Trapped In Canterlot

by TartarusFire

C8 - And There Is A Reason

“Thirty five… Thirty five…”

She proceeded to flip pages at a more reserved rate with fresh, small paper cuts from the dictionary on her muzzle. As far as she could tell, the rather short book was filled with diagrams and short paragraphs explain how things worked in excruciating detail.

“Okay. Here it is.” She propped her hoof on the page. “And there’s a big warning in red: Magic performed by runes collapses in on itself unless properly diffused.” Another unhappy grumble came from Caedes, “Back to the dictionary…”

“So, it’s supposed to go into itself, and explode? I’m pretty sure explode is when it makes a boom sound.” She rubbed her muzzle, tinging her fur with a light touch of red. “It also notes that the way to properly—diffuse, get rid the magic is to let any extra magic go back into you and out into the air.”

Simple enough she understood, but she had no practical knowledge of how to let the magic actually filter back into her.

“Nice Pony, welcome to your first lessons in the most basic and most used runes in magic.

If the index was off-putting, I apologize. You see, I’m not a very nice wizard. I call you ‘Nice Pony’ because I want ponies to call me that.

In any case, here is your first lesson.
Draw the following rune, keeping the warnings in mind.

-|-|-
-|-|-
-|-|-

This rune is probably the easiest in all terms of drawing, and using. This rune is simply meant to be a capacitor – a symbol to hold magic and to use it when required.

Just connect to it by pressing your aura to it, and put magic into it.

The work itself is nearly effortless no matter how much magic you may possess. The rune is specially designed after the original to make the magic that requires it to stay functional, and not collapse, to cycle between you and it, so it takes only a thought to keep it active.

The simple explanation of this rune is to have access to a large cache of magic to perform more advanced magic.

You need to practice this rune before moving on to page thirty six.”

Caedes stared at the book. The book stared back.

“I don’t understand anything.”

***

Twilight was enjoying her Saturday. It was the one day of the week that she had set aside from studying, practicing, and preparing for tests to just have fun.

This day was no different, the fourth Daring Do book had come out only a few days before, and Canterlot had the first shipment. Many nobles would deny partaking in such a pointless activity as ‘reading for fun,’ but the books were always gone in four days at the latest.

Twilight had read through the first chapter like Celestia eating a three-tier cake. Scratch that, she would never thing of the princess doing that—besides the obvious point of its dubiousness but also because watching her had been like watching a dying animal drinking water.

“Chapter two: The Hike and Flight.” She smiled. “Another chapter title wonderfully descriptive, but filled with a promise of adventure.” She squeed.

“Something was tearing at her. It was as if she had left the water running, but that was ridiculous. She was a Pegasus, and used clouds for water. No, it was the nagging thought of the strange pony from the woods, the woods of shadow.” Relatable Twilight remarked. “Then suddenly, it struck her. Daring Do had heard his warning. The warning of deception.”

“It feels too familiar… What am I missing?” She skimmed through the paragraph again.

And again. And a third time.

“I could’ve sworn this was familiar. However, none of the previous three books had any mysterious stallions and future deception. Although, there was that one trickster.” She hummed in thought. A good problem was a puzzle waiting to be solved.

“Is it the book, or is it me?”

Twilight recounted her events for the day: brushing her teeth, eating breakfast, going to the public archive and getting the newest Daring Do book…

And nothing stuck out. The library though—it was full of answers and questions all the time.

“Perhaps… No. Wait a second!”

Guards by nature are stoic creatures. Even the most stoic creatures can become nervous by predators. And the predator was casing them.

Strip searching was the most awkward event to happen since last Tuesday.

The current commander trotted over, “Miss Sparkle. May I ask why you are removing the helmets of my soldiers? …And apparently only the unicorns as well.”

“Well, I…”

The commander could hear her bite her lip. “Are you perhaps.. looking for a stallion with the right color? I assume you’ve figured out the enchantment of uniform color is in the helmet. You can pick and choose, as they say.” StrongBrow’s eyebrows wiggled.

“Ewe. I’m not looking for a stallion-friend.” The hallway’s demeanor seemed to fizzle out even though no pony moved. “I’m looking for a pony I met yesterday in the public archives. ‘Said he was a guard.”

His eyebrow-bushes rose. “And have you tried asking them?”

“They wouldn’t respond…” A hoof scuffing sound echoed.

A twinge of irritation caused StrongBrow to tense repeatedly. “Well, you can just come with me, since I have yet to make my rounds before the changing of guards occurs. Plus, you can ask questions, and they’ll answer since you’re with me.”

“Not a single one. I bet they’re lying.” The stallion didn’t even know why Twilight was poking around, but it didn’t interfere with his temper. “Actually, I think a few are missing today. And since I didn’t properly get notified, it’ll be coming out of their paychecks.”

“Well thank you, Commander StrongBrow. I know I didn’t find him, but it was a good way to narrow down the search options, especially since we went through three floors where a regular guard would be.”

“Yer welcome, Miss Sparkle, but I think it’s about time all the ponies started changing shifts. It’s three now after all.”

***

Lunchtime had been complicated. Caedes had almost forgotten to hide the book before Empathy had delivered lunch. Eating was the least of her problems, as Empathy had questioned why she had her dictionary out.

It was as simple as explaining that she couldn’t move it easily and that she was just lazily going through the book. None of which convinced Empathy, but Caedes didn’t know. Also the fact that there were many paper cuts on her did not add credibility.

Now that three came around did she start to think about yesterday again. And then an hour passed.

Her books, except for the hidden one were gone. No cake.

But most importantly, Tracker was nowhere.

Comments

[Thought Prism]

There isn't much I could say about this which I haven't already, other than 'more, please'.

[TartarusFire]

7316473 Welp, you've already convinced me. I don't plan on leaving this unfinished. I hate seeing forever incompletes. I've got the first arc finished (13), so it will come.

Also, currently looking for an editor.