The sun was getting low in the sky by the time we got to Diamond's trailer house. We had obviously been out there longer than I thought. Time flies when you're having... fun, I guess. There was a grey coated unicorn stallion standing guard next to the door.
"Is the Lady in?" Asked Star, to which the guard shook his head.
"No. Our Lady is teaching a class, you will find her in that direction," he said while pointing a hoof.
"Thank you!" Called Silver as she started pulling me along. "The class will be nearly over by now, we'll need to hurry if we want to catch her in a teaching mood!" I just let her pull me in silence. I'd done more talking today than in the last few weeks, and I wanted to give my throat a rest.
We trotted through the camp at a jogging pace, and soon enough we came to a wide canvas tent. There were only eight foals under it, all sitting before Diamond as she finished up the lesson.
Silver said only the kids who want to learn more advanced magic attend these classes, the rest of them are likely off playing or something. That would make these the aspiring intellectuals of the generation... or the ones with overbearing parents.
"-Is a key aspect of a successful shield. Pliable barriers are possible and have their own applications, but for the purposes of this class, it must be rigid. Now, once more, bring up your shields." At her command, eight little horns lit up with identical green auras.
Wow, that is creepy. And disconcerting. It's getting harder to excuse their color as coincidence... but... Little green bubbles flared up around the kids, each being fully encompassed by one. One bubble was shining brightly and was nearly opaque, while two were only just bright enough to see. The remaining five looked like pulsating, green tinted glass. ...But they're so... different, than how they're supposed to be.
"Hmmm..." Diamond hummed as she inspected the bubbles. She started with the opaque one, prodding it several times with a hoof. "It's good, but you're putting too much power into it. You'll be drained of energy in minutes, tone it down." The bubble slowly dimmed and soon took on the same tinted glass texture of the others. Nodding, satisfied, she moved on to the two who's bubbles were quite dim. Again, she prodded them with a hoof, each one sinking in a ways like half inflated beach balls.
"Hmph. What were you two thinking when you cast this spell?" She rhetorically asked, her eyes narrowing and her voice taking on a harsher tone. "Did I not just say that concentration during the casting is key?" The children both looked down in shame, unable to look her in the eye. Her horn flared green for only a moment, but that was enough, as both of their shields broke with an audible *pop*. "Again."
The three of us patiently waited for her to dismiss the class as the two kids re-cast the spell, this time forming shields that Diamond's hoof found acceptable. ...Could they really be...? No, this is all too different to what I know. I need more proof before I can decide. Until I know for certain, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
"Better," she said while walking back to the front of the class. Once at the front, she picked up a baseball sized rock before dismissing the class. "Tomorrow, I will be testing you on the strength of your shields. Now go on, and be sure to practice if you value your little skulls." The small class then bowed to her before running off.
"*whistle*," I whistled admiringly, "if we had teachers like you back home, the dropout rates would be huge."
"Mhmhmhm," she chuckled. "This is how my mother tought, and just like her, I don't see how going easy on them would greatly improve their performance." This she said while hoisting the rock once, before putting it back down.
"Ha, pain will always be a strong incentive. Maybe fewer pe- ponies back home would fail their classes if teachers could hit them for not studying." She smirked at that.
"Indeed. Children cannot learn unless their failures are made clear to them. And if these failures have no consequences... how can they be expected learn from them?" Her smirk shifted into a warm smile as she changed the topic. "So, what's made you come looking for me tonight?"
"Oh, yes, well... um..." How do I word this? God, I suck at asking for favors. "Ahem. I was wondering..." Just say it asshole! 'Teach me some magic'. "That is, if you don't mind..." She quirked an eyebrow at my hesitation, and looked between Silver and Star, whos reactions I couldn't see. But I don't know how to pay her back, and I don't want her thinking I'm trying to push their hospitality. They've already done so much for me, letting me live with them and eat for free, and possibly saving my life... "*sigh* Nevermind, it's nothing. Sorry for wasting your time, I'm sure you have more important things you could be doing. I'll just-" I tried to back away, as a precurser to leaving, but I was stopped by the familiar sensation of Silver's wing over my back.
"He wants you to teach him some magic!" Silver said before addressing me in an exasperated tone. "Honestly, why are you being so shy today?"
"I'm not shy! I just... I'm not comfortable asking for favors. Espesially now, after everything you've already done for me. Asking for more just..." I trailed off, looking at the ground. "Feels greedy. I have nothing to pay you back with, besides the bits I made yesterday, and you told me you don't use money, so..." Again I tried to leave, but Silver wouldn't let me go, instead tightening her wings grip on me. I wanted to tell her to let go, but before the words could form in my mouth, I was destracted by a curious sound.
"Ha. Hahaha, ahahaha!" Looking back up, I saw Diamond, bent over in laughter, where she remained for several seconds. "Aha, ha, *inhale* haaa... Cotton..." She said while wiping a tear from her eye. "You fret over the stupidest things." I opened my mouth, but couldn't think of anything to say, only managing to quirk my eyebrows as my mouth hung open. "Just yesterday, you not only saw the mangled corpse of a minotaur, but bent down to examine it, without so much as batting an eye! And yet, the prospect of asking for a simple favor terrifies you?"
"Well when you put it like that, it sounds kind of silly... but that's just how I grew up. I don't really like having others do things for me, it makes me feel indebted to them. And asking others to do things for me, for free... it just doesn't feel right." I looked down again, feeling kind of depressed. All this talk is just reminding me of how much these ponies have done for me, and I don't even know how to pay them back for it. There has to be something... Silver removed her wing from my back, the feeling bringing me out of my thoughts enough to notice a pair of forest green legs right in front of me.
"Cotton..." One hoof came up under my chin, and raised my eyes to hers. "It's alright," she cooded in a warm, comforting tone as my inner thoughts became quiet. "Relax... you have nothing to worry about." I could feel all my anxiety slipping away, my eyes unable to leave hers. "I have no doubts that you'll find a way to pay us back." My peripheral vision began to take on a green tint, I stopped breathing, and I was lost in her eyes. I could no longer hear what she said, her mouth silent as it was swallowed up by the green. Those eyes were my world, the perfect shade of cerulean blue, filled with love as they gazed apon my very soul.
Beautiful... The green encroached farther into my vision, until those eyes were all I could see. Then I heard her voice, calling me.
Cotton..? Where are you?
"Pinkie..." I whispered with the last of my breath, so quiet the name barely escaped my lips. When I blinked, the eyes were different, a more luminescent shade of blue, and the green had receded. "Hhhhhhhhuh!" I inhaled deeply, blinking rapidly to clear the blurryness that had overcome my vision. What just happened? Did I zone out just now..? I can't remember but... I feel... great! Like all the stress in me is just gone. I looked back up in time to see the glow fade away from Diamond's horn. "Wow... thanks! What was that, some kind of nerve soothing spell?" She looked positively shocked about something, but quickly turned to face away from me.
"Yes... you seemed very... tense... about this whole favor thing. I figured I'd loosen you up a bit. So," she said, turning back around, face composed into a neutral stare. "What, exactly, did you want my help with?"
"Right, earliar today I teleported, but-"
"Oh wait!" Shouted Star, hopping infront of, and interrupting, me. "Show us your illusion thing first. You wouldn't show it to us before, and it sounded really interesting."
"I didn't before because I was still drained from that teleport incident, and I didn't feel like doing much of anything."
"Yeah, but you're better now. You were the one who wanted to leave and practice teleporting just a few minutes ago, so don't tell me you're not up to it."
"What is this 'illusion thing' you're talking about?" Asked Diamond.
"Well, I took an interest in illusions a while back. I could only find one book on illusion spells, but I could never get the spell I learned from it to work the way I wanted, so I gave up on it."
"I see..." She said, turning her gaze to the lowering sun. "There isn't much time left before we move. Show this spell to me. I'll examine it, and see what I can do in the morning." I took a quick look around, Diamond was patiently waiting, Silver looked expectant, and Star looked more excited than she had all day.
I guess I can learn to teleport later... "Alright, but it isn't that great, so don't get too excited." I closed my eyes to concentrate, I hadn't cast this spell for months, and wanted to make sure I did it right.
My horn glowed a bright red for several seconds while I formed the spell. When I was finished, a thin wave of magic pulsed outward around us, and the world shifted into the white space. My self congratulations at performing the spell correctly, after not having even practiced it for so long, were sadly interupted by several shouts of suprise and panic.
"What's going on!" "Where'd the world go!" "Where's the ground!" And so on...
The four of us started looking around, and we saw several other ponies in the white with us. They were all nearby, the farthest one being less than ten meters away.
"Uh... Sorry everypony! I'll just..." I ended the spell, bringing the camp back into view. "Sorry, I didn't mean to catch any of you in that!" They seemed to accept my apology and just went back to whatever they were doing. I turned back to the group, and all three of them were sending me quizzical looks while I blushed in embarrassment. "I, uh... never actually tried casting this spell on anypony before. I was always alone when I practiced with it..."
"This happened because you didn't direct the spell at all." Said Diamond. "You just cast it without focusing it, and it spread to everypony nearby. Do it again, but focus on us this time." I nodded, and started charging up the spell again.
Okay... Stargazer, at my left... Silver Wind, at my right... Diamond Sigil, at my front... And myself... I released the spell, and this time, there was only the four of us.
"So this is it then... what exactly is wrong with it?" Diamond asked, while Silver and Star started poking at the nothing where the ground used to be as they walked around.
"Well... I'm not really sure. It's supposed to be a sort of illusion world, but I can't really do anything with it." I said while conjuring up a few floating shapes. "I can make some simple shapes, but that's about it. Whenever I try to do anything more complicated, it just... doesn't work."
"Hmm..." Was all she said before her horn glowed, and she started pointing it in seemingly random directions. "I've never heard of something like this before... And you're sure it was an illusion spell?"
"Well, what else could this be?" She leveled a glare my way, clearly not pleased with being answered with another question. "W-well, yes... as far as I could tell."
"And what does that mean, precisely?"
"It was an old, hoof written book, and the writting... wasn't the best. I could only really decipher about half of the... words..." I trailed off as she sent me an incredulous look.
"Well," she said, the glow of her horn brightening. "I think it's safe to assume you misread something." A frown formed on her features, and she made her horn glow even brighter. I wondered what she was doing, when my horn started to get a little sore. I quickly cut off the flow of my magic, not wanting it to get worse, canceling the spell.
"Whoa," came Silver's voice, once again on my right side. "That's disorienting..."
"You said it," came Star's voice, once again on my left.
But they were just... huh. That's pretty neat. Still not very useful, but neat.
"I can teach you real illusion spells tomorrow, but for now, it's time to pack. We should be able reach the next town before sunrise." She said before turning to walk away. "Hopefully, we can stay there for more than one day this time."
"Three caramel apples please," I say while setting three bits on the counter of the parked cart, folded out into a street stand. "With almonds."
"Coming right up!" Says the vender in an overly cheerful voice. It was most likely for drawing in customers, but the minotaurs in this city were much friendliar than the last ones I'd met.
Maybe that place was the equivalent of some backwood redneck town, where everyone's racist for no adequately disclosed reason
The 'town', as Diamond had called it, turned out to actually be a full blown city, very much like Manehattan actually. It was a fairly renowned one named Tolmiros. It was the city in which the only train track across the Badlands enters the country. This track was the only constructed land route connecting Equestria to Minotauria, all other transportation and shipping being over the sea, along either coast. Or so the pamphlet I picked up at the train station said. One thing I'd learned since arriving here was that Equestria seemed to be the center piece of the world economy. They export a lot of food, but I was actually suprised to learn that they were the leading supplier of the worlds paper. Apparently no one else had invented a mechanical means of mass producing paper, leaving them otherwise stuck with papyrus and cloth papers, which are very slow to make. So Equestrian magic was vital to the widespread production of books elsewhere in the world, inevitably linking them to the concept of widespread education as well.
"There you go," Said the minotaur behind the counter, handing me the freshly dipped caramel apples, sprinkled with chopped nuts.
"Thank you, have a nice day!" I had noticed that the apples were kept in a mini fridge, once they were dipped in the hot caramel, it would quickly cool against the cold apple so as not to be a horrible, drippy mess. With the lack of electricity, of course, this meant it ran on magic, leading to the other notable difference between Tolmiros and the mining town from the other day. This city actually had a pony population... One I was currently getting quite a few jollies out of.
I walked down the street, before spotting my target, a mare, who had apparently saw something rather disturbing as she looked my way in horror.
"Beautiful day isn't it?" I call before taking a healthy bite out of the large eyeball on the end of my popsicle stick. Her eye's widened comically, as she let out a shrill and terrified scream, just before fainting. "P-PAH-HAHAHA- Hurk," my mirth at the successful prank was cut short as I started choking on the bite of caramel apple I'd taken. I hacked and coughed for almost a minute, before I finally managed to spit out the accursed thing. "*pant* Ha. *pant* Haha, hhhhuh... ha... This will never get old..." I whispered before continuing on to where I had agreed to meet up with Silver and Star.
Star had been sent to wake me up and get me to 'class' this morning, before sunrise. I was yawning and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes through most of my lesson, something Diamond made abundantly clear that she did not approve of. It was a good thing Star was my friend now, or I'd be sporting several singe marks where my abusive teacher had shot me with small lightning bolts.
But, I thought, remembering all the fun I was having with it, it was totally worth it. And so will any more lightning she throws at me, as long as I keep learning from her.
I had dreamt of Pinkie again last night, something that was starting to really bother me deep down. I had never had any dreams about her before, but ever since Discord fucked with my brain, every night was filled with vivid and romantic dreams of her. That's the main reason I didn't buy a ticket for the train back to Equestria yet, and wasn't planning on it either. The other, of course, being that I was learning my undoubtedly favorite form of magic from Diamond, and didn't want to drop that until I was finished. But I figured a few extra days away from Pinkie could only be a good thing. After all, I didn't know how I would react to seeing her again while in this state of mind.
As I continued down the street, I noticed a minotaur leaning against the corner of a building farther down the street. He was looking at me with a very serious expression, and following me with his eyes. Once I we were closer, he braught a notepad up to his face, and I noticed the golden shield badge of a cop on his vest. I just took the last bite of my apple when he pushed himself off the wall and approached me.
"Are you the pony called 'Cotton Hill'?" He asked, staring down at me with the same serious expression.
"Myaw. *chew chew, gulp* What of it?"
"Our office received a bolo for a unicorn of your description, there's somebody who wants to talk to you. I'll need to ask you not to leave town anytime soon."
"What? How does anyone even know who I am, or what I look like? I've only been in your country for like, two day- wait... I'm not under arrest am I?"
"No, we were only supposed to find you." I sighed in relief. "You and your's will be staying here for the next few days, correct?"
"Uh, yeah, I guess. As long as no one makes us leave."
"Good. The department building is on Baldr road on the west side of the city should you have any trouble while you're here." He said before turning around and walking away.
"Wha- hey! What is this about, who want's to talk to me!?" He didn't even turn back around to answer me.
"I don't know."
Well fuck that! I started following him, when Silver touched down infront of me, with Star quickly trotting down the street.
"Here you are Cotton! You were late, what's the holdup?"
"I was coming when this guy-" I looked behind her, only to find that he was already gone. "What! Where did he-" I frantically looked around the street, trying to find him amongst the wandering pedestrians. "AH! He fricking Batman'd me!"
"What about a bat?" Asked Star, just now reaching us from where Silver had left her in the dust.
"I was talking to this minotaur, and he just-"
"*gasp* Are those for us!" Exclaimed Silver while ripping an apple from my telekinetic grip. "Ooh, I've never had a taffy apple before! *chomp*" She started noisily eating her treat while Star and I sweat dropped. Star then turned back to me with an apologetic look.
"...You were saying..?"
"It's nothing," I say while floating the remaining taffy apple over to her, "don't worry about it." I'll just drop by the police department later to see what's up. Star held a dubious look as she took an experimental bite, she had appearently never had one either. "So... you two find anything interesting while I was having breakfast?"
"*gulp* Don't you mean lunch?" Asked Star before taking another, larger, bite. She liked the taffy apple too, though she was not as enthusiastic about it as Silver, who had already finished chewing her last bite.
"No. Diamond didn't give me any breaks after you left this morning." Silver cringed at that.
"Ouch... I get headaches when I skip breakfast..." I just shrugged. It didn't really bother me, I'd skipped breakfast before. "Anyway, we did find some cool stuff. There's this neat museum on Crete street that does tours! And after that we can-"
*jingle-jingle* Rang the resteurant doorbell on our way out. It was about eight, and the sun had just set, the streets now lit by the moons glow.
"Ah, that was a nice dinner." Said Silver, now clad in a feathery sunhat, while I stared dejectedly at my near empty coin bag.
"Yeah, cause you didn't have to pay for it." They both giggled at me.
"Aww, but we really appreciate it Cotton," said Star, casually draping a foreleg over my shoulders. She now wore a thin chain necklace tipped with a polished piece of obsidian.
My sister used to, occasionally, vent to me about some of her friends, who would invite her out to the bars and then conveniently have no money when the bill came. I now knew that feeling.
It's different though, because they actually don't have money... but still. I can complain if I want to! The museum tour had been two bits per individual, knocking me down to twenty one, after the caramel apples. Fortunately it was a history museum, so at least I learned something, though a visit to the library would have been cheaper.
Apparently Minotauria's government was in the process of becoming like England on Earth. They had a ruling family, and, unlike in England, the King still held a lot of power, but those powers had been gradually dwindling over the last century. We also learned about the unification of the minotaur peoples, which occured roughly seventeen hundred years ago, establishing the rule of their first king, and coorisponding to an event called the 'Longest Day'. In a different section of the museum, we learned about a race called Gorgons, who sounded very much like vikings, constantly out fighting and raiding. They had gone extinct at about the same time as the first kingdom was formed, and this 'Longest Day' thing, was cited as the main cause of their decline.
I asked the docent what that even was, but he said that it was a mystery. There were no direct records of the event, it was only ever refered to in other historical documents, but they did not detail upon it. A very unsatisfying answer, but if there are no records, there are no records. In the less interesting sections of the museum I spent my time getting other tourists to do double takes, by making them see things out of the corners of their eyes, and then quickly ending the illusion.
Good times were had by all.
"Yeah, yeah," I say, while ducking out from under Star's foreleg. We continued down the street until we came to the first intersection, where I turned left.
"Hey, where are you going?" Asked Silver. "Camp's this way," she said, pointing right.
"I've got something I need to take care of at the police department before I go back." I tell them before continuing on my way with a wave. "I'll see you both later."
"Oh... alright. Thanks again for the necklace, I really like it!"
"No problem."
After we left the museum, Silver and Star started to drag me all around downtown. They wanted to go window shopping, and to use me in the manner that all women use men when they're not in a porno, E.G., a wallet mounted on a pack mule. I had to forcibly restrict them to one item each, reminding them that I only had twenty one bits left. I had to further restrict them to one cheap item each, or there wouldn't be enough money to go to dinner. The dinner that they had already decided we would be having before I met up with them. That wouldn't have been so bad in and of itself, but they made this decision also knowing that they had no money, and that I would have to hoof the entire bill. Which I did, because refusing to do so, after all the free food I've been allowed to eat, would have been a real dick move.
Eventually, as we walked around, they found their one item choices. Silver wanted a fancy sun hat decorated with what looked like peacock feathers, which was four bits. A while later we came across a pawn shop where Star found her little necklace. It was actully a somewhat educational experience, as the shop keeper, a unicorn, claimed the piece on the necklace was 'genuine Badlands obsidian from the Longest Day'. He made it sound like some super rare thing, but the 'low low' price of six bits tells the tale.
Regardless, upon questioning he said that he did not actually know what happened, but the leading theory on what the Longest Day actually is, was a massive dragon war of some kind. The excessive amounts of dragon fire would have formed lava flows all across what is now the Badlands, which formed into large quantities of obsidian once they cooled. This was also when I learned that Minotauria's southern border bumps up against the Dragon Territories, where they suffer the occasional raid by the adolescent dragons.
While I continued walking, I saw two shadows quickly move past me from overhead. Looking up, I saw two pagasi flying off in the same direction I was headed, but didn't give it any thought.
The police station was a lot smaller than I expected, like something you'd see in a rural area, as opposed to a big city like this.
Crime rates must be pretty low here. Still higher than in Equestria though, I don't remember even seeing a police station when I was in Manehattan. I entered the station lobby and walked over to the reception desk, where a minotaur in uniform was scribbling away at some paperwork.
"Can I help you?" He said, not looking up from his papers.
I'm gunna go out on a limb, and assume that guy was telling the truth when he said he didn't know anything, so... "Yes, I'd like to see the Police Chief, if he's in." His hand stopped mid-pencil stroke as he looked over the desk at me.
"What business do you have with the Chief?"
"Well, a cop told me that your office recieved a "Be-On-Look-Out" for me, but he didn't know anything more about it. I was hoping for some clarification on that." He gave me a thoughtful look, before sifting through a few sheets of paper and bringing one up to his face. It must have been the one with my description, given how his eyes were quickly moving back and forth from me to the page and back.
"Hmm. I'll see if he's still in. Wait here." I nod in the affirmative, and he leaves through a door farther behind the desk.
As I waited, my eyes wandered, taking in the whole lobby area. It was very plain, no decorations at all, not even an 'employee of the month' photo anywhere. My wandering eyes eventually braught me back around to the door, just a plain wood door. I was about to continue on my circuit, when I caught something through one of the windows.
Is that a big feather? I couldn't distinguish exactly what it was through the half-reflective properties of a window at night. I took a step towards the window, to try shining my horn through it, when the sound of the door latch behind me redirected my attention. Out of the door came the receptionist, followed by another minotaur with no uniform.
"So you're this 'Cotton' pony, eh?" He stated, more than asked. "You wanted to see me about this, right?" He asked, holding up a small roll of paper. I took another glance out the window, this time not seeing anything, before answering.
"Yes, I was hoping you could tell me who wanted to find me, and what they wanted to talk about."
"Ah..." He trails off, looking at the little roll of paper, "I won't be of much help there. The most I can tell is that the military's involved."
"...Excuse me?" Rather than answer my question directly, he just tossed me the paper. I caught it with my magic and unrolled it. Be On Look Out - A P.O.I. named Cotton Hill, to be located, not detained. P.O.I. is in possession of sensitive information, was last seen traveling west from Ironton with large pony caravan. P.O.I. is a unicorn, male, beige coat and white mane, cutie mark of a pale blue smiling face. If located, send word by carrier bird to Athrastos... "What's 'Athrastos'?"
"It's a castle about a days ride south of here, mainly used as a training center for army recruits."
"Oh... Have you gotten a reply yet?"
"A reply?" he incredulously asked, "it's only been seven hours, birds can only fly so fast. Any reply they send won't get here until morning."
"Alright, thanks then. I'll check back in tomorrow." I start heading towards the door, and eventually my mat and some z's. He offered his farewells, and walked out the door with me. Apparently I had only just caught him at the end of his shift, which is why he was out of uniform.
As I made my way back to the camp, I couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy about the situation. And I couldn't pin down why either.
It's obvious why they want to talk to me, they heard about the TNT from someone... But why does that bother me? They aren't going to hurt me at all, if they wanted to the bolo would have called for my arrest... So what is it?