//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Practice and Application // Story: Starting Over As A Friendship Bomb // by Carmine Craft //------------------------------// The ground seemed to vibrate beneath my hooves as I ran toward the library door, when my first obstacle appeared before me; the front door. I took twenty seconds to think about how the dang thing was supposed to open. During that time, the vibration in the floorboards had ramped up to a rumbling, and peopl-- ponies, I mean, were screaming about some horrifying, terrible disaster. "Screw it." I grumbled, turning on my heel equivalent and shooting up the stairs like an excited pomeranian. I cursed loudly as my hooves scrambled for traction at the top of the stairs also like a zippy little dog. I slid several body lengths before thudding into the wall. That provided all the grip I needed to start blitzing away through the loft and towards my goal, a not so little window. The window was actually just a smaller than average door, and let out onto one of several balconies; the perfect place to get a look at this disaster. 'Actually, this is probably a better idea than the front door, since I won't be in immediate danger.' I nosed the latch out of the way and shouldered my way through. My hooves clacked noisily on the little steps to the balcony, before I lept at the railing next to a rather expensive looking telescope. My hooves quickly wrapped around the wood while I jumped back and forth a bit from hind leg to hind leg.  "--There." I just barely heard someone say. This brought my line of sight to what seemed to be just about every resident of the town, though there was probably more indoors. Following their eyes I saw just what this calamitous event was supposed to be. It was a stampede. 'Seems I heard correctly earlier then.'  A massive line of cows kicked up an even bigger dust cloud. The thunderous drumming of their hooves caused the tree I was in to creak and shake, ponies to panic, and other random bouts of general pandamonium. "Holy cow...s, cows. Plural. That's a lotta bovines. Howin… just how many are there if they're able to make a mini earthquake!?" Fortunately, or unfortunately, I didn't exactly know about stampedes in any kind of depth-- regardless of fortune, the cows were across a canal fed river, and would have to cluster down to one trampling line if they wanted across the bridge into town. 'I wonder just how much damage this is actually gonna do?' Fortunately -- for real this time, this was actually quite fortuitous -- I would never find out how much destruction a herd of cows was capable of, because someone familiar was pulling up beside the cows. Two someones actually; the second person I had met in this world, Applejack, and a little brown and white dog that stood about half her height. The orange farm mare must have given some kind of signal to the pooch, as it proceeded to leap across the cows backs before coming down on the other side. The pair thinned the herd down into a manageable line, and Aj, somehow, worked a lasso with nothing but her mouth with enough dexterity to snag the lead cow. The farm mare worked in tandem with her trusty canine to divert dairy based disaster, just before they could set hoof on the bridge, and steared them around the town alongside the river.  "Huh. Well, that was cool to watch." I thought to myself, before dismounting the railing to head back inside. "I wonder if the town was in much danger, or if this happens often? I wonder if there's anything I could do to thank her, would suck to have the town get trashed before I can get attached to it." ^ <  ◇  > v I only thought about just how little I could help for a few minutes, at which point Twilight came through the door. Apparently the spectacle that Applejack put on looked even more impressive to a native born pony, as she and Spike went back and forth recounting her heroism. I had already settled back down behind my incomprehensible books by the time Twilight went to look for me. "Argent! Did you see Applejack out there?" She asked me excitedly. "Yep, I sure did. It was quite a thing to see too." I nodded, closing the book that I still couldn't read absently. "That happen often?"  "Applejack or the stampede?"  "I meant the stampede." I clarified. "Ah, well, every now and then. I still haven't lived here for very long, but according to several scientific journals, that was an uncommon occurrence. Nothing to worry about." Twilight was clearly trying to be both informative and comforting, but didn't have the experience to back up her words. "Especially with Applejack around!" The baby dragon cheered assuringly, earning a giggle from the librarian. "Anyway, how is the reading? Do you have any questions? Which of these authors is more understandable to you?" She began rapid fire. I held up a hoof to forestall her questions. "I had barely opened the first book when the ground started shaking, so I don't know. You said these were all required reading but… for like, the next lesson, or just to build the proper concepts for later on?" Twilight looked pretty disappointed, but it was more of a general disappointment rather than being disappointed in me. "That's understandable, and it's all the groundwork you will need for advanced spell casting, so you are going to have to read them sometime." 'So cool things like pyromancy are probably out, real shame.' "So then what is next?" "Next is just more simple levitation practice. Since you're so new to casting, you need to get a firm hold of your magic to prevent accidental surging, but this will also help define your channels and exercise your source. That will make it so you're able to cast more efficiently, and give you access to more raw magic, respectively." "I like the sound of all three of those things." I smiled, wondering if 'surging' was as terrible as the things my mind was conjuring.  "Every little unicorn does. I'm speaking generally of course, as statistically, there are at least a few that don't. Care that is." She answered in kind as her horn flared and the quill was retrieved. "How can some-pony not care about learning magic? It's magic! Magic is cool." I stared at the floating plumage, and like a crappy engine, my horn sputtered to life. Of course there were no engine noises involved, more the feel of things. Rusty, despite the newness of it all. And so the cycle began. I would shakily grasp the thing and move it around until I ran out of magic, then Twilight would give me tips on how to improve while I waited for a recharge. We did this for several hours, and I grew increasingly more irritated, exhausted, and tired. I was yawning before sunset. "You've made incredible progress!" Twilight complimented. I blinked a bit at her, having trouble focusing. I glanced at the unstable blue glow surrounding most of the feather, and a good bubble of air. The longer I stared at the lopsided aura, the more wiggly it got until it burst, raining temporary sparkles down onto the floor before they vanished as their magic dispersed into the air. "Yeah… great progress." I griped. "No, really! You're able to hold a spell for over two and a half minutes now, and you were barely aware of the casting, meaning it's becoming second nature! This is amazing, considering you started just today!" She flipped around a roll of parchment she had been taking notes on, pulling me next to her to read over her shoulder. Or under it, given the height difference. I blinked uncomprehendingly at her horse squiggles before sighing dejectedly. My entire body ached, and when I checked my mental imaging thing, I didn't have any burst of development, still a regular old diffuse glow. I sighed. "Doesn't feel like I've improved all that much, but if you say so." "Let's take a short break, you look pretty tired." She observed. "Thank you, I am." I grumbled while stretching. My ears drooped as I made to stand up. "M'sorry, M'not trying to be snappy with you." "It's okay Argent, everypony gets frustrated sometimes." She assured me with a brief touch on the shoulder before she led the way to the kitchen. "Come on, Spike made you something tasty~!" Now that she had mentioned it, I did notice something smelled good, and the drake had just up and disappeared at some point. "Yeah, sounds like a plan."  For dinner, Spike was whipping up a good looking spread, of some kind of sandwich, weird, thin pretzel fry things, and buttered peas. Once I had it in front of me, I more or less recognized the sandwich as a BLT. It wasn't quite the same thing, since instead of bacon, it had some red, two petaled flowers. It still tasted amazing, and one can never go wrong with buttered peas. "Aren't you going to eat your hay fries?" Spike asked as I had tried to mask hesitation with getting a sip of water.  I looked at the drake, then at the apparently named hay fires, and finally up at my horn. Twilight gave me an encouraging nod when I caught her eye, and I began the careful process of floating a single fry up to my mouth.  It was delightfully crispy, and whatever spices Spike had used to bake them complemented the hay amazingly. 'Honestly, if potatoes got replaced by hay for some reason, I don't even mind! Not when I have these things as a result!' As I patiently sipped at my water to prolong the meal, and enjoy the company, the sun slipped past the horizon. Twilight finished up her food and politely wiped her lips with a napkin before fixing me with a look. "Well, it's just about time for you to be in bed." She commented purposefully. Normally, if I were put in this situation, I would have put up a bit of a fight, as I did enjoy the adult ability of being able to go to sleep at two in the morning. But, with all the magic practice, I was exhausted. I nodded absently, yawning into my now empty glass. "Was looking forward to more magic, but that can wait till tomorrow I guess." I stumbled out of my chair, ignoring the odd looks I was getting, chalking it up to surprise at not whining about going to sleep. Spike soon joined me in tromping up the stairs, so I guessed that dragons weren't exempt from bed time either. I hopped up onto my bed, too tired to bother with the blankets, figuring my coat would keep me warm enough. I was just tired enough mentally to not put up a fight to the urge to spin in circles like a dog before flopping down onto the cushy mattress. I curled up so that my muzzle rested on my back leg, my forehooves folded in a comfortable position against my barrel. Twilight peaked her head up the stairs, a candle held aloft in her magic as every other light in the library winked out. "Good night you two~ for now, I've got some reading to catch up on. we'll pick up your lessons in the morning, sweet dreams!" She quietly cheered, laying a kiss on the dragon's forehead and giving me a reassuring pat before she descended once more. "Night Twilight." We called back to her. "Good night Argent." Spike yawned at me, before turning over in his little basket bed. "G'night Spike." I murmured back, lighting my horn to flop the pillow on top of me. The weight of the down filled pillow was the last thing I needed to drift off to sleep. ^ <  ☾  > v Princess Luna, to spare one her many titles, sat upon the throne of Equestria, finding that she had little to do. Nothing to do, if one were to be truthful.  It seemed that little had changed over her banishment. No, much had changed, but the particular facet of unchanged normalcy that brought about such pessimistic thoughts was that the court ran empty as soon as her night filled the sky. She was still only allowed to hold the night court for a mere two hours, but apparently after her first showing, and the subsequent flinging of ponies out windows, no pony was of a mind to visit their grievances upon royal ears when the sun had set. Thirty minutes remained before court would be adjourned, and it had become extremely obvious that the deadline would be reached before a petitioner would arrive. "Fine, if it be true that We are to be ignored, We might as well retire to Our chambers and vanquish the nightmares of Our subjects, at least there Our work is appreciated." The alicorn muttered sourly. The lunar diarch's bad mood faded quickly, all but vanishing before she had even left the throne room. She had even managed to pick up a bit of pep in her trot when her plans for the evening wandered toward that young dream conductor, and seeing what she had gotten up to this night. Luna passed through her chambers for a moment, settling onto the balcony to watch her night sky. It brought her comfort to know that there were actually a great number of ponies enjoying it in modern times, whole careers were based around it, even! After a few minutes of star gazing, the Alicorn turned and closed the balcony doors behind her.  As she lay upon the princess sized mattress, Luna reflected upon her shrunken stature once more, and mentally cursed her former self. It had been ages -- before she had been sent to the moon -- that she had been this small, her coat this light. So long it had been in fact, that she had forgotten what her actual hair colour was, for it had been a cloud reflecting the night sky nearly as long as she could remember. Luna shook away these thoughts, and kneaded the pillows until they were perfect. With her horn aglow with midnight blue magic, she let her head rest upon the pillows and closed her eyes. ^ <  ☾  > v Princess Luna was quick to calm the slumber of her little ponies as she traversed the realm of dreams. Her search was over a rather scenic route, allowing her to do as much good as she was able before indulging in personal curiosity. As she rounded a bend on the path of starlight, she finally came upon the dream she sought. Light rose up from her road of starlight to open the way into the dream faster, and Luna stepped inside. The alicorn came upon the filly sitting on the balcony of her house -- she was shocked, the dream seemed to have remained exactly as it was the prior night. The pale purple pony sported a shiny crystal of peculiar cut upon her forehead, and was fiddling with some new construct. It bore a resemblance to the 'modern art' she had been introduced to; six sides of a perfect cube, decorated with hues of brown and green and the occasional gray in little squares. It looked to be a representation of the soil, with short grass on its top.  'What manner of craft is this? What wonders shalt thou create, young filly, with this cube as thy foundation?' Luna wondered, but before she could ponder further, or perhaps even approach the foal to ask, the colourful filly seemed to finish her task. With a manic smile, she tapped the top of the cube twice, and the dream was consumed. ^ <  ☾  > v After dozens of faint clicking noises, Luna finally found the filly once more. Standing on what seemed to be an infinite plane of artistically represented dirt, she proudly set her hoof atop a floating gray panel, covered in blocky text that Luna almost recognized… A giant black void opened up beneath her hooves like a carpet, or a yawning maw. The lunar alicorn scrambled back, her mind having brought up the latter first. The filly just looked down and smiled as gray replaced the black out to the edges, followed by a wave of green that ushered in white. When all was done it was a series of concentric squares, with a thin black line surrounding the gray, and a similarly thick line of green around the white.  Once more the dream changed, revealing an entirely new landscape. The terrain was slightly angular, even the sand. Great blocky clouds slowly drifted across the sky, blocking out the large square sun every now and then. 'We sense the beginnings of a pattern,' Luna thought dryly, turning her invisible head to find the dreamer. She was on the shore of a small island, spinning in circles, seemingly taking in her surroundings.  Once she got her bearings, the filly nodded, turned and charged the treeline. The young mare spun on her front hooves as they transitioned from sand to grass, and struck out with her back legs, felling a tall, vine covered tree in a most peculiar way. The trunk seemed to just disintegrate, leaving behind yet more cubes, these ones bearing a design similar to the timber they replaced.  The young pony turned to look at her handiwork with a smile on her face, the crystal protrusion poking out from her mane began to glow with a flickering pale blue and the blocks of log floated over to her.  Luna gaped openly at the display, for a couple reasons. The first of which being the method of lumberjacking, the second being the foal's apparent unicorn status, and the third being that the canopy of the tree hadn't moved despite the supporting structure vanishing into a single cube resting in the filly's hooves.  To be more specific, it was a combination of the furst and third, it was nice to see similar aspects in dreams to those from her era. The residents of a neighboring kingdom often had such disregard for physics in their dreams and cuboid worlds, molded from the tales of another. 'We art pleased to see those stories survived.' the princes thought with a nostalgic smile. The lunar diarch barely even registered the filly, somehow processing down a log into four equally sized blocks of planks. She settled into the sand as potential implications flitted through her mind.  The filly had placed some kind of wooden construct and was tinkering on the work top. Luna had only just come out of her reminiscence to notice that the filly was no longer there. She looked around frantically, but eventually her ears were drawn to a splash, and the brightly colored little pony sailing away in a rowboat, the oars wrapped in her magic. 'Wait, where art thou going!?' Luna took to the skies. To chase the filly through the iceberg-filled ocean. ^ <  ◇  > v As I got a good rhythm going on the oars, I pulled out an apple to keep my hunger up. As I munched on the fruit, I thought back on how I was here. Not ponyland, no, I had no idea how that worked. No, I was thinking about minecraft. Honestly the idea of playing the game had been in the back of my mind since the night prior. That pixelated sun had stuck with me despite all the excitement. Actually, that excitement was part of why I tried at all. I wasn’t normally this good at controlling my dreams, but since I had been so lucid, i figured it was worth trying. I failed for the first few minutes, figuring out how to more specifically shape dream stuff into things I needed was nigh impossible. I just couldn't keep the dream minecraft-y. So, obviously, I had to make the application itself, not just squirm and grunt while thinking about the game. And so I did. Every rule, bit of trivia, and detail I could remember, distilled down into a single miniature block of grass that now sat back in the normal dream on my balcony table, impressing rules upon the malleable dream. I'm not one hundred percent sure how I pulled it off, but I'm going to chalk it up to dreams and magic, I suppose. As I rounded the tip of a berg, I finally saw the mainland. 'Finally! Now I can get started on building… my… house.' ^ <  ☾  > v Luna had weightlessly flown off after the filly, and settled in beside the boat with one hoof stuck to the hull so as not to lose sight of her.  She seemed to be searching for something, but Luna knew not what. And so it came as a surprise that when the young dream conductor finally did perk up, her face was quick to twist into disgust. The filly immediately turned the boat around, while Luna lost her grip and simply swiveled back and forth between the object of the foals displeasure and the retreating vessel. 'We art confused, why doest thou dislike the jungle so, little one?' After traveling to the east of the original Island for some time, another large landmass was found. This time the grass was dry and yellowed slightly, and the trees possessed a gray bark and wide, flat canopies. The filly looked far happier to settle on this shore, as shown by the joyous canter she broke into upon actually getting on the beach. The filly had a look of wonder on her face as she explored the continent, using a pick Luna didn't remember them crafting to harvest red stone from the rocky spires to the south, and a white, cloudy stone from an exposed vein to the west, just a little below where she had made landfall. After traveling far enough for the grass to turn from gilded to a healthy green, and the trees became more recognizable as specimens native across Equestria, she came upon a beautiful arch standing over a shallow cove. The striking landmark overlooked a great sandbank on the east side of the land, the sea all that separated this mountainous desert.  The foal clapped her hooves in excitement, and set about placing various blocky constructs on the shore. Worktable and several chests began populating the space quickly, and the filly brought a few of her raw white stone blocks together between her hooves. The cubes met with a mighty crunch, and somehow came out not as gravel, but finely worked and polished, as if by an expert stone mason. She soon set about constructing a great horseshoe of the white stones, newly polished to a shine. Her work wound up being five blocks tall, but sunken into the earth by one. Luna whiled away a few hours just watching the filly build with a huge smile on her face. 'Mayhap this is thy talent?' She wondered, as the pale-maned possibly-a-unicorn cantered to a copse of trees to the north of her cove, and felled them in a familiar fashion. She processed the new resources over her worktable, and assembled blocks of planks, some of which she further refined into stairs, half blocks, and doors. Pale birch planks along with stripped oaken logs made up the inner walls of her home, and the ceiling somewhat patchwork out of the two woods. Looking at the gaps in her homestead, the filly pondered. "Now…" she spoke, and Luna had only just then realized it was the first time she had heard her do so. "I'm gonna need bricks n' glass. Glass'll be easy, but I haven't found any clay yet… oh and I need to get my boat!" The filly set off, running anew back toward the south-west in search of materials. When she did return, it was by sea, with clay from a nearby river and sand from the desert floating along next to her as she pulled into the cove. "This is gonna be… well, not great looking, but eventually it's gonna be so cool!"