Magician in Prison


                                            >>36712357

                                            >>36735363

                                            >Magician Anon has spent a good couple of days in prison, longer than most non-villain ponies by a country mile!

                                            >Of course, prison kind of feels more like a weird mix between group therapy and a...spa? Anon's not sure what to make of it but it was a helluva lot better than what he thought prison would turn out to be! The place even had a pool! And, thankfully, even the "Villains" got to swim around.

                                            >With a lot more supervision and stricter rules but still. Anon could even stand in the deep end! Freaked some out at first but when he proved he could handle it, all was kosher.

                                            >Thanks to the prison's anti-magic wards and the special bands all prisoners had to wear, there really wasn't much worry that someone like Chrysalis or Grogar would cause trouble. And yes, the ACTUAL Grogar, not some pretender. He's just been stuck here the whole time.


                                            >A lifeguard's on duty, some actual guards were milling about and the rest of the Villains were going to take their chance to have some fun in the sun. Since no one really wants to peeve off the "Slapper", most were pretty well behaved.

                                            >Well, Cozy liked to tease Tirek or climb up his back to dive off but other than that, nothing too serious. The lifeguard kinda had to give a few warnings though.

                                            >Why it was a Mare called "Cookies 'n Cream", Anon didn't know but she seemed serious about her job and might have been more than "just" the lifeguard so he never really questioned it. Cute though, especially with her "widdle" sunglasses.


                                            >While Anon was busy being lost in thought, a certain crystal-obsessed pony was staring rather intently at the giant of a man. Now, normally, he stared because he was trying to make plans to make Anon his "Very Special Best Friend" but today the stare was more...jealous? Envious, perhaps?

                                            >It may have been because Anon didn't need as much supervision as the rest of them or perhaps it was even because he could go all the way out to the Deep End without floaties?

                                            >It was honestly probably the second option as silly as it was but these were little Kinderponies after all and being in the Deep End was a pretty impressive feat!

                                            >The stubborn "Dark Wizard" Sombra didn't want to be "one-upped" so much, even by someone he apparently liked, that he was willing to paddle his little tube floatie over to the human and the "deep waters".

                                            >Anon didn't pay him much mind, it was just Sombra after all. The dude was a little eccentric and everyone claimed he was this "dark and mysterious" stallion with "a super scary voice".

                                            >Sure, it was a little rough but Anon had a sneaking suspicion that, if the stories were actually true, the voice was MUCH scarier when he was a "ghosty" and had more dark magic flowing into him.

                                            >Nonetheless, Sombra was here now and it'd just be too rude to not greet him.

                                            "Hey, bud, whatcha doing here-"

                                            >And before he could finish, the silly pony had hopped right out of his floatie!

                                            >He wore that for regular water, just what was he doing?!


                                            1/x


                                            >>36739321

                                            >With his little leggies kicking as hard as he could, the former King tries his best to sound confident...while spitting and sputtering. "H-haha! I, too, can tread the Mighty Depths! N-none...NONE can c-compare!"

                                            >His head bobbed up and down a few times but he seemed to stay pretty calm.

                                            >Until he accidentally kicked away his floatie mid "swim".

                                            >That's about when the panic set in for him and when the lifeguard noticed the trouble. For her, this was SUPER serious and required a swift response!

                                            >...of course the wind gets put right out of her sail mid-dash as Anon gave a shout.

                                            "Oh! Hang on, little fella! I've got ya!"

                                            >And like that, Anon had his hands around Sombra before he brought the babbling wizard close to himself. He was at least no longer in danger of accidentally drowning but he was going to need to be taken out of the pool to make sure he was OK. At least, that's what Anon thinks as held the panicky, struggling pony.

                                            >So, with little effort and no thought behind it, he just lifted Sombra up and put it on the edge of the pool near the nervously waiting lifeguard.

                                            "Here, he's had a little scare but he should be alright..."


                                            >A shaking, sopping wet Sombra is soon led away by the gently speaking lifeguard. She scolded him only just a tad for getting out of his floatie but even when she switched it up to worry over him, the look of shame and embarrassment never really left his face.

                                            >Which...honestly didn't sit right with Anon.

                                            >Poor guy just wanted to prove himself and he was met with complete and utter failure. Which honestly isn't even really that rare of an occurrence with the Villains but it felt "different" when one of them was just trying to do something normal, theatrics aside.

                                            >Looking over to the others, they seemed to be busy with their usual shenanigans.

                                            >Cozy Glow was trying to cannonball off of Tirek's head, Grogar was trying to dunk Chrysalis and the Flim Flam brothers were trying to distract the guards with a song and dance so Cozy could do her thing.

                                            >Honestly, nothing that really warranted him stepping in as far as he could tell so he took this moment to get out of the pool and make his way over to one of the little plastic lounge chairs the lifeguard sat Sombra at.

                                            >Poor little guy was still shivering, even with the towel wrapped close around his barrel. Nearby a little glass of water had been left in case he needed it but it looked untouched.

                                            >A sorry sight if Anon had ever seen one. This simply just would not do.

                                            >But how to make Sombra feel better? What did Anon know about the stallion?

                                            >Well, he certainly liked his crystals and "evil" theatrics but Anon couldn't really think of anything that'd actually help.

                                            >But, he then remembered that Sombra had a "healthy" interest in all things magical. Maybe a bit of sleight of hand was in order...?


                                            2/x


                                            >>36739326

                                            >Truthfully, it was less sleight of hand and more taking advantage of weird physics but a true magician never revealed his secrets! Or, at least, that's what Anon learned back in the day.

                                            "Say, Sombra?"

                                            >There was barely even a glance up, a small pout prominent on the Former King's face...just how he was considered all that scary just flew right over Anon's head but now wasn't the time for that. It was time for some cheering up.

                                            "Wanna see a magic trick?"

                                            >Almost like a snap, Sombra perked right up with his ears swiveling up as he gave Anon his utmost attention. Shivering much less, there was a question the umbra pony just HAD to ask, his tone hinting that Anon must have said something quite impossible.

                                            >"You can do magic?! In here?!" Once realizing what he just said, Sombra clamped his mouth shut with a hoof and looked over to see if a guard had heard anything. It seemed the Flim Flam brothers were still doing their thing so a breath of relief was let out.

                                            >Of course, the tone goes a bit over Anon's head but that didn't him from giving off a showstopping smile!

                                            "Oh, just a little trick or two but I really hope you like it!"

                                            >And he really did, he didn't want to see a sad pony...even if they were a Villain like Sombra. Besides, wouldn't the Warden be happy if he made friends and gave someone a smile? He sure thought so.


                                            >With Sombra's full attention on him, Anon went away for a moment to get what he needed. Sometimes little ponies would leave behind these poster boards for when they do jumps and swim tricks, he certainly needed some kind of thick paper. It was just his luck some had been left behind!

                                            >Dark, magical eyes widened in surprise as they watched the human tear away a little square, for what reason they surely didn't know.

                                            >But as quick as he left, Anon was back and he was just all smiles!

                                            "OK, so you know how if you tilt a glass of water, it spills everywhere, right?"

                                            >Sombra just nodded along as Anon did his thing, placing the piece of thick paper over the glass's rim.

                                            "Now, check this out..."

                                            >With no more hints of what he was trying to do, Sombra watched closely as Anon placed his palm over the paper and slowly picked up the cup. With a big smile, he carefully began to tilt the cup over, more and more until it was upside down!

                                            >No water spills!

                                            >...which doesn't really impress Sombra much considering the hand was still there. With a small snort, the grumpy unicorn began with, "But of course it won't spill! You have your strange spider-hoof over the-" But it was then he was quickly silenced.

                                            >Because just as Sombra was about to point out the obvious flaw in Anon's "trick", the hand was removed! The Dark Wizard expected to see a splash or perhaps a trickle...but there was none!

                                            >There, for all to blatantly see, Anon has the water still in the cup with naught but a simple piece of paper between it and the ground below.

                                            >The look of pure wonder and awe was enough to make Anon believe he made the right choice...


                                            3/x


                                            >>36739831

                                            >Right choice or not, we pull away from the prison to focus on a certain purple smart's castle sometime later. And let's just say that the newest inmate of the "Best Prison in Equestria" (where else do you send powerful Villains to?) made her horrifyingly nervous.

                                            >Before he had been carted away to prison for the awful crime of assaulting royalty, she had known him some.

                                            >At first, he seemed like a nice enough fellow. Perhaps a little whimsical or odd but that honestly wasn't a rare thing for a mare like her. Her very friends were labeled quite similarly when she had first met them so she saw no issue in his behavior.

                                            >It wasn't until sometime later that she learned an astonishing "truth" about the resident alien, something so shocking that it rocked her to her very core: he was a great and powerful magic user! The best this world surely has ever seen!

                                            >Faust's Honest Truth! And he revealed it so out of the blue! They were just in the middle of talking and she suddenly hears "hey, check this out" and the next moment he reaches behind her ear.

                                            >Celestia only knows why he was compelled to reveal his nature, but when he had pulled his hand back to reveal that he had materialized a coin, it was as if all her vast knowledge of magic crumbled away just then.

                                            >It made no sense!

                                            >No background mana, no noise, no magical blast even from teleportation! Just...snap. And there was a coin, she couldn't even feel any lingering chaos magic either so it wasn't Discord pranking her.

                                            >No. The only logical conclusion was that he was just leagues above what is normally possible...


                                            >Thankfully, he was a benevolent creature who lent her his ear when she tried to warn him about his extreme magical use. He was to only use it in emergencies, preferably when a pony most needed it.

                                            >He had seemed to get what she had said and wisely nodded...before he had slapped Celestia herself! An accident or so he (and Celestia) claimed but an accident that had real consequences and thus had him taken away for some time.

                                            >Not wanting such a powerful creature left unchecked, Twilight made sure to let the prison know that she wanted personal reports on his situation when anything happened. The Warden was all too happy to oblige.

                                            >For you see, dear Twilight wasn't nervous that he'd be a mean bully or anything of the sort. A small worry, admittedly, but what she was truly worried about was his magic.

                                            >She never had the time to test it further!

                                            >She didn't know just what potential he had and if other ponies could even handle such a raw display.

                                            >And that's not even taking into account how little she knows about him. What was common sense to him? Surely not something a pony could understand if he was willing to materialize whatever he wished...

                                            >But that was being far too much of a meany head. She was judging him too harshly and being paranoid...again. She hasn't even heard of anything bad yet.

                                            >Surely, he's been behaving?

                                            >And just as that thought passes, a letter arrives...


                                            4/x


                                            >>36739837

                                            >She was Celestia's Student.

                                            >She was the Element of Harmony.

                                            >By gosh, she was the PRINCESS of Friendship!

                                            >But...a mere letter had her tensed in her seat, an absolute wreck of nerves and jitters as she expected the worst to come.

                                            >It didn't even help that she was in the library, a place she should've felt absolutely calm in but to no avail. To everyone else, she is merely receiving a report of the alien that was imprisoned while enjoying her tea.

                                            >To her? She's received word on whether or not an incredulously massive, potential threat was keeping himself busy.

                                            >It was a stretch, yes, but maybe being paranoid isn't the worst thing in the world. Even if it DID make a few things awkward back in the day.

                                            >...

                                            >With that sudden reminder freshly in mind, Twilight calmed herself enough to magic the envelope over to herself.

                                            >"It's now or never. This will be a completely normal report, I'm sure of it." An optimistic thought at the very least, one she had to voice aloud to assure herself that everything was OK.

                                            >Nonetheless, she's finally started reading to see what Anon has been up to. She can't expect the Warden and the others to send constant daily reports so she was just happy to finally get the one after Anon has gotten settled in.

                                            >And from the report so far? Nothing.

                                            >Nothing to really worry about that is. Well, that'd almost be lying because she did let out a gasp when she realized he was being put in with the rest of the Villains against Celestia's (and Twilight's!) recommendation. She thought that he would either be "Corrupted" by such individuals or that they'd bother him enough that he'd do something brash.

                                            >Thankfully, it seemed that the Villains left him right alone...as...odd as that was to read. Apparently, he had a "reputation" of sorts before even going in.


                                            >She heard of stranger things happening and moved on.

                                            >To spare us the nitty-gritty, Anon was just a peach according to the Warden. Something that Twilight was just so glad to read.

                                            >However, the next bit would make her brow furrow...

                                            >Apparently, something had happened at the pool? Sombra of all ponies had nearly drowned! The silly colt had it in his head that he could finally handle The Deep End all by his lonesome but what got Twilight's attention was who saved him.

                                            >It was normally the lifeguard who was so diligent with this sort of affair but Anon quickly, and rather effortlessly, saved the Dark Wizard himself!

                                            >If it weren't the utter ridiculousness of the thought of Sombra of all ponies needing a rescue, the Princess of Friendship would have been utterly pleased with the display of comradery.

                                            >That's not what really gets Twilight's attention next though. What she noticed was that, apparently, Anon had left the pool to go comfort the ex-King. Most of the guards were dealing with Flim and Flam but if what a witness says is true and if Sombra could be trusted, then...then...

                                            >...oh sweet Celestia.


                                            5/x


                                            >>36739996

                                            >A double-take.

                                            >A triple, even.

                                            >Words were reread and read again just so there was no chance she was misreading.

                                            >There was just no avoiding it. The report said right there in official black crayon.

                                            >Anon, in broad daylight and for Sombra of all creatures, broke physics.

                                            >The Warden and whoever helped her make this report play it off as the Villains playing a prank or a misunderstanding happening but she could read the witness statements as clear as she could see Celestia's Sun or Luna's Moon.

                                            >According to one statement, a nearby guard had caught Anon ripping into one of the poster boards honorary judges used. They wanted to see what he was doing as he had seemed rather "excitable".

                                            >When they had scooted closer, they had heard the tale end of Anon's little speech to Sombra, something about water and how it "normally" spilled. Of course water spilled out of cups, why wouldn't they?

                                            >It was then, though, that they had caught the most peculiar sight, much to Twilight's ever-growing worry: The water didn't spill! The regular, non-magical, prison-approved paper stuck on tight and water refused to leave the cup.

                                            >It had happened so quick but when Sombra made a noise of utter glee and babbled about "unknown magic", the guard had gone to action as calmly as they could and called the pool activity off.

                                            >The statement mentioned more and there was even a little bit where they had asked Sombra what had happened ("BEST FRIEND HAS AMAZING MAGIC") but it was all essentially brushed off.

                                            >No one could break the wards on the prison and the bands made doubly sure of that.


                                            >But what if they couldn't?

                                            >What if something was just too strong for them to handle? What then?

                                            >Such thoughts raced like mad through the poor, purple, princess's mind as her magic shakily began putting down the letter.

                                            >The sudden realization had hit her like two-ton bricks: It was highly possible the prison could not handle such a highly powerful magic-user. Wards meant to keep even Tirek and Grogar in check were useless and other ponies could not see the danger.

                                            >Even if he was so nice, what would happen? Would he accidentally do something?

                                            >...maybe not...but she was so glad Celestia was trying to find a way to get him out. Maybe that'd save her the headaches that surely were to come...


                                            ---

                                            >Meanwhile, Anon's just happy that Sombra was feeling better. Might've made the little guy obsess over him more (he doesn't really get that) but it was better than seeing him sulk.

                                            >And hey! It was Extra Pudding Day!

                                            >Maybe prison ain't so bad after all for a shitty magician?


                                            6/6