|
|
Post by The Great and POWERFUL Trixie on May 12, 2011 15:29:57 GMT -5
NOTE: This thread is a continuation of a thread in Froggy Bottom Bog - A Great and Powerful Ally Link: mlpcelestialdivide.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=froggybottombog&action=display&thread=43
Trixie continued to watch Red Charge as he walked off to his meeting, mesmerized by his words of welcome and the revelation that had just occurred. She soon realized that this was the cult that had been rumored of lately. She never believed the rumors, though, because she thought she knew better. All of those doubts were smashed with one word: 'Eclipse'. She turned her head to the pony that Red had summoned to escort her. "The Great and Powerful Trixie requests to be shown to her quarters...please." Her last word was said much softer than the others. Something about this place and all the recent developments had changed her. She was still as boastful and haughty as ever, but she just seemed a tad... subordinated. [Edit by Selenia: split paragraphs for easy reading] |
|
|
|
Post by Watermark on May 12, 2011 16:39:16 GMT -5
The Earth Pony guiding her nodded with a patient smile, and led her inside to an even greater clearing, it was still dark all around them, as the thick, tall trees of the swamp towered over even the large pyramid.
Something was obviously unnatural about this place, as though it has been magically made to remained concealed and shrouded, impossible to find unless one knew where to look.
At first it seemed the pony was leading Trixie to the pyramid, but before reaching the foot of the stairs, it took to the right, to a large compound of red-colored huts, the Red Mages' compound.
Inside the compound, she saw an amazing sight, many small creatures seemingly made entirely of water were scurrying around performing menial tasks as well as helping the other ponies with construction. She noticed the obvious lack of Red Mages, only several of the huts really seemed occupied.
In the midst of it all, was Watermark. However, despite knowing that it was him, Trixie could swear it wasn't, the cheery naive attitude was now replaced with a focused determination and confidence. His tattoos were no longer zany, but intimidating, and the smile he sent at her was no longer sheepish, but knowing.
"Welcome, Trixie, to the Red Mages!" He greeted her warmly, spreading his arms to indicate the enclave. It was obvious now who was controlling the watery creatures. The Earth Pony guiding Trixie gave a short bow before walking off to continue his work, and Trixie was left alone with this strange and... unfamiliar Watermark.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Great and POWERFUL Trixie on May 12, 2011 17:11:59 GMT -5
Trixie looked around, and lifted one of her hooves to allow one of the water creatures to continue about its business.
She looked at Watermark, and indeed his tattoos had changed, from decorative stripes to intimidating slashes. He held an evil grin and his eyes signaled vivid determination. He was obviously concentrating hard to keep all his 'helpers' intact. It was as if he was a different pony altogether.
Confused by the lack of red mages, she decided to ask. "Trixie wonders.. Why is this area called the Red Mages' compound if there are no mages?" She didn't even realize that her characteristic 'Great and Powerful' was left out, she was too captivated with the grand scheme of things, and the new Watermark standing before her.
Before receiving an answer, she continued. "And are you a..red mage? The color doesn't seem to fit you, with your water sorcery..and all..." Her speech ground to a halt, realizing that she had probably just insulted the master who would teach her semi-incredible powers. Until she would be able to train under Red, that is.
|
|
|
|
Post by Watermark on May 12, 2011 17:36:07 GMT -5
Watermark laughed heartily, "I am the leader of the Red Mages, indeed!" He affirmed with another burst of laughter, "We are Master Red Charge's elite magical specialists, and yes, I am in much conflict with the master's choice of colors!" He winked.
The striped pony landed softly on his hooves and shook his spiky mane, his grin never leaving his face, "As you can see, we are few, unfortunately unicorns are hard to recruit, what with the popularity of Celestia rising after the Nightmare Moon crisis." He alluded to the incident of Luna's return to the throne, a true winning blow for the Princesses' reputation, but a crippling strike for the cult. Trixie could notice his hooves were tapping on the ground almost rhythmically, as though in anticipation.
"However, the Mage are a very competent group, very versatile and very capable. You better be diligent in your studies, or you will be left behind. The master only picks those of extraordinary talent to train under him."
At the end of his introduction of the group, the male unicorn pointed a hoof at one of the water creatures, and it was as though the creature was sucked to it, for in the next moment it was standing in front of Trixie.
"Do you know what these are?" Watermark asked.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Great and POWERFUL Trixie on May 12, 2011 17:48:34 GMT -5
Trixie relaxed at the laughter from Watermark, he was still the same goofy pony.
She looked down at the creature in front of her. "Actually, I haven't the slightest idea what these are." She said, studying the creature. It was made of pure water, just like the statue watermark had made of his cutie mark earlier. But this one was actually alive. In a way.
"I have never seen sorcery such as this before." She continued to look at the creature, and noticed that the water it was made of seemed to be flowing from the tip of the nose down to its feet, constantly in motion but never running dry.
She looked back up at Watermark, as if expecting an answer.
|
|
|
|
Post by Watermark on May 12, 2011 18:33:33 GMT -5
"Oh well, I have no idea what those things are either." Watermark said, throwing the creature aside, "I just call them water golems." The striped unicorn waved his hoof, and all of the creatures around him melted into puddles, and with another raise of his hoof they went back to work.
"Anyway, back to business, let's see what you can do. Go ahead, the stage is yours Trixie, show me your stuff. Your BIGGEST, most USEFUL stuff." The colt grinned at her again, his hooves tapping the ground in anticipation.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Great and POWERFUL Trixie on May 12, 2011 19:12:28 GMT -5
'Useful.' That word lingered on Trixie's mind. Most of her magic was simple illusions and parlor tricks, nothing remotely useful.
She was advanced at telekinesis, able to manipulate objects that she held in her power. Other than that, not much. She could summon a smoke cloud for entrances, and create fireworks, and also make a storm cloud for ambience. So she settled on the storm cloud.
Trixie concentrated with all her might, intending to impress her instructor. She bared her teeth and closed her eyes, her horn glowing brightly as the water vapor in the immediate area was condensed into a small, yet dark and angry looking cloud.
It rumbled with thunder and occasionally lit up with the electricity encased within.
She had to do better, she knew that simply a cloud wouldn't be good enough, so she concentrated even harder, as a purple beam shot from her horn into the cloud, and caused a large lightning bolt to ripple out of the cloud and strike the ground with a sharp crack of thunder, leaving a substantial carbonized hole in the ground.
The glow in Trixie's horn subsided and the cloud evaporated. Trixie's head fell, panting, but she managed to lift it back up to give Watermark a weak smile and said, "Ta..da.."
|
|
|
|
Post by Watermark on May 12, 2011 19:23:38 GMT -5
"That's... that's not it, is it...?" Watermark asked, surprised, "Seriously, you're not done, right?" He trotted over to the carbonized ground, and pointed with a hoof, "That's not the BEST you can do, it can't be."
At that the strange unicorn started dancing about in place, "Is this really the extent of your power? The most useful spell you have?" He asked again, now trotting around the campfire, before standing perfectly still.
His eyes closed, and his body became completely steady, unmoving, his breathing was steady, and then he raised his head, his horn glowing in a bluish halo before a tornado of swamp water arose before him, growing more and more with each passing moment. "THIS is a useful spell, what you showed me, can barely even pass a basic magic exam."
|
|
|
|
Post by The Great and POWERFUL Trixie on May 12, 2011 19:39:28 GMT -5
"Look," Trixie said a little more bluntly than usual. "That is basically the best magic I know, past telekinesis and smoke bombs and whatnot."
She started to yell. "My career is show business. My spells and magic are built SPECIFICALLY to impress ponies who want to see tricks and magic. The Great and Powerful Trixie's magical arsenal is not built for combat or anything of the sort!!"
Her speech started to falter as she descended into a monologue. "I can't do useful magic. I was always a failure at more advanced forms.. So I decided to take the stuff I knew and change it into tricks, things that ponies would enjoy..."
She sat herself down, and her speech softened even more as she looked down at her hooves. "Out of all the amazing unicorns in Equestria, why choose me.. Trixie, the failure of a showpony and worst sorceress ever.." She brought her hooves up to her face, trying to hide her sadness.
"I am willing to learn whatever you can teach me, but bear in mind that my current magic is not top-of-the-line." She looked away, expecting the worst to come from her confrontational attitude and revelation to Watermark.
|
|
|
|
Post by Watermark on May 12, 2011 19:51:48 GMT -5
"Well, at least you got one thing down right, you don't know everything, and there is much for you to learn. That is the basic principle of magic, there is always more to learn. Even Master Red Charge admits, that at the top of his magical knowledge, he still knows nothing. Magic has limitless possibilities, in fact, it is only limited by your imagination."
To accentuate his point, Watermark conjured up a water version of Trixie, splitting it up into four different Trixies, "You can create an illusion of yourself, misguiding your foes or disgruntling your friends," He said, swishing a hoof and making the water Trixie gigantic, "Or you can enlarge yourself, to amaze all around you!" At last, the water Trixie returned to normal.
"You have an affinity to performance magic. But performance magic is a very loose definition." The tattooed master said, "Ponder this, later, once you've gone to rest. But for now, tell me..." The colt started, "It's a quaint weather we're having isn't it?"
|
|
|
|
Post by The Great and POWERFUL Trixie on May 12, 2011 20:21:17 GMT -5
Trixie smiled at Watermark's ability to turn something so negative into something positive, and she was impressed at the wisdom he could bring to the table. He would be a good mentor, all she needed was patience. She did like the water tricks he could do very much, and she wanted to learn. Maybe another time she could ask.
But Watermark's question puzzled her.. She looked up into the sky, but didn't see a thing. "I.. I don't understand." Trixie said. "The sky is clear, is that quaint to you?" She asked, cocking her head in curiosity.
|
|
|
|
Post by Watermark on May 13, 2011 10:02:12 GMT -5
"It's quaint... because... it's raining colts! HalleLuna it's raining colts, of course, it's raining colts, HalleLuna..." The strange pony began singing, pointing upwards. Trixie had to admit, he had quite the singing voice.
The ponies around did not seem to take notice of his strange behavior, either from being used to it, or because they simply did not care. As the pony danced around, it was obvious he wasn't just pointing at the air, a Pegasus was approaching from the air.
|
|
|
|
Post by Percheron Razorwing on May 13, 2011 10:13:25 GMT -5
The fast approaching Pegasus landed softly on his hooves, an image that reminded Trixie of a majestic eagle rather than a pony. decked out in his red armor, Percheron's handsome, form turned from sending a very impatient look at Watermark's singing, to sending a very soft look to Trixie. The air around the flier stallion was tranquil, he was practically radiating authority. From the very first impression it was evident that he was a natural born leader, not to mention disarmingly good-looking. Watermark's dancing was almost beneath his perception, he had no time for such nonsense.
"Ah, our newest member, greetings, Trixie." The stallion greeted, giving her a small bow with his head. "I am the leader of the Red Barons, the aerial branch of the Cult. It's always good to have new ponies around here." With that, he stepped closer to offer her a hoof to shake, eyes trailing over only once to the singing Red Mage again before returning to focus on the unicorn mare, observing her, almost inspecting; her posture, her expression, almost as though X-raying her, but after a moment he blinked and smiled apologetically, as though realizing it was rude to stare.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Great and POWERFUL Trixie on May 14, 2011 7:38:00 GMT -5
Trixie looked at Percheron, she could tell from his appearance and his speech that he was self-important. Also the fact that he was looking her over, as if judging her to determine if she was 'worthy', inside and out. She had very much experience with recognizing ponies like that, because she herself was one. She liked his piercing stare, because she knew that she was perfectly worthy.
She politely took his hoof to shake. She liked the fact that all of the ponies here were especially friendly to her, and she thought she deserved it, what with all the crazy stuff happening to her lately.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie." She said with a smile, as if correcting him, "Nice to meet you", she continued.
|
|
|
|
Post by Percheron Razorwing on May 14, 2011 14:17:20 GMT -5
"I have been briefed about your encounter with the Ursa Minor in Ponyville." The stallion said with a smile, not a mocking one, surprisingly. "Despite knowing you probably wouldn't be able to handle it on your own, you stood up to it. That must have taken some guts."
His eye twitched a bit as the striped unicorn next to him hit a very high octave, obviously he didn't have a lot of patience for the strange colt. Then he sat down, most likely so his hind legs wouldn't be free to buck his compatriot.
Watermark's singing was not at all unpleasant, mind you, but this Pegasus' no nonsense attitude found it less than appropriate for him to start singing and dancing around their newest member. It reflected badly on the seriousness of the issues they were trying to resolve. At least, in the stallion's mind.
|
|
