//------------------------------// // No Magic, No Problem? // Story: Live, Die, Repeat // by Hidden_Night //------------------------------// Twilight and I have been walking through the market. It’s honestly quite a nice day today. Ponies are out and about. The hustle and bustle of shopping hour is quite peaceful. It reminds me of the guild halls, adventurers from all corners of the earth walking around, trading quests, gear, and overall being brothers and sisters in arms. I suppose this place got modern enough to no longer require archaic guilds. It’s unfortunate, I could’ve made great pay as an adventurer. Years of academy training, wasted! “So what are we getting Spike?” I turn to Twilight, she’s happily walking along. It seems to be her default today. “Well, dragons usually eat gems, and spike loves his gems. So I was thinking a gemstone. He has said he’s saving his money for a particular gemstone, so I’m going to buy it for him. It’s called the Fire Ruby, a gem that has been fermented in a lava bath for many years. It probably adds flavor, like wine. It’s precious as it’s an import from the Dragon Lands.” Twilight takes a stop near a jeweler, it seems to be rather fancy for Ponyville. Smooth pillars hold it up, rather than the wooden walls everyone else uses. “Huh…I guess since he’s a dragon, he’s going to want to collect that.” I look over at her, “And I assume you have the money “Yep! I usually can’t afford much. The electricity bills used to burn a hole into my pouch, but now with the magic generator we make our own! I can afford to buy it for him, but I can’t hoof the bill entirely. So, we have you.” Twilight was making her way over but I put a hoof on her midsection. “About that…” I look away, a little ashamed at my inept magic capabilities. “Oh no, don’t tell me you spent it all.” Twilight turns around to face me. I can see some of her hair stick out, I guess it’s a stress response. “No. It’s just…it’s easier if I show you.” I try to cast something, I don’t know what but when I did. It caused sparks to exit my horn. My mana is full, but it seems my horn doesn’t work. Perhaps it’s my medium that’s busted and I just need a staff, or the path to enter my medium is blocked internally and I need to cast a large scale spell in order to clear it. I need a proper doctor. “Your horn doesn’t work? And you can’t grab your wallet because…” Twilight doesn’t seem as stressed anymore, more intrigued as she puts a hoof to her chin and leans in. She brandished a small hammer and strikes my horn, causing my horn to shoot some sparks. It didn't hurt at least, just tingle. “It’s in the pocket dimension, yes. I see you’re taking good use in it. Glad I taught you.” I’m now even more envious, I don’t think she can open my pocket dimension. My knowledge on that spell only runs to opening and closing your own pocket. “It’s really helpful, I have an emergency first aid kit in here!” So that’s where the hammer comes from, isn’t that for checking your knees? Horse medicine will probably hit different. “So what’s the hammer for?” Twilight ushers me to step away from the jeweler so we can hang out near a bench. “This hammer strikes a point where a magic is unstable. It’s also known as the magic key, since it fixes most horns on the first strike. Like a key to open a door.” Now that I look at it, it looks like one of those hammers doctors use to strike knees. Since horse knees are oddly flexible in this universe, and I don’t know if they use hammers on real horses, they’ll find a use for it somewhere. “Let me guess, it automatically ushers a spell out a quick jolt of energy to clear a horn’s blockage?” “Well. Not exactly, it more strikes the point most common for unicorns to experience horn failure.” She points the hammer to just above my forehead. “Right here, a line connects from your horn to a spot near your heart.” Oh my Mana pool, “and this spot here has always been iffy. It causes so many problems when you use a lot of magic without rest.” “Huh. A vein that gets clogged when lots of magic is run through. It’s like exercising to much, I think.” “Precisely!” She flashed a smile and squees? That’s a sound if I ever heard one, it’s adorable though. “Huh. I wonder when that happened…” I’m reminded of my horn being cracked in the dream world. I know that places with high concentration of magic, dreams can affect the body as it’s deeply connected with the soul. My soul didn’t take enough to permanently mark it, but it did take enough to take a huge chunk of magic to repair itself, so it must’ve shoved so much magic to repair itself it broke my horn. “I guess I can figure it out. For now, I don’t have access to my wallet. How much is the Fire Ruby anyway?” “It’s about 600 bits. I was going to pool in 300.” “That’s reasonable actually, I think my weeks of staying here, my stipend ended up giving me about 900 bits…then the ones before I have about…1289 bits? Applejack cider’s do end up burning some bits away.” I get free food, barely put in anything for rent, and I have all the entertainment at home. I should buy a house. I can’t keep relying on Twilight, then maybe I can start dating her. I don’t think it’s healthy to be dating your landlord. Something like that. I don’t think things will go south, but it will feel like moving too fast. Ack, love problems, I should’ve talked to Cadance. “I get that. I’m no stranger to Applejack’s cider.” “Anyway. You know anything to fix my horn?” “Well a few things. Let’s start simple.” “Twilight!” Oh god, Germans. If that accent is from the Riverlands then they must have water related names. “Alole! Lotus!” Twilight called out. “Oh Twilight, vee are very pleased to zee ya.” Pink girl responded. Who is Alole and who is Lotus? They’re both very similar and at this point I’m scared to ask. Also, the more they speak they’re also Swedish? “Vat brings you in today?” The Blue One spoke up. Mix of German and Swedish… “Well, I’m not here for something, but he is.” Twilight uses magic to drag me forward. You know, I’m not a fan of being manipulated like that…do it more Twilight. “Oh, what see to be za problem?” Blue one again, they seem kinda nice, yet they have the same cutie mark. I’ve noticed that siblings typically share the same cutie mark, what gives? “Horn problem.” “Ah. One moment please.” The two girls went up to Twilight and began to whisper something, then looked over at me then back to whispering. I decided to make myself comfortable and take a peek around, it’s a wonderful spa. Rooms leading to other rooms and such. Hot tub near the center, and what looks like a barber shop as well. If I felt like it I could use a touch up on my hair, but I have no money. My ears twitch when I heard a very audible “W-WHAT?!” From Twilight, then some very quick hushes and shushes. Horn problems…is that euphemism for the inability to please? Probably is, you’d think with Erotica existing in this world, Twilight would’ve read some. Perhaps not yet? This does seem like a very pure innocent town. If I meet her parents it’s going to be very clear why she knows very little in terms of sexual interaction. I should toss something wet into my face if her parents are too pure to be alive. I see a portal open next me and toss a water balloon in my face. “You were right by the way.” Future me spoke then dipped. At least I know I live long enough to meet her parents. Shaking myself clean I turn to the ladies. They don’t seem to notice the water balloon in my face. Twilight seemed to break clear from the conversation and dragged me forward using her magic again. “Well. He’s gonna need it, not me.” Her nervous laughter and shaky words seem to be broken. I turn to face her, face is red again. “Well. Ve are gonna have to do some acupuncture. Follow us.” The two decided to turn away and walk, I realized something, my magic passive absorbing isn’t active, I’m not gaining any power from it from Twilight grabbing me. Uh oh. I haven’t been noticing this all day, I usually get a nicely sized amount of magic from Twilight whenever is near me, but now I’m getting nothing. “Alright then.” I followed them, this spa house is bigger than I expected. Rooms in the back for separate activities, a steam room, an ice room, and a door. To what? It doesn’t say. Probably a janitor closet or the Twin’s rooms. We were let to an oddly ornate room, it seems Japanese influenced. Paper doors, a couple of incense floods the good aroma and a mat in the middle. “Lay there, and ve will get Quake.” The twins bow respectfully before parting ways. Twilight found herself comfortable on a small pillow while I just sprawled down on the mat. How do I lay down on the map normally? Loaf myself like a cat? Can horses even do that? “Okay. Okay.” Oh god, an American. A yellow and brown-ish mare walked in. Her cutie mark is obscured by her work uniform, which is a simple white dress suit. “Let’s see, yep. Unicorn with magical blockage…” A stern and very American voice. It feels weird, but her voice is overly American, if you can catch my drift. “Acupuncture? I really need to tell the twins I’m not an Acupuncture mare! We need more staff members…” She laments about her job before setting the clipboard down. “Alright. Just so you know, you’re going to be my third patient for acupuncture.” “That’s reassuring.” I look away from her. This is going to sting a lot. “Don’t worry, I’m the best in the current business.” “That helps…?” I’m starting to get less and less confident in Quake. “Well are going to follow this ancient book on acupuncture.” She brandished a leather bound book, at least it looks like leather. “Let’s see here…” Her hoof began to shift through the pages. “Inept stallion…no, wrong horn problem, wing-boner not going down…” They should probably call a doctor and not go to an acupuncture place. “Ah! Here it is, Horn Blockage.” “Say, can I read that when you’re done with it?” Twilight breaks Quake’s concentration. “In a moment. Let me focus for now.” She waved a hood to quiet twilight down and she looks back at me, then towards the book. “Let’s see. Here.” She sinks the first pin in. Ow. “Here.” Ow “There.” Ouch. “Over yonder.” She lifted up my tail and sinks another pin just below it. “Under here.” My hair got lifted up and she sinks then pins around my horn. This continued on for a couple of minutes until I look like a voodoo doll with a very heated rival. This feels weird, I can barely move my legs. There’s some needles near my eyes! Also my butt. “So how does it work?” Twilight asked, wincing slightly at my misery. “Well, normally it strikes all the points for magical blockage to occur. So I took some liberties in striking some more points where I can occur, this book is old but reliable.” “Uh…help? I can’t move?” Twilight looks at me then back to the book. “Isn’t that the one underneath paralysis?” Twilight points to the book. “Whoops. Sorry big guy, we’ll have to go again. I accidentally gave you the one that’ll paralyze you.” “Why is that in the book?!” Please help me. “Stallions were low in number.” She did not miss a beat. “…oh.” It’s a good thing I didn’t end up in Ye Olden Times when I reincarnated. “Maybe if we do this together we can get this faster…” Twilight is doing her Twilighting again. God save me, I hope this is to help and not experiment. “No. That’s…whatever that is.” Twilight looks away. I did not know I could be forced to constantly cry, but here I am. Look how hard I can cry! PHSSSSSHHS “Dude! Stop!” Quake puts a couple towels on my face. “Okay. Last time. This will work!” Twilight is doing something. I can’t see what they are doing but they pull a needle from my back and suddenly I can feel my face. At least I’m not crying. “Okay. Last one right here…” Right below my eye! Oh god, I can’t stay still. So I slowly turn away. “No! Anonymous, stay still!” Quake somehow grips to my chin and slowly inserts the pin near my eye. This sucks. “Last point stuck, step back he could experience some magical phenomena.” Quake and Twilight take a few cautionary step back to behind a blast screen window. When the hell? “Okay. You’re good to go Anonymous!” “Alright…” This feels weird but at the same time, alright. With my magic finally flowing I call upon my magic, I’m absorbing faint magical energy again, then suddenly it sucked in a lot. Causing the pins to sink further into my flesh. Gritting my teeth in pain I continue onward. I need this magical energy, I have to buy Spike his gift. Else, what am I supposed to do today? Sit around doing nothing? I already do enough of that already, I need to make friends. This magic I absorb from this world will help. I’ve noticed it since Twilight invited me to her place. This place naturally gives you the ability to be sociable. The Elements of Harmony naturally emit such friendly disposition. Magic is one of them, so being near Twilight allows me to channel the spark into one singular point. The spark of making friends. I felt the needles dig to deep, hitting me somewhere and I push them back out of my body. I light a force field around me to stop the needles in their track in the air. “Okay. Okay! Whew! I feel so alive!” “That’s normal. Glad you are my third successful patient.” “That’s new? You meant to…never mind. Let’s go Twilight! A Fire Ruby awaits!” I quickly rush out the door, no time to stop! Magic finally giving me strength! I feel like I’m on cocaine! “Hey! Wait up!” I heard Twilight yell as she too began to run, struggling a little but hey, Librarians don’t do much other than reading! “Come back again sir!” I heard one of the twins spoke up, cute girls, but I’ve got a market to go to. I should really get myself back together.