Frederick pulled open the inn's door and walked outside, taking a deep breath; the smell of the inn fading away into nothing. He wasn’t sure what was up with Ponyville all of a sudden, but there were bigger things on his mind than a couple of rude ponies.
“Alright, let’s see what I need…” He mumbled, looking around for the nearest grocery store. He quickly located it and walked over, pushing the door open and feeling the cold blast of air from the refrigerators.
“Hi,” he waved to the pony sitting behind the counter; receiving a nod in return. ‘At least he isn’t insulting me or Twilight…’ Frederick thought. Walking past the counter, Frederick picked up a basket and slowly made his way down the aisles. He looked at the food, thinking of what he could cook for later.
“I guess I could make pasta… no, It’ll be too bland for the Princess.” He had to take into account the fact that he didn’t know what Smart liked to eat as well, earning himself a headache for his troubles. “I…” He thought, before stopping himself and shaking his head; he simply had no idea what to buy.
Sighing, he made the decision to cook what he would like, the consequences be damned. “Right, I’ll need this,” He said, picking up some carrots and placing them in the basket. He then walked over to the herb section and picking out a small selection, “These will come in handy.”
Turning down another aisle, he picked up some cumin seeds, some oranges and a small packet of chickpeas. Turning around, he scanned the shelves and picked out a small bottle of olive oil, placing it in and then picked up a packet of pomegranate seeds, placing them next to the oranges. “Only one thing left for the starter…” He looked around and caught sight of exactly what he needed, Cumin seeds. “Gotcha,” He mumbled, as he made space in the basket for the main course.
He paused and went over the list of recipes he had made for his family in the past, it didn’t take long to choose what he thought everyone would like, the princess included. He looked about and found the first ingredient for what he needed, mushrooms. He placed them in the basket and went looking for the rest.
Spending a couple of minutes searching had yielded a good haul. He knew that there were some of the ingredients back at the Library and didn’t bother to buy new ones. He collected the rapeseed oil; the fact that the store even stocked it surprised him to no end and then the garlic, carrying on to the pasta and then the chestnuts.
“Alright, so that’s the main course done, now for desert,’ Frederick nodded, happy that he was able to find everything in a timely manner, he only had two hours left before they would turn up.
Knowing that Twilight would have most of this recipe as well, Frederick looked about for the spoilable ingredients, stuff that he wasn’t willing to take a chance on. Finding eggs, he took a carton and looked along the shelf for the milk. He picked up a large bottle and placed it in the basket along with, strangely enough, a coconut and some blueberries.
“At last…” Frederick sighed and lugged the basket over to the counter. He placed it on the side and took out his bag of bits as the pony rung up the total.
After some time, the pony turned to Frederick, “Twenty nine bits please.” He looked quite bored of his job, made clear by the lack of ponies actually shopping in the store, or in general around Ponyville.
“Here,” Frederick replied, pushing six stacks of five coins across the counter, “Keep the one.” Frederick lifted the bags off and walked out of the store.
Making his way home, he couldn’t help but imagine Twilight’s face when he brings out the food; he really hoped she would like this. He opened the door to the Library and called out. Receiving no reply, he walked in and closed the door. “She must be at Rarity’s still,” Frederick mumbled as he dragged himself into the kitchen.
He placed the bags on the table and opened the fridge. It saw absolute chaos, there was absolutely no order to the inside and made it hard to look at. Rubbing his hands together, Frederick started to levitate ingredients out and onto the table, making sure they were on cloth before he placed them down.
“Damn Twilight, I thought you could organise…” Frederick mumbled, placing everything back in a non-horrific way. “Better, now for these.” He levitated everything from the shopping bags over and into the fridge. He wrote a note on a small sticky pad and placed it on the door.
“Do not eat anything!”
Smiling, Frederick looked about the empty Library. He wasn’t sure what he could do for the last hour before he planned to start cooking. Noticing the formula for foresight, he walked over and sat down.
“How does she expect me to learn this by the end of the week?” He asked out loud. Shaking his head, he decided to read “Shields and you: a reference guide.” Opening it up to the page he was on, then looking over the formula again, he effortlessly cast the spell and the hex construct materialised in front of him.
Memorising a smaller formula, he replaced a section in his head and saw the hex grow larger, almost to double the size. Placing his hand up against it, he smiled as his hand hit inside the perimeter. He closed his eyes and changed one number, which the book described as the number that controls the size. Making the number larger increased the size of the hex until it touched the table and reducing the number, reduced the size.
Frederick grinned and closed the book, “Another part done, Twilight is going to be excited.” Opening up the other book he collected, “Grimoire of Forgotten Magic.” He picked it up because of the strange name, there wasn’t many Grimoire on the continent of Mesopan and finding one that wouldn’t kill you instantly was pure luck as there wasn’t a standard way of writing spells, they were usually taught visually and orally.
He opened the Grimoire up and turned to the first page and leaned forwards, his blood freezing in his veins. Reading the words, his eyes widened, “This book is the property of the museum of Runic and Alchemical Science. Return if found.”
“This can’t exist here…” He muttered, not willing to blink just in case it wasn’t real and vanished. Quickly turning the page, Frederick scanned the pages and found several pictures of Runes and formulae of several spells of Alarian descent. “How the hell…” He said, turning the pages quicker, until he got to a page in the middle of the book that was bound in paper thin chains.
Moving the chains, Frederick felt they were as hard as steel and had the texture to match, “It would take bolt cutters to get through…” He said, a little saddened that he wouldn’t be able to find out what was on the page.
His interest peaked though as he flipped back through, stopping on one of the basic offensive spells, “I guess I could read about this,” He muttered as he got up and moved to the sofa, putting his feet up on the coffee table.
His mind was still reeling from finding this book in the library, ‘How did it arrive here, when did it get here, did Twilight ever read it and if this came here, what else did as well…’
Frederick tried to put those questions to the back of his mind as he started to read the page. He had heard about some of these spells before, from gossip arount New Haven, but had never actually seen them in action.
Frederick was nervous, the gossip had said that the guards that battled a mage had their faces melted and eyes turned into hornets, but back then, he would have never believed them; now, he wasn't so sure.
"No turning back now,' he said as he started readin g the page. He frowned, "Black Bolt, that's a little underwhelming..."
Giving the page a blank look, he carried on to the explantion of how it worked. '"Black Bolt is basically condensed dark energy. You, the magic user, will the energy into being, giving your own magic in return. It is then collected and moved by your will," Frederick read aloud.
He carried on, "There are teo different ways to cast Black Bolt for the aspiring magic user. You can either cast using a gesture of your choosing, or by though alone, the former requiring less magic to cast, taking from your kenetic energy instead."
"Huh, ok," Frederick said, looking about for any sign of Twilight, slightly missing her. He looked at the clock on the wall, "Damn, still fifty minutes left..." Frededick sighed and turned the page to the glyth.
Instead of forumla, Alaria's magic users adopted the use of glyths for their spell casting. It was efficient, but limited.
Staring at the glyth for a few minutes, taking in all the details, Frederick tried to memorise it. Closing his eyes, he could see it clearly and grinned, "Looks like my practise finally payed off..."
Not willing to cast the spell inside, in case he blew the library up. He got up from the sofa and walked over to the door. Locking it behind him, Frederick walked around the library, to the back where he found a small garden.
Sitting on the grass was his forge materials. It consisted of thee pallets of heat-proof bricks, a metal frame and everything else he ordered. Looking about, he got the idea to build a firing range; one that wasn't facing any major building, of course.
Making sure thathis line of sight was facing towards a field, he dug a little hole with his magic, marking the spot to build on.
Frederick levitated a large amount of bricks over, grunting at the exertion. He then levitated over a few of the metal poles.
Placing the bricks into a small block shape, he slid a metal pole through the middle of them, pinning them in place.
Waking back to the materials with the excess, Frederick placed them down and closed his eyes, remembering the glyth. He willed his magic and felt an enormous drain on it, dropping to one knee, breathing heavily, he felt it let up, the pressure on his chest vanishing.
He opened his eyes and saw the crystals embedded in his hand had turned black. Remembeing he had to use a gesture, Frederick pulled his hand back and threw it forwards aiming for the block.
The crystals glowed with darkness which travelled down Frederick's hand and shot out at speed. Before he knew it, the bolt had hit the block, blowing a small crater in the side of it.
"Bloody hell..." he shouted, moving back, mouth agape. Looking at his hand, Frederick laughed and jumped about, "this is awesome!"
A cyan streak passed him and stopped, "What's awesome?" Rainbow asked, scaring Frederick. He jumped back and fell over his materials.
"Ow..." he said taking dash's hoof. Brushing himself off, Frederick then pointed to the block of bricks, "I did that."
Dash turned to it, and saw the still smoking hole, "Whoa, how!?" She asked.
"Magic," Frederick replied as he held up the Grimoire, "I found out this is from my world."
"I thought you got here by accident?"
"I did. But so did this apparently, I don't know how long ago... hang on." Frederick opened the book to the last page and scanned it for some sort of date. "This is a Grimoire, they don't just keep them laying around. It would had to have been under heavy lock and key..."
"Then, why is it here, if it was so well guarded," Dash asked, now curious.
"Damn, no date... I don't know, but I will find out why, believe me."
"Does this mean you still want to go home?" Rainbow asked, looking up at him with a frown.
He sighed and knelt down, "No, I'm... not leaving, my home is here now." Frederick smiled, placing a hand on Rainbows shoulder, "besides, I couldn't pay you back for lunch if I did."
Rainbow grinned, "No, you couldn't." she hugged him. "It's good you're not leaving," she mumbled.
Frederick hughed back and smiled. He pulled back and asked, "Sorry dash, I've got plans. Can we meet up sometime to properly hang out?"
"Sure, what plans?" She asked, before smirking, "Are you and Twi..."
"No dash, we aren't." Frederick glared. "Me and Twilight have guests over for dinner tonight and I have to cook soon."
"Oh, I guess that's cool... any pony I know?"
"Well, that depends, do you know Luna?" He asked, waiting for her responce.
"You are cooking for princess Luna." Dash's mouth hung open. Frederick used his magic to close it. 'Thanks. Wow, that's amazing, I wish I could go but I have to foalsit Scootaloo, her parents are going out of town, again," she huffed, "I swear I look after her more than them."
"I think it's nice you do that," he said, rising back to his full height. "Anyway, I have to start cooking, Twilight will hopefully be home soon."
"Alright," dash replied, flapping her wings and hovering at head height. "I'll see you around."
"Bye Dash," Frederick called, watching Rainboe fly off.
Turning around, he made his way back inside. Once in the library, he took his shoes off and made his way into the kitchen and set the table. Once that was done, he took out all the utinsils he would need preparing himself for the inevitable stress.
Frederick heard the door open and the voice of his favorite mare. Walking out of the kitchen he greeted her.
"I see you're back!" He said, leaning down and kissing Twilight.
"Indeed, we had a lovely time at Rarity's, didn't we Spike?" She said, turning to Spike who turned away.
"Uh, yeah I guess..."
Twilight shook her head, "Well, I did anyway." She kissed him again, this time a little longer and then pulled back, "anything fun happen?"
"You could say that, but it can wait till after dinner, when I can put on a show."
"A show?" Twilight asked, confused. 'What exactly do you have planned for tonight?" Twilight raised her eyebrow and gave Frederick a suspicious look.
"If you must know -"
"No!" She shouted, "don't tell me!"
"But..."
"I want it to be a surprise, it must be good if you're going to show Luna and Smart Glass." Twilight said, trotting around Frederick and over to the sofa. She jumped up and laid down, yawning. "I'm so tired..." she said, laying her head down, "who knew talking with Rarity would be so exhausting."
"At least you got to talk..." Spike grumbled, folding his arms and looking away. He had a look of disappointment on his face which Frederick picked up on quickly.
"What's up Spike?" Frederick asked, concerned for the little guy.
"Nothing," Spike replied, the frown on his face giving him away.
Frededick walked over to the kitchen, turned around and waved his hand. "hey Spike, can you give me a hand in here?"
"Fine." Spike slowly shuffled himself over and into the kitchen, where he found Frederick sitting at the table, tapping his fingers.
"Take a seat, please," Frederick said, pointing to the one opposite him. Spike sat down and looked at Frederick. "Spike, what happened at Rarity's?'
Spike looked over to the doorway with a sad look and whispered, "They didn't even know I was there..." he leaned forwards and leaned his head in his hands.
"Who, Twilight and Rarity?"
"Yeah, they just sat in the kitchen and chatted, like this." Spike looked down and twirled his thumbs together, his eyes watering.
"Well, I imagine that they simply got caught up in their talk." Frederick replied, trying to sympathize with the drake, "I'm sure they didn't know that they did that. You know how females are..."
"I guess, but it still hurts."
"You've been staying an awful lot round Rarity's, maybe you're getting used to being the only one there with her?" Frederick didn't expect an answer. "I guess you haven't told her yet, that you like her?"
"How did you know about that?!" Spike whispered as loudly as he could without waking Twilight; he didn't want a grouchy Twilight right now.
"Spike, it's kind of obvious."
"Really?" Spike asked, unsure if Rarity knew.
"Before you ask, she probably doesn't know. Otherwise she would talk about it with you." Frederick half heartedly smiled. "Tell her, it'll make things better in the long run, even if she says no... Not that I think she will."
"I guess..."
"Good, now come on. It's time for you to go to bed." Frederick rose from his chair and walked around the table, then picked up Spike.
"Hey, watch the spines!"
He then walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Opening the door to Twilight's room, he found Spike's bed and placed him in. "If you need anything, we'll be downstairs, ok?"
"Ok," Spike nodded and tucked himself in.
Frederick walked out of the room with a smile. He hoped Spike would gather his courage and tell Rarity, otherwise he could see it become awkward and then bad between them later on.