//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 - It was all her idea! // Story: Shackles and Friendship // by Zaibatsu //------------------------------// Shackles and Friendship Chapter 9 - It was all her idea! "Once you do your thing and make your shit, don't stop there. Go retire as a teacher and help nurture future game developers. It's good for the market, it changes lives and it's good for the soul." - Jim Rivers It's been three days since that momentous day, three days after I weaved my first spell, or should I say 'programmed' my first spell? In any case, after that day I was studying magic with fervor, practically on borderline insanity. But honestly what do you expect? It's MAGIC! All the fantastic stories and lore created by the most amazingly gifted or fucked up minds of our kind suddenly became a reality to me. Twilight didn't seem to mind though, in fact she was more than willing to help when I kept egging her on for more books every night, I was practically reading them front to end in one sitting. And if it was too late at night to ask for more I just started working on the training program Twilight made for me. I've discovered that spells were easier if I created an input feature with my hands to help control the spell, similar to how programs take in keyboard and mouse inputs. As helpful as my id is, he's mostly preoccupied with memorizing and storing spells away for instant use like an bunch of .exe files. Control and pretty much anything that requires conscious effort was all on me, 'in other words I'm nothing more than a memory bank or a hard drive huh?' 'Pretty much.' I have to say being able to pick your brain like this has its advantages, it's like constantly having a study buddy you can bounce ideas with. But still an extremely loud mouthed bent on driving me crazy type of buddy. 'Remind you of anyone?' But even though I was making tremendous progress I was also losing sleep and my performance during our sessions which, on several occasions, have caused some level of property damage. So she decided to confiscate all the books from my room and locked my inside and ordered me to sleep. I just ended up practicing again behind her back, though I had to be careful since I have a limited amount of magic left as well as trying to keep my chains from making too much noise. Which I'm starting to get annoyed with, I even tried using a silence spell on them but they repelled the magic away. Or to be more accurate 'bounced' of and hit me in the face, I spent the next day unable to make a sound much to Twilight's great enjoyment. So I hit her with it as well. Today Twilight decided to take a break from the usual exercise and brought me out to the castle garden in order to do an experiment. I have to admit the change of scenery was refreshing, and due to their limited reliance on technology Equestria's air was amazingly fresh and clean without all the pollution, despite being a major city. "Twilight are you sure about this? I don't wan't to get into trouble with Celestia again." "It's fine Rodney, I still want to know why your raw magic has such a unique reaction than anypony else. It shouldn't have exploded like that unless it was meant to. Besides the garden is due for renovation next week and there's no place else to safely study it, this is my only chance!" " 'My' only chance? So this is just you satisfying your curiosity at my own expense?" "Don't be silly of course not. It's for your benefit too, the more we know about your magic the better." Twilight had turned around and walked away as she said this, probably to avoid looking at me in the eye. "Whatever." even if she was just just giving excuses it still was still made sense. Not only does my magic look different from everyone else, but it was also never technically my magic to begin with. So there's bound to be some differences with 'normal' magic, I don't want to blow up my face while trying to magically shave in the morning......what? Believe me if you discover you can do magic you'd start doing just about everything with it, and I mean everything! "Ok, I'm ready." Twilight had decided to move several feet away from the danger zone, primarily me. 'Let's just get this over with, the sooner the faster we can get back on that shield spell.' So after a few deep breaths to mentally prepare myself, I reached inwards and created the same azure ball of fire as before. No matter how many times I see my own magic materialize I still have to mentally remind myself that this wasn't a dream. I turned to Twilight who had a wall of translucent purple wall in front of her and gave me a nod. I tossed the ball of magic up several times and catching it again, each time I see Twilight flinching thinking it was going to explode, too bad she didn't know I had experimented with a smaller version of it before. Don't worry it was the size of a seed and the explosion was similar to a cherry bomb, I just told the guards I let one rip when they checked what was causing the racket. One of the benefits of being an alien, no one actually knows what your bowel movement actually sound like. "Just toss it already!" I gave her a mischievous smile which she returned with a glare. I grabbed the ball in both hands behind me and took a sideways position, then I winded up and threw the thing just like a baseball pitcher would. Now, maybe, had I been asleep longer and had a bit more clarity in mind I would remember that even though I could 'feel' my magic which felt similar to weight, it does not have physical weight. On second though it might not even have a physical body making air resistance mean jack-shit, the results were pretty much similar to a moon with really low gravity. Both Twilight and I traced the fireball as it flew across the garden while gaining altitude and went beyond the garden walls. It soared across the castle courtyard and before long I was able to predict it's trajectory, which was an open window high up in the main castle wall. It went perfectly right between the opening and into the room inside, just before the explosion shattered the window I noticed was painted glass mostly of deep blue with a large crescent moon in ghostly white and stars adorning around it, 'aw fuck my life.'. Memories of younger days playing baseball with the neighborhood kids resurfaced and my mind instantly went back to the same mind set as a kid. "RUUUUUUUUN!!!!" I spent the next two hours running away from Luna and her night guards, which were pretty much a nocturnal version of Celestia's day guard. How they were able to have bat wings and lizard eyes though were a mystery, I even thought they were a different species entirely. Fortunately I wasn't alone, Twilight was also tagging along. She was so shocked and confused her mind went blank that she actually ran with me like a partner in crime. By the time she realized what happen it was too late, especially since Luna saw the both of us running away together. Try as we might it can't go on forever, eventually one of the kitchen staff decided to clean the chimney, which we were both hiding in. "It was all her idea!" I shouted with a finger pointed at Twilight. "No it not! Your threw it into her room!" "Because Twirly Sprinkles here told me to do it!" "Twilight Sparkle, and I told you to toss it BUT nooooo you had to-" "ENOUGH!" both of us cringed at Luna's booming voice, I still have no idea how she does that. Luna was looking absolutely pissed at the both of us from her throne, 'actually to us mostly.' And with good reason I suppose, some of her mane was still smoking somewhat and her tail was visibly shorter. We were at the throne room which were currently unused since Celestia had gone out to some other city somewhere. So it was just Luna on her throne while Twilight and myself were standing in the middle of the room still covered in chimney dust, oh and surounded by night guards all glaring at us, actually, it was entirely on us. "I'm so sorry about everything Princess. It was an accident, honest." Twilight was looking down at her hooves, head low and avoiding Luna's eye. "Then why did thou not simply admit to your mistake? We had expected our sister's prized student to more responsible and willing to accept mistakes openly. Were we wrong?" "Of course not your Highness! I just...well I...please, I didn't mean to-" "It was all my fault Luna." I can't stand to see Twilight like that anymore, despite how irritating and down-right creepy she can be, she has done nothing wrong. For crying out loud shes been doing nothing but help me learn magic, being a student to the supreme ruler has got to be taxing yet she stayed to help me. It's about time I gave something back. Luna looked at me straight in the eye with a glare that could make newborns stand up and run in fear. But I didn't falter and kept firm under her gaze, this was the right thing to do. "Twilight was most likely caught in the confusion and shock to properly think accurately, seeing me frantically running and screaming to follow made it worse. So please, leave her out of any form of punishment and please don't tell Celestia about this." "And why should we not inform our sister of your actions? Do you fear she would permanently imprison you in the castle? Considering your destructive nature we expect her to." "You misunderstand me, I don't really care if Celestia knows. What I ask is that you don't mention Twilight's role in it, you can say whatever you wish regarding me." Twilight was looking at me open mouthed with small tears in her eyes. "Oh please Twilight don't give me that look, I'm repaying you for everything you did for me. Besides after mentioning how amazing Celestia is during all our breaks I can easily guess how much you worship her. Besides even if Celestia decide to keep me locked up here in the castle, its not like I got other places to be. Really the castle is the only place I know and pretty much home already." Twilight's look shifted from thankful to sympathy, which was worse so I just avoided looking at her. "Be warned Rodney, although thou claims it was an accident. Thou still assaulted and harmed a member of royalty." "Oh please all you got was a few burnt-" "Rodney!" *deep-breath* "I mean. Yes Princess, I understand." I silently mouthed the words 'thank you' to Twilight. Silence fell in the room as Luna was contemplating the situation and her decision, the tension must be getting to Twilight as she started to sweat heavily to a point where her mane started to reflect the light. "Everypony, please vacate the room. We wish to speak privately." hesitantly all the night guards started to leave the throne room one by one. "You too dear Twilight." "Please Princess it was-" Luna shot her a stern look which quickly stole her resolve and she slowly followed the guards. I hear the giant double doors shut, I was alone with Luna. *tingle-tingle* 'Dude they're scared again.' 'I know I feel them too.' "Rodney, what does thou wish for?" at first it sounded like I was blackmailing her or something. "Excuse me?" "What does thou want? Thou claim to have no place to be, then if freedom were offered thou would still remain in the castle?" "I guess. But I don't plan on freeloading, I'll try to find something to help around with." "That's it? No ambition or dreams? Nothing that gives thou a need to excel other than simple curiosity?" she was right. I was too preoccupied with magic and learning it's secrets, but is that enough? What should I do after? With everything that happened I didn't realize how I lost more than just my home and family, I lost my dream. Sure I could remain in the castle learning magic but as much as I enjoy them their ultimately just driven by curiosity, not ambition. "I...I don't know." silence fell again as I was still deep in thought and so was Luna. "Rodney, before thou came to our world, what was your dream then?" "That's easy, to be a video game developer." one of Luna's brow rose in confusion. "Basically I create something that entertains, that can bring someone to entire worlds of imagination and adventure. Much like a story would but far more immersible." "That's quite a dream, we are very interested in experiencing such a thing. Can thou not continue here?" "I would say it's impossible but you have magic here, so from my standpoint pretty much anything can happen. But I seriously doubt it." "And is there nothing else? We are unsure about you'r way of life but here it is common to find ponies that posses more than a single dream." 'Actually, yea there is.' 'Our retirement plan.' "Once, I had the pleasure of meeting an amazing man who gave me some advice. He said that once I achieve my dream and live it, I should help future generation reach theirs. That after making my mark in video games, I can continue to help it grow by planting the seeds in future generation." I took a deep breath and as I exhaled it felt like all the worry and fear from earlier came out with it. I looked up at Luna with a confident and determine smile as my ambitions were rekindled, "Luna, I want to be a teacher." "A teacher?" by the look on her face she was not expecting to hear something so noble. "Originally it was a retirement plan, and I would be teaching and helping others with the same dream as I have achieve as well. However, even if I won't be teach what I wanted to originally, it's still something I want to do." "That is a remarkable dream, both Celestia and I have always had respect for those that live their lives to better the future. And what better place to start than with those that come after, that is why Celestia has opened her school in the first place. We are pleased with thy choice." "Thank you Luna, in all honesty I was also quite surprise with my choice." *giggle* "That is because it was thy heart that spoke, not you." 'Thank god it wasn't something else that spoke.' 'Hey!' "Perhaps, in any case I have a lot to think about. Am I excused?" "Nice try Rodney," 'dammit.' "Does thou think we forget?" I was really hoping our heartfelt conversation would make her forget that whole issue. *sigh* "It was worth a shot, so what's my punishment? Cleaning the floor? Building you a new furniture?" "Who does thou take us for? We are not as lenient as our sister. But don't worry, our punishment will not be so physical." "Ooooookay...so what is it?" "Quite simple, thou will not eat." "What? Go to bed hungry?" 'way too good to be real.' "Correction, thou will not eat meat." "Wait a minute! You actually got some already!!" "And until we deem thou shall not consume any of it." she might as well dangle a bottle of water in front of me in the desert. "Luna. That's cold." AN: So after attending a party consisting of Pinkie, myself, my shovel "Mr. Dugg", a roll of hose "Miss Longnose", and the bronze head from statue in the park "Colonel Heads-a-lot", she seem to have calmed down a bit. So with my freedom I immediately made a call to three different girl scout cookies to bring all the cupcakes and sugar treats they have in stock. Funny thing though, it came with a card that says "Invite us to the next party." Anyways, I'm finally getting the ball rolling with this chapter. I could push it a bit faster but that went too far to the way I write. Also I pushed myself to finish this chapter despite my busy schedule so there might be some errors here and there, sorry about that. It was also a pain to write Luna's script in old english, if anyone notices something wrong please comment below. Actually even if you don't please comment as well, I love reading them. So enjoying yourself there Pinkie? Pinkie: Nom nomomnom *gulp* *inhale* Nom nom nom... Wait is that a fudge cupcake? Can I have- Pinkie: Graagrrr! *deep-growl* GRAAAGH!