Part 2: Chapter 13: Exam
Today was the day of his Exam.
Bolts of red, green and yellow flashed around Alpha.
I hate sparring.
He dodged spells left to right.
I hate dodging.
He ducked and jumped bolts of light.
I hate exams.
He jumped up, dodging a spell only to be hit squarely in the chest with another, this time a stunning spell. He hit the ground with a thud, knocked out.
"Again."
The voice echoed in his mind.
The colt groaned, lowering his head in disappointment. "Why?"
"This is not the time for another flashback, Nova." He said, stuck in the black room of his mind.
You don't know that.
"I need to get back in the fight."
And yet, here you are, knocked out once again.
"What will you show me this time?" He groaned as he sat down, facing the empty void.
If you stop talking and pay attention, maybe you will figure that out.
"In order to learn magic, you must first learn how to control it." Twilight replied. Her voice echoed loudly in the room. He watched his younger self, trying to learn what was Nova telling him.
He hated that she was there. He hated that they were all watching him fail. He looked up at the unlit candle and forced himself to imagine that it was lit, holding his breath in the process. Alpha stood there, frozen, staring at the candle, trying to will it aflame.
Luna sighed. "Let's leave him to his lesson. Everypony back to work."
The others groaned as they left Beta and Alpha alone on their platform.
"Again."
"I'm trying." Alpha replied, taking in another breath.
"Try harder."
"Just because you had a natural ability doesn't mean I have one."
Beta growled. "Either you learn magic or I'm leaving you."
"You don't mean that."
Beta un-bonded with Alpha and appeared in front of him. He wasn't smiling nor frowning. "Try me." He said, angry.
"Fine." Alpha replied, taking another breath and holding it in, focusing his attention on the unlit candle at the end of the platform.
"Try daydreaming."
"How so?" Alpha replied, his eyes still glued to the candle.
"I find that when I force the image into my mind, it never comes. Instead, try daydreaming that the candle was lit. Daydream aloud the details of the lit torch."
"How do I do that?" He straightened his stance, his back and neck straight.
His world slowed as the memory resurfaced in his mind, playing back like it always did.
"Here."
Two candles, both lit appeared on either side of Alpha.
"I'm going to try something that Tirek tried on me when I had trouble with magic. Close your eyes."
The colt hesitantly closed his eyes, listening to the lit candles, his stance still rigid.
"Relax."
He relaxed. His neck bent forward a couple of degrees but otherwise his body was perfectly still.
"What do you hear?"
He could hear a lot of things; his heart beating, his breath exhaling and inhaling, the slight echo of ponies working, pushing trolleys and recruiting others to the cause. His ears flicked left and right, back and forth as they heard new noises, picking out the new from the old.
"Alpha?"
"I can hear my heart beating." He said slowly, trying not to lose track of what he could hear. "I can hear my voice, my breath."
"What else?"
His ears flicked towards the lit candles, picking up on the sound that they created.
"I can hear the torches."
"How so?"
His mouth twitched; his attention solely on the sound.
"I can hear the flame burning the oil."
"How so?" Beta repeated.
"I can hear the oil bubbling."
"What else can you hear? Try to tune out as much as possible."
He focused on the candle. He thought, for a split second, that his head moved closer to his right.
"I can hear…the wick…crackling, almost like the fire I used to stare at in my cave so long ago." He became memorized with the sound, almost as if he was in a trance. His back bent upwards as he relaxed.
"I'm going to remove the candles."
Alpha's mouth began to move to complain, but Beta did not allow him. "Don't speak just listen. I am going to remove the candles. When I do, I want you open your eyes and look at the candle and imagine, only imagine the sound of the wick aflame. If you understand, just nod your head."
Alpha stood there, frozen, listening to the candles. After a few minutes, he nodded his head; certain he could remember the sounds of a candle aflame.
The sound of the candles disappeared as Beta extinguished them. Alpha could just make out the oil slowly ceasing to bubble, the wick still crackling before the candles disappeared entirely. He opened his eyes and focused on the small candle at the end of the hallway.
Nothing.
Beta brought the candle so it was just in front Alpha's face. "Try again. Remember to remember the sounds."
Instead of closing his eyes, Alpha leaned towards the candle, his eyes glued onto the white wick. He imagined the sounds of the candle aflame and waited. He watched with curiosity as the wick ever so slowly turned from white to black and began to slowly smoke before a small flame appeared in front of Alpha. It danced on the wick as if it was alive and happy to be alive. He could hear the oil begin to bubble and the wick crackle as the flame came to life.
"I did it!" He said, a grin forming on his face.
"Congratulation, you lit a candle." Beta said, smiling in amusement. "Now, again." He continued, extinguishing the candle.
"But why?" Alpha asked, confused and saddened that his candle was put out.
"You need to master what you know before you can move on. Again."
Alpha sighed, but nodded happily, turning his attention to the candle.
The memory faded as Alpha came to his senses. He opened his eyes and looked at Beta, who was hovering above him.
"That looked like it hurt. You okay?"
Alpha nodded before rolling to his side. "Two months flew by fast." He pushed himself up and looked at Tirek.
"Done for the day?" Tirek asked.
The 18 year old colt shook his head. "Let's try one more time."
"If you say so. Remember, you are not trying to just dodge the spells, but evade them and get to me."
Alpha nodded, and shifted his stance. "Ready."
Tirek nodded as the sphere of multi-colored magic appeared. Bolt after bolt after bolt of magic flew out from the sphere, as if the sphere were an egg sack, and the bolts of magic were spider lings.
Alpha sprung forward. He sprinted to his right, then to his left, teleporting as he raced for Tirek. The ground broke into cracks as Tirek did what he could to stop the assaulting colt.
He took to the air, a risky move, but he knew he could gain more distance. He weaved through the bolts aimed to take his chance at passing, and, once above Tirek, dived down. He knew using magic against Tirek would only make him stronger for he would absorb the magic, so instead, he turned to physical attacks. He sliced into the red skin with his metallic wing, easily cutting through. He teleported to the ceiling and was about to defeat Tirek if he had not been hit with a bolt of white light.
The lifeless body of the 18 year old colt fell through the air, his metallic limb glowing red. Not even halfway to the ground, Tirek stopped what he was doing and healed his cuts with his right hand, wiping across them, as if he was cleaning his arm of dirt. With his left hand, he caught Alpha, cradling the lifeless body in his palm.
Twilight stepped onto the platform, grinning.
"WE TRUSTED YOU!"
Twilight sneered. "I am not who I say I am, Beta."
Beta looked at Tirek, who nodded in agreement. He smiled as he disappeared. Twilight was only halfway across the platform when Beta appeared, stopping him in his tracks. A curtain of magic appeared behind Beta as he forced her to stop.
"Just step aside, Beta."
"Fuck off, Twilight." Beta said. He opened his mouth and small flame came within. Breathing fire, Beta unleashed what seemed to be a whip of fire. "You have already done enough here."
"How come you can use magic as a spirit?"
"I'm a mutant. We mutants aren't bound to the laws of nature that normal ponies are. We have a set of our own rules, and therefore, we have special abilities. "
With a swipe of his hoof, the whip transformed into the eight legged creature Beta had grown to love. Twilight looked past the legs of the gigantic spider of fire to see Beta grinning. She felt the hair on her neck stand up.
"Scared?"
Spike had noticed Twilight's disappearance and had ran to his room to see if she was there, but instead was drawn to the crowd that was blocking the Training Room. He pushed his way towards the front of the crowd to see his friend attack Alpha, who was fighting Tirek. He was about to run towards her when a hoof stopped him. He looked up to see Charlie staring at Alpha.
"Why did you stop me?"
"Because that isn't Twilight."
He turned to look at Twilight, who was fighting off the spider. "What do you mean "That isn't Twilight."? Of course it's Twilight!"
"No it isn't!" Charlie argued.
"Who is it then?!"
"That is Zeta and Gamma."
"Who?"
"Celestia's personal assassin."