Luna's Lacunae

by kudzuhaiku

Chapter 6

“I cannot believe that my sister banished me from the castle,” Princess Luna said a flat monotone. She turned and looked at Maeve. “This is your fault. This is all your fault. I blame you.”

Maeve made no reply. Flying terrified her. It wasn’t natural to fly, and flying by sky carriage that was pulled by pegasus ponies unnerved her. She felt her stomach doing flip flops and she wondered if perhaps she might die before they reached their destination.

“Maeve, you do not look well.” Princess Luna leaned forwards, one eye was squinted, and she peered at the girl sitting beside her. “Maeve, I would like for you to tell me the major schools of magic.”

“Telekinesis,” Maeve said, beginning her reply. She took a deep breath. “Telepathy. Pyrokinesis. Hydrokinesis. Electrokinesis.” She paused and waited for her nausea to pass. “Floramancy. Faunamancy. Umbrakinesis. Somniomancy.”

“Very good.” Princess Luna looked out the window, something that Maeve refused to do. “We will be landing soon. Just hold on a little longer and this will be over. Be strong.”

“Luna?” Maeve asked in a weak voice.

Turning her head, Luna looked Maeve in the eye. “Yes?”

“What is an animal? Faunamancy… my studies trouble me. We humans don’t think of ourselves as animals, but we do think of ponies as animals… here in a world of magical talking ponies though, many ponies don’t see themselves as animals at all, but do see the lesser beasts around them as animals. The books I am reading say that faunamancy is useful to control the lesser animals and to help nurture the natural world around me, but couldn’t that control also be placed over ponies?” Maeve’s green eyes closed and she rested her head back against the cushioned seat back.

There were no words that Luna felt comfortable saying in response. Maeve’s insight into the nature of the world around her could be troubling at times. Ponies were animals, and the ponies who argued otherwise were fooling themselves. Luna wondered if human beings had the same sorts of arguments.

“I would never want to use magical control over another… that’s just awful,” Maeve said in a raspy whisper.

The carriage shuddered as it was buffeted by wind, causing Maeve to whimper, and Luna looked out the window once more. After looking outside, Luna turned her head towards Maeve and offered the girl a reassuring smile.

“We are coming in for a landing…”

---

Stepping out of the carriage, which had seemed all too stuffy, Maeve sucked in a lungful of cool, moist air. The ground was soft beneath her thin soled slippers. She stood on landing strip and there were trees on both sides. Bugs flew overhead.

“Red!” Maeve almost tripped over her own feet as she stumbled forwards, glad to see her friend. She plopped down on her knees, kneeling before the colt, and took his face into her hands, giving his cheeks an affectionate squeeze.

“Hi Maeve,” Red said as Maeve smooshed his cheeks.

“Hello, Sorceress Maeve,” Quickie Cob said, bowing his head.

Beside Quickie Cob, Rose Gold gave her husband a soft kick in the fetlocks and narrowed her eyes at him. “Quickie, we talked about this!” she said in loud whisper. Rose Gold moved to Maeve’s side and stood close, but not too close, not wanting to crowd the girl. “Good to see you, dearie.”

“We have everything ready for the both of you.” Quickie Cob pointed off into the trees. “The cottage was has every comfort you could ask for, and there is a nice unicorn named Mulberry that serves as the cook. Mulberry is a nice sort, but he don’t say much.”

“Mulberry!” Luna cried. “Oh I like Mulberry! Everything really is better with gravy!” Luna’s wings fluttered at her sides while she spoke, her voice loud and almost echoing among the trees. “Mmm, thick, creamy gravy, with lots of pepper, delicious when served on biscuits or slices of cornbread.” Licking her lips, Luna took off at a trot into the trees, following a narrow trail.

“Mulberry’s cutie mark is a gravy ladle… He’s an older stallion, word has it that Princess Celestia allowed him to retire a little early after Princess Luna started to become… pleasantly plump.”

“Portly is more like it—”

“Quickie Cob! Don’t make me end you!” Rose Gold cried, looking mortified from hearing her husband’s words.

Covering her mouth with one hand, Maeve began to giggle as she stood up. She gave Red’s ear a gentle tug with her other hand as she got to her feet. Still giggling, she peered through the trees, trying to get a glimpse of Luna. Maeve recovered from motion sickness in the way that only young children could recover, her experience now forgotten.

“Come on, both of you, it will be time for lunch in a little while, and we should be going,” Rose Gold said to Red Russet and Maeve.

---

Looking around her room, Maeve fell in love with it. It was small, compared to her room back at the castle, but it was also cozy. There was a small cast iron stove against the far wall, a tiny thing, but it got cold here at night, or so Celestia had said. The door was almost oval shaped and both of the windows were shaped like keyholes. There was a thick, heavy looking patchwork quilt upon the bed.

Stepping out of her room, Maeve returned to the central room of cottage, which was much larger than she thought it would be. She had been expecting a tiny cottage for some reason, this place was of good size. The wooden rafters overhead were all carved and there were a million epic tiny scenes to study. The central room was an elongated oval. It seemed that Celestia liked circular things rather than sharp corners and angles. One half of the main room functioned as a dining area. The other half had no sofas, no couches, nothing of the sort. There were several bowl shaped basins on the stone floor filled with cushions.

In the center of the room was a massive stone fireplace that was open on both sides, so that the dining area and the sitting area could be heated. Maeve stood staring at the fireplace, it was thousands of stones of all shapes and sizes mortared together.

Maeve had slipped off her dirty slippers and was now going around barefooted, enjoying the feeling of the cool, smooth stone against her feet. She made her way to Luna’s door and pushed her way inside.

Luna’s room wasn’t much different than her own. It was about the same size, had a tiny cast iron stove against the wall, two windows, the only thing different was the bed, which wasn’t as long as Maeve’s bed was.

Looking up from her bed, Luna sighed and smiled at Maeve. “It feels good to be here, I must confess, I am glad I came.”

“This place is wonderful,” Maeve said as she stepped out of Luna’s room to continue having a good look around the magnificent stone cottage.

---

There was a plop as a fat frog lept into the pond. The water looked a little green, this was not a pond suitable for swimming, but Maeve was enchanted by it anyway. There reeds and cattails in one half of the pond and open water in the other half. A stone jutted up out of the water, forming a natural shelf, and there was a big box turtle sunning itself.

There was an island of sunlight around the pond in the middle of a sea of sun dappled shadows from the many trees all around. When the wind picked up, the moving leaves and branches caused the beams of sunlight to dance upon the spongy loam of the forest floor.

“Everything is soft,” Red said as he walked around the pond, poking his head into the long grass. “The earth feels so alive here, compared to Canterlot.”

“So much cooler here.” Maeve sat down on a rock near the pond. She inhaled through her nose, filling her lungs with moist air fragrant with the scents of the forest all around them. Something buzzed near her head, but she did not turn her head in time to see it.

“Canterlot gets cold because of the high altitude.” Red lifted his head and watched bugs skating over the surface of the pond. “But you’re right, it does feel so much cooler here.”

Reaching out her hand, Maeve placed her fingertips on a tree and closed her eyes. The land, the trees, everything was different here. Everything was alive here in Equestria… or perhaps her magic had awakened her to the world around her. Maeve could never quite tell. The tree caused a strange tickle-prickle in her fingers as she touched it. The tree was a simple thing. She could sense that it wanted to grow taller so that it could get more of the sun.

“Maeve… you’re glowing,” Red gasped.

Opening her eyes, Maeve saw a faint silvery blue light around her hand. It dimmed, faded, and disappeared as her concentration was broken. She smiled, blinked, pulled her hand away from the tree, and stared at her fingers. She still had no clue how or why she could use magic. The fey seemed to understand something about her, knowing some detail about her that Maeve did not know or understand, but they had told her nothing.

Her magic was strong, capable of reaching through to other realities and touching others, as she had done with Luna. But she had no comprehension of how or why her magic worked. It was baffling, mystifying, and something she wished that she could have answered.

There were no answers and it left Maeve feeling bitter.

“Maeve?” Red, who was sitting down in the grass, looked over the human girl that was his only friend, his muzzle contorted with a flood of emotions.

“What is it, Red?” Maeve replied. She dropped her hand and looked over at the earth pony colt.

“I heard my parents talking before we made the trip here.” Red looked down at his front hooves, his eyes narrowing and his mane spilling over his face. “Does it bother you that I’m a colt?”

“What?” Maeve blinked a few times and felt a peculiar sensation welling up inside of her, some unknown and unidentifiable emotion. Something about the question bothered her.

“Look, I know that something really bad happened to you. I mean, we’ve talked a little, I know you have troubles being touched, and you don’t like feeling weight on your body.” Red looked up, a pained expression on his face. “And I heard my parents talking. I heard some things that have really bothered me and left me worried about… us… being friends. I’m male… and some awful things were done to you and I’m so scared that you might be afraid of me or might not want me to touch you at all or—”

“Red, stop,” Maeve held up her hand. “You’re not human.” She shook her head.

“I’m still scared, Maeve. I feel so bad for you that it hurts me. There are times I want to hug you and make you feel better and I can’t and I understand a bit more about why now and I don’t see how you are ever going to heal up and get better from this and I’ve been wanting to talk to my mom and my dad about this but I don’t know how and I’m worried I’ll get in trouble for eavesdropping, which is a big time no-no.” Red sucked in a deep breath and let it out in huff.

For Maeve, the pond between her and Red now seemed more like an ocean, an impossible distance. She could hear him snuffling, but she did not know how to comfort him.

“Maeve, Red, it is lunch time! Come back for lunch!” Rose Gold called from the cottage.

Author's Note:

It feels nice to write this.

Comments

[HoneyBadgerr]

6064055 dualcasting? Maeve OP, plz nerf ;)

[Miss Appolonia]

Ponies animals, and the ponies who argued otherwise were fooling themselves.

'Ponies were animals'?

There was an inland of sunlight around the pond in the middle of a sea of sun dappled shadows

'There was an island'?

[FanOfMostEverything]

Some interesting exclusions in those schools of magic. Geomancy, for example. Magic can affect the plants and animals, but nopony seems to have considered the stone.

Also, our first glimpse of Maeve's magic in action. It seems to be an intuitive thing; the more she thinks about it, the less able she is to use it. Interesting.

And Red is a sweetheart.

Typo:

The tree was simple thing.

Missing "a".

[kudzuhaiku]

6066607

Maeve was listing off the common, major schools.

There are plenty of minor schools and not so common fields of magic.

[Callos Sombra]

This story is interesting i hope you continue with it.

[kudzuhaiku]

6100909

Working on a chapter right now!

[Callos Sombra]

6100914 ah good to hear! I really love this story i really feel bad for the girl.. hope her and red become more then friends since they are always worried for one another n.n

[Raul]

Those schools are to specific. It can be lowered to 7 Disiplins.
Biomancy, Pyromancy, Divination, Telepathy, Telekinesis, The Sacred Santic, and the forbidden Malefic (both Santic and Melefic fall under Deamonology to be even more concise.)
Most of what she said fit under these, no?

And that cottage seems nice, reminds me of my family's Thanksgiving/Easter get together house.

[McBehrer]

I don’t know see how you are ever going to heal up

One of these words needs to go...

[McBehrer]

7036464
Evocation, Transmutation, Divination, Conjuration, Abjuration, Illusion, Enchantment, Necromancy.

[Blaze Song]

7238239

You forgot Neuromancy.. (direct manipulation of the brains neurones)