//------------------------------// // Night 44, fragment four: For magic to propagate // Story: A mare and her dog // by cammera //------------------------------// The temple was, as far as Applejack could see, inside another temple. Bulbous, conical statues were in the top of stone posts bordering it, with buildings and walkways in their weathered surfaces, intersected from time to time by barrel shaped ones. It was also very, very eerie. They took their eyes away from the engravings in the cyclopean door -which hadn't, by the look of it, been moved in quite some time- and moved to the alley in its side, searching for a trash container that their maps indicated. It was a quick affair, albeit one marred by the stench of the place. Quibra wore light armor, mostly padded clothes that could pass as a civilian's, except for his arms. Now, Applejack was seeing why: he opened his backpack and took two gauntlets from it, and strapped them quickly with a harness that replaced the armor pieces that normally kept them in place, two pieces of cloth covering the palms and backhands. She recognized it quickly as standard issue armor from, and now she recognized the accent, Quibra Star, or Cracked Gem. The gems in the fists shone crimson under the cloth when he lifted the trash container and moved it silently, uncovering the hole behind it. He breathed shallowly for a moment. "With only the gauntlets I strain my back," he explained in a whisper, ushering her inside "My everything, really" She entered, and he put the container back in place while entering. At the other side of the wall, they were at another alley, only a more appropriately sized one. They could hear someone talking at the other side of the wall, in what they knew to be the student quarters, and they moved silently along the wall and into another hole that wasn't used as often as the one they had entered through, if the dust in it was any clue, which was probably related to it going to a basement that was only cleaned every few months. Or so said the notes on the maps, at least. -º- Applejack stood with each pair of legs on a crossbeam, the fire of torches flickering in the hallway under her and Quibra's bag hanging from her neck. Steps echoed to her, and she gave a gentle knock to the wall at her right. The knock was quickly answered, and when a unicorn entered the room she was keeping an eye on, there wasn't a holler of alarm but Quibra sliding out before the door had been closed by telekinesis, some paper pages in his hand. He let the paper in the ground and stretched his arms upward, and Applejack threw first the bag, then herself, to them. They slid to another hallway, heading for their next destination. -º- Hours later, they had accumulated a number of pages and stood in front of a large, metalic door, gulping. "Are you sure we don't need anything else?" she asked. He shuddered, but shook his head "Only papers from the dreamer's own sanctuary" he pushed the door, which seemed to screech "HEY DUDE I AM FOREBONDING", and they both jumped out of the way before it had opened completely. Nothing happened. They gave each other a look and peeked in, expecting to see some kind of guard and seeing none. This was somehow worse. Quibra made a face and was going to pass, but Applejack grabbed his arm. "Hey, Twilight, you still looking at us?" she asked in a whisper. Quibra gave her a weird look, but she ignored it. It took a few seconds, but the words "YES", delineated in purple, appeared in the edge of her vision. "Can you do some sorta scan or something? For magic?" The pause was longer this time, "THE RISK OF EXPLOSIONS IS AT, AT LEAST, %15. THE DISTANCE ADDS TOO MANY VARIABLES TO REDUCE IT" Applejack considered it for a moment before talking to Quibra, "Twilight can check it for spells, but things may explode. She said its a fifteen percent chance" After a moment, he nodded "Alright, Twilight. Give it a try" "THIS MAY GIVE YOU A HEADACHE. I'LL SWAP IN FOR A MOMENT" She nodded and purple filled her vision, defining every line. In the lines there seemed to be some kind of invisible script that defined everything about the objects they were in, indicating her its exact weight, mass, and distance relative to her. She knew in the back of her mind that if she focused she could read more information, ranging from elasticity to electric and arcane conductivities. "Are my eyes purple?" she asked Quibra, feeling lightheaded "This always makes my eyes purple. Shit's weird" He gave her a confused look, then made a double take upon realized that, in fact, her eyes had a slight purple tone now. He gawked when Applejack's hat moved back as if pushed by some invisible object, and gawked further when purple sparks appeared in the doorway "She can read the world, you know?" said Applejack distractedly "One day she said she'd make a spell to read the world, and then she did it, and then she put it in her skull. The thing's filled with runes by- oh, sorry" she giggled "Can't go sharing that one, can't I, Twi? Sorry, I'll have to-" sparks appeared around his head, and he suddenly couldn't remember what was that he had been thinking about "There, I didn't say anything" "Anything about what?" he tried to remember, but she had only been sitting silently. "Exactly. Its done, anyway. The hallway has nothing but some sound mufflers, for the-" her eyes lost their purple sheen and she cringed, rubbing her forehead "Ugh, I hate to do that" "What was that? Sound mufflers for what?" he asked, trying to calm down "Did she posses you?" "As if, she hates possessing. And I understood the thing of the sound until a moment ago, but I don't know the mambo jumbo. I think that this is where weird space starts, and the border between weird space and normal space is noisy?" she tried. He gave her a last look and, feeling the slight wrongness that always accompanied such a thing, they crossed the line into a non-standard space.