It was several days before Twilight came to visit James. He was still recovering from the nearly two weeks he had been comatose. His deterioration proving that either the magic had weakened enough to not keep him alive during his sleep, or that Cozy Glow had intended to kill him which incited Lucca to make a criminal extradition request for Cozy Glow. In any event by now James had gone back to work, albeit a lighter load than normal.
The two sat in James’s den, James in his overstuffed reading chair as he looked over several data pads while Twilight on the nearby couch. “So have you gotten any more information about what happened in your talisman?” Twilight cautiously asked.
“No, but my talisman is about two grams lighter, so it's lost material somewhere. Seems like you do indeed have some of it inside you. As power if nothing else.” James calmly said. “Although I suspect that she embedded that power in your eyes.” He added with a snarky grin.
“But why would she do that?” She asked, still very confused as to why L-Sama would permanently add to her power.
“Well, L isn't the easiest to read. Sometimes she may help you, sometimes she may destroy you, she may even do something completely useless and watch you react.” James tried to explain. “Discord's easier to predict than she is.”
“But shouldn’t we have heard more from her by now?” Twilight asked, she had brought her notes about their conversation so long ago. But there was little to give her any answers about what had happened in the talisman or to her.
“I hear a little from her as I use black magic from her world.” James explained. “Besides, you've already spoken to her. You asked for help and she gave you some. Permanently too.” James theorized. “Who knows what you’ll be capable of now with that magical boost.”
“But why?” Twilight asked. She knew so little about this L-sama.
“I don't know. Maybe she want's to know what you do with your power.” James said with a shrug, he had absolutely no clue and wasn’t planning on finding out. She was chaos given life with unfathomable motivations.
“Is there anything I can do about the power fluctuations?” Twilight asked, if nothing else she needed to deal with this problem.
“Yeah, after the next theory class let's get to work.” He calmly said.
“When's that?” Twilight asked, she was eager to get back into the lectures as James began expanding on individual points and dissecting the components of different spells. And the visits from Cadence and Shining Armor were quite welcome, even if she couldn't spend much time with Flurry Heart.
“Friday I had assumed. But if nobody's ready it can wait.” James approved the document and placed it on the end table as he considered the situation. “Though I guess we really should start handling your problem sooner than that. I've got some time this evening if you want to start right away.” James suggested.
“Shouldn't you rest? You're still recovering after all.” Twilight said. She knew his concern for his health was almost nonexistent so it often fell to his friends and family to make him take care of himself.
“Nah.” James said as he shook his head. “Besides, meditation is part of my recovery plan and there's a good portion of work you'll need that's meditation.”
“Oh, well I guess if it's part of your recovery it's alright.” Twilight conceded. “I'll see you later then.”
“Good night.” James called after her as she walked out.
It took some effort, and his muscles were still getting stiff from time to time, but once Twilight was gone James stood from his chair and started walking around. Slowly he made his way towards Lucca's workshop. It was intended to be a study but she turned it into what she wanted it to be.
She had her welding mask down and was cutting some metal when James opened the door. Immediately he closed his eyes but he was still suddenly in a lot of pain and completely blind for the time being, even with Lucca between him and the spark.
“I always knew you were radiant.” James joked as his eyes felt like they would burst at any second. “I just never thought you'd blind me.”
Lucca cut off the fuel to the torch, holding it as the flame went out before turning to face James. “You should have knocked.” She said, flipping the mask up.
“Yeah, but not only would that have been the smart thing to do. I would have also missed seeing you bent over and hard at work.” James said with a smirk. “And since that's all I can see at the moment I think I made the right choice.”
Lucca smiled and shook her head. “What about my face?” She teasingly asked.
“I guess I'll have to hope that after one hundred and seventy three years I remember it.” James said as he felt Lucca's hands on his cheeks.
“Only one seventy.” Lucca corrected with a grin.
“I think I saw you at least once before our wedding day. Or were you wearing that welders mask on all of those dates?” James cocked an eyebrow at Lucca, hopefully, with where her hands were she should be standing directly in front of him.
Confirmation came with a kiss, once they separated Lucca shook her head. “You're still off then. Or maybe you're just losing it in your old age.”
They both could flirt back and forth for a long while, but James still had work that he intended to do and Lucca had her project. James had come in for a reason and he needed to get to it. “So Twilight's going to be coming around more often for a while.” James said as he stood up straight. His eyes were feeling better and he carefully opened them. Things were blurry but he at least knew where things generally were.
“Okay. What's the reason?” Lucca calmly asked.
“I'm helping her get a handle on her augmented magic. It seems like it's not going anywhere so she needs someone to guide her through getting used to it.” James explained.
“Okay, just let me know if things change.” She said with a smile. “Especially if I can tease you about it.”
“Don't you have enough?” James laughed.
“Never. Besides I can only milk your underwater make out session for so long.” Lucca laughed.
James shook his head. “You're not getting me with that one anymore.”
“As long as you let me know about it I won't get mad about a little kissing.” Lucca teased, but there was a forced calm to her voice that wasn’t normally there. She was lying, at least partially.
“I appreciate it, but it's not happening with these girls. They're nice and I’ll even admit cute, but we're just a bit too different.” James said, trying to keep himself from giving her a reaction.
Lucca kept herself from chuckling, this would get him. “You do have that polymorph spell.” She added with a wicked grin.
James's expression was set in stone, but he could feel his face burning as a blush began to grow. “I'm not Tenchi.” James said with his own forced calm.
“Speaking of, you know anything about that GP guy Tenyo was dating?” Lucca smugly said as she enjoyed her victory. She wanted to go on, but she had a big one to hit James with after Starlight got her turn at it. Unfortunately that could take a little while, maybe she should write it down.
“Yeah, fell through. Turns out he was a massive tool.” James explained.
“Well, she's your wife too.” Lucca calmly said. “If she needs to rebound, a date with her husband isn't a bad idea.”
“If she wants, but she doesn't seem to have any trouble getting dates.” James said with a shrug. He could finally see clearly and was ready to get some more work done. “Just letting you know the situation that's coming up.”
***
“So are we starting with meditation?” Twilight asked as she walked into the training area James also used for his daughter's martial arts practice. While the place had clearly been cleaned several times there was still a weak aroma of sweat that Twilight couldn’t completely ignore.
“No, first we're gauging. Equestrian magic functions differently than most studied magics, particularly with it's utility function that you make regular use of.” James explained. “Which is also why I'm not just saying study. We need to take a different approach for you.”
“Oh, then what should I do first?” Twilight asked.
“Let's start with those blocks against the wall.” James said nodding to what Twilight had thought to be a stone staircase leading nowhere.
Twilight hesitated a moment before she began moving the meter long rectangular blocks, this wouldn't really have been difficult for her even when she was a unicorn. What she soon realized to be the real test was that James was going to push her to constantly use her magic. For the next hour she was given more and more taxing tasks with no time to rest between them.
James was building a spell list for her to use that was growing in difficulty and concentration necessary to complete each task. Several spells she had only ever cast once before and even then with great difficulty. He was going to have to teach her some new difficult spells soon just to push her limits even further.
“Can we stop now?” Twilight panted, the spells were exhausting her and she needed a break. Her horn felt like it was on fire!
“No, let's see that last one again.” James calmly instructed. Twilight's face fell and she was drenched in sweat, but she forced herself to keep going. He carefully watched her as they worked, it was proving to be quite informative. He may also get Starlight's help for some more tricky spells for Twilight to try later. Possibly some of her unique spell fusions.
On James's latest instruction, Twilight slowly levitated a small ball over to him. He grinned as it gently set down in his. She felt a little odd after he didn't give her another instruction, her sweat soaked mane clinging to her. She had been casting harder and harder spells for an hour and a half, the last fifteen minutes changed to much easier tasks but they still felt arduous after what led up to them. “What … now?” She panted.
James nodded before opening a hidden compartment that was apparently a refrigerator, he brought out a bottle and opened it for her. “Have a drink and take a rest.”
Twilight took the bottle with her hooves. It was an orange drink and smelled like the fruit, it's taste was different but not unexpected from the sports drink. “So why did we do all that?”
“Well once you've gotten stronger it's important to practice the fine control. That's why Amber and Sara are practicing martial arts after their body mods. They suddenly found themselves much stronger than they were before and needed to get used to that strength.”
Twilight took another drink as she considered what he was saying. “But how does that help with magic?”
“Well, you didn't throw that ball at me.” James said with a shrug.
“How could I?” Twilight asked. “I was exhausted!”
“And as you get more used to your magic you'll be able to do that without a lot of effort first. When you're done, we'll move on to the next part. Directed meditation.” James said as he slowly lowered himself to the ground and rested his arms on his legs, palms up.
“Directed meditation?” Twilight hadn't heard of that before.
“I'll give you instructions while you meditate.” James casually explained.
“Oh, I've done that before.” Twilight said, recalling when she and Applejack took Rockhoof to see Somnabula.
“Whenever you're ready then.” James said with a nod before closing his eyes.
Twilight sat much like James was with her hind legs crossed beneath her and held her hooves up to the air and closed her eyes.
Twilight didn't understand the silence as she waited, but she had to trust that James knew what he was doing. After a minute she carefully opened an eye, thinking perhaps James had fallen asleep. He sat quietly with his eyes closed, his hands facing upwards and resting in his lap, his face was set as he concentrated on something.
“I'm just waiting for you to get ready.” He calmly said. “If that position is comfortable enough for you then we can begin.”
“Uhm. Yeah, it's fine.” Twilight said as she closed her eyes and once again got ready. Slowly James began to instruct her on breathing, taking longer pauses between breaths. Before long he stopped.
“Twilight. You're not meditating, you're napping. I know the difference. ” James said.
“What?! I am not napping!” Twilight was insulted at the accusation.
“There are differences in the energies of living things when they're resting and when they're meditating. You fall right into resting.” He explained as he tried to think of a way to perceptibly demonstrate it..
“Isn't that what meditation is about?” Twilight asked, a little irritated.
“Not all meditation, this is about focus.” James answered. “When you start again and you feel like you're moving down that's when you start resting. You'll want to feel elevated; open; aware. You'll still be able to know what's going on around you, whether or not you care is up to you.”
“I was paying attention and breathing like you were telling me to.” Twilight insisted.
“No, you were holding your breath and exhaling quickly. When doing this technique right each breath will begin as the other one ends.”
“Easy for you to say, you have that implant preventing you from suffocating.” Twilight mumbled.
“These are the same techniques I'm teaching my daughters, and taught Lucca.” James said in response. “Do you want to try again?”
“Alright. But if you can sense how things are going, maybe give me a little instruction about how to do it the way you want.” Twilight grumbled.
By their fourth attempt Twilight finally managed to reach the state James was talking about. “Now, feel your energy. Feel it ebb and flow throughout you. Feel where it pools.” James slowly instructed. “It radiates beyond yourself, it interacts with not only your surroundings but with the energy of others. Find the center of your largest pool of energy and feel it move to where you want it, as fast or as slow as you want it.”
James knew her horn was glowing, magic was natural for her and would be the pool of energy she would gravitate towards. “Do not look, let your energy find the blocks you moved earlier.” He waited as she managed to locate the blocks. With her lifelong practice of magic this was going much faster than it was for his daughters trying to learn about ki. But this wasn't the right time to consider what he had done.
“Lift those blocks and place them against the wall, do not strain or exert yourself. Simply allow them to return as you want with your magic holding them.” He felt as the blocks lifted off the ground, however he also felt Twilight was exerting herself in the task. Habits are not easy to break. The blocks slammed into the wall as she had lost the intended focus and made them move. Which in turn allowed her augmented magic to kick in.
“That will do for now.” James calmly said. “This wasn't bad for your first attempt, but you need to follow my instructions a little closer next time.” He explained as his eyes slowly opened.
Frustrated, Twilight opened her eyes and found that several items were gently floating around him. James must have been doing the same exercise she was. She felt a little embarrassed by her feelings toward his admonishment. He knew what he was doing after all.
Twilight offered her hoof to help James stand as he stiffly moved. While he did place his hand on her hoof she didn't feel him put any weight on her “Thank you.” He said as he stretched.
“Is that all for today?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah. I've got my exercises to get to so I don't get too complacent while recovering.” James said as he walked towards the door.
“Is there any way I can help?” Twilight asked, hopefully.
“Thank you very much, but no.” James said as he stretched his back. “It's just the same training I've been doing for a few years now. Get beaten badly and learn while I get stronger.”
“Excuse me? You're supposed to be healing, not getting yourself hurt. How exactly does this help your recovery?” Twilight scolded. She knew James did odd things, but this seemed like something that stemmed from his depression.
“It's called a zenkai boost, and it's something that makes sayians stronger.” Answered a deep voice from the doorway. “The more serious the injury they recover from the stronger they get, assuming that they don't let themselves get fat while they recover.”
Twilight looked over to the doorway and saw a tall bald green man with a pair of short antenna. He was dressed in dark purple and had an angry look to him. Carefully she approached him, not knowing how best to respond. “Hi, Twilight Sparkle. I'm one of James's friends.” She cautiously said as she held out her hoof to him.
Piccolo looked to the offered appendage before looking to the pony in front of him. “Piccolo. I'm helping him stay in fighting condition.”
Realizing that he would not be shaking her hoof Twilight cautiously put it down.
James smiled as he slowly walked forward. “Took a while, but I'm finally as strong as I used to be.”
“Now you only have to catch up.” Piccolo coldly said.
Twilight didn't know what to make of the situation. James acted like this guy was his friend, but Piccolo acted cold, almost angry, towards him.
“So what took you out for two weeks?” Piccolo asked.
“Someone poisoned my food and that knocked me out.” James said with a grin.
Much to Twilight's amazement this man who seemed so angry actually began to smile, even letting out a short laugh. “I guess if you can't fight a sayian poisoning their food is the most likely way to succeed.”
“I guess I'd better let you get to your exercise then.” Twilight uncomfortably said as she backed away from the door.
James slowly followed Piccolo out before Twilight made her way back to her castle.
***
As Twilight was going home Rainbow Dash was flying through the castle, Lucca had asked to talk with her in her workshop.
There was a lingering smell of burnt metal hanging in the air as Rainbow Dash approached. She'd only been in the shop once or twice before and each time Lucca was working on a different project. She couldn't begin to guess what the parts were for, or if they were even for the same project as they lay spread across the table. She wasn't afraid, but coming here had a distinctly uncomfortable feel to it today. The dim lighting only served to make things ominous.
Lucca was on her chair at her workbench, looking over something sitting flat on the table.
“Hey Lucca.” Rainbow Dash calmly said as she got close.
Lucca swiveled in the chair to face Rainbow Dash. “Hi.” She said, her voice was flat and her expression only veiled anger. “Is there something you need to tell me, Rainbow Dash?” She asked as if it were a threat. It wasn't, but Lucca was both hurt and angry, not only at Rainbow Dash but she was the only one Lucca could really confront about the situation.
Rainbow Dash took a step back at the hostile question, this was very confusing. “You asked me to come here.” She hesitantly said.
Lucca closed her eyes and sighed. Turning around she tapped whatever it was on the desk she had been looking at.
“Look, just … if you tell anypony I did this, I'll deny it.” Rainbow Dash heard herself say. Someone had recorded her watching over James! It felt as though her stomach dropped out knowing that right now Lucca was watching her kiss James.
“Liara monitors everything going on. So …” Lucca said turning back to the pegasus. “Is there anything you need to tell me?” She demanded as her eyes bored into Rainbow Dash.
“It's not what it looks like. I …” Rainbow Dash quickly said.
“Oh,” Lucca interrupted, furious. “so those are someone else's lips on my husband?!”
“Okay, so that is what it looks like.” Rainbow Dash admitted before quickly adding. “But it's still not what it looks like.”
“Save it! I know you lie when you're caught.” Lucca growled, looking no less angry.
“Please, just let me explain.” Rainbow Dash insisted.
“How many stories do you have to explain this? Let's just cut through the crap and get to the truth.” Lucca said as she eyed the pegasus threateningly.
“Just one, and it's the truth.” Rainbow Dash said quietly. “James is important to us, all of us, and we left him in Tartarus. He was in trouble and we abandoned him.” Her chest felt as if it were being crushed as she began to explain. “I was barely able to look in a mirror after that, let alone face Scootaloo with the truth. I had to do everything I could to help him. Not just sit with him and hope for some change.”
“So you thought that kissing him would help? After Tali and I had done just that without any luck? What, did you think neither of us loved him truly? I've been married to him for nearly two centuries!” Lucca scolded, her voice getting louder with each statement.
“No!” Rainbow Dash insisted. “But if there was even a chance that it would work I had to take it! I don't care what it means!” She was on the verge of shouting herself.
“You only wanted to help him?” Lucca asked skeptically, her voice back to a low growl as she thought about what she was hearing. She sat back in her chair and took a deep breath as she closed her eyes. “You two are awfully close. Did something happen that I don't know about? that I need to know about?!”
“No! Look, I'm sorry. I really am. But I had to do something!” Rainbow Dash argued on the verge of tears. “I just left him there like he didn’t matter, but he does!”
This wasn't what Lucca was asking for, but it was what she was getting. Lucca nodded and looked to the corner, as from the shadows a young woman appeared. She was only a little shorter than Lucca and wore the blue and gray New Guardian service uniform. “She's telling you the truth, Ma'am.” The woman calmly said.
Lucca looked between the woman and Rainbow Dash for a moment. “Alright, that will be all Ms. Sandris.” She sounded calmer, but there was still an edge to her voice.
“Mrs. Amani soon.” She said with a smile.
“Congratulations. I'm glad you two could rekindle your relationship after her memory wipe.” Lucca politely said. While she felt now was not the time for it she actually was glad to hear it. They nearly had to dismiss Tanis early back then because the whirlwind romance had been interfering with her job.
“It was easier and funner the second time.” The young woman said before walking out.
Rainbow Dash looked to where the woman had been hidden and back to Lucca several times, not believing that had happened.
Lucca's expression softened considerably as she looked back to Rainbow Dash. The confession and confirmation had settled her biggest concerns about the situation even if not in the way she exactly hoped. “I'm sorry I was so angry. I do care about him, and with how we work I have to trust him, that kiss worried me that maybe I couldn't trust him anymore. I was worried that between the prank, that month in the time chamber, and your subsequent time together since then that maybe something had developed that I was dismissing. ”
“No.” Rainbow Dash said as she stepped forward again. “Trust me, I am quite happy being single.”
Lucca nodded, she did have want to know more if Ms. Sandris were willing to tell her. “Just let me know if you're thinking of … more. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt.” Lucca sighed as she polished her glasses. “We did kind of push you towards him so … just keep me in the loop.”
Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped as she listened to Lucca. “We're not dating!” She insisted.
“Oh, I know.” Lucca said. “But you two do act like a couple. Let me know if things change, No matter how they might change, that's all.”
“I care about him because he's my friend.” Rainbow Dash continued to argue though Lucca only nodded. She didn't like the thought of another person, let alone James’s wife, thinking that there was a romantic relationship there when they were just friends. Just friends…
Lucca almost grinned. “Thank you for caring.”