//------------------------------//
// Feeble Friday 
// Story: Intentions 
// by Heesman 
//------------------------------//

Plagued by his haunting dreams during the night, Shine is doing his best in order to stay awake as he tries to focus on his task set before him; to spend a day with the fifth pony friend on his list. The purple, magic wielding unicorn Twilight Sparkle. A task during the circumstances as such, proving to be quite a difficult one.
- Shine! Wake up! You've nodded off again.
Twilight used a big book to slap Shine in the face, waking him up.
- Ow! Oh... sorry Twi... I haven't slept that well last night.
Shine yawned loudly as he walked up to a bag he had brought with him to Twilight Sparkles house. He opened and peeked his tired head into it, emptying it behind his back as he rummaged through the items.
No, no, not that one. Neither that one. Argh, don't tell me I forgot it. Twi, have you got any Hearts Desire to spare?
Shine looked behind him to see Twilight Sparkle sitting with the very plant he was talking about upside down on her face.
- Do you happen to look for this?
Twilight had an annoyed look on her face as she used her magic to levitate the plant back to Shine. Shine rubbed his eyes with his hooves and focused intensively at the plant floating a hoof length or so in front of his head.
- Hmm... oh! It's the one, I didn't know you were growing them too, can I have it, please?
Many questions in Twilight Sparkles head wanted answers, but knowing how a tired pony can act, she quickly swatted them and gave a slight nod to Shine who gave a big, tired smile in return.
Oh, thank you. You are an angel!
Shine used his magic to take control of the plant in front of him and carefully plucked a petal with his teeth. The rest of the flower was put back into his bag.
- Wait! I thought you didn't like to eat flowers!
Twilight Sparkle was chocked at for the first time see Shine eat something that wasn't some kind of produce. Shine closed his already half-closed eyes and began focusing magic into his horn.
- I don't.
Shine replied as he raised his head as the yellow glow from his horn grew slightly. Twilight Sparkle kept staring at the stallion in front of her, noticing Shine put great effort in swallowing something. The yellow glow grew even larger to the point of it giving off a quick flash of light as a porcelain cup with a black steamy substance in it appeared. Shine lowered his head back to a normal position and slowly forced his eyes open, only to reveal two large sparkling bead-like pupils, glancing at the hot liquid in the cup. He softly waved the cup in front of his nose, inhaling and exhaling with huge sighs. A very small tear crawled out of the corner of Shines right eye as he slowly opened his mouth.
Oh... such aroma...
Shine sighed deeply.
Hah... what magnificent scent.
Shine dipped the tip of his tongue in the cup. His eyes rolled slightly backwards into his head for just a short moment. After another short moment of complete silence, Shine snapped out of his trance.
Well, down the hatch!
He emptied the content of the porcelain cup, bottom up, without a single drop missing his wide open mouth. He closed his mouth without swallowing, tumbling around the liquid in his mouth. His cheeks was slowly shrinking back to their normal state as Shine began swallowing the liquid little by little. Shine rapidly shook his head and looked at Twilight Sparkle with his usual facial expression, just as if he wasn't tired at all. The porcelain cup dissipated into a rain of yellow sparks that vanished before they touched the wooden floor.
- Whu- what was that all about? What did you just drink? Did you just eat that petal? Why...
Shine interrupted the purple shocked unicorn by putting his right front hoof on her head.
- The answer for your questions is as following in this order; A spell. Coffee. No.
Twilight stuttered a few words before shaking her head.
- Ah, never mind. Where have you learned that spell?
Twilight looked like she had a million questions in her mind, waiting to get an opportunity to slip out through her lips.
- From this.
Shines horn began glowing as well as his bag behind him as a brown ragged old book hovered out from the yellow bag who went down to the floor with a thud the moment the bottom of the book left the bag. Twilight focused her eyes on the cover on the book as she read the title of the book loud.
- ''Herbal magic for uneducated unicorns; Special edition.'' Where did you get this dusty old book?
Twilight leaned her head past the book in front of her face to look at Shine sitting behind it with a smile.
- Zecora found it in her hut after she had cleaned it up after a moth infestation or something. I got it as a way of thanks. She gave me it with a catchy rhyme;
''Oh, what is this old book, here Shine, maybe you should take a look?''
- Yeah, she always talks that way.
Twilight took control over the book and slowly began flipping through the old fragile pages.
- I just don't get how she can come up with all these rhymes without seeming to need to think them up first.
Shine walked up to and sat down next to Twilight to also look in the old book hovering in front of the two unicorns. Twilight kept flipping the pages, faster and faster for each page.
- I don't get how you can understand any of this, I don't understand a single word.
- What are you talking about? I have no trouble at all reading this. Have you forgotten how to read Swe...
Shine interrupted his own sentence. Instead he scratched the back of his head and cleared his throat.
So.. uhm... I had forgotten I used a translation spell, I'll just break the spell on the book.
With that, Shines horn lit up along with the words in the book. With a rain of sparks from Shines horn, one for each letter, the book was re-translated into its original language.
- Impressive how much magic you have learned in such a short time.
Twilight kept switching her focus between the book hovering in front of them and Shines self-confident face. Shine transformed into his human form and grabbed the book, breaking the weak levitation spell. He flipped the pages to the very first page where he began reading the table of content.
- Mweh... I guess I'm a quick learner. I'll show you something I've been working on for some time.
He used his right pointing finger to trace the letters he read with quiet whispers.
Lets see... no... no... nju-uh... there... recite magic... page... hmm...
He closed the book and quickly grabbed all of the pages with his fingertips, rapidly browsing the pages until he is more or less in the middle of the book. He traced with his finger a few sentences on the top of the left page before he lifted his head which had sunk quite a bit down from reading the book.
Ok, here goes.
Shine cleared his throat as he held the book with his left hand and kept his right hand next to the book with his fingers upward just a few inches above the the book.
''Hear me, goddess of defense, protect my flesh from the harm of my enemy, shield me!''
Suddenly, a blue light coated Shines right hand, all the way down to his elbow. Shine smiled at the development and looked back into the book.
''Hear me, goddess of offense, bestow a spark of your might upon me, aid me!''
A purple light suddenly began shimmering in Shines palm as a small purple flame shortly after burst out.
Hmm... intriguing.
Shines eyes were sparkling with excitement as he manipulated the shape of the flame with his fingertips before looking into the book once more.
Onto the finale; ''With the goddess of offense and defense in my grasp, I call upon the depth of my mind, hear me, obey me!''
The purple flame soon after got coated by a similar looking force field like the one coating his arm, only this time the force field was yellow. Shine closed the book and put it down beside him. He locked his eyes on the yellow coated purple flame. Shortly after, Shine closed his fingers around the flame, making the small yellow coated purple flame peek out from the two small holes on each side of his hand. Slowly, the purple flame began changing into a new shape, the flame extended barely a hoof length to the left side of his hand while the flame made a small knob on the right side. The flame stopped changing, leaving a small yellow coated purple dagger firmly in Shines grasp. The yellow force field slowly faded away. 

Shine turned his head, focusing on the bag he had put down beside the entrance door. The whites of his eyes turned yellow as a thick wooden block, coated by a yellow force field, hovered out of it and in front of Shine. The block was a little thicker than then length of the dagger, which could be clearly seen as Shine stabbed the blade into the block. He looked at the opposite side of the block. A small purple smoldering light edged by charred wood was clearly visible. Shine held the block firmly with his left hand as he slowly dragged the dagger downwards with just as little effort as if he was cutting butter with a hot knife. As he dragged the dagger all the way down and out of the block, he raised the dagger above his head and shouted;
- Dissipate!
The dagger evaporated into purple sparks that showered down along his arm until they fell to the floor and vanished. The blue force field around his arm soon after faded away.

-*-*--*-*--*-*--*-*--*-*-

Twilight was dumbfounded my the colorful display of magic that occurred around Shine. She had never seen anything like it from someone so inexperienced.
- How did you do that? I never thought that you could use such magic after such a short time. How is this even possible?
Shine laughed at the rambling unicorn as he picked up the book and showed the first page of the book to her.
- Read this.
- ''Herbal magic for uneducated unicorns; Special edition.''
Twilight continued reading on the next paragraph.
''In this book you will read everything you need to know about herbal potions, recite magic and magic that needs herbal potions.''
Twilight looked confused as Shine flipped a bunch of pages as he began reading himself.
- ''Chapter 2; Recite magic. Recite magic is a brand of magic that can be used by any creature capable of deep mind activities.''
Shine lifted his focus from the book to Twilights astonished face.
Humans by nature possesses a vast capable mind each individual has to learn to master in order to succeed in our very confusing society.
Shine closed the book and transformed back into his pony form.
But let's not talk about that anymore, I don't wanna focus on the past anymore.
Twilight, mostly being too stunned to do anything finally managed an action. She quickly shook her head to get rid of all her confusing thoughts, only to look at Shine with a worried face.
- Why don't you want to remember who you used to be? Why don't you want to glimpse back at your foalhood, your very family?
Shine looked down as he drew a long sigh before he looked up again at Twilight.
- One who dwells in the past cannot see the approaching future. Besides, my CHILDhood brings me nothing but pain and sorrow. Memories of family members arguing or drinking themselves to stupidity. Sometimes I've been thinking of hitting the bottle myself, drink away all my memories, forget all the bad I've experienced through the soon 20 years I've been alive.
Twilight looked at Shine with an expression so sad one might burst into tears in a split second.
- Oh my... I-i never thought that you... oh my...
- What my shell is telling hardly relates to what my core intends. That said, I may say one thing but mean something else. But under no condition whatsoever, I shall not be treated as a liar. Lies are bad.
Shine put his right front hoof under Twilights chin and softly lifted it up, locking eyes with the sorrow stricken purple unicorn.
The blunt truth never stings as much as the lies supporting the prevention of its revelation.
Moved by the deep words of wisdom spoken by the orange unicorn, Twilight hugged Shine while softly whispering in his right ear;
- I'm sorry... I'm so sorry for bringing up such a bad subject.
Twilight eased up the hug and looked into Shines blue eyes. Her own eyes were sparkling from more than just her tears.
Is there anything, anything at all that I can do to ease your conscience?
Shine felt his lips, almost as if possessed, so very slowly leaning towards the purple unicorn in front of him. He caught himself at what he was about to do. He turned his head to the left as fast as he could while gently shoving away the longing purple mare.
- Perhaps there is, but what you offer me here and now is not the answer. I'm so sorry Twilight Sparkle, I'm not the stallion you are looking for. I better go home before something happens that both of us might regret at a later time. Good evening
Shine packed his bag and ventured out of Twilight Sparkles library, saluting her before stepping outside the door.