Delinquency

by Daemon McRae

Level Five: BOOKS

Level Five: BOOKS

Spooky found his “new” book far more interesting than the arguing going on around him. Something about forcing an apology and not really meaning it, on top of all the usual things the two crowds argued about whenever they were in proximity too long. Like both halves of a binary agent being compressed into a single cylinder, something was going to explode. He just hoped it wasn’t a literal explosion this time. That deep fryer was a gift, and replacing it had proven to be more money than they’d hoped.

While the ruckus roared on around him, Bones felt a gentle hand tap his shoulder. He looked up to see the non-Princess Twilight glancing at the tome over his shoulder. This close up, she really was ‘adorkable’. “Sup?” Spooks asked, regretting it almost instantly. ’Sup’? That’s the best you can do? Good job, Bonehead.

Apparently Twilight hadn’t noticed him mentally scolding himself, as she asked, “What is that text, anyway. It doesn’t look like any reference I’ve seen.”

“It’s not, really,” he explained, lifting the front cover slightly to show her the Wiccan symbolism on the binding. “It’s a Book of Shadows from a now-defunct coven from Lower Manehatten. Apparently they’d split up after too many moved away for one reason or another. I bought it on the internet after talking to one of the witches, she’s a friend of mine in this occult chat room. They specialized in research and ritual magic, so she pawned it off on me, since I collect books like that. It’s significantly easier to read than my grandfather’s work, I’ll tell you that.”

She sat down in the folding chair that Bones just now noticed she’d dragged with him. They’d long since eaten, so it made sense that she didn’t want to sit in the far corner all day. And this was technically the quietest place in the room, save for the makeshift bedroom in back. “I’ll be honest,” she said, “I have no idea what a lot of what you just said is. I’m still getting used to the whole ‘magic is real’ thing, and most of my experience is with Equestrian magic.”

Spooks marked the page with a dog-ear, and set the book aside, going into what his friends affectionately referred to as “Professor mode”. Which basically meant he was going to talk a lot about stuff that made their heads hurt. “A coven is a group of witches. They vary in number, depending on their purpose or availability. Most witches are actually just spiritualists from very specific disciplines. They worship the Earth, nature, the elements, and the human form. Some prescribe to a ruling deity of some kind or another. Most of their practices involve small rituals that include herbal treatments, symbolic gestures, and specific prayers. A Book of Shadows is a tome or grimoire that belongs either to the entire coven or a single witch, depending. It’s a collection of their experiences, spells, and rituals they’ve held or witnessed over the years. Each one is wildly different, and contains vastly different information.

“This one in particular interested me because the coven it belonged to focused mainly on collecting and sharing information. Debunking a lot of the myths around Wicca and Paganism, as well as individual practices of witchcraft. They tried to collect as much relevant information as they could. Most of what I’ve read so far is a combination of general information available to everyone in the craft, as well as some more specific subjects that seem to hold some semblance of universal truth. That’s the problem with magic here. It doesn’t work the same way everywhere, because a lot of it has to do with the environment your in. But there are certain aspects that are as close to fact as you can get with a subject this fickle. Things that work the same no matter where you are. Like the rule of three, for example.

“That’s a little more in-depth than I need to go right now, but what I’m looking for here is basically the fundamentals of ritual magic, specifically focusing on certain days of the year. Many rituals involve a holy day of some kind or another, but others, like the one we think someone’s going to try to cast to summon this Hundred-Handed one, require specific calendar dates that have some historical meaning. Usually an anniversary of a specific event, or a numerological oddity,” he paused, worried he might be overloading her with information. To his surprise, however, she seemed to be following along just fine. In fact, she looked downright fascinated.

“Mm-hmm,” she hummed, indicating she was following along, “What do you mean by numerological oddity?”

Spooks smiled despite himself. Usually his lectures were met with fake, or even real, snores. Or yawns. Or balls of paper at his head. “Like a calendar date that doesn’t happen very often. Such as the seventh of July in 2007. A date where the numbers meat a specific pattern of some kind, usually described in some prophecy or religious text. Like Nostradamus’s prediction of the world ending on December 12^th, 2012. I think there’s something special about the days surrounding the Fall Formal that are either a requirement for this ritual, or that increase it’s chances for success. Unfortunately all I have to go on is a best guess of what the purpose of the ritual is, as well as some cryptic warnings from my grandfather about what and how to stop it. Nothing concrete. Which to be honest is more common than I’d like.”

Twilight leaned back in her chair, pensive. “You mentioned your grandfather before. What kind of work did he do?”

“His actual job was just some factory worker, but his major passion, at at times, obsession,” Spooks conceded, “Was that of occult lore and cryptozoology. He also studied numerology and cryptology. The work from his early years, unfortunately, is rather sparse, as he was just starting out and learning what was and wasn’t important. I have a feeling he wrote a lot more than I’ve been able to find, but either it’s been degraded or discarded. My mother was never a very big fan of her father-in-laws hobbies. The only reason there’s still any of his work left is that my dad fought tooth and nail to keep it, if only to preserve what little legacy he had. He wasn’t some great businessman or public figure, but he did a lot of work in his time that my father and I would rather not be thrown away.

“Most of what I have that he had written is only slightly before, during, and after he’d lost himself to his work entirely. The notes are sporadic and poorly organized, but there’s some solid information. The major problems with trying to read any of it is that most of it is out of order, and his handwriting was atrocious. There’s a small stack of his later journals right next to you if you want to see what I mean,” Bones added, gesturing to his miniature tower of degrading books.

Twilight looked at them curiously, and picked one off the top. She’d only thumbed through a few pages, collecting the loose notes as they fell out, when she grimaced and put it back down. “You’re not joking. He could have been a doctor.”

Bones laughed, joined soon after by a bright chuckle from the nerdy girl. He started to say more, when he felt a large hand clap him on the back. “Any luck over here? Looks like you’ve got all the brainpower stacked in one corner. Is it helping?”

Bones glanced over his shoulder to see Rubble leaning against the side of his chair. “Well, we haven’t really started. I was just explaining the basics of my research materials, what I’m looking for, the criteria I-”

“Whoa, whoa. Fifty-cent words, dude. There’s a reason the biggest book I read all year was Dorian Gray,” Rubble joked, raising his hands as if to shield himself from his friend’s lecture.

Twilight laughed quietly again, eliciting both an eye roll and smile from Spooks, who explained, in much simpler terms, “No, we haven’t found anything. I was telling her where I got all the books and why they’re so damn hard to read.”

Twilight reached across Bones’ lap, picking up the much larger tome, and pulled it into her lap. The ghastly boy blushed slightly which, given his pale features, made him look like a spotted tomato. He ducked his head, hoping to hide it behind his scraggly hair.

Rubble, of course, noticed his friend’s embarrassment, deciding to catalog it for later verbal abuse. “Yeah, those books are like playing Keno at the library. And you need like, a decoder ring to read the numbers. Fortunately,” he added, patting Spooks on the head, “We have one of those.”

Bones swatted the hand away playfully, his blush all but dissipated. “Yes, but this decoder ring only works when it can focus.”

Rubble shrugged and backed away, slow enough to remain in the conversation. “Yeah. Sure. Focus. That’s what your doing.” Before the gangly boy could respond, he turned and walked away.

The sound of paper on paper drew Bones’ attention as Twilight mused out loud, “Wow. This book is terribly well organized. You’d think for something they wrote in while they leaned that it would be a bit more… scattered.”

“Yeah, I asked about that,” Bones explained, “Turns out this is like, the second edition. They’d rearranged all the information from their original grimoire into this new book. Well, ‘new’. Apparently the book is older than the coven. I’d believe it, anyway. But my friend said they’d reorganized it all into this new book because they’d wanted to publish it at some point, but had a hard time finding an agent. After a while they’d mostly given up. She was pretty excited that I’d shown an interest in buying it, but she didn’t make it easy. I’d love to see the original text, just out of curiosity. I imagine not everything they’d learned made it into the revised addition.”

He noticed after a moment that she was looking at him with a certain interest. “What?”

She started, apparently just realizing she was staring. “Oh, sorry! It’s just… you’re usually really quiet in class. I think this is the most I’ve ever heard you say since I transferred.”

A deeper male voice rang out across the room. “Hah! Try hanging out with him regularly. He doesn’t shut up sometimes!”

Spooks’ eyes took a trip around their sockets. “Gee, thanks Dusty.”

“No problem.”

-----------------------

Bones and not-Princess Twilight seemed to be chatting amicably, as Princess Twilight sat with Dusty and Rubble in their own conversation. Treble and Sunset sat in folding chairs, facing the wall. They’d been put in time-out by majority rule, because they seemed to be more interested in arguing than being productive. Every once in a while one of them would grumble, only to get shushed by the rest of the group.

“Right,” Rubble groaned, sinking into the couch. He waved away a puff of smoke from Dusty’s direction. “So it looks like we’re basically exactly where we were when you lot showed up, except quieter.”

“To be honest,” Dusty chuckled around his cigarette, “That is an improvement. At least nerdpocolypse over there is getting something done. So… what do we do?”

Twilight tucked her hair behind her ear. “Honestly? I’m not even sure we have anything to do. I mean,” she added quickly, seeing the glares on the boys’ faces, “Anything for us girls to do. We don’t have any real experience in Earthly magic. Actually, we don’t have any experience. I can’t really think how we’d be really any help besides our super powers, and even then we’d need to know what we’re doing. As much as I dislike sitting on my haunches and waiting for somepo-somebody else to do the work, it looks like that’s what we’re going to have to do. I’d love to stick around and help with the research, believe me, having a whole new school of magic to learn is like a dream come true, but I can’t. I have to return to Equestria very soon.”

Rubble thought for a second. “Why not take some of the research with you. NOT THE JOURNALS,” he added, as Spooks looked more than ready to protest. “But there’s plenty of books about like, magic and rituals and stuff at the book store. Maybe it would give you a leg up on how things work here.”

The princess shook her head. “That won’t work, unfortunately. I’ve tried. The portal… tends to change things that travel through it. I mean, I’m not even sure where these clothes come from. And any books I bring over are basically gibberish on the other side. No, I’d need an extended stay here to get any real research done, so unfortunately I have to leave that to you guys. Or, well,” she added considering her company. “Those two over there, at any rate. I doubt Treble is any more academically inclined than you two are.”

“HEY!” Treble protested.

“Quiet corner!” Rubble barked back. “You’re not wrong. Our grades don’t suck, mainly because we really don’t need another reason to end up in detention, but we’re not exactly the learning type. I really just kind of hang around until someone points out something that needs a beating.”

Dusty nodded, aiming his next puff of smoke away from the couch. “Yeah, same here. I mean, I’ve learned some wards and seals and stuff, which I seem to have a knack for, but really it’s just small potatoes. Mostly Rubble and I are just the muscle here.”

Princess Twilight cocked her head to the side. “So what does Treble do?”

“Public relations,” came the resounding reply, from all four boys. Both Twilights jumped a little.

“I… see. Well, I don’t really see what else we can do here. More yelling certainly isn’t the answer, and it doesn’t exactly seem like we’re making any headway in the friendship department,” she said with a not-so-sublte glance in Sunset’s direction. The redhead was busy “not glaring” at Treble. “I guess we should just head out. I was really hoping we could make some progress here. But if you guys don’t really have any answers yet, I can’t imagine we’re just going to stumble across some magical mcguffin that’s gonna make all this go away. I really wish I could be more help, but Equestrian mythology is vastly different from yours. I mean, we have dragons and pegasi and hydras, but from what I understand they’re very different here, even. And I’ve never even heard of these hecatoncheires before Sunset wrote me. Although I would like to do a bit more research into… what did you call it, Greek mythology?”

The boys nodded. Then Rubble sighed. “Well, so much for the Orbital Friendship cannon. Not like we could even tell you where to aim the damn thing. Or when.”

“I’m working on it!” Spooks groaned loudly.

“I know!” The scrappy youth stood up, straightening his clothes a little. “Alright, look. I know we don’t all get along like some after-school special, but if we learn anything concrete, we’ll tell you.”

“Yeah,” Dusty agreed. “If only so you know all the right places to stand so you don’t get squished when the debris starts flying.”

Princess Twilight nodded, and called over her shoulder, “Sunset! We’re going!”

Sunset stood up from her time-out spot with much to-do, almost knocking the chair over. She marched to the door rather quickly. “Neat! Let’s go! Twilight!” she barked, diecting her voice at the not-Princess sitting next to Spooks.

The bespectacled girl glanced up from the small book in her hands.. “Actually, I was going to stay here for a bit. I think I can actually read most of this, and I’d like to help.”

Sunset looked ready to Protest, until the other Twilight jumped in. “That sounds like a great idea. Can you guys give her a ride home?” she asked, looking to the rest of the boys.

Dusty nodded. “Yeah, I got room in the car. A couple of us are probably going to spend the night here, anyway. I know that one is.” He jabbed a thumb in Bones’ direction.

The Princess nodded, and Sunset just grumbled something in a low voice. The former ushered her disgruntled friend out the front door, calling back to her counterpart, “See you later!” The other Twilight just smiled and waved, returning her attention to the book.

As the two girls walked out, Treble called from his seat, “Can I get up yet?”

“NO,” came the four replies.

Comments

[Jarimor]

this would be a great movie for some reason.

[RainCrasher]

Lol awww spooks and human twilight are sweet together. and poor Treble lol

[FanOfMostEverything]

Well, he's certainly a better match for her than Timber Spruce.

In any case, I think agreeing to disagree is the best the groups can hope for at this juncture. Sadly, there's just too much built-up bad blood with Sunset for anything better in a reasonable timeframe. Hopefully they'll keep working at it without the Princess of Friendship hovering over their collective shoulders. If these groups could get along more readily, Canterlot High could become one of the most supernaturally secure locations on Earth.

... for the next nine months, anyway. Graduation never stopped being a thing.

[psychosis]

8421297
At least in this case the Mayor isn't likely to use the graduation ceremony as an all you can eat buffet. I realize I'm making a lot of Buffy references, but hey. It works too well in this scenario to ignore.