It was early morning as I lazily rolled out of my gigantic bed and accidentally fell onto the floor. My head was throbbing from the impact and I was still slightly exhausted from the lesson.
First things first: breakfast.
I trotted along past the grand hall where the entrance was, the entire floor was made of ebony and polished marble (big surprise there) and into the kitchen. It was much quieter now since my parents weren't planning dinner or some crazy party, I saw Skillet in his office or as he called it, the 'stallion cave', looking over some new recipes. I walked into his so called 'cave' as he looked up from his documents and smiled.
“Solace me boy, how are you this morning? Did you sleep well?”
I rubbed one of my eyes, relieving it from the sleepiness that remained, “More or less, Princess Luna paid a visit in my dreams, she wanted to help me get out of the mansion without 'attack on fanmares'.”
“And how did she manage to help?” Skillet questioned.
I had Skillet follow me out into the main hall, it had a bigger space and was more flat than the kitchen's chaos of ovens. When we got there I once again attempted then new spell I learned, drawing the image in my head as the spell circle glowed to life on the floor. I opened my eyes and saw my unicorn friend watch in awe.
He might enjoy seeing himself, I thought.
I took a small mental photo of Skillet as I focus and activated the circle, creating the astral pony inside to look like the salmon unicorn. Just like last time, the spell took it's toll as I laid on the floor, panting and watching the Skillet doppelganger take form. Just like last time, the clone's eyes and cutie-mark were midnight blue and looked like there were stars inside them, his coat was a bit darker as well.
“Wow”, was all that Skillet said as he inspected his doppelganger as it stood, not moving a muscle, having no emotion what-so-ever.
“It's not perfect, but it's a good start. I should be able to fool those stalkers outside as I either sneak past them or have our clone friend here lead them away to a location a good distance from here before it disappears.” I stood up weakly, the exhaustion from activating the spell still was making it difficult to move around, although it wasn't as bad as when I first used the spell, makes sense since I was using energy in my sleep.
“Well, it's certainly something I got to admit”, Skillet was still admiring his slightly flawed twin, “Maybe we should test run the chap.”
“Let's see if your loyal employees can be fooled”, I snickered as I released the spell as it dissipated.
“My staff aren't easy to fool, but let's give it a go”
I nodded as I performed the spell once again, making sure that I pointed out as many details as I could: brightening up his coat, and making sure his cutie mark actually looked like Skillet's, I even made sure his voice sounded similar. The doubled unicorn was still a little darker than the original but barely noticeable, and the eyes were still 'spacey'.
“Could you go into the kitchen and start yelling orders at the other chefs to make some salad for me and Skillet here?” I asked the Skillet copy, still concentrating on the clone's performance spell.
In response the clone gave a salute and spoke with a flat tone that sound very similar to Skillet, although his voice was a bit lower, “I'll get right on it.”
I collapsed onto the ground, out of breath once again, this took a LOT more effort than making a statue-like clone, and I almost blacked out from doing so. Luckily Skillet threw some water into my face from a bucket that was nearby, snapping me back to my senses.
“You okay there Solace?” Skillet asked, by the look on his face, he was worried about me doing this.
“I'll be fine” I lied as I muscled my way back onto my hooves. My legs were shaking and I felt weak, but I needed to learn to endure this without asking for help.
If I'm going to learn a new spell, I need to not only study, but I'll need to physically train as well so when I do cast a spell I don't lose my breath and fall.
Both me and Skillet poked our heads into the kitchen, a couple of chefs were running around frantically as the not-Skillet yelled out commands for the dish I asked for.
“YOU, GO FIND ME A BOWL, YOU OVER THERE, GO GET LETTUCE FROM THE GARDENS, YOU THERE, YEA YOU, GO BUCK SOME APPLES FOR THE SALAD.”
I'm impressed.
We waited quietly as the food was prepared, watching the not-Skillet giving orders to the staff, right before the clone's time was up, Skillet and I revealed ourselves telling the kitchen staff about the 'experiment' we were conducting, I decided that I should reward them and said I would give them a decent bonus on their next payday for helping me out with this, the reply I got from them was a loud cheering and “thank you's” from everypony.
I was out on the balcony of my room, enjoying my breakfast with Skillet when Monocle came out with his usual expression, difficult to determine.
“Young master Solace, Princess Celestia is is here, wishing for an audience with you.” He adjusted his eye-ware for no reason.
“A little odd, but ok”, I wasn't entirely surprised, Princess said she was going to make some arrangements for me to see Derpy again, it just seemed a bit early. Also, why would she be here when she was going to change her mail route?
I walked downstairs into the main hall, seeing the princess with a pair of royal guards.
“Good morning my little pony.” Celestia smiled seeing me, “I hope you are ready.”
“Um, ready princess?” I was a bit confused, it looked like she was ready to escort me somewhere, “I thought you were just changing Derpy's route?”
“I don't think you should just be friends with Ditsy Do, if you didn't know, my former student Twilight was much like you, having an extreme love for those dusty books and not enough friends. I already have planned a casual visit to Ponyville and I think you should come along.”
I tilted my head in curiosity, “Ponyville?”
“It's a small simple town, near the Everfree forest. There are many friendly ponies there that would enjoy meeting you.”
“I don't exactly prefer being attacked by ponies and I'd rather not kill myself from casting my new clone spell multiple times in one go.” I replied, imagining ponies tackling me as they pull my hair or tearing into my saddle bags. I've seen what happened to horse famous ponies and I'm not letting that happen.
“Which is why I devised a little plan to get you out of here.” she gave a mischievous smile, “First, before we go, you need to create a clone that will look like you, tell the clone to follow my orders until we get a safe distance from your home, then when they're gone, sprint for the train station.”
I nodded as I dashed up to my room to get my things into my saddle bags: my latest copy of Daring Do (of course), the Lunar Spell Circle spellbook, a couple of Bits for lunch, and the saddle bags themselves.
I looked behind me, seeing Monocle once again, “I hope you enjoy Ponyville, young master.” Seems he was becoming sentimental like I was leaving forever.
“Hey, don't worry Monocle”, I assured him, “I'm simply visiting, don't worry I'll be back.”
The gray unicorn simply nodded silently as he walked out.
I ran downstairs into the main hall, Celestia and her guards were all ready to go, and so was I.
“Let us proceed”, Celestia spoke, suggesting I cast the spell.
I went through the process of the spell creation. I looked on the ground and saw the beautiful moon-lit formula. In turn, I stepped onto the spell and created myself once more. This time though, not-Moon Solace's cutie-mark was black as it should be, and the stars in his eyes were dimmer although I could still see them.
“Ok not me”, I said to myself.....I think, “I need you to follow Princess Celestia's orders until you get to her castle and all the fanmares are inside.”
I gave myself a salute as the not-me walked over to Celestia and waited patiently for his first assignment, not a single emotion inside him.
“Let's get into the chariot 'Moon Solace'”, Celestia nickered, “we must lead them off somewhere else.”
The clone nodded as he followed his temporary master without question. The after effects of the spell started punishing my body with exhaustion as I endured the weight of myself walking to the window. I peaked outside, seeing about twenty or so mares at the gate, they were all cheering for my clone, desperately trying to break open the gates so they could meet him in 'person'.
Thank Celestia we enchanted those locks and chains from breaking.
Celestia guided the not-me into the chariot and had him take a seat, “You are invited to Canterlot Castle to meet Moon Solace, this is a once in a life time opportunity to meet the fine stallion.”
The crowd of overly adoring fans started cheering even louder than before as they chased the chariot to Celestia's home. Time to get a move on.
I carefully opened the front door and took a peek to see if there were anypony there, I found that Celestia's plan worked, not a single fanmare was here, although time was of the essence, I needed to get to the train station. I opened the gates as quietly as I could in case somepony was simply hiding, waiting for me to leave my home for the first time in years.