Aurick was lying down in bed. Initially, he had intended to get some sleep, seeing as he hadn’t gotten too much overnight. Sadly, much like the night, sleep would not come. So he instead sat there, left with nothing but his own mind. His own mind that, despite his determination to move on, still wandered to what he had lost.
Not wanting to think of that, he instead tried to think of what he had gained in the situation. For one he had gained the favor of a diarchy. That could only be a good thing. Or at least they were friendly towards him. He very likely would have a secure job that had little to no risk to his life. That was a plus. New lands to explore. Advanced technology that he had not thought about. What they used in the bathroom was interesting to him. What else could these ponies have invented?
Perhaps there was means of traveling the country faster than horseback. Perhaps they invented a means to make farming easier. Or on that note, make food not spoil. There were plenty of things that his world had that he assumed they didn’t, with the lack of enchanting and all that. Yet they seemed to get by with technology despite that. Perhaps enchanting was a bit of a crutch in his world, and hindered their technological advances? Either way, there was plenty for him to learn about this world. Plenty to keep his mind off his old one.
He paused in his thoughts, a tightness in his throat as images of landscapes crossed through his mind. Icy tundras, a magical forest, a lake with a dark hole in the center…
He was going to get a house!
His own house. He’d never lived on his own before. He always had his parents, or the people at the academy, or his friends, but now he was alone… all alone.
Thankfully, the sound of knocking brought his mind into the present. He yawned as he stood up, rubbing the back of his neck and lumbered towards the door. The lack of aggressive knocking let him know it wasn’t a guard. To his lack of surprise, it was Twilight who interrupted his thoughts. What an angel.
“Hey, Aurick.” She greeted him as he let her in. She immediately hopped onto the bed, lying down in the way that animals do. “So I got good news.”
“Oh? Hopefully not too good. I don’t want to deal with karma today.” He joked, glad to get his mind off the depressing stuff. Hopefully it had something to do with his house. He was actually getting mildly excited about that.
“Remember that house I told you about during breakfast?” He nodded as he sat in the chair at his desk. “Well it’s going to need some repairs. That’s to be expected, though. The good thing is that it’ll only take about two days to fix up and furnish.” She gave him a big grin with that last sentence, clearly pleased with herself. Aurick couldn’t help but smile too.
“That’s great! Now I need to figure out how to advertise my business.” He brought a hand to his chin as he thought of posters and signs.
“I might know how to help with that.” Twilight told him, grinning even more.
“Well, go on then.” He twirled his hand in a motion to continue.
“You asked for gems for the rings, do you need gems for all your enchanting?” Aurick shook his head.
“Only for the stronger spells. If I use a gem with a weaker spell, that’ll just give it an extended shelf life. If the spell’s weak enough, I could make it so that it’d never need a recharge.” Twilight looked pleased with the response.
“Then I think I’ve got an idea. If you come to Ponyville with me tomorrow, I’m sure my friend will throw you a party. You can show off some items you enchanted while you’re there, and do some minor enchantments for free as a one time deal.” The smile turned back into a grin and she clopped her hooves together. “It’d introduce you to the town and show them what you can do!” It wasn’t a bad idea. It was pretty good in fact.
“I like it. I’ve got a few items on me that might be good to show off, so they could see that it’s not just little party tricks. Still probably gonna need some signs or something.”
“Probably, but this’ll at least get your name out there.” Aurick nodded and sat back in his chair.
“Yeah, that’d be good. How do you think they’ll react to me?”
“Hmm.” Twilight paused, placing a hoof to her chin as she thought about it. “They might be a little nervous, but I don’t think they’ll hide like with Zecora.” Aurick couldn’t help but raise a brow. “Zecora’s a zebra that lives in the Everfree. People thought she was some dark shaman or something because of that, so they all hid whenever she came into town. It took a bit of effort, but the town accepted her eventually.” That didn’t bode well, but if Twilight said it’d be fine, Aurick would believe her. If they didn’t like him then they would miss out. So long as the Princesses had a continued need of his services, he’d be fine. And seeing as he seemed to be the only one who could enchant anything, they very well might.
“Alright. That works for me.”
“Great. You can stay with me that night. The princesses already paid for the house and the repairs are getting done as we speak, so they should finish the day after that.” That gave him pause. She was nice enough, but the mare came off as a little strange around him. It was only a day though. She wasn’t weird enough to watch him sleep, unlike a certain spy he knew.
“Sure.” He said after a moment. He could deal with a little weirdness. She seemed happy about that, if the smile was anything to go by.
“Then I’ll go get everything settled.” She said, getting off of the bed, her smile growing. “I’ll need a list!” Aurick simply shook his head as the purple unicorn left the room. She was weird all right, but maybe it was starting to grow on him a little.
He was left with nothing to do in the empty room, and he definitely didn’t want to go back to his thoughts before the interruption. He took the opportunity to go back to the archives and read up on more of Equestria. Namely, the economics. If he was to start a business, he’d need to know how to price his services.
~-~
Aurick was only halfway through one of the books when he was interrupted. The sound of hooves was muffled on the carpet, but Aurick was notoriously hard to sneak up on. Or so he had been told. So he had already looked up by the time Luna rounded the corner.
“Ah. I had been told you would be here.” She said with her usual disinterested expression.
“And you found me. Good job, detective.” He responded with a smirk.
“Indeed.” She moved closer, taking a seat in the other comfortable chair. “Economics?” She raised a brow when she saw his choice of literature. “I hadn’t taken you for the type.”
“I’m not, but if I’m gonna offer fair prices for my services, I’m going to need to know how much a bit is worth.” Luna nodded.
“A fair point. Your services is why I am here, in fact.”
A small smile spread across Auricks face. Another chance to distract himself. “Already? I haven’t even turned in the rings and focus yet.” He said as he placed a marker in the book and placing it down. “They’re in my room by the way.”
“Excellent, and yes. I have given the guard a mission that could be highly lethal. I wish for them to have the best defences available before they risk themselves.” Luna told him a frown on her face.
“Alright. If I could ask? From what I’ve read and heard, aren’t you and your sister supposed to be extremely powerful? If you were so worried about your guard, why not handle the situation yourselves?” If what he read was true, Celestia and Luna could control the sun and moon respectively. Unless it was a demon or something, he couldn’t see why they couldn’t handle it.
“Believe me, I would.” The mare looked down at her hooves. “I would rather it be the other way around, but it can't be. There are creatures far more powerful in this world. Me and my sister can not waste our energy on matters such as this. We must be ready should those creatures decide to arrive.” She looked back up with a frown. Aurick had to pause for a moment. What kind of state was the world in that two creatures that could control celestial bodies had to prepare themselves for the possibility of attack? Maybe this world wasn’t so different after all.
Aurick rubbed his temples and sighed. “Okay. What are they going up against?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Fucking hell. I miss having clearance for that kind of shit. Fine. You tell me what you want done. I’ll tell you if it’s possible and what I’ll need. And once I finish this book I’ll give you a price for them.” He scratched at his chin. He could feel the stubble growing in already. “Just so you know, the more complex it is, the longer it will take. Is there a time limit on this?”
“I do not believe so. No.” The blue mare shook her head. “From what my scouts have told me, she has not attacked ponies yet. I hope it stays that way, but if she’s cornered she might.”
“She?” Luna leveled her gaze at him. “Yeah, yeah. Confidential. So long as you don't use what I make for world domination, I don’t care. So what’s the first thing you want?”
“Something simple to start with. Could you enchant their armour to be stronger?”
“I can do a hell of a lot more than that. It’s that golden armour, right?” Luna shook her head.
“It’s the armour of my night guard. They wear a steel armour that had been dyed purple. I’m not sure if the material matters.”
“It can, depending on the enchantment. Gold, for example, is an incredibly good conductor of magical energy. If we wanted a complex enchantment, we’d need the gold to connect them all. Steel can work, but it’ll be less effective. Again, this’ll depend on how much you want to enchant the armour. If you just want to make the armour more protective, then it’s no big deal. If you want the hind legs to give more power to a jump, and the front to make harder punches…”
“Gold?” Aurick nodded.
“Or at least enough to connect the points of enchantment together. Most stronger enchantments require a gem, and I can connect those gems with gold. It’s what allows me to make enchantments that never fade.”
“Interesting. Thank you for the insight. I believe I will have to rethink some of my ideas before requesting your services. If I can… what’s the term? Get more bang for my buck? Yes. If I can do that, then I must rethink these things.”
“Sure thing, Luna.” Aurick sat back in his chair and opened his book again. “Think about exactly what this thing could do to them and think of ways to counteract them. Most spells I can cast can be used for enchanting, so don’t worry about thinking outside the box.”
“Thank you, Aurick.” Luna smiled. “I’ll be sure to let you know what I think of.”
The mare had almost disappeared around the corner when Aurick remembered something. “Oh, Luna!” The mare turned her head before she left his sight. “It seems I’m gonna be going to Ponyville with Twilight tomorrow. So you’ll probably need to send a messenger or something.”
“That is of no issue, Aurick.” They shared a nod before she departed. Aurick felt rather pleased with the discussion, despite the confidentiality of some of it. He’d have plenty of work for the next however long, and he was certain that the Princess would rack up quite the bill. It would be a great way to earn money for the business, so he could get gems and do higher level enchantments sooner.
Things had really been going great for him ever since he woke up in this world. If only life was this nice before.