The Magician's Name

by ManaMinori

2- Blurred Lines

2- Blurred Lines

Chapter 2
Blurred Lines

“Me and my big mouth.” Spike mumbled beneath his breath as he struggled desperately to keep his irritation to a minimum. His eyelids were still weighted with sleep, and his half-lidded gaze was trained intently on a pale yellow mare whose silky coat reminded him of lightly buttered popcorn. She was none other than one of Twilight Sparkle’s friends, Fluttershy, Ponyville’s resident animal expert.

His complaints went ignored by the occupant in the library who sang a wordless melody in a soft, serene voice that could lull even a rampaging adult dragon to sleep in an instant. Her feathered wings flapped slowly, keeping her aloft and at eye level with one of the highest shelves in Twilight’s crystal library. “I’m sorry that I had to wake you,” the pegasus apologized, only briefly glancing down at the young dragon beneath her. “It’s just that I need a book for my furry friends’ monthly book club, and Angel Bunny really wanted me to read “Weathering Flights this week. I really do appreciate you helping me look for it.” she explained timidly, expressing her gratitude. “I don’t suppose Twilight has it in her library, does she?” she asked, only after she had carefully searched through every book that the pony Princess had stocked on the shelves. It wasn’t very often that the library was lacking a book that Fluttershy had desired.

The disgruntled drake groaned inwardly and aimed a dirty glare at the pegasus’ pet rabbit. “It’s been checked out.” he huffed dryly. “Believe me, I have every borrowed book in the past week memorized by now.” Silently, he dared Fluttershy to ask him how he knew.

A pleading look from the watery azure eyes of the pink-haired mare as she landed beside him, light as a feather, dragged a tired, drawn-out sigh from the dragon that had been so rudely disturbed from his nap. “Fiiiiiine.” Spike grumbled, adding in an exaggerated roll of his eyes just for good measure. “I’ll check the circulation card.” he finally assured her. As much as a shy, reserved pushover that she appeared to be on the surface, the featherweight sure had her way of coercing any pony or woodland creature to do her bidding, when she really wanted to; Spike noted.

A moment later, he returned, card in hand. “Told ya.” he preened, taking a bit of pride in the memorization skills that had clearly rubbed off on him from Twilight. “The book got checked out last week. Sorry, Fluttershy, but you’re going to have to find something else to read at your book club.” In spite of his best efforts to hold it in, he opened his mouth wide and let out a loud yawn; tears beginning to form at the corners of his eyes. “Now if you’ll excuse me,” The card in his claws was sent back to its proper place in the file cabinet with a purse of his lips and a gently exhaled flame of his enchanted dragon breath. “This dragon needs his rest.”

“Oh dear.” the mare sighed, as she cast a sorrowful look to the little bunny. “I don’t suppose you would like for me to read a different book this week, would you, Angel?” she inquired hopefully. Already, she held a copy of one of her own favorites, “Cutie and the Beastly” in her forelegs.

Ears drooping and whiskers twitching with restrained agitation, the fuzzy white creature looked up at the pleading Pegasus and offered its disapproving glare.

Fluttershy sighed as the small, but strong forest creature that she had made her pet leaped up and kicked the book out of her hooves, so that it sailed backward over Spike’s head. “I guess we can check for it at the Canterlot Library.” she decided as she headed for the door, following after the rabbit who was hopping away in a huff. “Spike, if somepony returns the book soon, I hope that you’ll remember-” she paused, trailing off as she turned and noticed the overworked dragon already fast asleep on the floor.

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

“Remember.” a familiar voice breathed, its warmth stirring the cold air that pressed in from every side.

Twilight shivered as the voice seemed to come from all directions, resonating within the deepest parts of her and radiating outward into her limbs. Ears perked at attention, she struggled to pinpoint the source of the sound. Pitch black darkness crept all around, swallowing her whole and distorting her sense of direction. Strangely, she noticed after a breath of a moment has transpired, the luminescent light that emanated from her horn when she cast a spell wasn’t functioning as it should; leaving her completely blind.

“Remember what?” Twilight Sparkle’s voice trembled with an underlying twinge of a desperate whine as she called out to the unknown, invisible presence. She could hear her own erratic heartbeat thundering in her ears, as she began to panic. If she couldn’t provide light from her horn, she reasoned, then she couldn’t hope to summon a spell of any sort to come to her aid in defense if she was attacked by something or somepony that was lurking somewhere within the ominous darkness with her. At the very least, though not trained in the art of offense, she could’ve cast the reliable shield spell that her beloved older brother, Shining Armor had taught her! It had certainly proven itself useful when Starlight Glimmer had attacked her outside of her village when Twilight and her friends had put a stop to her cutie mark stealing scheme.

Was this voice friend or foe? It was impossible to tell. Why in the wide world Equestria couldn’t she call upon her magic?! There had to be something wrong with her horn! The very thought frightened her; making her feel weak, helpless. The uneasy alicorn desperately strained her ears to listen for the voice that had spoken to her; desperate to hear beyond the frantic breath that was her own. All that confronted her, to her dismay, was the uncomfortable sound of silence that stretched for miles amid the darkness that sought to suffocate her.

Sucking in a shaky breath in attempt to calm her nerves, just as her dear sister-in-law had instructed her that time when the Equestria Games Inspector, Mrs. Harshwhinny, had been scheduled to arrive at the Crystal Empire to inspect the location for the Games, Twilight began to lift her foreleg to her chest with the next step, but a tickling sensation at the very end of her muzzle made her freeze in place. Instead of releasing the breath in a soothing exhale that would diffuse her tension, her mouth opened wide and emitted a frightened scream.

“YAAAAAH!”

A faint light pierced the darkness, as if the sharp sound from her mouth had suddenly shattered the pitch black void that hung around her like a cloak. The tickling at her muzzle resumed, irritating the space between her flared nostrils. Quickly, the light before her grew brighter, nearly blinding her. The purple pony squinted, groaned, then blinked a few times as the world around her was bathed in white and then gradually came into focus. A fuzzy patch of yellow, she noticed, was moving ever so gently in front of her face. After a moment’s time, her eyesight returned, and she was greeted by a fragile yellow butterfly that had perched precariously atop her muzzle; seemingly unaffected by her terrified screams.

“Huh?” baffled, the Princess tilted her head to the side. There was no way that the voice she heard had come from this creature! After all, butterflies couldn’t talk; at least none that she had ever encountered before! The sudden movement caused the insect to beat its beautiful wings and take flight, abandoning its perch to climb higher into the air. For a moment, Twilight’s gaze followed it, watching as it drifted into an endless, white expanse. “Well that was….weird.” she spoke, suddenly becoming distracted by something cool and wet against her back hooves.

Forgetting about the butterfly, Twilight turned around, gasping in shock as a wide expanse of white, sandy beach came into view. The salty water of the ocean ebbed and flowed, splashing its foamy surf against her hooves and succeeding at matting her fur. How could she have failed to notice this picturesque scene before, she wondered idly? Standing still in the wet surf-kissed sand, she contemplated, taking the moment of serenity to relax and think logically about this perplexing situation. So many things failed to make sense!

‘This must be a dream. There’s no way that I could be in Ponyville, with a beach around. And beaches don’t just appear out of thin air...’ she began to reason, attempting to habitually organize her thoughts as if they were her beloved books that she had done the same with countless times. ‘And the butterfly-’

“You must remember.”

There was that voice again! Rattling her out of her thoughts, Twilight’s ears perked to attention, rigid and alert, as she jumped slightly; locking all of her legs and distributing her center of gravity closer to the ground. “Who’s there?” she demanded, though she saw no one. “I’m warning you-” hoping to scare off the unseen threat, she added an authoritative edge to her voice; one that she had only heard her mentor, Princess Celestia use that one time after Twilight had gone off the deep end and brainwashed all of Ponyville’s residents with a ‘want it, need it’ spell over her Smarty Pants doll. “Show yourself!”

It began to dawn on her, all too soon, that without her inherent magic, no...without her friends that had usually accompanied her since she had arrived in Ponyville- without the ponies that seemed to amplify her innate magic and amplify it exponentially, that she was completely and utterly defenseless in this situation. Now that she could see, she took every opportunity to observe the space around her; though the only thing that seemed out of place was that the beach and its endless expanse of water had suddenly vanished. Was she simply being paranoid, or was she beginning to hear voices in her head? Twilight shook her head, as if to rattle any potential ghosts from inside her noggin. ‘It certainly couldn’t hurt to try, if there were any, right?’ she reasoned, though it certainly was a poor conclusion to be drawn from reliable logic.

“Ok, this is getting weird.” Twilight spoke, despairingly, to no one except herself. Maybe Spike was right, and she was, in fact, losing hr marbles. “I have to wake up now. Princess Luna?” she called out, hoping that the voice that had spoken to her was from the Princess of the Night and guardian of pony dreams. Perhaps the mistress of the moon had grown bored and sought to spook her in her unguarded subconscious. “This isn’t funny, Luna!” the younger Princess pouted; turning in a circle in hopes of spotting the cleverly concealed mare. When she stopped, she came face to face with a wide pair of plum colored eyes.

Instead of shrieking, as she had before when the suffocating sea of darkness had swallowed her, Twilight stared at the reflection of herself within the mirror that most certainly hadn’t been there just a moment ago. “Looks like it just got weirder.” she hummed, almost instantly dismissing the fact that she was muzzle to mandible with a Changeling that was disguised in her form. The sound of her own voice comforted her; though the one she had been hearing had been all too familiar.

‘How do I wake up?’ Twilight Sparkle pondered, as she rubbed her chin. Could the mirror, perhaps, have something to do with her inability to enter the waking world? Like a curious foal, she reached out her foreleg, tapping the smooth surface of the glass gingerly with her hoof. Rather than pushing past the reflective surface and into a void that led her to another dimension, like she had when she had been given her mission from Princess Celestia to retrieve the pony that was her former student, Sunset Shimmer, the surface of the mirror remained solid.

Twilight sighed, beginning to feel as if she were at a loss. This dream was quickly beginning to wear on her nerves. Though her head weighed heavy upon her neck, she turned her sights on the large, full moon that hung overhead in a sky that Twilight swore wasn’t there before. “How am I supposed to make sense of this, Luna? What are you trying to tell me?” she asked. Her hoof withdrew from the surface of the mirror, leaving smeared streaks of water in its wake.

Distracted, her mind trained its thought on her earlier objective; shoving out the thoughts of her recent and strange encounters. Her muzzle scrunched and her ears drew back against her head. “Where’s that stupid book that I was looking for?” she asked aloud to open air; hoping, praying that it, like the other random objects, would somehow miraculously appear in front of her. A moment passed and nothing happened. Twilight turned around in yet another circle, and still, nothing. Was Princess Luna just making a fool of her, at this point; knowingly observing her every action and growing frustration from being in this backward, random dream that she designed?

“This isn’t funny anymore.” the mare mumbled, unsure as to why this book she couldn’t even recall the name to was so darned important to her in the first place. Then, like lightning, it struck her! Could it be….perhaps the name of the book was what the voice that she had heard was telling her to remember! That had to be it! But then again, what did the book even look like? “Ugh!” Twilight growled in frustration; magenta and plum colored bangs swaying as she tipped her head back and voiced her irritation at the moon. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you, Luna?!” perhaps, just maybe, she concluded for a brief moment, that the moon, true to its name, was driving her to the brink of madness.

“Twilight?” Celestia’s kind, calming voice cut through the madmare’s rant like a knife through butter, causing the smaller, younger mare to flinch at the sound of her name, like a disobedient filly caught with their hooves in a cookie jar before dinner.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight’s heart leapt and spirits soared at the sight of a familiar face in this place, and she ran to her former mentor, all too eagerly.

Chuckling and emanating a warmth that was reminiscent of a spring day, the pastel-haired matriarch gave a loving nuzzle to her most faithful student, who craned her neck upward in her sought after affections. “Who else?” she teased, a smile already forming on her muzzle.

“I was expecting Luna, to be honest.” the lavender alicorn Princess replied, glancing up to the silver moon that loomed above their heads.

“I see.” the wizened mare mused, following Twilight Sparkle’s gaze. “Is that who you were talking to, you silly filly?” she couldn’t help but laugh; a beautiful sound that sent Twilight’s heart aflutter, and made her stomach do backflips.

Oh, how she loved that sound!

A faint blush tinted her lavender cheeks, and Twilight couldn’t help but momentarily avert her gaze from the stunning visage that was her beloved teacher; as if the long-time guardian and ruler of Equestria’s lands had graced her with a comment that Twilight was too humble to accept. “I feel like I was talking to myself, more than anything, really.” she sheepishly admitted, as she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.

Celestia laughed once more, finding amusement in the fact that her dearest, most faithful student was apparently out of her head. “Perhaps that may not be such a bad thing,” she spoke, her voice taking on a slightly deeper, rougher tone within its sweet, familiar notes.

Twilight blinked, unsure that she had heard Celestia correctly. “Princess Ce-”

“Because you’re all alone, anyway!” Celestia snarled, interrupting. Her violet eyes momentarily glowed with a molten amber hue, and her wings flared to their full size, making her seem bigger and more threatening than she really was.

Before Twilight could do so much as react, Celestia stood on her hind legs and used her forehooves to grasp Twilight’s shoulders and shove her backward into the mirror with all her strength. Twilight’s wings spasmed and twitched, her body curling in on itself as the impact against the mirror sent shockwaves of pain coursing through her like lightning. Glass violently exploded, shattering into thousands of pieces as Twilight cried out, desperately flailing her limbs as she fell backward and backward still. When she should’ve hit the ground, she continued to fall; her wings flapping hard in effort to lift, but gaining no purchase. With no magic at her disposal, she realized in a cold sweat, that she was unable to even teleport to safety. This was her end. All she could do was yell for help and hope that somepony, anypony could hear her….and save her.

“Aaaaaaahhhhh!”

Wild limbs lashed about in the air, scrambling in attempt to find solid footing. Bed sheets were tossed haphazardly on the ground, and Twilight jolted up, her spine rigid and mane a mess. Panting and chest heaving, she observed her surroundings through eyes as wide as saucers. Ever so slowly, it dawned on her that she was home, safe in her own bed, in the waking world where everything was real and solid. A shaky sigh pushed past her parted lips. A hoof dragged down her face, collecting the droplets of cold and clammy perspiration that accumulated on her brow and neck.

“I’m ok.” she spoke, attempting to reassure herself. “It was only a dream. It wasn’t real.” she shivered, despite herself. It certainly had felt real; every bit of it. “Ugh.” the panicked princess groaned, her body feeling just as heavy as a weight made of lead. She would certainly need to pinpoint the cause of such an awful nightmare later, but at the moment, she felt that she could really use a nice long, relaxing shower to soothe her frazzled nerves. Hopefully Spike had left some hot water available after his infamous seven hour bubble baths that he insisted on taking once a week.

Reluctantly, Twilight forced her body to move, shifting her weight upon the mattress and distributing it onto her right hoof. A sharp pressure jolted up her foreleg, causing her to wince and draw her hoof back to see what had pained it. “Ow! What the-?!” the befuddled equine inquired, as she glared at a small copper colored key that was lying on the mattress where her hoof had just been. “What in the name of Celestia is this?!”