Chapter 7
The training dummy had been moved and that bothered Flicker more than he cared to admit. In its place was now a third bed, a plain spartan thing with a thin mattress that matched the bunk beds already in the room. Laying on the bed in a sparse patch of sunlight, was Spud.
“Eeeeeeeeeeeeee! What is that?! It’s so cute!” Piper rushed forwards into the room, shoving past Hennessy, and she lifted the mutant monstrosity known as ‘Spud’ with her magic. Oblivious to the danger of his inch long claws, his tusk like teeth, she held him up and started rubbing her cheek against his hairless, wrinkled, leathery skin. “Kitty!”
“Meow?” Spud cast a pleading gaze upon Flicker, the only pony present who spoke Spud. “Meow. Meow? Meow… meow!” The expression upon the bulldog-like face of the hairless cat became one of longsuffering sorrow as Spud realised that Piper was going to be a permanent pest. Spud flexed his claws, wiggled his toes, but did nothing to bring harm to the filly dismantling his dignity with reckless abandon.
“That’s Spud.” Flicker tried to control his feelings of annoyance that his training dummy had been moved. “Spud can’t talk like you or I can, but he can understand every word you say. He’s smart like us. I didn’t choose Spud, he chose me. It’s complicated.”
“He’s so cute!” Piper squealed as she swung Spud around in her magic, her cheek still rubbing up against him. As she gave him a loving squeeze, Spud yowled in protest, revealing multiple rows of teeth.
Spud and his species had hyperdontia.
The storm of affection passed and Piper put Spud back down upon her bed. She began looking around her room, muttering about how it needed wall decorations, curtains, and rugs. As she did this, Hennessy looked to Flicker to check for signs of discontent, but Flicker was oblivious.
“Spud,” Flicker said to his hideous companion, “we’ve been given a job. Keep Piper safe. If anything or anypony tries to hurt her, gnaw their leg off… or better yet, go for the face.”
Whirling about, Spud cast a baleful glance at the filly that had robbed him of his dignity and then gave Flicker a seething look of righteous indignation. His stubby, almost nonexistent ears twitched, and his fat sausage of a tail slashed through the air.
“You don’t have to like orders, Spud, you just have to follow them. Go for the face.”
“Meow.” It was a very dismissive meow, but Spud acknowledged the order he had been given. Disgusted and put out, he flopped down upon the bed and resumed his power napping in the sun.
“This place almost looks like a prison cell,” Piper said as she tried to conjure up a conversation. Turning about, she faced the two colts that were her roommates. “Both of you seem nice.”
Flicker, who had a baby sister, a little yearling named Knick-Knack, thought of her with a warm sense of fondness. He stood there, silent, and Hennessy pushed past him. The older earth pony colt crossed the room and went to where Piper stood. He studied her, and she studied him back, and after a quiet exchange, the filly smiled.
Shuffling on his hooves, Hennessy said to Piper, “You’re gonna hear Flicker talk about how he is, and it’s gonna be creepy, and he’s gonna talk about how he likes to kill stuff, gas stuff, and set things on fire. He can be a bit much to take, but make no mistake, he’s a good sort of pony. I don’t know if I’d call him nice, but he’s professional and he strikes me as the sort that’ll make a loyal friend. He just really loves his job, that’s all.”
Intrigued, Piper tilted her head off to one side and peered over at Flicker, who was now staring at Hennessy with a blank stare. Hennessy sidled around until he stood side by side with Piper, and then the two of them stared at Flicker together, who stood like a statue near the door.
“He kinda strikes me as being thick headed,” Piper whispered to Hennessy.
“Eh, maybe,” Hennessy replied, “but the way I see it, from what little I know of him, Flicker’s mind moves like a train. It’s slow to start, but once it’s moving, there ain’t no stopping it. It’s all power and motion going forward. I think a lot of ponies might mistake him as being stupid.” The colt’s slow drawl made Piper’s grin widen with every word he spoke.
All too aware that he was being studied and sized up, Flicker just stood there, thinking about trains. He liked trains, he liked what they represented, the economy and efficiency of movement, and most of all, Flicker liked it when the trains were on time. What was the point of a train schedule if the train was always late?
“You know, I think I can see why my mother went to him.” Squinting, Piper continued to study Flicker, and she gave Hennessy a nudge with her foreleg. “I think we’re safe with him.”
“I’m gonna go take a shower,” Flicker announced. He gave Hennessy a stern look. “Don’t let Piper out of your sight.” His brow furrowing, the wheels of Flicker’s mind began to turn. “We need to figure out how she is going to shower and stay safe. One of us will have to stand guard.”
“Wait, he’s really serious about this, isn’t he?” Piper asked.
“Ayup.” Hennessy nodded his head. “I think Flicker is what you call ‘book-smart,’ ‘cause he takes everything all literacy like.”
Giggling, Piper stuck out her tongue and made a funny face at Hennessy. “That isn’t what book-smart means, you silly-head.”
“Well, what does it mean, then?” Hennessy demanded to know.
“While you two sort this out, I’m going to shower.” Turning about, Flicker slipped out the door and was gone.
Somewhat damp and smelling of pine oil soap, Flicker picked up his spellbook for a bit of study. He wasn’t very good at magic, he lacked power and creativity. Once he learned a simple spell, he could use it, but he had trouble combining them with other spells or making an old spell work in a new way.
Piper was trying to help Hennessy with his reading and that was a mild distraction, but Flicker would just have to deal with it. They were reading a dictionary, and Flicker approved of the venture. Dictionaries were marvelous books, full of rules and order. Flicker liked dictionaries, they offered clarity of language and brought understanding.
With an emotionless calm, he lifted up his new wand and flipped his spellbook open to a spell that had long plagued him. He could cast a light spell from his horn, but that took continued effort and magical drain. There was a conjurable orb of light that would burn for a time, but up to this point, it had eluded him. It was just beyond his abilities to cast, even though plenty of other unicorns cast it with total ease.
Unaware that Piper was now staring at him and his wand, Flicker tried to focus the spell that was the bane of his existence. It was just a common light spell, but for him, it represented something that was just outside of his reach. Even with the available verbal component for focusing magical energies, he had failed time and time again.
Holding the wand, summoning his will, Flicker made yet another familiar attempt and he spoke the words that he had spoken so many times. “Luceat lux vestra!”
As was the case so many times before, nothing happened. Flicker stood there, stubborn, and somewhat peeved. He did it again and this time, gave the wand a little wave. “Luceat lux vestra!” Much to his frustration, nothing happened. Well then, he could do this all day and all night if he had to. He had done it before, so doing it now was no big deal.
Stabbing the air with the wand, he said the magic words again. “Luceat lux vestra!”
“You’re saying the words right.” Piper’s voice was a little shy as she approached Flicker, and she appeared apprehensive, unsure how Flicker might take her intrusion. “I’ve cast this spell before. It’s tricky, and I’ve seen it done without the verbal component. I’m not good enough to do that just yet, but I think I can help you. That’s a wand… I’ve never seen one, but I’ve read about them. Might I see it?”
Flicker, slow to respond, gave thought to her words. As Piper stood there, patient, Flicker came to the conclusion that there was no harm in letting her help. Saying nothing, he offered his wand to her. For a moment, their magic intermingled, and for Flicker, it was like standing in the noonday sun. Piper’s magic had warmth and power.
“To use a wand, I’ve heard it said that it is like pushing ink through a quill. You focus your magic into the wand itself, charge up the wand, and then push the magic through. Now that I think about it, I would imagine that it would be like shooting a spitwad out of a straw.”
Flicker, listening to every word, couldn’t help but notice that when Piper said ‘straw’ or any other word with a ‘w’ in it, there was a faint ‘r’ sound to how she said it. “Strawr.” He understood how to shoot spitwads out of a straw, as he was learning how to use a blowgun as part of his training. One had to inhale a mighty amount of air if one hoped to get the dart free of the gun.
Piper, her horn glowing, made a fluid flourish with the wand and said, “Luceat lux vestra!”
A weak orb of light fizzled into existence, then floated up over Piper’s head, looking very much like an incandescent soap bubble. Piper looked impressed by her own magic, and she returned the wand to Flicker with a relieved smile.
“Now, you try.” Piper’s voice was both joyous and prim at the same time somehow.
Nervous, though not showing it, Flicker held his wand and tried to think of his magic as taking a deep breath. He allowed it to build, his wand and his horn glowing brighter with each passing second. Piper’s glowing orb fizzled out of existence, but he didn’t let it distract him. Right now, Spud could start gnawing on his leg and Flicker wouldn’t let it distract him.
With a jerk of the wand, Flicker shouted, “Luceat lux vestra!”
The brass tip of the wand spat out sparks but nothing else happened.
Well then, he was just going to have to keep trying. Undaunted, Flicker allowed his magic to build again as Piper took a step back to give him space. It was just a simple light spell. Doctor Sterling could cast it without even saying anything, and he could spit out dozens of orbs in seconds.
Perhaps he just wasn’t waiting long enough. Flicker allowed his magic to build and he waited, allowing for several seconds to pass. The wand was vibrating a bit now and Flicker could feel his still somewhat damp mane standing up in a few spots. Spud yowled and then darted beneath the bed, but Flicker wasn’t distracted.
Hennessy lifted his dictionary up in front of his face like a shield.
“Luceat lux vestra!” Flicker cried as he stabbed the air with his wand. There was a brilliant flash of light that was blinding and he couldn’t see the end result of what he had done. Balls of light danced in his vision and Flicker blinked a few times to clear the dazzle from his eyes.
Over his head, a tiny orb of light hovered in orbit around his horn. It was weak, it flickered, and would die any second, but it was a persistent light orb. Feeling pleased with himself, Flicker prepared to celebrate by trying again. He lifted his wand and began to charge himself with magic…
With a kind, almost paternal expression, Doctor Sterling looked down upon the three faces looking back at him. Flicker had his usual look of cold disinterest, but that was his normal expression, Hennessy had a look of warm, worshipful adoration, and Piper was just too eager. She was bouncing in place, which caused her ears to flap up and down. The doctor thought that she rather looked like an overexcited puppy.
“We’ll be taking an airship to our location,” he said to the foals hanging on his every word. “My airship. She’s not very big, but she’ll sleep six, she has an onboard lab, and she’s comfortable. I will expect the three of you to obey every word I say and I want you to remember to be on your best manners when we are in public view.”
Flicker nodded, as did Hennessy, but Piper was just too excited, so she kept bouncing.
“On location, there will be a focus on stilt training. Young Mister Nicker is already a master and the two of you would do well to pay attention to any advice he has to offer. Stilts allow us to travel rapidly overland and offer us some means protection from being swarmed should we encounter groups of vermin out in the open wilds. Stilts also offer a degree of protection from wild animals.”
“Stilts!” Piper squealed.
“Yes, Miss Pie, stilts. They are very practical tools of our trade, as you will learn in time.”
“When are we leaving?” Flicker asked.
“Within the hour,” the doctor replied. “On ship, you will be my first mate and you will be responsible for keeping the crew in line.”
Flicker, who didn’t see the humour in this statement, gave a solemn nod.
The doctor, who saw that Flicker didn’t see the humour in his statement, chuckled and added, “Any infractions will end with walking the plank.”
Again there was a solemn nod from Flicker, but both Hennessy and Piper looked alarmed. Sterling’s eyebrow arched and a wry smile crossed his muzzle. He knew for certain that Flicker would look all over the deck for the plank and then complain when he couldn’t find it.
The doctor looked forwards to the laugh.
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funny end... i like flicker (as you know) the wand thing keeps getting me to think harry potter
as for the room... piper will soon unleash her filly magic on it
7742779
Ah yes. Even I have found the strict rules of Feng Shui uncomfortable. They say the unfinished computer repair job resting on an old plastic shower curtain liner in the middle of the living room floor is an offense to the eye?! Fools! I say it adds to the overall ambience of the home!
Bah... Let them scoff!
7742822 Mine hides behind the front door when you open it.
I wonder if Spud gets stilt training?
Ah Flicker, the kind of pony who finds a "Causes Rats to Spontaneously Combust" spell and is happy with learning it without any experimentation, variance, or questioning. He's going to be an interesting spell caster.
I appreciate Piper's enthusiasm, and how dangerous it is.
Honestly, right now I'm liking this more than the other one that had more updates today, and I really like both of them. It's probably because this is new, and the other has been around for a bit. *Shrug* I love them both though.
Don't let Luna see Spud, she'll want kittens!
img14.deviantart.net/e41c/i/2014/199/8/d/luna_and_some_kitties_by_mlj_lucarias-d7r96yd.jpg
I like Flicker - he's the type of persona I always wanted to have - straightforward and simple.
Is this the correct word choice?
"Obvious to the danger of his inch long claws, his tusk like teeth, she held him up and started rubbing her cheek against his hairless, wrinkled, leathery skin. “Kitty!”"
I feel now that it is appropriate to compare Flicker to a hammer.
Yes, hammers lack elegance in their use. Yes, hammers are incapable of doing more than a few tasks.
But what a hammer can do, it does very effectively, and sometimes the question to ask is not, "What kind of tool is needed?" but rather, "Hiw big a hammer is needed?"
7743295 darnit. I thought flicker was older...
7743442
Why?
I've left breadcrumbs about his age.
7743460 i might have missed it, but you never clarified just how much time has passed.
7743464
I think it said that a year has passed.
Don't Panic?
be sure to have them bring a towel.
Go for the face Spud! Gooo for the face!Raaaaargh!
Now that I think about it,
Can't help but complain sometimes.
7825416
Always go for the face. Or the crotch
7825416
in a choice between freddy fazbear, and the gang, or a spud to the face I'd apply mayo, pick a suitably cute colour, and sign up for a job at the pizzeria