//------------------------------// // Chapter 27. A tub of ice-cream. // Story: The Choice // by Not_available_now //------------------------------// Chapter 27. A tub of ice-cream.                     The carriage swayed a bit as the stallions pulling it made an adjustment.  Martin sighed; he was getting a bit tired of sitting during the flight. He thought about the fact that he wouldn’t see Luna as much as he would like, but also about all the other ponies that we would meet.  He had already met some of Twilights friends and would like to meet the rest.                     He sat back and looked at what Twilight was reading; the book was filled mostly with strange symbols  that he didn’t understood, but Twilight seemed to read it as easily as normal Equestrian. He got a bit curious, partly out of boredom, and asked her about them.                     “They are symbols that show you how to perform a spell. This one, ” she said as she pointed to the top most right one. “Says that you need to make a swirling form or your magic and then push it outwards to make a cone.”                     Martin understood a bit and didn’t care for much more, but it seemed that Twilight enjoyed telling him that and he needed to learn something if he ever wanted  to use his magic for other things that bring back evil from past times, so he asked for more explaining.                     Twilight pointed to one that looked like a ‘p’ with a cross through it. “This one means that you have to change the points where you inject the magical energy. Otherwise the spell might go very wrong or do nothing at all.”                     She pointed to two that looked like a sun and a moon. “These say under what celestial condition you need to perform the spell, moon for the night and the sun for the day. This applies mostly to spells which have two different versions. Like this simple one,” Twilight pointed to a spell which consisted only of two symbols. “If you perform this one in the night if creates an orb which gives off light, but if you perform this during the day it sucks all the light out of the environment.”                     “Interesting, but why would somebody want to suck all the light out of something?” Martin asked as he tried to understand something, but it would be nuance to remember what they all meant.                       He listened to Twilight explain many of the symbols. Twilight enjoyed explaining it to Martin and she visibly enjoyed the time that she spent with Martin on the carriage. When they arrived in Ponyville and started walking towards the Golden Oaks Library wearing a very large smile on her face.                     Martin opened the door for Twilight and followed her in. They saw Spike coming out of the kitchen wearing a very large smile, his face smeared with a cream like substance. When he saw Twilight and Martin standing here his eyes went wide and he quickly ran back into the kitchen.                     “Spike, what are you hiding?” Twilight said as she quickly chased Spike into the kitchen.  Martin just stood there for a moment before he followed them into the kitchen.                     “Spike, what have I been telling you about eating so much ice-cream, it is bad for you.” Twilight yells at Spike who stands next to a large tub of ice-cream which is empty, completely void of anything that even remotely resembles ice-cream. “Why did you even eat all of it?” She said as she floated the tub away from Spike and began cleaning his face with a cloth.                     “Uhm…,” Spike mumbles as he tries to come with an answer. “I was… uhm… hungry.” Spike said with a sheepish smile, making it sound more as an suggestion than an answer.                     “Wrong answer, mister. To your room now.” Twilight said firm as she pointed to the stairs with a hoof.                     “But… but.” Spike said, but he hangs his head low and walks up the stairs having accepted his defeat.                     “Hi, Spike.” Martin said to Spike as he walked up the stairs. Spike gave just a wave back. He turned to Twilight. “Did you really have to be that hard on him?”                     Twilight put the tub in the bin and sat down on one of the chairs. “He is still a baby dragon and a whole tub of ice-cream isn’t good for him. He needs to learn that he can’t do anything when I’m away.” She floats a glass over to the sink and fills it with water. She gulps it down and yawns. “I’m a bit tired, I think that I’ll go to bed.”                     Seeing that yawns spread Martin yawned too. “I’ll think that I’ll go to sleep too.” He walked over to the couch which strangely was completely clean and flopped down on it. “Goodnight.” He mumbles through a couple of pillows.                     “Goodnight.” Twilight said back as she trotted up the stairs. She smiled as she looked at the human lying on the couch. She walked towards her room, threw her saddlebags in the corner and got into her bed. She fell asleep within minutes.                     Martin couldn’t fall asleep. He had a buzz in the back of his head that wouldn’t go away. It started to grow into a small headache, just enough to keep him from falling asleep.                     He went into the kitchen to drink a glass of water. The buzz grew a bit less, but came back soon, so he took another one. He noticed that it wasn’t doing much so he took a last one and tried to get back to sleep again. His headache got worse, but he still managed to fall to sleep after a few hours.                     In his sleep he dreamt of fire and burning woods. He dreamt of choking in smoke and in the middle of the night he shot up. He kept his eyes closed and turned his pillow around. He laid back down and got to sleep again.                         Twilight opened her eyed. She got out of her bed and stretched a bit. She felt as fresh as a daisy and wanted to keep it that way. She went into her bathroom and combed her mane, brushed her teeth and plucked some dirt out of her coat. She felt great.                     She walked towards the stairs with the intention of making a nice breakfast for her and Martin and then taking care of some old things.                     Her intentions were shattered when she arrived at the staircase and saw the room downstairs.