The next few days fell into a sort of routine. Alexia studied magic, Conrad did the same with flight, and Loki toiled away expanding her web of contacts and backdoors across the net. While all three of them handled the change in species as well as could be expected, Loki was becoming increasingly unstable at the prospect of being so physically isolated from the rest of the world. Much to Conrad’s chagrin, she vented that frustration on pranks.
After Alexia progressed through the next few chapters, she came across a spell array that struck her fancy more than most and cleared away the center of the back deck to carefully draw it out in white chalk. The event did not go without notice of her housemates and both of them came to watch the light show, as Loki put it. Twilight’s entry on this particular pattern danced across the back of her mind.
This is the Limited Invisibility Conjuration Array or LICA for short. As you can see from the diagram, the pattern itself is highly complicated but the conjuration process itself requires little more than a good amount of magical muscle as it were. To reiterate, as with nearly all array based crystal conjurations, the crystal will take the form of a gemstone. There is no preset correlation between what real gem they will resemble and what spell they contain. The end shape of the crystal is determined by the caster’s magical frequency, what array is being used, and the ambient magic the atmosphere.
All of that of course, is if the caster cares little about what shape the crystal takes. As you might expect with things of beauty, someone found a way to shape the crystals into a desired shape during the conjuration process. Thanks to Princess Platinum commissioning Clover the Clever to devise the method, who was a admirably skilled conjuror of her day and I highly suggest reading her memoirs. She invented the ingenious method to make minor alterations to any array to predetermine the shape the caster wishes. We still use Clover's designs to this very day. While it may be tempting to bedazzle oneself in a matching set of gemstones, this simple alteration triples the mana cost, sometimes more. You have been warned.
As for the LICA itself, the invisibility effect will extend over the wearer and any items on their person. This spell was designed for use in the frontier by scouts and pioneers in the year 320 AC to protect themselves from creatures hostile to ponies such as diamond dogs, hydras, and various other threats. The real beauty of the magic behind this array is that any member of the three pony tribes will still be able to see the wearer of the active crystal, but nopony else.
The rest of Sparkle’s notes were chased away as Alexia stepped forward to begin channeling her magic into the array. It had a faint azure glow to match the unicorn concentrating on bringing the spell into fruition. The four pointed array was draining four lines of magic from her horn which danced across the intricate pattern before shooting out eight different points and converging on the center where a small plume of purple dust burst forth while the four outer points of the array fired at the cloud and created a transparent jade barrier around the dust to keep any from escaping. The dust started rotating alarmingly fast as it was being funneled into the center where the jewel was growing rapidly.
Off to the side, Loki watched with genuine interest while Conrad observed from a second story balcony with more concern for the caster than for the spell. Even thought this was Alexia’s fifth conjuration over the past few days, this was the first one using such a complex array.
Half an hour into the channeling, Tune strained under the pressure of keeping the flow of mana active as her reserves skirted the edge of her caution zone. Just a little more. If it’s not at least fifteen carats it won’t be large enough to hold a proper charge.
The lines of mana thinned and flickered as her survival instinct tried to sever the connection, but she pressed on. Thirteen point seven. Her horn ached all along its length and was glowing brighter than usual. Fourteen. The array was beginning to lose cohesion along the fifth axis and Tune pushed a burst of magic to compensate. Point five. Her breathing was becoming heavily labored not only from the effort, but from the lack of magical sustenance to her cells as the mana was funneled into the crystal. Eight. Sweat poured off her coat giving her a reflective sheen in the midday light. Nine. She rocked on her hooves but forced herself to remain upright les she ruin the crystal. Done.
The cloud of dust collapsed into the pink crystal which slowly stopped spinning in the center of the array. As the magic cut off from her horn the array’s glow weakened and the jade barrier collapsed. As it did, the crystal gently fell to the wooden deck while the unicorn plopped to the ground gasping for air. Her vision swam, her muscles felt weak, her bones ached, her horn throbbed, and her heart was trying to pound its way out of her chest; but she gave a weak smile at the teardrop shaped crystal resting in front of her. I did it. Now I only have to see if it works.
Conrad collided with the deck to help Tune get back on her hooves. He thrust a sports bottle in her muzzle that she greedily accepted. “You really shouldn’t try killing yourself trying to make trinkets.”
There was only a third left of the forty ounce bottle when she came up gasping for air. *gasp* “You’re probably right.” *huff* “But we’re going to need trinkets like this.”
Conrad made sure she had the strength to stand on her own again before delicately collecting the crystal in a hoof to examine it. He had no eye for fine gems, but had bought jewelry for girlfriends in the past. He could tell it was a teardrop shaped pink topaz, or at least made to look like one, of a cut so perfect that his untrained eyes would never be able to tell the difference between it and a real gemstone. Given how it was forged I’d wager this would go for a mint all on its own. Let alone what it can do.
After making sure she was steady on her hooves he handed the gem back to her and noticed Tune took the crystal in her teeth instead of her magic and put it on the nearby table. “Thanks. I need to make two more of these and we’ll be able to go into town.”
The moment those words left her mouth Loki vanished from behind the jacuzzi and scooped up the topaz in one hoof and Alexia’s neck in the other with exuberance etched all over her face. “Does that mean I can finally go to that massage parlor I heard about in Saline?”
Conrad eyed the jeweled with a carefully neutral expression. “You made a gem that can turn us human again so quickly?” I didn’t think she would even bother making a third for herself.
Alexia hated to dash their hopes and looked crestfallen. “No…sorry. That’s not what I meant. I mean this is an enchantment gem. When this gem is attuned to your unique magic, you can activate it to become invisible to any non-pony.”
Conrad for his part had not gotten his hopes up as Tune previously told both other ponies that the alteration spell would likely be months if not years away. Loki on the other hand did not do a very good job at hiding her disappointment and the sinking depression was written all over her face. “I-I’m kidding.” She laughed halfheartedly. “I mean, who wouldn’t want a night out drinking or I mean. Just staying in a house with…”
Meeting only a tired and questioning stare from Alexia along with an uncaring one from Conrad, Loki snorted and cantered off. “Whatever. The booze shipment came in this morning what do I care?”
Both unicorn and pegasus watched her leave in a huff and slammed the door behind her. Tune was nonplussed as to how to react. “Huh. Well that happened.”
“I’m surprised she’s lasted this long,” he commented gruffly.
Alexia walked over to her bag sitting on the other side of the table and put the gem inside. “What’s wrong with her?” She already had her suspicions, but wanted Conrad to confirm them.
He ordinarily would have let Loki suffer if for nothing else than to keep her out of his hair, but he was not willing to give a partial answer to Tune’s query and sighed at the inner quandary. He spoke while gently rubbed a sore wing from a previous crash. “A woman like that’s an urban dweller to the core and an obnoxious one at that.” He continued with a snarky tone. “All this country air must be driving her bat shit crazy.”
By now Alexia had become fully aware of the lackluster rapport between her two housemates. “I wish you two could get along better.”
He tsked while doing a short flying hop to the other side of the table. “That woman is insufferable.”
“Mare,” Alexia corrected.
It irked Conrad that Tune kept insisting on using pony pronouns over human ones to address themselves, but conceded it for now so he would not be driven off topic. “That mare is insufferable.” He said with deep venom more for the person herself and less so for the term. “Three weeks ago I would have had her shot for even a tenth of the shit she’s pulled.”
Alexia decided to play it carefully between understanding and reprimand. “Why haven’t you?”
The pegasus checked his first response and knew her well enough to inject a touch of humor to win her back over a little. “Firstly because I don’t have a gun.” It didn’t work and he grew more agitated. “Look, if I wanted her dead she’d be dead already. I know we need her alive for the cash flow at least.”
She scowled fiercely at him. “Why do you hate her so much? I’ll admit it took some doing, but Loki would be a really good friend if you let her be.”
“Because she’s a menace!” he roared at her. “Every morning I wake up to find a roach crawling on my face; I don’t even know where she finds them. I take a shower and as soon as open the door a bucket of piss falls on me and not only do I have to shower again, but I had to mop it up!” By now Tune was cringing sheepishly in defeat while Conrad managed to contain his anger into a smolder. “And I am not even going to describe the how or why she had the gall to try and pull a Texas chili bowl on me.”
She tapped her fore hooves nervously. “Well the book does say earth ponies are known for their superior strength, but come on she was hammered at the time.” She stopped when Conrad narrowed his gaze. “How about I go have a talk with her.”
“You best.” He rested his elbows on the table and inched his hooves together. “Cause I’m real close to forgetting the whole ‘we need the money’ reason on keeping her alive.”
With her body’s mana saturation normalizing, her strength had returned and Alexia was able to walk back into the house without dragging her hooves, but she was left in a sullen mood. Like it or not guys, we’re in this together for the long haul. We need to get along with each other. Conrad watched her go inside before taking to the air to practice his flying to blow off some steam.
Tune used the slow walk between the deck to Loki’s room to think of a solution. “The worst she’s done to me was taking my bedroom door off its hinges and walling me in with phone books.” I was more impressed than annoyed on how she pulled it off to be honest. I still haven’t found a single phone book since that day. “At any rate. Conrad said something about her being an urban dweller. Must be his way of saying she’s an urbanite.” He said he was part of a crime family based in San Fran, wouldn’t that make him one too?
She leaned against the wall at the top of the stairs to stall for time. “Anyway…” She told herself to get back on topic. “And if I have any knowledge on how to handle physiological problems from watching an episode of Doctor Katz, then I can help Loki through this.”
Tune nosed Loki’s door open to peek through and was slammed by a wall of alcohol. She shook her head. This is your friend, you have to help her. No matter how plastered she may be right now. She scanned the scene and noticed several open bottles on the night stand with the green mare slumped on the bed. “Loki? Are you drunk?”
A long pause followed by an equally long sigh answered her. “No. I don’t drink til at least two.”
Alexia tilted her head slightly and brought up her phone. “Its actually fourteen twenty hours.” She stated matter-of-factly.
Loki’s head perked up. “Really now!?” She reached for a bottle and snatched one.
“Ah da da da ta ta” Alexia called out as she wrapped the bottle in her magic and ripped it free while running over and positioning herself between Loki and the rest of the booze. “I want to talk to sober Loki.”
Loki gave up on the first bottle and lunged for a second one. “Well I don’t want to be sober Loki.” She whined.
Tune toke that bottle into her magic and brought it into the air as well. “Is there a reason you’re tormenting Conrad so harshly?”
“Cause he’s a hypocritical self-righteous samurai wannabe.”
Alexia kept levitating any more bottles away from the increasing desperate mare. “Who isn’t guilty of some hypocrisy? Its almost a given these days.” She didn’t really believe it, but she wanted to get Loki to stop chasing the liquor.
“Are you running for office now? Ouuff.” She grunted as a failed jump to retrieve a bottle of Jim Bean almost knocked the wind out of her.
“No. But I am trying to keep Conrad from killing you.”
“I’d like to see him try,” she countered.
Alexia growled, opened the window and flung all the booze out of it and stomped her way over to the now distraught earth pony. “Well I don’t okay!” She yelled in absolute frustration. “I like your pranks Loki, I really do. But you go way too damn far with Conrad, and you know he’s not the kind of guy who can put up with that kind of shit. Piss buckets? Really!? You say he reeks of hypocrisy, well he’s been doing a damn good job of not breaking your kneecaps so far. Last I checked you don’t need those to hack through computers.”
Loki gave her a dangerous look. “You’re lucky that was not the only bottle of Jim Bean.”
Tune stomped her hoof again and growled at the green mare. “Would you be serious here? I’m trying to keep you two from either killing each other or having one of you leave.” That seemed to have an effect on Loki and her angry exterior cracked into depression. Alexia took it as a sign and assumed a worried expression and walked over to place a hoof on her withers to pull her in for a hug. “As far as we know for a fact. We’re the only three ponies on Earth. We should be friends, not enemies.”
“But we’re already friends,” she replied with a goofy half grin. Tune gave her a reprimanding gaze that was softened by Loki's genuine tears. “I can lay off the samurai.”
Well that’s a start. But the problem with a person like Loki is that she could be perfectly honest with me right now and actually mean what she says; but have a relapse later anyway. No, I think she’s going stir crazy. She separated the hug and dragged Loki over to the computer harness. “You know what we need to do? We need to have a night out on the town. Just the two of us. We can make it a…girls’ night out.”
“How are we going to do that?” Loki replied fighting the sniffles back. “Last I checked ponies weren’t welcome in open society.”
“Well no…” Alexia began as she reached for her phone. “But I do recall Salina was going to be hosting the International Science Fair soon and we could enter ourselves as self-aware androids.”
Loki was silent for several seconds until she belted out a halting laughter. “Are you telling me the International Science Fair is being hosted in your tiny ass hometown?”
Tune was more concerned with getting Loki out of her slump than seeking an apology for the insult to her hometown and let it slide. “Well it seems as if you’re familiar enough with it to know about the Tumwater incident with the last one then?”
Realization dawned on the green mare. “Ooohhh, right. So how effective was the radiation cleanup in Orange County?”
“Poor." She stated simply. "So are you game?”
Loki drew herself up in a serious pose. “Either A: stay here and bother Conrad after I just promised not to. Or B: prance around in the open posing as androids in front of crowds of people.” She became the image of deep thought. “That’s a tough one.”
During dinner that night, Conrad was having difficulty taking his next bite after hearing the mares' plans. “So let me get this straight.” He said in a slow methodical tone. “Just so there’s no confusion. You’re going to make another invisibility crystal for yourself, then take the car into the outskirts of town so the both of you can go to a science fair.” Both mares nodded. “And then waltz around in the open and hope no one questions the fact that there are two living, talking, intelligent-“ or so I thought "ponies cruising across town.”
Loki bounced over and jammed her muzzled in his face. “That’s the beauty of it!’ She bubbled. “They’ll question us all day and we get to pass off as self-aware robots. But the real pearl out of this clam is that we get to actually talk to people face to face!”
Conrad gave her a deadpanned look. “Isn’t that what you’re doing now?”
She backed off stammering to form words. “Y-yes. I mean no. Grah!” She turned to Alexia. “You understand. You tell him, I need to pack.”
He was starting to enjoy himself. “Pack what? You don’t wear clothes anymore remember?”
She pulled back slightly to lightly slap his nose back and forth a few times. “A lady packs more than just clothes and accessories when traveling you dunce.” He swatted her hoof away with a groan. Loki was in too much a good mood and skipped along out of the den and up the stairs. “Hurry up with that last crystal Alex. I need to slice some fake profiles onto the list.”
As Loki vanished up stairs he turned in exasperation to Alexia. “Why do I get the feeling this was entirely your idea?”
“Because it was.” She admitted freely. “She can’t handle the country life.” She abandoned her jovial tone for a somber one and reached over to grab his hoof.
“Conrad.” She said at length. “I know that I’m unusual for being able to acclimate to my changes so quickly, and for what its worth you’ve been a big help and I really appreciate that. What with keeping me from passing out during taxing spellwork and other things.” She broke contact to continue. “Loki can accept being a pony in of itself, but she can’t handle the social changes that brings with it. She needs this.”
Conrad cleared his throat to buy time to form a response. “You’re your own wo- mare. You don’t need my permission to do what you please. And I would prefer to go with you but the more of us there are…”
She nodded in understanding at the hung sentence. “The more likely people will catch on we’re not actually robots. Plus it might be best if someone guards the house.”
As Tune mean to leave to clean her plate, Conrad grabbed her shoulder. “Alexia, about just now.”
She reddened. “Yeah?”
You’ve been saying you’re resigned to staying as a unicorn. “Are you really still chasing after that alteration spell?” I have to know, the measure of your character.
Brief sad determination danced over her face. “Of course I am. But as I've said; it’ll still take me months if not years to reach it though.”
“What will you do when you get it?” He asked directly. “You said yourself you’re trapped as a unicorn.”
“That's true.” She confirmed with little remorse. “While we have no concrete proof of it, I doubt we really are the only ponies out there. Once I have the spell I would like to go around the world finding anyone who was transformed and turn them back. I don’t know what I’ll be able to do about other unicorns, but I’m sure something might come up later.”
“What about me and Loki?”
Alexia looked as if she was asked a dumb question. “Well obviously Loki would want to be human again so she could get her old lifestyle back and you too if you wanted…”
She trailed off as Conrad took one of her hooves into his. “My lady. You risk your well-being and safety for the mental stability of your idiot friend. You would live the solitary life of a healer and be forever ostracized by society because of your form, freely."
She read the look in his eyes as one of romantic intent, and a part of her screamed out against it. Is he actually? No, I-I can’t. She thought of a quick escape by changing the mood with a deadpan. “Well to be fair, we’re already ostracized from society.”
His face fell at that moment as he felt as if she wouldn’t understand his meaning. He switched gears and chuckled light-heartedly to give the impression that she just delivered the punch line to a flimsy joke. “Y-yeah. Well, I’m sure we ponies can be integrated in the future at some point.”
Relief was not to be had for her as Conrad’s comment struck a chord. Tune frowned lightly and glanced out the window. “As xenophobic as humanity is as a whole… I doubt anything less than an act of God could get them to see us as equals. Even if we are former humans, the world governments won’t care.” She looked back at Conrad with a weak smile. “We’ll figure something out. But for now we should enjoy these quiet days while we can. Before we're fleeing from black helicopters and what not.”
Quiet for you maybe. “Sure. I’ll clean up so you can go ahead with your next gem conjuration.”
“Thanks Con.”
As soon as she left the house he stopped to stare at the door where she exited. “How can someone so wise, be so blind?” He shook his head and gathered the plates between his outstretched wings. “You've barely spent over a week as a woman and you already confound me.”
The following morning Alexia was expected, dead in bed. Loki was too wound up about the fair to let that stop her however, and had four cooling espressos and a coffee enema at the ready. She turned to Conrad with a bemused smirk. “Why are you helping me with the surgery?”
“To make sure you don’t cause any permanent damage to her in this insane procedure.” He replied gruffly. “As much as I think going to the fair is a fool’s errand, you can’t afford to wait for her to wake up on her own.”
Loki merely shrugged at his reasons and turned to the snoring unicorn and rubbed her hooves together maniacally. She thrust a hoof in his direction. “Rope.” He handed over four lengths of rope to which she tied Tune’s limbs down. “Clamps.” She forced the snoring pony’s mouth open. “Funnel.” It took some work without fingers, but with Conrad constantly checking to make sure, Loki got the tube down the esophagus.
“I’m not doing it.” He declared defiantly.
Loki gave him a quizzical look. “What?”
“I’m not giving her the enema. Coffee ones have never been proven to be very effective.”
“On humans anyway, but fine I’ll do it.” Loki grabbed the item in question. “Knowing you, you’d probably shove it down the wrong hole. On three. One, two, three!” He poured the espressos down the funnel and she jammed and squeezed the enema.
He was halfway through the third when Alexia’s eye’s shot open and tried to scream. “Shit! He yelled. Conrad fumbled the coffee out of his hooves, which was thankfully cool, and ripped the funnel and clamps off. Loki jumped back howling with laughter.
Alexia coughed heavily for several seconds as Conrad tried to undo the knots. Her voice took on a magic induced demonic quality. “What the flaming blood soaked hell Conrad!?”
“It was all Loki’s idea to get you up early.” He was able to keep calm under her rage, but not when he found himself locked in a magical vice and being shaken like a ragdoll. “I just wanted to keep her from harming you that’s all.”
Tune’s ears flicked towards the snorting laughter and immediately forgot the cowering stallion and dropped him on the floor. The source of the laughter sailed to be directly above the bed. Loki looked down at the furious unicorn that was tethered to the bedposts, had coffee drenching her face, and still had the enema sticking out. The earth mare lost all semblance of control and was bawling in uproarious laughter to the point where she was rolling around in her magic as if in zero gravity. Alexia’s face was pure murder. “I’m going to kill you Loki!”
“Then I’ll die laughing.” She yelling as she was flung out of the door and tucked herself into a roll. She hit the stairs and rolled her way down and slammed into a heap at the front door giggling like a maniac. “You should have seen your face!”
Conrad was no stranger to life or death situations, but those usually entailed opponents he could shoot back at or run away from the law. No such luck here. He bided his time and waited for Alexia’s rage to subside before making his presence known again. “May I untie you?”
She looked at him with rapidly fading hatred and then at one of the ropes and pulled on it to test the knot. It held firm and then she turned back to the ceiling. “Yes, please.” He got to work on the forelegs first. “Conny.” She made eye contact. “So this is what you meant by her shenanigans every day?”
He shrugged. “This is worst by far.” He paused. “Mostly because she roped me into helping her.”
She winced at the enema being removed and she climbed to her hooves with his help. “I’m sure you did what you could to lessen the damage.”
“That was my reasoning, yes.” He said while gathering the trash into a pile.
She gave a hesitant nuzzle. “For a former mobster you’re a sweet guy when you want to be.” Conflicting emotions stopped her from going any further with physical contact and she backed off before he could reciprocate. “Oh sorry. I better ahh go take a shower.”
“Wait Alexia!” She ignored it and closed herself off in the bathroom. Conrad was about to bang on the door to talk but knew that wouldn’t work and left her be. So that's why her behavior is off. Its barely been over a week since she became a mare, even someone as adaptive as her would need time to adjust and a week won’t cut it. He walked over to the second story railing to find Loki still cackling madly when an idea came to him. However… On the other hand, I’ve seen people like Tune before. She’s the kind of person who adapts best if she’s pushed head first into a tough job while trying to ease her into the same job take ten times longer. It’ll save her a lot of trouble and pain if she gets over whatever is holding her back, but I have to know what part it is exactly. Once that hurdle is cleared I have no doubt she’ll be a historic figure. I can feel it.
Loki was on her back and her laughs were petering out. This is not an issue I can talk to Alex about. As much as it churns my gut to go that thing for help. It has to come from Loki. But how do I get that harlequin to go along with it. He went down stairs to stand beside the now silent mare. “Ya done?”
“Yeah I’m done. We got her up before seven.”
“I suppose that is a personal best for her.” He gave pause to change topics. “Have you noticed she seems off sometimes?”
“Around you yeah.” She replied instantly. The comment caught him flatfooted as he was not expecting her to be so direct. “I was going to talk to her about it in the car anyway.”
“I see.” His whole speech was ruined. “I’ll go to set breakfast up then.”
“I want mine with extra syrup!”
Once Alexia was cleaned up, fed, and had forgiven her prankster friend; the mare pair met in the foyer to assess their inventory for the trip. The silvery mare pulled out a checklist that Loki printed out for legibility’s sake. “Did you wear the bracelet on your wrist all night to let the crystal attune to your magic?”
Loki waved her right foreleg in the air. “Sure did.” The crystal had a green shimmer denoting it was filled with the earth pony’s magic.
Tune moved to the next item. “It was exhaustive but I made mine as well.” Her own bracelet’s pink topaz shimmered a rich azure, marking it as a unicorn's property. I had to have a second dinner of salmon, but it was worth it.
Continuing, Tune’s gaze fell upon the next item. “I see you already have your computer harness with you, so there’s that.” Check. “What about payment methods? If we’re going to be walking around freely we might need plastic.”
“Way ahead a ya.” Loki produced Tune’s old debit card. “I used your old name as one of our participant names and dumped some cash in your account so we can grab some grub.”
Alexia grimaced at the idea but reluctantly agreed. “Well its not like I’ll be able to use it much outside of that anymore.” Next item. “Oh I especially love this one, watch.” Tune’s horn lit up and the tome materialized in front of her. “Pretty neat huh?”
“You summoned a book?” Loki shrugged. “Meh, I can do that with Kindle.”
Tune only responded by swatting Loki’s nose with her tail. “I cast a hearth charm on the book and the bookshelf in my room. Now I can transport the tome back and forth from me to there at any time.”
“As if you don’t spend enough time studying as it is.” Loki quipped.
“Yeah yeah. Anyway, the rest of the list is miscellaneous.” She rolled the paper up and threw it by the stairs. “Off to the fair!”