I found Tia talking with the rest of the Unicorns, with the exception of Song. As expected, she was too pregnant to be exerting herself. It was noteworthy however, that Torchwood’s face had been blackened with soot.

All in all, we numbered only six. Six ponies to keep the ever approaching Crown of Unicornia from destroying Ùllahdmaiden. While the mood before when Tia and I were gathering them may have been jovial and relatively upbeat, the mood now was sobering.

We were only six novice magic wielders against a whole army of trained mages.

But each of us had made lives here. Friends, colleagues, and family. If we left, we would’ve been no better than the soldiers who came to Queensford to announce Queen Iridium’s ascension to the throne but gave the village nothing to eat for the winter. And everypony knew how that turned out.

No pony wanted a repeat of the Hydra.

The Unicorns of Queensford would stand and fight for Ùllahdmaiden.

“We all know why we’re here.” Tia started, standing at the head of our loose circle. “Most of us know basic shields, but what we’re going to be doing for Ùllahdmaiden is very different. The basic shield is for personal use only. If somepony attacks you tonight, you can use it, but don’t rely on it. Most mages have been trained to break through the common shield spell. The difference is, this shield is larger, and much stronger than the spells used by normal folk. First things first. It’s very important to get your stance right to maximize your mana flow. So, if you would, can you stand in a line shoulder to shoulder?”

The five of us awkwardly lined ourselves up, facing towards Tia.

“Good. Stand with your hooves slightly outstretched to steady yourself, yet remain as tall as possible. N- No Violet you’re trying to stretch upward. Remain in a comfortable, relaxed pose, you shouldn’t be forcing anything. Ok, good.” She began to pace past us, examining us for mistakes.

“Now, to maximize the flow, you need to straighten your neck and keep your horn upright. No, Firelight your hooves are too wide.” Tia paused to correct the mare. “Thinner, thin- perfect!” she praised.

“Now;” she stated “This is the standard pose for magicians. You will generally return to this pose after a set. The point is to remain stable with a wider base, but keep your head up high and proud. The thought is that a proud Unicorn stays upright more. This pose is called ‘Brilliant Eminence’... The idea behind it is to stand firm, never retreating or breaking so the light of your magic shines as much as possible onto the world.”

“That… That doesn’t make sense.” I commented.

“No, I think Mom said it had a religious meaning. I don’t know what. But I think it was because the original lords of the houses wanted every Pegasi and Earth Pony to know they had the Blessing of the Sun… I think.” she pondered outloud.

“That still doesn’t make sense.” I replied.

“No… No it doesn’t.” Tia trailed off, not willing to disagree. “Now the hard part, while I’d prefer you to memorize the whole thing, we don’t have the time. Ordinarily, everypony will know the shape so they can fix any holes in the matrix with their own magic. But if you can’t learn it, then you need to focus on protecting and reinforcing my mana. So it’s going to rely on me to keep the spell's shape." She stopped pacing and stood in front of the line.

“I’m going to stand here, out of sequence and cast the spell. It’ll be harder to synchronize our mana, but if we can join like this we’ll have no problem during the fight. Now, I want you to reach out with your magic and surround my matrix.”

It was strange. All I had done magic wise was my levitation. It was so easy to use it was almost like a fifth limb. But it was formless, it would smash into something like a cudgel, gripping at something like wet mud. High magic, the magic you needed to attend a school to learn, revolved around shaping that formless limb into certain patterns and shapes. Also called matrixes. But the matrixes were so different and complicated, it was exceedingly unlikely to stumble upon one by accident. And if you did, you likely will never know what it’ll do until you cast it.

To cast, one had to activate the matrix. Typically, this was done in an instinctual manner involving the personal rune in your horn. This rune would be what you built your matrix around, so you and only you, the caster, would control the spell. That was a particularly hard part of accidental discovery. Finding your rune.

Thankfully, Mom had taught me that. It may have been hard to do accidentally, but there were methods to learn it quickly. And that knowledge wasn’t a closely guarded secret of the Crown.

Although now that I thought about it, that may have been a clue that Mom had at least attended a school.

“Try to get used to touching my magic, the mana field is likely to snap and crack like a campfire when it starts taking hits. If you’re not used to it, you could lose focus and let the section slip.” Tia instructed.

It felt weird to press my magic to Tia’s. It was a weird thought, but it reminded me of two ponies intimately pressing together. But the others seemed fine with it, so maybe something in my head was being Moon Marked again.

“I’m going to start adjusting the matrix so it fails, I want you to practice fixing it. Ready?”

I felt Tia reshaping her mana, subtly shifting lines by bending them.

I immediately started fixing what I could feel. If this was the real deal, I shouldn’t be waiting for somepony to give me permission.

“Go!”

Tia started slow but small. At first I thought it was because it was easy. But then I began to realize, with as easy as it was to move Tia’s mana, a proper spell bolt would probably be making a mess of the matrix if left unchecked.

Tia was “being easy” to try and get us used to the shape of the matrix. If we caught slight changes, larger disruptions would be easy to sense.

We practiced for an hour, Tia slowly making more and more subtle changes. It was good to get used to the pattern, but I tried not to get too used to them quite yet. I figured I wouldn’t know what section of Tia’s magic I would have to look after, so I didn’t want to get into any bad habits now and pay for a mistake later.

“Alright ponies, I want us all rested, go back home and try to get some sleep. Make sure you have your equipment on hoof in case the alarm bell starts ringing. When you wake up, or if the bell starts ringing, meet me in the center of town. From there we’ll cover most of the village.” Tia instructed,

“Makes sense.” Violet agreed.

“Of course.” Ocean Breeze responded.

“Wouldn’t miss the fireworks.” Torchwood smiled.

“Got it.” I chirped.

“I’m gonna miss my firebombs!” Firelight whined, bouncing from hoof to hoof.

We all chuckled at Firelight’s antics.

“Now go home. Lu, you go get your armor and go home. I’ll be right with you after I talk with the Mayor.”

“Got it!” I repeated, calling back as we all went our separate ways.

It was now the afternoon. The sun was high and yellow white. The weather warm enough that if it had been a normal day, the citizens of Ùllahdmaiden would willingly forgo their winter cloaks to bask in the sun while they worked. Foals would run and jump through the streams of snowmelt, playing in the water and mud.

Today the smiles were muted, less sincere. Neighbors talked to each other only when they needed to. Everypony had their head bent to their task, devoting every moment to the job. Because every single one of them knew, that if they didn’t, they would all die. The warm weather might as well not existed at all. The foals were absent entirely, likely being kept in the village hall so they could be watched and kept from under hoof.

It was such a nice day.

Yet it felt like a rain shower before a funeral.

Master Brickwork may have been leading the construction of the palisade, his mark of destiny was one for building hotter forges after all, but the Apprentices Flame Etch and Ironplate were in the blacksmith.

Another strange thing. Had I not left yesterday, I would probably be in here, helping with whatever project Master Brickwork was working on. The shop would’ve only had four ponies inside. Brickwork, the two other apprentices, and me.

Now it was full of what must’ve been at least half the town.

It was starting to get late enough that the column could be minutes to hours away. So everypony was being given at least two things. A plackart made of wooden planks, reinforced with bands of iron, and a helmet made out of a carved log. More than a few peasants had brought tools to be sharpened, to be used as makeshift weapons. Flame Etch was the one giving out the wooden armor. Ironplate was busy at the wheel whetstone with a pitchfork.

I waited my turn to talk to Flame Etch.

When it was my turn, he was so busy that he didn’t even register that I was one of his fellow apprentices in the shop. He just saw my hooves were empty and filled them.

“There you go.” he said automatically. “There you go.” he said again as he rapidly gave out another set. “There you go…”

He seemed busy, and I didn’t want to get in the way, so I left the shop.

When I was back in the street, I slipped on the plackart and tightened the straps. It may have been a weird choice, making armor out of wood. But even though there was work enough for a Master Blacksmith and his apprentices, most of the metal the farmers found or dug up went into replacing or fixing farming tools. So the Earth ponies used the next best thing for armor that may need to be stored for long periods of time with no decay. Wood was abundant, reasonably protective, and easy to make if a set needed replaced.

The wood was lacquered a deep golden brown, fighting moisture and splintering. It was further kept together with the iron bands bolted to the wood around its edges.

The helmet had much the same story. Made like a sallet, it had been carved out of a single log and stained. It didn’t have any iron bands because the carve was too complex to be worth banding, but it seemed sturdy enough, and it would protect my head better than no helmet at all.

I idly noticed that there was a horn hole as I put the helmet on.

Huh… I guess he noticed who I was after all.

I walked home, trying to enjoy the nice day while it was still nice. But I wasn’t used to the armor and it kept distracting me.

Tia wasn’t home yet, so I kept my room’s door open, took off my helmet, and lay down on my bed.

Next Chapter: Chapter 74 The Memories Part 33 Estimated time remaining: 9 Hours, 40 Minutes