Winter's Spell

by Dante Vangrave

December 19th - 3

“So lemme get this straight . . .”

From my seat in my chair, I observed as Veronica, who was leaning against the wall, rubbed her temple with a sigh.

“You and your sister,” she continued with a gesture towards Luna, who was still out of it, “are pony princesses of a land called Equestria who were fighting an evil queen. During your, uh . . . magic battle, your spells collided and you somehow ended up in the park, naked and turned into humans like us.”

Celestia nodded slowly, though I could tell she was confused by the slight furrow of her eyebrows. In addition to bringing my two friends and introducing the three to each other – which I was somewhat regretting in hindsight – I’d also brought with me some warm soup for Celestia (and some of Veronica’s spare clothes for both her and her sister, as I had no desire to ogle defenseless women. From the sounds that came from my room when I’d left to give the girls some privacy, I concluded that Celestia was a nudist and thus unfamiliar with putting on clothing. Though who in their right mind would go nude in a damn blizzard was another question entirely).

As such, she paused in the middle of a spoonful (after having taken a quite a number of tries to maneuver said utensil into her mouth and get your mind out of the gutter you pervert) and then answered, “Yes, that is correct. From what Mister Giovanni has said, he found the two of us in a nearby park.”

To my left and once again perched on my desk, Katie let out a low whistle. “Wow, that’s something you come up with when you're really fucked up,” she said.

Veronica and I snorted, but all the same I elbowed Katie in the ribs and ignored her indignant cry. Really, it couldn't hurt her to learn a little something called ‘tact’. "What Katie here is trying to say is that we don’t quite believe your story."

A faint moue of concern appeared on the multicolor haired woman’s face. “And why is that?” she asked evenly, her throat having been soothed enough by the warm liquids to return her voice to normal.

Veronica and I glanced at each other, and then at Katie, who was giving me a mild glare.

“Well,” I started, “to begin with, magic doesn’t exist.”

The frown grew more visible on Celestia’s face as she stared into her soup bowl. “That cannot be possible,” she murmured.

“I hate to tell you this, but Gio’s right. Magic doesn’t exist,” Veronica said with an apologetic tone and a shrug.

Celestia looked up at me. “But . . . without magic, how do you survive? Every being I’ve ever met in my life has had at least a trace amount of it within their bodies, even earth ponies. How is it that you don’t have any?”

Before I could even answer, her eyes widened and she let out a small gasp. “Wait! In all the excitement, I didn’t even notice–”

All three of us watched in silence as she cut herself off and closed her eyes, a look of deep concentration on her face.

A moment later, her eyes snapped open. “No . . . I-I can’t feel my magic! What happened to it!?”

Celestia honestly appeared to be scared out of her mind because of whatever had happened to her ‘magic’ powers. She looked almost close to tears.

Veronica, Katie and I shared another glance with each other, this one much more uncomfortable than the last. With an unspoken agreement, my two friends began to leave the room, trying not to make noise.

Somehow, when it came down to it, I was the most mature and level-headed among the three of us. Katie herself admitted many times that she knew she wasn’t the best at ‘normal’ social interaction, and Veronica usually came across as somewhat condescending and arrogant to new people, as was the case with both Katie and Sidaine.

In this particular case however, with a woman who had woken up in a strange place with a strange jumble of memories from some drug-induced hallucination, much tact was needed. Katie was familiar with the receiving end of such a situation, but not much on the comforting side. Veronica had no experience here whatsoever. Thus it was quietly decided that I would be the one to deal with the distraught Celestia.

When I turned my head back after making sure they’d left, I saw that Celestia’s eyes really were watery, though her gaze seemed to be unfocused.

With a small sigh, I scooted my chair closer to the woman, taking her hand in mine. Her light pink eyes widened again ever-so-slightly, and she turned to meet my concerned stare.

“Look, Celestia, I can’t say I know what you’re going through,” I said slowly, putting my other hand on her shoulder. “But just know that, even though we just met, I’ll do my best to help you. So will Veronica and Katie, for that matter.”

I meant it sincerely too. Celestia hadn’t seemed to be a crazy woman who might have just been hiding underneath a kind façade, despite the surreal situation I had stumbled across.

Right then, in front of me, she was just a lost soul who had ended up with unfortunate circumstances.

It struck at me deeply, her expression of confused anguish, and I felt guilt at having played a part in that.

“Mister Giovanni . . .” Celestia whispered, catching my attention as she lowering her head. “I . . . I must confess that I have never felt this vulnerable since I was but a young filly.” I knew better than to correct the woman, or any woman for that matter, when she was in such an emotional state. “You have my utmost thanks for aiding my sister and I during this trying time.”

I surprised the both of us then, when I reached over and hugged her.

I really couldn’t stand to see anybody like that.

When I pulled back, I saw that she had a faint look of surprise on her face, as well as a light blush for some reason.

I gave her a cheerful grin. “Come on now, don’t be sad. You’ve gotta be positive! Being all down in the dumps won’t help much, you know.”

Celestia stared at me for a long moment before a soft smile emerged on her lips and she giggled lightly. “Yes, you are right, of course. Thank you again, Mister Giovanni.”

Despite her strange claims of being a princess co-in charge of an entire nation, Celestia was acting more like a normal person than I expected. If she had behaved any differently than before I saved her, which I wouldn’t know anyway, the small exchange we just had might have gotten her to loosen up, for which I was glad.

I settled back into my seat, but not before giving Celestia a poke on the forehead. As she blinked owlishly at me, I scolded her lightly, “Hey, drop that ‘Mister’ stuff. Just call me Gio. All my friends do.”

She tilted her head curiously, but acceded to my request with another smile. “Very well, Gio.”

“Don’t call him Gio, his name’s Panda!” Katie cried from behind my closed door.

I ran a hand down my face with a sigh. “Katie, stop yelling,” I said quietly, my eyes darting towards Celestia’s sister, who had shifted a bit after the blonde’s yell. “You might wake Luna up.”

“Ah, sorry, sorry,” she said in a much lower tone, peaking her head in through the now open doorway. “But seriously, he’s like a giant panda bear.”

My eye twitched slightly as Celestia looked at the both of us in askance. “What is a panda?”

This time, both Katie and I looked at her. “You . . . you don’t know what a panda is?” Katie gaped at the bedridden woman as she reentered my bedroom.

As for me, I clasped my hands together as if in prayer. “Finally, someone who won’t call me by that ridiculous nickname. Why do you people think it fits anyway?” I asked with a sideways glance at the blonde.

Katie whipped her head over to glare at me. “Because!” she said, though not loud enough to startle Luna. “You are Panda!”

“Seriously, you have to ask? You’re big, tall and cuddly like a panda, Panda,” Veronica chimed in from behind Katie with a grin. I hadn’t noticed her enter, so she probably had snuck in just then.

I gave my best friend a deadpan look. “You’re just saying that because Sidaine gave me this silly nickname.”

Veronica threw her hat at me, which I neatly caught.

“Thought so,” I confirmed with a smirk, twirling the hat around on my finger.

Celestia’s low, tinkling laugh put a pause in our antics. “My, the three of you are such close friends,” she observed almost happily.

Katie beamed at her, an oddly proud expression. “Aren’t we?” she said excitedly, slinging an arm around a suddenly disgruntled brunette. “Veronica here is my bestest girlfriend! And Panda over there is my homeslice!”

“Please, never ever, ever, call me that ever again,” I said flatly, before spotting the all-but-forgotten present on my desk. “That reminds me . . .”

I rolled my chair over and picked up the package before tossing it lightly to Veronica. “Happy birthday.”

Veronica caught it easily, looking surprised and pleased at the same time

“It’s your birthday today, Miss Veronica?” Celestia asked in slight shock before bowing her head. “I sincerely apologize for disrupting this occasion.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. I’m just glad you and your sister are safe here,” Veronica said with a reassuring smile before returning her attention to my present, ripping off the wrapping paper. “Now, what did you get me . . .” She trailed off as she opened the small box, her mouth opening slightly in what I hoped was astonishment.

“I saw you eyeing it a few weeks ago, so I decided to get it for you,” I said as she pulled out a thin, gold chain necklace. The necklace itself wasn’t impressive, but the small ruby pendant attached to it, framed in some sort of sculpted black material, definitely was.

When Veronica gave me a wide, honestly ecstatic grin, I knew that buying that small thing was totally worth it.

“That is a beautiful pendant,” Celestia commented after a moment with a warm smile.

“I know, right?” Veronica replied, gently putting it on. She then gave me an excessively tight hug and a chaste kiss on the cheek. “Gio, you are an awesome best friend.” She turned to Katie, interrupting the blonde before she could say anything. “And yes, Katie, you are an awesome second best friend.”

“Yeah!” Katie exclaimed loudly, before covering her mouth sheepishly. “Um . . . oops, sorry.”

As one, all four of us turned to face Luna.

Her eyes opened slowly, revealing bleary bluish-green eyes – teal if I remembered my crayons right.

At first, Luna merely stared blankly at the ceiling, but then she turned her head when she noticed the other occupants of the room; namely, us.

Her eyes widened comically, and then, impressively enough, given the fact that she should still have been in the throes of a sore throat due to the fading hypothermia, her voice boomed:

“WHO ART THOU!?”

For some reason, despite myself, I was reminded of Patrick Starr.

Author's Note:

Holy crap, was Celesetia OOC or what?

...Meh. This chapter is somewhat of a disappointment to me, especially because it's so short, but I said to myself: "Screw it, it's been two months since the last update, might as well get something out." But then again...

Also, Real Life sucks.

Comments

[RainbowDragon]

Glad your back!!!

[Fugly Duckling]

ttccdn.theteaclub.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/its_alive.jpg

[Opalesence]

Moar

[LoadeDeagle]

IT'S BACK
YAY

[Deamon]

By Celestia's beard, I'd completely forgotten about this one. Shame it's so short though.

I wouldn't say Celestia's all that OOC, considering she's in a place where everything, including herself, is completely alien to her. She handled herself as well as can be expected, which suits her; she's likely got a lot of experience in keeping a cool head. Now Luna on the other hand...

[JustThatGuy]

stream1.gifsoup.com/view1/1118013/m-bison-yes-yes-o.gif

[FanOfMostEverything]

2905831
My thoughts exactly.

Glad to see this shambling back off the slab. Not much to say beyond that, though I do like the comparison of Luna and Patrick. ("Is this Castle Canterlot?" "Nay, this be Luna!")

[tsaukpaetra]

Hey, nice to see an update! A small inconsistency though, Luna asked "who" not "what" ...
But that's okay, the adventure continues!
Keep going! ;)

[Dante Vangrave]

2915274

I figured that, in her sleepy and bleary state, Luna would assume the humans to be diamond dogs because of their semi-similar silhouettes. That's my excuse anyway.

[tsaukpaetra]

2918614
Makes sense.

[redandready45]

Why no updates?

[JDLENL]

Hello?