//------------------------------// // That's no Moon Dog. Season 3 Epilogue One // Story: Twilight Gets a Puppy, Season 3 // by TDR //------------------------------// Twilight Gets a Puppy Season 3 By TDR That's no Moon Dog. Season 3 Epilogue One [ Two weeks after the God's council, Canterlot Mid summer, one week after the Sparkle's three years in Ponyville party. ] Twilight Sparkle sat at the table taking notes as Princess Luna and Princess Celestia explained everything they knew about being a god. Cadence sat across from the pair, closer to Twilight, adding her own input on certain things. Some of it Twilight already knew though from older lessons with Celestia. She was immortal now, and nothing short of the destruction of all of her portfolios would kill her. Twilight was fine with this because she wouldn't want to live in a world without books anyway. She could still be injured or contained, but the former wouldn't last and the latter was difficult. Most of the discussion was about the council, which was little more than a regulatory group for the collected gods in case of disagreements. The heads of the council were usually the oldest gods, though they could pass on the position if they wanted like Discord and Celestia and Luna's mother had. Iinii, the Fates, and Aqua had been the heads of the council almost as long as Celestia had been a god. The group also kept track of territory disputes, portfolio issues, and any violations of terms agreed upon. Twilight segued that into bringing up the buffalo's claim to the land around Appleoosa and started up an argument between Luna and Celestia about who had the rights to the land. Twilight was rather glad she hadn't involved them in the issue when it was relevant. Cadence thankfully got them moving along track again. There talked about making Twilight a proper Princess with a coronation and such, Twilight flat out refused that, going so far as to cover her ears and scream 'La la la la' until the trio got the hint she wasn't interested. They finally gave up fully when Twilight refused the offer of a increased stipend she could use to buy books with. They had just finished a lovely lunch that the kitchen staff had brought up for them and Luna was feeding grapes to her pet opossum Tiberius, when Celestia broached another subject. “Twilight. Might I suggest something to you, on a more personal note.” Celestia stated. “Oh good, I was wondering if we were going to have this argument today.” Cadence added in chipperly. “Can I at least say it before you bite my head off Cadence?” Celestia rolled her eyes. “What are you talking about?” Twilight asked and even Luna looked a little confused. “Well there is no delicate way to really put this, but I would suggest to you that you cease your relationship with Big Mac of the Apples.” Celestia explained. “Especially if you are serious about your relationship with him. “What?” Twilight blinked her ears flattening to her head. “And there it is.” Cadence offered snidely. “Twilight. You are effectively immortal now. And Big Mac is not. You will remain young and he will wither and die before you.”Celestia stated sadly.”I would like to spare you that so soon in your new life....” “By telling her to give up all her wonderful todays just because tomorrow might suck.” Cadence snapped. “There are others out there, Gods and Demi gods whom you could find a happiness with.” Celestia offered. “Like you and Discord? Or Sunsets mother, a married mare you had an affair with?” Cadence narrowed her eyes. “You're the last pony any one needs to go to for relationship advice.” Luna's ears remained flattened to her head as she stroked Tiberius' back. “We have to agree with our sister on this. Red Mesa was a wonderful stallion.... but it barely seemed an eye blink before he was gone.” Cadence didn't respond to that, for a moment silence settled over the table, save for the sound of Tiberius slurping up all the leftovers. “And would you have given up that bit of time if you had the chance?” Cadence finally asked. “Yes.... but at the same time.... no.” Luna sighed. “So gods are just destined to be alone unless they sleep around a lot or only date other gods?” Twilight frowned. “Well... you could always take a familiar... Philomena helped me get through the last thousand years...”Celestia sighed. “We were replaced by a bird... lovely.”Luna sighed. “You could always make Owlowiscious your familier if he is willing.” Celestia offered. “Or any other animal of your choosing, like Tiberius here.” “Tibbers thanks you for getting his name right for once instead of just screaming and fleeing.”Luna nodded sagely as Tiberius squeaked. “So I can have a exotic bird or Equestria's only marsupial?”Twilight asked. “Much as I like Owlowiscious, that's rather limited.” “Tibbers is a marsupial? But he does not have a pouch!?”Luna questioned picking up the chubby little opposum. “That's because he's a male.” Twilight sighed. “Wonderus. We asked him to be our familiar because he was adorable and Tia couldn't stand him. We thought him a large rat.” Luna smiled holding Tiberius closer to Celestia who leaned away from him in her chair. “I really wish you had gone with those two Corgi puppies like you first thought.” Celestia muttered. “Wait you can have two familiars?” Twilight blinked. “We are not quite sure there is a limit. Iinii had a pack of winter wolves as his familiars at one time in the past, though eventually they all grew tired and wished to move on so he released them from their bond to live out their lives as mortals again.” Luna stated. “We know another god who had numerous cats.” “Great she can be a crazy cat mare.” Cadence frowned. “I don't like cats.” Twilight muttered. “Seeing animal versions of something like my brother is a little disturbing.” “Just because you two are dateless on Saturday nights doesn't mean we have to be.” Cadence snapped ignoring Twilight. “We have discovered the club scene my pinkest niece, we are hardly alone on Saturday nights.” Luna chuckled. “Really? You'll have to invite me out with you one of these days.” Celestia stated. “We would prefer not to. We are building our reputation back up as the fun one at the various club scenes in my night. Bringing in the motherly sun goddess whose ideas of fun are a calming tea and the crossword puzzle does not strike me as something the club goers would be alright with.” Twilight seemed lost in thought as the two started bickering again. ”Alright so any animal can become a familiar? A magical beast, a regular mammal, a marsupial, and I'm pretty sure Discord has a pet butterfly named Lorenz.” “Of course he does.” Celestia sighed.” Also yes.” “So does making them a familiar actually make them immortal as well or am I just training to get used to things dying around me”Twilight demanded. “ Because I learned that lesson when I learned how to feed Rahs and in my study of Parasprite biology.” “No of course not, Phillomenia might be an odd example as Phoenix's in the wild tend to be immortal unless killed by one of their natural predators, recall your studies on summoners when you were trying to understand the link between yourself and your brothers. The spell used to make a familiar for a god is based on that, although the bond between the caster and the target is much more open. Your familiar will gain immortality, a more robust body, increased intelligence, and it will often develop powers based on your portfolio.” Celestia explained. “Tibbers can dream walk and manipulate darkness. He was already such a clever little thing to begin with, managing to sneak into the cake vault and eat twice his weight in cake.”Luna smiled, nuzzling against the opposum who hissed a little, patting the alicorn on the nose with a paw. “Yes.... clever.... and lucky some pony else found him first.” Celestia grumbled glaring at Tiberius who stuck his tongue out at her in return.. Twilight considered. “Do you have a copy of the spell?” “Of course.” Celestia offered, her horn flaring and a scroll popped into being before Twilight. “ It requires a little bit of prep time and some fairly exotic components, but nothing outlandish. Twilight opened the scroll reading it over curiously. “So just to be clear, any sort of mammal is on the table for a familiar?” Twilight asked again. “Yes.” Celestia agreed with a nod. “Aqua had a whale for a time.” “So if I wanted to have a pig or a Sika, I could?” Twilight asked. “I believe so yes.” Celestia frowned wondering about this line of questioning.”I don't know any gods who have had pigs, but the Elk god Dogwood had a Sika. Of course he was using it to lord over the other elk at the time that he was using one of their lesser cousins as a pet. That lasted a few hundred years before the Elk had enough of his bullshit and nailed him to a tree. He eventually gave up his powers just so he could die and be done with the pain, though by that point there was a whole culture of guardians watching the tree to make sure he stayed put. The tradition continues and the current Elk god just stays out of their business and lets them come to her if there's an issue....” “So what's to stop me from making another pony my familiar? Twilight offered finally. “ What?” Luna demanded as Celestia twitched mid explanation. “Honestly a pony is just a highly evolved mammal, not unlike a pig or a Sika deer. While neither of those two are what anyone would consider sapient they are intelligent and some have been known to mimic speech like a parrot. A pony is just one step up from that and unlike an animal who might freak out when first bonded with, a pony would be awake and aware enough to tell you yes or no, thus taking care of any sort of trauma that the spell might caused by uplifting something without a higher thought process or even a concept of mortality.” Twilight considered. “But the spell can't do that...” Celestia protested. “Have you tried?” Twilight asked looking to the three of them.”Judging by your fish impersonations I would say no.” Twilight's horn glowed as she picked up Tiberius. The opossum hissing in annoyance as Twilight's spell pulled him away from his meal while she scanned him over. “This spell is rather complex... traces of ritual magic, blood magic, and necromancy?”Twilight focused with a small frown. “The blood magic is the bonding agent while the necromancy is there to ensure cell death is staved off.” Celestia explained.”Most summon spells involve one or the other which is why summoners are rare and necromancers non existent.” “Interesting.” Twilight hummed to herself a she set Tiberius back down. “So can you do it?” Cadence asked leaning a little closer. “I'll need to research this further, as while I looked into necromancy, I've not studied blood magic, but I don't see why not. It's not too different from the link between myself and my brothers. There's a constant feeding line of energy connecting Tiberius to Luna like a standard summoners bond. It's slight but noticeable. That would probably get bigger depending on the size and draw of the creature in question. Still I could probably make a score of ponies my familiars before I'd have issues with normal spells and that's just with the spell as it is.” Twilight considered.”There's plenty of room for refinement.” “I wouldn't worry about Shining then if you can get this to work. I rather want to see what happens if he has something out of my portfolio.” Cadence nearly purred “How long do you think it would take to be sure.” “I'd have to run some tests, but maybe a few months for preliminaries and proper testing on volunteers.” Twilight considered as Cadence helped her up off her chair and guided her towards the doors. “Well lets get started right away, I am very interested in getting a copy of all your notes on this as well.” Cadence grinned practically hopping. Luna and Celestia watched them leave simply starring. “The goddess of magic every pony.” Celestia muttered. “Why did we never consider this Lulu?” “Our mother told us it only worked on animals when she taught it to us.” Luna frowned. “Our mother.....” “Yes.” “The mare who never stayed with one lover longer than twenty years before she got bored with them?” Celestia asked. “Yes.” Luna agreed. “Told us it only worked on animals, and not other ponies.” “Yes.” “I want a copy of her notes too.” Celestia stated looking to the door the pair had exited.. “Verily.”