Chapter 3 - Adventure!
“Are you sure you don’t have any costumes you can wear?”
“Yep.”
Twilight sighed, sagging onto the wall, the brim of her oversized wizard hat just drooping over eyes. “Well that’s no good. How can we go on a quest if we don’t have the right armour!”
“Twilight, have you been playing those role-playing games again?”
“Maybe...”
“You do know they're fictional, right?”
“Oh, but they're fascinating! For example, in one campaign, and my character is an griffon paladin by the way, our party was being attacked by a group of zebra bandits, but it turns out, one of them was a actually a powerful mage in disguise, and together we vanqui-”
“Twilight.”
“Huh?”
“You’re rambling.”
“Oh...” she chuckled nervously. “Sorry.”
“Anyway, if we’re supposed to be wearing proper armour, why do you only have wizard robes?”
Twilight scoffed. “These archmage robes are resistant to fire magic, thank you very much.”
“I very much doubt somepony will be using fire magic on us.”
“Hmph. We’ll see who’s laughing when a fire demon comes and burns you to a crisp.”
“Twilight? Fictional, remember?”
Twilight waved that suggestion off. “You have no sense of fun. The point is, you’ll need some protection. You can borrow my hat for now," she said, levitating one half of her wizard ensemble onto my head.
“Thank you. I guess.” I sighed, resigning myself to Twilight’s roleplaying antics.
“So anyway,” I said. “What’s this 'quest' about?”
“Well, we’ve been spending most of our time in the playground so far, correct?” she said, taking a stance like an army general, in spite of her wizardly exterior. I nodded passively. “Well, the King has written to me regarding the playground’s destruction, and it seems we have no other choice but to find a new place.”
“So by 'King' you mean our teacher and by 'destruction' you mean closing after hours, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well... why?”
“It was attacked by the ruthless armies of ‘Part-time Job’, from the far-off land of ‘Other Commitments’. He tried to fight back, but alas, it was impossible.” She feigned a melodramatic death and collapsed upon the bed, a forlorn expression on her face.
“You’re really not doing a very good job of these metaphors.”
Twilight pouted. “Hey, at least I’m trying. You, sir,” she said, pointing accusingly at me. “Are not doing me any favours.”
“Oh, alright,” I sighed, deciding that indulging her was the only viable course of action. “So then, ‘archmage’, where shall we go on this quest.”
Twilight leaped up off the bed and grabbed a large scroll out of her saddle bag, unrolling it to reveal a crumpled but surprisingly detailed map of Canterlot. Around our school there was a large pencilled-on circle, with a crudely-drawn red line marking out a pathway through the area.
“I’ve mapped out the most efficient route for us to take,” she barked, returning to a commanding turn of voice. “We’ll survey various locations within a mile radius of the school and see which one is the most appropriate for us."
Chuckling, I said, “And here I thought you were being spontaneous.”
“You should know me better by now,” she said, more confidently than self-deprecatingly.
“I guess,” I said, sighing for what seemed like the hundredth time.
A stern expression on her face, she said, “Now, this is an important mission, and I won’t lie, it may be dangerous, but-”
“Twili-?”
“No interruptions! We must succeed, to prevent ourselves from not having a place to read!”
“But-”
“Silence, peon!” she commanded. “My word is final!”
I let a few seconds pass before chirping up again. “Can I say something now?”
“Oh, fine...” Twilight groaned, dissatisfied but thankfully a lot calmer than before.
“Thank you. Now, are you sure about this? I mean, can’t we just choose a place we already know?”
“Well, I thought it over and I think the best course of action is to look at all of our options before deciding. Who knows, there could be somewhere perfect that we just haven’t found yet. Agreed?”
Sighing one final time, I gave in. “I guess." I was skeptical, but if there was anything I knew about Twilight, it was that she was very rarely wrong. "So should we head on out?”
“Yes!" she shouted, pointing a wooden staff that she seemed to have procured from thin air towards the window, to the dim boulevard of Canterlot . "Onward!”
“How about here?”
“No, this is the place where all the other foals go after school,” Twilight said, scowling. “And you know what they’re like.”
“Here?”
“No, there’s not going to be enough space to practise magic in.”
“Here?”
“Don’t you want to be able to see the stars?”
“Good point. How about this place?”
“Star, that’s a bar.”
“Oh... yeah...”
“Well that’s no good!” she exclaimed, kicking a nearby stone. “We’re almost at the end of the path and we still haven’t found a good place!”
“Hmm...” I mused, glancing over the map. “How about this place?”
Twilight leaned in to look. “Hoofburg Hill?” she asked, looking into the distance to see a small hill surrounded by a wooden fence and populated by a few tall trees. “Maybe, let’s see.”
“Well, I guess we should turn back,” she said.
“Huh? Why?”
“Look.” she exclaimed, pointing to a worn down sign hanging off the fence. The words “Keep Out” were barely discernible from what looked like centuries of wear and tear. However, looking around, it didn’t seem to have any security, and nopony was even around. In fact, the decrepit gate was just hanging off its hinges, and the prize was very inviting. The hill had everything we were looking for - it was a large open space, it was isolated and it was quiet.
“Do you see anypony stopping us?”
“Well... no, but-”
“Well there we go. It’s settled,” I decided, beginning to trot inside.
“Wait! You can’t go in! What if somepony sees us?”
“It’s almost night time, and this is the most secluded part of Canterlot. Besides do you see anypony around?"
“No, but still!”
“Now who’s the one without a sense of fun,” I chided.
“We’re not going up that hill.”
“Correction - you’re not going to that hill. I’m perfectly fine with it,” I said nonchalantly, trotting on ahead. Twilight’s face scrunched up into various contorted expressions and opened she her mouth to speak several times, before resorting to just jump and tackle me to the ground.
“We. Can’t. Go!”
“Lighten up, Twilight," I said, lifting myself up off the ground, adjusting my (her) wizard hat and dusting myself off. "Nopony’s going to see us.”
“Maybe. But they might! What if there are ponies just around the corner? What if they report us to the landlord?”
“Look at the state of this place. Do you really think there’s still a landlord?”
“There might still be! And if there is, we... we could be sent to prison! That would be a serious inconvenience to my education!”
“Twilight, they don’t send foals to prison.”
“Yes, but what if... what if they... tell our teacher and we get expelled from school?!”
“Twilight, there’s nopony here! And even if there was, they probably would tell anypony!”
“You don’t know that! Oh, this is so unsafe! And-”
“Twilight.”
“We shouldn’t be doing this! We-”
“Twilight!”
"What?!" she groaned.
“Couldn't you use your magic to get us in secretly?”
She pondered the thought for a while.
“Maybe if you know an invisibility spell or something?”
“Hmm... I don’t know an invisibility spell but I have been studying teleportation recently. I mean, it’s a little complex, but come to think of it, I have been dying to try it,” she said. "I still don't think this is right, but since I want to do this anyway, we can try."
“Well let’s do it," I said. I failed to see how teleportation would be less conspicuous than just walking in, but as long as it meant that we could get in without me having to drag Twilight kicking in screaming, it was fine by me.
“Alright, hold on...”
She scrunched up her face in concentration, even grunting a little, as the tip of her horn started illuminating. Slowly but surely, it started glowing brighter and brighter, until the aura almost encircled both of our heads. I was awestruck at first, but my feelings of awe turned to apprehension as I realised how badly this could go wrong.
“Twilight, wai-”
BANG!
Too late. Dazed, I collapsed onto the ground. I felt a strange breeziness on my scalp and a searing sensation all over my body. As my senses returned to me, I saw Twilight bouncing around in a circle gleefully.
“It worked! I can’t believe it worked! Yesyesyesyesyesye-”
“Ugh...”
Twilight turned to see my battered, burnt body on the ground and a chunk of my mane seared off of my head. The look of pride was washed off her face, replaced with anxiety. Gasping, she ran towards me.
“Star! Are you alright?”
“I... I think so...”
Grasping my left hoof, she pulled me up. I stumbled a little, almost falling over, before steadying myself.
“But... your mane!”
“It’s OK, it’ll grow back.”
Twilight looked unconvinced, as if she didn’t trust that hair could regrow, but she accepted it and lay down on the grass, clearly as exhausted as I was, if not more.
“I’m surprised you actually managed to pull that off.”
“Well, it wasn’t perfect,” she said, pointing at the bare patch on my scalp.
I waved her off. “That’s not important. The important thing is that you actually managed to teleport both of us in here!”
“Well... thanks,” she murmured, her cheeks flushing.
Sighing, pleasantly this time rather than frustratedly, I lay down next to her. We were in a small clearing surrounded by a few trees that just about formed a circle. The grass beneath us was thick, long and wet, and littered with even wetter dead leaves and pine needles, fallen from the surrounding trees. We had settled down underneath a towering oak tree, probably two stories tall. I don’t know why, but the place felt welcoming. It felt right. Twilight was right after all for bringing us here.
"So, what do you think of this place?" I asked.
She sighed. "Well, I guess you were right. Nopony is here. And it is very nice. And it does fit all our needs. And it is pretty much perfect."
"So..."
"Well... OK, we can stay."
"Thank goodness," I groaned.
"Was I really that bad?"
"Yep," I chuckled.
"Sorry about that."
"So, I’m guessing this is our new place?”
“It seems so,” she replied, smiling at that thought. “Our place. Hmm.”
We just lay there for another few minutes, contemplating that thought. This was our place. Well, it didn’t belong to us, but it was abandoned to the point where it might as well be. Nopony else would come here. It’d be just us two. It was ours.
“Star?”
“Mhm?”
“We’re best friends, aren’t we?”
I stopped and thought about that for second. Yes, she was my friend. My only friend. And thinking about it more, I realised that we really were best friends. Sure, we didn’t speak much, but did that matter? We enjoyed each other’s company, and really, that’s all friends are. And above all, I liked her. I liked her a lot.
“I guess we are.”
“Well... can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” I said apprehensively.
“Do... do you think I’m too smart?”
Now, having a stunted social development, I’m not too informed on status quo and so I don’t know how appropriate this was at the time, but at that question I burst out in a fit of laughter. Twilight looked at me with a concerned face for several seconds before I calmed myself down enough to reply.
“Do I think you’re too smart? Twilight, being too smart is a good thing. I wish I was as clever as you. Why would you be concerned about being too smart?”
“I... I don’t know. I’ve just been feeling guilty. Especially since we met. You were so impressed by me, and, well... I got a bit arrogant. I showed off. Then you started studying a lot more, and for a time I was happy about it. But then I got thinking, and I thought that I’d, I don’t know, forced you into it, like I made you feel that you had to be on my level, all because I was being too proud. I don't really know, I’m rambling now, but... I just felt badly about it.”
“Twilight, listen. You’re remarkably talented. For Celestia’s sake, you can perform a teleportation spell before you’ve even got your cutie mark. You deserve to feel proud. You didn’t force me into studying harder, I wanted to, and you inspired me. That’s a good thing. You have a bright future ahead of you and, well, I want the same. I should being thanking you.”
“You... you really mean it?”
“Absolutely.”
She smiled.
“If you don’t mind me asking, why are you so studious?” I asked.
“Oh, that’s a long story,” she said. “You know that Princess Celestia raises the sun at the Summer Sun Celebration?”
I nodded.
“Well, I’d always wanted to go, and a few years ago it was being held in Canterlot on the castle grounds, and my parents decided to let me go on my own. Just going into the castle grounds was humbling enough, but when Princess Celestia actually raised the sun, it was the most amazing, most wonderful thing I’ve ever seen.
“I was inspired. I didn’t care that we weren’t really meant to even use our horns until another couple of years. The very next day, I went to the library and checked out what must have been 20 books on magic, magic history, the spellcasting method, proper care and treatment of unicorn horns, anything that would be useful.
“It didn’t work at first though, and as much as I tried, my horn wouldn’t do anything. I was just about ready to give up, when I tried one last time, and it worked! Sure, all I could do was turn a page, but it was a fantastic start. From then on, I decided to commit. I spent the majority of my free time studying magic. And that’s how I got here.”
I was silent for another few seconds. “Huh,” I said bluntly.
“And what about you?” she asked, poking me gently. “What got you interested in astronomy?”
“Oh, well I don’t have as grand and great a story as you do. When I was younger I was wandering through the house and I came across my Dad’s old astronomy textbooks. I got to reading and it was interesting. I asked him if he had any more and, well, that’s about it, really.”
“Hmm...” she murmured, closing her eyes and letting the wind blow through her mane, while it blew through my lack of it. She looked ridiculous in that wizard costume of hers, but it made her all the more wonderful, a kind of ridiculous only Twilight could be. I lay there with her silently for what could’ve been hours, staring into the star-littered sky as the sun fell below the horizon. I looked at the stars every night, but on this night, they appeared brighter and more beautiful than ever before, sparkling in the vast, dark expanse of the night sky.
“I can see why you like the stars so much.”
“Hmm?” I turned my head to see Twilight sitting up, staring up into the sky. I murmured in agreement, lying back down again. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
She chuckled and said, “You know, two ponies alone under moonlight would generally be considered romantic.”
“Well then I guess we’re a couple,” I laughed.
“I guess we are,” she replied.
In light of the awkward tension raised by that remark, we stayed silent until it was time to leave.
“So... I’ll see you tomorrow?” she said.
“You bet,” I said eagerly. “Oh, and I almost forgot. Here."
I took off my borrowed wizard hat and handed it to her. She seemed deep in thought for a while before smiling and saying, "Keep it. My first gift to you, seeing as we're an official couple now."
"Really?" I asked. She nodded. "Gee, I... I don't know what to say. Thanks, Twilight. Not just for the hat, for everything, for tonight, for being my friend. Thank you."
She blushed a little. “You’re welcome. And thanks for being my friend too."
And with that, we parted ways and I headed on home.
Author's Note: Anticlimactic ending, I know, but I couldn't think of something better. So I may be using this fic as an excuse to make Twilight a D&D player and a (terrible) LARPer, despite never taking part in either of those activities myself. I was originally going to split this into two chapters, but I decided against it, mainly because the next chapter would've been very short and I've set myself a minimum of 1000 words for each chapter. Hopefully the change in mood isn't too striking. I'd like to thank you guys for the positive feedback and words of encouragement you've given me. I know I don't really reply to comments but I want you guys to know that it is very much appreciated. Hope you enjoyed this chapter too.