Chapter 6: a surprise visit
The castle was one of the stranger things in Ponyville. It was this enormous hollow crystal tree with a whole palace on top that looked like the tree had grown around. The front doors opened up directly into a throne room that, like the exterior, was made from very smoothly cut crystal and had doors on both sides leading on to other parts of the castle. We turned left down a hallway with a blue carpet lining the floor and another left three or four doors down the hall into the library. As the door closed 5 crystals around the room began to glow with a blue light. I smiled to myself and levitated myself and a few books up and into a small orb-like pocket protruding from the wall about 10 feet up, something I created myself so I could watch the whole library and not miss a thing. In here we could use our magic freely without worrying about collateral damage which made it the perfect place for both of us to practice. The crystals around the room were designed to amplify and contain alicorn magic, but they didn't last forever. After a certain amount of time or magic is used they revert back into ordinary crystals. The crystals were the result of an attempt to recreate an alicorn amulet, but instead of an amulet they used these crystals that were normaly used just for lights and found that they were also great for storing magical energy. So far alicorn magic is best because its more concentrated and apparently can even regenerate if enough is stored but its incredibly slow so we've found it easier to just recharge them at the end of the day so they're ready the next time.
Flurry walked over to a desk near the window and began her spelling practice and I took up a book about various types of magic and began reading it. It explained about several kinds of magic like enhancement spells, shield spells, item enchantments, and a few basic notes about how you can use plain magic and focus it into a harmful blast. All things I knew already and were just some review I was doing before I had to check in with Twilight for magic evaluation. It was something we did every six months, just to see how i'd improved and all that. I picked up another book to begin reading while I waited for Flurry to finish with her spelling. This one was far more interesting than the former, for it contained very difficult spells that I wasn't supposed to be even looking at for a few more months. The kind of spells that could cause a lot of collateral damage if I wasn't careful. The spell I was currently researching was one that should allow me to not only create, but control storms. The problem being that no pony had attempted these spells in over 700 years so details on the risks and how to do them were incomplete, which brought me to my real project as I closed the book and stored it in a pack for later. I had been working on constructing a much bigger version of the containment circle used there in the library in order to safely attempt the storm spell. I took out a diagram of the test field and about how many crystals I'd need to keep the spell safely contained to the field, because as much protection as the crystals give if the spell is powerful enough it can extend beyond the field. I was figuring I would need at least thirty large crystals in order to create an effective barrier large enough to cover the field I,d chosen for testing. The problem was going to be getting that many crystals to the field and having them charged, but that was going to take time and a LOT of magic. Fortunately I had both on my side. There were still four months before I was due for another demonstration and I had plenty of magic to spare. I could fully charge one large crystal in a day with some magic still left over, so if I charged a crystal every day then that would still leave me three months to practice and perfect the spell.
After making a few notes on placement I folded the diagram and placed it inside one of my notebooks for safekeeping I heard the door open and Flurry jump up and squeal with delight and fly over yelling out daddy!. 'Daddy?' I thought, turning to see who it might be. Standing there just inside the door was a stallion with a white coat and sea blue hair wearing a captains uniform hugging Flurry and laughing. My eyes widened in surprised shock for here, standing in front of me, was none other than Shining Armor who looked equally surprised to see me. I had heard plenty about Shining from Twilight and seen him from time to time, but always at a distance or out of sight. This was our first time actually meeting each other so I was doing my best to make a good impression. He walked over to me with Flurry still attached to his neck and cocked his head quizzically to the side and asked "Whats with the jacket?". That was soo not what I was expecting and before I could stop myself I replied "Whats with the uniform?". 'Sweet Celestia that was dumb Siris, why not just slap him upside the head instead you idiot!' I thought. He looked at me for a moment probably deciding how to respond before smirking and answering "An excellent comeback you must be Siris, Twilight and Flurry both speak very highly of you". It was again not at all what I was expecting. I always thought Shining Armor would be a really strict, everything by the book, pony who would be demanding the respect of everyone, but this guy was totally cool. Even though I basically insulted him by answering his question with another rude one, he acted like we were friends right off the bat. Weird.
Once Flurry let go of him he began walking around and examining the room. After he completed his circuit around the room he looked at me and gestured to my alcove and ask me what it was. I explained that it was a private work area that I made for myself. "You made it yourself!?" he exclaimed " Thats a solid crystal wall and magically enhanced at that how did you do that?". "Time and magic sir" I said simply and then went on to explain how I used a spell to make the crystal grow in that way so that it made the cave like shape and then used magic blasts to smooth and round out the inside. He looked at me with a look of surprise and said " Thats quite an impressive feat. You must be very powerful indeed if you can damage the walls of this place". Now it was my turn to look at him quizzically "What makes you say that?" "Siris I've watched others try and blast they're way through these walls with little to no success whatsoever the fact that you can do that" he said gesturing to the alcove "all on your own means that you must be extremely powerful, even twilight couldn't do much more to the wall than a whole group of unicorns working together." This surprised me a bit. I mean I knew that as an alicorn I would be a little more powerful than others but not that powerful, certainly not as powerful as twilight. If what he said was true than that might very well mean that I might be the strongest magic user in Equestria and that was just...a little scary. I would have to talk about it with Luna later tonight. "Ok so what of it?" I said " Nothing, I was simply surprised that's all" he said. "I wonder if I could ask you to show me some your abilities Siris" "Sure thing. Let go out to the courtyard for it though, I don't want to damage anything in here".