Magic Duel by Mail

by Lise

10. Dreams and Truth

Placing Trixie's makeshift outfit away, Noonlight went to bed. Her mother had once told her, that the best answers come to a pony in her dreams. Up to now, Noonlight had never believed it, but after this morning's excitement that might well prove to be the best course of action.

"Something unexpected," she repeated, closing her eyes.

What could pass as unexpected? The classics were exhausted, the modernists were focused too much on efficiency and the avantguard were way to weird for Noonlight's taste. She could, maybe, attempt the pre-classical masters. Her newly acquired position would allow her to enter some of the restricted sections, including the Star Swirl wing. Time magic? Potentially possible, but only as a last resort. Complicated time spells and Autocorrect interpretations was a recipe for disaster.

Slowly the unicorn dozed off, thoughts replaced by dreams. Noonlight was in class again, as in all her dreams, only this time she was different. No longer a unicorn, she was an earth pony - the only one in her class. Trixie was sharing a desk with her, as was Endless. This was slightly weird - Noonlight noticed that theirs was the only triple desk in the room. The Headmistress was there as well, far older than she remembered, handing out assignments.

"What d'ya get?" asked an overly eager Endless and together with Trixie looked at her test sheet.

Is Trixie Lulamoon a traitor? read the question, followed by a yes-no option.

"Oh, I know the answer to this one!" Trixie clapped her hooves. She seemed awfully happy. "Don't forget to answer the secret question for bonus points."

Secret question? Noonlight looked back at the sheet of paper. Surely enough, a second question had appeared.

What is the correct punishment for her offense?

A) Permanent disabling spell

B) Banishment

C) Tartarus

D) All of the above

"Better hurry up," Endless Scroll whispered. "If you don't answer by the end of class you'll never earn your horn."

Right! Noonlight had worked really hard to earn her horn. With it she would become one of the class, and be able to sit on the popular pony table.

"It's all of the above," Trixie nudged her. "It's always all of the above."

"Right," Noonlight's quill moved to mark the answer. Was it the correct one though? "Are you sure? What about you?"

"Please," Trixie waved a hoof. She was dressed in a prison outfit, the usual stars that decorated her cloak now replaced by by thick black and white stripes. "I've done this test already. Besides you want your horn, don't you?"

It was as simple as that. Choosing answer D would earn Noonlight enough points to achieve her dreams, but something didn't feel right.

"Endless, what do you think?" she turned to ask the stallion, but instead just saw a shrugging copy of herself.

"Are you quite done, Miss Bright?" The giant figure of the Headmistress loomed in front of Noonlight. "You're keeping the entire class back, you know. Just pick D and get it over with."

Noonlight looked back at the test. All answers, other than D, had vanished. This no longer was a choice, it as an ultimatum.

"You have to pick an answer," Twilight whispered. The alicorn was sitting where Trixie was a moment ago, a huge pile of papers in front of her. The top one had a picture of Noonlight, hornless, with 'Pending' written underneath. "Not choosing is the same as choosing D," she added.

There was hesitation. If not choosing was the same as choosing, why bother give Noonlight the test at all? They might as well fill the answer in for her! There was no reason to bother with a useless choice.

"There always is another choice," a warm voice said.

The next thing Noonlight knew, she was in her bed, covered in sweat. A dream? Still confused, she got out of bed. To be on the safe side she grabbed the nearest book and looked at a few pages in rapid succession. No changes in the words, so it meant she was awake. So far, so good. If only the dream had been useful. It had shown her latest fears, as well as what a horrible pony she had become, as if Noonlight needed reminding. What she did need was a way to proceed from here. Going to sleep was supposed to give her an idea how to end the duel. Instead, she was just as clueless as before. All that about tests, choices and responsibilities was fine, but by no means useful. She had a decision to make, a...

Noonlight froze. A decision, right like in her dream. There, like here, it seemed one choice was available - to show Twilight she was worthy, and from a position of respect convince her to be lenient on Trixie. That was the logical thing to do, the sure-proof plan, the best chance Noonlight could hope for. Or maybe it wasn't? A glint appeared in Noonlight's eye. There was a way, and it was definitely unexpected. Revitalized she went to her desk.

Part of the spell elements were reused directly from the previous challenges sent. Conditional magic, light magic, sound magic. That still left a whole lot of components that Noonlight had to add on her own. Trixie would be able to write those down in less than an hour, yet she wasn't here now, which meant a lot of trial and error, as well as constant checking and rechecking. Noonlight's days became split in two. Up to noon she would go to class, just as the bright unicorn everypony believed her to be. Afterwords, however, she would focus on spell making. That presented a few problems. She was still not allowed to perform magic, and a visit from any faculty member, or Twilight herself would put an end to her whole plan before it started. The solution was writing the spell components by hoof.

As fate would have it, Twilight did come to visit. They had spent a large part of the vending discussing theoretical magic and pre-classical practices. Under different circumstances Noonlight would have enjoy that, but at present, every moment was torture, fearing she would say something that would make the princess suspicious.

Two sleepless days passed, and only on the third was the spell finally complete. The process was incredibly slow by anypony's standard. Noonlight couldn't have guessed that putting spell components on paper would prove so challenging. Classes, Twilight's visit, and the occasional distraction had nearly caused her to miss her deadline. Strictly speaking, she didn't have to work on it nonstop. She could always delay by a few days. Another 'Trixie meeting' with Spike and she would easily remind the dragon the duel was still on. What friend would she be if she did, though? Her heart hurt at the thought what Trixie was going through right now. And things were only likely to get worse as time went by.

As Noonlight gazed upon the white scroll, she felt a certain sense of pride in her creation. From a technical point, this wasn't her most complicated spell by far. However, it was one she had done on her own from start to finish. Trixie would be proud. Now all that remained was for it to be delivered.

Comments

[Light Striker]

"the vending"? Did you mean "the morning" or "the meeting" or something?