol to take place for the tired guards at either side of the throne room doors. Aquaris popped his neck and pulled out his earphones, and played "Inner Universe" by Origa on his song list. Back to Afina Afina lied on her back, staring at the clouds and the slightly orange sky. On her chest was her dragon plush, its silver cloth skin shining in the afternoon light like Afina's. Afina sighed in a surreal tone as she tightened her hug on the toy. "Honestly, why did Auntie change the celebration to pony Ville…? They don't deserve it, especially since Rarity ruined my image there" Afina turned her head to see a white, blond mane unicorn walking into the garden she ducked her head behind the statue base she was resting against but kept listening. "But no… she said that Elements needed a good festival versus what happened last year… so what doesn't mean you change it from las-Pegasus back to pony Ville." The colt said as he kept forward. "What a weirdo… Aquaris talks to himself all the time in his studies… but this guy is bitching to himself… heh heh… I need to write that one down." Afina thought, "Who is his aunt too… he isn't an Alicorn so he can't be royalty, could he?" Afina kept listening in on the colt but heard nothing for a moment but he started talking to someone. "Good evening… Major Viktor…" "And to you too Blueblood … does our agreement still stand?" A voice said from nowhere, Afina looked from behind the statue to see no pony else but that lone colt but she did see a small glowing sphere which produced the voice. "Yes… now you promised me that position correct?" The one known as Blueblood replied to the ball of light. "Oh yes… with all the perks and insurances included, hell even someone to do the work for you, if you so desire… as long as you hold up your part of the deal that is." Afina kept listening in on the conversation she lowered herself to prevent being noticed. "I will… now when will you and your army being arriving?" "In due time is all I can say… as soon as the first domino falls, the plan will be executed." The voice said in response, "I have to go sadly I will contact you again in a month or two when my army is ready through the same method, just don't lose your horn." "I will not Viktor… now go along; I know you must be incredibly busy." The voice didn't reply after that comment but the light disappeared, Afina pulled out her bag a personnel identifier, (an old one from Armera) and Searched the profile of this 'Major' Viktor, the search resulted in nothing, the only human Terran, with the last name of Viktor was a now deceased mining company CEO, who died when he did not offer the location of his hidden metal stores to Confederate 'pillagers'. Afina turned off and put the device away into her bag; she crouched down and snuck off, avoiding Blueblood's attention. After a few minutes, Afina began walking normally again, she muttered to herself quietly and kept on forward. As she kept walking she turned to see Twilight and Rarity walking up past the front gates, Afina scanned behind them for the others but saw no pony else. Afina was about to spread her wings to fly down before her wings were grabbed by magic, she hissed in pain as they were tugged, she turned to see Blueblood approaching, his horn glowing with the same energy as the energy holding onto her wings, she struggled and squirmed in his magical grasp. "Strange… I didn't know Auntie Celestia allowed pests into the castle, or were you here stealing something Dragon." "What… I'm no thief… I am a welcomed Gue-… oof!" Afina was thrown into a wall hard shaking a vase on a nearby pedestal, but not knocking it over. She held the side where she impacted into the stone wall. "Don't lie to me… Now, what did you steal?!" "Nothing… now leave me alo- oof…" Afina was kicked in the stomach hard; she gasped for air and tried to get on her claws, only to be knocked back down. Afina felt as the straps of her bag were undone and then pulled off. She saw as its contents were shaken out, he seemed like he was looking for something precise but couldn't find it. He then came upon her crystal sphere; he picked it up and examined its clear smooth surface. As it shined in the lone beam of sunlight it began producing the image of what Afina was originally viewing. "Sweet Celestia, What is that thing… You… Dragon what is this object, and who or what is the creature produced by this thing?" Afina didn't answer in English but in Dragon tongue, leaving blueblood to think she was talking in gibberish. "Answer me you whelp!" Blueblood commanded as he threw the crystal sphere at her chest, Afina gasped for air again and was out of breath. She coughed and gasped desperately for as if she was choking. Blueblood, grunted as he searched through the rest of the stuff from her bag, a canteen full of water, a few bags of various gemstones cut into this chips, a pair of bracelets and a choker big enough to fit around the drake's neck, the crystal sphere, a thin silver grey block with dark grey glass screen with multiple colored buttons on the front face, a few other loose items, and a small silver dragon plushy. He picked up the plush and examining it, a small pink tongue stuck out at him from the black string mouth, two blue glass sapphires as the eyes gazed at him. He looked down to see Afina wide eyed staring at him and the doll "put her down…" Afina muttered in a begging tone. "Please… put her down…" Blueblood smirked as he looked back at the plush. He used his magic to grab the waist and chest of the plush. Afina's pupils shrunk to tiny specks and her eyes pooled with tears. The now two halves of the doll hung limply from Blueblood's magic, bits of the cotton stuffing falling to the ground from where the pieces were together. "Ho- How co-cou- could you?" Afina muttered as tears streamed down her cheeks. "Because I'm a prince… and what are you goanna do about it, you little whelp?" Blueblood replied with a smug grin plastered on his face. Over to Aquaris Aquaris, Rarity, Spike, and Twilight walked through the lower gardens of the palace, chatting idly. "Hey Aquaris… odd Question, but how many human dragon relationships happen on a yearly basis?" Spike asked as he readjusted himself on Twilight's back. "Plenty… it's common to see a male dragon maybe Afina's size with a women, every once in a blue-moon you see a dragoness same size with a man… why ask?" "No reason, just curious." "Tell me then, Spike is it possible to see dragons with ponies? Given they don't have a treasure horde big enough to make them the size of a two story mansion." "I uh… umm" "On a yearly basis, maybe two marriages on average each year, dragons in Equestria that are small in size stay distant from society." Twilight said as they walked inside and made their way up to the floor Afina was supposed to be on. "Can humans and dragons have foals…? I mean children?" "yeah… depending on the mother will decide the species that will be born, maybe a dragon with human like eyes, and the ability to use magic through horns like yourselves could… or humans with dragon traits, like dragon wings instead of feathery wings on the cloud striders, slit pupils instead of round ones, umm oh and a rage form." "Rage form?" "When dragons are extremely mad or provoked, they temporally increase it size, gain incredible physical powers, and are in a blinding rage until the dragon calms down, or passes out from exhaustion. You don't want to be on the business end of the claws of a rage filled dragon." Aquaris explained as they noticed a trio of gashes in an ivory pillar. The floor was also scratched with claw marks; a few pots were also knocked over and shattered about the floor. "That's strange… this hall was fine earlier." Aquaris looked around and saw that gash marks continued down the hallway, he then noticed Afina's bag, its contents were scattered about the floor, and the most troubling thing was the remnants of a ripped stuffed dragon plush. "Rarity… when you have a moment, could you patch this up, Afina will need it when I find her." He got up after filling Afina's bag with what was supposed to be in it and slung it over his shoulder, "Twilight… would you find your brother, given the gash marks… we might need a few guards." Twilight nodded and ran off the way they came from, Aquaris on the other hand followed the gashes and claw marks. Minutes passed before the path of destruction was more noticeable, various artworks shattered about the floor, he also noticed blood, Aquaris dipped his fingertips in it and tasted it, he quickly spit it out and stood up, "Dragon blood… dammit." "ahhhh… get away from me you monster!" Aquaris heard outside and went into a dead sprint, he pulled his staff from his belt and extended it. Outside in the courtyard,Aquaris collected into a group of guards as they watched the carriage sized dragon chasing after a posh white unicorn, "Aquaris what exactly is happening?" Aquaris turned to see Celestia, a pair of guards wearing a different set of armor following right behind her. "Well… the colt running for his life down in the courtyard pushed Afina beyond her breaking point. She is in her rage form… ironic that I explained what rage form is to Twilight before finding that Afina had gotten into her own rage." Afina roared as she breathed fire at them and used her tail to knock down to a few guards. "oh dear… if you can stop her from killing my nephew that would be nice, also maybe prevent the palace from collapsing on itself." Celestia commented as Aquaris charged out into the court yard and created a large chain of energy. All the guards watched as the human jumped on the dragons back and wrapped the chain around its neck. "AFINA! YOU HAVE TO CALM DOWN…UGH… AFINA!" Aquaris yelled as Afina began kicking her hind legs into the air, trying to shake him off. Aquaris tightened the chain and extended it, Afina noticed this and grabbed the chain with her claw, with some quick movements she was spinning Aquaris around like a toy with her end of the chain. "Aquaris!" Twilight yelled to the human screaming deeply as he was spun. "SOME… PONY… USE A… HEAVY… IMPACT… SPELL… ON…HER… HEAD… NOW!" Aquaris yelled each time he passed by, Twilight charged her horn and shot the spell, as it impacted Afina slowed down her spinning until Aquaris was on the ground, he got up and looked forward to see Afina face to face with him, he noticed the scales under her eyes darkened and wet. A few guards were slowly walking over to Afina, a whole lot of their own magical chains ready, Aquaris held up his hand telling them to stop, he put his other hand on her cheek and closed his eyes, a soft glow emanated from his palm, slowly Afina shrank down to her original size and was out cold snoring a little. In Aquaris's other hand was a sphere glowing lightly. Celestia felt the amount of energy in that sphere, that much power could cause some damage, it was filled with rage, and sadness. Celestia turned to see Blueblood regaining his composure, she walked over to him. "Ah Auntie, can you see the amount of damage that dragon caused… the party is tonight and I doubt this will be fixed quickly enough." Celestia simply stared in silence at her nephew. An hour later Outside in the halls in front of the throne room, Rarity was examining the remains of Afina's doll, Afina was sleeping in Aquaris's lap, exhausted from using her rage form, Twilight was reading through more of Aquaris's journal, the pages were all about experiments failed and successful, what caught her eye was the success of focused summoning. Focused summoning allows the caster to take an emotion to create an entity to fight alongside them, each emotion offers different elemental attributes, for example anger is fire, sadness is water, joy is light, happiness is wind, ect. Of course the summoned is only as strong as the summoner and its appearance is based on the summoner's imagination and what its elemental alignment is. For example, dark summons would often have chains restricting most of their movement, but have a lot of armor and ranged attacks at their disposal. Twilight noticed under this was a sketching of a creature bound by chains; its overall appearance was fearsome, even as a sketching. A foot note dubbed it. Anima, the dark summon was created by nocturne's fear. It uses attacks based of its own pain and suffering, casting it upon its targets, resulting in instantaneous death or immense pain, these were tested on summoned beasts. Twilight looked up to see Aquaris rubbing some sort of cream on Afina's cuts and bruises, she cooed lightly in her sleep. She also noticed the variety of bottles full of various powders and liquids. And what appeared a mortar and pestle. "Aquaris… what is all this?" "Alchemy learned it from an old friend, who lives in ever-light forest back on Terra." Aquaris said as he put down an empty bowl, remnants of the cream still in it. "Bit of blue mountain flower petals, some wheat seed milled into a pulp, makes a great healing cream." Aquaris said as he began to put up the bottles, receiving a nod from Twilight. "Hmm… how I'm going to fix this? I forgot to pack my spare sewing kit with me, didn't think I would need it." Rarity sighed and put down the halves. "Can't believe Blueblood did that… he is immature yes… but this is just Foal-ish, ripping a doll of some-pony smaller than him." "I agree… I just hope he doesn't get away with this, even as a royal, you have to be given punishment for your actions." Aquaris commented as he zipped his bag shut. "He won't Aquaris…" the three of them turned to see Princess Luna walking up to them, her mane was a mess. "Oh Princess Luna… you look like you rolled out of bed." "Because I did… Afina's little rage form shook my tower enough to wake me… not that I'm mad or anything, but I can't get back to sleep." Aquaris rubbed the back of his head to this, lightly chuckling. "How'd you know she had a rage form?" "I was watching from my tower, the funniest bit was when she grabbed that chain you made and slung you around like a planet orbiting it's star, except the planet was a hundred and ninety pounds worth of screaming human." Aquaris merely face palmed, "there is no need to be embarrassed Aquaris… how is she doing?" "Fine… thanks for asking… mostly bruises and shallow cuts… nothing a simple healing cream can't fix… I noticed your fur is a bit darker than before…" "Depending on my moon's position will result in my fur a different shade of blue… full moon will be a more royal blue and new moons are more of a deep navy blue." Luna replied as she opened the doors and walked through closing them behind her. "Rarius…" Afina mumbled in her sleep, before snoring again. Aquaris chuckled lightly before a moved her and set her head lightly on a pillow he pulled from his bag. He pulled out the sphere made of Afina's energy and examined it. "so what did you do to make that?" "I used a spell I discovered from metamorph to siphon off emotions, I pulled all her rage and anger she had created then and made this, it is powerful, if in the wrong hands who know how to use it, then it will cause ill things to happen." Aquaris put the sphere away as the doors opened; Blueblood was the first to walk out followed by Luna and Celestia. He turned to Aquaris and sneered at him, "you'd better keep that thing on a leash, almost killed me… also if I had my way, I'd have that thing hung." Blueblood said with a venomous tone. Aquaris stood up and walked over to him "One she is my little sister… two, no one hurts my family or threatens them, even he is a stuck up, spoiled brat that believes he is a prince, and three." Aquaris stated before he punched Blueblood in the face. "That was for hurting and threatening her." Blueblood receded and held a hoof to his nose. There were mixed reactions from everypony. Aquaris turned away from Blueblood. "Aquaris… actually there is no need to explain, Guards escort Blueblood to his room, and make sure he stays there." "yes your highness." Two guards said as they began the trek to Blueblood's room. "I'm not mad Aquaris… but warn us next time you decide to do that." "No need to… I got my message out that my Family is there for him to dictate and control." Aquaris replied as he checked Afina. Who was still sound asleep, "Now I believe it's time we should all get ready for this dinner." Aquaris picked up Afina who stirred in her sleep. "I agree, Twilight… Rarity, your rooms are ready… so why don't you all go along and prepare." Celestia said as she began to head to the halls leading to her tower, Luna left shortly afterwards to her own tower. "well shall we get going?" Aquaris asked as he levitated Afina on to his back and carried her in the direction to their rooms, Twilight, spike, and Rarity following suite. Aquaris's room, ten minutes before guests arrival Afina sat calmly on the bed, her scales polished, her jewelry on, and a simple but beautiful silk dress on. She heard the door open and see Rarity walked in, her dress was more elegant and detailed, bit much for Afina's standards though. "Afina dear, are you alright?" Rarity asked noticing Afina's crabby attitude. "I'm fine Rarity… just a tad bit upset at that snob… ripping my doll like that." "Well I think this might perk you up, had to have a maid bring me a sewing kit." Rarity pulled from behind her, Afina's plush. In the center was some slightly noticeable stitching. "Thank you Rarity… you cannot begin to believe how important she is to me." Afina said as grabbed the doll as Rarity dropped it above her claws. She tightly hugged it and nuzzled the much smaller head. "how so?" "My human mother made this for me when I was still a hatchling; she told me it was to help me sleep…. I had nightmares when I was young, guess since my body wasn't use to gems when I needed meats and dairy for my beginning diet." Afina said as she put the doll down next to her and pulled out a bangle, as it slipped onto her wrist the crystal on it glowed and created a wafer thin glass like shield on her arm. "wow… that's beautiful where in equestrian did you get that?" "thanks, it was a gift I received last mid-winter from Amera… it was supposed to be a guard issued magic amplifier, but it never worked and turned into a fashion sense." "Understandable… hey, Aquaris mentioned earlier that you were his little sister…" "Adopted… if anything Aquaris hatched me, oddly though the first ones I saw were Aquaris's parents… who immediately I counted as my parent… Aquaris was a little short till he hit puberty, then he shot up like a rocket." Rarity nodded as Aquaris walked out of the bathroom, he was wearing a formal mages jacket, long black pants, his hair was combed down, and he had the smell of mint. "alright you two… you can converse later, lets fetch Twi and spike then get down to the grand hall… I have a feeling that the other guests are arriving." Aquaris said as he helped Afina off the bed and straightened her dress with a few telekinetic tugs. Twilight and spike were already leaving their room when the trio arrived at the room's door. With a few nods and exchange of words, the group made their way downstairs to the grand hall. "well… fingers crossed I give a good impression, and I hope that Dress Twilight is wearing will shift with her… also… I hope Afina stays calm… and with luck won't be constantly eyed by guards as she is there." > dinners and dances > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The future of magic Chapter 8: Rage Aquaris and Afina were walking through the halls of Canterlot Castle, they were on their way to the front gates to meet up with the element bearers, Afina quickened pace and took flight, flying low since they were inside. As the two made it outside Afina flew higher and landed on the roof of a covered walkway, Aquaris tossed a pair of binoculars to her shortly after her landing. "see them Afina?" Aquaris yelled up to the drake. "Not yet… wait… no no, just a few pedestrians, man it's like trying to find a certain color jawbreaker in a mountain of different colored jaw breakers." Afina said as she scanned the city streets with the binoculars. "Ok… keep watch; I'm going to give these design plans to Celestia… to think she had builder teams at the ready…waiting for my designs." Aquaris said as he turned and went inside. Afina kept scanning the city, after a while she just got bored. She set down the binoculars and pulled glass sphere out of her bag, she held it up and let the sphere collect the sunlight, after a few seconds she lowered it down and gazed into it. She saw Terra, in a black void produced by the ball. She poked her claw on the continent of promethia and it zoomed in, she poked again on the southern region, and again on the town of Terrivale. She pressed again and sighed as she saw Rarius, he was busy working on something peculiar, it appeared to be a form of white dress for a dragon her size, it had some differences to compensate for wings, shorter legs, and the tail. Afina closed her eyes and whispered. "You shouldn't have Rarius… it's too much… how could I repay you?" Afina sat there for maybe five minutes before she decided to hop down from the roof and into the Terrace garden below. Afina stretched her legs and yawned; she curled up in the sun and decided to take a nap. Over to Aquaris "…and finally, after a week of testing, and re-forging it, the Hallow-ite Armor was done." Aquaris said as a projection of a suit of armor disappeared in front of him and Shining Armor. "Impressive, so it's lighter weight and more durable than the suit I'm wearing?" "Yeah… then again you aren't wearing a full body suit like the average guard on Terra, so it wouldn't offer as much if a blacksmith were to redesign the armor for pony use." "True." "Hey Armor, quick and odd question. Did Cadence have something bad to her happen in the past she doesn't want to remember?" "Yeah… I'll explain shortly but why ask?" "Well she walked into my room to talk to Afina; who was playing a game where the enemies' weaponry use a bright green coloration to the rounds the guns fire. Seeing those bright green rounds seemed to make her stare off into space." "oh boy… it wasn't too long ago that Cadence and I got married, the wedding itself was going smoothly at first, but then odd things started happening. Cadence began changing certain decorative details, and also was acting overall different, the day Twily and her friends arrived, and everything went black… I heard voices, my own and every pony else's but I couldn't move I felt weak, after what I guess was the ceremony practice, I felt light headed." "How so…" "Like the very life of me was being sucked out of me through a straw… after a while I could see again, I saw Cadence her mane was a mess, and her fur was dirty… after a moment I realized I was in a changeling's mental grasp the entire time. Cadence told me to bring the anti-Changeling barrier back up, but I didn't have any strength left to cast the spell..." "I see… it seems basically… exactly like what happened to Versian and Armera… but opposite gender, and Metamorph disguised as Versian used a silent siphon spell to harvest emotion off of Armera and many others. Also Versian wasn't scared for life… the changeling lord and prince of romance don't get along very well… but at least they aren't at each other's throats." Aquaris said as he opened the doors to the throne room. "Alright… I'm going to go find Cadence; I'll see you later I guess." Celestia was sitting at the throne reading over a scroll twice the average length; he could see a gold silk ribbon hanging from the back of the parchment. "Ah… Aquaris, I was wondering if you had any questions for me." "sorry princess… no questions, I came to drop off this… they are designs for a star-gate chamber, the room is mostly for look since the gate powers itself… but it does seem to fit the rest of the castle so I thought you'd like to see them." Aquaris said as he tossed a deep royal blue scroll into the air and sent it up to Celestia. "Thank you Aquaris… I shall review them and have my architect work on this post haste… also I want to ask you if it would be alright if you demonstrated some of your abilities later in the dinner? like your polymorphing, also I believe Twilight would love seeing how good you are in a dance." Aquaris blushed lightly but nodded, "I'm sure she will, I hope Armor won't kill me for dancing with his little sister." "I'd think he would if he found out what you did with her yesterday." Celestia playfully stuck her tongue out as Aquaris turned red as a tomato and began sweating a river. "don't worry Aquaris… I won't tell him." "Thank you… and I'm holding you to that." Aquaris said as he turned to the door and was about to leave. "Oh and Aquaris... do you mind if you meet with Luna and I in the library after the dinner? We wish to discuss some things involving Terra." "Yes Princess… no if you will excuse me, I have to check up on Afina… she is been keeping look out for the element bearers." "You are excused Aquaris." Aquaris gives a light nod in response and left. Aquaris closed the throne room doors behind him and nodded to the guard patrol passing by the doors. They nodded back as two guards broke off from the patrol to take place for the tired guards at either side of the throne room doors. Aquaris popped his neck and pulled out his earphones, and played "Inner Universe" by Origa on his song list. Back to Afina Afina lied on her back, staring at the clouds and the slightly orange sky. On her chest was her dragon plush, its silver cloth skin shining in the afternoon light like Afina's. Afina sighed in a surreal tone as she tightened her hug on the toy. "Honestly, why did Auntie change the celebration to pony Ville…? They don't deserve it, especially since Rarity ruined my image there" Afina turned her head to see a white, blond mane unicorn walking into the garden she ducked her head behind the statue base she was resting against but kept listening. "But no… she said that Elements needed a good festival versus what happened last year… so what doesn't mean you change it from las-Pegasus back to pony Ville." The colt said as he kept forward. "What a weirdo… Aquaris talks to himself all the time in his studies… but this guy is bitching to himself… heh heh… I need to write that one down." Afina thought, "Who is his aunt too… he isn't an Alicorn so he can't be royalty, could he?" Afina kept listening in on the colt but heard nothing for a moment but he started talking to someone. "Good evening… Major Viktor…" "And to you too Blueblood … does our agreement still stand?" A voice said from nowhere, Afina looked from behind the statue to see no pony else but that lone colt but she did see a small glowing sphere which produced the voice. "Yes… now you promised me that position correct?" The one known as Blueblood replied to the ball of light. "Oh yes… with all the perks and insurances included, hell even someone to do the work for you, if you so desire… as long as you hold up your part of the deal that is." Afina kept listening in on the conversation she lowered herself to prevent being noticed. "I will… now when will you and your army being arriving?" "In due time is all I can say… as soon as the first domino falls, the plan will be executed." The voice said in response, "I have to go sadly I will contact you again in a month or two when my army is ready through the same method, just don't lose your horn." "I will not Viktor… now go along; I know you must be incredibly busy." The voice didn't reply after that comment but the light disappeared, Afina pulled out her bag a personnel identifier, (an old one from Armera) and Searched the profile of this 'Major' Viktor, the search resulted in nothing, the only human Terran, with the last name of Viktor was a now deceased mining company CEO, who died when he did not offer the location of his hidden metal stores to Confederate 'pillagers'. Afina turned off and put the device away into her bag; she crouched down and snuck off, avoiding Blueblood's attention. After a few minutes, Afina began walking normally again, she muttered to herself quietly and kept on forward. As she kept walking she turned to see Twilight and Rarity walking up past the front gates, Afina scanned behind them for the others but saw no pony else. Afina was about to spread her wings to fly down before her wings were grabbed by magic, she hissed in pain as they were tugged, she turned to see Blueblood approaching, his horn glowing with the same energy as the energy holding onto her wings, she struggled and squirmed in his magical grasp. "Strange… I didn't know Auntie Celestia allowed pests into the castle, or were you here stealing something Dragon." "What… I'm no thief… I am a welcomed Gue-… oof!" Afina was thrown into a wall hard shaking a vase on a nearby pedestal, but not knocking it over. She held the side where she impacted into the stone wall. "Don't lie to me… Now, what did you steal?!" "Nothing… now leave me alo- oof…" Afina was kicked in the stomach hard; she gasped for air and tried to get on her claws, only to be knocked back down. Afina felt as the straps of her bag were undone and then pulled off. She saw as its contents were shaken out, he seemed like he was looking for something precise but couldn't find it. He then came upon her crystal sphere; he picked it up and examined its clear smooth surface. As it shined in the lone beam of sunlight it began producing the image of what Afina was originally viewing. "Sweet Celestia, What is that thing… You… Dragon what is this object, and who or what is the creature produced by this thing?" Afina didn't answer in English but in Dragon tongue, leaving blueblood to think she was talking in gibberish. "Answer me you whelp!" Blueblood commanded as he threw the crystal sphere at her chest, Afina gasped for air again and was out of breath. She coughed and gasped desperately for as if she was choking. Blueblood, grunted as he searched through the rest of the stuff from her bag, a canteen full of water, a few bags of various gemstones cut into this chips, a pair of bracelets and a choker big enough to fit around the drake's neck, the crystal sphere, a thin silver grey block with dark grey glass screen with multiple colored buttons on the front face, a few other loose items, and a small silver dragon plushy. He picked up the plush and examining it, a small pink tongue stuck out at him from the black string mouth, two blue glass sapphires as the eyes gazed at him. He looked down to see Afina wide eyed staring at him and the doll "put her down…" Afina muttered in a begging tone. "Please… put her down…" Blueblood smirked as he looked back at the plush. He used his magic to grab the waist and chest of the plush. Afina's pupils shrunk to tiny specks and her eyes pooled with tears. The now two halves of the doll hung limply from Blueblood's magic, bits of the cotton stuffing falling to the ground from where the pieces were together. "Ho- How co-cou- could you?" Afina muttered as tears streamed down her cheeks. "Because I'm a prince… and what are you goanna do about it, you little whelp?" Blueblood replied with a smug grin plastered on his face. Over to Aquaris Aquaris, Rarity, Spike, and Twilight walked through the lower gardens of the palace, chatting idly. "Hey Aquaris… odd Question, but how many human dragon relationships happen on a yearly basis?" Spike asked as he readjusted himself on Twilight's back. "Plenty… it's common to see a male dragon maybe Afina's size with a women, every once in a blue-moon you see a dragoness same size with a man… why ask?" "No reason, just curious." "Tell me then, Spike is it possible to see dragons with ponies? Given they don't have a treasure horde big enough to make them the size of a two story mansion." "I uh… umm" "On a yearly basis, maybe two marriages on average each year, dragons in Equestria that are small in size stay distant from society." Twilight said as they walked inside and made their way up to the floor Afina was supposed to be on. "Can humans and dragons have foals…? I mean children?" "yeah… depending on the mother will decide the species that will be born, maybe a dragon with human like eyes, and the ability to use magic through horns like yourselves could… or humans with dragon traits, like dragon wings instead of feathery wings on the cloud striders, slit pupils instead of round ones, umm oh and a rage form." "Rage form?" "When dragons are extremely mad or provoked, they temporally increase it size, gain incredible physical powers, and are in a blinding rage until the dragon calms down, or passes out from exhaustion. You don't want to be on the business end of the claws of a rage filled dragon." Aquaris explained as they noticed a trio of gashes in an ivory pillar. The floor was also scratched with claw marks; a few pots were also knocked over and shattered about the floor. "That's strange… this hall was fine earlier." Aquaris looked around and saw that gash marks continued down the hallway, he then noticed Afina's bag, its contents were scattered about the floor, and the most troubling thing was the remnants of a ripped stuffed dragon plush. "Rarity… when you have a moment, could you patch this up, Afina will need it when I find her." He got up after filling Afina's bag with what was supposed to be in it and slung it over his shoulder, "Twilight… would you find your brother, given the gash marks… we might need a few guards." Twilight nodded and ran off the way they came from, Aquaris on the other hand followed the gashes and claw marks. Minutes passed before the path of destruction was more noticeable, various artworks shattered about the floor, he also noticed blood, Aquaris dipped his fingertips in it and tasted it, he quickly spit it out and stood up, "Dragon blood… dammit." "ahhhh… get away from me you monster!" Aquaris heard outside and went into a dead sprint, he pulled his staff from his belt and extended it. Outside in the courtyard,Aquaris collected into a group of guards as they watched the carriage sized dragon chasing after a posh white unicorn, "Aquaris what exactly is happening?" Aquaris turned to see Celestia, a pair of guards wearing a different set of armor following right behind her. "Well… the colt running for his life down in the courtyard pushed Afina beyond her breaking point. She is in her rage form… ironic that I explained what rage form is to Twilight before finding that Afina had gotten into her own rage." Afina roared as she breathed fire at them and used her tail to knock down to a few guards. "oh dear… if you can stop her from killing my nephew that would be nice, also maybe prevent the palace from collapsing on itself." Celestia commented as Aquaris charged out into the court yard and created a large chain of energy. All the guards watched as the human jumped on the dragons back and wrapped the chain around its neck. "AFINA! YOU HAVE TO CALM DOWN…UGH… AFINA!" Aquaris yelled as Afina began kicking her hind legs into the air, trying to shake him off. Aquaris tightened the chain and extended it, Afina noticed this and grabbed the chain with her claw, with some quick movements she was spinning Aquaris around like a toy with her end of the chain. "Aquaris!" Twilight yelled to the human screaming deeply as he was spun. "SOME… PONY… USE A… HEAVY… IMPACT… SPELL… ON…HER… HEAD… NOW!" Aquaris yelled each time he passed by, Twilight charged her horn and shot the spell, as it impacted Afina slowed down her spinning until Aquaris was on the ground, he got up and looked forward to see Afina face to face with him, he noticed the scales under her eyes darkened and wet. A few guards were slowly walking over to Afina, a whole lot of their own magical chains ready, Aquaris held up his hand telling them to stop, he put his other hand on her cheek and closed his eyes, a soft glow emanated from his palm, slowly Afina shrank down to her original size and was out cold snoring a little. In Aquaris's other hand was a sphere glowing lightly. Celestia felt the amount of energy in that sphere, that much power could cause some damage, it was filled with rage, and sadness. Celestia turned to see Blueblood regaining his composure, she walked over to him. "Ah Auntie, can you see the amount of damage that dragon caused… the party is tonight and I doubt this will be fixed quickly enough." Celestia simply stared in silence at her nephew. An hour later Outside in the halls in front of the throne room, Rarity was examining the remains of Afina's doll, Afina was sleeping in Aquaris's lap, exhausted from using her rage form, Twilight was reading through more of Aquaris's journal, the pages were all about experiments failed and successful, what caught her eye was the success of focused summoning. Focused summoning allows the caster to take an emotion to create an entity to fight alongside them, each emotion offers different elemental attributes, for example anger is fire, sadness is water, joy is light, happiness is wind, ect. Of course the summoned is only as strong as the summoner and its appearance is based on the summoner's imagination and what its elemental alignment is. For example, dark summons would often have chains restricting most of their movement, but have a lot of armor and ranged attacks at their disposal. Twilight noticed under this was a sketching of a creature bound by chains; its overall appearance was fearsome, even as a sketching. A foot note dubbed it. Anima, the dark summon was created by nocturne's fear. It uses attacks based of its own pain and suffering, casting it upon its targets, resulting in instantaneous death or immense pain, these were tested on summoned beasts. Twilight looked up to see Aquaris rubbing some sort of cream on Afina's cuts and bruises, she cooed lightly in her sleep. She also noticed the variety of bottles full of various powders and liquids. And what appeared a mortar and pestle. "Aquaris… what is all this?" "Alchemy learned it from an old friend, who lives in ever-light forest back on Terra." Aquaris said as he put down an empty bowl, remnants of the cream still in it. "Bit of blue mountain flower petals, some wheat seed milled into a pulp, makes a great healing cream." Aquaris said as he began to put up the bottles, receiving a nod from Twilight. "Hmm… how I'm going to fix this? I forgot to pack my spare sewing kit with me, didn't think I would need it." Rarity sighed and put down the halves. "Can't believe Blueblood did that… he is immature yes… but this is just Foal-ish, ripping a doll of some-pony smaller than him." "I agree… I just hope he doesn't get away with this, even as a royal, you have to be given punishment for your actions." Aquaris commented as he zipped his bag shut. "He won't Aquaris…" the three of them turned to see Princess Luna walking up to them, her mane was a mess. "Oh Princess Luna… you look like you rolled out of bed." "Because I did… Afina's little rage form shook my tower enough to wake me… not that I'm mad or anything, but I can't get back to sleep." Aquaris rubbed the back of his head to this, lightly chuckling. "How'd you know she had a rage form?" "I was watching from my tower, the funniest bit was when she grabbed that chain you made and slung you around like a planet orbiting it's star, except the planet was a hundred and ninety pounds worth of screaming human." Aquaris merely face palmed, "there is no need to be embarrassed Aquaris… how is she doing?" "Fine… thanks for asking… mostly bruises and shallow cuts… nothing a simple healing cream can't fix… I noticed your fur is a bit darker than before…" "Depending on my moon's position will result in my fur a different shade of blue… full moon will be a more royal blue and new moons are more of a deep navy blue." Luna replied as she opened the doors and walked through closing them behind her. "Rarius…" Afina mumbled in her sleep, before snoring again. Aquaris chuckled lightly before a moved her and set her head lightly on a pillow he pulled from his bag. He pulled out the sphere made of Afina's energy and examined it. "so what did you do to make that?" "I used a spell I discovered from metamorph to siphon off emotions, I pulled all her rage and anger she had created then and made this, it is powerful, if in the wrong hands who know how to use it, then it will cause ill things to happen." Aquaris put the sphere away as the doors opened; Blueblood was the first to walk out followed by Luna and Celestia. He turned to Aquaris and sneered at him, "you'd better keep that thing on a leash, almost killed me… also if I had my way, I'd have that thing hung." Blueblood said with a venomous tone. Aquaris stood up and walked over to him "One she is my little sister… two, no one hurts my family or threatens them, even he is a stuck up, spoiled brat that believes he is a prince, and three." Aquaris stated before he punched Blueblood in the face. "That was for hurting and threatening her." Blueblood receded and held a hoof to his nose. There were mixed reactions from everypony. Aquaris turned away from Blueblood. "Aquaris… actually there is no need to explain, Guards escort Blueblood to his room, and make sure he stays there." "yes your highness." Two guards said as they began the trek to Blueblood's room. "I'm not mad Aquaris… but warn us next time you decide to do that." "No need to… I got my message out that my Family is there for him to dictate and control." Aquaris replied as he checked Afina. Who was still sound asleep, "Now I believe it's time we should all get ready for this dinner." Aquaris picked up Afina who stirred in her sleep. "I agree, Twilight… Rarity, your rooms are ready… so why don't you all go along and prepare." Celestia said as she began to head to the halls leading to her tower, Luna left shortly afterwards to her own tower. "well shall we get going?" Aquaris asked as he levitated Afina on to his back and carried her in the direction to their rooms, Twilight, spike, and Rarity following suite. Aquaris's room, ten minutes before guests arrival Afina sat calmly on the bed, her scales polished, her jewelry on, and a simple but beautiful silk dress on. She heard the door open and see Rarity walked in, her dress was more elegant and detailed, bit much for Afina's standards though. "Afina dear, are you alright?" Rarity asked noticing Afina's crabby attitude. "I'm fine Rarity… just a tad bit upset at that snob… ripping my doll like that." "Well I think this might perk you up, had to have a maid bring me a sewing kit." Rarity pulled from behind her, Afina's plush. In the center was some slightly noticeable stitching. "Thank you Rarity… you cannot begin to believe how important she is to me." Afina said as grabbed the doll as Rarity dropped it above her claws. She tightly hugged it and nuzzled the much smaller head. "how so?" "My human mother made this for me when I was still a hatchling; she told me it was to help me sleep…. I had nightmares when I was young, guess since my body wasn't use to gems when I needed meats and dairy for my beginning diet." Afina said as she put the doll down next to her and pulled out a bangle, as it slipped onto her wrist the crystal on it glowed and created a wafer thin glass like shield on her arm. "wow… that's beautiful where in equestrian did you get that?" "thanks, it was a gift I received last mid-winter from Amera… it was supposed to be a guard issued magic amplifier, but it never worked and turned into a fashion sense." "Understandable… hey, Aquaris mentioned earlier that you were his little sister…" "Adopted… if anything Aquaris hatched me, oddly though the first ones I saw were Aquaris's parents… who immediately I counted as my parent… Aquaris was a little short till he hit puberty, then he shot up like a rocket." Rarity nodded as Aquaris walked out of the bathroom, he was wearing a formal mages jacket, long black pants, his hair was combed down, and he had the smell of mint. "alright you two… you can converse later, lets fetch Twi and spike then get down to the grand hall… I have a feeling that the other guests are arriving." Aquaris said as he helped Afina off the bed and straightened her dress with a few telekinetic tugs. Twilight and spike were already leaving their room when the trio arrived at the room's door. With a few nods and exchange of words, the group made their way downstairs to the grand hall. "well… fingers crossed I give a good impression, and I hope that Dress Twilight is wearing will shift with her… also… I hope Afina stays calm… and with luck won't be constantly eyed by guards as she is there." > The Canterlot tour > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Future of magic Chapter 10: The Canterlot tour Aquaris (who was now back to normal) ran through the halls of the castle, his Attire was more casua a simple black T-shirt with the symbol of the five base magic types on the front, the reason of his haste was the fact he had slept in and had promised Twilight that he would meet her at the front gates to give him the tour of Canterlot city. Aquaris stopped as he reached an intersection of three halls. "By Solaris… this palace is a three dimensional maze…" Aquaris said in between his panting. "You might need a map then…" Aquaris looked up and saw Princess Cadence, instead of her usual attire with the hoof slippers, tiara and amulet; she was wearing a silk summer hat. "Clearly… how do I get down to the ground floor… I promised last night that I'd meet up with Twilight down at the front gates." "Well since you can't fly I can't just say just jump out a window and fly down… follow me, I was heading down myself." Cadence began trotting down the hall, Aquaris following suite after he finished catching his breathe. "So Aquaris, how are you on this fine morning?" "Great… aside from the fact I'm late." Aquaris replied as he met the pace of the pink Alicorn. "How about yourself, you seem quite peachy," "no true reason, but it is a lovely day. I was planning on heading down to the kitchens grab a quick snack, then probably go swimming, enjoy a day at the royal spa… choices have today." As the two made it down to the next flight of stairs, Aquaris noticed that the palace was quiet. "Where is everypony?" "You could say it's an off day, auntie Celestia and Luna wanted a day to themselves, they are down at the spa themselves. Most of the guards aside from of the most elite are off duty today." Cadence said as they went around a corner into the hall that leads to the kitchens. it was quiet in there too. "I presume you're on your own for lunch and breakfast?" "Well you're two thirds right, we do know how to fend for ourselves, and Auntie Celestia is an expert in the culinary field." Cadence commented as she opened an ice box and pulled out various fixings for a sandwich. "Well Twi and I were planning to have dinner out tonight… maybe it could be a double date, you and Armor come along." Aquaris commented as he pulled a banana from a cluster of them and proceeded to eat it. "not particularly, although I would love to get to know you more, I more or less don't want Shinning to be the protective older brother he is to a man like yourself." Aquaris nodded as Cadence began to fix herself a sandwich. "To think if Twilight and I really become a couple, I would have to get her father's blessing eventually." "Don't get ahead of yourself Aquaris, as I do sense the immense love for her in you, also you would need her mother's." "Say what now?" "Well with Twilight and her 'by the book' methods, she'll make you commit to a old tradition of obtaining the mothers blessing…. I didn't even though that she knew of them, those traditions weren't around since Twilight's grandmother." Both of them turned around to see Celestia trotting in, Aquaris noticed that she had a bit of dirt on her hooves, she also smelled a bit sweaty. "What is this tradition?" "Oh a simple test that the bride's mother has for the groom, it varied when it was really popular, it could be a test of strength and endurance, how to make a great meal, to simple stuff like how your manners are." "So it could be anything?" Aquaris said as he tossed the banana peel into a compost shoot "Yes… I'm still trying to remember for the life of me what the common tradition for the sparkle bloodline was, because typically it is the same from generation to generation, the two traditions combined as the two wed." Celestia pulled a pitcher of water from the ice box and poured herself a glass. I know Twilight's father's side was a culinary test… what was Star's?" Celestia put a hoof to her chin as Aquaris checked his watch. "It doesn't matter, I have to meet up with Twi… cya later you two." said as he ran out, a book falling out of his bag. "What do we have here?" Cadence picked up the book and proceeded through its pages. Entry 1 I have awoken from that induced sleep the confederates put me in and found myself in a drop pod, I still appear to be in this ship, and every so often I am given food and drinks and permission to leave for hygiene purposes. Afina's conditions are growing worse; she began to mumble in her sleep, wishing for home. It also is apparent that she loves Rarius. Entry 2 It is odd; I can use my magic again… I currently do not understand for the power source of this inhibitor is still active but the crystal that produces is offline. I have not attempted to escapes due to the sheer number of guards, I was able to improve Afina's mood by using what knowledge I had in the dream shaper spell. The dreams seemed almost real to her, making her much more cheerful. Entry 3 I feel odd as this ship exits it's hyper jump, the guards I bribe tell me that they have found my world of abandonment… they say it is hospitable but scans show no cities, or civilizations, then again they can't see through this magic field like I can… the cities seem large but population is unknown. Entry 4 I was right, this world is quite inhabited, matter of fact the species is similar to the ones I've read stories about, but are much different. Fur coloration is of the entire color wheel and same with mane and tail colors, on their flank appear to be symbols, or 'cutie marks' as they dubbed, which act similar to a Terran's crests, showing their special talent. The species as I can tell is split into many variations. Cadence browsed through the pages, she shut the book with a cherry red blush on her face after reaching entry ten. "Aquaris put that in… id better let Armor not read this." "Not let me read what now Cadi?" Armor walked in, his fur soaked in sweat under his violet and gold armor plating, a smirk on his face as prince Blueblood dragged himself in, completely exhausted, in the distance Aquaris's laughter could be heard in echoes. "Never again… I get the point aunt Celestia… please no more." Blueblood commented as he dragged himself into the side of a counter. "All we did were some laps Blueblood, grow a pair." "Around the entire castle grounds, TWENTY TIMES!" "yeah, and that is the beginning, Celestia said I had to do the entire training regimen with yah, get some lunch and meet me down in the court yard at fourteen hundred hours." Armor commented as Blueblood groaned into the floor. Armor chuckled and noticed the book floating in her magic. "watcha got there honey?" "Oh nothing… just something of Aquaris's… he dropped it when he left." Cadence replied as she was about to pass Armor and out of the kitchens. "I should give this back to him before he gets too far." "I'll take it to him, besides I need to thank him with stopping Afina from destroying the courtyards." "But… I think I should take it to him directly" "Nonsense … I was planning on heading down to the city anyway, dad asked me to meet him for lunch." Armor said as the aura around the book changed to Armor's. Cadence was hesitant but let Armor leave with Aquaris's book. "By Celestia, please don't read it…" cadence muttered under her breathe as armor rounded the corner Aquaris went around. Aquaris's position "I'm here Twi… sorry I'm late, forgot to set an alarm." Aquaris said catching his breath, hands on his knees. "It's no problem… isn't the first time you were late." Twilight said with smug grin plastered on her face. "Oh hush… we did together in rounds one and three." Aquaris replied with a light blush across his face. "Besides, you were screaming my name even when I did come late in round two." Twilight blushed an even brighter red before Aquaris began laughing as he passed her. "c'mon, you said you wanted to show me around town." Twilight got off the bench she was on and followed him, trotting a bit faster to get ahead to lead the way. "Canterlot is rich in history, and is really the main origin of our culture, it was the second city built after some time a few hundred to a thousand years ago." Twilight explained as Aquaris kept up. As they got deeper into the city, the streets were packed, not too much to where you can't move. Most of the ponies were too busy to notice Aquaris, some merely stood to allow them to pass, some stood back in awe at the unknown being. "This place is booming, seems just as busy as Etheria… with just as many shops and stalls." Aquaris said as he weaved through a pair of ponies to keep up with Twilight. "Well this is the general goods district, the artisan shops are outside this place, it quite busy but not as busy as this street." They turned into the next street; this one was, compared to the maelstrom of ponies earlier, an immense improvement. They passed by shops some open, others not. One that caught was a gap in between the buildings; there in the alley was three figures, two of them beating up the third, Aquaris looked over to Twilight; she was talking to a stall owner who was selling freshly made sweets. He turned back to the trio in the shadows and opened his palms, instead of glowing a usual teal, they glowed green as he charged a paralysis spell. "Aquaris what are yo-…" Aquaris shot the spell into the alley and telekinectly pulled two young colts out of it, one was unicorn the other and earth pony. "Caught these two beating up some younger colt…" Aquaris whistled and waved over a pair of city guards, "make sure these two go to their parents." The guards simply nodded and magically took hold of the young colts. Aquaris walked into the alley to find the other colt badly hurt, his fur was a chocolate brown, his mane and tail a dirty blond. He was out cold beside him was something that reminded Aquaris of the incredibly old "Gameboy's" he read about in his books. Aquaris picked up the colt and the odd device and carried it with him out of the alley. Twilight gasped as she saw how bloodied up the colt was, bruises and cuts covered his small body, his breathes were short and raspy. "Oh my… is he alright?" "Well he is alive is one thing, my scans of his injuries show a few bruised ribs and from what is seen here, he also has a broken hind leg… he is going to need a hospital trip." "Well we can't just take him there… we need one of his parents." Twilight replied as the colt stirred in his unconsciousness. "School just let out I believe… one of them is probably expecting to be home… but the residential area is on the opposite side of the city, it's like he was heading to the hospital." "Maybe one of his parents works there?" "Or he is visiting a relative there, c'mon lets go… I can't give you this tour knowing some colt is not in the proper hooves." The two set off, Aquaris following behind Twilight, keeping the colt over his shoulder to aid in carrying him. Nearly half an hour passed before they reached the Canterlot hospital, the colt was still out cold but was mumbling something illegible. They walked into the door greeted by a nurse with a jaw dropped towards Aquaris. "Did you mess up some magic or something Mrs.?" The Nurse asked Twilight. Gesturing towards Aquaris. "oh no of course not, that's how he normally looks, we came by to see if the colt on his shoulder is any ponies." "We'll let me see… oh my, briar… get Miliano stat!" the nurse said to one of the other nurses who nodded and bolted off down a hall. "What happened to him exactly?" "Two other colts were beating him up over something in an alley we were passing by. Also I found this next to him, reminds me of something my kind would have in its museum of technology." Aquaris pulled out the device and showed her, "Also one of my spells allows me to see injuries, he has a few bruised ribs plus his left hind leg is broken." "Oh my… thank you for the dionostic of him… as for this, it is a Joy-boy, small handheld device to entertain one's self. They are fairly new but not that expensive, twenty bits for one of these things. And nothing really to beat some poor colt up for." The nurse said as she let the device float in front of her. "Where is he?" Aquaris and Twilight looked over to see a bright tan earth pony mare, her mane a deep chocolate brown. Aquaris by now had set the colt on a small bench near the entrance, "what happened to my little Button-mash?" "Two colts around his age beat him up, I stopped them, Twi and I brought him here, presuming that somepony worked or was in he3re." Aquaris replied as he sat down to meet the mare at Eye level. "thank you for bringing him here… what about those other colts?" she asked as she turned to Aquaris "I handed them over to the guards that were passing by… find their parents while we took… Button mash here." Aquaris opened his palm to produce a similar green aura from earlier, "I love paralysis spells. They are perfect for painlessly stopping attackers… it was the only way to pull them off your son in the first place." "Even still I thank you for it… still I don't understand why somepony would hurt him, he has made a lot of friends since we moved here, both in and out of school, most of kids around our area have those joy boy things." "I don't know…, but he is safe now, and with his mother… Twi and I have plans today and this urgency took a bit… doesn't matter though we can still get all we need done." Aquaris turned and gestured Twilight to follow. "Thank you again… umm." "Aquaris, and it's no problem, it is best to do an ARK a day, makes a big impact in the long run." With that Aquaris and Twilight left. The two set off to continue their tour but Twilight had to ask. "What dose ARK mean?" "It's slang for 'A random act of kindness' everyone and pony should at least do one a day if they can to one… it makes one feel better about themselves and such… Fluttershy as I remember being the element of kindness means that she dose kind acts to those I need." "correct, but it is mostly for animals cause she isn't as distant from them as other ponies, think about when she met you, all distant and frail…" "Just like when I first met Leon, even today he is a bit skidish, but when it comes to animals, he is different, he can even make them freeze up with this look he has." "Same with Fluttershy, that manticore you fought, if it wasn't so dark and he wasn't controlled by Trixie, she could stop him in his tracks and made him put Afina down." Twilight commented as they rounded a corner and passed through the artisan district, Aquaris smiled as he saw the various artisans working on their life's work, hoof carved wooden objects, uniquely made jewelry, and a glass blower's shop. "Most of the artisans in Canterlot are unicorns, but I believe the wood carver is an earth pony as well as the master carpenter, while I think…. since i was last here, the glass blower should be a Pegasus." Twilight commented as you could see the glass blower forming the beginnings to a vase, floating in the air a bit while his apprentice used various tools to shape the glass. "I noticed that the only metal worker here is a jeweler." "The blacksmith is closer to the castle, and there is also one in the guard's armory." "I'm guessing when you were Celestia's student, you did a little exploring." Twilight lightly blushed to this, but nodded. "I did the same when I was Solaris's protégé, when I met the blacksmith at the palace was also the day Solaris taught me how to turn most objects into a moldable form, then re solidify them." Aquaris pointed his hand at a bench and made it glow with his aura, seconds later the bench Twisted and bent itself till the bench had become a ladder. He did it again and turned that into a wire frame sphere with metal as the out frame and wood as the mount holding it up. "Wow… you can reshape anything?" "Almost, I can't re-shape obsidian, and I can't reshape living things." Aquaris said as he returned the materials to their original shape as a bench. "it would be disgusting to see what I could make by remolding a living thing… and the creature is still alive too." Aquaris shivered lightly at the thought of bones and flesh remolding to an abomination Eventually they stopped in the more posh residential district, in front of one specific manor. The house was at least two stories, maybe three if there was a basement; it was nice but not extravagant and seemed to catch Twilight's attention. "I presume this is your parents place?" "yeah… even though I live in ponyVille, this is still technically my home." "wanna go inside? I need to rest my legs a bit, and I need something to drink." Aquaris asked as he bent down to rub his knees. "We can, also weren't too far from our next destination anyway" Twilight trotted up the stone pavement leading to the houses front door. From one of her saddle bags came a house key and unlocked the door, let herself and Aquaris through. "Mom, you here?" "Twilight? I am but what brings you here… oh and you brought that human friend from before." "Just visiting, I was giving him a look around Canterlot and decided to stop by." The two mares hugged lightly before Twilight's gestured them to the living room. Aquaris sat down on one of the couches, Twilight sat next to him, while her mother sat on the couch across from them. "So how do you think of this City Aquaris?" "it's good, it reminds me of home a lot though, minus the corsairs ferrying people place" Aquaris noticed that there was a cup of tea and a saucer in front of him, Twilight and her mother already drinking their cups. "Aquaris took of sip of his own tea; he almost coughed at the taste. "Oh sorry Aquaris, my mom puts dried daisy petals in the tea." Twilight said as her mother rubbed the back of her own head. "Forgot to mention that." Aquaris gulped down the tear which left a bad taste in his mouth. "Its… no problem, but I think my other form won't mind it." Twilight's mother was confused, especially when Twilight put on a pair of sunglasses. She covered her eyes as the room filled with the bright flash from Aquaris's magic, her jaw dropped when it died down and Aquaris was now a unicorn Twilight's mother couldn't help but stare; he almost had a similar build to Armor's, but when she noticed the small details she noticed similarities to Twilight, his mane and tail was dark blue with a brighter light blue highlight. On his flank was a cutie mark also similar to Twilight's but the coloration was altered, and the background was a vortex like symbol. "Mom your staring." Twilight commented as Aquaris shifted, his seating to a more comfortable position, Aquaris seemed uneasy on the couch, still not fully used to his pony form. "You alright Aquaris?" "Yeah, I'm not so attuned to this form than I would prefer… two legged beings have more issues going to four legs than it is for the opposite… at least the tea tastes good now." Aquaris commented as he sipped his tea, not coughing up like he did a moment ago. The three conversed which lead to explanation of Aquaris's new plan when the stargate is brought to life and can be used. "so you'll bring your friends here?" Twilight asked after Aquaris finished explaining "yeah… I realized that both the princesses are busy with their own duties, Solaris and Nocturne will be as well no doubt, that and if the bearers of balance were to befriend your species and word spreads, most Terrans will trust and welcome your kind." Aquaris set his empty cup onto the coffee table and continued, "It worked with many other species including on befriending nemesis, it kind of worked with metamorph…. Then again he is a changeling; it is hard to trust one." "I see… is Celestia ok with this?" "yeah, when you left to go to bed, we talked at great length on it… she also made the comment that surprised me, she wanted me to convince versian and my sister come with me, I don't have an idea what she is up too, but I must do what she requests." Aquaris pulled out a scrap of parchment, it had the agreed upon names, next to Rarius though, it showed a mark for priority. "Star I'm back…" A voice came from the foyer, "lunch with Armor was good, but he is clearly a first time parent, didn't know that Cadence had to up the quantity of food for the foal… oh and who may this be?" Twilight's father walked in, noticing Aquaris but not knowing who he is. "Dad, remember that tall creature when you and mom visited… well he knows some magic of his own." Twilight pointed a hoof at Aquaris. "okay… what was your name again?" "Aquaris… Twi was just showing me around canterlot, we decided to stop here for a break." Aquaris said as he stretched his neck, getting a handful of satisfying popping noises from it. "No offense but shouldn't we be going Twilight?" Aquaris showed his clock showing it was about six. "why don't you two stay for dinner?" "well maybe, if Twilight is okay with staying a little longer?" "of course I am… besides, I think my parents would love to hear about some of your escapades that you told me." Twilight answered as the Twilight's parents went to the kitchen to prepare for dinner. Two hours later "This friend of yours… Blinx, he sounds like that Pinkie pie." Twilight's father commented as he sipped his wine. "You could compare him to her yes, he is a loose cannon, but he is a good friend none the less… he also has this sixth sense too, it's weird if his ear twitches or he blinks his left eye sporadically, then something's bound to happen." Aquaris sipped his own wine before he looked down at his watch, "looks like we can stay for a little longer before we have to go, Celestia wanted to meet with me about something in the library around nine." Aquaris got up, and went to go grab his bag. "He seems like a nice boy… and to tell the truth makes a handsome stallion… not as handsome as you honey." Twilight's mother commented as Aquaris searched for his bag. "I wouldn't be surprised if you two dated." Twilight nearly coughed on her own wine at that statement, receiving laughs from both her parents. "I heard from some of my co-workers that you two danced last night, both of you human." "well that is true…" "And what is this, I can tell it is full with some energy" Twilight's mom said with Twilight's polymorph necklace. "a gift from Aquaris, if I wear it then it allows me to be become human" on that note Twilight slipped the necklace on and in a bright flash, was now human. Her parents examined her detail. Compared to what they saw with Aquaris's normal form, Twilight was a tad thinner and shorter. Her chest was the most interesting bit, both her parents saw the mango shaped lumps protruding from her chest, unlike Aquaris's which was flat. "Ah there it is." Aquaris said, notifying that he found his bag. He came back the kitchen with his bag held by one arm over his shoulder. "oh I see your showing them your human form?" "uhh… yeah, mom can you stop staring at my chest?" Twilight turned to the side covering her breasts in embaressment. "Sorry dear, what is the point of those things anyway?" "To feed newborn humans, as well as aid in attracting a sutor." Aquaris said as he dug through his bag. "A typical women's breasts are highly sensitive to touch, and… not saying from experience, provide extra pleasure of the female partner in intercourse." Aquaris looked up to see them a bit dumfounded. "Sigh… it is hard to explain without being a bit vulgar." Aquaris said a, a light blush on his face, Twilight's mentally sighed as Aquaris didn't mention what they did. "We get it… just Twilight seems really embarrassed about it." Aquaris looked down to see Twilight red with embarrassment. " "I think we should go… bye mom, bye dad." Twilight got up and grabbed her bag which fell on the floor when she changed. "Bye you two lovebirds." Twilight's mom joked as the two went through the front door, closing it behind him. Outside "I feel like your mom wants me to date you." Aquaris said as they began walking down the emptier stone street to the castle "Wouldn't be the first time, she wants me to get a colt friend… she even set me up for blind date with one of the recruits of the royal guard shinning said showed a lot of promise." "And?" "I didn't really like it… he was nervous and not all that handsome… I guess she won't try that again, given that I found somepony to date." Twilight said as they upped their pace to make better time. "What happened to the recruit?" "don't know…" as they entered the castle courtyard, Twilight was tackled by a pink blur. "Hi im pinkiepie, what's your name?" Pinkie said as she bound on Twilight's chest. "oh hi Aquaris." "pinkie… its me… Twilight…" Twilight said in gasps as the party pony bounce on her. "oh… sorry Twilight… I forgot that Aquaris can turn ponies into humans…" Pinkie got off Twilight whom of which sat up. "It's fine… when did you get here?" "about an hour ago with the others… oh a you have a letter Aquaris." Pinkie pulled a scroll from nowhere, Aquaris unraveled it and read it through, his eyes widened at what he read. > Lemons... Lemons everywhere > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The future of magic Chapter 11: Lemons… lemons everywhere Lemons warning…a pair of minor ones but still, they are marked so you can skip to end of them if you wish. Aquaris sat and continued to read the letter, slightly surprised about what was written on it. Dear Aquaris, I have wonderful news for you, I believe you should be the first to know the great news, let's just say you're going to be an uncle, I have already found a temporary replacement when I get into my later months, but for now I plan to still to be on duty. Hope you are well, and I pray that you two return home soon, I miss you both. See you little brother. Tell Afina that Rarius is doing well. Sincerely, Amera. "So you're going to be an uncle?" Twilight said, interrupting his train of thought. "Yeah... I guess I am." Aquaris said in a cheery mood. Aquaris set the letter down on the small table in front of him. Princess Celestia walked in with a steaming cup of tea, a maid with a kettle and various tea fixings following into the library. "Congratulations for your sister then." Celestia sat down on the pile of pillows in front of Aquaris before she sipped her tea. "Thank you Princess… Oh that reminds me… I need to send a letter to the guys… Don't want them to come to a new world on short notice." "Indeed." Celestia turned to the maid that walked in with a tray of various fixings for tea "Can you fetch Mrs. Afina for us?" "Yes your highness." The maid quickly bowed before she left for the guest suites. "Aquaris… can you tell me about when it is possible to meet with Solaris?" "To tell you the truth I really don't know. I hope it is for good reasons, not due to Confederacy forces threatening this world." Aquaris paused to take a sip of tea before he continued "He might come through to meet the host of his protégé and also ask a handful of questions but either than that… but a long conversation may be a possibility" Aquaris said as Afina walked in, her plush balanced on her back, a clearly visible stitching on its torso. She seemed a little drowsy and her breathe smelled of herbal tea. A few locks of her white hair hung in front of her eye. "what is it Aquaris? I was enjoying a nap of squishiness." Afina rubbed her eye, not hidden by hair. "I need you to send this letter, then you can go back to sleep." Aquaris let the scroll float as Afina breathed in and unleashed her flames onto the parchment and the scroll was sent. "Thanks Afina… now you can go ba-… umm." Aquaris turned to see Afina already asleep, cuddled up next Celestia. "Umm… is she a light sleeper?" Celestia asked "No… you could get an air horn with a mega phone enchanted to produce even louder sounds and she won't wake up…" Afina cuddled closer to Celestia, purring softly. "She is so sweet though." Celestia commented as she nuzzled the top of Afina's head. "Yeah… it is weird to note. That she loves to drink dairy, I thought young dragons ate meat and sucked calcium enriched marrow out of bones, but when I brought her home she shook her head to ground beef. It wasn't until later that night that she drank down my glass of milk when we were having raspberry cobbler." "When she started eating meat?" "When she was able to walk for longer periods without wobbling in her steps or falling over from being new to walking." Aquaris stated as he made his cup of tea. "Oh Biffalo… you're so squishy… maybe the squishiest" Afina said in her sleep as rolled and buried her face in Celestial's side, all three of them laughed quietly at Afina's sleep talking. "She's never said that one before…" Aquaris commented before he sipped his tea, then turned his head to Twilight "hey Twi… this idea just popped into my mind… but are you willing to come with me?" "What do you mean?" "To Terra… come with me… it'll take at least an hour for the guys to pack their stuff." "You do know the gate room isn't done." Celestia interjected, "It will still take about a month to finish building the chamber." Celestia commented to Aquaris as he turned to Celestia, wearing a disapproving expression. "Sorry to ruin the mood… "Even still… what do you say Twilight? Will you be the first pony to step into a human's world?" "Yes… I was waiting for you to say that." Twilight replied in an excited tone. She seemed to shake with excitement. Celestia smiled and look down to Afina who seemed to be having a good dream, as her legs seem to kick. "I'd better take her back to our room." Aquaris said as Afina was lifted into the air. "Actually… do you mind keeping an eye on Afina? I have to find my gate cipher… can't go to terra without using the cipher to translate the code. "Sure, just set her down where she was… her company anyway." She snickered as Afina was set back down where she was "Can you help me out Twi? It could be back in ponyville, I would need you to teleport us there, I'll take us back when and if we find it there." Aquaris said as he walked towards the doorway "Sure thing Aquaris. Oh! Princess Celestia? I found this last… any idea what it is?" Twilight said pulling out an odd crystal, the crystal itself appeared to be carved in reverse, where all the points went inwards, in each of the holes were metal bits with an odd blue light coming out of each. "Hmm… nothing I know of this Twilight, maybe Aquaris might know?" "Maybe… I guess I'll see you in the morning." Twilight said as she chased after Aquaris. "Good night Twilight…" Celestia looked down at Afina and nuzzled her again before she lied her head down on the cushion Aquaris and Twilight "Hey Aquaris… you could've waited for me…" Twilight commented as she caught up to him "Sorry, Twi…" Aquaris rubbed the back his head "Its fine… do you have any idea what this is?" Twilight said as she let the crystal float in front of him. "hmm… this is odd, this a third generation power crystal… it generates electricity for electronic devices and will never run out… this one is an older one because it is bigger than the one that powers my hailer or Afina's gaming devices…" Aquaris said as he examined the crystal. "Is it dangerous?" "Well as long as it isn't hooked up to exposed wire or a weapon powered by the crystal… then no it isn't… also the sockets for the crystal are corroded…" "The things more useful as a paper weight or door stopper. The question I would ask. Is what actually caused the sockets to corrode? Typically energy refluxes cause this… but a device made before this model would cause this, an infi-range communication device would be possible?" "What?" "Old device made by the confederacy… it advertised to be a commutation device with no range limit… it works… but they were obsolete almost immediately after being made. "How did they exactly test its range?" "They sent a probe to the closest galaxy to our own… after the drone landed on a world, it sent a message which had a three second delay… impressive given the distance, but to have a clear signal you need a relay device… otherwise transmissions and images are patchy." Aquaris opened the door to his chambers and walked over to one of his bags, Twilight doing the same to another. "What exactly does this cipher look like?" Twilight asked as she pulled various delicate devices out of the bag "Small cube… on each side should be about thirty or so red runes… except for one which has a screen. Don't confuse it with the same sized cube made of brass, all that is a puzzle box." Aquaris pulled out ring about the size of Frisbee. Three hours later "So tired…" Aquaris groaned as he refilled and zipped another bag shut. Twilight was already asleep, he tiredly smiled and put his hammer space crystal to the bag… putting the bag in the infinitely sized pocket dimension of storage. He climbed onto the bed and cuddled up next to Twilight and fell asleep. The following morning (minor lemon warning) - Twilight awoke to the sound of a shower running; she sat up and stretched her front hooves, letting out a long yawn. She looked over at a small table seeing that Aquaris had located the cipher. She got off the bed and noticed her mane was a mess and she smelled a bit. "I wonder if it be awkward to ask" Twilight thought as she looked at the slightly open bathroom door, after a few moments of debating… she walked over to the door. "Aquaris?" "Yes?" "Do you mind… if… Do you mind if I join you?" Twilight asked, cringing at what she said. "Um... I guess…" Aquaris responded nervously. Twilight pushed the door open and closed it behind her… Aquaris could see her silhouette in the curtain of the shower. She parted the curtain and stepped in, pulling it closed behind her. "There is no need to be nervous." Twilight floated a bottle of shampoo over to her and squeezed a bit out. "Can you help me with my tail?" Aquaris squatted down; he grabbed the shampoo bottle and began to lather her tail, running his fingers through it… making it sure to get it completely soaped up, he formed a ball of water and began to rinse her tail, combing her tail with his fingers like before. "You know Aquaris, I thought that maybe we could have a small picnic, I know this great spot." Twilight said as she used her hooves to rub in the shampoo "Sounds like a good idea… but weren't we planning on working in the library today?" "Well, we could have an early dinner, at sunset… I have the perfect place for it." "Sounds romantic… I accept, but let me make the food, from what Spike told me, you're not much of a cook." Aquaris commented as he finished rinsing her tail. "Fine… um… could you help with my flanks too?" Aquaris nodded and began to rub her flanks with a bar of soap. "Thanks… oh… that's feels nice…" Twilight moaned a bit as Aquaris massaged her flanks with his soapy hands. Aquaris smirked after hearing the sound of her moans and decided to be a little naughty and rubbed a little closer to her hidden lips. As her moans heightened in pitch Aquaris drew closer until he had to move her tail aside. "Oh… I thought we agreed to no naughty things until we've got to know each other?" Twilight said playfully. "Eh… I thought we said no full on intercourse… besides, It seemed like you wanted to play given that you wanted to join me and also wanted to me to clean your tail and your flanks." Aquaris replied before spreading her lips apart. He eyed her pink sensitive inner lips and breathed in her scent. He smirked and burrowed his face in her folds, licking all around for her sweet juices. Twilight's front legs went numb as she fell face down; she gave gasps of ecstasy as Aquaris's lounge danced around inside her, slurping up the sweet nectar that leaked from her. She felt like she was in heaven when Aquaris licked the more sensitive spots. "Sweet Celestia… keep licking Aquaris… ooohhh!" she began to pant Aquaris flipped her stomach up as he kept licking, she was in bliss as he did a slight thrusting motion with his lounge, it didn't really go in but really teased her. "don't Tease me Aquaris, I thought you knew how to treat a ma…" her eyes rolled back in her head as she let out a loud moans of bliss, Aquaris was using some form of magic to vibrate her insides. "Like that don't you Twi?" Aquaris pulled his face out it was covered with her juices. "ye… yes… do… don't s- sto… op…" she could barely speak since of her rapid panting. Aquaris obliged and buried his face deeper in her folds; he nibbled on the sensitive flesh. Twilight used her magic and dug his face in deeper. "Mmmff… "Aquaris mumbled as he kept up his licks. "MMMFFF!" Aquaris was surprised when Twilight screamed loudly and let herself go, her juices rushed out unlike last time… he knew he did good. "That… tha… was… Amaz… ing… Sweet Celestia that felt good…" Twilight said exhausted. Aquaris licked his lips and swallowed the sweet nectar she released. "Clearly I did good, made you scream and got a good orgasm out of you." Aquaris joked as he used some of the shower water to rinse his mouth. (End of minor lemon 1)- "Don't gloat about it…" Twilight lifted herself up and rinsed off… "Do you at least want me to repay the favor? I may know a trick or two to make it just as enticing." "Hmm… not right now. But thanks for the offer… don't want it to get out of hand or hoof. Right?" Aquaris turned the shower off and used his magic to dry himself off, not with a towel but by pulling every last drop off of his skin, then by using a low level heat spell to dry himself completely. Aquaris got dressed and popped a small sphere in his mouth, after a few seconds he spit the sphere out in the sink and washed it off. "What was that?" "It's an oral cleanser sphere… it can clean ones mouth within seconds and leave a minty fresh smell, you just need to hold it in your mouth for a few seconds." Aquaris opened his toiletries bag and pulled out a un-opened one, he opened the packaging and let Twilight take it with her magic. "Just put in your mouth. And take a deep breathe." Twilight took in a big breath and let the sphere pass her lips, as she closed her mouth over it, her mouth felt tingly and felt like it was full of water. After five seconds Aquaris nodded as Twilight spit it out. Aquaris washed it off as Twilight spat out more of the leftover saliva that had a strong mint taste. "Well?" "It was different… this replaces a tooth brush?" "Basically… do this Twice a day and there is no need for a dental trip… except for x-rays but that's about it." Aquaris said as he set the sphere to emit a violet glow and set it next to his which was emitting a blue glow. "c'mon let's head to the library."Aquaris fixed his hair before they both made their way out of the room. Hours later in the kitchens All of the cooks in the kitchen stood in front of a kitchen prep table as Aquaris diligently chopped up shallots, pecans, and parsley. Also on the counter besides the cutting bored was about half a stick of butter and a large bowl full of dried bread crumbs. "Make sure you chop both the pecans very finely… because they will be added to the crusting." Aquaris picked up the cutting bored and scrapped the pecans into the bowl. "Why don't you use an Egg wash?" "Because it simply doesn't call for it… some melted butter makes the bread crumbs stick just as well." Aquaris commented as he pulled a tray with a pair of boneless & Skinless chicken breasts out from below the counter. "I would pay a weeks' worth of bits to have one of those food generating crystals." One of the chefs commented Aquaris stopped for a second and pulled a glowing white crystal from under the counter. "These things are useful, but can only generate meats." Aquaris put the crystal down and began to fillet the chicken, making some of the cooks nervous as he did a sawing motion to cut through the chicken. "HEY AQUARIS!" Pinkie yelled as her head poked out from one of the upper cabinets, all the cooks and chefs darted in multiple directions as the knife Aquaris was using went airborne from Pinkie's sudden Appearance. "oooh… are you cooking something? I just love to cook! I remember one time I had to make thirty batches of these- (incomprehensible)" Aquaris was struggling to understand what she was saying as he picked up the knife, and set it in the sink. "And I thought auctioneers talked fast." Aquaris didn't even realize that she was defying gravity since most of her body was poking out of the cabinet, and gravity wasn't pulling the rest of her out. "And then that's when I realized that Gummy had eaten my spare bag of marbles…" she kept going not even taking a breather, "Wait… when did she start talking about marbles?" as he looked up at Pinkie. He scrunched his brow and sighed "Ok let's get you out of that cabinet Pinkie." Aquaris grabbed her front hooves and pulled on her, creating a small cushion for her to land on with his magic, but he never heard a soft thump, instead he just wondered how she just broke the laws of physics, instead of holding what he thought we her front hooves, turned out to be a pair of rolling pins. Aquaris looked around to find that she was gone… the chefs and cooks also wondering where she went "I guess I continue the demonstration…" Later that day on a hillside under a tree "That tasted great Aquaris… who knew you could convince me to eat meat." Twilight said currently in her human form, she was leaning against Aquaris whom was leaning against the trunk of the tree they were under. "Thanks… but it wasn't the best thing I tasted today…" Aquaris chuckled lightly as he lightly rubbed the top of her head. The two sat there and landscape before them, it was near breath taking. "I say this was a good first date Twi. Do you agree?" "Yeah… but it's missing something." "What? I brought us a good late lunch; you took us to a wonderful spot… what is miss-…" Aquaris was cut off as Twilight locked her lips with his, for a few minutes they kept their lips locked, not a French kiss but just a subtle passionate one. "That was nice…" Aquaris commented as they broke the kiss "Yeah… say… could you turn into your pony self?" Twilight asked as she scooted back and adjusted so she was on her knees Other lemon warning - "Sure… wait why?" "Just do it." Twilight commanded as the bright flash from the polymorph came and died down. Aquaris was still on his back, in perfect position for her course of action. She put her hands on his stomach and rubbed in a clockwise pattern, dragging her fingers along to leave small patterns in his teal fur. Aquaris shivered at the sensation on his stomach. "wha… what are you going to do?" "Repaying what you did earlier, in full." Twilight ran her fingers down his stomach and rubbed around his inner thighs, playing with his sheath. Aquaris groaned a bit as Twilight toyed with him, playing with the loose skin that hid his stallion hood. He moaned as Twilight used her fingers to spread his sheath open and watched as his entire girth slowly rose from it, filling with blood and pulsing with excitement. "Oh wow… even as a pony you well endowed. Plenty of mares would want this size." Twilight giggled as she ran her fingers along his shaft and squeezed his tip. Aquaris moaned louder as her slight touching and teasing became full blown strokes, hardening his member to make it stiff as a bored "Oh… Sweet Solaris it's more sensitive than my normal self… oohhh!" Aquaris leaned his head back as Twilight kept stroking it faster and faster. "Hmm… I need some extra help with this…" Twilight grinned as she undid the buttons of her coat and removed both her coat and shirt. Twilight then grabbed his member and licked her lips before dragging her tongue up Aquaris's shaft. "Oh by Solaris's beard… that feels wonderful…" Aquaris said in his moans. "Then you love this." Twilight said before kissing his tip and engulfing the tip in her mouth. Aqaris's eyes went wide as she sucked on him, he stomped his hooves of either side of her as she attempted to go lower on his stiff member, trying to swirl her tongue around it as she went. She couldn't even go half way, but that didn't stop her, she pulled back and took a massive breathe in before she opening her mouth as wide as possible and going a bit more than half way… she gagged and as she felt it throb in her throat… she slid farther down, her vision getting a bit blurry though. "I want all of it… can't think straight… need air…" she couldn't handle any more a pulled off, his tip left her mouth, she took in deep breathes before deciding to do something really naughty, she smirked as she adjusted herself and squished Aquaris's length in between her Breasts. She licked and kissed his now flared tip and rubbed his shaft with her breasts. Aquaris was in heaven, he moaned and groaned in ecstasy, Twilight looked up at him and decided to go step up, her eyes glowed violet as she performed a spell similar to what Aquaris did to her earlier. Aquaris yelled out in a long drawn back moan and his eyes seemed to roll back in his head. The feeling she gave him was hard to describe, he could only make short raspy breaths since he couldn't speak. Twilight kept her pace, wanting him to climax; she wanted his seed to shoot down her throat, and for him to shoot it all over face. She could feel his throbbing, she knew he was close. "GAHHH!" Aquaris shouted as he climaxed… shots upon shots of his thick seed shot down her throat, Twilight pulled away and stroked him as it shot onto her face; it was warmer and thicker than his human form's and in more generous quantity. Some of his thick white's strings landed on her breasts slowly flowing in between her breasts and onto her stomach. "By… Sol… aris… that felt awesome." Aquaris said in between his gasps and pants. "you're welcome Aquaris… and thank you for the generous gift… mmm, a little saltier compared to last time. Also not to sound vulgar but you have to admit, I look Sexy with your seed all over me. Don't you agree?" Aquaris looked up and stared at her, if wasn't for the recent release and exhaustion he would get hard again. She smirked and leaned down, and cleaned his tip off… Aquaris moaned lightly as his still sensitive flesh was cleaned off. "Since when did you get so horny Twilight?" Aquaris asked as he pulled back after she finished cleaning his retreating member "I don't know… but to tell the truth this is the third time in my whole life I've had any sexual interactions, may it be oral or full on." Twilight commented as she finished cleaning off her breasts of Aquaris's seed. End of lemon 2 - "Maybe its inner lusts… deep down inside of anyone or pony are some dark hidden sins and desires..." Aquaris commented as he rolled so he was now on all fours. Using his magic to grab a small towel from the basket and giving it to Twilight. "Thanks..." Twilight used the towel to clean off Aquaris's seed and began to put her shirt on while Aquaris changed to normal and packed up the picnic supplies. "Hey Aquaris, I've been curious about your polymorph, it is in simple terms, turn one thing into anything, or anypony else right?" "yeah… but it is dose have a drawback, which is where I think you where you were going with this conversation… the spell dose alter one's DNA to another, but genetic code such as sperm or blood still is unchanged unless the new form had time to generate genetic code of it… say I turned into a pony and we decided we wanted to have a foal… it would take a few hours or more before my body would create sperm your eggs could accept, but say you turned human and we tried for a child… we would need to go through an annoying process of integrating your eggs which are still of pony DNA and splicing it with your human form which required a blood sample taken after a two week period, by then your blood would be all human and we could use it to give you eggs I could normally fertilize." Aquaris finished before taking a breath. (Is your mind screwed up yet?) "You lost me… something that doesn't happen most of the time…" "If you wanted to bear a human baby then we would have to do some convoluted and complicated gene splicing, for me to even attempt to get you pregnant… without doing so would mean that I could never get you pregnant unless I am in my pony form." Aquaris said before he took another deep breath and picked up the basket. Aquaris nodded and held his hand out, after a moment Twilight smirked and lightly grabbed it; Aquaris helped her up and pulled her in close for a brief kiss before they set off back to the city. Canterlot palace courtyard The walk back didn't take too long and when they returned they caught sight of Pinkie and Rarity, but nopony else. "Twi… have you noticed that aside from Pinkie, we haven't seen Flutters, Dash, or AJ?" "Yeah… she mentioned she came here with the others…" As they got close pinkie charged up and tackled Aquaris "HI Aqua… I was wondering if I could plan Afina's birthday party next month after your friends arrive, two parties in the same week would be FUN, given the fact that I have only seemed to have thrown one party this entire story so far." "sure pinkie… wait how'd you… you know never mind…" Aquaris sighed as he rubbed his temple region. > Terra part 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The future of magic Chapter 12: Terra A month after the events of chapter eleven Aquaris filled his back pack with various items, his compacted staff… a pair of light stones, a few bottles of wound sealing potions, his hailer, both his and Twilight’s oral cleanser sphere, a few more various items, and his horology kit. “I’m assuming you’re going plant hunting?” Afina asked as she walked in tiredly, “I also see you made me some tea? Thank you…” Afina sat on the rooms couch and grabbed the cup; she sniffed in the scent of the tea and took a sip. “Hmm… Aquaris, is this your special herbal brew, it smells sweet but it doesn’t taste that good…” “Yeah… it is meant to keep the mind clear, and keeps you energized… I took some because it’s going to be an all-nighter added a bit of day-bloom to it…” Afina looked back at the tea and drank the rest down, with each gulping sound Aquaris’s smirk grew wider, after finishing the tea Afina set the cup down and gave a cute burp. “three… two… one” Aquaris thought before he heard a soft thump, Afina had passed out and was lightly snoring, “but I did at add a hint of moon flower oil to that one…” he commented as he walked over to the couch and looked over to see Afina already fast asleep, he tucked her in and put her plush in her grasp before throwing his bag over his shoulder and heading out of the room, using his magic to shut off the light. On the other side of the door Aquaris slipped his goggles on and proceeded down the hall to Twilight’s room, whom of which when he got there was waiting her human form, she her own bag, but also had a new outfit provided from rarity as with three other ones. “Hey Aquaris… I’m so nervous, you can’t tell right now but I am so excited… that tea you gave me calmed me down, I can’t even get hyper… are you sure that it provides energy?” “It keeps one mellow too… day-bloom has the effect where it is both an energizer and a chemical which calms the drinker… allows one to keep focused on the task at hand.” He held out a hand which gladly took and let her lead the way to the gate chamber. “You don’t seem nervous.” “Again the tea… but also I’m not, I know what to expect, I know this is going to work, the only way a gate can be broken is if the gate structure is compromised… and the gate is incredibly accurate, I believe we’ll end up on either Terra’s public gate or the private one in the palace.” Aquaris replied before they entered the gate chamber. Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Armor were all waiting for them, Aquaris took a deep breath and walked up to the gate; he pulled out his cipher and pressed on the screen. Before every ponies eyes the cube unfolded, then again, and again until there where about 30 squares, out of each one came triangular segments, each connecting the plates till the entire thing was a large disk with the runes. He placed the cipher on the pedestal in front of the gate and pressed on the screen in the center. The disk began to bend into a dome like shape as orange strands of energy ran down the pedestal’s side to its base and down the trio of inch wide inch deep channels along the floors to the gate. As the strands touched the gate, they solidified into cables of a copper-ish material; odd yellowish energy ran along these cables from the gate to the pedestal until the screen glowed a dull green. “Is it working Aquaris?” Twilight asked as she walked up next to him, “Yeah… now let’s see here…” Aquaris pulled out a slip of paper and unrolled it. On it was about ten symbols that went with the ones on the disc; Aquaris pressed the symbols on the cipher, which resulted in the corresponding ones on the gate to light up. “Will you do the honors Twi?” Aquaris gestured at the now glowing green screen which had converted into a dome. Twilight hesitantly put her hand on the sphere, and pushed on it. It sank into the plate and stopped glowing as the gate came to life. The gate made a light whirring noise as it charged up with energy. Gusts of wind came from nowhere as the air in the gate began to flash with light, seconds later the gate seemed to create a geyser of glowing light blue water which stopped before Twilight and Aquaris; it reseeded fast back into the gate and created a similarly glowing, wall of water. “Whoa… was the geyser really necessary?” Cadence asked while starring at the gate. “Yeah… opening a rip in the space time continuum, causes a lot of heat if contained, the geysers created are actually particles at an incredibly high temperature that immediately cool when reaching a distance of Ten feet… if anything were to come in contact with this what appeared to be water geyser. It would result in instant and painful particle disintegration.” Aquaris replied as he pointed at the remnants of a chandelier that was caught in the geyser. “It is safe after the geyser reseeds back into the gate, but it is best to wait ten seconds before walking through just to be sure.” “Aquaris… how do you know how get back here?” Celestia asked as she trotted up to them both “I have the gate code for this one… just one symbol different, rather convenient if I do say so myself…” he looked back at the gate and took a deep and relaxed sigh before stepping forward towards the gate. “It’ll take a few hours, I need to grab a few things from home… if we’re late then Blinx has probably thrown a party for my return and to welcome Twilight to Terra.” Celestia nodded as Aquaris kept walking forward, he turned back to see Twilight still standing behind the pedestal. Aquaris noticed she was shaking lightly. Aquaris came up to her and put his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, Aquaris could tell she was scared, he looked over her shoulder at Armor, he was watching Aquaris’s moves, Aquaris just rolled his eyes and sighed, and he put his other arm on her shoulder and pulled her in for a kiss. Twilight was surprised at first, but after a moment closed her eyes and held him tightly. Behind Twilight, Cadence was holding onto Armor’s tail as he ran in place towards Aquaris. “Shining honey please calm down…” Cadence commented with his tail still in her mouth. “You two might want to go through before he gets free of my hold.” Aquaris nodded to her and gave a brief two fingered salute before he and Twilight ran through the gate. The gate closed behind them just before Armor slipped free of Cadence’s hold, he then crashed into the wall behind the gate. “Aquaris is in some serious trouble when he gets back…” Cadence commented with a worried expression. “He’s dead is what he is…” Armor spoke in an irritated yet quite tone as he wobbled his way over to Cadence. “Oh come on shiny… don’t you want your sister to find her special some pony… even if he is not actually a pony?” “How long Have they’ve been together? And I know you know because you know nearly every ponies relationship.” Armor groaned as he stretched his neck and popped it. “At least a month… she really loves him as he does her… give him a chance shining” Cadence gave Armor the puppy dog eyes, he couldn’t resist for long “Ok fine… I’ll give Aquaris a .chance… but only because you trust him, but if hurts her, or even makes her upset, he is in trouble.” He replied hesitantly “Thank you Shiny… now come on, you have new recruits to train in the morning… and my knight needs all the rest he can get… good night aunties” Cadence and Armor went off out of the gate room. Luna walked up to Celestia and looked towards the gate. “Today is the start of a new era… doesn’t it Tia?” “Yes Lulu, yes it dose… you did slip that gem in Aquaris’s bag right?” “Yes… we’ll be able to see what they see and hear what they hear… but, you have to sleep and I have my royal duties… goodnight Tia.” Luna trotted off leaving Celestia alone in the gate chamber. Terra… location unknown Aquaris opened his eyes when a gust of cold air hit him; he sat up and shook his head, regaining his senses. He looked around to see that he didn’t end up in the palace, but in a clearing of a forest. He sighed lightly then realized where Twilight was. “Twi?” he said as he sat up, rubbing his head. “TWI!?” “I’m here Aquaris… ow… what happened you said the gate was going to drop us in the palace or another public one?” Twilight asked as Aquaris got up and saw her hanging by one of her boots from a tree. “I don’t know the gates not supposed to send people to a random location… huh?” Aquaris reached into his pocket and pulled out his hailer. “Sweet Solaris… four hundred messages… all from Blinx, I’ll check those later… let’s see here GPS activating, and… ok so good news were on Terra and we are close to Terravle… bad news is that we are about ten miles aeay form and we’re in the darkest forest known to mankind, where both the laws of nature and magic cease to apply… Ever-night forest.” Aquaris put his hailer back into his pocket and climbed the tree Twilight was hanging from and began to loosen her boot laces that were caught on the branch. “How much trouble are we in exactly?” “Well the forest is able to make one lose track of their position… and it is infested by countless amounts of dangerous creatures, both known and unknown…” “Like? oofff… could’ve warned me when you were about to drop me.” Twilight said as she lied on the ground, staring up at him with and irritated glare. “Sorry… but creatures we’d be up against would be; Omni wolves, Chimera, Viper-mouths of varying types, snatchers, and blazers… and then some.” Aquaris replied as he used his fingers to count them off. “If we move fast enough we might be able to get out of here within two, three hours at least.” Aquaris climbed down from the tree, and reached into his bag, pulling out his staff and his canteen. “Keep close and be silent.” With that the two made their way into the forest, eastward… towards what both hoped was Terravale. About two and a half hours later “Face it Aquaris, we are lost… and I swear I have seen that boulder for the tenth time!” Twilight said pointing at said boulder. “We are not lost… okay maybe we are… my hailer’s GPS doesn’t work too well in here so we are basically running blind… I’ll go get a vantage point, be right back.” Aquaris climbed one of the trees next to him and made his way above the canopy. Aquaris gave a sigh as a chilling breeze hit his face, he scanned the seemingly endless forest, looking for lights from Terravale… or even a tree that stuck out amongst the others. He squinted his eyes and activated his night vision. He smiled when he saw the lights of terravale in the distance. “Hey Twilight, if we keep heading this way, we might make it before sunrise… Twilight?” Aquaris jumped down to find her pinned by what appeared to be a wolf. Aquaris fell forward as something tackled him... His concerns grew more as he heard a machine like growl, he turned his head to see a wolf with glowing eyes, and its entire body composed of metal. Behind it were more wolves composed of many other materials, one was composed of only rock, one was made of gears which were still moving, and the last of the small group was composed of varying gemstones. It growled as it flipped Aquaris over onto his back and bared its fangs. As it was about to attack and potentially kill him, he looked over to see Twilight getting attacked by another one, this one was made out of bones. Aquaris looked forward and uttered something under his breath. The wolf was pulled Away from Aquaris and onto a tree Aquaris magnetized, the clockwork wolf followed suite shortly afterwards, the others aside from the bone one following their leader fly back. The bone wolf lifted his head in enough time to see a pulse of magic hit its face and caused it to explode… shards of varying bones flew everywhere… the body itself falling apart without its head. Aquaris ran up to Twilight and helped her up, her arm was covered in blood but not bleeding from the bone wolf’s bite. He looked over at the wolves who were attempting to pull their metal brethren off the tree’s trunk. Without hesitation he picked up Twilight bridle style and ran the direction they needed to go. He looked down at Twilight who was out cold; he noticed her clothes were shredded basically. Still roughly intact but no simple stitching will fix it. He increased his pace looking foreward and making sure not to fall. Eventually the amount of tree’s lessened as he finally made it out of the forest… as he was about twenty feet out he fell to his knees… completely exhausted. He grunted as he got up again and slowly walked to the town in front of him. It was still dark… the only light coming from street lamps. He turned the corner and gave a sigh of relief at a hill with a massive tree before him. It was a massive redwood tree, at least thirty feet tall a mahogany door at its base, a handful of windows here and there around the trunk, he slowly treaded up to it and kicked a rock near the door. A small drawer on it opened with a key inside it “Twi… wake up.” Aquaris said after opening and closing the door behind him. Twilight opened her eyes to the sight of a dark library, seconds later lamps scattered around it turned on, illuminating the place, making it seem like it was lit with candles. She then realized Aquaris was carrying her, she sighed lightly and rubbed her head against his chest, Aquaris lowered her onto a coach and grabbed a small chair and began to examine her arm. His eyes glowed teal as he examined the damage under her skin. He got up and opened a cabinet nearby, inside were various colored bottles, he pulled a yellow-green bottle out and grabbed a roll of bandaging. He set the bottle and bandage on the coffee table and pulled out a bottle of wound sealant. “This going to hurt Twilight.” He popped the cork off the yellow bottle and let it hover over the wound, he unraveled the bandage and had it under her arm, ready to cover the wound, and finally he used his magic to also open the bottle of wound sealant. Twilight cringed as the yellow bottles contents were poured onto the wound, a small bit of steam coming from the wound, the wound sealant was then poured, Twilight cried out in pain as the chemical stung as they closed the cut, Aquaris then began to wrap the bandaging around her fore arm. “Thank you Aquaris… those wolves came out of nowhere… I managed to stop one but that bone one came up behind me… Twilight said as Aquaris finished wrapping her arm up. “The sealant will take about a week to fully heal the cut… you go ahead and have a lie down… Ill wake you when I get back.” “Where are you going?” Twilight asked as she rubbed the bandaging with her uninjured arm. “To get the others, like I said I’ll be back.” he kissed her before grabbing his bag and heading out the door. Twilight sat sighed before deciding to look around the place. Aside from the large bookshelves lining the walls, each filled with books of both fiction and non-fiction. She also noticed a smaller shelf filled with plastic cases, some of them missing. Then there was Aquaris’s computer. There wasn’t really much except a wireless mouse and two projectors that created the screen and keyboard. She sat at the chair in front of it and examined the projector. Aquaris taught her how to use one of these things so she proceeded to turn it on. It took less than a second for the computer’s screen and keyboard to activate. The screen displayed two users, Afina and Aquaris. She opened Aquaris’s which caused the background to change, to a picture of A breathe taking ocean view. She looked over the screen, seeing varying applications, one that caught her eye was a folder for ‘Blitz’s Air-rivals application’ another one that also caught her attention was a report on anomalous objects. She opened the document to find twenty pages of notes of how identify, contain, and study various objects. An example of an object was also in this document, it reads as follows. The item is classified as a passive class level one object; the item in question has the appearance of a yellow rubber duck, with normal dimensions of an average rubber duck. The anomalous properties of said duck are its abilities to move to different locations in a confined area in a time window of nine milliseconds. The speed of movement seems to change with distance, always making to its destination before ten milliseconds. The movement only happens when there is an observer watching the duck, when he or she blinks the duck moves to a seemingly random location within a range of fifty feet of its original location… testing shows that it cannot move through solid material and could only escape it’s testing area if there was an opening big enough for it. Notes: Afina had temporarily lost the duck after she proceeded to play with it when she was taking a bath. She proclaimed that she dunked it under the bubbles, breaking line of sight and causing it to move to the top shelf of the upstairs linen closet. “I had to buy her a non-anomalous rubber duck because of this, after recovery” Twilight turned her head in confusion and noticed a small box on the side of the desk, she opened the box to find the rubber duck, she pulled it out of the box and squeaked it, nothing wrong there. But when she blinked, it was out of her hand and now sitting on a nearby book shelf. Twilight blinked again which resulted on it sitting on a light fixture above her, she smiled and pulled it off the light fixture and re-inserted it into the box, sealing it up and placing it where it was she looked back at the screen, she closed the document and kept browsing her search stopped at a photo of Aquaris’s family when he was much younger. On his left were his parents. Both their crests reminding her of her parents cutie marks, on his right was a women a bit taller than him, and on her shoulders was a younger Afina she clicked to the next picture of a Aquaris at his current age with all his friends. The next was an adorable picture of Afina curled up and asleep in a basket of sleeping kittens, the mother cat not too happy about it. Twilight giggled a bit and looked away from the computer, towards the bookshelves. She walked over to them and looked over the contents, each book sorted by subject then alphabetically, she noticed pulled one out of history a opened it up, it mostly told of the founding of Terra and the events afterwards. She placed it back before turning to find a picture of Aquaris and his friends, but aside from Aquaris who was wearing a circlet; his friends were wearing platinum amulets each with a symbol of their crests carved into it. She kept staring at it for about ten minutes until she heard the door open, six Terrans walked in, each with their luggage, Aquaris in the lead. “I thought I said you should take a nap?” Aquaris said in joking tone as he walked up next her. “I got curious and decided to browse.” Aquaris didn’t answer but lightly hugged her. Before being separated by a floating human. “Huh, I didn’t know you got yourself a girlfriend Aquaris… being the bookworm you are and all.” He said in a teasing tone, his hair was shortly cut and colored similarly to RD’s mane, but the most key feature were his eye color, they slowly went through the spectrum. And protruding from his back was a pair of semi-clear light blue wings. “I guess introductions are in order.” Aquaris said in a comedic sigh. Ten minutes and one pot of brewed coffee later Everyone sat on the couches around the coffee table with a built in heating element. Each of them holding a cup of coffee, and each of them conversing with each other, Twilight one the other hand was in deep thought, wondering what exactly they were waiting for, Aquaris had said that Terra had a massive network of high speed trains that hover over a magnetic rail, so why didn’t they take that to Promethia? “And so I said to her that if she wanted to order a trio of golden chocobo’s then he would have to pay for the resources necessary to breed em. Y’all know how expensive it is breed them as is, three of them would be worth a pretty penny.” Jackie said as he placed his empty mug on the table, “you know what she said to me, that as Royalty she should get them for free. That is Shtako even Solaris paid the fee’s for both a black one and a gold one.” “You know how princess Mephala is, thinking she is better than everyone except her uncles... I don’t say this often because I am a gentle man… but she is a bitch.” Blitz chuckled lightly at Rarius’s commente before sipping his coffee. “Aquaris you still haven’t answered my question from earlier, how’d you meet Twilight?” “Well… it’s complicated but in summary, the confederacy dropped me via a pod to the surface of the world we are heading to tonight, she was one of the first few pon- people I met when I was there.” Aquaris replied with a nervous chuckle. Rarius looked at him with a slight disapproving frown, but turned his head when someone knocked on the door. “WHO IS IT!?” Blinx yelled as he walked to the door with a bounce to hid step. He opened the door looking straight forward to see nobody. “Down here.” Blinx looked down to see a boy up to his chest in height. He looked like he was as old as some of the young teens in Terravale. “Shouldn’t you be in bed kid? Speaking of which who are you?” “The names Cloud fire, and I’m the reason you’re getting to Promethian palace, he said as he pulled two things from his shirt, one was a crest of a double headed wrench with a depiction of fire surrounding it, and the other was a seal of the royal pilots. Everyone except Twilight was jaw dropped, A KID as a royal pilot? “Yes, yes amazing and all… c’mon were burning nightlight, my coursair has shadow wing sails and it’s going to be impossible to fly it after day break.” He gestured everyone to follow him out. After moment of hesitation they followed, grabbing their rightful bags in the process. Twilight simply followed remaining quite as they got outside, until she saw the massive bronze colored machine in front of them, it was massive, taking up an area bigger than two house lots. On the side facing towards Aquaris’s home was painted version of Cloud fire’s crest. (if you ever watched john carter imagine the smaller airships but shrunk down to equal the size of an average passenger plane) Cloud fire was checking one of the many ore like wings along the side, using a wrench to tighten a loose bolt. “So explain to me how, you got to be a royal pilot?” Aquaris asked as his friends climbed up a boarding ramp onto the ship. “Well… when I was younger around six, my parents abandoned me, I was living on the streets, keeping alive by earning some money from odd jobs around Promethia city… I was arrested for theft because someone was too cheap to lose his money and said I stole about a hundred credits from him when in reality, he paid me those. After about two days of imprisonment someone bailed me out and offered me a job as a research assistant… I accepted, come to find out I was hired by the most brilliant mind in all of Terra… Professor J virel.” He hopped down and checked another wing and began to adjust the bolt. “Makes sense why I haven’t seen you, I have heard a lot about the professor but never met him…” “He is a busy man; he mostly hired me to be messenger boy, delivering his findings or items of Interest to Solaris… one day, the corsair I was in, was caught in a ion storm that formed from ever- night forest, the pilot was knocked out and no one aside from me took the helm.” He paused as a rouge nut popped out of a wing joint. “mostly with adrenaline guiding me I managed to fly it out of the storm… we managed to land in the shipyard for it to be repaired, also at that Time Solaris was there inspecting a new ship model… he thanked me for the service I’ve done and was surprised to find that I flew out of an ion storm.” “Then he offered you a job as royal corsair pilot?” Aquaris finished as Cloud nodded before hopping down and heading up the ramp to the cockpit. Aquaris and Twilight followed up the ramp and into the cockpit, while the others were out on the deck. Cloud Fire slipped headphones on and started up the ship, Twilight watched out the window as the wings glowed a dull grey and rose up, behind them the corsair’s reactor came to life generating immense power. Lights along the deck lit up as the ship began to rise into the air, Cloud flipped a few switches which turned on spotlights in the front. Twilight was speechless as she contemplated how this heavy machine could fly. “Don’t worry Twilight… it is as confusing to you as it is for me to contemplate how only two pegasus carriage pullers is needed to pull a carriage three times their combined weight.” Aquaris commented as he rubbed her shoulder. “What was that… something about carriages?” cloud said as he looked away from his piloting console. “Nothing kid… talking to Twilight.” Aquaris replied as Cloud turned back to the console. “What is your on mind anyway? You were quite when my friends arrived.” “Well… when your friends arrived, I noticed a lot of similarities between them and my friends… granted there were some differences.” Twilght responded as she leaned against the window. “Is that really a problem Twi? Look at how similar we are.” Aquaris leaned in and kissed her. He broke it every few seconds to say their similarities, “we’re both smart… willing to learn… willing to experiment.” “Oh you… and your right, similarities are good… especially with us” “Hey love birds! I may be a pilot and quite mature… but I’m still a young teen, so keep it in your pants.” Cloud fire commented before turning back to his console. Aquaris and Twilight blushed lightly before Aquaris pulled away. “Now that’s what I call a cock-block…” both of them turned to see Blitz leaning against the doorway to the cockpit he chuckled as he walked in. “given the suggestive words I was hearing made me believe your experiments involved a little cherry popping.” “NO… Blitz don’t you have something better to do?” Aquaris said towards him irritated, his face red as a tomato. “Not really… also Aquaris and Twilight sitting in a tree F.U.C.K.I.N.G” Blitz said in a laugh as he spread his wing and jumped out the doorway to fly along the corsair. Twilight sighed and looked at Aquaris who was still blushing but not as brightly. He took deep rhythmic breathes to calm down. “How long till we get there Cloud?” “Bout twenty minutes… also do you want me to speed up so we lose your friend?” “Wouldn’t matter, Blitz can go supper sonic if he wanted, and the ‘sonic Spectrum’ as dubs it would cause damage to the corsair. So no… just keep true at this speed.” Aquaris replied as Cloud went back to his counsel. Speeding up the corsair any way in the process Somewhere deep in unknown space Commander Scorn stood next to the helm officer of his new ship, the Confederacy Devourer, or as Scorn dubbed it, ‘The reckoning’. The ship itself was larger than even a commanding class Star destroyer on its bow were three large prongs tipped with crystals emanating with immense power. “Commander… we are waiting for you to initiate the weapons test… the council wants to see where all this money went.” General Malcom said through the communication device floating next to Scorn. “As you wish General… Lieutenant prepare to fire the main weapon!” “Yes sir… charging graviton vortex, energy sponges at zero capacity, failsafe active, and secondary energy storage ready… Target locked, you may fire when ready sir.” A red button on the console in front of Scorn lit up and began to flash. In front of the ship was no planet, or a moon, or a large asteroid… but a sun… Scorn smiled as he pressed the button. Terra Promethean palace Prince Nocturne awoke in a jolt of panic; he was in a cold sweet and was heavily panting… his heart nearly pounding out of his chest. “What in my brother’s name just happened?” Nocturne got up and wobbled his way to his balcony doors, flinging them open with his magic he looked up at the night sky. Something was wrong. Of all the stars in the sky… one caught his attention… The star was missing. DUN DUN DUUUUUUNN!!! Chapter twelve done and in semi record time… compared to the rest… enjoy my readers R&R at your leisure and as always… Ciao! (Disclaimer… I am not French but I like the word)