Phase Shift

by redtau

Day 14: With Dusk till Dawn

Notes on another world Day 14

The first set of forms I was able to understand and fill out have been sent back to Canterlot for processing. Nocturne was more than happy to get away, and I'm hoping she'll return a little calmer than she left. If not, I might have found the one pony who can beat Rainbow in a dead on race. I thought she was going to break the sound barrier!

In other news I've continued my job as an assistant librarian, and am still debating the introduction of the dewy decimal system here as the current sorting is done only roughly by category. I've not had much of a break from that and forms until this morning when Dusk approached me about some more interesting research.

I have been given a unique opportunity to explore some of the key differences between dimensions that appear in the basic laws of science, logic, and philosophy. While many of these can be tested by unnamed drones, the chance to do so in person is one I would not miss.

Even if I had to be the test subject.

I put down the journal slowly, careful not to disturb the nest of wires connecting several machines to electrodes all over my head and down my arms, back, chest and legs. I had argued long and hard to keep the boxers on, finally winning on the point that they were a new gift from Elusive.

"Didn't you do this test on me when I first showed up?" I asked Dusk as the lavender unicorn flittered about between readouts and control panels.

"Yes, but it is important to show that the outcome is repeatable." Dusk said, barely paying attention to me. "and besides, now we can graph the changes over time."

"I guess it gets me out of filling forms and studying for a little while." I grumped.

"Those are still important tasks." Dusk said, feeding another ream of paper into one of the printers. "So, how are things going? Made any new friends?"

"You sound like my mother when I went off to college." I groaned. "I think I'm on speaking terms with most of the town, but between all these forms and the additional duties you gave me as assistant librarian I haven't set foot outside for two days." I shifted slightly, careful of the wires.

Dusk grinned guiltily. "I'll try and reign in my enthusiasm, it's just that I'm excited to have a library assistant other than Barb." he adjusted a knob on one of the scanners while watching a meter very carefully.

"I made friends with the courier. She seems very... anxious. I'd say coming face to face with the heroes who saved Equestria, what, three times?" I asked.

Barb nodded in confirmation. "Anarchy Apollo, Eris, and then King Morphius and the changeling invasion." She counted off on her talons.

"Right, I think she got star-struck. You should have seen her Dusk, she was shaking she was so excited. She seemed worried she would say the wrong thing or accidentally hurt you and the Prince would banish her to the moon or something."

"She's got the wrong idea about me then." Dusk said. "I'm nothing special, just an ordinary pony. We had something similar happen awhile back with the local zebra, Zephyr. All a big fuss over a misunderstanding." He chuckled. "remind me to tell you the full story later."

"Yay," I said weakly, "We can have a story session."

"Justin are you feeling alright?" Dusk asked. "Your temperature is slightly elevated from the last recording."

"I've got a headache and I'm sore all over, but otherwise fine." I said. "Just hand me some painkillers."

"Now now, in Equestria we treat causes not symptoms."

"So I have to suffer while you diagnose me?"

"Yes, but it won't take very long." Dusk said, lighting his horn. "It really is a simple spell."

The glow enveloped me and I winced against the light. My headache was rapidly becoming a migraine.

"Hm, odd." Dusk said. "You have no injuries, no known contagion, no allergic reaction. The only thing that I can see that is off is your ITB is a little low."

"My what?"

"Innate Thaumaturgic Buildup." Dusk said. "The magic your body naturally holds."

"Dusk, I'm an alien creature from a distant dimension where magic is nothing but illusion and myth. The amount of magic my body naturally holds is zero."

---

Imp flew around looking at me and nodding sagely, affecting the manners of a concerned doctor. "Near as I can tell, you got too much magic in ya."

"Hooray, I'm saved." I said with sarcasm. "We knew that already Imp, how do I deal with it?"

"Leave this dimension and never return?"

The glares Dusk and I game him could melt iron.

"Kidding. Actually, I'm already helping with that. Your magic feeds me, and I'm building up a mana-electric charge to give to your other companion. It might be enough to wake her up." Imp grinned. "Actually, you building up a charge like this means we can start to mitigate some of the side effects before your other companion activates."

"Really?" Dusk looked intrigued. "Anything I can do to help?"

"He needs to use magic and build up his storage potential." Imp said. "It's like a muscle, you have to use it to exercise it stronger."

"Imp, I can't do magic."

"Nah nah nah, on Earth ya can't do magic. Here, things are different. I can try to study a magical ability or spell and copy a form of it onto you so you can do it."

Dusk's eyes seemed to light up. "I get to teach someone how to use magic! This is going to be so exciting!"

I held my hands up, desperate to stop something that could easily spiral out of control. "Hold on Dusk, you don't even know if I can do magic, or if I can do unicorn magic or anything!"

"No time like now to test that theory out." Dusk said. His horn lit up and a small ball of glowing energy manifested in front of him. "See if you can focus your power like this."

"Hang on," Imp said, flying up to the ball of energy. He stared at it for a few moments then nodded. "Okay, I got it. Go ahead Justin."

I held my hands out in front of me, feeling like a complete idiot. Really. I'm going to cast a magic spell by focusing on making a ball of energy. Next I'll light candles and dance naked under the moon for a good harvest.

I was about to argue when my mind pointed out that I would be arguing with a talking lavender unicorn that had a magical mark on his sides that designated him the best with magic in all the land of talking colored ponies. The absurdity of this meant anything was possible.

"Come on Justin," Imp cheered. "Just think of all of those fighting cartoons you used to watch of people throwing energy balls around."

I focused, and after a moment I felt something. Like when you were swimming and felt the motion and currents around you from another swimmer nearby. Faint pressure ran down my arms and pooled in my hands, feeling like it was under my skin rather than on it. I felt something in the back of my mind, and envisioned the glowing white sphere before it was manifested. "Prizyv Dukha."

"What?" Dusk asked. "I didn't catch that."

"I- I'm not sure." I said.

"I think it's a keyword," Imp put in. "It's tied to the spell, like an activation phrase."

"Glad it wasn't abracadabra." I muttered.

Dusk looked over the ball of energy and nodded. "You produced that fairly easily, We'll have to make more later and run some tests." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, this bit of energy is the basis of many unicorn spells. We manipulate this energy to change the world around us. First discovered by-"

"Dusk, honestly the history lesson can wait." I said. My little sphere, no bigger than a softball, was bobbing and waving slightly as my attention shifted.

"Ah, right." Dusk looked around and then smiled and reached out with is magic. A moment later a two foot tall white vase came floating over in front of me. "One of the simplest of spells for a unicorn is telekinesis, moving things with your magic." She set the vase down. "I want you to use your magic to try and pick this vase up."

I looked at the fragile vase with delicate blue drawings on it and grimaced. "Maybe we should start with something less fragile. Like a rock."

"Justin if you don't push yourself you will never know your limits." Dusk said. "You might not even be able to lift this vase, but I want you to try your best." He sat the vase down and stepped back.

I hesitated for a few moments, then focused on the vase.

Nothing happened.

I focused harder.

Still nothing.

"Maybe you should try directing the bit of power you have out already?" Dusk offered.

I looked at the glowing ball, now bobbing in a wobbly circle around me. As soon as I had my attention on it the sphere held still, almost like it had come to attention. I shifted my attention from the sphere to the vase with a simple thought. Go get it.

The sphere shot straight at the vase like I'd thrown it, reaching out to the fragile porciline.

And smashing straight through it, leaving little bits of white and blue china everywhere.

---

Two more vases, a glass, and three plates later and we were finally practicing with a rock while Dusk took measurements. The little sphere converted roughly half of its magical energy into physical force on contact with a solid object. Summoning and controlling the ghostly little spheres was pretty easy, and I could even get two or three going at once. The only downside was I could only summon one at a time and they vanished after two hits.

"I don't understand why you can't regulate the power converted." Dusk said groaning as the rock went bouncing around the room again.

"It probably has something to do with my dimensional nature." I said, directing a couple of spheres with my finger and trying to bounce the rock into the fireplace. "The energy might be dimensionally displaced and surges through on contact with something solid enough. I'm half tempted to toss one into a bathtub just to see how it reacts with water."

"GOAL!" Imp called as the rock lodged itself in the kindling. He grinned and continued shifting through the diplomatic forms.

"More disturbing is that there isn't anything on you that shows you are using magic." Dusk said. "My horn glows, but with you it just seems to happen."

"Please don't mention that to Barry or Blitz." I begged. "The last thing I need is them pestering me into pranks as an untraceable magic user."

"Oh you are far from untraceable." Dusk said. "Your energy signature is very unique." He yawned. "What time is it?"

As if in answer the golden sun peaked through the window and began to light the room. A collective groan arose and I stretched. "Well, at least my headache is gone."

"Hey boss!" Imp said. "I just found seventeen more forms we can fill out right now! Their short too, each one's only about ten pages!"

"aaaaaaaand it's back."

---

Nocturne stood shaking in the waiting room. She couldn't bring herself to sit despite being on her hooves and wings all day. The butler standing in the corner was the only reason she wasn't pacing up and down, that and her wish not to be billed for wearing through the very expensive rug.

The doors opened with a soft click and a well dressed earth pony stuck his head in and nodded. Nocturne returned the nod and followed him through the door, to where the mansion's owner sat.

"You have information?" She asked.

"I do, Princess." Nocturne replied. "About the strange creature your uncle's visited not too long ago. I heard you'd pay well for any information."

"You are a royal courier, aren't you?" The white unicorn asked smoothly, leaning forward with interest and brushing a long lock of blonde mane out of her eyes. "Spilling secrets is bad for your profession."

"I'm not telling you anything that would count as classified." Nocturne managed to say without stuttering. "I just want a fair amount for the information and I'll be gone."

"You're the courier assigned to that creature aren't you?"

"Not if I can bribe my way out of it." Nocturne blurted, cursing herself for letting that slip.

"But dear, I think you'd find your current position to be much more profitable." The unicorn smiled an unsettling smile.

"Princess Sanguine, I'm not sure that's-"

"Please," the Princess cut her off, "Call me Cerulean. Why don't you have a seat and we can come to a... profitable understanding?"

Recognizing a key phrase the servant who had shown Nocturne in activated a secret recording gem, then left the room. His mistress's plans were in play, and he had no wish to be a loose end.