//------------------------------// // 22 - First Magic // Story: What Follows Hugs // by David Silver //------------------------------// Toby looked around with a mild frown. "Tsuki see Moondancer?" But they looked confused. "Look like Sombra, but smaller, less mean?" He held up a paw at about her height. "Wear funny thing on face?" One of the female tsuki raised a paw to wave it down a tunnel. "See funny pony. She talking pups." Toby perked an ear a moment before it fell. "Talking making pups, talking to pups?" The female laughed at the question. "To pups. She is pony, what know making pups? Nothing." She suddenly jumped, and was gone, leaving only her trailing merry laugh behind. With a target, Toby nimbly jumped to just before the tunnel, but there was another tsuki there, the doe that had confronted him on arrival. He bobbed his head at her. "Good see again." She looked at him in a strange way that he couldn't place. "Toby talk funny, not funny as pony, but... Still funny." "I not talk--" "There." She pointed a paw at him. "What 'I'?" "I for person talking." He thumped himself on the chest. "When talk, I is I. When you talk, I you." He pointed at her. "I learn." "Toby learn," she agreed, sitting up on her haunches. "What 'you'?" A sudden smile spread on her face. "You is person talk to." She pointed all the more firmly at Toby. "You." She pointed at herself. "I." Toby's smile grew at the doe's understanding. "Yes! You smart tsuki!" Celene took a slow step towards Toby. "If smart, why do Sombra ask?" His smile faded away. "Not want talk." She crashed against his side. "Need talk! You not king, fine." She snorted angrily. "You talk Sombra. No more talk mean. No more be mean. Sombra king of tsuki? Act like tsuki." Toby rolled himself back upright from the impact of their furry forms. "Toby... I try." He rose up onto his haunches and put a paw on his chest. "I talk. I make Sombra good king, best king. Sombra happy when not mean anyway." She met his stance and stepped forward on her great hindpaws. "Make happy then. You happy?" He blinked at her. "You happy?" She repeated, her front coming into contact with his. "Happy?" Toby considered that. He didn't often worry about how happy he was or was not. He had so many other people to try to make happy. Was he happy? Moondancer looked over her sudden class. "Allow me to begin by saying I am very proud of you all." She waved a hoof across the assembly of a dozen eager-looking tsuki pups. "I was not even aware I was teaching a class until a few minutes ago, and you're all here and ready to learn." A small female bounced in place. "Funny words!" The class erupted into giggles of agreement. Moondancer took off her glasses to polish them. "I will say many funny words, but I will also teach them to you. Language is one of the first magics, and a very powerful one. It brings us together, and lets us create miracles. It allows our long dead to speak words of wisdom to us as if they were in the room, and for us to write messages to the future. There is no greater magic than this. Through words, we are all immortal." The class looked almost equally amazed and baffled. She understood she had used a great many words they had likely never heard before. It was time to start teaching. "Alright, what was the first word I said that you didn't know?" A boy pup bounced up and down. "Who you?" He looked to the others. "You?" They all shook their heads. No tsuki present was called 'you'." Moondancer's smile turned wry. That was as good a place to start as any. She began going over facets of speech, the little things she barely had thought of before then. To her surprise, they were eager little learners. They wanted to know more, they just hadn't been given the chance. They were also well behaved, overall. If she gave them a mean look, they almost instantly backed off. That was fear. Moondancer felt a tremble run down her spine as she realized it. Her class was well-behaved in part because they had a deep fear of ponies. They were ready for her to turn from teaching to exacting a suitable punishment if one of them angered her. It was great for discipline, but it made her sad to think such young things had to have that fear in their hearts. She didn't know how to fix that, so she stuck to words. She knew words. Words were comfortable. They could express themselves. They were better at it then she ever was. She thought back on her own life, and the time, that time... that one time she had to express herself, and she failed so miserably. She shut herself away, trying to become lost in the words, to hide from the pain. Twilight's smiling face appeared in her mind. Moondancer knew she could have stopped that pain with a few of those precious words... "Teacher?" A female pup was waving a paw instead of bouncing, as she had taught. "Are... you... okay?" Moondancer blinked away tears she hadn't realized were forming. "O-oh, yes. Thank you. Sorry." She dipped her head at the class and cleared her throat. She couldn't change the past. She could change their futures. "I do want to say that you should all be very proud." She peeked over her shoulder, her body facing the chalkboard she had set up. "Don't let anyone, not a single person, say that you aren't all intelligent, clever, and able." She saw a few more paws raising. With a gentle laugh, she explained her compliment to the class. With a sudden thump, a new tsuki arrived. That was a larger male, adult clearly, but watching her with the same intensity as the little ones. Moondancer considered saying something, but if an adult wanted to learn, why should she deny the chance? She continued. The adult had missed the start of the lesson, and whenever he had a question, he spoke without the refinements Moondancer had gone over. "I," spoke one of the pups. "You," added another, pointing at the adult. They corrected him in a cheerful chorus. When he started to look upset, they crowded around and hugged the cheer back into him with heartfelt embraces and eager nuzzles. He didn't learn as quickly as they had, but he had not one, but a dozen teachers ready to bring him up to speed. "What doing?" asked a doe, peering at the class dubiously. The adult male turned to her in a short hop. "I--" He glanced at the others, who all nodded in rapid motions. "I am learning new words." He smiled, a big goofy expression. "You want learn?" He pointed at her to make clear who 'you' was before being asked. "Is fun. I have fun." Moondancer's class began to grow. "I happy," he said at last. "I happy, make new friends. See new things. Help tsuki. I very happy." Whatever faults there were in his life, he was happy to have it. "You happy?" Selene flinched back, falling to all fours. "Not happy?" He fell back to be even with her. "Is okay. Be honest. Toby want help." She tilted her head. "I... know you want help." She took a cautious step forward. "Always want help. That is Toby. That is you." "What make not happy?" Tobby advanced and gently nuzzled her round cheek. "You is good tsuki." He could feel her warming beneath his touch. "Is true!" "What I do so good?" She reared up onto her haunches and crossed her paws, looking at him sternly. Toby frowned with thought. "You is soft and warm. You is nice. You make I feel funny, good funny, I think... You want tsuki be happy. I want tsuki be happy. I see you with other tsuki, is nice. You come, tsuki smile." With her blush growing worse, she flopped back to his level. "You see me?" "I see you." Toby bobbed his head at Selene. "See and like. Why turn red? Is okay?" Selene's blush only grew more intense even as laughter shook through her. "You is stupid tsuki." Despite her mean words, she suddenly pounced him, hugging him tightly from above even as she held his squirming form down. "Never ask doe why turn red. Is bad. Just once, I say. I turn red because scared. Scared tsuki I like like me." Toby wriggled about, managing to turn his back to the floor so he could face his pinner. "Why tsuki like you bad? Is good tsuki like you." She smiled lopsidedly, regarding him. "You like me?" Toby bobbed his head without guile. "I like you. You is good tsuki. Make me not happy sometimes, but not bad way." He frowned a little, fishing for words to explain his feelings. "You make I think. Is good." She drove all thought from him. She kissed him, pressing her lips to his with a tilted head. All sound between them faded away as they locked together for a quiet time. He didn't move, his entire body paralyzed in the moment. He didn't understand what he was feeling, or what was going on exactly, but he wanted more of it. Everything about it, from her scent to the feel of her pressed against him seemed right. He lost all track of time until she drew back. "You is bad kisser." She didn't sound that upset. "I go. Maybe try better later." She glanced away and back at him. "Not practice other does. I see you kissing, you make me not happy." She hopped clear of him with a smooth bound. "I see later." She vanished down one of the many tunnels even as Tsuki rolled back to his feet. He felt warm and tingly all over. Whatever they had done, kissing? It was an amazing thing. Had he learned another spell? One he couldn't use without making Selene not happy... Though she had said other does. He could kiss a buck? He tilted his head before shaking it. He didn't understand that spell yet. Maybe it would be better if he finished learning it before he rushed to cast it at other tsuki. He was learning. Moondancer nodded at the class, which had grown beyond easy counting. The cavern was full of curious faces. "While I'd like to keep teaching, I'm afraid I need to pause for some food and to rest." How long had it been? She couldn't be sure with the sun concealed behind untold amounts of rock. The class erupted into noise. It seemed her dismissal had broken the magic that held them quiet, and they were all talking to one another about what they had learned. She could hear new words being passed about, usually correctly, though not always. They were eagerly using what they had learned. She put away her chalk and moved to the side. "Moondancer!" came a familiar voice just before Toby landed beside her. "I found you. What doing?" Moondancer waved over the slowly dispersing crowd. "I was educating your kin. They are good students, by and large. I'd like to get something to eat. Where do I do that?" What did Tsuki eat, for that matter, though she kept that thought to herself. "I take to food." He presented his long side. "Get on." Once Moondancer was securely mounted, he started bounding through the tunnels with practice. Moondancer had no idea what route they had taken, bouncing from intersection to intersection without a pause. They all looked the same to her. They burst free into a new cavern where many tsuki were gathered into circles around mildly raised circles of stone that served as tables. "Is dining hall," explained Toby as he scouted around mid-hop and came down on a table that only had about six other tsuki. "Can eat." He shook himself gently, prompting her to slide free. It was meal time.