After solving my flight problem, Nightmare Moon and I took a leisurely flight around the desert until the sun came up. Then we crawled into bed and fell asleep.
I wasn't quite sure if I was awake, or if I was having a really good dream. All I knew is I didn't want it to stop. I felt...warm. And held. Safe. I faded in and out of consciousness, waking and snoozing I think, but the feeling remained. I could feel my face buried into her chest, her arms around my shoulders holding me close. Her? Felt like a her, smelled like a her, and that was all I cared about. I felt a strong urge to return the affection, so I leaned in and nuzzled the body that was holding me. A female voice cooed in response, and the arms pulled me in closer. Time passed by in a warm, cuddly haze.
Sadly, the moment was shattered by a shout.
"GAH!"
The sound was followed by several blows to my face and chest, as my snuggle buddy flailed and tried to escape my cuddly grasp. Almost as soon as she succeeded, my cuddle buddy exclaimed again. But this time, instead of pain all of the sheets that covered my warm body were yanked away. The removal of my bedding was followed quickly by a THUMP on the floor that I felt as much as heard.
I sighed to myself, and decided it was time to wake up. My bleary eyes opened to a dim room. Looking around the room, I had expected the flailing and yelling and disappearance of my sheets to be just a dream. Unfortunately, I still felt bruised and sore. And the sheets were gone, now all bundled up in a large heap on the far side of the bed. Said sheets were actively flailing, kinda like those creepy Air Dancers you see on the street sometimes.
I wondered if I was still asleep, and having some sort of strange nightmare.
The sound of ripping fabric revealed a very different Night Mare. The mare was none other than Nightmare Moon, who was wide-eyed and still tangled up in the now-ripped sheets. That scene was so strange, so unexpected that I wondered if I was still asleep and dreaming. It's not every day (or night in our case) one could see a dark alicorn princess all wide-eyed and freaked out because she got herself tangled up in her sheets. A pinch to my arm told me that I was very much awake.
I suppose I should ask if she's OK.
With a bit of a bleary voice, I addressed the still-tangled and flailing mare.
"Are you OK, Mistress?"
The response was loud and just as panicked as she looked, though fortunately not in the Royal Voice.
"FINE! FINE! Nothing happened! Absolutely nothing!"
Yep, I'm definitely awake.
I rolled my eyes at the dark mare's antics and decided to get out of bed. My butt shifted to the edge of the bed, away from the dark mare. I then slid my legs off of the mattress, and my feet came to rest on the cool dirt floor.
Sheesh, does she think I'm dumb? Clearly SOMETHING happened.
I stood up and stretched as far as I could go, held the pose for a number of seconds, then relaxed. Why were my arms and legs never long enough whenever I needed to stretch them?
Huh, those aches and pains from earlier were completely gone. Guess that's alicorn healing magic for you.
My mind flashed back to that nice dream I had, the one where I was being cuddled close by someone. Turning around, I saw the Mare in the Moon was still tangled in the torn sheets.
Maaaaybe that wasn't a dream after all.
I debated nicknaming her the 'Mare in the Sheets'. She was still wide-eyed and freaked out, but at least she wasn't flailing around anymore. The mare was just sitting there, panting hard and seemingly staring at nothing in particular.
"Are you SURE you're OK? You look freaked out."
"I shall not tell thee again, nothing happened!"
Definitely wasn't a dream, then.
"I didn't say anything happened Mistress, I simply asked if you were OK."
"Didst thou? Yes, yes, you did. I am fine, yes. Or will be once I free myself from these accursed blankets."
A flash of her horn, and the sheets she was tangled in vanished. In the next instant, they reappeared back on the bed in a crumpled, ripped mess. A second flash and the sheets were spread neatly over the bed, intact and undamaged. I wondered to myself if she had mended the sheets that fast, or were the sheets simply made of magic? I never found out.
Glancing back at the now-former Mare in the Sheets, I saw that she had her eyes closed and was going through some sort of breathing exercise. At each intake of breath, she would bring a hoof to her chest. At the exhale, she would push the hoof out and away from her. The motion looked familiar, but I couldn't place it at the moment.
A couple repetitions of this pattern and the Night Incarnate appeared calmer, and hopefully more prepared to face the night. Her teal cat-slitted eyes opened, and she gave a contented sigh to no one in particular. Then she noticed I was staring at her. A deep blush stole across her cheeks, and she hunched down a bit in clear embarrassment. I was tempted to tease her about it, as she had teased me the night before, but decided not to. It was probably better to just get on with our night.
"Ready to start our night, Mistress?"
"Oh...um yes. Of course."
She who is the Night stood up and walked around the bed to stand next to me. She looked deep into my eyes, as if she was searching for some answer held within. At length, she spoke.
"Remind me my student, was there some lesson I was supposed to teach you first thing tonight?"
I did not reply immediately, I had gotten lost in those large eyes of hers. A moment later, I shook my head briefly to break the spell I had fallen under.
"Hmmm? Oh yes, Mistress. You were going to teach me how to put on and take off my armor on my own."
"Ah, yes. I remember now. One moment while I prepare the spells."
A tap of her horn to my forehead and I had the necessary knowledge. Once again, I monologued to myself while the jigsaw puzzle of memories came through via the magical equivalent of BitTorrent into my brain.
This seems to be just two spells, but each spell feels like there's another spell wrapped around it. Three spells, but cast as two?
I took a moment to examine each spell in turn.
Ah, this first one lets me take off my armor and teleport it to wherever I choose. The second lets me reach out and "grab" the armor, then teleport it on me.
I pursed my lips as I puzzled out the meaning of the third spell.
This spell is wrapped around the other two. It feels like it's the same spell, like a...cleaning spell? No, a maintenance spell! A spell to repair and remove scratches and scuffs. Hey, that's neat!
Now that I knew the meaning of the spell, I could figure out the rest of it.
This third spell will clean and repair the armor from...minor damage I think...and polish the armor when I take it off after a night's use. And it does it again when I put the armor on, in case the armor was damaged when sitting on the ground or something. Cool!
A smidge of magic, and I was now wearing my shiny, clean armor. Glancing over at my Mistress, I saw that she was just about done floating over and donning her own gleaming set of armor.
"Mistress?"
"Yes?"
"I was wondering, why don't you teleport your armor over like you just taught me how to do?"
"Ah, tis mere habit. When I learned how to don armor, I was taught to do so with intent. To don armor in my day was also to prepare oneself for battle, thus it was not only donning armor but a mental preparation as well. Litanies were once spoken as each piece was worn and strapped on. The litanies have long been lost to history, but my habits still remain."
"I admit Mistress, it looks really impressive floating your armor over piece by piece. I'm tempted to do it that way myself, but my armor doesn't appear to be made that way."
"It is true I made thy armor different than my own. I primarily removed all of the adjustment buckles, they are unnecessary with the magic I taught you. And the buckles seem to enjoy catching on my coat besides."
"Well, thank you for saving me those minor pains, Mistress. I'm still new at wearing all this fur you know."
A small giggle slipped from the Moon Mistress.
"Yes, I am well aware. Shall we begin thy lessons?"
"Sure."
We walked together towards the cave exit, though I had to give way to her as the passageway was not wide enough for us both. The entire way down the passageway I watched her tail sway back and forth, the tail itself still swaying in its unseen wind. I admit, the view was quite pleasant.
As with the past two nights, the night sky was just gorgeous. Scanning over the whole night sky, I could not see any changes in the constellations and stars from the night before. However, there was so much to see I doubt I would have noticed any minor changes. The wind from last night seemed to be mostly absent at the moment, but I could still hear the sounds of the desert. Branches rustling, paws scrabbling in the dirt, and an occasional chitter from some creature. All fairly quiet, and probably would have gone unheard by my human ears. These new cat ears felt like they could pick up everything. How with such sensitivity I didn't go deaf at normal noises I'll never know.
"Your lessons so far have been primarily defensive, my student. The subject of tonight's lessons will be offensive magic and illusions. Prepare thyself."
The Mare in the Moon touched her horn to my forehead again, and the magical BitTorrent download began.
Or, since this transfer was limited to one spell at a time, would this be an XMODEM transfer? Or ZMODEM? Hard to say, there's no phone line latency here to test it with.
I sighed as I realized I had gotten caught up in computer geekery yet again.
And Moon Butt here has been trapped in the moon for centuries longer then these protocols existed, so speculation is pointless. I should really start paying attention to these spells, instead of geeking out over ancient data transfer protocols.
A cursory mental review found the skills I had missed while I was geeking out.
Lessee, this one is...fire! My inner caveman is pleased. Ah, there's cold and ice - kinda the opposite of heat and fire.
I waited patiently as the next spell was placed in my memories.
Next one is...water, so I can guess which ones are next. Yep, there's air...
I held on for the next batch of spells, but nothing came through.
What, no earth spells? Oh, here we go.
Again, I studied the spells as the pieces came in.
These use levitation and general telekinesis to lift dirt. And I can crush dirt into a more compact form. Hmmm, seems to work on rocks and other denser matter as well, makes them really tough. Wonder if the spell is strong enough to make diamonds with? Oh, another spell is coming in. Cool, lightning!
Mulling over the lightning spell, I tried to think of different ways to use the spell.
Hmm, I bet I can tweak the lightning's power and use it kind of like a taser to knock someone out. Have to experiment with that one, I bet that skill would come in handy.
Nightmare Moon's magical skill transfer continued on.
Looks like this next spell is simply bolts of magical force. I think this is the spell she used on me while I was learning how to shield.
After the last skill finished transferring, the Night Mare lifted her horn from my forehead and the glow around her horn faded out.
Oh, looks like we're done. No illusion magic, she must be saving it for later.
I took a few extra moments to finish digesting the spells, and realized that there was more to each spell than just how to cast it.
Are those...memories? Experience? I should ask about that.
"Before we begin Mistress, may I ask you a question?"
"You may."
"I've noticed, with each magical lesson transfer you also give me a copy of your knowledge along with it. Do you do the same when the Royal Guards are trained?"
"Nay, such skill transfers are rarely useful. No pony learns the same skills in the same way, and advanced skills build greatly upon many other skills learned in the past. To effectively use the skills transferred in such a way, one must unlearn their previous skills and re-learn them all. Else the transferred skills could not be used by the recipient. Much akin to memorizing a scroll, letter by letter; it is raw knowledge with no way to retrieve it therewith. It is easier and faster to teach new skills the long way via demonstration and practice."
"Really? Then why has it been working for me, Mistress?"
"Because you are a mere babe in magic, and thus had no skill or knowledge to unlearn. Withal, remember that I used part of mine own magical essence to remake thy body and give thee access to the magic of this world. Meaning that, any experience I give to thee will connect readily with thy essence and be quickly absorbed. A short amount of dedicated training will activate that experience and make thee battle-ready very quickly.
“It is true that you have shown an eagerness to learn. But without Us sharing our experience with thou, thee would still be learning the basics of how to levitate."
"Huh. And here I thought magic was just really easy to learn."
The Mare in the Moon chuckled at my naiveté.
"Any magic beyond simple levitation requires dedication and many months, if not years, to learn. To master certain spells can take a lifetime. Dost thou remember my surprise when thy form was first remade? Not only did thou demonstrate an amazingly quick mastery of levitation, thou lifted me and returned me to earth quickly yet gently. We have known few ponies that have mastered levitation to such a level, and yet thou did so within minutes of being remade. Thou had no skill in magic at that moment, thus the only reasoning can be that thou tapped into skills stored in the magical essence given to thee. We merely took advantage of such knowledge, and gave thee copies of my skills to greatly speed up thy training."
That's kinda disappointing.
"So, you're saying I haven't learned anything over these past couple of days. I've just been accessing a copy of your memories."
"Do all of the denizens of this world whine so much, or is it just you? Nay, you have been learning these skills but not as one normally would. Thou has been helped along by the memories I have given you. Thou must still practice in order to integrate the memories into your mind. Thou must still learn the best way to use the memories, thus you must practice. Until then, the memories sit there, unused. The integration of my memories occurs quickly due to the similarities in our magical essences."
I held my jaw in a hand as I thought about what I was just told.
"I think I understand. When I'm learning magic, I'm mostly tapping into memories you gave me. But I don't know how to use them until I practice them, then I make the memories my own. It's easy because you and I are almost the same, magic-wise."
"Ah, the mewling babe begins to understand."
I ignored the Moon Mare’s insults as I processed all this new knowledge. I still wasn't sure if I was pleased or disappointed, so I settled for a generic comment.
"Interesting."
"Very true, my student. This type of learning is rarely done, for few ponies want another pony to share the same memories. Most prefer to savor the lessons the hard way. Alas, we do not have years to train you the common way and I am impatient to begin my conquest of your world.
"There is another side effect of this transfer that we must be cautious of."
"Side effect? Like what, Mistress?"
"Nothing as vile as your tone of voice implies, my student. Merely that our tactics in battle will be very similar, since we have essentially the same memories. An enemy that determines how to defeat one of us will now have an easier time defeating us both. Fortunately, this world does not make use of magic thus this possibility is very unlikely. As time passes and thou gains more personal experience in battle, our...'styles' as such will begin to diverge. Until then, we must be aware of this weakness and treat it accordingly."
"I see, Mistress. I think."
"Very well. If your questions are done we shall start our lessons for the evening."
She who is the Night began walking into the desert without waiting for me to reply. I moved quickly to catch up to her, and matched her pace quite easily.
"How do you want to do this, Mistress? Do the reverse of when you taught me to shield? You shield and I attack?"
"No. I shall provide you with a different target."
Cryptic, but I suppose I'll find out soon enough.
We silently walked through the desert for several minutes until we reached a small area seemingly devoid of any life. I recognized the area as the one we used for shield training a couple of nights earlier. Nut surprisingly, the holes in the dirt from when I tried to root myself in place were still there. Nightmare Moon paused in the middle of the cleared area and lit her horn.
A quick burst of energy, and a pegasus pony simply appeared in front of her. The pony had a wide muzzle, so I presumed him to be a stallion. His muzzle and wings were dark gray, and had a dark blue windswept mane and tail. However, most of his body was covered in a very familiar jumpsuit. The bodysuit was purple with midnight blue covering the head, neck and hooves, the two colors separated by a yellow lightning-bolt pattern.
On his flank where his cutie mark would normally be, was a pony skull with wings instead of ears. The outfit was finished off with purple goggles that had yellow lenses.
A Shadowbolt!
The Night Mare lifted a hoof and rested it on the Shadowbolt's back in an affectionate manner. He leaned back into her caress and rubbed his head against her leg. Clearly, the Shadowbolt was very attached to his Mistress.
"My Shadowbolts are very loyal, and very tough. They can take anything you can throw at them. Thus, you shall be using this one for target practice."
Upon hearing this last bit, the Shadowbolt's eyes (goggles?) flew open. He pulled his head back from his Mistress' leg and looked up at her, not quite believing what he had just heard. I could almost hear him thinking, Did his Mistress want him to stand still and be shot at?
Noticing the gesture, the Moon Mare glanced down at her Shadowbolt and raised an eyebrow at his apparent defiance.
"Is there a problem?"
"Seems kinda cruel to do this to a living thing, Mistress."
"Living thing? Hah! Nay, my Shadowbolts are mere magical constructs. They cannot feel pain like a real pony can. Besides, in battle you will be attacking living beings. If you do not get over this fear of yours, you will hesitate in battle. And hesitation may end thy life. The effort to re-summon a Shadowbolt is a mere pittance, so they are ideal for target practice. Now, begin!"
The construct in question rolled his head (and presumably his eyes behind the goggles) and slumped in defeat. He then beckoned to me with a hoof, indicating that I should just go ahead.
"You sure, dude? This is going to really hurt."
After a brief pause he nodded, then beckoned again.
Shrugging internally, I began by setting the Shadowbolt's mane on fire. Screaming wordlessly, he tried to put the flames out with his hooves. This had no effect on the flames, but he did manage to knock himself senseless. Figuring he had suffered enough, I summoned a bucketful of water over him (sans bucket, of course) and soaked him to the bone.
Now sodden and scorched, the Shadowbolt looked really unhappy already. It's not like he could attack me back, his sole job was to be a target. He reminded me of a scene in the first episode of My Little Pony, where Twilight had just been knocked into a mud puddle by Rainbow Dash.
Hmm, I wonder if I can use Dash's idea?
A quick thought, and I whipped up a small tornado around the disgruntled Shadowbolt. It was my best imitation of Rainbow Dash's 'Rain-Blow Dry' trick, and it seemed to work well. Letting the wind die out, the Shadowbolt appeared to be quite dry. However, the remnants of his mane and tail were all poofed out and tangled and his eyes were all swirly. Well, at least the lenses in his goggles had swirls in them. Nightmare Moon giggled at her Shadowbolt's antics, and a quick flash of her horn restored him back to perfect health.
(I did NOT giggle!)
(Yes you did, now hush)
Under our teacher's direction, I basically tortured the Shadowbolt for several hours while I practiced my spell casting. Though on an interesting note, paralyzing lightning has a lessened effect on pegasai. I presumed the effect was due to their weather-related skills, as they would need resistance to cold and lightning to work in bad weather. And the paralysis didn't affect everything, as the Shadowbolt still had control of his eyes and facial muscles. Probably could talk as well, but since the Shadowbolt never talked once I couldn't be sure.
I did learn how many amps to put in a single bolt to paralyze the Shadowbolt, and learned the hard way how much was too much.
Despite all of this torture (and one "death" due to accidental electrocution), the Shadowbolt was always restored by Nightmare Moon and returned to perfect health. He did seem to remember each time that he was the target for the evening, so I didn't know if our Mistress was merely healing him or re-summoning him from scratch. I had no idea if he remembered what I'd done to him before he was restored, but he never seems to hold a grudge. He simply resigned himself to his apparent fate and let me do painful things to him.
Towards the end of my training session, I experimented with combining elemental effects together. Some worked, some not so much. The most successful combinations were fire & water, which created scalding steam; and fire & air which created essentially a flaming tornado. I barbecued the Shadowbolt pretty well with that last one.
After this last demonstration, Nightmare Moon ignored the charred and twitching form of the Shadowbolt and addressed me instead.
"You have demonstrated an excellent understanding of offensive magic, my student."
She glanced down at the torched Shadowbolt before continuing.
"And a measure of creativity in its application. I feel it is time to move on to illusion magic."
Stepping over the still sizzling (and very much alive) Shadowbolt, the Mare in the Moon touched her horn to my head one more time to impart her knowledge and memories to me. This batch was fairly complex, but the complexity varied depending on how real the illusion was. For example, one could create a basic illusion of any size and shape with a smidge of illusion magic. A roaring monster the size of a Ursa Minor or Major could easily be done with little effort. The monster would look and sound real, but it could not touch or break anything. Simply touching it would be enough to dispel the illusion.
Put more effort into the spell, and the star bear could knock over trees and take a few hits before dispersing. Though it might take alicorn-level magic to make the monster as real as the actual thing. The same effect was felt if you cast illusions on ponies; they could feel and see the illusion, but how real the illusion was depended on the magic you put into it.
The Moon Mare interrupted my thoughts with a stomp of her hoof.
"I am impatient to begin, my student. Illusion magic is not a subject I prefer to dwell upon. Its use in battle is frowned upon by worthy warriors, though it can be useful if one has a need to be unobserved or unnoticed. Again, my Shadowbolt will be the subject of your ministrations."
I gestured to the fallen Shadowbolt, whose twitching had nearly ceased.
"Perhaps you should heal him before we begin, Mistress."
"Truly? Oh, very well."
With a flash of her horn the Shadowbolt was restored to perfect health once again. Unnoticed by the dark mare, he had given her a mean and dirty look. He switched to a wide smile just as she glanced down at him. Her eyes narrowed as she glared at her minion. She held his gaze for several seconds, until he shamefully looked away.
"Ahem."
The Night Incarnate gestured at her Shadowbolt with a hoof.
"Begin."
With a blink of magic from me, the now-sitting Shadowbolt discovered he had a long elephant snout on the end of his muzzle. He looked at the illusion for a moment, then waved his hoof through it until the illusion faded away. Another blink and he had large elephant ears, which were dispelled just as easily. The Shadowbolt gave me a dirty look and crossed his forelegs over his chest.
Alright, challenge accepted. Let's see how creative I can be here.
I channeled an offensive spell and added a touch of illusion magic. Suddenly, a fireball about the size of a basketball appeared in my hand. The threat of more bodily harm got the Shadowbolt's attention. I tossed the fireball at him, but instead of burning when it hit he found he was covered in snow! A touch of illusion magic had made the snowball look like fire instead.
She of the Night chuckled slightly.
"Amusing, but hardly useful on the battlefield."
What else can I do with this magic? Could I remove things instead of adding them? Essentially making something invisible?
My dirty mind thought of the perfect thing, and thus I cast my spell of choice on the Shadowbolt. His eyes went wide as he felt some part of him just...disappear. Glancing down between his hind legs to confirm the lack of sensation, he looked back up at me in disbelief.
I simply smiled at him and waited.
The Shadowbolt craned his neck between his forelegs again, then reached between his hind legs with a foreleg a bit too fast...
I could almost feel it when his hoof hit something solid. It's one of those feelings most males are unfortunately familiar with, and usually wince in sympathy when they see it happen to another. Not surprisingly, the Shadowbolt stiffened momentarily then fell over onto his side with both forehooves tucked between his hind legs.
Ouch.
Tactical error on his part, he knew I was casting illusions. Guess he thought I had actually removed his 'frank and beans' instead of hiding them from view.
Glancing down at her hapless Shadowbolt, the Night Sky given Flesh sighed in boredom.
"I tire of this."
Before I could blink, she had de-summoned her Shadowbolt. I was a bit disappointed when he left; I didn't even get to say goodbye. I had no time to mourn the little guy however, for with a shout of "To the air!" the Night Mare launched herself straight up into the sky.
I knew she would not want to be kept waiting, so I flew up as fast as I could to meet her. For several seconds I followed her higher and higher into the sky, never gaining or losing any ground on her. At last, she paused in her ascent and merely hovered.
A moment later, I was at her side. A quick glance around showed us to be more than a thousand feet in the air.
I wonder if air traffic control in the area can pick us up?
"There is one more lesson for thee to learn this evening, my student. Aerial Combat."
As she spoke, the Night Incarnate drifted slowly away from me. As this seemed to be an intentional act on her part, I chose not to follow.
"Thou must use all of the lessons that thee has learned these past few nights, and use them effectively. Your sparring partner tonight shall be....."
"ME!"
Without warning, she tossed a fireball at me! I responded almost without thought. An impression of swatting the offending fireball away manifested as a flat round shield, which slapped the fireball to the side just like one would slap at a fly. The fireball went off course, easily missing me, and I felt its magic dissipate not long afterwards. Another thought brought my full shield up, just in time to absorb a cascade of lightning that surely would have fried me.
I narrowed my eyes at the Moon Mare, who was grinning at me in obvious pleasure. I decided it was best to drift slightly to my right, while I waited for her next attack.
"Excellent work, my student! Your reflexes appear to be sharp tonight. I wonder however, is your endurance also up to the task?"
Cackling in glee, a maniacal tooth-filled grin on her muzzle, Nightmare Moon commenced her assault upon my personage.