Chapter Three
"Damn Celestia's sun to the void." Dawn cursed as she kicked the sheets off her. Stretching away her morning woes, Dawn studied the lit up room from her position in the foreign bed. She found and glared at the source of the light with hate filled eyes. See through curtains... Who does that and for what purpose?
She wiggled herself off the bed to find that her comb was illuminated with her aura, working its way through her mane. She gave another stretch to work all the sleep out of her muscles before glancing over to the tiny ticking clock on the night stand. "Oh Celestia how you hurt me when you wake me up this early." Well at least I can get breakfast here. Dawn set down her comb on the bed and made her way out the door.
Dawn sleepily stumbled into a very homey dinning room. The walls were lined with earthy colored wall paper and wood. The brown mare that greeted her last night was sitting at a table reading the news paper.
"Good morning." She greeted Dawn. "Lemmy our guest is up." Called out the middle aged unicorn to an equally aged yellow pegasus mare who popped out from around corner of an opening wearing an apron.
"Good morning!" The yellow mare said as she hovered into the dining room. Her hooves were soon pulled to the ground by a brown magic aura. "Yes, yes. No flying in the house, I got it." She giggled. "That's why I keep you around, to keep my hooves on the ground." She winked to the brown unicorn expecting laughter only to be disappointed with a barely conscious pink unicorn staring back at her.
"Sit, Sit. Miss Dawn. How did you sleep?" The older brown mare asked as she patted the cushion to her right.
Dawn was used to this kind of brightness in ponies in the morning. My parents make these two look like amateurs. "Well enough, Thank you." Dawn said. She was on a default setting of politeness.
"Well, what would you like to eat? I can make anything you want. You look like a mare who likes waffles... No, no you are defiantly a pancake mare." The yellow mare searched up and down Dawn looking for, what Dawn could only guess were, the characteristics of a 'waffle' or 'pancake' mare.
"Waffles would be wonderful if you don't mind." Dawn said. Her tail whipped around at the promise of food as she sat down on the cushion next to the brown unicorn. Dawn never got to eat proper home cooked meals. Her parents were horrid cooks despite their many attempts to recreate something they saw in a cook book or magazine.
"Waffles it is!" The older pegasus floated back to what Dawn thought must be the kitchen.
"She really is a fantastic cook, you are in good hooves." Assured the brown unicorn. "Can I get you a news paper? Coffee? Apple Juice?"
"Some apple juice would be great thank you." Dawn smacked her mouth at her morning breath.
The brown mare's horn lit up with a brown aura as a glass floated over to her and followed by a pitcher full of golden liquid. "So dear where are you from?" She asked while filling the glass before her.
"Wingopolis."
"Isn't that a cloud city?" Asked the pegasus yelling from the kitchen.
"Yep." Dawn hollered back. Ugh it is too early in the morning for me to attempt to observe social protocol... Dawn sighed. Best do it any ways don't want her to poison my waffles... Why would they do that? Maybe they're murderers that kill traveling mares! Perhaps they have a basement filled with the remains! Oh how horrible, why in Equestria would they do such a thing? Two pairs of eyes were now on her as her mind wandered. The pony that went by Lemmy had a large bowl wedged in her wing as she stirred with loose foreleg. "Oh, sorry... Too early in the morning and what not. I live in the suburbs of Wingopolis. 'Wingopolis's Shadow'."
"Is it nice there? Do you have family waiting for you at home?" Asked the brown unicorn.
"Yah, I still live with my parents. And it's nice enough. I am sure it's a much more fun place for pegasi." Dawn said, nodding to the brown mare. The yellow pegasus flew back to the kitchen. Dawn closed her eyes to take in the morning air ceasing all communication attempts made by the unicorn next to her for awhile. She was just starting to let her mind wander around again when...
"Food is done! Hot off the iron." The pegasus was now holding up a plate with an out stretched wing sliding it in front of Dawn. She then looked down expectantly at the unicorn.
"Can't have her eating without proper silverware dear." A napkin with silverware rolled up in it hovered to the right of Dawn's plate.
"Oops right, right. Sorry about that, unicorns and their fancy silverware. If you want more just ask, got plenty of batter." The yellow mare said as she took a seat by her unicorn partner.
The waffles did look delicious. Her horn glowed as she summoned the syrup from across the table. Oh sugary goodness. A fork soon found itself under the control of a pink aura to be plunged into the waffles only and quickly whisked into Dawn's mouth. "So good." Dawn blurted out with her mouth full.
"Good!" Both mares said, smiling up at Dawn as she shamelessly stuffed her face. They watched her quickly eat up what was on her plate. Lemmy disappeared into the kitchen only to bring back another plate. Seconds were anticipated. This time around Dawn took it slower just to savor the flavor of each bite. The pegasus sat down on the same cushion as the brown unicorn and started to read her newspaper.
Dawn let her fork go on autopilot. Her mind was just about to wander around today's events when the ponies that could or could not be serial killers felt it necessary to have a conversation.
"Miss Dawn do you have any plans for today?" The brown unicorn asked with earnest curiosity.
"Not until umm... noon-ish. I was just going to wander around until then. What is there to do here?" Dawn asked through a mouthful of waffles.
"Well this is Ponyville. Interesting things come to us." The yellow mare said before giggling with her partner. Dawn was clearly in the dark what that meant but the older mares didn't bother to explain.
"You could always go to the spa but lemon is right there really isn't a ton to do." The brown unicorn said.
"Grand." Dawn said, apathetically. Nothing to do until noon-ish. I guess I'll just have to figure something out. And I am out of waffles. Dawn took in a large breath feeling her lungs press against her full stomach only to let it out with a sigh as she thought what to do. "Oh, make sure you look up at the sky tonight. You will not be disappointed." Dawn said with surprising enthusiasm that the two mares perked up to. She did always like to keep her events mysterious but every pony at her town didn't like her surprises.
"What's going to happen in sky?" They both asked in a mumbled unison.
"Well that would be telling." Dawn said, getting up to stretch her legs. She then ignited her horn and felt around in the room ahead of her for a sink. Finding it, she animated her plates to be lifted off the table and flown into the kitchen to be washed and stacked in the sink. "I guess I'll be off."
----
Dawn made her way to the town square only to find it bustling with activity. Clearly Ponyville is a town of morning ponies... There were stands of all kinds selling various goods, varying from pot's to apples, asparagus to cotton candy. "Mmm cotton candy." She said to herself. Deciding it couldn't hurt to explore the goods to waste some time Dawn made her way straight to the cotton candy vendor. Pth two bits for cotton candy, greedy pony! "Two please!" The vendor obliged giving an odd look to Dawn. Dropping four bits for the vendor Dawn grabbed her prize with her telekinesis. "Oh sweet sugar that's good." Dawn cheered after taking a bite out of the cotton candy.
She started to peruse the vendors, stopping by the pot dealer and the apple vendor. Oh, look Applejack... Her parents weren't ironic with her name. She walked up to inspect the apples still eating greedy bites of her cotton candy. The orange mare behind the stand gave Dawn the same look the cotton candy vendor gave. Curiosity? No, She is bewildered. No, confused. That’s pure, uncut confusion. "Good morning Applejack." Dawn greeted in a cheery tone. She felt like apples, something juicy to go with her remaining untouched cotton candy. Three apples for a bit? I don't want three apples. I just ate breakfast.
"Uhhh... good morning Dawn." Applejack greeted back, looking at the remaining cotton candy. "Enjoying your breakfast?" She chuckled.
Dawn wondered what was funny about waffles. "I did. Waffles are a rare treat." Mmm waffles. "I guess I'll take three apples." She said summoning her coin purse and dropping a bit in front of Applejack.
"Ehhh, yah... Sure thing, just pick out what ya want." She said, regaining that face of confusion she wore just moments ago.
I too like to ponder the mysteries of life. Dawn absently nodded as she probed the apples with her magic searching for the best one and two others. She levitated four apples and set one in front of Applejack. "That one has a worm." She said, smiling. I'm so nice. You are welcome Applejack. Dawn wore a smile for her inner thoughts but directed it at Applejack.
"Right... Thanks..." Applejack said, weakly.
Dawn turned around and trotted off to explore more stands. The pink unicorn had three apples orbiting her slowly. She was biting through her second cotton candy when she spotted two familiar looking mares off in the distance. They looked slightly hung over which was to be expected.
She made her way over to them only to fling two apples out of orbit right into Octavia's and Vinyl's mouth catching them off guard. "Good Morning you two. You kiss and make up from yesterday?" She asked a bit louder than normal in hopes of poking the rancor of hangovers.
Octavia spit out her apple and caught it in hoof. She started to blush once she noticed a small crowd of mares across the way glancing over. "Umm, yes. We are no longer fighting."
"Yep, she gets a little frisky when she's drunk so..." Vinyl said with a large bite of apple in her mouth.
"...So we are no longer fighting." Octavia said, cutting off her fillyfriend with a hoof.
"That's good..." Dawn concluded before taking a bite of the primo apple that still orbited her. Out of season. I miss calculated. "So what is all this? This happen every morning?" Dawn asked, gesturing to the busy street around them while reducing the out of season apple in a pink magical flame. "When I saw this town was shut down just after sunset I thought there wouldn't be anything interesting to do during the day as well."
"Umm, yes this happens ever Saturday morning." Octavia answered, removing her hoof from Vinyl's face.
Vinyl gave an annoyed smirk to Octavia then turned to Dawn. "This town is boring when there's not a party to be had."
"Well that's a shame..."
"Did somepony say 'Party'?" Pinkie Pie appeared millimeters from Dawn's face looking straight into her eyes.
Well at least she's paying more respect for my personal space. "Yes somepony did. The white one." Dawn whispered as she pointed an accusing hoof at Vinyl. Pinkie disappeared from Dawn's personal space and reappeared with a splash of confetti on top of Vinyl's head. That does not look pleasant.
"Vinyl! Do 'You' want a Party?" Pinkie asked with unbridled enthusiasm.
A white magical aura wrapped around the pink earth pony, lifting Pinkie up and placing her beside Dawn. Octavia and Vinyl had grimaced at every syllable the pink pony offered them. "No, I don't need no stinking party." Vinyl said. Pinkie had provoked the rancor.
Octavia jabbed her partner hard to quiet her up. "What Vinyl means to say Pinkie..." Octavia started to say as if expecting the wrath of nightmare moon to come upon her at any minute. "We eagerly look forward to 'Your' next party." She finished saying with a nod and a stressed smile.
Vinyl recovered from her partners jab and composed herself. "Yah, that's what I meant." Vinyl said with a slight fear lacing her lips.
"Ohh! Well come by Twilight's library tonight!" Pinkie said quickly, appearing behind the couple. She wrapped her forelegs around them both, bring them into a close huddle to hear a secret. "The princesses are going to be there but it's a secret." She whispered to the couple before releasing them.
Pinkie hopped around the group stopping next to Dawn. "We wouldn't miss it for the world." Octavia said with a mask of enthusiasm on.
"Great!" The pink pony cheered before disappearing in a blink of an eye leaving behind a floating blue balloon in her wake. It had a card tied to the end of the string addressed to 'Octy and Vinyl'.
They looked at the card stoically and then back to Dawn. "Should be fun. You'll get to see some more awesome magic by yours truly." Dawn said, laughing.
She was looking forward to meeting the princesses. Her parents always reminisced about how close they were to Princess Celestia once. I wonder if they are as tall as my parents said and their manes... Dawn had seen Princess Celestia once at a Wonderbolt show when she was really young but she was so faraway. She didn't get to look at her properly.
"Yah, we will be there..." Vinyl said, glaring at Octavia who was looking at the ground in shame holding an untouched apple.
"Neat, I'll see you there then." Dawn cheered, un-phased by their discomfort before parting ways with the couple. She broke into skip as she left the town square into what looked like a park. She eventually found herself a nice tree to sit under so she could properly enjoy her full stomach. "Ahh this isn't so bad." Dawn admitted to the tree. She turned over onto her back and enjoyed the morning breeze now grazing against her belly. Dawn closed her eyes letting a light sleep take her.
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Dawn was woken up by her long time nemesis the sun. "Stupid shadow get back over my face." She groaned before stretching out of her body. She looked up at that spiteful foe of hers to judge the time. "Hmmm..." Noon... ish? Meh good enough, something to do is something to do. Dawn gave one last stretch before getting up to break into a trot to her destination which was a library? I didn't see any library in town.
In no time at all she found herself back in the town square that was winding down from its previously busy state. She started to look at the buildings themselves. Each one of them more earth pony styled than the last. She finally came to a Giant tree? House? "Library!" Dawn cheered, once she saw the sign. She inspected the sign labeling it so with a cocked head. Books in a tree... it's like they're mocking the poor tree. 'HA HA look what we did to your friends. We made them into paper'. Poor tree. She put her hoof on the tree in attempt to feel its pain when the door swung open. A purple and green dragon walked out. Ok that is just cruel. Who would put a dragon in there? The dragon turned his attention over to Dawn with a confused look. She still had a hoof on the tree attempting to console the poor tree.
"Umm... the library is open you can go inside." The purple dragon eventually said after a few moments of them staring at each other. The dragon was a head and a half taller than Dawn. He also seemed to have little nublits growing out his back which were to be his wings. His body reminded Dawn of taffy being stretched too long making his head seem too big for his body.
"Yes I assumed as much." Dawn said, cocking her head in wonder. What was a dragon doing here at all? Some pony must have a flare for irony. He kept the door open with his long tail and gave a little bow inviting Dawn to go in. "Thank you" What a gentlecolt...err... dragon.
She stepped in to see the inner walls of the tree that were lined with books, stretching all the way to the ceiling. "Twilight, visitor!" the dragon bellowed inside behind Dawn.
"Be right there." Twilight's voice hollered.
The door closed behind her with a clumsy slam. Dawn fell back on her quarters taking in the sheer magnitude of books this tree had to endure with. Poor thing. Her eyes were drawn to the section labeled 'Magical Theory'. She quickly skipped over to look over the selection. Read it, read it, read it, read it. Lame, lame, lame, lame. Pointless. Lame. Absurd. Lame. Boring! Lame. That that is just silly, there's nothing good to read.
"Well hello Dawn. Feel free to check out anything you want." Twilight appeared on top of a stair case across the room from her.
"Won't need to, I uhhh..." Words that are not rude...must find! Put in sentence!
"You probably already read them all huh?" Twilight said knowingly.
Your lie not mine. "Uhh probably..."
"Yah..." Twilight gave a longing look at her collection. "I've been reading your book all night" Twilight giggled. "I only woke up a couple minutes ago."
That's right she took my book from me. "Oh?"
"Your spells are interesting. How you put your spells together to have a profound effect is truly inspiring." Twilight walked down the stairs with her horn aglow. Dawn's spell book soon followed suit with a large number of scrolls all under the influence of Twilight's magic. The items landed on the table in the middle of the room. Dawn's book was placed on the edge closest to her while the scrolls neatly stacked in the center.
Dawn made her way over to the table to address her old friend. The book appeared undamaged. One can only hope.
"I have so many questions but I need to eat something first." Twilight said, smiling over to Dawn. At the mention of food Dawn's tail betrayed her, it shook excitedly at the promise of more food. "Would you like to join me? I'm not much of a cook but I got coffee and cereal." She giggled at her own dysfunctional self.
"Sure why not, I could always eat a bowl of cereal." It feels like I just ate.
The two walked into a room below the stair case into the kitchen. Twilight's horn lit up as two bowls floated to the small kitchen table Dawn had sat down next to. "Do you drink coffee?" Twilight asked as she opened a cupboard revealing mugs of all kinds inside.
"No, but thank you." Disgusting brown liquid.
"I trust you drank plenty of water before you went to bed?" Twilight giggled as she turned to her cupboards.
"I didn't think I was that drunk..."
Twilight snickered. "We first thought you were just another drunk pony Pinkie picked up off the street with the promise of free food." Twilight said as she worked the coffee machine into action.
"Really?" Dawn asked with a shocked tone.
"Oh I'm sorry..." Twilight spun around to look Dawn in the face. "I didn't mean to be rude..." She said, looking down in shame. "Please forgive me. I didn't think of you like that for long... I'm going to shut up now."
"I had no idea I was so drunk." Dawn laughed. "Relax Twilight. I guess that's what I get for being bored on a six hour long train ride. I'll need to figure out some entertainment for the ride back..."
Twilight visibly relaxed as Dawn's mind wandered about. The fridge opened up and a milk carton encased in a purple aura floated to the center of the table Dawn was sitting at. Twilight turned back around and was standing in front of a coffee machine turning knobs making herself some of that disgusting drink. A cereal box soon followed the milk to thte table before Twilight sat down across from Dawn. "Help your self." she said as she poured herself some milk and then added some frosted hay flakes avoiding Dawn's eyes.
Who puts the milk in first, that's just weird. "Thanks." Dawn said, smiling. She levitated the box over and poured herself some making sure to perfectly calibrate her cereal to milk ratio. They both enjoyed each others silence as they ate their cereal. It's rare to meet a pony that can enjoy silence. Hope this wasn't awkward silence. I really need to figure out that spell. Twilight had finished up her cereal and now was up pouring herself some freshly brewed Coffee. "Here let me get these for you." Dawn said as she lit up the dishes with her magic to force them to go clean themselves.
"Oh, Thank you. You didn't have to do that. I actually wanted to try that spell. It's a unique 'come to life' spell." Twilight commented as she looked longingly at the dancing dirty dishes cleaning themselves.
Dawn smiled. "Should'a could'a would'a."
Twilight went deep in thought as she gave a blank stare at Dawn. Twilight shook her head free of some thoughts before lighting up her horn. She struggled to cast an unfamiliar spell. A little orb dropped from the tip of her horn and bounced on the floor. Dawn recognized this spell as one of her first spells. The very same she demonstrated on the train for Vinyl and Octaiva. Sure enough the little orb glowed from red to green splitting in the process only for them to be lifted up in the air to explode filling the kitchen with cool fires of magic.
"That's one of your first spells, right? That is if your book goes in chronological order. It's really hard to cast the way you write your spells. I'm not used to weaving spells over spells to be cast at once."
"Heh, yah you get used to it." Dawn chuckled.
"I thought so..." Twilight said before taking a sip of her coffee. "When I finally was able to cast that I decided to look at the spell you wrote down last night. There's no way I would be able to cast that without a ton of practice and not to mention nearly all my magic."
"Yah I will be tapped out for a bit after casting that one." It would be so worth it though. "I need to test it."
Twilight gulped down the last of her coffee before giving a long stretch to her limbs. "Lemme show you some of my spells. I haven't made as much as you but they are just as varied I think..." She said, ending in a pondering stare up into the ceiling. "They are minimalistic compared to yours."
"One of my instructors always told me that my spells are 'audacious' and 'unusable'." Dawn said, mocking her instructor.
"Hmm... I like your spells but they are... busy."
"Please, I bet your spells are at least useful. You put an ursa minor to sleep apparently." Dawn said, attempting to recall the blurry memories of last night.
Twilight blushed at the complement. "I suppose, but you made that bank spell." She countered.
"Sure you say that now, but try using it and being magic fatigued for a week just to enchant the stuff you want to put in there."
"Well I think you are being too hard on yourself." Twilight said. The two mares made their way back to the table in the main room of the library. Twilight shuffled through some of her scrolls forcing one to roll off the table and unroll in front of Dawn.
Number 25, Growth spell... facial hair? I WANT BEARD! Dawn's horn glowed with the new spell. She directed the spell back to her face and a glorious mountain pony beard sprouted from it. "Now that is just the tops!" She squealed out excitedly, inspecting her new beard with a hoof.
Dawn's sudden outburst gained the attention of Twilight. She turned around to see a grinning bearded mare.
Mirror, I need a mirror. Dawn finally spotted a mirror across the room. She darted to it to take in the sheer epic-ness of the full faced beard before her. O yes I will like this spell just fine. The facial hair took on the characteristics of her mane. It was orange with a dark purple highlight streaking all the way down the beard as if it had just been just groomed.
Laughter was erupting from behind her. Twilight flopped about on the ground gasping for air in between her fits of laughter. She's hysterical. Clearly she needs a beard. Dawn charged up her horn and directed it at Twilight who opened her eyes just in time to get out of dodge. Oops missed. The giggling continued behind the table. Once Dawn made her way around the table she charged the spell up again aiming in anticipation of future movement. Twilight teleported just in time to dodge the spell again. Dawn spun around directing her beardy wrath to the purple unicorn that just reappeared in front of the front door. Another spell went off just as Twilight disappeared again leaving giggling in her wake. The spell went off just as the front door swung open revealing a white unicorn accompanied by a purple dragon.
Dawn spun around and shot another spell to miss again. She turned back to the victim of the cross fire. It was Rarity. She had pulled over the mirror Dawn was using earlier with her magic to look at the horror that had befallen her. Twilight was next to her laughing even harder. This is my chance. Wide spray mode. Dawn's horn glowed to a blinding intensity as she cast the dooming spell. She weaved it just a bit differently to encompass all of her soon to be victims. An anchor styled beard sprouted on Twilight's chin and a handle bar mustache for the teenage dragon. The two had just realized what happened and now were feeling there own facial hair.
"Cool huh?" Dawn asked her victims.
If looks could kill, the one Rarity was giving Dawn would have destroyed the world, princesses and all.
"Oh, Yah!" The dragon acclaimed. He stroked his new mustache with pride.
"Relax Rarity it goes away in two hours." Twilight said assuredly to her apocalyptic friend with the chin curtain beard. She turned to the Dragon. "Spike how'd you get that mustache?"
Dawn sat down. That last spell took a lot of magic for some reason. She felt dizzy from using too much magic.
"Umm, she gave it to me?" The dragon said, waving away Twilight who was tugging at his facial hair to check it for authenticity.
"But you're a dragon... You have strong magical resistance now. I haven't been able to cast that spell on you for years."
Oh yah... dragons... "I guess that explains why I am completely drained... put too much into it." Dawn chuckled at her misfortune.
"Serves you right." Rarity squeaked in anger.
Twilight and the dragon rolled their eyes and laughed.
"Oh, Spike this is Dawn. She came for my magic convention." Twilight introduced.
"Hello." He greeted, waving a claw. He then turned to Twilight who was trying to comfort Rarity. "Don't you mean a magic get-together."
"Perhaps a gathering?" Dawn quickly offered.
Twilight face hoofed and gave a small blush. "uhh... What can I do for you two? Spike said you were going to need him all day."
Now only seething in the inside, the bearded Rarity managed to smile back to Twilight. "Yes, well. Spike said something about a pink unicorn poking your tree so I thought I would join you." Rarity gave a quick glare over to Dawn. "Not that I have much of a choice now. I'm going to be stuck here for two hours." She pouted.
Dawn's head was clearing as her magic slowly filled back into her body. Why in the world is she stuck here for two hours? Maybe she wants to keep her beautiful beard to herself. Selfish pony. "I think your beard looks really beautiful. You should go share it with the town." Oh! A Beard explosion! Every one in the town can have one. Her mind's gears were churning as she devised a new possible spell. There could be money in it. Maybe...Meh never mind. Pesky laws about casting spells on unwilling ponies... Rarity scoffed at the very idea of going outside but she took the complement all the same. At least Dawn thought she did.
They all settled into the library. Dawn and Twilight sitting next to each other. Dawn was searching through the forty or so scrolls laid out on the table. Twilight was pouring over Dawn's tome. Rarity was across the table from the two, fussing over her beard. Spike had curled up on a couch across the room to sleep. Every once in awhile a question would come up about each others spells and the other would answer with just as much enthusiasm as the other. Rarity would remain mostly quiet. She would make small grunts of disapproval as she fussed with her facial hair. Every ten minutes or so Rarity would ask Twilight, "Are you sure there isn't a counter spell?" only for her to answer to be, "Why would I need one it wears off."
Dawn's tail was writhing around on the ground as she read, studied, and learned Twilight's beautifully simple spells that put hers to shame. Talking about magic with some pony her own age was also a little joy she had never gotten to experience before.
Twilight turned to Dawn with another question. "So Dawn, what was the name of the magic academy you went to?
Who said anything about a 'Magic academy'? "Uhh, what magic academy?"
"The one you went to?"
"I didn't go to an academy..."
"Wha? wait... what?" A blank stare crept across Twilight's face as the new information was being processed.
"Not all ponies are as privileged as you were Twilight." Rarity said, breaking the growing silence. "Honestly dear you are pretty much royalty."
"Oh my gosh! I'm sorry I didn't mean to insult you." Twilight said quickly. "Again..."
"Who's insulted?" Dawn questioned, tilting her head slightly at Twilight in earnest wonder.
Rarity face hoofed and turned to Dawn. "She was insinuating you were privileged darling. You know rich...”
"Oh... Well I still live my parents so my living costs are way down." Should I be insulted? "And I have gotten quite popular out north... I have been making a lot of money..."
"No dear, I was meaning your family... You know wealthy? Oh never mind." Rarity said, shaking her head.
"My family?" What do they have to do with my money?
"So... if you don't mind me asking how did you learn all this magic?" Twilight asked, patting the thick tome in front of her.
"Oh, well my parents' line of logic was a unicorn's magic is like a pegasus' flying and books were like learning tricks." Dawn said, thinking back to the hundreds of books lining her room. "So thinking like pegasi do, my parents brought in instructors from across the country to teach me magic, theory and practice. They also bought me dozens of books at a time to learn from."'
"So your family is well off then..." Rarity said, only for her voice die off.
"I don't know... Dawn shrugged. "I really don't know how much my parents make. My mother is a former Wonderbolt and my dad is the coach for them. They could both make a million bits an hour and I doubt I would be any the wiser."
"A million bits an hour that's a lot of MooooLaaaaa!" Pinkie appeared out from under the pile of Twilight's scrolls. "Oooo" Pinkie ran over to play with Rarity's beard.
Pinkie needs a beard too. I wouldn't want her to feel left out. Dawn's horn glowed briefly before pink curly hairs sprouted out of Pinkie's face. Pinkie squealed in excitement as she felt her beard. I'm so nice. Pinkie jumped to the mirror and started posing with her new full faced beard.
A knock on the front door caused Rarity jump out of surprise. "NO!" Rarity yelled out, in response to Twilight getting up to go get it. "Do NOT open that door!" she whispered.
"I need to go get it. It could be one of my old professors." Twilight whispered back. She walked over to answer the door as Rarity ran for cover. Dawn visibly perked up at the mention of another unicorn to talk about magic to, even if they were just boring teacher ponies.
Twilight opened the door to be greeted by four confused ponies. "Hehe don't mind the beard please come in!" Twilight welcomed the ponies in, chuckling. Dawn watched three older mares walk in with a near ancient stallion that had a natural white beard. "We kinda had a beard fight." Twilight explained. The four older ponies observed the other two visible bearded pink mares in the room.
"Hoho, that sounds like fun!" said the old stallion. This old professor's coat was a wrinkled mess of brown fur and his face was adorned with the thickest set of eye brows Dawn had ever seen on a pony. They nearly covered his squinting eyes.
"Let me introduce you to my friend Dawn." Twilight motioned towards where Dawn sat. We are friends now? Ummm ok what the heck. Why not? "Dawn this is Professor Scrolls an old teacher of mine." She gestured to the ancient colt.
Time to fulfill those pesky social contracts. "Hello." Dawn greeted warmly, giving a slight bow of her head.
"This is Professor Quill, Professor Dust and Professor Aura." Twilight continued pointing across to the mares who were settling at the table.
"Hello." Dawn recognized three of the four ponies' names. Two of them wrote awful books on practice and theory. While the third, Professor Scrolls the ancient stallion, wrote a couple of Dawn's favorite books on subjects like Magical Creativity, Magical Philosophy, and Magical Boundaries.
"Please make yourself at home." Twilight said to everypony. "Can I get you anything professors?"
The three older mares sat still staring around the room still processing the beards on the other three mares' faces making them oblivious to Twilight's hospitality. Professor Scrolls sat down next to Dawn at the table slowly looking over the presented material. Twilight gave up being hospitable and sat down on Dawn's other side.
"We were just comparing the spells we've made." Twilight said to Professor Scrolls who seemed to have taken interest.
"Oh my, well one of you has been very busy." The old stallion said as he shifted through the mess of scrolls occasionally reading what was written.
Twilight giggled as she waved away the complement bashfully. "The scrolls are mine but this is Dawn's." She floated the tome over to Professor Scrolls.
The Tome opened to the old professor's light brown aura. He leafed through the pages delicately. The respect you show my book will not go unrewarded. "Oh my. I am impressed by both of you. You both have already created so many spells. You will both be written down in the history of magic for sure." He gave a gentle smile as he showered the two young unicorns with praise.
"That means a lot to me Professor Scrolls, you're the author of one of my favorite books." Dawn said, beaming at the professor inspecting her book. "'Pushing Magical Boundaries' really opened my mind leading to a large sum of the spells in that book. So your praise really does mean the world to me." She said, still smiling from the old stallion's praise.
The room grew suddenly quiet. Dawn felt four pairs of disbelieving eyes scan her. Professor scrolls gave a knowing smile at Dawn and shook his head at himself. "Of all my books that one has never had a fan. Thank you, that does mean a lot to me."
Dawn gave a questioning look around the room. She had no idea that was an unpopular book.
The professor saw the confusion on Dawn's face and decided to break the silence once again to explain. "It's a controversial book my young little pony. With that book I threw out a lot of magical theory that many ponies hold close to their heart." He smiled down at Dawn like an adult smiles at the innocence of a foal.
"I don't see what is so controversial about it. You just asked questions that needed to be asked. Magic studies have been almost completely static in the last millennia. Plus I know I wouldn't have been able to dream up half of the spells in that book without opening my mind to the possibilities." Twilight next to her gave a small gasp. "One of my more useful spells that I am most proud of developing came into fruition right after reading that book for the first time." She flipped her book open with her magic to the page that the 'Bank' spell was on.
The old colt looked over the spell before him. His eyes widened and watered to a glaze. He looked a couple decades younger. "Truly brilliant... opening a space where there was none and attaching it to a magic well..." He levitated Dawn's book over to the three mares, all wearing very confused faces. He turned over to Dawn and gave her a full bear sized hug. "Thank you I... I am glad that book touched at least one young mind." He broke the hug from the fairly surprised mare. "That book of all my books is the one 'I' am the most proud of."
"I wish I brought my copy of it to have you autograph." Ooo, he can sign my book. Her horn lit up to clear some proper space in front of the stallion. Dawn Shoved some of Twilight's scrolls out of the way while stealing her book back from the other professors who were still studying it. Dawn opened it to the very back page then pulled out an ink pot and quill from her bank which earned some "Ooo's" and "Ahh's" performed by Pinkie Pie. She had stopped playing with her beard and had taken a seat next to Twilight. "Why don't you autograph my spell book instead? It would mean a lot to me" Not a lot of things meant much to Dawn but this was the honest truth.
"Alright my dear." He reached out a hoof to the ink pot and poked it to make sure it was real. "So that spell works well then?" He asked as his horn lit up with a light brown aura. It surrounded the ink and quill as one dipped into the other.
"Yep I keep all kinds of stuff in there." Dawn answered now positively beaming with excitement.
The quill dragged along the last page of her tome with the pony's signature and a little message that he read out loud "Don't ever be afraid to break boundaries, that is what they're there for. -- Frisk Scrolls." It was the first and last line of the favored book.
Dawn giggled like a school fairing filly. "Thank you so much." Dawn said, in between her fits of excitement. She put the pot and quill back into the 'bank' and inspected the ink on her book waiting for it to dry properly before throwing that too into the 'bank'.
Twilight looked a little disappointed at the disappearance of the book so Dawn winked at her to assure her she can read it again later. Twilight catching the wink smiled in return before summoning a scroll from her upstairs. It zoomed right on to the table and unrolled dropping to the ground. It appeared to be a list. A very long list.
"Well since this did not turn out to be the convention I hoped it would be. I wrote a list of discussion topics we could talk about." Twilight said, beaming at her professors and Dawn.