I made it to the train station without too many problems, besides the fact I needed to ask a couple of ponies where the station was, to which I got some pretty dirty looks and rude remarks about me being a high-class earth pony. If I wasn't in a rush, I would have gave them a smack to the face.
When I got to the loading area, I saw Celestia talking to the conductor. Seems that she wanted to make this train a private trip.
“I understand Princess, and thank you for honoring us to be your transportation.” the conductor bowed his head, almost face-planting into the floor.
“You are very welcome”, Celestia chuckled under her breath, “I thought I would go to Ponyville in a more humble way, and excuse me for having the train being private, I have a friend who is visiting Ponyville for a day or two.”
I trotted up to the princess and the conductor, giving a small bow to the goddess.
“All set princess, seems that my sneaking ability is paying off.”, I smiled, being proud of my skill in sneaking.
{-------}
A short time later, we made it to the small town. We walked out of the train and saw two ponies talking, one was a light cyan unicorn with a Lyra for a cutie-mark and the other was a very light yellow earth pony with a purple and pink mane with a cutie-mark of three candies. Both of them saw the princess, gasped and ran.
Not the reaction I was expecting........
“Um, princess”, I asked, “what was that all about?”
“Oh it was just Lyra and Bon Bon”, Celestia replied, “they probably went to tell the mayor that I'm here. Although you might want to be careful.”
“Why's that princess?”
“There is a particular pink earth pony who enjoys making parties for all the new ponies of Ponyville, even if you're visiting, and don't worry, her parties are very fun.”
“A pink earth pony huh”, I said, “I'm going on a limb here, but is her name Pinkie?”
“Why yes”, Celestia was surprised by my guess, “how did you know?”
“Wild guess”, I shrugged.
As Celestia and I walked into the town square, the ponies managed to throw together a small celebration. Everypony welcoming the princess, and paying very little attention to me.
I'm starting to like this place.
One of the local guards came up to princess, and whispered something into her ear, after she turned to me.
“I'm sorry to tell you Moon Solace, but I can't stay for very long, the mayor wishes to see me in the townhall. Take a look around town, maybe you'll find Ditsy Do.”
“A princess needs to do, what a princess needs to do”, I replied, I wasn't really bothered by this, actually I was quite pleased so that I don't have a crowd following me, at least not until I've done something that deserves it.
I decided to go and look for Derpy since I saw her flying towards Ponyville on the train.
“Look out mister!” a small orange pegasus filly called, she and two of her friends riding in a wagon raced past me, ripping one of my saddlebags in the process.
“Damn it”, I cursed under my breath, annoyed by the large rip in the bottom of my bag that was holding my spellbook, which fell on the ground.
“Ohmygosh”, the orange one said as she turned around and zipped back to me, “I'm soo sorry about your bags mister.”
I wanted to be mad at her, yell in her face about how she should of looked where she was going, but she was too cute to be mad at.
“As long as you knew it was a mistake, I'll let it slide, but you are going to help me get it fixed, do you know somepony that can fix this?”
“Oh, my sister Rarity can”, a white unicorn filly said, “she's a dress maker.”
“Great idea ”, a yellow earth pony filly commented, “Ah reckon she can make can fix that bag lickity-split.”
Seems she's a country filly.
“Well girls, lead the way.” I trotted alongside the wagon so that I could talk to them. From what the white unicorn said, her name was Sweetie Belle, the yellow earth pony was Applebloom, and the orange pegasus was Scootaloo. They seemed to call themselves the “Cutie-Mark Crusaders.”
“It's good to meet you Cutie-Mark Crusaders, my name is Moon Solace, but you can call me Solace.”
“Hey Solace, how'd ya get your cutie-mark?” Applebloom asked, “It might help us earn ours.”
I shook my head, “I don't know, my parents said that I got it a long time ago when I was your age, but I have no idea what my special talent is.”
“A cutie-mark without a talent?” Scootaloo asked, she seemed confused by this fact, I simply nodded.
“Well, do you want to join the Crusaders?” Sweetie Belle questioned, “we have a lot of fun trying to earn our cutie-marks.”
“Don't you think I'm a bit old for that?” I replied with yet another question.
“No way, if you don't know what your super special talent is, you're more than qualified!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed
“Well first things first, you three need to lead me to Rarity's shop.” I reminded the trio.
“It's actually a boutique”, Sweetie Belle corrected.
“What are you, a dictionary?” I chuckled.
Soon after, the CMC guided me to a round building that had two small horses on top to look like a....
“Welcome to Carousel Boutique.” Sweetie Belle announced.
Yea, a Carousel.
Our small group walked into the boutique's door as a small bell chimed. Inside were several mannequins, dressed in elegant outfits, both complete and some in progress.
“Just a minute.....” a voice called with a slight melodious tone, soon a white unicorn walked out, her purple mane was much like the style that some of the mares wore in Canterlot, another visitor maybe?
“Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where all dresses are magnifique.” the unicorn chanted as she placed some fabric she was carrying onto the counter, as she turned around, she glared at the CMC, “What did you three do this time?”
“Well you see....” Scootaloo started, “we accidentally ripped a big hole in this pony's saddlebag and we were wondering if you could fix it.”
Rarity looked in my direction as I showed her the damage, I decided to carry my book in my mouth since I didn't want to worry about losing it.
“My my, this is some fine fabric you have here sir”, Rarity was examining it, “I'm guessing you're from Manehatten?”
“Hperlot hcuhly” my voice was muffled by the book, I placed it on the nearby table and spoke again, “Canterlot actually.”
“YOU'RE from CANTERLOT?!” the white unicorn's horn glowed as she fainted and slid a fainting couch underneath her.
Ok, that was pretty funny I'll have to admit.
Rarity quickly got off her couch and regained her composure “My name is Rarity, as owner I am honored to have you in my humble shop”, Rarity gave a worshipful bow in front of me. Dang it, not another fanmare.
“Look Rarity”, I facehoofed, “I might be from Canterlot, but I don't appreciate that somepony practically worships me just because I live there, it's unbecoming.”
“Oh, I apologize”, Rarity blushed by the fact she just made a fool of herself, I honestly didn't care, “let me see what I can do with that.”
“Actually Rarity, could I get something a bit sturdier, that thing is very easy to rip, it's practically paper.”
Rarity gasped, “Why would you want to get something of such a lower quality?”
“Sorry to tell you, but when it comes to things such as baggage, I prefer function over fashion.”
“Well, I guess that does make sense”, Rarity, “but honestly, this fabric is simply divine. Why would you want to trash it?”
“If you love that thing so much, you can have it.”
“Really?”
I shrugged, “Yea sure, it's not going to bother me.”
Rarity whizzed away into her back room squealing. I looked around the boutique's interior, admiring all the dresses and suits.
“Come on Applebloom, you can do it” , Scootaloo cheered behind me.
I turned around and saw Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, cheering their friend Applebloom as she was attempting to cast one of the spells in my book.
“Hey, what are you three doing with my book”, I questioned, I was a bit annoyed that those three took my book without asking, although I was curious to see if Applebloom could do it, and by the looks of it, their efforts weren't working out too well as Applebloom fails the clone spell.
“Sorry Mr. Solace”, the trio apologized.
I winced at the sound of that, it felt way to formal.
“Mr. Solace is is a bit too formal in my opinion, you guys can call me Solace”, I said promptly.
“Hey Solace, how do you cast one of these spell thingys?”, Applebloom asked scratching her head, “it looks impossible.”
“Well, it's not exactly worth casting if you don't know what you're getting into”, I replied, “the after effects are not pleasant. I could show you, but I only know one spell right now, and no I don't plan to be a one trick pony.”
The trio giggled at my remark as they searched through the book, they went through and found a spell to challenge me with.
“Try this one Solace”, Applebloom offered the book to me, showing the chosen spell.
“Telepathic Levitation huh”, I looked over the spell with curiosity, the formula was a bit different than the clone spell, it wasn't as complicated as the other spells I've seen though, but it looked like it will take some more effort to create. In order to cast this one you needed to cast it on the object you need to levitate, if the spell's formula was drawn correctly, the spell self-activates and you can move the object. Seems this one requires me to focus on where the object moves or if I need it to follow me. The circle had a picture of the new and full moon, with two half moons on opposite sides.
“How about you try it one something small, for starters”, Scootaloo suggested, pointing over to a quill sitting on the table.
I nodded as I walked over to the quill. I focused on the world on the world around me, centering it on the table top and the quill I plan to levitate, I slowly drew the spell in my mind around the quill, making sure I drew the lines perfectly, I almost had it finished when Rarity came in through the doors.
“Oh, there's my quill”, Rarity said as she grabbed the quill I was focusing on, my lost my focus completely and only managed to draw the full and new moon and only managed to finish one of the half moons. Suddenly the quill burst into light blue flames, freaking out Rarity as she threw the writing implement on the floor.
“Put it out!” she screamed as I quickly ran over and put out the fire. The flames were incredibly hot, even more-so than normal red and orange fire. I managed to singe some of the fur on my legs, leaving some black burnt marks when I finished stomping on the quill.
“Phew, that was a close one”, Sweetie Belle sighed in relief, “I think we need to try that spell on something less flammable.”
“Solace darling”, Rarity said with a forced smile, “could you explain why my quill suddenly turned into a floating inferno?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, “I was attempting a levitation spell on the quill, I almost finished the spell when you grabbed it and I lost my focus. It seems that I cast a inferno spell instead.”
Rarity stood there in shock.
I hung my head to the floor in shame, “I'll just be going then, sorry for almost burning down your home.”
I was about to grab my book until it was enveloped in Rarity's magic, she floated it towards her, opening it and revealing the contents, “Magic for earth ponies? How peculiar.”
Rarity placed the book on the counter and brushed a stray hair, “I'm not mad about you burning my quill, you should of told me that you were practicing magic and I might have had something you could use. Although I might charge a little more since you did almost burn my home down.”
Sounds fair enough, “How much?”
I paid Rarity the money, fifteen Bits, not bad from what I saw from the luggage she brought out, the bags looked much stronger than my old bags, the straps were encrusted with two opal gemstones with one on each side, and the bag itself was a much darker red than my coat color, and on the side was a locket of my cutie-mark, which was made of some sort of charcoal gray steel.
I never really liked jet black items, they felt a bit cliché against my red coat. As if the universe hated red and black ponies.
“Thanks a lot Rarity, these feel much better than those flimsy things.”
“Oh it wasn't a problem at all dear, besides the incident”, Rarity flipped her hair out of her eyes, attempting to impress me. She's pretty and all, but I'm used to seeing ponies like that, “Before anything else though, let me get you something to practice that spell of yours.”
She went into the back room as the CMC and I saw flying objects fly out of the room she was in, after a few minutes of us dodging UFOs, Rarity came back out with an empty metal spool for ribbon, she set the object down, and suggested to try it on the small item.
Ok, let's try that again.
I closed my eyes focusing on the object, then, I drew the ritual circle with all four moons, luckily I've been getting better at doing this circle drawing.
As I completed the formula, I felt magic reaching out and grabbing the spool, like a griffin's claw grabbing it.
“Yea, go Moon Solace!”, Scotaloo cheered along with her friends.
Ok, now I should try and lift it, that shouldn't be too difficult.
I used the magic connection between me and the spool to lift it into the air, it floated a few inches off the ground, shaking like mad before the spell imploded and the object fell to the ground.
Not bad for a first time. Although I noticed that the spell didn't make me exhausted, I was a bit dizzy from trying to focus, and the fact I wasn't breathing during the process. But regardless, not bad for a first time.
“It seems you were trying too hard dear”, Rarity said, “Try and relax, allow the magic to move freely, let the energy flow from you, to the object instead of forcing it.”
“How would that help?” I asked.
“Trust me on this. I am a unicorn. If you want an explanation, you could go ask my friend Twilight”
I looked at the white unicorn mare, and then looked at the spool, taking a breath I closed my eyes, relaxing and taking in my surroundings. I traced out the image of the spell in my mind into the real world on to the top of the item. I released my mind's drawing pen and the spell activated, the magic reached out for the spool, grabbing it in the a gentle envelope of magic. The spell was quickly losing it's grip as the spool started shaking. I poured a bit more energy into the spell to strengthen it's grip.
“Excellent work”, Rarity said smiling.
“Yea! Way to go Moon Solace!” the fillies cheered, “The first earth pony to use levitation ever!”
“I don't think I'm the first earth pony to do this girls”, I corrected, “If there was a book, that most likely means somepony before me has cast this spell.”
“Reguardless darling, you are doing well”, Rarity saw me still lifting the item next to my head, “Now try and use it on the book.”
I walked over to the spellbook and cast the levitation spell, it was a bit more difficult since it was larger, but I didn't have too much trouble. I lifted the midnight-blue book and placed it into my new saddlebags, along with my Daring Do book.
After about an hour or two of helping Rarity around the boutique my energy was slowly leaving, I guess if it's something like levitating, it takes time for my magic to exhaust itself, thankfully the objests didn't take much magic to carry around. It also seems that CMC left too since they were no where to be found.
“Thank you for all your help darling, it was very generous of you.”, Rarity complimented, “It also seems you're learning that new spell of yours quickly.”
I looked at the levitating roll of fabric next to my head, she was right, my skill in levitation is growing quickly. That would make sense since a spell like takes less effort than creating a clone of yourself.
“No problem Rarity”, I replied with a grin on my face, “it works well for practice, although I might need to take a small break, still not used to this magic concept.”
“I actually was thinking the same thing darling”, Rarity replied, “I'm meeting my friend Rainbow Dash for a spot of lunch if you care to join.”
“Sure why not, it's just about lunch time anyway.”