//------------------------------// // The One Where Prestidigitation Knows // Story: Twilight Gets a Puppy, Season 5 // by TDR //------------------------------// Twilight Gets a Puppy Season 5 By TDR The One Where Prestidigitation Knows [ Ponyville, Seshat, THE LAB] “You're off by four thrums.” Twilight snapped. “Mare I know what level I'm putting into this thing and I am as spot on as you can get without a mana scope and a 20 digit calculator.” Sunset snapped from behind a large shield. “And yet you're off by four.” Twilight retorted, her goggles pulled down over her eyes as she stared at a cube on a stone lab table. “Should I come back?” Saturnia asked from behind another large shield. The changeling thought she knew something about magic until these two got together, then she felt like a philosopher, only knowing she knew nothing. Rahs sighed leaning against the back wall of the chamber just in case something went wrong. His sister was hard at work again trying to get the familiar spell to work. She had raided Celestia's school for one of the high end magic training cubes to use as a test for the spell. The device was a perfect target for new spell development as it was designed to simulate various possible spell targets. The rune covered chunk of heart wood and rubber could handle a ridiculous amount of magic being poured into it without breaking. Twilight, prior to ascension, had only managed to break one during a surge when she was younger. Rahs had eaten three. With as much magic as these things were soaked in they were the perfect chew toy. He had needed to sign a waiver that if he ate this one he would have to pay for it. His budget wasn't THAT much. Twilight had to sign one that if she broke it she would have to buy a new one. Her budget wasn't that much either. So in a show of surprising foresight she was letting Sunset cast the spells. Rahs was mostly there as a safety measure if something went wrong, they were evidently into the bigger spells today and needed him just in case. Saturnia was there as well for something, though Twilight's explanation of adjusted thrums and power transfers went way over his head. Evidently she could doe something as a changeling like transferring power or something. He didn't understand it, so he sat back letting the egg heads work while he looked pretty. He was good at that. As his sister yammered on, his mind wandered to where it had been going for the a good while lately, the Oneiroi. He was supposed to be the ruler of that place, but in truth he hardly needed to even be there. The alphas kept things running fairly smoothly and it wasn't as if even they were needed too often. Moon Dogs rarely had a reason to fight or argue with each other so long as there was enough food, anything they wanted or needed otherwise could be converted out of the dream stuff around them, and the few other things that lived in the dream world were barely an issue as the moon dogs were the apex predators of the place, aside from the occasional vicious nightmares or a 'thankfully' much smaller tantabus or two there wasn't anything to bother them. Twilight had mentioned that might be bad if they got too specialized, or if something disrupted the flow of mana into the dream world, but she couldn't figure out how such a thing might happen, particularly with the very existence of Discord and all the other things that had attacked over the last few years driving up nightmares of ponies and others in Equestria. The moon dogs had an over abundance of work dealing with just nightmares after Tirek. Then there was the Oneiroi itself, he was only just figuring that place out. A massive untamed land of unclaimed wild dreamscape and unknown void. No that wasn't quite right. The void was filled with things, stuff seen on the edges of dreams, the dreams of wild animals mingling , the rare few structures built by the slumbering dead and life dreamers that hadn't faded yet. There were... territories for lack of a better word in the Oneiroi. Most of the dogs he had met were in an area that was roughly the size of Equestria. The geography in the Oneiroi shifted and changed, but where larger packs of dogs gathered tended to be equivalent of where cities or major settlements were in Equestria. Between the larger packs were well worn' paths' through the dreamscape, routes that allowed for fairly quick travel between places in Equestria if one knew how to access them. Though some places were isolated, like that 'Our Town' place and there was no easy path through the swirling wilds of the Oneiroi. The dogs tended to follow the ones they were assigned to in their movements, and most ponies rarely left Equestria. There were a few however we traveled quite a bit through the dreamscape as their bonded traveled along Equss and they knew that there were other large packs out there and countless smaller packs in the wilds of the Oneiroi, some of them looking quite different than the moon dogs around Equestria. Rahs was rather curious about them, but he would have plenty of time later in life if he got bored to investigate, he was sure word about him was getting around anyway. Right now his concern was his sister Bri, and the fact she had just had two pups. Rahs hadn't even known she had been dating any one let alone she had a mate for the last five years. Bri had been promoted to join the group of alphas after Rahs had expressed his displeasure at several of the members of that group. One didn't stay long in favor when the wholly accepted god of your race didn't like you. So at least three of them had retired. One had done so and faded away having been watching over Celestia far longer than most things had been alive. The other two were likely going to go the same route before long with no one bonded to them they would fade into the dreamscape itself in time. Rahs had thought that a ridiculously dramatic and over the top way to go. None of the other moon dogs thought it was that strange. He was starting to see where his flare for drama had come from. Still Rahs had met Bri's mate, a rather large burly moon dog named Jen. Jen was bound to a young nox-cal nocturne and was a decent enough dog as far as he could tell. Also Bri had threatened Rahs with bodily harm, god or not, if he fucked with her mate. Bri herself was now bonded to Cadence fully and was an alpha of the tribe. Evidently that was the sort of thing the pair had been waiting for as she became pregnant not long after she had bonded with Cadence. Bri was one of the few dogs who could bond with a god to watch over their dreams as she had never been bonded with anyone else after she was born for just that purpose. The other two who had bonded with Celestia and Bleu respectively had been raised much the same way. Granted with how little the alphas needed to meet, Bri having pups meant there would hardly be any issue with her tasks beyond watching over Cadence's dreams or being an alpha. Though there had been some hoopla when she had suggested Rahs name the little male and female pups. Rahs was thrilled and after freaking out every dog with the old Denise and Denephew joke, he gave the pair the names Oberon and Titania. Twilight had called him a nerd about his worship of the bard when he told her, but he hardly cared, it was a weird feeling to be an uncle for the pups of a sister he didn't even know he had for most of his life. “Huh that's funny.” Twilight muttered. Rahs snapped immediately back into focus, those were dangerous words. Ponies often thought that yelling Eureka, or Shooka or some other catchy phrase heralded discovery. In his experience the words to watch out for were ' That's funny', and 'Oops'. Both could either be something good, or in his sisters case something that needed him to eat some magic, usually the latter. “What is.... oooooh..” Sunset begin though she quickly saw what Twilight was talking about in the spell she was holding. “Why is it being drawn to that? I don't even have...... THAT'S why it wasn't working!” “Looks it, let me take over the spell I want to see if I can do this.” Twilight offered as the pair swapped the spell. Twilight taking over the control and the power of it.“This is still well within the ord cube's power to hold, how did we miss this?” “Because we were focused on major portfolios not minor, like the main spell used. “ Sunset frowned. ”Going by this particular layout, the cost wouldn't be that bad and it would just lock a secondary. That might put off some of them though.” “Then that's on them.” Twilight offered, her smile growing wider as the cube started to float off the table throwing out sparks. “Yes... YESS YESSS!!!!!!!!!!!!! HA HA!! This is it! This is the Familiar spell, and it will work!!!!!YESSS!!” Then the cube exploded. [ Crystal Empire, Crystal Castle, the next day] Rahs rolled his eyes, popping his sister in the back of the head to get her to stop ranting. Cadence, Chrysalis, and Shining Armor had all gone glassy eyed. “Ow, what!?” “Woof!” Rahs pointed out. “It was not too technical!” “Twilight I'm afraid you lost me about the point you mentioned giga thrums.” Cadence sighed. “That was the second sentence!” Twilight huffed. “Did better than me, I lost focus when she started talking.” Chrysalis smirked. “You need to train better, just look for a certain gleam in her eye then tune her out.” Shining smirked. “Ugh fine. The short of it is the spell works, we got the Familiar spell to work and we're ready to move on to physical trials, and you were the ones who offered to do so.” Twilight stated. The two gods perked up and Shining looked nervous. “Are you sure it's ready to go that far Twily?” Shining asked noting how the two mares shared looked. “Yes, Sunset and I triple checked everything. The spell works just like the original with one caveat. Casting the spell will take up one lesser portfolio. That's more of a safety feature than anything else. Since lesser portfolios are locked in terms of power and don't create gods themselves if passed on, using them as a focal point works perfectly. It's a bit of a work around, but you can have as many, well I don't want to call them familiars, companions, as you have lesser portfolios. Powering past that doesn't turn out well.” “So what would that mean?” Chrysalis asked. “In terms of the spell, the casting is only a little different. In terms of the target it should act exactly like the spell would with an animal. Immortality on par with a demi god, and some traits of the god that they became the companion too rather than just what the lesser portfolio is.” Twilight explained. “Hmm I am curious as to what he would do with one of mine.” Chrysalis murred. “Just think if he got a bit of shape changing power.” “Hmm or some of my abilities, with how good he already is.” Cadence murred. Shining shifted nervously. “Well, we would have to start with Cadence.” Twilight continued on obliviously as Rahs looked at his brother in pity. “ Changelings are just different enough in magic that it would require further testing to be safe.” Twilight made a few notes before offering a scroll to Cadence.” The spells not that different but it will feel a little odd on your end compared to the original.” “I never cast the original.” Cadence shrugged. ”I never saw a need for a familiar.” “Never had time for one myself.” Chrysalis added. “Well time to learn.” Twilight grinned. With Twilight directing, the spell was set up and a very nervous Shining Armor had the spell cast on him. “Hmmm.” Twilight offered looking over her brother, her horn glowing as she scanned Shining. “Rahs did you feel anything over the link?” “Oh right he can eat spells like that.” Chrysalis frowned. “Bark.” Rahs shrugged. “ A bit of a surge. Judging by the scans however the spell did take. However I did adjust this spell to not feed down the link, so it shouldn't drain Cadence and feed Rahs.” Twilight offered. “How do you feel Shiny?” “No different really.” Shining Armor offered. “What should I have been expecting.” “Not much at first, there may be some power creep from Cadence in time, but the primary thing it did was make it so you're no longer going to age. There should be an increased durability as well, just short of what a demi god has, but more than a mortal. That may increase over time.” Twilight explained. “I'll have to run some tests.” “That is a scary word.” Shining Armor shuddered. “Tell you what Twilight. Go visit Moon Dancer or something and come back tomorrow, we've got a few tests of our own to do.” Cadence purred. “Right, run along now.” Chrysalis offered with a feral grin. “Really, I should make sure the tests your doing aren't too.. WHAT!? Rahs put me down!” Twilight yelled as Rahs grabbed his sister having seen these two like this before. In three steps he then flung both himself and his sister out the window of the room fifteen stories up. “FLY YOU FOOL!” There was a startled scream from Twilight before a crash and explosion as the pair destroyed a haberdashery stall set up with other shops underneath the palace. [ Ponyville] Rarity frowned looking up from the dress she was working on. She was suddenly very cross with Rahs. Thinking on it she shrugged and went back to the hemming. [The next day, Crystal Palace] “Hello? Any one up yet? Twilight called pushing open the door and peering in. Rahs leaned in over her head to look around, the moon dog sporting a number of bandages around his head, that he didn't really need even after Twilight was done bludgeoning him for throwing her out of a window, but that he was still wearing for sympathy or drama or something. The place looked trashed, the couches were flipped over, blankets and sheets tossed around the room as well as a few bits of clothing best worn in private. Twilight blinked noticing a groaning pink form on the floor and a black form half buried under a couch. “My legs... I can't feel my legs.” Cadence whined. “You think that's bad, I can't feel my ovipositor.” Chrysalis groaned. “You don't have an ovipositor.” Cadence offered. “By the stars it's worse than I thought!” Chrysalis yelped. “What?” Twilight blinked. “Don't mind them.” Shining Armor offered stepping out of the bed room looking like he was freshly showered. “They just found out what happens when a mortal who can sorta keep up with them finally gets on their level.” Twilight and Rahs blinked. “So, you wanna get breakfast, I'm thinking pancakes.” Shining offered. “It's after noon.” Twilight pointed out “Still thinking pancakes.” Shining shrugged walking out the door with his siblings leaving Cadence and Chrysalis behind. “Well I guess we know the spell works.” Twilight shook her head.