//------------------------------// // 1- Land of the Lost // Story: The Magician's Name // by ManaMinori //------------------------------// The Magician's Name by PinkiePon-3 Chapter One Land of the Lost “Do you trust me?” Twilight asked, her voice devoid of desperation, but rather, just as warm and light as a spring breeze; contemplative. Spike’s emerald optics widened as he studied the countenance of his closest friend. She was leaning back comfortably in her favorite chair; projecting an air of calm and relaxation, as the barest hint of a smile adorned her lavender lips. Her gaze, once focused on the liquid contents of the floral patterned teacup she cradled in her hooves, was now trained directly on him...or rather, through him. 'What kind of game was she playing at?', her companion momentarily contemplated. Hesitantly, he swallowed his mouthful; savoring the spiced, liquid warmth that tickled his tight throat and spread like a gentle flame through his body; as the air in the magician’s study curiously seemed to take on a sudden chill. A wet, pink tongue swiped over scaled lips, lapping up the sweetened droplets that had chosen a strategic retreat beyond the reach of his waiting maw. The inquiry was, indeed, a curious shift in conversation over afternoon tea; as if it were just as normal to ask whether or not he had remembered to brush his teeth that morning. Admittedly, the young drake had, at times, forgone the morning ritual that would ensure healthy hygiene, which would then warrant a bad case of dragon breath, but he had been getting better with Twilight’s strict reminders. His brow furrowed as the subject in question was mulled over; verdant pools plunging the depths of violet spheres in search of the answer that the knowledgeable scholar sought from him. The obvious answer would, of course, be ‘yes’, but that seemed far too easy. There was no life-threatening situation that they were wrapped up in, to warrant such an inquiry. Twilight knew for a fact that in all of the crazy, magical shenanigans she and her friends ever happened to draw him into over the years, he would always, unhesitatingly, put his full trust in her; believing that- come what may- the situation before them would turn out for the better. His tongue itched to give her the reply that reverberated within his chest with every thunderous heartbeat. ‘Too easy; too easy’, his mind teased, causing his body to tense and pupils to constrict in anticipation. His purple claws lightly scraped at the lacquered porcelain of the teacup he had been drinking from; the brew’s temperature slowly cooling as the towering, antique grandfather clock against the wall ticked away every painful second that the awkward silence stretched between them. He could practically hear the rhythmic sway of the device’s pendulum slicing like a knife through the still air in the room; causing his jaw to clench; teeth gritting, as if the sound of hooves being drawn down a blackboard were filling his ears and sending chills coursing along his spine. How long had it been since the question had been raised? Three minutes? Ten? Something was wrong, the lavender lizard realized, with a start! The normally excitable and barely-contained Twilight Sparkle was never this patient! Like a young filly with their attention divided, he had witnessed her instinctively attempting to drop hints at her own perceived answer, when in the company of her friends, when they failed to reach a conclusion to a question that she had presented as quickly as she had anticipated; or stretching out awkward silences with groans and sighs of exasperation and impatience that signaled boredom. “Who-” Spike squeaked out of a tight throat; suddenly find it terribly difficult to inhale the precious oxygen he needed into his burning lungs. “….are you?” he chanced asking. In the back of his hyper-aware state of mind, his brain momentarily contemplated the possibility that the Twilight that sat before him was a Changeling, perhaps Thorax playing a prank on him, though Spike then dismissed the idea just as quickly. Still, it couldn’t hurt to ask. The countered inquiry earned a bubbling of laughter from the depths of Twilight’s barrel; causing her to double over. Her teacup was hastily placed on the table in front of her, clattering noisily and relinquishing a splash of its liquid treasure before her hoof pulled away to clutch at her stomach; her slender form shaking with each peal of laughter. Spike’s eyes widened slightly, his brain buzzing to comprehend the unexpected response that he got. Surely, it had to be a joke; one that he hadn’t quite understood, to elicit the bout of girlish giggles from the formerly collected and almost detached persona that the purple pony had portrayed mere moments earlier. Glazed eyes shifted to the left, then right, expecting Twilight’s friends to jump out out at any moment from behind the desk or potted fern that sparsely decorated the scholar’s study, revealing some elaborate prank. His head tilted when he drew his attention back to the only other occupant in the room with him. “Twilight, I don’t understand-” he finally conceded; his small shoulders shrugging. As her laughter subsided, Twilight once more straightened and reclined in the plush cushions of her armchair; remnants of her mirth alight in her eyes, though there was a shadow of something else. Something Spike couldn’t quite place his claw on- Interrupting his thoughts, the ascended alicorn spoke; though this time, her attention was directed at the picturesque scene of verdant, manicured lawn and aged poplar trees with branches stretched high against an expanse of clear blue sky outside the window. “Emotions, like trust, ebb and flow, like the changing of seasons;” she spoke softly, solemnly, sounding distant. “A single action in response to a situation is what can tip the scales between trust and mistrust.” she elaborated, beginning to talk moreso to herself at this point, rather than conversing with her companion. “Circumstances. Adrenaline. Upbringing...they’re all factors in whether we choose to put our trust in those who we surround ourselves with. Even as our friendships are tested over time and trial, trust-” she paused, snapping out of her monologuing reverie to turn her quizzical stare at the claws that rested gingerly atop her hoof; as if to reassure her. Pleadingly, Spike’s eyes once more searched Twilight’s; silently assuring her of his loyalties while trying to gauge whatever intent that lie beneath the surface to raise such a topic of discussion. The violet depths, like many ancient tomes shelved within the magician’s private study, were carefully guarded. Finding nothing that could quell his curiosity, Spike curled his lips into a brief snarl before expelling a slow sigh, hoping that it might aid in masking his frustration. “You’ve been awake for too long. Get some rest, Twilight.” the diminutive drake advised, offering a gentle pat to her hoof. “You sound tired.” the weariness in her voice was evident, even to his untrained ear. He attributed it to his knowing the plum-haired princess for so long, and possibly- he considered as an afterthought- the after-effects of the tea that she had just had consumed three hearty cups of. He made a mental note to meet with Fluttershy later and inquire of the origins and ingredients of the tea that she had sent shipped to them. “I’ll clean up here, so you don’t have to worry about a thing. Just relax and-” the drake drifted off, following his friend’s eye to a lone crimson leaf dancing upon the Autumn wind, signaling the encroaching Winter months. “Like the shifting seasons,” the alicorn hummed idly, her mind beginning to wander once more. The faint hints of a gleaming, glittering spark of magic shone deep within her unfocused eyes. The Tree of Harmony, her friend’s elements, and her own cutie mark etched within the bark of that tree...that ancient living relic that changed the course of their lives some thousands of years in advance resonated in Twilight’s mind. The destinies of six completely different ponies of separate races and locations were predetermined; set on and guided along a course by the joint desires and hopes of the six pillars of ancient Equestria. Her chest tightened, and the repetitive, pulsing drumming of the organ within her barrel squeezed out from beyond its restricted confines to fill her ears. From the recesses of her mind crept images of that cryptic, yet warm smile upon a nameless face; one that she had only encountered in her dreams. Drawn back to her surroundings, she realized that her trusted companion had been hanging on her every word with baited breath. As she began to recall her last words, and redirect her train of thought, she opened her mouth to continue; however, her tongue, as if of its own accord, repeated the words that that shadowed figure had spoken to her in the recesses of slumber. “There is no coincidence in the world, only inevitability…..” How desperately she wanted to meet that one again! Praying that the tea she had consumed would both calm her frazzled nerves and racing mind, and succeed in lulling her to Luna’s dream realm to make that possible, Twilight allowed her eyelids to close under their own weight. The warden of slumber would surely help her decipher the coded tellings of her restless mind! A soft smile pulled at her lips as she felt the warmth of her closest friends’ claws on her hoof once more, as the edges of her reality began to blur into a hazy fog that beckoned her from the darkness. “Sweet dreams, Twilight.” Spike murmured. After the long and exhausting task of sorting, reorganizing, and triple-checking every book in the library and on loan, he was quite certain that she’d be needing a good night’s sleep. -----48 hours earlier----- “Augh! Where is it?!” The panicked Princess of Friendship’s cries of distress reverberated off of the cold, crystal walls of her cavernous castle home. Mane unkempt, coat ungroomed, and with eyes as wide as saucers, the irritated equine emerged from within a small mountain of unshelved books. Her assistant could only cringe at the slovenly sight before him. If Canterlot’s elite could witness their newest Princess in all her frazzled, sleep-deprived, obsessive compulsive and possibly paranoid glory, they would most certainly have a field day with their gossip! His claws itched to reach out and at least attempt to tame the out of control mess that was Twilight’s mane. Perhaps that was Rarity’s influence on him, he thought idly, as he’d never been one to care much about keeping up appearances until he had met her. His head shook in order to snap himself out of his momentary reverie. “Twilight,” he sighed over a stack of books in his arms that needed re-shelving after said mare had haphazardly thrown them across the room in a burst of magenta magic from her horn. “You’re losing it.” he huffed, curtly. After two days of forgoing sleep to stay up with the neurotic bibliophile to aid in her quest, the drained dragon was in no mood to mince words. Some part of him knew that his attitude was of no help in the situation that he had gotten himself into, but Twilight, apparently was much farther gone than he. Perhaps his words had even fallen on deaf ears. With a grimace, he turned his back to the frantic librarian and began to place the books back on the shelf. No sooner had one been placed in its rightful spot, would another one go whizzing mere inches from his head. “Hey!” he snapped, distractedly dropping his load and covering the back of his head with both hands. “Watch it!” Muzzle drawn back in a snarl, he turned back around and jumped backward so that the scaled spines coursing down his back were pressed uncomfortably into the bookshelf, once he took notice of his friend close enough to be breathing down his neck. Twilight’s left eye twitched while the right darted from one side of the room to the other. “I already have!” she laughed, clearly unhinged. “Lost it, I mean!” she attempted to clarify, though still she made no sense to her cranky companion. “Clearly.” Spike mumbled, unable to resist rolling his eyes. Deaf to his snark and sarcasm, Twilight prattled on, beginning to pick up her hooves in a nervous prancing pace. “It’s nowhere to be found!” she announced through a strained laugh behind gritted teeth and clenched jaw. “I’ve looked and looked…..every single book- triple checked the checkout cards…tracked down the ponies who had borrowed books in the past week…..contacted the Canterlot and Crystal Empire Library, and you know what I’ve found?” she growled, letting her tri-colored tail lash the air in a display of unbridled irritation. Disinterest on his dysfunctional friend dawning, Spike peered at the princess through a glassy gaze. “A big fat nada.” he droned. “Nothing!” Twilight confirmed, as she shouted at the ceiling, her bloodshot eyes brimming with tears. Most certainly now driven by madness, her horn sparked to life with her signature magenta magical aura, and she continued to pull down the books from the shelves that had recently been organized. “There has to be one that I missed,” she now spoke to herself, reassuringly. “I have to look through them all again. I have to- OW!” Half a dozen books that had been held up in the air by her magic dropped like stones all around her, many with their contents splayed, spines bent, or pages creased. “What the hay was that for?” Twilight snapped, now that she had been shaken out of her trance by the sudden assault on the back of her head. A hoof lifted to gingerly rub at the pained area, which caused her to wince. The drake sighed as he advanced toward his caretaker. “Figured you needed it.” he explained as he picked up the encyclopedia that he had used as ammunition. “Do you even know what book you’re looking for?” he chanced inquiring, knowing that her sleep-addled brain had most likely thrown her off course of her objective. Twilight blinked, then frowned. The name of the reference material had been on the tip of her tongue just a moment ago, she was quite sure of it! “I’ve been talking about it for two days, Spike.” the mare quipped, as she issued a stern glare. “No,” Spike reasoned. “Just that ‘It’ was what you’ve been needing to find! You say that its a book, but you can’t name it?” At this confession, Twilight was taken aback. Her brow furrowed as she stared at her assistant, then at the floor. She could’ve sworn that she had- “Maybe it’s time to call it a day.” Spike decided, interrupting her thoughts and holding back a yawn. He was tired and getting cranky, and Twilight was well past the point of sanity. He reached out and placed a claw on her neck, guiding her out of the room and away from the mess that she had turned the library into. “I’ll go make some of that tea that Fluttershy sent you, and then you can turn in. Don’t worry about a thing.” The Princess smiled. Tea did, in fact, sound good, and sleep sounded even better. “Thanks, Spike.” Once out of the library, she could practically feel a heavy weight already being lifted off of her shoulders. She had to force herself not to look back and worry about the mess that she had left behind, as she put one hoof in front of the other. No, she assured herself by way of reason, her trusty assistant would take care of it, as he always had. Spike returned the warm smile as he walked Twilight Sparkle to her personal study. “What are friends for?”