Not our world anymore (IC)

[GalacticWar_Xavier]

Twilight stamped one of her hooves angrily, and looked at Winter, having heard her mutter, "Don't let that get you down, Winter." She said, "Whether or not you do wield some sort of magic which enhances feelings in others, your songs come from your soul, and your cutie mark represents that... Has there ever been any ponies with cutie marks for talents that they didn't have?" She gave Winter a confident smile, "Besides, I'd have known if I was having my brain chemistry altered." She looked back at the Headmaster, "So this Bane Silver, who is she?" The Headmaster frowned a bit at Twilight's now quite confident demeanor, he hoped that she wasn't giving in to bravado now that Nazaras had been quelled by her friend, "She's a unicorn. One that they captured near the beginning of their operations. They changed her into no less of a monster than Nazaras is himself." Twilight maintained her confident look, "And unicorns here aren't as powerful as Winter and I are, at least that's what I seem to be able to establish." The Headmaster sighed, "That doesn't mean that its assured that she will be weaker than you, Twilight Sparkle... And I pray that this isn't leading up to a proposal that you'll fight her." Twilight shook her head, "No, this is leading up to a declaration, that if I have to fight her, I will."

Rex then piped up, "They could go to Talonopolis, no Sorcerers would follow them there. And perhaps they could even meet that mutual friend of yours and Spike's." The Headmaster looked at the floor, "If you four meet Spike and I's friend... It could go either very well or very, very poorly. Even knowing who it is could invigorate you, or even shatter all your hope." Airimus looked a little flustered, "You've spoken about how this friend of yours could be the answer to magical freedom in the world, Headmaster. And that it could be a near-instantaneous answer to the riddles of Equestrian magic down in the catacombs of the castle. I for one think that if the Empire is about rain down upon us, we should have all our cards in play." the Headmaster stood up, "I cannot endorse an action which might start a war."

[Blue Fox]

Winter nearly jumped when Twilights hoof struck the floor. She listened to Twilight and she had to say she made a very good argument. At the mention of cutie marks she looked at her flank, seeing the golden song bird with its wings spread in flight. She smiled and then returned the smile of confidence to Twilight. And it did kinda make sense. After all Twilight was the Element of Magic !. If anyone could know if her magic was taking effect it would be her. She felt allot better after Twilights pep talk and she gave her a thankful look. When she declared that she would fight Bane Silver if she had to, Winter believed it. There was something in Twilights tone that mixed with her confidence that told her if it really came to it, Twilight would see this Unicorn was defeated. Winter watched as the conversation about the next move was debated. She was all for the idea of Talonopolis but she understood the wise words of the old mage. If a war broke out, peoples lives could be in danger and the college could be in danger too. Winter thought for a second, considering the options. "We have two days at most before Bane Silver arrives. That leaves one day to study and practice some spells. The next day we will need to be gone by at least mid day to make sure we avoid running into the other Unicorn. I suggest we spend the first day as planned with help from Airimus and Amalthea and then both me and Twilight will depart for Talonopolis." she said before turning to face the Headmaster. "If we're on our way for Talonopolis what reason does the Emperor have to attack the college. We wont be here" she said confident in her plan that kind of made sense. Or at least she think it did.

[GalacticWar_Xavier]

Twilight nodded, agreeing with Winter. The Headmaster turned to face the window, which looked out onto the valley below and Capital City, infact right toward the Imperial Palace. For a moment, the Headmaster wondered, as he stared at the dark grey tower's topmost levels, if he was looking right into the Emperor's eyes as he sat upon his throne. The tower had been built specifically so the Emperor's throne faced directly at the former Equestrian throne. He then turned back toward the group, "It's not the just the college I'm worried about... The balance of this world has been teetering for centuries. I am worried that the Empire would go out of its way to find you. Alright. I'll write to the Griffon government at once to expect you. Once you're beyond the castle walls, however, it may very well be the last I'll be able to help you. I'll tell the Sorceress that you two, Airimus and Amalthea, went on a survey assignment to the southern provinces. Rex, your skills will be useful, go with them." Rex blinked in surprise, "What about-?..." The Headmaster nodded, "I shall find another to take over your duties until you return."

Twilight took a deep breath, it was likely going to be a long day, followed by a sleepless night, followed by another long day. She felt two emotions at once for a moment, one was eager to learn this new magic, fireballs, ice, and lightning did seem like they'd be good spells to know for their situation. Another side of her was worried about learning this new magic. They would be empowering her with magic which could seriously hurt or even kill others, it somehow felt like she wasn't meant to know magic like that. She did her best to push the worry out of her mind, their situation was tense enough, and their time was pressed to its limit, it wasn't the time to think about moral implications of knowing certain magic.

[Blue Fox]

Amalthea's eyes widened when she realized they were going with them. She felt a little uncomfortable as she hadn't mentally or physically prepared herself for such a journey. Despite this she said nothing and simply agreed to the decision. After all Twilight had spells to learn and Airimus was trusting her to do her best. And if in some way this did matter in the bigger picture, then she wanted to help. Winter on the other hand seemed quite optimistic about it all. Now they had a plan and that meant they had something to look ahead to. If they were wondering around blind to what they could do then it would be ten times more difficult to get home. Winter then remembered she had a question for the Headmaster that had been on her mind for a long time now. "If me and Twilight go home.....what will happen to the world here in this time period" she said sounding a little concerned. The Headmaster didn't look at her but simply answered honestly. "I don't know Winter. Time magic is another with very few wielders. I can only guess and speculate but i just don't know" he replied. She sighed as she accepted this answer for now. Amalthea addressed them all as she spoke up once more. "Ok. First things first we need to get back to Airimus' room to start preperations on your training Twilight. Then we will need to pack for the journey ahead tomorrow." she said as she gestured for Airimus to lead on.

[GalacticWar_Xavier]

With everyone back in his room, Airimus began gathering basic magic tomes, "Promise me you'll practice outside." Airimus said to Amalthea, the woman nodded, "Of course, books don't explode nearly as well as the practice targets in the courtyard." Twilight gave Amalthea an odd look when she said this, it was definitely going to be an interesting getting to know this human, "Now tell me Twilight Sparkle-." Twilight smiled, "You can call me Twilight." Amalthea nodded dismissively, "Twilight... How do you normally learn new spells?" Twilight rubbed her mane with one of her hooves, "Well, I first look up the usage etiquette of the spell in question, then-." Amalthea nodded dismissively again, "Well, this is going to be nothing like that. Equestrian magic can be felt and mulled over inside yourself. This type of magic, it comes from the environment, it's really spontaneous and very reactive. Once you feel it and call upon it, you better have a plan to use it or to release it, if you just hold it inside yourself for too long, it'll begin to do whatever it was meant to do to you, rather than what you would rather use it on. Also there's no begging or pleading with this sort of magic, you could be absolute in your desire to launch a fireball with enough firepower to take out the doors to a Missile Silo, but without the discipline to know how to add to its power, you'll produce nothing but a candle light."

Twilight gritted her teeth as Amalthea explained how wild the magic was. She head heard of elemental magic before as well as magic that stemmed from the environment. It was different from Equestrian magic in roughly the same ways Amalthea was explaining, and was probably what the magic she was about to learn was based off of. Meanwhile, Airimus looked at Rex and Winter, "You two need anything to prepare yourselves before we head out? There's a good chance nothing will happen, since we'll be traveling by car and without the Empire knowing anything about our departure." Rex shook his head, but he did appear to be shivering slightly, anxious about the gravity of the situation he had apparently been forced into.

[Blue Fox]

Winter only heard part of the conversation between Amalthea and Twilight. She thought it would be best if she left them to do their training in peace rather then poke her nose in and get in the way. Besides she had her own things she needed to take care of herself before they headed away from the palace. She looked to Airimus and gave but one simple request. "If its not to much trouble, i would very much like to see those books on Resonant Magic. I think it would be a good idea if i could at least try to make sense of it. I know i wont feel right until i know the magic that I'm dealing with" she said as she gazed at the young Mage. It now bothered her that she had some powerful magical capability that she couldn't even control. It felt like having a pet that kept on running away when you weren't looking. She sighed in quiet irritation and looked around trying to divert her mind from her magic, but then her eyes caught on the young dragon next to her shivering. She moved a little closer next to the young dragon and curled her silvery streaked tail around him in a warm comforting embrace as she spoke softly. "Hey, it will be ok you know. And I'm sure your uncle is going to be more then thrilled to see how his nephew is doing" she said as she looked down at the dragon. Apparently this Young dragon looked a little if not allot like Spike. And she had to wonder what Spike looked like, since he was a big full grown dragon. Suddenly Winter felt a little nervous herself, but for the sake of Rex she didn't allow it to show.

[GalacticWar_Xavier]

Airimus nodded, "Not a problem at all, infact, I was just about to suggest it." He picked up one of the books and held it out for her to levitate out of his hands. He then over to his desk and sat down at the computer terminal, and began scrolling through map websites to find the best path past all the Imperial bases near the Griffon Kingdom border. He blinked as a message popped up and told him that he had electronic mail from the Griffon Kingdom Customs Agency. Attached were passports for all five of them, Airimus was always amazed at how quickly the governments of the world interacted these days. The age of slow communication was long past, even dragon breath mail was being outmoded by electronic communication. He began printing them out, he had to admit that the passports for the two mares, Winter Bell and Twilight Sparkle, looked funny. He had never seen any sort of official picture identification documents with a pony's picture on it.

Twilight narrowed her eyes at the target, she was grateful that they didn't look like another living thing, being just a simple red circle. She tried to call forth the element of Fire the way she had been instructed. She tried to feel the heat radiating down from the sun and draw from it. She felt it building up infront of her, soon a fiery orb had materialized infront of her horn. Twilight gritted her teeth and prepared to launch it at the target, 'Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student. Why are you using my power to cause damage and harm?' Twilight gasped in shock as she heard Celestia's voice in her mind, and the orb detonated on its own accord, sending Twilight flying back a few feet. She pushed herself back onto her hooves and shivered, she knew it couldn't have been the sun goddess, but the voice had sounded so real, and so disappointed.

[Blue Fox]

Winter uncurled her tail from around Rex as she took the book in her field of magic. She trotted over to a corner in silence, a little away from the others but still in sight of them and flipped the first page. Well...there was no two ways about it. It was cryptic in every sense of the word. Their were diagrams of ponies with arrows pointing to the chest and mouth. Short explanations on breathing techniques and passages of how to focus energy from within. Other parts of the texts came in riddles. Some even in stories. It was hard to make sense of the book at a first glance but she decided it was best to persevere and try to make the best of what this book had to offer. She read the first part out loud to herself.

To believe in one self is not enough. And the world is sometimes hard and rough. In the pit of emotion you'll find your way. To explode in a storm and wash your troubles away. So believe in emotion my young pony, for your magic that awaits is surely lonely. So focus your mind and all your grace and summon your power from that distant place. *See diagram bellow*

The diagram bellow showed a pony in an elegant stance. The image of the pony had its mouth open and wave lines were drawn to show the outgoing sound. Underneath was the same picture with larger wave lines added with some extra arrows pointing away from the mouth with others pointing into the stomach and chest. She re read the riddle again and again. She understood what it was trying to suggest. But there was no clear explanation of practice or strict guidelines on what to do. Her attention was taken away momentarily as she saw Twilight falter at her fire ball attempt. She called over with some encouraging support. "You can do it Twi. I believe in you !" you said happily with a reassuring smile before turning back to her book. She tried to act out what the riddle suggested. She closed her eyes and delved deep into an emotion. She chose to use the emotion of Twilight calling her friend. The happiness she felt. She then continued deeper focusing into the emotion so deeply that she could feel it as if it was happening again. Her spirits started to lift as the emotion traveled her body. 'Now to focus my mind' she thought to herself as she concentrated on it. Locking the feeling in place. 'Summon the power' ....she allowed her horn to glow and focused on merging it with her feelings. She began to feel a build up. Like a ball in her stomach. 'Explode in a storm and wash your troubles away' that was all that was left from the riddle...she struggled as she thought on what this could mean. Then she remembered the diagram. She opened her eyes and stood up. She opened her mouth and like the arrows had suggested she purged the air from herself as smoothly and graceful as she could. What happened next frightened the absolute hell out of her.

KABOOM !!!

A loud crack of thunder erupted from the air in front of her as the wooden table and chair that stood a few meters away from her shattered into flying splinters in every direction. Paper and other materials flew around the place in utter chaos and Winter could only watch with wide eyes. When the dust and after math had settled she stammered with her words. "I...I-It ..i mean i did that !" she said still looking at the destruction in front of her.

[GalacticWar_Xavier]

Airimus slowly lowered his hands from the sides of his head and turned to face Winter, a look of the most extreme surprise an intelligent being was capable of feeling on his face, "What in the Sun-mover's dominion..." Airimus began, then took a moment to look at the results of the usage of Resonant Magic, "..was that?" Rex leapt behind the chair he had been sitting on, and peeked out from behind it, "Whoa!" Rex marveled, jumping out of cover, "That was... Incredible! What kind of spell is it?" Airimus looked at the mess, a bewildered expression on his face, "Of all the disasters that could have happened in this room, fireballs, lightning, everything being flash frozen, but Resonant Magic?" Rex laughed, "Well, it looks like the Alchemy section isn't the only place with an explosion record anymore."

Twilight looked at the doorway where Winter was and smiled as best she could, still a little spooked from her moral mind interfering with her lessons by making her hear Princess Celestia's voice. She knew Winter was right, she was believing in her, others were probably believing in her as well. Everyone in Equestria had been believing in her, but she had been taken from them... Twilight wiped her eyes with the back of a hoof and narrowed her eyes at the target, and began drawing upon the heat once again, "Don't hesitate this time." Amalthea warned. Twilight continued building it up, and this time she heard another voice, 'Now you shall never see your Princess, or you Sun, again...' Twilight let out a yell and willed the fireball forward. It lanced out and nailed the target dead center, obliterating it in a shower of nearly-molten metal.

[Blue Fox]

Winter stared deep into the page as she searched for the name of the spell. When she found it she read it out loud. "Benevolent Thunder" she replied before confirming Airimus' question. "And yes its definitely Resonant Magic" she said as the pony in her head let out a 'squee' as it once again began hoping around in circles. "I cant believe it worked. I just assumed what it meant and then it happened" she said as she smiled widely. "I think that spell might take some getting used to so i can use it quicker" she said as she seemed to almost talk to herself in thought. Then she suddenly realised. "Oh Airimus ! im so sorry" she said as she flushed with embarrasment. She hadn't meant to destroy one of his tables or his chairs. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw a bright flash followed by a 'fwooosh' sound. She peered over through the doorway to see Twilight had suceeded one of the spells Amalthea was teaching her. "Very good Twilight" said Amalthea with a subtle smile that was barely visable. "But dont get cocky, we have allot more spells to get through yet." she said with a stern expression. "Next, Lightning" she said as she recalled her favorite spell tome.