Sunny, Moonie, Twily

by Jetto

8. Maresketeers vs The Spider (by Eyeswirl the Weirded)

The trio walked into one of the older study lounges of CSFGU, their usual spots being more crowded than usual. This room, however, was empty, save for old-fashioned down-to-the-floor desks and a musky smell of old wood.

Moondancer took notice, sniffing the air. "Ick. This place could use a good dusting."

"What," remarked Twilight, "and brush away the air of our predecessors?! Who knows how many great spellcasters practiced in here?"

"I was thinking more about brushing away spider webs."

"The spider webs of our predecessors!"

Sunset huffed. "Y'know, being old doesn't automatically make them great. For all we know, just about everyone who ever studied here went on to do nothing outstanding, faded into even greater obscurity, and died alone, having made no greater mark on the world than their own tombstones."

The others stared at her in silence for a moment before Moondancer smiled. "Do you write your own poetry?"

Sunset crossed her forelegs, raising her snout haughtily. "Not for free."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Can we get back on task here?"

"Actually," suggested Moondancer with a sense of urgency, "I'd like to get back to the topic of spiders."

Twilight deadpanned. "Why is that?" Moondancer pointed a hoof at her purple friend's shoulder, indicating a large, hairy spider that had decided to rest there.

Twilight turned to look at the arachnid, determined it was of the Salticidae family, screamed, and ran around the room, the spider falling off by the time she stopped. "Where did it go, wherediditgo?!"

Moondancer pointed to Sunset, as the spider was perched on her horn. Glaring at it, Sunset began charging up a spell, but the spider leapt away half a second before it could be consumed in a fiery blast. "Huh. Guess it's a jumper."

"Sunset!" scolded Twilight, "you can't go using destructive magic in here, you might damage an authentic, classical study room!"

As the apathetic combustionist rolled her eyes, Moondancer's own darted about the room. "W-we should probably find that thing. Y'know, in case it doesn't forget that somepony tried to kill it in the next few minutes?"

"You're both being stupid," remarked Sunset, turning to smirk at Twilight, "first, there's this new thing called repair spells, entry-level stuff? That one's not too hard for you, is it?"

Twilight stared daggers at her, talking through gritted teeth. "You. Take. That. Back."

Snickering, she waved a hoof. "Relax, I was just kidding. Secondly," she said while looking at Moondancer, "that thing's days are already numbered. It's in an old room with no windows, how many bugs do you think it was going to catch, anyway? If anything, I would have put it out of its misery, it's probably starving to death right now."

Moondancer held her forehooves to her cheeks in horror. "You mean it's hungry?!" She scrambled to climb on top of Sunset in a manner befitting a dainty housewife that heard there was a mouse in the room and sought refuge on a chair.

"Augh!" complained Sunset, too proud to let herself be toppled over by her friend's added weight, "why're you jumping all over me?!"

Moondancer, standing on her back, looked down at Sunset seriously. "Under ordinary circumstances, I could give you at least seventeen good reasons for that. Right now? It's a spider, and you're the one it's learned to fear."

"GET OFF ME!!"

Those not watching the mare-on-another-mare spectacle might have noticed Twilight looking a little rattled as well, but only to the untrained eye. She was, in fact, exercising the proper level of caution when faced with a hungry predator of uncertain, but remote location.

"It's okay, it's okay," she quietly repeated to herself, "predators are known to lurk where their targets would least suspect, and then pounce on the weakest prey, just maintain a strong, confident appearance, and they won't-"

"Uhm, Twilight?" Moondancer pointed a hoof towards her rump, "I think he's found the weakest member."

Twilight whipped her head around to catch sight of the spider at the base of her tail.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

As Twilight sprinted around the room, Sunset turned to look questioningly at the mare still on her back. "Weakest member? She's not the one hiding on top of somepony else."

Moondancer nodded once. "Strength in numbers is still strength, and I have total confidence in you!"

"Against a spider? Gee, thanks." She might not have said as much out loud, but Sunset knew a level-zero encounter like that wasn't even worth consulting a loot table for.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

"That's getting annoying."

"Don't worry," offered Moondancer, "I think I can get it." Telekinetically lifting a book from her bag, she prepared to bat the spider off Twilight's tail. "Hold still for sec!"

Twilight didn't stop running. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANo! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAre you crazy? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAThat's a quality textbook from the castle library! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

"So? Inkwell's class is easy if you just take notes, I hardly use the darn thing anyway."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAThat's not the point! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYou can't just go mistreating books! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

"Oh, for goodness' sake," muttered Sunset, pointing to the doorway, "Calm down Twilight, your brother's here to deal with the spider and he brought you chocolate."

Twilight stopped dead. "Shiny?!"

"Moondancer, now!!"

The spider was smacked off Twilight's tail by the wrath of a telekinetic book, landing on a nearby desk.

"Ok," said Moondancer, "now we can-"

In the next instant, the desk was blown to pieces by a beam of purple light. Twilight's two colleagues stared at her in surprise, but not disapproval as Sunset smirked. "Oh no, our poor predecessors, lost forever to your belligerant ways!"

"Shut up," muttered Twilight, "this is what repair spells are for, now help me levitate the pieces into pl-" she stopped, spotting something in the pile of debris that was once a desk. (It was unlikely Sunset would be writing any poems about its passing.) As Sunset shook Moondancer off her back, Twilight levitated an old, worn, tattered book from the wooden wreckage, a tear drifting down her cheek. "Oh no... you poor thing..."

The other two approached, Moondancer raising an eyebrow. "Was that thing inside the desk? Or, under it?"

She turned to them, pouting. "This is why you can't go mistreating books! They fall apart!"

"Yea, yea," Sunset said with a roll of her eyes, "more importantly, where'd it come from? What's in it?"

"I don't know." Twilight flipped through a few pages, finding almost all of them to be illegible, and the few parts she could read utterly confusing. "This one's pretty dated, it must've been there for a long time." Then, Twilight beamed. "But wait, see? A relic of our predecessors! Who knows what amazing things it could show us?"

They only managed to cast one spell from the book, later that night.

It was two days before they could safely enter their dorm room again.

Author's Note:

Jetto's comments: This is just an innocent beginning of a three part mini-arc.

Comments

[SageBrony07]

That was funny. Great job. I guess the spider returns next chapter. That will be fun to read.

[ShadowLDrago]

Twilight deadpanned. "Why is that?" Moondancer pointed a hoof at her purple friend's shoulder, indicating a large, hairy spider that had decided to rest there.

Oh. That's why.

"Don't worry," offered Moondancer, "I think I can get it." Telekinetically lifting a book from her bag, she prepared to bat the spider off Twilight's tail. "Hold still for sec!"

Why not use telekinesis on the spider and blast it? And for A sec.

They only managed to cast one spell from the book, later that night.
It was two days before they could safely enter their dorm room again.

Do I even want to know?

[Eyeswirl the Weirded]

5801493
Glad you enjoyed!

5801586

Why not use telekinesis on the spider and blast it?

Because it would mean she was, if somewhat indirectly, touching a spider. You could say the same of smacking it with a book, but that's at least enough distance for Moondancer.

[ShadowLDrago]

5801620

I see. Why not let Sunset do it? She doesn't seem to mind, not to mention it shouldn't be too hard to hit it with a blast of fire if it's in a telekinetic grip? Or is she too distracted by the pony on top of her?

[Eyeswirl the Weirded]

5801626
A bit of that, a bit of it just not occurring to her. Possibly a small side of schadenfreude at Twilight's predicament, as well, though not enough to not cooperate with the book-smacking plan.
Friendship is Magic after all.

[ShadowLDrago]

5801644

Right.

[meerkat8472]

Aw come on! You got to tell us what the spell did.

[djthomp]

A dusty old book full of unknown spells? What could possibly go wrong?

They only managed to cast one spell from the book, later that night.
It was two days before they could safely enter their dorm room again.

Yeah, seems about right.

[n080dy123]

I've been on the wrong end of this situation more times than I can count.

[Greatazuredragon]

"Under ordinary circumstances, I could give you at least seventeen good reasons for that. Right now? It's a spider, and you're the one it's learned to fear."

I'm really starting to like your Moondancer

[HiddenMaster]

Sunset huffed. "Y'know, being old doesn't automatically make them great. For all we know, just about everyone who ever studied here went on to do nothing outstanding, faded into even greater obscurity, and died alone, having made no greater mark on the world than their own tombstones.

Ah, drink in that master level pessimism. This is quite possibly the best quote from this story so far.

On the other end of things, I have to say Moondancer is growing on me with every passing chapter.

[Snowdrifter]

Salticidae

A jumping spider? So, not responsible for any serious webbing here. Also, good vision, and some are reasonably large. But it's likely not a threat to any of them. Sunset's 0-level evaluation is right on.

My money's on the spider...