//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Look It Up On Moogle // Story: The Night Of A Broken Heart // by WanderingPony //------------------------------// Two moogles, three unicorns, three alicorns, and one problem bigger than all of them. That was the situation. The smallest (and newest) of the three Princesses at the table read aloud from the book before her, "Ancient Enchantments and Spellcraft In The Unicorn Nations". "The unicorns of old did not have spells as modern ponies knew them- only the ability to move objects with their horns. Manuscripts that predate the era of Clover the Clever mention the discovery of "Magicks of Earth and Skye" that gave the unicorn powers over the world around them, but little else. Eventually, this led to unicorns being able to control the rise and fall of the celestial bodies themselves, a power that would bring them into conflict with the earth ponies and pegasi..." "And that, Twilight was about when Luna and I incarnated.", said Celestia. "You became a traveling show, kupo?" The Dawn Princess giggled. "That would be "carnival", Kupollux." "You became...meat?" "That's actually much closer. "Incarnate" means "embodied in flesh", Kupofrieda. And it was a trick that actually cost Celestia and I quite a bit of power. Being material means that a lot of what we could do as spirits simply couldn't be done, and even some of what we COULD do, we had to learn new ways to do it- and that's what ponies call "spells". We had been watching over the world- and especially the ponies in it - for thousands of thousands of years. One day, we decided to see if we could imitate the creatures who loved playing under us. At first, we just managed pony-shaped shells of magic that we could "pour" ourselves into, like a cup. But they weren't really alive, and it was just that- a cup, without the ability to feel or sense the world any differently than how all spirits do- and the more powerful we made it, the more exhausting it was to keep it around- "avatars" like that were obviously not real ponies, and we scared the tails off more than a few of your ancestors, Rarity!" Twilight Velvet was, if anything scribbling notes faster than her daughter was, a slight scorching smell coming off the end of her quill. Luna arched an eyebrow. "Thou hast no plans to reveal such things as we give in confidence, aye?", interrupting Celestia as she was about to continue. "Oh, no. Not at all! But this is giving me GREAT ideas for the next book." "Next...book?" "Well, yes. I've had writer's block for months since I did "Daring Do and the Terrifying Tower" and- and- ...oh dear. You mean you didn't know?" Twilight Sparkle developed a guilty expression. "Mom was the original author before she stopped to raise me and Shining. Now that we're out on our own, she got a new contract with Polo House and-" --- Behind them, Rainbow Dash stretched out, utterly unaware of anything short of possibly Celestia setting her on fire. The world had pretty much vanished since Twilight's parents had handed her a preview copy of the new Daring Do novel signed by the author and everything!. To our most loyal fan, Rainbow Dash. Blurry vision or not, she was already thirty-five pages of pure distilled awesome in and plenty more to go. --- "- well, they want her to do another four at least." "They won't know a thing, your Highness. This wouldn't be the first time I've made something I've researched into an "exciting adventure into magical fiction", to quote a critic.". Twilight Velvet smiled. "Didn't I do a good enough job on "Daring Do and the Platinum Crown" ?" "Oh, darling, that was amazing! I did love the whole bit with the hidden heirs to the crown of Unicornia and...that wasn't true, WAS IT?", said Rarity. Twilight Velvet merely winked and said a single word. "Spoilers!" "In any case, incarnation. We didn't want to terrorize ponies, we wanted to be closer to them...find out what all this "living" business was. We didn't understand it very well at all, but we kept trying new shapes and none of them really worked well. Finally, we just about gave up, pretty much copied ponies outright out of whatever matter we could find and tried to animate the bodies with magic. It went a little too well." , Celestia finally managed to continue. "What mine sister means is we ended up inside them entirely." "That. We soaked into the bodies like most ponies take a sun bath, and ended up going from creatures of the astral to the living flesh- ready to explode from trying to contain much more power than any pony's form should handle. We grew. Very, very fast.". Celestia stood up and stretched out her wings, shadowing Luna and Twilight beneath them. "And we couldn't get -out- of them either. Life had grabbed us both firmly and had no intentions on letting us go...and made us learn more than a few lessons along the way." "Like eating. Twas always her favorite." "Or sleeping. Twas always Luna's favorite.", Celestia retorted and stuck her tongue out at her sister for good measure. "Being double-sized unicorns with some odd ideas in the middle of a land full of ponies half your size and with much less...impressive manes was tough at first. We passed ourselves off as being from Mareabia, where the myths told of giant ponies, and our experiments with getting back our powers as "magic from the far-away East". Rising Dawn and Mysterious Shadow, the Wandering Wise Mares. Trading some of those experiments with mortal ponies for food, lodging, knowledge, or just for the sake of friendship is how the first true unicorn spells came to be made." Night Light caught the reference first. "Unicorns? Your Highnesses are....a bit more than unicorns." "And so is Twilight Sparkle, now. Or Cadence, for that matter- and that is why yes, you still have a daughter-in-law and son- even if we don't know exactly where. Despite Luna's frequent jokes that I'm mostly made of cake these days, alicorns are supersaturated with magic. So much so that if you add too much more, too fast to a pony..." Celestia's wing brushed against Twilight's, the crystalline quills tinkling musically as they rubbed together. "...you get something I call "Magicite". Think of it as something like the spell that held Discord in stone, or what happens when you look at a cockatrice- only closer to the Crystal Heart or Cadance's necklace. Living stone, or in this case crystal. I have it from a witness to what happened that somewhere, Shining Armor and Cadence are a pair of crystal statues and should we learn a spell to reverse the process, unharmed otherwise." "That is no way to be a crystal pony, your Highness!", Rarity interrupted. "Who saw this happen? We should speak to them immediately, find where this ruffian took them, and save those two poor ponies this instant!". The last three phrases were punctuated with her hoof stamping against the floor. "And there is the problem I was coming to, Rarity. In the days since you fought Sombra, more and more of the spells unicorns have made- even some of the ones I put a hoof into crafting myself - have failed. Enchantments and spellcasting across Equestria have ceased to work, or produce such dangerous and random effects as to require a decree banning nearly all forms of enchanted goods, tools, or spells beyond the most innate of ponydom's gifts. Would you be so kind as to mend this torn handkerchief?" Celestia produced a lacy one, the trim on one side fraying away from the cloth and placed it on the table. Lifting a glass cover off the snacks, she levitated a glazed donut and took a bite, chewing on the treat as she stared intently at the distressed damsel-cloth. "Oh, it'll be a pleasure! Just a little cantrip to sew it up...", Rarity's horn glowed and a threaded needle shot towards the hanky... ...and stabbed through it as Celestia brought the cover down over the glowing needle and it's intended target. The needle furiously stung the cloth, piercing it with dozens of holes like an enraged metal wasp, then chipped at the glass dome containing it until a brief spark of Celestial flame melted the wayward tailoring implement to a flaming lump of slag. It fell onto the cloth and ignited it, causing the vision in the bowl to fade into a blackening cloud of roiling smoke. Pearl and her daughter clutched at each other in horror as the fashion disaster consumed what air was trapped under the glass and charred a neat circle in the wooden table. Almost every eye in the tower turned at the sound of burning metal and the scent of charcoaled wood. "And that was one needle with the smallest of spells cast on it.". Celestia's tone was suddenly no longer light in the least. "B-but my shop! How will I make anything! How will ANYONE make anything! This IS the worst thing ever!" "By hoof, by horn or by none. Canterlot Mercy has sixteen ponies in the hospital that look like they hugged a forest full of cactus. They WERE the sewing club at the Canterlot Old Mare's Home. Until such time as such magic becomes tame or new spells can be found...I will have nopony hurt or worse." Kupollux broke in as Rarity sobbed in her mother's hooves,her career crumbling faster than the hanky had. "It's not just ponies, kupo...the smallest snifter of moogle mage-ry turn into pugnacious punishments!". Pushing a stunned Spike off his seat, Macgyvix stuck her masked nose in his place. "Goblins are better at magic than you batwinged pains are, but even WE can't toss so much as a snowball without it trying to come back and make ice scream!" Rubbing his tail, Spike said "Dont'cha mean ice cream?" "I dunno about you, kid...but when someone shoves a snowball up my nose, I wanna scream about it." Pinkie dropped into the conversation bungee-first, upside down and with a balaclava pulled over her face. Her goggle-covered eyes glittered as she tossed a string of interrogatives into Macgyvix's breathing hole. "Hey! When did you leave the tower and find that out? You don't do any magic, right? Where are your friends who do magic? ARE THEY NINJA GOBLINS? Are they imaginary goblin friends? Ooh, do they know any good invisibility spells? Can I talk to them? How do YOU talk to them? Ooh! Ooh! Pleeeeease! I can bribe em with jellybeans..." Macguffnox yanked on the cord, pulling Pinkie nearly to the floor- then let go. The Pie-ish Friendquisition flew back towards the open skylight. "I HAFF WAYS OF MAKING YOU LAUGH!", she yelled as the elastic rebound carried her over the threshold and out of sight. "So lemme guess. Ponies only talk long-distance over tin cans.", Macguffnox grumbled. "Hey! I can send messages....um...I could send messages...OK, I can't send messages anymore.". Spike's eyes brimmed with tears at the thought of the abuse he'd managed to put a paper stack higher than he was trying. Kupofrieda fluttered down and put Spike back on his feet. "You mean lizards talk to each other like moogles? Did you lose your pom? Oh, you poor little moogling, kupoooo!", she said while petting Spike's scaly crest. The moogle was confusing, but the petting was kinda making Spike feel better... Kupollux was a bit less confusing about the whole thing. "Everymog can talk with everyone else- right here, on top of our noggins, kupo!" -and he shook the red ball of fuzz that dangled from a stalk on his head. "It's a Mognet!" "Gobbies didn't want to grow silly-looking furballs, so we grew something else instead.", said Macgyvix. Pulling her mask a bit further away from one green ear, she showed the table a lump that seemed to rest just under the skin. "Dat's a linkpearl. Gobbies grow these big ol' clams, and if you got one of it's pearls in your ear and I got another? Just think it, and everyone else with a pearl hears it like you whispered in their ear. Long as nothin' breaks the clam and kills it, this pearl keeps ya chatty. Gobbie clans keep one in their houses so we can pass the word and no other nosy gob hears a thing!" "And since neither is a spell, they've been working all this time?", said Twilight Sparkle. "Yep! Didn't anyone tell you "When you talk deals with a gobbie, you make it with the whole clan?" when you were a ki...oh, right. Who woulda told you about goblins before now? The clan's been loving every minute of this. Growing rocks? The biggest market ever for linkshells? Half the chatter I'm gettin' in this ear is what the bit-to-gil rate is gonna be! Heyyyyy...how big a cave fish can you fit in that mouth, Princess?" Kupofrieda looked up at the goblin as she successfully managed to gross out a Princess with the image of a wriggling catfish between her teeth. "Hey! We'll figure out how much your bits are worth without sticking a fish in your mouth, kupo!" She fluttered up to look at Big Mac. "You're a pony that grows stuff, right? Sooo....how big are your nuts, kupo?" * The stallion managed to turn at least two shades deeper red than usual. Celestia dragged the chaotic mess of a conversation back somewhere near the tracks, if not on it. "We would, if you please, speak to your...clan leader Macgyvix? And...who rules the Moogles, Kupofrieda?" "His Majesty King Kupofried the Twenty-Third. My parents named me after him!", and the moogle squeaked with amusement at the thought. "He'll love talking with actual royalty!" "Aww, Moogle "kings" are only good for fishing lures! You want business, you talk with our Grand Greedalox, Gildalix! She'll make a deal so tight your money squeals when it changes paws!". Macgyvix waved her gloved one dismissively at the peeved Moogle maiden. "And it'll be a better deal than the other clans, too!" "At least MOOGLES don't make a deal with one paw and steal it with another like you goblins do, kupo! What one clan sells, three more will want to get a cut in, and six more will try and stab you for whatever it is you traded!". Kupofrieda puffed up like an angry balloon and pointed an accusing finger at the goblin in return. "Please, PLEASE! I'm sure that the Kingdom of Equestria would be willing to extend a hoof of friendship and trade with BOTH of you...as long as you don't fight over who gets which one!", Celestia pleaded as the two emissaries looked about ready to fight over who got a Princess first. Diplomacy won (for the moment), and the conversation between ponies, goblins and moogles stretched further into the afternoon as it headed towards dusk...