Secrets in the Shadows

by Moon Solace

Chapter 2

“Dinner, is served”, Skillet announced to the group of snooty ponies in the dining hall as other chefs levitated or carried the platters to our table.

“You never ceased to impress my sister and I with you're hospitality Mr. Eclipse.” Princess Celestia complimented to my father, “Thank you for this feast.”

“It was no trouble at all you're highness, it is an honor having you as our guest tonight.” my father replied with a fake europonyian accent.

I gave a smug look, he would of said different if he actually helped although I couldn't complain since I wasn't able to help either, I was enjoying my book.

“Oh, I almost forgot”, Celestia said as she turned to me, “young Moon Solace, this is Princess Twilight, she's a former student of mine and the bearer of the Element of Magic.”

I gave a short bow to the purple alicorn who smiled in reply, “It's very nice to meet you Princess Twilight....”

“Overlord Twilight Sparkle would be preferable thank you”, she said with a demanding tone, throwing her head into the air.

Snooty much.....

Shortly after she gives a light giggle, “I'm just kidding, you can just call me Twilight, I don't exactly prefer ponies using my title since I was one of them not too long ago.”

“Oh, ok”, I smirked, “I thought you were one of those annoying, snooty, and selfish kind of pony, there is way too many here in Canterlot.”

My father glared at me, too bad for him that he couldn't use the Stare though, it would have been very useful since I acted so smug towards my parents. It's not that I don't love them, it's the fact they never spend quality time with their only son for once. I understand that they do have important jobs, but I know they are allowed to take days off, they usually used those days on their private boat out at sea. For Tatarus' sake, I've never seen the sea myself, they just leave me behind.

“No, I wouldn't do something like that,” Twilight replied, “Although I might be like that around my books.”

“Books?” my ears perked up in interest.

“Oh no, here comes the book talk”, my mother said as she slapped a hoof to her face. I decided to talk to Twilight after dinner about her book interest. She might have some that I could find interesting. I faked clearing my throat to suggest to Twilight to talk about something else.

“So besides your apparent love for books”, Twilight quickly said, redirecting the topic, “is there any other interest you partake in?”

“Not much”, I replied, “I've been studying formulas based on a type of magic I might be able to use called Lunar Spell Circles.”

“Oh?” Twilight said raising an eyebrow as she looked at Luna. I bet you, Luna was the one who created them.

From what I studied in the book I discovered in the library, Lunar Spell Circles are spell types that are created by using the energy around yourself and the energy within you to mimic many of the spells unicorns can use, but there's a problem, well actually several. One, I'm far from being able to create such a spell, the spell circles you need to create are complicated and confusing sometimes, even for a simple jumping spell I found that allows me to jump higher and faster is difficult. Two, Lunar Spell Circles are mostly made for combat, healing, and enchanting. And three, just like a unicorn using a strong spell that they aren't used to, it takes energy from yourself and leaves you exhausted for a few moments. I explained this to the Princess as she and the rest of the group listened.

“Sounds very unique Solace.” Twilight replied, she seemed interested from what I could tell, maybe she would want to try it herself?

“I would never allow my son to go into battle!”, my mother gasped, “Something like fighting is not something we high class ponies should be doing!”

“Sapphire does have a point Moon”, my father never used my actual nickname since he had the same name as me, and to him it seemed off, “ponies like you shouldn't be doing adventurous things like that, it's undignified, which was why we got rid of those books you kept reading over and over.”

“Not much else to do here in this boring old house”, I grunted, he shouldn't have said that, I had a new collection of the series but that only put me on edge of punching him, I no longer cared if he was my dad, he deserved it.

“There's plenty to do here”, mom snapped, “what about the pool?”

“If I go outside of the fence or in the backyard I'll get mobbed, the hedge is easy to get through”, I replied, I'm going to enjoy this.

“The arcade?”

“Number one in the high score rankings on all the games.”

“The orchestral room?”

“I like listening to music, but I'm no good with any instrument.”

Got any better ideas so I could entertain myself around here grandma? I thought to myself as I gave a look of disapproval. Monocle, Skillet, and the rest of the house keepers here are more like family to me than you ever were.

I looked over at Celestia who shook her head in shame of how my mom tried to find something for me to do, when I looked over to Luna she looked back at me and gave me, a wink?

“Well I don't know about you dear, but I am awfully tired and need my beauty sleep”, how could mom need beauty sleep? There is no way she could be tired from loosing a argument to her son, I thought the parents were supposed to be the argument winners here?

“Excuse me your Highness, but I believe I should be getting to bed as well, must get up early tomorrow for the sunrise.” Great lie dad, I know you wake up after the sunrise to get to work.

The room was silent for a few moments, I was sitting with the most powerful beings in Equestria, and I had nothing to say. Great job Solace, you have bored the goddesses. After a dreadfully long minute, all three of them started, laughing? I don't understand royalty sometimes.

“I must say one who calls thyself Moon Solace”, Luna chuckled, “thine parents are wonderful assistants, but not so good of being parents.”

“I know”, my head sunk like an anchor onto the table, “I don't blame them, sort of.”

“Sort of?” Celestia questioned.

“Being in the mansion for so long allows me to snoop around the place unseen and unheard, something to satisfy my curiosity, my parents are very easy to sneak by and eavesdrop on them, I have learned about their work schedules and I know when they are able to get home, but they come home long after the moon rises, their shift ends right after the moon rise and it doesn't take long to get to the castle from here. I may be right, but I don't really want all of these fancy things, I just want my parents to accept me, and maybe some friends my age, the only pony who is closest to my age that is an actual friend is the mail-mare Derpy Hooves, but I don't get to see her much since this isn't her mail route.”

“Why not just go outside and meet ponies in Canterlot?”

“That's the thing”, I said, trying to prevent myself from sounding like I was whining, or complaining for that matter, “as I said before, whenever I go beyond those gates or into the backyard, fanmares will mob me because I'm the heir to the second most powerful 'normal' pony couple in Canterlot, Fancypants and his marefriend hold first”

“Well then”, Celestia said, “I'll see to some arrangements so you can see your mail-mare friend more often. And maybe you can meet some new ponies while you're at it.” Ok, what? How would I be able to meet more ponies other than Derpy if Celestia changed her mail route?

“I believe it is time for me and Twilight to get some sleep as well, it was good to chat with you.” the sun goddess gave a small nod as I bowed in response.

“Aww, but I wanted to see what kind of books he liked to read.” Twilight moaned, wait, princesses moan?

“I mostly read stuff from A.K. Yearling, especially her Daring Do series.” I told her.

“Oh, a fan of Daring, I have a friend who would love to meet you”, Twilight waved as she, Celestia and Luna left.

“Young master Solace”, Monocle walked up beside me, “I'd like to commend you on your efforts to entertain the princesses, especially since your mother and father retired early for the evening.”

“Thanks Monocle”, I replied to the charcoal colored pony, “I just hope I didn't offend them in any way.”

“I don't think you would be here if you offended them young master”, Monocle adjusted his eye-ware once again, “besides the point, I do think you can learn those spells that you mentioned during dinner. You were never like one of the ponies that liked the life of high-class ponies.”

I chuckled at my unicorn's comment, “I don't know, about that, but when I get the chance I could try and learn some non-combat spells to show off.”

Monocle smiled, which was rare, him being the type of butler who was usually well composed and serious. Learning those spells might be something I could do.

I decided to join the band wagon and walked off into my room to get some sleep. I jumped into my over-sized bed and slowly drifted into the dream world.

.o0O O0o.

I found myself wandering through something what ponies called the Everfree Forest, what's odd is that it wasn't as scary and fearsome as many ponies described, it was actually kind of nice and peaceful, unlike my house which was just a lonely and depressingly quiet. I walked along the path through the forest free from the rest of world, enjoying the strangeness of the Everfree, I felt like myself, which was about as rare as Monocle smiling, probably even more so. I soon came across a patch of blue star shaped flowers, I went to try and pick it up until a hoof stepped in front of me.

“I don't recommend picking that”, it was Princess Luna in her astral form, “those flowers have very strange affects on ponies.”

“Oh, hi there princess”, I greeted the goddess, “What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be helping ponies with their nightmares?”

“Yes, but that is not until later into the night. I am here to assist thee with thine studies in spell circles.” Princess Luna summoned the very same book I found in my library, and opened it to the first spell, “Let us try this one first, this is a very simple spell and it shall be good practice for creating thine spells.”

The spell described was an illusion spell, it made a astral copy of myself that looked and can speak like me or who ever I wanted to create, it seems though, once the action of the clone is complete though, it will immediately disappear and will take it's toll of energy if you perform the spell incorrectly.

“If I can learn this spell, I can leave the mansion without being attacked immediately”, I was squealing with delight at the idea of making copies of myself.

“Shall we get started then?” Luna inquired, I quickly nodded in excitement, “First, in order to create the spell circle, close thine's eyes and place the image into thine mind, once thyself has thine image, project the image onto the landscape.”

So that's how the spells worked, it makes sense since these spells were made for earth ponies. Ok, time to try it out.

I started focusing on as many details around me as I could, which was mostly the ground since I planned on putting the spell there. I began drawing the spell circle in my mind, it was a simple ring with a circle at the top to make it look like a full moon. I squinted seeing the spell in my mind, although I was nervous that the spell wouldn't look the same as what I saw.

“Not bad for thine first time”, Luna commented, she sounded pleased.

I slowly opened my eyes, to see the spell circle I was hoping for, it wasn't very big and the lines on the spell formula weren't perfect at all, but I knew that this was made for the clone spell. The spell glowed with a blue-ish aura as it floated just off the ground, just like actual magic from a unicorn.

I smiled with glee as I bounced around cheering with myself, my first Lunar Spell Circle. But the biggest question was, will it work?

“Um princess”, I stated, looking at Luna, “Now what?”

“Place thine hoof on the circle to activate the spell. Make sure thyself focuses, even though thine created the correct formula, that doesn't mean it will automatically be successful.”

Oh great, now to actually cast the spell. Does it actually need to be this complicated?

While focusing on how this clone should look, I stepped onto the circle, the spell glowed brightly as a pony figure emerged from below. The creature looked like an embodiment of space itself, there were stars inside the space of where the pony was supposed to be. Next, the creature's color and mane took form, soon I was looking into the eyes of my clone.

Ok, that is really cool.

I walked around the doppelganger as he stood motionless, much like the spell's construction, he wasn't a perfect copy. His eyes still had stars , his cutie mark was a ocean blue instead of black, and his mane and tail kinda levitated a bit, and his coat was much darker, other than that I did pretty good.

“This might be sufficient enough to fool those fanmares when I try to leave”, I thought out loud.

“Planning to go somewhere?” Luna inquired.

“I wanted to go and see where Derpy and Princess Twilight lives. If I manage to cast this new spell it shouldn't be a problem” I answered.

Soon after I learned how it felt when a unicorn would cast a new spell as my legs gave out and I flopped onto the dirt, being ironic since I was asleep.

“Seems that thine astral body has given out”, Luna chuckled under breath, “I shall put thee into a dreamless sleep, it should allow thine body to rest properly.”

“Thank you Princess.”

Author's Note:

Note to self: New spell learned- Thanks to short lesson with Princess Luna, I now can use the Astral Clone Spell, allowing me to copy myself and have my copy complete a short task. Practice is needed.