//------------------------------// // A Little Chat Over Tea // Story: Eclipse Born // by Seeking Dusk //------------------------------// I ran my tongue over my teeth as I blinked at the shifting blackness around me, but the taste of skittles wasn’t coming from there, even if it was still lingering. “The Rainbow of Light tastes like Skittles? That’s the lamest... urg...” “It’s our own bad pun,” my voice commented from the darkness. A moment later, my subconscious double appeared again, dressed in dark tones; black hoodie over a grey turtleneck and black slacks. At least he wasn’t an anthro-pony this time. “Our magic just acts weird like that,” a third copy of my voice pointed out as another shape coalesced. I blinked at Devoted, and he shrugged at the unspoken question etched on my expression. “Subconscious space. The rules are odd here.” “Okay... before I get into the obvious question...” I said, holding up a hand at the two of them. “What’s with the darkness?” “You just got hit by the Rainbow of Phenomenal Cosmic Power,” my double said with a roll of his eyes. “That was a whole lot of magic. You blacked out momentarily. Right now, it’s a ‘thoughts are racing’ moment. We don’t have much time to talk, but we can talk.” “I figured that part out,” I grumbled. “I mean, why is it this black emptiness? No! Don’t pull the ‘empty headed’ line. It’s your head too.” Devoted snickered, but assented anyway. “It is the subconscious. You haven’t given it a definite form.” “So...” I said, raising an eyebrow. I waved my hand vaguely. “If I just imagi.... uh...” My hand was suddenly occupied by a tea cup. I set it down on the cherry wood table we sat around, my subconscious double and I both in three piece suits, his black, mine grey, and seated in comfortable chairs. Devoted had a suit of his own much like those Rarity had shown me, his own seat more of a lavishly cushioned stool. The room we were in was sizable, pictures of various important moments and people of my life on the wall between rich curtains. The table even had sweets, both candy and pastries, to go with the tea. “Nice, isn’t it?” my double smirked, cutting a small bit from the cake in front of him. I just groaned and grabbed a cookie, pointing to each of my subconscious representatives. “Second things second. Vincent. Devoted. And names out of the way... why am I taking a moment to talk to myself? I must be going crazy...” “Everyone is crazy, some just hide it better than others,” Devoted commented, holding his tea cup in his magic. “But again; we were hit with the Element’s power. It seems to be fixing up all the little dings and dents we got, straightening a few crooked lines... must be since we have a good heart.” “Mostly good,” Vincent chuckled. “But more importantly; you understand what happened, right?” “Not really. Just jumped at the impulse. You know how it is. Take that extra slice of cake, go with the blue shirt, leap in the path of a beam of powerful magic,” I admitted with a shrug. If we were going to rip off Dresden, I might as well sass myself. “Nothing special.” “Normally I’d banter back, but time and essence and such. It would eventually get from the hindbrain to the fore, but with this little bridge in place, we can put it on the table ahead of schedule,” Vincent said. He pointed to the glowing point that hovered on the table. I was pretty sure it wasn’t always there, but this was a mental projection. It was mutable. “Our magic reacted to the scar. And you know why, don’t you?” Vincent asked. “You could just lecture me,” I muttered. “The scar, the tear, actually, was from how I got here. Whatever trace of magic that was keeping it open knew mine, so broke the... aura? The Aura around it, I guess. Between that and the Rainbow Zappa, it sealed the tear.” “Gold Star,” Devoted said, clopping his hooves together. He got up and poked my chest. “You feel burning, right?” “Actually... yeah,” I hadn’t realized it until he mentioned it, but my chest was getting uncomfortably warm. I noticed something else. Devoted had a cutie mark. I couldn’t make it out, but there was something on his flanks. “That’s the power of the Elements pumping through us. Remember what Twilight said about our magic trying to mesh with the local one since Earth hardly had any? Well, the Element’s Power is working on it. Harmonizing our magic with Equestrian and Pony Magic.” “What do you mean pony magic? And how do you have a cutie mark?” I demanded. “Sometimes I wonder why he’s in charge...” Vincent muttered. “The Elements are aligning all the magic in us. Human, Earth, Equestrian, Pony, probably some of the dissonant one that was messing us up...” “Wait, wait, wait, Pony?” I held up a hand to stop him. “I know I pulled off that transformation spell, but that was just because I managed to...” “Now you’re getting it,” Vincent said, smirking smugly. He gestured at me. “Finish the thought.” “Because I managed to somehow steal a bit of Lyra’s magic...” I said slowly. I had just been an impulse. Something had just said ‘do it’ and I sorta did. My breathing got a bit more ragged as I realized something more. “And she gave me that mana infusion... I was running on mostly pony magic...” “Intuition,” Devoted said happily. “Everything up to this point has been following gut instinct and impulses. It’s what we’re good at. We think ourselves in circles sometimes, but we follow our heart in the end. We’ve been doing it for years, don’t you think? Just like jumping into a Rainbow Beam of energy on an impulse to try and fix something we caused.” “Indirectly,” Vincent amended. “Caused indirectly.” I slumped in my chair. “So... you’re telling me you got a cutie mark when I got hit with the Elements?” “Or at least the potential for it. Haven’t actually seen our flank yet,” Devoted shrugged. “But it feels like it.” “They are going to kill me when they find out…” I murmured. My other sides didn’t need to ask to know I was making reference to the crusaders. “Our time’s running out, and you’re not going to remember all of this clearly, but this is important,” Vincent looked me directly in the eyes. “Something else is in here.” “You two?” I tried. “Something else,” Vincent said. The walls were starting to fade away. “It fears Luna/The Princess. It retreats/hides when she arrives/visits.” The words became less clear and more conceptual as consciousness returned. “Let her tell the… her… princess… find it… ----- “Caleb!” someone was shaking me. Rather violently, to be honest. “Don’t you dare die on me!” “GaaaaAAAaaaah…” I groaned, trying to bat the person away. “Enough with the shaking… not a bobble head…” “Caleb!” Something mint green crushed me in a bastardization of a hug. “No crushing, Lyra!” I groaned, trying to break her hold. Behind her, the other members of our little forest expedition were lurking. The bearers looked weary, likely from the feedback of using the Rainbow of Phenomenal Cosmic Power. The guards and Spike were there too. “You’re awake!” Spike whooped, punching the air. Others had there own expressions of relief. I mostly tuned out their comments, looking around. Still in the forest, and still under the tree, so no waking up in a bed or, worse, the hospital this time. Definite improvement. The place didn’t seem quite as foreboding and, I let my senses go unfocused for a moment, my attention on the magic one, yep; definite improvement there too. Still sounded and felt a bit off, but much better than all the other times. “Okay, what did I miss?” I asked, trying to get up as best I could with Lyra still holding tight. My entire body felt a bit warm, as if I were laying in brilliant sunshine on a summer day. “You jumped into the blast from the elements!” Spike exclaimed. “It was an extremely stupid thing to do,” Twilight added. “Hey! It worked, didn’t it?” I said as Lyra finally let me up. I felt well rested and, frankly, on the top of my game. I flexed a few joints to be sure. Huh. It was like I was all healed up. I looked looked at my hands as I flexed them, only to yelp when a faint ripple of rainbow light flashed across them. “What the hay?” “Finally noticed that, did you, dear?” Rarity asked. I stared at her in confusion. “You’ve been positively aglow with the most fabulous colours since you were caught in the blast.” “Your eyes have a rainbow glow to them too,” Fluttershy added softly. “It’s pretty awesome,” Rainbow admitted in a somewhat reluctant tone. I blinked slowly. “Okay, seriously, what happened?” Twilight trotted over, her horn glowing. The rapid rhythm of her magic was lost on me, though I could feel it tingling over my body. Actually… even my magic signature sounded different. It was still, what I knew, just remixed? Okay, horrible analogy. More like… comparing your voice before and after it changed? Magic puberty? Welp… worse analogy. “You were hit with the Elements of Harmony,” Twilight started explaining. “More like a really really close near direct hit,” Pinkie added. “Well, yes,” Twilight said, glancing at her. “Anyway, I’m not quite sure what you did, but it was like you broke whatever was holding back the elements. After that; there was a shock wave of harmonic energy, much like what happened when Discord’s magic was undone when he broke free a year ago.” “It knocked you back,” Lyra picked up. “You got like ten feet of air!” Spike added, having come up to stand beside me. “It looked like it really hurt when you hit the ground too.” “Really?” I rolled my shoulders tentatively. “Because I feel great. Might have blacked out a bit though. Don’t remember anything after I touched the scar and got hit by the sweet rainbow of magic.” "Now, now. Rainbows are spicy, Calie," Pinkie chided me. “I’m glad you do, I really am,” Twilight sighed, finally ending her spell. She looked a bit too relieved. “From what I can tell, the Elements affected you like a powerful restoration spell, both on your physical and magical conditions.” “We don’t all speak egghead,” Rainbow said, coming to a landing beside Twilight. “It healed my injuries and magic,” I translated for those less familiar with magic jargon. I tilted my head at Twilight. “So why do you sound so relieved? What were you scared of?” “Well…” she swallowed. Everyone was looking at her now. Twilight huffed, then sighed. “Fine. Your magic, while not harmful, has a much stronger influence of chaos than standard magic.” “Hold up, Sally,” Applejack butted in. “You mean to tell us that Caleb here has the same magic like Discord? And ya never mentioned it?” “What? No!” Twilight said, waving a hoof. “Caleb’s magic isn’t like Equestria magic. But his natural human magic is closer to chaos than our natural magic is. It makes sense, considering how it seems to operate.” “What about the forest?” The female guard asked. “I… it feels much less malevolent now, but it’s still chaotic… I fear it might be stuck like this,” Twilight admitted. Now there was a sobering thought. ---------- We didn’t linger in the forest. The ‘tear’ was closed up and sealed properly. The crazy aggressive vines had been destroyed by the harmony shock wave. Most of the oppressive and malignant magic had been wiped away. The fruit bats still remained, though they seemed less aggressive. The ambient magic still had a dissonant and wild feel to it. Rainbow even admitted that the air flow felt somewhat like the Everfree’s. Still; we succeeded. The mayor had arrived at the library, as was a representative from the weather team and the town’s land resource department. Twilight and the two guards were meeting with them in the main room for a debriefing of the event. Her ‘closed’ sign hung in the library’s window, though not many ponies were surprised. Not when most of them had seen the rainbow coloured shock wave dome as it did its magic. The rest of our forest expedition group was gathered in the back, debriefing ourselves with tea and cookies. Lyra looked like she had just finished going a few hours at her lyre. The other girls seemed much the same and weary on top of it. Spike was rubbing at his throat ever so often and sounded hoarse when he spoke. He had taken honeyed tea. We all looked like we needed a long go in the spa. As for how I felt? I wasn’t sure. Sure, I felt about as mentally tired as the others looked, but physically? I was a bit hyper; itching from pent energy. The rainbow effects had faded shortly before we reached Ponyville hospital to get everyone checked out, but the full body warmth still stuck around. Even as we nursed out tea and cookies I was fidgety in my seat, twitching my leg like crazy trying to burn through some of the energy. Even worse? I had a nagging feeling I was forgetting something important. Like I was supposed to tell someone something. After a while, my fidgeting got to the others. “Consarn it, Caleb,” Applejack sighed, exasperated. She waved her hoof at me. “Can’t ya hold yourself still? I’m getting plum worn out just watching you. You’re worse than Pinkie after a tray of cupcakes.” “Frosted cupcakes!” Pinkie added, focused on balancing a stack of cookies on her nose before tossing them into her mouth with a clever flick of her muzzle. Spike and I applauded her antics and she responded with a giggle and a little bow. “But she does have a point, dear,” Rarity, who had been sitting beside Pinkie, said as she rolled her eyes at the display. She did, however, have a faint smile on her face. I groaned at her. “None of that now. But you have been quite antsy. Even Rainbow Dash is calmer than you are.” “Hey!” Rainbow protested, looking up from her Daring Do book. “What’s that supposed to mean?” “I’m not sure if I should be offended by that,” I admitted after a pause. “Hey! Is it ‘pick on Rainbow Dash day’ or something?” Rainbow grumped, going back to her book. Spike smirked. “Of course not. A lady does her best not to offend,” Rarity said, taking a dainty sip of her tea. “Unless, of course, the situation calls for it.” “Oh har, har,” Rainbow said, but she was smiling. “Are you sure you are okay, Caleb?” I flinched slightly when Fluttershy spoke up next to me. Of the group, I interacted with Fluttershy the least. Not just because she was shy, but because she tended to linger in and around her cottage. I didn’t exactly see Applejack and Rarity that often either. She nosed the tray with the kettle and tea bags closer. “Maybe some more tea?” “I guess? I already feel bad that I don’t feel bad, not with how banged up you all are,” I shrugged, rocking a little in my chair. “And I think, nah, I’m pretty sure more sugar is the last thing I need right now. Even if I’m a bit hungry.” How long had it been since I last ate? The cinnamon roll? This day had just been dragging on and on. “Well… maybe you just have too much energy,” Lyra offered. “I think we all noticed that,” Spike said softly. All that fire power really did take its toll on him. “No, I mean magic energy,” Lyra said, shaking her head. “Twilight did say the effect of the elements were restoring your magic levels. Maybe you need to use it up a bit.” Sometimes I still got a knee jerk twinge on the magic thing. Stupid, I know, especially after the events of the day, but two plus decades verses two weeks. I considered Lyra’s point, my legs swinging under the table. “You think that could be it?” “Won’t hurt to try,” Lyra said. Her horn glowed and she set a cup before me. I shrugged (I was doing that a lot lately), and held my hand out at the cup, reaching for my magic. Three beats for the telekinesis… then my thoughts shape the intent… A glow slowly built around my fingers as the spell played in the back of my mind. For a moment, the intent of levitation the cup was pushed aside in favour of the glow. “I think that’s evidence for my theory,” Lyra said smugly. Not that I blamed her. My magic was green. A nice green. It was still green, but there were multicoloured sparks flowing in it as well. “Start burning off some of that magic,” she instructed. “But it’s pretty,” I grinned sassily at her. I twitched my finger anyway, and the glow replicated itself around the cup. The spell pattern suddenly became a lot trickier to manage as I tried actually lifting to cup. “There you go, you look like you’re making progress,” Rarity said warmly. “Some,” I mumbled, trying to stay on top of the magic. How is it I could sense delicate magic effects and pull off a complex shield spell on the wing but couldn’t manage a simple levitation? The glow started flaring, the multicoloured sparks dancing wildly within it. “How do you unicorns run around doing this all day?” “Maybe ya might consider pulling back there, sugarcube,” Applejack said as the cup started shaking in the air. “No, I got it,” I insisted. I narrowed my eyes and started mentally locking down on the spell pattern. Have you ever tired getting a song out of your head? It was something like that, except I was letting the song in and trying to push certain parts out at the same time. I licked my lips. “Um, maybe Applejack is right,” Lyra said as the shaking turned into a vibrating wobble. “No, no, I got it!” I insisted. Stupid spell. I am your master and creator. You shall obey me! I pushed the spell a little harder, and it imploded. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the ‘spell structure falls apart’ kind of implosion, but instead the ‘telekinetic aura suddenly and quite violently contracts’ form of implosion, a flash of prismatic light, heavy on the green, flaring brieftly. The cup shattered tea splashed almost everywhere. Lyra and Spike, having recognized the warning signs and having previous experience on top of it, ducked and thus avoided being caught in the slash zone. Pinkie pulled an umbrella out from somewhere, covering Rarity and herself. Fluttershy ducked behind me. Rainbow and Applejack were both seating outside of the range. Basically, I was the only one to get hit. “Bwuahahahaha!” Rainbow burst out, falling off her cushion. The other ponies in the room started laughing as well. “Well, I can’t say you didn’t warn me,” I grumbled, reaching for a tissue to dry my face. Thank God it had cooled off. “I never want to have to do that again,” Twilight sighed as she came into the room. She stopped and looked around. I suppose finding six ponies and a dragon all laughing at a human as he dripped from hair and face was a confusing scene. “What’s going on?” “We are trying to use up the excess magic Calie got packed into him!” Pinkie said cheerfully. “It’s all sparkly and pretty too, but I don’t think colts like it when things are too sparkly.” “I see,” Twilight said, though she still looked confused. She raised her eyebrow at the pile of ceramic fragments on the table. “Er… Is that, rather; was that one of my tea cups?” “Sorry… I still don’t have the telekinesis spell working right.” I poked at the piles a bit. It wasn’t a difficult spell! It wasn’t like I… I grinned. “Eureka!” “Europa!” Pinkie chimed back, even as Rarity and Fluttershy flinched from my sudden exclamation. “Eureka?” Twilight took a seat at the table to my right and poured herself some tea. “It means I got it,” I said with a wave of my hand. That wasn’t that important. “I forgot I had one other mana intensive spell.” “What… you mean your pony form spell? That did eat up a lot of magic,” Lyra said with a grin. “Hold up, pony form spell?” Rainbow interjected. She stared at me, an expression shared by Applejack and Rarity. “Since when did that happen?” “Since… this morning? I should probably name it properly.” I shifted in on my seat, partly from the urge to fidget and partly from the intense scrutiny. I frowned as something processed belated. “Wait… did you say ‘Europa’, Pinkie?” “What?” Pinkie asked innocently. “I, I mean… but... You know what? Nevermind.” I dropped the tangent and focused on the spell issue, throwing a disbelieving look their way. “You didn’t know? We talked at the hospital for a bit after we dropped off the crusaders!” Gears turned in their heads as the three mares made the connection. I covered my ears as they yelled. “That was you?” “I’m sorry, but who was who?” Fluttershy asked meekly. Right she wasn’t there. “Long story short, I accidentally came up with a spell to turn myself into a unicorn, got a cinnamon roll from Pinkie, and got attacked by the crusaders before they ran off and got into trouble in the White Tail Woods. We had to rescue them before we figured out how to change me back,” I summarized the grand adventure of the day in about fifty words or so for Fluttershy. “Actually, considering what I’ve heard about Ponyville, I was due for something dramatic.” “You’re the unicorn that saved mah sister?” Applejack said, still stunned. At least she was articulate. Rarity looked as if she was one foot into a swoon, making incoherent sounds while Rainbow’s jaw had just about dislocated itself. “Seriously… how did you not know that? I still have the same hair. It carried over for some reason,” I said, exasperated. “To be fair, we never did have a chance to fully explain that part before we headed back into the woods to try and solve it,” Twilight admitted. “How many blank flank stallions would you expect to find?” Spike muttered. “Be that as it may,” Rarity said, having regained her composure. “It was most gallant of you to rescue them.” “Even if you did complain most of the way there,” Lyra quipped, Pinkie joining in her snickers. “It ain’t no laughing matter, Lyra,” Applejack said sombrely. “Caleb, ya went out of yer way to save mah sister and her friends. Ah already knew you were a good pony, er, human, but ah can’t thank you enough for that.” “You’re way more awesome now, dude,” Rainbow said, a soft smile on her muzzle. It looked completely different from the arrogant one that was her normal expression. “Well, you see…” all this was suddenly making me uncomfortable. “Look, I just couldn’t leave them there.” “And ya didn’t have to go after ‘em personally either. They probably owe their lives to you and Twi and Spike and Lyra,” Applejack stated. Twilight, Spike and Lyra joined me in the ‘awkward moment’ club, blushes warming their cheeks. I would admit, I had something of an ego at times, and I liked praise as much as the other guy, but this kind? People thanking me for saving lives? I didn’t know how to properly respond. Pinkie gave me an enigmatic smile as I tried to change the topic. “Anyway, I still have to burn off this extra magic.” “Still weird he’s gotten into the magic thing after his tantrum when he first found out,” Spike grinned. “Or is so willing to use this spell. He looked sorta broken when he came to get his roll,” Pinkie added. Rainbow looked like she was going to say something more on the ‘saved our sisters’ issue, but Rarity caught her eye and shook her head. “Hey,” I protested, grateful they were letting the issue drop. “I was caught off guard! This time I’m prepared.” “I’m not so certain that is safe,” Twilight said, her cup hovering in the air. “We still don’t know exactly what the elements did to you.” “It’s fine,” I said dismissively. It was weird, but my magic sense was almost eidetic. I could remember the patterns of spells I experienced fairly easily. Or at least dredge up the memory of the spell rather easily. I was beginning to think I was more sorcerer than wizard, leaning towards instictive magic rather than studied magic. A faint glow formed in my eyes as I pulled up the feelings and memories from the flare up. Hopping off my seat, I took a few steps back so I could have some space to cast. “I’m sure noth-” I quickly shifted where that sentence was going, “-ing all that untoward will happen. You even said the spell wasn’t bad.” “I didn’t say that!” Twilight said, worried. I was already ‘recalling’ the magic patterns for the unicorn form. For a moment, there was a… well, echo was the best I could say, in my mind as I ‘reached’ for the pattern, as if there were more patterns than there should have been, but I pulled the pattern up and started matching my own magic to it. “I don’t think he’s listening,” Spike commented with a sigh as a glow started building around me. “He forgot about his clothes too,” Lyra chuckled. Wait… what? The cacophony of the spell taking effect filled my ears for a moment as the glare of the spell blocked my vision. The pattern in the spell hit a quick wild rushing beat and my own signature twisted to match it. The pain of numbing needle jabs and muscle spasms went by much faster this time. The speed was probably why there was a disorienting and mildly nauseating lurge just before the spell’s glare flashed out of existence. I could faintly hear multiple voices as the ringing slowly faded from my ears. Ears flicked in response and four limbs were on the ground. It was a familiar sensation and I blinked as the room came back into focus. Yep, the mares were all staring again. “He really does like almost blowing up,” Spike commented teasingly. I snorted in his direction. “Not my fault the spell is flashy,” I grumbled, shaking the kinks out of my new legs and swaying the tail slightly; only slightly because it was mostly caught under my pants. I’d admit, having a tail was weird, but the fun kind of weird. “Probably should have gotten undressed first…” I sighed, but grinned at Twilight. “See? Nothing to worry about.” “Caleb,” Twilight said slowly, faint fear in her tone, “you don’t have a horn…” I looked up, expecting to see the same green keratin spike I did last time. When I couldn’t find it visually, a hoof rose to grope about. For some reason, I wasn’t panicky, just curious. Actually, I had an idea as to what had happened. A little introspection confirmed my hunch, my magic's pattern was quick, light and trilling. “Okay… maybe I spoke too soon…” “Caleb, you don’t have your horn…” Lyra sounded shaken as she repeated Twilight's observation. I mumbled agreement and fumbled a moment, trying to get my shirt off. It wasn’t easy, but it was loose enough that a bit of struggling got me out of both my pants and the shirt. Should I worry about how quickly I adopted to the clothing optional mindset? Anyway, now free from their confines, I smiled weakly at the others in the room, spreading my new wings. “Mazel Tov! It’s a pegasus!” Rarity hit the ground with a thump.