Archmage: Square One

-------

Chapter 3 – Hitting my Stride

-------

“Very good, Star. Now, for the fourth one.”

“F-four?” I stuttered, my body already quivering. “We’ve never even done more than two! I-I don’t think I can do it!”

“Really? That’s a shame.” Twilight grinned at me as she hefted the fourth granite ball. “We’re just going to have to ding up the floor now, won’t we?” She tossed the ball through the air at me, and my eyes went wide. My horn blazed brighter, and the other three balls quivered mid-air. I watched, horrified, as my magic wrapped around the fourth ball, slowing it, but not stopping it…

“RRAH!” I grunted with force as my horn shined loud enough to be heard. My magic wrapped around the fourth ball even brighter. It shuddered mid-air, coming to a stop just before touching the tile. “HNNGR!” Gritting my teeth hard enough to hurt my jaw, I pictured myself under that ball, just like I was underneath the other three. I could feel the muscles in my legs burning from being clenched so hard. Slowly, the fourth ball lifted into the air, joining the other three in their circle around me.

“Fantastic.” Twilight smiled at me, stepping forth. Her horn barely took on the slightest of glows as she took the four balls from me. I exhaled explosively, feeling my legs turn to jelly and dump me on the floor. “That was quite good, Star.”

“Haah… haah… Fuck me running.” I panted, feeling the sweat run down my face in rivulets. My glasses had slipped down my muzzle making the whole room look skewed and fractured. “That was hard…”

“And yet you did it magnificently.” Twilight beamed at me as she carried the four granite balls across the room to one of the tables set out. “I’m proud of you, Star. You’re advancing rather quickly.”

“Am I?” Twilight’s praise could have made me cry. I pushed myself up from the floor, still feeling rather light-headed from such an ordeal. I’d never in a million years expected to lift even one granite ball regularly, let alone four. Twilight had pushed my boundaries, just enough that I was able to accomplish something I’d never done before. I blushed when I realized she was throwing balls at me, not to be mean, but to test me. If she had tried to pass that fourth one off to me regularly, I might not have been able to do it. By throwing the ball at me, she spurred me into action.

It was mean, but damn it all, it was effective.

“I think that’s enough for this week. You’re due for a break.” Twilight crossed the floor to ruffle my mane playfully. “Take the rest of the week, and come back on Monday. We’re going to move on to spells next.”

“Really?” I looked up at her with wide eyes. “You really think I’m ready to cast spells?”

“Well your telekinesis seems to be functioning just fine.” Twilight looked around at the undamaged tile floor. “One would assume casting spells would be the next step in the equation, no?”

“Y-yeah, I guess so.” I flushed brightly and looked down at the floor. “Thanks, Twilight. You’ve really helped me out.”

“Well maybe now I’ll stop running across damaged book reports from our library. Bookend will thank you.”

“Oh my gosh, I forgot about Bookend.” I had been studying with Twilight the entire past week. We’d either meet in her office or outside of her quarters, chat for a little while, and then move here, to the basement. Down here, I could throw seventy-five pound granite balls around all I’d like, and the damage would be mitigated by thick walls and dirt. Furthermore, nopony really came down here that often, so I stood even less of a chance injuring innocent bystanders.

All of that was for nothing, of course, because Twilight’s instruction was spot-on. Under her guidance, I never messed anything up, be it levitating four heavy balls, or a light feather. She was such a supportive and kind mentor, I found myself thanking the stars I had her in my life. And she wasn’t that bad to look at, either. Granted, Luna had sole ownership over that particularly luscious plot, but I couldn’t be blamed for looking, right?

Right?

“I’ll see you on Monday, Star.” Twilight drew me out of my reverie with a gentle touch. “You did well today. I’m proud of how quickly you’re advancing. Like I said, keep at it and you might just become my aide someday.”

“Yeah right.” I scoffed at the idea I’d ever be able to study under Twilight in such a serious capacity. But her praise still had me blushing. “Have a good week, Twilight. And thank you.”

“Farewell.” She waved at me as she left the basement room we had been using for practice. I ran over the calendar in my head, finding myself rather shocked that it was Thursday. I had a whole three days to do absolutely nothing. Between volunteering at the library for meals and reading what I could about magic as part of my independent studies, I seldom if ever got days off.

But now here I was with three of them.

“Oh I am going to sleep so hard.” Grinning to myself, I extinguished the candles and made my way out of the basement.

----------

Following my acceptance of Twilight’s offer, I’d started receiving payments from the crown. They were meant to be spent on things like housing and food, with just a little bit leftover for entertainment, but three years of frugal living had taught me to be careful with my money. The first shipment of bits I’d received from Twilight had…

Well, I still had orgasms dreaming about it.

It more than doubled what my parents were sending me. With their contribution, I had afforded the payment on my home and enough food to see myself through the month, with maybe a dozen bits leftover; which all went towards stationery or the wayward guilty purchase of one particularly juicy novel or another.

Now, with Twilight’s contribution, I found myself stuck with a rather large entertainment budget and the world to spend it on. Despite my exhaustion after that day’s rather difficult lesson, I couldn’t quite get to sleep without setting the proper mood. So, with a few bits in my saddlebags, I guiltily made my way into a slightly shady part of Canterlot, and through the door of a store that boasted no windows.

“Why hello there.” A comely mare stood behind the counter, smiling at me. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.”

“No money,” I blushed, trying hard not to look at the walls. “I, uuh… Just recently came across some, though… So I figured why not?”

“Well you’ve come to the right place. What can I do for you today?” She propped her chin on one hoof and smiled warmly at me. I fought my hardest to avoid looking her in the eyes; she was awfully beautiful, in a open-ended sort of way.

“I, uuh… The latest issue of Mare’s Delight?”

“Aww, you’re no fun.” The mare winked at me. “Here I thought you’d want something a little more substantial than that drivel. Ah well, here you go.” Her horn glowed and she hovered me a magazine, which I hastily tucked into my saddlebags. “Two bits.”

“Hereyougothanksbye.” I practically threw the bits at her and departed the store fast enough to ruffle the pages of some magazines near the front, praying to everything above nopony saw me dash for my home. Sex shops aren’t the most rare thing in Equestria, but being the student of Princess Twilight was bound to draw some questions from somepony somewhere if they saw me in such a place. Panting heavily, I slammed the door to my home closed behind me and stood there, my chest heaving with each new breath.

“Right. Three days off.” I panted, puffing some stray strands of my mane out of my face. “Three days off to spend however I want. Three days to… To read, or… Or to cook something nice.” I slowly walked across my small den, moving for the stairs. “I could sleep in, or maybe go for a walk… I should definitely check in with Bookend, of course… Cute mare like me goes missing from his library, he’d probably have the guard in an uproar…” I rolled my eyes and mounted the stairs.

“Please, he’s probably just glad I’m not whining about his sandwiches. Still, three whole days… Three days to do whatever I please.” I entered my cluttered bedroom, shrugging out of my saddlebags. “Three days to relax, unwind, and do nothing…” I opened the flap and fished the magazine out.

“Or three days to masturbate myself into a coma…”

I stared at the cover of the magazine, and the very tastefully-covered mare laying spread out on the bed. I had three days. Three days to enjoy myself. Three days to get around to the magazine…

All of the restraint in the world couldn’t have kept me from hopping on my bed immediately. Using my newly-perfected telekinesis, I opened the magazine above me, my hooves trailing idle circles down my stomach. I smiled to myself, even as the memory of teenage nights spent blushing over the erotic images in this very same magazine came back to me.

Mare’s Delight and I had somewhat of a history. I enjoyed the rather trashy articles, and many of the mares truly were beautiful, even if all you really got to see was the faintest hints of their marehoods. There was the stray issue or two where a model would fully expose herself, but never to the extent you saw in other, more explicit magazines.

Mare’s Delight was halfway between a porno mag and a smut article, and I loved it. It’d been quite some time since I’d purchased an issue, and I was happy to see nothing had changed. The pictures were still tastefully erotic without being outright explicit, and the articles still put a blush on my cheeks that could light a fire.

As my hooves finally found their way between my thighs, I drew my lip between my teeth.

It was going to be a long three days.

----------

“Hello Star! Good to see you aga- are you okay?” Twilight’s face went straight from jovial to concerned in half a second flat. I limped into her office with a sheepish grin, favoring my back left leg.

“I’m fine.” I smiled at her. “Just, uuh… Twisted my hoof on the staircase.”

“Uh huh.” Twilight deadpanned, giving me that ‘I know you’re bullshitting’ look. Still, I’m a stubborn mare, so I just bit my lip and nodded.

“Yeah, I’m fine, though. We can do our lesson today.”

“Thankfully enough, we’re just studying spell-forms.” Twilight continued to look at me in a way I’d hate to admit was making me blush like a schoolfilly. She totally knew what I’d done to hurt my leg… Either that or she suspected I was lying about twisting my hoof on the stairs. Which I was. Lying straight through my damned teeth. Twilight just beckoned me over, indicating a series of three open books.

“I’m guessing you don’t know much about traditional spells?”

“Next to nothing.” I shook my head. “I’ve tried casting a few in the past, but they never go well.”

“So I’ve heard. Well, here’s hoping we can root out whatever problem you have and give you a stronger base with which to cast spells in the future. After all, levitation’s only fifty percent of our power; and the lesser half at that. Our real strength comes from these.” Twilight tapped the page before us, indicating a complex diagram. “Spells. They come in many different varieties, and are as complex or as simple as can be. Let’s start at the beginning and work our way up, starting with what a spell consists of.”

“Alright.” I already knew the basics, but Twilight might just cover something I missed – or even better – teach me something I didn’t know just yet. Nevertheless, the soreness in my leg was forgotten (damnable shower, why did it have to be so cramped?) as Twilight flipped back a few pages to the beginning of the book.

“A spell consists of ‘arches,’” She waved a hoof over the diagram, showing off a collection of curved and jagged lines. “The arches, when arranged in certain ways, can form spells in and of themselves. But for them to be more powerful, or have particular properties, an arch has to be embedded with a node.”

Twilight lifted the three books and pulled a sheaf of paper from elsewhere on the table. She dipped a quill in ink and began etching a pattern on the paper, not dissimilar to the ones on the page. “Nodes are just receptacles for magical energy. That energy can be our own power, the force we exert to lift and maneuver items. Our telekinesis, for lack of a better word. Or they can be filled with others. Elemental energy, for one. Shadow energy for another. And other things, like love, hatred, or even time itself.”

“Wow, really?” I looked up at her with wide eyes. “Time? Can you like, rewind time and go back?”

“It’s a possibility.” Twilight frowned at me. “But we don’t trifle with time, Star. That power lies solely within Chronos’ claws, and we’re not to touch it without his express permission. Chronos is somewhat of a friend, so I’ve personally taken it upon myself to ensure unicorns don’t use his power.”

“I see.” I lowered my gaze, a little defeated. Turning back time to reverse some of my mistakes would have been rather nice…

Like the jelly incident.

“Let’s focus, okay? Look.” Twilight pointed to the nodes on the arch of the spell. “Half-moon arches are the most common and easiest to use. But arches can take many different forms, allowing for multiple outcomes to a spell. They can be straight lines, pyramids, or any manner of shapes. But there’s something important to remember here.” Twilight began etching out a spell-form. I watched as she used four simple arches, each of them pointing outwards. On them, she drew a circle each, at the apex.

“This is just a rough spell-form, but it works for showing you how balance works.”

“Balance?” I furrowed my brow at Twilight. “What do you mean by balance?”

“Well…” Twilight smiled as she put another node on one of the arches, leaving a fifth randomly there. “Watch what happens when I try to cast this spell.”

“Woah!” I gasped as a pillar of flame erupted into existence, crumbling the paper to nothing and singing the table. “What in the name of Tartarus was that?!” I panted, watching as the smoke curled up towards the ceiling. Twilight chuckled and opened one of the two windows, fanning the smoke towards it with her wings.

“I tried to cast a bread spell, something that would conjure a loaf of freshly-baked bread for us. It’s a relatively simple spell with few practical applications, since the bread is conjured energy and would just fade. But the way I invoked the nodes and placed the arches caused the spell to fail. Violently so.” Twilight pulled a fresh sheaf of paper out and replicated the spell, minus the fifth, odd node. Her horn glowed faintly, and my eyes went wide.

“Neat!” I smiled as a loaf of bread popped into existence, steaming faintly. “That’s really cool!”

“Isn’t it?” Twilight lifted the bread and took a bite, smiling as she offered it to me. I gladly tore a chunk off and chewed the fluffy, delicious bread. But as I chewed, it faded into nothing, leaving behind a faint tingling sensation on my tongue. The bread in my hooves faded away as well, leaving me with nothing. Something nagged me, though, and I frowned at my mentor.

“So why did the spell erupt like that? Before?”

“Well, there’s power in symbols and words, Star.” Twilight pulled the books back out, indicating the first page. “Arches and nodes are the basis of our entire world. It’s the system by which we use magic, and cast our spells. The incumbent energies all around us recognize the symbols when they’re placed. You’ll find some spells actually require a physical copy of their arches etched into something or drawn on paper to actually work. In some cases, placing the arches and nodes improperly makes an imbalance in the magic all around us. That imbalance must be corrected, and so the magic fills the gap. It’s not unlike lightning, then. There’s a displacement of pressure. Anything from thunderclaps to fires and even explosions can occur.”

“Wow.” I smiled at the book. I knew all about spell-forms, and the way arches and nodes could come together to make spells. But I never knew the damned things had to be balanced. That’s probably why I’d never been able to cast a spell in my life.

“So you know how to envision arches and nodes, right?”

“Uh huh.” I nodded my head. What few spells I had tried to cast before were done so by bringing to mind a spell-form, and putting the nodes all around them. Before, I’d done so in a random fashion, going with what I thought would work. Now, I knew there was a structured way to approach it.

“Alright, let’s try casting something then. Simple and easy. Just two arches and two nodes. Make one node your own magical energy, but try to picture earth in the other. Rocks. Dirt. Solid and immobile.”

“Really?” I scrunched my nose. “Rocks and dirt?”

“The elements have properties, Star. We’ll go over them later. But right now, just think about rocks. Or even better, just one rock. How about those granite balls we were using? Think about how heavy and solid they were, how they never moved, never broke form. They were solid. Steady. Immobile.”

“Alright.” I pictured a circle in my mind, which were just two arches that touched. Then, at either end, I pictured two nodes. The first was filled with my own arcane energy, and in the other I just pictured a rock.

“Cast it.” Twilight gestured with a smile. I thought about the elements, two arches, two nodes, one magic, one earth, and…

“Woah!” I gasped as a rock suddenly appeared before me. Just your standard rock, flecked with a bit of dark brown dirt. “Did I… Did I just…?”

“You cast a spell.” Twilight smiled at me, taking the rock in her hoof. “Specifically, you summoned a rock.”

“I can see that.” I took the rock from her, feeling the weight of it. “It’s… That’s most definitely a rock.”

“Two arches and two nodes filled and arranged the way I told you to, makes a very simple invocation spell.” Twilight took the rock from me and placed it between her forehooves. I watched as she put pressure on it, her horn glowing as well. The rock cracked and split, crumbling into bits. The bits then faded away, disappearing into nothingness, just like the bread had. “But they’re not permanent. It’s just energy. Energy you pulled from yourself, and from the world around you. Once the spell is de-stabilized, it goes back to the regular form of energy it once had.”

“I see.”

“You can do the same thing; just replace that earth node with, say, water. Don’t try it now; I rather like this carpet and it takes ages to dry. But you get the point.”

“Yeah… Yeah I get it now.” I had to chuckle at Twilight’s explanation.

“Arches and nodes, Star. Here,” Twilight shifted to the second book, smiling at me. “These are some very basic spells that all unicorns should know. Stuff like cleaning and alarms for waking yourself up. For now, focus on using the pre-established methods of arranging arches and nodes, and filling them with those specific energies. Later on, we’ll move on to critically thinking about spells you want to cast, and the best way to get those changes to manifest.”

“You mean… Making my own magic?”

“Precisely.” Twilight nodded and patted my back. “Not every spell is documented. There are too many energies and too many spell-forms for every spell in existence to be documented. Even more than that, some spells and spell-forms simply don’t work. There are plenty of equations that by all means should be balanced, yet they simply don’t take effect. Some of those are reliant on factors like how well your own personal energy integrates with that of the world around you, or even your relationship with the night or day. Others still just plain don’t work.” Twilight floated the third book out.

“This is a reference manual. In it, you’ll find explanations of what different arches do, the importance of the number and type of nodes, and a few other spells to be cast for practice. This one here,” She indicated the second book. “Is more of a catalogue of useful spells. Knowing what you know now, go ahead and study both of the-“

I was already reading.