//------------------------------// // Magic and Nonsense (First Part) // Story: Lunatics // by PinkieYukari //------------------------------// Magic and Nonsense (First Part) Part 2 of the Lunatics Project Doors closed, check. Windows shut and sealed, check. All forms of visible light unlit, check. Faithful assistant nowhere around, check. Magical forcefield around the library - A magical hum began to arise around the tree in town square and an invisible bubble was formed around it, sealing herself in and any intruders out. Check. "Good" was the only word solicited from the being in the treehouse that late night. She looked up at the clock and noted that it was around half past midnight. Everyone was asleep, and she could continue her work in peace. Twilight Sparkle shuffled through the many books in the library. Not as many as SHE has, though, the unicorn's mind rattled. She wasn't nervous of what she was about to do - she'd been doing it once every two weeks for a good four months now - but still, this type of magic was not the type that the public usually agrees eye-to-eye with. Twilight's mind wandered back to the first time she had made contact with HER. It wasn't even on purpose, and it sure did catch them both by surprise. "A-ha! There's that grimoire. Now, let's see... communication sigil, here." The familiar purple aura enveloped the magical tome and set it on the floor of the tree-turned-library. The owner of said magic grabbed the brush she had used many times before for this. The book itself recommended blood as the most useful method for transforming the energies, but it seemed that ink worked just as well. "Alright, now let's see if I can draw this right." The lavender mare furrowed her brow in concentration, moving the brush to form the circle. It needed to be perfect, and yet she was too deeply focused to think to grab measuring tools to make it easier. Right... large circle, done. Square in the middle, rotated forty-five degrees, done. circular nodules at the points of square, done. Now for the symbols... Oh boy... this is going to take a while. Perhaps we should move on to the other main points in the story for now. ------ Filly Is Doing Her Best Now And Is Preparing. Please Wait Warmly Until She Is Ready.----- "Here's your coffee, Patchouli-sama, just the way you like it." "Ah, thank you, Sakuya-san. With the fried beans, as well?" "Yes," the silver-haired maid responded, nodding shortly before turning to walk away, most likely to the head of the household. "Have you given Meiling those pills I recommended to you?" "Oh, yes, the caffiene ones? I made a trip to Yagokoro-san earlier today and got them; managed to slip them into China's food. She shouldn't be napping anytime soon." No more conversation was made between the two - Patchouli blinked and the head maid was gone in an instant. The purple-clad wizard sighed and sat down at her desk. It was slightly ironic - Voilé was not meant to be a lending library, but the layout looked much like one, if it had expanded about three times its size. She picked back up the book she had previously been reading - it was about the anatomy of equines; specifically Equestrian ponies. She had taken quite an interest in this subject a short time ago - about four months, perhaps - after an accidental happenstance when she was experimenting. Patchouli's mind began to remind itself of that incident. It was an experiment she was continuing from Marisa. The black-white witch had gotten bored of it and gave everything she had used to her. Eventually, after concluding that everything Marisa had used was useless for what she was doing, her interest had piqued and she began to search for herself for any magic reserves outside of Gensokyan borders. Surprisingly, she found many concentrated on a rather large area extremely west of the Japanese wonderland. Most of them were rather small or average-sized, but four hotspots caught her attention in particular. Two of them seemed to have very strong connections to the sun and moon, one was completely chaotic and impossible to decipher, and the last was pure magical energy. Naturally, she took most interest in the latter. Summoning a small amount of magic from her reservoir to etch a seal in the floorboards in front of her, she waited until they were just right, and slowly released the air she had been storing in her lungs. The air condensed into a white smoke, which ebbed around the area, never settling. The light from one of the few windows she had around the library shone into the fog, revealing to her all that was around that source of raw magic. She never expected it to be sentient, nor did she ever expect any species other than youkai and humans to obtain the power of magic. But most of all... it didn't look threatening. In fact, Patchouli figured that she could walk up to it, hug it, and walk out alive. It was a pony; a rather small one, at that, with lavender-coloured fur and a horn on her forehead. The pony had looked very surprised, as if she could also see through to her side. She then realized the she had used the template for a two-way communication. A crash upon one of the bookshelves woke her up from her reminiscing of her greatest discovery. Sighing once again, she slowly stood from her study area and began to walk towards the noise. She didn't walk very often, and took note of the slight shuffling sound her slippers made against the mahogany floor. It was irrelevant, but Patchouli knew what, or rather who, was going to be there on the floor, covered in black and white cloth and a broom plonked on top, so she needed to think of something else so she didn't get frustrated from monotony. And as she reached the point of impact, that is indeed what she saw. A mess of black and white clothing resembling a witch's outfit, even with the cute little pointed hat, along with the all-too-acquainted broomstick. She didn't need the broom for flying, however she did use it for attacks. She recalled being on the end of that wretched mana catalyst, and remembered the many sores she had gotten from that. It almost made her shudder. "Kirisame-san... trying to pilfer books again I see," remarked Patchouli, as she bent down to pick up the books and used her magic to levitate them - along with the very large bookcase that had also toppled with it - back to their original spots. "It isn't pilfering, Patche! I was just going to borrow them for -" "'Magical research', yes, I know, you've said it every time you've tried. Sad that I almost never get to see the ones you manage to sneak off with ever again." A piercing glare was shot towards the western-style witch. "You know, you could just ASK for them. I would gladly lend my books to a partner in the field of magicks, and it would save you the effort of trying to get past me." "B-but it wouldn't satisfy my kleptomaniacal urge!" Marisa whined plainly. A sarcastic rolling of the eyes was given in turn. “Look, just this once, I’ll forgive you. You can take a look around, but please don’t take anything. I don’t want to have to look for my spellcards right now.” The lump of clothing and person on the ground suddenly bounced up into the form of the black-white ordinary magician Marisa Kirisame. She immediately began to run towards the top level of the library, shouting a Doppler-effect-inducing “Thaaanks, ze!” Patchouli once again sighed, sensing somewhere deep in her subconscious that it was going to be more trouble than it was worth. Wherever was that Koishi girl when you needed her? Walking back to her desk, she noticed that she had left the textbook she had previously been reading open… though she doesn’t remember leaving a witch in her seat. “K-Kirisame-san!? But… didn’t I just see you… oh, whatever. You know, it’s plain rude to just pick up and read someone else’s open books.” “Yo, Patche, why are you studying the anatomy of ponies? You thinking of transformation magic or somethin’?” “No, you idiot; there aren’t even any ponies in Gensokyo. At least, not these kind.” The curious witch looked up with a puzzled look on her face. “’These kind’? What do you mea –“ she stopped short after seeing a small distortion in the air behind Patchouli. “What? What is it –“ she turned around, and almost immediately her violet eyes widened and a small gasp had sounded from her. A thick fog was gathering around the area of light the window had cast on the floor. “Oh,” a smile gathered on her lips as she almost forgot about Marisa’s presence. “It seems I had forgotten about today.” The fog by now had finally congealed enough to form a visible screen. Beyond the screen was at first nothing to be noted, until the image gradually became clearer. Marisa’s confused face only warped further into that state when she looked into the colour-on-greyscale fog. The image was almost as sharp as real life, with accurate shading and all. But that wasn’t what had confounded her; it was the being on the other end of the call. “So… THIS is why you were studying on ponies.”