//------------------------------// // Mistakes // Story: A New Sun Rewrite // by Pinklestia //------------------------------// "Don't make the same mistake twice seems to indicate three mistakes, doesn't it? First you make the mistake. Then you make the same mistake. Then you make the same mistake twice. If you simply say, 'Don't make the same mistake,' you'll avoid the first mistake." - George Carlin Brain Droppings 1998 book by George Carlin "Class dismissed," said Luna tiredly. "Well, I say 'class,' but a class is over in the span of an hour or two, while I believe we spent the equivalent of a solid week or more on experimentation and study. You have a frightening work ethic when you slumber. Monomaniacal, I would say. The price, as you can see, is that sleep was even less restful than wakefulness, and now we have to go and chase down my foalish sister while you - and therefore we - feel like a mound of Cerberus vomit. I am sorry for making you work so hard Mag." "Is okay, I am doing this for my new family." Mag threw off the covers and dragged herself to take a shower. Mag stiff-armed her way into the convenience store that used to be her place of work. Mr. Bachchan, currently working the counter, saw her and went rigid. This was a mistake. "No worries, Mr. Bachchan, I'm just here as a customer." Mag took a Monster drink can out of the fridge. It would have been way too easy to take anything she need before and have blamed the robbers but not only that wasn't the person Mag was, Celestia would also not have approved. "I'm glad you are here," said Mr. Bachchan. "After we talked on the phone and I, well, when I let you go, I heard that you were entertaining an important guest of some kind -" Ah right, Celestia human form, how could she forget? "If this is the start of an offer for my old job back, then no. I think we both know you should have fired me years ago." Mag grabbed a bag of beef jerky from the rack and dropped them on the counter alongside a ten dollar bill, giving an apologetic glance behind her at the massively fat man with the beard and windshield wipers. "Keep the change. I got something to do in a to in a hurry. Better luck with your next employee." Mag ran out the door before he could say anything. She should not have go to the store, but she was hungry and she didn't want to save Celestia with an empty stomach. "Thou shouldst have just made coffee to begin with." "But I didn't because coffee alone wasn't enough; sorry." Mag folded the container of beef jerky as best she could while running and holding the cold energy drink under her elbow. It was about an hour before dawn and mercilessly cold out. She tried to think of a campire with happy memories included but she couldn't get her magic to warm her body. Then something else did. "Thanks for the literal warming." Because who else could it be but her new aunt? "It is my body too, at least for a while." Luna still sounded tired and Mag felt guilty. The nicotine withdrawal was also annoying her but she would endure, magic was a better drug. "Celestia is not utterly without defenses, you realize that? In fact power wise she outranks the two of us right now." Mag fumbled her breakfast into her left hand and used her right to cast her new light spell. She reveled in it for a moment, delighted in its wonderful blue glow, and set it a little above her shoulder, where it hovered. "I know that and you know that but I don't want to lose her. Now I'm going to eat some dead animal and drink a quart of water, sugar and chemicals while stumbling down a hill. Remember to tune out my sense of taste when I get to the jerky." "I do not object to the occasional taste of meat when it is a dream or headed to someone else's stomach, rememb - faugh! Thou spentest money on this drink? Didst thou know before thou bought it that it tasted thus?" Mag powerwalked down the path to the lake. Instead of answering Luna she stuffed a chip of jerky into her mouth. "Why you must torture yourself with this... this junk?" Mag swallowed. "To wake me up. I see neither sister is a morning person, that's kinda funny with Celestia job being to rise the sun." "What morning? I see only night, a judgment I am well qualified to make. Thou shouldst also have brought a lantern. And I cannot imagine how thou canst be of such good cheer when thy head pounds like a freight train and thine eyes burn like its engine furnace." "I can do magic and a pink unicorn is cheering me up," said Mag as said pink unicorn made funny faces to her. "And I'm off to cast a spell I've never done except in dreams by throwing myself into a frozen lake, and then I'm going to hunt down a goddess, who is also my adoptive mother, so she can yell at me, and then we can yell back at her. It's a glorious morning." "You sound insane. Why have I not disconnected my sense of taste from thine? There. I shan't connect it again until thou hast eaten another meal and brushed thy teeth." Mag stopped at the end of the path. It had frozen over again. She drained the energy drink can, set it upright on the ground, stomped it down to a flat circle of metal, and put it back in her jacket pocket. Then she walked to the lake and started on the rest of the beef jerky. The lake had frozen over again. She hadn't brought an ice pick, but the ice wasn't all that thick, this being California. She broke the ice with the heel of her boot, dragging shards out as she went. Someone crashed down along the path. Mag let her light spell dissipate just as a darting spot of light from a small flashlight came out of the woods, followed by the fat man who had been in line behind her, gulping air. Apparently he'd run the whole way. "Don't - " he panted. "Breathe, guy," said Mag. "Don't do it," he said. "Don't do what? No, don't answer. You just keep breathing, and let me get back to this. I'm kind of in a hurry." "Don't do it," he said again. He had his hands on his knees and he looked like he might pass out, but his eyes were on Mag's. Mag left hand moved and touched the guy forehead, the fat guy felt asleep. "Lunaaa! Why did you do that?" "Because he believes you are going to commit suicide. Just move him next to the lake so he doesn't end drowning." "But he is fat and I am not strong!" Mag protested as she started to move the fat guy away from the frozen lake water, it took her a few minutes. "Great; is done and I got muscles hurting I didn't even know I had, now what?" "Get back to breaking the ice." "Fine." Mag went back to breaking up the ice. She freed up a rough two-foot-wide circle of water, black in the dark. "Good, now, lean down and face the water." Mag did so. "As I have said, you need not worry about watching the water for frayed edges; I am a warden of the ways, and I can see the edges without concerning myself with fraying." "I remember," said Mag. "Now concentrate. Feel. Take your time; the purer your state of mind, the smoother the transition." Mag tried to do so, by imagining herself punching the Eldest. It worked somehow. "Now, have you cleared your mind? Good. Breathe, breathe again, trigger, and the edge is at cobra hood stripes Pagliacci. Huh. What is a Pagliacci? Never mind; GO!" Mag closed her eyes, thought on hugging Celestia, pictured Luna's collection of images, and hopped into the hole in the ice. Winter mountain lake water bit through Mag's clothes and into her bones. Before her feet touched the bottom of the lake, the spell kicked in and the cold between the worlds sucked the rest of the warmth out of her in one airless moment. Gravity went perpendicular on her and dumped her on her back. She'd done it. It hurt like blazes and there was a thick fog in the air around her, but she'd done it. She had to try hard to not throw up. "I had hoped - oh, this cold is hateful. I miss being immune to it. I had hoped Celestia would be in view, unlikely as it would have been. Very well. Can you move? You could cast that warming spell I showed you." "Why the fog?" Mag said through chattering teeth. Campire, Celestia,, a hourse on fire, the sun on sunmer. Nope, she wasn't getting it. "The mark of a nearly botched casting of the traveling spell. It is to be expected. You are inexperienced, distracted, tired, not entirely awake, and human. In fact your performance is impressive, upon reflection." Mag rolled onto her side and dragged a numb hand to her lips. "Ready? Okay. Sunflower pottery, warm pink clothes, hot summer day." 'Memory, sunflower pottery, imagination, warm pink clothes, memory, hot summer day. Work, spell work, I don't want to be wet and cold!' Mag exhaled thick heat through her fingers. Most of the icewater sublimated. The cold of the in-between lingered, but at least she was dry. The warm then expread all over her body, but still not warm enough. "I suppose we can practice that one more later. Casting through one's hands is even more different from Equestrian magic than I expected." "I'll get better," said Mag."And didn't you cast using my hand with no problem when you made that fat guy fall asleep?" "That was because dreams and sleep are part of my domain, and honesty you have barely started using magic, while I have way more experience. Now, we must discuss our next move. Judging by the slope of the hill, the lake is a few miles away. We could walk, though I must stress the importance of quickness and silence." Mag started walking downhill. "Because it'd attract the collectors if I were too loud?" she whispered. "That is the most likely result, yes." "The collectors that collect out-of-the-ordinary things in the valley and take them to the world under the lake?" said Mag. "I dread where you're going with this."[/] "Would it work, though?" "It would most likely would, unfortunately." "All right," said Mag. "Want to do it that way?" "No, but I prefer it to letting Celestia wander alone. Let us explore other options first. For how long can humans run?" "Career marathon runners? For many hours. Me? Two or three minutes. How quick can you teach me to teleport?" "That depends on how good your arithmancy is." "That would be no. And if arithmancy involves a lot of math, I doubt teleportation is something I'll be doing anytime soon." "I certainly have no excess of love for teleportation. It's one of the most cerebral spells I've ever come across. Its uses are many, but one must have an intuitive grasp of certain mathemagical concepts and a head for fast calculations. Portals can be easier, but for that you must have left a marker on the place you want the portal to take you." "In short, I should start shouting for Celestia while I walk and hope either she or a collector finds us." "Ugh. Let me think a moment." "Is there a way to set up some kind of magical dog whistle that lets me get her attention from a distance without giving our position away to anything else?" "We might devise something between the three of us at some point, some secret symbol, but I can think of nothing perfectly safe that would work at this moment. Then again, we can at least narrow down the possible creatures that might find us if you send out a magical sign she would recognize, but which does not give away our position." "The sign isn't hard, at least. Or maybe it is, how do I even send a pink unicorn dancing that smells of blueberries? Is there a way we can get that into the air? Maybe project it onto the clouds and hope she figures it out?" "Or we could just try projecting a pink unicorn. First, intensify the light spell, change the color to pink and shape it like a unicorn, then point it at the clouds." Mag cast the spell again, held it between her hands a moment, made it pink and brighter... and the light went out as soon as she tried to change the shape. "Nay. You altered the tertiary vector too quickly and breached the spell's morphic field when the shape was not solid enough. Summon it again." "I love it when you say 'nay.' It's just the best pun. And you did never teach me how to change the light ball shape dear aunt." "What pun? Nay, it doesn't matter. Stop giggling. Thank you. And you are right, think of the shape like it is... a balloon. Round is the best shape, but you can use others. You just have to make sure the pressure of the magic inside is equal in all parts, or the magic will break the balloon. Does that make sence?" "Mmm, maybe." "Now try again." Mag stopped walking for the sake of concentration. This time she got it right... after several failures. Then the spell failed when she moved. "I don't think I can walk and cast this spell at the same time," whispered Mag. "Then stand and cast. I will watch for threats; concentrate on maintaining the spell." A few seconds later something growled some 20 yards to her right. "Sodding blazes, that was quick. Run, Mag. Drop the spell and run." Mag dropped the spell and ran. After a night; well more like ten days, of Luna telling her what to do it was getting a little old, but she had not liked that growl. It sounded happy to see her. "Peryton. A creature most like a cross between a deer and a bird. It feeds on the shadows of thinking creatures, a feeding which the victim typically does not survive, perhaps because one needs one's shadow to live, or perhaps because the peryton's loathing for all mortals other than itself incites it to murder those creatures it catches. Perytons can fly, but they are clumsy in the air. They can run, but their taloned hind legs are not suited to it. As such, the peryton must act as an ambush predator, and loses interest in fleeing prey provided the prey is quick enough." Mag picked up speed, but could hear something gaining on her. After a few seconds of running she turned and saw the strange, front-heavy deer thing hopping behind her with the front-legs-then-back-legs gait of a rabbit. It had iridescent feathers, green fur, two smallish prongs for antlers, and an intent expression. Mag ran faster. "If we make a habit of wandering other worlds, a jogging regimen may be in order. What do you think?" "Talk later," gasped Mag. "Certainly." Had Mag thought less of that fat man for being so out of breath? She couldn't remember; she didn't right now, at any rate. Her heart drummed in her chest and she couldn't get enough air. On the plus side, it had taken less than 10 minutes to shake off the peryton. On the negative side, she'd wasted almost 10 minutes. If Celestia could teleport to the lake, she would be long gone at this point. "Another light show?" said Mag when she'd recovered a bit. "Yes, for lack of a better plan." The second time had a more positive result: nothing happened. Even if it was kind of funny to see a pink unicorn on the clouds. "How long should we keep this up?" asked Mag; magic was tiring and she was really tired. "You are well winded, still, so you may as well maintain it for as long as you can. I had thought we'd catch up to Celestia. Curse the fat man! He slowed us down." "I think you wanted us to move slower anyway," said Mag. "You wanted us to get better prepared. Coffee, cookies since you don't want me to smoke, maybe a tire iron for the more rigorous forms of interspecies diplomacy. It made sense at the time, too. But Celestia wasn't there and I panicked." "You do not blame me, I hope." "No, though I wish you'd been a better guesser for when Celestia would leave. Or that we would have woken up earlier or... that Celestia had decided to not leave. But what's life but always wishing for things to be different?" "As do I but dear niece, remember that we do what we can, not what we want. Even Regents have limitations." "No offense meant. You know, to be honest, I was hoping the internet would keep her up all night and she'd forget all about leaving until it was too late. I should have found her a website with Bejeweled or Tetris to go along with Wikipedia. Or give her a book of Sudoku puzzles, but she is smart, she would probably have finished it fast." "'Should have' and 'I wish I had' are useless considerations now. The past is the past and trying to charge it is dangerous and foalish." "Fine. I've got my breath back, I'm sick of this, and I'm feeling drastic," said Mag. "Plan C, then. Very well." Mag let the spell drop, stuck the tips of her pinkies into her mouth, and whistled. It was a proper whistle, the kind that startled birds out of trees and traveled for miles to bounce off of distant mountains. The pink unicorn whistled too, it was a jaunty tune. "CELESTIAAAAA!" Mag yelled, and dropped into a sprinter's stance. She didn't think she'd be able to run for very long this time, so if she had to bolt then she'd need to make it count. Two things teleported behind Mag. One was a 10-foot mass of black smoke with two tiny eyes glowing white like stars. The other was Celestia. She grabbed Mag and teleported the both of them away. They landed next to the lake. The smoke didn't follow, or if it had, it wasn't moving very quickly. "Margaret Taylor Wilson, what do you think you're doing?" said Celestia. Mag noticed, to her dark delight, that Celestia looked nearly as tired as Mag felt. The internet could be so cruel to insomniacs. Maybe she could get a pony like name? Later, she had a suicidal goddess to argue with. "Don't you mom voice me this time," said Mag. "You snuck off to do something dangerous, and aunt Luna says it'd be less dangerous if we came with you. What are you doing?" Celestia glared. "Luna, is that true? Is that what you told her?" "Yes, it is," said Luna. "Do you deny it? You slunk away into peril as we slept, an unnecessary risk carried out in an underhanded manner. What if we lost you dear sister, then what? You are not the only one hurting!" "You would have done the same thing in my place and I am sorry, pain makes one do stupid things." said Celestia and have Mag's body a hug. "Yes, and you would have tried to chase after me just as I did, except you would have failed, because I had to teach Mag magic in her sleep. Show her, Mag." Mag stepped away from Celestia hug and conjured her sea-blue marble of marvelous light and held it up for Celestia's inspection. Then she did the pink unicorn light thing. Then she tried something else and found herself with pink hair. "You two worked that out in a single night?" said Celestia. "And Mag, I don't pink suits you with those clothes." "I rather think 'a single night' does little justice to how long it took, however technically accurate the statement," said Luna. And Celestia had to hold Mag so she didn't fall because of how tired the human woman was. "Can we go to my house and sleep?" Mag mumbled. "I see. And you went to such great lengths to do something so dangerous. Mag, I'm honestly amazed at your new abilities and I'd love to help you develop them in whatever way I can, but I wish you hadn't come. Luna must have greatly overstated the dangers of the lake for people like me. And... you shouldn't have to push yourself so hard for me." [i["Is that so?" asked Luna. "Yes," answered Celestia firmly. "The Plinth of Pasithee." "It only activates if you touch it. Do you think I'm going to lean on it while I'm distracted?" "The Rattling God." "What would he be doing in there? Anyway, I hear he's mellowed over the centuries. I doubt he's even still looking for us." "Oil rat ambush." "I'd live, and, what's more, how would you two help with that?" "One of us might see it coming." "I'd still live," said Celestia. "Irritating the collectors?" "They would take me to the sculptor, and then I'm sure we could discuss it." "You and your discussions," said Luna. "How would you negotiate with, say, a bookslide?" "I can fly, Luna." "You can also die. You were not always so cavalier about danger. Look at how tired and miserable you have made your daughter, she is so tired she can't even stand on her own." "Please stop." said Mag almosy yawning. "This sounds like the kind of argument that goes on forever and, like, I'm glad I'm here and I'm not leaving, but I also want to go home at some point so I can go the buck to sleep. Can we please skip to the end of this argument?" Celestia smiled. "What an excellent idea. I'll just teleport you back, make sure you get home okay, and return to what I was originally doing." "No, the other end," said Mag. "Wherein you accept we're coming with you," said Luna. "Or the third end, were we three go to Mag's home right now, take showers, cry about stupid we are, and sleep all together like a happy family. Even if you tend to kick and I tend to talk while we sleep. And I don't know what Mag does but I am sure it will be irritating as well." "Oh, fine. We can do the second end, but only because, believe it or not, I trust you both. Yes, even you, Mag, except where your own well-being is concerned." "Well, obviously," said Mag. "I'm a mortal and stuff. If I see any rattling oil rat gods, I'll be more than happy to hide behind you and look as inedible as I can. Unless is flammable oil, then I might want to see it burn." "Good, but that's not what I meant. Look into the lake, please," said Celestia. "Sure," said Mag, and walked up to the lake. It was a normal enough lake, except for the cloudy but perfectly still water and the wrecked towers of junk metal protruding out of the surface here and there in the distance. It made a decent mirror, which, Mag supposed, was what Celestia had in mind. "Yes, fine, I look like hell," said Mag."But this is partly your fault." "Luna, we need to talk about how a teacher should threat a student who doesn't take care of herself. I've got plenty of tips, because I know the type." Mag raised a finger. "In my defense, I was wearing concealer and foundation yesterday and I wasn't panicked because my new mother was being suicidal. And can you hold me before I fall on my ass?" "Your concealer must be a very impressive product if it could cover the way you're swaying gently right now," said Celestia but still held Mag. "You know very well why I am so tired." said Mag. "Hey, I have an idea. Instead of questioning each other's judgment, let's go into the lake and get this over with. You're in charge, so what next?" "Yes, I am," said Celestia. "On that note, let me explain something. The world under the lake, or 'Underlake' as some call it, is a sort of repository for all the most dangerous things in the valley. It has other purposes, of course, but that's the most relevant one right now, because we are here to retrieve one of the most dangerous things in existence - knowledge. Specifically, any knowledge we can find regarding the destruction of worlds. Planar curses, existential weapons, supercosmological phenomena, the practical effects of paradoxes. And by 'we,' I mean 'I.' Neither of you is to help with the search, but to act as a lookout. Do not look too closely at the things I examine, or you run the risk of bringing something back with us that we didn't intend to bring back. Just do what you came here to do." "Watch your back," said Mag. "Exactly. Is that acceptable to you?" "Yep, I doubt I could help look for what you need even if I wanted to," said Mag. "Luna?" "I suppose," said Luna. "You suppose?" "Yes. Yes, I see the necessity. Look by yourself if you must, and we will act as scouts. Even if we are bucking tired, I can control Mag body if she falls asleep since this does count as an emergency. Oh and by the way, ever heard of family therapy? We could use that." "Fine. Always make sure you can clearly see my eyes, both of you. We must be able to see each other at all times. If you get lost, stay where you are. If you can't stay where you are, stay as close as you can to where you last got lost, find somewhere safe, and stay there instead. If you meet the Regent, be honest, be polite, and tell him everything you can about my whereabouts and what we're doing here. And if you cannot stop yourself from being rude, then stop yourself from talking. We have to talk to him sooner or later in any case, because I plan to ask him permission for anything I borrow." "Oh, I thought this was a heist," said Mag. "I'm afraid not. If you want a heist, you'll have to go to a different princess." "It's me. She means me. I am a ninja, clad in shadows. I should teach you, it would be fun." "Yeah, I worked that out," said Mag. "Good," said Celestia. "Hey," said Mag, "how come we can't just go to the curator in the first place and ask him for help?" Celestia looked at the ground and kicked at it a bit with her forehoof. "Well..." "Celestia Mislikes him," said Luna cheerfully. "'Mislike' is such a strong word," said Celestia. Luna pressed on. "You didn't want to use the word, which is why you couldn't contrive of any way to describe your opinion of him. Right? But I, your loving sister, saw your plight and offered the solution, which is to mare up and admit that you are prepared to go to great lengths to avoid spending a moment more with him than necessary, and have thus designed your plan of attack with that in mind. You needn't thank me. Of course, thanking me would certainly be more mature." Celestia sighed. "Thank you, Luna." "Of course." "Well, Luna, since you're here today and feeling so helpful, would you please tell me where an edge is so I don't have to sit here waiting for a fray?" "I saw one a moment ago when Mag was admiring herself, a surprisingly simple one. 'Apaitijo.' Be wary; I see no danger, but there is some strangeness about it that I haven't yet fathomed." Mag spoke up. "I know this spell, so I could - " "No," said Celestia. "No," said Luna. "Luna has just said there's some kind of irregularity here," said Celestia. "Your mother is far better equipped to deal with any problems that arise, and you are too tired." said Luna. "I've been doing this longer than you can imagine. Whatever the problem, you can trust me to deal with it." "And, while you've demonstrated a great talent and fascination with the magical arts, your version of this spell is still, shall we say, lacking?" "I just thought I'd offer," said Mag and had to fight herself to not close her eyes and sleep. "For which we're both grateful. Grab my tail, please, just like before. Ready? Good." She dropped somewhat abruptly into the lake, and Mag went down after her. Luna had a point. Celestia's traveling spell was almost pleasant compared to Mag's. What was less pleasant was landing heavily on a polished stone floor, then looking up to see Celestia looking glumly at a large wooden door. "We landed in front of the workshop," said Celestia. "That was what was wrong with the edge," said Luna. "He tampered with it to direct all supplicants to his doorstep. We can hardly turn away from the door and help ourselves to the collection when the option of seeking his help from the first moment of our arrival is an option. Do you think he overheard us earlier?" "Yes," said Celestia. "Mmm so soft and comfy." said Mag half asleep while hugging Celestia. "Great mother you turned out to be. Making your child worry like that." Celestia lowered her head "I am sorry." "Is not me who you have to apologise to." "I know... and I will do so once we go back to Mag's home.'