“Alright, we’ll be arriving at the town in a few minutes. Lets cast the illusion spell.” Starswirl told the sisters. The only reason I heard is because I was walking beside them. The only reason I was walking beside them is because the town would see me if I was flying. The only reason I’m stressing this point so much is because I REALLY want to be flying. It’s addicting. All those years of just saying no.
Starswirl cast the illusion on Tia and little Luna. I watched there horns fade away until nothing was there. “Now.” Swirl turned and looked at me. “You are going to be a problem.” Me? I cocked my head. “Yes you. Don’t think you get out of going to town with us. Hmmm.” His horn lit and I felt a tingling for a second before it stopped. I looked down expecting a pony, but I still looked the same. “Just as I thought. I can not cast an illusion on you.” He sat down and started stroking his beard. Well. I guess I could stay in the woods. I looked around. Probably hunt some thing to. Getting a little hungry.
When we started walking that morning, Starswirl had told us we were getting close to a village. Which was good because they were running low on hay. Yuck. Can’t imagine dry grass tasting very good....of course I wouldn’t have thought raw rabbit was good a few days ago either.
“Oh well.” Swirl said, pulling my gaze back to him. “We’ll just have to do this the old fashioned way.”
I was not happy. Hes probably laughing his head off on the inside. I grimaced as my wing cramped a little, soon joined by my leg. I’m gunna kill somebody when this is over.
Finally, after what felt like hours, the little crate I was in stopped moving. And dropped to the ground with a bang. “Caaaaw!” I grimaced as I landed on my wing. With a screeching noise, the lid was pulled off the crate. I scrambled out and collapsed on the cold stone floor. Fresh air!! I took big gulps of air as I lay on my back and let my wings stretch as far as they could.
“Be quiet you feather brain! We don’t want somebody hearing you.” Swirl glared at me. “Besides, it wasn't that bad.” I glared at him. “You get used to it.”
Looking away from him I took in the building around us. We were in a simple looking house. I was laying just beside the front door. A short hallway led from the door into a living room that took up the back half of the house. Before it reached the living room it had two doorways in it, directly across from each other. I stood up and looked through them. The one on the left led to a kitchen. The kitchen didn’t have much in it. Just a wood stove, a sink, a few cabinets, and what looked to be a pantry in the back. On the right side it had a door that led back to the living room. I’ll have to check out the sink later. Didn’t think they had running water yet. I left the kitchen to check out the other room. It looked like a mudroom, except it had a small tub in the middle with a wide, bumpy piece of wood in it. A washboard. Must be where they do laundry.
Going back into the hall, I turned and went into the living room. It was relatively small. Of course, the whole house didn’t look too big. It had a few wooden chairs, a table, and a fireplace. On the right side were some stairs leading to a second floor. I started to walk toward them until Tia started talking.
“See you later Luna. Nightwing will watch you while we’re gone.” Tia said as she and Swirl walked toward the door. WHAT!?
“Caaaaw!” I yelled. Quickly I ran over to Starswirl and Tia. I pointed at the door and tilted my head.
“We need money to pay for food.” Swirl stated. “Usually Tia will take Luna with her while she does odd jobs, but its hard to work and watch a sibling. So you are on foal sitting duty. Congratulations!!” He smirked at me. “And remember, be quiet. Giant hawks aren’t exactly common you know.” With that he and Tia walked out the front door while I stood there, stunned.
I can’t take care of a filly!! I’ve never even touched a horse! I started panicking while I sat there by the front door. That is, until something hit my chest and made me and it roll all the way into the living room.
“Isn’t this great!?” The object on my chest said. I looked down to see Luna hugging me tightly. “We get to spend the whole day together!!” She beamed up at me. Oooh. I can’t stay upset with that face looking at me.
“Chirp.” I gently pushed her off and looked around. What was there to do with a little filly?
“Hey look! They have books over here!” Luna stood by a previously unnoticed book shelf. “They all look pretty boring though. Just school books on magic.” I perked up at that. Magic? I walked up to the book shelf and looked at the spines of the books. They all looked like the spines of boring text books. They didn’t even have names on the spines. Just some fancy squiggles at the bottom of the spine.
“Chirp?”
“Oh, I know they're magic books because of those little squiggles at the bottom. All of Star’s magic books had those.” Luna explained. Hmmmm. Well if it’s about magic, then surely it can’t be THAT boring. I pulled one off the shelf with my talon and laid it on the floor. “Are you actually gunna read that? It’s really boring stuff.” Luna cutely pouted when I opened the book and started reading. “Well be that way then. I’m just gunna look at your pretty wings. I love stars.”
A few minutes later had Luna pacing around the room. “Come on!! Let’s do something fun.”
“Chirp!”I replied. I was enraptured by the book. I had been right. It wasn’t boring at all! Magic is awesome! I thought as I looked over different diagrams that demonstrated how to do spells. A particularly interesting one was the shadow puppet spell. It stated that it was for foals to use for shadow puppets, but I had a sneaking suspicion that it was made for other things. The fact that it was an adult book talking about foal stuff was the first sign something was up. The fact it showed a pony wrapping themselves in shadow was another. Must be trying to mislead people reading it. Don’t want everybody knowing that you sell books with dangerous spells in them.
“Uuuugh! This is boring!” Luna said. She hopped over to where I had the book. “Ooh! That looks cool!!” She looked over my shoulder. “To bad my magic is locked. I would try it out if I could.” Thank goodness it’s locked. I don’t want you running around the house as a shadow. Luna looked at the diagram for awhile until she decided she was bored again. She laid down beside me and lifted my wing over her. Snuggling into my side she said “Your really warm. And boring.” She let out a yawn. She was asleep in a few minutes.
By the time the others got back it was already dark. Swirl and Tia pranced into the living room, chatting away to each other. “Caaaw.” I said quietly to get there attention. Once they were both looking at me I pointed my head at Luna.
“Aaaaw! She so adorable.” Tia cooed. While Tia was watching her sister sleep, I was glaring at Starswirl.
“What?” He looked at me innocently. “You did a very good job foal sitting. And we made enough money for food! Tia even got herself a new cloak.” He pulled a tan colored cloak with a hood out of his saddle bag. “Isn’t it nice?”
I simply glared and pretended I could use that levitation spell I saw earlier. Imagine my surprise when his hat yanked itself down over his eyes. “Hey!!” He yelled. Luna stirred slightly under my wing before settling down. He turned to glare at Tia. “What was that for!?”
“I didn’t do anything!” Tia defended.
“Chirp.” I shushed the two, pointing at Luna with my head.
“So my hat just yanked itself down for no reason?” Starswirl had a ‘really?’ look on his face.
“I didn’t do it! I promise!” Ok, as amusing as this is, they’re going to wake up Luna if they continue with this.
“Chirp!” I got the attention of both of them. I glared at them both before pointing once again at Luna. They both winced at that, realizing they almost woke her. Then I grabbed Swirl’s hat with my telekinesis. I got the magic!! I cheered in my head. I brought his hat over to me and set it upon my head. I gave Starswirl a cheeky grin. Apparently beaks can smile.
“You clever bird.” Starswirl breathed “You can use magic? But you don’t have a horn.” He walked up and looked me in the eye. “Do it again. Now.” Stay out of my bubble please. I pushed him back with my new found magic. “Amazing.”He said as the black aura disappeared from him. “It seems that your black aura appears around your eyes when you use magic. I wonder what other spells you can do.” None right now. That little bit made me tired.
“Chirp.” I rolled onto my back and pulled Luna onto my chest.
“We have beds upstairs you know.” Tia said. I just shook my head and closed my eyes. Sleep quickly took me.