//------------------------------//
// A New Career in a New Town 
// Story: The Book of Eventide 
// by Cosmic Dancer 
//------------------------------//


First Entry


Sun Phase: Setting, clear sky
Moon Phase: Rising, Waxing Crescent in Eight Degrees Cancer
Ninth Lunar Manse (Glance of Lion’s Eye)
Planetary Day, Hour: Jupiter, Mars

Dear Diary, 

In keeping with the tradition and demands of my new station, I have elected to begin writing this diary, as the perils of the magician’s life are prone to attract the influence of preternatural forces over the mind; and jotting down my experiences and thoughts everyday will allow me to more easily ascertain my state of mind (and any changes that may pervert it). 

Five years ago I completed my long course of study at Celestia’s Conservatory for Precocious Unicorns, and only two months ago I completed my apprenticeship under Venutian Glare, the niece of Clover the Clever. Finally, I have procured a position befitting my education: Assistant Astrologer at the Canterlot Royal Observatory — and only at the age of twenty-three!

I will be working under the Grand Royal Astrologer, Illimitable Nebula — himself once apprenticed to Yisrach L’ulaamun, Archmage of the First Circinatus, and Conjuror to the Royal Court. (Of course, it would have been an even greater pleasure to work under Starswirl, the previous Archmage and Court Conjuror, but fate deigned to shuffle him off this mortal coil only months before I filled my new position.)

Tomorrow will be my first working day. Today was spent settling into my new home in the royal quarter. Magicians working under the auspices of the Princess’s court are obligated by law and necessity to live in the labyrinthine apartments engirding the Order’s massive mage tower, just opposite the palace.

My own apartment is very livable, and suited to me; like all residences in the royal quarter, it’s constructed of white marble brick in the traditional High Unicorn revivalist style, with ivy growing up the engraved and enchanted facade, nearly obstructing my arched windows. There are two stories, and the interior is spacious. My book collection is too lovingly curated to fit in a library of only one room, so I’ve elected to place my tomes dealing in more worldly matters on the bottom floor (the living room), and my books on esotericism and magic on the top (my study, which has to double as a bed chamber.)

As you can imagine, the community is not the liveliest in Canterlot, for wizards tend to be a reclusive bunch — however, I have made one friend here: another magician, a young unicorn mare named Morne Scintilla. Around noon, she came to introduce herself while I was organizing my textbooks on the Grypho-Pegasus wars.

“Hello,” she began, startling me. I turned around and she continued, “Your door was open, and I was afraid something might have happened while you were alone, moving in here.” She spoke in a breathy, disarming way, and the melody of her voice melted her words like caramel about my ears.

“Oh, no, the place was just terribly musty. I suspect nopony’s lived here for some time,” I explained. “Do… many accidents happen when ponies move into these apartments?”

“Oh, heavens yes! As you can imagine, when only mages live in a certain set of houses over a couple hundred years, many of the homes become accidentally charged with chaotic energies,” she said, and I was skeptical. I would’ve sensed it if my new home had any arcanic anomalies staining it. “Or worse, sometimes curses or conjurings go awry and the forces are burned into the magic fields of the buildings.”

“Well, thank you for your concern, but I’m certain the only thing haunting my house is that musty odor. A few more hours of the doors and windows open will exorcise it, though, I’m sure,” I answered, trying my best to reassure her with a friendly smile before returning to arranging my books.

She giggled, and trotted further into my apartment until she stood a few feet behind me. “When I moved into my house there were two spirits and three shades ‘living’ in it, and none of them spoke Equestrian,” she said, walking even closer. “I’m glad Starswirl had the sense to outlaw necromancy before he… well, before whatever became of him,” she said. “My name’s Morne Scintilla, I live across the street from you.”

I looked over and she was smiling softly, hoof held aloft for me to cradle with my own. I try to be an accommodating sort, so I played along, smiling back. “My name is Eventide Coruscate. It’s very nice to make your acquaintance.”

Contented by my pretense to be a gentlecolt, Morne sat next to me, and started looking over the books I had not yet shelved. I’m sure she only meant it as a friendly gesture, but she was close enough that I could feel the heat emanate from her body, and smell the sultry aroma of her perfume. It made me nervous, and I could feel my face reddening so I turned away and tried to focus on the task-at-hoof. 

From thereon we spoke about things of little consequence. I found out she works as a clerk in the royal chancery court, particularly in its subdivision devoted to magical affairs. I told her of my new position and she seemed very impressed, if envious (but I cannot hold that against her, with her being a clerk). 

After that, we had a little chat about the upcoming vote in the Auditorium Sub Rosa, wherein the ruling caste of Unicorn magocrats will decide whether or not to devolve more power to the nobility, who will consequently delegate more power to the lower classes. (Neither she nor myself are highly enough ranked among the Ordo Aureum Equis to have a vote, or even a seat in the assembly.) Morne made it clear she was in support of such an initiative, but I’m not politically interested either way. I try not to exact my will where it will have no consequence, and I told her this; she seemed to accept it, but I think she had more to say to me than she did.

She is a very pretty mare, and smart enough, and doesn’t wear an awful lot of make-up (which I find unbecoming on the fairer sex). Her coat is a rosy sort of color, and her mane a darker shade thereof, with streaks of similar pigments. After surreptitiously studying her leonine features and comportment I deduced she was almost certainly born under the sign of Leo, perhaps strongly intermingled with the rays of Venus.

After an hour-and-a-half she left, seeming happy to have met me. All that remains to be organized is my study, where I must shelf my books on magic and assemble my laboratory. I could have accomplished most of those tasks this evening, but I found it more prudent to relax in anticipation of my first day of work in the morning.

It has grown late now, and I must perform my nightly magical practices. Tomorrow is a very important day.

Fraternally yours,
Eventide Coruscate of the A∴E∴ (3°=8□)

[Appended to the entry is a passage from a dream record.]

I dreamt I was stood before a great palace or temple built in the classical pegasus style, with fluted columns standing afront the building in an intimidating way. Anomalously, the walls were hewn of limestone and not marble. Flora had overgrown the entire thing, and it seemed abandoned but for the ominous glow of fire deep within. I entered, and beheld many emaciated gryphons in chains, tethered thereby to a dais on which stood a throne. Atop the throne sat perched the skeleton of a pegasus, dressed in the formal regalia of not a pegasus king, but a gryphon archon.

I heard the hard scraping of metal against rock, and glanced behind to see a gate close on the entryway to the horrible place. The dream came to its end and I awoke.