Solitude and Spell Forging

[Selenia]

Selenia slammed yet another magic encyclopedia shut, sending a wave of dust puffing through the air from its leaves. That was the fifth one she'd flipped through cover-to-cover in the last few hours. She shoved the heavy tomes off her bed and laid back with an explosive sigh of defeat. Her assignment, her day one homework from her new mentor, RedCharge, was to create magic. She was to forge a spell, a completely new spell, unseen to the face of the planet before. That itself was a daunting task, as most magic anypony could ever think up had already been invented, but not only did she have to create a unique spell, she also had to master it. In one afternoon. She slapped her forehooves on her face and slowly drew them down, stretching her cheeks and mouth into an exaggerated frown before drearily letting them go. She chanced a look at the clock on her wall, and quickly regretted it. It was nearly three hours past noon, and she had wasted most of it flipping through those confounded encyclopedias. Staring out, she thought the search and invent part would have gone smoothly, there were numerous spells Selenia herself had idly contemplated about and wondered why they didn't exist without actually checking, things like a spell that quickly made a bed or fashioned some breakfast, or one that scribed for a caster, writing without the need to direct a floating quill manually. Of course, she was overjoyed to find out these things existed, it didn't help her cause in the slightest. In a change of pace, Selenia decided to direct her creative vision towards combat spells, trusting her strategic mind to whip up some one of a kind conjurations. Each spell she thought up seemed perfectly unique in her mind, her personal favorites ranging from a concussive blast that split into numerous independent kinetic charges upon impact, to a sustained magical shield that adapted to incoming damage, even a near-suicidal take on weaponizing telekinesis: using it to throw oneself horn-first into a target at ridiculous speed, trusting the wielder's fine magical skill to absorb the force of impact, one she had actually used herself before the Eclipse Crisis. But, no matter how exciting and wondrous they sounded, a quick flip through the some-odd thousands of pages of magical spells and formulas proved that somepony had thought of them first. In the case of the shield, however, it turned out to be that magical barriers were incapable of performing such a feat as she had thought.

Selenia sighed again and rolled over, idly playing with free strands of her mane. Fighting is part of ponykind's nature. Any and every single combat spell possible had probably been invented already, it only made sense. "Well, if I can't figure out a new way to fight, how about a new way to not fight?" she casually thought out loud. She pulled one of the books out of the pile and opened it up to concealment spells. Cloaking spells already existed, as did other variations like muffling spells or camouflage spells, even invisibility, all geared towards remaining undetected. But Selenia noticed a stark lack of one kind of defense- a spell to remain undetected from spells. She quickly dog-eared the page and flipped through the encyclopedia. Sure enough, there was a life detection spell in there, "Cast to heighten the senses and reveal any nearby life force," she read aloud, her eyes tracing the following spell formula and standardized casting procedure. She flipped back to her marked page and scanned it again, smiling when she found no indication of a way to negate a life detection spell. She sprang up off her bed in delight. It was unique, and it was original, and there was no indication of such a specific situational spell ever being used before. She studied the life detection spell intently, as she would need it to test her detection-shielding, and got its casting down pat after a multitude of tries. She neatly stacked up the remaining encyclopedias and other lengthy tomes on her desk before leaving for the Canterlot Cliffs with the one book to go test her spell.

On the way there, Selenia practiced what she could with the preexisting cloaking spells, masking her appearance, the loud noise of movement, even her natural pheromonal scent (handy for hunters), repeatedly any chance she had, familiarizing herself with the shape and energy required to hide aspects about a pony's self. Naturally, these spells were designed to shield physical aspects from physical detection, not provide retention of somepony's life force from magical detection. Upon reaching her destination, Selenia closed the book and rested it neatly in the grass, sitting down next to it. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine the supposedly complex shape of the spell formula she was trying to create. She began by basing it off of the other aspect cloak spells, forming a coherent phalanx, but beefing it up with more facets and vertices, the extra complication required to hide such an infinitesimally more complex aspect of oneself, as well as preventing detection from an equally infinitesimally more sensitive source of detection. To be honest, her visualization of the thing looked like a geodesic dome, perfect mathematical beauty. Unfortunately, Selenia wasn't the best when it came to trigonometry, so she could only give an educated estimate of the amount of aetherial energy required to fuel such a spell. She bit her lip and focused on the aether as Red had directed before, letting the sun's raw power flow through her and into her spell formula at a controlled rate. The actual casting process would no doubt be trial and error. Selenia had no idea how much a certain amount of aetherial energy even felt like when flowing through a unicorn, so she would rather play it safe than sorry. As her mental image of the formula coalesced and filled with the energy she was siphoning, providing it the means to project its effects, she slowly closed off her mind to the aether, shutting the conduit to her formula and leaving the charged spell ready to cast in her glowing horn. "Alright.. First try. Let's see what we get." She sighed to herself, puffing out her cheeks in an anxious breath before letting it out. Following the general casting technique of similar magic, she slowly released her grip on the charged spell and let it fly.

[Red Charge]

However, instead of actually hiding her life, Selenia suddenly felt as though she was a glowing target. Suddenly she felt extremely visible, as though her heart could be heard beating to the distance and her every thought was laid bare to strangers, though her form blurred, it was now suddenly engulfed in a vibrant, living aura, changing with Selenia's mood as she realized that her spell formula had been wrong.

Even at her secluded spot, she seemed to attract a patrol of guards, who immediately went about to question her about what she is doing, only content in leaving once she explained she was Red Charge's apprentice. Apparently Red had notified them beforehand, because they did not argue with her further and simply muttered for her to keep it down, citizens of Canterlot didn't need any more reason to panic.

[Selenia]

Upon releasing the spell, Selenia felt quite literally alive. Instead of cloaking her life aura and serving as camouflage, she had amplified her life force by an immense amount. Her emotions and qualities and very being inflated with the magical energy she had channeled. She felt exposed, like as if she were a flaring match lit suddenly in a pitch-dark room. But oh, did she feel so alive. Even though her intended spell had failed miserably, it wasn't all that much of a failure. A spell like this could be incredibly useful for ponies lost in the wilderness or deep in some caves or ruins or some such, which would make the jobs of rescuers that much easier, but chances are this spell had already been invented. Perhaps a variation could serve as a very advanced form of distraction... Where the caster would amplify their own aura and project it somewhere else away from themselves, turning the eyes of guards on the lookout specifically for auras, which was apparently a near-foolproof method of surveillance.

Selenia thought for a moment before she was torn out of her reverie by two guards who questioned her on her 'suspicious activity'. She quickly sputtered out a half-flanked explanation, but the guards visibly backed when she noted that she was Red's pupil and this was part of her training. Only after she had finished and scuffed the ground awkwardly did the guards relent and leave her be with a request to 'keep it down'. Unfortunately, she hadn't the faintest idea on how to keep it down. If 'it' was her life aura, then that was exactly what she was trying to do in the first place. She sighed heavily and thought back to the spell shape she had formulated. Since her spell had gone awry in the most spectacularly opposing way, it must stem from her formula, right? Right. She also noted to take the magic she had filled the formula with down a notch, because it was obviously too much the first time. She also thanked Luna to be lucky enough that she didn't fry her brain on her first homework assignment.

She turned back to her spell formula from the first time. She had built it in a seemingly smooth coalesced shape, like a geodesic dome if she remembered rightly, in an effort to conceal her aura within an ablative shield, but it only ended up magnifying it like a massive lens. She chewed her lip and thought of a new functional shape, thinking bout the effect of the spell and how certain shapes would modify it. She eventually settled on another fully-encasing form, this one with fewer facets and more of a craggy internal surface with depressions to collect and dissipate her aura. At least, thats what she thought. It made sense in her head, but she also thought it was exciting to work these things out and have fun experimenting with what worked and what didn't. In all honesty, she had only ever 'experimented' once so far, but it was quite an experience.

She kept the shape in her head and channeled more aetherial energy into it, but cut it off before it reached the top, wary of the result if she tried to bring whatever she was about to do to its full capacity on the first attempt. Nevertheless, she finished pulling up the energy and turned to face out over the cliff edge before letting her experimental spell fly.

[Red Charge]

Her spell exploded in her face in a puff of vibrant cyan smoke, the spell formula was fractured, or was not complete, or Selenia just lost focus. The puff of smoke rose high up into the air, right into a cloud, which immediately started raining bright green ooze on her head.

"Not the most impressive spell." She heard a voice behind her, turning about she could see the pony who spoke was rather shielded from sunlight under an intimidating coat and hood. However, she could also see that underneath it all he was bandaged, catching her looking, the pony said, "Burns, can't be exposed to sunlight."

"I heard some guards chatting, saying there's a powerful mage casting spells over the cliff edge... Would that be you?" The bandaged, hooded pony asked skeptically, after all he had just witnessed her botch a spell.

"I think you need to work on your formula, or concentration..." He commented, "But I also heard you're being taught by the Royal Advisor himself, so if you are that pony, you must be pretty impressive huh?"

[Selenia]

As it turned out, her spell didn't even need the safety of being directed off the cliff. Selenia let loose a sharp yelp of surprise when it literally blew up in her face. She fell back on her haunches and coughed, waving the smoke away. She didn't even have the time to ponder her newest spectacular screw up when a cloud above her started pelting her head with lime colored slime. "Oh, well thats just fantastic.." She offered to herself in a deadpan voice, holding a hoof up to catch some of the gunk like rain. She stepped out from under the hailstorm of green and shook it off cleanly, a shiver of disgust moving straight down her body.

She was about to get back to reforming her formula yet again when a voice interrupted her from behind, words of judgement but lacking the conviction to sound derogatory. She wheeled around to face the stranger, a hooded and cloaked pony with dressings and gauze wraps over what coat she could see. Her eyes narrowed a little bit and she focused on the extensive bandages, what kind of injury would warrant those? Obviously he had caught her studying his injuries and he answered in kind. So it was burns, then. Must have been some serious burns. Selenia nodded and offered an agreeing smile for his explanation of dress. Her smile however darkened a bit when he referred to the guards. She scuffed her hooves on the ground first at the implication of his question, rhetorical of course, as he had watched her screw up a spell. She also knew that the guards meant the best by informing other ponies about her practice casting, but with the tone provided, it seemed more like they were issuing warnings, like she was a hazard to those around her. She hoped that wasn't the case, and she definitely didn't want to deny anypony access to the cliffside park for the afternoon. But the guards probably knew better than her, so she just sighed and went with it.

Then, all of a sudden, the mystery stallion accosted Selenia about her casting. She would have opened her mouth to object , but she didn't even know who this pony was, so she decided against it lest she embarrass herself even more. Se kept listening as he continued, commenting about Red and then turning his tone around and calling her 'impressive'. Selenia raised her eyebrows at that last one, and, content that he was done talking, issued her reply, "A-heh... Yeah, that's me," she rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. She had never taken compliments well. "And yes, I'm studying under RedCharge as his pet project of sorts, or at least that's what I got when he said he'd teach me. As for the impressive part, you saw how that's been going for me," She gestured back towards the green sludge, slowly seeping down into the grass after it had stopped precipitating. "Anyway, my name's Selenia, I don't think I caught yours..?" She drew out the end of her sentence, turning her head a little bit and quizzically looking the hooded stallion over top to bottom.

[Red Charge]

"You know this isn't a real assignment, don't you? It's meant for you to fail. You can sit here all day and try to make a new spell work." The stallion said mysteriously, "He expects you to fail, which will give him an excuse to make you work even harder. If you REALLY want to impress your master, try this." At that the pony began scratching a spell formula on the ground, at first, it didn't even make sense to Selenia, but then she realized how brilliant it was. It was exactly the spell formula she needed, one to hide her own life force, make her undetectable to any life seeking spell or monster.

"Go on, try it!" The hooded pony urged, taking a step back to allow her concentration.

[Selenia]

Selenia sighed outwardly at the hooded stallion's acknowledgement about her task. Selenia had suspected it, but she didn't dare admit it to herself: the assignment was a trap. She assumed it was an effective way of designating a pony's strengths and weaknesses, by leaving them to their own devices and to try wholeheartedly on their own instead of watching them fight and judging them in pony. She didn't want to fail, but if she was supposed to, then she might as well fail. It would be honest and Red would get an accurate idea of where her training would lie. The stallion responded in kind, essentially summarizing what she had just rolled around inside her head.

Then the pony began scratching something into the soil. Selenia's ears perked up in surprise and she gasped as he explained. It was the spell formula. "Wait how did..?" Her words trailed off as she thought of the implications. It was the exact formula for the exact spell she needed. But, how did he know what she was trying to do and how did he know this formula for a supposedly uninvented spell? Either way, Selenia didn't care. She hesitated and quickly looked away, weighing whether this was a truly wise decision, to take a freebie and offer it up as her own work, and what repercussions that might have, but her curiosity got the better of her and she turned to study the formula. It was brilliant and innovative. A shape she would never have thought of before. It was indescribable, but it looked like it would do the job. She studied it more intensely and committed the oblique form to memory.

"This formula is exactly what I needed. How did you get it?" She said excitedly as she continued to study the formula. Once she was satisfied, she looked back up at the stallion, "How did you know exactly what I needed?" She walked over and around him, studying him a little closer than he probably would have liked. She rolled back around in front of him and intently stared under his hood before her eyes went wide and she whacked her head with one of her forehooves, "Oh, gosh, botch all that anyway. Thank you about the formula, by the way. You just saved me from the rest of an afternoon of frustration and angry guards. Thank you." She bit her lip, a little unsure and unused to getting freebies like this. She hadn't had many over the course of her lifetime, but she wasn't one to look a gift pony in the mouth. Since it only meant being polite, she decided to respond in turn. "Is there anything I can do for you? I would feel kinda bad just taking your formula and running..."

[Red Charge]

"I know a lot of things. It is my duty to know them." The stallion looked around to make sure they were alone.

"I know a lot about your dedication to Equestria, I know that you are now the protege of the Royal Advisor himself. I know you seek to help the Kingdom, so we share the same goal."

"You can help me, or rather the kingdom with something, yes. I trust you to keep this matter discreet. With the war going on and spies from the Griffon Kingdom having yet to be apprehended, this needs to stay here on this patch between you and me, for the sake of the Princess."

The stallion stepped closer to Selenia, now speaking in a hushed voice. "Word is there is an artifact of great power being... contested for. I'm not sure what it is, but there is a list of ponies, murderers, who want to obtain it. It is your duty as a servant of the realm to make sure this does not happen. It is supposed to take place at some underground event, a race in a labyrinth or something of the sort. I can make sure your name gets in it, I can't pick anyone with more obvious, overt connections to the army. No one knows you're the Royal Advisor's protege yet and we already know you can handle yourself, you are the perfect candidate for this. But remember you must tell no one! Not even the Royal Advisor himself, any intervention, any whisper at this can lead to them catching on to the plan which could be disasterous."

"So what I need you to do is join this 'race', eliminate the criminals competing for the artifact, take it for yourself if necessary, just don't let it fall into the wrong hooves, do you agree to this?"

[Selenia]

Selenia's nose scrunched a little at the stallion. That wasn't any job description she had heard before. She wondered, if it was this pony's job to know things, why was he so injured at the moment? You'd figure that Canterlot's biggest think tank would stay safely within the walls and contribute their knowledge wherever it may be required. She shrugged. She had only met this pony a few minutes prior, and he had provided her with the exact spell formula for her 'unwritten' spell, so he was bound to have a few more surprises. Then he went on to explain her own situation, and Selenia's ears perked up with interest when he mentioned a shared goal. "And... What might that be?" She asked with curiosity, but the stallion continued before she could get an answer. He emphasized the secrecy of this matter, whatever it was, and Selenia blindly nodded her head n earnest, completely unsure of what she was getting herself into.

The stallion stepped closer and finally began to explain the true matter. A great magical artifact of immense power, being hunted down and fought over by some presumably seedy individuals. As was only natural, said artifact needs to be retrieved and brought back to the safety of Canterlot or Luna or what-have-you. As Selenia expected, this pony then said that she was a perfect candidate and he could get her into the running for the artifact. Selenia bit her lip and looked around a bit. If this artifact was so immeasurably important, why not task somepony more important to it? They could just bust down the door of the crime ring, force one of them to reveal the artifact's location, then lust plow right through unopposed and snatch it up. She held her tongue, however, as this stallion was making a good case. He was playing into her soft spots, saying that it would be a show of dedication to Equestria and for the princess. Plus, she had no idea what these criminals might do to the artifact if, say, the famous RedCharge came barreling through to retrieve it. Nevertheless, if this stallion had come solely to her for this task, he obviously believed in her and her abilities, and that was all she needed to give it her all in the same way that Red had believed in her for the Red Guard.

So, a race of some sort in a labyrinth, with a powerful artifact at the end and some incredibly dangerous fellow racers who would be willing to remove Selenia at any time, and she was tasked with responding in kind if necessary. She had never killed another sentient being before. Well, unless you could the numerous bugs she had squashed over the years, but still. She hoped this wouldn't be the first time she would have to fatally turn her horn on another pony, but if it came down to a fight for life and death, she would fight back with as much ferocity she could muster, for she desperately wanted to live. Selenia let out a stressed breath. On top of it all, she had to keep this entire race secret. Not even Red could know, otherwise the criminal group she was to inject herself into would find her out and, well, one can only guess what they would do with a feisty young mare in their entrapment.

She looked back up at the stallion, "You really think I'm the best candidate for this.. death race, huh?" It wasn't really a question he was meant to answer, just placed there to give some voice to Selenia's own thoughts. She let it hang there for a second before continuing, "Okay. Yeah, i'll go get this artifact. Anything to assist Equestria in its time of need." She sat up a little straighter. Declaring her dedication for her nation always gave her room to puff up her chest. She would do anything to protect and preserve its beauty and wisdom. "So.. Where do I for this race and when is it happening?" Nationalism aside, it was time to get down to business. Her spell could wait, too. She had memorized the formula this stallion has so kindly provided and if she failed in casting it for Red, then so be it. It was an assignment she was meant to fail, anyway.

[Red Charge]

But as Selenia looked up, having lost herself in thought for a moment after agreeing, she noticed the stallion was gone. Quite the expert if he managed to slip away in plain sight like that, there was nowhere to hide in the area either. It was likely that she would be contacted again prior to the race's beginning, although probably in a more private setting.

Noon was approaching which meant Red Charge would be coming in any moment to take her to where he was preparing her physical tests. It was very possible that the physical training would crush her for the night, perhaps a good idea would be to practice the spell quickly before Red Charge arrived?

[Selenia]

So, another day, another deadly assignment piled on top of the loads of other deadly and time intensive circumstances Selenia had. She went to ask the stallion a few more questions about this new assignment, but he was gone. Selenia sat there dumbfounded. She had looked away for a second, and he had vanished without a sound. She shrugged and suspected some kind of magic, because that seemed to be a valid explanation for anything nowadays. She still had no idea when or where this race would be taking place, but hopefully that stallion would meet with her again before it began. After all, she had no idea where to go to get in contact with the criminal underworld of Equestria.

Either way, Selenia had spent a while talking with the pony and she still had her assignment for Red to do. Luckily, that stallion had given her he precise formula she needed to get her new spell working. With any luck and a little practice before he arrived, she would get it down and he would approve before tasking her with her next assignment, whatever that might be. She brought up the meticulous formula the pony had scratched into the dirt and closed her eyes, drawing the same aetherial energy as before from the sun. It was nearly noon, so it was in prime position for the power draw. Se gradually filled the matrices of the shape with the energy, this time gently topping it off before turning to the edge of the cliff and, with a puff of eagerness, letting the spell go with as much conformity to the recorded formula as possible.

[Red Charge]

The spell succeeded with good measure, the formula was perfect and luckily Selenia was able to calculate correctly and perform the spell as intended. It wasn't exceptional, but it was working. She suddenly felt like cold water have been splashed all over her, and when sensing her body she felt like a chameleon even though she could see herself just as fine as always.

"That's..." The voice of her mentor said, incredibly surprised as he approached, "That formula..." He frowned, "Definitely not in any book I've read. Well done, Selenia."

[Selenia]

Her tentative spell worked, unsurprisingly, and the effects were much less enjoyable than the reversal botch from before. She felt cold and sequestered, which made sense as her entire life force was being concealed and bottled up within her. She involuntarily shivered at the unnatural feeling. Hopefully she would never be in a situation that would require such a specialized spell. In addition, it left no effects on her body, aside from the goosebumps. It would only be effective to hide her living aura, not her physical form.

She subdued a jump when Red's voice came from behind, a lot closer than she would have expected. She turned around to face him, the spell's effects still chilling her body to the core. He was obviously surprised, she could see it in his expression and hear it in his voice. "Thank you, RedCharge." She replied graciously to his compliment. She held her tongue about the stallion, however. She wouldn't explain how she got the formula unless he asked, and even then, she still had to keep her little crime ring maze race solely to herself.

[Red Charge]

Red Charge said nothing further of the spell, he simply led her to the military barracks, behind which was a whole training ground full of soldiers training, he led her to a more secluded spot, attracting the eyes of the soldiers as he went until they were alone again.

At that he immediately began to run her through some intensive trots and runs around the area they were in, adding weight to her back the more she ran, then magically strapping armor to her body. Selenia's body however, was too weak to handle the stress and she ended up buckling mid trot, crashing face first into the ground. After several rounds of these, Red decided to move on to something else. Already tired, Selenia had a hard time dealing with Red's next challenge, which was far worse. So much so she preferred not to think about it. From the afternoon to the evening Red Charge slaved her away in that field until no muscle in her body would move to her commands.

Only then did he allow her to rest, though she couldn't even as much as flip over to a more comfortable position on the ground.

"It's only going to get harder." He warned her, "Still think you're ready?"

[Selenia]

Interestingly enough, Red didn't ask anything about the spell. Selena nodded, but was a little suspicious. Either he somehow knew, which was probably the result of some magic, or he only judged the student based on their results, of which Selenia's was a success. But then maybe he was taking her somewhere to endure hard physical training because he knew she didn't make the formula herself... Selenia closed off that train of thought before it went off a bridge. Nevertheless, Red was obviously taking her somewhere for the physical aspect of her training anyway, and much to her surprise and dismay, he led her to the training area at the barracks in Canterlot's military base. She groaned to herself. This was going to be a long day.

The training was grueling, to say the least. It included lots of running, and lots of weights, an then lots of running with lots of weights, then lots of running with armor and lots of weights. It was as if Red was actually trying to snap her spine. She bucked up and powered through it, years of hoofball in school had given great endurance and great strength to her legs. She always had played goalie, lots of running back and forth and lots of punting, plus lots of shots to block, which gave her great hoof-eye coordination too. Unfortunately, those traits didn't help her in the next exercise, It was so unbelievably strenuous and challenging that she preferred no to remember it. It lasted for what felt like hours, and when she was finally allowed respite, Red only announced that it would continue. All of her muscles burned. She got up, with great effort, and drew herself some water from the surrounding humid air. She drank it greedily, it burned on the way down, but dehydration was more dangerous than exhaustion so she dealt with it. A few aching muscle stretches later and she had regained her breath and could move with lessened pain. She was in no way back to normal, but she had to give it her all. This training was full on black or white, either you devote everything when you need to, or you don't make it. And Selenia was determined to make it through.