Well, it’s been a week since I got this body back, and I was right. All of my powers are like they were centuries ago. My regeneration works almost instantly and my shape shifting is much easier to activate and happens way faster. It’s weird, my only guess is this new body is like a clean slate. None of the wear and tear that happened to my old one over the centuries.
Anyway, Celestia’s been really stressing about who could have put that curse in the book that got her. After all the note lacked any sort of signature. I keep trying to tell her that the book is so old the person who got her is likely dead by now. But of course she just ignores me.
She eventually decided that Equestria needed her and has commissioned me to investigate this matter. I’m no detective. Though I recently got an idea. Magic usually leaves a sort of finger print, that’s how I’m able to know what things have been enchanted by Celestia and screw with them. I bet if I get the finger print I can figure it out.
Wow! That’s the first intelligent thought I’ve ever heard you have.
Shut up Bob!
Now the question is how do I find it?
You could try finding a book about it.
Ugh! That sounds so boring. Oh I know! I can ask Twilight, she’s bound to have read about it at some point.
Whoa, two good ideas in one day! Who are you and what have you done with the idiot I usually talk to!?
Hey Bob.
Yes?
Go away.
I don’t understand how Twilight could leave the giant shiny palace for this tiny village. Sure it has a bit of charm but there are some seriously weird ponies around here. Plus she lives in a tree, that’s just weird. Speaking of which there’s the tree now, it’s really nothing special. It’s just a big tree with a balcony, windows, and a door.
Guess it fits the theme of this town. I walked up to the door and knocked. May as well have those manners Celestia is always chattering about. After a minute the door opened. Spike was the one who answered, I guess he’s a doorman now too.
“Sean!” Spike yelled and then glomped onto my leg.
“Hey Spike. How’ve you been?” I asked shaking my leg trying to get him off.
“It’s been good, Twilight recently got a pet owl.” He then told me some story about the owl replacing him and how he made a dead mouse thing to try and frame him. Sounds pretty stupid when you think about it. Though now they’re buddies so just like everything else in this country happy ending.
“Cool, so is Twilight around? I need to talk to her.”
“No, she went to have lunch with her friends. Why don’t you come in and wait for her.”
“Sure, why not.” I walked in to the tree. Still weird, I mean she’s not a termite. Just like everything else in this town it was simple. The walls and floor were of course made of wood, the walls were covered in books and there was a weird head in the middle of the room on a pedestal. So apparently they display disembodied wooden heads. Creepy.
Spike and I sat around for a while waiting, he brought out the checker board after a while. So we played checkers for a while, I won every time, though that’s sort of a hollow victory. That’s like winning at a race against a tortoise, or winning a fight with a pony.
“Spike.” We were now sitting on the ground staring at the ceiling.
“Yeah?”
“I’m bored!”
“Yeah? Me too.”
“When did you say she’s coming back?”
“I thought she’d be home by now.”
“Ugh!”
“Spike! I’m home!” Twilight walked into the library, today had been a lot of fun. She had been out longer than planned. After lunch Rainbow had wanted to show them some new tricks, then they got caught up in playing with Fluttershy’s animals. She tilted her head in confusion, in the middle of the room next to the horse head Sean and Spike were asleep. Spike was curled up on Sean’s chest, Sean was on the ground snoring a bit of drool coming out of the corner of his mouth.
“Aww and Eww.” Twilight walked up to them. She took her hoof and knocked on Sean’s head. “Hey wake up lazy.”
“What?” Sean opened his eyes lazily. “Twilight?”
“What are you doing here?”
“Oh yeah!” Sean sat up. Spike screamed and face planted onto the floor. “I need to know if you have a way to track magic fingerprints.”
“Magic what?”
“Oh yeah, forgot that’s my personal term. You know the mark a pony leaves on something they enchant, sort of like a signature?”
“Oh, you mean a magic stamp.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“I know of them but sadly I don’t know how to track them or their caster.”
“Oh, ok well see you later.” Sean got up and headed for the door.
“Wait, Sean!” Twilight ran up to him.
“What?”
“If you can bring me the enchanted item I may be able to figure it out.”
“Ok, I’ll be back in an hour.”
Well I didn’t get the result I was hoping from Twilight but at least she may still be able to help. When I got to the palace I headed straight for the vault where we had sealed both the book and the crystal ball with the curse. They were in the vault but also in a titanium box that had been sealed shut with a spell from Celestia. Seems like a bit of overkill.
Anyway, I grabbed the box and headed back for the front door. Honestly, I don’t think the box really protects from the spell since in can still feel the evil air coming from the ball. When I got outside I turned into a dragon and flew away towards Ponyville.
Twilight was pacing in the library. She was wondering why Sean had suddenly came to her home talking about magic stamps. She wished she could have been more immediately useful. The problem was she had only ever read about them, she wasn’t sure if it was going to be possible for her to find and trace it. It was around 5:32 when she heard the door open. Twilight turned to see Sean walk in carrying a metal box.
“Hey Twilight, I brought the stuff.”
“Great. Put it next to the head.” She pointed to the table with the pony head statue. Sean walked over to the table and placed the box on it. Twilight walked up to it and tried to open the box. “Sean, I can’t open the box. It’s got magic far stronger than mine sealing it.”
“Oh yeah, sorry.” Sean took his left hand and put it on the box. Then a gold aura started to appear around the box and slowly flow into his hand. When he was done he lifted his and looked at it with a look of surprise and joy. Then he took the box and opened it. “There you go.”
“Thank you.” Twilight looked inside the box. All she saw was a book and crystal ball, though the ball had a black aura inside it. Both items also made her feel a bit sick. She lifted the book out first looking it over. It was fairly simple it was definitely old, the book was just brown with gold corners. As she got closer to it the sickening feel of it got worse. “So Sean, why do you need to track the caster of the enchantment?”
“Classified.”
Twilight looked up at him glaring. “Sean, if you want my help I need more information.”
“Ok, royally classified.”
Twilight growled. She clearly wasn’t going to get anywhere with this. She opened the book flipping through the pages. The enchantment on the book was fairly weak, maybe the crystal ball would be of more use. Putting the book back in the box she lifted the crystal ball with her magic, the aura on this was definitely stronger. Looking inside the ball she could see a cloud of black aura inside the ball.
“So, any idea on how to find the caster of the spell?” Sean asked impatiently.
“Give me a minute.” Twilight looked into the ball. The problem was the longer she concentrated on it the worse she felt.
After another minute she lost her concentration and her magic faltered long enough to lose the grip on the ball and have it shatter on the ground.
Suddenly an evil black cloud came from the shattered remains of the ball. Then it darted towards Sean and absorbed him into a ball of black aura. Then the room went pitch black, when light came back into the room the ball was gone along with Sean.
“Sean!?” Twilight ran to where the ball had been. She tried to use her magic to track him but couldn’t it was as if he didn’t exist.